So recently, I've had a bit of an obsession with figure skating. No, it's not only because of Yuri on Ice, but that anime certainly helped. I'd always had a vague interest in the sport. Before the obsession started to grow, when I was asked in class about my favorite Olympic sport, I was the only one to say ice skating. And then I just happened across some figure skating competitions on TV, and I got hooked. Strangely enough, it's really only the men's figure skating that seems to move me. I'm particularly fond of Yuzuru Hanyu. I could go on and on about what I love about him, but that would warrant an entire chapter unto itself. Anyhow, I dreamt about skating with him last night, and now I'm considering taking up the sport. I'm worried about how it might go, though, since I have no stamina and hate wearing myself out. Frankly, I've always hated physical activity. But if it's for figure skating...maybe I could do it.
Enough about ice skating. Onto the story!
It's obvious she knows where she's going as she leads me between buildings. When we eventually emerge, the atmosphere of the town has completely done a one-eighty. Whereas the feel at the cafe had been warm, comforting, I suddenly feel thrust into a thick tar. It's suffocating.
The streets, instead of being filled with bustling people, are littered with dregs of society. Druggies obviously high float about with no aim, dealers gladly accepting both their money and the money of a man who seems to be trying to hide his higher social status. Leaning on doorways are chicks done up, with skirts too short and cigarettes transferring between their fingers and blood red lips. A couple of them call out invitingly to the one semi-well dressed man on the street.
"Where is this?" I wonder, unable to place where exactly she's taken me. I've never been to this part of town before. I almost can't help but wonder if we're even in the same city.
"A hunting ground," she informs me casually, tugging the neckline of her shirt a bit lower. "It's just that ghouls aren't the only ones who use it."
"I see."
She meets my gaze, reading the clear displeasure on my face. "You gotta do it, too, little miss pure. If you don't look like you came searching for some action, you won't get any takers."
When I don't react, she rolls her eyes and undoes my hair. Immediately, I grab at her hands. "Hey! You were the one who told me to put it up in the first place!"
"Shut up, or you'll draw attention." She redoes my ponytail, placing it much higher on the back of my head and grabbing a bottle of gloss out of her pocket. As she dabs it on my lips, she mutters, "Makeup, the disguise of a hungry ghoul."
She tugs down the neckline of my shirt, too, before apparently finishing with me and moving onto herself. When she's done applying the makeup, she pops her lips. "Alright. You can act well, can't you? Don't answer that. I wouldn't have brought you if you couldn't. Here's the script. We're looking for money, and what we're offering is a threesome. Be sexy, be alluring, and act willing. Look like you want him. This isn't an option. Do it."
I gulp. "Understood."
She turns and begins approaching the well off man without warning, causing me to stumble to follow. Without hesitation, she slips her arm around his. "Why don't you keep my friend and me company, instead of those loose whores?" Her eyes flicker to the older women. "You'd rather devour something fresh and high grade, wouldn't you?"
"I didn't come for that." Clearly not. It's drugs he just stuffed into his pocket, not condoms, but he doesn't really hide the fact that he's ogling. Hanako squeezes his arm tighter to her, sending me a look. Disgusted with myself, I join in the act.
"Let's play?" I ask, laying a hand on his chest. What the hell am I saying? "I promise you, we're quite skilled."
"I...didn't bring the money for that."
"Aw, don't you know it's better to carry extra on you?" Hanako pouts. She reaches a hand down, clasping his hand in hers. "Hm. I'm usually really stubborn, but if my friend agrees, we could give you a discount. We really need the cash. Anything will do, even just a few hundred, but the service you'll get will be way better than anything those old hags can give you."
"I'm fine with it, so long as it's good." My stomach twists as I speak, sickened. Even if I'm not actually going to sell myself, it's gross. Sticky, like a bathroom floor that hasn't been cleaned in years. And Hanako does this monthly? I bite my lip and gaze up at the man from beneath my eyelashes. "Please?"
He glances between the two of us. "I only have a few hundred yen on me."
"We'll take it!" Hanako grins. "Come on, let's go find somewhere we won't be disturbed." She begins to drag him away and I trail them closely, the whores shouting after us that the guy is welcome to stop by anytime.
"Here's fine," the guy stops after we've only rounded two corners. "Can you two do it standing?"
"Of course!" Hanako smiles, standing on her toes to get closer to his face. She stops before their lips touch, though. "But my friend here moans pretty loudly. We might want to get a little farther."
"I don't care if they hear," he refuses. "They already know what we're doing, anyway."
Hanako appears to consider it for a minute. "Fine. I hope you like aggressive girls."
He grins and my blood turns to ice. "They're sexy."
"Good. Come help me hold him." She waves me over. Obedient, I press myself against the man and push him hard against the wall. I've never even had a boyfriend before, and yet look at me. Hanako holds down his other side, nuzzling his neck with her nose.
"Thank you for the meal."
I've barely registered the change in her eye color before she's sank her teeth deep into the man's jugular. What was meant to be a scream gurgles as blood fills his windpipe. Hanako swallows the bite of flesh in her mouth before ripping the man away from me and tossing him onto the ground. Although free from his restraints, the man is clearly unable to rise to his feet to run, or even to his knees to crawl. I gasp when a thick, dark red tail snakes out from Hanako's back and pierces the man through his chest.
And then everything stands still, me gaping at the scene and Hanako staring down at the man with her kagune glowing beside her. The only thing that seems to move is the pool of crimson that gradually grows larger.
"Your mask."
I move mechanically, reaching back and plastering the mockingbird face over mine. As I do so, she puts on her own mask.
I blink, shocked by what stands before me. With her kagune throbbing with red light and the costume of a black cat, she hardly appears to be the friend I grew up with. "So this is what a ghoul is."
"You haven't seen what it is to be ghoul until you've seen one eat," she corrects me. She kneels by the body, careful to keep her knees out of the blood. "So, watch."
Her fingers, so small and fragile looking, dig mercilessly into the man's arm as she rips out her second piece. It drips between her fingers before squishing into her mouth. Then she forgoes her hands altogether and leans over the body. Her hair dangles around her face, but bobby pins allow me full view as she sinks her teeth into the body a second time. It's like a wolf digging into it's fresh kill, no restraint and no concern for the life taken, the only thought on its mind filling its stomach. But it's Hanako. An animal, a ghoul, but a person. That is what makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
Neither of us talks, the only sound being the sound of her eating. She consumes everything. First the arm, bones and all, then the other, and then the head. When she's halfway through the head, she begins speaking.
"Hunts don't always go so easy," she explains, moving the hair of the corpse aside to get a better bite. "Sometimes I have to settle for a prey with alcohol in their blood, or one of those disease riddled whores. Never the druggies, though. I don't want any of that inside of me. I got lucky there was someone like him tonight. The only downside is that his death will get more attention, since he was an active member of society. But, well, it was his choice to get involved with the underworld. If he'd just stayed a good boy, the odds of him becoming a ghoul's meal would have been a lot less." She slurps the eyeball out of its socket. "He's one of the best meals I've had in awhile, though.
"And I don't always hunt here, either, in case you were wondering. Even the most idiotic prey learn pretty quickly to avoid a spot where their species keeps getting eaten. Some ghouls do stay in one spot for an extended period of time, but they usually end up getting discovered and have to move out pretty urgently. I know of a few who had that happen to them. That spot right there is a good one, but only if you don't care about the quality of the meal. Again I'll say it was damn good luck for me for him to have been there."
She bites through the last bit of skull with a crackling crunch before she finally sits back. "Of course, there are some other ways to get food. There're ghouls who only eat those who are already dead, but some of us have a tough time transitioning from live prey to long dead ones. I'm one of those. I do get some free corpse meat along with my payment for helping Yomo collect dead bodies, but I don't eat much. Just enough to tide me over until my next monthly feeding. The taste just isn't right if the kill is old." She pauses for a moment, licking a bit of blood from her finger. "It never tastes the way dad used to prepare it.
"As for moral implications, you could say I don't have a very strong set of those. It would be torture to, as a ghoul. I'm sure some gouge themselves out over their killing humans, but that can't be considered living. I'm sure they'd think their being born a curse. They would probably hate themselves. They'd loathe themselves, despise their very existence, yet keep on living because they're afraid to die. They wouldn't be anything but a corpse themselves.
"So, what do you think? This is what I am." It takes me a moment to realize she's finished. Even when I realize it, though, words can't seem to form in my mouth. What….am I supposed to say? How does one respond to something like that? I really wasn't prepared to see this. She returns to her meal, once again only the consumption of flesh filling the quiet. My mind tries its best to rush and figure out something to say, but it's like a thick mud, trudging along no matter how fast I race to think.
"U-um…," my mouth finally produces a sound, "does it...really taste good?"
She stops, meeting my eyes. At least, I think she does. It's difficult to tell with the mask over her face. "It wouldn't to a human, but yes. To me, it's a world more appetizing than anything you eat."
"What about coffee?"
For a moment, she doesn't respond. Then, she laughs, her bloodstained lips forming an innocent smile. "I love coffee! It's disgustingly bitter, but think about it! With that one drink, we taste the same thing! Isn't that amazing for two creatures with such different tastebuds?"
Finally understanding the full reason of why she drinks the dark liquid despite hating the taste, a smile creeps onto my face, too. "After this, let's take up Touka's offer for coffee."
"Definitely," she agrees, wiping her mouth and sitting back. Then her face goes dark. "Mockingbird, run."
"Wha-"
Before the question can even come out of my mouth, I'm thrust backwards by the shock of two pulsing red kagunes clashing against each other. Hanako whirls to face the aggressor, snarling.
Out from the shadows steps a vaguely familiar figure in a long, white coat and a suitcase in his hand. I flinch at the sight when I piece together who it is.
"Surrender, and you'll be taken into custody without injury."
"What are you, a cop?" Hanako growls. "As if I'd willingly go along to be killed!" She flexes her kagune, coiled to pounce at a moment's notice. Then, again to me, she hisses,
"Run!"
I kind of have to laugh at myself. I mean, look at the intro note I wrote and then look at the chapter under it. I think the mood change between the two is a little drastic, if you know what I mean. Sometimes my own preferences shock me. I hope my flips in mood don't bother you. It'd be best if I could actually use that to my advantage to write something unique, but figuring out how to wield my own emotions is still an art I'm working hard on. ...Ah, I want to talk more about ice skating! But I shouldn't! I know I should talk about the story, but figure skating is just too tempting! I'll stop here and let my mind recover from this temporary episode.
Till then, Kisses from SnowyNeko! :3 MEOW!