She was not a nice woman, even if her life had been better she would not have been a paragon of virtue. She breathed in his scent, he smelled unclean and a part of her liked that as she climbed on top of the Sennin straddling him as she did so. She was teasing him of course, she had already gotten -that- from him once before and if she wanted more she would have taken it before she gave him to Nao. She could feel his responsiveness beneath her and the brush of his hand.
"Good, you still like me," she whispered into his ear. Her hand would reach downward as she drew herself in for a kiss, it would only last a few seconds before it broke.
"You are my favorite masochist, Jū ichi" she would breathe into him as she peeled herself away from him and pulled something from her pocket. It was a syringe filled with what appeared to be a raging storm, flashes of light would illuminate the glass and water seemed to batter the inner glass.
What exactly did you have in mind Shi?
"Sex," she admitted.
"But he won't let me play," if Kouin did not know better he might have taken the tone of her voice as one of disappointment. There might have even been a moment of hesitation in her eyes,
"today you graduate, Jū ichi." She let out a sigh as she shook the syringe, muttering at it as she did.
"Quiet you," she scolded. She was not talking to Kouin but the syringe. She pulled a tourniquet from her pocket and wrapped it around Kouin's left arm. He would feel it draw tightly around his arm, his fingers would tingle and he would feel an ache. Shi's finger would then trace a line along his arm, stopping close to the crook of his arm. She was searching for a vein.
"This will be unpleasant... do not move," she ordered with a firm tone that suggested she was warning him. The needle would push into his flesh and sparks would erupt as she did so and she would draw back on the plunger to see his
blood mingle in the chamber.
Yes, it was in the vein.
But then something curious happened. The blood that emptied into the chamber did not color the storm a faint shade of pink, it
overtook the storm that she held in her hand. Shi's hand shook when she saw that, the needle still in Kouin's arm she stammered one word.
"N-n-n-ao..." It came out as a hoarse whisper.
"Naaaoo!" She would repeat with a stronger voice burdened with a sense of urgency.
"NAO!" She would scream with panic setting in as she backed away from Kouin who was still tied to the chair with a needle hanging from his arm and a tourniquet around his bicep.
Don't be sad honey, weren't you the one that wanted to play?
She had made her way to the door, her hands balled into fists she pounded on the frame.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" She would scream as her hands battered the door.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" She repeated, having reached a panicked frenzy. What had she seen that had distressed her so? It was his blood, his blood consumed that Ancient whole. Yes, that was a living Ancient trapped in that narrow vessel from one of the lesser known courts distantly associated and related to the Solar Court --
The Unbridled Storm. But whatever Kouin was, a few drops of his blood was all that was necessary to neutralize it. The vial now seemed to be full of a writhing darkness.
Put it in! Put it in! Put it in!
Shi would not hear the voice in Kouin's head that was calling out, laughing the whole time. She would try to rattle the door open but it was locked from the outside.
"You fucking bastards, LET ME OUT!"
Put it in! Put it in! Put it in!
"What is the commotion in there Shi," a familiar voice crackled over the loudspeaker.
"Inject him with the Ancient and hope he survives," the voice instructed.
Daddy is that you?
No, I have no daddy.
Maybe he can be YOUR daddy!
"I am not touching him!" Shi shrieked.
But I wanna touch you.
The formless, disembodied voice seemed particularly active on this day after days of silence. It was a shame Kouin was the only one in the audience.
"Playtime is over Shi, I will be punishing you for your disobedience... but I am a patient man. Finish him."
"No way!"
A bang could be heard over the speaker.
</COLOR>Uh-oh...
<i></i>
<COLOR color="indigo">
Nao
The disembodied laughter was near deafening. The knob would start to turn and the door would crack and as the heavy, metallic door opened Shi would attempt to dash out to what she perceived to be safety only to he stopped before she could rush past a slender figure. His hand wrapped around her neck and with a singular outstretched arm he lifted her from the floor.
"How I tire of your drama, Shi... Hurt." She tried to say something but she could not get the words out. His hands would loosen from around her neck, the early signs of a bruise could already be seen as she fell to the floor. She was
screaming, writhing on the floor.
His eyes would fix on Kouin and he would smile.
"Congratulations Jū ichi, this is either the day you leave this school one way or another"</B><i></i> be it dead or as a graduate. His words would be hard to hear over Shi's anguished screams but it was rather possible that was the highlight of the Sennin's day. Nao would nod his head in Shi's direction and add,
<B>"...women. Can't live with them, cannot have heterosexual sex without them." His eyes would cast downward, not at Kouin's likely waning excitement but rather at the tourniquet that remained around his arm and the needle that had been so perilously placed in his vein already that was full of a viscous, writhing black goo. His eyes would widen and he would withdraw the needle allowing Kouin's own red-appearing blood sluggishly drip from his arm.
"...In-teresting," he would announce as he freed Kouin's arm from the tourniquet. he would feel a painful rush of sensation and blood returning to his hand and fingers.
"Shi... stop hurting and tell me what you have done." The moment he commanded her to stop hurting her already hoarse screams would cease but she would be panting for pair on the floor.
"Don't dawdle... and do not even think you can flee," he added
"unless you want a seat next to him." There was no malice or even the sound ofg a threat in his words, it was as if he was stating a fact. A consequence that would come to pass if she defied him.
"Nao... Sir... please let me leave," she begged.
"What did you do to him?" Nao asked.
"Nothing," she insisted.
"Just a little foreplay, I did not DO THAT." Her eyes seem to plead to him to let her go.
"What were you injecting him with?" Nao's patience seemed to be reaching a terminal point.
"The storm. The storm YOU told me to give him!"
"There are two things I hate in this world Shi. One... bluejeans. Two,,, liars. Now Shi, why do you have to be one of the two things I hate," There was a venom in his words that had not been seen before now as well as a look that Shi seemed to recognize. Her eyes were starting to water.
"I didn't! I wouldn't! It was the storm, I SWEAR IT!" She seemed to plead with him but her words seemed to fall in deaf ears.
"Shi... stand up and come over here."
She immediately stood upright and approached Nao but it did not seem to be something Shi controlled. She appeared to strain against his demand, begging him the entire time to realize her innocence in the matter.
"It was the storm. It really was! It was his blood! His blood ATE the storm!" She stopped a foot from Nao, her arms at her sides in a relaxed pose that seemed to betray her distressed expression.
"Please believe me!"
Nao shook his head, making a tsking sound as he did, his long, painted fingernails brushed her left arm and collar before he planted his palm over her sternum.
"Shhh.... you're making so much noise," he scolded as his head bobbed in cadence to a rhythm only he could hear or in this case also feel -- her heart.
"I hope that you have more than just this one Shi... be quiet," he announced as he withdrew his hand and if one did not know better one would have thought it became more like a spectral claw as it plunged into her breast cracking through her bones and ripping through her flesh. His hand, bloodied would withdraw with it a still beating heart. Shi's mouth agape, she could not scream although she desperately wanted to. Blood stained her blouse and splattered onto the floor. Her dark tendrils would peer from the gaping wound like curious cobras preparing to strike but they would not lash out at the Soverign.
Nao would bite into the beating heart like one does an apple, a spray of blood would squirt from the broken heart as if he had bitten into an overly ripe fruit and a smear of blood would be on his cheek.
"Oh..." he announced as he dropped the half-eaten heart onto the floor.
"Hmm... Sorry about that," he added with a shrug as if he caused her to suffer a minor inconvenience.
"Try not to die, you have another heart or two don't you... Mmm... yes, you should," he concluded as he seemed to debate with himself over the potential need to assist or bury the Soverign woman still standing and bleeding out.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot. Shi... as you were... as you will." Shi let out a gasp as her knees buckled and she crashed onto the floor, kneeling with her hands cupped over the gaping wound in her chest.
She could have gave him an angry rebuttal but she was practical enough as to know when that would be bad for her health. She let out a series of pained, hacking coughs.
"My apologies sir."
Nao did not answer her, he was enamored by Kouin instead.
"My-my-my... even after all of this time you still have some secrets. What a naughty boy." He seemed intent on inspecting Kouin. The pads of his fingers just below Kouin's eyes he pulled down.
Mucus membranes appear normal. Forced his mouth open.
Oral cavity within normal limits. His ears.
Normal enough Nao would appear to be a bit handsy, perhaps a bit too handsy for even the Sennin's taste as he inspected every inch of him. Every part of his external anatomy appeared to be completely, disappointingly normal.
"He's human," Nao announced disappointed.
Shi had gotten herself to her feet during this time and staggered out of the room, a trail of blood in her wake.
"But..." He leaned down to look Kouin directly in the eyes.
"You and I both know that there is something about you that is not human. So I think it is time that you share with me a story. What are you?"
Eventually the door would open to both of their rooms. Who entered? Irrelevant. The weary and shackled, sleep-deprived pair would be dragged from their mirrored cells and strapped to chairs. The tired pair would remain restrained as they had for weeks, but also locked into a pair of chairs with their eyes forced open mechanically. Scenes would start to play out before them, all of them genjutsu. Many of them depicting recognized figures: various foreign and domestic leaders, idols, random various citizens that donned the regalia of their region or shinobi community, the ANBU and Medics. These figures were being ripped and torn apart, beaten and humiliated. The same strange voice was laughing the whole time. The scenes would have been enough to turn the stomachs of most, even particularly solid ones but there was little fear of that as both the lady and her male counterpart were dosed with euphorium ad nasium. Then there would be another series of scenes that would follow once the euphorium faded. These scenes were of various allies of the Diamyo - fellow Soverign, allies of Otogakure and various Merchant Lords still in Ishii Shiro's good graces. Similar terrible scenes would come to pass, but as these scenes would flicker like a movie reel caustic brews would enter their veins. They would feel as if their body was on fire. In revolt.
