Work Text:
No one prepares you for death. For when someone you were so close to, that you spoke to daily, is no longer there. When you wake in the morning and turn to greet them and only to be met by their empty pillow.
In Ochako’s case, it was her fiancé.
She had known Akio since high school, and although his family had disapproved of him dating Ochako he hadn't cared. Akio proposed on the day they graduated and almost immediately they had moved in together in a place back in Ochako’s hometown so she could be close to help her family run the construction business while Akio regularly rode the train into the city to continue his studies.
He had been found a few months later on the shore of the river that raced beneath one of the track’s bridges.
It was hard to comprehend why he had even been out there in the first place. It was miles away, and Ochako couldn’t think of a single reason why he would ever travel so far. She felt that something was off about the way he died, but no matter how much she pressed, the detectives that rode in from the city could do nothing but insist they had checked the area thoroughly, even examined his corpse a second time at her urging, with no hints of foul play.
They ruled it as a suicide: a man suffocated by the pressures of school and the strained relationship with his family. Ochako refused to believe it. It was the only thing she could hold onto. This doubt about his death. Knowing how excited he had been that morning when he left, claiming he had a surprise for Ochako later when he came home.
If this was it, it was a horrible one.
At the very least, at least she was able to attend the funeral. Even if she wasn’t able to stand next to the rest of the family to accept everyone’s consolations.
She was thankful for her friends that let her stay with them while she was in town for the funeral, for their support while she grieved while his family planned everything without her. At the same time, it almost felt ironically fitting that she would be so distanced from the planning, just as she had always been distanced from them.
The trip home afterwards was lonely, even moreso when she stepped into their empty apartment, now void from the man who had lit up so many of her days.
Even after a week, it didn’t feel real.
It took her a month to come to terms that he was really gone, and it was a month to the day that she finally decided to take a trip to the bridge he had been found under. She wasn’t sure why, but it felt right. Like this was the final closure she needed.
It was already late when she had gotten the idea, and even later when she arrived. As she shut off her car and stepped outside she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. But as she looked out into the surrounding trees and back to the empty road she couldn’t see anyone or anything. Deciding she must just be paranoid, she pressed onwards.
The track before her curved before it turned into a bridge. It was old and wooden and as Ochako walked towards it she could see how steeply the bank dropped away into the river down below. Had he fallen? Tripped while looking over the edge? As she peered over it down into the shallow ravine, looking at the river stones that covered the embankment, she imagined how it might’ve happened.
But still, for the life of her, she couldn't understand why he came out here. How he had ended up all the way down there below. Just that he had.
Her eyes roamed higher, back to the bridge, and she looked at the way it yawned out into the darkness. Something compelled her to move forward, and with shaky steps she began to approach the bridge until she was standing just on the start of it.
This was the last place Akio had seen, and without a second thought she stepped into the middle of the tracks to walk across the large wooden beams.
If you were to ask her later, Ochako isn't sure why she walked out onto the bridge, taking slow, steady steps further out. At the time it simply felt…right.
But as she came to a pause in the middle of the tracks, peering carefully into the dark waters below, the thought of throwing herself off to join Akio floated briefly in the back of her mind. Her foot even began to lift, raising over the gaping maw of darkness below, before she suddenly felt the tracks beginning to shake. It was enough to snap her out of whatever trance she had been in, and she looked frantically to either side to see where the train was coming from.
Seeing it was on the opposite side of the bridge, Ochako turned and began to move as quickly and carefully as she could back to her car. Back to safety.
As the rumbling grew heavier, beginning to even shake the wooden bridge beneath her, she felt a white hot flash of fear deep in her gut.
There was no way she was going to get back to the end before the train caught up. She had done this to herself, coming out here, and now she was probably going to die. The thought grew stronger once the train made it onto the bridge, and the wooden beams beneath her shook too violently for her to trust herself not to fall.
She wasn't even sure why she was out here. It was like someone else had guided her out here, and now its trap was preparing to finish her off. Maybe this is how Akio died.
Dragged onto the bridge only to find himself trapped. Maybe he had tried to save himself by jumping off, but she wasn't brave enough to do the same.
As the train’s horn blared behind her, she realized there was no way out of this. She was going to die. And as she stood there, accepting her fate, she was suddenly whisked to the side by a pair of arms.
Whoever this person was pulled Ochako tight to their chest and with growing horror she realized they were dragging her to the edge of the track. She struggled, trying to get away from her mysterious assailant, but their grip only tightened the harder she fought.
“Let me go!” Ochako cried out, but they didn't let her go as she asked. Instead, she was suddenly lifted and turned away, practically hanging over the edge. Her arms scrambled for a hold, wrapping around the shoulders and waist of what she could now tell was a man as the train suddenly blew past them.
Even though she could feel the force of the wind pushing her, her assailant didn't budge. As he continued to hold her, Ochako suddenly realized that he was saving her, and she felt ashamed that she had struggled so hard in the first place.
That is until she pulled her head back to get a look at her saviour.
When her eyes landed on his large, curled horns, jutting out from his blonde, wild locks, she briefly wondered if she was actually dreaming right now. People didn't have horns. And as her eyes traced downwards she could see that even his pupils were unnatural; horizontal and long. Much like a goat’s.
This wasn't a dream at all though, and as the surrealism of the vision in front of her slowly settled in she began to be afraid. She let out a cry, watching his face scrunch up into a scowl in response, as her struggling began anew. Her brain was screaming at her to get away, and she really did try.
“Stop wiggling,” he suddenly commanded gruffly. It was almost as if her body was compelled to listen, growing limp in his steady grasp, yet she could still only look up at him in terror.
“Who are you? What are you?!” she cried back. “Please, I don't want to die.”
“If I wanted you to die on my bridge, I would've left you there, frozen like an idiot.” His grimace turned into a smirk as he leaned closer, whispering just loud enough to be heard over the train. “It seemed you really did want to join your late partner. You should be thankful I didn't grant your wish.”
“No!” she cried out, rejecting his words. “How would you even know?”
“Because this is my bridge.”
The train’s last car finally flew past them, buffeting them both with the large gust of air following it, and whoever or whatever he was picked her up, carrying her over the bridge and back to solid ground where he let her go. Ochako quickly scrambled backwards, her feet slipping through the dewy grass until she collapsed backwards and stared up at her saviour.
There was no mistaking the horns, and his red eyes almost seemed to glow. Although he was clearly some kind of beast, he was dressed in a suit, and as Ochako’s eyes dragged further she saw that his knees were backwards.
No, not backwards. As she looked closer she swears she could barely make out a set of hooves.
“Did you kill him?” she asked plainly. He didn’t answer at first, but he did smile in an eerie way. In a way that made her spine crawl.
“You should get home. It’s dangerous out here.”
She stood up, staring at him briefly, almost certain his non-answer was his answer. As she stood there she wondered if it was really okay to leave. Bizarrely enough, she was almost afraid she wouldn’t remember this. Not knowing what else to say Ochako slowly turned and walked back to her car, glancing over his shoulder only to find that he hadn’t moved and only continued to watch her.
She opened up her car door and was about to step inside before she realized she should probably thank him. Whatever he was, she didn’t want to be on his bad side, but as she turned to tell him, he was gone. She turned, looking around the entire area, but was unable to see the goatman anywhere.
With a shaky sigh, she shook her head and sat in the front seat of her car. She started it, the engine roaring to life, and just as she was about to drive off a small slip of paper in her passenger seat caught her eye. She stared at it for a moment, knowing it must’ve come from him, before her curiosity became too much to ignore.
Lifting it up, she unfolded the rough parchment to find one simple phrase.
“We’ll meet again.”