Fanfic - Target - [Jigoku Shoujo: Ren/OC]
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Fandom: Jigoku Shoujo
Pairing: Ren/OC
Rating: Light R
Warnings: Implied non-con. Nothing explicit, but I prefer to err on the side of caution here.
Author's Notes: An OC plays a significant part, and there are mild implications of Ren/OC. First time writing in the fandom, after watching only 11 episodes. Forgive the OOC-ness, if any. I tried my best~
Written for this request on fic_on_demand.
Target
Noise.
He hears noise, sometimes.
A faint, soft beep and then the sensation of a red glow. No eyes to see with, blind; but the presence was always there. All-encompassing, strong. And yet frail. Always there, beneath the surface, that pained strength.
A marble pillar, spider-threads near its base. Cracking slowly.
::Ai, someone’s calling for you.::
She knows.
Another invisible crack.
And then eventually she calls. Her voice is everything now; their strength, their power, their half-lives.
He hears noise, sometimes.
“Doesn’t seem like a bad guy though, does he?”
He spares her a brief glance, before turning his eyes back to the boy, staring at him fixedly through the window. The rain mists down gently on them. Today, Enma Ai has chosen to exercise a small fraction of her otherworldly powers, keeping them dry. The other woman is thankful for that, he can tell, but he would have been as comfortable in the rain.
Dark hair flows like silk as she turns to leave. It is the only warning they receive before her powers snap away and the rain is suddenly cascading down onto them. The older woman makes a noise of surprise, turning to follow her mistress.
“Are you coming?” Honne-Onna asks in a voice deliberately smooth and seductive.
“In a minute,” he replies, and wonders why those words feel so familiar.
He knows some things, sometimes, that he shouldn’t. Like what Ai truly thinks of her job. The Jigoku Shoujo, the Hell Girl. It seems a noble cause, to take revenge on those who deserve it. And there are those who do deserve it; and they are, for the most part, Ai’s victims. (Or not just Ai, because who was it who lured them, after all?)
But what of those who don’t?
Who is to say that they wouldn’t have redeemed themselves?
Ai thinks, everyday, about the lives she takes prematurely. He knows this in a way that belies any doubt, knows this like a fact, like the sun rises and sets and there will always be cherry blossoms around the house. He knows this and knows the weight of the burden that the girl bears.
He knows that she will bear it because there is no other way.
No doubt those who send their messages to Ai consider them pleas, cries for help. Perhaps even Ai thinks of them that way.
Ren thinks that these are pathetic creatures that will never learn to fight for themselves.
His eyes turn to the boy again, sitting at his desk. He is turning the straw doll over and over in his hands, assiduously avoiding the red string tied around the doll. He seems pale but also contemplative; thoughtful in a way that few people are after catching a glimpse of hell. Ren doesn’t know what the boy has seen; that’s Honne-Onna’s job, hers and Ai’s. Everything is Ai’s job, but they help her, of course. That’s what they’re there for.
Wanyuudo is there to watch. Ren doesn’t need to, he knows that. It isn’t his job; his job is to plan. Because inevitably, the ones whose grudges are strong enough to enable them to reach Ai always untie the string. And so he must be ready.
Ren would normally be making his plans by now. He knows what the boy has had done to him. This is one of the few instances in which he feels pity for the young victim. But it doesn’t change anything.
He has no plans yet.
The boy rises, looking around the room. He’s still thoughtful. Still pale, with dark hair standing out even more vividly against almost-white skin. Even from a distance, sitting on a tree branch just outside the boy’s window, Ren can see the boy’s too-large eyes. The innocent beauty that had made him what he was.
A target.
“Um, excuse me?”
Ren looks up and into dark, haunted eyes.
It is against every rule there is for him to enter the room. But Ren does it anyway, compelled by something he doesn’t quite understand. (He would later term it hope.)
“You were with her, right? Enma Ai-san?”
“Yeah,” he says pleasantly. The boy appears nervous, fiddling with the straw doll once again. “Is there anything you wanted?”
Inwardly, he wonders. It is the first time he has heard anyone refer to Ai by her name. Usually, she is simply the Jigoku Shoujo to them. Merely a means to an end.
“Um, that is…” the boy’s voice trails off, and Ren’s lips quirk into a semblance of a smirk. He smoothes it out, turns it into a smile just as the boy looks up. Was he that terrifying?
And then the straw doll is being thrust into his chest. Ren thinks, absently, that if his chest could hurt slightly from the impact, Wanyuudo must be feeling highly abused.
The boy’s chewing on his lip now, Ren notices, as he wraps a hand around the doll and around the boy’s hand, keeping both imprisoned against his chest. He knows that he’s effectively smothering Wanyuudo, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not as if Wanyuudo hasn’t had worse done to him.
“C-could you give that back to her, please?” he asks tremulously, and Ren suddenly realises that the boy isn’t afraid of him. Not of him, or of what he represents (and what is it that he represents?). The uncertainty that he sees in the boy’s eyes is merely that of someone wondering how he will survive from this point on.
“Are you sure about that?” Ren asks, thinking that maybe there had been a reason for him to stay behind after all. Wanyuudo couldn’t have done anything in this situation.
The boy nods, determination in the movement and a flash of it in his eyes. Then his expression returns to that of pensive contemplation. “I’ll be a legal adult in a month. I can get out of this house then; he won’t have any hold over me. I’ll just have to hold on till then.”
Ren reaches up with his free hand, liberating Wanyuudo from his crushing embrace between their hands - then, without ceremony, tosses him through the window. He knows Wanyuudo will complain bitterly later on, but he doesn’t want anyone to hear him now.
“You won’t get a second chance,” he tells the boy, perfectly aware that this is not true. The boy needs only to have an overwhelming desire for revenge within him, and he will be able to access the webpage again. That isn’t something that Ren wants the boy to know, however.
“It’s okay,” the boy says, a faint, uncertain smile now touching his lips. He is looking now at his hand, still trapped against Ren’s chest, wondering if he can pull away without being rude.
Ren holds on for a fraction of a second longer, tightening his grip momentarily, and then lets go.
There is silence in the room for a few moments, as the boy gazes at Ren in startling innocence, despite all that has been done to him. Ren thinks that perhaps, that innocence is what had enabled him to throw away his chance at revenge.
“Why?”
And now the eyes turn away, but even if he can’t see them, Ren can read the boy’s posture well enough. He’s back to being contemplative now. “Well, when she showed me what Hell was like…”
Ren holds his breath; that sentence could only finish in one of two ways, and he wonders which way the boy will choose.
“… I didn’t think that even my guardian deserved something like that, I guess,” the boy finishes with a self-deprecating laugh. “I want him to be punished for what he’s doing to me, but what he’s doing - I’ll get out of it someday. But he won’t ever be able to get out of Hell, will he?”
Ren looks at the boy incredulously, the silence stretching on. The boy is looking back up at Ren now, unsure of whether he’s said the right thing.
And then, without quite knowing why, Ren is laughing, laughing so hard he has to hold his stomach, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. Or maybe he would have cried anyway; he doesn’t know. All he knows is that this boy before him is what he’s been waiting all this time to see.
The boy who now looks mildly alarmed. It was understandable, of course. Ren resembled nothing so much as a lunatic at that moment. The thought sobered him slightly, but there was still mirth in his eyes when he straightened. The tears remained on his face.
“Um… sir…”
“Ichimoku Ren,” he interrupts the boy, with a certain amount of satisfaction. Few humans ever heard his name, but he takes pleasure in giving it to this boy now.
“Are you all right, Ichimoku-kun?” the boy asks cautiously. Ren allows himself the privilege of a genuine smile, free of any malice. He can’t remember the last time he smiled and actually meant it.
“Fine,” he replies, and even his voice seems lighter now. “She’ll be pleased to know of your decision.” Though Wanyuudo would not be happy with Ren’s treatment, but did that matter in the light of this?
Impulsively, Ren steps forward, closer to the boy. He is surprised when the boy doesn’t move away, even more surprised when he realises the boy is looking up at him. Almost expectant. Scared, but longing.
He leans down and kisses soft lips gently. An arm around a waist. A loose embrace, easy enough to break out of. And never more than that gentle pressure of lips on lips.
He breaks away and is pleased to note that the boy doesn’t seem unduly disturbed. If anything, he seems mildly surprised, perhaps at his own control.
“I’ll look out for you,” Ren tells him. “For a month. Then you can get out.”
The boy seems startled for a moment. Then he smiles at him, a wide, exhilarated smile. “Thank you!”
Ren chooses not to tell him that for a month, the boy will still be used. All Ren can do is to make the man tire more easily; change his mind sometimes, perhaps. But it will still happen, and the boy will still have to bear his burden. Much as Ai does.
“Thank you,” he tells the boy, and vanishes.
::Back?::
You knew.
::I hoped.::
Is that what it was?
~fin
poco-a-poco.deviantart.com - new doujin circle I'm in. Check it out! [and comment!]
Fandom: Jigoku Shoujo
Pairing: Ren/OC
Rating: Light R
Warnings: Implied non-con. Nothing explicit, but I prefer to err on the side of caution here.
Author's Notes: An OC plays a significant part, and there are mild implications of Ren/OC. First time writing in the fandom, after watching only 11 episodes. Forgive the OOC-ness, if any. I tried my best~
Written for this request on fic_on_demand.
Target
Noise.
He hears noise, sometimes.
A faint, soft beep and then the sensation of a red glow. No eyes to see with, blind; but the presence was always there. All-encompassing, strong. And yet frail. Always there, beneath the surface, that pained strength.
A marble pillar, spider-threads near its base. Cracking slowly.
::Ai, someone’s calling for you.::
She knows.
Another invisible crack.
And then eventually she calls. Her voice is everything now; their strength, their power, their half-lives.
He hears noise, sometimes.
“Doesn’t seem like a bad guy though, does he?”
He spares her a brief glance, before turning his eyes back to the boy, staring at him fixedly through the window. The rain mists down gently on them. Today, Enma Ai has chosen to exercise a small fraction of her otherworldly powers, keeping them dry. The other woman is thankful for that, he can tell, but he would have been as comfortable in the rain.
Dark hair flows like silk as she turns to leave. It is the only warning they receive before her powers snap away and the rain is suddenly cascading down onto them. The older woman makes a noise of surprise, turning to follow her mistress.
“Are you coming?” Honne-Onna asks in a voice deliberately smooth and seductive.
“In a minute,” he replies, and wonders why those words feel so familiar.
He knows some things, sometimes, that he shouldn’t. Like what Ai truly thinks of her job. The Jigoku Shoujo, the Hell Girl. It seems a noble cause, to take revenge on those who deserve it. And there are those who do deserve it; and they are, for the most part, Ai’s victims. (Or not just Ai, because who was it who lured them, after all?)
But what of those who don’t?
Who is to say that they wouldn’t have redeemed themselves?
Ai thinks, everyday, about the lives she takes prematurely. He knows this in a way that belies any doubt, knows this like a fact, like the sun rises and sets and there will always be cherry blossoms around the house. He knows this and knows the weight of the burden that the girl bears.
He knows that she will bear it because there is no other way.
No doubt those who send their messages to Ai consider them pleas, cries for help. Perhaps even Ai thinks of them that way.
Ren thinks that these are pathetic creatures that will never learn to fight for themselves.
His eyes turn to the boy again, sitting at his desk. He is turning the straw doll over and over in his hands, assiduously avoiding the red string tied around the doll. He seems pale but also contemplative; thoughtful in a way that few people are after catching a glimpse of hell. Ren doesn’t know what the boy has seen; that’s Honne-Onna’s job, hers and Ai’s. Everything is Ai’s job, but they help her, of course. That’s what they’re there for.
Wanyuudo is there to watch. Ren doesn’t need to, he knows that. It isn’t his job; his job is to plan. Because inevitably, the ones whose grudges are strong enough to enable them to reach Ai always untie the string. And so he must be ready.
Ren would normally be making his plans by now. He knows what the boy has had done to him. This is one of the few instances in which he feels pity for the young victim. But it doesn’t change anything.
He has no plans yet.
The boy rises, looking around the room. He’s still thoughtful. Still pale, with dark hair standing out even more vividly against almost-white skin. Even from a distance, sitting on a tree branch just outside the boy’s window, Ren can see the boy’s too-large eyes. The innocent beauty that had made him what he was.
A target.
“Um, excuse me?”
Ren looks up and into dark, haunted eyes.
It is against every rule there is for him to enter the room. But Ren does it anyway, compelled by something he doesn’t quite understand. (He would later term it hope.)
“You were with her, right? Enma Ai-san?”
“Yeah,” he says pleasantly. The boy appears nervous, fiddling with the straw doll once again. “Is there anything you wanted?”
Inwardly, he wonders. It is the first time he has heard anyone refer to Ai by her name. Usually, she is simply the Jigoku Shoujo to them. Merely a means to an end.
“Um, that is…” the boy’s voice trails off, and Ren’s lips quirk into a semblance of a smirk. He smoothes it out, turns it into a smile just as the boy looks up. Was he that terrifying?
And then the straw doll is being thrust into his chest. Ren thinks, absently, that if his chest could hurt slightly from the impact, Wanyuudo must be feeling highly abused.
The boy’s chewing on his lip now, Ren notices, as he wraps a hand around the doll and around the boy’s hand, keeping both imprisoned against his chest. He knows that he’s effectively smothering Wanyuudo, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not as if Wanyuudo hasn’t had worse done to him.
“C-could you give that back to her, please?” he asks tremulously, and Ren suddenly realises that the boy isn’t afraid of him. Not of him, or of what he represents (and what is it that he represents?). The uncertainty that he sees in the boy’s eyes is merely that of someone wondering how he will survive from this point on.
“Are you sure about that?” Ren asks, thinking that maybe there had been a reason for him to stay behind after all. Wanyuudo couldn’t have done anything in this situation.
The boy nods, determination in the movement and a flash of it in his eyes. Then his expression returns to that of pensive contemplation. “I’ll be a legal adult in a month. I can get out of this house then; he won’t have any hold over me. I’ll just have to hold on till then.”
Ren reaches up with his free hand, liberating Wanyuudo from his crushing embrace between their hands - then, without ceremony, tosses him through the window. He knows Wanyuudo will complain bitterly later on, but he doesn’t want anyone to hear him now.
“You won’t get a second chance,” he tells the boy, perfectly aware that this is not true. The boy needs only to have an overwhelming desire for revenge within him, and he will be able to access the webpage again. That isn’t something that Ren wants the boy to know, however.
“It’s okay,” the boy says, a faint, uncertain smile now touching his lips. He is looking now at his hand, still trapped against Ren’s chest, wondering if he can pull away without being rude.
Ren holds on for a fraction of a second longer, tightening his grip momentarily, and then lets go.
There is silence in the room for a few moments, as the boy gazes at Ren in startling innocence, despite all that has been done to him. Ren thinks that perhaps, that innocence is what had enabled him to throw away his chance at revenge.
“Why?”
And now the eyes turn away, but even if he can’t see them, Ren can read the boy’s posture well enough. He’s back to being contemplative now. “Well, when she showed me what Hell was like…”
Ren holds his breath; that sentence could only finish in one of two ways, and he wonders which way the boy will choose.
“… I didn’t think that even my guardian deserved something like that, I guess,” the boy finishes with a self-deprecating laugh. “I want him to be punished for what he’s doing to me, but what he’s doing - I’ll get out of it someday. But he won’t ever be able to get out of Hell, will he?”
Ren looks at the boy incredulously, the silence stretching on. The boy is looking back up at Ren now, unsure of whether he’s said the right thing.
And then, without quite knowing why, Ren is laughing, laughing so hard he has to hold his stomach, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. Or maybe he would have cried anyway; he doesn’t know. All he knows is that this boy before him is what he’s been waiting all this time to see.
The boy who now looks mildly alarmed. It was understandable, of course. Ren resembled nothing so much as a lunatic at that moment. The thought sobered him slightly, but there was still mirth in his eyes when he straightened. The tears remained on his face.
“Um… sir…”
“Ichimoku Ren,” he interrupts the boy, with a certain amount of satisfaction. Few humans ever heard his name, but he takes pleasure in giving it to this boy now.
“Are you all right, Ichimoku-kun?” the boy asks cautiously. Ren allows himself the privilege of a genuine smile, free of any malice. He can’t remember the last time he smiled and actually meant it.
“Fine,” he replies, and even his voice seems lighter now. “She’ll be pleased to know of your decision.” Though Wanyuudo would not be happy with Ren’s treatment, but did that matter in the light of this?
Impulsively, Ren steps forward, closer to the boy. He is surprised when the boy doesn’t move away, even more surprised when he realises the boy is looking up at him. Almost expectant. Scared, but longing.
He leans down and kisses soft lips gently. An arm around a waist. A loose embrace, easy enough to break out of. And never more than that gentle pressure of lips on lips.
He breaks away and is pleased to note that the boy doesn’t seem unduly disturbed. If anything, he seems mildly surprised, perhaps at his own control.
“I’ll look out for you,” Ren tells him. “For a month. Then you can get out.”
The boy seems startled for a moment. Then he smiles at him, a wide, exhilarated smile. “Thank you!”
Ren chooses not to tell him that for a month, the boy will still be used. All Ren can do is to make the man tire more easily; change his mind sometimes, perhaps. But it will still happen, and the boy will still have to bear his burden. Much as Ai does.
“Thank you,” he tells the boy, and vanishes.
::Back?::
You knew.
::I hoped.::
Is that what it was?
~fin