A snowy winter's night. The city lights paint the night sky orange, an oddly beautiful shade. But that's just me. This starkly contrasts the bare snow-laden street Mikya Kokutou finds himself on this night. He lifts his... umbrella? What, is he afraid the snow will spontaneously turn to liquid mid-drop and rain on him?
No matter. The still frozen snow is not the only white beauty out tonight. Shiki, garbed in a kimono so white it almost hurts to look at, stares out at the city. Kokutou walks onwards but stops. He bids her good evening, prompting her to turn her head to him. She smiles.
SHIKI SMILED! IT'S A SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE!
Some flashes of beautiful scenery later and we're at a high school entrance ceremony! A high school apparently lacking in uniforms of any kind, as Younger!Shiki walks about in a bright pink kimono. Younger!Mikiya gives chase, finally catching up through the crowd. He greets her, exclaiming that she is the girl he saw the previous night.
"Who are you?"
August 30th, 1995
Good to know we have a solid bearing on the day and age. Shiki strolls out of her forest manor for a midnight walk. She contemplates why. Is it because she wants to be alone? Or maybe only because she wants to thinks he is? Deep.
In the city, a gruesome math problem is taking place. A man is crossing the street at 1 mile an hour. A delivery truck cruises down the street perpendicular to the crosswalk at 55 miles an hour. If the human body holds 6 quarts (5.6 liters) of blood, how much of the sidewalk, in square feet, will need cleaning after the ensuing crash? You have five seconds to answer. *SPLAT* If you guessed 50 feet, you are correct!
Shiki stands over the rapidly gushing remains, bending down to meet it. She dips her fingers in the blood, raising it to her face. She paints it on her mouth like an artist, a macabre painting come to life.
SHIKI! THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Later at school, we see a budding friendship between Mikiya and Shiki, who talks to her about her style of dress. He asks what her wardrobe plans for the winter are. Something tells me this is going to be a long movie...
Cut to Shiki out shopping for, what else, a winter jacket. Here comes her signature red leather jacket! Looks pretty good for three years old.
And then, RUNNING! OF THE DECIDEDLY UNPLEASANT KIND! A man runs under a large bridge, pursued by a figure cloaked in shadow. It corners him, and raises Shiki's knife, bringing it down into his throat with a solid stab. Now, just because we saw Shiki smear on blood as lipstick and also saw a person used her knife to kill someone, doesn't mean she did it. Right?
Oh who am I kidding.
Speaking of that little escapade, Mikiya reveals to Shiki what he thinks is confidential news of a recent murder. A corpse was found missing all it's limbs. Pleasant. Shiki asks if humans could really die from that. Maybe not if they're in Bleach...
She asks they stop talking about it. Not exactly meal time material. Oh do ya think so, Jimmy? Moving away from that, a police investigation finds the fourth body. If you could call a mass of entrails, a head, detached shoulder blades, many small finger chunks and smears of blood in the shape of a yin-yang symbol a body.
Later at school, Shiki is confronted by a boy who seems to know her secret. He leaves her be though, aborting that plot thread. She gathers her things and waits for her ride in her new jacket. Mikiya comes up from behind, offering an umbrella. He ends up just waiting for her ride too, humming much to the annoyance of both Shiki and me. This prompts the piano player out of hiding, who starts playing his music in the background. Shiki hums along until...
FLASHBACKS FROM HELL! Shiki reels from the memories of the murders, finally reaching a breaking point. SHIKI MUST CUT! Kokutou stop his humming and they switch topics. To the leaving upperclassman, Rio, who has find a new direction in his life and is dropping out of high school. Let's all celebrate the joys of a ruined future!
Shiki dons her red jacket for another night on the town. IT'S MURDERIN' TIME! She passes a police investigation, skirting what is most likely an investigation conducted on her work. Underneath the train tracks, a scene from hell itself plays out. The disembodied head which has no life and sees no more calls out through the train as Shiki stands in the wavering light of the metal worms above.
"The fifth one."
Shiki's in the dojo now, having a katana duel with her father. They swing and clash for about one week's worth of Bleach before her father kicks her while her guard is down, knocking her into the wall and ending the match. She leaves to change, a family servant helpfully holding out the clothes. She tells him to get lost and that he'd benefit more for serving her brother, the ultimate successor. He tells her otherwise. He can't inherit the family because he doesn't possess the attribute.
Oh great, we're getting into non-indicative titles already?
She undresses, looking in the mirror. she wonders what Mikiya will think if she tells him now. About the two Shikis. God this series loves its drama, doesn't it? Focusing back on Mikiya, he talks with Gakuto, a member of the judo club. He insists to know about his relationship with Shiki. They engage in a couple minutes worth of Will They or Won't They? talk before they both conclude he's in love. Excuse me...
AHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHA HA HA HAHAHAHAAA! OH THAT'S RICH! AHAHAHAHA! YOU'RE SO BONED! HAHAHAHA!
He finds an invite from Shiki in his desk. Later, he heads off to the designated location, the mall. Shiki greets him and-"Yo, Kokutou." Uhhh-"What? Are you pissed because I'm a little late? You're pretty impatient, man."
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH SHIKI?
They spend hours running about, Shiki acting more Genki than Haruhi. Finally, after the frolicking montage is over, Shiki breaks the news to him. It's a split personality! Yay!
She (the current one) is SHIKI, while the normal one is Shiki. Well that's certainly a creative name. She explains that the term is a bit loose in her case though. She's more of one half of the whole rather than an alternate personality. One side of the coin, with Shiki at the other. She's the rebellious impulse, Shiki's the suppressive impulse.
After a long talk about how SHIKI is still Shiki, she leaves, paying the bill and telling Mikiya they'll meet again soon enough. Because she likes him. Back at the Kokutou residence, Mikiya talks it up with his brother, Daisuke, about the murder cases. He recalls Shiki's work in a little too much detail, leaving me reaching for the Tums. He drops a picture to Mikya of the fifth crime scene, where they found his school emblem. Dasiuke gets up to help with dinner as the seeds of doubt are plated in Mikiya's mind.
Third quarter underway, Shiki has isolated herself further from people. SHIKI talks with Mikiya again, explaining why Shiki hates people. She never grew up imagining like most that the whole world loved her, a vital experience for later in life. Thusly, she never learned to love in return. All because she knew from birth that SHIKI was with her. She learned from birth what humans were like.
Good god! Okay, summarized version! SHIKI has been denied by Shiki. Denial being SHIKI's domain, this is troubling. SHIKI denies, Shiki affirms. The only emotions SHIKI can express is murder, which is not an emotion, because Shiki has been killing her, denying her suppressed thoughts. Shiki wishes to kill everything related to SHIKI. Anything that exposes her she destroys.
AND THAT'S SUMMARIZED!
At lunch, he talks with her again. She finally, finally gives it to him straight, revealing herself as the murderer in hopes to shake him off her. She even shows him an injury on her arm from her last kill. Mikiya being a Shinra Expy (or is it the other way around?), doesn't seem to care. He also doesn't seem to care that his parents dropped him a lot as a child.
He talks with his brother again that night, who confirms that after they found skin dug in the sixth victim's nails, they've concluded that the killer has a wound around their elbow. The same place Shiki had one. He goes on to say that now they have blood samples, meaning soon it's*looks around* CHECKMATE.
Mikiya has a premonition of Shiki standing over a corpse. He finds her house number and rushes off that night. BAD PLAN, MAN. BAD PLAN! He goes off to check her house. She isn't there. He heads off, returning later, walking the same cobblestone path. *drip* Oh jesus.
Suddenly, a shower of blood turns on like a water fall, illuminating the cracks in the path with a bright crimson. A headless corpse lays ahead, spraying blood in all directions like a fountain. True to his vision, over it stands Shiki, bathing in the blood-shower. He keels over, retching, as Shiki approaches. "Be careful, Kokutou-kun. A terrible vision tends to attract a terrible reality."
Don't bother honey, I already tried that.
Well, after all that, what does one do? Apparently deny everything, take a few days off and start stalking a murderer. FREAKING BRILLIANT. Shiki starts to ignore him at school and he continues to camp outside her house.
After a few seasons worth of this, she finally talks to him again. She asks why he continues to believe in her, despite her own word against it. Mikiya says he has no basis, only that he doesn't believe she could. He says he'll keep believing in her too.
Words fail me. Honestly, I have no words.
"You're a fool." Meh. Better than nothing I suppose. Later that night, he returns, even in rain. He waits outside like usual. Or maybe not so much. You see, tonight, we have a guest. A very special one in fact. A lady in red. Mikiya tries to get her inside. But Shiki... Shiki doesn't like that. A quick flash of silver and the leaves are painted red. Mikiya Kokutou has just been cut for the first time.
He finally realizes the truth and runs. Runs for his life. He dashes haggardly as Shiki hacks her way through the bamboo grove, chasing Mikiya. A person possessed by a single intent. To kill him. He dashes madly through the grove, his haphazard meandering followed by Shiki's smooth sliding. He finally runs out on his luck, tripping and spraining his ankle. He turns to face his approaching killer in the pallid light of the street lamp. She reaches down and sits atop his chest, her blade to hi throat. The distilled voices of the lost chant their slow song in the background.
"I don't want to die."
Shiki's stone gaze loses itself. Soft eyes, and a welcoming smile.
"I want to kill you."
And back to 1998!Mikiya. Wait, THE HELL? HE DIDN'T DIE? THE SHIT? We learn she failed in killing him. Expanding on the last movie, he details his Saturday visits to Kirie. He explains that the smile Shiki wore in those crucial moments was enough to convince him he was right.
Dude. She wanted to kill you. She was going to enjoy killing you. She was going to videotape it, put it up on You Tube and store the original away as a treasured memory. What part of that don't you get?!
"April, 1995. I met her."
FOR CHRISSAKES!
That's Kara No Kyoukai 2. Now if you excuse me, I have a boatload of stupid to wash off...
