Night of the Sabbath
Kosuke was fighting the White Wizard, and he was losing. He had strength and determination and skill, but none of it was doing him any good against an opponent with the strength of absolute conviction borne of desperation. Kosuke dropped to his knees, injured and distracted, and Chimera seized the moment to yank him into his Underworld.
"Nitoh Kosuke," said Chimera. "It seems that the time has come."
Kosuke, drained even in his own subconscious, still found the strength to look up and smirk directly at Chimera. "Come to say goodbye to me, then?" he said cheekily. "You have perfect timing."
"Eh?" Chimera floated closer to the human who had played host to it for so long.
"Outside," Kosuke said. "There's as much mana as you could possibly eat. I'm going to let you out, so you go right ahead, and eat as much of it as you can hold."
Chimera landed in front of its human. Kosuke was hunched over on himself, at the end of his resources, and yet he smiled. "That is an impossibility," Chimera said.
Kosuke pushed himself to his feet. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"If you let me free, I won't make any promises about what happens to you or your body," Chimera said. It had never lied, especially not to its host; it couldn't.
"It's the not knowing that's fun," Kosuke said, and Chimera felt a surge of affection for the human. "Besides," Kosuke added, "if it's all going to be over anyway, I'd rather go out with a bang." His image glittered and faded as he pulled out of his subconscious.
Chimera cocked its head to the side, waiting to see what Kosuke would do. It saw him catch the White Wizard's spear in one hand, spitting words of defiance before using that spear to destroy the belt that held Chimera captive. "Go on, Chimera," he said. "It's lunch time."
Chimera surged forward, but there was still a barrier in the way. It hurled itself against it, pushing, until it found the key – a thin silver thread wound through and through all the edges of Kosuke's Underworld. It would unravel, if severed at a single point. Chimera bit down delicately, feeling the edges of the thread slip free and the barrier fade. Kosuke tumbled back into his Underworld, the glow vanishing, and Chimera nosed gently at his hair. "I'm sorry," it said, and Kosuke looked puzzled for a moment.
"I told you," he said, smiling as he faded away. "It was all worth it."
The barrier was gone. Chimera bolted for the outside world and felt itself open human eyes. It blinked, human fingers twitching around something smooth and hard, soft grass pressing against human shoulder blades. The sky above it, darkened by an artificial eclipse, swarmed with mana just barely out of reach, and Chimera was hungry.
Pushing Kosuke's human body to its feet, Chimera ignored the White Wizard entirely and plunged Kosuke's hands into the stream of mana siphoning into the dead and animate body of what had once been a human girl. Mana rushed into it in a steady stream, but there was more. Chimera could feel it, an interconnected web, and if it could just follow the currents, it could reach the rest.
Kosuke's body was in the way, heavy and unwieldy. Chimera tried to pull free, but it was tangled up and it couldn't quite let go. The sheer amount of power coursing across the sky was enough to let Chimera slip most of its tether, soaring over the city. Gates littered the ground, felled where they had been standing by the forcible removal of their mana, and Chimera consumed it all. Each of the four pillars that had appeared to Kosuke's human eyes as light drew Chimera to the richest mana source of all – wizards, each chained to an altar to siphon their life.
Chimera broke the wizards' tethers, seeing the lines of mana cracking the earth fade away, and the artificial eclipse dissipated to leave brilliant sunlight behind. It roared, triumphantly, declaring its freedom, dimly aware of the wizards slipping off of the altars. The Gates slowly stood in the city streets, and Chimera roared again. It had a world to explore, a world it hadn't seen in so long, and it spread its wings only to be unceremoniously dragged back to the center of the Sabbath's stone circle.
The tether that had held it before abruptly pulled Chimera taught, slamming it home into the confines of Kosuke's body. It howled at Kosuke to properly set it free, but Kosuke was gone. Chimera opened its human eyes again, blinking at the blinding sun. The light was abruptly blotted out and what Chimera vaguely recognized as a spear came toward it. Batting the spear aside, Chimera felt a sting of unfamiliar pain and rolled to its feet.
"You!" the White Wizard said, its voice low and furious, spear leveled at Chimera's borrowed body. It would have been almost intimidating, if Chimera could ever fear a human. "You've ruined everything. Fall into despair and die."
Chimera bared its teeth. "Despair? Me?" It threw back its head and laughed. This little human knew nothing of Chimera, if he thought he could threaten it. It pulled the useless broken belt off of Kosuke's waist and dropped it on the grass, Kosuke's rings sliding off to follow. "I'm not going to despair," it said.
"There's still hope," said a voice from behind the White Wizard, and Chimera could see the wizard Soma Haruto step into the circle of stone. "I am the last hope."
Soma looked terrible, mana levels dangerously close to guttering out, and there was no way he was going to beat the White Wizard on his own. Chimera laughed, low and soundless, as Soma and the White Wizard argued back and forth about how to help the dying doll at the center of the circle, until the White Wizard flung fire at Soma.
Ah, it's over, then, Chimera thought, but Soma emerged from the flames in armor.
"Nitoh! Help Koyomi!" Soma shouted, but Chimera ignored him and dove for an opening in the White Wizard's defense. Soma was not happy, not that Chimera cared. "What are you doing?"
"Just work with me," Chimera growled, and nearly got Kosuke's body burned for its inattention. "Fight now, talk later."
It was hard, to use magic in Kosuke's borrowed body, but Soma had divided himself into four and it nearly made up for Chimera's clumsiness. Chimera spent mana recklessly, using energy in place of precision, burning through the reserves it had created more quickly than it would have thought possible. The White Wizard, with all of its experience, handled a five-front assault with almost insulting ease, but Chimera thought it was because four of the bodies facing down the White Wizard had the same mind. Soma thought the same, because after only a few moments, three of them faded away.
"Distract him," he said, almost too quietly to hear, and Chimera physically tackled the White Wizard to the ground.
Behind it, Chimera could hear the sound of Soma's magic and feel the prickling wave of another transformation wash over its skin. It looked up to see Soma clad in glittering silver armor, pressing forward with reserves Chimera didn't think Soma actually had. Chimera plunged its hand into the White Wizard's back, clawing for the mana it knew was locked inside, and the White Wizard flung him away.
Red stained the back of the White Wizard's armor, though, the trickle strengthening to a steady stream when the White Wizard set up what was clearly supposed to be a final blow. Reacting, Soma poured strength into a complex grid, launching his battered body upwards in a graceless but effective driving kick. Flames blossomed out, washing the blue out of the sky for several long seconds. Chimera covered its borrowed eyes and looked away.
When the light faded, both Soma and the White Wizard were on the ground, without armor. The White Wizard lay still, a garish arc of red spattering the grass around him, and dissolved into purple light as Chimera watched. Soma was gasping for breath, pale and drenched in sweat, but when the dying doll called his name, he stood and staggered over to it. Chimera turned to leave, picking its way out of the stone circle on its borrowed feet.
Moving came easier, the more practice Chimera had, but it still felt clumsy against the confines of a human form. When the small group of humans raced toward it, it therefore caught Chimera by surprise.
"Nitoh!" one of them shouted, racing toward it in ridiculously bright colors, only to be knocked aside by a smaller human crying that he was so happy his big brother was okay. The smaller human barreled into Chimera, and it went down hard in a tangle of unfamiliar limbs.
"Kosuke?" said the small human, and Chimera blinked at him. He was one of the humans Chimera had saved from being drained to death.
"That's not Nitoh," said a third human, and Chimera recognized her as another of the wizards it had freed. It bared its teeth at her, playfully, and she blanched, pulling the small wizard away. "It's Chimera," she said, and Chimera nodded at her. She was clever, this one, with a good eye. She would have been a fascinating host as well, it thought, but the wizard just backed away further.
"Chimera?" said one of the humans without magic. A name floated across Chimera's memory, knowledge left behind. Shunpei, whispered the ghost of Nitoh's impression. Rinko. Mayu. Yuzuru. Kawaguchi. The other human – Rinko – had some sort of weapon pointed at Chimera before the first had finished speaking.
"What have you done with Haruto?" Rinko demanded. "And Nitoh?"
Chimera slowly got to its feet. "I've done nothing," it said, lifting its borrowed chin and straightening its shoulders. The three wizards and Shunpei backed down, just a little, body language responding to Chimera's display of authority. Rinko was unfazed, her eyes narrowing.
"Then where are they?" she bit out.
"I don't answer to you," Chimera said. "Or to your little toy."
A sharp noise followed by a smoking hole in the ground at its feet was Rinko's way of telling Chimera she would not be intimidated. It smirked at her. "Soma's back there," it said, hooking Kosuke's thumbs into its belt. "Wasn't looking too good, the last time I saw him."
"Mayu, Mr. Kawaguchi, would you please," Rinko said, but Mayu was already racing back up the path. Kawaguchi followed after a startled glance between them. Yuzuru was still standing frozen where Shunpei had pushed him, Shunpei's fragile human body acting as a useless shield against the perceived threat.
"What did you do with Nitoh?" Shunpei demanded. The human had courage, much like Nitoh had had, although he wasn't quite at the same level of adrenaline-fueled thirst for knowledge that Chimera had liked so much about its human host.
"Nitoh Kosuke isn't here," Chimera snapped, and saying the words was physically painful, a thousand little spikes jammed into its borrowed chest. Odd, he hadn't noticed that Kosuke's body was defective, when Kosuke had been in it.
Rinko lowered her toy, putting it back into its case with an expression Chimera couldn't identify. She stepped forward slowly, one empty hand outstretched, the other clearly visible at her side. "I'm sorry," she said, and Chimera recognized an attempt at sympathy.
It ducked back, out of reach. "I don't want your pity," it snarled.
"You and Nitoh stopped the Sabbath," said Yuzuru, stepping out from behind Shunpei. "Thank you."
"All I did was eat what was in front of me," Chimera said. "I don't want your pity, or your gratitude." It stepped around the humans and continued down the path.
The problem was that Chimera didn't know where to go. Kosuke had wandered around the city, sleeping wherever took his fancy, declining to be tied down to one place. Chimera didn't know how much that was by choice or how much had been forced by circumstance, but it meant that Chimera was now free to go where it would. Except that it was trapped by the limitations of this human body.
"What did you do to me, Nitoh Kosuke."
Chimera found its feet wandering down a familiar path, and it was almost at the door to the shop where Soma spent most of his time before it wrenched itself to a halt. It didn't want to go inside and place itself in the company of Kosuke's friends. It didn't want to be there at all. It veered away, walking until the shop was no longer visible and finally settling at the base of an old, old tree.
Kosuke's Underworld, impossibly, was still there, and Chimera sank into its glittering darkness. There was no form to any of it, nothing of Kosuke's memories, nothing but a lingering sense that this had been the truest form of Kosuke's inner self. Chimera prowled along its edges, searching for a way out, but there was nothing. It was as though nothing beyond the Underworld existed, nothing beyond the passage that would just lead it back up to Kosuke's body.
Growling, Chimera climbed upward, searching for a crack or a weak point, anything that would let it leave. It didn't want to be trapped inside a human. This was not the bargain it had made. This was not the agreement it had had with Nitoh Kosuke, although Chimera didn't think Kosuke was consciously responsible for its situation. Kosuke didn't have the foresight, for one. Chimera could feel strands of something it couldn't identify in an infinitely complex tangle linking it to Kosuke's body. The threads felt familiar, as if they had been holding Chimera for months, but exactly what the reminded Chimera of eluded it. It tugged on the threads, searching for give. There was barely enough leeway for it to slide partway out, but the tether remained.
Chimera wondered, idly, if it just letting Kosuke's body die would set it free. The body wasn't doing well, without Chimera animating it; its heartbeat was slow and starting to flutter, and Chimera could see its breathing become irregular. It would only take a few hours for it to die, Chimera thought, and it settled in to wait.
None of the passing humans so much as spared Chimera or Kosuke's body in its relaxed position against the tree so much as a glance, and Chimera thought perhaps they couldn't see it. Experimentally, it approached a human or two, baring its teeth and on one occasion reaching out to barely touch one, but the humans just kept walking. Pleased with the results, Chimera licked its claws clean. The human's lack of reaction to being touched started to weigh on it, though; Chimera glanced over at Kosuke's body, which was fading in a satisfactory manner, and tried to push the next passing human over.
Chimera's paw passed right through the human, insubstantial. The human startled, looking around and shivering as if suddenly cold, before walking more quickly. Chimera frowned, and tried with another human, and yet another, but it could touch none of them. It couldn't reach their Underworld, and it had no access to the mana stored inside the single solitary immature Gate that walked by. "Not satisfactory," Chimera muttered, but perhaps the situation would rectify itself once it was free of Kosuke's body.
The body tugged at Chimera, and it glanced back to see that the body had tilted halfway over. The dying process was well and truly underway. Finally. Chimera licked its paws clean again, pacing over to inhale the body's scent. Its heart was sluggish, barely moving, and its breath was nearly gone. It was starting to garner attention from the passersby, now, with one individual attempting to wake it. Chimera smirked. The passerby was getting in the way, though, and not being able to push it aside was frustrating.
As Kosuke's life faded, though, instead of feeling a sense of separation, Chimera felt itself getting dragged further downward. If this body dies before I am fully released, I'm going to die with it. The bonds tying it to Kosuke's dying body were no weaker; they seemed stronger as Chimera's strength oozed outward in a futile attempt to remotely keep Kosuke's body functioning. Howling in rage, Chimera tumbled back into its prison of flesh, letting its mana spread outwards to restore its body to something resembling health.
The interfering passerby kneeling over the body stumbled back in shock as Chimera laboriously pushed itself to its feet. Chimera ignored it, its buzzing words inconsequential. Its mana had been drained by the process of nearly dying, and it needed to feed sooner rather than later. A Gate or a Phantom, either would do. A wizard, even, would provide the energy it needed, but a wizard was more likely to be on its guard, and the only ones Chimera knew were familiar with its new face.
Kosuke had been good at finding Phantoms, Chimera thought. Its limbs were lighter, its gait steadier as it settled back into Kosuke's flesh, and the mana drain wasn't quite as drastic as it had thought. Chimera flexed its fingers, moving toward where it thought it likely to find a greater press of people. It hadn't been able to feel Phantoms from inside Kosuke before, had had to rely on Kosuke to find them, but perhaps its senses had changed as the situation had changed.
Chimera stretched out its awareness, searching for the telltale ripples that would let it know that one of the passing humans was an immature Gate. It had been able to feel that difference, while it had been outside Kosuke's body, but its senses were dulled now. It could barely feel more than a meter beyond its borrowed skin. So I can sense the Gates if I slip partly free, but then my prison begins to die and takes me with it. Truly, an untenable situation. Chimera didn't think it had quite enough mana left to sustain its borrowed body for another astral trip, not even if it was going to get a meal at the end of it.
Without mana, this body was going to die. Chimera grimaced, feeling the dry crackling sensation of hunger under its skin, and came to the conclusion that the only viable course of action was to go to a known source of mana. It was going to have to hunt one of the wizards, and it only knew one place where it was likely to find them. Chimera abruptly reversed its course, heading for the magic shop, taking a circuitous route it pulled from the remnants of Kosuke's memories to approach the shop unseen.
Shadows were beginning to sweep the streets, and the lights were on in the shop. Chimera could see figures moving across the windows on the first floor, and although there was at least one dimly lit window on the second floor, no movement was visible there. It sat back on its heels across the street and down a short distance, in an alcove not likely to be immediately noticed should anyone open a window or the door, and considered its best move.
Serendipity smiled on Chimera, or perhaps mischance was laughing at it, because before it could formulate the start of a plan, a familiar energy source came sneaking down the street. Much like Chimera itself, Gremlin was clearly trying to move unseen. It was wearing its human skin, hat tilted at a jaunty angle as it sauntered along the sidewalk. It kept to the shadows as if by happenstance, but Chimera could clearly see what it was doing. It had its eye on something in the shop; the impression of Kosuke still lingering told Chimera that Gremlin had to be stopped from hurting his friends. More importantly, Gremlin was full of mana, was practically made of mana.
Chimera stepped out into the center of the street, planting itself between Gremlin and the shop. "You're not going in there," it said.
Gremlin froze, startled, and then relaxed gradually. "Hello," it said, in a sing-song voice. "You're not Nitoh Kosuke, and you're not Beast. You must be the Chimera."
Talking with food was poor etiquette, Chimera felt, and punched the Gremlin. It went down, turning the initial ungainly tumble into a controlled roll and coming up on its feet. It had discarded its human skin for its true form, green and crackling with mana. Chimera smirked, and cracked its borrowed knuckles. It had not been having a good day, and Gremlin promised enough quality entertainment to improve Chimera's mood.
At least two downed power lines made it hard to see the craters in the pavement left after Chimera finally subdued Gremlin. The green Phantom was barely moving, thrashing weakly in Chimera's iron grip around its throat. Chimera leaned closer. "Tell me," it said, almost conversationally in a voice too low to carry, "what exactly you were planning on doing in there."
"The Philosopher's Stone," Gremlin spat. "It's going to make me human again."
"Poor naïve child." Chimera stroked the side of Gremlin's monstrous face. "There's no going back for you."
Gremlin saw it coming, and its struggles became stronger. It was uncoordinated and still sluggish, and Chimera devoured its mana down to the last dying flicker. A sense of wellbeing filled it as it watched Gremlin's body dissolve into bilious green embers and finally disappear, tipping Chimera's borrowed body onto the broken pavement. Awareness of its surroundings rushed back as Chimera rolled to its feet, washing over it like a wave, and it cursed itself for being so absorbed in the battle that it had lost track of what was around it. That was a good way to get captured, or killed, and Chimera dimly remembered that inattention had gotten it caught last time.
"Nitoh!" said Soma, desperation all but radiating off of him as he came out of nowhere. He actually grabbed Chimera by the shoulder and tried to pull it away from where the Gremlin had been. "Nitoh, what did you do?"
"Nitoh isn't here," Chimera said for the second time that day. It was just as painful the second time as it had been the first, and it rubbed at its borrowed chest.
Soma shook his head. "No. No, it's not true."
Ah, Chimera thought. This is denial. It didn't know what made it feel more generous toward Soma than the others, but it tried to be gentle. "I'm sorry, Soma Haruto," it said. The words weren't quite true, at least not in the sense that it was trying to convey, but Soma didn't have to know that Chimera was more concerned with the fact that it was trapped in a human body than offering condolences for the loss of Soma's friend.
"Come with me." Soma fumbled in his pockets, jamming a ring onto one hand only after multiple attempts. Chimera watched, curious, as Soma reached inside a portal and pulled out a motorcycle. "Come with me," he said again, sounding almost manic.
It occurred to Chimera that it could build trust with Soma, thereby gaining access to a potential steady source of mana in case its hunting did not go well. With Wiseman – the White Wizard – no longer sending Phantoms to plunge Gates into despair and thereby create more Phantoms, finding mana might be a little harder. Chimera shrugged internally and got on the bike.
Soma drove right back to the location of the stone circle where the White Wizard had been defeated and where Kosuke had died, taking the bike as far up the side of the hill as possible before shuddering to a halt. Somewhat to Chimera's surprise, the ride had not only not been distasteful, but it had become enjoyable. Soma felt pleasant, against Chimera's borrowed skin, and it was an entirely unfamiliar sensation. Chimera was almost reluctant for it to end, but Soma struggled free of Chimera and the bike and gestured for Chimera to follow again.
This time, Chimera shrugged externally before walking up the path to the stone circle itself. Soma had been shivering, when he had gotten off the bike, and now Chimera could see it as he walked. It marked the reaction as interesting, and followed Soma nearly all the way to the altar where the doll had been placed. Soma stopped just short of where Chimera had set Kosuke's soul free, and spun around. "He's not gone," he said.
Chimera blinked. "Nitoh Kosuke's soul is not here," it said, attempt to be gentle eroded by humoring Soma enough to follow him out to the middle of nowhere in darkness broken by the sullen glow of artificial lights, by the pain of stating again and again that his human host was gone, by his frustration with Soma himself. "Neither is his consciousness. Nitoh Kosuke is gone."
Soma shook his head again, as though that would change anything. "He can't be. I can't lose him, too."
"Too?" Chimera cocked its head to the side.
Soma opened the hand he'd had clenched at his side, deep indentations carved into his palm and fingers by the object he'd been holding. It was a ring, and Chimera lost interest. It didn't need rings to access its powers. "This was Koyomi," Soma said softly.
A moment of searching the memory-imprints Kosuke had left gave Chimera a face to put to the name – the doll that had been kept alive through mana – and it was forcibly reminded of the similarities between Koyomi's state of being and Chimera's current situation. "Koyomi," it repeated, ignoring the parallels. "Your friend."
"Her soul," Soma said, folding his hand over the ring again. It was going to damage him, if he kept clutching it like that. Chimera reached for it and Soma yanked it away as though he'd been burned. Chimera narrowed its eyes.
"I have no interest in your friend's soul," it said. "Gremlin was the one who wanted the philosopher's stone, not I."
A crystallized soul represented a lot of power, though, and Chimera might be able to use such an artifact to break free of Kosuke's body. It still didn't wish to cause Soma more pain, for reasons it didn't quite understand, and so the statement remained true – Chimera had no interest in the doll's soul, as long as it remained in Soma's possession.
"Gremlin," Soma was saying. "Gremlin was there for this?" His grasp on the ring loosened slightly, and he looked up at Chimera with an expression so painfully raw that Chimera had to look away. "You – you were protecting Koyomi."
Technically, Chimera had been hunting dinner, but if Soma wanted to think otherwise, Chimera wasn't going to stop him. "I did what needed to be done," it said, and let Soma interpret it how he would.
Soma's shivering grew more pronounced and his breath hitched. "Thank you," he said, voice coming out strangled and thick and altogether wrong.
Chimera stepped forward slowly, following an impulse it didn't quite understand, cupping Soma's face in its borrowed hands. Soma stilled, eyes going wide. He made no move to pull away, even though Chimera gave him plenty of time as it leaned in to kiss him on his frozen mouth. Soma's lips were soft, and Kosuke's memories told him that this was a good thing. Chimera deepened the pressure, just slightly, and Soma's lips opened slightly. Puzzled, Chimera pulled away.
"What?" Soma said, and even in the relative dark, Chimera could see that his pupils had expanded.
Chimera lowered its hands, reluctantly. What was left of Kosuke was giving it conflicting messages; on the one hand, Chimera wanted more, but on the other, what it had just done was fundamentally wrong. It tilted its head to the side, trying to make sense of it. "Nitoh Kosuke wanted that," it said, finding its borrowed voice hoarse for no apparent reason. "And didn't want to want it."
"Nitoh was straight," Soma said. "Or I would have…" He broke off, a choked little laugh bubbling out. "He's really gone."
"Yes," Chimera said.
Soma folded in on himself, sinking to his knees, head bowed forward and hands limp on the ground in front of him. "How," he said, and Chimera felt the dragon inside Soma surge forward. No Phantom wanted to be caged, regardless of how well Soma thought he got along with the monster in his soul. Chimera had been an oddity, as much for its cannibalistic predation on its own kind as for its willingness to forge a contract with a human; it could have eaten Kosuke at any point, but it had chosen not to. The dragon inside Soma was different; if Soma let his guard down far enough, the dragon would kill him and emerge.
Chimera crouched in front of Soma, not knowing what it wanted. It wanted something from Soma that it still didn't understand; not mana, but something else, and if Soma let his dragon break open his soul, Chimera would never figure out what it was. Aside from which, Chimera rationalized, if the dragon broke free, Chimera could only eat it once. If it tried to keep Soma alive, he would produce mana as long as he lived, and Chimera could siphon it off.
"Soma Haruto," Chimera said, and took Soma's hands. The ring Soma was barely holding onto brushed against Chimera's fingers, and the word hope echoed in its ears. What was it that Soma said, over and over to the point of being obnoxious – ah, that was it. "You're the last hope," Chimera said, which got a reaction it wasn't expecting at all.
Soma grabbed him, the ring falling unheeded to the ground. Chimera pocketed it unobtrusively as Soma stared at him wordlessly for several awkward and silent seconds, and then Soma's mouth was crushed against Chimera's. It felt different, when Chimera wasn't the one initiating the contact, and when Soma seemed to know exactly what he wanted. Chimera felt Soma's tongue, and – remembering what Soma had done before – obligingly parted its borrowed lips in a wash of entirely new sensation.
Kosuke had never done this, never felt the drive to touch a woman despite his outward actions and declaration, and had pushed away any desire he'd felt to touch a man. Ah, thought Chimera distantly. This is why he was so desperate for knowledge. To push this away.
Chimera had ended up on its back while it wasn't paying attention, the starry sky above outlining Soma's blurry and shadowed face, and Soma's hand was creeping up the inside of Chimera's shirt. Chimera's borrowed skin burned under the touch, although Soma wasn't giving off enough heat to harm. Chimera twitched, uncomfortable in a way that Kosuke's memories told him had a very specific solution, and reached downward. Soma grabbed its wrist before Chimera could do more than simply touch the button on its pants.
"Not here," Soma said, breath hot against Chimera's lips. He sat up, still straddling Chimera's hips, and scrubbed his hands through his hair so that it stood up in fluffy asymmetrical spikes. "Are you sure?" he said.
"Soma Haruto," Chimera said, finding it unexpectedly difficult to keep its voice even, "if you do not give me what I want, I may eat you."
Soma choked out another laugh, and reached through a portal. Chimera watched with interest, the discomfort in its groin fading slightly as Soma produced another ring. The second ring echoed the word teleport, and Chimera stored it away as one it hadn't seen before. The portal hovered in the air, and Soma clambered awkwardly to his feet. He extended a hand, and Chimera took it, allowing Soma to pull it upright before Soma pressed himself against Chimera again. The motion drove away Chimera's curiosity about the new ring as Soma's fingers tangled in Chimera's hair and Soma kissed him again. Soma guided them through the portal, the already dim light fading away nearly entirely.
Chimera had a vague impression of a room, wooden beams half-covering pale walls over dark floors, furniture haphazardly placed and every surface covered with clutter. Soma pushed Chimera up against a wall, against something small and hard and sharp, and Chimera squirmed away. Electric light, yellow and warm, flooded the room and Soma blinked. "This wasn't," he said, and shuddered.
"No," Chimera said, and took Soma by the hand. Stairs led upwards to a silent and empty corridor with lights evenly spaced, and Chimera led an unresisting Soma from door to door until one finally opened onto an innocuously unlived-in room. Cloth covers hid the furniture, and Chimera let go of Soma to yank at the one over the bed. Soma stopped the attempt.
"Leave it," he said, and reached for Chimera's pants. Chimera let him pull the inexplicably too-tight jeans downward, gaze traveling over a thoroughly unexpected development.
"Ah," Chimera said. Soma pushed him back onto the bed.
Did Kosuke's body need to sleep, Chimera wondered distantly when Soma had finished and he had curled against Chimera's borrowed body with no sign of wanting to move. Chimera felt as though he could sleep, after the unusual physical sensations, Soma a warm bulwark in his arms against the cool air against his legs. He couldn't tell what Soma was doing, other than holding on to him like a lifetime, but then Soma's breath hitched in his throat again and Chimera felt dampness spreading across his shirt.
"Soma Haruto?" he asked.
Soma didn't answer in so many words, just held on more tightly. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it."
Chimera blinked. "You don't need to apologize for what just happened," he said, but Soma was pulling away from him and clearing the moisture away from his eyes.
"We should," he said, and looked down at himself. His shirt was spattered with a pale jelly-like goo, the same that was on Chimera's hands and Kosuke's jacket. Soma pulled his shirt off and reached for his pants before feeling his hair with an expression of resignation. "Let me have the jacket," he said, voice subdued. Chimera gave it to him, confused and hurt and not sure where the feelings were coming from. "Your shirt looks okay," Soma said, and he left with the pile of soiled clothing.
Chimera went to follow, drawn up short by the jeans still tangled around his ankles, and then he froze. When had he started thinking of himself as he, it wondered, and pulled the pants up around its borrowed waist. At some point it had started thinking of Kosuke's body as his, and Chimera could trace that to the moment Soma had started deliberately generating physical sensations. Chimera narrowed its borrowed eyes and looked toward the door.
It couldn't deny the satisfaction, though, entirely different from a plethora of mana, which made it a dangerous sensation. No wonder Kosuke had avoided it, Chimera thought. It would be distracting if he let it, the drive to give and receive physical satiation, leading to nothing more than time lost. With stiff, jerky motions, Chimera fastened its pants and went looking for either transportation or an exit.
