Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ The Rain Doesn't Grieve ❯ 1 ( Chapter 1 )

1

Chigireta bara o mune ni daite

shinku no umi ni ochiteyuku

Ken ~ Siberian

I think I'm dying.

Well, if that's true, then I guess this won't hurt so bad.

Farfarello had turned from me and was trying to stomp Omi to death. Omi, otooto, my friend, I won't abandon you!

I hauled myself up, bracing against the wall. He didn't see me, he was only intent on his kill. The room spun, and I thought I was going to fall. I took a deep breath, kicked off from the wall and lunged.

The crazy man slid back with the impact but did not lose his balance. He grappled with me, trying to foul my aim. With a yell I pulled one hand free and punched, releasing the claws as I did so. I heard a sickening wet sound as they slid up under his jaw and into his brain.

His arms tightened around me and he grinned, his one yellow eye gleaming. In spite of the steel impaling his head, Farfarello held me close, his mouth opening to speak, or to bite.

Beneath us, the floor tilted.

We were falling, or I was falling, or maybe I was finally dying, I really didn't know anymore. It felt like I was spilling out of a dark hole in the back of my head, alone in the night except for my personal demon who held me in a snake's embrace.

From far away I heard the madman speak as we fell together, the words crisp and amazingly clear. "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

Die with me then, youkai.

Yohji ~ Balinese

Damn that Schwarz! He had to push things, and now it's come to this. I caught the red-haired gaijin with a loop of wire as Manx and Sakura carried Aya-chan to safety. I should never have given him a chance, I should have taken him out long before this.

Regret is cheap. Besides, he was never a target.

Why the hell was I fighting him now?

Because Aya will never let this go. Not after they took his sister. We will fight, because we have nothing else to live for. Omi, Ken, Aya - they've all lost pieces of themselves, being Weiß. Anything that was loose before has been broken away.

And Yohji…

I snarled at the little internal voice that tried to equate my life with theirs. There was no comparison; I was broken well before Weiß. If I could have left, I would have, but from some things there can be no turning back.

My opponent twisted, got his hand caught in the wire and started pulling it free. Our eyes met.

I let the wire go slack.

The floor bucked beneath us, then seemed to fold and crack into sections. The redhead started to fall away from me, reaching out for anything to hold onto. His eyes were wide as he screamed, "I don't want to die!" I grabbed for his hand, his words echoing in my head. But I must have imagined it; there was so much noise I couldn't possibly have heard one voice like that.

I couldn't catch him. Arms outstretched, I slid backwards off a paving stone into a free-fall. Around me the tower shook itself apart and vanished into the ocean. As the water poured into the dying structure, it hit something hot, sending up a plume of steam. I searched frantically through the mist for something to anchor my wire to, intent on getting myself secure and then hauling my teammates to safety. Some of the vertical supports still stood; they looked solid enough. I flung out my wire.

It's worked a dozen times before, relying on the wire to catch on something sturdy and support my weight in a dead fall.

It didn't work this time. The outcropping of granite started to crumble the moment my wire took hold on it. I tried to get more free to try another loop, but I hit the water on my back and for a moment it was all I could do just to breathe.

A tug, then a pull on my arms - I had just enough time to suck in one deep breath, then I was falling, trailing behind a piece of tower to the ocean floor.

My heart beat desperately fast; I tried to remain calm, or I'd use up that last breath of air for nothing. My rational mind kept repeating that it was relatively shallow here; once I got free, I could reach the surface with ease. I reminded myself that all I had to do was release the wire, and I would be fine.

Oh god - I can't reach it!

The damned wire had wrapped around me as I fell, and it held my right hand inches from the release catch. I strained, one arm tied to a chunk of debris and the other…

Pain lanced through my neck as I struggled, a slicing pain mixed with crushing pressure.

I panicked, air leaking out of my lungs as I fought to get my right hand over to the catch on the watch, but the wire cut into my throat with every move.

God, no! Not like this!

The stone anchor hit the sand, and tilted. I felt a little give in the wire. But I also felt very light-headed, and my chest hurt.

Maybe I could reach the surface, I could see dim light filtering down, I couldn't be that far away from it! Kicking powerfully, I propelled myself upward, gagging as the wire tightened around my neck and I inhaled that first mouthful of seawater.

Above me, the water began to glow a brilliant and beautiful green, like burning jade. Drifting toward me, was that an angel? Black wings, so beautiful, like a thing born to fly through water as easily as air, and a sword, a warrior angel…

Oh, Aya… I'm so sorry…

He looks peaceful…

Is this death, then? It's quiet…

Through the glow came the voice of the shinigami come to bear me away.

"Yohji…"

…Asuka?

Ran ~ Abysinnian

"Stand still and fight!" What is he, that he knows my every move before I do? A demon, but I do not believe in demons. He is only a man, an evil man who deserves death a thousand times over for what he has done.

"Kitsuneme," I hissed as he dodged yet again, his eyes mocking me.

The building shuddered under my feet. The fire below had surely destroyed Esset, and now sought to devour us as well.

No matter. We would finish our mission, come hell or death. I cared not for either, so long as my sister made it to safety.

My life was long ago forfeit.

Across the room, I had seen the little monster throw Bombay into the wall, and the lunatic bash the life out of Siberian. Half done. Now Balinese seemed to have gotten the better of the sadistic gaijin, and the women were long gone.

All I cared for was an honorable end, and this yankii bastard was intent on denying me. Give me my peace, damn you!

The world cracked, tipped, broke apart into dust-colored meteors propelled by fire into the cold of the sea. All done.

It was over.

I held fast to my sword, as a dying warrior should do. My enemy regarded me with a serene, knowing smile as he closed his eyes and fell to his end. I raced him down, with massive shards of the tower falling around us.

Close your fox-eyes, coward. I would go to my death with my eyes open.

Below me yawned the mouth of the sea, sucking the flotsam of our world into its belly.

I hit with the impact of a car crash.

A piece of wall landed near enough to me to force me back to the surface. I tried to tread water, my body evidently not as willing to die as my heart.

My team!

I looked around for any sign of them.

The red-haired Schwarz floated on his belly, a dark stain in the water above his head. As I watched, he began to sink with eerie slowness.

Then I began to sink too. I accepted this, but kept my eyes open, and held my breath for a few more moments. I had to see, I had to know.

Below me, something twisted and thrashed like a speared fish.

Yohji!

Oh, hells, he was caught in his wire! I aimed for him, still clutching my sword, and I offered my soul once more to duty. I must die another day - I will not let him drown.

As I neared him, his eyes widened, reflecting the green of the sea. Then they sagged shut and a thin stream of bubbles poured from his lips and nose. If all my crimes must be judged this day, let me save this one man, or at least let me give him the coup de grâce before the sea can take him!

I took aim, and struck.

Omi ~ Bombay

Oh God, I hurt.

Everything's gone wrong.

Twisting violently, I fought to turn over in the sand, but the water kept trying to pull me back. I was tempted to let it.

Instead, I got my body turned enough that I could get my arms under me. I grabbed handfuls of sand, not solid enough to help me move.

Why can't I feel my legs?

Darkness and grey light took turns playing with my eyes - I think I'm passing out. All I knew was I had to find them. I had to know if they made it, even if the knowing proved the end of me.

There's a shape near the water. I dug my elbows into the sand and hauled myself arm over arm toward it. I don't think I'm going to make it. My back hurt, and my legs were dead weight in the sand. My arms began shaking with the strain, and my vision turned shadowy again.

"Ken," I whispered as the shape resolved itself into my friend, my brave, fool of a friend who tried to save me from a madman and took the killing blow himself. Tears fell into the teasing surf as I pulled myself around his body to gather him into my arms. It took nearly all my strength to do so, but I couldn't let him lie in the water like that.

Something was moving where nothing should be. I looked up to see a white ghost gazing at me across the sand. The ghost looked vaguely familiar; I supposed it would, if it had come to take us away. I am ready. I am more than ready: my team is dead, my friends, the only family I want to claim in the world.

Then I heard a voice, as if the ghost whispered into my ear though he stood some distance away. His lips didn't even move as he said, "He's alive. So are the others. They're about twenty meters further down, well above the tide line."

I knew that voice. And ghosts don't usually have red hair. So at least one of the Schwarz survived as well, and he was offering me the only thing I wanted: hope.

I whispered "Arigato" and watched as the red-haired Schwarz hurried toward a weatherbeaten shack, erasing his footprints as he went. Definitely alive, then, if he leaves footprints. And that means, just maybe, he was telling me the truth about my team.

Manx must have gotten away to call for help: I could hear sirens approaching. "Ken," I gasped, "don't die! I have to find the others, but I won't leave you! Help is coming. Just hang on!"

My arms felt weak as I crawled away in the direction of my other friends. I tried not to think about this, but the dread had built up in my heart. He said they were alive, but when?

Why didn't he kill us?

I didn't have time to think about that; I could see Yohji. I'm almost there. So far… My back felt twisted inside, something grated with every move, but I couldn't stop. My hand reached out and fell on Yohji's chest. He was breathing.

"Ite-e!" Fresh pain lanced up from my hand as my fingers snagged on Yohji's wire; I flinched. Then a cold, dull pain settled at the base of my skull. I can't turn my head now. Slowly, too slowly, I pulled myself toward the water again. There was another shadow there, just past Yohji's boots.

My groping hand encountered half buried steel. I forced myself to keep moving in spite of a growing numbness. Then I heard a low moan, the sound of life not yet forsaken, and I collapsed in the sand. We'd made it. Somehow, by some miracle, we'd all made it.

I managed to roll onto my side to watch as a retrieval unit swept onto the beach looking for us. "Get Ken, he's right over there," I groaned, pointing as best I could, lacking the strength to return to his side. The agents swarmed past me and around me, taking my unconscious teammates on stretchers toward the waiting vans.

As I waited for them to come back for me, I saw something gleaming in the surf. I reached for it with bloody fingers, leaving red trails in the sand as I dug the glimmer free. So the Schwarz had truly been here, and spoken to me without sound. My fingers clutched the tiny gold tie-chain, a button still clipped at one end. The red-haired dandy had been wearing this with his fancy white suit. He had told me my team was alive.

And he didn't want to be found.

Before my own people got close enough to see, I slipped the chain into my pocket. I didn't know why, but it seemed important that no one else know what I saw today. Not yet, anyway. If he wants to be found, he'll come back.

But…somehow…I know he won't.