Chapter XI – Shinume
"I still can't believe you actually agreed."
"…What else could I have done?"
Xekuto turned to Ryu and glared at him.
He was standing right before the apartment door the moment the dragon spirit intervened.
"…You could just have let the both of them die."
"…"
"…Why are they so important to you? They're just humans."
"Weren't we all once?"
Ryu suddenly grew silent.
Xekuto sighed heavily.
"Look, now is not the time to discuss this… Mia needs me."
"Yeah, and so does the president. You really should stop his assassination as well."
"If you're just going to continue mocking me, I suggest you leave."
Xekuto fixed him with a piercing look.
"Because frankly, I'm just not in the mood at the moment."
"Fine…have it your way."
Ryu Seron flicked a strand of his dull, golden hair out of his eyes and suddenly looked unnaturally serious.
"Just don't cling onto me if it turns out that this is the last time you're allowed to experience life."
"Mia…can you hear me?"
She was aware that she was being shaken gently by the shoulders and managed to peel open her eyes.
"X-Xekuto…?" She managed uncomprehendingly.
"Are you alright? You were lying in a heap on the floor…I was really worried." He said softly and helped her up back into the messed up bed.
"…Are the shadows gone?"
"…What?"
"The shadows…are they gone?" She started shivering once more and fell onto him, a hand grasping a fistful of his clothes.
"…There are no shadows, Mia…Really." He managed with a nervous chuckle and pulled her slowly away from him so that she was lying down once more.
"B-But that voice…it kept telling me to…" She stammered and he noticed her eyes were almost lifelessly blank.
"To…?" He swallowed, unsure of where this was going.
"Count the shadows." She started, and then there was a bead of light in her pupil.
"…Xekuto!" Mia suddenly cried out and grasped his arms, startling him.
It was as if she had only just woken up.
"Y-You're…alive…! Thank God…you're alive…"
"M-Mia?" He stared, bewildered, as she clung onto him, sobbing fitfully.
"I s-saw you die…" She croaked, losing all the sanity left in her.
"You were d-d-dead…"
"Mia. Stop it." He narrowed his eyes and said in an extremely firm voice, which silenced her immediately.
"What you saw were nothing but visions. Visions that were lies."
"B-But… you really were…"
"…standing outside the door, trying to find the spare apartment key you lent me." Xekuto conjured up quickly, but convincingly enough to be believed.
Mia stared at him for several heartbeats.
She then reached up a hand to touch his face, just to make sure that he was actually there.
Once her hand did make contact, she finally exhaled in relief.
And collapsed onto him.
"Now the final chess piece is in place. That's a relief. I was getting bored…"
"…Don't you ever tire of sticking to only playing around with his life?"
Ryu Seron watched from a distance at the girl as she peered into a basin like container.
"Xekuto Zoren is… different to others."
She turned towards him, her eyes were a deep red and empty.
"I find him very…amusing."
Ryu sighed and looked down into the clouds.
"Haven't you tortured him to your heart's content? You decide who dies and who lives, after all. Why can't you just let all three of them live a long and prosperous life?"
"Well, that's because it would be boring."
She drew a finger to her lips and chuckled softly.
"You know as much as I do that I despise happy endings…"
"She's been burning with fever ever since I found her." Xekuto sighed wearily and placed a cool, wet cloth on her forehead once more.
"You sure got back from that hospital quickly… it hasn't even been an hour."
"Well, I was worried." Diego said truthfully and looked away.
He had actually just contacted a local practitioner that he had once defended and asked for a favour.
True, the mug shards had been extracted from his hand and it had been bandaged up properly…but it still throbbed like an unsteady heartbeat.
Nothing compared to the pain that was building up in his heart at the sight of Mia's still form, however.
"…Will she be alright?"
"I've given her some Panadol…if her high temperature still persists though…we'll have to take her to the doctors."
"R-Right…"
Diego sat on the seat next to the bed and his hands came up to meet his face.
"…She seems to be really traumatised by the case…"
"Because someone wasn't there for her, right?" Xekuto lowered his head.
"Ah, n-no!" Diego jerked up and stared at his colleague.
"That wasn't what I was implying!"
"That may as well have been your intention."
"…"
Diego positioned his pained hand better on his leg so that it would hurt slightly less.
"D-Do you mind if I ask what happened?"
"Not really…There's no point in hiding anything."
Xekuto sighed and soaked the cloth in ice-cold water, and turned to face Diego only after it had been placed back on her flushed face.
"Someone gave me false information."
"False information…?"
"They told me that she was still alive, and that only I could save her."
Diego stiffened.
"Wh-Who…?"
His eyes once again glowed a bright jade.
"…Another Zoren."
"Why on earth would you do such a thing?"
And for once, Ryu Seron was well and truly enraged.
"I thought it would be…an interesting turn of events."
"So you lure him away to some distant area in plain sight of the Tigress? What were you thinking?"
"Don't yell, your raised voice irritates me."
Ryu grew silent, his teeth gritted and eyes a piercing blood red.
He knew what would happen if he agitated her in any way.
At the worst...she would shorten Xekuto's life span even more.
She turned to him and said tonelessly.
"My reason is simple…
I am the child of Death…
And I enjoy seeing those I love in pain."
