Chapter Ten
The moonlight shimmered off the lake as they tracked their prey. Her 'brothers' had allowed him to take her, begrudgingly. Tonight had been different, they would have preferred that she stay home and not go out at all. It was her scent. Maybe it was because she was a natural that it made them more aware of her or, perhaps it was something entirely different that only a natural male alpha could withstand. Would she be safer with him?
It made his blood boil and mouth water. Every moment he reminded himself that she was too young and that he didn't deserve such a reward, so they would hunt. They would kill and they would eat to fulfill that blood lust or, was it just lust? The pheromones she was exuding were practically choking him. Several times during the hunt he had to fall back upwind of her to avoid her delectable scent.
"So, you want to talk about what happened today?" He asked after tearing at a piece of meat from their kill.
She sighed. She couldn't very well keep the secrets of her past with Sho from her main hunting partner. "You know I'm from Kyoto... Sho was the one that talked me into coming to Tokyo with him." She paused. "I thought he asked me to come with him because he thought we were meant to be together."
Ren listened to her attentively and nodded.
"So, for almost a year and a half, I worked 3 jobs to support us while he chased his dream of becoming a rock star. I paid for our apartment, our food, our bills, his cell phone... everything. Not once did I spend a yen on myself. At night I would come home, cook, clean, do laundry, sleep then start all over the next day. I know it was my fault for allowing it to go that far, but I truly thought that he cared for me; however, he did absolutely nothing to lead me to believe anything different. Except for maybe not coming home for weeks at a time, in the end. Now that I look back on it... I guess I should have seen that what he said was true. I really was nothing but a maid. The thing that hit the most was that he told me that he could never fall in love with a girl as plain and boring as me." She told him wistfully.
Ren snorted a little chuckle.
She glared sharply at him. "What?" She hissed.
Ren sighed and explained. "Kyoko-chan... You are anything but plain and boring. A man would have to be blind, deaf and mute to think that."
She scoffed. "It's just the makeup and clothes."
"Hardly.." He retorted.
She looked at him curiously.
"Kyoko, true beauty comes from within and shows on the outside. When you take off all of the makeup and put on clothes that you think are average, it doesn't go away. Most women that appear beautiful on the outside, have to keep up that appearance or, everyone will see their true selves. You don't have that problem." He explained.
The blush under her fur covered her body. No one had ever paid her a compliment like that in her life. "Um... Thank you." She shyly stuttered.
He cleared his throat nervously. "We should head back now." Before I do something really stupid.
She agreed and they both made their way to his car and home.
The day she had left the Dark Moon set after finding her Mio, the time she had spent away was spent looking for a quality, black short-hair wig. She had found it quite quickly but, most of her time was spent debating if the 15k yen would be a well spent purchase. In the end she decided that it would be. She would probably use it more often than not, for disguise purposes later on. Her Mio had been accepted and she was on her way to her unofficial debut in acting and she was in heaven.
Acting had opened up something for her. There was a feeling, a passion she had felt for it like no other. When her Mio had been discovered and birthed into her little world, a piece of her had been found. A tiny little, curious puzzle piece. She didn't give up on her other aspects or, talents like music or, cooking or, sewing. She just preferred acting. It gave her a bigger sense of accomplishment. So, the discussion with her 'brothers' had occurred.
"Kyoko, there is no need to feel bad about it. We all want you to pursue what makes you happy." Reino consoled her.
She felt like she was abandoning them. "But... What will you do?" She asked.
Miroku chuckled. "It's okay Princess. Takarada-san had planned for this already. He wants us to debut under another band name. We can still record together every now and then." He patted her on the back.
"So, what's your new name?" She asked in a small voice, feeling a little guilty about the whole situation.
Reino chuckled. "I was thinking something along the lines of 'Living Dead'".
"Zombies?" Kyoko asked incredulously.
"Hmm." Miroku mused as he flipped the internet pages on his cell phone. "Ah!" He turned his phone and displayed what he was looking at to them. "How about this? It's Turkish and kind of means the same."
Kyoko's eyes went wide. "It could work. It is different."
Reino nodded his head. "Vie Ghoul... That could work."
"Well.. Vie Ghoul it is then." The others agreed.
The next day Company of Wolves would enter the halls of LME and leave minus one member as Vie Ghoul. A few days later Kyoko would store her wig, visit the salon, cut her hair and dye it back to its original color of raven black.
She would keep her Chouko persona waiting in the wings for emergencies, but for now it kind of felt nice to be just Kyoko again. Not the naive little Kyoko but, the Kyoko with a personal purpose.
"Feels nice without all of that hair." She sighed to her reflection while mussing it with her fingers. "Ren implied that I look just as good without makeup, but I just don't see it." She shook her head in disagreement as she switched off her light and crawled into her futon. She decided the only time she wouldn't wear it would be on the days that she wasn't filming and she had to have the makeup artist do Mio's scar and also on the days she would play Bo.
Today would be the first day of school after her new look. She straightened her room, showered, applied her makeup, styled her hair out of her face, added a little gold barrette that Reino and the boys gave her, put on her uniform, pulled up her over the knee stockings and slid on her loafers. She was ready for the day.
School... school had a whole new meaning for her now. It was a fresh start from when she was younger. Sho wasn't there. She had a couple of acquaintances, nothing like Moko-san, Ren or, Reino and Miroku but, almost friends nonetheless. Mostly boys. She still had a problem getting along with other girls her age there. They all seemed to flock to Mimori-chan.
That girl. Mimori infuriated her. She pretended to be nice and cute, but she was a sickening little bitch and her friends encouraged it. She was always going on and on about her Sho-chan. Kyoko wanted to vomit at the thought. What made everything worse was that today just happened to be the day that Sho had decided to drop her off at school on his way to Akatoki or, wherever he was going. Unfortunately, Kyoko had not seen him in time and he spotted her.
"Poochie, whose that girl?" She heard a repulsive voice ask.
Mimori pouted and sighed. "That's Kyoko-san. It looks like she changed her hair. She is such a freak. All the boys are always trying to get her attention."
Sho's eyes followed her as she walked past a few meters away, desperately trying to ignore him.
"Why do you want to know?" Mimori asked in an insecure whiny voice.
"Hm?" Sho answered absentmindedly.
Mimori grunted in dissatisfaction and stomped her foot. "Sho-chan! Why are you asking about her!?"
Sho's eyes snapped back to her. "Oh. She just looks like a girl I went to school with." He lied.
Mimori stomped off mumbling about how he was hers and she would make sure Kyoko kept her grubby mitts off of him at any cost.
Other than Mimori making Kyoko her sole focus for the day, Kyoko had a relatively productive school day. At noon she left for the set of Dark Moon and after that she would make her way back to the Darumaya to work on the music Director Ogata had requested for the opening and the closing credits. Tomorrow would be filming, two photo-shoots and LoveMe tasks.