Chapter 17: “D.C. al Coda"

Chapter 17: “D.C. al Coda"

―“They say that only two things are promised to you the moment that you’re born.”
“One may think it to be success or the basic human right to forge your own story.”
“To choose exactly what happens to you in your life..”
“I always thought that to be bullshit..”
“There’s just too many variables for these things to be choices.”
“We live, we die. It’s an endless cycle that repeats whether we like it or don’t.”
“Besides..” He sighs.
“The answer has and always will be something far more depressing”
Hiro thinks to himself as he once again awakens inside of a theater. The building however had changed. Instead of the more classic shakespearean style, it resembles a modern movie theater’s auditorium.
The smell of spilled popcorn was pungent. There isn’t a single seat other than his own free of the mess. Hiro is too broken by this point to be surprised by the cinematics. He hoped that maybe this meant that he actually died this time. He knew though that he would never be that lucky.
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**Click**

The sound of a projector activating cuts through the silence. Hiro sat upright, shielding his eyes from the sudden red and white light coming from the screen before him.
“What the hell is this!” he screams as his eyes re-adjust.
It’s nothing more than a white screen with a red logo reading out an unfamiliar title. A title that looked to be written in a font that you’d see on a classic slasher flick.
“Madman’s forgiveness…?”
He asked himself, attempting to make sense of this.
“Is this some type of joke?!”
He calls out, under the belief that the same entity from before was playing tricks on him.
His only response comes in the form of the movie beginning.
Hiro’s shocked to see the sight before him. It’s an image of him at the moment of Suzume’s death.
That same fear that he felt in that moment begins to take over.
There is nothing he can do other than watch the moments that lead to this.
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Hiro was petrified at the sight. The way she faded away before him was reminiscent of the way the Kappa died. Yet he just can’t pinpoint how that’s remotely possible. This is real life after all. Even if it’s just a recorded version of their daily lives. Why would she just disintegrate upon being killed?
Her death was just too unreal for him to comprehend.

“Why wasn’t there any blood..” Hiro thinks to himself attempting to make sense of this.
By this point, the white-noise is in the process of shifting. The television static is gradually increasing and decreasing at a steady rate. This makes it harder for Hiro to see the threat ahead. Even with sight, he knows that it won’t make much of a difference. He knows exactly what the killer’s capable of. There was just no way that he’d be able to take him on by himself. Yet, he could sense that there was no way for him to escape either.


Aside from him and the masked figure, the two are alone. Though he didn’t have any confirmation, the silence is enough for him to come to the conclusion that all of his friends had met a fate similar to his beloved Suzume. Hiro knew the tropes. He knew that in these situations, the characters would be picked off one by one until there’s one left. He just never really considered the possibility that it’d be him.
“He...He killed her..”
Hiro thinks, as he stares at the steadily decreasing pile of ash.
The wind’s strong tonight, enough-so that a gust is enough to ensure that what little of Suzume there is left becomes one with it; drifting away.

It was ironic. In a way, this is a fitting death for her. Her name translates roughly to something along the lines of “wounded sparrow.” Her parents had given her this title as a symbol of the strength they believed their daughter would grow into. The kind of strength one would have only through remaining as positive as she was. Especially through the darkest times in her life.

“The reason we live is to pass down the pain of our lives to those after us.”
“To learn. To experience... To teach…”
“And most importantly…”
“ To love…”
Hiro narrates as he watches the memory playback. As he watches the remnants of his lover fade, he can’t help but remember simpler times. Recalling her smile throughout the years. Despite everything she went through, Suzume never really changed. One memory stands out as the film jumps backwards to an earlier point in Hiro’s life.
It was the day they first met. How he had tried so desperately to keep her away from him. The feeling of annoyance he felt at her constant efforts to befriend him. It was all an act. Hiro didn’t mean to treat her that way, and regretted it due to the kindness she shared.

“Many people live with regrets…”
“So much so that when the time for them to die arrives, they do one of two things.”
“They beg on their hands and knees for a second chance..”
Hiro thinks, as the film jumps back to his most recent memory; revealing him doing just that in front of the killer.
While his mind was sound, the Hiro inside of this memories body acted on it’s own.
His hands are bloodied from digging his fingernails into the grassy terrain below him.
“Or, they think of what they could have done better..”
It shifts now to a memory of his younger self moments before the death of his father. Picturing the happiness he felt playing with the figure. The happiness that was deprived from him only moments after.
“If you could say one thing to your younger self, what would it be?”
A false memory visualizes on the screen. It shows a scene of a weakened Hiro looking up at the killer.
“Wait… What’s this?”
“I don’t remember this happening like that at all?”
Current Hiro remarks, rising from his seat.

A genuine look of confusion forms across both of the Hiro’s faces as they notice that the killer was crying.
Before Hiro can process this information however, the auditorium begins to shake.
“What is this, an earthquake?!”
Hiro screams, trying to hold onto his seat as the building begins to rotate. Gradually closing in on itself until all that was left is a black void.
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Darkness, that is all he can make out before him.
“Hiro!”
“Please wake up, we don’t have much time!”
“We have to go!”
The sound of a familiar voice calls out to him.
It seemed as though whoever it belonged to, was attempting to guide him out of such a labyrinth.
“That voice…” Hiro questions, trying to attach it to a face. The voice is feminine.
“It sounds so familiar but I can’t seem to remember..” He knew this voice, but due to his waking state; it was doubled. It feels as though two people are speaking, their voices layered on top of each other.
The way they frantically shake his body leads him to believe that whatever they are trying to alert him to was urgent.
Whoever this mystery person is, they had to have been friendly. He thinks to himself, slowly opening his eyes.

As his eyes begin to re-adjust, the identity of this mysterious person becomes clear to him. Hiro is overwhelmed with joy as the visage of Suika returns to his view.
Without even a word of warning, Hiro immediately sits up; wrapping his arms around her.
“Hey!” “This isn’t the time for that genius!”
Her face flushes a bright red as she desperately tries to free herself from his grasp. Hiro however continues the hug despite this.
“We are in-”
She tries to warn him of the looming danger, but her words are cut off.

With tears streaming down his face, Hiro begins to do something he feels should have been done sooner.
“No, it’s the perfect time!”
He pleads, burying his face into her shoulder.
“I hurt you Suika! I never should have dragged you along into this nightmare!”
“I should have never treated you the way I did!”
“Look at what it caused!”
“Look at what I caused!”
“Everyone's dead because of me!”
His sobbing is getting louder and louder, something that visibly angers Suika. “Shut up…” She thinks to herself as she begins to ball her hands into fists. What Hiro was unaware of was the fact that Suika had just narrowly escaped from Michael. It was only by fate that she was able to quite literally stumble across his unconscious body, due to the fact that it had tripped her while she was running.

She feared as though all this noise would attract unwanted attention. “This is bad..” She thinks to herself, as the sound of a far off tree branch snapping catches her attention.
The killer knew their location and if she didn’t act fast, they’d surely both die on the spot. There was only one thing she knew for sure would snap him out of it. She remembered reading about it in a section of the manuscripts her father had told her to avoid.
To Hiro’s surprise, Suika grabbed hold of him by the throat.
“W-what are you doing-” He chokes out, but Hiro’s too late. Suika forced what she believed to be a kiss onto his lips.

In a way, this proved to be enough for Hiro to release his grasp on her. The only problem came in the form of Suika being inexperienced. That was supposedly her first kiss, and she saw it more as a “passive attack.” She had more or less headbutted him, quite literally smashing her mouth against his.

“What the hell was that for!?”
Hiro shouts at her, grabbing hold of his now bruised mouth.
Upon impact, she made him chip a tooth.

“What do you mean..? It was just a kiss..”
“Are you saying you haven’t been waiting for that...?”
She teases, absentmindedly pointing to her chin.

“Like hell that was supposed to be a kiss!”
“You almost took my goddamn head off!”
“What was that even for anyway!?”
“It just feels random, especially right now-”
The sound of movement prompts the two to look up. Hiro just can’t believe his eyes, he once again finds himself face to face with the man behind the killings; Michael Kurosawa.

It was as if just the kiss alone was enough to summon him.
It would quickly become apparent to them that Michael isn’t here for Hiro. His attention was more focused on Suika than anything.
Behind the mask, they could sense the intense amount of hatred he harbored for her.
Hiro took note of this immediately, taking it upon himself to step in front of her.
“What do you want from her, you bastard!”
“You already took everyone else, haven’t you had your fun already?!”
Turning his attention to Suika, Hiro points to his left-hand side.
“And what the hell are you still doing here!”
“Take this time to run!”
“Keep moving until you find the counselors cabins! You should be safe in one of-”
During his bout of warning her, Hiro is completely oblivious to Michael’s actions. Michael gently brought the weight of hand down, smacking at the nape Hiro’s neck. It isn’t nearly enough to kill, nor was that the purpose of the attack. It is merely meant to be a way of incapacitating him. It did its job well it seemed. The moment that the hit connected, Hiro collapsed.
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Now away from a watchful eye, Michael is free to approach Suika.
A look of terror forms on her face as she realizes that her only form of escape was blocked off by him backing her into the mountainside.

Though she tries to summon forth her weapon. She is only able to manifest it for a second before it disperses into small sparks of kinetic magical energy. Seeing this stops Michael in his tracks. He’d seen something like this before but just couldn’t pinpoint where. For that matter, he couldn’t seem to justify the urges that led him to want to kill her. Thrusting his right hand forward, Michael stops himself just shy of her neck. He was fighting off the urges, fighting off becoming what the urban legends claimed him to be. Fighting off his mission.
Just seeing this is enough to put a smile on Suikas face. She smugly looks up at him, with a face that would express that she’d won.

“Oh, I guess you’ve finally realized it huh..”
“Well.. I’m afraid it’s too late my friend.”
She states, pointing behind Michael.
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Everything was going according to her plan. Suika was aware that due to Hiro’s personality he would attempt to play the hero. She was also aware that in his current state, he was far too weak to even stand a chance against someone such as Michael. She couldn’t be picky, she needed to work with what she had. She had to make sure that her student would pass the ultimate test when it came to using their ability. The test of having what it took to take another life. As she feigned fear while avoiding Michael, she was patiently waiting for the moment Hiro’s anomaly would activate. She knew it’d be the only way of simultaneously getting rid of Michael and helping them return home.
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The Hiro standing before the two was far past what either Suika or Michael remembered. Hiro had transcended far beyond whatever made him human in terms of. Aside from the basic structure of one, nothing really screamed “I’m a human!” about the form he took.
Oddly enough, this new look is reminiscent of the person he had met inside of the theater.
Hiro’s body is now composed entirely of the same white noise that the entity hid behind.
His clothes all except for his red newsboy cap had meshed with this new form. Through the television static, his eyes and mouth began to glow a bright white. He tried to speak, but the only noise that escaped his lips came in the form of high pitched radio frequencies.

Suika disregards Michael entirely, walking over so that she can stand beside Hiro.
“I was waiting for the real you to pop back up!”
She expresses gleefully, wrapping her arms around the man’s upper torso.
This was uncharacteristic of her, yet Hiro wasn’t fully conscious of his decisions either. He wasn’t able to process right from wrong here. The only thought going through his mind was his mission.
He had to make sure Suika stayed safe

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Suika slid her hand underneath Hiro’s wrist, raising it slightly so that the palm faced Michael. Though he didn’t outwardly show it, this was the first time Michael had felt fear post becoming his current self.
“Hiro, be a dear and dispose of this filth so that we can leave this place.”
The way she spoke was seductive, almost as if she were above the man she was commanding. As Hiro began to focus the wisps of energy into his hand, Michael took time to analyze the situation. Thinking back to things he witnessed recently around the camp

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Michael recalled attempting to kill Suika the first night that the group arrived at the camp, but having the girl escape just in the nick of time. He followed her trail and came across something that genuinely confused him. Her trail stopped at a portion of the camp that he knew Yua had gone off to to speak with Troy.
He recalled finding an unconscious Yua waiting by the entrance of that area. When he attempted to help her recover however, she didn’t recognize him. Opting instead to run deeper into the woods. You see, even in death Michael remained a good soul. He followed her up until they reached the main counselors cabins, but something shocked him. A different version of him had made their way to Yua before he could even have a chance. This version had murdered her mercilessly right before his eyes. An inescapable rage washed over Michael as he watched his alternate become engulfed in that same magical energy. Before his eyes, they transformed back into the form of Suika.
Michael couldn’t rationalize the internal thoughts that led to him sussing out Suika, but whatever it was was correct. She wasn’t who she said she was and she only served as a danger to Hiro’s group.

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Michael remembered the joy he felt upon finding Hiro reading The Great Gatsby in his home. Even though it was short-lived, it was the only company he’d had in years. He wanted so desperately to warn Hiro of her true intentions, but due to his limitations. He wasn’t able to speak more than unintelligible murmurs There was absolutely no way that Michael was going to let someone that caring fall victim to her as well. Though he’s un-armed, Michael had to do something. Closing his eyes, the masked killer sprints forward; prepared to tackle Suika.

“Fire.”
Suika commands. Though hesitant, as if fighting off her control; Hiro has absolutely no choice but to oblige. The moment before Michael is successfully able to land a hint on Suika, Hiro summons a portal in front of him. Transporting Michael away from the two.

Having exhausted all of his energy into that one attack, Hiro collapses once more, falling unconscious.
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Four Months Later
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It has been four months since the two escaped from the camp tape. Suika is still in the process of getting used to modern day Japan, but with the help of Hiro; she seems to be getting the hang of things rather easily. She even goes as far as using her knowledge of archery to open up her own firing range.
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One day when she is at work however, a curious Hiro sneaks into his foster father’s room. His foster father surprisingly never came back from vacation, so he took it upon himself to claim the apartment for his own. This bedroom in particular however now belongs to his girlfriend, Suika Urikohime. She redecorated it in a sense that not only captures nostalgia for her old life, but things she’d come to love about the new one.
Ever since Hiro had left the camp tape, he’s been completely unable to use his anomaly. There are times where he’ll still see the white-noise but they fade just as fast as they come.
The reason for his co-op mission here was simple, something didn’t bode right with the way Suika acted when they reunited.

She was always a person who’d jump at the opportunity to show off her skills, sometimes even coming off as goofy at points. So, Suika was solely using him as a weapon to kill… That didn’t make sense. Especially considering one major fact. Michael never once went after Hiro. Upon checking the time, he recalls that he only has 4 hours before her shift ends and she is able to make it back home, so Hiro decides to do the smart thing. In order to learn more about her. Hiro pops in the tape for her movie: “The melon maidens prince.”
He can’t believe it, inside of the movie it detailed an entity so much like the one he had seen in his dreams. A creature known as the amanojaku. Said creature had the ability to make people act on their most evil desires, grant them abilities beyond their wildest dreams, and that last ability shot chills through him.
“The amanojaku has the ability to impersonate anyone..”
He thought to himself upon reading the case-log one of the characters set on screen.
Hiro had to escape from here fast. If this were true and the Suika that he’d come to love was an impostor this whole time, it meant he was in danger. That he had been living everyday with the person responsible for taking away everything he had left.

Yet as he got ready to pack his clothes, he could sense a familiar presence just behind him.
There in the doorway of the house was Suika. She wasn’t herself though. Hiro knew this much before even having to turn around.
As he did, his fears were finally confirmed. There in the doorway of his house, was that same pale skinned woman.
“I’ll give you a choice.”
She offered him an ultimatum where he knew if he denied, she wouldn’t be so merciful.
“Let's go forth and create that perfect world you wished for!”
Hiro just wasn’t the type of person to go along with this. He knew that her definition of perfect would have led to more trouble, but he had no choice in this.
So with a sorrowful heart, he agreed.


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The world, if you can even call it that; was a shadow of its former self. There was nothing behind in its place other than the endless sea of darkness.
Having had to stoop to such insane levels of power, especially after the trauma of knowing all of his loved ones had died due to him being irresponsible; Hiro’s mind had finally broken.
He lay there looking at his hands, wondering what he could have possibly done to prevent this.
“This is all my fault..”
“I...i can fix it though…”
“Right Suika!?”
The woman tries to ignore his cries at first, taking a moment to soak in the scenery. It was so familiar to her, that it was almost disappointing that things ended up like this. She had hoped to keep the act up a little bit longer, but due to the shape of this world she doesn’t have much say in the matter. His ability had affected her as well. Not in the way that it was intended to however. Not in the way a previous version of Hiro would have wanted it to. Her skin began to crack piece by piece, revealing her true face underneath.


“You’re right Hiro..”

She smiles at this fact, turning to face him.
He recognized those soulless eyes anywhere, that pale skin, and her blue hair.
Standing in front of Hiro was the same entity that granted him his anomaly.
“Let’s make that perfect world you wished for!”
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