He could see his bone.
No, that wasn't it. He was bone. Nothing else. Except, when he looked closer, there was muscle and sinew and blood, hanging by threads and swaying with his movements, but no skin, no skin anywhere-
Did you think you would be safe here?
Yes. He thought he would be safe. He was promised he would be safe, that this place couldn't touch him, couldn't hurt him. He had trusted those words, built his world around them, and yet-
Why would you ever believe me?
You promised. You promised. You promised.
Now now Hadrian, you always knew how this would turn out. After all, there is only one thing that Death can promise for one like you.
Golden eyes flashed cruelly-
"Hadrian! Get up already, dear Merlin, how long are you going to waste my time sleeping!"
He jolted up and scrambled to throw the constricting sheets off his body, wiping the sweat from his face.
"I'm up Lysander, give me just a minute." He said, cringing at how scratchy his usually smooth and even voice sounded.
"This lead is time sensitive, in case you haven't noticed. You're lucky I even got us a minute with the bodies, considering how trusting these Japanese wizards are." Lysander continued, sarcasm coating his words and only adding to Hadrian's already pounding headache.
"Yes, I know, I'll be right out Lys, I'll meet you in the lobby." He called back, slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door with an audible click. He consciously ignored the exaggerated sigh that came from the other side of the door.
~*~*~*~*
"And you found them like this?"
"As I said, the bodies were never tampered with. It almost seems like they were singled out, though. The attacker followed each individual for days before finally killing them, and all in only two days." The man replied, leading them away from the morgue.
"And how many are there?" Hadrian inquired, looking over the man's shoulder.
"Victims? Twenty six. I'm sorry, but I have to get started on these, if you'd excuse me." Hadrian nodded and let the man go, turning to Lysander as they walked out of the building.
"What do you think?" He asked. Lysander let out a deep sigh, looking up at the cloudy skies above them.
"I think it's a curious coincidence that the only naturally red-haired Japanese in all of Kyoto have all turned up dead." He stated simply, and led them into the city.
"But you have an idea of why this happened." Hadrian replied, following close behind.
"I do. There is a particular subspecies of Were-beings that share the same characteristics as those victims. I've set up an appointment with the clan leader, so we will head there now." Lysander said, offering nothing else. Hadrian scowled, but accepted the enforced silence.
He took this opportunity to finally appreciate the beauty of the city there were in. The area they were now entering was a gorgeous union of nature and historical buildings. Nothing Hadrian had ever seen in his life could compare to what he was seeing, not even Hogwarts. The classical European architecture he had spent his life surrounded by held nothing to the effortless character of Japan. For a first destination on his grand journey, his expectations of the rest of the world were now set impossibly high.
They made their way to a series of buildings in the center of a forest which effortlessly complimented their surroundings, rising high with the trees as though they were of the same species. As they neared what seemed to be a courtyard in the center of the buildings, Hadrian noticed distrusting eyes watching them from the windows, which quickly disappeared as soon as he looked toward them.
Hadrian and Lysander approached what seemed to be the clan leader, who was patiently waiting in front of the large bamboo fountain that acted as the centerpiece of the courtyard. As they neared him, Lysander bent into a shallow bow, which Hadrian hastily matched, before standing straight when a tanned hand motioned for them.
"Welcome, Hadrian Riddle and Lysander Albescu. I am Daisuke Kamiyama, leader of the Kitsune here in Japan. I would like to express my gratitude for your interest in helping our clan after these trying days. We have found ourselves facing great loss, and your help would be greatly appreciated. Please, follow me inside." The man stated, his long red hair swaying elegantly as he led them through the doors of the largest building.
Daisuke sat down on a large mat across from where they sat on two smaller ones, and motioned for them to speak.
"We saw the victims of this attack, and have confirmed that all of them were of your clan. Were you aware of this?" Lysander asked, going straight to the point. Daisuke nodded, admirally stoic for the topic matter.
"Yes. In a single day, exactly half of our clan was murdered. Not even the kits were spared." He solemnly stated.
"And what do you know of what happened that day? Were there any witnesses?" Hadrian inquired.
"The majority of those killed were living separate from the clan. When our kits have matured, we send them out to find their purpose, and they only come back when they are ready to have their own kits. This in no way makes them easy targets; even the weakest of our clan - those with a single tail - are noble warriors in their own right. Whoever did this was powerful enough to take down not only the weak, but my eldest son as well, who was to become the next clan leader. He had eight tails."
"And you are sure there were no witnesses?" Lysander pressed. Daisuke hesitated, his sharp jaw noticeably tightening, but sighed in resignation and nodded.
"We have a myth in our clan, of a black shadow cast by the moon that eats the tails of those whom it is displeased with. One of the children, my youngest grandson, claimed to have seen a figure in a dark cloak who used spells of black light to kill a number of our village members. No one else saw this, and he is young, so this must be taken with a grain of salt." Daisuke explained.
Lysander and Hadrian exchanged glances, both confused and unable to draw any conclusions from this information.
"Is that all of the information you have?" Hadrian asked, almost begging for something more.
"I apologize. That is all that we know."
"Thank you for your time, Kamiyama-san. We will keep in touch if we discover anything more regarding this, and please, do not hesitate to contact us if you think of anything that may be helpful." Lysander said, standing and bowing once more before dragging Hadrian out.
As they broke through the forest to meet civilization again, Lysander let out an annoyed sigh and began to walk even faster, forcing Hadrian to almost have to run to keep up with the vampire's long legs.
"What is it Lys?" Hadrian asked, only mildly concerned about his partner's disgruntled state.
"That was a complete waste of time. 'Spells of black light'? What even is that? Are we seriously going to take the word of a child for our only lead on whatever it is your renegade Ash is doing?" He snapped, abruptly stopping to face Hadrian.
"We shouldn't just immediately dismiss whatever the kid saw." Hadrian argued, flashes of the Dursleys and cruel adults rushing through his mind. "Just like you said, it's our only lead for where Ash is, and it isn't out of the realm of possibility. We're just following trails of unnatural deaths, and while I've never seen Ash wear anything but white, or use spells for that matter, it's all we have right now, so I say we follow it."
A strange look crossed Lysander's face, but he quickly turned away with a sharp nod.
"Alright then, we follow the lead." He grunted, and continued the long trek to exit the anti-apparition wards.
~*~*~*~*
"There has been another mass murder." Lysander stated, dropping a newspaper in front of Hadrian, who was tiredly sipping his morning tea.
"Oh?" He sighed, lifting the cup to his lips to delicately sip at the steaming liquid.
"Bulgaria. A vampire scouting the area informed me, apparently it was very quickly covered up. Of course, the damage had already been done by the time the seventy-three bodies were taken away." Lys replied, searching Hadrian's eyes for any sign that he had actually processed any of that information.
The teen quickly downed the remains of the tea, before turning a rueful smile to his companion.
"Bulgaria it is, then."
*~*~*~*~*