A note for readers of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro: I didn't really change Kuro for this story. Most people wouldn't view Kuro as a fighter (and Kuro really isn't a fighter), but the one time Kuro did "fight" was against an old man called the Fibber Baron (The Liar Baron in this story). In that very short fight, Kuro threw a coffin (filled with bats, mind you) directly into the man's face. That demonstrates a LOT of strength, especially considering Kuro's size.

I'm not apologizing.

Part Ten

Blood and Shadows

Kuro flicked her eyes between the boy and the twins shining on the pavement.

She looked down at the twins. As she looked back up, Crona was dead ahead, his thin black sword in mid-throw. Kuro ducked out of the way and rolled low along the ground. Kuro's eyes flicked back to the twins. Almost there, Kuro thought.

Crona appeared behind her, plucking the sword out of the air and slashing violently. The blade emitted a high screech, loud enough to make itself vibrate in Crona's hand.

Kuro blinked.

The blade pierced Kuro's left shoulder, shearing through sinew and steely blood alike. A part of her mind apart from the pain was analyzing this. What's happening? I should be untouched!

The blade withdrew from Kuro's shoulder. Crona whirled away, slashing at Kuro's neck as he went. A second later, he advanced, slicing with the sword so swiftly the air sang as it passed.

Black liquid was pouring from Kuro's shoulder, but Kuro's blood was finally solidifying, making her joint a stiff ache. "What was that? How did you hurt me?!" she shouted in confusion.

Crona didn't hear her. He was absorbed in his own raging fear.

Kuro looked up to the twins. "NOW!" she screamed. Nijuku leaped to her left hand, Sanju to her right.

Nijuku was transformed into a piece of cloth, thin but heavy. Sanju shifted into a massive hammer, with a spike behind the hammerhead and a hard, leathery grip. They both shimmered joyously, smiling without movement.

Forgive me, you two, Kuro thought.

For what? they chimed simultaneously.

"This might hurt," Kuro said. Her left hand blurred into motion, catching Crona's arm with Nijuku and wrapping around it in a heavy knot. With her other hand, Kuro took a mighty swing with Sanju, catching Crona in the right shoulder.

Crona quickly ripped at Nijuku's cloth, trying to extract his arm with his now-numb fingers. Nijuku held firm, laughing wildly. Crona backpedalled, sword arm still tangled in dense fabric. Ragnarok was yelling "Switch hands! Switch hands!"

Ragnarok disappeared from Crona's hand in a purple nimbus of energy.

Kuro stepped in, dropping Nijuku and tackling Crona before the insanely-grinning fool could restore the weapon. Nijuku turned back into a little girl, and jumped gleefully into the fray. Crona saw the shining child leaping at him, quickly conjured the black sword.

The noises in the square abruptly stopped, silenced by an otherworldly scream.

Impaled on the sword was a shining girl. Blood leaked out along the blade that pierced her chest.

Kuro played it back in her mind, repeating over and over what had just happened. Nijuku, laughing as the sword plowed through her. Sanju, giggling in unison. The purple-haired warrior, stabbing the blade automatically at the harmless child. Blood flowing down the sword and dripping heavily onto the scorching pavement. Nijuku, Sanju, sword, blood, Nijuku, Sanju, sword, blood-

"GAAAAAAAAAAH!" Kuro threw back her head, letting loose an unearthly wail of pure fury. Crona froze. Kuro whipped her head back at him, glaring with infinite rage.

She hissed. "You are about to die. Pray it's quick."

As she pronounced this, Kuro flung her head back and roughly tore Crona's collar open with one hand. Crona made no move, frozen in sheer panic. Kuro frantically pried Crona's fingers open, then grabbed the sword that had stabbed Nijuku and flung it aside, ignoring its fantastic weight.

Kuro was only peripherally aware of what she was doing. The rest of her mind was focused on a mantra: KILL HIM. HURT HIM AS HE HURT YOU. KILL. KILL.

She plunged her face into the boy's throat, ripping viciously with snapping teeth and roaring when she had to breathe. Black blood splattered against the wall across the street and poured heavily toward the rain gutters. Crona stirred, trying to focus, trying to harden his blood. Nothing happened.

It was only then he screamed. He screamed helplessly, voice trembling with terror. He tried to speak, stuttering badly. "Wh-wh-wh-what d-d-di-did you d-do?!" He screamed again.

The calculating half of Kuro's mind tried to form the question as a sentence, despite her body's desperate need to kill this murdering black-blood. Slowly, eyes clearing through a mist of oil-colored blood, she said, "I've had training to... master the ways of... killing witchblood. I have... witchblood of my own." After this brief statement, the girl's eyes misted over and she started slashing at his throat with her bare hands.

A voice hung in the air. It wasn't a loud voice, or a high voice, and it didn't have any qualities that would make it so noteworthy most of the time. Even so, it rang in Kuro's ear, saying, "Shady-chan, it hurts..."

Kuro snapped into life. She got to her feet, tripping over herself as she rushed to Nijuku's side.

"I'm so sorry, I'm sorry Nijuku, please don't die, don't die!" Kuro blurted. Nijuku smiled as she grabbed at the blade she hung from, slowly climbing up the edge. She stopped a few times to lick her fingers clean of her blood, then indomitably forging on. Finally, with an accommodating pop, Nijuku leaped off of Ragnarok, staring up to Kuro expectantly.

Kuro stared, struggling to say something. She settled for a laugh, and another. "You idiot!" she yelled. "Don't scare me like that!" Kuro playfully bopped Nijuku on the head.

"Ow!" Nijuku said. Painful and happy, happy hurting, she thought blissfully. The twins looked around. "Why ink on the walls? What happened? Why ink on purple girl?" they asked.

"Later. We should go," Kuro said hurriedly.

Doctor Stein, who had been trying to follow the source of the screaming, saw none of this. He rounded the corner of his normal life and emerged into a nightmare.

Black blood and tiny chunks of ripped flesh dripped from the buildings, bleaching the rock black. A crowd of people stood in a pool of the inky fluid, staining the sidewalk one shoeprint at a time.

"Out of the way!" he shouted. The crowd parted at the word of Death Scythe. At the end of the corridor made by the motions, the traveler kneeled next to Crona, whispering something. He stood up, turned and walked away.

As the traveler left, Stein saw Crona's throat. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was almost like a wolf attacked him, but it made NO SENSE. Not only was Crona infinitely more deadly than a wolf, even if a wolf got the jump on him it would've broken its teeth! Yet here he was, neck ripped apart and lying in a pool of blood wider than the Death Room.

Stein gripped the traveler as he passed. "Whuh... What happened? What happened here?!"

The traveler flinched at his touch. He hesitated. "He...got in a fight. Someone made his blood flow. I don't know how, black blood doesn't flow if it doesn't want to. Make sure he gets a lot of liquids, and some raw meat if it doesn't heal in a few days."

For once in his life, Stein was flustered. "How do you know about this? Who are you?!"

Kuro looked up at him, a face full of innocence. One drop of black blood slid down her chin. "I'm just a traveler."