Chapter Five

Maybe there's a

Devil

Somewhere really

Deep inside me

-Utada

Habibah

Habibah woke up feeling immensely uncomfortable. She felt as if a part of her was ripped open, and in a sense that was true. She looked under her dress to find a stomach wound stitched shut and an arm wound, also, stitched.

They were throbbing red and incredibly sore. But she could deal, its nothing she hadn't dealt with before. After taking a hot shower and putting on a different dress, once again found on her bed-it was a baby blue and a little frilly at the bottom, there were no sleeves and it had an orange hoody exactly like the other.

She noticed the flowers and chocolates and something that looked like a credit card on the coffee table. She took the card and left her room. She had no idea where the cafeteria would be, so she wandered around hoping she'd find someone who could direct her.

This underground place was a labyrinth. She continued down a hallway-there was a large window that extended partially down it, and as she stared briefly into the window she saw a tall man with wild black hair lifting some serious weight that she could never imagine her skinny self doing.

His medium tan skin was glistening from the sweat that streamed off his body, only magnifying his toned muscles. He was wearing no shirt, just sweatpants-and there was a series of bandages on his stomach and countless scars-only adding to Habibah's embarrassment.

She was staring at this guy like he was some kind of avenging beautiful God, but she didn't have a major taste for men. She watched him lift what looked like over a hundred pounds over his head and place it on the stand that should've broke from the weight.

He smiled in accomplishment and stretched out his arms and rolled his shoulders. Habibah hadn't noticed that she was urging herself into the weight room, standing between the borders of the door. The man rubbed at the space in his upper back, exactly where his kidneys should be. The man finally took notice of her, his smile widened.

"Oh! It's you Mute Swan, what an ass kicking you gave me, hit me dead center!" the man said in a gruff, masculine voice that completely matched his character. But as tough as he sounded Habibah knew he wasn't a bad guy at all, she lived with bad for ten years. He pointed to his stomach.

Senji

He didn't think the girl that practically whooped his ass was the type to visit people, but here she was. And there was something off about her. She didn't have the murderous aura surrounding her like before, and her eyes were a much lighter crimson, but still deep.

She had that same innocent and naïve and teddy bear-cute countenance at the beginning of their fight. She gazed at him in confusion, it was as if she had no idea who he was. But that couldn't be it, there's no way she'd forget that thrilling fight between the two of them. She stared blankly at him.

"That fight last night was pretty amazing, didn't think a small thing like you could cause so much damage" She shook her head and made various signs and movements with her hands. He knew she was using sign language but he didn't know it.

"Can't you talk?" she stared, once again, blankly at him and cutely tilted her head slightly. Senji doubted that this was the girl he fought. She was way to pure-like to be the demon he tangled with.

"Know what, forget everything I said, I thought you were someone else" the girl nodded her head, her thick curls following the motion. He watched her gaze at him more closely, like a scientist examining its experiment. Then he saw a small blush flash on her cheeks.

"eh? What are you getting red over?" asking that only deepened the sanguine color. Was it because he's shirtless? Most women didn't care about that, actually they'd admire it.

"Is it cause' I'm shirtless?" she nodded yes. He chuckled lightly, she wasn't being too modest with her dressing either. The dress only stopped at her shins and her arms were bare, but luckily it wasn't enough to get Senji worked up. He hated it when females didn't wear enough clothes. Why would they want to be practically naked? One time he saw a woman wearing only a bra and daisy dukes, it was horrible.

"My name is Senji, by the way" she smiled politely.

Azuma Genkaku

Azuma went hunting for KuroKami. Ever since their last encounter he couldn't get that dominating voice out of his head. But most of all he wanted to hear her sing, he wanted to hear that sweet yet quavering with lunacy tone ring in his ears.

He never thought he'd be so worked up over a woman, but he'd never met anyone that was crazier than him. Well other than the Owl, but he acted out of emotion, this girl craved for blood because she liked it.

She wanted to hear the bones of anyone snap and be ground to dust under her feet. She wanted to see others ripped apart slowly and gruesomely. And it wasn't like an addiction, she could control herself perfectly, such as when she allowed the Crow to live.

But she was a true monster. The embodiment of a bloodthirsty creature, it was fantastic. Azuma found her room, but she was not in there. He groaned in irritation and walked around. The air was filled with a spice and cinnamon scent. The room was overly clean-even the bed was made.

He didn't want to stick around like some stalker for her to come back and left her room, heading back to his own. She'd found him before, when she wanted to see him again, she'd come for him.

Shiro

The old man had more pudding waiting for her in the cupboard. Shiro picked vanilla, and with a plastic spoon lightly skipped to the couch. She sat down, already tearing off the pudding cup's sealing, and dug the spoon into the giggly goodness. He old man was sitting in his rocking chair a few feet away from the couch.

"There's a new deadman Shiro, that's just like you" Shiro batted her white lashes, and stared at the old man while sticking a heaping amount of vanilla pudding into her mouth.

"Don't you remember the other children Shiro, the others that had to endure the experiments. But she did not come out as perfect as you. Her parents died in the earthquake, and they were unable to complete their tests. She is incomplete. But perfectly compatible with you" Shiro swallowed the pudding,

"Shiro only wants to play with Ganta" she said.

Sakigami Toto

The pain was unbearable this time. His heart was beating against his chest at a painfully impossible rate and his head was throbbing and throbbing, as if it would burst any moment. His blood was pounding at his skin, he could feel his tissues ripping and the blood was tearing through layer by layer. His arm fell off first, then his feet detached from his ankles. Oh god, he wanted to be shot full of holes so badly! There were crimson tendrils attached to him, connecting him to the old man.

"I will die in one month, until that time, I will transfer the memories into you each night" Toto screamed in agony and confusion. For the first time in years he cried for his deceased older sister.

Habibah

Habibah admitted to herself that she was interested in Senji. Even though she thought he was an overly cocky jock, after talking to him for a few hours, he turned out to be a great guy. He told her of the fight he had yesterday and how this person, named the Mute Swan, had beat him.

He also explained to her the penalty game for losing, and one of his kidneys was removed for preservation. Apparently deadmen were very important to the promoter. Now that she thought about it, Habibah had no memory of her battle last night.

She only remembered random flashes of light and blood, but that was it. No faces, no noise.

"You know, you should build a little more muscle on those skinny arms, it comes in handy to be fit for Carnival Corpses" of course he'd think that, Habibah thought. The man is an icon for fitness. How'd she go from looking for food to talking to a muscle alien? And just as she remembered her journey for food her stomach growled angrily. Senji laughed,

"You hungry? Come on I'll buy you some breakfast" she smiled in thanks, she knew the guy was okay but she didn't think he'd do something as kind as buying her food. She hadn't known kindness since coming to the odd prison.

And it came to her like fire to wood; all of her assumptions of prison were wrong. She was not lonely and she was not being tortured. Everyone was nice to her and gave her things and she had no idea why.

She did not know that the demon within her was watching over her, protecting her and providing her with gifts and in return only wanted the suffering of others. The demon was her lifeline, without it, she was more worthless than a morning worm.

A/N: Just incase you didn't notice, Habibah does not know that KuroKami exists, neither does she remember when she changes into KuroKami.