White Gloves
Chapter One: The Temple of Containment
"Tatsumi, you made it!" Mine wrapped her arms around the boy she had departed from. Then she drew back and slapped him on the face. "You told me you weren't going to die."
"I miss you too," Tatsumi said. He actually welcomed the slap, better Mine than Esdeath who would glorify in that sort of thing. "But er...where are we?" he asked abruptly.
"Well this is where people go when they die, apparently," Mine said, waving her hand at the white alters and white alabaster chairs around them. "Only lovers can pass under that arch ahead, so I had to wait for you here, but I didn't think you'd be coming here this soon!"
"I'm very sorry, Mine, to have disappointed you."
"No matter," she said, punching his shoulder. "You're here now, and that's all that mater.s"
"Akame and Leone are the only members of Night Raid left alive," Tatsumi said.
"Oh darn. Well, the empire has fallen at least. Right? Please tell me it has."
"I would presume so, I took out the emperor's Imperial Arms."
Mine's face turned as pink as her hair, with pride. "I shouldn've expected no less from my guy," she said, pecking him on the cheek.
"Wave helped," Tatsumi said sheepishly, hand on the back of his neck.
"That bsoldier from the Yagers? What were you doing working with him?"
"He's not really all that bad. I think he would've understood Night Raid if he had stopped to listen to us. And I think he cares about people, he just didn't understand that so did we."
"I suppose that makes sense," Mine said, but then her hands blapsed over her mouth, for behind Tatsumi bright blue and white light had erupted and Mine could see the woman who rushed forward to Tatsumi, a young woman with blue hair, sparkling eyes, and a fondness for torturing anyone and who would love a partner into BDSM, but whose penchant for Mine's own beau really infuriated her...
"You stay away from him, he's Mine," she snarled as Esdeath wrapped her arms around Tatsumi, pulling him back into her.
"I thought you were Mine," Esdeath said, laughing girlishly. "Unless you two swapped bodies?"
"I meant he's my boyfriend, fiance, whatever. He and I are destined to be together and it us who will walk beneath the Soulmate Arch."
"Soulmate Arch did you say?"Esdeath asked, her gaze folliwng the direction of Mine's finger. "Sounds like a bright idea."
And with that shegrabbed Tatsumi's hand and pulled his along, while he struggled to break gree of her grasp. Mine chased them and grabbed Tatsumi's other hand. "I won't let yout ake him from me!"
"He belongs to me, rifraff. Not youo."
"Want to fight for him?" Mine growled, letting go of Tatsumi's arm and dancing around till she in front of Esdeath, blocking the past to the arch. She jabbed at Esdeath's absomen and then punched again at Esdeath's jaw.
"That hurt," Esdeath said, grabbing Mine's arm and twisting it.
"That was the idea," Mine said, spitting in Esdeath's face.
"You are cute but I'm the one who spits around here, scum!" Esdeath said. Then she bit into Mine's neck (all the while still holding onto Tatsumi).
Make a break for it, my love, Mine pleaded with her eyes.
I'm trying, Tatsumi said with his own facial expression but Esdeath was holding him tightly.
Mine felt herself weakening...she didn't really understand it, did they have bodies in this place? Obviously they did and could feel pain, but did blood flow through their veins? That she had wondered. And having Esdeath bite her neck and she felt she knew the answer to that.
Then she found herself on the ground where Esdeath had shoved her. Esdeath took her high heel and got the sharp part dug into Mine's ribcage. Then she kicked Mine three times hard in the side.
"I don't know what this post-life involves, or what all we can do with our bodies here," Esedeath said. "But I assure you, Mine, that if all the forms of torture availabe to u from the previous world are in this one, and if we meet again, you won't like the experience. Though in the meantime we'll see what Tatsumi is into."
And with that she draggd Tatsumi and pulled him along under the arch, where a troll allowed them to pass.
Mine swore and stood up, brushing herself off before marhcing up to the arch.
"I'm sorry," the troll lsaid, his orange armor clanking together as he stepped in front of her. "You cannot pass without a lover."
"Where the bleep am I supposed to find a lover if tsomeone already went off with the guy I like"
"That is not my concern. If you cannot find a lover you're stuck here, so.."
"And if I find someone and tell you they're my lover, you'll believe that if it isn't true?"
"I might not be the obstacle you have to face, every arch in this temple is blocked by a creature. But if you say you're lovers, I think most will believe you and let you pass. Though I'd advise against claiming someone is your lover who isn't since the beasts outside the temple can smell lack of love where it is not present."
"But Tatsumi isn't in love with Esdeath! They'll both e attacked!"
"That young woman who left with your fellow just now? She is called Esdeath?"
"Yeah. And she makes me bleedin' furious, that's what I think of her," Mine said wring her hands and punching one of the sides of the arch.
"She loves him enough for both, and I think if he spends enough time with her he'll come to love her. All I could sense was a disparity between how they believe the world should run, and as they passed into the here now instead of the world you humans hail from, that's all behind them."'
'SShe doesnot belong with him you blasted troll!" Mine exclaimed, bludgeoning the creature with punches. Then she figured he'd be too weak to stop her so going backward a few paces, she started to run forward and leap over him wwith her foot outstretched. She was sure she'd make it, flying toward the arch, she'd be out in a second..
But the troll grew in stature and blocked her.
"Sorry but that won't work and you better thank your lucky stars it won't. You'd be eaten alive if you managed that, and death here takes you to a bad place. So if you want to leave at all you'll find a ?"
"There is no one for me but Tatsumi."
"Fine, rot in this place! I'm just telling you, Esdeath is the one your fellow belongs to. They can safely pass anywhere here as long as they're together. But you alone are an easy target. You won't last a minute out there."
"I could if I had Pumpkin," Mine said dejectedly.
"And what the bleedin' Hell is Pumpkin?'
"My Imperial Arms. But I couldn't bring it here obviously."
"Is that a weapon? Nah, you couldn't bring something like that here. This is a place for lovers or the unwanted. So yeah."
'Unwanted'? Are you implying what I think you're implying?"
"Look miss, if I were human I'd totally be your suitor, evven if it's only to help you get back with the guy you like. But as I'm a troll and a guardian of the temple, I cannot do that. However, I'm sure lots of guys would want to be with you, seeing as a non-human can understand what a guy would do to be with such a one as yourself. All I meant was not directed at you, though, but the coun less people in the temple who have not found lovers yet or whom are still waiting."
"Other people?" Mine asked. "But I haven't seen anyone b here before Tatsumi. Other than you, of course."
"That is because this room was closed off from the rest of the temple until your lover arrived. Since he has gone though and left you behind, this room opens into the rest of the emple where other people are. You may find someone there, who like you was left behind. But you're not getting out otherwise."
Mine looked at the opposite wall from where the arch was and she saw it, and opening into a dimly lit area. "So I go through there into the rest of the temple?"
"I call it a temple, but it mayb n ot be what you'd call a temple. However, the answer to your question is yes."
"Okay then," Mine said, bracing herself for what she'd see. "I'll find a lover, and march out ofthis temple or palace or whatever it is to me and find Tatsumi."
"I wish you good luck," said the troll. "But it's a pity that that blue-haired chick will have t lose him. I might have to find out a way to become human to be with her...I wouldn't mind the BDSM treatment if you know what I mean.""
"I'll put in the recommendation," Mine said. "Personally I'd love to see her licking the ear of a troll."
And with that she marched past the chairs of alabaste, all seventeen of them in which she had sat for hours and hours wondering about Tatsumi, hoping he would live out the war. And then she stepped into the dimly lit hallway, which seems to have walls made of stone. Would she find someone she could fool a guardian into believing was her lover? Well, she had to try. For Tatsumi's sake.