Chapter Text
“Are you ready?” Yakumo asked before yawning and rubbing his tired-looking face with a hand.
Recently Chief Kaito had been working them to the bone. Tend to this Other outbreak here. Slaughter this group of Lost there. Come back to base, report. Do it all again. The guy seemed to think the two ran on infinite energy. And while certainly they were immortal, their stamina reserves were in fact finite.
Sure the revenants got a nice flow of rations out of it. Though they never partook in them and disposed of them before the thought could ever cross their minds.
Tsugumi was just about finished collecting her things when she answered. “Just checking... to make sure I have everything I need.”
“All right then. No rush.” Yakumo cracked his neck side to side and rolled his shoulders. He was really feeling it today.
When all was accounted for, Tsugumi, Yakumo, and Kagero were out the door. And as they exited, Haruka came in from the kitchen with a message for Yuito.
“What's up, Haruka?” he said when she approached him. “Do you need something?”
“Major General Fubuki wants to meet with you.”
Yuito was surprised. How come? He wanted to ask. But Haruka read him easily.
She told him, “He didn't give me any details. Just said to tell you to meet him at the OSF Training Facility.”
“Oh. Okay then. I'll head there right away.” And Yuito did exactly that.
The weakness in the red mist had grown thinner. There was hardly anything there now. Yakumo paused and stared at it.
Kagero quickly noticed he stopped moving. “Hey, something wrong?” he asked from over his shoulder. Both he and Tsugumi stopped to turn to him. They were a few paces ahead of him.
But Yakumo said nothing. His gaze trailed the height of the wall of mist, then the length; that was when he noticed it. A boot print in the dust, seemingly heading in the direction from which they had come. Looked fresh too. And right beside it was a freshly drained blood bead. He could feel pins and needles overtake him as his eyes narrowed on that damning evidence. He knew what it meant, and he had told Louis more than once that they needed to inform the provisional government about the weakness in the mist. But Louis, usually the rational and smart one of the two, said there was no need to worry. Of course at the time Louis was only concerned about being able to go freely from the Gaol of the Mists.
Yakumo respected his decision, had agreed with him even — at first. But things were getting too real now. There was so much at stake that neither he nor Louis had taken the time to consider. All they just wanted was to envision a future where revenants and humans could live in peace together, now that the Gaol of the Mists was weakening. But the cold, hard facts were that revenants posed a danger to the humans outside the Gaol, and in the same vein the humans of the influential underbelly of the outside world were just as much of a threat to revenants. Things were looking to get messy really quick if allowed to go on unabated.
“Helloooooooo! Anybody in there?” Kagero waved his fingerless-gloved hand in front of Yakumo's face.
The revenant blinked himself awake, as if from a trance, and met the worried and curious faces of Tsugumi and Kagero. “Yeah, I'm fine,” he said as a gentle breeze blew against his back. “It's just that,” and he turned around to face a rusty silver car, “we're being followed. Hey! You can come on out!”
And came out he did, looking like a kitten who'd been thrown into a puddle — or at least his pride did anyway. Shiden scoffed and crossed his arms after revealing himself from behind the vehicle.
“Shiden?” Kagero asked, half amused and half shocked.
Tsugumi, who was much the same, asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I have business here,” Shiden answered imperiously.
“Oh? Business is it?” Yakumo muttered a bit. “You mean your weapon, right?”
Shiden flustered.
But while Yakumo knew how to handle himself like an adult in these kinds of situations, Kagero took them as a chance to get under Shiden's skin. He giggled like a schoolgirl ready to spread some vicious gossip. “Oh ho ho! A boy in love returns to the scene of the crime. You sly dog. You can't fool me. You're here to see Murasame.”
“I-just-argh. Shut up!” Shiden stammered, face growing a brighter shade of red.
“Anyway,” Kagero stated, more seriously now, “if you're going in there you should stick close to us. If you're all hiding in the shadows like some self-important spy from a comic book, how are we supposed to know if you get attacked?”
Still fuming from Kagero's previous teasing, Shiden furrowed his brows. “I don't need your protection; I can handle myself,” he obstinately proclaimed while storming past the trio.
“It'll be safer if we stick together,” Yakumo said as the waspish boy passed them and marched straight into the Gaol of the Mists.
Kagero scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Let him go. If he thinks he can handle himself, let 'em.”
A concerned little noise then came from Tsugumi, like a hum.
“Something wrong, Tsugumi?”
“I'm with Yakumo,” she said without a beat. “I don't think Shiden should be wandering alone. He may be hard to understand and difficult to be around... but he's a part of our group... We're like a field of flowers.”
“Yeah... except he's got thorns... and he's not pretty to look at.
“Kagero...”
He sighed resignedly. “Yeah. Yeah. I know.”
“Major General Fubuki,” Yuito said as he approached from the entrance.
But Fubuki came to him, making it a point to hold out a hand, a sign for Yuito to stay put. He walked over from the training arena and walked up some steps. Then their conversation began.
“Yuito, good to see you. You're looking well.”
“Haruka said you wanted to speak with me.”
“I do...” And his face grew grave. But only for a split second. Yuito missed it. “Nagi will be released today.”
Hearing this, Yuito's eyes grew wide. “R-really?”
Well that's great news... but...
Fubuki smiled. He nodded. “He'll be discharged from the OSF Hospital later on today. I'll message you the time when I finally get the release form.”
Yuito was of course happy to hear this. Really, really happy. He wanted to laugh and cry and sing and dance and make a complete fool of himself. Nagi, his best friend, was coming back.
But something else was there. A darkness that the brightest light couldn't reach or penetrate even if it could.
Why did they keep him for so long anyway? Is he even well enough to return to active duty? And what about his strange behavior recently? So many questions besieged him all at once.
His mind flashed to that twisted grin on Nagi's face, when they had just faced Karen and were miserably defeated by him. He remembered how Nagi spoke, like some lunatic bent on blood and chaos.
Glory to New Himuka. Those words were so clear to Yuito. So much so that he felt as if he were truly there again, clothes still smoking after being blown miles away by one of Karen's impressive pyrokinkesis attacks. Nagi wasn't himself. His eyes were shifting, trembling, dilating, and retracting.
That beating flickering darkness, doubt, hissed like a conniving snake in the back of his consciousness. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. It did not need venom to shatter him. Only time. Only the natural progression of revelation.
Is... Nagi all right now? A bead of sweat slipped down his cheek as he watched Nagi shred Seto to ribbons, for a second time.
“Umm, Major General Fubuki,” Yuito began when he came to again. He realized he'd been staring off into space — for how long he did not know. He didn't want to worry the major general, so he stuffed what he was feeling away.
But it wasn't enough to do just that. Fubuki was taken aback by Yuito's change in demeanor. He thought the boy would be much happier than this, and he expressed as much, and just as well Yuito said he was indeed happy... But...
“Couldn't you have told me this through psynet or a brain message or at least at the hideout with everyone else?”
Now it was Fubuki's turn for his smile to falter; it unsettled Yuito. Major General Fubuki was never one for being stern or cold or closed off. But right now that warm, caring leader ran cold, like his power, freezing Yuito along with him. His gaze faltered, shifted left once, to the floor once, and to the right twice. His eyes finally settled past Yuito. He then placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a gentle pat. His lips pinched before he spoke. “I know how much he means to you. You keep an eye on him, Yuito. Leave the shadows to me.”
That's odd. Yuito looked at the hand on his shoulder. A really odd thing for him to say actually. He noticed it was trembling. What is going on? He's shaking. Why is he shaking? There's something... something he's not saying...
His eyes now met those of Fubuki's, daring to ask. But the major general shook his head. As if he could read minds, the look on his face told Yuito not to ask, not to say anymore; he didn't want Yuito doing anything more than what was needed to not attract suspicion. And so that was what Yuito did.
“Right,” he said, a fake smile plastered on his face, “I'll swing by the OSF Hospital to get him later then.” And now he trembled, reminded once more of Nagi's contorted face. Something akin to dread overtook him. He swallowed hard as Captain Seto hit the ground, blood gushing from his wounds and pooling at Yuito's feet. He swallowed hard again and looked up from the corpse and at Nagi's face, warped with dark insanity.
I can't wait for us to catch up... Yuito...
“Oh. Shiden! What's up? Are you the only one here?”
Shiden was so glad Murasame remembered his name; he almost forgot to speak. “Yeah. The others are wandering around somewhere. I think they're looking for samples or something.”
He made his way down the ramp placed over the huge crevice in the floor and walked toward her desk. He did not meet her gaze when he got there.
“Samples of what?”
Shiden tried to sound out the words to answer her. But they came out all wrong. The best he was able to do was mist something, and the other, blood well. It was close enough. To him anyway.
Murasame's eyes went wide, and for a split second Shiden's gaze flicked up to see her. His face grew red and his heart galloped through his chest. He almost failed to hide his smile. “They're looking for mistle and blood spring samples? I wonder why.” When she drew her hand to fiddle with the scar across her face, Shiden stole another furtive glance.
He never noticed it before. Her scar. It ran clean across her nose, from cheek to cheek. It was impressed rather than raised. Looked like it had been a nasty injury. But it wasn't unsightly. He was actually glad to see her without that purifier mask on, or whatever it was called. She had a nice face.
Quickly he ducked his head down when he realized he was staring. That was when Murasame looked at him and shrugged. It was of no use for her to think about why they needed mistle and blood spring samples. That was none of her business. What was her business though was weapons, and she was sure that that was why Shiden had come.
“Anyway,” she said solemnly, “you must be here for your weapon. I'm right, aren't I?”
“Well, yeah.” Then he said more quietly, “Not just that... but...”
Murasame leaned forward, slapping her hands down on the table for support, just about startling Shiden from his skin. His gaze snapped up to her, owlish, blinking. Then Murasame drew a deep breath and released a hefty sigh. “I'm almost done with it. I am. But I'm missing some material.”
“What do you need?” Shiden leaned forward as if to hear her better. But there was really no other purpose for it than for him to be closer to her.
“Isis Chrome.”
Now Shiden drew back. What the heck was that? He asked her.
“It's a rare metal found in some areas of the Gaol. Louis and Yakumo will know where it is.”
Shiden was disheartened to hear her say that. He didn't really know why. He guessed, maybe, probably, somehow, that he believed he and she would go out and search for it together.
And he wasn't some kid. He was a soldier. He didn't need anyone coming with him or leading the way anyway. He could go and get that Isis Chrome all on his own if he wanted. Still, even while thinking that, he searched for Yakumo and the other two.
Disappointment written all over his face, he wondered what he thought was going to happen in the first place when he met with Murasame again. He didn't really know. Maybe he was expecting her eyes to light up when she saw him. Maybe he wanted her to fall head over heels for him. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. A whole lot of maybe's.
He was a good guy, right? At least he thought he was. He was kind... when he wasn't annoyed with someone's nonsense. He was understanding... when his buttons weren't being pushed. He was patient... when he wasn't having a bad day.
Poor Shiden had been so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the shadow creeping over him from behind. Large. Hulking. Breathing heavily. The metal of the miasma-eroded hammer that the creature wielded glinted in the sun. But before the giant could smash Shiden to a pulp it gripped its throat, blood spurting from between its fingers from the new slit across its neck, and it fell back in a silent gape. The large metal weapon and the creature's body hitting the ground was what caused Shiden to turn around. He did so only to see the flecks of the monstrous decaying body swaying in the stale air and fading... until its next rebirth.
“Oh ho ho,” a familiar voice, right in front of him, sang out. Kagero suddenly appeared before him, his face so close to the boy's their noses were practically touching. Shiden jumped back, startled by the sudden up-close appearance. “I just saved your butt,” Kagero haughtily declared.
“What?” Shiden gaped, bewildered.
“That's what happens when you don't pay attention while you're in hostile territory. You get attacked and then good old reliable Kagero's gotta save your butt.” He crossed his arms with an imperious smirk, obviously waiting for two simple words.
Well, if that was what he wanted he could forget it. Shiden scoffed. If the disdain in his brown eyes were any clearer he'd have since bored a hole straight through the adult with laser vision. “I was distracted. That's all. And anyway, I could have handled it on my own.”
It was now Kagero's turn to grunt. He rolled his eyes so hard he could nearly see his frontal lobe.
“Anyway, where's Yakumo? I need to ask him something.”
“Geez,” Kagero said monotonously. “You know, if you're not going to thank me for saving your life, the least you can do is say PLEASE when you ask me something.”
“I don't have time for this,” Shiden snapped back.
“Yeah. I get it. Follow me.” And Kagero walked on past him, refusing to regard the boy any further. And Shiden preferred it that way.
A magnificent tree was what Shiden saw before noticing Tsugumi and Yakumo upon approach. It was breathtaking in a fantastical kind of way. It was white and glowed just as white as its bark, a cool yet warm steady pulse, a perfect push and pull of demure and resplendent. There were strange fruit growing from it, hanging from every branch like glass festive bulbs. Each was wrapped in either one or two silvery leaves, like ivory confectionery glaze straight from a heavenly oven, and the skin of the fruit, from what Shiden could see of it at least, was crystal clear. It showed that this fruit held no solid white or orange or pink pulp, but a red liquid. Red like blood.
They came to a standstill just a foot away from Yakumo, who himself was just a foot behind Tsugumi. That was when Shiden broke from his trance. Eyes snapping away from the tree, he looked to the revenant then at Tsugumi. She had all of the essentials: glass slides, little baggies, clippers, and other things. All was packed into a squarish tin, which had come from a pack she had fitted around her waist. Whatever she was doing, it looked as if she was just about wrapping up.
“I have returned,” Kagero announced, mimicking a noble's voice. It was a fairly good impression.
Tsugumi didn't respond — she was too engrossed in her research — but Yakumo did. “Glad you made it back. How'd it go?” He went silent when he saw an aggrieved Kagero pointing a finger in Shiden's direction. The boy looked serious. “Weapon not ready yet?” Yakumo asked him.
Shiden looked up at him with a sneer. It was that sneer he usually did when he didn't feel like answering questions. Yet he ended up asking one of his own. “Murasame said you would know about Isis Chrome.” It sounded like a statement, but it was a question.
“I seem to recall something with that name. Yeah.”
“Do you know where to find it?”
Yakumo spilled all, telling Shiden about the labyrinthine cathedral and the monsters dwelling inside of it. But before he could say anymore — he had shared the crux of what Shiden wanted to know anyway — the device hooked to his belt crackled and hissed to life. A voice came through.
Yakumo took the walkie talkie from his belt and placed the speaker close to his mouth. It was Kaito with marching orders. He had to answer. “Copy that,” he said, almost regretfully, as he placed the walkie talkie at his hip again. “I hate to cut this short but...”
“It's fine,” Tsugumi chirped as she joined the trio. “I'm done.”
“Got everything you need?”
“Yes. This should be enough to last me a few weeks. I just need to examine the cellular structure under a microscope.”
“Louis' good at that kind of stuff. Maybe you could ask him for help. He was a med student, you know.”
Tsugumi smiled while playing with her loupe some. Based on that smile on her face, she was happy to have more people she could rely on.
“What's with that smile?” Kagero said to her, feigning jealousy. “You don't smile for me like that when I offer to help.”
Before she could offer an appropriate response, Yakumo reminded them he needed to get going. Tsugumi nodded and Kagero nonchalantly waved him off. Then they were outside the Gaol again, walking the long abandoned road.
When Nagi released from the hospital it was with a huge grin and a brotherly punch to Yuito's arm.
“Good to finally have you back, Nagi,” Yuito said to him upon the reunion.
Nagi was the same as ever. Nothing seemed off, despite Yuito paying very close attention, just waiting for something to crack. He held a conversation on the way to Musubi's. He asked about how everyone was doing and if they missed him, while they both waited on their orders. And as they ate, he spoke about his treatment — explained that they treated him for some kind of emotional trauma to his brain. Then they made their way back to the hideout.
Not once during this time did Nagi mention anything about Naomi and what happened to her or Captain Seto and what happened to him. Yuito wanted to ask him if he remembered, because by the way he was acting it was clear he didn't.
Maybe I should just... let it be for now. Yuito's brows drew close during his deliberation. The major general was kind enough to give us a week off, so... maybe I can bring it up some time later.
Nagi's reception was warm. Everyone dropped what they were doing and came rushing to the door when they heard his voice. “Hey guys! Guess who's back?” he said, and they all came like a stampede in his direction.
“It's good to see you, Nagi,” Hanabi stated in that bubbly voice of hers.
“It's good to see you again,” said Gemma as he reached out a giant paw and patted Nagi on the arm.
“Welcome back,” Luka followed after.
Then everyone else.
Louis was the last to greet Nagi. He stepped forward and offered his hand, which Nagi took without question. At least until their handshake was over. His brow then arched. “Never seen you before. You new to the OSF?” he asked.
“Something like that,” Louis offered vaguely.
The two then got to talking. While they spoke, Louis briefly telling Nagi about what he was and Nagi, in bafflement, asking what the heck he had missed while he was in treatment, Yuito scanned the sea of bodies surrounding them. Once he did this. Then twice. Finally, thrice to be sure and once more just to be doubly sure.
Yuito scratched his head after a time. “Where's Kagero, Tsugumi, and Yakumo?” he asked.
And as he did, the door opened from behind him and in entered the devil he spoke of.
“Woah! Nagi! You're back!” Kagero celebrated.
“Yeah. It's good to be back. Treatment took long, but I was finally cleared for release today.” Nagi grinned.
“Oh?” And Kagero's smile slowly fell into something akin to suspicion. He was subtle with it though, just as he had learned to keep his cards close, and a few up his sleeve for when his hand fell short. “What were they treating you for?”
Nagi immediately froze up when Kagero asked the question. His face contorted and his eyes shifted side to side as he thought. It was as if he didn't know, and he expressed exactly that. But eventually, almost seemingly out of nowhere, he came up with an answer. However this was different than what he had told Yuito. He told them all about how he hit his head pretty hard when they were fighting the Seiran NDF at the abandoned highway.
But... he told me that he sustained brain damage from emotional trauma. That's what they were treating him for, weren't they? But then again, now that Yuito recalled, Nagi never mentioned from which event he sustained emotional trauma from. In fact, the story Nagi gave Yuito at Musubi's had been full of holes.
Suddenly...
Bzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzssssht! Like static and a viciously hissing white noise, something clouded Yuito's vision as a sharp pain ran through his head and down to the tips of his toes.
He was able to shake it off before anyone noticed thankfully. The last thing he wanted to do was worry them, especially when they were in such high spirits.
“It's good to have you back,” Tsugumi eventually said with a sheepish smile.
“And it's good to be back,” Nagi said with a boisterous chuckle.
Not once did Kagero's suspicion leave Nagi during their interaction, and Yuito noticed this. He wondered if Kagero would be the one to bring it up: what Nagi did to Captain Seto. He wondered how Nagi would react to it, learning that he had killed their acting commander. Would the event be just like it was with Naomi, when he thought — no, believed — she had been killed by an Other?
Instead, and Yuito couldn't say if he was disappointed or relieved about it because he was growing numb all over, Kagero told them about what Yakumo was up to. “Oh, and by the way — in case anyone is wondering — Chief Kaito phoned in with a mission for Yakumo. We shouldn't wait up on him. Sounded serious.”
“Oh,” Kasane now said thoughtfully, “I wonder what it is the Chief wants him to do.”
“Beats me,” Kagero said with a shrug. But everyone knew in a few hours he would become absolutely insufferable. He got like that now if Yakumo, the precious martyr that he was, wasn't around. He was the only one of the group who welcomed Kagero's antics after all.
“And Shiden probably won't be back either,” Kagero went on, stating this merely as an after thought. “Said something about needing to do something in the Gaol of the Mists.”