Guren felt the tremors a ways away. He felt them shake the ground with all the force of an earthquake, and a big one at that. Something had happened. Something very very bad had happened. He felt his heart accelerate in anticipation and worry. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead and fell to the sides of his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his hands at his sides, and forced his breathing to stay regular and calm.
Think rationally. What are all of the explanations for what has happened? Think, there could have been an earthquake. A building could have collapsed. A noble could have gotten angry and thrown the closest living thing to them into a wall. No! No, stop thinking! None of these thoughts are good or boding well for my current position. Shinya is fine. He's fine! If you believe in something enough, it becomes true, therefore. Shinya is fine.
Kimizuki suddenly stopped and ducked back from a corner, pressing his body flat against the wall and Shinoa mirrored him. Guren followed their lead, feeling the cool stone against his back, his sweat assisting in cooling his body. He could feel his heart speed up in anticipation of what was going to happen next. Kimizuki held out three fingers without looking at either of them. Then he moved his hand from his shoulder to his face, as if he were pulling up a hood.
Three enemies, none of them are nobles. Three of us, two Black Demon Series. The odds are in our favor. The only problem that would arise would be if they were to make noise to bring the others here, so we need to attack swiftly and silently. Everything went through his mind in the amount of time that it took Kimizuki's hand to fall to the side. Catching Shinoa's eye, he gestured for her to tap Kimizuki and when he had both their attention, he raised a finger to his lips and used the sign for 'ambush'. Understanding, they both nodded their heads.
Kimizuki waited until the vampires had passed them to let his hand fall, normally Guren would be the one calling the shots, but with Kimizuki in the front, it was the most convenient way to run things, and he trusted Kimizuki's judgment.
As soon as his hand fell, Kimizuki rushed to the front of the group, slicing upwards with Kiseki-Ō, and killing the lead vampire before it could react. Shinoa ran to the back to cut off escape, her legs working harder, but not going quite as far as Guren or Kimizuki could go. Guren practically lept to the group, stabbing one through the heart with Mahiru, its red eyes widened in surprise, and its mouth opened in a silent scream as the curse was activated.
Kimizuki and Guren pinned the third vampire between the two blades, Kiseki-Ō biting deep into the vampire's spine, and Mahiru slicing through bone and piercing the heart, Mahiru could become exceptionally sharp when she wanted to.
Before the curse took effect, the hood of the vampire fell back, revealing a masculine face with high cheekbones and framed by light purple locks. The vampire hardly looked more than fifteen, but his red eyes spoke of experience far beyond his appearance. A thin line of blood trailed down from the corner of his mouth and his eyes strained to focus. In the last moments, before he let his final breath leave him, they focused on the violet eyes in front of him, and his lips mouthed two words, "Thank you."
Guren couldn't be sure if he had seen it correctly, and before he could question, the curse consumed the young vampire, burning away his very being and consuming his last bloody smile.
The entirety of the fight had probably lasted no more than thirty seconds, but they all stood there, for over a minute until the tremors shook the ground once more, and this time they were accompanied by a blood-curdling scream that made their hair stand on edge and goosebumps scatter across their skin.
They all looked at each other, and nodded, resuming their prior formation and hiding any evidence as to what had transpired. There was no mention of the boy's delayed death or even the smile that happened afterward. They were all focused on the trials that would surely lie ahead.
The tremors shook again, and this time, they were accompanied by a faint scream. It sounded almost like nails on a chalkboard and raised each and every hair on their necks. Their arms were plastered with tiny bumps and a feeling of foreboding resided within them. Guren subconsciously shivered, his body was rapidly chilling.
They all knew that if they were going to find the rest of their team, it was going to be towards whatever was making that sound. Shinya would be towards whatever was making that sound. So would Yuu, and he was going to kill that child as soon as they were safe again. Anyone who put Shinya in harm's way would be killed by Guren. And Yuu was not an exception.
They made their way to the tremors, which were getting more and more frequent and more and more violent, at one point throwing them all to their knees. They didn't meet any other vampires on the road there, save for a few that were hurrying away from whatever they were heading towards.
The screaming became louder and louder the closer they got, and at one point, Guren thought that he could hear the phrase sinners echo throughout the voice. And later, several layered voices could be heard in the scream, like many people had let loose their torrent of emotions at once. Guren could detect pure and utter anguish within them, he knew because he had heard similar sounds coming from his throat.
Hearing footsteps, Kimizuki ducked behind yet another building in the city, and the rest followed suit. The footfalls were uneven and somewhat labored, like someone had been injured and running for awhile, maybe even limping, some were heavier than others and Guren thought he could detect three pairs.
Their hearts beat faster and faster as the footfalls came closer and closer, sweat-drenched their bodies in anticipation for them to pass. One of the people coming around the corner coughed heavily, it was grating and once the bout started, it didn't stop, until the footfalls stopped.
It was silent but for a grating cough just around the corner and the beating of their hearts.
"I-I think that we've come far enough. We should be safe for now, at least until we get out of this god-forsaken Hell-hole." A familiar voice said from around the corner. A voice that made Guren's heart calm its incessant beating. Relief flooded his senses. That was Shinya's voice. He was safe, now he was just going to kill Yuuichirou at the next opportunity.
Giving in to the impulse, Guren rushed around the corner seeing three figures, a large one with a head of silver hair, a frail one doubled over coughing with blonde hair, and a small one comforting the coughing one with brown hair. Pulling Shinya into a rough embrace, he looked around for the arrogant form with a mop of black hair, but didn't seem to spot it, it didn't matter, he was going to kill him as soon as he found him. Yoichi looked up from consoling Mitsuba and something told Guren something was very wrong. Yoichi was blinking away tears, and Mitsuba wouldn't meet anyone's eyes, even after she got over her fit of coughing.
She wouldn't meet Shinoa's eyes when she came around the corner and didn't react when Shinoa looked her in the eyes. When she finally did, it was slow and methodical. Her eyes looked dead like someone had taken her soul and left her body an empty husk. Shinoa took her hands in hers, clenching them and looking at her.
Kimizuki practically crashed into Yoichi, holding him as close as he dared, with his obvious wounds. He rubbed the brunet's hair with his left hand, and his right hand was wrapped around Yoichi's waist. To Guren, it sounded like Kimizuki was whispering something to Yoichi and something in everyone's demeanor changed.
Shinya's legs collapsed out from underneath him, and he leaned heavily on Guren. Caught unawares, Guren slowly lowered the silver-haired man to the ground, and it was then that he realized that Shinya was shaking. It was subtle at first, but it soon grew and Shinya seemed to lose his grip on reality. He was whispering something unintelligible under his breath to Guren.
It took him a second but Guren finally distinguished the words, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry, Guren." Guren ran his fingers through the soft hair of the crying man. It was a calming gesture that they used to do when they were young and thunderstorms were the worst thing that they could think of. Guren tried to shush him and tell him it was okay but soon found it useless, because all that did was cause Shinya to shake his head against Guren's chest and say something like it not being. He knew that it was just best for Shinya to let it out and for him to stay calm, it was the only way he knew he would calm down.
After five or so minutes of this, Shinya's weeping retreated to sobbing, and his sobbing retreated to crying, and soon his crying stopped altogether. Pulling Shinya away, Guren wiped at the tears that stained Shinya's face, he needed to know what had happened. Waiting patiently for Shinya to start, Guren continued to wipe at Shinya's face.
"I'm sorry, Guren." The words were soft, almost inaudible, but Guren could see it on his lips and in his eyes. "I'm so, so, sorry. I didn't want anything like this to happen." Shinya swallowed heavily before he continued, "Guren. Yuuichirou Hyakuya is-"
And that's where Guren's auditory senses cut off. He saw Shinya's lips form the word 'dead', but he couldn't believe it. This was some joke that Shinya was pulling on him, anytime now, Yuu was going to come around the corner laughing and smiling like he always was. There was no way that Yuu could be dead. He just couldn't.
There was just so much meaning behind one word. It was insane just how one word could turn your entire world upside-down. One word could make everything change. There was no one to yell at him, no one to laugh at him and call him an idiot. No one to be Yuu. There are some people that you can't replace in your life. Yuu is one of those people. Was one of those people.
He was reminded of when Mahiru had told him what she was doing. He was reminded of her. She was another person you just couldn't forget. No matter how hard you try. He was reminded of her dead body in his hands slowly cooling because of a simple little cut. A cut that he had given to her, and he had been reminded of just how fragile a human life was.
He was reminded of everything that had happened to him with that one word. His father telling him his mother was dead. His father growing cold towards him ever since then. Mahiru coming to tell him that his father had passed away. Mahiru's death. The blood on his hands. Everything. Everything went through his head when he saw that one word. He saw one word, and his world was turned upside down.
He could hear Shinya calling him, calling his name telling him that he was sorry. He could feel Shinya's hands on his shoulders, begging him to look at him. Vaguely, he could see Shinya's image, but it was blurry and unfocused. There was a strange ringing in his ears and it blocked out all other sounds, and his body gained a certain numbness like he was surrounded like cotton.
He was snapped back into reality with the horrendous screech, it was closer this time, and it made his skin crawl with goosebumps. The three that had been missing turned their heads in horror in the direction of the sound, horror, and panic. Guren had trained these guys, if they were scared of something, then it was worth being scared of. Maybe this was the thing that had killed Yuu.
Slowly, he got to his feet, Mahiru already drawn, even though he couldn't remember when he had done that. He could hear his voice inside of him, exactly like that voice he remembered from when they had grown up together.
Guren, I can help you.
I don't need your stinking help, Mahiru, whatever this thing is, I want to kill it. I want to see the face of the man that killed it, not a man with the decor of a demon, not a vampire, a man.
Guren, you're not thinking this through.
No, you're not thinking this through, Mahiru. Although, I will need your help, later on, not your possession, your help.
I've already helped you enough today, I killed that one little vampire for you, you know, the one that was smiling. You should thank me more often, you know I do more for you than you could ever imagine. What's the worst that could happen from letting me run loose for a little while?/em
Guren left the conversation at that, walking forward towards whatever was making that horrid screeching. He could hear everyone screaming at him to come back, but he paid them no heed. The only thing he cared about was whatever was coming towards his family. He had told Yuu that they were family, and family always protects family, so why couldn't Guren protect Yuu like he told him he would?
He could feel anger rising in his chest. His family had been cut short. He was going to cut someone else's family short.
Unbidden, he could feel Mahiru's power flowing through his body, of course, she would help, after all, she loved him. And she loved his body, she loved when she could go out and take it for a spin, it was always fun for her.
The scream came closer and closer and finally rounded the corner, a small form, no more than fifteen years old peeked its body out from the corner. It held a messy mop of blond hair and a vampire's uniform.
And in its arms, it carried a limp body of someone Guren knew very well. The raven hair was messed like normal, and he wore his usual black uniform. Guren remembered the first time that he wore it and how he wouldn't take it off for a day.
Big, black wings sprouted from its back, they were torn and incomplete, like a demon's. Or maybe someone had shot a hole through a bat's wings. They were and rigid, no good for flying, and a black mist seemed to emanate off of them, upwards until they dispersed.
But the most terrifying wasn't the figure itself. It wasn't the body that hung from its arms. It wasn't the wings that sprouted from its back or the atrocious scream that was wrenched from its throat. As terrifying as those things were, they were nothing compared to the figure's eyes.
Darker than a night with no moon, and crying black tears.