Cancerous
A/N: No reviews in the previous update. I should at least be worried, but still I persevere. Around three and a half hours of work on this...
Hey! I've got roughly two weeks before classes start, AND I'M IN COLLEGE TAKING UP LITERATURE. So there. I think I can get things going in fours hours of music and coffee, so except little to no changes to my updates. Goodluck to me.
"I want out, Daichi."
Those words still hurt him. It's been five years and he still can't get over the fact that she left.
"But you're here now, and there's no way you'd say no." He said to the unconscious woman slumped on the wall.
Daichi's blown up a part of the Quarantine Sector just to get her out of there. A structure-shattering quake elusive enough to be deemed as bomb exploding from the inside. He's made sure the illusion is flawless, and that there is no sight of SCEPTER4 the vicinity of MASANORI's territory proves it to him.
Akari is unconscious and yet there is a faint smile on her face. She'a making him waste his powers on purpose, isn't she?
Daichi rubs his hand over his face as walks over to her. He kicks her head slightly as to not break bone, and she startles awake.
She coughs out before realizing it's him. She smiles weakly, ironically. "It's nice to see you again."
He grits his teeth as he casual greeting. "Fuck you."
She sits herself up slowly, her body sore and her head feeling light. "You too. That's a pretty rough greeting for an old friend, Osamu."
He shouts and slaps her face. "Don't call me that! And we aren't friends."
She rubs her now painful cheek. She leans up and smiles. "Suit yourself. Enemies then?"
He remains silent, his anger seething from his teeth.
She laughs. "We are friends, Daichi. Why else would you break me out?"
She wasn't a thankful victim, and she isn't a willing ally. He suddenly regret why he "rescued" her in the first place.
He turns away, his face flush with anger and embarrassment. "Shut up."
"Why am I here?" She looks around and sees the symbol of MASANORI sprayed in neon green onto one of the gray concrete walls. There is dirt, grime, and various forms of graffiti are all over the place. Bullets casings, bomb residue, and grenade shells are littered across the floor. She knows that this is one of MASANORI's training rooms.
"I brought you here."
She laughs mirthlessly, smelling gunpowder in the air. "No shit. Really, why?"
He turns around and looks straight ahead, not at her. "I need your help." He muttered.
She doesn't hear it. "What?"
He exclaims this time, "I need your help!"
She smiles to herself and shrugs. "Never thought you'd actually say that. You know, after all that's happened."
He ignores her comment and leans down to her. "I heard you're out on the streets again."
She smirks. "And a little bird told me you're producing weapons."
His face pales. "You weren't supposed to know that."
She has already told Munakata that and is surprised that Daichi—or even Munakata—doesn't know that she "maintains contact" with MASANORI and PHOENIX by hacking into their systems and browsing through their files, phonecalls, text messages, and order forms.
She nods. "Apparently I do. Don't underestimate me, Daichi."
He strikes her head again. "You're a traitor."
She coughs and is forced to lie on her side on the dusty floor. She breathes slowly, feeling the sharp sting on her head.
"I'm working for SCEPTER4 and whoever's willing to strike a contract, what's wrong with that?" She said weakly.
"You're working with the enemy."
She rolls to her back and looks at Daichi, attempting a stern look on her face. "For. I don't tie myself to them."
She doesn't look stern and it looks to him that she's constipated. He chuckles. "Not from what I've heard."
She thinks it's her fault. "I forgot to put up my firewall again, huh?"
"Naoki." Yasumaru has been checking her files too. Of course, he's been trained by the best, by her.
She nods in faint memory of the young man's face. "So it seems. He's only the next best."
"I know. That's why I need your help." Daichi sounded more disappointed than proud of Yasumaru.
She rolls her side and sits up. She sighs, "You're thinking that I'd say yes, but it's a no, Daichi."
He looks at her in disbelief. "You haven't even heard what I was supposed to say."
"That's the point."
He stomps his foot on the ground and it creates a small crater. She is suddenly afraid of the fact that he can kill her with just a swift kick to her neck, but remains her composure.
He kneels down to her and their foreheads almost collide with each other. "This was your dream!"
She swallows a hard gulp and whispers, "Was. I just want to get myself outta Shizume City."
He hisses, "Then why don't you?"
She shrugs and leans farther from him, slumping her back against the wall. "Guess there are things I still have to do."
He stands up. "Like what?"
She bows her head and smile widely, "There's a bar downtown…"
"I know. Naoki's there, but he's not alone."
She is quick to feel the fear of Yasumaru and of PHOENIX waging a war with fire. She is afraid of the death of what might have been her dearest friend, most devoted lover, and all those souls he's pledged to hell with him.
He walks two steps away from her and lets the silence fall upon them.
Her thoughts then drift to liquor, bitterness, and a certain bartender. She lifts off the silence as she does with her head. She asks him, "So you're starting?"
"We're starting his plan. And in a few hours' time, we'll be starting with mine."
She thinks of a way to escape and smiles, glad that he has her back to her else he might slap her wicked face. "Where do I fit in the picture?"
"Hack into SCEPTER4's security mainframe. Disable the fences. Lock-up the weapon's vault."
She frowns and remembers Munakata as a lost boy forced into a crown. "Why them?"
"We're wiping out the Kings one at a time."
She shakes her head. "You're not strong enough."
He turns around and silently accuses her of being a traitor. "Who's side are you on, Akari?"
"The one that runs and hides."
Meanwhile, Yata and Usagi share each other's soreness with smiles and words as they're on their way back to HOMURA. "Usagi."
She rubs her arm and retorts, "What?"
He's known to swim in dangerous waters, so why not ask her, "What happened between you and Akari?"
Usagi shrugs and says this with a scowl on her face, "She needed saving and she needed help, but she didn't want any. She thinks she can be strong on her own."
He thinks of her as a reflection of himself and apologized out of line. "I'm sorry."
She thinks he's offering condolences and it sickens her. She states with a glare, "She's not dead."
"No, but it sounds like she's dying."
She can't tell him that she agrees, so they walk in silence before she stops and says, "We met in the rain. And if you think it sounds cliché, it was."
She tells him of that evening.
She rubs her hands over her arms and breathes in the cold stormy air. "Cold. Cold. It's so cold."
She's been walking for a long distance and decides to take refuge in the small roof outside a coffee shop.
A figure walking by with an umbrella asks her with a gruff voice. "Hey, kid."
She lifts her head and sees a teenaged girl with dirt on her cheek and puffy eyes. "Yes?"
"Are you cold?"
She nods. "Yes."
The teenager smiles down at her and steps beside her. "I am too."
She unconsciously moves toward the shade of the umbrella. "Oh."
They ignore the passer-bys and the loud fall of the rain on the streets.
The teenager suddenly looks around before aaking her, "Are you alone? Where are your parents?"
She doesn't cry. "They're dead."
"Mine are too, but why are you out on the streets?"
She's surprised that someone's like her and decides to ask the same, thinking that they'd both be ones who were thrown out. "Why are you?"
"I locked myself out of the apartment." The teenager lied, but she doesn't know that. The teenager was actually thrown out too, out of the Yakuza.
"I was thrown out."
The teenager pats her on the head. "That's sad. Wanna come home with me, when I get the receptionist to give me the spare key?" At least that was true; the teenager was living alone in one of the many apartments her family have. It was the apartment they lived in for the longest time.
She feels the teenage draw her close and she pulls away. "I shouldn't be talking to strangers."
"And family shouldn't throw you out. So how about it?" The teenager holds out her hand.
She takes it. "My name's Kagome Hikaru."
"Well from now on, you'll be called Usagi."
Later that night, she sleeps in a room beside the teenager's. In the morning, she learns that the teenager's name in Mayonaka Akari.
Yata thinks of it as a movie, a drama. "Why'd she change your name?"
Usagi shrugs and smiles in spite of herself. "I dunno. Guess she liked my bunny ears." She was wearing a bunny-eared headband that day.
"How old were you?"
"Eleven."
"That's harsh."
She elbows him with a smirk on her face. "What about you? How'd you get into HOMURA?"
He looks up and exhales, "It was something like fate, I guess."
"Bullshit." She slaps the back of his head.
He recoils and exclaims to her. "Ow! Fuck! What was that for?"
She looks disinterested. "Don't pull that shit on me. Tell."
He groans. "It was!"
He throws down the console on his lap. "Dammit! I lost again!"
"Misaki, I really think that—"
"Bullshit!" He grabs his friend's soda bottle and starts chugging down its contents.
His friend sighs. "That's unhealthy."
He exhales, feeling bloated. "What is?"
"We should be in class."
"Then you go, Saru, I don't want anything to do with this world anymore."
"I can't leave you like this."
"You can if you want to. You're my best friend and I don't want you to be pulled down by me."
"As long as it's with you, that's what friends are for, right?"
He scoffs. "Whatever."
He tosses the soda bottle away and it is caught by one of the most powerful men Yata has ever seen. Little did he know at that time that he'd be something like a friend, a father, a leader, and a King.
Usagi laughs. "So you're telling me that it was all by accident? That's absolute shit."
He resists the urge to punch her arrogant face. "It's not! But I guess you met her by accident too."
She punches his arm lightly. "By coincidence!"
"We both got into what we are by accident."
She presses her belief. "Coincidence. They just so happened to be passing by."
He nods. "Yeah."
"So what happened to that friend of yours?"
He doesn't hesitate to answer. "He's in SCEPTER4 now."
She audibly gasps. "Is he—"
He nods because he knows that she knows. "Unfortunately."
She inhales and realizes something like a mistake. "Oh fuck."
He shrugs. "He's a traitor, so it doesn't matter."
But it does, she exclaims, "Yes it does! SCEPTER4 or not, he's still your friend, you can't just shove him away like that!"
Yata scoffs and flips her off. "Tell that to the drunk bitch."
She's about to punch him in the face before a call surprises both of them. She recoils and Yata answers it. The look on his face turns from disinterest, to shock, to anger, and then to determination.
"What's that about?"
"Something about her."
Usagi knows who that could only be and turns her shoes into shakes with a press of a button, following him as he skates and shoves his way through the streets.
Akari has followed Daichi through the labyrinth of hallways and rooms. He stops inside a room filled with monitors showing various security feeds and videos, large file cabinets, and everything similar to what Akari had five years ago. He motions for her to sit on a swivel chair, so she does.
She sighs and leans back. "I don't have any other choice, right?"
He sits on one across hers, behind a desk. There is a mug of coffee on it and he picks it up, drinks silently, and puts it down. His drink was now lukewarm. He didn't expect coercing her to take so long, but she's here now.
"It's either you help me or you don't. We planned this without you and we can do it without you." He said.
She looks down. "I guess you don't need me after all."
"That is, if you want more people to die."
Her head shoots up in shock. "What?"
"We're only aiming for the Kings themselves, but if you don't do what I told you, then more people will die."
This isn't the ambitious Daichi she knew from long ago.
"What do you mean more people will die? Daichi, what happened?"
He sighs and takes another sip of his drink. When he puts it down, his eyes follow it. "I just realized that there's a heavy amount of sacrifice placed on those of us who want to change the world."
Her look of shock turns to a look of anger. He's forcing her this time and she has no other choice, unless she's given time alone so she can execute her escape.
She grits her teeth and balls her hands into fists. "Damn you, Daichi. Don't put people into this. They're not the ones to blame."
His face brightens and she thinks that she'd feel elated only if it wasn't for this reason. "So you're helping me?"
She nods. "As long as only the Kings die."
He feels like he could kiss her and thank her and apologize for hurting her and maybe even tell her how much he's genuinely missed her, but he doesn't. Instead, he gives her a smile. "I knew you'd come around."
It hurts her when he leaves because she knows that whether he dies or not, he'll end up being betrayed by her—again. But if she doesn't go through with her plan, she'll end up being the one who betrayed the promise she made to a boy who's only playing king.
"Damn you." She curses aloud and lets herself cry just a little. If only things were different then she wouldn't have to pick over green and blue, her dream and her future, purple and red, her savior and her liquor.
"Damn it." She loved her liquor.
She looks at her left hand now, there's the shiny band on her right finger. The ring the Munakata bought and left on purpose. She thinks that he's an enigma just as much as he's an asshole.
"Damn it all." Still, she can't say that doesn't feel affection for him.
In the bright of the midday sun streaming through the windows, a smile meets a scowl.
Yasumaru hides his nervousness under the guise of a smile. "Hello."
Mikoto stares at him. "Who're you?"
"Naoki Yasumaru, the Purple King of clan PHOENIX." He curses himself for saying this meekly and not proudly. What kind of King is he?
He nods. "Suoh Mikoto."
Yasumaru comments on the cozy atmosphere of the bar. "This place is really nice, quite relaxing actually. I think I'd spend my day-off here—"
Mikoto stops him by exhaling a large smoke. "So you said something about Mayonaka Akari?"
He coughs inwardly. Daichi never smoked, or drunk for that matter. "Yes, well. She's been captured by MASANORI, the Green clan."
"This isn't HOMURA's problem."
"I know, but it'll be soon enough."
"How?"
"If the Green King gets her on his side, she'll be willing enough to set any place to explode."
Izumo has stayed silent since Mikoto came in, but now he whispers to the King. "Like the rocket, Mikoto."
Mikoto knows that Akari's a coward. "She doesn't have the guts."
Yasumaru nods, shifting his gaze to Izumo with a proud, joking smirk. "That was a warning. She's fond of wasting bombs and missiles."
Izumo was surprised when Yasumaru said that, he was sure he said it low enough to be heard only by Mikoto.
Mikoto takes a drag. "So what does PHOENIX have to do with this?"
Yasumaru pauses and contemplates. He looks up at Mikoto. "I want to form a truce."
He shakes his head. "You won't have it."
He is taken aback by the man's straightforwardness and balls his hands into fists to control his emotions. "I'm not here to fight."
Mikoto steps down from his seat at the counter. "And you should know that you're not welcome here." He said clearly with a look of boredom on his face.
Yasumaru tries to call after him, "Mikoto—"
His only reply is a glare. "Don't call me that."
Yasumaru leans back, bows his head and feels a chill run across his arm. "If that's what you want. Then so be it—"
He strikes.
A/N: Dun, dun, duuuuun. My attempt at a suspenseful chapter turned out like that. Read and review? I think I'm disappointing you guys, am I?