Reid (1)

Reid frowned when Subaru's portable alien tin-box lightly croaked a moody melody. This foreign world's mesmerizing midnight shores that could never, ever, tire Reid now fell eerie. Worst of all, his head was beginning to gunk up with only thoughts. Pointless.
A sensation which, in his fathomless wisdom, he deigned simply as:

"Wha' a load o' cockwarts, you!" This was a far cry from the pulse-pounding action he craved and desperately needed to clear his head and – this night especially - Subaru's abhorrent worries.

It was such a farce; Reid could barely abide by what could pass for normal standards and not start fidgeting about like a lunatic before purposefully attracting the danger to them. Although… it was fairly tempting, thinking about it. No doubt, the primeval warrior reasoned, the same hectic events experienced at their fated time of meeting would clear all up.

It was all so much simpler too.
No worrying about civilians disappearing, no night patrols, no dumbass 'Sherlock Homeless' – as he probably heard right – time spent to track down the lurking threat.

Just him, his sword swinging and his lil' fish behind screaming his head off as he beat that undying hag out of her world hopping bullshit.
Maybe… second best thing after drinking, Reid would argue.

"And no lick o' spirits all night 'round!" Sighed with pathos the towering legend, his upper half leaning over the metal rails spacing the shores from their steep gangway. His wrinkled girdle dangled at the side with an uncapped and empty flask. Its hollow chime from passing winds taunted the otherworld-er. "Worst. Adventure. In Jorg's-pan, yet, you!"

"Japan" deadpanned Subaru, his tone flat and tired. Depthless dark eyes lost themselves in the frothing horizon. The phone in his grip gently buzzed with the calm music to contrast the braking ocean waves. His nose twitched from the wafts of salt. "What name even is Jorg…?" he subtly murmured with a twinge of confusion.

"Jorg's/yours, taters/taters." Argued back with boredom the redhead.

"You just pronounced potatoes the same way. If you even have potatoes from wherever you are… And, also, said it wrong."

"And ya's just been a lame-ass, prissy princes all night, you!" Quipped back Reid while using a hand to flip through the air his robe's long sleeve.

"Oh, right, sorry, my bad for nagging about the, oh, I dunno? Literally entire city we're putting in danger?!" Sardonically began Subaru only to blow up at Reid with an annoyed scowl. His flip phone's end bonked against the metal handrail, causing it to open and reveal the pixelated image of his home's regional map.

"Mhm, yah, sure" Reid reached out with mock care, gingerly swiping Subaru's phone in a cartoonish two fingered grip. "And ya best idea was, right: say fuck it ta all da shit I've had to put up wit', only so ya can kiss tha' death's mad dobber to Od knows where, you!" Reid scrunched his dour countenance in revolt, his grip changing to snap the gadget closed and dismiss the ambient of the melancholic tune. His mane of unnaturally scarlet hair almost flared like electrified after a bath and beset him with the liking of a wild animal.

"Don't. Get me started on the shit you did" Whispered Subaru his own anger, struggling to not meet the swordsman's gaze, his brow twitching reflexively. "Besides endangering others, did you ever stop to think we wouldn't have this mess if I just let that… whatever it is get what it wants? That we get of our ass and do something and save someone. For once!"

A new invisible air ran down from the mysterious warrior and threatened to nearly drown Subaru.

"Tha's gotta be the single most cock-thought thing you just said, you." Reid's frown grew somber and the half of his visible body tensed in warning. His presence itself now rivaled a mass murdering weapon, and all it focused on was Subaru. The intense azure of his clear eye shackled the boy in place, piercing him so far as to say it reached beyond his soul, and touch the shadow it cast. "Everything I put in only so you can go fuck it up, you? Hmh… You ain't jus' wrong. You's fucking worthless with that, you!"

"No" quietly muttered Subaru "No, that's maybe the best I can do…" He breathed the reply like a sigh. With all the energy of a crestfallen kindergartner made to sit in the corner. The boy hesitantly looked at the man summoned from fantasy. "I'm not sure you could get from where I'm coming with this. But I seriously have more than just myself to look after. And this might be it."

"Ah-ahah, right, you…" Paced Reid in place languidly, his face contorted in a derisive grin. A palm was brought up to smack his taut face. "'Course! How tha' fuck could I ever know what that's 'bout? A lil' heroic sacrificing! What could I possibly say wrong 'gainst that miracle worker, you?! Count me in."

The warrior of yore sighed. Whatever that underline jab was meant to point out – if one at all – shouldn't have even bothered him. The point to be past this type of provocation was crossed ages ago after the time spent with his scaly-bloke and feathery-up-tight.

By now he should've been a world apart to the poor farmer found drunk limp in a pub. Gone should've been the peasant that used to bitch about the unsolved terrible. He long moved from contemplating the dumbest shit alone in the night where no one walked, just like how the little fish he yelled at was doing.

Subaru's ignorant accusation shouldn't even be worth to strain his ears and acknowledge it.
Reid became a true connoisseur of genuine insulting; pointing out real shit one did. Either that, or everything became severely less exciting after the intensity met in his last war at Augria's ivory summit.

Yet it felt irking. Like the searing feeling after a cough scraping the lungs. Silently he looked at the boy before him.

Reid puckered and moved his lips as if munching on words. "…" before reasoning to promptly spit a wad of phlegm on Subaru's shoes. "HGGHWA-pffu!"

"OI!" Instantly, Subaru abandoned his serious and gloomy attitude in exchange for revolt at seeing the dense slime clinging to his sneakers, despite vigorous shaking. "Fuck's wrong with you?! Were you grew up in a barn?"

"Grew up with a barn, sack-seed. How else t' store the animals, you?" Piped the redhead with oddly picked logic.

Fortunately, it appeared, that did the trick Reid sought and wiped the whole mood and subject. Better that way for both, he felt.

For when Subaru looked back up with a steeled gaze, intent to cut back on their feud – all he met back was Reid's glimmering iris. A bitter, cold, star inlaid to his brow.

Now Subaru was aware he was no councilor, or even adept enough as would be normal, to read a person thoroughly. But he was sure enough the stare he just received was meaning: 'Don't step over that line.'

At least not yet, he hoped.

Thus, awkwardly turning away and seeking anything else to occupy his attention, Natsuki began his usual disheartened track home of recent days.

"Whole lot of good this night o' patrollin' did…" Muttered just as annoyed to the chill air the intimidating figure that followed. Reid's uncovered eye fixed over the dark but noisy shores. His nostrils flared, his lungs filled with salted winds, and his jaw strained.
Eventually he relented with a huff. "Wha' of tomorrow, you?"

But Subaru remained lost in his own world of thoughts. Still steadfast to walk ahead, like on autopilot, back to his parents. The young man, perhaps too young to even call boy after Reid's judgement, dejectedly kept going. Like robbed of purpose, Subaru mindlessly executed their walk of shame after another fruitless search.

"We's doin' this again, you?" Hissed Reid. His fist flexed to pop a joint.

"Huh? Ah. I guess…? No we'll ju-" his robotic speech would not get to escape his lips.

"Can ya fer once stay snapped out o' it? You embarrass me, you!"

Before Subaru could even notice, Reid was upon him, easily lifting his inferior weight by the scruff of his jacket. The next second after he did register, left him feeling as if teleported. Pressed against the cold hard surface of a store's front, the boy was met by the rabid snarl of Reid.

"I ain't yer fekin' shrink or how's ya call it. Won't keep you company and pat yer back when sad, lil fish! Pull yourself together, you!" With a thwack! Subaru was brought back and over the glass pane, relieved to fall free on ground. "Shit and Od together in a bucket, you wouldn't have lived a day back home, you." Spoke Reid, his face a mixed expression Subaru couldn't decipher. "I saw worst and I still get it. Shit's fucked. People go missing. All 'cuz the undying hag's after your head. Now stop mulling and get to un-fuckin' this mess! Said you wanted to bail the victims."

"What do you want me to do? Pull a sword outta my ass like you do? Newsflash: I'm not made of magic memories and I don't have influence around this place. I've already set us on patrolling after the creature. And all you did was complaining about it!" Defended Subaru while dragging himself up with a squeak against the shop's pane.
The lights inside flickered on in sync with the TV's on display, framing a man's silhouette rushing out.

"No, you! I'm complaining you's doin' nuthin' more." Reid barked back, his hands coming to fold against his chest. "Come with a new plan or something? Think where to attract the bitch, maybe? Hell! Set a trap and tell me somethin' useful!"

"Come with a new plan?" Parroted Subaru, stuck between offended and surprised. Hearing Reid would expect from him to just shit the solution out wasn't entirely unwelcomed. "What about you? You've said to have dealt with it once. If she's weaker now, why don't you just do what worked already?"

Reid's exposed iris shrank. His skin lost color, his wooden sandals squeaked under his tense feet, his jaw popped with a bite. An anger Subaru never thought possible in reality beyond the imagined media, just became palpable.

Yet just when Reid would open his mouth and raise a fist, the shop's doors burst open. Awkwardly having them greet a stranger in the night's late hours. His face was pallid and dampened by a sheen of sweat, the chin covered with a bushy beard.

"What are you doing outside at this hour, kids? Haven't you heard already!" His raspy voice strained between scream and whisper. "No one's safe around any districts with the untracked kidnapper. Do you want to be snatched too?" His genuine concern and scared look hit Subaru with an unexpected mix of shame and gratefulness. For a waste like him and an idiot like Reid, someone stopped to check despite the very real danger around. "Get in. Get inside, you idiots!" Offered the man.

"Well?" Reid's dour voice rattled him to reality. It was obvious how much control he showed to not just carry on and pummel Subaru like a schnitzel with a live audience.

Subaru kept silent, lost in a search for words to respond with. Reid rolled his eyes and looked over his shoulder at the man. Subaru followed his line of sight on instinct. And focusing over the stranger let further shame creep down his conscious.
The man was an elder. Perhaps over the retiring age for working anymore, but still running this small shop. He was frail and pallid, with half-moon glasses over a wrinkled nose. The cane in his left hand supported a leaning foot and calmed his subtle tremor.

The stranger picked up again his unanswered warning.

"What are you waiting for? Please don't say you're like those suicidal tourists hunting crime scenes. Get in already and call your parents to get you!" Called again the frail man, keeping the door open with a knuckle white grip. "And you, sir…" For what seemed like the first time, the elder really took notice of Reid. As he only now seemed to define his overbearing figure as the man and not just some silhouette in the corner of his vision. "Do you just plan to go around at this hour for a joy walk? I doubt even you, built like a samurai as you are, can be safe."

Subaru indecisively flapped his lips, unsure how to better say that out of anyone he was probably the most protected. But Reid didn't approve of the wasted time.

"Naw, we're all cool, gramps." The effort chaining his annoyance was evident with every syllable. "Though thanks for worrying over lil' fish, he ain't got all his cows in the barn." Threw the warrior a disapproving look towards the silent boy while twirling a finger around his temple in gesture.

"We- Thanks for your worry, sir." With a frown and resentful shove, Subaru ignored Reid's subtle scorn and stepped forward to discuss with the elder. "It may not look so, but I'm more than safe… my" he stopped to sneak a look at the warrior. "My, friend, and I were on our way. We just got caught late from a temple visit and now it's just a walk back home." Bowing deeply, enough to hide his messy expression and avoid giving himself away, Subaru lied to appease the old man.

"A-ah, it's true, recently… prayer could be all left to us." Dejectedly nodded the elder, his head swiveling to appraise Reid's daunting presence.

By luck, Subaru believed, his made-up pretext of Reid's choice in fashion worked around town well enough.

"But!" Picked back the man, unease returning to his tone. "Please, at least take the first turn to the main street. You should know: the seaside gangways must be avoided."

"I'm sorry?" Confused and equally put off, Subaru rose his head in the dim lighting of the shop.

"It was just recent, but…" The elder stepped back in his shop a little to point at a TV left on public news. "If you say to return from that long a walk, you must have missed it."

Subaru felt the air in his lungs turn led and rip their way down his viscera. The optic nerves of his eyes felt like shot by a rush of painful light and a sting settled down his spine.

"…"

Only his hearing remained unspoiled:

[In further news tonight reporting the ongoing mass-disappearances:
Police are continuing to search for a summed total of 27 missing people. All documented between the ages of 16 to 20-year-old. The victims went missing after leaving home in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, to go about their daily routines and chores. The events largely taking place at night.

The many families senselessly robbed of their members continue releasing daily messages pleading for their children to return home.

Following this terror wave of kidnappings spanning over two weeks and three days, only tonight there have been any eyewitness reports. Upon further investigation, the few details offered all narrow down on experiencing a feeling of dizzy, fatigue, confusion and dread in the vicinity of the committed act. The features gleamed by the brave witnesses daring to look after hearing screams from recent victims draw the culprit/s with the emphasized description of… 'shadowy'.

The mentioned victims reported tonight confirm two high school students, a pair of brother and sister, sighted to disappear as if in thin air by the seaside streets of Yokohama.
Local vehicle tracks leave no indication of kidnapping transportation, and more haunting than anything, all traces of struggle or belongings remain undiscovered.

The criminology experts claim no marks of either bloodshed, drugs, weapon use or chemical substances were employed at the scene.

Until further progress in hunting the perpetrator, all townsfolk are requested again to not leave the safety of their houses alone after evenings, be it for work or outside business. At all times – please – everyone is heavily requested to be accompanied with more than one person if possible, and avoid any less populated areas.

Since t-]

Subaru could not even gulp. His own heartbeat became the sole sound flooding his ears. Peddling back, he stumbled on the threshold, and like a bottle tipped over he stiffly fell back.

"Where to?"

Only to catch himself on the form of Reid. Now suddenly behind him as if made manifest from thought alone.

"Wh-where?" Ghastly repeated the elder.

"Down the shore road… Backwards from where we came! NOW REID!" Subaru howled without an ounce of sanity, like desperate, his entre façade towards the old man fell to reveal the opposite.

"Are you crazy!? Yo-!"

The frail man went unnoticed as his disagreement ended prematurely. A mighty wind boomed! and thrust him back through the shop's door. A popping sound cleared his aged ears and the pressure unclogged his wrinkled nose. The cane in his hand clattered against the wall he clung to while his eyes remained fixed where the two once stood.

Now only to be-

"G-gone…!" Rasping incredulously, the man now could only stare at the spreading cracks in the ruptured asphalt.

[Warfare Again]

"Where next? Any closer?" Demanded Reid while scanning like possessed the streets from their bird eye view.
Another leap against building roofs sent them soaring higher, Reid's unparalleled acrobatics and might serving to propel them beyond any normal means. In the nighttime city lights, from bellow they appeared as pinballs launched by springs.

With Subaru working a hand around Reid to cling enough not to take flight and the other forced to resist the air and check the map on his phone, he struggled to breath an answer.

"Left…! And down!"

With that much managed, Reid took the message and zoomed off a block's roof side. Angled down like a bird of prey, the two flew over the remaining distance, leaving Reid to receive the landing, feet first.

"That'll… hah… be a lot… of property damage, hah…" Readjusting to breathing normally, Suabru hopped of Reid to observe every corner possible.

"Oh, there'll be more than property shit when I'm done, you." Lightly grinning, Reid looked forward to this. "Get the hag to know we're around. I'll take from there."

"Anything else if it won't work?"

"It will work, just repeat what I told ya!" Reid, put off by the dead ambient, twirled a pair of chopsticks he produced with a twirl of a hand.

"Ok… What's more to risk now, anyway?" Trying to calm himself in the unnerving quietude where the wind died in the black sky and ocean waves fell muted against the shore, Subaru mustered his guilt to substitute for courage.
"– Calamity! We're still here, you vapid bitch! When you're done wailing, come and get your dues!– …Ar-are you sure that's how we should get her attention?" Whispered Subaru at the end with no small amount of fright. "What if it pissed her off more?"

"Oh, yeah, tha's the point, no? Works like a charm if you say it. Always got an ear on ya." Slyly smirking, Reid already tensed and drew his feet apart, readied as if noticing something Subaru hadn't. His chopsticks snapped in a clenched fist.

"When I say it?" Mumbled Suabru before jerking on spot with chills, his hands moving on instinct to protect his chest. His heart beat like frenzied, and his blood felt not liquid but like cooling tar.

The few lights around diminished and shone weak. The air turned cold and acrid. The sky fell obscured like capped with snow. The whirling ocean drowned in itself.

"Reid… will you be alrig-"

The redhead barely had enough time to grab hold of Subaru and dolphin dive for cover before translucent appendages engulfed them like a fly swatter. Bloodlust, the sole craving Reid experienced and lived to command in life blossomed in his core. This one familiar, unending and deeply, deeply, personal feeling lit up his being to face this terror.

A monstrous grin misshaped his face and all Reid could see was him running the monster through his sword to the rhythm of his thundering heart. There was much for him to vent and this was the golden opportunity to make all his anger constructive.

"-`Ah?`" The warbled and directionless soft sigh escaped the web of shadows, reaching both the mad warrior and innocent dragged to conflict.

Reid got up and felt the exhilarating draw of mana through his bloodstream. The meager pull he drew from Subaru's frail gate enough to rekindle his strength above the mortals of today and of old. The anomaly of him possessing a gate remained undisclosed, as he preferred for now.
Fortune further shined on them, with the witch just as debilitated so far from her prison, this wasn't anything beyond him.
At his waist, the tattered girdle clung with a reassuring weight. By just a thought, a memory like him, the shining beacon that was his gifted sword of yore reformed to be drawn for revenge.

The silhouette of shadows spoke nothing. Not even a regard, not even a gesture. It's presence a dishonoring adversary. No real satisfaction in striking a brainless lump of flesh, echoed through Reid's head.

"Really thought all's that simple, you? Swoop in, grab the kill, and fuck off?" Snarled Reid viciously, clicking his chopsticks together. "Long as I'm 'round, all you'll catch is a good ol' fucking beating!"

The shaded figure offered no reply, not even budging to acknowledge the presence of the hero who'd fight.

"Reid, wait! Anyone could get caught in the crossfire around here, we should-" Extended Subaru a hand, raising from cover to grab a hold of the fantasy summoned hero. "Should change the place." But too late it was.

All Reid cared about, all soul and memory of him – was retribution.

Wood met shadow in an unbelievable instance, only to reveal true effect and weight behind every clash. Shockwaves for each collision rippled outward, fogging the space like waves of heated air. Reid could not even bare his teeth, but straight up shout as his arms exerted to deflect or overpower the swath of unending limbs. His bloodlust called for, demanded, he draw more strength, that he draws out his sword, end her for once and all in one fell swoop. Yet his natural response to culling filths in his usual excess could not be met unless he risked damaging Subaru's wavering gate.

The sword was only for bad situations…

In an age and world so far removed off the concept of magics and curses, Reid, no expert or wizard himself, was pretty damn sure that a broken gate meant end of legend.

Thus, he at least considered this current struggle a prelude of him enjoying the absolute humiliation he'd be dealing the abomination tonight.

"Trynna swat me off like I do to lil fish?" His hands held each a stick as he bat aside giant misty fists. "Hell you fucking think you are, you?"

Rage kept burning over Reid. Soon he'd become less focused and more frustrated. Annoyed. Bitter. He'd slip up and be left to weep his fuck up again. That wasn't something he could live again. Especially now, in undeath.

He wasn't any prissy pansy cockwart guy fighting out there.
Not even a namby-pamby saint to boot, no. He was the Heavenly Sword. The pinnacle itself.

When strength was brought into discussion, it automatically equaled to Reid.

"Even outside home advantage, with a baby's mana pool, two sticks for weapon and an eye covered, I still curb stomp yer ass like any random peasant's in a pub!" A laugh bubble up Reid's burning throat without even noticing the need for it. Here he was, a world apart and dead, and, still kicking ass while looking cool.
He was - the legend!

Reid twisted at the hips, planting his feet every time, sonorously deflecting each slam of the gargantuan shadows in the concrete around. Showers of rock blew up like springs and webs of cracks sprouted to erode the street. Light polls popped with a flash and doubled over, cars were flung away like frisbees and Reid was pretty sure at some point he heard a dog barking in this chaos.

The daunting manifestations of dark swam like in frenzy, winding back with impossible speeds just as his daggers of chopsticks streaked to gouge out her throat. Reid bellowed a cruel cheer and claimed the first hit.

Whatever the veil of shadows adorning the monster did was simple, and much to Reid's furry, very effective. Instead of the clean-cut neck he expected to see, all his efforts earned was a small prick in her unblemished skin. That blow of Reid which on any bad day would have fell scores of legendary fighters or the greatest off dragons, did not but prick with the threat of a needle.

Yet, minute and inoffensive as it struck, it clearly pissed her off. The abomination of shadows became a storm of the deepest hurricane. And swiftly bat aside the fantasy warrior.

It took a frightening amount of cunning from Reid to outmaneuver himself from the overwhelming monstrosity, barely excusing him with his undead life intact. The thrill of the fight began to wane as did his confidence in his ability. Even worst, what he feared more for tonight came up: in the form of lil fish spitting his lungs in his best marathon run to reach him.

"Reid! C'mon, get up! We have to leave!" Along with his dumbass of a charge in the thick of it, Reid was replaced of his righteous fury and robbed of his little comfort to at least face the source of his grief.

"You, bastard, you. Od, fucking damn it!" Reid once again pulled of the impossible tonight and reached just in time to drag both himself and Subaru from the desperate grasp of the witch. Where her eyes should have been, now veiled in sable, Reid was sure he could gleam the most deranged and obsessive stare to be mustered by a creature.
And further worst to boot, it was all aimed at Subaru. The boy caught in that mad and eyeless abyss, froze over in fear. Like a chasm opened to swallow him to the unknown, the calamity tenderly rushed to exact her purpose.

"ONE! You, fuck off!" With another rush, Reid stomped in between, cutting off all momentum. And sent the barreling monster sideways in one booming deflection with the unbelievable use of sticks. "SECOND! You!" He turned to Subaru, yanked him and leapt away for distance. "I told you, motherfucker: don't. Get. In. Fights! You can't do shit! You're worthless!"

"And forsake you alone with the devil?! Are you crazy?!" Much to his own surprise, Subaru found in himself the presence of spirit to reply coherently. By far, a much better state than his previous encounters.

"Dumbass, you'll get punted across whoever knows when and where! You can't do jack-shit, you!" Reid slammed a hand over a leg to stop his twitching. The very real possibility of failure tonight became far grater than what he grew accustomed after the few scuffles he's had with a retreating witch.

He had a split-second warning as the creature of nightmares and shadow rushed again their way, Subaru catching sight of her fixated aim, yelled and pointed over Reid's shoulder.

This time - there was no fucking around.

It happened in an instant.
The speed with which Reid drew his sword and struck aside the monster.

Like a burst of new life, the vigor granted to Reid once armed with sword was unlike anything Subaru ever saw or read.
The world around vibrantly sharpened. The air stung his lungs. His spine felt lighter.

The broad back half dawned in vibrant red garbs, billowing in the dead wind, set so as to guard him was exactly everything Subaru wished and envied to be. To be this for someone found in his terrorized instance. For this moment to be reversed.
The sheer amount of overwhelming feelings, both nostalgic, inspiring and infuriating violently rushed over Subaru as if he'd lived such an impossible life. As if all answers were at his fingertips...
Yet all too quick for it to fade over the ongoing reality.

As the revenant from a foreign world grew in strength, so did Subaru in turn diminish. The little his gate could help keep Reid's supernatural effects possible strained the young man. A weakness and erosion like no other experienced in his short life swiftly began chipping away at him.

Reid, knowing by now the trick, backpedaled enough to avoid the immediate danger and angled his sword to parry a debilitating blow meant to pulverize his head. Planting his back foot, Reid ducked the next deluge of shadows, then lunged with sword first in a sizzle of burning air.

The witch; maybe all there was here made of magic; reacted quick. But there was not a chance left in the cold hell Reid crawled out from that he would let it to escape him now. Now when his sword burned with his heat, radiating from head to toe, he felt already victorious. The glinting tip cut across the veil of deep dark and slashed away at where those repulsive eyes Reid knew looked from. A shrill of noises, an echo of burning shadows, substituted for the monster's lack of speech. The cacophony pained the world around him.

Like a curse sent through bleeding lips, Reid felt his bones tremor and his hands grow cold. The rage keeping him strong and warm dwindling from the fear to face this demon.

However, this small opening left Reid able to at least prolong his chances and rid himself of liabilities.
Simply by throwing away his charge:

"Fucking hide, lil fish, damn you!" Unceremoniously, Astrea made use of his trademark method of handling and hurled Subaru over his shoulder in a patch of, probably safe, leveled trees and bushes. Just beside the inert pile of rebar and concrete.
Perfect aim tonight as well.

"Are you… kidding?!" Rolling to a stop, Natsuki pushed himself up and huffed at the busy swordsman. "When is this entire thing going to stop having me thrown around like a basketball! Gah!" Dislodging what must've been a glass shard impaling his arm somewhere, Subaru scowled at the crimson stained debris. "Gotta wrap it up Reid, or who knows how many people start pouring around to check this circus …Stay in cover, right?" Mumbled Subaru while scanning his surroundings. All his thoughts unified into reasoning a distraction good enough to make both parties relent. And above all spare any poor soul that will ultimately investigate.

Just beside him, there and waiting, a huge and emptied dumpster rolled away by the storm of shockwaves between two otherworldly beings. Stopping with a squeak in its wheels close enough, Subaru raised a fist clenching the heavy material of the ruptured street.

"Yeah... Yeah, this could be useful enough." He smiled.

Meanwhile his brutish companion had a very different list of priorities.

"How dare you fucking forget 'bout the shit-chugging execution I'll force-feed you once I'm done getting my kicks, you? Hah?! Look 'ere – I'll start slow to be crystal."

Reid gave a flourish with his sword gripping hand while his other twirled his chopsticks like drumsticks before a concert. No sooner of his claim, the mythical warrior assaulted the weakened calamity without time for her to rest.

He slalomed to panic the monster, teasing his initial strikes only to feign right of the creature. Profiting off her definitely temporary handicap, Reid kept to the corners of her sight. She would recover faster than he would have time to capitalize by just keeping up pressure. And still that opening of inaction was all he needed to fell her. All it would take was something to fool the monster in thinking it was him. A distraction.

And then he saw it.
The solution to his problems, just conveniently there and waiting.

Across the battered street and crushed belongings, a scene ripped out of apocalypse movies, Reid spotted a woman frozen in shock. Someone had enough guts to venture in the dangerous night and stumble over this hellscape.

Vaulting around the witch enough to draw her attention, but never truly quick enough to counterattack, Reid baited the calamity all the way to the mortified bystander.

In one mighty leap, the warrior was airborne, gone, as if vanished from the battle altogether. From his fist holding the chopsticks, his fingers expertly flung like darts the thin wooden strips. "For all the brainrot you cracked scaly with!" A stick pierced the silhouette and directed her closer to the petrified woman. "For all you broke, stole and ruined from feathery!" His second stick speared right down the monster's forehead, instantly putting her damaged line of sight on the woman left whimpering on the ground.

The witch could not discern. Her mind could only draw a line between everything and the object of her obsession. Therefore, nothing was expected of her to notice the clear fake presence of the warrior through her slashed eyes. The crying woman overcome by dread drowned silently in the poisoning miasma she made contact in this night.

"For all you took…" Reid twisted like an avenging angel in the skyline, his sword poised down and his form redrawn by the earth, only further accelerated by his enforced existence. "All my Trisha." His whispered fervor carried with both hate and sorrow. His shape fell like a painting drawn in monochrome burgundy, his blade the only streak of white left pure before a divine retribution.
The unknown woman would die, for billions to be avenged, and countless more be kept safe forevermore with his final act of violence.

"Damn it Reid, what are you think-YOU, WATCH OUT, THAT WOMAN!"

"`~Hah'`" A shallow and soft sigh came from the abomination at the sound of Subaru's warning meant for the bystander. Yet, with a heartbreaking result, this gave the creature able to only distinguish him from everything else reason to abandon her assault.

Both sparing the woman left in the path of doom and bring ruination to the once in a lifetime opportunity to end the calamity.

Reid… brought down his blade a mere breath's distance away from culling the host of the sinister he'd faced this night. Leaving him wide open for the witch to wind back her coiling waves of malignant invocations to erase him from this world. Erase even this ephemer presence of manifested memories.

"I said be careful, not stand down!" Bellowed Subaru, inbound upon the them to- slam!

A dumpster chalk filled with concrete and rebar came barreling down on deformed wheels. And flattened the distracted witch.
Hopping off as if from a stolen car still stuck on speeding, Subaru rolled to a still beside Reid.

"Run. Today!" Shooed the boy away at the woman. As if defibrillated from shock, the would've been victim hiccupped a yelp and scrambled away.

"…"

Hearing nothing from Reid, and neither feeling any new massive disaster from wherever he made roadkill of the monster, Subaru fell back first over the ground beside the warrior and exhaled with great relief.

"H-hey… at least we're still alive. And we even managed to not get someone screwed as well." Smiled the boy at his companion.

But Reid kept silent.

"…"

"That's gotta be our fist ever thing done right since this whole fiasco!"

"..."

Subaru felt a knot tie his guts in a dense weight.

"Akh... Uhh... Best out of three for who gets to run over the monster next time?"

"..."

"...Do you guys used to have 'high-fives' from where you're from?"

"..."

"Reid?" The uncharacteristic silence unnerved the boy and caused him to gingerly retreat from the towering man. "Are you…"

A deep inhale from Reid filled his ears. So strong was the breath taken, it somehow threatened to snap Subaru's bones.

"…Reid? What happened?" Tried again Subaru.

"I swear to Od… to God… to you." Reid inched to him. "Natsuki. I will fucking murder you!" Reid blew up in a rage. A palm flew to smack his own face, forcefully dragging up and down like how a desperate man would try to wake from a dream. "What'd you think you proved?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"I saved that woman… I got you out of that hell." Stuttered Subaru a faint reply.

"You let her escape, you!" Howled Reid. "You. You! Out of all, you, you let her escape! When you should've been on my side! Been the first wanting t' see her eviscerated!"

"I am on your side, Reid! What the hell?!" Blurted in a panic Subaru with both hands raised up. "I got us out of a bigger problem."

"No! No, what you did was let all that be a load of nothing! A whole load of sheit on a tart! I wasted so much fucking effort to end her then and there, and you just – swing by – and smile about fucking it up! Are ya that desperate for praise, dumbass?!"

"It would've gotten that woman killed otherwise!" This time, Subaru was the one to raise his tone back at Reid. "If I just stood back, twirling my dick in both hands, it would've left someone else gone! She would've been another case!"

"A rando ain't enough to spare billions, retard-!"

"But that rando's definitely enough to someone! …Like those guys were to you." Subaru stepped back from Reid, his pulse pounding in his skull so hard in drowned all the natural ado returning to the world. "I heard you calling them out. When you were all loco and hyper focused..." Scowled the boy at the ground.

"…" Reid kept a poker face, one so unnerving and eerie it felt like a danger in by itself.

"And if that's how you did things before, I guess that's why they go-"

"-Finish that sentence." Came Reid's leveled voice.
So strange and unlike him it felt like an entirely different person. And yet his insistence was unmistakable.

" – " Subaru hesitated, ready to consider his options. Unfortunately for him, adrenaline was one hell of a drug his unexperienced body could not subdue. "Got murder-"

Wham!

Color and weight disappeared for but a brief second from Subaru's awareness.

Reid's fist had instantly clocked him in the left side of his chest, easily cracking a rib.

"Got anything else to say… lil fish?"

His face was just as impassive.

But still:
Tonight, proved to be a night of memories. Much to both their surprise, Subaru mustered the spine to stand back up and take the metaphorical offer, winding a punch. Letting his hips turn and shoulder lead, his knuckles were sprung from the elbow and struck Reid square in his undefended left cheek.

The fist lost all momentum upon contact and stilled against Reid's skin like a statue's sculpted limb. The punch itself having hurt him as much as probably a flick would an elephant.

"That all…" Reid leaned a bit, the fist still stuck to his cheek as he stared at Subaru. "Lil fish?"

The redhead legend felt a slight upward pull on his lips once seeing the dumbstruck face made by Subaru.

The boy wound his other fist back and huffed a ragged breath in revolt at the unharmed Reid. His left fist flew this time, again aiming to nail the towering man.

But Reid didn't let it connect.

With a cartoonish two fingered grip, the intimidating man caught Subaru's punch by the wrist. "Familiar from tonight?"

"You son of a bit-"

Subaru could feel the pain already as Reid applied the tinniest pressure through his vice grip of two fingers. The towering man propped a knee forward and yanked hard. Air silently left Subaru's lungs as he was maintained in that suspended position for a good moment. Eventually to be dropped like a sack of potatoes on the wounded earth.

"'S tha- is tha-t… hah," forced Subaru a smile through gasp after gasp. "All you got? Big fish?"

"Hm~" With an amused hum, Reid suddenly crouched and once more gripped him by the jacket's scruff. And before Subaru could even try to resist, he found himself over Reid's shoulder and hurled over, destined to kiss the leveled bushes and branches packed with scared and cowering cicadas.

The destroyed foliage splintered upon his rough landing and puffed with a swath of scurrying critters, splinters and sawdust.

"Ag-hkhhh… cheap shot…" Lamented Subaru as he dragged himself up from the mound of broken remains.

"If we're gonna settle this like men, at least pick a time when you can't fuck things up prematurely, lil fish." Strode Reid slowly towards the dazed mortal. His right leg curled up while perfectly balancing on just his left. Subaru rushed his forearms up, prepared to feel the pain equal to a thousand broken teeth.

Only, it never arrived. Daring to look through his guarding arms, the boy reflexively winced as Reid vigorously kicked a crumbled street sign. His form alone was worthy enough to be the standard for the best field goal he'd ever see, much less talk about the force behind it. The metal object having flown across the vicinity of the demolished battleground, long left their sights.

"Look, little fish, I get it. Priorities… whatever bullshit." Mumbled Reid that last part to himself on the side. "You've got some guts for a self-denounced failure who won't dare face his parents. Respectable. There's a lo' of problems up there you got going, you" pointed Reid at his own head. "But respectable" he nodded faintly.

"But, the second 'but'…" began Subaru as he slyly sneaked a hand behind to grasp for anything around on the ground.

"But! What I downright despise, 's you not being a man! This is serious, lil fish, and you don't seem to get it. It ain't a fucking la-la-land adventure, idiot!"

"Look who's talking –"

"Od and God, shit, you!" Reid stomped a foot beside Subaru's face, sinking almost calf deep in the ground. "I joke and do shit too, right. That's your argument? Least I take the work we do seriously when 's work to do."

"You… are being serious? Seriously what? Getting as many or as few as you can killed in the process?" Came the caustic retort from Natsuki once he saw Reid's laden expression.

And expecting what was natural to come after this night, the boy immediately brought up in a swing the arm behind, now clenching a hefty reinforcing rebar rod.

Reid easily caught the offending object between the slits of a wooden sandal. The metal dully echoing against the immovable object that was his sheer weight.

"Ah, see!" bent down the redhead to swat aside the rod and smack Subaru over on his feet with a hearty uppercut. Just enough to lift him off his back and on his feet, discounting the slight trickle of blood from his chin. "Tha' one would've been good to use if, I dunno, it could do anything! See this is what I mean. You try to get where you ain't supposed to, only to make things worse, lil fish."

"So what else, genius? Do like you say and let you go around adding to the victims?" Spat back Subaru with greater vigor, as if only further prodded to confront Astrea on this. "First night you deemed your red ass to appear you said you were a legendary hero back in your world. A hero built on what? Killing whoever randomly came across you? Seems like it to me!"

"For the love of Trisha…" Reid whispered before rushing at Subaru and planting his fist through a demolished car, further rendering it apart in unsalvageable trash. His arm pierced all the way through until Reid touched shoulder with the metal. "Fuck you expect, you? Just 'cuz you see magic from back home real now you think tales like you read are real too? Fuck no!"

It became unfathomable how much Reid had to fight down the urge to tear down anything else. Even more the urge to rip the boy apart.

"This is about that woman just now, ain't it?"

"Just her? You did this almost every time we had a run in with that thing!" Subaru saw red before his eyes, and for once it wasn't because of Reid's mane of hair. "Your braindead trail of this" he gestured around at the carnage. "Nearly got my parents in her sights! Is this what you did back in your world too?!"

Reid's temper blew out for the nth time, just this night, and subsequently that meant Subaru found himself airborne in kind for the nth time tonight. This time, seeing him hit a nice and sturdy wall from a surrounding building, leaving him to awkwardly slide off the rough and scraping surface. He lurched towards another frame of broken metal burst from the street's guts just as Reid beset him like lightening.

"For the record: yeah, lil fish… You said it right." Reid bat aside the nearly limp flail with the back of his hand, causing the object to fly out of Subaru's grip sideways. "That was what I did!" With an upwards swipe, the redhead lifted Suabru as if levitated. "A batshit insane monster starts killing everyone and everything, and you want me to get every individual shmuck out there and gingerly place them somewhere safe? What you think this is, you, me placing the sword on the upper shelf so lil bro doesn't reach it? That's what it seems like? – Well no."

"How does that answer anything?" Gasped out Subaru, his face swelling slightly and his breath hitching. His skin inflamed red from the rushing blood and ruptured capillaries. "You're just saying it was what it was! Not even defending it." He shook from foot to foot.

"I ain't." Relented Reid, his hands on hips and face pulled in a miserable bitterness. A quick pause let him think and cool off a bit. Soon after a hand reluctantly lifted to remove his eyepatch. "I'm saying shit happens, be it nice or not. You're dead wrong if you think I'm the type o' legend that does whatever them weird-ass dudes in your drawings do… And you're dead wrong again if you think that's what you could do… lil fish."

Subaru gulped a wad of bloodied saliva and wiped with a hand his cut face. His silence evidence to waiting on hearing more.

"Flugel had it right when he said what he said…" Spoke Reid with a heart wrenching kind of nostalgia. For the first time, Subaru noticed, he even directly mentioned someone he hadn't heard before. "You're one hardheaded asshole, but…" shaking his head, Reid returned on track. "Doing what I did was fucking sick and harsh." Plainly stating this, Reid mindlessly played with a thumb over the uncapped and empty bottle at his girdle. "But guess wha', that's how things are! You wanna do some good, you've gotta break some hearts. It was either be an idiot and waste time trynna baby everyone possible or…" Reid paused and forgot his gusto altogether when preaching whatever two cents he doubted would even count for something.
"I just do what needs to be done, lil fish. Simple. And useful. Get it?"

"…" For what seemed the first time in forever, Subaru seemed truly defeated. Slumping down over the shattered walkway as the first morning rays began to shine over the city, Subaru seemed every bit abandoned by spirit as possible.

Breathing a sigh, Reid looked around, swished imaginary alcohol in his mouth and nodded once. Putting back his eyepatch with care, the redhead lowered to sit beside Subaru.

"I get it, lil fish, I get. Don't gotta look like Tos-that, you. You wanna stop the mad bitch and not get others in the way. Same, so far." Reid sighed in lack of words for what to say. "See, this is why I ain't the brains but the muscle. So much easier…"

Looking back on Subaru's crestfallen face, riddled by the weight of many sleepless nights and fatigued by sustained and unrecovered injuries kept hidden with guilt from his parents, made Reid to decide on something good enough.

With and arm around the smaller man, Reid propped him up and flung Subaru's own arm behind his neck. The walk back to his home would take a bit. Considering both he and lil fish gave up quite a fare share of effort in this failed patrol.

"Come on. Up and ready, you. Don't make me look even more lame doin' this." Slowly, the two began moving out of the terror sight and try escaping without being caught by any other witness that would dare face his fears now that morning came.
"Can't say thing's are fine, you. People went poof around and we're busting your hometown real good. But, guess you were right enough yourself before. Least we're alive. And hell! You's just a lil fish! You know how it is, plenty of room to grow in the ocean." Spoke Reid as the salty air of crashing waves welcomed them on the track back. "You're too much: 'big of heart, dumb of ass', for now, you. But we'll fix that right up, you'll see."

"Reid… Do you- think I can really get up to the job? Don't mince it."

"'Course, lil fish." Feeling the pull on his lips stronger, Reid saw fit to go with it and let a smile out. Maybe he could still salvage this whole shebang. His idiots left him a task after all. He wouldn't permit himself screwing it up. "You've got the best of the best here to handle it. Slight change lil fish! We put the hag down for good – and also do it while keeping the overwhelming number of dumbasses of this place safe. We rest up, and it's witch hunting again for us."

"Good enough." Forced Subaru an agreement. Staggering down the gangways was just the tiniest bit harder than usual. Though before a more comforting silence kept them company, he had to ask the legend. "Reid. When all of this… when all of this was worse back in your time. What- how did you feel about being that legend you scratch your ass to be about?"

"Heh, cheap shot with that one, lil fish." Smirked Reid at the still present snark of Subaru. Right before his face fell pensive and fortunately for him, just in a moment where he couldn't be exactly seen to stain his reputation. "You's really that dumb, you? Do I gotta spell it out?"

"I think you gave me an exposition of concussions with today's emotional venting. …You owe me kindergartener explanations, dickhead."

"Heh! Well, I felt great, you! Yeah. I felt just like I wanted and how I worked for! Least for the first few seconds… before I turned around and saw my intestines over the ivory walls of feathery… his, plumage ripped out the back… and scaly gone deep in dementia." His tone steadily dropped in energy and delved in the forbidden domain he hardly ever even referred to. All that Reid did in those many small trips he did at any bar he could to find the next best liquor was really just the best way he didn't need to think over what happened.

The context dug a hollow wound in Subaru' veins, knowing how much that victory against the monster must've meant for Reid. And he just robbed him of it, letting him face empty handed the phantoms he called out to just before claiming success…
However, Subaru neither regretted doing it.
He liked to believe that act, as costly as it was to buy with his ribs and other numbed body parts, resuscitated Reid's diminished goodness.

"And those choices – where you alright with that end?"

"Thought so…" Reid shrugged and through an unexplainable slight of hand summoned his two expended chopsticks. "The rush of being one of the only mad sons of bitches to stop the world from going poof? Yeah. I thought it a fitting song down eternal glory. But… then it hit me. It was only cool if I had that exit. And not… hah…" Reid closed his eyes and savored the refreshing breeze carried over waters. "Don't think much 'bout it, lil fish. It ain't your shit anyway. Just rest. And get ready for tomorrow, you."

I've sat with this idea on my head for a while now, just as this chapter did waiting to be released.
Without a doubt, I'll continue on the Reid chapters. The whole premise basically appeared from this moment here.

As for who will be next or what will happen?
Don't really know =))). It's up to how I feel or maybe hear demanded.
Thanks to this story format and idea I've taken inspiration for, there isn't really a need for 'building up' to these moments. Especially since the chapters are all contained in their own individual takes on a scene. And as a bonus, you as reader can actively deduce best how things came down to it.

Thank you for the read, and have a great one!
Cya.