[James, you promised me that one day you would take me back there, to that special town. But you never did.] [Now, I've come there alone, to our old place, Silent Hill.] [Love, Mary]
"So this is it... Silent Hill."
Sephirot stood by the broken highway edge, his dark red trench coat dusted with a fine layer of dirt.
He looked down at the fog-shrouded cliff beneath him, kicked a loose stone, and watched it fly into the mist, listening for a sound that never came.
Then, he folded the letter, tucked it back into his inner pocket, and sighed inwardly.
This haunted place, which had scared the hell out of him countless times from the safety of a screen in his previous life, was now, quite literally, beneath his feet.
As a transmigrator, he understood the dangers of this town better than anyone.
The horror here didn't just come from some kind of monster; it lay in its ability to lay bare the sins and darkness within the heart of everyone who entered.
And he was here because of a job.
A few days ago, a man named James had come to his uncle Dante's Agency.
According to him, he had recently received a letter from his wife Mary, who had passed away three years ago. In the letter, she said she was waiting for him in Silent Hill.
As for the nonsense of the dead coming back to life, his white-haired uncle had zero interest. In his own words:
"Finding a wife is sentimental drama, better suited for young folks like you."
And so, Sephirot had been kicked out.
"'Finding a wife is better suited for me'..." Sephirot muttered. "Did the old man sense the Demonic Bloodline in me?"
As a transmigrator, he naturally had his own "system".
Its function was simple: it would issue tasks upon detecting requests or commissions from others, and completing them would grant rewards and points.
The still-dormant Demonic Bloodline within him was also something he'd obtained over the many years since his transmigration, following Dante and completing tasks, using the accumulated points to exchange for it.
A moment later, he noticed clear impact marks on the guardrail not far away. Several dark skid marks stretched deep into the thick fog.
Within the mist, a white SUV lay sideways by the road, its front end smashed against the cliff face, hood crumpled and lifted.
The passenger-side door was open. Peering inside, he saw a woman slumped unconscious over the steering wheel in the driver's seat.
She had short blonde hair and wore a beige coat. Blood from a forehead wound trailed down her pale cheek.
Sephirot raised a hand and tapped lightly on the car window twice. "Ma'am? Are you alright?"
The woman inside groaned in pain and slowly lifted her head.
When she saw a man standing outside the car with a faint, somewhat lazy smile, her eyes instantly turned wary. Her hands reflexively gripped the car door.
"Who are you?"
"Easy, ma'am. I doubt my face qualifies as a crime yet."
Sephirot took a couple of steps back, simultaneously raising his hands to show he meant no threat. "My name is Sephirot, a private detective passing through."
"Sephirot? A private detective?"
The woman murmured to herself.
Perhaps it was Sephirot's handsome and composed face, or perhaps it was the calmness he exuded, that allowed her tightly wound nerves to relax slightly.
She wiped the blood from her forehead and gave her name: "Rose, I'm Rose Da Silva..."
The next second, as if remembering something, she turned to look at the passenger seat beside her.
The passenger door was half-open, with an occasional snowflake drifting inside.
"Sharon?!"
Ignoring the pain all over her body, Rose got up and checked the back seat. Confirming no one was there either, she stumbled out, pushing the car door open.
She circled the vehicle, cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone, and shouted into the fog:
"Sharon! Where are you?! Sharon! Answer me!!"
Sephirot watched this quietly, saying nothing.
In the original story, Sharon seemed to have been guided, entering the depths of Silent Hill in a sleepwalking state.
When Rose returned from her staggering search through the fog, her reddened eyes fixed intently on Sephirot.
Sephirot saw through her suspicion and spoke with unruffled composure: "Ms. Rose, when I arrived, you were the only one in the car. If I had wanted to take your daughter, I wouldn't have woken you."
"Then why are you here?"
Distrust still filled Rose's voice.
"As I said before, I'm a private detective. I came here to look for a friend's wife."
As he spoke, Sephirot pulled a high-quality license from inside his coat and handed it over.
Rose took the license.
The photo on it was indeed Sephirot, and the agency name bore a wildly styled logo.
Devil May Cry.
Although she had never heard of this strange Agency, the license with its official seal reassured her somewhat.
Sephirot looked at her and smiled slightly. "Perhaps I could also help you search for your missing daughter? After all, in a place like this, having an extra person can't hurt, right?"
Rose was taken aback. She stared at Sephirot's overly youthful face, her tone skeptical:
"You just said you came here to find another woman. While handling one case, can you really spare the energy to take on another?"
"That sounds... not very professional."
"Professional?"
Sephirot seemed to have heard a funny joke, images flashing through his mind of that white-haired uncle kicking demon heads like soccer balls while eating pizza.
"Ma'am, no one turns down money. Finding one person is finding, finding two people is also finding. For me, it's just a matter of convenience."
Sephirot shrugged indifferently.
Rose looked at his confident words, then glanced around at the thick fog. With no other options left, she could only look at Sephirot solemnly: "As long as you can bring Sharon back safely, I'm willing to pay any price for your reward."
[Ding!] [Side Quest: Motherly Love triggered] [Quest Objective: Assist Rose in finding her daughter Sharon, and ensure Rose's survival] [Quest Reward: 500 Points]
A quest after all, my smooth talking wasn't in vain.
The system's notification sounded in his mind, and Sephirot inwardly gave himself a thumbs-up for his cleverness.
Just then, his eyes suddenly turned cold...
Something was approaching through the fog.
He drew his handgun from his waist.
The handgun was entirely silver-white, its body engraved with intricate patterns, with dark red wooden grips that felt thick and substantial.
He tossed the handgun into the air, caught it backhand by the body, and with a fluid, single-handed horizontal pull, chambered a round; the movement was seamless.
This modified M1911 was far heavier than a regular handgun, yet in his hand, it felt as light as a toy.
"Your request, I accept it, ma'am."
Sephirot raised the gun with one hand, tilting it to point deep into the thick fog.
"Zzz... zzz..."
The SUV's car radio suddenly crackled with static, like someone scraping fingernails across a blackboard, eerie in the silence of the heavy fog.
"What... is that?"
Rose gasped in surprise, pointing into the mist.
Within the fog, a bizarre silhouette staggered towards the two.
Its upper body was bound in a layer of sallow skin, lacking any arms.
Its lower half sported a pair of sensuous long legs, with a horrifying wound running vertically from its head down to its abdomen.
"Armless Man?"
Sephirot raised an eyebrow slightly. Such monsters typically only moved within Silent Hill's core area; why would one appear so early in the outskirts?
"Take care of yourself, Ms. Rose."
Sephirot murmured a warning.
The next second, his entire body lunged forward, a red figure streaking through the fog, reaching the monster in just a few breaths.
Startled, the monster's chest and abdominal wound began to heave, its upper body leaning back slightly, as if gathering strength for something.
"Your wind-up is too long, buddy."
Sephirot curled his lip, powered through his core, twisted his torso, and swept his leg horizontally.
Thump!
With a dull impact, the monster was kicked clean off its feet by the blow, landing a short distance away.
It let out a strange cry, its legs frantically kicking on the ground, writhing as it tried to scramble back into the fog.
But it was too late.
Sephirot's boot was already planted on its squirming head, the silver M1911 raised in his hand.
"Job done."
A flash of firelight flickered in the fog. The specially crafted ammunition blasted the monster's head apart, splattering green blood across the ground.
Sephirot looked down at his boot with distaste, shaking his leg to try and flick off the filth.
He turned his head to look at Rose not far away.
The woman was clearly terrified by the gunshot, her face pale, stumbling as she walked towards him.
Only after confirming the monster before her was truly dealt with and seeing Sephirot's utterly nonchalant expression did her tense body relax slightly.
Her gaze was drawn to the handgun hanging by Sephirot's side, tendrils of white smoke still drifting from its muzzle.
Noticing her nervous yet curious look, Sephirot spun the gun in a flashy flourish before smoothly holstering it. "Don't worry, ma'am."
"As a private detective, carrying some weapons for self-defense is perfectly reasonable, right?"
Rose nodded, still somewhat fearful, then looked at the bloody, mangled corpse on the ground and asked with lingering dread:
"What... what exactly is this?"
"Armless Man, the lowest form of fear in Silent Hill. Also a symbol of desires imprisoned deep within certain people's hearts."
As Sephirot was explaining, his expression suddenly shifted. He turned his head to look towards the distant hilltop.
In the heavy fog, a little girl in a blue dress stood silently on the high ground.
Her pitch-black eye sockets were fixed intently on Sephirot, her pale face devoid of color and expression.
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — CROSSOVER GUIDE Some references in this chapter come from source universes that may be unfamiliar to some readers. The notes below are here to help readers unfamiliar with these universes follow along more easily.
SOURCE UNIVERSES
Silent Hill (video game series, 1999–present / 2006 film adaptation) — Silent Hill is a survival horror franchise centered on a cursed, fog-shrouded American town that manifests the psychological trauma and sins of those who enter it. The town exists in multiple overlapping realities: the normal world (abandoned and empty), the Fog World (a limbo-like state populated by monsters), and the Otherworld (a hellish dimension of rust, blood, and darkness that surfaces when supernatural rage peaks). Each visitor's personal guilt and repressed desires shape the specific monsters and scenarios they encounter. The opening letter in this chapter ("James, you promised me…") is the famous intro letter from Silent Hill 2 (2001), written by a woman named Mary to her husband James Sunderland. In that game, James receives the letter despite Mary having died — and travels to Silent Hill to find her. Rose Da Silva and her adopted daughter Sharon are the protagonists of the Silent Hill film (2006), which follows the same premise (a parent searching for a lost child in the cursed town) but replaces the original game's characters with new ones.
Devil May Cry (video game series, 2001–present) — Devil May Cry follows Dante, the son of the legendary demon knight Sparda, who runs a devil-hunting agency called "Devil May Cry." Dante is half-human, half-demon, possessing a powerful demonic bloodline inherited from his father. He is famous for his flippant attitude, love of pizza and strawberry sundaes, and overwhelming combat strength. In this fanfiction, Sephirot is a transmigrator (someone reincarnated into a fictional world from the real world) who grew up working at Dante's agency and has somehow awakened a Demonic Bloodline of his own.
CHARACTERS
James Sunderland — Protagonist of Silent Hill 2. A man who travels to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his deceased wife, Mary. The story slowly reveals that James himself smothered Mary with a pillow to end her suffering from a terminal illness — a truth his mind has suppressed entirely. His guilt and repressed desires are what draw him back to the town and shape the monsters he faces there.
Mary — James's wife in Silent Hill 2. She died of a terminal illness (in reality, killed by James). The letter she wrote before her death serves as the inciting event of the game.
Rose Da Silva — Protagonist of the Silent Hill film (2006). A mother who drives to Silent Hill searching for her adopted daughter Sharon, crashes on the way in, and becomes trapped in the Fog World.
Sharon — Rose's adopted daughter in the Silent Hill film. She has a sleepwalking condition that draws her toward Silent Hill. Her origins are deeply connected to Alessa, the source of the town's curse.
Alessa — The little girl in the blue dress glimpsed at the end of this chapter. In both the games and the film, Alessa Gillespie is the origin of Silent Hill's curse. As a child, she was burned at the stake by fanatical church members who believed she was a witch. She survived, horribly scarred, and her immense supernatural pain and hatred transformed the town into its current nightmarish state. The "Dark Alessa" seen here is the manifestation of her accumulated rage and dark power.
Dante — Sephirot's uncle figure and the legendary devil hunter who runs the Devil May Cry agency. Described here as white-haired, pizza-obsessed, and utterly uninterested in sentimental cases.
MONSTERS
Armless Man (also called "Lying Figure" in the games) — One of the most common monsters in Silent Hill. Its upper body is bound in a skin-like casing, arms fused to its sides, while its lower half retains humanoid legs. In the game's symbolism, it represents desire or sexuality that has been suppressed and twisted. Its appearance this early in the story, outside Silent Hill's core zone, is noted as unusual even by Sephirot.