Broken Ring

PERSPECTIVE 1

Yurei is a 13-year-old girl who, unbeknownst to most, has psychic powers. The ones who did know bullied her and excluded her for it. She has an amazing intuition which can tell whether or not something will end good or bad, and how good or how bad, she can leave her images on objects, control objects' course of movement, place curses, sense cursed energy, and manifest objects (with limitations), among other things. She is, however, simply an ordinary 13-year-old girl, and her psychic powers do not give to or take from her personality. One vibrant, sunny morning, Yurei was out in the yard. Out of curiosity, she decides to explore her shed. In the shed, she finds a VHS tape. But it was not any ordinary VHS tape, as Yurei sensed a large deal of cursed energy emanating from this tape. This caused much worry, and she could sense something bad was coming. Unbeknownst to her, this was the trigger to a painful battle with the ghost of another psychic woman, Sadako Yamamura.

    Yurei was not very afraid of this tape, but was afraid of what it could bring. Yurei, out of basic curiosity and concern, placed the tape inside of her old, dusty VCR. The tape starts with a man looking into the well, his face indiscernible. The tape then cuts to a woman brushing her hair in the mirror, the mirror briefly changes position and shows Sadako, until returning to the woman brushing her hair. The tape cuts to a sea of kanji (a Japanese text system derived from Chinese text), and the kanji is a newspaper article jumbled up around the screen, explaining the death of Sadako's mother. After, the tape cuts to people, seemingly injured, painfully crawling across a field. The tape then cuts to a man with a towel covering his head. Screeching violin-sounding noises can be heard. In Oshima language, the man can be heard saying "shômon bakkari shite'ru to, bôkon ga kuru zo" slowed down, meaning "Frolic in brine, goblins be thine". The tape cuts to someone's eye with the kanji "Sada" in it, as the first half of Sadako's name. The tape cuts to an outside view of the well, dirty and chipped. Static rolls.

The tape leaves Yurei shocked and frightened, as visions and memories emanating from the cursed energy inside the disturbing contents of the tape fill Yurei's head. A young girl named Sadako Yamamura who lived on Oshima island. Her mother, Shizuko Yamamura, married to Sadako's stepfather, Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, was too a psychic, however not as powerful as Sadako. At a show put on to demonstrate Shizuko's powers, she and Ikuma are berated with comments calling them frauds, and one man calls a young Sadako filthy Sadako wills him dead with a curse. With the stress of the public hate, and having predicted an eruption of this mountain, Shizuko throws herself into Mt. Mihara, killing herself. Sadako had become depressed from this, and in Sadako's teen years, Ikuma grew frightened of Sadako's powers, striking her head and pushing her into a well in hopes to kill her. But she survived, and tried to climb out. She couldn't, and died in the well. But she came back as a ghost, burned her image on the tape, and left a curse, eventually picked up by a woman known as Reiko Asakawa following the death of her niece, who came back as a ghost and a servant for Sadako, and who's best friend gained minor psychic powers because she was near her during her death. Reiko, along with her son, beat the curse, but her ex-husband, Ryuji Takayama died to the curse after Sadako crawled out of his TV in jerky motions. They had found Sadako's corpse in the well, built over by a cabin. The way to beat Sadako's curse is to copy her tape and pass it on, dubbing it "The curse of Ring". But Yurei's not going to do it. She won't allow more curses and death among people. And she sure as hell won't stand for those resting souls being manipulated for Sadako's will. She was going to do something about this. But she didn't know what.

Yurei, curious for a solution, booted the tape again. The tape ran as normal, except at the end of the tape, Sadako's hand could be seen reaching out of the well and grasping onto the edge. Static rolled. Yurei was now frightened. The cursed energy increased tenfold. Yurei, desperate, booted the tape again. Both hands emerged from the well this time. Static rolled. Yurei felt the energy steadily increasing. Yurei knew Sadako was to crawl out of the well, and based on Ryuji's death, she was going to crawl out of the TV. But what would happen? Ryuji's seven days were done by then, and it had only been 5 minutes for Yurei. And what would Yurei's mother think? She booted the tape once again, and Sadako climbed out of the well. Yurei reversed the tape out of fear, as she could feel supermassive amounts of cursed energy emanating from Sadako's presence. Her heart was racing.

PERSPECTIVE 2

    Sadako, living by the curse, climbed out of the well on tape. Truthfully, she wouldn't have climbed out of the well if Yurei was an ordinary girl playing the tape four times. Sadako was afraid of Yurei. Afraid of her intelligence. Afraid of her powers. Afraid of her eligibility to end her, as many have tried before. She had to kill her, and fast. But she needed to be out of the tape in order for that to happen. She walked towards the screen, her angry look covered by her long, flowing, black hair. She felt a jolt through her body as Yurei reversed the tape and ejected it from the VCR, leaving her stuck back down in her well. Sadako wept until she felt her ability to leave the well return, not stuck in the hellscape of her own curse. But this time, something unexpected happened. Yurei crawled into the TV. Sadako felt great about her odds. Yurei felt a voice surround her. "You're inside of my curse now, and that makes you my toy," Sadako communicated to Yurei. Yurei flung Sadako out of the TV with her psychic powers. Yurei exited Sadako's tape plane, and Sadako rushed after her. Yurei manifested a knife and flung it at Sadako as a temporary defense measure. As not a typical ghost, yet an onryo, Sadako could be affected by physical objects. But she was unable to process it, as no one has ever succeeded before. Yurei was frightened, and flung Sadako back into the tape, back into her well, and bent the curse to attempt to harm and possibly neutralize Sadako. Sadako, being back in her curse, rejected it and blasted Yurei back into the wall.

PERSPECTIVE 1

Yurei was horrified, but she could feel her powers had strengthened. Elemental powers and flying were present now, and her previous powers were now more powerful. She went to consult her mother. When she found her mother, she was deceased. Sadako had killed her in spite of Yurei. Yurei snapped. She was going to end Sadako and her curse. She began flying, and she flew to the cabin on Oshima island built over Sadako's well, bearing the cursed tape and a DV (basically a miniature VCR) to play it in. She busted into the lower level of the inn and burned the wood covering on the well. She played the tape and let Sadako come out, but she took Sadako's corpse from the well and flew back up. Sadako tried to attack Yurei, but she bent water from the sea into Sadako and blasted her back.

Yurei couldn't hold Sadako's corpse while fighting her ghost, she didn't have the strength. So, she set the corpse down, and Sadako dashed for her body in an attempt to save herself from dying forever, but Yurei manifested and launched a boulder at Sadako. Sadako bent it back as hard as she could, and it flew at Yurei. Yurei was hit. She was losing hope. But she wasn't giving up yet, and lifted the boulder off of herself, and burned Sadako. Sadako rushed at and clawed at Yurei, who fire-punched Sadako in the gut, getting badly scratched in the process. Sadako, in her jerky, offputting motions, rushed after Yurei. Yurei did the same. Sadako launched Yurei into the nearby cliff, and Yurei lay there for a few seconds as Sadako rushed for her body. Yurei mustered up the last of her strength to blast Sadako away and burn her corpse. Sadako, without an existing corpse, shriveled away and died along with her curse as she wept. The tape and any other copies of it became ordinary, untouched VHS tapes with no contents on them. Yurei, having no more strength, and having sustained severe bodily injuries, died on the cliffside, her body later being found by an innkeeper on Oshima island, a relative of Sadako's. The innkeeper knew of the curse and knew Yurei had died to Sadako, but he couldn't feel Sadako's presence anymore. He laid Yurei's lifeless body to rest under a bed of soil and roses, weeping at the thought of his own relative so ruthlessly murdering an adolescent girl. He thanked Yurei's corpse for ending Sadako and her curse, as he felt Yurei's ghost over his shoulder hugging him. She let him know "I will inhabit this cliff as a ghost, and bring good omens for the ones who cross by it. You'll see me again, I promise." She walked over to the cliff and sat down waiting for visitors, happy with her resting place for eternity. The innkeeper left her to her peace, promising to visit on the way out of the area. Yurei was left there at peace for eternity.