Note to readers (who might not know, just wanna be sure):
First off, if the words are italicized, they are most likely supposed to be in Japanese, or, the person speaking is talking in Japanese. OR, the person is thinking something to him/herself or having a flashback. If that's the case, then the regular font is supposed to be in Japanese; ex. The word "Japanese" is supposed to be in Japanese in this thought . . . bubble. (I'm not making sense, am I?)
I'd love to use actual Japanese words but what can I say? Atashi no Nihon-go taihen na sugoi, I think that would be it. I don't want to make any Japanese speaking folk cringe at the little Japanese I know. Well, maybe I can risk putting in a few genuine words, just tell me where I got wrong and I'll correct it ASAP. (which means I'll correct it the next time online.)
Second, sorry for the slow update, I'm juggling two fics (that includes this one) and my personal and school lives are quite a bit of a priority for the time being. Also, I was wrestling on whether or not I would have to change the script to get rid of script spoilers (my other way of saying that I only have the gist of the script in memory now and not word for word ). Not to mention the fact that my diskettes were mixed up with the laundry . . . grrrrrr.
And lastly, to answer some questions not yet asked, yes, I am using some rather popular Japanese names and surnames. Hey, can you blame me? I live in a country where practically nobody speaks the language.
Anyway, thanks for the reviews and I hope that you guys would like my story as it grows .
Also, the poor guy who ends up as the substitute sacrifice in the absence of twins is called the "Takeguchi", right? If not, please tell me, I don't want to embarrass myself to the game's fans. TT
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GLOSSARY AND TRIVIA (for terms that I think might not be in common use credit goes to Byakko's Recon for bringing up the idea.)
Do you guys know that you're supposed to drive on the left side of the road in Japan? (just so you know. )
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DISCLAIMER:
ALL CHARACTERS ARE MY PROPERTY EXCEPT THE CHARACTERS PRESENT IN THE ORIGINAL GAME/S (MIYU, MAYU, YAE, SAE, ETC – I HAVE YET TO RECALL THE REST ).
ANY RESEMBLANCE OF MY CHARACTERS TO ANY PERSON REAL OR FICTITIOUS IS MERELY COINCIDENCE AND I AM NOT LIABLE TO BE PSYCHIC IF SAID CHARACTER/S END UP BEING EXACTLY LIKE SAID PERSON/S.
THIS FIC IS ALSO LIABLE TO BE CORRECTED BY THE READERS SHOULD THEY UNANIMOUSLY INFORM THE WRITER OF HIS MISTAKE. I.E. PLOT IGNORANCE, COSTUMES, SCRIPT ERRORS, ETC.
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Awww crap, enough of my nattering. Enjoy the fic.
FATAL FRAME 2 FANFIC
EPILOGUE
Chapter 02: White Hair
SAITO MICHIKO
It was a good drive. It didn't have much traffic, not much pollution either. Yuriko was taking a nap on the passenger seat. Michiko couldn't resist a smile. Here comes another two months, she thought to herself.
"Kenji . . ." Yuriko murmured.
Michiko's smile grew even wider. So that's the boy's name. Yuriko must be dreaming about Michiko's next door neighbor. It was obvious from the start, but Yuriko denies any feeling she might have for the guy. Michiko can't blame her, the two of them have an ocean between them. Not to mention the fact that Kenji likes to tease Yuriko every so often to the point that, if memory serves, he ended up with a bloodied nose.
Of course her sister apologized after that, but Kenji just grinned and said that he should be the one apologizing.
Not wanting to interrupt Yuriko's sleep, Michiko reached out and pulled down the passenger's sun visor so that the glare from the street won't startle her awake. The two of them will have a lot of time in their hands anyway, wouldn't hurt if Yuriko would nap for a while.
Change POV
YURIKO DIAZ
"Hurry Sae! They're closing in on us!"
The dry leaves underneath them crunched with every frantic step. Her dark kimono ripped with every bramble they rushed through and the soles of her feet – her slippers fell off as they ran – bore many injuries from the thorns and twigs lying on the path. Sae, her twin sister, ran right behind her bore the same injuries and pain she was suffering.
"Yae."
The footsteps behind her suddenly slowed down. She looked behind her to see her sister had stopped.
"Sae!" she cried out but she kept on running, if only a little slower, "we have to hurry, we're almost there. They can't find us when we reach the place Itsuki told us about!"
But Sae didn't start running. Instead, there were tears falling down her eyes. "It's our fault they hurt him, Yae. We shouldn't have gone."
This time, she stopped and reached out with her hand. "Sae," she called, "we have to get away from here. I don't want to send you to that horrible place down at the caves!"
"If you won't come back with me, Yae, but I must do it, there is no other way I know to save the village from the Repentance. But if you must, go . . . sister . . . live."
"Noooo!" she started for her sister, but her skirt caught on a bramble keeping her from moving forward. "Come with me, Sae!"
But her sister turned and ran back to All Gods Village.
Yuriko found herself to be the only thing if full color in a village that was in black, white, and red. The glow from the lanterns gave off their eerie gray light as she felt the urge to follow the group of people escorting a girl to a big house beyond a long bridge.
Flash.
Bells.
Or at least it sounded like bells. When she peeked around the corner, she saw men with their faces covered with paper amulets hitting their staffs tipped with bronze ring on the ground. That was where the sound came from. They were chanting something in Japanese but the words were too quickly spoken together and so archaic that to Yuriko, it all sounded like mush.
"Sae,"
Yuriko can understand and speak Japanese but . . . that name! She knows that name . . . but from where?
She looked to the center of the cave and saw a great hole. A girl was standing on a plank placed above the pit. A man was holding her hand.
"Yes, father?" the girl's face was determined. But fear still pushed through her courageous mask.
"This has never been done before, it is most likely to fail. Why won't we just wait for another stranger to come to the village? Surely, one will come soon." The man seems to be gripping the girl's hand.
"Yae will come to us, father, to do the Crimson Ritual with me. But even if she is too late, or even if she won't come, I must do this . . . it is for the village, father."
Yuriko suppressed a gasp when she saw two men, hunched-back from numerous gashes on their bodies threw a rope on a pole lying above the pit. What was more disturbing about them though, were their eyes.
They had no eyes.
"You are the bravest girl I know, my daughter." The man said.
"I love you, father. Please don't hate Yae when she comes back and please tell her that I also love her too." The girl was crying.
The scene made Yuriko want to go to the girl and hold her.
Her hands were bound behind her. The noose was tightened around the girl's neck.
"Yae."
And the girl looked at the gathered people.
No.
She looked straight at her.
"Yae, you came."
The fine hairs on the back of Yuriko's neck stood on end at the girl's smile. Her heart pounded at an inexplicable intensity and a chill rushed up and down her spine when their eyes met.
But before Yuriko could respond to the girl's call, Sae jumped into the pit. The rope snapped tight, the wooden pole bent on the sudden weight but it didn't even crack. Sae's long hair bounced and whipped from her back to the front, covering her face. Blood splashed down on the front of her kimono as she coughed out blood from her broken windpipe.
Her struggle was quick and it was only from suffocation.
And she was dead.
The chanting continued. The staffs kept on pounding.
Was there something else?
Is there something else to expect?
The people didn't even bother to get a glimpse of her as she closed the distance between her and the pit and the swinging body above it. She reached out. She tried to touch the girl's limp form.
But the rope was cut, and the body fell down into the pit.
"NOOOOOO!" Yuriko screamed as she rushed forward to catch the girl but she tripped and fell. She was afraid that she might fall down into that pit as well, but she hit the ground a few feet away from the opening.
Curiosity conquered Yuriko's senses and she slowly crawled closer.
She can only look down into it. Try as she might, she couldn't pull her eyes from slowly looking down into the endless dark before her.
Pained moans and bloodcurdling screams echoed from below. An unnaturally cold wind blew from the pit. The earth shook.
She looked down . . . she looked all the way down.
But something was coming up from the abyss. Something she couldn't see but rather feel. Something . . .evil.
And when she saw it . . . she screamed.
The car screeched to a sudden halt and jerked Yuriko awake. She quickly forgot what she was dreaming about as surprise quickly replaced her terror.
But why was she afraid?
And why is she in a cold sweat?
Was it just a dream?
What did she dream?
Yuriko tried to remember, but she couldn't, and she quickly dismissed it as another dream.
"Michiko, what's wrong?" Yuriko asked while rubbing away what little sleep remained in her eyes.
"Darn cat got in the way. Almost ran it over." her sister replied. She then took a look at Yuriko's face, "You OK? You look as though you've seen a ghost."
Yuriko shook her head as the car started to move again. "It's nothing, I just had a bad dream, I think."
"You 'think'?" Michiko answered flatly.
Yuriko rubbed her eyes with a thumb and forefinger. "I don't know anymore, I'm just too tired, that's all. Maybe it's just jetlag."
Michiko sighed. "Alright, if you say so." After a pause, her sister added with a grin, "So, are you going to meet with Kenji after we get home?"
That jerked her awake. "Why do you say that!" she exclaimed with a perplexed frown on her face.
Her sister grinned with a mock evil chuckle rising from her throat. "Ohhhh, I don't know. Maybe because you were saying his name while you were taking a nap."
"I did not!" Yuriko protested. That wasn't what she was dreaming about! Is she sure? Then what was her dream?
Michiko still kept on grinning while her eyes returned to watching the road ahead. The traffic wasn't thick today, lucky for all of them because Michiko wasn't that good a driver as Yuriko observed. Her sister kept on going to the right side of the road. "If you say so." Was Michiko's nonchalant reply.
Yuriko leaned her head on the car window and started thinking on the way.
What was she dreaming about?
She thought about it as the car sped on the freeway.
Change POV
YAMASHITA KENJI
"Iaaaaaaaaaaa!" the girl screamed with all her might as he came closer to her. His hands bloodied with whatever remained of their other dorm mates. She was the only one left to kill. The knife in his hand was steady no matter how much his fingers twitched with the excitement.
She inched away from him. Her tear-filled, big, dark eyes stared at him with stark terror. Her friends' bodies littered every inch of the room. He wanted her to see this. He wanted her to know what was coming.
"Yamite kudasai!" Her face was so beautiful, with her hair framing her almost round face. The way the lines folded on the middle of her brow. The folds of her skin between her cheeks and her wide open and trembling lips. The way her shoes slipped the floor while her sailor-style white school uniform matted to her skin with blood, showing off the curves of her body in a surprisingly indecent manner. Every detail was enticing to him. Every moment was priceless.
He raised the knife.
She can find no escape.
He will have her memory forever with him.
In the end she will thank him.
Her screams fill his ears.
And he plunged the blade down.
"Aaaand . . . cut! Print it!" the American director cried out in his rudimentary Japanese.
Kenji sighed and dropped the fake knife on the floor. The smell of the fake blood all around him wasn't exactly . . . pleasant. He extended his hand towards the extra to help her up. The red goop all over the floor wasn't giving any extra traction and her shoes might slip. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to be a gentleman, after all.
"Daijobu, Kai-chan?" he said, "you took quite a fall on that last part."
Kayako seemed to have blushed, but Kenji doubted it though, that red stuff got smeared all over her cheeks. Not to mention the fact that Kayako was also known as the class "Ice Queen", the meaning of that was probably obvious enough when she looks at boys.
Too bad, really, Kenji knew a few guys who would do anything to be with a girl who looked like her and a few more he knew were only up to no good. Lucky forKayako though,most of the guys in the senior years looked out for her like a little sister. That would mean company on the walk home, conversations on the way to the cafeteria, and a whole lot of stuff that won't let her alone in a place where Kenji's classmates judged to be unsafe for a girl like her.
He would know because he was one of those guys who looked out for her. Although, Kenji admits to himself, he used to be one of her stalkers. What could he do at the time? The school crush was really that hot.
"I'm fine, thank you, Kenji." She said as she took his hand. Then, Kayako wiped off some of the fake blood on her face with the back of her hand. "You're a very good actor, for High School kid."
Kenji let out a shy laugh. "I could say the same for you, eighth grader." He said with a smile.
He worked part time as an actor. He's not famous, really, but he acts, and that's enough for some people. Although he does have a knack in convincing a few producers into including his friends in some of their films – B-movies, but at least they get to be in front of the camera.
For the meantime, he's doing an American style horror movie. However, Kenji doesn't get how this kind of movie could be so scary to westerners though; there's not much in it other than blood and breasts.
"Kenji." Kayako's voice interrupted his strain of thought.
"Eh?"
"You spaced out on me again." She said with one of those mysterious smiles of hers. To tell the truth, on a face like hers, that smile wasn't exactly . . . fitting . . . disconcerting was more of the word.
"Ano . . . gomen." He apologized with a bow.
"Penny for your thoughts?" she asked.
He tried to find the words to say. It took a few moments but at least he got to say them before Kayako could say he spaced out again. "Yuriko is coming to visit today."
That smile of hers grew even wider. "Ahhh . . . soh des ka."
"What does that mean!" he replied with a hint of indignation.
Kayako craned her neck so her face can come closer to him. Really, she may only be five feet two and he five feet five, she still has a way of making those eyes of hers bigger that what should be humanly normal . . . creepy . . . especially after watching Ju-on just last Sunday.
"Nothing. I was just interested in the way your face changes every time you say her name." She replied
"What?" Kenji answered back, "it's just that I rarely get to have a chance to talk to foreigners – I mean – people outside the country, you know. I seem to get better information from Yuriko about the Philippines that I get from just the tour books, that's all."
Kayako . . . giggled . . . she creeps him out when she does that. "There it is again."
Kenji sighed in exasperation. There's just no winning an argument against her.
Kayako then proceeded for the snack table after being handed a towel by a crewmember. Before she went from him, though, she turned around with an appraising look and said, "By the way . . . nice hair."
For the fourth time today, Kenji consciously ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair that was tied back at the base of his neck. "Really?" he asked.
Kayako just bowed at him and she proceeded for the food.
Kenji stole a look at the standing mirror just a few feet away from the set. Really though, even at this distance, his newly dyed hair still won't make him look like an old man . . . fortunately.
Something he saw at the mirror caught his eye, forcing him to come closer. Something red was on his neck.
It was strange, the way the fake blood smeared on his skin. It was as if a butterfly was stamped on him. Maybe the red stuff splashed on him on that last scene and he forgot about it . . . maybe. With the collar of his costume, he wiped off the blood from his neck and with the back of his hand, pulled back a strand of white hair from his eyes.
Without much of a second thought, he went straight for the snack table.