Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eeire concept.
Warnings: Nothing short but slight coarse language, and if you really want Dark and Krad, as well as Daisuke and Satoshi to be pairings, fine, whatever. Not like I'll actually mention it. They're just good friends, really. AU.
Uh… stuff kinda… happens. Oh, and Dark's family surname is now going to be Belcourt. Don't ask why, but I couldn't think of anything better and I didn't make this up. Thanks for the suggestion, SoralovesRiku! Actually, I don't know if you still read this… but thank you! It won't be mentioned that much anyway, but it reall is useful… and now I don't have to mumble 'what the hell are they going to yell at him if they don't like him…' XO Enjoy!
"Onii-san? If there was another path to life, would you take it? Would it be right to take the risk?
… What is it that we are looking for? Dark-san?"
Christina
"If you know what's right, then that's all you need. Sometimes that's all that's necessary, but… oh, you know what I mean."
Nina
000 Six: What's The Reason? 000
"Krad, you look terrible!"
"Uh-huh. Found anything else really amazingly surprising about me this morning?"
"Well, actually…"
The blonde rolled his eyes as Dark began to rattle off as many differences he could like it was some sort of game. He guessed in a way it was, but he really wasn't in the mood to say too much as to why he looked… well, he'd been up all night, so it was only natural. There was a similarity to that and someone else who had only had nine hours of sleep for the past two days… he was going to look like that sooner or later at this rate.
Not to mention he couldn't tell the other boy as to why he was in such a state – the truth would probably be too much for Dark's non-existent brain – and he yawned; okay, he was really too tired for his own good.
"—as well as—"
Krad turned his head slightly to look at the violet-haired boy and glared at him, "You're talking too much again."
"Oh? I am?" Dark blinked.
"… Ugh." The walk to school was going to be plain hell: but it wasn't because he hated Dark talking that much. It was just that… that… well, the noise wasn't good for his brain so early in the morning, so no talk would be good. Not that his friend would be able to understand that; talking was his life and if he didn't talk he would probably end up dying… or something.
"Whoa, are you alright, Krad?" Dark seemed to have finally noticed that the thing wrong with Krad was affecting the blonde's attitude and peered into his friend's eyes. "Are you sick or something?" He then stood right in front of the blonde to stop him from proceeding.
"Move out of the way," grumbled Krad, trying to step to the side, but Dark refused to budge, keeping up with every sidestep granted.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong," he said seriously, which was quite new to him and all, but since he was worried…
"What would you say if I told you I was taking drugs?"
"WHAT!"
Krad snorted at this and pushed the surprised-looking Dark out of the way and continued to walk, "Well, I'm not, so that's all you need to know." He then noticed that the violet-haired boy wasn't following him and he sighed, walked back, and grabbed his friend by the wrist and proceeded in dragging him into the school building.
"Hikari-san, what's wrong with him?" Krad turned in time to see Akane approach them, looking wary at the sight of an extremely surprised Dark. Maybe it was because it was highly comical that she'd decided to slow down to talk them. Or she was just late for class already so it didn't matter how much later she was. "Did his face freeze like that?"
"It wouldn't surprise me," the blonde replied coolly, "But I thought he'd die from falling down the stairs too many times. Guess I was wrong."
This seemed to snap Dark out of his trance and he glared at the person who was dragging him, "What's wrong with you today! Yeesh!"
Seeing that the other teen was not in any better mood, Akane rolled her eyes slightly before entering the building and then bolting. Despite the fact that Dark had him by the shirt collar and was shaking him like a rag doll, Krad could only blink at how fast she'd been able to bolt in the first place.
"That was too fast…"
"What? Are you going out with her?"
"And where the hell did you get that idea from?" the blonde snorted, "She's just helping me with a spirit case."
"Wha-! How come I wasn't informed!"
"Dark, Krad, morning," Melanie popped out of nowhere and smiled at the two boys in a rather stragely-happy-kinda-scary-way. "Did you have a good weekend then? Nothing bad happened, right? I mean, no attacks or anything?"
"No. Why?" Dark raised an eyebrow in question.
"Oh, that's right. What happened with that monster attack I informed you about?"
"Krad shot it out of the sky. What else?"
Her eyes widened, "What?"
"Shot it out with a gun," the blonde lied smoothly, "can you believe that they allow those things without a permit these days?"
Melanie frowned at them, thinking for a moment, "Oh… well then… ahem… in that case…"
"Don't tell me it's another attack," groaned Dark out loud, finally letting go of Krad's shirt collar, seeing that the blonde was beginning to have a hard time actually breathing. "Sorry."
"No!" she snapped, swinging her book bag in his direction, "You're going to be late for class! Hustle! Hustle!"
Avoiding her rather pointless attack, the two boys ran down the hall before she was able to work out what had just happened. Krad was still coughing and Dark had to pat him on the back for a moment, only to be hit on the head by said blonde. With an indignant yelp, he glared at the other.
"What was that for!"
"What was with you going all crazy and shaking me by the collar?" retorted the blonde. The violet-haired boy was silent at this, but just ended up shrugging in the end.
"Maybe it was the chocolate pancakes from this morning," he suggested.
"… That would explain a lot." Actually it really didn't. Dark was slightly off it anyway, all the time.
"Anyway, Melanie seemed… just a bit too out of it. Maybe she's coming down to a mental breakdown or something," Dark mused as they walked down the corridors; thankfully they were all closed so the teachers couldn't yell at them for being late. "I haven't seen her so…"
"Stressed?" offered Krad.
"Yeah! That's the one!" Dark was so caught up in his own thoughts – or whatever they were – that he didn't notice the door next to them slide open and the teacher glaring down at them. Krad sighed.
They were really in for it now.
… Five minutes later, after the screaming had finally come to a halt…
"Ow…" Dark rubbed the back of his head, where the teacher had hit him with a ruler, "Are they allowed to do that to students! Physical abuse isn't supposed to be allowed, right!"
"Who knows," Krad shrugged and looked out the window on the wall opposite them, "It was literally your fault that the teacher did that anyway. I mean, did you really expect to get away with talking back to him?"
"I've done it before."
"Only when you did it from yelling distance, from what I recall. Not to mention you got called to the principal's office after that. You're voice is really recognizable."
"Hmph."
"What? Is it really that painful?"
"Yep."
"Too bad. You'll get over it."
The violet-haired teen pouted at this, but seeing that his friend was unfazed by the display, he dropped the whole act and sighed. Really, standing around the corridors carrying buckets of water wasn't supposed to be good for their backs, right? He wasn't too sure anymore.
"Do they even use this water after we're done?"
"I don't really care."
"Krad, you're so mean… can't you be at least a BIT more considerate."
"Sorry, it's not on my to-do list today."
"Pft."
Dark returned to his sulking, casting sullen glances at his friends every-so-often, who chose to ignore him all the while. Now the violet-haired boy was really confused. He hadn't seen Krad this cold… ever. And when he meant ever, he really did mean EVER. Not even their first meeting was this… frosty. A sudden image of Frosty the Snowman popped into Dark's head for no real reason.
While he was considering on whether he should try to make small talk, or something similar, Krad suddenly dropped both buckets and went over to the window.
"Krad?"
"Sh," the blonde commanded softly, waving a hand to indicate the other to follow his example. "Look at this."
Setting the buckets down, Dark walked over to the window and poked his head out, only to have Krad shove it roughly down again. "Ow! What the hell was that--" he was cut short as a hand covered his mouth, so now he was making muffled sounds. Normal circumstances would have involved Dark biting Krad's hand so that he could breath again (yes, through his mouth) but the blonde removed it as fast as he'd placed it and then muttered under his breath.
"Look up slowly. Try not to catch their attention."
"Huh?" Dark did what he was told, about to make an annoyed comment, only for his eyes to widen slightly and he gaped, lost for words.
"I thought so. So what do we do?" Krad asked, indifferent now.
"Wha-wha-wha-wha-"
"Trust me. If I knew I'd tell you. There're not the monsters we fought weeks back, so I can't say if they're more dangerous. They could be the biggest threat around, though. You never know."
Shapeless shadows seemed to spread across the school grounds, moving stealthily to… who knew where. The violet-haired teen blinked slightly, willing his mind to work properly: it wasn't that he was scared of being attacked or killed in the end, but it wasn't the most fun when you had to fight them… and then face family after that.
"Maybe they'll go away if we wait long enough," he said hopefully.
Krad rolled his eyes, "And I'm on drugs."
"I wish you'd stop using that comparison, Krad."
"It seems to be the only thing that has an affect on you, especially when you get in my way." The blonde didn't use drugs (pft. As if) but Dark seemed to have an underlying fear of those things so it was pretty useful when necessary. Maybe it was because of family… somehow.
The two friends would have continued to bicker, but the sound of smashing glass and screams of panic cut them short. Krad frowned, deep in thought, "How do we deal with this, then?"
"Well, we can't be seen fighting with them, we don't have any weapons anyway," Dark ticked off, "Dunno. You tell me."
During this, they had moved away from the window, which was a good thing, seeing that it was smashed a moment later, only scattering the glass so that… well, they weren't in as much pain as they could have been, to say the least. The door slammed open and the teacher gaped at the monsters that were slowly approaching them. He didn't even move until one of the girls in the classroom screamed and then there was widespread panic.
Doors were slammed open and the students and teachers streamed out of the room, panicking like the world was going to end: then again, it was very uncommon for monsters to attack at all, which made no sense whatsoever. While the chaos was in place, Dark and Krad moved off in another direction. Why the monster wasn't moving, no one really knew.
"Dark-kun! Krad-kun!"
Krad momentarily paused in his advancement on the way upstairs, only to have Dark cannon into him, and since he did have glass in his back…
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, Krad!"
"Just get off me."
Daisuke and Satoshi soon appeared, only to be followed by Akane. The redhead was the first to talk, "The entire school's in chaos, so we have to fix it! Oh… what happened to you two?" He didn't bother to wait for them to reply before working up a healing spell, seeing that the glass had fallen out before… it was a shallow cut, thankfully.
"I agree with dealing with it," Krad said once the spell was done, "But how do you propose we do that? We don't have any weapons."
"Well, that's why Takada's here, really," Satoshi jabbed a finger at the girl behind him, who looked slightly insulted at being referred as that, but couldn't bother to argue back.
"Hey, don't ask me why I can summon weapons now," she muttered to herself, holding out both hands, "Must be that whole Spirit-talking-communicating-thing. Or something of that nature."
They were interrupted as the shadow that had smashed the window on that floor skidded into their sight and charged right at them. Without hesitation the five bolted up the stairs. Of course, by this time there were more and more of the creatures coming after them so it was only by chance that they'd been able to get to the school roof and slam the door without any major injuries.
"This… can't be… good… right?" puffed Daisuke, wiping his brow as he bent double, trying to catch his breath.
"Nothing like this is ever good. Not to mention we don't know what it is," replied Satoshi.
"…" Akane was now muttering under her breath and after a moment of silence, she sighed; "Okay, hold your hands out and, uh, concentrate on your weapon of choice." She was already clutching what looked oddly like a staff with string attached to it, for some reason, "We don't have all day."
They did what they were told without making a comment on how ridiculous the entire concept was, but after a while, a stream of magic seemed to form around their hands and then took a more solid shape. Magic really did work wonders sometimes. That and Akane had now used more magic than necessary, so she wasn't going to be very useful in the battle. They hadn't expected too much in the first place, anyway.
"Okay then!" making a quick recovery, Dark smirked and waved his sword around like a maniac, "So let's get this started already!"
"This isn't a game you know," Krad reprimanded him, "If you die, it's not like we can bring you back to life."
"Unless you use the right spell at the right time," Daisuke added helpfully.
"… That isn't the point."
"They're here," Satoshi cut in.
The door slammed open and crashed on the floor, shadows streaming all around and surrounding the five teens, seeing as they were standing around the middle of the… uh, rooftop.
"We can't fight all of these," muttered Krad in annoyance, "and I can't use that again either."
"You mean… that weird thing you used last time when you went crazy?" Dark asked.
"No," the blonde replied sarcastically, "I mean my ability to transform into the Easter Bunny. Moron, of course I'm referring to that."
"Oh," for a moment Dark had been hoping what Krad had said before was true, but it was a bit absurd. And it would be a rather strange, golden-furred bunny as well, now that he thought of it.
Seeing that the violet-haired boy seemed to be out of it – again – Krad turned back to Akane, who wasn't looking too happy with the situation, "Do you think you could talk to them or something? Are these things even spirits?"
"I'm not getting any sort of reaction from them," she admitted softly, "If they hadn't smashed the windows before, I would say these things are illusions, but…" She turned to Daisuke, who was next to her, "Why don't you give it a try, Niwa-kun?"
"Huh! Why me!" squeaked the redhead, taken by surprise; and the pressure was getting to him, "I mean, what am I supposed to say to them!"
"Niwa, you can speak to these things?" well, that was a surprise.
"Actually, Niwa-kun only found out on our way to find you two."
"Oh."
Satoshi turned to his friend, who was fidgeting slightly now, "If these aren't spirits, then what are they?"
Daisuke hesitated for a moment before replying, "They're unformed beings, incomplete and have nowhere to go. I mean… they shouldn't be here then. Did someone send them after us?"
"Join us… don't try to run away…"
Dark paled slightly, his mind going instantly to the first voice that had been heard but the others hadn't heard. "Did you… just hear that?"
"Yeah," Krad nodded.
Well, at least he wasn't going insane. "And if we don't want to join you, or whatever? Get real." The shadows, which had been completely still during all this, suddenly rippled like water in anger.
"Do you dare defy us?"
"Yes?"
One of the shadows flew at him, only to be intercepted by an arrow. Without hesitation, Dark brought his sword into a sharp upward-slash which split it in half and there was a moment of silence, before it fell and dissolved into a pile of ash.
The blonde raised an eyebrow, "Interesting."
"You… you are…"
"…" they all exchanged confused glances and were taken completely by surprise because rather then being charged by the… things, they all disappeared in a 'poof' of grey smoke. Of course, this left them coughing and gagging, but no harm done.
Dark rubbed a hand over his eyes, "That was sudden. Why didn't they stay?"
"Who knows."
Satoshi wiped his glasses, "Does anyone else get the feeling that they'll be back?"
"Well, if that's the case," Daisuke offered instantly, "We should go home together. Just incase."
"Daisuke, you do know that in the end, one of us will be on our own anyway," Dark pointed out dully.
"…"
"I have to research this though," Akane said, "So I can't hang around." She was also hinting the fact that she knew that she wasn't really wanted around, but it didn't seem to matter to her. "We better get back to class though."
"… uh-oh."
000
"What kinda lame-ass excuse was that!" Krad demanded as he and Dark walked out of their last class of the day.
"Hey! I didn't see you making any excuse up, so I had to pull something out of my head! Come on, it wasn't that bad!"
"What wasn't bad?" asked Daisuke curiously as he and Satoshi joined them as they passed the gate.
The blonde groaned slightly and hit his head, "You don't want to know."
"Actually we do," replied Satoshi, wondering what kind of excuse Dark did use. With that guy, no one could ever know.
Dark grinned, "I told the teacher that we got locked in the bathroom."
"…"
"Uh… okay…"
This time Krad hit Dark over the head, "See! I told you that it was lame!"
"Ow…"
Without further ado, the four made their way home, arguing and the like, seeing who they were and all. After the two younger boys were dropped off, all that was left was Krad walking Dark home…
"Why am I the one being walked home!"
"I think you're scared because of bodiless voices and-"
"Am not!"
"-are too afraid to admit it."
Dark pouted at this, but didn't complain, seeing that he was afraid and all. Just as they reached the street where he had to go home to – Dark really didn't want to go there – but then something popped up in the violet-haired boy's head and he hit himself mentally for forgetting such an important thing.
"Was it just me or did I see a light bulb over your head for a moment?" Krad asked dully, not getting Dark's mood and he was tired already. Home was going to be hell for the blonde as well, considering the day. Maybe they would throw him off the roof this time…
"Oh yeah, Krad! I got you something for your birthday! It's today, right?"
"Huh?" surprised, the blonde could only watch as his friend bounced around excitedly, "Wow, you actually remembered this time."
Dark stopped bouncing momentarily and frowned, "Krad…"
"We finally found you…"
"… What the…"
Krad sighed at this, "Great, just what I needed."
Dark was blinking in confusion. "What's going on this time?"
"We finally found the Hikari boy again!"
"Krad?"
"Do you want to know?" the blonde watched as his friend nodded, "Well, let's just say they're after me."
"Kill him!"
"Or should I say they want to kill me."
"… WHAT!"
That was when the clouds began to cover, and the reality struck.
000
All I can say is strange. Very strange. And nothing really happened. Pft. Maybe the next chapter… Oh, and yes, happy Birthday Krad. How old is he now? Uh… 17 or 18? No idea anymore…
Hakudoshi-chan: Yeah, true. I was actually thinking along those same lines, but they don't even think that way… yet. Well, Dark might. Krad's just… uh… whatever. He's got a lot of family issues to attend with. I mean, what kind of family throws their own family off cliffs? Bats annoy me a lot. That and I actually had my brother show me where one of the dungeons were because I was an idiot…
neko-nya: I have a thing against the monsters that eat shields now. Don't know why. Bananas are good to eat. Very healthy. And Krad's being stalked by strange assasin like things! Yaaaaaay! XD Something also very random for me is trying to read all of Shakespeare's plays. Great fun. Well, I'm trying to do the next chapter now… kinda…
Gabriel of Dreams-Yume Chan: Welp, here's the update. Hope you enjoyed it!