Envy – That which Tantalizes Our Dreams
When Fushimi began to awaken, he could feel himself strapped down to a cold, metal table. As he looked down, he soon realized that he was lying naked with only that collar and now two bracelets on his body.
"What the fuck?"
"Oh, it looks like the young man has finally awoken from his slumber."
Saruhiko could remember that voice. It was the same voice that spoke with such a cold tone while his body was being dragged. The blue-haired man turned to the side and saw a man—probably in his mid-fifties, with dark black hair and eyes standing beside the table. "And how are you this morning, Scepter 4's third-in-command, Fushimi Saruhiko?"
"Who the fuck are you, and what the hell are you doing to me?" the Blue clansman growled.
"My, my, such fierce words. My name is Inoue Masaru, and I here own this place and whatever is in it, which now includes you."
"You sick bastard, you better shut the hell up and untie me before I do it myself and burn your body until it becomes nothing but ash." Fushimi felt his blood boil hotter every second he laid on the table.
"We'll unstrap you from the table once we're done examining you, though you're going into confinement until you're ready to be presented. But don't worry, soon enough you'll have a fine master who will make you nice and obedient."
Now, almost every person in the entire world disgusted the Blue clansman. But this particular being stood at least tenfold above others. He couldn't wait any longer. Saruhiko began to focus his energy to create the crimson aura around him. As he tried to release his power, the man felt a surge of intense pain throbbing in his head. He could feel the energy being drained from him. What the hell is going on here?
"A-ha, so you got to see the anti-Dresden cuffs in full action. A wonderful contraption that my secret team of scientists and engineers formulated if I do say so myself. As your body had just witnessed, it has the power to do many things. When placed on a user, it takes a sample of the wearer's DNA, calibrating to their spectrum. Once it's tuned in, the controller can give or restrict as much of a strain or color power as you want it to. For 'full restriction'—such as yourself, the use of your aura will cause it to send negative feedback to your brain and drain you of power.
Beyond that, there are several needle docks within the collar itself. When I first caught you, Oniyuri triggered the sedation injection into you. There are also a few more interesting concoctions it can inject, but we'll save that fun for later."
Masaru let out a hearty laugh as the blue-haired man remained silent. "The collar recognizes the voice commands of whoever the master is. If you're naughty, they can command your cuffs to bind together, send pain signals throughout your body, or even kill you if they so desired. But don't worry about that. Once you become obedient, it just becomes an accessory in the end."
For probably the first time in his life, Fushimi had no clue what his next plans of action could be. He had never experienced or knew that such equipment existed—even as a Scepter 4 member who's jobs is to control strains and rival color clans. The Scepter 4 officer was trapped, with seemingly no way out. It frightened the man to feel so exposed and powerless.
"Inoue-sama, from our body assessment done of this man, he appears to have no significant markings on his body besides the scar he has on his top left shoulder. His rectal area appears to have no trauma to it as well, thus the ability to auction him as a virgin seems highly plausible."
Masaru stared down at the blue-eyed man as if he were a rodent or insect of some sort. "Hmmm…flawless face, pale skin, toned body, not too tall or short…he would be perfect if he didn't have that ugly spot on his left shoulder…We could cover it up for now when we market him, and we'll just tell the person who buys him that we'll surgically remove it after. We won't have time to do it before the auction tomorrow night."
"Yes sir, I will find suitable attire for his presentation tomorrow."
"So there you have it, Fushimi Saruhiko. You will be the main showcase tomorrow. Please look forward to the festivities."
As he was left alone in the examination room, the Blue clansman began to tremble in fear. He could feel tears building up in his eyes. The man had never felt so out of control over himself before. As he sensed the warm fluid drip down his face, the blue-haired man could only think of one word in his mind.
"…Misaki…"
As the crow was riding on the elevator, he felt a bad feeling rise up within him. He couldn't understand why, but his heart began to pound faster. He really wanted to hurry up and find Saruhiko as soon as possible. As they reached the top floor, Munakata and Yata began to walk towards the penthouse entrance of the hotel.
Without even knocking or saying a word, the Blue King released his aura, having the door slam open. Misaki's eyes bulged out as he saw Reisi—the man who upholds all standards of justice and law within the highest regard, breaking into someone's room without warning.
"Uhh…"
"Just come follow me Yata-kun. I will need you to go awaken our man here in just a second."
"Uhh…right…"
Walking straight into the master bedroom, the crow looked around and immediately jumped behind Reisi to cover his eyes. "Kyaaaa!"
The bed had at least four or five people sleeping on it—both male and female. They were all naked and intertwined beneath the sheets. There were lines of cocaine on one of the bedside tables, and empty bottles of Louis XIII cognac on the other.
Munakata, staying completely composed as always, turned towards the chestnut-haired man and smiled. "Yata-kun?"
Misaki, who was still blushing furiously, stared at the ground as he stuttered, "W-w-w-what is it?"
"See that man with the dark green hair in the middle of that mess? I'd like you to wake him up for me."
"Haaaaa!? Why don't you do it yourself!?"
"That would be considered an officer using deadly force against a civilian." Munakata still smiled.
"Oh, so that's why the Monkey King needed me. He needed me to do his dirty work, so he doesn't have to break any laws. Fucking sneaky-ass, shitty Blues," Yata thought bitterly to himself.
The more the crow thought about it, the angrier he got. He could feel his flaming aura begin to surround him as he started to shout out, "WAKE THE FUCK UP, YOU CREEP!"
The people in the bed slowly began to awaken as they felt searing hot flames burning their skin. They all began to scream as they scrambled to get out of the bed and run out the door…all except the green-haired man. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties. His height and body type was pretty similar to Munakata's, but for some reason his face just shouted 'Sick bastard.'
Out of patience, the crow yanked the man out of bed and threw him onto the ground. He groaned in pain as he opened his eyes. The man gasped out as he saw the two figures in front of him. "WAHHHH! MUNAKATA REISI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
"Good morning Saitou Kentarou-kun. How fortunate it is that we meet again."
The green-haired man groaned out again and replied, "Ughh god, what do you want this time? Haven't I already helped you enough with your cases? Please give me a break!"
"It isn't easy to allow some of the activities you do to pass under the government's watch, especially since your father is such an important figure in the political world. But of course, we are never here to force you to do anything. Us humble workers only serve for the justice of mankind."
Yata gazed at the violet-eyed man in disgust. "How the fuck do you guys manage to say that kind of shit with a straight face with the things that you do. What is wrong with the government in this country?" he thought.
Kentarou let out a loud sigh as he slowly got up and walked towards the desk to grab a cigarette. "…Fine, fine. What do you need from me this time?"
"Paradise Lost."
Saitou's eyes opened wide. "…What did you just say?"
"We want to get more information about Paradise Lost. With your connections, I would guess that you know about it and are most likely a member of the Garden of Eden."
The green-haired man took a long drag on his cigarette before speaking. "Fuck…you are going to get me killed one of these days, Munakata."
"If you assist us, we will do everything we can to keep you safe," Reisi replied.
"Right…well. As you mentioned, I am a member of the Garden of Eden, which is a dinner and social club. It is exclusively VIP invitation only. Anyway, starting about six months ago, some new guy came and was hanging around the club owner a lot. He had super dark black hair, and like straight up black-colored eyes. Shit was creepy if you ask me. Eventually some of the members were getting invited to other social parties within the society at this place they call Paradise Lost.
The entrance is hidden by a fountain inside the backyard garden area. It takes you to a set of stairs which lead to an elevator. You go down seriously like fifty levels until you reach the entrance. If you want the straight-out blunt way of putting it, Paradise Lost is a den for bored, rich people to do the things they can't do in society.
It's just a massive group of orgies, drugs, booze—you name it. You could probably find every single kink or fetish in that place. But that really isn't the big deal. If you go past all that, you can enter into someplace they call Hell's Gate, which is literally an auction house. But they aren't selling normal stuff. What they market and sell are people."
The crow jumped a bit from shock. It made him feel sick to his stomach from the idea that people were still being enslaved out in the world and even in his home city.
Kentarou continued on. "I personally went in there and was grossed out. I'm not into forcing anyone to do things they don't want to do, but eh, to each their own. Anyway, so the people that were being auctioned off were all like young people. I guess around my age down to sixteen. But it was weird, as it looked like it was just people they literally plucked off the street and decided to market off. I don't know how the hell they managed to pull that off. But then I saw those weird jewelry pieces."
Munakata's eyes narrowed at Saitou, "Weird jewelry pieces?"
"Yeah, all the auctioned off people had these gold rings around their neck and their wrists. They demonstrated it for the audience. Whoever bought a person had the ability to do things to whomever they purchased. Like, if they don't listen to you, you can tell it to actually cause pain and shit. Freaked the fucking shit out of me.
So, I actually knew someone who got ahold of one of those sets, so I checked it out. It was mad fucking strange. They had these tiny little needle compartments you could order to come out. Apparently, it could sedate people or give them aphrodisiacs—or even kill a person.
In the end I thought this shit was going to be too crazy even for me, so I haven't gone back to the place in weeks."
The crow remained silent. In most circumstances he would jump up and start screaming his head off, but he just didn't know how to react to the situation. What was even more frightening was the thought that Saruhiko might be caught somewhere with those people. Misaki began to tremble, as he feared for the blue-eyed man's safety. "…Saruhiko…" Yata whimpered, as he could feel tears welling up in his eyes.
The chestnut-haired man then felt a large hand gently place itself on his shoulder. Misaki looked up at the Blue King, who was standing beside him. He was still calm and composed on the outside, but somehow the vanguard could tell something fierce was stirring within him.
After a few minutes of silence, the Blue King finally opened his mouth to speak, "Well, I thank you for assisting us with the matter Saitou-kun. I just have two more things I need to ask of you. First things first, can I have you contact that friend and get ahold of those jewelry pieces again for me?"