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Human world mission, next day, saving someone
The little Death trainee Nerissa had insisted on following Yakov everywhere despite all the death glares, protests and warnings the Sun Intermediate had given her. He supposed that he couldn't stop her from joining him on this mission unless one of the division leads intervened and stated explicitly that he had to do the reconnaissance alone. Which was very likely out of the question since she was a Death division hunter and this was something right up her alley.
On the flip side, he figured that there really wasn't any harm in having Nerissa around given that she had proven to him time and again during the previous times when she had tagged along on more dangerous missions, her ability to defend herself and lend him a helping hand in various tasks. Yakov could tolerate her presence and not let himself be distracted over the need to watch out for her. She could get herself skewered by one of the horsemen because of her own inexperience and he wouldn't jump in to do anything about that.
< Right. And you'll spend every second that she is here telling yourself that over and over like a broken record to convince yourself so. >
James quipped dryly. Yakov snorted as he tried to focus his attention back to the reconnaissance task at hand. Both he and Nerissa were to investigate a deserted warehouse at the city outskirts to see if there were any signs to indicate that it was being used as a lair by the horsemen. It would probably turn out to be nothing like the many reconnaissance missions that Yakov had been on all by himself but the Sun hunter still couldn't help but worry a little as he watched like a hawk Nerissa’s each and every move.
There was nothing at the warehouse in the end just as he thought. They should have turned around, left things be and returned to Deus to file the negative report. But Yakov thought he saw something on the floor in the middle of the warehouse and decided to check it out. It was a magic circle used for the horsemen rituals.
… s**t.
Before they could turn around to bail and make their escape, the horsemen who had been lying in wait in the shadows ambushed them. Summoning his weapon to his hand, Yakov had tried as best as he could to put himself between Nerissa and the horsemen to parry their blows.
< Still trying to convince yourself that you’ll let them gut her? >
< Shut up. >
James was right. His partner knew him all too well after all the time that they had spent together. That, even if he would rather die than admit it, he did find Nerissa cute at times and would die if need be to protect that. They were nearing the shutters now. He saw Nerissa dive ahead of him to slide beneath it to safety. Good. There were just too many horsemen on their heels right now. He had to make a decision fast to ensure that the mission report would reach Deus. He dived for the switch to lower the shutters entirely then smashed it in with the hilt of his blade to prevent anyone from undoing what he did.
”There's too many of them! I'll hold them off here! You get back to headquarters and make sure that they know what happened and that's an order!” He shouted to Nerissa as he turned to face the horsemen. < That's it? No confession? > It wasn't necessary. Not in his mind. He could tell Nerissa that when he got back. If he got back. If he didn't, he did not see the point in burdening her with this.
The horsemen knew who they were the moment they saw his falchion. The blue runes and familiarity with how they worked that identified him as no ordinary human but a hunter. They would have loved to keep him, slowly torture before finally killing him but they had no time to lose when the locations of one of their lairs was compromised like this and Nerissa was still on the run. The end was quick as they ran their blades into him over and over for good measure so that he wouldn't come back and then they left him on the floor, bathed in his own blood as he watched them, helpless to do anything until his time was up.
