"Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low spirited; for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn or Daybreak
"Family? To me the word is synonymous with necessity…it is a means to an end. Family is power. Nothing more and nothing less."
-Hiiragi Kureto
Heart of Glass
Chapter 1: Children
Shinoa had always understood that cynicism and time went hand in hand.
She was standing on the seventh floor of what had once been a large shopping complex, near a spot in the wall where the concrete had been blown clear through, so that she could see outside and down to the street far below. It was still early in the morning, and the sun was just barely beginning to paint the sky an innocent shade of blue, like it was afraid to show itself. Shinoa could understand that. Sometimes it was best to stay hidden.
Turning her eyes to the rows of smaller buildings lining out before her, she made sure for the dozenth time that there was no one else in their general vicinity, human or otherwise. It might have been superfluous of her to check after her entire team had already made a sweep of the perimeter, but lately she had fallen into habits that sometimes resembled acute paranoia. If there was even the slightest chance that they were being followed, she needed to be aware of it. Or one of them could die.
Satisfied that they were alone for now, Shinoa turned away from the nonexistent wall and went back to scavenging for supplies.
Though to be honest, she wasn't sure what she had expected to find when she came in here. In the past, the section of the floor she was standing in had been an area for visiting mothers to leave their children while they carried out their errands, and the space was appropriately decorated for that purpose. Colorful plastic chairs were scattered around a wide rubber mat that was laid out on the floor, though most of them were broken, shattered remains of a past that was over and always would be.
There were spelling blocks sitting in the corner too, their letters cracked and chipped by time, though the books lined neatly on low shelves seemed to vary rather widely in difficulty. Some were for toddlers while others were for older children. Privately, she wondered which age groups this area had been meant to accommodate. Surely children's interests and abilities changed as they grew older.
Not that she really knew what a "child" was anymore. That idea had died with the previous world. Back then, Shinoa would not have even been old enough to join the army. Yet today she was responsible for four other lives.
Little bits of rubble crunched beneath Shinoa's shoes as she paced across the room. It was a strange feeling; everything looked gray and broken in the pale half light, but this place retained a certain lightness to it, like the innocence that had once lived here was struggling to keep it home, even as shattered fluorescent lights dangled from the ceiling, even if the walls were scored with claw marks.
Squatting before the lower bookshelf, she slowly scanned the volumes placed therein. Most of them were fairy tales and stories for little children, which she large ignored. However, there was a certain spine whose title briefly caught her lavender gaze.
Reaching forward, she pulled the dust cloaked book out of its shelf, coughing gently as a small plume of debris wafted out to greet her. Waving it away with a hand, she turned the book over in her hand and read the title.
Katakana and the Japanese Language: For Beginners
She was reminded then that Yuu still couldn't do much more than read hiragana, an unfortunate side effect of his longtime confinement at the hands of the vampires. It had obviously had a negative effect on his ability to perform at school, not to mention communicate effectively with others, though she refrained from blaming all of Yuu's problems on a language barrier. Being fluent in the language wasn't going to make that boy any less of an idiot, after all.
Still, she shrugged off the backpack she had slung over her shoulders before coming, opening it to slip the instructional book inside. Maybe, when they had some time to kill, she would teach Yuu a thing or two. She couldn't allow him to be nearly illiterate forever.
After putting the book away, she shuffled through the rest of her backpack's contents and found it disappointingly empty. Coming to this particular floor had been a waste of time. She should have listened to her head and chosen somewhere else to search for resources.
"Shinoa?"
Blinking, the sergeant turned to see Yuu standing at the door, leaning against its frame. He was dressed in casual clothing, and even after all these months on the run the sight seemed a little disjointed to her; she had grown used to seeing the boy in his JIDA uniform. His hair had grown even more unruly during that time; he was in need of a haircut.
Her eyes then drifted down to the exposed skin of Yuu's neck, and rested on the almost indiscernible twin pinpricks set into the skin there, virtually unnoticeable if one wasn't looking for it already. It was proof that Mika had fed directly from Yuu recently, despite Shinoa's insistence that the fledgling vampire rely on the blood the entire team provided instead. Not that she really expected the former human to follow her orders.
The sight made her heart hurt for some reason, but she couldn't really explain why. Then it occurred to her that she was staring, and went back to scanning the bookshelves, or at least pretended to.
"Oh, Yuu," she said, not moving her eyes. "Are you done on your end?"
"Yeah." the swordsman left the door frame and walked into the room, stopping when he was a few feet from her. "Found some knives, and other stuff we might be able to use later. Hard to find anything that isn't broken or rusted over by now."
"Mmm," Shinoa agreed, admittedly still lost in her own thoughts. She reached out and traced a finger down the spine of another book. "And the others?"
Yuu gestured vaguely with a hand. "On another floor, looking for food. Though I think Mitsuba went off to do her own thing."
Shinoa snorted softly at that, leaving the books be and standing up. "Why do Yoichi and Kimizuki always have to get the food?"
The boy standing before her grinned wolfishly at that. "Because neither you nor Mitsuba can cook, obviously."
She just glared irritably at him for that, lacking the inspiration to make a snappy comment in response. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she walked past him and made for the door.
"So what were you looking for in here, anyway?" Yuu said behind her, hands shoved in his pockets. "Did you find anything useful?"
No, she hadn't. It had been a complete waste of time. But she avoided saying so, partly because she didn't want to admit it to Yuu, and partly because she didn't understand why she had come in here herself. Perhaps part of her had read the words Children's Center and gotten curious. Childhood was a privilege that she had been deprived of. Maybe her heart had thought that she would earn back a bit of that privilege by going inside.
Looking back on it now, it had been a silly sentimental decision. That room only had things meant for children. And they were not children.
Masking her emotions with a wide smile, she turned back to Yuu and instead asked teasingly, "And what about you, Yuu? Seeking me out so soon…don't tell me you missed me that much?"
Yuu just rolled his eyes and tried to swat her on the head, which the girl easily dodged. "I've been with you every hour of every day for the past five months. It's impossible for me to miss you."
Shinoa just laughed, thankfully not having to fake it this time.
"I concede your point."
Still, she couldn't help looking back at that room one last time before departing.
According to Yuu, Kimizuki and Yoichi were supposed to be on the ninth floor, so they began climbing the stairs to meet up with them, as the escalators were now long dead.
Well, not that this stopped a certain boy from having his fun.
"I've always wanted to do this," Yuu said excitedly, skipping up several steps at once.
Shinoa just stared at him, standing on the physical staircase that rose up parallel to the nonoperational escalator. "You mean…use an escalator?"
Yuu just rolled his eyes again, in that admittedly endearing exasperated manner only he could pull off. "No, of course not. I meant use an escalator in the opposite direction."
The sergeant just continued staring at the boy, watching as he skipped ahead of her. "Uh huh."
A grunt of disapproval was tossed her way. "You just don't get it, Shinoa. When I was I kid these used to move all the time, and then it was really hard to get all the way to the top without tiring yourself out. Not to mention security always caught me before I could make it."
Despite her intentions, Shinoa found herself smiling bemusedly, shaking her head as she began following Yuu up the steps. "You do realize we're both the same age?"
"Only in age, Shinoa. Not in spirit."
Ah, yes. In that respect I am practically your generational senior, Shinoa thought sarcastically, but did not say it out loud, doubting Yuu would get the joke. Instead she just sighed and said, "You're an idiot, you know that?"
They reached the next floor a moment later, with her male companion leaping the last five steps in a single jump. He dusted his hands off and had an extremely satisfied look on his face, and Shinoa had to suppress the urge to burst out laughing on the spot.
"You guys say that too often," the swordsman quipped, falling into the step beside her, their footsteps echoing off the walls. "If you aren't careful, it just might become true."
"And what makes you think it isn't already?"
Shinoa had never really been the type to frequent places like this during her childhood. Malls were the kind of place you went with friends, of which she had been severely lacking. Besides, the Hiiragi oligarchy never would have approved. Even with the utter lack of regard her relatives had given her, flippant activities like that weren't to be tolerated.
But she had been to a mall before, and knew enough about them to understand that the deafening quietness surrounding them should feel more than a little surreal. Big, wide open spaces, high ceilings, empty chairs, but no people. The entire place felt like a massive chest cavity where someone had plunged their hand in and torn out the heart that lay within, so that it was just an empty husk, an imperfect memory. Still, she could appreciate the weird feeling it gave her, and she might have even considered the atmosphere to be romantic.
That was, until they turned the next corner.
Shinoa was about to retort to another one of Yuu's crude remarks when she saw it. At first it was just a thin shadow at the edge of her vision, like the grasping fingers of sleep as they pull you down into oblivion, until she had rounded the corner entirely. And then there was nothing stopping her from seeing it.
A dead body was hanging from the ceiling not twenty yards ahead of them, suspended in space by a thick rope died around the corpse's neck.
It was barely a shadow in the meager morning light, but somehow that made it look all the more gruesome. Its arms were hanging limply at its sides, the head drooping down in a similar manner, like its limbs were at the mercy of a bored puppet master who had left his doll to die. Its clothes were tattered and ripped, and it seemed to hover over them like some dark angel, the vengeful kind, the kind that came from above but belonged below.
Shinoa didn't know why she reacted how she did. Maybe it was because she was in the middle of an entertaining conversation with Yuu, or maybe her thoughts were still wandering from back in the children's room. She didn't really know the reason. But once her brain computed what exactly it was seeing, she gasped audibly and grabbed Yuu by the arm, her fingers sinking almost painfully into his flesh.
She heard Yuu inhale sharply, though his reaction was more muted than Shinoa's. They both came to a stop near the bend of the corner, rooted in place by the shadowy specter suspended above them, as if pinned down by its sightless gaze.
"Is it…a human?" she breathed quietly, like she was afraid it could hear her, even though it was obviously dead.
Yuu narrowed his eyes at the corpse, his free hand moving instinctively to grasp the pommel of his sword. "Looks like it. Not that it really matters. Everyone dies the same."
"Very true," Shinoa murmured, oddly unable to look away. The moment of black fear had passed, and now she more fascinated than anything else. She wondered who this person had been, in life, if he had died before or after the virus, who his loved ones were.
Unfortunately, answers to questions like that tended to be lost in death.
Yuu cleared his throat gently, getting her attention. "Shinoa, are you okay?" he asked, flexing his arm to remind her that she was still holding onto it.
"Huh? Oh. Sorry," the sergeant stammered, releasing her friend. She had forgotten that her fingers were still wrapped around the boy's arm. Yuu just smiled reassuringly and walked past her, until he was standing directly beneath the hung man.
"Poor bastard," he murmured, shaking his head slowly. "No one should be made to die like this."
Shinoa walked over and stood next to Yuu, joining him in examining the body. From here she could see the man's contorted face, the jaw loose and hanging from an odd angle from where the rope had choked him, the stained whites of his half closed eyes.
They stood there like that, gazing at the visage of death, not saying a word to each other.
"Come on," Yuu said at last, turning away from the corpse. "The others are waiting for us."
"Right," Shinoa murmured, walking backwards with her eyes on the body. She watched it until they turned around the next corner, and then it was hidden from her sight forever.
This section of the floor opened up into a vast, wide open space, the walls covered from floor to ceiling with various types of foods. Yoichi and Kimizuki were standing at the far end of the fruit section, enclosed by stands stacked high with old, rotten fruit. Their voices floated in Shinoa's direction as they drew closer.
"So, you figure Shinoa's got a height complex?" Yoichi asked nonchalantly, tossing a can of tuna in Kimizuki's direction.
The taller boy just sighed as he caught it, stuffing the can into his backpack without looking. "Everyone on this squad's got some damn complex. Shinoa's got a height complex, Mitsuba's got a superiority complex, and that vampire's probably downright insane."
"Jeez. Don't be so mean to Mikaela," Yoichi urged him, digging around for more tuna.
"I'm just stating the truth. Have you seen the way he looks at Yuu sometimes? I mean, I know that they're practically brothers and everything, but sometimes he acts obsessive. Not to mention he still insists on feeding directly from Yuu."
"I'm sure he just needs time to adjust."
"It's been five months. I-"
"You what?" Yuu asked icily, cutting both of them off.
The two boys visibly flinched and looked behind them, just in time to see Yuu frowning in their general direction. The swordsman had his arms crossed over his chest, and while he wasn't exactly angry, his displeasure was rather evident.
"O-Oh. Yuu. I didn't hear you coming!" Yoichi said a little too loudly, obviously rattled that they had been listened in on.
Yuu just sighed, letting his hands fall back to his sides. "You guys don't have to talk behind our backs, you know. If you have an issue with one of us you should just say it to our faces."
"I wasn't trying to hide anything," Kimizuki pointed out, holding his hands up in a 'what can you do' manner. "Your vampire friend doesn't pay attention to me no matter what I say."
Unfortunately, Yuu couldn't really argue with that. He had hoped that as they spent more time together, Mika would readjust to living around humans, or at least learn to accept his squamates for who they were. Instead the vampire seemed more inclined to ignore the others completely, only speaking to them when it was completely necessary. The only person he actively conversed with was Yuu, but even that was mostly in private, especially when he needed to feed.
Speaking of which, Yuu hadn't understood why Mika refused to drink the blood the team provided for him. Wasn't all blood the same? But Mika had insisted that blood tasted differently depending on who it came from. Not that Yuu thought that was the real problem. Mika would probably avoid accepting help from other humans until it killed him.
"I believe you," Yuu said at last. "Just lay off him for a bit, okay? He's been through as much as we have. Even more, maybe. We might have acted the same in his shoes."
Kimizuki just shrugged, and Yoichi smiled before nodding vigorously. Shinoa found herself feeling rather pleased at the sight. Half of her had expected Yuu to fly off the handle at the idea that someone was speaking ill of his friend, so she was pleasantly surprised that he had handled it so maturely.
I guess that means he really does care for Mikaela, she thought, holding her own hands behind her back. She had chosen to trust the vampire with Yuu's safety in the past, though that had mostly been because she had no other choice. Once they were safe from the Demon Army's reach she had begun to doubt somewhat that Mikaela was actually trustworthy, but she felt she could banish the thought now. The blond was definitely someone important to Yuu, and Yuu was someone who looked out for the people he cared about.
It was a good thought, but for some reason it made her stomach twist in little knots, like it was displeased with the conclusion she had reached. But what issue was there in her train of thought? She knew she was right.
Everyone loved someone.
"Did you guys see the…uh…guy hanging back there?" Yuu asked, gesturing behind him.
Kimizuki rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah. That. Yoichi literally pissed his pants when he saw it."
The archer went beet red almost immediately. "I did not!" Yuu laughed as Yoichi desperately tried to cover his pants with his backpack.
"Where are Mikaela and Mitsuba?" Shinoa asked.
Kimizuki pointed upwards, towards the ceiling. "Roof. Didn't want to scavenge so they went up there to make sure we don't get surrounded without knowing about it. I'm sure they're making avid conversation up there."
The sergeant giggled at that, holding a loose fist against her lips. "I'd bet they're both talking about how much they adore Yuu."
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Yuu grumbled. "Mitsuba does not adore me."
"And vampires don't rule the world, Yuu."
Before he could ask what exactly she meant by that, something in Shinoa's backpack started making noise, making them all go rigid. It sounded like a garbled voice, though it was nearly impossible to discern what the words were.
"…llo? Sh…a? Com…n…"
Shinoa unzipped her pack and pulled out small portable walkie talkie, which they had procured some months ago from an abandoned electronics store. Most of the technologies left behind from the old world were useless to them without controlled electricity, but they were able to make use of some of them. These walkie talkies were solar powered, so she had picked them up just in case.
Holding the button down with a finger, Shinoa spoke into the device. "Yes, hello? Mitsuba?"
"Shinoa," the blonde's voice crackled through the speaker, slightly warped by the layers of concrete that stood in the way of the transmission. "You should probably get up here. There-"
"A small convoy of humans has gathered some blocks away from here." Mika's voice suddenly cut Mitsuba off, coming in from nowhere. "They're idle right now, but they might head this way soon. You should probably come take a look."
"H-Hey! I was talking-"
"Did you find anything useful?" Mika asked, ignoring the blonde entirely.
"Yes. We'll be up there as soon as we can," Shinoa replied, fighting the smirk creeping onto her face. She could hear Mitsuba screaming something abusive in the background, until she turned the device off.
But her expression returned to a more serious one a moment later, as she turned to look at her teammates.
"Humans," Kimizuki said, narrowing his eyes. "It's been a while since we ran into anybody. We haven't had to fight for weeks."
"Let's keep it that way," Shinoa suggested, taking point as she led the rest of them towards the stairs. "Come on. Let's get up there before Mitsuba tries to take on a vampire by herself."
The elevators were obviously broken, so they were forced to walk the last few flights to the roof, their footsteps echoing emptily off the walls of the stairwell.
"Don't peek," Shinoa snarked over her shoulder, where Yuu was following a few steps behind her.
The swordsman flushed gently and turned his face pointedly away from the hem of the sergeant's skirt. "Wasn't planning to."
A few minutes later they reached the rusted iron door at the top of the staircase, which was already hanging slightly ajar. Kimizuki pushed it open with his boot, admitting the four of them to the open morning air.
Shinoa found herself shivering when she stepped onto the roof; it wasn't going to be fall forever, and soon enough winter would take its turn on nature's throne. The wind felt more chilly every day, and the brooding clouds hanging overhead didn't do much for her mood either.
Mikaela and Mitsuba was standing at the far end of the roof, near the edge so that they could keep tabs on the human colony. They turned when the rest of the squad approached from behind them, seriousness etched into their expressions.
"Has anything happened since you contacted us?" Shinoa asked, holding her hand out for the binoculars in Mitsuba's hand.
"Nothing worth noting," the blonde reported, handing the binoculars over. "I think they stopped to take a break. The convoy stopped a few blocks from here and hasn't moved since."
Pursing her lips, Shinoa raised the magnified glasses to her eyes and peered across the rooftops. There, situated in a wide intersection some hundreds of yards away, was the human convoy. A single truck, likely filled with supplies, was parked beneath the shadow of a ruined building. The soldiers, of which Shinoa counted about twenty, were sitting in a loose circle around the vehicle, eating quietly amongst themselves.
"Mikaela, you have better eyesight than we do," she said, tossing the binoculars to the blond, who caught them with one hand. "Are any of them armed with Cursed Gear?"
The vampire simply stared at her for a brief second, and for a moment Shinoa thought he was going to ignore her question. But then he brought the binoculars to his face and looked at the convoy, his elongated fangs pressing against his lower lip as he examined them.
"Doesn't look like it," he said at last, handing the binoculars back to her. "I can only make out enchanted weapons on those soldiers. But there could always be a commander sitting out of sight. We can't see everything from this angle."
"Mmm," Shinoa hummed in agreement, turning to squint at the intersection once more. They were just specks from here without magnification. The rest of the team looked at her expectantly, awaiting her orders. It was strange, really. They weren't part of the JIDA anymore. They had seceded months ago, but her friends still stuck to the chain of command when it came to situations like this.
It was probably for the best, but she didn't relish the responsibility it placed upon her.
"Alright, everybody. My intuition tells me we ought to leave while we still can," Shinoa said, clapping her hands together. "We never know when more humans will show up, not to mention that there could still be stray vampires around. We don't know how much the front has moved since we left."
Everyone nodded in agreement, even Mikaela. The boy might be stubborn and antisocial, but he wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to argue against a logical decision. Shinoa made sure to remember this for the future. It was a method to keep the vampire in check.
They retraced their footsteps down the stairwell, not saying much between themselves. It would have been faster to exit onto the ninth floor and go down from there, but Shinoa refrained from doing so. She didn't want to see the man hanging from the ceiling again. Or the children's center, for that matter.
Several floors later, Mikaela started talking with Yuu, and Shinoa gave in and began listening in on their conversation.
"It's been months, now that I think about it. Since we've talked to anyone besides ourselves."
"That is to be expected. We're avoiding them on purpose." Mikaela's response was its usual mix of sarcasm and irrefutable logic, but she noticed his voice lost its hard edge when directed towards Yuu.
"I know. But it feels strange." Yuu's voice was the same no matter who it was for. "Even when we were trapped in Sanguinem, there were other humans. It's weird, being this isolated."
There was the sound of shifting clothing, and Shinoa figured Mikaela must be shrugging. "I don't know. For a long time I was neither human nor vampire. You don't have to be alone to be lonely."
How utterly true that is, Shinoa thought, chewing on the inside of her lip. She had grown up surrounded by the most powerful underground family in Japan, the Hiiragis, and yet the greatest thing she associated with her childhood was solitude. Whenever Yuu expressed his desire to protect what he called his 'family,' sometimes she didn't understand what he really meant.
Family was just an ugly word to her.
They reached the bottom floor soon enough, and wisely chose to leave through the rear entrance of the shopping complex. Once they had emerged onto the back street they began making their way away from the human convoy, making sure to keep their movements as discreet as possible. It was so deafeningly quiet that knocking over a stray soda can could have given away their position. And Shinoa preferred to avoid having to fight against her own kind.
The next several moments passed in silence as the group moved on, trying to take as many alleyways as possible. Once they were far enough away from the convoy they could relax a little. But deep down, Shinoa knew that as time went on it was going to become increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations with anyone, human or vampire irregardless. The closer they got to Sanguinem, the more populated their surroundings would be.
Soon the human convoy was nearly a thousand yards away, and Shinoa felt her shoulders unwinding just a little bit. She could see the relief sweeping through the rest of her squad as well; none of them wanted to cross swords with another human. Maybe it was because they had been brought up to believe that it was them against the vampires, though this was largely still true. They didn't have time for infighting when outside forces were trying to exterminate them. To Shinoa's understanding, before the end of the world humans had exercised dominion over the planet, and at the time homicide had been a common phenomenon. She couldn't imagine the logistics behind that.
It seemed that when humans had no worthy opponents to destroy, they resorted to killing each other.
"How close would you say we are to Sanguinem?" Yuu asked softly, coming up behind her.
Shinoa blinked in surprise, having not noticed his approach. "Let's see…not too long now, I'd say," she replied, counting on her fingers. "Another week or two at most. We're going in a straight line this time, after all."
Yuu hummed in agreement. They had taken a winding, erratic path across Japan after their escape from the JIDA, trying desperately to lose the literal armies that had been sent after them. For a while Shinoa had been afraid that they would be forced to dive into the sea and swim for their lives, but eventually their pursuers had given up on them, especially after the successful assault on Sanguinem. It appeared that General Kureto had higher priorities.
"A week or two, huh?" Yuu breathed, slipping his hands into his pockets. "It's been so long. Soon I'll be able to see Guren again. I wonder if he's alright…"
Shinoa bit her lip at the lieutenant's mention. During these past five months, Yuu had never once given up on the idea that they were going to save Guren. It was the entire reason they were even heading back to Sanguinem, as opposed to putting as much distance between them and the JIDA as physically possible.
But to be truthful, Shinoa didn't know how realistic that goal was. She had seen Guren's eyes that one day at the airport, when the Seraph had descended upon them all like hellfire. The telltale blood red eyes that betrayed possession. Guren had insisted that he had his demon under control, but it seemed that Shinoa was right not to believe him. She had seen those eyes elsewhere before.
The last time they had been in her late beloved sister, Mahiru Hiiragi. The demon who resided in Guren's sword.
The demon who now had a firm grip on the man's mind.
Ignorance was indeed bliss. Yuu didn't know anything about Mahiru or her history, except for the fact that she had once existed. He didn't know about everything her sister had gone through to create the Cursed Gear, or her relationship with Guren, or how Shinoa herself felt about her. It seemed that everything always led back to Mahiru, in the end. The girl who had helped bring about to coming of the apocalypse, as well as made the weapons necessary to survive it.
If anything, as a Hiiragi, Shinoa felt a certain measure of responsibility. Yuu had a right to know. He had a right to know that Guren was probably never coming back. She had never heard of someone fighting off a demon once it had possession of the mind and body, especially someone like a Guren, who had walked the line between control and chaos for so long.
"Yuu," she began, clenching her fingers together, "I need-"
She never got to finish her sentence, because a second later everything descended into chaos.
She felt the footsteps before she saw what they belonged to. Fast, heavy rumbles, like the earth itself was experiencing palpitations of the heart. She felt her own heart clench immediately as well. She knew that sound, knew it all too well. Her instincts began screaming at her to run, but her mind knew it was too late. The thing was already upon them. They would be forced to fight.
Well, so much for subtlety.
Turning on her heel, she grabbed Yuu and threw them both to the ground a millisecond before the Horseman crashed out onto the open street.
She felt something large and heavy blast past her ear, as she and Yuu both went crashing to the unforgiving concrete. The panicked shouts of her friends seized her ears a moment later, and then the sounds of blades being drawn, arrows being primed. A low, drawn out snarl reverberated through the air behind her, but she didn't have to look. She knew what it was.
"Horseman!" Kimizuki bellowed, raising his blades before him.
"Shit," Yuu growled, reaching for his sword. Shinoa rolled off of him and fished her scythe out of her pocket, giving it a twirl, until a fully sized weapon was resting in her palm.
Good thing she did, too, because immediately afterwards the Horseman tried to take her head off.
A heavy claw smashed into the concrete two feet to her right, sending a spray of debris flying into her eyes. Raising one arm to cover her face, she swung blindly with her scythe, and felt it catch on something thick and fleshy. A spray of hot, thick blood stained her arm, accompanied by an outraged screech, and she knew she had hit something important.
Then firm hands were grabbing her beneath the arms, and Yuu was dragging her to her feet, away from the monster's proximity. She peeked past her arm to see the ferocity of his expression, and a shallow cut above his eye where a piece of rubble had struck him.
"Come on, Shinoa," he said urgently. "You can't die here."
Meanwhile the Horseman had staggered back several feet, its severed arm laying dead on the asphalt between them. Shinoa managed to find her footing again and backed up to where the rest of her friends were, their weapons at the ready.
Of all the strange creatures and beings Shinoa had seen in her lifetime, the Horsemen of John would always be the most hideous. The long, warped limbs, the scaly wings, the gruesome mouth that was placed disturbingly where the abdomen should have been; everything about its appearance felt wrong. This particular specimen was larger than most, and it towered over them on the asphalt, one of its legs crushing a car beneath its sheer weight. It seemed to be getting ready to charge them again.
"We need to kill it before the convoy notices us!" Shinoa barked, switching her grip on her scythe. All this commotion was bound to be heard, not matter how many blocks away they were from the humans.
"Too late," Kimizuki said lowly, turning to look behind them.
Shinoa followed suit and was dismayed to find that the convoy had definitely noticed them already. More than a dozen men were sprinting in their direction from the far end of the street, swords already out of their scabbards. It was either they killed the Horseman or they faced the convoy.
To be honest, she would rather have the former.
"Go for its legs!" she commanded, then they all charged forward. Mitsuba sent out a wave of energy from her axe, catching the monster square in the middle and causing it to stagger back a step.
Sensing the opportunity, both Shinoa and Yuu slipped beneath the Horseman and hacked at its legs, making sure to cut the limps at the joints. They swept through the creature's belly and emerged on the other side, trying to dodge out of reach.
But the monster reacted more quickly than them. It turned around its own axis and swung at them with its remaining arm, coming terrifyingly close to beheading Yuu on the spot. It only missed because of the loss of its legs, which sent it crashing to the ground not a moment too soon.
Before the Horseman could lash out at them again, a single green arrow buried itself into the monster's head and exploded, engulfing the upper torso in flames.
"Hurry up and kill it!" Yoichi yelled at them, unusually urgent. He was already nocking another arrow into his bow, preparing to fire again if necessary.
Shinoa put a hand to the ground, trying to get up in order to do just that, but before she could something swept in from the right, its blade plowing straight through the Horseman's body.
When she looked up, she saw Mikaela landing on the far side of the street, his blade dripping red. The Horseman now had a gaping wide hole in the center of its body, and she could see through it to the wave of humans still running towards them, blades at the ready. Then it disintegrated, turning into ash before being carried off by the wind.
Yuu helped her to her feet, and Shinoa smirked as she looked over at Mikaela, who was sheathing his sword. "I guess Horsemen are nothing to a true vampire like you, huh?"
The blond only sighed as he put away his weapon, the tentacles retracting from his arm. "No. Humans are just weak, is all. Besides, Yuu was in danger. I had no choice."
Yes, anything for Yuu, right? Shinoa sighed inwardly, but she knew better than to say so out loud. She didn't any more friction with Mikaela than there was already.
A moment later Kimizuki joined then with Yoichi close behind, flicking the blood off his blades. "Looks like we won't have to worry about the convoy after all," he said.
Shinoa just frowned, looking down the street. "What are you-"
Her words died off a second time, as she realized what the boy had meant.
A second Horseman had emerged to ambush the convoy on the street, and the humans who had been pursuing them were now more than occupied with trying not to be killed themselves. It was strange to see so many humans struggling against a single Horseman, but she had to remember that the monsters grew stronger the further they got from the walls. As she watched, one of the men was crushed beneath the creature's claw, his body splaying out into a patch of red on the concrete.
She watched the scene grimly, gripping the shaft of her staff. As much as she hated to admit it, this could be a blessing in disguise. They could escape unhindered now.
"Let's go, everyone," she urged, returning her scythe to its normal form. "While they're distracted."
The rest of the team nodded and prepared to leave, running back to grab their bags where they had been dropped. Well, all but one.
And of course that one had to be Yuu.
"Wait, we can't just leave them there!" the swordsman said, his sword still drawn. "They're going to die if we don't do something!"
"Yuu, please understand," Shinoa said, feeling a little exasperated. "I don't want to leave them either, but we have to get away before the situation gets worse."
"She's right, Yuu," Mikaela said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's the price we have to pay. They won't feel any gratitude if you save them, anyways. Just-"
"I don't care!" Yuu snapped. He slapped Mikaela's hand off his shoulder, and then he was running at full speed towards the convoy, his sword at his side.
"Oh, that utter fool," Mitsuba grumbled, summoning her axe again.
Tell me about it, Shinoa thought darkly, before they all chased after him.
The Horseman was facing away from Shinoa's squad, as it was busy decimating the convoy. Taking advantage of its distraction, Yuu leapt through the air and stabbed his sword through the monster's back, burying the blade up to the hilt. It screeched in pain and began thrashing around violently, forcing Yuu to hold onto the handle of his sword for dear life.
The rest of the squad reached him a moment later, and a quick succession of blades tore through the Horseman's body. It fell to the ground slowly, allowing Yuu to wrench his sword free and leap to the ground, before crashing against the side of a building and disintegrating.
But Shinoa didn't have any time to celebrate the victory, because a moment later someone attacked her from behind.
A pair of burly hands grabbed her neck and drove her to the ground, so hard that it knocked the air out of her lungs. As she gasped for breath, the face of the convoy's captain came into view, his eyes twisted with hatred.
"We finally found all you damn traitors," he hissed. Off to the side, Shinoa could hear the sound of clashing blades and knew the rest of the convoy had begun attacking her friends. "General Kureto's got a fine bounty on your heads."
"Let her go!" Yuu shouted, from where he was pinned down by three separate swordsmen.
The captain ignored him and instead raised his own weapon, pointing it straight at the spot between Shinoa's eyes, which went wide at the movement. Her heart began pounding in her chest, and she started to squirm, desperately trying to break free, but she was too effectively pinned.
"I guess not every Hiiragi is worthy," he murmured, before bringing his blade down.
Several things happened at once in that moment. First, Shinoa closed her eyes. She didn't want to look death in the face. She lacked the bravery to do so. Second, she heard several shouts behind her as Yuu broke free from his opponents, and then he was running towards her, screaming her name. But she knew it was too late. The blade was already too close to her throat. Yuu would never be able to see her unless he-
A dark green blade entered the captain's body through the ribcage, and then it sprouted out from the other side, as Yuu stabbed him clean through the chest.
The force of the blow sent the blade veering off to the side, and it struck the concrete by Shinoa's ear, a mere inch from injuring her flesh. Then the captain coughed a spit of blood all over her front, as Yuu twisted his sword inside the man's body.
"I'm sorry," the boy whispered, before pulling his blade free.
The captain's dead body slumped to the ground face first, motionless. Yuu's hands were shaking, and then he actually dropped his sword, something Shinoa had never seen him do no matter how many times he went into combat. But he had never gone into combat against humans before, and he had never once taken the life of another. Not until today.
"Yuu…" Shinoa murmured, shocked into stillness, even as the battle raged around them, even as Kimizuki bellowed that they needed to go now, before reinforcements arrived. She hadn't seen that look of desolation on the boy's face since the day he had first turned into a Seraph. It was an expression she absolutely hated.
"Shinoa!" Kimizuki yelled, kicking a soldier square in the chest. "We need to get out of here now!"
That was enough to snap the sergeant back into reality, and she grabbed Yuu's hand.
"Come on, Yuu. We have to go," she urged, reaching down to pick up the boy's sword. She slipped it into its scabbard before dragging him along behind her, towards the far end of the street. "We have to go now. Please, Yuu."
But the swordsman was listless, in a world off on his own. The rest of Shinoa's squad kicked their assaulters away from them, and then they were running away from the convoy, away from the guilt, and away from the weight of life Yuu had taken with his own blade.
A/N
Hey guys, Banshee here. I've never written for Owari before, so this is new for me. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to write all the characters, but I think I'll get it down soon enough.
I decided to write this fic for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that I ship Yuu and Shinoa to death (not that there's anything wrong with Mika, it's just my preference). Secondly, there don't seem to be many complete fics that flesh out everything that could have happened after the anime, as well as what would happen to Guren, Krul, or how Lest Karr would institute his rule over Japan. This story will seek to cover all those topics, as well as put Yuu and Shinoa together.
As for those wondering where Makoto is, I'll explain that in the next chapter.
Whether I'll be able to do all those things well remains to be seen.
Right now the story's scope feels rather large, and I can already tell it's going to be a long one if I do decide to go through with it, which depends on how interested other people are in this story. I will write the first few chapters regardless.
Thanks for reading!
~Banshee