Chapter Text
Plop. Plop.
The smell of blood stirred Chifuyu into consciousness.
The dripping sound had all but faded behind the ringing in his ears. Tired, exhausted, he lifted his aching arms, only to find he couldn’t. Metal dug on his wrists and as he struggled to free them, he realized his feet were also bound.
Where am I? His vision was hazy and the dark room wasn’t helping at all. He had to rely on his other senses but his ears weren’t working properly and the sharp, tangy smell of burning chemical didn’t ring a bell in his head.
The metal bed he was on felt cold on his bare skin. This registered one thing—that he was bound naked to the metal bed with metal chains.
How did I get here? The last thing he remembered was seeing Hanma in his room, telling him a certain father wants to see him. He refused him right away but soon realized he wasn’t really asking.
Maybe because of his drunkenness but his attempt at escape was just too embarrassingly sloppy. When he tried to run back inside, Hanma caught him easily when he faltered in his steps and fell on the floor. Hanma easily picked him and hoisted him up his shoulder as if he weighed nothing.
He screamed but unless Takemichi came back early, there was really no one else he expected to come to his rescue, except—Baji. Yes, he remembered calling out for his name until Hanma whispered some incorrigible words in his ear and he blacked out.
Plop. Plop.
As his eyes adjusted in the darkness and as the memory of his abduction faded into background, he could at least make out his surroundings. He was indeed in a metal bed, the same one used in operations which might suggest he was in the hospital.
Beside his bed to his left was a metal table where a pitcher and a glass of what he hoped was water sat. To his right, was a low metal stool with a tangle of IV lines with dark liquid flowing steadily through them. The line snaked up to his left arm which was heavily bandaged while the other end of the line disappeared somewhere beneath the bed.
Plop. Plop.
It only took a second before he put two in two together—the dark liquid, his grogginess, the bandages. They were draining out his blood.
A sense of dread washed over him and he moved his head to look down at his restrained arm when he felt a sharp, stinging pain on his neck. A gasp escaped his lips as he tugged on his arm but all it did was to rub his wrist raw against the metal cuff and exhaust him beyond belief.
“You’ll hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”
Somewhere in the room, a familiar voice spoke. Hanma? No, it lacked the singsong, crazed up quality of Hanma’s voice. If so… who was it?
He didn’t have to guess longer because somewhere in the dark room, the person switched on the lights and flooded the room with a painfully blindingly bright light. He closed his eyes at the burst of white light and blinked a couple of times for his vision to adjust.
When his eyes could focus albeit barely, he could finally make out the room he was in. It could barely called a room based on the bleak emptiness of it—perhaps, a cell would be more apt. The white padded walls and the bright overhead lights made him feel like he was in an asylum.
“Rise and shine.” The voice said again and he roamed his eyes to see where it was coming from when he saw the figure standing a few feet from his bed right away. He didn’t recognize the man anyway, so he squinted his eyes for a clearer view and gasped when he finally saw and realized who it was.
Standing a few feet away from him was Kisaki Tetta smirking dubiously at him.
“K-Kisaki-san?” He croaked out, throat scratchy and painfully parched. He didn’t understand how or why the vet was here. Furthermore his familiar presence didn’t ease the growing fear in Chifuyu. He never felt safe around Kisaki which was why he had taken Peke J to another vet after consulting with him. As it turns out, his bad feeling about him was right afterall.
Kisaki’s eyes perked up and he gave him that shit eating grin that typically unnerves him, “Ah, you remember.” He seemed pleased, but that didn’t do Chifuyu any good as he started stepping in his direction.
Chifuyu inched his naked body which he realized was covered with a flimsy white blanket, away from him but it did nothing more than to shift and slip the blanket off of him ever so slightly.
“Shhh…” Kisaki hummed, putting a hand on his forehead as if to calm him, “It will all be alright. We just… wanted to take a taste...”
“Taste?” He murmured, tongue unconsciously touching his dry, cracked lips. “What do you m— aaagghh!!!” He screamed in pain. He wasn’t sure what Kisaki did, but he pushed a finger at the side of his neck where the sharp pain registered earlier and it felt like he was being electrocuted. He arched his back and tugged on his restraints, his feet trying to wriggle free but he found no purchase on the slippery metal bed.
“It’s nasty, isn’t it?” Kisaki released him and Chifuyu crashed back down, exhausted. He was trying to catch his breath but his chest hurt with every deep breath he took. He grinned down at Chifuyu, “You see, I didn’t want to believe it…” Kisaki raised his bloodied finger, and Chifuyu watched in horror as he licked off the red liquid from his hand.
“To think you’d be back in this state in this lifetime… Baji sure is lucky.” He hummed as if assessing the taste and nodding to himself, “I’m not surprised he came for you.”
Baji… how does he know Baji? “I don’t…” the loss of blood was making him lightheaded and he couldn’t think nor talk straight, “…understand.”
Kisaki raised a brow, “Oh? Don’t act all surprised now. I’m sure Baji told you about his dear old father .”
Father? What is he talking about? The more Kisaki talked, the more he got confused. Chifuyu didn’t know what face he was making but it amused Kisaki to no end, his lips pulled into the ugliest, most sinister smile, “What’s this? He didn’t tell you anything, did he?”
When he said nothing, Kisaki let out a cackle that sent shivers down his spine, “My dear boy. He really has the weakest heart of all my creations.” He shook his head fondly, “The most beautiful, for sure. But his downfall had always been his… love for humans.”
He turned to Chifuyu with a smile and his blue eyes gleaming. Chifuyu just stared hard at him—shocked at how human he looked and at how much he despised humans.
That’s when he noticed something eerily unusual. Hanma called him father , he licked the blood off of his fingers, he was in the company of vampires… but he has no fangs. How?
Kisaki noticed him staring and swiped his tongue across the upper row of his teeth as if to show off, “What? You’re wondering why I have no fangs?” He chuckled but there was no humor in it, “Well, I’m not one of them, if that’s your question. Maybe it’s also why Baji never respected me as his maker.”
Baji’s maker? Kisaki is Baji’s maker? Is that why Hanma called him ‘father’? Is he… did he…
“Did you… create all of… them?” He stuttered.
Kisaki blinked at him passively then choked out a laughter, “Oh, no, no. I wished I did… but my father, that’s my maker, he’s the one who made me into this.”
Chifuyu watched as Kisaki’s face transformed. His blue eyes became an ugly sickly yellow, his teeth elongated, pushing his lips back in a nasty, vicious snarl. Unlike Baji who looked mysteriously beautiful whenever he brandished his fangs, even Hanma does—but Kisaki was simply terrifying.
A monster. Chifuyu wanted to avert his gaze, but fear had paralyzed him. He laid there, helpless and motionless at his fangs, until Kisaki retracted and returned to his usual face.
“What? Did that scare you?” Kisaki wasn’t really asking. The leer in his voice was so obvious, “I’m just showing what Baji would become in another few years.”
“…what—“ Chifuyu couldn’t believe what he was saying. The thought of Baji turning into a frightening monster didn’t make sense to him. He tried to think about the man—his perfect, mysterious beauty turning vile and sinister…
“You see, that’s what happens when we have lived long enough. We become less and less human.” Chifuyu didn’t fully understand but just the sheer thought of it frightens him.
“That is not necessarily a bad thing, you see.” Kisaki continued on, not really waiting for a response from him, rather an audience, “For our survival, it’s better to stop becoming what we once were. Human emotions—happiness, sadness, guilt, regret, they simply have no space for them
in our world. It takes a couple of centuries, but we will soon shed all those that make us humans.”
Chifuyu stared at him hard. A monster. Baji will become a monster? “That’s not… true.” Where he got the courage to answer back, he didn’t know, but Kisaki raised an amused brow at him, “Baji-san… he won’t become like you.”
Kisaki studied him for a long time, his gaze piercing his very core. He expected him to lash out, perhaps kill him. But he gave one of those wickedly amusing cackles, “Of course. Baji wouldn’t be like us… not if he’s got you.” He hummed, letting his eyes roam down to his body reminding him of his helpless nakedness. He leaned down and took a sniff of his hair, “You smell so good…”
Chifuyu closed his eyes, creeped out by their proximity. He tried to forget about him and tried to imagine something else… but the only thing he could think of was Baji. Baji. If only Baji was here…
He felt Kisaki’s cold breath skim his face. Felt him licking his lips in anticipation. He felt so much of a powerless prey under Kisaki’s prying eyes. He held off a whimper that attempted to escape him— no, the least he could do is die with dignity. He wouldn’t beg or cry for death even if it meant suffering an agonizing one.
He wondered how he would do it: rip into his neck where he had punctured or bit him? Dig his claws into his bowels? Break his neck quickly? Or he could just drain him until he bled to death. He braced himself for whatever cruel way he would and then—
“Don’t you think that’s enough, Kisaki?”
At the sound of someone else’s voice, Chifuyu’s eyes flew open. His desperate heart clung to hope as he tried to figure out if the voice belonged to Baji or he was just imagining it.
“Oh, you’re back.” Kisaki exclaimed, turning to the open door where the voice came from. Chifuyu followed his gaze hoping—expecting to see Baji but he saw the one person he had seen in his dream before.
The one who suggested killing him. The one who gave him the apathetic bordering on angry stare— Kazutora. He remembered he was Baji’s friend so he might… no , Hanma was also with him in his dream. Hanma was also one of Baji’s ‘friends’ but he was the one who took him.
He had to remind himself about what Kisaki said—how living too long makes them less and less human. He wondered if they even were capable of being friends.
“Did you find him?” Kisaki asked and Chifuyu instantly knew they were talking about Baji. He hung on to every word Kazutora said.
“No.” Kazutora said, not even looking at him, “He seemed to be in hiding.”
“In hiding? What for?” Kisaki mused but Kazutora simply shrugged. He, instead turned to Chifuyu, face as impassive as ever, “Why’d you keeping him alive?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” He gestured at Chifuyu who was becoming more and more light headed by the minute from the bloodloss, “He’s pure. Hard to come across by at this time.”
Pure. Whatever he meant by that rubbed Kazutora the wrong way as his face transformed into a bitter expression of disdain. Chifuyu expected him to say something, but Kazutora merely came towards him and looked down at his face, still mum.
“Doesn’t he look a lot like him? The first time I saw him, I was shocked.”
Kazutora grabbed one side of the metal bed and leaned over to look at him. He was still so woozy so Kazutora had to grab his hand and squeeze it tight. Something sliced into Chifuyu’s palm, a claw perhaps, which made him yelp. He mulled over his response before he said in a small but sharp voice, “No.”
This made Kisaki laugh to himself, the sound echoing in the room. He patted Kazutora good-naturedly but he saw the boy flinch away from his touch. Chifuyu wondered mildly if Kisaki wasn’t only despised by him but as it turns out, even his kind. Somehow that thought made him glad.
“Your jealousy will be your downfall.” Kisaki commented, “How many times should I tell you Baji is incapable of love, only obsession.”
Chifuyu’s brows furrowed for many things—one, that Kisaki, the vile creature that he is, would even suggest that Baji knew nothing else but obsession. Second, was the implication that Kazutora actually loved him.
But he held his tongue because he knew better than to engage them. No—not in his helpless state. Kazutora had already turned away, “I’m going.”
“Where will you go? Still going to look for him?” Kisaki quipped but Kazutora ignored him. At the far end of the room, he saw Kazutora pull onto something—a latch at the far side of the wall and a hissing sound followed before an outline of a door appeared on the padded wall. He pushed against it and let himself out, the door closing and sealing behind him.
He tore his eyes away before Kisaki could see him looking. He looked down at his hand where Kazutora sliced him and saw the open wound, blood already flowing slowly out—but he saw something else. He realized it wasn’t a nail that cut him open… a sharp, jagged piece of metal.
It took a moment for it to register… but when he realized what it was, he did his best to slide it under his thigh right where the flimsy blanket started. He moved as swiftly as possible which was good because when Kisaki turned back, he immediately attended to his wounded hand, “What a mess he did.” He said, examining his hand, “That boy really needs to move on from Baji. We both know Baji would never…” he paused then gave Chifuyu a quizzical look.
For a moment, Chifuyu thought he had seen the key beneath his quivering thigh… but when he shook his head and smiled, he heaved a sigh of relief, “I’m rambling again, am I?” He didn’t wait for a response, he took Chifuyu’s hand, and tugged on it until the chains rattled and the metal dug painfully to his skin. Chifuyu gritted his teeth—and took a sharp breath when the man licked on the blood, “Such a waste…”
His tongue was a crimson red and his skin crawled when he felt it touch him. He waited for the inevitable, for Kisaki to bite into him and suck his blood dry—but instead, he felt him pat his hair, “Let me patch you up and you can rest.”
He couldn’t believe what he just said. In fact, only until Kisaki bandaged his hand and rearranged the blanket to cover his body did he acknowledge this shift. When Kisaki announced that he’d be back to deal with some wayward children and he’d check on him in a while, Chifuyu wanted nothing else than to be cloaked in the darkness.
When he heard the door seal after Kisaki, he wiggled his body so he could slip out the key under him. It took a bit of a struggle but he eventually held it precariously between his fingers.
It was already hard to slip the key into his cuffs with his hands bound, even more with it bandaged. This didn’t stop him, however, and he put his mind into it. As he twisted his hand and tried to insert it in the keyhole of the cuff, he wondered what inspired Kazutora to actually help him escape.
Or is he?
His hand paused when he realized Kazutora might have hated him enough to actually set up a trap for him. One when Kisaki would not show him mercy and just kill him instantly— but wouldn’t that be mercy? Maybe Kazutora's doing this because he wanted Baji.
He tried to think about what Kisaki said and how Kazutora acted around him. It was definitely possible that he was really in love with Baji and would want to get rid of him because… because why? Baji wasn’t in love with him. He was only seeing Fuyumi in him and that wasn’t love. If anything, that was just misplaced affection.
The thought of Baji distracted him enough for the key to slip off his fingers. He tried to get it again and he would… only to drop it again a few minutes after of tugging and twisting his hands. He wasn’t getting anywhere and was just becoming more and more exhausted and frustrated.
When the key slipped again for probably the hundredth time, it dropped from the bed and clattered on the floor—at the same time, there was a hissing sound that came from the far end of the room and his heart immediately dropped when the outline of the door appeared.
He knew right away that it was a trap. That Kazutora planned everything—give him hope for escape and when he grabbed the opportunity, have Kisaki walk in on him red-handed. How much lenience would Kisaki give him by then?
The shadow of the man stood against the light that spilled from the other side of the door. He was exhausted, woozy and hopeless—he didn’t even try to pretend. He was sure, he was under surveillance anyway and from the very beginning, escape was futile. He hung his head to one side and spoke, “Go ahead. Just kill me.”
He was ready to resign himself to a long painful death when he heard a deep voice come from the door. “Matsuno Chifuyu.”
The deep voice made his heart race, made him open his eyes and turn his head so quick, it made him dizzy. He still couldn’t see him properly in the dark but the golden eyes and that domineering presence was something he was familiar with.
His eyes adjusted slowly as the man approached in careful steps. It felt like he was seeing an apparition inside a dream as he wove through the dark. And when he stood in front of him, looking down at his bed, Chifuyu could finally see him.
Baji-san? His heart yearned for him desperately… except for the second time that night, it wasn’t Baji who was there for him. Kazutora stood there stone-faced as he took in his current state. He turned to look at the unlocked cuffs and sighed in disappointment as if he was being useless.
Without saying a word, he grabbed onto his cuffs and in one movement, the metal broke into two and dropped on the floor. He did the rest of his restraints while Chifuyu watched in amazement, too tired and weak to do or say anything else.
He pulled the IV line free from where they were attached to him and he winced slightly at the sensation of the needle being pulled quickly out of him. Before he could bleed to death, Kazutora took a roll of bandage on the metal table beside his bed to patch him up. He moved with speed and efficiency and when he finished, he shrugged off his jacket and placed it over his naked body.
“Let’s go.” With little to no care at all, he hoisted Chifuyu up in his wobbly legs. “Where are you…” He protested initially but figured he wasn’t in any place to do so—because apart from being hopelessly dazed and so out of it, he really had nowhere else to go. Kazutora didn’t even spare him a glance, what more an explanation as he led him out the room.
He instinctively held onto Kazutora who definitely wasn’t glad to be held but Chifuyu had no choice. Kazutora quickly pulled a lab gown and coat from somewhere under his coat to dress him up. It was two sizes too big but it was infinitely better than staying naked.
He was going in and out of consciousness as they traversed the surprisingly empty hallway. Chifuyu wondered if this was another part of Kazutora’s plan to have him killed, but resigned to the fact that if it were, he had no way of resisting.
He was way too tired and too weak to do anything except cling unto Kazutora and stumble his way forward. He struggled breathing as every inhale felt like a stab in his lungs but he did it anyway. His legs were heavy and his steps were clumsy but they managed to reach what looked like a door.
Their movement was the only thing that kept his already unsteady knees from giving out and now that they stopped, they instantly buckled and he fell to the floor. He looked up at Kazutora, lids heavy with exhaustion and blood loss. In between ragged breaths, he was able to ask—“Where… where are you taking me?”
Kazutora finally gave him a look that was different from indifference but not any better. It was a mix of anger and disgust, “How can he like someone as pathetic as you?” The question wasn’t for him even though he was the only person there. Good, he didn’t want to answer anyway.
He pressed his head to the cold concrete of the wall and sighed in relief. This small reprieve was a blessing and it made him incredibly sleepy. When Kazutora nudged him awake, he groaned in protest. Why can’t he just let me stay here and sleep?
“Do you want to die?!” He demanded in an angry whisper. “No…” Chifuyu answered in a slurred voice. But he made no attempt to move.
“You’ll die here!” Kazutora hissed, sounding angrier but his voice had become distant. Chifuyu closed his eyes, so tired. In his delirious state, he could hear Fuyumi’s laughter somewhere—a sweet, warm sound that filled him with happiness.
‘Do you love me?’
Baji looked at him, in shock and surprise. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. Love was such a foreign thing for the two of them—so strange, it shouldn’t even exist. He lived under the sun and Baji under the moon. Their worlds could barely coexist, and yet… and yet…
‘I think I do.’ Baji had said.
Then there was a kiss. Not an accident, not a part of a ritual or a spell, but a real one. One that crossed boundaries, shattered traditions and destroyed lives. A terrible, dangerous kiss that in the moment built a universe. In blood and in soul—they were bound.
“I promised Baji I’d get you out of here!” Kazutora screamed, finally losing patience. At the mention of his name, Chifuyu blinked open.
There was no mistaking it—Kazutora could care less about him. He soon realized why he was doing this. As Kisaki said, he was in love with Baji. But something still didn’t add up—if he was indeed in love with Baji, doesn’t Chifuyu’s existence stop his chances at being with Baji?
“Why? Why are you… helping me?” He asked softly, “Don’t you hate me?”
Kazutora looked ready to kill him, annoyed at him for asking something at such an inopportune time, but he soon realized they wouldn’t get a move on with him being uncooperative.
“I do.” Kazutora said, “I don’t just hate you… I think your existence brings nothing but chaos.”
Chifuyu winced.
“But…” Kazutora smirked, and he seemed to look younger than he really was, “I hate Kisaki more.”
—
Baji was becoming more and more restless by the minute. He was regretting his decision to listen to Kazutora and stay in his hideout as he rescued Chifuyu. He wanted to be the one to do it, but Kazutora reasoned that his presence would just make things worse.
He paced back and forth in the small worn-down almost empty apartment in downtown Shibuya which Kazutora uses whenever he needed to stay away from Kisaki and the rest of them. It wasn’t surprising as Kazutora never really trusted any of them.
It only had a bed, a television and a built-in kitchen which came with the apartment. Its emptiness was a blessing as it gave him ample space to walk about. And walk he did.
The silence and cluelessness was killing him. He wanted to smash something just to get the edge off… another bonus that the apartment was empty—there was nothing to smash.
When Kazutora told him what Kisaki was doing… he really wasn’t that surprised. Only Kisaki would think of luring humans with sick or dying animals in tow.
Drinking animal blood to survive wasn’t so unusual to do. Nobody would start asking questions when animals start dying—let alone sick animals and even if they did, they’d usually shrug it off to natural causes. But in this modern world, people had begun considering their pets as family so their kind had to improvise.
Trust Kisaki to find a systematic way of having a sustainable albeit twisted way of collecting blood which was probably the best way to do it in this day and age.
Of course, Kazutora did tell him about the occasional homeless person whom they would lure into the lab with a promise of hot meals and a place to stay… or just pick from the streets. Human blood would be rationed out to them, given as a form of reward or bribe for them to do his bidding.
Because all of them knew that though animal blood could help them survive, they need human blood for power. Human blood was the source of blood magic and Kisaki was monopolizing it. It was all twisted how Kisaki controlled them—twisted, and effective.
He let his mind wander to their conversation a few days ago.
“Kisaki? What did he want—“
“You know what he wants. You would have known when you met him.”
Kazutora was right, Baji knew all along why Kisaki would have wanted to take Chifuyu… the same reason why he wanted to take Fuyumi in the past.
His pure blood.
There were only few families… and even then, few people who possessed blood with such pure power it could be wielded into weapons. People like Fuyumi and Chifuyu. They were so rare, many believed they were extinct or didn’t exist at all.
What were the odds that Fuyumi’s past lifetimes didn’t give him this blood and only in this lifetime did he possess the blood that is powerful enough to sustain a vampire for years?
He knew this the moment he took that first bite. He knew this and yet he didn’t keep his distance. How Kisaki found out, he wasn’t sure since one had to be in close contact with another to take a whiff of that sweet pure blood. It was too late now—and it was all his fault.
“What are you going to do about it?” Kazutora asked.
Letting him die would be better. But if it was Kisaki, he knew that his death wouldn’t be as quick and as peaceful as he would have hoped. Also…
Could he really just stand by and let him die? It wasn’t like the other times when he was merely a silent observer. Chifuyu was… different. He wasn’t just a version of Fuyumi, but he was his own person. Like his soul wasn’t brought back, but reborn.
“Why are you telling me?” Baji asked quizzically, “You hate Fuyumi and all his other versions. Why do you care about Chifuyu?”
An emotion akin to pain crossed his face, but only for a second which made him wonder if he was just imagining it.
“Kisaki is a bastard.” Kazutora shrugged nonchalantly, “He should have not turned me… or us.”
It was true for Kazutora. Unlike him, the guy lived a comfortable life as a child. The only reason he was turned was nothing more than an unfortunate accident. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Wasn’t that how they always came to be? Kisaki picking them off at their most vulnerable? He was manipulative that way—always pushing you at the very edge of despair and would come swooping down to save you. That was what he did with him… with Kazutora… with Hanma… with Fuyumi.
The thought of Fuyumi brought him back to the present. Chifuyu… would Kisaki do the same to him? The thought of Chifuyu becoming like him scared him, even more than with Fuyumi. Because unlike him, Chifuyu would get the curse unwillingly. Another victim of Kisaki’s games.
He looked outside the only window on one side of the apartment, it was almost daybreak. Kazutora was at late and he never was. His heart clenched thinking something must have gone wrong. Did Kisaki suspect something? Kazutora had always been a loyal character… Kisaki knew this, but he had always been loyal to Baji.
Did he somehow got wind of their plan and stopped it? Are they somewhere in Kisaki’s lair experiencing unimaginable torture? He knew Kazutora would survive it, maybe Kisaki would even give him mercy since he had been a formidable and very useful ally all throughout. But, Chifuyu...
His only reprieve was Chifuyu’s pure blood. Knowing Kisaki, he wouldn’t pollute his pure blood with their poison nor would he kill him off as it would cut his supply. Instead, he would let him live… harvesting his blood like livestock. He didn’t know what was worse.
He couldn’t live knowing he was the cause of his suffering. Or that he stood idly by as he was sentenced to this awful fate.
Without another thought, Baji found himself leaping out the window and into the night. He was done waiting. He would come and save him himself.
—
Kazutora was half dragging, half carrying him on his back as they walked along the alleyways away from the building. Climbing the steps up from the basement laboratory had taken a toll on him. It had zapped away what remained of his strength and he struggled to stay awake.
They were in a nearly empty street he barely recognized because of the closed and abandoned looking shops and buildings that flanked both sides of the road.
Kazutora was speaking to him—whether it was to encourage or scold him into moving, he didn’t know. What was he so angry about anyway?
One look at the sky above them answered his query. It was still relatively dark but a hint of indigo had mixed in with the pitch black of the night sky.
Daybreak has begun.
Now he understood the urgency of which Kazutora moved. If his place was still far from here, they’d be out in the streets when morning came. That was a good thing for him… might even be better as it would mean Kazutora couldn’t get to him and more people would be out in the streets to help him out.
That could not be said with Kazutora, however, as exposure to the sun meant death.
But their pace couldn’t go faster because of him and he had long since let go of the idea that Kazutora was out to kill him so he simply couldn’t let him endanger himself for him.
“Wait.” His hoarse voice was carried out by the wind and echoed in the empty alley they were walking at. Kazutora stopped and spared him a glance. He swallowed hard, except there was no moisture even from his own drool to smoothen his parched throat. He tried to speak again, “You… should go.”
Kazutora didn’t feign innocence on why he was saying this. He studied him hard, as if trying to decide if he was serious or just delirious. He was a little bit of both.
“You’d die out here.” Kazutora warned, not really saying yes but not saying no either.
“Maybe,” Chifuyu shrugged, then pointed at the sky, “But the sun is coming and…”
Kazutora clenched his jaw, as if debating what to do. Chifuyu didn’t wait, however. He shoved Kazutora away, but with his weak body, the man barely budged.
“Go.” He croaked, throat painful, “You need to leave, quickly.”
Kazutora remained motionless but he could see the wheels turning from the way he stood and the way he regarded him. And then he shook his head and clicked his tongue in annoyance, “What is it with your kind and your lack of self preservation?”
Your kind? The disdain in his voice was palpable and he took offense. He opened his mouth to retaliate when a voice cut him off.
“Seems to be an addiction.”
His eyes widened as he turned to the source of the voice. Heart pounding and adrenaline rushing through his veins, he almost cried out when he saw who it was.
It had been two weeks since they last saw each other and the man barely changed since then. He was still wearing that white shirt, that peacoat, his long hair flowing in the wind, his eyes gray and stormy, his lips pulled in a small yet uneasy smile showing off his fangs.
He looked the same, but Chifuyu felt different.
“Chifuyu.” Baji called him in that deep, moving voice and like a moth to a flame, he was drawn to him. Without meaning to, he started to move. His knees felt like jelly, his feet like lead… but he began to scale the few feet that stood between them, hands swinging in front of him both for balance and to reach out to him.
“B-Baji-san.” He called out his name over and over until his throat ached, “Baji-san…”
Relief, happiness—all these emotions kept him going. Seeing him there, knowing he was risking even his safety by being out here at the brink of dawn, was enough to propel him forward.
He came for me.
The happiness wasn’t Fuyumi’s. No— all these raw, unadulterated emotions were his and his alone.
He was a few steps away from him when something caught his eye. A yellow glint in one of the closed shops in the alley. From afar it looked like nothing more but some animal scurrying away—but one hard look and he saw a pair of sickly yellow eyes and a shadow darting from one darkened shop to another.
It took a moment to realize what was happening. He hadn’t had the chance to scream when a clawed hand ripped through Baji’s stomach and Baji’s face went slack before he coughed up blood.
Chifuyu froze and watched as Kisaki’s face appeared smirking behind Baji.
“BAJI-SAN!!!”
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