Écarlate (Kanda x OC)

Treize

Zion screamed...

She fell onto the granite flooring, unaffected by the pain of the fall, but suffering from the trauma that came with what she saw.

There, on the ceiling of the magnificent entrance room, countless bloodied corpses hung.  The majority of the mangled bodies were unrecognizable as human corpses, but the few that wore the familiar faces of the townsfolk of Veyras told Zion that they were.

And they were all slaughtered and tacked to ceiling like some sort of advertisement. Though the thought was not nearly as disgusting as it was shocking.  The girl's hazel eyes were pried open, threatening to shed tears that never fell.  And among the tormented faces, she spotted hazel eyes that were nearly identical to her own, with crimson liquid oozing from their sockets.

Zion unconsciously raised a longing hand towards the familiar face the was pinned in the center of the ceiling, just above the chandelier.  Another thick droplet of blood fell on her nose, though the tears still refused to be shed.

Not yet... The girl prevented herself from shattering into tiny, broken, unfixable pieces.

"Hey, Pup!" An irritated voice called out to her as she had entered a trance-like state.  "Snap out of it!" The voice contained a bit of worry, but was mainly stern.  Zion returned to reality when a strong hand gripped both her shoulder and cheeks, jerking her head towards who was calling out to her.

She blinked as the glaze that covered her eyes disappeared.

"You can be upset later." Kanda began, encouraging her with his cold stare. "Now, you need to get revenge for all of them." He gestured to the bloodied mass on the ceiling, but refused to let the girl's gaze drift upwards again.  

The final motivated push arrived with the sound of disgruntled moans.  All three Exorcists' attention averted to the massive window above the grand stairwell.  In front of the glass was a short figure, with a bloated stomach and grey-toned complexion.  The pentagram imprinted on its stomach and forehead confirmed its existence as an Akuma.  Furthermore, the Akuma that slaughtered all of the unfortunate townsfolk.

"Oh goodie! I was getting bored with everyone else! Have you come to play with me?" Its voice sounded like a distraught child with blood swirling through throughout its mouth.

"You... You hurt all these people!" Lavi spoke up, fuming with rage.  Beside Zion, Kanda stood with his eyes more venomous and deadly than ever.  He spoke no words, but raised his sword, ready to cut the throat out of the Level 4 Akuma in front of them.

So, Zion stood as well.  She shoved all of her emotions and common sense deep within her heart, and swore not to show it in the upcoming battle.  Streams of blood began to flow from the cross-like stigmata on her wrists until it enveloped her hand and pointed into a blade, glowing the color of the blood that littered the ceiling.

The girl's eyes threatened a deadly aura.  They finally connected with the crimson eyes of the Akuma, and she never once removed her gaze from the bloody orbs from that point on.

Her rapier was raised as she launched forward, her speed almost invisible to Kanda and Lavi.  She swung at the demonic being, one after another, though it kept avoiding the attacks and released a corrupted giggle.

"Oh, you're no fun!" It whined while a sickening smile stretched across its disgusting lips.  Zion was unfazed as she attempted to cut, stab, and slice the being.  "Why aren't you talking? Come on!" The Akuma continued to whine.

At this moment, Kanda and Lavi respected the female Exorcist's resolve.  They understand what she wanted to accomplish, and they understood that they should not interfere until she achieved her goal.

The Akuma had led Zion throughout massive room, from each wall, up and down the stairwell, and even from the chandelier to the granite flooring.  She had maintained her footing so far, but she hadn't focused on anything but trying to end the pathetic tortured life of the demon.  Every time she attempted a clumsy or over-emphasized attack and missed, it would release another putrid giggle.

Die, die, die, die, die... The word echoed throughout Zion's mind with every swing, though she had not even laid a scratch on the being in front of her.  However, the next attack finally caught both of them by surprise.

A droplet of blood flew from the tip of the rapier due to the strength and speed of the swing, and though it had clearly missed, the droplet stretched into a ribbon-like substance, finally knicking two fingers off of the Akuma's grey body.

"Damn you!" It shrieked, grasping the nubs that were left of its decapitated fingers.  Though Zion's emotions were to enclosed to display true symptoms, she was surprised, but used this new-found technique of her Innocence to her advantage.

She sped up her attacks, and with every missed strike, a droplet of blood was released, lashing out at the Akuma and slicing its sickly skin.

However, it had stopped succumbing to defensive techniques and begun to attack.  This leaved more for the girl to concentrate on.  With much appreciated assistance from Lavi and Kanda, many of the attacks were blocked in order to prepare for her next deadly strike.

Then, the creature surprised all three Exorcists.  While they had assumed it had only targeted Zion up until now, it changed focus.  First, as Lavi attempted to guard the girl as the demon attacked, he was caught off guard and harshly thrown into stone wall, cracking it significantly and surely breaking many of his bones.  But blood oozed from his head, urging Zion to hurry with the Akuma's annihilation.

Next, Kanda was attacked.  While he thought he would be too quick for the demon to catch, he underestimated it.  He drew it in close, ready to leap away, but was countered and smashed into the granite floor.  Blood also began the flow from his skull; thus, sending Zion into a terrible resolution as she carelessly attacked the Akuma, taking every chance she could get to injure it.

But as the attacks grew careless, so did her guard.  The Akuma managed to get a hand to her collarbone and shoved her through the massive glass window.  Her limbs and face became cut by the shattered glass as a result, as well as receiving a badly bruised torso as her body harshly came in contact with the snow.

Zion watched the white snow around her turn into a shade of red due to the blood oozing from her injured body, but she didn't allow herself to be swayed.  However, as she struggled to stand, the Akuma reached her crippled body.

It stomped on her wrists, causing a disgruntled cry to escape Zion's bleeding mouth.  While standing on her wrists, the demon bent over and wrapped his fully-fingered hand around her thin throat.  He spat ridiculous and sickening laughter into her face.

She had no control of her blade, nor were Kanda and Lavi able to move.  She felt as though her hope was lost, but she dared not show it.

Then, red droplets emerged from her wrists and wrapped around the Akuma's disfigured ankles.  It continued to wind its way through every curve and groove of the demon's disturbing body, up to the very tip of its smooth head.  The creature released an unusual sound as it noticed the blood-like Innocence climbing its body.  But then it started shrieking.

The sound burned Zion's ears, but she bore through it as the ribbons of blood tightened around the Akuma.  They kept tightening, and didn't stop; even indents in the demon's sickly skin became visible as its body crumpled into a heap of mangled limbs.  The ribbons still tightened, further and further, until they cut through every portion of the Akuma's body.

And she had won.

The Akuma had dissolved into a fine dust as it was swept away with the winter breeze.

Zion attempted to stand and limped a few steps, leaving a trail of reddened snow behind her.  Though she wasn't able to uphold the effort much longer as her body and heart began to collapse.  She fell into the snow, feeling it's cold texture against her bloodied cheek.

The minute she sank into the white ground, the world around her became black and she lost consciousness, allowing the blood of her crippled body to be consumed by the icy pillow surrounding her.