Chapter Text
Ichigo had to think fast. The creature was lunging relentlessly at her, at this point, it would hit its mark if she didn’t come up with a plan. Kisshu would come soon, so she would have teleportation at her disposal. She looked around, a couple balconies lined up the streets.
Could Ichigo run around to tire the thing out? Ichigo pouced towards one of the balconies but was cut short as the creature pulled on her leg. It was fast, it moved quickly, and it seemed to have some sort of intelligence, recognizing Ichigo as a stronger opponent or at least more dangerous than the middle-aged man.
The creature pulled Ichigo against the concrete floor, cracking it. A couple of blood droplets escaped her mouth. Ouch. As she hit the concrete, she moved fast placing her strength on the top of her back and pushing her legs up, kicking the thing in the jaw and lounging it up in the air.
Ichigo took the opportunity, regaining her footing, summoning her weapon, and aiming it up. The attack hit the creature… wait…
Kisshu acted quickly, he sat the men down, told Shu to go get Shirogane and teleported back.
When he was back, he was just in time to see Ichigo kick the beast in the chin sending it flying and taking out her weapon.
“And just like that it’s over” He whispered with a sigh. He followed the beam of pink light go up and hit the…. nothing, nothing was there.
The creature disappeared into thin air.
Ichigo looked at him puzzled. The air behind her waved a bit…waved…hold on-
“ICHIGO LOOK BEHIND YO-“
Ichigo jumped sideways just in time to avoid the creature’s claw from behind her. Ichigo took off running toward him. Their hands touched and Kish teleported them towards the nearest rooftop.
Ichigo was breathing heavily. She looked at Kisshu, eyes wide.
The realisations hit them. Pointy ears, teleportation…
“Kisshu the Chimera is-“
“One of mine.” Kisshu said solemnly.
It would be hypocritical from Kisshu to be horrified by this. He turned human souls into Chimeras too. This should not be frightening. Yet it was. Did humans figure out how to produce parasites? Seems unlikely, the only person having the finances necessary for such a development was the one and only Shirogane Ryou, who’s focus was to flee the city with as many humans as possible.
This left 2 possibilities open: a third party or… Deep Blue resorted to using their own.
Deep Blue brought out their population, to show them the grandeur of their conquest and to have the upper hand over the gradually more rebellious soldiers. Their people had no choice but to obey. Deep Blue, the master, the tyrant, the king, and the god, had an entire population on his hand. Was he turning his men into monsters?
Were they like the human chimeras with only the soul fused to the parasite? If so, would this mean that if they defeated this man, the soul would return to the body? Most likely the body isn’t anywhere near the site. Would they die?
“I have a plan.”
Kisshu looked at her, waking up from his trance.
“First off, this Kimera is a lot more aggressive then usual. It’s intelligent too, it recognizes opponents by strength, for sure the battle with a smart teleporting chimera will prove itself a hard one. Second, if I separate the beast, we risk the soul not returning to the body since I don’t believe the body is anywhere near the place.”
Kish flinched at that. Hypocrite.
“Kisshu, you can control Chimeras, right?”
“I can control Chimeras and parasites within my power’s abilities. So what?”
He didn’t intend to sound as aggressive and rash as he did. Her eyes widened for a second. She said nothing about it, scooted a bit further from Kish and continued. But Kisshu was too into his thoughts to mind that.
“I guess you never tried turning Mordax into Chimeras, however you guys seem a lot more human than one might think. I have two options. You control the Kimera into submission, and we keep it safe underground. Soon enough, there won’t be humans there anyways, so it will be safe. Or I divide it and we attempt something with Masha.”
“Masha?”
Ichigo looked deep in thought. “My little pink furball friend. He can’t be out and about; his battery got damaged and we have a hardtime charging him up for enough time.”
“But what CAN Masha?” Kish spat with sarcasm. Ichigo furrowed her brow like she was holding her tongue about something.
“Masha has the capability of eating and dilacerating the parasites. However, when we lost and the humans were dispersed, human chimeras were still a viable possibility for your people. So, this exact issue arose. We gave Masha de ability of keeping the parasite alive and to keep the soul near the parasite. The proximity tricked both components into thinking they were still one and kept the soul alive for a while until we found the body.”
Kisshu was surprised, he had no idea the humans had found a way to counter the human chimeras until now. They stopped being used because now the humans mostly huddled together in communes, being a lot harder to single people out. Some were still scattered but they went into hiding, the resources necessary to make them a viable option were a lot more and not worth it when they could hoard the animals in mass.
“So, what do we do?”
Ichigo was annoyed at Kisshu. He was being a dick about this. She could understand it was shocking for him to see his people turned to monsters. But guess who did that first? He was the reason many of hers died before finding a solution that didn’t even work 60% of the time since they could not find the body in time. They had 2-3 days to find the body before the soul died on its own. Many died this way.
Maybe Kish wasn’t directly responsible for these ones, but who was the one that started using humans for his atrocities. And now for him to mistreat her when she was trying to help him and be understanding rubbed her the wrong way. Arrogant f*cking bastard this guy was.
She jumped down in front of the creature. It locked on her instantly. He swung his fist, she ducked, swiping her leg, and tripping him. When he fell, she climbed onto it and pinned it to the ground, but not before he tried to grab her face and scratching her. She grabbed onto its hand and pinned it to the ground as well, feeling a droplet of blood running through her face and falling onto it.
“Kisshu quick! Before it teleports!”
Kisshu appeared in front of them, kneeling and gently placing his hand on the thing’s forehead. The creatures’ blank black eyes widened as a blue glow involved it, keeping still. Kisshu spoke gently, his golden eyes sparkling.
“Calm down. Obey my words.”
The creature jerked suddenly, turning its head to the side. Ichigo watched attentively; she never saw this part of the process before. Kisshu furrowed his brows, gently moving the face towards his again, looking in the creatures’ eyes.
“Easy now. Listen to me and be still.”
Kisshu looked like he was testing the waters with the Chimera and seeing how it would react. This time the Chimera didn’t move, the blue glow growing around it.
“There we go. That’s more like it. My name is Kisshu and you’ll obey me from now on.”
The chimeras’ eyes shone golden for a second. Right after they turned a deep purple jerking its hands out of Ichigos grasp, towards Kisshu. Out of surprise he didn’t react on time.
“KISSHU!”
She lunged upwards towards Kish, shoving him back. The creature got up in a cat like pose, imitating Ichigo’s own now. The creature got on its feet. Ichigo stayed down studying its movements, rounding the creature like a feline.
Ichigo moved first, pouncing on it. She laced her hands around the beasts’ neck, and bringing it’s face down, towards her knee. It connected, sending its head up again. She felt the creatures nose crack. She jumped, twirled, and kicked its head sending the Chimera flying. It teleported. A hand pushed her forward, as she looked behind to see Kisshu parring the thing with its Sais and landing an elbow in the head.
“Ichigo, I can do it! Pin it down again”.
“Are you sure Kish? We can use Masha”.
“Please trust me Ichigo, I was so close.”
“Fine then, get out of the way.”
“Wait wha-“
Kisshu stepped to the side in time to see Ichigo lunging her body against the Chimera, sending both against a wall. The beast clawed at her back; she grunted in pain.
“Quick, you idiot!” she said as she hugged the creature by its middle.
Kisshu rushed there, he splated his hand against the Chimera’s head.
His eyes shone brighter, bright gold with dilated pupils. He was in a bright blue and white space, the creature clearly confused about where it was. Kisshu just held his arm towards the Chimera.
“Yield.” He spoke calmly.
Kisshu was the best of the best. He was chosen due to his deep affinity to what his people called parasites. Parasites were creatures that inhabited his planet, to which the Mordax seemed to have an almost magical affinity, some even able to create parasites from thin air. They were iridescent blue and looked like they were made of liquid. His kind understood the creatures had properties that could be used to their advantage, they used the parasites to wield control over animals and plants to their protection.
Later they started bioengineering the things to do even more damage.
And Kisshu was a legend among his kind. No one was like him.
The white and blue space started shifting purple, just like last time. Kisshu narrowed his eyes. No, he would do it. More then endangering one of his own, it would be a hit to his pride to not be able to control a Chimera that was, clearly under his domain.
He could not control plants like Taruto, nor could he control elements like Pie could with thunder.
But creating parasites and controlling them was his playground. Kisshu is a genius. And he would keep his title.
He had no idea whose magic this purple sh*t was. But it was strong. Kisshu’s was gold. Taruto’s was green and Pies was deep red. The colours defined to what kind of magic they had affinity to. Kisshu never met anyone with purple magic.
He kept his arm up, his eyes stayed focused on the Chimera. It was just them both.
“I said…YIELD.” He said closing his hand.
The purple rays vanished. The space filled with golden clouds of sparkles. Kisshu lowered his arm. Kisshu was a king, his magic far superior and stronger to anyone that was ever born. No one, no one, would ever match him. And now his objective was to figure out who his competitor, this purple bitch, was. His magic was never denied like that. He never needed a second turn.
And he never would again.
He blinked his eyes into reality again. Ichigo looked back at him.
He smiled.
She exhaled deeply, letting herself fall on the floor sitting in front of the creature, that stood still, a dot of gold shining from within his eye sockets. He looked at Ichigo, a couple of darker shiny iridescent patches on her cape, and 3 scratches in the middle of her face that were already closed.
He let her get hurt, her blood was spilt again. Failure. Kisshu was a failure of a protector. He was supposed to be there to help her not be hurt again, but there she was, obviously hurt.
Not only that, but he was also mean to her. He mistreated her when he had no right to do so. He did this exact same thing to her people. She even planned accordingly to try and not kill this person.
He looked at her again, she was regaining her breath. He offered his hand to help her get up. She took it, although her eyes didn’t hold the usual warmth, they had developed towards him.
“Ichigo, look, I-“
“Momomyia!” He heard a voice echo through the street.
A tall Mordax men with long black hair was running towards them. His eyes were bright red. He looked at Ichigo searching for her reaction, already summoning a sai. But he found something completely different, her eyes were bright and shiny, a big smile adorning her face. Ichigo took off running towards the men. Wait…he knew the guy.
“Bollo!” she laughed.
“Momomyia, are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine!”
The emo bastard was holding her arm with one hand and tracing the almost fully scarred scratch marks on her face. Kisshu was pissed.
“You don’t look fine you idiot. Shirogane called us warning us you were coming; you were supposed to be at the commune already. Since my team was walking around, I decided to look for you and heard loud noises.”
“I see. Did Ryou tell you what I came to do?”
“He said very briefly to pack up, but he said that you should be the one to explain. He said you’d be accompanied-“
Kisshu was so dumbfounded by all this he didn’t notice he still held a sai and was now clearly in control of a beast. He also looked angered beyond belief.
The dickhe*d placed himself in front of Ichigo in a defensive position.
“General Kisshu, what do I owe the pleasure.”
Kisshu smirked darkly.
“So, this is where you were hiding dickhe*d. We thought you were dead. Turns out you’re just a coward.” Kisshu spat, sarcasm and poison dripping from his voice. Protecting her from him? His most prized pose- He stopped the thought. He wouldn’t. He would NOT. Still. Who did this f*ck think he was.
“I might be a coward. You are something worth my nightmares to define.”
Bollo summoned a long slender sword. Kisshu in response summoned his second sai.
“HAH. Then why don’t you come experience your worst one.”
Kisshu would make the bastard pay for even being near Ichigo. He would-.
He saw Ichigo’s slander gloved finger placed on Bollo’s arm. She gently pushed him aside and walked between them.
“Enough you two.”
“Momomiya be careful! You know this man is-“Bollo said grabbing her wrist to try to get her behind him again. Kisshu was fuming. He started walking forward towards them. Ichigo held a hand, placing it on Kish’s chest and shaking Bollo’s hand off hers.
“Stop that, will you?” she said a little annoyed to Kisshu. Kisshu growled lowly towards Bollo that imitated the action.
“Bollo, Kisshu is on our side now. He can be a bit…much at times. But he is a friend.” She said smiling up at Bollo.
She called him a friend :D
Kisshu huffed, putting away his sais and crossing his arms.
“What about that thing?” Bollo pointed at the Chimera.
“Kisshu took control of it. Thanks to that, we will save him. I’ll explain better later. First, we need to check something.” She walked towards the thing and looked back to Kisshu. He reassured her with a nod walking up to her and placing his hand on the mid of her back. She was searching absent minded and didn’t feel his hand. He looked back at Bollo sticking out his tongue. Bollo huffed and looked to the side.
He looked back at her. He could smell the strawberries due to her proximity. She was focused looking and touching around the creature’s neck and ears. She had that serious look he so admired. She was competent at her job. He figured she was looking for a tracker on the thing, her bright hot pink eyes lidded with furrowed brows. She was gorgeous, mew form or human, she was beautiful. The scratch marks were faded already. Some burn scars still littered her face, a reminder of that dreadful night. Kisshu wanted to apologize for acting the way he did. She didn’t deserve it.
“Ichigo I-“
“I found it!” she exclaimed proudly with a smile. “I’m going to leave it on the floor in case someone comes searching. If it disappears it will be more obvious.”
She crouched and putting down the little device. “Let’s go guys, we have a lot to discuss.” And she started walking, leaving him behind. Kisshu looked ahead just in time to see Bollo sneak his hand to her opposite shoulder walking besides her. He looked back at Kish and winked.
Kisshu would murder this guy one day.
The three walked together. Kisshu went to leave the Chimera in the lab. Ichigo walked side by side with Bollo. She knew Kisshu was getting worked up but after the way he treated her she felt like a little revenge was in order. It was nothing serious anyways.
She blushed. Was Kisshu getting jealous?
“Are you okay Momomiya?” Bollo spoke worried “Are you sick?” He gently placed the back of his hand on her forehead. She shook her head, gently trying to shake off his hand. If it was months ago, she wouldn’t mind the contact. But now it felt off. Like she shouldn’t be allowing that.
“I’m just fine.” she smiled. “I’ve told you before you can call me Ichigo.”
“I’m glad.” he smiled back. His hand fell onto her nose where the scratches were fading already, tracing them.
“It’s a shame we barely ever see each other.” He pouted slightly.
“Don’t be like that! You know I barely have any time for friends myself. I’m glad we got to meet at all!” she smiled.
She had met Bollo in a fight one year ago, when she changed locations after seeing Kisshu for the first time after the takeover. She was still acclimatizing to the bigger number of chimeras in the new secluded area she lived in. He helped her fight the big rabbit one. He told her he deserted. He understood what Deep Blue did was wrong and he wanted to help humans.
Ichigo brought him to a commune where he quickly became a beloved member growing in popularity as a leader. After that they met a few times when she needed contact with communes near his.
Bollo was gentle and kind to her. And although they had few times together, he seemed fond of her. After finding out about human culture, he insisted on calling her by her family name out of respect. She found it amusing.
“You know, if you are ever in danger, you can just call for me…”
Bollo smiled tenderly put a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned towards her speaking lowly.
“…Ichigo.”
He gave her a small peck in the cheek. She blushed, gagged up a Yes sir quickly and kept moving forward. Something grabbed her arm sternly and pushed her forward. That same arm rounded her waist, grabbing her side harshly and pulling her against the person’s body. She looked up to see a very angry looking Kisshu looking past her at Bollo, who laughed and walked past them.
“See you there, Ichigo.”
What was it about Mordax men and her, my lord. The black-haired men teleported away.
She looked up at Kisshu. His features had darkened and he was still looking ahead of her.
“K-Kisshu?”
Ichigo tried to push herself off Kisshu who’s grasp on her waist hardened.
“Kisshu, let go. What the hell are you doing?!”
Kisshu finally stopped looking away at where Bollo used to be. She was pushing against his chest with a hand that he promptly grabbed by the wrist.
“So, you do have someone huh?” He whispered under his breath.
“Kisshu did you go mad? What’s up with you today?! Bollo is just a friend!”
“What’s up with me? What’s up with you Ichigo?” he exaggeratedly imitated Bollo’s tone of voice.
“Are you insane?” She screamed at him.
“Are you out here flirting with men while working often? Is that it? Are you into guys around making moves?” he screamed back. Venomous words dripped from his tongue like honey. What did that guy have that he didn’t huh? Kisshu was the best of the market. Bollo was nothing, a deserter, a side character. Nothing more. He put his face near her ear. His voice was full of malice.
“If he can stand like this with you so can I. Or do you let any guy get this close to you?”
Who did he think he was, who did SHE think she was. She had no right to let anyone do this.
She had no right doing this to him.
Kisshu wouldn’t let her go.
He wouldn’t lose her.
He refused to lose her.
She was leaving.
She would leave.
He wouldn’t allow her.
Ichigo’s eyes went wide, her mouth agape. Her expression slowly died. Her eyes dulling and her mouth closing.
She looked cold as stone. And finally, a flash of sanity went through him. She looked just like she did years ago. Distant, resentful, and cold.
“Let go off me Kisshu.” And she pushed herself completely out of his grasp. His anger turned to panic as he grasped at her wrist pulling her to him again.
“Ichigo, I am-“
“Enough Kisshu. We’re late.” She shook her hand off his grasp, turning her back on him before she started walking.
She stopped one last time without turning to him. “I thought you had changed. I stand corrected.”
And to her, he thought, he was a monster again.
