Warnings: Character death, explicit violence
Across town, at a club called 'Sin', the silver kitsune wound around his red-haired partner, purring in his ear, "Ya regret anythin', Tiger?"
"Can't say I do, so much," Renji replied, "unless we're countin' th' whole... accidentally lettin' ya inta my head thing."
"Heh, but tha' was fun~!" Gin giggled, leaning on the larger man's shoulders, hovering just above the pavement on his mist cloud.
"Mmm, real fun, 'cept fer tha, ya know, seein' of m' last boyfrien' an' all. I mean Jesus." he rolled his eyes. "Got 'chu all ready ta fuck somebody up."
His giggle took on a dark edge, he'd still gladly hunt down the dark-haired prissy-bitch that had thought it was fun to play with a fire-hair like his Tora! He curled one of his three tails around to tickle Renji's cheek. "That'd be fun too."
Renji turned his head and nipped at it before he could police himself, then abruptly realized that was enticing behavior and muttered an apology. Damn him and his weakness for smooth, silky things!
He almost had him! The grin on his face got wider, as the kitsune inched around on his mist, trailing his tails across the back of the redhead's neck, holding his hair aloft with daintily clawed hands.
"Yer still too tense, Tiger." He purred.
Renji breathed deep and tried not to growl—he'd found out the hard way it was an understandable language to Gin and apparently he excelled at talking dirty in Canine. "Mebbe so. Never did find ya somebody ta fuck...or som'un fer me ta fight," he added under his breath.
"We could solve both at th' same time, y'know." This wasn't the first time that night, the silver-haired male had suggested getting into the human's pants, but at least he'd toned it down from trying to rip the other's belt buckle open, that was an improvement wasn't it?
Only a little. Renji, the sex demon would eventually find, was beset by the most cursed affliction a kitsune could possibly conceive—but that was for later. "Nope. That's why we're out 'ere, 'member?"
"Too true, Tiger, too true." He looked around a bit, this was the fourth such club they'd been to, and the closer they got to their destination the more agitated the redhead seemed to get. He giggled again, and pulled his human along by the ponytail. "I think this'll be th' perfect place though. I never leave empty-handed from 'ere."
"M' not surprised," Renji muttered ill-naturedly, then groaning when they came up on the place and he realized who was working the door tonight.
"Oi! Red! S' been fuckin' ferever man!"
Dear unmerciful Kami, why did it have to be him? "...Hi, Z," Renji said with a deep sigh, rubbing the back of his neck and staring at the ground.
"OOH! Ya know this place?! Sweet!" Gin practically launched himself from Renji's shoulder. "HI KEN-CHAN!" He called brightly, mid-leap at the tall, dark-haired, scarred bouncer.
Kenpatchi held out an arm to catch the kitsune. "Fuck yeah! Goddamn G, we been missin' yer foxy ass 'round 'ere!"
"Mah. I had a bat ta take care o'. He's a'ight now though." The demon giggled, wrapping all three tails happily around the bigger male. "He needed a push in th' right d'rection, if ya know what I mean. Fufufu. Same as this one." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at Renji.
"Aw Hell, G, Red's wound tighter than a goddamn watch-spring. Don't be even kiddin', he don't need a push, he needs ta be dragged over the cliff kickin' an screamin'."
"But who d'ya know is better at draggin' th' unwillin' than me?!" The vulpine male flashed a toothy, sadistic grin, without opening his eyes.
"Mmm. Hard part is—" The bouncer snagged the man's shirt collar and dragged him back from where he'd been trying to slink off, "is he's a sneaky lil' shit too. Gotta keep 'n eye on 'im."
"Aw, Tiger," The kitsune pouted, "ya keep tryin' ta sneak off like tha' an' I'll start thinkin' ya don' want me 'round no more." He was hanging over Kenpachi's shoulder, tails waving in the air and thoroughly entertained.
Renji flushed and mumbled something that wouldn't have made any sense even if it had been audible.
Kenpatchi snorted. "So were ya...lookin' fer somethin', G, or jus' in tha neighborhood?
"Tiger wants a fight an' I wanna fuck. I'd rather fuck 'im, but," Gin shrugged. "I'll take what I c'n get. 'Specially if one'a m' fav'rites is dancin' t'night."
The bouncer snickered. "Ah, G. What'd ya 'ave in mind? Rather, who? It's fuckin' Halloween, everybody put on their best. Most everybody's booked a'ready."
Sighing dramatically, the kitsune thought for a moment, "Ooh! I haven't seen Ran-chan in ages."
"Ran-chan's got the night off. New boyfriend. Sorry man." The mountain of a man in liberty spikes thumbed his nose.
"No yer not," Renji shot back, "YER her new man, Z!"
"Ooh~!" Gin slipped his hands into the collar of Kenpachi's shirt, his claws delicately teasing the tanned and scarred flesh. "Bad, Ken-chan! What'll Yachi-chan say if things don't work out?"
The big, bulky man just grinned. "If Yachi's got anythin' ta say about it, Ran'll be stayin'. Now we jus' gotta convince the girl m' cock's good enough ta stick aroun', ne?"
Renji rolled his eyes. "Oh please."
"I know, I'm the best fuck she's ever gonna have, but we gotta make sure SHE knows it," Kenpachi replied slyly.
The silver fox giggled, "Mah, yer pretty good, Ken-chan, but So-so's better I think. Guess it's a good thing he's gay?"
Gin rolled over to hang upside down, supporting most of his weight on his mist-cloud, and tails swaying gently, one of them just brushing Renji's shoulder.
Renji chose not to react, neither to nuzzle it like he wanted to nor brush it off.
"Great thing he's gay. He's also busy t'night...fuckin' some bright young thing. Kid named Ishida. Nearly as smart as So is—So jus' love fuckin' 'im stupid." The bouncer rumbled.
Gin actually pouted after that one. He sighed, "Well that's two outta three. What 'bout Kira-kun? Nothin' like So-so, but...eh...beggers can't be choosers."
His tail, seemingly of its own volition curled around Renji's neck as the kitsune propped his chin on both hands, his elbows dug into his mist-cloud, but the redhead continued not to react.
"Well, Kira's out sick. Got pushed a lil further...than normal, I guess. He can' hardly move. S' cute, but ya can't fuck 'im in that condition. Jus' three? Why ain'cha askin' 'bout—"
"Z, ya finish tha' fuckin' sentence an' I'll tell Yachi it 'uz you bleached all 'er pink tutus."
Gin looked between the two, then deliberately slapped his tail over Renji's mouth. "Not askin' 'bout who?" He tilted his head, and counted on his claws, trying to figure out who he'd left out.
The bouncer looked from Gin to Renji several times before shaking his head. "Sorry G. He ain't kiddin, an' I know better than ta let mah demon-child fin' out that."
Renji managed to, despite the tail, wear a distinctly smug expression.
Gin glared over his shoulder, a decidedly wicked expression, and drifted closer to the redhead. "Well, if he's not allowed ta finish th' sentence, then ya'll jus' hafta do it fer him. Or wouldja rather I dove inta yer mind again? I just love learnin' 'bout yer ex's." He purred dangerously.
Renji gave him a dark glare and opened his mouth to reply with something caustic but was cut off and interrupted before he could.
"Oi! Rage! I thought'cha quit!"
Renji blanched.
"Rrrrage?" Gin purred again, stepping down from his cloud to saunter over to the stranger. "Who is Rage?"
"Red Rage—him!" The man pointed to Renji, who was already taking a step back. "He's the club's Fighter, but he jus' disappeared one night, word was he quit. Christ, nothin' sexy as him stalkin' up on stage an' takin' control right after a fight, still sweaty and bloody from the battle, ready ta fuck shit up..." the man shuddered, toes curling. "Never could figure why he'd quit."
"Oh, really now..." The kitsune prowled back to the redhead with a strange smile, stranger than his typical fox-grin. "Zat why ya itchin' fer a fight there, Tiger?"
Renji growled under his breath. "...Mebbe part o' it. M'broke so th' cash don't hurt either."
Gin chuckled, "Well, then let's scratch yer itch, Rrrrage." He purred on purpose, and the redhead felt his rear pinched by a phantom hand.
Renji swatted the air, growling fiercely when he realized it was a trick. The man who'd identified him as Rage leaned against the brick wall of the club, pulling his shirt away from his neck and panting hard as his eyes glazed over.
Gin giggled again, dancing from the redhead's glare with his signature grin. Then he caught sight of the stranger, "Mah...nii-san, daijoubu?"
"Mmmn, j-just...j-jus'...Rage's aura...mmmmfuck...the look in his eyes...so delicious," he moaned softly, just watching Renji, already anticipating the 'transformation'.
Renji was still growling a little, and his eyes were darkening slowly. All that was needed to complete the picture, to create his Rage, was to let his hair down, furrow in his tattooed eyebrows, and lose the shirt. Maybe add some blood and bruises.
The kitsune purred again, "Mah! He is scrumptious, i'n't he? But I think..." Suddenly the hair-tie holding back his ponytail snapped, and the knot on his bandanna slipped. "Much better, ne?" He giggled again, holding to two offensive articles somehow magically in his hand, as the crimson strands broke free.
Renji's growl intensified, eyes going dark and dangerous, and the stranger melted against the wall climaxing messily in his pants. "There he is," he panted softly. "There's Rage."
"OH, Tiger-san." Gin too began to melt. If he had wanted to be fucked by that creature before, now it was a million times worse. "Prrrrrr. Ken-chan! Find my Tora sum'un ta play wit'! He d'serves a treat fer puttin' up wit' me."
Kenpatchi gave Renji a look. "Which level, Red?"
Renji's voice was still thick with his growl. "Gold."
"Got it." From inside his coat, he withdrew a little black book with gold leaf on the edges of the pages. He scanned this for a moment before snapping it shut. "...Bya's due tanight."
Renji was visibly torn between anguish and pleasure for a moment before consciously settling on unholy glee. "Fuckin' perfec'."
"Bya?" The silver fox slid over to the mountain of a bouncer, "Bya? B-ya-ku-ya?" He let the smallest of slits in his eyelids glint ice blue, enunciating each syllable.
"Tha's 'im," Kenpatchi replied before his brow furrowed in confusion. "Wait...how do you know 'im, G? He don't work 'ere."
Renji was already striding away— going towards the separate club where the underground fighting ring was stationed.
Gin gave Kenpachi the grin that he reserved only for those that would die by his claws. "He hurt m' Tiger. He hurt 'im bad, Ken-chan. Nobody gets away wit' hurtin' what's mine. Ya know tha'."
His form shifted, two of his tails disappearing as he walked, and grew slightly taller, more the height of an average man than that of a woman. Before clothing covered his frame, a kosode, shitagi, hakama and haori from the Edo Era, the bouncer watched corded muscle ripple gently betraying the hidden physical strength of the kitsune. He waved with his tail, following his redhead.
Kenpatchi was left to wonder if it was a good or bad thing the kitsune had claimed Renji—and who it was good or bad for. Byakuya...well, he'd be lucky if he lived.
Renji only gave Gin a glance to be sure he kept up, body language all power and anger and aggression, lithe muscle moving under tanned, tattooed flesh much like the tiger the fox called him. Internally the fox demon purred, but he let it be translated into a low, predatory growl, the slits of his eyes glowing slightly in the darkness of the underground chamber. It was certain they would be beacons if he allowed his lids to open all the way.
"Tiger, Tiger, burnin' bright...ne, Tora?" He rumbled, near the redhead's ear.
Renji's gaze burned through the darkness, a red glow the color of blood. "Like a demon in the night," he purred in reply, sensual and dangerous, for once enunciating very precisely despite the word change. "Put me on the roster," he barked at the pit boss, who took one look at Renji and started to shake.
"Y-yes, sir! Wh-who will y-you be—"
"Kuchiki," he snapped, feline quickness at work.
"Got it!" The man replied, voice high and frightened as he pressed back into the wall.
Gin very, very much liked the change in wording. Oh yes, this was one he'd enjoy once he'd caught him. "Go get 'im, Tiger."
The kitsune let his power trail over the lines of ebony, stained over golden skin, lighting each one on fire for a moment to make his wildcat truly appear as dangerous as he was, then made his way silently to the spectators seats. He'd let the scorned lovers fight alone for a while, but if things looked to turn deadly, at least on the part of his redhead, he'd intervene and mete out the kind of justice only the Abyss could create.
Byakuya had to have been surprised to see Renji, but Renji didn't care. He was finally confronting the source of his greatest internal pain. The anger, the betrayal, the pent-up passion, even the desperate love he'd held was a swirling hurricane in the depths of his soul, melding into an endless surge of adrenaline and spurring on a torrent off sheer rage. How dare Byakuya do it! Take his love, his virginity, all he had to give, and give back nothing but pain and—when his family found out and demanded he break off the relationship—cold indifference?! Renji prepared in the 'waiting area' for fighters—he was naked to the waist, his feet were bare, his hair was pulled into a tight, low braid, and he had donned his trusty brass knuckles on heavy hands. To most, wearing brass knuckles 'raw', without gloves or any other protective covering, was stupid as they'd cut up their hands. Renji had...a unique protection, metal implants in his knuckles, just barely below the surface of the skin. They worked to brace the back, flat edge of the knuckles. He needed his fingers free to grab.
The announcer called the fight, bringing a roar from the gathered crowd. This late in the night all of the patrons, save one, were plied with ample doses of alcohol, and the news that Rage was back in the ring pitted against the only fighter who'd ever come away from the redhead's furious assault unscathed had the drunken slogs caterwauling and raising the roof. The raucous noise brought an already haughty brow even further up the porcelain ridge than it had been. Truly seeing his ex-lover again after all this time was something he'd never have expected, and the worthless monkey had the nerve to try and step into the ring with him?!
Sweeping through the entrance tunnel to the steel-mesh cage that protected the onlookers as much as it trapped the competitors, his disdain for the place wrinkled his nose. His waist length ebony hair flowed freely, something the heel was proud of, and his loose over-robe gave him the appearance of a prince from long ago. Kenpachi and another bouncer, a black man with a strange star-shaped afro, opened the gates to allow his entrance. He relished in the equal measures of booing and cheering he received, and allowed a small, haughty smirk to grace his lithe features when the lock slid back into place behind him.
"So, we meet again, Rage. Come to jump once more at the moon?"
In a move completely uncharacteristic of the man, Renji did not reply, nor trash-talk. He simply snarled, wordless and guttural. Gin could understand it, especially at the volume he was using, but in the audience, the vulpine man did nothing but watch. There was something on the air…something heavy, like the scent of blood, and it drew his attention like all other sins. His Tora's name was Rage, but his Sin was Wrath, and it was thick, like a gravy in the air—spicy and burning at the kitsune's nose.
Renji's eyes burned the deepest red, lip curling to bare his teeth and he paced his corner, malice rolling off him in waves. Typically, he carefully policed himself. Never went too far. He didn't want somebody's death on his conscience, after all. But tonight, he'd figured it was okay to slip his leash. Just this once. Against just this person—the strongest fighter he'd ever matched up to. At least, while keeping himself in check. The crowd, the arena, even Gin had ceased to exist to this creature of rage and violence. All that remained was Byakuya and the Bell that would tell him it was time to start his assault.
The noble's eyes darkened, and the corners creased, but there was no more time to think as the bell sounded and Hell broke loose. Byakuya whipped his haori off, revealing the near skin-tight uniform of a shinobi. He'd be crushed if he allowed that animal within his safe zone, but first the red haired beast had to break through his thousand blades. Already palming enough steel to make a blacksmith cry, the lithe fighter's first move was to run up the wall of the cage, flinging razor-sharp shuriken at his opponent.
"In no mood to chit-chat tonight? Pity, I've missed your tongue."
No?! I thought you'd ripped it out just like my fucking heart, He roared in an animal's harsh snarl, already on the move—also up the cage walls, weaving and dodging as he climbed and leapt like some insane, furious monkey. Was why I could never fucking TALK to you, get shit straight! I'd like ta see ya keep smooth-talkin' those fucking bitches the elders set ya up with if I took YOUR tongue! He blocked a blade headed for his face with his arm and swung his body, letting go with one hand so his considerable weight was flung clear across the cage, leaping straight at Byakuya in a head-on charge.
So this would be personal. He'd feared it would be when he saw the roster. No matter, he'd clear away this lump of waste as he had every other obstacle that had attempted to stand in his line of sight. His foot caught the redhead in the bread basket, and they rolled, somehow, along the roof of the cage, blood splattered from where the petal-shaped blade had sliced bronzed flesh. He had out another handful of shuriken flying directly at the beast's chest, following through in the motion to return his grip to the steel mesh, glaring with a lock of hair trailing across his face.
Renji smiled—a grim, frightening thing, more of a cross between a grimace and a baring of teeth than a smile—because despite the breath having been forced out of him, he recovered all too easily. Unlike Byakuya, Renji's style, and his 'training', if it could be called it that, had been down-and-dirty, right-up-close-and-personal, no-holds-barred and cheap-shot-loaded brawls and fights. And Byakuya was up close and personal. His hand darted out with unnatural quickness and he took the hits, both of his big hands enclosing Byakuya's smaller, daintier ones in his own as gravity caught them and they began to plummet to the ground with nothing to support them. Renji's knee got between them and he used his weight once again to his advantage, wedging his knee as firmly as he could into the noble's diaphragm and—thank you, physics—Byakuya was pushed to the bottom and hit the cement back-first, Renji's knee still squarely in the bottom of his ribcage, a satanic grin on his mouth and something burning dangerously in his eyes.
There was a sickening crack as horror flashed through silver-grey eyes. There was nothing he could have done to prevent the ground rushing up at them, and the impact, when it happened, brought a violent cough, filled with blood, up and out of those china-fine lips. The crimson spittle sprayed across his ex-lover's face, dripping back down onto him in rivulets. It was everything that had first drawn him to the wild, red-haired man, but the flash of agony, not wholly born of physical injury, across his features was squashed as quickly as it came, though a deep-seated fear held that vulnerability in the edges of his vision. Heartbeats that lasted longer than the universe passed before he twisted his double-jointed wrists to free his hands. He felt bone grind against bone, and grit his teeth against the sensation in favor of sliding a blade across the soft part of Renji's chin.
Renji jerked his chin up, but refused to surrender his prey by actually retreating. His hands, now free, slammed the other's shoulders down and in two quick, painful, but efficient movements, dislocated both of Byakuya's arms at the shoulder, rendering the arms useless, the nerve signals interrupted. This was—this was wrong. Renji, this lost in his rage, should not have had the mental capacity to know that he needed to disable Byakuya's arms. He sat up, blood dripping freely from his chin onto the noble, down his neck, thick red trails winding through his tattoos. Sitting on the slim hips and pinning his legs with his own from a sort of seiza position, Renji began to pick the blades out of his chest, that twisted grin still on his face. He almost seemed to relish the pain.
He was quickly approaching the point of no return. If he was allowed to pass it, he could never live with himself afterwards, and somewhere inside he knew it. That part made him look thoughtful, though still demented, as he pulled out one of the blades and flicked it away.
"Y'know...these things 'r miiiiiighty effective. If yer opponent ain't a tank." He picked out and flicked another, nonchalant. "An' yer speed, well, ain't what it used ta be is it? I c'n remember ya movin' faster than that when I told ya I wan'ed ta git naked. Tsk tsk. Fer shame. How could ya let yerself fall quite," he disposed of another blade, "so far?"
The last 'petal' he picked out of his chest he held and twisted between his fingers as though contemplating it as Byakuya coughed again, blood trickling down his chin. The noble knew he had at least two cracked ribs. He couldn't feel his hands, or his feet, and something in his back was pinching something it shouldn't be. His eyes were hard, and he let the blood in his throat pool in his mouth. Then he slipped his tongue around his cheek, arched what he could of his spine and neck, and spat, the tiniest of his blades surrounded by crimson fluid, straight into Renji's eye.
Renji reared back with a howl of agony, spine nearly bending in half backwards, and roared in both pain and rage as his hands fisted—one hit Byakuya in the collarbone, having used his reared-back position to gather force, and it shattered like a dry twig. The other planted itself in Byakuya's chin, snapping his neck to the side—just barely not far enough to knock him out, so he was fully conscious, and dizzy-headed, as Renji's huge hands wrapped around his skinny, porcelain neck, Renji's eye glued shut with blood and the jelly-like substance that should have been inside the eyeball. There would be no saving his eye...and unless someone got in there damn quick, there would be no saving the bastard who'd just ruined his vision either.
"Th-thank...you...R-renji..." The noble gurgled, blood and mucus filling his throat as his wind-pipe was crushed. "I...l-loved...you...m-most." His eyes rolled back into his head and he convulsed, twice.
...The second, you'll see, is a treacherous one, when an ally of his joins in on the fun...