Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

Zero didn’t really like dying.

It was painful and inconvenient, taking him from consciousness and plunging him into a void he couldn’t find his way out of. He didn’t like the darkness that absorbed his mind, sinking him into its murky and infinite depths, and making it impossible to think properly. It enclosed heavily on his body, whatever movement he managed not feeling like his own.

It was much easier to just not die.

But that hadn’t always been avoidable.

At some point, the boy’s mother had stopped coming to see him and his father had started. His father was not like his mother. Not once did he cry or apologize or say much at all.

But sometimes, he did speak.

Why won’t you die?

And he would try to remedy that problem.

Over.

And over.

And over.

Until his delirious rage and defeat carried him from the room and from the indestructible body left on the floor. Alone. In the darkness.

All encompassing nothingness.

Until the whisper returned.

The ever so slight warmness in the boy’s chest, light and soothing, the only thing to keep him company.

Until his father appeared.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Until he didn’t.

And the man who opened the door pulled him from the only empty confines he had ever known and took him out into the world.

The first time he died with Ren, the angel didn’t even seem surprised. Zero had tried to block a downward slash from the man, but his body was weak and unsteady, unable to hold off the large weapon. His arms collapsed and the blade of his katana cut deeply into his chest, crushing his ribs and slicing into his lungs, before he dropped to his knees, gagging on the blood that bubbled from his mouth. Ren had given him an exasperated roll of his eyes as Zero’s vision went fuzzy and the horns split from his skull.

“Oh, knock it off.” The man pulled the katana from the devil’s body and whacked him hard on the head with the flat of the large sword. “Don’t be so dramatic. Get up. Control it.”

Zero watched the darkness disperse from his vision as his horns retreated and he looked up at the angel who held the boy’s katana out to him. He stood, taking it, and Ren walked behind him and adjusted his arms into the proper form.

“You’re not weak, boy,” the angel had told him, tapping his elbow higher. “So don’t act like it.”

It took the storm another three days to pass and allow the sun to return as the group waited it out in the protection of the cave. However, there was no reprieve from the demon’s blood lust or her jittery stirrings as she practically bounced around the not nearly large enough area. It was discomforting the way the woman observed the boy, her voice silent but her eyes loud, plotting out ways to slay the devil. There was no where for him to go, trapped like a rat in a cage.

When the clouds finally cleared and the skies were a serene blue, no time was lost in grabbing the devil and dragging him out from the cave’s walls and out into the open, the fox more than ready to play with her prey.

Zero stood straight while Sakura walked around him, her bushy tail swishing back and forth, as she poked his shirtless torso with a dagger. She watched as the blood surfaced and then sucked back into the small wound and disappeared before repeating the action, going a little deeper each time.

The boy was motionless, staring off into the distance, his thoughts on his jacket laying in the cave with the large hole in the back of it. He liked that jacket and didn’t look forward towards having to get a new one or listening to the man grumble over the purchase.

“Do you really need to do this?” Ivy asked with a tremble in her voice as she sat next to Ren against a short rock face, her arms hugging her knees tightly into herself.

Zero glanced at her, his body feather light at the vision. The girl was like a dream, looking at him with such concern, her eyes shining, lips slightly parted. Always so lovely. Always so sweet.

Zero made a mistake.

He should have run that day.

He should have taken her with him.

Ren would have understood.

“Yes!” Sakura plunged the dagger into the side of his thigh, resulting in a sharp gasp from Ivy. The boy didn’t so much as flinch.

Now he would need new pants, too.

“Come on!” The angel groaned, his face scrunched as he ran his hand through his hair wearily. “I just bought those after his last growth spurt and you’re gonna stab holes in them? You either stitch them up or you’re buying the next pair.”

“Fine!” She stabbed him again, digging the dagger around the meat and severing the Femoral artery. “I will!”

“You’re wasting your time,” Ren told her as she pulled the blade and observed Zero’s eyes. “Save you and everyone else the hassle and skip to the finale. None of this little stuff is going to do anything other than drag it out needlessly.” The angel smoothed Ivy’s hair as she hid her face in her arms, shaking.

Sakura clicked her tongue irritably, holstering her dagger and pulling the glaive. The plan had been to work her way up to see at what point the scales would tip, but if Ren was just going to complain…

The devil looked the weapon up and down, lingering on the overly large blade with sharp curve that reflected the sun’s rays from its steel.

“Is there a problem?” the woman asked, noticing his slight change in stance.

Zero considered the high possibility of dismemberment. “Your glaive will be… uncomfortable. Could you use something less excessive?”

She shrugged and returned the weapon. “What would you prefer?”

He nodded at his katanas next to Ren, and the angel unsheathed and held one out to the fox.

Making her way over to the man, she took and held the katana up, feeling the lightness of the slender sword, and spun the hilt through her fingers as she returned to the boy, nodding her approval. “This is nice. I like it. You made a good choice.”

“Thank you,” the devil said softly.

The blade was aimed at Zero’s heart as Sakura’s lips curled into a satisfied smirk. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Small, nervous squeaks came from Ivy’s throat as she continued to hide behind her knees. Ren looked at the anxious girl sympathetically and rubbed her back, trying to help calm her.

“He’ll be okay, Little One,” he assured gently. “It won’t be like last time.”

The woman kept eye contact with the devil as she slowly pierced through his ribs, lungs, and heart. His eyes widened, the blackness starting around his crimson irises and eating away outwards at the white. She listened to his bones grind as the skin split for the horns to make their way through and the wheezes that poured from his open mouth as his fangs grew.

Ivy clamped her hands around her ears and rocked back and forth. “Please,” she whimpered pitifully, quivering under the man’s touch. “Please. Please."

Ren was just as curious as Sakura but not at Ivy’s expense. Her reaction wasn’t merely an emotional one. It was visceral, her entire body affected as the shaking became more violent and her fingers tangled into her hair. It needed to stop. “Sakura…”

But the fox wasn’t paying attention to him, too entranced with Zero’s changing features and the noises spilling from him to pay anyone else any mind. She hadn’t been able to see the change from far off, but now that she had a front row seat to it, their surroundings seemed to narrow to just the two of them. Just Sakura and the devil that was growing before her.

How exciting.

But the woman was the only one who thought so as Ivy’s whimpers grew into a high pitch whine. The man tried to hold and speak to the girl, but she thrashed about furiously in his arms.

“What are you going to do?” the demon asked quietly, twisting the blade as she leaned in closer to watch the final bit of white disappear in his eyes. “Can you fight it?” She pulled the katana from his body, his blood spilling at their feet, and stepped back.

Zero’s mouth opened and closed, choking on the air that entered. He doubled over, digging his claws into the back of his neck as he began pulling the skin and flesh apart.

“Control it!” the fox demanded. “Do it!”

“Enough!” Ren snapped, releasing the girl and getting to his feet while reaching for his sword. “Move!”

He only made it a few steps before Ivy darted past the both of them, diving and wrapping her arms around Zero’s waist. “Stop! He’s hurting!” she cried. “Just stop!” She held him tightly and listened as the long sigh escaped the boy’s lungs and his hands fell from his neck and crossed over her back.

“Why did you do that?” the demon yelled at the girl, furious she’d gotten in the way. “He could have done it himself!”

Ivy pulled away from the devil and turned towards Sakura, straightening herself as tall as she could and raising her chin defiantly, ready for a fight. “I don’t want you to hurt him! He doesn’t deserve it!”

The fox was momentarily stunned by the girl in front of her, but she quickly recovered. “He took you!” The snarl came out harsher than the woman had intended. “He deserves every bit of it!”

Ivy wasn’t like Sakura. She wasn’t wild or hot tempered or uncontrollable. The girl knew how to think before she spoke. And she knew how to be just as cruel.

“You’re punishing him,” she said calmly but there was so much anger behind her words. “You just want to make him suffer because you’re mad. You always do this. You just want everyone to be as miserable as you are, and you want to be the one to do it. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

The woman looked at the girl, lost for words. Ivy had been upset with her before, plenty of times, but never had she spoken so harshly to her. Her words were like a wrecking ball, smashing into and making Sakura’s urge to fight crumble while ripping her heart from her chest on the way out. The feeling was unbearable, and it only multiplied as the unwanted realization that she had done this very thing to Raz and Ren hit her. Hurting others when they were only doing what they felt they had to because she couldn’t control her own feelings.

Ivy was right.

But she could at least try to comfort the girl the way Raz and Ren had done for her.

“That’s not true.” The fox smiled sadly. “I care about you. I love you. I always will.”

“If you did you wouldn’t do this to me,” Ivy countered, her normally joyful features twisted in resentment. Without waiting for a response, she turned and took Zero’s hand, attempting to leave with the boy.

But Zero didn’t move.

He wanted to go with her. He always did. How easy it would be to continue on in the way that she wanted. But how could he ever truly protect her if he himself was a threat to her? He didn’t want to hurt her in any way. But this time, he had no other option.

Either way, he’d be making a mistake.

“I can’t.” The boy looked at the girl, hoping she’d understand. Just like she always did. “I have to do this.”

Zero would have taken the glaive a thousand times over rather than the betrayed look that Ivy gave him as she slipped her hand from his and walked to the cave alone.

Now what was he supposed to do?

“Fuck!” Sakura spat and kicked at the ground before turning and walking off in the other direction.

“Where are you going?” Ren called after her.

“Leave me alone,” she grumbled, leaving the two men behind.

Zero peered at Ren expectantly, waiting for an answer as to what they should do as the man stared down at the holes in the devil’s pants.

“Well.” The angel looked between the cave and where the demon had wandered off. “I’d bet Ivy’s going into hiding. Give it a few minutes, and I can probably sneak in for my bag while you take your pants off and I’ll stitch up those holes.”

“Shouldn’t we do something?”

“This is doing something. Trust me, you do not want to deal with this right now.”

The devil followed the man’s stare to where Sakura was last seen. “You just don’t want to get hit, do you?”

Ren shrugged. “I’d prefer not to.”

Zero nodded, deciding it was acceptable reasoning. “Will you fix my jacket, too?”

“I can do that.”