S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction ❯ White Trick, Black Joker ❯ "Mujo Kyouji, I Blame You" ( Chapter 1 )

None of the spectators could believe it as first one foot and then a second got Kazuma upright. He dripped blood, his half-formed Alter covering his left hand was cracked and broken, and his chest heaved eratically, But he was alive. Mimori clutched her hands in front of her and waited, as did most of the spectators across the whole of Lost Ground, for the dust that still swirled and clouded the air to settle. They waited in breathless anticipation to discover the fate of Kazuma's opponent.

**************

Miles away, Urizane broke into another melon. "He's alive. He's gotta be," he said, nevertheless watching Eelian's broadcast closely. Within the green dome that was part of his Alter, Eelian remained quiet. He maintained the broadcast and monitored the combatants closely. He knew, but he didn't like it.

**************

In another part of Lost Ground, the crowd of kids that had enthusiastically watched the arial part of the epic battle gradually quieted down. "Is it over?" one ventured at last. "That was cool! I want an Alter!" General agreements met his enthusiastic comment, and the whole bunch of kids went running full tilt towards the lawn chair and umbrella combination where their supervisor watched from. "Cougar-san! Cougar-san! Big Brother!" they yelled, until they were close and the man still hadn't stirred. Their steps faltered uncertainly, until they halted in a semicircle in front of the chair. One stepped forward, uneasily peering at the man's closed eyes. "Cougar-san?"

**************

The dust was still settling, but Kazuma seemed to have lost interest in the fight. He staggered towards the only two who had witnessed the fight first-hand. At Mimori's side, Kanami broke into a run to help him. "Kazu-kun! KAZU-KUN!" she cried, half terrified and half overjoyed. Mimori thought about running into the dust to discover the fate of the one she cared about, but she couldn't bring herself to move. Kanami positioned herself under Kazuma's arm and helped guide his uncertain steps toward Mimori. Kazuma smiled faintly and put his hand on her head. Mimori felt tears spring to her eyes and had to look away.

"I'm...sorry..." Kazuma rasped when he got close enough to Mimori for her to hear. He fixed her with his green eyes that somehow looked flat and sympathetic at the same time.

Mimori swallowed. "Why? Why Ryuhou of all people? You were friends."

Kazuma shook his head. "Not...that... Sorry for...my brother... He's dead." he rasped, quieter than before.

"Who? What?" Confused, Mimori looked between Kazuma and Kanami. "I thought you meant about Ryuhou..."

Kazuma shook his head and drew in a slow breath to continue talking, but Kanami tugged at him. "Kazu-kun, rest first. Please." Kazuma smiled again, and Kanami led him away. Mimori couldn't ever remember seeing Kazuma smile more than once in a 5-minute period. She turned back to the battlefield and held her breath.

A faint breeze, smelling of ozone, sprung up and wafted the remaining dust away. Mimori took first one step forward and then another, hesitantly approaching the tangle of white and blue tattered clothes and bloody limbs. Around the mangled form of Ryuhou, the remains of his Alter, Zetsui, slowly reabsorbed themselves into the ground. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust... Mimori found herself morbidly thinking as she slowly picked her way closer to Ryuhou. But before she could get close enough, among the broken pieces of Zetsui, Ryuhou's head suddenly jerked up and fixed a burning, wild glare at a point beyond Mimori. Without looking, she knew he was looking at Kazuma. "Ryuhou?" she asked tenatively, reaching out a hand.

His chest heaving and his eyes wide, he gave no indication he had heard Mimori's plea. A rumbling growl started low in Ryuhou's chest, gradually growing in intensity until he howled, "ZETSUI!" and the world exploded around Mimori.

**************

"Well look at that...hot damn, he IS alive!" Urizane cheered triumphantly.

"Don't cheer yet," Eelian cautioned. "Wait. And watch."

**************

Both Kazuma and Kanami turned when they heard Ryuhou's shout, just in time to see Mimori vanish in a wild explosion of earth, from which Ryuhou's Alter rose. Its tail lashed irritably, matching Ryuhou's feral smile. Without a word or command, Zetsui streaked towards Kazuma and Kanami with blinding speed.

Kazuma tensed, but it was Kanami who reacted. Clutching Kazuma's arm, the green outline of her own Alter ability sprung up around her. Reaching out languidly with her other hand, she made a plucking motion in the air. Zetsui froze, not five feet away. "Stop, Ryuhou." she said distantly, her eyes blank and far away.

Kazuma heard an echo of Kanami's words in his own head. "K...Kanami?"

Ryuhou clutched his head. Beside him, Mimori was sprawled unmoving on the ground. He saw in his mind the diminutive, child-like form of Kanami reaching out a hand to him. "Take it," her laughing eyes seemed to say. Without knowing what he was doing, his hands grasped hers, and the bloody madness fled his mind. With it, the image of Kanami wavered and disappeared, leaving him holding the hands of Sherrice. He cried.

Kanami sagged against Kazuma who, in his weakened state, was almost sent flying. Sensing this, Kanami mustered up the energy to stand on her own. "Let's go, Kazu-kun," she said quietly.

"But...what was that? What'd you do?" Kazuma asked wearily, looking faintly baffled.

Kanami smiled as they made slow progress across the broken terrain. "Its Scryed."

**************

"Is that it?" Urizane asked skeptically. "That wasn't anything." Eelian's Alter faded, and Urizane let him down.

"It's not over yet. It just started. Kazuma and Ryuhou will keep fighting until they're dead or we're all dead," Eelian replied. "That girl can keep them apart, but for how long?"

Urizane shouldered his bag of melons. "It doesn't matter. We're done with all that shit. C'mon kid, we have work to do." Eelian followed after the large man across the melon patch and to the small house they shared, his mind on anything but melons.

**************

Months passed. Neither Kazuma nor Ryuhou sought the other out, and Mimori hoped it was all over. Kanami knew better, as did Eelian, but all they could do was watch and hope.

Two year later, Mimori finally ventured to the grave the villagers had erected. Bearing flowers, she slowly crested the hill and stood there, unsure of what to say or do. "I understand now, Cougar. I understand why you played the part you did." Her words ran out, and she squatted to arrange the flowers on his grave. "And I understand what an Alter does to a person. I'm sorry, Cougar."

Mimori took a break to clear the sudden tears pricking her eyes. She looked around from the hilltop and saw trees all around. West, she knew, were the ruins of the sole city in Lost Ground that had been decimated a year ago. Beside the ruines was a smaller cluster of buildings erected by the townsfolk, their efforts at becoming reliant on themselves alone were driving them to rebuild. "I think you'd be proud of us, Cougar," she continued. "We don't need the mainland anymore, and there's finally been steps taken to make us officially independent. Moreover, nobody calls this Lost Ground anymore. Nobody's sure what to officially call it, but right now the unofficial term is Home." She stood and brushed nonexistant dirt from her clothes. "I think we're slowly but surely shrinking the world."

"Mimori?"

She turned and saw Tachibana climbing the hill. "I'm done," she said around a lump in her throat. "Lets go."

Tachibana grasped her arm in silent support as they walked. "He was really taken with you."

"I know." Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat.

He hesitated, and only responded when Mimori turned questioning eyes on him. "Ryuhou asked for you."

"He's awake? And coherant?" Mimori demanded, hardly daring to believe. She let the unspoken question hang between the two of them. He asked for me?

Tachibana nodded reluctantly. Impatiently, Mimori left his side and strode rapidly to the car waiting to take them back to Ryuhou while he followed behind trying not to sigh.

**************

"Kazu-kun?" Kanami questioned, pushing her way carefully into his room while balancing a tray of food. "I have your food."

He stirred from his chair, and Kanami steeled herself against the pain seeing him like this caused. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No."

Kanami nodded. He said the same thing every day. She wondered why she still asked. In the dim room, she moved over to the table and set the tray down. She sat down across from it and waited as Kazuma made his slow way across the room.

"Are you going to turn on the light?"

Wordlessly, Kanami reached up to the bare bulb hanging above the table and pulled the string tied to it to turn it on. Silent, she sat as Kazuma ponderously picked up a utensil and began to shuttle food from the tray to his mouth.

His fight against HOLY, Mujo Kyouji, the mainland, and ultimately Ryuhou had not treated him kindly. No longer could he stand or sit upright, instead he lived life hunched over like some grotesque gargoyle. His right eye never opened now, and he had to squint to see out of his left. Lines spiderwebbed across his face and down his neck to crisscross across the whole of his body and limbs, lines that glowed with a weird black sheen. Moreover, he spoke very little, and was nothing like the Kazuma she had met a lifetime ago. The Kazuma she had fallen in love with.

Silent, she studied the shadows that the dirty bare bulb created in the hollows of his face as he slowly ate. He looked up at her once, then went back to eating. They sat together until he had finished the last of his meal and set the utensil down carefully. Kanami rose woodenly and reached to retreat with the tray.

"Wait."

Kanami froze with her arm half extended. "What is it, Kazu-kun?" she asked, striving to sound like her normal self though the nickname she had given him a long time ago tasted flat in her mouth.

"You never stay to talk."

Around the raspy gravel in his voice, Kazuma sounded almost injured, and Kanami felt something tug at her heart. "I still live here in your house, Kazu-kun. You can come to see me too, you know," she said lightly.

Kazuma's face twisted into something that might have been a smile or a sneer. "There's nothing out there for me," he rasped lowly.

There was a pause, and thinking that he was done speaking, Kanami reached for the tray. Kazuma's left hand shot out and grabbed her wrist with surprising speed. He squeezed and she whimpered. "You're...hurting me...Kazu-kun."

"Why am I still here, Kanami?" Kazuma whispered, fixing her with his one green eye. "Why? Why?!"

Through the tears that were pooling in her eyes, Kanami saw burning hatred deep in his eye and she felt something shrivel up and die inside. Gathering her strength, she somehow wrenched free from his superhuman grip and stumbled backwards, her eyes wide.

"Why, Kanami?" Kazuma continued, almost taunting now. Over and over he repeated, "Why?" and Kanami retreated further.

"Stop...please stop...I don't know." Kanami sobbed shaking her head violently, but Kazuma's taunts laced with hatred continued. Unable to take anymore, she wheeled and stumbled away from the circle of light cast by the bulb. Fumbling for the door, she found the knob and yanked it open. Throwing herself through the doorway into the blinding daylight beyond, she slammed the door behind her and sagged against it.

Kazuma's demand raised in volume, and while he yelled inside, Kanami sobbed outside.

**************

"Mimori?"

She raised her head from her arms and saw Tachibana standing over her with a cup. "Here. Drink," he said, handing the cup down to her. She stared at the coffee inside the disposable cup without appetite.

"Thank you," she replied distantly. She went back to contemplating what she just saw.

Tachibana hovered over her uncertainly, looking as if he wanted to say more. Just then, however, a distant scream echoed down the sterile corridor. "That sounded like Kazuma," he commented. "I'll be back." He took off running down the corridor and vanished around a corner. Mimori sat quietly and listened to the muted buzz of the fluorescent lights above her. Look what we've become... Mimori thought tiredly. The love of power ended up destroying everyone and everything. Alters granted tremendous power at the expense of the user's life. It drove them insane, and for what? Mujo Kyouji, I blame you.

Minutes passed silently before the sound of footsteps made Mimori look up again. Tachibana was returning, a subdued Kanami in tow. Kanami's eyes met Mimori's, and she saw the same confused pain in Kanami's eyes that Kanami probably found in her own. Tachibana's Alter, his glowing Eternity Eight, still hovered around the both of them. As Mimori's eyes tightened, Tachibana said by way of explanation, "There was trouble."

Mimori stared hard at the green balls of Tachibana's Alter, remembering all too well what it was like to be in the middle of Ryuhou's Zetsui as it formed. The ground exploding around her, every atom of her body screaming to be included in the Alter formation, the pain of being stretched...

Tachibana's Alter vanished. "Did Ryuhou hear?" he questioned.

Mimori blinked away her reverie, "Not that I know," she responded. "Was it really a good idea to bring them both to the same place?"

"It is," Kanami said then. "It is, to keep an eye on them both."

"I agree," Tachibana said. "As long as neither of them realizes the other is here."

Kanami pushed forward. "How is Ryuhou?" she asked softly, putting a hand on Mimori's shoulder.

Mimori looked away. "He was awake earlier. I don't know about now."

"May I see?"

A powerful image of Ryuhou's eyes flashed in Mimori's head. "I don't think--"

"Please?" Kanami squatted to look in her face. "I watched Kazu-kun turn into what he is now. I can handle it." Her voice never wavered, but Mimori saw in her eyes how much the words hurt.

"Alright." Mimori stood, and looked to Tachibana with an unspoken question in her eyes. Tachibana nodded in understanding, and Mimori was relieved that she wouldn't have to face Ryuhou alone. She walked down the hall a short way to one of the doors. PUnching in four numbers on the keypad beside the door, it slid open, and the three of them filed in.

Everything was just as she left it, including Ryuhou. His eyes, once an intense piercing blue but now faded almost white. He quietly studied them all as they entered. So pale were his eyes that they seemed to have no iris, just black pupils and the whites of his eyes. His eyes fell on Kanami and paused. "Kanami," he said emotionlessly.

She stepped forward without hesitation and stood beside his hospital bed. "Yes?"

"I heard you. In my mind. Back during the fight."

Kanami nodded. "You did."

"You have an Alter. I can feel it."

Mimori started and looked at Tachibana questioningly. He shrugged slightly.

Again, Kanami nodded. "I do. I don't use it much."

Ryuhou stirred, and one of his pale hands appeared from beneath the cover over him. "Take my hand. I want to feel it."

Kanami hesitated. "Feel what? My hand?" she asked lightly, though she looked troubled.

Ryuhou smiled faintly. "No. Your Alter."

Kanami drew back then. "I don't think..." she started, trailing off uneasily and looking at Tachibana and Mimori.

"Just for a moment," Ryuhou persisted, his hand held out to her. "I won't hurt you. I would never hurt you."

Mimori felt a twinge of jealousy at this. He had said it and he had meant it, which was more than he had ever said to her.

Kanami swallowed and moved over again. Hesitantly, and with another uneasy look at Mimori and Tachibana, one of her slim hands reached out and touched Ryuhou's. His hand closed over hers, and there was silence. Kanami glowed faintly green.

Beside her, Mimori saw Tachibana tense.

With a gasp, Kanami tore her hand away. "I didn't mean...I never meant..." she stammered at once.

Ryuhou was silent until Kanami had finished. "I know. But it happened."

Kanami regained her composure. Ryuhou stared at Kanami. Kanami stared at Ryuhou. Tachibana shifted restlessly and looked as if he were going to say something, then was stopped by Mimori holding his arm. "Well?" Kanami asked with a ghost of a smile on her face. To Mimori, it didn't look like Kanami wanted an answer.

"Well." And that was all. Ryuhou looked at the ceiling and said nothing more. Mimori tugged at Tachibana, and they quietly left the room with Kanami on their heels.

**************

"Tachibana?" Kanami questioned after knocking softly on the metal door. She touched the pad beside the door and it slid silently open. Inside, banks of monitors cast a lurid glow over the dark room, revealing multitudes of panels and buttons with mysterious purposes. One wall was nothing but glass, revealing a larger inner room.

Tachibana turned from a monitor and several sheaves of paper at Kanami's intrusion. There were dark circles under his eyes, and a cup of coffee steamed on the surface beside him. "What is it, Kanami?" he asked, motioning her inside.

"I came to ask if you had anymore of that medicine to help me sleep," she asked, obligingly moving inside. "I'm having trouble sleeping." A vast understatement, Kanami knew, but said nothing of that to Tachibana.

Tachibana looked about to press her for more information, but instead motioned her closer. "Look," he said, nodding through the glass. After hesitating momentarily, she did as she was asked. Through the glass she looked down on a room that was empty, save for a chair and a small table. Strapped to the chair, Kanami saw a young girl barely old enough to talk. The building housing Ryuhou and Kazuma was for all people with the Alter ability, the ones that were already in advanced stages of degradation. Here, they were tended to and supervised, to prevent outbreaks of fighting such as what Kazuma and Ryuhou went through. But why this young girl?

Kanami asked as much, and Tachibana looked uncharacteristically grim. "Do you remember what started the Alter ability in the first place?"

"When Lost Ground was created. That explosion triggered something, and children started being born with the Alter ability," Kanami responded automatically.

"The children that were born initially after that, Kazuma's and Ryuhou's generation, were strong in the Alter ability. The children born months and years following had the Alter ability, but were not as strong in it. It's been twenty-four years since the Lost Ground was created. This girl was born two years ago, from normal parents. However, she is an Alter user."

Kanami looked puzzled. "If you're getting at something, I'm not following you..."

"Kazuma and Ryuhou fought two years ago. Mujo Kyouji breached the barrier between our dimension and the dimension of Alter. Massive amounts of Alter energy were thrown around. This child is a product of that--and her powers are like nothing I've seen before. The Alter ability has mutated."

"Into what?" Kanami asked, swallowing hard. Her skin crawled, and she imagined that she could feel her own Alter ability moving inside her.

"I don't know. There's no way to study it unless I see it in action. And I doubt this girl could control something so powerful."

Kanami stared through the glass at the girl and felt a sharp pang of sympathy as flashbacks of her own experience with Mujo Kyouji flashed before her eyes. Was it really a good idea to bring Alter users here to study? She could see the necessity with cases like Kazuma and Ryuhou, but this girl? And all the children in the pediatric wing? Kanami suspected that the children were sent here because their parents were scared of them. And that was truly a sad thing.

"There's one more thing," Tachibana said, interrupting her thoughts. "During Kazuma's fight with Ryuhou, this girl's vital signs spiked radically. There were sporadic bursts of Alter abilities reported in the other children. Nobody was hurt, but it has the staff scared. Somehow, these children are linked to Kazuma and Ryuhou."

Kanami's arms broke out in goosebumps at this. That could mean nothing or everything. She couldn't stop looking at the girl, though. Her own Alter touched her mind, and she felt an echo of the fear the girl felt. "What's her name?"

Tachibana looked up. "What?"

"Her name."

"Oh...uhm..." He picked through piles of paperwork, looking for her file. "I have it here somewhere..."

"Forget it," Kanami said, feeling suddenly tired. "I'm going to try and sleep. I don't think I need the medicine anymore." As she left, a stray thought surfaced. Tachibana had no idea how old she was. You were wrong about one thing, Tachibana. I was the first born after Lost Ground was formed. Not Kazuma or Ryuhou.