Inju
((Author's Note: This is a custom-character Fanfiction of Shakugan no Shana. In other words, it is set in the world of the series, but none of the canon characters will be appearing. Those hoping to see an attempt at bringing two of the characters together romantically, I am sorry but I shall be disappointing you, as this story will have nothing to do with such things. That doesn't mean there won't be any romantic elements, I try to appeal to most audiences, but don't expect any lovey-dovey action from any of the canon characters because quite frankly, they've had their turn. This is just me tinkering with a really excellent idea that I like, and writing my own story set in the world of that idea, nothing more. The only canon "character" that will be appearing is the Midnight Stray Child, purely for convenience. Please feel free to give any constructive criticism or simply a nod and a smile, whatever pleases you, but kindly keep comments such as "well that was shit" to yourselves, as frankly I don't need that kind of bollocks. Oh, yeah, and warning: some offensive language within. Probably too late with that one, huh? Also, a further point, terms from the anime will be used here. You can either go look up what they mean or simply wait, they'll be explained in due course. Anyways, now that I've scared off every potential reader with my bad attitude, let's get to the story, shall we?))
ONE: Sorry for the Inconvenience, But You're Dead
The girl ran as fast as she could down the dark alley, racing towards the streetlamps ahead, towards the light, where she would be in view and protected by the people around her. Here in the alley was too dangerous, and the men behind her were closing in on her, fast. She chanced a look back, and as she did her foot caught a loose paving stone and she tumbled to the cold stone floor, twisting her foot badly in the process.
As she hit the floor, her pursuers closed in gleefully. The first was tall, muscular and his face, already fairly ugly, was set into a hideous grimace that made him terrifying to the helpless girl sprawled out on the paving stones. The second was thinner, more athletic than actually muscular, and he swung a thin chain with a metal weight attached to the end as a weapon. The third was muscular again, his bulging torso barely contained within the scraps of his tattered shirt and an iron pole in his gigantic hands.
The first thug loomed over the girl, who had begun whimpering quietly to herself. "Heh heh heh, lookee, what we got here, boys; a pretty little girl. Maybe we can persuade 'er to be awfully nice and give us a little 'service', eh? Bwah hah hah!"
His two comrades chuckled menacingly to each other in that certainly nasty but clearly too unintelligent manner that suggests those laughing are not actually "evil", merely that they are worthless scum. This was certainly the thought that passed through the head of the Tomogara standing quietly in an adjacent alleyway, leaning against the wall and absent-mindedly watching the group over the top of his newspaper. As the thugs moved in towards the girl, who was now frozen with fright, he decided to step in.
Raising his hand, he activated a Fuzetsu around the immediate area, and the humans froze in their places. He folded his newspaper, held it between his elbow and his side, and walked forwards out into the main alleyway, looking at the thugs. "I usually don't eat such pathetic examples of humans, but I suppose I can make an exception here," he said to himself, but then something surprised him.
The second thug, on hearing the Tomogara's words, leapt back in surprise and began swinging his chain threateningly. "You just try it, bitch! My boys and I will stomp you good! Ain't that right, guys? …Guys?" The man seemed to realise for the first time that his friends had stopped, his focus having been directed solely at the girl who had frozen anyway. "What… what's going on?!"
"Don't worry, there is nothing for you to be afraid of," replied the Tomogara, calmly turning to the larger of the other two thugs. He opened his mouth, and a blue flame seemed to spill from the man and into his mouth for a few seconds, and then the thug vanished in blue flames. The Tomogara repeated this with the other thug while the moving one stood paralyzed by sheer terror, his chain having stopped swinging and fallen limp by his side.
"You see, nothing to be afraid of. You're just going to give me your power of existence, and then you'll be gone. Nothing to it, really…"
From the remaining thug's point of view, this way horrifying. A strange-looking old man dressed in a long coat and hat and carrying a newspaper under one arm had just frozen his friends, then somehow eaten them with some weird blue light show, and was now advancing saying things about killing him and it all being nothing to worry about. Well to hell with that!
"You bastard!" cried the thug, swinging his chain. "The one who's going to die is you!"
"It sure is!" called a new voice from behind the old man. The Tomogara's eyes went wide for a brief second and then a sword stabbed through his back, showering the thug with blood. The man collapsed to his knees, his body losing all strength.
"Flame… Haze…" The Tomogara disguised as an old man slumped forwards and was engulfed in blue flame before disappearing. A teenage boy stood behind him, hefting a sword over his shoulder and looking down at the flickering embers which were all that remained of the old man.
"Heh, not bad. One swing and the bad guy's down, easy. Big question, though…" The thug blinked and suddenly the boy was right in front of him, looking closely at his face. "How are you able to move inside the Fuzetsu, hmm?"
The thug simply blathered a response, falling backwards onto the ground as the boy looked at him quizzically. The boy was short, about five feet in height at the most, and the sword he carried looked clearly too large and heavy for him to manage. His hair was white, cut long by male standards but otherwise fairly short, and swept backwards across his head. His eyes were a deep green, and a strange form of half-monocle-like device was attached to the left side of his head. It looked rather like a crescent moon angled around his left eye socket, only it extended backwards into a spike which jutted out though his hair and out past the back of his head, and was inlaid with curious swirling designs across its lengths.
The boy seemed to notice the thug's eyes straying on the strange device attached to his head. "Hoi, hoi, he's staring at you, Aza-san…"
The man momentarily wondered who the boy was speaking to, when suddenly an echoing female voice floated around them. "Of course, what poor man could help but to stare at my beauty..?"
The boy's face went blank. "You do know you're a weird little face attachment, right, Aza-san?" Immediately after saying this, his head moved violently downwards into his shoulders, as if he had been hit roughly on the top of his head.
"Such impertinence! Of course a mere child could not understand the enthrallment that my beauty carries for adult males, even such poor specimens as this one…"
"Who're you calling a child?! I'm fourteen, dammit, I don't need to take this kinda crap from you or anybody!" His head was slammed downwards again.
"I have told you before about using such language, now haven't I?" said the voice loftily.
While the boy and whatever the voice was argued between themselves, the thug began to crawl backwards away from them, before standing and breaking into a full-on run. He got about four paces before the boy suddenly appeared in front of him again.
"Hmm, this one's rather rude, considering we saved him," said the boy. His gaze slowly moved down to the man's chest, where a bright blue flame burned quietly inside him. "Ah, that makes sense. It's just a Torch."
"It doesn't make sense at all!" snapped the voice. "Even if he is a Torch, he shouldn't be able to move inside the Fuzetsu, unless…"
The boy's green eyes widened, and a grin spread across his pale face. "Oh, we've found a Mistes…"
"What're you talking about?!" spluttered the man, falling down again. The boy squatted down in front of him and patted his head sympathetically.
"It's okay, I'll explain. You are what we call a "Torch". That means that the real you has been eaten by a Tomogara at some point, and a Flame Haze has replaced the missing power of existence with a Torch. No need to worry, you'll burn out in a couple of days and then nobody will ever remember you exist. After all, nobody besides you, me and Aza-san now remembers the existence of your two friends back there. We should probably move, though, since the Fuzetsu is about to break down. Come on, let's go find something yummy to eat!"
The boy grinned cheerfully, and lifted the thug up by his hand with ease, and dragged him along behind him as he walked out of the alley. As they did so, the girl back at the other end of the alley began moving again, and looked around her in surprise, before standing up unsteadily and walking away, limping on her injured foot and now convinced that she had tripped and that the man chasing her must not have been after her after all.
As the boy dragged the man through the streets, the thug's attention was engulfed by a new realisation of the people around him. Many of the people walking along the busy street had blue flames of their own burning in their chests, some bright, others merely a flicker. He dragged his eyes back to the boy pulling him along through the throng, and realised that the boy's hair had change from its pervious snowy white to a light brown.
The boy turned to face the thug, and grinned up at him. "Hey, I almost forgot to ask. What's your name? I'm Inju!"
"I'm Sanzoku," replied the man, bewildered.
"Hmm, a nice name! Please pardon Aza-san, but she doesn't talk when humans are around, it confuses them."
"But… but…" The man floundered for a moment before finally deciding that he was thoroughly fed up with this treatment. His day has started normal, gotten interesting, then gone through a variety of different forms of severely strange and now seemed to be trying to put on a semblance of normality. Well he wasn't having it. He grabbed the boy and lifted him up to look him in the face. "Just what in the hell is going on?!" he demanded.
"Would you like the long, or the short version?" replied the boy.
"Quit acting smart, brat, and start talking or I'll rip your tiny little head off!" barked Sanzoku.
"Okay, then. You were attacked by a creature called a "Tomogara". Basically it's a creature from another world that exists next-door to ours. They come here to our world to eat humans power of existence, which allows them to do whatever they please. Sadly, this badly ruins the balance between the worlds, and could destroy them both. To stop that, some good Tomogara like Aza-san contract what are called the "Flame Haze", which are people like myself, and we go around stopping the evil Tomogara from destroying the world, as well as replacing… those… eaten… with… Oh, gawd!"
"You idiot!" shrieked Aza. "You forgot to replace those two humans!"
"Oh, gawd, oh, gawd, oh, gawd..!" The boy quickly pushed forwards and kicked Sanzoku straight in his groin. Pain exploded in the thug, who immediately released his grip and crumpled to the floor in pain, while Inju quickly jumped over him and ran off towards the alley they'd come from, repeatedly crying "Oh, gawd!" as he went…