Who Are You Without The Mask?

[Anadwen]

If Haru blushed rose when she landed on top of Arimus just in her half-transparent lower dress, her cheeks turned crimson when the door noiselessly opened. A tall, dark figure stood in the square of empty space, and she prayed it would be her brother and not his son, although irrationally.

It wasn't. Seiki froze in the door, with one hand still on its edge, and stared at them. He didn't even want to imagine what was about to happen in there... How fortunate he came soon enough.

His eyes widened in a combination of surprise and disgust, and his eyebrows slowly arose in an untold question. It was one of the most apparent portrayals of emotions on his face there has been in the past twenty years. He was horrified. Utterly horrified and disgusted.

[Brisinger987]

Arimus, in his wonderous intelligence, had an epiphany. A dooming, stupid epiphany, one only a person who was the age he looked could have.

To crack a joke.

"Ha, funny you walked in when you did. Any later and you'd have been scarred for life." Arimus put on a very awkward smile, one that was clearly nervous and very incriminating.

He had no need for respect or reputation though. He could easily kill them all if he really wanted to. He'd just have to make eye contact.

[Anadwen]

Seiki's jaw dropped. He couldn't take humor - he could hardly even understand it, even despite his incredible intelligence. He closed his eyes, and quickly clenched his teeth.

"What a disgrace." he muttered, turning on his heel, and quickly leaving. He might have to request to sleep in a different room for the next week... How awful. How could Haru, as the sister of the head of the house, do something so disgusting? He'd make sure to inform Takuya... Of this, and Arimus's disobedience.

In the meantime, Haru managed to roll off Arimus, undoubtedly just as surprised and alarmed as herself. She showed him a smile, even though still blushing. "Congratulations, you completely threw him off. If there was a prize for startling Seiki, you'd get the first one, you know." she attempted to joke, putting her kimono back on.

[Brisinger987]

"Hmph. He acts like the family don't need my services. They can have as many servants as they want. They have to provide for them though. I don't need providing for. I can go without food and drink. And I can do the work of 100 servants, taking up 100 times less space." Arimus snuck in a look at Haru as she stood up.

If only I could. Maybe as a fling. No, no, no attachments. Arimus averted his eyes to avoid drawing attention to himself. He didn't need her getting the wrong idea. They were just friends.

"Anyways. One trick, just to annoy Seiki when he gets into his room." Arimus took out his small knife, and carved a symbol into the floor. Immediately, an incorporeal spirit entered the room, and found itself stuck above the symbol. And like a magnet, they flocked, filling the room.

"Haha!"

[Anadwen]

Haru frowned a little. "On one side, I do admire your gut to stand against him. On the other side, you have a problem, Arimus..." She shook her head. "This won't be a problem for him... But for you."

The ghosts started collecting there, innocent lost souls for most, but there was a trace of evil spirits, too. She stood up, finally fastening the sash around her waist, and dragging Arimus out. "I don't want to get into trouble with him. Trust me, he'd punish even me." she muttered, and led the butler down to her own room. "Besides, what you did is dangerous. It can attract evil spirits... I know he'll be able to defeat them, and there are others around, too, but that changes nothing." she explained him on the way. "You put people in danger. There will be a punishment for that, too."

As if an answer to that, a dark figure passed them by in the following moment. She could recognize Seiki even without looking, as he let a much larger part of his power seep out, and no one else could move as fast.

"It's coming." she whispered. A blood-curling howl echoed through the manor.

[Brisinger987]

"You're mistaken. He's here." Arimus pointed at the end of the corridor, and grinned. He wanted a physical fight.

Then he felt the blow land. Then he felt his lower half separate from his upper, half, and he yelled. The tendril of gas retracted, and a humanoid figure formed.

"I wondered exactly when you'd show up. Long time no see. You remember Haru?" Arimus' legs regenerated and he stood up, cracking his neck.

"YOU ARE A FOOL TO PROTECT THEM!" Another explosive blow, from another tendril of the gas, and Arimus grinned, despite the huge hole in his head.

"I would say that hurt, but it didn't."

[Anadwen]

Seiki has felt the spirits almost instantly. It was a priority greater than reprimanding the butler and Haru, and he turned in the middle of his way, running back towards his room. The presence was intensely strong, dozens, no, hundreds of spirits...

This was the case of emergency, and Takuya wasn't at home! Incredible...

There was no other option for him left than to release at least a quarter of his power. A full release would obliterate the entire manor, and therefore, wasn't an option...

His figure started glowing with a faint white shine as he unsheathed his Zanpakuto, and whirled into his room. Full of spirits. All of a sudden, a larger one, not just a simple lost soul, but an evil ghost, ran up at him. However, there was just a flash of black as he appeared behind it, and crashed Blood-red Blossom into the head of it, now bashed into the wall opposite the door. It cleaved it straight, and Seiki leaped into the room. The blade itself was starting to glow.

A few feet away, Haru was still standing up, trying to figure out what is happening. Something was fighting Arimus, but she was unable to see it... And she was covered in blood. Seiki's spiritual presence, going off the leash, could be felt nearby, and the thudding of the alarm echoed through the manor.

She unsheathed her weapon, the thin, sleek blade appearing in her clenched hands, and stepped beside Arimus. "Let me deal with this, whatever it is..." she growled.

[Brisinger987]

"Haru, stand back. I don't need another mess to clean up." Arimus' suddenly cold attitude was to throw the scent of the being, to make it think he didn't care for them.

"And close your eyes. I don't think Takuya needs a corpse as much as he does a healer." Arimus took off his eyepatch, and he saw the world in a different light. He saw it in a blurry, pulsing form, filled with the rank of corruption. That was his world.

And in it, hovered a tendril of pure white, his curse. Incarnate.

"Nice to see you Azaroth. Now I know you're not that far away. So why not come closer? Scared I can kill you?"

[Anadwen]

Haru started to charge a blast on the tip of her sword when Arimus stopped her. What he was meaning to do she wasn't aware of, but it was too late to stop the blast. It was fired, like a five leashes suddenly flashing at...

Nothing. They came straight through the air, towards the other end of the corridor, and successfully blasted Seiki's current target into oblivion, almost hitting the man himself. It reached his palm, outstretched for it, and was sucked in. Disappeared.

He turned back into the door. His robe was billowing as if blown from underneath, shining white, and he raised the same hand up again, clenched in a fist. Then, he opened it.

A blinding blast of white was released into the room. For a moment, there was nothing but that light, Haru's spell amplified a hundred times, and released to obliterate whatever would get into its way.

She was lucky to close her eyes. Seiki at the extent of his power was really something.

[Brisinger987]

Arimus sighed, hearing the blast, and seeing only the tendril. He decided to follow it, taking a sword off it's mounting, and swinging it near the tentacle, seeing it recoil.

"Oh, you'll feel this one." And off Arimus went.

A few minutes later, when the ghost symbol would have become useless, and things suddenly calmed down, Arimus returned, limping. This injury wasn't regenerating.

"Owwww... Haru, I need you to get Seiki here, he needs to check if my cursed eye is still working... And then, when you've done that, perhaps you could see why I'm not healing?..." He stumbled towards Haru, collapsing a few feet in front of her, only barely managing to get his eyepatch on.

[Anadwen]

"To get Seiki here might be more difficult than you think - if I don't want to get sliced up..." she whispered, and quickly begun the silent chant of a spell that would stop the bleeding. The words of the incantation were like a river, coming from her lips... It was the least she could do while Seiki held the spirits back.

She could see the light, coming from the room. It was blinding, as white as a lightning, with an ever so slight rosy tint. The shadows of a thousand swords were reflected on the wall behind for a moment, before they turned into a whirlwind of white, and an even brighter light entered the corridor.

Another three figures appeared. One was surely Shinobu, as the voice that shouted another incantation, but this time, of an attacking spell, would confirm, and the other two must have been some of the currently present warriors, too.

All of a sudden, an intense spiritual presence could be felt in the air. A spirit like that... Could be match even for Seiki. That ghost-bait or what was it was sure strong!

Something flew out of the door, and landed in the corridor, leaving a stream of red on the floor. Seiki. He stood up almost instantly, followed by a stream of shards of his released sword, which burst into the room again almost instantly. His glance connected with Shinobu's.

Her eyes widened. If something was powerful enough to hit her brother...

She grabbed Haru by the shoulder, together with Arimus, and started dragging them away. "Get out of here! Get Arimus out and disappear, there's something big in there!" she warned them, clenching her teeth on the edge of panic.

[Brisinger987]

"Oh for the love of the gods. Give me your zanpakuto Seiki. Let me go and kill Azaroth at long last." Arimus pulled himself up, tearing open new wounds, and held out his hand expectantly to Seiki.

"Give it to me, and I will end them all."

[Anadwen]

"Are you crazy? Asking for someone's soul-cutter?" Shinobu shouted at him, grabbing him by the waist, and picking him up. Even despite her small size, she was strong enough to pick him up and attempt to throw him over her shoulder.

"Besides, you could never wield Blood-red Blossom... The sword would kill you outside the hands of its master!" Her very eyes reflected the scene that stood as a proof to those words. A thousand thousands of petals, shining, were around Seiki's figure. They whirled and arose, tearing the walls apart, and slowly took the form of small swords. Shinobu kept persistently dragging Arimus away, accompanied by Haru, trying to help her.

The swords gathered, and at a push of Seiki's hand, they whirled into the room. He himself ran into it at a great speed. And nothing but desolation was left.

[Brisinger987]

Arimus felt a surge of energy, and instead, he managed to outmatch Shinobu's strength, straining until his muscles regenerated to a new strength, and actually pinning her to the wall, his normal eye flickering with the sign of the curse.

"Now, now... Be reasonable. If I can't have Seiki's, yours will do just as well." Arimus smiled, taking the sword, and feeling his abilities flickering between overdrive and non-existant, as the curse went haywire at the introduction of more energy.

He then began to stumble towards the room, before breaking into a run, and diving into the fray. He felt his flesh tearing as things grabbed at him, and he fought his way to Azaroth, before he reached the core of the monster, piercing it with Seiki's blade.

The huge tentacle being screamed in agony, and suddenly a wave of energy was released from it, vaporising the symbol that was drawing the ghosts, before wiping them all out.

Leaving Arimus lying on the floor, bloodied and broken.

[Anadwen]

Ashes...

They fell like a snow on the figures around, covering them in a veil of grey. It mixed with blood and hid the black of their robes, coloring them in the dull colors of shadows. They settled on their heads and shoulders...

Shinobu and Haru, standing in the door, were too frozen to move. Half of the room was blasted away, windows were broken and floor shattered. That was surely the work of Blood-red Blossom in Seiki's clenched hands, still pulsing with light which was slowly disappearing. But the last surge of spiritual energy wasn't his. It had a completely different feeling...

What really just happened? What could create a blast of power so great?

"Done." Seiki's voice echoed in the emptiness. He stood almost at the edge of the now broken floor, staring into the distance with his sword, touching the floor. A stream of blood ran down from his torn gloves along the blade, dripping onto the floor.

A carnage.

Haru was the first to come back to her senses, and immediately rushed to Arimus, gesturing Shinobu to follow. However, Seiki stopped them. "Take him to the cell and lock him there." he instructed them coldly, not even bothering to look.
"But Seiki, like that-" Haru attempted to protest, but was immediately silenced.
"I will not repeat myself."

[Brisinger987]

In Arimus' unconscious, a new war raged, one of rage, and sorrow. Thousands of years of sadness, fighting off the encroaching feeling of death. It was strange. He had never felt the cold embrace of death trying to take him before, and he wanted to give himself to it. To give himself up to this fate.

But then, in his mind, he found himself cold, alone, and with no rage or sorrow. He found himself in empty darkness, the inky black of everything around him making him feel small, but feeling that no matter where he went, he could keep going.

He studied this mental prison, and he began to wander.

Eventually, he came across the corpse of Azaroth, the being of his mind. The being of his curse. The being that caused him so much misery. He kicked Azaroth's corpse, and sent it flying. He was angry that he had been given the curse of endless life.

Eventually, he felt the world beginning to brighten, and hoped that he was regenerating, healing, so he could live out the rest of time in this endless misery.

[Anadwen]

"Seiki, that's dangerous! You can't just imprison someone that's-" Haru kept protesting, but Seiki's ears were deaf and eyes blind to her pleas.
"His actions were irresponsible. He caused it to himself, so let him suffer the consequences." he replied, and turned away, sheathing Blood-red Blossom, and leaving the room.

Shinobu gave her aunt a sad glance. "There isn't anything I can do, Haru... Without father, Seiki gives the orders here." she muttered.
"That's just madness. Because of his mood..." she shook her head. "You can't refuse someone medical help."
"If you are him, you can." she answered back bleakly.

But Haru was stubborn. She picked Arimus up, and on her arms carried him to her own room.

[Brisinger987]

Arimus found the world in his mind turned white, and suddenly, he was no longer alone. He knew, somehow, that Azaroth couldn't hurt him anymore. Never again. And he knew that he could live in peace now.

And around him, stood the entire Adachi family he knew. Every single one. Shinobu, Seiki, Minoru, even Takuya. But to one side, stood Haru.

[Anadwen]

She took him to her own room even though Seiki forbade her to do it. How could she leave an injured man, and a member of the family, in a cell just because he broke a law?

Her own honor wouldn't allow her to do so, it was her duty to take care of the hurt, the sick, every one that needed that care. And Seiki's attitude was angering her... Takuya himself most likely wouldn't agree.

Heck, how moody that nephew of hers was.

And there she was, kneeling beside the bed she put him onto, in a room locked away from her own brother's son. Wasn't it a little... Pathetic?

[Brisinger987]

He analysed the scene around him. Every Adachi, stood there. But, one by one, they disappeared, and he felt pain. Immense pain. He realised just how he cared, despite promising himself he wouldn't care. And in that solitary moment, his spirit broke, his resolve reduced to nothing under the power of loss.

Then he strengthened himself. He could feel that Azaroth was dead. There was nothing that he would let kill any of them. He would sacrifice himself before they died. That was his choice. That was his gift. To be able to protect them when no-one else could.

Then he woke up.