?Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the and the blind can see.? ~ Mark Twain

She could only recall stepping up to Toby; to discover truths in his words. She cared for Katt so deeply, a way that she knew she mustn't. It was wrong to do so, to even fathom the idea. But it took hold of her, and made her want to push at Toby in ways she equally understood was against her moral values as a friend.

She bore witness to ruby amongst velvet in the night sky as she conversed with him, tore at his conscience. She wanted her answers. Only, she didn't arrive at the destination where she previsioned them to being.

That was when her world, that celebrated existence she was so fond of, vanished. The embrace of her choker, unawares to herself, seized her airflow; drank away her consciousness?

Mayu stumbled up the steps of the caf?, her knees weakened from fright and recently regained consciousness, where Toby had left her before abiding by her quest to find Katt. She could not dare to look his direction, a fear insurmountable that pitted itself in a gut-wrenching feeling within. It had begun that deranged moment when she no longer hid her eyes behind closed lids. When she peeled away the thin layer of protective flesh, and continued to observe that stinging darkness all around her. As though it consumed her; living within the belly of a beast so foul, it could not bathe her mind with the senses of light. Where a door should have been, formless. Where her senses should guide her to warmth, forsaken.

Those intolerable emotions that drew out the worst of reactions, tears, they too were absent. Eye sockets writhed in agony, pools of ocean blue quivering in tiny tremors, struggling to produce the foul liquid she constantly attempted to hide from. Filed finger tips, soiled with globs of filthy earth, tore at the edges of swollen, crimson eyes. The sensation of gouging was present; those actions of panic only heightening buried anxiety. They slammed shut, bountiful lashes curling amongst one another, a testament to her body attempting to shield what was already damaged.

"Why? why c-can't I??" she asked herself, winter striking imposing shivers against her spine. It buckled concaving knees, collapsing with disheartening thuds against the wooden floor, roughing smooth flesh beneath casks of denim. "Why c-can't I? s-see?" It went unanswered, as even her own brain was wracked with untold levels of befuddlement. Any budding strength, to rile anger, to hammer confusion, was sapped at the first miniscule presence.

The girl was left with nothing but herself, with the icy chill of winter sucking away through her nostrils, and into burning lungs. Her chest heaved in rapid motions, a piston without an engine. She couldn't maintain a sense of composure, even as a stranger slowed beside her, to rest a gentle hand on her head. To kneel before the girl and find means of soothing that which had lost it. She was crying, without the satisfaction of tears to sully rosy red cheeks. As the anxiety that clutched her heart increased, so did the aching pain that began to riddle her facial structure. Small, shaky hands seized her eyes, teeth baring as she growled in a feral manner. The pain, unexplainable and unprovoked, was already unbearable.

The voice, baritone and originating from a middle-aged gentleman, panged against eardrums in hushed tones. "There, there, child," he cooed, fingers benevolently brushing tousled teal from her face. He bore witness to bloody red lids as he did so; a violent color that ached his own to merely observe. They evidently were bleeding from beyond his capable reach, streaks of thick blood clotting at the corners. His hand retracted, mouth parting in horror. "Are you okay, girl?"

She wheezed a sound from her throat, hiccuping immediately afterwards. She couldn't muster any strength to reply. She launched a hand like a whip at him, snapping fingers against his shoulder and pulling at him like a support beam, drawing herself closer to his presence; his warmth. She was desperate for aid, her condition growing sixty times worse than the previous ten minutes that passed following Toby's leave. She only wanted an answer to her query, one she knew she was far too panicked to understand. Nobody could immediately provide her with it.

Callous hands grappled the girl and lifted her, the gentleman looking around at the several citizens that passed them by without concern. Dark eyes narrowed, foul intentions evident to only himself, drawing the girl away from the caf? and down the street. He cut a corner when safely away from the main road, and when he was comfortable in assumption he was out of sight from any passers by.

"Tell me Hideo, we've been friends for a while, right?"

"Mmmmmhm."

"Really good friends?"

"Mhmmmmm?"

"Then why don't you tell me what it is about our little Mayu that has you so intrigued?"

Hideo burst through the bathroom door and into the living room of apartment C-12 without any care that it was early morning and the couple that usually occupied the excuse of a home was asleep. They woke with convulsions that tied their arms and legs into funky knots; flailing under their moth-eaten covers when Hideo vaulted onto the foot of their bed and used it to launch himself clean through window behind the headboard. Glowing coral eyes pierced the both of them with a hard stare and they sank back against their pillows open mouthed. He met the chilly winter morning head on, chain links jingling out his own personal fanfare.

"Oh come on Nagi, you know that's not fair. Why don't you enlighten me on the reason you can't go five seconds without mentioning Mai Tokiha."

"Ahh, Mai.. Mai Hime, the beautiful, the graceful-"

"-the annoying but endowed so much that it doesn't matter-"

"Yes, that t- Hey, that's no way to talk about her!"

Trim legs bent and straightened repeatedly, propelling him from roof to roof. His arms were held out behind him, fingers of his right hand curling around a bracelet of luminous, teal metal.

That stupid girl. That damned, stupid girl.. Mayu Tsuzuki.

"Oh, but you know it's true. You can't fool me. I know what you mean when you talk about her 'assets.'"

"Ahh, very well. I guess that's just what I should have expected from you. So tell me, is that the reason?"

"Ugh, god no. With her poor excuse for a chest and her ridiculous nervous stuttering speech impediment? Tch, it's not worth deciphering her nonsense to get to the goods."

"Hmm, you're right. Not to mention the fact that she seems to be a bit slow in terms of her status."

"Mmmmmhm."

Glowing corals raked over the skyline, narrowed to slits and searching. He veered off in different directions several times, paying close attention to the temperature of the bracelet he clutched in his hand. Sneakers squealed as he skidded down the clay shingles of a particular building, soles gripping the edge of a gutter and denting it in when he jumped once more.

"But what other reason could you have?"

Hideo shrugged and finished off the juicebox he'd been nursing for the past hour, sucking loudly on nothing but air and one drop of cran-apple, the sound echoing in the dark, secluded library. Sharp teals focused on the massive clock mounted on the floor below them.

"What would I have to do to get it out of you?"

He cringed away from his lean on the railing, feeling warm breath against his ear and neck, slapping a palm to it. Nagi sneered at the blush on his face. Hideo whipped the juicebox at him, but Nagi was no longer there. The yellow box bounced along the landing with hollow clicks.

Hideo could just barely follow Nagi's acrobatics and it never failed to annoy him. He'd been trying to imitate the boy ever since they'd met, down to hairstyle and attitude. Several graceful flips later, Nagi landed on the ground below, a circle of teal light spinning around an index finger.

"I wouldn't be so confident, if I were you. You forget.. sometimes we just go through the motions to see what's going to be said to us. And oh, by the way, our little Mayu seems to have gotten herself into trouble," Nagi said, tossing the thing up to Hideo like it was a miniature frisbee. He caught it with both hands, the blood already surging away from his cheeks so fast he might have fainted had he not grabbed the nearby railing as well. "And just so you know, that's one of several copies. Don't think that we've done you any favors. Now run along, you don't want to be late to the show."

A scream broke its way through his concentration. Sure steps faltered on the apex of the roof and he whirled around, the bracelet causing his flesh to sizzle painfully. The noise had been abruptly cut off by something. Definitely a girl's voice. Hideo tossed himself over the edge of his current building and found himself landing on a spit of filthy blacktop in an occupied alleyway. No sooner had he thought he'd made a mistake when the bracelet within his grasp burst into flames and burned away to nothing.

Hideo glared daggers down onto the couple. He didn't need any further explanations than this. The grotesque movements the large man was inflicting on the girl beneath him, his wolfish expression of victory and the slackened way she took it left little doubt in his mind.

The boy was instantaneously revolted.