Sorcerer Hunters Fan Fiction ❯ And The Kid Who Just Stands Tonight ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Kloot_chan 
Chapter Nine to "And the Kid Who Just Stands Tonight."
Anime/Manga: Sorcerer Hunters Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.08.2002 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 317 | Status: Completed
Chapter Nine to "And the Kid Who Just Stands Tonight."
Anime/Manga: Sorcerer Hunters Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.08.2002 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 317 | Status: Completed
The day had waned; relenting into that ebony softness called night. The sky was flecked with stars that pierced the canopy of trees, under which each of the Sorcerer Hunters lay comfortably upon a simple, soft sleeping cot. The fire cracked and popped enthusiastically, and the flames danced on the Hunters?·faces. Everyone was quiet, for the events of yesterday and today had been revolting and dangerously surreal, even for their line of work. Carrot and Chocolate learned of Marron's predicament, and Carrot had been quiet. It had struck a deep chord within him, no doubt, and everyone seemed to understand his feelings. Marron was his younger brother, after all, and there is much to be said for sibling relationships. Marron was not a pretty boy toy to Carrot like he seemed to be for Gateau and Tira; instead he was a protective and caring brother that he loved in a different way. Now it was Carrot's turn to be protective again.
No one knew what to do about Marron's change of forms. He had turned into a halved human, with an influx of characteristics like those of a seraph. Everyone knew Lady Creme had done it to him, but the question was why. And how.
Now Marron lay naked, his wing curled over him, the reflections of red and yellow glittering on the pure feathers. The Earth's problems, like temperature, had no effect on him now. It could be ten degrees and Marron would still hold steadfast and perfect, bearing no clothing like the day he was born. Of course, Gateau liked this aspect of Marron's problem immensely. But he still had a feeling of concern, a deep bond that the others shared. Their Marron, true Marron, was gone from them, and they did not know if they would be able to retrieve their lost gentle prize.
They each yielded to their own meandering thoughts, and no talk interrupted the stillness of the night. Eventually the four Hunters and the altered one slept in a haze of unknowing possibilities. Fate was such a crazy thing; so unpredictable. One strike and it was all over. Tira felt a surge of feelings wash over her in a realm of sleep, telling her to beware of something over and over. The others dreamed similar dreams, but the only dreams that were unclear were Marron's, for whom can rightly decipher the turbulent dreams of an angel?
Their dreams were interrupted in the midst of the moonlight. Screaming protruded the stillness, and Tira was shocked to find it was her own. The Hunters had each sat up in a cold sweat, staring dumbly around them for the sight of an unknown intruder. They heard nothing but coarse laughter from above the trees. The group immediately jumped to their feet, pulling on shoes and whatnot. Chocolate had a determined look on her face, which was illuminated in the moon's gentle light.
"It's Creme." She stated flatly. "Who can forget the sound of that voice?"
Gateau nodded sharply to her declaration, rubbing his iron fist with his hand. The spiked knuckles gleamed maliciously. Hopefully he'd use them.
Carrot pulled out his sword, scraping it against the sheath, making a sinister screech like nails on chalkboard. He swiftly jumped behind a tree, leaning against it stealthily. He was ready for her. He glanced over at the group of cots, where Marron still lingered. Only he was not standing on the ground anymore. He was hovering, his strong wing gently beating to one side, making him float lopsidedly.
Tira opened her mouth in confusion. She couldn't fathom how it was possible. Marron could now fly if he wanted to. She grimaced, seeing how he was one step closer to something supernatural and somehow she didn't want even this. She didn't know how she felt about it exactly, but she knew she wanted to grasp that Marron she once knew, no matter how gracious and powerful this one might be.
A flick of a light penetrated the darkness, and instantly a tall, robed woman descended from the overhead awning of treetops. The moonlight still gave ample light to show her face, and the look of it stopped the Hunters in mid-breath. She looked just like Marron would have.
Her face was slender, and her eyes were somber with amber, gold light trapped in the depths like liquid sun. Her hair was coal-black; tendrils of black silk flailing behind her. Tira could not contain her bewilderment, and she advanced towards this Marron lookalike.
"Who the hell are you? And why do you look like Marron?" Tira shouted at her, her own voice screeching in her ears. The other Hunters merely looked on, astonished that this sorceress was the same one they had fought merely a day ago. Her form had changed completely.
"I'm Lady Creme. I don't believe we've met." The sorceress grinned evilly, and pretended to extend her hand as if for a handshake. "Oh, that's right. Mead was able to take you out, if I'm not mistaken. And she was such a weak underling." It was strange to see the woman smirking at her, for it was like Marron himself was, and this produced throbbing hatred toward the woman she had known for only a few seconds, bitter and flaming like the fiery furnaces of hell. Tira ripped off her cloak in an instant,
and stood, before her adversary, baring a whip of malice. The sorceress laughed. "Oh, I'm much stronger than that. You should know," she pointed over to the real Marron, who floated near a tree, his wing outstretched. "I was a fallen angel, you know. Your poor friend there, well, we kinda had a trade-off."
This caught everyone's attention. "What?!" Gateau sputtered. "Do you mean," he calculated slowly, "that you traded bodies with Marron? But," he whispered harshly, "how in the hell did you do something like that? And why?"
"Oh, we traded souls, rather than bodies," Creme smiled. "He had such a strong, stolid Earth soul, and I always wanted to live in the mortal world. So I forced him to give it to me."
"But what will happen to him now?" Tira blurted in an undertone. She paused before making another terrible statement that racked her body.
"Will he die?" This interrogation echoed through the trees and through the night, as if it were a revelation in itself.
"If he steals no mortal blood, then he will return." The sorceress laughed. "I stole freely from those stupid traders in Ayumi, but now I shall have to do that no more!" Her face was one of pure glee.
"I just want to know why," a rasping voice came from the trees. It was Carrot. "Why did you steal it from my brother, my only brother?" He looked up, and everyone was shocked to see that tears trailed down his face. "I mean, he might not be much, he might be quiet, he might be gay, but I don't care," he said in a barely audible voice, troubling and sad. "He's my brother, and I love him. And that's why," his voice began climbing in an angry crescendo, "That I will not let you survive if you let him die!" And with this, he and his sword rushed from beyond the stillness and made contact in a swift matter of seconds into the sorceress's side. Carrot did not look at her. She fell to the ground, her blood pooling around her in the same fashion that her subordinate Mead had been.
"I'm not defeated that easily," She said, her voice cracking with something reminiscent of evil. She opened her hands, and brought forth some strange green light that formed sizzling bolts between her fingers. She grinned at the Hunters, who each stepped back. She saw the quivering form of Tira, her whip held in front of her as her only shield. The sorceress turned towards her, gathering magic within her fingertips to fire an almighty blow.
Tira saw it coming, and tried to duck, but the force was so large and fast she could not escape it. In the second she believed she should be fried by the bolt, she saw her sister jumping in the way. Tira tried to call out, to keep her sister from putting herself in danger that was not hers. But it was too late. The massive discharge terminated through her sister's body, draining her life and soul right out of her very heart. Chocolate, forever silent and unmoving, fell in a heap in Tira's lap.
"One down, three to go," the Sorceress beamed at them childishly. Tira felt her mind threaten to break its boundaries, and she urged it to. It's all good if we lose our minds sometimes, she encouraged her darkening feelings born of the deadly plight of her own fallen sister. She wanted to feel Creme's blood coursing down over her hands, feel that one sweetness of death and victory. Her death would be a memorable one.
Carrot, Tira, and Gateau all came forward, together, under the moonlit trees, devoid of emotion. They had lost Chocolate, and now they knew for sure that they would lose Marron. It was an insufferable pain, a pain that rocked their insides and minds to no end. In the years after they would still remember that burning hatred, for it is something that cannot be forgotten completely.
"Ganging up on me, eh?" Creme smiled. "You are so predictable. Who said the Sorcerer Hunters were unbeatable?" She added, winking. "They must have been agonizingly weak." She stood up, despite her running blood from her robed side. Her resemblance to Marron was horrifying. Tira couldn't stand to look at her, and neither could the others, for they knew their Marron, their sweet, good Marron, would never do these terrible things, like she would.
Marron stood in the stillness. He was standing there alone, deadpan in the moonlight, his wing a substituted halo for one he might receive. His eyes were so blue, a sea of purity and reason. Tira took it in, glad to look upon the strange, altered form of Marron with a good spirit rather than the body of Marron with a Sorcerer's mind. Marron could hold no contempt now, Tira knew, but she felt that perhaps he knew that his mortal friends needed his help desperately, in a fight that had almost everything to do with him.
He advanced, his nakedness pinpointed in the moonlight under the trees but unnoticed. His one wing gave him flight, and this made him ever faster. He darted in the moonlight, between the trees, and straight up in the very face of evil. His face was suddenly two inches from the Lady Creme's, and he hovered, unrelenting.
She stared at him back. "You won't even survive," she provoked. "I sent you a death I wanted to escape."
He watched her with earnest blue eyes. "But heaven is not a death."
"It is mine!" And she lunged forward, tearing at his face and at his lithe bare body. Her now mortal hands could not blemish his body in the least, and he smiled a knowing smile when she glared in confusion.
"I forgive you." And his snow-white hands gathered a light of heaven. The prick of sparkling light entwined his feminine fingers, and with a short, shallow farewell, he touched the Lady with the slightest of ease. The light of heaven burned her, scalding her, deadening her like no hotness she'd ever encountered. Thus, in one feather-like touch, she died.
The body disintegrated into a pile of ashes, very much like the one produced by their campfire from before. But all frivolity was lost. While their adversary was destroyed, a companion had been destroyed also. Tira wept while holding her sister's form. Chocolate was dead.
Marron descended lightly, the whisper of the forest wind blowing his hair serenely behind him. His body looked worn and expired, as if each second of life was a struggle for him. But Marron said nothing. Instead, he went over to the spot where Tira lay holding her dead sister. Chocolate's form lay loosely on the ground, her eyes forever closed, her body dense with death. Tira could not feel her tears now, the river that had suddenly become normal. How she wished she hadn't been alive, how she wished Marron would live..
Marron put a finger to his lips, quietly. He reached his arms out for her, and embraced Tira warmly. Tira was surprised, but in a fearful way, she returned the embrace. She listened for his heart beating against hers, but all she could hear was her own, pulsing in a fated rhythm. He had no pulse; never again. She lowered her eyes, seeing his pure white chest that never rose to breathe. He held her in that embrace and she wanted to keep it there.
All things end, however, and that perfect touch had to end as well. Marron slowly released Tira, and picked Chocolate up, and kneeled in front of her. The other Hunters watched in anticipation.
"What's he.." Gateau started, but Carrot quieted him with a kick.
Marron began to pray. He prayed to something the others did not know of, or understand, and his words were inaudible, peaceful words against the moonlight. It was all very solemn, and Tira thought for a moment Marron was giving Chocolate a funeral prayer, the way people do for one who is deceased. But her thoughts changed as soon as Marron's bare body began glowing with a lemon-colored light.
"What the hell?" Carrot whispered, his eyes wavering with fear.
Marron stayed still, paying no attention to anyone except Chocolate, who lay in front of where he knelt. Suddenly a bright yellow orb disengaged itself from deep within Marron, and it floated before Chocolate, warming her, healing her. Amazingly, her eyelids fluttered. Tira didn't dare to breathe.
"Ma," she whispered, her eyes half closed, "Marron." It was a brutal fight for her to speak, and Marron shook his head, and smiled.
Then he fell.
"Marron!" Gateau was the first to go to his side, followed by Tira, and Carrot. Marron lay in a crumpled heap, his entire body a crude gray color. He suffered a tiny spasm, then looked up at the three of them; his mouth curled in a small smile that promised them everything would be all right.
"Minna," he whispered through parched lips, "I want you to know that I love," he choked, "That I love you." His blue eyes faded to lavender. "I'm so sorry I have to leave you."
"Don't say shit like that!" Carrot bent, picking up his brother's disheveled form and forcing him to a sitting position in his arms. "Marron, you're going to get better, you know that." Marron just smiled up at him.
"Niisan."
"And, and, we'll go to each others' weddings, right? I can see it now, Marron. We'll have beautiful wives, and every now and then we can trade off, right?" Tears damped Carrot's face, but they were the borders of an open, sad smile. "I love you Marron." Tira and Gateau watched, feeling like strangers.
Marron looked up into his Niisan's eyes, looking for something hidden there, perhaps. His light blue eyes shone with love and purity, and he kept a tiny smile on his face. Carrot watched him, watched as Marron's face set as he continued to stare upward, finally past Carrot, peering into the very heavens in which he just then ascended.
No one knew what to do about Marron's change of forms. He had turned into a halved human, with an influx of characteristics like those of a seraph. Everyone knew Lady Creme had done it to him, but the question was why. And how.
Now Marron lay naked, his wing curled over him, the reflections of red and yellow glittering on the pure feathers. The Earth's problems, like temperature, had no effect on him now. It could be ten degrees and Marron would still hold steadfast and perfect, bearing no clothing like the day he was born. Of course, Gateau liked this aspect of Marron's problem immensely. But he still had a feeling of concern, a deep bond that the others shared. Their Marron, true Marron, was gone from them, and they did not know if they would be able to retrieve their lost gentle prize.
They each yielded to their own meandering thoughts, and no talk interrupted the stillness of the night. Eventually the four Hunters and the altered one slept in a haze of unknowing possibilities. Fate was such a crazy thing; so unpredictable. One strike and it was all over. Tira felt a surge of feelings wash over her in a realm of sleep, telling her to beware of something over and over. The others dreamed similar dreams, but the only dreams that were unclear were Marron's, for whom can rightly decipher the turbulent dreams of an angel?
Their dreams were interrupted in the midst of the moonlight. Screaming protruded the stillness, and Tira was shocked to find it was her own. The Hunters had each sat up in a cold sweat, staring dumbly around them for the sight of an unknown intruder. They heard nothing but coarse laughter from above the trees. The group immediately jumped to their feet, pulling on shoes and whatnot. Chocolate had a determined look on her face, which was illuminated in the moon's gentle light.
"It's Creme." She stated flatly. "Who can forget the sound of that voice?"
Gateau nodded sharply to her declaration, rubbing his iron fist with his hand. The spiked knuckles gleamed maliciously. Hopefully he'd use them.
Carrot pulled out his sword, scraping it against the sheath, making a sinister screech like nails on chalkboard. He swiftly jumped behind a tree, leaning against it stealthily. He was ready for her. He glanced over at the group of cots, where Marron still lingered. Only he was not standing on the ground anymore. He was hovering, his strong wing gently beating to one side, making him float lopsidedly.
Tira opened her mouth in confusion. She couldn't fathom how it was possible. Marron could now fly if he wanted to. She grimaced, seeing how he was one step closer to something supernatural and somehow she didn't want even this. She didn't know how she felt about it exactly, but she knew she wanted to grasp that Marron she once knew, no matter how gracious and powerful this one might be.
A flick of a light penetrated the darkness, and instantly a tall, robed woman descended from the overhead awning of treetops. The moonlight still gave ample light to show her face, and the look of it stopped the Hunters in mid-breath. She looked just like Marron would have.
Her face was slender, and her eyes were somber with amber, gold light trapped in the depths like liquid sun. Her hair was coal-black; tendrils of black silk flailing behind her. Tira could not contain her bewilderment, and she advanced towards this Marron lookalike.
"Who the hell are you? And why do you look like Marron?" Tira shouted at her, her own voice screeching in her ears. The other Hunters merely looked on, astonished that this sorceress was the same one they had fought merely a day ago. Her form had changed completely.
"I'm Lady Creme. I don't believe we've met." The sorceress grinned evilly, and pretended to extend her hand as if for a handshake. "Oh, that's right. Mead was able to take you out, if I'm not mistaken. And she was such a weak underling." It was strange to see the woman smirking at her, for it was like Marron himself was, and this produced throbbing hatred toward the woman she had known for only a few seconds, bitter and flaming like the fiery furnaces of hell. Tira ripped off her cloak in an instant,
and stood, before her adversary, baring a whip of malice. The sorceress laughed. "Oh, I'm much stronger than that. You should know," she pointed over to the real Marron, who floated near a tree, his wing outstretched. "I was a fallen angel, you know. Your poor friend there, well, we kinda had a trade-off."
This caught everyone's attention. "What?!" Gateau sputtered. "Do you mean," he calculated slowly, "that you traded bodies with Marron? But," he whispered harshly, "how in the hell did you do something like that? And why?"
"Oh, we traded souls, rather than bodies," Creme smiled. "He had such a strong, stolid Earth soul, and I always wanted to live in the mortal world. So I forced him to give it to me."
"But what will happen to him now?" Tira blurted in an undertone. She paused before making another terrible statement that racked her body.
"Will he die?" This interrogation echoed through the trees and through the night, as if it were a revelation in itself.
"If he steals no mortal blood, then he will return." The sorceress laughed. "I stole freely from those stupid traders in Ayumi, but now I shall have to do that no more!" Her face was one of pure glee.
"I just want to know why," a rasping voice came from the trees. It was Carrot. "Why did you steal it from my brother, my only brother?" He looked up, and everyone was shocked to see that tears trailed down his face. "I mean, he might not be much, he might be quiet, he might be gay, but I don't care," he said in a barely audible voice, troubling and sad. "He's my brother, and I love him. And that's why," his voice began climbing in an angry crescendo, "That I will not let you survive if you let him die!" And with this, he and his sword rushed from beyond the stillness and made contact in a swift matter of seconds into the sorceress's side. Carrot did not look at her. She fell to the ground, her blood pooling around her in the same fashion that her subordinate Mead had been.
"I'm not defeated that easily," She said, her voice cracking with something reminiscent of evil. She opened her hands, and brought forth some strange green light that formed sizzling bolts between her fingers. She grinned at the Hunters, who each stepped back. She saw the quivering form of Tira, her whip held in front of her as her only shield. The sorceress turned towards her, gathering magic within her fingertips to fire an almighty blow.
Tira saw it coming, and tried to duck, but the force was so large and fast she could not escape it. In the second she believed she should be fried by the bolt, she saw her sister jumping in the way. Tira tried to call out, to keep her sister from putting herself in danger that was not hers. But it was too late. The massive discharge terminated through her sister's body, draining her life and soul right out of her very heart. Chocolate, forever silent and unmoving, fell in a heap in Tira's lap.
"One down, three to go," the Sorceress beamed at them childishly. Tira felt her mind threaten to break its boundaries, and she urged it to. It's all good if we lose our minds sometimes, she encouraged her darkening feelings born of the deadly plight of her own fallen sister. She wanted to feel Creme's blood coursing down over her hands, feel that one sweetness of death and victory. Her death would be a memorable one.
Carrot, Tira, and Gateau all came forward, together, under the moonlit trees, devoid of emotion. They had lost Chocolate, and now they knew for sure that they would lose Marron. It was an insufferable pain, a pain that rocked their insides and minds to no end. In the years after they would still remember that burning hatred, for it is something that cannot be forgotten completely.
"Ganging up on me, eh?" Creme smiled. "You are so predictable. Who said the Sorcerer Hunters were unbeatable?" She added, winking. "They must have been agonizingly weak." She stood up, despite her running blood from her robed side. Her resemblance to Marron was horrifying. Tira couldn't stand to look at her, and neither could the others, for they knew their Marron, their sweet, good Marron, would never do these terrible things, like she would.
Marron stood in the stillness. He was standing there alone, deadpan in the moonlight, his wing a substituted halo for one he might receive. His eyes were so blue, a sea of purity and reason. Tira took it in, glad to look upon the strange, altered form of Marron with a good spirit rather than the body of Marron with a Sorcerer's mind. Marron could hold no contempt now, Tira knew, but she felt that perhaps he knew that his mortal friends needed his help desperately, in a fight that had almost everything to do with him.
He advanced, his nakedness pinpointed in the moonlight under the trees but unnoticed. His one wing gave him flight, and this made him ever faster. He darted in the moonlight, between the trees, and straight up in the very face of evil. His face was suddenly two inches from the Lady Creme's, and he hovered, unrelenting.
She stared at him back. "You won't even survive," she provoked. "I sent you a death I wanted to escape."
He watched her with earnest blue eyes. "But heaven is not a death."
"It is mine!" And she lunged forward, tearing at his face and at his lithe bare body. Her now mortal hands could not blemish his body in the least, and he smiled a knowing smile when she glared in confusion.
"I forgive you." And his snow-white hands gathered a light of heaven. The prick of sparkling light entwined his feminine fingers, and with a short, shallow farewell, he touched the Lady with the slightest of ease. The light of heaven burned her, scalding her, deadening her like no hotness she'd ever encountered. Thus, in one feather-like touch, she died.
The body disintegrated into a pile of ashes, very much like the one produced by their campfire from before. But all frivolity was lost. While their adversary was destroyed, a companion had been destroyed also. Tira wept while holding her sister's form. Chocolate was dead.
Marron descended lightly, the whisper of the forest wind blowing his hair serenely behind him. His body looked worn and expired, as if each second of life was a struggle for him. But Marron said nothing. Instead, he went over to the spot where Tira lay holding her dead sister. Chocolate's form lay loosely on the ground, her eyes forever closed, her body dense with death. Tira could not feel her tears now, the river that had suddenly become normal. How she wished she hadn't been alive, how she wished Marron would live..
Marron put a finger to his lips, quietly. He reached his arms out for her, and embraced Tira warmly. Tira was surprised, but in a fearful way, she returned the embrace. She listened for his heart beating against hers, but all she could hear was her own, pulsing in a fated rhythm. He had no pulse; never again. She lowered her eyes, seeing his pure white chest that never rose to breathe. He held her in that embrace and she wanted to keep it there.
All things end, however, and that perfect touch had to end as well. Marron slowly released Tira, and picked Chocolate up, and kneeled in front of her. The other Hunters watched in anticipation.
"What's he.." Gateau started, but Carrot quieted him with a kick.
Marron began to pray. He prayed to something the others did not know of, or understand, and his words were inaudible, peaceful words against the moonlight. It was all very solemn, and Tira thought for a moment Marron was giving Chocolate a funeral prayer, the way people do for one who is deceased. But her thoughts changed as soon as Marron's bare body began glowing with a lemon-colored light.
"What the hell?" Carrot whispered, his eyes wavering with fear.
Marron stayed still, paying no attention to anyone except Chocolate, who lay in front of where he knelt. Suddenly a bright yellow orb disengaged itself from deep within Marron, and it floated before Chocolate, warming her, healing her. Amazingly, her eyelids fluttered. Tira didn't dare to breathe.
"Ma," she whispered, her eyes half closed, "Marron." It was a brutal fight for her to speak, and Marron shook his head, and smiled.
Then he fell.
"Marron!" Gateau was the first to go to his side, followed by Tira, and Carrot. Marron lay in a crumpled heap, his entire body a crude gray color. He suffered a tiny spasm, then looked up at the three of them; his mouth curled in a small smile that promised them everything would be all right.
"Minna," he whispered through parched lips, "I want you to know that I love," he choked, "That I love you." His blue eyes faded to lavender. "I'm so sorry I have to leave you."
"Don't say shit like that!" Carrot bent, picking up his brother's disheveled form and forcing him to a sitting position in his arms. "Marron, you're going to get better, you know that." Marron just smiled up at him.
"Niisan."
"And, and, we'll go to each others' weddings, right? I can see it now, Marron. We'll have beautiful wives, and every now and then we can trade off, right?" Tears damped Carrot's face, but they were the borders of an open, sad smile. "I love you Marron." Tira and Gateau watched, feeling like strangers.
Marron looked up into his Niisan's eyes, looking for something hidden there, perhaps. His light blue eyes shone with love and purity, and he kept a tiny smile on his face. Carrot watched him, watched as Marron's face set as he continued to stare upward, finally past Carrot, peering into the very heavens in which he just then ascended.