Malpractice
Synopsys & Author's Note: Dr. Toshio Ozaki prevents the deaths of four certain Shiki during the Human/Shiki Slaughter in Sotoba. Though, when his real reasons are revealed, death may have been more merciful. Special thanks to OmniXenderman for help with this story, the idea actually came to me while talking with him, when I realized how I always seem to put him in a more positve light than I often do Dr. Akari in my Karneval fics. However, all the science/medical virus jargon was Omni's idea. I'm using this theory with his permission, and he expands on it in his own stories. Fair warning, this is a DARK alternate ending. It includes Torture, Drugs, Death, Memory Loss, and Rape. This was not an easy chapter to get through. I was doing good, until I got to the scene with Megumi... Then my fingres and toes started to go numb. I know Omni offered to write any of the stuff I may be too squeamish for, but I at least wanted to get this much out of the way on my own. This is why I didn't explain the surgical proceedure in necessary detail in 'My First Patient'. Oh, and as far as I know, the rare condition I give Masao isn't canon! And what Doc O tells Tohru about Aoi and Tamatsu is going off the spoilers the opening themes gave us in the Anime, this is the first I've ever used that piece of canon.
CHAPTER 1: Test Subjects
Dr. Toshio Ozaki watched in silence as the humans of his village began to act with mob like intentions. He grew up in Sotoba, and knew several, if not all of these people personally. He's known them since he was born. His family was among the highest standing families in the whole village. His clinic had been there and within his family ever since this village had been founded. The only family higher than his own, was the family in charge of the temple, the Muroi family. In times of crisis, the Muroi family and the Ozaki family were the ones the villagers turned to for guidance. But, the priests were no longer trusted. The 'Good Doctor' was their leader.
Toshio lit his cigarette and took a long drag off of it. He had intended to expose the threat to the village. He intended to wipe the 'enemy' off the face of the earth. He wasn't expecting the mobs to start killing innocent humans on baseless suspicions.
The Vampires, Okiagari, Shiki, or whatever the hell they called themselves had slowly weaved their fingers into the affairs of the village. High officials had been killed and either replaced by more Corpse Demons, or returned from the dead as a Shiki and resumed their jobs under the rule of their clan leader. The old priest had gone missing several days ago. Now, it had been confirmed he was among their ranks. Tomio Ookawa had watched, in complete disbelief, as the old man had burned away to nothing in the morning sunlight just this morning, after stumbling upon him by complete accident. The Jr. Monk, Seishin Muroi, was missing in action, but had not spoken to Dr. Ozaki for some time now.
Dr. Ozaki had never been close to his wife Kyouko, but he and Jr. Monk Muroi had been steadfast friends their whole lives. However, Kyouko's death had drove them apart, and Seishin was now in bed with the enemy. Of that, Toshio had no doubt.
The Shiki had even tried to get their hands on Toshio. Discovering he knew about their existence, Sunako Kirishiki had sent the vampiress Chizuru Kirishiki to the doctor. Chizuru had bit him and hypnotized him into destroying all his evidence, all the death certificates, all the footage and notes he'd taken of his wife as she came back to life and he conducted torturous experiments upon her to discover how these creatures worked, and ultimately, her final death as he ran the stake through her heart himself. It all went up in flames. Everything Toshio had been collecting in order to reach out to someone from outside the village for assistance was gone, and all the roads were closed, blocking the humans from leaving. Only the Shiki could leave, no help would be coming. Once the flames that were now sweeping the village finally died out, it would be up to whatever humans were left to pick up the pieces and rebuild, should they decide to stay at all, that is.
He stepped out of the back of the Humvee as they arrived in Yamari. His nurse Yasuyo Hashiguchi had gone missing for a few days, when she returned, she was unharmed, but told him the Shiki had took her and were holding her here in Yamari. He couldn't understand why they would let her leave untouched, knowing it would give away their hiding place. It made no sense to him. The other villagers ran in ahead of him, piercing stakes through the hearts of anything that moved, or anyone that got bitten. He was too distracted with trying to figure out why they'd allowed Yasuyo to leave, to think to assure the frightened stupid villagers that a simple bite wasn't enough to turn a person, only to hypnotize them until the offending Shiki was killed.
Toshio stopped, wide eyed as his eyes landed on a cell at the end of the hall. Suddenly, it made sense as to why Yasuyo had gotten away. His missing nurse, Ritsuko Kunihiro was sitting in the back of the cell, quietly holding hands with a familiar blonde teenager; Tohru Mutou, the clinic director's oldest son, and Ritsuko's perspective boyfriend. Not too long ago, Toshio had written Tohru's death certificate. Ritsuko had only just disappeared a few days ago. His jaw dropped and his cigarette just barely stayed in his mouth without falling to the floor.
"There's two over here!" someone shouted. The villager picked up two stakes and started to rush into the cell.
"HOLD IT!" Toshio barked, catching the villager by the shoulder.
"What? Doctor, what's wrong?" the villager asked.
Toshio shook his head, staring at the two Shiki sitting in the cell. "Not these two," he insisted. "They're not fighting back."
"Yeah, but..." the villager started to argue.
"I'm taking these two alive," Toshio insisted, "I've got plans for them. Bring in some rope."
The villagers seemed confused, but they did as the doctor ordered. The blond teenage male hissed like a cat at the humans when they entered the cell, but the green haired nurse squeezed his hand. She'd refused to drink Yasuyo's blood. She'd taken an oath as a nurse, not to take a life, and she was determined to up hold it. The problem with that was that she'd spent the last few days starving herself, while Tohru begged her to feed, warning that the others would severely punish her if she didn't. He finally gave in and released Yasuyo, even though he knew she'd give them away. Ritsuko had managed to do what he couldn't, she had fought off the hunger and let her friend live, even with the threat of her own death. She was too weak to run or fight, and he refused to leave her side. He huddled close to her and could feel the sting of tears threatening the corners of his eyes. The couple quietly resigned themselves to their deaths. They were taken by surprise, however, when the humans drug them away from one another and tied their hands and feet together.
Tohru didn't struggle at first, until he saw they had Ritsuko, too. "Ritsu-Chan...?" He squirmed, but they already had him tied. "What are you doing? Please, don't hurt her."
"Shut up, you filthy animal," one of the villagers snarled, bashing Tohru in the head with the blunt end of one of the wooden stakes. The doctor wants you both alive."
"Dr. Ozaki?" Ritsuko called, her dark eyes looking up to her former boss in fear. "What are you going to do with us?"
Toshio didn't answer, he simply took a drag off his cigarette, keeping his back turned to his former nurse. "Get them back to the clinic in Mizobe and leave them in the basement," he ordered, "And do it quickly, before the sun comes up! If you have to rough the boy up a bit to get him to cooperate, that's one thing, but make sure they both get there in one piece."
The villagers took rags and forced them into Tohru and Ritsuko's mouths, more as a precaution not to get bitten than to keep them quiet, and toted them away. After a moment's hesitation, Toshio decided it best to ride back to the clinic with them, to keep an eye over his new cargo.
The carted the two Shiki into the abandoned clinic in Mizobe, as it was closer than his own in Sotoba, and tossed them into the basement. This basement was better for containing them than his own, as it had no windows. Seeing how weak Ritsuko seemed to be, Toshio went back upstairs. The clinic was a mess. The upper level was but a shell of what the building once was. It hadn't been left untouched be the flames that were sweeping theough all three prefectures of the village, but the sprinkler systems had been quick to put the fire out, leaving the building still standing and, though charred, mostly operational.
He entered the emergency supply room, took two small beakers worth of blood, just enough CCs to warrent a blood test in each, and returned to the basement. He removed the cloth from Tohru's mouth and pushed one of the vials to the teenager's mouth. "DRINK," he ordered. Tohru was confused, but did as he was told.
"D-Doctor Ozaki...?" Torhu asked sounding completely baffled.
The doctor ignored him. Tohru may as well have been an annoying barking dog, for all Toshio cared. Instead, the doctor turned his attention to his former nurse, who'd been left on the other side of the basement. He knelt down in front of her, with a gentle smile on his face. "I've got to say I'm surprised to find you among them, Ritsu," he said, as he removed the rag from her mouth. "I was lead to believe people only come back if they have regrets. What sort of regrets could you possibly have had?" He brushed a strand of green hair out of her face.
Ritsuko looked away from him. "You know what I have to regret," she answered in a weak whisper.
"Your mother and sister?" Toshio asked, "The fact that you didn't leave Sotoba with your fiance' when you had the chance? Yuki's disappearance?"
"STOP," Ritsuko sobbed. "You didn't care about any of that when Kyouko died, why bring it up now?"
Toshio smiled. "You're right," he admitted, "After I staked the little adulteress, I became more obsessed with discovering how to fight and kill these monsters."
Ritsuko and Tohru both snapped their attention the doctor wide eyed in shock. "Y-You mean...?"
"That's right, your green haired friend with the spiky hair was invited in by someone. Starved for the attention I didn't care to give her, she's the most likely candidate. She lay in that room, dead for days before she rose up as one of you," Toshio admitted. He chuckled. "Saved me the trouble of a divorce and paying alimony."
"Doctor, that's horrible of you!" Ritsuko scolded.
Toshio didn't respond, he simply pushed the other vial of blood to Ritsuko's lips. "Here, drink this, you look like you can barely hold your head up." Ritsuko tried to refuse, but Toshio caught her by the chin and forced the vial to her mouth. Tilting her head back, he forced her to drink the thick red liquid.
"Y-You're not going to do the same to us, are you, Doctor?" Tohru asked.
"No, not yet," Toshio said, "Not if you both cooperate and do as you're told, anyway."
Both Shiki startled and went on high alert. They weren't sure what to make of the doctor's words. He was promising not to hurt them if they cooperated with him, but at the same time, those words, 'Not yet.' Did he intend to kill them later? If their hearts still moved, they'd be pounding out of their chests in fear of those words.
Toshio chuckled. "Relax," he said, "It's almost dawn, you're safe for now." He looked at Ritsuko with a fond smile. "How does that taste, Ritsu?" he asked.
The look on her face was akin to the look of someone who'd just drank sour milk. "Ugh, it's foul," she said, "Does it always taste like that?"
"No," Tohru broke in, he'd tasted it, too, "It's not very palatable, with..." he stopped and thought back to his last real victim, the one person he'd never wanted to hurt, the one person that, once he had, he'd hoped would rise up. But no, his best friend Natsuno was carted away in a hearse from the City Morgue, before the roads to the village were completely sealed off. The City Morgue cremates their dead bodies, Natsuno Yuuki/Koide would never be seen again. "...Certain exceptions," he continued after a moment's hesitation. But, it doesn't taste like that coming from a human."
Toshio raised an eyebrow and rose to a standing position, looking down at Ritsuko. "Must be the chemicals used to preserve the blood. You haven't fed off anyone?" he asked in surprise.
"NO! I'd be breaking my oath!" Ritsuko spat, "I'm a nurse, I can't take a life!"
"Good thing I have plenty of reserve emergency blood, then," Toshio chortled, placing his hands on his hips. He turned back to Tohru. "Tohru, shortly after your death, your friend Natsuno came to me and asked if it were possible for Megumi to come back from the dead. I joked with him that it was only possible if she were a Vampire. Suddenly, it all clicked into place, everything that had been happening up until that point finally made sense." He approached the blonde and towered over him. Tohru backed against the wall, keeping his head bowed. Even the mention of Natsuno's name hurt. "You're aware of what's going on out there right now, right?"
Tohru gave a quiet nod. "The humans are fighting back," he sobbed, "The Shiki and the humans are slaughtering one another." Tohru bit down on his gums and sucked down the blood that rose from it. For a Shiki, this was akin to alcoholism, a way to numb the pain. It was something he hadn't wanted to resort to, but at the moment, it was all he had left.
"And your death is what caused it all," Toshio said with a click of his tongue. Tohru let out a whimper and curled even further into a ball.
"Doctor!" Ritsuko exclaimed, disapprovingly.
"Somehow, Natsuno knew something about your death, and Megumi's. It was that conversation with him that alerted me to the existence of the Shiki," Toshio informed the blond, "And now Natsuno's no longer among the living either, is he?" Tohru bit himself again and started to cry. "Did they target him, Tohru?" Tohru gave a quiet nod. "Who'd they send after him, was it Shimizu?"
Tohru shook his head and sobbed louder. "No! They sent me," he whined, "I didn't want to do it, but they threatened to go after my brother and sister if I didn't."
"Oh, Tohru..." Ritsuko sighed, sorrowfully.
Toshio shook his head. "I hate to break the news to you then," he sighed. Tohru flinched and fell silent, shifting his black eyes in the direction of the doctor, curiously. "Aoi and Tamotsu are both dead. I don't know if they rose up or not, but your father and mother are all that's left of your family that's still living, breathing flesh."
"NO!" Tohru exclaimed, shaking his head in pure agony. "You're lying!?"
Toshio shook his head. "I didn't write the death certificates, the funeral home that your leader set up in town did. Your father called me to tell me he wasn't coming in the day it happened. They duped you, kid."
Tohru closed his eyes and screamed. The scream faded into quiet, broken sobs. "Aoi, Tamotsu..." he grieved, "Even after I did what he told me to, they still took them?"
"Both on the same day," Toshio said.
"Natsuno's not coming back," Tohru sniffled, "Tatsumi, you lying bastard!"
"Oh, Tohru..." Ritsuko quietly called his name. She wanted to run to him, to throw her arms around him and comfort him, but her arms and legs were still bound.
Toshio left them that way. He didn't untie them, he didn't move them so they were close to one another. He simply left, without a word, and locked the door to the basement. Amidst his grief, Tohru struggled to try and stay awake as the sun began to rise. But when daylight came, sleep was not something either of the Shiki could fight for long.
Toshio returned to his own clinic for some supplies he knew he would need when he returned to Mizobe. His clinic wasn't in a much better state than the other. His mother's blood was still smeared across the walls from where Atsushi Ookawa had torn her to pieces in bitter rage over the death of Chizuru Kirishiki. Toshio scoffed as he looked at the blood stain. The words were still scribbled there, 'This bitch will never rise!'
He went to the room where he'd kept Kyouko during his time experimenting on her. Collecting his camera, surgical kit, and a notepad and pen, he stuffed it all into a briefcase, and returned to the abandoned clinic in Mizobe.
The flames eventually died down. Toshio went up to Kanemasa, the mansion where the Kirishiki had resided. Most of the humans had either fled the town in whatever manner they could, or turned their attention to rebuilding the town, now. The Shiki were still a threat in their mind, but aside from Toshio's two captives in the abandoned clinic, none had been seen for at least two nights now. Toshio was certain there was no way they were all dead. Sure, the large majority of them were staked or tied to trees and left out for the sun, some tied to the trees, then staked before the sun could get them. Such had been the fate of Nao, the wife of another one of Toshio's childhood friends. They were gone, but not all dead. Their leader and the Jr. Monk still had not been seen, and the mob had stormed the temple and slaughtered Mrs. Muroi and the temple workers in cold blood. The old church that Seishin used to enjoy visiting in the middle of the night had been engulfed in flames, and Tomio Ookawa's charred body was found lying on the floor.
"There's no doubt about it, the little girl was behind it all," Toshio scoffed to himself as he approached the mansion. "Brat bewitched him, and he's left with her," he said with a click of his tongue. The gates to the mansion were wide open. The bodies of the staked Shiki had all been thrown into a pile inside the mansion and left for the flames. Toshio walked up to the door and pressed his hand to it. He'd expected it to be heavy and hard to open, but due to the fire damage it fell right off it's hinges, flat on the ground, stirring up dust and ashes off the floor. A normal person would have coughed as the debris flew about them, but as the body count had increased after the Kirishiki family's arrival, Toshio had begun smoking more and more. He was now up to three packs a day.
"Heh, I guess that means come on in," he scoffed, stepping over the door. He walked to the center of the room and froze. There, just barely visible under the rubble where the bodies of two teenagers. One, a girl, just a few weeks shy of turning sixteen, with pink fluffy pigtails. The other, a seventeen year old male with long, scraggly black hair and pale skin. There was a large, heavy piece of debris on the girl's head. Toshio clicked his tongue as he swept the debris away. "Well, now, Megumi, it seems Natsuno was right... And who was the idiot that ran you through?" he scoffed, "Their aim was off. No where near the heart! I wonder, if I pull this out, would you reanimate?"
He looked to the boy. "And Masao... Your sister-in-law did the honors, I believe?" Toshio shook his head. "Shows how much your family paid attention to you, doesn't it?" There were still bruises on the boy from where his sister-in-law had beat him repeatedly with a golf club after allowing him in the house when he came to her in search of refuge from the mobs. The stake she ran through him was right where the heart SHOULD be. Toshio sighed. "If any of them had paid attention, they'd know you were born with Heterotaxy, more specifically Dextrocardia." He shook his head in disbelief. "NEITHER of you are actually dead, you're just in suspended animation!" He glanced back at the door. "And just far enough away from the doors and windows to be shielded from the sun."
He reached down and yanked the stake out of Megumi's chest. Then turned to do the same to Masao. Just as he pulled it, the last rays of sunlight cast over the the building. Masao's corpse moved, lunging at the doctor, fangs bared. Toshio quickly moved out of the way and struck the teenager on the back of the head, at just the right spot to knock him unconscious. Suddenly, Megumi began to move. Toshio whirled around, to face her, on his guard, should he need to defend himself from her as well.
Slowly, she sat up, shaking her head. "Wha...? Where...?" she moaned, placing a hand to her head. Her eyes widened as she felt something thick and wet pool onto her hand. Moving her hand away from her head, she looked at it, eyes widening even further, before screaming in abject terror. Her hand was coated in blood, her own. The chunk of debris that had landed on her had busted her skull and she'd been lying in a pool of her own blood for days now. Both of them were weak and starved, it's amazing how either of them could move at all. She looked up at Toshio, a look of innocent confusion mingled with fear sweeping her face. "What happened?" she sobbed.
Toshio hoisted the unconscious Masao up onto his shoulder. "The building collapsed," he answered, "I guess the fire weakened the upper floors."
"Fire?" Megumi looked around. She still seemed confused. Toshio raised an eyebrow. Something seemed odd about her. "What is this place? What am I doing here?"
"What is this place?" Toshio parroted, "This was Kanemasa. Look, Megumi, I'll explain things later, but can we leave, now? Masao's heavier than he looks, and I don't want him this close to my neck when he wakes up."
"Go where? Megumi? Is that my name?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and taping a finger to her chin, completely forgetting about her current brain hemorrhage.
"Great, a talking corpse with amnesia," Toshio scoffed to himself, shaking his head. "We're going to the hospital, so I can treat that bump on your head," he said aloud. "Can you walk?"
"I... I think so..." she said, squirming her way out of the rubble. She staggered and wobbled a little. That was to be expected. She was weak from not having fed, and from the two wounds that had not yet healed.
"It's amazing you can even sit up," Toshio commented.
"Huh? Why?" Megumi asked. This was when she noticed the older man's attention was focused not so much on her head, as it was on her chest. Her eyes followed his line of vision, down to her cleavage, and she shrieked again, throwing her hands to her mouth, as she saw the hole in her chest from where the stake had been. "What's going on? Am... Am I dead?" she whimpered.
"Something like that," Toshio mumbled. "Never mind all that, I'll explain later, come on!" He caught her by the wrist and drug her out of the building. He stayed on his guard the entire trip back. He would have a hard time explaining things if one of the villagers saw him with the two teenage corpses, and with neither of them having fed, he had to be quick about getting them back to the clinic before they were both trying to feed on him.
It was just around nine-thirty when he made it back to the abandoned clinic. He lead Megumi in and told her to stay put. He carried Masao to the basement door and threw the still unconscious male down the stairs, quickly shutting the door.
"What the...? Masao!?" Tohru exclaimed, when he saw his former friend's unconscious body thud against the ground.
"Oh, Dr. Ozaki, just WHAT are you doing?" Ritsuko quietly fretted.
Toshio lead Megumi to the door of the room where the medical blood supply was kept. He ordered her to stay outside the door, hoping that the 'we can enter by invitation only' rule applied not just to buildings, but to rooms as well. He grabbed a vial of blood and handed it to her. "Here, drink this," he told her, "It doesn't taste very good, but it'll help the healing process." Megumi blinked curiously at him, but nodded and drank what she was believing to be medicine. Toshio watched quietly as the wounds in both her head and chest healed. That was a sight that never ceased to amaze him.
"What...? What just...? How did?" Megumi stuttered in amazement.
He grabbed five more vials, handing her a second one. "Here, drink another," he ordered. She took it from him and as she pressed it to her lips, he caught her by the wrist and lead her back to the basement. He had to feed the others, before himself with four hungry Shiki on his hands.
Tohru and Ritsuko had only just been untied the night before, as he began to believe he could trust them not to attack him, as long as he kept them fed. Though, he had not yet told them what he had in store for them.
Tohru let out a yelp and pressed his back against the wall when he saw the pink haired girl following the doctor. "Tohru?" Ritsuko questioned, worriedly.
Tohru raised a shaky hand and pointed toward Megumi. "Wh-WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE!?" he exclaimed.
"Tohru...?" Ritsuko wrapped her arms around him, confused as to why Tohru was reacting this way.
"What's wrong with him?" Megumi asked, peeking around the doctor, her hands tucked behind his back.
Toshio chuckled. "Oh, I think I get it now." He walked over to Tohru and Ritsuko, pushing his face into the blond's. "She's the one who killed you, isn't she?" he asked in a whisper. Tohru closed his eyes and nodded. The boy's fear was understandable, under such circumstances. "Well, don't go upsetting her. She doesn't seem to remember anything from before I found her this afternoon."
"Amnesia?" Ritsuko asked.
"Exactly," Toshio said, handing Ritsuko and Torhu both their vials. "I found her underneath some rubble, with a large gash in her head, I think it broke through the skull and damaged her brain. She didn't even remember her own name."
Suddenly, Masao's body began to move again. The pale, skinny teenager stood, a vacant look on his face. He turned and lunged for the doctor again. But again, the doctor was too quick for him. He sidestepped the attacking Shiki and kicked one of Masao's legs out from under him. Tohru and Ritsuko both moved to one side or the other, as well, and Masao face planted into the wall behind them. "Either the hunger has slowed him down, or that gaping wound in his chest. Ritsuko, restrain him for me, would you?"
Masao whirled around and hissed. Right now, he was lost in the thralls of hunger, not recognizing friend nor foe, all he knew was that he smelled blood and he needed it. Tohru's eyes widened as he finally took notice of the hole in Masao's chest. "Wait? They got him in the heart? How is he still...?"
"Dextrocardia," Toshio answered as Ritsuko wrestled Masao to the ground.
"You mean his heart's...?" Tohru started.
Toshio smiled and nodded. "That's right, it's on the wrong side of the body. It's rare, but Masao here was born with his heart on the right, rather than the left." Toshio knelt in front of Masao, once Ritsuko had him restrained. As a nurse, this had been part of her job for unruly patients or elderly ones who had to be lifted and moved about. "I should have left you in that state of suspended animation until I got you back here," he grumbled, "That's twice tonight you've tried to bite me." He forced the first flask to Masao's lips and turned it up, forcing the thick red liquid down the wounded Vampire's throat. Megumi gave a tiny gasp and watched wide eyed as Masao's chest wound healed, just as hers had. Once the first flask was empty, he quickly repeated the treatment with the second.
"He gets two?" Tohru asked. Toshio had only been giving Tohru and Ritsuko one a night.
"He and Megumi have been lying on the body pile, staked in the chest and starved for three nights now, I'm not taking my chances of having hungry wounded Vampires around," Toshio said.
"V-Vampires...?" Megumi asked.
Tohru's arms fell limp at his side as he turned to face his pink haired murderess. "You really DON'T remember anything do you?" he asked. Megumi blinked at him and shook her head innocently. "Aoi and Tamotsu are dead, and Megumi doesn't remember," Tohru thought, slowly walking into a dark corner of the room, trying to hide the tears that started running down his cheeks. "Natsuno, I'm so sorry... You died in vain, and it was all my fault!"
Masao swallowed the last of the blood from the second vial and regained his senses, shaking his head, he looked around. "What? Where am I? Nurse Kunihiro...?" Masoa glanced away from the nurse, toward the doctor and shrieked. "D-DOCTOR OZAKI!?" He scrambled away, on all fours, like a spider and Megumis stifled a scream with her hands. Seeing him move like that was horrifying to her. "Don't kill me, Doctor, don't kill me."
"I'm NOT going to kill you, Masao," Dr. Ozaki said, "I just saved your sorry hide."
"Should have left them both for the sun," Tohru scoffed.
"TOHRU!" Ritsuko exclaimed in disappointment.
The blond shook his head, sinking to his knees, his arms wrapped around himself, and his back still turned to the others. "Should have left me, too."
Toshio turned his eyes to the grieving blond. He already knew Tohru would be one of his more interesting specimens. "Just what ARE you planning to do with us, Doctor?" Ritsuko asked.
"Ritsu, when Kyouko rose, I conducted several experiments to try and learn how your kind works. How you feed, how you heal, how to kill your kind. My work was in the name of science, but I was hurried to put a stop to the Kirishiki family before they turned the whole town, so I still had much to learn about you before I ended her. Here, I am fortunate enough to have not one, but four specimens, two of each gender, no less. Each with some sort of unique condition. Kyouko was freshly risen, hadn't eaten, didn't know what was going on. You were once a nurse, and yet you haven't bitten anyone since you rose. Masao has Dextrocardia. Megumi has lost her memories of everything she's done up until this point, and Tohru..." The blonde flinched.
Ritsuko sighed, "He's sensitive...?"
Toshio smirked. "You could say that."
"What if we refuse?" Tohru asked, "What if we don't agree to partake in your experiments?"
"I'm not giving any of you the option," Toshio answered. He waited for the resounding, 'Huh' that he knew was coming, then continued, "I know how to kill each and every one of you, if it comes to that," he reminded them, "I'm the reason you're the last remaining members of your kind still living here in, too. If any of you leave this building, you put yourself at risk of being discovered by the remaining villagers. They don't care about the sciences behind it, they will kill you on site. As long as you're down here, I'll leave you all untied, and keep you all fed using a good faith system. I will have to restrain you during the experiments, of course, but that's for safety measures."
"What do you intend to do with this research, Doctor?" Ritsuko asked.
"I can either use it to expose your kind to the world and teach people how to defend themselves from the rest of you. Or, I could use it to help your kind learn how to live amongst humans without attacking them, preventing another incident like what happened here,"the doctor reasoned.
"Well, if those are your reasons, I will submit to any of your experiments," Ritsuko promised.
"I'd rather not put you through any of them, Ritsu," Toshio said. He could feel the red glowing orbs in Tohru's eyes lock on him as he said this, but he ignored the blond and gently took the nurse's wrist in his hand. "You're a nurse, first and foremost, I could use an assistant."
Ritsuko frowned at Toshio and pulled her hand away from his. Her black eyes were full of disappointment. Perhaps, if he'd come to her when she was alive, she could have been naive enough to agree. If she hadn't realized her feelings for Tohru after she convinced him to release Yasuyo, maybe she would still hold those hidden feelings she'd once thought she had for her former boss. But now, she was a Shiki, an undead creature who needed blood to live, and yet, she was more human than the human standing before her. She shook her head. "NO," she refused, "I will submit to your experiments, but I will NOT conduct them with you on the others against their will."
Toshio closed his eyes and sighed. "So be it. Just remember, I gave you the chance." He turned to head upstairs. "I'm not through setting up upstairs. I know you can't enter an occupied building without being invited, but I don't know if it works for each individual room as well. Just in case it does work that way, though, THIS is the only room any of you are allowed in without me taking you there first, and your invitations into those rooms will only exist until I return you to the basement, until the next time I call for you."
"You can't keep us here like animals!" Tohru protested. Unfortunately for them, it did work that way.
"Why not? You're all legally dead. With the exception of Ritsuko, I've personally written the death certificate for every one of you." He smiled smugly at the blond. "You're my first subject, Tohru, you and Megumi have been dead the longest. We start tomorrow night." With that, he shut and locked the basement door.
Megumi sobbed, burying her head in her hands. "I don't understand any of this!"
"Hey, Megumi," Masao said, walking up and placing his cold hands on her shoulders, "Come now, don't cry."
Megumi shook Masao off and stepped away. Her eyes weren't full of the usual disgust and resentment she'd always met him with, but fear of the unfamiliar. "Megumi?" Masao reached out for her and she backed away further.
"She's lost her memory, Masao," Tohru said, "Haven't you been paying attention?"
"Tohru..." Ritsuko wrapped her arms worriedly around the blond. She could understand his frustrations, everything he'd been forced to do under Tatsumi's orders had been in vain. His best friend was lost to him. His brother and sister both dead, after the promise they would be spared, and now, the girl who'd killed him the first time stood before him, unable to even remember her own name.
"Lost... her memory...?" Masao mumbled a loud, staring blankly at the quiet, frightened pink haired girl. A smile swept across his face. "Now's my perfect chance!" he thought, licking his lips. "Megumi, don't pull away," he said, pushing closer to her, pinning her to the wall between his arms. "It's me, Masao," he said, softly, "Your boyfriend, remember?" Megumi's eyes widened and looked him over. She couldn't remember anything, but she honestly didn't think HE was her type. In fact, if she had to choose between the two, she'd prefer the blond. Masao leaned in for a kiss.
"No!" she squeaked, closing her eyes and turning her head away, one of her long fluffy pink pony tails swatting him in the face.
"Knock it off, Masao!" Tohru scolded, pushing between the two of them and punching the younger male. He was older, both in human years, and as an Okiagari, meaning he was stronger and faster.
"Tohru!?" Ritsuko gasped.
The blond wasn't acting like himself. His own mind was in a mental wreck. He wanted his friend back, his brother and sister back, his life and family back. He wasn't in the mood to deal with this skinny little freak's antics. Masao had been a fake friend for years, and Tohru knew it, but had always been too kind of a soul to break off the friendship when they were alive. Tohru wasn't aware of Masao's actions at his funeral, but had he been, he'd be even angrier at the seventeen year old. What had been the straw to break the camel's back was that Masao had taken sheer delight in the knowledge that Natsuno had been carried away to be cremated, and cheered Tohru on when learning Tohru was the one to bite Natsuno, rather than ask Tohru how he was handling the whole affair. As Tohru scanned his new cell mates, he frowned. "I'm the only one down here even feeling a shred of guilt, aren't I?" he scoffed, walking away. Tohru slumped into a corner and buried his face into his knees.
Megumi quietly watched the blond cross the room. She skirted her way around the older teenager who was still holding his nose where the blond had struck him, and walked over to Tohru. "Um..." she said quietly. Tohru flinched. He didn't really want to look at her. She had sired him, she had taken his life out of bitter jealousy over his best friend, the friend he'd been forced to kill, and now she didn't remember any of it. It just didn't seem fair to him that he was the only one left to bare that burden. She shifted timidly, not understanding why he was behaving like he was. "Thank you," she said quietly, before turning and going to another corner of the room.
Toshio left the abandoned clinic. His new subjects would be safe hidden down there. As long as his clinic in Sotoba still stood, there was very little risk of the villagers trying to pillage the abandoned, run down clinic here in Mizobe. He made his way back to Sotoba, there were still a few small supplies and equipment that he needed before he was ready to conduct his experiments. On his way, he passed by the pit that had been intended to become a mass grave for Shiki and human alike. He recalled the two Jinrou that had fought to the death out there, and the explosion.
"It's a shame I can't get one of them to run test o-n..." he thought out loud. He stopped his vehicle and jumped out, running to the pit. "Is it even possible? They're stronger and faster than their sires, and the only rule that they share with the Shiki is that they have to be invited in. These day walkers can go out in the sunlight, aren't deterred by religious artifacts, can eat human food without the need of human blood, and can even kill the Shiki. Is it even possible one of them survived?"
Toshio pulled a shovel out of the back of his vehicle and began to dig through the debris in the pit. Half way down, he found the bodies of the two Jinrou. Natsuno, the violet haired fifteen year old, and Tatsumi the older green haired male that had served the Shiki leader. He drug both of their bodies out of the rubble and took them back to his clinic in Sotoba. If they were still alive, he'd find out when he got them there.
The humans were all hidden away. Toshio was the only one brave enough to venture outside in the middle of the night any more. He drug both of the Jinrou into the clinic and strapped them both down. He checked them over, to see which, if either, had survived the explosion. Tatsumi would be dangerous to let loose, of this, he was certain, but if the older Jinrou had survived and the younger had not, he would still keep the green haired male as a test subject.
Toshio smiled as he checked over each Jinrou. "I believe I've found my Subject X," he chuckled.