Knowing that Akane is controlled by Azami, Yoshitatsu has come to a conclusion: the doll must die. The doll knows what he is planning and, against Akane's pleas, plans to kill him. Akane eventually succumbs to her sister's orders, proving her statement "I can't kill anyone anymore," wrong.
Chapter 5- Departure
"That is not a doll…" Yoshitatsu Kiryu muttered to himself, feebly grasping the roughly cut dolomite stone that hung around his neck. "It is not my child, either…it is a ghost…I must kill it…even if it looks like my child…I must kill it…the arms, head…where did you hide them?"
He stared around his dingy workroom. Nothing could help him; nothing in this room would help him. But he knew what he had to do; he had to kill the doll. The only problem now was, how? Without the doll parts, he couldn't get down to the X, and without getting down there he couldn't be rid of the doll.
"Useless," he said quietly.
His hands stretched against the table and they fell onto several sheets of paper he had written on in the past 48 hours. He picked the top one and read:
The doll's soul is needed to make the mechanism work. I could create the other parts again, but I could never duplicate that soul. I can't let that hellish creature get its hands on the soul.
The soul is the key! I'll have to keep it safe with me...
Yoshitatsu searched through his other writings in the pile of loose papers. Nothing could help him here either…nothing.
His hands then fell on his doll making notes, the notes of the Azami doll creation, and he reread over them with weary eyes. Two whole days of seclusion in his workroom, he was tired, hungry, but that didn't matter to him…he just wanted to save his daughter from the doll's ensnarement. He flipped over to the fourth page and found the document of his encounter with Azami's spirit. Only at the bottom of the page did he find what he had forgotten:
They're hidden in a box, somewhere in the house.
He smiled, but it slowly faltered into a frown. 'Boxes…around the house…that could be anywhere, we've never properly cleared out portions of the house…there are many boxes…and the doll, following me everywhere I go…there's no way that I'll find the parts, but rebuilding them will take days…days that Akane doesn't have…'
"Father is very stubborn, don't you agree, sister?"
"Uh-uhm."
"I wonder when he'll leave his room, do you, sister?"
"Hm-hmm."
Azami's glass eyes swiveled in the sockets, her eyelids narrowing to show her contempt toward her sister for trying escape from her hold over her. "Father wants to kill me…you'll allow it, sister? You'll allow him to kill me again?"
Akane's head slowly lifted, her black hair a curtain shadowing her face from her twin's sight. Their room was dimly lit, the two lamps in the center of their room the only light that held back the darkness. Akane's pallor was the same as it had been, if not worse, when her father had shut himself in his room. Her voice was weaker, but it still held her unnatural shrillness. Akane marveled at how her sister had changed. She had started to hate her sibling now; she was almost foreign to her even though she resembled her physically. Her voice had changed drastically, the cheerfulness was replaced by coldness, her happiness was now anger…the frail figure wearing the same purple kimono, with black hair shrouding the blue eyes…was not her sister…not the sister Akane remembered…not the sister that she loved…it was another being. But Akane forced herself to believe it to be her sister, no matter if she was changed. 'She came back to me…she'll stay with me…'
"Akane?" the doll asked skeptically, shifting her weight. "You wish that father will kill me? Do you!"
"Nm-mm." Akane shook her head side to side fervently, not wanting to upset her sister further.
"Will you do whatever I tell you to prevent him from doing this?"
Akane paused, sitting completely still. 'What does she mean?'
"Sister? Will you?" Azami pressured.
"I…don't…I don't…I don't know…"Akane whispered, finally speaking.
Azami stood up, not as awkward as before, now confident in walking normally despite the fact that her limbs were not flesh. She circled the room, wringing her hands and craning her neck to the sides which still made odd noises. Her irritability now made Akane nervous and she shrunk into the shadow of her mirror stand. Azami didn't notice this; she continued to walk, thinking of her father. 'If he's so determined to be rid of me, he'll have to leave his room sometime to look for the missing mechanism parts…'
"…that would leave him vulnerable…" Azami continued as Akane watched her wondering what she meant.
Azami stopped and turned toward her sister, still able to see her outline in the light. Her lips curved into a smile and Akane, sensing her joy, smiled back, not knowing what she was smiling about.
Yoshitatsu pressed his ear against the door. He could hear the doll speaking to Akane, angrily, from the sound of it. He sighed and quietly backed away, going to the stairway hall. He stood by the door and thought about which way he should go, up or to the right? He decided to go up because the twins' other door leads to the hall of contrasts and he didn't want them to know he had left. Carefully he climbed the stairs and went to the other door at the end of the hall. As he passed the open doorway, he briefly remembered his wife, Akane, dying on that very floor. Shaking the thought from his mind, he went through the door into the stair room.
He wandered around haplessly, looking in the boxes by the door and in the hall, but no head nor arms. He was about to go into the small room filled with many kimono boxes but stopped as he heard footsteps behind him. Yoshitatsu spun around quickly, seeing one of the girls just behind him. The girl looked up, slowly with her head clicking awkwardly, and her arms rose, making the same clicking noise. Yoshitatsu sidled past her as she rushed into the wall behind him, stumbling but recovering quickly.
"Father…" it whispered, standing up. "You won't kill me…sister will not lose me again."
"Demon," he hissed as he hurried down the flight of stairs, the girl watching him at the top of the landing.
Yoshitatsu half ran to his workroom and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. The older man tried to catch his breath, but it was almost impossible. He slid down the door, and leaned against it. Just outside the door he could hear the doll's childish ringing laughter, causing his heart to race. He jumped up, almost falling into the screen, but catching himself. Sighing, he went to his work table and pushed the papers aside, looking for a clean sheet. Finding the paper, he grabbed his stylus and wrote his thoughts:
First, I have to kill the doll by hanging it. Then I must throw it into the X. It knows this and is controlling, Akane, trying to kill me. I have to throw it in, even if seeing the X blinds me. My daughter must die again...and Akane must relive the pain of losing her sister.
If we didn't have this ritual, no one would have to feel that kind of pain...
"I have to try again…for Akane's sake…I have to finish this…"
1 day later
Akane shifted restlessly against the wall. Azami was a few feet away, standing on the other side of the door. She watched her and Akane knew that she was making sure she wouldn't run or back out. Last night, Azami had told her what had to be done if they were to stay together forever.
"Father still wishes to kill me."
"I know."
"I don't want to leave you, Akane." Her sister said, in a sad voice, startling Akane.
"I don't want you to leave again, either." Akane said, still amazed that Azami was finally showing a different mood than anger. "I never wanted you to leave…you know that."
"Yeah, I know."
"But father brought you back!" Akane said excitedly. "You remember that day, don't you? I was happy, you were happy…"
"…father was happy." Azami whispered, finishing her sister's sentence. "But now, now he hates me."
"He doesn't hate you!" Akane shouted, indignant. "He'd never hate you, just like I would never hate you."
"That's not exactly true, is it sister?" Azami said, with a hint of her old anger in her voice.
"Wh…what? Of course that's true! I'd never hate you!"
"I can tell what you feel, Akane." Azami said, sharply. "Every time that you're near me now, you shake, your eyes show the hate you hold toward me, just like father's."
"No!" Akane said, with a twinge of guilt. "I…only acted like that because…I was afraid. You were so angry…and you were never angry. I hated that you were angry that's all. I hated the way you were acting, not you yourself."
"That's all?" Azami said, sadly again.
"Yeah! I don't hate you!"
"Father…"
"…doesn't hate you, either!"
"But he wants me to die, sister." Azami muttered, coldly at first but spoke sadly again. "If that's not hate…what is?"
Akane stopped. She didn't know what to say to that. Instead she whispered, "Should we leave?"
"He'll come looking for us."
"Then…what should we do?"
Azami smiled under her black sheet of hair, convinced that she had gotten control back over her sister. "If he has his way, he'll kill me any day and throw me back into the Abyss."
Akane shuddered, both at the thought of the large hole and that her sister had not called it by 'X', as was the case with the villagers. "I hid the parts, he can't go back there."
"That way, he can't. But there are other ways."
"Bu…but…bu…" Akane sputtered, not knowing what she should say. After a minute, she decided to ask Azami the question again, hopefully getting a straight answer. "What should we do?"
"What do you think should be done?" Azami asked, trying her hardest not to laugh outright.
"I still like the running away idea, Azami." Akane muttered, shuffling her feet.
"It won't work." Azami snapped again. "He'll find us. The best way…the only way…is…to be rid of him."
"Be rid of him?" Akane repeated blankly. "What…what's that mean?"
Azami stopped smiling at what her sister said. 'She's so…dense. She honestly can't think of what that meant? Well, she is young. If our roles were switched, I guess I would have no idea what it meant either. How to say this?'
"Well…"Azami said, trying to dumb down the explanation for her sister. "You…you rid yourself of me…you rid yourself…of mother…"
"Kill father?" Akane gasped, feeling a sinking in her stomach. "No…no I said that I wouldn't kill anyone anymore, I can't kill anyone anymore!" She grasped her stone necklace.
"You'd rather lose me again?"
"N…no. I…I don't want to lose you again, but I don't want to lose father either."
"He'll die someday!" Azami shouted, raising her arms and making the strange noises again. "Why not now? Why not by his own daughter?"
Akane shook her head back and forth so fast that when she stopped she was slightly dizzy. "No! I don't want that!"
Azami let a small hiss escape her lips. 'I was so close! How long is she going to defy me? Stupid brat!'
"But…there's gotta be another way," Akane pleaded. "Azami…there's another way, right?"
Azami shook her head. 'How long do I have to say this to you? There isn't another way!'
"We'll be in so much trouble when we're caught." Akane said quietly.
"What makes you say we'll get caught?" Azami asked, smiling slightly. "We'll leave the village. Through the shrine…we'll get out."
"And…we'll stay together?" Akane asked.
"Never part." Azami said, nodding. "You just have to do this and we'll stay together…"
Clattering from behind the door made Akane jerk back to reality. She looked over at Azami and wondered if she was sleeping. Her head was down, her chin had to have fallen onto her chest, and she wasn't moving. Akane resisted the urge to brush away the hair hiding her sister's face as more sounds could be heard in the workroom. She couldn't explain, even to herself, what possessed her to go through this. It made no sense, but Azami said that it would be alright, they'd stay together, which is all that Akane wanted. Her father had to die.
"Father has to die." Akane murmured, trying to reassure herself that what was going to happen was fine.
"That's right, sister." Azami's voice muttered from behind her impenetrable black hair.
More noises from inside the workroom. Moonlight from an open window splashed onto the floor, stopping at Akane's feet. She watched it, half interested. Finally, the door creaked open and out stepped her father in a shabby grey kimono. He was about to close the door, but stopped at seeing the small shadow of Akane in front of him, not seeing that the doll was just behind the door. Fearing it was Azami, he stepped back, but Azami stuck out her foot making him trip and fall to the hard floor with a crash. She closed the door slowly behind him, and Akane bore down over her father.
"Ak…Akane…what are you doing?" Yoshitatsu asked shakily as his daughter raised her hands in front of her.
"You're not killing Azami…not again." She said quietly, wrapping her small fingers around his throat.
"Azami? Akane, that's not your sister," he spoke quickly, even though Akane started to press her hands harder into her father's throat. "That's not Azami! It's a doll, controlled by a spirit, an evil spirit! It's controlled you for weeks! Listen, don't do this…"
His voice became weaker, but he still talked to Akane in a frantic murmur. He tried to move, but he was pinned against the wall. Turning his head slightly, he could see the doll holding tightly onto him. Despite her size, she was stronger than was thought. The doll laughed as her father's eyes started to roll up into his head and his voice slowly dying away into nothing.
Yoshitatsu Kiryu, gifted dollmaker and loving father, died by his Remaining daughter and his possessed creation. The road to hell was paved with good intentions…
About time! This chapter had confused me with where I should have gone with it, but I think it came out decent. Well, next chapter will be up 'soon'.
Ah, right, can't forget this! Thanks to fire-emblem-girl for your comments!