Warriors Ten: Asencion
by Mire Ill'ra
CHAPTER 3 -> BRANDING IRON
“Then, well… you know what happened.” The tall, well tanned Human ran a hand through his spikey brown hair. The front was dyed a sickly yellow, but the darker brown was showing through at the roots.
Snickering, another student feigned a look of confusion “No, Dan. What did happen?” Half a dozen other humans voiced their question, prodding and bumping into the first.
The Human chuckled, then decided to answer anyway. “Well, she was drunk, and being the player that I am…” Dan trailed off, grinning and nudging his companions. Laughter and sarcastic applause spread to the passing students of Makato School. Then, abruptly, the joking died, drowned out by a strong silence. Staring down the entire circle was another Human, sneering at the “blonde” with disgust, void of pity or condescension, but with pure, unbridled, seemingly practiced disgust.
Sensing trouble, the nearby pagans left an unmistakable bubble around the group. A few were pushed into the gap by a light blue blur that shot through the crowd, but they recoiled instinctively. The ring opened to allow this intruder into their midst.
Gliding from the shadows, the Human stared through each boy in succession, as if trying to distunguish phantasms from realities. He himself hardly seemed substantial, his oversized glasses and loose, patched clothing appearred an ill-fitting shell for the flowing, ethereal seeming being that they unmistakeably identified.
“Itame. What a pleasant surprise.”
There was no response. Instead, the grim but unmenacing figure stared at the air, like a predator determining whether it’s quarry was worthy of the slaughter.
“Well, lenses? you should answer your superiors when they address you. “
Stopping, Jinru Itame glared at the speaker, and he shivered. “What’s the matter, superior? Getting a draft?”
Suddenly, the books Dan held his side dropped to the floor with a crackling thud. The veins in his hand pulsed blue, and as he brought it up to his face, black blood began oozing from under his fingernails. The blood thickened, and clotted almost instantly. The skin on the back of his hand whitened and cracked, opening new gashes for the blood to slick over.
“Wha-- What the hell are you doing to me?” Dan’s voice cracked as he watched a drop of thick blood fall and splash on the sterile white tile.
The grin that Itame returned was pure evil. “Whatever do you mean? I’m not capable of attacking you. You are superior, after all.”
The color drained from Dan’s face as the bleeding gradually stopped, and the white shades of dead and bloodless flesh in his hand turned a sickly blue-violet, thinning and shriveling as if rotting before the boy’s eyes. Where the wounds had been seconds before, puckered scars contorted and expanded with the rest of the hand, an unrecognizeable mass of warped, twisted bones and rotting, blackened skin.
“STOP IT!!”
The circle of Pagans clad in varsity jackets looked at Dan as if regarding a leper. The one closest to him spoke up. “Uh... Danny... the freak ain’t touching you.”
Dan raised the tattered remains of his hand for the others to see. “He’s freezing off my f---ing hand! Somebody STOP him!”
A human with blue-dyed hair stretched his arm out and hesitated for half an intsant before brushing Dan’s hand with two fingers, which recoiled instantly. “Dan... you should go down to the med bay and take a rest. your hand is fine... but I dunno about your head.”
The shivering boy held up his hand to examine it. He gently brought it up against his cheek, and, not feeling anything but the rough scratch of dry skin, stared at it in astonishment. The decomposed flesh restored to normal, he looked up only to catch a glimpse of brown hued coat-tails whipping around the corner.
<><><>
The smell of acids and blood choked the air in the second story mens’ room of Makato school. Jinru Itame’s vomiting paused as he took a wheezing breath. I gotta stop doing that. It’s so... so human. As he choked on his own blood, Itame leaned over the toilet again. But then again-- The boy’s train of thought was cut off by the crash of a door being thrown open into a wall.
Rythmic peals of automatic weaponery could now be heard in the distance, mixing with rapidly hightening shreiks of terror and shouts of angry opposition. The latter were quickly cut off. Itame’s eyes went wide as he strained to hold back another wave of nausea. He closed them for a moment, and then whipped around.
The brass-coloured hinges of the locked stall door splintered and the boy had to all but dive to avoid the sheet of centimeter-thick metal as it was thrown inwards. The toilet shattered loudly as the impact of the door cracked the porcelain into countless jagged fragments. Jinru cringed away from the spreading toilet water, and almost fell as he backed into the partition behind him. Holding his breath, the boy watched as the water approached his feet.
The man who had smashed the door open gagged as he watched the bloody stomach fluids spread in a web-like pattern through the flooring tile. His eyes followed the red pool as it spread towards the unseen sneakers which inched backwards and towards the doorway.
Please let this thing hold... The complete look of disinterest that were now in the red-clad man’s eyes showed that he indeed did not see Itame. Trying to hold back another vomiting fit, he concentrated on the man’s appearance.
He was in a full-body jumpsuit, which was a dark red-orange tone, except for a large white cross on the chest and smaller ones on the wrists and forehead. The man’s eyes and mouth were all that the suit revealed, giving him a sickly, greusome appearance. His teeth were bared between the smooth red-brown lips. Thier white, dull shine gave away his identity despite the suit. Human... wonderful. I won’t regret this as much... Lord forgive me.
The Red Cross soldier watched the bloody water spread with a grim fascination. Then, looking towards the opposite end of the crimson puddle, the man noticed a footprint, as if the blood was avoiding a foot which wasn’t there. Hoisting his rifle, eyes searching for an intruder, he had just enough time to scream before a pair of invisible hands snapped his red-clothed neck.
<><><>
Running with the other stampeding pagans, Jinru phased back into visibility. Nobody noticed, save for a few who were too frightened by the pursuing Red Cross gunmen to care. Clutching his ribs, the boy winced and gasped for breath. I could use a little help here...
“Itame!”
Turning his head, Jinru caught a glimpse of blood-red fur above the crowd, and slowed. “Keri, what’s going on?”
“The hell should i know? Where’s Mire?”
The human shivered. “Why would i know where he is?”
“He follows trouble, and it follows you. You haven’t seen him at all?”
“Sorry...”
For a second, Jinru’s eyes went wide. Grabbing Keri, he peeled off from the main crowd.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Getting us out alive.”
“What? what are you talking about?”
“It’s the cross... they’re deploying parties in the form of a cross. We’ll be safe long enough to get out if we stay clear of the two main hallways.”
“How the bloody hell do you know? And what about the others? What about Mire?”
“Mire’ll be fine. He’s always fine. And the others…” the boy swallowed diliberately, “the others are mostly human anyway. If they die it’s their own fault, and their own loss as well.”
The hekshanian’s eyes widened. “How can you be so cold to other creatures?”
Jinru dragged the pair to a halt. “What did you just say?”
Keri took a step back. “Just because they’re humans… it doesn’t mean they’re rulerists. You aren’t one.”
“I could care bloody less if they’re rulerists. Humans are a blight. They should be slaughtered like sheep… or at least act like them.”
“What… but you’re a human… why are you so angry?”
Regaining his composure, Jinru began walking towards a window at the end of the hallway.
“Itame? Itame what are you doing?”
The human picked up speed as he approached the window, black silhouette racing towards the portal.
Running to catch up, Keri shouted “Jinru?!”
Leaping into the air, the boy dove through the window. The tinkling crunch of breaking glass permeated the air as thousands of sparkling fragments outlined the pagan’s hoving form. For a moment, time was suspended, and the glass refracted the noon sunlight into a swirling rainbow on the otherwise white hallway. Then the glass settled, and the figure in the window was gone.
Sliding to a stop, Keri’s jaw dropped. “No…”
She slowly approached the portal, not quite believing what she had seen. “He couldn’t have--”
“Hurry up.” The boy’s head popped up from behind the window. “They’ll have heard the window breaking.”
Without another word, Keri climbed carefully out of the window and into the blindingly bright day.
