I was supposed to finish this chapter a week ago, but then I found out there was an error so I had to rewrite the whole thing again, and it was utterly exhausting... (dies) But thank you for all your kind reviews and words, they mean so, so much to me~
As much as I want to write a long author's note to tell you how much I love you and/or how much you guys mean to me and have been supporting me all these times, unfortunately it's 4am here, my brain is half dead and my arms are killing me, so I'm just gonna cut short and let you guys enjoy this chapter. This is mostly about Anna and Izumo, but mostly Anna and the reason she's so quiet.
Enjoy!
Far from Saruhiko's and Misaki's household lies a quiet alleyway where the scums of the country mostly stays. These old rows of buildings bear witness of the previous Red King's awakenings, where the walls are burnt and scorched, and the smell of smoke still lingers after so many years. In one of the rundown houses lives a Strain with a thirst for blood of Misaki and Saruhiko, a thirst so great that he had lost his humanity in the flows of time.
"How dare them," he whispers to himself raggedly. "How dare they mess up my business and took down everything I ever worked for!" he roars vehemently and throws a piece of brick near his feet to the wall with enough force to break it into pieces.
"I'll show them no mercy, they'll pay for what they've done," he grins manically before shooting a picture of a 19-year-old Misaki and Saruhiko that's on the wall before shooting the small light bulb hanging above him into smithereens, drowning the house in darkness.
Meanwhile at bar Homra, Anna is casually rolling her marbles around in her room and synching her powers to her surrounding when one of the marbles rise up to the air and glows in a way that it even scares her. Instead of the usual gentle red it mostly emits, now the marble glows an eerie blood red colour in the light of dawn and even assaulted Anna with images the young teen never wants to see again.
"Stop..." she whispers pleadingly as images assaults her mind, causing her to clutch her head tightly and curl into a ball on her bed. "Don't do that to Misaki and Saruhiko…" she continues and grits her teeth as the images start to come in to her mind more violently than ever. Unable to handle that much pressure and pain anymore, Anna releases a cry that sends her powers out like shockwaves, cracking and breaking her windows and items.
The surrounding people too collapse from the assault, dropping to their knees and crying from the pain they received. For a few short moments that felt like an eternity, the painful sensation and images slowly disappears from Anna's mind and body, calming her once more. She breathes raggedly, trying to get her heart beating normally again. Once she regains her senses, she shakily pushes herself up from her bed using her hands, her long white hair covering her face like curtains in which she swept back messily.
"Izumo, he has to know," she says sharply, her eyes narrowed down dangerously as she swiftly jumps off the bed to get showered and ready. Over the years, Anna's powers have grown and she can now read the future, though still in bits and pieces and sometimes not highly accurate. Lately, she's been seeing Misaki's and Saruhiko's future and most of them are showing the two taking care of each other and such, but the one she had seen earlier was nothing like the previous visions.
It was red, redder than what she had seen and more sadness than she could handle, just remembering it causes Anna to shiver again and her powers threatening to leak out once more. After she had showered and ready, she slowly trudges down towards the bar counter and picks up the phone. She wants to tell Izumo, but she knows he's busy taking care of Seri and Chiharu, and Anna wouldn't want to do anything to disrupt their morning.
So she quietly waits on the stool without another word.
She waited for hours, not eating, not even moving, simply there on the bar stool as motionless as a doll. Despite looking like so, her powers are raging away, opening her other 'eyes' so that she could monitor over Misaki, Saruhiko, Izumo, Seri, and even Chiharu. I have to make sure they're safe, I'm the only one who can protect them all from the shadows, she thought fiercely. Her marbles, which she had deposited on the counter, rolls around and hitting each other in a series of noisy clacks, the blood red glow never fully disappeared.
Finally, Izumo unlocks the door and was about to step inside whilst humming a happy tune when Anna suddenly appears in front of him, scaring the living daylights out of the bartender and causing him to slip backwards to land on his backside. "Anna! How long have you been there?" he asks surprisingly as Anna extends a hand to help him up. Izumo gladly accepts her assistance and stands to his height before dusting his pants from the dust. "Don't scare me like that, Anna,"
Anna didn't say anything, merely running back to her stool and sat down without another word. Though she's like that, Izumo could notice the hesitance within her, the need to say something but is held back for some reason. "Anna," he calls her out gently. The young teen's eyes shone brightly for a short while before it disappears again.
"You know you can tell me if something is wrong," Izumo admonishes her lightly and walks over to her to pat her head gently. "Don't hide everything inside, you need to let it out once in a while especially if it's weighing you down," he continues, hoping that she would understand.
Anna continues to stay silent, but after a while she finally relents and let loose a tired sigh. "Izumo, we have to protect Misaki and Saruhiko. We can't let that person does as he pleases, and you have to protect Seri and Chiharu too," she says in a tone that sounds too desperate for Izumo's liking. The bartender couldn't understand what she's saying, he wants to understand and yet he's concerned whether he'd like what he had understand or not.
"Anna, what are you trying to tell me? That something bad will happen to me, Seri, Misaki-chan and Saru-kun?" Izumo presses her whilst trying to hide his own growing anxiety. The young teenage girl went silent, as if she could sense his hidden fear and this prompts Izumo to grip her shoulders in a strong yet gentle grip, to remind her that she's with him and that he'll keep her safe from anything or anyone that tries to harm her.
Their eyes met, strong and gentle brown staring into timid and secretive pink. "Anna, if you don't tell me what's going on, then I don't know whether I can protect Seri-chan and Chiharu-chan, since I don't know what to protect them from," he says so that the logic reaches her. Anna seems a little perplexed but Izumo continues before she could do anything else. "There are a lot of things I have to protect them from, Anna. So it'd be really helpful if I know what to expect," he finishes with a gentle smile.
Anna could see the logic in that and slowly nods her head, earning another relieved smile from Izumo. Slowly, she reaches for a marble from the counter and held it up to her eye like she normally does. Their souls intertwined and Anna shares to Izumo what she had seen, causing his eyes to widen and his body to sweat profusely.
"This can't be serious…" Izumo whispers raggedly, unable to believe what he's currently seeing. The red from the vision is just too much for the both of them, and Anna disables their connection before they both slumps to the floor panting and convulsing a little. "Is that the reason why you told me to protect Seri and Chiharu, and those two? Because of this vision?" he asks quietly and leans against the counter after he manages to regain his breath.
Anna nods solemnly and the two realizes that Saruhiko needs to know about this, or else the blue clansman would go on a rage should he finds out that someone is targeting his and Misaki's unborn child.
"Saruhiko, we have to tell him," she says quietly and Izumo agrees. They would love to call Saruhiko but unfortunately, Izumo found out that Seri had sent him off on a mission to gather Intel at a nearby garage that was presumably selling steroids and lethal chemicals, hence the two have to wait until he returns from work as it could take the whole day.
With the bar now open, they have little chance to contact anyone from Scepter 4 as people slowly start to pour in and Anna forced to sit at her usual spot at the small, rounded table. Even though he's smiling to his customers, Izumo now have a lot of things going through his mind.
At the Fushimi household, Misaki is curled up tightly on the couch as his stomach feels like it's on fire. No matter how much he eats, he would just end up puking them out again, and Saruhiko isn't making things any better with his continuous doting and babying. Growling at the fiery sensation, Misaki slowly crawls out of the couch and venture around to find the hot oil that he normally use whenever he has muscle cramps. As soon as he found it, he uncorks the bottle and pours a generous amount on his belly to soothe the pain.
He then makes his way back towards the couch and proceeds to curl there like his foetus for nearly half an hour, just so the pain recedes completely. "That stupid monkey…" he grumbles to no one in particular. "Putting the oil so high up the shelf, how the fuck does he think I can take it? And he doesn't allow me to climb something too," he continues to grumble and cursing his partner, not knowing that a stream of deadly, mutated virus now coming his way via the wind.
Lucky for him, Anna who was keeping a close eye on him manages to detect the virus and encase them in a bubble of her powers. Keeping her psyche at its sharpest, she closes her eyes to intensify her focus before obliterating each and every one of the virus so they could do no harm to Misaki and his child. Unfortunately for her, using her powers to such an extent exhausts her and she collapses from her seat, panting and breathing hard. Izumo notices this and rushes towards her while some of the other customers opted to call the ambulance.
"It's alright, everything's fine," he reassures them gently. "She's having a fever actually, but too stubborn to stay in bed," he lies as smoothly as he could before gently carrying Anna up to her room. As he lays her on her bed, she grabs his arm and fiercely tells him to contact Saruhiko, so he could see her vision and protect Misaki from further harm.
Looking into her tired but fiery pink eyes, Izumo knows they shouldn't wait any longer. "Izumo, you have to close early, you have to tell Saruhiko about the news. The second and third of the blue clan are being targeted, we can't keep this quiet," she reminds him fiercely before blacking out from exhaustion. The bartender quietly agrees and decides to close up an hour earlier than usual; causing some of his customers to wonder what had gotten into him.
At Scepter 4, Seri is utterly bemused when Izumo calls her to let Saruhiko off early for the day. "Do you really think I would release him that easily after messing up the Intel gathering that much, and his paperwork as well? I'm sorry Izumo, but he's not going anywhere right now, unless you tell me what is it that's so important that you needed his presence on the spot," she snaps at the bartender through the phone.
Izumo flinches a little at her sharp tone, noticing that she's getting easily irritated these days, a total repeat of what happened while she was carrying Chiharu a few years ago. "Calm down my dear Seri-chan," Izumo tries to placate her in his best, charismatic tone ever, only to be met with a slight growl on the other end. Despite being the second strongest in Homra once, nothing and no one can save him from the wrath of a hormonal, pregnant woman. "Anna saw something bad in her vision, a Strain from the past with a grudge for Scepter 4 and Misaki-chan," Izumo blurts out before anything else happens.
He then could hear a satisfied hum from Seri and sighs in relief quietly, though he's still not out of danger yet. "We need Saru-kun and inform him of what's going on, it seems that Strain is getting smarter and managed to mutate viruses into targeting Misaki-chan. Anna managed to intercept with her powers though," Izumo continues seriously.
Seri hums again and sighs tiredly; she's had enough of Saruhiko's antics these few days and would love to just clear the workload. Maybe sending him off earlier than usual would help clean things off. "Alright, I'll send him out earlier than usual but be sure that this isn't an unimpressive scam just so the two of you could have a drink together," she snaps harshly, causing Izumo to twitch in slight fear.
"Don't worry my darling Seri-chan, I can assure you that this is extremely serious, and we couldn't wait any longer for fear that Misaki-chan would be in a much serious trouble," Izumo promises, though deep inside he's still planning to drink some strong shots with Saruhiko, the news isn't going to be easy to tell nor accepted. Agreeing, Seri calls a reluctant Saruhiko over to release him for the day.
"And what does Kusanagi-san wants with me, exactly?" the third asks his superior in a bland tone, clearly not impressed with the adults. The moment Seri mentions 'dangerous Strain' and 'Misaki', Saruhiko dashes out without a second glance back, worried for the life of his love and their unborn child while Seri watches his retreating back with slight mirth. The remaining agents however, wonder what's going on with their two superiors, but decide to keep quiet and not ask weird questions.
After storming out of his office, Saruhiko quickly jumps into his car and makes his way towards bar Homra without even caring for the traffic rules. The faster he gets information about the Strain targeting Misaki, the faster he can protect his family from harm's way. Those idiots, why won't they tell me earlier? Don't they know what a crucial time it is for Misaki right now? He thought vehemently as he rounds off a corner sharply. In just a short moment, he arrives at bar Homra and is hardly surprised to see Anna standing on the stairway.
Their eyes met for a short while before Saruhiko narrows his dangerously. Getting out of his car and slamming the door shut loudly, he stalks towards Anna, whose expression remains blank as if she hardly cares how angry the blue clansman is. "Is this your intention the whole time, Anna? Hiding something so important from me and telling me right after Misaki's almost been killed with our unborn child?" Saruhiko yells angrily at the young teen, his grip on her shoulders strong enough to cause bruises and yet Anna didn't even flinch.
"Saruhiko, stop blaming Anna, she didn't want to tell you earlier because you were at work," Izumo sounds off to Saruhiko sternly. "Come on inside, I'll tell you everything you need to know, and you might need a drink for this too," the bartender continues and invites him in. Saruhiko slowly releases his grip on Anna's shoulder, but his eyes still shows some remaining anger towards the young teen. Anna still didn't say anything.
Once Saruhiko makes himself comfortable on the bar stool, Izumo pours him a hefty glass of strong scotch before sitting on his own seat behind the counter. The thick silence in the air is tense, even to the point of being suffocating for the two of them while Anna watches silently from her usual spot. After downing his second glass, Izumo starts the conversation and Saruhiko listens without interjecting.
The serious atmosphere lasts for nearly an hour and a half, with shots taken in between and their soberness flew out the window. Anna scowls at the guys but didn't say anything, she knows that Saruhiko had gotten the message and is now trying to hide his anger. Though she couldn't see the shroud of blue surrounding Saruhiko, but she can sense the anger and hatred boiling deep inside the blue clansman, and that's good enough for her to know that he'll protect his family with everything he has.
By the time night arrives, Saruhiko and Izumo returns home feeling tired and sick from their heavy drinking but neither of their partners are willing to give them any rest.
"Monkey! Where the fuck have you been? Are you trying to give me a heart attack? And why the fuck do I smell alcohol around you?"
"Izumo! I thought I told you, strictly no drinking with Fushimi when you just needed to tell him some bad news! And for you to show such an image for our daughter, this isn't right, and put me down!"
Least to say, while the adults are having fun with each other, Anna is sitting quietly in the darkness of her room, watching over Misaki and his unborn child through her marbles. She then smiles warmly as she sees Ryuu's soul playing around in his realm without a care in the world.
Sorry for the shortness and the crappy ending, my brain farted, it stinks and all the plotbunnies ran away. I'm going to beddy bye now, do leave me a review on this chapter and tell me what you think, the next chapter will be up next week so say tuned!
(crashes and snores)