Megumi Shimizu

"Yuuki-kun, I hate this guy. You get along better with him than with me, so I will kill him."

- Megumi Shimizu.

Megumi Shimizu is one of the villains in the manga/anime series Shiki.

Info
Megumi is a 15-year old girl living in Sotoba. She always felt like she didn't fit in the village where everyone knew one another and criticized the way she dressed. She felt like she was better off in the city and it was her dream to go to the city and become a star. Her only friend in Sotoba is Kaori Tanaka, who she actually doesn't like at all. Megumi has a unrequited love for Natsuno Yuki, a boy the same age as her who moved to Sotoba from the city. Like her, he also wished to leave Sotoba as soon as possible. Megumi writes him a late summer greeting card but she's too shy to post it. In her free time, she sits near Natsuno's bedroom window in the bushes admiring him from afar.

Life
When a new family moves into the Kanemasa mansion, Megumi is intrigued. She decides to visit but never returns home. A search-party is organized for her and after searching they discover an unconscious Megumi in the forest. The doctor concludes that she suffers from anaemia but she should be fine. However, a few days after Megumi dies of heart failure, shocking everyone.

Death
At Megumi's funeral, Kaori presents Natsuno the late summer greeting card but Natsuno refuses to accept. When burying Megumi, Kaori leaves a present in Megumi's coffin which she was planning to give her. After Megumi's death, Natsuno begins to hallucinate and thinks he still sees Megumi at night watching him from his window.

Resurrected
After receiving an invitation through Tatsumi for Tohru Motou's house, Megumi and Tatsumi visit late at night while Natsuno is staying over. Megumi enters Tohru's bedroom where both boys are sleeping. She says she hates Tohru for being closer to Natsuno than she ever was. She reveals her fangs and goes in for the bite. Natsuno wakes up covered in sweat and believes it was all a dream. Or was it? When Tohru dies several days later, Natsuno knows that Megumi has risen from the dead. He gathers Kaori and her younger brother Akira, who both were already suspecting something of a supernatural nature was going on, to dig up Megumi's coffin and confirm she's truly dead. And they are right, Megumi coffin is in fact empty.

After this, Tatsumi orders Megumi to go after Kaori and Akira's family starting with killing their father. She does so and threatens Kaori.

Some days later, Natsuno also dies and Megumi hears that Natsuno is cremated because he originally came from the city. This news devastates her because she knows that Natsuno can't rise from the dead if cremated.

Megumi's last moments
After the humans finally discover the vampires, a war breaks loose between the humans and the vampires. Megumi decides to escape and wants to go to the big city. While crossing the road, she sees Natsuno waiting for the bus, distracting her. She is ambushed by the humans who run over her with a truck. Megumi is still alive and tries to escape. In the anime, her head is crushed by a tractor and even now she's still moving. She is staked by the humans. In the orginal novel and manga, she is staked with around 5 stakes sticking from her chest. As she dies, she experiences a vision of going to the city which puts her at peace, indicating her soul has been set free to Heaven, as is the case with many staked vampires.

Trivia

 * She is one of the 2 characters to be shown in Lolita Fashioned dresses.
 * The other being Sunako.
 * Megumi is only one character with pink hair.
 * Megumi also shares her last name with Takashi Shimizu, director of the Ju on horror movies.
 * She has probably the most grotesque death in the anime, whereas in the original novel and manga her death was more standard.