Of what is left

Blood, Love, and Revenge. All in one.. taking place within his apartment.
A girl, dead from the side against the wall, A beast beheaded by an axe as its blood splatters around the walls.

A gut filled with grief, with heartbreak, and resentment. As he stands over the beast he has beheaded, the same beast that has ended his lover’s life.

Emptiness.
A negative emotion or feeling in which a person feels disconnected, hollow, or emotionally drained after a tragic event.

At the graveyard, the pouring rain was above him. Nothing but total emptiness and heartbreak. He stands, looking over his lover’s grave. No one else was around but him.

- A man in a suit approaches him..
(?) : “I’m sorry for your loss.”
- He turns towards the man wearing a suit, holding an umbrella.
”Who are you..?”
He replies..
(?) : “I’m with Beast Safety Control, my team was the one that had investigated your home about the attack.”
(?) : “I’m truly sorry for your loss, Shiro.”
- He looks away from the man.
SHIRO : “I never understand..”
- The man looked confused.
SHIRO : “Fate always ends up taking everything away from me.”
- The man walks forward.
(?) : “We live in a world of chaos, where man-eating beasts exist that ends the lives of our loved ones.”
(?) : “Such forces of our world are too strong that us human’s only choice is to prevent or avoid them.”
- Shiro looks at the man. Eyes with no kind of feeling, but only emptiness.
(?) : “Please find closure and peace for your own. The only thing to worry about for now is your own safety.”
- The man walks away, before turning his head back towards Shiro.
(?) : May your lover rest in peace.
- The man walks off.

Shiro stands over her grave for a few more minutes as the rain grows stronger.

…

He heads back to his apartment, and as he walks in, he sees all the blood that was once there, cleaned by the Beast Safety Control during their investigation. He remembers the noise and light Sheena would bring into their home. He’d see remnants of Sheena, remembering the times he’d see her cook in the kitchen, how she’d always greet Shiro once he was home, and all in all her total energy that remains within Shiro’s head, lingering everywhere around him.

He sits by the living room sofa, with emptiness. He curls himself up in a ball, sitting position. As he covers his face, he begins to tear up.

…

It’s been a few days since Sheena’s death. Shiro has been depressed and empty. He’s back to living alone again, just like he grew up. The apartment is always empty now.

“I’d like to drop out.”

(RECEPTIONIST) : “Shiro..? You’d like to drop out..?”
SHIRO : “I’m sure of my decision.”
(RECEPTIONIST) : “I-.. I can’t make that happen..”
(RECEPTIONIST) : “I know you’re down over Sheena’s death.. but that doesn’t mean you’d throw everything away just for her.”
SHIRO : “I know. But it’s my decision.. and I’ll be dropping out of my education.”
(RECEPTIONIST) : Sighs.. “I’ll do what I can.”
SHIRO : “Thank you.”
(RECEPTIONIST) : “I’m sorry for your loss.”
- Shiro nodded before he left the school building.

…

“How much would these sell?”

(PAWNSHOP OWNER) : “Geez, kid.. This is a lot.”
SHIRO : “How much?”
(PAWNSHOP OWNER) : “Maybe.. 30,000 Yen for one box..?”
(PAWNSHOP OWNER) : “You have 3 boxes you’re willing to sell.. So I’d pay.. maybe 85,000 Yen for all of it.”
SHIRO : “Deal.”
- The pawnshop owner hands him the envelope full of money..
(PAWNSHOP OWNER) : “Great doing business with you, kid.”
- Shiro nodded before leaving.

…

“I’m moving out.”

(OTP Landlord) : “So suddenly..?”
SHIRO : “Yes.”
(OTP Landlord) : “Well.. I’ll need a 2-week pay for your rent.. and you can move out..”
SHIRO : “I’ll send it over to your name.
(OTP Landlord) : “Why are you moving out though..? It’s so sudden..”
(OTP Landlord) : “Is it cause of Sheena’s death..?”
SHIRO : “It’s none of your business.”
- Shiro ends the call.

Escape
The action of leaving your life’s responsibilities and importance to run away or start a new life.

Shiro packs his things, his clothes, his devices, and some food as he prepares to run away from his current life.

He loads his car with his packed things. He heads back to the apartment and takes a picture of himself and Sheena together. Before leaving, he looks back at the apartment as it is all empty with not much left aside for some furniture, as he then locks the door and leaves the key under its doormat.

He starts up his car as he heads on his way towards Chiba City, where he will start a new life, a city life.

…

Shiyo Hiyoshi, a man who has lost everything he loves in his life, and one who decided to throw away his current life and responsibility to escape and seek a new start.

He’s on his way toward Chiba City, still having a gut full of grief, loss, and emptiness. He seems not to care about anything anymore, only wanting to begin a restart of his life.

His vehicle is out of gas as he pulls over to a nearby Gas Station that was already on his route.

He looks at a picture of Sheena and him within a picture frame while he’s leaning on his vehicle being pumped with gas.

He looks up into the night sky. It’s dark, but the stars are out.

SHIRO : “Some people say, you become stars once you die.”
SHIRO : “If that’s true.. then, Sheena.. I hope you’re looking over me through one of the billion stars I’m looking into right now.”

He gently hugs the picture frame.

Suddenly.. He feels something behind the frame. It was hard, a little rough.

He turns over the picture frame to see a tooth, a fang of a human, that was taped over behind the picture frame.

SHIRO : “Is this..”
SHIRO : “Sheena’s fang..”

Shiro remembers the moments of Sheena always being so proud of her little fang. It was one of the highlights of her face whenever she’d smile.

He takes off the tape and takes the fang, holding it within his hands.

SHIRO : “I remember the day you broke this part of your teeth.. You fell over because of our cat, you tripped over Mitty when you were carrying our dinner..”

He laughs, with a hint of sadness in his tone. Such a small fang of Sheena made him keep remembering how life was before he had lost her. Shiro was broken, but feels relieved to remember small moments of them being together.

He puts away the fang into his pocket as he takes off the gas pump from his vehicle before continuing onto the road headed to Chiba City.

It was dark out, almost around midnight. He’s approaching an overpass bridge on Mito Rte Road. There were no other cars around but his on the road. He was alone.

While driving, he takes out the fang from his pocket, reminiscing about it again even while driving.

Suddenly.. He feels his vehicle suddenly shake, as if something had gotten on top of it. He looks over his side mirror to see a beast. A beast with four arms, a quite large body with its rib puncturing its own skin as well as its face being filled with eyes as its mouth, steaming with smoke, is wide open with its flesh and skin being stretched from the sides.

He was horrified. He only begins to drive faster to try knocking off the beast from his vehicle, but it only gets worse as the beast stretches one of its four arms onto his window beside him, and it shatters it, almost hitting Shiro. Shiro immediately leans back onto the driver’s seat to avoid being hit.

SHIRO : “OUT OF ALL TIMES.. REALLY NOW?!”

He grabs a gun stored within the glovebox of his vehicle and attempts to shoot the beast from his window, only for the bullets to be absorbed by the beast.

SHIRO : “FUCK..!”

He pulls over on the side of the road in a rush as he gets out of the vehicle. The beast doesn’t seem to move until he begins shooting it on its head, resulting it becoming aggressive and chasing after him.

SHIRO : “SHIT! I GOT NOTHING AGAINST THIS!”

Shiro tries to run away, only for the beast to stretch two of its four arms, releasing a slash onto his back.

SHIRO : “ACK..!”

Shiro’s movements slow down as he begins to bleed rapidly from the back. He looks behind him as the beast rushes towards him. He releases a punch onto the face of the beast right before it tries to bite him, causing the beast to be caught off guard for a short time.. allowing Shiro to run and make some distance..

There wasn’t much choice. It was to either run away and seek help or die, the same kind of death that cost him his lover.

He was panting, still trying to keep a distance or to at least find some place to hide. He was nearing an overpass bridge where there were ladders for him to climb on.

The beast was onto him. It was rushing towards his direction. He looks back as he tries to climb the ladder, still badly bleeding from the attack earlier on his back. As the beast jumps towards him and releases a heavy punch with one of its four arms, knocking him over onto the middle of the road.

His rib fractured, his back still bleeding, and almost clinging onto his life, he coughs up some blood while trying to stand up and looking into the eyes of the beast. His attempt to stand up was only interrupted by the beast jumping down towards him and biting down on his shoulder, before he passed out.

…

…

…

Shiro wakes up in a place where it’s seemingly warm. The place is unrecognizable. It’s words to describe the place can only be ‘something that hell would probably be.’

He looks around him. The place is covered in fog, bones, and the smell of blood.

He sees a faint figure of a woman appear by the fog, one similar to Sheena’s.

As the fog clears up. Sheena was right in front of him, holding his face. Shiro looked into her eyes, in total disbelief.

Sheena looks up into his eyes, her eyes were almost tearing up, but she gives Shiro a look of relief.

…

He wakes up, back to where he was, lying right under the beast. He was panting. His wounds had cleared up, and his bones weren’t fractured anymore. As he looked up at the beast with its mouth in front of his face, dripping blood onto Shiro’s face.

The beast was covered in thorns. Thorns that were crimson with gold-like veins… It was dead, out of a miracle.

Shiro pants. His eyes were in total disbelief.

What Happened?
How is he alive?
How did the beast die?
Why are his wounds healed?

Many questions stirred up in Shiro’s head as he lay under the beast’s corpse, covered in thorns, still in total disbelief.