Chapter 12: Revival

A streak of sweat made its way from Shou's cheek to his chin, his hands fidgeting as he contemplated what his next move should be.

"L- Let's calm down a bit now," he chuckled nervously, stepping backwards, increasing the distance between Reinhardt and himself, "It was just a prank right?... Yeah, nothing but a mere prank."

Reinhardt gave no answer, slowly stepping forward, the blades of grass underneath his feet crumbling up and withering away as if they had been forced into old age within a matter of seconds. He growled lightly as he approached Shou's location, his aura's strength and radius seeming to grow with each step he took.

Shou wiped the sweat that's been hanging off his chin for the longest while, clasping his hands as he moved them both to his side. He took a deep breath, a timid smirk forming on his face as he pointed the tips of his fingers toward Reinhardt's location.

"To think I'm using my trump card on a mere mutt," he groaned, squeezing his hands in their clasped state. Responding to his movements, tiny specs of metallic fragments slowly rose from the forest's ground, the light reflected from their presence dancing in the moonlight. Reinhardt stopped his movements, watching the event unfold around him, his aura, while it was still roaring as if it were a wildfire, it seemed more stable than it did a few seconds prior.

"Die you stupid-" Shou was forced to cut his sentence short as Reinhardt placed himself in one of the several stances used by professional athletes to give themselves a drastic boost in speed. His right leg reached far behind his body while his left leg was bent, his knee pointing toward the direction he wished to race toward. His head tilted upward, his eyes locked on to Shou's location as he readied himself to take off.

Despite Reinhardt seemingly taking time to place himself in the proper form, none of it was visible to the naked eye. To Shou, Reinhardt had suddenly appeared directly before him, their faces mere inches away from each other. He felt the heat and pressure of Reinhardt's aura pressing against him, letting him more than aware of the dangerous position he's been put in.

At the moment where Reinhardt dashed toward Shou, he stumbled backwards, taken by surprise due to the sudden proximity of Reinhardt's body to his. While falling, however, he folded his thumb underneath his other hand, every spec of the metallic fragments that he commanded initially rushing toward Reinhardt's location, covering his body in pure metal and leaving him as a metal statue.

Shou caught himself, regaining his balance the moment after Reinhardt underwent his metallic transformation, a sigh of relief leaving his mouth mixed in with pants of exhaustion. Usually, that would be the end of any battle Shou was in before, encasing them in metal and leaving them to suffocate in a statue of their own making, however, he noticed something that caused his eyes to widen, forcing him to acknowledge his defeat with a smile on his face.

"Xavier!" he called out, distancing himself from where Reinhardt's statue stood, "It's about time you cloaked me and help me get out of here!"

Responding to his statement, within a few seconds, Shou's presence simply disappeared. His body, scent and sound signatures were simply gone all at the same time.

Within less than ten seconds since Shou had disappeared from the area, however, Reinhardt had been moving once more, flashing melted metal off his body as he groaned. His red aura was significantly dimmer than it initially was, getting smaller and smaller with every bit of metal that liquified and fell off his skin. Tired, he sniffed the air, hoping to be able to track down where Shou disappeared off to, taking note of the fact that he was nowhere within sight, however he was met with the scent of burnt metal which evoked a strong sneeze from him.

"Reinhardt is that you?" asked Thaddeus' voice as the sounds of grass and leaves crushing underneath someone's foot neared Reinhardt's location. Reinhardt's physique shrunk back to its usual self and the aura had completely dispersed at this point, leaving him standing there with several bruises scattered across his body, not from Shou's metals, but from his own aura burning himself.

"Damn, I wonder who could've left you this banged up," Thaddeus chuckled, "Did you run into an A-class vampire something?" he asked, resting a hand on Reinhardt's back.

He smugly smiled, standing upward as he readied his response.

"Nothing but a bunch of small fries. It's nothing though... It'll go away in a few days, doesn't even hurt that much."

"As long as you're not feeling too drained chap. How about we clean up here and make our way back to the Association huh?"

"That sounds more than lovely to me."

***

"So let me get this straight," Corniellia said with a sigh, pulling herself up on her hospital bed, "You were leaving, then all of a sudden, you felt a sensation, like a shock make its way through your body, then all of a sudden, it was replaced by nausea? Is that what you're trying to explain to me?"

Sebastian nodded, his hands in the pockets of his pants as he tapped his foot impatiently, "That's exactly what happened, and now I know that you felt something too. So you mind telling me what it is? And don't even try bullshitting me, I know you at least know something of it."

Corniellia took a breath, her mouth hung open ever so slightly as she prepared to answer his question, but someone else beat her to it, his voice demanding the attention be drawn to him.

"When you undergo a vampiric transformation, you'll feel a connection to the person who turned you for a while. In other words, for those who share blood with you, you'll forever feel a connection to them in one way or the other. And in your case, you're technically a newborn, so you'd feel it in full swing," Doctor Ai said, leaning on the door's frame as Nana Moe squeezed into the room from his side.

"I didn't turn him though!" Corniellia yelled, purely confused as her face flushed a light shade of pink, trying to recall the memories of the previous night.

"We know, we did," Moe responded, her soft and soothing voice putting the room in pure silence for a few seconds.

Sebastian's breath became shaky as he turned toward Moe, a look of betrayal on his face.

"Why would you do that?"

"It was the only way to bring you back to top condition so you can live out your dreams as a hunter. It wasn't supposed to be permanent... But something went wrong."

"What you mean something went wrong!?"

"We couldn't revert the black blood cells that had already spread in your body, however... It didn't keep spreading either... So you're technically a vampire... But you're not?"

"Is that even possible?" Corniellia asked, leaning forward on the bed as her eyes shifted from Moe to Sebastian and back.

"There's living proof of it right before you... I don't know what else to say about it. I've never seen anything like this before."

Sebastian's head was held down several thoughts passing through his mind in one moment, bringing him mere inches away from a breakdown, however, he was dragged back to reality once a hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked up to his right, his eyes locking with Doctor Ai's as he sighed. Ai pinched his nose then pushed his glasses further up it before readying himself to speak.

He lightly squeezed Sebastian's shoulder and spoke, "Look, I know this is a hard thing to accept, especially with it being this sudden, but what's done is done. You can either accept it, or wallow about it for the rest of your life... So what's your choice kid."