GARO Fanfic – Exiled’s return, 5

Chapter 5: “D” day


Kouga knows he is not at his best moment, although he tries hard to hide it. He should be training, but instead he sits on the grass in the front of his house, his nacked sword left at his side. His mind, far away, is focusing on a beautiful face that smiled and cursed at him indifferently. Zaruba no longer warns him, finally convinced that the young man needs a mourning time to heal his heart.

Often thoughts of death invade him. Kill or be killed, does it mind? Both of them would provide some relief. But he can not do anything. The last few nights, he has seen himself twice doing reckless maneuvers in his struggle against horrors, which Zaruba criticized harshly.

Also he planned to go against Rei, for revenge at least. He has even thought forcing Kaoru back, but he knows this would only attract his perdition. They are idle thoughts, he repeated bitterly to himself, but he can not help it. He is unbalanced, the center of his life has changed abruptly. Should he ask for the transfer and live far away?

He should not have been open to love. Never.

It takes a while to him to realize that someone is watching from nearby.

“What are you doing here?" He puts apart his sight from Kaoru. No enthusiasm, no surprise in his voice.

“How are you?”.

There is no kindness in her question. Better so, Kouga thinks.

“Do you care?”.

“Sure, you and I have been through a lot of things together”.

Her words still are not agree with the casual tone of her voice.

“It's true” he answers.

“Then, you don’t mind, right?”

She has come to stand beside him, but Kouga does not even look at her.

“Go away”.

“You’re as attentive as ever”.

Far from following his command, Kaoru sits beside him and goes on talking.

“You’re the best to put excitement into a woman’s heart, have no one said it to you?" Receiving no answer, she goes on. “I’d have done it long ago. You got into my life beyond words and, on top of that, you thought you’re doing well. I had a lot of patience. But, as now I'm free, I won’t keep remembering. I never wanted to hurt you, so I didn’t say anything. Even now I don’t want to, but my mind peace requires to put the record straight”.

Kouga’s frozen heart trembles by that ruthless tone and by those words, knowing that the torture has just begun. But he remains still, as he can not help it.

“Kouga, why didn’t leave me when I was stained by horror’s blood? Or, why didn’t you kill me? Did you know how much we’d have saved?”

“I told you I'd never regret. But apparently you do”.

Her short laugh cracks his inner ice. He rubs his face with one hand. She speaks again.

“Not exactly, but I was trying to convince myself that, at least, you deserved the compassion of one person, after all you had good intentions. Until your arms turned into a prison. Every kiss by you, in a emotional blackmail. And your wish to protect me became, excuses to keep me helpless as a child. Did you know that your love could be so much destructive?”

At last, he looks at her. Is she insane? Why does she say these things? Really could he unintentionally harmed her? He does not know if he succeeds in concealing his collapse. No effort to Kaoru by him has served the faintest, if what she says is true. Her words have tranformed the most sacred of his love into a masquerade. He drops his head slightly forward, gripped by a burnout he did not think to exist. His shoulders follow and eventually lays on the grass, staring at the sky without seeing it.

“You’ve told me what you wanted". Barely a whisper exits his throat “Now, leave”.

He is not surprised she does not move. On the contrary, she half lays beside him, and feels her hand stroking his hair. He does not have strength enough to reject it.

“In fact”, Kaoru adds, with a sticky sweetness “I’ve come to say goodbye. Think about it as a toast for the good moments we’re leaving behind”. She leans over and kisses his forehead. “Because of my innocence, I wanted to believe that I loved you”. Kiss at his nose. “Because you defended my dreams as fiercely as defended me”. On the corner of his mouth. “Because I want to thank you, even your clumsy way you loved me”. On his lips.

He does neither resist nor react. Only when his mouth opens and she invades it, an answer is provoked, though devoid of any affection -the wound is too deep- but wholly passionate, the only one allowed by his broken heart. His limbs suround her, and lets himself to be drived by his pain.

He just realizes that he pulls off some clothes of hers, or bitting her neck. He does not suspect anything when he can not lie her on the grass to put up. Nor when her lips get again attached to his, and seem to feel an unusual touch. And does not hear when Záruba cries to defend himself. His soul is going up his chest. Up and up. More voices screaming. Kaoru's lips continue draining his soul, which flies to hers, that's where it belongs. He feels the abandonment. Something is missing, something important.

The weight is removed from over him. The unmistakable sound of a sword slashing horror meat. An inhuman scream. "What’s up?" Kouga coughs violently for breath.

That on his mouth are not Kaoru's lips. It was like an airhole and was choking him, how he did not not realize? That thing get off easily, and he see Rei fighting Kaoru ... or not. Only a half of that thing is Kaoru. The other half ... a gray being with a confusing bulging round eye, a large and leathery wing, and something very long from its head, which wants to catch  him, and with black blood dripping from its end.

“What happens to Kaoru?” He shouts to his busy colleague.

“It's a horror”.

“So you're already tired of her”.

“Are you blind?”

Black blood, like a horror. ‘Kaoru’ loses her human form quickly, releasing some screams hindering its fight with the unarmored Silver Knight. So, what happened to Kaoru? Stunned, Kouga talks to Zaruba in a not good mood.

“Why haven’t you warned me?”

“I did. But you were too ‘busy’”.

Kouga snorts with impatience. He gets ready to help Rei, who is beginning to grief because, having lost all human form, the horror is fighting a lot better. Realizing it was going to have to deal with two Makai Knights, the being from another world chooses a tactical retreat, and flies. Rei throws a sword to it, without a success.

“Damn!", the younger knight moans.

“Zaruba, where is it?” The owner of the garden asks.

“Come on!" the tinny metal head replies, happy that, at last, he can feel the horror.

The speaking ring leads both knights for a swift succession of streets, until they see their prey disappear through a portal into the world of darkness.

“Zaruba” Kouga protest, “when did this gateway appear?”

“The last night. But don’t throw the anger at me. I didn’t want to take more trips than necessary. When you leave aside such suicide temptations, we’re going to do things right again”.

“Suicide temptations?” Rei looks ready to burst out laughing, but he thinks better as seeing the dangerous face of his colleague. But Rei is just Rei. “You really were willing to let you kill while you made it with that thing?”

"While I was what?”

Rei laughs, but Kouga still is looking very serious.

“All this amuses you very much, I see”.

“Come on, guy, you're missing some worldly culture, that's all”.

“Is this the sort of relationship you have with me: to watch me until you sees the first opportunity to stab me in the back?”

“What?”

But Rei is not slow to realize what his colleage is talking about.

“I ... I really thought she had left you ...”

Blow and groan. Kouga's fist was thrown against his stomach with all the force of his rage. Rei did not dodge. Neither he wanted to avoid it.