Mai couldn't rest easy the moment she boarded the train for Shibuya, uncomfortably shifting the strap of her rifle bag on her shoulder as she stepped into the empty carriage. It was late into the night, and hardly anyone was present at the station by the time they arrived, she and her classmates were scheduled for a mission south of Kyoto that kept them busy all evening, well, almost all of her classmates, Todou and the freshman Nitta were sent elsewhere, Shibuya of all places to be precise. This choice raised a few questions amongst the students on the reason why they were sent alone, almost as if whoever assigned them the mission knew in advance the tragedy unfolding in the district, something that neither Utahime knew about. Looking around, the gunslinger observed the expression on each of her classmates and instructor's faces, dread and tension wore heavy on their aspects like a black veil, but none of them were as in shambles as Kasumi was. She took Mechamaru's betrayal and death worse than anyone, the bags under her eyes told her so, even here at the station she came clutching a medallion between her thin fingers, a memory perhaps of gone times.
Mai moved her gaze away, at first she read the flashing writings that appeared on the LEDs above the windows, a notice regarding the temporary suppression of Shibuya station. Then she brought her attention to her bag, zipping it open, she took out her sniper rifle and put it on the table in front of her, then the revolver from the holster deep inside the case. The trip will take two and a half hours to get to Tokyo's famous district, might as well kill time by making sure her weapons are in peak condition for what's to come. So she began inspecting her firearms, cleaning the barrels and chambers, screwing parts apart, and reassembling them with a meticulous method, ingrained in muscle memory. It made her laugh in a sense, she thought back to when she was only a child, not even in her wildest imagination would she have ever pictured herself taking apart a gun, let alone handling it with such nonchalance and candor, as if her hands were made specifically to accomplish such tasks.
"You're stronger than you give yourself credit, Mai. No one survives a year by pure luck in this crusade." Idiot, is this what you saw in me?
"Mai." her teacher called, as her gaze went up, she crossed sights with Utahime hinting at the girl to come closer with a small gesture of her hand. Putting the revolver back in its holster, the gunslinger got up from her seat and walked down the aisle till she was side by side with the older woman. Utahime suggested moving to the next carriage as she wanted to have a private conversation with her: "What's with this secrecy, sensei?" she promptly asked.
"It's a personal matter. You may not want the others to hear about it." The teacher answered, puzzling the girl even more, but she followed the adult nonetheless.
Together they passed through the doors dividing the two wagons, and soon after they took the seats by the window facing one another. Once they sat comfortably, it was Mai who was the first to speak: "What is it about?" she talked, unsure of which tone to assume. Utahime had her stare steady on her eyes as if wanting to catch the slightest dilatation of the girl's pupils."I want to be certain that everyone is up and ready for what's to come. From what has transpired from the on-field reports we got at the moment, this sounds like a situation even worse than what we had faced almost a year ago in Kyoto. We must take every precaution necessary." She spoke in all seriousness, which put a bit of pressure on Mai but still couldn't connect on what was the personal part of this issue.
"Nothing new, I presume."
"I'm not finished." She continued, "Amongst the squads stationed in Shibuya, there's also a small contingency of three high-ranking exorcists who lent aid in our time of need. There's a good probability if not certain that Esposito is fighting at this very moment." Utahime noticed a small hint, a little twitch in the corner of her eye that betrayed the veiled attempt at indifference. The young girl tried to play innocent, rambling about how this had nothing to do with the situation ahead and didn't concern her, all while hiding her obvious flush behind the collar of her uniform, but the woman was quick to cut her short.
"Mai, I know..." Utahime began, "I saw him sneak out of your room that morning, didn't even notice me."
The gunslinger got flustered immediately, a first for Iori who never saw this side of her. Normally she was snarky, often rude towards anyone who wasn't her peers, a natural-born troublemaker who spared no one from her antics, like that time she stole Miwa's mango out of impulse, or rather a whim. A person who didn't put any effort into becoming a sorcerer, stuck in a reality that scared her to death, up until recently when she glimpsed more and more often at the range by herself, testing multiple firearms, refining her already sharp marksmanship, getting accustomed with the recoil, its force pushed down harshly on her shoulder. To watch her put in the time to improve despite everything that goes against her, fears, pressure from her clan, her low energy output, and her own beliefs.
'I suppose I have to thank him for this sudden change in attitude.' Utahime thought. "I understand this is not exactly my business, however, in case he-"
"How certain is it?" This time it was Mai who interrupted her, the black-haired woman taken slightly by surprise.
"I can't give you certainty on this, but to put it logically he knows the city far better than any other exorcist, not to mention his capabilities and experience. I'd say it'd be a questionable if not downright counterproductive decision on their part had they left him out."
The wagon suddenly fell quiet, Mai's expression was indecipherable to Utahime's eyes, a mix of sorrow and bitterness as she purposely avoided her gaze. She could imagine the storm of conflicting feelings taking the stage inside her mind, she was smart enough to understand what was the whole point of the discussion. Because Gabriele, in the face of how unconventional and uniquely different he proved himself to be, a black sheep by the Holy church's standards, was still an exorcist first and foremost. The fear that what they knew about him, the idea they formed of him as a person was just a facade, a scheme of well-constructed lies with the clear intention of deceiving those around him, in other words, false, like a snake hidden amid the bushes waiting for the perfect moment to strike on the unsuspecting prey. Besides, plotting and scheming is what an exorcist does best.
"He disappeared for nine days," Mai said, "he went off that morning without a goodbye, I thought he flew back to Europe, back to his life, and moved on by now. I... don't know whether to feel glad or angry that he may still be here, it'd be much easier if I could just forget everything than holding on to hope."
"We must take any precautions necessary." Utahime repeated herself, a pang in her heart as she considered the request she was about to make to the emotionally confused girl.
"Should the situation require it, will you be ready to point your gun at him?"
"Are you recording, Gabriele?"
Nobara's voice rang through the phone speakers as the camera panned over her. It was a video he had sent her earlier this month, sometime after the exchange event he and the Tokyo students took a trip to the beaches near Miura, south of the capital. The Italian was probably sitting in the sand, watching his friends play tag by the shore on that peaceful evening, though Mai couldn't help but wonder how they managed to sneak a panda all the way to the beach. The amber-haired girl stood not too far from him, curiously looking at the camera: "Wait, wait! For who is it? You better get my good side in the frame." she said as she struck a pose.
"Stop hogging the camera, Kugisaki." Itadori commented, making his entrance in the tape. Then he locked eyes with the lens, a big warm smile spread across his face while he waved at it.
"Hey there! No, how was it again?" his eyes swiftly shot slightly up as if looking beyond, probably Gabriele was telling him something. "Oh yeah! Ciao!" he waved even more enthusiastically.
The atmosphere was as serene as the weather, the squeals of the seagulls somehow harmonically filled together with the instruments of the wind that gently grazed the surface of the endless blue, a perfect background to the joyous laughter of his friends, and he watched from afar, almost not daring to break this moment as if made of fine porcelain, afraid to shatter it at the slightest of touches. Later she asked why he didn't join them, Gabriele responded:
~ I'm perfectly content with this
I don't need much
To which Mai replied:
You sure sound like an old man lol ~
He justified himself by assessing that he'd join them soon, implying how rare these kinds of moments were so far in between in the world they lived in that even an introvert at heart like he wished to take part in the fun for once. Every day could be my last, he would probably say, such was the ugly truth that they try to forget each time they could. Mai kept watching the next video as Panda pried the phone from Gabriele's hands, filming himself getting chased by the angry but smiling exorcist having the time of his life. "Geez, he's fast, he's fast!" a small laugh escaped the girl, back in her seat where she left all the stuff, the lights of the train were dimmed down to a soft glow, in contrast to the luminosity of the device's display busking the lineaments of the girl's face, shut inside her small world to forget the ugly truth, didn't matter how shortly it'd last.
/ Shadowlord's music box OST \_
The smell of the sea breeze forcefully burst into Gabriele's nostrils the moment he regained consciousness, the gentle rustle of small waves slamming against what he could imagine was the hull of a small boat, causing it to sway slightly from right to left. The eyelids showed no signs of opening as if they were sealed with glue, or maybe it was for the best, he thought, in all likelihood, he would find the dull sky of Shibuya, there on the roof of the skyscraper with a wound running across his torso from the left shoulder to the right side diagonally, and that what he perceived was all a figment, part of his imagination, while in reality he was at death's door and the bleeding led him to have sound and olfactory hallucinations. Once they hatched open, however, he noticed a completely starry night sky, clear without any clouds like he had never seen in his life. He sat down, and at the rough touch of the wood, he realized that he was actually on board an elongated boat, similar to a gondola in size, the absence of a strong light did not give him. certainty about the color. Looking around, Gabriele noticed that he was surrounded by an almost empty expanse, a calm body of water, illuminated by bluish will-o'-the-wisps scattered across its surface and an immense moon on the horizon in the midst of an almost complete eclipse, of which only the outer line of the circumference was visible.
He then looked in front of him, where sitting on the opposite side there was a person, a young woman with long, black hair, kept at bay by a straw hat with a band the same color as her turquoise eyes.
"Hi, Gabriele." she said with a thin smile, her head resting on her palm below the chin, his eyes jumped from detail to detail, from her blush-free complexion to the summer dress that graced her, white with slender bodice and wide sleeves, which fell free in a long skirt, all embellished with golden decorations reminiscent of ancient Roman ornaments around the waist and wrists. As he was about to speak his way, she was quick to interrupt him: "Gabriele... please speak to me." She was sweet in her command, so much so that she left him hesitant. His right hand, as if it were sentient, moved towards his neck, over that cursed scar that led to so many hardships in his short life.
Moments of indecision, lips pressed together in a thin line as he mustered the courage to utter his thoughts into sounds once again, then he controlled his breath to articulate his vocal cords: "Ah..." He felt the words choking down on his larynx, "A-am I d...d-dead? Where are we?" His voice was rough, and weak, like picking up a musical instrument after years upon years of non-practice.
The corners of the girl's mouth tilted upward in pride before shifting her glance into the void around her, "Not yet. And this is my innate domain." she said.
"It may have been erased from your memory but you clashed seven times with the Empyrean, sustained all kinds of injuries that piled up and exhausted your body to the point of falling in a comatose state, at the edge of life itself."
"How are th-the others-s?"
"I'm not omniscient, I'm afraid. But I can ascertain that they avoided certain death thanks to you." the teen's heart warmed up at the notion, he had saved them after all, it'd be well worth it should he pass away eventually, a true martyrdom. Though a doubt sprouted inside his head, by killing the Empyreans he had prevented them from an unavoidable demise, but that might not mean they would survive the night as a result of it, too many were the unknown threats to consider them out of danger yet. But this wasn't also his responsibility any longer, was it? Should he die now, guilt wouldn't weigh on his conscience, and his companions' fates were in the third's hands no more because of his sacrifice, instead handed to the casuality of life... however this didn't feel... right either.
"Doesn't satisfy you at all now, does it?" The girl inquired out of nowhere, taking Gabriele by surprise. Asking for clarification, she simply answered by tapping her index finger against her temple.
"The concept of fate is one that sickens me, a pre-established plot outside of your control bound to happen anyway. No, the truest form of fate is ambition, and life is but a constant clash of ambitions. It is, by all means, a purely selfish sentiment, to aspire is to be oneself, while an imposed ambition is comparable to the death of the ego." She explained, the cogs within the young man's mind began to revolve as memories of the previous battle flowed steadily and rediscovered, "You have cast away your life as an exorcist, fought and prevailed over two formidable foes for the sake of noble purpose, to come this far only to die right after."
The girl then stared at Gabriele who appeared to be zoned out, his eyes identical to hers were bereft of light as he gazed into the void, a sensation of gloom pervading their shared consciousness. She stood up and walked the length of the boat, the feeling of the perpetual rocking beneath her bare foot with each step taken that closed the distance between the two of them. Once at arms reach, she enveloped him in a comforting embrace, no words were needed in this silent moment but she had to ask, she wanted to hear his voice again.
"Don't keep bottling up, please talk to me..." the girl pleaded as she combed his hair. His voice came out as a whisper, but loud enough for her to move away with wide-open eyes.
Who are you?
"What do you mean? It's me, I'm your sist-"
"Don't you lie to me." Gabriele was firm in his response and left no space for arguing, albeit he didn't dare to lift his glance off the wood. "How can you be something that wasn't even granted the chance to live? How can you draw this semblance from a stillborn child? The truth... the truth is that you're nothing but a curse." With dull calmness he came clean of his thoughts, no matter how painful it was to let them out in the open when each word felt like a knife plunging deep into his soul, consequently hers too.
"You were there. I know you were, even though I couldn't see you."
"I'm home!" The door opened just enough to let a small child pass through, Gabriele dashed inside the apartment directly to the kitchen to grab something to snack with. As he crossed the bare, declining corridor that separated the entrance from the living room, the sound of chopping echoed within the narrow walls. Nevertheless, the child did not question it as he discarded the massive school bag off his back, leaving it next to the chair by the table. Arriving at his destination, he leaned over the door frame to see inside the kitchen, his mother was there, facing the other way. She did not greet him, nor did she seem to be aware of his presence as the chopping sound got louder and rhythmic, always at the same tempo like a robot.
Gabriele watched her as he shrank behind the frame, she looked scarier than usual, her brown, disheveled hair spread across her back to cover even a speck of her skin other than her navy blue dress, nothing of what he saw reminded him of humanity. "Hi, Gabriele. Come sit, you must be hungry." the voice came out of her, the eeriness in her tone scared the boy to obedience. Slowly he climbed up the chair, after a few minutes the chopping stopped and a series of footsteps progressively increased in volume as she approached the table with a cutting board. She put the board before him, it was something that he, many years apart, would describe as a pinkish mass of raw meat, minced to the point it resembled baby food.
"Eat." She ordered calmly as she caressed the boy's cheek, her fingers were covered in small but bleeding cuts, leaving a scarlet stain on Gabriele's skin. The kid was left to stare at this shapeless blob with fear in his eyes, his hands trembled, unsure of what to do. Meanwhile, his mother stepped behind, watching from the top as Gabriele sank his hand into his food.
Without warning, the knife she had hidden in her left hand made its way around the child's neck, the edge pressed against the frail flesh and slit it open with a smooth cut. Gabriele got hold of his throat as a cascade of blood gushed out of the wound, the momentum of the mother's arm made him fall from the chair face-first against the floor. "Finally!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, "Finally I got you, you monster! You took away my child! You ruined my life! This is payback for what you did!" She stumbled back against the wall, the knife dropped to the floor and soon she followed too in the middle of a full mental breakdown. Submersed in a pool of his own blood in his last moments, Gabriele did not glare at his crying mother, but rather at a small, black-haired creature nestling on her shoulder who stared back at him with glowing turquoise eyes tinted in red.
"The doctors determined the incident was caused by an undiagnosed postpartum psychosis, Mother suffered hallucinations so real that she thought I was some demon that took her child's place. But it was all you, am I right?" Gabriele said, the silence that soon surrounded them was sorrowful and awkward, complacent of the curse's guilt who didn't dare to look at him in the eyes anymore. "I want to despise you, tell you this is all your fault and that I should have exorcized you at the first given moment. But I..." his voice cracked into short, sharp inhales. When the girl went to look at him, the tears were already streaming down his face.
"I can't bring myself to do that..." the young man looked at his hand amidst the sobs, too much time had passed with her constant presence, too many sleepless nights had passed between her arms, too much to not have developed a significant connection, borderline Stockholm syndrome, this affection he proved for her was sick. "You're not her, you're not her..." he whispered over and over again as if he was going insane, holding his head in his hands and pulling the skin, perhaps in a vain attempt to remind himself that this monster wasn't his twin sister. However, a tiny spark of hope he unconsciously held on to wished for it to be the truth, that her mother's grief brought her back in a different form to then watch over him as a guardian. And when he felt cold fingers wrap around both his wrists prying his face away from his self-harming grasp, when his eyes met hers like in front of a mirror, that was when he fully gave in to the illusion.
All of a sudden the surrounding will of the wisps grew into an impetuous firestorm eating the dream-like plane inch by inch.
"What are you doing?!" He cried out in worry, his heart battering against his ribcage.
"I'm healing you." the girl simply declared, "It'll be enough to stop the injuries, but please do seek medical attention as soon as possible." She wore a sympathetic smile as she brought his hands near to her lips and closed her eyes. However, with her being a low-grade spirit, she knew that such enormous effort meant consuming almost her entire reserve of cursed energy. "I'll fall into a deep slumber, I hope that by the time I wake, your ambition will shine brighter than the Sun." She gave him a light peck on his knuckles before parting ways. Much to the teen's distress, Gabriele lunged forward to reach her soft touch, managing only
to brush her fingers as the flames claimed his dear sister.
Her name was stuck in his throat the moment he woke up under the solace of the dark night that reigned above the Shibuya Stream. The cold wind sent shivers down his spine while tears of blood dripped from his jawline down to the concrete floor, for the first time in over ten years his mind was silent as he was truly alone. Once he got up, he tore the upper half of his exorcist uniform and discarded it next to the corpse of the Empyrean, slowly pacing toward the exit door with the sword saldly, for the nightmare wasn't over yet.