Grendel: Devil Tales #2
悪魔物語
Chapter 2: Arms of the devil
Sunlight.
The sun had risen on Naoetsu town, the air around was humid. The effects of the heavy rain from the previous night. Amidst the ruins of Eikou Cram School, the withered windows began to bathe in the emerging sunlight, the wreckage of this once habitable school was filled with silence, for as the normal eye would go; no one would be in such an abandoned place…such thought is wrong.
Eikou Cram School had been the site of many aberrational events, as they tend to occur in Naoetsu Town, but now this place had a habitant that roamed in it, turning it into her home. Tsubasa Hanekawa had set up home here for some time now, she was sleeping on top of many desks placed together to form a makeshift bed, her hair was indeed long, still displaying strands of white among the black. A sign of her emotional growth in prior events in her life. But the condition she lived in currently, was obviously wrong. Just what happened to her?
The position of the desks where she lay down to sleep was set in front of a wall with windows, right between two of them so no sunlight reached her face, it was the warmth on her feet which were exposed to the light shining through one of the windows that forced her to wake up. She opened her eyes, revealing not the usual, kind purple pupils…but the feline, threatening and yet playful, yellow pupils of Black Hanekawa. Her hair turned completely white and her cat ears emerged from the top of her head. She got up and began to stretch and let out a few meows.
Morning
Another day
Stuck here
Stuck in hell
But I'm not alone
My myaster and I
We protect each other
She got up to stretch some more and felt some sunlight on her face this time, she blinked for a few moments before she adjusted her sight. She was standing in the shadow between the windows, so no sunlight could touch her…yet it did. Why?
For there were two large and slim holes in the wall, allowing the entrance of light into her shadowy position. She looked at them, the reflection of the light on her face adjusted right where her eyes would be. She could feel it, thinking how funny it was that such reflections on her eyes were like scars.
Scars
Scars on the eyes
Like
Like…
Him
Black Hanekawa stood in deep thought for a moment. She would be lying if she said she wasn't worried over the events of last night. A stranger appeared in town, he killed guilty and innocents alike. He exuded death, pain, violence and vengeance. He was a human…but was he? his strength, his instincts…no human possessed such, was he an Oddity? No, for certain he wasn't. But he was indeed beyond human.
Him
Grendel
Dangerous
Devil
She debated whether he would really be a threat to her or not. He did told her last night that he wasn't interested in her. He came to find something else. But what when he finds what he's looking for? Would he try to hunt something else? Maybe her? All humans do lie.
All humans lie
So he must be lying too
Shaking those thoughts off her head, Black Hanekawa jumped down from the desks and began to walk outside. What does she do now? Survive. Find human prey to drain their energy.
Black Hanekawa had become a stalker in the dark. A cat waiting for her food to play. She waited on the town's darkest alleys, the emptiest parks and the less crowded train stations. She jumped between buildings to move around the city, fast enough so no one would notice her; not that anyone would ever bother to look up. But that wasn't the only reason. A few years ago, new Oddity specialists and hunters had increased and came to Naoetsu town in order to hunt some aberrations. She was in no condition to fight them. They grew smarter and dangerous.
As far she knew, she was the only oddity left. It has been years since she last saw her….friends.
Nadeko-chan
Kanbaru-san
Senjougahara-san
Shinobu
Araragi-kun
I wonder how are they
Are they happy?
Sad?
I don't know
It's been a long time…
Since they abandoned me
All alone
Like every stray cat
She walked on her four limbs through one of the many buildings, before she jumped to another site, she heard a scream of pain and fear.
She turned to her left to notice a small flash coming from one of the windows in the building next to hers, immediately followed by the thundering echo of a gunshot. A skirmish?
Suddenly…
CRASH!
The window shattered, broken by a body that had been thrown towards it, the corpse fell down into the streets, separating in two in the process. Hanekawa was impressed, but such an impression quickly died down as she remembered who may be responsible.
Another human was pushed to the edge of the broken window. Whatever is happening inside was traumatic enough for this frightening man to consider and try to jump out of a 20-story long building. Before he could actually jump, he was grabbed from the back of his jacket and pulled inside by an armored arm colored in black & white. Hanekawa felt a small chill of worry in her back as she recognized the color pattern and the configuration of armor pieces.
Him
It's him
Grendel
Human
Danger
Hunter
Devil
She chose not to interfere and jumped away to another site of the city.
Hours passed, the sun began to set. Calls for medical aid echoed through the streets as the number of victims of Black Hanekawa's Energy Drain were rising.
She reached one of town's abandoned parks, she stretched herself a little, letting out a meow in the process.
CRACK!
A glass bottle was shattered. The feline's ears caught notice of the sound, she directed her gaze towards the origin of such noise. She noticed something, a shadowy figure moving deep into the park.
Could it be…him? Unlikely, she thought. The devil she met that night always presented a tall and powerful figure, this one was more crouched, almost creeped out in pose, lacking any trace of humanity.
Curiosity got hold of her and she began to follow that figure.
Curiosity
Is it not what always kills the cat?
She followed the figure to one of the emptiest streets below a highway bridge. It appeared that the silhouette began to search for something, she placed herself on top of a firescape to watch this enigma. As the sun began to set more, soon welcoming the night, the sunlight bathed the figure revealing it. Black Hanekawa felt somewhat surprised, faintly worried or scared, over the face of the creature she was stalking.
A bald man dressed in dark purple robes, his eyes displaying flashing, white pupils. His forehead featured deformed features, as if it had nostrils on top of it. Within the robes, he possessed a third arm situated below his left arm, all his limbs possessed sharp talons. If this man was any sort of Oddity, he was indeed a warped one.
Scary
Monster
What is he?
No human
The creature took notice of the cat, he turned around slowly to look at her.
Hisssss
"Unclean…" the mutant hissed through his teeth before he lunged at her but Black Hanekawa jumped out of the way, her reaction was fast enough to avoid a deadly tackle. Despite his appearance; the decrepit, old man was so strong that he completely shattered the firescape she was standing on. She landed on the ground and immediately jumped back towards the mutant and buried her finger claws into his back, immediately as she made physical contact with him, her Energy Drain kicked him, the mutant began to scream in pain as Black Hanekawa began to laugh at his suffering.
it didn't last long, the warped creature's third arm elbowed her belly to push her away, a short but intense sting of pain ran through Black Hanekawa's front, she was forced to let go of him and backed away. She held her belly just before the pain subsided, she returned her sight to her enemy and rapidly moved back as a taloned arm almost slashed her eyes out. This creature was fast, too fast, in contrast to his broken and warped form.
Every single slash this mutant made, it was barely evaded by Black Hanekawa, she was indeed worried. She realized attacking this creature may have not been a good idea. This mutant was feral, savage and quick in its strikes. She had enough, she was to jump away from this creature and retreat.
However, she felt a hard hit on her face as the third hand from the mutant took a harsh hold of her face.
Pain
Like thousand needles
My head!
My mind…crushing my skull
"MREEEEEOOOOWWWW!" Black Hanekawa screamed of pain but she slashed her finger nails at the mutant across his face, such was the hurt she barely scratched him with enough force to make him back away, were she more focused, she could have taken his head off.
The mutant screeched and let go of her. She took this chance to jump away, flying far away from sight.
The mutant hissed as he held his hand against the scratch on his face, right before retreating back into the shadows.
Black Hanekawa landed on top of a lightpost, somewhere near the ruins of Eikou Cram School. She held her head with her hands and grunted as the intense headache began to fade away.
What was that?
That human
No.
Creature
What did he do to me?
As soon as the pain faded, she felt a presence behind her, one all too familiar…even more as she noticed a large shadow emerging, blocking the light of the moon.
She turned around and her eyes widened to what she saw.
No.
No way
It can't be
Standing behind her…was the Hysteria Tiger, Kako.
"Oh…it's been a while, hasn't it?" His words manifested steam coming out of his mouth, a hot breath visible…as if it was to unleash a burst of hellfire.
Black Hanekawa felt frozen where she sat.
"Whatever that creature did…it set me free. I am free from the shackles of that girl's mind. All those 15 years stuck in her head. I have grown stronger. All that envy, all that hatred created throughout the purgatory she made us live in." He said as he took one step closer to her.
"And that hatred has turned into vengeance…directed towards you and the girl." He said as more steam emerged from his mouth before a burst of hellfire was unleashed and fired upon the cat. Black Hanekawa jumped down to evade the attack, she jumped on top of Kako and began to drain his energy, but Kako let out an amused cackle as his entire oddity body was lit on fire, Hanekawa screamed in pain as she started to get burned.
"Hahahaha! One would think you would've learned to avoid this by now." He said as he shook with enough force to make her let go of him. He quickly turned around and rammed at her with his head. The force of the impact was so strong the cat oddity was sent flying far, she even went flying outside of Naoetsu town. Kako stared at where Black Hanekawa was pushed off.
"See you soon…" Kako said as he turned around and jumped away into the city, a monster from the past let loose once again.
Black Hanekawa laid unconscious in a forest outside the city, she bore many cuts and bruises after she collided against many branches and trees, many of her wounds were critical, some with bleeding. But a large cut on her right leg was the most critical at the moment, the wooded shrapnel fragments would infect the wound soon. It was still unknown why she hadn't reverted back to Hanekawa while she was unconscious.
Then, faint steps echoed through the silence of the wilderness. Each time growing stronger, the shadow of someone approaching covered Black Hanekawa from the moonlight. Would she be awake, she would see someone looking down on her, his identity masked by the moonlight, leaving nothing but a silhouette.
Such would be the case, were it not for the large, scarred, glowing white eyes of his mask. Grendel had come across her, he tilted his head as he saw her hurt form. He drew his spear out and placed the point of the blades close to her face, he began to trace a line towards the lower side of her body, never touching her with the blades. He took notice of her opened wound on her right leg. With another tilt of his head, Grendel turned around to leave, but after no more than four steps he stopped. He sniffed at the air before he turned around to look at the unconscious Black Hanekawa.
The devil walked back to her before lowering himself in one knee and grabbed the right side of his cloak, he used his spear to rip a large portion of his cloak, he pulled out something out of his belt, it looked like a small envelope that contained some sort of herb mixed with some other unknown components. One would figure it was some sort of handmade medicine.
He poured some of this mix and spreaded it through the cloak portion he just ripped out. He slowly grabbed her leg from its back, and arched it up enough. The cloak piece had been turned into a bandage, and was placed to cover her wound.
Grendel grabbed her by the back of her neck and knees as she carried her in his arms, before turning away from the site and leaving. A lonely and broken cat picked up by the devil.
"I've always felt safe in the arms of the devil." - Stacy Palumbo - Grendel: Devil Child