Two men, wearing priestly outfits meet in a dark room. The slits of the room's windows illuminating the small space they occupied, they sat at a single, small table. It was covered in scattered documents, the two men, both in their elder years, whitening hair and thinning hairlines; stare at each other in a tense silence.
"How is the progress, Brother Arkam?" The thinner of the men asked.
"Not very well, we have been unable to locate any of the targets. After Agent Ciel's dismissal, we have not been able to locate her. The Tohno's also elude us, we last tracked their whereabouts to upper Honshu but that was weeks ago." The larger man replied.
"What of the Kiru's daughter?" The man said, his face tensing.
"We haven't been able to locate her since her father's death. It is as though she has disappeared off the face of the Earth." Arkam said, looking nervous.
The man stood up and put his hands together and smiled. "Do not worry, Brother Arkam. She is no longer a problem. You may discontinue your search for her."
Arkam slowly nodded. "That is good news. But what happened to her?"
"She was betrayed…"
Ruro kept running, she leapt from rooftop to rooftop among the downtown buildings had been over a month since her father's death, and the Church had labeled all involved as heretics, ordering the executions of all involved but Ciel.
'Ciel will probably be dismissed then tortured, a pity.' Ruro thought to herself as she fled.
Ruro then reminded herself of her task, she had to escape whoever was following her. She had sensed someone following her a while back and began to run; she knew they were probably Church assassins. But rather than just keep revealing herself, she chose to flee.
And she kept fleeing, ten minutes of hopping the rooftops when she stopped, she knew it was useless. There seemed to be many.
"Fine, this is enough. Show yourselves." She announced loudly to the darkness around her.
She simply stood; wearing her cat suit-like outfit that she had wore for so many years. Her eyes darted around the darkness looking for movement.
But eventually she saw a shadow, then two, then four, then 10…
In all, 15 shadows emerged from the darkness.
Ruro smirked at one of them, as his face became clear.
"Gardo, you still yet live."
"Yes, Ume, did you think the Church or your father could hold us back for so long?" the tall, thin man said.
His skin was pale white, his fangs were abnormally large, his head was shaven and adorned with numerous tattoos shaped like odd symbols. He was wearing what appeared to be leather pants and an open black shirt which seemed oversized for him. It carried numerous emblems in Chinese on it.
"I assume you lead this rabble of Soekis?" Ruro retorted.
Gardo walked slowly forward, his green eyes becoming clear to Ruro. With an arrogant smile and tone, he began.
"Ruro Ume, you are a threat to us. And to our Masters, you already unleashed that terror upon the entire Ancestor race when you unlocked that boy's power. You have a choice to make, you either help us exterminate that boy, or we kill you here."
One of the other Soeki, whose flesh dangled from his body, came forward. He looked similar to the Undead except his eye glowed pure red. He had a sick smile on his face as his discolored tongue licked what was left of his lips. He was covered in a tattered white button-up shirt and blue jeans; they were caked black and red with blood.
Ruro smiled wickedly, tensing her arms up. "You already know my answer."
"Then you know the result." Gardo says as he snaps his fingers.
At that instance, the other Soeki rushed forward and Ruro dropped into a defensive stance. The first to reach her was the rotting Soeki. Ruro swung her arm toward him and connected, with her forearm, against the side of his face.
A sick cracked filled the air as teeth went flying from the Soeki's mouth, along with the Soeki itself. Several other Soeki reached hey and all were repelled in a similar fashion. Single devastating blows to their bodies, Ruro never even seemed to break a sweat during it.
The only Soeki who did not charge was Gardo, who stood by and watched, his head tilted and his smirk still intact.
Ruro relaxed her stance a bit and turned her head to Gardo.
"Is this all the Kiru have?" She said calmly.
"No, I'm still here." As he finished he dashed at Ruro. Ruro simply fell back into stance and prepared for an attack.
Gardo's punch was simply blocked by Ruro, Gardo tried another punch, moving forward, to which Ruro simply parried his movement with Ruro stepping aside as he went by her.
Gardo stumbled forward as Ruro simply watched him.
He gave out a low growl and turned around.
"Having a bit of trouble?" Ruro said emotionlessly.
Gardo responded with quick sidekick, which was blocked by Ruro's wide open hand.
"You little bitch… Why can't just die? Why do you just get stronger?!" He yelled, pulled his leg back and jumping away.
Ruro crossed her arms in front of her chest with an emotionless face.
"Your Kiru is dead! This shouldn't be." Gardo said to himself.
"I live by my own terms now, Gardo, rather than simply living off of someone more powerful than me. Like a parasite. I set my own limitations." She replied, never breaking from her icy appearance.
Suddenly, Ruro turned to find the decomposing Soeki lunging at her, its fangs bearing out. Ruro stopped its lunge in an instant with a quick jab to the Soeki's chest that sent it flying backwards onto the ground, blood spraying from its mouth.
But before she could turn and face Gardo again. She felt two chains wrap around her biceps, followed by a piercing pain.
Sickle blades on chains had wrapped around her biceps and dug their points deep into her arm. Blood was running down her arm as the pain rushed to her head.
She gasps quietly and attempted to pull free but it just made them dig ever deeper into her so she stopped.
"So, Ume, how does it feel to be at a disadvantage again?" Gardo said with a laugh.
The chains emanated from two holes in his forearms. They seemed to impossibly been stored there this whole time.
He wrapped the chains around his hands and pulled back, dragging the resisting Ruro toward him.
"I can see why your father loved you." He said with a very low voice.
Ruro said nothing, simply trying to keep her ground as she kept getting pulled toward Gardo.
He stopped pulling the chains and pulled the down.
"Kneel, girl!" He commanded.
Ruro didn't obey and Gardo yanked the chains several more times. They strike the ground several times from the force.
Ruro grits her teeth soon and falls to her knees.
"Good! But now," He said as he approached Ruro's back. "You must die."
Gardo put his foot on Ruro's back, pushing her forcefully as he yanked the chains back as hard as he could.
Ruro's arms were spread wide open and back as Gardo continued to pull her arms back and push his foot forward.
"I'm going to break you, Ume, like you should have been long ago!" he shouted.
Ume growled, eventually slowly pulling her arms more and more forward. They both grunted as they strained against each other, the chains began to creak and rattle under the stress.
One of the links on one of the chains snapped and began to bend slowly apart.
"Nobody will ever break me!" Ruro yelled as she broke one of the chains. In a flash, she was standing and swung the loose chain still on her arm against the other chain, snapping the already stressed steel.
Gardo quickly stumbled back, falling onto the ground. He sat up; Ruro slowly started walking toward her enemy, the chains hanging from her arms dragging against the ground. Her eyes were glowing, her body was tense and she was bearing her teeth.
"Nobody will ever chain me again." She growled.
Gardo's arrogance was gone; it was replaced by fear and anxiety. He began to scoot backwards in an attempt to gain distance from Ruro.
"Stay away!" He shouted in an increasingly unsteady voice. "You monster, stay back!"
"You dare try to tame me, you idiot? You think you can stop me?!" She roared and the spirit that had been lying within her for so long, her anger, her impulse to kill, and her desire to destroy all that opposed her. It had returned with a terrible vengeance. And her eyes carried the terrible color of a Kiru, of one who had lost touch with their higher plane of thinking, of one who simply gives into base impulses.
Ruro has succumbed to that which she had feared the most for so long: The urge to feed and to kill.
Ruro laughed softly, noticing some of the other Soeki had begun to recover. Ruro turned her attention to the other Soeki, beating them mercilessly with the chains that were stuck to her arms and with her fists and feet. She beat them without mercy or regard.
And the laughter echoed through the night, Gardo watched as the Soeki's were utterly beaten and some killed. One particular Soeki had the displeasure of having his entire head cut clean in two, along with his torso.
And after Ruro was finished with the other Soeki, after they had either been killed or beaten to a pulp. She turned her eyes to her original prey: Gardo.
Gardo, by now, had stood up. He was shaking visibly; he had just seen the systematic beating of 14 Soeki under his command.
And her he stood, staring at the woman who had committed the violence. She began to approach him again, her menacing glare never leaving him as she walked. A twisted smile covered her lips as the only sounds that came with her were her footsteps and the screeching of the chains on the ground. She looked like a terrible demon from the bowels of Hell, her body was caked in blood, and her face was covered as well. And in the darkness, it seemed the chains glowed red from the sheer amount of blood on and dripping off of them.
Gardo felt nothing to lose at this point and rushed at her, his fist at the ready. But it never had a chance; it never had a chance to begin moving forward.
Ruro had shot a chain up from off the ground and into Gardo's face. Slashing it terribly and sending him falling backwards. He tried to right himself into a suitable position but felt a chain slam into the side of his head with such force he lost consciousness. The hit left a spatter of blood on the ground beside him.
Ruro continued whipping and kicking Gardo without mercy or relent. Blood pools expanded under and around the limp body of the Soeki, blood flew all over Ruro's body and on the ground around them.
Ruro simply could not stop beating him. She was panting heavily when she finally ceased. Most of Gardo's body was covered in blood and cut deeply; the pool of blood was larger than Gardo's whole body at this point.
Ruro collapsed onto her knees and stared at the blood intently.
"So... Thirsty." She muttered to herself as her face lowered toward the blood.
Ruro's eye shot wide open when she heard the sound of something cutting through the air. Before she could gauge her surroundings she felt a terrible pain in her neck and fell to the side.
Her neck had been pierced by a flying sword; it went clean through her neck. She could hear the blood streaming from her neck onto the ground.
She heard someone land softly on the ground nearby then walk toward her.
"So, you have failed to restrict your own impulses...?" The voice sounded sad. But the voice was familiar.
Ruro managed to make out a fuzzy face stand over her as her vision began to fail her
Ruro realized who it was and screamed. "Ciel, you traitor, you betrayed me!"
She swung a chain up and hit Ciel in the face. She let out a small cry and covered her now bloody face with her hand.
In her other hand she held a Black Key, staring at Ruro, whose vision began to go black.
"I'm sorry, Ruro… But you are too dangerous now." Ciel said, her voice quivering as she thrust the sword through Ruro's skull, piercing through the back.
Ruro's eyes widened and glistened, the life from the finally draining out; she managed to give a slight pleading look at Ciel before her eyes slowly closed, for the final time.
Ciel slowly walked away from Ruro's now lifeless body, but soon collapsed to her knees, blood still pouring from her face.
"Ruro, I'm so sorry." She said, as her tears began to flow. "All this time… You fought against him. And now you were finally free… Free to be yourself, but in the end you were still Kiru."
Ciel slowly stood up, giving one last glance back at her body.
"Maybe, when I see you again, you can forgive me…"