Song playlist: Wings by Birdy
Chapter 18
Alternative
/ɒl ˈtɜ ː.nə.tɪv/
1. being one of two mutually exclusive choices or courses of action
2. a substitute or other
3. existing outside traditional or established institutions or systems
The winter sunlight was reflecting off Ferid's hair, sharpening the surface strands from grey to wicked silver. In comparison Guren's hair was hidden carefully beneath a black hood that obscured his eyes.
Ferid was leaning against a broken safety rail with a file of papers being turned through with his fingernails.
"-so he failed, did he? My, that isn't really a surprise at all considering-"
Guren's shoulders felt wearily heavy. His fingers were rubbing against the starched edge of his trouser pockets as Ferid carried on talking.
"-send him to the frontlines as planned anyway, I'm sure you'll think of a way partner. I have a secret surprise that'll give him the shock of his life-"
It was strange how from the roof of this collapsed building, standing in the disaster scene that was the outside world, the sky was still fine and clear. As if to spite Guren's thought, a few storm clouds drifted into his line of sight from the edge of the horizon.
"Oh? Leaving already? What a terrible conversation partner I have to put up with," Ferid's voice followed him down the stairwell like a persistent plague. Guren could hear him call out from the open broken door, "Good work as usual, Mr Lieutenant!"
He very deliberately did not walk any faster.
A crow perched on the netted fence flapped its black wings as Ferid's musical laugh chimed through the air. Startled awake, it screeched in indignation before beating its wings again and taking flight into the pale blue sky.
Its faint shadow flew rapidly over granite and gravel, running parallel to its body from broken up roads to barren plains to the hard concrete of the Imperial Army headquarters.
Its wings began to beat slower and slower until the crow landed on a high windowsill, tucked its tiny head into the crook of its wings and fell asleep.
On the other side of the wall, Yuu's head was sunken into his pillow. His body lay motionless in an unnaturally deep slumber, yet in his dream he couldn't stop twisting and turning the hem of his shirtsleeve between his fingers.
"Stop looking at me like that," Yuu burst out eventually, clenching his hands in fists. "This is why I didn't want to tell you!"
"Yuu…" The unbearably soft tone of Mika's voice was enough to make Yuu start fiddling again. "Your worst fear was me not being real?"
"I said I didn't want to tell you," Yuu muttered again and gave his sleeve a hard jerk. The blackness in the sky above dimmed from obsidian to diluted grey. "Look, you're a ghost right? But maybe my mind really is messed up, maybe I really am imagining stuff cos I'm so stupidly fucked up-"
"Stop it!" Mika raised his voice, grabbing Yuu by his shoulders. The stars flared up and gave Mika's eyes a liquidly glimmer. "Don't you ever say that about yourself, Yuu. Don't you dare."
Only their quiet breaths interjected the quiet that followed, until Mika bought his arms around Yuu in an embrace.
"I'm real Yuu. No matter how well you know me, your mind could never make up such a complex illusion of me. Didn't that demon's trickery prove that?"
"Yeah," Yuu said and hugged Mika back. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry for doubting you Mika."
Mika pressed his lips against the crown of Yuu's head and murmured, "It's okay. I know things are hard for you right now. That's why I'm going to prove my existence to you, Yuu."
"What?!" Yuu pulled himself back a little to look Mika in the face, taking in his firmly set lips and brows. "Mika, you're a ghost! How are you going to do that? Wait, can ghosts appear outside of dreams?!"
"You'll see," Mika smiled and even now the sight of that quirk of his lips wasn't something Yuu got to see often, like the occasional lingering scent of a half forgotten memory. "There's something you could do…but maybe-"
"What? What is it? I'll do anything, I swear!" Yuu piped up and Mika could practically see the puppy tail wagging behind him.
"That Guren guy said he's still sending you out to fight right? Well, if you're out there I can prove myself easier if you make your way to the frontlines of the battle. But make sure you don't get near any vampires, especially the nobles!"
"Go to the frontlines, huh? That doesn't sound too hard. Sure, I can do that no problem."
"Actually what am I saying, you're going to be in danger, you should try and stay inside the walls away from the fighting and I'll somehow-"
"Mika, slow down," Yuu said with a small frown. "You're gonna give yourself a concussion if you keep thinking that fast."
"Yuu ignore what I said," Mika carried on, ignoring Yuu. "It's too dangerous for you and you could get hurt."
"Are you even listening to me?" Yuu huffed and thumped his head against Mika's. "I'm not a child anymore Mika. I can look after myself. Just leave it to me- I'll get to the frontlines, pinky promise."
"What? Oh, you've got to be kidding me…you just said you're not a kid anymore." He couldn't bring any bite into his words as Mika gave in and entwined his little finger with Yuu's. Yuu flashed a grin at him and tugged their fingers down twice, a relic from their sepia toned childhood.
"This is so childish," Mika said under his breath and then snorted as Yuu poked his tongue out. "I still can't believe that filthy demon had the nerve to lay his hands on you. By the way, you never did explain properly how Guren is going to send you to battle without a demon weapon."
"I did explain it!"
"Yuu, saying 'but I'm totally gonna kick vampire butt anyway cos Guren said he'd let me fight' doesn't explain anything."
"My voice doesn't sound like that!" Yuu flushed before coughing loudly and holding on to his crossed legs. "Anyway you just weren't listening properly, so I guess I'll explain it again just for you. So basically, what happened was…"
Somebody was knocking on the iron door.
"Yuu? Are you here?" Shinoa's voice called through.
"Are you sure this is his room? This isn't anywhere near the living dorms. Why is he in such a remote corridor anyway?" Mitsuba commented from behind Shinoa.
"Lieutenant Guren gave directions to Yuu's room here and there aren't any other doors nearby. Yuu, open up please," Shinoa raised her voice a bit louder and knocked twice again.
"You must have read the directions wrong," Mitsuba crossed her arms.
"My my, you're just too impatient."
"I am not-"
"Guys come on, let's not argue," Yoichi protested, raising his hands placating as he stepped forward. "Maybe he's still asleep?"
"At this hour? Typical," Kimizuki scoffed and then banged hard at the door himself. "Oi, get up and open the door!"
"Kimizuki!"
"I could activate my weapon and smash the door down."
"Mitsuba!" Yoichi turned his head quickly and began to wave his arms. "Wait wait wait, please don't do that!"
A discreet clearing of a throat interrupted the conversation, along with a jingling of metal against metal. Shinoa was slyly smirking as she held up a keychain with a single silver key dangling from the short chain.
"I believe," she stated neutrally. "That this was a good thing to pick up from Lieutenant Guren's office then."
A hand tapped against Shinoa's shoulder and the keychain slipped a few inches down the air. Kimizuki jumped, Yoichi yelped and Mitsuba let out a small scream.
"Woah guys!" Yuu said with high eyebrows. "What's wrong? What are you doing outside my room? Wait a minute…are those Guren's spare keys?"
"…No?" Shinoa smiled sweetly, bringing her hands behind her back.
"Yes they are." Yuu squinted his eyes. "They have his tag on the chain. 'Property of Guren Ichi-'"
"Why don't you invite us in Yuu? We needed to talk with you," Shinoa laughed and everyone obligingly cleared the path to the door.
"Uh, okay." Yuu walked up, turned the doorknob and opened the door wide. "Come inside I guess. Ah, don't tell Guren I left the door open? He always gets mad when I don't lock it…Why is everyone so quiet?"
Yoichi opened his mouth but Kimizuki covered it with his hand and quickly said, "No reason, it's nothing."
"Okay," Yuu said slowly and plopped down on one of the wooden kitchen chairs. He put down a water bottle on the table and rested his hands on his jogging bottoms. Shinoa sat on the opposite chair while Kimizuki and Yoichi took the sofa. Mitsuba stood at the edge of the room for a few seconds until Shinoa laughed again and teased, "There's space on the sofa. You're not going to get germs from sitting next to boys."
"Shut up! I was just stretching my legs." Mitsuba retorted, although she sat down in the spare seat with an edge of delicacy.
Yuu rubbed the back of his neck, his hand moving unconsciously to his shoulder blades, and said, "Sorry it's a bit of a tight fit. I can get more chairs and snacks and stuff next time if you want."
"It's okay," Mitsuba fumbled, looking down at her lap. "This is already quite a big room for a normal soldier."
"Who are you by the way?" Yuu asked and Kimizuki snorted. "What? I haven't seen her before!"
"So you just let a complete stranger into your room?" Kimizuki asked and Yuu rolled his eyes.
"Well that's part of why we're here," Shinoa spoke up. "Yuu, this is our fourth team member Mitsuba Sangu. Mitsuba, this is the Yuchirou Hyakuya I told you about" –an exchange of nods- "and then Guren told us to come here to collect our fifth team member, which must be you. He said you'd explain it all to us."
Yuu sighed and ran one hand through his hair. He muttered, "That lazy ass. Geez, I already had to explain it once to Mika."
The sun had reached its zenith and through the two panel window, it cast a single line of shadow between Yuu and the rest of the people in the room. Now everyone was looking expectantly at Yuu so he began to explain again, "So you guys remember how I failed the demon trial a few days ago right?"
The rest of the people in the room shuffled a little, silent. Mitsuba looked a bit confused but Shinoa nodded before she could speak.
"Well, later that evening Guren comes round my room and I'm all like so what, you're gonna kick me out now or something? Cos there's no way you're getting rid of me, I'm gonna train even harder and get stronger so I don't need any stupid demon weapon anyway. But then he just hands me this sword- wait, let me get it."
As Yuu got up abruptly and disappeared into his bedroom, everyone exchanged bemused looks. He came out just as quickly with a long object in his hands, which he carefully unwrapped to reveal a sheathed sword. Yuu handed it to Shinoa and sat down again.
"So anyway, he gives me this sword and tells me he wants me to try a new programme he's working on. Basically, I get to join the team as a 'technical assistant' and I can fight vampires with this sword. So yeah," Yuu concluded, leaning back in his chair.
"Yuu?" Kimizuki asked after a mutual silence.
"Yeah?"
"You suck at explaining things."
"Hey!" Yuu protested. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"
"It's kind of true…" Yoichi said meekly but then suddenly became very interested in the stray threads in the sofa as Yuu looked at him in imploring betrayal.
"Well, your explanation could use some expansion," Shinoa piped in and Mitsuba nodded before she caught herself and stopped with a blush. With slow fingers, Shinoa pushed the sheath loose to reveal barely a centimetre's worth of the blade. It was a strange green, a few shades off from the usual demon blade weapons and smelt faintly of acid and bleach. "I've never heard of a non possessed weapon being able to damage vampires."
"Guren said the scientists had been working on chemically enhanced weapons taken from vampire body parts or something," Yuu shrugged. "I don't know, it's complicated sciency stuff. This is a prototype but it should work fine."
"Don't pass that thing over here," Yoichi said looking a bit green himself and even Kimizuki was eyeing the sword with an aversion. Mitsuba took the sword from Shinoa instead and was looking at it up close as if it were a golden horror movie artefact.
"And being a 'technical assistant'? What does that mean exactly?" Shinoa prompted, keeping her eyes on Yuu.
"Technical stuff…I guess?" Yuu said and then talked quicker as Shinoa raised one eyebrow. "Look, Guren said I'm the test for a new scheme. Basically one person in a team of five is gonna be in charge of stuff like communicating, driving and keeping supplies. It's supposed to help organise the teams better and shit."
"Hmmm," Shinoa said thoughtfully, lightly. "It seems to me like Lieutenant Guren has an awful lot of interesting new schemes lately. Anyway, we have orders to go back to Guren so he can give mission details once you're done explaining, so let's head back everyone."
"So he really was just too lazy to explain it himself," Yuu grumbled and everyone laughed. They got up and as boots were being pulled up and uniform jackets shrugged into, Shinoa caught sight of Yuu hanging back from the crowd. She followed his footsteps to the attached kitchen just in time to see him down two white pills.
"Yuu? Are you sick?" she asked.
"Hm?" was the garbled reply as he was drinking a glass of water. Yuu swallowed and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Oh these are just some muscle strengthening and antibiotics. I used to live with the vampires so my body still needs this supplement stuff."
Even with her usual stotic face, Shinoa's surprise and sorrow broke through and Yuu knew had questions, just like the rest of the team who he knew had overheard from the doorway.
So he smiled sadly and began to share small bits of his story as they walked together towards Guren's office; towards their shared future.
Author's notes: Presenting...the squad!
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