Hello there! And welcome to my little story. I just find RentarouxEnju (I call it Renju, hur hur) to be very cute; I have no idea why there aren't more fics out there about them!

Anyway, this story over all is going to be pretty lighthearted, however this chapter and probably the next are going to be a bit of a killjoy. XD

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :D

Chapter 1: Fate

In that moment he questioned everything he had ever held true. It wasn't fast, like he'd expected it to be. He expected the day when Enju's levels hit dangerous levels, her body unable to process the Gastrea DNA she had running through her veins, to be a day of quick devastation. He'd prepared himself for it, telling himself over and over that it was inevitable; no matter how much he wanted to think it wasn't, it was, but what he hadn't expected was for it to be so slow and so excruciating.

It wasn't quick. She hadn't begun to change during a battle, like he'd expected. Instead, he watched as her percentages slowly ticked higher and higher, her body immobile and in a hospital bed. 49.8%... 49.9%... 50.0%

The computer beeped a high-pitched sound that shot right to his heart. It was slow, excruciatingly so. What would happen now? He felt as all of the gazes in the room turned to him, as if asking in silent question who was to do it. Who would put an end to the beautiful little girl who was his partner?

That was when he questioned everything. What made it fair? What was the world's excuse for having such horrible and unfair demises come to these girls? His girl? Why? What had they ever done? They had not asked for a fate like this; they had not asked to be born a mixture of two races deemed as enemies. It was unfair. Rentarou didn't see any other way to look at it, and he found himself wondering why such a cruel and selfish world existed.

"Rentarou...-"

"No." His chest was heaving, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He didn't want to hear that inevitable question of who should do it. Not even from Kisara. She couldn't understand this.

"No?" Kisara reached toward him, her fingertips brushing the back of his hand. He recoiled, snarling quietly and backing away from the table that held that computer whose numbers continued to ever so slowly climb. 50.1%... 50.2%...

"No," he repeated, clenching his teeth. He didn't want to hear it. "No."

He could see the conflict in her eyes as she tried to give him a smile. "I know you don't want to... but you know we have... to."

"No." He wasn't sure what he planned on doing, he knew it was inevitable. He wouldn't do it himself, that was for sure, but he somehow couldn't stand the thought of anyone else performing the act either.

Kisara again forced a smile onto her face. "Rentarou, we have to, you know that. Enju was a special person, we were all close to her-"

"Was," he snapped. "Were. Stop talking like it's already over!" he shouted. He'd never yelled at Kisara like that before, never even dreamed of it. Everything hurt, his entire body hurt and he didn't know why. He felt like his conflicting interests and feelings were literally tearing him apart from the inside out.

Kisara's expression turned grim, her mouth turning down into a frown, her eyes holding the deepest of sympathies. He watched her closely, his chest still heaving as his lungs burned painfully. She stared at him, her eyes searching him with an intensity that made him want to break. It was then that he could see her mind was made up, not to be swayed. Her eyes steeled and her hand went to her waist, grasping onto the sword that always resided there.

"I'm sorry Rentarou," she said, her voice strained before she shot off in a near-blur, bursting through the doors and into Enju's room.

Everything always moved slowly for Rentarou, thanks to the damned mechanical orb where his eye used to be, but it'd never moved as slow as it did in that moment. He watched her, everything barely moving as she approached Enju's bed, unsheathing her sword, her jaw set in determination. It was hard for her too.

The, "No!" that flew from his mouth didn't feel like his own. He knew he'd meant it, the soul-crushing fear of losing his little girl surging through his veins as an otherworldly force pushed him after Kisara, desperately grasping at walls as he tried to get to Enju's bed in the quickest fashion he could manage.

It all moved unbearably slow as he watched her raise her sword, steeling herself further. He lunged, his hands outstretched and praying that he'd make it in time. It moved all-too slowly as he hit her bed, scrambling onto the sheets and pulling himself over the girl who had helped him so many countless times.

In the final moments he could barely hear Kisara's curse as she tried to avert her blade's path, away from the boy sprawled on top of his partner, shielding her from whatever harm he could, even though the thing that was the most harmful had already taken ahold of her.

The only thing that passed through his mind was the most intense relief he'd ever felt. He'd made it in time, Enju's demise had been stopped, if only temporarily, by him. He'd done it. That was when he felt the impact, and everything went black.

0=0=0=0=0=0

"That was quite the display."

Rentarou's eyes snapped open, taking in a sharp breath of surprise. He didn't see the white sheets of Enju's hospital bedding, nor did he see the red lock of her hair that'd gotten caught under his face when he'd dove on top of her. It was all black, everything.

His eyes flew open wider, his head whipping around in panic, trying to catch some glimpse of anything in his state of pitch blackness. There was nothing, nothing around him, only a one-dimensional black that dulled everything.

"Enju," he whispered to himself, still frantically searching for something to grasp onto to pull him back to reality.

"Ahm." Rentarou jumped slightly, startled by the intrusion. "Ah, there we go," the voice tutted. "Satomi Rentarou, am I correct?"

His wasted efforts to find anything in the sprawling darkness were halted. He stilled for a moment, craning his neck to look upwards in the suffocating abyss, toward the voice. "Who's there?" he asked, partially curious and unnerved, partially frantic to find his way out and back to reality, to Enju. If he wasn't there, they would kill her and there was no way for him to stop it. He had to find his way out.

"Mm, you needn't search, boy. You're not in some place you can get out of."

"What?" Rentarou snapped, his hands clenching into fists. He could get out, he could always get out of any situation he was faced with; he could get out of this.

The voice sighed. "You just don't get it. You got hit by that sword you know, trying to protect your Initiator. There's not really any place to go to, Satomi."

His breath hitched in his throat. Kisara hadn't been able to stop her sword in time? With her reflexes he must've really cut it close, diving in truly at the last second. He was relieved, yes, but still deathly worried for Enju's ultimate fate.

"Even at a time like this, you're worried about her." The voice tsked to itself. "Tell me, Satomi. If you could, would you reverse what happened? Would you choose to spare Enju the fate of being one of the Cursed Children? No, not just that, but would you choose to keep her from hitting the point of no return? Would you choose to keep her Gastrea percentage down forever?"

"Yes, of course I would," Rentarou hissed. "What kind of question is that?!"

"Mm, interesting. What would you be willing to sacrifice for that?"

"Eh?" Rentarou breathed. The voice, even though he had no idea who or what it was, was asking questions that seemed glaringly obvious to him. He was irritated almost, in a way, that he was in this odd situation. If he was dead, shouldn't he be no more? If he was alive, he wouldn't be here. He finally deducted he must be in some sort of purgatory. "A-Anything," he answered. He wasn't sure how one went about getting out of purgatory, but he figured maybe the first step would be to answer these questions being thrown his way. Maybe if he answered as quickly as he could, by some miracle he'd end up in the bright world again and he could set about making sure no one brought harm to his partner.

"Interesting," the voice seemed to chuckle. "Well then Satomi who is willing to give "anything" to save his Initiator's fate. Would you be willing to give your own life for her future?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitance. He couldn't imagine a fate more rewarding. He could give her the life that he'd always seen her fit to have. She was perfect, innocent, and caring. She deserved every single minute of a life; he was more than willing to give her his own minutes. He wanted to give Enju the world.

"Mm." Rentarou could hear a smile in the voice's speech. "Well then, I think we'll get along just fine." And that was when a new level of black set in, suffocating all of his senses and unwillingly lulling him into a unconscious state.

The 100 Prompts Up to 100 MCs Challenge- impunity- current word count: 1,555

So there it is! I hope you liked it. Mysterious voice, ooOOOooh. XD

I'm actually pretty excited for this story. Tee hee. If you could let me know what you thought I'd be extremely grateful; I always like to hear from fellow fans of a seemingly unpopular pairing.

~Foxtail-chan