hey so skip the italic writing if you dont want to hear my tragic backstory with shiki. Hi if anyone is there (haha get it cause the fandom is literally dead *-*)i watched shiki like more than a year ago actually but it really impacted me so i went ahead and even read the light novel recently because i kept on coming back to it. Suprisingly for me this is more because of the characters than the plot. Sure the plot is amazing. It is so well written (i actually loved how slow paced it was, made everything that happened even more impactful ) but the characters and the interactions (especially in the light novel) felt sooo real. All of the characters have relatable traits and even the ones that i could not relate to, i could think of people that had similar personalities to them that i know in real life. This sense of realness made the story even more tragic for me so i just wasn't able to forget about it and the worst part is THE LIGHT NOVELS TRANSLATION HASN'T BEEN UPDATED IN SOO LONG meaning idk what happens at the end sighh honestly i am very thankful someone even bothered to translate it in the first place. Sorry for all the rambling i had to let it out.

some notes about the au:

*this story takes place in modern era as modern as it can get in a village though, which i can say from experience is not much ehe.

*there is no such thing as a shiki in this reality

*This story starts some time around july during summer break soon after schools over.

*the story will include the inner monologues of many characters it will not just be revolved around one character

*During the school year Megumi lives in a nearby village with her relatives because sotoba is too far away from her highschool. She especially hates the summers because she has to go back to her parents house in sotoba and sotoba is very underdeveloped and cut out from everywhere.

*Kaori and Akira's family moved in from quiet parts of a city to Sotoba about three years ago because their dad was stationed there.

*Tohru Tamotsu Aoi(they are Toorus siblings if you forgot since they were not mentioned a lot) and Megumi also kind of now each other, they aren't like besties or anything but both their families are some of the oldest local families that have been living there for decades and they grew up around the same environment so they are familiar with each other.

okay i think that is it for now here's the story(finally:')

It was way too hot. It was hot to a degree where the smell of the cheap asphalt could reach the noses of the citizens of Sotoba. The weather was not stopping the big fuss going on outside though because something eerie was happenning and that was something the village people could not resist .They had lived a mundane life in the village for as long they had gained concsciousness, as a result the village people were longing for any form of unfamiliar events. Everything new, even the smallest things would count however what was going on today wasn't anything small,compared to the usual gossip exchanged between the elderly at least.

"Come on why are you guys even dragging me along, it is too hot for this man!"

Natsuno was less than enthusiastic to be spending his summer in this weird backwater village. Why was it such a big deal that a cinema was opening anyways .

Natsuno had passed by the cinema during its process several times and as far as his observations went it was gonna be very sloppy. In fact they were probably only gonna put on a bunch of classic cheesy movies which you could easily watch at home for free with connection and a computer while also being able to avoid all the cinema shenanigans like squeaky chairs and loud friend groups or gross couples.

However this was not a possibility, not in this village, at least. Very few houses had connection. That included the mutous house who were the ones that were currently forcing Natsuno down the road of the cinema. Natsuno was about to share his thoughts about how it would be way better to just watch whatever they wanted to at the Mutou household, he was interrupted:

"Hey now you gotta keep up with the latest. Also your old man is getting worried about you, i can tell since im kind of an old man myself now."

After saying this Tohru flashed a big fat obnoxious grin to Natsuno which Natsuno simply replied by glaring. Tohru had turned 18 recently, legally making him an adult. He had been making these jokes an annoying amount since then ,to an extent where making fun of him and calling him an old geezer was not fun anymore since he took pride in it. Tamotsu and Aoi also had annoyed looks on their faces. Then Tamotsu turned to Natsuno:

"I know what you are thinking right now."

"Really? Please enlighten me then."

"You are all like ,these uncultured ignorant village people are at it again, being excited over something so simple, I mean how rustic can they get!"

Tamotsu was imitating the way Natsuno spoke and his gestures. Natsuno had to admit that felt like something he would say, or at least think about, he wasn't going to admit it out loud though.

It hadn't been long since he had moved in but it wasn't exactly a challenge to grasp the way the village and its people worked.

"Well he is more than welcome to get lost, I mean no one wants to deal with a buzzkill on a nice day, right?"

It was Masao who had just joined them and overheard what Tamotsu had said that was speaking. He had known the Mutous since childhood and was not exactly happy with Natsuno's addition to their group. Natsuno's superiority complex was extremely annoying to him but what really bothered him was the fact that he was popular and acknowledged regardless of it.

"Seeing you is enough to ruin ones day."

Natsuno knew he had to be the bigger person against this guy but he just couldn't hold it in.

"Whattya say to me you little-"

Masao's sentence was cut off by Aoi.

"Hey both of you stop it! It hasn't even been ten minutes since we left the house. Let's just go to the cinema and have a good time, alright?"

Both Natsuno and Masao made scoffing noises but decided to leave it. They both understood that this argument was pointless. With Natsuno and Masao they could start a fight over one of them looking at the other, for no rhyme or reason.

It was Masao who had started this whole ridiculous chain. Natsuno did not exactly know why but he had a bunch of good guesses.

Masao had all the bad traits of a child. His wrath for him had probably arose from something petty like Natsuno "stealing away his spotlight". He can have all the spotlight for all i care Natsuno thought to himself.

Natsuno had taken notice that Masao was a big attention seeker,always trying to turn everything to himself even the most unrelated things. He never missed an opportunity to bring the subject back to himself.

The Mutous who had known him since childhood ,unlike Natsuno, did not really care for his habit of doing this. They were pretty chill laid back people. The whole family was really respected and fancied around the neighbourhood. They were Natsuno's only friends.

Obviously a lot of other people knew about Natsuno's family. They had moved in about a year ago and It was one of the biggest events to happen in the village in a while. The first few weeks were especially insufferable. All the village folk were observing him, noting each and every one of his movements chit chatting about him while he was passing by, not even bothering to lower their voices. Somehow this was not even the worst part.

Especially after moving in this village Natsuno had come to appreciate his alone time a lot more than before. He valued his privacy and wanted to be away from his parents as much as possible however he had to do all of his studying at home,the nearest library was about an hour away . Tohru would often say Natsuno was an all knowing cranky man stuck in a teenagers body because of how much he studied even after the school year was over.

He did not like studying or anything he just had to, unless he wanted to take up his fathers workshop business after graduating from high school. This kind of future seemed like a nightmare, it was one of the most dreadful futures he could imagine and one he was giving his all to avoid. That is why he had to be academically successful. It was his only way out of the village and out of a future his parents had forcefully set up for him and that was why he was at his room most of the time spending almost all of his waking hours studying and actually it was peaceful to be left alone away from everyones eyes. He wasn't able to enjoy that feeling of peace for long though because soon enough he realized there was no way of hiding himself from the sight of these nosy villagers, not even in his room.

After moving he had heard whispers and giggles of several girls whenever he passed by. Girls that had the look of yearning in their eyes. For them he had unintentionally created the perfect image, a mysterious boy from the city. He only knew the name of one of them, the one he loathed the most. Megumi Shimizu.

He was doing a good job dodging girls around the neigbourhood or from his school .Quite frankly he was not interested. He was surprised about the fact that he ended up with 3 friends in the first place, he was not going to make any more relations than necessary and besides the whole thing was really bothersome and annoying. It was like he could not get a break from being the target of all the gossip and staring anywhere. It was like these people could not understand the concept of minding their own business.

Luckily for him most of the girls took the hint fast enough, for them, this was all just for fun anyways. What he did not know was that one of them still quitely kept watch over him. After the summer break began some rumors about a girl walking around at night was going around. Even Masao and Tamotsu talked about how they saw her while they were returning from a football match. Natsuno found it funny ,for him this was just some villagers desperately making up stories to keep themselves entertained somehow. Natsuno would normally say Masao was lying about seeing the girl but Tamotsu also said he saw her and he wasn't the type of person to lie about things like this to get a reaction. So Natsuno came to the conclusion that it was just a grown up returning late from work or something. He forgot about this whole ordeal until he saw the girl himself staring right at him from the bushes of his backyard. He was studying and he just decided to have some fresh air. When he peeked towards the window his eyes locked with a pair of eyes for a second, then the head disappeared under the bushes. Had he just imagined it? Nah, no way there was someone, it was a familiar face too. He immediately closed the curtains. He continued to keep his curtains closed the next day and the day after, it was now a habit of his;keeping the curtains closed at all times.

A few days later the creepy girl was revealed after running into Ohkawa,a big gruff old man who was keeping watch around the neighbourhood to figure out who was the rascal that was giving trouble ,and more so, gossip material to the villagers. Natsuno didn't know about this until the next day Tamotsu mentioned it.

"What do you know huh the creepy girl who has been turning the place upside down was good old Megumi. I remember she was always a handful"

Tohru seemed to suddenly remember as well.

"Oh, yeah we used to spend a lot of time with her when our parents were working on that agricultural project together to improve the quality of crops or something like that."

Aoi seemed thoughtful

"I wonder what she was doing, I mean the neighbourhood is generally safe but at night there are a lot of wild dogs, sometimes even foxes and lynxes.

Neither Tamotsu nor Tohru seemed to have an answer for that. I know what she was doing Natsuno thought bitterly. It hadn't taken him long to connect the dots. He had heard the name Megumi Shimizu as she was one of his classmates, that explained why her face was familiar too. He was extremely bothered and annoyed, this got even worse when rumors that Megumi was visiting her boyfriend started going around. Was she really still coming, how persistent was this girl, why couldn't she just take the hint. For him this was unfair, I never asked for this he thought. The bits and pieces of privacy he believed he had in this village while he was in his room was shattered.

This girl had no reason to like him, he didn't remember ever talking with her at class,or anywhere else. He hadn't left her any room of suspicion too. He had always ignored her and immediately started closing his curtains after seeing her there so it wasn't like he was leading her on or playing with her feelings. This girl knew he didn't like her, Natsuno was certain so why did she keep on coming? Sotoba wasn't a place where you had any questions about anyone on your mind though, because there was so much gossip, it wasn't even gossip anymore. Before you knew it the gossip that was about you would reach your ears so Natsuno didn't exactly have to figure out "why?" as he learned it himself.

Before long,whether he wanted to learn or not he had found out that Megumi did not like the village and wanted to leave, for her only city related things mattered. She liked things from the city and exhibit a was dog girl. Natsuno didn't know the name of the girl, he wasn't even sure he had heard it before and it seemed like nobody else bothered to refer to her by it either. She was either referred to as "dog girl" or "that flashy Megumi's friend". The second name kind of explained itself and she earned the first one because she was always seen waking around with or feeding stray dogs and that was all there was to know about her. She was barely mentioned as she had apparently adapted to the village life well and turned into another one of its dull people. This made Natsuno feel tense, the phrase "they grew into the village well." Natsuno did not want to warm up to the village, he didn't want to turn into one of the village people;doing the same things living the same life everyday only finding joy in others business. He didn't want to turn into something he despised.

Natsuno found it ironic how he knew this much about his stalker and her friend when he wasn't even trying so that meant Megumi knew a lot about him, no that could not be right, she had to know just as much as the rest of the people around town. Wait a minute Tohru Aoi and Tamotsu had said they knew her, could it be... The thought made him uncomfortable so he pushed it away. He had grown to really like the Mutous so he immediately refused to believe that they would blab about him to Megumi.

Today they were quite insufferable though.

"Man I am excited to see Matrix!"

"Wait what, Matrix? Nuh uh We are watching the new Star Wars movie mate. I haven't been binge watching all week for nothing."

"Okay then you can finish your binge watching at home."

"This is a very pointless argument, for all we know neither of those movies may be showcased"

"WHAAAT?"

Masao also seemed quite, he was too busy giving Natsuno a side eye, as if he was waiting for him to express his opinion so he can disagree with it. Natsuno wasn't going to give him the pleasure. It wasn't like he cared or anything and besides Aoi was right, they had no idea what movies were going to be shown. The cinema wasn't being operated by anyone from the village and whoever was in charge of the cinema business hadn't exactly advertised the establishment well. It was almost like they didn't want people to come which made no sense.

They probably hadn't done any announcements other than the opening day because of the simple reason that it wasn't necesarry. These people were dying to see anything new, not cause they were going to accept it or appreciate it but it would be something they could watch over as if it were a movie. In that sense everyone would be drawn to it like flies being drawn to a lightbulb. For the first day at least. Then after milking everything they saw as much as possible the village folk would move on with something else.

Natsuno realised that he was one of the flies. At the same time right now he had no chance of leaving without making a huge mess. Well isn't that just great he thought. After weighing over his options he gave in, he did want some popcorn after all and maybe there would even be a good movie worth watching.

this chapter was to kind of introduce some part of the squad, I am thinking of going in depth with all these charcters as the story goes on. Please tell me about my mistakes and if there is anything you think is wrong. Offer me any form of criticsm ,it can be harsh, doesn' t matter I wanna improve. I'll probably update very soon because writing is so much fun:))))Until then!