What do you mean two consecutive updates? Am I crazy? Yeah, I am! This is an outtake of Seasons In The Abyss' third scene, which I had for a while. It lacked a bit of brutality, so I went back to the drawing board and lashed out more, giving birth to this. In its month an a half(?) of existence, only Nights has read this.

Ah, just a reminder. Always remember to check chapter 1 to find the full resume of the things we post in this fic, and in which chapter to find them. It'll be updated as we post more chapters.

Do I need to warn you that it's going downhill from here? It's going to be brutal. I don't think everyone can handle this kind of scene, so I suggest you head back if you got anything this.

Anyway, enough about that. On with it.

...

If I woke up in a different place again, I swear...

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

Goddammit...

... Actually, that was not my biggest concern...

Why was I tied down?

Why was I kneeling down?

Who were all these people?

Gah, the sun was blinding! I shut my eyes closed again lest they got fried in their sockets.

Holy Hell...

"On behalf of the whole village of Tsukigata, I declare this miscreant... guilty of all charges!" The owner of the hand which was lying on my back said, and I could hear the people cheering.

... Uh...

Okay, time to open my eyes again.

Where was I?

I strained my eyes, but I could keep them open for a while, long enough to know I was on a makeshift stand. It was a bit tall, so even though I was kneeling, people were still at my chest's height.

... I must have been in Shinato's mind, still.

Before I could look back, I felt a boot kick me in the back. I tumbled forward out of the stand and fell to the ground before me.

I was tied, so there was nothing I could do to soften my fall. Only thing I could do was to try and fall on my side, instead of hitting my teeth on the dirt.

It was not long before the first kick came. Right to the stomach. The impact made saliva rise up to his nostrils, which caused the killer to cough and hack.

I grit my teeth to try and swallow the pain. Kurogawa tried to summon Mastro, but something was compelling him not to. I fact, something was even restraining his voice... I tried to speak something, but...

I held my breath. Not Shinato, but me, inside his head.

What was this agony...

I tried again, and my chest hurt. I never...

I'd never felt anything like that.

And the beating began, as an older man stepped forth and hit him with a cane. A weak strike, which passed the strong hatred across very well.

The phalanx of furious kicks started soon after, the ones I couldn't see were the ones that hurt the most.

A punch then hit my face, which rebounded off the ground. I'm pretty sure that opened a wound, as I began to taste blood.

How...

How did Shinato not express any reaction?

Feet and legs were mostly what I could see, as the killer refused to look up. His eyes remained fixed into one place as his body rocked back and forth, to and fro from the impact of the blows he took.

The only moment he averted his eyes from wherever he was looking was when a man grabbed him by the collar of the coat he was still wearing, and stared at his eyes. I could feel the emptiness in Shinato's eyes as he looked back at the tall, scruffy man.

"Let this be proof that no one..." The man trailed off before spitting right into Shinato's eye. "No one! Fucks with us!" A fierce downward punch was fired and hit him straight on the lips, sending him crashing back to the ground. His teeth had surely cracked, as he immediately spat the white chunks to the ground in the midst of the mixture of saliva and blood.

Someone stomped his ribs with a geta, and it hit in a wrong way.

... A very wrong way...

I could hear his... rib... snapping. Loud and clear. And it was not just that which made me nauseated.

I could also hear something being pierced by that shard. Kurogawa shut his eyes and grit his teeth, but refused to even want to scream.

Wanting to close my eyes, I tried time and again to do something, or at the very least turn away from the scene, but I couldn't. I didn't have a body, I was trapped inside of his head!

Shinato took the hits and couldn't even say a word. I saw the exact moment a rock hit his forehead, and the blood began to wash away the spit in his eyelid. I was seeing red turn to black through his eye. I felt that clearly as if I had a forehead at the moment, which made me jump.

I felt frustration, fear and anxiety quickly rise up to my throat, somehow.

From the wall of people that stood before Shinato, a child came and approached him.

"This is for dad!" The kid stepped up and punted my head, hard as he could. The neck almost snapped backwards and I was almost literally kicked out of his head, as his conscience threatened to fade.

The strikes continued, until I felt the still working eyelid shoot wide open.

And then the cold of a thrust to my side.

Was that a knife...?

And then another, even deeper. This time, I felt the pain, as well.

I painfully looked towards the man holding a bloodied small dagger in his hand, being dragged back by a few other people with an accomplished smirk on his face.

"Go to Hell!" I could read his lips before he faded back into the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd...

I was skipping breaths, myself.

Lying down in the eye of a tornado of furious people... being kicked left and right... despised. Outcast. Hated. Broken, beat and scarred...

... Let me tell you a secret.

I used to be claustrophobic.

And that came back to me at that instant, full force.

Wherever I was inside of Shinato's head, I took a clenched fist to my mouth as my stomach whirled and swirled.

And I didn't have a stomach, or a fist, or a mouth!

I felt suffocated. I was no longer skipping breaths, it was like I was unable to breathe.

It wasn't even the death or the pain that was getting to me, because I could, somehow, turn his pain on and off, as I noticed. Kind of like an empathy switch. I just didn't know how to control it, yet. Sometimes I'd feel his pain, sometimes I'd activate his reflexes... I'd have to figure out how that worked.

But regardless of that "switch", I couldn't escape what I was feeling at that moment.

It was too much...

"Enough!" I heard a voice from behind me. It was the voice of the one that kicked me off the stand. People did as he demanded, and quickly began to step away from me.

Shinato was twitching on the ground, convulsing from the immense pain. Nigh unidentifiable. His face was mined with swollen bumps, blood dripping down from his mouth, eye and nose down to the ground underneath. His legs kicked against his will, also bruised beyond recognition from the stomps, as a few people tried to crush his kneecaps. His upper body was bleeding within and without. His neck was also almost unmovable from intense strain: someone had pinned him to the ground by his neck. The bile rising up to his throat now tasted like rust and acid.

The pain was unbearable. It was not almost supportable, no. It was horrible. I once heard you can only take so much pain before your brain turns off, or something like that. But Shinato was still on...

But still, he swallowed it and tried to keep breathing.

And almost failing.

In fact...

Did I feel a small smirk on his broken teeth?

Did he... was he reveling in the pain?

Why?

... Why?!

"It's time to end this murderer's streak, don't you all think?" The executioner's voice was heard again.

The crowd cheered and stepped back from Shinato. I could finally notice the light of noon, again.

He was pulled to his feet by his hair, and I felt the cold of a blade pressing against his neck.

"So...? Got any last words?! Hahahaha!" The man laughed right into my ear as he pulled harshly on Shinato's hair. He knew the beaten man couldn't speak.

'Hypocrites!'

... Huh?

'You all deserve to die, you ungrateful bastards!'

... What was that...?

Was it...?

'I can't believe I even tried to turn this Hell you all deserve to live in into a better place!'

Shinato?

Those thoughts flew around loosely. I could hear them clearly, inside of his head.

I could feel a very quiet click... maybe that was the empathy switch turning o- Holy...

I could feel Shinato's smirk turn upside down into a scowl. He breathed heavily, as he ran his working eye on the crowd. It was as if I, myself, was making that expression.

That was spite, stronger than I've ever felt. He could see each of the faces before him dying in different ways. For a split second, I swear I saw the flash of bloodied face among the crowd.

And it all went downhill from there, as his deranged mind began to interact with mine and I finally found out why he was smiling before.

He was wishing, from the dark pits of his heart, that the same pain he felt was applied to everyone there, tenfold. No, billionfold.

Marked foreheads, with gouged out eyes...

Cracked skulls, caused by a forced lobotomy...

Severed fingers, forcibly bitten off by their owner...

Locked lips, right after ingestion of castor oil...

Knit eyelids, with teeth removed with his trusty pliers...

Hate. Pure hatred for the things he fought so hard to protect.

He wanted everything to crumble at his hand, at that moment.

But alas, he was there. He, himself, was looking like one of his visions. They deemed him the thing he despised the most.

A worthless criminal...

...

I'd shake my head, if I could. For a moment, I kind of felt for him.

... What?

He was a serial killer! What was I saying?!

...

I...

I'd need time to think about that.

'I wasted myself and was denied by the ones I tried to protect. I've nothing left for the world. Just kill me, already...'

... what?

'I give up.'

As he thought that, I could hear my executioner's laugh, as the blade cut clean across my throat.

...

I could feel the warm blood running on my skin, heading down towards my chest.

Right after that, I was tossed and fell limp to the ground. My head bounced helplessly once, as my conscience began to fade to the sound of laughter and cheering...

...

...

I opened my eyes again to find myself staring at the Shinato's mirror, with hands wrapped around my throat. The man was reflecting my movements, but his throat was actually bleeding. I just couldn't see the wound because my hand was probably over it.

Stupefied, I kept staring at the image before me.

I now knew what it was like to have my throat slit.

...

I shook my head and straightened myself back up, calming my mind down a bit.

Shinato also mimicked my movement and took his hands off his throat, but this time, the blood disappeared. In fact, all expression disappeared. He was only staring back, motionless and... empty.

I took a deep breath and let my shoulders fall, before exhaling.

What an experience...

Closing my eyes, I turned around and looked at the many mirrors around me.

Would I have to live all of those lives?

Sigh...

It was already enough living mine. I thought I was suffering enough with everyone drifting away as they were, but... apparently, I had a lot to learn.

That was gonna be a long ride...

A/N about the chapter: You know what? I like Shinato. Wrote him so little, liked him so much. His death was very cool for me to think about, and the whole thing with the empathy was the icing on the cake. What I did, in this outtake, was remove some of the restraints and go all out, trying to detail what he had to suffer through before Falling in the last minute of his life. Sigh... gonna miss the guy.

Things in this fic, and where to find them:

CH 1: *new* Junpei's Turmoil, a Fallen Messiah outtake.

CH 2: *new* Caught In A Mosh, an extended lynching scene from Seasons In The Abyss.

Usual A/N: So... Yeah. Here's this new thing, hope you like it. If possible, do post suggestions in the box below. I'm dying to write something a bit different. Maybe it'll revive my motivation for writing, since it's been shot dead for a while. You know what else you can do with the review box below? REVIEW! Send your critics and opinions my way, please, feedback is key. Anyways, I'm Raidou the 16th and I approve this message. *thumbs up* Peace!