Savior Chapter 12 (Part 1)
Tora had moved to different points in the area to make sure he couldn’t be followed. He had taken Shou with him; thrown him around, beaten him, stabbed him and pushed him to a state worse than any human being would be able to handle. An Angel could not die from human wounds and Tora had used this rule to his advantage.
Time had not flown how Shou was used to it. When he woke up he could use the amount of light outside to figure out a vague estimate of what time of day it was. Most of the time he was surrounded by huge grey walls, unknowing of where he was or how he had got there.
All he knew was that he missed Hiroto. He missed him so much that his heart lagged behind his movements, as if it had been lost back in the flat where Tora had found him. Shou couldn’t remember actually being taken from the flat; he had fallen to sleep in such bliss that he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but in Hiroto’s arms... that was until he woke up in a cruel, cold room far away from the centre of Tokyo.
Ever since then he had only experienced pain. Scars and bruises covered his body like tattoos and he felt as if there was no where left to disfigure, only more pain on top of the pain he already had. However, despite the horrendous torture he had been put through by a fellow Angel, he couldn’t help but dwell upon what he had once told Hiroto: Physical pain was nothing. Compared to the pain of not being with Hiroto when he could sense something was terribly wrong, the torture was insignificant.
Hiroto kept him going. He was the reason that Shou fought back against Tora despite his bad condition. For the first time in his long and lonely life he had something to live for.
One night, he couldn’t tell which one, he woke up in a cold, dark place that he was sure he’d been to before. The floor beneath him felt smooth yet freezing cold and the moonlight seeping in from the windows were forming large rectangular shapes one after the other. The room smelt of chalk, rubber and fresh paint.
After lying on the floor for a while going in and out of consciousness, Shou tried his best to pick himself up. Not only was the floor icy and shiny, it was quite slippy too. Once he managed to get to his feet he looked around at the blurry scenery in front of him. What he saw chilled him to the bone.
He was stood in the corridors of Hiroto’s school. Throughout his time with Tora the memories of Hiroto would either push him to fight for his life or, if brought back to him in the wrong way, would stab misery into his chest. The school was just another reminder of a sight Shou would never get to see again; picking Hiroto up and walking with him back to his flat. It was obvious that Tora had planned their location purposefully to taunt Shou; he had been poking and prodding insults wherever he could as if he were testing Shou’s mental stability.
“Finally somewhere you recognise?” Tora asked from behind. Shou span around, startled by the sudden voice, and backed away from Tora as quickly as possible. The other Angel walked down the corridor slowly, flexing his neck but keeping his stinging glare on Shou’s movements. “If not then those blows to your head have probably caused some damage...”
“Why did you take me here?” Shou demanded. He could feel his chest getting tight and his blood beginning to boil. “You talk about not having human emotions but to torture me with these sights you must understand them!”
Tora leant his head to the side. The lighting from the windows made his face seem furious, but actually there was only a blank expression hidden under the dark quilt of shadow.
“They aren’t difficult to understand.” He explained. “That’s why they’re very easy to slip into for weaker Angels...”
Shou lunged forward and went to hit Tora, but his body was far too weak to hit him properly. Despite putting his whole body into the punch, Tora grabbed him and threw him back to the floor. Shou went skidding further down the corridor and therefore further into the darkness of the school. “It’s beyond pathetic how you fight back, Shou.” Tora grumbled. He grabbed a cigarette from his pocket and proceeded to light it while looming over Shou’s quivering body.
“Soon things will get interesting... I’m sure Murai has picked us up by now...”
“What if Murai picks us up?” Shou spat as he attempted to push himself up from the floor. “He doesn’t care about me and he wants nothing to do with you!”
Tora walked up to Shou’s limp body and crouched next to him. His shadow laid itself over Shou as if Tora had claimed him that way, and just to seal the deal he blew smoke from his mouth and into Shou’s face.
“Of course he does.” Tora explained. “He will be desperate to save you from the same torture I put him through.”
No conversation was needed. No look of horror was needed. Shou kept his face away from Tora’s glare and continued to work out the context of his story by himself. He closed his eyes and reminisced about all the times he’d heard about Murai’s legend and the gritty words between Murai and Tora. So Murai had broken the rules too? There was only one level of deceit that was punished with such death and that was the love of a human being.
It was at that moment that Shou had to look at Tora for approval.
“Murai was in the same situation as me? Therefore he loved a human?” Shou asked quietly. Tora nodded, causing hundreds of questions to race through his mind. “So why is he not dead?”
“He is very powerful.” Tora explained. “He pushed me back out of the Earth, but I didn’t challenge him again. The torture I’d caused him should have repelled him from the human world and brought him back, but instead he turned bitter and rebelled against the Angels again. It is a mistake I will never act out again... so instead I will torture and then kill.” Tora stood himself back up and suddenly all Shou could see were his shoes. “It’s what you deserve for toying with these human emotions.”
Shou was about to rush over to Tora again but suddenly the taller Angel flinched. He stared out of the school windows and continued to grumble to himself for a while before explaining what was wrong.
“It’s Murai.” He muttered. “He’s coming.”
~*~
There was so much light but Hiroto didn’t want to assume anything. Sometimes death was pictured as a grim and dirty thing, but he’d also heard about a light that consumed you and took you into its warms clutches. Whether it was death or not he was just happy for some peace of mind.
Finally the light faded and he could see jagged rims around the outside of his vision. The longer he stared at them the more colour they gained, and eventually they grew almost as light as the white behind them. They were yellow wisps of grass that were reaching into the sky for sunlight. It took Hiroto to realise what they were but when he smelt the strong aroma of grass, soil and flowers he realised that he had made the transition from inside to outside.
When he lifted his body he realised just how weightless he felt. It was like being on a trampoline, even though his actions were not as bouncy, slow or elegant as he thought they were. When he was finally on his feet he looked around and realised that he was stood on a vast field that seemed to go on forever. There were no hills, just grass, different flowers, grains and a small hut in the distance.
He decided to walk towards the hut. Nothing else to do but lay on the grass and stare at the sun, and he was a little worried that if he did that for too long he would merge with the soil, join the thousands of vines and grow towards the sun. After walking a few paces someone opened the door of the hut and walked onto the muddy pathway in front of it.
For a moment he thought he recognized them, but he guessed he didn’t really. The person he thought he had seen was dead and buried. Another quick look made him feel suspicious and slightly scared. They resembled them so much... reminded him so much of them...
The moment the woman who first left the hut looked at him he knew exactly where he was and who he was looking at.
“Mom?” He asked quietly, hardly loud enough for her to hear. Behind her was his father and holding his hand was his little sister. The moment Hiroto uttered the word, the group of people turned their heads towards him.
This must be a stupid dream. Hiroto thought. He was used to dreams of being reunited with his parents and his sister, but he had never been aware of it at the time. This was the first time that he could control himself, understand his surroundings and realise that none of it was real.
But it sure did feel real.
They were walking over to him. No they were running to him. It didn’t take Hiroto long before he was moving too. Who cared if it wasn’t real? He could see, hear touch and smell his family - why would he turn that down?
The grass was hard to get through but finally he was standing in front of his family again. They raced at him, his mother first and then his father and sister. They grabbed him and pulled him towards them, hugging any part of him they could find just to be close. Something about this was different; normally he was the desperate one and his family would watch his pointless efforts without emotion or empathy.
This time everyone cared. Everyone cried.
Wherever he was, Hiroto didn’t want to leave. Happiness had overwhelmed him.
~*~
The school looked like a dirty place at night. Murai had walked around lots of different places in the darkness but he never really enjoyed being somewhere that would usually hold so much life and passion. The contrast in energy made the building seem dead, and Murai had always tried his best to avoid the memory of death.
Yet there he was, pulling a fellow Angel out of the jaws of destruction. He could feel his nerves getting the better of him and his shakes push him off balance.
Pull it together...He urged himself. Shou needs my help and I’m shaking like a fool! But no matter how many times he tried to persuade himself to keep calm he couldn’t help but think about the last time he saw someone die at the hands of Tora. It had scared him to his core and having to face him again in a similar situation was terrifying.
However, it wasn’t long until he had two dark figures in sight.
Murai frowned and focused on them. He had to pull it together for the sake of Shou and for the sake of his purpose. Shou stood for everything that he used to stand for and he couldn’t let Tora destroy something and someone that he wholeheartedly believed in.
He cleared his throat and began, clutching the gun he had in his right hand.
“I found you.” Murai muttered loud enough for Tora to hear. The moment the sound carried over to him Tora span around and smirked at his old enemy. It hadn’t taken Murai long to get to the school, which meant he had fallen into his plan quicker than Tora thought he would.
“There’s a prize for coming first.” Tora replied. The moment he closed his lips Murai spotted a long silver object in his hand. It was a sword. He knew he would have to fight Tora but he’d thought that the Angel would choose a different weapon. Along the grey, overshadowed corridor he could see Shou pulling himself up by pushing down on a nearby window ledge. He stared at Murai with a confused expression, and Murai didn’t blame him. He probably wasn’t the person he’d expected to rescue him; in fact he probably didn’t expect a rescue at all.
Murai looked back at Tora and nodded. He gritted his teeth and waited for some kind of start to their fight, but he wasn’t sure how to conduct it. Before he could open his mouth to respond to Tora he heard the clatter of rushed footsteps down the other side of the corridor. It alerted Tora and Shou and suddenly all the Angels were staring down into the dark shadows. Tora turned around again so that he could begin walking towards the disturbance, but all of a sudden the disturbance made itself visible in the corridor.
It was Sakamoto. He was dripping wet due to the recent rain in Tokyo and was out of breath from his running. He stared at Tora angrily and marched up to the Angel using the same anger that had motivated him to run so far.
“What are you doing here Takeshi?” Tora asked with a hint of shock in his voice. Sakamoto scowled and looked over at a severely beaten Shou. He snapped his vision back to Tora and huffed.
“Why do you think I’m here?!” He cried. “You can’t just kill Shou because he loves someone!”
Tora closed his eyes and smiled, even though it was obvious that the Angel was frustrated with Sakamoto’s childish statements. He sighed and shook his head.
“Takeshi these are the rules.” He explained. “Shou knew of them before he came to Earth and so he shall abide by them...”
“No one falls in love purposefully.” Sakamoto snapped. “And anyway where in the rules does it tell you to torture? Where does it tell you to break someone’s heart?!”
“Sakamoto!” Murai shouted. He ran past Tora and grabbed him by the shoulders. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? And more importantly how the hell did you know I was here? You were supposed to be looking after Hiroto!”
“I did!” Sakamoto stared at Murai desperately. “Hiroto... is in Hospital.”
Shou snapped into reality and stared at Sakamoto in horror. He almost fell onto Murai when he attempted to make his way towards Sakamoto but managed to keep his footing.
“What happened to him?” Shou whispered, feeling his throat clench as he spoke. Sakamoto looked away from Shou before attempting to explain; he wouldn’t be able to tell him to his face.
“He took an overdose to try and kill himself.” Sakamoto explained. He spat it out, trying to hide the fact that he too was upset. “The paramedics managed to keep him alive but he’s in a coma. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him...”
The corridor fell silent. Shou’s expression didn’t move as his whole concentration was on the devastation in his heart. His motivation through his torture was fading away, and along with it the whole world that he had built up for himself and Hiroto. If Tora hadn’t taken him away then Hiroto wouldn’t have been so lonely. Hiroto wouldn’t have felt the need to die. But what scared him more was that he had remembered the inspiration of Hiroto to keep him alive, but why couldn’t Hiroto do the same? Had he given up on him?
“Well this is going better than I imagined...” Tora muttered. Shou snapped his eyes to Tora’s smug expression and lunged at him with all of his energy. He smacked Tora across the face and went to do it again, but before he could Tora had punched him back.
“Leave him alone!” Murai roared, shoving Tora with all his might so that he flew across the corridor. Sakamoto grabbed Shou and pulled him across the slippery floor towards one of the classrooms.
“It’s ok.” He reassured as he dragged Shou away. “Hiroto still has a chance, he’s still alive.”
“No he doesn’t.” Shou croaked. Sakamoto frowned but continued to help Shou through the door. “He’s given up. He wants to die.”
“We won’t let him.” Sakamoto replied back without hesitation. He managed to get Shou to the other side of the wall and into one of the classrooms for the younger years. Streaks of shadow lined them both due to the dozens of tables and chairs blocking the artificial light from the windows on the other side.
Shou kept quiet. He stared at the window and sighed. He would die and Hiroto would die - maybe they would be together after all.
Tora had moved to different points in the area to make sure he couldn’t be followed. He had taken Shou with him; thrown him around, beaten him, stabbed him and pushed him to a state worse than any human being would be able to handle. An Angel could not die from human wounds and Tora had used this rule to his advantage.
Time had not flown how Shou was used to it. When he woke up he could use the amount of light outside to figure out a vague estimate of what time of day it was. Most of the time he was surrounded by huge grey walls, unknowing of where he was or how he had got there.
All he knew was that he missed Hiroto. He missed him so much that his heart lagged behind his movements, as if it had been lost back in the flat where Tora had found him. Shou couldn’t remember actually being taken from the flat; he had fallen to sleep in such bliss that he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but in Hiroto’s arms... that was until he woke up in a cruel, cold room far away from the centre of Tokyo.
Ever since then he had only experienced pain. Scars and bruises covered his body like tattoos and he felt as if there was no where left to disfigure, only more pain on top of the pain he already had. However, despite the horrendous torture he had been put through by a fellow Angel, he couldn’t help but dwell upon what he had once told Hiroto: Physical pain was nothing. Compared to the pain of not being with Hiroto when he could sense something was terribly wrong, the torture was insignificant.
Hiroto kept him going. He was the reason that Shou fought back against Tora despite his bad condition. For the first time in his long and lonely life he had something to live for.
One night, he couldn’t tell which one, he woke up in a cold, dark place that he was sure he’d been to before. The floor beneath him felt smooth yet freezing cold and the moonlight seeping in from the windows were forming large rectangular shapes one after the other. The room smelt of chalk, rubber and fresh paint.
After lying on the floor for a while going in and out of consciousness, Shou tried his best to pick himself up. Not only was the floor icy and shiny, it was quite slippy too. Once he managed to get to his feet he looked around at the blurry scenery in front of him. What he saw chilled him to the bone.
He was stood in the corridors of Hiroto’s school. Throughout his time with Tora the memories of Hiroto would either push him to fight for his life or, if brought back to him in the wrong way, would stab misery into his chest. The school was just another reminder of a sight Shou would never get to see again; picking Hiroto up and walking with him back to his flat. It was obvious that Tora had planned their location purposefully to taunt Shou; he had been poking and prodding insults wherever he could as if he were testing Shou’s mental stability.
“Finally somewhere you recognise?” Tora asked from behind. Shou span around, startled by the sudden voice, and backed away from Tora as quickly as possible. The other Angel walked down the corridor slowly, flexing his neck but keeping his stinging glare on Shou’s movements. “If not then those blows to your head have probably caused some damage...”
“Why did you take me here?” Shou demanded. He could feel his chest getting tight and his blood beginning to boil. “You talk about not having human emotions but to torture me with these sights you must understand them!”
Tora leant his head to the side. The lighting from the windows made his face seem furious, but actually there was only a blank expression hidden under the dark quilt of shadow.
“They aren’t difficult to understand.” He explained. “That’s why they’re very easy to slip into for weaker Angels...”
Shou lunged forward and went to hit Tora, but his body was far too weak to hit him properly. Despite putting his whole body into the punch, Tora grabbed him and threw him back to the floor. Shou went skidding further down the corridor and therefore further into the darkness of the school. “It’s beyond pathetic how you fight back, Shou.” Tora grumbled. He grabbed a cigarette from his pocket and proceeded to light it while looming over Shou’s quivering body.
“Soon things will get interesting... I’m sure Murai has picked us up by now...”
“What if Murai picks us up?” Shou spat as he attempted to push himself up from the floor. “He doesn’t care about me and he wants nothing to do with you!”
Tora walked up to Shou’s limp body and crouched next to him. His shadow laid itself over Shou as if Tora had claimed him that way, and just to seal the deal he blew smoke from his mouth and into Shou’s face.
“Of course he does.” Tora explained. “He will be desperate to save you from the same torture I put him through.”
No conversation was needed. No look of horror was needed. Shou kept his face away from Tora’s glare and continued to work out the context of his story by himself. He closed his eyes and reminisced about all the times he’d heard about Murai’s legend and the gritty words between Murai and Tora. So Murai had broken the rules too? There was only one level of deceit that was punished with such death and that was the love of a human being.
It was at that moment that Shou had to look at Tora for approval.
“Murai was in the same situation as me? Therefore he loved a human?” Shou asked quietly. Tora nodded, causing hundreds of questions to race through his mind. “So why is he not dead?”
“He is very powerful.” Tora explained. “He pushed me back out of the Earth, but I didn’t challenge him again. The torture I’d caused him should have repelled him from the human world and brought him back, but instead he turned bitter and rebelled against the Angels again. It is a mistake I will never act out again... so instead I will torture and then kill.” Tora stood himself back up and suddenly all Shou could see were his shoes. “It’s what you deserve for toying with these human emotions.”
Shou was about to rush over to Tora again but suddenly the taller Angel flinched. He stared out of the school windows and continued to grumble to himself for a while before explaining what was wrong.
“It’s Murai.” He muttered. “He’s coming.”
~*~
There was so much light but Hiroto didn’t want to assume anything. Sometimes death was pictured as a grim and dirty thing, but he’d also heard about a light that consumed you and took you into its warms clutches. Whether it was death or not he was just happy for some peace of mind.
Finally the light faded and he could see jagged rims around the outside of his vision. The longer he stared at them the more colour they gained, and eventually they grew almost as light as the white behind them. They were yellow wisps of grass that were reaching into the sky for sunlight. It took Hiroto to realise what they were but when he smelt the strong aroma of grass, soil and flowers he realised that he had made the transition from inside to outside.
When he lifted his body he realised just how weightless he felt. It was like being on a trampoline, even though his actions were not as bouncy, slow or elegant as he thought they were. When he was finally on his feet he looked around and realised that he was stood on a vast field that seemed to go on forever. There were no hills, just grass, different flowers, grains and a small hut in the distance.
He decided to walk towards the hut. Nothing else to do but lay on the grass and stare at the sun, and he was a little worried that if he did that for too long he would merge with the soil, join the thousands of vines and grow towards the sun. After walking a few paces someone opened the door of the hut and walked onto the muddy pathway in front of it.
For a moment he thought he recognized them, but he guessed he didn’t really. The person he thought he had seen was dead and buried. Another quick look made him feel suspicious and slightly scared. They resembled them so much... reminded him so much of them...
The moment the woman who first left the hut looked at him he knew exactly where he was and who he was looking at.
“Mom?” He asked quietly, hardly loud enough for her to hear. Behind her was his father and holding his hand was his little sister. The moment Hiroto uttered the word, the group of people turned their heads towards him.
This must be a stupid dream. Hiroto thought. He was used to dreams of being reunited with his parents and his sister, but he had never been aware of it at the time. This was the first time that he could control himself, understand his surroundings and realise that none of it was real.
But it sure did feel real.
They were walking over to him. No they were running to him. It didn’t take Hiroto long before he was moving too. Who cared if it wasn’t real? He could see, hear touch and smell his family - why would he turn that down?
The grass was hard to get through but finally he was standing in front of his family again. They raced at him, his mother first and then his father and sister. They grabbed him and pulled him towards them, hugging any part of him they could find just to be close. Something about this was different; normally he was the desperate one and his family would watch his pointless efforts without emotion or empathy.
This time everyone cared. Everyone cried.
Wherever he was, Hiroto didn’t want to leave. Happiness had overwhelmed him.
~*~
The school looked like a dirty place at night. Murai had walked around lots of different places in the darkness but he never really enjoyed being somewhere that would usually hold so much life and passion. The contrast in energy made the building seem dead, and Murai had always tried his best to avoid the memory of death.
Yet there he was, pulling a fellow Angel out of the jaws of destruction. He could feel his nerves getting the better of him and his shakes push him off balance.
Pull it together...He urged himself. Shou needs my help and I’m shaking like a fool! But no matter how many times he tried to persuade himself to keep calm he couldn’t help but think about the last time he saw someone die at the hands of Tora. It had scared him to his core and having to face him again in a similar situation was terrifying.
However, it wasn’t long until he had two dark figures in sight.
Murai frowned and focused on them. He had to pull it together for the sake of Shou and for the sake of his purpose. Shou stood for everything that he used to stand for and he couldn’t let Tora destroy something and someone that he wholeheartedly believed in.
He cleared his throat and began, clutching the gun he had in his right hand.
“I found you.” Murai muttered loud enough for Tora to hear. The moment the sound carried over to him Tora span around and smirked at his old enemy. It hadn’t taken Murai long to get to the school, which meant he had fallen into his plan quicker than Tora thought he would.
“There’s a prize for coming first.” Tora replied. The moment he closed his lips Murai spotted a long silver object in his hand. It was a sword. He knew he would have to fight Tora but he’d thought that the Angel would choose a different weapon. Along the grey, overshadowed corridor he could see Shou pulling himself up by pushing down on a nearby window ledge. He stared at Murai with a confused expression, and Murai didn’t blame him. He probably wasn’t the person he’d expected to rescue him; in fact he probably didn’t expect a rescue at all.
Murai looked back at Tora and nodded. He gritted his teeth and waited for some kind of start to their fight, but he wasn’t sure how to conduct it. Before he could open his mouth to respond to Tora he heard the clatter of rushed footsteps down the other side of the corridor. It alerted Tora and Shou and suddenly all the Angels were staring down into the dark shadows. Tora turned around again so that he could begin walking towards the disturbance, but all of a sudden the disturbance made itself visible in the corridor.
It was Sakamoto. He was dripping wet due to the recent rain in Tokyo and was out of breath from his running. He stared at Tora angrily and marched up to the Angel using the same anger that had motivated him to run so far.
“What are you doing here Takeshi?” Tora asked with a hint of shock in his voice. Sakamoto scowled and looked over at a severely beaten Shou. He snapped his vision back to Tora and huffed.
“Why do you think I’m here?!” He cried. “You can’t just kill Shou because he loves someone!”
Tora closed his eyes and smiled, even though it was obvious that the Angel was frustrated with Sakamoto’s childish statements. He sighed and shook his head.
“Takeshi these are the rules.” He explained. “Shou knew of them before he came to Earth and so he shall abide by them...”
“No one falls in love purposefully.” Sakamoto snapped. “And anyway where in the rules does it tell you to torture? Where does it tell you to break someone’s heart?!”
“Sakamoto!” Murai shouted. He ran past Tora and grabbed him by the shoulders. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? And more importantly how the hell did you know I was here? You were supposed to be looking after Hiroto!”
“I did!” Sakamoto stared at Murai desperately. “Hiroto... is in Hospital.”
Shou snapped into reality and stared at Sakamoto in horror. He almost fell onto Murai when he attempted to make his way towards Sakamoto but managed to keep his footing.
“What happened to him?” Shou whispered, feeling his throat clench as he spoke. Sakamoto looked away from Shou before attempting to explain; he wouldn’t be able to tell him to his face.
“He took an overdose to try and kill himself.” Sakamoto explained. He spat it out, trying to hide the fact that he too was upset. “The paramedics managed to keep him alive but he’s in a coma. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him...”
The corridor fell silent. Shou’s expression didn’t move as his whole concentration was on the devastation in his heart. His motivation through his torture was fading away, and along with it the whole world that he had built up for himself and Hiroto. If Tora hadn’t taken him away then Hiroto wouldn’t have been so lonely. Hiroto wouldn’t have felt the need to die. But what scared him more was that he had remembered the inspiration of Hiroto to keep him alive, but why couldn’t Hiroto do the same? Had he given up on him?
“Well this is going better than I imagined...” Tora muttered. Shou snapped his eyes to Tora’s smug expression and lunged at him with all of his energy. He smacked Tora across the face and went to do it again, but before he could Tora had punched him back.
“Leave him alone!” Murai roared, shoving Tora with all his might so that he flew across the corridor. Sakamoto grabbed Shou and pulled him across the slippery floor towards one of the classrooms.
“It’s ok.” He reassured as he dragged Shou away. “Hiroto still has a chance, he’s still alive.”
“No he doesn’t.” Shou croaked. Sakamoto frowned but continued to help Shou through the door. “He’s given up. He wants to die.”
“We won’t let him.” Sakamoto replied back without hesitation. He managed to get Shou to the other side of the wall and into one of the classrooms for the younger years. Streaks of shadow lined them both due to the dozens of tables and chairs blocking the artificial light from the windows on the other side.
Shou kept quiet. He stared at the window and sighed. He would die and Hiroto would die - maybe they would be together after all.