Screaming Sky

[A short story about his loss]

One

The thin ribbon of smoke curled lifelessly in the stale air as the glowing tip of the cigarette faded quietly, as if it simply lost interest in burning. The ash crumbled into the stub filled ashtray, long since abandoned by its owner, who lay motionless on the bed. The air was dead, the heat suffocating, and the combination oppressive. But none of this apparently bothered Soubi.

He lay supine and motionless because it would require such an immense effort to move. Everything required so much effort these days, from blinking to breathing. The sheer task of living was fatiguing.

So in that case, he didn't want to live.

And he could make it happen so very easily. His training gave him the self-control to have no limits; killing himself would be no harder than crushing a butterfly, both equally unresisting to death.

Yet it would be wrong.

Soubi never held any moral concepts about suicide, but it would be wrong to kill himself, because he should already be dead.

But he wasn't.

And so he returns to exactly where he started.

But where exactly was that? Was it the day his parents left him alone in a world that knew no kindness, or perhaps the day he was given like a particularly valuable tool, to the black haired youth who didn't have a trace of humanity in his eyes? Or maybe it was three days ago when the two messages on his answering machined systematically disassembled his world and let the sky fall screaming around his ears?

He didn't know nor care. He knew he was disregarding all of his training, bit by bit, but it didn't matter if there wasn't someone to make use of it. What would Ritsu say, if he saw Soubi now, abandoned and crushed? Probably something snide.

Two

He tried to clear his mind of everything except those slow, shallow breaths, each exhalation becoming a sigh of relief that it was one breath closer to his last.

Suddenly, someone was in the room, his voice filling the stagnant air. The words were strangely muted as if he were underwater.

"Sou-chan, what is this?"

Warm hands were pulling at his body, hauling him up as a wave of nausea hit him as he fought to keep the bile down. His glasses were shoved hastily on his face, as Kio's face came into focus, staring at him in concern.

"Sou-chan, I've been calling you for the last three days…" Kio frowned, looking at the shell of his friend. Soubi's eyes, normally severe, but bright, were simply tired this morning. This puzzled Kio, because weakness was unheard of from Soubi. Soubi had no weak points, no vulnerabilities except for the existence of the person he existed for.

"Did you pull three consecutive all nighters or something?" Kio said with a nervous smile, though he could see it wasn't as simple as that.

Soubi tried to speak, lips moving silently. He coughed, tongue running over his dry lips. "Kio. Leave" he croaked, voice hoarse from disuse.

"What? No way, you look half dead, and if I leave the other half is going to catch up soon enough." Kio said, fingers running through his hair as he thought about what to do next. He bustled around the apartment in that busy, but unobtrusive way, going over to check the messages on the overturned answering machine before Soubi realized what he was doing a second too late.

"O-ow, Sou-chan what was that for?" Kio exclaimed as Soubi knocked him out of the way, clutching the answering machine to his chest, swaying as the clipped, mechanical voice rang out.

I We regret to inform you that Aoyagi Seimei was found dead in an elementary school at 12:21 AM-/I

The message was abruptly cut off as Soubi fumbled with the buttons, eyes wide in panic as the rest of the message rang inside his head..

I… at a private elementary school, the corpse was burnt beyond recognition, requiring dental records for identification, but confirmed to be Aoyagi's body. This notice is courtesy of the Septimal Moon…./I

It was jarring to listen to that message first and then the next one before shock set in, Seimei's articulate voice speaking to him through the slight static of the phone.

"Soubi. When you get this, I will be dead. It was the Septimal Moon. All my orders are still in effect…"

"…You know what to do next," Soubi murmured.

And that was all.

After the shock had properly set in, Soubi wished he could have the benefit of denial, but after the message played he immediately checked the connection, his life line, trying where it left his body and would meet Seimei's, before realizing it ended abruptly, tangling around itself. How could he have not noticed this?

That's when he realized that he shouldn't even be alive. The bond of Fighter and Sacrifice, held sacrosanct by both parties, was now sullied by his life. First, not noticing his Sacrifice had died was the highest crime, but the fact he lived on was the greatest shame.

Three

"Soubi, are you all right?" Kio voice cut through the hazy memories, jerking him back to the present. The present where Seimei was dead and he no longer had a master.

"Fine. I'm fine Kio, just go home," he said gruffly, dropping the answering machine on the floor and collapsing heavily on his bed.

"I can't leave you like this!" Kio shouted indignantly, trying to lift the other out of the bed, fear worming its way into his very bones. He knew that expression, the vacant eyes, the slack jaw, and also knew that his friend was fading fast. "Soubi, you have to hold on. Just because that bast- that guy is dead doesn't mean it's the end of everything-"

"Kio. Please be quiet. I want to rest-" Soubi began before Kio cut him off abruptly.

"You don't want to rest, you want to die."

Soubi focused on Kio for a moment. He had underestimated Kio, but now he realized that the guy who followed him around day to day was a lot sharper than he seemed.

"That's not true," Soubi said, though the words held no conviction. His mind had already given up three days ago; his body only had to follow.

"Soubi, if that guy actually cared about you, he wouldn't want you to die," Kio was blabbering now, saying anything to keep his attention. Personally, he didn't believe that Seimei cared for anyone or anything, that cold-hearted bastard. "You don't have to obey his every whim, what he wanted doesn't matter anymore," he insisted, eyes widening in surprise as Soubi blinked, his words having the opposite effect on him.

"What Seimei wanted me to do… of course, that's it!" Soubi murmured, as he got up unsteadily, lost in his own world again.

Those enigmatic orders he had readily accepted came back to him.

"If I ever were to die, you will become Ritsuka's."

Soubi had only seen the boy from afar, but knew how much Seimei treasured him. Beyond his own fighter, Seimei cared for the boy in such a way Soubi just couldn't even begin to comprehend.

But now Seimei was dead. And Soubi was Ritsuka's fighter. The raw scars on his neck burned as the name flashed in his mind: Loveless.

A new master. Soubi wondered dimly what Ritsuka was like; if he'd be fair or cruel, or even accept him as his fighter. And then he wondered if Ritsuka even knew about this world. After all, if Ritsuka was his new master, he would have called him by now.

Fear and adrenaline got him out of the apartment and Kio's grasp. He slowed his pace as he approached the gates of the elementary school, hand curling gratefully around the cigarette carton in his pocket. He needed something to keep him going after not eating for the past three days, but at least he had a purpose to go on now.

A light breeze carried away the gray streak of smoke, spiraling into the open sky as he dropped the burning stub, turning to the gate as the school bell chimed.