Kota went back to the club on Thursday night. He would be out of the city on Saturday, so this taste would have to last him several days. He had a moment of something close to panic when he realized he wasn't sure how to find the place again, but he eventually retraced his steps until things started to look familiar.

The bartender nodded and took his money, but said nothing other than to tell him which room and booth.

On the surface, it didn't seem different this time. But he watched differently. The man might as well not have been there. For the next 45 minutes, Kota's entire universe was contained in the woman's face, in her shifting expressions as she traveled through discomfort, pain, suffering, and finally surrender and transcendence. It still excited him, and he still had to take care of that; the wanting her had only gotten stronger. He stayed after she was lowered this time. He really had no more desire to see the man touch her than he had the first time, but he wanted to see what she was like when it was over.

He brought her to the floor gently, onto a mat he rolled out first. She barely moved as he freed her. Her body was deeply marked by the ropes; she was very fair-skinned, and the grooves were bright red everywhere they were visible. She shuddered as feeling came back to them. Kota wanted to touch them badly enough that his hands ached for it. The man said something in the woman's ear. She shook her head. He put a blanket over her and turned to cleaning up.

Several minutes passed before the woman sat up, the blanket wrapped around her, and asked for water. The man brought her a bottle. He looked in a bad temper. Kota was about to leave when the man abruptly spoke. "You have not paid for two weeks. It is time."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"I do not care for sorry any longer. You do not have the money? You have other forms of payment."

"You know I don't do that."

"Why? You are too good for what everyone does here?"

"You don't. And I don't see you demanding blowjobs from the janitor, either."

"The janitor does not owe me money." He was standing over her in a way that made Kota furious.

The woman seemed oddly unworried. "Someone's still here."

The man's glance bounced from window to window as if he could see through them. "You are sure?"

"Yes."

"Let him watch, then. What do you think they pay in the hope of seeing?"

"Not all of them. Not this one, I think. You'll get your money. See Hideo for it, each Tuesday until it's paid in full. I don't ever want to have to look at you again."

The man nodded tersely and stalked out. It took everything Kota had in him to not go after the bastard.

The woman sat there silently for a while, then seemed abruptly to explode. "FUCK!" She slammed her fist against the floor, then muttered another curse when that obviously hurt. Face lowered into her hands, she took two long, deep, shuddering breaths. When she put her hands back in her lap, she seemed her usual serene self again. All but her eyes, Kota thought.

He needed a drink to calm himself for different reasons this time. The bartender watched his hand clench and flex around the glass.

"What happened?"

"He wanted money. She did not have it. She did not want to do what he wanted to pay."

The bartender's eyes flicked toward the door.

"He did nothing to her. I would have stopped him."

"I know. Did he say how much she owes?"

"Two weeks."

"That is 300000 yen. It will take her time to gather that, but she can."

"So much?" He had to wonder what other than ropes she might owe for.

"Do not look that way. The binding is a special skill, and takes much training. He charges a great deal for his services. She must pay for what she needs."

"She needs it so much?"

"Just as it was need that brought you back. More, I think. But she will start over again with a new one now."

"You know her."

"Better than anyone else here does, but that is not saying much. What she does when she leaves here is as much a mystery to me as it is to you."

He thought about the woman the entire four days he was on the road - about her, about his own reaction to her, about why he hadn't done simple things to change the situation. He hadn't asked the bartender her name, or waited outside the club for her to leave. It wasn't like him to not try to alter a situation he didn't like, but he'd been entirely passive so far. He intended to change that when he went to see her again.

"You have something on your mind. A blind man could see it on your face. You still have not let go?" Tanahashi sat down next to him on the locker room bench.

"No. It will not happen as easily as that. But that is not what is distracting me. I apologize for that." He'd been mostly on his game in their tag match tonight, but Tanahashi was astute enough to notice that mostly wasn't the same as entirely.

"We won. But it is not like you to not focus entirely in the ring."

It was a clear invitation to explain, but he didn't really want to. This was his, only for him. "Things away from work. I will be more attentive from now on." He hoped it wasn't a lie.