Seven Days of Falling
a fanfiction by andrivette and psychoheidi
chapter three
"Sun Doesn't Rise"
Mukuro hadn't eaten in two days.
It was irresponsible and foolish, but she didn't seem to notice. Her hunger was mainly an invisible factor in light of all that she was facing. The days were hot and the nights were cold but she felt nothing but the torment inside of her.
Mukuro had searched and scoured the terrain for signs of him, signs of anything. It was this voyage she decided to haphazardly make that had done this to him, and when before it seemed so damn important, she now hated herself for starting it. How could she not have known that something like this could happen? She risked the loss of the one man, the one person, that she valued more than anything.
More than even the pain of her past, or the possibility of ending it for others like her.
She cursed herself for not making him stay at the fortress. Why didn't she realize? Why didn't she forget the desire for his company and choose the desire for his safety above all?
She could taste his scent, sharp and creamy spices; she could feel his warmth against her back, or his fist pounding against her body; she could find him when she closed her eyes to sleep.
Mukuro cursed herself because she was not yet willing to face the thought of going on without him.
The forest was gone now, and the terrain had begun to turn into valleys. She felt that she was getting close. She paused to stare at the sky, the glaring orange and red, and looked back down at the grass. There was something black in the distance that she hadn't noticed before.
Mukuro sped up her pace and paused, leaning down to pick it up.
It was Hiei's sword.
After finding that, Mukuro was sure she was getting somewhere. She blew through the area, searching for anything she could find—which turned up to only be more robot parts and tatters of Hiei's clothes.
He had fought them here, and inevitably lost. They had him, somewhere, and she was going to find out where, no matter how long it took.
Mukuro had so far run across three demons, one of which turned out to be passing through, the other two engineers residing their quaintly chosen areas of the Plains. She interrogated, threatened, searched, and even injured, but came away none the wiser on either the robots or Hiei's whereabouts. It seemed that no one around this area had anything to do with what had happened.
Mukuro's temptation to blow the entire plains into oblivion was becoming difficult to keep in check.
It had been three days now, and Mukuro had to force herself to eat and sleep—the former being the most difficult because it seemed in her current mood it was even more difficult to keep anything down. She was hungry and tired and extremely pissed off—but more than that, with every day that passed, she was increasingly bereft.
The loss of him was the loss of the only goodness she had salvaged inside of herself, and the darkness was pooling inside of her, threatening to overtake her.
She couldn't not find him. He was her only hope, her only lifeline, back into the light.
—.—
Night was beginning to fall now—undoubtedly it would be another cold one. After tonight, it would be four days since she had lost Hiei.
Yes, only lost. He wasn't gone. He couldn't be.
After the little sleep she had gotten in the wake of everything she'd done so far, Mukuro was exhausted, and sense was beginning to return. She had to rest, or forsake finding him because she was too weak.
It was when she closed her eyes that she sensed someone coming toward her.
Mukuro stood up, preparing herself. Whatever it was was relatively weak, and so she doubted it would bother her, but she wouldn't let it have any opportunities.
A female demon stumbled into sight over the crest of a hill, her light-brown hair entangled with leaves and twigs. Her clothing was in tatters, but the material was a deep, silky purple, and must have been beautiful at one time. As soon as she spotted Mukuro, her wild eyes grew to the size of saucers and she took off in another direction. Apparently she hadn't been in her right mind to even sense Mukuro's energy.
Mukuro couldn't simply let her go, and darted after her, grabbing one of the girl's wrists. She simply shrieked and growled like a feral cat, flailing and clawing vainly at the metal of Mukuro's mechanical arm. "What're you running from?" Mukuro asked simply, and the girl stopped thrashing for a moment and shot her an incredulous look, but said nothing.
"Are you one of the escaped slaves?" Mukuro questioned. Again the girl said nothing, but this time resumed her struggle. Mukuro raised her arm over her head, and the captured girl's eyes began to well with tears. "I just want answers, damn it, I want to know if you've seen the robots. Where did they come from?"
Finally the girl stopped wriggling enough to stare into Mukuro's eyes, as if deciding whether or not the answers were worth giving, her chest heaving like she was struggling for air. "Yes," she panted. "I escaped. Where the hell am I?"
"The Plains of Shadow," Mukuro answered. "Tell me about the robots."
"Please!" the girl pleaded. "I need to know where to go—before they find me and take me back to her!"
"Answer me first, have you seen the robots?"
The demon girl's lip quivered. "I-I dunno what you mean. I haven't . . . run into anyone, but you."
Mukuro dropped her wrist, and the demon girl rubbed it vigorously.
"I'd go that way," Mukuro said, gesturing to the northeast.
The girl stared at her for a moment, and Mukuro watched her expectantly. "Well?"
"Can I . . ." the girl began, and Mukuro raised her eyebrow. The girl cleared her throat. "Can I stay with you, just for tonight? Until the morning?"
Mukuro considered this. She wasn't normally one to take pity. But this was not something she could simply brush away.
"Yes," she answered, then turned around and began to walk back to where she planned on sleeping.
