D. Gray-man Fan Fiction ❯ Twilight Generation ❯ Power II ( Chapter 2 )

Ayame's legs shook terribly as the high pile of books she was carrying tottered dangerously, “Oh dear…” she muttered anxiously, “(please God, please don't let these books fall on me…) she pleaded in Japanese. On her first day of work at the library, she was already feeling that it would be her last. She made so many mistakes this afternoon like mixing up catalog cards, arranging books in reverse order, not to mention putting an entire series in the wrong section. Despite the librarian's reassurance that it was all right to make mistakes, Ayame felt that she was being a terrible assistant.

“(Eto...) Science Fiction… Horror… Fantasy… Ahh, here it is!” she said in relief as she set the heavy books down on the floor in front of the Misc section. She then quickly began to take the books from the pile and made sure to arrange them in the proper order. When she crouched down to get the last one however, her hand stopped as she saw the title.

Classic Fairytales

Ayame looked at it intently before gently picking it up. She then smiled softly as she caressed the book and was about to open it up when she heard someone call her name.

“Ayame?”

The purple-haired girl jumped and looked around to see a woman dressed in a white blouse and a long black skirt standing from behind the shelf. She had jet-black, medium-length hair that was tied with a couple of polished chopsticks. “We're closing up now.” she announced politely but then noticed the book in her hand. “What have you got there?” she asked curiously. Ayame blushed slightly as she held up the book in front of her at the same time trying to hide her face.

“Oh…” the librarian said, suddenly smiling kindly, “You like fairy tales?” Ayame nodded as she stood up. “Which one's your favorite?”

“Beauty and the Beast.” the golden-eyed girl answered bashfully. “I like it because it tells people that when it comes to true love… it's who you are inside that counts…”

“Well, most people would find stories like that corny and naïve nowadays but... at least it's better than the stuff Merrick likes to read.” the librarian said offhandedly.

“Merrick? Merrick Munroe?” Ayame asked all of a sudden. “Why yeah,” the lady replied looking at her curiously, “that's his name. You know him?” Ayame's face turned extremely red and said, “Umm… he's a friend.” The librarian however, raised her eyebrow and said, “Really? Last time I checked he didn't have friends or at least failed to mention any. He just comes here every now and then to read up a few creepy books that I happen to have.”

Ayame bowed her head sadly as she looked at the book again, “He… doesn't talk much does he?”

“Well no, not really.” said the librarian shrugging as they both walked to the lobby. “But lemme tell ya, he's waaay more hostile than the Beast in that book.” she added, pointing to the book that was still in Ayame's hand.

Ayame continued caressing the book before opening it up to the page that contained her favorite story. As she smoothly turned the pages and read a few lines, she muttered quietly, “Maybe he's lonely too…”

“Excuse me? I didn't catch that.” said the librarian curiously. Ayame smiled at her sadly and said, “People were afraid of the Beast because he was very ugly and nobody ever thought of looking at him twice. Then one day a kind girl came and saw that underneath that scary face was just a very lonely person.”

The librarian was silent for a while as she carefully looked at her. Though Ayame was talking to her, it seemed that she was pretty lost in thought at the same time. “Well then…” she then said suddenly smiling mysteriously, “… in Merrick's case, I guess we both know who that girl is.”

Ayame quickly looked up from the book and gave her a slightly confused look. When she saw the smile on her new boss' face however, she immediately blushed again. “Waaaaah! No, it's not like that! I am just a friend of his. R-really!” she tried to explain frantically but her boss simply picked up her handbag calmly and said, “All right, I'll leave you alone. Come on, it's time to check out.”

Despite that she was still feeling extremely embarrassed by what she just revealed to her boss, she complied but then realized that the book was still in her hands. “Oh no, uh wait just a second ma'am!” she then said hurriedly as she made to go back to the aisle. “No it's okay. You can borrow it. I'll take care of it.” the librarian then said reassuringly.

“B-but…” she said hesitantly but then felt a hand on her shoulder. “It's okay, it's my way of thanking you.” the librarian said kindly. “B-but I made a lot of big mistakes-” Ayame stammered but her boss put a finger to her lips, “Trust me, you did a better job than I did on my first day here.” she said encouragingly.

The young girl reluctantly looked at the book but then gave a shy, “Thank you.”

Later at the train after she and librarian parted ways in one of the city's numerous subways, Ayame decided to read a few pages of the book she borrowed while trying the cookies Merrick gave her. The cookies were actually pretty tasty and were very mesmerizing with those intricate symbols carved on them.

“(Oishii…)” she said in quiet blissful tone as she popped another cookie in her mouth while quietly reading the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

What she didn't know though, was that somewhere down the aisle of the subway car…someone was watching her… watching… and waiting…hungrily.

Suddenly the lights within the subway began flickering erratically before finally going off, engulfing everybody in darkness. Then there was a horrible screech as the car violently skidded on the tracks due to the sudden loss of power. Ayame gave off a small shriek of fright as she suddenly found herself thrown off her seat and onto the floor. People were immediately shouting in panic as some of them tried to run towards the driver's seat. Amidst the chaos, Ayame frantically reached around the floor in front of her. The book had slipped from her hand when she fell and she greatly feared that someone might accidentally step on it in the middle of this mayhem.

To her relief, she found it not too far away and quickly stowed it back into her bag. As she stood up however, a cold raspy voice whispered harshly from behind her, “Don't move.” Ayame quickly froze in fear as she felt something sharp prodding her back. “One tiny peep out of you and this goes through your guts.” he said threateningly as he slowly poked the knife at her. Trembling terribly, Ayame slowly nodded her head. She then felt a large, strong hand grab her by the shoulder and forced her to move forward. “Remember… not a sound.”

The poor girl slowly walked helplessly to her captor's will as she tried to find a way to alert someone, but it was too dark for anyone to see them and the man seemed unnaturally sharp in making sure they didn't bump into anyone. The only thing she could do was pray that someone would somehow notice them and come to her rescue. Unfortunately, when they reached the end of the car, they had gone completely undetected in the throng of troubled passengers.

The man took his hand off her shoulder but still kept the knife pointed at her back. He silently reached around for the knob of the door and opened it while Ayame stood completely terrified, her heart rapidly pounding against her chest. He forcefully pushed Ayame through and both of them were now walking through the shaky joint between this car and the next. When they entered the next car however, Ayame was shocked to find nobody else inside and immediately felt her already rapid heart rate double.

“Wh-what are you going to do me?” she asked in a frightened voice, no longer able to contain her fear. She immediately tried to scream however when the man quickly gagged her with a strip of cloth.

“Wouldn't a pretty girl like you wanna know?” he whispered maliciously as he tied the gag tightly around her mouth. Ayame tried to scream as loud as she could through her gag but the cloth effectively prevented her voice from reaching past the confines of the empty car. Her hands immediately tried to pry it off her but the man was surprisingly dexterous. He quickly dropped his knife and turned her around before pushing her violently to the floor.

Ayame struggled desperately as her captor bent down and began fondling her breasts, her hands waving wildly in an attempt to push him off. But because of the darkness however, all she ever managed to do was make it easier for himto grab her wrists and pin them behind her with one hand.

“They're always so frisky…” the man said lustfully as he lovingly listened to the sound of Ayame's muffled screams. He then grabbed her slender legs and forced them apart before quickly reaching for the hem of her short skirt. Ayame's eyes instantly shot up and began to move more radically now as she felt the man eagerly pulling away at the first defense of her purity while her screams grew louder and higher (though still not loud enough for anyone to hear).

“That's right girl… struggle… it won't be worth my while if you don't at least show some energy heheheh…” he said maliciously as dragged the skirt halfway down her hips. Her screams were now being mixed with the sound of her sobs.

When he was about to reach for her panties however, the man felt his lust evaporate immediately, almost unusually.

A massive presence had suddenly appeared with them in the car. Though he couldn't see who or what it was, the man could feel it. A powerful amount of murderous intent emanated from behind him, a strong murderous intent… for him.

Ayame slowly stopped struggling when she realized that her assaulter was no longer molesting her. However, she too felt that they were no longer alone. Despite that, she remained still, in fear that the man would only abuse her further if she tried to get away.

The man slowly gulped as he tried to stop himself from shaking and carefully turned his head. Despite the darkness, his mysterious ability to see through it instantly revealed to him something that filled him with great fear.

A hooded figure stood before him, its firm frame and tall lean build indicated that it was male. The figure wore a long, dark blue robe fastened by a thick silver zipper. Gray lines ran in an intricate pattern from the shoulders to the edges of his coat. The cuffs of his coat were also gray, while the sides of both his upper arms bore a circle that each had a gleaming silver cross inside. He also wore a pair of matching gloves and his shoes were dark blue with the tips and heels colored gray. Finally, on the left side of the person's chest was an emblem, a silver rose cross with rings of roman numerals forming layers around the center.

Though strangely intimidating this was for the man, the whole cart was still bathed in darkness so Ayame couldn't exactly see what was standing in front of them. Whatever it was though, it was now the only thing that was preventing her from suffering the ultimate form of human violation.

“Wh-who are you?” he stuttered in a now surprisingly scared voice.

Ayame's eyes widened when she heard a voice speak in reply. It was not the mysteriousness of the voice or the fact that she couldn't see the owner that really shocked her though… it was the fact that the voice sounded oddly familiar.

“One who shall relieve your soul of this suffering…” the figure said as he adjusted his glove tightly.

Then, without warning, the man quickly got off her and reached for the knife he dropped earlier. After that, she heard him roar violently as his footsteps sounded like he was running towards something. It was next followed by the sound of a door banging opening and she felt a slight draft touch her bare skin.

To her great surprise, the car she was in gave a sudden lurch and the lights rapidly flickered back on. She could hear the whirring sound of the train moving once more and she realized that she was still nearly half-naked on the floor.

She instantly gave a small squeak of embarrassment as she hastily pulled her skirt back up. She then quickly tore off her gag and stood up, hoping to see who had saved her.

The problem was there was nobody around. She quickly looked around the car, checking every possible hiding place but no sign of anybody else.

Looking around uneasily, she decided to sit down though her heart continued to beat furiously. A man had just tried to rape her and that thought alone left her shaking… However what bothered her more was the identity of her rescuer…

That voice… she thought, I feel like I've heard it before.

Mean while somewhere in the underground, the man ran for his life through the maze of sewers and pipelines. In his past exploits, his knowledge of the underground's ins and outs, which surpassed even the city's architects, had always allowed him easy escape from the authorities. Never had he needed to make more than a few turns before finally losing his pursuers.

This time though…

After making another good deal of lefts and rights, he slowly looked back. To his horror, there he was, still walking at an eerily leisure pace. A hooded young man in a dark blue coat that bore an emblem that he hoped he'd never see.

He frantically exited into a larger sewer line and was quick to spot a ladder on his right. He then desperately climbed up and pushed the manhole cover off. To his relief, he had climbed out into a deserted part of the city with nothing around him but a few old, abandoned buildings. The sight of the black sky and the twinkling stars indicated that it was already night time. The man hurriedly picked up the circular cover and slammed it over the manhole once more, stomping it fiercely for good measure. Sighing with relief, he slowly backed away before turning around…

…only to stand face-to-face with his pursuer.

The man was about to scream when the young man swiftly put his index and middle fingers on his chest.

“Innocence… Activate…” he whispered.

A bright electric blue symbol immediately flashed from within the shadow of the young man's hood. Two lines began to spread over the boy's face, running vertically across his eyes and causing them to light up through the darkness that concealed them.

Suddenly a powerful, invisible force shot from the boy's two fingers and the man was soon sailing a good twenty meters away. “UWAAAHHH!!!” the man cried out loud before landing painfully on the ground like a broken puppet.

“You've got nowhere to run… Demon.” the young man said coldly as he approached the sprawled body of his prey, “How the Order failed to find you, I'll never know.”

Despite the severe damage done to him, the man slowly stood up, his body shaking terribly from the pain. The expression on his face, however, was no longer that of fear but of pure utter rage. All of a sudden, a black upside-down star appeared on his forehead and his eyes rolled up disgustingly. Next, bolts of electricity began emanating from his body as it lit up a bright, foreboding red. Finally, sparks shot off from the glowing monstrosity and the Demon's true form was finally revealed.

It had the arms, body, and legs of a red futuristic robot. Instead of hands however, it had four wriggling tentacles sticking out. These tentacles looked like thick cable wires each tipped with a long, dangerous, barbed spike. On its back was as hard, round, crustaceous shell with shorter but wider spikes jutting from behind it along with two larger tentacles sticking out near the shoulders. Its head was like a small stubby squid with extra long tentacles. Eerily embedded on its chest was the man's face but its skin was now deathly gray with numerous lines running down from each of its eyes like ugly black tears.

“Screw you… EXORCISTS!!!” it roared as it launched the two tentacles on its back straight at him.

Seconds before the tentacles could make impact however, they immediately bounced back as if they were repelled by some invisible barrier. The moment they hit though, a faint silhouette of a sphere surrounding the Exorcist could be seen.

“What the…!?” said the demon, stunned by the way his attack was blocked.

The young man raised his right hand in front of him and swiftly wrote something in the air with his finger. Immediately, another symbol appeared floating over his palm. Its color was red and its light burned intensely before suddenly bursting into a great fireball. He then hurled it with a surprisingly immense force that gave off a small shockwave when it launched. The Demon quickly shot the tentacles on its right arm towards the nearby wall and used it to pull itself out of the fireball's way. It then planted its feet firmly on the wall's side as the intense sphere of flames exploded loudly on the spot where it stood a few seconds ago. Using its free arm, the Demon countered by firing four more tentacles towards its adversary. However, they too were deflected by the mysterious barrier.

“Shit…” it cursed at it quickly drew its tentacles back. It then quickly jumped off when the Exorcist launched another fireball at it. Even though he missed however, the force of the explosion gave the Demon unwanted propulsion and its feet were soon skidding across the ground as it landed.

The squid-faced monster gave an angry roar as it thrust its two arms outwards. Instead of launching its tentacles again though, a short, steel gun barrel had popped out in the center of the tendrils and began firing bursts of bright purple energy. Unfortunately for the Demon, even these weren't enough to penetrate the unseen barrier surrounding the Exorcist.

The young man began to walk slowly towards the creature, unmindful of the impacts its shots made against his mystical shield. “I overheard your conversation with your latest victim…” he muttered casually while the rate of fire increased in intensity, the creature now backing away in terror as he got closer.

“It seems you like it when your prey struggles…” he noted quietly as the Demon had now ceased fire and was starting to coil the tentacles on its arms into two long spikes. “…however, it's a pity… considering that I feel the same way when it comes to hunting vermin like yourself.”

“Shut up! You don't scare me! ARGGHHH!!!” it roared, its voice now a low, rumbling gurgle and no longer human. Arcs of electricity then began jumping over the spikes on its back and surging through its arms. “Let's see how your magic force field takes this!! Volt Sting!!”

With a mighty bellow, it sent the coiled tentacles on its right arm hurdling towards the Exorcist. Volts of electricity surged through the wires and ignited the tip making it look like one giant electric stinger. It hit the young man's barrier with full force and its powerful surges crackled in front of the boy, showing a brief glimpse of his face.

The boy had dark green hair and wore a pair of oval glasses that constantly reflected the flickering light of the sparks in front of him. The symbol that shone through the shadow of his hood was actually marked on his forehead, its lights still able to shine despite the flashes of electricity.

“Sadly,” he muttered as his hand calmly reached up to touch the spot where the tentacle was trying to pierce through, “it appears that you will not satisfy me…” With an exotic wave of his finger, he once again drew something directly in front of the deadly spike's tip. A green symbol instantly appeared and sparks now began surging from it. The next thing the Demon knew, the flow of electrical current had somehow been reversed and its own power was now surging back across the coiled lines. When the surge finally reached the arm, it caused a severe overload resulting in a powerful explosion.

The Demon cried in utmost agony as it fell back, its arm now nothing more than a smoldering stump with traces of electricity still sparking faintly from it. Regardless of the pain though, the monster once again stood up and roared violently as it uncoiled the tentacles of its remaining arm. With surprising swiftness, it then whipped the tentacles out. Instead of striking at the barrier however, the tentacles wrapped viciously around it, followed by the two larger ones on its back.

“UWOOOWAAHHH!!!” it cried as bolts of electricity then began running through the tentacles once more. More arcs had began to appear on the monster's spiked back, making the whole creature look like some walking battery. “I don't know what this shield of yours is made of, but when I'm done sucking up all its juice it's gonna be no tougher than an eggshell!! My tentacles'll crush it all like tinfoil and you along with it mwahahahaha!!” he said ending his little monologue with a malevolent laugh.

The young man however, remained quiet and expressionless even when visible cracks had began to appear and were branching throughout the whole barrier that was protecting him.

“Drop dead!” the Demon hollered as it gave a powerful squeeze. The barrier instantly broke like glass and a bright flash of light from the resulting electrical explosion nearly blinded the monster. When it opened its eyes again though, it saw no trace of the Exorcist. All that remained was a smoking mass of wrapped up tentacles right over the spot where he stood.

“Hehe…” it began, “ehehehehe….EHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!” it immediately laughed loudly and heartlessly in triumph as it pulled back its tentacles. Its body then gave off a bright red glow as it reverted back to its human form. With an arrogant chuckle, it turned around confidently and began walking towards the sounds of the main city.

It had barely taken a few steps though when beams of light suddenly appeared from all directions and struck it down mercilessly. Surprisingly, the pain only lasted a second and it was now standing back up again. Furious, the Demon irritably turned to face what it thought was another enemy. To its horror however… it wasn't.

The hooded young Exorcist stood completely unharmed still on the same spot. His hand was raised high above him. The Demon cursed loudly as it prepared to transform again. Instead of transforming though, the monster felt a mind-numbing pain as if electricity was shocking it from the inside but remained contained and compressed within it. For that brief moment, rings of chains instantly appeared around the Demon's arms and legs while two wider rings wrapped diagonally around its body, forming an X over the chest. The chains themselves were rather peculiar for they were only visible for a moment before fading away again. They were colored pale indigo and, because of the nature of the chains' invisibility, they were also semi-transparent. The only thing the Demon managed to do was make the upside-down star appear on its forehead. Unfortunately for the Demon, something else was forming over the star.

The creature felt a burning pain on its forehead as two circles, one inside the other, began forming around the star. When they were completed, another one of the Exorcist's enchanted symbols appeared right over the star. The Demon struggled furiously to transform but all it could do was make the chains visible once more. Seeing it could no longer transform, the Demon could only turn around terrified and try to escape.

Without warning, rays of light suddenly began to shoot speedily from the ground and the Exorcist instantly appeared before him in a small flash.

T-teleportation!? it thought incredulously before the young man reached out with his hand and appeared to grab something. At the exact same time, the Demon felt a powerful grip on its throat and choked severely as it felt itself being lifted off the ground.

“Th-This ain't right!!” it gasped out loud as the boy tightened his telekinetic grip around its neck. “I shook you E-Exorcists scum off m-many times already! Heck, I nearly even did in one of your own girls, eheheh-gaa!!”

The boy tightened his grip even further, causing the Demon to grasp around its neck desperately. “Don't compare me to those inexperienced rookies…” he said, his voice sounding disgusted.

“R-rookies!?” the Demon replied, feeling totally confused, “W-wait… then… who are you?” it asked finally noticing something different about the boy's uniform. The uniforms of the Exorcists the Demon fought were a pure black with grey. The one this guy was wearing though was a dark navy blue.

“Black Order. 5th Captain. Merrick Munroe.” the young man whispered. “Although… I doubt telling you matters anyway…” he added eerily as the Demon suddenly felt a painful sensation coursing through its body. Purple bolts sparked slightly in different parts of it as wisps of pale blue energy started flowing from the Demon and into something in front of the young man's open palm. The Demon fought to see clearly what it was despite the torture it was going through and saw that it was actually another symbol. This one though had the same color as the symbol on Merrick's forehead.

The monster's body then began to twitch horribly as more of the blue wisps overflowed with each other to form a single stream of energy. Its voice now gave off a painful mix of cries, chokes, and gurgles while its frame now became more and more skeletal with each passing second. By the time the boy had drained him completely, the Demon's human shell now closely resembled a thin, pale zombie.

Merrick was not yet finished however. When the last sliver of that strange pale blue energy was absorbed by him, he quickly moved forward and single-handedly grabbed the Demon's spindly corpse with his own physical hand.

“Rune of Arcana: Fenris Frostbite” he hissed.

Merrick quietly released his grip on the Demon's body as a freezing mist suddenly burst out of it while ice and frost had rapidly begun covering it. Before the body could even bend to drop on its knees as it fell to the ground, the joints were already frozen and it fell on its side. Meanwhile the ice continued to spread over it and across the ground near it like a malicious infection.

The young man silently turned around as blue rays of light began rising from beneath his feet before instantly teleporting him away...