Anatomy of Affection

by Moriyasha Neko-hime

As a former resident of Hell, Neuro is unfamiliar with certain physical displays of human affection. But as he starts experimenting with Yako, will he grow to like it too much? /PREQUEL TO TOKEN OF AFFECTION/

4. Understand - Comprehend

Hello, peeps!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

Sorry it's been so long! No one responded to my 3/9 NeuYako Challenge, so I felt a little down. And whenever I tried to write for AoA, I ended up re-writing, because I was unhappy with it.

But! I finally managed to get Chapter 04 done!

I hope you like it! PLEASE REVIEW!

04 -

Understand [Comprehend]

Neuro threw a book out the window. Fortunately for the people on the street below, the window had been open at the time, so no one had to avoid any broken glass. But whosoever the book happened to land on…

The demon didn't bother to wonder about it.

But his irritation did not abate in the slightest. If anything, it only got worse.

He wanted to throw something at someone. He wanted to watch a stapler hit someone in the face and leave a sinister mark on their skin that would gradually settle into place and take even longer to fade away. He wanted to string someone up like a punching bag and beat on them until he felt better.

He wanted that gorram noise to stop.

He could call Godai to come by the office. The human had recovered from the injuries that had left him hospitalized. He could easily find any remaining bruises and expand on them. But the thought didn't offer him any enjoyment.

Neuro didn't want to hit Godai. He wanted to hit someone else. Someone who he knew could take the beating. Someone who he had trained to be durable.

Someone who was no longer here.

From his place on the ceiling, as if to mock him, Neuro saw a small portion of metal lying on the floor. Printed in simple black text, the name of this infuriating human was easily legible.

KATSURAGI YAKO

Dropping down from the ceiling, he stepped on the sign. Then he stomped on it, denting the metal and scraping some of the name off. But he could still see it, so he then set it on fire. He watched as the Hell flames ate at the flimsy, human world metal, seeing little pieces break off and the edges turn black.

And still, he found no pleasure in it.

The noise still rang in his ears.

He had willingly let her leave. He had opened the door with his own hand. He shouldn't have had to listen to that noise anymore. As soon as she was out of sight, he shouldn't have spared her another thought. That noise should have faded away.

It was infuriating to find that simple task strangely impossible.

Snapping his fingers, the fire winked out as if it had never even been there, leaving only the abused name plate lying on the floor as it had been since he had cut it from the door.

Neuro understood that his…that the human girl had been disturbed. Two people she considered close friends dying right in front of her. Certainly, many a human would be thrown off balance because of the loss.

But she was not a below-average human. She should have been able to overcome that loss and continue onward.

The demon was actually willing to admit that his neglect resulted in Sasazuka Eishi's death. But both he and the old man called Honjou had come to terms with things in their own way. Both men had surely been satisfied with their own demise.

But she had not been satisfied. If anything, she had been left completely overthrown.

"It would have been better if we had never met! Whether it's everyone, or you!"

What a disappointment those words had been. He had been so sure that she was stronger than that.

How unpleasant to discover the girl was so weak. Just looking at her made his stomach twist and grind, like he was struggling to digest a large rock. He immediately knew that he had to get her out of his sight and with her remove the unpleasant feeling.

He didn't need a slave like that. He didn't need her. He was better off without her and her unpleasant noise.

He would start over. He would find a new slave, build up a new detective and continue on. He had not necessarily chosen that girl for any particular reason. It could have just as easily been her mother, or even their house keeper.

She just so happened to be there when Neuro had broken through to the human world. She happened to be the first living thing he had come in contact with here on the surface. She had been his human. To keep or cast aside as he saw fit.

All he had ever wanted was to eat. To feast on the Puzzles of humankind was the sole reason he had left Hell and broke through to the human realm. He no longer needed the boredom of his birthplace when humans had so much more variety.

That humans were capable of such atrocities was what had first drawn him to the surface. That they were his food source provoked him into fighting for their survival when they could not defend themselves. So long as he obeyed the laws set forth by the Demon Court, he wouldn't have any real trouble.

But Neuro required another who could understand the 'why' of things, because it would make movement in the human world much easier than it would be on his own. Neuro didn't understand human sentiments. He had made this perfectly clear. As had the human girl.

That was why he couldn't simply forget her. It would be difficult to fill the position of Detective with someone less competent than even she was. For the moment, his progress was restricted. That was all.

He didn't like this sensation. He had always enjoyed multi-tasking far beyond the abilities of the other members of the Demon Court. Here, whenever he looked into an investigation or just did some light reading, he didn't use even half of his ability, mostly because he didn't have to. But he still preferred doing something to doing absolutely nothing.

Empty hours were agonizing to his brilliant mind. His thoughts wandered to things he would rather leave untouched. Right now, he almost wondered what he could have done differently to prevent certain things from ending the way they did. This was, of course, a highly distasteful thought, because it was outside his nature as a Demon to doubt. Doubt was a Human factor, because Humans were uncertain creatures that second-guessed themselves, and thereby double-crossed themselves.

Neuro was perfectly happy living without doubt and laughing at the people who had to deal with it.

He preferred to fill his time with solving questions and Puzzles of any kind. He liked knowing how things worked. He liked taking things apart piece by piece and figuring out how to use it. He might even put it back together in a different way if it meant he could use it better than before.

He couldn't withhold his enthusiasm when he took to wandering across Hell, finding something new and picking it apart to uncover out how it worked and to what purpose. It was fun and rarely tested him.

"Trying to find meaning in every little thing takes a lot of time," he remembered his Mother smile. "But taking a brief moment to listen to nothing at all has its merits."

His Mother had always understood his desire to fill the hours of his days, because she also had a lot of time to whittle away. She told him once that it was hard to live in Hell because she could still feel her own world moving without her. Feeling her time continue to pass elsewhere, while it practically stopped where she stood was something Neuro had wondered about. He had experienced this upon coming to Earth, but like his Mother, he had adjusted and had since taken to ignoring the peculiar form of jet-lag.

Now, as he sat bored and apathetic, he couldn't ignore the sensation of Hell moving elsewhere. Nor could he drown out that incessant noise that had been bothering him for the past two days.

It was not something that any Human seemed capable of hearing, as none had made any indication of it. But it had been cutting through his brain like one of his own blades since the exact moment Sasazuka Eishi had been killed. And it had only heightened in pitch when Honjou took his own life.

He had hoped the noise would leave with her when she had run out, but it still cut through his brain unlike anything he had suffered in the past. Although, perhaps it wasn't as harsh as when his Father Summoned him; that pain that rang through his bones to the tips of his horns was hard to measure up to. The Bastard. But this was really close to that.

And it had only become even louder since she had run away.

He just needed to drown it out. He had to think about anything and everything and force it away from his attention. He buried himself in his vast memory to find something highly more pleasing, something exactly opposite from the Noise.

For a while, he contented himself with the reminiscence of eating, filling his empty stomach and abating his endless hunger. And while that was pleasing for a short while, it quickly reminded him of how many hours it had been since he had eaten properly. What's more, his stomach actually hurt. All the same, it was something along the right lines.

But that was quickly replaced by the only other thing that he had found to be more pleasurable than eating.

A very brief exchange in a certain human girl's bedroom.

It had been a simple mistake on her part as a human. There was no way she would understand the severity of her simple actions. Her lack of knowledge about his race and his homeland was something he took daily enjoyment from. But the instant she touched his hair was when he realized just how dangerous her naiveté could be.

He shouldn't have indulged her. But for whatever reason, he had allowed her to see just what it meant to touch a demon's hair.

He had expected the physical stimulation. His body would naturally react the same way it did to hunger, temperature or even pain.

He had not expected the feeling of her fingers through his strands to be so incredible. He had not expected to be so beset by a sensation unlike any he had ever felt before. So much that even after she had finished, he hadn't been ready to stop. So, he had returned the favor she had done for him by embracing her and thoroughly kissing her in a way that was most certainly intimate to humans.

He enjoyed the human act of kissing, but the way they had kissed that night was the most sensational to date. He had felt something pass between him and the human girl. He felt connected in such a way only described in the maddest of flights of the imagination. And ancestors preserve him, but he wanted to hold that feeling, wrap it so tight around himself that he would have to be buried with it.

However, after that, the girl had withdrawn from him. Even as she came to the Agency day after day, and continued to investigate the New Bloodline to the best of her ability, she didn't allow him anymore than what she had before that night.

Willing to understand that such a drastic change would be difficult for her below-average intelligence, Neuro had given her space. He had even agreed to the Police Officer's invitation to go fishing. It would be a good chance to play a game and get the girl back on track.

It turned out to be a fairly decent distraction, but only a brief one.

After they returned to the office, Neuro and the girl had gone back to what information they had gathered in the hopes of finding something they could use. Assured that things were at ease between them, he said what he wanted to say.

"Let me kiss you."

"No,"was her immediate reply.

"Let me kiss you,"he repeated. He was not asking a question, so she shouldn't have any right to object.

But once again, she said, "No."

"I'm going to do it anyway," was his answer as he walked across the ceiling. He would have preferred that she be consenting to the action, as the kisses she had given him freely were far more enjoyable, but his patience was at an end.

"No!" The girl exclaimed, moving to get up from the sofa. "Don't come near me!"

Before she could escape, he dropped from the ceiling and wrestled her back to the couch. This resulted in an interesting struggle. Papers, books, her bag and even a couple couch cushions were sent flying in the fray. But in the end, Neuro had the girl pinned beneath him, though she still attempted to put up a fight by hitting him with a textbook that had fallen from her school bag.

"CUT! IT! OUT!" She shrieked from beneath him, punctuating her words with a hit from a book she had caught.

"Don't be difficult,"he said, grabbing one hand and holding it. "It's not as if we haven't kissed before."

"No WAY! GET OFF ME!"

"Why not?" He asked with a sigh.

The girl seemed to struggle with an answer. She covered her eyes with her free arm, attempting to think before finally opening her mouth. "…Because…it'll feel good…"

Neuro looked at the girl like her cerebral cortex had finally collapsed in on itself. "If it feels good, then it's good to keep doing it."

"It's not good!" She insisted helplessly, hiding her face from the demon. "It's like everything will stop being good. I feel like I'll forget a lot of things…I don't want to…"

Neuro didn't understand. But sighing, he contented himself with a short kiss at the corner of her mouth before getting up and returning to his desk. He still had the fish hooks and line in Troy's drawers, and he needed to pacify his irritation.

It wasn't long after that the Police Officer, Sasazuka, was killed. And that scream had first erupted in his ears.

He was surprised at first that no one else had noticed it. But nonetheless, it was a noise that compelled him to find her. And when he did, she had not risen to acknowledge him. Her hands gripped so tightly to the bars of that small window that her skin had turned white. He had struggled with getting her to let go before he returned her home. All the while, her scream resounding in his brain, though she had not made a sound.

After that, it seemed she had retreated to a space no one else was allowed to enter. He had given her time and space to recover, while he went out and continued to work towards his goal of finding SICKS and killing his cause. However that very same day, the scream grew louder. First, when Honjou killed himself in front of her. And then when she had fled from the Office.

Thus, he was back where he started. He hated going in circles. A problem is rarely solved by going in circles.

It was exasperating and completely ineffective in answering anything that he immediately required. If anything, it just clouded the issue further. Perhaps he had been among Humans too long.

Human potential was something Neuro appreciated, if nothing else. Because humans thought so similarly, yet so much diversely than his own race, it made solving Puzzles so much more delightful up here than it had been in Hell. So desperate to use what little time they had and fill their lives with meaning and comfort, humans could do many things and improve in ways that demons were incapable of.

But Death was the end of all that. Like snuffing out a matchstick, once a human dies, there are no more possibilities, no more endeavors, no more Puzzles. Nothing.

Sasazuka and Honjou, both strong and brilliant in their own ways, would never have the opportunity to further themselves in this life. The detective had likely anticipated his death; one would have to when fighting the New Bloodline. The old man had done little to advance in his life, in spite of his intellect, and as suddenly as a change in the wind, had taken his own life.

Shockingly, one thing became clear by going over everything again. One very simple, yet astonishing fact.

'I Want To Know Why.'

He wanted to know why those men had been content to die.

He wanted to know why the human girl had run away.

He wanted to know why she wouldn't stop screaming.

He did not understand Humans and their sentiments. And it was ridiculous from every angle his Demonic brain looked at it, but it was what he wanted. And he rarely denied himself anything.

. . . . . . .

"Akane, how much of your human life do you remember?"

[Quite a bit, actually…] was the written response.

"Sorrow…is the most common reaction to death, yes?" Neuro inquired. "But sorrow can be overcome, can it not?"

The braid seemed to contemplate a moment before picking up her marker. [Given enough time, I guess. But there's regret, too. That's not as easy to live down.]

"Regret…" the Demon went over the Dictionary and Encyclopedia he had devoured when he had first come to occupy the office. "A Noun: A sense of loss and longing for something or someone gone; A feeling of disappointment or distress about something that one wishes could be different… They sound like the same thing to me."

[I guess they do, but they're not exactly] the braid of ebony hair wrote. [You might feel sorrow because of someone's death, but the regret that you might have talked to that someone more, or apologized for something, or done something different. . .]

Neuro processed this new tidbit of information, but was no more satisfied than before.

It was pointless to wish certain things could be different in any situation. Things happened the way they happened. If you can't be smart enough the first time around, there's only the little hope that you won't mess up again later. All one could do is wise up, there was no point lamenting past errors.

"Humans are very maudlin," the Demon sighed. "I don't think I have ever felt 'regret' about anything in my whole life. It must make day-to-day living very hard, being so sentimental about everything."

He didn't see Akane stiffen at his remark. But he turned back when he heard the braid jot something down on her whiteboard before she quickly pulled back behind the wallpaper.

[It's not a matter of being sentimental or maudlin or whatever! What matters is having enough consideration for another person's feelings!]

"Consideration?" Neuro blinked. He enjoyed others fear of him. They reacted pretty much the same, but there were some that actually tried to hide it. Even the Demons that truly respected him in spite of their fear were something he appreciated. "What do you mean?"

Akane popped out and wiped her board clean, but didn't write anything else as she curled up behind the wallpaper. She wouldn't likely have anything to say to Neuro for the rest of the day, as he had somehow offended her. Even in a strange middle ground between living and dead, a Human was still a Human.

And as much as he enjoyed toying with them, Nougami Neuro did not understand Humans.

. . . . . . .

Godai didn't bother slowing down as he answered his cell phone. "Yo! Talk fast! I'm driving!"

"You shouldn't talk on the phone while driving," came Neuro's voice travelled through the phone, as well as across the small cabin of Godai's truck. He sat far less than a foot from the human, his own cell phone open and dialed into his slave's. "You could get into an accident if your attention is divided."

"DON'T CALL ME IF YOU'RE SITTIN' RIGHT FUCKIN' THERE!" The bleach-blond man shouted at Neuro, as well as into his phone.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off the road either," the Demon quipped pleasantly, still talking through his phone. "You're not a very good driver. One of these days, you're going to get into an accident and break all the bones in your body, condemning yourself to eating all of your meals through a straw for the rest of your life."

"Like Hell!" Godai snapped his phone shut and tossed it away. He had been rudely awoken by the Monster and ordered to drive him somewhere—a prison, of all places!—and Neuro had not stopped pestering him in the most upsetting ways. They had been pulled over about twice now. Godai was ready to let the blue-clad monster out and leave.

But aside from the occasional bit of sadistic banter, the Monster had been surprisingly quiet.

And the man had a nagging feeling that it was because that Kid wasn't with him.

He hadn't seen or heard a thing from that Girl since the Police Officer's death. It had only been a couple of days, but when he stepped into the Detective Agency, something immediately felt off. The sign on the office door had been cut in two, one half lying on the floor like an empty gum wrapper, so that would have thrown anybody off. But something else, the whole atmosphere in the agency felt off kilter somehow.

If it weren't for a hastily scrawled message on a white board in the office, he might not know anything at all.

[Miss Detective left]

A weird note to leave, apparently not from the Detective herself—from who, he had no clue!—but it also came as a bit of a surprise. The death of the Police Officer had definitely traumatized her. She hadn't even been able to walk until the Monster had shown up and carted her off. But now, she was just gone?

"Godai."

The sudden, rare use of his name from the Monster made him jump, but he quickly hid his shock. "…What?"

"As a slave, you follow orders," Neuro said. "Even if you don't always like it."

"I never like it! And I ain't your slave!"

"But what about your former master? Did you not serve him earnestly, in spite of how little you may have liked it?"

The Monster's question actually surprised Godai. He had rarely heard anything but insults and sadistic humor leave his mouth, so this sincere question was definitely a landmark for something impossibly terrible. Was the Detective's leaving him really that much of an impact? Well, even Godai could hardly picture one without the other. That they were definitely not working together anymore was—

The sudden pinching and pulling on one of his lip piercings snapped Godai out of his reverie, and almost made him hit another car. The Monster did not release his hold on the Human man's face, but they were lucky enough to avoid a collision.

"You were taking too long in answering my question," Neuro grinned, still pulling at Godai's face in the most agonizing way possible. "Did it take so long for my words to reach your brain in that vast grotto called your skull?"

"LeggoLeggoLeggoLeggoLeggo…!" Godai snapped, his eyes watering from the pain. "I was thinkin'! I was thinkin'! Leggo!"

Neuro may have taken pity on the man, though it was more likely that he had grown bored with the slight pain he was inflicting and released him. "Well?"

Rubbing his sore lip with his tongue, expecting to see a bruise sometime tomorrow, Godai considered what he might say. "Well…Saotome-san and I were tight," he said simply. "Sure! The guy was an asshole, but he was the better guy of the whole lot of us. We understood each other enough that he knew how to push my buttons, but we still got along fine. I guess, 'cause I was useful enough to him, I wanted to prove I was better than he thought I was. I guess…?"

He dared to glance at the Monster, and was again surprised. This time, by the almost thoughtful expression, as if he was actually taking the time to consider something. Though whether it was actually about anything that Godai had said was a matter of debate.

Eventually, the pensive expression was replaced with a vague look of dissatisfied perplexity. Like he just didn't understand whatever he had been thinking about.

The rest of the drive was spent in silence, and they soon arrived at the prison.

"Wait here," the Monster said, stepping out. "I don't expect that I'll be very long. But while you're waiting, feel free to leave the car running and inhale as much carbon dioxide as you can."

"DO NOT WANT!"

. . . . . . .

Neuro understood the basic aspects of the Human Brain. He understood that certain chemicals of the brain will transmit signals to the synapse in response to various things: Pain; Attraction; Hunger; various forms of Physical Stimuli. But thus far, this had not entirely explained what he was looking to decipher on this odd little Puzzle.

What he needed was someone who was intimately familiar with what can affect a Human's brain. Physically, emotionally, there was only one Human that immediately came to mind.

Aya Asia. Aizawa Aya. Songstress. Confidant. Murderer.

Someone that human girl went to for advice. Someone who could reach in and touch a person's brain with a complex melody, and break it if she so chose.

There existed Demons in Hell with such a talent, but only a rare few. Those who possessed the Devil Voice, as it was usually called, were known to entertain themselves as Storytellers. There were not that many outside the Demon Court anymore, but that was mostly because it was a gift that the Emperor himself looked to preserve for future generations.

That a human woman possessed such a skill never failed to tickle Neuro's amusement as well as stir his interest. He wondered how a Human could be so gifted, without Hell Blood. If she had even a trace of Demon, he would have been aware of it upon the first glance. But she was purely human, and that was what made her special.

Taking the appointed seat before the wall of bulletproof glass that separated him from the fair-haired woman in prison fatigues, Neuro smiled. "Aya-san. How are you?"

"I am well, thank you," Aya smiled back, though she was clearly taken aback. "I must be honest, Mister Assistant… I never expected to see you here."

"A necessity, I'm afraid," the Demon shrugged.

"I understand that you and Miss Detective have been quite busy with those terrorists, since she has not been to visit me in quite some time…"

Aya trailed off, perhaps seeing something in Neuro's face, though he was certain he had not flinched in the slightest.

"Is something the matter, Mister Assistant?"

Crossing his arms, Neuro met the woman's gaze evenly. "Aya, I would like you to sing for me."

His request, as well as his lack of an honorific, surprised her. "You want me…to sing? I don't mind, Mister Assistant," she quickly added with an ironic laugh. "But... While my songs can affect Human brains, I don't think it will have any effect on yours."

"It doesn't matter," Neuro said, sitting back comfortably. "Sing."

Aya did not know that Neuro was specifically a Demon. But like Godai, the woman was aware that he was not human, and therefore, she did not underestimate him. So when she sang, she used a good amount of her strength. She wanted to show the Detective's Assistant what she was really capable of. It was likely that half the prison was suffering the effects of her voice, staggering and dropping under the impact of her potent melody. The sound traveled through the thoughts of everyone who heard it and caught them in a terrible and beautiful grip, to mold and play however she chose.

But Nougami Neuro sat straight and tranquil, listening with his full attention as her song passed through the cracks and small openings in the transparent wall that separated them. But unlike her usual guard that sat drooling in her chair, her melody drifted by him like a simple breeze. Not a single note caught hold of his thoughts or feelings.

And both of them knew it.

He breathed a soft sigh. "That's enough."

The song ended at his behest, and Aya watched as he rose up and headed for the door, not bothering to look back at her.

"As I thought," Neuro almost seemed to lament. "I don't understand Humans."

The door opened and shut, with an odd sense of finality. The songstress sat in her cage, silent, with an unusual sensation of pity for the man-creature who could not understand Humans. As much as he seemed to want to.

. . . . . . .

When Neuro returned to the office, he was no more satisfied than when he had left. Honestly, he felt even more displeased than before.

That usually meant it was time well wasted and he would amuse himself by abusing a certain human girl. But he was without a usable human, and was thus left to sit at his desk and—as the Human term put it—stew over it.

He didn't really get the expression, but the word felt right.

Felt… Feeling... Emotion…

Neuro, like all Demons to come to the surface, had been forced to adapt to the laws of physics of his new environment. The result of that was that he could now bleed, severed limbs would not reattach as easily as they should, and he also experienced the lightest brush of Human Emotion.

If he was able to feel it, he should be capable of deciphering it. Of labeling it and moving on with his life.

So why couldn't he?

Why did he still feel like his stomach was trying to break down something big and very solid?

Why wouldn't that unvoiced scream fall silent now that she was gone?

It felt like he was picking something apart, but no matter how many pieces he looked at, he could not understand it. That wasn't possible. He could understand anything once all the pieces were laid out before him. Even if someone else had dismantled it, even if the pieces were out of order, he could fit them together again and comprehend the entire device.

But Human Emotion was not a simple device. Normally, that complexity would pique his interest enough to want to solve the Puzzle even more. If it was too easy, it wasn't really worth his time. But this one was proving to be a seemingly endless Puzzle that went in circles.

Neuro hated going in circles. He hated circles in general. You couldn't say where the things started when you rolled or turned a circle. Circles were never-ending. Triangles were more aesthetically pleasing. They had definite corners. Even if the triangle turned, finding where you started wasn't incredibly difficult. Squares were even less complex, and therefore less interesting.

His Father loved Circles. Far more, the symbol of Infinity he had learned from his Mother during their courting days. His Mother once explained to Neuro—back when he still had to look up to see her face, rather than down—that all things in her world moved in an endless cycle of Life, Death and Rebirth. And his Father, mostly because his Mother had brought it to him, came to like circles so much more than simple lines.

Neuro sighed heavily. The last thing he wanted to think about was his Father. He didn't always listen to him, mostly because he knew he was supposed to—everyone was supposed to—but his Father always made sense whenever he talked. It was infuriating, but he couldn't help but wonder if his old man would have a solution to this quandary.

Neuro remembered the one moment his Father confessed to having ever been afraid.

"She had to return to her world, lest it be destroyed by the very people who sought to protect it, who sought to rescue her," his Father said. "It hurt her to know that her absence was the cause of so much death. And knowing that I had forced it upon her and her people…I was…afraid of breaking her…"

Still being a child, stubborn and absolutely assured about how things should and always would be, Neuro had honestly been shaken by the older Demon's admission. He had always known that his Mother had a power over his Father like nothing else in existence. He rested his head on her lap and slept peacefully in his Mother's garden. But to stir fear in the Beast was beyond imagining.

"I released her from Hell's borders," the ancient Demon told him, once again shocking his only son. Neuro had never known that his Mother had left their dark world after her marriage. He didn't actually think it was possible. "She returned to her world of light and noise. And Hell went still."

His Father fell silent, pausing in his telling as his dark eyes drifted to a place far beyond Neuro. A place without him, or any other Demons, or Hell at all. A place where nothing lived and nothing died. Where there was only himself.

Though he would never admit it, Neuro always felt a strange quake within his being whenever he saw that look in the eyes of either of his parents. Like there was a place he could not be heard, a place he could not reach no matter how hard he tried. It was an unpleasant feeling. It always had been.

"When I first took her, she often told me that she had never felt hatred before," his Father went on slowly. "She often said that she had never abhorred anything so much as she did me. That I taught her the meaning of hate…But I wanted to keep her. So I let her go." This never made any sense to Neuro. If he ever wanted something, he never let anyone else have it. Not even after he had grown bored with it. "I released her, so there was no reason to believe that she would look back. I honestly thought she would never think of me again…I thought she would take that piece of me with her and never return it…"

"And yet…she came back," he breathed, his astonishment as ripe as that dark morning so very long before Neuro had been born. "Barefoot and aglow with renewed strength, she returned to me." He looked at his young child, his unfathomable gaze meeting Neuro's emerald-obsidian, and told him his deepest secret. "I do not hold her captive, Neuro. She holds me so, and has yet to release me…"

His Father's words had both amused and mystified Neuro. As little as he liked the Demon, and enjoyed the thought of besting him, it was impossible for anyone to hold his Father in any sense of the word. Surely, even with all the influence she had over him, she could not have capture the elder Demon. He often thought about the words spoken to him that day, but after a while the boy had stopped trying to decipher their true meaning.

For a moment, Neuro actually paused to consider his parents' situation in comparison to his own. And scoffed at the idea.

Really, there was no comparison. He had released the human girl because she had disappointed him. Because she had said something so unacceptable to him, he couldn't stand to have her near him anymore. He never wanted to see her ever again.

But then, Neuro's Mother would say to be truthful. Even the slightest deceit, especially to himself, would make a Puzzle impossible to solve. As he prided himself with solving all the Puzzles of Hell, he allowed himself to stand sideways and consider the entirety of both the Human girl's actions, as well as his own.

They had worked well together.

While it was impossible for him to understand Humans and their outlook on all things, it was equally so for a Human to understand a Demon. So they had done very well together, in spite of all the things against them.

He had used her to his own ends, and she had proven valuable.

She amused him through various actions and reactions.

He enjoyed kissing her.

She allowed him to go on kissing her.

They had fit together.

He had been too overzealous in telling the Police Detective his thoughts on the death of his family. His carelessness allowed the Police Officer to go astray.

She had been hurt because of the deaths she had been forced to witness. Two beloved friends ending their lives right before her eyes was just too much to bear.

"You don't understand! The pain of seeing someone precious die right before your eyes!"

"If I had never pretended to be a Detective, I wouldn't have to feel this way!"

"It would have been better if we had never met! Whether it's everyone, or you!"

Neuro didn't know what else she would expect by telling him that besides his retaliation. He didn't understand what she wanted from him besides his anger by speaking those unacceptable words.

He had been upset by her words of anger and despair.

…He had been upset.

He had been disconcerted.

He had been thrown off balance.

She had hurt him.

A Human girl—Yako had hurt him, with nothing more than words. He felt the sting of her resentment and grief, and could only compare the sensation to that of when he had torn his way through Hell to Earth. With no physical wound to show for it, he had lashed out in retribution.

Yako had been thwarted by Sicks.

Neuro had been thwarted by Yako.

For her insolence, Neuro thwarted Yako.

And now, neither of them held anything. They had allowed Sicks to get one up on them. And Yako was unwilling to fight anymore. She had broken.

"How ridiculous," the Demon muttered. But his words lacked any real sting. He had hoped the sound of his own voice would rid him of this dreary yet itchy feeling, but he found nothing beyond empty words.

Yako had beaten him.

. . . . . . .

He had not taken his necessary amount of sleep.

His ears were ringing.

Both artificial and natural lights made the back of his eyes ache.

He was hungry.

He was thirsty.

He was bored.

He was irritated by everything he laid eyes on.

He wondered if this was the feeling Humans suffered when they were without caffeine in the morning. Or perhaps suffering a hangover. He had never gotten himself drunk, even on Demon liquors. He wondered if it might improve his presently sour mood.

Truthfully, he had not expected the ordeal with Godai to be successful, but he had hoped to be diverted to some degree. When the entire issue had backfired, he was glad but no less displeased when the man fled from the Office in tears.

Now, Akane was refusing to work as well. Having left her message on her whiteboard, she now hid behind her wallpaper. Fear of what Neuro might do in his present state was understandable, but it didn't make her assertion any less displeasing to him.

[I'm not working if it's not with Miss Detective.]

The words in dry-erase marker burned. If Akane was not already quite dead, Neuro might have actually cut off her fingers one by one in the most agonizing way possible, considering his present disposition. But as his secretary was very much post mortem, there wasn't much to be done.

"Fine," he replied icily. "From this moment, you are relieved of your lifetime of hair-care. Instead, decolorizer and bleach will be applied daily."

The braid of black hair peeked out from behind the wallpaper, and while she didn't write it, he had always been able to understand her without her having to write her words. And he might have actually laughed at her poor attempt at an insult, had he been in a better humor.

'Demon!'

Neuro was a Demon. He was a great Demon. He didn't obey any whim but his own. He was cruel and frightening. He used Humans as his tools and for his food. He didn't even need to eat anything substantial, unlike most Demons. He already held a seat in the Demon Emperor's Court, which was quite a feat considering his youth. He had yet to truly best his Father in any sort of contest, but the same could be said of anyone in Hell, besides his Mother. All the same, everyone in Hell knew his name. Ever since he chose what he was to be called on his nameday, everyone both feared and honored him.

He was the one Demon to eat all the mysteries and Puzzles in Hell.

He had broken Hell's Law and broken through the walls separating this world from that one.

He had lived here this long, and enjoyed the fruits of his labors.

He—

Stopped.

Just as he heard her stop in the doorway, also.

He didn't have to turn and look. He didn't want to look. He knew it was her, no one else had that smell. What he didn't understand was how she had come so close without him noticing. Belatedly, he realized with no small shock or relief, that that scream had at last gone silent. His ears had been ringing after he had awoken from his brief sleep, but he had failed to notice that the scream had fled entirely. He had always enjoyed the respite of sleep he had to take since coming to the Human world, but now he was starting to appreciate the necessity of the process. Very rarely had he ever been so fatigued that he failed to notice a change in something.

But even if he was too exhausted to hear her approach, his insects should have alerted him to her presence when she turned onto this street. He made a quick check, and was frustrated at his findings. He wondered if she at all noticed the Demonic insects that had swarmed around her and followed her to the office. All without giving him the slightest hint to her being there. 'Traitors.'

"Neuro…"

The sound of his chosen name rolling off her lips actually made something shudder inside him. Something new and very old. It was ridiculous, really. It had only been ninety-six hours, thirty minutes and fifteen seconds since he banished her from the office. He shouldn't enjoy hearing her say his name, or want her to say it again. He should be angry that she would dare to return, that she had the audacity to stand there like she actually belonged there. He was angry, very angry. He was very dangerous when he was angry. Even she had to know that much, so why was she here?

"I told you to disappear!" He hissed darkly. He still didn't turn to look at her, but he knew she had trembled with fear.

Rather than answering him, Neuro heard her pull something from the confines of her bag. Something—a plastic cap came off with a 'pop!' and the smell of alcohol reached his senses as a series of squeaks—a marker—against the surface of the door filled the otherwise silent office.

He didn't turn to look at her, so he couldn't say just yet what she had done. But whatever it was, it made Akane come out of the wall with a happy flail and the faintest glow of delight.

"I won't run away anymore," he heard her say, the honesty in her voice making the Demon pause. "I won't burst into tears at the drop of a hat, or think that never meeting you is a good thing…" The smell of Human metal. The slight rattle of a small chain. "If you have doubts, then feel free to chain me up."

At last, Neuro deigned to look at the Human girl that had been his for a short while. She was kneeling a few feet away from him, her head bowed and a pair of handcuffs resting on the floor before her.

"No matter what I have to do, please, let me be by your side."

Looking at her very shrewdly, Neuro could see that while her posture and her words indicated complete subservience, he could hear her heart pounding rapidly.

She was afraid.

Neuro felt a brush of satisfaction at this knowledge. He could do anything to her. She was Human, after all. Even if he was not even half as powerful as he truly was, his strength was still far beyond her own. But where he would have once been inclined to answer the song of supremacy and attack his prey, he now only felt the sensation echo and fade within the emptiness of his being.

"Training?" He had always been harsh.

"Whatever you deem fit," was her steady reply.

"Shoes?" She had never surrendered to that.

"I'll lick them." Just as firm, just as sure, she was prepared for retribution.

"In my eyes, there are things that have to be done. Things I have to see through to the end…" She slowly raised her dark brown gaze from the floor to meet his obsidian-emerald. "…These things…can't be done if I'm not with you."

As their eyes met for the first time in days, Neuro felt that new-old sensation again. He felt it fill him in a way his satisfaction at her fear could not. He did not know this feeling. It was completely different from, yet somehow very similar to every emotion he had experienced in the Human world. It made no sense at all, but it was the honest truth.

What was he supposed to do with it?

"You don't have to tell me to train you," he said coldly as he crossed the room to stand before the Human girl. "I decide the training for every person in this world. According to time. According to trainee." Raising his foot, he caught her chin and tilted her head back so that she looked into his face. "According to what's most appropriate."

He let it show how much he was displeased with her. She had left him well before he had opened the door for her that day. She was well aware that punishment was necessary at this point.

No matter how the absence of her voiceless scream.

No matter his inability to truly comprehend Humans and their complex emotions.

No matter how he could not identify even his own feelings about what had happened.

Punishment was necessary for her to understand her place, and for him to ease that unpleasant sensation in his stomach.

So he slapped her.

The sound of his gloved hand meeting her face seemed to silence everything else in the office, in the whole building. Akane went stiff. The drone of the computers hushed. The warmth of the sunlight stopped at the windows. The very walls, every brick, beam and pane of glass ceased to breathe.

"If even this has no effect at all, then you'll truly not be worthy of being a slave," he said.

The Human girl, Katsuragi Yako slowly recovered from the blow and looked back at him with wide eyes. Even as he picked up the handcuffs she had brought and crushed the flimsy Human metal in one hand as one would an empty soda can, she didn't move or say a word.

But Neuro had the odd sensation of two pieces messily sewn back together and was satisfied with the silence.

And for the first time in a long while, he wanted to smile. And he rarely denied himself anything.

. . . . . . .

Again, I am sorry this took so long!

I'll understand if any of you are somewhat disappointed at the lack of action between Neuro and Yako this time around, but this is how I wanted to do it. If this whole Chapter seems scrambled, I am really, really sorry.

I promise that the next Chapter will be more prompt and interesting!