Chapter 9: Reasons Why
{Office of LT. Colonel Ichinose Guren: July 3rd, 2020, 9:25am}
"Sayuri?" the brunette looked towards Guren who was settled at his desk, reading through a few files.
"Yes, sir?" she asked as she turned to face him, and the man smiled.
"How are things going with our newest recruits?" the woman sighed.
"Saotome is coming along well, his Sentry ability is still a tad shaky, and he lacks some confidence; however, he is faring well. From what I've been seeing from taking over yesterday, all of them have quite a skill set already, and both Hyakuya brothers are doing well, but when it comes to Kimizuki Shiho…" the man frowned.
"What about him?" he asked.
"He's going to be a non-physical type. Both Yuuichiro and Mikaela are capable of physical and non-physical forms of their gifts, and Saotome Yoichi is a physical type… however, Kimizuki Shiho is still lacking greatly and cannot manifest his powers properly. Given time, he should be able to do better, but it'll be up to him." The Lieutenant Colonel sighed.
"I had a feeling… I want you to be a bit harder on Saotome, I'll continue handling Mikaela and Kimizuki, and as for Yuuichiro, I think Shinoa has it under control," he stated as the woman rose an eyebrow.
"Shinoa? Sir, I know that by them working together it will aid in their teamwork; however, having Shinoa train Yuuichiro, may not…" Guren smiled.
"Didn't you know Sayuri? Shinoa's fallen in love with a fallen angel." The brunette gaped momentarily.
"They're… dating?" her voice came out shocked, and Guren laughed a bit.
"Don't sound so surprised, the two of us raised Yuuichiro, so it shouldn't surprise us that someone has the hots for him," he laughed and Sayuri sent him a sour look.
"You aren't going to spread nasty rumors around, are you? Lieutenant Colonel Ichinose Guren!" the man shook his head at that.
"Na, it's high time the brat got a date. I keep telling him that he needs to get laid and he'll not be so high strung…" Sayuri flushed.
"Guren! That's rude!" she scolded.
"I'm kidding Sayuri… you know how it is… besides, they're not being open about it with everyone else… when they are though, I'm going to take my dear sweet time to embarrass him…" the woman frowned.
"Why? I think its sweet that Yuuichiro has finally taken interest in someone… it means he's growing up," she stated as she sorted a few papers.
"Because, as a parental figure, it's my job to embarrass my kids…" he took a draw off his cigarette before extinguishing it in the ash tray.
"Mikaela doesn't have a girlfriend though, so you'd only be doing that to Yuuichiro," Sayuri pointed out as Guren let a look of mock horror appear on his face.
"Oh no! What ever will I do?! Oh, I know! I'll embarrass the youngest times two until the other gets a girlfriend." The brunette woman gave a defeated sigh as she shook her head.
"What am I going to do with you?" she pondered aloud as the sound of a chair moving caught her attention before she was turned around as the man's arm wrapped around her waist.
"Adore me like you always do, that's what you can do with me… and help me with the paper work…" Sayuri laughed, rolling her eyes before Guren leaned in to give the girl a kiss.
"You're still such a rogue Guren, but…" the woman slipped out of his arms and towards the door, causing him to look at her in surprise.
"Hey! At least let me kiss my girlfriend!" Sayuri winked.
"You can give me a kiss when you decide not to torment Yuuichiro to much, m'kay? Goodnight! Have fun with the paper work!" with that the woman left the room and Guren gave a wiry grin.
"That's my woman… damn… now I have all this paper work on my hands…" he looked at the towering stack sitting beside his desk and sighed.
"Guess this is a good enough punishment for thinking that those two boys could ever be just normal teenagers… well, I tried at least." With that, one Ichinose Guren set to face his greatest challenge yet: paper work.
{Training Hall: July 4th, 2020, 10:00am}
Guren sighed as he looked at the group before him, comprised of Yuuichiro, Mikaela, Yoichi, Kimizuki, and Shinoa. Sayuri was standing beside him, a pleasant smile upon her face as he looked them over. Shinoa and Yuuichiro had been training when he arrived, and he was quite impressed by how much control his youngest brat had gained on his gift since he had begun training with Shinoa twice a day; however, he was still having fever spikes, and would be incredibly exhausted afterwards, but it was still progress nonetheless. The twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant Colonel, had wanted to address them on how things would be going now that they were members of the Moon Demon Company, and that there was a waiting period – which he was certain they were well aware of already – he also wanted to let them know that he had scouted and placed a sixth member to their team; however, right now, he was more concerned with seeing how training was progressing with a certain trio since he had been out of the office for a few days to deal with some personal issues that related to an annoying arrow-browed smartness, and another who was his best friend.
"Alright, listen up brats!" he called as he took note of the expression that his youngest was wearing, it spoke volumes to him, but at the time, he didn't quite frankly care.
"What do you want now Colonel smartass?" Guren looked to the black-haired boy and sighed once more, knowing that the statement was an indicator that Yuuichiro had an extremely short fuse today, and it would be wise to not to tip the scales.
"Firstly, I wanted to say good work on your training, brat! Shinoa, keep up the work with him. He's getting stronger with his Psychometry, and you need to stay on top of it; however, do let him rest a bit today, he looks like he might fall over," Guren stated as the boy shot him a withering glare.
"Neurotic blowhard…" the Lieutenant Colonel took in one more deep breath.
"You raised him, you raised him, you know how he gets… try to remember that before you strangle him… or you do something, and he bites you again…"
"Anyway… does someone want to explain the ill mood to me?" Guren questioned as Mika looked to him.
"They got up really early this morning… five, or so… and you know that Yuu isn't much of a morning person." The blonde received a long look.
"Figures I get stuck with someone who trains to hard and are as irritable as a hornet's nest… Yuuichiro? You are on break until evening! When I'm done explaining a few things, you are to eat something, and get some sleep," he ordered.
"Why would I do that?! I'm fine." Guren glared.
"That's an order, Yuu… no complaints. Mika, you are to see to it," he stated.
"Yes, sir…" the black-haired boy glared.
"Am I clear? Hyakuya?" the Lieutenant inquired as the boy took in a deep breath.
"Fine…" Shinoa smiled a bit as Guren rolled his eyes.
"Okay, listen. Recently, Sayuri informed me of how training is going with everyone, and I am looking mainly at Kimizuki Shiho, and Saotome Yoichi. Mikaela, you need to endurance train so that you can be prepared to activate the Psychometric ability when the opportunity to copy comes up…. am I clear?" the blonde nodded.
"Yes, sir." Guren looked to the other two while Yuu and Shinoa stood side by side, while his youngest was giving him a slightly perturbed expression.
"He's irritated because he's at that age… he's rebellious, but powerful and he's gonna have to learn that because he has so much power, he has a great responsibility… and now I sound like a comic book… I need a brandy after this…" Guren thought in dismay.
"Kimizuki? Saotome? The two of you have abilities that are what we classify under a type known as psychic because your power is within the mental realm, as most powers are, Psychometry, is a psychic-physical type of Gift," the two gave him a blank expression.
"Ummm…" Yoichi gave a nervous laugh and Guren rubbed his temples.
"Yea…. One brandy and a migraine pill if you please…" he thought.
"Okay, do either of you know how the types work when it comes to people who possess gifts or abilities work?" he inquired and the two shook their head.
"We've read some of it, but… well…" Sayuri smiled.
"It's fine, I can explain. There are four types of Gifts in a setting, and under those types, can be different forms of what we call attributes. The four types are Psychic, Physical, Render and Dichotomy. Under those four types, are the attributes, Psychic Gift users can use gifts such as Psychometry, Spiritism, Sentry, Circuit, Exact, Quip, and several others," she stated.
"Okay… so, Psychometry is what Yuu and Mika have, but what are the others?" Sayuri smiled to the teenagers before her.
"Spiritism, is the use of talismans and objects to weaponize your powers, meaning its connected to some extent to that item. Sentry, is a Psychic type that allows you to produce a shield around yourself or others from close or long distances… it also can be used as a weapon, but is mostly a defensive type Gift. That is the gift that you possess Saotome," she explained as the brunette gaped at her.
"I-I know… but… it's very weak…" she shook her head as Mika piped in.
"There is no weak Gift, the user is merely uneducated on how to use it. That is the first thing you need to learn, right Yuu?" the black-haired boy shrugged.
"He's right, for instance, Elemental is a Dichotomy type Gift and can control all elements, but it's incredibly unstable and can only be controlled if the user allows themselves to delve deeply into their personal self. It requires constant understanding of who you are and your powers… otherwise, you lose control," he said, arms crossed as Yoichi glanced down.
"What about the others?" Sayuri looked to Kimizuki.
"Your Gift is known as Circuit, and is electrical in basis, and quite useful for attacking… however, similar to Elemental, you have to be in control of your emotions, or it gets out of hand quickly. Exact, is a type where you can temporarily copy a portion of a person's abilities; however, it is extremely exhausting and can only be used in twenty-minute intervals without proper training. It's like the little brother to Psychometry, but the copy isn't permanent," she explained while Shinoa hummed.
"I get it, so someone could copy the powers of a vampire, but only for a short time frame… but is there a way to make it permanent?" Sayuri glanced down at that.
"Yes, there is… but the cost is severe… you see, the reason we wanted to discuss this with all of you is to inform you that no matter what, no matter how much training or time and effort you put in with these gifts, they have their limits, and they have a price to be paid because of what they can do to you physically, mentally, and emotionally… just remember that," the woman said calmly while Yuu and Mika glanced to one another.
"What's Quip exactly?" Guren smiled at that.
"Quip, is the ability to manipulate metal. It allows you to… essentially equip it to yourself, or to actively strike back with it. It has a sister ability in the same type setting known as Lock, which is a matter manipulation ability; however, it depends on the person as to how great that manipulation is," he stated.
"What about the physical ones?" Sayuri hummed before Shinoa smiled.
"I know about this one, Sonnet, Shield, Dverg, Astra, and Helm are the ones under the physical-type setting. Sonnet is the ability to use song or spoken word to influence emotions, behavior, mental states, and physical states of a person, Shield is the ability to produce a shield of energy from the life force of the person, some people can even do this with their bones or their very bodies. Next, is Astra, which allows the person to sort of... become a ghost… they can turn invisible, become intangible, and even hover a bit. They can also possess people…" she told them while they stared, somewhat surprised.
"Whoa… okay… so… what is Helm?" Guren smiled.
"Physical strength, the person is basically able to be as strong if not stronger than the Greek demi-god Heracles, if you want a good example," he informed them of this, and Kimizuki gawked momentarily.
"That's pretty cool… so, there are a lot of different attributes, right? But it seems like Psychic has the most…" Sayuri shook her head.
"No, actually, Dichotomy has the greatest diversity, and many of these attributes have sister attributes in the other types. Sonica is a form of Sonnet, but far more destructive as it has no healing or soothing abilities. Dichotomy is an offense only type and rarely are they friendly," she replied to Kimizuki's statement, causing the pink-haired teenager to gawk.
"O-kay then…" Guren held up a small set of books.
"If you want more information on the Gifts and how they work, read these. I want you well versed in them before you leave here for the field. There are several people out there with these abilities and you may have to team up with them or even go against them. Now, get going, you have work to do brats!" he said as he put the booklets in Mika's hands and walked off, muttering about migraines while Sayuri shook her head.
"Read up on them, and if you have questions just ask one of us okay?" she asked as she started to leave.
"Um… alright…" with that the door of the training hall closed behind the woman and Kimizuki looked to Mika who handed a booklet to Shinoa while Yuuichiro grabbed it and flipped through the pages in a manner that almost seemed bored.
"I didn't know it was that extensive," Yoichi admitted.
"Me neither… um… what is this one under Render? Rec?" Yuuichiro looked to the brunette.
"It means Recovery or Revival, it's the ability to revive a person from the dead. It's one of the rarest forms of a gift and the people who use it are incredibly dangerous as they can both give and take life… there are four known in the world as of now, one in Japan, one in Italy, one in Germany, and one in America," he explained as he put the book into his backpack and started to pull it on.
"Where are you going? Don't we need to study this?" the boy shrugged.
"If you wanna sit here all day, be my guest… in the meantime I think I'm gonna go and head home…" with that the boy headed for the door and Mika sighed before looking at the others.
"You know, if you want… you guys can come over," he stated as Shinoa, Kimizuki, and Yoichi looked to one another.
"Actually, that sounds like a good idea…"
{Apartments: 1:15pm}
Emerald eyes looked at the group lying in the living room, discussing information in the booklet that Guren had given them as he tended to the tea kettle on the stove. Mika was helping him with making lunch for everyone seeing as they were all working on trying to pinpoint the information and memorize it. Due to them having several abilities, or Gifts both Yuuichiro and Mika had read the information plenty of times and didn't honestly have to read again unless they'd added a new gift that had popped up over the course of a few months, which, wasn't entirely possible. Shinoa had begun quizzing the other two boys on a few details of the Gift known as Pensive before the two brothers had begun setting soup and sandwiches down on the table for them to start eating.
"Argh! Pensive is the gift that allows you to read the person's mind…" Shinoa shook her head.
"Nope, try again," she said as Kimizuki buried his face into a pillow and Mika smiled as he leaned over the back of the sofa.
"What's wrong Kimizuki? Did you get a bit fumbled? You only got that one half right." The pink-haired teenager glared.
"Then you tell me, please, what is Pensive?" he inquired Yuuichiro shrugged as Mika glanced back to him.
"It's the Gift that allows the User to read a person's emotions, sense the changes in their mood, and read their thoughts; however, that's only if it's well-honed. It's one of the easiest Gifts to train and one of the more common, one-third of the population has it to some extent." Yoichi laughed a bit.
"Something told me it was that," he said as Kimizuki glared.
"Are you telling me you knew that?! We're supposed to work together man!" the brunette laughed.
"Well, I thought you figuring it out on your own would be a good exercise for you…" Yuu snickered a bit as he sat down the tea pot and Kimizuki glared.
"Hey!" the black-haired boy shrugged.
"Yoichi is right, you should try to handle it alone," he stated as he smiled.
"How is that the two of you actually know about this stuff?" Mika smiled at Kimizuki who gave him a curious look.
"Guren had us go through information, research, and we had a tutor for mass languages, spellcraft, and several other things… we worked twelve hours straight for studies, and sometimes we'd pull all-nighters…" Yoichi winced.
"That sounds exhausting, how did the two of you put up with him?" Yuuichiro shrugged.
"Come and sit down before the food gets cold, okay?" the others stood and took a seat at the table while the two brothers sat down and Kimizuki eyed the black-haired boy sitting next to Shinoa.
"Better question is, how did you fail spellcraft if you went through those kinds of lessons?" he pondered to the boy who glanced his way as he handed Yoichi the tea kettle.
"I don't test well… never have. A lot of people don't, but if you ask me about it verbally, I can handle it fine." Shinoa nodded at the statement.
"He's proven that to me during our training sessions, I've had him doing some spells for me and he's handled them just fine," she boasted slightly as she took a bite of her sandwich.
"Oh really? Well, when we get out there, I expect to see some of your spellcraft." Emerald eyes met grayish-brown.
"You will…" he said simply.
"What's that supposed –" Shinoa cut the pink-haired teenager off.
"By the way, how's your training with Guren going?" she asked him as Mika ducked behind his cup, hiding the slightly anxious look on his face as he wondered whether he was going to laugh first or side with the other.
"Grueling… he's brutal… not to mention over half of our lesson, I was being flung around like a raggdoll." Mika sighed.
"He's always been that way… his entire team trained me and Yuu… but it didn't change how terrifying he or the others were to deal with," he explained as Kimizuki rose an eyebrow.
"And how many years have you guys been with him?" the two glanced to one another.
"Since we were twelve… so… four years?" asked Mika as he looked at his brother.
"Yea, about four years… we were put on border patrol at age fourteen… and he found us at age twelve, and we were rehabilitated during that year and trained at age thirteen… so… yea, it was four years this January." Yoichi glanced at the boy.
"Rehabilitated… then that means that the two of you…" Kimizuki looked to him.
"You know the story, right? We've been told it before," he stated.
"I know, it's just… the two of you lived in the Vampire City, right?" the two nodded.
"We did… for four years…" that was a new bit of information to the group.
"F-Four years?! That means you guys were what? Nine when you were taken in?" asked Kimizuki as Yoichi found himself gaping.
"Yea, we were found in twenty sixteen and it's twenty-twenty now… so… we were around nine or so…" Mika trailed off and Shinoa frowned.
"What city were you in?" she inquired.
"Sanguneim." Yuuichiro glanced down while the others gawked as Mika focused on his lunch, wanting to stay out of the conversation as best he could.
"S-Sanguneim?! Isn't that where over half of the Nobles are?" examined Yoichi as Mika glanced his way.
"Supposedly, but we aren't certain about that… Yuu and I were there for four years and we only saw about five Nobles, one of which, we made a deal with…" the blonde was flicked on the ear for that statement by his brother.
"More like you made a deal and then Akane and I found out about it and we decided to step in!" Yuu stated with a glare.
"Okay, okay! I admit it… I was going to shoulder the entire thing on my own… then Yuu and Akane learned about it and well…" the three others looked down at the statement.
They had heard stories from people who had been dragged out of other Vampire Cities and Nests over the last eight years of their lives within the walls of Shibuya and Shinjuku, and none of them were pleasant. Ranging from mutilations, murders, rape, forced cannibalism, and many other things, it made their skin crawl to think even for a moment that the two boys sitting across from them had lived four years in such a dismal and hellish place. Atop that, they had been children, innocent and terrified of the pain they had endured, and all their suffering had amounted to more and more of it until they'd escaped, but not without more pain and misery to trail them. Shinoa glanced to Yuuichiro who remained silent alongside the others and wondered what he had seen and gone through over those years.
"I was wondering…" she started as emerald eyes looked to her.
"What?" he rose an eyebrow.
"Are you… I mean… you said you had to be rehabilitated, and I know for a fact that Mika was gravely injured so that makes sense, but you weren't as hurt so…" Yoichi and Kimizuki looked to the black-haired boy as he cleared his throat and looked to the side.
"Oh… well… during those years… a lot of the children started to act less like people… and more like… animals… we were so distant from civilization and we were slaves… used for whatever anyone wanted and because of that, a lot of us changed our mentality." Kimizuki eyed him.
"When you say, change your mentality, do you mean that all of the children there…" Mika looked to him.
"What he means is that a lot of the children went wild, acting like savage beasts and they would attack if they wanted to. Biting, clawing, scratching, kicking, hissing and growling like a beast… we saw a lot of children become like that… mostly because we couldn't survive without having that mindset sometimes," he explained as the boy next to him ignored the conversation.
"Did Yuuichiro act like that?" Mika glanced to his brother.
"Well, he…" the boy took in a deep breath.
"I was one of the worst…" he stated with finality. The others glanced once more to one another, wondering what he meant by the statement and taking one look at him before deciding to change the subject.
"So, what'll we all be doing while we wait for our first official mission?" Shinoa suggested as she glanced at the boy across from her.
"Even though it's been four years, it's still hard to talk about what made him like that. He was feral, but still human, and when he turned against the Vampires to save his brother's life… he resorted to that instinct and lost his sense of reason… I'm so sorry you endured that much pain…"
"That sounds good… what are you planning on doing Kimizuki?" asked Mika.
"Training… Guren's putting us through the ringer, remember?" the blonde gave him a dismal look, hanging his head.
"I was trying to forget." A small laugh came from Yoichi.
"That's something I plan on doing too, but they said we'd have three days off and we still have one more week before we actually begin our recession week, so let's work hard until then, okay?" emerald eyes glanced their way.
"Do any of you know who this sixth person is?" Yuuichiro questioned as they looked to him.
"Sorry, no idea… Shinoa is supposed to be our Squad Captain because she's a Sargent while the rest of us are Special Privates… so, for now we won't know." Shinoa smiled.
"I can put everyone's fears to ease and inform you that they are very capable fighters and once you earn their trust, they're an incredible ally to have. Promise, I've known them my entire life," she assured them as Mika sighed and Yuuichiro shook his head.
"We're just gonna have to trust you on that one… I guess."
"Indeed, you will," Shinoa said with a smile.
{Upstairs Room: 3:20pm}
Shinoa looked around the room she had stumbled upon while Yuuichiro had been cleaning dishes and Mika had been quizzing Kimizuki and Yoichi on the way different Gifts worked. It was a room tucked away in a small stairwell that went up into the ceiling and would have went unnoticed if she hadn't been exploring. The place was spacious, almost big enough for an office or at the very least, three beds to be shared in the place. It was well taken care of, having windows, a nice polish on the hardwood floor, an ornate Persian rug laid out in the center of the room while in the corner was a small table and what seemed to be a music stand. In the room was a case settled upon the table which had now drawn her interest as she started towards it before placing her hand on it and wondered what it was doing up there before she clicked open the case's latches.
"Don't you know that snooping around is rude?" the girl jolted, turning on her heels to see a certain black-haired boy watching her as he leaned against the door frame.
"Sneaking up on people is too," she said.
"Not when they're prying…" Yuuichiro walked forward, shutting the door behind him as she looked around the room.
"What is this place?" Shinoa questioned.
"A spare room that Guren set up for us in this apartment. It's kind of a place for Mika and me to practice spellcraft without tearing up the place." The girl frowned as she looked at the object her hands were still on.
"Then what is this thing?" she inquired as he sighed.
"It's a violin case… Sayuri plays and she can't keep it at her apartment because it's too small and she shares it with Shigure. So, we let her keep it here because she knows we'll keep it safe." Shinoa hummed.
"Oh? Well then, the two of you actually have hearts of gold, don't you?" she asked as she turned to look at him once again.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" he stepped closer, wrapping an arm around her waist as he pulled her closer and she stared up into his eyes.
From the first day they'd met, his eyes had unnerved her to some degree. They were sharp, piercing emerald orbs that seemed to look past her physical appearance and go straight into her soul. They showed how much pain and suffering he'd endured for the last eight years and the person that he truly was underneath all of his walls that he'd put up to protect his heart from further pain. Shinoa was the first person to gain his trust since Guren Ichinose and his team when they'd found this young man before her with his half-dead brother freezing to death in the snow one bitter January morning, and she had little to no intention of allowing that to go by her.
"What are you staring at now Shinoa?" he asked as she blinked, realizing that she had indeed been staring.
"Sorry… I… it's your eyes…" the boy flinched, raising an eyebrow at her statement as he did so.
"My eyes? What about them?" he questioned as she looked up at him.
"They always have so much emotion in them, so much to the point that it's scary. But there's something else about them too… they show how much life you possess. They have this spark of intellect in them, this faint mischievous glimmer… this desire and thirst for life and existence… they're alive… and they show how strong your soul is… those are your eyes, Yuu…" he sighed pressing their foreheads together as he took her hand, intertwining their fingers as he did so.
"I thought that they spooked you? So many people say my eyes scare them…" Shinoa smiled.
"It's because they're intense, and powerful… like Mika's eyes. The two of you have such strong emotions in them… it's enough to make you feel like your drowning in how deep those feelings run in the two of you…" emerald met tangerine and the two smiled a bit.
"At least you aren't running away…" the girl shook her head.
"I never will… like I said… I have feelings for you… feelings I'm certain are love." the boy closed his eyes.
"Are you sure? Even if I turn into a monster? Would you still love me? No matter what secrets I keep?" he inquired as Shinoa stepped back.
"What kind of question is that? if someone loves another, it is unconditional!" the boy gave her a slightly startled look.
"Unconditional? Is that even possible for a human?" the girl smiled.
"It is if we try," she told him as she took his hand once more, looking at their intertwined fingers.
"If we try, huh? Thanks… Shinoa… for giving me a chance." The girl laughed.
"I did it because I knew you were worth it," Shinoa stated as she stepped closer, wrapping an arm around his waist as she pulled him close and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath as she did and absorbing his warmth.
"You're worth it too…"
{…}
And if I'm lost in the worlds shadows...
{…..}
Author's Note: When I looked at the original chapter, I decided that personal character relationships were more important than showing how they trained. You get enough of that here and there, but showing how they all bonded as teammates is vital. Mitsuba is on the way, don't worry, and I hope that you guys enjoyed some more information into Yuu and Mika's past as well as a bit of romance between Yuu and Shinoa. Let me know what you guys think of this continuation of the re-write and I hope, once more that everyone is having a good time with it.
Sincerely,
ShadowDragon94
Chapter 10: Elucidation