Thanks to Alphawolf69, lindred, mantikora, and EisWulf for reviewing
Disclaimer: I own nothing
The present
The low-slung black sports car shot through the night with a rumble of power that vibrated all the way to Shizuru's bones. She shifted in the expensive upholstery, breathing in the scent of leather blended with the driver's cologne.
From the corner of one eye, Shizuru watched him. The profile painted in the dashboard's blue light was starkly elegent - regal cheekbones, a strong blade of a nose, an equally aggressive chin. He'd rolled down the driver's side window, allowing the wind of the car's passage to whip his brown hair around his shoulders. He looked at most, no more than a year or two older than she was.
He was her great-grandfather.
"Thanks for coming with me tonight," Shizuru said finally. They were the first words she'd spoken since casting the dimensional gate that had transported them and the car to Kyoto. "It'll mean a lot to him."
He glance at her. "It's my pleasure." His voice was deep, resonant. "I was always fond of Ichirou."
"He worshipped you. I grew up listening to the adventures of Ryuu-sama, vampire knight of the kingdom of Windbloom."
"I did enjoy telling that boy war stories."
Unable to resist the urge to tease, Shizuru grinned. "Ara, Ryuu-sama, how much of it did you make up?"
He didn't bat an eye. "About half. I've lived a very boring life."
"Yes, I'll bet that Queen Midori is a drag. Not to mention all those woman.Ara, ara."
"How's Ichirou doing now?" Ryuu asked, changing the subject.
"Much better. He's the man who raised me again." She smiled at him. "Thanks to you."
Six months before
Shizuru walked through the door of her tiny house feeling as if she'd been beaten. All day long, she'd fought to get food and water into her grandfather, who hadn't eaten in days. He'd met her attempts to feed him with a kind of sullen paranoia that told her more clearly than words that he had no idea who she was.
When Shizuru had tried to cajole one too many times, he'd lifted one big hand. He hadn't actually swung - at least he hadn't fallen that far - but she'd had no choice except to back off.
Though eighty, her grandfather was six inches taller than she was, and he still outweighed her, if only barely. She'd taken care of him at home since he'd been diagnosed five years ago, but his growing belligerence had finally forced her to put him in a nursing home.
Now she collapsed on the sagging living room couch in a haze of exhaustion and worry. Long moments passed as she sat staring blankly at the fire chief's helmet that still held a place of honor on the coffee table. It was all she could do not to cry.
Viola, Ichirou had never once raised a hand to her growing up. If he'd been in his right mind, he'd be horrified at the idea of hitting any woman, especially his granddaughter. Alzheimer's had eaten away so much of his mind. It wouldn't be long before it finally killed his body, too.
Shizuru knew she needed to keep her own strength up, but she didn't feel like eating.
Her heart ached. She missed her grandfather, and she was coming to hate the dying stranger in the nursing home. And she hated herself even more for wishing it was over.
Shizuru rose from the couch and headed for the stairs. In her weariness, it felt as if her feet had turned to cement blocks. She kept going anyway. She had to do something, anything, no matter how insane.
She climbed up to the pitch-black attic and groped for the lightbulb chain. A dull yellow glow clicked on, illuminating boxes of old records, clothing, and a pair of dusty stuffed poodles Ichirou had won her at a festival.
It took her five minutes of searching to find the battered green footlocker. When she spotted it under a box of ancient Christmas decorations, she felt, againts all reason, a spurt of hope.
This was nuts. She knew it was nuts. And yet...it was the only thing left to try.
Kneeling on the dirty floor, Shizuru lifted the stiff, half-rusted lid and looked down into its sixty-year-old contents. Gently, she lifted out the folded Army uniform with its bloodstained cuffs. There, under a battered helmet, she found a long brown box and flipped it open. Stained white silk cradled a small, sword-shaped charm.
Shizuru took the charm out and returned the box to its spot in the locker. Closing a shaking fist tight around the charm, she closed her eyes and began the chant her grandfather had made her say so many times when she was a little girl. The Latin words were difficult to pronounce, and she had no idea what they meant or if they'd do any good, but she said them anyway.
It was the only thing left to do.
When she was finished, she waited. The attic lay still and silent around her filled with dust and the ghosts of childhood happiness.
Nothing happened. She hadn't really thought it would, and yet...
"Granddad..." Shizuru dropped her head on her fist and began to cry, first silent tears, then tearing sobs of grief.
Light flashed, so bright she saw it even through closed eyes. Her tears choked off as her head jerked up.
A shimmering hole had opened in the air. As Shizuru sat frozen in shock and dawning hope, a man stepped through it.
For some reason, she'd thought he'd be dressed in armor, not perfectly ordinary chinos and a red knit shirt that matched his eyes. He cocked his head as he looked down at her. "Hello."
Her mouth worked, but nothing emerged from her shocked vocal chords.
The man leaned down and...sniffed. "Definitely my lineage." He smiled as he straightened. "Are you Ichirou's daughter? I remember giving him that charm."
"G-Granddaughter." She stuttered it. Taking a deep breath, she blurted, "He needs your help."
Ryuu smiled. "He has it."
He'd been as good as his word.
"We're here."
Ryuu's words brought Shizuru out of her reverie about the past. Big hands confident on the wheel - who'd taught him to drive? - Ryuu whipped into the parking lot of a sprawling stucco building. Shizuru escaped the car's luxurious cockpit with a feeling of relief. Painfully conscious of her great-grandfather striding at her heels, she led the way to the facility's gleaming front doors, past the massive stone sign.
Their footsteps rang on marble as they entered a soaring lobby that would have looked at home in a five-star hotel. The only thing that revealed the place's real nature were the huge elevators, each long anough to admit a stretcher and ambulance team. Whe Shizuru hit the elevator call button, one promptly slid open.
As the elevator hummed its way upward, she broke the silence. "The elevator smells a lot better than the one back at Granddad's previous nursing home. There were times I had to hold my breath all the way up and down. Thought I'd pass out before I ever hit the ground floor."
"Yes, I visited one of my children at such a place once, years ago. That's why I suggested we build Santuary to begin with." Ryuu gave her a slight smile. "The witch healer on staff here keeps the residents in much better health."
Shizuru nodded. "She certainly did wonders with Granddad."
The elevator chimed, announcing their arrival on the tenth floor, and the doors slid open. They stepped out to the sounds of laughter and cheerful groans.
Again, Shizuru found herself comparing it with Ichirou's previous nursing home. There, the sitting area had hosted only a single television that seemed to show nothing but reruns of seventies game shows. Dispirited residents sat slumped on a stained couch, watching without much interest.
Here, a brisk game of pool was in progress while residents at other tables played everything from poker to Scrabble. Voices were bright and lively, and there was no scent of sickness in the air.
Shizuru and Ryuu found Ichirou presiding over a pile of poker chips while watching his opponents across his cards. There was such merry cunning in his gaze, tears stung Shizuru's eyes.
When she'd first contacted Ryuu, she'd doubted her grandfather would survive the week. Thanks to Sanctuary's witch healer, he could probably look forward to living another two decades.
Ichirou looked up and saw them. His face lit with a brilliant grin. "Shizuru! Ryuu-sama!" He threw down his hand and rose, aiming the grin at his opponents. "Looks like you boys get to keep your money after all. My family's here!"
As his poker buddies watched with naked envy, he stepped around the table to pump his father's hand and accept Shizuru's kiss. Shizuru was abruptly struck by how alike the two looked - they had the same broad-shouldered build and angular features, though age had blurred the resemblance. She wondered if Ichirou felt the same sense of mental whiplash she did. Anyone looking at them would have thought he was Ryuu's grandfather rather than son.
"Want to go back to my apartment where we can talk?" he suggested.
"I'd love to," Ryuu said, genuine affection in his smile.
"So," Ichirou said as he led the way down the hall, "how's the war going?" He turned a proud smile on Shizuru and dropped his voice. "And how do you like being a witch?"
Shizuru felt her smile go tight. "It's great, Granddad. I'm learning more every day." It's that or die.
"As for the war, it goes much better, Ichirou," Ryuu told him. "In fact, we believe we've found the means to win."
"Yeah? That's fantastic!" He unlocked the door to his neat three-room apartment and gestured them inside.
As they entered the small living room, evidence of Ichirou's proud career was everywhere. His old fire chief's helmet now rested on a bookcase, while the walls were hung with photos of his family and his firefighter buddies.
"Have a seat," Ichirou said. "Want anything, Dad? Shizuru?"
"I'm fine." Shizuru sank down on the comfortable old couch Ichirou had owned longer than she'd been alive.
Her grandfather turned his attention on Ryuu again. "I've got a nice bottle of wine. Or I could make tea."
He sounded so damn normal, gratitude swelled in a warm ball in Shizuru's chest.
Joining her, Ryuu made an elegant gesture of refusal. "Nothing for me, thanks."
"If you change your mind, let me know." Ichirou dropped into his favorite easy chair and fixed them with an eager stare. "So tell me about the war."
For the past six months, the Magekind had been locked in a deadly conflict with the followers of a Suishouguu alien named Obsidian. They'd killed the alien, but before he died, he'd managed to change his psychotic human worshippers into vampires. And in an obvious parody of the rite Mashiro had use, he'd used three so-called black cups to do it.
"There's been a major breakthrough." Ryuu sat forward and braced his elbows on his knees. "We've learned if you destroy one of the cups, the magical backlash kills every vampire that was created by drinking from it."
Understanding lit Ichirou's bright eyes. "So instead of being forced to hunt down five or six thousand evil vampires, all you've gotta do is find the cups."
"Exactly."
The old man blinked, sitting back in his chair. "That's a hell of an improvement."
"That's putting it midly," Shizuru told him. "Hallard-san and her wife already destroyed one of the cups. We just need to get rid of the other two, and we're done."
Ichirou studied Shizuru, his gaze proud. "And you're participating in this hunt now, right?"
She nodded. "We all are."
"Maybe you'll be the one to find it." He turned to Ryuu and beamed. "She always was smart as a whip. I'm so proud of her."
"As am I." Ryuu patted his gnarled hand. "You did well with her, Ichirou. She has a very strong sense of duty."
Shizuru gave them both a smile that felt a little tight. "Ara, you two have me pegged."
Ryuu certainly did. Not long after getting Ichirou into Sanctuary, he'd reappeared in Shizuru's living room. "We're in a war," he'd told her, then went on to describe the battle with Obsidian and his followers. "I petitioned the Witch's Council to grant you Mashiro's Gift, and they've agreed you're a fit candidate. Will you help us?"
She'd stared at him in stunned shock.
It had never occurred to Shizuru that she'd be considered as a Witch candidate. After all, the Council had refused to make her grandfather a Knight sixty years before, despite his wartime heroism. Apparently somebody had concluded it wasn't a good idea.
They'd also refused her mother thirty years later, though that was more understandable. Her mother, a hard-partying seventies wild child, hadn't been the most stable candidate around. Witness the way she'd ended up hitting a tree at sixty-five miles an hour, leaving her daughter to be raised by her parents, since nobody had known who Shizuru's father was.
Shizuru considered herself just as unlikely a candidate for Witch as her mother had been, but evidently the Magekind felt differently.
Not that it mattered. Ryuu had gotten Granddad into Sanctuary. If it meant Shizuru had to embrace her inner cannon fodder in return, she was willing.
The next night, a witch had shown up at Shizuru's apartment. And managed to trigger Mashiro's Gift, the spell in her genetic code Shizuru had inherited from Ryuu.
It had all been like being struck by lightning. One minute she was an ordinary mortal woman. The next, her body had jolted in the grip of the spell, and the power of the Suishouguu had flooded her with its hot savagery, transforming her into an immortal witch.
Actually, 'immortal' was a misnomer. Shizuru would never age, but she was immortal only as long as no one killed her. And these days, there were far too many people in line to do that job.
But at least Ichirou was no longer dying.
Shizuru, Ryuu, and Ichirou chatted easily for another half hour before the elderly mortal could no longer supress his yawns.
Ryuu stood. "Well, we had best return to the Suishouguu. We have a great deal to do."
"I'm sure." Ichirou gave him a longing smile. "You'll come back, though?"
"Of course."
Shizuru kissed her grandfather good night, waited through another handshake, and led the way back to the elevator.
As it descended, Ryuu suddenly spoke. "Was it worth it?"
She flashed back to her last mission, to the bodies and the blood. Not even her years growing up around the smoke and risk of a firehouse had prepared her for anything like that.
Then Shizuru remembered the reborn intelligence in her grandfather's eyes. "Yes,"she said.
AN:
so i decided to take a break from studying, after all i am a lazy person by nature.
I threw in this chapter just to give a little background to how shizuru came to be a 'witch'. I know the story so far is kind of boring, but it will pick up in the next two chapters for sure, so look forward to it.
review?