A/N: So, out of the kindness of my heart, I decided to get this update out to you all sooner rather than later. Wouldn't want to leave a chapter on a cliffhanger for several months, now would I?
Any sense of comfort or relief he had at waking up alive in a hospital room fled from him as he looked back at the monster in pajamas staring back at him. The dread that filled his stomach felt like a lead weight sinking through his body, permeating his veins and circulating through his blood.
"You want answers, right?" He said, that same smile persisting, "Why am I alive? Who are you? You're thinking those things, aren't you?"
Makoto wanted to do something. He wanted to nod his head; he wanted to tell the little shit to go to hell. But he couldn't, his body was still unresponsive from however long he was out for.
Taking his silence as permission to continue, the boy sighed and sat back on his chair, "Well, I have some questions for you. Who are you? What makes you so special?"
The blunet just stared blankly back at the child's questions.
"Oh don't give me that look. Do you know how many people that Shadow Mantis killed before you got to it? It killed twelve people before you put it down. Men and woman, able-bodied and weak. And when you got to it? You practically ripped it apart!"
He looked ecstatic, disturbingly enough, to talk about that first, horrible night. Silver eyes narrowed at the child's sparkling ones.
"And then you went back to your everyday life like nothing ever happened. But, you know now, right?" Makoto's skin crawled as the kid leaned in close to look deeply into his eyes, "You can't escape this. This isn't something you can just run away from."
"When I saw you kill the Magician for the first time, I thought to myself: 'What is it that makes this kid so special?' So, why, do you fight? Is there someone so precious to you that you'd fight tooth and nail to survive long enough to see them for another day? Because if there is someone like that…"
The child looked away from him again and closed his eyes.
"Forget about them. The End is coming; and coming soon. If you want to have any chance of even seeing the End, you'd best put any heroic notions out of your brain; they'll just get in the way. You have the stubbornness and will to live through this, but that'll only be if you selfishly preserve your own life. From now on, you'll need to focus entirely on making sure you survive."
He opened his eyes again and the smile returned in full force.
"But, you should consider yourself lucky that I found you when I did. I gave you something that'll help you survive."
Makoto's eyes widened as he felt whatever he'd done to his shoulder flare up.
"That's right; I gave you a Death Counter. It's already helped you live in a situation where you should have died, so there's no need to thank me. But, since I'm such a kind wandering spirit I'll explain how it works."
He held up a hand with all of his fingers down, "The Death Counter starts at '0'. Each time you die, I'll take you back to the beginning of the second to last transition."
At seeing the blunet's confused face, the kid only sighed, "The beginning and the end of that time are both transition points. When you die during that time, you'll wake up in your bed the previous morning. When you die after that time, you'll wake up where you were when that time starts. Something else to keep in mind is this: You won't be the only one to remember what happened before you die. Whatever kills you will remember what happened before as well. Got that?"
Mutely nodding his head, Makoto watched as he raised one finger, "You've already died once thus far, so the Death Counter is currently at '1'. If the Death Counter reaches '4', well…"
The child's head lowered and a shadow covered the top of his face, "I won't mince my words here…"
When the blunet could see his face again, he recoiled back in shock. Whatever it was looking back at him, this was the monster underneath the pajamas.
"Your soul is mine."
The shadows of the room practically pooled around whatever it was looking at him now. It rose up off the ground and floated above him.
It was almost hard to look at it, as the bone-white jaws of the beast were the only real distinct parts of it. The rest of its body would have probably been in the form of a long, tattered black cloak, but eleven balls of static made it look more like it was on a television with bad reception than in reality.
"I will warn you now, young man. The First Rider is already on his way, and the Other Three follow closely in his wake. This world will not last as it is; you are the only human I have met thus far that has been able to survive for more than one night. And I have been watching for a very, very long time."
Makoto's eyes were still as wide as ever, but he managed a slow nod of understanding.
"Fight and survive, Makoto Yuki, for you do not want to find out what it is like to have your soul forcibly torn from your body."
And with that, the monster vanished from his room.
Filling out paperwork far past the time when his shift ended was just another long, caffeine-dependent night for Officer Kurosawa. The station was empty and dark, except for the corner office he worked in and one further down the hall from a rookie that had picked the short straw when it came to organizing the day's paperwork.
It was an awful week to have quit smoking; what with the public demanding answers for the previous month's string of brutal murders and politicians demanding results in order to save face. All in all, it was a rather shit week to be a public servant and Kurosawa patted his chest pocket for the third time that night, only to lower his hand after hitting nothing but himself.
Signing off on the last of his pile, the officer looked over at the small, digital clock placed on his desk.
11:58 PM
He went to stand and leave for the night, only to freeze as he nearly knocked a file that he'd requested when he'd started the mountain of paperwork several hours ago. Siting back down, Kurosawa brought the police file on Makoto Yuki to the center of his desk.
The very first piece of paper in the file was an update the hospital he was being housed in stating that he was still in a coma after the life-saving surgery he'd received.
He was, at the moment, the sole survivor of the recent attacks. And he didn't think for a moment that whoever was responsible for this wouldn't be after him again if he woke up.
The next sheet was the initial post-surgery report done by the hospital's surgeon. Multiple slash wounds, bruising, heavy blood loss; all signs that the poor kid had had the shit beaten out of him before the attempted-murder took place.
He skipped the next sheet, already knowing the knowing the testimony from the two teenage girls that found him as he'd done it personally.
He skipped the orphanage matron's testimony on his behavior and actions on that night.
Skipped the school records and multiple complaints against him for his inability to speak.
And then Kurosawa nearly dropped the file in shock. 1999, both parents dead, explosion on the Moonlight Bridge. Their time of death? Midnight. The kid had survived that too, being found unconscious but still covered in blood.
This was...
His hand shook as he placed the open file on his desk. Were all of these incidents done by the same people who bombed Tatsumi Port Island's high school and the Moonlight Bridge? Were all of the murders done as a distraction, as a cover to hide away a single killing underneath all of the violence?
The officer snapped out of his musings as the phone on the rookie's desk rang and he picked it up.
Returning to his thoughts, he mulled it over again. Did Makoto Yuki see something as a child that someone wished he hadn't seen? Or, was the decade-old killer simply returning to finish the job whatever that might have been?
"Kurosawa-san, sir!"
He rose to his feet as the man called out to him from his desk.
"It's the hospital, Makoto Yuki has regained consciousness."
A/N: Here we go.
