HAKUOUKI: Back in Time

Chapter 20

~Why not listen to music while you read?~

That was it. I ran inside the room hoping to stop Sanan, but unfortunately I was too late.

With a single movement, he threw his head back and drank the strange red liquid all at once. A single drop escaped to trickle from the corner of his mouth.

I thought I heard the sound of a single, deep heartbeat and then the bottle fell from Sanan's hands to shatter on the floor. As it fell, so did he, collapsing into a heap just as the bottle exploded into pieces.

"Sanan?!" Chizuru asked with worry and fear.

Putting Chizuru behind me, I started toward him, but he flung out his hand to stop me. I paused, uncertain. He groaned in agony and pulled his hand back to grip his chest, over his heart.

"Hey, Sanan! Are you okay?!" I yelled

"hn...ghh..."

What should I do?! I took another step foward-

"Aaaah!"

His right arm whipped out, almost too fast to see, and threw me across the room. I slammed into the wall and slid to the floor, stunned. I could barely breath.

"Haruna! Are you okay?!" Chizuru yelled while running to me.

My vision went blurry for a moment before answering.

"I...I am fine..."

I coughed once and looked up to see Sanan coming for Chizuru. I pushed her away and found Sanan on top of me reaching for my throat.

"Eh he...he he he he..."

"Ngh." I muttered struggling to breath.

The hands around my throat were Sanan's, but the man behind them was someone else. His hair began to slowly turn a brilliant white, the color creeping down each strand until his face, twisted with madness, was framed by the color of fresh snow.

His eyes... They were the eyes of a predator, not a human. I had seen eyes just like them the night I had first come here.

Those creatures in the alley, wearing blue drenched in blood... Monsters.

No this wasn't a monster. This was Sanan. He was still the man I knew.

"Sa...nan...!"

Suddenly the fingers around my neck loosened.

"Gah!"

Did he just let me go?

I fell forward, gasping for air. My throat felt raw and stiff, and I could feel the warm lines on my neck where bruises from his fingers were already beginning to form.

He screamed a raw animal cry and clapped a grasping hand to his face. But between his fingers I saw an eye, and in it, a flash of reason behind the the madness.

He's still there.

"Well... I see I have failed then... Suzumori, You... found me too... Perhaps I'm not as lucky as I thought.

Still gasping for air, I struggled across the room to him.

"S-Sanan! Are you okay?!"

his breath was coming in gasps, but he managed a derisive snort.

"You don't have time to...worry about me. Kill me...now, while you...can..."

What? How can you ask me to kill you?! I have never used a weapon!

" I have failed. I can already feel my...mind starting to go. At...at this rate, I'll...I will kill you two..."

Since the day I had met the Shinsengumi, I'd seen warriors kill one another many times. I had seen plenty of killing whether I wanted to or not. But never, not once, had I considered that I might kill someone. And now Sanan was asking me to kill, and to kill someone I knew!

"No... I can't. You know I couldn't do that!"

"You have to!"

I felt his fingers wrap around my throat again. We were so close that I could feel his hair brush against my face. His eyed bored into mine, and I could see reason begin to fade from him.

If I didn't kill him, he would kill me, they said.

"...I know you are only here by chance and I feel... I am sorry that I must ask you to do this. I am so, so sorry..."

His right hand slid from my throat, and landed on the hilt of his sword. Fingers wrapped themselves around the handle and began to pull.

Oh no.

Too late, I realized what he meant to do, and I felt ice creep up my spine.

"Sanan, please! You can't!"

"It's made the task much harder, but, A blade through my heart will kill me dead as an other man."

I didn't,couldn't respond. All of my effort was dedicated to fighting the grip Sanan had taken on my hand and sword, which was now naked between us.

"Kill...me..."

He spoke in start and stops now, as tendrils of madness began to pull him under.

"P-Please... Let me...die..."

I felt tears spring to my eyes, and my chest tighten.

With what little strength I had left I struggled to stop him, but even at my best I would have no chance. His fingers were like steel around my hand, and I watched helpless as the sword prepared to plunge into his heart.

"Stop, Sa-!"

"Gyaaaaaah!"

"Aaah!"