Shion Sonozaki looked at her bandaged hand, the one she used to relinquish her sins. Why did this have to happen to her; why couldn't her sister just tried to help her when she cried out for help? That stupid Grandmother of hers, that whole family of hers, her sister included! They gave her sister everything while her self was tried like an outcast; first sending her away, then denying her a love interest. She should be able to love like her sister and every other human being does!
She mashed her teeth together. Anger consumed her as she clenched her bandaged hand, ignoring the pain. She wanted to do something to them, to her sister and Grandmother for everything that she had become. A knock came to her door. Shion got up and went to her door, opening it to find her sister there. Shion's eyes turned to steel. "What do you want?" she coldly asked her.
Mion felt uneasy with the attitude her sister was giving her. "I... just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing."
"Get out of my sight!" she spat at her. Mion was taken aback by this cold tone her sister was giving her.
"Wait Shion," Mion said to her as slammed the door... right on Mion's hand! She pulled and pulled, trying to free her grip but Shion only applied pressure. "How is it? Does it feel good, do you want more?" she asked, letting go of the door to free Mion as she fell to the floor. Déjà vu played in as Shion looked down at Mion with the same look back at the torture room of the Sonozaki Estate. "Don't let me see your face in my sight again!"
Shion went inside while Mion just looked on in complete disbelief at what had transpired. She knew her sister was never one to try and hurt her before when they were kids, so why did this happen now? The secretly younger twin could hear various glass objects breaking as well as screams of pain from her sister. "Maybe it's because of tearing out her fingernails," she silently said to herself, knowing that was the only thing that would cause her sister to go breaking things to quell her temper.
Not wanting to know if Shion was planning on using her as a practice dummy, Mion sprang to her feet and high-tailed it down the hall out of the apartment complex, practically scared out of her wits. First, Shion gave her a cold tone and smashed her hand, and then she started hurling glass and other objects across the room like they were baseballs for the playing field.
Mion started to feel regret for not doing anything to try and help her sister when she was going through that miserable pain, but she kept that stone-face on so her family wouldn't make her go through the exact same thing. Now, Shion's mentality seems like it was going in a downward spiral of madness... and the one person that should take the blame was their Grandmother. What her grandmother did, it's no wonder Shion went off like that.
Another thought popped in her head. "I love Keiichi, and she loves Satoshi, but the difference between that is Satoshi and Shion's love is not allowed with Grandmother." As she walked down and out of the complex, her thoughts continued as she looked back at the building, hoping that her sister was going to be alright. "Don't worry, sis... I'll fix this for you."
*
A few hours later, Shion was out on the town of Hinamizawa, still in pain with the ordeal of not being able to love someone from the Hojo Family. Stopping at one of the convenient stores, she grabbed a few items and dumped them into the hand basket, bumping into someone by mistake. "Oh sorry, I didn't see where I was looking," she said, looking at the person. It was a man, possibly in his forties or fifties, judging by his hair.
"It's quite alright, ma'am," he spoke in a ragged voice.
Shion finished her shopping; the man watched her as she went to the counter to pay for her items. As she left the shop, she heard the man from behind. "I was wondering if I could talk with you."
"Why would you want to?"
"You seem depressed about something... something that has to do with your life."
Her life... yeah, she was depressed about her life. She was out casted by the people who were supposed to care about her, left for dead at a private school, and denied love... so yes, in a way, she was depressed, very depressed. "Is there anyplace a bit more private we can talk?"
*
Shion led the man back to her apartment, it was still littered with broken bits of glass and the chairs were thrown in every direction. "For this to happen, you must have a lot of pain inside of you, right?"
Shion nodded. "By the way, I never got to ask you your name."
"My name is John, John Kramer."
The mention of his name made her blood run cold, her eyes lost their color as did her skin. This was him, the notorious murderer. "You're the Jigsaw Killer, the one who kidnaps people and murders them!"
John shook his head. "No Shion, I am not a murder, I despise murderers. I'm what you would call a rehabilitator, someone who gives people life by showing how to appreciate their own."
"But why are you here in Hinamizawa?"
"I've heard that there's a doctor in this village that might be able to help me with the disease that's eating away at me. Yours on the other hand, is more robust than mine, I would assume."
Shion nodded. "Could I ask you a question?"
He nodded. "Have you ever been said that you can't love someone?"
John shook his head. "No, everyone should be given the chance to love one another. It's the ways of life. Did you have someone who you loved?"
"I did, but my family said I was forbidden to have a relationship with him." She clenched her hands into fists and lifted up her bandaged hand. "I was forced to remove three fingernails in order to forgive the people around me... my own sister didn't even try to help!"
The dam broke—Shion told John everything that had went on in her life when she was first born and he listened to what she said, all while thinking to himself as to how a family could just abandon their own child and focus on the one who deserved everything—it disgusted him. "Do you wish your family gave you the same love as they do your sister?"
"More than anything," she said.
"Do they appreciate what's been given to them? Most people are ungrateful of the things that they've been handed. Have you show appreciation for being alive today?"
"Of course I do. But because of my own sister, I'm not allowed to love someone who is hated by this village, Hinamizawa. I want them to know pain and misery for what they made me go through, and I'll do it one way or another!"
"Revenge is not the answer, Shion. The only way to feel these people have appreciated life is to test them."
"But how?"
"Are you willing to put them through their tests to see if they can survive their own faults?"
Shion was silent for a moment, looking down at the table, having a mental war. Part of her wanted to go through with it, to show her family that she should be loved, too, just like her sister was, and not some useless piece of garbage, but another part of her said to not go through with it and let them be. She couldn't let it go... they caused everything to her, especially that wretched Grandmother of hers.
She raised her head and looked back at John. "I'll do it."
John nodded. "You will give every cell in your body to me, Shion. In order for you to understand the value of life, you must be faced with death... only then will you know immortality. The wounds on your fingers are from your old life... you can't go back to it. If you come with me, there's no going back to the way things were. Is that understood?"
Shion looked back down and then back at him. "Yes. What will I need to do?"
*
Hojo Teppi said goodbye to the last of his friends and closed the door. Another wild night those guys were having, nothing but booze, smokes, and food; now he was ready for long night's sleep. He knew Satoko was asleep, so he didn't have to worry about her, hell... the guy never cared about her to begin with! Heading to his room, he went in and began set up his futon on the floor—he knew something was out of place, hearing footsteps outside his door.
He thought it was just Satoko heading for the bathroom so he brushed it off and continued to set up his bed. He saw black; he struggled against the person who had him in their grip, but he feel to the ground, lifeless.
What was left of Teppi's mind only registered what he could hear before he was totally slipped into unconsciousness. Hours had passed when he was awake; he looked around, seeing he was in some kind of room, but couldn't tell what kind. Teppi got up from the floor, shouting obscenities at nothing and looked down at the microcassette player on the ground. Picking it up, he pressed play.
"Hello Teppi. I want to play a game. In your life, you've made a living making the lives of others miserable, including your own foster child. Now we'll see if you're willing to make yourself miserable in order to forget about your abuse towards others. What you are looking at is a maze, but of razor wire. If you can't get through the maze before four o'clock to the door, then the door will lock, making this room your tomb. Live or die, make your choice.
Growling and screaming, he threw the tape player against the wall and began to tear at the wire, feeling its sharp teeth bite into his hands. Somewhere in the old building, Shion watched the entire thing on the monitors with Jigsaw at her side. "You chose a good test subject, Shion," he complimented.
"I just want to know if he understands survival," she said.
"We'll see if he can survive. But this is how you understand... my work is very important to me, ever since that day I wanted to end it all."
On the monitor, Shion watched as Hojo Teppi scrambled through the razor, desperately trying to ignore the pain. Hours had passed and Shion came back to the monitor, seeing as Hojo had failed at the game. "Game over," said Jigsaw, looking at the monitor. Going over to a table with surgical implements, he picked up a knife and ordered Shion to follow him; she did. What she saw Hojo Teppi go through was something that she knew the importance of appreciating life, the things that Jigsaw wanted her to go through, since he had told her that he didn't have much longer to last. His work was vital to him and he wanted it to continue, that was the reason he took Shion in like a family... a real family, not just someone who turns their back on them and leaves them to rot.
No... John saw her as a daughter, someone dear to him since his first child was taken away by greed; she was like a replacement for it. For Shion, when he had finished removing the piece of flesh from Hojo Teppi, she broke down into tears, rushed up to John and hugged him like a scared child. He was puzzled by this, wanting to understand why she was crying and why she was hugging him. Shion looked at him and said, "Thank you for caring for me."
The rehabilitator's eyes softened as he fought to control his own emotions—he couldn't. Weeping silently, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug and she returned it. For once in Shion's life, she was happy to have this kind of person care about her, even if he was a person who hurts others. This person Jigsaw was holding onto was a girl, who was abandoned by love, but just by letting her accompany him, she left love for him; he did as well.
John gently pulled her away and looked into her eyes. "Do you understand my teachings? Do you feel that you can show others the meaning of life?"
Looking at the Hojo's corpse, and remembering the game he had to go through in order to survive, she understood the way of what he was teaching her. "I need to learn more," she said to him.
"And you shall," he replied, both of them leaving the room. In Shion's mind, she knew the people she wanted to play her games... their time would come soon when she would find then and put them to the test to see if they could survive for what had happened.
But she would not go untested...
*
Black Waltz: This is just a one-shot... I still haven't debated on the fact wether I should have made it into a series; I'll leave that up to you guys. Happy Halloween to all and please review, let me know if you feel this deserves to be a series or not, seeing as there are probably plenty of Saw and Higurashi fans out there. Also, that little bit I put in with John and Shion, you need to understand that I'm bad at romance, it's not my cup of tea like other fanfic writers... and I had to use the trap from the first Saw movie because I wasn't creative enough to come up with my own but I'm sure that I'll think of something, if this wanted to be a series. You are also entitled to help out if you like, just let me know.
Again, please review.
