Beta: Tegthe (Thanks again!)
A/N: This is one of my personal fav chapters this far. Because it's a grim reminder that all of us has darkness inside, and there is absolutely no exception. Again, thanks for your support, hope you enjoy! (Sorry, teruhi. I know you liked her.)

Chapter 13 – World won't just stay right

You know the world won't just stay right.
So tell me, who's to blame?

The doctor was on the same line as the nurse – if it was absolutely necessary, he would allow Shusei to leave after three more days. Takashiro had accepted it, not wanting to push the matter more – after all, a couple of more days weren't all that much. He thought it wouldn't make any difference, but he was wrong.

They almost made it – it was on the day when Shusei was supposed to be released when the elderly nurse came in to say her goodbyes to the boy.

"Thank you for your care", Shusei politely thanked her, pulling the jacket over his shoulders, careful not to make any unnecessary movements – the burns hadn't healed yet completely, after all. He took a couple of steps towards Hotsuma as he heard a soft click from the door, next to which the nurse was standing. Something wasn't right – why would she lock them in? That was when Shusei noticed something like a red bruise on her neck – an engraved blood seal.

She was possessed by a Duras.

"Hotsuma! She's –"

Shusei didn't get any further with his warning – the Duras beat him to it, shoving his partner straight to the wall with an incredible force.

Hotsuma let out a pained cry as his back met the unforgiving wall – there was no way for him to be prepared for the impact. Naturally, Shusei tried to move to his partner, but was stopped as the Duras extended the nurse's hand towards the Zweilt, a white glow emanating from her hand, from the magic spell she was about to cast.

"If you move, I'm going to finish your partner", she told Hotsuma, calm, sweet voice dripping with venom as her eyes flickered from Shusei to the other boy. "Of course, you could curse me with your voice, but it would kill the human as well." The smile that spread on her lips was cruel, heartless as she walked closer to Shusei, serpentine eyes still on the younger boy. Shusei didn't move, but his stance was tense, as ready for the battle as his unhealed body could be. "And you don't want to hurt yet another person, do you?"

She hit the mark – Hotsuma was still struggling with accepting his powers, accepting himself. His powers were offensive, made for destroying the Duras – if he turned them against humans, possessed or not, the human would die along with the Duras. "As for you…" She smiled, licking her lips as she gripped the brunette boy's chin, forcing him to look at her, hating the look on the boy's eyes – there wasn't scorching fear or defeat reflected in his eyes despite the powerlessness the kid must've felt. "…in your condition, what can you do?"

"Get your hands off my partner!"

The Duras actually had to hop backwards to avoid Hotsuma's attack – as she did, she pushed Shusei away from herself, to the nearest white wall. Shusei cried out as he crumbled to the floor – it felt that the impact was doubled, even tripled, due to his unhealed wounds.

As Shusei was on the floor, back against the wall, focusing on breathing and wishing the pain away, he lifted his head to look at Hotsuma, who was now standing between Shusei and the mid-villain ranked Duras.

In Hotsuma's hand, there was a unique weapon that existed only for him. The curvy weapon was kind of a mixture of a scythe and a hook – on it, there was a red line in the middle, moving along the curve, and the edges were white. There was also something written on the edge of the blade in black – it was an ancient language that no one could read anymore. The beautiful and deadly weapon was called Master Stroke – only Hotsuma could wield it.

Both Shusei and the mid-villain Duras were surprised that Hotsuma had been able to call his weapon forth – it had never happened before, not in this life. But when you thought about it carefully, it actually made sense – the Zweilt were always stronger when they were fighting for the sake of someone else.

It was part of the reason why the Zweilt worked as pairs.

Shusei bit his lip, counting their chances. The fact that Hotsuma could wield his weapon was favorable for them, but their enemy was still a mid-class Duras, which wasn't an easy prey. But if they could work together… Shusei tried to stand up, but a soft cry left his lips, pain forcing him slump back to the ground.

Hotsuma was still inexperienced in this lifetime, and keeping the Master Stroke beside him had to require a lot of strength. More than that, the problem of the Duras possessing a human body remained unsolved – should Hotsuma attack, he would still harm the human being whom the Duras was hiding within. Hotsuma couldn't exorcise the Duras from a human body like Shusei could, neither could he bind the demon.

Shusei could've – he remembered how, at least to a certain degree, but…

Together, they might've stood a chance against the Duras, but right now Shusei couldn't even stand, let alone fight.

The Duras had reached the same conclusion. A cruel, unnerving smile spread along her face again, twisting the kind human smile into something that was out of this world. "I never thought I'd get the chance to finish some Zweilts." She actually grinned, taking a step backwards as the white glow surrounded her hand again. "Goodbye."

Both Shusei and Hotsuma prepared themselves for the blow, but it never came.

Instead, a ferocious cry of the Duras reached their ears – demon's hand had been blown off by a golden explosion. With that hand, she was unable to fire, but something like that wasn't enough to finish her off, not by far.

"You shouldn't have appeared if you value your life."

All three turned their attention to Takashiro, who was standing at the doorstep – a quick glance to the lock told it had been melted. None of them had noticed anything. But then again, Takashiro was one of the most powerful – if not the most powerful – person in their clan. He wasn't their leader just for the show.

The Duras looked from her cut arm to the man who had just appeared as the realization slowly started kicking in – she was realizing who she was taking a stand against. "You…" She paused, backing towards the window. "You're the Giou leader!"

Takashiro didn't look dangerous when he walked among humans – he was just a normal man with long, light bronze hair tied up in a ponytail, square-shaped glasses, wearing a black suit with white shirt, red necktie and trench-coat. All in all, he looked like any other intelligent human being, not like one of the most powerful spell-casters in the history. He was a necromancer – someone who was able to summon magnificent, powerful beasts.

Most definitely, he didn't look like someone who could kill you in a second without having any regrets.

"Shusei", Takashiro spoke, keeping his eyes on the Duras before him, keeping the demon in place with a mere eye-contact, "make a barrier."

"He's injured! He –" Hotsuma started to protest, obviously worried about his partner's condition.

"Do it."

Takashiro's voice left no place for protests – he knew exactly how much strength it required from Shusei, especially since the boy wasn't fully healed, but they couldn't afford to have a Duras on the loose. Moreover, they couldn't let their fight affect the rest of the world more than it already had.

But even if Shusei would put up a barrier, it still wouldn't change the fact that Duras was hosting in a human body. "If I don't exorcise the Duras –"

"Shusei!"

Both of the boys flinched at the sound of Takashiro's voice. If he hadn't made it clear before this, he made crystal clear it now – he was their leader, and they were to follow his orders. If Takashiro valued keeping the fight from affecting the surface world over a human life, it was an order they had no choice but to follow.

Shusei forced himself to stand, and within seconds, Hotsuma was there to support him. Shusei leaned his back against the wall, Hotsuma's arm wrapped behind his back – the brunette didn't trust his shaky legs – and extended his hands in front of him, arms straight, left palm on top of the back of the right hand. Light violet glow emanated, becoming a circle below his hands. Then Shusei lifted his hand in front of his face, posture of the hands representing a butterfly. "Cut space." He kept that posture for a moment, focusing on the power emanating from his hands, surrounded by emanating light. "Lock set!" Shusei threw his right hand up towards the sky, not giving a thought of how much the movement stretched his wounds and hurt, and watched as the violet light shot upwards, through the roof, to the sky and from there, descending to the ground, creating a violet half-sphere as it descended. By the time the violet light touched the ground, barrier was complete, separating them from the normal world.

Shusei winced, letting his hand drop down as he touched his chest, the area where the pain was radiating from. It was a bad idea of course, making him pull his hand away as he was trying to will the pain away. The boy slid down to the floor again, grateful for Hotsuma's support – as least he didn't drop down to his knees like a rock.

Takashiro didn't pay any attention to the pair though – his sole focus was on the Duras who dared to cross him. He couldn't afford to lose any of the Zweilts now, especially since Yuki hadn't awoken yet – the Duras was going to pay dearly for thinking that she could kill some of the guardians behind his back.

The Giou clan leader stretched his hand forward, golden light appearing on his palm, forming a glowing ball of light there. "You should've never thought you'd stand a chance against the Giou clan."

The golden light left his hand, hitting the Duras. The hit caused an explosion, making the room suffer major damage, forcing the two Zweilt to cradle in order to protect themselves – Hotsuma doing his best to cover his partner.

When the smoke disappeared, there was nothing left of the Duras or the human host – just a black mark on the ground where the monster had stood just moments ago. Everything was gone, burned along with the explosion.

The Zweilt rarely got to see Takashiro using his powers – the man stood behind them, controlling the war from the shadows. The only moments when he took a stance in the battle field was whenever Reiga appeared.

Reiga. Traitor of their clan. The man responsible for the war, the one who controlled and summoned the high-class Duras to the battle to destroy the human world and Giou clan with it. Just like Takashiro, Reiga was extremely powerful – a necromancer as well.

"You can dispel the barrier now", Takashiro told Shusei, looking at the Zweilt pair.

Shusei nodded, briefly eyeing the man before he lifted his right hand towards the sky again, trying not to wince as he moved. "Off." The ring on his index finger glowed briefly as he called the barrier off, returning everything back to its normal state.

As the barrier disappeared, Shusei dropped his hand, getting rid of the pain it caused – the only pain that was left was the stinging feeling along with the background pain. He let out a deep breath, giving a soft, proud smile to his partner – Hotsuma had been able summon Master Stroke – before looking back to their leader.

"I apologize." Shusei wasn't sure if he really meant the words or not, but he understood that none of them should cross Takashiro – the man had far more power over them than most of the Zweilt even realized. It wasn't just the ability to control rebirth, but everything else as well – in a way, they were his chess pieces, his tools to win the war against the Duras – to settle the score with Reiga.

Takashiro nodded, showing that he understood and accepted the apology. "Can you walk?"

Shusei doubted that. He felt like putting up the barrier had drained the little strength he had. Shusei had never felt this weak – he couldn't even aid his partner in a fight against a Duras. If Takashiro hadn't come, it was highly likely that both of them would've died.

"I'll help you", Hotsuma told Shusei, carefully slipping his hand beneath Shusei's arms, careful not to cause any pain.

Shusei let himself be helped to stand and walk to the car Fuyutoki had brought for all three of them. As they left the hospital, Shusei couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor woman who had died because the Duras had possessed her.

It wasn't Shusei's fault, and he knew that, but a small, nagging voice inside his head reminded him that if he had been stronger, he could've exorcised the demon and she could've lived on. After all, the woman had had children, who would no doubt miss her. She had seemed content with her life, but apparently it hadn't been the case. It worked as a powerful reminder for the Zweilts that everyone had darkness in their hearts.

However, as a general rule, the Duras above the lowest class couldn't come to this world unless they were summoned. But if the woman had had a Grimoire, a book of magic containing methods for summoning Duras, she could've easily done that. The world was full of them, after all.

"She must've had a Grimoire", Shusei said out loud, mostly speaking to Takashiro.

"Yes", the man admitted from the front seat, looking at the young Zweilt through the back mirror of the car. "If we don't find it by hand, I'll have Tsukumo look for it." He paused. "You as well, if you're feeling better."

Shusei nodded. That much he could do, it wouldn't drain that much of his strength. Besides, he would need to work harder in order to get strong enough to fight against Duras alongside his partner – strong enough to protect his partner. Shusei didn't want to watch Hotsuma die – not again. "I will", he promised, head coming to rest on his partner's shoulder. Letting out a breath, Shusei closed his eyes, set on getting every ounce of sleep he could – he almost missed how Hotsuma's hand came to rest upon his.

Almost.