A/N: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, d7 - oneshot

Anime-verse because no-one said Rikiga and Inukashi ever realised Shion wasn't dead anymore xd

deliverance and miracles

The streets were unnaturally crowded. It's the Holy Day, after all, but it had taken on a new meaning since Shion and Nezumi blew apart the sky. More Nezumi than Shion, probably. Shion was too kind.

Nezumi on the other hand was too cruel, to squander the life Shion had so clearly again saved.

Inukashi spat curses still. Rikiga walked slightly ahead, silent. Number 6 looked as though the windows had finally opened and let the wind in. People in stiff bland suits mixing with those in even duller rags. The pair of them weaved through that crowd, searching…

Or perhaps Inukashi wasn't searching at all. They were simply following.

Rikiga wondered why he was searching at all. The opportunity to see Karan was coloured red by the news he'd inevitably have to give her, and yet he was still here, still searching –

Ah, there it was: the faint cry of "Shion! Shion!" in the distance.

He followed the shouts. Inukashi tensed as they grew closer. They heard too. They, too, guessed who was calling, and for who.

'Karan,' Rikiga whispered.

The woman had short brown hair and brown eyes… but Shion hadn't always had his white hair and red eyes.

She had sharp hearing too apparently, because she turned to Rikiga's whisper. 'Rikiga.'

'Karan,' Rikiga repeated.

'Get on with it,' Inukashi muttered. They hung back awkwardly. Rikiga rushed forward awkwardly. None of that mattered when the woman – Karan – almost bawled them over. 'Rikiga! Shion! Did you meet Shion?'

'Shion,' Rikiga repeated. He swallowed the first bit of tears that came with the name. They soon spilled over.

Karan backed away. 'No…' She was whispering now. 'No. Oh gods, please no.'

'I'm sorry.' Rikiga bowed his head. 'Eve was being stubborn, so we couldn't… even bring…'

'Try it from the top, old man.' Inukashi's eyes stung as they rolled them. Shion wasn't their friend. In this world of deceit and survival, their only friends were their dogs. But Shion wasn't like that. And what they'd done today… 'And Nezumi may be an idiot in love but I'm sure he did everything possible to save Shion. He was… someone worth protecting after all.'

'Shion was… an angel.'

'I told you,' Inukashi muttered. 'Angels don't force babies on others.' The baby… Shion wouldn't be coming back for the baby. They sighed. 'I don't even know how to care for a baby.'

Karan watched the pair of them, eyes brimming with tears and confusion. 'I don't understand,' she said. 'Eve? Nezumi? A baby? Shion? Where's Shion?'

'Shion is dead,' Inukashi said bluntly, before Rikiga could attempt to waffle again. He spluttered anyway. 'Shot straight in the chest. And Nezumi is the guy who rescued Shion from this place. The two of them stormed the Correctional Facility –'

'Safu.' Karan's hands closed into fists. Inside them were those tiny letters: from Nezumi, and from Shion. 'To rescue Safu.' She stared at the pair of them. 'Where's Safu? Where's this Nezumi?'

'We… never saw Safu,' said Rikiga. 'I don't know what happened. Whether they found her or not… And we tried to carry Shion away, but Nezumi chose to stay. They're back at the Correctional Facility but…

'Place blew sky high,' Inukashi snapped. 'Nezumi is as good as dead by now.'

They could see the smoke colouring the sky from here. Karan, who hadn't seen any of it, could still imagine it.

She crumbled where she stood, still gripping something. 'I killed him… and I killed Nezumi too.'

Rikiga and Inukashi exchanged glances. That explained how Nezumi had known, at least. But Shion…

'Shion found Safu's coat,' Rikiga confessed. 'It wouldn't have mattered if you got a message to him or not. He would've gone anyway. But with Eve, he went in with the best chance of success.'

'Well, Nezumi succeeded,' Inukashi muttered. 'I'm sure he was glad to blow the place up. He's always wanted to rip No. 6 into shreds.'

'Inukashi!' Rikiga scolded.

'What?' they asked.

It didn't matter anyway. Karan wasn't listening. Not even to her own name, coming closer.

'Ms Karan! Ms Karan!'

Rikiga's eyes were only on Karan. In another time, Inukashi might've muttered something about how gross that was, but they only scanned the crowd. There was a little girl weaving through the crowd. A cute little girl who looked a little like their contact: that janitor. He'd mentioned a daughter, so maybe she was it. And holding onto her, being tugged along, was… 'Shion!'

Rikiga and Karan's heads snapped towards her. Inukashi just pointed, open-mouth. Because that little girl was dragging Shion towards them. Shion with the baby in his arms and one of her dogs and one of Nezumi's mice following them both, and blood having soaked his white shirt half-red.

There was even a bullet hole over his heart. He'd been dead, then, when they'd dragged the pair out of the facility. A bullet straight through the heart. Instant kill.

A good way to die, as far as everything went. And no doubt Nezumi had sung for him anyway.

Still, there was no way in hell Shion was still alive.

And yet there he was, tickling the baby when it fussed, smiling at the little girl tugging at his hand, looking up for whatever reason and smiling wider than they'd ever seen at the sight of them. 'Mum!'

'Shion!' Karan was on her feet in a flash, stumbling towards them. 'Shion! You're here!'

'I found big brother Shion!' the girl cheered.

Inukashi and Rikiga just gaped at them. 'H-how?' Rikiga stuttered.

'How?' Inukashi demanded, once the mother and son had finally separated. 'You were dead. Dead as a doornail dead.'

Shion's spare hand traced the hole in his shirt. 'It was Elyurias,' he said quietly. 'Or Safu. They wanted to show me what this place looked like with the wall turn down.' He turned. The wall was still visible, but shattered. But the people of No. 6 and the West District mingled. 'It's… a really long story. But first, I want to go home.'

'Yes,' Karan agreed, cutting across Inukashi's "what the hell is Elyurias?". She kept an arm wrapped around Shion still, as though he might disappear again. Maybe she didn't care about the details, now that Shion was before her. Or maybe she did. 'Let's go home.'

'There's lots of sweets,' said the little girl. 'Ms Karan was baking all morning for the Holy Day, and I helped!'

'Did you Lili?' Shion smiled. 'You're growing up.'

'Yup,' she said proudly. 'I've even got a little sister on the way.'

'Let's all go,' Karan said. 'Rikiga, and…'

'Inukashi,' Inukashi supplied.

'Inukashi,' Karan repeated. 'Let's all go and eat cherry tart and drink hot cocoa and talk.'

They moved like that. Lili skipping ahead with the dog and mouse, leading the way. Shion and Karan, arm in arm, walking behind. A mystified Rikiga and Inukashi bringing up the rear.

'Any ideas on what this Elyurias is?' Rikiga asked.

'A god, maybe,' shrugged Inukashi. 'How else do you explain the dead coming back to life?'

'A ghost?' Rikiga asked. He didn't seem to like the idea though.

Our ghosts are our own,' said Inukashi. 'They don't get dragged in by little girls or my dog.'

'Your dog dragged in a baby,' Rikiga grinned suddenly. 'But you're right. Shion is right there. I wonder if this means Eve survived too.'

'He probably went off somewhere. After all, the wall surrounding No. 6 is gone so he's essentially destroyed this place. He ain't going to stay around.'

'He won't even stay for Shion, huh.' The mouse was there though, chirping from its perch on the dog's head. Maybe that was a promise. Maybe that was nothing. 'He'd die with Shion but he won't live with him.' Rikiga shook his head. 'I don't get that Eve.'

'Not our problem anymore.' Inukashi walked faster. 'Come on. I want some of that cherry tart. And I'm sure you want to oogle at that woman too.'

'Hey,' Rikiga protested. 'Sure, Karan's as beautiful as she always was and Shion's an absolute angel, but this isn't the time for that.'

'Of course, you're a reporter. You'd rather know about Elyurias, right?' Inukashi watched Shion. He walked as though he hadn't been shot at all. As though his shirt wasn't caked in blood. She wondered how long that would last though. They'd no idea what he and Nezumi had faced inside that facility, except they'd come out without Safu and they'd come covered in bullets: dead and near dead respectively. 'It doesn't even matter. If anyone was going to get a miracle, it'd be an idiot like Shion, right?'

Rikiga snorted. 'Shion and Eve: the kind miracle worker and the cold-hearted genius. No wonder they wrangled us into their mess.'

'No wonder they actually pulled it off.' Inukashi shook their head. 'I mean, we did say nothing short of a miracle… and here it is: a miracle.'

The wall between the West District and No 6. had vanished. And despite where Safu was, where Nezumi was, Shion at least was home again.