Sorry guys, I would have had this posted earlier in the week but I had so much on my plate.
Hope you enjoy the new chapter, I had to completely rewrite it. This chapter is nothing
like the first one I had typed up.
Anyway read and enjoy.
The clanking of metal and the cries of pain echoed, waking Sougo from unconsciousness. He groaned in pain, the cacophony of rough noises causing a dull pounding to develop within his head. When he tried to reach his head in the hopes of applying some pressure to lessen the pain, he found his movements restricted.
"What the . . . ?" He began, confused that he was tied up with what looked like his own handcuffs. At first he was perplexed until the shrill cry of "MONSTERS!" bounced off of the surrounding walls and he remembered what had happened the night before.
Sougo slammed his head into the floor, hissing at the pain. He remembered not only confessing to Kagura, but getting jealous of her previous boyfriend and telling her that she already belonged to him.
The night progressed too quickly for someone who's rarely serious like him, starting with the confessing to HER of all people, then fighting a swarm of space pirates, seeing Kagura ruthlessly slaughter people, and finally getting kidnapped. When he got free someone was in for a world of endless sadism from him.
With his eyes still closed he called out, "Hey, China." He waited for a reply, and got nothing in return. Thinking she was still knocked out from the poison given to her he tried again. "Listen here China. If you don't respond back by the time I open my eyes you're going to wish you were never born. Do you understand your new master?"
Still, no response came so when he opened his eyes he found himself in a dirty corner, lying in a pool of his own dried blood, alone. He then wished he was at least respected a little as a prisoner.
Sougo didn't say anything as he surveyed the area around him. As far as he could tell he was in a dark forgotten corner of a loading bay in a rather large space ship.
He could hear cries and moans of pain coming from all directions and assumed that the loading bay was converted into a makeshift hospital for all the dead and wounded that had amounted in order to capture him and Kagura. Releasing a long drawn out sigh he sat up and slid a hidden spare key from within his uniform sleeve, unlocked the cuffs on his wrists and feet, and freed himself.
Sougo stayed hidden in his corner and began to get his bearings on the whole situation. He first checked his condition. The large wound on his leg was cleaned and wrapped; giving it a firm poke he figured it was now well enough to walk on without causing him serious pain. His head still hurt but the pain had lessened. As far as he could tell he had not obtained any new injuries.
Thinking back he didn't understand anything. Why was the Harusame after Kagura of all people? What was her connection and why was he taken as well? AND who just dumps a dangerous prisoner in a dark and dirty corner to be forgotten!?
He got up and that was when he noticed, HE DIDN'T HAVE HIS KATANA! He cursed. Leave it to his captors to be dumb enough to leave him alone and yet smart enough to take away his weapons.
He listened for any footsteps coming towards him and when he did not hear any he began to walk to the other end of the loading bay at a casual pace. He walked for what felt like an eternity to him when in actuality it had only been ten minutes.
As he walked he saw doctors and nurses rushing to and fro with different types of gauzes and medicine, all in order to save the lives of the few that had made it back from the "warzone" as he heard it, alive. In fact as he was walking out in the open he was never once stopped and when he was noticed the pirates never spared him a second passing glance.
Nothing was spared from his scrutinizing gaze as he inspected his enemies and their base. Everyone had at least a rifle or pistol at their side, even the doctors and nurses. The crates and barrels, when he investigated them, were full of a plethora of different products from illegal drugs, weapons, stolen goods and body parts, and at one point he saw a line of different amanto species and humans being led away, most likely to be later sold as slaves.
Guessing from the size of the cargo bay he was in and the amount of traffic passing through, Sougo could only guess that he was on what served as a type of mother ship for the Harusame's illegal trading schemes. He cursed; if he and China were to try to escape they would be dealing with a wide range of enemies numbering in the thousands.
Thinking of China made Sougo numb; he just had to fall in love with a stupid monster that causes him nothing but troubles. The only woman other than his older sister that can make him do a complete 180. His normal quiet and calm exterior destroyed by just a single word out of her mouth. Although he has to admit there were times he caught Kagura acting like a kind and gentle woman, the complete opposite of what he knows, from time to time destroyed by just a word out of his mouth or even his presence was enough.
His thoughts were disturbed by an earsplitting, out of place crash. Looking ahead Sougo noticed that a hover lift had collided with a small ship, toppling over the barrels the driver was moving. Sougo walked towards the sight of the accident in hopes of getting the answers he was looking for.
Once Sougo made it to his destination he was met with chaos. A large angry crowd had formed around the idiotic driver who was dumb enough to apparently fall asleep on the job, damaging the ship he had crashed into, and spilling expensive wine that was to be used for an important dinner that was to take place in the near future. He made his way through the crowd to see the culprit of the accident out of shear boredom.
Located on top of a pile of broken barrels, now stained a dark color from the spilled wine, was the poor amanto who reminded him vaguely of Yamazaki and a glasses stand back home. He looked similar to a human except he had catlike eyes and small horns sticking out of the side of his head. The poor soul looked as though he was about ready to dig his own grave from the amount of fear and stress he was expiriencing.
Looking at everything Sougo let out a chuckle, finding his surroundings to be hilarious but it ended much too soon for his taste.
"Look what you did now asshole!" A pirate with a white naval captain's uniform screamed as he broke through the crowd. "This wine was going to be for the Admiral and Commander's dinner! Do you have any idea of how much time and money was spent just finding the maker of that wine you just wasted!? Not only is the Commander going to be furious, but everyone in charge of that dinner is going to be strung up!" The screaming pirate was now red in the face, large thick veins popping out everywhere.
'Now this is going to be good.' Sougo thought, ready for a chance to see an ugly fight occur.
"I'm sorry, Vice Commander, Sir. I've been working nonstop moving cargo from one end of the ship to the other for days now." He cried, tears running down his face. "It was a simple mistake, it won't happen again. I'm sorry, please forgive me!" Now he was whaling and crying like a child, kissing his superiors shiny leather shoes.
As soon as the pirate began to whine and cry most of the crowd had dispersed, disappointed a fight hadn't broken out and annoyed that a pirate would cry like a baby. This only annoyed the Vice Commander more, not liking the excuse given to him one bit.
"Quit your bitchin' Shimzaki! I'm tired of all your mistakes and destroying the cargo." He flailed his arms, too angry to do anything. "This was your once last chance. You just screwed up an important order and dinner, held up the entire cargo and loading bay crew, and you're just a pathetic excuse for a pirate." The Vice Commander grunted when he saw that the waterworks on Shimzaki hadn't stopped, but increased.
"I'm sorry Sir. I-I-I just w-w-w-want-ed to do a good job for o-o-nce in my life." He stopped his stuttering speech, to wipe his nose on his sleeve. "You see my d-dad said that I would never amount to a-an-a-anything in l-life. I guess it was all true if I can't e-e-even deliver some barrels to the k-k-kitch-en." Shimzaki looked down, wallowing in self-pity.
His brief story must have struck a chord in the Vice Commander because his eyes softened and walked over to Shimzaki, kneeling down to pat him on the shoulder. Shimzaki looked up in surprise, eyes widening in disbelief and shining with hope. Only to be dashed, burned by the devil and the ashes spit on by God himself.
Still smiling the Vice Commander looked up and into the "Crowd", which was only made up of Sougo and a random janitor waiting to clean up the mess. He pointed to Sougo, whose eyes widened a little in shock and said, "You! Never seen you around the bay, you new?" Sougo nodded, already having a plan of action formulating in his head.
"I want you to take this loser down to the cells. We're all sick and tired of him causing problems; he's better off as a slave." The Vice Commander stood up, pulling Shimzaki to his side roughly. "Take him to the holding cells for now; we'll sell him with the next shipment of slaves we get. Lucky for this bastard he won't be alone down there, we got a prisoner from Earth when we picked up the Ojou-chan, nasty little thing for a human I hear, slaughtered more than half the elite unit sent to Earth."
The Vice Commander shivered in obvious fear, Sougo on the other smirked, ecstatic that he could instill so much fear into someone he had never met. "The whole ship is terrified of him I heard. They don't even want to go near the holding cells, fearful that he would somehow kill them even though his weapon is in the Commander's office. Just get this loser out of here and come back quickly, you're replacing him." With that the Vice Commander threw Shimzaki into Sougo, causing him to stumble, and ran away so as to avoid his responsibilities.
The last thing Sougo heard as he watched the retreating back of the Vice Commander was, "MAY KAMI-SAMA BLESS YOU WITH GOOD FORTUNE. OH! AND THE HOLDING CELLS ARE DOWN THE HALL BEHIND YOU, FOURTH DOOR ON YOU RIGHT!" And he was gone, never to be seen by Sougo again.
Sougo, Shimzaki, and the Janitor shared looks of disbelief and went on their own merry way. The Janitor began whistling a depressing tune as he began mopping up the mess Shimzaki had made. Sougo on the other hand began to drag the squealing and thrashing Shimzaki down the dark and musty hall to the holding cells.
"NO PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON ME! I-I'LL GIVE YOU THREE-HUNDRED YEN IF YOU JUST LET ME GO! WHAT IF THAT HUMAN EATS MY LIVER WITH A CUCUMBER SALAD? I DON'T WANT TO DIE THAT WAY!" He panicked, terrified of what lies beyond the stranger dragging him away.
Sougo was annoyed, more so than when he is dealing with Kagura, he was made out to be kappa? He looked back at the pathetic man he held captive, only to cringe at the sight he saw. Shimzaki had somehow managed to strip down to his stained briefs, revealing a very hairy tattoo of a slime amanto blowing a kiss located near a pelvic bone. The hair on his body was slick from the tears and snot running down his face, causing it to mat and cling to his lanky frame.
Sougo quickly threw him down the hall, disgusted that he was touching the nastiest thing he had ever knew existed. Hairier than his gorilla of a Commander Kondo-san, uglier naked than when clothed like Hijikata-san, and more pathetic than Yamazaki. He flung his hands to the wall for support as he threw up everything in his stomach and then some.
As Sougo was puking Shimzaki lay several feet away from him down the hall, groaning in pain.
"Why would you do that?" He whined to Sougo, voice reaching higher octaves with each passing second. Sougo coughed to clear his throat and wiped his mouth clean before replying, "Are you serious? You're the most disgusting creature I have regrettably laid eyes on, and I work with a LOT of nasty monsters." He involuntarily shuddered, remembered that night he briefly worked as a host. He stood up straight and began to walk towards the sprawled out Shimzaki at a leisurely pace.
"What the hell were you doing with your clothes off? How did you even manage to do that in the first place?" Sougo stood over Shimzaki now, apathetic towards the man before him. "I'm sorry." Soguo sighed. "Listen, I know my beauty must have mesmerized you from the moment you fell into my arms but, I don't swing that way."
Shimzaki immediately turned red with both embarrassment and anger. "What the hell are you going on about!? I'm not a homosexual! What made you think tha-!? What are you doing? Let go!" Sougo had grabbed a fistful of his hair and continued to drag him down the hall, ignoring the yelping of the amanto in his clutches until he found what he was looking for, the fourth door on the right.
"Aha." Sougo said. This got Shimzaki's attention, but once he saw the door he began pleading and thrashing around only to be silenced by a quick kick to his revealed back. The door opened on its own before Sougo even reached the knob. They both looked into the pitch black room, silent and curious. Sougo readied himself in case of a surprise attack already thinking of using Shimzaki as a shield. Shimzaki only whimpered, finally resigned to his inevitable fate.
"Sorry for the intrusion." Sougo said, kicking the door open wider as he walked in. He felt around for a switch and when he found one flicked it, shedding light into the tiny prison. Sougo wasn't surprised at all when he found it empty, devoid of any life, for a while if the thick layer of dust told him anything. He threw the naked Shimzaki into the room and closed the door behind him, making sure it was firmly locked before steadily walking towards the confused Shimzaki.
Too busy looking at the empty cells in confusion Shimzaki failed to notice the approaching steps coming from behind. "That's strange," he began. "There should definitely be a human captive in here. If he's not in here than were is h-EEEEEE!?" Shimzaki was yanked from the floor, surprised by the sudden movement.
Sougo wasted no time in getting the interrogation under way. He firmly held both of Shimzaki's cheeks and pulled to a painful degree, every time he felt resistance he would simply squeeze harder.
"Let's get this started, shall we?" Sougo began, a large sadistic grin on his face. Shimzaki could only gulp in fear, sweat rolling down the side of his face. "You're going to tell me everything I want know. If you do that I'll let you go free, do you understand?" He smiled as he watched Shimzaki wince after nodding.
"Question number one," Sougo started. "Why was China, the Ojou-chan, taken by the Harusame?" Shimzaki remained silent, not wanting to tell his human captor anything. Sougo, not liking the fact that he was ignored began pulling Shimzaki's cheeks further and further, even twisting them until Shimzaki began to scream his answer.
"OW-OW-OW-OW! I'LL THELL, I'LL THELL!" Sougo let go of the poor amanto's face, waiting for his answer.
"Geez." Shimzaki said while rubbing his swollen cheeks. "The reason why this squad "kidnapped", the Oujo-chan was because the Commander has a major plan that needs to come to fruition, and she is that one important necessity for it to be successful. You, Human-san I presume, were a side piece that mixed up the plan, but I overheard you were to be used as leverage to get the Oujo-chan to behave. After all you are her boyfriend."
Sougo simply stared blankly at the amanto in front of him, thinking about what this major plan is, not bothering to correct their relationship, not like it would work anyway. 'Well, China is a Yato. They could have kidnapped her to use her monstrous strength to get their way. But why did they know her specifically, and out of everyone in Edo?' Sougo looked back at Shimzaki who was sitting in a stiff formal position; he could see him shaking in fear leaving Sougo in a pleasantly happy mood.
"Question number two." Sougo continued. "What is China's connection to the Harusame? Out of all the Yato mercenaries in the universe why did you guys have to choose the one Yato who is living a secluded life in Edo? You guys did know an awful lot about her." Sougo waited expectantly. Did the answer he was going to get have any connection to the way Kagura had acted before with that imp captain?
"I-I can't tell you. Besides that was more than one question." Shimzaki mumbled, avoiding Sougo's gaze.
"What!?" Sougo bit back, furious that he was being disobeyed. "I'll show you what happens when slaves do not do as they are ordered." Sougo stood up and kicked Shimzaki over, who yelped as he hit the ground. Sougo then proceeded to step onto Shimzaki's back, with each step adding more weight and rubbing the sole of his boot into the reddening skin.
Shimzaki began to cry, releasing a high pitched scream. This went on for several minutes until Sougo stopped, already tired of his current form of torture.
"Are you ready to tell me what I want to know?" Sougo asked, beginning to gurgle and hack to get mucous and spit into his mouth. Shimzaki's eyes widened in horror and disgust, already picturing what would come if he didn't comply.
"Okay, Okay! Just don't get crazy man. Please? Anything but that." He said, until he felt something wet forcefully shoved into his left ear. He froze, he didn't do what he think he did, did he? "Wet willy." Was all that Sougo had said, a deadpanned look on his face as usual. Shimzaki was defeated, any attempts at hiding the information he had, had failed.
'At least I tried to be a good pirate and keep information secret,' Shimzaki thought. 'I tried.' He looked up to the demon human he heard everyone talking about. He didn't look strong or scary at all, but looks didn't mean anythingl. This man really was a monster, and if he got what he wanted it may very well be the end of this squad. 'Who cares? They can all go to Hell for all I care. They were all mean to me anyway.'
"The connection the Ojou-chan has with the Harusame is that one: the majority of the Yato belong to the 7th devision within the Harusame, which is made up entirely of Yato warriors." Sougo nodded, understanding that important tidbit of information. The next reason really shocked him, to the point that he was unsuccessful in hiding his astonishment.
"The second reason we kidnapped the Ojou-chan is because she is the younger sister of an Admiral, the leader of the 7th devision, and King of the Yato, Admiral Kamui. The Commander kidnapped her in the hopes of using her as leverage to gain the favor of the Admiral. After all, who doesn't want to be reunited with their baby sister, right?"
Sougo stared wide eyed at Shimzaki, it couldn't be true could it? 'China is the younger sister of a Harusame Admiral? This explains everything.' A wide wicked grin appeared on Sougo's face which creeped Shimzaki out to no end. "Perfect. This is enough evidence to get China to be my slave forever, the perfect information for blackmailing her." Sougo looked at Shimzaki in front of him.
"Congratulations TightyWhitey-kun, you get to live because you are important material for me." Sougo stated. Before Shimzaki could asked what his captor had meant he was quickly dispatched, Knocked out with a quick and powerful punch to his stomach. Just as he slumped over Sougo grabbed him under his arms and began to drag him to a nearby open cell, where he was dumped on the floor unceremoniously and locked in.
Whistling a happy tune Sougo walked over to a set of metal lockers next to the entrance to the holding cells and opened them in the hopes of finding something useful, and he did. With the first locker he opened he found what looks to be a guard's uniform complete with a fully stocked utility belt and a detailed map of the ship. He thanked the pirates because once again they had helped Sougo with his own stupidity.
Wearing the uniform of a guard, Sougo walked out of the forgotten prison, map open in his hand giving him the directions he needed. Sougo was too engrossed in studying the map that he failed to notice that he entered the loading bay, and knocked someone over.
"Watch where the Hell you're going asshole." A familiar voice complained. Sougo looked around him, not seeing hr anyone simply shrugged the voice off, turning right and heading for a lift that would take him to the officer's and guest suites. He managed to take a few steps when the voice spoke up again.
"Down here dipshit!" Sougo turned around and behind him several feet away was the imp captain himself. Anger overcame Sougo, he managed to keep it in check clenching his fists around the map. "You must be pretty stupid to run into a captain, ignore him and walk away. Explain yourself. NOW!" The imp commanded.
Sougo was once again thanking the stupidity of the Harusame. Thinking it would be beneficial to play along Sougo anwered, "Sorry Captain, Sir. I'm new here and all, just started only yesterday. Is there anything I can help you with, like getting your favorite snack from the top shelf since you look like you can't reach even the second shelf." Sougo smiled, proud of his acting skills.
The Captain on the other hand was steaming mad, literally, the large burn mark covering one side of his face releasing what looked to be thick trails of steam. "You rude greenhorn. How dare you disrespect a superior? I'll teach you to make fun of me." The imp suddenly noticed Sougo's guard "uniform" and smiled. "Where are you heading boy?" He asked.
"I was just about to start exploring the ship. I was just switched off my shift guarding that human that came with the Ojou-chan. And no you can't walk with me sir. Only equals and pretty woman can, and you are neither." And with that Sougo turned on his heel and continued to walk towards the lift.
"How would you like to meet the Ojou-chan?" The imp asked to Sougo's retreating form. Sougo stopped, curious as to what the imp had to say. "I have to take some carts to her room and could use some help. Afterwards you can be her personal guard. How does that sound to you?" Sougo turned around, a smirk on his face.
"Fantastic, Captain." He wickedly said, a large grin plastered on Sougo's face.
How'd you like the chapter.
I'll be sure to post the next as soon as possible.
Thank you for all the support guys, keep on reading.