Warning: This chapter contains violence (right there, below this note).

XXXX

The Disposer's fist connected with Shion's jaw. Once. Twice. Three times. There was enough force behind the hits to knock him to the ground, but the men holding him in place made sure he stayed up and open for the next punch. The rusty tang of blood was all around him: on his tongue, down his throat, dribbling from his chin, the droplets sinking into the fabric of his coat. Shion's nose throbbed, but it was only bleeding, not broken; he had turned enough with each punch to avoid that. But his left cheek and eye were on fire.

"Stubborn brat!"

Shion's vision exploded as One-eye's fist cracked across cheek again. How many was that now? A lot. Too many, Shion's battered brain warned him. Bright stabs of pain radiated from the spot on his face where the man's punch connected—the same spot he had hit with dizzying precision every time he raised his fist. Shion grit his teeth and swallowed the whimper that threatened to escape his throat.

His temple pounded where the Disposer had hit him with the rifle butt, and each successive blow left him teetering on the edge of unconsciousness. And yet his mind refused to shut off. Each labored breath that whistled through his mouth; the blood on his tongue; the shift and crack of muscle and bone; all this he heard, and tasted, and felt with perfect clarity.

I can bear it, he told himself. As long as it takes. As long as they're safe.

Shion fought back a wave of nausea and lifted his head. The whole side of his face felt heavy, but he did his best to meet the Disposer's eye. He saw nothing but malice in it, and the promise of pain. The man's vengeful delight had died quickly, after he realized Shion had no intention of making a sound. He could get neither information nor a plea for mercy—so he got more violent.

"You Resistance think you're so much better than us," One-eye growled. "You and your stupid comrade act. Is loyalty really worth getting the shit kicked outta you? Huh?" He fisted his hand in Shion's hair and pulled until their faces were inches from each other. Shion winced, but didn't struggle. "Tell me where your little friend is."

"No."

"Why the hell not?" He gave Shion's hair a sharp tug. "You protect that No. 6 brat and you screw us all over." The man leered at him and his expression turned mocking. "Or maybe you're just screwing him. That it?"

A white-hot spike of anger burst through the haze in Shion's mind. He swung his foot back and slammed the Disposer between his legs.

The man stumbled backward, wheezing. A few of his companions snickered. A spark of murderous intent glinted in the man's eye when he recovered. Shion swallowed in spite of himself.

"I'm gonna destroy you. I'm gonna hurt you so bad even you won't be able to doctor yourself better."

BANG!

The Disposers stiffened at what was definitely the report of a gun. A powerful gun. The men looked between them to make sure they weren't wounded, but Shion looked past them, and what he saw made his heart quicken.

Safu stood in the middle of the street, Kaze's double barrel shot gun held high over her head. She leveled the barrel at One-eye when he turned to her.

"Get away from Shion."

"You sure you wanna get into this, girlie? There's five of us, and only one of you."

"I have a gun," Safu said blandly. "And I have a feeling I only have to shoot you to get my point across. You have five seconds before I render you incapable of reproducing."

The Disposers glared at Safu. She matched their looks with cool intensity. She would shoot if it came down to it, but Shion trusted her judgment, and knew he had nothing to fear regarding her aim.

One-eye clicked his tongue and turned back to Shion. Safu raised the gun into position.

"Don't think I'm done. With any of you," he hissed into Shion's face.

He nodded stiffly to his men and the pressure under Shion's arms disappeared. He slumped bonelessly onto his hands and knees. One-eye spat at the ground, inches from him, and then it was over. Shion remained still as the crunch of the men's footfalls drew away from him, and attempted to school all traces of pain from his features in the seconds it took for Safu to reach him.

"Shion!" The next thing he knew Safu was kneeling on the ground in front of him, her eyes bright with concern as she cupped his face in her hands. She winced at the vicious bruise that swelled from his jaw to his eye. "I never should've left you," she breathed.

Shion gave her half a smile. "I'm glad you came back."

Safu helped him up, her eyes darting over his person to take inventory of his wounds. For some reason, it made him feel self-conscious. Shion turned away and wiped the blood from his face with the edge of his bandana.

"You made it to the safe house?"

"I left halfway there, but we didn't run into any trouble. I'm sure they made it fine. They can take care of themselves."

Shion nodded, but said, "We should go." He turned toward headquarters and moved carefully in that direction.

"Where are you going?"

The tightness and swelling made talking uncomfortable, so he replied briefly, "Left my gun." He heard Safu sigh behind him, but she didn't follow.

They're fine. Kaze doesn't need a gun to defend himself, and Nezumi is great with a knife. Even Safu's complimented him. Shion repeated these assurances to himself as he slipped through the doorway, but they didn't relieve the dread pooling in the pit of his stomach. I need to get over there. He retrieved his gun and tucked it into its holster.

The next moment, there was a molten flash. Shion stumbled back, catching himself on the pew. The blinding light flared out and then sucked itself back in with an explosive crack. It sounded like the world shattering.

Shion locked eyes with Safu, and he knew she arrived at the same conclusion as he had. She looked about to say something, but he moved too fast to be certain.

"Shion!"

He flew by Safu, ignoring her calls, ignoring the strain on his body, ignoring everything but the swirling orange-yellow cloud in the distance. Not an accident. The timing is too coincidental. Shion swallowed and it tasted like blood. Nezumi. Oh god, Nezumi. Please, no.

He turned the corner and saw hell. Everything was on fire. The explosion had catapulted fiery shrapnel yards in every direction, and the tinder-dry buildings were defenseless. Shion shoved his way through the crowd of fleeing bodies. Fearful cries and wretched sobs mingled with the hungry hiss of destruction. The flames devoured too quickly; there would be nothing left. The blaze roared with the conquest.

No. 6 lied.

People were hurt. The sickly sweet scent of singed flesh filled Shion's nostrils as he pushed by more people.

They lied, they always lie, and people always, always get hurt.

He tripped as he tore himself from the last of the crowd. His palms were rubbed raw against the hard packed earth, but he pushed himself back to his feet—and stopped.

He was face to face with a wall of fire. The neighborhood was an inferno, crackling and hissing like a serpent in the throes of death. Wood and glass and chunks of stone littered the ground, and in the center of it all, a blackened pit of smoke and flames where Yamase's house once stood.

Yamase. He's supposed to be keeping watch. But he wasn't. He was nowhere, and there was no one. A twisted, half-melted lump was impaled in the side of a house several feet away. A metal door. Yamase's basement door.

His friends were supposed to be here. He sent Nezumi and Kaze here to be safe, deep underground where no harm would come to them. The fire danced in front of him, eating up everything it licked.

No one could survive this.

Shion moved toward the burning wreckage.

"Shion! Stop!"

Something crashed into him from behind. He barely put up a fight as the weight dragged him to the ground. It was impossible; he had no legs to stand on, and no air to breathe. The fire stole all the oxygen just like it stole everything else. A mindless, greedy thing, it took without remorse or malice.

"It's too late," a voice trembled in his ear. "There's nothing we can do."

No, there must be something I can do.

"Life is full of misfortune, Shion." Karan smiled at him as she took the blanket from her shoulders and draped it over his. He was only twelve then, and miserable, staring up at the soggy, broken hull of what used to be their home. His birthday had turned into a storm-plagued nightmare when a ruthless hurricane ripped through West Block and destroyed everything they owned.

"It's easier to lose things than to fight for them, but you must never give in to misfortune. When you feel like you've lost everything, like it might be better just to lay down and stop trying, there's only one thing you can do: take a deep breath and say, 'I'm still alive.' You'd be surprised how many things that realization can cure."

Karan ruffled his hair as she said this, and he believed her. There wasn't a single time he could remember that her advice failed. No matter how many times life knocked her down, she always found a way to stand tall. There was a reason for everything.

Losing her bakery was for the best, because it allowed her to make more friends at the hotel, and it brought Shion together with Safu. It was destiny that the hurricane that tore through West Block had flooded them out of their home, because if it hadn't, then they never would've found the underground bunker, and Karan wouldn't have been able to give Shion the best present he'd ever received: a library filled with more knowledge than he ever dreamed of attaining.

"You have a gift, Shion." Karan handed him a medical textbook, her eyes shining. "You have the ability to make a difference in the world, and now you have the knowledge, too. We lose so many lives here; it's about time someone saved a few. I believe you're the man for the job."

But you were wrong, Mom. I tried. I did everything I could to save you, but I was too late. I'm always too late.

How many times had he washed the blood and tears of children from his sheets? How many hands had he held, promising something better when he knew nothing of what they would face once the light faded from their eyes? Everywhere he looked people were suffering. He reached out to them, but their lives slipped through his fingers like sand through a sieve. For every person he saved, a dozen more were lost, and his failures clung to him, thick and choking as the smoke from their funeral pyres.

And now Nezumi was gone. Kaze and Yamase, and who knew how many others were gone.

I sent them here to die.

Shion retched on a lungful of smoke.

What am I going to tell Yuichi? Yuki?

"Shion." Safu's voice was barely audible.

Nezumi... We were supposed to meet when this was over. Isn't that what you said? His hands throbbed; the fall had burned away every trace of Nezumi's reassuring touch.

Break it.

"Maybe they didn't even make it here. They could be safe, hiding somewhere, or—" The pressure around his arms and chest tightened. "Nezumi's fine, Shion. There's no way he was in there. No. 6 needs him. They wouldn't hurt him."

That's not true. No. 6 already hurt Nezumi, and they'll hurt him again, just like they hurt everyone else.

Destroy it.

Destroy what?

All the disease, all the starvation, the violence, the misery, every life he wasn't able to save, it was because of that city. No. 6 gorged itself on misery and bloodshed, a parasite intent on devouring its host. No. 6 took the things you loved. It took his mother, it took his friends, and now it wanted to take Nezumi.

It can't have him.

The roar of the flames cut out. Shion's skin prickled as a cool sensation spread through his veins. Something was slipping. His body and mind were no longer one, but which had been cut away, he couldn't tell. There was nothing of him now except a tumultuous surge of emotion, and a voice that echoed in his head, commanding him over and over:

Break it.

Destroy it.

Destroy what?

Everything.

XXXX

Safu's eyes were watering, but no tears escaped.

Smoke and fire—that was all that was left of the neighborhood that once harbored their safe house, where one of her friends had lived. Where at least one of her friends had died. She had no illusions about Yamase's fate. If someone had gotten close enough to blow the explosives in the safe house, then Yamase had not been around to stop them, and he was always around.

And who knows how many more we've lost.

The Resistance was dangerous, she knew that, but it was one thing to be told that death was waiting in the wings, and another to actually see it swoop down on everything and everyone you know.

Safu squeezed her eyes shut to block out the flames and thoughts that ravaged her mind. Horrible. How could someone do this?

Shion retched and Safu steadied him in her arms.

Nezumi and Kaze. Shion had been closer to them than she had been. It would be crippling if he lost them.

"Maybe they didn't even make it here," she blurted. "They could be safe, hiding somewhere, or—"

She didn't know what she was saying; she just let the words tumble out of her mouth. She needed to hear something other than the deafening rush of flames, no matter how unlikely her words were.

Shion hadn't moved or spoken since his dash toward the wreckage. Safu desperately wished to see his face, but she was terrified of what she would find there. She had seen him break before, and it had broken part of her, too, to watch while she could do nothing to help. She held Shion tighter, as if that would be enough to keep him from falling apart.

I have to be strong. I need to be there for Shion now.

This destruction was No. 6's doing, there was no doubt about that. Only a few members of the Resistance knew of the safe house, and all of them were extremely careful not to disrupt the explosives in the basement.

Someone betrayed us. Safu ground her teeth against the realization. And if No. 6 was reckless enough to blow the place sky high, they found what they were looking for.

Nezumi was alive, then. Yamase and Kaze meant nothing to No. 6, but they wanted Nezumi.

"Nezumi's fine, Shion. There's no way he was in there. No. 6 needs him. They wouldn't hurt him."

She didn't know what she expected to get from Shion—some sign of relief, or perhaps a declaration that they go after Nezumi and steal him back—but she knew she had been expecting something when Shion remained mute and immobile and her heart sank.

The seconds ticked by and still nothing. He's shut down, she realized, her heart falling faster. I need to get him away from here—what was I thinking holding him here in front of this for so long?

Shion shifted then. She let him detach himself from her and stand up, and she followed him to his feet.

"Shion?"

"We should go."

Even though she was about to suggest the same thing, when Shion said the words they sounded odd. He used too much force, as though he had a specific place and purpose in mind.

"We can go to the hotel," Safu said. It sounded more like a question than a statement, and she hated herself for it.

Shion didn't face her and he didn't acknowledge her suggestion, but he must have heard because he answered, "Yoming's house." He turned and strode by her.

What… Safu twisted around and watched Shion move farther and farther away.

"Shion."

He didn't hear her. She walked briskly after him and called his name a little louder than before.

"Shion, hold on."

She was close enough now that he should've been able to hear, but still he did not respond. He's ignoring me. The thought hit her like a slap in the face.

She reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket. "Would you just slow down and look at me?"

Shion halted abruptly and glared at her. Glared. Safu snapped her hand back. The Shion she knew would've softened instinctively in response to her pain, but the boy in front of her didn't even flinch. His dark eyes bored into hers, hollow and uncharacteristically cold.

"What?" The word was impersonal, almost angry. "We don't have time to slow down. They should almost be at the Correctional Facility by now."

Safu almost apologized, but she held it down. She didn't need to be sorry. She didn't need to be afraid of Shion… did she?

"Come on."

He walked away again. Safu adjusted the strap fastening Kaze's shotgun to her back and followed carefully in his wake.

He's not angry at you, she told herself, but that consolation made it worse. If he was upset with her, she could fix it; there was nothing she could do to fix this. She watched his back, and all around them were people—crying, angry, desperate people. A few were injured, and they called out for help in a confused, lost way, hoping against hope that tragedy had brought out sympathies in the usually hardhearted masses.

Shion paid no mind to the shouts. He strode on, blind and deaf to everything but which direction would lead him to his goal. Yoming's house.

"Why Yoming's house?"

She received an immediate response this time.

"I need something to get Nezumi back."

So he planned to go to the Correctional Facility after all.

Could he be after the maps?

The Correctional Facility was a personal source of anguish to Yoming, with the amount of people it swallowed up. He had been near obsessed with breaking into it when he started the Resistance, but it was impossible. They didn't know anything about the security inside, and no one could tell them, since her grandmother had forbidden them to shake down her elite customers after the first incident. Perhaps Shion wanted to review the maps before attempting the rescue?

Yoming's house loomed ahead. It's dark, grimy exterior looking more desolate than ever. Yoming's van was sitting out front, a squat, rusty piece of junk that somehow still managed to work. The house was far enough away from the flames as to not be affected, but she could still see the thick clouds of smoke rising from the town center.

Shion rapped on the door, but no one answered. He tried the handle, but it was locked, of course. Shion exhaled with a knowing hiss. Safu glanced around the building for possible openings, but then she realized that every window had been blacked out and barred. The bars themselves were rusty, but not in such bad shape that they could be kicked out easily.

CRUNCH!

Safu whipped her head back to the door. It swung loosely on its hinges, no match for Shion's expertly placed kick.

She gaped between Shion and the door. Shion shrugged a shoulder and glanced inside the house. It was dark. With no light streaming in from the windows, they'd be fumbling around blindly once they were outside the range of the doorway. Safu spotted a lantern on the table, and hurried over to light it before Shion closed the door behind them.

The hazy yellow cast of the flame danced over the furniture as they moved toward the stairs. The poor lighting caught every imperfection: the tears in the cushions, the spider-web cracks in the walls; a dingy collage of images that reminded Safu that even the most well-off person could only do as well as their environment would let them.

Safu had never been on the second floor of Yoming's house—she had hardly been to his house at all. Shion, however, must have been to the upper floors before, because he went deliberately toward the door to the left. The hinges creaked quietly when he pushed it open. It was dark and quiet, and Safu got goosebumps as she took a step inside.

"What are we looking for?" she whispered.

Shion pointed to another door.

Something clattered in the corner of the room. Shion whipped out his pistol and aimed it in the direction of the noise, faster than Safu had ever known him capable of.

"Shion?" said a small, frightened voice.

Safu's stomach swooped in relief. "Lili. It's just Lili."

The girl looked small and fragile under the pale light of the lantern. Shion lowered his gun, but his expression was unrepentant. He glanced off to the side, clearly disinterested in the little girl who was still staring at him like she would give anything to have him console her.

"Where's your mom, Lili?" Safu asked.

"There." She pointed behind her, and Safu caught a shift in the dark as Renka slipped out from underneath the bed.

"Where is Shion going?"

Shion had wandered over to the door he had indicated before the interruption. Safu felt another chill creep over her skin as she watched him melt into the blackness beyond it.

"We just came here for some… supplies. We aren't staying long," Safu told her, hoping her voice sounded soothing.

Lili's eyes were wide as she stared into Safu's. "What's happening? We heard stuff. Scary sounds from outside…"

"There's some trouble downtown. It's dangerous outside, so be a good girl and stay here with your mom, okay?"

Lili's face was grave. "Are Daddy and Uncle Yo out there? Did you see them?"

Safu shook her head.

"Daddy told us to hide, and then he left. Mama's scared." Lili's voice tapered off and she turned to look back at her mother. Renka was curled up against the bed frame, looking more a child than Lili with her loose clothing, and her face pale and drawn. Her eyes were swollen from crying, but she was calm at the moment.

"What was that sound earlier?" the woman asked quietly. "It sounded like an explosion."

"There was an accident," Safu said carefully. "It's best to lie low for now. You'll be safe here."

Rather than reassuring the woman, the comment made her more distraught. "It's No. 6, isn't it? It's the Hunt. Are you fighting? Is my brother—?" She broke off, looking toward the blackened window and wringing her hands. A tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

"The Resistance isn't fighting."

Safu said this firmly, but volunteered no further information. She didn't need to be particularly observant to tell that Renka was on the verge of a breakdown. She didn't need to know about what was going on outside, and since Safu had no definitive answers for the woman about her brother or her husband, there was nothing left for her to say.

Renka hugged herself and whimpered. "I can't do this again. My husband… Yoming… They're all I have left." The tears ran freely down her face now.

"There's no need to panic, ma'am. I'm sure they're—"

"Shion?" Lili squeaked, and there was enough terror in her voice to make Safu turn and step so that her body shielded the mother and child.

The blood drained from her face. Shion had an assault rifle in his hands. A sleek, powerful machine, capable of 10 to 75-rounds, depending on the magazine—and from the looks of the cartridges Shion was slipping into his coat, he was well supplied. The shotgun she had strapped to her back was a peashooter compared to what Shion had. That other door must have lead to Yoming's private weapon collection.

Safu wet her lips. "Lili, go sit by your mother, okay?" She heard shifting behind her, and waited until it quieted before she spoke again, this time to Shion. "Can I speak to you out in the hall, please?"

Shion cocked his head a little at the slowness of her words. Safu swallowed, her eyes darting to the assault rifle. There was no magazine locked in yet.

What am I doing? Of course it isn't loaded. Shion wouldn't hurt us. But even so, her heart raced, and she stood a little straighter.

Shion walked out into the hall.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, once there was a door between them and the couple in the other room. "You scared the crap out of Lili and Renka. Why do you have… that?" She gestured uneasily to the gun.

"This will help us get Nezumi back."

Nothing. Not a flicker of emotion. It was like he wasn't even there anymore. Safu opened her mouth to yell at him, but thought better of it. So far Shion had taken down everything in his path. What would happen if she tried to stand in his way?

What happens if I don't?

"Do you even hear yourself?" she said desperately. "You're acting crazy. Calm down and think—"

"I'm done thinking. I need to do something. No. 6 has Nezumi, and every second we waste sitting here, our chances of getting him back lessen."

"This is the Correctional Facility we're talking about. You can't just," her gaze flicked to the gun, "shoot your way in. It's suicide. We need to at least attempt to make a plan. Do you even know where to go?"

"I memorized the map a long time ago. But we both know it's not up to date; we won't be able to sneak in undetected. They'll try to stop us, and we needed a way to make sure they won't." He slung the gun over his shoulder by its strap. "We'll go in through the service entrance. There should be less people, and less security. There's a door into the main building."

"Yes, but it's probably locked," she countered, forcing all the weight of logic behind the words.

Shion paused and dropped his eyes to think. The relief that rushed through her when his gaze fell away pained her. Safu realized that Shion kept using the word "we." Her emotions wavered between apprehension and reassurance, but neither managed to take hold, so she pushed the observation away.

Safu swallowed. He'll see reason. He will.

"There's a trash chute in there. We could try climbing it."

"That's a long shot, Shion. We don't know how big it is, or what kind of traction it'll have. Don't you see? You can't rush blindly in; we need to think about this."

Shion's face darkened, and she could see she had lost him again. "I'll figure something out on the way over, but right now we have to move." He pushed past her.

"Shion—"

"Why are you trying to stop me? Don't you care about Nezumi at all?"

"That's not what I'm saying—"

"You don't have to come."

Safu's mouth went dry. "What?"

"You don't have to follow me."

Safu flushed at the words. She shouldn't have; he didn't mean it the way she heard it, but it still stung. It felt like he was dismissing her and all the effort she put into watching over him these last two years. She had never felt so small and pathetic.

"You can make your own decision. But I've made mine."

Don't go.

Shion turned. The gun shed the light's reflection as he descended the stairs. Shion was lost. He was unpredictable and on the warpath, and nothing she could do would stop him—and now he was armed. People were going to get hurt. She didn't want to see it, and she feared she would be one of them. If she were any kind of smart, she would stay here with Renka and Lili and wait out the Hunt.

But I can't let him go.

Shion was standing by the car out front when she came out of the house. He glanced back at her when she approached, but she couldn't tell whether he was relieved or surprised or didn't care at all. She couldn't read anything in his expression.

"You drive," he said unceremoniously.

"We don't have the keys," she tried.

Shion reached into his pocket and brought out the car keys. When had he picked them up? He unlocked the door and handed them over. The metal felt heavy in her hand.

Her heart wanted to believe Shion knew what he was doing—but she knew what he was capable of, and her brain was screaming at her to take the keys and run as far as possible.

A guttural squawk interrupted her indecision. A bird circled overhead, and Safu recognized it as Yoming's crow. She could just make out the glint of the camera secured around its neck. It banked and swooped in a streak of black feathers to alight on Shion's shoulder. He wrinkled his nose and shrugged. The bird flapped its wings to keep balance.

Shion swiped at its legs. "Not now. Get!"

The bird cried shrilly, but no matter how many times Shion waved it away, it came back, clicking and cawing insistently. The gun had begun to slip off Shion's shoulder in the excitement, and Safu felt a sudden dread for the bird.

"Let's just take him with us."

Shion huffed in frustration. "Fine. Get in the car, then."

He pulled the back door open and shooed the bird in. It went willingly enough, accustomed as it was to riding with Yoming. Shion climbed into the passenger seat next, and Safu took her place at the wheel. She eyed the huge gun as Shion fixed it across his lap, thankfully pointing away from her. She hated this, feeling caged in this little car with the boy who on any other day she would've trusted with her life.

I shouldn't do this. It's not too late to back out.

Shion was staring impatiently at her. "We need to go. We'll lose him."

Safu bit her lip. She thought she might've heard something familiar in his voice. A bit of pain or anxiety, the barest shred of humanity.

Safu latched onto it and put the keys in the ignition.