CHAPTER SEVEN – Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
The wind was a sharp chill against Serah's face as she stared out at the strange landscapes before her. The area was a medium shade of gold in the setting sun, and as she let out a weary breath, she heard the sounds of Maka and Soul approaching from one of the buildings behind her. Traveling all the way to Paris for an extra lesson was more than a little over the top, at least to Serah, but Maka had mentioned that she and Soul had gone to Rome for an extra lesson themselves. Yes, being sent all over the place was part and parcel of the life of a Death Weapon Meister Academy student, but Serah had at least assumed that she wouldn't be sent anywhere as far away as Francestraight off the bat.
"Spot anything interesting out there?" Came Soul's voice, causing Serah to look over at him wearily after a few moments, to see him and Maka approaching from a small store that looked like a strange convenience store or something.
"No." Serah spoke, letting out a breath as she looked back around once again. Yep, trekking all the way to France was way over the top for a first extra lesson – why couldn't Lord Death give her a more localised extra lesson? Like in the actual academy itself? "It's hard enough for me to make out buildings in this light, let alone some group of guys trying to become Kishin Eggs."
"Well, first of all, you're looking the wrong way." Maka spoke, a smirk in her voice as Serah looked over in response. Tossing Serah a small, glass bottle of what looked to be flavoured milk, Maka seemed to look in completely the opposite direction – in the direction they camefrom.
"Then where are they?" Serah asked, glancing down at the yellowish green coloured bottle momentarily. There was a whitish green spot on the front of the bottle, but since it was written in French, she couldn't read what it was.
"Over there." Serah heard Maka speak, and she looked over towards the right, where she motioned to. "There's eight of them, over by that fountain, about half way between the Bell tower and the trees."
"I can't see anything." Serah spoke sulkily, peering around to try and spot where this group of eight Kishin Eggs were at that moment. It was worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack – more like a needle in a paddock.
"I guess." Maka spoke, and Serah looked at her as she seemed to observe something for a few moments. "They're just standing there, I don't quite get it."
"Maybe they're waiting for someone." Serah suggested with an air of boredom, and Maka shrugged slightly. She let out a breath slowly, looking down at the over-the-shoulder-bag that had practically nothing in it – Practically nothing, except for her Circlets. It was the only thing she could do to ensure that it wasn't going to slice anything – why had it been made to be that ubsurdly sharp it could slice through thick cardboard just by knocking against it, Serah didn't know, all she knew was that she needed a method to carry it around soon, otherwise she was in for more and more accidents.
"We should start moving." Soul spoke after a few moments, and Serah let out a well-hidden breath of exasperation after a few seconds – she was still wondering how the hell she was supposed to be of any help while not having had a chance to use her Circlets. A severed hand was imminent at this rate.
"What, towards them?" Serah asked, looking from Soul, to Maka, then back to Soul again.
"Yeah, what did you think? Away from them?" Soul asked, sarcasm heavily lining his voice. Serah had a hard time not snapping back at that – peoples sarcasm and bad moods were beginning to rub off on her, she was sure of it.
"Come on." Maka spoke, and Serah let out a breath as she began to trudge after them, more than certain she'd be more help standing where she had been before. She slipped the bottle of flavored milk into the side pocket of her bag, eyeing the way that the landscape seemed to show a sinister feel to it, however, the likelihood of it being her overactive imagination at that point was quite high.
Before they had even gotten that far along, the faintest of movement from Serah's left came to her notice, and as she looked to see what it was, she felt more than just a little bit surprised as she saw Soul materialise into a scythe. She hadn't heard anything, or seen anything that warranted a reaction like such – What was this about?
"You able to keep up?" Serah heard Maka speak, and it was a couple of moments later, when Serah realised that Maka was actually speaking to her. Nodding quickly as Maka glanced back, Serah placed her attention on her footing – it would be just her luck if she were to fall over now.
"Why? What's going on?" Serah asked quietly, blinking in mild shock as Maka just picked up the pace. "Hey! Maka!"
"They're splitting up!" Maka spoke quickly, and as Serah picked up the pace so she was practically running, she felt her feet slip slightly on the leafy pavement. Serah's gaze faultered – she snapped her vision straight down as she felt herself stumble mid-stride, and as she managed to stabolise herself, she felt all colour leave her face as she felt a cold chill run down her spine. Serah managed to slide to a halt, looking around quickly as she tried to figure out what that feeling was – it wasn't normal, it almost felt like … someone was walking over her grave. There was nothing around her though, just trees, dead leaves, and a vast emptiness that almost seemed … artificial for some reason. It couldn't possibly be because she was in a foreign land … there had to be something more to it than that.
But … where was everyone? Upon a second look, Serah realised that she had gotten separated from Maka and Soul in the few seconds she had been lost in her clumbsiness. They weren't within Serah's field of vision – for some reason, without her glasses, she couldn't see in detail – she couldn't see if there were trees ahead of her, or fence posts, or even if they were people standing in the distance. The cold chill running down her face was an effect of the sensation of forboding that had completely taken over her body, and as Serah tried to drag herself onwards, she found that she felt more uneasy heading to the right, rather than anywhere else. Cursing her luck, Serah let out a breath slowly, and slipped her hand down to her bag to loosen the buckles of her shoulder bag as she forced herself to start moving.
Serah couldn't even hear anything – no fighting, no screaming of Kishin eggs being killed relentlessly by an experienced Weapon and Meister – and why was it that Serah couldn't even pick where she had comefrom? Realistically, the direction Serah had come from was behind, but as she looked back over her shoulder, there was no sign of the convenience store, or anything – Almost like Serah was locked in an emulation of the Penro's Steps.
"You are a long way from home, are you not?" Came a heavily accented voice, catching Serah's attention immediately, causing her to stumble to a halt on the uneven pavement. Snapping her gaze around to where she was certain the voice had come from, Serah could see nothing but the confusing labrynth that was the local park. Surely she hadn't imagined that voice – most certainly not! Her racing heart and stomach said she had most certainly heard the strange voice, however that rational side of her said that she had not, and while she battled with herself in an attempt to make heads or tails of an uncomfortable situation, Serah's right knee gave way on her through a step backwards.
A sudden pain shot through the side of Serah's face as she crumbled to one knee, and as she caught sight of a flash of silver hit the tree to her right, Serah realised that she hadn't imagined the voice at all. A throwing knife was embedded within the soft wood of the tree, the tiniest drop of blood staining the blade of the knife, highlighting to Serah what had caused that jolt of pain as she crumbled to her knees.
"The beautiful insightful subconscious, oui?" That heavily accented voice spoke, and Serah snapped her gaze around to where she heard the voice – which in this time, she managed to catch where the person with her was. A tall, slight built being stood several meters away, veiled in the shadow of the setting sun behind them – however, silhouette or not, Serah could see that it was a masculine form, and that there were several throwing knives in his right hand. "You would be dead if not for your 'clumbsiness', you know?" How had she not noticed that the being there was even around her in the first place? He couldn't have 'appeared' there like through teleportation or anything! She dragged herself to her feet shakily, turning on her feet to face the armed being cautiously. Maka and Soul were nowhere to be found – she was alone, and she knew it. They couldn't bail her out – Oh why did Lord Death have to put her on this extra lesson when she had no experience in combat yet?
"I can see you're scared, oui!" The silhouetted being chortled in a kind of high-toned voice, and the hints of laughter in the voice was louder than what Serah knew it really was in reality – her heart was racing with the amount of effort she was putting into remaining motionless on the spot – to not turn and run away like every nerve in her body was screaming at her to do. "That look of fear is growing! Ooh, it's so pretty! You were with those other two, but you don't know how to fight, do you?" She couldn't use her circlets - she was just going to hurt herself in doing that – They weren't even bound so she could 'draw' them! Just rattling around in her bag, loose, as if they were just brought for show. How - how was she supposed to fight this person that clearly could kill her in a matter of moments?
Serah's fingertips brushed against the neck of the bottle of flavoured milk she'd been given, and as she fell motionless for a few seconds, she saw the tall, silhouetted form of the Kishin Egg straighten up, and he seemed to almost become even taller.
"But an easy meal's an easy meal – and, oui, you do look tasty." The heavily accented voice spoke, and Serah froze as she saw pearly white teeth gleam menacingly in the silhouettes face. "Don't take it personally, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time." The silhouette swung his arm back slowly, and as Serah felt panic begin to take root in the pit of her stomach, her fingers wrapped around the neck of the glass bottle. "Auevoir – petit le minou." Instantly, Serah pulled the bottle from the bag at her side, and threw the bottle at the being at the tiniest glimmer of a chance – and the bottle shattered as it flew across the five meter gap. Throwing her weight to her right in an attempt to avoid the throwing knife she knew was heading for her, and once again her leg gave way, sending her crumbling to the ground painfully.
A blood-curdling shriek of pain shot through the clearing, and as Serah scrambled to her feet as fast as she could manage, she looked back to see the tall silhouette grasping at his face, the daggers held in his grip now lying upon the ground around him – his knife had obviously gone through the thrown bottle of flavored milk, and sent the shattered glass straight into his face, and into his open eyes.
"What do I do?" She couldn't help but ask as she backed away from the shrieking form, and she felt her bag continue to knock against her knees. No, she couldn't run away – that was sure to get her a fail, but she didn't know what to do against someone who was intent on killing her! She wasn't even sure if she could kill the Kishin like she was supposed to! The panic that had taken over her body was beginning to sap her of air that she needed to think straight – she was beginning to hyperventilate as she stumbled back a little more – her legs seemed to want to go in the opposite direction to where the rest of her wanted to go.
"How dare you!" The silhouetted form shrieked, snapping Serah's attention back to the problem at hand. Her eyes fell upon the furious, and bleeding face of the Kishin egg as he threw himself towards her, bloodlust in his now visible face as he quickly closed the distance between Serah's stumbling form, and himself. Her hands took hold of the sides of her bag quickly, and in the tiniest span of coherrent thought, she managed to get her bag up in the way to block the knife uppercut the Kishin egg threw at her. The tearing of material echoed with deafening volume as the material of her bag gave way, and as Serah slipped and fell backwards, she saw the streak of white that was her circlets caught by the Kishin Egg's swing, and thrown up in the air from the motion.
Now she really was out of options – Serah knew this all too well as the circlets landed on the ground behind the Kishin, back were the broken glass was. Scrambling for ideas, Serah threw herself to the right to avoid a lunge from the Kishin egg, and instead of landing straight, her feet seemed to want to make her go to the right, and she landed painfully on her side, sliding a few meters along the pavement to a halt at the base of a tree. Rage seemed to have taken root in the Kishin egg's mind – he wasn't even speaking, just shrieking in anger as he seemed to stumble around himself. Serah looked from the enraged Kishin egg, to her circlets lying innocently on the ground several meters away, and back to the Kishin egg once again. This was probably as good a chance as she'd get – and she was out of time as the Kishin egg locked eyes with her, and bloodlust screamed with deafening volume.
Serah scrambled to her feet, and as she threw herself forward in a mad dash towards her circlets, a shriek of anger echoed from right behind her. She didn't dare look back – her attention was on her one chance to save herself from being torn to pieces, and as she tried to force herself to run that little bit faster, she felt her right foot slip, and she was sent hurdling to the ground with a dull thud.
Silence echoed for no more than a second, allowing just that length of time before a sharp pain shot through the thigh of Serah's right leg, causing a shriek of pain to escape her. Opening her eyes against the agony of what she knew was a knife stabbed into her leg, Serah looked up at the sight of her circlets – still innocently lying out of her reach, by no more than a few inches! Blinking furiously against the tears of pain that welled up, Serah reached out for her circlets, frantically trying to ignore the shadow that was being cast over her by the Kishin egg standing over her prone form.
Another sharp pain shot through Serah's form, however this time it was not from a blade, but rather a foot slamming down onto her injured leg, which caused another shriek of pain to escape her form. Despiration took hold of her as she saw the shadow cast in front of her raise an arm slowly, and she threw herself forward with all her remaining strength, sending the Kishin stumbling backwards as he lost balance. Pain engulfed Serah's form as she fought to retrieve the circlets, ignoring the pain of the blade biting into the flesh of her hands, Serah scrambled to her feet as she heard a furious growl escape the Kishin egg. Throwing one forceful swing, the circlet blade on the other end of the chain swung around flimsily, and sunk deep into the flesh of the Kishin Egg's neck, coming to a halt at the spinal column in his neck as he fell suddenly motionless.
As Serah managed to take a breath big enough to get some oxygen to her air-deprived lungs, it was in that moment that she actually caught what the Kishin Egg actually looked like. A lanky young man with long ginger hair pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, and a pair of blue eyes set in a pale face. He looked to be no older than twenty, maybe twenty two at most. Blood gushed from the gash to the Kishin egg's neck, and as his form suddenly melted away to nothingness, Serah remained silent and motionless as the circlet blade landed on her feet, thankfully not slicing into her leg on the way down.
A hovering red orb with hexagonagal scales and a flame shape to the top hovered in the air where the Kishin egg had stood before, casting an eerie glow over Serah's battered form. Lacking the energy to so much as release the circlet blade that was cutting into her right hand, Serah's form flopped back onto the pavement, and a weary groan escaped Seran as her head hit the pavement with enough force to inflict pain noticeable against the pain of the knife still sticking out of her leg.
If a Kishin Egg came by right about now, Serah'd be a very easy meal for them, but there was no energy left in her weary body to so much as stop her circlet from biting into her flesh. Her hyperventilation had long since gone, and now she was left drifting off into unconsciousness.