Loveless Fan Fiction ❯ Flawless ❯ Peaceless ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Ryuuzaki Kusakurin
‘Loveless’ by Yun Kouga
“Flawless” by Ryuuzaki Kusakurin

DISCLAIMER: Loveless is the creation of Yun Kouga. My name is Ryuuzaki Kusakurin. You add it up. As always, if you don’t like yaoi [though it’s only light here], DO NOT READ.

Warnings: Mild yaoi, het, violence, etc.

Characters: Agatsuma Soubi, Aoyagi Ritsuka, Kio, Gokuraki Haruka, Kain Lafayel, Nagisa-sensei, Ritsu-sensei, Atarai Ichirou, Rikicho-Atarai Ryougi, Dreamless, etc.

Theme Songs: Persona [Blue Man Group], Up To the Roof [Blue Man Group], KI-SE-KI [BeForU], Alumina [Nightmare], Broken Wings [Tomoko Tane], CHANCE! [UVERworld], Cibola [Trevor Rabin], National Treasure Suite [Trevor Rabin], All Star [Smash Mouth], Torukia [Gabriela Robin]

Pairings: Soubi x Ritsuka, Haruka x Soubi, Lafayel x Haruka

Anime/Manga: Loveless Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Drama / Fantasy / Romance / Shoujo | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 01.20.2008 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 313 | Status: Work In Progress

“Loveless! Loveless! Loveless!” The crowd was going wild.
“Want to do another round, Rit-chan?”
“Mmm.” He nodded, always eager to please. Since he had taken no damage, it seemed easy enough.
“Give me that,” Haruka said, turning to her left and snatching the microphone from the nearby announcer, who had come out of the box to congratulate the winners. “Is the Peaceless unit here?” Her voice bounced around the room and was met with silence.
When a slender teenager finally hopped down from the stands, seeming to guide the other person behind him, she nodded and only seconds later, the other boy dropped down from the stands. Both of them wore gothic clothes, and they both also wore black leather collars with their name etched into them. One of the pair also wore wrapped bandages over his eyes and Ritsuka realised that he was blind.
“Ryougi! Long time no see,” Haruka joked, embracing the blind teen warmly.
“Of course. You look good,” he replied, his smile making it clear that he, too, was speaking in jest. “How've you been, old friend?”
“I found my sacrifice, to simplify things,” she offered, ruffling the boy's hair.
“Good. Nagisa-sensei needs to be disappointed occasionally. I'm glad that Ritsu-sensei was right all along,” he muttered.
“What about Ritsu-sensei?”
“Before I left, he told me that you wouldn't be able to be broken by Nagisa-sensei's `games', as he called them. I believe that he knew you were Loveless all along; he said that I could find you near Septimal Moon's area of current interest.
“I see. At any rate, are you up for a round? It's been years since I fought you two, and you've only grown up.”
“Any stakes?”
“Seriously, I'd like to see your face without the bandages once in a while, you know. What about your side?”
“Let's see… Dinner for two, you and me, at your place.”
“Rit-chan, is that okay?” She turned to her sacrifice and crouched down to meet him at eye level.
“Yeah,” he muttered, staring off into space again when she bounced back up and bounded over to Ryougi.
“My sacrifice approved it, so we're go for a round,” she replied, speaking to the announcer now. “It's going to be Peaceless versus Loveless this round, Blitzkrieg rules, alright?” When the young woman nodded and stepped into the elevator that led her back up to the box, she took her place in the arena once again, Ritsuka standing right beside her.
“Fighter units, prepare yourselves. This match features the previous round's winner, Loveless, with female Sentouki Gokuraki Haruka and male sacrifice Aoyagi Ritsuka. Their opponent is the world-acclaimed tournament winner Peaceless, with male Sentouki Atarai Ichirou and male Sacrifice Rikicho-Atarai Ryougi. This is a Blitzkrieg-freestyle match, so the first team to accumulate three hits on its sacrifice loses. There is no time limit and no restriction on attacks. At the mark… set… match!” Once again, the lights dimmed to create the dark environment that was their battle zone as the systems engaged.
“Our name is Loveless; we are the darkness in the heart of mankind. Systems engaged.”
“We are Peaceless. We are the war-ravaged destiny of nations and hearts. Systems engaged and ready.” The two teenagers entwined hands and their collars glowed white in the maelstrom of whirling energies.
“Blind and weary, we cast a spell of sleep on the target. Darken and hide the sacrifice with heavy-laden eyelids of exhaustion,” Ichirou's strangely hypnotic voice murmured, filling the stadium at the same time. It was strange, Haruka reflected, that one so well-versed in language would resort to a basic spell of sleep.
“Denied! Counter with light so bright even the blind may see it!”
“Raise and defend. Create a boundless trench so deep that no light can reach it - stretch it between us.”
“The bloodlust in man will always overcome that which is able to be surpassed. Fill the trench with crawling corpses, bodies of those men slain in war.”
“Indeed. Spirits, return from where you came.”
“Now!” The spell she had been quietly chanting as he had been speaking came into effect immediately, ripping through their automatic defences and piercing Ryougi in several different areas.
“A type-three spell! Impressive,” the announcer called. “This counts as two hits.”
“You've gotten better,” Ichirou admitted, a wry smile on his striking face. “I remember when you could still barely string spells together.”
“Yeah, so what,” she muttered. “Ice cold daggers of words and spirit, ignite with passion,” she continued, barely blinking an eye for a spell of that strength. “Restrain the target in the crystalline binds of the frozen heart.”
“Needles borne from that self-same ice, rain down upon them.” Ritsuka cried out in pain as the senbon-shaped ice darts rained down on his arms.
“Rit-chan, are you alright?” She couldn't afford to look back at him; that was what Ichirou was waiting for.
“This… this is nothing. I can handle it,” he insisted, ignoring the blood welling up from his various small punctures and holding back tears.
“Hmph. Needles become crystal daggers and pierce the bleeding hearts of the world. Shatter as you near the target-  tens, hundreds, thousands of little blades,” she called out, smirking. She loved the ice, and as a result, it was her best element. There were so many words to describe the frozen shards… so many spells.
“A net then, Ichirou,” Ryougi told his Sentouki quietly.
“Yes. A net, to sweep forth and catch them all; leave no single shard forgotten.”
They went on like this for several minutes until Peaceless was too slow on the uptake and suffered a minor blow. Regardless, it was their third and thus they suffered a loss to Loveless. The medical team tended to both sacrifices: Ritsuka would be fine; it appeared that Ichirou had gone easy on them, and Ryougi would be unconscious for a few hours due to the massive strain of their prolonged fight.
“Good job, Haru-kun,” Ichirou said with the faintest trace of a smile. “You've really improved your wordplay.”
“You, too,” she replied with one of her half-smiles. “You can rest at my apartment and when Ryou wakes up we can catch up on old times. It's been a while since I've seen you.”
The rest of the ride back to Area 7 was spent in silence.
—-loveless—-
Ritsuka lay in the twin bed across from Ryougi, resting. They had arrived at her apartment, which was colourful and bright, and it reminded him of one of Soubi's paintings he'd seen a few weeks ago. Her entire apartment was bathed in shades of blue and green, though her bedroom was the outlier, it seemed; the walls were coated in deep blues and violets. Staring over at the teenager across from him, he silently wondered how the sacrifice had lost his eyesight and resolved to ask him later.
Only minutes later, the blind boy began to stir. Ritsuka remained stock-still, watching out of curiousity. Ryougi sniffed the air, seeming to realize where he was, and turned to face Ritsuka.
“Did you want something?”
“Anou… I… nothing.” He blushed, knowing the teenager couldn't see it, and felt rather embarassed to be caught staring… by a blind man.
“It's about my eyes, isn't it?” When Ritsuka shifted uncomfortably, he sighed and shook his head half-heartedly. “Would it be easier for you to talk if I took these off?” He indicated the bandages covering part of his face, and Ritsuka once again shifted. “Just nod or shake your head. There's a difference in sound.” When the grade-schooler nodded, he slowly began to uncover that part of his face, hissing softly when his eyes were finally uncovered. 
A jagged horizontal slash ran across his face, marring the otherwise perfect features. Opening his eyes, Ritsuka saw that they were white, probably due to damage he had suffered in that particular incident. It looked painful, though Ryougi simply ran a cautious hand across it to feel it out, as if he didn't know that part of his anatomy; it took Ritsuka a moment to realize that the young man probably didn't know what his face looked like since it was usually kept under the gauze.
“How… how did that happen?” He sounded shocked, and even scared, though he didn't make any move to leave.
“When Haruka was still one of the many Zero, this happened. It was a few years ago; there are some days I think I haven't quite gotten used to this,” he replied, chuckling darkly. “I took this damage for Ichirou. We were attacked by the strongest of the Zero unit; at the time it was Lafayel and Haruka,” he continued. “They were amazing together,” he sighed. “We didn't stand a chance against her… she was too strong. Ichirou blocked most of the damage to me, but one of the blades got by him and slashed my eyes. I remember thinking that I was going to die when I saw your Sentouki wielding her spells as well as she did. Later she told me that if Ichirou hadn't blocked as much of it as he did, I would have been sliced in half instead.”
“How can you be friends with her then?! She made you blind!” Ryougi sighed at this, clearly thinking back to when he could see.
“Ichirou was in horrible shape after trying to get me out of the area when the battle was over. He almost died of blood loss and such, because he decided to fight auto to spare me any more pain. Hours later, she came back, this time without Lafayel, and took us in. Your Sentouki hid us from her own sacrifice at risk to her own life, and she arranged for medical treatment here in her apartment. Later I also heard her telling Ichirou to just `let me think that I was alive because of him'. She had weakened the spell just enough to be effective without killing me. In essence, she spared both of us because of her compassion towards Ichirou, her childhood friend. How could I hate her?”
“What's so important about a sacrifice being in control? I don't understand! It's their life! Why are we suddenly better than anyone else?”
“Because we take the damage,” Ryougi replied quietly, tracing his scar with a single finger. “It was particularly dangerous for her - every Sentouki save Haruka that her former sacrifice, Lafayel, has controlled, has died at his hand for disappointing him. Nagisa-sensei doesn't particularly care, as long as she can pretend that she doesn't know what's happening. He's most likely trying to hunt Haruka down now, to kill her for leaving him… that, and insolence in general. She has many wounds and scars because of him.” Rising and walking easily to the door, he extended a hand to Ritsuka. “Enough talk, it smells like Ichirou made dinner. You won't want to miss it.”
—-loveless—-
 Ryougi was right; dinner was great. All of his favourite foods were laid in front of him; well, maybe they weren't his favourites at the start of the meal, but by the end they were. He didn't have to worry about eating the right foods or getting the right drink, or even making small talk. The conversation was provided and engaging, tonight they were busy trying to explain the origins of the underground city to Ritsuka.
“Well, you see, apparently a rich man - who happened to be a sacrifice - realised that the matches in Japan were getting out of hand. Innocents were getting involved and such, though most of them didn't know what was going on. The instant they were pulled into the Sentouki's realm, they only could see bright lights and such. All of those cases were either killed to keep the secrecy, as was the custom in that day and age - which wasn't too terribly long ago -  or it was chalked up to be alien abductions,” Ichirou began.
“Chalked up to that by the government, no doubt,” Haruka scoffed.
“Anyway, he decided that he would build a city for only Sentouki and sacrifices, where they could live and battle qithout interruptions from the outside world. The only problem is the constant usage of land here in Japan, so he built the initial area of the city and then, when the supports had been laid and he could begin construction on the city itself, he built buildings and businesses above the area so there would be no suspicion, and so the only enterance would be a security door - one you'd find on the back of a factory and such. Also, to protect the entry, a maze of buildings was built around the entry.”
“That makes sense,” Ritsuka murmured. He had thought it a little odd to try and enter a solid steel industrial door after going through a maze of buildings.
“Not only that, but the entry panel records and catalogues every unit that enters the area. It's pretty advanced. But in his haste to create the areas, he never named them, even as he expanded and made 12 areas much like this. There are only three entrances other than emergency lifts, though,” Ichirou finished.
“So these areas don't have names?”
“Pretty much,” Haruka interrupted. “We call them `Area 1′, `Area 2′, `Area 3′, etcetera. Although some of the areas have… acquired… names through popular nicknames. For instance, my home, this area - Area 7 - is called Rozen Kreuz. That was the name of a German gang of Sentouki a while ago, and when they visited, Area 7 was their favourite because of the Western-style shops and such. The name kinda stuck,” she continued, a smile on her face. “I remember being just a child when they visited. That's actually why I chose Rozen Kreuz as my home. Ryougi's apartment is in Area 10, also known as Cabaret, or Nightclub. It's where all the dance halls and alcohol shops are.”
“Yeah, right… Somebody happens to have an addiction to sweets, not to mention that her house is directly above a chocolate shop…” Ryougi laughed and kept on nagging her, “And there's a coffee shop right across the tracks. I'm surprised Ritsuka-san hasn't figured you out yet.”
“I can show restraint too, you know,” Haruka replied, mildly miffed at the comment. “Then again, if I put a plate of melon out in a room with you, there's no telling what you'll do,” she jabbed. “Rit-chan, this guy,” she said, pointing her thumb at Ryougi, “ate a melon I had set out as a decoration on a table.”
“It's not nice to point, Haru-kun,” Ryougi interjected.
“Yeah, but the funniest part… is that the `melon' was actually plastic,” Ichirou stepped back in to the conversation, laughing. “Remember that, Ryou?”
“I happen to know a certain white-haired teenager that actually tried to eat burning - not burnt, but burning - fish on a dare,” he replied calmly, sipping his drink. Ichirou, being the only white-haired teenager any of them knew - turned a bright shade of red and muttered something about not feeling good. At that, Ryougi laughed, “if you can't take the heat, don't play with the fire.”
When Ichirou came back, a few more hours of laughter and merriment in general ensued.
—-loveless—-
“Haruka?” He quietly entered the kitchen where Haruka was doing domestic chores - it just seemed odd that the eccentric fighter would actually play at being a normal person.
“Yes, Rit-chan?” Ichirou and Ryougi had retreated to the guest room she had shooed them into, telling them that they looked exhausted, which they did indeed.
“Your body… you have scars from your last sacrifice, don't you?” A short pause followed before anything else was said.
“That… that's not really of your concern,” she murmured, stiffening. She began to clean the dishes from their meal together, though Ritsuka knew she was just avoiding the question.
“Tell me!”
“No.” Another dish was dropped into the sink to be washed.
“That's an order,” he growled, not realizing the words that slipped out until they actually did. “Tell me what happened after he found out that you saved Ryougi's life.
“It's… nothing…” When Ritsuka continued to glare, she softly began to speak, all the while washing dishes. “He cut into my body with a knife. That's all, really. There are scars all over,” she replied with a harmless frown. “I wish Ryou hadn't told you about that,” she sighed.
“It's okay,” he declared, reaching over to help her out. “It's okay, because you don't have to see him anymore.” Quieting down at her startled reaction, he took a deep breath and continued. ”That's what Soubi and I are for,” he whispered.
He didn't see the faint tears that ran down her face, didn't feel the same strong emotions she suddenly felt, but he understood.
And perhaps that was the most important part of all.