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[Written]

[It's late at night when the journal entry appears.]

Evening.

I suppose I am writing in this thing because I can't sleep. I haven't really figured out what to do about that. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[There's a pause, before he adds more.]

Is anyone else up at this hour? What are you doing with your time?

[Another pause, longer than the last.]

If anyone would like to talk right now, that would be fine.

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[This is a somewhat surprisingly easier subject to discuss.]

A vampire like Tohru was, like most of them were, has to drink blood all the time or they die. Can't go out in the sunlight, afraid of religious symbols. A lot of the myths that I was researching before I died seemed to be close to the truth. They sleep all day and only prowl at night. No heartbeat, no warmth...probably what most people think when they think vampire.

[He hums a little bit.]

A Jinrou like myself or Tatsumi has a heart beat and can pass off as very much alive. Drinking blood isn't necessary for survival, however as I found out it is necessary to avoid a lot of excruciating pain. Unlike a normal vampire, I can't die from not drinking blood. I can wander around outside in the daylight, keep normal, human hours. I don't know about the religious stuff, it hasn't ever come up.

[He almost smiles a little, because whatever he thinks about himself, he at least did what he had to.]

I knew the vampires were there. Mostly that's Shimizu's fault. Akira, Kaori and myself were the offensive. We tried to trap one, to show everyone that there were vampires but that didn't work. When I became a threat, he felt the need to kill me.

And, clearly he failed. What happened to Tohru?

No, he didn't fail. Tohru did kill me.

[He grimaces, but she probably can't hear that. His death was unpleasant to say the least.]

Tohru was pretty broken after that. He'd come to my window every night, leave a flower and cry. No one knew I was lurking in the shadows, at least, not until just before I came. Tatsumi was pretty pissed I didn't join his little family of vampires.

And...here you are all the same?

Here I am, yeah.

[And how great is that?]

If only because it's pointless to kill myself here when I'd just come back to life. I made a promise to Riku not to die before he did. At least, not intentionally.

[The story, he needs to get back on track.]

I was dead, completely dead, but I woke up again. Everything was different, everything felt different. I didn't want to come back. I let everyone keep thinking I was dead, well aside from my father who was there. I feel really bad about that. That he's seen me like this.

Hold on, hold on. You were dead, and you woke back up? At home?

[You're kinda muddling details here, kiddo!]

[He should slow down instead of rambling, perhaps.]

Yes. I'm not entirely sure how long I had been dead. A few hours maybe. Tohru came late in the night and it was around ten in the morning when I came around. Long enough for my dad to find me and call the mortuary from the city. They were coming in to take my body.

...I'm not sure I'd call that really...dead then. I mean, if you got back up and all.

That's what Tatsumi thinks, that Jinrou don't actually die, but my father said it. I wasn't breathing and my heart wasn't beating, I was cold to the touch. That's still dead. Regular vampires take longer to come back, about three days.

Planeswalkers are a bit like that. If you kill us, the heart may stop and such...but we get back up.

[There are some pretty specific ways to kill them, anyway. Chandra's convinced she's pretty much invincible, given the shit she's survived that she shouldn't.]

Could be Jinrou are a bit more like us.

[He gives it some serious contemplation.]

I don't know anything about Planeswalkers, so I don't know about how genetics play in something like that. I know if I hadn't been killed that way that I wouldn't have come back, I'm sure of it. I don't really know how it's decided who comes back and who doesn't. From what I could tell, it seemed really random. I doubt Tatsumi knows all that much anyway, he kind of seemed like an idiot. He said I was the fourth Jinrou.

[He pauses for a moment as he thinks.]

I can't be sure how long I was dead, but I can say that we lived a good two hours from the city, so at least that long, assuming my father called the mortuary right away. An assumption I wouldn't make, considering his state of mind. [He grimaces.]

I think my being here might be good for him.

It's not genetic. It's happenstance.

[She pauses too, taking that in.]

What makes you say that?

That's interesting.

[He sighs again. He does that a lot.]

After I returned like this my father kind of...lost his mind. He babbles incoherently, he works all the time in his workshop and doesn't sleep very much. He stabbed Tatsumi in the stomach, ranting and raving...I just...it was hard to take, for him. My mother was already gone. If I wasn't there making it worse, he might get better.

I can't imagine why.

[She sighs, her words dry.]

I mean, it sounds like your world is pretty normal.

I certainly thought it was, until the vampires came along. I wouldn't have believed they were there if it weren't for Shimizu stalking me and killing Tohru. She wanted me to know she came back from the dead.

[He gives his head a shake, even if she can't see him.]

This girl was a piece of work even before she died.

She sounds it. Crazy people you know.

[He hopes Chandra likes stories, because now he's started.]

You have to understand this girl was just crazy. The whole town was. Have you ever gone somewhere where people just talk behind your back as if they expect you to be a certain way? It's the worst.

Out of all of them, she was the worst. She had this thing for me, and believe me, I have no idea how she got this idea in her head. She'd come up and talk at me and I'd ignore her but that did nothing to discourage her. I actually looked at her once and you should have seen it. She was completely crazy!

Even as a human, she was stalking me. She thought she was in love with me. Not like, we were dating or anything. She just wanted to tell herself she was in love with me or something. She would sit outside my window every night and watch me. I had to keep my window closed, it was really creepy. What could I do about it?

When she died I was...well not happy, but relieved. At least her friend Kaori had some common sense.

Geez, this one really sounds like something else! Some people are like that, and, no offense but you don't really seem the type to attract hordes of young ladies. This kid must have been really, really off her rocker.

And what d'you mean, about her friend?

You'd be surprised, actually. I clean up pretty well. Since I've been here, I am really starting to look scruffy, actually. I feel like I'm a completely different person these days. Everything I wanted, everything I worked for, wound up being a waste.

Ah, Kaori. She was in third year of middle school. Her and her younger brother were my allies. They were the only people who believed me about the vampires. We saw one, even. I hit it with a shovel.

[He's quiet for a moment.]

I hope they got out alive. I begged them to leave, but they refused. They were brave, brave kids.

Geez, Yuuki. Your life...just sounds like it's someone writing a tragedy play, but for real.

[She coughs.]

No...offense or anything, I mean, it has to suck to have lived through all that. Or, not...but still be kicking.

I'm not offended. If I were home, I probably would not still be kicking. Actually, before the summer my life was pretty normal.

[He sighs a little wistfully.]

I didn't get along with my parents. I had a best friend who unfortunately I was in love with. Aside from the stalking, everything else was exceedingly normal. I ran on the track team as an extracurricular activity, I was putting a lot of time into studying because the entrance exams were just a year away and I wanted to get into Todai - or rather, Tokyo University. I had moved out to Sotoba a year before, but that's normal too, kids move all the time.

Not...sure what about that is normal. I mean, where I come from, most people don't go to school. Most people don't really even know how to read. I'm really sort of out of the ordinary. Well, extremely so.

I mean, it really doesn't sound good, the stuff you've been through. But at least you're here, right? Maybe you can...I dunno, leave with a friend instead of going home?

[He's quiet for a minute while he mulls it over.]

I'm not sure that would work. I have decided that going home means walking into my death. How I feel about that...

[Natsuno sighs.]

I don't know. I certainly feel alive at the moment, even if I should not be. [Another pause.]

Riku should have left well enough alone. I wouldn't have hesitated.

Well kid, y'know...when I get out of here, I can just take you with me. Assuming you're not bored with the idea of adventure.

If you get tired, I can always just drop you off somewhere, too.

That's a very generous offer for you to make.

[With what he knows about Chandra, he appreciates it.]

I'm not bored of it. It isn't the kind of thing I would have thought for myself, not by a mile, but it's interesting. I don't know what will happen when the time comes.

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