((Thanks to Toby and Mayu!))
A hot trail of drawn vital lingers in the wake of her rapid retreat; footfalls on cobblestone pavement loud and clamorous. She'd lost track of direction and intention; Kingsley's quick retreat forcing her out the door before she knew what she wanted with herself. What is the desire that burns in her heart the same as it does her head? Is this what that strange person was referring to? She came to a stop at one corner where streets intersected beneath the glow of a lamp emitting faint lighting. With its luminescence, she felt vulnerable and in plain sight. She needed a place to hide--a basement with the c*ckroaches, or an attic with the frantic raccoons. Somewhere.
He couldn't even feel the cold night air on him. There was blood racing in his ears and half of his mind told him he needed to find the nearest shower and turn its cold water on full blast or jump into a body of water. He worked on forcing himself to focus on each footfall, how the impact of the hard ground felt jolting up from his heel to his knee, into his thigh and hip, how tightly he had clenched his fists in his pockets, until they were stuck there no matter how hard he pulled. His breath came in rough bursts, little clouds puffing free beneath his nose as he strode along. He was aimless and didn't mind, having enough sense to keep his head down and his eyes just barely tracking the glows of numerous street lamps as he came upon them with little attention spared to those beneath them.
Minoko was humming a light tune to herself. It was a cheery song that the woman might have heard from a street musician earlier in the day. Of course, she might have picked it up from her sister, who she had visited before going shopping. Motoko always liked to sing when she thought no one else was around. The inn had been running low on some things, so Minoko held a bag in each hand. One held various bottles of liquor. The other held fruit, primarily lemons. Her eyes drifted up to one of the visible moons. It was a gorgeous night, and, a smile visible on her face, Minoko was clearly enjoying the walk.
There was barely enough time for her to turn when she heard the audible steps of another roar like the rage of a lion in her ears. It made either of her arms grow tense, steel digits like spider legs curling until either of her hands became tiny wrecking balls. The twisting and arching metallic hue crept like various veins in her wrists, climbing tall to her elbow; making her insides colder than any meat freezer. She knew who it was standing opposite of her; the taste of some macabre desire intent on her tongue. ...hungry for it... The pale, waxing moons that bled lighting along the streets like spilt milk allowed her a moments respite to recognize another strolling just nearby--solid mercury not unlike the satellites high above dancing that direction before returning to their initial prize. "Do you want a little more, Tobiasu-kun?"
He had known who it was by the end of her second word and in an upheaval of the restrictions his head had placed on the rest of his body, he paused. He swore there was something wrong, but..he could hear it. He could hear something in her voice. Something that he had never heard spoken in his direction, from her tongue. He had resisted things like it, he knew he was strong, he knew he was capable of something, even in the hardest of times. ...But he still turned his head. The gleam of metal on her hands wasn't something new, she wore enough bracelets to stock ten stores, and his eyes still broiling with heat zeroed instead on her face. "...May," he croaked. He tried to ask a question with the mere whisper of her name but it had been little more than expression of wonder, wariness and the minimal trace of relief.
And as she turned a corner, there they were. Her two newest friends. How strange. The woman still considered herself mad, at least when it came to Toby. May had heard Minoko complaining about him plenty, so it would probably be best for her to keep walking. She found it totally unnecessary to put May in an uncomfortable situation in public. Her head held high, Minoko kept her pace up, though her gaze wandered. Were they having a fight? She slowed down to a near stop, watching the pair.
The clenching of fists eased enough for steel to squeal like rusted hinges, resonating across the open street. Were she wanting to be a stealthy cat that slinked amongst the shadows, her plans were all but foiled. She stared at him with a look destined for textbooks filled with information she didn't want to study; leering at him with enough contempt to crush him should she require the need to blink even once. Within all that glittering diamond in her eyes was an enigmatic churning; a darkened, bold occult that resembled a nautical star, or an arcane pentagram. "What?" she barked back at him, refusing to shy away into the shadows and simply disappear.
A writhing muscle poked out from drying lips, lashing against the crisp, peeled surface to moisten it. Were she a feral beast out on the prowl, it would be no different than a creature licking its chops in preparation for a meal. Aside, prompted by movement, solid eyes spied Minoko more clearly despite not having her glasses. They lingered, studied with the same manner of disdain and vague disgust--enough foulness over her presence that she released a haughty scoff.
He felt like a yo-yo, all of a sudden. He had been in the grip of a water, small, soft hand, but now was left to plummet toward destruction until that same hand jerked at him to get him to return. Did it even bother him? Was she even annoyed at her for it? His eyebrows drew together. He turned to face her, her body flooded with light from the street lamp, his own just outside of it. At least until he took a single step forward. It was for himself, he said, to prove he still had control of his body, not to get nearer to her. Definitely not that. "...What's going on. And don't give me any of the crap you usually do about looking too close or not minding my own business because I'm not blind. I see you, and you're not..*you*."
His own eyes flicked between hers, their heavy lidded heat still strong. It was a chore to keep his attention on her face and not let his attention roam to remind himself how small she was and how easy it had been to wrangle her against him, what it felt like to do it. He knew he failed when he had to hike his gaze back up from her middle, focusing instead on the obvious patterns stamped in her silver eyes. "...Your eyes changed again."
"Do you like what I've done? It's all for you. You, too" indicating Minoko in a look alone, her nose lifting toward the Heaven's as she put herself on display, arms out to model her figure for them. There was no defined changed save for the alteration of pigmentation in her arms, rotating a single time in a slow, meticulous rotation. "It's amazing... so amazing. I'm able to do whatever it is I want. Anything... anything!" She howled, a wolf able to catch sight of the pale spheres that loomed above them all. Had this been another realm, they'd be cackling along with her right then, a maniacal laughter that broke down the fortifications of sanity. Mercury shot low to glower at Toby as though he was a magnet to her gaze, her lips thinning as they stretched wide to either of her ears.
She had noticed the newly silver eyes. Minoko had been with May the first morning they had appeared. In comparison to that deep green, she didn't like the silver. It was cold, unwelcoming. But it hadn't really bothered her until now. She was now stationary. Her fingers were close to dropping the groceries. "Mayu...?" She was now trembling. Her whole body was ice. The eyes had seen right through her, had pierced her soul, and May's words had only shaken her up more. Did May have a twin as well? It seemed the only plausible explanation.
He didn't know how to answer her. He didn't even know what she'd meant and he somehow doubted it had anything to do with what she was unconsciously doing to him now. Or did she know. Did she know, and did she enjoy this..? "May, stop, look at me--" His voice caught in his own throat when she did. He tossed a quick look over his shoulder to see if he could catch, too, what she'd looked at. Or maybe she was just nuts. "...What did you do?" Something had to be doing it *to* her. This wasn't her. Even when she was upset, it wasn't. "Tell me..? What did you do."
"Hmm?" she crooned, barely there brows ticking like tiny check marks on her forehead. "Everything will be just fine, Minoko... I promise..." The initial step she took toward the two of them was like reality itself becoming unwound, a distortion surrounding her akin to when Tracy makes herself known in the minds of others. Spider leg digits splayed wide as she lifted her palms up to the two of them, feigning a certain innocence that was normally present in her. "Power. That's what I did! I wanted a glimpse of what power was like! It's... it's fantastic...! Can I show you...?"
"Minoko." He had taken another step forward, apparently matching May's, his second look over his shoulder a longer one, lingering on the figure he saw in the dark. "May, you don't want power. That's never been what you wanted. What the hell happened, who tricked you into doing whatever it is that got you here?" He didn't believe it was her. He knew her, he knew May, and this..this was someone else's fault.
"Toby, what's going on?" She had already forgotten why she was angry. It had been petty. If something was seriously wrong with Mayu, then her fight with Toby was simply erased. The slack in her fingers finally gave out, and her bags tumbled to the ground. A lime tumbled out onto the street as a bottle of tequila rang out into the night. "Show me what....?
"Nobody tricked me!" an octave higher than the last statement, scowling at him for what she felt was an incredulous comment. "I was given a taste of what... power would be like! All I had to do was accept that power was the only way to protect my friends so nothing like what happened to Martyr could ever happen again!" Her countenance shifted; something of sadness overtaking her. Her eyes met the ground for an instant, "Only... there was a small problem in the agreement..." They rose right afterward to the two of them. "It doesn't matter. If I can protect you all, I'll do it... I'll do all of it!" The hue of chrome in her arms tapered off, evaporating into the flesh that had snared them. Pristine whites and blues were like a glamorous lightshow during the final act of a ballet, filling the palms of both hands. To Minoko, that wide, jack-o-lantern grin of hers prevailed once more. "Show you how I intend to save you from everything!"
The words were ringing in her ears. Save you from everything. Everything. She really had no idea what was happening or how to deal with it. What was materializing in her hands? Were they power beams? Were they healing rays? Should she run, or should she stay perfectly still? Her instinct would normally be to run. Anything to live, to make it so that no one had to pick up the pieces of her body and cast a spell. But the echo was still there. Why would she run from her savior?
Something *did* happen. "May, geez." It only took a single, long step to close the distance left between them. He wrenched his hands free of their pockets, his skin burning where denim had scraped over it. He tried to fill his palms with her cheeks and jawline, nudge her sporadic attention back in his direction. "...What happened to Martyr. Tell me, what happened to her. You're saying this like she didn't leave, was there a fight or something? With somebody? What happened to her?"
His own eyes lurched down at the sudden lights blinking from her hands. ...Her bracelets glowed, he knew that, but not like this. He remembered golden light coming from her once, maybe green--this was different though. (s)"May, you're strong enough to do anything, you have to know that. You don't *need* someone else to f*ck with you like this. Who told you that you had to accept this crap..?"
"Hmm..." Her gaze was directed up to Toby, and away from Minoko, when he took hold of delicately pronounced features. The nautical stars of her eyes stared through him as though he was nothing more than a mirage; madness personified. The luminescence in her palms came with the diabolical chirping like a thousand birds, all clamoring in unison to be set free from the cage that possessed them. She made no attempt to shove herself free from the hold that had her--embracing his touch as though it would be the last. Her cheek mushed into his palm, heat present in flesh like baked sand. Just as grainy. "I don't know who it was . Why does it matter to you so much? Now I can do everything I need to."
The pulse in her flesh was rapid, faster and with more fervor than a marathon runner that was quick to take first place in the competition. She brushed away from his hold and made a complete 180? turn away from them, tracing the very steps that she'd taken in order to draw away from them. Twin, molten suns present in her palms intensified, casting a foreboding, purifying glow across the street they all occupied, chasing away all manner of shadows and lurking evil alike. She was more a beacon of hope than one of devilish destruction just then--the opposite of what she reeked of in both tone and disposition. ?Power... is the only thing I can rely on now. I have to, otherwise I'll lose everything again. I won't lose everything again... and for that reason alone... I must do this."
They were this close. Why did he want this so much when he knew, he *knew* that something was so horrifically wrong? Did he crave it that much..? Was he really cradling her face in a gentle hold, his thumbs brushing the roundness of her cheekbones, skimming toward the obvious corners of her eyes. (s)"Because, May. How do you know that this person, whoever they were, wants the same things you do? What if they just wanted to screw with you? What if this power you have is the thing that'll hurt everybody more..? It's beautiful. You're beautiful--that you did this to try and protect people, but--" He suddenly found himself holding empty air, his palms still tingling from the echo of her skin against them. "...What are you going to do?"
The intense glow from either of her hands, like twin flashbang grenades, leaked power like an unstable power conduit. That sound of a thousand birds chirping in her palms grew louder, amplified by a sudden leak in her showing of this fabled power. A glance was spared over one extremely narrow, bony shoulder at the two of them, putting intensive focus on Minoko now. "...I cannot let the people I care about disappear. They cannot die..." There was a reverberating snap! as she spun around on the backs of heeled loafers, her hair a wild tangent of motion that lashed like a million tiny bullheaded whips. "I'll feed on you... please do not resist me!" She kicked off with such a start that the pavement itself cracked like a baby grand piano had just smashed into it from ten stories above, tiny legs carrying her in a rush of motion directly toward the other Asian.
"May, stop!" She had gone from savior to demon with that one sentence. 'I'll feed on you.' No. She had seen people giving and receiving energy a long time ago, shortly after she first came here. It had bothered her. Minoko crossed her arms in front of her chest and widened her stance. Running wouldn't do much for her right now. If she somehow managed to kick off her sandals and avoid the scattered fruit, she still wouldn't be fast enough. Her energy was hers and hers alone. No one would take her essence.
She blew past Toby without ever giving him another look, thin arms dangling behind her uselessly as she descended on Minoko's presence. Seeing that she wasn't running cued a grin so tremendous, it was painful just to look at. "We'll be one!" She couldn't deny that, deep down inside of her heart, she desired to only sample another soul like she had Martyr's. She preferred that. Needed it. The girl's right arm began to take on that unsettling chrome finish as she swept close, using momentum in her favor to unleash a titanic thrust of that metal arm of hers directly where Minoko's arms crossed. X was marking the spot for her.
(s)"May--" She couldn't have done this. She couldn't have done something drastic like this, again, all over again just because she'd lost somebody. ...Then again, how different would he be? What would he do if he lost her a third time? He could barely hear her small voice over the chattering feedback she was giving off until she had screamed. He whirled at the same time she had taken off, but she was already past him. "SO YOU'RE JUST GOING TO KILL EVERYONE YOURSELF?! May, *stop it*!!" His roar joined the noise already filling the street. He ran after her, loping forward, pitching a hand out as far as it could go. If he couldn't catch her, maybe he could knock her off balance. Or something, anything. Anything to force some sense into her.
There was but one arm presently unused in her assault on Minoko, which was up for grabs in all her delirium to feast like it was Thanksgiving all over again. She was jerked back to stop herself from plowing over Minoko as if she was a speed bump just in the way, but it wasn't enough to halt the momentum of her fist. If anything, it provided her with a distinctive advantage to throw the most of her weight into it rather than her balance.
She had planned on moving, of course. Though not as fast as her twin, Minoko was still fairly swift. But at the last moment, just as Toby came in, her eyes focused on the color of May's arm. Silver. The same terrible color as her eyes. In that instant, Minoko realized there was no escaping. She was human. No powers, no special skills, no hidden bloodlines. Just a plain old useless human. Her eyes squeezed shut. The woman braced for impact.
Don't expect anything, but expect everything. Wasn't that one of the stupid sayings that Patrick kept repeating to him to, he swore, make himself sound cool. But it applied. He had been prepared for an easy snare, one like last time, where he could easily grapple a hold on May and lock her in place. Most definitely *not* the blow that felt like she had put on a metal plated glove. He barked a yell of surprise, his teeth rattling in his gums. His ears rang. What grip he did have around her wrist slipped to uselessness, no strength in the curl of his fingers by the time they fell away. He shook his head violently, staggering sideways. "...May, I don't want to hurt you." Could he even? She probably knew the answer to that as much as he did. "Don't just stand there, Minoko, run!! Get out of here!!"
She was no mack truck blitzing through an unsuspecting crowd at a concert. And with Toby pulling her away from the attack, a portion of it was going to be lost. She met the cross with enough force to crack bone and puncture veins, enough to knock the Asian girl right on her ass. In the second that contact was established, she was being pulled aside by Toby's initial grab, stumbling away. With her concentration momentarily lost, the vibrant, lively glow of her hands tapered, flickering like a dying out lightbulb in an abandoned warehouse. She snarled in Toby's direction, condemning him for his interference. "Knock it off! If I don't do this now, she'll be the next one that something will happen to! If I could just stop having all these feelings for her, I would! It'd stop all the dangerous sh*t from happening to her! But I don't have that kind of power! All I can do is protect her!"
"So all of this has to do with your *feelings*?! You're going to go after people because of your *feelings*?!" The burning black angel rune had taken most of the edge off of the throbbing in his head. "Feelings don't just--they don't just go away, May. You can't *kill* them, no matter how hard you try. If you like her or love her, whatever, that's just the way it is. That's the way it always is. ...And that's not bad." He curved one hand around his jaw and worked it in a slow circle. "The only thing dangerous happening to her right now is you, don't you f*cking *get* that?"
A sad cry came from her as she slammed against the building she had been standing in front of. Her arms fell limp at her sides, a hand unwillingly hitting a pineapple. They were still talking.... About power and love.... The two didn't go together. Not one bit. Minoko willed her head back, but it simply wouldn't budge. Instead, she remained behind the veil of her long black hair, motionless.
The many protective wards that were an invisible but sentient intricate design on her flesh began to writhe, starting at the base of her bare shoulder and straight down to where chrome overrode epidermis, slithering about like a bunch of lively snakes just waiting to be unleashed from their porcelain prison. She threw Toby's presence from her mind, head shaking vehemently. "No. No! I was told that by having this power, by feeding on all of you, I can keep it all safe! I can stop anything from ever happening again!" Minoko's collision against the building captured the girl's attention, another sadistic grin smothering all manner of innocence and purity from her. Her strides became long and purposeful, directing herself Minoko's way as if an ulterior force was making her. "Once I have her, it'll be better. Once I have all of you, I can stop it all..."
"What, because you ate all of us and we'll all be in one spot inside of you, you won't lose us or some sh*t like that?! MAY!!" He stretched out a hand to the open air. From this distance, Minoko looked like she fit between his fingers, like a doll that he'd picked up with her hair all over the place. "*You'll* be the one making us disappear. ...And what does this do to *you* in the end, is this why your eyes are different?" He jogged after her. "How ridiculously unfair is this? No one can try and protect you, but you let yourself get screwed up to protect everyone else..?"
She was still conscious, but barely. Her mind was trying to sort through what was going on, along with what had already happened. Pain was running through every inch of her arms, back and head. Minoko's legs started to squirm around in a pathetic attempt to bring herself to her feet. No luck. Too heavy. At this point she would be eaten, would be gone forever. No hope. She had seen Motoko earlier, but what was the last thing she said? Probably something about the dog or Weston. The ginger haired boy almost reminded her of Toby.
Tendrils of Heavenly white sprang out from either of her shoulder blades, forming a disjointed, skeletal set of wings without an arrangement of plumes to mask them. They arched in the wake of her purposeful steps Minoko's way, contorting and whirling like smoke caught in a fan's turbulent spin, eager to smack Toby aside the second she even considered thinking about him. He'd begun to bother her in ways that she couldn't exactly define; something inside of her mind urging her to do something about him first and foremost. He wasn't any concern of hers, though. Not yet, at least. The person she cared more for was still locked in her gaze--still present and unmoving as though she was already dead. Had her life not been accentuated by subtle, still conscious breaths and the movement of legs like worms out of the ground, she would have thought differently. Maddened further, perhaps.
She dropped onto her knees before Minoko's lowered figure, either vibrantly lit hand of hers encircling Minoko's shoulders and hoisting her up so that her head, and the most of her upper abdomen was settled perfectly in the dimple of either of her thighs. All that tangled weave of dark hair was brushed aside by trembling fingers; fingers soiled with a seething, despicable intention. "It's okay, Minoko... I won't let anybody get you..." The girl drew close to the woman, her spine bending nearly in two in order to destroy the gap that kept them apart. The pointed bulb of one nose quickly found itself against the other, causing Mayu's hot, erratic breath to pulse against Minoko's face in ragged bursts.
The maiden's occupied hands suddenly shimmered, becoming translucent and faded like a snowy television screen. The instant it occurred, the very most of her hand and arm alike sank through flesh as if it was nothing more than rippling water that had been disturbed by a thrown rock. Her insertion into Minoko was crude--chilling like a glacier against naked flesh. "...Must... taste... you..."
She was more scared than ever before, or at least what her memory had managed to hold on to in the past twenty-four years. This was it. Her arms were definitely broken, and probably a few of her ribs as well. Minoko had never been the victim. She was always well protected, and others had always fallen before her. The woman's parents had died in battle. Her sister had been injured. Her boyfriend had died protecting her. The blood spilled was always, always someone else?s. But not this time. This time would be her blood, and all of it. She managed to let out some whimpers and unintelligible words. Once May's breath fell on her face she began to shake. As the hand went through her she became still. Minoko had become a meal.
"You?re so f*cking stubborn, you don't get *anything*, do you?! You don't know what this is going to do to you, you don't even know what you're doing!!" Even the gentlest contact from May's smokey tendrils vibrated through him like the loudest church bells. He felt them against his chest, inside it, the seemingly feather light touches sending him back half the distance he had come. There were holes and slits in his shirt where contact was made, the flesh beneath red and raw. He felt the ground come up fast against his tailbone and hands. "...You can't do this, you can't really be wanting to *eat* everybody!!"
Toby was completely phased out of her memory; his voice no louder than a subtle Spring breeze on her ears. Her pert nose scrunched up into a tight wad as the warmth of Minoko's insides washed over her injected arm, swimming through contents of the girl's insides as if it was a basin full of dirty dishes, and her most favored spoon was at the very bottom. Her mind was racing with potential thoughts of where the human soul often resided. The heart... they say the heart is the soul of a human... Her thoughts rang true, fingers wrapping around something pudgy, like a swollen water balloon filled to the brim and knotted tight to prevent it from spilling out. It was the woman's heart--still pulsing with life. "Here...? Hah... ahaha... hahaha!" she howled, ethereal digits penetrating through the surface of the Asian girl's heart, careful not to rupture it.
Death prior to extraction would forfeit everything she was after! Within the beating muscle, another, more heated element washed over her fingers, thick like jello but lighter than air itself. Soul... Her eyes narrowed, staring headlong into Minoko's closed eyes as she encapsulated her fingers around the globby wad of spiritual essence and gave it the most aggressive of jerks in order to untether it from the network that kept it confined to Minoko's body. It was, perhaps, the most crude of fashions in order for the girl to entirely expel a living soul from the husk of another--but that was all she needed to do.
She was being violated. The monster feeling around inside her was looking for something. Minoko nearly jumped when her heart was grabbed. That wasn't it, though. Just a trick. She calmed for a moment before her soul was grabbed. "TOBY!" He was the only person here, the only person who could help. Minoko hadn't known it was that simple, that a soul could just be grabbed and pulled out. But in that instant she knew, and she needed someone to stop it.
A soul was nothing more than a coin in a wishing well. For the shrine maiden it was, at least. Never in all her years did she presume the abilities that were thrust upon her back home would find themselves in use today. And, horrifyingly enough, to this extent. The glob of essence was handled like a large softball in the palm of her one hand, groped and felt like a stress ball just waiting to be popped from too much pressure being applied to it. Darkly, above the vibrant ivory glow, the girl looked at Toby. "...one..." she uttered under her breath to him, lifting the large ball to her mouth. Nothing was sweeter than the initial bite of an apple; her plush lips wrapping around one rounded end and suckling at it like a calf would the teat of its mother. "Mhn... are you ready?" she questioned him, her tone sated but still heavily uneven--inebriated by what she held.
This was so messed up. Half of it was May, he swore it was, the half that wanted to make sure that everyone was protected. But this other half, the one that reminded him of the nasty, greasy stuff that was left over in an overused frying pan, made his stomach turn. He didn't understand anything that was going on, had made it a habit to never question anything new he saw May do because somehow, somewhere, it had a reason. And because it was her, it was a good one, but this--"May." It was still her. He knew it was. Somewhere in there, she was screaming at herself for what she was doing. He crawled unsteadily to his feet, still bent half over like he was trying to hide from view. One of his hands splayed across the small burns on his chest, remarkably untouched by the rune's abilities.
A handful of stagger-steps later, he crashed to his knees, reaching out with his free hand toward May's wrist to try and guide her hand from her mouth. Whatever that glob was, it came from Minoko. ...He had the feeling it wasn't supposed to come out. (s)"You idiot. If you had wanted to kill me, all you had to do was tell me." The normally sharp angles of his face were soft, imploring. (s)"I would've given myself up to you in a heartbeat, don't you know that? There's never been a time where my life *wasn't* yours. I just wish you would've done me first so I wouldn't have to watch this part." He tugged at her wrist, two fingers pressing there to coax her hand back down toward Minoko's fallen body, with whatever that glob was.
The grip that claimed her wrist was a loose one, yet something she couldn't simply shrug off as if it wasn't there. Perhaps she didn't really want him to let her go so that they could see every little bit of what she was doing. The skeletal frame of jagged, naked wings more translucent than a ghost twisted and whorled idly as she stared down at him, her loli visage contorting into something terrifyingly proud. "Wouldn't have to see this part? What part?" The ball that was yanked out of Minoko throbbed in her laxing grip, allowing Toby easier access to its existence. She implored for him to see it. To study it. To see every little bit of what it was and what he would soon be reduced to.
"This? You don't want to see this...?" She chuckled, something rasped and groaned like her throat was composed of nothing more than gravel. The spiritual residue in her hand was clutched tightly, and in an instant, shoved forward with such strength, it was a wonder her wrist didn't snap beneath his hold on her. "Here. Taste it. EAT IT. ALL OF IT. TELL ME YOU WOULDN'T WANT THIS." She collapsed onto her knees before him, her other hand coming around to wrap the base of his skull and force him to swallow down the softball sized sphere that was easily molded to whatever whim she desired of it. Its texture wasn't unlike chewed up gum.
"The part where you're proud that you're killing the people you care about. May, this isn't you. This isn't the kind of power you want." He cringed, his face scrunching up tight, both colors of his eyes squinted so narrow he couldn't see past his eyelashes. "We've got to find a way to fi--NGHK!!" The sudden grasp on the back of his head, the hard pressure on his jaw that had still yet to fully repair itself, sent cold fear slamming into his veins. His eyes flew open and, unfortunately, so did his mouth. The hand at her wrist clenched tight and he attempted to yank it aside, his gut already convulsing, throat closed as he gagged against the glob of whatever the hell she'd drawn from Minoko.
Oriental, slanted eyes leered at him as he dared to say another word. Her fingers popped as she furled them into another fist, bringing it up to bring the ridge of knuckles, purely flesh and bone, into the cap of his mouth in order to drive down the wadded soul that she'd forced him to consume. She repeated the process a second time, then a third; feeling her knuckles crunch and snap from the tremendous force she was putting on them. "Shut up! Just shut up! Eat it! Eat her whole, damn it!!"
She was a mixture of snarls and titters the entire time, her body and emotions incapable of settling on purely rage or laughter. It was all so maddening to her, but hilarious at the very same time.
Both irises of his wet eyes stretched and swirled a vicious brassy yellow, their pupils needle thin slits. Surrounding their figures, half of Minoko's, a perfect circle of shimmering crystal colors reached for the dark night sky overhead. His fingers tightened around her arm after the first of her shoves, but it did nothing to stop her. He couldn't hold her arm still, or was it that he wasn't really trying. Still, even now, the thought of having to hurt her to stop this brought on another series of retches. Moisture streamed from the corners of his yellow eyes and his face reddened in response to his inability to breathe.
The second he'd dropped his hand from her wrist, he curled it into a tight fist, swinging blindly at whatever part of her small body he could reach in an attempt to send her, at least, off of him. There was no way he could throw *up*, the only thing left to do was swallow. If he didn't, he really would die and--hadn't he said that was just fine..? Like the breaking of a stained glass window, the prismatic colors firing into the air shattered around them, raining down in torrents of illumination. He sank back into the street, the cold cobblestones a good icing to the fire still inside his body.
She remained plastered on her knees, staring down on him like he was the scourge of the universe; herself the only cure to his tainted disease. The ball of her one fist remained clenched and ready to be used should he desire to try and stand and run--wound like a coiled spring. Every part of her was, though. The muscles present in her arms were like small tumors just waiting to breach all that white flesh. And, were she to even consider utilizing that lithe figure of hers, she'd most certainly snap in two like a parasite-riddled twig in a dank, dark forest. "...tell me what it tastes like. Do you feel her? Inside of you? What is that like?" She was a scowling, sardonic version of hatred itself. Every part of her loathed to think he was consuming her prized possession. But she couldn't stop giggling. Everything was a ripe comedy act that made her chest convulse until she was tearing in the eyes.
Did he feel? What did he feel? Cobblestones, wet and cold, the chill trying to find its way into his body. The moment he thought about it, goosebumps spread down along his arms. He wasn't sure when his stomach stopped trying to fight when she had been feeding him. What else? Everywhere she still touched him, or had, the warm, longing ache that he had been plagued with since he left the inn, kissed with swimming yoki that had yet to let his eyes go back to normal. His eyelids drifted closed and he gulped, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth when he tried to speak. (s)"Not funny, M-May." It took energy for those three little words. Now all he really wanted to do was sleep.
She couldn't control it. The laughter far outweighed the seething rage that could have made her breathe pure fire like some kind of scornful dragon. A passing look was given to the body that she'd violated with her lively pair of hands, watching its suspension in space and time with nothing short of pity. "I should destroy it before somebody finds it... but first," she started, returning to face Toby with a sour look on her face. "Give that back to me. I don't need you holding onto it like some greedy bastard." Her hand took on that translucent glow to it, becoming nothing short of a ghost's appendage. Spider leg digits drew close together, akin to a surgeon's scalpel, and lunged at Toby to pierce his upper abdomen the same way she had Minoko's, taking a firm hold of his shoulder with her other hand to prevent him from reeling back and making any sudden, outlandish moves in resistance. She grew close to him, eyes leveling with his, their noses barely inches apart, and said, "Do not move."
He realized that there was a terribly frightening freedom in all of this. He wanted to know what was going on, what someone had done or said to turn her into this?he couldn't even call her anything. She had lost Martyr. That was all whoever that person had been needed. And all of this stuff about protecting people?she must have thought she failed somehow. He knew he should mind, he knew he should be fighting. But when it was her, *this* girl, inflicting it upon him, that was all the reason in the world to just give up. If he wasn't living for her, what was he living for? He shuddered, the feeling of a suddenly foreign...thing...inside of his chest making any sort of normal breathing impossible.
...How impossibly weak was he? Was he just going to lay there and let this happen? After he was dead, then what would she do? She'd really be by herself. (s)"May," he began, the word more breath than voice, (s)"I'm s-sorry that you lost her. But--" His voice dropped, a tight flicker of pain crossing his sweat slicked face. The three little words that followed were said with a small curve of a smile. If it was going to be the last thing he said, it would be that.
Had she the ability to punch him again, it would have happened without a flicker of doubt on her features. While working on grabbing a soul that she was eager to simply consume and be done with it all, however, her wants to be clumsy were inexcusable. There was no need to become haphazard here and lose everything that was being made to her. The hunger was telling her to continue. The power she could obtain by scarfing another living being's essence too great for her to resist. Her fingers wrapped around a pudgy essence; something bulbous and thick, like a watermelon. Minoko's soul felt... differently than it had moments before. She sneered at the thoughts coursing through her brain. "Just shut up," she repeated to him again. Once the area around his heart was invaded, feeling the mushy, sloppy warmth of his guts run all across the intangible surface of her ethereal arm, she gave it a generous tug, yanking at that soul to pull it out of him.
Only... she hadn't exactly accounted for the fact that the very soul she was ripping out of Toby wasn't Minoko...
Was this really what it felt like? To be lifted out of his own body? That encroaching blackness over all of his vision was the same. He felt a sudden weightlessness that was such a relief he wanted to cry out in continuous pleasure. It was relaxing, so relaxing. A little cold, but that was okay. He just missed his body, or something. What really happened when you died? The nuns believed they would go someplace else. But where did you go when you didn't fit into the only place anyone believed in? It probably didn't matter. The only thing that did was that it was by her hand, May's, his best friend, his?she was everything, absolutely everything to him. ...And that was enough. Death wasn't so bad. His eyelids closed over eyes that had lost their golden hue and all their luster.
A hot trail of drawn vital lingers in the wake of her rapid retreat; footfalls on cobblestone pavement loud and clamorous. She'd lost track of direction and intention; Kingsley's quick retreat forcing her out the door before she knew what she wanted with herself. What is the desire that burns in her heart the same as it does her head? Is this what that strange person was referring to? She came to a stop at one corner where streets intersected beneath the glow of a lamp emitting faint lighting. With its luminescence, she felt vulnerable and in plain sight. She needed a place to hide--a basement with the c*ckroaches, or an attic with the frantic raccoons. Somewhere.
He couldn't even feel the cold night air on him. There was blood racing in his ears and half of his mind told him he needed to find the nearest shower and turn its cold water on full blast or jump into a body of water. He worked on forcing himself to focus on each footfall, how the impact of the hard ground felt jolting up from his heel to his knee, into his thigh and hip, how tightly he had clenched his fists in his pockets, until they were stuck there no matter how hard he pulled. His breath came in rough bursts, little clouds puffing free beneath his nose as he strode along. He was aimless and didn't mind, having enough sense to keep his head down and his eyes just barely tracking the glows of numerous street lamps as he came upon them with little attention spared to those beneath them.
Minoko was humming a light tune to herself. It was a cheery song that the woman might have heard from a street musician earlier in the day. Of course, she might have picked it up from her sister, who she had visited before going shopping. Motoko always liked to sing when she thought no one else was around. The inn had been running low on some things, so Minoko held a bag in each hand. One held various bottles of liquor. The other held fruit, primarily lemons. Her eyes drifted up to one of the visible moons. It was a gorgeous night, and, a smile visible on her face, Minoko was clearly enjoying the walk.
There was barely enough time for her to turn when she heard the audible steps of another roar like the rage of a lion in her ears. It made either of her arms grow tense, steel digits like spider legs curling until either of her hands became tiny wrecking balls. The twisting and arching metallic hue crept like various veins in her wrists, climbing tall to her elbow; making her insides colder than any meat freezer. She knew who it was standing opposite of her; the taste of some macabre desire intent on her tongue. ...hungry for it... The pale, waxing moons that bled lighting along the streets like spilt milk allowed her a moments respite to recognize another strolling just nearby--solid mercury not unlike the satellites high above dancing that direction before returning to their initial prize. "Do you want a little more, Tobiasu-kun?"
He had known who it was by the end of her second word and in an upheaval of the restrictions his head had placed on the rest of his body, he paused. He swore there was something wrong, but..he could hear it. He could hear something in her voice. Something that he had never heard spoken in his direction, from her tongue. He had resisted things like it, he knew he was strong, he knew he was capable of something, even in the hardest of times. ...But he still turned his head. The gleam of metal on her hands wasn't something new, she wore enough bracelets to stock ten stores, and his eyes still broiling with heat zeroed instead on her face. "...May," he croaked. He tried to ask a question with the mere whisper of her name but it had been little more than expression of wonder, wariness and the minimal trace of relief.
And as she turned a corner, there they were. Her two newest friends. How strange. The woman still considered herself mad, at least when it came to Toby. May had heard Minoko complaining about him plenty, so it would probably be best for her to keep walking. She found it totally unnecessary to put May in an uncomfortable situation in public. Her head held high, Minoko kept her pace up, though her gaze wandered. Were they having a fight? She slowed down to a near stop, watching the pair.
The clenching of fists eased enough for steel to squeal like rusted hinges, resonating across the open street. Were she wanting to be a stealthy cat that slinked amongst the shadows, her plans were all but foiled. She stared at him with a look destined for textbooks filled with information she didn't want to study; leering at him with enough contempt to crush him should she require the need to blink even once. Within all that glittering diamond in her eyes was an enigmatic churning; a darkened, bold occult that resembled a nautical star, or an arcane pentagram. "What?" she barked back at him, refusing to shy away into the shadows and simply disappear.
A writhing muscle poked out from drying lips, lashing against the crisp, peeled surface to moisten it. Were she a feral beast out on the prowl, it would be no different than a creature licking its chops in preparation for a meal. Aside, prompted by movement, solid eyes spied Minoko more clearly despite not having her glasses. They lingered, studied with the same manner of disdain and vague disgust--enough foulness over her presence that she released a haughty scoff.
He felt like a yo-yo, all of a sudden. He had been in the grip of a water, small, soft hand, but now was left to plummet toward destruction until that same hand jerked at him to get him to return. Did it even bother him? Was she even annoyed at her for it? His eyebrows drew together. He turned to face her, her body flooded with light from the street lamp, his own just outside of it. At least until he took a single step forward. It was for himself, he said, to prove he still had control of his body, not to get nearer to her. Definitely not that. "...What's going on. And don't give me any of the crap you usually do about looking too close or not minding my own business because I'm not blind. I see you, and you're not..*you*."
His own eyes flicked between hers, their heavy lidded heat still strong. It was a chore to keep his attention on her face and not let his attention roam to remind himself how small she was and how easy it had been to wrangle her against him, what it felt like to do it. He knew he failed when he had to hike his gaze back up from her middle, focusing instead on the obvious patterns stamped in her silver eyes. "...Your eyes changed again."
"Do you like what I've done? It's all for you. You, too" indicating Minoko in a look alone, her nose lifting toward the Heaven's as she put herself on display, arms out to model her figure for them. There was no defined changed save for the alteration of pigmentation in her arms, rotating a single time in a slow, meticulous rotation. "It's amazing... so amazing. I'm able to do whatever it is I want. Anything... anything!" She howled, a wolf able to catch sight of the pale spheres that loomed above them all. Had this been another realm, they'd be cackling along with her right then, a maniacal laughter that broke down the fortifications of sanity. Mercury shot low to glower at Toby as though he was a magnet to her gaze, her lips thinning as they stretched wide to either of her ears.
She had noticed the newly silver eyes. Minoko had been with May the first morning they had appeared. In comparison to that deep green, she didn't like the silver. It was cold, unwelcoming. But it hadn't really bothered her until now. She was now stationary. Her fingers were close to dropping the groceries. "Mayu...?" She was now trembling. Her whole body was ice. The eyes had seen right through her, had pierced her soul, and May's words had only shaken her up more. Did May have a twin as well? It seemed the only plausible explanation.
He didn't know how to answer her. He didn't even know what she'd meant and he somehow doubted it had anything to do with what she was unconsciously doing to him now. Or did she know. Did she know, and did she enjoy this..? "May, stop, look at me--" His voice caught in his own throat when she did. He tossed a quick look over his shoulder to see if he could catch, too, what she'd looked at. Or maybe she was just nuts. "...What did you do?" Something had to be doing it *to* her. This wasn't her. Even when she was upset, it wasn't. "Tell me..? What did you do."
"Hmm?" she crooned, barely there brows ticking like tiny check marks on her forehead. "Everything will be just fine, Minoko... I promise..." The initial step she took toward the two of them was like reality itself becoming unwound, a distortion surrounding her akin to when Tracy makes herself known in the minds of others. Spider leg digits splayed wide as she lifted her palms up to the two of them, feigning a certain innocence that was normally present in her. "Power. That's what I did! I wanted a glimpse of what power was like! It's... it's fantastic...! Can I show you...?"
"Minoko." He had taken another step forward, apparently matching May's, his second look over his shoulder a longer one, lingering on the figure he saw in the dark. "May, you don't want power. That's never been what you wanted. What the hell happened, who tricked you into doing whatever it is that got you here?" He didn't believe it was her. He knew her, he knew May, and this..this was someone else's fault.
"Toby, what's going on?" She had already forgotten why she was angry. It had been petty. If something was seriously wrong with Mayu, then her fight with Toby was simply erased. The slack in her fingers finally gave out, and her bags tumbled to the ground. A lime tumbled out onto the street as a bottle of tequila rang out into the night. "Show me what....?
"Nobody tricked me!" an octave higher than the last statement, scowling at him for what she felt was an incredulous comment. "I was given a taste of what... power would be like! All I had to do was accept that power was the only way to protect my friends so nothing like what happened to Martyr could ever happen again!" Her countenance shifted; something of sadness overtaking her. Her eyes met the ground for an instant, "Only... there was a small problem in the agreement..." They rose right afterward to the two of them. "It doesn't matter. If I can protect you all, I'll do it... I'll do all of it!" The hue of chrome in her arms tapered off, evaporating into the flesh that had snared them. Pristine whites and blues were like a glamorous lightshow during the final act of a ballet, filling the palms of both hands. To Minoko, that wide, jack-o-lantern grin of hers prevailed once more. "Show you how I intend to save you from everything!"
The words were ringing in her ears. Save you from everything. Everything. She really had no idea what was happening or how to deal with it. What was materializing in her hands? Were they power beams? Were they healing rays? Should she run, or should she stay perfectly still? Her instinct would normally be to run. Anything to live, to make it so that no one had to pick up the pieces of her body and cast a spell. But the echo was still there. Why would she run from her savior?
Something *did* happen. "May, geez." It only took a single, long step to close the distance left between them. He wrenched his hands free of their pockets, his skin burning where denim had scraped over it. He tried to fill his palms with her cheeks and jawline, nudge her sporadic attention back in his direction. "...What happened to Martyr. Tell me, what happened to her. You're saying this like she didn't leave, was there a fight or something? With somebody? What happened to her?"
His own eyes lurched down at the sudden lights blinking from her hands. ...Her bracelets glowed, he knew that, but not like this. He remembered golden light coming from her once, maybe green--this was different though. (s)"May, you're strong enough to do anything, you have to know that. You don't *need* someone else to f*ck with you like this. Who told you that you had to accept this crap..?"
"Hmm..." Her gaze was directed up to Toby, and away from Minoko, when he took hold of delicately pronounced features. The nautical stars of her eyes stared through him as though he was nothing more than a mirage; madness personified. The luminescence in her palms came with the diabolical chirping like a thousand birds, all clamoring in unison to be set free from the cage that possessed them. She made no attempt to shove herself free from the hold that had her--embracing his touch as though it would be the last. Her cheek mushed into his palm, heat present in flesh like baked sand. Just as grainy. "I don't know who it was . Why does it matter to you so much? Now I can do everything I need to."
The pulse in her flesh was rapid, faster and with more fervor than a marathon runner that was quick to take first place in the competition. She brushed away from his hold and made a complete 180? turn away from them, tracing the very steps that she'd taken in order to draw away from them. Twin, molten suns present in her palms intensified, casting a foreboding, purifying glow across the street they all occupied, chasing away all manner of shadows and lurking evil alike. She was more a beacon of hope than one of devilish destruction just then--the opposite of what she reeked of in both tone and disposition. ?Power... is the only thing I can rely on now. I have to, otherwise I'll lose everything again. I won't lose everything again... and for that reason alone... I must do this."
They were this close. Why did he want this so much when he knew, he *knew* that something was so horrifically wrong? Did he crave it that much..? Was he really cradling her face in a gentle hold, his thumbs brushing the roundness of her cheekbones, skimming toward the obvious corners of her eyes. (s)"Because, May. How do you know that this person, whoever they were, wants the same things you do? What if they just wanted to screw with you? What if this power you have is the thing that'll hurt everybody more..? It's beautiful. You're beautiful--that you did this to try and protect people, but--" He suddenly found himself holding empty air, his palms still tingling from the echo of her skin against them. "...What are you going to do?"
The intense glow from either of her hands, like twin flashbang grenades, leaked power like an unstable power conduit. That sound of a thousand birds chirping in her palms grew louder, amplified by a sudden leak in her showing of this fabled power. A glance was spared over one extremely narrow, bony shoulder at the two of them, putting intensive focus on Minoko now. "...I cannot let the people I care about disappear. They cannot die..." There was a reverberating snap! as she spun around on the backs of heeled loafers, her hair a wild tangent of motion that lashed like a million tiny bullheaded whips. "I'll feed on you... please do not resist me!" She kicked off with such a start that the pavement itself cracked like a baby grand piano had just smashed into it from ten stories above, tiny legs carrying her in a rush of motion directly toward the other Asian.
"May, stop!" She had gone from savior to demon with that one sentence. 'I'll feed on you.' No. She had seen people giving and receiving energy a long time ago, shortly after she first came here. It had bothered her. Minoko crossed her arms in front of her chest and widened her stance. Running wouldn't do much for her right now. If she somehow managed to kick off her sandals and avoid the scattered fruit, she still wouldn't be fast enough. Her energy was hers and hers alone. No one would take her essence.
She blew past Toby without ever giving him another look, thin arms dangling behind her uselessly as she descended on Minoko's presence. Seeing that she wasn't running cued a grin so tremendous, it was painful just to look at. "We'll be one!" She couldn't deny that, deep down inside of her heart, she desired to only sample another soul like she had Martyr's. She preferred that. Needed it. The girl's right arm began to take on that unsettling chrome finish as she swept close, using momentum in her favor to unleash a titanic thrust of that metal arm of hers directly where Minoko's arms crossed. X was marking the spot for her.
(s)"May--" She couldn't have done this. She couldn't have done something drastic like this, again, all over again just because she'd lost somebody. ...Then again, how different would he be? What would he do if he lost her a third time? He could barely hear her small voice over the chattering feedback she was giving off until she had screamed. He whirled at the same time she had taken off, but she was already past him. "SO YOU'RE JUST GOING TO KILL EVERYONE YOURSELF?! May, *stop it*!!" His roar joined the noise already filling the street. He ran after her, loping forward, pitching a hand out as far as it could go. If he couldn't catch her, maybe he could knock her off balance. Or something, anything. Anything to force some sense into her.
There was but one arm presently unused in her assault on Minoko, which was up for grabs in all her delirium to feast like it was Thanksgiving all over again. She was jerked back to stop herself from plowing over Minoko as if she was a speed bump just in the way, but it wasn't enough to halt the momentum of her fist. If anything, it provided her with a distinctive advantage to throw the most of her weight into it rather than her balance.
She had planned on moving, of course. Though not as fast as her twin, Minoko was still fairly swift. But at the last moment, just as Toby came in, her eyes focused on the color of May's arm. Silver. The same terrible color as her eyes. In that instant, Minoko realized there was no escaping. She was human. No powers, no special skills, no hidden bloodlines. Just a plain old useless human. Her eyes squeezed shut. The woman braced for impact.
Don't expect anything, but expect everything. Wasn't that one of the stupid sayings that Patrick kept repeating to him to, he swore, make himself sound cool. But it applied. He had been prepared for an easy snare, one like last time, where he could easily grapple a hold on May and lock her in place. Most definitely *not* the blow that felt like she had put on a metal plated glove. He barked a yell of surprise, his teeth rattling in his gums. His ears rang. What grip he did have around her wrist slipped to uselessness, no strength in the curl of his fingers by the time they fell away. He shook his head violently, staggering sideways. "...May, I don't want to hurt you." Could he even? She probably knew the answer to that as much as he did. "Don't just stand there, Minoko, run!! Get out of here!!"
She was no mack truck blitzing through an unsuspecting crowd at a concert. And with Toby pulling her away from the attack, a portion of it was going to be lost. She met the cross with enough force to crack bone and puncture veins, enough to knock the Asian girl right on her ass. In the second that contact was established, she was being pulled aside by Toby's initial grab, stumbling away. With her concentration momentarily lost, the vibrant, lively glow of her hands tapered, flickering like a dying out lightbulb in an abandoned warehouse. She snarled in Toby's direction, condemning him for his interference. "Knock it off! If I don't do this now, she'll be the next one that something will happen to! If I could just stop having all these feelings for her, I would! It'd stop all the dangerous sh*t from happening to her! But I don't have that kind of power! All I can do is protect her!"
"So all of this has to do with your *feelings*?! You're going to go after people because of your *feelings*?!" The burning black angel rune had taken most of the edge off of the throbbing in his head. "Feelings don't just--they don't just go away, May. You can't *kill* them, no matter how hard you try. If you like her or love her, whatever, that's just the way it is. That's the way it always is. ...And that's not bad." He curved one hand around his jaw and worked it in a slow circle. "The only thing dangerous happening to her right now is you, don't you f*cking *get* that?"
A sad cry came from her as she slammed against the building she had been standing in front of. Her arms fell limp at her sides, a hand unwillingly hitting a pineapple. They were still talking.... About power and love.... The two didn't go together. Not one bit. Minoko willed her head back, but it simply wouldn't budge. Instead, she remained behind the veil of her long black hair, motionless.
The many protective wards that were an invisible but sentient intricate design on her flesh began to writhe, starting at the base of her bare shoulder and straight down to where chrome overrode epidermis, slithering about like a bunch of lively snakes just waiting to be unleashed from their porcelain prison. She threw Toby's presence from her mind, head shaking vehemently. "No. No! I was told that by having this power, by feeding on all of you, I can keep it all safe! I can stop anything from ever happening again!" Minoko's collision against the building captured the girl's attention, another sadistic grin smothering all manner of innocence and purity from her. Her strides became long and purposeful, directing herself Minoko's way as if an ulterior force was making her. "Once I have her, it'll be better. Once I have all of you, I can stop it all..."
"What, because you ate all of us and we'll all be in one spot inside of you, you won't lose us or some sh*t like that?! MAY!!" He stretched out a hand to the open air. From this distance, Minoko looked like she fit between his fingers, like a doll that he'd picked up with her hair all over the place. "*You'll* be the one making us disappear. ...And what does this do to *you* in the end, is this why your eyes are different?" He jogged after her. "How ridiculously unfair is this? No one can try and protect you, but you let yourself get screwed up to protect everyone else..?"
She was still conscious, but barely. Her mind was trying to sort through what was going on, along with what had already happened. Pain was running through every inch of her arms, back and head. Minoko's legs started to squirm around in a pathetic attempt to bring herself to her feet. No luck. Too heavy. At this point she would be eaten, would be gone forever. No hope. She had seen Motoko earlier, but what was the last thing she said? Probably something about the dog or Weston. The ginger haired boy almost reminded her of Toby.
Tendrils of Heavenly white sprang out from either of her shoulder blades, forming a disjointed, skeletal set of wings without an arrangement of plumes to mask them. They arched in the wake of her purposeful steps Minoko's way, contorting and whirling like smoke caught in a fan's turbulent spin, eager to smack Toby aside the second she even considered thinking about him. He'd begun to bother her in ways that she couldn't exactly define; something inside of her mind urging her to do something about him first and foremost. He wasn't any concern of hers, though. Not yet, at least. The person she cared more for was still locked in her gaze--still present and unmoving as though she was already dead. Had her life not been accentuated by subtle, still conscious breaths and the movement of legs like worms out of the ground, she would have thought differently. Maddened further, perhaps.
She dropped onto her knees before Minoko's lowered figure, either vibrantly lit hand of hers encircling Minoko's shoulders and hoisting her up so that her head, and the most of her upper abdomen was settled perfectly in the dimple of either of her thighs. All that tangled weave of dark hair was brushed aside by trembling fingers; fingers soiled with a seething, despicable intention. "It's okay, Minoko... I won't let anybody get you..." The girl drew close to the woman, her spine bending nearly in two in order to destroy the gap that kept them apart. The pointed bulb of one nose quickly found itself against the other, causing Mayu's hot, erratic breath to pulse against Minoko's face in ragged bursts.
The maiden's occupied hands suddenly shimmered, becoming translucent and faded like a snowy television screen. The instant it occurred, the very most of her hand and arm alike sank through flesh as if it was nothing more than rippling water that had been disturbed by a thrown rock. Her insertion into Minoko was crude--chilling like a glacier against naked flesh. "...Must... taste... you..."
She was more scared than ever before, or at least what her memory had managed to hold on to in the past twenty-four years. This was it. Her arms were definitely broken, and probably a few of her ribs as well. Minoko had never been the victim. She was always well protected, and others had always fallen before her. The woman's parents had died in battle. Her sister had been injured. Her boyfriend had died protecting her. The blood spilled was always, always someone else?s. But not this time. This time would be her blood, and all of it. She managed to let out some whimpers and unintelligible words. Once May's breath fell on her face she began to shake. As the hand went through her she became still. Minoko had become a meal.
"You?re so f*cking stubborn, you don't get *anything*, do you?! You don't know what this is going to do to you, you don't even know what you're doing!!" Even the gentlest contact from May's smokey tendrils vibrated through him like the loudest church bells. He felt them against his chest, inside it, the seemingly feather light touches sending him back half the distance he had come. There were holes and slits in his shirt where contact was made, the flesh beneath red and raw. He felt the ground come up fast against his tailbone and hands. "...You can't do this, you can't really be wanting to *eat* everybody!!"
Toby was completely phased out of her memory; his voice no louder than a subtle Spring breeze on her ears. Her pert nose scrunched up into a tight wad as the warmth of Minoko's insides washed over her injected arm, swimming through contents of the girl's insides as if it was a basin full of dirty dishes, and her most favored spoon was at the very bottom. Her mind was racing with potential thoughts of where the human soul often resided. The heart... they say the heart is the soul of a human... Her thoughts rang true, fingers wrapping around something pudgy, like a swollen water balloon filled to the brim and knotted tight to prevent it from spilling out. It was the woman's heart--still pulsing with life. "Here...? Hah... ahaha... hahaha!" she howled, ethereal digits penetrating through the surface of the Asian girl's heart, careful not to rupture it.
Death prior to extraction would forfeit everything she was after! Within the beating muscle, another, more heated element washed over her fingers, thick like jello but lighter than air itself. Soul... Her eyes narrowed, staring headlong into Minoko's closed eyes as she encapsulated her fingers around the globby wad of spiritual essence and gave it the most aggressive of jerks in order to untether it from the network that kept it confined to Minoko's body. It was, perhaps, the most crude of fashions in order for the girl to entirely expel a living soul from the husk of another--but that was all she needed to do.
She was being violated. The monster feeling around inside her was looking for something. Minoko nearly jumped when her heart was grabbed. That wasn't it, though. Just a trick. She calmed for a moment before her soul was grabbed. "TOBY!" He was the only person here, the only person who could help. Minoko hadn't known it was that simple, that a soul could just be grabbed and pulled out. But in that instant she knew, and she needed someone to stop it.
A soul was nothing more than a coin in a wishing well. For the shrine maiden it was, at least. Never in all her years did she presume the abilities that were thrust upon her back home would find themselves in use today. And, horrifyingly enough, to this extent. The glob of essence was handled like a large softball in the palm of her one hand, groped and felt like a stress ball just waiting to be popped from too much pressure being applied to it. Darkly, above the vibrant ivory glow, the girl looked at Toby. "...one..." she uttered under her breath to him, lifting the large ball to her mouth. Nothing was sweeter than the initial bite of an apple; her plush lips wrapping around one rounded end and suckling at it like a calf would the teat of its mother. "Mhn... are you ready?" she questioned him, her tone sated but still heavily uneven--inebriated by what she held.
This was so messed up. Half of it was May, he swore it was, the half that wanted to make sure that everyone was protected. But this other half, the one that reminded him of the nasty, greasy stuff that was left over in an overused frying pan, made his stomach turn. He didn't understand anything that was going on, had made it a habit to never question anything new he saw May do because somehow, somewhere, it had a reason. And because it was her, it was a good one, but this--"May." It was still her. He knew it was. Somewhere in there, she was screaming at herself for what she was doing. He crawled unsteadily to his feet, still bent half over like he was trying to hide from view. One of his hands splayed across the small burns on his chest, remarkably untouched by the rune's abilities.
A handful of stagger-steps later, he crashed to his knees, reaching out with his free hand toward May's wrist to try and guide her hand from her mouth. Whatever that glob was, it came from Minoko. ...He had the feeling it wasn't supposed to come out. (s)"You idiot. If you had wanted to kill me, all you had to do was tell me." The normally sharp angles of his face were soft, imploring. (s)"I would've given myself up to you in a heartbeat, don't you know that? There's never been a time where my life *wasn't* yours. I just wish you would've done me first so I wouldn't have to watch this part." He tugged at her wrist, two fingers pressing there to coax her hand back down toward Minoko's fallen body, with whatever that glob was.
The grip that claimed her wrist was a loose one, yet something she couldn't simply shrug off as if it wasn't there. Perhaps she didn't really want him to let her go so that they could see every little bit of what she was doing. The skeletal frame of jagged, naked wings more translucent than a ghost twisted and whorled idly as she stared down at him, her loli visage contorting into something terrifyingly proud. "Wouldn't have to see this part? What part?" The ball that was yanked out of Minoko throbbed in her laxing grip, allowing Toby easier access to its existence. She implored for him to see it. To study it. To see every little bit of what it was and what he would soon be reduced to.
"This? You don't want to see this...?" She chuckled, something rasped and groaned like her throat was composed of nothing more than gravel. The spiritual residue in her hand was clutched tightly, and in an instant, shoved forward with such strength, it was a wonder her wrist didn't snap beneath his hold on her. "Here. Taste it. EAT IT. ALL OF IT. TELL ME YOU WOULDN'T WANT THIS." She collapsed onto her knees before him, her other hand coming around to wrap the base of his skull and force him to swallow down the softball sized sphere that was easily molded to whatever whim she desired of it. Its texture wasn't unlike chewed up gum.
"The part where you're proud that you're killing the people you care about. May, this isn't you. This isn't the kind of power you want." He cringed, his face scrunching up tight, both colors of his eyes squinted so narrow he couldn't see past his eyelashes. "We've got to find a way to fi--NGHK!!" The sudden grasp on the back of his head, the hard pressure on his jaw that had still yet to fully repair itself, sent cold fear slamming into his veins. His eyes flew open and, unfortunately, so did his mouth. The hand at her wrist clenched tight and he attempted to yank it aside, his gut already convulsing, throat closed as he gagged against the glob of whatever the hell she'd drawn from Minoko.
Oriental, slanted eyes leered at him as he dared to say another word. Her fingers popped as she furled them into another fist, bringing it up to bring the ridge of knuckles, purely flesh and bone, into the cap of his mouth in order to drive down the wadded soul that she'd forced him to consume. She repeated the process a second time, then a third; feeling her knuckles crunch and snap from the tremendous force she was putting on them. "Shut up! Just shut up! Eat it! Eat her whole, damn it!!"
She was a mixture of snarls and titters the entire time, her body and emotions incapable of settling on purely rage or laughter. It was all so maddening to her, but hilarious at the very same time.
Both irises of his wet eyes stretched and swirled a vicious brassy yellow, their pupils needle thin slits. Surrounding their figures, half of Minoko's, a perfect circle of shimmering crystal colors reached for the dark night sky overhead. His fingers tightened around her arm after the first of her shoves, but it did nothing to stop her. He couldn't hold her arm still, or was it that he wasn't really trying. Still, even now, the thought of having to hurt her to stop this brought on another series of retches. Moisture streamed from the corners of his yellow eyes and his face reddened in response to his inability to breathe.
The second he'd dropped his hand from her wrist, he curled it into a tight fist, swinging blindly at whatever part of her small body he could reach in an attempt to send her, at least, off of him. There was no way he could throw *up*, the only thing left to do was swallow. If he didn't, he really would die and--hadn't he said that was just fine..? Like the breaking of a stained glass window, the prismatic colors firing into the air shattered around them, raining down in torrents of illumination. He sank back into the street, the cold cobblestones a good icing to the fire still inside his body.
She remained plastered on her knees, staring down on him like he was the scourge of the universe; herself the only cure to his tainted disease. The ball of her one fist remained clenched and ready to be used should he desire to try and stand and run--wound like a coiled spring. Every part of her was, though. The muscles present in her arms were like small tumors just waiting to breach all that white flesh. And, were she to even consider utilizing that lithe figure of hers, she'd most certainly snap in two like a parasite-riddled twig in a dank, dark forest. "...tell me what it tastes like. Do you feel her? Inside of you? What is that like?" She was a scowling, sardonic version of hatred itself. Every part of her loathed to think he was consuming her prized possession. But she couldn't stop giggling. Everything was a ripe comedy act that made her chest convulse until she was tearing in the eyes.
Did he feel? What did he feel? Cobblestones, wet and cold, the chill trying to find its way into his body. The moment he thought about it, goosebumps spread down along his arms. He wasn't sure when his stomach stopped trying to fight when she had been feeding him. What else? Everywhere she still touched him, or had, the warm, longing ache that he had been plagued with since he left the inn, kissed with swimming yoki that had yet to let his eyes go back to normal. His eyelids drifted closed and he gulped, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth when he tried to speak. (s)"Not funny, M-May." It took energy for those three little words. Now all he really wanted to do was sleep.
She couldn't control it. The laughter far outweighed the seething rage that could have made her breathe pure fire like some kind of scornful dragon. A passing look was given to the body that she'd violated with her lively pair of hands, watching its suspension in space and time with nothing short of pity. "I should destroy it before somebody finds it... but first," she started, returning to face Toby with a sour look on her face. "Give that back to me. I don't need you holding onto it like some greedy bastard." Her hand took on that translucent glow to it, becoming nothing short of a ghost's appendage. Spider leg digits drew close together, akin to a surgeon's scalpel, and lunged at Toby to pierce his upper abdomen the same way she had Minoko's, taking a firm hold of his shoulder with her other hand to prevent him from reeling back and making any sudden, outlandish moves in resistance. She grew close to him, eyes leveling with his, their noses barely inches apart, and said, "Do not move."
He realized that there was a terribly frightening freedom in all of this. He wanted to know what was going on, what someone had done or said to turn her into this?he couldn't even call her anything. She had lost Martyr. That was all whoever that person had been needed. And all of this stuff about protecting people?she must have thought she failed somehow. He knew he should mind, he knew he should be fighting. But when it was her, *this* girl, inflicting it upon him, that was all the reason in the world to just give up. If he wasn't living for her, what was he living for? He shuddered, the feeling of a suddenly foreign...thing...inside of his chest making any sort of normal breathing impossible.
...How impossibly weak was he? Was he just going to lay there and let this happen? After he was dead, then what would she do? She'd really be by herself. (s)"May," he began, the word more breath than voice, (s)"I'm s-sorry that you lost her. But--" His voice dropped, a tight flicker of pain crossing his sweat slicked face. The three little words that followed were said with a small curve of a smile. If it was going to be the last thing he said, it would be that.
Had she the ability to punch him again, it would have happened without a flicker of doubt on her features. While working on grabbing a soul that she was eager to simply consume and be done with it all, however, her wants to be clumsy were inexcusable. There was no need to become haphazard here and lose everything that was being made to her. The hunger was telling her to continue. The power she could obtain by scarfing another living being's essence too great for her to resist. Her fingers wrapped around a pudgy essence; something bulbous and thick, like a watermelon. Minoko's soul felt... differently than it had moments before. She sneered at the thoughts coursing through her brain. "Just shut up," she repeated to him again. Once the area around his heart was invaded, feeling the mushy, sloppy warmth of his guts run all across the intangible surface of her ethereal arm, she gave it a generous tug, yanking at that soul to pull it out of him.
Only... she hadn't exactly accounted for the fact that the very soul she was ripping out of Toby wasn't Minoko...
Was this really what it felt like? To be lifted out of his own body? That encroaching blackness over all of his vision was the same. He felt a sudden weightlessness that was such a relief he wanted to cry out in continuous pleasure. It was relaxing, so relaxing. A little cold, but that was okay. He just missed his body, or something. What really happened when you died? The nuns believed they would go someplace else. But where did you go when you didn't fit into the only place anyone believed in? It probably didn't matter. The only thing that did was that it was by her hand, May's, his best friend, his?she was everything, absolutely everything to him. ...And that was enough. Death wasn't so bad. His eyelids closed over eyes that had lost their golden hue and all their luster.