I Can Hear Your Soul

In all his time training, he hadn't realised they had eyes in lower notches, too.

All thoughts fled as a sword threatened to skewer him right below the core, and he leapt back, metal crunching and shrieking under his elbow. Oh hell.

Shooting back, skidding straight out of the crumbling entrance, he barely flew ahead of that sword, its edge cutting just past his helmet. And in the brighter light he could see the familiar shape of its armour.

Damn. "Found Hirano!"

"Raido's here too," Drake reported.

"I can see Samurai," Ariake snapped. "It's the enemy team, they're searching for us. Twelve and seven must be down."

"Disengage and keep going!" He formed his little shield, doing his best to bat away Hirano's attacks as he ran. No bolts. Didn't want to attract attention. "Ariake?"

"What?" The lad snapped, his tone oddly sharp.

He blinked, forced to duck around the edge of another crumbling building and clipping its edge. The sword sliced right through, debris raining on him. "Keep an eye out. We don't know where Umiko or Tenne are."

"I— Hai."

A bolt punched the space between them just as Hirano moved to lunge, and they turned to see pinpricks of light rising on the horizon, shooting closer. They'd been spotted.

They both chose to run, a spatter of cursing coming over the radio as his team scattered.

"Buronnewan." Hirano's voice cut through the night, and Lachlan turned to see him sprinting alongside. "I would like to propose a truce."

He did a double-take. "What?"

"Neither of us will make it on our own. That was the other teams' mistake." Those faint eyes locked on his. "If either of us want to win, we have to work together."

"I don't know. Four on eight doesn't sound too bad." He threw another glance back, skidding around an office building and releasing the megaphone button. "Hirano's proposing an alliance."

"Are you going to take it?" Eden didn't sound approving at all.

Ariake grunted. "Even if we draw they'll still win. He's still ahead."

"Might be worth playing along for a bit. These fellas took out the other teams, after all." He activated the external speaker again. "Can't say not having to watch both ways doesn't sound appealing, though. I'll take you up on that."

"Good." He could almost hear the smirk. "Then let's go."

"What about when we reach the target?" Drake asked as they ran from industrial complex to urban zone, dodging ahead of bolts under the shadow of a disused highway, raggedy highrises stretching towards it, some tilting oddly. "We'll still have to fight for it."

"It's a game of chicken." He skidded through a garage, throwing a glance up at the rapidly-approaching stars, a flickering wink heralding a shot just missing his foot. No point staying in notch-one since they'd been spotted. He kicked it up to four, not quite hitting five yet. "Whoever pulls out the knife at the right moment gets the prize. Just a matter of timing."

"How'll we know?"

"We won't. Just have to throw the dice and pray to lady luck."

"That's a terrible strategy," Eden sniffed.

"I'd call it skilled gambling. Every strategy uses it somewhere." A wave of dark, glittering objects shot from another, closer Samurai. Oh hell, are those shards? "Incoming!"

Spinning, he threw the left briefly up to seven, cracking a shot dead-centre and forcing it to dodge, shooting out of his line of sight. The shards still rained down around him, Drake cursing from just ahead. One of them cracked against his own shoulder. Damn.

A bright blur shot straight for Drake, and he snapped his rifle up—

Just as Hirano's golden Samurai leapt in its way, sword flashing up. And cracking. Damn, how high were these people notched?

"Dammit, I'm about to save Hirano, of all people." He threw the throttles forward, firing a shot it shrugged off, gritting his teeth. "Don't make me regret this, Goudon!"

He tackled the other Samurai straight in the bright wings, just as a wave of shards buzzed out.

And he choked on a jagged breath, runes searing into his skin next to knives cracking between his armour. Dammit dammit— Ki fizzled out as he lunged back, fighting to swipe them off, ghostly fur flickering, a jagged knife digging down his spine.

Shit. He slammed the throttles to six, fighting to keep his Samurai from shattering as he launched himself into a dizzying twist, leaping and whirling, lips peeling back from his teeth. He caught a shard in midair and crunched it to dust. Smacking others away with a shield, he snapped out his rifle, aiming straight into the lunging Samurai. Like stars streaking through the darkness of space, and a burning core turning to face him—

A sword flashed through the darkness.

It was red.

He felt it crack against the armour above his core, flinging him back, and he crashed straight onto a white floor, the bright sun beaming around the ghostly furred ears of a lion, its eyes glowing vivid gold.

Its teeth around his throat.

No dammit—! He kicked out, barely twisting away from a bladed wing slashing at his head, and snarled, throwing a burning ball of light into its face. The smell of burning flesh choked him even as he rolled up onto his feet, the tips of his fingers throbbing, damaged nerves screaming.

Too many edges tried to corner him. He launched back and up, the stars spinning around him. A burning light tugged at his soul and flew straight for him. Hauled him bodily towards it, blotting out the sky. Couldn't pull away.

Just like the sun, it threw him back down.

He crashed to the ground , glitters floating up off his burned arms, blood bubbling on his lips as he choked, unable to breathe. Could only see sightless, dull eyes on faces he couldn't recognise, a burned and broken corpse, a golden-haired figure, a little girl with a toddler in her arms.

The floor wasn't white, it was red. It'd never been white.

Swords and cold eyes blurred in and out against the dull sky. A sword descended from the heavens, on the edge of a jagged hole in the ground, the target barely a block away.

No. Not like this.

"I have him!"

Another Samurai with horns slammed it out of the sky, both of them crashing into the road.

"Drake!" He scraped through to reality by his fingernails, fighting to breathe and scrambling back, stumbling onto his feet as a wicked pair of swords glanced off a glowing helm.

Spined dragon wings blocked bladed feathers. "Go after dog-boy. Get the target."

No, not yet. He stumbled forward, pushing the throttles to seven, locking a ragged grunt behind his clenched teeth as cracks shored up and reality loosened, levelling his rifle—

Only to immediately have a hole punched in his shoulder from a shot out of nowhere, flinging him off the highway. He snarled before he could choke it off, spinning midair and firing a burning bullet straight into the sniper's head.

"Buronnewan!" Hirano swooped in next to him as he hit the cracked road, Umiko and Tenne with him, Ariake and Eden not far behind. "We need to hurry."

"Drake—"

A roar nearly deafened him, and he sensed more than saw wicked shards swarm the dragon, cracking into his armour, a pair of swords flashing forward to skewer him.

A hand caught his arm, and he snarled, kicking Hirano back. But there wasn't a hope in hell he could get there in time. The Samurai shattered, Drake cutting off.

Lachlan growled a curse and ran. "He's down."

"Dammit," Ariake hissed back as he dashed in next to him. "It's too close. We're almost there, dammit."

"I know." He pulled his throttles down to ease the buzz grating at his too-sharp teeth. It didn't help much.

"Roku." Something in Ariake's voice caught his ear. "Is there... am I hallucinating, or did that Samurai have wings?"

"The one that just took down Drake using Ki shards?" He ducked down through the empty parking level of an apartment building, barely avoiding more of those damn shards.

The lad hissed, the sound choked. "Damn. We're screwed."

"Don't give up on me now." He popped out and shot a Samurai swooping down on the hawk-obake, feeling vicious satisfaction at the spurting glimmer. "We'll make it. Fight or die."

"What if we can't?" The lad rasped.

Maybe he wasn't the only one having trouble with Spirit-state. He could see the sinkhole just ahead, and they dove into it with wolves' teeth on their heels.

"Kaijan's ours. Come on, chin up." Was that a white building? He leapt down into the rubble, phantom rain in the corners of his eyes—

"Roku! It's— shards—!"

Lachlan whirled, throwing the throttles to 8-7, Ki boiling in his veins. Like hell were they getting them one step from victory. His sights burned directly just above the heart, shards flying for his face.

"Why do you want to go to Kaijan?"

A jagged breath hitched in his throat, shot twitching off-target through the Samurai's shoulder. "What?"

Barely twisting aside, he swept the shards away with a shield, cracking them into the pit's side and gritting his teeth as he dodged the storm of blades, team Hirano launching in. "Ariake— What the hell— d'you mean?"

"What?" Two confused voices snapped back.

He leapt back from Hirano and Umiko tag-teaming the winged-one, a flicker of wide eyes flashing through his vision. Dammit. Hallucinations. "Nothing."

"Onii-san...." Phantom hands tugged at his arm, pouting as he pulled out a pair of pistols and shattered another round of shards, dashing across the crumbling void, past slumped corpses, flickers and flashes all around him. "Don't you want to stay?"

A glow grew on the horizon, the sun forming in the hands of a figure hovering in the sky, like the dawn turning the street to blood, houses burned and reduced to piles of rubble. The throat of an onikaiju glowing red-hot.

Just had to get there.

"Onii-san!" A little girl stumbled as she reached after him, eyes filled with tears reflecting the fire in the sky. "Wait!"

"We're here. I'm taking out Hirano."

"Wait—"

A white building lay at the deepest part of the hole, down in a dark pit—bones at the bottom of a grave. Hirano's oblivious Samurai turned to clash with a sword aimed for Ariake, just as the sun glowed in Eden's hand, a burning beam aimed at faceless people. And Lachlan stood by. Had to be done.

"O-Onii-chan?"

Tenne's Samurai shattered, Hirano shoving away just as Eden's shout rang in his ear.

"What are you doing?"

A sword dripping blood glittered in his mind's eye. Ice crept through his veins.

"Ariake!"

He looked over to see a hawk's blade stabbing Eden straight through above the core.

Shattered glitters cracked against the ground.

"Ariake." He could barely hear himself. "What— what the hell did you do?"

"I— I—"

"Ariake—" he stumbled back from a sniper's shot, his trembling hands gripping throttles until they creaked "—Ariake!"

"I— I'm sorry."

Even Hirano turned as the winged-Samurai pulled back, his narrowed eyes cutting across the distance. The hawk faced him, his voice echoing over the ruins. "I... I accept your offer, Umiko. I'll take your place."

No. The glitter hallucinations must've just kicked things up another notch. He couldn't.... He couldn't seriously— "Ariake."

"I'm deeply sorry, Roku-san." His voice was too rough for a hallucination.

The frayed threads in him unravelled, spooling out between his fingers, too fast to catch, a glowing light pinning him as he knelt in the rubble of a broken house. He didn't have the strength to move.

The light turned to look at something beyond him. He turned with it, unable to stop himself. Trailing from his feet, past the hazy earth painted across the sky and the blood-soaked train station far below, a shadow stretched down to shifting waves.

From their depths, a glinting pair of eyes blinked, a bony frame slinking out. Ribs jutted from its pelt, hungry fangs dripping saliva, whimpering like the people dying far below.

He stepped back, his feet stumbling on nothing, not fast enough to avoid its lunge.

It slammed into him.

Again, he crashed back, falling into a body with teeth that weren't his, tearing the throat out of a masked figure with a blinding bolt as they swooped overhead, only for two other Samurai to hold them back. The rain soaked him through as he held siblings that weren't his, diluting the blood seeping from their stiffening bodies.

Sun and sea vanished beneath storm clouds.

His hands trembled. Distantly, someone fought to breathe, the sound rasping in his ears. The air stank like death.

Dammit he couldn't tell anymore. What the hell was real here? He stood at the edge of a void, a half-intact white building shining at the bottom like gleaming bones. Just a step away.

He turned and levelled a pistol at the frozen hawk-Samurai, the other on Hirano as he hovered there. A stand-off at the edge of a distant fight, dripping fangs hanging above his head, burning in his veins. "We could've gotten to Kaijan."

He didn't recognise his own voice past others crying for him to stay. His Samurai's hand tightened, and he bared his teeth. "We could've made it. Why? Why the hell would you turn on us?"

"Because Goudon-san's going to win," Ariake rasped. "We tried. You know you can't beat him."

The desire to clamp his teeth around the teen's throat slammed into him, nearly turning his stomach over, and he jerked the muzzle up, his trigger-finger burning, sights locked on Ariake's core. Ki hummed through his teeth as he pushed the throttles to 9-7. "You never wanted to be in this team. You were always looking for an excuse."

"I—"

"Buronnewan," Hirano cut in, his voice echoing. "If you shoot his core now, he will die."

Bile touched the back of his tongue. "I know what I'm doing."

"Then you should know that I am your target. Not him."

His fingers tightened. He could hear Ariake's rapid breathing in his ear, his Samurai frozen, its runes flickering. He was just a kid.

He'd killed someone just like him before. He could do it again.

The wolf snarled, eager to taste blood, two fluttering heartbeats pounding in his ears, wide eyes looking up at him. "Onii-chan?"

His fangs dripped red.

"Just make it stop," a young voice begged, sobbing. It sounded like a little boy, speaking Angaelic.

His breath hitched, and he clenched his teeth, finger tightening on the trigger.

He could. He could make it stop. But he'd had a reason for doing this.

"Why? Can't you stay?" Wide brown eyes looked up at him, freckled and not, a little braid in black hair, her chin resting on little Tobi-James's head. "Onii-chan...."

No, he had a reason for doing this.

Throttles trembled under his hands, runes burning bright as he set his sights on that core, on the teen inside it. All or nothing. No regrets. No looking back. Don't look, Lockie. Runes flickered.

"Roku." He sounded like he couldn't breathe. That made two of them. "Please."

Was... was it really worth this?

Distantly, two Samurai shattered, going dark, and a jagged breath caught somewhere between his throat and his lungs. He stared into Aiko's wide eyes, Tobira in her arms, her lip trembling. They didn't smile anymore. He couldn't feel the sun on his skin.

He squeezed his eyes shut, jerking the pistol away.

What the hell is wrong with you?

All Ariake had done was listen to his own demons. He'd really be a monster if he listened to his own and shot him in cold blood. Kaijan... wasn't worth this. Not this.

He could taste blood on his teeth, his fangs lodged in Aiko's throat, in the throat of his mother, and he clenched his eyelids tighter, snarling at the wolf standing with its ears pricked, looking down on him with its head tilted as if to ask him why he didn't pull the trigger. I didn't do any of that. Damn you. No matter what he was, no matter what he wanted, he'd never hurt them.

And I won't now.

A Samurai burned from the heavens, shards glinting, and he lifted his head, opening his eyes with a shuddering sigh. "Dammitall. I'm sorry."

He turned, meeting Hirano's glowing eyes, and dismissed his weapons, a bitter taste on his tongue. "Take your victory, Hirano. Go change the world."

He shot up and lifted his hands, sweeping a canopy of Ki across the sky. Gazing up through a burning shield of light as Hirano bowed and dropped into the pit, he cracked a humourless half-smile. "We can call this a draw."

The akuma's aura snuffed out just as the canopy shattered, a blade stabbing him neatly above the core. His world snapped down to a dark cockpit, the lights flickering out, and the shadow drew quietly away.

He exhaled, and closed his eyes with a wan little smile.