Warnings: I did proof read this to bits but I'm not exactly the smartest person so I'll bet there are a billion things wrong with it.
So sorry but I did all I can do without dying of embarrassment by getting a friend to check it.
Also it starts off a bit dull but I hope to improve that in further chapters.
Characters don't belong to me (cos ya know if they did I'd say posting on a fanfiction site would be inappropriate.)
I'd love to know if anyone would like me to continue with this story or not.
Yesterdays Remains
Part one – meeting
Coldness and a sting that wouldn't cease; Those were the first things the Bookman's apprentice could determine as his single bottle green hue eased open.
He flinched as blood trickled in his line of vision and he noted the tight clench that grasped his wrists digging in like daggers, it held him limp like a ragdoll.
And then a laugh, who was laughing?
His gaze drifts upward slightly to his captor and the shock that had to have been more than evident on the Junior Bookman's face at what he saw; a monster of strange mechanics and flesh mended together, metal claws, canons, and a grin of evil and tragedy.
What was this thing?
He tried to call for help, maybe his mentor was nearby, so he opens his mouth in an attempt to find salvation but his voice gets caught in his throat.
The creature turns its unnaturally mangled head to one side and the movement makes it squeeze his wrist tighter, he can feel the blood seeping out, drizzling down the curve of his arms.
"He's not fighting" the abomination laughs and Bookman Junior cries a soundless yelp. It looks over to one of its others with a sick pleading expression that covers its face."Can I kill him now?"
His eye widens hearing this, sweat beads on his forehead, he had too much to live for, he hadn't learnt all of what needed to be taught to him, and he couldn't die, not here, not now.
"No, not yet, we have to find the innocence that he's hiding or Master Noah will punish us!" the other mechanical creature demands. Junior thanks his lucky stars for that much at least.
Noah, Innocence? He thinks, they sounded familiar; perhaps his mentor had mentioned them once? At that moment he couldn't care much to remember, he just had to get free.
His hands start to wriggle and struggle against the metal clawing them, it hurt but he'd be damned if he was going to let himself die there.
His captor wisps its head back around at the struggling boy locked in it claws and grabs his throat with its other, resting the metal blades gently around the vulnerable flesh leaving behind shallow cuts in its wake.
"Stop moving about so much or your dead kid." it laughs
"L-let go of me!" he shouts finding his voice at last "You demon bastards!" ouch that had to hurt the ego.
He struggles against his confines only managing to cut himself further, pain shoots through him but he keep fighting and shouting,
"Just tell us where the innocence is you little brat!" the claws around his neck grew tighter his breath was caught and the cuts deeper again, he really thought that was the end, only a little deeper and it'd hit a lethal point. Things began to get hazy again, he felt numb and useless so much so his mind drifted and he became lost and unsure of his surroundings.
All that he was certain of was pain, pain and more pain! So it was no surprise that he didn't take notice of the youth marching toward them, his only indication that they had even been interrupted was the sound of a harsh voice, full of passion and bloodlust.
"Funny..." the voice says and Junior's eye twitches a little in curiosity "I was just about to ask the same question" he says with a defiant smirk as he unsheathes the katana that hung reliably at his hip with a clean sharp sound that echoed in his ears. "Prepare to die, Akuma."
"Exorcist!" the creature now known as an Akuma growls dropping Junior, his shoulder slams into the rock hard dirt, and he yelps grasping it tightly, his gaze too wanders at the sword wielding boy, taking his stance, as the akuma lunge at him he dodges and swipes with a single flued motion cutting the first of the two akuma in two, Junior gapes in horrid surprise.
"That's an exorcist?" he whispers to himself. He'd heard of exorcists before from his mentor and from Books being described as soldiers of god sent to vanquish demons, but still the image the young Bookman apprentice had was more that of a docile old man baring nothing but a vile of holy water and a trusty old bible.
This man however was far different from anything he'd expected; like him the exorcist was just a kid, his long black hair held in a high ponytail and narrow oriental eyes of cobalt blue.
The second akuma wasn't taking any chances at getting within striking range, it backed right off using the canons fixated on either shoulder to fire at the young exorcist, he ducked and dived,
"Shit!" the akuma swears "Just die, Exorcist!" it continues firing and Junior has to take cover behind a nearby bolder covering his face with his arms to avoid the canon shrapnel.
He started to worry, the akuma could probably fire those bullets all day and the exorcist had nothing but a sword to protect himself.
There was just no way in hell that he could survive this.
Junior peeked back at the fight from his safe point, the predatory stare was still unwavering on the sword wielders face, Junior couldn't believe it, the idiot still had hope!
"Mugen, evil has risen! Netherworld creatures 'Ichigen'!"
The blade begins to emit a light as he twirls it in hand and his index finger traces the sharps edge,
The light seeps from the blade and strange creatures shoot from it as the swordsman swipes his sword through the air, the beasts race through the akuma who momentarily stops in it tracks. It feels over its own body to inspect the damage. The exorcist grins "Turn to dust." It explodes and junior is left awestruck and filled with relief watching as shrapnel and dust fall from the sky.
He could have stared at the sight all day had the overwhelming sense of dizziness not overcome him, he'd forgotten about the globs of blood still gushing from where the akuma had him restrained.
It didn't take long from there for everything to be doused in a haze until finally everything fell to blackness.
The redhead awakes to smell of smoke and dust blowing across a dirt plane and something that smells oddly like fish.
A numbing breeze passes over him and he shivers through the tattered rags that serve as his only warmth, chilled his hands move instinctively to rub at his tired eyes only to be stopped by stinging sensation in his wrists from the movement, "Gyah!" he cries as he jumps up to stare at cloth bound wrists, tight blood stained and reeking of alcohol.
It's then he remembers the monster or Akuma as he should be properly addressing it.
His neck is bound too he realises when his breathing becomes too deep and it strains the binds
"Don't move too much" Junior hears from his blind side, the exorcist from before was sitting by a crackling fireside the light giving his eyes an eerie purplish pigment. "You lost a lot of blood and there aren't any hospitals nearby."
"I wouldn't go to one of those glorified butchers anyway..." he whispers. There is silence for a short while before the other hands him a skewered fish. He takes it graciously in hand and the small weight of the meal puts great tension on his injury that he has to hold back tears to save his pride.
"You need to eat."
"Thanks." Taking tentative nibbles at the charred carcass he relishes it since it's the first bit of food he's had since he was last with his mentor.
He grimaces at the thought. He hadn't seen the old man for days now and he couldn't just sit around while those akuma things where apparently attacking the area.
He had to leave.
The exorcist seemed rather indifferent of his presence Junior notes as he watches him attack his food like he hadn't eaten in weeks. "So what's your name?" the apprentice bookman asks while fiddling with a bit of loose meat.
There's a pause, like maybe he doesn't want to confide that information to a stranger, Junior can sympathise with that after all he had no intention of using his real name.
"...Kanda." the Japanese youth answers finally.
"Thanks for saving me, Kanda. You can just call me..." he pauses. "...Junior?" he didn't mean to make that sound like such a questioning tone but he supposed it didn't really make a bit of difference. He had other things on his mind after all.
"I have to go."
"No you aren't" Kanda says mouth half filled with fish.
The redhead single jade eye narrows, "Excuse me?" He doesn't quite like the challenging tone and like hell he'd let some 'human' tell him what he can and can't do. Even if he did save his life, a Bookman's first and foremost duty was to his clan and mentor; who he had to find by the way.
"Your too badly wounded you idiot, and I have some questions for you, like why those akuma where asking you about the innocence?" he didn't have time for this game; he didn't even know what innocence was. How did he get caught up in this mess?
"Look at me, does it look like I know what's going on here? Trust me I would've just handed over what they wanted if I had it, I don't know about you but I have a fondness for living."
"You aren't leaving my sight until I get to the bottom of this. Right now-" he takes another bite of his fish. "-You're the primary target to those akuma and they won't stop just because you like living." Just great he sighs setting his head back against the dirt, staring longingly up at the stars,
So this is what it's like to be a prisoner.
To be continued...maybe?
