OMGWTFBBQ!!!11!one?
WHUT? Zoey actually updated? It's been like, what…. Two years? Okay, maybe not that long. Still a long time.
So yeah, I've neglected my Chrno Crusade fandom for quite some time, but I know it will never go away. Obsessions come and go, but CC is something that will always be a joy for me. And that's probably the ONLY reason why I was able to pick this project up again.
Though I'm none too please with the poor writing of the first five chapters, and the first half or so of this one, so you may end up seeing some renovation being done here. Myeeeeeeeeeeeah…. Maybe.
Hope you enjoy ;D
Chrno Crusade © Daisuke Moriyama
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Soft footsteps echoed through the dark hall, the dingy stone walls decorated with ivy and creeping moss. There was no light, as if this hidden layer was deep underground, void from the sun and any other inhabitants.
"Patefacio." A dark voice spoke in the darkness, the footsteps drifting silent. A small glow began to emanate from the center of the room at the end of the hallway, coming from a large glass orb of sorts. Long intertwining gold stems that encased the glass began to recede, twisting and turning before it finally disappeared into the floor, the light within growing brighter. At last the speaker's for became apparent, his short blond hair and blue eyes gleaming in the soft blue glow.
"Dux Ducis, Dufaux." The man smirked, looking up into the sphere as the light wavered, a transparent image of a tall humanoid demon coming into view. Long outstretched black wings shared the same color as his leather-bound attire, as well as his short hair. By the shape of his upturned black horns, it was evident that he was powerful, and one of the eldest of his kind. "It's been a long time, old comrade."
The demon's image within the sphere acknowledged the other man's presence. His red eyes opened, before placing a fist over his chest. "Ah, Minister Remington. How kind of you to keep in touch after the Great War."
Yuan laughed softly, shaking his head as he returned the gesture, his own fist placed over his chest in a salute. "I am no longer a Minister, Dufaux. Retired, nowadays… Times change. How long since your last visit to earth?"
"Ah…" The tall demon grinned in remembrance. "Must be close to three hundred years now. I will be taking a Contractor in the next decade should my power begin to diminish. But I know you haven't summoned me for idle chit-chat. What do you need, Remington?"
A long silence fell in the large stone clad room, as the former Minister's teeth clenched visibly.
"….He has returned." The man's eyes narrowed with burning rage, his voice clearly depicting the livid aura around him. "Sinner Chrno has made his move. He's had a Contractor for about sixteen years now."
Dufaux raised his eyebrows in surprise, bringing a hand up to his chin. "Well now…So soon? It hasn't even been a hundred years…"
"Ninety, to be precise." Yuan responded with a firm tone. "I'm sure he knows Earth is a safer place to hide…I never would have found him had his Contractor not consulted me for help."
"Really? I thought you've discarded your ways for helping humans."
"I've joined the remains of the Magdalene Order, I work under the paranormal investigators. My choice resulted from boredom, mostly… but I also hoped that I may get a lead on the last Sinner. Looks like it finally paid off." The man grinned with self-satisfaction.
"I suppose you're still in New York, then?" Dufaux folded his arms at the front of his chest with a cocky grin. "Well, you have to be since you've been restricted by the Queen…"
"Amazing how even her death hasn't stopped that damned curse…Only four hundred more years though, and I will be free once again."
The demon laughed deeply, shaking his head. "Yuan, Yuan, Yuan… It is you who has cursed yourself. If you had never taken her offer, you wouldn't be bound."
"If I hadn't taken her offer, I would still be restricted by the limitations of this world." The man's eyes narrowed. "This is irrelevant… I assume you will ready the signal?"
Dufaux nodded, saluting once more to the blond man that stood firmly before him. "We will destroy the Sinner this time, old comrade. But do not let your human emotions get the better of you like they did last time…"
"I am lead, but not blinded by revenge." Yuan replied strongly. "I am offering my help, no matter the circumstances of the past."
"True," The demon grinned, as his form began to waver in the dimming light from inside the sphere. "I shall contact you when the time is right."
"I'll be waiting."
And with that, the light faded, leaving the room once again in a blanket of darkness.
--Chapter 6 --
The Summoning
"Neesan…"
Rosette stirred under her blankets, the dark blue sheets bundled up close to her head, her bare feet sticking out at the bottom. She groaned loudly, wriggling away closer to the wall as her little brother attempted to shake her.
"C;mon Neesan, we're both going to be late for school!" Joshua whined, trying to pry the comforter off the blonde's head, but her grip was too strong.
"I'm not going to school." She said with a muffled voice from beneath her protection.
"Yes you are. I even made your favorite breakfast for you!" He tempted her, a huge smile spread across his face as he poked her side.
She just groaned loudly again, obviously swayed by the bribe of food, but stayed put.
And that obviously scared Joshua.
"R-Rosette, come on…" He sighed, sitting down by her side on the cushioned bed before gently prying at the covers. "If you won't go to school…. Can you at least tell me what happened yesterday?"
There was a long silence, as the young girl contemplated what to say. "I already told you." She replied defiantly, though her voice was small.
Her little brother frowned, before sighing softly and staring at the door to her room with a defeated expression. "You know…" He said softly. "It wasn't your fault."
He could hear feel her shiver a bit, her voice cracking. "Yes it was. This ghost… is a part of me."
"You're only going to dig yourself deeper if you think like that!" He shot back defiantly. "Rosette… this damned spirit is tearing you apart. Have you ever thought of an exorcism?"
Rosette frowned, hearing a dark laugh echo in her ears. She knew that her brother didn't hear didn't hear Chrno when he made no surprised gesture at another voice in the room with them. "I…" She spoke quietly, leaning up and pulling the covers off her face. "…Don't think that'll work."
"Well you don't know until you try."
"No…I really don't think it will work." She grimaced. "He's… far too powerful."
"And how do you know that? For all we know, he'd disappear if we dunk you in Holy Water!" He fumed, having grown far angrier at the term 'he'. It's bad enough to know his older sister is being haunted by a vengeful spirit, but now that there's evidence that it's a guy… that pissed him off.
Another echo of laughter his Rosette's ears at the blond boy's comment.
"You can try all you want." Chrno spoke darkly, his voice only audible for his Contractor. "Go on, it might be fun…"
She began breathing heavily, gritting her teeth as she closed her eyes, trying to drown out his voice. "Shut up…" She whispered, her voice barely audible.
"Ahh, perhaps you could try another Blessed cross? I think that first one actually made me lift a finger."
"Shut up…!"
"I think it'd be a joy to see what local exorcists would come up with…Play with them a little…"
"You sadistic bastard!!" Rosette nearly screamed at the top of her lungs, gripping the sheets at her sides tightly in her fists. Joshua jumped, looking at her like she had grown a third eye. "Stop toying with me! I'm sick of it!!"
"N-Neesan…" He gently brought up a hand towards his sister, before she jolted to her feet, sliding off her bed, tears staining her eyes.
"You said you wanted to protect me?!" She screamed into the air, her knuckles turning white from the pressure. "Then protect me from yourself!!! I can't TAKE this anymore!!"
Joshua watched her with wide eyes as she stomped through her door, grabbing a long jacket that hung over an old wooden chair in the hallway.
"All those pretty words of wanting to shield me, of trying to make me think you were starting to understand what I was going through…" She muttered under her breath, her voice shaking as she attempted to keep her tears and anger down as she slid on the jacket over her pajamas.
"Neesan!" Her brother yelled, running out into the hallway and reaching out, grabbing her wrist. "What's wrong? Come on, tell me!"
Her eyes widened as she was pulled to a stop, her body freezing as she felt a warm whisp of air travel across her arm in feeble attempt to calm her.
"STOP IT!!" She screamed, wrenching out of the boy's grip to rake her nails across the part of her skin where she had felt the warmth, leaving dark red welts in their path. "Go back to Hell where you came from!!"
She pivoted on her heels, running for the door at the front of the apartment, Joshua following close behind as he tried to grab her again. "Neesan!!" He called out desperately as she ran out the door, tailing her. But she was much faster than him, even without the fact that he had an illness that already made him much weaker for someone his age.
And just as he made it to the bottom of the stairwell, she stopped in her tracks, standing on the sidewalk. "I'm sorry, Joshua," She turned to him, a pained and confused expression upon her face. "I'll be back…. I just… need to be alone for a while." Her eyes lowered to the ground, and with that, she bolted, leaving her brother panting at the bottom of the stairs, staring at where she was standing not a moment ago.
Slowly, he placed a hand to his chest, still breathing heavily as he carefully sat himself down to the ground, his head hanging.
"Rosette…" He whispered, voice small as his eyes welled up with fresh tears. "What's happening to you…?"
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With the sun hanging low in the sky, creeping up from the horizon on the city below, the streets and sidewalks steadily became packed with cars and people running to and from their jobs. New York was always like this, even in the outskirts of the city, which Rosette was grateful for. Everyone was so concerned with work, that they didn't pay any mind to the quiet teen still dressed in her pajamas out in broad daylight.
She knew she wasn't helping her brother at all by leaving… but she didn't want to be under the pressure of his watching eye when her demon nearly made her snap with fury.
"I hate you." She hissed under her breath, hands stuffed in her pockets as she bumped shoulders in to people she'd never met.
"That's the sixteenth time you've told me that." Came a bored voice from somewhere around her. "Honestly, I forgot how high strung women could be…Next time I'll be sure to make a Contract with a male…"
She grit her teeth harder at that. "You think this is amusing?!" She screamed, making a few people walking past her give her an odd stare, wondering if she was mentally ill, especially since she was in her night clothes.
"Mildly." Came another bored tone. "Teenage angst isn't exactly a thrill to endure."
"I'm not angsting! I'm FURIOUS!" She yelled again, bringing her hands up to her hair and pulling it painfully, before flopping down onto a bench in a relatively uncrowned area. "One moment you're scaring me out of my pitiful life…" She hissed, through her voice was more quiet now, her eyes turning red. "The next, you make me think you're trying to comfort me, then you go and make sarcastic comments that aren't anything but cruel! Do you know how frustrating that is?!"
"Rosette…"
"Oh, don't even start with me again." Taking her hand and harshly scratching up her arm where she began to feel a warm breath of air. "I'm not some damned toy for you to play with. If you want to torture me, stab me, cut me, go ahead! Just don't play with my emotions like this…"
"Rosette, I never meant to hurt you…"
"You're doing a pretty damn good job for someone who seems so timid all of the sudden."
At that little comment she suddenly felt an icy shiver run up her spine, making her jump and sit upright in her seat with wide eyes and pale face.
"You think this is easy for me, Miss Christopher?" His voice steadily became darker, to the point where she began to hear a hint of anger, something she wasn't used to. "Here I've been, protecting your sorry ass for over sixteen years! And if you haven't been counting, you were already written down in Death's Scroll three times! You'd be DEAD if it wasn't for me!"
Rosette's hands latched to the bottom of the wooden bench she was on, as if it were shaking during an earthquake… which in all reality, it was starting to. Looking down to her feet, she saw a thin crack appear in the cement, the metal legs of the bench bending outwards.
"I could have silenced you long ago. I could have taken your sanity by ways of unthinkable terror! Didn't you once stop to think why I haven't?!"
She winced her eyes shut tightly, a stray tear rolling down her cheek as she huddled into herself, the crowd of people not three feet away from her suddenly flurrying into a panic about the rapidly increasing intensity of the 'earthquake' that continued to bore large streaming cracks into the cement and pavements of the roadway.
"You're impossible…" Rosette hissed under her breath, appearing more under the influence of anger now, more than anything else. "You suddenly start preaching to me that your actions hide ulterior motives…well how the Hell am I supposed to read you, Chrno?!" Her voice rose to nearly a scream, but it was quickly drowned out it the multitudes of other cries of surprise that stemmed from the sudden quake. "You've done nothing but tear me apart for sixteen years… you've made me into an outcast….a freak…. Nearly every time you open your mouth, you scare me within an inch of my life…. And to top it all off, you're a murderer!" She grit her teeth harshly, her fingers digging painfully into the wooden bench, unaware that the 'earthquake' that had stemmed from the furious demon was slowly dissipating. "No Chrno, I don't understand why you haven't simply killed me since I've been such a nuisance. If you think that's so damn important, stop playing my emotions like it's a game, and TELL ME!"
Not seconds after the weight of her words set in, the earth reduced it's frightening roar to a mere quiver… and soon, the earthquake had faded altogether. Silence was all that met Rosette's ears for minutes, despite the uproar that dominated every crowd in the park.
"Rosette…" Chrno's voice finally spoke quietly, more than hesitant to give her much more of a reply than a defeated tone of her name.
"You're like a child with a machine gun." She hissed, negating any chance he had of continuing. "You have such power over me… over anyone…. And the only thing you've done is swing it around like that's the only damn thing you can do."
The silence that met her ears quickly told her she had hit a nerve. Or the closest thing a demon would have to nerves.
She had figured that Chrno was so used to seeing her react this way towards other people who test her anger – and that every time he had interacted with her only left her in the repetitive state of a quivering puppy. In other words, he must just be confused…. Like Hell he was actually taking that comment to heart.
"I know I've been useless lately." She broke the silence between them, though her words were almost drown out by the sirens that engulfed the area. How the tremor that resulted from the demon's outburst had affected people injury-wise, she had no clue, and she wasn't about to turn around and find out until she got a solid answer. "Every time you talk to me, I shrink back and let you toy with me. If you can't already read me, I'm scared to death of you, Chrno. But I'll be damned if I continue letting you have your way with me. You want a game? Then you've got one Hell of an opponent." With that, she stood up roughly from her seat on the now crooked bench, and walked solidly in the general direction of her apartment.
And it wasn't long before she finally got more than a broken record of her name from the demon.
"You're so stubborn…. You always have been." The simple reply wasn't exactly what she was expecting,
"I'm the one who's stubborn… great." Her words dripped with venom, obviously still fueled by her anger. "Nice deduction, Dr. Phil. While you're at it, why don't you tell me exactly what the Hell that makes you?"
Another pause between them. Rosette halted momentarily as she came up to a crosswalk, having to wait in a small crowd of people for the light to change – and she wasn't quite aware of the stares she was getting from her attire.
"… A fool."
Blue eyes blinked in a sort of shock, leaving the blond pajama-clad teen standing there as a rush of people filtered around her, walking out into the street as the light turned green.
"…What?" Her voice cracked slightly, drowning in both confusion and surprise. That certainly wasn't what she was expecting…. Not that it wasn't already blatantly obvious the demon was anything but routine with his responses.
"I've never been able to understand humans…." His soft tenor voice hinted something akin to shame. "Forgive me."
She could tell there was more he wanted to say, but it wasn't her place to pry. If anything, they were flirting with improvement, and she wasn't about to lose that.
"Well, then…" Her lips curled into a tiny smile, barely there at all – now aware that the light had changed again, and she found herself in another small crowd of people, waiting to cross. "I guess I'll just have to teach you proper human etiquette."
She could almost feel the discomfort that radiated from him, hesitant and wary. It took her a few seconds, but as the crowd around her moved to the street, she followed….. and her eyes widened.
The reason why Chrno had no idea how to read her emotions, is because he had always held himself in the proper hierarchy – demons held so much power over humans, so of course they were essentially 'above' them. In all reality, humans were essentially 'food' for demons, supplying them with energy and power. The situation between them wasn't much unlike how a wolf would socialize with a mouse. But his hesitance and growing concern meant Chrno was actually trying to understand her – her emotions, her thought process, even her lifestyle. It would almost be cute, had the situation not been so dire….. and had Chrno not already proven himself to be an otherwise murderous, temper-prone, possessive epitome of terror. Well, for the most part.
Thought she found herself just a tad relieved with her discovery, her overall mood didn't change much. She was still confused as to what exactly was going on in 'her' demon's mind. She was still furious with him for giving her a lifetime of torment. But most of all, she was still terrified of him. No matter how comfortable she may get with him…. Chrno was still a demon, a powerful being….he was still a killer, and she knew that eventually, he would kill her too.
Holding one arm to her side as she walked, rubbing it softly where she had raked across her skin in her emotional fit, she couldn't help but let her nervous state take hold of her once again. No, she wasn't going to let him push her around anymore…. But she just hoped the consequences wouldn't leave her in an even worse position.
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Hahahaaaa….. Yeah, I do think my recent fanfic projects left me with a bit of a different style. I'm oh so intrigued by the calculations of the human psyche….. and poor Rosette is really just too fun, going back and forth from her normal gung-ho, 'don't take shit from no one' attitude, and her grim realization that acting that way won't get her anywhere at this point in time. Oh how the human mind struggles against impending doom…. –Evil laugh-
Yes… anyway, don't be looking for an update for a while longer. There may be another chapter up next week, there might not. But I'm sure if I hear from enough people that they really enjoy the fic, I'll do my best and keep this project going – and hopefully, up with new chapters every week.
Ciao y'all
Zoey