A/N: Hey ya'll. Here is the eleventh chapter of The Devil. I just want to take a moment to tell ya'll how much I appreciate ya'll replies to this story- I want you to know that i see every Fave, Follow, and Review and I really appreciate ya'll taking the time out of your day to not only read this story but to reply at all. Thank you. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and please let me know your opinions below! :)
He spotted his brother and adopted sister approaching at a run and growled in irritation.
"Don't get chased by Es, I said. You'll just attract more Es' attention and accumulate a horde of them, I said. What do they do? They come running to me with a clusterfuck of Es on their tails…." He muttered and the three cousins took notice as well, groaning amongst themselves.
"She's going to be more trouble than Hanabusa." Ruka murmured to Kain and even Aido nodded as Yuki and Ichiru raced for the school.
They got within a hundred feet and Zero shot the two closest to each of them down, grumbling when they weren't headshots.
"Did I just fucking miss?" He grunted, "Suddenly the world feels wrong."
He shot three more down, sighing with satisfaction when each turned to ash right away.
"Ah, the world is right once more."
"You scare me, Kiryu." Aido drawled as he began to shoot shards of ice into the mob that chased the pureblood princess and the hunter down.
"Eh, that just means you have finally developed common sense, Idol-senpai. You're just a late bloomer." He snickered and Ruka snorted- the first unladylike thing he had seen the vampiress do.
Aido on the other hand was scoffing repeatedly at the spirit's words, aghast anyone would dare imply that he-
Zero shot two Es that burst from the woods to Aido's left and the blonde righted himself.
"Not the time for spacing, Hanabusa!" Akatsuki reminded and Aido nodded to his cousin who finally was able to begin lashing out at the mob as Yuki and Ichiru slid by their heels to homebase.
Yori came out of the school then, brandishing an… axe?
Where the fuck did she get an axe? I want an axe.
Zero discontinued those thoughts as an E nearly slashed him in his face.
"Not nice." He tsked as he tripped the E to its knees, knocking its head back with a knee and finishing with a shot between the eyes.
His brother had hopped back up, but didn't move forward into the mob, choosing to pick off the stragglers that ventured too close to the Nobles who were too busy using their abilities on the mob to properly defend themselves in close combat.
Ruka grimaced as she leveled her ability on the Es, distracting them enough for Kain to char their numbers down into the single digits, both Zero and Aido picking off the rest quickly.
They finally had a moment of stillness and Zero groaned in pain as his headache picked back up.
Ichiru rushed to his side but he waved him off, "I'll be fine once I can pass out for a good thirteen hours, Ru. Let's just get this over with."
He glanced over his brother's shoulder at Yuki, swallowing down his disappointment at the distance she put between herself and Zero.
She was aware of it, he could see it in her eyes, and he knew she wished it could be different- could see that too.
He blew out a breath and pasted a mask of resilience over his features that felt forced even to him- he wished he could forget what he saw in her when she stared at the mirror, wished he could take it all back, but the feeling he had then to reveal himself to her had never steered him wrong before- he had needed to see her reaction for himself just like he had needed to see Minoto's reaction.
She would turn against him one day, like Minoto had, like they both knew she would.
But she hadn't yet- had yet to do the unforgivable and he fought to retain his trust in her, fought to retain the hope that she could push past it, fought to shove the growing resentment away even now.
It was a game of push and shove he knew he would lose.
"Kaname is going to kill me for letting you get involved, but whatever, I guess." He sighed, glancing away from her and back at Ichiru.
"Ru, you are not permitted to die, remember that."
Ichiru laughed, "Hai, Nii-san."
"Hanabusa! Where are you going?!" Akatsuki yelled after his cousin as the blond rushed into the school.
"He's here!"
"There goes that common sense," Zero sighed, watching as the smarter cousins chased after Aido to save his stupid ass.
He glanced at Ichiru, shrugging.
"Let's follow them."
The three prefects bolted after the three cousins, chasing them up stairwells and down halls to the roof where they found the two wiser cousins tossed aside in an unconscious heap, the blond clutching a sword made of ice in his hand as he stood against Kuran Rido, who looked at the same time unimpressed and insane- a feat in and of itself.
Zero felt Yuki stand a few feet away beside him and watched as Rido narrowed his dual colored gaze at her, his eyes darkening as his hold on his sanity frayed a bit more.
"Juri?" He breathed, "No, you're not Juri…"
"I'm Yuki, Juri was my mother." She said and he nodded, more to himself than to her.
"You're not Juri, but you'll do." The pureblood murmured, in a flash approaching Yuki and striking out with his hand to knock her unconscious.
But in the process he had ignored Aido and the blue eyed Noble had shoved Yuki to the ground as he took the hit meant for her, which ended up kicking him back several feet to fall over the roof's edge.
His head pulsed with pain and for a moment Zero felt the bond he shared with Kaname give a shudder, distracting the silverette as Rido made to strike out at him to dispatch the spirit when he wasn't prepared.
Ichiru blocked the pureblood's hand, knocking it away with the flat of his blade and in the process cutting into Rido's flesh and no doubt driving the Es ballistic below.
"Head in the clouds, Nii-san?"
Zero shot the pureblood in the thigh as he flitted closer and snapped out his hand to injure one of the Kiryus.
He was quick and Ichiru was still only human and while Zero could dodge the pureblood, his brother was not so lucky, being knocked unconscious when one hit found its mark.
Zero was just grateful he wasn't dead.
Yuki attacked next with Artemis Rod and he watched her evolve the weapon with her touch, turning it into a scythe to cut and slash at her uncle who only narrowly missed her at points.
Zero continued shooting at the pureblood, his bullets finding new homes in one of the pureblood's hands and his right shoulder.
"I can bring you back, Juri…." He muttered as he circled Yuki, not paying any Zero any mind and giving the hunter more time to pump bullets into him to slow him down.
The pureblood was fast- too fast, even given his status and Zero had a difficult time actually catching him with his shots.
"She said she would bring you back to me, Juri…" Rido continued and Zero lowered Bloody Rose as apprehension began to fill him.
"Who is she?" He asked, but Rido paid him no mind until Yuki asked the same question.
"The Ancestral Mistress- Lady Death- Lady Peace- Lady of the White Lillies…" He murmured as he drew closer to Yuki, this time near achingly slow.
Zero swallowed and focused all his strength into his abilities to hopefully freeze the pureblood to a standstill so he could get a good shot.
Instead his power acted up again, but the results were not undesired as Rido shifted with a scream into shadow and then into a single rose that collapsed onto the cement softly.
Yuki was shaking as he approached and she backed away a few steps as he seized the rose her uncle had been turned into.
Thorns cut into his fingertips and he could sense Yuki make her way to Ichiru to check on him.
He would be fine, Zero knew. So would the three cousins.
"I"m uh," He blew out a breath, "Only disappointed he didn't turn into a chicken."
It was quiet for several moments as his statement registered with Yuki who stared at him blankly and then slowly she began to giggle, her laughter breaking into hysterics soon enough.
He sighed, picking the buds out of the rose and severing the head from the stem, crushing the head of the flower under one foot and the stem under another.
He stared down at the crushed flower and crumbled buds in agitation as Yuki continued her hysterics in the background.
He took out his lighter and charred the remains of the flower for good measure, doing his best to not pay the pureblood princess any mind as she began to mutter words that began to weigh him down with every syllable.
"How? How can something be powerful enough to do that?"
Was he a thing to her now? Before she had seen the real him she had accepted him even knowing what he was capable of after his run in with the Council's lackies. But now he was just a thing to be feared? He wasn't even a person to her?
He couldn't figure out how she had managed to pull a complete one eighty on him and in the quiet moments as they waited for the cousins to recover he thought long and hard on who he thought Yuki had been.
Had she been lying to him, putting a false facade up for him or was this a genuine change of heart?
Did it really matter either way?
He frowned and after making sure the rose was well and truly destroyed, glanced over the roof edge to discover Aido clinging to a window sill a floor down, very much okay despite his stupidity in getting involved.
"A little help would be appreciate, Kiryu." Aido griped.
"Watch over the others," He told Yuki and she nodded, her eyes somewhat dazed as the dust began to settle in her.
He retrieved the blond and when they got back up to the the rooftop they found Shiki and Rima helping Kain and Ruka up.
He could sense Kaname's satisfaction through the bond and knew his side of the plan was complete as well.
He would be returning in a few hours.
"The Es are dead." Shiki stated, "They all just started collapsing into ash."
Rima confirmed his words with a nod and unease settled in the pit of Zero's stomach.
Es didn't just die like that, even if they had all been controlled by a single pureblood which he very much doubted.
He didn't like it- had a sneaking suspicion that the ancestor Rido had mentioned played a role in it all.
But he laid that thought aside- now was not the time.
They had won and they needed to focus on the positive, they needed to be able to relax.
Zero wouldn't relax, he knew that already.
His ears were ringing as his headache spread a bit more and he swayed momentarily, righting himself before anyone noticed, or at least so he had hoped.
Aido hadn't left his side and when he glanced at the blond, the Noble offered to help get Ichiru to the Headmaster's.
Zero didn't bother denying out of pride- he was still sick and since he had essentially no power to fall back on his body was aching with stress and he was just about ready to pass out.
"Thanks," He said as Aido gathered Ichiru up to lean against him.
Yuki watched for a moment before rushing to help as well, and Zero followed them down from the roof, trying his best to remain firm on his feet.
