Kiseki no Hoshi
Teil Eins: Der Krieg von Tränen
Kapitel 9: Der Teufel
Aya was strapped to the operating table by his wrists, waist, and ankles, with his arms outstretched. He was stripped shirtless, but surprisingly, he had not been deprived of the Weiß Kreuz or of the choker around his neck. Standing next to the operating table was an old, insane-looking doctor who had introduced himself as Dr. Korosu. The doctor was dressed in a pale blue operating gown. He had silver-white short hair, and he was a full head shorter than Lucifer.
Sakura was tied down on another operating table next to Aya's, but unlike him, she was still fully clothed and she appeared much more scared and nervous than he did. Sitting on the edge of her table, Lucifer looked quite pleased that both his targets had been captured successfully. At the moment, he did not seem interested in Sakura at all; only Aya.
The room the four of them were in was a bit cold and dark, although not so dark where Aya couldn't see a thing. It was just very dim. It also seemed to be an abandoned operating room, and quite unclean. That made Aya slightly nervous, but he tried to not let it show.
"You look like a very healthy one, no?" Dr. Korosu commented about Aya.
"I take it you like him then?" Lucifer assumed.
"Of course, Flagrare-san," the doctor confirmed. "He'll make a very good test subject."
If Lucifer had not been wearing sunglasses, Aya would have been sure he had narrowed his eyes. "He is not here for you to experiment on," he corrected. "He is here to be subjected to extreme pain."
"What about the girl?" Dr. Korosu asked.
"To keep our subject under control," Lucifer answered, brushing Sakura's bangs from her forehead. He slowly ran his fingers down the side of her face and across her lips as a lustful grin came upon his face. He then stood up and walked over to Aya's operating table. He removed his sunglasses, revealing blood-red irises. "So Ran, do you think you can survive the pain?"
Aya gritted his teeth. Lucifer knew who he really was, but the redhead had a good idea of who this mysterious man actually was as well.
"Begin," Lucifer told Dr. Korosu, backing away from the operating table.
"With pleasure," Dr. Korosu said gleefully. He pointed his scalpel close to the base of Aya's neck, between the breasts, and slashed down with one quick motion. Aya fought to suppress his scream.
"Aya-san!" Sakura exclaimed, her voice filled with worry. From where she was, she couldn't see Aya very well, but she could see what Dr. Korosu was doing to him.
"Not bad," Dr. Korosu said, enjoying watching blood gush from Aya's new wound. He reached out with his free hand and tore the choker from Aya's neck. Sakura's eyes widened at the sight of the ugly scar. Aya, not caring about how dignified his next action appeared, bit the doctor's hand. In surprise, Dr. Korosu withdrew his hand.
"Don't touch me like that again," Aya commanded in a low, harsh voice.
"Boy, you are in no position to tell me what to do," Dr. Korosu reminded. "Now, how about I make that scar of yours bleed once again?"
"Don't kill him," Lucifer ordered.
"Oh, all right," Dr. Korosu agreed, disappointed. He pressed the side of the scalpel against Aya's cheek and slowly rotated the blade, cutting the skin rather painfully. Aya still managed not to scream, despite the pain of the new puncture wound. Blood began to run down the side of his face.
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"Oh, you welcome pain?" Kage, from his hiding place on the catwalk that overlooked the operating room, heard Dr. Korosu say to Aya.
Kage spat on the floor as he peered slightly past the pillar to see what was going on below. What is Lucifer-sama thinking? he wondered. If he was going to strap the redhead down on that table, why would Sakura be needed to keep him under control? He let out a light sigh. He hated not knowing what his employers were thinking. Kidnapping young girls was not his usual line of work. It did not seem that Lucifer was planning to hurt Sakura in any way, but Kage was still worried. His employer was not the type of guy to waste anyone's time, so Sakura was here for a reason. But what was the reason?
Kage barely even trusted Lucifer. After all, he hardly knew a thing about Lucifer. In fact, he did not even think "Lucifer" was his boss's real name. From what he knew of Christian mythology, Lucifer was the name of an archangel who rebelled against God and as punishment, he was sentenced to ruling over the damned for eternity. What parents would name their child that?
A shrill scream from Aya brought Kage back to reality. He narrowed his pale gray eyes. He did not care about Aya, but he really believed that it was wrong for Sakura to have to see the redhead be tortured so. Despite how much Lucifer paid him, he was starting to think that kidnapping Sakura was a mistake.
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"Please, stop hurting him!" Sakura begged of Dr. Korosu, trying to hold back her tears.
"Be quiet," Dr. Korosu ordered.
"No, she's right," Lucifer quickly added. "Stop hurting him for now." He glanced at Aya, a cruel smirk on his face.
Aya's breathing was heavy. The pain was almost too much for him. The insane doctor had just created a cut on his face that stretched from his right ear to the corner of his mouth. The sweat that ran down his face fell into the open cut, making the pain worse. Also, a long cut ran down the entire underside of his left arm. He knew that Dr. Korosu could've very easily have killed him then.
Lucifer stepped over to Sakura's table and undid her bindings. He stood her up and pushed her towards Aya's table. "Go make him feel better," he said. "He'll need some comforting before the next round of torture."
Sakura was puzzled by this request, but she decided to obey anyway. She wanted to make Aya feel better so badly. She could not stand seeing him in such pain. She went up to the operating table he was tied down on, unsure of what to do. Instinctively, she reached for one of the bindings on Aya's wrist, but Lucifer quickly seized her hand before she could undo it.
"Don't try to free him," Lucifer warned, laying his other hand on Sakura's shoulder. "You do not need to. All you have to do is touch him gently. I am sure that the feel of your exquisite hands is enough to comfort him."
"Let her go," Aya commanded, fury in his pale eyes. "Do you remember me saying that if I ever saw you again, I would kill you?"
Lucifer, angry, lightly pushed Sakura away from him and roughly grabbed Aya's throat and pressed down to cut off his air. "I'd like to see you try to kill me right now," Lucifer said. "Do you really want to shed blood in front of Sakura-san?"
The Weiß Kreuz around Aya's neck glowed. He broke his left wrist free of the binding, used the freed arm to remove the other wrist binding, and pushed Lucifer away from him. He then broke free of the ankle restraints and stood up. His wounds all emitted a pale white light before vanishing. He fell to his knees, exhausted.
"Aya-san!" Sakura said, kneeling down next to Aya. She wrapped one arm around his waist and used her other arm to support his head. He felt very weak and frail in her arms.
Lucifer came up to Aya and Sakura and pulled a gun out from his jacket. "Your body is too weak," he informed Aya, pointing his gun at the weak assassin's head. "I should toughen it." He started to pull back the trigger of the gun, but suddenly a dart came out of nowhere and stuck his hand, causing him to drop the gun. "Who's there?" he demanded to know, looking up in the direction the dart had come from.
"The hunters of the night," came a childlike voice.
"The only light in this corrupt world of vice," added a rougher voice.
"The knight hunters," said a smoother voice.
"Weiß!" yelled all three simultaneously. Omi, Ken, and Yoji, all dressed in their assassin outfits, stood in the large window near the ceiling.
Weiß? Kage repeated to himself. I've heard that name before…
"Here Aya!" Yoji yelled, tossing Aya his katana, which landed next to him. Aya wanted to pick up his katana and kill Lucifer, but he was still too exhausted.
"Stay out of this!" Lucifer ordered, picking up his gun. Before he could aim it, Yoji shot a wire around his neck. His hands instinctively went up to his throat.
Ken jumped down from the window and pulled a washcloth drenched in chloroform from his coat pocket and placed it over Sakura's mouth and nose. She immediately fell unconscious. "Omi, go for that mad doctor!" he told Omi.
"Right," Omi acknowledged. He jumped in front of Dr. Korosu, who was fleeing for the exit, and threw three darts at the doctor. Dr. Korosu dodged the darts and started running in the opposite direction. Omi quickly tackled him and stabbed a dart into his chest, instantly killing him.
Yoji was still trying to strangle Lucifer. He pulled harder on the wire, and in doing so he pulled Lucifer a few steps forward. He then noticed Kage standing on the catwalk, although Kage was unaware of that. Seeing that Yoji was distracted, Lucifer yanked on the wire, pulling Yoji down from the window and getting the wire away his throat.
"Pretty smart, I'll give you credit for that," Lucifer commented, rubbing his sore throat. He raised his hand, and Sakura's unconscious body levitated up into the air and over to him.
What the? Kage exclaimed. Who is this guy? He decided to find out and so, ran over to the stairs that led down from the catwalk.
Aya, his strength somewhat returned to him, unsheathed his katana and charged for Lucifer but then hesitated. Lucifer noticed this and held Sakura's body up in front of him. Even so, it was clear that he had no intention of using her as a shield.
"Why are you hesitating?" Lucifer asked mockingly. "You promised to kill me if you ever saw me again. Or do you not want Sakura-san to know you're a murderer? It really wouldn't make a difference if you killed me now. She is unconscious, after all. That is why you knocked her out, I presume?"
Aya gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt of his katana tighter. He desired to kill Lucifer, but not while Sakura was being held. He did not want to get blood on her.
While Aya was pondering his dilemma, Kage was able to sneak up behind him and point a knife very close to his throat. "Move, and I slit your throat," Kage warned Aya. To Lucifer, he said, "Get your hands off Sakura. I know you don't want this guy dead, so do as I say and I'll let him live."
To Kage's surprise, Lucifer just laughed cruelly. "You fool," he insulted. "It's true I don't want Ran dead, but really, taking him hostage? How dumb can you get? Do you believe that an assassin would not fight back?"
"What are-" Kage was cut off when Aya sent his elbow into his stomach. Aya pried the knife from his hand and jabbed the hilt into his head to knock him out. The redhead then threw the knife at Lucifer. Lucifer threw Sakura away from him and caught the knife, but that was what Aya wanted. He picked the unconscious girl up in his free arm before she hit the floor and took a few steps backward to rejoin the rest of Weiß.
"Well, I guess it's time you found out who I really am," Lucifer decided. He raised his arm and was engulfed in a cocoon of fire. The fire erupted upward and soon died down, revealing a familiar looking evil being dressed in a demonic outfit clutching a vermilion pitchfork.
"Satan!" Aya said, holding up his katana.
"So that's what He looks like from the front," Ken mumbled, unsheathing the blades of his bugnuks.
"You want to fight me?" Satan guessed. "That would be foolish. I am the Devil, der Teufel, el diablo, whatever language you prefer."
Sakura stirred in Aya's arms as she slowly regained consciousness. "Aya-san…" she moaned, wrapping her arms around Aya's bare shoulders, hardly aware of what she was doing.
Aya slid his katana back into its scabbard, which he had hooked onto his belt, and laid his hand on Sakura's head to prevent her from turning her head. "Don't look," he requested in a quiet voice.
"Aya-kun, we're leaving now!" Omi called out to Aya. The young blond was already halfway out the exit, along with Ken and Yoji.
Aya nodded and dashed out the exit with the rest of Weiß. Satan did not try to stop them. "Okay, so they're not as stupid as I thought," He muttered. He looked over at Kage, who was still unconscious. "Sekai, you are in so much trouble. I should just kill you, but I might have further need of you…"