Hi guys! Just a warning, but this chapter is totally unedited, so please forgo any mistakes on my busy behalf!
Before the chapter, thanks to my great reviewers, you guys are awesome:
`The Shameless Carrot -Zhane17
`Saints-Fan-12
`XxKingArthurIIIxX
`arosecas4
`Awesome D.T
`Kayslay (I didn't see your review as rude at all! I saw it as helpful, actually! Haha~! That's okay!)
Hope you enjoy, as always,
~Tiruneko ;3
X~54~X
"Are the other cars ready to go? Master Lily has be requested they be ready for immediate transport out with the least amount of problems possible."
"Yeah, I checked." The other watcher replies.
"Well…" A breathy female voice mocks in a sing-song tone behind the two. "… Maybe you should have checked twice." Before either of the watchers can turn around, the side of the long orange crowbar has connected with a painfully loud crack into the man on the left's head, sending him smashing into the other watcher, and sending them both chaotically smacking into the ground, unconscious were they lay.
Gumi hovers over their unconscious forms, a small grin spreading across her strikingly red lips. Systematically, she moves around to all of the Demon's Crow vans and smashes each and every tire, taking out each and every watcher in her way, until the last obstacle facing her outside, is the daunting task of entering the building where a great deal of smoke is seeping out of.
Sighing, Gumi presses herself against the side of the wall, crouching just out of sight of the Watchers in the lobby. Four armed with guns and-
"Bingo." Gumi whispers, snickering softly, smirking.
With a loud crash sounding much like a lightning strike and falling hail Gumo's blunt edge shatters the glass of the window and sends it hurling outwards as Gumi flips inwards, taking advantage of the blinding chaos.
Still in air, with her free hand, Gumi lifts up part of her shit to reveal six or more small pouches strapped all around her body. Tugging at a string on one, an assortment of homemade sparkler-fireworks come spilling out, hitting the glass on the floor and going off with dozens of individual pops and hisses, releasing even more gas into the air. The only noise is the sound of accidental gun fire over the jarring hiss of the fireworks and the sound of Gumi's boots hitting the glass.
As the smoke clears, only one figure is seen standing amidst the fog. Gumi pulls herself off of the bent and singed corpse of a watcher, pressing her foot to his lifeless chest, and pulling upwards with all her strength to attempt to dislodge Gumo out of the side of his profusely bleeding skull.
"Gross." Gumi mutters, wiping off some of the blood on her pants as she pulls a gas mask taken off of the same watcher over her mouth. The scent of smoke is still pungent but not as invasive as before.
"M-Mas-ter Li-ly…" A broken voice hisses out from bellow Gumi's feet.
"Eh?" She turns to find the source of the dying plea. The watcher, clearly female from appearance, soon disappears into the arms of death and Gumi can't help but grow a little giddy. "Oh Master Lily!" Gumi chides, whistling as she twirls Gumo around her wrist and exits the lobby towards the elevator. "Come out and play! I hope you brought my buddy. Ms. Megurine was so much fun last time."
Gumi presses the elevator button with her thumb, genuinely surprised to find it still working. Voices shout from behind her, undoubtedly watchers. The purple haired man Gumi can't seem to remember is with this rather large group as well, screaming different commands hurriedly, seeming overjoyed at the prospect of protecting whatever twisted mission they're on.
"Boys-boys-", Gumi chuckles, bringing her crowbar over her head. "-don't you know? I'm on a warpath."
~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~
A heavily booted foot comes down sharply in front of Len's feet, causing him to jump backwards, pulling Miku closer into his side. Meiko stands smirking over them, the fluffy blonde haired girl and red haired boy close behind her.
Miku's fingers dig sharply into Len's side as she is nearly hysterical, sobbing. He can practically feel the heat of her burning crimson eyes on his side, but merely pulls her closer inwards as the ash swirling around them clears.
"Ah-Ah, don't be like that now." Meiko laughs, raising a pistol.
Miku yelps without having ever lifted her head out of Len's chest, terrified for some other reason. Len raises a hand out instinctively, glaring.
The sound of Rin screaming something seems an eternity away, the blurry sound of IA sobbing and Yuuma shouting hurriedly not far off. The pained grunts of watchers are there too, as well as the almost indistinguishable whine of a female voice, calling out to seemingly no one in particular. A loud creak of flaming plaster and wood echoes out from all around, and, visible through the now burned away doorway to the next room, an entire section of the floor gives way, falling who knows how far below.
"The day will be announced, demon child. We must apprehend you before the announcement so you can await your last days, however long they may be, in agony as the angels of Demon's Crow fight for the survival of our painted and oblivious humanity!" Meiko shrieks, cackling like a mad woman, cocking her gun.
"L-Len!" Miku is shaking. Not out of fear.
With a giant flash of light and a nearly earth-shattering whine erupting outwards, all external noise ceases to exist as Miku's body contorts violently on the floor, unable to hold onto Len any more.
Her head snaps backwards, whacking the floor with a deafening crack as her eyes roll into the back of her head, bursting with the most intense shade of red to ever streak the universe. Brighter than a star, yet darker than the depths of oblivion. Meiko nearly swallows her tongue, her own violently shaking fingers struggling for the trigger of the gun.
Immediately, whether it be out of fear or instinct, Meiko yet again caves into her own striking will for survival and nearly a dozen armed watchers swoop in to take her place, as the brown haired woman backs away slowly, looking like she's about to puke. Miku at this point is far from anything anyone's ever known, having been led to something burning brighter than the bleeding tears of the sunset.
"OH god!" Her voice is nearly inaudible over her own pained screaming.
A painful crack of silence hangs as she staggers to her feet, touching her hand instinctually to the top of her head, a trauma burned deep into her skin, never forgotten by the deepest depths of her subconscious. Then a voice rises. Not hers. Nor Len's. But the cry of something deep inside of her, a childlike tone, seemingly searching for words to repeat.
"Okay."
A bright white light bursts outwards from the center of Miku's chest, expanding like a bubble with a shimmering white lace until the entire smoldering wreckage of the room is engulfed in the silvery blaze.
The first to fall is the mace wielding girl with the puffy white-blonde hair. Her neck bends backwards and her hands fly to her neck, red liquid seeping outwards from her eye sockets. She buckles under her own weight and falls lifeless to the ground, her legs twitching with a last siege of energy as it rockets through her now cold body. Repeating the same pattern, everyone that had been engulfed in the raging invisible flames of the bubble suffers the same agonizing fate, even the blonde haired boy is not spared.
"G-gone…" Miku's words escape with what seems to her like the first exhaling breath of her entire existence as she collapses to the ground, her body falling across Len's.
The floor beneath the two, one dead, one in a death-like sleep, utters a loud groaning creak as the wood gives way. A hand flies outwards, clawing at the air like a pale and blood smudged talon. The fingers claw at the air until, barely, by maybe nothing less than a miracle, the hand grips around Len's wrist and the other to match flies for the girl, catching her just barely by her ankle.
Rin grunts loudly, shouting behind her as she attempts to pull both forms out of the caved in floor below them. The entire building creaks with the effort to stand it is desperately lacking from the explosion.
Yuuma bends, pulling Miku up as Rin gets Len. Just as the blonde haired girl pulls the blonde haired twin into her lap, his red eyes snap open and his body contorts as he sucks in air.
"Miku!" He shouts, lurching forward and nearly sending himself tumbling back down into the sink-hole mirroring floor of their hotel room.
Rin wraps her arms around Len's chest until he gets his bearings back.
"Is everyone accounted for?" Yuuma shouts over the chaos as a blue haired girl climbs out of a daunting pile of rubble besides the remains of a quite comfortable bed.
"H-here…" Lapis chokes out, gagging on the smoke. As she stands Len becomes aware of a large steadily bleeding gash on her left arm by her elbow. Her foot is slightly bent inwards and Oliver isn't far behind her, punching the life out of a watcher, unlucky enough to have been left behind during Miku's apparent slaughter of mystical proportions, but was lucky enough to have been outside of the bubble of instant death that had encompassed the others.
"Here!" Oliver shouts, rushing over to help Lapis.
"Here…" Len mutters, draping Miku over his back to carry.
Yuuma's eyes widen in horror. He simply mutters one word before taking off out of the room, running faster than he can ever remember. "Shit."
"Gumi." Rin gulps.
"I don't think that's who he was worried about…" Len trails off, the horror of his own discovery seeping in. "…W-where's IA and IO?"
~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~
The two children's footsteps tremble as the two pairs of bare feet smack against various burning heaps of rubble, some intact, some not. IA's hair swings like a curtain behind her, IO's hand gripping hers so tightly she might cry out in pain if she wasn't so grateful for his presence.
"Come on!" She shouts behind her. IO picks up his pace, sweat rolling off of his face as he continues to run. IA rounds another corner, the stairway door coming into view. Her eyes light up instantly. "Almost…"
With a surge of energy her hands push open the exit door and almost immediately a loud popping sound snaps through the air with a loud booming crack. As IA's body is thrown backwards by the force of the bullet, IO stands nearly frozen in place, watching in absolute and pure horror as her body flies into the ground, smearing it with a trail of blood and seeping into her beautiful white hair.
His hands begin to shake and he ceases breathing.
The next part, now, the next part happens in nearly slow motion for the trembling demon eyed boy.
Before the woman perched in the doorway can even reload her heavy shotgun, IO has literally launched himself into the stairwell, crashing head first into her and sending the gun sprawling down the long twisting staircase.
The yellow haired woman beneath him curses loudly as IO's small, yet powerful fists crash into her face and body, flailing madly in his blind and consuming rage, slurring his words like a drunken man in a fist fight.
Lily cannot even move her hands in defense, the barrage of attacks from the surprisingly powerful little boy coming down on her like a hail storm of absolute hell fire. But this is what she has watchers for. Just as IO's thumb hits her nose with shattering consequences, a group of four watchers manage to pull the flailing boy away.
A piercing and nearly drowning high pitched buzz explodes through IO's ears as he's thrown backwards, back into the hallway and out of the stair well. Two watchers grab his arms and a third sends bullets into IO's legs and arms. He writhers in agony as the shells of the shotgun explode in his limbs and blood trickles out of his mouth.
Lily violently throws the third watcher away from IO, holding the gun herself and sending round after round smashing into the boy's chest, not even waiting for him to resurrect before emptying another bullet into his body, still lifeless.
The gun clicks.
"Someone get me some more bullets, damn it!"
"Alrighty!" A female voice chirps, emerging in the hallway in front of the three watchers and Lily. Gumi throws four empty case shells forward, and, with a blinding flash of light from a flash bomb (courtesy of Gakupo), sends Lily sprawling backwards for cover into the stairwell behind the door. Lily is still clutching her bleeding and broken nose.
Before Gumi can make a move on any of the watchers, gun shots from behind her take all three out with incredible skill. Gumi turns her head slightly to see a flash of pink hair hidden under a blank beanie hat behind her. Yuuma sucks in air with a shuddering breath of fear as his eyes find IO's body.
IA, who had been pretending to still be dead on the floor, launches herself forwards, sobbing uncontrollably as she collapses on top of IO's mangled body.
She pulls him into her chest, sobbing into his blood soaked hair. Just then Len and the last of the group come sprinting down the hallway as Yuuma turns his attention to Gumi, who, much to his dismay, is not wearing a shirt anymore.
Wrapped around her back and stomach are small dirtied pouches no bigger than a cellphone clipped around her body, secured with leather buckles and white bandages tied around her skin like an injured warrior. These pouches and layer of (once) white cloth are splattered with blood and ash. A gasmask with a shattered right lens hangs around her neck and the left leg of her black jeans ripped off and wrapped around a steadily bleeding cut on her right shoulder. Her face is smeared with blood and ash, her crowbar seemingly painted red to begin with. All of her knuckles are busted and bleeding and she will undoubtable bear a black eye tomorrow, this is even obvious through her goggles, still intact.
"Let's go." She states simply, rushing forward, past the sobbing little girl, soaked in blood, into the stairwell, sending Gumo crashing into the door, which, in turn, smashes into Lily's already broken nose. "Hurry!" Gumi screeches, pinning the yellow haired woman against the wall.
Yuuma bends, throwing IO over his shoulder and gripping IA tightly by the hand, rushing down the stairs with everyone else at his heels.
Gumi nods to Rin and the green haired girl rushes off after the group while Rin stays behind, surging forward and gripping Lily by the collar of her now blood splattered lab coat.
The furious blonde throws Lily out into the hallway as the woman screams something in a tongue unknown to Rin's ears.
"Daiben demon ugla kaitem huskaitden!"
Rin holds up her middle finger. "Screw you too, honey." She slams the door behind her, and bolts down the stairs, not daring to look back, out of fear of what she might to do Lily if left alone in a room with her.
Rin bursts into the glaring sunlight of the late afternoon, her feet slushing in the melting snow filled with dirt and shards of glass.
In front of her is a red minivan with a smashed out driver's side window. Sitting behind the wheel is Gumi.
"Next stop, the hell away from here!" Gumi screams as Len throws open the backdoor and Rin piles in, leaving the smoldering building off in the far distance.
As they pull away, Len glances down at Miku's head, resting in his lap, bumping slightly as the car speeds over rocks in the asphalt. The only thing he can think as he strokes the side of her sweaty, sleeping face is how tired she looks, even in her sleep.
~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~
Lying sprawled out on the grass near the group's latest "home", is Gumi, her arm covering her eyes as Yuuma wraps the deep gash in her arm with bandages, freshly stolen. He looks down at her dirt smudged and blood splattered face with nothing less than concern.
"Are you gonna' be okay, Gumi?" He asks as she pulls her arm away, raising an eyebrow.
"Whad'ya mean?" She asks blandly, staring up at the stars above her.
"Today. It seems like it was… especially cruel to you."
"I'm used to that." She replies as Yuuma finishes and cuts off the extra end of the gauze.
"I know. I just think that no one has cared for a long time." Gumi chuckles dryly.
"I don't need anyone too."
"I know."
Gumi laughs again, punching Yuuma roughly in the shoulder, as she walks away she mutters gently, just so he can hear. "But thanks anyways."
Gumi sits herself across from Len, who is leaning against an exceptionally large boulder, nearly cradling Miku in his lap, her head lying across his arm, his other hand running through her hair occasionally. No one really knows what happened, and no one even really cares at this point. It just isn't important right now.
Next to Len is IO, leaning against the opposite side of the rock, IA buried deep into his side, her hands squeezing roughly around his side, her palm pressed into his chest where the multiple bullets had blasted a gapping crevice-like indent in his skin. His head is leaning against hers, her eyes entirely concealed by her hair. She reaches up for IO, and whispers something nearly silently.
IO brings his head down by her ear and whispers a reply. IA tenses, then relaxes, curling deeper into IO's side, allowing her hair to fall away from her eyes like a curtain away from a window. She shudders with the cold and speaks to Len, without even looking up or moving.
"Lenny… I'm cold…" She says softly.
"I know, sweetie. We can't light a fire, though."
"Oh." Len glances around the side of the rock at her and gives her a tiny smile before looking at IO.
"But IO will keep you warm, I'm sure." IO's eyes light up and he takes Len's comment as an excuse to pull IA closer to him. He realizes suddenly that everyone is watching them together and his face turns a bright shade of red, almost as brilliant as his eyes. He moves to pull away suddenly, but IA doesn't let him.
Rin feels a hand touch her upper back, and at first recoils at the sudden contact, but then allows herself to sink into Oliver's arm, too exhausted to care if anyone is looking. The blonde girl glances at Lapis on the other side of Gumi.
"Hey, Lapis?"
"Mm?" The blue haired girl looks at her tiredly.
"Lily said something to me in a different language, I think. It sounded like…" Rin tries to think of how exactly to say it, which isn't too hard, the words seared into her mind like a bad scar. "…' Daiben demon ugla kaitem huskaitden'."
Lapis cringes at the words, touching the gem in her necklace tentatively. "Yes. I know what that means. When I was very little, back when my mother was still alive, I remember she said that to me one night before I went to bed."
"So, what does it mean?"
Lapis gulps, her face only illuminated by the pale light of the moon streaming through the thick treetops.
"'God awaits the forsaken for judgment'."
PS: CHECK YOUR ESCAPE VEHICLES TWICE.
As suggested by Awesome D.T, I will be putting up a "Favorite Chapter Pole", so if you want to include that in your review, go right ahead!
~Tiruneko ;3