Author's note, Keywords and Warnings:
See the prologue.

Start: February 25th, 2002
Finish: February 27th, 2002


exuberance

VII. Out of this World
Words are sharper than sword
(Shigure x Tohru)

"Shigure..." Soft voice, yet demanding. "When would Tohru Honda come to this place again? She came to Hatori's place, didn't she? Ritsu also had seen her. I can't stand any of this anymore... No one... seems to care about me..."

"Akito-san, please don't say that... I do care about you..."

"But I can't stand it anymore, Shigure..." He said, half angry, half sad... "I---"

"Shigure-san, are you alright?" Her voice pulled him from the conversation he had with the Kacho -clan leader- that morning, when Hatori and the girl just left the Honke -main house-. He was surprised knowing Akito had called him from the Honke, he didn't expect the kacho to call anybody... that was the first time, Akito called somebody, with telephone.

The same morning, Hatori arrived with Tohru Honda. She was late for the school for two hours already, and then she skipped, no, Hatori and him actually, ordered her to skip school. She didn't want to at first, but until Hatori had tried to force her with his cold comments, she gave up. Shigure chuckled at this sight.

"Oh an actually 'caring' Hatori..." He had commented, but only answered by a glare, the infamous Hatori glare. He then said to the girl to make a coffee for him, which she soon obeyed. "Ah, Ha-san." Shigure then commented, with his molesting voice as usual. "So possessive, you've make her act as a wife even before konyaku*... You're even worse than A-ya. Maybe you should ask her to call you with 'anata' than just 'Hatori'."

"It was you, wasn't it?" Hatori then said. "You and your 'Ha-san's favorite tea'."

"Ah, Ha-san, no need to thank me... I have hooked you up with your 'wife-to-be'. Now, won't you ease up and ask me to be your nakodo."

"You don't even have a wife, and you're asking me to take you as my nakodo." He grunted.

Shigure then chuckled a little, and then he started some meaningless conversation about nakodo, -some kind of matchmaker... Japanese people, who're going to be married had to have nakodo through the process of marriage-, and Shigure then talked about some nakodos he knew, and how great their marriage were... Until the dragon had enough heard of it... As the coffee came, Hatori drank as fast as possible in a 'Hatori' kind of way, he stood up and said that he must go, after kissing the girl's cheek, which made her surprise, and dumbfounded until the man left the house. Shigure just saw this with amusement while Tohru touched the place where the doctor touched her, and blushed, an interesting color... that time, his mind flied to somewhere else... to his last conversation with Akito in the phone... until the girl took her back from his reverie with calling his name.

"I'm alright, Tohru-kun." Shigure sighed, he leaned his chin to the palm of his hand, which was on the table. "You've changed a little... only with one night with Ha-san. I don't know what would happen if I gave you another tea with greater effects."

Her face even went redder, as she took a seat behind the table, across the place where the dog was sitting. "Shigure-san..."

"Oh, no, Tohru-kun. I said to Ha-san not to thank me that much." Shigure grinned. "You really look like a mature woman right now. Of course." He chuckled. "Ha-san had made you a woman in a night, that's very touching... ah, I almost made myself cry... Aren't I a good person?"

"Ah, Shigure-san." Tohru blushed even more, and sweat-dropped. "Please don't talk about that subject again, you almost made me die in embarrassment."

"Is that so?" He eyed the girl in front of her.

"That is... I don't know how to tell Yuki-kun... and Kyou-kun about this." Tohru half ducked her head. "I didn't even think that Hatori would receive me with open hands. But, I'm afraid that I would hurt Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun's feelings..." She stopped for a while. Shigure was silent, waiting her to continue. "And I afraid if Akito-san knew this..." Shigure's eyes narrowed at this sentence, but Tohru didn't realize it, she resumed. "I afraid he would... Hatori would be---"

"Don't say anything about Akito." Shigure said... coldly. Hearing the unusual thing in Shigure's voice, Tohru quickly titled her head, only to see Shigure Sohma, glaring at her. If looks could kill, Tohru was sure that she had died that time. Shigure continued, with voice colder than Hatori's, if Hatori was calm, Shigure was threatening. "Don't say anything about Akito when you didn't know him at all, Tohru-kun."

"You think so highly about yourself... hurting Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun feelings?" Shigure silently intertwined his fingers, and put his chin on it, he was watching Tohru with a look Tohru hadn't seen before. "I thought I'd given you enough with the tea... with Ha-san... with Yuki-kun, and Kyou-kun, with every Junishi you knew... but I think Akito-san had spoiled you too much... Maybe I'd spoiled you too..."

"Sp...spoiled?" Tohru repeated nervously, she had faced too much weird things in the past week, and 'now' she didn't understand if Shigure tried to play with her with his newest joke. But they were not joke, Shigure's dark eyes, glaring at her, filled with anger, hatred and jealousy... not amusement, joke, or anything else... "Shi--- shigure-san?"

"If you mentioned Akito's name with a wrong tone, Tohru-kun, I might kill you." Shigure smirked. Tohru sensed fear in herself.

"Shigure-san, why do you--- why Akito-san---"

"I thought I told you not to say his name in a wrong tone, Tohru-kun." Shigure cut Tohru's words, making the girl kept her mouth closed as the dog continued, "Not even one time Akito stops mentioning you... Tohru-san this Tohru-san that." He said, then he waited for a while, closing his eyes, then continued. "First they were... was 'ugly', 'evil', 'stupid', then 'how dare she---' and 'how could she---'..." Of course he mentioned after the time Tohru came to the house, telling Akito that she understood him. He stopped, that time, was a little bit longer. "Then no more 'how is Yuki' but 'how is Tohru-san'... and then before I knew it, he's asking you more than he's asking the other Junishis..."

Tohru was dumbfounded; she didn't even open her mouth. She only felt cold when the wind flied thorough the room from the opened sliding door. It was more quite than usual... Shigure resumed. "He's extremely excited when I told him we could hug you without transforming... he called us, you know for what?" This time he threw the question to the girl. Tohru nodded, but Shigure didn't open his eyes to see it.

"Of course you know..." He chuckled; it wasn't similar with his usual chuckle. "But there was another motive behind it. He wants to know who're the people that can take you from his hands, that can stop him from having you..."

Tohru's heartbeat stopped beating, as the man, the unknown man in front of him smirked. "And the man will face the greatest fear in his live... the next thing he will know is that his presence was no more in the world."

Hatori! A name came into her head in a matter of instant. She quickly stood onto her feet and her mind on one focus, call Hatori and warn him. But something caught her wrist, pulled him, and then her back was slammed against the low table, hard. Shigure's hands were both locking her wrists. "No, no, Tohru-kun. Don't be a naughty little girl."

"Why--- why, Shigure-san! Why Hatori---!!"

"Ha-san," His eyes went to a sympathetic gaze for a while. "Poor Ha-san, he had been so miserable. I know how he feels every time he had to erase someone's memory, his emotions when Kana left him. Oh my, Ha-san had too much burden in his life... So, I gave him the tea... so could he forget about everything... with your help, of course, Tohru-kun... such a perfect opportunity. You should be glad for Ha-san now, he would be released from all of the ropes that has been keeping him to break free..."

"Shigure san---" Tears started to gather in the corner of her eyes, as the author's head descended to her neck, his nose brushed against her pale skin there.

"Ah, I see... This is the love mark Hatori made for you last night." She felt something wet at the certain place Shigure mentioned, and he knew that she felt similar touch the night before, but this was rougher, and it had no feelings at all when the dog touched it with his tongue... maybe, Shigure just nibbled at the same place to torture her.

"I'd been wrong to put my bet on you, Tohru-kun." He said again, hoarse voice beside her ear, making goose bumps all over her skin. She felt even more fear when she noticed something brushing the place between her legs. Days ago, similar thing happened with Ayame, she hadn't known anything... but 'now', just after one night with Hatori, she had seen another side of another sex's anatomy.

But with all the touches Shigure made with his fingers, his lips, his tongue and his body above hers, she still heard all the words he said, she hadn't missed the three-letters word that Shigure had mentioned. "---Bet---?"

"Of course you don't know anything Tohru-kun." Tohru jerked her head to another side, avoiding Shigure's dark and cruel eyes. Shigure just caught her chin with his fingers, forced her eyes to open with fear when he looked her straight, he smiled. "Little innocent Tohru Honda, a precious little bet... predicting what would you do was easy... because our same sign."

"But very disturbing in the end." His breaths slammed to her face. "You know how much time I took to get Yuki out of the house, to make Akito forget that little rat? When you came, I thought it was a chance for Yuki-kun to get you... and then the time would come when Yuki would disobey Akito for your sake... But I guess he was slower than snail... one year, and nothing."

"Yuki-kun...? Why Akito would---!" Tohru couldn't continue more when Shigure strong hand was in pressed her throat to the table, making her difficult to breath, choking her with the lack of air.

"I told you---" Shigure narrowed his eyes in front of hers. Her face was already pale, without air, full with horror, panic and terror. "You have no rights to call Akito with that tone, Sohma outsider... Akito--- was the only thing that's precious for me."

Informative and suggesting sentence, Tohru widened his eyes when Shigure's body was all over him, one's hand moving gently from her throat, covering her mouth, avoidng anything if she tried to scream. "I would do anything to obey him... to please him, and to torture you, Tohru-kun..."

Obey him, of course, what Akito ordered all the male Junishis to use Tohru... and if it was Akito's wish... it was difficult for the rest of the Junishi to disobey, even if it was ordered to the little ones like Momiji and Hiro; and they would do it just like what Akito wants... even if Akito had another motive behind it. They had no reasons to question him... So they did... Ayame, Hatsuharu, Momiji, Hatori, Ritsu... maybe Hiro, Kyou and Yuki would do it because one reason... Akito, the supreme one for them... maybe they would restrain and confuse... of the way... and what would Tohru act if they did that...

And Shigure was not... he believed what he was doing, he knew and aware what he was doing. He didn't feel the restrains and the confusion; he would do all for Akito. Maybe he was blinded by his care to Akito; angry when Akito cared for someone else beside him... mad when Akito cared for Tohru more. Shigure then blamed Tohru, and he maybe was doing revenge at her... maybe true that love could make you blind... Shigure was the mastermind; he was trying to kill Tohru with his own way.

"No cries, Tohru-kun..." Shigure's voice. She didn't even realize what he was doing to her... she hadn't hear all of his cursing words and the spoils of his betrayed mind, she hadn't notice what he had done to her body, as if her brain was separated from her body. The last thing she noticed that she was stripped, physically, and mentally, much like he understood what he was thinking; a thought that the original Tohru wouldn't think... He was glad he succeded in hurting her... she knew when she saw Shigure satisfied look on the mess he made. "I hate spoiled high-school students who cry..."

He had raped her...

She never felt more sinful than that time... she had thought bad things about Shigure. She had no rights to accuse people, if Shigure blamed her... why didn't she see thing from Shigure's point of view?
If she was no victim...
If Shigure was the victim... She tried to imagine Akito doing things that make the Shigure she knew to do 'this', something like hypnotize. But then, she would blame everything on Akito... Shigure was right, she didn't even know Akito before, and she made assumptions about him, with the stories she heard... maybe she was wrong.
Maybe she was wrong from the beginning...
Maybe she was wrong to step her feet on Sohma's family ground...

Regret won't bring you anywhere... She heard some voices... But she didn't hear that when she sobbed and drowned to the darkness...

***

'Hatori-san?' Her voice from behind the line, Tohru's voice. He stiffened when he heard her voice, just when he stopped the car at Sohma's Honke yard; it was trembling, full of all emotions that he knew. Tohru's voice was not like that... and she started to call him with the formal call again. 'Hatori-san... where are you?' Her voice again, than it was a confirmation to him, that it was really Tohru's voice.

"Tohru?"

'Hatori-san, where are you?' Weak, and fear... distress and tiredness... Tohru never sound like that.

"I'm in the Honke. Tohru, are you alright?"

'Hatori-san, please get out of the Honke!' Panic.

"Tohru, what's the---"

'Hatori-san! Just get out of there! Please!! Hatori-san! Hato---!' He heard no more of her voice, when suddenly his cell phone was taken from his hands, by a slender pale hand from outside the car, coming through from the window.

"Relax, Tohru-san... I will tell him what you want." Hatori felt his blood stopped flowing from his heart, as if it stopped producing the red liquids. He didn't know what Tohru had mentioned by leaving the Honke. But he knew something that was not right, Akito just stood, looking at the dragon, smiling...

Shigure saw the girl from the end of the corridor. Not far from the sight, was the girl that he made dirty with his own hands. The girl had been screaming the doctor's name when she suddenly stopped. He figured soon enough that Akito had disturbed her conversation, her information, actually. The man just smiled, he had contacted Akito before (when he had finished his business with the girl, he chuckled), that Hatori had left the dog's house.

'Now', she leaned against the wall near the phone was, maybe completely shocked... maybe filled with thoughts of what would the kacho do to the dragon, just because her faults... yes, her faults...
He had been wrong, he thought the girl would take Yuki away from Akito's heart... but then, she had taken Akito's heart too. He had made attempts to Yuki, since he was smaller than a hamster, some plots so Akito would hate the cursed mouse... but the clan leader did no more than locking him in some kind of closed rooms for days...
Well, he had been wrong... but that should give the girl some lessons for taking other people's possessions.

The man bent his head for a while, when seeing the girl eyes, sadness and nothingness, unwanted tears flowing from the brownish jewel of her eyes, hands were put motionless at both her sides, like something that had lost everything... He shook his head... well, maybe he went out of control for a while, when he wanted to walk to the girl, he suddenly remembered what Akito had said...

"But I can't stand it anymore, Shigure..." He said, half angry, half sad... "I need her."

He halted the movements of his feet. Maybe a little time could teach her some other lessons, he turned his feet and strolled to his working room, maybe thinking another way to torture his editor, or another thing to end the plot he had made with his stories... oh, he loved being an author... that way, he could plan everything to end like he wanted to be...


VIII. Singing in the rain
It tastes bitter...
(Kyou x Tohru)

Teasers:
"Damnit, Shigure! I'll kill you!!" Kyou screamed on the top oh his lungs. His red eyes were filled with fire or rage, his breath was caught in the middle of his anger.
"Kyou-kun, no, don't hurt other---" Tohru tried to stop the cat's moves, but it was not useless, of course.
"I can't understand you!!! Even though you're kind, you're too stupid to protect the ones that hurt you!!!" Kyou screamed to the girl.

*About konyaku... I forget the English word, I only have English-English Dictionary. Konyaku's some kind of ceremony before marriage, exchanging rings, but not marriage... before marriage, after that you can call somebody with 'fiancée'. But I forget the noun... what is it? ::hits head repeatedly:: 'konyaku? konyaku?'
No songs.