Blood Feast
Chapter 4: Deed for a Deed
"I still want answers," Vincent insisted, idly wagging his gun at the other's feet. "I want to know what you are before I hear anything else."
Yatsui inhaled from the pit of his stomach then drifted off into a deathly stillness, where one could have mistaken him for a man suddenly turned to stone. But the flicker of his eyes betrayed that absolute calm. The light within them swirled and churned like the eyes of storms, the pupils then deadening and suddenly dark for but a moment. They were perfect, boundless, lifeless pitch. Black holes. Something unknown, and unknowable. Vincent felt himself slip from simple skepticism to disbelief, blinked once, and the man's eyes were lit up once more, humble to the point of sleepiness. "You do not want to know."
"And why's that?"
"It is not something I am proud of, my origins."
"Then we have a little something in common. Remember, you started this."
Yatsui grimaced thoughtfully, at last straying from his stillness, going back to stand at the window and pressing his fingertips into the sill, his head dropped low with his chin to his chest. "I suppose so. Would that mean we are kindred in this life, you and me? Do we share that sort of past, one dominated by shadows as far and tall as the eye can see? So imposing that they would choke the life out of us both were we to let down our guard?"
"If you insist on lumping us together the way you've been doing, sure."
He hushed himself for a time. Then, as he clasped his salt-white hands at the small of his back, Yatsui muttered, "Are we at an impasse?"
"Up to you."
"Well, then."
"Well, then."
Yatsui huffed and turned to face Vincent who stood waiting, Death Penalty still trained on his feet. A minute seemed to pass before he heaved then slouched at the shoulders. "How to put this simply? I am but a man. A traveler, or might vagrant be a word more fitting?"
"You have an agenda: What is it?"
"An agenda?"
"You can't have done what you did for nothing. Confess."
"I am on a pilgrimage, that is all," said Yatsui, his head bowed. "A journey of the soul, for the soul. Is that so wrong, sir? I am searching to recover that which I have lost; I meditate on it, and I observe, and I may lend a hand to those when and if necessary along the way to the eventual end of that road I travel."
"There's something you're not telling me. You don't look the spiritual type. Not with those clothes."
"My apologies if my appearance deceives you. But I am nothing if not what you call 'spiritual.'" Yatsui tipped his head up towards the ceiling, eyes shut. Beyond his eerie gloom-laden frame, Vincent noticed a beat of motion just outside the window. Like the beating of a little bird's wings. But whatever hovered there was nothing of the sort. The silhouette it cast was much too large for the common mountain larks, much too top-heavy. Too comical. Vincent laid Death Penalty to rest in the crook of his arm, and removed from his holster with two clawed fingers small orbs, one blue and the other purple. Materia. He slipped them into the long, decorative grip of his gun, pressing in until he heard a tiny click indicating that they were secured in their slots.
He sighed.
"Am I that suspicious?" Yatsui mouthed to the air.
The drifting figure rose into view above the other man's shoulder. Another monster, and yet another inhabitant straight from the bowels of ShinRa mansion. The pumpkin headed nightmare.
Yatsui appeared so self-absorbed that he hadn't heeded a thing, not like he did with the coming of the bats, but Vincent eyed the creature like a hawk with its clownish grin, scarlet crescents to scarlet eyes.
The gunman aimed quietly at the monster.
"You have not spoken, sir. So, still you wait for some great reveal? Hmm, you may wait an eternity." The man continued to speak, his obliviousness as a child's, so concerned with itself that the world could have gone to hell in a hand basket before seeing the flames rise.
"You're not even trying."
Vincent pulled the trigger, watching the white hot sparks spit from the muzzle of his gun, his ear long since pleasantly deaf to the lightning crack of the bullets expelled. The shot darted over Yatsui's shoulder, whipped his hair out in its wake, towards its target in the window, that silent Dorky Face. The bobbing creature screeched with the shatter of glass and dropped out of sight.
"What?" Yatsui slapped a hand at his cheek, nonplussed at what had occurred and the speed in which it'd moved from present to past. "What was that?"
"A monster. One you didn't hear this time."
"Oh… How careless of me. So wrapped up within myself, of course I failed to notice."
"Hmph." Vincent sheathed Death Penalty with the utmost care in its holster and adjusted his crimson cape over its length. "Since you seem to be dancing around the issue and daydream of what I couldn't care less, I think it's time I take my leave. I didn't want to be bothered, especially by things as annoying as monsters and men like you."
"Might it have something to do with how you smell?"
"Excuse me?" Vincent said, shortly after turning halfway for the exit. The muscle in his jaw clenched slightly; he was taking more offense to this baseless observation than he thought he should. Just what did that have to do with anything? And how could the man even smell him over his own ever-present body odor? How did he come to that conclusion? "Explain yourself."
"Please excuse me for saying this, but your body emits something which surely must be rot."
To Sixth: Yeah. Old note. How old was I back then? I wish the strikeout code was available. So that it's still there but not as prominent as it used to be.
From Sixth: That seemed kind of mean for Yatsui to say that, huh? But there's a reason, a reason that will soon be revealed. Vincent doesn't stink like you think. There's a certain smell raising hell. And I won't tell you 'til next chapter debut. Okay, that last one sounded a bit wrong. Oh well… Oh, and Narukye, I would be happy to give you some good writing tips. It might be a little hard for me to get the words straight, since sometimes I'm so addlebrained, but it's no real problem. Expect them soon.