Disclaimer: I own nothing in this fanfiction.

Run.

I need to run.

If I'm late she won't make it.

I have absolutely no other thoughts.

I need to hurry.

Faster.

Faster.

FASTER!

My legs race up the stairs, the overpowering smell of Death and blood violates my sense of smell.

One more set of stairs… I'm starting to feel dizzy… The headache I'm all too familiar with does not stop… Curse this body!

And I'm finally there.

"Arceuid!"

I scream at the top of my lungs, but my exhausted body refuses to scream louder than normal speech.

I see her, the unmistakable heavenly white skin and golden hair…

But she is not alone…

"Aha! HAHAHAHAHAHA! You came to me all on your own?! Such generosity! Welcome... Shiki!"

A sickly pale man stood on the other side of the hallway. The man was naked apart from an unbuttoned shirt and dark green pants. He was facing Arcueid, he placed a hand over his forehead under his long gray hair while laughing a sickly laughter.

I cannot answer him. My thoughts are all focused on the woman standing in front of me, clutching her middle and breathing hard.

Reminding me that I am the cause of her torment, I am the one who made her weaker.

"Arcueid— !"

I run as fast as I could towards her, but halfway through. Arcueid, still in her state, looks at me intensely with her yellow eyes glowing.

"...!?"

I can't move...?!

The moment her eyes fixed on mine, my body refused to advance another step, not only that, but I cannot move at all..!

"... How inept…! Using the last of your remaining power to bind your ally with your Mystic Eyes… It would have been better to let him die with you…"

The pale man glared at Arceuid with delight.

"Mystic Eyes…!? Why?!"

Why is Arcueid using them on me?

At last…

Even though I made it here at last…

"— WHY?! Why did you do that..!"

Arcueid simply looks away, but the effects of the binding were still active.

She does not even say anything.

She does not even say anything to me…

She only analyzes the enemy in front of her as she continues to breath painfully.

"—Why…? WHY?!"

I attempt to shout but fail miserably, not because of the Mystic Eyes, but cursing my body that I've forced for so long started to lose its heat.

Roa laughs at us mockingly.

"—I see… So you finally prepared yourself, princess!"

He decides to take two steps forward slowly.

"Impressive, Shiki… It seems like the princess here is willing to die fighting me to save you.

If it were the old princess, I would be shitting my pants right now… But you are just a normal vampire compared to me now… You don't even possess the power of a True Ancestor anymore.

Out of character may it be, but it would have been far more interesting if you succumbed to your desires princess—!"

"CLOSE YOUR CURSED MOUTH—!"

Arcueid's voice echoes throughout the hallway connecting the two school buildings.

What is… This…

I blink thinking it's possibly just an illusion, but no.

The world wavers around Arcueid.

"Wha—!"

Roa stops walking and takes on a stance.

"Marble Phantasm…? You can still use that in this weakened state of yours? As expected from a Royalty True Ancestor."

Roa backs off fearfully.

"But you cannot defeat me…"

"You know it right?"

"It's because I have something you don't."

"The experience of Death."

"I know Death, you don't. That is our difference…"

The wavering of the world around Arcueid grows stronger, then she stops breathing, as if ceasing all movement to gather strength.

"Sentient beings are instinctively afraid of the unknown."

"This does not change, even for transcendent races like the True Ancestors."

"No matter how much Mystery you uncover, no matter how long your lifespan is."

"You cannot experience DEATH. You run away from it, you gain power by resisting it."

"Whereas I, Michael Roa Valdamjong… Accept it."

Cracking sounds alert him to stop his speech, the glass from the windows on the wall begin to crack and break.

Roa lowers his body down, then crouches like an olympic athlete would to start the race.

Everything around Arceuid seems on the verge of blowing up.

"—A…!"

I cannot speak.

This is bad.

My brain is screaming. My instincts are raging. I should NOT allow this to continue.

I don't know why.

I have no proof whatsoever.

It's just me, who has seen many deaths before, can tell.

Roa and Arcueid, which one of them was closer to Death.

"St—op."

I just can't speak, my throat is burning, my chest hurts more than any time before.

—CRACK!

The sound of the air itself bending to Arcueid's reality bending strength.

The power that stretches out through the entire hallway.

"—!"

The entire hallway pulses.

The glass windows, the floor, the walls, the building, all of them become roiling waves as if they were shaken within a shredder with a thousand blades.

"—!"
In a single instant, Roa's body disappears.

Shredded, torn apart and compressed, all at the same exact moment.

There was no dodging that blow that came from the world itself.

All that remains are his ankles and bellow.

The violent shaking of the hallway stops.

Maybe it only lasted for a moment, but the shattered glass confirms that I was not imagining, that and the amount of gore scattered across the hallway where Roa used to crouch.

But it didn't end there…

"— A!"

I cannot alert her, I can't even move my mouth.

The ankles begin to move.

They start running towards Arcueid.

As they do, with each step, a limb sprouts back to life, his legs, his hips, his torso, his arms.

They all grew back like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"—"

Arcueid knelt down as her legs gave out.

In front of her, Roa's head and shoulder regenerated.

"— ARCUEID!"

I scream as loud as I can, no, this is far more than a human can muster in such a situation.

But it was all useless.

The completely healed Roa cuts through her stomach in one clean slice with his claws.

As cleanly as cutting the 'lines', Roa's slash did not cut flesh, no blood came out.

"That was close."

"I knew it was a good idea to choose tonight."

"If the moon waned just a little, regenerating from just an ankle..."

"Would have been IMPOSSIBLE."

"—!"

"And princess… You cannot heal from that wound."

"I have the same ability as my brother over there."

"As someone who embraces Death like me..."

"Perceiving its form didn't prove to be a difficult task to me."

Roa boasts as he kicked Arcuied over to me.

Her body tumbles over to me.

"ARCUEID!"

I can move again.

— It's because the power behind her mystic eyes has vanished.

—It means that her powers are no longer working.

I shake the thought from my head violently and I hold her close.

—Holding her like this brings me to realization that made me shudder.

—Her body is terribly COLD.

Roa stands before me… But I have yet to care… All I want is to help Arcueid this instant…

"Arcueid…!"

I call out to her.

Her closed eyes open energetically upon hearing my voice, but it's clear from their faded colors that she is not in her finest form.

"Aha… That was pathetic wasn't it…"

With a faked brightness, Arcueid puts on one last smile.

"What kinds of stupid things are you saying—! Why?— Why did you—!"

I can't speak properly, my eyes start watering at the inevitable feeling that engulfs me.

I cannot be calm right now.

"Why…? Why—?"

That's all I'm able to say, my brain is malfunctioning and my emotions are wild.

I hold her tighter, but there is no embrace in response. She is too weak to even move her arms.

"Why…? Why—? Why did you — Do it by yourself… Partners! we were partners… We were going to fight together until the end…!"

"Ah… That's right… I sort of forgot…"

She replies as her eyes get darker by the second.

"How can you forget...! This— This… Makes me useless…! I promised to help you… I definitely promised to help you…! But I couldn't help you one bit…"

—Cough

She coughs up blood and smiles painfully.

"No… That's not it at all… You've helped me more than enough… That's why it's okay… At the end… I'm… Glad to have… Saved you from Roa."

—Cough

She coughs again, but this time. No blood came out.

"... Shi—ki…"

"Yes…!"

"Can you— Grant me... one last thing?"

"Yes...! Ask anything… Anything and I will bring it to you...!"

"I—see… In that case… Can you… Kiss me... One more time?"

—What?

Such a simple thing? I was ready to offer her my blood, but she only wants a kiss…

I press my lips against hers.

It is not sweet or bitter like the previous ones… Just a kiss where I press my lips against her cold lips without any warmth.

After that she smiles as if extremely happy… And just like that…

"— I love you Shiki…"

And her body begins to glow as all remaining heat vanishes.

"—Arc.u..eid…?"

And then she was there, no longer.

Her body disappears into golden dust in front of my very eyes.

"—Arcueid…!"

I frantically attempt to grasp the dust in the air before my mind turns off.

— Tap, Tap, Tap…

I hear the footsteps of the man that was watching until this moment.

"Finished, Shiki?"

I do not answer.

I stand up, take out my knife and remove my glasses.

There is no talking.

"I didn't think you were still alive."

Roa says casually.

"It seems those who can see death are good at eluding it. It does not matter how much you cling to life, or how strong your life force is. Death will always reach you in the end, so escaping it is useless effort."

Ironic… The serpent of Akasha… The Twenty-Eighth Dead Apostle Ancestor who is known for escaping death through reincarnation is giving me a speech about how useless escaping Death is.

But I grant him no response.

"Those returning from amongst the Dead can understand Death. You and I are special ca—"

"Do not… Put yourself and me in the same phrase."

I finally spoke in a warning tone.

"Hoh… You despise me that much already?"

—That was the trigger.

I let my body sink in a position that I could never tell where it came from.

—But it feels like I've done this times and times before.

I inhale a large potion of air before I close my eyes and open them again.

Under Roa's surprised Eyes, I was no longer there.

I closed the distance between us in two steps.

Roa had no time to do anything as I drove my knife through his throat several time, cutting several 'lines'.

"—HAA!"

Roa screeches as blood pours out of his neck. But he wouldn't stand there now would he.

I jump back as he attempts to drive his left arm through my chest, but as he does that, I drive my knife midair through the stump of his arm, slicing it clean off.

"—GAAAH!"

The being called Roa screams in agony, losing an arm he could not regenerate reduces his combat ability significantly.

My senses tingle, the blood on the ground puts me off.

I leap to the right side of Roa.

The blood that I would have stepped on solidifies into sharp blades that arose from the ground.

Roa takes the chance and backsteps away as he administers some electrical spell on the arm stump to close the wound by force.

His neck still bleeding, Roa solidifies the blood and stops it from flowing out.

"—YOU WORM! HOW DARE YOU! NO— HOW COULD YOU! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS STRONG!"

No response left my lips.

Instead, I let my body sink again.

Alerted by the position, Roa focused his eyes and prepared to drive his remaining Claw forward when I appear in front of him again.

A smirk draws on my face for a reason beyond me, but I understand once I warped again.

"—Behind you~"

I unconsciously mock him once I reappear behind him.

Then I thrust my knife toward his death point.

—Stab—

I hear some words being spoken before I pull my knife out and jump away.

The stab landed true.

Suddenly a blue haired girl jumps through the window and crushes Roa under her feet.

Ciel proceeds to take out Black Keys and nail Roa to the ground.

Then She took out a book with the image of the cross on it.

A light emerges at that moment surrounding the two, then she starts chanting.

"Let it be known."

"I dispatch. I let live. I harm and I heal."

"None shall 'scape mine grasp."

"None shall 'scape mine sight."

"Be crushed."

"I welcome those whom hast grown corky and those whom hast lost."

"Devote yourself to me, wot from me, and obey me."

"Rest."

" Never forget song, never forget prayer, and never forget me."

"I am light and I relieve thou of all thy burdens."

"Do not rebel."

"Retribution for forgiveness."

"Betrayal for trust."

"Despair for hope."

"Darkness for light"

"Dark perpetual wink for the living."

"Relief is 'i mine hands."

"I shall add oil to thy sins and leave a mark."

" Eternal life is granted through perpetual wink."

"Bid for forgiveness, hither."

"I, the incarnation, shall swear. "

"— kyrie eleison. "

The first interlude lads, a backstory for this Shiki. Events are similar to the True ending of Arcuied's route but different obviously.

Enjoy and I'll see you soon.