Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Mark of a Goddess ❯ Devil's Last Day ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter Twenty One

Devil's Last Day

 

Hitomi stood in the front hall of Dryden's mansion and waited for the chauffer to pull the car around to the front. It was exactly nine-thirty in the morning.

She was freezing even though she hadn't gone outside yet. It was a chilly day. It was the first of December. The house was warm, but Hitomi felt cold through to her bones. Nothing seemed to help. She had put on a long-sleeved shirt and then a short-sleeved shirt over top, which was usually a winning combination for keeping warm, but this morning it just wasn't doing anything for her. Her heart felt like lead, and her insides felt like ice.

Chid was in the hall waiting with her, too. He looked relaxed. He was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and a grey trench coat over a pair of baggy jeans. He slid on a pair of black suede gloves and waited patiently for Hitomi to put her boots on. He was even smiling.

Hitomi didn't understand his attitude. “Is it true that you naturally have a cheerful disposition?” she asked lamely as she tried to rub away the sleepy bags under her eyes.

“Yep!” he said happily. “Even this early in the morning.”

“Isn't that great for you?” she said dryly as she stood up.

Chid put on a pair of dark sunglasses. They were circular with silver frames. He really did look like a model as he stood in front of the window watching for the car. “It's here,” he said at last. “Is Van coming to say good-bye to you? Should we wait another minute for him to come down?”

“No,” Hitomi said, putting her own gloves on. This was definitely the reason why her blood felt frigid. “He isn't coming down. He was gone when I got up this morning.”

“Did he tell you where he was going?”

Hitomi frowned and shook her head.

“He didn't leave a note or anything?”

“No. He didn't,” Hitomi said slowly.

“You checked your room properly to make sure he didn't leave you a message?” Chid persisted.

“Yes!” Hitomi exclaimed, almost losing her patience. She knew what it meant. It meant that Van had left before them and had probably gone to the stadium ahead of them. Hitomi still had no idea what Van planned to do. She had been hoping that he had made up his mind for the better since he soaked in the tub for hours after she came to bed as well as drenching himself beforehand in the fountain in the training gym. She knew he was trying to gain wisdom, but she was none the wiser about his choice when he finally came to bed. She had no clue what he was going to do. She didn't even ask. She didn't want to know.

Chid opened the front door for Hitomi and said mildly, “Shall we go, then?”

“Aren't you worried,” she asked him as they stood together at the top of the frost-covered stairs.

“About Van?” Chid asked. He and Hitomi were nearly the same height. Their eyes were perfectly level as he said to her, “Of course I'm worried about Van.”

“Do you know what he's going to do?” she questioned nervously. Even still, she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

He shook his head in the negative. “I don't know.”

The chauffer came around and opened the back door to the SUV for Hitomi and Chid. At first, Hitomi thought that he was just the regular driver, and she was startled when Dryden tipped his cap at her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to sound light.

Dryden smiled and said, “I couldn't send one of my servants to take The Sun God when he goes to punish a Tarot user. I don't even let them clean the training gym. Besides, I wouldn't send any of them to such a dangerous place as a Dragon Slayer stadium,” Dryden said as if he were trying to stay positive. But then the expression on his face changed and he said, “Hey, you two look like twins.”

“Twins?” Hitomi asked, looking at Chid. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you look like you're about the same age, and about the same height. Your colouring is different, but your features are similar. You really look like you're related,” Dryden observed.

Hitomi looked at Chid. He was smiling pleasantly at her and Hitomi wasn't sure if he agreed or disagreed with what Dryden just said. “Do you think we look alike?” she asked him.

Chid smiled. “We are more alike than you realize.”

Hitomi stared. How could they be alike? The idea was terrifying to her. He was the Judgment Card. He had to be totally ruthless in exacting judgment for crimes. She didn't like to see anyone suffer. How could they be alike?

“We're wasting time,” Chid reminded Dryden and he moved aside to make room for Hitomi to get into the back seat.

Chid got in after her.

There was a moment in which they were alone in the SUV while they waited for Dryden to get into the driver's seat.

“Don't be afraid of me, Hitomi. There is nothing to be afraid of,” Chid said, taking hold of Hitomi's hand and looking into her eyes. “There are many things to be afraid of, but I promise you, I am not one of them. You'll see.”

Then he let go of her and Dryden opened the car door.

“Let's get going,” Chid said as if he were trying to speed their way.

Hitomi sat there and looked at The Sun God as Dryden moved the vehicle down the driveway and onto the main road. He still looked like a boy of fifteen. He still looked like the perfect picture of light; like an angel, like a model, like a hero. She wasn't afraid for herself, but what would happen to Dornkirk once they got there? Was Chid really going to kill him? Hitomi was so young and she didn't favour the idea of going to kill anyone. It seemed so wrong to just go out one morning to deliberately commit murder. And she was going with him! Did that make her an accomplice?

She groaned and looked out at the passing traffic. This was going to be the worst day of her life.

 

***

 

Dryden pulled the SUV up in front of the stadium. Hitomi saw Van's convertible parked near the doors. He had definitely come to the stadium.

“Van,” she whispered with her nose almost against the glass.

“Are you ready, Hitomi?” Chid asked, interrupting her reverie. He took off his seatbelt and removed his gloves.

“I don't know,” Hitomi fumbled.

Chid turned his body towards hers and took her hands in his. Hitomi didn't think that his height had changed, but suddenly he seemed very little like the teenage boy who had just been sitting beside her. Now he acted and spoke like a man, his accent coming through very clearly, “Take off your coat. It will only hinder you once we get inside.”

“Are you going to take yours off, too?” she asked Chid, looking to see if Dryden was paying attention to their conversation. He was staring straight ahead of him like he heard nothing.

“Yes,” Chid answered. “It's going to be hot inside, and there may be some fighting. Listen to me very carefully, Hitomi,” he said looking hard into her green eyes with his blue ones. “You absolutely cannot transform into anyone once we get inside. I will explain afterwards why you mustn't do it, but it is one hundred percent imperative that you remain as yourself - the Goddess of the Moon. Do you understand me?”

Hitomi nodded.

Chid took off his trench coat and waited patiently for Hitomi to take her coat and gloves off as well.

“Let's go,” he said, lacing the fingers of his left hand with those of her right hand. “This is going to be one terrible rush. Don't let go of my hand until I say that it's okay.”

“But Van wouldn't like that … I shouldn't be holding someone else's hand other than my husband's,” she protested.

Chid abruptly let go. “Sorry,” he said. “I forgot that it might be uncomfortable for a married woman. You've let me touch you lots of times, so it must have slipped my mind. I apologize if I've made you uneasy. And I set out with such good intentions of respecting your contract. How odd,” he reflected as he reached for the door handle. “Just stay close to me then. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said.

They got out of the SUV together. However, Hitomi noticed that Chid placed his sunglasses on the tip of his nose and left them there.

The air was cold and the snow crunched under Hitomi's feet. Chid waited for Hitomi to hurry up behind him and then he strode up to the front doors. Now there was nothing about him that was nice, except perhaps the way his blond hair fell on the back of his neck. He put out his hand and knocked on the door hard with his knuckles. He waited for an answer, but no one answered the first time. He knocked again and an intercom voice answered, “May I help you?” Hitomi wasn't sure, but she thought that the guard sounded drunk.

“My name is Chid, and I'm here to see Dornkirk. I think he's expecting me,” Chid said steadily.
The voice on the other end laughed. “Sorry, he has no appointments this morning, so piss off!” Then the intercom bleeped to signal the lost connection.

Chid rolled his eyes. “I knew they'd be difficult, but I'll give one more shot at diplomacy before I blow the doors off.” So, he knocked on the door again.

The static laced voice came through the intercom again. “I said piss off!” the voice shouted.

Chid frowned and turning he said to Hitomi, “Too bad I don't have time to mess around with these monkeys. We have to get to work. It's already ten-thirty. Oh, but one more thing - did you warn Folken that I was coming?”

“No,” she admitted. “I was waiting for Van to tell me what he decided, but Van left, so I haven't talked to Folken.”

Chid nodded approvingly. “You were wise to have waited, because of Van. Good thing we came early. Don't forget, I'll make sure to make it to Folken by eleven-thirty if you decide that you want to save him.”

“What if Van makes it to him first?” Hitomi asked fearfully.

“I don't know. We'll see what has happened when we get there. First off, we need to take care of Dornkirk.” Then Chid took a couple steps away from the door.

What was he going to do? Hitomi rushed behind him so that she wouldn't be caught in the blast. The Sun God was supposed to be proficient with fire. This was going to get rowdy.

Chid took in a deep breath. When he exhaled the air around him seemed to be become smoke. Then he extended his right hand and drew an imaginary square with his index finger. Hitomi saw that he was frying the outline of the door. A heavy black outline was burning though the metal like Chid was using a blowtorch. Once the hinges were torched and the locks at the top and bottom of the door were gone, Chid stepped up and kicked the door in. He didn't even kick hard and they fell like two stone tablets at his feet. His work was so much cleaner than anything she'd seen Van do with fire thus far.

Then Chid turned around and indicated for Hitomi to hurry up and follow him.

Two Dragon Slayer guards approached them and tried to stop them as they came through the atrium and into the main hall. Hitomi recognized one of them as Dallet, the Dragon Slayer who carried her up to Folken's office the night before.

“What are you doing?” he yelled. “You can't just come in here.”

Chid ignored them and instead turned his head slightly to ask Hitomi, “Where's the Devil?”

Hitomi was about to answer with: “How the heck should I know?” when suddenly, she did know. She was standing there in the middle of the empty stadium atrium and she knew that Dornkirk was sitting in an office in the basement. He had a circular magnifying glass strapped to his head and he was leaning over something that he was studying. How did she know that? “He's downstairs,” she answered, feeling strange - unworldly.

“Excellent,” Chid said, praising her without a touch of warmth in his voice. “Now, you two,” he said, speaking to Dallet and the guy who was with him. “Get out of my way.”

“Or what?” the other Dragon Slayer asked mockingly, like he couldn't be afraid of what a fifteen year old would do.

Chid didn't smile or even smirk. He just said in the coldest voice imaginable, “Or you'll find out that I'm the type of guy who scares the hell out of your men, like your master.”

“What master?” the young man scoffed.

“Let's get out of their way,” Dallet said, grabbing his friend by the sleeve.

Chid didn't even nod, instead he just proceeded towards the stairwell. Hitomi stumbled after him. Her vision was strange. She couldn't see straight. Out of her right eye she could see the walls of the stadium and Chid's back as he continued onwards. Out of her left eye she could still see Dornkirk bending over something. He had instruments in his fingers. He was either taking something apart or putting something back together, but Hitomi couldn't see very well.

However, because she was slow, she heard Dallet and his friend talking.

“Why did you make us pull out? They were just a couple of kids. They wouldn't have been hard to take out.”

Dallet sighed and answered, “As for that girl, don't you recognize her? She was the girl Folken fought last night. Didn't you see her?” The other guy didn't answer and Dallet continued. “I know she's someone important to Folken. I don't exactly understand it, but I carried her up to his office last night. We'd better not mess with her. I don't want to piss Folken off. As for that guy - didn't you feel his chi?”

“Chi? You believe in that sort of thing?”

“Aura - whatever. He's a cold-blooded one. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a real, live, murderer.”

“He's just a kid.”

“My ass he's just a kid.”

“I'm going after them!” the first boy stated, and Hitomi could hear his footfalls coming closer.

“Your funeral!” Dallet said as he walked away.

Then the other boy seemed to think twice.

Chid opened the door to the stairwell and held it open for Hitomi. She stepped in and held onto the railing tightly as she walked down the staircase with Chid.

The lower level of the stadium was a network of small rooms that surrounded the dug out portion of the stadium's construction. There wasn't even one corridor that led to all of them.

“Which room is the Devil in?” Chid asked again.

Hitomi's left eye was acting funny. She was almost dizzy as she looked down one length of hallway. When she looked the other way, her vision came into focus. That had to be the right way.

“That way,” she said, pointing.

“Good,” he complimented, even though his voice still sounded cold.

After that, it was easy for her to find the way; although, Dornkirk had hidden this room in the very deepest part of the lower level.

And they weren't alone. There were Dragon Slayers all over the place. Some of them were lying unconscious in the hallways, and some were wandering around like they had no idea where they were. They found several still drinking and a couple experimenting with injection drugs. Hitomi had no idea this was such a terrifying place. She had always known that the Dragon Slayers were involved with substance abuse, but seeing it was completely different than just thinking about it at Dryden's mansion.

“It was the same when I was here before. That's why I wanted you to hold my hand,” Chid said, not offering her his hand, but walking steadily, like he didn't see them.

“I didn't think you were hitting on me,” Hitomi said, grabbing his hand. “You're my brother aren't you?” she asked.

Chid smiled.

“If you're my brother then it's okay for me to hold your hand when I'm this afraid,” she said, hanging onto his arm. She also needed him to lead her, so she wouldn't trip over anything. Her vision was still strange.

Chid squeezed her hand and continued pressing forward. “Then I'll be your brother.”

Hitomi didn't exactly feel reassured as he said those words. He had to be a good person. Somehow, he had to be a good person too. He hadn't let those Dragon Slayers gang rape Eries. He had prevented it. He was standing up for what was right, wasn't he?

Hitomi and Chid had to go down another set of stairs in order to find the room Dornkirk was hiding in.

“He's in there,” Hitomi finally said as they stood outside the last door. She could see him through her left eye. She knew it as clearly as if the door had been transparent.

“Are you ready?” Chid asked her.

“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“It's what we're going to do together. You will see,” he said, opening the door and stepping in ahead of her.

When Hitomi came in and saw the rest of her vision of Dornkirk she almost turned and fled out of the room, but Chid held onto her.

“You must face this,” he said steadily, turning her towards the table Dornkirk was working at. “You must understand the reason for my existence. You mustn't be afraid of me. You must understand why I am a necessity. Open your eyes, Hitomi, and face this!”

To Hitomi, Chid's request for her to open her eyes was like pausing a horror movie at the most frightening part and making her watch every moment of it - except this was a hundred times worse. When Hitomi opened her eyes, she knew what she would see. The thing Dornkirk was studying on the table was a person. It was a person who was clearly dead. Hitomi knew just by looking at the half-naked frame of a young boy that he had died in the motorcycle races the night before and she might have been mistaken, but she thought that it was the boy who won the races the night she had been tied to the dartboard. The pale hair was now in bloody chunks on the floor and the locks looked the same as that boy's - Guimel's. She had a memory of him jumping all over the place, so excited that he had won the last tournament. Now she was positive that it was him, even though his face was cut open. Dornkirk was taking apart his head, piece by piece, and Hitomi was hardly able to look at him. Snippets of red flesh lay on the white polished floor. She thought she would faint or throw up, but Chid started shaking her.

“Pull it together, Hitomi! Don't weaken. This is what you were meant for. This is the reason you were born into the Tarot user world. You have to see what he's done!” Chid shouted rousing her from her frozen state.

Dornkirk was sitting in a wheel chair and when Chid yelled that, he seemed to notice for the first time that someone had come into the room. First, he took off his magnifying glass. Then he flipped a switch on the armrest of his chair and backed it away from the table.

“You've finally come,” he said, examining Chid weakly - almost like he didn't care. “I thought you'd forgotten all about me.”

Hitomi looked up and saw the old man more clearly now. He was very old, and it was clear that his eyesight was bad. His hair had long since been grey and was now very white.

“What have you been doing?” Chid asked Dornkirk severely, but Dornkirk didn't answer.

He only smirked.

Chid didn't speak to Dornkirk again, but instead tried speaking to Hitomi. He had both his hands on either side of her shoulders and he was yelling into her ear. “What has he done? What has he done in the past?”

Hitomi didn't want to know what he had done in the past. She didn't want to know at all, but when Chid asked her, images of the past started to appear in her left eye. It didn't matter if she closed her eyes to shut the pictures out or kept them wide open, she saw them just the same. Visions - Dryden said she would have visions. But what did visions mean if they didn't have a purpose? What was the purpose of seeing the past if it didn't play into the future? That was why she was here - to tell Chid exactly what Dornkirk had done. Chid was asking her to fulfill her role.

“I see …” Hitomi started, her eyes flooding with boiling tears of things she never wanted to know. “I see him … blood. I see blood. He really did kill his parents.” Hitomi saw the bloodied metal that he used to stop their hearts. “He built this syndicate on the blood and money of addicted children,” she said, finding it hard to voice exactly what she saw. It was too horrible to say exactly what he had done, but then a whole different avenue of his sins was opened to her view. “He was trying to find a way to extend his own life as well as make more Tarot users. He bled Van and now he's using his blood to keep him alive. He's too sick to survive without it. He gave Folken Dilandau's blood to keep him quiet. He hasn't given Folken any more than one quarter unit of Van's blood.” She was breaking down. That was why Folken hadn't finished healing - he hadn't truly been given Van's blood after all. Apparently, it was only enough to close his wounds. Hitomi couldn't think about this. She was breaking down. She was falling on the floor.

“Interesting,” Dornkirk said slowly, like he was surprised by what Hitomi could see.

“Keep going,” Chid urged. “How many people has he murdered?”

“Twenty-one,” Hitomi said automatically, like she was a robot.

“And how many people have his subordinates killed?”

“Seventy-one, including Van's parents, Balgus Fanel, Kristy, and Millerna.”

“How many people has he destroyed through his syndicate work?” Chid persisted.

“Unable to calculate,” Hitomi answered, after a long pause. Her thought processes felt jammed.

“Does he deserve the punishment of the Judgment Card?” Chid demanded, crouched by her side and waiting for her answer.

Hitomi thought that she would naturally fumble with the answer to this question. All her prior experiences made her think that she wouldn't know what to say, but instead it came through her lips like a drop of water falling from a rain soaked leaf. “Yes,” she said.

Chid rose to his feet.

Apparently, Dornkirk still had a scalpel in his hand and he quickly turned it on himself. He was going to slit his own throat rather than receive punishment from Chid.

Dornkirk didn't get further than scratching himself before Chid stopped the blade and dropped it with a clatter on the floor. “Get up!” Chid ordered.

“I'm wheelchair bound. I can't get up,” Dornkirk stammered, his eyes white in fear.

“I said, get up,” Chid continued and within seconds Dornkirk was somehow rising to his feet. He seemed to be hovering in the air. His feet weren't touching the ground.

It was hot. It had suddenly gotten so much hotter in the room - steaming - suffocating.

Chid stood with his back towards Dornkirk and faced Hitomi. She couldn't bring herself to stand, but she was filled with an encompassing inner conviction that Chid was not evil. Instead, he was doing what desperately needed to be done. This was a person who'd crossed the line - too many times. It would be impossible for him to make amends. He had gone too far. He had given up too much and now the only way for things to be corrected was for Chid to hand him the correct judgment.

Then, just like how Hitomi transformed, Chid did. Right before her eyes, his hair changed. He was no longer blond, but his hair turned to pitch black and his eyes turned to fire. Black circles of oblivion appeared in the space around him and flares of light appeared out of nowhere.

“Mamoru?” she asked, looking at him. That was his name. That was his true name. Her vision had shown it to her. He was her brother.

“What else, Hitomi? What else do you see?” he asked, his voice and presence like that of a God.

She tried to focus, but it was unnecessary. Her heart knew what she wanted to know. “Van is in the stadium. Folken is there, too. They have confronted each other on the dirt and it looks like they are going to fight. I don't know what will happen.”

“Then, you'd better go to them, while I finish up here. It's eleven o'clock now. You'd better make your voice heard before eleven-thirty when I come. Good luck, Little Goddess,” he said, turning away from her. Black wings were sprouting from his back and his shirt was being torn to pieces.

Hitomi didn't want to see what else would happen. She wasn't ready to see Mamoru punish anyone and she hurried out of the room. She had to get to Van before he killed Folken. He wouldn't have come to the stadium in the first place if that wasn't his intent. She had to hurry and it was such a long way through the basement before she could make it to the arena.

She ran.