Bloody turquoise eyes | JJK x OC

Canto XXIV - Il Diavolo a Due Facce

Immediately Gabriele put a hand forward to stop the child from doing anything that could potentially alarm whatever was inside with them. Slowly he slid the sword back into its sheath so as to free his hand to communicate the only way he could.

"Are you hurt?" the teen swiftly signed. The kid gave off a hint of recognition and tentatively replied.

"Bad. Dog. Inside." she awkwardly put the sentence together as she pointed her index finger toward the king-sized bed in the middle of the room. This led Gabriele to peer over the frame, the sight he was met with was just as horrifyingly cruel as he'd never wished to speculate. A transfigured human, the last one left on this floor, head deep into the bowels of a fresh corpse, ingurgitating as much flesh it could to then retch it all over and start again in a disgusting loop of cannibalism. His focus shifted back to the child, some words of reassurance were in order: "I'm gonna take care of it. I need you to be brave now and shut the closet door..." he politely commanded her.

Albeit the hesitancy, the child obliged and closed herself inside the secluded darkness of the wardrobe, pitch black surrounding her in an overwhelming manner. The narrow space was jarring, oppressing even, that made breathing harborous and at the same time the sounds outside were the only thing left to focus on, which was unbearable. The total discomfort made the child decide to yank the hearing aid off her head. The silence was absolute, as she gathered her knees close to her to then hide her face in, the vibration of the mysterious guy's steps going from right to left until she couldn't sense the thuds anymore, minutes inflated to ten times their real span. When the thuds came back, fear of the unknown returned assertively as the child scooted back into the furthest corner of the closet, the doors swung open, and the initial fright soon soothed into a calming, yet still worried uneasiness the moment the stranger poked his head inside.

"It's okay now, you can come out." Gabriele put out the words in hand signs, little by little she stepped out into the light, and the teen could finally take a closer look at the child. She was small, and frail even for her age, the lilac hair kept short just below the chin level but her right side was cut somewhat recently, perhaps she had the surgery for the cochlear implant only a few weeks ago. Her dark eyes told him of a threatened innocence, having to witness such horrors, her slim nose wrinkling as if holding a sob, the corners of her thin mouth quivering. She wore a sparkling, light blue dress, keen for a little princess, probably she had joined the festivities earlier in the evening to avoid the crowd.

She lunged herself into him and held tightly onto the surprised teen's torso, her white voice cried out with a strange tune typical of those who never got to hear themselves. Gabriele gradually wrapped his arms around her while his eyes glanced over to his right, where the carcass of the beheaded creature slumped over the two lifeless, unrecognizable bodies. After he had disposed of the monster, he had looked for some form of identification, finding the kid's ID card inside what he assumed to be her mother's wallet.

Asashiro Hoshi, age six, was born in Utsunomiya, a city in the Tochigi prefecture, on the 23rd of July 2012. 

He kept her ID in his pocket, making a mental note to search for any living relatives after the situation was solved over here in Shibuya. Suddenly, the divine essence burned brightly in two digits of his left hand, perceiving a source of cursed energy rapidly approaching his position, heavy footsteps resonating in the corridor. Without a second thought, Gabriele scooped Asashiro with his left and extracted his longsword to clash edges against the blade of a katana.

"Damn kid, don't swing around that thing, will ya?" a middle-aged man in a trenchcoat yelled at him as a familiar face, or rather a familiar muzzle appeared right behind him.

"Gabri-Kun, you're alive!" Panda greeted him.

"Huh?! So you're the exorcist kid I keep hearing about."