Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 11A
Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…
Author: Mayonaka no Taiyou/Unare Haineko
Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi
Rating: R-ish. [I am changing this rating to R due to the direction I am taking with this story. I probably should have done it earlier, but I think it is time to officially change it since I have decided which direction ( Read more... )
“I wish you would stop making these tasteless jokes,” he sighed disconsolately, ceasing in his struggle when he realised abruptly that his therapist probably wanted him to struggle and probably got a kick out of seeing him struggle for dear life.
“Since we are in a bantering mood today, tell me…” Taking a single arrow from the quiver and pulling it against the bow, she aimed it directly at him without releasing the taunt string. “Which body part would like me to start with?”
“Are you serious?” he yelped in visible panic when he realised he was powerless to move.
Her ladyship released the arrow and it embedded itself by the fold of his shirt close to his right side of his ribs. “Do you doubt it?” she remarked, pulling the bow taunt once more as she took aim.
“My God!” Sho exclaimed in fear, his pitch matching that of the countertenor known in hell for putting up the best version of Haydn’s operas every autumn.
“Yes, my child?” she blasphemed, letting the arrow go. This time, it grazed Sho’s left, close to his ribcage.
“What are you trying to do? You’re just toying with me and having me on, right? I mean, the session hasn’t become yet. Or are you PMSing, milady? I sympathise if that’s so. However, that doesn’t mean you have to lose focus. Why don’t we talk like civilised people, milady.” His eyes darted wildly around as he tried to locate any means of escape.
“Are you intimating that I lack focus?” An arrow grazed the right side of his body, taking off a small part of his shirt. “How dare you suggest I lack focus when you can’t even see what’s in front of you.”
“What’s in front of me?” he repeated dumbly, swallowing hard at the arrow pointing seemingly straight at his face. “Does certain death count?”
“The three card spread, Mr Sakurai. The one that Mikeila so kindly did for you,” her ladyship intoned gravely, aiming to the left and closing an eye to improve her shot. “The first is always for the context and is used as a description for the past.”
“And what’s the context for the deep red carnation?” he found himself asking in spite of his fear.
“Was that what you drew for the first card?” she purred with specious interest as she fired the arrow and took off the skin from his left cheek. “Carnations last moderately long in iced water, did you know? They were called Zeus’s flower in my day, and later Jove’s flower in ancient Rome. But for you, the dark red carnation expresses distinction as well as well as deep love and affection. The context then, would be setting your foot down on a distinction.”
“What distinction?” he queried.
“That is something you have figure out yourself,” she answered bitingly, letting another arrow take part of the skin off his right ear. “Possibly, it means you have yet to make a distinction in your private affairs. But vis-à-vis your past, the deep red carnation connotes the presence of great love and affection. Why is that in your past, I wonder?” She laughed unpleasantly as she twisted the raven feather fletching of her arrow between her fingers, enjoying its feel. “Could it have something to do with your second card being the narcissus, hmmm?”
“You’re enjoying this far too much, Milady Strange,” Sho sought to remonstrate with her as he struggled (and failed) to free himself from the tree. “You’ve lost focus with the session. Why don’t you set me down and we’ll talk about this.”
“Silence!” her voice boomed in the air around him and drawing a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. These effects made the rapper-newscaster cringe as he belatedly realised that angering a devil was something he really should never ever do. “How dare you talk about focus when you have none! That’s what the second card represents, my ignorant little butterfly. The second card in the draw represents the ‘present’ but is indicative of the querant’s focus. And you, Mr Sakurai, have no focus! No wonder you picked the narcissus.”
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“To lose the plot, one must have had it first,” she explained, levelling another arrow at him. “Do not presume to lecture me when I can kill you today. Archery is all about focus. That’s why I like it.” She released the bowstring and smirked when she saw that it drew blood from the side of rib. “For instance, can you tell me where my arrows are concentrated?”
“My left, by the ribs… around the third and fourth ribs. Why…” he muttered unevenly, fear steadily creeping over him as the devil took a step forward.
“I’ve deliberately missed my target,” she said with an enigmatic curl of her lips. “But even a fool like you would know that the heart is behind the third and fourth ribs. All I have to do is get an arrow there and you’d be dead before you hit the ground. Shall I illustrate? It won’t hurt much because death is almost instantaneous.”
“No, no!” he protested against this flattering offer as her ladyship raised the bow and arrow at him once again.
“Pity.” Her ladyship thrust out her lower lip slightly in a disappointed pout. That pout soon turned into a smug smirk as she released an arrow and it took off more skin from the man’s cheek. “Oh, did that hurt?” she quizzed with feigned astonishment as Sho sucked in his breath in pain at the wounds he had sustained so far. “I almost thought you couldn’t feel.”
“Everything stings, milady,” he added rather rhetorically, fixing her a look that would worthy of a disappointed puppy.
“Then why did you draw a narcissus for your second card, hmmm?” Her voice lilted into the dangerous timbre halfway between devilry and evil. “Everyone thinks narcissus means egotism and they end there - full stop. Yes, your present is marked by egotism, however, that has nothing to do with your focus.”
“What about my focus?” he asked, ignoring the searing pain gnawing at his wounds.
“In my day in ancient Greece, the Fates were always depicted with narcissus wreaths in their hair, the scent of which was so cloyingly sweet that it was said to reduce mortals to madness,” she said with a derisive snort at his ignorance. “What this means is that the narcissus flower has narcotic qualities. In the Health Centre, we use it as a painkiller and salve for treating superficial wounds. Quite apt, you know, because narcissus comes from a Greek word meaning ‘numbness’. What do you think of that?”
“I don’t get how numbness came to be associated with egotism and what that has to do with the ‘focus’ or the present,” complained the man rather bitterly.
“Fool!” she hissed as a slash of lightning cut across the sky. “Your focus is non-existent because it’s numb. It’s numb because you’ve been bitten by madness, and that in turn has made you appear selfish, Mr Sakurai. Why is your focus asleep and numb?” She fired an arrow at him and allowing it to embed in his thigh. “Did I wake it up?”
Crying out in pain and valiantly blinking back the tears, Sho turned a mournful gaze at her and asked thinly, “Am I mad?”
“More benumbed than mad, I would say,” sniggered her ladyship as she shot another arrow into his other leg and drew another agonising cry of pain from the man. “Narcissus has its origins in the Greek word ‘narkoa’ or ‘to numb’. Narcotics are dangerous, Mr Sakurai. What happens when you use too much? Your pretty sweet smelling narcissus would drive you ‘mad’ like the blossoms woven in the hair of the Fates.”
“Why do the Fates wear it then?”
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“It’s not that simple. I won’t have it be that simple!” he wailed, tearing a little at the pain as Lady Strange faired several arrows in rapid succession at him.
“But that’s what you have allowed yourself to become, Mr Sakurai,” she said placidly, tightening the string on the bow. “The outcome and the future you will have - as indicated by the last card is the iris. That is what awaits you if you stay your current course and allow yourself to numbly be dragged around. A flaming message awaits you, my good Monsieur, if you stay the course. This flaming message or Iris will take you straight to hell.”
“Hell? Just because I’ve numbed myself and rendered my own wishes and preferences subservient to my obligations to my family?” the man almost sounded nonplussed and he would look it too had not he been staring at the final arrow in her ladyship’s quiver.
“Do not pass ‘Go’, do not collect £200. Go straight to the Ninth Circle,” she sing-songed mockingly, drawing the arrow across the bow. “Numbness, madness, desire, despair - so many monsters. Which one will you fight, hmmm?”
“Can’t I have a little peace?” he moaned tearfully, hanging his head down.
“A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Ah, there’s a thought, n’est-ce pas?” Lady Strange sniggered as she aimed her arrow between his third and fourth ribs. Her lips curled as she held her thumb and index finger on the fletching across the taunt bowstring.
“There is nothing I can do… I can’t go against…. You don’t understand…” he faltered between his numerous attempts at explanations.
“Time’s up,” her ladyship said flatly, releasing the arrow. “Goodbye, Mr Sakurai.”
The impact of the spiralling arrow hitting his heart and puncturing it was less painful an ordeal than Sho would have thought. Despite that realisation in the back of his head, he still screamed in terror ere he fainted. Unknown to him however, the arrow did not kill him. It only transported him back to his flat.
“Pathetic,” muttered Lady Strange under her breath as she clapped her hands to summon her minions to take her archery equipment home. When that was done, she snapped her fingers and headed to her next destination.
[More therapy sessions and analysis to come tomorrow evening. For now, I must hie me to bed.]
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'Do not pass GO' XDDD I say that to people all the time and most people look at me like I am crazy. Those ignorant bastards!
Sho!torture--It was lovely, milady, all the way down to his return to the surface via cardio-arrow. *bows and applauds the wonderful shooting*
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Le gasp! People don't play Monopoly? Shocking! Imbeciles. We're surrounded by imbeciles. I am indignant on your behalf.
I originally wanted to pin Sho down like a butterfly, then I thought, why not fire arrows at him? You see the middle finger gesture comes from arrow shooting. In the battle of Agincourt, the French side fired arrows (using long bows) by releasing with the middle finger. That's how the gesture came about. The English used cross bows, which they fired by making use of the index and middle fingers. Hold your palm facing up, curl your fingers in, lift up the index and middle fingers slightly bent. That's a rude English gesture. And all that from the battle of Agincourt. I fire the French way in this vignette.
In real life, I don't know how to use a bow and arrow. I just know the theory. Heh.
But you know... I liked the ending where Sho was shot through the heart and returned to the surface too. *snigger-cackle*
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Yes, believe it, milady. And Monopoly is such a delightful game too! Usually I can never get anyone to play with me *sighs dejectedly*
HA! Who would've guessed. I didn't realize that the middle finger was of archery origins. How about that? As to be expected from her ladyship. Always the provider or some interesting piece of information. Yes, I am a collector of random trivia. People are always shocked when I bring random bits of information out from the archives. Apparently I don't look like I should be remotely intelligent....Whatever that is supposed to mean...BASTARDS!
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Ah, monopoly. I haven't played it years. I have a small magnetic version of the game. That's it. I could play with you... *grins cheekily*
Imbeciles, we're surrounded by imbeciles. I always tell people not to give me the middle finger unless they want to point an arrow at me. But of course, no one got the meaning. *rolls eyes*. Perhaps people ascribe their own traits to others in the "i don't use my brain, therefore, no one does either" syllogism. Who knows?
Luckily, Kazu's turning out quite nicely using his brain. Bless his heart.
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