This should be the last chapter of the Spirited Away By Demons arc, and wow…I didn't know a four-episode arc could be stretched out so very long. But I just HAD to, to include all of the properly scary parts and whatnot. Hopefully I'll get better at compacting it as I go along. Fingers crossed!
June 26, 2014
3rd Person POV:
Keiichi paused as he was walking home from school. Something felt off…again. He turned slightly, then darted into the cover of the forest, hiding behind a tree and peeking out to see what had alarmed him. He swallowed hard. Rena was softly walking along, carrying that gigantic hatchet in her hands. Her eyes had the telltale cold gleam that made him gulp and duck back behind the tree again. "Why is she carrying a hatchet?" he whispered to himself. He glanced out again, and gasped when Rena was revealed to be gone. He felt a breath of air behind him and froze. "Found you, Keiichi-kun." Rena purred, and he gasped and whipped around. "What do you want?!" he stammered. "We go home the same way." she chuckled, and he raised a shaking finger. "Then what's with that hatchet?!" She didn't respond. "What?!" he tried again, and she suddenly burst into laughter.
Wild, psychotic laughter.
She suddenly stopped without even inhaling once, and smirked coyly at him. "Keiichi-kun, isn't something bothering you? I know you're scared." He flinched, then swallowed hard. "No, I'm not." She sighed blankly. "When Satoshi-kun "transferred out", I really regretted it. I kept wondering what would've happened if I had tried to give him some advice." His grip tightened on the bat and he burst out "Transferred out"?! You mean spirited away by demons, right?!" He made a violent gesture with the hand not gripping the bat. "Which one of you got rid of him?! You?! Mion!? Or was it someone else from the village?! Answer me!" She tilted her head to the side with a slight smile. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He tensed. "Then I'll tell you! Who caused all those freak deaths?!" he snarled, and she lost the slight smile, bowing her head. "You misunderstood, Keiichi-kun. There is no human culprit…" She tilted her head back up with the bright smile he was used to, but with the wrong eyes and the wrong aura about her. This was not Rena. This was something else. "Oyashiro-sama decides everything." He stomped his foot like a child. "The curse of Oyashiro-sama is nothing but superstition!" he hissed, and her smiled slipped again into the blank expression that seemed natural to her when in this state. "You don't believe in Oyashiro-sama?"
"How can I?!"
"Oyashiro-sama exists. Keiichi-kun, have you ever had someone apologize to you the whole time? The whole…time…" His eyes widened as he remembered the events of the night before, the way she stood in the rain and endless repeated "I'm sorry", over and over and over again. She slowly began to step forward, stiffly, almost like a puppet. "Oyashiro-sama came to me. That's why I transferred out and the came back to Hinamizawa. I'm the only one who can help you." she whispered, coming so close that he backed up against the tree to avoid physical contact. "I won't let you "transfer out." she purred, bringing the hatchet up as he swallowed in fear. "So, talk to me." she murmured as the sharp edge stopped uncomfortably close to his throat, and he shifted. "About w-what?" She took another step closer and leaned up to him. "I'll hear you out…I can help you…so, talk to me." She whispered, her mouth coming within inches of his, then leaned back and began to laugh wildly again.
He shoved her away as she landed in the ground with a thud, her hatchet clattering out of her hands, and ran as her laughter momentarily cut off from the impact. Her unabated giggles chased him down the road and into the woods, rising to fully-fledged, insane laughter once more. He ran faster than he ever had in life from the utter panic, then skidded to a stop as two men in similar working uniforms like the man in the truck that had tried to run him over stepped out of the woods. They nodded to each other, and he spluttered in shock and darted away as they both suddenly lunged at him, running back the way he had come in a fog of terror. "What the hell is going on?!" he stammered in panic, then jerked back as one grabbed the strap of his school bag. He spun around, lashing out at them with his bat, and they both backed away. Adrenaline coursed through him from fear, running, and the exhilaration of remembering he wasn't exactly without a weapon. "What do you want!?" he panted, tensing his legs. "The next swing's going right to your faces, bitches!" he shouted dumbly, and their eyes shifted behind him. He looked, and his eyes widened as a third man was revealed, also dressed in the plain workmen's uniform, brandishing a thick length of wood. He was too late to stop it as the wood swung down on his skull.
***Time Skip***
Keiichi whipped upright, panting hard. He wasn't dead! Then he winced and raised a hand to the back of his head. Although his skull hurt… "You should lie down." He shook, glancing to the side to see Rena smiling at him gently. She was sitting at the side of his futon, and he blearily realized that they were inside his room, inside his house. "Rena…" he mumbled, and she smiled. "I called the doctor, so he should be here soon." He gritted his teeth. "Why are you here?!" he asked angrily, but blinked as the doorbell rang and the door opened and closed. "I'm coming in!" Min's voice called from below, and his body seized up. "Mion? Why?" Rena looked sheepish. "Your parents weren't home, so I called her." His door suddenly opened, revealing Mion. "Hey! You look fine! Looks like you didn't need anyone to worry about you." She closed the door behind her as Rena blinked. "Ashes-chan isn't coming in?"
Mion sat down with a dramatic groan. "Eh, you know how she is about other people's homes. She barely stopped by long enough to drop Kei-chan off and let me thank her. That reminds me, Rena, did you call the coach?" She nodded. "Yeah. I called him right after I called you, he said he'll be right over." Keiichi shifted uneasily. "What coach?" Mion laughed. "You don't know? When I say "coach", I mean THE coach. You got into baseball recently, right? When the coach hears about that, he'll be overjoyed!" she said happily, and Rena nodded. "Yeah!"
Keiichi gritted his teeth. "So, who's this coach?" Rena laughed this time. "The coach is the coach." He felt his anger spike once more. "But who is he?!" They both laughed in unison, and hairs rose on the back of his neck as he realized they were exactly in tune, and it was just like the freakish laughs Rena had made earlier. "What are you…" Mion stopped first. "I know! Let's do the punishment game before the coach comes." she said cheerfully, and he swallowed. "Punishment game?" Rena stood slowly. "You forgot about…the ohagi homework assignment." She murmured as her eyes turned flat and cold, and he glanced up at her uneasily as she circled behind him. "What?" She suddenly caught him under the arms in a vise-like grip, preventing him from escaping. "What are you doing?!" he shouted in panic, noticing Mion's eyes were catlike as well.
"Don't move. This is the punishment game." she said, standing up with a snicker and pulling a syringe out of her pocket, uncapping it with a wicked chuckle. "What the hell is that?!" he spat, writhing in Rena's grip best he could, but he could get nowhere. "What are you trying to do!?" She lost the smirk, her eyes gleaming. That was what he hated most about those eyes, the way they stared. The eyes twinkled with evil inner mischief, and yet their faces were blank, like they were hypnotized. But the eyes…the eyes… "You should know, Kei-chan." "Mion" said as she squirted a little bit of the clear fluid out of the needle. "What? What should I know!" he shouted, anger mixing with the fear now. She chuckled darkly, and his eyes dilated with fear as he remembered something about Tomitake. "We suspected he was under the influence of narcotics, but the tests came up clean." He struggled frantically as she knelt beside him. "Give up already." She grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm towards her, lowering the needle. "St…stop!"
"STOP!"
Everything began to blur.
Mion.
Rena.
Smiling.
Friends.
Fear.
Anger.
Kill.
At one point he realized he had his bat in hand, and at another he realized the light wasn't working anymore, and broken glass was raining down on his shoulders. He also noticed that neither of them were moving, but also that he couldn't stop slamming the bat into their bodies over and over and over again, trying to physically pound the fear away. His face ran with sweat, and he could feel each and every impact shudder up the metal of the bat and into his hands as bones and flesh bruised and cracked under the repeated blows. He finally managed to stop, holding the bat out in front of him. It slipped from his fingers, rolling on the bloodied cloth of his futon. So dark…so much blood… He panted in the dark room, his eyes unseeing.
Blood.
He fell to his knees, feeling wet, sticky warmth on his clothing, and a slow trickle on his face. A car skidded to a stop in his driveway, and he twitched, his eyes darting to the window. "They're here…" He crawled to the doorway, pulling his clock down and tearing the paper off the back. He added some more writing to the pathetically short message. "Rena, Mion, and probably Shōkyaku Ashes are part of the team that committed the murders. There are also four or five other adults involved. They have a white van. Tomitake-san's death was due to some unknown drug. The proof is in the attached syringe." He looked up as the doorbell began ringing, and hung the clock back on the wall. He looked sadly at the battered bodies of his friends, and felt the tears begin to fall. "Why…why did it have to end like this?" he choked, wiping his face with his arm and turning, running out of the room and out of his house.
***Time Skip***
"Oishi-san! You have a call holding on an outside line." The policeman sat in his chair with a sigh. "Thanks." he said as he picked up the receiver, and the man nodded. "They're calling from a public phone." he put in as Oishi clicked "talk". "Oishi speaking. Hello?" he asked, and blinked. "O-Oishi-san?" He concealed his surprise. "Maebara-san? Did anything happen?" Keiichi's only response was some garbled nonsense, and Oishi hurriedly began writing something down. "What happened?" he asked in alarm, taking down the location of the call. "I…I…" He held up the piece of paper, silently signaling for the man who had informed him of the call to get a car out there. "Please stay calm, Maebara-san. I'm sending a police officer to your location. I'm on the way, too."
"I-it won't do any good…there's no time…"
The man stood up and handed him a piece of paper. Only one phone booth in Hinamizawa. Sent out a patrol car. Will take 5 minutes. "Please stay calm, Maebara-san." he said as he read it, adding "Please explain the situation to me." He glanced up at the man impatiently. "That's too long! How many are on patrol!" The man swallowed. "Two." He tapped a finger against the desk urgently. "Did you call the officer stationed in Hinamizawa?" The man shook his head. "He's out on his regular patrol." Oishi glanced to the side. "Kuma-chan! Get the car ready!" Kuma stood up instantly. "Yes sir!" Oishi returned his attention to the phone. "Hello, Maebara-san? An officer is on his way. He'll arrive in two or three minutes. Maebara-san, who did it?! How many of them are there?!"
"I…I thought humans were behind it. But…now I think…no, now I know Oyashiro-sama exists." he choked out, and Oishi swallowed. "Maebara-san…" Keiichi started coughing, wet, racking coughs. "He follows right behind me...I run, and run, and run, and run, but he sticks to me like my shadow…And little by little, he creeps closer to me…" he wheezed, and Oishi tightened his grip on the phone. "Maebara-san, right now…is he…?" he tentatively asked, and Keiichi let out a racking cough. "He's…right…behind me…" he gasped, and Oishi slammed a fist down on the desk. "Who's there?!" he asked frantically, and Keiichi gritted his teeth. "There's no way I'm turning around! If I do, I'll…I'll…" Oishi stood up in his anxiety and anger. "I know you're afraid, but I want you to tell me! Just glance back a little! Who's behind you?!"
Keiichi started making harsh cries of pain, and there was a sick, wet tearing sound. Oishi's eyes widened. "Maebara-san, you're not scratching at your throat, are you?" Keiichi grabbed weakly at the glass, but his hand slid down, leaving a bloody print. He continued to try and gasp for air, choking on his own blood. "Hello?! Maebara-san! Maebara–" Keiichi slumped against the wall of the phone booth. "I–…s–…" The phone line went dead as Oishi stared at his desk, in shock. "The car's ready, Oishi-san! Oishi-san!" Kuma said urgently, and Oishi slowly took the phone away from his ear. "I'm sorry?" he repeated softly, in shock.
***Time Skip***
June, 1983:
A double homicide involving two schoolgirls took place in the Hinamizawa section of Shishibone City. The prime suspect is Maebara Keiichi. He invited two of his classmates, Ryugu Rena and Sonozaki Mion, into his house and beat them to death with a metal bat. The suspect fled the scene of the crime. And an officer on patrol found him in a phone booth. The suspect died in the hospital twenty-four hours later. The autopsy revealed that he died from shock induced by blood loss. It appears that he tore at his own throat with his fingernails, then when that failed, used a large piece of broken glass or a knife to stab himself, barely missing his heart. There is no evidence of drug use.
A note written by the suspect was later found in his room. The note consists of two sections of paper ripped out of a notebook. It was taped to the back of a clock. It is assumed that the two sections actually came from a larger sheet of paper, but the middle portion has been torn out to suppress information. And from the excess amount of tape, it is speculated that something else was also originally taped to the back of the clock. These are the contents of the note:
"I, Maebara Keiichi, am being hunted by someone. I don't know who or what is trying to kill me. But I do know that it has something to do with the curse of Oyashiro-sama. Rena and Mion, and probably Shōkyaku Ashes are part of the team that committed the murders. There are also four or five other adults involved. They have a white van." And this is the second half… "I don't know how it came to this. If you are reading this, I'm probably already dead. To whoever's reading this…please learn the truth. That's all I wish for. –Maebara Keiichi."
When investigating the only named living suspect, Shōkyaku Ashes, it was revealed that her home had been searched and the occupant was found, recently deceased. Autopsy reveals she had mistakenly eaten poisonous berries instead of a usual meal. Her sleeves and hands were covered in blood, however a human match could not be found. It is theoretically possible that she had killed an animal, however it was unlikely, as she ate the berries instead of the meat from the carcass. She left no note, and it is also unlikely it was a suicide; however the option has not yet been officially ruled out.
Oishi sighed, looking at the pages. Such a waste.
4.47 PM, USA Central Time
