A/N: After a long time, here it is...the semi-retconning of "Daily Grind"! Thankfully, I had made that story intentionally vague, to create wiggle-room for error. Still, it took a while to figure out how to mesh the new canon and my ideas.
I went back and looked over the relevant manga chapters to fact-check...but the English sub wasn't up yet for some of the important ones. Therefore, I apologize in advance for any mistakes.
She had no idea who she was anymore. That…thing…had eaten her soul alive, from the inside out. Now it was gone, and she had no idea what to do next.
Who…was she…?
Well, it wasn't like she had amnesia or something. That monster had consumed her independence, self-confidence, and free will, but her memories were intact. She knew full well that she was Reggie Ashlynn "Mac" MacKenzie, of Brownsville, Texas. Top student. Goes to church every week. Cheerleader. Dating the boy that every girl wanted. She supposed that a lot of people were jealous of her. They thought her life was perfect, but it was all a lie created by the Monster.
There was another side of her that the Monster did not let people know about. Her father abandoned the family to go get rich in California. He came back when Reggie was seven, but by then the monster had already taken hold. He chose to take Reggie back with him because she was the pretty blonde daughter. She would suit his ambitions nicely.
He had no need for Reggie's mother or older sister, so while he whisked Reggie off to his fancy new school, he left the other two to rot in the slums of Brownsville. She went with him willingly when he promised her new clothes and toys, and was too young to grasp the situation. By the time she thought to ask about Mama and Brittany, it was too late.
She had barely settled in her new home when things started getting scary. That nice man, Mr. Phoenix, went to show the Monster some new cards, and he left on a stretcher. Papa said that Mr. Phoenix had had a brain aneurysm, but Reggie knew better. She had seen the whole thing happen, but knew that telling anyone would mean that she would end up the same way.
Reggie had never distinguished between her father and the entity possessing him. To her, they were all one big Monster. And then there was David. Her father had set them up together. But David wasn't a Monster; just a follower of one. He had always been power-hungry, and followed her father willingly. But she couldn't bring herself to hate him. She'd been his from the very start. He was a total idiot and could barely make a sandwich without her help, but darn it, she loved him anyway! Whenever he started acting all weird, Reggie just stepped aside and ignored it. All she could do was pray fervently for his release from that evil being's grasp. The Monster saw that she was too afraid to disobey, and mostly left her under her own power.
Even before David was possessed, he was domineering. But Reggie didn't mind that terribly. She wished that he wouldn't demand sex so much, and she really didn't like it when she had to spend a whole summer recovering from getting breast implants, but overall she had been content with a submissive role. She'd been raised to believe that a woman's job was in the house. It made sense to her, since guy things like sports and politics bored her.
However, she began to question this role once the Monster started hurting people. He had attacked that one man when she was still a child, but since then things had been fairly quiet. But then those Japanese exchange students showed up at school. Reggie didn't think she would like them, since the preacher back home said that the Japanese were trying to control American children with Satanic cartoons. But Fubuki was always nice to her. He didn't seem Satanic in the least. Reggie had started to think that the preacher was wrong about that. The real Satan was her own father, she thought.
She tried to rebel as much as she could without the Monster noticing. David was all for finally going on an offensive, since he held a grudge against Fubuki. Reggie didn't want to hurt any more people, though. She wasn't good at making plans…just following those of others. Still, she started to wonder if maybe she could keep some of the power for herself, and use it to defeat the Monster. She wished she could tell Fubuki about this, but didn't want to put him in any more danger than he already was.
Monster or not, she was glad to let it seem like she was still David's pawn. The trip to a foreign country intimidated her at first, so she let him do the talking and planning while she seemingly went along with everything he did. Besides, no one would ever suspect sweet, blonde Reggie of thinking for herself. She liked it better this way.
She never got a chance to carry out her plan, though. Once David was gone, there was nothing to protect her from the Monster. Before, it had been distracted with controlling two people, but now it sensed Reggie's rebellious thoughts and clamped down hard. It used her confused state to its advantage. All of her planning had been for absolutely nothing.
When David fell, Reggie's feelings were mixed. He had said that he loved her, but now she wasn't sure whether that was him or the Monster talking. As he continued to blunder, she began to feel outright disdain. She was through with praying for him. But still…the soft side of her protested that no one had deserved that. Whatever the case, she had not had much time to ponder it, since her brain was swept up in black rage and shadows.
Her memory of the subsequent events was a bit hazy, but now…she had been suddenly freed. But she didn't know how long that would last. Fubuki kept trying to cheer her up, but he had no idea. Her father could swoop in any day now and punish her severely, and she would be completely unable to stop it. And now he was here, on the same island as her, and the threat was even closer! So far he hadn't acknowledged her presence, but who knows how long that would last? Nothing was certain anymore, except that she was trapped on a strange land, stumbling around like she was blind. Her eyes could see fine, but her brain was another story.
Again…who was she??