Chapter 39
Yui observed the shelter's interior where they had been taken with anxious and worried eyes: it was a whole network of rooms, shelves, stairs and columns ingeniously designed and dug into the rock, which proved to be rather resilient since Subaru, after having dropped a fist at hearing what had happened to Isa, had caused some slight cracks, amazed and almost happy that for once he hadn't knocked down an entire wall; nothing was missing, neither an infirmary, provisions, a closet of blankets and clean clothes...
The young people around them were sitting, muttering to each other, walking back and forth, some of those who had fought were laying in some corner to rest; the elders were debating with serious expressions, or going from room to room to analyse the information about the situation and ponder about what to do.
As Miss Elena ran from one injured to another to examine and invite the person or not to join the gravest ones in the infirmary, the neo-vampire's pink irises observed the four witches: Anna was cleaning her katana with meticulous attention, probably to prevent her focus to linger on the Calling twins' betrayal and death; Claire was smoothing her nails distractedly, explaining to a curious Laito the difference between demons and demonic creatures, often mistakenly neglected; Finn was massaging her arms with anti-pain creams, tenderly stared at by Azusa, who was holding her jacket in his hands; Isa was crouched on herself on a bench, sobbing, her legs bent and surrounded by her arms, her face resting between her knees and her eyes red and swollen.
Subaru was looking at the amber-eyed little girl, feeling helpless and unable to say anything in order to comfort her: from what he had understood, the island's Dragon had been beheaded and, despite being a creature that could have resisted this condition for a limited period of time, this was a bad disadvantage, because the island creatures would have remained in a confused state and their eventual help would have been ineffective, without the Dragon's protection and direction; the only hope was for the head to be rescued as soon as possible and returned to Dragon's body, which had been safely hidden in an area unknown to most.
This had been explained by Lily to Reiji and Ruki, as she was turning in her fingers the vial supposed to be delivered to Mary at her return; the Sakamaki second-born rubbed his chin thoughtfully, while the other vampire reflected on how the dragons were fascinating and particular creatures and wondered when that situation would have ended (and not tragically).
Meanwhile, Martha, seated next to her sister, was busy treating Theo's wounds, giggling whenever her boyfriend would let out a painful moan or sketch an embarrassed smile as she gently stroked his hair; Shuu was gazing at them bored, puffing from time to time and imagining him and Mary in their place; Kou had managed to find Lucy in the crowd of people and had reached her to chat with her, unwittingly relieved that she was fine; Yuuma raised an eyebrow at seeing his brother laughing with the girl, grinning and then walking around, looking at everywhere and especially at Anna's bandaged shoulder; Ayato was sitting on a rocky ledge used as a bench, next to Yui whose waist was wrapped protectively by his arms, sulking at her attention lingering on anything but him.
And as finally she leaned her head against his shoulder sighing and making him slightly blush, but happy, the vampire clicked his tongue annoyed at seeing Ellen approach them, smiling and glancing at her sister's old sword in Yui's hands.
- I see that Anna gave you her first combat companion - she said quietly - But the lessons she gave you about how to handle the sword were somebody else's idea.
Yui blinked, confused, and the blonde in front of her giggled.
- It was Mark's idea, he had told me about it a few days ago; I could have done it but, being quite busy with my work and seeing that Anna was making friends with you, I thought she was better suited to teach you. If you want to thank Mark, just think about it - she winked - That sweetie pie is very shy, especially when he receives words of gratitude and appreciation - she said and walked away, looking for and reaching her sister Angela who was scolding a group of guys further away.
- So it's all that pink head's fault? - Ayato muttered, curling his lips.
- Ayato-kun! - the girl gave him a scolding look – Don't speak as if he has done something bad; it was very kind of him...! - she bit her lips and looked down, a bit bitter.
- Hey, Chichinashi... w-what's wrong with you? - he asked, taken aback by that reaction, straightening up and putting his hands on her shoulders.
- I don't like being weak, Ayato-kun... - Yui murmured, her eyes tearing - I became a vampire, but I feel it's not enough... and I don't want to always depend on you! - she confessed before he could protest, then looked at him sadly - I want to be stronger... to help others... - she sighed again and crouched her head against his chest, leaving him speechless and troubled.
- I wonder where Mary-senpai is... - she whispered after a while, changing the subject, worried; Ayato shrugged, assuming she was somewhere with Ryan to face other demonic creatures or hunters.
- They should be back at any moment, though - a voice snapped, making them jump and turn toward the owner of the voice: they widened their eyes as they saw a big black wolf with dark eyes staring intensely at them.
- Ari-sensei! - Anna exclaimed; she had already interrupted the cleansing of her katana because of Yuuma, sitting next to her to poke teasingly at her shoulder, laughing and rubbing his arm hit by some of her punches.
The vampires, attracted by his voice, were surprised at seeing the wolf transform into his human form and Ari stretched his neck and arms, walking in the middle of them.
- Has none of you received news from Cho-hime and Ryan? – he asked narrowing his eyes on the four witches, the two female vampires and the wizard, and then let out an irritated sigh in receiving a negative answer - And Morten? - he looked at Finn, who shook her head, concerned by her brother's absence – Where's Mark?
- I think he's still downstairs, with Kanato-kun... - Theo replied, his usual smile slightly crippled by a resentful grimace, since he was referring to the basement with cells for eventual prisoners or those whose powers had escaped their control and made them insane; that is, where they had temporarily locked up Rose.
Isa shuddered visibly at hearing him and nibbled her fingers, watched by a worried Subaru, while Claire's disturbing face leaked hatred, so that Laito felt the urge to move a few centimetres away from her, though feeling a shiver of excitement running through his spine; Anna gritted her teeth and returned to her shoulder, carefully cleaning the hilt and ignoring the questioning glance of the giant still next to her.
Ari had meanwhile raised an eyebrow.
- Kanato-kun...? - he glanced at Ayato and Laito, remembering her was their triplet - Why is he also downstairs?
The vampires exchanged glances and took on annoyed expressions, some full of disgust.
- Oh. I don't wanna know - Ari shook his head.
Suddenly a powerful scream of despair made the shelter tremble, then dropped to a chilling silence.
Ari, at first stiff as the others, turned to look at Theo, whose wide-open green eyes confirmed his suspicion: that voice belonged to Mark; they both got up and went down the hallway and then down the stairs to the floor below.
- Mark?! Mark! - Mr Flyer called his son, gently shaking his shoulders, kneeling in front of his figure crouched on itself, head in his hands and eyes full of tears falling copiously.
The half-wizard kept on moaning, suffering, and murmured monosyllables without being able to formulate a clear sentence.
Kanato turned his attention to the two, tilting his head and murmuring to Teddy that they were behaving strangely, as well as considering that the scream had been really loud, more than annoying: that floor's rock had crumbled on the surface, so much that some dust and some fragments had fallen; in addition, the magic bars behind which Rose had been locked up, wrapped in enchanted sheets for greater security, had moved and got some dents.
- Mark! - this time it was Theo who called him, as he hurried down the stairs to reach, almost slipping, and crouch next to his friend, rubbing his back with his hand and trying to reassure him; Ari came a little later, slowing his step, out of breath, and looking at the boy's father questioningly.
- As soon as we have finished locking her up - he explained, pointing at the girl-zombie who looked at them coldly and motionless as a statue - He yelled and... – he looked at his son with bitterness and concern in his eyes - he started crying.
Ari rubbed his forehead and knelt, on the opposite side of Theo, and put a hand on Mark's head, after taking off his wool cap: he muttered some soothing spells and finally, the half-wizard pulled a deep breath, stopped crying and just sobbed occasionally.
- Markucchi, what's wrong? - his friend asked, squeezing his hand and smiling with eyebrows bent out of anxiety.
The boy's dull eyes tried to mirror themselves in the other's green irises.
- Mo-senpai... - he whispered in a faint voice.
Theo stiffened.
Mary straddled her bike; she adjusted her protective goggles, letting their rubber band snap against her head, and waved to Ryan, ready to go: the zombie-boy nodded, standing on a cloud of shadows on which Morten's body and the Dragon's head were laying on, wrapped in ribbons of shade to ensure that they didn't drop during the trip.
Both departed, taking different paths: the goal was to let the body of their dead friend and the Dragon's head arrive unharmed at the shelter, without any impediments; Ryan would have hardly attracted the attention of the enemies thanks to his silent movements, obscured by shadows, in the middle of the forest.
The half-witch, with the roar of her motorcycle and a heap of shadow in the cape used as a false Dragon's head, would have been more likely to attract any enemies and distract them from the main objective, deceiving them.
Of course they both hoped they wouldn't clash with any hostile entity: Mary was tired, both physically and psychologically, and Ryan simply wanted to go back to the shelter and be with all their comrades.
While Mary was driving at full speed, her thoughts focused on Morten, on what they had lived together: his reproaches to Mark to be more attentive to what he was saying, their bickering about her snooping, his nerves throbbing at seeing Theo's smile twenty-four hours a day; she recalled his first expression of great regret, about a year and a half before, because of the attack that had caused the death of all the twins' peers and those of a year and two older.
Then, Rose had killed Ryan who otherwise would have been the only survivor of his peers, and Mary had killed the traitor, so that Morten had remained the only survivor among the comrades of his age, the twins and Theo of those who were about seventeen years old at that time... and, after senpai's dearth, only the three of them remained.
The half-witch felt her eyes stinging with tears, and because she was driving, she drove away all those thoughts to focus on the path that was starting to get tortuous, so she slowed down a little; however, it wasn't enough to avoid tipping over when an unidentified entity arrived in the middle of the road.
She would have forgot how many somersaults in the air and on the ground she did, but she certainly would have remembered for a long time the agonizing pain in her back, as she rolled through the bushes and finally stopped; she had been lucky she hadn't slammed against the trees, but with a completely fractured vertebral column, a broken tibia bone and dislocated wrists, it wouldn't have hurt her worse. All she had to do was to wait for a few minutes to regenerate.
She noticed that the glasses' left lens had shattered and thanked God that at least her eye hadn't been pierced by its fragments, which perhaps had dispersed further back.
She saw her dear little butterflies, who had remained quietly behind being not as fast as her bike, darting towards herself and she almost made a sarcastic comment, but her voice died in her throat: in front of her there was that demonic creature she'd faced with Ryan and thought to be knocked out; she was about to command those tiny fluttering creatures to attack it, when her conscience yelled that it was able to tame flames.
They would have been easily burned; it was then that she realized that she was undoubtedly in grave danger: as when she had dealt with the first mysterious entities she met as a child, with Claire's parents, with Miriandola Bluetta, with Rose, at that moment Mary felt fear overcome her.
MARK!
The demonic monster gathered around itself tongues of fire, directing them towards her, who widened her eyes to see them ever closer, ever brighter, ever warmer; she watched with dismay her butterflies automatically form a protective shield in front of her...
... and burn like hundreds and hundreds of sheets of coloured paper.
Her voice remained buried in her throat and her eyes teared; the shock had made her breathless and the physical pain almost imperceptible for a while: her life companions were dying, one after the other.
MARK! MARK! MARK!
Only her thoughts were screaming as the flames finally reached her; she closed her eyes instinctively, but suddenly felt a body above her to prevent the fire from devouring her, although she perceived a burning pain coming from her left eye.
She opened the eye still protected by the lens, to see the unmistakable lilac of a feathered scarf.
- N... No... - albeit weak and hoarse, her voice finally came out, full of anguish.
- Mary-chan... - Ryan whispered, his spirit still present in his corpse that was burning rapidly, so, before returning to the Hereafter as he got deprived of his body, he hurried to add something; he seemed to stop for a moment and reconsider.
He lifted his head a little, so that she could see his bitter smile, but not his eyes full of love.
- I wish you to be happy with Shuu-san.
Lily decapitated the demonic creature with a quick blow, using her kusarigama, a sickle-shaped Japanese weapon, cleaning the blade with the cloak she was wearing; she fixed her glasses on place with a swift gesture of her hand and approached her sister, seated next to Morten's body, with the Dragon's head wrapped in her coat and clasped in her arms: she was silently crying with her face resting on it.
- Lily-neesan... - sobbed, then pronouncing Theo's name in a high-pitched tone.
- Poor Finn-chan... - the other murmured, staring at the lifeless blond, sad.
She turned her gaze to her left, walking in the same direction and stopping to pick up something small on the ground that had caught her attention with a barely perceptible movement: she bent over and, widening her vermilion iris, picked up a suffering green butterfly with wings half burnt that quivered weakly, occasionally.
- Mary... - she heard Mr Flyer's deep voice murmuring, two feet away.
After dispelling all those flames upon his arrival, the man had rescued his daughter, respectfully pulling back what was left of Ryan's charred corpse, and had picked her up and held her in his arms, caressing her face.
- Dad... - she replied in a choked voice, clearly on the brink of tears.
Her father nodded, squeezing her and standing up.
The half-witch's good eye closed; Mary fell into a deep sleep.
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