Disclaimer: Come on, think it through do I sound…err…write rich?
Authors Notes: Besides saying "I'm back." "Please forgive the lateness!" There really isn't much else; thanks for reviews are on bottom. Let's start the show.
Dominus Grim
Chapter Six: The Walk and Wait
Outside the cursed building, the hell of hells on Earth, was parked a small white Subaru. This in itself was not odd, people had a right to park their cars right? Even if the spot was illegal, a person still physically could park. What was strange, what could be construed as being out of place were the twin trails of blood along with bodily indentations leading towards the building…the aptly named "Aku no Kami" off shoot of hell.
0000000000
Her throat was sore, very sore. She felt her limbs bound up and despite not actually touching her vials, Himiko Kudo knew that her weapons or more to the point her personal extensions of her power were not on her person. Slowly, ever so slowly the big lead up to how she had ended up where she was came back…the fight with the woman hating match user and then…this? Today was not a good day, maybe this one of the few jobs to be passed? Slowly again, she began to open her eyes, and only after that did she immediately regret doing so.
"Good morning, lover." Laughing Phantom said, his outwardly handsome yet internally hellish face only millimeters from hers. By force of reflex, Himiko jerked her head back only to find her neck delicately but quite firmly chained up. The same could be said of the rest of her body, the exception being the delicateness of course. Her arms and legs were all chained in a somewhat spread eagle style, though loose enough to the point where she had circulation no matter how limited.
"What?" Phantom asked with almost genuine curiosity, backing his head up and sniffing his breath by cupping his hand over his mouth. "Do I offend?" Himiko scowled, both at the Phantom and at herself. This was at least the second time she had been in danger just today, a fact that did not sit well with her drive for professionalism. Drawn out of her thoughts by the again approaching Phantom, Himiko struggled slightly within her bonds.
"Come on now, do you really have to struggle? Other than making things more arousing for me, you're just tiring yourself out. Meats no good stringy if you know what I mean." the malicious betrayer said, bringing his face, more specifically his lips closer and closer to Himikos' who, despite everything, was blushing slightly. Just as the sociopaths lips shadowed the wincing Himikos' his eyes bulged a touch and he backed off hastily, a hand covering his casually smirking face.
"Ah, 'puppet scent' my little minx. Almost let myself become your slave…I might have considered it if you were wearing some black leather but what are you going to do?" Himiko felt her breath catch as her trump was quickly lack for a better term trumped. Casually waving his hand in front of his nose, Laughing Phantom sat down on a half cut down stone column, taking out a garishly long cigarette and lighting it. After taking a puff, Phantom looked over at Himiko, his eyes narrowing in what looked like a kind of barely contained joy.
"You're probably wondering why I invited you here." Himiko nearly balked out loud but realized that pointing out the fact that she was choked and brought here would probably not help her case. Instead, the Lady of Poisonous Substance would have to take other actions. For Himiko though, the consideration would have to wait, as some shuffling from the Laughing Phantom distracted her. However, it was what came after that stopped her entire body cold.
"Do you like it? I have a feeling you look positively ravishable in white." Himiko was at a loss for words. For in Laughing Phantoms hands, looking odd with the chains slinked out of his sleeves: was a very beautiful, very elaborate wedding dress. Despite having one, possibly two admirers, (and forgoing the fact that oddly enough one of those admirers was also a blond haired sociopath), Himiko Kudo was not well versed in the language of love and courtship. As such her reactions to such endeavors tended to be a bit emotional, more so when the admirer had a tendency towards the homicidal.
"Are you fucking crazy?" she yelled out, Laughing Phantom simply stared. Not taken aback at all, he put a finger to his chin.
"What should we name the kids…how about Shinji? Nah, only pussies who are slaves to their daddies are named that…John…Paul…George…Ringo? Or how about…Yamato?" this caught the captive girls attention. Himiko opened her mouth slightly to ask, out of reaction, but quickly caught herself and closed her mouth. But, vicious predators tend to have sharp eyes and Laughing Phantom was no different.
"Yes, your brother: Yamato Kudo. Partnered with you and one Ban Mido as thieves." Phantom stopped, waiting for some kind of verbal reaction from the chained girl, hearing none, he continued with a contented sigh.
"You and your brother are both…or were both witches. "Voodoo Children" with a very elaborate curse on your heads, I kinda doubt your dear old brother has to worry about that though…you know, him being deader than dead and all." Himiko felt a myriad of emotions from this statement. Fear from having such significant parts of her life explained to her, anger at the mirth this man elicited from it, and somewhere within her mind sadness pervaded from the memories no sixteen year old should have to experience.
"How…do you know this…" she asked, bowing her head slightly with half lidded eyes. Laughing Phantom was too busy doing a faux ballroom dance with the wedding dress to answer immediately but sobered up quick.
"How do I…know you say? Well I'm not confined to these damn walls! In fact, after Akabane left, yeah, that's about when I decided to take off from this place and have some fun outside. So, I keep my 'chain' in a lot of pies, especially around Shinjuku. And the Voodoo children pop up every now and then. Not so much now though for…obvious…reasons." Himiko kept a growl under her breath as the meaning behind that came through. Thinking or rather hoping that Phantom was bored now Himiko was disappointed and terrified to find Phantom again only a few scant feet away.
"I know you, Himiko Kudo. I know about your brother, your roots, your curse, your history and if things go the way they have been set in motion…your future." The witch girl could feel her body shaking, as if this verbal violation had broken her down for a spiritual deconstruction. "I know about your personality, your likes, your dislikes…your crushes on certain blue eyed men…and coincidently your first wet dre" Phantom stopped himself, again, his lips so temptingly close to the angrily blushing Himikos. With a sigh, this time of frustration, Laughing Phantom turned to the adjoining hallway. Extending into the darkness, the Torturous Betrayer peered outward, feeling and sensing a kindred spirit.
"Akabane is coming isn't he?" Himiko asked. Whirling his head almost quick enough to topple his flat topped derby, Phantom considered his options and his memories.
"Yeah, but by the time our boy toy gets here, he won't be little Aka-Chan." Himiko would have asked for him to elaborate, but that was not important right now, rather, what was important was the shimmer of scent vials a few dozen feet or so away. Then, the reality of what was just said, sunk in.
"What…do you mean, not himself?" Phantom planted his cigarette back between his lips and sat back down on the pillar, content to just smoke casual puffs. Himiko was torn between her plan to escape and her curiosity regarding The Jackal. Before any further mental debate could be waged between the logical and the emotional, Phantom brought Himiko back to Earth.
"I like surprises, and you should too. So, let's just say that with every step Aka-Chan takes down these hollowed halls, he comes closer and closer to getting a surprise himself." Himiko could fathom some of what was said, and from what she could gather it was not exactly beneficial to the transportation assignment. Himiko thought about asking for a better explanation to this, but soon figured it would be better to focus on her escape…except…she could swear that Laughing Phantom was staring…even…possibly…
0000000000
"Is he still typing?" Kanryu asked to the figure in white as he walked into the chamber. Positioning his body into a lean against a random wall, Kanryu looked over at the said woman in white.
"Yes, he's been analyzing that damn book non-stop ever since he 'acquired' it." Ms. Hai responded.
"Shit…Shit!" Harukai muttered, and then making sure all would hear what he said the first time yelled.
"Something wrong Harukai? I take it things didn't go so well?" Ms. Hai asked, her red lips shining like fresh blood from beneath her hat, made all the more effective to the paleness of her skin.
"You're damn right something's wrong you stupid bitch! I got pulled out by that asshole Phantom!" Harukai bellowed his shoulders quaking up and down in un-expelled rage.
"Come now. You knew as well as the rest of us that Phantom is the least likely to follow orders. His dubious intentions were factored in and everything went off fine." Ms. Hai responded the calmness and elegance in her voice off set by something like a not too well suppressed blood lust.
"Fine…fine? You call a stupid cow dying thinking she had the upper hand over me, fine?" Harukai yelled out, stomping closer and closer to Ms. Hai, whose face remained in smile. Kanryu could only look on at Harukai, as if he had seen this situation a hundred thousand times before.
"In terms of the plan, yes. I feel everything is going just fine. As far as your hatred towards the fairer sex and your 'urge' to kill them…well, go find a corner or something." Harukai stopped dead in his tracks, the rage being processed all over his face. The fact that a woman was telling him off was not enough, no, the woman had to just stand there and wait for his response.
"I hate you," he mumbled, looking down slightly. "I hate you and your damn fairer sex!" Harukai screeched, lighting four matches in each hand. About to bear his arms down on the woman in ivory clothes, he was stopped by Kanryu appearing in front of him and stopping his right arm with his left elbow.
"Enough, of all the things we could be doing, this is the least productive." Harukai growled and stared at his oldest friend. Then, knowing that Kanryu knew him better than anyone, decided to relent; dropping his lit matches to the wet cobblestone floor. Ms. Hai continued to smile, but this time directed her blue eyes towards Kanryu.
"Thank you for being such a gentleman Kanryu. Stepping in to defend a lady like that." Kanryu regarded the woman from beneath his gas mask and practically snorted a reply.
"Bull, I was defending Harukai from you. You may think we're ignorant but at least pretend you consider us equal, for now anyway." Hai's smile dropped a touch.
"You're so serious Kanryu-San; why not learn to enjoy yourself a bit?" Harukai at this point had leant himself to a wall, sliding down and resting on his rear for a bit of rest.
"Enjoy myself? I just told you I'm not ignorant," Kanryu raised his right hand a bit and gazed at it for a few seconds before clenching a fist. The typing that had been occurring in the back ground darkness stopped just then as four scalpels slid out from between Kanryu's knuckles. "Hmm, so this is what it's like?" the man in the mask asked to no one in particular, slowly dropping the supposedly surgical tools one by one. With the darkness of the room, combined with the reflective qualities of the puddled water, the dropped knives created quite a light show for all of a second.
"You're both fashionably late. Have you been taking lessons from the Bastard?" came the garbled voice in the direction of the seven key boards. When the lights flashed, for just a brief second, from the ceiling down towards the average height of any man, woman or child, glowed several dozen glowing nooses. As the lights went, so did the nooses, but in their place was left a man.
"I don't know about the filth-blood behind me, but I come baring trash gifts for trash people." Stated the voice of the man in what looked to be a long sleeved red and black shirt, brown scraggly pants, and lace less almost felt boots. Ending his lanky to the point of being gangly look was a gigantic straw hat, which covered most of his face, save his yellow streaked black hair which went down his neck a ways.
"Hangman-San, how nice to see you consider us worthy of your presence." Ms. Hai said, the honorific itself neutral but still forced. Harukai snorted from his position in the back, not really caring that this new player was holding a seven and a half foot farmers scythe.
"I just called you trash. I was not being subtle, the lot of you, including you Kusano," Hangman said pointedly, referring to the darkened computers section. "Disgust me."
"You would consider the Lord on High trash compared to your greatness Hangman." The group assorted looked back to one of the rooms only two entry ways, the other being in the dark with the computers having long been discarded. From that entrance casually walked in a woman. Though, with the exception of gender, she had nothing in common with the only female of the room. The woman entering was pretty enough, long black hair, tied into a short and tight braid, and a face that could be called pretty had it not always been in an animals scowl or hid under by a black and white bandanna. What set this woman apart from others too was her clothes were incredibly unfeminine, boyish without a doubt and also the two headed albatross on her shoulder, but that's relative.
"Shizuka, the result of dirty dirty beastie blood, heh. Bad enough you're a woman, but a genetic fuck up as well." Harukai said without muttering, loud enough for two rooms over to hear. Shizuka didn't react to him rather to the polite enough greeting from Ms. Hai, the nod from Kanryu and the spit from Hangman.
"So what, if you don't mind me asking, happens the fuck now?" Harukai asked, getting to his feet and lighting up a joint.
"Yes, Ms. Hai, up until now we've done nothing but alert Akabane to us being here." Kanryu said. Hangman then shifted his left hand, which had been holding a rope from over his shoulder.
"What's wrong gutter boy, is 'Kanryu no Kazaana' scared shitless of big bad Jackal?" he asked, the grin he mustered more disgusting then much at that point. Harukai slammed his teeth together eliciting a very guttural noise, but before he could advance on the waiting Hangman, he was held back by Kanryu.
"Jackal is stronger than we were, but if he makes the assumption that we're the same men-"
"He'll get his ass burned!" Harukai blurted out from behind Kanryu, a double threat towards Akabane and the still smirking Hangman.
"Could you all stop posturing for two seconds? I want to know what it is we have to do and get it done, that's all." Shizuka said.
"Yes, for the sake of those of us with decency could you swing your respective man hoods down the hall or something?" a hand slamming down on a few keyboards resonated in the chamber, drawing all their attention.
"I wish to know for a fact why Luther and Hirutsuai are not present." The voice, the one called Kusano said, though garbled enough could be understood.
"Luther's probably off sulking, and Hirutsuai being his guardian is probably with him." Shizuka replied, stroking the albatross absentmindedly. Invisibly, the speaker faced Ms. Hai.
"I trust you know what you're doing?" Ms. Hai nodded twice.
"Of course, Akabane can and will be broken one of two or maybe even both ways. The quick and the slow." She said, her lips seeming to relish every word regarding the subject.
"Then do it, I have work to do and you're all distracting in more ways than one." Given their cue, the members of the group slowly exited: with Harukai giving the one handed salute to the computer man in shadow, Kanryu just leaving and Hangman holding up the rest.
"Not that I value your opinion in any conceivable way but where can I dump these two?" Hangman said, referring to what his over shoulder noose was tied to, namely, a blond and brunette duo of retrieval agents. The now agitated voice garbled a quick reply.
"Give them to Shizuka. She'll guide those two back to the Bastard." One whistle later and a faceless lion made its way into the chamber, lifting the retrievers on its back and soon following its retreating mistress. Seeing Shizuka leave, Ms. Hai turned her head to give her order.
"Now Hangman I'll need you to-"but the Hangman in question was now gone. Smiling with ruby red lips still, Ms. Hai continued. "His needs play into our intentions perfectly, eh Kusano?" no response given but the furious typing and flashing of screens.
0000000000
The hallways of this place have already been established as death zones, and in a place designated as "The Worst of Mans Own Hells" this is saying something. If one were to traverse the hallways at this particular moment in time however, they would have a fraction of a chance at survival as the horrid creatures that were once men and women are now for lack of a better point: dead as ribbon piles.
"Jaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccckkkkkkkkkallllllll!" came the chorusing sound of the formers as they rushed out of random trap doors and fake walls, all lumbering towards the single man in black whose scalpels were still bloody from slaying the last batch.
"Ah, my fans." Akabane said, his smile growing. Lazily dodging a few swipes and jabs from the early birds who got to him first, The Jackal then stepped up as the formers began ripping up each others and their own limbs to use as projectile weapons. His speed increased, The Jackal was also easily able to dodge acidic vomit that the creatures choked up at the cost of what was left of their internal organs. Tenths of a second later, the next small army of formers was strewn to pieces, creating a layer of remains about two feet thick rising from the ground floor. Cleaning his scalpels of whatever bodily fluid they may have inadvertently picked up in the skirmish, Akabane then quickly wiped away the blood and gore from his face as well as the thin layer of sweat that had formed. That having been the ninth squad of formers he had fought, this action was understandable.
Considering for a moment the option of using the trap doors and/or fake walls that the creatures had come through, Akabane then decided against it for as memory served:
"The quickest way is a curved path straight." He murmured to himself, glad to finally ascertain a useful memory about his place more relevant to his assignment, that and the fact that the trap doors and fake walls could and most likely did lead each other and other not necessary places to visit for the time being. Continuing his walk, Akabane was about to turn his speed up until of course, like clockwork, a new batch of formers appeared.
"They're sending out more and more of the vicious ones." The transporter thought to himself, dodging the various attacks his opponents made. Cutting down the group with little trouble, Akabane was soon attacked by another group. They two were cut down: allowing him to travel down the tunnel further. Soon, another group, then another, then another then…
0000000000
"Oh, this is going to be orgasmic. Just a little more Jackal-Kun." Laughing Phantom said having long finished his last cigarette and now on his third. Taking a long dramatic drag on it before exhaling a layer of smoke, The Laughing Clown in black started laughing so hard the feather in his hat nearly slipped out. Himiko broke her concentration for a moment to assess the situation.
Akabanes' aura was steadily growing, not only in amount but in ferocity too. What had started as a cool and professional aura of a man with a destination was quickly becoming the vicious and calculating aura of a man possessed.
To Be Continued
Authors Notes: Ah, took awhile huh? Sorry for taking so long, you all know: standard reasons and all that. I'll try to be more frequent with the updates, but I can't pinky swear that, not yet anyway.
Kore Yan: Well, I hope what Laughing Phantom wanted with Himiko didn't scar you and as for the car, well, two big names in this series of just been involved in this lovely little tale. Thank you for your review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Rabid Lola: Hey thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you found both the classmates interesting and Laughing Phantom creepy. I guarantee you, the story more and more sordid from here on, especially regarding a certain clown. Also, I just want to say I read most of "The Promise" I just want to finish it, and then I'll review. Needless to say, I've enjoyed greatly so far.
Rami: Thank you for your kind review and I can promise you that while Akabane may be going towards Himiko, rescue isn't necessarily on the agenda.
Atropos' Knife: You're too kind, I just have too many ideas flitting around in my head that have nothing to do with the monsters under my bed, entirely anyway. As for Laughing Phantom and Himiko, well 'not legal' can be taken a few different ways I guess. Asking Himiko now she would no doubt plead a crime. On another note, you got me with the Get Backers. I just wanted to get them involved in this so bad, too bad their introduction to this world was less than friendly. For the whole 'carrot' 'karat' thing, you got me again, though a madman who fights with vegetables…possibilities? Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Chibi Jackal: Heh, thank you for your compliment, it really makes writing the story more fulfilling to hear (read?) something like that. For the classmates, I hope you liked the new ones I put in and look forward to a few more! Oh and for Laughing Phantom, don't let him hear you call him cute, his head could actually get…bigger? At this point I don't think that's possible.
Well guys and gals, it's been a trip. Until next time, I'll see you all when I see you.