DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN OWARI NO SERAPH.

Note: Advanced apologies for the OOC's.

SERAPH: THE BEGINNING 10
"Shinoa!" Yuu shouted when he saw her in the infirmary. Rushing to her side, he takes her hand and she opened her eyes to see him with a worried face. "Y- You're back.. Guren saved you... I'm glad."

"Yuu..."

"I was beginning to worry- I- I don't want to lose you."

"Why are you being like this after a month? It's creeping me out." the girl teased and Yuu couldn't be anymore happier to have heard her jokes and comments again. But it was hard to hide the face he's showing right now. "What's wrong?"

"I've been doing a lot of thinking ever since Mika and Mitsuba were together, and-"

"Micchan and who now?" Shinoa asked for confirmation. "For real?"

"Yes. A lot happened when you were gone and... and I'm happy for them." Yuu said with a smile. He can visualize a happy Mika and a blushing Mitsuba together. The two are happy together. "Every time I see them together I feel empty."

"You're jealous, aren't you?" she tried to guess.

"No, I uh... I feel that I want to also be with someone." he says and Shinoa had a feeling what he was trying to say.

"Yuu-"

"I'm not saying that you and I will be together like them. You being by my side is already enough for me." he says. "I.. I am happy when I'm with you and I'd cry every night because of the dreams I'd have about you dying."

"So you're saying I'm alive?"

"You've alive now, aren't you?" he said and looked Shinoa in the eyes. Realizing now that slowly Shinoa's figure was turning to ashes. "No wait! Please don't go! SHINOA!"

Yuu!

YUU!

"Huh? WHAT?!" Yuu woke up in a panic and Kimizuki had to hold him down because of it.

"You okay? Don't tell me you're feeling cold feet now?" Kimizuki asked.

"This is the real deal Yuu, are you sure you're okay?" Mitsuba asked, also concerned for Yuu who's been quiet ever since they started their travel. Mika was right beside Mitsuba and Yuu stared at them for a moment before looking away.

"I- I'm fine. I just didn't get much sleep."

"Are you having nightmares?"

"Just a bad dream."

Days had passed since the meeting, the troops that were briefed to do the assault on Nagoya had gathered at the checkpoint and begin their attack.

Yuu and the others were walking behind Narumi's squad to position themselves for the ambush of their target. While walking, Yuu had been thinking since last night... he had a nightmare last night and now he had another one.

Shinoa can't be dead.. she... I know she's fighting to live.

"Hey." Mika elbowed him gently to get his attention. "Everything is going to be fine."

"I believe that.. I mean I want to, but... what if I face reality?" Yuu started and Mika stopped on his tracks to face him. Yoichi and the others stopped walking as well. "Because it seems to me that reality keeps punching me in the face that she's dead. And I've been just lying to myself."

"If you say that then it means everyone else here are taking the blow for you." Mika shot back at him. "We all want to believe she's alive and we all have doubts. But nothing good is gonna come out of us just letting our nightmares take over us."

"Yuu, she's going to come back. I can feel it." Kimizuki speaks. "Our squad is not called Shinoa Hiragi Squad for the title."

"She'll kick our asses if we stain her name and the name of her squad and you know it." Mitsuba added.

"I think she'd also enjoy pranking Mika and Mitsuba when she gets back too." Yoichi added and Mitsuba blushes but could not believe that Yoichi was saying these things when usually he'd keep quiet about it.

Yuu smiled at his friends before turning back to Mika.

"Let's cling with the good memories we have with her." Mika told Yuu. He doesn't know her well or much like he does know the rest, but he was sure she was a person he'd want to meet soon.

"You're right... I'm sorry for even being a dick for a second there." Yuu said and everyone laughed. 'I'm interested to know how she'll react if she discovers about her formations and how well she'll weigh to reject them!"

"She'll reject yours and you know it."

"Darn it!"

When Yuu was in a better mood, everyone was glad and was about to run after the Narumi Squad but suddenly, Yuu blocked their path with an energetic aura and happy face.

"What now Yuu?"

"The Shinoa Hiragi Squad will live through this and we will return victorious." Yuu stated. "Everyone must promise that."

"No one's dying."

"Heh, as if you expect me to miss the fun?"

"That's a promise I can keep."

"We'll see this until the end."

"Make sure you promise yourself, Yuu."

Yuu beamed at them and threw his fist in the air, the rest of his teammates following his lead. "LET'S DO THIS!"

Guren and his team were running inside the city hall with Shinya who was in front with him. Guren has been running around without giving direct orders and all they do was follow him. Shinya was their best bet for an explanation.

"So... ready to tell us where we're going yet?" Shinya probed. "I mean, we're supposed to be after Crowley Eusford, you know?"

"We are."

"And how exactly do you know where he is?" Shinya asked.

"I just do."

Little did they know, Guren was following an apparition of Mahiru who was leading the way to where Crowley was. Mito wanted to complain but Shinya said he'd handle the questioning. Sayuri and Shigure kept quiet because sooner or later they'll find out anyways. Goshi just smiled as he followed Guren's lead.

Turning one sharp turn to the right, Guren suddenly halted, resulting for Shinya to bump into his back and Mito bumping on Shinya's back. Sayuri and Shigure were able to halt in time while Goshi casually walked into the room.

Guren looked around, seeing Crowley in the center of the room with a civilian lying down the floor. There was a bag over the civilian's head, hands tied behind its back, ankles tied together and a big tattered cloak over it.

"Did we interrupt you on your meal?" Guren asked, trying to start a conversation with the vampire. Crowley who was stepping on the wounded civilian removed his foot from the civilian's head and smiled.

"It's actually me just throwing off trash. But now that living livestock is here maybe you can handle the garbage for me."

"Sorry we don't clean up your mess after you eat. But we will bill you for ordering such exquisite package." Guren played along with him.

"Alright, put the bill on my tab. You know who I am." was Crowley's only reply as he stormed off the room. Mito and Shinya waited for Guren's instructions who shook his head and they did not pursue him.

Guren walked towards the civilian with a sigh. "Man, another dead one to bury." he whined.

"Last time you said that, the kid we got was still alive." Shinya reminded him. "And we almost buried him alive."

"It was dark that time." Guren countered as he knelt down to remove the bag from over the civilian's head, seeing that it was no ordinary civilian. His eyes widened as his body froze in shock.

So did his comrades.

"Is that...?"

"Is she still alive?"

Guren responded to their questions and checked her pulse but was bothered to the swelling in the girl's neck and felt the bite marks so deep that he knew at once that she was bitten once or twice. He felt a slight pulse from her.

"She's still alive." Guren said softly.

"Goodness! How can she survive the nobles for over a month now?" Goshi wondered aloud.

Hesitant to see what's under the cloak, Guren swallowed and took the courage to see what she's endured for the past month. Lifting the cloak off her, he saw the tattered JIDA uniform unbuttoned and that her once fair white skin was now covered in black and yellow bruises, bite marks and dried blood.

He quickly covered her with the cloak and shut his eyes for a moment to think.

"What do you plan on doing?" Shinya asked, being able to read what's on his mind.

"It's best if she just get this over with." Guren says, now opening his eyes to remove his jacket and put if over Shinoa.

"If we kill her then all the suffering she endured would be for nothing." Shinya tells him in case he hadn't thought of it. "Plus you made a promise to the kids that you'd return her."

"Like this?" Guren carried the girl in his arms, the girl's legs visible to Shinya and the others. "How do you think Yuu will react to this? She's halfway dead."

"She didn't die in the hands of the vampires only to die in our hands." Shinya tried to argue.

"Well it's our pride to have been killed by our kind than theirs."

Mito and Goshi turned to each other before one of them decided to speak. "Guren, please think this through. You've been sending us to secretly scout for her location. And you've been lying to the kids about rescuing her. And now that we got her back, the least we can do is tell them she's alive."

"Until when?" Guren asked them. He was hurt by this like any of them are. And he knows that the fact he was deeply hurt and angry right now means that Yuu will feel the same. He cannot risk that.

"She won't die by anyone's hands." Kureto said as he approached them.

Guren was caught in surprise that Kureto Hiragi came out of nowhere.

"What are you doing here? You said you wouldn't be here until two days." Guren said, suspicious of Kureto arriving in time and being able to witness everything without anyone noticing him.

"I asked Aoi to follow you around because you've been fishy. The moment you had the chance to pursue Crowley, you didn't and instead you got Shinoa back." Kureto summed it up for him. "And since every noble was killed except Crowley Eusford, I think it's enough compensation that you hand that soldier to us for interrogation."

"You want to interrogate her when she's critically injured?" Guren bellowed.

"Better than killing her off without asking anything." Kureto decided to play his game. "It's time that she acts like a Hiragi for once and be of use to us."

"The least you can do for her is give her time to recover and wake up where her friends are waiting for her." Guren tried to negotiate.

"The only request I'd grant for her is to treat her wounds and still keep her name." Kureto however does not want to easily agree to Guren's negotiation. "And if you want me to grant that request is if you tell her friends she's dead."

"What?"

"The only way they'd stop looking for her is to tell them straight. She's dead. And you wouldn't have to worry about them asking you the same thing everyday or you having the lie to them everyday." Kureto offered instead.

"If I tell them she's dead, it's the same as lying to them."

"Like you said, she's a dead man walking. She's only alive to give us the information we need. You won't be lying when that time comes." Kureto pressed.

"And if she doesn't die?" Guren attempted a blackmail, to which, Kureto responses calmly.

"Then you tell them you found her and they meet. Do we have a deal, Guren?"