It needs to die
Azik Miles never had much as a kid growing up, nor was such a story a unique one for a child within the outskirts. He was abandoned by his mother early within his life, and his father— Well Azik found him unworthy of being labeled as even that. After all, he never once showed himself to Azik. Although his mother had left him alone in the end as well, she did so when he was 13 years old, by then he was old enough to just barely manage to survive within the wretched outskirts.
Naturally, his options for survival were truly limited, so in the end he decided to approach the rough looking thugs which always seemed to be donned in red. Not long after that he was within The Red Tiger Gang's Intern Division.
It was within his time there that Azik made a new discovery about himself. That being his love for violence. To him when he lashed out, murdered, or merely battered down those around him, it felt as though he was punishing back the wretched place which always sought to destroy him.
In truth Azik hated everything, it was a deep unquenchable hatred which simmered at the center of his very being. That was why he soon found that no other place upon this world suited him more than that of The Red Tiger Gang.
Eventually, he was promoted into The Street Division, and then further down he was even given an option to move forth towards The Royal Division. However, Azik refused such an offer for he did not wish to live a more comfortable life.
Violence was his favorite song and more than that, he was passionate in instigating its melody. While they accepted his decision to remain within The Street Division Azik was promoted to the recently vacant position as The Sixth Red Commander of The Red Tiger Gang. He was also placed to guard the edges of the gang's territories within the central region of the outskirts where bloodshed often occurred between The Red Tigers and their rivals; The Silver Dragon Gang and The Green Python Gang.
To Azik, such a place was no different than a paradise.
And so his life continued. Unlike before however, as a Red Commander, he was also tasked with various new responsibilities. Truly troublesome ones no less. It left Azik feeling irritated to constantly inspect the new recruits within The Intern Division.
He had always found most of them as weak willed and pathetic. However, understanding full well the importance of constantly replenishing the members they lose he continued to approve the new recruits with little enthusiasm.
One day, as he leisurely made a routine patrol of his territory, a figure suddenly approached him. It was a youth seemingly between 14 to 16 years old. He possessed deep black hair which messily cascaded down and covered his brows whilst just barely leaving his green eyes in view.
The young boy also wore ragged clothing, and was covered in dirt.
A brat from the slums?
Azik thought, his eyes suddenly growing colder as irritation began to simmer within him. He had never liked being bothered by these beggars, much less the young ones that never seemed to understand what the word 'No' and 'Fuck off' meant.
For a moment he hoped that the brat would simply ignore him after realizing the hostile glare which he donned. Yet to his sheer annoyance the brat still dared to approach him.
"Excuse me—"
"Fuck off! I'm not interested in giving jack shit to anyone, much less a brat like you."
Before the young man could even finish his plea, Azik had already said his peace. His face was now adorned by a nasty scowl and he promptly pushed away the young boy's body with his own as he defiantly walked past him without adjusting his position.
"Azik Miles, right? Gang leader or whatever?"
Upon hearing his name be called by a cold voice behind him, Azik's body froze. Then with a glance behind him, he at last truly met gazes with those green eyes. Beneath them was something which even now Azik would never forget.
It was cold amusement…
His blood froze and his hand began to twitch, eager to unleash a shower of bullets upon this creepy brats face.
Creep, and a stupid one too, what the fuck is so damn funny to him huh?!
He was about to reach for his gun when the young boy's following words made him halt all over again.
"If you try to pull your gun at me then I'll kill you."
It was a threat, one so brazen and without question that for a moment Azik failed to process it within his head. When it at last did, he wondered if the slum rat before him was merely seeking out death. Moreover his anger had only continued to rise.
And yet despite his surging fury, he did not reach for his gun.
Why hadn't he? In truth Azik himself did not know, or rather he did but he was merely too prideful to admit it. He was afraid of the brat before him. He could not explain it, but when he stared upon the person's cold glare and somewhat curled up lips, he could not imagine landing the shot he was itching to take.
So before realizing it, he was already opening his mouth.
"Brat, what's your name? Why did you approach me?"
Seeing as he took no action against the young boy, the brat's subtle amusement only intensified. Before long he answered.
"My name is Ciel Adams, I'm a nobody from the slums… As to why I came to you isn't the answer obvious? Why does anyone approach a Red Tiger Gang thug if not for drugs or membership? Heh-heh, I'm here for the latter."
Upon hearing Ciel's reply. Azik soon found himself chuckling slightly.
"Hah-hah, so is that why you are acting so brazenly? To make a good first impression? You got some balls brat, real big ones."
Ciel merely smiled.
"Putting aside the warped standards that allow this to be classified as 'good', it worked didn't it?"
Immediately Azik found his anger fading away, instead what replaced it was excitement. The young boy before him did not bother to plead like so many of the youths did when wishing to join. They only cared about surviving, nothing more. That was what made their cries be drenched with desperation.
It was pathetic. Such weak resolve would not grant them a long duration within The Red Tiger Gang.
However, before him Azik saw someone which perhaps was not too different from him.
He could tell that Ciel wanted to join the gang, yet he could also see that it did not truly matter to him. Azik was curious to know what exactly drove this person? Perhaps that was what subsided his fury. Soon his lips curled into a savage grin, his right hand reaching out.
"Congrats brat, it sure did. Hah-hah, maybe a little too much though. Listen here, I'll take you in and look after you personally. Hmm, maybe the label apprentice will be fitting in this situation. But if I do that, then don't disappoint my expectations. If you do then I'll make sure to reach for my gun and not your hand next time."
As expected, Ciel merely continued to smile before then stretching out his dirty hand and grasping Azik's own. Just like so, Azik gained an apprentice. A decision which would later haunt him every time he recalled it.
*****
One month. That was all which it took for a single word to firmly attach itself upon Azik's mind in regards to his impression of Ciel. That word was: Terrifying… Utterly so.
The young brat had wasted no time in proving his worth to Azik. He entered a streak of bloodshed as he single handedly assaulted members of their two rival gangs time and time again. His touch truly felt like that of death itself for Azik had yet to see the brat fail to kill anyone which he set his sights upon.
So impressive was his performance that Ciel even managed to murder a leader of The Silver Dragon Gang. That alone triggered a violent gang war between the two factions which saw the district police be forced to take action.
Naturally Azik reveled within such a chaotic and bloody affair, yet at the same time, his own apprehension towards the personal recruit and the instigator of this all only continued to silently simmer. That mostly stemmed from the brat's strange demeanor and from the fact that even now he was left wondering, what did Ciel Adams desire most? What was his goal in all this?
Azik could conclude that Ciel did not naturally enjoy shedding the blood of others, despite being such a natural talent in wielding violence. He merely appeared to do it as a matter of fact, like a worker fulfilling their contractual duties.
That was why Azik found him so utterly terrifying. So much so that he had even begun considering taking action against Ciel. However, before he could, something unexpected occurred.
One random day, without any warning, Ciel Adam's corpse was found sprawled on the ground by the other Street Division members. The news left Azik shocked and he did not hesitate to move the body into one of their hideouts.
Before long he was able to arrive and face the corpse.
Seeing his unmoving body, and after truly confirming that his heart was motionless, what escaped Azik's lips was not an angry curse to whichever person did this but rather a relieved sigh.
That terrifying brat was dead at last…
Turning towards one of his men he commanded.
"Bring me some gas and a lighter."
His men quickly did as he asked and soon Ciel's corpse was set ablaze by Azik's own hands. Azik, along with the few around him, stood back and watched it burn, and burn, and burn… Until finally, all those present realized something. Ciel's body refused to turn to ash.
"What the…!"
Left with an ominous feeling, Azik watched the still body continue to burn endlessly for the following three hours. He wanted to reject what he saw, but how could he? Ciel had yet to become ash, and from where he stood, he could faintly see his skin switching back and forth between a state of being scorched and that of never having been touched by the flames.
I… I knew something was off about you… I really did… But this? W-What even is this? Just what kind of demon were you Ciel?
He did not dare utter those fearful words before his men, yet it was undeniable that he was truly afraid of Ciel. Now far much so after his death than even when he walked around taking in breath after breath.
"Damn it, someone stop the fire then get me the butcher tools!"
Azik barked orders at his men and soon his wishes were executed. When only Ciel's body laid before him atop a steel table, his flesh somehow still smooth and unblemished, as if it knew not of the flame's touch, the uneasiness within Azik's heart could barely be suppressed.
Within that moment, he dreaded if it was not a human which he recruited but a devil. If he failed to eradicate the corpse of it now, then it might reach out and take his soul. Such a thing was ridiculous to actually consider seriously, however the fear within him overwrote any rationality which he may have possessed.
And so he hurriedly dismissed his men, remaining alone with the eerie corpse.
He took hold of a butcher's cleaver and hacked down Ciel's lifeless body with trembling hands.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
First he detached the head, doing so cleanly from the neck's center. Then he dismembered the hands, followed by the legs. Fresh blood spilled forth, lacking the distinct stench of death which a corpse ought to have.
That eerie reality only made Azik's expression twist further as his hand trembled with intense vigor. At the same time, the speed in which he hacked forth increased drastically, along with the force behind it.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
The sounds of flesh being severed, of fresh blood spreading forth, of bones being cut, all of it reverberated across the empty room which Azik was left in. His clothes were now drenched under a paint job of crimson.
He did not care though, he merely continued.
Please… Please!
And yet, the corpse refused to remain severed for long. To Azik, what he saw was the stuff of nightmares. Each time he severed a part, thin red threads would rapidly emerge and connect back with the severed parts, healing miraculously to its previous state.
By now he was shaking so intensely that he could no longer aim the direction of his cleaver properly.
However, Azik was too terrified to stop. He had welcomed this devil after all. Who knew what it would do to him if it ever opened its eyes again. He tried to hide away a severed part within a steel box, but the corpse merely regrew the missing section from the main body.
Then, after a long night of endless trials, Azik was forced to face the truth. He could not destroy the corpse. Such an admission brought him despair and all which he could do was wait silently for it to awaken to bestow judgment onto him.
However, such a thing never occurred. Even after many days had come and gone. Then after three months of no movement from the corpse, Azik at last allowed some of the trepidation within him to subside.
It was then when he pondered something.
Maybe… M-Maybe I might not actually be in danger.
Thinking such, Azik soon found himself before one of Stone-Dive's Burial Managing Shops. He had dressed Ciel upon dirty, tattered gray rags reminiscent of those worn by someone living in the slums and covered him in dirt, intending to pretend as though he found the body when walking from work near The Western Stretch Highway.
To add to the disguise he dressed as a prim and proper business man.
That way the clerk would not question him too intensely over the boy's identity and Azik could at last get rid of the dreaded corpse which he had been troubled by.
Just like so, he was finally free of the thing which called itself Ciel Adams. That should have been the end of it all, truly he wished that it was.
*****
Azik continued with his life, soon able to forget of such an incident, not because it was easy to do so but rather because he wanted to. He continued in his role as a Red Commander until the day when he was suddenly and without a choice of his own promoted to The Royal Division.
The 12 Tiger Heads had characterized such an action as a much needed promotion yet Azik knew that they were full of shit. Something about their mindsets had shifted, something which Azik could not understand.
That was how he ended up within one of the lowest ranks of The Royal Division. Such a thing infuriated him to no end. However, he could do nothing to change it. Then upon a random night and when he least expected it he ran into him; Ciel Adams.
Ciel appeared older and his demeanor was somewhat different, however Azik could never mistake him for someone else. It had been three years now since he last saw Ciel's lifeless, cold corpse. As such he was left both extremely shocked and utterly terrified.
"No. No. No. No! It can't be him, It can't! He… He's already dead!"
"Ciel is dead… He's dead! He— He died three years ago! I– I saw his corpse! I saw it!"
He was so afraid that he began denying the reality before him, completely unraveling his strong and vicious persona. Ciel did not address him immediately, instead turning towards Max and furiously questioning him over the date.
Watching such a scene unfold, Azik could only guess that Ciel had truly risen from the dead. That he was right to be fearful of this monster. Azik also desperately hoped that Ciel would not know that he was the one who buried him, much less attempt to mutilate his body.
Yet when Ciel at last turned to him and his voice snapped Azik out of his fear ridden thoughts, he realized that it was too late.
"Azik, you said I died three years ago, right? Did you have me buried? Have I been buried for three entire years?"
He knows doesn't he?! If not then he will soon! He— No it! It's a monster! A fucking demon!
Upon that moment Azik felt that he was destined to die tonight. However, even as he thought such, he was not someone who would die so calmly. That was the extent of his desire to live, an emotion which allowed himself to calm down slightly.
He then answered Ciel who was directly staring upon him with a wary voice. His right hand twitched from the overwhelming urge to reach for the gun resting inside its holster underneath his suit's jacket.
"Ciel… A-Are you even human? I– I saw your corpse. Three years ago you suddenly died, your heart was not beating so I know, and also…"
He paused, the fear of recalling the day which he attempted to dismantle the corpse re-emerged vividly within his mind and he could not prevent it from surfacing within his voice as he continued to speak.
Distract it! It seems confused, I can use this! I have to kill it quickly, in one go!
"Y-Your corpse… I couldn't destroy it! Like fuck man what is going on?! W-What are you?! And why the fuck are you here?!"
It needs to die!
While he had spoken with the excuse of distracting Ciel, in truth Azik also needed a moment to affirm himself. To grow the courage to strike upon the devil before him. This was something he needed to do, a consequence of reaching out a hand to that strange brat three years ago.
However, just as he gained that determination fully, he noticed Ciel's green eyes turn colder.
Shit! It realized!
Thinking such, Azik took action. Simultaneously so did Ciel. Then…
BANG!
BANG!
The sound of gunfire reverberated forth.