Puppet

Author's Note: This story of mine is inspired by 'The Final Summer of Sotaba' by KnightOfLelouch. Give a look at his story if you like this kind of stuff. With how good the story is and how underrated an anime I feel Shiki to be, stories like that deserve all the love they can get.

Disclaimer: For those of you who don't know damn well, I own neither Earthbound nor Shiki, nor do I own any of the characters in the game or any of that stuff. All rights belong to... uh... the owners of the copyright... I don't really know the names, so...

BEGIN!

If Megumi Shimizu had ever believed in a Hell at any point of her life, or if she had ever taken the time to imagine what it would be like down there, the real thing would have been far worse than anything the human mind could have possibly imagined.

Then again, perhaps calling her a human would be giving her too much credit as an individual that once walked the earth, as calling her human would lead to the belief that she had any sense of humanity to spare.

Megumi Shimizu had never, in her entire life, thought of any possible consequences that may have come for her actions, both in her natural life and unnatural time on Earth, brought to her by the fangs of a Shiki. Never had she considered that there was any chance of a higher power to judge her when her life would come to an end. Not once did she believe that her actions and feelings during her time on earth would affect not just her life on Earth, but also the immortality brought to every sentient being at the end of their life, compliments of their soul.

In her life as a human, she was selfish and uncaring for the feelings and beliefs of everyone else in the entire city of Sotaba. She held a deep grudge of the villagers who would crack jokes or giggle at the attire she wore that they found strange in their culture of Sotaba. The few friends that she had, Tohru, Kaori, and to a lesser extent, Akira and Masao, she felt nothing but hatred and disgust for, due to their views not matching with her narrow vision of what life should be like. The world was to revolve around her and her desires, no matter who might get hurt from it and regardless of who may have a view differing from her own.

In her resurrection as a Shiki, she was vile and wicked in every meaning of those two words. She had evolved from a selfish, spoiled brat into a heartless, sociopathic sadist. Not only did she drink the blood of humans, innocent or sinful, to survive as a Shiki; she took great delight in her killings and relished every single second of the suffering of everyone around her, both human and Shiki. Every single person she killed or tormented was hurt not just because of a need for survival, but also to sate her hunger for the pain and misery of others.

Once Sotaba was through, and she was no longer needed in that village, she would finally move on with her dream as a human, and live in the city as she had always wanted. To her, there was nothing that could stop her when she was a Shiki. With her ability to live forever, as long as she was able to keep devouring the blood she needed and keep away from the light of the sun, there was nothing that could stand in her way. She could live forever in the big beautiful city, and finally be rid of the 'simple' views of her home village.

But of course, human or not, everything has to die eventually...

Only when both of her lives were stripped away from her, and every chance she had was taken from her, did the error of her ways finally become clear to her, and whatever humanity may have been buried deep in her rotten core in her life was finally uprooted when she was faced fully with the consequences of her actions, and sentenced to her eternal fate.

How long was she down there now? How long had she been in never-ending torment and anguish?

Weeks?...

Months?...

Years?...

Maybe... even centuries?...

She didn't know, nor did it really matter. Time no longer had any meaning to her, for she knew that there was neither break nor rest from the damnation that she had sown for herself. No longer did the hours in a day and the months of year mean anything to her, nor anyone who was damned to eternal suffering just like she was.

The searing inferno, which burned at temperatures equal to the core of the earth, burned ceaselessly, consuming everybody thrown into it and devouring them without hesitation, greedily accepting more and more sinners each and every day. Every passing second, Megumi would see another new person thrown into the lake of unquenchable fire, doomed to forever suffer with absolutely no hope of relief. With each new person that was thrown in there, she swore she felt the flames get just a tad hotter, as if to reconcile and add more torture for everyone in there.

The sound of wails and crying that were produced from the seemingly infinite number of people down there was absolutely unbearable. With every new person thrown into Hell, the sounds of screaming and wailing would become torturously louder, to the point where it was so loud that Megumi swore she would become deaf if this fiery pit would allow her to do so. She would gladly accept never being able to hear again if she had the chance; anything was better than the sound of billions upon billions of people, burning and suffering without end.

There was also to be considered the God-awful stench of burning flesh that remained pungent, no matter how long one has been down there. Never in her entire life, neither as Shiki nor human, had she taken in a stench so gut-wrenchingly bad. If her 'body' was able to produce any bile, the stench would have made her vomit constantly until there was no more of it left for her 'body' to produce.

And last, but certainly not least, there was the unbearable thirst and hunger that came from being forced to live for eternity in the lake of fire, where there was no food or drink for any of the tortured souls that dwell in there. Megumi's 'body' had long since lost any water it had from her constant crying and the unbearable heat of the inferno. She longed for just a single drop of water to relieve the dry, burning pain in her throat that accompanied her fiery torment. Her belly also constantly hurt from ungodly hunger. More than one occasion had come where Megumi, so desperate to have something to eat, would attempt to bite off the flesh off her own bones and devour it, only to choke on it and be forced into spitting it out.

Megumi had known several instances in her life where she was stuck in a place or situation and unable to get out. In her life as a human, for almost as long as she could remember, she was unable to leave the village of Sotaba which she was forced to call her home, having to suffer the ridicule and the simplicity of the people that lived there with her.

At the final moments of her life as a Shiki, she could recall being caught by the humans as the wheel of a tractor held her left arm down, cursing at the villagers one more time before they ended her second life.

Now, once again, unable to die, malnourished and unwatered, living in an infinite pool of fire that never stopped burning, Megumi Shimizu knew once more that she was trapped, only this time, it was for good, and there was no way of her getting out of it.

Never again would anybody hold any fond memories of the former Shiki girl. Never again would anyone remember her as 'Megumi Shimizu: Daughter of Takeo and Hiroko Shimizu', nor 'Megumi Shimizu: Childhood friend'. Now everyone would only remember her for the horrible deeds that she had committed in her time on Earth, and look down upon all of the actions that had earned her a reserved spot in the Inferno.

What happened to all of the other people she had known throughout her time? Kaori... Natsuno... Akira... her mother and her father... did they all make it to Paradise? Did some of them end up like her here in Gehenna? She didn't know. All she could do with those thoughts is pray that nobody she had once cared for would ever meet the same fate she now suffered.

Her body slow in its limited movements, almost completely unable to move from the burning pain that was always there, she began to look up to try to see if she could see anyone looking down at her. Were the people of Sotaba that she had killed that made it into Heaven still up there, glaring down at her? Was the red headed girl that led her to this terrible place still up there, watching her punishment? She wanted so badly to know, but she was denied this knowledge, as the fires bellowed mountains of black smoke from the flesh and bones they were burning, so thick that it was impossible for her to see anything that was above her at the moment.

Despite knowing not whether if anybody was watching her, and knowing it was extremely unlikely that anybody would hear her past all of the other cries and screams of the damned, she desperately raised her hand up, which was almost impossible due to the burning pain that shot out through her body from possible years of torment. With whatever hope that still lied in her heart, she gave off one more desperate plea, screaming out to the heavens louder than she had ever screamed in her previous lives or in this one, praying with all her soul that somebody would take pity on her and pull her out of the flames.

"Someone! Anyone! Please help me!" she cried out as loud as she possibly could. "I'm sorry! For everything! Please! Anyone! Help me!"

She waited in agony for what seemed like an eternity, desperately praying that somebody would have somehow heard her past all the screams. However, just as with every other time, nobody answered her prayers. Nobody reached out for her, and nobody cared.

Seeing that nothing was happening, and letting the agonizing reality set in once again that there was no hope of her to escape, she curled up into a ball, holding her knees close to her breasts as she cried and sobbed, her eyes letting out streams of blood as there was no water that could form tears. She cried not just out of pain and despair, but also out of regret. She was horribly sorry for everything she had done, for all the people she had hurt.

As she continued to cry, she once again began to reflect on her lives as she remained curled up there, burning and suffering like all the others. She reflected on everything she had done to deserve her eternal punishment, her selfishness as a human and her malice as a Shiki. She wished that she was never born. She wished that she had never existed, so that she wouldn't be able to hurt anybody ever.

"If only I could go back..." she thought to herself as her crying had stopped, and she had been reduced to pitiful whimpers and snivels. "...If only I just had one more chance... to make everything right... if I could just have that one chance to be taken out of here... just to make everything right... tell everyone that I'm sorry for everything... if only..."

She trailed off in her thoughts as she began to notice something. For whatever reason, the screaming and wailing of all the others that were down in Hell with her had become drastically quieter for her. They were still there, but the sounds seemed to have been reduced to quiet background noises as opposed to their usual unbearably loud volume.

Realizing that the burning pain had also become slightly less unbearable, she looked around at the flames that surrounded her, only to see that they were no longer devouring all of her, like they always had for however long she had been down here. They seem to have parted away from her.

"...Wh... what is this?" she questioned in a whisper as, with a shaking hand, she reached towards the fire. As her hand drew closer to the flame, the fire recoiled and distanced itself from the hand. It was as if Hell itself had suddenly become too afraid to touch her.

Dumbfounded by what was suddenly happening, she looked up again to the thick cloud of smoke that blocked off all sight of what lied up above her. Had somebody answered her prayers? Was somebody actually coming to pull her out of the fires?

As she continued to stare up into the thick cloud of black smoke, a figure began to lower itself down into Hell, floating casually and quite slowly. She could see absolutely nothing about the figure, aside from the tan trench coat he wore and a dark brown fedora hat that laid on his head, which when accompanied by the trench coat, masked his face so that only his eyes were visible. As he came closer and closer to the fires of Hell, Megumi could identify the figure's eyes: they were completely white, save for the pupils, which were black. She could also see that he was quiet tall, standing at least seven feet tall.

As the figure lowered itself down and landed into Hell, the flames danced around him and tried to consume him. The irises of the figure's eyes changed from white to teal, and a strong yet short gust blew around him, causing the fire to disperse from him, and just like with Megumi, avoid him as if it were afraid to touch him.

His eyes changed back to their white color as he looked down at Megumi, who looked up at him, trying to determine the identity of the man, seeing if there was any hints of her knowing him. There was absolutely nothing, however. No indicators that the figure gave.

After a few seconds of just standing there, the figure took off his hat and tossed it aside, revealing his face. His skin was unbelievably pale, putting even the pale skin of the Shiki to shame. His hair seemed to be double colored, the left side of his hair being a bright, lustrous blonde color, while the right side was a very deep purple, almost black.

Once his hat was removed, he gave a little casual wave to Megumi, as if the place she was in didn't bother him one bit, and spoke. "Buenos dias, Megumi Shimizu. ¿Cómo estas?" he questioned in an almost mocking matter. His voice sounded like that of a young child, but at the same time, there was a demonic growl that accompanied by, almost as if the being had two voices at the exact same time.

Megumi just stared at him, baffled by his voice, and unable to translate what exactly he had just said.

"...I asked how you were doing, and wished you a good morning." the figure said, knowing that Megumi didn't understand him. "...Or... is it nighttime now?... Heh... I guess for people like you down here, it's irrelevant, huh? Down here, it doesn't matter what time it is. Every single second is the same down here."

She knew that this person was poking fun at her situation, obviously lacking any empathy towards the pain she was in... then again, considering the apathy she had shown in both of her lives, perhaps it was nothing she didn't deserve. Looking up at the figure, forcing herself to crawl towards him, she grabbed his legs from under the trench coat and clung to them, afraid that he might leave if she didn't. "P... please..." she begged to him. "...Please... help... me..."

"Help you?" the figure questioned as he gave a hum. He looked at all the other souls that continued to burn down there. After a few seconds, he looked at her once again. "...Hmmmm... nope. I don't think I will."

Megumi felt her entire soul shudder at those words. For a second, she thought that the torture was just going to resume as normal, and the being would leave. However, the fires still kept away from both of them, and the man stayed there, quietly looking at the girl who clung to his legs like her soul depended on it. "Please... I don't want to be down here any longer..." she said as she began to weep again, her tears of blood staining the trench coat of the man. "I... I want to go home..."

"And why exactly should I make an exception for taking you out of here?" the man questioned as he pointed at all the other souls that burned there, with Megumi's eyes following where he pointed. "If there was an exception made for you, then there would have to be one made for everybody that's down here... what makes you so special that you should be allowed to escape, while everybody else has to remain?"

Megumi didn't answer as she continued to watch everybody else burn in the fires. She felt so sorry for everybody down there with her, not just the ones that were down there because of her actions as a Shiki, but everybody else that had burned long before her, and those newer that are thrown down here everyday.

"You are down here for a reason, just like everybody else that is thrown down here. Nobody just ends up down here on accident... so what makes you so special that you think you should be allowed pardon when everyone else isn't?" the being questioned. Megumi looked down, trying to think of something to say, but she couldn't. "...Even in your time down here, you still hold your selfishness. You believe that just because you apologize, you should be given special treatment... you believe that you're above consequence, don't you?"

Megumi shook her head and released the man's legs, putting her hands on the ground and resting her head down on them as she silently wept bloody tears in front of him. "I'm... sorry... so, so sorry..." she said in a faint whisper. "...I know I hurt so many people... I know I was a horrible person... please... forgive me..."

"...You truly are sorry, hm?" the man questioned as he stared at the girl. " If that's the case, I do wonder why you caused so much suffering in the first place... well... I suppose if you already know why you're here... and you at least have the guts to fess up to it now... I suppose that your torture now is as bad as it's going to get."

The girl was quiet as she remained there, kneeling before the man. She was now expecting for the fires to consume her once again, and her torture to pick up right where it left off. She was such a fool to think that this person was going to save her... who would ever help such a horrible person like her?

"...Hmmmm... no... better yet..." the man said with a snap of his fingers, as if he just realized something. "...I have a much better idea in mind... it's such a pity to see such a young girl down here, despite what she's done in her life... life was cut so short, and you had so many things to learn yet... I'll tell you what... I'll make you a deal."

Megumi gasped as she heard those words and looked up at the man. He now had a eerie grin on his face as he looked at her, but she hardly noticed. "Wh... what did you say?" she questioned in disbelief, not believing he said what she just heard.

The man gave a nod and pointed at the souls that were burning down there once again. "You see all of those people down here?" the man said. "They, like you, are all trapped down here. They have absolutely nowhere to go, no matter what they do. No matter how much they cry and beg, no matter who they were, once they're down here, there's no checking out."

He then looked up to the heavens, the sight of them still blocked by the black smoke. "And as for all the angels and the people that somehow made it to Paradise... they all are unable to do anything now. Even if someone up there were to take any pity on someone like you down here, even if they wanted, with every fiber of their being, to help you out of here, they would be unable to do so. There are divine laws that keep anybody on the other side from helping anyone down here, whether or not they have the power to."

Megumi stared at him intently. She already knew all of this, but she knew that he was trying to make a point somewhere, so she listened as carefully as she possibly could.

"I, on the other hand, am different from all of them." he said with a prideful chuckle. "My entire being is nothing but power; there's very little that I can't do. I am not damned down here like all the rest of you, so I can't be kept down here. However, I also don't follow any divine laws, nor can God Himself command me. I have the power to take anybody I want out of here, and I have absolutely no restrictions keeping me from doing so... if I wanted to right now, I could take you out of here and put you wherever I wanted..."

He gave another look at Megumi and went on. "If you're truly sorry for what you've done... well... perhaps I should help you."

Megumi's heart was pounding out of sheer joy as she heard that. Just when all hope was lost of her ever getting out of Hell, someone had finally come down to answer her prayers and set her free. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" she cried out as she was about to hug his legs.

"Hold your horses." the man said, holding his hand out and making Megumi stop where she was. "I'm not running a charity here, especially not for someone like you... I'll take you out of here and I'll put you wherever you want on the earth... but in exchange for that, I want you to do my bidding in your new life."

"Y... your bidding?" Megumi questioned as she looked up at him. "Wh... what do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I want full access into your life... I want to be able to do everything I want to do through you... though I may be powerful, in my current state, I can't do anything on the earth without somebody to act through, and I'm not able to gain access to a person unless they would allow me to."

"What do you mean get access to? How are you going to work through me?" Megrim questioned.

The man gave a chuckle and held out his hand to her, as if to shake. "All will be explained to you later, Megumi. All you have to do is shake my hand, and the deal will be made. You get to go anywhere you want this one time. As long as you're able to keep yourself alive, you never have to come down here again." he said. "...So what do you say?... We got a deal?"

Megumi stared at his hand and really began to think. From what it sounded like, if she took the deal and shook this man's hand, he would be allowed to do anything to her life, and she would have absolutely no say in it. It didn't help at all that he wasn't telling her anything about what he planned to do. But then again, whatever he could do and whatever he was planning would surely be a Godsend compared to staying down there for the rest of eternity. Anything was worth escaping Hell.

"...I see." the man said, noticing her hesitation. "...I thought that you would jump at the chance of escaping here... oh well... if it's really something you don't want to do, I guess I can just take somebody else out of here and give them that deal." Megumi's eyes widened and she gave a little gasp as she heard that. "Have a good rest of eternity, Megumi Shimizu." He began to turn around, as if he was about to walk away.

"N-no! Please don't go!" Megumi shrieked desperately, which made the man stop, much to her relief. "I'll... I'll take the deal." she said, looking up at him. "I'll let you do whatever you want... just... please... take me out of this place... please..."

The man gave a nod. "Now that's what I want to hear." he said as he turned back to face her. "Alright... now... I want you to choose carefully where you want me to take you. I can take you absolutely anywhere you want to go, at any specific time you want to be in, but I can only do so once. You only have one chance, so think carefully... do you want me to take you to another village?... Or perhaps you want to finally live in the city, just as you had always dreamed about?"

Megumi looked to her side in thought as she was thinking about it. He could take her absolutely anywhere she wanted to go... he could take her to a city, just like she had always wanted to live in since as long as she could remember. She could finally see all the sights and be at all the places she wanted to be... the night clubs... the flashing lights... the hustle and bustle life of the city...

As she thought about it more, however, she was reminded of the guilt that came from her actions as a result of her dream to live in the city... her hatred of Sotaba and all the people that lived there... all the people she gladly killed as a Shiki... she gave a little nod to herself as she knew where she wanted to go.

"I... I want to go back." she said quietly.

"...Go back where?" the man questioned.

Megumi shook her head. "I... I want to go back to Sotaba... my home..." she answered and went on. "I... I want to go back to Sotaba, before I became a Shiki... before all of this started... I want to make right everything I did wrong... I want to be with my family... my friends... I want to go home..."

The man was quiet for a few seconds before giving a delighted smirk. It seems that what she just said stroke his fancy quite a lot. "As you wish, so shall it be." the man said as he held out his hand to her. "...Take my hand... and the deal will be complete."

Megumi looked at the man's hand, slowly lifting her arm up to it, despite the intense burning pain that still persisted with each movement of hers, and took his hand. It felt cold, but other than that, it felt of almost nothing. The man gave a nod and the irises of his eyes changed to grey. "...Who... who are you?" the girl questioned.

"...I go by many names, my dear." the man said. "Some call me the Embodiment of Evil... others call me the Cosmic Destroyer... one person had the nerve to refer to me as an Almighty Idiot... but as for you... you may call me Giygas... and this..."

As his eyes remained grey, Megumi felt a very sharp, burning pain on the front of her right hand as she continued to hold on to Giygas's. She gave a yelp at the pain and looked at her hand, and saw a very bizarre symbol that was suddenly burnt on there. She couldn't comprehend the sight of the symbol; it was impossible to describe anything about it for some reason.

"...This is to remind you of our deal..." Giygas finished, his eyes returning to white. "...Now... hold on to my hand... and whatever you do... don't let go. You're in for one Hell of a ride."

After saying this, he and Megumi were surrounded by an intense white light, so bright that Megumi had to close her eyes to keep from going blind. There was an intense feeling that came from whatever was happening to her, feeling like it could crush her. She couldn't help but give a scream at the feeling. It wasn't at all pain, but it was something. She continued to scream and clenched her eyes shut, never letting go of Giygas's hand until the feeling was gone, and Megumi had lost all consciousness, not knowing of what happened to her.