The air in the cell was cold and slightly damp. Maya was still curled up in a ball, having not eaten for the past two days despite what the Association willingly provided. She could feel the building shake and rumble and could sense Kaname's presence. Something was obviously going on in the floors above, but she didn't care, she was stuck in this stupid cell. Maya had already tried to break out, but the bars of the cell were blessed and cracked painfully under her touch, and she had had to stop when the pain became unbearable as she'd pulled.
She had sensed Sara's arrival to the Hunter Association, her presence hid in one of the protected rooms on the first floor of the Association. Kaname would kill him sooner or later, it was pure fact. Sara had come for the protection of the Hunters, but Maya knew that he would be able to get inside, even if there were obstacles in his way. This was his chance to fulfill his duty and replace Naomi, who still resided in the furnace, waiting for a chance to rest.
A resounding boom shook the building, much more violent than the rest. It made her jump and Maya turned human, getting back on her feet. That presence...
She gripped the bars and pulled, not caring about the amount of damage it was currently doing to her skin. It could heal in a short amount of time anyway. She tapped into Amara's power, after having the feeling of desperate urgency of the Ancestor who wanted to see her sister again and Maya couldn't help but feel the same way. The metal bar she was pulling shrieked and cracked under the pressure and finally broke, nearly causing her to fall backward. She squeezed through the bigger space and ran up the stone steps, taking them two by two. The ruckus was not on the main floor, but on the flat rooftop five stories up, so she ran as fast as she could, careful to keep from tripping because her hands were still currently healing, the blood slowly drying on her hands. She reached the roof, seeing Naomi, floating a few feet in the air, tendrils of what looked like sand stretched out, grabbing hold of weapons.
Kaien was there, Yagari, Zero, Yuuki, Kaito, and Kaname were there too. Everyone besides Kaname was staring at the Hooded Woman in fear and surprise.
"You've...already done your best. Ten thousand years is sufficient, so...please rest." Said Kaname. "I will succeed you."
Maya ran forward, stopping just short of Kaname. "Naomi..." She said, her voice trembling. If these were the only moments she would have, the feelings and presence of Amara swelled with gratitude and love. A shimmer of happiness cause Maya to take a step forward and away from Kaname, not wanting to be near him. The sand-like tendrils wrapped around her waist and an arm, holding her still, or embracing her, Maya couldn't tell. She knew that Naomi could sense Amara's awakened essence inside of Maya.
"Maya...what..." Kaien said. She paid no mind to anyone else as Naomi approached, sinking down to her level, her green eyes mirroring Maya's and she marveled at the similarities that they physically shared. Naomi looked from her to Kaname without saying a word, and Maya knew that she knew what Kaname had done to her. A look of deep disappointment crossed the woman's features as she turned her gaze to Kaname, who calmly looked back at her as if not fazed by the fact that he had belittled Amara's kin, and had used her to fulfill his selfish wishes.
Naomi turned back Maya, raising a hand to brush the back of her cheek, and then wrapped her in a one-armed hug. Maya was struck, not believing that she was having physical contact with her ancestral sister so-to-speak. Her eyes pooled with tears, and with her free arm, hugged the floating pureblood and buried her face in the other's shoulder. The embrace lasted mere seconds before Naomi pulled back, giving a kind kiss on Maya's forehead, and placed a hand on her cheek. Maya could see her skin began to crack, a sign that her time as the progenitor's life was coming to an end.
"Please...don't leave me, too," Maya stated, words trembling. Naomi placed a hand over Maya's heart.
"I am here," Naomi said. Maya was startled at hearing her voice in person. A tendril of sand rose from the depths of the Hunter Association, and in it was Bloody Fang. It carried it over to Maya and she took it in her hands. "And here..." She looked down at the gun. Maya had seen weapons being destroyed as she ran through the main entry hall of the building, being destroyed one by one. By Naomi had spared her weapon, why? "You are a good girl, Amara. I love you, sister."
"Naomi..." The name faded from her lips, just as Naomi's body burst into sand and rock, not the crystals that she had normally seen from a dying pureblood like Shizuka. Another moment passed by as the dust settled before Kaname approached.
Maya did not move but regarded him with a wary gaze. "What."
"Sara is gone, that leaves you to do the duty that I have ordered you to perform." He said.
"I haven't forgotten, now that I am free I will do it." She replied, eyes drifting to her fellow Hunters and brother. "Get going. They'll skewer you and then I'll have to be the one to take over the furnace." Maya didn't care for him at all, but it was her duty to protect him despite how much she hated his guts.
Kaname disappeared in a flurry of bats despite Yuuki's protests. Kaien and Yagari stormed up to her, and she held her ground when they got too close.
"Maya, what the hell was that!" Yagari practically shouted, his blue eye was ice, formed with fury and disbelief.
"You two are the experts on digging up information, you idiots tell me." She stated, pocketing her gun into the waistband of her pants. "Tossing me in that forsaken cell was the worst thing you could have done, and I will never forgive you for it. You were one of the last people I thought would make a better judgment call and you stomped me into the dirt like trash. You hurt me."
"We had to, you were being reckless," Kaien said, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Because I had to be!" Maya practically yelled. She took in a deep breath and calmed down. "Everything will be revealed in due time, I promise. But for now, leave me alone and let me do what needs to be done."
"I can't let my daughter go on a killing spree. Zero is just getting over those urges and I don't want you to follow the same path." He replied.
"I'm old enough to make my own decisions, and I know what I'm doing. So stay out of my way, or you're going to get killed." There she went, pushing people away again, the endless circuit of open and closing her already destroyed heart. Maya turned away. "And I'm not your daughter." She stated as she walked away, phasing to her wolf form and jumped off the building, landing safely and gracefully on the ground below, ignoring her name called by Zero as she ran off.
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It was a ways to run, but in wolf form, she knew that she would get to the Tanaka's quickly. Once this was over and done with, she wouldn't have to worry about her brother anymore. He could live a normal life. And she? Probably spend the rest of her life under watch, or in lock up and labeled a murderer. She prayed that Kaname would not longer need her, and would set her free.
Hiding her aura when she got to the house, she saw an open window in the back and silently climbed then shut it, turning human to check the chamber of her gun, along with the clip.
"You're still intent on killing us, then?" Jurou asked. Maya whipped around, seeing the father of the Tanaka family calmly sitting in the chair behind his desk.
"Yes," She affirmed, with no hint of hesitation.
"How did you escape the Hunter Association?"
"I was let out unintentionally..."
Jurou set the book he had had in his hands aside and stood. May traced him with her gun as he walked around the desk to approach her, and she stepped forward, until she was a few feet away, gun point blank at the pureblood's heart. "Go on then...kill me, I won't stop you."
Maya surprised herself when her finger hesitated on the trigger. Why was he so open to getting shot? This man was a head of a hospital, several, was he willing to give up his life just like that? Then again, he had three other son's who would take over the business who were as equally as talented as him. "No pureblood would go down to the grave with that much acceptance."
"Would I really be that type of person?" He replied. No, Maya knew he was not the type to fight back in certain circumstances, then again they never were in any big scandals or problems because they were too nice. "So, that leaves me to beg the question, what type of person are you?"
"Shut up." She growled.
Jurou took another step forward, the barrel of her gun pressing into his suit jacket. "I can see that you don't want to do this. I am trying to help you."
Maya gave a snort, face set back to uncaring and hateful mode. "You can't help me. No one has ever given a damn and tried to help me. They wanted to, but I wouldn't let them because I knew I couldn't be helped." She knew that whatever she did after this would push a lot of people away, including her brother. It was good, nothing could hurt him anymore, and he would be comfortable in living a life he wanted without her there to screw it all up. The same went for everyone else.
"Is that why you pushed Heisuke away?" he asked. "I know that you two cared about each other."
She cocked the gun with her thumb. "What's done is done. We would have never worked out anyway, I'm glad I got rid of him."
"Why is that?"
"I warned him what would happen if he got close to me, this is what ignorance does." She replied, gesturing to herself, then him. "Everyone who gets close to me dies, whether by someone else or by my own hand. My parents, my brother, my friends family, my fiancee, my friends, and they're all dead because of my existence!"
The office door burst open to reveal the rest of the Tanaka family, Heisuke went to grab me but Jurou held out a hand, stopping his son in his tracks. "What if I offered to help you?" Jurou asked.
Maya scoffed, a grim smile pulling at her lips. "No. I have to do this."
"Why?"
"Because."
He repeated his previous question.
"He'll kill my brother if I don't."
"Who will?" Tadao, the eldest son.
"Kuran." Maya's hand was beginning to tremble, and she removed her finger from the trigger, as to not accidentally shoot the man in front of her with the shaking. "I can't...I can't let that happen...so...so I have to."
Jurou raised a hand, gently grabbing her wrist. "I can see that you don't want to do this, Maya. We can help you, but only if you let us." He was right, Amara was internally screaming at her, as well as the order that Kaname had given. It was a major battle that raged, and she finally gave in when words crossed her mind.
You are a good girl, Amara.
Zero, am I a bad person? Zero shook his head. No she wasn't. She wouldn't do this to herself.
Maya loosened her grip on the gun, which clattered on the wood floor between them and Jurou nudged it away with his foot. "Please..." Those were the only words she could say at the moment.
"Tell us what the problem is..." said Jurou.
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Maya marched up to the front door of the Kuran Manor and knocked. Kaname answered, seeing her covered in dust and blood of the Tanaka family. "It's done."
Author Note: Hello my lovelies! How are you guys doing? I'm hoping to reach the end of this book soon, cause I have a whole 'nother juicy story line all fried up and ready to be served in book 2! At LEAST 3-4 more chapters (roughly estimated) before this book comes to a close. I'm so happy for all the votes and reads (now 1.2k!). Love you guys!