Shade and a Vampire Chapter 25
OHGODITSBEENAGES. Sorry. Been a bit busy with Christmas, then New Years, then school, then more school, then writing other fics (which you should read), then [INSERT EXCUSE #6 HERE].etc., etc... So, here you are. I hope it's been worth the wait.
(Also, that surprise is coming up…)
Under the bleak pre-dawn sky, a chariot and two horses stood by the side of a ruined road, scraping the ground and whining impatiently. Their shawled owner knelt on the worn tarmac beside them, attending to a shallow-breathing casualty before him. He withdrew his hand from a small pouch at his hip, bringing out a few dried leaves. He ground them to dust in his hands, rubbing them over his palms, and spread them over the man's black-coated wounds.
The injured man exhaled loudly. The other sighed from under his sackcloth hood.
"That will ease the pain. Don't worry, I've dealt with far worse conditions than this." The injured man snorted, then began a blood-spattered coughing fit. He finished and grinned through the pain, his teeth stained with his essence.
"Well, that's reassuring."
He tried to sit up, only to feel a firm hand on his chest, holding him down. He pressed harder, leveraging his unnatural strength, but to his surprise, it did nothing beside cause a spike of pain from his wounds. He blinked, then slowly sat back. "So, who are you then?" The medic feigned offence.
"We've met before. A great many times in fact."
"I've had a… strangely discontinuous life. If you would show your face…"
"I've had many. It wouldn't help."
"A name, then?"
From the shadow of his hood, the healer's smile flashed.
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A few hours later, several jeeps carrying the warriors of Happy Ending rolled over the same tarmac. At their head was Koko, a solid determined look on her face. Her eyes flickered over the road, and she called the convoy to a halt.
She hopped out, looking at a particular portion of the road. She crouched, touching it with one finger. It came away covered in a thin black fluid. She wiped it on her shirt, then turned to address the men.
"Shade and his rescuer have been here. That means they had to stop off. Meaning they couldn't get into Yokai via air. Meaning…" She gestured to the end of the road, where a wide, dark motorway tunnel sat, squalid and dirty. "…That is one of the entry tunnels to our base. Charlie and Foxtrot teams, I want this area secured. Keep it covert. No-one gets in, but no-one would see any reason to, get it?" She hopped back in the jeep, the convoy resuming, minus two vehicles.
One by one, they rolled into the tunnel, swallowed up by darkness. Not a word was spoken until each car entered the light at the end, breathing air beneath Yokai's sunless sky.
They abandoned the vehicles, leaving them ready for another day, then went in search of Shade… again. They split up, Koko stomping off to her quarters in irritation. Coming across the medical bay, someone said they could hear laughter. Entering, a bizarre sight awaited them.
The normally clean floors were awash with midnight fluid, interspersed with hunks of ragged flesh. Gore splattered the walls, beds and tables were smashed, and among all the chaos, two men sat laughing together and sharing a bottle of whisky.
Shade, his trenchcoat on the floor beside him, his body heavily bandaged and blood-soaked, was doubled over with laughter. The second man was seemingly telling a story. His hood was down now, revealing a grinning young face with long brown hair and a short beard. He took a drag from the bottle on the table between them.
"And then, when he tried to fire, it jumped out and tore his leg off!" Shade laughed even harder, his bandages stretching under the strain.
"I never would have guessed! Hello, soldiers." He addressed them without looking up. "Go and get your leader, would you, I have a reintroduction I would like to make."
The soldiers scurried off, dragging a less than amused Koko with them. She glared at them, demanding explanation.
"Sorry, some of that anaesthetic is pretty strong." Sniggered Shade. Koko groaned.
"You used our morphine?"
"Of course not. Nowhere near strong enough. Anyway, I think some explanation is due. Go get your friends." Koko ground her teeth and walked away. Shade received a questioning look. "What? People like that need to learn at least a little humility…" He drank, and spat hot tar into a bucket.
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At last when all were assembled, Shade stood up. Aside from his bandages, he was shirtless, putting a vague feeling of discomfort into the room.
"I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of mine. I believe you may have met him before, but not with this face." The man in question stood up and bowed a little.
"Pleasure to see you again, friends. Especially you, Mikogami." He smiled, singling out the exorcist, who smiled back.
"I recognise your voice…" Mumbled Moka.
"That you do, Miss Akashiya. But not, I think, the face that went with it. Allow me to remind you." He drew a cigar from his pocket, lit it on a flame conjured from his thumb, inhaled, and exhaled. The smoke swirled around him, temporarily obscuring him. Then, it faded, and what was left was a tall, thin figure, in a beaten uniform, complete with a cap shadowing his face, with two bright, glowing eyes peeking out. He sniggered, and took another drag of the cigar.
"Familiar enough now?" asked the Bus Driver. There was a moment of silence.
"WHAT?" Came the collective response. Shade guffawed.
"Believe me, it gets even better." In a puff of smoke, the Bus Driver returned to his other form.
"Indeed." He said. "For only two others in this room know who I really am, and they happen to be the ones that aren't exactly from around here." TouhouFuhai and Akasha looked to their fellow Dark Lord. He sighed.
"Don't keep them in suspense any longer, old friend. Just tell them." The man smiled at the headmaster.
"Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, Monsters and Demons, my name…"
He paused for a second, feeling the tension, and raised his arms perpendicular to his body. On his palms were messy scars, two thousand years old. His sackcloth robe became pure white cloth, splashed with blood.
"…Is Jesus. Jesus Christ. Please, no autographs."
Everyone stopped and stared, and Shade laughed so hard he started to cough up blood again.
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After the initial shock and awe, an interrogation of Mikogami began.
"Really? We were being driven to school by JESUS?"
"Is anyone else from this school a biblical character?"
"Anything else we should know?" Mikogami looked past the mob, and raised an eyebrow at Shade.
"Nothing that hasn't been already thrown into the light." Shade smirked. Yukari emerged from the throng, looking up into Jesus' face.
"So how did you, divine saviour, son of god, end up at a school for monsters?" The crowd quickly turned around. Jesus smiled.
"Let me tell you a story…"
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"Many years ago, in the times of the Old Testament, the world was besotted with chaos. Men and women were the playthings of my father. He jumped from one group to the other, inciting hatred and war in his many names. Brother turned on brother, father on son. So many died that whole deserts were stained red. But he soon grew tired with creating chaos. Eventually, he picked a favourite, feeding them stories of his will and his might. He even gave them his true name, Jehovah Yahweh.
He bade them to expand and conquer, to bring land under his heel, to do so in the name of their lord. He always was a malevolent bully. Upon their defeat, they were persecuted by their peers, enslaved and murdered for their crimes, through no fault of their own. By my father's side, I watched… but I did not share his joy. So many see God as a compassionate saviour, but he is anything but that.
Some angels tired of their duties. They developed sympathies to mortals. They came to me seeking guidance, and I told them of my own similar doubts. We decided that no-one should abuse power as my father did, and so we rebelled. We were crushed.
Every angel that participated in the revolt was thrown into deepest darkness, into what became hell. It was to be their eternal prison, but it became their fortress. My second-in-command, Lucifer, escaped before his condemnation, and stole power from my father while he slept. My father awoke before he could completely do so, however, and escaped with little more than half his power. It was still enough to banish Lucifer, but with his newfound power, Hell was not a prison for Lucifer. It was a fortress. He turned his punishment into a gift, commanding the fallen angels in hope that they would one day challenge the cruel master again.
But they became distorted. God sent them the souls of all those that displeased him, the ones that committed crimes against him, in rebellion. The fallen angels were not powerful enough to resist their influence, and became demons, no longer seeking justice, but revenge. Lucifer, however, remained true to his cause. He decided to rule the weak and vicious, to make them strong and virtuous once more, in preparation for the final war. He tortured his new arrivals, igniting flames of passion, giving them power and resolve to fight, to protect what they cared about.
But what of me? I was exiled to the land I wanted to protect, to live in the squalor that I somehow empathised with. I was born a babe, as a child to two poor fools completely under his control. I grew older, and a plan emerged. I would sway His influence, and warp His words.
I revealed myself as the son of God, performing miracles with what little power I had left. I told the people to change their ways, to love each other. It barely worked, but it was enough. Few remain who are completely under his sway. I violated every one of his great sins, even the one veiled to mortals. I taught mortals it was fine to Lust after each other, to be Gluttonous every once in a while, to be Greedy, in order to stoke the ambitions of others, to Sloth after hard work, to give Wrath unto the deserving, to Envy those stronger than yourself in order to better oneself, to take Pride in one's achievements. And then… Hubris. To encroach upon the divine domain, the eighth deadly sin. To bring another back from the dead.
Eventually, I was killed by the descendants of one of the polytheistic tribes my father had created, and placed in a tomb. It took me a while, but I came back to life. I used this to strengthen my cause, my message, and then disappeared to watch His influence wane.
Since then, I have been attracted to places of my Father's weakest influence, places where my virtues are found, where one loves another, where people hate each other, but for their own reasons. Not for my father's whims.
Not a thousand or so years later, I found a demon who had escaped from Hell. A soul who had been sentenced to punishment, had endured, and had a heart so determined he had returned to this world to finish his business. He could not walk in sunlight, he could not walk among others. I healed him, taught him the ways of power, and he walked the Earth anew.
He heeded my and Lucifer's teachings, to allow all to be free, to live together with no barriers, and have none who could truly command them. He found a division, a way of hate derived from ancient teachings. The hatred between monsters and humans.
And so, he created Yokai Academy, to teach the contrary. And I helped."
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Shade looked over the enchanted mortals, engrossed in the ex-divine's story. He thought of Mikogami's conviction, of his desire to help mortals throw off their bonds. He had endured the hellish journey between the two worlds to do that, just as he himself had.
But why had he done it?
He felt no particular compassion for the denizens of Earth, and would not have gone so far for a purpose such as Mikogami's. Why was he here? What had prompted him to do such a thing?
His brow furrowed and his mind began to race, seemingly running against a mental wall. Something was not right. He had not-
"Hey. Big boy." He looked up and saw Koko. Instantly, the thoughts melted away like mist into the far reaches of his brain. He retained only the faintest glimmer. He blinked.
"Sorry. What?"
"We've chucked my dad in the dungeon. Thought you might want to talk to him." Shade smiled.
"Excellent. I should have him on our side in less than an hour. Gather your men in the training grounds before then, please." Koko frowned.
"What for?" Shade picked up his coat, shrugging it on, and began to walk towards the door.
"Training, of course! I can't just bail you out of every fight. You need to be powerful enough to keep the peace once you have it." Koko watched him leave. He seemed now so jovial, but just seconds ago she had seen such internal panic.
"Are you all right?" She asked. Shade smiled back at her.
"Never been better."
There. I bet you weren't expecting all that, now were you? Anyway, there won't be another big surprise for a while now, but there will be fights!
Shout outs:
The Crimson Harbinger: Not necessarily… You shall soon see. ;)
Jake Wolf: Thanks. It means a lot.
Maesde: Hope you feel better now.
: I hope this will all be resolved next chapter.
So, as always, remember to review, and I'll see you soonish!