Broken Melody

Chapter 8

Alive

"I call my friends they just keep dying, people round me always crying, in this place that I'd like to call my home " Moving On- Good Charlotte

Wow, thirteen reviews, I was kind of hoping for more, but I can accept that. I mean, KKJ isn't a very well-known series. But, anyways, I hope to get this story finished; I have never finished a chapter story, so, I really like how this is turning out. Please review!

Thanks to Jo-Ryan-Salazar, for being an utterly devoted reviewer. I bow down!

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She came flying at him with a kick, and nearly caught him, but he ducked, just out of reflex. Jean-Paul was screaming at her in French still, but Chiaki ignored him. He had to concentrate on staying alive. She obviously didn't care if she killed him, but the agents were watching wide-eyed, ready to interfere and finish him off if she lost strength.

She kept on trying to hit him, and though she was incredibly fast, she was also tired from running through the long stone hallways for a long time. So while this slowed her down a little, she was still faster than him. They shoved Maron forward into the wide circle that the agents had formed, and she stumbled slightly. Then she realized exactly what she had to do. Nightmare was focusing very hard on Chiaki, trying to hit him. She had succeeded a few times, though they were not the strongest of hits.

Every time she threw herself in to attack, she stepped with the left foot, so she could kick with her right leg, drop it down, and punch with her right arm. Maron crept up slowly behind Nightmare, and as Nightmare leaned back on her left foot to step forward, Maron stuck her foot in front of Nightmare's left foot, so she tripped, and as she was falling, she grabbed her hair again and pulled roughly. Nightmare snarled and kicked her legs back, but Maron just flipped quickly over to face her, still holding her hair.

Nightmare was practically screaming in pain, and her scalp was bleeding, staining her hair with red, but Maron still held on. Nightmare knew she couldn't move until she freed her hair, and if any agents tried to interfere, than they would simply drop dead, because of an old type of Magic. This Magic is called a Binding Spell, and what it does is it binds the people competing or fighting against each other, so if any cheat methods are attempted, than the party that tried to cheat would drop dead. It dropped out of use thousands of years ago, but as most of the Elders of the Shadow clan had helped develop that particular spell, so it was not entirely forgotten. It also bound them so if one died, the other might suffer a serious injury. It was not predictable, and it usually didn't work, so the spell basically dropped out of all knowledge.

 But, the agents couldn't really do anything. Maron was clinging on to Nightmare's hair with what little strength she had left. She had Nightmare in such an uncomfortable position that even a slight movement would yank her hair even harder. Her scalp continued to bleed, and Maron was still tugging every once in a while to remind Nightmare that if she tried to move, her hair would basically be ripped out by the roots.

Then the symbol on Nightmare's forehead burst with light again, and by reflex, Maron's hands lost their grip on Nightmare's head and flew up to shield her eyes. The agents were doing the same, wincing as the light shone even brighter as Nightmare tilted her head back. Her body floated gently up, as if invisible arms held her now-limp form in the air. Her legs hung limply from the knee down, and her arms trailed as she floated higher and higher. The black wings literally shattered like glass, the fragments flying everywhere, but scratching no one.

The light dimmed enough for everyone to watch without covering their eyes. The two teenagers stood in shock as Nightmare floated and hung there in the air. Her chest rose and fell heavily as tears fell unchecked from her closed eyes.

And then, more light exploded from her forehead, but it was not golden like the last burst of light. It was silver, and reflected the light of the moon as it spread out into several rays. One ray exploded out towards Jean-Paul; he ducked, but it hit Nikolai, who was behind him. Nikolai instantly turned to a pile of grey ashes, which immediately burst into flame.

And so Nikolai, the only agent from Russia, passed into the eternal sleep, never to be seen again.

Nikolai screamed in rage, his eyes practically bursting out of his head as he grabbed Nightmare's discarded sword and lunged at Maron. By reflex, she kicked up and sent the sword spinning out of his hand to become stuck in the ground feet away. However, she kicked up a bit too late. She hit his hand, but the curved blade nicked her calf a little. Except the sword wasn't exactly dull, and it was a long cut. As the first droplets of blood oozed out of the cut, Maron swore under her breath and ripped the bottom of her shirt. She bundled the torn strip of cloth into a rag of sorts, and applied pressure to the cut to stop the bleeding.

Chiaki took this opportunity to move closer to her. He crouched beside her, and whispered to her,

"I'm sorry I lied,"

She took a deep breath, and looked him squarely in the eyes. Her own eyes were watering and full of internal torture, but she replied to him with a mostly even voice:

"I'm sorry I believed you,"

They had become completely oblivious to the events unfolding before the agents' eyes. Nightmare was slowly shifting back to Indigo, though her scalp still bled. Her eyes opened, and though they were back to their light blue, they were empty and void-like, with no pupils. Her wounds had become deeper and far more fatal, and they were bleeding seriously. Her hair was the last thing to change back, and the dark blue strands were stained and crusted with dry and still-flowing blood. Her lifeless body fell lightly to the ground with a soft thud. The agents turned and fled as if a pack of hellhounds were at their backs.

Maron got up and rushed over to Indigo, ignoring the blood that still fell from the cut on her leg. Chiaki grabbed her arm and pointed to the east. The sun had begun to rise without them noticing.

She nodded silently, and brushed Indigo's red-stained hair back from her forehead. Her forehead still bore the mark of the Shadow, and Chiaki knew that she would carry it forever. Indigo let out a soft moan under the light touch of Maron's fingers, and Maron pressed the back of her hand to her cheek. She recoiled almost instantly, however, as she was running a burning fever.

But she's so pale, Maron thought. Then she realized that Indigo was also lying in a small pool of her own blood, so it was probably normal for her to lack color so drastically.

"Leave her," he told her, and his voice sounded odd and distant to him. "My father will be here in a matter of minutes."

They were both weary beyond words, and Maron's head still throbbed painfully, but they were alive.

Leaning on each other, the two teenagers walked back across town in the fading darkness.

They hobbled awkwardly into the lobby, and it was very quiet. They took the elevators, and Chiaki walked Maron back to her apartment.

"Forgive me?" he asked her, a pleading look in his deep amber eyes. She took another deep breath and leaned against her doorway heavily.

"I will think about it," she said. "But before I decide, we need to talk about what else you lied to me about." She glanced at the lightening sky and a small smile appeared on her face.

"Though right now is probably not the best time."

And with that she disappeared into her apartment.

Chiaki sighed. Of all the things she wanted to talk about. She wanted to talk about the lies he'd told to her, and that alone could take hours. And then he would have to tell her about Finn; there was no more avoiding it. He walked into his apartment and flopped himself facedown on the coach. And, without realizing it, the two teenagers drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

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Nagoya Kaiki whistled as he walked towards the doors of his hospital, keys jangling in one hand. Something caught the side of his eye however, and he turned slowly. The keys slipped from his fingers as he stumbled against the doorframe in shock. Because what ha caught his eye was his own daughter, cut and injured, and laying in a pool of her own blood.

He ran as fast as he could over to his barely-breathing daughter and gasped in shock. Not only was she cut and bloodied, she was running the highest fever he'd ever felt and blood was trickling out of the corner of her eyes.{1} Her skin, normally a tanned color was unhealthily pale. As Kaiki knelt next to his daughter, whose own heartbeat was pumping her blood out of her body, he knew that she would not survive.

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The girl who had died and then joined the Shadow, Morganna, watched the whole scene from another building. She had witnessed Nightmare's defeat, and knew that She was not going to be happy about this. She made a mental note to start working on a plan to kill Kusakabe Maron.

She snapped her fingers, and several Shadow demons appeared in the air by her.

"I want you to follow Maron's every movement. If you see a chance to kill her, take it, but make it look like an accident. These silly humans must not get suspicious."

The Shadow demons nodded as well as their twisted body shape would allow, and flew off in different directions. She snapped her fingers again, twice this time, and another set of smaller, darker Shadow demons appeared where the others had previously been.

"I want you to keep an eye on Fish Finn, our newly-awoken Shadow demon. If she starts to switch over, Summon me."

The demons nodded(and their body structure was much more suited to the movement), and flew off.

She snapped her fingers thrice, and three small, dragon-like creatures appeared, carrying the corpse of the unfortunate messenger who had corrupted Nightmare, and, apparently, not done a very good job of it. She aimed one finger like a gun at the body, and a beam of fire erupted from it. The corpse was soon charred black. The dragons looked at each other anxiously. She ordered them in some strange language, and they nodded.

She sighed, rolled her eyes, and nodded. The dragons gave off a small scream of joy, before ripping hungrily into the carcass. Morganna snorted and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

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Kaiki hesitated outside his daughter's room in the hospital. Only hours ago he had thought she was dead, and now she was OK. Weak, but alive. But had he or his nurses and doctors arrived a minute later, she would have been dead. He took a deep breath and walked in. A fond smile appeared on his face as he saw her peaceful, sleeping form. He took a seat on one of the hard, plastic chairs by the bed, lay his head by hers on the pillow, and fell asleep.

Chiaki arrived, only two hours later, and walked towards Indigo's room. He leaned against the doorframe, and saw his dad there. He sighed; you had to feel sorry for him-he'd arrived at the hospital and seen his daughter's beaten and bloodied body there. From what he could tell, she had been almost dead when he and Maron had left her. And now, here she was, alive.

He had never experienced anything as magical as that. It was odd, that Kaiki had not seen Indigo since she was three or four, and he still loved her. I don't think he ever meant to lose her for so long, Chiaki thought, looking at his family.

His family. He hadn't really had a family for a long time; his mother was dead and until Indigo had come, he hadn't remembered that she existed. And until recently, he'd hated his dad. But now he had a father and a sister. A family.

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Maron awoke with a yawn. She sat up in bed and stretched, and looked out her window to see the busy afternoon traffic. She didn't care if she was missing school; she didn't even know what day of the week it was, or how long hse had been with Nikolai and Jean-Paul and Nightmare.

Nightmare. She shuddered as she remembered what could have, and almost did, happened to her. There were two things from that that night that she would always remember; the drawing and quartering machine, and Nightmare's body, after the fight and transformation back. She shuddered again and walked back out onto the balcony, running a hand through her damp hair. She leaned out over the rail, closed her eyes and let the breeze cool her skin.

Now that Chiaki knew how she felt, she wasn't sure how he felt. He was always saying how he loved her and being crazy, but he'd been so quiet after she'd answered Nightmare's question. And, it felt like he was avoiding the subject. Now that she thought about it, he'd always avoided the subject of the two kaitous, too.

She sighed. She didn't want to think about what that could mean. She let her thoughts drift back to Chiaki, though. She remembered the times that he had gotten away from the hordes of rabid girls and had been so much easier to talk to, and had stopped making perverted comments. His smile was such a real smile, it reached his eyes and it always made her feel like everything would be OK.

She shook her head, trying to rid herself of thoughts of him. Her thoughts instead settled on her parents. She hadn't checked her mailbox since she had seen that poem painted in it, and s from what she had seen, the mailbox had been empty anyways. She was the only person she could think of who didn't have a family. Chiaki had his sister now, and his father, and Miyako had her parents and brother, and Iinchou had his parents.

Oh, well. Loneliness is something she was used to. But for some weird reason, she didn't care as much as she used to.

Because they were alive.

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Baaaah. Bad chapter, it's too short. Oh, well, that's what happens when I'm sick almost all week and got a late start to begin with. I am so, so sorry. Expect chapter nine to be on schedule!

Please review,

Knife Thrower