I'm Higurashi don't own.
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JapaneseRockerGirl: You want angst? I think I've got angst, but it's not the best I suppose. Yeah, I'd be worried for Miuchi too, who knows what could happen? Wish I could've updated sooner, but stupid things came up. Thanks for reviewing!
Anonymous: Thanks for enjoying this so far. .....Takano's the one with the gun, but man that'd be a twist if it was Satoko! Hm.....No! It's too late to consider that now. Thanks for reviewing!
James Birdsong: Thank you for the compliment. You're wonderful for reviewing!
Cicada of the Dark -SacredHero-: Hee hee hee. Someone's got a good eye for this stuff. Don't worry, there'll definitely be some action when these events reach boiling point. Thanks for reviewing!
"Disappointing, how....disappointing." A sinister voice echoes through the eternal darkness that surrounds me. "You didn't do what I said at all, even though she was trying to kill you." The voice seems to click it's tongue in disappointment.
"..." I try to speak, but I can't. I can feel the darkness pressing in on me, constricting me completely.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" The voice taunts me. "I thought you'd have a bit more courage, after you disobeyed me and everything, but what can you do?" An audible sigh sounds around me.
I feel my anger rise, I'm not even being taken seriously! "Who are you!?" I shout with my newfound voice.
"That's more like it!" The voice laughs again. "But I don't even really need to answer that question. I've always been alongside you Ke-i-chi." The voice mocks me again.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Now now, I can't give away too much. Let's just say that my main concern is you, okay?" It says in a faux-happy tone. "That girl, you really should have taken care of her. For all you know she might try to kill you in your sleep."
"Girl? You mean Satoko?" I ask. "Why would I try to kill her? Just what did you try to make me do?!" I growl. When I lost control earlier, and nearly.....It was because of this voice!?
"Let's not dignify our enemies with names okay? She attacked us, so I attacked her." It says in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Shut up! What the hell are you even talking about!?" I shout, enraged that something would take control of me. "What do you mean I'm your main concern! Are you the one who's been messing with my head!? Answer me!" I roar.
And suddenly I feel it! The presence is even stronger than before! I can feel the darkness trying to smother me! My skin feels like it's being pricked with needles all over. Something's watching me! I know it!
"Mind your mouth, Maebara Keiichi!" The voice bellows, filling me with terror.
A humongous eye suddenly opens before me! It's beast-like pupil shakes as it stares at me. Others suddenly open all around me, each one staring directly at me! But the gaze goes deeper than that! I can feel it peering inside me! There's not a thing that I can hide from it!
"Do you understand now?" It laughs cruelly. "Your fears, your joys, even your thoughts..." It pauses in enjoyment.
I can feel cold sweat pouring down me, even though I know I'm dreaming.
"I, see, everything."
--
"Ah!" I bolt up suddenly with a small yell. I can feel real cold sweat now, brought around by the dream. My breathing spikes a little, I do my best to calm it down.
What...what was that? Was it really just a dream? It can't be, I've heard that voice before, and I've felt that sensation before. It has to be real!
My train of thought is broken by the tingling sensation in my arm. I look over, and notice that something is clutching it tightly. The room is dark, so I peer closer.
"Wha...Satoko?" I mumble, still not fully in touch with reality.
Then it all hits me: The chase, the junkyard, Satoko, the bat in her hand,....the fight. The memories surge back to me all at once, making my head spin with confusion.
I quickly glance around the room. Is it in here?! My eyes fall on it resting in the corner: Satoko's bat. Only, it looks different now, like any normal bat. It didn't look like that at the junkyard.
I shudder slightly, recalling that moment that I saw her holding that bat. The bat in her hands was familiar, far too familiar! I could see the bloodstains on it! The blood of that man! I could feel it to! The sensation of that moment! That had to be the same bat!
For just a moment, back when I saw that bat, I felt like I did the last time I held it: like a murderer; eager to kill. At that moment, I wasn't myself, I was dangerous, I was a monster, just from the sight of that bat.
I try to calm myself again. That's impossible, I threw that bat away. There's no way anybody could have found it! And the bat before me right now looks nothing like it. So why? Why did I react like I did back at the junkyard?
"What the hell's wrong with me?" I choke out to myself. And suddenly I can hear that taunting laugh again, mocking me.
I shake my head, trying to snap out of the trance I'm in. It doesn't matter what happened then, what happened after that is what I want to know.
I wince in sudden pain from both my arm and my head. I my head, causing both the arm and the head to suddenly hurt(the arm that Satoko has is the good one). I notice that they've both been crudely(and do I mean crudely) bandaged. "That's right...I passed out didn't I? And she must have taken me back here." I mumble to myself, staring at Satoko's sleeping form.
Her sleeping style is as bad as I remember. She's grabbing at my arm with both hands, but her legs are both sprawled out carelessly. Her mouth is wide open in an extremely crude manner, and each breath is quite loud and exaggerated.
"Wow...you really didn't change did you?" I sigh. I try to tug my arm away, but she refuses to let go. "What am I, your security blanket?"
In response, she holds my arm closer.
I sigh in exasperation, giving up on regaining my arm. I instead decide to observe her more, this time for her changes over the years.
Her hair is slightly longer, going about to the base of her neck, but it's uneven; she's probably had to cut it herself. Her face is more defined and mature, although I can still notice a hint of a fang in her mouth. Although she's gotten taller, she's still about a head shorter than me. She's wearing what looks to be just a plain, pale blue dress(a frock I think? It's been altered somewhat) that's a bit torn and cut around the sleeves and the bottom. Despite all her changes, she's Satoko without a doubt.
"You sure have changed, Satoko." I chuckle.
She stirs slightly at my laugh, and her eyes slowly open. "Kei...ichi?" She mumbles sleepily, before her eyes suddenly widen. "Keiichi!" She shouts, sitting up quickly. "You're okay!" She breathes a sigh of relief.
"Of course! Who do you think I am?" I chuckle. "Is my arm a teddy bear or something?" I tease.
She looks confusedly to my arm before giving a small, "wah!", and quickly letting go. "I-I Just have a habit of grabbing onto things in my sleep, that's all!" She stutters in embarrassment.
"Right, right. How ladylike of you." I smirk.
"Sh-shut up!" She stutters again. Apparently her personality has remained completely the same after all this time. She crosses her arms and looks away angrily, so I decide to stop the teasing.
"Did you take me all the way back here? And bandage me up?" I ask.
She looks at me for a second, before looking away with a small frown. "Yeah, after making you like this in the first place." She replies bitterly.
"It's okay, Satoko."
"How is it okay!? What if you had died!?" She shouts. "I'd be all alone again, and it'd be my fault." I can hear her sniffling faintly.
I put my good arm around her shoulder, and pull her closer. "It's okay, Satoko. None of that happened. I'm okay."
"...Really?" She asks, turning to me with tears in her eyes. She looks doubtful, like she believes that I might disappear at any moment.
"Really." I smile at her. "I'm not going anywhere."
She sniffles again, and wipes her tears with her hand. "Thanks, Keiichi."
"And thank you for taking care of me after that!" I grin. "Even if you did a terrible job with the bandaging."
"You could have left that part out." She mutters under her breath, I choose to ignore it.
We both fall silent, unsure of what to say to the other. There's a huge wall of tension between us, I can feel it, but I won't let that stop me, not after all this time.
"What have you been doing all this time, Satoko? Where have you been?" I ask, surprising her with the direct question.
"..." She's silent for a moment, her expression grows dark.
"It's okay Satoko, you can tell me." I reassure her.
"....I haven't been anywhere. I've been here all this time." She speaks softly. "I never left this village, I stayed here." She repeats, sounding disbelieving herself.
I remain silent. I don't think there are any words that are suitable for something like this.
"All this time....How long has it been anyways? I stopped trying to keep up with it after a while, it became too depressing." She looks at me half-hopeful, half-dreading.
"....It's been about six years, I think." I watch her closely, but her expression is unreadable.
"I see...Six years is a pretty long time, isn't it?" She chuckles loudly, but it sounds off somehow; like it's forced. "I never thought something like this would happen in six years. That this is how everything would turn out." She jokes bitterly.
I put my hand on her shoulder, "But there's still more time, Satoko." I smile, despite my own similar feelings.
She stares at me for a second, before nodding and smiling faintly, "Thanks, Keiichi."
"Should you really be telling her words that not even you are sure of?" The voice laughs, and I freeze in shock.
"Keiichi?" Satoko looks at me with concern. She cautiously taps me on the arm, snapping me out of my daze.
"...Sorry." I mumble a quick apology, quickly trying to quell my fear.
She stares at me for a second, looking as if she wants to say something, but simply shakes her head instead. "Anyways, I'm sure you're wondering, wondering why I'm still alive, right?" She asks.
"Well, yeah." I admit, thankful not to be the one who brought it up.
"After....the bridge where....you know." She does her best to avoid a certain sore subject. "After that, I ran into the forest away from Hinamizawa. I don't know why even today, but I just needed to get away after....after all of that." She avoids eye contact, opting to look at anything in the room besides me. "After I managed to calm down, I came back. And...and..." She dies off slowly, and her hands grasp the hem of her dress tightly.
"You don't have to tell me right now. It's okay." It looks too painful for her to continue. I want to know so badly, but I don't want to cause her pain anymore. If it's for her sake, I'll be willing to wait.
"No!" She shouts suddenly, surprising me. "I want to tell you." She explains, her eyes pleading. "I'm okay now, see?" She puts on a rather forced-looking smile, but I decide to let her continue anyways.
"Okay, but I'll stop you if I think it's right." I warn.
She gives me a look of gratitude, and begins to talk again. "When I came back, everything was already over." She speaks each word slowly, but firmly.
"You mean...?" I ask, feeling the hope in the pit of my stomach fade.
"Yes, everyone was already dead, and I think they had been for a while already. There were already people taking away all the bodies; ambulances, police cars, all sorts of official vehicles." She explains, trembling slightly. "It was awful....seeing the twisted faces of everybody....it was too much." She grasps for the right words. "That, with everything that had already happened, was more than I could handle." She gives a visible shudder. "I think..." She pauses, and takes a deep breath, "I think I might have gone insane that day."
"Insane? What do you mean?" I ask.
"I stopped thinking altogether, and I blamed all of it on Oyashiro. He was out to get me, and it terrified me." She explains slowly. "But....Hinamizawa was the only thing I had left in the world, the only thing he hadn't taken from me. I couldn't abandon it, or I'd have nothing left!" She looks to me, begging me to understand her feelings.
"So you stayed." I nod my head.
"Yeah...it was all I could think of doing." She seems frustrated with herself, angry at her past foolishness.
"Don't beat yourself up over it. You were strong enough to overcome it, you just needed some help." I tell her, amazed at how she could live here for all this time. I personally think I wouldn't have made it, but you never know I suppose.
"Then I'm glad it finally came, even if it took years." She mock-glares at me. "What have you been doing all this time anyways?" She asks suddenly, setting me up with a curious stare.
I knew this question would come up eventually, but I was still hoping it wouldn't by some chance. Satoko's a good girl at heart, I didn't want to make her feel guilty, but I really can't lie my way out of this. "Well..." I begin slowly, hoping for some sort of distraction to come up. When one refuses to surface, I have no choice but to continue. "After I fell into the river," I explain, making sure to use the word "fell", "I guess I washed up on a riverbank somewhere. I was taken to a hospital, and I recovered there." I finish, leaving out a key detail.
"..." She's silent, staring into my eyes suspiciously. Despite my efforts to conceal it, she knows something's missing. "Why did it take you so long to come here?" She asks, not missing a beat.
"I like to procrastinate?" I feebly joke.
"Keiichi....How long were you in the hospital?" She asks in a deathly-calm voice.
"....I was there until just a couple days ago. I've been in a coma all this time." I finally admit.
"...!" She's completely silent, other than a small hitch in her breathing.
"Are you okay, Satoko?" I ask. Her silence gives me the impression that she's angry with me.
"I'm sorry." She apologizes suddenly, proving my fears wrong. "I did such a horrible thing to you, and you didn't deserve it, did you?" She speaks in a strained voice, head turned towards the ground. "You didn't kill Rika did you? You were never possessed by Oyashiro were you? You didn't actually do anything to deserve the terrible thing I did to you, right?"
".....No. At least, I don't think so." I answer. "But I'm not sure. I thought I killed your uncle, remember? And those deaths, the ones that I wished, what if they're really my doing?" I ask, feeling old fears resurface in the pit of my stomach.
"I know those deaths weren't your fault. I think that I've known that for some time now." She says slowly. "But that means that you've suffered for no reason, and it's all my fault." I can hear the sorrow in her tone. "People always suffer because of me. Rika, Nii-Nii, and even you have all suffered because of me."
"You know that's not true."
"Isn't it!? If I wasn't so stupid, you wouldn't have had to go through what you did!" She shouts. I see a few tears fall to the ground.
"If you didn't push me, then I wouldn't have been alive today, and you wouldn't have either." I pull her close to me again, holding my proof closely. "Despite what we've been through, we're still alive. And it's all thanks to you." I smile as I pull her trembling head against my chest.
"Thank you." Her muffled voice shakes. "Thank you, thank you, thank you..." She continues on repeatedly.
I just keep smiling, holding her tightly, and stroking her hair gently.
"No. Thank you, Satoko."
--
"We're almost there..." I mutter to myself absentmindedly.
The van bounces up and down slightly on the old road. It's rather annoying, being jostled constantly over every little pebble.
I twirl a lock of my hair angrily. "Can't this thing go any faster!?" I shout at the member driving the van.
I see him give a small jump. "It'd be dangerous on a road like this." He explains nervously.
I consider it for a second, and decide to resign the idea of tormenting him for pleasure. "...Fine." I sigh. I choose instead to occupy myself with the objective at hand. I can feel my blood rushing faster at the thought of finally accomplishing my true goal. "Keiichi Maebara...." I mutter to myself quietly.
To think that all my years of effort will finally bear their fruit, it pleases me to no end. This time it I won't there won't be any small oversights. This time I'll make sure of it! This time...!
I'm stopped by a sudden jolt of pain. I look down at my hands. I've pressed my nails to tightly into my palms, and blood slowly flows from the wounds.
I give a small sigh, and lift my hands up. The twin crimson streams each have an eerie kind of beauty as they run down my palms. I bring them closer, and quickly lap the warm stream from each. The taste is like copper, but not awful I suppose.
The van gives another small hop as it hits a bump, causing me to growl angrily. I can't believe that I have to make due with such worthless things. Even the number I control, the Yamainu, have diminished by a large number. But as soon as I get what I need, I'll never have to worry about problems like this ever again.
I won't let him slip away. I'll get what I need done, no matter what I have to sacrifice.
"I wonder if that old fool told the police about me." I chuckle to another member. "That would certainly be a problem."
"Our surveillance unit hasn't noticed anything particularly unusual." He sharply responds. "Only one person has stopped by, and he only seemed to be bringing his daughter for a play-date."
"Surveillance unit? How can you call just one member a unit?" I groan, bringing my hand to my forehead in exasperation. "For all we know, that man could have been with the police." I glare at him. ".....No matter," I sigh, "If he did tell the police, we'll find a way around it." I pause for a moment. "Maybe it would be best to take him out anyways, so we can be fully assured." I suggest.
"We don't have radio contact at the moment, but as soon as it's established, I'll send the word out." He answers sharply again, giving a quick salute.
"Good..." I press a hand to the glass of the window, and stare out at the familiar foliage passing by.
"I've become something not even human. Haven't I, Jirou?" I smile to myself bitterly.
Finally! It's Finally done! I'm really sorry people!
I had a few distractions as usual in writing this chapter, but there was a bigger problem overall. I spent a lot of time just studying the series, so I wouldn't mess up on too many areas. It wasted way too much time though, so in the end I just said "Screw it, I'm the one writing this story!" So I don't think I'll have to deal with that problem ever again.
Keiichi and Satoko finally have a peaceful moment together, good for them huh? If only Keiichi wasn't injured. Well it's not that bad in the first place, so whatever.
Takano's evil. Yep, definitely evil. Let's hope Dr. Miuchi can get away from this unscathed! Takano's last line shows some regret though? Is she completely evil? Or does she have some compassion deep down?
Please drop in a review, the ones this time brought me back from my slump, so they're always a big help. And I hope to see you all next time, which will be much sooner. And again, sorry.
