Author's Note:
Hi All, hope the weekend went well for you.
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11th of August, 1994
How many loops had passed since then?
Forty?
Fifty?
"I'm so sorry, Child." Apologised the ancient man as he clasped at Tohru's hand.
He had honestly lost count since that life changing experience. At the time, his mind had shut down just as it had each time he had been captured since. How many times had he been forced to slaughter his family like cattle? How many times did he have to watch his friends burn in the sunlight beside himself after they had been nailed to trees facing each other? He had been burnt alive, impaled, drowned, flayed, crushed, pulled apart and much more. No matter what he did or how much progress he made, he always failed. Each loop, every damn time, he dragged someone down with him.
He had never convinced Megumi to cease her march up to Kanemasa, the stubborn girl would bullishly keep charging to her death, over and over again. He had tried persuasion, he had tried lying, he had even tried to threaten her once but all he got from that was a split lip and another defeat to tally. Although by the end, Chizuru couldn't offer any decent fight against him. Many loops he simply repeated what worked, hitting her as she left Megumi's room and dumping her into a dumpster. If it wasn't broken, don't fix it. However, after enough loops he came to a realisation. Megumi trying help just added more variables, she just slowed him down. Every time she tried to assist him, she left behind a clue that would get him killed.
Something had to change so she wouldn't discover his involvement with the Shiki, and he had to do it before Chizuru visited Shimizu's home. He found that Megumi would accept that her encounter with the Kirishiki was a nightmare if she was never visited in her home. Every time he saved her after the succubus visited her though, she would believe in the okiagari and make some mistake or another that would get them both killed. After a while, he took to intercepting the buxom vampiress in the forest. She was a skilled fighter, killing him many times at first before he got used to stand up fights with her. Once he got the hang of it, she never made it to Megumi's window again.
The loops lasted longer once Megumi was no longer involved. She would return to school none the wiser within a week of her first attack and go about her days as normal. Unfortunately, her previously unknown night-time habits returned with her health as well. The girl had been stalking Natsuno for who knows long. It wasn't particularly surprising when he thought about it. What did surprise him, however, was the fact that Natsuno knew and he did absolutely nothing about it. His actions to stop her from stalking him were laughable at best, suicidal at worst. Closing the window at night, really? His window was made from paper, that wouldn't stop anybody!
A quick call from a "concerned neighbour" early into each loop to the police soon sorted the issue out though. He would report the exact time she would be outside Natsuno's window after she recovered from her attack and the police would take her away each time. With six months house arrest, Megumi was no longer a problem at all. She couldn't go out for any other reason than school, where she was always to be placed as far from Natsuno as possible at the front of the classroom. He felt bad for the girl, especially after they had fought and died side by side so many times, but it was for her own good. She would suffer humiliation for a short while but ultimately, she would live and hopefully make it to the city. He didn't even bother trying to stop her from climbing up to Kanemasa anymore, there was no point.
"I'm so sorry, Child" Rattled the elder monk again.
His best friend never lived long enough after being saved from Shizuka and Takatoshi to help him with his battle. Each time, Tatsumi would slaughter the Yuuki family the day he captured Tohru at school. Some loops it would be fire that killed the family in their sleep, other times the blonde would make it in time to stop the fire, only for Tatsumi to release the hounds. Those were some of his worst deaths, the times he tried to continue the pattern that got Ozaki on side. He could have made the pattern work, but it would always cost Natsuno's life. That was never a price he would pay.
Once Tohru started heading Chizuru off in the forest and stopping Megumi's involvement though, he was able to repeat the act with Takatoshi before he could ever attack Koide. The man was a good fighter for human standards but was far too defensive as a shiki. His boxing stance that would have protected him as a man against punches but did nothing against Tohru's spear as it penetrated his heart, time and time again.
Tohru worked closely with Doctor Ozaki those later loops, repeating his grand reveal with Takatoshi's body at sunrise each loop. Tatsumi never hunted him down straight away those loops either, something had changed, and he couldn't track the blonde for some reason. The doctor became a constant companion, taking him on as an orderly each time to allow him freedom at night without his family growing suspicious. Nao Yasumori became the young doctor's pet project, each loop. At first, he had been confused as to why the doctor always chose Nao to protect every time. He eventually questioned it and found that she was one of Toshio's best friends' wife. The blonde could respect the sentiment, truly he did.
However, that sentiment got them both killed repeatedly.
His changes to the timeline had made the shiki particularly violent toward those who discovered their secret, he found. Each time they bought Nao into the clinic overnight, they all died to the last man. When it was just the two of them, Tatsumi would break in and end them fairly quickly. During the last few loops, they had managed to recruit Tomio Ookawa in their defence of the clinic, and by extension, his son Atsushi. Tomio was a difficult man to convince without proof, but he came around quickly each time once the shiki appeared to take Nao.
The undead forces approached them differently when they had the Ookawas' support though. He supposed even Tatsumi didn't want to take the giant family on in a fair fight. The necrotic legion would torch the clinic, forcing the men to take Nao outside lest they burn to death. No matter how much muscle, medical knowledge nor future foresight they had, it couldn't compare to sheer weight of numbers as dozens of vampires fell on them in a wave.
"Young man?" Whispered Shinmei Muroi, trying his hardest to drag the blonde's face to his own.
They would never survive that fight, he had to change the timeline. He had to try something new, some other way to expose or eliminate the monsters.
"Tell me." Demanded the priest when wide, lidless eyes with dark circles that mirrored his own focused on him. "How many times have we met like this?"
Author's Notes:
Gasp!