Hollow
A Bleach/Devil Hunter Yohko crossover
Yohko Mano sighed as she gathered her belongings into her book bag. Her usually cheery, soulful eyes cast a final glance at the empty desk of her friend Chikako Ogawa. Chi never arrived at the school today. Perhaps she was ill? Thought the young girl as she clasped shut her book bag.But I don't remember a bug going around... With a sigh, young Yohko left the classroom, heading down the polished halls of her quickly emptying high school.
Outside, it was dingy and grey. Autumn clouds hung low in the sky, threatening to split open and let flow the water bloating the alabaster vapors. She shivered, rubbing the pleats of her school uniforms skirt smooth. With a heavy step brought on by the Fall drudgery, Yohko began to walk. The girl was not heading for her own home, but rather the home of Grandmother Chiaki, and her cousin, Ayoko.
There had been a lot of tension regarding Grandmother Chiaki's spot in the family, yet, for all the strife, Grandmother Madoka thought it would be the most beneficial if Ayoko and Yohko trained together occasionally. Yohko's eyes lidded slightly, mind giving in to deep thought. Training. Hunting...
She still had a laceration on her left ribs from a devil attacking a bus depot. Recalling it, Yohko sucked in a reflective breath, her bandages straining under the pull. Sure, hunters could heal, but lately it seemed to the young Devil Slayer that the demons were getting faster, smarter, more brutal. As if they found a weakness and were slowly tugging at it. Like a loose thread on a scarf.
Was she unraveling?
"Ha!" Yohko scoffed, her sudden vocal exclamation puncturing the mid-season stillness and echoing into the sky. "I'm just sixteen! If anyone's unraveling, it's Grandma Chiaki, with her crazy drills." A puff of vapor was married to her latest sigh.
Roughly ten minutes of dragging footsteps bridged the gap between the school, and the other Mano household.
Gradually, a slight tingle filled the teenager's mind. It seemed strongest just below the hair clasps that held her unique hairstyle together. Yohko blinked back to reality, brows lowering and head shooting up to look at the house full on.
"Danger..."
There was a dull clatter as Yohko dropped her bag, running up the steps of the house, and practically falling though the front door.
Hollow eyes starred at the newly arrived girl. Only eyes.
Yohko screamed, squirming back. There was a fleshy touch against her palm and a wet squish sound, and Yohko jumped to look at what she had placed her hand upon. An aged, bloody lung rested under her hand, providing the meat in a hardwood-floor-lung-and-hand sandwich. The poor child panted, raising to her feet, obsessively wiping her hand against her skirt.
"Chiaki? Ayoko!?" Hastily, Yohko ran from the entry hall, into the living room. There is where she found her extended family.
Grandmother Chiaki, Ayoko, along with Ayoko's assistant Azusa II were all resting on the living room floor in a circle. There legs were parted, resting foot to foot to foot. All three torsos were sliced open, most of the organs laying in a pile in the center of the circle. Their mouths, noses, and nether regions were dessicrated, plugged with long, thin, black candles. The ones held in their mouths and eye sockets were lit, wax slowly, almost lazily dripping down onto the faces of this small family.
Yohko felt like a coward for turning and running out of the house, and she felt weak as she swallowed back a stomach full of vomit. All she wanted was to get home. It was demons, she was certain. And such a vile clan like those who attacked Ayoko's family were not to be trifled with. Ayoko was a skilled hunter. Yohko would need help. It was a blow to the Hunter legacy, Yohko knew, and she also knew that Grandmother Madoka would need to know everything; perhaps, painful as it was, see for herself.
And then Yohko came across utter ruin.
Tears blurred Yohko's eyes as she ran into the chaos. "No. Not here too...!"
Her home, her beautiful home was demolished, the whole wall which once held the front door was gone. Yohko wrestled through debris and mortar, trying to get through what she thought was the living room, yet resembled more a war zone.
"Grandmother!" Yohko called, her voice straining with panic and a sudden drain of energy. Still, she pressed on. "Mom! Azusa!"
Brown eyes widened, and a fresh well of tears gave her vision a gaussian blur as her sight befell the kitchen. The always immaculate floor was awash in fresh, bright blood. The spillage kept growing. Splashes of the life fluid decorated the walls and cabinets in high, feathery arcs. Some chunky bits still slowly slipped down the walls, reaching the floor with a satisfyingly nauseating 'splat'. Among this Jack The Ripper art piece lay Sayoko Mano.
"MOM!" Yohko shot into the kitchen, loosing her balance to the slick blood, she collapsed to her knees, force still letting her slide across the floor as she forced herself by sheer will to reach her mother. "MOM!" The young woman slid her hand under Sayoko's head, cradling it in her lap. Slowly, Sayoko's eyelids fluttered, to eventually crap open halfway. her gaze was misty and seemed far away. She was not looking at Yohko, but rather, looking though her.
"Y...Y-.oh..Ko..."
"What happened? Mom? Where's Grandmother and Azusa?" Sayoko's daughter's voice was frantic with worry.
"I-.I'm sorry.."
It was far from the answer Yohko expected. "Sorry?" She repeated in a suddenly softer tone.
"A...about pushing you. About boys. I-..I just wanted...you to enjoy your youth." The 'th' morphed obscenely into a death rattle as Sayoko's eyes gradually closed, then it faded to nothing.
Yohko inhaled shakily, wishing nothing more then to simply stay with her mother. But duty would not allow her such luxury. She had to minimize casualties; Grandmother Madoka and Azusa were still unaccounted for.
With a small nod and prayer, Yohko lay her mother down onto the floor once more, taking the time to arrange her hands upon her chest in a more respectful resting position. Indulging in a sob, the young woman wiped her eyes and rose, shooting out of the ruined room.
With fervor, Yohko checked every room of the once large and exceptional home, yet Madoka and Azusa still managed to elude her. Pain shot through Yohko's right foot suddenly and she stumbled, gravity ruling over the rest and she fell hard onto the plaster and brick that now littered the floor. She looked back at her foot, with proudly displayed a long gash in the heel. With a tilt of her head, Yohko slowly reached for the cut, fingertips dipping into the streaming blood. Seemingly entranced, Yohko rubbed the blood between her thumb and forefinger, studying it with a calm curiosity. Her eyes flicked toward the object that had cut her.
Thick, black, almost oblong shaped rims circled broken lenses, and one of the stems jutting out were broken. Slowly, and with a shaking hand, Yohko lifted the object up. Dust from the destruction around her powdered the shattered lenses, and she exhaled a strong, focused puff of air to blow some away. Yohko recognized them. They were glasses, and Yohko had seen them many times, over many years.
"...Chi..."
PART B
Yohko raked a hand through her long, mahogany bangs, pushing out a ragged breath. Slamming her eyes shut, the girl made a point not to turn her gaze back to the form of her mother, laying now lifeless on the kitchen floor. She felt her right hand close tightly into a fist; the joints in her strong fingers whitening and running pain signals along the synapses. Blood flowed from her hand, dripping into a neat little puddle beside Yohko's foot. The young brunette gasped as a drop fell onto her white sock, and she immediately looked at her now open palm. Did she cut her hand on the glasses? No..it was her mother's blood.
She was so defenseless. She had never learned how to fight like Yohko and Azusa. Grandmother never taught...
"GRANDMOTHER!!" Yohko hurled herself into the living room, frantically searching the wreckage for any signs of life. There were obvious signs of struggle, the fact that the living room was obliterated stood as a testament to that very fact. Blood glazed various surfaces of rubble, but not in the amounts that would be life threatening. Jumping and vaulting over the fallen shelter, Yohko hurried across the structure that was once a home, to a broken wall.
The wall displayed a gaping hole, yet Yohko paid it no mind, nor did she stop to look for danger as she climbed through the space, falling into the darkness of the hidden shrine room.
Through the thick darkness, Yohko noticed the outline of how things were. They were, more or less as they should be. A few pictures fell from the wall, crashed in splintered glass onto the floor, and charms here and there were toppled over, but this most sacred of rooms remained more or less unscathed, and definitely stayed hidden.
A wheeze hit Yohko's ears, and the girl felt a shiver run through her spine. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make out objects in the darkness. A thud to her distant left confirmed one thing though: Yohko certainly was not alone.
Her bloodied hand curled into a fist once again, the ornamental family ring on her hand sought our some invisible light, and brought a twinkle into the darkness. Rising to her feet, the girl swallowed back a sudden sob, pushing it down into her belly as she loft up her fist.
"The ruin you've carved out in these crumbled walls..." Yohko miraculously managed to keep her voice from wavering as it cut through the hollow blackness. "are like severed lifelines you mercilessly. Though my heart is heavy with loss, and my body a brittle cage, I will not rest until all demons are eliminated."
Unseen hands gently caressed her form, before peeling back her clothing in an explosion of power. Waves of ethereal energies slipped over the young girl's body, forming a dress of silk around her delicate body. The energies then gathered in her palms, and formed into a sword of cruel, paranormal justice.
"108th generation...devil hunter-"
"...y..Yohko..."
The girl gasped, dropping the diphthong on her tongue, and running towards the source of the pitifully weak whimper.
"Grandmother!" Cried Yohko as her knees slammed against the hardwood floor. She gripped the hand of the old woman, young fingers traced the wrinkles and varicose veins on the back of Madoka's hands, and Yohko failed to hold back a sob.
"Grandmother, you're ...hurt...bad...you're so cold...What happened?"
Madoka Mano rasped out a breath, a pool of blood continuing to grow from her left side.
"Y-..Yohko...Th-..they took...Azusa..." The final syllable of the young hunter in training's name was hissed out weakly as Madoka fell into her own personal blackness.