Demon
Chapter 19

Sendoh came around very slowly, like he was dragging himself out of the dark. He was heady and woozy, not fully awakened from his unconsciousness. His thoughts were disjointed and meandering like a dream. He wasn't fully there. Wasn't anywhere.

And yet the pain persisted, and he knew; it's not finished. This is not over.

He couldn't imagine how it could possibly hurt more than it did. And yet, he was sure, Sakuragi would succeed. Sakuragi would know how to twist every possible pain out of him. Push him right against the edge of the abyss. Send him back into darkness.

It didn't seem worth praying to a god. For him, there was only Kaede. He knew there was only Kaede. Yet even trying to conjure his face at that moment seemed too hard.

"You're so beautiful like this," he heard Sakuragi tell him, almost tenderly. "You have no idea how hard you are making me." A thumb that Sendoh had not noticed passed his slack lips, pushing into his mouth, and Sendoh did not have the awareness to resist. "You can't imagine how much I want to see these lips screaming around my cock," Sakuragi purred at him.

Sendoh may have shuddered, some deep-held revulsion driven perhaps by the sense he could no longer feel, yet no more than that. He could barely even focus his eyes. His brain didn't seem capable of processing his situation any more.

Surrender.

He relaxed against his binds, letting the pain fill him with a strange calmness. Whatever would happen to him, he couldn't stop it. Whatever Sakuragi chose to do made no difference to him now. He would accept it. He had no choice.

Just give up.

He heard Sakuragi's snort of contempt. "Where is all your pride?" he mocked him. "Open your mouth."

Sendoh reacted subconsciously to the command. His bruised jaw slackening obediently.

Sakuragi tutted in disappointment.

"Do you want to suck my cock so badly? What will Kaede say when he sees you like this?"

Kaede?

Confusion rolled over him, but he didn't visibly react. It was beyond him.

Kaede?

For a moment, concern gripped him.

What would Kaede think?

Was that... important? Did it matter? He tried to think. Wasn't there something-? Something he was supposed... to do? Did it matter? Did it matter-? He couldn't remember. What had he promised? He had promised Kaede but - what- what was he supposed- to do?

"Do you think he would beg to take your place right now?" Sakuragi queried lightly. "He makes much better sport than you do. Would you like that? Would you like him to be here instead of you?"

Sendoh tried to recall his face. Tried to remember. Things they'd said. That they'd done. The trust. How much love Sendoh had for him.

I would die, he tried recall the depth of his feelings. I would die for him.

But though he could recall the words, underneath there was nothing but confusion. Disjointed thoughts. The more he searched, the more he realised that he could summon up nothing but the terror that had sunk into every facet of his mind.

Would I want him... to take my place...?

His breath hiccuped in his throat.

I...

I don't know...

"Do you want to see how I make him scream? Watch me nail him to the wall?"

I... I... I don't know.

The anxious feeling that he was forgetting to do something, say something, persisted. Yet his mind spun just beyond his reach. He was failing. But... he didn't know... what he was supposed to do.

"You're pathetic," Sakuragi sneered. "Is this the extent of your feelings?"

He gulped uncertainly, the saliva torching his throat like acid. He didn't understand what was going on.

He would do anything, he realised in horror, to end this pain.

But would he sacrifice Kaede?

He wasn't sure any more. He could only groan, and hurt, and wait. Nothing else.

He closed his eyes and let his mind spiral away into silence. Nevermind. Nevermind it. Just let go.

He felt a breeze blow gently through his hair.

He noticed it, because nothing else moved here within Sakuragi's influence. No birds sung. There were no sounds of insects or animals or rustling fauna. The place was dead except for him and Sakuragi and now this unexpected breeze. It ruffled his clothes, making him cold, and pulling his mind back a little - just a little - from the abyss.

Sakuragi also paused, and looked round, noticing it as well.

Through the swelter of his pain, Sendoh struggled to focus his eyes on anything, struggled to bring his mind around to this place, his situation. It was so, so hard to think. To concentrate. And yet there was something strange. He would have assumed it was a hallucination except that Sakuragi was staring at it as well.

Some magic, an illusion, almost invisible in the grass. A huge circle had appeared on the ground, encompassing the whole house, running through the grass, just at the tree line. It extended around, beyond where Sendoh could see. It was not a line of any substance. It appeared only as a discernable difference between the grass on one side and the other, though Sendoh would never have been able to articulate what the difference was. Yet he could see it as clearly as if it had been drawn in black ink. It made the hair on his neck stand up.

What-?

Then, unexpectedly, the circle shifted. It jerked in a nauseating lurch, the inner part and the outer parts of the world seeming to separate for a moment, moving in different directions. The sensation of turning was so strong Sendoh felt his stomach move, and yet when he squinted at the scene, nothing appeared to have changed. The trees were still lined up in the same way. The motion had occurred and yet hadn't occurred at all.

Immediately a second lurch spun them another few degrees, though again they did not move at all. It was the strangest of sensations. But Sendoh finally saw the circle for what it was: a wheel. The circumference was not smooth but ridged like a cog or the wheel of a ship. There were near-invisible spokes radiating from the centre under his feet. Just a suggestion of lines in the way of the shadows, the slant of the sun.

The strangeness of the phenomenon was such that his broken mind regained some focus, turning his attention upon it, hauling itself anxiously out of the black holes it had been buried in.

Sakuragi was bristling with curiosity, watching the same phenomenon.

The turning motion of the wheel seemed to power the wind that also increased in strength as it began to turn faster and faster.

Then, quietly, and quite unexpectedly, into the middle of the strangeness, Kaede stepped out of the trees.

The sword in his hand was bare, glowing brightly, no longer a gentle blue but almost white hot. Around the blade, twisting and turning in conflicting directions, similar insubstantial wheels made of light and air were spinning. Unwinding. Efficient like the cogs and gears of some machine.

His black wings were already unfurled, arched behind him like twin sails. Tensed to resist the movement of the wind.

He did not look at Sendoh. In fact he didn't even seem aware that either of them were there, keeping his eyes lowered and fixed upon the floor, distracted.

He did not seem very much. Not one on whom to pin all your hopes. Smaller than Mitsui. Slower than Kogure. Less confident than Sakuragi who was smiling now in welcome.

Sendoh felt an awful fear creeping over him. He eyed the sword in Kaede's hand. Would it be enough? How could it possibly be enough? Was anything enough to stop Sakuragi?

Sakuragi tilted his head in interest, his curious eyes taking in Kaede's posture, and the motion of the wheels twisting around the sword in his hand.

"Kaede," Sakuragi welcomed him softly. Every cadence in his voice seemed to strain into the word. But his eyes were dark and cruel and his mouth drawn into a familiar smirk. "I'm not finished yet," he chided. "How did you cross the barrier?"

A barrier. Sendoh registered the word distantly. He had not doubted that Kaede would be trying to reach him, and yet suddenly he realised he had feared being abandoned just the same.

"Someone betrayed you," Kaede answered without looking up.

This brought Sakuragi up short. "No one would dare," he asserted. "Who?"

"The one they call Semyaza the Debaucher, Bane of Mortals."

Sakuragi looked, if anything, more astonished. "Fujima? Impossible."

Kaede did not respond.

He lifted his head to take in the sight of Sakuragi standing there, and Sendoh just behind. His expression remained carefully schooled, giving away nothing of his thoughts.

But his eyes.

Sendoh had never seen anything like Kaede's eyes at that moment.

His beautiful blue irises were spinning slowly. They were themselves wheels.

A shudder passed through Sendoh in subconscious response to what he saw. His throat tightened. It looked so strange, so unnatural. For the first time Sendoh began to truly understand that his lover was not human. Was not even close.

Rukawa hesitated for a fraction of a second. The only indication that the sight of Akira hanging there, limp and broken, registered with him. Moved something in him.

Sendoh knew what he must look like, bound, slumped and weak, his lips slack, his face bruised, his mind ticking with terrible limping slowness as the blood ran from his hand down his forearms into his clothes. He didn't want to be this helpless. This pathetic. Didn't want Kaede to see him like this.

Did I fail him?

I feel... I feel so much like I... failed.

The shame was so consuming he dropped his head. Could not meet those terrifying eyes.

Don't... don't look at me...

I don't want you to see me... like this.

Don't-

But when Kaede spoke, his voice was unaffected. "Akira," he asked. "Are you alive?"

For a moment Sendoh could not react. Could not understand the question. Wasn't even sure of the answer.

Alive? Am I alive?

He licked his dry lips and struggled to lift his head.

Am I alive?

"...y-yes..." he managed to gasp.

Kaede closed his eyes for a moment, as if letting the word drift over him.

"Thank you," he said finally.

Sendoh swallowed anxiously. His eyes drifted down to Kaede's sword which seemed to be glowing brighter by the moment.

Was this really all that he could do? Remain alive? Perhaps it was true after all. He did not feel as if he had anything left in him. What more could he do except force himself to breath, force his heart to beat, force his consciousness to hang on.

Perhaps he had fulfilled his role. But was this victory? He felt nervous. No, they were a long way from victory. Perhaps his story had ended here, but even so, the end still seemed so, so far.

All he could do now was trust Kaede, lean on Kaede's strength, and watch. He didn't like it. But the choice had never been his to make.

Sakuragi's eyes were moving over the ground, the wheels that spun with unrelenting vigour. Winding something in, or letting something out. The wind had risen into a blast, a gale. The trees were leaning with it, their leaves thrashing against one another. Dust swirled across the ground. The wounded house itself gave an ominous groan.

A second, smaller wheel materialised on the ground within the first. A third soon followed. A wheel began to twist under Sendoh's knees. Sendoh looked around. The whole place was turning, moving in different directions, as if reality were unwinding and the wheels moved in sync like gears - the small ones turning faster and the larger ones more slowly like the aching motion of a clock. And in the middle of it all, Rukawa was still and quiet. And the sword in his hand grew brighter and brighter.

Sakuragi hissed in annoyance at the wind that had become intense upon his face. "How much is there?" he asked, looking at the sword. "How long have you been storing power in that blade?"

Sakuragi stepped quickly back as another wheel abruptly appeared under his foot, staring at it in suspicion as if it might harm him.

Rukawa closed his eyes slowly, breathing, his clothes flapping furiously in the wind.

It's this strong? Even Sendoh was surprised. How? It had only been a couple of weeks since the tavern burnt down. Since Kaede had appeared and saved him. It had been-

"Sixteen years," Kaede replied.

Sendoh's eyes crawled upwards to Kaede's face.

Yet another wheel shimmered into existence a little further down the veranda. It was small and spun furiously, spluttering light and sparks wildly. The wind did not relent. It pushed against Sendoh's body in a buffeting blast. It felt like he was free-falling through the air, plummeting uncontrollably while the whole world spun below.

Sixteen… years?

Sakuragi's eyes had begun to shine with excitement. "What are you going to do with it all?" he demanded eagerly, voice half lost in the gale. He did not seem to be afraid. He stepped forward curiously. "You won't risk hitting me with all of it at once. What if I deflect it? Block it? What if you miss?"

Rukawa did not reply at once. Sakuragi, Sendoh noticed, was standing with his wings fully outstretched in a show of strength, as if the ferocious wind had no effect on him at all. And yet despite his bravado, the muscles in his back and legs were clenched hard against the force of the wind. The great expanse of his wings ripped and snapped loudly like a sail in a storm.

"I don't need to attack you directly," Rukawa answered. "I can use the magick on myself."

Sakuragi snorted and waved a hand dismissively. "Not even sixteen years of power would be enough to make you something you are not."

Sendoh saw the smallest hint of a smile at the corner of Kaede's lips. And in that moment he realised that he knew. He knew exactly what Rukawa was going to do with all that power.

"You are right," Rukawa acknowledged, "I cannot become something am not. But I can break the curse that makes me something other than what I am."

Sakuragi stiffened as he came to the same realisation that Sendoh had. "Oh..." he breathed low, an intense look of hunger appearing on his face. A predator. A hunter. A wolf. "...Kaede."

Something clenched hard in Sendoh's gut.

All at once he felt strongly that Rukawa must not do this thing. But he could not stop him. He could not do anything at all.

"...I have waited... for so long..." Sakuragi muttered, licking his lips in anticipation, his eyes sharpened to spears.

"Don't..." Sendoh tried to warn Rukawa, but his voice could not be heard over the wind and the snap of Sakuragi's wings in the blast.

Besides, the magick was already working. Kaede's eyes slowly opened even as the wind concentrated around him, tightening its hold, turning the air into a wild thrashing shield.

He stared ahead blankly as the power moved from the sword, snaking up his arm, changing as it went. The black pupils in his spinning eyes vanished entirely, absorbed into themselves. The blue spread into a single unbroken disc, a terrible inhuman look that sealed his expression.

Around him, the wheels slowed. Some cracked and broke and disintegrated. A few still spun unsteadily on.

At his back, his black wings seemed to warp, contracting, changing, turning themselves over and inside out, twisting in the wind, insubstantial as streamers. Sendoh saw feathers that were sharp like knives slide over one another, aligning precisely into a complex weave. They scattered the light in a million ways so that they first seemed white and then seemed black. Expanding, filling, those huge transforming wings arched upwards like a yawn. Elegant, sharp and deadly, moving in the wind.

There was no comfort in him. Though he changed, though the light ran over him in strange rivers, all silver steel and brilliant white, he did not become soft. He did not become the gentle thing Sendoh had always imagined.

No.

Dark, Fallen, Broken. This Angel was made of fire and blackness, and in his eyes was the merciless orbit of the stars. Pure and blind. Justice, cold like marble.

Not a creature of love, but one of war.

He was absolutely terrifying.

"Kaede," Sakuragi whispered, the awe in his voice echoing Sendoh's uncertain feelings. "Dark angel," he breathed, "Abbadon come anew. My love…" He took two steps forward, the fingers of his right hand twitching slightly. He lifted it, holding out his hand for Kaede to take.

"I... want you," he whispered.

Rukawa observed him coldly, stretching his wings silently, testing them, feeling them. "Be at my side," Sakuragi continued. "Be my queen. Be my god." His tongue slid over his lips. "I'll give you the world. I'll worship you. Only, rule with me. Kaede. Together. You and me."

Kaede's ancient eyes slid slowly over him.

For a moment, Sendoh was uncertain how Kaede would respond. But then, without any warning at all, they both moved at the same time. Faster than Sendoh could see. Sakuragi's wings cracked together like thunder as he and Rukawa covered the ground to the greatsword Skipjack in the blink of an eye. They both seized hold of the handle at the same time.

Sakuragi let out a ferocious snarl and with one arm dragged the monstrous sword up, free of the ground, shaking Rukawa off in firm denial.

Forced to relinquish his hold, Rukawa stepped back, but he was gone in the next moment, vanished from sight, too fast to follow.

Sakuragi spun around defensively, and was only just fast enough to block Akira as it swung for the back of his neck. The two swords raked together in a screech of anguished metal.

The blast of air from Rukawa's wings slammed into Sendoh like a gale. A scattering of stray feathers drifted in the swirl of air, and they sliced cleanly into the wooden veranda and stuck there, quivering like knives.

"Kaede..?" Sendoh whispered, feeling dizzy and lost.

This divine being, with its empty eyes and whirring wings and terrible power - he didn't know it. Kaede had always been strong but this was something else. Fear crawled over his heart.

I don't know you. Is this... what you truly are?

Kaede, I loved you not for what you once were, but for what you are.

Are you still there?

What have you become?

Kaede…

I always knew how far you were prepared to go to obtain your revenge. But I never thought that I might lose you... like this.

Rukawa did not hear his thoughts. Did not register his pain. Did not even glance in his direction. Because he was far away. Upon another plane. Another place. And every straining facet of his existence was focused wholly upon Sakuragi.

Sendoh's insignificant role in the long tale of Rukawa Kaede's revenge, it seemed, was very much over.

Sendoh could only watch in silent dismay. Two enemies bound together by fate, so tightly entwined with one another, linked by chains that Sendoh's inferior feelings had not been able to break.

Sakuragi smiled in delight. The wheels in Kaede's empty eyes turned.

Turned and turned.

Click.

Click.

Click.