Sanguinary
Disclaimer: I could dream, I suppose. But, no, I don't own GetBackers.
A/N: I actually deleted the story instead of updating it before I knew what I was doing! I can't believe I was that dense... T.T So here, I reposted it.
About the questionable timeline... Just chuck this in before the Bombay Blood incident. There is some inconsistency, but I hope you'll be lenient.
Support Akagami. Pretty please?
Chapter One:
That night it was raining hard. He could feel the cold, wet sting of the rain penetrating the dark clothes he wore and the almost solid slap of it across his face, plastering his hair against pale features hidden under the wide-brimmed hat. His recent object of interest was standing about three feet away, looking at him with bright brown eyes that were stupidly defiant. Something he found intriguing, to say in the least.
"You amuse me, dear Ginji-kun," he said softly, voice lost in the night and the rain. "I find you interesting, but not too interesting that I would hesitate to slice open your back and throw your body at my feet should you cross me again."
The blonde boy felt a shiver run down his spine, but smothered his fear enough to issue a rejoinder, something he got, perhaps, from his partner, the odious Midou Ban.
"P-People aren't your playthings, Akabane-san! And you're wrong to treat everybody else like they are."
Akabane raised a single eyebrow. Ginji did not see the gesture, though he felt incredibly frightened just the same. "You think so?"
"I…I know it's not supposed to be that way! Everybody's working hard for their lives and…and…you kill…"
"I am not the only killer in this world."
"No." Ginji deflated. A shadow seemed to pass over his usually cheerful eyes. Akabane's eye twitched involuntarily at the sincerity written on his face.
"No, you're right. You're not the only killer. But why do you have to be…?"
Akabane was not a liar that he denied he was a cold bastard who loved his work. He was good at what he did; he killed efficiently and at times, unnecessarily, to finish a job. He took pleasure in feeling the life draining from his enemies and people habitually died to keep him from getting bored.
But it could not be helped. The only place familiar to Akabane was the cold, unfeeling world of corpses lying gracefully at his feet. It was what he wanted, what they would have wanted. Humans always seem to be lonely, as corpses never appear to be.
Akabane considered telling Amano Ginji that. Instead he merely pulled his hat down and smiling darkly, turned on his heels and vanished into the waiting night like a wraith. But a part of him, a very distant part of Akabane, wanted to scream in the darkness.
-
I have accepted my darkness long ago.
I was promised to that same darkness.
Demons have no need to brood over sorrow, or loneliness, or pain.
So perhaps…
…that is reason enough to live.
-
"So, what have I done to deserve this…trial of strength?" Kagami Kyouji smirked. He dodged three of Akabane's scalpels with an almost lazy fluid movement, like a step in a dance, and followed this up with one of his own attacks, which Akabane narrowly avoided.
Kagami detected a tiny tear on the fabric of his white suit pants, just above his left knee. On the other hand he had managed to scratch Jackal. He noticed the blood trickling slowly down Akabane's cheek and made a 'tsk' sound in his throat.
"I would have expected better than that from the infamous Dr. Jackal," he said softly, his cold, tight-lipped smile mirroring Akabane's own. "What could have distracted you then? I thought for sure you could have completely avoided that…"
"Kagami Kyouji-kun, you talk too much for a person who is just about to die," Akabane answered, his purple-gray eyes widening to manic proportions as he let loose several more scalpels at Kagami, who blocked the first three and leaped away from the ones that followed after.
"Too slow," Kagami said.
"Shut up." A moment later scalpels were sticking out of the spot on the wall where Kagami's head had been. If Kagami had not been as fast as he was, then the fight would have been over. But as it was…
"This is getting us nowhere," Kagami observed, watching Akabane with half-shut eyes as he cut through several mirror pieces with glowing-blue knives he had between his fingers. "What are you doing in Mugenjou?"
"I hunted you down, obviously." Akabane jumped backwards in time to save himself from getting decapitated by a sharp-edged glass shard which sailed through the air with dangerous precision. He landed on both feet, one gloved hand holding his hat in place. His eyes were wide with that crazed look only very few people actually lived to describe.
Kagami smirked again. "I suppose I should feel privileged…" He calculated, as always, before he decided on his next move. Casting a quick glance at the possible exits leading out of the decrepit building, he wondered whether he would see the need to use one of them. Jackal, for his part, noticed the look and smiled wider.
"Never dream of escaping me again."
Kagami frowned; he did not like being dissed.
"As you wish, Doctor Jackal," he said quietly, opening one hand palm upward and letting fragments of glass scatter like shining petals in the air.
Akabane jumped away and landed on a ledge, his trench coat a piece of night flapping behind him. "This may actually turn out to be interesting. Perhaps even slightly better than a fight with the Raitei," Akabane said with his customary smile.
"Oh my, does this have anything to do with the Thunder Emperor?" the illusionist asked, sounding amused.
"No," Akabane answered after a pause. "This is about a wager I had. Do you know how I have survived this far?" He gripped his blades tighter; the weapons glinted as if in anticipation of the taste of blood. Kagami's blood.
"It is because every time I encounter a near-equal I generally do not allow them to live. This is my covenant with this world, that no other monster as strong as I am will walk in this earth. So in dealing death, I will continue to live. Someone like you would understand."
"You have strange motivations, Akabane-san."
"Stranger than you would care to imagine. I see that you already get my point."
"So… I have to die?"
Akabane shrugged. "One of us has to, at any rate. To be fair I am not completely assured of winning. But I will attempt to kill you."
Kagami was oddly calm for someone who had just been threatened by a cold-blooded killer in the same deserted vicinity he was in. But then Kagami was only being Kagami. He knew how the game was played and he knew the territory to boot. The harsh kill-or-be-killed reality in Infinite Castle did not exactly encourage people to have issues of morality. And Babylon City had taught him more than a few tricks as well.
Kagami smiled that cold smile of his. "We'll see, now, won't we?"
And that was the exact moment he introduced Jackal to another avenue of attack.
Akabane moved so quickly that he seemed to vanish into thin air, completely avoiding the incoming rush of death. In a flurry of black fabric he appeared again…directly behind Kagami's vulnerable form. Kagami did not have time to react to what had taken place, only to look down at the red sword that went clean through his chest…and then shatter into so many tiny pieces of broken glass.
So it was not Kyouji-kun, Akabane realized a split-second before he felt several lethal shards embed themselves on his back and arm. He gasped and fell forward, the unexpected burst of pain feeling almost like a new sun burning in his body, and his vision dimmed around the edges. It was not a good feeling at all. He tried to push himself up, but his arm collapsed beneath his weight. A thin trail of blood poured from a corner of his mouth.
Kagami was approaching him leisurely.
This was death then. So this was how Dr. Jackal, Akabane Kuroudo, would end. Akabane almost smiled at the irony of it. The death dealer, about to die himself.
"Ginji-kun…" he whispered, not entirely sure why he did so. Then the earth spun underneath him and everything was lost in darkness.
-
Dreaming again. Let me sleep….
What…
…
Is this…?
Water. Blood, perhaps. Or…
…
But I am not crying, am I?
-
Akabane felt an unexpected sensation of something cool pressing against his eyelids. Slowly he opened his eyes. It was raining again, and he was getting wet.
Kagami was kneeling beside him, a cold hand draped lightly around his shoulder. Raindrops hung on his hair like delicate pearls, framing his desolate face that for once was not a sneering mask of confusion or rage. There was almost something gentle in his eyes; a ghost, perhaps, of the young man he possibly would have been, if things had been different. Kagami lifted him up slowly.
"You called for the Raitei. But he is not for you. If you want, though, I'll tell you what is," Kagami murmured, eagerly leaning forward. Thankfully for Akabane, he fell unconscious again before his mind could deal with the fact that he had been kissed.
Outside, the sky had already begun to heighten. A stray dog howled to the still-present moon.