Code Vein Fanfic

"What kind of marker is this?!" Rin cried in distress, seeing in the water's reflection that the writing on her forehead hadn't faded at all.

In the hot springs, many of the revenants that woke up after the party washed off the doodles from their faces. However, a few of them had been drawn on with a different marker. 

Because of this, they stayed in longer.

"UGH!" Yami was also one of them.

He hurriedly washed the doodle that went from his forehead down to his neck with soap, 

'Dunno how to draw, so I traced it 8======D' It said…

"Agh-" There was another person who had something similar.

Louis desperately scrubbed his abs, trying to get rid of 'The crimson sword everyone is trying to pull >:)' with an arrow pointing down.

In contrast, Oliver and Yakumo calmly washed off.

Oliver had gotten off the easiest as he had cat whiskers and a cat mouth doodled on his face while Yakumo had scars and an eyepatch drawn on his visage.

"We got off easy, huh?" Oliver was almost done.

"Not really, they just know better…" Yakumo said with a smirk before, "Well, he does."

As for the culprits, they were at the bar.

"...for free?" Adam wondered if he got Coco's words correctly. He looked at the wine bottle and her a few times. Even if the shades covered his eyes, his actions showed palpable suspicion.

Io looked at the bottle and then at Coco, imitating Adam's actions.

"Yup, just a small gift for the man who guided the customers to me." She was in a good mood. She very rarely collected this many profits in a short time.

"...Nah, I will still pay for it." But the man knew better than to owe a merchant, much less someone shrewd as Coco.

She smiled, clearly amused, "If you want to be kind, I am no one to stop you!"

A bundle of haze quickly exchanged from one owner to another across the bar counter, "but even after today, there won't be any discounts for my Blood Code."

Of course…

Though it was clear now that Coco was willing to give her Blood Code to him whenever he was ready, it also meant she wanted to ask him something in return, even if he could not offer anything back immediately.

An investment.

"Yeah, I guessed as much." He nodded. The Blood Code of the woman was top tier, her poison was very versatile. The reason she could go out on her own to sell wasn't because she used the Crimson Sword's influence to discourage others from stealing.

Coco was plenty strong herself. Add on the fact that her poison was versatile. She was capable of enhancing herself and could even create cures or different kinds of drugs.

Right, the bottle of wine was more poison than wine. 

Coco saw that stare from Adam, one she had seen many times. 

Not the ones she incites with certain gestures, but one hungry for something else.

The desire for knowledge.

"If you want to know about it, you can wait for Louis since that would make it easier for both of us," Coco said with a business smile belonging to a customer service employee.

She saw Adam's enthusiasm deflate in real-time. 

Io stared at her Successor with curiosity.

Coco rested her elbows on the counter and leaned forward, "But I can tell you that a poison made by a Blood Code is more unique than the ones found naturally and created artificially. He can explain it in much better detail as he has many notes about them, but most have chemicals nonexistent in animal, plant, or mineral poisons."

Adam was speechless.

"...and you somehow mixed them to replicate alcohol and beer?" 

She shrugged, "I wouldn't want my real poison to be handled by just any customer. Besides, it's what sells."

"...Right." 

Indeed. 

The revenants all bought and drank it all despite knowing it was mostly poison.

"Having a drink during these hard times is the best way to unwind. It took time to make a brand for myself. But now, if my seal is there, it's top-notch and trustworthy."

"Huh… I can see that." 

In an apocalypse, this was a way to ease the nerves.

'Even vices follow you after the grave… oh-' He remembered something else he wanted to try.

The present that gave you some solid three friendship points whenever you gifted it to your favorite character in the game. Those three points weren't little, so it must be good… right?

"-Wait, what about blood bead candies?" 

"Hah," Coco sighs amusedly. "I have some if you want, though they aren't exactly sweet."

It appeared that it remained the same either from the game or this new reality. 

The candy wasn't sweet…

"But it's candy! It should be sweet or even bitter!" He protested. Why couldn't this one thing change for the better?

Coco reached under the counter, "...blood bead… Bloooood beeeead, Adam. It's supposed to taste like blood more than anything. It tricks your taste to take your mind off the thirst."

Adam looked at Io before saying, "Well, we don't really lose anything in tr-"

"-You lose haze." She quickly added.

"-Right."

More Haze changed ownership between the merchant and the customer. Not that Adam had small amounts. He had more than he knew what to do with it.

Despite the amount of blood and debris left from battles in The Dried Up Trenches, Haze remained a pale clump of grains.

Blood didn't drench them, water didn't dissolve them, and pressure couldn't change their shape.

So it wasn't hard to collect after a fight, given they don't blend well with the environment.

Coco put the candy in front of Io rather than Adam.

The attendant picked up one of the small candies. It was exactly like a blood bead, only less than half the size of the original. 

It was slightly bigger than her fingernail.

"..." Io silently glanced at Coco, and the woman did the same.

"Huh-" Before Adam could think of what the silent exchange between the women meant, he found two delicate fingers holding the red candy coming near his face.

"Say 'Ah.'" 

"Ah-" 

He followed almost out of instinct. 

When he came back to it, a warm feeling remained on the lips Io's finger had grazed.

"..." 

A confused expression decorated his face as he looked at Io attentively looking at him and then at the merchant with a playful smile.

"You said it wasn't sweet…" He voiced as if he had been lied to.

"Here-" Adam attempted to do the same, but Io leaned in and quickly devoured the candy.

(⚆_⚆) "..."

(✿•_•) "...sweet."

Coco's smile became pronounced as she stared at the couple, especially the man who had trouble keeping his face from becoming the same color as the candy.

Adam turned around, not to avoid the embarrassment about how he lost terribly, to Io no less. It's just that the team finally came out of the hot spring.

"We rested enough. We are leaving in five minutes," Louis announced as everyone moved to gather their equipment.

Some glared in his direction… no way, they immediately thought of him as the culprit of the doodles, did they?

He asked Io to draw on his face just in case.

"Alright…" Adam went to his room to leave his new wine bottle and prepare… not before taking a little sip, of course.

Everyone departed not long after.

A girl with wet orange hair came up to Coco.

(ง •̀ᗝ•́)ง "Where is he!!!"

( ¬_ ¬") "...They left already."

(┛•̀ᗝ•́) ┛彡┻━┻

…

'Been there, done that.' This is a sentiment I could hold to The Dried Up Trenches experience now.

One would think that adapting to this world as well as I've done in just two weeks was great progress…

Despite that, I fear that my pace could be too slow, considering the great and unknown danger that Juzo Mido is.

I don't regret the time I spend with the people around me, even if it seems insignificant, I know I will have to rely on them when the moment comes. 

Because of the scale of the events to come, I knew I couldn't do it all by myself.

I only have one pair of hands.

"What's wrong?" I overheard Oliver's inquiry to the team leader.

"... That was most likely made by a greater Lost." The leader voiced, deducing the new structure beside where the next Bloodspring was last recorded.

"I could see the webbing and cocoon make sense with the butterfly we fought before, but a structure made with Thorns…" Yami frowned with discomfort.

"As I said, it's likely. I've documented structures similar to these, but they have always been abandoned… Still, be prepared when we approach." Louis warned.

"Got it, manage Ichor and antidotes carefully until we reach our goal." Yakumo followed.

We have been just plowing through the Lost until this moment, but now the expedition continued much more methodically than before.

The fast-paced advance became slower, we avoided the red coral demons and even made a few detours.

Yami and I worked with Ichos to check the deepest parts of the ravines and cliffs, doing our best to avoid confrontation.

The danger of a greater Lost wasn't something that should be underestimated…

Hell, our situation was even worse than that, and I was the only one who knew that.

What we were about to find wasn't some measly mutated Lost. It was a Successor who contained a piece of the Queen, a relic.

We were about to get a taste of a new danger… If not, then it would be worse.

{ŦʯɘʁĚ!!!} 'ŷ0×?!'

A hunger that didn't belong to me bloomed inside.

A mouth that wasn't mine salivated in anticipation.

Its teeth grinded with excitement.

The entity made it clear.

Its avarice.

A desire to consume until there is no more.

It wasn't my own, but I vividly experienced it, until now, I had a clear distinction between it and me… but now, that thing made me feel like something I wasn't.

…hah! This is pissing me off.

'...I won't be doing this any faster just because you want me to.'

I silently grunted.

{Ĥʊɠɘ-} '-ÿ*ʋ&- ā**#%&ɧɘʁ*?' 

For the love of- 

 {₵Ļʘ§ɘ-} {ĦĚʁ€} {℉Į₦₫} '&^%H@#ɘ)ll(*&0???' {Ŋɵ₩!}

'-QUIT THAT SH!T! I'm trying to think!'

The covet for the relic was something I expected. Not this strong, but I could dismiss it.

The little bastard only did something when it was for its benefit.

But at least the void in my chest craving the flesh of the Queen settled down slightly.

I exhaled deeply, realizing how stiff my body was.

"I'm okay, Io," I muttered to her. She had her hand around mine while analyzing me intently.

She gave me a deep look before letting go and putting her gloves back on.

"So…" I started at the group behind me, "I want to leave this place as soon as possible, but I don't want to leave that place unchecked."

I brought up the idea of checking the new structure because the Blood Spring wasn't as close to it as it was in the game.

There was some considerable distance.

And not just that. 

There was no singing nor orange barrier around the nest.

This meant that we were too early to encounter Jack and Eva, or we were too late.

Louis didn't respond as he had his eyes all over a map, marking and writing coordinates, sitting near the Blood Spring that was just revived with my blood.

Currently, we are guarding the surroundings as the only researcher in the team makes the deductions to our next goal.

"Curiosity killed the cat." The live detector, aside from me, spoke.

"Haven't you heard? These guns have never jammed!" I flexed my arms.

"Bah!" Yami gave me a short cackle before answering "They have been in the disassembly section the moment we got to the base. They have been in the mud for tweeny something years."

Oliver, who had been checking his pouch, said, "I still have plenty of Ichor and Antidotes, I'm up for it."

Yakumo remained silent for a moment, "...I don't think that structure is abandoned."

I would've expected him to talk first, but he has been staring off into the distance since the beginning.

He didn't have any means to sense his surroundings like Yami and I, but this man had some good intuition.

Louis sighed, vexed about his findings, before stuffing his tools in his coat. "Dead end, Howling Pit is our next destination."

For that moment, no one said anything.

It did suck that we got the short end of the stick, but the growth and experience we got in working as a team wasn't little.

"...Well, the least we could do is inspect the entity that has created these constructions. There is more than one structure similar to this, we are likely to encounter it later if not now due to our goal. However, be ready to pull out." Louis structured the bizarre nest in front of us.

The nest was still inside one of the many ravines within The Dried Up Trenches, just that this one didn't seem as natural as the others.

Scratch that. It wasn't even a ravine. It was closer to a dome in structure than anything. It encased most of the nest except for a missing part on the top, which let sunlight slip through.

But even the dome couldn't do much hiding. Though, it's not like any revenant would come here to a place that only offered a rotten stench and corpses.

The Thorns protruding from the outside pointing to the sky gathered around in a spiral-like pattern.

It wasn't just those Thorns that differed from the ones seen in the city.

Two lines of obsidian black Thorns made a road towards the nest. Golden gleams slip through their cracks lighted up the way.

We silently agreed to accept this 'welcome' pathway.

No words were exchanged until the dead coral under our feet changed in density the closer we walked the road.

"It's solid…" I glanced at Yami without stopping.

"Quite so." He agreed with a somber expression.

It wasn't just its density. I could somehow see patterns as if they were twisted.

The coral we walked on wasn't as bumpy as it should be.

{ĦĚʁ3-}

I felt my chest tighten as we finally reached the nest. White Thorns of Judgment encircled the area, bent towards the center, creating a jail where a successor resides.

The place wasn't small.

It was bigger than a football stadium.

"... Don't let it touch you," Yakumo warned. His eyes narrowed sharply at the hands of the mutated revenant.

There was a pattern found in the successors that made a nest to live in within the game. They all mutated into monsters. This didn't mean they lost their humanity. Reasoning wasn't corrupted, but it was close to in most cases.

But the successor in this place was just halfway through his transformation.

It was hard to guess if it was the torture or the thirst that stopped him from noticing our presence given how he was glued to that throne…

Well…

Too bad.

For him.

I'm here to get a nice Blood Code from the Queen, and I'm not leaving without it. I need some answers from Cruz as well.

"Io… is he the same as me?" I brought up the topic as if I didn't know.

She peered at the successor impaled from all his limbs in a throne made of dead coral and Thorns without paying mind to the surprise and confusion that had settled in the party members.

"...He is a successor. That is as far as similarities match. You simply share titles." She concluded as if she were talking about some nobody…

That's how she sees other successors?

Huh…

{ɠĚŦ Ǐŧ-} (*&Ħɘ|^%¦º?)

'SHUT THE FU-'

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Word Count: 2666 

Is there even a name for this Successor? Like, only his vestige labels his Blood Code as Darkseeker, but that's about it. He remains nameless in descriptions and memories.