Fic for moogle_tey!

[nijipair]

Intergroup Gold for moogle_tey

from jerainbowbridge

Title: Monster
Pairings/Groups: Maruyama, Nakamaru, cameos by other members of Eito (Kanjani8 + KAT-TUN)
Rating: R for gore
Warnings: Otherworldly creatures, gore, devouring, death (also the ending is a tad abrupt)
Summary: Ryuhei is starving and Yuichi looks good enough to eat.
Word Count/Notes: 4353 words. moogle_tey I hope there is something here that appeals to you? The history in this story is loosely based on the legend of Shuten-doji (here are some links), but you don't need to know anything about it, I think, since this is mostly extrapolated. Only given names are used for reasons that should be obvious. Cut text from Arashi's 'Monster' despite no Arashi members appearing in the fic. Many thanks to mod/beta-type people.



Ryuhei ended the night early, stating his usual reason of having 'a conference call scheduled with his family,' which was mostly true. It was already the first of October and he had less than a fortnight left. He still couldn't decide what to do, but he couldn't let that be known.

He enjoyed Yuichi, his youth, his friendship, his lack of knowledge of Ryuhei's family history. It was true that Yuichi could never know and would never understand what Ryuhei was or where he came from, but Ryuhei tried not to think about the meagerness of Yuichi's human existence and thereby avoided resenting him for it.

While he was here, he was like Yuichi, even if only on the outside. Some part of him quietly hoped the humanity would seep from the outside in.

Ryuhei reached his apartment just as he was feeling the guttural pull of contact through the dimensional divide that separated him from his homeland. Yuichi believed it was a Skype date, which in truth, Ryuhei might have preferred. He would relish the cold distance between camera lenses. In fact the method used for contact between the worlds was far more visceral than it was technical.

There was a pull on his consciousness, a sort of spiritual umbilical cord tying him to his original home and he felt a tightening and tugging when he was being contacted. He'd have to shed blood to open a dimensional window. He pulled a small sacrifice from its cage. He held it down on what would have looked to a human as an expensive countertop in an otherwise low-end apartment. The jet altar stone was one of the two items he was allowed to transport between worlds. His sacrifice squeaked in protest as the other item, a ceremonial killing knife that had belonged to his father, came down and cut off any further sound from the animal. Before his eyes there opened a window into a room he knew well. It was a recruiting room in the temple of their Great and Wicked Prince. He let his guard down and shimmered into his true shape, leaving off the human shell he projected among the company of people.

From the nature of their connection, his leaders could just barely sense his ever-growing reluctance to complete the task for which he was sent. He hid his doubt with every shred of energy he could focus on it but he knew they had their suspicions. They seemed to think he needed a reminder of their history and goals. He let his mind wander as Shingo retold the tale.

Long, long ago. . .

Ryuhei knew the story better than most, since his own father had been there. A thousand years ago, in the time of the Great and Wicked Prince, their kind enjoyed open travel between worlds and feasted upon the Lesser World's inhabitants. These inhabitants, 'people' or 'humans,' provided the needed sustenance for their superior race. They cowered in fear of the Prince, for he daily showed his might over them by selecting their most precious jewels, for of course, they were also the most delicious among them.

The Prince took these jewels, 'virgin girls,' to a fortress he had built high in the mountains above the human city of Kyoto, where he was nearest to the passage between worlds and could enjoy the delights of both in abundance.

But the puny inhabitants of the Lesser World became quite angry and sent their best warriors to defeat the Great and Wicked Prince. Seeing that they could never accomplish this amazing feat, they discarded their honor by tricking the Prince into ingesting a poisoned drink. Only then, when he was debilitated by this poison, were they able to slay him and many of his best retainers and vassals as well.

His mother told it better, but then, she had been there-- or as near as anyone who survived had been. Ryuhei's father was lost in the battle and her love and sadness colored the tale when she told it. Shingo's version was tinted with the romance of someone removed from the story.

From there the histories of the two kinds diverge. The wounded vassals retreated to their own world to regroup and to sever the bridges between worlds, save a precious few. The humans celebrate this as a great and noble victory and belittle the Prince by calling him the Drunkard Boy, but Ryuhei knew that his wickedness was truly without compare. He was the greatest among their kind.

Following his death, a new prince was chosen every hundred years by right of arms, but all paled in comparison to the true Prince. And there was trouble that they'd never had before, much of it stemming from that very incident.

Their kind no longer enjoyed the impugnity they once had in the Lesser World. No longer do they simply snap up any tempting morsel from the road. The streets now are terribly over-full and the people notice when one of their kind has gone missing. Now their great race hides from humankind. They cannot risk drawing the attention of the priests. It is near impossible to tell which among the priests will or will not believe stories of their kind being told by humans. Many no longer believe, but in this age, when the Greater World was becoming emptier and emptier with each passing century as their race dies out, they could not be too careful.

Still, they must feed. It took them many years to learn that it was not the virgin state that conferred the best flavor onto the human. It was the purity of their heart. Now much more emphasis is placed on the victim being young, healthy, a good person, and if possible also willing. They hunted in groups of two or three, befriending a young person and gaining their trust and love, marinating their flesh in it before partaking. It was easier that way, with many. Young people jump at the chance to be included in a group and practically idolize the existing members of such units. It was easy to feed these children a steady stream of half-truths to coerce their submission.

The only time they hunted alone these days was for ritual. In order to gain entry into the prince's court, to become a vassal, as Ryuhei's father had been, one must single-handedly bring in a ritual sacrifice. It was what Ryuhei was here to do.

"You must not fail, Ryuhei," Shingo implored. "You are strong. You should already be among us."

Ryuhei nodded.

Kimitaka reminded, "You must kill it on the Hunter's Moon. Your sacrifice will be stronger then, when the tie between hunter and prey is strong. It would be foolish to pass up the chance to reap such power."

Ryuhei nodded again. He knew that what his leaders, his friends, were saying was true. He tried to feel as sure as they sounded. The Hunter's Moon was October 11th. He had ten days.

··†··

Yuichi invited Ryuhei to see a movie. It was such a human activity that Ryuhei could not pass it up. He enjoyed humans in general and this one in particular. It was a perversion that was indulged much more readily in the time of the Prince, but these days it was viewed as a juvenile obsession. One does not play with one's food, surely.

Ryuhei let Yuichi choose the theme for their evening out, which he would deem a mistake in retrospect. Evidently among humans the autumn season was considered an excellent time for scaring one another and the film Yuichi chose was a 'horror.'

Ryuhei smiled to himself in private jest as the human hunter unimaginatively sliced human throats open, killing them quickly and wasting their blood and meat. This was horrifying to them? To Ryuhei it was simply boring and careless. However, it was very dangerous.

With each slash of the hunter's knife, the humans became more aroused with fear. The smell was pervasive and soon Ryuhei was practically swimming in it. Ryuhei swiftly became acutely aware of how long it had been since he had fed and how incredibly parched he felt. He became restless in his human body, longing to lash out and dig into the trembling, fear-laced flesh surrounding him. He suppressed these urges viciously and focused on the voice of his mother.

She had raised him on the same epic tales as his friends had heard, but her stories were always laced with the knowledge of loss. Ryuhei's mother was not so naïve as to think their race might survive without feeding, but she staunchly advocated temperance, which was not a trait their race had in abundance. Ryuhei, she would say, we need not feed to excess. We need not treat our prey so callously. This is what led us to the place we are now. We must try to learn mercy.

This was difficult. Mercy was not in their blood. Hunger was. Ryuhei quivered with the effort of suppressing his desire to feed. It was sheer luck that had Yuichi thinking it was their quaint 'horror' movie that was the cause. Yuichi's genuine apology for choosing such a scary film was so precious that Ryuhei could not help but feel tenderness for this pet human who had become far closer a friend than Ryuhei would have believed a person could be to him.

He resolved to find a way out of harvesting Yuichi. Perhaps he could choose some expendable whore or runaway. They had not seen the sacrifice he had chosen. Perhaps he could begin the ritual before anyone knew it wasn't the human he'd intended to use.

Ryuhei spent his remaining days with Yuichi conflicted. He had lived for centuries working toward this ritual. Could he throw it away on a pet? Were these feelings real? Or just a trick of the mind? Was he losing himself spending so much time in the Lesser World? Was all of this part of the ritual? Was it simply his own weakness? What would his father say if he saw Ryuhei now?

Time with Yuichi was difficult and time away was worse. He did not know his own mind and he could not access much of his power here. Certainty eluded him. Days passed in indecision. It was a disgustingly human thing.

Hunter's Moon had come and Ryuhei knew he must either choose an unfit sacrifice or tell Kimitaka and Shingo that he'd need more time. He did not relish the thought, but he decided to contact Kimitaka. He made the call and spent several minutes in idle talk while he worked his way up to the subject at hand. Kimitaka was, as ever, astute enough to know when his comrade-in-arms was stalling.

"It is tonight, is it not?" Kimitaka said.

Ryuhei was uncomfortably aware of the time constraints. He had just left Yuichi's apartment in a rush. This was a night for strong ties between hunter and prey and being able to sense Yuichi's emotions made Ryuhei uncomfortable. Human emotions did not fit him.

He replied, "Yes. I-" but was cut off by a crash behind him and the sudden scent of fear so palpable Ryuhei could almost see a yellow-green haze of it in the air.

He whirled to see Yuichi frozen in terror, splayed against the wall opposite the doorway to the kitchen. Ryuhei's jacket lay on the floor, dropped and forgotten. The tableau of horrible images was so present in the forefront of Yuichi's mind that Ryuhei could see it. He had never understood how his true form would terrify humans, only that he must hide it in their presence, but now he was treated to the full force of it.

Yuichi took in the scene. The creature that stood before him looked very vaguely like the Oni as portrayed in traditional human art but those depictions failed to capture the true spirit of any single aspect of the being he saw, let alone the force of the entire paralyzing whole. They were as accurate as a small child's rendering of a person.

Sharp, wiry hair bristled forth from a hide that was at once soft and slimy, and hard as stone. The creature's arms and legs protruded from its bulging and pointed form at grotesque angles that seemed to defy comprehension. Its facial features were monstrous and gruesomely exaggerated with wide, slick lips from which dripped a dark and unctuous substance. Its hands, claws, and hideously curved horns were sickeningly stained with blackish splotches of what Yuichi could only assume was some kind of gore. A stench of old blood reeked forth from it.

Yuichi saw this all with wide, unblinking eyes filled with certain imminent death but did not move until he saw the creature's eyes. They were Ryuhei's eyes; soft, warm, brown eyes that Yuichi knew as well as his own, save the glowing red pupils, which were entirely otherworldly.

Ryuhei did not move. He sensed Yuichi's terror and realized that Yuichi was entirely incapable of consciously operating his own body, something that was evident in the fact that when Yuichi met Ryuhei's gaze, he lost control of his bladder there in the hallway of Ryuhei's apartment and fell over himself in an attempt to flee. Ryuhei tried to understand Yuichi's perception of the smell of old blood. Something welcoming and homey to Ryuhei's senses smacked of putrefaction and death in Yuichi's mind. He discarded his immediate thought; that they were too different to comprehend those reactions from one another. He clung with deliberate effort to the idea that people were not simply food, despite the quivering in his very core at the intoxicating mixture of aromas that Yuichi left in his wake.

The sweat, urine, and frantic dread hung in the air, enough to get drunk on. Ryuhei licked his lips. He only barely heard Kimitaka shouting at him and it took him a moment to come around to it.

"-after it! Quickly! It must not be allowed to escape! It must not be allowed to spread panic! Get it now!"

Ryuhei stared at Kimitaka for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Yes, of course," he said, not needing to fake the fervent hunger in his voice, then gobbled up the animal he'd slain, thus severing the connection. He did not immediately run after Yuichi, however. First he gave himself a minute to calm and to reassemble the careful aura of humanity around himself before he went to confront Yuichi.

Ryuhei could tell from the scent trail that he had returned directly to his apartment. The door lock proved no barrier at all. Ryuhei drank in the odor of Yuichi's fear. He still smelled delicious. He called out to Yuichi and heard his human friend whimpering and scrambling to lock the bedroom door.

"Yuichi, it's me. Don't be afraid," he said, not at all certain that that was sound advice.

Yuichi screamed, "Go away, go away, go away," unceasingly. He seemed to be hoping it was all a bad dream.

"Yuichi, listen to me." Though it rankled his senses to say it, because it was a human custom and not at all one of his own race, he added, "Please." Yuichi could not be reasoned with, though.

Ryuhei plead his case. Though he could see the image of himself through Yuichi's eyes and knew that Yuichi saw nothing but a creature of terror lurking on the other side of the bedroom door, he tried to explain. He did not want to hurt Yuichi. He wanted to protect him. But, to Ryuhei's regret, he could not penetrate the shield of Yuichi's debilitating fear. He could not reason with a mere human who could manage nothing aside from cowering and sniveling in terror and disbelief.

Ryuhei opened the bedroom door to reveal his human friend crouched into a corner, arms wrapped over his head, rocking and moaning some incoherent nonsense. He approached him gingerly, just as he had seen Yuichi do when his dog hid under the bed during a thunderstorm. Gently touching Yuichi's shoulder only renewed the screaming.

He was scrambling to get away while Ryuhei continued to attempt to coax him into listening. His kind had seen Yuichi's face. Ryuhei knew that Kimitaka no longer trusted him to act in his own best interests. He would be here soon, which meant that Yuichi would need to be hidden, kept safe. He could not let his kind eat his human.

Suddenly Ryuhei felt a wash of renewed power. His brethren must have come across a bridge between worlds. He felt his energy surge as they got closer and knew he had no choice but to act. They could not arrive to see him trying to reason with his prey. He quickly crossed the room and knocked Yuichi unconscious.

Kimitaka and two others entered the room just as Yuichi was slumping into Ryuhei's arms.

"You felt you needed enforcers, Kimi?"

"You have been away a long time, Ryuhei. I cannot tell what has become of you."

"I am as ever," Ryuhei said. "Ryo, Tadayoshi."

His brethren nodded in response. This was not the reunion he would have wanted, when they could have shared a young person and been happy to see each other. After all this time in the Lesser World, Ryuhei fancied himself akin to the humans, but now in the physical presence of his own kind, he felt the distance between himself and those he would normally have called his kin very sharply and it sickened him.

"We will take him if you do not wish to claim him, Ryuhei. What is your claim?"

Ryuhei paused only a moment before he told Kimitaka the only thing he could in order to maintain possession of Yuichi, although he was becoming less sure of what he most wanted to do with him. "I claim this as my sacrifice."

Kimitaka nodded approvingly. "Come. We will prepare the Altar of Living Death."

··†··

Yuichi had remained unconscious for the journey between worlds and the ordeal of fastening his limp body to the altar. Now, in the presence of Ryuhei's fellows and friends, he had a very limited time in which to turn back and a steadily diminishing desire to do so. Here in his own world he felt stronger, more alive, and less like the weak shadow of himself that he was in the Lesser World. Even the simple act of wearing his own skin proudly made him feel more powerful.

He circled Yuichi's prostrate form, alternately longing to tear into it and trying to work out a way to steal it away. He would need Yuichi's aid. He could hardly make a quick escape with Yuichi trying to get away from him and if he released Yuichi, it would be less than an instant before he was snatched up by Ryuhei's comrades.

He leaned down toward Yuichi's face, ostensibly to inhale deeply of the aromas of anxiety and despair reeking from him. "Will you let me save you?" Ryuhei whispered.

Ryuhei held Yuichi's gaze waiting for an answer, delving into the images in Yuichi's head and seeing only more of the same. Fear, disbelief, paralysis, and finally hatred. There would be no understanding. There would be no forgiveness. And now that he thought about it, why would he want it? What use could the forgiveness of this lesser being be? He was not human, and if being human meant being weak, being akin to this sniveling mass of meat and fear, what would anyone want with it?

The onlookers were becoming restless. Truthfully, Ryuhei was not unaffected by the scene either. The beauty of the Altar of Living Death, the greatest treasure of the time of their Prince, was that it amplified the emotions of the person placed upon it and drew the event out to the last possible moment. The Altar pinned the soul of the human to their carcass until the last drop of their blood was drunk. Its invention was a stroke of pure genius and had lead to some of the greatest tortures of all time.

It was a huge slab of jet, like Ryuhei's own small altar, with channels carved into the edges to catch and save the blood of the victim, directing it into a ceremonial vessel made for the purpose of keeping it fresh. It is a special privilege to use this altar, reserved only for rituals such as these and for the feasts of the reigning prince, but in the time of the Great and Wicked Prince, it was used frequently. It was the Prince's particular wont to draw out the suffering of young girls for weeks by saving the last vial of their blood.

It was clear that the flavor of Yuichi's suffering on the wind was potent. Truly, Ryuhei had made an excellent choice. It was no wonder he had become so fond of Yuichi. He would not be able to hold his brethren back from descending upon such an enticing meal for very long. He must either get them both out of there or get the ritual underway immediately.

Between giving up his sacrifice to the masses and keeping it all to himself, his decision was made. He wondered if he had really made his decision the moment he felled the human. With his history, his brethren and his own power surrounding him in this place, could he ever truly have chosen to save it?

It was time to give up this juvenile notion of compassion. He looked down at the pathetic human below him. Its time had come.

"Very well," Ryuhei said almost solely to himself. He raised his father's knife high above Yuichi's heaving chest and plunged down. The flesh gave way with a slippery ease, parting and searing with each stroke of the enchanted blade. This was a knife designed for this purpose, designed to season the flesh with every available flavor of pain.

Steam and screams wafted up from the altar in delicious wisps and the blood began flowing in force. At the first full scent of blood, any idea of saving this human vanished. Ryuhei was too thirsty not to lick the blood from his fingers just as quickly as he could raise them to his lips.

No sooner had he sucked them clean than his head began swimming with a deeper connection between himself and his meal. He was privy to every thought running through its mind. He could taste the terror seeping into the flesh as he saw it coloring every memory of the human. Ryuhei dug into the hot innards and sucked the bones as he devoured his human and all the while he could watch each memory of his interaction with the delicious creature become steeped in the chartreuse color of molten horror.

With each new ruined memory, Ryuhei was reminded of the love he'd had for this sorry creature. Dark, oily tears fell from his eyes, but he could not name the feeling that caused them. Was it sorrow? Or was it more likely delight? Regardless, he could not tear himself away from the feast. Typically his kind ate the meat and drank the blood of people, but in ritual every part was used.

And what wonder there was to be found in these parts! The fluffy, pink flesh of the lungs, the dense, rich liver, the pungent kidneys, the delicate texture of tongue. The heart, Ryuhei knew, would be a particular delight and set it aside to have last, or next to last, anyway. He savored each flavor, each texture with relish.

Ryuhei worked his way through the fear-soaked flesh. It grew more and more tasty with each bite. There was no part of the human's soul that was not pervaded with the sweet and tangy flavor of it. It was a heady feeling, this mixture of human inside and outside of him, on his fingers, in every corner of his mouth, and all through his mind. He would miss it much more than he would ever miss the human person himself, he thought.

Finally he finished the last bits of flesh and sucked the marrow from the bones. He reached for the vessel of blood. There was so much of it that he practically laughed with pleasure. When he brought it to his lips, before he even drank, he could tell that the flavor differed from the first taste. He balked. Tears of pure sorrow began falling from his eyes against his will. It was not his own sorrow.

He set it down and began to push back from the altar but he felt hands at his back. He turned to look at Shingo and Kimitaka, the question apparent in his eyes. "What is this?"

Shingo gave him a reassuring look. "It is his goodness. I know it is hard at first. You will develop a taste for it."

Ryuhei looked at him incredulously. The vessel contained blood, yes, but it tasted of concentrated humanity. The parts of this human that made him Yuichi. It was all of his sorrow, all of his longings, all of his hope. It was everything about him that made Ryuhei care for him.

"You must do this. It is good this way," Kimitaka said. "It is good to use one who loves you, but far better to use one that you yourself loved."

Now Ryuhei comprehended his mother's words. He would show Yuichi mercy. He drank him quickly and as he drank, Yuichi died.

As the power of Yuichi's life force suffused his body, Ryuhei no longer felt the dragging weight of human emotion. He felt sweet elation and the satisfaction of fullness after a seeming eternity of emptiness and hunger. He flexed his hands and smacked his lips. He could definitely get used to this. He knew of a young, happy friend of Yuichi's that would be perfect. He was nice, sweet, fit. He'd be delicious. Takahisa, was it? Yes. He turned to look at his brethren with devious joy.

The hunt was on.