Shiki Tohno: Prologue – The One from the Beginning
{Music: Tsukihime - Track 09}
"Ever heard of a young man named Shiki Tohno?"
With that, Aoko Aozaki had assigned Shiki Tohno the burden of facing Arch Demon Akibahara himself. It was only fitting, seeing as he was one who had ben there from the beginning. She would fight alongside him, but not as a Survivor. More... a supporter. But then again, Aoko Aozaki was always something of a mysterious person, even to Shiki, whom perhaps knew him the best out of everyone else.
Shiki Tohno used to be a normal boy living with a normal family. There used to be nothing particularly interesting about him, nothing noteworthy about his predicament. That is, until he turned 17. And then before he knew it, his life had suddenly changed forever in the blink of an eye. After moving back with his younger sister, he encountered all sorts of different creatures that went bump in the middle of the dead, cold night. Vampires, ghouls, the works. And then, of course, the Murder Games. The cross-dimensional phenomenon that threatened those across the multiverse. It had all began with some monster named Arch Demon Akibahara, manipulating the events through his servant, or “ally” as others would put it, Albert Wesker. There, he had met many new friends and made a few enemies as well. There, he had loved and lost. And yet, even so, he continued fighting.
The Murder Games, it turned out, were an on-going phenomenon that was gradually becoming bigger with every move that the Arch Demon made. And then before he knew it, the Association and the Church had banded together to investigate this threat, sending their best Executors to look into it. And then once they could wait no longer to see what happened next, the woman that changed his life when he was a little boy stepped into the scene and continued being that awe-inspiring woman he had known.
Aoko Aozaki, with her wit, suggested a plan. She had sensed something that was set to happen in the near future. A sort of “game to end all games.” There was no telling what she meant, and what Akibahara exactly had in store for the multiverse’s inhabitants, but one thing was for sure; he was up to no good, and he needed to be stopped. Though the Association had little to go on, given that the reports detailed the active events of what had happened, and comparatively little of the circumstances of how they came to be there, aside from the most recent Fuse Incident Report, Aoko had suggested something that surprised the young man.
She suggested that they draw power from the Marble Phantasm that tapped into the Counter Force. She suggested that they use the power of Arcueid Brunestud, the White Princess of the True Ancestors. The idea was initially met with backlash, as both the Association and the Church, more-so the latter, despised vampires and actively sought their extinction. However, Aoko didn’t take “no” for an answer, and before they could even realize that Aoko probably had the location of Arcueid figured out, the vampire had already agreed and used her reality-warping powers to transport Shiki into the Murder Game. The ultimate game that would supposedly topple all the previous ones from before. Shiki still didn’t know what Aoko’s hunch was, but it looked like it wasn’t completely unfounded.
Well, anyway, the less said the better. Else the Association and the Church will have his head for sure. Ciel’s wrath was less than desirable, even if she claimed to be on vacation.
Either way, when Shiki would come to once again, he would find himself in the middle of the desolate city, ravaged by who knew what, trapped under some debris. What a pain. We'll have to take care of that first. With barely enough space to move, Shiki was just barely able to shake his glasses off. Luckily for him, the Mystic Eye Killers produced by Aoko's sister were said to be indestructible. He just needed to take care not to lose this pair of glasses again, or Aoko would get angry. As his glasses would fall off, Shiki's power would begin to work. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Eyes that allowed him to see "lines" and "points" of death on every tangible thing present, be it people or inanimate objects. With that being said, drawing the pocket knife tucked in his... well, pocket, Shiki would, with ease, cut through the rocks that were on top of him by tracing the lines he saw on them, forcing their destruction to come at hand. Even though he had barely applied any pressure to tracing the lines he saw on the rocks, the rocks were instantly sliced into smaller pieces until Shiki was able to stand up. Nonchalantly breathing, he would pat down his clothes, before pocketing his knife once again.
Anyway, the man who had submitted the Monokuma Incident Report and the Fuse Incident Report, one Kirei Kotomine of the Holy Church, had talked of some organization known as the Coalition, which was also working to end the Murder Game phenomena. One could assume that most of the people here were from said Coalition, so if that were the case, assuming that they were fairly tight-knit, he’d stick out a bit. Hopefully not. Attention usually led to suspicion in these kinds of sick, twisted games. But either way, he’d have to be careful. Death had a different hold in the Murder Games, but one could never be too careful in situations like these. Not when an Arch Demon who acted as a cross-dimensional threat was on the rise.
Though this place was foreign to him, the whole situation was sickeningly familiar. He could remember the first time he had been in a Murder Game. The horrifying Crossed Incident. The beginning of it all. Because of that, it felt fitting that he would be here for what seemed like the last. The ultimate game to end all games. The final fight against Arch Demon Akibahara. He had never met the Arch Demon himself, but Shiki could feel his power from even here. After all, he was able to kill even Ciel with seemingly little effort, which by itself was a horrifying thought, as Ciel was said to be immortal, always able to come back and regenerate from her wounds in no time. If it weren’t for the Reaper Incident, who knows what might have happened?
He glanced around, seeing both new and old faces. He saw Vi, a fellow survivor from the Crossed Incident, and even if they didn’t particularly keep close to each other, other than that time that Lambdadelta witch had tried to kill her, it was nice to see that others were working to fight off the Akibahara threat. Speaking of which… it was when he’d see
her that his grip would tighten on the knife’s handle in his pocket. Claire Redfield. Little did he realize that this was not the same Claire Redfield that acted as a Traitor during the Crossed Incident, but perhaps it ultimately didn’t matter, as the Claire before him was also a Traitor in the past. But why she was here was truly a mystery.
Shiki held himself back from gritting his teeth, walking towards Aqua and the downed Claire, and whoever might be around as well. If not for whatever spell the blue-haired young woman seemed to be working, and the strange white-haired man in red, Shiki could have easily cut up the rocks like he did for himself. While he was at it, he figured he may as well cut up Claire too.
Still, on another note, Shiki would observe on the side that his Mystic Eyes seemed to have no effect on the man in red. Like... he was something else. There were no lines, no points of death that Shiki could perceive on the man known as Archer, and he felt that if he even tried, his brain would well be on its way to overloading, like if he were to try to kill an abstract concept like a poison or a tornado. There was something off about this individual, so he'd have to be cautious.
With that being said, his attention would be shifted back to Claire, giving her a stern look.
"Traitor..." He uttered scornfully and softly, though the others around him would be able to hear.