Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Kara no Kyoukai:Void Shrine

2007-03-24T23:33:27Z

124.82.2.119:

'''Garan-no-Dou''' 

'''/1''' 

Aozaki Touko first heard the story of the person called Ryougi Shiki on a nice afternoon, not long after they had just entered the month of June. 

The origin of it all was that the new employee she had just hired on an impulse was Ryougi Shiki's friend, and as a way to pass the time she lent an ear to his story. 

According to his tale the person called Ryougi Shiki fell into a coma state after a traffic accident 2 years ago. She was retaining her life functions but there was no possibility of her waking up. Not only that but the growth of her body also seemed to have stopped. At first Touko couldn't believe this apparent contradiction, how could a person's life functions continue while they've stopped growing. 

"... Hmm, the only living organisms that don't grow are dead things. No, the pressure of time even affects the dead. A corpse passes through the growth called decay and returns to the earth. The only thing that moves but doesn't grow would be that wind-up doll you brought in and set loose a while ago." 

"But it's true. After the accident it looks like she hasn't aged a bit. Are there any other cases where a person is in a coma for which there's no explainable cause Touko-san?" 

At the new employee's question Touko goes 'hmmm' and crosses her arms. 

"Let's see. There was that famous one in that country over there. Where a newly married woman in her twenties fell into a coma. She woke up after fifty years had passed, don't you know that one?" 

In reply to Touko's words the new employee says no and shakes his head. 

"Uh, how was that person when she woke up?" 

"Extremely normal. As if she hadn't been sleeping for 50 long years. Her mind was revived just as it had been in her twenties, apparently it made her husband sad." 

"--- Eh? Sad, how come? His wife's recovery should be a joyous occurrence." 

"The thing is, her mind was still just as it was in her twenties but her body had grown old into it seventies. Even in a coma state, leaving something alive means degrading it, you can't do anything about that. 
So this seventy year old granny is always urging her husband to go out as if she's till in her twenties. The husband has lived the seventy years normally so he's normal. The problem is the wife. Because fifty years have flowed past without her knowledge, she can't accept the fact no matter how you explain it. It's not that she doesn't want to accept it, she really can't conceive of it as the truth. 
It's a tragedy among tragedies. They say that the lady who wanted to go out to play with that wrinkled face of hers was persuaded not to by her husband who was in tears. They also say that he had this thought: If it was going to be like this it would have been better if she hadn't woken up at all. 
How was it? This dream-like tragedy, it's actually something that happened in the past. Was it useful?" 

For a wonder he actually nodded in response to Touko's sarcastic question. 

"Oh, are you onto something?" 

He gave a small nod to the impishly smiling Touko. 

"...Yeah, a little. I'm thinking it might be like this. That Shiki might be trying not to wake up." 

"It sounds like there's a past there. Good. Since I'm bored shall I listen to the story as a way to pass the time?" 

He gets angry at Touko who really thinks of it as just another way to kill time and turns away. 

"No thank you. Touko-san, your insensitivity is a real problem." 

"What, you are the one who brought it up. I understand, so spill it. It's not just a whim for me either. That Azaka, every time she rings it's Shiki this and Shiki that. If I have no idea as to what kind of person this Shiki is I can't reply can I?"

At the mention of Azaka's name he gets a sour face. 

"I've been meaning to ask you for a while but, how did my little sister come to know you Touko-san?" 

"One year ago at a tourist spot. I got caught up in an impossible situation and my cover was totally blown." 

"...Well, okay, but Azaka is a very naive child so please avoid that talk of what's there and what's not around her. Since she's in that period where I'm worried about her even without her getting involved in all that." 

"Azaka... Naive? Well, your relationship with your little sister is your problem so I won't get involved. Instead share that story about that kid called Shiki." 

Unable to withstand Touko who had pushed herself onto the desk, he began talking. 

About his friend Ryougi Shiki's personality and her unique character. 

During high school he and Ryougi Shiki were classmates. He had a relationship with the name Ryougi Shiki before entering high school, and after getting put in the same class as her became friends. The only person to have a friendly relationship with Ryougi Shiki, who didn't want any friends, was him. 

But, after the street murders during the first year of high school, Ryougi Shiki began changing in a strange way. 

She confessed to him that she had a dual personality, and that her other side enjoyed murder. 

To be truthful, how R. Shiki was connected to the street murders two years ago is still a mystery. Before anything could be confirmed she had an accident in front of his eyes and was moved to hospital. 

During the first days of March, on that cold night of the falling rains. 

That kind of story about someone's life. Touko treats it as just another story told over a beer, but as the story progresses the smile disappears from her face. 

"--- That's all there is to know about the relationship between Shiki and me. Although the story is already two years old." 

"--- So is that why her growth has stopped? Stocking up her life. It's not even as if she's a vampire." 

Heh, Touko smirks with the end of the lips curled up. 

"So, how do you write that kid's name? It would be in kanji wouldn't it?" 

"Shiki(數) from (神), why?" 

"Is it the Shiki of Shikigami(式)? And her family name is Ryougi at that. That's just perfect." 

Rubbing out the cigarette she had been biting on the ashtray, Touko stands up as if she can't tolerate something. 

"Was that hospital in the suburbs? This is getting interesting... I'll be right back." 

Without waiting for a reply Touko leaves the office behind her. 

I can't believe I'm getting involved in this sort of nonsense at a place like this, what kind of fate is this? Touko bites her lips.

***

'''/2''' 

Ryougi Shiki's recovery was a few days later. 

The fact that the situation doesn't even allow for the relatives to visit means that normal visits are out of the question. 

Is it because of that? 

Is that the reason that the new employee is concentrating on his deskwork with a sulkiness which makes it seem that his whole person has undergone a change. 

"It's gloomy, too gloomy." 

"Yes ma'am. A light, I'll obtain one that's suitable." 

He replies without even looking at Touko. 

There are times when a dutiful person will show absurdly eccentric conduct as a result of having missed something. Thinking this teen was of that sort, Touko spoke to him. 

"Don't think so obsessively about it. You seem ready to just charge in their tonight or something." 

"Impossible ma'am. That hospital, the security is nothing short of a research lab." 

Compared to the casual way he replied, it seems as if he's carried out a pretty through investigation. 

Touko shrugs, thinking 'well I can't let a brand new employee become a criminal.' 

"... I was going to stay quiet about this, but since you are so agitated I'll tell. I'm going to be working at the hospital as a stand-in from tomorrow. I'll find out how Ryougi shiki is so just sit tight for now." 

"--- What?" 

"It just so happened that I got invited as a doctor. Normally I would have refused but this time it's not as if it's someone else's business. Seeing as I dragged the story out of you I thought that I had to at least do this for you." 

Touko speaks as if it's no big deal. 

Rising up from his chair, he approaches Touko and grabs hold of her two hands. Voom, voom. The two people's hands go up and down. ... Not realizing that this was an expression of his admiration, Touko stared at him with a stiff face. 

"You have some strange hobbies, don't you?" 

"I'm delighted, in fact I'm stunned. There's a gentle and virtuous side to Touko-san like in other people after all!" 

"... I realised I'm not like others, but I think it's better not to say things like that." 

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Ah, so that's why you are dressed formally today. It look very smart, it really suits you. I couldn't recognize you!" 

"... My outfits the same as always but, whatever, I'll accept the compliments." 

It's useless to say anything, Touko realised and quietly folded things up. 

"So don't do anything rash. Even without that sort of thing that hospital is strange. You will sit here and look after the office, got it?" 

At that the till then hyperactive employee settled down. 

"... Strange, you mean that hospital?" 

"Yeah. There's a ward placed there for something. It seems like another magician was meddling with things. Of course the target wasn't Ryougi Shiki. If it was they wouldn't have held off for two years." 

It was a whopper of a lie but the confident way in which she spoke meant he didn't suspect a thing. 

"... Uhm, a ward. That's like the second floor of this building isn't it?" 

"Yep. A ward is something of different levels which isolates a specified area. They range from ones that really create a wall to ones that cover the target area with an invisible barrier. The highest ranking wards are a form of subliminal coercion that goes, 'nothing has been done but no one approaches'. It's the same as this building. If you put in place a suggestion like 'Anyone who does not have a reason to come here will not be conscious of this place', a ward will be formed which will continue to exist without anyone noticing. A ward that just mimics another world and makes people realise that something is wrong is the worst of the worst." 

A strangeness which prevents you from noticing strangeness, that is her rule of vacancy. A ward which everyone ignores and passes although it's on the map. A world where a pre-eminent magician lives, appears to be just like any other neighboring house. 

But that ward, this new employee unconsciously broke it. This building which he shouldn't be able to find unless he knew Aozaki Touko, he found too easily. 

... Well, that is also the reason she hired him. 

"... So, is that hospital's ward a dangerous one?" 

"Try listening to what someone is saying. A ward itself does no harm. That word, it's originates from Buddhism. A ward is always something that isolates an area from the outside world. Although the word has somehow come to mean the technique by which a magician protects his or her body. 
Understand? I said this just before but the best wards don't feel weird to a normal person. Shall we call it 'an idea which forces itself on the unconscious mind'. The best of the best reach the stage of 'disconnection of space', but if you go that far you are looking at mages not sorcerers. Currently there's only one mage in this country, so basically that kind of ward just can't be formed. 
Well nothing that powerful was formed, but the ward placed around that hospital is pretty complex. It's good enough that even I didn't notice it for a while. There's a ward specialist that I know, this skill is at the same level as that guy. 
... Well, among ward specialists there are a lot of philosophers. Most of them are well distanced from anything accompanied by violence so it should be alright nor now." 

That's right, there's no danger in the ward itself. The problem is what is happening within the bounds of that space cut off from the rest of the world. That hospital's ward is aimed inwards not outwards. In short, it's of the kind that makes it so no one notices no matter what happens within the building. For example if a room was to explode in the middle of the night not one person would wake up because of the noise. 

Touko didn't tell him that. Saying something about the time creeping along, she walked out with her eyes focused on the clock. 

His voices catches on her narrow back. 

"Touko-san. Shiki, take good care of her." 

Alright, Touko says while waving. He asks her another trivial question even though she didn't even bother to turn around. 

"Ah, yes. Touko-san, who's that ward specialist you know?" 

Tock, Touko's feet stop. 

She falls into thought for a second then swings her head around to pierce him with her eyes as she replies. 

"Well, if it's a ward specialist of course it's a monk." 

***

'''/3''' 

Around six days had passed since Touko was invited to the hospital as a provisional doctor. Every time Touko passed on the news that Ryougi Shiki was improving everyday to her employee, she couldn't help but have one little worry. 

That is, whether or not the Ryougi Shiki of the present and the Ryougi Shiki of the past were the same to another person. 

"Taking physiotherapy twice a day and getting a CT scan is like her work. You'll be able to see her on the day she's released so just wait a little more." 

Having come back from the hospital Touko smooths out her orange necktie and sits on the desk. 

The time of evening with Summer just ahead. 

The red light of the sunset dies the lightless interior of the office a dark orange. 

"Physiotherapy twice a day? Is it okay with just that? Shiki has been asleep for two years," 

"They say they moved her joints for her even though the patient was asleep. On top of that physiotherapy isn't exercise. Five minutes a day is sufficient. Originally the term rehabilitation isn't a medical term. It means the recovery of your dignity as a human. That's how Ryougi Shiki, who has been lying around until now, has been able to regain the feeling that she is human. The body's recovery, well that's a different story." 

Touko lights the cigarette she's holding in her mouth, cutting off the conversation for a while. 

"But you know. The problem isn't on the side of the body but instead its the mind. That kid is becoming different from the Ryougi Shiki of before." 

"--- is it, memory loss?" 

As if he had prepared for such a thing, he hesitantly says something stupid. 

"Hmm, I wonder. I believe her personality itself is the same as before. There hasn't been a change to Ryougi Shiki herself. What has changed is Shiki. I don't know if this will come as a shock to you." 

"I'm plenty used to this kind of thing by now. Please explain fully. Shiki... what's happened to her?" 

"Mmm, to tell the truth. She's completely empty. 
Shiki who until now had always carried around another person inside of her. But SHIKI no longer exists. No, she must be unsure whether or not she's even Shiki or SHIKI. 
When she woke up SHIKI was already gone from inside her. Through his loss her mind has become a blank space. Maybe --- that kid won't be able to stand the empty space... Her heart is empty. Like a hole it's completely open. Even the air passes through like the wind." 

"What do you mean SHIKI's gone --- how come?" 

"He probably died in Shiki's stead. However it happened, Ryougi Shiki died in that accident two years ago. You might misunderstand since she's somehow still alive but just assume for a minute that she died. Ryougi Shiki came back to life as a new entity inside the body of Ryougi Shiki. To the Shiki of now, the Shiki of the past, and the Shiki of the present derived from those memories are nothing but strangers. No one can accept another person's history as being theirs. That child will perhaps be spending her nights with the thought that 'I'm still not myself'." 

"... Another person? So, Shiki can't remember the things that have happened?" 

"No, she remembers. At present she is definitely the Shiki you know. The reason she's still alive is because she had the equal but separate personalities of Shiki and SHIKI. 
Ryougi Shiki suffered a death of the mind due to the accident. Let's say that SHIKI accepted the role of dying at that time. So although she should have died at that moment, Shiki was still there in her brain and as a consequence her mind didn't die. Shiki has been asleep because of the death of Ryougi Shiki, but since it was SHIKI that died she was able to survive. 
And so --- she was in a coma for two years, and although her body kept functioning she didn't grow. All because she was dead yet still alive. 
But the revived her is different to the past Shiki in the details. It's not so bad as to call it memory loss but she probably won't be able to bring to mind any memories unless she needs to. 
You can't say it's another person or that it's a complete stranger but she's now different from the Shiki you've know till now. A third personality which is an amalgam of the personalities of Shiki and SHIKI, it would be most appropriate to accept her as such." 

... That's what she said, but in reality such a thing could not happen. 

As long as Shiki was Ryougi, there was no need to mix with SHIKI who was her other half, and Shiki wouldn't be able to fill the hole left by SHIKI's absence by herself. 

Avoiding any reference to that fact Touko continues talking. 

"Even if she's revived as a wholly different person she's still Ryougi Shiki. No matter how little confidence you have in the fact that you are you --- that child is still Ryougi Shiki. Right now she probably can't even feel that she's alive, but the time will come when she will accept that she is Shiki. 
A rose is born as a rose. It doesn't become a different flower just because the ground it's on and the water it receives changes." 

So don't be so hung up over it all, she added in a whisper. 

"Eventually an empty hole has to be filled. She will have to build a new self, not based on her memories of the past but through her experiences in the present. That's a garan (shrine) that no one can help her build. It's not something another person should meddle in. In short all you have to do is treat her as you've always done. Oh, and it seemed like they were going to release her pretty soon." 

Throwing the burnt down cigarette stub out the window Touko raises her arms and straightens her back. 

Crick, crick, crack. The sound her bones make can be clearly heard. 

"I knew I shouldn't have done something I'm not used to. The cigarettes tasted so bad that I was about to go crazy." 

She talked while letting out a long sigh as if she was tired of the world.

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter-final

2007-03-24T23:20:13Z

124.82.2.119:

'''Void Shrine (Garan-no-Dou)''' 

I think of the time when my consciousness has fallen into dreaming and settled down. 

SHIKI who has disappeared. A self who was another person. What did he disappear in exchange for, what did he sacrifice his life to protect? 

Going through Ryougi Shiki's memories, I realised what. 

Probably --- SHIKI protected his dream. His dream that he would live happily. 

Was that dream that class friend. Or was that young man the person he wanted to be as a man. That's something I can no longer find out. 

SHIKI disappeared so he wouldn't lose him and Shiki. 

Leaving me, with this deep solitude.

***

The morning sunlight enters the room. 

At that warmth my eyes which have recovered their sight open. 

I'm sleeping on the bed. That incident last night would have been settled well by the sorceress.
No, that kind of thing is unimportant. Rather than things like that lets think of him for now. 

Still in that prone position, I lay there without even moving my head and breathed in the morning air. 

How long has it been since I woke to the morning sunlight? 

Thin but strong. The bright light colours over the darkness in my heart. 

This strange life I have just taken hold of and --- The other me that will not return, they melt together and disappear into the light. The existence of Ryougi SHIKI and his dreams, are disappearing. 

If I could cry, I wanted to shed tears for him. But my eyes are dry. I've decided to cry only once and it's not right to cry about this. 

Now that I can no longer go back I'll never regret it again. 

Like this darkness, opening up in front of the morning sunlight. 

To disappear cleanly like this, it's what he would have wanted. 

***

"Hello, Shiki." 

A voice from next to me. 

I just twist my head to the side. 

Standing there is the friend I knew a long time ago. The black-rimmed glasses, even his unstyled black hair, he really hasn't changed. 

"Do you, know me... ?" 

His voice is strangely shaky. 

... Ahhh, I already knew. That you were always waiting for Shiki and that only you were always there, protecting me. 

"Kokuto Mikiya, it's like a French poet." 

At my mumbling voice he smiles brightly. Like when we met at school after just one day, that brightly. 

How much effort was hidden in that simple smile, I can't know. 

Just --- it seems he remembers that promise as well. 

"It's great that the weather is nice today. Perfect to get out of hospital." 

With tears brimming in his eyes he speaks as naturally as he can. 

To the empty me, that was warmer than anything. A smiling face over a crying face, that's what this friend chose. 

To acknowledge isolation rather than be isolated, that's what SHIKI chose. 

--- Although I haven't chosen either side yet. 

"... Ahhh. Are there things that don't disappear?" 

His smiling face that seems to become one with the soft sunlight, I just blankly gazed upon it. 

Till I was sick of it. 

--- I know that the hole punched in my chest can't be filled with things like that but right now I don't want ot do anything else. Because... 

... His soft, smiling face. 
That was the same face as the one in my memories. 

/Void Shrine(Garan-no-Dou)

'''/End'''

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 05

2007-03-24T23:09:48Z

124.82.2.119:

'''/ 5''' 

"Ah ---." 

The pressure on her neck makes Shiki cry out in pain. 

I can't breathe. My throat is getting crushed. At this rate my neck is going to be twisted off before I have any problems breathing. 

Shiki stares at the opponent with her unseeing eyes. 

... It's not --- a human. 

No, the body is that of a human, but the person who is choking the like out of her is already dead. A corpse is moving by itself and attacking Shiki who is on the bed. 

The pressure on her neck does not ease. 

Shiki resists, holding the attacker's arms with both hands but the difference in strength is obvious. 

''More than anything --- wasn't this what she wanted? ''

"---." 

Shiki stop breathing and removes her hands from the corpse's arm. 

If I'm going to be killed like this it's okay, so just give up. After all there's no meaning to my life. To exist when you cannot even feel that you are alive, there can be no greater agony than that. 

To just disappear is natural providence, even a thought like that comes into my mind. 

My strength is slipping away. 

Although only a few seconds would have flowed past the times seems to pass very slowly. It stretches like a rubber band. The corpse squeezes down on Shiki's throat. Heatless fingers that feel as if they are made of wood dig into her neck. This murder has no emotion in it, and from the start there was no sign of a will behind it either. 

The flesh of my neck tears. 

The flow of blood is proof that I'm alive. 

By dying --- dying like SHIKI --- I am throwing that away. 

... Throwing it away? That phrase makes Shiki regain consciousness. 

A sudden question forms. 

Would he have died so willingly. 

... That's right, I hadn't thought of that. 

Whatever the reason, would his will have been completely behind his decision? 

There's no way he would have wanted to die. 

--- Death is such a lonely and worthless thing. 

Death is such a black and unpleasant thing. 

Death, would have been scarier than anything else --- ! 

"--- No." 

All of a sudden Shiki's body is vitalized. 

Grabbing the corpse's neck with both hands she pushes the opponent's belly with one foot from her squashed position and --- 

"I don't want to fall into that place again --- !" 

--- Kicks the lump of meat with all her might. 

Slip, slipping from the bloody flesh the corpse's hands come off Shiki's neck. 

Shiki gets off the bed. 

The corpse leaps at Shiki straight away and the two get tangled up in the lightless hospital room. 

The corpse's body is that of an adult human, two heads bigger than Shiki. No matter how she struggles Shiki is pushed back. With both arms trapped Shiki slowly pulls back. It's a small hospital room so she soon reaches the wall. Whack, the moment she touched the wall Shiki made up her mind. 

She voluntarily fled so that there would be a window behind her. 

She calculated how she would fall back. 

The problem --- how many floors up it is. 

"--- Don't hesitate." 

Scolding herself she removes the arms that were holding the corpse back. 

The corpse stretches its hands towards her neck, but faster than that --- she opened the window with her freed hands and the two fell out as if they were getting tangled up. 

***

The instant I begin to fall. 

I grab the corpse's head and reverse who is above and who is below. 

(spin - SoundFX), after the arrangement changed so that the corpse was on the ground side and I was on top riding it, I jumped by sense alone. 

The ground already seems to be right in front of my nose. 

The corpse's body gets hurled against the ground, and I was jumping horizontal to the ground before my body could roll over. 

(Ururu - SoundFX), scattering the dirt of the hospital lawn I land with both arms and legs. 

The corpse fell on the hospital flower beds --- and it happened that I slipped and fell on the lawn which is a fair distance from there. 

I had just executed a miraculous fall, the likes of which I hadn't done once in the dojo --- but the weight of that great height of three floors was paralyzing my body. 

Around me are only the trees of the garden and the silent night, where not a sound can be heard even when it's like this. 

My body doesn't move and I can only feel the pain in my neck. 

Ahhhh --- I'm still alive. 

And --- That corpse hasn't died yet. 

If I don't want to die it's obvious as to what I need to do. 

Kill before you are killed. Just by thinking that the emptiness in my heart disappears. A the same time a lot of feelings are unlocked. 

"Really, what is this." I grumble. 

Through this sort of thing I open my eyes. 

Yes --- the me that was brooding for so long seems like an idiot. 

When the answer is so simple. 

***

"How surprising. Are you a cat?" 

The voice comes from right behind Shiki. 

Without turning to look Shiki was valiantly enduring the shock of the landing. 

"Is it you? Why are you at a place like this?" 

The self-titled sorceress/counsellor answers Shiki's question as if it wasn't important. 

"Because I was keeping watch. I was standing guard thinking they would come around tonight or so. See, you don't have any time to rest. A hospital definitely has some strong corpses. They can't get into a live body so they decided to show their abilities. After infecting a corpse they were going to make you theirs after killing you." 

"Whatever's going on, it's all the fault of that weird rock you gave me." 

Shiki talks as she leans against the ground. In her words there's not even a hint of the hesitation she has shown until now. 

"Oh, you knew? Well, yes. This is definitely my mistake. I placed a ward around the room so spirits couldn't get in, but I never expected they would go and obtain a body in order to break it. Normally they don't have that sort of intelligence." 

Hahaha, the sorceress laughs as if she's amused. 

"Really? In that case you do something." 

"Okay." 

Tock, and the sorceress lifts her finger. 

How would it have looked to the Shiki who couldn't see? 

The sorceress writes in the air with her cigarette flame. The writing is reflected on the corpse as if it were being projected. 

The far-off country composed only of straight lines, the engraved sorcery of a far-off world. The circuit called Rune moves and in an instant --- the body of the corpse lying collapsed on the ground begins to burn. 

"--- it's too weak with just the F in the air." The sorceress mumbles. 

The flame covered corpse slowly stands up. 

Somehow moving with two completely broken legs the corpse drags itself towards Shiki as if moving by muscle power along. 

The flames soon go out. 

"Oi --- you charlatan." 

"Don't shout like that. It's very difficult to destroy something the size of a human. A living person is finished if you just burn the heart, but you can't do that with the living dead. They are dead so it doesn't matter whether they lose a head of an arm. You realise that you can't get rid of a human itself with something that has the firepower of a gun right? To stop that thing you would have to bring the firepower of a crematorium --- or a monk of high moral integrity." 

"That's enough showing off. Whatever the problem I think it's too much for you to handle." 

It seemed that Shiki's comment severely hurt the sorceress's self-respect. 

"It's too much for you to handle either. A corpse is already dead so you can't kill it. Coincidentally, while you can kill a person with what you have you can't get rid of them. Let's run away for now." 

The sorceress retreats. 

But Shiki doesn't move. It's not that the descent from the third floor broke her leg. 

She is, just smiling. 

"Whether it's dead or whatever, that corpse is 'alive'. In that case ---." 

She gets up from her leaning position. 

That was similar to the bent-back posture of a predator leaping at its prey. 

Shhhk, she touches her neck. Blood is still flowing. The flesh is torn. There is a mark where she was strangled --- but she is still alive. 

And that was an ecstatic sensation. 

"--- Whatever it is, I'm going to kill it." 

Shrrrg, she unwraps the bandages covering her eyes. 

In the darkness the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are awakened. 

Two delicate legs kick the ground. 

The corpse reaches out with its arms at Shiki who is rushing towards it. 

Narrowly slipping past it she rips apart the corpse with one hand as if she is feeling for the line visible to her eyes. 

Shiki's nails pass through in an even cut from the right shoulder to the left hip. 

Thanks to that her fingerbone broke but the corpse's wound was much greater. 

(collapse -SoundFX), because the strings controlling it have been cut the corpse falls to the ground. One arm though apparently still has strings attached and the corpse which has slowly crawled over to her grabs Shiki's ankle. 

Shiki doesn't hesitate and grinds that arm under her foot. 

"A dead body shouldn't appear before me," said Shiki and laughed silently. 

I'm alive. 

It's like my state of mind until now was a lie, to think that I can so clearly feel that I'm alive... 

"Shiki!"'' 

Calling Shiki loudly the sorceress throws something towards her. 

One undecorated silver-coloured knife. 

Shiki grabs the knife which stuck in the ground and looks the still moving corpse as if it were a wart. And just like that, she stabs the corpse's neck with the knife. 

The corpse quickly stops moving --- but then. 

"Idiot, if you are going to stab it stab the main body itself!" 

The disastrous result appeared faster than the sorceress's scolding. 

As soon as Shiki stabbed the corpse --- smoke popped out of the dead body. Becoming desperate as if it wants to run away the smoke disappears into Shiki's body. 

"---," 

(collapse-SoundFX), Shiki's knees limply hit the ground. 

Unable to infect her till now because she was still conscious, the spirits take advantage of the instant when Shiki loses her sense of self due to the excitement of killing and invade her body. 

"You fumbled the finish idiot." 

The sorceress comes running over. But Shiki's body stops that with one hand. 

Don't come, at this signal the sorceress stops and stands still. 

Shiki's body grabs the hilt of the knife with both hands and points the blade at her own chest. 

The blank eyes regain their strong resolve. 

Lips shut tight, she bites down on her teeth. 

The tip of the knife touches her chest. 

Her will and her body --- they have not been taken over by something so weak as a wandering spirit. 

"Now I won't lose you." 

Her mumbling isn't directed at anyone else, it's directed at herself. Shiki perceives the death of the thing crawling around inside her. 

What is being stabbed is Ryougi Shiki's body. But, that only kills that collective entity that cannot exist. Shiki is confident that she will not receive a wound. 

And so she gathered her strength. 

"I am killing the weak me." 

To something like you --- I will not hand over Ryougi Shiki. 

The knife slides easily into her chest. 

***

She pulls out the silver-coloured knife. 

No blood flows. She only has the pain to tell her that she has stabbed her chest. 

Shing, Shiki swings the knife as if she is shaking the dirty soul of the blade. 

"Hey, you said it. That you would teach me the way to use these eyes." 

Her way of speaking now begins to settle into a pattern. The sorceress nods her head in satisfaction at this change.

"There are conditions, but I'll teach you how to use your death perception. In return help me with my work. I just lost the one I bossed around so I need a new pair of feet and hands right now." 

Shiki doesn't even turn around to face the sorceress and quietly says, "So that's how it is". 

"If I do that can I kill people?" 

It's an utterance to make even the sorceress shiver. 

"Ahhh, of course." 

"In that case I will do it. Use me as you will. Since I didn't have any objectives apart from that anyway." 

Shiki with her melancholic voice, she slowly sinks to the ground. Maybe because of her exhaustion from the recent events --- or maybe because of her violent act of stabbing her own chest. 

The sorceress picks up her body and gazes at her sleeping face. A face too ambiguous to call it sleep --- a frozen face as if she is dead. 

The sorceress who gazes upon that face for a long while. Before long she mumbles some words. 

"You say you don't have any objectives? That's tragic, you know, you are still confused." 

Shiki's peaceful appearance. 

The sorceress talks as if she resents it. 

"The fact that you are empty means that you can fill that emptiness with as much as you want. You happy person, where's a better future than that?"

Mumbling something like that the sorceress clicks her tongue. 

Because she is embarrassed at herself saying such sincere words. 

... When they were things she had forgotten for such a long time.