A/N: A review! I almost couldn't believe it! (I've gotten so many for my other story recently that at first I thought it was another of those...) I was worried that this story wouldn't pan out so well, but THAT!? SCORE! To my solo reviewer I once again must thank you. You have spurred me to press on as much as I possibly can with this story!
And moving on...
Warning: This chapter contains explicit gore and sadistic sexual content. Enjoy!
For Vulture, it was a shameful walk through G-block to the Loser show - or at least it was a shameful walk every time he started questioning his own decision. With every step it seemed he was mocked by the other Deadmans, either those whose friends Vulture had killed, or those who simply thought that he was some sort of freak due to his anorexia, and the fact that he had never received his ripped cloak meant that he was still left in just his pants... with his disfigured, boney torso fully exposed.
"Aw, don't listen to them, Vulture," Rei chimed over the clatter of the rest, "I find your body fascinating! In fact I can't wait to see which part I get to remove! It'll be your first time so I'll be sure to make it extra rough for you."
"Really, doc? You'll do that just for me!?" Vulture replied, feigning excitement, "Better yet let's do the show an extra sixteen times to make up for all of my kills that robbed you of your sick, twisted fun you sadistic bitch!" With his final remark Vulture cackled, but quickly received a heavy blow to the back of his head from a following prison guard that turned his laughter into a sneer. "Are you offering yourself as my unofficial seventeenth kill?" he threatened. Vulture absolutely hated to have his amusement interrupted.
"Settle down, Vulture," Promoter Tamaki said with a limited amount of actual care, "Save it for the show."
Openly, without making any attempt to hide his actions, Vulture mocked him, waggling his head and moving his lips to mouth the words while rolling his eyes. It wasn't that Vulture was particularly upset with Tamaki - in fact he had a strange sense of respect for the manipulative jerk - but today, at this particular moment, he was simply upset. Perhaps it was a bit caused by the ridicule from the other Deadmen... and the guards... and Rei... "She finds my body fascinating? I look terrible..." Vulture mused as he mentally went along the list of things bothering him, but even this was not the true root of his horrid mood.
It was Crow. Or rather, himself, because of Crow. "Gah, just what do I think I'm doing!? ... oh, that's what I'm trying to figure out now... But why!? I let him live, I secretly help him improve, I save his life! I almost lost my perfect winning streak because of him!"
Because of him? It's because of Crow that Vulture nearly threw the fight?
"No... It's because of me. But Crow is still the source of my dilemma! I need to figure this out... and quickly before we're set into another rematch and I do something ridiculous like die for him!"
You do realize that even with this he'll die in three days. With those final wounds you gave him there's no way he can earn enough Cast Points for another. Crow is good as dead! D-E-A-D dead!
Those were the Promoter's final words earlier, spoken as Vulture rushed to Crow's side with the antidote...
"We'll just see about that, Tamaki," Vulture smirked to himself; his plan to take care of that ordeal was already set into motion. "But WHY did I even come up with this crazy idea!? Gah! What's it matter to me if Crow lives or dies!? He's just another random Deadman standing in my way, he means nothing to me!"
Nothing? If he meant nothing than why didn't Vulture just kill him the first time around? Or the second? Or let him be executed?
"Alright, alright, I get it!" Vulture yelled at the narrating voice in his head, then he started to wonder why he was hearing the voice to begin with, "I think the commentation from Carnival Corpse is starting to get to me... It feels like my every action is being spoken..."
"Hey! Vulture! Are you even listening to me!?" Rei yelled sharply, throwing Vulture's train of thought off the rails and finally making him realize that they had reached their destination.
"Sorry I don't speak Bitchinese," Vulture remarked curtly. If there was one person in this Hell he couldn't stand, it was the sadistic female doctor who he so often called a bitch. It was disturbing the way she would poke and prod at his exposed boney structure every time Vulture was forced through one of those so-called 'checkups.' "It feels more I'm being checked out..." Vulture thought with a visible shudder. And now Vulture was going to be her prisoner... "Gah, I must be some sort of idiot to put myself through this on purpose!"
"Get. On. The chair." After ordering Vulture to sit down for the tenth time Rei's patience was long gone. He had to be doing this on purpose, just to get under her skin! But soon... soon she would be getting under his skin... literally if she was lucky! She licked her lips at the thought alone of peeling Vulture's pale, greyish skin back, exposing nothing but bone and perhaps just a few thin layers of meat on his exotically skinny core - Oh how his body got her off! She had dreamt of this moment from the first inspection of his glorious form, to have him strapped down in the Loser's chair, just waiting to sacrifice a piece of his body all to her! To hear his screams of pain and see him writhing beneath her, for his internal fluids to splash across her face and her body! To cut in deeper, deeper! Yes! To rip out a piece of him and hold it proudly in the palm of her hand as he watches in fear and in horror, crying out in agony until that dark, deep voice of his goes hoarse and fades to a soundless cry! Yes, oh, yes! Her greatest fantasy! And finally, after so many missed chances, finally it would become real!
Vulture had already settled himself on the loser's seat while Rei pictured her little fantasy, though lucky for Vulture he only witnessed the results of her thoughts - the fidgeting and the slight squirming, the darkening blush and the occasional lurid gasp. Vulture could only imagine what sick, twisted thoughts must be going through the bitch's head - but he preferred not to. Instead he set his sights on the straps meant to bind him, and rather than giving the bitch the pleasure of strapping him down he had taken care of them himself. "Can we get this over with already?" Vulture openly complained, "You've been standing there like an moaning whore for three minutes now and I'm starting to get very bored."
"Oh? Getting impatient already, Vulture? I knew you'd come around," Rei replied seductively, fully turned on by her own fantasy.
"Tch," Vulture scoffed in disdain, "Don't flatter yourself, bitch. Now bring out the ridiculous looking slot machine!"
"Very well," the sadistic doctor replied with her sensual tone unfaltering, and with a simple motion she instructed the stage hands to move the bird-themed slot machine forward. This was it, the start of her fantasy! Dextrous fingertips circled around the red ball atop of the lever before she finally clasped her hand around it. With a twisted smile she brought the lever down, and as the carousel music played the three reels began to spin. What would it be? Would she scoop out one of those bright blue-green eyes? Take a slice of his stomach? Or a piece of his heart? Wouldn't that be ironic, the devourer of hearts loses a piece of his! Or she would get to rip off one of his ears? Remove that sharp-witted tongue? Pull out his sharpened teeth? Or maybe she would be lucky enough to steal his lips! Ooh, that one held so much potential - she could probably get away with biting them off! Hungrily she moved her tongue over her lips, then flashed them back over her teeth as well.
"Stop," Vulture spoke out at last, then with an added cackle he decided to specify, "Both the machine, and being a whore!" No matter what happened, Vulture would have the last laugh - and a few laughs along the way. He had to keep his stage persona in tact. Vulture was a madman, a raving lunatic, a psychopath! He had to fight fear with insanity, respond to pain with maniacal laughter, and above all, he had to make it convincing. The reels slowed to a stop, and Vulture felt his heart sink. "Well... at least it isn't my heart," he decided, but still the result put a major dent in his technique.
Rei clicked her tongue in disappointment, "Tsk... fingernails." No getting under his skin, and no chewing on his lips. But it wasn't a total waste; she would still get to hear him scream. With her table of tools Rei approached the Loser's chair, and for just a while she admired her various utensils. So many ways she could rip off Vulture's precious talons... Eventually she chose her tool, a set of pliers with a firm grip that were small enough to let her twist and jerk if she wanted - and she really, really wanted. "Now the only question is: which do I take first?" Rei nearly whispered as she ran her fingertips along Vulture's right hand.
Vulture sneered at the unwanted contact, but keeping with his madman's profile he responded with a wide grin, "Why not start with the pinky, doc? Should be the most painful!"
It threw her off, if only for a moment. "There's no way I'm letting him ruin this for me!" Rei decided. She had waited far too long for this! Vulture may be acting tough, but inside he had to be scared. Lightly, tenderly, Rei took ahold of Vulture's pinky, and raised it over the others. "This one, V?" she asked in a seductive tone, knowing it would work on Vulture's nerves.
Vulture nearly gagged, disgusted by her. "Yes, bitch!" he replied, forcing a maddened grin, "That one will be just fine!"
The sadist's eyes narrowed just a smidgeon, marking her frustration, but still she maintained her temptress demeanor. Gently she latched the pliers onto the first nail, and with her tone mocking innocence she asked, "How's this for you?"
"Horrible!" Vulture yelled lowly, "Move the pliers closer to reduce the leverage, it'll make it hurt more!" His response won him an angered glare from Rei, to which he openly cackled. He would do whatever it took to ruin the bitch's fun, even if it meant taking more pain.
"He thinks I'll stand for this!? Let's see how much he laughs when he's in pain!" Rei growled inwardly, and with a sharp twist she jerked the first nail clean off of his hand, sharply moaning as the first thick splatter of warm blood to splashed over her hand.
Pain shot through Vulture's hand and he instinctively jerked back against the bindings, but he silenced any chance of screaming with a low hiss that was luckily covered by the bitch's moan. "Another!" Vulture called, throwing his head back in maniacal laughter both to look like he was insane, and to inconspicuously fight back the tears that were forming in his eyes.
"He's still laughing!?" Angrily Rei clamped the pliers around the next nail and immediately ripped it off, hoping to catch Vulture off guard.
Vulture's maddened cackle was briefly interrupted with a sharp cry, but rather than letting it stop him he simply rose the pitch of his laughter to match the sound of his scream, blending the two together with just a small, insignificant seam.
"Why you-!" Rei knew she was losing this battle, and in a fit of rage she ripped off the third nail, then the fourth, and the fifth, gasping and panting as each talon was torn from Vulture's clenching fingers. The oversized, sharpened fingernails were scattered in various directions as each was torn off in turn, leaving trails of blood in their wake until they landed in different parts of the room.
Still, Vulture succeeded in maintaining his maniacal laugh, even as the searing pain throbbed in each of his fingertips and his boney hand was coated in streams of blood. It hurt, moreso than anything he had ever been through it hurt, and even though his laughter overwhelmed his screams of pain there was no way to disguise the tears of agony that were trickling down his cheeks. What was worse, his vision was blurring to a black haze as his body struggled with the pain - but no, he couldn't black out! He refused to let the bitch win!
"He's getting weak..!" Rei was thrilled to see tears on his wildly laughing face, and looking down at her handiwork thrilled her even more. To see the blood pumping out of his fingers where the nails once were, every beat of his quickened pulse visibly pushing out more. The final three nails had been so hastily torn off, leaving the exposed layer beneath rough and uneven, and his entire hand was left shaking. "One more to go..!"
Vulture had been so focused on holding back his show of pain that he didn't even see Rei switch sides, and as the first nail of his left hand was ripped off his laugh was abruptly interrupted by a deep, pained scream. There was no recovering this time - it was too obvious a scream to cover, and he was in desperate need of catching his breath. Grinning, he turned his head to face the bitch, his breathing haggard but his voice reflecting madness, "Come on! You can do better!"
Rei's victory was short-lived, and no matter how delicious his scream was the taste of his arrogance had ruined it. "You're right," she replied, "I can!" She slammed her chosen tool back onto the table, and in it's place she picked up another. With a twisted gleam in her eyes she raised a scalpel to the side of Vulture's face, running the back side of the notoriously sharp blade down along his cheek, slowly, with featherlight pressure, and then sliding it along his long, slender neck and dragging it across his thin shoulder, and finally trailing it down his arm.
In disgust Vulture shuddered, the very idea of the sadistic bitch being gentle with his body disturbing him to the core. He would prefer the blade to be cutting his skin rather than this!
She delighted in the chill running through Vulture's slender form, but it didn't compare to the delight coming up next. After slowly bringing the scalpel down along his long, boney finger she jammed the blade beneath the nail, and wrenched the scalpel through the flesh until the nail popped off.
It was by far more painful than simply having a nail removed, and as Rei was tearing the blade through his fingertip Vulture howled a beautiful scream. Just under his cry of agony he could hear the bitch's moan, and shortly afterwards the scalpel was slicing into the next finger. "I can't... I can't let her win!" Vulture refused to give her what she wanted - or at least not anymore of it. He forced his lips to pull into a grin, and with his turqoise eyes opened wide he laughed at her. No words. Just wild, unsettling, demoniacal laughter.
Yet again Vulture had ruined Rei's moment - just shy of her feeling fully satisfied. Enraged she glared at him, and stabbed the scalpel through the fourth nail, the impact and location causing a trickle of blood to squirt forth from the newly formed hole and land on her face.
By this point Vulture was practically immune to the pain, his body running off of pure adrenaline as he continued to laugh. Mockingly he laughed harder, louder, as she pulled on the scalpel to pry the nail off. He would have the last laugh.
Rei was in a state of disbelief, and left with a single nail to remove. It wasn't fun. Vulture had succeeded in sucking the fun out of the penalty game. Distraught she looked at the remaining talon on Vulture's left pinky. Removing the nail would mean nothing to her, and Vulture was laughing at her! He had to pay... She would make him pay! In blinded fury she dropped the scalpel, and in it's place she picked up a much bigger blade and raised it high over her head. If removing his nails wasn't enough she would just have to take his hand!
"STOP!"
Everyone froze as Promoter Tamaki's voice clearly rang through the slot machine's speakers - everyone except for Vulture, who continued to laugh like a lunatic.
"That's enough, Takashima. Step away."
Reluctantly Rei lowered the blade to her side and stepped back, her eyes hidden by her short bangs to hide her shame.
"What? That's it?" Vulture asked, as if he too was disappointed. The bindings were released by the costumed stage hands, and in a perky manner Vulture sat up. He raised his bleeding hands into the air in front of him, and looked with disdain at the remaining pinky nail. "Now that just looks unnatural... I'll take care of this one myself!" Vulture was grateful that his body was still numb to the pain as he reached over for the pliers, and after a steadying breath he ripped off the final nail on his own. "There we go! Now does anyone have a bandaid?"
It was unbelievable...
Vulture looked around with a visible pout as no one answered him. "What, did the bitch cut out your tongues or something?"
Still no one answered, no one even moved! The room was deathly silent...
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK this hurts!" Vulture was inwardly hissing in pain, but on the outside he refused to let it be seen - there was no real way to tell if the show was still on or not.
The silence was broken as an assistant physician walked into the room, and motioned for Vulture to follow her.
Keeping to his madman's persona Vulture pointed to himself curiously, as if he couldn't believe that he was the one the doctor wanted to see. After an affirming nod he shrugged and walked forward, but with a wild grin he feigned a jump towards the ones that were stunned by his earlier display, and cackled darkly as they nearly fell back. "So much pain, so much pain, so much pain! Haha, that was pretty funny... but OW this shit hurts!"
The physician led him away without a word, but moments after walking through the door and safely being off the 'stage' Vulture could no longer maintain his facade, and with a subtle, victorious smile on his face he fell forward, rendered unconscious for the second time...
A/N: Ah my insane little Vulture. I daresay I enjoy his internal struggles! "Hehehe, my plan is working!" "Wait, why am I doing this..?" "Who cares, it's perfect!" "... but seriously, what am I thinking?"
Love it! And I also loved the whole, Vulture ruining Rei's fantasy thing! Laugh, Vulture, laugh.
*Bonus hint!* In the next chapter, I'm finally going to reveal Vulture's name!