Chapter 14: Mixed Emotions

Megumi rushed out of the Mutou House - something was wrong, and Tatsumi could tell. "What the hell, Megumi?!" She couldn't answer as she was horrified by something she saw after biting Tohru. Something that shouldn't exist.

Inferno:

This mortal does not suit me! Not even close.

Just before Dawn:

Natsuno darted awake, and immediately went to see if Tohru was alright, "Tohru!...Are you okay? Answer me!" only to see that there were no bite marks. It had to have been a nightmare—though he understood why Megumi would do so, though he had to question - Was it the same Megumi?

Seishin was riding his moped to the various places where the victims worked, and saw something surprising; before they died, they quit their jobs. He almost crashed at the sight of Ookawa hitting his son Atushi—again—giving him a bloody nose.

Mizobe:

"Aoi..." Natsuno bumped into her, as they were in the same class.

"Ah, Natsuno! What is it?"

"Is Tohru absent again today?"

"Yeah. He's playing hooky."

"That better not mean what I think it does!" Connor took them by surprise.

"Gah! Don't sneak up on me like that! Wait...What?"

"He just bought a new video game, so he's been playing it all this time...just laying around like he's in a trance."

"I see." Both Natsuno and Connor responded at the same time, just before the latter left.

"Are you gonna stop by today?"

"No. I'll stop by earlier than usual tomorrow."

Connor:

If only I could find the remaining ingredients for the potion in time.

"Two stalks of bloodgrass, six cloves of garlic, five nightshade leaves, blood of the pure(Human), ashes of a damned(Another Vampire). all mixed into a potion. It is recommended to sleep for a day after consumption."

I have plenty of Nightshade leaves, I can cut my hand for the blood, I can easily buy the garlic, and I've collected plenty of ashes from head vampires after I staked and burned them. But bloodgrass...it only grows here, and haven't found even one stalk.

The Next Day:

Natsuno, of course, was making his way to the Mutou residence, only to see that Dr. Ozaki was in a hurry there as well.

"Doctor!" Natsuno heard Aoi—she sounded alarmed, which made him rush into the house as well.

"Dad, the Junior Doctor came!"

Their Dad, "Doctor!"

Their Mom, "Junior Doctor!"

The sight was shocking...

Dr. Ozaki, "Mr. Mutou... This is..."

Aoi, "What's wrong with Tohru? Is he...sick?"

Their Father, "Your brother is...Tohru is...dead."

Natsuno remembered that night, No...she can't have! Did they...corrupt her?

Yuuki/Koide Residence:

Connor came with Natsuno to his place, but only went as far as the door.

"You finally see it, don't you?"

"You knew about this...BUT DIDN'T TELL ME!"

"I needed you to see it for yourself. Believe me, I didn't know for sure, either."

"You should've stopped her! Goddammit, what is wrong with you! Thanks to you, there are a bunch of evil..."

Connor interrupted him by putting his hand on Natsuno's shoulder and saying, "Not evil...Misguided. Shimizu just doesn't get this, 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!'."

"Oh...I..."

"Here's some 'friendly' advice; Stop being an asshole, she cares about you. Your mind might say that you hate her, but it's your heart that you need to listen to!"

Connor left, before Natsuno walked inside.

Natsuno was sitting on his bed, thinking about all the things Connor said, when his mother walked into his room.

"Natsuno...we should go to the wake now."

"Go..on ahead."

"Okay." She pulled out a postcard, "Ah yes. You got a postcard...though it's an end of summer greeting card."

Natsuno saw that it was from Megumi.

"Miss Shimizu is that girl who passed away last month, right? To think that you're receiving her postcard now..."

Natsuno smiled and simply said "There was a delay in delivering it. That's all. It's nothin we should be worried about."

After his mother left, he began reading it. He was astonished by it.

"Natsuno…sorry I didn't give this to you sooner. Nerves I guess. I want to say so many things here but I'm not sure where I should start. Hope you're doing well now that summer is almost over. I've always hated sotoba. The people were so horrible to me every single day for as long as I can remember, no one understood how I felt. When you moved in I thought for sure you would relate…but you ended up ignoring me to any length you could...I still wanted to pursue you, getting ignored was way better than getting made fun of. In a weird ironic way, you treated me better than anyone else. At that one point, I thought you were someone who would just brush me along with the village aside until you could finally escape…but I'm so glad you talked to me. That day was the first time I'd ever felt like I was with someone of my kind. You made me finally feel like I belonged somewhere. That I wasn't just one person wandering alone in the world. That there were people who truly "get" me. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for being there for me. Even if our time was bumpy to you. It meant the world to me. I don't know how you feel about me, but I think I really love you."

Natsuno could no longer hold back the tears; his anger was directed away from Megumi and Connor, and towards the Kirishikis, "They caused this..." and then redirected again, towards himself, "It should've been me."

He then reached into a drawer in his desk, and pulled out a pen, and wrote on an empty space on the postcard, "I'm sorry, but I don't deserve something this nice, especially not from such a great girl. Not for the way I treated you."

Masao was watching over the rice shop, until his family returned from the Clinic; the condition of his nephew; Hiromi, seemed to be getting worse, to the alarm of his father; Munehide, brother; Munetaka, and sister-in-law; Chizuka—Masao could care less about Hiromi, because before he was born, Masao was the one spoiled by the family.

Chizuka, "It's okay, I'll go put him to bed."

Munehide, "To think that it took this long to run tests...I wonder if he's really bad..."

Munetaka, "Pops, although the Junior Doctor told us that it might be a difficult anemia case, if Hiromi gets sick again, he said bring him in even if it's the dead of night."

Munehide, "But..."

Masao commented in a rather smug manner, "Hey, sis looks paler than him. So Hiromi really was sick. It's worrisome, isn't it, since there's been many funerals lately." He didn't even consider how his family felt about the situation.

Munehide, "Be careful what you say!"

Masao, "What can I say? It's the fact. Wouldn't it be better not to think that we're different from others?"

"Masao!" His father was becoming aggravated with him, as was his brother, "Stop it already! Hiromi is...!"

"Like I said, wouldn't it be better to be careful? Even young people die. In other words, it's a matter of probability, right?"

Munehide had heard enough, and slapped Masao, "Don't you have feelings?!"

"Ahh... Well, it's not me. I meant to say that there're people who'd say that."

Munetaka, "Masao... You're such a..."

Masao ran off to no place in particular.

To think that Dad slapped me...! To think Munetaka got angry like that...! If only Hiromi and Chika Didn't exist...I wouldn't have had to go through this!

He stopped when he stubbled upon Tohru's wake, "Tohru..."

Family and friends were grieving this tragedy—Even Ritsuko, and Connor attended; Though Connor had other reasons.

Masao, "Uhm...I...I...Uhm..." Tamotsu and Aoi simply nodded. "I-I was so shocked...Tohru is... Shoot... What should I say?" Then Natsuno walked up, along with Connor, "Where's Tohru?" Tamotsu pointed towards the coffin Tohru was in. Their mother was in tears.

"May I...see his face?"

"Yeah." Tohru's father responded, before opening the panels on the coffin that covered Tohru's face.

It's an empty shell of Tohru... I wonder...where he went... I wish there was a way to find him.

Right away Connor spotted something out of the ordinary; a small scorch in the middle of the right side of his hair—it was so small it was easy for anyone to miss.

"There's a small scorch mark in his hair." Connor whispered to Natsuno, "undead entities don't have fiery abilities."

"So...there's a third-party." Natsuno whispered back to him.

"I'll tell you about it somewhere else, as soon as possible." Connor knew exactly who caused the burn.

Natsuno turned towards his deceased friend's parents, "Please accept my condolences."

Masao, meanwhile, was in tears at what he saw in the coffin—to the point where he yelled out his friend's name. "TOHRU!"

After the funeral, Masao tried cheering Tohru's siblings up by reminding them of the times they had together, until he turned his attention to Natsuno. "You don't even cry, huh?" Masao was clearly angry at him, "Tohru died! How dare you make that sulking face!" Natsuno ignored him, but Masao leaned closer—hand on the wall, "You're definitely cold! Don't you have any feelings?"

Natsuno responded, "Don't pick a fight."

Masao burst forward, grabbing Natsuno by his necktie, "When did I try to pick a fight?! When?!"

Natsuno remained calm, "If you wanna fight me, I'll fight some other time. But not now! Hold it in, at least while you're here."

"Hey! Who's older here?!"

Connor was in the room, when Natsuno answered, "Yeah, you're almost an adult...so start acting like it!"

Masao's anger exploded, "How dare you talk like that!"

"Enough already!" Aoi was upset by everything that was going on.

"What?"

Connor, "If you wanna fight, do it outside!"

"Wh-What? Don't you get upset with him? He's very cold, isn't he?!"

Aoi, "It's you who's cold!"

"I'm cold? Why?! I'm very sad that Tohru died! Haven't I been saying that over and over?!"

"We feel sadder than that! It's our brother we're talking about!"

"Tohru was like a brother to me. He was better than the the one I do have."

"You say you're sad and you're right. Just how do you want us all to respond to that?!" Aoi put her foot down. "Did you come here to comfort us?! Or did you come here to have us comfort you?!"

I'm not going to put Masao getting bitten on here, but next chapter will have the revelation of Soul Edge and Inferno towards Natsuno, and what he was doing in the bedroom the night Megumi bit Tohru.

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