Intermission: Rise of the Occult Killer
There was a boy I hated…. used to hate. My feelings for him grow from hate to curiosity and admiration… to longing.
Few days after my kidnapping and rescue… Kageno Minoru-kun, my savior… suddenly died after being hit by a truck. Fate is so cruel. I didn't even have the chance to repay him let alone save him... I didn't even have the chance to say goodbye…
I wanted to get closer to him, bit by bit peel off the mask that he has always been wearing and get to know the real him… and show him the real me as well. But alas, that is not to be.
I tried to move on with my life but his empty seat in the classroom kept reminding me of the missing person. It's especially hard for me to forget about him the way my classmates do because not only am I the only one in the class to acknowledge his existence, my seat just happens to be beside his empty one.
Days after his funeral… a serial killer started appearing on the news. People called said killer the Occult Killer due to the killer always leaving occult symbols and ritual circles drawn with blood in the crime scene as if trying to summon demons. At first I dismissed this as nothing special and I moved on with my life. But little by little, I cannot escape the topic because I kept hearing mentions of the Occult Killer in the news and even in everyday conversation with classmates.
As the mentions kept increasing and as people started to fear the Occult Killer more and more, I grew more curious and started using my family's influence to investigate police records. Being a daughter of the owner of the Nishino Zaibatsu has its advantages. During my search I found that the first recorded victim of the Occult Killer is the driver who killed Minoru-kun.
Is it a coincidence? Is this an act of revenge? Is the Occult Killer Minoru-kun's friend? Then why kill anyone else? Why keep killing? Why draw those occult symbols? Questions like that flew over my head.
Days passed and I saw footage of security camera of an apartment building which happens to be one of the crime scenes of the Occult Killer on TV news. The footage caught a tall person wearing grey hoodie and a skull mask entering and exiting the apartment building at the time of the crime which is at night. Now the world has a suspect, though his identity remains a mystery.
The killings continued and in time the killer even left ominous messages written in blood like "The End is near" or "They will come and all shall despair" or "The world as we know it is over".
The police are on the move but they never catch the culprit. Soon his name became a household name in the city and attracted the attention of various other serial killers, some of which would mention him as their inspiration during interrogation and interviews.
Then talks about him started appearing in national television, in talkshows, in the internet and many more.
All of these talks about him became so widespread it's giving me headache and made me a little paranoid. As someone who experienced kidnapping twice in my life, the thought of such a dangerous criminal on the loose didn't do my mental health any favors.
As I was distracted by thoughts of the serial killer and thus was unable to concentrate on the lessons in class, I noticed a boy… who had a… similar aura as Minoru-kun. His name is Miyazaki Tetsuya.
He is a typical black haired boy like many other Japanese boys, though he is pretty tall for an 18 year old. Perhaps the tallest in our class. His face is… quite good looking if I say so myself. If he were a bit more approachable, I'd say he would be quite popular among the girls. It's quite a feat that he remained invisible with that face.
The reason he stands out to me is because, like Minoru-kun, he doesn't stand out to everyone else. Like Minoru-kun he is an introvert who mostly kept to himself and rarely interacts with anyone. I doubt he even have friends.
Despite his introvertedness, he participated in many activities, be it sport or studying in the library. It looked like he is so busy with various activities that he has no time for himself. At this rate I fear that he would work himself to death long before he could join the work force.
With that in mind I decided to go talk to him. But before I could do that, another classmate interjected. When said classmate is done talking to me, I noticed that he left already. This incident kept repeating itself. One moment I was about to speak to him, another classmate would call out to me. When said classmate is done, he already left. It's kind of infuriating. I mean, I AM a popular student in class and in school but… it's annoying how I have to deal with so many people every day that I barely have time to do things I actually want. That's why I sort of sympathized with Tetsuya-kun.
Oh, I already called him by his first name in my mind even though I've never even spoken to him before. Is that bad?
After a while, I gave up trying to interact with him because I would just be interrupted every time. But fate is such a funny thing because when I decided not to pursue him, we end up coincidentally running into each other in the school gate after school.
When I looked at his eyes… I recognized those eyes… the same eyes that Minoru-kun had… eyes that gazed at my direction but didn't actually see me, as if I was invisible to his eyes. So stunned by his eyes, I was unable to say a word and he end up walking past me without saying a word. Still, he intrigues me and thus I decided to investigate about him. He is tall, just like the Occult Killer in the footage. If my suspicions are correct…
Abusing the privilege of a Nishino once again, I gained access to police records and pinpointed the locations as well as the general areas where the Occult Killer's first murders were committed. The result? I found that the first murders, with the exception of the truck driver who is the very first victim, were committed within the general area where Tetsuya-kun lives, either within walking distance or reachable by train. It's a wonder that the police never figured out this much yet despite having these records.
For now I can consider Tetsuya-kun a suspect but… I have no proof and thus I cannot confirm it was him. In order to do that, I told my driver not to pick me up today because I… decided to stalk him when he goes home from school. Of course I didn't do it like an amateur does. I was an actress… well, with how much I have to act in front of people every day I guess I could say that I still am. Acting is my forte and hiding in plain sight is not a hard thing for me.
The hard part comes when he arrived at his home, which is an apartment. He lived separately from his parents since attending high school. I had to wait for him to get out of his apartment and it gets dark very soon. Fortunately I came prepared with an onigiri I brought to satiate my hunger during times like this.
As it gets late, he finally gets out of his apartment room… though not wearing a hoodie but a sweater instead. His face is also uncovered but he carried a big duffel bag though, similar to the one that Minoru-kun used to carry all the time. It is possible that his hoodie, mask and several other tools and weapons are inside that bag.
I followed him silently as he walked out but not too far, just to confirm the general direction he's going to. He's not going towards the train station so I can assume his destination is within walking distance, which is good for me. I went home on my own and thankfully didn't get kidnapped again. Being a stalker is dangerous not to mention embarrassing. What would everyone say if they found out I stalked a classmate?
The next day I waited for the news of the next murder and… I confirmed that it happened in the direction that Tetsuya-kun went to last night. When I saw him in class today, he looked straight at me in the eyes and grinned… He knows… He found out that I stalked him…
That alone confirmed that he IS the Occult Killer to me. And I suppose I can also confirm that he started the murders as revenge for Minoru-kun's death. But why involve innocent people? Shouldn't it end with the first victim? What are you trying to accomplish? Bringing Minoru-kun back to life?
Afterschool, when I checked my locker, I found a letter. Usually this won't bother me because as a popular girl in school, I get plenty of love letters every week. But this time is different. It's not a love letter… It's a message from an unknown sender… which simply says "You're next."
I ran towards my driver whilst panicking and told him to drive me home as soon as possible. When I get home I locked myself in my room, never leaving it the whole night. I even skipped my dinner. To my luck, nothing happened that night.
The next few days I lived in complete fear, afraid that Tetsuya-kun would come and kill me. We still didn't interact with each other in class and I behaved like nothing's wrong. I told nobody of this because I was too afraid of his retaliation.
I pretended like nothing's wrong… like a certain someone isn't coming to kill me… Minoru-kun… please help me…
One day though… he just… disappeared after one last murder. Weeks passed and no more murders were committed by the Occult Killer, only a few copycats here and there that were immediately caught. The original was never caught and his identity never discovered when he disappeared… almost like Jack the Ripper.
But I know who he is. When Tetsuya-kun stopped attending classes and disappeared, the murders under the Occult Killer name also mysteriously stopped. Where is he now? Why did he disappear? If he wants to kill me, he should just go ahead and do it instead of terrorizing me like this!
One day though… it all went to hell… the world went to hell…
Huge black monsters of varying sizes and shapes appeared out of nowhere and began slaughtering people en masse. Our military technology is useless against their unnaturally thick skin and could only slow them down. Humanity is absolutely helpless against these monsters. With the emergence of the monsters, the name Occult Killer didn't fade away from people's memories however. Oh no. In fact many people were convinced that the monsters were demons that he summoned through his rituals and blood sacrifices. The messages he left in the crime scenes made this story especially convincing. I'm leaning towards believing this story myself.
A doomsday cult was later formed in his name by people who went mad from this whole disaster and they began a rampage, becoming almost as dangerous as the monsters currently slaughtering our race.
How could this happen? Why did all the murders escalate to this? Tetsuya-kun… If you want to kill me… just do it. Why did you have to destroy the world in the process!?
Author's Note:
A callback to the prologue to celebrate 100th chapter, which is written in the style of the prologue (no dialogues, just inner monologues). This chapter's title is also a callback to the Auxiliary Chapter of the Light Novel Vol 4 (which is the flashback where Akane was introduced).
Claude's previous name is finally revealed after over 105 chapters and it's been a long time since we had an Intermission chapter.
Never thought the fanfic would become this long (In fact I thought I would finish at 20-30 chapters when I started writing this fic) but here we are. Hope to continue writing.
Anime0CC0Manga: Have you ever thought of making another story similar to this? I think Villainess Level 99 would be fun, as you could make a female version of necromancer for her, or something like that, of course I'm not forcing you to write anything, but I am curious if you will do anything similar in the future
Answer: If I write another fic, it'll be after I finished this one. I'm too busy as it is and juggling too many fics would be too much for me and I will be unable to finish any of them.
Bolvar57: Nagash tendrá muchas personas para sus experimentos en la ciudad, lo se, ese lugar es un caldo de cultivo, seria pecado no aprovecharlo
Answer: The Lawless City is a precious base, full of living resources. Of course he doesn't want to lose it.
HundredMasks: YES YES, THIS IS EVERYTHING I'VE ASKED FOR, I'm satisfied author, now you made the image that Don Jon was Holding necromancer back, also, Nice guns, I actually thought he would've made a gunblade of some kind but the reference more than made up for it, also, a Shadow W, now the relationship is fully equal, not skewed in either side, also, the reaction of everyone to the necromancer name drop was funny af, keep cooking author
Answer: I'm glad you like the chapter. I see you noticed the Scarface reference. There will be more reaction towards Necromancer taking over Lawless City in the next chapter.
A-Yellow-Liz: This is singlehandedly one of the best fight scenes I've ever read, hands down, along with the bushin festival fight. Kudos to you, you did an amazing job!
The POV thing is fine if you ask me though. I didn't personally have any trouble following the POV of the characters.
Answer: I'm glad you think so. It's a fight that I've thought about for among time. In fact, I held back on showing Don Jon's abilities in his previous fights specifically to allow him to show off here.
And I'm also glad the POV thing isn't confusing for you.
Wholesome07: Nah, I'm talking about the battle between the Mafia Boss Don Jon V.S. 𝓢𝓾𝓹𝓮𝓻 𝓔𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓐𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓽 John Smith.
Answer: Lol I see. Yeah, John Smith said that in his inner monologue. If there wasn't a character limit on chapter titles on this site, the previous chapter's title wouldn't need to nerf the 𝓢𝓾𝓹𝓮𝓻 𝓔𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓐𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓽.