If you were none of these (23/?)
anonymous
September 12 2011, 05:45:26 UTC
*
“Are you all right?” Yosuke says, which is a dumb, dumb thing to say when Yukiko’s staring at a Chie’s dead body like it’s a squashed bug or dried fish. She’s sitting in blood, her legs folded beneath her.
This is going to be so fucking traumatic for Nanako ten years from now. Nanako’s pressed her face into his pants. Yukiko says nothing.
“You know,” Yosuke says. “I’m sad, too, but it…” It’s kind of inevitable. He’s just surprised Chie’s the first to go. And at least Chie died doing what she always liked doing best. “I mean, I’m sorry and all but…”
“This is the end,” Yukiko says. “There isn’t anything left.”
“Come on,” Yosuke says. “That’s a little melodramatic, isn’t it?” He tries to help her up, but she pushes him aside. Nanako’s holding onto his leg so tightly that Yosuke swears there’s going to be a Nanako-shaped bruise on his thigh later. “Have you heard anything about Souji yet?”
“Of course not,” Yukiko says. She runs a hand through Chie’s hair, apparently not caring for the blood or the… Yosuke watches, and then turns away.
“She’d want you to save Souji,” Yosuke says.
“No, she wouldn’t,” Yukiko says.
“Fine,” Yosuke says. “Be that way.”
He means it to sound angry, but it’s hard to argue with her when she’s so sad. He’s not sad. He knew this would happen one day. Sure, it sucks that it happened to Chie-but they have to go, they have to keep going, they have to…
“What are we going to do with the body?” Yosuke says.
“Don’t you dare,” Yukiko says.
“I wasn’t.”
“Good.”
Yosuke wipes his nose. He clutches Nanako’s shoulders. Then he says, “I’m going to put Nanako-chan somewhere safe.”
“Make sure you don’t put her near Teddie,” Yukiko says. But it almost sounds like she didn’t care.
((whoops, late update is late. and short. ... s-still writing this to its bloody, bloody conclusion. please be patient with me.))
Re: If you were none of these (23/?)
anonymous
September 22 2011, 02:30:44 UTC
THIS is my current reason for keeping up with the meme. I love how in character they are even though they've changed from bringing murders to justice, to murders. I'm really curious about how this all started. What happened to Saki? Did Yosuke...? And I can't help but wonder about how this will end, and naoto's role in it. Will she choose to join the IT when she realizes the world will no longer accept her as a boy or as a girl? Or will she fight to the bitter end both the IT and her own growing hunger? By eliminating all the Asuras... including herself?
And Darn if “Make sure you don’t put her near Teddie,” doesn't put shivers down my anticipating spine.
Re: writer!anon
anonymous
January 30 2012, 15:47:13 UTC
Different anon here - I've only just found this fic, and ahhh, it's amazing. Dark and compelling and so effective despite being AU. Really looking forward to reading more of it.
If you were none of these (24/?)
anonymous
May 5 2012, 19:46:54 UTC
They’re keeping Shirogane in the dungeon, tied up to Yukiko’s throne. The room’s roughed up. This is where they kept Teddie, before they gave up and left him in the strange bedroom with the scarf. There are red marks on Shirogane’s wrist. He’s not thrashing around anymore, but when Yosuke shows up with Nanako, he says, “I see that you have moved onto kidnapping children.”
“Safe from what?” Shirogane says. He’s panting. The fog, Yosuke knows. It’ll eat away at him soon enough unless someone saves him. Yosuke touches Shirogane’s forehead. Shirogane snarls, and says, “Murderers.”
“We’re not going to keep her in for long,” Yosuke says. “Just long enough to get what we need.”
They’ll have to do something about Shirogane soon, he knows. Move him. Or turn him.
“Are you planning on cannibalizing her as well?” Shirogane says. “How many people are in on your operation?”
“You know something?” Yosuke says. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up? She’s his sister.”
“Daichi Gouda-san,” says Shirogane, “had a sister. Hana Nitori-san. Takashi Mori-san, parents, grandparents. Amano Jun-san. Takeru Suzuki. But you and your friends don’t think, do you? You’re like monsters. You only eat.”
Nanako says, “Did big bro do something?”
“We’re only doing what’s right,” Yosuke says. “Because you people can’t do shit. Saki-senpai died, Mayumi Yamano-”
Haaaa. The laugh is long and exhausted, and almost hysterical. Shirogane looks half-dead. Yosuke wants to let him go. He’s not hungry after yesterday’s meal, but he thinks he could make room for Shirogane.
“Do you think,” Shirogane says, “that anyone cares about Konishi-san or Yamano-san now?”
“I care,” Yosuke says. “Souji cares. Why the fuck don’t you? That’s the problem with the police. Someone’s out there murdering innocent people, and you people can’t do jack!” His words sound crazy, even to him, but he can’t stop, he can’t. He can feel the demon inside him, roaring in his ear, stealing his air and lighting his skin up with an orange light. He throws Nanako off of his leg, and grabs Shirogane, pulls him up. “You don’t understand,” he says. “You don’t understand anything. If you guys could just do your jobs, Saki-senpai-Chie-you got it all wrong…”
Shirogane doesn’t tremble or shake, just meets Yosuke’s eyes. He looks scared. Good. He should be. Yosuke’s wrists are Jiraiya’s, black and plated. He shuts his eyes. The transformation fades.
“Hey,” Yosuke says. “You’re going to die here in a few hours. You know that, right?”
Shirogane raises his head.
“What about Nanako-chan, then?” Shirogane says.
“We’ll let her out before that,” Yosuke says. “But you? Who knows. Maybe we’ll be hungry later. Serves you right, for pinning everything on us.”
He rises. Nanako isn’t looking at him. He shuts his eyes. Good.
“You two should be safe here,” Yosuke says. “The monsters won’t find you up here, and Teddie stays out of places like these. Don’t leave this room.”
“Who’s Teddie?” Nanako says.
“A friend,” Yosuke says, quietly, and then leaves.
*
When he returns, Yukiko has her teeth deep in Chie’s thigh. She looks like she’s been crying the whole time. Her black hair falls all around her, matted and knotted up with her blood and Chie’s. Her atma glows red on her breast.
“Hey!” Yosuke says, reflexively angry, but Yukiko looks at him through the tears and the blood and snot and says to him, “She’s mine,” and keeps on crying. She’s working leg up; Konohana-sakuya’s fanned wings grow, metallic, out of her wrist and forearms. Yosuke, for a moment, hovers over her, puts a hand between her shoulder blades. Her wings cut into him when she pushes him aside. He’s bleeding from the leg, and the smell of his own blood is enough to push him back into Jiraiya.
“I’m going to kill him,” she says.
“It wasn’t Souji’s fault,” Yosuke says. He grabs her by the neck, pulls her up. “Come on, we need to help Souji already.”
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.
“Are you all right?” Yosuke says, which is a dumb, dumb thing to say when Yukiko’s staring at a Chie’s dead body like it’s a squashed bug or dried fish. She’s sitting in blood, her legs folded beneath her.
This is going to be so fucking traumatic for Nanako ten years from now. Nanako’s pressed her face into his pants. Yukiko says nothing.
“You know,” Yosuke says. “I’m sad, too, but it…” It’s kind of inevitable. He’s just surprised Chie’s the first to go. And at least Chie died doing what she always liked doing best. “I mean, I’m sorry and all but…”
“This is the end,” Yukiko says. “There isn’t anything left.”
“Come on,” Yosuke says. “That’s a little melodramatic, isn’t it?” He tries to help her up, but she pushes him aside. Nanako’s holding onto his leg so tightly that Yosuke swears there’s going to be a Nanako-shaped bruise on his thigh later. “Have you heard anything about Souji yet?”
“Of course not,” Yukiko says. She runs a hand through Chie’s hair, apparently not caring for the blood or the… Yosuke watches, and then turns away.
“She’d want you to save Souji,” Yosuke says.
“No, she wouldn’t,” Yukiko says.
“Fine,” Yosuke says. “Be that way.”
He means it to sound angry, but it’s hard to argue with her when she’s so sad. He’s not sad. He knew this would happen one day. Sure, it sucks that it happened to Chie-but they have to go, they have to keep going, they have to…
“What are we going to do with the body?” Yosuke says.
“Don’t you dare,” Yukiko says.
“I wasn’t.”
“Good.”
Yosuke wipes his nose. He clutches Nanako’s shoulders. Then he says, “I’m going to put Nanako-chan somewhere safe.”
“Make sure you don’t put her near Teddie,” Yukiko says. But it almost sounds like she didn’t care.
((whoops, late update is late. and short. ... s-still writing this to its bloody, bloody conclusion. please be patient with me.))
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Oh nooo it's back ;_; I don't know if my heart can take this!
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And Darn if “Make sure you don’t put her near Teddie,” doesn't put shivers down my anticipating spine.
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But thank you for reading, anon. :>
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“Fuck you,” Yosuke says. “She’s Souji’s sister. We’re keeping her safe.”
“Safe from what?” Shirogane says. He’s panting. The fog, Yosuke knows. It’ll eat away at him soon enough unless someone saves him. Yosuke touches Shirogane’s forehead. Shirogane snarls, and says, “Murderers.”
“We’re not going to keep her in for long,” Yosuke says. “Just long enough to get what we need.”
They’ll have to do something about Shirogane soon, he knows. Move him. Or turn him.
“Are you planning on cannibalizing her as well?” Shirogane says. “How many people are in on your operation?”
“You know something?” Yosuke says. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up? She’s his sister.”
“Daichi Gouda-san,” says Shirogane, “had a sister. Hana Nitori-san. Takashi Mori-san, parents, grandparents. Amano Jun-san. Takeru Suzuki. But you and your friends don’t think, do you? You’re like monsters. You only eat.”
Nanako says, “Did big bro do something?”
“We’re only doing what’s right,” Yosuke says. “Because you people can’t do shit. Saki-senpai died, Mayumi Yamano-”
Haaaa. The laugh is long and exhausted, and almost hysterical. Shirogane looks half-dead. Yosuke wants to let him go. He’s not hungry after yesterday’s meal, but he thinks he could make room for Shirogane.
“Do you think,” Shirogane says, “that anyone cares about Konishi-san or Yamano-san now?”
“I care,” Yosuke says. “Souji cares. Why the fuck don’t you? That’s the problem with the police. Someone’s out there murdering innocent people, and you people can’t do jack!” His words sound crazy, even to him, but he can’t stop, he can’t. He can feel the demon inside him, roaring in his ear, stealing his air and lighting his skin up with an orange light. He throws Nanako off of his leg, and grabs Shirogane, pulls him up. “You don’t understand,” he says. “You don’t understand anything. If you guys could just do your jobs, Saki-senpai-Chie-you got it all wrong…”
Shirogane doesn’t tremble or shake, just meets Yosuke’s eyes. He looks scared. Good. He should be. Yosuke’s wrists are Jiraiya’s, black and plated. He shuts his eyes. The transformation fades.
“Hey,” Yosuke says. “You’re going to die here in a few hours. You know that, right?”
Shirogane raises his head.
“What about Nanako-chan, then?” Shirogane says.
“We’ll let her out before that,” Yosuke says. “But you? Who knows. Maybe we’ll be hungry later. Serves you right, for pinning everything on us.”
He rises. Nanako isn’t looking at him. He shuts his eyes. Good.
“You two should be safe here,” Yosuke says. “The monsters won’t find you up here, and Teddie stays out of places like these. Don’t leave this room.”
“Who’s Teddie?” Nanako says.
“A friend,” Yosuke says, quietly, and then leaves.
*
When he returns, Yukiko has her teeth deep in Chie’s thigh. She looks like she’s been crying the whole time. Her black hair falls all around her, matted and knotted up with her blood and Chie’s. Her atma glows red on her breast.
“Hey!” Yosuke says, reflexively angry, but Yukiko looks at him through the tears and the blood and snot and says to him, “She’s mine,” and keeps on crying. She’s working leg up; Konohana-sakuya’s fanned wings grow, metallic, out of her wrist and forearms. Yosuke, for a moment, hovers over her, puts a hand between her shoulder blades. Her wings cut into him when she pushes him aside. He’s bleeding from the leg, and the smell of his own blood is enough to push him back into Jiraiya.
“I’m going to kill him,” she says.
“It wasn’t Souji’s fault,” Yosuke says. He grabs her by the neck, pulls her up. “Come on, we need to help Souji already.”
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“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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