Missing Something
[8- Extracting Personal Skills]
Mukuro felt the sharp point of a feminine shoe stab him in the stomach, and he confusingly grunted.
Where was he? His mind was in disarray as he just woken up, trying to crack open an eye and take a glimpse of his unknown surroundings. Key word, tried. An unbearable sleepiness was whispering in his ear to ignore the stinging pain and drift into sleep. His curiosity wouldn't allow this; this scene was too familiar to him. He remembered now. There were many times when he woke to uncertainty, mainly due to the fact that they would take him from his cell as he slept and immediately strap him to an icy metal table for their own hideous projects. The veteran calmly reflected over his situation.
'I'm lying on a hard cold ground. Wet. From the gritty texture on my cheek, it's most likely dirt. My hands…tied with a heavy-duty rope, and unfortunately, it's not possible to cut or untie by myself. My feet are in the same position. The fact that I'm lying on my stomach, hands tied on my back means…absolutely nothing. I'm stuck for the time being, and whoever my capturer is, she is standing above me. The slight wind is moving freely in this space: possibly an open space with no one around. No urban noises are heard, even though we were lounging in a town's inn. I assume Ken and Chikusa…are breathing evenly nearby.'
"Bitch, where are we? Did you finally betray us?!"
'Or not. Context clues…the word 'bitch' coming out of Ken's annoying mouth…could only mean Rena. Her? Betraying us?'
Finally, curiosity got ahold of him and he pried his orbs open. He wasn't surprised to see himself in his presume position with Ken and Chikusa tied up in the same way. They were in a fairly large wooden (and definitely abandoned) warehouse, mainly empty except for the few scattered boxes and materials here and there littering the perimeter, and he was positively sure that rat droppings could be found in the corners. Judging from the bright yellow rays through the gaping hole in the ceiling, he assumed that they were transported to their current location while they were slumbering, and were injected with a sleeping serum to extend their sleeping period. The brightness peeking from the ceiling holes felt close to noon, maybe a little bit after, and his stomach quietly grumbled in agreement.
Rena stood in the middle of the dirt space, one of her shorter kimonos draped securely around her body. The light pink sakura design paled in contrast to the darker pink obi around her waist and her gleeful lips. And of course, below where she stood were the three bodies, all squirming to escape the hand-tied ropes.
"Listen Dog, I have brought you guys here for a reason."
'But everything so far seems like enough evidence to support Ken's claim. We've been tricked.'
Mukuro frowned, "There was no need to inject us unconscious and hold us for ransom like this." Her shoe kicked the nearest body, Chikusa in this case, and the victim hissed.
"Hoho, why not so? This is the perfect scenario that I always dreamed. A group of young not-so-innocent preteens tied up beneath my dainty little feet." As the confidently standing teen said this, an illusion of a knife formed above her left side. Mukuro kept a poker face as he did so, and Ken couldn't help but grimace in false response. She showed no signs of noticing and continued her self-praise. "I'm a genius. I always was, ever since…well, always. Can't you imagine all the exciting possibilities I have to muddle around with you all?"
And it lunged towards her. She didn't dodge, but her eyes definitely glanced at it. The innocuous weapon passed through the captor, leaving her unharmed, and they gazed at her in disbelief. The blunette was certain that his target saw the illusionary weapon and her mind should've conjured it as a real threat. So far, his tricks haven't been working on the female.
"And there's no need to attack me with petty pathetic illusions. Your powers won't work on me that easily Mukuro, and it never had since the beginning. I can see through them. And just to let you guys know, I'll untie the ropes…now." She snapped her fingers and instantly finding the ropes loose the pre-teens untied themselves.
Ken was the first to react and he lunged his turned ape-like body towards her. She easily dodged the attack, only for her back to be exposed to an on-slaughter of flying needles. A bent of her knees allowed her to escape the missiles, and she easily seized a plunging trident aiming her face. The weapons backed away, only to attack her in another all-offensive assault.
"Can you guys please calm down?" Duck. "I'll explain my reason for kidnapping you guys." Dodge.
In their fighting positions, the three males surrounded her, weapons ready to strike. "Talk." Mukuro commanded.
"Let's start from the beginning. Ken, you instantly went into offense mode with no strategy; not good. The oncoming needles from behind were devious, but too slow in a trained assassin's eyes. The knife: you need to increase your usage of illusions in order to strengthen them. Any fighter can dodge them because they're too simple. And also-"
"Get to the point."
An upward motion of her pink lips. "What I'm saying is that you guys need development, an abundance of training and experience. Your current states are not strong enough to sustain yourself in the underground world."
She stared straight at Mukuro. "Especially if you plan to execute that level of a scheme. You must be insane, going against the most powerful Famiglias in the mafia." A chuckle escaped her. "But then again, I must be insane for aiding you. That's why I must brutally kidnap you: it was to create a resenting reason for attacking me. I must assess your current skills and hone them as much as I can before the plan starts."
The young leader was thinking. "Kufufu, you want to train us? There was no 'want' from the beginning. I had picked you up for several purposes and you're simply fulfilling one now." He leaned against his trident defenselessly, "Your main purpose was to be our sparring partner, so don't go around saying you 'want'."
"And you have no authority to order me around when you don't even have enough power to land a hit on me." Ken's slight mumble of "Ouch, burn," provided background noise.
"I may have chosen to tag along for my own purpose, but I am not one to be pushed around like that. A simple request would be sufficient enough for me to accept it."
The bluenette illusionist chuckled. "Then train us?"
"No."
Chikusa's "Wwhhaaatt" and Ken's "This liar" echoed within the warehouse. Mukuro only produced a raised eyebrow at her contradicting words.
"I'm not accepting your request, mainly because I choose to train you pitiful fools." Arms wide open, she welcomed, "What are you waiting for? Come at me."
They thought for a moment before resuming their previous positions.
"You better not cry when we seriously hurt you, byon," And they attacked.
"What happen to 'seriously murdering' me?" Rena taunted as she leaned against the stolen trident.
All three offenders were on their knees, panting from the extensive workout. They were too tired (and most likely humiliated) to respond. Wild thoughts jumped in their minds. 'Were we that weak? So impotent to not inflict a scratch on her? So powerless? Our stamina didn't last ten minutes!'
One dreaded thought flashed through their minds. 'Are we so weak that even the experiments didn't help us?!' And instantly they regretted thinking of that. Rena scanned over the dejected expressions of her underlings, and a little flower of delight bloomed inside. Their depressed auras overflowed the atmosphere and she giggled. The feeling of causing such an emotion from haughty pre-teens…delightful.
"Being coped up in an isolated building with the lack of sunlight, nourishment, and freedom can build up. Your bodies may be modified to wield your powers, but it's not enough. Regular stamina and strength from daily training are essential to improving, and so far the strenuous activities on your list were the 'Great Escape' and the occasional stealing of necessities." A thin line of dismayed formed on the leader's lips while one of his followers growled.
"What would you know byon?! You didn't go through the stuff we did, and while we were out killing them, you were sitting on your little ass smiling like some creep!" She only smirked. He would be thinking twice about that sentence if he knew my past. Ignorant fool.
His black-haired friend nodded. "Even though you have helped us a lot so far, don't think you can lead us into your dirty clutches Rena. We solely follow Mukuro-san for a reason."
"Kufufufu," she mimicked, causing the original to frown, "that's the fighting spirit. I don't comprehend the reason why you boys are so against my helping hand. Like your leader said, I'm only here for my unidentified reason and your usage. In the future I presume I'll be out of your unkempt hair and gone from your lives."
"You better," the doggish boy mumbled. And of course, none of the males made any connection. There were always hints close to the partially real truth. If only they dug deeper.
"This is troublesome…what's your point?"
"Are you ready? I'm going to serve my purpose now, so prepare yourself. I have the necessary data. The start of our onerous training begins…now."
And without warning, she lunged herself forward.
AN: This took me awhile to finish! I really have nothing to say, except that updates may be erratic from now on (didn't I say that before?). So, until then my lovely readers~
Below is just my reply to a guest who reviewed but didn't bother using their actual username (and if you can't tell from my tone, I'm going to get sassy below because seriously? Have the balls to review with your username and not hide behind 'guest').
My Reply to Guest (Reviewed on 1-18-2013)
Thanks for your review and honestly telling me what you think. It does hurt me to read your opinion, but I know that any type of feedback is helpful and I'm going to apologize beforehand if anything I say below is offensive (and I'm slightly swearing. Hey, this is a T-rated fic).
I'm sorry if my response will sound like I'm putting all the blame on you but you went too far with the lower half of your review. I understand that you targeted my stories and how I write because yes, I know I need improvement, but the fact that you targeted me as a person…that's unacceptable.
I do appreciate my previous harsh criticism on my protagonist Rena for being unrealistic, by a guest who so kindly mentioned their username with their review. You, on the other hand, are hiding behind what FFN puts as 'guest' and are not only expressing your views on my fic (which I'm actually glad to read because any type of help is needed), but you are also attacking myself as a writer. Did you ever consider an author's feelings when writing reviews? I'm sure you don't because I know for certain that you could've worded that more maturely.
Did you know the effects of your review to me? The first thing I did that morning was opened my email and read your review. Personally, you ruined my mood for the rest of the day (scratch that, rest of the week) and I felt absolutely horrible, so horrible that I talked to my teacher about it (and I didn't mention any details, I only said that one of my works was harshly criticize by a stranger).
You know what he said? He said "You weigh a stranger's comment on your work more than my own? I think your art/writing works are outstanding. Fuck them and what they say.
"Look at the Harry Potter series. It has tons of praises but also tons of backlashes. People say that J.K. Rowling's work is total bullshit, and it's the most absolute generic trashy fantasy series ever. Look at her now. Her work has won medals, awards, and recognition, and earned her millions of dollars from both film and printed media. Does she give a fuck about what they say? No."
He continued by saying that publishing your work on an online media is terrifying, but I should be happy that I elicited something from you, to the point that you took your own fucking time to write and leave a review.
I'm going to take his words to heart because I'm beaming with joy and confidence that I was able to provoke something out of you. I mean, isn't that the goal of a writer? To make their readers feel something?
As a response to your last sentence, I'm NOT going to change something about myself because I love myself. I'll change the way I write and how this fic goes, but anything concerning myself does not concern you, a random stranger who I don't even know the username of. Maybe you should reflect over the things you said and change the way you review stuff, no?
