“DEMON HAUNTED WORLD PART 1”
PILOT FIRST DRAFT
BY W HATHAWAY
CHARACTERS APPEARING IN PART 1
TENSHI, the lost warrior from another world. Named Sora by his teammates.
YOSHI, the samurai veteran, leader of Squad 7. Wields a reverse edged silver katana.
JUN, the investigator, partnered with Aikiko.
AIKIKO, the ninja, partnered with Jun.
SOTO, the gunslinger, former pirate.
BROTHER M, the priest, Imperial translator.
-PART 1-
The scene opens on a bridge over a valley in idyllic Japanese countryside. Birds line the railings of the bridge, unperturbed by a few malnourished priests kneeling like beggars to either side and chanting.
PRIESTS: Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Amida Butsu
The birds lift off into the sky, startled as a group of six travelers emerge over the horizon and begin to cross the bridge. They are an odd grouping, two mounted: a samurai and a priest in dark Dominican robes; followed by four on foot: a pair of nondescript looking ninja and two warriors, leading a pack mule. The pair of warriors are both armed, one with swords and the other with guns. The shafts of polearms and the butts of long guns clank along with the pack mule’s bags. These are dangerous people. This is Imperial Demon Hunting Division: Squad 7.
At the far end of the bridge is a group of stony faced samurai beneath an orange banner. Their armor and weapons are dented and still faintly bloodstained. In the land far beneath, in the distance beyond the bridge, a large village gate can be seen and past it a town, partially ruined, still smoldering at the edges. And beyond the town, small in the distance is a fresh battlefield.
Yoshi, mounted on his warhorse, Gin, fixes the samurai guarding the bridge with a haughty glare and they begrudgingly stand aside with small, but acceptable, bows and the squad passes, following the road downward toward the town.
JUN (looking down toward the town): Maru village – looked better last time.
AIKIKO (off-handedly, giving Jun a side glance): Four people were murdered…
YOSHI (speaking over them, cutting off further discussion): You two and the priest: go to Hanzo and find out what happened with squad four. We will scout the field, see what we are dealing with here – before it grows dark.
AIKIKO: Hai.
Aikiko nods seriously before turning and jogging down the path. Jun gives a shrug and turns off after her. The dark robed priest moves silently along on his horse as well.
YOSHI (calling after them): Do not forget who came to our aid when we lost Bonto – we owe them this.
SOTO (pulling a rifle from a holster on the pack mule’s saddlebags): And tell Hanzo he still owes me drinks!
Soto gives the pack mule a scratch on the head and then pats its rear and the animal begins to trot off after the ninjas and the priest down the road.
TENSHI (eyes glowing a soft blue): This way…
The three warriors move through the brush, off the road and the camera pulls back into the sky, the three warriors moving toward a sprawling battlefield, strewn with corpses.
EXT: The village gate, guarded by orange-clad samurai. The samurai move to bar the entrance. Jun holds up a grimy and beat-up scroll with a jade seal on it.
JUN: Imperial business.
The samurai stand aside as the team passes through the gate. The samurai watch, then are startled by a loud braying as the mule approaches. It stares down the samurai as it passes and they are left dumbfounded.
The streets of the village are eerily empty- the buildings damaged, smoke still rises to one side where part of the town was burned. The squad passes a few beggars lining the street: wounded men and women, starving people with children. They turn down a street with light coming from buildings but as they approach shutters are closed on the windows. Nervous and suspicious eyes watch them pass. They turn another corner and ahead is a large building. There is light and raucous voices: a tavern.
JUN: Surely Hanzo would not be at a place like this…
AIKIKO (leading the way toward the tavern): The message bore Hanzo’s seal, but it was not written by his hand.
Before the tavern a handful of horses are already tied up. The priest dismounts and secures his horse with the others. The pack mule shuffles over and glares at the strangers’ horses for a moment before drinking from the trough.
JUN (petting the mule): You fellas keep watch, got it? We’ll be right back.
They enter the tavern. Celebrating soldiers, downcast and wounded villagers, weary-eyed serving girls- it is a seedy place and there is tension in the room. The priest takes in the scene stoically, Jun is scanning the room, Aikiko is sneering slightly in disgust.
AIKIKO (pointing across the room): There.
She is pointing to a long haired man sitting alone at a table in a corner. Dark hair and eyes, this handsome man is staring down into his drink. He looks up and gives a genuinely warm smile as the squad approaches him, but there are deep dark circles beneath his eyes.
This is Kaji, sole survivor of Demon Hunting Division Squad 4.
KAJI (drunkenly to Aikiko): I knew you would come save me.
Aikiko rolls her eyes.
JUN (concerned): Bro?
PRIEST (all business): Where is Hanzo?
KAJI (bitterly): Hello to you, too, “brother.”
JUN (speaking softly): What happened?
AIKIKO (putting it together): The message bore Hanzo’s seal, but…
KAJI (throwing the wooden seal of team leader on the table): IT’S ALL THAT’S LEFT OF HIM! ALL THAT’S LEFT OF ALL OF THEM!
Kaji’s outburst causes a momentary quiet in the room. A woman is softly weeping. Slowly the noise picks back up.
AIKIKO (softly but intently): We are here now, tell us what happened-
KAJI (eyes crazed): It spit it back out. IT KNEW! It wanted me to send a message! It wanted you to come!
The priest makes the sign of the cross. Aikiko’s head tilts slightly, pity in her eyes.
JUN: Kaji, what’s out there?
EXT: Above the village rooftops, the sun is setting, fireflies rise up, fade out on the fireflies. Fade in on fireflies above trees. The rest of the squad is trudging through mud, toward the eerily peaceful battlefield. The squad reaches a crest in the land and before them spreads a fresh battlefield, a feast for flies and crows.
YOSHI (surveying the ghastly scene): Sora, what do you see?
Tiny blue flames flicker to life in the center of Tenshi’s eyes. A very fine line of blood runs down from the corner of his left eye. The view switches to Tenshi’s vision, sliding slowly over the horizon of carnage. A soft green glow appears around the ground and trees, the crows become little swirls of black flame. The weapons glow with a jagged blue. A translucent red flame begins to rage over the land. A fire made of swirls of spirits, faces screaming in agony, crying out in anguish and pain. A hellish chorus begins to rise up as the fire builds in intensity.
TENSHI (scrubbing his eyes with both hands): Too much…
Yoshi nods, moving forward on his horse. Soto pats Tenshi on the shoulder, looking concerned.
SOTO: I don’t think we’ll need ghost eyes to find this one.
Tenshi wipes the blood from his hands on his cloak and follows after with Soto. They move along a ridge with ruined fortifications. There are several figures ahead, black silhouettes against the red sunset far in the distance.
YOSHI (suspicious): Lord Ishida’s army should be keeping this place secure…
The squad moves toward the figures, Soto unslinging a rifle from his shoulder, carrying it as they approach. The figures are in priestly robes, heads bent in prayer.
SOTO: Ballsy fuckin’ priests.
YOSHI (raising his voice toward the figures in the distance): It grows late, the Buddha will forgive you for waiting until tomorrow!
The camera switches to the other side of the priests. We see the squad approaching between the motionless figures. There is steady buzzing of flies and rhythmic chanting from the priests, their voices cracking and raspy as if deathly parched. They are chanting something blasphemous. The camera slowly rises from street level as the squad grows closer, past bloody hands holding soiled prayer beads, up to the priests’ faces, eyeless rotting faces of dead men with horrific rictus grins.
SOTO: Hey! You fuckin’ deaf?
The camera switches back to the squad. Tenshi raises one hand, the other dropping to a sword hilt at his side and he begins to move ahead of the others. Soto takes a couple steps to the side, toting his rifle and Yoshi pulls up the horse to a stop, watching the priests.
TENSHI (speaking simply): You are priest?
The chanting ceases and with a gruesome sound the priests’ rigamortis stiffened necks twist to turn their heads towards Tenshi. Eldritch black light glows from their hollow eye sockets.
TENSHI: Shit!
There is barely time to get the word out as the priests move in inhuman ways with demonic speed, some dropping to all fours and loping forward while the closest few simply leapt at Tenshi, their outstretched hands tipped with sharp shattered bones, bloodstained fang-like broken teeth filled mouths wide in hunger as they move to strike.
Tenshi moves fluidly, feet planted firmly, drawing his katana and removing the head from one attacker, then slashing fiercely with both hands to decapitate two more. But the others move to surround him. Snarling, the enemies move to attack from all sides. The thundering of galloping horse hooves rises up and gunshots ring out. Two of the enemies’ heads and shoulders are blown to smithereens. Yoshi tramples down two while drawing his silver katana, shining red in the sunset, slicing through a zombie’s head, smashing it like overripe fruit.
(There will be a fight against a giant skeleton/Gashadokuro here.)
The squad stands together among the carnage. The headless bodies still move, struggling to get back up. The team moves expertly to destroy the decapitated heads. Tenshi crushes them beneath steel lined boots, Yoshi using horse hooves and Soto uses the butt of his rifle before tossing firesticks on the bodies so they begin to burn. Other figures move far in the field, perhaps scavengers or perhaps more zombies.
YOSHI (surveying from the ridge): This is bad…
SOTO: The fuck it is.
Tenshi nods, looking toward the horizon as the darkness of dusk grows. Fade out on the sunset and fade back in on the sunset above the rooftops of town.
INT: Tavern, returning to the tail end of the last scene there.
JUN: Kaji, what’s out there?
AIKIKO (moving to haul Kaji up from his seat): No time, you heard him. They’re walking into a trap. Let’s fucking go.
Kaji is hauled to his feet, swaying unsteadily. He holds out a hand in a “one moment” gesture, then quickly grabs his tankard and chugs it, soaking himself with ale in the process. He sways and almost falls over but Jun catches him.
JUN: Got you, bro.
The tavern quiets as everyone watches the squad lead Kaji out. The priest grabs the team leader seal from the table before turning to follow.
JUN (awkwardly): Imperial business…
They get outside of the tavern, the shadows around lengthening threateningly – it grows dark. Gunshots ring out as they come down the front steps. The mule’s head straightens from munching from the trough, eyes narrowing in determination. It rushes over to the squad, stomps a hoof and lets out a big “hurry up” huff.
Jun tries to guide Kaji to mount, but he is way too drunk, so Aikiko and Jun together hoist him up and lay him across the mule’s saddle. Jun straps him down. As soon as that is done, the mule turns and runs down the street, clanking with heavily loaded saddlebags. Jun and Aikiko take off with it, but the priest moves methodically to fetch his horse. Another flurry of gunshots echo through the air.
The scene cuts back to the other half of the squad at the battlefield, midfight. Yoshi rears up on Gin and smashes a group of charging zombies in ruined armor as Tenshi, wielding two traditional blades, slices through another set. Soto is firing past them into a mass of zombies crawling over the ridge, his rounds exploding into flames that engulf the mass. The team is unwounded, but scruffed up.
SOTO (smashing the skull of a felled zombie): We’re going to need a lot more fire.
YOSHI: We need to return in daylight with the others. Discover the source of the infestation and destroy it.
TENSHI (flicking viscera off his blade, mimicking Yoshi): Destroy it.
The team is approaching the ruined side of the town, a large gate had been fortified and the battle raged around there, piles of corpses of men and horses surround the gate. As the team approaches, far still in the distance, the piles begin to shift, to heave, to slide together and coalesce.
The outer town gate is larger than the others and surrounded by ruined and burned fortifications, towering over the team when suddenly a huge horror rears up before them –
The Horse-Headed Demon Ghoul!
It rears up, revealing its horrendous composition, part horse, part armored human corpse, strewn with spears and blades sticking out of its wounds, a collection of corpse arms wielding katanas in death grips. It lets out a piercing scream, the death throes of the horses that make it up, it’s one bloodshot intact eye filled with pain and terror.
The camera cuts from the monster’s eye to Gin’s eyes, reflecting the abomination before them, zooming in on their eyes meeting. With the death scream, Gin lets out a terrified cry and rears up, throwing Yoshi from the saddle, then turns and bolts.
Yoshi manages to turn the fall into a rough roll. The monster is already moving toward them in an awkward gallop. Yoshi, kneeled, still manages to quickly draw his blade and block a slash from two of the monster’s many katanas, but is knocked back by the beast’s bulk as it passes.
EXT: The rundown town square. Jun and Aikiko at first turn toward the town gate they first passed through, but the mule instead hits the center of town at a gallop and makes a hard turn toward the ruined side of town, still hazy with smoke. They all follow.
Cut to a hazy and shadow filled street. The mule pulls up and slows to a walk, throwing a suspicious look around. Jun and Aikiko appear behind it a moment later and the priest’s horse’s hooves are heard approaching.
JUN (surveying the ruins that somewhat block the street): Weren’t there guards here earlier?
AIKIKO: That’s procedure…
Ahead of them, hidden by the deep shadows, among broken boards and beams hardened with fire from the battle, lay the corpses of a dozen samurai that begin to jerk to motion. Sets of red eyes begin to glow in the darkness behind them as the team passes through the ruined street. In the middle of the street ahead of them is a hulking armored samurai with a massive war club, a kanabō. The priest lights a lantern hanging from his saddle and it is revealed that the huge samurai is wearing the wrong colors, the uniform of the enemy army. Two more huge corpses in armor rise up behind the big enemy samurai, the remains of other attackers, wielding wicked naginatas, enemy flags waving on their armored backs.
JUN (holding up his hands): Hey, guys! I think Honshu’s a really nice place, ok?
The zombie samurai with the war club begins to move forward at a walk, dragging the massive weapon behind him. The two wielding naginatas dart forward and slash at Jun, who fluidly dodges by sidestepping the first thrust and then flipping away from the second slashing attack. At the same time, Aikiko moves like a black blur across the rubble, dashing over the low roofs, getting behind and above the big armored enemies.
Red eyes watch from the darkness all around. Soldier and samurai corpses begin to emerge from the darkened ruins. The team is surrounded. The priest surges forward on his horse, drawing a mace and smashing the helmet of one of the naginata wielding zombies, but the helmet is only dented and knocked askew. Suddenly his horse is stabbed from the side by more zombie samurai coming from behind.
As the priest and horse go down the camera cuts to the mule, who bucks Kaji off his back and then turns and gives Kaji a big lick on the face.
KAJI (blinking groggily awake): Misato…
In the background the priest is smashing his way back up, but other zombies circle him, ready to pounce. Kaji and the mule are up against a wall and the mule back kicks an approaching zombie, sending it smashing into the ones behind it. Kaji’s eyes open and he gets unsteadily to his feet, bent over, swaying.
KAJI (groaning, holding up one finger): Ughhh…can’t we talk about this?
A zombie snarls in return and slashes at Kaji, who is suddenly moving fluidly, if drunkenly, in a Jackie Chan – Drunken Fist fighting style. He evades the katana slash and then knocks another zombie onto the point of the katana, impaling it through the face. He sends another forward to be impaled on a large broken beam then dodges between two others so they crash into each other.
The camera cuts to Aikiko on a low rooftop on the other side of the street, getting an overhead view of the awesome brawl below. She draws out a rope with a kunai on one end and a grappling hook on the other, tosses it over a beam and then throws the hook forward, grabbing one of the samurai by the ankle, and pulls, tripping it. She then swings with the rope wrapped on a beam, launching a flying kick to the other samurai, knocking off the helmet that the priest had hit earlier. As the zombie’s decayed face is revealed, Jun slashes forward, decapitating it expertly.
They dodge a massive blow from the war club that smashes the ground, then another and another, Jun moving toward a ruined building off to the side. He dodges under another big swing that smashes completely through the wall. Jun turns and gives the samurai a strong kick in the back, sending it more into the ruins as they begin to collapse. Aikiko’s grappling hook catches a partially broken and buckling beam and she gives a heave, bringing one side of the building down completely, burying the zombie samurai.
The pile of debris heaves as the zombie struggles to free itself. Aikiko grabs the decapitated enemy’s naginata from the ground, wielding it expertly, facing off with the other samurai. Jun, Kaji, the priest and the mule are finishing off the last of the surrounding soldiers as the big zombie smashes its way out from beneath the collapsed building with a roar.
JUN (blocking a katana with his jitte swordbreaker): Kaji, now would be a good time to wake the fuck up!
As the naginata duel flashes behind him, Kaji shakes his head around, trying to clear it.
KAJI (slapping himself, speaking low to himself): You can do this, you can do this…
The samurai with the war club comes charging out of the debris. Jun and the priest rush forward to meet it, the priest going high, mace whistling through the air to smash the zombie in its armored face, Jun dropping low with a sweeping kick to the back of the knees, bringing the hulking zombie down with a huge crash.
KAJI (fumbling around, sacred amulets scattering to the ground): C’mon Kaji, c’mon Kaji…
Aikiko’s borrowed weapon has been somehow broken in half. She dodges a huge overhead slash from the zombie and then attacks, jamming the jagged edge of the broken haft through the visor of the zombie’s helmet, straight through its head, then leveraging the haft back, wrenching the helmet upwards, exposing the zombie’s bloody neck beneath. She slashes fiercely, but fails to cut fully through the zombie’s thick neck. Black blood spurts out and the head hangs to the side, but the creature stays on its feet and grabs Aikiko by the throat. She gives a grin as blood runs down her chin. Jun comes from offscreen with a flying dragon kick that sends the zombie’s head flying to smash against the wall, helmet clattering to the side as the body thuds to the ground.
EXT: An alley, dimly lit by shuttered windows above. Two urchins, one 12-13 and the other 7-8 years old, are walking down the alley.
URCHIN: Stupid war. I could have been halfway to Honshu village by now…
LITTLE BRO: Does everyone really eat rice and sushi every day there?
URCHIN: I’m telling you, little bro, everyone!
LITTLE BRO (eyes wide with wonder): Whoa…
URCHIN: I’m telling you, little bro, we just gotta be real quiet and the samurai will never see us.
LITTLE BRO (looking around, growing a bit nervous): It’s too dark…
URCHIN (too determined to notice little bro’s fear): Yea, exactly.
They are climbing up broken boards and beams and through a section of collapsed roofing to get up in the rafters of an abandoned building.
URCHIN (helping little bro up): Come on, little bro, don’t get scared. Ren and the others went out into the field and he brought back a helmet. I heard he sold it for ten ryo! Imagine how much a sword will be worth!
LITTLE BRO (eyes wide with the possibilities): A sword…
They crawl through a window, climbing up and then over to the neighboring rooftop and through a hole in the roof into the building. The place is damaged and rickety. The kids are small and light and the urchin moves expertly, obviously adept at skulking, with little bro following closely, doing his best to imitate the older urchin. As they move deftly across the rafters, gunshots echo, far in the distance.
LITTLE BRO (eyes wide): What was that?
URCHIN: People are still fighting out in the field. People are always fighting, little bro.
The urchin pries open a window and they make their way out to another rooftop. While crossing it, the sound of steel blades clashing rises from below.
URCHIN (in a hushed tone): Get down!
The urchin drops low, grabbing out without taking her eyes off the fight below to stop little bro from running away.
URCHIN: Wait…
The urchin and little bro become transfixed as they witness the last few furious moments of the team’s fight in the street below. When the building across the street crashes down on the hulking zombie, little bro covers his head in fear but the urchin can’t look away.
URCHIN AND LITTLE BRO (together, watching the fight): Whoa…
The camera shifts from behind the kids back to street level, where the massive war club smashes a crater in the ground. The camera centers on Kaji as the team dodges away from the club.
KAJI: Buddha help me.
Kaji holds up a scroll and begins chanting. At first there seems to be no effect as the zombie smashes at Jun and Aikiko, who dodge away. But after a moment small wisps of smoke rise from within the zombie’s armor. There is a red glow inside the armor. The zombie roars and rushes at Kaji, but Aikiko trips it with her grappling hook. The zombie’s armor begins to slide off as the straps within burn away. The zombie lunges up off the ground toward Kaji, who is sweating and chanting. The zombie is stopped short by two glass flasks shattering in its face, splashing it with holy water that singes the undead creature. The priest is holding a crucifix and intoning latin prayers.
The zombie drops to its knees, the corpse decaying and the lights in its eyesockets fade, the light transferring to the script on Kaji’s scroll. Wisps of red energy tear away from the corpses all around, gathering in the scroll. The light glows a deep, then bright, red, the script on the scroll shining. The scroll begins to crackle and catch fire. Kaji yelps and drops the scroll as it burns him. It burns to ash before it hits the ground. A strong wind blows ominously through the street.
PRIEST (head craning across the sky): It escaped?
KAJI: It won’t bother anyone for a long time, scattered to the wind like that…
JUN (looking up at the kids): Hey, you two idiots! Make sure everyone knows to stay away tonight! GO!
URCHIN AND LITTLE BRO: Hai!
Little bro starts to crawl back across the rooftop, the urchin takes a lingering look at the street below before turning away, possibly at the team, possibly at the swords scattered around, probably at a bit of both.
The mule looks at Kaji, who is bent over with hands on his knees, heaving to catch his breath. He nods at the mule, who turns and starts back down the street. The big town gate can be seen towering ahead.
The scene cuts to the other fight, outside against the Horse-Headed Demon Ghoul. Yoshi and Tenshi are holding their ground, dueling the monstrous creature, while Soto circles around, unleashing barrages of firepower from a dwindling collection of guns. But the creature’s wounds leak sludge and regenerate almost instantly. There is another furious exchange of sword slashes and blood is drawn on all sides.
The camera centers on Soto, who is reloading and then shooting at the creature. He moves to reload, but his ammo pouches have finally emptied.
SOTO (in Portuguese): Holy Mother, help me…
Soto’s prayer is answered with a bray as the mule rushes to him, headbutting him.
SOTO (in Portuguese, laughing): You beautiful bitch!
He quickly draws two more guns from holsters on the mules bags and starts to shovel some ammo out.
The rest of the squad appears beneath the big town gate. Aikiko draws out two steel tessens bearing holy symbols, Jun draws out his swordbreaker and ninjato blade and the ninja team go straight to work, attacking the beast and distracting it.
The rest of the team, along with Kaji, congregate around the mule.
YOSHI (drawing a yari spear from a sheath on the mule’s bags): Bad news all around…
Tenshi embraces Kaji.
TENSHI: You are alive.
KAJI (sounding exhausted): Hello, Sora…
Everyone is regrouped and rearmed, and turn their attention back to the fight.
SOTO (to the mule): Get safe.
The mule turns and runs back toward the town gate. The team moves, unleashing a furious combined assault at the demon. The beast is driven back, toward a rise in the land surrounded by corpses and spears and banners. The site of a terrible last stand during the battle. The demon lets out a horrifying roar atop the hill.
The team is moving toward it and purple ghost mist is rising up all around. The camera cuts to a battered and bloody samurai helmet, lying abandoned on the ground. The darkness in the helmet is filled with red glowing eyes.
As the team moves in to attack, suddenly around them haunted armors rise up, huge mantis-like shadow ghost demons with six red eyes in their terrifying skull faces emerge all around, attacking the team.
The episode closes on a wide shot of the Horse-Headed Demon Ghoul atop the hill, the team separated from it by ranks of shadow demon ghouls, rising from all around the battlefield.
-CREDITS-
-EPILOGUE SCENE-
EXT: Shadowy rooftops, the urchin and little bro moving across.
LITTLE BRO (imitating a karate kick): And then he went like this! HIYAH!
URCHIN (speaking absently, eyes distant): Yea, yea. So cool…
They walk on for another moment, little bro doing kicks and karate chops as they go. The urchin stops and lets out a sigh.
URCHIN (holding up a finger): One sec, little bro.
LITTLE BRO (distracted by his martial arts): Huh?
The urchin dashes back, moving quick and silent, swinging down to the alley and sprinting over to the wall. She takes a long look around before crouching down and grabbing a fallen sword and scabbard. She holds it up and wonders at it for a moment, then gives a sharktoothed grin, sheathes the sword and scampers back up to little bro.
LITTLE BRO: Whoa…
URCHIN (slipping the sword into her rope belt): Okay, let’s go.
The urchin marches on, head held high, sword at her side. Little bro practices karate chops as he follows. As the kids move out of the shot, the camera lingers on the sword. A ghostly red sharingan-like eye opens, looks around frantically for a moment, then closes and disappears.
-END OF EPISODE 1-
天使物語 THE TALE OF TENSHI 