Disclaimer: I do not own Owari no Seraph (Seraph of the End). I write this for your enjoyment only. This story is an alternate version of the Shibuya/Shinjuku arc with differences from the original. Please refer to the footnotes at the end. On another note, I have some artwork for both my fem!Yuu fics on DeviantArt and Twitter. My pen name on both sites is the same as on Fanfiction. Net and Ao3: Elly3981. Once again, I would like to thank my beta reader, ResidentialPsycho, for her help in making this fic possible. Enjoy and please review!
Chapter 17: The Worst Foe Lies Within the Self, Part I
No…
It can't be…
He died years ago…
"Mika?"
Even with her blond orphanage brother staring her right in the face, Yuichiro's mind continued to deny what was right before her eyes.
Mikaela himself also had difficulty believing that the girl who had just ran him through was the very one he had spent the last half-decade searching for since he had been turned.
That was, until his eyes slowly dropped from Yuichiro's face to the gold heart-shaped locket resting above her breasts, the one thing that confirmed without a doubt, what Mika had suspected the moment he turned from Guren to see her charging at him with her sword drawn.
Because the locket was a one-of-a-kind piece, the only one ever made. By Ferid Bathory himself. *1*
And if Yuichiro still had any doubts, the words that fumbled out of the blond vampire's mouth next erased them for good.
"Y…Yuu-chan?"
The ravenette was so stunned at hearing her childhood nickname for the first time in years that she completely forgot her predicament until she heard the voice of her mentor calling out from behind Mika.
"What're you waiting for, Yuu?!" Guren shouted impatiently. "Activate the curse and kill him! Or did you just get that sword for show?!"
Yuichiro shook her head. "No… I can't…" she protested, not thinking to tell her guardian why.
Not like it would have made any difference. Knowing that he was going to have to deal with Yuichiro's disobedience later, Guren grabbed his own sword in frustration and attempted to finish what his ward had started himself.
Mika, however, easily saw it coming and quickly removed Yuichiro's sword from his chest before blocking Guren's attack and jumping out of the way, fumbling through the air for a few moments before landing on the ground in a crouched position beyond the reach of both his orphanage sister and her mentor.
"Mika!" Yuichiro cried, her concern for Mikaela prompting her to begin running towards him but Guren would not allow it.
"Yuu, stay away from that creature!" the older man shouted as he grabbed her by arm before she could take more than a few steps and forcibly pulled her behind him as if she were a child.
"Hey, what're you doing, Guren, I'm not a child!" Yuu protested. That got her a glare from her guardian.
"No? Well, your actions say otherwise, brat! Have you forgotten this is a war zone and that I have better things to do than to babysit you?!" he snapped. *2*
Her face burning with humiliation, Yuichiro returned Guren's glare and jerked her arm out of his grasp. Before she could make a scathing reply, Yuu heard the voices of her other friends calling out to her. Turning, both she and Guren saw Shinoa and Satoshi's squads running towards them with concern and confusion lacing their features.
"Hey, what's going on, Yuu? Why didn't you activate the curse and kill him?" Satoshi asked in astonishment when both squads finally caught up to their raven-haired comrade and commander.
"He's right, dummy! I've never seen you hesitate to take down a vamp before! Weren't you the one always yapping about how you'd wipe them all off the face of the earth?!" Mitsuba demanded.
While the same questions were on Shinoa's mind, the purple-haired girl said nothing but chose to help Guren to his feet when the pain and exhaustion from his duel with Ferid and Mika finally caught up with him and made him drop to his knees while coughing up blood. Taking the handkerchief she offered, Guren forgot Yuu for a moment to get some much-needed relief and allowed his ward's other friends to do the talking.
Upon noticing the confused expression on Yuichiro's face, Yoichi became concerned. Contrary to what others thought, the brunet boy was more perceptive than he let on.
"What's wrong, Yuu? You don't look so good."
"I'll say…" Daisuke agreed. "From the way you've been acting, I'd think you actually know that blond vamp or something…"
"What? Is that true?" Kimizuki asked curiously as he lowered his twin swords and allowed his gaze to wonder towards the blond vampire in question.
Instead of answering, Yuichiro took advantage of her guardian's incapacitated state to take a few steps towards the blond young man she thought had died as a boy trying to protect her from a sadistic vampire lord with long silver hair and the build of a high-fashion runway model.
The same one who was standing behind him now.
"Mikaela… it's really you, isn't it?" Yuichiro asked, making sure she was loud enough to be heard over the battlefield.
The Harada twins gasped softly when they realized that Yuichiro had just called for the blond vampire by name, proving that she did indeed know him.
"Who is that vampire? Her boyfriend?" Risa gasped. Her twin shot her a glare.
"Shhh! Watch your mouth, Risa! We don't know that!" Riku hissed, not wanting her sister to say anything that might get Yuichiro in trouble.
Ferid, who had just witnessed the entire scene in amusement, chuckled when his sharp vampiric vision finally took in the young raven-haired girl Mika had allowed to stab him in the chest without making any attempt to block or evade.
"Well, what's this?" he asked, his voice full of wonder as crossed his arms and leaned forward slightly. "Mika's angel really is a princess! Even I never knew! And to think I spent all these years wondering why you were so hell-bent on finding your precious Yuu-chan!"
Though it had been years since he last saw her, Ferid still recognized Yuichiro as the little spitfire who had the guts to run up and shoot him in the head at point-blank range with his own revolver. She might have grown out her hair and donned female garb since then, but Ferid still hadn't forgotten the hatred in her sharp green eyes when she blew his brains out in a rage for slaughtering her brothers and sisters. He also recognized the locket Yuu wore around her neck as the one he made with his own hands and gave to Mika in exchange for his blood.
Mikaela gritted his teeth when he realized that Ferid had easily deduced the truth about Yuichiro. He knew his ex-benefactor was wickedly cunning and that it was only a matter of time before Ferid discovered that his favorite orphanage brother was really a sister.
And now that he knew, the bastard would undoubtedly never let Mika hear the end of keeping that little detail a secret from him.
Mika was about to tell Ferid to shut his trap when they both heard a rude snicker in the background from Lacus, who was dueling with Sayuri again.
"Haha! I always thought Yuu-chan was a girl! I mean, who calls another boy 'Yuu-chan'?" the purple-haired vampire exclaimed humorously.
Even Rene, who normally showed little to no interest in the world around him other than obeying orders and fighting, forgot his opponent, Mito, for a moment and raised a brow.
"I must admit that I'm hurt you never told me your darling Yuu-chan was a girl! Why, don't you trust me, Mika?" Ferid teased, knowing his words would undoubtedly grate on the younger vampire's nerves.
Now that the cat was finally out of the bag, Mikaela's obsession with finding and rescuing his missing orphanage 'brother' over the last four years finally made sense as well as eliminating any notion Ferid once had of his protégé leaning in that direction.
Guren, who had finally managed to recover at least somewhat from his painful injuries, glared at the silver-haired vampire lord while clutching the front of his uniform jacket.
"What the fuck? Why are you suddenly so interested in Yuu's gender?" he demanded.
"Well, why not?" Ferid asked carelessly with a shrug of his shoulders before he suddenly appeared at Guren's side and kicked him into a nearby telephone pole, much to Shinoa's chagrin after she had exerted her energy into helping her commander up.
"Guren!" Yuichiro cried. Forgetting Ferid and Mika for a moment, the ravenette attempted to rush to her mentor's aid when she suddenly saw the silver-haired vampire lord appear right in front of her out of thin air, no doubt thanks to his vampiric speed which enabled him to move faster than the human eye could see.
"Get out of my way, you fucking bastard!" Yuichiro snarled as she drew Asuramaru and attempted to attack him, the sudden movement finally spurring both sides back into action again.
Ferid clucked his tongue as he raised his sword to meet hers.
"Goodness, that's no way for a lady to talk!" he teased. "But then again, your parents probably never taught you how to act like one and it looks like your mentor didn't either."
"Shut your mouth!" the girl raged, ignoring the sting of the curse marks appearing on her skin as her sword swings started to become less focused with her anger peaking. "I should take your head right now for what you did to Akane and the others!"
Shinoa gasped in alarm when she realized her squad mate was playing right into the noble's trap. Unlike the other vampires she fought before, Yuichiro had a tragic history with this particular one. Which made it easier for him to bait her.
"Yuichiro, stop, he's playing you! Get away from him!" Shinoa shouted.
"She's right!" Satoshi added. "It's a trap! I thought you were smarter than that, Miss Hyakuya!"
But the other girl was too enraged to care. Yuichiro had once vowed that if she could not rid the world of all the vampires, she would do everything she could to rid it of Ferid in particular. And now was her chance to make good on that vow.
Ferid grinned as he easily fended off Yuichiro's blows one after the other. The girl was without a doubt, a skilled swordmaiden. But her tendency to fight with her emotions was an obvious weakness compared to himself who could fight without being impaired by emotions. The fact that Ferid also had centuries of sword-fighting experience under his belt, gave him a considerable advantage over Yuichiro as well.
"As ferocious as ever, I see!" he joked. "You're better than I thought so it looks like I might have to start fighting you seriously after all!"
Putting a bit more force into his next attack, Ferid finally knocked Yuichiro's sword arm back far enough to leave her wide open before lunging forward with the intent to drink her blood.
"Let's have a taste now, shall we?"
Knowing she could not bring her sword arm back fast enough to fend off the vampire lord hungry for her blood, Yuichiro reached for the semi-automatic she kept at her side as a back-up weapon with her other hand in a desperate attempt to defend herself, hoping that the bullet would at least slow Ferid down enough for her to get away if not kill him.
But before he could even touch her, Ferid's arm was suddenly severed from his torso in a splash of blood and Yuichiro looked behind him to find Mika standing in the distance with his own sword raised and a very dark expression on his face. She quickly realized that the gust of wind produced by Mika's sword was what just sliced off her attacker's arm.
"Don't touch her, or I'll kill you with my own hands, my lord!" he snarled.
"Tsk, Mika, I never intended to harm your precious Yuu-chan; you must really learn how to take a joke!" Ferid said smoothly as he calmly walked over to where his severed arm fell and picked it up before continuing. "So what do you want to do now that you've finally found your princess?" he asked after returning to the blond's side. "I must say I can't blame you for being so obsessed with her; she is a very lovely girl."
"I'll save her myself…" Mika growled as his eyes wandered to Yuichiro again.
Ferid gave him an amused look as he re-attached his arm and opened and closed his fist while holding his forearm with his other hand.
"Oh, and how do you propose to do that? As happy as she is to see you, I doubt Yuichiro will come back to Sanguinem with us willingly. Oh, I know! How about I make her one of us? That way, she could be with you forever, Mika!"
"Never!" Mika hissed as he turned and suddenly grabbed his commander by the throat, a blatant act of mutiny that could've easily gotten him executed were he not so valuable to the queen who favored him. "I said I'll kill you myself if you so much as lay a finger on Yuu-chan and I meant it!"
"My, my, what an audacious bastard you are, Mr. Hyakuya…" a smooth voice said from behind them before Ferid could reply.
Releasing his hand from the older vampire's throat, both Mika and Ferid turned to see Crowley Eusford approaching them with a casual expression on his face as if he was fashionably late to a party instead of an important battle. As usual, the other noble was flanked by his retainers, Horn Skuld and Chess Belle. *3*
Instead of being irked that Mika had just tried to strangle him, Ferid turned his annoyance onto Crowley instead.
"My, you sure took your sweet time, Lord Eusford. I was wondering if you were even going to show up at all."
Sighing, the other noble made a polite bow in a gesture of humility while his retainers followed suit.
"Forgive me, my lord. I would have been here sooner but got held up with some very minor things…" Crowley apologized before raising his head and allowing his eyes to fall upon the young girl who had piqued Ferid's and Mika's interest as well as his own.
As soon as he looked her in the eye, Yuichiro gasped when she recognized Crowley along with Horn and Chess as the vampires her squad ran into as they were approaching Shinjuku.
"You!" the girl exclaimed as she raised Asuramaru again, holding it firmly in both hands in front of her in a defensive stance in case he intended to attack.
Ferid raised a brow. "You two met?"
Crowley gave Yuichiro a look of amusement before smirking at Ferid.
"I do believe we have, my lord. Unfortunately, I have not had the pleasure of knowing her name."
"It's Yuichiro Hyakuya and she's my sister so don't even think about trying to get a bite out of her, Crowley!" Mika hissed, knowing full well the maroon-haired vampire lord relished the blood of young warriors.
Crowley chuckled and gave the blond a smile reminiscent of a plastic doll.
"Yuichiro? So she's the one you've obsessing over all these years! And for the longest time, I actually thought you were pining for another boy! Now, what kind of parents would give their daughter a boy's name?"
"Probably the same kind of parents who would give their son a girl's name," Ferid answered humorously as his eyes fell on Mika.
The blond glared at both of his superiors, not appreciating their attempts at humor, especially at his and Yuichiro's expense.
"What our parents named us and why isn't really any of your business!" he snapped.
Ferid chuckled. "I suppose you're right, Mika dear. I was going to propose killing the other humans to save your precious Yuu-chan but now that Crowley is here, there's no longer any need. We'll just capture the MDC and make them our livestock. All of them."
Yuichiro cringed when she heard Ferid utter the one word she despised most for it brought back unpleasant memories of having her blood drained from her body against her will every single week for nearly half a decade while living meagerly in the cold underground vampire city as a prisoner.
"Never! I'll never let you take me back to that hell-hole alive, you hear?!" the girl shouted as she raised Asuramaru and dared Ferid and Crowley to try.
Alarmed, Guren called out to her despite the pain in his lungs from coughing up blood earlier.
"Yuichiro, don't try to take them on alone! That's an order!"
Turning, the ravenette found her mentor near the telephone pole where Ferid had kicked him earlier, standing but bending over slightly with one of his arms draped over Mito's shoulders. Sayuri was also next to him indicating that she and Mito must have fought off Lacus and Rene together and came to Guren's aid while Yuu herself was dueling with Ferid.
Not wanting to give Ferid or Crowley a chance to capture Yuu, Mika moved quickly and the girl suddenly saw him vanish from her sight before finding herself almost flying through the air while being carried bridal style by her blond orphanage brother as easily as if she were made out of feathers.
Blushing furiously, Yuu cried out.
"M…Mika! What's going on? What do you think you're doing?"
But the blond did not answer right away and kept running as well as springing from one rooftop to the next like a deer, his goal being to get his sister as far away from the battlefield and the people she called her comrades as possible.
Realizing that Mikaela was attempting to abduct Yuichiro, Guren called out to Yoichi and Takeshi. As archers, the two boys had the best chance of stopping the blond vampire before he made off with Yuu as his hostage.
"Saehara! Saotome! Stop that vampire but don't hurt Yuichiro!" he ordered.
"And how're we supposed to do that, sir?" Takeshi demanded as he lowered his crossbow and gave his superior a look of perplexity.
Guren glared at him. "Use your head, you damn idiot!" he shouted impatiently, ignoring Sayuri's attempts to calm him lest he reopened his wounds before his demon could heal them. "Shoot him in the legs if you must but do not let the bastard get away or injure Yuu!"
Finally catching on, Takeshi and Yoichi nodded in understanding and both archers aimed their weapons at the fleeing blond vampire.
"Yes, sir!" they said in unison as they attempted to immobilize Mika and force him to release Yuu.
Unfortunately, such a thing was much easier said than done. For despite not being a noble himself, Mika was still stronger and faster than an average common vampire.
Much to Yoichi's and Takeshi's (and Guren's) frustration, the boys' arrows failed to even graze Mikaela's legs or his flowing, billowing cape despite their best efforts. And aiming anywhere else on the vampire's body would have been too risky considering that he was carrying Yuichiro and holding her close to his chest.
"Mika, what's going on here? You can't just take me away from the battlefield without an explanation! I have a duty as a soldier of the Demon Army!" Yuichiro cried.
After dodging yet another arrow from the archers below them, Mikaela finally answered his orphanage sister.
"The short version is that you shouldn't be with these humans, especially that mentor of yours!" he said harshly.
"What? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! You don't even know Guren so how can you say that?!"
Mika did not respond and when Yuu realized that she wasn't going to be getting an answer from him any time soon, the girl made herself difficult by rolling around persistently in his arms until he released her after landing on the rooftop of a nearby building.
"Yuu-chan, be careful! If you made me slip, we could have both fallen from a higher place!" Mika scolded Yuu as if she were still the twelve-year old child he lived with in the vampire city instead of the young woman she was now.
Yuichiro said nothing at first but let her eyes take in Mikaela's new appearance again. Something was definitely different about her blond orphanage brother and it wasn't just that he had grown up.
"Mika… you said that I shouldn't be with 'the humans'? What's that supposed to mean? You're human too, aren't you?"
Though he did not answer, young man's pained expression at her question made Yuu instantly regret asking; how could she after what she had just seen him do? To her knowledge, no human could easily spring from one building to another like a deer or move faster than the eye could see, even Guren.
As if he were too ashamed to let Yuichiro see him, Mikaela closed his eyes and turned his head away from her.
But the girl was not to be deterred easily and slowly approached her orphanage brother. If he would not tell her, then she would simply have to find out for herself.
"Mika, please, look at me…" Yuu pleaded as she gently placed her hands on the sides of his head and compelled him to face her and open his eyes. The girl had been suspecting it for a while now but she had to be sure.
At first, Mikaela hesitated but finally gave in, turned his head in Yuichiro's direction, and slowly opened his eyes to allow her a glimpse of the ocean blue orbs she had so missed since their tragic parting in Sanguinem nearly half a decade earlier.
Yuichiro released a soft gasp as she felt her own eyes start to tear up. Mikaela's eyes were as beautiful as she remembered. But even so, they were not the same. The round pupils she was accustomed to seeing were now cat-like slits. To sate her curiosity further, Yuu lightly brushed her thumbs across the tops of Mika's ears and discovered that while they were not as pointy as those of a full vampire's, they were clearly not round human ears either.
Lastly, Yuu gently placed a hand under her brother's chin and deftly pried his mouth open slightly with her thumb just as Krul had when she compelled him to accept his new fate.
Knowing that it was inevitable that Yuichiro would find out the truth about him sooner or later, Mikeala did not attempt to resist or pull away when he felt her stick the tip of her forefinger into his mouth and gently brushed it along his gums until she felt the one thing that finally confirmed her suspicion.
Yuichiro gasped and carefully pulled her finger back before Mikaela's fang could nick her skin. So it was as she had feared.
Mikaela Hyakuya was no longer human.
He had been changed.
"Mika…I'm so sorry…" she said sadly.
Although she didn't want to believe it, Yuichiro knew that there could be no other explanation as to how Mikaela could have survived the horrific injuries he sustained from Ferid that fateful night. And though she had dreamt and imagined it countless times since then, Yuichiro never actually saw Mikaela die before she left him behind and escaped Sanguinem.
The blond shook his head as if reading her thoughts.
"Don't be, Yuu-chan. It wasn't your fault."
"Yes, it was!" Yuu insisted, her voice breaking. "I shouldn't have left you! This wouldn't have happened if I had taken you with me!"
"You're wrong, Yuu-chan!" Mika retorted harshly. "There was no way you could have escaped with me as a burden and if you stayed behind, you would have been captured and made livestock again. Or worse, turned just like me!"
Yuichiro wanted to protest further but deep down, she knew Mikaela was right. Even if she had, by some miracle of God, managed to get her brother out of Sanguinem, it was likely he would have died of blood loss from his wounds long before Guren, Sayuri, or Shigure could do anything to help him.
So instead, she asked: "How did it happen?"
Mika closed his eyes and shook his head as he recalled his agonizing transformation into vampirism, a choice he freely made so that he could live on and search for his orphanage sister.
"It doesn't matter now…" the blond said firmly as he closed his hands around Yuichiro's arms. "What does matter is that you get as far away from here with me as possible. Your guardian is a very dangerous man and you don't even realize it!"
Yuichiro was startled to hear Mikaela talk about Guren as though he knew him better than she did.
"Again with that! You never even met Guren before today so how can you possibly know such a thing?"
"Are you serious?" the blond asked incredulously. Haven't you notice the arrows flying at us before we landed here? Who do you think ordered those archers from your own army to fire them? Don't you find it odd Guren was willing to risk your safety to stop me from taking you away? You're just a tool to him and he doesn't mind using damaged goods, Yuu-chan!"
"I…!" Yuichiro was unsure how to answer her brother and turned around to see that the battle had commenced again with the vampires seeming to have the upper hand. With her absence, Shinoa's squad was incomplete and dependent on Satoshi's squad for support and protection.
But even then, it was still a losing battle. The nobles who had just recently showed up with their minions had begun to surround both Shinoa and Satoshi's squads, cutting them off from Guren and his more experienced squad members.
And from the look of things, the older squad had problems of their own as well.
Yuichiro watched in horror as Ferid grabbed Guren and lifted him into the air by his throat, the latter unable to fight back because he had been weakened by his combat injuries as well as being knocked into multiple structures in a short span of time. Sayuri and Mito were locked in combat with Lacus and Rene again while Goshi and Shigure had their hands full fighting for their own lives against the vampire soldiers that kept coming at them like vermin out of control.
Alarmed, Yuu grabbed the handle of her sword as was about to call upon her demon for his assistance in rushing her back into the battle taking place on the streets below when she felt Mika grab her from behind, wrapping his arms around her torso to keep her from moving.
"Don't, Yuu-chan! There's nothing you can do for them nor should you even try! They're just using you for their own ends!"
"Let go, Mika! I can't just leave them!" the girl wailed as she struggled in the blond's ironclad hold, tears of frustration and fear falling down her face.
Mika was about to make another attempt to persuade his sister to leave her guardian and comrades to their fate because they didn't deserved to be saved when he suddenly felt her body growing hot in his arms. So much that it was starting to cause him discomfort to hold onto her.
"Yuu-chan, what's wrong?" the blond asked frantically as he released Yuichiro and watched as she took a few steps away from him, her eyes never leaving his.
"I feel so hot, Mika… it feels like I'm being burned alive from inside…" she gasped as her hand slowly wandered up to her throat to reach for the locket he gave her as if it were a lifeline.
Forgetting Mikaela and the world around her for a moment, Yuichiro closed her eyes and silently called for her demon in her thoughts.
"Asuramaru, what's happening to me? Why do I feel so hot? Are you trying to possess me?"
"Hmm? No… I'm not doing anything… However, it looks like we've got a problem…"
"What is it?"
"I never thought I'd see the day I would actually be frightened of the monster living inside the human I possess…"
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"Look at the sky, Yuichiro, can you see it?"
The ravenette slowly opened her eyes inside the world of her mind and looked up to see her purple-haired demon standing on the hilt of a giant version of her sword in the real world.
Without turning around, Asuramaru continued.
"There, do you see how the clouds are parting? It could be a sign that the heavens are opening to pass judgment on this cursed world. Perhaps your brother is right; you should escape with him while you still can. Leave your guardian and comrades behind. It may be the only chance you have to preserve your humanity."
Confused, Yuichiro was about to ask her demon to give a more thorough explanation, one that she could actually understand, when both of them heard the sound of a trumpet being blown.
Yuichiro gasped as she saw what appeared to be a humanoid figure with wings clad in flowing white robes blowing on a horn while gliding effortlessly across the sky above them.
"What is that?"
Instead of answering, her demon sighed and turned to face her before shaking his head as if in disappointment.
"It looks like my warning came too late; the part of you that isn't human is about to run wild!"
Footnotes:
1. The locket Mika gave fem!Yuu was made by Ferid Bathory and given to Mika who in turn gave it to fem!Yuu as a birthday gift the night they were forced to part in Sanguinem. It is an important piece because it identifies her to him beyond a doubt after she drops her male disguise and accepts being a girl. The locket is inspired by AngeliqueNade/Smartanimegirl of DeviantArt and Twitter.
2. Guren strikes male!Yuu out of frustration for refusing to kill Mika after realizing who he was. In my AU, he is easier on fem!Yuu but still tries to keep her away from Mika out of jealousy and over-protectiveness.
3. The manga/anime makes no mention of why Crowley was late to the Shinjuku Battle but my guess is that he was purposely stalling considering how laid back he is and how much he dislikes Ferid.
