Are you afraid?
She sits alone in the dark cave. No one will stumble upon her here, they are all too scared to go anywhere near here. They should be scared.
Yes.
Not the truth. Not a lie.
Good.
Her knees start to throb from leaning on them for too long. She enjoys the pain. It's the only tying her down to the world, reminds her that she's real.
Was what I did necessary?
She feels something tug at her heart but the emotion is gone before she can grab it.
Do you think so?
She tilts her head back.
Yes.
She blinks.
Good. Did you bring the knife?
Takes a deep breath.
Yes.
Exhales slowly.
Do as instructed.
She grabs the knife and holds it for a second. Then she brings it up to her mouth. It rests on the right corner of her lips. It feels cold. Another tie to the world. Then she rips it upward, curving until she reaches the top of cheek. The pain blinds her for a second as she grunts. The blood gushes down her torn cheek, down her chin, her throat. She drops the knife and prods at the tear. It's raw and hot.
Another tie.
Are you afraid?
She chokes on the blood flooding her mouth.
Never.
Good.
And Junko screams.
/
Makoto loves it when Kyouko comes to the library. They don't talk when she visits but Makoto loves it nonetheless. She doesn't have work today and Makoto can tell because she's wearing those leggings he got her for Christmas last year, black with white dots that look like stars, and a black dress shirt with no sleeves that is unbuttoned just enough that you could see her tattoo that she normally keeps hidden on her right collarbone. She has one leg propped up which she leans her notebook, that Byakuya got her, on and the other leg dangles down; ankle boot pointing daintily to the ground.
Kyouko is sitting at one of the window seats in Woodgrove Library and Makoto thinks she's beautiful.
Touko knocks Makoto out of his Kyouko centric stupor by dropping the book she was reading suddenly.
"When did you say Byakuya was getting here?"
Genocider Shou nods in agreement from beside her twin, "Yeah, I'm getting bored of waiting for him, I've waited long enough."
Kyouko didn't even look up as she answers with "Byakuya will arrive when it best suits him."
False, Makoto thinks, he shows up when it best suits him when nothings wrong but there is something wrong.
"Why is he coming? He isn't due for another month," said Touko as she turns to face Kyouko, her book lying forgotten. Genocider raises an eyebrow in Kyouko's direction as well. Makoto thinks about how Touko seemed to forget about her own shyness when it came to Togami, it was sweet in a weird way he supposes.
Kyouko doesn't answer but her right hand twitches slightly, she's nervous.
Touko huffs and turns to Makoto, "Do you know?"
Yes. "No."
Touko frowns and gave Makoto a look that told him that she knew he was lying before turning to her book. Genocider kept staring at Makoto.
"You know something."
Makoto shakes his head, "No I don't."
"Liar," Genocider hisses as she stands, "You do know something, what is it?"
Makoto turns away to pack away a book on it's shelf, "I really do-"
"Genocider!"
Makoto gasps. The book he was pushing into a shelf had a pair of sharp scissors embedded into it.
"I may not be able to reach you but I can still throw," Genocider says as she grabs another pair of shears.
Makoto swallows harshly.
Touko looks scandalised behind her but still stares at Makoto expectantly.
Makoto looks at Kyouko. Kyouko was frowning at the twins, "He doesn't have to tell you anything he doesn't want to."
"Like hell he doesn't! If it involves my Byakuya I deserve to know!" Genocider points her weapon at Makoto.
Makoto thought in the back of his mind that Genocider wouldn't actually kill him, but with her past record where she-
"Now I want you two out."
Byakuya looks how he always did; silver suit, golden cape to match the golden crown sat on top of his blond hair that was combed down neatly. His glasses shone in the natural light coming in from the large windows around the library. His arms crossed across his chest as he glares at Touko and Genocider.
Touko instantly blushes red under the young prince's gaze and jumps up from her seat. "T-T-Togami! We've been waiting for you to-"
"Why on earth are you pointing weapons at Naegi?" Byakuya interrupts. He points a pale finger at Genocider.
Genocider slowly lowers her hand while drinking Byakuya in with her eyes, "I thought something might be wrong with you and he was withholding information. My sincerest apologies," Genocider bows so low the tips of her pixie cut brushes the floor before she's snapping back up. "Now my-"
"Out."
Touko and Genocider blink in surprise.
"Out? W-What do you mean?" Touko stutters.
Togami rolls his eyes, "I mean get out of the vacancy immediately."
Genocider thuds back into her seat, her leather jacket rubbing together as she crosses her arms defiantly, "Well I'm not going anywhere, so that means she," Genocider points her scissors at Touko," isn't going anywhere either."
Byakuya sighs, annoyed. He clicks his fingers then points at the twins and four men Makoto didn't see before stride forwards and grab Touko and Genocider before dragging them out of the library. Genocider probably could've gotten out of their grip if she tried but she didn't and let herself be dragged out. Makoto didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Oh, and don't come back in here when you're done. Just wait outside," Byakuya calls over his shoulder.
"But sir-"
Byakuya turns and glares. The man went quiet then the library was silent after the doors slam shut.
Kyouko silently stands up and walks until she reaches the large table in the middle of the library and leans against it, facing Byakuya with her back to Makoto. Makoto pulls the scissors out of the book before walking around to stand beside Kyouko. He placed the shears down on the table and reaches out and plucks the glasses off of Byakuya's nose. Makoto pulls out some cloth from the pocket in his black jeans and began cleaning the lenses. Kyouko and Byakuya watch him silently. Once he's done, Makoto tucks the cloth back into his front pocket and offers the glasses to Byakuya. Byakuya takes them and places them back on his nose. He looks out of the window and Makoto and Kyouko wait quietly for him to talk.
"So I've been having this horrible feeling."
/
"Fuyuhiko!"
"Fuck off."
Ayumi frowns at her brother's back. Fuyuhiko is the polar opposite of his younger sister and she wasn't the first to notice this. Their father is always quick to place a smack on her brother for his 'ordinary' clothes - black jeans with a black and white t shirt that was slightly too big for him so it slouched off his right shoulder and black trainers that squeaked noisily in the hallways of the castle - whereas Ayumi is praised for her long sweeping gowns and dragging capes.
Ayumi loves downtime with her brother. They would always lock the door - physically, if they locked it with runes Father would find out and they didn't want him mad. All blame would go on Fuyuhiko and he would get the beating and she didn't want that - and Ayumi would try on her older brother's clothes, they fit her as they were the same size roughly, and they would go on the internet or do something completely mundane.
They should be having downtime right now but Fuyuhiko is trying to avoid her and she knows exactly why but she is undeterred. Fuyuhiko throws a glare at her from over his shoulder but doesn't say anything else.
"You can't actually do this," she states but Fuyuhiko keeps walking. "Fuyuhiko, please."
He huffs, stops and turns to her. "And what do you propose I do?"
"Not do it."
Fuyuhiko scoffs, "Are you fucking kidding me? And then what? Get my ass handed to me and do it anyway?"
"Summoning a demon is against the Law's rules! Father is basically asking you to become a criminal you do know that," she snaps.
Worry flickers across Fuyuhiko's face before it's gone and he glares at her. "Father knows what he's doing-"
"No he doesn't and you fucking know that," she hisses. Fuyuhiko looks in surprise at her. Ayumi never swears unless she was particularly upset.
Fuyuhiko's face softens and Ayumi's flushed state. "Hey, hey, hey. It'll be ok. I know what I'm doing does that count?"
Ayumi looks at him with watery eyes. "But what if-"
"No what if's," Fuyuhiko states firmly, "Everything will go according to the plan and that's that ok? Then I'll be back and we can watch some movies, your favourites."
Ayumi smiles. "Marvel?"
"Marvel."
Fuyuhiko hugs his younger sister and over her shoulder he frowns with this horrible feeling like this is a hug goodbye.
Ayumi pulls back and Fuyuhiko shoves the feeling into the furthest corner in his brain. He plasters on a smile which Ayumi returns. "See you later?" She asks.
"Definitely."
She grins at that and turns to walk back down the way she came. Fuyuhiko watches her go and all he wants to do is run back and movies and magically lock the doors so powerfully his Father could never get in and they'd be happy.
But Fuyuhiko's turning away too and stiffly walks into a room to his left. It's bare with no windows or lights with some candles in the corners and a table with brown bowls of various ingredients placed against a wall and men scattered around the room. His Fathers stands in the middle facing away from Fuyuhiko. "You're late," he says in greeting.
"My sister doubts this plan," Fuyuhiko replies.
His Father turns to him and Fuyuhiko can't see his face properly and it makes him nervous. "Do you doubt the plan?" Fuyuhiko wants to flinch at how rough his Father's voice but he controls himself.
"Kinda, yeah," Fuyuhiko says with a forced nonchalant shrug.
His Father glares at him but Fuyuhiko simply stares back at him. Let him beat him, it'll only take longer for the summoning to take place.
"Get started," his Father says and so Fuyuhiko does.
Fuyuhiko grabs the virgin blood and starts drawing the runes in the pre-made circle. He knows all the runes he needs off by heart because he was up all last night studying them so he wouldn't fuck this job up. And perhaps it's the lack of sleep that makes him this reckless.
Once the whole two circle are finished, Fuyuhiko turns to see his Father staring at him expectantly. Fuyuhiko raises an eyebrow. "You want me to do it?"
His Father simply nods. "Wow Dad, didn't know you had this much faith in me." His Father grinds his teeth, the sound audible in the silent room.
Fuyuhiko turns with a roll of his eyes and starts activating the runes. He feels the pull, the draining of his energy - he is only human after all - but ignores it and ploughs on.
Each of the runes start glowing a light blue and all together is practically blinding, then without warning it turns a blood red. The room starts to shake and Fuyuhiko hears a wall crack behind him but he ignores that too. The men start to panic, grabbing guns that are useless and pointing it at the circle in front of Fuyuhiko.
Fuyuhiko would be panicking too if he didn't know that this was supposed to be happening. Fuyuhiko is about to finish when he's grabbed by the collar and yanked away from the summoning. Fuyuhiko turns, surprised and is about to throw some harsh in his captors face when he sees his Father's beet red, snarling head lean in close.
"What the fuck have you done?" He bellows and Fuyuhiko feels spittle land all over him. But he barely registers it because of all the confusion he's feeling.
"What do you mean? This is supposed to happen," he yells back, trying to be heard over the ringing in his ears and the hysteria from the other men.
"No it isn't you dirty liar!"
Fuyuhiko supposes he should calmly explain to his Father that they were summoning a fucking demon so no it's not going to be all sunshines and lollipops but Fuyuhiko's not the calm one, his sister is.
"What, not trust me either?" And gets punched in the face for all it's worth.
And Fuyuhiko thinks his Father's a fucking idiot too as he watches some of the blood from his mouth fly from his mouth and into the demon circle.
Well fuck.
The red stream of light shuts off immediately and Fuyuhiko watches from where he's lying on the cold, stone floor as a white clear gas starts filtering in from the ground where the runes are and everyone in the room watches, mesmerised.
Fuyuhiko just thinks, fuck I'm contracted to a demon, as a man has his throat slit with a sword from a black figure. But then all his energy leaves him and Fuyuhiko's head thumps against the floor and everything goes black.
[ And then, thy son of thy line ]
| Took thy dagger |
[ And pierced thy heart]