A Well Deserved Fate
Author's Note: I'd just like to start off by saying Nao is my favorite character in the entire Shiki anime, and I do really feel sorry for her, but I also feel she did deserve to die and rot in Hell. Naturally, since I'm such a freaking psychopath, I decided to make a story of her well-deserved punishments. If you walked in here, hoping this would be a story where everything goes alright for Nao, then maybe you should just do yourself a favor and leave, because this is not one of those.
Disclaimer: For those of you who don't know damn well, I do not own Shiki, nor do I own any of its characters. They all belong to... uh... whoever made this anime.
BEGIN!
The first thing she realized: she could barely see...
As the blue-haired woman began regaining her consciousness, the first thing she wanted to do was to look around, to see where she was, but wherever she was, it was so dark that she could barely see 2 feet ahead of her. She then began to become aware of the chilling cold that polluted the air. It was only cold enough to make her shiver slightly, but there was something eerie about it, something... frightening.
Then it was only a matter of time before her body registered the feeling of the ground she laid on. It had the craginess and roughness of uncut stones, but at the same time it had the frigidness of a chunk of metal left in a -63 degrees Farenheit freezer for a couple of days. The cold icy feeling that the ground emitted was so unbearably cold, she could feel it through her shoes. She didn't want to feel it anymore, and got up, but became quickly disappointed when she still felt the bottom of her feet freezing up.
The woman put her hand close to her face to see it, and began to think aloud, "Where am I?... Who... who am I?..." She couldn't remember anything; not who she was, not what she did, not even how she got to where she was. That was the first thing on her mind, she had to find out where she was. Though barely able to see anything, she was able to see that around her were cold walls of stone all around her, yet there was a narrow pass in the center that led forward. She naturally went to the small opening, and attempted to squeeze through.
It was easy enough, the only trouble she had was her right thigh got stuck. After several minutes of pulling and tugging at it, she was able to free her right leg, and soon figured out the path was wider than the opening suggested. She could now walk that path without any problems, but something felt off to her... she felt like she didn't want to go that way. After minutes of thought, she turned around to go back, only to find that the narrow opening was completely closed.
She had nowhere to go but forward, but there was some mysterious force that kept her too scared to go that way. She didn't know why she bothered, since she knew she was the only person in that room that she left, but nevertheless, she began to pound on the wall where the entrance to the pass once was, and desperately calling for help. "Someone! Anyone! Help me, please!" It was a noteworthy attempt, and yet futile. Nobody came to help her; she was completely alone.
Having no choice and fearing what could await her, she sat against the wall, buried her face in her knees as she hugged them closer to her body, and began to sob out of fear. She wanted ton know what was going on, but she didn't want to find out by going that way. She had to let out these emotions of hers...
After a good 10 minutes of crying, she had let out enough of her emotions to be able to muster enough courage to keep moving forward. She got up, and took her first step, everything seemed to be fine. She took the second step, and yet nothing happened. She began to think that maybe the feeling of fear was all in her head, and took her third step.
"It's me! Nao!" The sudden loud noise she heard in her head made her stop and look around hastily. Her heart was pounding against her chest and she began to feel a bit queasy. The big thing to add to her terror was that that was her own voice, which only made it the more nauseating. The voice soon came again, "Sadafumi! It's me, Nao!"
"...N...Nao... that's my name?" she thought aloud to herself again. She brought her hands to her face and examined them once again in thought. "Nao... Nao... Nao Yasumori... that's my name..." She remembered her identity, but that was it. Something about her own name sent a chill down her spine. She felt like that was a name she didn't want to remember. Why was she so afraid of this place?
Fearing that she may hear that voice again, she slowly inched her way to another step, praying that nothing would happen again. Thankfully, nothing did. With that thought in mind, and the prayer that nothing else would happen, she began to slowly walk forward, looking to and fro for some kind of exit. She only stopped when she felt her foot submerge and hear a faint splashing sound. Alerted, she looked down and saw a deep purple puddle, so dark that it blended in flawlessly with the rest of the pitch-black enviroment.
She looked down at the puddle, and almost gasped. Despite her being able to barely see anything in front of her, she could see the reflection of her the puddle gave off almost too well. What it depicted was a grotesque image of the woman, with maggots and scarabs crawling all over her torn face and digging into it, causing hundreds of holes to from in the flesh as they continued to burrow their way in there. She immediately screamed and covered her eyes and waited for a few seconds before uncovering them and looking again.
When she looked back, however, her reflection was completely different, and was perfectly intact. Though she still made note of the pale white skin and the red eyes she had. Despite her knowing very little about what was happening, she still contained the memories of what a normal human was supposed to look like, and the reflection just didn't quite meet all the criteria. She blinked a few more times, to make sure this reflection was going to stay, and sure enough, it did. "Sh... shiki?" she said as she began to remember that word in her head. She was unaware of what that word even meant, but she put it together that she remembered the word when she was thinking she wasn't human.
"...So, my name is Nao Yasumori, and I'm a shiki..." Still none of that explained what she was doing in that place, nor how she got there. After several fruitless attempts to push the walls to her sides away so that she could go around, Nao decided the only way to go on was to walk through the puddle.
She took a step in it again, and her foot fully submerged in the dark fluid. She for whatever reason decided to look down back at the fluid, and saw standing right beside her reflection, 4 figures that looked vaguely familiar. The first figure was a young boy, probably no older than 6, with a pair of shorts and sleeveless shirt, along with brown hair and the cutest dull grey eyes. Another was a man, a bit taller than Nao, wearing a yellow button-up shirt and a pair of khakis. His hair and eye color were the same as the boy's, and he most likely was in his early 30s. The third was a woman with brown hair just like the man and the boy, only she had yellow eyes, and she looked about in her 50s. The final figure was a man in his 50s as well, with hair only slightly darker than the others and brown eyes. Somehow, these figures both comforted and terrified Nao, and made her feel a very strong sense of regret.
She looked above, behind, and all around her, but she couldn't see the figures except for when she looked back down at the watery substance where their reflections remained. She didn't want them to go away, she wanted them to stay and be with her. Then the boy raised his left hand, and held it out as if he was pushing it against a wall of glass. This action made Nao tear up, letting her tears fall into the puddle, slightly rippling it and distorting the image for a fraction of a second. With tears still flowing from her eyes, she slowly stretched her right hand while kneeling down a bit, letting her hand rest on the water as if to touch the boy's hand. This made a ripple that made all the other figures disappear, and she was all alone once again.
"Come back... help me..." she whispered quietly. But they didn't come back... they were gone... it made Nao sad. She didn't want to be alone, not in such a place like this. Despite all of this, she stood back up, and took another step, only to realize this time, instead of just her foot, up to her knee was submerged in the dark 'water'. She soon came to the conclusion that it's not a puddle, and whatever it was, it was going to get deeper as she went along. So she continued forward, going deeper into the pool until the pool was up to her upper belly.
Then there was a somewhat of a sighing sound emitted from somewhere. She looked around again, trying to determine where the sound had come from, but couldn't find anything. Without any warning, however, a dark purple figure with eyes just like hers suddenly emerged from the fluid right behind her, and bit her in the jugular. To this Nao screamed in a great deal of pain, and began an attempt to push the man's head away. She pushed as hard as she could, but the fangs of the figure held firmly onto her neck, and wouldn't release her as easily as she would have hoped. After many attempts of pushing and screaming, she ripped the man's face away, with a cost of some of the flesh from her shoulder, in which she agonized over. The figure then just disappeared, leaving Nao nothing but a bleeding, injured shoulder.
Nao quickly looked at her shoulder, and began to think of ways she could try to stop the bleeding. She was thinking of either taking off her shirt and using it as a blockage or just keeping her hand on it, praying she could apply enough pressure to make it stop. While all these thoughts were racing on, she barely noticed that her wounded shoulder was starting to heal by itself. Within a couple of minutes, her shoulder was perfectly unharmed, as if nothing had happened.
Nao was completely speechless at the sight, and began to wonder how such a thing could just miraculously happen. Though she quickly decided it would be best if she had hurried on, lest another one of those things show up and bite something else of hers.
She began to wade her way through the pool, which seemed to not be going any deeper than what she currently was. She then heard that voice again speaking her head. "I finally realize it's not that I wanted to bring them to this side... I wanted to go back..." Was this really stuff she said at one point in time? Every single thing that was happening in this place made her feel ever so frightened. What did she mean by bringing them to a side? Did it have anything to do with those 4 figures she saw, and if it did, why did she want to go back?
All these questions were beginning to trouble her, and she was considering turning around and running away. "But I can't... not there... never there... never with them..."
"Why is this happening to me?" she said after the voice had finished. She supposed the voice was telling her it would be useless to try going backwards, but she wanted it all to go away. Despite all of this, she kept moving forward, being hopeful that nothing else would happen; she couldn't take anymore.
She pressed on, becoming more fearful of the place as she continued on to the point where she was so frightened, she hadn't noticed the bone-freezing cold in the liquid until she was shivering, wrapping her arms around her body as her teeth chattered like a machine gun. "I wish something could come and mercy me from this cold..."
The word mercy struck the next event, as she closed her eyes and had a vision, in which a blonde man stabbed her legs with a sharpened metal rod. "Sadafumi! It's me, Nao!" she screamed. The man only growled in anger and continued to bleed her leg. "It's me! Nao! Please let me go! Please! Don't hurt me!"
"I know who you are. I know what you've done!" the man, known to her as Sadafumi said, letting her know what he really was thinking. "Mikiyasu was my friend! He and my father were the only ones that actually cared about what happened to me, and what happened, eh? Tell me, what did Susumu say before he died?! Did you even give him a chance to think about what was going on?!"
Nao began to weep in shame and regret, feeling sorry for the pain she caused Sadafumi. "Sadafumi! Please forgive me, I'm sorry! I know that I did something terrible, something unforgivable, but please! Please spare me!" Despite her begging and her crying, Sadafumi unrepentantly tied her legs together with the rope he held in his hand. "Please, let me go! Let me go!" Sadafumi began to drag Nao away. She made one more attempt to pull herself closer to Sasaki and away from Sadafumi, but Sadafumi made one hard yank at her, and let her claws tear at the flesh of Sasaki's posterior. "Help me Mr. Sasaki!" she cried as she was being dragged away.
Nao quickly opened her eyes, and stood there in the body of water, breathing harder than she ever had from what she saw in the flashback. If that happened to her wherever she was at that place, who knows what they could do to her now? "No, no no no no no! I can't do this!" she said with tears flowing down her eyes, and shaking from both the cold of the liquid and the fear of what awaited her. "I can't keep going! I don't want to get hurt!" She turned around quickly to get back to the other side, but stopped dead in her tracks when she looked behind her.
There, right behind her, staring at her dead in the eyes, was a cloaked skeletal figure, somewhat like the ghost of Christmas Future in A Christmas Carol. It had fiery red eyes that could set a damp log to flames, and it was no less than 10 feet tall. Nao was quite afraid of it, but deciding to break the second long silence, she began to plead with the figure. "I... I'm lost... I'm so cold... so lonely... help me."
The figure raised his hand up slowly, and pointed his hand, which was nothing more than bloody bones with some torn tissue and muscle, forward. Nao became frightened of this, and began to plead again. "No... no! Not that way! Please don't make me go there!" The burning eyes continued to stare at her blankly, but there was a menacing, almost claustrophobic atmosphere introduced in the air, but Nao went on anyway. "I'll do anything you want! I'll go absolutely anywhere else, just don't make me go there! I'll do anything!"
Then something happened that Nao didn't intend. The figure's eyes began to glow dangerously bright, and there were sounds of screaming and whaling that seemed to have been emitting from the figures body. It wasn't like in the horror movies where you'd suddenly hear a loud scream or cry of pain from another room, the screams and cries were all around her. There was no way to escape them. This was obviously the figures way of showing Nao its great loathing for someone who doesn't do whatever it wants, and it intimidated her to say the least. She wanted to get away from the being, but quickly felt a sharp cold pain burning her stomach. When she looked down, she realized that the entire body of liquid was frozen solid. She looked back at the eyes of the spirit and became increasingly frightened as the sounds of wailing and screaming became louder.
Fear coursing through her soul, she looked away from his eyes, lest she be paralyzed by their glare. She looked down to the frigid ice, and began to push down on it in a desperate attempt to pull herself free. It seemed that the more she struggled against the specter's will, the more the ice burned her skin, and the louder the spine chattering cries became. She knew that struggling would only make things worse, but due to her natural instinct, she continued to attempt an escape from this nightmare. It eventually got to the point where she could feel the sharp edges of the ice surrounding her just waiting to pierce her skin. "Stop! Please no!" she cried out, folding her hands together to beg for forgiveness. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
This time, however, the specter seemed to have granted Nao her wish, and vanished instantly. Prior to that, the ice once again melted to its original frigid form, and she was able to move again. Fearfully hoping she wouldn't see it again, Nao hastily turned around and began heading forward again, picking up the original pace. She was willing to do anything and go anywhere so long as the torture she's enduring would stop. It didn't matter any longer where she would go or how she would get there, just as long as there would be a way to get out of that wretched place.
After several minutes of exhaustedly making her way through the purple fluid, she finally made it to the other side, and stepped foot on the dry rocks. The ground here was colder than the ground she came from, but it was still a bit warmer than the dark liquid she had to travel through. It was a relief that she was able to take foot on solid ground again, and hesitated before continuing onward.
Despite having nowhere else to go, with every step she took, her fear of the place was gradually but surely increased. Her heart seemed to have become a little more faint with every step she took. There wasn't a single thing about that God forsaken place that wouldn't make the toughest of men cry for their mommies. It wasn't much of what was in the place that made it scary, there weren't any skeletons or severed body parts, or any of that stuff you would see in a modern horror movie, but moreover it was the place itself. It had an eerie presence that no amount of worldly fear could possibly comprehend.
She didn't know how long she had been walking, but she knew that it was long enough that she eventually had to stop and take a breather. The place was so long, it seemed like the path would never end, and that it would just go on forever. "What... what did I ever do... to deserve this?" she asked as she looked down to the ground as she continued to breathe heavily. She was going to rest for at least a good 10 minutes before she would be prepared to continue, but that changed quickly.
When she looked back up, her heart skipped a beat when she saw that the specter that she had seen back in the pool of purple liquid had returned, and was floating right in front of her. The minute she saw it, she was turning around to run away, but she was shocked to see that there was another one, exactly like the first, floating to her left. She turned the other way, and saw that a third one was to her right, and she turned one more time, knowing that she would see a fourth one right behind her. They stared at her with those same red eyes, and said or did absolutely nothing. "W-w-w-what d-do you want from m-m-me?" Nao questioned through fearful stutters.
Then, from what appeared to be their cloaks, all 4 of them grabbed something that looked to be some sort of small computer screen, and each of them held it out towards Nao. Then, all 4 of their eyes glowed just like the one before them, and the screens turned on, and showed some events that Nao was involved with. First, the one in front of her showed her what looked like her standing near a bed, and the boy that she saw in the reflection sleeping. The boy opened his eyes, and just stared at her. "...Mommy..." he whispered silently. Nao just stared at the screen in disbelief. That boy she's seeing, that was her son?
Then in the screen, it showed her opening her mouth, revealing a pair of razor-like fangs, and she moved for the boy's arm. Nao opened her eyes widely as she saw what she was about to do. "NO!" she screamed, but it was too late, the screen showed her biting her own son's arm, and sucking his blood. It was a terrible sight for Nao to endure; figuring out that the boy she saw in the pool of purple fluid was her own son, and watching her kill him right in front of her own eyes. She turned and looked away, but that did no good, for the specter to the left of her then showed her doing the exact same thing to the young man, except instead of biting his arm like the boy's, she went and bit him right in the jugular, and also sucked his blood. Nao turned her head to the right, only to see the third one show her a clip of her hugging the woman she saw in the liquid right before biting her and sucking her blood. Finally, she turned to look behind her, and she saw her finally killing the older man.
She had asked what she had done to deserve being this afraid of such a place, and they granted her wish and showed her what she had done. Fearfully, she tried to make a run for it, and was able to move between the specter on her right and the one in front of her. She didn't look back to notice that the specter's weren't pursuing her at all, she didn't want to, all she wanted to do was keep running. As she ran, she had yet another vision. This time, she was standing in front of a 2-story house at night, somewhere between 8:30-8:45. She raised her hand up to knock on the door, and began to hesitate a bit. She had already killed the rest of her family, and none of them had risen... maybe she should just let her be... "No... it's too unfair..." she whispered to herself, and knocked on the door.
There was silence at first, not a sound came from inside the house. Nao was raising her hand to knock again, but then she heard a familiar voice call out from inside, "Just a minute please."
Nao waited for 2 minutes, which didn't surprise her, since she knew how bad with time she was. Finally the door was opened by a woman with brown hair, and eyes just like Nao. The minute she laid eyes on Nao, she froze up. "Hello... Miyuki... I'm back." Nao said coldly, her eyes their usual shiki black and red.
The woman only stood their, her hands starting to shake and her eyes starting to well up with tears. "Nao..." As Nao was getting ready to say something, the woman took a swift step forward and embraced her, crying on her shoulder. "Oh Nao, thank God you're alive! I was at your funeral! I thought you were dead forever!" She just continued to sob and hug Nao like the end of the world was coming.
"Yes... thank God... hey, sister, do you mind if I come in, maybe for just a couple minutes?" Nao said quietly. How could she possibly thank God if she let this terrible thing happen to her? Why give any thanks to a God that let her die, rise up, and kill her entire family to let her be alone forever?
Miyuki finally let go of Nao, and replied with tears and a joyful smile on her face. "Of course you can Nao. You're more than welcome to stay for as long as you like." Nao walked in with her and took a bit of time to look around at how the house was decorated. It was definitely different then what she remembered the last time she was there... then it hit her that she didn't remember the last time she visited her sister. "Oh, hey, I just wanted you to know that I'm so sorry."
"...For what?" Nao replied coldly, staring at a picture of the 2 of them when they were still younger. Despite her mother and father being nothing but a bunch of careless drunkards who thought she could go die for all they cared, her sister was a caring individual, and tried as hard as she could to get Nao through all those hardships when they were kids. Had it not been for her, Nao probably would have killed herself a long time ago, and would have never met Mikiyasu, or her in-laws, and she would have never made Susumu... then again, maybe if she was dead, she wouldn't have to deal with this pain...
"About how all of this stuff happened to you... about how you died, along with your husband and son... they were good people, and I know you really loved them a lot..." Nao just stood there, pretending like she didn't hear a single thing she said, but even when she tried her hardest, her tears fell on the wooden counter. From in the kitchen, her Miyuki heard her sniveling, and went to check on her. "Oh, Nao, I'm sorry if I said anything that hurt you. Are you ok?"
"Shut up..." Nao whispered quietly.
"Nao, do you need me to get you anything? If you need to talk about it, I can-"
"Shut the fuck up!" Nao suddenly screamed. Her sister was taken by surprise by this, since she knew her sister well enough to know that she never cursed before. "You don't know what it's like, do you?! I died and came back, but when my loved ones died, they stayed dead! You don't know what it's like to have nobody else in your life... just shut your fucking mouth!" She fell to her knees and began to sob out of regret. How was she possibly going to tell her sister that she was the entire cause that her entire family was dead? She didn't even have the guts to kill her sister, just like she killed the rest of her family,
Nao looked up with tearful eyes as her sister walked up to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Nao... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings... and you're right, I don't know what you're going through..."
"...Miyuki..." she rose to her feet and hugged her sister. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap like that at you... you've always tried to help me when we were younger, and... I guess I've never fully appreciated having such a wonderful sister like you until you became the only one I have left... I love you..." Then she began to think to herself. "If I bite her, how will I know she'll come back? The rest of my family died and didn't come back, there's no way I could... no... I have to try. Once she finds out what I really am, she'll hate me for sure... unless she becomes one too."
They held each other for quite some time, not caring about anything else in the world. The clock made a ringing sound, ringing exactly 9 times, letting the 2 of them know it was 9 P.M. Nao released her sister, and she made an offer to Nao. "Well, I bet you're hungry right now. I haven't eaten supper yet, do you want me to go whip something up for the 2 of us? Maybe some stir-fry or maybe fish n' chips?"
"Sis... you know me so well... yes, I think a bit of stir-fry might do me good..." she said. She didn't exactly know why she had to have her sister bother in making that for her, since she as a shiki would be unable to eat it without getting terribly sick.
Her sister remained completely ignorant of what was really going on. "Sure, no prob." She was too happy to see her again.
Maybe... maybe she would just let her live with her and protect her if she just asked... maybe... "No... I can't ask her to cut herself for me... she wouldn't understand... I'm so sorry sister... you'll come back to me... please come back."
For 30 minutes she sat in the chair next to her sister's kitchen table, trying to think to herself as she was falling in love with the scent of the wonderful food her sister was making for her. The hypnotizing smell filled her nostrils with that sense of nostalgia of back before she had even been married. Whenever she was having a problem with what was going on, whether someone in the village was really bothering her or she just needed help with how she was feeling, she could always turn to her sister, who made probably the best food within a 150 mile radius. It was Miyuki that gave her the courage to finally ask Mikiyasu out, and while Mikiyasu couldn't get out of work when she was pregnant with Susumu, she volunteered to watch after her until he came back. She was always there for her when she had nobody else to turn to, and she was going to betray her. There's no way in Heaven or Hell that she could possibly forgive her.
Her sister finally brought her a plate piled high with beef stir-fry over a generous portion of fried rice. "There you go sis. Stir-fry just how I remember you liking it: beef with all the vegetables cooked just right with extra stir-fry sauce served with a bed of fried-" She stopped just for a couple of seconds when she noticed Nao silently crying. "...rice... hey sis, you ok?... I know you're probably getting annoyed at me now, but..." Somehow, she got the feeling just by looking at Nao that something wasn't quite right.
"...How about I go get my plate, and we'll sit down and talk then?" she said as she walked back over to the stove. She had gotten herself a plate, and was just about ready to put some rice on it, when from behind her she felt her sister embrace her. "Nao, what are you doing?"
"Sister... please forgive me... I rose and became one of the shiki... the only way I can survive is if I drink the blood of a human... the only way I can survive is by... killing you..."
These words cut through Miyuki like a knife. "...Nao... you're... you must be joking... you couldn't..."
Nao only buried her fave deeper into her sister's back as her voice was beginning to break up. "I'm the one who did it. I killed Mikiyasu... I killed my parents-in-law... I even killed little Susumu... I though they would rise just like me... but, maybe if I kill you and you rise..."
Through all this, Nao could feel her sister quiver in fear. "N-N-Nao, please. I'm sorry if I did something that hurt you, I didn't mean to... you don't have to kill me. We can find a way to coexist, can't we?"
"No... I made myself known to them... if they find out that I'm with you, they'll kill me... I'm doing this so I can live... can you understand?" Having no more words, Nao bit the neck of her sister, and began drinking her blood. To a shiki, the flesh of a human and their blood had some kind of taste to them that made it tolerable, but that taste seemed to have merged with the tears she was crying, and she could barely stomach it.
"...No sis... I can never understand... because... I could never do the same thing to you..." As Nao heard these words and continued to suck her blood, she was feeling incredibly guilty over what she was doing. It was even harder on her when Miyuki reached her left arm up and touched Nao's cheek, as if hugging her. "Nao... no matter what we are, even if I am a human an you're one of these corpse demons... even if it means I have to forgive you doing something as terrible as this... I... I will always love you, and... I do... forgive you..." These were the last words she said before she fell to the ground, and breathed her last.
Nao had just killed the last member of her family, and all she could do was wait, and pray that she rose. "...Dear sister..." she looked over back at the table, and noticed that her food was still there, and it was probably still warm. "...I can't even eat it... but I'll... I'll try for you sis..." she walked over, sat down, and took a spoonful of the stir-fry, and put it in her mouth to chew. She was practically put to tears just by the mere taste of it, it was probably one of the best things she had ever tasted in thus life of hers and the last one. Her sister could almost make all of a king's royal chefs look like a bunch of trainees.
She was moving her spoon over to take a second bite, but then she felt this horrible feeling in her stomach, just as she had predicted. Her body was trying to get rid of what she just consumed, but in spite of this, Nao put her hand over her mouth, to keep from vomiting out out what she had just eaten. "If you really are watching over me... please, just this once, let me do this for my sister... please..." she silently prayed.
Then somehow, miraculously, the sick feeling in her stomach suddenly just disappeared, and she was able to eat the entire plate no problem. When she looked at the time, she noticed that it was already 10:43 P.M, and she had important stuff to do before the night was over. Even so, she made a little time to walk to her sister, kneel beside her, kiss her on the forehead, and tell her these words: "I love you..."
Nao was suddenly taken out of that flashback because of tripping over something. She hit the ground fairly hard, hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She stayed on the ground for a couple of minutes to think about everything she just saw. What she saw in the vision, what those specters showed her... she had no shadow of a doubt that none of it was a lie, and knew that everything she had seen was truth.
When she looked back up, the path only continued, but when she looked to the left of her, there was some sort of wall of glass, unevenly divided into 5 parts. She walked over to them and observed the 5 parts for a minute; they seemed to have acted like mirrors, showing her own reflection to her. Then, after several seconds of looking, she was taken aback at what she saw next.
In each of her reflections, which mirrored her perfectly, there was a different person standing by her. In the first section, the young man in the pool, which she had identified as Mikiyasu, was standing to the left of her, with his arms around her in an embrace. In the second, the little boy, Susumu, sae in front of her, slightly turned and holding onto her pants as if afraid of something and hiding by her. In the third and the fourth, she saw the old man and old woman, her in-laws, with their hand on one of her shoulders, standing on either side of her. And in the final one, she saw her sister behind her, with 2 arms around her waist as if in a hug.
"Mikiyasu... Susumu... Tokujirou... Setsuko... Miyuki... everyone... I'm so, so sorry..."
This triggered the voice she heard yet again, basically repeating what she had just said, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."
She continued walking, her legs now overwhelmed with the feeling of soreness. How long had she been walking this nightmare of a trail? Days?... Months?... Maybe even years?... She didn't know... time didn't mean anything to her now. She felt a huge feeling of loneliness as she moved further on, until...
She walked into some kind of circular shaped room... completely void of all light... somehow it felt like it was the most terrifying of them all...
She was ready to go back. She wasn't ready to be here yet. She turned around and began to walk away.
There was a thud when she came in contact with the wall that was now where the pathway once was. She was now trapped in that one room. "...No... No no no no!" she said as she started pounding on the wall with her fist. "I can't be trapped in here! Someone, help!" She tried for 5 minutes to call for help, but nobody ever came. She leaned her head against her arm as she rested it on the wall and began to sob. "Why is this happening to me?! I don't care if I deserve this! I don't care whether there's no way I can avoid this! I... I... I just want to go home!"
Then, as Nao continued to cry, she had one more vision. One of her tied by the legs and the hands, preventing her from escaping the sun's light as it burned her skin. She screamed in pain as she was being burned as all the other shiki that were caught with her. It was happening for a few good minutes, until there was silence, except for a few footsteps coming her way, and her looking to the ground, whimpering and sniveling, until she looked up to see Hasegawa standing there with the pointed metal rod, looking at her. She just looked at him and gave him a smile, right before he raised his arms up high, and stabbed her in the chest, immediately slaying her...
She opened her eyes, and stopped crying with a bit of a jump. That was a vision she had never dreamed of seeing, and it gave her a shocking revelation. "...Did... did I..." she looked at her cold, pale hands as they were beginning to quiver.
"...die?..."
Then, all of a sudden, there was a sinister laughter that came from the front of the room. She turned around the minute she heard the voice, shocked that she wasn't the only one there. Then, what seemed like black ivory torches, jeweled with the most glamorous gems you could possibly imagine, lit up with purple flames, providing more light in the room. There, sitting on a throne made with what appeared to be thorn bushes, was a rather tall and handsome man, maybe 6'7", with a black cloak, and eyes that were completely void of all emotions. "Who... who... who are you?" Nao asked frightened.
The man gave yet another horrifying laugh, and responded in a voice that was both gentle and calming though ominous and threatening at the same time. "Who, me? Why, you may call me Lucifer, if you please."
"I'm... I'm sorry, do... do we know each other?"
"Well, you don't really know me, but I know everything about you Nao Yasumori. I know that you've been lost in this place for quite some time, and have taken quite a bit of your sweet time to get here. You seemed to have taken longer than most... 'guests'."
She wasn't sure why, but there was something about that man that made her feel insignificant and alone, despite there being someone else being right there. "I-I-I'm sorry, there must have been some kind of mistake. I'm not supposed to be here, I just want to find my way home, so I can-"
"On the contrary, my dear, you're right where you're supposed to be." the man said. There was something in his voice, something... evil.
"But... where am I, and... my son, my husband, my sister, where are they?!" she yelled, becoming angry at the man. All the man could do was laugh and mock her. "Tell me NOW!"
The man laughed at her ignorance of what she was really in for. "You mean you don't know? Haven't you ever read the bible?" Nao stood there and shook her head. "I thought not. If you're really curious on where your family is, I, being the generous individual I am, will tell you." The man attempted to get up, but as he rose to a full standing position, the thorny vines that were on his throne reached out and wrapped around him, piercing his skin, not releasing him until he sat back down on the throne.
"Tsk. Very well then. Your family, Mikiyasu, Susumu, and your in-laws, are all in a better place. All of them have moved on... however, now that you mention it, there was one member of your family who is to join them, but has requested to talk to you one last time." With that said, and a grin that would make death itself freeze in fear, there were footsteps, and then, right beside Nao, her sister stood there, staring at Nao with an expression of sorrow and pity.
Nao stared at her with tears forming in her eyes. "S...s...sis...sister!" she exclaimed, running over and hugging her sister, sobbing on her. Her sister made no reaction except just hugging her back. "Oh sister, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I swear, I would do anything to go back and change it!"
"N...Nao... I... I wish I could... forgive you, but... it's too late... I'm heading off soon, to join your husband and child, and your in-laws."
Nao fell to her knees and looked at her sister's eyes with tears falling from her own. "Sister, wherever you're going to join my family, I'm begging you, please take me with you!" Her sister only looked away in sadness. "I promise, I'll be good, I won't kill anyone, I promise! Just, give me another chance! Please!"
"No Nao... I can't... I have no control over it... I'm afraid I have to leave you... forever..."
"Don't look so disappointed Nao. You'll have a new family, and a new home... would you like to meet them?" the man asked wickedly.
With a snap of his fingers, a hole in the ground appeared, and Nao could only hold her sister tight as she saw what was down there and heard it. There, in that pit, was an entire pool of seering hot flames, with millions of people in there that looked perfectly fine on the outside, and yet they were thrashing around and screaming and crying in agony. It must have been at least 2,000 miles under where they were, and yet the fire was so hot, the screaming so loud, and the sight so vivid, that she could see the sight, hear those cries, and even feel those flames from up there.
"There... there... there are so many people down there... all burning and suffering..." Nao said. She was beginning to think that she knew exactly what was going on from the very beginning, and just didn't want to accept it.
"And now... it's your turn." the man said, and Nao looked at him, more terrified than ever before, and holding her sister to her tighter, for she was the only sense of comfort she had, even if it was soon to be gone. "Nao Yasumori, you have been judged by the Creator, your Father, and found unworthy of the gift of eternal life."
Nao fully understood what was going to happen to her. "No. Please, no!"
"For the murder of your own family, for the selfishness that made you desire to make them suffer along with you, and most of all, for the betrayal of every single human being that ever placed any trust in you, you have been condemned to eternal punishments."
"No, this can't be! Please, you have to forgive me!"
"There is no forgiveness in Hell. You had whatever chances you were given on earth, and you blew them. It's now time for you to pay the price."
"Please Lucifer, have mercy! I'm really sorry for what I did! Please!"
Lucifer then showed the true nature of himself, and gave a terribly ugly grin to her. It far surpassed the length of any other natural grin, and gave an unholy sense of uselessness. "Ooh, I like that idea. That's the perfect title for you, Nao Yasumori." As he said these words, a bunch of burning souls suddenly came and grabbed Nao by the legs and began to drag her down. "Here lies Nao, the most remorseful soul in Hell!" With this, he began to laugh and taunt Nao once again as she was trying desperately to get away from the souls.
"No! Please no! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Miyuki, please help me! Please!" Her sister could only stare at her with a great deal of pity as they continued to drag her. Eventually they made it to the ledge, in which Nao, in one last desperate and futile attempt, grabbed onto the ledges and tried to pull herself up and away from the tortured souls.
She looked up, and behold, she saw them, her husband and her son in Paradise, looking down at her with a look of sadness as Susumu hugged his father's legs. "Mikiyasu, Susumu, please help me! I swear, I'll make it up to you! I just want to be with you and the others as a family again! That's all I ever wanted! Please don't let this happen! Please! I'm sorry I killed you! I'm sorry I betrayed the love you gave me! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Of course, it was only a matter of time... before her grasp slipped as the force of the souls became too much, and she began descending into the fiery pit.
At her descent to the bottom, she began to look back at life, and began to see something. She really didn't have to kill her family. If her leader, Sunako, could live with that monk, Seishin Muroi, then maybe she could have found a way to live with her family without them suffering the same way she had to. But now she understood, it was far too late. It was these thoughts in her mind that played on and on as she descended into the fires.
When she landed, she instantly joined in everybody else in their screaming and crying. The fire was so hot, it was like absolutely nothing she ever felt before. And then, just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, from the fires, she began to hear the voices of her family. She heard Mikiyasu, Susumu, her in-laws, and her sister's voice down in that inferno as they lashed out and cursed her.
"Ungrateful cur!"
"Worthless bitch!"
"It's your fault that we had to die!"
"We didn't need to be killed, and yet you killed us anyway, even though you claimed to have loved us!"
"Lying sow!"
"Disgraceful maggot!"
"Faithless whore!"
The worst part of all of it was hearing her loved ones, whom she still truly loved, say things like that to her. "I'm sorry!" she cried out as she fell on her knees and began slamming her fist into the ground. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"Don't think you can get us to stop just because you apologise!"
"You're getting what you deserve, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"Rot in that Hellhole where you belong you worthless pile of shit!"
All she could do was look up and shout out one more time, hoping that someone could here her. "Everyone! My family! Forgive me! Please!"
There is a small rumor going around by anyone who claims they've been to Hell that somewhere in there, deep within the fires, there is a certain blue-haired woman you could see, maybe about 25 years of age, kneeling with her face buried in the flames, sobbing, repeating these words: "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
Even to this day, as she continues to burn in these fires, and as her remorse always seems to double with each passing second, she now truly sees the worst part of this sentence was not at all the fires, or the insults, or the occasional whipping by a demon. The worst part of it all is the cold and merciless realization that she must live through whenever she begs her family for forgiveness.
"...I'll never be with my family again..."
Q: Out of all characters in the Shiki anime, my favorite is definitely Nao (pfft, yeah, I bet you're really convinced Nao's my favorite after me posting something like this). She killed her entire family in attempt to keep herself happy, so her intentions really weren't that bad. And then when it comes to the part where she has to beg for her life in episode 20.5 only to lose it anyway, I feel so sorry for her that it actually tears me. There are a few more shiki I do feel sorry for, like Sunako, Kyouko, Tohru, Ritsuko, and maybe another or 2 (I'm sorry, but after watching the shit she did, I'm not generous enough to put Megumi as one of them, even though I think she's an ok character), but I'm pretty sure that if any of them actually begged me to spare them or help them hide, Nao might be the only one I do help. With that being said, tell me your favorite Shiki charecter, and why.