Hey! It's been a long time since I've updated any of my stories but today is kind of special so I'll be updating all of them (well most is a more accurate word to use) at once! XD
Here's chapter 11: Learning to Accept the Truth
Yogi squirmed angrily under the red head, "Shut up! I don't need to calm down! I need someone to tell me how to fix my baby brother!"
"He can't be fixed, Yogi," Akari-sensei closed his eyes and turned his face away from the blonde, "I'm sorry, but your brother is truly gone."
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The blonde immediately stilled. When he did, Hirato and Tsukitachi cautiously pulled back. They tensed as Yogi pushed himself to his knees. Akari looked down at him and saw that he had tears running down his cheeks.
"That can't be," he cried softly, "He can't be gone…Gareki…no…" Yogi buried his face in his hands and sobbed.
His crying was the only thing that cut through the thick silence hanging around the three circus members. Tsukitachi glanced over at Hirato, wondering what he should do now. The captain shook his head imperceptibly as he met his friend's gaze. They would wait for Yogi to calm down before doing anything. Neither of them wanted to set him off again.
After a few minutes, Yogi's flow of tears dried up. He took one last shuddering breath before he swore loudly and punched the ground once. With a bloody fist and legs shaking just barely, Yogi climbed to his feet and turned to face Hirato, "What do we do now, Hirato?"
"…Are you okay now, Yogi?"
"No. Not at all. But," he looked down at his fist, it was already scabbing over, and went on, "If it's true that there isn't any way for Gareki, my Gareki, the one I raised, to come back…then I am responsible for stopping whatever it was that took his place. I should have listened to Akari-sensei. But I didn't, so now I have to fix the mistake I made. So," he looked back at the three men, "Tell me what to do to take care of this mess I'm responsible for."
Yogi saw Hirato's face briefly flicker with regret and pity before his mask went back up and he said, "All right, Yogi. Um…why don't you, and Tsukitachi, Akari, and myself of course, look for Gareki-kun," he glanced at the red-head and doctor, "When you find him make sure to call for backup just in case he's too much for one of us on our own, okay?" He was met with a chorus of nods and 'yeses,' so he went on, "Good, now then…Yogi, why don't you search all the hall ways. Tsukitachi, you search through the guest rooms on the west side, I'll go through the ones on the east, and Akari-san you go through the library, my office, and the dining room."
All three men nodded quickly and went to search their assigned sections. Hirato had purposely given himself and Tsukitachi the two more likely places Gareki might have hidden. He knew that both he and Tsukitachi wouldn't hesitate to kill the boy if it came down to that. Hirato was positive that Yogi would never be able to kill his own brother and Akari wasn't strong enough to beat any kind of varuga, let alone a post-human.
Anyway, out in the hall Tsukitachi walked the same way Gareki had gone not twenty minutes ago. He checked in a few rooms before stopping in front of the brothers' room. He immediately got a strong whiff of something keenly similar to iron. He recognized it as blood. Tsukitachi frowned and kicked open the door.
What he saw inside stopped him in his tracks.
Bright red blood covered almost every visible surface and lying in the middle of the floor was a broken and mutilated body. Tsukitachi rushed over to it and tried to determine who the corpse was. The face looked half-eaten, as did the rest of the body, but the red-head could see a few locks of white hair, some of it dyed red from the blood on it.
As soon as Tsukitachi saw the hair color he understood. Nai had been Gareki's first victim and if Circus wasn't able to stop him, many, many more innocent people would also fall prey to the boy's new found, and utterly bottomless, lust for blood.
Above the red-head, still lying in bed from when he took a nap after his first meal, Gareki was watching him warily. He could tell there was something different about the man compared to the tiny animal. The creature silently rolled onto his stomach and got ready to pounce.
Tsukitachi grit his teeth, tears of pity pricking the corners of his eyes. It must have hurt a great deal to have been torn apart like this. He just hoped that Gareki had the decency to kill his prey before consuming it. He had come across a few that enjoyed killing solely for the fact that their victim's screams were addictive. The red-head sighed quietly and ran a gentle hand over what he thought might have been Nai's head (Gareki had even crushed the small child's fragile bones to dust), muttering, "Rest in peace, little one. I'm sorry you had to die like this…" With that he got to his feet and was about to go find Hirato when he felt a heavy weight land on his back and sharp teeth pierce his skin, drawing blood on contact.
The creature's eyes widened as he bit down on the red-headed man's neck. He had jumped down from the upper bunk when his new prey stood to leave. He figured even though the man was different from the animal, killing him would still be just as easy as stealing candy from a baby. Unfortunately for him (but very fortunately for Tsukitachi), the man's blood tasted positively vile in his mouth. It almost made him want to puke, but he didn't want to waste his previous meal so he held it in.
Tsukitachi snarled in pain and tried to throw the boy off his back. Gareki was relentless however and all he did was bite down harder, regardless of the bad tasting blood. Eventually, the Circus member dropped to one knee as the blood loss became too much for him. When he did, Gareki leapt off his back and broke through the large glass window covering one wall.
Out in the open, the creature realized that he had freedom. And lots of it. He could go anywhere and eat whatever (or whoever) he wanted. No one could hold him back and he wasn't about to restrain himself. It was time to go all out. As he fell to the ground he opened his mouth and howled joyously.
KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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Hirato, Yogi, and Akari all heard the long loud howl and rushed to its point of origin. Upon entering the brother's former room Yogi gagged and retched at the overpowering smell. Hirato yelped when he saw Tsukitachi's unconscious body and rushed over to him, "Tsuki! Tsuki, are you okay? Akari! Help him!"
Akari-sensei slipped and slid across the bloody floor, falling clumsily to his knees next to the captain as he began giving the lieutenant some emergency first aid, "Hirato, Yogi, go after Gareki. If he gets to the town below us, he'll kill everyone in it," Hirato hesitated a little, making Akari slap him in the arm and growl, "Don't worry! I'll take care of him. Go do your job." The captain nodded slowly and made his way to the broken window.
Yogi coughed a few more times before stumbling past the two Circus members and the body of his young friend. He leapt out the window, following closely behind Hirato.
Out in the open air, Hirato waved Yogi over to him and yelled above the roar of the wind, "We'll go straight down into town and see if we can find him. If he's down there I'm sure it will be very easy to find him. I just hope he hasn't hurt too many yet…"
Yogi closed his eyes and tried to repress a shudder of pain and sadness at the thought of his precious baby brother running amok and hurting someone. He nodded silently before floating a little closer to Hirato and saying in voice so soft the captain could barely hear it, "I'm so sorry about this, Hirato-san…I should have stopped him when I had the chance and now people, innocent people, are paying for it."
Hirato put a gentle hand on Yogi's trembling shoulder, "It's not your fault, Yogi-"
"Yes, it is," the blonde pulled away from the captain, "If I had just listened to Akari-sensei none of this would have happened. Everything is my fault…everything…" He choked back a sob, clapping a hand to his mouth in an attempt to keep his emotions to himself. His whole frame shook with unwept tears and he desperately clutched at his heart, feeling it shatter into tinier pieces with every passing moment.
The dark-haired captain frowned in worry at the younger man's agony. He didn't know the blonde very well, but even so, no one deserved to suffer that much without having some kind of release. Hirato sighed quietly, "Yogi, will you look at me please?" It took a few moments for Yogi to calm down enough and glance up at Hirato hesitantly. When he did, the captain gave him a small, sad smile, "You made a choice Yogi. Just because you made one that resulted in a less than optimal series of events, it doesn't mean you are to blame. You simply made a choice. That's all there is to it. You can't beat yourself up over something you had no control over."
Yogi's eyebrows came together quickly in confusion and he tilted his head to the side, eyes questioning the captain's meaning behind his words. Hirato quickly caught on and tried to explain, "I mean, well…everyone makes choices in their life. Ones with good outcomes, ones with bad outcomes…they are all just choices though. The consequences of your choices are beyond your control. Granted you can't change the consequences once you've made the choice, but that doesn't mean you have to blame yourself," his smile curved into a slight smirk, "Do you understand, now?"
The blonde looked down at his feet as he nodded slowly, "Yes, I understand," he flicked his gaze upward to meet the captain's eyes, "Thank you, Hirato-san." He gave the man a glimmer of a smile before once again turning his sights to the ground below them. He took a deep breath and said, "Well, shall we get going then, Hirato-san?"
Hirato chuckled quietly before slightly inclining his head and saying, "Certainly, Yogi."
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