A/N: Hello once again, Audience.
Yes, this is in fact a day early, but I have a busy day tomorrow and figured I should go ahead.
Bare bones post since I'm still in Italy.
Ciao for now!~
"Wowza. You, uh, grow taller or something, boss?"
Shikiyoku adjusted the sleeves of her outfit, making certain everything was in place as she stepped out from the staircase and into the bar, placing on the countertop her black suit jacket and the accompanying bag before she smoothed her hands down the front of the pinstriped, flounced pencil skirt and picked a nigh-on invisible speck of dust from matching strappy vest over her white, long-sleeved, plain button-up blouse.
While her hair was in its usual bun, this time the style was absolutely no-nonsense as each strand had been smoothed down until it sat perfectly across her skull, a pair of dark-framed and smart-looking glasses resting on her nose.
"It's the heels." She replied, taking absent note of how the counter seemed six inches shorter than usual, leaning on top of it and looking the bartender in the eyes. "So, tell me what you know."
He passed her a portfolio.
"Everything I could find out in just a couple of hours."
Shikiyoku made no hesitation in opening the manila folder and beginning to flip through it, scanning the pages.
"Minamino Corporation has been on the rise for months now. Everything is up. Stock-options. Profits. They weren't doing bad before, per se, but they're certainly doing well for themselves now." He eyed Shikiyoku for a moment, puzzled. "I'm surprised you of all people didn't know about this. They're always on the news in some capacity or another."
There will be some news soon that you will be interested in pursuing.
Kuwabara's words were haunting her, but she hadn't really thought he meant it so literally.
"I don't tend to follow the news. My sources are more of the primary type." And when I originally looked into M. Corp, it wasn't worth the investment and I didn't think a thing about it. Not exactly an uncommon name after all.
"Still. I guess it isn't terribly surprising. Even the news is making up half of the stories because there just isn't much being circulated. So far a lot of what they are happens behind closed doors and no one is telling."
"There's a lot in here for only two hours. Thanks." She flipped the folder shut and slid it into her bag, swinging her suit jacket around until she had both arms in the sleeves and then adjusting it until it sat correctly over her frame. "She's sleeping at the moment. Make sure no one bothers her." Shikiyoku nodded her head in the direction of the door that led upstairs. She had laid the neko down on her bed to rest. "If she comes down, let her work. It'll keep her mind busy."
"Yes, ma'am."
Shikiyoku gave him a look, but he only grinned at her. "And someone will need to work my day shift from now on."
"Shifts you mean."
She shrugged, grabbing her bag and putting it over her shoulder, intending to look more closely at the contents of the portfolio once she sat in the taxi.
The way she finally stood up made the bartender feel as if she towered over him, despite the fact that she was still significantly shorter than he.
"I'll be back soon."
"Yes, ma'am."
This time he said it almost reflexively, and this time she didn't admonish him for it as she turned and marched out the door.
The bartender got the distinct feeling she was on some sort of war path, and almost felt sorry for whatever poor dolt happened to be at the end of it.
~!**!~
The ride was of completely no interest to her and the taxi driver quickly found out any small talk he attempted would be absolutely ignored as she shuffled through the papers.
Paying him, and turning to begin walking up the stairs to the gigantic building that had the words "Minamino Corporation" plastered across it also appeared to be of no interest to her, her eyes locked quite firmly on the doors that she walked up to, not being stopped or questioned by a single soul as she moved through them.
She did note that there was absolutely no way when she first looked into the business that their building was quite like this.
For now it did not matter.
Her heels clicked sharply on the tile floor as she moved otherwise silently passed the front reception desk.
"Excuse me, can I help you?"
"No."
She continued moving for the elevator doors behind the desk, unsurprised that the car in which she got remained solely for her use as anyone else waiting for one seemed to instinctively remain where they stood and let her go by herself.
The offices of the CEO in question lay on the second-most floor from the top, the top containing living areas, possibly an apartment or something about which Shikiyoku also had no interest.
Making sure her glasses were firmly in place before the doors reopened onto the appropriate floor, Shikiyoku made her way smartly through the hall, and two turns later-having walked uninterrupted through those workers still going about their day-opened the door to an office that had on a plaque the name "Shuichi Minamino" with "Chief Executive Officer" underneath and let herself inside.
It was a small room. Perhaps three chairs to her right with vases with plants in each corner, and a small desk across from the door behind which a man in a greyish suit started to rise to walk around it. Really, the entire setup seemed more like another reception area.
"Don't trouble yourself." Shikiyoku informed him, passively assessing the golden eyes and slightly ruffled silver hair of the male whose face seemed to have a permanent half-smile dancing across his lips. He certainly fit the overly romanticized description Shikiyoku had first heard the neko use in regards to him.
He paused, appearing curious, but acquiescing and moving back behind the desk.
Before he could open his mouth, Shikiyoku stepped directly up to the desk and had a different portfolio on top of it before he really saw her even remove it from the bag at her shoulder which she now held in both hands in front of her.
"You were in need of a new personal assistant. No longer. I advise you wiping the advertisement you just finished from your system and not bothering to post it."
The man's mouth actually got open, but Shikiyoku continued as she gestured to the portfolio on the table.
"I am Inyoku. Inyoku, Toriko. You'll find that my credentials are quite satisfactory for the position. If you absolutely feel you need them, my references are on the very back page."
His eyes still gleaming as if he might smile at any moment, the other sat back down in his chair, pulling the folder towards himself and beginning to flip through it.
"We'll still have to do a background check."
"If you feel you must, but I assure you nothing will come back on it. In fact-" Shikiyoku stepped to the side as the door to the office opened again and one of the workers from the other room place a different folder at the corner of the desk.
"That background check you asked for, sir."
When they were alone again in the room, Shikiyoku spoke up once more, "You're welcome to peruse that now as well."
In the next beat of silence, he reached for the background check to look over it.
"This is all rather unconventional, you know."
"I find that being straightforward about how one stands is the best course of action." Shikiyoku's eyes flashed briefly.
"Well, I'll certainly have to get back to you on this. Are you quite certain you're up for this sort of job?" This time he did flash her a smile that Shikiyoku could just imagine made the neko a little weak in the knees.
Her own expression never wavered.
"There could be a few things you find I get into that you should be prepared to accept." His golden eyes almost seemed to glimmer, but Shikiyoku was not one to miss even so veiled an innuendo.
"I think you'll find such paltry advances wasted on one such as myself." Shikiyoku replied, her tone icy. "And should you so much as consider saying something like that to me again, I assure you that you will find this company ripped apart from the inside-out, the walls falling around your ears-" She was no longer looking at him, her eyes instead lifting to regard the closed door just to the right of the desk as she stood in front of it.
"I-"
"I'll be here tomorrow at six a.m. sharp as you require."
He blinked and then looked up at her.
"With the exact order of coffee that you prefer. The one that you don't drink. The one that you take through that door over there when you think no one is watching."
He glanced over his left shoulder at the door she nodded towards and slowly turned back to her.
"After all, it isn't actually up to you whether or not I get the job, is it, Psuedo?"
His lips parted as if he were going to say something, but his brain supplied no words that he could speak.
She had not yet looked away from the door, and her next words were low and barely passed through the air to make it to his ears.
"Don't you find it a little bit strange that you do not remember ever leaving this room? That every morning you simply wake up in this office without questioning how you got here, with the inexplicable urge to water that plant over there in the corner, the one with which your life force is so inexorably tied to that one might-"
-Psuedo.
Two pairs of eyes flicked towards a speaker on the desk as a voice spoke through it.
"Yes, my lord?"
-Let her in.
"Yes, my lord."
All semblance of humanity had dropped from the man's face, and this time as he stood up and walked towards the door Shikiyoku had pointed out, his limbs seemed to bend in a strange manner that lended itself to being similar to the arc of the leaves of the plant Shikiyoku referenced in the corner.
She followed behind the fake human without ceremony, the ferocity of her passion at the injustice that had been committed to one in her care by another she had once considered in her care fueling her steps as she boldly stepped into the dark room.
Low-lit in an ominous fashion that did nothing to impress her, Shikiyoku continued forward when Psuedo stepped to the side of the door and drooped in place, making her way through the room that seemed more appropriately the size of what she imagined a CEO's office to be.
If there were windows, they were covered, if there was furniture, she did not give it a second glance, only strutting until she stood at the end of a few steps at the top of which sat a desk and a shadowed shape in the chair behind it.
"If you are threatening to blackmail me-"
"It is no threat." Shikiyoku cut him sharply off, barely able to keep herself standing there, finding that for the first time in her life she wished for nothing more than to tear his bloody heart out through his throat. She very precisely took the remaining portfolio out of her bag and snapped it through the air in his direction where he caught it before it hit the desk. "There are more than twelve women, twelve, that nearly died of a broken heart because of your- your- experiment." She gestured angrily behind her at the inert plant-man in the corner.
The portfolio was slowly placed on the desk, though he did nothing more with it.
"They should know better than to give their hearts so freely."
Shikiyoku stomped up the stairs and slammed her hands onto the desk, "Did you sincerely think that you were just going to get away with it? Are you so dead set on ruining what your father established? On the scandal that would arise when these twelve join together and claim sexual assault by the CEO of M. Corp?"
"Do you actually think any of them remember a single thing that happened during their time here?"
Shikiyoku could have punched him in the face, but he was too far away and she couldn't rightly see between the darkness and her rage where she might make contact. Instead, her knuckles grew white where she clenched her fingers against the table.
"I do." She replied in the same icy manner, teeth clamped together. "In fact, I heard the whole story, start to finish, from the one that got away."
For the first time, she felt a flinch of emotion from whatever sat across from her.
Her fingers finally relaxed as she worked her tongue around her teeth and finally stood back up, her barely contained fury simmering just beneath the surface for a second time.
"But you knew that, didn't you?" She began quietly. "In fact, you let her go, because you knew this one would come crying to me." Shikiyoku felt her core ache once in remembrance of the weeping neko before she returned to the present.
"This is all extremely egotistical of you. Thinking I would arrange something so elaborate just for some slut off the street to come clawing at my door."
Shikiyoku let out a humorless chuckle, as she finally stood back up, "I almost pity you, you fool of a fox. You're in over your head and you don't even know it."
He only stared at her with that same cold gaze she felt on her as soon as she had stepped foot on the property.
She turned to leave the room, bag over her shoulder as she waved, "I'm wiping the advertisement from your system and inputting my information on the position. I'll be back tomorrow at six." 3
~!**!~
That day, Akari had been able to stay with Nabu and Kiyoko only for a few hours before the bonds within her seemed to become too much, the voices in her head and the pleas that shook her very core overwhelming her. She'd found a warehouse that had been remarkably silent, and for a while had done nothing more than make attempts at drowning out the other people in her head. She felt crowded, despite the empty building. She felt as if she would drown, despite there being no water anywhere near her.
In the end she had given in and gone all the way to the Fourth Level in search of one of the demons who seemed louder than the rest in the hopes of finding one of the members of her pack and at least try to help them in any way she could. That's what her Alpha's Bond was telling her to do, anyway.
She had searched and searched, until she'd come across a demon who hadn't even given her a chance to speak.
They had struggled for a while, Akari trying to talk to the other while he wanted nothing of it. She'd yelled in hopes of getting through to him, hit him as hard as she could as if it might knock him out. Nearly been knocked out herself.
Just when she'd thought she was in over her head, and the darkness from the other side of the Alpha's bond began to overwhelm her, she panicked just as she had with Kai. She threw the demon to one side, screaming something intangible, but meant to be a banishment. She'd told him to get out of her head, that he was killing their bond.
When she'd almost been overcome by the darkness that threatened her, she'd closed her mind from the other. She'd mentally shoved him away, shaking off the threat to her sanity in the process. Just as with Kai, things had gone silent. All sounds of struggle had stopped, and when she had opened her eyes, she had been met with bewildered eyes from a stunned demon. He looked like a statue, unable to move, as if she'd petrified him.
And he'd remained that way long enough that Akari had been able to drag him into a nearby temple, knowing it had long ago been abandoned. Essentially, it was a stronghold now, impenetrable once the doors were closed and locked.
And soon after tossing that demon into the large building, she had hunted down another and tossed him too into the temple, finding it easier to sever ties than to kill the Infected demons. In fact, she wondered if killing them was impossible still, or if she'd just not learned all the tricks.
She didn't think on it much.
She only wished she could put them out of their misery. *
~!**!~
At precisely six a.m. the next morning, the door that led from his office to the reception-like area Pseudo prowled opened on its own, and in marched the diminutive woman from the day before, still just as smartly dressed in attire that seemed equally as suitable to her apparent station as his new personal assistant as she wore the day before: a skirt-suit number that well-complimented her petite form, her decisions not only in garb but in hairstyle and overall presentation making an obvious statement in regards to the fact that she knew precisely what she could wear in order to present the best appearance she was capable of inhabiting in whatever style was required given what she had to work with.
And it was with such confidence and self-assured nature that she gracefully and with an authority he had not yet in this world until this moment come across shut the door behind her and made her way forward, snapped the chair into position in the middle of the nearly completely dark room, several feet away from the steps leading up to his desk, and regarded him openly from where she stood.
"Sit."
She didn't have to point to the chair that her hand still rested upon to convey exactly what she meant.
Despite almost rising from his seat merely at the dogmatic tone of her voice, he did not move, meeting her stare for stare across the room.
After a few seconds of silence, her lips parted to speak.
"You will be the face of this company, worm, and not that soulless automaton you created to dance around as your puppet on a string. As your plant in the sun. Sit."
For a second time, he felt his feet nearly shift under himself without his direct command, managing to resist her strangely innate despotism by reinforcing the solidity he embodied within his arrangement of self.
More silence.
This time her eyes narrowed with treacherous intent, "How long have you festered in this darkness, worm?"
No response.
Her eyes flashed with an unspoken compulsion. "It is high time you returned to the light. Now. Sit. Worm."
"I am seated."
He felt surprise that she did not have some arrogant retort to his argument that her request was ill-conceived, but in the next moment found that she wore a wicked smirk, and that it was only a foot or two from him as he towered over her briefly, then turned and sat down.
This was not the chair at his desk.
This was the chair in the middle of the room.
He blinked.
She moved to stand next to him, "If you would."
Strangely enough, he knew exactly what she requested, though she did not articulate it as one would usually expect.
He reached a hand up and made an open gesture, releasing momentarily invisible spores into the air, reaching within them for their energy and manipulating it that they would stay afloat, grow larger, begin to glow.
Even their soft light was enough to make him cringe, his eyelids meeting together and a small line of discomfort forming between his brows.
With gentle hands, Shikiyoku removed the band that held his hair up in a ponytail near the top of his head, letting it roll over her fingers and onto her wrist once removed, and beginning to delicately shift her digits through his hair, taking absent note of the mixture of red and silver highlights scattered almost jaggedly together in a sort of confusion of color within which there seemed no pattern or blend or reason to it.
Releasing a touch of air from her nose, she spoke words of power and released a spell she had gathered for today, a mundane sort of thing that merely transformed the chair into what she at that moment required, a washing station, whereupon she almost tenderly adjusted him backwards and looped his hair over the dip in the sink to let him rest his head against the cushion on it as she turned on water at the faucet on the other side of the large basin and began working in silence.
Eyes remaining closed the entire time, he could feel each movement she made, each elegant maneuver that reminded him in some strange way of a dance as she shampooed, conditioned, and rinsed his hair, shifting him upright and fluttering over him a cape she velcroed at the neck.
From somewhere she produced scissors and a comb, methodically beginning to trim and trim away, the sensation of the weight of his hair lessening somehow reflecting the state of his mind as his eyes finally fluttered once as if they might open before denying their own wishes and remaining shut.
As she slowly made a circle around him, one of his hands resting on the arm of the chair twitched as he felt her leg brush against him, and while he did not follow through with the motion, he felt a desire to touch her bloom from somewhere he could not explain nor understand.
Each movement she made was meticulous and planned, and she always continued forward as she worked, never once giving off a hint of hesitation or uncertainty, coming to a stop behind him.
"Remove your shoes."
Just as he felt the muscles at his torso begin to contract and bend him over to comply, his lips released a flat, "What."
"Remove your shoes, worm."
Though he opened his eyes into slits and watched himself do as she ordered, his mind remained stuck on the initial emotion of turmoil as socks too were taken off and placed to the side.
This time he could actually perceive her velvety touch against his skin as she first lifted and then smoothed her hands in one continuous movement over each foot separately before setting them one by one down into a liquid and then shifting back to stand behind him.
He next heard the sound of a hairdryer and felt the bristles of a brush beginning to stroke through the hairs that he had just noticed tickling the back of his neck and foreignly shifting around his ears.
Somewhere along the way, he lost track of the time, and only knew that at some point later the hairdryer was no longer humming and she was lightly fluffing her hands through his hair and then spraying something onto it and adjusting it the final time.
Suddenly the cape had been whipped away and almost reflexively he reached up to the bangs at his forehead, following a slight curve of styled hair over to the left side of his face.
Shikiyoku heard a distant memory echoing over her mind, a conversation between Toriko and Shuichi, the girl staring at the latter's hair with wonderment...
How do you get it to stay waved like that?
Aquanet.
While he did not know the name of the task she began performing at his feet-a pedicure-he felt muscles in the rest of his body giving up tension he had not consciously known they held as her physical contact with him satisfied something else inside him that he still could not pinpoint.
In a similar fashion, he found his mind's up-til-now silence broken by a single thought: Why does this feel so good?
"You always did enjoy being pampered...by me anyway."
The murmur of words from her lips almost did not coherently reach his ears, and even when he finally processed the meaning, he somehow found himself incapable of retaining it, that somewhere along the way he lost the entire sentence so that by the time it made sense, he could no longer remember what it was.
However, a second thought followed the first, as he felt a stirring in him about which struck some sort of nerve: could she read his mind?
The next thing he knew, she was working at his right hand in a similar fashion to what she had done to his feet, which were feeling so very cleansed and well taken care of.
Taking in a breath, he finally opened his eyes to see the dark head leaning over his hand, tilting this way and that as she shaped his nails, filed them smooth, buffed and primed them, and then rolled to his other hand in a chair that he did not know she had somehow acquired.
This time he studied her face, finding himself shifting ever-so-slightly to the side trying to view every angle, and upon becoming impatiently dissatisfied that he could not rightly quantify what it all looked like come together, he reached over with the hand she left behind and tucked a curled finger under her chin, silently insisting she look at him.
Slowly allowing her resistance to his tipping upwards of her head to dissipate, Shikiyoku finally stopped her work for the moment and met his penetrating gaze that was not even a foot from her own, a glint off her glasses making him blink twice before he reached out with that same free hand not held by her own to gingerly slide the frames down her nose and out from behind her ears.
Patiently allowing him the moment to do so, her eyes closed and then reopened in the gloom free from their usual cover and gleaming with a light all their own.
Still as a statue otherwise, the hand with the glasses lowered to his lap as he stared with unfettered fascination into the chlorophyllic depths that shifted and glimmered as if an entity unto itself, lit from within by curling depths of energy that swirled in incalculable, infinite patterns that only made him stare harder as he attempted to discern their meaning, their formula, as if he might in time decode the enigma of their perpetual motion, or otherwise spend an eternity trying.
"...Yoku..."
For a brief moment, she smiled, and the clouds broke apart as the sunshine beamed charmingly through them, caressing his face with its warmth, but the moment did not last long enough for him to register.
She nodded a single time.
"Yes. That is what you called me once."
She broke their mutual scrutiny to lower her face, continuing her work, and he almost made a noise of protest, mind scrambling to return her smile, her look, her something.
For her part, Shikiyoku had seen deeply enough into the eyes of the male, into the soul hidden therein, and came away noting one iris was green and the other gold.
"Yoku." He did not know the significance of the word aside from the sensation of familiarity as he felt himself form the necessary articulation to reiterate it a second time.
But it had made her smile.
This time it was moonlight, not inferior, but a reflection of a greater entity, mellow and satiny, and yet lasting for only a blip before disappearing behind a somehow less imposing expression than originally graced her features upon her arrival.
Dammit, he wanted her to smile again. To smile more.
"You must earn such moments, sir."
It was not the first time he felt she had read his innermost thoughts. And it would not be the last. 3
~!**!~
It didn't take her long to realize that severing her ties with the pack was what would not only save her sanity, but her life. It didn't take her long to realize that anything other than doing just that was futile, and nothing more than a death wish. She was quick to come to the conclusion that 'saving' them was not an option, and never had been, much to her dismay.
As she hunted down one demon after another however, Akari began to feel at least a little relief from the chaos in her head, at her soul. It was replaced instead with a silence that was welcoming against the cacophony of violent voices in her being. It lessened the headache behind her eyes, if only a fraction.
But it also left a new feeling within her. A dread that told her that this would become the norm, that there would be no escaping any of these things within the near future. With that dread was a sadness second only to that which she felt for Manami's death. A sadness from knowing that while she may have severed her ties with her pack, each one of them still suffered. And would continue to suffer.
Once she would gather the strength to return to the First, she would collapse on a nearby bench or in the park and sleep as much as she could. Most nights, she would find herself sitting upright with bated breaths and a swirling feeling in her chest that she couldn't control, and only Nabu and Kiyoko could distract her when they awoke to her panicked attempts at regaining composure.
Day after day, night after night, she would undergo the same routine. Wake up, make a trip to the Fourth. Sever a few ties with a few pack members and lessen her own misery in the process, then return to the First to steal food and seek a place to recover from her escapades. Trapping Infected demons always took every drop of physical energy she had, and more often than not she returned to Nabu and Kiyoko with new marks from her fights.
The one night she'd gotten decent sleep in, she'd woken up from a dream that made her miss the days before Yomi. when she'd laid in a meadow with Kurama and not worried about a thing in the world.
She had quickly banished those thoughts; the Kurama she had known didn't exist anymore. And really, she wasn't sure the Akari he had known existed either. Plus, she didn't have time for those thoughts.
Not when a whole pack was simultaneously screaming for help and crying in pain. *
~!**!~
Little by little, one demon at a time, Akari was learning how to fight the Infected demons without using her energy. How to sever the ties to save her own sanity. How to throw them into random buildings to give herself time to get away, and simultaneously rid herself of the possibility of running into them again soon.
One demon at a time, one fight at a time, Akari was able to win back a small fraction of her sanity until she was able to at least get four hours of good sleep in every once in awhile.
Unless it rained. For some reason unbeknownst to her, when the rain fell, the voices seemed louder in her head. The thunder reminded her of the sound when she would toss a demon into a building. The lightning would make her think of the light in each pair of eyes dying out and being replaced with dark hunger. The rain made her think of the tears she couldn't rightfully shed for the people she felt she'd failed.
One particular night, she found herself standing at a bus stop for shelter, arms crossed over her chest and dog companions at her side, all three drenched to the bone from the downpour, Akari shivering and her teeth chattering. She had thought about how nice a bed would be in that moment. A roof over their heads. A heater. Some tea.
It had been that moment when she'd seen a sign on the doors of some business or another about hiring part-time associates across the street. She eyed it for a while before coming to some silent conclusion.
"What do we do now, Akari?" Nabu had asked.
Akari had only shrugged. "We wait it out." *
~!**!~
Nodding shortly to those in the office who verbally noted her passing, she did not miss the mumbles behind her at what some of them considered a colder attitude than they were used to the boss' personal assistant having, but frankly she was not here to please them in any way. Her duty and loyalties lie strictly with the CEO first and the company second. A very, very close second, but second nonetheless.
And so she continued towards the office door in a manner considered an icy strut, needlessly flipping through the pages in her arms as she already had memorized the information they contained and intended to relay the necessary portions of it to Minamino himself.
Slipping inside and letting the smoky glass door close silently behind her, Inyoku made her way to the other side of his office-the reception desk and Psuedo no more-passing the stylish decor and plantlife and going straight up to his desk, which no longer sat on a raised platform and was made of the same clear, art deco glass as the decor around it, the whiteness of the walls and the majority of the furnishings giving the room the appearance of being larger than it actually was, the light from the large windows behind his desk that opened out over the city giving a cheery illumination to the completely redecorated room.
He had been staring out over the city, though as he heard her heels coming closer, he turned to face her as she began talking and pulling folders from her arms to place one-by-one on the desk.
"Their idea is imperfect. I suggest denying them, having a third party buy the idea from them, and then fixing it yourself. You'll see the solution ends up maximum efficiency at minimum cost to the producer.
"They're lying to you about their current incoming resources because they think you'll cut them a better deal if you don't know their actual financial standings. We are poised to become their majority shareholder and liquidate the assets.
"And I absolutely despise this company's president. I recommend tanking his stock value, buying it up, bolstering the company with our max-min plan and taking personal pleasure in watching him squirm miserably for the rest of his insignificant life span."
The last portfolio landed atop the others and she pushed them in his direction.
He didn't actually have to ask which president she meant, though he confirmed it just by reading the name on the tab of the folder.
She stood quietly over him, for the moment finished.
"You are...ruthless." He murmured, glancing up as she crossed her arms and pressed her glasses farther up her nose.
"When it comes to business, yes, you and I always have been. Pity is a sign of weakness, worm. You would do well to remember that."
Something inside of him gave a twinge, as if such a viewpoint did not seem correct coming from her, but he had no basis as to why he would feel that way.
"Oh, and the ones in that bottom folder will be here in fifteen minutes. Would you like me to take care of it for you, sir?" She picked up a clipboard from the corner of his desk where she had left it that morning and scanned the first couple of pages.
Swiping the last portfolio out from under the other two, he opened it and ran a hand through his naturally candy-red hair, the bangs just starting to fall over his eyes.
Inyoku glanced up and made an appointment for another haircut in his schedule as he did so, looking up again and finding that he stared at her with something of an amusement trying to flit across his face.
She raised her eyebrows up over the thin black frames of her glasses in a silent 'yes?'
He closed his heterochromatic eyes and shook his head, "Nothing. See that it's taken care of."
"As you wish, sir." She turned tail and left the room. 3
~!**!~
In the days after that rainstorm, Akari had skipped going to the Fourth Level and instead stayed in town- though she didn't tell Nabu that. Instead, she had gone from place to place all over town, looking over applications for jobs, most of which required an address and a cell phone.
Which was a bummer for her, since she had neither of those things.
There was a few places though that didn't ask for those things. They were all family-owned businesses, little shops, delis, restaurants and things alike. Little holes in the walls here and there that didn't seem too busy. Didn't seem too popular.
Days would go by before Akari would drop by for updates, only to find herself to be turned down at each and every place. Frustrated, and unable to keep herself from concentrating on the demons she was bonded to any longer, she'd gone on a week-long hunt. At first, she'd been angry, frustrated, and more than a little upset that she couldn't find anything, but eventually all of those feelings faded away. They were nothing compared to what she felt in the face of the numbers in her pack that she had to find, nothing compared to the pain that others were feeling.
In the light of her pack's circumstances, she didn't feel deserving of anything less than what they felt, even as she locked away one more. She didn't feel that she deserved the opportunity to find a comfortable life when all these others were being abandoned by their own pack leader, unable to be saved. There was a part of her- likely hardwired into her brain as an Alpha- that told her she should be sitting alongside her pack, sick and dying, since she could not save each one of them.
And it was those thoughts, those feelings, that had Akari collapsing in the park night after night exhausted and almost emotionless. It was those thoughts that forced her to create a buffer between herself and her pack, a wall to preserve herself so she would not do something stupid or reckless. It was those thoughts that produced the stony-faced, unfeeling Akari that walked the streets, the emotionless demon that went on jogs with Nabu and Kiyoko on a daily basis. The empty demoness that walked her companions into a little cafe for their daily treats.
She didn't know what the older woman saw in her, but the look that the human gave her had Akari pausing in her turn to the door, her eyes locking with that of the wrinkled old woman that looked her up and down once. Maybe it was the worn-out running shoes that she'd stolen a couple of weeks prior and had yet to replace. Maybe it was the holes in her jacket or the mess that was her ponytail. Maybe it was the rings under her eyes from the last two nights without sleep.
Maybe it was an old woman's intuition.
Before Akari could turn to leave, the woman had a cup of tea in her hands and was guiding her to a chair, a hand at her spine and another pulling a chair from the tables nearest the window. "You sit here, dear. Don't move. I'll be back."
Akari watched as the woman scuffled away, her shoes dragging on the wood floor as she shuffled to the back kitchens. She let go of the drink, letting the paper cup sit on the table untouched while Nabu and Kiyoko sat to the side, watching curiously.
"Aren't you going to drink it?" Nabu asked, eyeing Akari's hands that rest in her lap.
"I'm not sure yet."
Kiyoko huffed at her and shook herself.
"That wasn't very nice."
"Neither is wasting a free beverage."
Akari didn't respond, her ears picking up the sound of the woman shuffling her way back into the room. This time, she had one hand on a cane, and another held a small plate. The withered hand set the plate in front of Akari before pulling out the chair across from her, where she sat and leaned forward a little. "Well, eat up, dear! It's on the house."
Hazel eyes turned down to the sandwich that had been set before her, noticing that it looked more like the woman's lunch than anything that was sold in-store. She turned her eyes up again, still not touching anything she'd been given. She opened her mouth, but was interrupted before she could even speak.
"Don't argue with me, child. Just eat, and then we will talk."
Finding herself more than unwilling to argue, Akari did as asked of her. First, she nibbled at the sandwich, her eyes never wavering away from the older woman who in turn watched her with keen eyes that seemed younger than the face they belonged to.
Only when Akari was halfway through the sandwich did the elder speak up again. "I didn't realize these two had an owner. They're lovely dogs, dear. You're lucky to have such loyal friends."
Akari swallowed. "I only recently found them. Nabu- the Shiba- has been with me for a while. When I went out of town, I thought he'd found a new home."
"Instead, he found a friend," the woman surmised.
Akari only nodded.
"How long have you been in the city? I haven't seen you around before now."
Akari took a bite of her sandwich, thinking about her answer before she shrugged. After she swallowed, she replied, "A while. I haven't really kept track of how long, though."
"A few weeks."
"I used to count the sunrises," Akari admitted to the woman, whose brows shot up with interest as if to say 'is that so'. Done talking for the moment, Akari finished off the sandwich and went on to the tea that still sat steaming in front of her.
"What side of town do you live, dear?" Akari sipped at her tea, deciding not to answer. Minutes ticked by as the woman waited expectantly, before moving on to her next topic. "What about your family?"
Akari set the cup down. "Don't have any." Too many questions.
The change that came over the woman had even Nabu shuffling. Her eyes widened and her grip on her cane that was leaning on her knee tightened. Her eyes closed, and Akari could practically see the wheels turning.
What's your next move?
Akari waited, sipping at the still-warm tea until there was no more left. When the silence still stretched on, Akari shifted as if to leave. I could be doing literally anything else.
"You know," the woman began, her brown eyes open and staring Akari down with an intensity that said she wasn't going to give in, "I could use a good, strong pair of hands around here. My husband and I are getting old, and can't keep up these days."
Akari felt her head tilt to the side a little. "You mean a job?"
"Yes, dear. A job. Starting now. Come on, get up." The woman stood and began waving her hands at Akari to get up and get moving. "I've got lots to get done today, and an extra pair of hands would be a blessing. We haven't time to waste."
Akari slid the chair back under the table before following the woman, Nabu and Kiyoko following suit. "You don't even know my name," she pointed out.
"Well, what is it dear?"
"...Akari."
"She reminds me of someone, Aka."
"Well, Akari, starting today you're a barista and a baker. You'll become familiar with each and every machine, and you will learn to make only the best lattes in town and the sweetest muffins known to mankind."
"...May I at least know the name of my employer?"
"Why, the Corner Cafe, dear."
"...that's not what I meant," she mumbled to herself as she caught an apron that had been tossed her way.
"For today, you will be in the back room. You'll organize our ingredients from a to z, by baking and beverages. Understand?"
Akari nodded.
"Good," the woman said, turning to give Akari a smile. "You'll receive your first check tonight. I expect you to be in uniform tomorrow morning- black pants and a white button up shirt. Understand?"
Akari nodded again.
"And proper shoes- this job requires a lot of running."
Another nod, though an internal scoff at the woman. If only you knew how much running I actually do.
"Alright, enough chit-chat. Get to work! Come with me, puppy-dogs. You can't be in a kitchen."
And with that, Akari was left tying an apron around her waist, alone in a kitchen she knew nothing about. With one look around the room, she knew she had her work cut out for her.
I hope this is worth it. *
~!**!~
Blue and perfectly spherical jewels bouncing rhythmically in plain view against her sternum as she moved with tray in hand across the room, no one would have guessed that behind the smile and the laugh as she passed out the drinks that night, Shikiyoku struggled to maintain her focus on the job at hand.
Any moment she so much as stopped to think, she could feel her façade shiver as if it might crumble away.
So, she didn't stop. Hands moving, mind calculating mixtures and orders, as well as business plans and ventures, she had felt Hiei's presence returning to the First Level that morning, and had subsequently given her charge at the corporation explicit instructions as to the next few days work and then excused herself when the day was over with voiced intentions that he was to not 'do anything stupid' until she got back and could referee him.
He was still cautious in his development, and he progressed positively. She truly had no need to worry over his state specifically in regards to her absence, despite what he might have said to the contrary. If her mandate of him taking no further action while she was away made him feel better, then so be it. She would give him that mandate.
Trying to not turn inwardly to check the status of their bond every thirty seconds, as that inadvertently kept track of the time and made the evening drag on, Shikiyoku found herself wrestling with the notion that she could simply leave the bar in the very capable hands of her workers and go meet him. No one would mind.
After rolling the idea over in her head for the umpteenth time, Shikiyoku gave one of the bartenders a hand sign as she slipped behind the bar and tucked her tray away, quickly untying her apron and removing it from her waist to hang up on a hook behind her, taking measured steps out of the building, her soft-soled shoes making no noise as she moved.
Glancing to either side when she exited the doors, Shikiyoku adjusted her stance and then lept up into the air, making it to the roof of her place in one jump and landing lightly atop it. Taking a deep breath of the night air, she checked the direction the bond pulled her and took off over the top of the building, hardly making any sound as the wind whistled passed her ears, easily hopping onto the neighboring structure and scaling the wall in a series of leaps and bounds to its summit before dashing off across it and into the night. 3
The second Hiei's big toe had crossed from the Second Level to the First, Hiei wanted nothing more than to find Shikiyoku and tell her about this particular trip. Or, more like, rant about this one. What a waste of time and…
The thought died away, leaving him with the sounds of his feet hitting the soil at the same time as his group's, as if one person running. Each one of them felt the disappointment as much as he, if not more.
He took a deep breath. "Next time, we won't take such a ridiculous task." Taking swords to get sharpened.
Useless creatures.
"Hey boss." Hiei paused, not only in thought but in his steps too, turning to see that his group had all come to a halt at once. "We're going to go look for another objective. To shake this one off."
The fire demon eyed his second in command before giving a slight nod, the bond within his head alerting him to Shikiyoku drawing closer. "Don't die."
Despite the overall mood of the group, there were a few chuckles. "Not on your watch, right?"
Hiei made a small sound before he turned and continued going the way he'd come, running towards the bar until he was able to slow down, sensing Shikiyoku drawing closer. (The guild went on another trip. Just me.)*
As she felt Hiei changing his direction, Shikiyoku dropped from the buildings and began dodging through the streets below, taking alleyways and keeping to the shadows so she would not be seen at absent glance.
By the time he was close enough to actually speak to her, she had already half-hidden herself behind a tree trunk in the general ground path she thought he might tread, her hands near her face as she peered around the bark, waiting for him to show up and be surrounded by his guildmates and not sure what exactly she would do then.
A breath of relief at him being alone washed between their bond, but she was leaning forward into the tree itself and just decided to stay there until he came into view. 3
Hiei almost smiled to himself at the relief that flooded the bond from her end of things, it somehow lifting his own spirit just a little after the disappointing run he'd had. But that seemed nothing compared to the realization that she was meeting him halfway, and that she had never done so before.
It drove him on, his feet kicking up dirt until he grew close enough that he hadto slow down or chance running right by her. So, when he finally began to close the distance, he slowed until he was walking into the general area where he knew her to be, and was not disappointed to see her standing in the middle of the trees.
The hands at the jewels, though, had him slowly coming forward. He didn't ask what was wrong. He didn't have to, since the bond was all for halfing grief between the two of them. He only opened his arms to her. (I'm here.) *
Stepping out finally once she saw him, Shikiyoku's grip on the jewels at her throat tightened briefly as she moved towards him, feet almost shuffling wearily through the moonlit grass until they met one another and she let herself fall against him, forehead to his chest and her arms tucked between his body and hers, making a soft little noise as she stopped moving.
The memory of Taka's death drifted freely through her mind-his last act of embracing her one final time and being torn apart shielding her-and while she could not pinpoint the anniversary of Douji's death when not on the Ninth Level, both it and Kit's passing swept through her as well and she took a shuddering breath, turning her head to rest her cheek against Hiei's soft cloak.
She didn't particularly feel a need to cry, but she did in those moments need the arms that were wrapped around her, the ones that shared her heartache so intimately that it was practically their own.
And just as the sources of her sorrow had permeated the bond between them, so to did her gratefulness to the Consort that held her. 3
The very moment Shiki was within his reach, Hiei's arms closed around her and his chin found the top of her head, his eyelids closing so he could focus entirely upon her and think of ways to comfort the one who usually showed no other emotion that was not happy.
Absently, a hand began stroking her hair, at first only resting at her scalp, but moving around to brush through the pieces that had been freed from the bun at the back of her head before beginning again. Over and over, in hopes of comforting her.
The grief he could feel was familiar, one he remembered nursing after Kit had died. He remembered lying on the couch with her that time and simply sleeping the day away, because that was all they could do at the time.
He took a breath.
He would stand here as long as she needed him to, petting her hair and letting her grieve. *
Shikiyoku let out a sigh and blinked sleepily as the hand moving over her began to lull her away from the waking world, half-smiling as she poked Hiei's chest.
(Can we go home?)
I don't think I can stand up for much longer. 3
Hiei wasn't very surprised with the request he was met with, and was agreeing before she had even finished asking. He shifted and leaned down to scoop one arm under her knees to lift her from where she'd been standing, securely holding her against his chest before he turned and began a light jog towards the house, deciding the privacy would be better for the two of them.
More for her, really. *
Shikiyoku settled contentedly into Hiei's arms a second time, curling up against him and feeling the warmth of his body radiating even through his cloak, his core beating steadily beneath her ear as she let out another little sigh and was more than willing to let him carry her any distance.
As he walked up the steps to the front door, she reached over and gave the knob a twist and pressed the door open as he took the next few steps, leaving him to shut it behind them.
She had apparitions visiting regularly to make sure the place was still up to spec, and though the lights within were not on, the layout had not changed.
She gave a little tug on Hiei's cloak and asked if they could go upstairs to lay down.
When they were finally laying together, Shikiyoku fiddled with the bedspread.
It wasn't that she didn't miss Douji, but the other two she had known for so much longer...
(I miss Taka. And Kit.) Though she let her lower lip pout out in an exaggerated fashion, the words rang true within her. Devastatingly true. 3
Hiei wasted no time in getting to the two-story house, whose stairs he climbed once inside and whose bed he lay across once in the proper room. He stretched out on top of the covers, never even considering loosening his hold on Shikiyoku as they got comfortable, his entire being focused on her.
So when she finally spoke through the bond, he gave a little breath. (I know.) He took one of her hands in his and began rubbing his thumb against the top of her hand, hoping to relieve her of at least a little stress. (I know you do, my wind,) *
Shikiyoku watched Hiei take a hold of her hand half-lidded eyes, another smile playing its way across her lips as the gesture made her core shiver pleasantly and her eyes began gleaming behind her glasses.
The pins in her woven-bun hairdo kept most of the energy from escaping her, but that meant it instead rippled up and down her limbs on the inside, drawing her skin tighter over her arms and legs and making little bumps appear as she felt her cheeks begin to flush.
Trying to form a coherent thought, Shikiyoku blinked once.
(I want to go visit him tomorrow. Kit. Please.) 3
Hiei paused in the pattern he had begun drawing on her skin with his thumb, his eyes coming up from her hand and to the glasses that hid her eyes from him as if he could see through them and into her very soul. For a few moments, he said nothing, only seeming to search her expression for something or another.
After a few moments, his eyes dropped to the thumb that resumed its pattern-making against her hand. (As you wish.)
My beloved. *