Title: Nothing At All
Chapter: One-shot
Notes: This was originally going to be a lyrical challenge but... well, it was my first time writing Raitei, so it strayed WAY off the lyrics and I didn't bother considering the challenge after the first two paragraphs. .. Kind of a different take on Raitei, I guess? I dunno. I tried to take into consideration some of the things Ginji explains in canon about what it feels like to go Raitei, so... Meh. Enjoy.

Everything hurts and hurts and hurts more and everything terrifies him and anything he fears, he destroys. All the crumbling buildings that never kept him and the other children safe all those years ago and all the faceless people running to him and calling out and those running away for cover and everyone, everyone screaming. Raitei knew some of those faces once, he recalls, and that they meant something to him. Now they only mean pain and he wants them gone.

The snap-crackle-static all around him is so thick it's almost suffocating. That's the only reason he can think of for his chest to be heaving and his breath coming in rasps. The one that's standing in front of him now is different from the others; he looks more serpant than human and that scares him all the more - this person was important to him, more important than anything else in the world and that means he has the ability to hurt him hurt Ginji beyond all repair... terrifies him into attacking without thinking nor caring about strategy, just destroy it all make it go away.

He's too far gone to recognize or process the voice calling his name, too blind with rage and fear and it's only out of pure luck that he doesn't meet that set of piercing blue eyes because it would be all over if he did. It's the only reason he wins this time after losing so many times before.

It's all over soon anyway - but in a different way. There's no one left, nothing, nothing and he can't quite fathom that. The tiny, tiny sliver of Ginji that's left huddles and calls out for anyone - 'Shido, Kazu-chan... Ban-chan Ban-chan Ban-chan' - and screams and cries and the sound of it reverberates inside his head until he's screaming and he doesn't know why. Everything that stood in his way is gone now, so why isn't everything okay?

Now, when there was nothing left, what else was there to destroy but himself?