LoliDolly (40)
Finishing a puzzle is impossible when pieces are missing. One may infer that figuratively the picture can still be completed in the mind since there is still the image on the box. However, that still does not make the puzzle truly complete now does it? The predisposition of the puzzle is not the same as the final product. Would you perhaps still build a house with missing materials? Certainly not. Such a thing would be foolish. So why solve a puzzle when you do not possess all the evidence?
That was the reason Rin felt she still needed to live through Yuma's memories. If she could figure him out there was a chance she could find the beginning source of his madness. The same madness that lived in the air of Vocal Corp like a sickness. More precisely it seemed to be a virus. It throbbed and grew as a living thing like an infection and took effect like a disease. Rin stopped in her tracks though and thought better. She corrected herself. No, that madness was Vocal Corp. Perhaps it was the basis of what the entire place had been built for. Everyone who'd ever set foot inside it was tainted with madness: herself included.
Rin was disoriented. She had no clue how much time was passing in her own life. No idea what could be happening outside herself. All she possessed was the sick feeling she needed to figure this all out quickly. Something wasn't right outside. That something, that bad omen unnerved her to her bones. She worried about Len as she tailed an angry Yuma storming away from the Aria mansion. Rin followed behind him as he returned to the same bunker he'd ruthlessly slaughtered so many in. Looking at the place now Rin felt none the wiser. A fire crackled warmly and Yuma forced himself through his bedroom door and sat upon his bed. He said not a word and simply sat there. His breathing was surprisingly calm even for the utter rage that concentrated inside him.
It was utter fury. But he concentrated the rage and compressed it. His grandfather had trained him as such and thus he refused to let his emotions take over. He was the last VY2 descendant and he couldn't afford to muddle his senses.
Yuma withdrew his sword with flawless grace and the tip of his blade sank into soft flesh when he brought it backwards in an effortless slice. A linear line of blood trickled steady down his blade and didn't dare swerve out of line. Demon fire licked up the blade and consumed the blood before it drew back and simply disappeared from existence.
"If I had not sensed who you were in my last second you would be very dead right now, Zedalia." Yuma threatened tonelessly. However Zedalia only stood and smiled despite the harsh line Yuma had cut on the rightmost side of her throat. It did not heal as Rin expected it might've, the cut stayed and a small trickle of blood continued down Zedalia's throat before she pressed her hand to it.
"I had certain faith that you would not kill me, Yuma," Zedalia boasted confidently. However she did not move and Rin noticed the utter fear in her posture that her voice did not portray. "Thank you though , for sparring my life."
"I already regret it." Yuma said in a heartless void of a way that made the room deathly cold. It was as if he had purposely drained the warmth of the room by uttering no more than a few words. It was then that Zedalia sank onto the bed behind Yuma. She curled around him like smoke as he sheathed his sword with what seemed like great reluctance. His movements were graceful and without error but his facial features were dead. They were devoid of emotion and just as stiff.
"I told you, Yuma," Zedalia stated with no bite to her words. "Humans will always be bound to treachery. Angel or goddess blood be dammed. Confide in this though my love," Zedalia purred. "I will not lie to you, and nor shall I betray you as she has. You and I, we can fulfill your destiny. Wouldn't it be great to make humans suffer?" She offered. Rin went absolutely rigid. Was this the moment Yuma had simply stopped caring and turned himself over to sheer evil? Rin glowered at Zedalia. Sheer evil was all she seemed to represent.
Yuma was silent for so long it unnerved Rin. His eyes glinted and glowed with a desire for bloodlust. Some carnal desire was evident in his eyes. It was a need, a hunger to destroy and leave everything in his wake in ruins. To bath the entire world in bloodshed and drown them in despair, murder and misery. Nothing would be spared in that destruction. Rin knew that feeling all too well. The seeds of madness had already been sewn into Yuma. His current emotions only fed it. She found a ray of hope then when the glow left Yuma's eyes and was replaced with something more human.
"She was to bear my child Zedalia..." Yuma whined. Rin saw it then. Beneath all of Yuma's power and bloodlust was hurt. A hurt so extreme there was no other way he could think to deal with it than with anger. It was the worst kind of hurt, Rin realized. The kind that was so deep seated and driven by downright feelings of uselessness because there was nothing he could do to improve his situation. He had so much power and yet, was powerless to use it where it mattered most.
"NO!" Zedalia shrieked. Her scream was something that grated on Rin's ears and surely would've deafened her if this were more than a memory. Zedalia's shriek had been more like the guttural cry of an inhuman beast than a regular scream. Rin scoffed. Such a shriek was fitting for Zedalia. It sounded like hundreds of glass objects being broken simultaneously. "Human trash," Zedalia spat acidly, "shall not bear any of your descendants. I will gladly take the responsibility." She seemed to coil around Yuma with her words despite that she hadn't moved since she'd sat behind him. Her gorgeously delicate hand caressed Yuma's cheek and directed his gaze back to her.
For a few moments Yuma was stony and silent. His gaze was focused on her and yet looked past her.
"No daughters," he declared. "I shall have a son." Zedalia smiled and instantly Rin knew a new kind of deceit was being sewn at the root of this situation. She couldn't warn Yuma though as much as she wanted to. It was his memory...how did she keep forgetting that? Even if she could've, Yuma wouldn't have listened. He was too entrenched in his misery. So low in his sadness that he could drown in a puddle.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Zedalia said deftly. "Why not name him Lucarious? Lucarious Sinclair VY2...?" Zedalia purred. Yuma however only smiled cruelly before he shook his head. "No, . . . Luki . . . Lukirious Sinclair VY2..." Zedalia took that chance to press closer to Yuma. All her silky and smooth human features pressed possessively against his back.
"Sounds delicious my love...deliciously sinful." And with a brief outflow of his will, Yuma extinguished all the lights. Including the fire in the next room.
Rin skipped the lascivious memory that followed that one. However the name bothered her. Lukirious Sinclair VY2...it sounded so familiar. She knew the name but couldn't produce a face to match it. It was a name that filled her with a lost longing. As if part of her had been abandoned someplace she never intended to retrieve it. The new information shocked her more than all of Yuma's former memories. A name was just a name though, wasn't it? A set of letters paired together to label something. The pang in her gut wouldn't shake though. She had a brother...?
Furthermore, what reason could possibly exist that was reason enough to leave such an important person behind? Why had she escaped without said brother? Had she told him not to come with her? Had they decided she would get a head-start and he would follow afterwards? All the facts Rin thought she understood spiraled out of control and twisted new vines. Those vines created new paradoxes and corundums she would have to dig further into Yuma's mind to even hope to untangle. Too many 'why's' and not enough 'how's'. Endless questions with vague answers if she even got any. Rin continued with new determination.
She followed Yuma in his months to follow that were for the most part spent in utter darkness. He was host to hatred and anger that constantly fed his darker half. Zedalia was no help either. Rin hated Zedalia for everything she was worth. Everything she represented only existed to taint her father. She dared call him that now. As memories drew on this hate for Zedalia only intensified after she hastened Yuma to be a man of overindulgence to the rest of the clans. Wild 'parties' of debauchery and lust took place weekend evenings at Zedalia's manor that Yuma always refused to move into. They were the sick days of pitting demon against demon in bloody brawls where human beings caught wandering were captured and tortured into submission only to be fed upon by Yuma and Zedalia. Most of the time they let a guest take the winnings. All of it had been Zedalia's conjuration and Rin despised her for it.
Even as he was angry at Ia, Yuma still lurked around her residence to see her sometimes. Rin shared those moments with him. Those moments of loss and abandonment, the agony of betrayal. Despite his accomplishments, Yuma experienced a growing sense of discontent that Rin noticed. No matter how many times he stopped by the Aria's household, Ia was never in. This increased his yearning and an agony grew worse inside him by knowing she was openly avoiding him. A love that flamed so brightly only before seemed to flicker with decreasing life. The flicker was rising in intensity that threatened to blow out the entire light. When the year came to an end later, the visits came to a close. Yuma no longer went to seek out Ia. His facial expressions however only grew more bereft. His soul seemed ever vacant and unoccupied.
That fact never changed even as Zedalia became pregnant soon enough in the second year to come. He was a good husband to Zedalia but remained uninhabited and unattached. He was a complete gentleman to her despite rapidly giving into his demon side. Yet his heart remained an unfilled chasm of nothingness. Before long it formed into a nullity that bred nothing. He wasn't angry anymore but he was far from happy. Gone was even the contentment he'd possessed at one point. His emotions were forgone even as Zedalia tried to cheer him with the progress of her pregnancy.
Rin learned something new about the birth of heirs where Yuma's clan was concerned. It was quite morbid really. However it explained why Zedalia had not given birth in a total of three years. Zedalia was pregnant but she was harbouring three potential heirs. It made Rin cringe but the truth was only one child could be born out of the three. That child was already fighting his first battles in the womb against his siblings.
They all started off as equals. As regular babies until it came to eating, staying healthy and alive. For the first year it was the mother that gave the babies all their nutrients and kept them alive. However as they developed it stopped being enough. By the second year the mother's body cut her babies off from their given food source. The small embryos would then need to fight one another for the nutrients the other possessed to stay alive. Rin thought such a thing was horrible. Horrendous even. Sadly one of three embryos would succumb and meet their end only to be fed upon by the two left. Another year later the much stronger and powerful babies would attack each other again for another year of nourishment and whoever won was born as the new heir.
Rin was appalled to hear about this but what could she do about it? This was a memory and even if it wasn't she was powerless to stop any of it. She couldn't change anatomy even with all her power.
The three years that passed brought a change of scene to Yuma. The city expanded out into what had always been demon territory and many demons had to take up false skins and blend in with society. Most already had but there were a few very arrogant ones. They were arrogant of course until a certain Seer was used as a threat to thwart them by the county group of monks and religious peoples. Yuma refused to move though and told not who he was to the priest. His picture was printed in many papers and he became an outlaw for unlawfully claiming land that was owned by the city.
Soon enough the humans returned with fatuous fine and eviction notices. Growing fed up with their nuisances Yuma deftly dispatched them all and left Ein for not the first time to dispose of the bodies. She said nothing as she did it and didn't bother to warn him about his soul. It was something she hadn't bothered doing since his split with Ia. In a way it was a good thing. Rin felt Yuma's deep-seated demoralization. He wouldn't listen despite all the profound arguments Ein could put up.
It wasn't long before the law got their hands on him. Yuma didn't fight this time around and simply went with them after they bound his hands. They patted him down and disposed of his weapons-a foolish and useless feat considering that Ein could always reach him and aid him. Zedalia had left the house on business earlier in the day and Yuma didn't struggle as they led him towards the city. He could escape if he wanted but he just went with them. More out of humor than submission.
They locked him up in a tiny prison cell and he slumped without determination against the cell wall. The cell was barren, damp and cold. Rats skittered across the floor and it reeked of animal excrement and moisture-laden hay. Yet as Rin took a seat next to him and heard him sigh, she felt a new emotion from him. In this awful cell, Yuma felt...as close to peace as he'd been in the last three years. This wretched cell was more of a home than his home had ever been. Yuma thought this with a certain melancholy. His expression was still a desolate pit of emptiness along with his woebegone limbs.
It was odd then when he closed his eyes and simply began to sleep. Something Rin had rarely seen him do in the last three years. Was it possible sleep wasn't particularly a need for demons? Maybe it was because Yuma had never felt at liberty to sleep. Rin knew nothing but the glacial embrace of misery consoled him in the darkest of nights during the hours he slept. She suddenly felt so tired. Similar to how Yuma's memories seemed nowadays.
Rin didn't sleep though. She studied Yuma as he slept. He looked so innocent in his sleep. It was impossible to think about any of the evil he'd committed as he slept here. He had a son on the way...and yet he was joyless. He was handsome, undeniably and impeccably so. Here though, he was also beautiful. Not the deceitful beauty that she knew wholeheartedly with each breath in her real life. But a true and pure beauty that was merely exhausted with the world.
Minutes went on like this until Rin felt a strong and unadulterated presence approaching them. Warmth filled her and she found herself smiling. The approaching person was unsullied and refined in their steps. Yuma's eyes fluttered to life only when the person stood directly outside the cell and looked in through the bars.
"What do you want?" he said tiredly. It was a basic tone that was bone-tired and no longer wished to be bothered for anything for years...millennia even. Yuma pressed his back without much effort back against the walls and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I didn't want to believe it," a familiar angelic voice spoke softly, "but it really was you they were marching here." Only then did Yuma look up with a sudden surge of energy that defied all Rin thought she'd just learned about him.
"Ia..." he spoke the name with such tenderness and so much joyous emotions filled him before he remembered that she had in a way...forsaken him and directed his gaze elsewhere. Yuma scoffed. "Hah, what? Have you come to destroy my heart some more? You got such a kick out of it last time." Yuma smiled bitterly before he glared at her. "Unfortunately there's nothing left of it for you to step on any longer Ia."
Pain and equal despair settled on Ia's face at Yuma's words before it disappeared like it had never been there.
"And yet with such a heart you gazed upon me like your saviour just now as the people do. With that so called tainted heart you sought me out aimlessly for but a glimpse for a year after." Yuma didn't look at her. "With such courage and evil you claim to possess you sit in this cell...tired of it all and no more evil than a newborn babe."
"What do you want, Ia?" Yuma snarled.
"Why do you hold steadfast to your hatred, Yuma?" Yuma was up before Ia even finished his name. His hands slammed forcefully against the bars but Ia didn't cringe away.
"You betrayed me, Ia! I have every right to hate you!"
"Even three years later?" she asked calmly. Yuma searched her gaze before he backed away.
"Just like a heartless Seer not to understand the damage of her mistruths."
"Oh, I understand," Ia protested. "And I've suffered," she shouted and yet in a complete contradiction did not raise her voice. "I've suffered far more than you're even capable of imagining. I will continue to suffer as long as I live, much worse than any of the suffering and agony you were born to cause."
Yuma was silent for a long while. Ia was still so profoundly beautiful...his entire being ached to console her...to touch her...he gritted his teeth and didn't.
"What do you want, Ia?" Yuma asked again. He was softer this time.
"You've committed an act of treason against the humans, Yuma. The people fear you and people kill what they fear. Thus...I've been ordered here to lay waste to you." Ia said it with such heaviness in her voice that Yuma looked directly at her. Ia still had such an intense impact on him. Fresh agony brewed deep inside him as he denied himself her comfort. He fell hopelessly and endlessly in love with her all over again...
"So what are you waiting for then?" Yuma said snidely. Ia let herself into his cell and Yuma stood to stare at her. Ia however, did not attack him violently or harshly. She kissed him and despite all his former resistance Yuma pulled her closer. Rin blushed deeply at the sudden intimate thoughts from Yuma about Ia that rushed her mind. She didn't look away though. Rin did however follow as Ia took Yuma's hand and he followed her without question. Ia snuck Yuma through a dusty passage from the last cell on the right at the end of the secluded corridor that was the prison. Before long they were outside in a secluded area.
"I am a Seer, Yuma," Ia told him in explanation. "If I do not tell you something trust that it is for good reason. I should not have to describe the logic behind it." Still Yuma gazed at her in a way that showed her he was still debating trusting her again.
"But I do not want you to withhold details from me, Ia," Yuma confessed. "No matter what it is." It was then that Ia took Yuma's hand and gazed deeply into his eyes. Rin was hit with a sudden rush of images that played before her like a video on fast forward. Then it faded just as quickly and took her energy with it.
Ia had in her power shown Yuma the future that would've befallen him if she'd told him of her fiancee. Yuma's anger had bolstered and he'd ignored all her words that told him she hadn't chosen such a fate. Total evil had consumed his soul and worse despair than he'd possessed before. When the image faded and he slumped slightly against Ia he was gasping slightly. Ia only stared at him sympathetically.
"You are too precious to me that I should let such a fate transpire," Ia assured him.
"I am such a fool, Ia...To think that I-"
"We have both been foolish, Yuma," she interrupted.
"What can I do now, Ia? Zedalia is already to bear my child..."
"I know..." Ia spoke sadly.
"What shall I do?" Yuma asked again in certain fret that shocked Rin.
"Have your child Yuma."
"I cannot! Not if I wish to be with you. He will be a reminder of my folly."
"He is still your son Yuma. The son of the woman you loved after me. We cannot call off our marriages either."
"Then escape with me, Ia. I do not wish to marry anyone except you."
"You would abandon your son, Yuma?"
"That wouldn't be till after he is born, Ia," Yuma promised. "He is my son after all, my flesh and blood. I will take him with me and we shall love him as our own."
"Good," Ia stated in total relief. "I will think of something Yuma. All the potential futures right now are far too grim."
Pain exploded through Rin's veins and she screamed. She screamed and she screamed as liquid agony bled through her. The memory before her burst into nothing but blinding light and blinded her harshly. Her eyes snapped open and she gasped only to choke up the air. She awoke to see Teto staring at her with a recently used needle. And though Rin screamed she made no noise. Rin was finally awake in the agency.