Chapter Text
She had walked away.
That thing had almost stabbed her, had wrecked everything around them. Hurt them. And yet, as Mystery stepped in between… she faltered.
So easily could she have struck that rotten armless wench; the ice she had invoked had torn off her disgusting limbs, a huge pair of scissors forgotten at her feet. Just one swing of bat, its unnatural blue flow so easy to grasp, even if she did not understand it fully...
Mystery had given her a pleading look, a desperate glance. And she did not strike. She gave that thing her back.
Something that she would soon regret.
The kitsune’s ears twitched, his whole body tensed. There had been a sickening sound, as soon as they tried to step away. Where there had been nothing but a tearing layer of ice… now two limbs had regrown. There was fast dash behind him. He heard, and he saw.
Vivi did too. Her blue eyes glinted as she saw that shadow jump over him, scissors swinging once more. For a fast stab, to let that blood flow; those bloodthirsty eyes were again fixated on him, furious.
And so, she tried to step closer, bat swinging once more.
However… he saw too. He heard the scissors behind him; he saw her try to step in between, once more.
His tails moved.
Vivi gasped, for her way was blocked. She had no chance to shield him. He did not let her. The tails dashed, and he stood firm, pushing her away from her attempt.
He needed to, as his heart would have broken if those scissors had managed to strike her down.
Red came out once more, but with no regret. The kitsune panted, holding Shiromori’s weapon in between his fangs, pushing as much as he could. And once more, he feared while those eyes pierced him with raw jealousy and anger.
And while Vivi stood from the ground, came again another rip. Her blue eyes unfocused as those claws slammed the huge shears down once more, managing to force him to kneel; his breath huffed out as his eyes clouded.
And those red thirty eyes, even if haunted for a moment, filled with glee. She had him at her feet, his side struck, bleeding, but not lethally. His heart had not been stricken, the blood would flow for her whims, life still kept in his unconscious body. It would flow… later.
Vivi shivered, and Mystery could do nothing, nothing but lay on the ground as that thing neared her once more, his eyes and body too tired to open or stand.
She met those red eyes, in a slowed moment… those limbs she had broken moved again.
A ghost had been trying to recover; he had been untangling the huge vines that had come onto him, past his fire. A mechanic had just stumbled back from behind a van, where he had dragged one he had feared to leave in the open.
Both shivered as blood poured. The two grimaced, seeing those shears slice maliciously Vivi's side.
Not a deep cut, just a first resentful attempt at making her pay, slowly.
Vivi coughed blood and crawled back, one eye closed as Shiromori gave her the most disgusting of grins, telling her how much she would enjoy ripping her apart limb by limb. And she… could do nothing as the shears moved again, for her bat had rolled away with Mystery’s desperate push.
So she just stared up at the sharp edges, her blue eyes clouded with the faint white blur ahead, her friend immobile, hurt; while she did nothing but crumble. She was not strong enough.
The scissors attempted to stab her shoulder… but they didn’t.
Shiromori blinked, with the same expression she had when a ghost burst out of the locket from where she had invoked that red flower. For that same ghost, who had punched her head off once, was now growling deeply as he held up her weapon.
Again… something stood in between.
Vivi panted, frozen, watching as the tall ghost huffed and threw a punch. A hit he missed, as Shiromori had learned to react from that time.
Her blue eyes stared at the fire that rose around that ghost, who somehow seemed enraged, suddenly adamant to be in between, all his previous intentions forgotten.
This ghost-
“L-lewis!”
The call had not been hers. She was not the one to scream in horror when the shears struck fiercely. She shivered when the word left Arthur’s mouth, as he stepped closer, his eyes open in horror.
Both watched as the ghost heaved, a deep hole through his chest.
A deep gap. Big, even if without blood. Sharp edges pierced through, strongly, aided by gravity. That skull flickered for a moment, just a moment, in which the ghost faltered and stepped off from that thing, clasping with a hand what could only be an old wound, where a locket had floated not too long ago.
Where a heart was-
She watched him kneel, her blue eyes open wide. The same horror of that night. Arthur’s word pounding, striking deeper than any sight she could have seen between spikes.
Lewis.
Arthur did not have time to think of how Vivi held her side, coughing again some blood. He could not think of rushing to her. His eyes did not look into the horrified magenta tonality in her irises, her recollection.
Not when he felt horror himself, albeit with less clarity and remembrance. He only knew one thing… Lewis was kneeling, open for a strike that was coming down at him.
Vivi froze, as once more, those shears cut. But not a ghostly body, even if still an old wound.
Lewis let out what would have been a raspy breath, if it did not come out with the most bewildered and ghostly of echoes.
He felt a hand on his back, once more, pushing him.
His magenta eyes widened, as he saw something metallic halt the fast slice that had been meant for his skull. It did not stop the motion completely, no; but it did prevent it from piercing, again.
Arthur cried out, sparks shooting out wildly as the shears pushed through his metallic arm, which he had raised up in front of Lewis in a blind dash. It had not cut all the way, like his real limb had been torn, but the force was indeed slowly dividing the metal, enough for cables to fall out wildly like blood had done once.
The ghost kneeled there, his sockets wide as the blond quivered, his right hand letting go of his back as the shears swung sideways.
With one quick heave, they pushed against the pierced metal, ignoring any sparks and resistance. Lewis shivered as Arthur was hauled to a side, that limb finally letting out a loud click, not cut all through, but unlatched. The prosthetic came off with the force of the push, as he hit the ground a few feet away.
In a truck, a heart pulsed a little, a picture slightly becoming a little more clear… but still dim.
Lewis stood, his haunted eyes falling onto Arthur as the blond panted, his eyes shooting back at him too. Both could not stare at each other for long however, for they shivered as a loud snarl echoed.
They could only flinch, Shiromori lunging once again, intending on finishing them both, desperate to pay attention to the one that really mattered, the only one whose blood she wished to smell and reach, without hindrance.
Arthur and Lewis braced themselves, ready for those scissors to fall onto any of the two again.
But they weren't pierced, not again.
A ghost gasped and a mechanic heaved… for something dashed past them. A blue flow. And yet… twisted in another color. Too many, too contrasting.
If they had not been focused on shielding… they would have paid mind to what were they protecting. They had not been able to look back at the blue eyes that had fallen on them, full of dread, of fear.
It was not only blue anymore, not as a wild stream of colors loomed past them, a rush of air that struck both, sending them tumbling indifferently, even though it had been meant to shield them too, at first.
Both let out a raspy breath, which one did not even need, as they saw a bat move, all on its own, tangling with a sickening green on it. In a second, it had slammed forward, barely missing the ghost, as it sunk on Shiromori’s side, hard enough to rip.
A heart pulsed past that green flesh… but not for long. Instead of being flung away, it was shattered, the force impossibly strong, unnatural.
Shiromori’s eyes widened, while she basked in the blue… the yellow, the violet, the red… colors that seemed to pulse out from those cold calculative eyes. As she withered in pieces, she did not have time to glance back at the one she had tried to keep for herself. A kitsune did not move an inch to acknowledge her falling, the scissors finally escaping her trembling claw, one last time.
She hit the ground with a thud… nothing more than a scorched carcass.
Arthur and Lewis tried to stand. They forgot completely about the glances they had exchanged. They could not dare look away and acknowledge what had happened in an illusory cave. Their eyes stared wide at the bright stream of colors in front of them, the figure dressed in them, flowing as much as a blue scarf tainted in red.
Vivi turned… and they shivered. Her eyes pierced them, a sick smile on her. Three eyes, one seemingly tearing the glasses she loved, making them shatter as her figure twisted.
Her voice echoed, sweetly, like they knew it to be.
“I’m glad to see clearly.” She showed her fangs in her grin, her black claws pulsing and growing as she raised her bat again, pointing it… towards them. “One last time.”
Her heart had broken, easily grasped by what had made her blind.