A Fanfiction Inspired By Blue Exorcist.
I do not own Grimm.
I do own my OC.
VIII
Halloween... My favorite holiday.
Well, considering the fact that Monroe and I had gotten slightly overboard with the decorations, you can say that today was going to be one of the best days of the year. Even though I wouldn't admit it aloud, it was really fun. Even Luciel helped us.
Hell, we even did outside and everything! I even brought in my own Halloween decorations that were used back in Japan. Today, I'll be spending Halloween with Monroe until duty calls since celebrating the holiday in church and all puts a bad name on it...
And it may have been almost noon until we finished, but I couldn't wait to put my costume on. Or well... cosplay. In my family, dressing up for Halloween was and still is a big deal, so before I came to Monroe's house I came equipped with supplies. Oh no, I'm already getting excited to wear it!
"Damn, it needs something..." Monroe said, gesturing to one particular remote controlled decoration that had taken at least half an hour to set up on his porch. "Not an ax or hammer... Like... Oh, of course! I got a Grimm on speed dial!" He pulled out his phone.
"I'm getting dressed." I told him.
He looked at me in confusion, "Dressed?"
"Never too early for Halloween spirit." I stated as I walk back inside.
I heard the Blutbad laugh and shout after me, "Right on!"
Once I had grabbed my backpack, I made a b-line to the bathroom. I rolled my eyes when Luciel managed to slip in before I closed and locked the door.
I dumped out the contents of my backpack, making sure to set aside the unwanted items that were also tucked into it. I started putting on the costume after stripping away my current clothing. The Armor of Altaïr.
The metal portions of the armor appeared to have a gold tint, while the leather portions were black or dark brown. Unlike most chest plates, which are usually made up of a single piece, the chest plate seems to be made up of several overlapping metal guards.
A black cloak accompanied the armor, and seemed to be of a similar cut to the regular Assassin robes. In addition to being black, it was much longer than the one Ezio would normally wear, and was made up of three layers. Each layer was longer than the one above it, and the longest, lower layer was segmented, giving the whole piece a look resembling an eagle's wings
I stared at myself in the mirror.
"Altaïr?! Is that you?!"
Instead of replying to the over dramatic cry, I whipped out a small witch hat and quickly fitted it on Luciel's head as he squealed in surprise. Once his ears poked through the holes, I gave him a once over. "Perfect."
Luciel hissed at me before walking back to the fallen Coal Tar, giving his whole body a wild shake. To his dismay, the hat didn't come off.
I put away my folded clothes before stepping out of the bathroom. I entered the living room, raising my eyebrow at the two voices speaking.
"Woah! Intense..."
"Okay, come here." Monroe motioned the other over to the window. "Come here, come here, come here."
They stood beside him. "Okay, ready? Here goes..." Monroe pulled a small lever. The skeleton on the porch brought it's raised arm down, smashing a pumpkin with the morning star as it laughed. Monroe laughed and clapped. "That's pretty great, right?"
"Poor pumpkin."
The both of them jumped and whipped around to look at me. It was almost comical to see both of their eyes widen in shock along with their jaws dropping slightly. "Holy shit, Juno!"
"Why are you dressed up so early?" Nick asked incredulously.
"I got excited."
"What are you even suppose to be? I mean, you look badass, but..." The clockmaker trailed off.
"Altaïr. From Assassin's Creed."
Nick pointed a finger at me, "You look almost exactly like him. That's amazing!"
Heat rushed up to my cheeks. I quickly turn my head away and hoped to every godly being out there that he didn't notice. My prayers were answered when his phone rang.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck, FUCK.
Nope, this can't be happening. I already deal with shit of my own, but this?
Hell, what she is doesn't bother me, what she does is what gets to me. Right now, I didn't even so much as care for the strange stares I was getting because of my get up. I kept replaying the video over and over again and that flash of pure black eyes was hard to miss from my own perspective.
La Llorona.
"...He says he can't stay here. He needs to find his son." Juliette translated the tall, frantic man inside the interrogation room. She then began to speak to him in Spanish and he responded in obvious relief. "He says he went to go help a woman in the river, and he thought she was drowning, but the next thing he knew she was walking off with his son."
Nick glances over to me when I started to fidget with the fake weapons sewed into the belt weapon holder. "Ask him to describe the woman." He told her.
"Long hair, white dress, didn't see her face. He doesn't know her." She translated.
"Son of a bitch..." I whispered to myself as Hank asked another question.
The Grimm leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Do you know something?"
I forced myself not to shiver at the feeling of his breath brushing against it. I gave a single nod and whispered back, "Not human. Not Wesen. Not demonic."
Once Hank announced that the man had to take them to his home, I spoke up. "I might have something about this. You guys go ahead." I didn't give them a chance to reply before I rushed out, all but sprinting out to get to my motorcycle.
La Llorona is something that's troubled Exorcists for years. Centuries.
I can't allow kids to die for a ghost's selfish needs.
Teke Teke... Kuchisake-onna... El Cucoy... Fatal Fare- AHA!
"La Llorona..." I whispered. Unlike the other Ghosts in this and other books, all the known information is only on one page. I skimmed through it before hurriedly setting it aside to push away others that surrounded me in order to find my phone.
I quickly dialed Nick's number and put it on speaker before placing the book back in front of me on the desk. "Burkhardt."
"You're gonna want to hear this. Hank too."
"We're back in the precinct and we have someone with information about the woman. I'll pass it on."
"Well, write it down if you need to." I cleared my throat and read aloud the kanji, "'Mexico is beautiful, stunning. Just like the bitch La Llorona.'" Nick snorted. "'This town is in a panic, having heard that a weeping woman in a snow white dress fooled a mother, taking away her daughter. My grandfather has witnessed something similar. Three children disappeared and were found dead in the river the next morning. I have asked who exactly La Llorona is to a local bartender. He had told me that La Llorona was a peasant, who had fallen in love with a noble man. They both had three children together and she wanted to marry the man, but he refused. Telling the woman that their children were born out of the wedlock. Desperate, she drowned her children in the river and once again asked if they can marry. He refused once more and married another woman. La Llorona was heartbroken and drowned herself, just like she did with her own children. To this day, every Halloween she takes three children, hoping that the spirits of her children would take their place before drowning them. I see that there is no picture of La Llorona on this page, so maybe I can catch a glimpse and sketch her out.'" I finished. "Nick, the sketch looks exactly like the woman in the video."
I heard a brief silence before Nick was muttering to someone hurriedly. All of a sudden there was a loud scuffling into the speaker before a woman's voice reached my ears. "You know about La Llorona?"
"Who the hell are you?" My face almost twisted into a scowl as my eyebrow twitched. Did she really snatch away Nick's phone? This bi-
"Doesn't matter, I know how we can find the kids."
The annoyance quickly washed away. "I'm on my way."
I hang up and leave the basement to go to my motorcycle.
And no. I did not change out of my costume. If I'm going to be on an investigation on Halloween, then this will suffice in making up for not spending it with Monroe and Luciel.
I pushed my hood down as I entered the precinct and made a b-line to my partners... Only to see them with who I assume was the woman on the phone, and the captain.
"...We have no forensic evidence. Nothing but the bodies of the victims." The woman said as I approached the small group. "Always two boys and a girl between the ages of seven and ten, all drowned."
"How many are we talking about?" Hank asked.
"That's hard to say. I think there's been as many as fifteen, but I don't know for sure. I've been able to document twelve, three in each of the last four years, always before midnight on Halloween. Same pattern, but there could be more. Some kids just disappear and are never found. Some of the bodies wash up miles from where they were taken." She clicks the keyboard to open an image, "This is the only image we have, compiled by a few witnesses."
They all stare at the screen in confusion when another image of the woman appeared, but with a detailed full bodied picture. I put my phone away and announced my presence, "Make that two." I gestured to the new image, "Sketched in the 90s. Three kids missing, found dead in the river next morning. A man saw her take one, but she disappeared before he could catch her. He drew what she looked like."
"They both look like the same woman we're dealing with." Renard said.
"You've all seen this?" She asks.
"Yeah."
Nick walks around to his computer, "I got an iPhone video. It's on my computer."
She comes around and watches it. "Oh my God... That's her."
As if having the same thought, Nick and I made eye contact. Her eyes had changed. High possibility of being Wesen. He asks if she has an I.D, but she denies it saying that there were no fingerprints. She then began showing us the pattern of where each child disappears at a river. Imagine the letter Y. Two go missing on the each of the two lines splitting, and one on the single line.
"You know about La Llorona?" Nick asks her.
She glances at me for a moment. "You know the story?"
"It's a ghost."
"Yes, a ghost story. A mother drowns her three children in revenge because her husband leaves her for a younger woman." She looks over to Hank, "I think our killer believes she's La Llorona."
Nick looks at me, "But didn't you say?..."
"Legends tend to get twisted. They weren't married. The man didn't want to marry her because the kids weren't wedlock. She drowned them and he refused again, marrying another woman. She drowned herself after." I explained, looking over at Hank specifically.
Said man looks over to the woman, "So... we're not after a ghost?"
"Of course not." She shook her head, "She's a dangerous predator, and we must stop her tonight." And just like that... There was another abduction.
I forced myself to not hate La Llorona.
The geezer told me to never hate a Wanderer for the things they do. For we have no idea what they're going through.
"Just spoke to the FBI twenty minutes ago."
"There will be a third child taken."
"And to the captain of the Albuquerque police department." Captain Renard continued.
"We can't afford to waste time." Valentina grits out.
"Apparently, the only Valentina Espinosa they have on file was relieved of duty three years ago."
She gaped for a moment before finally getting out, "We need to find those kids now."
"The FBI wants you held on grounds of impersonating an officer and interfering with a federal investigation."
Hank cuts in. "But, sir, a second child was taken and she was right about that."
"This is now the FBI's case, and they want her back into the precinct." My hands clenched into fists as I glared coldly at the man. The FBI can't do shit, they'll be useless. Honestly, I don't care what happens to Valentina, but we need her for this case if we want to find where the third child will be taken.
"There will be a third child taken." She tried to stay calm, "Just listen to me."
"Put her in the car. Bring her in."
"You don't understand. We have no time for this!" She tried going after him, but Nick was quick to grab her and hold her back.
Valentina struggled in his hold before whipping her head to look at him. I tilted my head as she woged into a type of tiger. Snow tiger maybe? She has a blue tint in her fur... I've never seen a Wesen like her before.
"Don't do something you're gonna regret." Nick told her as she switched her gaze from me to him.
"A Wesen?" Hank asked.
"Yeah."
"A cop Wesen. What kind?"
"I don't know." I just shrugged when they looked at me.
"I'm a Balam." She said, "And you're both Grimms." We stop as she looked at the both us. "You're gonna put me in that car and take me somewhere to kill me."
Nick spun her around so they were properly looking at each other and points at her. "We don't give a damn what you are. We just want those kids back. So we're going to take you to the precinct like the captain said. But if you try anything... He's gonna blow your head off." He nods over to Hank before putting her inside the car.
I sat in the back with Valentina, glad that no one notice that my eyes were comically wide as I stared at Nick a few seconds ago. When he was angry it was just so... so... Cute? No... Exciting? Close enough.
Shaking my head, I look over to the Balam to see that she was staring at me. When our eyes met, she tensed up and quickly looked away. Rolling my eyes, I crossed a leg over the other. "I'm not a Grimm." I suddenly announced through the silence. She looked back at me with furrowed brows so I continued, "I'm an Exorcist. I see Wesen and Demons."
"Demons?..."
"You've lost someone right?" I asked suddenly. This caught the two men's attention as they silently listen.
Valentina gulped thickly and slowly looked away.
I shrugged and leaned back in my seat. "Me too. You have the same look. La Llorona took them didn't they?"
This time she glared at me with glowing yellow eyes. I merely leaned closer and glared as well, "La Llorona is not a mere story. She's real. Troubling Exorcists for centuries." I softened my glare and moved away. "If it wasn't for your help, we might never have figured it out. Maybe I could get rid of her for good."
With that, I looked out of the window. I sighed inaudibly when I heard a sniffle.
"I think I got something."
It's night time. After hearing Valentina's little story about why she was there, we headed straight for Nick's trailer. The trailer where all of his Grimm belongings were, passed down by his aunt. To say that I was excited was the least of it.
That's why the moment I got there, I looked through all of the weapons he had while he and Hank went through books. At first they grumbled about how it would be nice that I helped them, but I ignored them. There was an elephant gun. An elephant gun!
I stood beside Nick as he placed down the worn out book. "That's the ghost isn't it?" Hank said.
"Yep..." He flipped the page and pointed at the name. "La Llorona."
"'Three children were taken from the village on Old Souls Eve.'" He read, "'The men pulled their bodies from the river. All of them drowned.'"
"So... She's gotta be a Wesen, right?"
"No, she's a Wanderer." I said before Nick could answer. They look at me as I continue. "A type of Spirit or Ghost. A Wanderer experiences unbearable emotions before death, and they forever stay in that state until they're brought back to what you all call Heaven. If they're too far gone, they'll go to what you all call Hell and become a Demon. If they don't accept the cause of these emotions, they forever wander Assiah - Earth - in a type of limbo, blind in those feelings. The only way to get rid of a Wanderer is to exorcise them."
"Exorcise?" Hank blanched.
I shook my head, "Not the, 'Let the power of Jesus Christ compel you!' one, the one specifically for Spirits bound to Assiah." I point back at the clothed object on my back with my thumb, "With this."
Nick looked at me strangely, "But I thought you said?..."
I sighed. "I can't unsheath it. I mean, I can, but..." Shaking my head I said, "Listen. I just don't want you all seeing what it does. Seeing what-" I cut myself off again, "Trust me. Okay?"
Seeing the obvious internal struggle I was going through, they let it slide. But I wasn't so sure about Nick.
So this all lead to us bringing Valentina with us to find the children. I was sprinting with them all to the spot where we figured out where La Llorona could be with all of the children.
I grit my teeth when I faintly heard a woman speaking Spanish. Damn, if only I could understand what she was saying. When we finally got to the beach, I narrowed my eyes when I saw three ghostly kids standing in the middle of the river slowly sinking back into the water.
The woman sobbed as she began to guide the children to the water. We all once again began running, the others shouting for her to stop. She whips her head towards us and I scowled at the sight of her face take a representation of her very soul.
Nick was the first to get close enough and tackle the Wanderer into the water. I cursed, running past Hank and Valentina - who were gathering the kids - throwing off the hood of my Assassin Creed costume and diving into the water after them.
I caught the sight of La Llorona grabbing Nick's legs, pulling him back into the water when he was going up for air. As I swam down towards them, he began choking her. I pushed myself to swim faster when he let go the second her face turned back to what seemed like an innocent woman.
With a burst of speed, I grabbed a hold of her hair before she fully disappeared as she sank. She immediately began to panic as the both of us swam up to the surface.
I dragged her by the hair ruthlessly as she clawed at my hand. "Cover their eyes." I demanded as I passed by Valentina and the kids, though confused, she did it anyway.
Once we were fully on the beach, away from the water, I threw her onto the sand so she was kneeling on her knees in front of me. I panted roughly as I took off the red sleeved object, beginning loudly, "La Llorona!.."
She looked up at me with bloody tears falling from her eyes relentlessly. "For years, you've been selfish. In pain. What you have been doing was wrong, but... You couldn't see. You couldn't see because you were lost and hurt. Both by someone else, and yourself." For the first time in a while, I took out what was inside the red cloth.
A katana. The sheath was a deep blue, and had silver decorating the top and bottom. There was some type of thick string tied near the bottom as well, and kanji rested above it. The hilt was silver and was style in an intricate manner. The handle of the hilt was black, but had blue crosses going down it. At the very bottom was more silver with some type of string going through it. The underside of the hilt had kanji as well.
"What- Stop!" Valentina screeched and was about to let go of the children and come after me, but Hank stopped her.
I didn't look away and pointed the sheathed katana at the Wanderer. "I will grant you freedom from Assiah, but your soul must decide on where you go. Gehenna or Koktu. Either become a Demon and serve under Satan... or be with your children."
I stepped forward and knelt down in front of her. More sobs racked her body as I flipped the katana around so I was holding it backwards by the hilt. "Gomeifuku wo Inorimasu. (May you find peace in the next life.)" I said before pressing the underside of the hilt onto her forehead.
Her eyes widen as I kept it there for a moment, before pulling it away, leaving a glowing mark. The mark was the same kanji written on the underside of the hilt. The blinding white glow slowly turned into a light blue, before abruptly consuming her entire body.
I stood as she was turned into nothing, but white and blue sparkles that also disappeared. I turned my back to it and walked towards the water until I was ankle-deep in it. My eyes scan the river before I took a deep breath. Holding my sheathed katana by the top of it, I slammed down the hilt into the water.
Like a wave, a white glow spreads through it. I felt the wind pick up around me as the white glow turned into a light blue before swirling into one area and bursting from the water. I didn't bother shielding my eyes from the bright light as I watched it split into three orbs... and one large white orb appearing behind it.
I tilt my head up to watch them all speed up towards the sky in a frightening speed, before disappearing in a flash of white light that I was sure people from quite a few miles away were able to see.
Suddenly feeling tired, I slid my katana back into the red sleeve and swung it back onto my back. I squeezed the water out of my hair as I walked towards my stunned partners and former cop.
Valentina was the first to talk after gaping at me, "What... was that?"
"...Freedom."
Yay! Another long chapter! Finally, we know what's inside that mysterious red sleeve! Makes me wonder why he would rather be shot than unsheath that sword of his... Hmmm...
Well, I hope you liked this chapter. Should I do some definitions and such at the end of each chapter for every knew creature or place? Like Ghost/Spirit and it's types? Assiah and Gehenna? C'MON GUYS, I CAN'T DECIDE IF YOU'RE SO QUIET! D: