Note: Sorry for a terribly slow update! I'm too busy with work and preparation for university entrance exam. Since this chapter collides a lot with anime, I have to re-watch them all too. Hopefully next chapter will be finished sooner, since it won't have much similar scene to anime. I would not write many scenes between Kuroh and Shiro in the anime unless necessary, since it would be too repetitive. Please be warned that some anime scene would be altered in this fic, since this was kinda AU. :d
"Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance."
― Yoko Ono
Their first encounter was completely ordinary.
A few days after he was selected as the new Blue King when he had just freshly graduated from esteemed university, he received an invitation letter from the one of the wisest King, none other than the Gold King. Beforehand, he had received a brief, formal phone call, explaining what had recently happened to him and the meaning of being Kings by a Gold King's private subordinate. At first, he thought it was nothing more than a prank call, but after the letter came, it finally dawned on him. He did not mention it to his parents regarding his newly awkward status bestowed upon him nor the invitation. It still felt unfamiliar to him that he could not explain his sudden change and power swirling ardently inside him. However, he was grateful for this sudden boost to climb up the political ranks since he had so much ambition for this beloved city to remain peaceful, where his family had been residing in.
Ever since he was young, he was often relied on for being the leader, though he was socially awkward. Reishi had always loved to be depended on, to be trusted with heavy responsibilities. He had more than multiple times of experience being selected as the president of student councils, though he sometimes wondered if he was able to do much more than taking care of a large group of students. As if a random deity answered his wishes, this time he would assume a position nothing like he had experienced before; the throne of the King, which was profoundly weighed down with responsibilities of the world.
For the first step, the young blue king intended to pay the respect to the elder and make good impression, thus in early morning he had left the house on the mentioned day. He had departed early, hoping that the commuter train would be spacious enough. Nevertheless, unexpectedly the trains were out of service that day, and he had to wait for another hour. It would be wasteful to take a cab to reach Gold King's residence since he still had a lot of time to spare. He patiently waited, but when the trains were finally functioning, they were terribly crowded with students and office workers.
Being quick to his feet, he easily got a seat inside the train. Nevertheless, once he spotted an elder on board, he swiftly stood aside and guided her to his previous seat. Seeing that his destination was still quite distance, he scurried near to the exit door to make himself comfortable without being squeezed by mass of people. Pulling out his book from his bag, Reishi drowned into his world of silence.
He was too focused on reading that he did not notice who got on or off the train. When the train suddenly bent a little on a turn, he was not prepared for people in front of him losing their balance and falling on him like domino cards. He nearly yelped in surprise someone breached his personal space by being so close to his face, although that person successfully prevented himself from leaning on Reishi. A pair of muscular arms was on the sides of his head, pressing on the train glass door, supporting the owner from falling. His broad back halted the people behind him from tumbling further and thus prevented them from knocking Reishi down. He glanced up to see the stranger, and his mind was lost in astonishment. The red hair was like the scorching flame and his eyes were gold, like the brilliant sun. Totally befitting of the man, Reishi thought. This man was really like a sun, especially with his appeal radiating blatantly. When he noticed his surroundings, people were watching at that stranger with adoring gaze, like how he had appreciated the magnificence just now.
Pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, Reishi murmured a quiet 'Thank you'. That man on his fur black jacket slightly nodded in acknowledgment, barely showing indication that he listened to him. He did not comment for such discourteous manner. He could not expect everyone to be as refined as he was, and that stranger had helped him so he paid no heed to that man's ignorance. Stealing a short glance, he felt a little spark inside him. He occasionally felt such spark when he was too emotional ever since he possessed the Blue Aura, but this time was different. This spark was more like a morning alarm, not strong enough to make him trembling in excitement, but not weak enough to stay unnoticed. He could not discern the meaning of this spark as it was first for him to feel such. He tried to dismiss such feeling by reading on his book and shutting the world out. Nonetheless, he could feel a piercing stare from that stranger that made him uncomfortable.
Luckily, that red-haired man alighted on the next station, though he still looked back at him briefly as he dismounted from the train. When Reishi could no longer see that man, he let out a loud sigh he had been holding back, mumbling to himself. "Seriously, what was that?"
He finally grasped the hint of that spark once he met the Gold King. When the new king met the elder, the latter was pretty much hostile for an initial greeting. Despite his age, the Gold King appeared to be still in his prime health. Reishi was about to bow in respect for the elder when he heard the snap sound of a fan in Daikaku's hand, and without warning, the white-haired King summoned his celestial power and assaulted him mercilessly.
Reishi was not accustomed to his power yet, and the sudden attack put him off guard, but he instinctively erected the transient sapphire wall in front of him just in time as he flinched. A meteor struck his defense, and he marveled when he was left unscathed. He gathered his composure, and when the next burning space stars went straight toward him incessantly, he focused in forming finer barrier like a dome around him. When he saw a smirk on Daikaku's face, Reishi realized that the elder was testing his ability and at the same time, giving him opportunity to test out the extent of his Aura. He finally remained calm as Daikaku persisted on attacking him, provoking him. Without wasting his chance, he attempted to see the Blue Aura for offense. There was not much he could do to inflict damage on Daikaku, since his aura was more for defense. But in war strategy, even best defense could be the best offense. He tried to expand his barrier to suppress the Gold Aura to no avail. He could expect nothing less from the second King though.
As sudden as his assault, Daikaku spontaneously stopped attacking him and hid his Sword of Damocles with another snap of his fan. He grinned pleasantly, when the new blue king sighed involuntarily for abrupt tranquility. "Welcome, the fourth King, the Blue King." And then there was a quiet spark rising from his chest, it made him uncomfortable.
Daikaku seemed to understand what had troubled him that he answered without being asked as he sat on the seat pillow on the straw mat, "You must have wondered the meaning of that feeling, palpitating inside you, no?" Reishi was stunned for a moment before he nodded slowly and followed the lead to sit across each other. "The Kings power resonates with each other. Thus, when you encounter another King, the Aura will alert you of his presence, getting ready to be called forth if the other King tries to attack you unless the latter conceals his Aura."
That reminded Reishi back to his previous incident in the train. Was that red-haired man with brilliant charisma actually a King? That explained the feeling of enchantment from him. Afterward, the meeting went smoothly as the Gold King explained his responsibilities should he up to the task. He was more than willing to take the role as a King to lead and protect his city that he stated he would lead as the Captain of Scepter 4. He had heard the neglected fate of Scepter 4 and Reishi was determined to pull it out of the mud and brought it to its deserved glory.
Afterward, months passed him by as he began his exhausting work and recruited new, talented people to his team. His little incident with unknown King in the train that day left forgotten. However, fate was such an irony, for suddenly he met that man once again when he was finally trusted to supervise HOMRA, the official clan of Red King. The local police had just given up since those people possessed the extraordinary power bestowed by their King and normal people could not stand a chance against them. They were nothing different from mafia in Reishi's book, keeping other groups from trespassing their districts. Reishi would pay no attention on them since they assisted in keeping peace from shadow inadvertently and he had tons of workload to worry about if they did not actually destroy public property wherever they went.
The second time he saw those sharp gold eyes, the familiar spark flickered inside him, echoing louder than before with each encounters. He spent months of denying his attraction until he finally decided to be on term with his peculiar, nagging feeling. He admitted only to himself that he had crush on Suoh Mikoto, in platonic way and it would remain so. The other man himself looked disinterested most of the time at seeing him, so he would not worry of developing further feeling. As time passed by, his interest on Mikoto would jade and things would be in perfect balance once again.
Everything went down into silent chaos when Mikoto seemed to notice his hidden secret from little affectionate glances or gestures behind stoic mask. Everyone would think that the leader of HOMRA simply lived how he wanted freely and did not pay attention to the rest of people as a King would be to his vassals, just as Reishi thought too. Therefore, it surprised him when out of blue, Mikoto grabbed his hand with a sword in it during their petty fight, separated away from their subordinates and confronted him without batting an eye. Reishi denied it almost instantly, but Mikoto just loved to annoy him that he took that moment to brush his lips against the latter and smirked unceremoniously as Reishi abruptly rubbed his lips with his sleeve, pretending that it was nothing to influence him. Then HOMRA's leader whirled around and retreated back from their battle without care. The Blue King was determined to have his retribution though; he hated to lose more than anything.
From brief kiss laced with humiliation and revenge, it led to convenient sexual partner over months. Reishi could not even recall what started their indistinct romantic affiliation at that point. They were absolutely enemies, but when King status was stripped away from them, only twisted men remained; taking advantage of each other, putting salt on each other's wound, condemning each other of their solitary lives. At the corner of his mind, a small voice asked him if he did not make a mistake for not ending their awkward acquaintance but he shrugged it off, thinking of it simply as a routine. What was between him and Mikoto nothing more than fleeting attraction as equal Kings and he would be able to maintain the balance of his feelings, to his conceit.
He began to realize the demise of his ignorance after the death of Totsuka Tatara. Mikoto was too occupied with revenge business; all he could see was red and certainly blue color was not in it. Then he realized that he missed Suoh's companion which he had gotten used to, and his heart twanged when Suoh wordlessly broke him up. Missed calls left unanswered, glances and meetings were ignored, questions left unanswered. But things had happened and if Suoh had moved on, so would he, even if half-heartedly. Even when Suoh went to Scepter 4 HQ willingly for confinement, he spared no more affection for such desperate man waiting for his end. Reishi would still be his so-called friend at best, because he understood how heavy it was to be a King and how lonesome it was, but he would not return to that abominable relationship with current Suoh. He did not recognize a dying Red King who had succumbed to the temptation of his emotion. The man he once loved was no longer there.
At that thought, an airy spirit basked in light appeared behind him, smiling like warm star. "So why did you try so hard to save him?"
Reishi whirled around to see his sudden guest to find nothing around him. That was when he sensed the ripple of his consciousness back to him.
He found himself behind steel bars like in the prisons. As he glanced up, there was a canopy above him, connecting to those bars. This place was apparently a birdcage-like prison. The surrounding outside was painted in pristine blinding white. As far as he extended his arm through the bars, there was no sensation filling him.
When he looked around more carefully, there was a small wooden table and a chair in the middle of nothingness. He approached it slowly, trying to see it more clearly without his glasses. The only thing found on the table was a little hourglass, which the sand trickling from top to the bottom glass. However, no matter how much time passing, the sand itself seemed to never run out. He tried to lift the hourglass up, wondering if something would happen if he flipped it, but it could not even be removed from the table, despite his hard effort to pull it out. Reishi panted lightly from exertion, trying to understand the whole meaning of this as he sat down on the only chair. The minute he relaxed himself to ponder, extreme exhaustion flooded his sense and before he could stop himself, he had drowned back into black oblivion.
Yata tapped his foot impatiently as he waited. At first he was more than enthusiastic when Mikoto briefly ordered them to find out the culprit who had hurt Tatara. No one would live unscathed once they hurt his important family. He thought nothing but blood lust for revenge. However, when Tatara was discharged from hospital with an arm sling and his usual fresh spirit, he finally found out the whole reason of searching might be entirely different from what he had expected.
It was national secret that the Blue King was wounded and was currently in critical state (although Kusanagi and Mikoto did not exactly hide it from them either). He had assumed that Mikoto felt indebted to his rival king for saving Tatara, thus he was chasing the criminal to pay back and bring him justice. After all, Mikoto never liked being indebted. Normally he would be more than happy to hear the bad news befalling on Scepter 4, since it would mean that Scepter 4 would be less harassing at trying to contain HOMRA. And hopefully his best-, no, his ex-best friend would open his eyes that he belonged in HOMRA and probably returned to his previous family to fix his err. If Saruhiko indeed did that and apologized to him on his knees, maybe he would forget the past and resume their friendship again.
But weeks had passed and they had started to catch the trail of the criminal and he still had not seen any sign of Saruhiko resigning from that abominable organization. What was so special about being Blue Clansmen that Saruhiko would even break what they had, just for the sake of joining in their ranks? He had met him accidentally more than once, but they ended up bickering and fighting like usual. It seemed that they could not restore what had been broken after all, and if he had to be honest, it broke his heart. A little. Or maybe more.
And Misaki felt guilty as well for saying the wrong words that initiated another fight with Saruhiko. However, this time was different, he could feel it. Usually Saruhiko would only give him a mocking look, or possibly a long, bored stare. But when he accidentally blurted out that Munakata was in the brink of life and death, and Saruhiko was a fool to follow a dead man, he could see cold fury behind those blue eyes as they glared at each other. He thought Munakata was a cold man that not even his subordinates would feel anything toward his death; how wrong he was. If Blue Clansmen indeed did not have any feeling toward him, they would never be his Clansmen. Misaki could not understand though what Saruhiko saw in Blue King that he would go with him instead of with the great Mikoto.
He perfectly understood that HOMRA was indebted to Scepter 4 in some way for saving Tatara, since he was irreplaceable. Everyone in HOMRA was irreplaceable of course, but Tatara was special. If anyone asked who the right hand of Red King was, they would quickly state Kusanagi's name proudly. However, Tatara was the one who kept the flame in HOMRA warm and fuzzy, instead of scorching and devastating. His fire was beautiful, although weak; the dancing flame butterfly, as mesmerizing as illusion. Such power was useless in battle, but it would distract anyone by its beauty. If he was gone, he could only imagine how HOMRA would be in rampage. His blood boiled in anticipation for such moment, but at the same time, he was afraid of the consequence. Fire burned when there was still oxygen, eventually it would die out. When the rampage and the bloody thrill ended, who knew how many people left in HOMRA being alive? He shuddered at the thought.
It would be appropriate of him to do favor for Scepter 4 for that debt. Maybe he should try to be a little bit more lenient and calm the next time he met Saruhiko. It was appalling, but he should show his appreciation a little bit toward the one who had saved Tatara. Even Tatara himself requested of him to be on good term with Scepter 4, so he would at least make an attempt to fulfill his wish.
Misaki snapped out of his thought when Bandou tapped his shoulder while wheezing, "Misaki-san, you are too fast." The larger man tried to catch up with his breathing before he continued, "This ain't gonna work. This place is too huge." The red haired boy clicked his tongue in annoyance and whirled around with his skateboard on his arm as he walked away. "Let's go, we'll look around harder. We need to find that bastard."
As they walked, there were two pretty girls in uniform standing not far from them. Yata only threw them a short glance before he intended to leave them alone. After all, he did not know how to treat girls. They were like porcelains, beautiful but fragile. You had to respect them, and may admire them, but since he only knew violence, he was not confident in handling a girl, including Anna. They might break with his little touch. But without thinking twice, Bandou asked them in such threatening voice that it annoyed Yata for his rudeness. His cavalry side took over and he hit Bandou's head for his behavior while those girls made their escape away from them. "I keep saying it! You don't even threaten a lady!"
"Still being a little virgin white knight, huh?"
That familiar voice instantly infuriated him. He slowly turned around and as expected, the man he had wanted to kill all this time was standing carelessly behind him. "You bastard…"
Suddenly he recalled what Tatara had asked of him for treating Scepter 4 kindly, without exception. Yata cursed under his breath and inhaled deeply. He clenched his teeth, bracing for the hardest battle ever in century and made weak, fake smile toward his old nemesis. "Y-Yo, Saruhiko! What are you doing here?"
The latter looked surprised and raised an eyebrow at his sudden change at heart. Being friendly with current Saruhiko was asking too much of him! Even Saruhiko stared at him as if he had just grown another head! What a bastard…he had tried so hard to reconcile and yet Saruhiko looked down at him like looking at a monkey. The raven head shrugged and smirked at them, "Fancy meeting you here. I bet Anna helped you to find this place? You probably decide to act on your own again, right? You never change."
Looking annoyed, Misaki retorted back. "Shut the fuck up. I'm doing a favor for you, okay? Stop talking like you know me."
Saruhiko was stunned for a moment before he sneered, "A favor? What can you do on your own, little Misaki?" He pushed his eyeglasses to the bridge of his nose and asked again, "Before that, how did you manage to sneak in here? The security is tight here. Where is your pass?"
"It's none of your business!" Misaki yelled back. Why should Saruhiko be irritating even when he tried to be nice for once? He even tried to hold back from telling him off not to use his first name so casually. Misaki exerted the last straw of his patience and walked toward Saruhiko slowly, "So, have you found the guy? We've asked around and no one seemed to know him." He glanced through his shoulder to look at Bandou behind him, who nodded in agreement as a reply.
Saruhiko snorted. Somehow today Yata was not easily aggravated and now he had nowhere to let off some steam. He shrugged; guess it was not his day. His brain told him that it would be for the best since he was not in his prime condition either. He had stayed awake for whole three nights with help of countless cups of black coffee to hack into private and public surveillance to find Colorless King's location since it was difficult to seek legal approval without King's personal request.
Ever since the day they encountered the supposedly Colorless King, Seri had resumed all Captain's responsibility into her hands. Unexpectedly she was much a tyrant compared to Captain when it was related to her job and the workload and responsibility obviously increased tremendously.
When Captain was still around, he often pushed most of his work to Seri and him, to Fushimi's chagrin, while he spent time in luxury to play with his puzzles. Despite of that, though the youngest commander still had to stay overtime to finish all his and the rest of Scepter 4's reports back then, it was nothing comparable to days where Captain was inactive. These days, even all Scepter 4 members had to stay behind since none of the works were finished. It dawned on him that though Captain loved to procrastinate with his paper works, he often took the most efficient method to cut the chase, and thus shortened their investigation time and effort. Furthermore, he was more lenient to mistakes compared to Seri since he had always calculated human errors in his plans. Now that their King was out of duty, Scepter 4 was in the brink of collapsing due to extreme exhaustion. The only thing that kept most of them going on was their pertinence to even the score for their King.
However, one thing seemed to change for better turn after the misfortune befallen to Blue King. It surprised him when Misaki attempted to make peaceful chat with him longer than a minute and said that Howling Flame had full intention in assisting Scepter 4 to chase the Colorless King. He thought HOMRA put up the bounty over the culprit's head for the sake of avenging Tatara alone. This would be the first time in history for HOMRA for supporting Scepter 4 in their investigation on their own volition. Regardless their good intention, he could never agree with how HOMRA did their things though. Fushimi sighed as he recalled his tiring days on front of his laptop, trying to tone down the chaos on the internet filled with groundless rumors after HOMRA hacked into public media and played the video on the event night. If anything, HOMRA only added another pile of works to his desk, instead of helping him.
"Of course, you couldn't find him. You never use your brain, Misaki." Fushimi snorted soundly and put his left hand that was in his sword before to his waist. Apparently for once, Misaki was being mature and ignored his challenge. "This island is big. You will be looking for him for a year and still miss him out."
Misaki clicked his tongue, irritated at Fushimi's remark. He folded his arms in front of his chest, while leaning to his skateboard. "Speak for yourself. Despite all those privileges and authority you are so pride of, I bet you still haven't found the guy as well. You waste too much time in stupid things like regulations. I doubt you can even catch him before your Captain died."
"Yata-san!"
Misaki gasped, and put his hand to his mouth when he realized his grave mistake. Kusanagi and Tatara had warned him not to speak of Munakata's condition, let alone revealing it. And yet, now not only he had stated the national secret in public place, he even said the taboo words. Luckily no other students was around, thus no one heard him. But now he was still deep in the mud since Fushimi growled darkly with a twisted smile. "Whose fault do you think it is? If Mikoto is even doing his job, this won't happen. You people always talk big."
The red vanguard twitched at the offensive remark about Mikoto and was about to snap back when Bandou tapped his shoulder and shook his head. "Whatever he says, you should still apologize, Yata-san."
Misaki looked furious for a moment before he lowered his gaze and gritted his teeth. "It's not Mikoto-san's fault." He started, and hurriedly went on, "I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have said that. Your Captain saved Tatara. We will return the favor."
Fushimi was observing them for a while darkly before he suddenly muttered under his breath. "If you want to help, surrender him to Scepter 4 once you got the guy." Fushimi tilted his head threateningly. Misaki relaxed a bit in relief; it seemed like an apology was accepted. However, after a long silent, he quietly replied, "I can't do that."
"What? You're taking back your words now?"
"He hurts Tatara, so we will punish him before we can hand him over to you."
Fushimi clicked his tongue again and pondered for a bit before he decided. "Fine by me. It doesn't matter whether he is in one piece or not. He will be socially dead anyway." Misaki felt slight shudder on his spine as the latter snickered like a mad man in unruffled demeanor. It would seem that Scepter 4 had every intention to ignore the culprit's human right by force. "Don't break him too bad."
Misaki glanced at Bandou and the latter stared at him in agreement, before the red-headed boy averted his eyes back to the stormy blue ones. "Can't promise that, but we will hand him alive."
At that, Misaki whirled around and made his leave from the school yard along with his partner. Not long afterward, Seri arrived on the almost-to-be battlefield stage along with the other members with a curious long stare at the escaping backs of HOMRA's vanguard. "I thought you would fight Yatagarasu again."
Fushimi averted his eyes, avoiding eye contact with his supervisor. "Well, I don't. Or do you want me to?" Seri shook her head and rewarded him with a rather sweet smile.
"No, I'm glad that you behave well." Her smile did not last long. She began making her way back to HQ and Fushimi obediently followed by her side. "So, do you have anything to tell me?"
Fushimi scratched his head and feigned his innocence. "What?"
"Don't try to fool me." Seri glared at him lightly for his weak attempt to deceive her. "I know that you were hacking to school's data base, right? So, is he a student here?"
Fushimi recalled the moment when he had finished cross-matching the Colorless King photo to the students' profiles. The screen disheartened him a bit; it showed 'No match found'. It seemed their investigation was still fruitless. He suddenly remembered Misaki's remark of them being unable to find the culprit because of their time wasted in regulations and those words infuriated him like a cold fire inside because he knew that it was the truth.
"No, he is not one of the students here." He inertly revealed.
Seri clipped her golden hair up neatly and tidied her blue uniform as she prepared herself. Tracing her scabbard gently with her point finger, she solemnly composed herself to focus. This time without fail she would do her utmost ability to defeat the Colorless King. Fushimi had stationed himself on the outer perimeter, giving her support from outside, in case they failed to bring the Colorless King into custody, especially since Black Dog, Yatogami was with him.
A few days had passed after their latest visit to Ashinaka Island when they had by coincidence captured a young man similar to Colorless King in one of surveillance in the city. It was all thanks to Fushimi. It was his forte to work his way with technology and it had helped her a lot in their pursuit of Colorless King. Now they had found him on the way to the empty soccer field. She still could not figure out the reason for them to be in such unoccupied place, but it would benefit her since she did not have to put up perimeter to ascertain the safety of citizens if they had to use force to contain the criminal.
She took off from the container truck with surveillance monitors inside and stood in front of her squad. "Our target is Colorless King. Do not falter and stay focused. We will make him pay for what he has done to Scepter 4."
The rest of the squad nodded with a strong fortitude as they all put their hands in their scabbards.
As they made their way to the entrance of the sport dome, Seri glanced up to see the cloudless night sky without a glimmer of moonlight as it drizzled. The crystal droplets fell on her face, down to her chin, making her look as if she had cried. Or maybe it was true, since her heart was indeed crying ever since the fateful day she failed to protect her King. As long as the Colorless King roamed in the city without care, her shame for her failure to protect would keep tormenting her.
"Wait for us, Captain. We will finish what we have failed that night so when you return, everything would be as peaceful as how you always want." She whispered under her breath as the night breeze carried her wish away to the far place. Not long after, she whirled on her heels and strode her way to the inner part of the dome.
As she had expected, two young men stood peacefully in the middle of dark wet field. The silver-haired man, who she had been searching high and low, was slightly hidden by his crimson traditional umbrella. He seemed to be talking to his vassal, but she could not hear them due to the large distance between them. It was her chance; he was too occupied to notice her presence. She gave a signal to let her men to take position while some of them followed her to encounter the Colorless King. Finally, she had been waiting for this day. The day when she could finally meet that King again and this time she would not only observe from far. She at last was able to fight him herself.
She raised her right hand to the air and suddenly all the lights on the dome were turned on the same time, blinding the wanted persons in the field. Seri walked slowly before the silver-haired student and Yatogami, standing in the way to their only exit. The blonde took a deep breath before she exclaimed loudly, "Yatogami Kuroh and his accomplice! This is Scepter4. In accordance with Article 2 of the Supernatural Regulation Exemption Act, we are taking you into custody!" She pressed a button on her PDA and a hologram of Scepter 4's crest appeared in the air as a proof of their identity.
As expected from the criminal, the raven-head man instantly refused to humor them. She did not waste more time before she put her squad in battle stance. As she was about to make her first strike, she felt an instant interference from unknown, and suddenly she found herself in the middle of lively city junction in the daylight. "What?!"
Her squads were as confused as she was and it appeared that their communication signal was also lost. Someone had hindered with their perceptions. "Could it be…a strain?" She thought to herself. To confirm her theory, she lightly touched on the passing pedestrian nearby and the businessman she was in contact with vanished into thin air with fluttering pink petals. She quickly organized perimeter seal and as soon as her order was executed, she could hear a surprised yelp from Domyoji and Kamo's direction. Almost in reflex, she threw a long vertical slash, just about hitting the Black Dog in the process. She prepared herself to engage Yatogami alone and waited for the man to take out his sword. However, her opponent did not even make a move to use his sword and he even told her off that he would not use his precious weapon to fight her. She harrumphed grumpily. How dare he to look down on her? Seri took another step as she retorted back as she thrust her sword, "Then, you shall be slain by the likes of me!" How she would love that. This man had hindered her from her delivering retribution to the Colorless King.
Nevertheless, after exchanging blows with the Black Dog, she realized her limitation in fighting him in par. It seemed that the vassal of previous Colorless King was indeed not to be taken light of. She clicked her tongue in annoyance at her ineptitude but she would never back down from her battle even if the battle outcome looked grim. As the second commander, she had to live up to Scepter 4's reputation.
On the outer perimeter, with a brief look, Fushimi was able to see how the battle would end. He would not doubt Seri's ability as a person in charge and her sword skill. Nonetheless, Yatogami's swordsmanship was highly exceeding her and it would be a matter of time before Seri failed to keep her defense and faltered on the battle field. If he joined in the battle, there would be no one left to guard the exit if Colorless King was able to slip through the squad inside and they would fail their mission atrociously. If only the Captain was here, they would quickly turn the table and outwitted them.
He was still measuring the risk and benefit of his options when suddenly his squad yelped in surprise and stuttered as he looked up to the third commander. "C-commander! The Howling Flame!"
Fushimi hurriedly turned his gaze to the monitor to confirm before he climbed off the container truck to verify with his own eyes. To his surprise, there was Suoh Mikoto walking lazily in the middle of the road to their direction with a few of his clansmen behind him. He threw off the cigarette between his lips carelessly to the brick road before he stubbed it out with his foot.
Fushimi was slightly taken back by the view. He wondered if HOMRA actually tailed them to find the Colorless King's location or if it was all thanks to Anna. He unconsciously scratched the burn mark on his upper left chest. As much as he despised breathing the same air with the pretentious clan, the power of King here was extremely valuable in their current circumstance. As the Red King stood regal in front of him, Fushimi glared at the straight-faced King, "What do you want here?"
Kusanagi took that moment to step in front of Mikoto as the representative with his phone on his hand. "I know that our clan is always in dispute. But now that we have the common enemy and we see that he brings so much trouble to you, we humbly offer you some assistance."
Fushimi snorted at that and looked deadpan as he answered, "You mean by destroying public property in the progress? No thanks, you only give us trouble."
Without waiting, Suoh sighed and ignored the young raven-haired commander and trotted his way to the entrance of the dome. Kusanagi slapped his forehead and exhaled, knowing his King so well that he would behave as such. "Mikoto, we should at least greet the public officers."
Fushimi grumbled but he made no effort to stop Mikoto from getting his way. If anything, this would change the situation for better or for worse and as much as he detested it, Suoh Mikoto was the best bet he could have for a moment. While the Red King slipped in without putting much effort, Kusanagi gave a curt nod to the rest of HOMRA to follow their king and smiled at Fushimi diplomatically as he stayed behind. "Now, how could we assist you from here?"
Fushimi looked at him menacingly before he gave in and made a gesture to let the amber-haired bartender to follow him. "I could use you in surveillance team."
Kusanagi shrugged and followed as he replied half-heartedly, "I'm more than that, you know."
Seri failed to find her balance to avoid the striking fist from Yatogami and his attack was almost connected to her chin when the young vassal abruptly stopped his attack when a red Sword of Damocles floated in the air, with blazing red Aura engulfing it. The moment it made its entrance, bits by bits the illusion was taken down, returning the background to the green field. All the members in the dome were entranced by its magnificence despite some small cracks on it. Under the sword, Mikoto stood still, inhaling another cigarette deeply into his lungs with his hands in his waist.
Yatogami hurriedly jumped back to keep their distance, knowing that this would be a difficult battle to come. He reached for his sword, prepared to pull it out any second the battle started as he stated his opponent's name to Isana, "The Red King, Suoh Mikoto." In contrary, Seri gasped at the sudden interference from HOMRA. How could she find herself in such worst situation? She already had difficulty in detaining the Black Dog, now she also had the violent Red King to handle in her hands. Surely no one could make her life easier.
"Step away, woman." Mikoto started, without even looking at her. "I'll handle this."
Seri was about to snap back when suddenly Yatagarasu pulled her hand to stop her getting in Mikoto's way. "We are here to help you. Kusanagi-san is outside, giving Saru a hand."
She only raised an eyebrow but she did not comment further and stepped back on the line with the Red Clansmen. Mikoto took a deep breath of his smoke before he exhaled into the air and sudden red Aura burst out from his body into every direction, burning the illusion down. Even the strain cat returned into her naked human form, and she rapidly hid herself behind the silver-haired murderer. "So you are the one who causes this…," Mikoto murmured as his eyes rested on Neko.
Without wasting any second of it, Mikoto rushed with a twisted smile in his face to deliver a blow of crimson flame toward Isana. Yatogami quickly defended the man with his scabbard and he barely was able to parry it. A sweat dropped down from his forehead and the vassal of Colorless King nearly yelled at Isana to make his run while he held Mikoto off. He used his shadow hand to disable the Scepter 4's members who were guarding the exit. "Go!"
"But!" Isana did not have any chance to speak his mind as Neko quickly grabbed for his hand and dragged him to the exit.
Mikoto only stared blankly at the running back of Isana, beyond Yatogami. He did not need to tell his Clansmen to chase them down. Yata quickly led them to hunt down the one who was hurting Totsuka. Only Yatogami, Mikoto, Seri and the rest of Scepter 4 were left in the field.
"I see that you don't mind to die then." Sneering at the young man, Mikoto rushed forward and aimed his fist at Kuroh. Seri was in awe to see the lightning speed of his movement, quite comparable to Munakata. The latter quickly blocked his attack, but he was not fast enough to handle the rest of his flame assaults. The Red King almost wanted to praise the young vassal to be able to hold some of his fire, though one hit managed to land on Kuroh's stomach. The raven-haired man coughed a little blood with ragged breathing while Mikoto watched impassively. This fight was so child-like that he could not get his blood boiled. It was almost as if he was bullying the weak. With the back of his hand, the Black Dog wiped away the blood from his lips. Mikoto tilted his head a little bit as he stifled a yawn, "Won't you pull out your sword already?"
Kuroh looked as if he was in dilemma to pull out his sword. Mikoto snorted without mercy and on the next second, he had vanished from Kuroh's view, jumping high in the air while directing his blows into Kuroh's head. Reflexively he dodged out of the way by jumping backward and small crater was formed on the ground where he was standing before, but Mikoto did not give him enough time to prepare himself to defend his next blow. His punch connected to Kuroh's cheek and a noise of cracking bone echoed so loudly that even Seri flinched at the sound.
The Colorless King's vassal was lying on the ground on his stomach, struggled to recover from the hit and stand, but before he could do so, Mikoto treaded on his back forcefully and grabbed for Kuroh's head. "Now tell me, is he the assassin? Is he really the Colorless King?" Totsuka had told him that Munakata directed the young student as Colorless King on that fated night. Mikoto was surprised at first, but now he had the chance to confirm it.
Kuroh swiftly whirled around to land a blow on Mikoto on slightest opening, but the latter was quick on his feet that he kicked hard the young man on the back of his left knee. The black head once again knelt on the ground, gritting his teeth to bear with the pain. Kuroh braved himself to look up at his enemy and said provocatively, "I am about to find out. No one will lay a hand on him until I figure it out."
"I'm not a patient man," Mikoto started with a cold stare, "Is he really worth for you to risk your life?"
The opponent in front of him briefly smiled almost in pathetic manner that Mikoto was ready to put him out of his misery, when suddenly the lights from the arena were out and they were left in the darkness. Mikoto blinked twice to adjust his sight with the sudden environment change and from the corner of his eyes, there was a glimmer of white light enveloping Isana from the seating area of the stadium. He stood out so much like a firefly in the dark. The red-head King growled happily at the sight. "So you're also ready to die?"
Kuroh looked anguished upon the sight of Isana coming back for him. The fool had wasted his effort in stalling time to let Isana escape and now that nothing stood between Mikoto and Isana, without doubt, the Red King would slaughter him without a shred of compassion.
"Well, I guess I can't just leave my friends behind, can I?" Isana smiled sadly as he witnessed the terrible injuries his friend had. The leader of HOMRA impassively laid his eyes on his prey. Somehow Isana looked different to the one in the video; a little bit meek and more like a liar instead of a murderer, but he decided as long as they shared similar face, he would not bother with the details.
The silver haired man put his hands together in front of his face, making an apology gesture. "I'm sorry Kuroh for lying to you all this time! The truth is…This is who I am." A glow of white light appeared from his hand, and it grew larger into a form of a sword, mimicking the Sword of Damocles basked in the blinding light as it rose high in the air to Mikoto's surprise. Apparently he was not the only one who was astounded by sudden shocking sight that everyone nearby tilted their heads up to observe the new sword joining in the air. In the next instant, Isana threw a wide-ranged light attack toward Mikoto that he quickly parried it off with his Red Aura. Their powers collided against each other, defending and attacking at the same time. Taking his chance, Kuroh hastily got himself out of Mikoto's restrain and landed a blow on his cheek before he made his run toward the exit.
The Auras swirled against each other in equal strength and vanished into thin air. In a blink of eye, Isana had evaporated, leaving only the pink lights and flower petals in the wind. Mikoto brushed away the trickle of blood from a cut on his lips when Kuroh hit him and spat out the blood. He was quiet for a moment, trying to contain his anger. Not only Colorless King tricked him like a fool with such illusion, the Black Dog even managed to land a hit on him. He closed his eyes for a brief moment before his Aura blazed brighter around him and he started to join the hunting game on his slow pace. Seri was about to hold him up from going berserk, but the bloodlust look in Mikoto's expression stopped her.
"Ma'am, should we stop him?" Her squad decided to ask. A slight tremble could be heard from her voice as she answered, "No. Leave him be." The rest of Scepter 4 nodded in acknowledgement and sheathed back their swords before they assembled together to assist the squads on outer perimeter.
Meanwhile, Kuroh had united with Isana and made his way through the outer perimeter of Scepter 4 and the group of Howling Flame. Even escaping was taking most of his energy since he had to disable HOMRA's members as well to make his way out. Neko had been exerting her ability by manipulating the sensory perception of people around her to help them flee that her face was a bit pale and exhausted. They had been running for quite some distance away from the dome, but their greatest threat was a King, so they could not stay relaxed.
However, even breathing started to feel painful on Kuroh's chest that he leaned with his back against the wall, sliding down to seat on the dirty and small dark alley. He would not let people to see his weakness that he calmly told them that he would be fine. As they waited, Isana solemnly brought up the topic of Neko's ability as a strain and as a result, Kuroh had to explain to him that there was highly possible that Isana's memory was all fabricated, manipulated by none other than the strain pink-haired girl. Nevertheless, there was no fear or misery on Isana's face as he learned the truth. He even inquired Neko to return all of his memories to him, despite the consequences he might have to bear.
And the scenes of his past all were all rewound like a scroll of a boring movie of his daily life up to when he first met the cat strain on the full moon night on a mattress inside Ashinaka's gymnastic storage room. With a gentle persuasion, Neko once again used her power and he was shocked at his own memories.
The setting abruptly changed into a windy bright night. Barely hanging on a plane's exit, Isana could feel the harsh blowing wind toying with his small figure which was floating in the high sky with no ground under his feet. He could sense the fear grasping his heart as he was about to fall from a flying plane. Normally, any human would instantly die from falling from such height. He started to lose the feeling and strength on his hands when suddenly a silver-haired handsome man stood in front of him and sneered maliciously as he stomped on Isana's hands, "Bye!"
On that instant, Isana snapped open his eyes and looked at his friends with perplexity apparent in his face. He could feel like finding a missing piece of a puzzle, but he could not recognize its shape. "Who…was that?"
Yeah, I know, this chapter is kinda boring. I tried to fill in the gaps where Munakata should have appeared in the anime, so this chapter is almost like a review to the anime episodes as well, LOL. I'll try better next chapter. Feel free to kick me for being slow fanfic writer. I'm determined to finish next chapter in two weeks (that's the best I can do, sorry). Hopefully. :d Thank you for all your supports that keep me motivated to write even in blue days! :D *throws chocolates around*
AkiFushi: I'm glad that you like some changes! I can't bear to kill Munakata (since I'm already depressed when they decide to kill Mikoto) and this is a fanfic so…Main pairing will never die! Muhahaha! *cough* Hope you will have a little bit pleasure with this boring chapter. ^^
Viviane1993: Sorry for not be able to fulfill your wish. T_T I-I've been trying hard to type whenever I can but before I know it, a month has passed. Sorry…Hope you can forgive me with this update?
YaoiLord: Thanks! XD Please stay tuned for the next climax!
VioletKing: Well…I can't insert lots of Sarumi here since I still have to follow with some of anime's plot, but there are lots of hints! I-I hope it will please you a bit?
black. : Thank you! ^_^ I'm relieved that you find it interesting with some alterations with anime's plot, hohoh.
Cecile: Euh…I'm trying my best so Reishi would not be such a typical weak uke because that would be boring and his charisma would be a waste. (I actually think of him as a Tsundere, lol lol) But I prefer to make them equal, which they can easily switch between seme and uke. (Though in current chapter, it's still MikoRei) So I might not be able to satisfy your ReiMiko desire for a moment. :D Sorry about that.