Dull lifeless orbs stare back at me as I leaned against the alley wall right next to the limp form.
It felt weird. Staring at that tan face, devoid of its ever present confident smirk. A look of utter shock was frozen in its place instead. Blood had trickled down the side of that face, from a wound received to the head. It had dried up by now.
I look at the bloodied silver sword and numerous black puddles surrounding the body and a frustrated sigh escapes my lips.
"Damn it all!"
I heard the silent unsteady sound of footfalls. Looking in the direction of its source, I spot a boy around the age of six, making his way over to where I was.
"You shouldn't be here, kid," I told him silently, watching him as he cautiously approached the limp form lying at a distance of just a couple of feet from me.
Curiosity overcame his fear as he crouched down, poking the lifeless body.
"Hey, mister, why are you sweeping here?" he asked with a slight lisp.
Apparently, he had not heard my voice. With a heavy sigh, I decided to watch what he would do.
He reached over and poked once again.
With a slight thud, the object on the receiving end of the little poke fell to its side.
Giving a surprised cry, the boy jumped to his feet, whirled around, and ran out of the place.
I kept looking in the direction he had vanished for quite some time, vaguely wondering how long it would be before someone else came looking.
My answer came in the form of an eighteen year old couple walking into the dark alley, hand in hand as the time neared sunset.
They began making out as soon as they were off the road.
A new question popped up in my head. How long till they notice the body?
It seemed, I didn't have to wait for long since only after a couple of kisses as the boy had pulled back, his red-headed girlfriend had turned her head in my direction.
I could see her body tense up only a few seconds after squinting through the darkness.
"Oh my god!" I heard her gasp in horror as her hands flew to her mouth. Her dark-haired boyfriend looked up to her face and followed the line of her sight. Only to turn chalk white at seeing what she was staring at.
"Call 911," the girl managed to get out.
The youth nodded dumbly before pulling out a contraption called the cell phone.
He spoke into it in urgent tones, casting wide-eyed, scared glances in my direction every now and then.
Soon enough an ambulance arrived, passerby's stopping at the sound of the commotion, curious to see what was going on.
Despite the din they were creating, I heard them.
The soft and timid questioning voice of that girl, the smiling yet equally curious answer of that kid, a gentle and kind-hearted laughter of their supposed guardian and the shrill sound of their mascot and pet.
I heard them all loud and clear above all the other noises- the wailing sirens of the ambulance, the hysterically sobbing red-head and the frustrated raven-head's explanation to the cops.
My eyes settled on a group of four drifting near the edges of the crowd, talking in their happy, ignorant expression. They had no idea.
Not yet anyway.
It was the kid who saw it first- that cold, mangled, lifeless and bloody body. I saw him freeze up, the color drain from his face as his eyes widened in an expression of shock.
Even when the girl beside him asked what the matter was, he remained unmoving. Standing there as though he had been sculpted out of ice.
Next was their mentor, the blond one. Pushing past the crowd, in a trance like state, he moved closer. His face was frozen in a look of disbelief, lower lip trembling ever so slightly as he fell to his knees right next to me, choked, strangling sounds forming in his throat as he tried to from a word. Any word.
I heard, the green-eyed girl gasp, tears welling up in those huge, innocent eyes as her hands flew to her mouth.
"K-Kur… Kurogane…?" It was the white rabbit like creature that managed to speak. Though it was evident from its squeaky little voice that it refused to believe what it saw.
"I guess even the mighty have to fall one day," I said dully, looking back at the source of their horror.
There was a gaping hole in the chest. Blood, having long since flowed out and congealed up. The eyes remained open, unseeing, unmoving. The skin, once a tan, having now turned almost grey… pale… ashen…limbs and digits frozen…
With a sigh, I picked myself off of the grimy alley floor, walking over to the group of four now bent over the body. Casting a look over my shoulder, I realized that everyone else was just watching. Not even the medics or the cops were coming any closer.
Looking back at the four I had come to consider family, I felt a strange suffocating, smothering feeling grip at my heart.
The princess was sobbing into the kid's chest while the manju whimpered right next to my face. The mage…
Well, the mage's expression was unreadable, his bangs obscuring his face completely from my point of vantage. Though I could see his clenched fists and his limbs quivering lightly.
My mind reeled around eight hours back. Back when I had first seen myself.
The first thought that had run through my mind had been, Shit!
I had tried everything I could think of. Poking, prodding, shouting, yelling, cursing, hitting… nothing seemed to have worked.
My hands flew right through the people I had tried touch. My words unheard, my face unseen.
After several long hours, acceptance had wormed its way into my mind.
I still wasn't quite sure what had happened but one thing was clear as hell.
I was dead.
Period.
After some time, the officers moved in closer, moving them away from my corpse as they taped off the area, chalked it, and prodded my body as though I were some sort of specimen. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they covered my ghastly face with a tarp, throwing me on a stretcher and sliding me into the back of the ambulance.
Fay, even though if he was annoying as hell and still very closed up, was the man who I had come to look upon as my brother and my best friend over this crazy journey.
The blond bent down to retrieve my fallen, bloodstained sword.
Funny thing really, that the cops overlooked that piece of evidence. (Note the sarcasm)
I was finally able to see his face as he raised his head and stared at the silently crying children.
A single tear had trailed down his face, though now it was set in fierce determination. A strange emotion I had never before seen lurking in his cold, steely blue eyes.
"Kuro-tan was…" he trailed off, unable to voice his thoughts since maybe he felt that doing so would be the final proclamation of my death.
I watched them in complete silence, knowing they wouldn't be able to hear me anyway as one by one, they wiped their eyes. I could see the same emotion flickering in their eye's as I had with the mage.
"Fay-san," the small, sniffing sound of the princess was the first to break the silence.
"I know," he answered the unasked question.
"Fay-san," this time it was the kid who had spoken.
The next words that came out of Fay's mouth was a phrase, one statement uttered in silence, disappearing into this dark alleyway that was going to be the catalyst to trigger a string of events that would prove more damaging then prosperous.
Worry gripped at my heart for the safety of the ones who I cared about as I watched the blond magician. His face set in a ferocious resolve, one I had normally witnessed on the face of my apprentice as he seemed to look right at me.
"Don't worry," he whispered quietly, his fingers tightening their grip around the hilt of my sword. "We'll get him… The one who did this… We'll make him pay."
-0-
A/N: Okay, so I finally killed Kurogane. Man I have one twisted mind. Maybe I should change my name to …
Nah. Way too long for my taste. ;)
Hope you enjoyed reading it since I sure did enjoy writing it.
Please leave a review.
PS. I know Sakura can see spirits but let's just ignore that little fact for the sake of this fic, ok?