If you were none of these (25/?)
anonymous
May 5 2012, 19:49:48 UTC
Her neck, soft and human, ripples and widens in his hand. He just has enough sense to release her and rush out of her range. A storm of flame swirls around Yukiko. She looks different, somehow, less pink and more golden. Maybe that’s the difference, between eating a normal person and eating someone with a demon in them. Yosuke wonders what would happen if he took a bite of Chie, but he doesn’t want it anymore. Instead, he approaches Yukiko, hands out. Fire swirls around her, red and hot.
“Hey,” he says. “Hey.”
“No, no,” she says as he gets near. “No, she’s mine, she’s mine…”
“I know, I know,” he says. Her shoulders crumple; she lets herself fall into him. There’s blood soaking into his shirt, but the fire is dying.
“It was Adachi,” she says, muffled. “He killed her. We have to get him, Yosuke-kun. We have to.”
“Just give me your phone,” Yosuke says. “We need to make the exchange. Souji for Nanako-chan. Kanji for Shirogane.”
“When I find him,” says Yukiko, and the anger distorts her voice, “I won’t even eat him. I’ll rip him apart. I’ll pull his eyes out. I’ll make him burn.”
The phone she gives him is Chie’s.
Watch him burn, she says, and bends over Chie again. But this time, as a demon.
*
He exits the TV. The electronics section is empty. He calls the police station and makes the exchange. Souji for Nanako. Kanji for Shirogane. Leave them in Junes at five. Dojima sounds shocked and disbelieving when he recognizes Yosuke’s voice. Horrified when he finds the note Chie and Yukiko had left.
They’re going to have to do something about that TV, Yosuke thinks. They’ll need to move it somewhere safe. Or maybe they can go in through some other TV and make that their base.
Yukiko said that there were police officers waiting for them in the electronics department, but it’s all been cleared out now. He wonders why.
When the time comes, he goes back into the TV and gets Shirogane and Nanako. Nanako is feverish and cold in his arms; Shirogane’s weak, but conscious and furious. At five, Kanji’s big, pale head shows up over the row of TVs.
“Senpai escaped already,” Kanji says by way of explanation. “They put us in the same interrogation room. He jumped straight through.”
“A TV?” Yosuke says. “Shit.” He doesn’t want to think about trying to find Souji down there. He’ll have to find Teddie and yell at him: Remember? Remember your sensei, you dumbass bear? Goddamn it. “What the hell was he thinking?”
“He says it looked familiar,” Kanji says. He reaches for Nanako, then stops. “Senpai said to let Nanako-chan go.”
“Duh,” Yosuke says.
“Senpai says we should let Shirogane go,” Kanji says. “Think he’s gonna be all right?”
“”Beats me,” Yosuke says. But he doesn’t like the idea of letting Shirogane run free. He slings Nanako’s body over one shoulder, and pulls Shirogane up by the hair with the other. “Why don’t you get back in the TV? Just be careful. Yukiko-san’s still trying to finish off Chie.”
If you were none of these (26/?)
anonymous
May 5 2012, 19:51:34 UTC
“What?” Kanji says.
“It’s been a bad day,” he says.
Kanji hesitates for a moment, and then vanishes into the TV.
He and Shirogane are alone now. But Yosuke isn’t going to let Shirogane go just yet. No. He drags Shirogane to the escalators, and sets Nanako’s body, gently, against a wall. Shirogane knows too much; and he doesn’t like the way Shirogane has the wrong idea about them.
“What are you doing?” Shirogane says, his voice cracking.
“Just something to make you understand us,” Yosuke says. He looks at his own forearm, grimaces, and takes a bite. It hurts like hell. He only needs a little bit of flesh, but for a moment, he wishes he could have fed Shirogane a bit of Kanji instead. Ha. Sucks for him, he guesses. Shirogane watches, fascinated-then that fascination turns to horror when Yosuke pries his mouth open.
There’s only one reliable way to make someone an asura, and that’s to feed them tainted flesh. He slides the meat into Shirogane’s mouth, and then clamps his hand down over Shirogane’s jaw and strokes his throat. Shirogane’s thrashing beneath him, panting and panicking and it’s both the worst and best thing Yosuke’s seen in a while. He continues stroking Shirogane’s throat, and a part of him flutters when Shirogane swallows.
Yosuke stands up. Shirogane gasps. Gags.
He thought it’d feel better than this, but it just makes him feel lousy. But it’s too late now. Who knows. Maybe Shirogane will be one of the lucky ones who dies instead of becomes a crazy monster. Maybe Shirogane will want to work with them.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry.”
And then he leaves.
((My only excuse for the lateness of this update is "and then I got into Homestuck." But, uh, I'm back! Hi. Cannibals. Cool.))
Re: If you were none of these (26/?)
anonymous
May 6 2012, 05:19:50 UTC
Yesssssss, updates! Not the best at commenting, but I feel the immense need to support one of my favorite fics in whatever meager way I can! ;w; loving this fic to death, as always.
Re: If you were none of these (26/?)
anonymous
August 15 2012, 10:28:32 UTC
Wow, I just found this fic, and I am amazed (and creeped out). The story is so compelling, and the characters are deeply disturbing, but fascinatingly like their original counterparts.
I love it so far! There have been multiple times where I've exclaimed out loud. And poor Nanako... I just want to hug her (and pay for her therapy).
Re: If you were none of these (26/?)
anonymous
August 22 2012, 03:27:11 UTC
holy fuck you are so amazing. I saw the prompt by pure coincidence and never thought this would work out. but I got hooked right from the beginning, couldn't stop reading, and now here I am.
I absolutely love your writing style. the mood and actions are conveyed beautifully...(as beautiful as a fic about cannibalistic demons can be). the tension, despair, frustration, I'm feeling it! I almost wish that I found this fic later, so I didn't have to wait for the next update.
If you were none of these (27/?)
anonymous
March 4 2013, 01:21:20 UTC
There’s smoke coming out of Yukiko’s back when Yosuke returns. She’s unconscious in Kanji’s hands. Kanji’s thunder tattoo blazes high on his shoulder.
“The hell was she doing?” Kanji says. “What the fuck was she doing?”
“What do you think she was doing?” Yosuke says. It’s easier to be contrarian and angry than it is to explain himself. Explain all of this. “Geeze, couldn’t you put it off until she finished eating Chie? Fuck. Great.”
Kanji punches Yosuke, hard on the temple. Yosuke crumples to the floor. His knees slide in the blood, and he ends up skidding until he’s next to the body, right where Yukiko was bent earlier. He looks at it, and then chokes. God, this isn’t how he wanted anyone to die, this isn’t what he wanted his life to be. He wants Souji, he wants someone. He wants his friend. He blots out the tears, and quickly turns Chie over, so she’s face-up.
“Can’t believe this is what happens to us when things start heading even a little bit south,” Kanji says. “We start killing and eating each other?”
“She was already dead,” Yosuke says. “When I saw what Yukiko-san was doing-shot in the back of the head. She did it herself. What’s the point, anyway, this is the end for all of us. There’s nothing after this-nothing, nothing-”
“Maybe you got nothing,” Kanji says. He picks up Chie, all that’s left of her, and says, “I’m going to rescue senpai. Gonna need to get Teddie, too. You coming with me or not?”
Yosuke picks himself up, his legs shaking. The whole front of his pants is covered in blood. Everything is bloody. “What are you going to do with the body?”
“Bury it,” Kanji says. “You asshole.”
They leave it in a room just off a dead end in Yukiko’s castle. Neither of them try to memorize the way back. The foggy television, the blood-red walls, the bear-like cries echoing in the dark. The next time it rains, the people outside will find the body hanging somewhere from the wires. He hopes there will be a body. Saki-senpai had come back in chunks, and Mayumi Yamano nothing but half a jaw, the rest of her eaten by shadows.
*
give in. (the fool/6)
Adachi comes for her in the evening. Grandma doesn’t let him in. She says he looks crazy, like he should be in a hospital. Rise listens from her room, which has the window straight over the front door. She makes sure her head isn’t visible; Chie and Yukiko had texted her earlier to be careful. She hasn’t heard from them since. “Come on, auntie,” he says.
“No one calls me auntie these days. They call me Granny.”
“Auntie,” Adachi says, “listen, I’m the only one left, you see? Dojima-san’s all torn up about poor Nanako-chan in the hospital and Souji-kun gone missing. Who knows when Shirogane-kun’s ever going to recover. Rise-chan might know something important.”
“Rise-chan has been in the hospital for the last two weeks,” Grandma says. “And you are an embarrassment to the police!”
“Listen, ma’am, don’t make me get Dojima-san, he won’t be as nice as-”
The door slams shut. Rise peers down the window. Adachi is still standing there, scrunched in and tight. He smells like gunpowder. She feels a prickling sensation along her scar, and then a worse feeling in the tattoo, burnt on her throat. She touches the tattoo, and tries to remember how to breathe. Without Souji, all lines of communication are messed up; all she knows is that Chie and Yosuke were going to Junes to meet Shirogane, and then Shirogane was kidnapped. Right around then the police picked up Kanji and shoved him into the car. Then Chie and Yukiko came through the shopping district with Nanako. Everything else since then… Himiko knows. Himiko will tell her.
If you were none of these (28/?)
anonymous
March 4 2013, 01:28:37 UTC
Her grandmother isn’t coming up the stairs, and they ate recently. She think she can risk a partial transformation to Himiko. She shuts her eyes and focuses on her throat, how the tattoo burns and makes every breath harsh. And then her throat becomes rigid, armored, the skin on her neck turns black, and then that horrible golden seal over her face, blocking out her eyes, her nose, her mouth, the sudden piercing pain between her eyes and then out the back of her head-she wants to scream, but then her head locks into place, and the transformation seals her jaws together, tooth fusing to tooth and tongue atrophying, turning into nothing but a little nub in her empty mouth.
Blind, deaf, not even able to breathe; she fists her skirt and forces herself to stop trembling. She doesn’t have enough oxygen to waste time panicking. This is her curse, in exchange for her great power. She can see Adachi below, and sees clearly the outline of his gun, the way it’s stained, the smell of guilt all over him. Oh, Chie-senpai, she thinks, and then of course, poor Yukiko-senpai and Yosuke-senpai. Poor all of them. This must be the end.
Kanji and Souji are both in the TV, Kanji safe with Yosuke and Yukiko, Souji is lost in the dark fog. She’ll be able to go to Junes without detection, Himiko whispers to her, her voice as terrifying as the tap of bug legs over her eyes in the middle of the night, tomorrow morning, as long as Rise trusts her. All of that, and then another new light in the hospital. She’s out of air. She can’t go on. She tries to release the transformation, but Himiko has her by the face and won’t let her go. She pounds her fist against her thigh, digs her nails into her own wrist. The skin on her shoulders and arms lock into place, hands together and wrist facing up, as though in supplication.
Don’t let me die, don’t let me die here, she pleads. Not like this, alone and in the dark-and then the demon lets her go. She pitches forward onto the ground, cheek striking the floor hard, and almost throws up for lack of oxygen. Grandma knocks on the door.
“Are you all right, dear?” she says.
“I,” Rise says, her voice hoarse. She clears it. “I just knocked over my backpack. Can I help you with the tofu, Grandma?”
“Oh, no, dear. I think it’s best if you stay up there. I will call you down for dinner in half an hour.”
“That sounds great,” she says. A second later, she hears Grandma going down the stairs. She picks herself off the floor, goes to the mirror, rubs her throat. Skin again. Himiko this time was so bold. The others tell her that their transformations are nothing like that, or at least, not so horrifying. Yosuke gets Jiraiya’s bug-eyes and hands, Kanji gets one of Take-Mikazuchi’s arms, Yukiko gets metal feathers shoving their way out of the soft flesh of her forearms. It’s different for all of them.
She stares into the mirror. What will be for dinner? Vegetarian, she bets. She doesn’t think she can stand it. She needs to go to the hospital. There's something she needs to pick up.
((hello all. how have you been in the last ... six months...
I'm amazed that people are still reading this after all this time. thank you for continuing to read and comment. we're in the last act now. With any luck I'll have this finished off before I graduate college! Thank you all again for being a great crowd to write for. ♥))
Re: If you were none of these (28/?)
anonymous
March 5 2013, 23:17:47 UTC
This anon also squealed after seeing another update! And what a beautiful one it is, gosh that was both gripping and heart twisting! So glad you're continuing this, it's well worth the wait!
If you were none of these (29/?)
anonymous
March 31 2013, 02:56:07 UTC
Kanji takes a few exploratory peeks outside the television. The police has moved all the TVs to the back, near the mattresses. The whole shop is closed, nothing but some police officers walking around and canvassing the electronics section. This will be an okay place for the TVs now.
They stay out long enough to text Rise to let them know what’s going on and to pick up some supplies: meat, clothing for Yosuke and Yukiko. Yosuke wants to take one of the police officers, since who knows when they’ll be able to eat again, but Kanji glowers at him. He’s surprised when Rise sends them a text back: himiko told me i can make it 2 the tv 2morow morning. i'll join you guys then!
wut shud we do bout ted + souji, Yosuke texts.
idk i dont know whats up with senpai :( :( but u kanji-kun and yukiko-senpai should be able to think of something! and then, the last text before he goes back into the TV: im sorry about chie-senpai.
He thinks about asking about Shirogane; but that guy deserves anything that happens to him, anyway. If Shirogane had just given them more time, if Shirogane had just thought before he ran into town like some asshole on a white horse, then they’d all be okay. Besides, Kanji’ll be all heartbroken about it, that dick.
The pants he’s wearing are looser than he likes. He bets he looks fat in all this clothing.
They wait for a while in the TV, because they’re not as hungry there. When Yukiko wakes up, she looks more like herself. She changes into the summer skirt and shirt Yosuke gets her, but she keeps wearing that damn cardigan. They almost fight about it, Yosuke angry because it seems filthy to walk around crusted in blood and stinking of meat. Yukiko has Kanji on her side. Kanji lost his father when he was a kid, said he knew what she was going through.
Sure, Yosuke thinks. If he ate his dad after he died, then sure.
They set up camp in the entrance room and sleep in shifts. They always get hungrier faster in the TV than they do outside of it. At first Yosuke thought it was just because they were fighting and transforming so much inside, but when Kanji came, Souji would sometimes leave Yosuke out to cover the rear. Not as hungry as he’d be if he were out in front with Souji, but still. He wishes he could’ve taken a bite out of Chie. It’d be practical, he tells himself. That’s all.
“Ever wondered if there’s a cure?” Kanji says. Yukiko’s asleep, or laying awake with her eyes open. Her legs kick out with too much purpose sometimes.
“You think anyone’s going to have a cure for ‘people-eating demon transformation?’”
“Dunno. Went to the shrine and made a few wishes. Got this cool advertisement from some detective agency in Tokyo. Kunohazu or something. Kuzuhoma?”
“Kuzunoha’s a movie detective,” Yosuke snaps.
“Shit,” Kanji mutters.
*
She goes to the hospital after dinner, with packs of fresh meat in her handbag and flowers. Not the right kind of meat, but it’ll do in a pinch. Himiko will be pleased by this offer, for now. As for Shirogane… She feels bad for him. She’s seen him lurking around town, and he’s always blushing and shy when he meets her eyes. He’s different around Souji, but everyone’s different around Souji.
“Oh, I’m not here to see anyone,” Rise says. “Um, these flowers are for my doctor.”
“Dr. Hitose, you mean?” the nurse says, her eyes narrowing. “He’s gone home for the night.”
“And my nurses,” Rise says. “And everyone who was on the surgical staff.” She curls a hand against her stomach protectively. The stitches still hurt.
“You’re here to see Shirogane-san, aren’t you!” the nurse says.
If you were none of these (30/?)
anonymous
March 31 2013, 02:56:56 UTC
“Oh, please? He’s a friend of mine. And, you know, I heard that he had some of the same symptoms as I did, so I thought I could offer him some comfort.” She tries her best to look demure and shy. It’s harder to do than it used to be. She wants to rip into this woman’s neck, and tear at the glistening muscle and fat underneath.
“Just be quick with it,” the nurse says with a sigh. Rise bows three times in thanks, and then runs off to the hall.
Shirogane’s room isn’t far from where her old room used to be. She sees Shirogane in the bed; the curtains are drawn around him, the sheets are on the floor, and he’s sweating hard through his hospital gown. She can’t see his atma from here. She waves when their eyes meet.
“Get away,” he says.
“That’s no way to treat a lady,” she says, and pulls out her pack of meat.
He’s still breathing hard, but now he nods his head. She steps in and rips the pack open. He holds tight onto the sheets until she drops a slab of pork into his lap. Then he grabs onto the meat and chomps straight through it. He’s cute without his hat. She tosses another bit of meat at him, and coos when he almost chokes on it. He snarls at her, his canines long and thin.
“You’re one of them,” he says.
“One of who?”
“One of Seta’s people. You’re one of those… things.”
“Like you are, you mean?” she says, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I assumed initially that you were an innocent victim,” he says. “But now I see that you and Seta must have planned this together. You must have been collaborating with them from the outside. Funneling victims towards them. Give me more.”
“I dunno, Shirogane-kun,” she says. “I mean, you did just slander me.” He growls, and swipes at her shoulder. She knocks his hand down, easy. He’s hungry and weak, and she ate the night before. “I didn’t know them until I came to Inaba.”
“You’re lying,” he says.
“Nuh-uh. You can smell it off me, can’t you?” She rubs her cheek, and smiles when he looks away. “It’s the truth. They saved me. They can help you, too.”
“Saved you,” he says. And then he lunges forward out of the bed, grabs onto the hem of her shirt and yanks it up-he covers her mouth with his other hand to stop her from screaming. She bites down on his hand, even more when his fingers run over the hole on her stomach: a shallow crater from her right hip, spreading across to her navel. Missing flesh. The end of her modeling career. She slaps him across the ear, and he releases her with a grunt. He touches the side of his face, as though astonished. He pulls himself back to the bed. She slaps him again, so hard that the back of her hand hurts.
If you were none of these (31/?)
anonymous
March 31 2013, 02:58:23 UTC
She rolls her shirt back into place.
“You’re lucky,” she says, “that I’m trying to save your life, you jerk, or you’d be known as the kind of guy who feels up girls!”
“I was proving a point,” he says, but guiltily. He rubs his face. As he shifts his hair around, his atma shows up, high on his forehead, on the left side. “They didn’t ‘save’ you, Kujikawa-san. Not if they have passed on their… condition to you.”
“You don’t understand,” she says. “I was already infected by the time they reached me. You can feel it, can’t you? If you starve yourself, you’ll go berserk and kill everyone here. Souji-senpai and the others, they’re doing their best to keep themselves under control so they can catch the real murderer.”
“I knew it,” he says, off to the side.
“Knew-knew what?”
“You’re soliciting me,” he says. “You are trying to gain my cooperation. But you are only doing it so I won’t prosecute you and bring you to justice-”
“‘Justice?’” she says, loudly. “What we’re doing is-”
“Is it?” he says. “You kidnap and blackmail. You kidnap people and eat them. How is any of that ‘just?’”
“So you’d wait until you get so hungry that you go berserk?” she says. “You’d rather let the person throwing everyone into the TV go unpunished?”
“I’d rather die than become like you or join your hideous cause,” he says. “That’s all I will say. Thank you for the meat, Kujikawa-san. I’ll call you later once I’m out of the hospital for interro-”
“You stupid jerk!” she says, and flings another slab of beef at his face. He grunts, and then throws the meat onto the floor. “Don’t you see? If you don’t help us, you’re going to hurt everyone around you. You jerk!”
She storms out of the room before the doctors and nurses can come see what all the noise is about. Her bag is still half-full of meat.
((... hello all! working slow but steady. next update should be soon-ish. thank you for ... tolerating the irregularities in my schedule.))
“Hey,” he says. “Hey.”
“No, no,” she says as he gets near. “No, she’s mine, she’s mine…”
“I know, I know,” he says. Her shoulders crumple; she lets herself fall into him. There’s blood soaking into his shirt, but the fire is dying.
“It was Adachi,” she says, muffled. “He killed her. We have to get him, Yosuke-kun. We have to.”
“Just give me your phone,” Yosuke says. “We need to make the exchange. Souji for Nanako-chan. Kanji for Shirogane.”
“When I find him,” says Yukiko, and the anger distorts her voice, “I won’t even eat him. I’ll rip him apart. I’ll pull his eyes out. I’ll make him burn.”
The phone she gives him is Chie’s.
Watch him burn, she says, and bends over Chie again. But this time, as a demon.
*
He exits the TV. The electronics section is empty. He calls the police station and makes the exchange. Souji for Nanako. Kanji for Shirogane. Leave them in Junes at five. Dojima sounds shocked and disbelieving when he recognizes Yosuke’s voice. Horrified when he finds the note Chie and Yukiko had left.
They’re going to have to do something about that TV, Yosuke thinks. They’ll need to move it somewhere safe. Or maybe they can go in through some other TV and make that their base.
Yukiko said that there were police officers waiting for them in the electronics department, but it’s all been cleared out now. He wonders why.
When the time comes, he goes back into the TV and gets Shirogane and Nanako. Nanako is feverish and cold in his arms; Shirogane’s weak, but conscious and furious. At five, Kanji’s big, pale head shows up over the row of TVs.
“Senpai escaped already,” Kanji says by way of explanation. “They put us in the same interrogation room. He jumped straight through.”
“A TV?” Yosuke says. “Shit.” He doesn’t want to think about trying to find Souji down there. He’ll have to find Teddie and yell at him: Remember? Remember your sensei, you dumbass bear? Goddamn it. “What the hell was he thinking?”
“He says it looked familiar,” Kanji says. He reaches for Nanako, then stops. “Senpai said to let Nanako-chan go.”
“Duh,” Yosuke says.
“Senpai says we should let Shirogane go,” Kanji says. “Think he’s gonna be all right?”
“”Beats me,” Yosuke says. But he doesn’t like the idea of letting Shirogane run free. He slings Nanako’s body over one shoulder, and pulls Shirogane up by the hair with the other. “Why don’t you get back in the TV? Just be careful. Yukiko-san’s still trying to finish off Chie.”
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“It’s been a bad day,” he says.
Kanji hesitates for a moment, and then vanishes into the TV.
He and Shirogane are alone now. But Yosuke isn’t going to let Shirogane go just yet. No. He drags Shirogane to the escalators, and sets Nanako’s body, gently, against a wall. Shirogane knows too much; and he doesn’t like the way Shirogane has the wrong idea about them.
“What are you doing?” Shirogane says, his voice cracking.
“Just something to make you understand us,” Yosuke says. He looks at his own forearm, grimaces, and takes a bite. It hurts like hell. He only needs a little bit of flesh, but for a moment, he wishes he could have fed Shirogane a bit of Kanji instead. Ha. Sucks for him, he guesses. Shirogane watches, fascinated-then that fascination turns to horror when Yosuke pries his mouth open.
There’s only one reliable way to make someone an asura, and that’s to feed them tainted flesh. He slides the meat into Shirogane’s mouth, and then clamps his hand down over Shirogane’s jaw and strokes his throat. Shirogane’s thrashing beneath him, panting and panicking and it’s both the worst and best thing Yosuke’s seen in a while. He continues stroking Shirogane’s throat, and a part of him flutters when Shirogane swallows.
Yosuke stands up. Shirogane gasps. Gags.
He thought it’d feel better than this, but it just makes him feel lousy. But it’s too late now. Who knows. Maybe Shirogane will be one of the lucky ones who dies instead of becomes a crazy monster. Maybe Shirogane will want to work with them.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry.”
And then he leaves.
((My only excuse for the lateness of this update is "and then I got into Homestuck." But, uh, I'm back! Hi. Cannibals. Cool.))
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Also, yay, you're back!! I'm so glad this fic is still being written.
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I love it so far! There have been multiple times where I've exclaimed out loud. And poor Nanako... I just want to hug her (and pay for her therapy).
I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment! =)
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I absolutely love your writing style. the mood and actions are conveyed beautifully...(as beautiful as a fic about cannibalistic demons can be). the tension, despair, frustration, I'm feeling it! I almost wish that I found this fic later, so I didn't have to wait for the next update.
LOVES AND KISSES TO YOU FOREVER
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“The hell was she doing?” Kanji says. “What the fuck was she doing?”
“What do you think she was doing?” Yosuke says. It’s easier to be contrarian and angry than it is to explain himself. Explain all of this. “Geeze, couldn’t you put it off until she finished eating Chie? Fuck. Great.”
Kanji punches Yosuke, hard on the temple. Yosuke crumples to the floor. His knees slide in the blood, and he ends up skidding until he’s next to the body, right where Yukiko was bent earlier. He looks at it, and then chokes. God, this isn’t how he wanted anyone to die, this isn’t what he wanted his life to be. He wants Souji, he wants someone. He wants his friend. He blots out the tears, and quickly turns Chie over, so she’s face-up.
“Can’t believe this is what happens to us when things start heading even a little bit south,” Kanji says. “We start killing and eating each other?”
“She was already dead,” Yosuke says. “When I saw what Yukiko-san was doing-shot in the back of the head. She did it herself. What’s the point, anyway, this is the end for all of us. There’s nothing after this-nothing, nothing-”
“Maybe you got nothing,” Kanji says. He picks up Chie, all that’s left of her, and says, “I’m going to rescue senpai. Gonna need to get Teddie, too. You coming with me or not?”
Yosuke picks himself up, his legs shaking. The whole front of his pants is covered in blood. Everything is bloody. “What are you going to do with the body?”
“Bury it,” Kanji says. “You asshole.”
They leave it in a room just off a dead end in Yukiko’s castle. Neither of them try to memorize the way back. The foggy television, the blood-red walls, the bear-like cries echoing in the dark. The next time it rains, the people outside will find the body hanging somewhere from the wires. He hopes there will be a body. Saki-senpai had come back in chunks, and Mayumi Yamano nothing but half a jaw, the rest of her eaten by shadows.
*
give in. (the fool/6)
Adachi comes for her in the evening. Grandma doesn’t let him in. She says he looks crazy, like he should be in a hospital. Rise listens from her room, which has the window straight over the front door. She makes sure her head isn’t visible; Chie and Yukiko had texted her earlier to be careful. She hasn’t heard from them since. “Come on, auntie,” he says.
“No one calls me auntie these days. They call me Granny.”
“Auntie,” Adachi says, “listen, I’m the only one left, you see? Dojima-san’s all torn up about poor Nanako-chan in the hospital and Souji-kun gone missing. Who knows when Shirogane-kun’s ever going to recover. Rise-chan might know something important.”
“Rise-chan has been in the hospital for the last two weeks,” Grandma says. “And you are an embarrassment to the police!”
“Listen, ma’am, don’t make me get Dojima-san, he won’t be as nice as-”
The door slams shut. Rise peers down the window. Adachi is still standing there, scrunched in and tight. He smells like gunpowder. She feels a prickling sensation along her scar, and then a worse feeling in the tattoo, burnt on her throat. She touches the tattoo, and tries to remember how to breathe. Without Souji, all lines of communication are messed up; all she knows is that Chie and Yosuke were going to Junes to meet Shirogane, and then Shirogane was kidnapped. Right around then the police picked up Kanji and shoved him into the car. Then Chie and Yukiko came through the shopping district with Nanako. Everything else since then… Himiko knows. Himiko will tell her.
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Blind, deaf, not even able to breathe; she fists her skirt and forces herself to stop trembling. She doesn’t have enough oxygen to waste time panicking. This is her curse, in exchange for her great power. She can see Adachi below, and sees clearly the outline of his gun, the way it’s stained, the smell of guilt all over him. Oh, Chie-senpai, she thinks, and then of course, poor Yukiko-senpai and Yosuke-senpai. Poor all of them. This must be the end.
Kanji and Souji are both in the TV, Kanji safe with Yosuke and Yukiko, Souji is lost in the dark fog. She’ll be able to go to Junes without detection, Himiko whispers to her, her voice as terrifying as the tap of bug legs over her eyes in the middle of the night, tomorrow morning, as long as Rise trusts her. All of that, and then another new light in the hospital. She’s out of air. She can’t go on. She tries to release the transformation, but Himiko has her by the face and won’t let her go. She pounds her fist against her thigh, digs her nails into her own wrist. The skin on her shoulders and arms lock into place, hands together and wrist facing up, as though in supplication.
Don’t let me die, don’t let me die here, she pleads. Not like this, alone and in the dark-and then the demon lets her go. She pitches forward onto the ground, cheek striking the floor hard, and almost throws up for lack of oxygen. Grandma knocks on the door.
“Are you all right, dear?” she says.
“I,” Rise says, her voice hoarse. She clears it. “I just knocked over my backpack. Can I help you with the tofu, Grandma?”
“Oh, no, dear. I think it’s best if you stay up there. I will call you down for dinner in half an hour.”
“That sounds great,” she says. A second later, she hears Grandma going down the stairs. She picks herself off the floor, goes to the mirror, rubs her throat. Skin again. Himiko this time was so bold. The others tell her that their transformations are nothing like that, or at least, not so horrifying. Yosuke gets Jiraiya’s bug-eyes and hands, Kanji gets one of Take-Mikazuchi’s arms, Yukiko gets metal feathers shoving their way out of the soft flesh of her forearms. It’s different for all of them.
She stares into the mirror. What will be for dinner? Vegetarian, she bets. She doesn’t think she can stand it. She needs to go to the hospital. There's something she needs to pick up.
((hello all. how have you been in the last ... six months...
I'm amazed that people are still reading this after all this time. thank you for continuing to read and comment. we're in the last act now. With any luck I'll have this finished off before I graduate college! Thank you all again for being a great crowd to write for. ♥))
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Love the concepts, the partial transformations are really wicked, especially Rise's. So twisted!
Your writing style is so clear and impactful. Thanks for writing and sharing!
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They stay out long enough to text Rise to let them know what’s going on and to pick up some supplies: meat, clothing for Yosuke and Yukiko. Yosuke wants to take one of the police officers, since who knows when they’ll be able to eat again, but Kanji glowers at him. He’s surprised when Rise sends them a text back: himiko told me i can make it 2 the tv 2morow morning. i'll join you guys then!
wut shud we do bout ted + souji, Yosuke texts.
idk i dont know whats up with senpai :( :( but u kanji-kun and yukiko-senpai should be able to think of something! and then, the last text before he goes back into the TV: im sorry about chie-senpai.
He thinks about asking about Shirogane; but that guy deserves anything that happens to him, anyway. If Shirogane had just given them more time, if Shirogane had just thought before he ran into town like some asshole on a white horse, then they’d all be okay. Besides, Kanji’ll be all heartbroken about it, that dick.
The pants he’s wearing are looser than he likes. He bets he looks fat in all this clothing.
They wait for a while in the TV, because they’re not as hungry there. When Yukiko wakes up, she looks more like herself. She changes into the summer skirt and shirt Yosuke gets her, but she keeps wearing that damn cardigan. They almost fight about it, Yosuke angry because it seems filthy to walk around crusted in blood and stinking of meat. Yukiko has Kanji on her side. Kanji lost his father when he was a kid, said he knew what she was going through.
Sure, Yosuke thinks. If he ate his dad after he died, then sure.
They set up camp in the entrance room and sleep in shifts. They always get hungrier faster in the TV than they do outside of it. At first Yosuke thought it was just because they were fighting and transforming so much inside, but when Kanji came, Souji would sometimes leave Yosuke out to cover the rear. Not as hungry as he’d be if he were out in front with Souji, but still. He wishes he could’ve taken a bite out of Chie. It’d be practical, he tells himself. That’s all.
“Ever wondered if there’s a cure?” Kanji says. Yukiko’s asleep, or laying awake with her eyes open. Her legs kick out with too much purpose sometimes.
“You think anyone’s going to have a cure for ‘people-eating demon transformation?’”
“Dunno. Went to the shrine and made a few wishes. Got this cool advertisement from some detective agency in Tokyo. Kunohazu or something. Kuzuhoma?”
“Kuzunoha’s a movie detective,” Yosuke snaps.
“Shit,” Kanji mutters.
*
She goes to the hospital after dinner, with packs of fresh meat in her handbag and flowers. Not the right kind of meat, but it’ll do in a pinch. Himiko will be pleased by this offer, for now. As for Shirogane… She feels bad for him. She’s seen him lurking around town, and he’s always blushing and shy when he meets her eyes. He’s different around Souji, but everyone’s different around Souji.
“Oh, I’m not here to see anyone,” Rise says. “Um, these flowers are for my doctor.”
“Dr. Hitose, you mean?” the nurse says, her eyes narrowing. “He’s gone home for the night.”
“And my nurses,” Rise says. “And everyone who was on the surgical staff.” She curls a hand against her stomach protectively. The stitches still hurt.
“You’re here to see Shirogane-san, aren’t you!” the nurse says.
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“Just be quick with it,” the nurse says with a sigh. Rise bows three times in thanks, and then runs off to the hall.
Shirogane’s room isn’t far from where her old room used to be. She sees Shirogane in the bed; the curtains are drawn around him, the sheets are on the floor, and he’s sweating hard through his hospital gown. She can’t see his atma from here. She waves when their eyes meet.
“Get away,” he says.
“That’s no way to treat a lady,” she says, and pulls out her pack of meat.
He’s still breathing hard, but now he nods his head. She steps in and rips the pack open. He holds tight onto the sheets until she drops a slab of pork into his lap. Then he grabs onto the meat and chomps straight through it. He’s cute without his hat. She tosses another bit of meat at him, and coos when he almost chokes on it. He snarls at her, his canines long and thin.
“You’re one of them,” he says.
“One of who?”
“One of Seta’s people. You’re one of those… things.”
“Like you are, you mean?” she says, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I assumed initially that you were an innocent victim,” he says. “But now I see that you and Seta must have planned this together. You must have been collaborating with them from the outside. Funneling victims towards them. Give me more.”
“I dunno, Shirogane-kun,” she says. “I mean, you did just slander me.” He growls, and swipes at her shoulder. She knocks his hand down, easy. He’s hungry and weak, and she ate the night before. “I didn’t know them until I came to Inaba.”
“You’re lying,” he says.
“Nuh-uh. You can smell it off me, can’t you?” She rubs her cheek, and smiles when he looks away. “It’s the truth. They saved me. They can help you, too.”
“Saved you,” he says. And then he lunges forward out of the bed, grabs onto the hem of her shirt and yanks it up-he covers her mouth with his other hand to stop her from screaming. She bites down on his hand, even more when his fingers run over the hole on her stomach: a shallow crater from her right hip, spreading across to her navel. Missing flesh. The end of her modeling career. She slaps him across the ear, and he releases her with a grunt. He touches the side of his face, as though astonished. He pulls himself back to the bed. She slaps him again, so hard that the back of her hand hurts.
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“You’re lucky,” she says, “that I’m trying to save your life, you jerk, or you’d be known as the kind of guy who feels up girls!”
“I was proving a point,” he says, but guiltily. He rubs his face. As he shifts his hair around, his atma shows up, high on his forehead, on the left side. “They didn’t ‘save’ you, Kujikawa-san. Not if they have passed on their… condition to you.”
“You don’t understand,” she says. “I was already infected by the time they reached me. You can feel it, can’t you? If you starve yourself, you’ll go berserk and kill everyone here. Souji-senpai and the others, they’re doing their best to keep themselves under control so they can catch the real murderer.”
“I knew it,” he says, off to the side.
“Knew-knew what?”
“You’re soliciting me,” he says. “You are trying to gain my cooperation. But you are only doing it so I won’t prosecute you and bring you to justice-”
“‘Justice?’” she says, loudly. “What we’re doing is-”
“Is it?” he says. “You kidnap and blackmail. You kidnap people and eat them. How is any of that ‘just?’”
“So you’d wait until you get so hungry that you go berserk?” she says. “You’d rather let the person throwing everyone into the TV go unpunished?”
“I’d rather die than become like you or join your hideous cause,” he says. “That’s all I will say. Thank you for the meat, Kujikawa-san. I’ll call you later once I’m out of the hospital for interro-”
“You stupid jerk!” she says, and flings another slab of beef at his face. He grunts, and then throws the meat onto the floor. “Don’t you see? If you don’t help us, you’re going to hurt everyone around you. You jerk!”
She storms out of the room before the doctors and nurses can come see what all the noise is about. Her bag is still half-full of meat.
((... hello all! working slow but steady. next update should be soon-ish. thank you for ... tolerating the irregularities in my schedule.))
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