Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ My Shinigami, My Hamburger ❯ The Things that Go Bump in the Night ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6

The Things that Go Bump in the Night

While his reluctant husband stepped onto the railroad tracks and slowly came to discover a creature not of his Earth hunting him, Shini, however, was having a better time. Oblivious in dreams, the Angel of Death still remained upon his perch on the lightning-hollowed tree where he'd cried himself to sleep the night before. His back pressed against the trunk while the rest of him stretched out like a lazy cat, robes flapping gently in the wind, one exposed leg hanging off into space and twitching ever so often while he dreamt. A single black wing fluttered as it was extended off to the side to subconsciously catch the sunlight. The tangled tresses of brown hair glimmered in the sun where it wasn't littered with dry leaves and twigs.

Overhead, the squawking caws of the crows overhead gradually grew louder as the murder of obnoxious birds settled in the living branches beside the Shinigami's tree. They carefully watched the sleeping creature, who was content to doze, seemingly without a care in the world. The birds were not as intelligent nor cynical as a human, but they trusted their instincts enough to realize that it was Death lounging in the old tree and carefully hopped closer, branch from branch.

Crows did not fear death-they were cleverer than the clumsy dogs that sometimes chased them for sport, they were more bad-tempered than the hawks who swooped at their young, and they were sure that they were smarter than the humans were. After all, who better to follow if you were looking for dead meat to pick at than Death itself?

So, as the murder of crows settled in the trees surrounding around the Shinigami, a few bobbed excitedly on their branches and squawked loudly. They were hungry and hoped they could prod Death into creating some fresh meat for them {a free meal, in essence}. But they were also smart enough not to provoke Death, either, and held their ground and waited for it to awake.

And they would have waited for a long time, had one of them not spotted the garnet glittering in the sunlight. Shini loved to sleep, since it was often the only thing to do when spending centuries in Hell, and he probably could have dreamed there until Heero's lifespan would have elapsed and faded naturally, until he became a Rip Van Wrinkle and grew old in his sleep. But one of the crows spotted the dark red garnet that was clasped at the front of Shini's black silk robes, rimmed in a supernatural shade of golden silver only found in a dank, bottomless pit in Hell, and swooped in for a better look.

Shini mumbled something Latin in his sleep and shifted his head, allowing the drool to drip in a new direction. He barely registered the lightweight as the bird landed on his torso, glancing about warily. The glistening black talons of the crow scratched Shini's bare belly as it waddled toward his robes and a ticklish smile pulled at his face in his sleep. A sleepy hand came up to bat at the source of the tickling and the crow squawked and flapped away quickly. Defeated for the moment, it circled in the air over the Shinigami.

Another crow also decided to try his luck at taking the shining thing. He also landed on Shini's bare skin, but this time on the arm draped over his stomach. This crow waddled a bit further before the Death began to giggle in his sleep again and swatted dreamily at the bird. This one, however, did not join the increasing number of crows circling impatiently above, but simply popped into the air and waited for the hand to drop. When it did, he landed again and promptly began jabbing at the garnet with his beak. He hoped to steal it for his nest and impress his squawking wife.

Shini yawned quietly as a dry leave in his bangs twitched in the wind and tickled his nose. He swatted it away sleepily then rolled onto his back before he started to slip off the branch. He was somewhere between waking and sleep and dreamily smacked his lips at the flavored-ambrosia he'd been fantasizing about-the lemon kind, that Iria had only bought for him on his birthdays. Shini eventually began to wake and opened his eyes without any kind of hurry at all. So far, he believed he would wake to the scent of misery wafting in through his bedroom window, as it was on in the wall of the hole leading to Tartarus where men such as Sisyphus and Tantalus remained in eternal punishment. It was actually quite nice-he never had any Purgatory-Gnomes pillaging his room.

As the half-lidded violet pools stared skyward, he noticed dim black shadows circling in and out above him, making loud squawks every in a horrible chorus of the shadow before it.

Shini quickly realized that he was not in his bed in Hell-he was on Earth-and that he had no idea what was flying above him, or what the black thing on his hip was as he sat up and blinked rapidly at the alien.

The crow quickly whipped his head about and blinked at Death delicately with one glossy brown eye. Shini also looked warily in return at the harmless bird, and promptly shrieked as a jealous crow swooped down and began quarreling loudly with it, flapping wings and clawing feet. He lost his balance for a second, jerked to try and compensate, and burned his eyes as he accidentally looked directly into the Earthen Sun. The crows fell away, complaining loudly as Death yelped and tumbled off the branch.

Being a winged creature, Shini automatically tried to open his wings to catch him, but he was unprepared for the ground to rush up so quickly. He folded the wing facing the ground to his shoulder to protect it and fell into the steeping black oil puddle beneath the tree with a mucky splat!

Shini sat up, spitting out the acidic black sludge, and looking sharply up at the annoying creatures. In the morning, after just waking, he always tended to be a little hotheaded like his mother and not as sensitive or cautious as he usually was. The Angel of Death snapped, "Nasty mean things! Get 'way!" and pounded a fist into the shallow sludge pond. The liquid, with its consistency of oil and sinister smell, didn't seem to hurt Shini any, though any mortal creature happening to stumble across it would soon be absent a few dissolving limps.

The black stuff he splashed splattered across his nose and he looked down at it. "Mmmmm?" he mumbled to himself curiously, rubbing his nose on the back of his wrist. "Nanjasorya? [1]" He lifted his smudged wrist up and sniffed it cautiously, then winced and pulled back with his tongue gently bitten between his teeth, making a sound near to "Bleh!"

Shini scampered out of the pool and flicked off the beads of pitch-black, bubbling oil. He cried out, as he pulled back a lip in disgust, flicking the liquid off him as best he could. "Yuck! Shuumi!" the Angel of Death groaned, as he couldn't escape the stench that lingered around him from the muck. "Gerogero!" He whined, quickly realizing the goop was also dripping from his robes and itching between his Angelic black feathers.

The Angel of Death sprung up and squinted his eyes overly tight, like how children exaggerate their actions, and began to shake his wings like a soaking dog. The noxious-smelling black oil splattered on the nearby trees and sent any animals close enough to get a whiff quickly in the other direction. Shini whined in complaint as he settled and glanced over his shoulder at his precious feathers, pouting when he saw what a state they were in.

"Dirty, yucky, bad! So gross!" The Angel of Death grumbled unhappily. "Shini has to clean his wings all over again! And he just cleaned them yesterday!" Using a hand to swat at them, he pawed at the stubborn spots of putrid oil. He frowned, after it didn't quite work, and began digging through the back of his robes and pulled out his tail, which had remained hidden. It was dripping the black gunk and he shook it out thoroughly.

Something hissed from within the bubbling pool a second later and Shini whipped around and looked down. Automatically, he searched for danger. However, the pool hissed again as a large, filthy black bubble rose to the surface and popped nosily.

Shini's face screwed up in a morbid curiosity and he swept his silken robes back to keep them clean as he crouched beside the acidic black goop. Being highly acquainted with demons and other dark, unhappy things, the Shinigami slowly overcame his repulsion with the stench to investigate the pool further. It stunk of more of brimstone than anything on Earth did, and he leaned closer, until his nose was hovering inches above the surface. The shadows of the trees overhead colored the pool a flat black sheen, punctured only by the occasional hissing bubble or two.

He vaguely remembered his mother saying something about crying too much, as she would cradle him at her side and rub his puffy red face with the fuzzy leaves of the green velvet plants that grew in Valentine, where he loved to spend his afternoons with her. She said that it was bad for everyone, 'cause no one wants to cry forever! Shini tilted his head curiously and sniffed again.

"Nani-" the Shinigami started to whisper to himself. At that moment his feet, still slippery from the muck, lost their traction on the ground and his head plunged straight into the foul stuff. Squealing out between his teeth, the Angel of Death scampered back up once his balance returned. He whined as he clawed and shook his head until he'd gotten most of the Darkness oil out of his bangs. He frowned, as the horrible smell once again assaulted his senses, and he pouted and stared at the pool. As the Shinigami looked up, he noticed a gleaming black slime trail leading out from the pool. And a distinct stench of hatred oozing from it.

Shini knew that smell. That revolting mixture of simmering grudges dashed with bloodletting spite, and finally topped off with the perfume of Death. He didn't remember the name of the creature that created that smell, he only knew that it was not good. A twisting sensation in his stomach formed as he saw that the slime trail wove toward the road and the distant scent of a human city.

He thought of his husband, and began to lope toward the smell of blacktop that would lead him to the road. His wings, unluckily, were still laced with Darkness oil and nearly glued together, so he raced there with his two human feet.

===

Heero grimaced silently at the creature-the unhuman thing-until he felt he was going to be sick. He couldn't let it shine through, though, that he felt every living atom in him beg to bolt when he watched the thing bare its teeth. It was bragging, sneering at him, almost.

Overhead, like someone had spilled a vat of witch's brew across the sky, an unnatural black cloud cover that didn't seem like it could be broken. Not even by Zeus's thunderbolts. The shadows spread out until everything seemed a misty gray, except for the black thing snarling expectedly at Heero. It was deathly black, misty and billowing in the breeze, like it was made of nothing.

In all his years spent growing up young on a notoriously rowdy military base, he'd learned to recognize threats and brace himself for him, but a split second after he managed to set his feet in a semi-defensive stance, the thing barreled down at him. He had no time to prepare.

The hundred or so meters between them were gone instantly. The snarling shadow leapt at Heero and moved so fast that it twirled like a vicious drill when it swooped in at the mortal's chest, and didn't give him anytime to think about what had just happened. Instant pain struck his chest, as the monster's teeth gnashed and drew blood. It felt like he'd been trapped beneath an angry jackhammer, the pain coming in sharp, merciless bursts.

Heero screamed gruffly, and knew he couldn't physically stand up to this unearthly thing. He pushed all of his weight against the onslaught of teeth and ignored the mounting pain, but it still shoved him back like a paper doll. Out of pure instinct to live, he flung his arms out and into the swarming Darkness chewing for his heart. The monster was still twirling as it slashed skin and struck for bone when Heero's hands went through it and managed to find something solid in the dark mists. It was enough for him to shift the teeth away from his bleeding chest and divert the whirling shadow. It emitted a bone-curling shriek of anger and crashed into the gravel around the rails and bounced once or twice. It disappeared into the trees just beyond the tracks and quieted.

Panting, he watched it go for a few seconds. Another brush with Death. How many of those did he need in one day? He thought hazily.

When he suddenly gasped for air, the mortal Heero Yuy then realized just how much he'd been hurt. The monster's dripping teeth had lacerated the skin over his sternum and through the blood seeping through he suspected the white to be bone. However, the pain didn't linger skin-deep. It throbbed through him, making him feel as if stakes had been pounded into each ventricle of his heart. The combined shock of sudden blood loss and the pain caused him to loose his balance and fall to his knees on the flinty blue gravel.

Heero struggled to fill his aching chest for a second and he stared at the ground as he waited. He tried to piece together what had just attacked him, as blood slowly seeped between his fingers, and winced when he lifted his hand away from his chest. However, he couldn't scowl at his wounds for long because that same horrible, hateful sound came from the thicket of trees beyond the railroad tracks and the branches rustle dangerously.

Staggering heavily as he moved but healthy and desperate enough to run, Heero bolted back toward the train station. The gravel shifted beneath his feet but didn't manage to slow him down. The shadowed sun still refused to glimmer through, painting everything dark and sinister as he ran. He wasn't frightened of that-only the demonic creature who had tried to crush his chest with its teeth.

The sun still hadn't escaped its cloudy prison when he climbed onto the wooden platform, struggling up when the exertion on his arms aggravated the bleeding round wound on his chest. Heero panted unevenly and pulled himself to his feet, looking up to see the man in the ticket booth from last night staring at him, flat ashen white.

The Japanese man whirled his head around in time to see the black shadow arching violently down at him, teeth whirling and gnashing, screeching angrily. Luckily, the bleeding hadn't slowed his hair-trigger reflexes and he ducked in time not to be instantly beheaded by the demonic teeth. The breeze from the killing shadow as it crashed into the brick wall of the station ruffled his disheveled hair.

"Oh my god-! " the ticket seller could be heard exclaiming, as dust and brick shrapnel rained down. The shadow snarled in a rage, thrashing wildly, it's back end flapping like a fish stranded out of water and strangling for air. The sound of brick being crushed between its teeth could be heard as it screamed and shrieked inhumanly, trying to dislodge itself.

The ticket seller swallowed dryly as he leaned forward to see the Darkness thrashing and screaming in a horrific devilish key, only a foot from his window and the frail glass that separated him from the outside. A claw formed out of the mist and even pushed against the wall. Still, it couldn't free itself.

Mindless with fright, he glanced over where the aloof Asian man had once stood. The only evidence that Heero Yuy had been there only a moment ago were the thin stains of blood on the floorboards of the platform.

===

[1] Ooh, be prepared, because Shini favors his Japanese and his Latin a lot in the beginning-that means many a footnote for those of you not able to speak Japanese. Well, neither do I, but I'm determined to scrape up a few good translators online. Besides, I think it's cute-no, that word's used up. It's... endearing!

Nanjasorya = What's this? (Col) I have no idea what that connotation means, but I guess it's important. Heh.

Shuumi = Bad smell!

Gerogero = Gross me out! It's an Osaka slang phrase. Adorable, in my opinion.

[[[A/N]]]

I apologize for the relatively short chapter. It's not that I was slacking off and deciding to just cut it short, there're certain things I want to go into the next chapter together, and I didn't think I could fill out the end of this one without adding something unwanted to the plot. Yuck, I would hate to have loopholes already. Oh well. Thank you all who encouraged me, again, because now I'm practically flying over that 6-th Chapter Bump. I especially want to thank Shui. As much as every writer enjoys praising reviews, I love to have people disagree or challenge me. And Shui, I thank you so much. I hadn't even considered what Heero's reaction would be if he were married to a person with the mind of a child. Now I have to consider it, and I will definitely explore it. ^_^ Not that I'm complaining, I'm so grateful for the idea! So I challenge others to challenge me--it works out better for everyone. I have more ideas and the readers get to have input. Thank you and thank you again {Jesus, redundant much?} and enjoy your father's day weekend!