I think at this point you don't even need the warnings, but…
This chapter doesn't contain sex but it does have some forms of violence (verbal and/or physical).
If you're confused about something, read the author's note at the bottom or send me a message/email/review if that doesn't help. Or just review… or don't, I'm not your boss or anything, but it's highly appreciated!
Thank you all, here's a new page of the story. Enjoy and review!
-+-+-+-+-+STORY TIME!+-+-+-+-+-
-+-Cologne-+-+- Monday 14th-+-
The silent alarm had gone off half an hour ago and had yet to stop.
The Amazon elder grew concerned the longer she watched the little red dot blinking at the upper right corner of the screen, silent alarms weren't meant to last this long and at this point not having switched the sirens on meant something very… sensitive… was happening.
The pokegirl older than most any other living sentient being on the planet hesitated as she pondered why no one had sent her news of the situation. It wasn't as if it could be a faulty circuit, the thing had so many redundant and confirmatory systems built into it she'd be the one to die of old age before it stopped working properly.
There was a knock at the door and her grip on her staff tensed, the chi from the other side was incredibly nervous, failing to keep herself calm only just barely. She recognized it as one of the guard captains.
"Open." She commanded sternly.
The grand-mistress entered and swiftly fell on a knee. "I am so sorry to interrupt you, elder." She spoke reverently. "But… something has happened."
Cologne growled in irritation. "Get on with it, what is it?"
The pokewoman hesitated, glancing at the door and then back at her leader. "Is the room… safe?"
Her blood boiled and ran cold at the same time, if her guard captain doubted the level of privacy in her office it meant it was far bigger than what she had anticipated. Poking at the controls, steel curtains rose to block the window and door, the lights switching to a reddish tone as the room became hermetically sealed with a hiss, a powerful wind sweeping over the entirety of the room for a second, lowering the temperature a couple degrees as the air was purged and replaced by one from sealed tanks.
The sterile smell wasn't exactly pleasant, and Cologne would put one of her most trusted girls through hell if it turned out taking such measures had been a waste of her time.
"Speak." She ordered softly, a clear sign of her growing impatience.
Swallowing loudly, the pokewoman nodded. "The cursed springs… Jusenkyo has been emptied."
Cologne paused.
For a split second, every thought in her head came to a screeching halt.
"Gangha." Her eyes were unfocused as she focused on a point somewhere in the wall behind the girl. "My ears must be finally failing me. Did you say the springs have gone dry?"
"No ma'am." She rushed to answer.
The elder sighed in relief.
"I said it had been emptied." Gangha corrected herself. "The springs are filling up naturally again as we speak, but all the cursed water that had been in it up to last night… vanished."
She moved so quickly Gangha hadn't had the opportunity to properly register it. In less than a blink of an eye, Cologne was standing in front of her, looking down on her from her staff, an aura over three hundred years old exploding with surgical precision as it bore down on her.
"How."
It wasn't a question, it was a command, and Gangha found her head on the floor as she rushed to explain.
"We aren't sure yet, all surveillance equipment had been shut down two hours ago for maintenance since it had been setting off false alarms for days now. None of the guards on the outer perimeter detected anything amiss and coms had been responding properly the whole time, we didn't find out until the shift change…" she choked, throat tightening. "The only thing left of the inner guards were body parts."
The threatening aura withdrew abruptly, no longer aimed at Gangha but still there, flickering like the flames at the mouth of a volcano, ready to erupt at a moment's notice.
"How many?" she spoke between gritted teeth, eyes filled with wrath and sorrow.
"Thirty six confirmed deaths, ten missing." Gangha muttered in a whisper. "Preliminary inspection reveals most of them died from energy blades, crushing damage, or some kind of explosives, though we've yet to find out what sort. There were no footprints and no lingering energies that didn't belong to those of our own. We're waiting for a bonemaiden autopsy crew to arrive, with any luck they'll be able to take some further information from possible spirits left behind or from the guards."
Without a word, the aura that had been about to explode a moment earlier vanished, Cologne slowly walked back towards her seat, closing her eyes as for the first time in Gangha's lifetime, the elder appeared to be at her deathbed.
Silence followed, the red light giving the impression that time itself had stopped for a minute.
Slowly, the elder appeared to refuse death, drawing in a long breath. "How much?"
"We… we don't have precise numbers." Gangha spoke mournfully. "But it's estimated to have been about one to two hundred thousand metric tons of cursed water at least. It'd be enough for thousands to…"
Another moment of stillness passed.
"Gangha." The word hung in the silence like a sentence. "You did your job well, be proud of it."
At a gesture, the room's airtightness was broken and the security measures returned to normal. The natural light of the sun finally shining through the window.
"You may leave now."
The pokewoman hesitated, remaining still. "Ma'am? Should I…?"
Cologne turned her chair to look out the window. "Gangha… leave."
"Yes Lady Cologne." She went back to her feet and bowed, quickly leaving the room.
Her right hand rose from her chair's armrest as the tip of her index finger pressed against the glass window, a single tiny crack appeared on the point of contact. Slowly, it began to widen, tiny pieces of the window jumping out the further the spider web of fractures kept spreading throughout the entire surface.
With a 'plink', it suddenly exploded outwards, turning to dust in the chi-blast as it was quickly swept in the wind, the energy carrying forwards and out into the distance where it was harmlessly dispersed.
"I've gotten rusty." She spoke with deathly calmness on her voice, watching her handiwork with impassiveness.
The door to her office burst open and four pokegirls wearing black jumped inside, two more teleporting near the window and a last one in the middle of the room. All looking ready to battle but abruptly becoming confused at the visage of only Cologne on her seat.
"Are you safe Lady Cologne?" the taller one spoke in concern.
"I am." Slowly, she turned to face her bodyguards, eyes shimmering with dangerous emotions. "But whoever killed my children and forsook our land won't be."
-+-Kim-+-
"I know it's going to be rough, but you can't go looking for your girl." Kim's words felt like red hot irons were poking through his skin. "If whoever has her can block out high-end scrying, then whatever chances of finding her you had went cold. Even if you did find her, I'd strongly advice not interfering."
She was talking politely, calmly, even trying to be reassuring… and it was the only reason Mario found to reign in his tongue from a sharp retort and a quick dismissal. "Well, that possibility has been discarded." Despite the controlled tone of voice, his knuckles were white from his fist clenching so tightly. "What else can you offer?"
There was a pause, a long silent pause. Kim was looking at him intently, and her eyes had quickly gone over the other girls before landing back on his. "One of the girls I work with is a videogirl, she could probably look for clues of your pokegirl in the net and see if there's a trace somewhere, but…" she shook her head. "…she's not the most agreeable sort, I can't guarantee she'd be willing to help."
Hecate perked and frowned at the words, almost glaring. "That's not what you had been about to say."
In the following moment of silence, Mario took the opportunity to glance between the splice and Kim, raising an eyebrow in silent persistence to continue.
"It's… it's not legal, it's going to cost a lot, and there's no guarantee you'll find what you're looking for…" Kim's voice wavered for a second, shaking her head. "But if your girl's still in Edo…"
Mario groaned loudly as the dots suddenly connected. "The yakuza."
Kim nodded very slowly. "I have a… 'friend of a friend' who may or may not know someone that could find her for you or introduce you someone who can… but he can't know I sent you, and he'll charge you even if he can't get you the results you want." She paled as her hands clutched one another. "It'd be cheaper to buy a large apartment with views to the imperial palace."
He appeared to consider his options. "I'm guessing for those prices I could probably just as well bribe every bum in the city into looking for Sakuya."
"You'd still have to spare for every other city in Edo." She nodded, running the numbers. "Maybe, depends on how well you can barter."
Leaning back on his chair, he glanced looked at the bland white ceiling with an unfocused gaze. "But you believe this person you're talking about is the likeliest way."
Kim nodded again. "Let's just… hypothetically… say he helped me obtain some… items… for my research that the government would potentially disapprove of… and these imaginary items were only rumored to exist to the best of my knowledge at the time."
"Wait, how did you get that kind of money?" Verde's question rung out and in the silence Mario practically felt the genius flinch.
"He… in this hypothesis, I would've had to do some favors to compensate for my complete lack of funding." The voice dropped to a shameful whisper as she turned to look at the floor. "The sort of theoretical favor that I wouldn't have wanted to do were it not because of the debt such imagined favor-."
Mario raised his hands and sighed. "We get it." Crossing his arms, he leaned back into his chair, a second long sigh. "My better chances of finding Sakuya are through help of the less legally inclined."
Kim bit her lip, nodding. "Yes." Lowering her gaze again, she then shook her head. "Even if they knew where she is, they could still choose to withhold the information just because she could be sold for a large sum of money; dark kitsunes are hard to come by at auctions and make for powerful and loyal pets if-."
A chill ran down Kim's spine as she felt a jolt of energy pulse through the air around her. The words died out in her lips as she glanced back up, finding Mario jaw tightly clenched in anger, but the energy came from behind him, as the seemingly calm Hecate had her eyes shimmering gold and a vague reddish aura surrounding her.
No sooner had she blinked Hecate's threatening visage and the energy instantly returned to normal, the sense of doom looming over her gone along with it.
Apparently Mario hadn't noticed anything, but both the hun and pinielf turned to look at the splice and quickly back at Kim in apparent confusion as to what had just transpired.
"I want to meet him." The human's words were no more than a hushed whisper; the illusion of calmness in his voice meant little when there was fire in his eyes.
Kim hesitated. "Are you-?"
"If you want anything out of me, you will let me meet this associate you mentioned." The tone shook and turned into half a growl. "If you won't do it, I'll find my own way to do it, and this will be the last time we talk."
Kim grimaced but chose to think his offer through. Closing her eyes, she calmed her thoughts. Was she willing to let him take the risk in exchange of having access to more information for her research? There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in his words, and she didn't need a truth spell to know he would certainly try to look for a way on his own if she didn't give him one.
The only problem was that if he stumbled around on his own he would draw attention at one point or another. Through hers she'd be certain her 'friend of a friend' would ensure he didn't trip anyone's alarms… at least not unless doing so became convenient for him.
"Fine." She finally agreed, steeling herself as she returned his glare. "But you'll have to do exactly what I say. You can't meet him without taking the proper precautions, and even if he turns you down, you'll have to come into my lab at least twenty hours a week."
"Twelve." He calmly replied. "And any magical training I do will be in your lab if possible."
Biting her lip, Kim hesitantly nodded. "Deal."
-+-Mister J-+-
He felt it in a shudder down his metal spine followed by excitement, it was time! It was time!
Metal bearings and greased articulations creaked from the layers of dried up blood that covered most of his upper body. Plastic smile and plastic face turned to look into at the entrance.
A shudder down his metal spine told him, she was here, it was time.
With a slow creak and a panting gasp, the door slid open to reveal two figures standing on the threshold. One was larger than the threshold of the door, the other was sleek and small and all the more inviting.
"Mister J! We're home!" Quinn's sing-song of a voice was like a melody in the dim light of the warehouse.
Another shudder down his spine, it was her, her at last.
With a cackle and a pounce, the metal man was on her at once.
The girl reacted quicker though, moving aside and letting him crash against the hulking figure behind her.
The pokegirl barely registered the impact with a grunt, not even bothering to move as Mister J's head spun 180º as he remained hanging from the larger pokegirl's leg like a child who wouldn't let go, hollow eyes seeing the backpack his favorite girl was carrying looking back at him with large eyes.
"Naughty naughty." She muttered, taking off her pack and flinging it into the house.
From within, a groan came out as response.
"Did you bring it?" His voice took a commanding edge as he spoke, though his plastic smile remained just as large and unhinged.
"Yes, we brought as much as I could hold." The backpack floated back outside, speaking through words that weren't sound but that bounced within Mister J's mind. "Eighty pokepacks all filled to the brim."
Had Mister J been able to frown, he would've done so. Instead, the smile in his face appeared to just barely twitch at the same time his head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "What about the rest?"
The sentient backpack appeared to freeze up at the words.
"Stop." The small giant grumbled, stomping her foot on the ground and sending the metal man sprawling through the dirt. "No nice."
"Now now Aky, Jack is just being curious." Quinn was quick to pat the pokegirl's leg in consolation. "Don't you trust me?"
Hesitating for only a moment, she slumped to the ground and sat with her legs crossed, a definite 'thump' resounding throughout the forest at fall. "Aky sorry."
"I know, I know." Quinn patted her head in reassurance, eyeing the 'boss man' from the corner of her eye as he stood back up. "The rest of it we put away in a special place, Mimi can't carry any more than what she already has."
"Y…yeah!" half determined, the backpack growled at Mister J. "You're lucky I-I'm not j-just spewing it all over the p-place!"
The metal doll laughed hollowly. "Shut up or I might just make you do it." At its words the sentient backpack shuddered and hastily put more distance between herself and him.
Flapping wings drew everyone's attention upwards, there was a moment of tension on Aky's form but Quinn was quick to calm her with a gesture. In an instant, the blur of red landed, making it clear it was the final member of the group.
"We have a problem." Karin turned to face Quinn with a stern face. "Luca got caught."
Quinn's eyes narrowed dangerously as she turned to look at the Whorizard, there was a flicker of both magical and psychic energies and she growled in frustration. "JACKIE!" she screeched out.
Her call was met by a nervous 'eep' and the sound of something tumbling, but quickly enough the girl was scurrying out of the house and looking at Quinn with nervous eyes. "Yes miss Q?"
Crossing her arms and raising a brow, the pokegirl looked down at her with demanding eyes. "Karin told me we're missing one of our friends."
Jackie winced, looking down and away. "Y…y-y-yes… Luca was taken during our raid to the police station…"
"And why didn't you call me?"
"Because Mister J thought that…"
With a frustrated sigh, Quinn knelt in front of the girl and held her face between her hands, carefully putting away a strand of black hair behind her ear. "Jackie, what did we talk about?"
"Th…that…" she nervously looked over her shoulder at the metal doll, and paled.
Quickly pulling her face to she'd focus on her instead, Quinn kept the smile. "Nonono, eyes on me. What did we talk about?"
"That… I'm the one who calls the shots." She mumbled.
"Good." The girl nodded slowly. "And why is that?"
"Because… because I got all the brains and he got the pointy bits."
"And?"
Jackie lowered her face as she looked downwards. "And… and pointy bits are good for the stabbing but the brains are always better for the planning."
"That's right." Quinn nodded in confirmation, shooting a withering glare at the metal puppet before kissing Jackie on the forehead and lowering her voice to a whisper. "So, what did the mean ol doll do?"
"I brought a plaything." Mister J stated proudly, cackling as he showed his sharpened claws. "Asked her some questions."
"She knows nothing though." Karin scoffed.
"And that is because neither of you know how to ask the right things." Quinn patted Jackie's head, helping her rise to her feet. "Isn't that right Jackie?"
Her head hung low as she tried to avoid eye contact with the others. "Y-yeah…"
"And what is it they didn't ask?"
Jackie grasped at both her hands at the same time, wringing her fingers for only a second before hesitantly looking into the darkness of the house. "They… they thought the one who took Luca was an officer but…" the wringing intensified as she bit her lip. "…but it could've been a normal tamer that just happened to be in the station when we attacked."
Quinn shot a smug glare at the two pokegirls, crossing her arms in determination and giving a dismissive nod. "You heard Jackie, go ask for some names." Patting the smaller pokegirl's head tenderly, she drew her into a hug, kissing her forehead and grinning. "We'll get Luca back, you'll see."
-+-Sakuya-+-
The world around her exploded into light, and there was only a second of disorientation as she attempted to get her bearings, her mind waking up from what had felt like a lifetime of darkness.
"Kneel."
The female voice rung out through her head before Sakuya could even see anything other than the white dots and stripes of light through her vision.
There was a thumping sound besides her, but she didn't get a chance to wonder as her own legs buckled beneath her. She was suddenly on her knees, glancing in confusion at her body and the plain gray marble floor beneath her.
"Don't move."
Abruptly, every muscle in her body became tense, and pain exploded throughout her as she tried to move, a grunt escaped her lips as she the more she tried to even figure out where she was by moving her eyes, the sensation of red hot needles piercing her neck made her shudder.
"Pain."
If it hurt before, it paled with what followed. She was burning form the inside, electricity was bringing her still muscles into a constant state of spasms, lava was being poured above her head, swords were slicing away at her flesh. Every was a new form of torture as her own body didn't allow her to so much as close her eyes, the only signal to the outside world of what she was going through being her shivering arms and head.
"Pleasure."
The whimper that followed came with confusion and need, every frayed nerve that had been screaming a moment ago sang out in bliss, the inferno of agony becoming a glow of growing satisfaction as her insides shuddered trying to press down on a member that was clearly not there.
"Pain."
Sakuya had caught on at this point the voice was doing something to her, but not quickly enough to prepare herself for the new onslaught. Her skin was crawling now, alive in its torment as things moved through her body and melted her insides with acidic anguish.
"Pleasure."
The whimper became a closed moan, everything aching from a growing exhaustion even as her loins and chest ached from invisible touches, orgasm after another assaulting her unwilling mind in relentless persistence.
"Pain."
Her hands clutched at her legs, claws digging into her and drawing blood, but the action not registering as everything that she felt was-.
"Pleasure."
The shout never reached her sealed lips, her juices began to flow from the imaginary lover that-.
"Pain." They were eating her alive, claws and fangs shredded into her as she was consumed by-.
"Pleasure." All around her, Mario's scent as he thrust into her with animalistic abandon, taking her to-.
"Pain." Something was hammering her bones, breaking them one by one, reducing them to dust-.
"Pleasure. Pain. Pleasure. Pain… Stop."
Sakuya fell face first onto the floor, her mind no longer recognizing whether if she was being tortured to death or raped into submission. Her nerves ached and her whole body felt too sensitive, every sensation was an overload that was both exquisite and agonizing. She was on a pool of her own fluids, and her nose could pick out both the fear and adrenaline mixed in with the arousal.
Her mind was stretched thin and filled with a near absolute numbness to her own thoughts, she couldn't even manage to bring herself to do anything, she might as well have been unconscious but with her eyes open.
"Kneel."
The voice commanded with a certain satisfaction to it, but Sakuya wouldn't move.
A grunt, and something pierced her ankle and quickly withdrew, the sensation taking a moment to register before Sakuya's mind finally returned to reality. She let out a half chocked scream.
"Kneel."
Her body responded once more before she could consciously fight it, and she was kneeling once more, only this time she could move her head and look around.
The first thing she noticed was that they were inside a smallish concrete room with marble floors, a single heavy looking metal door for an entrance and no windows. In front of her stood a woman, a beautiful woman, her hair was long and black, her face like a doll's with porcelain skin and clearly Asian traits.
But her eyes… those black eyes held within something. And it made every hair on the back of Sakuya's neck to stand on edge.
Much to the kitsune's surprise, her mind didn't feel anything in her vicinity, even though her senses said otherwise. She stretched her consciousness as far as she could go, and felt only void around her.
The woman pointed at Sakuya. "From now on you will only respond to White." Her hand then moved to somewhere to her right. "And you will only respond to Black."
Sakuya glanced in the direction the woman had been pointing at, and whatever sensation of daze she had disappeared when she saw the muscular form of the panthress, kneeling only a couple feet away and appearing in a condition similar to her own.
She knew she had met the pokegirl before, it had been the one to kidnap her, but though she swore she had actually talked to the feline Menace at some point, the memory wouldn't surface.
"Acknowledge your names."
Her head snapped back to look at the woman and without her intent to, she bowed her head, lips moving without consent and before she could process what was going on. "My name is Black/White" both voices rang in unison. As soon as the fox pokegirl looked back up, she realized the woman was grinning.
"Good." She nodded slowly, and Sakuya shuddered at the tiny spark of pleasure that was forced on her.
The dark kitsune made sure not to show it, less so when she realized she still thought of herself as Sakuya, as Mario's pokegirl, as someone who's body was being forced to act upon the stranger's command even though her mind denied ever wanting to follow them.
"Though the both of you were put in my care, it was under the conditions that I'd make sure neither of you died or were put through a taming cycle." Her smile kept a polite sneer that was turning into a dark smile. "But that doesn't mean I won't put you to work, having you lazing around and not earn your keep just wouldn't do."
Sakuya didn't like the tone of mock concern the woman was using, and neither did she like the way her dark eyes kept glancing at her and the feline menace as if they were meat about to get prepared for a meal.
"I heard the panthress breed have an instinctual loathing of humans, especially males." She had focused on the black feline who was glaring her way. "I'm certain people would pay hefty premiums to tame the untameable menace… I'll make you a STAR."
The tone she used carried a deep and overwhelming satisfaction as she drank in the hatred from the powerful pokegirl's gaze.
Sakuya knew instantly this was not a place she could stay in any longer. She tried to move, teleport, anything that'd get her out of this hole and to her tamer's arms before this woman decided to find some form of torture to use on them. But no sooner had the thought crossed her mind a jolt ran into her brain and broke her concentration.
She had caught on and her grin broadened. "Oh, we have a fighter it seems, I know just the place for someone like you." Glancing behind the pokegirl and to someone else, she nodded. "Take her to the pens and prep her."
"As you command."
A hand grabbed hold of Sakuya by the scruff of her neck and the world instantly shifted around her as she was teleported to some other location. She didn't get much chance to see much before the hand holding her threw her away and sent her rolling across the cement floor.
"Stand up."
At the order, Sakuya shot to her feet, yelping in pain as her pierced ankle didn't respond as it should and instead revealed her tendon had been severed, a burning sensation coming from everything below her knee. Still, her body refused to disobey and remained upright though leaning heavily on her unwounded leg.
This gave her ample opportunity to see the new location. The room was vastly larger than the previous one, and there were many other occupants in it as well, pokegirls all and cuddled or sitting against the walls in silence as they observed.
"Use this." The one that had brought her here, a sharply dressed man, tossed her a potion and kept a neutral expression as his green eyes studied her form with contempt. She tried to feel his presence, smell his scent, or even hear his heartbeat, but something appeared to be blocking it, the only confirmation she had he existed was that she was looking at him and the sound of his words.
The sting of the spray was followed by relief as the wound began to quickly close up, leaving not even a scar behind.
"This is the fighting pens, and it will be your new home." The man gestured at the dozens of other pokegirls, some of them looking at him with fear, others with hatred. Some of the bigger ones simply ignored his presence and were more focused on Sakuya instead. "Don't move, I'm going to brand you."
Without allowing the pokegirl to move away, he had appeared behind her, hand pressing against her back and exploding with hot pain as Sakuya shrieked. The scent of burning fur and flesh reached her nose, unable to move away or fall down as the throbs on her back slowly dissipated.
"Your number is 42. Acknowledge it."
Sakuya cringed, grinding her teeth against one another as pain began to come back. "My number is 42." Her words came out as a growl.
"Now you're free to move." The man spoke with the same level of emotionless control he had kept throughout the conversation. "You will be called every so often to go out and fight, you will respond to anyone calling you by your number, and you will obey immediately." For a fraction of a second, he looked around at the other pokegirls, and a slight grin crossed his lips. "But my orders take priority above all others, only being second in importance to Lady Nagina's."
There was a pause as he hummed to himself, looking over the other girls, most of which who turned away the instant his gaze was upon them.
"You will not kill nor harm yourself, you will not allow yourself to go feral, you will eat and drink what is given to you, you will keep yourself in top condition to fulfill your commands and fight, you will not attempt to escape, and you will always answer honestly and to the fullest of your ability any question you're asked. Doing these things will bring you pleasure." With a pause, he pressed a ponderous finger against the side of his face, a slow smile spreading across his lips. "Lastly, anytime you even think of something that goes against any of my or Lady Nagina's commands, you will feel increasing pain until you speak out loud the command that you were considering to break."
No sooner had the words left his lips; Sakuya fell to the floor holding the sides of her head as she let out a scream. Her eyes shot tight as the feeling of the fire around her slowly burning hotter began to sear her nerves.
"I will not attempt escape." Her lips shouted out, the pain decreasing only marginally.
"I will keep myself in top conditions to fulfill my commands and fight." She was grinding her teeth at the growing realization of what was happening.
"I will answer honestly and to the full of my ability." Screeching, she clutched at her head tighter.
"I will feel pleasure obeying my commands." Tears ran down her eyes as one last thing was left.
Shaking her head sideways, she clamped her mouth shut and every muscle in her body tensed. "No…" she whimpered, fighting both the pain and the words her throat was attempting to betray out of her.
She wouldn't let this one out, she couldn't.
"My…" Mouth closed even more tightly, chocking the words back. "My name is…"
Her hands moved to close her own muzzle, attempting to bite her own tongue.
"I will not kill nor harm myself." She let out as her attempt to silence herself failed.
But she wouldn't let it happen, if she said it just once it would mean she'd lose. They had taken her from Mario, and put something on her that took away her ability to act as she wanted.
They weren't going to take her name, not while she was breathing.
"I will not kill nor harm myself." She parroted a second time, louder.
Thoughts of tearing her own throat out kept surging from her mind, her own claws digging into flesh until they reached bone. "I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself."
She opened her eyes to glare at the man as she put everything she had into the thoughts of self-mutilation. She'd die, she'd smash her skull against the wall until it cracked, she'd plunge her fingers through her eyes into her brain, and she'd burn the air around herself until she choked on the fumes or lack of oxygen… anything before letting go of the one gift she had left.
"I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself."
Worry crossed his face as blood began to drip from her nose.
"I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I… will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself."
He shifted nervously as she chanted the words louder and louder, unable to abate the pain from the other compulsion but focusing harder into the image, tasting the blood of her own torn out tongue and flayed throat.
"I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself. I will not kill nor harm myself."
Now blood began to drip out of her ears, and a moment of panic appeared on his face.
She'd use her own psychic energies to rip apart her mind, she'd burn through her heart, slice her own arm off with her fangs and bleed herself dry.
"I WILL not KILL nor harm MYSELF!"
"Stop!" he commanded calmly, only his eyes betraying the urgency. "I rescind my last command. Stop!"
Instantly the pain vanished and she sighed in relief, her eyes keeping a steady glare on him as the pain's absence was almost orgasmic.
"My name…" She panted the pain that was blossoming from inside her mind barely comparable to what she had bared moments prior. "…is Sakuya."
With one withering sigh, she let go, fully slumping to the floor, quickly losing consciousness.
"Crazy bitch." The words hung in the air as everything turned to black.
+-+-+-+-+-STORY END-+-+-+-+-+
+-+-+-+-+-CURRENT HAREM-+-+-+-+-+
-SAKUYA (Dark Kitsune)(Missing): Speed x6, Agility x6, Hearing x6, Smell x6, Isolation Aura
-VERDE (Hun)(Alpha): Speed x4, Strength x4, Durability x4, Endurance x4, Reduced Feral, Cold Resistance, Hunting Aptitude
-CORONA (Pinielf): Strength x2, Endurance x2, Agility x4, Vision x3, Smell x3, Flesh Bending, Fighting Aptitude, Longevity
-JADE (Marylith. Aka: Eelara, Laplass): Durability x5, Speed x10 (Swimming), Agility x5, Summon-Water, Hydrokinesis, Multi-limbed(6 Arms), Affinity-Ice, Toxic-Blood, Enhanced Flexibility
-HECATE (G-Splice): Speed x7, Strength x3, Endurance x7, Agility x6, Smell x4, Enhanced (Memory & Intelligence), Empathy, Partial Body Sculping (Self), Intuitive Aptitude (Body Sculpting, Computers), Familiar Bond.
Extra Enhancements: +2 Smell from Cerberass.
+-+-+-+-+-A.R.-+-+-+-+-+
(Author's Replies)
a1993: I think this chapter ought to be enough of an answer to your question. This arc ends with Sakuya "missing", and it will be perhaps the main theme of the next one... will have to see about it.
I await your questions, I'm pretty sure there are holes here and there and I'd more than gladly report and delete whatever review points them out (kidding... kidding...). Hope you enjoyed it!
A Whimsical Seishin: And another review! Thanks!
Unwanted Empathy: I'm pretty glad myself, it's still hectic since I've yet to get fully into speed of things, but at least it's no longer a complete chaos so I'm getting the hang of things.
Vendettadabeast: To clear it out, yes, *that* particular yakuza boss is (according to the cannon) the head of a mob that specializes in knowing things. Having a Mazouku (which are among the top ranking infernals out there) makes it likelier she also know about Hild.
Mario has put up a rule where no one's allowed in the bathroom while he showers unless they knock and ask first. Also yes, Kim's more of a wreck when it comes down to certain things, but her help will take the team far.
Yup, final official chapter, though I do have a little announcement to make regarding omakes...
Aeonir: Thanks for the review, and though I agree that things are quite complex, I feel I could skip on details and move it along, but... well, it's perhaps the most important reason the characters feel *real* to me, because rather than just say "She said blablabla and went along", I do something along the lines of "She thought this and that and debated inwardly before saying blablabla and feeling that what she said wasn't really what she should have." or the like.
It kills the pace in a way, but I don't know any better way to make the characters more fleshed out.
This is also the reason as to why the "End of the arc" as it is, the story needs to skip along and if I do it through hastened description it'll feel like a kick in the ass for myself and I'm guessing you all as well.
cko2: I'm guessing you're writing from mobile and since I know how much of a pain that is I'm giving you double thanks for it.
Now, to answer your question, no, he's not part of the "Author Program" since, technically, he (me) is not an author at the time this begins. That and I haven't really made enough stories about this to consider myself at a rank that anyone would be interested in kidnapping me for it.
Tae Vaarku: I haven't got a clue as to what you're talking about, sorry.
Guest: That's a possibility I've yet to consider, but often times I wonder how it'd go if I put up a [Start listening to song X here]... it's an interesting thought.
+-+-+-+-+-W.C.-+-+-+-+-+
(Writers comments)
Final chapter for this "Arc", the continuation story will come, but I don't have a due date.
Today is one day short from being EXACTLY two years since I posted the first chapter of this story (this coincidence is one I had not foreseen but that it's very amusing nonetheless), and I feel like it's been a wild ride from start to finish.
A lot of things have happened inside and out of the story and I'm both glad and proud to say I've stuck with this for as far as I have, and if not for the incredible help of TheMysticalFett and Naga Shark I'm absolutely certain it would've been impossible keeping the pace and narration quality.
There's still ways to go, I've still got things to learn and the story has yet to end, but this is the mark of the end of the first part and as I like doing, I left it with cliffhangers everywhere (Insert Evil Laughter Here).
Thank you all for joining in on the ride, this goes to both silent readers as well as those of you who've given reviews (Honorable mentions to UNSpacy000, Vendettadabeast, and Erlkonig for their always insightful commentaries and kicking me back on track every now and again), the support goes a long way and it's what's helped me push into keeping this as something that ought to be posted regularly rather than whenever I had the urge to scribble something (the constancy has helped a lot in more ways than just the narration).
As both a show of thanks and because I felt like it, I'm going to add ONE more chapter that's entirely composed of little snippets of what's going on between the end of this arc and the start of the next story (OMAKEs, so technically so much as a chapter but more of an "extra").
Currently I'm unsure as to where exactly the next story will begin or when I'll be posting it, but when it does I'll put up a "Chapter 37" of sorts into Imagine Pokegirls to announce its launch so that you don't miss it.
Thank you all, I hope you've enjoyed my work so far and here's to whatever my wicked mind will create as the next story so it's an even better one.
Until next time!