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Chapter 10 – Protégé Moi

~Start~

You glare at the man in front of you with hatred. You're not afraid to die but you don't particularly want to, after all, you've only just found Gojyo again and you want to spend some more time with him. However, you certainly have no intention of making weapons for Gyukomen Koushu, for the revival of the youkai who would kill you before looking at you. The man's attention turned to Taisho, probably believing him to be the weaker link. He walks over to him and holds his chin tightly, forcing Taisho to look at him.

"How about you? Do you wish to die as much as her?" Taisho looks away from the man's cold gaze, trying to free himself to no prevail, "As long as one of you lives then her ladyship will be happy."

There is a long silence before Taisho makes eye contact again with the cloaked man. You notice Taisho's expression falter and the man smirks, noticing the weakness. You hold your breath, fearing that Taisho may have cracked under the current pressure.

"I will never betray _ or our business," Taisho growls through gritted teeth before spitting at the man, hitting him square between the eyes. The man steps back in surprise and disgust, wiping his face quickly on his sleeve before glaring at Taisho coldly.

"Then you will both be killed," he snaps, heading towards the exit, "however I will give you twelve hours to reconsider your answer. Perhaps some gentle persuasion will help…"

~Gojyo's POV~

Quickly you make your way through the dark corridors deeper into the strange building of which you had uncovered a secret entrance. You have come across very few youkai and they have all been taken care of without you so much as breaking a sweat and without them alerting anyone else to your presence.

You soon come across a room in which you find a large group of cloaked youkai and one with expectionally shiny, black shoes, who seem to be waiting for someone, or something. The four of you manage to heave yourselves up into the luckily very sturdy air vent above you and, moving through it slightly, you find yourselves above the room just as another figure walks in, shutting the door behind him.

"Well, did they submit?" the shiny-shoe youkai questions as the new comer takes a seat.

"No…" the replies, his cloak hiding his features from you, "but then we never expected them to, did we mister rabbit?" he pulls a plush rabbit from his cloak.

"No, they're too stubborn to just take the nice offer given to them…" the rabbit replies, or rather the cloaked new comer says in a childish voice as if the rabbit is speaking.

"What would you like me to do about it?"

"Gentle persuasion… Your methods are renown, Tetsuo the Torture Youkai. They'll undoubtedly come around with some of your persuasive charm!" the man replies through the rabbit.

"Of course. I'll get started right away," Tetsuo bows and leaves the room.

Without waiting for your companions, you leap down from the air vent, following Tetsuo stealthily from a distance, hoping that he will lead you to _.

~Your POV~

You relentlessly struggle to free yourself. You know that you can't break the chains but so dearly want to that you don't care if you wear yourself out while trying. About ten minutes after the cloaked stranger left you, Taisho returns with a trolley of vicious looking instruments. You stop your struggling and your eyes widen in fear. Tetsuo picks up a thumb screw from the table and advances towards Taisho.

"We'll start easy, right?" Tetsuo attaches the thumb screw to Taisho's right thumb.

"If you break his thumb, he'll never be able to do as you want. He'll never make a weapon again!" you shout, trying to buy some time. Tetsuo pauses.

"Perhaps you're right," he sighs and removes the thumbs screw, returning it to the table, "Now, what parts of your body don't you need?" he starts to rummage through the instruments when a shadow appears in the doorway.

"Now, what kind of man would consider using one of those nasty looking things on a lady?" the shadowed figure asks.

"Who are you?" Tetsuo turns to face the man, "How did you get in here?"

"Your defences aren't that brilliant," you recognise the voice and sigh with relief, "And you obviously aren't getting any if this is the way you treat women."

"Gojyo!" you exclaim as he walks into the room, his shakujou at the ready.

"Sha Gojyo," Tetsuo growls looking at Gojyo with narrowe eyes, "who would have thought that you'd be involved in this."

"Anything that involves imy/i girl involves me," Gojyo glances momentarily at you before fixing his gaze back on Tetsuo.

"Interesting… who would have thought? They will certainly be pleased to hear this back at Houtou Castle!"

"Pity you ain't gonna get back there to tell them then, isn't it?"

"Is that so?" Tetsuo smirks and picks up a pair of Bugnuks from the table, clenching his fists around the soft pads so that the claws of the bugnuks are revealed, "Let's find out, shall we?"

"The sooner you're dead, the sooner we're outta here," Gojyo replies as the two charge at each other…