{.x.o.} | Rapture's Remorse | {.o.x.}
{x| Chapter 4: Rampage |x}
Glass broke the monochrome light into quivering hues to shine onto the pious pale skinned girl as she knelt in the cold chapel. Her dainty, delicate, hands were clasped together, her slender fingers interlaced, with her hazels long ago hidden behind lids. She could barely feel the diluted sunlight's warmth on her skin, she could barely hear anything in the quiet stone room but her most precious lullaby—the bump, bump of her beating heart.
"Amen," she whispered to herself before she made the sign of the cross, bowed her head, and got up enough to sit on the pew behind her. Slowly, she freed her hazels from the shifting darkness so she could see the beauty before her. The large red oak alter, the golden laced candles that decorated it, the simple wooden cross that hung proud just below the grand stain glassed window that depicted something of importance, she was sure, she just did not know what.
"Miss?"
Her head tilted to the side before her eyes moved from the multicolored window to the man wearing the proper bleak robes, a small smile raised her lips, "hello, Father."
"Oh," he smiled as he rested his hand on the pew before her to lean against it, "please, I'm merely a priest-in-training at this point, you needn't call me that. I am Miroku, and you?"
"Kagome," she greeted with a nod.
His violets wondered about her briefly before they met the hazels that seemed to smile up at him, "I've seen you here for Sunday mass every weekend for a while now, and you even show up on the Wednesday night ones as well. I see you here almost each night, on top of all of that, praying alone, you are very devout. I felt I should praise you for that," he confessed. Truly, how could he not have noticed such a beauty? Oh, the bane of his loins that always reminded him of his mortal desires. At times, it was almost too hard to push them away.
"Thank you, I like it here. It's quiet and I can think," she whispered while her eyes wondered back to the cross upon the wall right behind the ominous alter.
"I find that talking problems out tend to help," Miroku mused and instantly won her hazel gaze back.
"Am I that transparent?" She laughed lightly.
"I'm afraid so," he assured with a charming grin all his own, "I do not want to pry but… perhaps it might be of use to share?"
She licked her lips lightly prior to pressing them together while her fingers moved up to rub her most precious cross, "I don't know where to start…?"
"Wherever you'd like," he urged gently.
Wherever… when did it all start? She fixated on the dark, wavy, lines in the wooden pew before her while her mind tried it's best to short out what she meant to say. Sometimes those lines merged together to make the oddest faces, she was certain she could see a clown in it—wait, that's besides the point. "Um," she finally began, "I think… that promises are sacred. I think that no one should make them in less that have an intention of keeping them."
"I agree."
"I believe that no matter the circumstances, a promise must be kept. Whether it was made under duress… or when you're but a small child… or anything, you have to remember the promise and do everything in your power to keep it."
"I understand," he nodded along.
"You see…" oh, how was she supposed to explain everything to him? It was just too much, so she puffed out a sigh and tried to start over, "there's this boy…"
"Ah," Miroku grinned, "that makes sense."
"But it's not like that," she muttered as her head tilted to the side and her eyes met the ground. "I want to help him…"
"If he is in some sort of trouble, Kagome-sama, I believe it might be best to allow someone else to aid. You are just one person."
"He is in trouble," she assured as she wearily looked up to the still standing man, "but not like that. Here," she moved her hand down to her chest, right where her heart pulsed, "that's what's in trouble. He… but, it's hard to help someone when they don't want it. And, believe me, this boy is a stubborn one and refuses it. I think it's his pride but… with the way he lives, if no one is there for him… I'm afraid he'll just disappear one day."
"I see…" he mused, letting his gaze wash over the girl a few times before it moved to the altar, "that is quite the fix you have found yourself in. Is he a friend?"
"I'd like him to be."
"To me, it seems you have your heart in the right place," Miroku assured with a warm smile, earning her attention once more, "that's always what is most important."
"Miroku-sama," she murmured, he didn't really understand… how could he? She couldn't tell the whole tale, her hand clenched her necklace as she bit her bottom lip and furrowed her brows, "that's not true. I don't think it is. I want to help him but… my reasons are really selfish."
Just as she thought, his smile faded but his good cheer did not seem to leave his face all the same, "I don't believe that."
"With all due respect, Miroku-sama, you don't… have any way of knowing that."
"That's true," he admitted, "but I can't believe such a cute girl does not mean well. Even if you help him out of self-interested reasons, at least you are still helping, correct?"
"I suppose…"
"For now, allow that to be good enough, later, when you two are truly friends, I'm sure you will help him for him."
"Do you always put so much faith in strangers, Miroku-sama?" She inquired with a cock of her head and a weak smile.
"Only the pretty ones," he teased, it lightened his heart to hear a small giggle from her. "I must be going, would you be heading out by chance? I could walk you."
"No, thank you, I think I'm going to stay for a while longer," she decided.
They shared farewells and she waited patiently until the echo of the grand doors closing behind him had long disappeared from the world before she got up and walked across the room to the faultlessly carved wooden box. Her hand that never knew the hardship of labor couldn't find the strength to grasp the handle and open the door to the one place that might be able to give her peace, so she lifted her other up to aid. A breath in, a breath out, she shut her eyes as she walked in and knelt down to face the dark mesh that separated her from purity.
Hush took over for a while before she heard the click of the door opening and the shifting of fabric for someone to sit down and closing the door once more, sealing them to their own secret sanctuary.
"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned…" she whispered as she shut her eyes to allow the gloom that hid behind them to consume her.
"What is it, my child?"
To him, the elder Father who could not and would not judge her, she could confess, "I killed someone, Father."
[…]
Done, finally, freedom was allowed to him as he walked out of the shitty little hotel and onto the equally crummy street. He tilted his head back as he rotated it around to try and free his neck from the crick that had lodged itself tightly in, some of the things that people made him do just went against physical common sense. Some stuff should not be tried, he was flexible but not that flexible.
But he was paid more for the attempt so… he sighed as he opened his eyes; he knew his side of the city like the back of his hand. He didn't even need to look to be able to find his way home, to the red brick building that was his only safe haven from the rest of the world—and its inhabitants from him.
"What… are you doing here?" He muttered once he stepped off the final stair to his floor, right beside his door was a squatting Kagome, her eyes dully fixated on the grimy ground below her.
"You said I could still come around," she replied meekly as her eyes wondered up to his, "was that a lie?"
"How long… have you been waiting here?" he grunted before he yanked his keys out of his jeans.
"Not long," she lied as she stood up, "were you working?"
He just gave her a cruel side glance at that after he put the two different keys into the two different locks and banged against the door lightly to get it open, it was a little trick since it got jammed all the time.
"I've brought some stuff so I could make you lunch," she declared as she held up the plastic bag she had set on the ground. "I figured if I didn't you would never eat anything notorious."
"Keh, do as you want," he grumbled back. He'd never pass up free food, why start now? He let her in and locked up afterwards then plopped down the couch as she took over his kitchen. Silence was golden, to him in particular, but it had been absent from his life since she entered in three weeks ago. 'Yadda, yadda this' and 'blah, blah, that' consumed his world. She had continued to come around after V-Day, only once or twice had she caught him outside a hotel, and for the most part she knocked on the door over and over again in the wee hours of the morning. She'd bring him breakfast and update him on world affairs that he honestly couldn't care less about or call him up—she had stolen his number when he wasn't looking—and beg him to do this or that with her.
This was a first; he could close his eyes and almost fall asleep to the sound of her moving about in the kitchen. Hadn't she once told him the last thing he wanted was her to cook for him? Eh, bad food was better than no food.
"Food," she called out right before he could slipped into slumber.
Groggily, he got up to walk over to the counter.
"It's a… gourmet type of ramen, if you want call it that," she explained as she rested her elbow upon the counter top and her chin on her hand, "it's all I know how to make."
"Hey, that's fine," he assured, ramen was essentially what he lived off of, after all.
Hush overtook them as they ate… that just wasn't right. He couldn't help but let his eyes shift from the food he was quickly devouring to the oddly calm girl. Where'd all the giggling and relentless smiles go?
Why did it matter that they were gone?
"Hey," he muttered after he set his empty bowl down in his dirty-dish-filled sink, "what's up with you today?"
"Nothing."
"You are really… quiet."
"You're always saying I'm too loud."
"Is that it?" he didn't believe it; he knew the mild look of misery that was hidden behind the smile she tried to put on for him at that moment. Not everyone could be happy all the time, he reminded himself as he began to rub his shoulder, she was no different.
"What's wrong?" she questioned with a cocked brow, "does your neck hurt?"
"It's been bothering me all day," he groaned as he tried to revolve his shoulder to free the tension.
"Is it an occupational hazard?" There, that taunting tone was what he had come to expect from her. It wasn't judgmental, really, it was mocking—her way of reminding him that she didn't accept his choice of life.
"You could say that," he grinned back to her with a wink, "do you want me to show you how this happened?"
"Jeez," she huffed, "you are a pervert."
"It's my job."
She simply rolled her eyes at that before she grasped his wrist and yanked him over to the couch, "sit."
"I'm not a dog," he protested, purposely planting his feet in the ground to show that.
"Sit," she repeated as she pointed to the couch, "sit."
"Say it all ya' want, I'm not gonna do that."
"That's unfortunate," she frowned, "I was going to massage your shoulders but… if you don't sit I can't."
That got his ears to twitch as his mind ran wild. He wanted to feel her hands work away the knot in his neck, what other way did he have to get rid of it?
Liquid joy, duh, his throbbing need retorted. A larger douse than normal would make the pain go away, go to the bathroom, close the door, shoot the bliss into his system. Keep your pride, don't let her tame you.
Still… he grumbled and sat down. He closed his eyes when he felt the indent of her weight on the couch as she knelt behind him. Many people had touched him, massages were normal foreplay for those that paid him to put up with such nonsense but it was different this time… she was doing it for free, without any expectation of him returning the gesture. It wasn't without a hidden intention, he knew, she wanted to be 'friends' so she could 'help' him.
Why? He had yet to figure that out, was he just some charity project she wanted to work on? He was certain he had her figured out; she had to be from a well off family to be able to live in Tokyo all this time without a job. Noblesse oblige as they say, she felt she needed to help out the less fortune because she was. That was probably it, he was probably right, but why him?
His eyes fluttered shut as her fingers pried the knot out of his neck to move to his shoulders. It felt better than morphine… no, his inner devil protested, it didn't. Take her, now that might feel better than morphine. His lids lifted at the very thought, he didn't want to do her. He didn't want to… she didn't want to do him, either. She wasn't human, though he knew she was, she was… other earthly. How could he dare taint her?
He didn't need to corrupt another pure—stop. Stop thinking, his better judgment ordered, your battered brain can't take it.
So he listened, and leaned into her touch some more. He could get used to her being around, if he had to.
"What's wrong with you?" he muttered as he tilted his head to the side to subtly point out the next place for her fingers to fix.
"Nothing," she hummed.
"You are really quite today."
"We've been over this already," she reminded.
"I wanna know what's wrong."
"Does this mean," she awed mockingly as her hands withdrew from his skin, her eyes wide as he glared at her for ceasing, "that Inuyasha cares about my problems? Perhaps we're becoming friends?"
He cringed and turned his head away once more, "keh."
"Is that a 'yes'?" She teased as she tugged on his cheek, "that's cute, Inuyasha. Thank you for worrying—"
"As if, don't flatter yourself," there was no need to hide the small smile that etched its way up his lips at the sound of her laughing lightly behind him, she couldn't see it. That laugh… was precious; he didn't want to lose it…
… but she'd leave, like each night, and he'd inject the last bit of bliss he had left in the small bottle, just like he always did. She couldn't change that, he was certain about it as he fell back into his bed and let the numbness take him.
[…]
"I'm out of everything," he groaned to himself bitterly as pressed the button below the poorly written 'Onigumo' label. "Fuck me, this is gonna be expensive again."
For once, the mad mummy didn't use the intercom to question who it was—though, Inuyasha was aware he could easily tell from the camera he had installed at the door—but simply unlocked the door to allow it to pop open some. He caught it before it closed and headed up to the door he knew so well, "yo," he beckoned as he opened the door that shouldn't be unlocked, "Onigumo, I'm—"
"He's not here right now," an ominous chuckle declared. "He won't be coming back."
Inuyasha cocked a brow as his golden gaze moved over to the bedroom door where a tall man with ebony waves held up in a loose ponytail, his red mischievous eyes only accented his greedy grin. Not human, his nose told him, not all demons, it also said, but hanyou like you, it concluded. He didn't often come across another like him… truly, all the way like him, too. He could tell from the gleam in his crimson orbs that there was something sickly wrong with him, something that made his soul so very impure.
Just. Like. His.
"Who are you?" Inuyasha grumbled as he examined the man closer, he wore some purple eye shadow even. What a weirdo.
"I've taken over Onigumo's territory, if you used to be one of his clients than you are mine now. Tell me, what's your poison of choice?"
"Right… 'cause I'm just going to believe you aren't vice or something," he countered before he shoved his hands into his pocket.
"Do I look like someone who'd work for the cops?" The man inquired with a lopsided smirk, "if you don't want to do business with me, you'd have to go far to find someone that'd serve you. Good luck."
Fuck, he bit his lips together as he glanced around. He didn't want to be arrested again, but… damn, he needed some. He had to go all morning without a pick-me-up in his coffee; he couldn't go all day while he searched for another source. "Morphine and a bottle of Letum."
"Prescription shit," the man chuckled as he walked over to pull out his black bag and retrieve the two items, one a small clear bottle, the other a red bottle filled with loyal white pills. "You are Inuyasha, aren't you?"
His gaze narrowed swiftly on the man, asking the question he couldn't find to will to voice.
"I've been watching Onigumo's territory for a while now, I like to stalk my prey before… attacking," he held out the two bottles to the fellow hanyou, "I noticed you."
"Is that so?" he muttered as his eyes flickered down to the containers, wasn't he going to ask for payment first?
"Do you know how much this'll coast you?"
"Are your prices different than Onigumo's?"
"Very, and you'll find I have a monopoly in this area for quite a while," his voice seeped with venom; it even gave Inuyasha the shivers. "You'll have to pay my way, or head out of Tokyo to find your next fix."
"How much is this gonna coast?" he groaned, Onigumo's prices were already becoming too much, if this new guy's were even worse… would he be able to really afford it?
"Sixty-six hundred-thousand yen."
"Damn it! That's nearly double Onigumo's!"
"That's the joy of a monopoly, so do you have the money?" He danged the bottles around, winning the jittery hanyou's attention. The agony spewed across the hanyou's face only made him feel all the better, misery, it's what he lived for.
"No…" he didn't have that type of cash lying around; he'd have to do a few more jobs. Fuck, he really needed it. How was he meant to sleep that night? How the hell was he supposed to get through the day on just coffee?
He was going to die. There was no doubt to it. Life would leave his shaking body if he didn't get at least one of those things now. "How much for just... the pills?"
"I can give you both right now," he retorted.
"I don't have that type of money," he grunted back, "so how much for one?"
"You know what else I've noticed about you?" The red eyed devil asked as he grasped the bottles in hand and dropped them in his pocket, "you have a pretty girl that follows you everywhere, she you're girlfriend?"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" he spat back maybe too quickly, no, it was too hasty, he could tell from the way the man's twisted grin grew.
"I told you, I like to stalk my prey."
"Stay away from her," he demanded with a step forward, "or—"
"I'm not too interested in her at the moment," the monster assured. "I'll give you what you need and in exchange you'll do everything I say for the rest of the day."
"Keh, what?"
"I know what your profession is," he stated and all fell into place.
Oh.
That for that, eh?
What difference would it make? He did it for money and he used that money for his addiction so why not just cut out the middle part… it wouldn't be different, right?
It'd be the same.
It would… that's why he didn't budge as the man walked across the room to unzip his red hoddie, that's why he didn't say a word as it fell to the ground, that's why he didn't protest when clothes were discarded, that's why he didn't care when he was told the man's name.
Naraku.
Or when the man told him to memorize it because he owned him until sundown. Or when he taunted him with the knowledge that they'd be seeing a lot of each other. A lot.
But it was different… he didn't have the power, he couldn't say 'no, I don't do that', Naraku had what he needed more than money.
His body required the drugs just as bad as his soul did… that's why they both would have to simply deal with what was to come.
It's not like he's never had sex before… just not like that.
A/N: 660,000 yen about 730 USD, 480 pounds, 533 euros.