Dead, Your Majesty (Tora/Shou, Chapter 4)
Title: Dead, Your Majesty
Author: sciencesaves
Genre: Horror, Crime, Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence, Mental Illness, Use of Real Names, Sex
Pairing: Tora/Shou (Chapter Four: Tora/Aki, Tora/Kenzo)
Chapter: 4/??
Summary: “Of course it’s quiet...it must be awfully hard to breathe or scream with a crushed windpipe”
“I see you’ve been behaving, Mr. Amano. Cigarette?” Hiroto asked distractedly, as he emptied his briefcase onto the table. Tora laughed softly, and nodded, parting his lips and raising his eyebrow slightly as Hitoro absentmindedly slid the cigarette between them, pressing start on the recorder. “Mr. Amano, perhaps you can explain to me the long break between count two and counts three and four? Nearly a year. You’ve admitted to December 20th, 2013.”
That smile again, ghosting across sharp features but never quite reaching his eyes. “A light?”
Hiroto flipped open his lighter, reaching across the table to light the cigarette held loosely between smirking lips.
“Steady hands. Well done, Mr. Ogata. As for the break, the selection takes time, planning takes time. Of course, in my own mind I had told myself I needed to stop. It was becoming risky, I was becoming reckless, and I had-- someone else to be thinking of.”
“Shou.”
Something dangerous flashed through cool eyes; he had eyes you noticed. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That was expensive, Shin.”
Shinji winced, both at the shortening of his name and at the tired tone it was spoken in. He rubbed the pale line circling his finger nervously.
“Well, don’t worry about it...it was just a ring.” Shou shrugged, “I’ll buy you a new one. Where do you think you lost it?”
Red. A shocking red. He vaguely remembered thinking that it could have been a pretty passable Halloween costume. Murder victim number three-- latex scars and gruesome gashes. On sale now. Red. Everywhere. Blood on his hands. On his clothes. Slipping in mud and blood and decaying leaves. Slippery hands. The metallic smell of death. Everywhere.
“It must have been at my mother’s house.”
“You should call to check. I’m sure your mother would be glad to hear from you, anyway.”
“Counts three and four...Akihito and Kenzo were the one deviation from your M.O., a pair of killings.”
“Yes. ”
“And you’ve just said that the selection process took some time. So these two were also different in that you hunted them specifically?”
“Yes, I’d say I’d been watching them for two or three months before that night.”
“Why them?”
“Why any of them?” Tora snapped, “Because they were beautiful and ugly and because when I saw them I knew they would make a tragic story no one would think twice about.”
“And was there a reason for two victims?”
A pause, “In that case, I knew they would be much easier to take together.”
”You look like the kind of guy who’s up for some fun tonight.”
“Depends on the kind of fun.”
”Do you want both of us? We’ll make it worth the price.”
Tora’s fingers tightened on the smaller man’s arm, and Kenzo laughed lowly, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” Kenzo licked his lips, meeting Aki’s eyes over the stage and lifting his chin slightly.
“Meet us out back in 10 minutes.”
“Safety in numbers.” Tora murmured, by means of explanation, taking another drag and exhaling through his nose.
“I see.”
“It never occurs to people just what kind of... unfortunate things can happen, even when in pairs. They really should have trusted their instincts. You’d be surprised how often gut feelings about a person are right, Mr. Ogata.”
“You’re...not going to kill us, are you?” Aki asked softly, leaning his head against Tora’s shoulder as they drove through tired Tokyo streets.
Her laughter echoed through the car, bubbling from between his own lips as Tora playfully ruffled soft honey hair. “Uh-oh, looks like they’re on to you…” she teased. Tora could almost feel her smile.
Kenzo rolled his eyes and stuck his cigarette out the cracked window, “shut the fuck up, Aki.” Then, speaking to Tora, “Sorry, he’s trashed.”
“There was evidence of sexual activity and bruising antemortem.”
“Oh fuck, fu-ck!” Aki hissed between clenched teeth, face-down, fingers tightening into fists and straining against the leather which held his arms uncomfortably above his head.
“Wait,” she whispered.
“Please,” Aki whined, pressing his hips back insistently, shoulderblades jutting at an awkward angle, bone pressed tightly against skin.
Aki’s eyes lolled toward where Kenzo lay motionless, twisted on his side, hands bound in a similar fashion.
“What did you give him?”
“Something to help him sleep.” Perhaps it had been too much, Tora thought. Who knows what he’d had at the club...it would be a shame if the smaller man died from an overdose before they had finished.
“Wait.”
“Was there a reason for that? It’s rather unusual behavior for you.”
Tora shrugged, bringing his cuffed hands up slowly to remove the spent cigarette, dropping it into the ashtray, where it steadily smouldered, “There’s a certain finesse to taking two and... like I said, I was getting reckless. I’d had a stressful week.” His mouth twitched upwards slightly into the barest of smiles.
“Reckless.”
“Of course. The likelihood of a struggle and of therefore being discovered increases the longer you leave them alive. I was well aware of that.”
“More.” Aki groaned, shuddering as Tora’s fingers closed and opened around his throat. He could feel the blood rushing just beneath the skin.
“Now.” She murmured, pressing fingers more deeply. “Give him more.”
“The victims succumbed to strangulation-- as indicated by ligature marks made with a belt around the neck of victim four as well as your confession. The wrists of victim four also displayed signs of antemortem bruising, but no scratches were discovered near the pressure abrasions on the neck.”
Aki’s chest and neck heaved in protest, body convulsing-- turning a brilliant red. It was eerily quiet-- the rustling of sheets and the shaking of the bed the only noticeable noise in the sterile hotel room.
“Of course it’s quiet,” she purred, “it must be awfully hard to breathe or scream with a crushed windpipe. Kill this one first, then the other before the body is cold. They should go together.”
Tora smiled, lips tight, as the body beneath his hands became heavy and began to sag slowly towards the bed.
He turned his attention towards the sleeping form to his left.
“He never woke up.”
“Excuse me?”
“Zo-- the smaller one. He had no idea what had happened, at the moment of death. It was a waste.”
“A waste?”
“I’m sure you understand, by now, Mr. Ogata.”
“Victim number four was found at least three days after death and was posed and mutilated in a similar fashion to victim one. Victim three’s body remains unrecovered. Why remove only one body from the scene?”
His ghost looked like snow. Like the snow dusting the trees and turning the earth to mud beneath his shoes.
The sky over the mountain turned a hazy orange.
Bloodstains in the carpet of the trunk.
He thought, “It’s going to snow again.”
“Haven’t you heard enough from me today?” Tora asked abruptly, sitting further back in his chair. “I’ve some questions for you now, it’s only fair. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Look-- Mr. Amano--”
“I’m looking. Do you know what I see?”
Hiroto sighed, nothing else would be finished today. “I think you’re going to tell me.”
“I see you scouring through crime scene photos and listening to these tapes alone in your bed. My voice must sound much closer in headphones. I see someone not quite ready to look directly into the darkness-- even though her shadow is there.”
“Please, Mr. Amano, I do have work to do, if you’re going to waste our time today--”
“You know the feeling, Mr. Ogata. Although you might not recognize it for what it is, or what it could be.” Tora paused, “It’s the feeling of driving past an animal that’s been hit and is lying dead at the shoulder. You see it, but as you drive by, you look away-- you don’t feel like seeing the blood and guts spilling out.
And so, Mr. Ogata, you look at something somewhere else-- at the sky, for example, or up ahead at the wildflowers waving cheerfully in the breeze from passing cars, at anything except the side of the road at the moment you pass.”
“What’s your point.” Hiroto asked hesitantly.
“The point is-- your eyes, Mr. Ogata, are full of golden dandelions, or perhaps the yawning summer sky.” A smirk, “I think you’re going to have to make yourself look at the side of the road sooner rather than later.”
***
Click for music to enjoy this series to.
( Prologue ) ( Chapter One ) (Chapter Two ) ( Chapter Three )
( Archive )
Author: sciencesaves
Genre: Horror, Crime, Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence, Mental Illness, Use of Real Names, Sex
Pairing: Tora/Shou (Chapter Four: Tora/Aki, Tora/Kenzo)
Chapter: 4/??
Summary: “Of course it’s quiet...it must be awfully hard to breathe or scream with a crushed windpipe”
“I see you’ve been behaving, Mr. Amano. Cigarette?” Hiroto asked distractedly, as he emptied his briefcase onto the table. Tora laughed softly, and nodded, parting his lips and raising his eyebrow slightly as Hitoro absentmindedly slid the cigarette between them, pressing start on the recorder. “Mr. Amano, perhaps you can explain to me the long break between count two and counts three and four? Nearly a year. You’ve admitted to December 20th, 2013.”
That smile again, ghosting across sharp features but never quite reaching his eyes. “A light?”
Hiroto flipped open his lighter, reaching across the table to light the cigarette held loosely between smirking lips.
“Steady hands. Well done, Mr. Ogata. As for the break, the selection takes time, planning takes time. Of course, in my own mind I had told myself I needed to stop. It was becoming risky, I was becoming reckless, and I had-- someone else to be thinking of.”
“Shou.”
Something dangerous flashed through cool eyes; he had eyes you noticed. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That was expensive, Shin.”
Shinji winced, both at the shortening of his name and at the tired tone it was spoken in. He rubbed the pale line circling his finger nervously.
“Well, don’t worry about it...it was just a ring.” Shou shrugged, “I’ll buy you a new one. Where do you think you lost it?”
Red. A shocking red. He vaguely remembered thinking that it could have been a pretty passable Halloween costume. Murder victim number three-- latex scars and gruesome gashes. On sale now. Red. Everywhere. Blood on his hands. On his clothes. Slipping in mud and blood and decaying leaves. Slippery hands. The metallic smell of death. Everywhere.
“It must have been at my mother’s house.”
“You should call to check. I’m sure your mother would be glad to hear from you, anyway.”
“Counts three and four...Akihito and Kenzo were the one deviation from your M.O., a pair of killings.”
“Yes. ”
“And you’ve just said that the selection process took some time. So these two were also different in that you hunted them specifically?”
“Yes, I’d say I’d been watching them for two or three months before that night.”
“Why them?”
“Why any of them?” Tora snapped, “Because they were beautiful and ugly and because when I saw them I knew they would make a tragic story no one would think twice about.”
“And was there a reason for two victims?”
A pause, “In that case, I knew they would be much easier to take together.”
”You look like the kind of guy who’s up for some fun tonight.”
“Depends on the kind of fun.”
”Do you want both of us? We’ll make it worth the price.”
Tora’s fingers tightened on the smaller man’s arm, and Kenzo laughed lowly, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” Kenzo licked his lips, meeting Aki’s eyes over the stage and lifting his chin slightly.
“Meet us out back in 10 minutes.”
“Safety in numbers.” Tora murmured, by means of explanation, taking another drag and exhaling through his nose.
“I see.”
“It never occurs to people just what kind of... unfortunate things can happen, even when in pairs. They really should have trusted their instincts. You’d be surprised how often gut feelings about a person are right, Mr. Ogata.”
“You’re...not going to kill us, are you?” Aki asked softly, leaning his head against Tora’s shoulder as they drove through tired Tokyo streets.
Her laughter echoed through the car, bubbling from between his own lips as Tora playfully ruffled soft honey hair. “Uh-oh, looks like they’re on to you…” she teased. Tora could almost feel her smile.
Kenzo rolled his eyes and stuck his cigarette out the cracked window, “shut the fuck up, Aki.” Then, speaking to Tora, “Sorry, he’s trashed.”
“There was evidence of sexual activity and bruising antemortem.”
“Oh fuck, fu-ck!” Aki hissed between clenched teeth, face-down, fingers tightening into fists and straining against the leather which held his arms uncomfortably above his head.
“Wait,” she whispered.
“Please,” Aki whined, pressing his hips back insistently, shoulderblades jutting at an awkward angle, bone pressed tightly against skin.
Aki’s eyes lolled toward where Kenzo lay motionless, twisted on his side, hands bound in a similar fashion.
“What did you give him?”
“Something to help him sleep.” Perhaps it had been too much, Tora thought. Who knows what he’d had at the club...it would be a shame if the smaller man died from an overdose before they had finished.
“Wait.”
“Was there a reason for that? It’s rather unusual behavior for you.”
Tora shrugged, bringing his cuffed hands up slowly to remove the spent cigarette, dropping it into the ashtray, where it steadily smouldered, “There’s a certain finesse to taking two and... like I said, I was getting reckless. I’d had a stressful week.” His mouth twitched upwards slightly into the barest of smiles.
“Reckless.”
“Of course. The likelihood of a struggle and of therefore being discovered increases the longer you leave them alive. I was well aware of that.”
“More.” Aki groaned, shuddering as Tora’s fingers closed and opened around his throat. He could feel the blood rushing just beneath the skin.
“Now.” She murmured, pressing fingers more deeply. “Give him more.”
“The victims succumbed to strangulation-- as indicated by ligature marks made with a belt around the neck of victim four as well as your confession. The wrists of victim four also displayed signs of antemortem bruising, but no scratches were discovered near the pressure abrasions on the neck.”
Aki’s chest and neck heaved in protest, body convulsing-- turning a brilliant red. It was eerily quiet-- the rustling of sheets and the shaking of the bed the only noticeable noise in the sterile hotel room.
“Of course it’s quiet,” she purred, “it must be awfully hard to breathe or scream with a crushed windpipe. Kill this one first, then the other before the body is cold. They should go together.”
Tora smiled, lips tight, as the body beneath his hands became heavy and began to sag slowly towards the bed.
He turned his attention towards the sleeping form to his left.
“He never woke up.”
“Excuse me?”
“Zo-- the smaller one. He had no idea what had happened, at the moment of death. It was a waste.”
“A waste?”
“I’m sure you understand, by now, Mr. Ogata.”
“Victim number four was found at least three days after death and was posed and mutilated in a similar fashion to victim one. Victim three’s body remains unrecovered. Why remove only one body from the scene?”
His ghost looked like snow. Like the snow dusting the trees and turning the earth to mud beneath his shoes.
The sky over the mountain turned a hazy orange.
Bloodstains in the carpet of the trunk.
He thought, “It’s going to snow again.”
“Haven’t you heard enough from me today?” Tora asked abruptly, sitting further back in his chair. “I’ve some questions for you now, it’s only fair. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Look-- Mr. Amano--”
“I’m looking. Do you know what I see?”
Hiroto sighed, nothing else would be finished today. “I think you’re going to tell me.”
“I see you scouring through crime scene photos and listening to these tapes alone in your bed. My voice must sound much closer in headphones. I see someone not quite ready to look directly into the darkness-- even though her shadow is there.”
“Please, Mr. Amano, I do have work to do, if you’re going to waste our time today--”
“You know the feeling, Mr. Ogata. Although you might not recognize it for what it is, or what it could be.” Tora paused, “It’s the feeling of driving past an animal that’s been hit and is lying dead at the shoulder. You see it, but as you drive by, you look away-- you don’t feel like seeing the blood and guts spilling out.
And so, Mr. Ogata, you look at something somewhere else-- at the sky, for example, or up ahead at the wildflowers waving cheerfully in the breeze from passing cars, at anything except the side of the road at the moment you pass.”
“What’s your point.” Hiroto asked hesitantly.
“The point is-- your eyes, Mr. Ogata, are full of golden dandelions, or perhaps the yawning summer sky.” A smirk, “I think you’re going to have to make yourself look at the side of the road sooner rather than later.”
***
Click for music to enjoy this series to.
( Prologue ) ( Chapter One ) (Chapter Two ) ( Chapter Three )
( Archive )