Chapter 33: Savior

"What...should I do?"

At the temple grounds, Seishin was looking around, flashlight in hand, when he noticed Tohru behind a tree.

"Who's there? Are you lost? Or..."

"Please go, Junior Monk! Please don't come near me. Please...don't look at me."

"Don't tell me...You're Mr. Motou's..."

"Don't say any more!"

Seishin stepped back against another tree. "Could you show yourself to me?"

"No...I can't possibly face you. I killed Natsuno...my best friend. I didn't want to kill him. But they said that if I didn't attack Natsuno, they'd attack my family."

"You were forced into it."

"But I'm the one who actually attacked him...when he suggested that we should run away together. No...! Those are all excuses! Even now...I'm on my way back from attacking someone! I didn't want to kill. But I get hungry. When I thought that unless I eat something, I'd die, I just couldn't restrain myself...so I went to kill on my own. When I get hungry, I feel like, 'What's the big deal with killing people? I even killed Natsuno!' Even when I thought I didn't want to kill...!"

"You are..."

"Please go, Junior Monk! And please forget about me...Or I will...I will have to..." Tohru collapsed onto the ground.

"People may call what you did a sin. But who could blame you for wanting to live?...Death is a terrible thing for anyone." Sunako suddenly popped into Seishin's mind, so he walked back to the temple.

Unkown location:

Akira fainted, then—when he came to—discovered that he was no longer in the house.

Then, a voice.

"Good, you're up."

Akira was brought to an unknown location, by a masked woman.

"Okay, thank you for helping me, but I don't wanna rely on adults any..."

He gasped at the sight of the woman after she unmasked herself.

"Megumi?! Why?!...After you killed Natsuno, and our dad..."

"I didn't want to."

"Bull-Fucking-Shit!"

"Even if I didn't do it, someone else would! That's just what a super-sadist like Tatsumi would do!"

The charm fell out of her dress, and dangled.

"You're...actually...wearing that?"

"Connor gave it to me, told me that your sister got it for me, as a birthday present...I only bit your dad, tried to convince him to leave, and take you with him. He definitely wasn't bitten by anyone else, beforehand."

Akira realized something.

"Then, that means that Nightmare can override this mind control you guys have."

"Nightmare?!"

"A blue knight, using a giant sword with an eye in it."

"I saw him the night I bit Natsuno!"

"You did?!"

"He actually shifted his shape after obtaining something from a well, and put it into his sword."

"We hafta tell Connor!"

Elsewhere:

Dr. Ozaki had finally found Ritsuko; only, he was already too late.

"Ritsuko!"

Taro was whimpering at the fact that his owner was victimized.

"Ritsuko...we need to get you to a hospital."

She twisted her head toward him, "No, thanks. I'll just go back home. And I'm quitting my job at the clinic. Please, leave me alone."

He had to put her into his car, himself.

"Doctor...Please take care...of the village..."

"I will...I promise you I will, Ritsuko!"

Ozaki Clinic:

Ozaki came back to the clinic, and found that Chizuru was sitting on the loveseat in the recovery room.

"As promised, I came to visit you, Junior Doctor."

"I don't remember making a promise, though."

She giggled and held up the carving knife he used to make wooden stakes. "I see you were thinking scary things." She dropped it onto the floor, much to Ozaki's shock. "Are you giving up your practice as a doctor?"

Enraged, he recklessly charged at her with a wooden stake. However, a bullet broke through the window and shattered the stake upon impact. The shooter was Seishirou, her husband. "To think that I'm helping my wife have an affair..."

Chizuru mocked Ozaki on the spot. "It was Seishirou. He's skilled, isn't he?"

"Seems like it. But why is he staying with you guys when he's human?"

"Oh, are you curious?"

"No...That was just a question."

She giggled, "He's staying with us of his own free will, just like Mr. Muroi."

Ozaki was extremely shocked; earlier he received a phone call from Miwako, Seishin's mother, saying that Seishin was gone.

"Shocked? He came to visit Sunako this evening. You've been betrayed by your best friend, haven't you? Unforgivable?"

"No...I had a feeling that might be the case. A stupid choice, as expected from him. But, since he knew her for this long and he's still alive, I can't really say it was wrong; just taking his own path."

"You're stubborn, aren't you?"

"A decision expected from Seishin. No...a decision expected from a monk in general, one without violence."

She approached him. "Stop it."

"What? Are you begging for your life now?"

He took her hand off of his face. "Yeah. You're right. I don't want to die yet. I want to see the village die out. And not from you. Just how many people have died since this summer? And what did everyone in the village do about it? They kept saying that it was strange, but all they did was wait for someone to come up with the answer. And I came up with an answer. But they jabbered on about the baptism of modern rationalism and dismissed it easily. I've had enough. I can't deal with people who don't think on their own."

"And?"

"I want to see it through...what will become of those who accept only what is convenient for them."

She giggled again, "You are interesting. I like men who keep me from getting bored."

"So I..." Before he could say anything, she bit him in the neck, and told him to burn his research.

"I like handsome men. And I make it a practice to suck the blood of men whom I come to like right away. Destroy the data. Revise the patients' charts as instructed. Obey us unconditionally."

Ozaki:

Alright, I'll play your game. But you might not like the outcome.

Temple Grounds:

Nightmare was on the hunt. He noticed the deceased Assistant Monk, now a shiki, warning a living temple tenant.

Once he walked away, Nightmare was right in front of him.

"Your soul...is mine!"

Nightmare cleaved the shiki in half, down the middle, in one blow. Blood stained on the surrounding trees.

"Shiki...are now...my prey!"

Ozaki Clinic:

Natsuno managed to convince Nao to come as a volunteer for a test—in reality, she was the guinea pig for the restoration method.

A few minutes later,

Connor, "It's finished."

He had finally completed the potion, as evidenced when Nao walked out; full body temperature, a heartbeat, and everything else that humans have that shiki don't.

Natsuno, "How much did you make? The more you were able to make, the less shiki we have to worry about, y'know."

"That's the bad news. I, literally, only had enough to make two, not counting the test. I tried coming back to the meadow after that day, but it seems as though our 'friend,' Tatsumi, decided to have a field day there."

"We need one for Ritsuko, as well!"

"There's the good news; for a vampire who has yet to taste human blood, feed them a special solution. Fifty percent holy water, and fifty percent the blood of the vampire who first bit them."

For the first thing, Megumi killing Natsuno was covered up, so that's why Tohru said he killed Natsuno.

Secondly, tell me how Nightmare is developing as the main villain.

And finally, how will Connor obtain the materials to make the remedy for Ritsuko?

Please leave a review, favorite, and/or follow.