Author's Note:
Uuuuh, hi again!
It has been almost exactly 2 years since I updated his, time sure flies.
Got married a couple of months ago and got a new job which is cool.
Recently started watching Shiki again and decided to look back at the reviews for this story and felt a rush of inspiration!
Probably won't last long but hopefully I'll finish this story by the time I'm 80…
Please enjoy!
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11th of August, 1994
Okay, time for a new plan… This is going to suck…
Wandering up to a girl after she has argued with her friend is normally a dangerous prospect, the fact that Megumi hated his guts probably made this act almost suicidal, but his conscience wouldn't let him sleep at night if he didn't at least try.
"Heya, Megumi!" he greeted as cheerfully as he could as he jogged up the hill leading to Kanemasa, the castle looming ominously over the forest ahead.
With a scowl that could curdle milk the girl spun on her heel to face her nemesis, "What? Want to tell me how weird the new people are just because they redesigned that old ruin up the hill?" The ruffles in her pink skirt made a rustling noise as the thin canvas-like material rubbed against itself as she shook her pony tails in her fury. "Well, I don't want to hear it so go away!"
Jesus…
"Um… No?" he was already floundering, convincing her to go home was going to be impossible at this rate. "I was actually checking if you are alright, I saw you arguing with Kaori a moment ago." Surely even she can't bite his head off for that, right?
If it was somehow possible, her scowl got even deeper as her eyes narrowed into slits. It was like looking a cobra in eye before it struck, her skirt rustling like a snake's rattle. "In what world is that your business, huh? You are just another one of these village losers that will get married, have little farmlet kids and get trapped here for the rest of his life where nothing ever changes. What possible help could you be, you pathetic loser? All you will ever accomplish in life is dragging Natsuno down with you, do you even realise that the closer you get with him, the worse off he is?" She took a deep breath before continuing, "He will never leave this place, and it is entirely your fault."
All he could do was blink dumbfounded as she turned once again and continued to stamp her way up the hill to Kanemasa, to her death.
"Megumi, wait-"
"No, Tohru. Just leave me alone!" She hollered without turning back to him as she marched stubbornly into the demon's jaws.
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Moonlight bounced off her pale skin where he found her deep in the forest that night. Her pink dress had grown muddy as the ruffles of her skirt gathered all manner of twigs and dying leaves.
"Megumi, can you hear me?" Tohru asked as he lifted her head into the crook of his arm, her dull eyes gazing listlessly up into the sky.
"She was so beautiful…" she whispered so quietly that he could barely hear her over the shouting of the other villagers in forest.
"I'm sorry, Megumi" He whispered, "I tried."
With a startling moment of clarity, she reached up behind his head and looked into his eyes, "It's all your fault," she said, clear as day before closing her eyes and letting her hand fall to the forest floor.
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12th of August, 1994
Once again, he found himself in his fortress of twigs and leaves waiting for the succubus to make a meal of the prickly fashionista, but this time he brought a friend. His friend had a long fir handle, sanded to a smooth finish with a heavy iron head. Tonight, he would walk away from Megumi's window without having to fear for her or his own life.
All he had to do was hit the mark. One good swing at it would be over, he could walk away knowing that he had stopped two of the biggest contributors to Sotoba's fall.
So why couldn't his hands stop shaking? His heart was beating just as fast as it had the first two times he fought the witch, his palms just as sweaty. He couldn't even tell if this was his body desperately trying to convince him to run or if it was preparing him for the fight.
Either way, he wouldn't have the chance to figure it out as the lithe form of Chizuru danced her way through the yard to lean casually against Megumi's windowsill, lifting an immaculately manicured hand to rap on the glass panes.
A zombie-like shadow shambled to the window and allowed her in before the two disappeared.
Grass gave way beneath him as he stalked his way across the lawn to stand above the window, axe held high in the air.
Platinum hair snaked its way out of the window just as he expected, and moonlight glittered off the sharp edge of iron before sinking into hair, bone and pink mush with a sickening crunch. The vampiress didn't even let out a sigh as her lifeless corpse allowed gravity to do its job and brought her to the ground in a boneless heap under the window.
Not taking any chances, a fir stake was hammered safely between her breasts into her cold, unbeating heart.
Finally, it was done.
The cicadas of the country still chirped loudly.
The wind still blew noisily through the trees and the moon still glittered off the clouds in the sky.
So why didn't he feel like his job was finished, and more tellingly…
Why didn't he feel anything at all for taking a life?
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13th of August, 1994
Tohru went about his normal routine the day after he slayed the monster.
He woke up and made his mother breakfast.
He walked to the bus stop and goofed around with his friends, even with Megumi's absence.
He went to school and played mediator between Natsuno and Masao to stop them from killing each other.
Throughout all of this, not a single comment was made about the murder of the mistress of Kanemasa.
There was no demonic roar echoing down from the mountains, there was no Tatsumi shadowing his every move and there were no rumours going around about any disappearances or mutilated bodies found in dumpsters.
That was what surprised him the most, honestly. That it was so simple to dispose of Chizuru's body. All he had to do was throw her body in a rubbish bin and watch the next morning when the dump truck picked her up and crushed her underneath tonnes of refuse carried in from the city.
It was almost too easy to get away with murder, and that was what disturbed him. Not the fact that he put her down, that had to be done. It was the fact that he could do it, and no one had come for him yet. It was too quiet…
He left no trace of himself behind, even disposed of the axe along with the body to make sure he couldn't be caught red handed.
It would be days before the Kirishiki even realised she was gone with how flighty she acted, and a few days after that before they really started to worry. Their only lead would be that Megumi was still alive and would be recovering too. That would be the give away if they were to start looking. A shiki didn't stop feeding off one victim until they died, it was their nature. You couldn't fight that instinct, even if you wanted to. He would know…
They would come for her again, but not to feed. They would hunt her down for information and it wouldn't be pretty.
Two shiki can't compel the same victim, the first will always override the second. He heard that is how Ozaki exposed Chizuru the first time from Seishirou. Natsuno injected the doctor with his venom which didn't allow her compulsion to keep her safe to take hold.
What proved to save the doctor will doom Megumi to a horrible, torturous death. All because he decided to play guardian angel, he robbed her of a relatively peaceful death.
He came to this realisation earlier in the day and had fretted non-stop about it ever since. What would be his next move? What could he possibly do to save the girl or on a larger scale, Sotoba?
Despite his father being Ozaki's chief administrator, there was no way he could convince them to put her up in the clinic until she recovered. What possible excuse could he come up with for his knowledge of her impending death?
He couldn't send her away to the city, he was just an eighteen-year-old kid with zero resources to his name. Maybe she had family elsewhere, how would he convince her parents to send her away? He was nobody worth listening to.
There was no way he could convince Sunako to leave now after he'd killed her favoured daughter, she may be the most peaceful of her clan, but she was also vengeful. She would crucify him for what he had done.
Could he tell Ozaki about the growing threat? He only went fully off the deep end when he had to slice his wife apart for days on end, he could simply tell the doctor the facts and there would be no need to experiment on one. That would keep his mental state in check and hopefully the older, more experienced man could find a solution for him? It may have worked if he kept Chizuru's body as evidence, her body would have melted in the sunlight. It would be hard to disregard that, a good thought for his next loop.
But what could he do right now?
More importantly, what could he do about Tatsumi? Even if he still had his axe, the giant psycho would still slaughter him. Tatsumi was a warrior through and through, more powerful in his own right than Tohru before even considering their difference in species. A jinrou is nigh unstoppable, a force of nature. Their senses were fine tuned to be the apex predator of the modern world, you couldn't hide from one, you couldn't fight one, but you could outsmart one.
Tatsumi's greatest strengths were his loyalty to Sunako and his overwhelming cruelty and malevolence. His presence instilled fear in the newborns, kept them in line but his undeniable loyalty to Sunako naturally lead the others to be mindful of her to garner her protection. It was what kept himself alive for so long as she saw him as a kindred spirit, two monsters with crippling sympathy for the living.
Tatsumi's only weakness would be that he relied too heavily on his strength, on his intimidation. He never thought about the orders he received, he simply enacted Sunako's plans through violence and fear, never strategy. There lay Tohru's opportunity to win, he had seemingly infinite chances to strategise, to create new plans, to win through trial and error for as long as his will held out.
Unfortunately, there was another hurdle to contend with in his path to save Sotoba, Yoshie Kurahashi…
Tatsumi was the yin to Yoshie's yang. Where Tatsumi was cruel and malicious, she was gentle and caring. Tatsumi was a dictator who ruled with fear where people wanted to obey Yoshie because she was there for them after Tatsumi broke them down. She was a calculating, manipulative soldier in contrast to Tatsumi's blunt force approach to soldiering.
Simply put, she was a scalpel and he was a hammer. Together, they made the ultimate toolkit to weaken and batter Sotoba into submission with no one the wiser.
With those two out of the picture, the newborn army would tear itself apart and scatter to he winds. New shiki rising from the ground would be taught by shiki who were only months old at max and without the jinrou to maintain discipline deaths in the village would sky rocket before the humans would catch on and wage war. We would be back to result of my first life.
No, the only way this would work is to take the jinrou out early into the epidemic when there are so few newborns that they could all be killed at once with a couple well-placed fires in Kanemasa and Yabairi. Be sure to bring a couple fire extinguishers and bam, job done.
Now how the hell do I go about hunting nature's apex hunters…?
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Author's Notes:
Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter of Rewinding Heart.
It has been song long since I've done any writing at all, I'm basically starting at square one again haha.
It got easier as I continued, just like riding a bike I guess.
Anyways, see you next time!