I'm really sorry if the last two chapters seemed rushed. I keep reading through them and I'm beginning to see it. I like to jump a head of myself apparently; I just wanna know what happens next. Hey, I don't plan out every single detail, it just... writes itself. I only plan the big things, like the ending or the beginning or big scenes and events, stuff like that. Anyway, onwards!
Chapter 3
It felt strange.
She could feel each breath he took, even the pulse of his heartbeat with his head in her lap. He had just randomly laid it there, without her consent. Was that just how a demon was? It kind of reminded her of the attributes of an animal, like a wolf, Kaoru being the tamed one of course. Haruhi just watched Kaoru sleep, feeling at peace in her presence it seemed, resting one hand on his shoulders. He was actually kind of cute, almost like a little lost lion cub. He even seemed to purr whenever she petted him or scratched behind his ear. It made her feel like she was his owner or something along those lines. Hikaru was sleeping alone in a corner far away from them. He'd been trying all night to figure a way out, but nothing seemed to be working at all. That didn't stop him from trying though, and soon he had worn himself out until finally he fell a sleep in a curled up ball. He was sort of cute when he slept, too, in an animalistic way.
It was strange to see them so far apart when they had been so close in the real world. As uncannily similar as they were to her Host Twins, these two were at the same time also very different from them. Hikaru had always been the wild one in any case. Still, now that she looked at the two of them and their counterparts, she realized they were almost completely different individuals. Thus, she resorted to calling them by their individual names, but she still saw their faces as the same.
The long ride they'd been enduring was a bumpy and mostly quiet one. Theirs wasn't the only cage either. There was a whole line of them, six in a row, all connected to each other in a tangent that attached to a huge carriage pulled by about five pairs of giant black horses, and there were about three of those rows traveling in one single file line. From what she could see, each cage had about 3-7 people in it. The row she was in was actually the first in the whole line, and her cage was the fifth in that row. There was a window in the back of the carriage that pulled her cage that Haruhi could vaguely see through the four cages before hers. It had blue curtains to block the view, but every once and a while, she caught someone peeking through, and she could hear laughter and talking. What exactly was going on? And why was she not tired? She didn't feel the urge to sleep at all. Why was that? If she could feel pain in this world, then her body should need rest too, right?
It was about twilight when suddenly the entire line came to a halt, sending a jolt through the cages that rattled everyone who slept, waking them even from the deepest slumber. Kaoru jolted in her lap, making her jump reflexively with him, and Hikaru's head rammed into the wall.
"OW, dammit!" The older twin yelped, the pain waking him up instantly to full alertness. "What the hell?!"
"What's… going on?" Kaoru asked groggily as he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Not sure why yet, but we've stopped." Haruhi answered him.
Everyone in the cages around them was scared and worried. Haruhi heard a few crying, others screaming either in fear or determination. From the carriages and from within the trees, people came to the cages and started forcing people outside, and they weren't gentle. In the cage behind them, an old man, as calm as if it was just a ride, spoke up, his voice tranquil.
"Looks like its time already."
"Time for what?" Haruhi turned to him, trying to get a good look at his face through the combination of their bars in her line of sight.
"The sorting." He replied without turning to look at her.
"Sorting?" Kaoru repeated, still rather drowsy from his nap.
"What's going on?!" Hikaru cried out, still sitting at his end of the cage. "What are they doing with us?!"
"They're going to see who will do the best in which market," the old man explained grimly, staring out into the trees, "And then they'll mark us and sell us."
"Sell us?" Hikaru was outraged. "They can't just sell us!"
"What do you mean?" Haruhi didn't like where the old man was going with this.
"We're slaves, young lady," he finally turned his wise aged eyes to her, "To be bought and sold in the markets in towns everywhere for the rich and the regal."
Haruhi felt a wave of uneasiness and fear surge up her spine. So they were to be made into slaves, auctioned off or exploited some other way in the market. And they were being marked for different areas? Did that mean she would be separated from Kaoru and Hikaru? She didn't even want to think about being alone in this world. And all this was inside her mind? What was going on with her mental stability? Was everyone like this?
Kaoru suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her toward him, looking her right in the eye with an expression that spoke loudly of panic. "Haruhi, we're probably going to be separated so I can't protect you. I don't know what they're going to do, but be strong. As soon as Isamu and I escape, I'll come for you, I promise."
Haruhi gazed back at him, fear making her heart race. "Kaoru-"
"Screw this!" Hikaru screamed over her. "I'm getting out of here!" He started banging on every wooden weak point he could find, trying to use brute strength to break out, but before he could find it, the door to their cage opened and a man of all sorts of epically gigantic proportions grabbed him. "Get off me, you-!"
The giant man didn't even talk. He seemed to see Hikaru as just an animal, and without another thought took out some sort of stick and shoved it into the demon's chest. At the instant it touched skin, it flared with a giant wave of electricity. Hikaru cried out in pain, but he was frozen by the power of the bolts charging through his body, helpless to defy his current situation
"Isamu!" Kaoru cried, and he reached out as if to run to his brothers aid. However, before he could do anything himself, Haruhi –without even thinking it through (again)– let instinct take over. She tore from the younger twin's grasp and rushed for Hikaru. "Haruhi, no!" He never had a chance to stop her.
She never even gave herself room for rational thought. The fear had melted into the urge to protect her friend, even if he wasn't the Hikaru she knew. She knocked him out of the way and threw a punch at the huge man, a bulls-eye right in the face. It did nothing to slow him down, and she wasn't quick enough to pull it away. He caught her arm just before she could evade him, and without even considering that she was much weaker than he, threw a fist in her gut, dropping her to the hard wooden floor.
All the air in her lungs was gone. She even felt the wound in her side burst open. She laid there gasping for breath, desperately willing the air to come back. It hurt too much to move, but that faded when she started to go numb. Everything around her was suddenly mute, and her vision once again was blurry. It felt like time itself almost stopped... until the air suddenly came rushing back, and then the world woke up as pain flared throughout her body.
"...Haruhi!"
That was Kaoru, but it was Hikaru standing over her. She was still gasping, it hurt to breath now –even though she wanted to cry, despite being unable– but she could see Kaoru telling Hikaru to stay with her, to protect her. The giant man had Kaoru by the waist as he carried the demon away. She didn't dare move, but she gapped after him in full panic mode. The agony was unbearably excruciating, but she couldn't just let them take him away. At one point, she gathered the courage to try getting up, but Hikaru held her down.
"Don't get up, you stupid human!" He screamed at her while caught in the rage of an emotional frenzy, as upset as she was that his brother was being carried away. It almost looked like he was on the verge of tears himself.
"K... Ka... Ka..." She reached for the demon who had been so kind to her, watching him struggle with his captor to get free in vain. They just kept hitting him and zapping him like they had Hikaru until he could barely even move. And there was nothing she could do. "K-Kao... ru..."
The stress just then began to overwhelm her. Another man came to the door and tried to grab her, but Hikaru started a fight with him. That was the last thing she knew before darkness took her.
When Haruhi woke again, this time she found herself alone bound by the wrists to a wide metal poll. Also tied to the poll by the ankles, her bare feet dangled below her about 2 feet above the ground, and she wasn't the only one in that position. On either side of her, about 10-12 more polls were lined up with another girl tied to it, and all around them people walked in an unorthodox crowd. Before them was a woman and a man who were trying to exploit them in any way possible to get a customer's attention, and it worked well. There were many people looking up at each option and trying to decide which one was the best, as if they were dolls for the pleasure of collecting.
Haruhi's heart began to race again. She didn't like the way everyone was looking at her. She'd never liked being held down or forced to do something. It didn't take her long to become aware that her wrists were starting to hurt, and there a sharp hot sting on her shoulder. How long had she been hanging here? What did they do to her while she was out?
She looked down at herself and couldn't help but give a small cry as blood gushed into her face when she realized that she was stripped of the clothes she had been wearing. As were the rest of the girls, she was only dressed in a single thin clothe that wrapped diagonally down her body, but many of the other girls were adorned in different colors. She felt her innards writhe and churn as panic and humiliation set in. What was she supposed to be on display for, exactly? At least it covered the important parts, but if anyone wanted to see, all they had to do was pull away the covering...
"Pss! Haruhi!" Whispered a voice from her right.
Taken off guard, Haruhi nearly forgot her ordeal as she turned to see the face of Ayanokouji wrapped in a blue cloth. "Miss Ayanokouji?" It surprised her, but after seeing the twins, the shock was easer to recover from.
"Idiot girl!" Ayanokouji glared at her. "It's me! Isamu!"
"Huh?" At first Haruhi was confused. It was weird and kind of disturbing to see Ayanokouji talking like Hikaru. But then she remembered what Hikaru had told her about being able to change into anyone he ate. "Oh!" So who exactly was this Ayanokouji girl that he'd devoured? He looked out of his element, as though he felt squeamishly uncomfortable in a woman's body. "Hika- uh- Isamu! What's going on?"
"What's it look like?" He retorted, his glare gaining a bitter cynicism. "We're being sold as slaves, most likely for those pervs who just want to have a bit of 'fun' in the bedroom." Then his glare suddenly faded, as though he'd just remembered something horrible, and he averted the steel blue-gray gaze of Ayanokouji. "Did you... wake up at all before now?"
Haruhi blinked. "No." Not that she remembered anyway. She watched him in confusion, wondering what he was asking for.
He almost looked relieved. "Good."
Haruhi titled her head impulsively to one side out of curiosity. "Why?"
"Trust me," he continued to stare off into the distance, his expression hardening again, "You don't want to know."
So they did do something while she was out, but what was it? "Did... they do something?" Then again, did she really want to know?
"You don't need to know that," he turned his gaze to her again, like he was just regaining his composure, "But if you ever start wondering, that pain on the back of your shoulder is a brand mark."
A brand mark? That involved hot iron on skin, didn't it? No wonder her shoulder hurt. At least he was willing to tell her something, if anything at all. Obviously they had done something to every girl, some sort of procedure that they all had to endure, but what it was, she probably wasn't going to get it out of him. So she turned away and sighed anxiously, wondering what fate lied ahead for them now.
"This form I'm in now…" he said suddenly with a sullen expression, his voice oddly gentle as though he actually felt guilty, making her turn to look at him again, "It's… it's Rein… Juro's lover."
Haruhi almost gasped in surprise. All she knew of Ayanokouji in her world was that the girl was a spoiled brat who did whatever it took to get her way. How did a sweet boy –or in this case demon– like Kaoru fall for a girl like that in this world? It was not at all a likely match. Well, not for her world, anyway. But it sunk in hard. So it was true that she was dead, and that Hikaru had eaten her. On the other hand, she was relieved to know that she wasn't really alone. He must have changed into a feminine form to be able to stay with her, despite how disconcerting it seemed to be for him.
"Thanks, Isamu." She smiled at him, this time with genuine gratitude and warmth. "Thank you for trying to protect me, and staying with me."
Ayanokouji's face looked surprised by the sudden gratitude and blushed a bright pink, but he turned away stubbornly. "It's for Juro, not you."
Haruhi just smiled more. Maybe it was for Kaoru, but that seemed unlikely after witnessing his cruel mockery toward his brother. However, at the same time, it also seemed very likely. "Is Juro here, too?"
At her question, the face of Ayanokouji saddened considerably. Even the attitude seemed to fade away for the moment. "...No."
Haruhi's smile faded. What had happened to Kaoru? She had passed out before she even had the chance to find out. Either he had escaped somehow, or he was already being sold with the men. There was also the possibility that the traders had decided he was unworthy or had perhaps disposed of him or were doing something to correct the issues. It was that thought that made her worry and fear for him the most, but all she could do at this point was hope that he was still okay. It was then that the crowd around them suddenly gasped and yelped in surprise about something. She looked for every possible source, but whatever it was, she couldn't catch a hold of it. "What's going on?"
"He's here." Hikaru said stoically. He was looking into the crowd as if he knew exactly what was going on, having seen something that she had overlooked.
"Who?" Haruhi glanced at him before visually sweeping to the crowd again, searching for whomever it was he had meant.
"Him." Hikaru nodded at someone in the crowd, making a few copper locks of the long rich brown hair of Ayanokouji spill over the young woman's delicate shoulders.
Haruhi looked in the direction he had indicated, but still she could see nothing. All that she could see were the backs of people's heads at first, but then the crowd began to make way for a rather handsome blonde boy dressed in a very expensive royal kimono who approached the line of polls. His face was hidden from her, and although he did seem incredibly important, she still had no idea who he was. "Who is he?"
"You mean you don't know?" Hikaru sounded utterly surprised. "How can you not know who Prince Tanjiro Kinokiita is?!"
"Prince?" Haruhi repeated as she looked at him again, almost hoping that he would be the arrow to point her in the right direction.
"God, humans are stupid!" Hikaru cried, forgetting to be quiet as he struggled to flail out his emotions, which caused his shackles and chains to rattle noisily, "He's only the Crowned Prince of one of the biggest and most famous countries in the galaxy! The Suou Kingdom is only third in power to the Tonnerre Empire! Only the Otori Sovereignty is above it!"
Haruhi finally understood what the big deal was, but what was a Prince doing in a run down market like this? Surely he was simply passing through. No regal figure would spend their time in a place so poverty-ridden, unless they were anything like Tamaki. She turned back to watch the scene, only to find herself staring into the face of none other than Tamaki Suou. She yelped in utter shock. Another familiar face! What was going on? Who else was in this world that she knew from the real world? She had the urge to say his name and ask him what the hell was going on in his pea brain head, but after her encounter with the twins, she decided against it and kept her mouth shut.
He just gazed up at her with his typical princely smile, ignoring her reaction to his presence as though she had not been disconcerted by him. "Don't be afraid, little lady!" He chirped cheerfully. Typical of the Tamaki she knew. Her fear turned into surprise as he reached out to caress only her cheek, almost politely, avoiding all other areas that he could have just as easily reached for. "I like you. I think I'll take you home."
Her surprise melted into annoyance. It figured that this Tamaki would take an interest in her and also be a Prince. She was afraid of what he would make her do when they got to his mansion... or was it palace, now?
"An excellent choice, My Lord!" The market's woman marched over to him with a bow. "This one is 500,000 Yen!"
"Very well!" So he paid the money front and center, which of course wasn't surprising but it was impressive considering the amount.
They started to unlock her shackles as her heart started to race yet again, wondering exactly what this world's Tamaki wanted to do with her. If the demon version of the twins were so different from the true twins, then what would be different about this world's version of Tamaki? Would he hurt her? Her gaze turned to Hikaru in panic of being separated from him. He gazed back at her with concern for the same thing. Now that Kaoru was gone, he didn't want to be alone either.
Tamaki seemed to notice, because he looked from Haruhi to Hikaru and smiled. "I think I'll take this one, too." He pointed to Hikaru.
Haruhi breathed a sigh of relief, glad to know that she wouldn't be alone. He was nice enough now, but who knew what kind of guy this Tamaki would turn out to be. Right now, even Tamaki didn't know that Hikaru was a male demon, which gave them both an advantage, and it would help them greatly in escape. But for now, they didn't have much choice. Tied by a rope with both hands, Tamaki dragged them behind him like two dogs on a leash as he walked on through the market place, Haruhi limping along helplessly with occasional help only from Hikaru, but the Prince didn't stop for anything else. He just went straight to his fancy carriage and pulled the two of them inside.
Ha HA! Tamaki has now entered the picture! I wonder what kind of guy he'll turn out to be? Well, like I always say, PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!
