Innocent's Violence

By Kimra

Part 1

"Mamoru-baka!" Where the words that rang through the noisy arcade, resonating off game screens and glass windows with clarity. There was an immediate pause as the patrons of the establishment all turned to glance at the screeches source then returned to their daily rituals. Those more curious party's who had witnessed the spectacle many times before watched on cautiously with bated breath.

What they watched was a petite girl, seething up at the much taller man, her checks red, her glare hateful. And all the while the man looked down at her, one eye brow cocked a smirk playing at his lips.

"Odango Atama." He replied smoothly, his voice although not as loud as the young girls equally audible to those straining to hear. A fit of spluttering ensued from the small girl, her checks still red, but her eyes becoming deadly. It was a look those who watched had seen before, a look they would never tempt, but the man remained undeterred, seemingly unaffected.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" She demanded, fist's planting on her hips. "My name is Usagi! Usagi! Can you wrap your little college brain around that or am I talking to fast for you Mr. Chiba?" She glared at him pointedly, and his expression went blank for a moment. Breath's throughout the arcade where held.

"I know your name." He murmured in reply, and the onlookers had to strain. He smiled then, a little to charmingly and just before he began to speak it slipped back into mocking. "Odan-" The sound of his voice was washed away under the power of the scream the small girl gave out. The man looked a little repentant as he clasped at his abused ear drums and glared down at her in an attempt to tell her to shut up. But her little eyes where clenched shut, her hands fisted, the knuckles straining white as the sound continued to push from the depths of her throat.

Then abruptly the noise stopped.

Shaky hands released ear's tentatively, those who had not been interested risking a glance to see a tall brown haired girl holding the little blonde's mouth firmly closed, giving a scolding look at the suddenly meek screecher. A lot of the arcade groaned as they tried to restore hearing, their attention swivelling away once more.

* * * * *

Usagi felt the hand tight over her mouth, holding her breath and voice in with vice like strength. She mumbled something against the palm that did not appear to be willing to move. She tried to order Makoto to release her but again it came out as mumbles. Her eyes flicked to glare at Mamoru who looked positively delighted with her predicament. He lent down, blue eyes twinkling with sparks of mischief.

Her blood boiled at his expression, her nails digging into her own delicate palms as she fought to suppress the feelings ragging within her.

"Cat got your tongue, Odango?" He teased quickly before straightening. "Motoki." He nodded his head at the man behind the counter then, with a bounce in his step, left the arcade.

It was several long minutes of tense silence before Makoto unclamped her hand. Immediately the blond spun on her heel glaring.

"What was that for?" Usagi hissed in a deadly whisper, her eyes more midnight then midday enforcing her displeasure as they glared at the tall girl. Makoto gave a sheepish smile, unperturbed.

"Oh please, if she hadn't shut you up you would have ruptured all our ear drums." Rei's slick voice retorted from across the arcade.

Usagi looked over at the table from which Rei glared, her eye's narrowing at the picture her friends made. Ami had her nose deep in a book, her eyes just over its rim keeping check on the not uncommon situation, Minako was lazily twisting a straw between her fingers, her expression nothing short of bored, and Rei continued to glare a warning that had nothing to do with words spoken. Usagi's teeth gnawed at the inside of her cheek pushing murderous feelings into the recess of her mind and stalked over to them. Makoto a step behind her slid into the booth.

"So Usa, how was detention today?" Rei baited, her lash's lowered to hide their expression but Usagi knew the smug look Rei wore better then anyone.

The temper Usagi had reined in seconds before burst though her restraint. Her nostril's flared with life, long nails dug into the sensitive flesh of her palms once more, while her mind played out a death for her friend with disturbing clarity. Her body trembling with the need to enact the death scene, to kill the sultry bitch who's violet eyes mocked her.

There was a thump, and Usagi's eyes jumped from Rei to the thick book on the arcade table. For a moment she contemplated it, then looked up to find Ami's startled eyes staring into her with fear. Usagi looked away from Ami only to find her other three friends watching her with the same expression.

"Gotta go." Her voice shook as she dashed from the arcade.

* * * * *

They waited until Usagi had left their sight before all four girls turned to each other. Minds brushing against each other for comfort from their shock.

Minako could see Rei was the most shaken, and perhaps she too would have been, had those undeniable emotions been levelled at her. A shiver ran down Minako's spine, and from across the table Ami caught her hand, giving it a quick squeeze. The blue haired girls eyes betrayed her emotions to be akin to Minako's, shock and fear mixed equally well and put them as close to panic as they had been since that first night so long ago.

There was silence about the table as they all tried to think. "I'm just worried about her." Minako told Ami carefully a small smile on her lips to try and calm the others. It didn't need to be said, as shock began to subside for them all worry began to emerge.

"So close to mating, so many things could go wrong." Makoto whispered, her eyes where glazed a few of her emotions hidden from the group, but the worry was undeniable.

Rei stiffened at Makoto's words, her eyes bright with determination. "Well they wont. Because we're not going to let them hurt her."

"What choice do we have? Shit. We're not even allowed to tell her!" Makoto's hand stuck the table with ferocity, her green eyes rebellious and deadly.

"I think we should." Ami voiced sharply, her eyes piercing although her finger traced ideal patterns on her text book cover.

"What if his right though? What if it's bad for her?" Rei demanded her fiery voice, her eyes glassy with what they all knew where unshed tears.

"How can it be bad for her?" Ami begged, her voice soft as she stared at Rei.

"I don't know! How am I supposed to know? I'm as new to this as you all are. But, what if it hurts her, or interrupts something important if we tell her?" Rei bit out, looking dejected and forlorn.

Ami's fingers curled around the edges of her text book, suppressing guilt for questioning her hot tempered friend. "We just have to watch her. Keep her away from them." Ami suggested tentatively. She wanted to tell, but there was logic to Rei's words, and she could do anything but ignore logic.

"We can't." Rei admitted, and any pretence of happiness left her expression. Her posture slumped the tense grip of her hand releasing and tears began to escape her control. They all knew it was true, especially when they considered Usagi's reaction to a common insult. She was becoming more unpredictable, more agitated, it was only a matter of time before it all unravelled one way or another.

Then from the corner Minako spoke. "When she goes, I'm going to." It was a bland statement, the yellow haired girls eyes focused and her emotion of unwavering certainty flooding the link.

"So am I." Makoto snapped in agreement.

"But we're not ready. For all we know it could take us another ninety-seven years before we need a mate." Ami whispered.

"I don't care, she's not going on her own. We belong with each other, to look after each other, all five of us. And I'm not going to forget that because they say it's not how things work. Ready or not she wont be a step in their territory without me by her side." Minako looked up to meet three other sets of determined eyes, the agreement resonating through their link.

* * * * *

Usagi pulled it all in again, the anger, the rage. She wasn't used to these emotions ruling her life. She would kill, when she fed, but she had never felt anything so close to the venom that flooded her while doing that. It felt raw, a need to kill for no reason but to see death, and she had focused that on Rei.

"Gods." She whispered her body trembling with a fear she felt for nothing but herself. They had all felt it too, her friends, her sisters, more kin then kin had ever been. They had felt the blood lust, the need to destroy, and focused so absolutely on one of their own.

It wouldn't have happened, if her emotions hadn't just been stirred up by the Baka.

The Baka. God's she wanted to kill him, every time they met the urge intensified. She had said it once to her friends, tried to pass it off as a random statement, that she'd love to kill him, the reaction had been catastrophic.

She had never seen her friends react so violently to her words. Minako had instantly forbade her entrance to the arcade, Makoto became her shadow overnight, and Rei took the other approach and latched herself onto Mamoru. Ami had been the one to set her aside and re-state the rule's. It had irked Usagi to no end that they turned on her for him, that they where protecting him, and she had given the pretence of surrendering the notion of killing him.

But it never went away. And recently the feeling had come close to overwhelming.

She grumbled and stubbed her toe into the dirt below her, eyes skimming over the serene water to the red hue or a fading sunset. Her mood was far from good, her body angry and unsettled.

It didn't help that her message had gone astray somewhere the week before. Nothing should have prevented it from reaching them, but it had never returned, and neither had they come. It frustrated her that so much effort had been put into it and the task had been fruitless.

Her crystal blue eyes moved back up to the sky, noticing the dark tinge that was pushing the red and pinks back, and the second part of her resounded with a thrill at the sight. Her tongue moved out and wet her lower lip, eyes fixed on a sight she had no right to see. But they where different, the five of them, and it was their secret.

With a sigh Usagi turned from the image, feeling more calm, but not at peace. Her feet took her home, she needed to change, tonight she would try again.

* * * * *

She choose a man this time, tall, well muscled and all together brutish in nature. Usagi was usually quite finicky when it came to her diet, but staring at him, she knew he would taste as unsettling and wrong as every other kill she had made over the last three months.

She tried to play with him, like Minako would, her small frame and perfect blue eyes making her look like a weak victim ready to be attacked. But as he threw her up against a wall, a knife to her throat she still felt disinterested.

His dark eyes betrayed thoughts beyond mugging, his rough hands too busy holding her up, and securing the knife to do any real damage. Usagi sighed trying to make herself enjoy the knowledge that he had no chance, that she was going to kill him before he even managed to mutter a threat to keep her quiet. Her head lulled, smacking the bricks behind her as he growled something under his rotten breath at her.

It wasn't that dark, only an hour after sun set, but the moon hadn't made an appearance, and their where no clouds in the sky. So the setting was over dramatic. A dark alley, leading off from a rough house pub, the smell of urine and beer overwhelmingly powerful in the air. And blood, there was always blood. And it held absolutely no interest for her.

Her body jarred against the brick wall a second time and she frowned down at the man before her.

"Watch it." She warned with a tiny frown. Her voice must have been darker then she meant because he looked a little startled. Minako would have loved it, seeing the big burly man and that tinge of fear in his eyes for the weak helpless victim. With a groan of frustration, ignoring the blade still pressing in against her neck Usagi's head thumped against the mans shoulder. "This just isn't working." She told him gruffly, surrendering any chance of enjoyment in the moment.

Her hands immediately found his shoulders bracing herself, and raising above him, then her mouth descended on his throat. He tasted bitter and old, the years of excessive alcohol having caused his organs to deteriorate and the blood to taste unfiltered. There was the slightest mix of heroin in the stream, but it was from days before so she ignored it. Her body tried to rebel against the taste and she forced queasiness down, she needed a man this time maybe it was because she had chosen a girl last time that the message had failed.

She felt muscles beneath her fingers relax, the blade clattering to the floor, as his arms fell limp by his sides.

She kept draining, taking in every breath of life he had left in him, and her mind averted from the kill, focusing instead on the message she needed conveyed. He shuddered and fell against her, jarring her body into the bricks for the third time, but she paid not heed, her grip unrelenting her mind focused.

And then it was done, she felt it like a light been turned on, and she snapped her mouth from him breathing in fresh air. Knees that had clamped onto his waist to keep him still released and she lowered her legs to the ground. Supporting his weight until she had moved from beneath him she pushed back feelings of illness and released him, letting his head hit the wall with a sickening thud, then his body crumble to the floor.

She slunk into the shadows of the lane, eyes fixed on him as she waited. She would follow this time, to the edge of the territory's, no further. She would make sure that it survived that far at least to deliver her message.

* * * * *

Eyes dark as night, yet piercing the shadows like a blade of silver fixed on one target. When had she stopped? She wasn't entirely sure, she could say where because her eyes watched the flittering arcade front patiently. Waiting for her prey.

It had been somewhere between the pub ally and the territory boarders that her body had won it's fight to be sick, vomiting blood across the street, and leaving a mark that would make anybody think murder had been committed there. Somewhere between the blood riddled street and the arcade that she had vaguely thought of him. In her spiteful anger it had been a passing thought, the thought that his blood wouldn't make her sick. And then all pretences of caring where set aside, she wanted to feel good that night, to get the sick feeling away from her, and if his blood was the only blood that would do it she didn't care.

She was motionless with anticipation. Her friends would kill her. But the quickened pulse and tense muscles pushed adrenaline through her body in the way hunts always had before. It was an intoxicating feeling that removed her doubts, expelled worries and left her certain of her actions.

He was in there, she knew it, she didn't even go in to check she waited across the street. But even from there she could smell his tantalizing blood, blood that had been flaunted before her for such a long time and she had left alone. Her breath's quickened in further anticipation, watching as patrons left the arcade and the numbers of occupants slowly dwindled. It was a fight to not storm in there and drain him before everyone, but it was a fight she won. Even without trying she could feel the link of her friends, and she would not endanger them with that much recklessness. If she was careful they wouldn't even know of it.

Her attention snapped as a body clad in black and green came through the electronic doors, his attention still inside as he gave a quick wave to someone. She assumed Motoki but that was all she thought as her feet moved to follow him.