Rengoku
By SMYGO4EVA

Fai D. Fluorite wanted to be rid of pain, to be rid of sorrow and to be rid of the chains that bound him and kept him from moving forward. It felt as if all the time he had the unbearable pain kept at the back of his head, reminding him of the sin he committed long ago.

He wanted to be rid of the pain.

That was all he wanted.

To feel something other than pain.

May it be pleasure.

That was all he wanted.

In his dreams, that wish was granted.

…Xing Huo…

That was her name.

The name that she had been branded with.

He never forgot it.

The very essence of that name, that one name haunted him…

In his dreams, Xing Huo would be one who let him forget about the memories of the place of his birth; she was the one who made feel not pain, but something more exquisite than bitter anguish. She made him writhe under the feel of her long, lithe fingers dancing upon his skin, painting invisible and sensuous patterns on porcelain and knowing where the pleasure mattered most.

He would shudder under her touch and she would smile a rather soft yet malicious smile, filled to the brim with accomplishment and ill intent in ways to torture him even more with her seductive wiles. To his own shame, her tricks worked oh so well on him, making his eye roll to the back to his head, overwhelmed at the amount of pain and pleasure and pain and pleasure mixed together in a fatal cocktail, wondering how his body, however scarred and decrepit as he believed it was, was able to take such an onslaught of explosive feelings.

It was all very foreign, very surreal…

And yet…

And yet…

It felt…

Necessary.

All in all, it felt as if he was caught in the middle. As if in a twisted purgatory. The strangeness of it all, experiencing all that he was, while secretly enjoying it – it felt as if he was being tricked, pawned into another game.

Did he want to know more about this game?

Or was he destined never to know the real outcome?

To take part in the most unadulterated chaos was both a sin and sheer pleasure.

Xing Huo, the woman who was the excellent temptress, always let the magician named Fai know that in his dreams, she was there for him, but she never said this in a kind or nurturing tone of voice, but always in an alluring yet wicked manner, nevertheless beguiling him to her will.

If she did this, if she made him buckle onto his knees as she pleasured and stroked him in the right areas, feeling him shake under her black gloved grasp, and hearing his lilting voice rise, rise, rise and fall in the ecstasy she gave to him that would overwhelm him.

She felt whole.

She felt complete.

Even when he did take her, enrapture her when she let him, even though he was inexperienced in that area, but still gave her deep bliss, she wouldn't feel empty as she did when she wasn't with the mage, even if tempting him into sin was the only way to be with the mage.

She was just a plaything after all.

A failed creation.

Not really human.

Not rally a doll either.

When she brought him into his own dreams, she felt human.

Human…

"What is it that you seek, that you sought after for so long, my dear mage?"

She asked this question after he had calmed down from their latest endeavor. Personally, she liked asking conundrums such as this one, to keep his mind whirring, even after his body had endured so much, mostly because of her own doings.

Though he still huffed out ragged breaths, Fai looked at Xing Huo with his wide, innocent lone eye, still pure even after a deed that surely made him a sinner.

"Wha-What do you mean?"

"In matters of perception, you are very intelligent – whereas in matters of the heart, you could use some improvement. That is why I'm here – for your physical pleasure, without any emotional ties. After all of that…what is left for you, dear Yuui? What is it that you seek?"

It took a long moment for the mage to process what the woman told him.

What did…

He really want…

Did he…want anything at all?

Fai closed his one eye.

He smiled to himself, partially.

Slowly, he turned his head, his eye, up to Xing Huo's, the woman who promised nothing but in turn gave everything.

There is a new tinge to his eye – cerulean and gold mixed together. A hidden potential come to life.

The potential to create.

The potential to destroy.

The potential to preserve.

The potential to ravage.

"Isn't it obvious…I don't want anything."

Her eyes widened, and narrowed almost immediately.

She never expected to say anything like that.

After what they had done together, she internally expected him to say that he wanted something after denying himself anything for so long.

But…

What was this? This response…

Did he truly want nothing?

Did he truly believe that he didn't deserve anything?

This puzzled the woman.

But, without a second thought, to bring the conversation full circle, she replied, a curt smile tugging at her lips,

"Yes. It is obvious. I do not want anything as well. We are more alike than you care to admit, dear Yuui."

Xing Huo crawled over to Fai, and lifted his chin even further with one gloved finger.

"However, you seem to have forgotten one thing, my dear Yuui."

She leaned in so that she became close to the mystified mage, so close that her lips brushed against his.

"You are mine. I am yours. Do you understand?"

Bluntly she asks him. There are no excuses. There is no turning back.

He nods.

Eyes wavering. But firm.

Her smile is justified.

With that, everything turns white.

Nothing remains.

Nothing follows.