Hello Everyone,

Sorry it has been so long, I hope you enjoy this chapter of Rewinding Heart. This one is a bit longer than normal and I hope that following chapters will be about as long.

Massive thank you to those who have favourited the story and reviewed, you guys are why I came back when one day I checked my emails and saw some fresh reviews. Thank you all.

11th of August, 1994

The bright green display blipped steadily in a constant repeating cycle of rising and falling, rising and falling, rising and falling as white tiled walls filled Tohru's vision. The old man clinging to his arm was hardly surprising this time as he slowly, gently removed Shinmei's gnarled hands from his forearm.

"I'm so sorry, Child"

He... He had died, again.

He was revived, again…

He felt he should have been more surprised or relaxed that he thwarted death again, yet he couldn't help but feel disappointed in himself. He'd squandered his second chance. He thought he'd planned it all out and yet he was so easily destroyed by the witch, he was barely a fly to her and she swatted him down as such.

I'll need to be more careful…

"I'm so sorry, Child."

Taking a deep breath, holding it and letting it go, Tohru forced himself to raise his spirits. Although he failed spectacularly and swiftly, he did learn one monumental piece of information. He could revive more than once, he learned that he had an infinite number of ways to save the village. He was guaranteed to claim victory.

But how many times can I suffer death?

With a wince he rubbed his necked absently.

"I'm so sorry, Child."

Turning to find his father animatedly chatting with the Head Monk's wife, a regal beauty despite her distinguished age. In her prime he truly believed that she would've shone brightly as Ritsuko does now, albeit with a more ladylike allure than his beloved's girl next door appeal.

With a shake of his head he quietly cleared his throat in an attempt to catch her attention.

A small, curious smile graced her lips before it turned to a concerned frown as she noticed her husband clinging to Tohru's arm. Taking the Head Monk's hand and placing her own in place of his own she gave a small nod to the blonde. "Thank you, Young Man".

"It's no problem, Priestess," he replied as he backed away, scratching his head.

"Come on, Son. Let's leave the Muroi's to their business, we can come back later," said Takeshi with a pat on his son's shoulder.

Tohru followed his father at a sedate pace with one thought on his mind.

I died because of a table?

12th of August, 1994

Day gave way to night, which gave way to day and night again. Once more Tohru had perched himself in his hiding place outside of Megumi's room, once more he lay in wait for the demon that had not only killed Megumi but him as well now.

Shivering in the bush Tohru waited, always watching the treeline for those red eyes that heralded death. Always trying to perceive the shapes of hellhounds that would stalk the woods during the days and nights.

He was lucky enough to avoid the area where he encountered those monsters the previous night, keeping by the Bottle-O's son so that he may learn where Megumi lay in the dirt. And learn he did, archiving the memory into his mind so that he could be the one to find her. With this information, if he were to fail tonight he could perhaps catch her during the day before night fell. He could stop the fated encounter with Chizuru before it had even grazed the demons mind to hunt the red eyed girl.

A flash of movement tore him from his planning as the flashy demon approached the Shimizu household just like last time. Upon knocking on the window, she slid in just as reliably as clockwork.

With one final resolving breath, he left his safe haven to stand by the window where the witch would emerge when she was done. His mistake last time was attempting to sneak in with her, this time he would wait for her to be vulnerable in the window before making his move.

The wind howled through the forest.

Come on…

The moonlight bounced off the late night dew on the grass, glistening like a sea of diamonds.

Finish with her already!

After several of the most agonisingly long minutes of his life, the sound of footsteps approaching caught his attention and had his hands clenching the handle of his father's hammer so tightly that his knuckles turned white. With surprising speed Chizuru began to slither out of the window without a sound much like a snake through sand. With a gasp the boy struck out at her with his pitiful weapon, grazing the side of her head causing her to topple loudly on the ground.

As the creature fell it sent an ice cold elbow rocketing into his face, knocking him from his feet. His foe staggered to her feet before flourishing her hair behind her, looking down her nose balefully at him.

"Filthy hunters are everywhere we go" she hissed as she reached for his collar. "Tell me, do you have any friends little hunter?"

Upon being pulled, his collar revealed the crucifix about his neck to the succubus upon him. Dark eyes widened in horror as she let out an ear piercing shriek before she threw him across the yard where the Shimizu's lovely picket fence broke his fall.

Ow, my spine….

With a wince, the young hunter looked up in time to half roll out of the way of a stiletto piercing through his skull before lunging for a broken plank to thrust at the shiki before him. A contemptuous swipe of her hand diverted his stake past her body before she leant down and ripped the cross from his neck with a brief snap.

Oh shit!

With a flail of limbs in the demons direction and a clumsy kick to her chin, Tohru managed to roll backwards over the remainder of the fence and clambered to his feet. His back has already developed some serious bruising from his brief lesson on the inability of human flight and now his neck was red and raw from a chain being forcefully yanked off.

The beast in human form wore an inquisitive smirk as she cracked her neck from side to side, "Tell me, Boy. How did you know I was here?" She asked in a husky whisper.

Sweat ran down Tohru's brow as his back bumped into a tree, cutting off the option escaping quickly into the forest. The shiki in front of him slowly began to saunter towards him, hips swaying, her wet tongue dashing across her lips.

"Come, Boy. If you give up now I promise I'll make it painless" she said before pausing mere inches from her victim, eyes narrowing as she inspected him. "Who knows? You may even like it."

He had heard the term being paralysed by fear before, but it had never sounded realistic until now as the demon's lips parted and drew closer to his throat. His hands dug into the bark of the great fir behind him as her cold lips pressed against his neck, the freezing touch of death causing his entire body to tighten like a spring.

"Hoooo, did you like that, Boy?" she teased as her lips trailed up his neck to his jaw, onwards until she was looking him in the eye. Still his eyes were glued to her red lips which strangely were not coated in his blood. "Tell me, Boy. If you were to die tonight, would you have any regrets?"

She's playing with me. She's playing with her food…

Not only was she going to kill him but she was going to mock him as well? The thought had his paralysed body loosen minutely, enough so that this demon had noticed. With a victorious grin she slowly wrapped her slender arms about his neck, tilted her head as her lips neared his own. With a sigh he let his hands release the tree and settle on her hips.

"That's a good boy, give in…"

With a small grin Tohru pulled back slightly with a raised eyebrow, "Who said anything about giving up?"

With a startled squak the hands on her hips wrapped around her back, hoisting her stomach up to his face, her legs kicking wildly as she yanked at his hair.

"Wh-what the hell are you doing, you fool!"

"I'm going to pound you" he declared to the wind, the trees and the moon as the woman's frantic resistance died.

"You're going to wh-"

The demon never finished her sentence as the back of her head buried itself into the Shimizu's backyard with a wet crunch.

Above her unconscious body stood the heaving form a man, gasping for breath as he stared down at his victim. All that was left to do was stake her and this would all be over.

Tohru's hair whipped back forth as he frantically searched for his hammer in the yard, desperately clawing through bushes so that he could finish the job.

With this victory he can save Megumi from an early death, saving dozens with this one brutal act. His limbs felt heavier as they were drained of adrenaline and he began to calm down. The night once more began to feel darker and the cold bit into his skin.

A glint!

There underneath the broken fence lay his trusty hammer, reflecting moonlight from the metal head. Grasping it tightly in his hand he continued to pick up a slat from the ruined picket fence.

A small price for their daughter's life.

With a shake of his head he turned to finish the beast off to stare down at the ground in wonderment.

I left her right there…

With a quick roll into the centre of the yard he scanned the dark treeline for any glimpse of the succubus' glowing red eyes. Only the gnarled flesh of trees bathed in a veil of darkness met his gaze, the only sounds accompanying his ragged breath were the whispering of the trees that surrounded him.

He was all alone…

And she was still out there, somewhere.

13th of August, 1994

The blackboard was taunting him, he just knew it with the way it kept scrambling the letters that were drawn on it. Endlessly the letters swam across his vision as his eyelids pleaded with him to close and let darkness engulf him.

"Tohru, hey buddy are you okay?" The blackboard asked him with concern in its oddly human voice.

With a slow blink and a wave he replied, "Completely fine, how are you?"

All of a sudden the world began to shake as his eyes snapped open to find Natsuno kicking his chair repeatedly.

"You mind, buddy?"

With a raised eyebrow his surly friend simply pointed at the blonde's books scattered off the end of the table, "Seeing as you just greeted a blackboard, slapped your table in what I can only assume was a demented wave and then passed out I would have to say that you are in fact, out of your mind."

Well, excuse him for not getting any sleep last night after he let a homicidal vampiress escape last night after he finally had the chance to slay her. He'd been up all night filing a chair into a quadri-stake to fling at the door at the slightest sign of movement.

Slapping on a sheepish smile and scratching the back of his head he did the only thing he could.

"Yeah, I was up all night playing games. Before I knew what time it was, the sun was up and I was left wondering where the night went" he lied. In truth it had been the longest night of his life.

With a sigh and a remark at how stupid he was, his friend went back to his studies. The longer he could maintain Natsuno's ignorance the better. He had resolved himself to save his friend even at the cost of his life but that didn't mean he was blind to his faults. Natsuno was indirectly responsible for Ritsuko's death. If he hadn't planted the idea into Ozaki's head that the undead were slowly corrupting the village he might've been able to live forever with Ristuko.

No… Not at that cost.

Still, if he can stop both Ozaki from raising Sotoba and the Kirishikis from turning the population he can finally sit back and call it a job done. Now if he could stop himself from being murdered in his sleep by Shizuka, that would be fantastic…

Death may have no meaning anymore but if he can gleam knowledge of how the shiki will react to a failed assassination. In this war of immortality, his victory depends on him learning and remembering as many things about their capabilities and reactions as possible.

Still, if they send Tatsumi after me….

I don't want to die like that…

Shizuka saw him, inspected him and committed him to memory. If she sees him then he will be as good as dead and she has no doubt told Sunako about him. By now every shiki in the area will know what he looks like, including Tatsumi and Yoshie who can hunt him down during the day.

They are surely combing the area right now. I need to change my look, and fast.

Turning to Natsuno, "Hey buddy, wanna skip gym and hit up the hairdressers?"

"What the hell were you thinking, Tohru?"

Clearly, his father was not pleased with his new style.

"Do you have any idea what you look like, Son?" Takeshi continued as his wife sat beside him looking horrified.

"Um... " He hadn't thought how his new look might be received at home, to be fair he had bigger issues.

"I mean really, Son. You look like one of those school shooters the news is always going on about!"

Okay, harsh Dad.

"Black hair, with red highlights and a nose piercing? What are you trying to do, please tell me!" He finished having used up all his energy, collapsing into a chair next to Tohru's mother.

Right. How did he explain this to them without making them worry and without making him change his look back.

"Well, I read about this thing called peacocking... "

No reaction so far, that's good.

"And I figured that if I was eye catching enough, I might be able to secure Nurse Ritsuko's interest." He said with a wince. Dad had always told him that if you are going to lie you may as well do it well and that all lies have an element of truth.

I wonder if Ritsuko will like the look. Those two have been quiet for a while.

Glancing at his family he noticed that his mother had somehow gone even more still with his father looking down to her with concern and his siblings in the kitchen on the floor laughing.

Eavesdropping brats…

"Oh Son, you poor fool" said Takeshi as his head fell into his hands.

What?

For the first time since he got home a spark of life seemed to enter his mother as she looked up to him with a watery smile on her face, "G-grandbabies?"

Fuck…

As the sun lazily crossed the sky toward the mountains to the west, Tohru prepared himself for another night of silent vigil of Megumi's window. A small hammer would definitely not suffice against an alert and pissed of Shizuka, he would need something bigger. He knew personally that normally the gaudy vampiress would flit from one whim to another in pursuit of alleviating her boredom, it was how he managed to survive the previous night through manipulating her vanity.

That'll only work once…

Whilst she definitely did not love him, she had definitely been scorned. Only one man had ever gotten away with scorning her and that was because he got to her first, all the others the reverse was reality. Before Atsushi became her plaything there must have been at least three men she took an interest in.

None of them survived long enough to see the purge.

The first one who rejected her pursuits had a wife. Shuuji Gotouda found he and his wife's hearts in each others chest, their bodies dumped in the hell hounds kennel.

The second had apparently batted for the wrong team and was found in as a twisted effigy deep in the forest. His legs and arms torn from his body and pierced through his torso at unholy angles. When Yoshie found him, she at least had the decency to stake him and put him out of his misery.

The third was an unusual case. He was an arrogant man from the city who had risen up and instantly took a liking to Shizuka's free spirit and generous proportions. If Tatsumi ever had a brother, this man would've been him. He was cruel and enjoyed the terror of his victims. He could keep ahead of Shizuka's whimsy and kept her entertained. But one day he made a mistake. He got it in his head that he should mess with the one human in Sotoba that no shiki should ever dare to interfere with. He mocked and humiliated Seishrou in front of Shizuka.

Now, Tohru never truly understood their relationship. Were they partners? Was he her pet that she would dangle immortality in front of? Were they simply close friends?

When he witnessed Shizuka impale that horrible man with a curtain rod, Tohru came a little closer to understanding those two. Their bond simply could not be described. Seishirou who would abandon his humanity for the one he loved, even when she would flit from lover to lover before his very eyes. Shizuka, who could never be bound to one man, yet would forever protect Seishirou's honour. They were certainly a match paired in hell together.

And now it was his turn to face judgement for scorning her. He had wondered what she would do to him. Perhaps taking the very same hammer he took to her head unto his fingers? His screams as she broke each digit into dust before finishing him off would certainly please her.

Maybe she would force him to light his family home on fire and watch as his siblings flesh melted from their bones? Shizuka did seem to like killing her ex-lovers with a grand sense of irony.

He doubted his disguise would last for long against her hunting party. At a glance he definitely appeared different, however it did nothing to hide his facial features or his scent which the jinrou have no doubt memorised by now. If he was going to survive any longer he would need to finish Shizuka tonight, leaving the shiki with only a smell to find. That could at least be masked with a healthy dose of cologne.

But that still brought him to the problem he was currently faced with, staring at his small claw hammer in his bedroom. He would definitely need something more substantial to take on an alert vampiress if he was to have any hope of surviving the night.

But what could I use? It's not like a gun will fall in my lap, and even if it did I would know how to use it…

So he'd need something to hit her with, something with a long handle preferably.

A shovel? No, she'd likely block his strike with her arm before he could crush her head.

A sledge hammer? Maybe, but where would he find one in Sotoba this late in the day?

How about a logging axe? They were plentiful enough as lumber is Sotoba's chief export. He could probably pinch one from the logging yard just downhill from the temple.

Better get to work.

Making up his mind his steps weighed heavily upon him as he left the protection of his home once more.

As green gave way to blue hues and light gave way to dark, Tohru made his way to the lumber yard passing by the villagers who were returning home from their daily toil. He envied them their ignorance for it was certainly bliss. He should be at home playing video games with Natsuno and thinking up ways to ask Ritskuo out, not planning to commit theft and murder whilst being stalked by demons that could tear his heart out with one hand.

Any hope of not drawing attention to himself was thrown out the window with his disguise, "oh my, is that the eldest Mutou boy? What on earth as he done to himself?" gossiped one of the old ladies on their bench as he passed by.

Thrusting his hands deeper into is pockets and hanging his head, Tohru tried to do his best Natsuno impersonation as he hurried to the lumber yard.

"He was such a good boy…"

Gravel noisily gave way as he stepped from the road and onto the path to the forest's edge. At this time the shiki should only just be rousing from their slumber, that should give him at least a little time to find a hiding place at the Shimizu house.

Ahead of him lay the lumber yard, chain link fence surrounding the perimeter but with the low crime rate of village life came an absence of razor wire or padlocks. Hell, he could see a splitting axe buried in a stump in the middle of the yard, not ten metres past the gate.

With a quick glance to see if anyone was looking he opened the gate and slid into the compound and gave the axe handle a mighty pull.

It didn't budge…

Gripping the shaft with both hands and securing his foot on the stump, Tohru gave the reluctant tool a rough tug before placing his second foot on the stump and leaning back with all his weight. When ass met ground he quickly climbed to his feet, his bounty in hand.

"Well done, Boy" whispered a feminine voice in his ear as something cold pressed against his neck. "I wonder what you needed this for? Give it to me" the voice continued as he felt his fingers release the wooden handle and let the axe fall to the ground.

No!

With a slow gait Shizuka seemed to dance around him, wrapping her arms around his neck,"I feel you should know, your little girlfriend is dead."

I failed again.

"She whimpered your name each night, Boy. She whimpered it with such longing, every night, Na-tsu-no" she sing-songed, playing with his black and red curls.

"Don't worry, boy," her eyes narrowed dangerously, "You'll see her again soon enough."

With a final bite Tohru's world faded to black.

? of August, 1994

I feel so weak…

He was somewhere dark…

His nose itched from the murky smell permeating the air….

He couldn't lift his arms and each breath was like lifting a lead weight with his chest….

So I'm dying… Again…

"Go on, Girl. He tastes so good, trust me" a voice of purest silk echoed in the darkness.

Numbly, he could hear the faint sound of crying from nearby, uncontrollable broken sobs.

"I- I don't want to…." rasped a gravelly yet feminine voice in between sobs.

"Nonsense, you told me yourself how this boy always monopolised your precious Natsuno's time" the smooth voice purred from the abyss. "You could finally get his attention if this boy were out of the way."

The sobbing slowed to a halt over time, after what felt like hours a girl spoke hesitantly a single word.

"R-Really?"

"Yes, you could take whatever you wanted from whoever you wanted. You could finally go to the big city, with Natsuno" the voice continued. "I'll leave and give you some privacy, I'll let you out when I come back."

The younger voice didn't say anything as footsteps echoed away into the void.

"It's your fault I'm here, Tohru" the girl's voice, Megumi's voice whispered in his ear.

"N…. No…." It was so hard to speak. "I tried….. To….. Save… You…."

"Why? Why would you do that?" she asked quietly, tears falling onto his face.

So cold… Is this how Natsuno felt?

"T-to save… Natsuno." Every word was hard fought, it was as if the world was trying to pull him into the ground and consume him.

"Natsuno?" Her breath hitched, "How would saving me help him?"

He was doomed and he would be forced to start again once more, but what happened when he looped? Did the world reverse? Was a new copy created and the old one still existed? There was no way to know, but it couldn't hurt to try doing as much good as possible.

"Do you… Love… Him?" He gasped, consciousness slowly ebbing from his mind.

Won't be long now….

"I do" Megumi's voice softly replied.

Please listen…

"Then… Avoid him… At all costs…" he began, "You… Can't watch… Him…."

His breaths were getting thinner and thinner, the impenetrable darkness feeling more inviting with each passing second.

Just a little more…

"He would… Never accept… The new life… After death…"

Inhale…

Exhale…

"He… Would kill… Everyone…"

"The… Kirishiki's…"

"Himself…."

"And you…" He finished as his final words were nothing more than a whisper.

"I- I'll protect him… I promise, he'll make it to the city" she swore, missing the point.

Close enough. He may still notice, but he has a chance now...

Inhale…

It's so cold…

Exhale…

"Tohru?"

Inhale…

"No… Please don't leave me alone."

Heh, sorry Megumi…

Exhale….

I hope you all enjoyed that. Leave a review if you'd like and I hope you continue reading the story.

Have a great day everyone.