For what cannot be fixed

“Lookout” Erin cried out as something passed Asato’s face to break the falling ceiling into two. It was followed by a pained grunt from the right, no doubt by Erin who was clutching his side.

“Did you pull a muscle?” Asato asked one eye on his cousin and one on the crouching form of black. It was not exactly a child, but not a man either. Someone close to Asato’s current age seemed the more plausible answer.

“I’m alright. Ask the child if he’s alright” the child, the teen looked frightened. The look on his face screamed of having seen his life flash by his eyes.

Although Erin had stopped the ceiling from doing lethal damage to the child, it was still not enough to safely get the child completely out of danger.

There were rock marks, small cuts caused by rubble and a lot of soot on the child which and Asato felt his heartbeat a little faster.

“You alright?” Asato felt as if his voice was not his own, a certain disconnect in his body and mind made itself known. Was it because he was about to see a life lost right before his eyes, an innocent one?

Or was there a deeper meaning? This felt unnatural as if this was never supposed to happen.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” the voice was barely there in the child’s mouth. It felt more like Asato was reading his lips than to actually hear the voice.

The child spoke but the body language signalled a frightened and abused animal curling on themselves. The child was subtly trying to put distance between himself and the party.

“A child? From experiment? The caretakers?” Nate’s voice was still emotionlessly hard but Asato could feel something in him break at that. Subject? Defective?

He was aware of the rumours about some experiments being conducted which no one was in the know of. Asato had meant to check them out, but then he had gotten busy and everyone who participated in those was said to be voluntary victims.

There was no law broken and yet here was a child who could not have been older than Asato himself. If there was, then Asato would have been the one who would have felt the balance shift.

“Hey, we were never informed about any of this. Was he a volunteer? Or did you guys fuck up?” Erin asked however the grin in his eyes was a dark parody of his usual one. Asato was aware that Erin himself was not totally innocent.

If there were rumours about demon experiments, there had been ones of human ones too. It was a balance that was not spoken of in public but it very much existed. There was no bad side, just grey and greyer.

“Erin, not now. Can you tell us more about the situation here?” Asato asked but he was not conscious if he was asking about the fire, the experiments or the child’s situation.

There was just something familiar about this child. It called out to him in a way nothing in this world ever had after he had made the pact. It felt like chains and yet as hands that were lifting him.

He did not like this feeling, but he did not want to part from it either now that he had a taste.

“There was someone here, to adopt. But one of the elders angered him and then there was fire everywhere. Everyone burned but me. I dragged myself away from it till here b-but e-everyone is d-d-dead” the voice broke at the end and it was a miracle that Asato even heard this much.

It made him frown, something was fishy here. It seemed too weird, the whole account of things that happened. There was fire? But there was nothing but smoke when they had arrived here.

And someone had started it too. He could see it looking at the terrified eyes of the child. He had seen something which had frightened him. Maybe heard something too which he could not repeat out of fear.

And there was something in his eyes, in his posture, in his very power which spoke of familiarity and most astonishingly, of caution. Something in Asato said to be careful of those frightened eyes, that they were deceptive.

Must be the aura the child had had on him. The smoke clung to the very skin of the child, maybe even inside the very skin too.

“I’ll have a look around and take Nate with me as an official looker. Meanwhile, try to calm the child down as much as you can” The two left the child and Asato alone.

There was a tense silence where Asato could not start anything and the child looked too frightened to do the same.

“You, don’t feel bad about all this. We’ll get you settled down fast. Do you need anything? Clothes or food?” Asato asked the teen who just looked on in a detached manner, but then let out the barest of smiles.

“Thank you” Asato did not know what he was being thanked for but he liked it all the same. The barely-there smile on the teen’s face brought a feeling of relief somewhere inside Asato.

“Ah, alright, I’m Asato, a part-time medic for the people. Can I have a look at your injuries? And a name would be appreciated” Asato asked as he reached out to take the teen’s hand. It was cold to touch but that did not hinder him.

“Name? They called me tenebrosus branch No 013. Can’t I be called that?” the child asked and Asato frowned. He felt, not bad per se, but a deep sadness at the state of the child.

Maybe someplace, another time if he had not been saved his life and name would be this meaningless too. There was a shadow in the child’s eyes that reflected the past before the fire.

Loneliness sated deep within the soul which had no cure.

Asato knew the rules, the detachment he had to maintain. And yet, there was a part that screamed that they were both similar to each other.

“I’ll call you ten then. It’s easier. I understand that the black smoke was not an easy thing to endure if you did so now you can rest” Asato consoled the teen who tilted his head in confusion.

“Black? Was it not blue, a deep and dark blue? Are my eyes playing tricks on me?” Asato felt his blood freeze, a numbness taking over as his brain shut down. A horrible thought made its way inside his head and took root in his heart.

Was this child not part of the natural order? Was he more like Asato, an anomaly? But that could not be possible for there were only a handful of those entities who could exist in such a way.

Were whosoever behind this, were they even part of the legal order? Were they trying to create an artificial god?

This did not spell good for anyone, and yet Asato could do nothing to solve this now.

__________________________

The room was filled with the burning smell of flesh bad enough to bring even the most tolerant to their knees. It felt revolting to Erin’s nose but that was nothing compared to the horror his eyes saw.

Unlike the corridor outside, the inside was almost pitch black with not even an inch spayed. There laid at least a dozen bodies, most adult in form but 1-2 children mixed in too.

It was still warm, the black surface giving out the heat but all Erin felt was a chilling cold deep down in his heart. It was a revolting scene and yet somehow not the worst he had walked down upon.

“Need to report. Clean up” Nate’s voice was still emotionless but the atmosphere had changed to give off a dangerous feeling. Clearly, the child calamity felt deeper than Erin about the issue. After all, the rumours of calamities hailing from these spaces were not just rumours.

There was something personal involved here that made Erin doubt his theories. Were there really other masterminds behind everything that was transpiring? He had met the higher-ups of the demon sides and they were definitely people who would do such a thing.

But the same could be said for the human higher-ups too. Deep down, they were all the same.

“Tell me, is it fun to involve innocents? Then again, you seem like such a guy to me” For the first time Nate’s voice was clear and full, the meaning clear. There was an edge that would make a lesser man step back and apologise.

Erin was but a lesser man though.

“You are mistaken. I’m as troubled by this as you are. Besides, it could very easily be your people who did this. I won’t put it past them to do this. Aren't I the perfect example of that? If it’s different, it’s dangerous?” Nate scoffed at that.

“Were they wrong? About you. I mean, didn’t you betray us after all? Running away with that sacrifice of ours?” that had been the scandal of the century. Higher demons were rare, the almost ruling class. For one to mate with a human and have an offspring - a half-blood was a taboo.

Erin was taboo but he was not ashamed. As for the child?

“It was not exactly my human part that made that decision if you would believe it. But you won’t would you? Anyway, we will not find anything here so let’s go back” It had been his demon part at that time, something Erin was still not able to access.

He had no advantage over Nate and that side. The human side was not perfect but it had done nothing personally to him. He could stomach it, but not his family.

“Fool yourself then. I don’t care as long as our operations are still active. Let’s go back, for now, the authorities will take care to sweep from here” Erin gave out a full blow grin which seemed all but fake, madness in his eyes which spoke of his true nature to everyone.

“As you say. After all, we can’t let Asato involve himself in this at all. Or the game would end before it even started” Nate just narrowed his eyes, the childish face looking far older than before.

(I'm afraid my fever is not breaking so there will be likely mistakes left inside. Please point them out so that I can correct them at once)