Disclaimers: No, I don't own this. Only my characters and the entire strange, eerie 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.
Er… yay! An update! Finally! Don't know about you, but I think I've lost my touch…
000
"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
"Every living creature on this earth has a reason for existing. But I wonder… what is the reason for us? Is there even a reason?
What? Yes… okay. Maybe there is a reason, but we have yet to know…"
Daisuke Niwa
--- Seven: Don't Ask; Don't Answer ---
Dark rain clouds completely blanketed the afternoon sky and it was a plain gray; yet there was no rain. Sharper gusts of wind hit the two figures, ruffling their hair as they went, yet there was a still silence that no normal person could comprehend. It was incredible unsettling.
Meanwhile, the purple-haired teen was giving him a stare that read disbelief, perplexity, concern and… something else. But no one could really say. He was probably just worried, anyway. Krad was ignoring this, with his weapon drawn out next to him in an 'at ease' position, waiting for something to happen.
Eventually, Dark ended up breaking the silence, since he wasn't the type of person to keep quiet this whole time.
"Okay… if they want to kill you… might I ask as in WHY?" his own weapon was being waved around just for the sake of it and besides, there was no one else around to bother them.
Krad shrugged at this, "They just feel like it."
"You know, that really doesn't comfort me."
"I think I worked that out beforehand."
Dark couldn't believe how calm the blonde could be, especially since it was obvious that they were intent on killing him. Okay, what had they gotten themselves into this time?
Anyway, said blonde was now glancing at the purple-haired teen, wondering what was going through his pea-sized brain at that very moment. Not too much, he assumed, so what?
This entire scenario didn't actually surprise him in any way, because that was one of the main reasons to him not getting much sleep lately – but he didn't need to tell Dark that; he'd freak. And when Dark freaked, one could never know if they were going to get out of it alive.
But then again, the streets were really, really deserted. And the houses looked desolated and abandoned. Although he avoided this street as much as possible, he knew that there were residents in every building, but since there wasn't even the faint flicker of movement…
"Spells?" he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. But Dark heard and he nodded.
"So where are they?" he asked softly, eyes darting everywhere in case of a pre-emptive attack, which was never any good. Krad shrugged and blinked as the first scatter of raindrops made themselves present.
"Great. So now we have to wait for the battle in a downpour," the blonde said with a small sigh, "And watch out." He shifted to the side and watched as Dark dove to the side as something akin to an arrow shot out of nowhere and embedded itself into the concrete footpath.
"Okay… well, we know they're here, at least," Dark shook his head in disbelief and looked around again, "Can you sense them anywhere, Krad?" The rain was getting denser and he had to shift a bit closer to keep an eye on his friend. The blonde gave a half-shrug, but then stiffened slightly.
"Yeah, they're here," he concluded the obvious, "But I can tell you that they're getting closer now, and this rain isn't helping too much either."
"Well duh," the purple-haired teen rolled his eyes in exasperation, but was promptly ignored for that, "I think I was aware of that beforehand. And as for the rain, maybe we should just call Satoshi and Daisuke… or something."
"And WHO here has a phone?"
"… Okay…"
Their conversation was rudely interrupted by the annoyed tones of whoever it was attacking them.
"Are you two done yet? We don't have all day."
"I want out of the rain."
"Can't we kill the Hikari tomorrow? This is too much for one day."
"Well, the school scenario wasn't that pleasant anyway…"
Dark was the first to put up a complaint when he finally worked out what was going on; "Wait, you were the ones who sent those things after us at school? Why the hell would you do that!" Krad would have said something but saw that there wasn't much of a point, seeing that the other boy wouldn't be listening to anyone.
"Yes. But then we had to go and do something else."
"… Nice," Dark muttered. The rain was getting a lot harder by now and it was going to be impossible for them to do battle. The other side seemed to be in the same wavelength.
"I can't see my hands."
"I'm cold."
"And wet."
"I wanna go hoooome…"
"Shut up!" snapped the leader – Dark assumed – voice, "When we finally get this done, we won't have to chase the stupid boy everywhere. We've been doing this for too long!"
"If you want to know," Krad muttered, before Dark could open his mouth to interrogate, "They've been after me for the past week or so. But most of the time they leave me alone."
The purple-haired teen bristled, "They were chasing you for HOW long!"
"I knew you'd freak."
"I'm not freaking out!"
"Then what are you doing now?"
"Shut up!"
It looked like talk was finally over because another arrow cut past them and narrowly missed them and they decided to stop arguing until after the situation had been dealt with.
000
Daisuke had that small, nagging feeling in the back of his mind and he fidgeted slightly under his umbrella. Besides the fact that he was going to fall behind his homework again, he couldn't ignore this other feeling and now he was right outside Satoshi's house. And since it was quite a way from his own house, his navy blue umbrella was still sitting over his head and creating a puddle all around him. he needed to tell someone about this.
Why? Well, who else was he supposed to turn to with magical discharges? He really didn't want his family to know, seeing that they would run around screaming for their life, and he had to try the only alternative.
Right… and now he was out on the front porch, trying to remain as dry as possible and muttering under his breath while he waited for someone to answer. For a moment the only thing that he could hear was the rain falling. Then, he managed to hear someone inside the house. Well, they were yelling, but it was the same in the end. Either way.
"Will someone get the door! Kaz! GO NOW!"
"…" said child opened the door and gave Daisuke a bored look, "What's up?"
"Uh… I want to talk to your brother—" began Daisuke, sweat dropping at the intensity of the stare, but was cut short when Kaz was knocked aside by none other than the youngest child of the Hiwatari family.
"Hi there! Whatcha-up-to!" she squealed. The redhead raised one eyebrow, seeing as this was actually the first time he'd actually come face-to-face with Leah. The reason to this was because Satoshi chose not to mention the subject much and he always did warn Daisuke not to come.
She was obviously short, with shoulder-length blue hair that was tied back with a pink bow and she had a sort of evil grin stuck on her face. The first thing that popped into Daisuke's head was the beginning of a fangirl-in-making, and after seeing his older friends caught in that sort of life, he didn't really want to think too much about it.
Of course, he was spared staring at this obviously dangerous child when Satoshi appeared, looking bored; as usual. Pushing Kaz and Leah away and ordering to go back and annoy the parents, he then turned his attention towards his smaller friend.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Uh… let's just say that I've got this really, really, really bad feeling that something isn't right." The redhead sighed and stared at the floorboards below him, not knowing what else to say, but it didn't seem to matter because the blue-haired boy was looking past his shoulder at the moment.
"It's raining quite a bit, isn't it?" he commented lightly, before disappearing for a moment, only to return with a jacket and pulling his shoes on, "Let's go."
At this, Daisuke smiled brightly and they left. That was, Satoshi said something about leaving for a bit, got a grunt in reply, and then closed the door without another thought.
The redhead sweat dropped at that.
Seeing that it was raining - and rather hard at the moment - it was a lot darker than what one would have thought possible just a while after school and Daisuke was back in a sort of meditating mood; Satoshi had taken hold of the umbrella by this point of time.
"So do you have any idea what it might be?" he asked in a low voice, as some guy in a business suit rushed past them. "We don't want to run into something that we can't handle."
"Monsters," Daisuke answered with a small shrug, "They're giving the same vibes as those shadow things at school today. I'm not exactly sure." He bit his lower lip at this and then looked around as a couple of cars skidded down the road, "Don't you think that it's a bit… hard to see anything?"
Satoshi didn't say anything to that at first, but after a few more minutes walking – which didn't get them far, because there was a good chance of them running into someone, or cars – he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The redhead couldn't help but laugh at his glasses, which were now fogged up.
"I suppose a little blow over will be fine, then…" the blue-haired boy muttered, ignoring his friend, but not without hitting him lightly.
Rubbing his head and still grinning, Daisuke relieved his friend of the umbrella and watched silently as Satoshi preformed the spell.
000
Dark hissed in pain as another arrow managed to cut across his arm and swung in that general direction. Could the rain really be any denser! He was thinking this way, but what more could be said and done, seeing that he actually couldn't see anything, and he wondered how Krad was doing. He had lost sight of the blonde sometime as the actual fight began, and the only thing he was really worried about was either attacking his friend, or getting his head severed off by said blonde. He really wasn't looking forward to that proposition.
As the battle continued relentlessly, like the rain, neither side seemed to get very far, and that wasn't a good thing, since they were going to be sick after this. With a quick upwards slash, Dark thought he hit something, but he highly doubted it.
"Hey, Krad!" he yelled over the downpour all around and on top of them.
"What?" the blonde yelled back some good few meters away, he assumed.
"How're you going?"
"Well, what do you think!" Krad snapped, "I can't see anything in this godamn rain!"
Well, at least he knew he was still alive; Dark had to admit, as he jumped out of the way and skidded on the concrete. The drainage pipes weren't working either, seeing how much rain was pelting down on them, and he ground his teeth in annoyance as he brushed his hair back.
Then… the rain began to cease.
"Huh?" Dark looked up as the downpour fell into a drizzle, and knew instantly that a certain someone had just finished messing with mother nature's work. It helped them, of course, but it also helped their enemies.
They weren't the most exciting things to see, but there were a lot more than Dark had thought; and there were a couple of carcasses on the concrete footpath around the two teens. Wait, didn't that mean that they had hit something! It seemed unlikely, but who knew.
"What happened?"
"No more rain…"
"I wanna go home…"
Just then, one of the much larger monsters pointed at Dark and Krad and screamed something about chopping off their heads and killing them, so it was right back to fighting; accompanied with groans and protests. No one was in the mood to fight in the cold, anyway. But who was going to listen to their complaints?
That and the monsters weren't exactly coordinated, but it looked like more were pretty much appearing out of nothing. Which didn't make any sense due to the law of stuff and all that junk the science teacher had tried to drill into their brain.
"You can't make or destroy matter," she'd said in an annoying voice, "you can only balance it out."
Well, if that was the case at the moment, it looked like they were being made out of nothing, unless they were splitting into more. Nah, they were being created from nothing and that was final.
Anyway, back to the battle and the two teens were putting up a good fight, which involved destroying most of the monsters without too much difficulty. But they were also suffering from the cold and they couldn't fight forever.
That's where Satoshi and Daisuke came into the picture.
Having abandoned the umbrella somewhere back because it was too much to drag that with their weapons along, the redhead was gasping for breath while his friend wasn't looking any better. Despite that, they fell right into battle and for one reason or another, the multiplication of monsters stopped.
Okay, it was coincidence it all its forms.
The monsters bid a hasty retreat after this and Dark sneezed loudly as the rain began to fall into downpour again.
"Great," Krad held out a hand and watched as the droplets fell on it, his hair already beyond saturated, "Just what we need. More rain."
"What happened?" Daisuke asked as he looked around, obviously regretting that he had left the umbrella somewhere. And his parents were going to tell him off for losing it. Ugh…
"For some reason the monsters wanted Krad's head on a plate," Dark explained simply, and sneezed again. "Ah, crap…"
"Right, that's nice," snorted Satoshi, "And now we have to walk in the pouring rain thanks to your unknown attraction to monsters."
Krad raised a brow, seeing as the rain wasn't as dense as before, so they could communicate at a safe distance, "And what do you mean by that, exactly, hmm?" His hand was still holding onto his sword and he held it up casually, but then Dark gave an exceptionally loud sneeze which brought their attention back to him.
"I'm going to be so sick after this…" he mumbled, "And my homework's soaked now thanks to those stupid monsters."
"I didn't know you cared about your homework so much," Satoshi commented coolly. The purple-haired teens head snapped up.
"Do you want to repeat that!" he barked.
Daisuke waved his hands around, trying to calm everyone down, "We shouldn't be talking about this in the rain! And we have to get home--" he sneezed. Satoshi shook his head and sighed.
"Is it just me or do you get sick easily?" he asked the redhead, who sniffled a bit.
"It's not my fault," he muttered.
"Well, seeing that it'll take you guys forever to get home," Dark decided right there and then before he sneezed again, "Why don't you just stay at my place for a bit? Or stay the night, whatever. Just until the rains clears up."
Krad blinked at this, "Won't they kill us though? We all know how much they hate us."
The purple-haired teen waved it aside with a nonchalant air, "Don't worry 'bout it. My room's big enough to stay in, Raine's at work, Karal said she was going out with some guy--" he coughed loudly and obviously at this, "And Christina, Nina and Aeka won't mind you around. They're the most sane ones. Myself included."
"And who ever said you were sane?" commented the blonde as they slowly made the short trip to the building that Dark had to live in, "Personally, I think you're insane. And that's just the tip of the iceberg."
"Hey!" he sneezed again, ran into the door and it swung open. He fell to the floor in a large puddle of water, and found himself looking at a pair of sock-wearing feet. He looked up. "… Hi."
"I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you," Nina smiled at him before noticing the other boys and the state they were in, "Hey! You must be those evil-doers Raine talks about all the time! Come in!" She stepped out of the way, dragging her brother down the hallway in the process.
Not one to ask many questions, Nina led them to the living room, which was free from evil candles for the time being, and then told Dark to grab some towels and dry off before they all died of influenza.
"Nice house you have," Satoshi commented sarcastically as he looked around at the décor around them, "Planning to communicate with some spirits soon?"
"Ha ha, very funny," Dark laughed and threw the dark green towel at him, "As for something like that, Raine seems to think that you can only do it when you've accepted the whole religion thing completely, but it's pointless."
"Does that mean you've talked to them or not?" questioned Daisuke as he caught the next towel thrown.
"Sure. With Christina and Aeka. Strange, Christina seems to be really good at this stuff, but she's really scared of what the others might say…" he mused for a moment, but then stopped when he noticed the person he'd been talking about entered the room, "Hey."
"Ah… er…" Christina flushed a bit when she noticed the uninvited guests and looked ready to bolt, but then noticed With, "With! Welcome back!" She held out her hands and the happy bunny-demon hopped up to her. "How was your day, Onii-san?"
"Crazy stuff," Dark shrugged, "School's been hell. But yeah. Wait, you weren't walking home in the rain, were you?" He noticed that her hair looked slightly damp and he frowned.
She smiled behind her round glasses, "Oh no, Aeka-san picked me up beforehand and then went grocery shopping because Raine-san forgot to again. Oh! And okaa-san and otou-san sent us a letter!"
Despite the fact that it was very cold in their soaked uniform, Dark stopped and looked at her. "… Really now?"
Christina nodded, "Yep!" She seemed to be happy about that fact, but she also failed to notice the frown on her older brother's face. When she returned to her own room, Krad turned a bit to face his friend.
"So, mind telling us what's with the face?" he asked simply.
"To put it simply…" Dark began slowly, "If they've sent a letter, it could mean that they've finally given up on this whole religion crap and are returning to normal society. But since that really isn't a possibility, there's only one reason they'd be sending us anything." He hit his forehead, "Why now?"
"Well?" prompted the blonde in irritation, "What's the reason?"
Both Daisuke and Satoshi were now paying attention as well.
"Look, I don't want to talk about it," Dark replied in a stiff sort of voice, "But hey, why don't we go to my room now? I still need to give you your present!" He bounced up the stairs.
The three teens exchanged glances.
"What did he mean?" Daisuke piped up.
"His parents are rather… eccentric," Satoshi pointed out, "So it could mean anything."
"…" Krad chose not to say anything as they got up and followed Dark up the stairs. He knew that most things couldn't even get the purple-haired teen in a mood of frustration, so it had to be something big. Well, he would drop the subject.
For now, anyway.
000
What? That's the end of the chapter? Eh, hopefully I can get another one up soon, but no promise. Dark needs to give Krad his present! What should it be? (I've used that cross idea one too many times… so yeah) And what is it with Dark's parents? What will Raine do if she catches them in the house? Oooh… so many things can happen…
-Hakudoshi-chan: Sorry for the long wait! XO I mean… computer troubles really put my off writing this chapter, I suppose. Anyway, the reason for Krad's death is still unknown for now… but soon… and yeah, Dark isn't officially insane anymore!
-neko-nya: Krad doesn't look like the sort to go to drugs, huh? Dark's enough to keep him occupied huh? And not in that way! Er… Yeah, they wanna kill him… for some reason… who knows. (shrugs) Hell, even I don't know! o.O It just felt right to write. Maybe you need to tell your immune system off…
-dimonyo-anghel: Yeah, they were focused on killing the blonde; dispose the rest if they get in the way. XD Not that they ever managed anyway. Voices with the monsters? … Who knows, who knows. I'm not saying… yet… The reason is still unknown so yeah, and as for the gift… what should it be?
-Gabriel of Dreams-Yume Chan: Wah! It took me forever to update! Again, no one knows why they're after HIM, and no one else; the probability of Krad and Dark is higher now… but it'll take a long time… we just have to nudge them in the right direction (wink wink). The black blob monster is… well, just that, I think. No one knows who controls them, and Dark's sisters will… er… rage war in the next chapter? Maybe. That's about the best on answers I can give you, so I hoped it helped. Sorry for the slow update!
-kyo's little koneko: glad you… liked it. :) Yeah! I mean, out of all of them, Christina, being the youngest… well, she's a lot more peaceful than the rest of the girls. And Krad lives… as if I could kill him off… here's the update. Thanks for the reviews!
-kittenoftime: Mou… sorry for not updating sooner. I'm glad you thought it was good.
And now back to the drawing board… XD