The man sighed in relief as he pulled his flintlock pistol back, seeing the demon fall backward onto the ground. With the demon dead, it's possible that the rain outside will stop and others can finally go outside once more.
Staring at the demon and his colleague that left to secure the victims of this terrible disaster with the demon as the mastermind, he felt that he would gain something pillaging from the dead devil. He would hesitate and pull back if the thing that lay dead in front of him is not a demon, but a human.
He was not a greedy man as he was once part of the lowest class of nobility, but he merely uses the riches for his family and if there were enough riches to go by. He would share it with the others that he know of, but he was still selfish by some degree.
Crouching down on the concrete floor, he opened the coat of the demon and laid his focus on one of the gold pinned on the demon's clothes but suddenly he was grabbed by an unknown force and his eyes widened in panic before he could scream for help to his colleagues, his mouth was covered by a pale hand.
Blood drips and spills on the ground as his neck was opened by a pair of fangs. Remilia closed her eyes as her instinct took over her body and seemed to hungrily suction every drop of blood from the wound. Fortunately for the poor man, she stopped herself from going further.
I pulled away and immediately jumped away to the rooftop of the room as I hear the footsteps coming closer once more, one of the character points seems to apply to me. The original Remilia Scarlet has a light appetite that made it somewhat advantageous for me, my thoughts were cut off as one of the colleagues returned to my view down below.
"Shit! The demon must've drained most of his blood with a bit of last strength!" The other shouted as he ripped the cloth sleeves away and started to wrap the unconscious man's neck to prevent unnecessary blood-loss. "I need someone to carry him out of here!"
"I got him!" Another shouted back as the said man hurried to drag the unconscious man from the room, and then after a few minutes, there was nothing but silence other than the occasional speech in the distant halls.
I gracefully jumped down, landing on the concrete floor with a light thump while ignoring the body of the former lord on the floor. Looking down the long hallway, I could see that lights flickers in and out signifying that the exit was opened by the new arrivals from earlier and someone is going in or out of this place.
Let's hope nobody catches my face or me doing this...
I rushed forward with blinding speed, the doors flashing by as I went through the hallway.
As I rushed forward to reach the light that leads to the exit of this tunnel, I felt my strength being seeped away from me to fulfill the strength of reaching this speed. It was exhausting and yet at the same time so freeing, being released from the limitations of human reality and strength.
I slowed down immediately as I was bathed in darkness almost immediately after reaching the outside of the former farm, and realized that the light was coming from nearby lamps and bulbs. "Hm?" A voice spoke, face turning around and I immediately hid behind one of the pillars nearby.
"You three, I'm double-checking for survivors. Wait for me!" A man yelled as his voice reverberated, entering the long hallway once more as I sighed in relief behind one of the pillars. As I analyzed the location much longer, I realized that it's some sort of an abandoned mental hospital and this is the main lobby, at least a part of it.
Pillars stretch to the roof, and the walls near the roof are open with cracked windows and some mold and moss growing over them. This seems like the perfect location for a crime, but realistically, it was never going to work properly. Beyond the windows, I see rain pelting the windows themselves and falling onto the ground beyond the sight.
So I was wrong to think that this was underground in one of the tunnels, though logically I should have expected otherwise because who would make countless rooms in the underground tunnels and for what purpose when it was originally built as a railway tunnel? I sighed deeply as I stepped away from the pillar and jumped to the open windows to escape.
I landed on a puddle nearby after I jumped out from the building, feeling the pelting rain on my skin and the overhead clouds above that stormed without end. It was rather baffling, and some part of my mind expected the rain to end as soon as the vampire was killed assuming that he used it to cloak himself from the sun.
Although it was quite beneficial for vampires, this lack of sun but endless rain would flood the entirety of London any time soon. I smiled in amusement at the clouds above, did the universe mistake me as a solver to this problem, or where there supposed to be a third-party that will solve this problem?
I looked down at the puddle and saw my scarlet red eyes shimmering and gleaming in the grey world of London, different from the previous sharp blue eyes that always stared out onto the mirror with intelligence.
Those eyes were inhuman and intelligent at the same time, in my bias, I think of them as something beautiful as the aftermath of the turn from human to inhuman. On my clothes, the blood that I got from feeding on the man was cleansed by the rain from above — did I miss that somehow? But that proved that indeed I was quite messy as an inhuman.
I walked to the distant city from the outskirt of London, the tower of Big Ben still ticks away from beyond the rain and endlessly until the gear rusted or breaks apart. On the case of being in the outskirts, I may stumble upon the kappa who I instructed to place their experiments.
My ears caught engines rumbling and I hid behind one of the trees as soon as possible to hide from the cars from the abandoned building filled with survivors. Sure enough, they went past and drove to the south without any problem.
Walking out from behind the tree lines, I've realized that I've forgotten something rather important that the kappa gave me. The pocket watch! I immediately pulled it out and watched the time ticks away to reach the twelve in the clock, though an indicator atop the pocket watch said the time is night.
My eyebrows scrunched in confusion and I immediately pushed the pocket watch into one of my pockets to watch the clouds above. The kappa wouldn't make that kind of mistake, it isn't simply in their genes to do that but they would do something stupid from time to time such as explosions and car crashes.
At this point, it was officially an incident that affects the environment.
I frowned, what youkai that would've been able to do this? There were similar incidents in the original world of Gensokyo such as the Perfect Cherry Blossom where the entire world is bathed in winter instead of spring, but I doubt that would change the entirety of the day-night cycle.
After a few minutes, I entered the reach of London entering from the north heading south. Many people seemed to be already dispatched to the nearby hospital to be treated except some, they could be having some sort of problem with monetary finances or they simply did not fit into the hospital.
One of them was the kid that warned me to not confront the dead vampire back in the mental hospital, he was staring at the sky dully and blankly while nursing his bruised arm slowly.
The kid wears an orange sweater with shorts topped with short straight hair, he already has old bruises unrelated to the previous incident but it was clear enough that the kid did not have any home to stay in. To put it simply, the kid is homeless and probably an orphan.
Enough to itch my mind, it was possible that the kid has a layout of the whole of London in his mind due to his constant moving and avoiding from dangers. Jumping from the top of the roof, landing down on the concrete below — he was startled enough to yelp under the rain.
"Wait, you're the one that went to confront the man!" The kid realized, eyes unblinking.
I nodded, affirming his thoughts as I picked him up with my arm — he is quite light, more than I expected but I connected it to the fact that I was no longer human anymore. I should stop being surprised like this when faced with something that is impossible as a human, and I am no longer one anymore.
"Wait, where are you taking me—?!" It's rather amusing to see the kid scream as I jumped to the rooftop with inhuman leaping strength, I suspect he will be quite dizzy as soon as I stopped jumping on the rooftops. "Relax and feel the wind," I responded simply.
After a few moments of snatching up my luggage and bag from the inn as people would have pointed fingers my way due to my different eyes. People are quite observant in some stupid things, and it would be quite disadvantageous to be found out. I finally landed in an obscure place in a high place with an empty room, it seems to be a storage room that was abandoned since the owner found another and easier access to a storage room.
I put the kid down onto the floor and I unpacked my luggage and bag, the kid is watching me from behind with a perplexed expression so intense that I could almost feel it. Pausing from my unpacking, I immediately grabbed some emergency medical kit that I've acquired from the previous town.
"Come here, kid. I'll treat your bruises." I said with an almost fake kind smile, it was still kind but it was layered with a tint of cunning and expectation of this task assigned to me.
The kid hesitantly approached me and allowed me to treat his bruises and some small cut wounds. After a few moments of silence and some shuffling of medical kits, I immediately stepped back to see the kid fully healed and tampered with medicals.
"Why did you heal me?" muttered the kid in confusion as his mind processed the information being fed to him, looking at my expectant expression before his expression truly changes to a dull one. "You're expecting information, are you?" sighed the kid as if he should've expected that.
"I'm afraid so. I am looking for the culprit of this endless rain, you see." I casually said hands draped over my lap as I sat down on the concrete floor. The kid seemed to stare at me as if I was insane, but realized that his previous kidnapper was already an insane incident that he unwillingly participated in.
He searched my face for any kind of deceit but froze upon laying his eyes on my scarlet eyes yet he seemed to relax immediately with a sigh. "Right, of course. You're one of them but on the opposite side, are you?" The kid said conversationally, sliding backward as his back hit the wall.
"Of course. But I suggest you keep your mouth silent with that tidbit of information." I responded dryly, tilting my head with an expression that is almost threatening to the kid.
The kid snorted, "I would become an absolute idiot if I released that information." and he leaned back to the wall as he stared at me back intensely. I awaited the upcoming information that will spill out from his mouth, "I'm not quite sure if this is related to your mission, but I've heard a previously abandoned workshop being taken in by two people, gender unknown in the western outskirts of London."
I mulled his words thoroughly, and with the heightened sense within my body, I did not sense any lies but truth layered over his words. It was enough at the moment and if the information is not enough, I could find the kid again and make him tell his latest source of information.
"Thank you. I appreciate your genuine gift to me." I bowed my head with gratitude and quickly stood from the ground, picking up the kid as he yelped in no small amount of fear as I went outside to drop the kid in the alley under and near the building.
The kid sighed at the now smug and insufferable vampire as I went up once more to the rooftop of this tall building with an extra unused room on top to continue unpacking my luggage and bag. In a sense, to start living as an outcast.
After finishing my unpacking, I quickly stood and exited the abandoned room that has been made into my secret room at the top of London's building and sure enough, the familiar pelting of rain hits me in the face and I sighed.
Looking at the western side of London, I could not see anything that would make sense as a source of this incident that envelops the entirety of London. Then, I have not yet checked the place that the kid suggested to me yet.
"Aww—! I thought I smell a human nearby, I must be mistaken!" A bright voice snapped me out of my thought and I whirled around to only see a familiar face searching the top of the roof at high speed.
She seems to be somewhat cheerful today, maybe it is the lack of sun affecting her well-being or maybe this is actually normal? "Flandre, is that you?" I greeted and she immediately shot up to stare at me, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion before actually recognizing me.
"Oh, it's you, Remilia! You smell different this year..!" She giggled playfully as she immediately approached me, mocking her sniff at me and I felt personally insulted and attacked of being accused of having what Flandre seems to say 'disgusting' smell with her mock sniff.
"I'm insulted, I really am." I deadpanned immediately, and Flandre immediately laughed cheerfully at me. She is indeed relaxed being near me, and it doesn't set her off in a rampage at all that I expected as a human.
My thoughts were somewhat proven wrong as she set her expression in a serious face that really sets the opposite of her cheerful, playful look that she always wear. It was calculating, intelligent, "Remilia, I may have to ask you a question."
"..Go ahead." I felt my guard rising at the tension in the air that seems to rise indefinitely at this serious side of Flandre that I would never think will see again after the battle with Flandre as a human.
"Why do you have my father's blood?" The voice that she spoke with seemed disturbingly powerful and chilling, serious enough that she would rip you apart despite being non-human. My breath hitched, "Are you talking about the priest or the vampire I've killed before?"
Oh, nice words you've said, Remilia, very nice.
My eyes seemed to gleam with a red flash as I await something, anything that resembles the elemental orbs or a physical attack coming from her. But there was none but silence and the rain, "Explain." She was back to normal voice but it was still chilling as before.
"I was captured by your 'father' and I wanted to stop the endless rain, but I got bitten as the result and he was killed after I retreated by priests." I hesitantly said after altering some words to fit the story I've had in my head, but it was unexpected to hear the reply from Flandre.
"Lies. Half-truth." My eyes widened at this unavoidable conversation, but is it truly safe to explain about my fate manipulation and it would affect the entirety of my fate by talking about this? I gritted my teeth, "I cannot talk about the whole truth—!"
It was more faster than anything I've ever seen, a blade of plasma seemed to form into a blade that dissipates almost immediately and it cut through my arm. The pain is dull but it was still enough to make me grunt in pain, my throat seems to become more parched as my arm seems to form halfway as regeneration before stopping.
Is this the effect of not having enough blood?
Was that Laevaeteinn?
I realized that facing off Flandre was still as terrifying as when I've fought her as a human, her playful and serious personality separated and melded at its own will, making her completely unpredictable, both in a fight and conversation.
The eyes of Flandre was dark with hidden anger backed with seriousness, "..Do you want me to tell the entire truth?" I muttered as I fought the urge to pick away at my arm wound and the curiosity of feeling my bone.
"Yes." The soft voice was heard just beyond the rain that covered the rooftop, and I sighed as I led her inside the room atop the roof to not get pelted with rain to talk about the incident.
And so I told her of everything related to the incident, along with my inevitable fate that I have to follow or risk losing everything in the future. She is actually apt with attention on the words I've said from my own mouth, though it was quickly becoming the norm as I have not yet regrown my arm yet.
"Though I realized, how did he know his body so well in such a short time, and I've barely have the ability to beat my opponent? It was quite baffling and yet I wanted the easier way to win, by doing it strategically and intelligently."
"I jumped to the rooftop, clinging onto one of the pipes. Your father died to the silver bullet that was shot by the priest's flintlock pistols."
"I've thought that killing your father would also stop this annoying endless rain, but it did not stop and I was baffled for the second time at that moment." I sighed as I rubbed my nose in exasperation and annoyance before the room fell into a downcast silence that stretched for a quite few moments.
"Foolish father.." She muttered as she mulled over my tale told.
She sighed, "I suppose since I forced to tell you about your fate, I must tell you about mine, then?" and I almost protested but due to the cold glare that she gave me, my protest died on my lips.
What is it with everybody having a stronger glare than me?!
She leaned against the wall behind and looking up at the concrete ceiling above, "I was born with no known parent at birth, and turned at six-year-old by an unknown vampire that did not know the full extent of their body."
"I lived on blood for ten years as a child, yearned for the freedom and the cheerfulness earned with the things I've always seen as a child with their parents." Her crystalline wings seemed to tilt down in accords to her mood and emotion, and I blinked at the words that did not fit anywhere in my knowledge from the past.
"It gave me hatred, seeing humans flock with their parent without giving a single glance my way. Disgusting, but I've learned the way to play with them until they die, both from the painful way and the slowest way from scaring them slowly."
"The pain of living alone was slowed down as somebody came into my life, giving me the life that I needed even though I am a vampire, a creature, a non-human." She smiled sadly.
Author Notes:
It seems we're going for a lore-drop and adoption stuff (that is somewhat cliche, I think?) featuring sane Flandre, well, sane as she can be sometimes with a serious tone with her. She's just playful, cheerful, brutal at most times! And yes, Flandre knows about Remilia's fate now.
And about the rain.. I suppose it's going to be paused for the time being for lore, sorry, universe!