Disclaimer: I don't own anything belonging to MTNN, any similarities found with original characters or tools bear are in no way affiliated with any other works or people.
Summary: *sequel to "Nonsense"* She was a human bound to a demon until he deemed her worthy of death. Forever denied Paradise from that point on, the damned mourns bitter tears.
Note: Did ya' miss me? Almost three years after posting "Nonsense" have I finally come around to posting its sequel "Eternal Damnation" (or "Aeternae Damnationis" if I got in trouble for using "Damnation" in the original title. Yes, that poop alternate title comes straight from Google Translate because I don't know anything about conjugating Latin). It's a bit longer than "Nonsense" but I wrote it to be a sequel and a conclusion all wrapped up in one. Thank-you guys for all your support, whether you really liked my drabble or if you just forgot to remove either me or it from your alerts. Now, without further ado….
"Awaken, Katsuragi Yako. I will not allow another meal to escape."
Neuro's voice startled Yako awake. Her first instinct had her sitting up as fast as she could, but she quickly ended up conking her head against a low ceiling of sorts. "N-Neuro?" she croaked, "I can't see anything! Where are you?" She moved her hands to get a feel around her. Where was she? It felt like a little, metal box! She shivered as she registered the abnormally cold air and the unfamiliar hard surface that was absolutely not her bed.
Click
Slide
The sudden flood of light had Yako wincing and her naked body curled into itself like an earthworm. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she easily found Neuro standing above her. His gaseous eyes raked down her form and he nodded to himself. Twinges of embarrassment flushed her cheeks as she drew the sheet up to her chest. Horrified shock warped her face as she realized her state of undress. "Where are my clothes?!" she shrieked. She scanned the room she was in. Grey and white, metal and tile everywhere, "Where am I?"
"A mortuary, Louse." He rolled his eyes as if it was nothing new. "You were luxuriously resting inside a cold chamber."
"I-I'm… dead?!" She was struck with a sense of déjà vu and tendrils of fear chilled her in a way the cold chamber hadn't. Suddenly uncaring of modesty, she tossed off the sheet and checked her body for injuries. When she found nothing, she held her head with shaking hands, "I was waiting for the light to change," she began recapping, "I felt hands at my back and then I was pushed out onto the crosswalk. The car horns were loud…." A dull pain throbbed behind the detective's eyes as she attempted to mend the gap in her memories.
Neuro said nothing, tossing an unlabeled shopping bag at her feet instead. "Rejoice, Louse. Your kind master has thought ahead for your comfort." His smile was suspiciously wide. She pulled out a zippered bag holding her cracked cellphone and torn wallet and dug through the assortment of clothes, cringing as she found fetish costumes. She settled for the most modest thing she could find… An altered sailor uniform. There was only one pair of panties for her undergarments. She tossed a withering glare to the grinning demon who just pointed his middle finger in the direction of the mortuary's drawers.
Cursing silently to herself, Yako understood his silent message and scampered over, taking her selection of clothes with her. She dug around and found some cotton pads and gauze to bind her breasts. "T-Turn around!" she yelled back to him.
Neuro snorted, "Calm yourself, dust-mite. You bare skin is nothing foreign to me." He drawled arrogantly. He smirked at her indignant shriek and easily caught the jar of tongue depressors she chucked at his head. He threw a handful back at her. The unsharpened wood pinned her hair to the wall behind her, piercing the caulk between the tiles. "You may dress or we may leave like this if you so prefer," he approached her lazily, with a wicked grin, "though I am unsure as to how exhibitionism is perceived in the human world." He skimmed a gloved fingertip up from the sensitive skin of her hip to the side of her naked breast.
Yako slapped his hand away, red as a cherry. He stepped closer to her until she was pressed tightly against him. One long arm wound behind her at the low of her back and he pulled her towards him until one of his long legs bent between her own. The bite on her scalp told her that her hair was still stuck to the wall. "Ow," she winced, "Neuro… what…?"
His large hands encircled her wrists, putting enough pressure on them so that she dropped everything. His arms stretched hers out and she look away with mortified tears in her eyes. The demon craned forward, strong back bending and broad shoulders curling inwards to trap her with his body. "As much as I would enjoy parading you around, I find myself loathing to share you as of late." He confessed. When she didn't respond, he growled. He shifted so that only one hand held her thin wrists while the other gripped her chin in a bruising vice, forcing her to look at him. "Don't you dare ignore me, Louse." he ordered.
The detective was once again struck with that sickening sense of déjà vu. Her eyes widened as she openly stared at the demon, words echoing in her head. Seeing that he no longer had to forcibly hold her attention to him, he released her chin and his hand slid down to curl around the side of her neck. His thumb rested dominantly over her trachea, "I am you master," he said domineeringly, "I was since the day I met you, and I will be for all eternity."
She didn't seem to hear him though, eyes glassy as bits of a forgotten memory floated through her mind. Something was telling her that Neuro had said those exact same words in a different place, at a different time, and in a completely different setting. Her head began to throb again as she attempted to pry open the door to her lost memories. In faintest recesses of her mind, a whisper of a furious shout made her soul tremble.
"I will never set you free!"
"I will never set you free." He leered down at her. Eyes wide, she was struck at how familiar and yet so foreign everything was. Yako watched the subtle movement of his jaw and unconsciously tilted her chin. The demon smiled slyly before sealing his mouth over hers. Her face twisted slightly from the burning blood, but she didn't fight him. The movement under his thumb had him stroking her neck proudly. Releasing her with a wet pop of their lips, he grinned. "Such an obedient servant," he praised, "maybe you deserve a promotion?" His hand slid from her neck and over her modest bosom to sit atop of her left thigh. "And perhaps a reward as well? It seems you've finally learned your place, Katsuragi Yako."
The air around her was heady, sultry, as her thoughts became drowsy. The feeling was familiar, but not as intense as she somehow expected it to be. "N-Neuro…" her voice came out in an unfamiliar moan as warmth pooled low in her belly. "I need…" Her eyes drunkenly held his gaze, her back arched to press her breasts to his chest. "I don't know what I need," she confessed with a whimper. "I'm so warm, a-a-and I can't… think straight…!" her legs clenched around his in unknowing frustration.
His demonic eyes were wicked and his smile absolutely depraved as he looked down at the wilting girl. Intoxicated by his blood and enshrouded in the newest mystery, she looked positively delicious. He released her hands to detach her from the wall and pulled away. Yako's legs shook and she promptly fell at his feet. Neuro gave satisfied chuckle and she looked up, blinking drunkenly as he cupped her chin. "At any other time, your show of submission would not go unrewarded. But right now, I am hungry for the mystery surrounding your… assault." he chose the word carefully, "I must satisfy that hunger before I solve this one." His grin was nothing short of sinful as he leered down at her, using a middle finger to point to his groin in a crude promise.
The innuendo sobered her as she scrambled away, beet-red. Some strength returned to her legs and he watched her gather her things from the floor. She turned to toss a glare at him, "T-Turn around!" Yako yelled her earlier demand. She was rewarded with silence and a sarcastic smile and grumbled to herself. She ended up huddled in a far-off corner, her back to him. Neuro watched as she attempted to dress herself as fast as she could but the effects of his blood slowed her movements.
The detective turned around to face him, flushed in embarrassment as she wore the fetish-altered sailor uniform. "Well, what are waiting for?" She stepped into the heels and snatched her things from the bed. "Let's go solve this mystery!" Neuro moved to follow her but stopped as the toe of his boot tapped against the now-empty jar of tongue depressors. He grinned as he kicked at Yako, watching with great satisfaction as it made contact with the back of her head. The force of the blow pushed her forward and had her tripping on a broken piece of tile on the ground. She straightened-up quickly and threw a red-cheeked snarl behind her.
Yes. As hungry as he was, he'd rather save her for dessert.
Yako watched her assailant's face contort in horror. He pointed at her, called her a ghost. A monster. His loud accusations garnered a whispering crowd. She ignored him of course, used to such name-calling since her reputation as a glutton usually had shop-keeps and former classmates calling her the exact same thing. His face was ashen, cold sweat beaded from his brow and he easily confessed his crimes in his fright. He panicked as he claimed to have killed her not even twelve hours ago.
Neuro praised her with an insult and he filled his belly. He gave the criminal an extra-special treat as thanks for targeting her, attaching one of his ever-so-fun 777 Tools of the Demon World to him. The demon was kind enough to tell the man how it worked as the tool burrowed itself into his skull. "Evil Reality" – as it was called – caused visual and audial hallucinations based on past experiences. "Rejoice, little worm, I have granted you the gift of reliving your greatest memories." He smiled benignly, conveniently leaving out the fact that the memories dug up would be warped by the worst fears the man had at the time.
As the local authorities lead the screaming criminal away, Yako saw the people looking at her, pointing at her. They weren't talking about her as the Famous Detective Katsuragi Yako, or her unorthodox and highly inappropriate outfit, but the recently deceased young woman who was hit by a car on a crosswalk. Her eyes scanned the crowd and she stopped. A beautiful man in a periwinkle suit stood imperiously in the crowd. The floodgates to her memories burst open and she remembered.
A periwinkle suit, golden yellow neck scarf, white gloves, and white leather shoes which all wonderfully complimented the man himself who was as beautiful as the Greek statues she'd seen on her travels. He was pale perfection with a sharp face, pacified by the inviting smile aimed at her.
But he wasn't smiling now…. No. He was glaring furiously at Neuro. It wasn't from disgust over his race as it had been last time. The rage she felt radiating from him felt much more personal this time around. He turned his head and he she caught his eyes, still as clear and as blue as the day they met. The look he gave her was filled with so much longing, so much heartbreak, that she felt her very soul tremble. His hand was held out to her in silent invitation.
"Your place is among us, Childe. Do not let this… thing, trick you into thinking otherwise."
An echo rang in her ears and she shook her head, taking a step back. Angel or not, she didn't trust him. Gabriel had tried to lure her away from the living world with the promise of Paradise. Neuro, though selfish, was the one who woke her from her deathly slumber.
Neuro's arms suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind to rest his hands on her hips. The air around them shifted and it suddenly felt like they were in on an entirely different plane, the people around them becoming ghost-like. She felt his silent threat rumbling against her back, "She is my slave." One hand stayed on her hip while the other lewdly climbed up her body and curled victoriously under her chin. "My servant." He twisted her head to expose her neck and he bit down at her pulse. Hard. Yako gasped and squirmed as sharp teeth dug and acidic saliva burned. There was no love or affection in his actions, just the pure passion to claim her, to brand her as his…
"MINE!"
… In front of the very being trying to take her away.
Gabriel gave an indignant roar; his beautiful snow-white wings unfurling from his back. He took to the skies and glared down at Neuro. "Foul daemon," he spat, "you vile being! Have you no compassion, no mercy?" He shook his head, confused, as his blue eyes shook in their sockets from his overwhelming rage. "You are a creation of the Lord's as well! How dare you bar her from Paradise? You will not go unpunished!" Sparkling tears dripped from his eyes and fell to the ground like rain, clear and pure.
"I'll find my own paradise!" Yako cried. Her interruption shocked both angel and demon. She had been so passive during their last encounter that they hadn't really expected her to speak up this time around. "How do you know what I want? How do I know if the place you speak of will really be my own?" She questioned firmly. "Happiness can't be given, it's something that only I can find." She bowed her head respectfully to the higher-being. "God gave man free will, didn't He? I must live with my decisions; even if I fall, I'll be fine. I will still move forward."
Neuro threw back his head and heartily released a deep-bellied laugh. The angel scowled as the demon's glowing eyes mocked him from below. "How eloquently phrased, perhaps a promotion really is in order, Katsuragi Yako." The hand on her hip rubbed against her proudly, as if he were polishing a hard-won trophy. "You heard her, Messenger. She is no longer your responsibility. But worry not," His razor-sharp teeth shown in a smile that parodied pacification. "I will take very good care of her." His middle finger tapped against the boody marking he made on her neck, "I always take care of what is mine."
Gabriel shook his head in pity. "Oh, you poor, wretched creature…. You have no clue as to the inkling of her true value." His eyes fixed on the smug demon and he scowled, "She is wasted on you!" He hissed. Throwing the detective one last commiserative glance, the angel disappeared into the clouds above in a gust of wind and feathers.
They never saw him again, and life quickly went back to their own brand of normal.
They solved mysteries and went through their routine plays of sadism, but every now and again it was peppered with some physical intimacy like back in the mortuary. Sometimes she questioned what they were, but she never asked Neuro. How could she? He was a demon; he still didn't understand human sentiment. He was dispassionate, calculating, roundabout, and insensitive. But regardless of this fact, time moved on for them and intimacy became more and more routine. They became lovers of sorts after a few years, though Neuro preferred the term 'mates'.
Whatever they were, they were very active.
On their normal days, if the hours weren't spent filling his stomach with mysteries, they were spent satisfying his other appetite. Yako had come to acknowledge that her life with the demon was an odd mix of detective work and depravity. Even with this newfound intimacy, Neuro never told her how she had gained her amazing healing abilities, or how she was able to retain her youthful looks and spry health years after her mother died of old age. He claimed that she must have inherited some sort of cockroach gene from her ancestors, but the detective had a sneaking suspicion that it had to do with his bloody kisses.
He took her to the demon world with him when she turned a century old. She, surprisingly, had little difficulty adapting to the harsh environment, probably from ingesting his blood so many times. He showed her the territories he conquered, the clans that he subjugated, and the skies he ruled. She easily absorbed all the information he had to offer. When he introduced her to his subjects as his mate, there was outrage from a few demons but Neuro quickly silenced them by severing their vocal chords.
They were happy, or at least Yako was. She wasn't sure if Neuro could feel happiness, but he seemed pleased enough when it came to whatever their relationship was. It wouldn't be until later in her life, that she would realize that her life was a shackle. That her most-trusted mate had permanently sewn her soul to her flesh until he deemed it fit to let her die. To let her leave him. He wouldn't of course; his pride absolutely forbid him from losing her to something as petty as Paradise.
Sometimes, she would ask him to kill her.
She wasn't depressed, but living for so long felt unnatural. He answered, every time, with the same, bored, "No." If she asked why, he always replied, "Because you are mine." In that same flat tone. He was never affectionate in the human sense of the word, was rarely affectionate in the demon sense even, but his consistency kept her sane. She hoped he would never release her, however, knowing that she would go mad if he abandoned her in life. Immortality had that effect on a human.
Yako was forever barred from Paradise, from that perfect and holy land where all good dwelled – the place she so deserved to be. But, in him she found her own paradise, and that was most certainly enough for her.
Katsuragi Yako never knew the truth about those days all those years ago. She never found out that she had been murdered on a crosswalk. Gabriel had watched as she was pushed from behind, saw the bewilderment in her eyes, before her body flew into the air like a thrown ragdoll. Blood strewed across the street and a wayward shoe rolled away from her, screams filled the air and melted into the whine of the ambulance's siren.
The drive to the mortuary was filled with murmurs and questions as the mystery piled up. The coroner and his assistant stripped her and cleaned her before setting her on an examination table. They opened her up to see what exactly stopped her heart and sewed her closed. The paperwork was drawn up and her personal possessions bagged. They laid her on a metal bed with her body set, covered her from head to toe with a white sheet, and slid her into a cold chamber as they left to contact her next of kin.
666
Gabriel scowled at the unwanted irony. He had stood in front of her chamber door for hours, hoping that he could take her to Paradise; but he honestly knew better. Though her heart had stopped, she was far from dead. His eyes stayed adamantly glued to her door and glared at those infernal numbers. Oh! how he wished that her wounds weren't slowly stitching themselves closed, wished that her set bones weren't mending. Tears of pity rolled down his beautiful face.
Stepping towards her door, a white-gloved hand stretched out as he called for her. A shield of black energy domed around her, like the day when they first met, shocking his long fingers with its crackling green and purple bolts. It stopped him from coming within even five steps of her. Combined with such rejection, his ire rose sharply when he felt it approach. "Foul daemon…!" he hissed.
Nougami Neuro phased in through the wall with a merry hum. The corners of his mouth kicking up smugly as he heard the angel curse him. "How tenacious you are, Messenger," he looked away as if in thought, "just like a cockroach." He rudely pointed with his middle finger and thin lips stretched into a shark-like grin. "An unwanted pest." He sauntered over and gloatingly rubbed a hand over her chamber, brushing a thumb over the number as if he was preening. He twisted the handle and slid her out. Neuro ripped off the white sheet covering her body, indelicate and unhesitant.
"Stop! What are you doing?!" the angel cried indignantly, pushing futilely against the barrier, "How dare you desecrate Katsuragi Yako's body!"
Neuro rolled his eyes and snorted, "She is my servant. As such, I may do whatever I like with her." He clicked his tongue as he saw the stitches used to hold together the Y-shaped incision made in her torso during her autopsy. "How unsightly," he pulled off a glove with his teeth. With quick precision, he sliced through the loops of medical string and plucked them from her body, incinerating them in his hands. "You will only receive your scars from me." His smile was cruel as he tugged his glove back on. "I will not allow anyone else to mark you." He smoothed his fingers over the sluggishly healing flesh in a possessive manner.
"You are truly a wretched existence." Gabriel spat, blue eyes bore into green. "What has Katsuragi Yako ever done to suffer the misfortune of meeting you?" he bemoaned. He fell to his knees and hit the ground like an angry child. "Why must it be her?!" he cried.
Neuro ignored the wailing angel and, with a spark of his will, restarted her heart. Her lungs pulled in air and her blood slowly began circulating, working up to its normal pace. Her body's reparation hastened at its reanimation, the holes in her torso sealing without a scar. "Splendid," he smirked, "the little louse will be 'bright-tailed and bushy-eyed' in just a few hours." Speaking of tails, he recalled seeing some at a new shop near the office. It also had all other sorts of wonderful paraphernalia that bent towards his interests. A delightful idea struck him as he donned his deceivingly innocent smile, "I will buy Yako some new clothes! The receipts will be kept, of course. How generous I am!" He tossed the sheet back over Yako and slammed her chamber closed.
As he approached a far wall to phase through it, the angel snapped. "ANSWER ME, DAEMON!" Neuro turned his head around to look at him in a bored manner, one foot already through the wall. He withdrew his steps until he was once again standing in front of Yako's door, thin brow arched in question. "Why? … Why must it be her?" the Gabriel whispered. He reached out a hand, pushing at the barrier in front of him.
Neuro's black boot instantly stomped down on his hand with enough force to crack the tile, but Gabriel looked un-phased. The demon's mouth twisted into a combination of a sneer and a grin to show-off his shark-like teeth in all their razor-sharp fierceness, "Because it is her." He finally answered.
Gabriel smiled warily then, a bead of cold sweat running down his temple. "The coroners have declared her dead," He mocked, "they will have informed her mother by now that Katsuragi Yako died a quick and bloody death." He licked his dry lips as he continued to goad the impassive demon above him, "Do you think humans so foolish as to not notice the inconsistencies? They'll figure you out, you know." He chuckled and shook his head.
The demon threw back his head and gave a hearty laugh that echoed chillingly in the mortuary. "You truly think too little of me, Messenger." He stuck a hand into his jacket and pulled out a manila file. He set it ablaze and Gabriel watched helplessly as Katsuragi Yako's name tab was burned to cinders along with her death certificate and forensic report. "I have also taken the liberty of erasing the coroner's memories. The man has no need of such trivial information." He drawled in a bored tone, dusting the ash from his gloves and onto the angel's fine suit.
Neuro's gaseous eyes slid to the door behind him and he smiled, "My servant should regain consciousness as soon as she finishes healing; and being the kind and considerate master that I am, I really must go and make preparations." He stepped over the angel and released his hand from under his boot. "Make yourself sparse for my return, Messenger." He stuck a leg through the far-off wall and looked back. He tossed a lewd grin at Gabriel, "Voyeurism is an unsuitable hobby for your kind." He teased.
The demon left the mortuary in an echo of mocking laughter. The helplessness that rooted itself in the angel's chest all those days ago began to grow. When the detective herself later rejected his offer, it blossomed and bore the bitter fruits of defeat. Katsuragi Yako couldn't die until that demon allowed her to. If not to keep her by his side, then purely to spite him. To keep her from entering Paradise.
The failure festered in Gabriel's heart, gnawing on his pride and righteous honor as a higher-being when he returned to the heavens to see so many others enter the shining gates leading to Paradise. He watched the couple outside the gates, unable to believe that she could truly be happy outside of Paradise. Forever stagnant, he stubbornly mired his heart in his inherent viewpoints as she continued to contradict everything he had learned to be irrefutable truths. He suffered from his incredulity, even after the end of time, unable to move forward and unable to re-enter his home in Paradise.
It was nothing less than eternal damnation.
