Hei watched the two men with Rhode for a moment before he moved to follow Gin's command, yanking his knife free of the dead man's neck before turning and advancing on the last of the three doctors. The man was cowering a corner, babbling incoherently about an experiment that couldn't go to waste, about only following orders, about not being killed. Whatever look was on Hei's face made the man pale and try to move further back into the corner, as tears started slipping down his face.
The young man frowned, allowing most of his rage to be pulled back within himself. He stopped when he stood in front of the man, and though his face was blank when he looked down at him, he felt only disgust. He looped his wire around the man's neck and pulled it tight before the man's scrabbling fingers could dislodge it. When, yanking hard enough to choke the man and pull him several feet out of the corner, Hei's left arm shot bolts of pain through him, some of his anger returned.
If he used only one arm to drag the man over to where Gin and gavin were clustered around Rhode, he was sure that no one other than his commander would notice.
"Didn't mean to..." Her throat made her voice a bit too dry, voice trailing off into some distraction she couldn't quite place. Not entirely here, but she was coming down bit by bit. It was that damn foggy sensation, dragging at her mind and slowing it down.
A splatter hit the back of her hand, wet and red. It drew her in, but the fascination didn't have a chance to last. Her name, a warm touch- Something hot and alive in this place of cold, hard things. She tightened her grip around that hand, eyes finally focusing on his face as he spoke.
"Ichimaru-san..."
It took a long moment for her to move, using the edge of the table to push herself to her feet before reaching out. Fingers wrapped around the parasol with only a momentary hesitation, blue eyes glancing to Gin in uncertainty. The instant the blade slid from the handle, however, she seemed to fixate on the man whimpering in Hei's grip.
Nightmares.
There was a gap of awareness in the moments where she left Gin and Kris, steel flashing before her eyes as she pulled it off. There was no hesitation, no pause as she drew back, but the world slowed as she struck out. Though she had no form in her blow, there was some strange grace in that instant the metal sliced through the air and rested at the end of its arc. Blood splattered onto her face, her clothes; It wasn't much, but she could taste it, and she struck again, cutting straight down in a useless blow with all her force. She didn't care that he was already dead, head cut in two. It was the power in the moment, the command she held as she felt the soul leave the bloodied man before her. In this instant he belonged completely to her...
In this moment, she was God.
Rhode stepped back with a sharp inhale, almost a wheeze as she took in what she had done. There was no sense of horror, or some feeling that she should have felt guilty. It was thrilling, intoxicating, and she loved this feeling. Pure joy was betrayed in her smile, eyes bright with excitement.
Kristoph had always dealt with his opponents in the cleanest, most efficient manner. Opponents were just obstacles, after all, and deserved no more attention than a flat tire, a dull blade, or a broken light bulb - finish it and go home. He did not take wide, formless blows like Rhode just did, nor did he hack at a corpse excessively. He was not suprised, per se, but beating a corpse was simply not his thing. Not to mention, of course, all the splatter. He had narrowly avoided one line of blood, then a second, but the third streaked his blue suit jacket and pants, and he frowned in distaste at the red stains.
Ah, well. It couldn't be helped.
"Enjoying yourself there, Miss Kamelot?" He asked, standing up, smiling again with his hands behind his back. "You seem to be having fun."
Gin watched with bemused interest as Rhode went about hacking her way through one of the doctors. It was if he had suddenly transported back to his own past -- the sound, the blood, all of it familiar -- echoes of when he was still a young boy. Days in the box hidden from sight, and evenings in the ring, slaughtering his way to glory like a gladiator. But beyond the smell, the noise of it all, there was something about Rhode in particular. That glazed look to her glassy-eyed expression, yielding suddenly to a burning rapture as she discovered the joys of a blade. He knew that feeling, understood it well, and for the first time he regarded her with a look not entirely unlike pride.
He gave another small laugh as she stood there swaying -- practically dancing -- her hands and face painted with gore. A small little beast delighting in her kill. "Tch. Fun is such a small word, Gavin-han," Gin chirped. Reaching out to her once again, he found Rhode's face with his hand, pulling her forward, steadying her now, and studied her eyes as they regarded him with unbridled exhilaration. "This something much more than fun, naa, Rhode-kun?"
His eyes wandered to Hei who stood a small way a ways and when their gazes met, he smiled. How long had it been since he'd found Hei in much the same state -- savage and blood, willing to tear another man apart with his bare hands. The three of them were, perhaps, very much of the same animal, only in different stages of development, each with their own unique evolution.
"Koraa, I'm sorry that we lack some of your finesse, Gavin-han." Gin added, making a small note of his expression. "Death for creatures like us is quite untidy, naa?"
Watching Rhode reveling in the blood she spilled was almost nostalgic. Hei was very aware that he had been very like her several years ago, and he was coming to realize that perhaps that was what Gin saw in her: the same potential he had seen in a fourteen year old boy years ago.
It was a shame that he worked so hard not feel some resentment at that fact. He shouldn't be jealous of her. As things stood now... Well, there was no reason to, and he knew it. His expression still blank, Hei pushed those thoughts-both the unpleasant and the pleasant-out of his mind. It was better to focus.
Meeting Gin's eyes across Rhode's wreckage. "Should I wake up the other one?" he asked, his eyes flicking to look at the still unconscious man on the floor, and then meeting Gin's eyes again. "Or should we just dispose of him as he is?"
'Fun' didn't begin to cover it. There weren't words to describe the feeling burning her chest, heart pumping the fiery sensation to every inch of her body, muscles and veins ablaze with an energy she'd never felt before now. It was something different from the stolen intimacies of those deaths before, any thrill of a silent kill.
Even as she looked to Kris, trying to think of how to respond, to communicate this thrill, her hands remembered. The feeling of a windpipe cracking beneath her thin fingers; the friction of synthetic fibers as they cut into her palms and took her victim's air. That had been exciting, it had been fun, but that was all it had been. Fun.
It was like comparing an acquaintance and a lover, a simple embrace to some heated passion. Things beyond her comprehension, relationships she had yet to experience, but there was a word that came just as Gin drew her forward. Rhode leaned into his touch affectionately, almost like a little cat, breath shaking with the exhilaration of her kill.
Rhode was only half-listening as Gin spoke to Gavin, savoring the former's silent approval and the high of her pounding heart. It felt ready to burst from her ribcage, and her throat was beginning to ache from her ragged gasps. There was no true, conscious thought about the action. She simply licked the blood from her free hand, a soft sound of relief in her throat at the slight reprieve from her discomfort. Sucking a tiny stain from the back of her hand, Rhode closed her eyes.
"Love," she breathed the word, the only thing she could think of to describe it, followed by a sound almost like a purr in her throat, "Ichimaru-san."
"It isn't a problem." He shrugged. "That's why they have dry cleaning, mm? For these sort of occasions. Most certainly worth it, I'd say."
He tucked the wire away into his jacket and watched this interaction. He felt out of the loop, but understood why. Kristoph did not take any thrill in the kill, didn't need blood splatter or an umbrella or a wakizashi. If Gin, Hei, and Rhode wanted to be addicted to the dirtiness that death brought, by all means, they were totally allowed to.
"Love," Gin said, repeat Rhode's words with mild amusement, his hand still cupping her face gently now as he searched her blissed out expression. His eyes went to Hei with a questioning look as carefully he pulled her along, nearing the other incapacitated doctor who lay crumpled on the floor. "Such a strange sentiment, naa, Hei? To find such a thing on the edge of your blade. Koraa -- if only all of us were so lucky." He gave a small laugh, and with a gesture of his free hand, motioned for Hei to lead the girl the rest of the way. Before turning, he reached and touched Hei on the arm once again, an echo of the earlier motion, his fingers now slightly trembling with the fading rush of adrenaline.
"Show her how it's done, Hei," Gin said, with the lowness of a command. His eyes shone hot against the shadow cast across his face, and as Hei nodded and moved to turn away, Gin added, "Ara -- do it, as if this retribution was your own."
He watched as the two moved past him towards the inert body that lay waiting for them. Satisfied, Gin returned to Gavin, a slightly crazed look in his eyes -- a glimmer of Rhode's rapture burning brightly within him. "You are satisfied, Gavin-han? It seems that Rhode has returned to us, naa? Ara -- perhaps even improved."
With Gin's permission-no, with Gin's command, Hei moved forward, kicking the prone man and rolling him partially over. The movement started to rouse him and he stirred, moaning softly and making noises of puzzlement and pain. Ignoring the girl at his side, Hei kicked him onto his back, the movement only serving to clear most of the confusion from the man's mind. He started to sit up as Hei moved to stand with one foot between the man's legs. Crouching, Hei's blank eyes met the man's and watched as they filled with fear.
"This will only hurt for a minute," he said softly, his voice monotone and completely dead.
The look of fear was quickly replaced with pain as Hei pulled his second dagger and slammed it through the man's solar plexus in one motion, easily pinning him to the floor with his force. For a moment the man twitched as his body adjusted itself to the sudden penetration, and then he started to scream.
Moving quickly, Hei pinned one of the man's wrists beneath his foot, snapping it easily beneath his weight as he prevented the man from pulling out the blade. Then, reaching out calmly, he set his palm over the man's face. The blue glow surrounded him again and his eyes glowed red as he forced wave after wave of electricity through the doctor. It was only when the man was charred and smoking beneath him that he stopped.
Stepping back from the wreckage, he looked over his shoulder, his eyes searching for Gin. Though outwardly he was calm, he knew that Gin would be able to read both the fury and the satisfaction in his eyes.
Rhode's adrenaline rush was fading slowly, a slight shaking in her limbs a betrayal of the creeping drugs in her system pushing through her body for a final stand. She didn't move, however- She shifted slightly as her sword brushed the floor, discreetly using it as a support as she watched the careful desecration of the doctor's body.
She couldn't place what held her attention, locking her blue stare on that face as the skin burned and melted and blackened before her very eyes. It was like watching paper burn, but she could practically hear the effects that maer of voltage had on the man's internal organs. The heart shuddering as it tried to deal with the conflicting electric signals, the brain boiling in its own fluids.
When it was just a shell of human-shaped ash, smoking with the scent of death, Rhode finally looked to Hei. His expression was almost void of emotion, something unsettling as he looked to Gin. Rhode simply couldn't keep it up any longer, however. She shakily sank to her knees, sword point scraping slightly on the floor as she used it to keep herself from falling. This was Hei's moment, though, and so she didn't say a word. Just sitting down for a moment to come down from the thrill, she told herself, and even then she found herself staring at the man's body again. It was all black, and she wasn't sure why she found that disconcerting. It was simply some fact that this papery, charred mass had been human moments before; that something so powerful had been able to contain itself to that single victim and destroy the man entirely.
That was beyond her capabilities, and even as her thoughts faded to the artistic niceties of tissue-paper skin and illusions of vellum ashes, she felt a strange rising of desire in her stomach. Power like that... if she could possess it, do this much...
It faded into a blank sort of standstill in that moment, actions stopping, mind absent for a long half-minute. All of thirty seconds later, she didn't seem to be aware that any time had passed. Rhode just looked up to Hei with a slightly tired expression, hand still gripping her sword tightly. "Haloperidol," it wasn't supposed to come out that way, but she was too tired to be frustrated by the distortion. At least it was something sensical- The cause instead of the effect. Feeling sick, head hurts, thirsty, she wanted to say it all, but it just tumbled back into her mind and instead that name. The damn drugs.
Kristoph quietly breathed out his admiration. Mazikeen couldn't do that, not at all. She could not melt a man's face into a bubbling pile of flesh, make her eyes glow, or crackle electricity. Ah, well, he thought to himself, and curbed his feelings. He had what he had, and it was very impressive, and that was all he could ask for. Hei was so far out of his reach as to be nonexistent, only an extra appendage of Ichimaru's. A lightening-shooting appendage, but an appendage nonetheless.
He did see that fury and that satisfaction, though - he was too good at reading people to miss such intense emotions. Kristoph didn't have to guess to figure out where Hei had gotten his incredible talents, from all that emotion boiling behind his eyes. Revenge could be such an incredible motivator, and he imagined that for Hei it was no different.
The thick, wretched smell of burnt flesh and organs snaked up through the warehouse. Ugh, he thought, though he was long used of all the unfortunate sights, sounds, and especially smells that came in being in this sort of business. Kristoph could only marvel how corpses could smell so terrible. The magical of anatomy, he supposed.
He set his musing to the side for later. For now, the physical was more important than his winding trails. Allowing Hei to simmer in his own hidden thoughts, he moved around the young man (who still smelled like ozone and burnt flesh) to the wounded (and bloodsoaked) girl next to him. Slipping one arm under her shoulders and another under a knee, he lifted the girl with not even a grunt. He watched as her tired, dazed eyes blinked at the smiling Ichimaru, the emotionless Hei, and then up at him, before closing. Her weight shifted against him, and the parasol fell, from her limp hand.
"Could you pick that up for me, Mr. Ichimaru? My hands appear to be full."
Gin took note of Gavin's reaction, and with a sweet smugness couched in his samile, turned his eyes back to Hei, only find his dark gaze upon him. The reward for his second was a look of satisfaction, a small pursing of his lips to indicate that, he too was impressed. There was also in his expression, more than a whisper of admiration, a fondness of those dark parts in Hei, the seeds he had sown with his own two hands.
Moving quickly towards where Gavin stood with Rhode, he bent down and with a deft motion, effortless plucked Rhode's parasol from the ground. Releasing its blade once again, he cut it throw the air with several small swipes. Again, blood spatters painted the floor. Sheathing it again, he deposited it onto small of Hei's open hand, as he stood there beside him, years of working side by side lending to his uncanny ability to predict his commander. Gin smiled, allow a nail to scratch the smooth expanse of Hei's palm as he handed it to him. "Koraa," he purred, now turning on his heel. "You are an animal, naa, Hei? And such a good one at that." Together, the two men moved through now silent room, Gin turning to Gavin with a slight nod forward.
Before they reached the door, Gin fished out his phone from the breast pocket of his suit and dialing a few numbers, spoke quietly as they continued. "Moshi moshi...hai. Hai, where I indicated earlier, the industrial district." A long pause. "Tch, quite a mess, naa? Sometimes it cannot be helped. Hai. Ten minutes." He clicked the phone shut.
Though it had only been five years, the time had been more than enough for Hei to be able to learn Gin like no one else, to be able to anticipate his movements and his commands-at least, when they were working. Truth be told, Gin was still mostly a mystery, and the man delighted in constantly surprising his second, but when they were working, the two were able to move in synchronization, as if choreographed. After all, business was business, and there was no need to make it any more complicated than it already was.
He'd sheathed his blade-still bloody, even though (or possibly because) Hei knew that it irked his commander-and he took the parasol from Gin when he handed it over. Gin had managed to get most of the blade off of it, but it would need to be cleaned before it got put away. He made a mental note of it, murmuring a soft note of agreement to Gin's question before the man pulled out his phone and started dialing.
Glancing over his shoulder, he tried to imagine what the scene would look like to an outsider. To someone who hadn't been at the center of the storm, but instead only came to view the disaster that it left behind. They had, he realized somewhat surprised, made quite a mess. It was a good thing that Gin had thought to get a cleaning crew for this job. His eyes slid back towards the desecrated body of the doctor he'd killed, and for a moment he found it hard to keep his mask in place.
Frowning, he turned back towards his commander, struggling to hold in place that calm he had found for just a little bit longer...
As powerful as Hei might have been, he still had a lot to learn about his own self-control, it seemed. Fury was best tamed and funneled towards one's goal, and then set aside in storage for the next task. Gin's second had yet to learn this.
"I should be departing before your fellows arrive, mm?" He smiled thinly, and although the temptation to stay lingered in his mind - think of the enormous blemish it would leave on Gin's reputation to be working with the Vescovo head consigliere - he couldn't. Ichimaru had so kindly allowed him to come along on this little adventure, and the least he could do was leave in silence. "I don't know what they would say if they knew I took part in our little plan."
He shifted Rhode's weight slightly, and glanced down to her. "Do you want me to take her, or do you? It seems perhaps I am the only one with room in my car. Rest assured I'll have her returned to you as soon as she is healthy enough to do so."
"Ara," Gin mused with a slight nod of appreciation. "Such a terrible thought indeed, naa? What my colleagues would do if they knew of our little excursion. I would imagine they would not take kindly to it, naa?"
There was a long pause in silence as the three men returned to their cars, Gin considering the entire way which path provided the least resistance. He knew full well that the nights events had proven problematic for Hei; memories that Gin thought had long been buried so deep, were clear now on his young second's expression -- as fresh as newly opened wounds. Try as Hei could to hide them, Gin knew that both he and Gavin were too skilled to not see past the flaws in his facade.
On the other hand, there was Rhode Kamelot, whom he was loathe to let out his sight again. Despite her constant tries on his temper, he felt that he had seen the true Rhode tonight -- a small vision of madness and cruelty, a poorly polished mirror held up to the savagery of his own past. It was true, she was a nuisance and a pain, but there was something about her that Gin was reluctant to release; and it was that hidden something that Gin decided that he would nurture and keep.
But Hei. His thoughs returned to the young man who echoed his step, his every movement. Turning his head to the side, he caught a glimpse of him across the periphery of his vision, and Gin knew that the nighmares would come again tonigh, no doubt. It was a dangerous gamble, this trade off between him and Rhode -- his ability to rest, to focus, now lost for the sake of another one's solace. Hei though, Gin knew, was much more resilient than delicate Rhode Kamelot, and if either of the two would make a quick recovery, it would no doubt be his second in command.
He gave a small sigh as they neared their cars, and paused to give Gavin a deep bow. "Ara ara," he said, his eyes sliding from Gavin to Hei and back again. "I believe that it would be best if you were to take her, naa, Gavin-han? Koraa - with your assurances that she will be returned, I believe you offer a more pleasant environment for our little Rhode-kun to recover."
Short of undermining his commander's authority-something he would probably wouldn't have done even if they weren't in front of Gavin-there was no way to tell Gin that it wasn't necessary for the Vescovo to take Rhode. When it came down to it, there really wasn't space in Gin's car. It made Hei wonder, briefly, why the man had even gotten a car that didn't have a back seat. But the thought was very brief, slipping away almost before he could get a hold of it.
He stayed silent, instead, becoming very much the shadow at Gin's side.
Realizing that the decision was made regardless of whatever he might have said about it, he started to pull the keys out of his pocket. It was a mistake, moving his left arm. Keeping the wince off his face wasn't as easy as it might have been under other circumstances, but he managed. Easing his arm back down to hang at his side again, he shifted the parasol he was still carrying and managed to get the keys out of his pocket without any awkward flailing on his part. He kept a hold on them, in case Gin wanted him to drive back to the flat.
The young man frowned, allowing most of his rage to be pulled back within himself. He stopped when he stood in front of the man, and though his face was blank when he looked down at him, he felt only disgust. He looped his wire around the man's neck and pulled it tight before the man's scrabbling fingers could dislodge it. When, yanking hard enough to choke the man and pull him several feet out of the corner, Hei's left arm shot bolts of pain through him, some of his anger returned.
If he used only one arm to drag the man over to where Gin and gavin were clustered around Rhode, he was sure that no one other than his commander would notice.
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A splatter hit the back of her hand, wet and red. It drew her in, but the fascination didn't have a chance to last. Her name, a warm touch- Something hot and alive in this place of cold, hard things. She tightened her grip around that hand, eyes finally focusing on his face as he spoke.
"Ichimaru-san..."
It took a long moment for her to move, using the edge of the table to push herself to her feet before reaching out. Fingers wrapped around the parasol with only a momentary hesitation, blue eyes glancing to Gin in uncertainty. The instant the blade slid from the handle, however, she seemed to fixate on the man whimpering in Hei's grip.
Nightmares.
There was a gap of awareness in the moments where she left Gin and Kris, steel flashing before her eyes as she pulled it off. There was no hesitation, no pause as she drew back, but the world slowed as she struck out. Though she had no form in her blow, there was some strange grace in that instant the metal sliced through the air and rested at the end of its arc. Blood splattered onto her face, her clothes; It wasn't much, but she could taste it, and she struck again, cutting straight down in a useless blow with all her force. She didn't care that he was already dead, head cut in two. It was the power in the moment, the command she held as she felt the soul leave the bloodied man before her. In this instant he belonged completely to her...
In this moment, she was God.
Rhode stepped back with a sharp inhale, almost a wheeze as she took in what she had done. There was no sense of horror, or some feeling that she should have felt guilty. It was thrilling, intoxicating, and she loved this feeling. Pure joy was betrayed in her smile, eyes bright with excitement.
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Ah, well. It couldn't be helped.
"Enjoying yourself there, Miss Kamelot?" He asked, standing up, smiling again with his hands behind his back. "You seem to be having fun."
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He gave another small laugh as she stood there swaying -- practically dancing -- her hands and face painted with gore. A small little beast delighting in her kill. "Tch. Fun is such a small word, Gavin-han," Gin chirped. Reaching out to her once again, he found Rhode's face with his hand, pulling her forward, steadying her now, and studied her eyes as they regarded him with unbridled exhilaration. "This something much more than fun, naa, Rhode-kun?"
His eyes wandered to Hei who stood a small way a ways and when their gazes met, he smiled. How long had it been since he'd found Hei in much the same state -- savage and blood, willing to tear another man apart with his bare hands. The three of them were, perhaps, very much of the same animal, only in different stages of development, each with their own unique evolution.
"Koraa, I'm sorry that we lack some of your finesse, Gavin-han." Gin added, making a small note of his expression. "Death for creatures like us is quite untidy, naa?"
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It was a shame that he worked so hard not feel some resentment at that fact. He shouldn't be jealous of her. As things stood now... Well, there was no reason to, and he knew it. His expression still blank, Hei pushed those thoughts-both the unpleasant and the pleasant-out of his mind. It was better to focus.
Meeting Gin's eyes across Rhode's wreckage. "Should I wake up the other one?" he asked, his eyes flicking to look at the still unconscious man on the floor, and then meeting Gin's eyes again. "Or should we just dispose of him as he is?"
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Even as she looked to Kris, trying to think of how to respond, to communicate this thrill, her hands remembered. The feeling of a windpipe cracking beneath her thin fingers; the friction of synthetic fibers as they cut into her palms and took her victim's air. That had been exciting, it had been fun, but that was all it had been. Fun.
It was like comparing an acquaintance and a lover, a simple embrace to some heated passion. Things beyond her comprehension, relationships she had yet to experience, but there was a word that came just as Gin drew her forward. Rhode leaned into his touch affectionately, almost like a little cat, breath shaking with the exhilaration of her kill.
Rhode was only half-listening as Gin spoke to Gavin, savoring the former's silent approval and the high of her pounding heart. It felt ready to burst from her ribcage, and her throat was beginning to ache from her ragged gasps. There was no true, conscious thought about the action. She simply licked the blood from her free hand, a soft sound of relief in her throat at the slight reprieve from her discomfort. Sucking a tiny stain from the back of her hand, Rhode closed her eyes.
"Love," she breathed the word, the only thing she could think of to describe it, followed by a sound almost like a purr in her throat, "Ichimaru-san."
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He tucked the wire away into his jacket and watched this interaction. He felt out of the loop, but understood why. Kristoph did not take any thrill in the kill, didn't need blood splatter or an umbrella or a wakizashi. If Gin, Hei, and Rhode wanted to be addicted to the dirtiness that death brought, by all means, they were totally allowed to.
"How polite."
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"Show her how it's done, Hei," Gin said, with the lowness of a command. His eyes shone hot against the shadow cast across his face, and as Hei nodded and moved to turn away, Gin added, "Ara -- do it, as if this retribution was your own."
He watched as the two moved past him towards the inert body that lay waiting for them. Satisfied, Gin returned to Gavin, a slightly crazed look in his eyes -- a glimmer of Rhode's rapture burning brightly within him. "You are satisfied, Gavin-han? It seems that Rhode has returned to us, naa? Ara -- perhaps even improved."
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"This will only hurt for a minute," he said softly, his voice monotone and completely dead.
The look of fear was quickly replaced with pain as Hei pulled his second dagger and slammed it through the man's solar plexus in one motion, easily pinning him to the floor with his force. For a moment the man twitched as his body adjusted itself to the sudden penetration, and then he started to scream.
Moving quickly, Hei pinned one of the man's wrists beneath his foot, snapping it easily beneath his weight as he prevented the man from pulling out the blade. Then, reaching out calmly, he set his palm over the man's face. The blue glow surrounded him again and his eyes glowed red as he forced wave after wave of electricity through the doctor. It was only when the man was charred and smoking beneath him that he stopped.
Stepping back from the wreckage, he looked over his shoulder, his eyes searching for Gin. Though outwardly he was calm, he knew that Gin would be able to read both the fury and the satisfaction in his eyes.
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She couldn't place what held her attention, locking her blue stare on that face as the skin burned and melted and blackened before her very eyes. It was like watching paper burn, but she could practically hear the effects that maer of voltage had on the man's internal organs. The heart shuddering as it tried to deal with the conflicting electric signals, the brain boiling in its own fluids.
When it was just a shell of human-shaped ash, smoking with the scent of death, Rhode finally looked to Hei. His expression was almost void of emotion, something unsettling as he looked to Gin. Rhode simply couldn't keep it up any longer, however. She shakily sank to her knees, sword point scraping slightly on the floor as she used it to keep herself from falling. This was Hei's moment, though, and so she didn't say a word. Just sitting down for a moment to come down from the thrill, she told herself, and even then she found herself staring at the man's body again. It was all black, and she wasn't sure why she found that disconcerting. It was simply some fact that this papery, charred mass had been human moments before; that something so powerful had been able to contain itself to that single victim and destroy the man entirely.
That was beyond her capabilities, and even as her thoughts faded to the artistic niceties of tissue-paper skin and illusions of vellum ashes, she felt a strange rising of desire in her stomach. Power like that... if she could possess it, do this much...
It faded into a blank sort of standstill in that moment, actions stopping, mind absent for a long half-minute. All of thirty seconds later, she didn't seem to be aware that any time had passed. Rhode just looked up to Hei with a slightly tired expression, hand still gripping her sword tightly. "Haloperidol," it wasn't supposed to come out that way, but she was too tired to be frustrated by the distortion. At least it was something sensical- The cause instead of the effect. Feeling sick, head hurts, thirsty, she wanted to say it all, but it just tumbled back into her mind and instead that name. The damn drugs.
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He did see that fury and that satisfaction, though - he was too good at reading people to miss such intense emotions. Kristoph didn't have to guess to figure out where Hei had gotten his incredible talents, from all that emotion boiling behind his eyes. Revenge could be such an incredible motivator, and he imagined that for Hei it was no different.
The thick, wretched smell of burnt flesh and organs snaked up through the warehouse. Ugh, he thought, though he was long used of all the unfortunate sights, sounds, and especially smells that came in being in this sort of business. Kristoph could only marvel how corpses could smell so terrible. The magical of anatomy, he supposed.
He set his musing to the side for later. For now, the physical was more important than his winding trails. Allowing Hei to simmer in his own hidden thoughts, he moved around the young man (who still smelled like ozone and burnt flesh) to the wounded (and bloodsoaked) girl next to him. Slipping one arm under her shoulders and another under a knee, he lifted the girl with not even a grunt. He watched as her tired, dazed eyes blinked at the smiling Ichimaru, the emotionless Hei, and then up at him, before closing. Her weight shifted against him, and the parasol fell, from her limp hand.
"Could you pick that up for me, Mr. Ichimaru? My hands appear to be full."
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Moving quickly towards where Gavin stood with Rhode, he bent down and with a deft motion, effortless plucked Rhode's parasol from the ground. Releasing its blade once again, he cut it throw the air with several small swipes. Again, blood spatters painted the floor. Sheathing it again, he deposited it onto small of Hei's open hand, as he stood there beside him, years of working side by side lending to his uncanny ability to predict his commander. Gin smiled, allow a nail to scratch the smooth expanse of Hei's palm as he handed it to him. "Koraa," he purred, now turning on his heel. "You are an animal, naa, Hei? And such a good one at that." Together, the two men moved through now silent room, Gin turning to Gavin with a slight nod forward.
Before they reached the door, Gin fished out his phone from the breast pocket of his suit and dialing a few numbers, spoke quietly as they continued. "Moshi moshi...hai. Hai, where I indicated earlier, the industrial district." A long pause. "Tch, quite a mess, naa? Sometimes it cannot be helped. Hai. Ten minutes." He clicked the phone shut.
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He'd sheathed his blade-still bloody, even though (or possibly because) Hei knew that it irked his commander-and he took the parasol from Gin when he handed it over. Gin had managed to get most of the blade off of it, but it would need to be cleaned before it got put away. He made a mental note of it, murmuring a soft note of agreement to Gin's question before the man pulled out his phone and started dialing.
Glancing over his shoulder, he tried to imagine what the scene would look like to an outsider. To someone who hadn't been at the center of the storm, but instead only came to view the disaster that it left behind. They had, he realized somewhat surprised, made quite a mess. It was a good thing that Gin had thought to get a cleaning crew for this job. His eyes slid back towards the desecrated body of the doctor he'd killed, and for a moment he found it hard to keep his mask in place.
Frowning, he turned back towards his commander, struggling to hold in place that calm he had found for just a little bit longer...
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"I should be departing before your fellows arrive, mm?" He smiled thinly, and although the temptation to stay lingered in his mind - think of the enormous blemish it would leave on Gin's reputation to be working with the Vescovo head consigliere - he couldn't. Ichimaru had so kindly allowed him to come along on this little adventure, and the least he could do was leave in silence. "I don't know what they would say if they knew I took part in our little plan."
He shifted Rhode's weight slightly, and glanced down to her. "Do you want me to take her, or do you? It seems perhaps I am the only one with room in my car. Rest assured I'll have her returned to you as soon as she is healthy enough to do so."
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There was a long pause in silence as the three men returned to their cars, Gin considering the entire way which path provided the least resistance. He knew full well that the nights events had proven problematic for Hei; memories that Gin thought had long been buried so deep, were clear now on his young second's expression -- as fresh as newly opened wounds. Try as Hei could to hide them, Gin knew that both he and Gavin were too skilled to not see past the flaws in his facade.
On the other hand, there was Rhode Kamelot, whom he was loathe to let out his sight again. Despite her constant tries on his temper, he felt that he had seen the true Rhode tonight -- a small vision of madness and cruelty, a poorly polished mirror held up to the savagery of his own past. It was true, she was a nuisance and a pain, but there was something about her that Gin was reluctant to release; and it was that hidden something that Gin decided that he would nurture and keep.
But Hei. His thoughs returned to the young man who echoed his step, his every movement. Turning his head to the side, he caught a glimpse of him across the periphery of his vision, and Gin knew that the nighmares would come again tonigh, no doubt. It was a dangerous gamble, this trade off between him and Rhode -- his ability to rest, to focus, now lost for the sake of another one's solace. Hei though, Gin knew, was much more resilient than delicate Rhode Kamelot, and if either of the two would make a quick recovery, it would no doubt be his second in command.
He gave a small sigh as they neared their cars, and paused to give Gavin a deep bow. "Ara ara," he said, his eyes sliding from Gavin to Hei and back again. "I believe that it would be best if you were to take her, naa, Gavin-han? Koraa - with your assurances that she will be returned, I believe you offer a more pleasant environment for our little Rhode-kun to recover."
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He stayed silent, instead, becoming very much the shadow at Gin's side.
Realizing that the decision was made regardless of whatever he might have said about it, he started to pull the keys out of his pocket. It was a mistake, moving his left arm. Keeping the wince off his face wasn't as easy as it might have been under other circumstances, but he managed. Easing his arm back down to hang at his side again, he shifted the parasol he was still carrying and managed to get the keys out of his pocket without any awkward flailing on his part. He kept a hold on them, in case Gin wanted him to drive back to the flat.
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