Yako glanced at her hands again, but the blood was gone. Her mind must've been playing tricks on her. That, or the stress from the HAL case was affecting her. Or maybe, she thought darkly, she had finally snapped. It was only a matter of time, considering all the physical and mental abuse she endured, day in, day out.
But then, there was that look on Neuro's face. She couldn't have imagined that, too.
"Neuro," Yako repeated, rooted to the spot, "what did you do to that fruit?"
"What do you mean?" His grip on the desk tightened before releasing it, taking a few splinters of the desk with him. He sauntered to her with unnervingly measured steps, a finger to his lips, his eyes wide. "Are you saying you didn't like it?"
Yako blanched at the sight of his 'innocent' face. She needed to tread cautiously.
"It's not a matter of liking . . . or not liking."
Neuro was nearly a stride away from her when his expression returned to normal. "Yes, I suppose you're right," he said, contemplative. "It doesn't matter."
She blinked. Had the world suddenly turned upside down? Yako couldn't remember the last time Neuro agreed with her, let alone admit she was right. Under different circumstances she would've relished the moment, but the feeling was dampened by the almost predatory look he was giving her.
"All that matters," he said, his hands reaching for hers, "is that you accepted."
A strangled noise escaped Yako's mouth. The grip on her wrists was unbelievable, and the fact that his hands were halfway between claws and hands didn't help. She suspected she would never regain feeling in them. With an unnecessarily forceful tug, Neuro pulled on her arms. Her feet practically tripped over themselves, but she managed not to fall into his chest.
"Neu—Ah!" His grip tightened further as he brought her hands to his mouth. She would lose her hands if he kept this up. "Let—"
The sensation of Neuro's tongue on her fingers, lapping up the pomegranate juice she failed to wipe off, made the words die in her throat. A shudder ran through Yako at the rough, inhuman feel brushing against her skin. He started at the base, taking her finger into his mouth, and swirled his tongue around the digit. The slight burning of her skin worried her, but she considered herself lucky her finger was intact at all, from what she remembered of his saliva.
A sudden pain pulled Yako from her thoughts, and forced a yelp from her lips. Neuro had nipped at the tip of her finger, nearly hard enough to draw blood.
The still functioning part of her mind was screaming to push him away, or at least do something to stop him. Unfortunately, her body refused to listen and remained frozen as he repeated himself for every one of her fingers. When Neuro was done with the last finger, he stared down at her. There was an oddly pleased expression on his face.
"Almost done."
Almost done. Which meant there was still more. What else could he possibly do? Yako's heart started racing.
"Done with what?"
"Silence," he ordered, and released her right arm.
Yako took advantage of the opportunity to put as much distance between her and the puzzle-eating demon. Pulling her arm from his grasp would only result in more pain, and possibly one less limb, so she used her free hand to hit him and hopefully—if perhaps futilely—release her other arm.
Neuro didn't even blink. Before her fist could reach his shoulder, his right hand wrapped around her wrist, easily holding both arms in his grasp. With his other hand he reached into his pocket once more.
She held her breath. This was it. No way she would get away with trying to strike him without being punished. But what torture device could be so important he would keep it on his person? Whatever it was, Yako knew it wouldn't be good for her. She wanted to close her eyes, to shield herself from whatever horror was awaiting her, but she forced herself to keep them open.
Huh. She hadn't been expecting that.
Neuro pulled out a ring, one too small to fit any of his fingers. And to her infinite surprise, there were no spikes or serrated edges or any other 'embellishments' on the inside of the band. It was simply a ring, gold with a triangular green gem the same shade as Neuro's eyes. As much as Yako hated to admit it, it was very beautiful, even by human standards.
Before she could say anything, Neuro shoved the band onto her right ring finger. He stared at her hand for a second, and then released her arms, letting them fall to her sides. With a suspiciously satisfied grin, he went back to his desk.
Yako lifted up her hand, mesmerized by the gleaming gem.
"It's complete. Now I am your shujin in every way," said Neuro, and pointed to her smugly. "You should consider yourself lucky."
It took longer than normal for his words to completely sink in. But when they did, Yako's jaw dropped. "You can't possibly . . . " Her limbs refused to stop shaking as she looked at him. "By shujin, you mean—"
"Husband?" he shot back. "Of course."
Husband. Neuro was saying he was her husband? Her mind refused to wrap itself around the thought.
"You can't be! We . . . We're not married. I didn't get my western-style wedding, with a church and a wedding dress and a wedding cake as big as a car!" Yako knew she was rambling, and that Neuro would tell her off because of it, but she didn't care. "I would even settle for a traditional wedding, even if it's considered old fashioned." She walked up to him and slammed her hand on the desk. "We cannot be married!"
Scoffing, Neuro sat with his feet up on the desk and leaned back. "I realize humans lose their capacity to retain memories as they age, but I didn't know it could start this early. Don't tell me you've forgotten the ceremony already, louse."
Yako blinked. "Ceremony?" She titled her head to the side. "What ceremony?"
"The pomegranate," Neuro said with some impatience. She stared at him blankly, so he continued, "You ate it."
"Yes. And your point?" What did eating a fruit have to do with marriage?
Unless . . .
"In Hell, the male offers the female a pomegranate. With this simple act he is asking her to be his mate—or 'wife,' as humans would put it. It is up to the female to reciprocate. If she eats the fruit, she has accepted his offer. Then the male gives the female a ring, not only to bind the two together, but also to let other demons know she is his," replied Neuro. His gaze shifted to the pieces of skin on the coffee table. "Since you ate my pomegranate and have my ring on your finger, I think it should be quite obvious what that means."
Yako glared at him, then the table where the accursed pomegranate skin lay, before returning her gaze to Neuro. She pointed at him and yelled the first coherent thought to pop into her head. "H-How was I supposed to know Hell's marriage rituals, idiot?!"
He tricked her. Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised, but even she didn't think Neuro would stoop so low. She looked at the ring, which she momentarily thought was beautiful, with newfound disgust. Ready to throw it back at him, she started pulling off the band.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Neuro said, arms folded across his chest. His grin widened. "Unless you don't mind losing that finger. In which case, by all means, feel free to continue."
Yako stopped and turned to him in disbelief. "What?!" She glanced down, shocked to find a trail of blood running down her finger.
This had to be a joke. Some kind of cruel, sick, twisted joke. Or maybe this was his newest form of torture, in which case he was breaking her down exceedingly well.
She wanted to collapse to the floor and start crying. Yako felt confused, bewildered by everything that had transpired. There was only so much she could handle. Just yesterday Neuro was throwing staplers at her and dragging her along to solve another mystery, and today he was proclaiming they were married.
She wanted their weird normalcy back. At least she knew what to expect from the old Neuro. But this new one, with his eyes flicking to the ring on her hand, she couldn't begin to predict what he'd do.
"What's this?" He smirked. "Have you finally figured it out?"
Yako refused to give him the satisfaction of watching her break down. So she did the only sensible thing she could think of. Turning on her heel she crossed the room, pulled the door open, and ran back home as fast as her legs would allow her.
Rain be damned.
"Hello! Yako, are you there?"
The young detective blinked. How long had Kanae been there? The last thing she remembered was exiting her house and heading to school. With a shake of her head, she turned to her friend. "Eh?"
"I was calling your name for over a minute, but you didn't answer. And you had this horrified look on your face for some reason," commented Kanae, and then leaned closer. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Sorry," Yako said, her hand on the back of her head. "I've had a lot on my mind recently, so I'm a little out of it."
And why shouldn't she? Thanks to a certain puzzle-eating demon, Yako barely got any sleep at all. Surprisingly, he didn't follow her home, which she would've taken as a small mercy, but even when he wasn't there Neuro managed to haunt her thoughts. Her mind kept going back to the last few hours, how her being late for a non-existent case ended with her being married to her demonic tormentor.
Needless to say, the reality of their 'marriage' simply refused to sink in.
A tiny part of her held out hope that this was some strange mind-game. Sure, it wasn't normal, at least by Neuro's standards, but it was still within the realm of possibility. But if she were being completely honest with herself, deep down she knew that wasn't the case.
"Hey, this is new," Kanae said, and grabbed Yako's right hand. She brought it closer as they entered the school, eyes fixated on the glowing green gem. "I've never seen you wear this ring before. What kind of stone is this? It doesn't look like any stone I know of."
"Y-Yeah," said Yako, though to which part, she couldn't tell.
"Look at the quality of this gold. This isn't like that cheap stuff you find the street vendors selling," Kanae remarked, rubbing the gold beneath her thumb. "This is almost designer brand quality!"
Was it really? Yako hadn't thought about it. She'd been more preoccupied with how to get the band off, without losing her finger in the process.
"Oh?"
Kanae smiled mischievously. "I see. Could it be from one of your secret admirers?"
Yako almost tripped, too surprised by Kanae's question to notice the step up at the entrance. "What? No!" she said forcefully. "I mean, no. That's just—" She waved her hand frantically. "No, it's not."
"Is that so?" Kanae asked. "Well, I suppose you're right. You've never shown interest in any of them before." Releasing her hand, she pointed to Yako with a determined look on her face. "That only leaves . . . your assistant!"
This time Yako did trip. Her face felt red hot from embarrassment, as well as renewed anger at her 'assistant.'
Kanae chuckled and offered her hand to Yako. "I was right, wasn't I? I knew it. There's no one else it could be but him."
"You're wrong!" Yako insisted, as Kanae pulled her up to her feet. "As if he would—"
"If that's true, then why is your face so red?"
Yako's hands flew to her cheeks. She had hoped Kanae wouldn't notice. "It's really hot today."
"You don't have to be shy about it, you know," said Kanae, shrugging. Once they changed into their indoor shoes, they continued to their classroom. "I always suspected there was more between you two than 'detective' and 'assistant.'"
"You have no idea," muttered Yako. Although it certainly wasn't in the sense Kanae was thinking.
"I mean, I can't blame you. He's tall and handsome . . ."
Yako considered this for a moment, but found she couldn't deny Kanae's claim. From a purely objective standpoint, even with his more demonic face, she understood how Neuro could be seen as attractive: long limbs, odd dual-colored hair, stand out green eyes. Of course, all of that was diminished when he was twisting her neck, or dragging her by her head, or tricking her into marriage.
And then there was the issue of his true demonic form. A bird-like creature with razor sharp teeth was definitely not so handsome.
"Not to mention well-mannered!" Kanae continued, unaware Yako had retreated into her own thoughts. She sighed wistfully. "You're so lucky to have a boyfriend like that!"
Yako took a seat at her desk and placed her head in her hands. Yes, a sadistic, puzzle-eating demon from Hell.
Who on Earth wouldn't want a guy like that?