Name: Twenty days later

Author: Rain on your Back

Disclaimer: The lil' shamans belong to Hiroyuki Takei, and the scenario belong to the creator of Twenty Days later. What lies between the main lines belong to me. Only me. %) The song is « Prelude 12/21 », by AF1^^

Pairings: … It wouldn't be funny ! But if you know me, when you'll see who is there, you'll guess %)

Notes: ... It's too fluffy when you compare to the other chapies... But even in the film it was fluffy... Well, I think it's the end. I thought of adding a chapie years later, but I prefer asking you readers what you want... Since I know some of you'll hate me for that crappy ending... I made Hao so OOC... T.T

This is what I brought you this you can keep,
This is what I brought you may forget me.
I promise to depart just promise one thing,
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep.

This is what I brought you this you can keep,
This is what I brought you may forget me.
I promise you my heart just promise to sing,
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep.
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep.

This is what I thought,
I thought you need me,
This is what I thought so think me naïve,
I promise you a heart you'd promise to keep,
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep.

Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep.
Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep.

~ Prelude ~

Twenty-eight days later

… I'm dead. I know I'm dead. It was confused but I heard Him say I was dead. Or was it about something else? Am I dead?

Or am I…?

The albino-looking girl opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times. So she wasn't so dead after all. Her ribcage ached a little – she had seen the old black truck go right to the iron black railing, fast, fast, fast, no more fast after a thunder-loud bang, the blood, the cold, the hospital – but globally she was fine, only a bit tired. Tired from the tension, the infected coming to get her, the soldiers making the girls wear red dress, red as the blood, who's blood, her own, and…

Jeanne gently rose to a sitting position, her hands coming her to rub her scarlet and tired eyes. She saw the infected attacking the soldier with these eyes. She was in a tiny bed, surrounded by warm blankets. Standing up, she heard a metallic sound before seeing a tray entering the room, pushed by her once arch foe. He, offering her the kiss of life in the hospital…

Hao looked at her, staring a few seconds right in her eyes before smiling sweetly. A smile so different from Marshall's one, so sick and wide and harsh and perverted and…

- You're awake.

His voice, gentle, not Marshall's, rough and vicious and… Jeanne took a step forward, slightly shaking, and walked to him, stumbling on her own feet – okay, she wasn't just a bit tired. There was so much to remember… Her voice was fragile when she finally spoke:

- Are the others fine?
- Yeah. Of course we are.

She ended smiling back, a bright and luminous smile, hiding the fierce turmoil in the depths of her exhausted mind before putting her pale arms around his tanned neck and putting her lips on his own, gently.

Hao heard it all, even if she was trying to hide her uncertainty. It had been violent, this adventure, and they all changed, was it for the best or the worst. That forbade him to even think of some sneaky or teasing answer to that kiss. When she broke out of it, she was a bit red. Surely the sun, he assumed.

- Thank you for protecting us.

Still a bit puzzled, the brown-haired Japanese answered:

- You are the only one we need to thank, you know. Even if I find the whole "driving right through a railing" thing a bit dangerous for your own health. Wanna eat?

She nodded and took the cracker he was holding in his hand. Recognizing the little object, she laughed and ate it.

- How is Seyram doing?

Seyram was doing great. Seyram was outside, watching over their way out. In fact, she and the three other teens awake had, in the last month, not only found a protected house, nursed their comrade or fought the infected. They tied some sheets together – that seemed a stupid thing, useless, but… That was Hao's idea. And he wasn't stupid. Even if that didn't look so clever. Finally, after one entire week, she saw it. A plane. So they were really researching survivors. After that, Seyram took with even greater serious her mission. Now they were waiting to see if they would send someone for them or leave them on their own... She hoped they wouldn't. But hey, the Infies were dying, soon even abandonned here, they would regain a somewhat calm life... If they had one to begin with. She smiled, humming sweetly a song her father used to sing to her. And she heard it.

The light brown-haired kid stopped humming, listening with attention, waiting for a certain noise…

There it was.

She rushed to the door, screaming.

- I heard it! I heard it! HAO-NII-CHAN! MINA-SAN! They're coming! THEY'RE HERE! We're safe!

Hao let go of Jeanne, dragging her to the main hall. He walked to the child and bent down to her height:

- You sure, Seyram?
- Uuh! SURE!
- Then we're on! RUTHIE, NICHROM, GO!

The two other survivors had appeared from one of the first floor's rooms. The four teenagers ran outside, followed by Jeanne, still a bit astonished, reviewing her memories. Hao went to one point of the field, when Nichrom and Ruthie went to another, and Seyram to a third. Confused, the albino-looking girl stilled a bit. In the end, she went to help Seyram. They dwelled the white material on the ground then stepped on it to stop the wind from making them fly away, putting rocks to help.

Their white sheets tied together were spelling the word "Hi". Hi, normality. Hi, world.

And they waited and waited, in the eerie silence of the valley, they hearts beating fast. The sound was growing louder with each second, now heard by everyone.

And then Seyram saw it. With her wide bright light-brown eyes, the little girl who was no longer mute saw the X-Laws-marked plane with helicopter-like propellers which was flying towards them, white point in the endless blue sky.

Immediately after Seyram, Jeanne and the others saw it and Rutherford jumped joyfully, letting out a scream. The engine seemed to stop above them, thanks to its propellers, and then released what had the shape of a smaller helicopter, which approached at a faster pace, ruffling their hair.

Its occupants had seen them. Plus, they were X-Laws, they were Shamans! The teens were safe. At last.

The helicopter lowered itself to the ground, sending windy blasts to the group of teens. The noise was nearly unbearable. Slowly, it faded away as the motor stopped. The strong wind disappeared too and they stood still, not really believing what was happening.

The door of the black engine opened slowly, and there, they heard a tiny boyish scream.

- HAO-SAMA!

Hao thought he would just break down and cry as he saw the small African boy run to him and hug his leg, unable to reach anything above. The fire Shaman bent low and took the crying child in his arms, inhaling his hair deeply, taking in the scent of Opachô. There he was, his little comrade, his first friend in this life…

Then he looked up at Keiko, who had appeared behind the kid. The tall japanese woman was smiling, a sad little smile, her eyes shining with something… Hope, maybe? He shook his head. Yoh wouldn't be saved. Yoh was dead. They couldn't do anything about that.

But that didn't change the shining sparkle. Maybe a light faded a bit, but there was another, brighter, stronger. Something more, more… More like happiness. Relief.

What?

She opened her arms.

Instinctively, the six teens, the six children, Rutherford, Nichrom, Seyram, Opachô, Jeanne and even the mighty Hao ran to her. They just needed that warmth, that kindness…

Rutherford was happy. Well, as happy as she could be. They were all alive, and they were safe now. The scar she had gotten on the top of her back was worth it. Nichrom smiled to her, the little scratch on his cheek moving with his lips, his only valid eye looking at her happily. That too was worth it, she thought again, if two scars and an eye, which Hao could maybe, in a near future, be able to heal properly, since he got back all the Gobosei's secrets, and if he could obtain a spirit in the normal world, he would maybe be able to return to his glory, well, if these injuries were the price of a life together, she would bear it.

Jeanne opened slowly her eyes, which were shining with tears of happiness, and suddenly broke free of the embrace. Marco and Meene, both of them looking slightly tired but more than relieved, were there, just a meter away. Only a meter away… Her family… Well, safe, without any risk or danger this time…

The young maiden let her tears flow freely and hugged them. That was something she had doubted to ever live again, just be there with the ones she considered as her family…

The oldest teen's brown dark eyes found Marco's light blue ones, and they stared at each other for a very long time. Hao muttered, still lost in Keiko's embrace:

- I brought her back.

There was a silence as the blond stared through his glasses at the little girl lost in his arms, then at him directly. In Hao's eyes, he saw the blood, the fear, the pain, the fights, the feelings. With this oh-so-little smile of his, he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and finally answered:

- Thank you.

Rain: ... The end... It's so stupid... T.T

Hao: ... I totally agree.

Sayo: BAKA! *hits him*

Jeanne: *still cries in her family's embrace*

Hao: ... Pitiful.

Sayo: ... BAKA! *hits him again*

Hao: OW! WHY DO I ALWAYS END HURT?

Rain: I wonder about that too. You're my fav' chara, and yet... Well, I also love Jeanne, and you always mock her, maybe that's why... *thinks hard* Mata nee, readers %)