Catastrophe at 16, Part 2: The Forever Night (Beyond Broken)
The door opened with a slam.
"Yuu-san!" called out a shaky voice. Mika turned towards the sound before his brother could even move. Even the slightest difference between sounds could mean life and death for unsuspecting humans. For some vampires that had lived for centuries, the noises and sounds that came from the humans were soothing music to their ears, laughing at the sound of the luscious screams. Mika had one time seen a fellow vampire kill a human just because she had started screaming. The high screeching had almost made the golden-haired teen's ears bleed, but he had stared in stunned silence as the human's dead brown eyes stared useless upward, frozen in fear as her life blood seeped from the terrible wound in her throat.
Mika had gotten used to the voices belonging to the humans that were Yuu-chan's "family." It took some getting used to, such a difference from the low tones of his hated species. If he had been human, his ears would have rushed from blood that would have surged through his eardrums. But the undead cells remained the same. However, it didn't mean that what Mika had heard was anything different than what a human could sense.
He heard barely contained fear in Saotome Yoichi's voice.
The said human was panting, his eyes wide and his brown hair in disarray. Behind him was a shadow of a figure. Instead of dark colors, the figure was clothed in white. Mika recognized her instantly, even though she did not show her face.
Chiuu…the human said to be raised by vampires…
"Yuu-san, Mika-san, General Shinya said something was wrong with Lieutenant Colonel Ichinose, and to come and get you immediately!"
The teen vampire stilled. His mind flashed back to when Ichinose Guren lost control of his inner demon. If that would happen again, then Yuu-chan would definitely be in danger.
Without a pause for breath as Yuu-chan shouted Ichinose Guren's name in alarm, Mika ran forward past the humans and started to run along the modern hallways of the Ichinose ancestor home. Even with his vampire speed, it took Mika several moments to find a route in order to get out of the house. His feet, normally hardly making a sound, echoed achingly hard against the veranda in his ears as the stench of fear almost overwhelmed him. One...two…three Mika counted in his head. …Seven! A growl echoed in his throat before he realized it as the teenage vampire recognized Ferid's smug and calm emotions among the chaotic humans. With his superior eyesight, the golden-haired vampire could easily see the naked fear and panic in their faces. The silver-haired vampire was standing behind the humans, farther away as the members of Ichinose Guren's squad continued calling their leader's name.
"Ferid." Mika's voice was calm despite the tension palpating in his body. "What's going on?"
Ferid remained uncharacteristically quiet. His eyes remained closed to the much younger vampire, and Mika turned to observe the situation. Unlike before when Ichinose Guren had become a Nanamari, the area was eerily still. There was no voice belonging to the human hauntingly mocking and eyes red like a vampire's. There were no bodies strewn on the ground, blood leaking out of the wounds that had killed them. The branch-like chains that had pierced their bodies with their blood and screams were nowhere to be seen. Mika recognized the human in the front of the others. The uniform that he wore was the same, although the emotions emitting from the human with almost snow-white hair were different.
Instead of suffocating horror and despair, there was shock…and confusion.
"Guren?" whispered the human. Mika stepped closer towards the humans, who seemed too stunned to notice they were in the presence of a vampire. His eyes widened, stunned crimson orbs staring at the figure before the general of the Imperial Japanese Dragon Army.
The tall vile human that had manipulated Yuu-chan and the reason why the Apocalypse had occurred had disappeared. A dark curl stood up against the dark hair that covered the head. Large violet eyes peeked through the bangs of his hair. Mika's breathing stilled as he saw the plump cheeks of a child. A black shirt and pants covered him.
His eyes had none of the distance the monster was capable of. Instead, there was only a tragic look in those large eyes.
It was as if Ichinose Guren had been transformed into a child.
But why? Mika thought as he saw the miniature form of Ichinose Guren. It doesn't make any sense.
"Guren?" The human named Hiiragi Shinya whispered. Mika could feel his shock and anxiety come off in waves. The vampire stared at the human, reaching almost for the emotions hidden beneath the ones most obvious, but his thoughts derailed at the sound that came from the demon.
"Shin...ya?" The voice was almost inaudible, soft and high. A cold feeling enveloped Mika's chest when he realized that somehow, Ichinose Guren had de-aged and had become a child. Swollen tears began to build in the child's eyes, and the large violet eyes slammed shut as the small body began to suddenly shake. "Shinya?"
"I'm…I'm here, Guren." Mika sensed that the human wanted to touch the child version of Ichinose Guren but retained self-control at the last second.
"Shinya, I'm sorry." Tears began to fall rapidly from the child's eyes, creating a small wet spot in the grass where his tears fell. The child's eyes suddenly snapped open and pushed his forehead into the human's leg.
"You weren't supposed to know…that you died!"
Before Hiiragi Shinya could answer the small trembling child, heavy despair and agony burned in the child's voice.
"Everyone died. Everyone!" With every word that tore from his tormented lips, the desperation and pure pain became louder and louder. "S-sayuri. Shigure…Mito." With every name that he spoke, Mika felt a sharp stab of pain inside his stomach at the shock and horror from the members of Ichinose Guren's squad. It felt as if his heart was being pulled, and his mind blending into nothingness at the empty gaping hole that Ichinose Guren felt as he repeated the names of his…comrades.
"…G-goshi. And y-you." Perhaps it was because the form of Ichinose Guren was a child, but the horror of the agony and the weeping hole of the bleeding heart caused Mika to almost collapse as he felt the pain. His pain distorted as wounds dug into his mind, flashes of that night burning into his mind. He heard a teenage Guren screaming, saw the bodies of Sayuri, Shigure, Mito, and Goshi fall as Hiiragi Mahiru broke their necks. There was no blood. Mika didn't know why he expected blood to fall. Perhaps he had seen so much of it that the vampire inside of him instantly expected that it death only came with blood.
No... Mike thought as he saw Guren desperately trying to save Shigure, with massive internal organ damage and broken ribs. Blood was coated against her mouth.
The last words of Goshi was of the name belonging to the person he hated more than himself.
"AHHHH!"
Screams. Broken...just broken. Unending pain.
The only sounds were of five necks breaking.
The blond teen could feel control slipping away from him moment by moment as the echoes of Ichinose Guren's screams destroyed his sensitive ears. His breathing halted as he heard a silky voice, empty and toying at the same time.
"Do you hate me, Guren?"
Mika didn't have to be a vampire who could see the devastation and despair in Guren's eyes to see that the teen's heart was –
Why did she kill them? Mika thought numbly as Ichinose Guren's memories burned into his retinas. The agony of eight long years were so vivid and raw were drowning out the senses in his mind, his red eyes still so sensitive to whatever this was…that he could feel the hell that his enemy had gone through.
A ragged cry tore at his ears, and Mika almost tore a ligament by of how fast he turned his body. The small child – no, Ichinose Guren – was crying onto Hiiragi Shinya's leg, his tiny hands grasping the loose pant legs tightly and banging his forehead on his adult friend's body.
The violet-eyed child was speaking too quickly for a human child to speak. It was a feverish pitch, words almost incomprehensible. Mika stared as Shinya's and the other humans' faces morphed into horror as their faces paled. The human with honey-colored hair started to shout Guren's name desperately, tears welling in her eyes as Mika realized of what Guren was saying.
The sixteen year old could see two of the same age as he, eight years ago, lying on the ground. The other had dark hair and was clutching someone bleeding in his arms. The other… Mika had to stop himself from biting his mouth enough to draw blood as he felt the agony from both of the teens. One, dying and the other unfortunately living. Mika recognized the almost snow-white hair that belonged to Shinya. A deep chest wound still bleeding marked the cause of death. He was speaking to the hunched form of his friend, Guren, but Mika didn't hear the words they exchanged.
He felt everything they felt that night.
Mika could understand the emotions they felt, because somehow…the differences between them had ceased to exist. There was so much pain that made up Guren. So much of it that Mika couldn't even speak. There didn't seem to be a word to describe it. He stared worthlessly as his crimson eyes stared into the abyss of agony and despair within the dead beating heart.
Love. Love caused both young men to speak. But… Mika thought as he gritted his teeth. You will never know how much I enjoyed your company, Guren. The pure fondness and adoration that Shinya had for Guren almost pressed the lungs out of Mika's ribcage. The bittersweet smile he held inside as the human was happy that the last image and last words he had was with the boy he was in love with.
Kimi o…
Guren was so desperate to save Shinya. Mika could hear it in his voice. The expression frozen in his face, in his eyes made Mika's despair at never finding Yuu-chan laughably pale in comparison. Guren would do anything to save Shinya. There was so much blood this time.
It was obvious. Shinya had been stabbed repeatedly six times.
But that was the hardest part.
Knowing of what would happen.
The tears fell from Guren's eyes.
Shinya was telling Guren not to cry.
Suddenly, Mika could not see the memory of eight years past as his world – or, wherever he was – became bathed in red. It was a dark crimson and a thick liquid that the vampire would normally crave despite his urge to rather die than consume it. Instead of soothing however, the blood became a nightmare.
Too many words and voices for the golden-haired vampire to differentiate…to understand as they came drowned in screams. Where did they come from? Why were the voices of the humans that he knew were standing where his physical body was aching in his eardrums?
…His entire self?
At last, when Mika thought he could take no more, he heard them.
Hyakuya Mikaela heard the beautiful and tragic voice of Hiiragi Mahiru.
「生きる意味ってなに?」
Why, indeed. Mika thought. Too many times late at night, when he was a half-vampire and could still sleep, to as a full vampire wandering in circles in his tormented mind, did he think the same.
Was it the same for her? Hiiragi Mahiru, the vampire who had slaughtered Ichinose Guren's friends, and the reason for this insanity?
Did she ask herself why she lived?
「だめだ!」
「止まれ,」Mika whispered. He didn't know who was speaking. If it was the sixteen year old human, or the vampire who was hearing the tragedy whispering in his ears. 「止まれ!」The vampire screamed then, the deaths of Guren's friends playing in his mind.
Of the blood splattered across the floor as Guren held Shinya, his best friend and realizing too late he was in love with the dying young human.
「止めて…!痛い…痛いよ。」Stop...! Mika gasped inside as he realized that the voice shouting in his mind was his own, his own too-damaged voice as deep-buried memories surfaced. It was as if he was a five year-old child, again wanting his father to stop beating him but not knowing how. It hurts... the child-Mika thought with his voice, pitiful voice. It hurts so much...
「…生きる意味が、あったよ。君に会えて。で、逃げずに、甘ちゃんのまま、死ぬ。これ、一周回って僕の勝ちじゃないか?」
Shinya and Guren had promised to live and win together. But...
I used to think I knew what my reason for living was. I thought about Yuu-chan all the time, so I thought… My reason for living in that hell in the Underground City, after our family died. My reason for going on missions, to see if I could find him.
My reason for accepting his blood and becoming a hated vampire.
For continuing to live this hated existence.
Is that all it is…? Is Yuu-chan the only reason I continue to live?
But now…after seeing them…I don't know what to think anymore.
What is truly…my reason for living?
"Mika, Mika," came a sing-song voice. Vaguely, the half-aware vampire could feel fingers covering his eyes. "Don't faint on us now, Mika."
"…Why?" A stunned, faint rasp tore from his dry mouth. All Mika wanted to do was to run away, but he felt Ferid's sharp fingernails dig slightly in his eyelids.
Mika's hair rose when he felt Ferid's nails caress his hair, almost as if he was the child he was in the Underground City again.
"He's closer to becoming a demon now, Guren is." There was an inhumane joy in Ferid's tone. "That will be messy, but so fun! The last time…I had this much fun…was when this happened to," and this time Mika felt Ferid's breath against his hair, using every ounce of self-control to not rip off Ferid's arm.
"To Krul Tepes."
「…生きる意味が、あったよ。君に会えて。で、逃げずに、甘ちゃんのまま、死ぬ。これ、一周回って僕の勝ちじゃないか?」
My reason for living was you. When I met you. So, without running away and sweet as it is, I will die. This, is this my win? (Translation rights go to Z-chan.)
