Sanctity of Life

Chapter 8 – Subject 7.

It had been 2 months since Kazuki had joined Fairy Tail. The guild had yet to fully accept him as one of their own, however he didn't really care about that. He loved Rei, and she loved him back, that's all that mattered. Unfortunately, he knew it was only a matter of time before the Blood Spirals made their presence known to the world, and it would be historical, brutal, but historical.

Kazuki wanted to spend as much time with Rei as possible, so he had taken her to a 3-weeks couples cruise. The pair had just finished the cruise and were making their way back to the guild.

"I had the best time of my life, thank you Kaz." Rei grinned, her shining warmth melting Kazuki's heart, he couldn't understand how she always made him feel this way.

"I'm glad you liked it. I wanted to repay you." He answered, taking her hand.

"Repay me? For what?"

"Rei, I haven't ever told anyone this, but before I met you, I was the dictionary definition of suicidal. I loathed my life and wanted it to end, but everytime I tried, my regeneration would kick in and heal me. And then I met you, you taught me to smell the roses, how to appreciate life, you taught me how to love." Rei was shocked at his sudden confession, she always suspected that he was once in a dark place, but his attempts on his life was something she wasn't prepared to hear. She stopped walking and pulled him into a tight hug, squeezing him as hard as she could.

"Promise me you'll never try to die ever again, your life isn't yours anymore, it belongs to me now. Just as my life belongs to you." She gently whispered into his ears, her voice was fragile, as if it were a flower petal fighting a storm.

"I promise." He whispered back as he broke their embrace, he held her close and brought his forehead to hers. "I want to live, to be with you, I want us to one day start a family, I want to grow old with you."

"I want that too Kazuki." She replied, staring into his hazel brown eyes. She leaned forward and he did the same, bringing their lips together as they kissed.

"I see you two lovebirds still think that you're on the cruise." The voice was rough, it came from a man with more piercings then manners. Kazuki and Rei hadn't realised that they were standing right outside the guild, and teasing them was Blacksteel Gajeel.

"Gajeel! Don't be rude." Stood beside him was a petite blue haired woman wearing an orange dress with black trousers.

"Someone had to say it Levy." Gajeel retorted.

Kazuki cleared his throat, grabbed Rei's hand, and made his way past the Iron-Dragon Slayer and his wife and onto the guild.

"Aw, are you blushing Kaz?" Rei teased

"No I'm… Shut up." He stuttered, his face beet red.

"You're so fucking cute. Ka-zu-ki" She purposefully spaced his name out, knowing how much it made him squirm. She got the reaction she was looking for as he clenched his heart with his free hand. The rest of the guild was minding their own business, with the exception of a certain bartender notorious for fangirling over couples. Mira couldn't get over how Kazuki, a Wizard Saint was so weak for Rei. Her grin slowly reversed as she knew what was to come, now that Kazuki had returned.

"Welcome back to the guild, Kazuki and Rei." Makarov greeted the pair.

"Hey gramps, it's good to be back, how have you been?" Rei asked

"Oh you know, dealing with the council, team Natsu destroyed another town, same old same old." He took a pause as he looked over to Kazuki. Kazuki realised something was up, Makarov looked concerned about something.

"What's bothering you old man?" Kazuki used telepathy magic to secretly communicate with the older Saint.

"It's best if we talk alone." Makarov said out loud, ignoring Kazuki's telepathy. "Rei, would you give us a moment?"

"Sure, don't you two fight again." She warned, as she skipped off to talk to Wendy and Romeo.

"So what is it?" Kazuki asked Makarov.

"Whilst you were gone, team Natsu took on a job to track down a guild, the job was issued by the council. Thanks to Erza and Lucy, they were able to find the old headquarters of the cult. It was in a cave, above a waterfall." Kazuki froze and his eyes widened, he would recognise that description anywhere.

"This cult, it's the Blood Spirals, isn't it?" Kazuki's voice was soft, but had a glimpse of fear.

"I'm afraid so. They found a book, it's encrypted but Levy and Freed may be able to decode it, perhaps it will reveal the Spiral's current headquarters, or at least provide us with hints. Levy managed to duplicate the book, she's going to study it with Gajeel whilst Freed will try to decode it with the help of the Thunder Legion and Hibiki of the Blue Pegasus Guild. "

"Okay. Here." He handed Makarov a communication card. "When the book is decoded, please let me know what it contains."

"Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes, home. I need to rest." He waved bye to Makarov as he made his way to Rei. "Hey, I'm going home for a little while, all this travelling has taken its toll on me."

"I'll come with you; I could do with some rest myself." Rei responded, taking his hand, the pair walked out of the guild and to Rei's house. Upon entering, Kazuki fell straight to the bed. The sudden mentioning of the cave where he was put through hell as a child has triggered many memories, he wasn't suicidal, but he was incredibly depressed and anxious. Rei sensed his discomfort and laid down next to him, putting his head on her chest as she put her hand through his hair, gently stroking the strands of hair.

"Kaz, what's got you down?" she gently asked him, he was in a fragile state, she needed to be careful and loving.

"It's… I still can't tell you; I need more time. I'm sorry." He struggled to reply.

"Sweetie, it's okay. What can I do to make you feel better?"

"Could… Could you hold me?" His voice and body were trembling, he about to suffer through another anxiety attack. Rei hugged him tight and left gentle kisses on his head, he had a few attacks on the cruise, and now she knew exactly how to take care of him.

"It's okay Kaz, I'm here, I love you." She kept whispering; he was slowly but surely calming down. In a few moments, he fell asleep in Rei's embrace and she followed suit.

After resting for a couple of hours, the pair were woken up by a communication card. Makarov was calling Kazuki via the card. Kazuki slowly got up and lazily answered the card, still not feeling so great.

"What is it old man?" He grumbled, still exhausted.

"With Hibiki's help, Levy and Freed have decoded the entire book."

"That was fast, I'll be there in 10 minutes."

"Okay, bring Rei with you, if this concerns you, she should be here."

"I will. See you soon." Kazuki hung up and turned around to face Rei. "Did you sleep well?" He asked her.

"I did." She got closer to Kazuki and kissed his cheek as she put her arms around his neck. "How are you feeling now?"

"I'm better now, thanks to you." He smiled, as he kissed her back on her cheek. "Should we start heading back to the guild."

"Mhm." The pair lazily got up, and headed towards the guild.

"You're finally here." Makarov greeted them as they entered, everyone joyfully greeted and properly welcomed back Rei, whilst Kazuki received a faint greeting from some of the members. On any other day, this wouldn't bother him, but today was different, he was extremely irritable and on edge.

"So, what's in the book?" Kazuki asked, turning his attention to Levy and Freed.

"Well, before we decoded it, we thought it may have clues onto where this cult could be now. However, it turns out that the book is actually a fact file on their prisoners, 1 prisoner in particular." Levy explained.

"Does it say who the prisoner is?" Rei asked.

"According to the book, they escaped. His name was never recorded, he's simply listed as, Subject 7." Freed answered.

Kazuki stopped functioning when he heard that name, 'Subject 7.' How could fate be so cruel? Of all of the fact files they could have found, it had to be his. The guild was about to learn the horrors Kazuki had gone through, and they won't even know who Subject 7 is.

"I'll start reading it, even if it's just a fact file, we may be able to track this person down. He may be able to help finding the Blood Spirals base." Hibiki explained.

"Very well. No one interrupt, this is important." Makarov instructed, and for the first time since Kazuki had joined, everyone listened to the old dwarf. 'I guess they know when to be quiet.' Kazuki thought to himself.

Kazuki close his eyes, luckily Rei was still holding his hands. He didn't want to listen to his demons being read out loud in public, instead he opted to reliving his trauma in a flashback. He wasn't worried about a panic attack; Rei was with him. He closed his eyes, and let his mind travel back.

"This one is nothing but a scrawny kid, what use is he to our master?"

"That's none of our business, our job is to follow orders, not question them."

2 men discussing their situation with a small child they had just thrown into a dark dirty cell; he was wearing a ripped and torn white tank top with moulded black shorts. His feet were bare, but they were battered and covered with dry blood. The child was terrified, his home village was small, it had a population of 48 people, and then these people came and reduced it to 2, only 2 children were left alive, and then they were captured. This child was one of the 2, the other's location was unknown to our frightened boy.

They kept the child in the cell with minimal food and 1 glass of water per day, this was his life for 2 months. Until one day, 5 heavily armoured men appeared, the boy noticed that they were all obese, perhaps he could slip past them and escape. The guards opened the door to his cell, grabbed his hair and dragged the poor boy by his roots to another room. This room was much bigger then the cell. There was 1 table in the centre, with chains attached to it.

The guard holding the boy by his hair, threw the child on the table as the other guards chained his limbs to the table, ensuring he couldn't escape. "We're going to make you so much stronger, you're just a worthless week twerp right now, but one day, you will be so strong." They whispered into his ears, their comments did not ease the boys anxiety, they only served to increase it dramatically. The tone of their was menacing and incredibly evil. They pulled out a strange staff, it had a white skull as its head, the rest of the staff was wooden but cracked. They held the staff against the boys torso and smirked.

Within an instant the child was screaming in agony, the staff was constantly stimulating the pain receptors in his nerves, causing him unbearable physical pain every second. The guards kept this up for hours and hours, the boy had stopped screaming a long time ago, his voice was gone, he had lost all hope for freedom, all he felt was pain.

After what seemed like days, the guards finally stopped hurting him with the staff. Then they all undressed until they were naked, the evil look in their eyes had only increased, the boy thought he knew fear, but unfortunately, he was only beginning to learn what true fear is. The guards steadily walked towards him, all of them chuckling. One of them grabbed the boy's head and brought it towards his pelvis. The boy then realised, the staff was just a war up, his real suffering had only just begun.

2 years had passed, and the boy was aware of his routine. Everyday they would call for him, not by his name, they didn't know his name. Only the child did, he would constantly repeat it so he wouldn't forget it. 'My name is Kazuki. My name is Kazuki' He kept reminding himself, it was the only thing stopping him from breaking, no matter what they did, he will never break again. A few months ago, he had decided to resist the guards, as a way of punishing him, they brang another child, the other survivor of Kazuki's village, they killed him right in front of Kazuki, simply to teach him a lesson. "We've got plenty of brats we can kill, it's not your life you're defending, it's their lives you're taking." One of the guards said. Kazuki broke after watching his childhood friend die, his spirit was destroyed, when they wanted him to server them, he didn't move, he sat still, his cold dead eyes staring at the guards. As a punishment, they burnt his tongue and took away his taste buds.

"Subject 7. It's time." Kazuki snapped out of his thoughts, that was his signal to prepare for his daily routine, he was nothing but a test subject for them, the cult wanted to break and strengthen children so they could brainwash them and make them apart of the cults growing army. Kazuki had no idea how many more unfortunate kids were locked up here just like him, he only ever heard his own tag being called, 'Subject 7.'

It had been 5 years now since Kazuki was captured, and in those 5 years, this was his first time trying to escape, trying, and succeeding. The guards had gotten increasingly careless overtime, today they didn't bother to chain Kazuki to the table for his 'power-up session', so, Kazuki, taking his chances, managed to run past them and on towards the exit. He knew the exit had to be straight up ahead, the only smell of the sea he ever got was this way, he had to trust his dragon sense of smell.

Kazuki managed to trick the guards into thinking that he went another way, in reality he was hiding inside a trash can, his legs had given up just earlier and there was no other hiding spot. He gently checked his surroundings, judging from the smell, there wasn't anyone nearby, this was his chance. Without thinking, Kazuki jumped out of the trash can and lunged into a small hole in front of him, if it weren't for his small frail body (thanks to his malnourishing diet), he wouldn't have been able to fit through. Kazuki landed in the sea had been smelling for years, he looked up and noticed that the place they had kept him for 5 years was a small cave on a waterfall.

"Kazuki!" Rei was shaking him as hard as she could, her hands on his shoulders. She was trying to get his attention, he was breathing heavily, it looked like he was having a panic attack.

"Huh?" Kazuki snapped out of his thoughts, noticing his heavy breathing, he to tried to regain his composure but his legs collapsed as he fell on to his knees.

"What's wrong?" Rei knelt down with him and gently hugged him. "Are you okay?" She whispered softly.

"Yeah, I guess I didn't realise how tired I am." Kazuki lied, he was anything but okay, but he was sick of making Rei worry.

"How about we head home, we can start trying to find 'Subject 7' tomorrow, okay?"

"Mhm."

The pair got up and made their excuses to leave, Kazuki was more quite then usual on their way home, he told Rei that he was just tired but she was starting to suspect something else might be happening. They entered Rei's home and both of them fell onto bed, completely exhausted.

"Rei, I'm sorry for making you worry all the time, you deserve to be with someone better." Kazuki suddenly told her, he was at his lowest point and very suicidal.

"I hate to break it to you, but you're exactly what I deserve." Rei teased trying to lighten the mood. She got closer to Kazuki and kissed him gently. "Tell me what you're feeling, and be honest." She whispered.

"I'm… I'm very low right now." Kazuki confessed.

"Let it out."

"Huh?"

"Kazuki, it's okay to breakdown. How are we supposed to heal if we keep our pain bottled up? It's okay to cry. I'll be your pillow, cry on me to your hearts content." She gently told him, her hand caressing his cheek.

Kazuki moved closer to Rei and put his head on her chest, tears slowly started dropping from his eyes, within a few minutes, Kazuki began to cry. All the pain he had kept bottled up for years, he finally let it all out. He kept crying until he ran out of tears and slowly fell asleep on Rei. Rei kept a tight hug on him the entire time, occasionally stroking his hair and kissing his head. She hated that Kazuki was in so much pain, he was her whole world, and she wanted to protect it.