"U-Uncle?"

Ruri saw her uncle slowly walk forwards. She tried to back off on her bed, but eventually she reached the wall.

Something was not right.

"Ruri... where were you the whole night?"

"I... uh... got stuck in the storm so I had to take shelter in the shrine—"

"With that boy? You were stuck with him there the whole night?"

"Um... y-yeah... a-are you mad? Sorry, both of our phones were out of cha—"

"Was it cold there?"

"Huh? Wh—"

"ANSWER MY QUESTION!"

Ruri flinched as her uncle shouted at her. She was a little shocked as she had never seen him that much angry before. Was he that mad? But she apologized!

"Y-Yeah! It was cold! The wind was—"

"And how did you deal with the cold?"

"Huh?"

"I asked you how you dealt with the cold! Did you light up a fire?"

"N-No but..."

Ruri was feeling really disturbed. Why was he behaving like that? How did she deal with the cold?

Well, both of them got cold and there were loud thunder noises so... they hugged and...

The young girl got flustered for a moment remembering the moments. And that momentary reaction did not escape Sunohara's eyes.

"I also got stuck with Nee-chan in an abandoned building in a stormy night once."

"O-Oh." What was he going on about suddenly?

"We were also feeling cold, you know? Then we discovered that if we hugged each other, it would not be cold anymore."

"Huh? You too—ugh!"

Ruri was a bit too slow to avoid Sunohara as he lunged forward and gripped her neck tightly with both of his hands.

"Then we started moving our hands around each others body, and then we kissed, and then moved forward as we slowly took of each other's cloths—"

She started to have trouble breathing as the grip started getting stronger with every second. Tears started to come out of her eyes as she flailed her limbs around to no avail. It was getting painful!

"U-Un...cle... it... hu... rts..."

He was not listening.

"Then she pushed me down and started riding on my cock like a bitch in heat! Yeah! Your mom was such a slutty whore that she fucked her brother whenever and wherever she got the chance! DID YOU KNOW THAT? HUH?!"

Ruri's eyes became round—both because of the pain and the revealation. There were a few words she did not recognize, but she could understand what he meant. But that was impossible! They were siblings!

"And she was such a slut that I was not enough for her! Once she moved to college, she decided that she would get another dick for herself! So she started fucking the dirty fleshsack that was your father!"

The poor girl was still struggling to get out of the deadly grip on her neck, as she learned things about her parents she did not ever want to know. Her strength was already faltering and her eyesight was getting blurry. Was this how she would die and go to her parents?

"And then you were born. Born of the dirty seed of your father and brought out of that blackened womb of your whore mother!"

"Ugh... ple... sto..."

"And yet, I loved her. She would try to keep me away, but would soon give in to me because her body still craved me whenever you and your bastard father was not around."

"N... o..."

"She was a whore who toyed with my feelings while living a happy life with her husband. YOU HEAR THAT? YOUR MOTHER AND MY SISTER WAS A WHORE!"

"U...U..."

"So I got rid of both her and her bastard husband. You just got lucky."

 

Ruri stopped flailing.

 

Her whole world was crashing down around her.

 

Her tears started flowing without any restraint.

 

She wanted to scream and cry, but did not have the strength to do so.

Her parents were murdered by the very same person she thought was her only family?

And now, she was going to die in the hands of the same person?

"You are no different from your whore mother, are you? The moment your body got ready, you took the chance with the neighbor kid with the excuse of the storm! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?!"

Ruri stopped resisting and waited for the inevitable.

"And now, I will be fixing my old mistake. Go to your mother, you rotten fleshbag!"

So this was how she died? Killed by the very killer of her parents? Without being able to meet her friends? She had also met a lot of kind people. Her classmates, teachers, the Kobayashi couple, even Ogre himself, Mi chan...

Takkun?

She was not able to say sorry to him. But hey, at least he would get the message when he switched on his phone, right? See her final 'Hey'?

Hah. She should have been more direct. Like...

Sorry for slapping you and calling your Shishou's lessons profound garbage. Heh.

What was it again? Keep your eyes open and think till the last moment?

Like that was going to help her right now.

Ruri could only make out a silhouette with her blurry and tear-filled eyes. An adult man's silhouette. What was their weakness again?

She wrung out the last ounce of her strength and focused it on one of her legs. Well, if she died, she would at least leave her and her parent's murderer with a world of pain for a few minutes. It's a shame that was all she could do.

She kicked right in between where she assumed her uncle's thighs were with all of her remaining strength.

"Aughf!"

Suddenly, the silhouette backed away in pain, clutching the place where she kicked with his hands. Which meant—

Ruri felt life coming back to her as the air slowly filled her lungs. She started to cough and noticed a little blood coming out of her throat. What?

She needed to get out of here! The man was slowly recovering! She needed to move away, but she could not find any strength in her limbs. She had to inform others!

She screamed—

No sound came out of her throat, except for the terrible urge to cough again. She did so and more blood came out. Was her throat damaged?!

She had to get her phone and send a message—

"You Bitch!"

Ruri moved with all of her strength as Sunohara lunged at her, trying to grab her again. She wobbled away, but she was away from her phone! She had to get out of the house! She tried to run for the door.

Something hard hit her right in the back of her head and she felt the whole world spinning. What...

She fell down as her smartphone dropped to the floor and shattered to pieces. Was that what hit her? Her head spun while she saw stars around—

"Where do you think you are running to, huh?"

No! She had to look for some other way! She noticed a door and she crawled towards it.

It was the door to the attached bathroom. In her dizziness, she tried to fumble with the lock—although she was not sure whether she managed to lock it or not.

She vaguely remembered that Koharu san ordered Takeshi to take a bath. Usually Takeshi took a long time for his bath—far longer than her. Maybe he was still around?

She went to the wall where she talked with him in Morse Code. She tried her best to remember the letters and tapped on the wall with whatever strength she regained.

H. L. P.

That was all she could send as Sunohara forcefully opened the door and entered the bathroom. So she couldn't lock it properly, huh...

"Enough running, you filth."

Ruri stared at her as she wobbled. She wanted everything to end. She wanted to sleep...

Keep your eyes open and think till the very last moment—

As Sunohara approached her with the same craze in his eyes, she grabbed the liquid soap container and dropped it on the floor. The whole floor got covered with the slippery formula. The man was also not thinking with his brain—or he would not have tried to kill her in the very apartment they were in.

Sunohara slipped before he could react on the floor and fell on his face.

Ruri used that chance to use his back as a platform to run towards the door. She had to get out of the house! Her head was throbbing and she was feeling worse with every moment. It was nauseating...

She lost her balance and dropped to the floor as she reached halfway to the door. She had to reach the door—

She vomited on the floor. What... happened...

Sunohara was already on to her.

"No more games! So you also want to run to that bratty lover of yours, huh? A slut just like her mother! Go to hell!"

He again started choking her with ravenous hatred. Ruri had no more strength to resist him, but she still tried to flail her hands around—doing nothing but hit the floor uselessly.

It only managed to make four short sounds on the floor.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

'....'

The morse code for H.

There was another person she used to annoy with her code. Too bad she did not have the strength for L and P. There was no way she would understand just from that.

The whole world started to go darker... and colder. All the sounds—the chirping of the birds and the crying of the cicadas... they were fading.

So this is what dying was like. It was painful—less about the pain of flesh, more about not being able to see her friends anymore. But her family was waiting for her, right? There was no way her uncle would be able to escape the charge right? The others would be able to catch him red handed, right?

Would she become a star in the sky? Did her parents become one? Was there heaven or hell? Was reincarnation real? Come on, she should be getting some sign by now—

Boom!

She heard a muffled loud sound and felt the whole room shake. What was that? The Grim Reapers coming for her? But her uncle also stopped and snapped his head to the right. Ruri also slowly turned her head to that direction and watched with her blurry eyes. What was...

Boom!

There was another loud sound as the door shook violently. Ruri just stared.

Boom! Crash!

The final loud sound came with the door getting dislocated from the frame and crashing on the floor. She could barely make out two shadows there, one small like her—another freakishly huge.

"Ruri!"

The small shadow screamed her name and tried to run towards her, but was stopped by the larger shadow.

'What... was that... Takkun's voice?'

The large shadow slowly walked forwards. She recognized that big burly frame. It was Ogre.

But it was not Ogre. The usual sad smiling look he had was not there.

Even with her almost blind eyes, she could make out what he looked like now.

He looked like a true Ogre.

There was only one emotion on his face.

 

 

Wrath.