Sacrificial Doll
Mugen no Ryvius fic by Elise
Rating: R
Warnings: Vampires, blood, Yaoi yaoi *yaoi*…. Oh, and AU. With slight spoilers.
Pairings: Ikukou (IkumixKouzi), Kouzi+Aoi?, Ikumi+Kozue?
Disclaimer: Ryvius is property of Sunrise. This fic is just for fun. And Ikumi/Kouzi.
Summary: Piloting student Kouzi Aiba is bitten by a vampire, and his friend Ikumi promises to protect him- against himself, if need be.
Notes: "Kouzi" is pronounced "Kouji", but the Ryvius books often spell it with a Z. Which looks cool, and you can do that in Japanese, so I don’t mind. You see it in J-rock names and stuff like that.
There will be heavy yaoi overtones in this fic- think Anne Rice. I started this while I was on a Vampire Chronicles kick last year, anyways. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. And there are vampires, so there will be blood. As food. *yummy –note sarcasm-*
For those of you familiar with Ryvius, there are some spoilers for Ikumi’s background. They’re slight, and implied, but they’re there. And I’m going with the earlier characterizations for everyone, since this is completely AU. The personalities from earlier in the series work better.
For those of you NOT familiar with the series, yes, the characters evolve so much in the series that they seem to have different personalities. Let’s see you get stuck on a spaceship for months and months, get hunted like dogs, and have all sorts of personal problems without growing up A LOT. But you’re just here for the nummy vampire shounen-ai, aren’t you? ^_-
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"Thanks, man!"
The group of boys grinned at each other. Kouzi waved as he turned to head back to the bridge.
"Dammit, Aiba!" George McCartney jogged to catch up with him, practically juggling the large box in his arms. They'd gone to Secter E-7 to pick up some components the engineering students had just completed. The components still needed testing, but if all went well, they would enable the survey ships the students used to have twice as much maneuverability. All the gung-ho pilots were ecstatic at the idea, including McCartney.
"Why'd you have to bug so quick? Got a hot date or something?"
"N-no," the smaller boy stammered. "I just have to get back. I've got a lot of work to do...."
"No fun at all, Aiba. Well, I guess not all of us can be natural geniuses like the VG group, huh?"
That was an understatement. Only the four best out of all the 2nd Class piloting students had been chosen to operate the complex mechanical weapon called "Vital Guarder Einvert", and in the test that had determined their rank, Kouzi had scored a whole 36% - out of 100. Kouzi suppressed a grimace at the memory.
"Yeah..." he sighed. "Plus I have to do some stuff for Juli-"
"'Juli' is it? So we're on first-name basis with the Sub-Captain?" McCartney winked at him. They turned a corner and started down a thin corridor that McCartney swore was a short-cut. "Man, you've got it made! Besides the mad studying-thing, of course. I mean, Sub-Captain Bahana is a babe, and the girl who does the announcements when you don't- the flight attendant trainee, not the Zwei chick, Ginny-"
"Fina S. Shinozaki?"
"Yeah. Her. She's got a sexy voice. Is she as cute as she sounds?"
"I guess..." Kouzi flushed. He always flushed when people asked him about Fina. She looked at him funny ever since they'd started working on the bridge together, like she was evaluating him. But she was pretty, with silky brown hair and rich cinnamon eyes....
"Watch it!" McCartney yelled as Kouzi nearly ran into someone coming the other way.
"Ah, sorry...." Kouzi looked at the man who'd nearly trampled him. Tall, lanky, swathed in a long, dark coat.... Red, gleaming eyes....
"KOUZI!"
The tall man's hand lashed out, knocking Kouzi aside. His head hit the wall with a sickening thump and his vision exploded into a field of stars. He screamed. There was so much pain... Head and arm, entire right side twisted...
McCartney, have to help McCartney
.... His thoughts were drowned in a feeble gasp. His left hand reached out, trembling from the effort, as the tall man bent over McCartney.Kouzi let out a choked sob as stinging heat ran up his right arm. His vision swam.
McCartney
....The outstretched arm dropped, strengthless. Death was black, and stank of blood.
****
"Where'd that putz get to..." Ikumi Oze mused aloud. After he'd gotten out of another training session (in which he'd grilled Yuuki Aiba about his brother again, and gotten nothing but grunts and a 'Mind your own business', as usual), Juli Bahana had asked him to track down his roommate Kouzi. It seemed that he'd gone down to E-7 to get the new flight components from the engineers but weren't back yet. Juli needed Kouzi's progress report on the project ASAP, and Stein Heigar was getting twitchy about it.
Ikumi thought Heigar needed sedatives, but didn't say so. You didn't insult the Zwei on their own bridge. They were, after all, the top-ranking pilots and commanding officers of the Ryvius, and had given him a sweet position with the Vital Guarder team.
He'd reached E-7 with no sign of Kouzi or McCartney, his muscle on this trip. The engineers told Ikumi that they'd been there, not too long ago.
"McCartney's got short-cuts all over the ship," one of them added. "Maybe they took one of them. Try hanging a left at the blue 'E-6' sign. There's an old poster for the beauty contest underneath it, so you'll know which one."
"Thanks!" Ikumi said jovially and left them to their work- even though they were only modifying all the card decks in the computers to have half-naked pictures of the singer Osoraku Neya on the face cards. Ikumi considered that a worthwhile project.
He found the corridor easily, and headed down it without hesitation. After a few minutes, in which he mentally cursed McCartney and his 'shortcuts', he saw a shape moving ahead of him in the dim light. "Kouzi?"
The figure's head swiveled to look at him with it's glowing red eyes. It held in it's long arms another person. Ikumi instantly recognized his roommate.
"Kouzi!!"
He ran at them. It didn't matter that this person was larger, taller, stronger than him. He had to protect his friend!
Ikumi and the tall man roared as they collided, Ikumi with rage, the man in surprise. "What are you doing?!" Ikumi demanded. He perched on top of him, shaking him by the lapels on his dark coat.
The man pushed Ikumi off of him with a shove at his face that forced his head up and cracked his neck. He threw him aside easily, hissing. Ikumi saw him draw himself up to his full height. His eyes blazed, and he parted his blood-colored lips to reveal sharp incisors.
"I heard shouting down here!"
"Someone needs help!"
"I can't believe this!"
Voices and footsteps echoed down the corridor. The man flinched and darted off away from their direction.
"Yokatta..." Ikumi sighed. Then he remembered. "Kouzi!" He quickly crawled to where Kouzi lay motionless. "Kouzi!" The brown-haired boy was slumped against a wall. His right limbs stuck out at awkward angles, and there was blood on his collar and behind his head. Ikumi pulled him gently into his arms, not even noticing when his proverbial cavalry of engineers finally arrived. He just sat there, calling Kouzi's name.
"Call the infirmary," one of the engineers ordered. "We have students down. Bring three stretchers; I don't think Oze will be able to walk either." She flinched visibly as Ikumi wailed.
"KOU~JII-!!!!!"
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Glossary:
Yokatta- "Thank goodness!" or "I’m glad". It’s an expression of relief in this case.
-next-
