I spy with my little eye... A young girl looks out the keyhole in her apartment door. She sighs and opens the door for... Shiki? He greets our lovely young lady... SHIKI? WHO'S REALLY SHIKI HERE? AN EXPLANATION WOULD BE LOVELY, THANKS!
Okay, Shiki lets Not!Shiki into her humble abode, and he hands her a grocery bag, telling her to put it into the fridge. It's strawberry ice cream! I don't think she's really a strawberry gal...
"I don't like ice cream." But it's Haagen Dazs!
Not!Shiki apologizes for not getting something else. He just ran into a bit of a roadblock. Stawberry is the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of her. He continues on a bit of tirade about how everyone thinks strawberries are cute but they're really a rose. It' just like Shiki. Wow. Real sensitive, ass. She refuses to eat it, as I expected. She slams it into the fridge with the last one he got her, still unopened.
And then, a shitload of butterflies, accompanied by some very unsettling vocals. Seriously, this is creepy. Stop it.
... Not much better. The next morning, Shiki dresses herself, stopping by the fridge for a bottle of water as she does so. Venturing out into the world, the news playing on the jumbo screen catches her eye. Apparently, the girl we just saw splatter was the fourth girl to commit suicide at the local Fujiyou Building.
Shiki ends up talking to red-haired woman at what looks like a television shop? I don't know. The red-haired woman talks of the suicides, pointing out to Shiki a disturbing similarity. None of the suicides ever left a note. As if they had nothing to lose and no one to say goodbye to. This clearly not being the case, they must have not intended to die.
Or so Mikiya said. The red-head probes around. "When is he coming back?" Shiki remains pensive, staring downwards at her coffee cup. The scenery shifts to a red night-time moon. Shiki meanders across empty streets. Amongst the desolate apartment complexes, not a soul resides. A single light shines upon a memorial. A small teddy, flowers, water, and a picture of three girls.
A dog walks past Shiki, leaving a crimson pathway in its wake. In front of her, a corpse swimming in blood. Another suicide. Backed by the scarlet moon, a dozen figures stand upon the sky.
Okay, now that drama time is over, would someone mind explaining just what the hell just happened? Oh, those were the victims? A quick conversation with red-head exposes the truth. Eight people will die at the Fujiyou building in accordance with the eight figures floating in the sky.
Explanation? Memories accumulate slower there. Memories of the victim's lives still aren't up to date. So they're ghosts? She goes on and on about the effect of heights on the human perception of the world. "Vision is not what your eyes see but an image your brain comprehends. Our vision is protected by our common sense. Humans cannot live outside their boxes... under normal circumstances." We're starting to get into some seriously deep shit here...
The news interrupts their chitchat. A sixth suicide has just been discovered. DOESN'T ANYONE ELSE FIND THE RAPIDITY OF THESE EVENTS A LITTLE DISTURBING?
Twilight arrives, and Shiki takes out another bottle of water. We flashback to earlier. Not!Shiki sits in the shop, perfectly still as he was before. "When is he going to come back?" He falls to the floor. Is he dead? He looks dead. *poke* Feels dead. *slurp* Tastes dead. He must be dead!
Shiki drops her water bottle and rushes through the streets. She arrives at the Fujiyou Building. Where, where, where-*SPLAT* A little slow on the draw there, Shiki.
Shiki ignores the only-moments-ago alive schoolgirl and heads towards the Fujiyou Building. Treading cautiously, she removes a sheathed knife. Police ribbons fall and Shiki continues unhindered. Crows nest on the interior. The ruins of what was once life remain scattered about a spider's nest of police tape.
Hahahahahaha! Shiki can hear them. Hahahahahaha! Shiki can see them. The ghost drags her along the balcony, forcing her to drop her knife. Her arm starts moving on its own, as the joints slowly mechanize. She narrowly misses being thrown off the edge repeatedly and finally pins her own arm down. She spots her knife glimmering only feet away. She seizes the opportunity, grabs the knife and impales her own hand on the wall.
Whew. Well that was certainly close. *WHAP* Yeah... GOOD LUCK WITH THAT! The possessed arm drags Shiki to the balcony edge by the throat. The ghost girl watches, waits. Shiki, growing desperate, resorts to her last trick. A GEASS!
YOU 'BOUT TO GET OWNED, ARM! *STAB* OH YEAH! CRITICAL HIT! SHIKI WINS!
Take that, arm! After a near victory against her virulent foe, Shiki grasps at her stump and limps off. Oh look! It's red-head! And she's an automail mechanic! Who'd of thought?
So Yeah, Shiki's arm is artificial. So why'd it bleed? ... Oh. OH! EURGH! Red-head goes on and on about how dolls are just containers, yadda yadda. Does she ever run out of meaningless words to say?
Apparently Not!Shiki was interested in her dolls, something that, combined with Fujiyou Building, is implied to have rendered him in his current state. And what is that? Death? Coma? Explanation please?
A quick flashback reveals whatever did it to him, it only happened in the last few days. I'm going with coma. Shiki dons her house attire, a single white shirt. The fridge, ever stocked with cold water, is ignored in favor of the freezer, which still holds two Haagen Dazs ice cream cups. With some maneuvering, she opens and eats the ice cream with her one good arm.
Cut to next day and the automail meat-arm is complete. She gives it a quick test drive. Hands on home row! Ready? Begin! aaaa bbbb ccc-CUT YOU! Hanging on the coat hanger is her red jacket, right next to the unconscious Not!Shiki. She snatches it and Touko asks her if she's going to take Not!Shiki with. "He brought it on himself."
You're like, seriously harshing my mellow, man!
That night, Shiki is once again at the Fujiyou Building. Not the smartest bulb, is she? Taking the same method of breaking and entering as last time, she's confronted by a self-opening elevator. Against all good judgment and common sense, she takes it.
The roof-top is spattered with rain. The circle of ghosts welcomes Shiki. Shiki has but one thing to say to them: BITCH PLEASE!
She activates the Geass and unsheathes her knife. One second later, one less ghost exists. With her eyes as her guide, she cuts through each ghost until only two are left. The brown-haired one and the Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl. The sky darkens to blackest night as the two try to flee. Shiki denies them this, flying through the air and impaling brown-haired one in the head all the way to the ground.
The last one, the ringleader, floats away while her comrade fades. Shiki gives chase, jumping from this rooftop to the net, rain-slicked one. She slides across it, grinding the rooftop until she comes to splashing halt before the ghost girl. She flashes with rage, pushing Shiki back with the force of her anger.
Shiki smiles and reaches out with her new arm. And Force Chokes the shit out of her until she falls to the ground. Upon which she stabs her in the heart, keeps on going and thrusts her entire fore-arm through her chest. After which she falls off the roof and bursts into a thousand lilies.
... Well... Shit.
Touko, on the other hand, has her own business to attend to. Awww! But I wanna see Shiki kill more dead people! Turns out, as random weirdness would have it, Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl isn't dead and thusly, isn't a ghost. Touko seeks out her room at the hospital and we get answers.
This blind girl had been controlling both her body and another body which resided at the Fujiyou building. She lived out her existence in this double, calling to the girls because she was lonely. Well, I'm sure that's great comfort to them IN HELL.
Touko asks if she’d kindly give back Not!Shiki. After a teary eyed talk in which we learn Not!Shiki had been visiting her in the hospital, Touko leaves. The girl gets into her wheelchair, and wheels out of her room.
"There are two ways to escape. Escape without purpose and escape with purpose. The former is called floating, and the latter, flight. You're the one who decides which one your overlooking view was. But it's a mistake to choose your path based on the sins you carry. We don't choose our path depending on the sins we carry, but most instead carry our sins on the path we choose."
She continues onwards through the city, a lone girl wheeling her way through the fiery city night. She arrives where we began, the Fujiyou Building. The elevator is waiting, like an old friend. She takes it higher, higher, tot he sky which she so long called "friend". Her wheelchair no longer needed, she abandons it and walks forward. Forward to the edge. With a smile and a sigh, she tilts forward, willing her own body to destroy itself. She falls.
Well that's sad. Oh look, Not!Shiki's awake! Sadness forgotten! He also remembers absolutely nothing about how he got so knocked out. Huh. The newscast totals the suicide count at Fujiyou to eight. Touko puts him to work immediately and he serves her coffee while she and Shiki have a psuedo-philosophical chat. "The words "fly" and "fall" are hooked together." Fascinating.
Later, Not!Shiki Mikiya talks with Shiki about suicide. DOES NOBODY JUST STOP TO SAY, "HEY BOB, HOW'S THE WEATHER?!"
Later still, he tells her about a dream, which inevitably ties back into the whole "flying" thing. I'm kinda getting tired of this, to tell you the truth. Shiki asks, nay, commands him to stay the night. BOW BOW *SMACK*
I have got to stop doing that.
Turns out she just wants him to eat the other ice cream. Well that's a paper thin excuse. He agrees, and Shiki turns away, blushing ever so slightly. And credits!
Well that was certainly fun. Join me next time for-Wait, it's not over? Oh, that's right, the ghost girl! As a newscaster reports, she was Kirie Fujiyou, daughter of the building's deceased owner. She was 27, terminal and had been in the hospital for ten years. As all of this is being told, a young girl, Azaka, tries to watch over the crowd but is called back by Touko. She asks her if she understands the minds of the suicidal, because she certainly can't. Touko replies there is no reason for suicide. She probably couldn't fly today.
Date: September 1998
... BULLSHIT!
There we are. Expect my next update in a few days!
