This one-shot… I didn't really have a general direction with it or a plan, I just thought of the idea that as Death Rebel Ikuto doesn't have control. He can't think for himself and he can only do what the Director is forcing him to. So I started writing this and I just couldn't stop myself typing away ^^'''
Anyway enjoy and please let me know if there are any mistakes (because I had to go back and correct my other one-shots after realising there were mistakes too :L)
Stood on the very top of the tower, Ikuto surveyed the scene below him.
All was quiet, the air was still and the only sound audible to the teen was the wind whipping around him, tousling his dark blue hair and sending a chill up his spine.
Below was the amusement park that Easter had spent most of its money into developing. The rides were unmoving, the lights switched off and the odd structures of the various attractions formed strange shadows that twisted and curved over each other, intertwining and casting the grounds into darkness.
Down there right now it seemed a lonesome, uneasy place quite the opposite to the cheerful, lively feeling it gave off during the day.
However Ikuto wasn't really paying attention to the amusement park's appearance in the dark. To be honest he wasn't even properly looking at his surroundings. He was just staring blankly ahead. His mind wasn't processing anything. It wasn't capable of doing much in the state he was in now. The wavelengths emanating from the tuning fork in his stepfather's hand were overpowering, scrambling up his thoughts and boring into his brain until his mind could take it no longer and he became completely under Easter's control.
The wavelengths pained him. They caused his head to throb, they made him do things he wouldn't even dream of doing without hesitation, driven by some invisible force operating from inside his very skull. Ikuto had no control over his own actions and to make things worse he knew that when he regained consciousness he would only have blurry recollections of everything he'd been forced to do by that tyrant of a stepfather.
Kazuomi didn't care what happened to him. He didn't care in the slightest. All he cared about was his duty to the all-powerful Gozen, his job to bring the mysterious Embryo to his boss' hands without even questioning the reasoning behind it. Even if it cost him his stepson's life. Ikuto wasn't doing so well anyway, never mind the evil being done to him.
Usually after he was taken out of Easter and made to do their dirty work in the form of that new, dark character transformation, Ikuto would be escorted back to his guarded room (more than often being carried after he had passed out) and allowed to recover his strength until the Director ordered him to work again. However recently his recovery time had been shortened and he would have only just begun to feel himself again when he would be dragged out and subjected to those harsh, piercing wavelengths that shut down his consciousness and released Death Rebel once more.
The Death Rebel project was taking a massive toll on Ikuto's health. Aside from the agony in his head, his new character transformation was taking the energy out of his body, draining it more and more with every passing moment until he simply gave up and collapsed due to exhaustion. Even the simple movement of moving the bow up and down his violin was an effort now and tonight he would be required to perform for hours on end.
Tonight was the night that the Director planned to deliver the Embryo to Gozen. Luring the Guardians into their trap and gathering an incredibly large quantity of X-Eggs for the Joker to purify was all part of Kazuomi's carefully laid out plan.
Ikuto didn't seem to hear Kazuomi's words for him to start playing, but instantly he did so anyway, registering the command in his brain.
As he played the violin in his hands, tainted with the energy of countless amounts of X-Eggs, a low, eerie tune echoed through the night, foreshadowing the oncoming battle between Easter and the Guardians who were at that moment making their way to the park, intent on stopping whatever they had planned and freeing Ikuto from his chains once and for all.
If he had been in control of his mind, Easter's puppet would have refused to obey Kazuomi any longer, but unfortunately as the frequency of the tuning fork's output was increased, Ikuto was no longer the one who stood on the top of the tower. Death Rebel stood in his place - a soulless, mindless creation of Easter that showed no mercy or recognition to even the people he was closest to, especially if they stood in his way.
Fighting Kazuomi's battles for him, stealing children's heart eggs, cleaning up, compensating for the sins of his father... That's all he was really there for. That's all the Black Cat of Misfortune would ever amount to. A puppet, a marionette, a pawn… it was all the same thing. That was all he really was in the eyes of Easter. He wasn't 'Ikuto' to them. He was just an object there for their benefit.
And so the young man continued playing on his spot overlooking the empty amusement park. In the distance massive groups of X-Eggs were floating their way over to the tower, that familiar oppressive purple aura glowing around them. They came in their tens. Then in their hundreds. They circled the tower and some even swayed to the slow music being made from the dark figure below them.
As the gatherings of the negative eggs increased and as the energy that remained in Ikuto's worn body began to fade, the Guardians drew closer and closer to reaching their destination. All they had to do was to find their way to the centre of the park.
And if Ikuto had had just the slightest bit of his mind left, even if it would have only lasted for a split-second, he would have wished for their arrival to come soon, he would have wished to have the power to break free of the company's hold and he would have prayed for this nightmare to end.