Victor arrived at Ozaky's clinic and began throwing stones at it, shouting, "Doctor Ozaky!" louder and louder. Finally, a window opened, and Doctor Ozaky emerged.
"I hope you have a good reason for waking me up at one in the morning!" Ozaky yelled, wearing his pajamas.
"I want to help you with this epidemic of the dead rising!"
Ozaky remained silent.
"Sotoba will burn... You'll fight this war just to break even! If you don't trust that I'm human, I can come in alone—even if you just leave a door or window open!"
"How do you know all of this?" the doctor asked, now calmer.
"I'll explain face-to-face!"
Ozaky came downstairs, opened the door, and let him in.
"Alright, how do you know?" Ozaky asked, wearing a two-piece white pajama set with red polka dots.
Victor showed him his phone—the last scenes of Sotoba burning and them fleeing. To Ozaky, it was like watching a film of the future... a horrible film of the future. So much so that his cigarette fell to the floor. With his eyes still wide open, he retrieved it, then looked down, picked up the cigarette, and put it back in his mouth.
"This... is so... absurd!" the doctor whispered to himself.
"But it will happen. I already know what to do, BUT... I need your help, Uncle Ozaky!" Victor said.
"Uncle?!" the doctor asked, taking a drag from his cigarette.
"You can say I'm your nephew from America. Surely you've got some estranged relatives you've lost contact with—or better yet, someone lost in the branches of your family tree, right? Just say I'm your Nippo-American nephew who studied a bit of medicine—the only true part of this story! Even though I'm actually Italo-American. If I stay here in Sotoba as your nephew, I'll have enough authority not to be dismissed as just a 'gaijin,' right? And while we officially work at the clinic... I'll help you deal with them!" Victor explained.
"Something tells me you're not doing this for free. What do you want in return?"
"Megumi Shimizu. I want to get her out of here—I have a plan. When the Shiki are exposed, I need a way to get her out of the bloodbath. All you have to do is keep them occupied with a long series of explanations about what you and I discovered—this, that, and the other. Roughly ten minutes will be enough for me to make sure I'm already out of Sotoba with her!"
"Megumi Shimizu... I was saddened by her death. Such a lively girl... now a monster," Ozaky commented.
"Listen, you want to save this village, now even from the idea of it burning down... I want to save a poor girl bullied even by her scumbag parents. Don't give me that look!" Victor added, seeing Ozaky's eyes widen as he recoiled slightly.
"Don't tell me you didn't know, huh?"
Ozaky shook his head. "I'm a doctor, yes, but I specialize in cardiology! I'm not a psychologist! Besides, she didn't talk to anyone!"
"Just imagine the pain that poor girl carried for years and years! Now can you see why she wants to leave? Huh? Not only does half the town mock her, but her parents, calm and collected in public, emotionally torture her at home! It was probably a nightmare she thought she could escape by being treated kindly by the Kanemasa outsiders... who just feasted on her, right? Imagine... and now they tell her, 'Sweetie, now you can get revenge on those jerks.' Do you know the catch? Those people become vampires, and in the end, what happens? She ends up with the same Sotoba as before, but vampirized, and they'll NEVER let her leave Sotoba... condemned to live here forever. Quite a fate, right?" Victor said, slamming his fist on the table.
"Yes, now I understand her bitterness... but she's a Shiki now," Ozaky began.
"Shiki or not, she still has feelings! They're the same people they were before, but sick. And let me tell you something: they don't even need to kill. They can change their target. But this time, they're killing to force transformations and build a Shiki village! That's the plan, but as you've seen, they'll fail! And in the end, the village will burn, just like you saw!"
Ozaky stayed silent, smoking, his eyes half-closed, exhaling a cloud of smoke that filled the room as he looked at the ceiling and then at Victor.
"Alright, dear nephew," Ozaky commented, placing the cigarette in the ashtray to tap off the ash. "Tell me your plan to save Sotoba!"
"One step at a time. If everything begins with my arrival, Sunako will realize I'm behind it. I have to lower her guard, and Megumi will help with that. In the meantime, I'll try to limit the damage—or better yet, the deaths—as much as possible. So when Sunako sees me as 'Ozaky's helpful nephew passing along sensitive information'..." He winked.
"Are you sure it's not risky?" Ozaky asked.
"I have to do it. Megumi must pretend to be loyal, and we must save as many lives as possible. Two seemingly irreconcilable goals, but it has to last long enough to put the plan into motion and save everyone with a solution so simple yet plausible that Sunako will curse the false perpetrators for the rest of her life!" Victor said, smiling.
"Alright... let's hope this moment of inaction doesn't last long. I hate losing townsfolk! By the way, take the Ozaky surname for convenience," Ozaky said, extinguishing what remained of his cigarette before getting up to speak with his wife and mother.
Victor saw "Aunt Kyouko" and smiled.
"Aunt Kyouko, pleased to meet you. Uncle Toshio said I could use his last name while I'm in Sotoba," Victor said, bowing slightly.
"At least you have good manners, nephew! What's America like?"
"Very noisy, Auntie, especially in the big cities!"
Before Kyouko could respond, a woman's voice rang out.
"The nephew of Matsuda Meiho?! That damned coward who abandoned your grandfather to seek fortune in America and only sent us a postcard saying, 'Stay and rot in Sotoba while I make better money!' And he married a gaijin?! And this is his grandson?!" Takae barked.
Victor sighed, thinking, "Something tells me this old hag is going to hate me from the start."
"Yes, he's his grandson, and he's very polite! He even apologized for his father sending him here without warning!" Ozaky shouted.
"I'll show you where you can sleep," Kyouko suddenly said.
"Thank you, Auntie... but weren't the Japanese known for being super kind?" Victor asked, feigning ignorance of how bloodthirsty Sotoba would become once the Shiki were exposed.
"Normally, yes. But my mother-in-law is probably possessed by a yokai 24/7. But shhh," Kyouko said, laughing as she led him to the villa attached to the clinic.
"In America, this house would be considered super luxurious!" Victor chuckled.
"I don't care how polite he is! I don't want him in my house!" Toshio's mother yelled.
"Woman! I'm in charge! And I say he stays! Besides, he's even studying medicine! Who better than an Ozaky to teach him? After all, you always say to uphold the family name, right? And now that another branch of the family wants to do so, you slam the door in his face?! You're ridiculous, woman! I still wonder what my father saw in you! I bet even you couldn't stand yourself!" Ozaky shouted.
"Do they fight often?" Victor asked.
"Yes, but not usually this fiercely!" Kyouko replied, amused.
"Well, at least Uncle Ozaky married a beautiful woman!" Victor commented as Kyouko pointed to the bed.
"Alright, he can stay! Ungrateful son!" Takae shouted.
"I'm not ten anymore. You can't tell me what to do! Anyway, yes, he stays!"
"Thank you! Join us for breakfast tomorrow!"
Victor lay down in the small, sparse room with only a bed and a nightstand with a lamp.
Without pajamas, he went to sleep fully dressed and closed his eyes. Was it all a dream—a vivid dream—or the harsh, cursed reality?
Suddenly, he found himself in a countryside setting. It was dark, but he could hear the sound of engines in the background.
"Hello, Vic!" said a warm voice with an annoyingly mocking laugh.
Victor turned to see a figure dressed in a black robe and wearing the Dallas mask from Payday 2.
"You're..." Victor began.
"Yes, the one who brought you here... you know, I don't care if your story ends in a painful tragedy or a sweet comedy. What matters to me is that you entertain me!" said the figure, while a dark laughter filled the air.
Victor tried to strike the figure, but his attacks passed right through it.
"The lives of mortals are not a game!" he snapped.
"They are when they belong to universes forgotten by the gods, like the Shiki-verse. Why do you think it's so dark?" the deity replied, laughing again, as a familiar scene began unfolding before Victor's eyes: tractors surrounding Megumi, while the Sotobans turned against her.
"No, no, no, no! Please, no!" Victor begged, as a slowed, reverberated version of Twilight from the Shiki soundtrack began playing in the background. He tried to stop the villagers, but his blows felt as though they were striking ghosts.
"You don't have the guts, do you? You don't have the guts to stain your hands with blood! But this universe demands blood! Blood for the god of blood! Your god demands blood! Spill it! Save your lady! But you won't leave this universe with the innocence you brought into it!" the deity exclaimed, laughing as Megumi pleaded with the Sotobans, begging them to let her go, even as she was hit by another tractor.
"Give me the strength, you bastard!" Victor shouted.
"Strength!? You already have it within you! You're just too much of a coward to use it!" the deity mocked.
"Victor!" Megumi cried out, just as another tractor struck her.
The boy ran toward her, but he passed straight through the villagers and Megumi as if they were shadows.
"No! Let me act, you piece of shit deity! Do you want a prayer? Fine, I'll pray to you!" Victor screamed, dropping to his knees.
"I don't want your whining, your mortal pleas! I want you to know how to spill blood! And you! DON'T. HAVE. IT. IN. YOU! You lack the will, the thirst... you're just a brat! If this weren't the Shiki-verse you know so well, you'd already be DEAD! Without your phone, you'd already be dead! You're just a pathetic fool who imagined himself a modern knight, riding on a motorcycle to whisk Megumi away in the dead of night! But look at you! Unable to save the woman you love!"
"Victor! Victor! Please! Help me! I trusted you!" Megumi cried out.
"Let me act! You bastard! LET ME ACT! I BEG YOU!"
"Act on what!?" the deity sneered as its mask twisted into a malicious grin, revealing rows of shark-like teeth.
Victor turned, only to see Megumi being impaled with a stake through her heart.
"Nooooo!" Victor screamed, waking with a start, as the cold laughter of the deity echoed in his mind.
NOTES:
Marry Xmas to everyone! I hope this chapter satisfy your cravings and be sweet as a xmas gift! Next chapter: Megumi POV, stay tuned, yes first time i give a anticipation ;)