Excuse my profanity and lack of updates. I mean no harm.
"Contact was made, Akito," Shigure smirked, "Despite all your efforts, contact was made."
Akito lacked the response Shigure wanted, and so the prodding went further.
"She's pretty now – very. Look like Momiji, actually, maybe even like his mother. In fact it was Momiji and Haru she talked with – though no doubt she'll be seeing Yuki and Kyo soon. And the rest will come accordingly of course. It's only a matter of time."
Still no reaction.
"In short, your plan to use Tohru didn't work. Although that would have backfired on you anyway, right? I mean, all of this was already unraveling even before she came back."
"You've come to gloat over me?" Akito whispered, "When I clearly stated I never wanted to see your face again?"
"And I wouldn't bully her now. You should see the friends she has," Shigure continued, happy to have provoked the god of the Jyuunishi.
"Fuck you," Akito muttered, face now facing Shigure. Eyes burned with hate. A physical attack was building under the frame a weak, ailing body.
"Well," Shigure spoke coldly, walking away from the quarters of the Sohma Head, "We can't all be like you."
He left. It was cold. Akito's eyes flicked around the room, a nasty habit that revealed a though in the making.
Oh, it was that date.
"'The cow jumped over the moon,' she said. Isn't that funny? 'Over the moon.'" Haru laughed…Laughed… Haru… He laughed.
"No." It was that day. The anniversary.
"Come, come! They say she can touch the Jyuunishi without transforming them. They say she is the true God of the Jyuunishi. Come, Come!" Rin's cold laugh rang like dull, thudding bells, a thumming boom that scraped the inside of the belly.
"Shut up," Akito growled, "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!"
"I don't love you because you're cruel Akito." Yuki's voice was stale, and the words crumbled away from existence in the presence of Akito's glare. But they had existed. They had existed long before they were spoken.
"You do love me," Akito whispered, "I am God. I am meant to be loved."
Kureno watched as Akito suffered through memories. Memories of pain and betrayal. For who hadn't betrayed Akito when that blessed child had been in the Sohma household? Usagi had been a very special girl – powers or no. That light around her attracted the Jyuunishi almost as strongly as the invisible chains of their debt to Akito bound them. If there had been a choice in the matter, they all would have picked Usagi. Kureno paused. Except for maybe…
"She holds me. I have no Mama anymore, and she holds me." The trembling lips of the blonde child were met with an unforgiving slap. But the resulting whimper sounded conspicuously like "Usagi".
"Treacherous rabbit. Dammit!"
Kureno sighed and wrapped his arms around Akito – the poor child that still cried in the night – the poor God that ruled the world of Jyuunishi yet lacked the power of life.
"I won't erase them. They're precious. Furthermore, I don't think I can do it. She has powers." All of him stood neutral, body…face. But the neutrality alone was enough.
"Ha," Akito shouted, "But you did listen to me. I own you."
The dragon had the strongest chain of all of them.
Kureno still remember the day Hatori had wiped the girl's memories. Usagi had been open to the altercation of her mind. How could she not have been? What with Kisa in the hospital… The girl was burdened with the thought that she had inadvertently hurt someone she loved. Furthermore, certain promises had been made. Kureno shivered at the nature of those promises – swallowed a shaky breath as he realized once more that those promises would never be kept.
"I forgive you. You don't mean to do what you do. So I forgive you." Her wide eyes were not as fearful as a child's should be. Her honest face was trained into a serious expression yet there was an open sincerity that existed within the angelic vision of her face.
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up…" The chant repeated throughout the night, pulsing guilt to the heartbeat of a lumbering beast.
REVIEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww