Chapter 188: As long as it’s alive, I’ll kill anything I See

Chapter 188: As long as it’s alive, I’ll kill anything I See

At nightfall,

Surrounded by dense darkness, not even the sound of footsteps could be heard in the corridors today.

In the calmness of the night, resembling a tranquil lake hidden deep in the mountains, Shiki Ryougi reminisced about the conversation with the woman who claimed to be a speech therapist.

No, to be precise, only the last sentence.

"Why did SHIKI choose to disappear instead of me?"

The one who could answer this question, SHIKI, was no longer there.

Why did he disappear? What did he exchange, and why did he have to vanish?

Unlike Shiki, who controlled the body for the majority of the time, SHIKI liked to dream and often fell into a deep sleep for that purpose. However, even the act of dreaming, which he enjoyed, was abandoned, and he died on that rainy night.

The self that she could no longer meet, the self she could never see from the beginning. The person named SHIKI was the true self...

Shiki's consciousness grew increasingly blurred.

While wanting to understand what SHIKI had come up with, it was only a journey of retracing memories.

The door to the hospital room opened.

Slow, sluggish footsteps gradually approached.

Was it a nurse? No, it was already past midnight.

If it was a visitor, then...

At that moment, a human hand wrapped around Shiki's neck. The cold palm tightened gradually as if trying to break Shiki's cervical bone.

"Ah."

The pressure on Shiki's neck made her gasp for breath.

Unable to breathe, her throat constricted. If things continued like this, the hand strangling her would break her neck before she lost the ability to breathe.

Shiki stared at the figure with her unseen eyes.

...Not... human.

No, the shape was human. However, the person pinning her down and choking her was no longer alive.

A dead person, driven by an unknown force, attacked Shiki on the bed.

The force choking her neck showed no signs of letting up. Although Shiki resisted by grabbing the assailant's hands, the difference in strength was evident.

Wait, isn't this what I wanted?

Struggling to breathe, her face turning red, Shiki ceased her resistance.

Being killed like this wouldn't be so bad. Even if she continued to live, it would be meaningless. There was no sense of being alive, yet the pain still existed. It would be better to disappear directly.

The force grew stronger.

In reality, only a few seconds had passed, but time seemed to slow down significantly, flowing sluggishly like rubber.

The dead person choked Shiki's neck, their hand devoid of warmth, their fingers sinking into her throat like wood.

There was no mercy in this act of murder, no will from the very beginning.

The skin on the neck split open, and the flowing blood was the undeniable evidence that she was still alive.

Dead... dead just like SHIKI... Lost life.

Lost? That word forcefully brought Shiki's consciousness back.

Suddenly, a doubt arose.

Did he, in the end, find joy in dying?

Yes, he shouldn't have thought that way.

Regardless of the reasons, did his consciousness truly exist within it?

He shouldn't have sought death.

Because... death is so lonely and worthless.

Death is so dark and repulsive.

Death is more terrifying than anything else.

"I'm sorry."

In an instant, vitality surged through Shiki's body.

She grabbed the wrists of the dead person with both hands and kicked with a single leg towards their abdomen.

"I... I feel disgusted just thinking about falling into that kind of place...!"

She kicked desperately at that lump of flesh. The hands of the dead, covered in skin and blood, released her neck.

Shiki climbed off the bed.

It wasn't because she had fractured her foot from falling three stories.

She simply laughed mockingly.

"Whether it's dead or whatever. Since it can move, it still means it's 'alive.' As long as it's something alive—"

She stood up from a prone position, assuming the posture of a predator, a carnivore approaching its prey.

She touched her own throat.

Blood was flowing, the skin was torn, and the marks of strangulation remained.

But she was still alive.

That feeling was bewildering.

"No matter what it is, I'll show you by killing it!"

Gently, she unwrapped the bandage covering her eyes. In the darkness, the Eyes of Direct Death were there.

Her slender feet touched the ground.

As Shiki ran towards her, the undead extended their arms.

Just like tearing a piece of paper, Shiki tore apart the undead with a single hand.

Starting from the right shoulder, her hand emerged from her left waist, with her finger bones twisted into several pieces. But in exchange, the dead suffered damage several times or even tens of times worse.

The dead fell to the ground as if the strings controlling them had been cut. Even so, it seemed that only the left wrist was entangled by the strings, and the fallen undead grabbed Shiki's ankle.

Without hesitation, Shiki crushed that wrist with her foot.

"It's just a collective of 'death.' Get away from me."

Shiki sneered.

Alive. Before, she was only deceiving her own heart, but now she could feel the real sensation of being alive.

"Shiki!"

Touko called out the girl's name and threw something towards her.

It was a silver short knife, devoid of any decorations.

Shiki pulled out the short knife embedded in the ground and looked down at the motionless undead like a mantis.

And so, she stabbed the short knife into the throat of the undead.

The undead trembled for a moment and then went still.

But...

"You fool, if you want to kill, stab the original!"

Faster than Touko's reprimand, a transformation occurred.

In the instant Shiki stabbed the body, a mist flew out from within the corpse. The mist desperately tried to escape, disappearing into Shiki's body.

"..."

Shiki knelt on the ground.

Previously, they couldn't possess her due to Shiki's consciousness, but taking advantage of her momentary abandonment of self during the exhilaration of killing, they invaded her body.

"Not thorough enough, you idiot."

Touko ran over.

However, Shiki made a gesture with her body.

It meant to stay away, so Touko halted her steps.

With both hands gripping the short knife, Shiki pointed the blade toward her chest. With a strong determination, she reclaimed the vacant look in her eyes.

Her teeth firmly bit down on her lip.

The blade's tip touched her chest.

Her will and body pressed the restless spirits, leaving them with no escape.

"There's no running away like this."

She said it, not directed at anyone, but to herself.

Shiki stared directly at the wriggling foreign entity within her, piercing through her flesh. However, she was merely killing the unwanted foreign object, and Shiki was certain that the blade wouldn't harm her.

So, she infused strength into her hands.

"I... will kill the weak version of myself. I will never hand over the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception... to something like you."

The short knife slid into her chest.

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