Go Away!

Vampires often spoke of heart scars, painful memories of suffering, wounds that had long healed but still plagued their every thought. Eric had only been a vampire for about a decade, he was one of the newest as far as HOMRA was concerned, and he was hard-pressed to say that his scars were all in his heart.

Back then, he was a slave, fumbling around in service to a mafia group that had become one of HOMRA's feeding grounds. Typically, Izumo was incredibly well-informed and made sure to turn group hunts on large scale operations that threatened the civility of the city. There was never a guarantee that innocents wouldn't be present, but the thought was there. And if Eric had to think about it a decade later, he supposed he wasn't exactly an innocent.

But he wasn't ready to die either.

In one sense, the marks on his body had healed, but even years later, he'd found it uncomfortable to wear restrictive clothing, and if anyone so much as thought about putting their hands around his neck, he'd break them. He supposed that was what vampires referred to as heart scars. It was a sensation of past phantoms encroaching even though their threat had long diminished. Those kinds of wounds were something only trust and time could heal, but it was hard to know how much of either was required to salvage the heart of someone so damaged.

Now, the pain he fought to banish was becoming real again. It pulsed through his lean frame in boiling waves, making his skin itch beneath the loose cotton of his sweater. No matter how feverish he became, he didn't lower his hood, and he didn't remove his hands from the slack pocket at the front. He'd made himself a safe-space, the circumference around him scorched unrecognizably. Every time something stepped within his vicinity, he fired off another expansion of his enhanced flame to ward them off. It was fiercer than what he'd received the day he'd become a vampire, and although Eric didn't recall whose teeth had turned him that night, he remembered the one who took responsibility.

The pity was still in his eyes, so Eric didn't turn to face him as the heatwave rushed the razed landscape again and again. The agony was resurfacing, but he couldn't relate it to his need to continually draw Genji's power to the surface. Instead, Eric blamed Kōsuke for persisting. "Go away!" he repeated the words over and over until his throat was raw. Eric typically only spoke English when he set to rile up Misaki. Still, sometime after the demon had taken his hold, Eric had surrendered the idea that anyone cared to understand him in the first place. For that reason, he made it as complicated for them to grasp his meaning as he could out of spite. "Go find someone else to put a collar on."

Kōsuke didn't stop. He was already about eight feet into the blackened ring spreading under Eric's feet, his footprints in the ash that was deep as northern snow. He would consider himself about halfway to the midpoint where Eric refused to move, but every time the rush of flames passed him by, he had to take a step back.

A discomforted groan hissed past Kōsuke's gritted teeth as he closed his eyes and expanded his aura in a mild attempt at diverting Eric's intensity. At that point, Mikoto's flame was the only thing keeping him from burning up before he reached his disoriented partner. "Where is this coming from?!" he hollered urgently. "When have I ever treated you like a dog!?"

Eric's permanently lengthened cuspids milled as another rush of magma caused him to choke down a pained whimper. He tightly sealed his eyes and hunched, barking his livid retort. "It's every day! Go do that! Come look at this!" He was starting to speak in fragments of both languages now, making it more difficult for his companion to keep up with his raving. "Face it! You're just training me without beating me, right?!"

"He's learning… Every day he gets closer to letting go of those memories, and so long as he's still willing to try, I'm going to be there to help him."

"What are you… saying…?" Kōsuke opened sad eyes and watched the suffering leak over Eric's dusty cheeks as he avoided the only truth he'd ever known. It was apparent that a part of Eric understood that what he was saying was absurd, but that part of him wasn't more powerful than the demon in his head, in his heart. The thought that Eric was trying to ignore that single ray of hope caused Kōsuke's temper to flare. "Is that what you think I'm doing?!" he painfully shouted in retort. "Eric, I'm trying to help you!"

"I don't need your help!" he screamed.

Once filled with rage and anguish, the next shockwave nearly took Kōsuke from his feet, and despite holding up his arms to protect his face, the embers that slipped past his cerise defence scalded his cheeks. "Stop!" The distressed growl Kōsuke was helpless to muffle ended up raising his voice in command, which might have been the worst thing he could do at that point. "Just listen!"

"I'm not some animal you can just order around!" Eric was back to speaking English again and shaking his anguished tears free of his face. They only seemed to make him angrier because he didn't understand why they were there. The grief that he felt was supposed to be betrayal, but there were moments when he wasn't sure which of them was the deserter.

"Eric…" Kōsuke's gaze softened as he lowered his arms and watched powerlessly as the misery crippled his comrade. He was close enough now that he could see the way his friend shivered, and every time he prepared to send more flames rolling over the earth, the mapping of veins beneath his skin lit up like lava coursing through his entire body. Desperation choked his voice as he hollered over the sounds of war surrounding them. "Would you just look at me!?" He wanted his friend to see how far they'd come in the footprints Kōsuke left behind him. He needed him to understand that he was worth fighting for until the bitter end. "Eric, you've got it all wrong! I'm telling you it's not like that!"

"G-go away!" Eric's tone was becoming exceedingly more broken as he warded off the company, wondering why as he did. He hadn't asked for any of it. If he recalled correctly, he hadn't requested much his entire life, but he was practically begging for solitude now. It was all he wanted, for one reason or another, a quiet place where nobody would even think of harming him. "I don't need you. Just leave me alone!" More broken English.

The next time crimson flames rushed his way, they were darker, and Kōsuke didn't take his wide eyes from the sight of Eric's pained whimpers. Finally, Eric had withdrawn his hands from his pockets so he could fold them around himself. He clutched his pullover beneath a pair of white-knuckled grasps, tugging it away from his skin like he thought it would relieve the pressure.

It was too much, but he didn't understand that the discomfort was related to drawing excessive power from his host. Eric wasn't thinking about anything outside of what Genji allowed, and his heart scars reminded him that if he disobeyed, he died. That was why he didn't dare to glance the light that was his comrade. Kōsuke wasn't responsible for training him; the sorrow was.

"Go away!"

"Please! I don't want to hurt you!"

But he was hurting himself, and Kōsuke saw that from where he'd neared. He glimpsed the steam rising from the instable figure teetering tremulously in the centre of the black. In Eric's obscure struggle, he'd knocked his hood from his head, revealing the stains of garnet lifeforce in his sunny-blonde hair, and once the shield was down, Kōsuke could finally perceive the scarlet shade replacing the boy's calm blue irises. Most importantly, when Kōsuke noticed Eric itching at his exposed collar, he could see the dark scars of mauling creeping from underneath. He was burning himself from the inside out.

Panic overwhelmed him in the next instant. "Eric! You have to stop!"

Eric didn't answer that time. Tortured whimpers partially garbled his snarl as he defiantly sent another powerful flash flame towards his associate.

Kōsuke rushed it this time, growling mildly with determination when traces of the more significant power bled through his barrier to scald his skin, tearing lashes from his sleeves as he ran. "Can't you see that you're hurting yourself?!" he pleaded. "Eric, you don't need that kind of power! If you want me to go away, fine, but you need to ask me yourself! Not that demon controlling you!"

"Go away!" It was like Eric couldn't even comprehend the conversation around him anymore, his mind on a constant loop as he lost control. It was similar to when Kōsuke had watched him leave the night that Genji had taken over.

Kōsuke didn't chase him that night for that reason. He never meant to pressure Eric to live outside of his comfort zone, but he wanted to show him all the beautiful things he'd missed while he was a slave. Sure, he'd suggested they go places and see things, but he was always willing to hear Eric out if it wasn't something that caught his interest. He knew that Eric had a hard time trying to express himself, so he strained to hear his heart… he did.

"Make it stop…"

He was so distracted that the next eruption took him from his feet because he didn't think to defend himself with Mikoto's aura. The ground blistered his fingers as he clawed at the sharp onyx fragments, boiling the skin from his touch. The ashy air was so thick and stifling that his tears felt refreshing as they traced his bared grimace. The material of his jacket was baking to his skin, so he quickly discarded it, never once taking his eyes off Eric.

"Leave him alone!" At that point, Kōsuke didn't know who he was begging to stop, but as the marks beneath Eric's skin began to split and ventilate the temperatures of the flame welling from within, his entire world slipped out from under him. "Hasn't he suffered enough!?" Blood started to leak over Eric's collar from his lesions, reminding Kōsuke of how the boy looked the day they'd met. Yet, through all the pain, Eric didn't give up. He didn't have it in him. Even if his demons ran deep and chewed him up from the inside out, there was a cynical hope reminding him that things couldn't get worse. It was always there, even if Genji tried to destroy it from within.

At that moment, hope's shoes were resisting his trajectory, the rubber soles sticking to the ground as he charged. Eric was only a couple of feet away from him now, so he began to reach. Shortly after, Eric's weak legs collapsed, and Kōsuke noticed the wet splotches of red beginning to soak through his pant leg as he came apart. "Eric!"

Then finally, draining garnet eyes turned to face his friend, the pain becoming too much for him to ignore even if his thoughts weren't his own. So, he found hope and clung to it with all he had left. "H-help me…"

But before Kōsuke managed to reach him, another unrestrained surge of power vented from within the tormented blonde, colliding with Kōsuke hard enough to propel him into the slag and cinders. There were burns along Kōsuke's arms as he slowly struggled to raise them in front of his face, watching Eric's tears run red with the blood of his wounds as he huddled in the centre of his circle. The light marring on his face itched, but he didn't have the strength to scratch it. He saved it all for climbing to his feet one last time and stumbling towards his partner.

At that moment, Kōsuke was sure that Eric would die before he'd ever been allowed to live. The scars of his past were too deeply rooted, and even after ten years, his life was comfortable, at best. To Kōsuke, that was his biggest failure as a friend. Eric was not a bad person. He'd learned to be mean-spirited to protect himself, and because he'd never lived a day where he didn't have to watch his back, it took control.

Kōsuke's tears weren't as bloody as they fell to his feet, where Eric continued to shake mere inches from where he stood. Eric's clothes began to soak with his blood, and if Kōsuke had to wonder why the power faded, he would theorize that it was because Eric found himself discarded. Genji gave him orders to destroy, so Eric destroyed everything in sight, including his own body. Any moment, Kōsuke feared that his skin would give way and spill its contents into the hub of the crater he'd burned through the earth. So, his solution was to collapse to his knees alongside him and hold the fragile bones that Eric had baked brittle.

"I'm sorry," he muttered weakly against Eric's bloody collar. His arms trembled not only from the pain of his lesions burning against Eric's stifling temperature but because he was afraid to hold his body too tightly. He could feel the grief and sheer terror welling within his friend the instant they'd synchronized, but a moment after his arms slipped loosely around Eric's shoulders, he felt something else. The thankfulness that snuck through their connection had Kōsuke closing his eyes, his face partially concealed by the hood that bunched around his comrade's shoulders.

"P-please, don't leave." Eric wasn't even sure how his muscles could tremble anymore, but he fought every jolt of pain to lift his sweater-paws against Kōsuke's shoulders and clutch his shirt as tightly as his broken body could manage. The heat didn't matter. The pain didn't matter. All he cared about was that somebody was there no matter how his scars, past or present, tried to keep them away.

"I won't," Kōsuke reassured him bleakly.

Eric's tone surged with nervousness. "I don't want to die."

Surrendering to the rush of determination he felt leak through their connection from his friend, Kōsuke's hold tightened to remind him he was durable. "You're not gonna die." His growling whisper drowned as he focussed everything that he had left on shouldering some of the burdens, absorbing some of the pain that Eric continued to feel. If it were the last thing he did, he would be the peace that Eric couldn't find on his own. "We'll do it differently this time. You can tell me when you don't want to go somewhere, and we'll do something else, okay? I'll show you all the things you want to see."

Sky blue eyes were slipping beneath tapering eyelids, even though some semblance of relief began to ease his suffering. He supposed the euphoria of blood loss was something he was grateful for after the last few days of his existence. In his deliria, he didn't see the soot on the ground, the ash in the sky as it fell amongst snowflakes. He saw the sun and felt the clean rush of springtime air filling his burning lungs. "I want… to see the sky from the mountains," he rasped weakly. "Nothing else above… me…" No threat of a master or pain of restricting spaces, just a bright, quiet, wide-open landscape. "That might be… nice."

There was so much blood in Eric's clothing that by the time Kōsuke's agonized grip tightened, it wrung the lifeforce out of the cotton. "Then we'll go there first," he muttered through choked breaths. "Just hang on. You can get through this."

No answer came, but Kōsuke didn't let go. In Eric's fragile state, he couldn't protect himself, so Kōsuke had to do it for him. If anyone approached, he promised himself that he would tear them apart. But no one came, no help or hindrance. They were alone somewhere on the second island's edge, dreaming of mountains.

Shizume City

HOMRA was used to spontaneous combustion, but when Tatara's frantic shaking was interrupted by the sudden eruption of Kagutsu Genji's flames, he whirled from where he diligently tried to awaken Anna from her stasis. His breathing was uneven as he scanned the room, panting with alarm as he winced from the impact of the heat. "N-no way! I didn't think he'd be able to get to us from so far away!"

His synchronization with Anna had broken off almost immediately after Genji spoke, so he'd lost his connection with the demon. However, no matter how frantically he shook the child, she wouldn't surrender her connection with Mikoto, and therefore, the devil as well. But if she remained in her room in her current state, he knew that the building would collapse around her. "Anna-chan, please wake up," he begged. "He's trying to hurt you!"

Hope flooded Tatara's cheek momentarily when her face tightly bound like she was comprehending his words outside of her coma, and then, with a gasping breath, she parted her lips. "Eric," she whimpered.

Tatara stiffened, waiting as patiently as he could for her to open her eyes while the structure around them suffered beneath Genji's intensity. "A-Anna?"

"He's…"

When she silenced again, not once opening her pretty ruby eyes, Tatara quickly scooped her up in his arms. He rested Anna's sleepy head on his shoulder and clasped his palm against it to hold her steady. Her arms fell around his neck while he held her at his front. Visibly, the child probably looked like a koala strapped to its mother. Tatara did everything in his power to protect her from falling debris as the flame chased them into the hallway and down the staircase. Even if she remained dedicated to her king, he couldn't ignore that Genji had put their safety at risk.

Still, Anna struggled to secure her connection with Mikoto while communicating with the man who'd broken off a moment prior. Tatara couldn't even imagine how much concentration that must have taken on the child's behalf. "That's great news, Anna-chan, but you really need to let go for a minute." The sounds of sirens rang in his ears as he dashed out through the front doorway, nearly barrelling over one of the rescue crew. It was clear that the sight startled the agents rushing into danger to quell the flames. Tatara only looked back momentarily to comfort them with a smile. "Ah! Sorry! Thank you very much for your services!"

"Hey! Wait, come back!" But before the fire crew could interject, Tatara had vanished down the familiar side streets and out of sight. The team was unaware, but chasing him would yield no result. Nobody knew the backstreets of Shizume City like vampires did.

He didn't have time for their questions or theories. With his luck, they would accuse him of kindling the blaze while Izumo was out, and proving his innocence wouldn't be easy as he kidnapped the young resident from the apartment above, chased by the raging inferno. At that moment, nothing mattered but the gently wheezing child he supported. She was panting and feverish, a desperate crease in her youthful brow beneath delicate silver threads. Anna's ability as a creature of the night seemed uncanny for a child her age, but sometimes Tatara had to stop himself and realize that she'd been a demon for nearly as long as he had.

"King… what do I do?" he whispered nervously. "So long as Anna's synchronized with you-" He set the girl down in the protection of the blackened alleyway, gently propping her against the frigid partition of a nearby building. He kept a careful eye on their surroundings, monitoring the careless sounds of the nightlife perusing the brighter side of the district celebrating the light snowfall. At any moment, the demon's flames could return, and if it could transcend space with such relative ease, he wondered if Anna wasn't suffering even more than she let on. "I could… do that…"

When Tatara returned his gaze to face the youth, his lips tightened around his fretful grimace. He laid his hands on either side of the girl's face, his heart heavy as he watched her shiver. "But if I do… what will happen to you?" He closed his eyes, slowly tipping his brow into Anna's to concentrate on re-establishing their connection. "If I make a path… you have to promise to bring Anna-chan back with you, okay?"

The flames whipped and surged like they were tumbling in a torrent around the meditating child as she sat quietly amid the chaos. She was somewhere deep within Mikoto's heart, but through the increase of the demon's influence, she hadn't been able to reach him fully. Now that two of her fellow clansmen were released, she could only imagine that Genji was gaining more power by taking it back from her friends.

A gentle whimper accompanied her subtle flinch as the flames twisted and morphed until finally, they'd taken shape before her. She calmly watched it change without surprise, her garnet irises rising as it straightened in a humanoid form. "You hurt my friends," she murmured coldly. Her confident claret eyes illuminated and remained fixed, void of emotion while she tilted her head to face the demonic spectre. The flames acted like a bright shadow, constructing the silhouette of how Kagutsu Genji once appeared. Her tone remained flat but quiet as she all but hissed her venomous retort. "I won't forgive you."

"You are a child." The bellowing rasp of the flames sputtered like they were resentful. "A mere child is stunting my progression?"

"Tatara will," she corrected him firmly. Her confident gaze pierced where the flaming ghoul's face should have shown eyes, her lips tight as she threatened the demon king to dare intrude on their lives. "Tatara will make a path, and then Mikoto will stop you."

Anna peacefully raised from her knees, calmly dusting flakes of ash from her wine-coloured skirt. "When all my friends escape, we will fight you together."

"Fight me?" Genji seemed amused. "My flame is what keeps you alive. Once my new body is prepared to reclaim it, you will all die."

"This is not your body." Anna closed her eyes, drawing her pale fingers to the centre of her chest to feel her steady heartbeat. It was unified entirely with Mikoto's, and so long as it remained tranquil, she would not falter. "This is Mikoto's heart, and our red is different from yours. It protects us all."

The responding tone lowered petulantly the moment he watched the peaceful girl smile. "A child knows nothing of war," he cautioned her grimly. "My flame will consume all laid out before me. No amount of innocence will protect you from that all-consuming power, little bird."

When Anna's eyes shot open, magnificent flaming wings sprang from between her shoulders, the slightly pinkened glow of her aura causing her hair to levitate and whisk around her round cheeks. The flaming ghoul seemed vexed by her sudden manifestation of power within a spirit he thought to have tamed. "Your flame may be strong, but our hearts are stronger," she warned him briskly. "I am not afraid of you."

A ventilating sound like billowing exhaust puffed around the flaming walls to accompany Genji's entertained laugh. "You wish to fight me? Is that what this is?"

"Get out," Anna whispered strictly. Her glowing eyes flashed as her mighty wings beat once around her trim physique. The sheer pressure sent a torrent crashing into the flames to extinguish them entirely, putting Genji out like a candle. "This red belongs to Mikoto. I won't let you destroy it."

But when the blaze manifested again after a momentary lapse, it became angrier, burning hotter with Genji's intensifying rage. "You naïve little pest," Genji snarled intolerantly. "That is the purpose of flames. Complete and utter-"

Anna's voice raised slightly to interrupt the demon a second time, her tiny feet raising off of the platform. "Go away," she reiterated confidently. The ground on which the devil stood was sacred, and she couldn't forgive his trespass. Her wings beat again, carrying her into the air as her gusting powered into the unwanted vision. "This is not your place. It's not where you belong." She didn't shirk when the hominid figure before her began to twist again until a molten serpent took shape before her.

The snake didn't speak as it coiled by her feet upon taking shape. Once it completed moulding, the flames began to hiss and solidify like magma, causing its body to flash a rockier appearance, filled with cracks leaking veins of lava. "I have no time for your games, little bird."

But Anna didn't surrender her connection no matter how the inferno raged. She prepared to defend her friends, no matter the cost. Even if battling with the demon could somehow damage her physical body, she refused to leave the place she felt safest. The devil before her brought pain to her family, and even still, some of them continued to suffer. She could feel it all through her patriarch, who fought endlessly for their preservation. Mikoto was trapped somewhere within his heart, battling the intrusive heat of his encroaching prison. All the while, he remained connected with each clansman, doing his best to free them ahead of himself. So long as she stood capable, she would ward off the flames threatening his reign until his task was complete.

Perhaps once upon a time, Mikoto had given his body to the demon to save Tatara, but Anna remained unconvinced that Genji deserved it. Even if the exchange seemed fair in the eyes of demonic law, it was not adequate in hers. It was cruel to think that someone so vile could snuff out the brave spirit of a king, a friend, and a brother. She refused to accept that as their fate. Mikoto was a king, her king, and she would not lose him.

Suddenly, her wings whisked wide to either side, a brilliant burst of her inherited red, causing the cavernous pyre around her to bow to her hurricane in places. In return, Genji's fire surged, and her winds whirled. Soon, the typhoon was funnelling, and the fire cyclone was engulfing their conflicting spirits. Her penetrating screech was all the effort she used to defend herself as the fixed jaws of the cobra launched towards her resistance through the enormous pyre. "Go away!"

Before the molten jaws of the beast could swallow up the child, a mighty lion broiling in a similar state of apparition leapt through the flames at her reverse with a ferocious roar, capturing the brittle serpent between its mighty jaws instead. The world spun around Anna's bright smile for a moment as she watched the savage feline peel the layers of crust away from the demon's vision. It wasn't the same kind of red, behind her eyes. That was how she'd known right away that Tatara had found his way through. "Mikoto…"

She quickly whirled to where the lion tore down the wall at her back, breaking a sizzling path for which Mikoto walked towards the commotion. His hands were deep within his pockets, his ochre gaze lacklustre as he surveyed freedom. "I thought I told you to leave this place?" he rumbled collectedly.

A delicate yip clucked past Anna's lips as her wings took flight, carrying her high above the pandemonium until she could drop into Mikoto's arms. "I knew it," she whispered delightedly. "Tatara found a way."

Mikoto groaned and patted the child's head as she snuggled into his reassuring comfort. "Kay, so now we're here," he stated vaguely. "Looks like the same nowhere I was before too."

Anna slowly turned, her hand capturing his and holding it firmly as she pointed her second towards the battle ensuing between beasts. "It's the demon," she assured him confidently. "Kagutsu Genji. His presence is getting stronger because he is taking his powers back from our friends."

Mikoto remained indifferent. "That so?"

"You sound surprised." Once the distressed snake fell limp beneath the might of the lion to pounce, the flames began to stir again. The feline picked up the ungainly carcass, giving it a riled shake before the body of the serpent began to disintegrate, raining silver ash upon the manifestation of their enemy. "You knew that was my intent, Suoh. Even before I gave you your powers, you knew the cost of your friend's life."

"Yeah, I half-listen," Mikoto rumbled impatiently. His free hand raised to his ear, where he twisted his pinky in the channel to clear it. "I heard somethin' about you wanting my body, but I'm pretty sure you never mentioned anyone else having to deal with your crap. Must've been in the fine print of the contract I didn't sign." When his left arm flopped limply by his side again, his tone grew rougher as his grip defensively tightened on Anna's tiny paw. "A lotta real bad shit happened 'cause of you and your curses, y' know."

The burning phantom didn't quake. "I might apologize if I felt remorse."

Mikoto's gaze didn't wander as the enormous feline returned to his side, lowering its nose towards where Anna remained glued to her king's hip. "Anna, I need you to go back to Totsuka now," he commanded.

Anna's gentle gasp was disbelieving as she swung her eyes to face his. "I won't," she assured him breathlessly. "Misaki and Saburōta are still in danger."

"If you stay, you'll be in danger," he strictly proclaimed. "Thanks to Totsuka, I'm here now lookin' the bastard in the eye, finally." He snickered to himself, realizing how estranged it was to use the expression when the flames manifested without sockets. "I can take it from here."

"No…" She whimpered fretfully the moment she leapt against his front and clutched him tightly. "I don't want to leave."

"King?! Anna-chan? Can you guys hear me?!" Tatara sat in the dark alley a couple of blocks behind Bar HOMRA, panting his exhaustion as trembling hands clasped Anna's frigid digits in his. "Is everything okay!?"

Mikoto bowed his head with a subtle smirk. "You idiots just don't know when to quit, do you?"

"H-hah! King, it's you!" His head immediately bowed with relief as he fought to keep his eyes from flooding with grateful tears. "It's so good to hear your voice. Is Anna with you?"

"Yeah…"

A subtle pause seemed to transcend the happy reunion as Mikoto sized up the reforming smoke and embers before him taking the shape of his genuine predecessor.

"And what about-?"

"He's here too." Mikoto's tone was flat as he gently encouraged Anna behind his back, sizing up the threat that took a genuinely human appearance before him. "So much for smoke and mirrors, huh?" He snorted curtly. "Y' know, it's funny. You look even more like a demon when you're tryin' to look human."

"I can see what Habari's disciple means now," Genji spoke through a twisted half-grin. "You do a lot of talking."

"And you do a lotta cocky-ass grinning." A low rumble mimicked derisive chuckling in Mikoto's chest. "Stick around, and you might pick up some new words to take back to your little pals."

"King!? Don't just mock him!" Tatara thundered impatiently. "He still has Bandō and Yata-chan! Not to mention, he just set Kusanagi-san's bar on fire. Rescue crews are trying to stop it as we speak."

Mikoto snorted playfully. "Sounds like a 'him' problem," he sassed. "You know how Kusanagi is about his bar. When he finds out, me and a little girl are gonna be the least of his worries."

Tatara quickly surveyed their surroundings in the cold street before freeing up one hand to lay it on Anna's feverish brow. "Anna-chan, you need to let King do this on his own," he reasoned soundly. "If you stay, you'll only get in his way."

"But what if Saburōta and Misaki don't escape in time…"

A nervous twist creased Tatara's brow as he considered the possibilities of her suggested outcome. "They'll make it," Tatara reassured her kindly. "They have friends that won't let them down. I'm sure that at any moment, they'll be free too."

"There's… so much red…"

"Totsuka."

Tatara closed his eyes, silently begging his king not to say anymore. One of the abilities that Tatara retained, along with his ability to soothe restless spirits, was a skill he used to sever the connection between two synchronized beings. It was how he could quell conflicts between vampires that had gotten out of hand, and in the end, it would be how he pulled Anna away from their king. "Yeah," he whispered tenderly. "King I-" There was a lot that Tatara wanted to say to his friend, starting with thank you.

"No matter what happens, we'll be right by your side, okay?" was what he'd surrendered.

Mikoto closed his eyes, bowing his head with a small smile. "Sure." After dismissing the mawkish display, he grunted lightly to the feeling of Anna reclaiming his hand tightly like she knew what to expect. Her big bright eyes were filled with nervous tears as she clutched him tightly and begged to remain by his side. But he knew that she was at risk, and as dangerous as that made him want to become, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if something happened to her after all she'd been through in her lifetime.

He knelt in front of her and connected their gazes with a soft sigh. He still remembered the colour of red in her silver hair, even as his fingers swept through the silken strands one last time. The night they'd come across the child, she'd wandered through a daze down the street, carrying the news that her parents were in dire need of assistance. It was so late that night that she'd only managed to wander straight into a pack of predators. Immediately after the brave child had explained her news in sputtering fragments, she fell at Mikoto's feet. The gash she suffered was deep, and when he carried her to the scene of the accident to pronounce her family deceased, his decision to save her cemented.

She was too young to die, too strong, too smart, and radiant. One day, he hoped he would see her become a beautiful woman, but the cold fate of their curse was that her body might never age. In a way, he was thankful. He never had to bludgeon the boys to catcall her name or deal with any awkward conversations that followed her maturity. But growing up was a part of living, and he was sorry that he ever took that away from her. Unfortunately, the gift he had couldn't save a life without destroying it.

"Take care of Totsuka for me."

Anna shook her head, rattling her pearly tears from her eyes with a gentle squeak. She quickly tore her hands away from him, throwing her arms out as she leapt towards his crouched figure. But before Anna's touch landed against his shoulders, the mighty beast to join them through the flames captured her dress between its teeth. "No! Mikoto!" The magnificent lion closed its eyes like it felt remorse, and then, she vanished, leaving a cloud of glistening silver fragments in her wake.

In response, Mikoto heaved a heavy sigh and dropped his hand back into his lap while he stood. "I guess I should probably thank you," he grumbled resentfully. "If it weren't for your abilities, I wouldn't have been able to save her."

"Your abilities weren't without their perks," Genji reminded him dimly. "I believe I was more than fair."

"What's gonna happen to them?" Mikoto's tone flattened, growing harder with his festering impatience. "To Yata and Totsuka, the ones who were sick before I turned them."

"I'm a demon, not a fortune teller," Genji spat indifferently. "But, you're assuming you're going to destroy me and any trace of the flame I've given your little brood."

"Can you take it back?" Mikoto insisted. "The flame, the curse, all of it." He locked his eyes on the sight of Genji's fixed ebony irises. "If I let you take control of my body, will you let the other's go back to living normal lives?"

Mikoto's sincerity caused Genji to snort his derision. "Are you really foolish enough to sell your soul to a demon's promises twice?" The mild chortle expanded in Genji's chest with his genuine amusement. "Especially knowing what I have planed once I return to power."

A soft scoff followed the bowing of Mikoto's head as he sighed his defeat. "Yeah, didn't think that'd work."

"Right now, your body is still too weak to house all of my power, that's why I've spread it among the infected. But as you develop a tolerance, it will return. We should've been further along by now, but I think you're even more stubborn than I am."

"Well, what d' ya know," Mikoto hummed through the clicking of his tongue. "S' that why you picked me? And here I thought I was just lucky."

"Arrogance won't save you, though," Genji assured him coldly. "If I destroy you at a subconscious level, it will accelerate the process."

"Oh yeah?" Mikoto sassed intolerantly through his sadistic beam. "And what's stoppin' ya?"

"For starters, the blue pestilence out there thrashing around like he owns the place."

"I see we have similar opinions on that one."

His audacity seemed to amuse the demon, and Genji lowered his sinister smirk as his serpent reconstructed from the ashes of what remained. "I'm sure we're a lot alike in ways that you aren't brave enough to admit."

Mikoto's matched just as eagerly as the lion at his back thundered an ear-splitting battle cry from behind him. "Don't pretend like you know me," he sneered.

"Ah, but we've been together since the beginning," Genji growled manically. "For decades, I've been a part of you. Watching over every move you made."

Mikoto lowered his fists in front of him and snarkily rumbled his scathing retort. "Well, gee, don't I feel blessed."

"You should feel defeated," Genji cautioned him evenly. "But if you don't now, you will soon enough." The molten snake at his back lurched with a shrill hiss. "Let's see whose flame is stronger."

"Bring it on…"