As the two walked down the street, they eventually came upon a closed school gate. A massive sign read next in brown and black writing: "Heiwa High School."
"The gate looks closed, I will see if they left it open anyway."
Eiko began to look around, Shiro stared into the school building in the background, which made him feel uneasy. It was the same feeling that he got when he looked into that dark alleyway earlier. He shrugged it off as just the weather acting strangely until Eiko shouted to him,
"They left the gate open, let me show you the inside."
6:00 pm June 22nd, 2018
As the two strolled through the School's classrooms, they eventually came upon a room titled, Class 2-B. They entered and Shiro was greeted with the average Japanese classroom. The typical Chalkboard with a projector hanging on the top, as well as rows and rows of wooden chairs and tables.
While the two walked through the room, Eiko suddenly sat down on a seat next to the back window as the sun's evening light scattered onto her.
"This is where I usually sit."
Shiro responded with a blunt, "Okay."
"Be more impressed at least! So anyway do you remember anything yet?"
He shook his head lightly, causing her to sigh.
"Do you like food? Maybe the cafeteria will remind you of something."
As they pondered this question, Shiro suddenly felt something sinister outside the room. It was a presence so horrifying that it was enough to make him flinch. This feeling was the same presence that he felt from before they entered the school. The feeling of being watched.
He then quickly grabbed Eiko's hands while saying,
"Get behind me."
Eiko hearing blushed while asking,
"What do you mean??"
Shiro shouted at her, "We need to get out of here quickly. Something horrible is coming."
As he said that he dragged her out of the room while Eiko struggled to break free. Eiko asked him,
"What are you doing?!? Let go your hurting me!"
When Shiro turned around to look at her, he had a terrified expression on his face. Since meeting each other this was the first time that Eiko had seen Shiro be so terrified of what was to come.
She became completely silent from the look of horror that he was making.
That was when she finally heard it, the scrapping. It was light at first, but as it drew closer it was eventually accompanied by heavy and then heavier footsteps. Shiro despite being fear-stricken said,
"Run as far as you can from here. Find help, while I buy you time."
Eiko was opposed to this plan as she tried to argue back,
"I don't know what has you so scared like this. But I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself without you finding your memories."
"You don't understand. This isn't like that back alleyway, we could really die.", he said.
The evil presence that had been stalking them finally revealed itself, as its scraggly fingers poked around the corner. He had long and bushy, hair tied in dreadlocks with a face covered in wrinkles. He had a big bulking build, which suited his long dirty trench coat. In his right arm, he held a rusty dull butcher knife.
Shiro recognized this man as he shouted,
"That guy... he is the man that I saw on TV. The Butcherer!"
As he said this the man made a huge smile while shouting,
"When did I get so famous???"
Shiro while grabbing Eikos hand dragged her away as they ran. The man, however, only slowly walked behind them. By the time the two had gotten outside the main building, the man was now very far behind. Despite it being the beginning of summer it slowly but surely began to rain.
Shiro and Eiko exited the school gates, Eiko quickly stopped to catch her breath. She jokingly said,
"Maybe I need to pay attention to those alerts more often."
Despite her attempts at a joke Shiro just kept staring down the street while still making a fearful expression.
"We got away from him so why are you still killing the mood?"
Her tone instantly changed when she saw the figure that was staring at them down the street. He looked, similarly to that murderer that had been chasing them. In fact, you could almost say they were the same guy. Interestingly enough, he even carried a rusty Butchers' knife in his right hand.
As he slowly walked towards the two, Eiko said, "There's no way right? That guy we were running from was as slow as a snail. There is no way he could have gotten ahead of us using the same route that we took?"
The man then said,
"I forgot to introduce myself earlier, didn't I? That won't be necessary anymore since both of you are going to die. I wonder how you'll scream as I tear you apart limb from limb??"
When he finished, he pulled out what seemed to be a small yellow tube, that contained multiple red coloured pills inside.
He flipped open the cap while swallowing one of the supplements. As he did he suddenly began to shake while coughing as he hunched over. White drool began to drip from his mouth before he shouted,
"THATS THE GOOD STUFF! I CAN FEEL IT, THIS REALLY IS THE GREATEST HIGH!"
Shiro then shouted at Eiko,
"YOU HAVE A PHONE RIGHT? WHILE YOU RUN I'LL FEND HIM OFF. MAKE SURE YOU CALL FOR HELP."
He picked up a metal pipe that was lying on the floor while taking a fighting stance. Eiko told him in disagreement,
"I won't let you die before you get back your memories."
Shiro then looked at her while making a seriously angry look. This wasn't the same Shiro that was timid yet peaceful. When Eiko saw this she ran towards the school while taking her phone from her bag.
The butcherer drew closer to Shiro he said,
"Now that I can get a closer look at you ... I can see that you're a killer, just like me."
He replied, "What nonsense are you talking about? I saw on TV that druggies like you speak a load of crap."
As he charged towards him, he swang his steel pipe downward, hoping it would take the man out in one strike. The butcherer, swang his rusty weapon at a perpendicular angle instantly chopping it in half.
When Shiro saw this his determined expression quickly turned into one of despair.
The rain suddenly began to pour intensely.
Shiro threw the other half of the pipe at the murderer to try to get away from him. He quickly turned around and began to escape into the school. Before he even got past the gates though, the butcherer seemingly teleported behind him and grabbed his arm. He cleanly chopped it off, causing blood to spill everywhere.
As Shiro screamed loudly Eiko who was hiding inside the school could hear him as she cried while covering her mouth. She forgot to charge her phone causing the battery to die.
Despite the immense pain that he was feeling Shiro tried to rationalise the situation,
"What's going on??? He cleanly cut through that pipe with that rusty thing? It should have shattered on impact! And even then his blade should have gotten stuck in my arm, instead of cutting it off the well."
Shiro dragged himself on the floor, leaving behind a trail of blood in his desperation. He didn't care how much damage he did to himself anymore, as long as he could get away from this man, it really didn't matter.
The butcher, on the other hand, grabbed him by the leg, before quickly throwing him over onto his back, making Shiro shout even more. The man then said in his crooked voice,
"Those eyes... Even when in great pain you try to understand the situation?? If only you hadn't met me on this day, you would have made an excellent apprentice."
With a smile on his face, he then cut off both his legs, making Shiro shout and cry even harder. He then grabbed him by the head while picking him up, watching as the blood flowed out of him like a river.
He enjoyed playing around with Shiro's corpse for a bit he quickly tossed him aside.
"I wonder where that girl ran off to?"
He then walked into the school, leaving Shiros' corpse to rot on the sidewalk. The nearby crows that watched the event, flew down from the light poles and began to peck away at his body.
Eiko hid inside a wooden cupboard, in a big enough classroom for her to hide inside.
Since her phone was dead, she hoped that maybe Shiros' screams could have been heard by the people who lived nearby.
As waited, she heard the sounds of heavy breathing followed by footsteps from outside the room. The door suddenly slammed open revealing the Trench Coat murderer.
He walked in and immediately picked up the desks of the students, before throwing them outside the window with one arm.
He then said in a soft tone, "Where are you?? I promise I don't bite??"
Eiko tried her best to hold her breathing, even going as far as to slow down her own heart, while distracting herself with happy memories off her sister.
When she finally calmed down, she could hear the man's footsteps leave the room.
She then breathed a sigh of relief, until the cupboard doors, suddenly swung open revealing the murderer still being there. He then said,
"Thinking so much only makes you easier to sense you know?"
He grabbed her by the leg before quickly throwing her across the room, slamming her into a chalkboard. She groaned in pain before quickly escaping the room.
The man said as she ran, "Another chase? Make sure you savour it this time."
Due to her injury, Eiko ran incredibly slow compared to before, yet was still outspending even the Murderer. She escaped onto the school's track field, before collapsing from exhaustion.
She then began to cry while shouting,
"I let someone die again. I let someone I care about die, before me again. I could have saved him if I stayed behind but I just had to listen to him."
Somehow the Murderer had caught up to her again.
As he approached her, Eiko suddenly began to feel weaker and weaker, eventually even struggling to pick herself off the floor. As the murderer drew closer, he prepared to grab Eikos' arms until with all her strength, she shouted,
"SHIRO!"
The man responded while laughing,
"If it's that white-haired guy you're shouting for then you must be pretty deaf. Didn't you hear him screaming as I tore him apart earlier?"
The rain intensified even more, turning the dirt beneath the two into mud. The sky was completely dark as it was filled with rain clouds and storms.
Just before he reached out to grab Eiko, a set of arms suddenly wrapped around his neck, causing him to drop his weapon. The man grabbed onto both arms as he struggled to breathe, trying to force the thing off himself.
Then with one of his arms, he pulled the human off his back, before throwing him right next to Eiko.
The man's face and Eikos' turned pale, as they saw the person who bravely tried to end him.
It was Shiro.
The murderer's face quickly turned into a smile as he picked his cleaver back up,
"So you're a psychic too?? This has gotten really interesting!"
Eiko continued to look at him as if she had seen a ghost. The pieces of clothing where his body was sliced, were missing. However, his right arm and both legs were still there and completely intact. It was as if he had grown new body parts.
Shiro then smiled while looking at Eiko. He said,
"That look of hopelessness. You had that expression when we first met. I promise that as long as I'm around, I will never make you feel that way ever again."
When she saw him, she then cried while saying, "You idiot, you had me thinking that I lost you too."
"ARE YOU FORGETTING THAT I'M STILL HERE?"
The man shouted, before leaping at the two.
Shiro also jumped at him while screaming a battle cry he made up on the spot.
The man swung his butcher knife down, instantly chopping off Shiros' left arm. But this wasn't enough to stop him. With his remaining arm, he aimed his fist at the murderer's face while swinging with all his might. Successfully making contact.
This didn't even faze him.
The Murderer quickly punched him in the gut, sending him flying back towards Eikos' side, as blood poured from his wound.
Eiko then shouted his name, fearing for his life.
But suddenly, the bone from his missing left arm quickly grew turning into a skeletal left arm. Then raw flesh followed along, and finally his skin. His bodies regeneration took place within 5 seconds.
The murderer watched while laughing, "So you can heal your own wounds?? If that's all then I wonder what would happen if I chopped your head off. Would you still heal then?"
As he approached him he then said,
"My trait is Delusion! It allows me to cut anything as long as I believe it can be cut. Even this rusty butcher knife can cut apart buildings as long as I have enough confidence in it!"
Eiko hearing this called him a madman, before gathering enough courage to jump onto him. As she did so the Murderer Smacked her off while saying,
"I have no interest in you, woman."
When Shiro stood back up he shouted at him,
"Don't you dare hit Eiko like that again you bastard!"
He ran up to him while shouting, however the murderer not even flinching, grabbed him by the head instantly stopping his movements.
Shiro still swang his arm at him however it dealt very little damage. The man seeing his futile attempts scoffed before quickly slashing off both of his arms and then his torso.
He then threw Shiro onto the ground, while saying,
"Let's see if you can heal from this as well."
Within 20 seconds this time, he regrew his arms and healed his chest but instantly collapsed from exhaustion. As he breathed heavily on the ground he could feel his consciousness fading.
"Ran out of juice huh? Or maybe the drug had finally reached its limit? Did you get yours from Asclepius? Well, that doesn't matter anymore. It's about time I end this game and leave, I'm about to reach my limit too."
The rain only grew stronger as Eiko shouted,
"NO."
The man raised his knife over Shiro's head before preparing to drop it. Suddenly a thunderbolt struck in the sky causing him to flinch. However it wasn't the thunder that scared him, but the powerful presence that accompanied it.
As he and Eiko looked towards the sky, they both saw a single man, holding an open black umbrella that shielded him from the rain. He wore a red beanie and a dark blue trenchcoat but wore a pair of slick black, loafers for men. Eiko struggled to make out the words "P.E.S" that were on a black armband on his right arm.
The murderer looked at him while smiling,
"IT'S ABOUT TIME THAT YOU FOUND ME, ISN'T THAT RIGHT WEATHERMAN??"