breaks_destiny | 009th Shattering * Audio

Entry tags:

009th Shattering * Audio

[Filtered to: Minato, Minako Arisato, Hanyuu, Ami, Hughes, Elicia, Winry, Adell, Patchouli, Bernkastel, SOS Brigade members, Shiki, Neku, Grell. || Unhackable ~~70%~~ 100%]

[Actually the Arisatos and Hanyuu are a bit of an overkill to add to that filter since they should know already but just in case...]

Just a small heads up to the lot of you, not that it has happened that I can remember but... I won't be answering to any call through the journals unless it's filtered as high as you can.

Which means that, Elicia, you tell your dad beforehand if you want to call me for something.

[A pause.]

Actually if any of you have problems with filters or something just call for Souji instead, I'll answer if it's any of you calling.

[That sounded casual enough, right? Let's hope no one goes into too much of a question mode as to why he suddenly wants to be so secretive with the journals.]

[Filtered to Ami || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

Are you free to meet up and talk? [The library would sound good but he can almost imagine Takano there looking for information so... And the medical center at the battledome is as out of the question as anything that is related to medicine.] Does the lake sound all right with you?

[Filtered to Hughes || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

Hughes-san, where could we meet to talk? Alone if possible as I told you.

[Hopefully it won't be a place where Keiichi can imagine Takano around easily. Though maybe he's just being a bit paranoid.]

[Filtered to Adell || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

Oi, Adell, I think I heard around that you knew about one of those groups, Blue Rogues, I think? Can I ask you a few questions?

[Filtered to the Malnosso || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

I... I'm not entirely sure how to do this... Can I talk with... Catherine, I think it was?

[Sincerely he has not much hope, he has been out of things for a while and who knows if that guy hasn't been changed or whatever. But he won't lose anything for trying, right?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Okay, backtracking in mind. That monitoring thing sounds better.]

I don't doubt of your team's capacity, neither of yours. If I did I wouldn't be asking.

Just to be sure we're on the same page regarding what something means, how aggressive would be the monitoring? I mean, in my book to monitor someone I would try to do it subtly, so they don't know they are being monitored. Because if they know they are or have the feeling it could make them stressed and nervous and they could end doing something bad, which is what we are supposed to want to avoid, even if maybe if left alone they would have never done anything after all.

Well. Stealth really isn't our thing. We could try, but most members of the Rogues aren't really spies or observers. If forced to, I would guess our monitoring might be reasonably obvious to anyone with a skilled eye.

That said, I have a couple of people who I can contact, but they're not members of the Rogues.

[Skilled eye... He doesn't think Takano really has a skilled eye for those things but she's not stupid, so he will bet on her being able to notice or take a hint at the very least.]

But you still trust those, I take? Even if they aren't members?

One of them, yes. Absolutely. And if the other agrees to the job, they'll get results.

[Keiichi hums and remains silent for a while.]

I see. Thank you Adell, you've been very helpful.

[That's all? Yep, that's all so far. Adell may still ask things if he wants to, Keiichi asked his questions after all.]

No problem. If you ever need the Rogues for something, let me know. I'll make sure things get done.

But... you don't have to answer if you don't want to, why the sudden secrecy? You never were worried about much before...

[He has no idea about your condition, after all. Or Rena's. Or the whole thing going on. And has no idea you have very good reason to be asking all these questions.]

[You get a long silence as reply. Almost long enough to make it seem that Keiichi has left already or something, if it wasn't because the picture still shows him. Looking down and thinking.

He doesn't want to point fingers at Takano. Even if he has many reasons to hate the woman, for the things she wanted to do, the things she did even if she wasn't aware of them, the things she could do. But he can't shake off the image of Tomitake begging for her, even after knowing that she had wanted to kill him, he still wanted to protect her and keep her safe. Did Tomitake know that she had the syndrome or was it something he just realized then as he defended her? Part of Keiichi thinks that the man was a fool, that they shouldn't forgive Takano so easily.

But another part remembered Rena stretching her arms at him, begging him to believe in her even as he smashed her head. And he remembered himself, down in the roof of the school, with Rena ready to go for the killing blow and still believing in her, still wanting to help her, still loving her. Just as he had still trusted in Mion even after she killed so many people and was ready to kill him.

He doesn't know where Takano is from, or when. She didn't seem surprised about him there so it had to be from before anything bad happened probably. She hadn't done anything to him or his friends directly yet... But at the same time, hadn't Irie said that it had been going on for a long time already? She had done other things, hadn't she? She wasn't entirely innocent, but he didn't want to point to her as guilty.

But keeping information for himself, not trusting those that wanted to help, those things had been the ones that had drove everything to hell again and again in the previous worlds, right? That had been the biggest problem, Takano had had years to settle down the ground for her plans, while they had limited time and resources. They had been so close to win one time... But it had failed because they didn't know the enemy's name. Only when they knew it were they able to win. But can he be sure? Can he be sure that the ones he trusts in won't go and spread word? That Takano will still be able to have something that resembles a normal life?

If Hanyuu hadn't been here with him... He probably would have gone with Takano himself, even if at first he would have wanted to avoid her. He was worried about what she could do, but he was also worried about her hurting herself. And what if she ended doing something bad here anyway? The people here didn't know about the syndrome, they wouldn't be able to understand, for them it would just be another case of a crazy doctor who didn't care to hurt people. Maybe that was all there was to it after all, but knowing that she was ill Keiichi really couldn't throw the first stone at her. And he didn't want to. He wanted to use his stones to built a wall between her and the rest, both to protect them and protect her.

Was he taking the right steps? Was there really a way to achieve that?]

Can we meet in person?

[...The long, drawn out silence worries him.]

...Yeah, definitely. Where?

[He's not sure actually.]

Somewhere where there won't be many people would be awesome, actually. If there's a place like that.

...There's a basement in the barracks. Hardly anyone goes down there. It's as private a place I can think of, off the top of my head.

[Well, he didn't know about the basement himself and has been hanging around there for a while to train and such so it sounds good enough to him.]

That sounds good enough. When could you come?

If you need me, I can be there in a few minutes.

I'll be there in a few, myself. But I can wait, so just take your time.

[It's not that important. Except that it is but... He just feels bad about all this. Did Rika feel this way when she told them everything? When she went to Tomitake and Irie to tell them that Takano was after them all?]

[Adell will be waiting in the basement of the barracks, leaning against one of the walls. He's made sure no one will bother them down here, so... just playing the waiting game now.

He's admittedly a little uneasy, mulling over what on earth it could be that Keiichi might have to say.]

[Keiichi arrives soon and he would say, honestly, that never before had he felt his steps so heavy. Still he is walking normally, he knows that, but in his mind it seems as if each step takes a hundred of years to be taken. Would Adell understand? They don't know each other that much though he feels he can trust the guy. What will Adell do if he learns about all this? Will he just see Takano as a threat? Not just Takano but Keiichi and anyone from Hinamizawa if they arrive here? Can anyone really believe what he has to say? Even without talking about the multiple worlds...

But this is Luceti. Multiple worlds are part of their existence there after all. And there's so many people around... It shouldn't be hard to believe, and yet he keeps wondering. He keeps trying to think of a better solution, a path that would yell 'This is the one' at him instead of making him feel so uneasy and worried about everything. But there's no path like that, right? Even back at home, as everything turned out all right, he had still felt the same way, only in a lesser magnitude... Was this how Rika felt back then?

When he sees Adell he knows there's no turning back. Even if he could, he won't do it. He'll try his best and pray for it to be the right way, just like every other time before, even if now it may really be the only chance he has. It won't be that difficult, after all up until he arrived to Luceti he only knew of life giving just one chance.]

Thanks for comming...

[Still he honestly isn't sure where to begin with.]

... Whatever I tell you here... Can I trust that you will listen to it all until the end?

[Ah, hell. This is going to be one of those things, isn't it? One of those huge, shattering thing that's a very big deal. He can just tell, both in Keiichi's tone, and stance. Well, no matter what, he said he would help. And if he wants to tell the whole story...]

Yes, I will.

[Keiichi takes a deep breath at that.]

Sincerely I don't know where to start from...

I come from a small village, not known by many even back in my world. It's called Hinamizawa and it's certainly quite a forgotten treasure or something. It's small but warm, the villagers are very united and great people with great hearts. They have endured many things and there was a time in which the goverment wanted to build a dam and bury the village with water, yet they didn't give up their homes and eventually won against the goverment. A small village against the leaders of the country and they still won, that's the kind of people they are. Stubborn and hard to convince of things but ready to do any sacrifice for what they believe in.

There's a saying there 'If one person throws a stone at you, two people shall throw stones back. If two people throw stones at you, get back at them with four. If eight come after you with sticks, you thwart them off with sixteen. If slandered by thirty, you yell back with sixty. And if a thousand tries to get us, we all come out as residents of Hinamizawa.'... Basically you don't mess up with an Hinamizawa resident unless you want to face the whole village. I saw it myself, despite not having been born there, if I ever got in trouble, like some delinquents trying to pick a fight with me, suddenly all the Hinamizawa people on the street would be there with me, ready to fight back if the others dared to.

It's a wonderful place, no matter what limitations it may have compared to the city, no matter how behind time it can get due being so secluded. No matter what shit they had to go through, Hinamizawa survived, its people were strong and welcomed others with a huge heart. It's just awesome...

[He smiles faintly upon talking about the village. Until he reaches the 'but', because it was obvious that there was going to be a 'but' in all this, right?]

But there's just one little big problem. There's a parasite that seems to only live in the area where the village is, from what I know it eventually infects the people in the area and takes residence in their brains. As it is it's not a dangerous thing. It doesn't cause any open syntoms upon infection and one can spend their whole life without even knowing it's there. The parasite works very much like a group of bees, all is fine and safe until the queen bee is missing or something hurts their home.

At Hinamizawa there was a child, Rika Furude, she was here for a while though I'm not sure if you ever met her. She was the daughter of the village's priest, member of one of the three most important families there due how much they had helped the village to survive and all. She was special, because she was infected with the parasite that was considered que queen, technically Rika was the Queen Carrier. And because of that so long as she's there, the parasites infecting the people of the village will be dormant or at least not causing problems, most of the time. Still there are some dangers if the infected people are under a lot of stress and away from the village themselves, or rather away from Rika.

In short the parasites and the general disease is called the 'Hinamizawa Syndrome'... If active... Well... Do you know how things were during Halloween just now? People hallucinating and in general high levels of paranoia manifesting in many people?

...Yeah. I was lucky not to get hit with too many of the worst images, but I saw what it did to people. Some of the images were pretty horrific...

...Is that what the Hinamizawa Syndrome does to people?

Edited 2010-11-14 07:41 (UTC)

Yes... The syndrome has different levels of infection, the lowest one is what could be called the dormant state. No symptoms or anything. As people experience stress or homesicked, the syndrome activates and scales through the levels, per say. It starts slowly, a feeling at times of being watched or followed, the impression of hearing people talk in a suspicious tone...

Slowly the hallucinations start, at first just overlapping reality, like having someone who's not smiling showing a psychotic smile. But by the final levels the hallucinations are almost a full time thing, you see things where there's nothing, and interact with them without even noticing they aren't real... You can touch them and they will feel real. And all builds up to paranoia, to feeling unsafe, unable to trust even your closest friends as they are the ones who are out for him, everything is against you, out to kill you... By the final level people are just at a situation in which they will kill what they think is a threat to survive. And eventually they end scratching their own throats, tearing them out with their own hands.

However I'm not saying that it can't be treated or stopped. There's a medicine that may help to supress the symptoms and lower the level of infection. And it's not contagious, only upon going to Hinamizawa one can get infected... And even without the medicine it's possible to bring people out of the paranoia, with the right words and a lot of effort but... It's possible.

So... While it's dangerous it's not to say that it's an immediate threat to anyone... But not everyone thinks that way. There's one woman, convinced that the disease is so extreme that if the Queen Carrier dies everyone in the village would go crazy in less than twenty four hours... And she's out to prove it, even if to do so it means she has to kill the Queen Carrier with her own hands. She... Aims to prove that her research is right and true and won't stop at anything.

[He stops for a second.]

Right now there are two people in Luceti infected with the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Myself and... The woman who's after Rika Furude's life. Though technically one shouldn't find her too dangerous but one can't know how the syndrome will affect her. Rika's not around and Luceti is stressful as it is. The idea that she can't reach her goals may be a serious trigger and even when she's not at the high levels of the disease she just can be dangerous as it is. But it's just a possibility. I won't say that she's definitively dangerous or anything, I don't know how much of it is caused by her own mind and how much is due the syndrome. And if we were to consider her a high threat as things are... Then me too should be labelled as one, as I'm infected too, even if in all this time I haven't harmed anyone.

[Except himself.]

[He looks a little blown away by this reveal, but he keeps quiet until Keiichi finishes. The bit about tearing your own throat out is... wow. That's gruesome.]

...So what you're saying is there's a woman here who's out to kill a girl named Rika by whatever means necessary. But you're not sure whether she's doing it out of malice or paranoia or a mix of the two.

And more importantly, you're worried about her stress levels and the fact that Rika isn't here to begin with, so she's at higher risk of her Syndrome getting worse. So she's potentially a danger, but her knowing that we think that will only make things worse... and will therefore make her a threat to others.

[Adell folds his arms over his chest.]

I do have a few things to say. First, do we have any doses of that medicine available? If we're dealing with something as serious as the syndrome, we need to be prepared to deal with it.

Second, what if this Rika Furude person shows up in Luceti? Would that act as an anchor for the Syndrome and keep it suppressed? And how likely do you think this person would try to kill Rika if she was here?

Third, if this affects everyone from Hinamizawa, that means anyone from your hometown would be infected too... which meant Rena was as well.

...I'm going to be honest with you. At one point I had talked with her about my own world. How I fought to overcome a curse. She seemed terrified at the mention of the word "curse" and it sounded like she was dealing with one of her own. She was too distressed to go into detail, and I didn't press it because she looked so... scared. But I take it that the whole Hinamizawa Syndrome is what she was alluding to?

[Keiichi passes a hand over his hair. Adell aims for a few points that Keiichi himself is worried about. If Rika arrived to Luceti again... Would she be in danger or not? Would Takano restrain herself and act carefully or go all out?]

I talked with the Malnosso. With that guy named Catherine, in order to get them to provide us of the medicine, so I think we will be safe on that field. At most maybe we should tell to the doctors and people who work at the clinics but... That woman is a nurse herself, I think she will want to go back to a clinic probably, so it may be tricky. If she has access to the medicine and recognices it... I'll ask someone I trust to give me the doses for the treatment but I won't put myself in that woman's hands, nothing ensures me that she won't lie and give me something else instead of the medicine if she's interested to see how the syndrome acts in Luceti.

As for what would happen if Rika arrived... From experience I know that even with her around the syndrome may go under control. But her presence certail makes it more unlikely, still with the stress we're put through in here I'm not sure if we could really feel safe if she appeared, but her presence would certainly serve as an anchor in many ways.

I'm not sure what that woman would do. Killing Rika here with only myself around, it wouldn't prove much, but at the same time she may try to use her time here to study things from another perspective or something. I won't say that Rika would be out of danger.

[Rena's mention makes Keiichi flinch. And he flinches again at the mention of the curse.]

Oyashiro-sama's curse...

[He lets out a soft bitter laugh.]

Are you sure you have time for me to explain that?

I'll talk to Dr. Faye-Ling and see if we can't get a few doses stored away with the Blue Rogues. If the Syndrome gets out of hand with one of you two, having the Rogues have access to it will lessen the likelihood of her getting her hands on it or you.

...Then let's hope for everyone's sake that Rika doesn't show up. I'd really rather not have this whole thing get worse.

...I've got all day if we need it. But if it's something you'd rather not talk about, then I'll respect your privacy on it. I know there are just some things people aren't comfortable discussing.

[Boy, does he ever.]

[Keiichi nods at the first part. He doesn't know many doctors, Ami is the closest thing if his guess is right, so he will let that part to be dealt by Adell if he wants to.]

I'll be stocking some doses with Minato Arisato as well. He's a good friend and has helped me before the times the syndrome started to kick in. I know he will take care of them.

[He certainly wouldn't want Rika showing up either. Or any of his friends for that matter, not now that Takano is here at least.

Keiichi takes a moment before he continues talking, part of him doesn't want to talk about that. But then again he would have prefered to not talk about anything at all. He can't stop in the middle of the path and call it a day. He just can't. Even if it will only put Takano in worse light, he can defend her a bit, he can try to hold doubts, but he can't hide what she has done. At least he can avoid mentioning the other worlds, right?]

I know all of this from hearing Mion and Rika, people from Hinamizawa basically, I wasn't living there yet, so I can't be too detailed. Anyway... Back in the ancient times it seems Hinamizawa was known as Onigafuchi and it was revered as a sacred place, its people said to be descendants of demons and thus having demon blood in them. Due political changes and the like the name was eventually changed to Hinamizawa...

[There's more to that but that's not important right now.]

Oyashiro-sama is basically the demon deity that's sealed in Hinamizawa and the Furude family are descendants from it, thus being its priests. The thing is... The legend states that Oyashiro-sama gave the habitants of Hinamizawa two rules in order for them to live there. To never leave Hinamizawa and to not let outsides enter the village. If those rules are broken, Oyashiro-sama will know, even if it's by merely wishing to leave the village, and a curse will fall upon those that break the rule.

Rena... She had to move out of Hinamizawa due her mother's work if I remember correctly. But when she did... Let's say that things didn't go well for them, her parents divorced and the syndrome took a huge strike on her. So she... Assumed that it was because Oyashiro-sama was punishing her for leaving Hinamizawa and once she returned things went better. It's kind of logic that she would think it was the curse... Even if it was mostly just coincidences and the syndrome.

Still, even with the syndrome and all, Rena didn't think of the curse just because of the legend. You see, for several years, the village... Suffered Oyashiro-sama's curse.

[...Ok-ay. That's...]

...Demons? Really?

[That hits a little too close to home. He doesn't sound like he disbelieves or is questioning Keiichi, so much as he's surprised.]

...So even if Rena herself wasn't cursed in those events, the village was? What did the curse do to Hinamizawa? ...And didn't you say that you weren't from Hinamizawa originally?

[Er... Not exactly. Now Keiichi understands how Rika felt when the people said that Oyashiro-sama cursed them. He holds up his hands to signal a stop for Adell's train of thought.]

Okay, first off... Oyashiro-sama would never curse anyone, not even someone it may hate. It may sound sappy but Oyashiro-sama just worries about people and wants to help and do as much as possible but... Its powers are limited, okay? So even if it would want to stop the so called curse, it can't, but Oyashiro-sama never cursed anyone.

The rules were mostly probably created due the syndrome. Given how the parasite only lived in Hinamizawa's region and anyone who entered the village would be infected and if anyone left the village and the radius of effect of the Queen Carrier... Things would get bad. Oyashiro-sama didn't make them because it wanted to trap people or something.

[He clearly sounds as if he knows Oyashiro-sama personally. He scratches his head for a moment.]

Let's see how to start this... Maybe Rika would be better to explain all this but she's not here so...

Let me start from several years ago in my world, okay? Around four years ago, there was a goverment project regarding the building of a dam in the village that would drown it under water. The workers all came from outside the village, most of the village people were against the project because they didn't want to leave the village. This kind of broke the rules Oyashiro-sama had set, people outside the village were in it and they were going to damage the village. Besides the fight people put up everyone expected them to be cursed by Oyashiro-sama...

Four years ago, in the night of the Watanagashi festival, a festival of the village to worship Oyashiro-sama. Two workers of the dam were 'cursed', one was killed and cut in pieces, most of them were found except one arm, and another vanished entirely apparently taken by the demons. That was the first time the curse acted.

The next year, around the same date, that of the festival... A married couple fell from a cliff, one of them was found dead, the other's body vanished as well. They were the parents of a good friend of mine, and even if they had been members of the village they had supported the dam project, thus they hadn't minded leaving the village nor harming it. So everyone assumed it had been Oyashiro-sama's curse punishing the traitors of the village...

The next year, once more, a married couple suffered the curse. Rika's parents, despite her father being the priest of Oyashiro-sama, he had kept a neutral position during the dam project instead of fighting for the village. He died, his wife vanished.

And finally the previous year to the one I'm from... A woman was killed and her nephew vanished. Them both were related to the victims of the second time the curse was said to happen. She... Was an evil woman, an outsider who tortured my friend. He was my friend's older brother, who kept protecting her but... Apparently he wanted to leave the village as well.

[Keiichi sighs.]

But all this was just a coincidence. There was no curse... At least not one that came from a deity or a demon. It was simply a combination of the syndrome and a human working against the village.

009th Shattering * Audio

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Filtered, 100%]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]