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if i believe
in death be sure
of this
it is
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evanescence
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chapter one—
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Kuroko Awakens three days before his sixteenth birthday. He knows this because when he wakes up, he finds that his black hair and onyx eyes—common features in the small town that he had lived in, where every family was related by either blood or marriage—have instead morphed into a brilliant shade of light blue, the color of glacial ice and arctic waters and frozen lips before one dies of hypothermia.
Perhaps, had he been anyone else, he would have been gone from his apartment and into the nearest Transport Station the instant he realized of his Awakening. As it is, he is slightly apprehensive at this new development, but it cannot be denied that he has rather sociopathic tendencies (it was PTSD, the therapist had said, her voice almost pitying but not, because who would pity him?), and so the choices that he makes are vastly different from what another would choose. And of course, there are other reasons, but he bothers not with them.
And so the first thing that he does after carefully examining his new Awakened state is search for the cellphone that he never actually uses but keeps for various reasons, each more unconventional than the next. His apartment is immaculately arranged, every item carefully placed in its rightful spot, but even so it takes him ten minutes to rummage through the entirety of his bedroom before remembering that he had placed it in the second drawer of the kitchen cabinet, right below the explosives but above the flammable materials.
The phone is a relatively new model, a sleek contraption of glass and metal that whizzes to life as soon as he touches it. |Hello, Kuroko Tetsuya|, the touchscreen reads, sharp black words contrasting with the stark white background, before it fades into a gruesome image of a beautiful woman with hair the same shade of his own and icy blue lips toying with a bloody human heart, macabre motifs of splattered crimson littering the screen. The holographic keyboard appears seconds later, and Kuroko types in a pseudo-familiar number that remains at the edge of his hazy memory.
"Who is this?" asks the person on the other side of the line, evidently surprised. It is not an unexpected reaction—Kuroko is not one to call people at leisure, and perhaps he would have never bothered to pick up his cellphone in the course of his lifespan had the situation not called for it.
"This is Kuroko. I need your help, Seijuro-kun," he replies bluntly, not bothering to soften his words. His attention focuses onto the back his hands—the skin is smooth and free of small hairs, strangely reminiscent of plastic.
"Oh?" Akashi asks, and Kuroko can practically see the older boy arch an eyebrow, elegant and patronizing. "And what help can I provide you, Tetsuya-kun?"
"I Awakened today."
Akashi makes a startled choking sound, more of surprise and astonishment than his standard bemusement. Someone yells an incoherent sentence in the background. "Ah," he says finally, his voice bland and toneless. "And why call me, instead of going to a Transport Station?"
"Please don't joke around like that, Seijuro-kun. You know exactly why."
"...You are as no fun to tease as ever, Tetsuya-kun," Akashi sighs melodramatically, before instantly returning to his unperturbed tone. "As you are unable to go to a Transport Station, it seems that I have no choice but to pick you up myself. Do you have a Storage Portal?"
"Not one that fits. The one my landlady gave me as part of the lease agreement is too small."
"Then I am bringing one over. Would a 50x50 suffice?"
"Seijuro-kun is overkill, as always."
"And Tetsuya-kun is such a hypocrite, always telling me not to make jokes."
"I cannot possibly be making a joke, as I have no sense of humor, Seijuro-kun. You of all people should know that."
Kuroko ends the call before the older boy can say anything else, and returns the phone to its resting place inside the second drawer of the kitchen cabinet, where it will most likely stay for the remnant of its pitifully short battery life. There is a strange emotion creeping into him, weariness and resentment and and indifference all in one, but most of all he feels tired.
Perhaps it would be best just to sleep.
"Stop," Akashi tells his chauffeur, glancing disinterestedly at the apartment homes outside the window. Even with the recent snowfall, blanketing everything in pristine swathes of white, it is much obvious that the buildings are in a poor state, covered with grime and filth and whatever other garbage that humans like to surround themselves with.
"Akashi-sama," Hayama protests, clearly uncomfortable in such an environment. "This is a human residence. Why would somebody of your prestige bother to visit such a place—"
"Kotaro-kun," Akashi says sweetly, and watches as the bakeneko stiffens in thinly-veiled fear, the mop of yellow hair on his head bristling uncertainly. "I am your contractor, am I not? I feed you spiritual energy so that you may work for me, not so you may lecture me about my own personal business. If you do not do your job properly, I am afraid I will have to break our connection."
"I am sorry, Akashi-sama," the yokai concedes, bowing his neck downwards in submission. "I should not have questioned Akashi-sama's motives. I was wrong."
"As expected," Akashi answers crisply. "However, due to your faithful service to me for so many years, I will not Detach from you."
"Thank you for your great generosity, Akashi-sama," Hayama says quietly, and there is great relief in his voice. "I feel as if it is no doubt wasted on such a low-born creature as myself."
"Hmm," Akashi says, not agreeing nor disagreeing. "Return to the Headquarters without me. I must pick Tetsuya-kun up. He Awakened today, it seems, and is currently unable to reach a Transport Station, given the circumstances."
"Kuroko Tetsuya-sama?" Hayama says incredulously, and his voice reeks of unadulterated confusion, uncertainty, and most of all, fear. "He has Awakened? Akashi-sama... are you planning on inducting him to the Akashi Family?"
"It is his own decision in the end," Akashi says dismissively. "And of course, it is not your place to question me of such things."
Hayama bows again, not daring to look up to meet his Contractor's eyes. "Of course."
A blast of brittle air greets him when he opens the door of the car, numbing his cheeks and sneaking into the folds of his coat. Akashi hisses in disgust—he has always been a creature of heat, and the very feeling of cold is particularily unpleasant, something that causes the basan blood flowing through his veins to curdle in revulsion, screaming in protest.
Entering the human residence does very little to add to the temperature. An elderly human female looks up from behind the front desk when he enters, covered in multiple layers of furs and blankets.
"Hello," he says, making his voice sound as charming as he can. "I am here as a visitor to Kuroko Tetsuya."
"Oh, for Tetsuya-kun?" the human asks, tittering slightly. Her voice is dry and raspy, and scrapes at the edge of his ears. "You must be here because of Tetsuya-kun's fever, isn't it? You know, I was worried—" she lowers her voice, as if telling something she is not supposed to be saying, "—because he's never received any visitation requests before, in the entire three years he's been here. I'm glad to know he does have some friends that are willing to come cheer him up. Such a responsible young boy, that poor dear; I heard his entire village was massacred by one of those monsters the government have taken to calling the 'Awakened', that so-called sub-species of human. Completely nonsense, I tell you. They're not human at all—why, they're no more than beasts!"
Akashi forces a look of understanding on his face. "It must be hard for you, madam," he says, feeling loathing envelope his tongue with every word he speaks, "unable to do anything while knowing that such dangerous monsters are out there in the open, flaunting themselves as human to the the innocent public."
"Ah, so you do understand," the woman simpers. She reaches down and rummages through a box in the cabinet behind her, before pulling up a single silver card and sliding it toward him on the counter. "Here is the spare card for Tetsuya-kun's apartment- he lives upstairs, by the way. I'm sure he'll be glad to know that one of his friends are here to visit. Would you like me to video-call him beforehand, and tell him of your arrival?"
"No, I think it should be fine," he smiles, grasping the key gingerly. "Thank you very much, madam." As he leaves for the staircase leading upstairs, he catches a few phrases of her muttering: 'What a charming young man,' and 'I wonder if he'd been interested in Miko-chan?"
He snorts loudly with contempt, when he is sure she is out of earshot. Humans. Such a petty, arrogant, race—they refuse to bow down to their obvious superiors, the hanyous and the yokai, either choosing not to acknowledge the Supernatural World at all or instead attempting to classify the three species as so-called 'equals'. Akashi growls under his breath at the thought; he would never be on the same level as those worthless scum.
The card in his hand is adorned with a large silver number 15, and under that, in smaller print, Right Wing. He locates Kuroko's position with ease; the younger boy's spiritual unease radiates through the entire apartment block, projected even further by his recent Awakening.
Akashi stops in front of an inconspicuous-looking door, no more rusty and grimy than its neighbors. 15 is engraved in large black letters on the yellowing surface, and where the handle would be is instead obsolete card-scanner, one out of use possibly decades ago. He does not bother to knock nor inform the tenant inside of his arrival; instead, he slides the card in nonchalantly, a small smirk on his face as the scanner gives its approval and the door opens automatically.
He finds Kuroko sprawled on the dirty carpeting near the kitchen, a small trickle of drool falling from his mouth. His hair has changed into a shocking color of cyan blue that somehow blends in with the surroundings—try as he might, Akashi finds that he cannot keep his eyes on the younger boy for long. It is more of a surprise to him than it should be—after all, he is the one who discovered Kuroko's truth, and he knew this day would come. For some strange reason, it hurts more than he would like to admit.
Akashi hefts the boy onto his left shoulder with ease, hissing slightly as tendrils of heavy spiritual aura still present from the Awakening burns against his exposed skin. With his other hand he pulls out a 50x50 Standard-Issue Storage Portal from the inside his of his custom-made silk jacket, slightly battered from rough treatment but all in all still usable.
"Take it all to the Akashi Residence," he says, sticking the seal onto the wall. There is a blue glow, and then suddenly the room is devoid of everything save the dust. Without the furniture, the walls close in threateningly, casting uncertain shadows against the wall. He frowns slightly, not liking the gloom that permeates the atmosphere, reeking of despair and aura.
Kuroko stirs from on his shoulder, mumbling something incoherent. Akashi sighs, feeling the last vestiges of the Awakening die away, before there is nothing.
Once, a traveler met a lone woman on a snowy day...
(you are young and beautiful, so i shall spare you—
but if you dare tell anyone, i will kill you)
He never came back.
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