Blood+ Fan Fiction ❯ Memories Of Yesterday And Today ❯ Faceless Enemy ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Rain seemed to fit the mood he was in perfectly as he walked the streets of Paris like he had so many nights before. Haji liked the rain-it mirrored how he felt deep in his heart as of late when Saya peacefully slept. While only a short amount of time had passed, it had gone on for what seemed like a longer period. What was a year for most people was a century to him when Saya went into her hibernation period. But he remembered, Saya had wanted him to live for himself, wanted him to see and do things on his own.

If that’s what she wanted he would gladly obey.

However, it had been so long he had truly been by himself that he was almost at a lost of what to do in a world that seemed to have moved past him. The Chiropterans had been less then active these days and Red Shield had special equipment to deal with them now. Making him somewhat obsolete. He felt like an old guard dog; lost and useless with no clue of whether he was going or staying. He just kept going.

Nothing was like it had been many years ago. When he had a family, things had been that much simpler then.

No. It wasn’t. Haji reminded himself. There had been some problems even then and he realized even then he had felt lost in his direction with life. Only now he was certain of one thing, his complete devotion to Saya, but she wasn’t here now. Still, he had to fulfill her wish and live on for himself for once, not for Saya, but Haji. This would take time as there were still many things the Chevalier had to think over about.

It was quite and peaceful that night at the least. The sky was completely cloudless and one could see the stars if they bothered looking closely enough. Suddenly, Haji became aware of someone or rather something following him not too far behind. Stopping for a moment, his black eyes focused on what looked like a small black dog, he couldn’t tell if it was a puppy or a small breed. It had literally a century and something odd years before he had even had a ‘pet’ dog.

He was sure he knew what the creature wanted, it seemed hungry and starved for some sort of attention in general. Haji thought only for a moment to ponder before slowly reaching into his pockets and pulling a small bit of food wrapped in plastic. While he certainly didn’t need human food, a woman from earlier had given it to him for free, saying he reminded her of her grandson. He wasn’t sure if she had meant physically or personality wise, but he was thinking of the first.

“Here.” Haji placed the food down and the dog devoured the thing hungrily like it hadn’t eaten in days which might be the truth. He turned to walk away but the dog began following him, wagging its tail which swayed back and forth. This was expected after feeding the animal and he was about to lose the creature when he thought against it. Saya had liked dogs, more so then him and strangely this one reminded him of the one he had. The dog reminded him of himself, lost until someone else had come along, it would be wrong to lose a kindred spirit.



Wordlessly, Haji continued his trek into the night with his brand-new companion in tow. The night was still young and there was much to see so he could tell Saya all he saw when she finally awakened.

* *

Moses hadn’t foreseen things would have turned out this way in the end, he supposed no one truly knew how things would turn out in the future. He didn’t think he would live this long and while he was ashamed he had given up hope, things hadn’t looked to hopeful a year ago. Now here he and Karman were, living in a large mansion with a former member of Red Shield. She was a kindly old lady and treated himself and Karman like family. Even Karman admitted she wasn’t all that bad which was a step in the right direction.

Thanks to Julia’s research, they could now live without fear of the Thorn and were even able to finally do something simple such as a walk in the sun.(though they their powers were weaker during the day slightly). She had said she wouldn’t be able to stop it completely and that they would roughly have a life-span of a long-lived human but Moses didn’t mind. Living eternally from what he had seen seemed more like a curse then a blessing in his eyes. Then again, he wouldn’t know for sure since his life in this world had been so short.

Occasionally, Moses and Karman would go to visit Irene just to see how she was doing and sometimes even Lulu would drop by to check up on them. Moses had noted that Karman, while probably never admitting it openly had some grudging respect for Kai, if only because Irene held him in such high regards so he couldn’t be that bad. His hot-headed friend had mellowed his temper a bit but it was still there for those foolish enough to rekindle it. At least Karman was slowly starting to accept the idea of not all humans being bad, Kai and the other’s were quite different from the cold and emotionally detached ones back in their birth place.

The retired Red Shield member taught Moses and Karman many things besides the rough basics such as math, the name of cities, history. It was all so new to both of the Sif that they found themselves eager to learn these new things. Karman was a bit impatient in the lessons, only because he wanted to learn something new after shortly grasping the basics. The leader of the Sif was more patient then his friend, comprehending the new knowledge and trying to apply it in some sort of way to everyday life. After that, he would move onto the next subject. They were learning how to live and growing each day instead of simply surviving.

It was a nice change of pace. He would even admit that.

Both of them had taken interest in different things, Moses developed a fascination with fictional stories while Karman seemed to have taken a liking to the history of weapons. It seemed to fit the two personality-wise, Moses was more calm and Karman was still very much a fighter at heart whether it be the literal or figurative sense of the word.

It was an amusing experience when Karman was taught how to drive not to long ago using one of the old ladies sports cars. The Sif had scoffed at the thought of using one of that human things-until, he realized the beauty and power in those lovely pieces of metal, maybe a little too much in fact. Karman had pushed the Viper to its limits and though they had gone to an open field that still didn’t stop the feeling they were going to painfully crash multiple times. The poor middle-aged gentlemen had nearly had a heart attack and hadn’t bothered teaching them. Moses himself decided he wouldn’t be in the same car. This seemed to have tickled the old woman for some reason, so as a project she gave Karman some tools to help restore an older sports car.

Suffice to say even then he wasn’t allowed near a car in the meantime.

Most of the time they would be left alone to their own devices during the day, at least when the owner of the mansion went out to visit family. Moses and Karman showed their gratitude by keeping the place protected while she was gone, there had been an attempt to break in once before, but after encountering the two male Sif, the burglar had been sent quite literally packing. No one bothered the place after that, saying the place was ‘haunted’ and other such stories.


Moses was sparring with Karman, but more to keep his fellow Sif busy more then anything. But it was for another reason as well, they both wanted to be strong enough to protect what was left of their kind. Karman had come up with the idea and the old woman, hearing of it gave them non lethal but hard metal weapons that resembled their normal weapons for practice in their training. It soon became somewhat of a routine. They would practice in the morning and in the afternoon in the courtyard, sometimes their hostess would watch them and other times it was nothing but the two of them.

Nobody was able to see the two warriors, and if they did they had been surprised. It wasn’t everyday humans got to see blue blurs that almost like a scene from a comic book or an anime show. The sound of metal clashing onto an equally hard surface was heard as Karman and Moses almost seemed to dance around the courtyard, replica weapons in hand. The scythe and spear respectively.

No side seemed to be gaining ground, in fact they seemed to be about even in terms of power this time around. Moses had to work to keep Karman on the ropes and vice versa, they both had grown in power within the year considerably and probably even had a chance against a Chevalier, unlike in the past where it would have taken two or three just to defeat one. It would have still been a rough fight, but they now stood a chance vs. one in single combat.

“Stand still.” Karman was getting frustrated slightly at his inability to land another hit on his leader, it was about even but it had been twenty minutes and no side had landed another blow.

“That defeats the purpose.” Moses smoothly leaned back as the fake spear passed through empty space where he had been, scythe coming upwards for a cross slash. Karman saw the attack coming a mile away, vanishing and leaving a blue-trail like most Sif did when using their speed.

“You’re mine!” The voice came from above him as Karman brought the blunt spear down to finally end the sparring match. Moses calculated it in an instant, and as the weapon came from inches from him, he side stepped, bringing his own weapon to bear. It was to close for Karman to act and the fact he was still with the momentum of his earlier attack didn’t help either. Moses’ scythe came to claim the match, knocking the spear out of his friends hand which landed with a loud clang some feet away.

“Good match my friend.” The fake scythe had been pressed lightly onto Karman’s neck before he swiftly retracted it.

Retreating to pick up his weapon, Karman turned to him. “I’m going to beat you one day, you just wait and see.”

At that, he had to keep from smiling. “We’ll see.” Moses turned to look up at the sky. “We should head back in now.” Karman silently agreed and both of them placed the fake weapons in a rack on the wall in the courtyard. It wasn’t as if someone was going to steal them, and even if they did they could always make different ones-they were after all fakes.

Moses paused in mid-step before entering the house, feeling a strange chill that hadn’t come from the winter air.

“What’s wrong?” Karman stopped when he noticed Moses wasn’t coming.

“No. It’s nothing.” Moses reassured him and hesitantly headed back inside the place. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread, and it scared him that he had no idea just what had caused that feeling.

* *

Over all at the end of the day, Kai was glad Mao, Lulu and Okamura had come to visit them. They were pleasant company despite all their quirks and they had all had grown on him considerably since their large adventure some time ago. That had only been a year ago but they shared some old memories back and forth with each other. Naturally, some parts were on the touchy side so they were clearly avoided, but there had been some fun times as well.

Time passed by quickly for everyone, even Ryo had gone home to his family but they still played catch up even as time faded into the later hours of the night. Mao was off to the corner explaining something to Irene-Kai wasn’t sure what it was or even if he wanted to know. Okamura seemed to be content watching a sports game on the worn out T.V. they had for everyone to see. Every time his team started to lose, it would look like he would want to curse but couldn’t-since Mao would chew him out. Instead, he would tightly hold onto something and watch the screen anxiously, that couldn’t be good for his heart.

Kai was cleaning up along with Lulu, the customers hadn’t even bothered trying to be clean and it was like cleaning up after the twins after they had gotten a meal. Not that he minded, it gave him something to do while everyone enjoyed each other’s company, except for the reporter who seemed to be enjoying his own personal company with the T.V. at the moment. Dad, I wonder what you would think of me now? Would you be proud? The twins were his family by blood, but as he watched the people around the shop, he realized these were apart of his family just as much as they were. They had been through much together that a year ago and had bled and cry together, being a blood-relative wasn’t all it was cracked out to be. Diva and Saya were a testament to that.

No, family was something not quite easily explained but you knew what was. That’s what Kai thought.

He noticed something standing behind the door of the building. It was impossible to make out their physical features, the only thing he could tell was that they were tall and their shadow stood over menacingly. How long have they been standing there? Frankly, Kai was a bit unnerved by the whole thing. True, he wasn’t a slouch when it came to fighting anymore and they had two Sif with them but it still managed to make him be on edge. Just something screamed whoever the stranger was had to be extremely dangerous. All of his instincts were telling him as much.

Lulu seemed to notice Kai had stopped working. “What’s wrong Kai?”

“Someone’s just standing out there.” Kai muttered. “I don’t like it. May-” That was as far as his sentence got before the door suddenly was torn off like tin foil, the rest it coming toward him at a fast speed. Kai being a human, was far too slow to react in time but Lulu wasn’t and was able to grab him and force them both to the ground.

The stranger was a tall humanoid thing, Kai decided instantly they weren’t human-the way they had broken in proven that much. They wore a long black trench coat, black gloves with boots, their face looked human except for the completely and eerie blank emotionless expression they were. Calmly and steady, they walked through the broken down entrance, foot making a crushing sound as they stepped onto broken glass. Okamura, of course freaked out and tried to keep himself far away from the thing as possible, Irene had stood up calmly, though her body was a bit tense, as was Lulu’s now. Mao kept some distance behind the blonde-haired Sif, she was used to these sort of thing’s to an extent but that didn’t make it any less scary.

“What do you want?” Kai growled, cursing himself for locking up his gun in a box. He thought he wouldn’t need it any time soon, but he had been proven wrong.

“The queens.” They said in a monotone, and kept coming ignoring everyone in the room as they tried to go straight where the twins were. The voice wasn’t spoken, it was heard through out the entire room in their head sounding like a distorted whisper. This made Kai’s hair stand on end.

“Like hell you will!” Kai realized what he was after, and letting his emotions cloud his judgement charged forward. A stupid move considering what he had done to the door but he tended to act first think later when it came to family. Before he even reached his opponent, their hand came out impossibly fast that a human eye wouldn’t have even see it. Kai was lifted up easily with one hand, but he struggled to get out of the creature’s grip with no success. Feeling the air slowly chocked out of him.

“Let him go!” Lulu became a streak of blue, moving to attack as well. To his credit, he did let Kai go, throwing him at the incoming Sif and they both crashed hard against the wall like toys.

Irene had seen enough to determine that he was a threat, she didn’t have her weapon with her so she would have to rely on her natural skills and strength. While she disliked fighting in general, she wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her friends. Her hand became a chiropteran claw as she lunged forward, to her surprise he didn’t even try to move out the way and it was soon discovered why. As her sword arm pierced his stomach, it made a hole but there was no blood at all almost as if he didn’t have any to begin with.

Not giving her a chance to recover, he grabbed her hand and began adding pressure crushing them with a disturbing pop noise making her cry out in pain.

Mao didn’t have any powers or even training but she couldn’t let Irene get killed by this freak. Thinking on her feet, she looked for the nearest thing she could use to improvise with. A vase stood on a lone table, she would have preferred a knife or something but it would have to do. She tossed it at the thing’s head, the glass shattering as water spilled onto ‘its’ face. Surprisingly it let Irene go, after tossing she to Mao who caught her was knocked off her feet with the force of and momentum of the throw.

Strangely, the water from the vase seemed to have some effect on it and the sound of sizzling could be heard as it burned its flesh, the unpleasant smell added to this as well. It wasn’t much water from the vase to begin with so it soon got over the surprise attack, though it didn’t stop the single-minded mission of going after the twins. The thing’s face had melted away, showing the real face underneath, turning out to be completely faceless with no eyes or mouth. As if they were never there to begin with.

“Irene! The water! That it’s weakness!” Mao had gotten up by this time, though she was still a bit wobbly from the throw still.

Taking a silent note of this, Irene grabbed the nearest water supply, a cup of half drunken water Okamura had used earlier. Both Sif appeared in front of the stranger monster in a last attempt to protect the twins. It continued its slow and deliberate walk as if they weren’t there, even when water was thrown at it, it had no effect like the last time. It grabbed both girls by the throat, lifting them off the ground tossing them though the walls. This wouldn’t kill them but it would keep both Sif out of action long enough.

“You bastard!” Kai hadn’t just been sitting around, he had gotten his hand gun, the one used for hunting Chiropterans. He fired, making the monster flinch somewhat and even making some holes in its body. The body itself didn’t crystalize and all the wounds that were inflicted on it, faster then anything he had seen even on his journey. What the hell?

Vanishing in a dark wisp of energy, Kai lost track of the thing until it appeared right in front of him holding the gun. He fired more out of desperation then anything until the light click sound as his pistol came on empty. Almost comically, it looked down at him as if to say, ‘Are you done yet?’ Then, it crushed his gun without effort before hitting Kai with enough force to knock him back and unconscious. He was too stubborn to stay down even then. No, not again. I can’t, fail again I promised..

Ignoring the downed human, it went up stairs easily dispatching Okamura who had tried to get the girls out of the area. Moments later, it came back slowly down with a crying pair of twins. Kai forced his unwilling and beaten body to move even if it was telling him to stay down, he grabbed the kidnapper’s leg. “Stop. Please don’t take them.” He pleaded, even though he knew they wouldn’t listen to him. Carelessly, it shrugged off the young man and disappeared either out of pure speed or teleporting he couldn’t be sure.

Riku, I’m sorry I let you down again. Kai felt his vision darken from the trauma of his wounds. And then everything faded to black as he went unconscious, the last thing he saw was Irene and Mao rushing towards him.
* *

Author Notes: Reviews aren’t everything, so I keep telling myself. It’s very hard to get into Haji’s head so to speak but I tried. I just hope I did a half decent job at it. As the chapters go on, I’ll try to keep things more detailed, my first chapters are always the most rocky for me before I ‘warm up’ so to speak.