Rainfall
A Weiss Kreuz / Sandman crossover
By White Cat
It all happened very quickly.
What should have been an easy in-and-out strike ended up being complicated by bombs that had been planted and undetected until too late.
Hirota Yanagi was very powerful - and power breeds more enemies than merely the White Hunters of darkness.
And when it was all over, three figures stood tall and silent outside of the gutted wreck of Hirota's mansion. The single name spoken by one voice was answered by a burst of static.
It was beginning to rain.
He was standing in the cold damp, his closed-eyed face tilted up towards the weeping sky. The distant east was beginning to pale slightly; it would be a beautiful day once the storm clouds dispersed.
He shivered once, wrapping his arms around himself, dropping his head and opening his eyes. The rain splashed and made tiny ripples on the dark street, and it collected in his hair and clothes, trailing icy fingers down his neck and back.
Then, abruptly, the chill fall stopped, and he looked up in surprise at the girl who held an open umbrella over them both. She smiled warmly at him, and he relaxed slightly at that friendly expression.
She was a small creature - barely taller than he was - with wildly mussed black hair, and a thin, curling black line drawn down from the far corner of one eye. She was dressed all in black: a tanktop, despite the night's chill, jeans, boots, and, finally a silver ankh that glittered dully in the weak light.
He looked at her steadily for a few moments. "I know you."
Her smile widened encouragingly, and one cheek dimpled. "I know you, too. I know lots of people."
He looked away from her at that, and hugged himself more tightly. "I'm not ready," he told her, quietly unhappy.
She took a step closer, and the weight of her sympathetic gaze was like a tangible thing. "Not many people are, when it happens," she murmured. "That's just the way things are: no matter how horrible it is, there are very few who are truly willing to see it end. Everyone always thinks they have more time, and then ... poof!" She waved one hand vaguely. "No more."
"Yeah ..." he sighed, then turned towards her again. "So, what now? What comes next?"
"Now? Next?" She tilted her head to one side. "Now you're going to find out what happens next, Mamoru."
He cringed slightly at the name. "I'd prefer Omi, if you don't mind."
Her smile widened. "Of course I don't mind. Omi, then." She shifted her grip on her umbrella, then held out one white hand. "Come to me, Omi."
And he did.
Youji was the one to find the body, through chance or some unlucky twist of fate. He stood staring down at the badly-mangled shape, partially crushed by the falling timber and plaster, and sighed. The rain had washed away some of the blood, but even with the shadows, it was impossible not to see the damage that had been done.
This mission report was going to be a bitch to make.
But at least ... at least the face had not been touched, protected by an upflung arm and a beam that had fallen in such a way that it sheltered the upper half of the boy's body.
And maybe it was the faulty light, or the burning feeling behind his eyes, but Omi looked ... happy.
Peaceful, at least. It was some consolation, however poor.
He dropped his cigarette to the ground and stubbed it out, called the other two over, and set to work.
It would be a long time yet before the sun rose again.
~owari~
To the fiction by author page To the Sandman crossovers To the Weiss Kreuz crossovers