Kara no Kyoukai

Part 13

6

Broad Bridge is distorted like it has been squeezed by a giant hand. Arguing with the guard after coming here in the storm with Tohko-san's buggy, Shiki shows up from under the bridge with a blood-soaked arm. The guard runs to Shiki but Shiki tackles him and gets him unconcious.

"Yo. For some reason, I thought you would be here."

Shiki says so with a pale face. There were so many things I wanted to say but it all disappears once I see how weak she is. I run to her to help her, but Shiki refuses and would not even let me support her.

"So you managed with just one arm, huh, Shiki?"

Tohko-san seems surprized. Shiki glares in discontent.

"Tohko, She came up with Clairvoyance in the end. She'll have a ridiculus power if you leave her be."

"Clairvoyance, huh? Certainly, if you add that to her power, she'll be invincible. She would be able to make a fulclum even if you are hiding... Huh? If you leave her be...?"

"She returned to pain insensitivity at the very end. That's cheating. Asagami Fujino in that state can't be my target. I couldn't do anything else so I just killed the disease in her stomach. She might make it if you hurry."

Shiki did not kill Asagami Fujino. Understanding that, I quickly call the hospital. I'm not sure if they would be willing to come in this storm, but if they won't, I'll just take her myself. Fortunately, her doctor agrees to come. The doctor was worried about the disappeared Fujino, and it seemed he was crying over the phone. There may not be many, but Fujino still has people on her side. I am moved. Behind me, the two is having a dangerous conversation.

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Part 12

While the storm is hitting town, I return to the office. When I enter the office wet with rain, Tohko-san greets me by dropping her cigarette.

"You're fast. It's only been a day."

"I heard a storm was coming so I came back before the transportation stoppped."

Tohko-san nods while making a difficult face. I wonder if something is wrong... No, right now......

"Tohko-san, about Asagami Fujino. She was not born with her pain insensitivity. She was normal until she was six years old."

"What? That can't be true. Look, even though she has pain insensitivity, it is not affecting her physical activities. If you say her pain insensitivity came after she was born, hollow spine would be the case. But that causes problem with physical activities. A such rare case where she only lacks the sense of pain can only be that she was born with it."

"Yes, that's what her personal doctor said too."

I want to tell her what happened in Nagano from the beginning but there's no such time. I tell her about the Asagami family... no, the AsaGAMI family in a short summary.

"The AsaGAMI family was a respected family, but it has gone broke when Fujino was around twelve. Fujino came to the Asagami family of now to her mother at that time. It seems Asagami is a family branched off from the AsaGAMI family, and they took care of the borrowed money in want of their land. Fujino had her sense of pain when she was small. But in its place, she had strange powers. They say she could bend things without touching them."

"... And?"

"She was hated as the devil. She received oppression too. But from the time Fujino turned six, the power has disappeared, along with her sense of pain."

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Part 11

Shiki slowly appears. Fujino cannot believe her eyes. Shiki comes out directly in front of her, and far away too. Fujino does not notice but her fever is over 39 degrees now. She does not realize that the pain in her stomach is from a "certain condition".

"... I see. ...... You must be abnormal."

Fujino can only think so. Fujino looks at Shiki and bends. Her vision distorts. The fulclum made in Shiki's head and leg each twists in the opposite direction and twists Shiki's body like a piece of rug.

... It should have twisted her.

Shiki, whose left arm is bleeding, nullifies Fujino's "distortion" just by swinging the knife in her right hand. No...... she killed it.

"It's hard to see those without shape but you used your power too many times. Now I can finally see them. Your power is a spiral of red and green. It's really... beautiful."

Fujino does not understand what Shiki is saying. The only thing she realizes is that Shiki will surely kill her now. Fujino repeatedly prays. Bend, bend, bend, bend. As Fujino glares so, Shiki swings her knife and eliminates the power. Fujino's pain in her stomach is about to go over its limits.

"Who...... are you?"

Shiki answers Fujino's fear with infinitely deep eyes.

"Everything in existence has an imperfection. Not to mention humans, but even in air, will, and time. It's natural to have an end if it has a beginning. My eyes can see the death of things. They're special like yours."

Shiki looks at Fujino with eyes that Fujino felt was omnious before.

"That's why... if it's alive, I can even kill God."

Shiki runs. It is graceful as if she is walking. She runs to Fujino and pushes her down onto the ground. Shiki get on top of her. Fujino shakes her throat at facing Death so close to her.

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Part 10

/5

Shiki starts to run. In the puddle of water and in this blowing wind, Shiki's speed is amazingly fast. It should not take more than three seconds to reduce the distance of ten meters to zero. It is enough time to take Fujino's thin body to the ground and stab her in her heart. But even that speed cannot match the speed of vision. Shiki has to get near her target while Fujino only has to look at her target. For the two, the difference of three second is too long.

"........."

Fujino's eyes glimmers. The left eye for a rotation to the left. The right eye for a rotation to the right. Taking Shiki's head and her left leg as the fulcrum, she twists. Strange feeling occurs instantaneously. The instant Shiki feels an invisible power on her, she jumps to the side. An exploding jump to the side. But the power on Shiki does not weaken. Fujino's power is not a firing weapon. Even if one gets away from one ground, it is impossible to get away from it while she is in her vision.

...... Damn......!!

Shiki realizes Fujino's power is stronger than she thought. Shiki still runs. As if to run out of her vision, Shiki runs in a circle around Fujino.

"Do you think you can get awa-"

Fujino murmurs and then she is astonished. Shiki did get away! Unbelievably, Shiki has jumped off the bridge down to the ocean. A sound of a window being broken is heard. What an athletic ability... Shiki went off the bridge and went into the parking lot right underneath it.

"What a ridiculous person you are."

Shiki did get away. But Fujino saw Shiki's left arm until the end. She did see Shiki's leather jacket twist. Shiki's left arm cannot be used anymore. Fujino realizes...

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Part 09

July 24th. It has been a day since Kokutoh Mikiya went to investigate on Asagami Fujino. Not much happened in this time. Only such thing as a big hurricane coming later tonight upto tomorrow morning and a 17year old driving without a licence dying in a corrision. At least publically. Ryohgi Shiki is just staring outside in Aozaki Tohko's office. The summer sky is so huge that one gets bored of looking at it in an instant. In the cloudless sky is the shining sun. It seems like a bad dream that this clear sky is going to be covered by storm clouds later tonight. *Clang* *Clang* The noise echoes. A metal factory is beside this office. Since Shiki is beside the window, the noise hits her ears without rest. Shiki looks at Tohko. Tohko is making a phone call wearing her glasses.

"Yes, that is right. About that accident. ... I see, so he was indeed dead before the collision. Is his cause of death strangulation? That is not wrong. If the neck is twisted off, that is strangulation. It does not matter how strongly it was done. How have you people treated this accident? A collision, I see... That would seem right. There was only the victim in the car. No detective can solve the mystery of a moving sealed room. No, that's all the information I wanted. Thank you very much. I will repay you for this somehow, Officer Akimi."

Tohko sounds very formal and kind. It is so different from her usual tone, whoever knows her normal tone should shiver from hearing it. After hanging up the phone, Tohko shifts her glasses. Emotionless eyes are underneath.

"Shiki, the 7th victim appeared. This is more than the killer two years ago."

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Part 08

4

I tell Tohko-san of the circumstance and have her protect Keita. She lets the boy who hasn't slept since the night of the incident on her sofa and comes back to the office where Shiki and I are waiting. Tohko-san sits on her chair and Shiki is leaning against the wall. I am sitting at the sofa directly in front of Tohko-san. Finally calming down after Keita sleeps, they both tell me I am too good-natured. I take their words of criticism with a sullen face.

"I knew you guys were going to make fun of me like that."

"If you knew, you shouldn't have involved yourself in this mess. You're easily taken advantage of by those kind of guys.."

"It can't be helped. The situation was special."

Tohko-san ponders to my response. She is using offensive words, but she did accept taking in Keita for protection. However, Shiki is against it. She might be really mad as she is glaring at me without saying anything.

"Special case, huh? I do admit this is an abnormal case but what are you going to do now? Are you thinking about looking for her and persuading her?"

"...... I'm thinking so. We can't have him here forever and Asagami Fujino might continue killing people. I think I can only go see her and talk to her."

"You idiot. That's why we say you're too good-natured."

Shiki holds nothing back. She never does, but she is rather offensive today. She really is mad today.

"You won't be able to talk to her, it's too late. She won't stop until she accomplishes her goal. No, I don't even know if she'll stop then. Her means and intention are reversed."

"Shiki, you sound like you know her."

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Part 07

"Shiki......... san?"

"Asagami Fujino... I see, you must have connection with the Asagami God."

With a light footstep, Shiki takes a step forward. Shiki narrows her eyes at the smell of blood. Not from detest, but from happiness.

"Since when...."

Fujino stops her question. The answer is obvious.

"All this time. I followed you since you brought that piece of meat out here."

Fujino feels a chill at her cold voice. Shiki has seen it all. She saw it, but she still came out. She saw it, but did not stop it. She knew this was going to happen, but just watched...

...... This person is abnormal......

"Please do not say piece of meat. This is a person. This is a human corpse."

Fujino argues so in spite of what she is thinking about. It is because she feels Shiki is saying too much to call that man a piece of meat. Shiki nods.

"Yeah, a human is still a human even when it's dead. It doesn't become a piece of meat just by dying. But that's not a human death, is it? Humans don't die that way."

Shiki takes another step forward.

"A human who did not end his life like a human is not human anymore. Even if the people you've killed still has their head remaining or have no wounds, you can't treat it with common sense. Those removed from the boundary are deprived of all their meanings. That's why that thing is just a piece of meat."

Suddenly, Fujino feels a repulsion against this person. Shiki is saying that the corpse and I are out of the ordinary, just like Ryohgi Shiki, who is watching this tragedy right now without a change of expression.

"...... No. I am sane. I am not like you!'

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Part 06

""Nii-san, please quickly break ties with such a woman.""

Azaka said so seriously to a woman in kimono, the one called Shiki. I feel rather uneasy due to the tight air surrounding them. It feels like they have a knife aimed at each other's throat and looking for an opening to actually cut each other. I get timid within this tight air. Now, I can only pray that nothing will occur. Fortunately, they do not talk anymore and the woman wearing the kimono leaves gracefully. I stare at her back as she leaves. Shiki talked like a man. I couldn't tell her age because of that, but maybe she's around my age. Her last name was Ryohgi... maybe it's that Ryohgi. Then her expensive looking kimono makes sense. I could see some worked out designs in her kimono. If she is of the Ryohgi, it's no surprize she would have her own kimono maker.

"...... She was a beautiful person."

Azaka nods to my murmur. I think she's amazing for answering honestly even when she hates that person.

"But she is just as scary. ... I don't like that person."

Azaka looks surprized. Her surprize is completely natural. Even I am surprized at my feeling. Because probably for the first time in my life, I feel a repulsion toward someone.

"That's unexpected. I thought you were someone that wouldn't hate anybody, but I guess I'm wrong."

"Hate......?"

... Dislike is the same as hate? I never thought so. I just feel that I cannot get along with that person. I try closing my eyes. Ryohgi Shiki. Her ominous black hair, ominous white skin, and the ominous bottomless empty eyes. She was looking at me, so I looked back at her. That's why we saw what was hiding behind us. She only has blood. She kills from her own will. She tries to hurt others. ... That woman is a killer.

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Part 05

/2

The phone starts to ring. It stops ringing after five times and switches to the answering machine. After a beep noise, I hear a familiar voice come from the answering machine.

"Good morning Shiki. Can you do me a favor? I'm supposed to meet Azaka at a cafe called Ahnenerbe near the station at noon but I don't think I can make it. You have nothing to do, right? Can you go there and tell her I can't come?"

The caller hangs up. ... I move my tired body and look at the clock by the bed... July 22, 7:23AM. It's only been about four hours since I came home. My body is still wanting sleep, maybe because I've been walking around town until three in the morning after accepting Tohko's job. I pull up my sheets. The summer hotness does not really matter for me. I was able to tolerate hot and cold weather rather well as a kid and it still seems that way. As I lay there for a while, the phone rings again. It switches to the answering machine and this time, I hear a voice I'd rather not hear.

"It's me. Did you see the news? You didn't see it, right? You don't have to see it. I didn't see it either."

... I always thought so, but now I'm confident. The way she thinks is far from the way I think. One should not understand the real meaning behind Tohko's words.

"There were three deaths last night. Another one of those suicides jumping off a bulding and two, a crime from passion. None of these are in the news so I'm guessing they were all treated as accidents. But there's one strange case. If you want to know more, come to my place. Actually, you don't have to. Come to think of it, this will do. All right... to put it simply so even you would understand with that sleepy head of yours, there was just another victim."

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Part 04

2

After the incident with the unknown girl, I head to my workplace. There is no official name for the place I work for. It's specialty is doll-making, but most of the job we get are construction-related. The president, Aozaki Tohko, is a woman in her late twenties and she is a weirdo that would buy an abandoned building to make into her office. It means that this is not a company, but rather an extension of her hobby. There are many reasons why I decided to work here, but this is my daily life now. I have complaints but I have no troubles. I rather think I am fortunate. There are problems but they are all things I can bear.

... While I'm thinking, I arrive at the building. The building is four-stories high and the office is on the fourth floor. This building situated between the residential and the industrial district feels rather empty. It's not that tall, yet it puts pressure on the ones looking up to it. There are no elevators, so I go up the stairs.

When I enter the office, I see an unusual person within the usual junk scattered about. A girl with sharp eyes wearing a black kimono turns to me. ... The kimono has some fish pattern on it...

"Huh, Shiki? Why are you here at such a place?"

"Sorry this place is "such a place". This happens to be your workplace, Kokutoh."

Tohko-san, who is sitting behind Shiki glares at me. She is dressed plainly like always with a cigarette in her mouth. She is wearing black pants with a white shirt. She's wearing an earring in one of her ear. The color of course is orange. I don't know why, but she seems to have this habit of wearing one thing that is orange on her.

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