CHAPTER 17
Kagami nearly screamed out in her bed as she felt the lower half of her body get set ablaze as she struggled to keep her balance on her hands and knees on her mattress. She quickly buried her face in her pillow and vocalized the burning sensation she felt and it was over again. She rested her sweating body on her bed and breathed deeply in exhaustion as another human slumped down from behind her, also naked, sweaty, and exhausted. Kagami had just finished entertaining another strange man in her room, one who was also married and had a family of his own.
The twin-tailed girl continued to breathe deeply to try and recover from the faux intimate encounter but her senses quickly spiked when she felt the man try to snuggle closer to her. She quickly sprung up while covering herself with her bed sheet and hissed quietly, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm not your goddamn wife! If you want to cuddle that'll cost you extra seeing as how I already polished your fucking knob!"
Kagami had to admit to herself though that this one was pretty cute. He was in his mid-thirties with long brown hair and a well-toned body but she was still disgusted by the fact that he was so easily able to have sex with her despite the fact that he was married and had a baby boy. Kagami couldn't help but notice that he didn't even bother taking his wedding ring off before the ordeal.
"Sorry," he replied and looked at his watch, reading six o'clock in the morning. "Shit is that what time it is? I need to get going."
"That'll be twenty thousand yen." Kagami snapped, still hugging herself tightly and glaring at the floor, almost too ashamed to look at her latest customer.
Kagami still kept her back turned and began to shiver when she heard the client dig his wallet out of his back pants pocket and fish through the rows of paper inside. He dropped the money next to Kagami, who was barely able to look at it at first as the man continued to get redressed. He finished putting his buttoned shirt on, followed by his expensive suit jacket and he fastened his tie around his neck.
"Thanks for that. I really needed it before I make my proposal to my company today." He said as he tied his shoes while still sitting on Kagami's bed, who still refused to look at him. "I bet you're wondering what someone like me is doing with…someone like you."
Kagami lifted her head up and felt her rage boil when he referenced her as "someone like her," as if she was less than a person. She shook her head and replied, "No, I'm not. Get out of my house."
"Okay…it's just that my wife has been very frigid since our son was born and I try to help her but she keeps pushing me away and—" he began.
"I said I don't care. Leave now. Or pay for another round." Kagami bit, trying to keep her shivering under control.
The man sighed and left Kagami's room quietly. The twin-tailed girl knew that nobody was up yet so her latest customer was safe and the next noise she heard was the sound of his car driving away. She continued to sit on the edge of her bed while keeping herself wrapped tightly in her bed sheet and thought about the customers she had been entertaining over the past few days. It never ceased to amaze Kagami how many of her customers were married men, most of whom appeared so happy on the surface when they were in public with their wives and kids. It only furthered Kagami's confirmation that life itself was never as it appeared and that everyone had their own baggage behind closed doors. She herself was proof of that and even she knew it by this point.
"I guess this makes me a home wrecker too…like I give a fuck." Kagami snapped as she snatched the money and scooted over to her nightstand and pulled the drawer open. She dropped the latest addition into her new and impressively large bank account that was totaling close to what the average person made in a year. She planned to spend every last cent on more drugs.
When Kagami closed her nightstand drawer again, she began to feel different. During her latest prostitution gig, she was completely numb and the fresh memories of the perverted and squalid things she let that man do to her felt like an endless abyss of euphoria. The drugs allowed her to feel that instead of being able to see her acts for what they truly were and the mounting toll it was physically taking on her body. Probably worst of all, the drugs continued to portray Yuka Miyakawa and her cousin Ryuji Katsumoto as the best things that ever happened to her. Even when Miyakawa forced ecstasy down Kagami's throat and it could be debated that she also assisted in Kagami's rape, the twin-tailed girl still could only see Miyakawa as a beautiful person, both in and out. When she told Kagami that she was beautiful and that she loved her, the drugs made Kagami believe that she was beginning to find true love with the depraved sociopath. All that was beginning to fade and she needed to get high again before reality really hit home.
Kagami suddenly heard commotion outside and knew her family was up for the morning. She sat and waited on her bed for a few minutes and heard her mother downstairs shifting pots and pans around to start breakfast and could also hear the television set on a morning news show. This confirmed for Kagami that Tsukasa was still keeping her concealed from the rest of the family as she promised she would the previous night since no one was knocking on her door or forcing their way in so Kagami concluded she could start her morning regiment of drugs to make her forget about the fact that she let some sex-starved stranger contaminate her on her own bed in her own family's home.
Kagami melted down more heroin in a singed spoon, sucked it into a syringe, and tied a tourniquet around her arm. She slid the needle into her vein when she found it and pushed down on the plunger, sending the liquid into her body. As the familiar and always beloved sensation returned to her body, Kagami suddenly felt a painful pinch on her arm. She looked down at the source and saw the needle was still dug into her vein and to her shock and terror, a greenish black bruise was beginning to form around the needle.
She quickly pulled the syringe out, trying not to scream in the process and her arm's muscles began to constrict around the vein; it almost felt like they were caving in all around her injection spot and it was painful. Kagami gripped her arm as she gritted her teeth and even bit through her lower lip, drawing a bit of blood. The painful burst lasted very briefly until it subsided and Kagami's arm tingled as if it was asleep and it continued to scare her. Trying to quell her rising panic, her cell phone vibrated as a new text message arrived.
She crawled back to her nightstand, too afraid to use her bruised arm and took the phone and saw Yuka had texted her. Kagami opened the phone and read the brief message.
Are you coming to watch me dance tonight?
Kagami quickly disregarded the message and took a quick picture of her bruise with her phone and sent it back to Miyakawa with a demand to know what was happening to her. The twin-tailed girl counted literally every second that passed and the anticipation was killing her. She had no idea what was happening to her and for all she knew, her arm was going to have to be amputated or worse she could die. Her phone barely had time to finish its alert more than a minute after Kagami sent the message and she quickly opened it to read the reply.
It's just a collapsed vein, dear. Not as bad as it sounds. It'll go away on its own. Just don't inject anymore there and come to Teasers.
Kagami breathed a deep sigh of relief when Miyakawa told her it wasn't as bad as it sounded. Still, it looked horrifying and Kagami's paranoia fed her fear. She dreaded that at any second a piece of dead tissue inside her arm would break off and travel through her bloodstream to her heart and kill her. For now, Kagami thought it wise to simply sit and keep massaging her arm until the tingling would go away and she tried to keep herself calm. The only thing she could do in her mind to make her feel better was more drugs, which was what she began when she reached into her nightstand drawer again and pulled out one of the light bulbs she unscrewed the previous night.
She was able to pry off the electrical contact at the bottom of the bulb and pull out the filaments inside, leaving just a hollow glass shell. Kagami then used her newfound knowhow that Ryuji taught her and she turned the light bulb into an improvised crack pipe with a hollowed pen as the mouthpiece inserted into the electrical contact hole to inhale the smoke. She poured more of the rocks into the bulb before reinserting the pen and she took her lighter to the glass shell.
Before she could light it though, she heard someone walk up the stairs and was approaching her door. Her heart began to pound and she felt herself tighten as she held the improvised crack pipe to her chest and braced herself to be discovered. However, her doorknob didn't turn. Instead, someone on the other side got to their knees and slid a piece of paper underneath the door. It was Tsukasa outside.
Kagami slowly took the paper and read the brief message.
Mom is making breakfast. Can I bring you something?
Kagami glared at the simple question and gesture from her sister and was considering tearing the door open and smashing the improvised crack pipe over Tsukasa's head. Instead, she grabbed a pen and wrote her reply despite the pain in her arm and slid it back under the door. When Tsukasa took the message and read it, Kagami could hear a faint sniffle and it was followed up by the sounds of Tsukasa's feet carrying her away.
As Kagami was finally able to light up and begin smoking crack again, the returning high blurred her vision of the man from earlier paying to have sex with her in a position his wife never wanted and it also numbed any guilt Kagami would have in writing the message she did for Tsukasa. It was a polite retort in her drug-addicted mind.
No I don't want anything. Get the fuck out of here now!
While she sat there like the budding feeble pile of waste that she was turning herself into, Kagami suddenly remembered Miyakawa's first text message to her. It asked her if she was planning on going to Teasers tonight to watch her perform one of her infamous stripping routines that usually included an "auction" for her and she would take the highest bidder to one of the underground rooms for a one-on-one rendezvous. Once again, all of this was her idea.
After Kagami was numbed from serving seventeen men over the course of three hours the other day, Miyakawa took the borderline catatonic girl and showed her the ropes to the art of pole dancing and stripping. Kagami watched Miyakawa give examples but she was unable to get the twin-tailed girl to reveal her own moves. For whatever reason, Kagami would still fight a new culture shock every time she would be faced with one but sooner or later she would always cave. It all started with the drinking and it only went downhill from there with the drugs, stealing, and sexual encounters. In the back of Kagami's fogged mind, she knew that she would inevitably be swinging from one of those poles and taking her clothes off for more cash to fuel her addictions.
She sighed as she took another drag on her makeshift crack pipe. Kagami decided that she would go and watch Miyakawa dance and more than likely prostitute herself once again, thus continuing to lead Kagami over the edge with her. The twin-tailed girl still didn't know what the conniving psychopath that was Yuka Miyakawa was capable of. She knew that Miyakawa wanted her to stay with them and continue this truculent lifestyle, but she still had no clue how far she was willing to go to make sure the former Miko would stay. Unbeknownst to Kagami, when she was having her encounters with the seventeen men, whose ages ranged from twenty to sixty-five, Miyakawa was playing with Kagami's cell phone.
So far Miyakawa had a list of Kagami's closest friends, including several pictures of Kagami with her fraternal twin, Tsukasa. Even though Miyakawa never met Tsukasa, the depraved girl knew that Tsukasa was a threat to her as the pictures showed. In every picture, Kagami looked so happy and confident with Tsukasa; something that Miyakawa simply couldn't allow. Slowly but surely, Yuka was forming another sinister plan to take care of Tsukasa and destroy Kagami's relationship with not only her, but the rest of her family forever, even if it meant that innocent blood had to be shed.
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As the day wore on, Tsukasa made good on her promise to keep Kagami's newly reestablished residential status in the Hiiragi household a secret. However, it wasn't without its own burdens on her. Tsukasa was being forced to lie for Kagami's drug addiction, a mathematical equation that couldn't compute in her mind nor did she want it to. She was trying to convince herself that she was helping Kagami and that her older twin would never do anything to manipulate her. Tsukasa thought that lying in general was bad but to lie to her family about inadvertently enabling her sister's drug problem? Whenever these thoughts came to mind, she just kept trying to convince herself that Kagami still loved her and that she promised her that she would get clean. She just hoped it wasn't going to end like the last promise she made.
As Tsukasa fought her own uphill mental battles in silence, Inori later found herself in the therapist's office, though she was going in defiantly but still willingly as a result of the endless respect and love she had for her mother. Inori thought that because she was the oldest of the Hiiragi daughters, she would be able to control every aspect of her conversation with Dr. Kishimoto. She was in for a surprise.
"I can tell you have a lot on your mind, Inori-san." Kishimoto said politely with a smile as the two sat in her office.
Inori tried her best to remain polite during this ordeal but couldn't help but sigh as her opening retort. "Well, Dr. Kishimoto, I do. I do have a lot on my mind. I want to say that I'm very disappointed with the way things are going. I'm disappointed in my home life, how it's all affecting my family, and regarding the fact that all of this is going to hurt my family's status. The last thing I ever wanted was for us to be stuck with the label of having someone with a mental disorder in our family."
Kishimoto nodded as she wrote on her pad. "I understand exactly where you're coming from, especially your stance on mental illness. It is quite a rocky path that leads to a lot of stigma, but I do believe that society is getting better at this issue."
Inori remained pessimistic. "I don't know. Everywhere I look it just seems that mental illness is lampooned in all instances, especially in the entertainment world. Whenever people think of mental illness they usually think of people screaming in padded rooms while wrestling with their straitjackets. This is especially true with media and television shows."
"I share your beliefs, Inori-san," Kishimoto continued and removed her glasses to rub her eyes. When she resettled them on her face, she continued. "Do you believe that your sister will be ostracized or branded for life by society because of what she's going through or what she might have?"
Inori shrugged. "I guess. But may I speculate on something, Kishimoto?"
She smiled again and nodded. "Of course."
"I can't help but make connections of my own after all of this began with Matsuri's death. Kagami was always fine up until then and now it appears to me that you have been talking about all of these mental disorder possibilities and I'm wondering if this is all just in our heads because you're telling all of this. I've seen these kinds of setups before, Kishimoto, and with all due respect, I do believe that my sister would've been better off dealing with these family issues with her family and not some stranger." Inori said with a bit of hidden hostility in her voice.
Kishimoto wasn't surprised by the question so much as she was by the fact that it was Inori who asked it. She expected Tadao to ask a question like that first but nevertheless was prepared for it. She cleared her throat and replied, "That is fair to contemplate, yes. However, I must maintain that I have studied these issues for many years and I unfortunately must say that your sister is sick and that your family doesn't have the tools to fully deal with her, especially considering the possibility that Kagami could one day be driven to total madness by all of this."
The psychologist took a personal pause to blame herself once again for Kagami's position and she knew that she was right, especially with the possibility that the twin-tailed Hiiragi could reach a breaking point and suffer a complete mental shutdown. Kishimoto knew what was happening to Kagami and the kind of evil she was dancing with because she also knew it personally at one point in her life.
"If you believe this to be true, then I have to maintain my previous stance on mental stigma. Yes, I do fear for Kagami's status, and especially Tsukasa's. She's upset enough with Kagami still gone but for us to sit her down and tell her that her big sister is crazy and might need to be locked up in an institution will just devastate her." Inori sighed with remorse. "You've met Tsukasa so you know just as well as the rest of us that she's fragile and would be a wreck without Kagami. I'm also afraid for her future. How would this affect her in college or with a career if this kind of ordeal was made public knowledge? If we were forced to send Kagami to a mental hospital, then you know it would be a public matter because she would be labeled as a threat to society that needs to be isolated like a criminal going to jail."
"You're right about all of that…however, I still must disagree with you when it comes to your stance on stigma." Kishimoto said with confidence and annoying Inori. "Let me give you another example if I may."
Inori nodded.
"In the 1980s, the AIDS virus became a huge pandemic for the United States of America in all forms whether it was social, political, economical, scientific, you name it. The whole thing was a mess. Lies and conspiracy theories formed surrounding the disease that ranged from people becoming infected with it by eating contaminated food, to simply catching it like it was the common cold." Kishimoto explained. "Physicians were soon able to isolate the truth and recognize patterns in the types of people AIDS showed up in and the general consensus was the homosexual population. As a result, homosexuals became subjected to unwarranted and illogical persecution by people afraid of the virus; some religious radicals went so far as to call the disease 'God's cure for homosexuality.' There's even a story about a man who was infected with AIDS who lived in West Virginia and during this time, he visited the community pool of his own hometown and when he got in, it sent the entire pool and town into a panic. People believed that he had infected their children with AIDS because he was in the same swimming pool as them and he was ostracized from his own town and even his own family."
Inori sat and kept listening.
"It was a dark time for social equality in the United States but my point is this; societies naturally evolve with time. Back in the 80s, AIDS was instantly labeled as being attached with homosexuality and many innocent gay people were ostracized and made into pariahs. As society evolved and more knowledge was made public, AIDS became symbolic with repeated drug use and unprotected sex in general. Today, homosexuality is widely considered to be a part of normalcy and is for the most part met with acceptance. Believe it or not, up until 1973, homosexuality was still considered a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. Only five years later, a politician in San Francisco named Harvey Milk became the first openly gay person to be elected into public office in California's history." Kishimoto added. "I believe that societies are naturally evolving with time and progression and that there will come a time where people suffering from mental illnesses will be accepted and there will be better treatments for them. Proof of that already exists with Autism for another example. Twenty years ago, people had no idea what that was but today, there are support groups, charities, specially trained doctors, all that stuff. Will people always be persecuted for being gay or being a different race or even having a mental illness? Regrettably so. There will always be that person or that group of people that cannot or will not understand because they're either too damn stupid or too damn ignorant to figure it out. However, as I've been saying, societies naturally evolve, as do people. Tell me Inori-san, what do you think of what I have told you?"
Inori kept her frozen stance while breathing in stunned silence. She darted her eyes around several times and replied, "I…I think we need to get Kagami better…and we'll need your help…"
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Kagami returned to Teasers later that day as the sun on this day began to set and she knocked on the front door, only to be met with the sound of firearms loading again on the other side. She quickly remembered the codename Miyakawa gave her to memorize and Kagami exclaimed, "It's me, Babbie! I'm here for Jezebel!"
The door soon opened and Kagami breezed past the muscular guards who concealed their weapons again and entered the strip club. Kagami still didn't know the full meaning of her codename assigned to her by Miyakawa but she didn't exactly care anymore. Babbie was short for Babylon, which was a broader term for the biblical figure known as The Whore of Babylon, probably the most depraved and sordid figure in the Bible. That was how Miyakawa viewed Kagami and she wanted her to be treated as such.
More men were here this time and it was still filling up with anticipation for Yuka's show. Other girls were already dancing at other pole stations in skimpy lingerie while men fed them money, but the main stage with the drawn curtains was still unoccupied as strobe lights, disco lights, pulsating music, and the fog machine added to the loose activities. It was the center stage that was reserved for the best and most popular dancer, which was Miyakawa. She was the "grand finale" so to speak.
Kagami quickly rushed to the backroom where the changing room was and was lost in a sea of other girls, each one loosely dressed in lingerie, some with costumes, while others simply wore their bras and panties. The twin-tailed girl found Miyakawa towards the back sitting at a table with a mirror and painting her face a bright white color and she sat also in nothing but her bra and panties. As she approached, Kagami finally noticed Miyakawa's 666 tattoo on her lower back for the first time, as well as others on her back that included a snake coiling around a red rose and the bottom of the flower's stem formed into a dagger blade. On Miyakawa's right bicep just below her shoulder, an image of the grim reaper sitting on a large throne made of human bones while holding his scythe was also visible and Miyakawa finally took notice of Kagami's presence and smiled.
"How's your arm?" Miyakawa asked as Kagami sat down next to her.
Kagami nodded. "It's feeling much better. I was just scared at first when it happened since I didn't know what was happening."
"Good. Just give it a break for awhile and don't worry. There are other places to inject your heroin. You're staying with your parents, right?" Miyakawa asked.
Kagami nodded.
"If I were you I would start sticking those needles in-between your toes to hide any track marks." Miyakawa said while turning and resumed painting her face. "Remember to keep mixing your drug habits up once in a while. We don't want your body to build a tolerance to any of them because then all the effects of their highs will disappear or if you keep using the same one over and over it could lead to an overdose."
Kagami nodded again. "I know. So…about your text…"
Miyakawa's face was completely white and she took a thin brush and dabbed it in black face paint before she replied. "Oh yeah I forgot! When can we get you up on that stage with me? I have a few ideas for some duet dancing and even singing we could do."
The twin-tailed girl gulped. "Look Yuka, I was able to cave and do the sex shit because it was always in private where no one else would see me. If I'm up there…then so many eyes will be on me and my body. I…I was hoping that…that only you would see me that way. And besides, these costumes…they're so embarrassing and degrading."
Miyakawa giggled as she began to pain black vertical lines over her upper and lower lips. "This is one of the highpoints of my job. I love stripping. All those people whistling and screaming my name and telling me how sexy I am and how much they want me…it's great. It makes me feel so empowered and attractive."
"You need strangers to tell you that you're attractive, Yuka? Didn't your parents ever tell you how beautiful you are?" Kagami asked.
Miyakawa froze. She stopped painting her face so abruptly, Kagami thought that she was shot and she couldn't help but look around at the unchanged activity surrounding them and she turned back to Miyakawa. She kept staring with a blank face in the mirror as she held the paint brush to her lips. Just as Kagami became frightened and was about to tap her friend, Miyakawa quickly resumed painting her lips and moved to her eyes. Kagami feared that she may have opened an old wound with Miyakawa as she answered.
"It's not like that, Kagami." Miyakawa replied, still keeping Kagami on guard. "Anyway what I was getting at was stripping is almost better than sex. Almost. At least I can get dressed up while stripping and it makes me feel like a cosplayer."
Kagami's ears perked up when she heard the last word.
Cosplay? Like Konata? I guess she could look at it like that. I guess…if she's that comfortable with it…then I guess I could try it. When she puts it that way…I guess it'll be like hanging out with Konata…
As Kagami continued to think about stripping differently, Miyakawa continued to giggle maliciously to herself. She remembered seeing a blue-haired girl in not only Kagami's contact list but also in some pictures and saw that Konata was an avid cosplayer, which Miyakawa didn't give a shit about, but at the same time had no problem using it as leverage to continue sucking Kagami into her world. Miyakawa had sinister thoughts of her own.
Good…it seems Kagami is starting to consider it. Maybe I'll even be able to replace that blue-haired midget as her BFF.
"And you think that stripping is degrading, Kagami? Let me ask you something. What is degrading about a sexy woman knowing how to use the tools at her disposal to get guys to slide their paychecks down our bras or into our panties?" Miyakawa began to put the finishing touches on her face. "Beautiful ladies like us are the ones who are really in charge of what's going on. We have the sexy bodies so we're the ones who call the shots. Girls like you are so beautiful and attractive that guys and even other girls are clawing over each other just to get a glimpse of you. Like I said before, Kagami, you're beautiful and whatever you're doing whether its diet and exercise, it's working incredibly well. I even overheard some girls talking and saying that they're jealous of your figure and would kill to look like you."
Kagami blushed again as Miyakawa continued to tell her the words she always craved. It was also a flashback to her high school graduation ceremony when Konata said the exact same thing, thus furthering Kagami's consideration to push Konata out of her life and replace her with Miyakawa. The twin-tailed girl couldn't help but giggle lightly and inched closer to Miyakawa and said, "I…I think I would like to try it…if it meant that people would honestly like me…and I think I have a costume at home that would blow everyone's minds. And…and would you…teach me how to dance?"
Miyakawa smiled when her makeup was complete and she turned to Kagami. Her face was still white with black lines over and below her lips resembling stitches and a black vertical line was painted above and below each of her eyes. She looked like a ghost as she smiled a conniving grin and resumed talking to the twin-tailed girl.
"That's great, Kagami, and yes, I'll teach you everything I know." Miyakawa replied.
"How…how about a kiss for good luck?" Kagami asked with a blushing smile and she scooted closer to Miyakawa.
To her surprise, Miyakawa pressed her index finger on Kagami's puckering lips. "I'm afraid not tonight, Kagami. We don't want to smudge my makeup but I'll make it up to you soon enough. Trust me, baby."
Miyakawa's complementing wink sent Kagami's heart into arrhythmia as the dolled-up girl stood and retreated to another room to select her outfit for the evening. Kagami couldn't help but feel cheated, which was exactly how Miyakawa wanted her to feel. Miyakawa was never afraid to be a tease and she knew that Kagami was becoming more accustomed to this world and believed that she could now have everything she wanted with all the money and drugs at her disposal. However, Miyakawa knew that if she used reverse psychology and played hard to get, Kagami would only want to sleep with her more and more as the drugs and false concepts of love and acceptance created by this world would drive the twin-tailed girl. Once Kagami would destroy the remaining principles she had and practically force herself on Miyakawa, then that would be all the proof that Kagami wasn't going anywhere.
Kagami took shelter with Ryuji and Itou behind the bar as the night continued to wear on. The twin-tailed girl watched with intrigue at the other dancers at the different pole stations as men continued to drool over them. She noticed that many of the guys were a lot like her customer from this morning; young men dressed nicely and seeming to have a lot going for them. She couldn't really make the connection as to why such handsome and well-groomed men were wasting their lives and money in strip clubs. She always pictured these kinds of places to be filled with older, ugly perverted men with nothing going for them like the man who took her virginity that rainy night.
She was still a novice in some instances to this world but a lot of these young men either came from rich backgrounds or were actual successes in their careers, which would pump up their egos. Some of them believed that they were a hundred feet tall and nothing could touch them. They envisioned themselves as the Zeus's of their times and saw women as merely objects for their desires and entertainment, though Miyakawa was able to put a different spin on it to keep Kagami's interest in it alive. Kagami also spotted a few college athletes in the club, which still baffled her but she couldn't comprehend the fact that a man with a pumped-up ego believed that he could have anything he wanted, even multiple girlfriends.
"So what do you think of our whole establishment, Kagami?" Ryuji asked her as Kagami sat at the bar and Ryuji sat next to her.
Kagami glanced at him and looked away. "It's quite an establishment, I'll grant you that. So it's like this all the time? You don't worry about real world issues or challenges? You just reap in the cash and do drugs all day?"
Ryuji nodded. "We figure that you only live once so why the fuck should we cater to what society says we should do? I mean, you're still going to college in the fall, aren't you? We couldn't do that because we'd be just like the rest of the slaves of the world. We want our freedoms and to live the way we want to. We'll miss you though, Kagami."
Ryuji was working in tandem with his cousin when he said that they'd miss Kagami when she would leave for college. He was playing reverse psychology by implying that Kagami would inevitably leave them and kick all her drug habits away to deal with her problems in a more mainstream manner. The tactic was beginning to work as Kagami's body language showed she didn't want to leave anymore. Kagami had done all these things when she was supposed to go to college and work hard while still dealing with all the mental anguish over Matsuri and Misao. She had to admit to herself that she no longer wanted to do that. Not after she was introduced to a world that could somehow magically take all her pain away, as long as she always had something to smoke, inject, or snort. The twin-tailed girl was lost in the moment and vibrant activity in the strip club and the last of her conscience became icy.
Kagami muttered something but the pulsing bass music sounding throughout the strip club buried it.
"What was that, Kagami?!" Ryuji exclaimed.
Kagami muttered it again.
"I'm sorry but I still can't hear you! You're gonna have to speak up!"
"I said that I…that I…that I don't want to go to college! I want to stay here with you guys and live the way you guys live! I want the drugs! I want to steal and fuck for the money! I want to dance with Yuka and show off what my mother gave me…and for it to be my income!"
Ryuji formed a small smile and turned back to Itou serving another drink to a customer, who also had a smile on his face and he nodded. He looked at his watch just in time to see it strike midnight and now the grand finale of the night was about to commence. The rest of the girls stopped dancing and the regular attendees began whistling while rushing towards the center stage to get the best seat as they knew what was coming next.
Itou shut the music off and turned the lights off, making it go dark in Teasers as the men crowding around the center stage deepened their whistling. Itou started a new song, took a microphone and announced, "All right gentlemen, its midnight so I have to ask everyone one question. Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?"
"Living dead girl!" The hoard of men screamed together, and the chaos once again resumed.
The speakers throughout the club erupted with Rob Zombie's song "Living Dead Girl" and the curtains at the center stage suddenly opened when the thunderous music tore through Teasers. A spotlight shined on Yuka Miyakawa who had her back turned to the crowd and she was wearing her outfit. She wore black high heel shoes with her legs wrapped in fishnet stockings that drifted upward until garter straps connected them to her black g-string. Her belly was exposed that showed her pierced navel and her top was wrapped in a black and gray bra and the icing on the cake was a pair of black feathery wings attached to her back and her hair was tied up in two short pigtails, reminding Kagami of the time she used to switch hairstyles with Tsukasa.
The men whistled and cheered for her as she waltzed onto the center stage and approached the pole. As the music continued to build up to the lyrics, Miyakawa latched onto the pole and rested her back against it with her arms holding the pole above her head. She gently began to shake her buttocks as her opening until the song reached the lyrics. She quickly spun around the pole and was able to slide upward on it and wrapped her legs tighter around it until she balanced herself upside-down. She continued to motion and wave her arms in an artistic form and she dangled upright and began to outstretch her arm to resemble the black wings behind her as the song approached a pivotal point.
"Defunct the strings of cemetery things with one flat foot on the devil's…wing!" The song exclaimed, leaving Yuka Miyakawa with her legs wrapped around the pole and hovering above the stage with all the spotlights and eyes on her and her arms stretched out like wings.
The club was sent into an uproar as Miyakawa slid down the pole and continued to dance around it and perform more acrobatic maneuvers until she got down on her hands and knees and began to crawl towards them piles of drooling men who held wads of cash in their hands. She sat up on her knees while rubbing her hands gently across her body with a look of pure arousal on her painted face that also showed a teeth-bearing smile.
Her eyes drifted through the sea of screaming men who were desperately trying to grab her attention with the hundreds of thousands of yen bills they held in their hands. It didn't take long for her to find a customer she believed had enough money and she outstretched her hand, allowing him to take it and she pulled him onto the stage, deepening the crowd's roars as Miyakawa led the man backstage just as the song ended, which was followed by relentless applause as Kagami watched the whole thing from beginning to end.
She had never seen anyone go that berserk over a girl dancing for them before, but of course she knew that Miyakawa was going to let the selected customer have his way with her in the process but she wasn't even considering that. Kagami was drawn to the attention Miyakawa was given and she made up her mind. She wanted to be up on stage and she had the perfect outfit in mind that would drive everyone crazy.