tampered | [log] [ongoing]

When; April 05, late night
Rating; R (maybe?)
Characters; Kantarou Ichinomiya [

rubyred_sight] & Pyramid Head [

redhorror]
Summary; Kantarou goes for a little stroll in Xanadu, meaning to give his tengu, Haruka, enough time to sneak out for an antidote for his chibiness, without anticipating what awaited him in the field of flowers...
Log;

Inhaling smoke from the kiseru gently balanced in one hand, Kantarou observed the clear night sky. No doubt Haruka was already thinking about making a beeline to that person (Cobray?) who had somehow concocted a cure for the curious shrinking of several city denizens. Kantarou liked Haruka that way, small and vulnerable, perhaps moreso than his usual form but... to be completely honest with himself, the only reason he did was because it made it easier for him to believe he could protect Haruka.

The Onikui Tengu; how does one go about protecting someone as powerful as that? It was selfish, but Kantarou had long admitted to himself that he was selfish. And not only that, he knew himself to be a greedy, conniving and manipulative bastard as well. It wasn't that bad, was it? He didn't go about using his powers to kill and extort like some people did. What he did, no matter underhanded, he did with the well being of others' in his mind.

Of course, I get something out of it too.

He blew off smoke lazily and then sighed. "Am I mean to you, Haruka-chan...?" he muttered quietly. "I'm not, aren't I? Everything I do... I try to do for you and Youko-chan. It's not bad... to be misunderstood." He wrapped his coat around his slender body tighter and shook his head. "I should be getting back -- if Haruka didn't grab this opportunity--" he chuckled lightly, "that means I get him small and adorable for a very, very long time♥ ~ Hah!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Subtly at first, then perhaps more noticeably, the sounds of the City entire began to fade into silence.

The occasional streetlight began, one by one, to become choked off with a crawling, consuming darkness.

The darkness spread, and deepened until nothing beyond the pool of light caste by a single street light became the only perceivable amount of space within the darkened city streets.

At the very edges of this caste light the darkness moved; shifted, melted, stretched and ran.
The writhing mass then coalesced into a form.

The monster jerked, and twitched, but seemed otherwise unphased as it raised itself to it's feet. Turning back, it drew forth it's nine-foot steel blade from the darkness beyond.

The blade hit the concrete with a reverberating, mettalic thud, and the Executioner set off, the tell-tale scream and grind of his slow gait heralding his arrival; Relentless, remorseless.

The Red Pyramid, Right Hand, Great Blade.
He lived in it, moved through it, was a part of it.

.....And through the darkness, the massive metal helm turned toward Kantarou.

The call and response of the condemned.

Murderer

Liar

Guilty

A slight twinge. On instinct, Kantarou brought a hand to his chest, palm pressed against the spot where his scar was. Consciously, he looked around, blood-red eyes wide with wariness. The sky seemed to darken, and he felt something... both familiar and not quite. The bells on his left hand began to ring in the silence and on its own accord.

Murderer

Liar

Guilty

He frowned at the accusations. What...? He pulled out a fuda, this one for protection, just in case he'd somehow overstayed in the gardens and was watching a new curse day unfold. "Who's there?" he called out defiantly with the confidence of a veteran exorcist.

The gnarled, nail-less fingers of the steadily pointing hand curled instead into a fist, as a stygian wave of thought-made-solid screamed from the metal helm, and through the mind of the condemned.
Like razor edged fluid it burrowed between each thought, each memory, each nerve synapse; screaming a gibbering response in a voice that was many.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN

I WILL ALWAYS BE

I AM THE DARKNESS AT THE EDGE OF NIGHT

The halting footsteps never faltered as the Red Guard advanced; each footfall the reverberating beat of a heart. Each shriek of th Great Blade dragging against concrete a slicing invasion to the mind.

I AM THE EXECUTIONER

THE RED GUARD

I AM THE END

A sharp cry escaped from Kantarou's lips as the creature invaded his mind. He tried to hold out, he really did, but he couldn't remember the many chants, spells, he'd once studied. His knees buckled underneath him, and he clutched at his head, fingers running through frantically through his scalp in a futile attempt to comfort the searing pain.

It was coming closer; he felt it, but he could not do anything.

It wasn't my fault. I did... everything I did... wasn't my fault.

I don't... mother...

Memories he'd filed away and hoped to never bring up again were remembered. Instantly. Seconds seemed to drag. The kiseru had long slipped from his hand and the small fire within it was burning through grass. Futile.

"Haruka..."

It wasn't his fault! He didn't ask to be born different, to have the power to see the mythical creatures to have proof of his eccentricity.

Blood-red.

The Red Guard reached one grey gnarled hand out to wrap around the condemned's throat, and with the ease afforded to such distended musculature; lifted the condemned off of his feet, and bring his face close to the metal helmet.

You had the choice to become what you are!
No one forced you to it!!

Even now you deny your GUILT!

The chattering, gibbering voices from within the helmet shrieked the truth; each voice a condemnation that the condemned did not want to hear.

You will hear them now.

You can not run from your reckoning!

I did nothing... wrong! Not... that... way! Kantarou struggled in the creature's hand. He clawed at it, trying and failing in his attempt to loosen the grip.

I don't deny anything! I didn't--

Mother- no- it wasn't my fault!

Haruka's pain... no--

The small scratches sank into his forearm, but the Executioner remained unmoved.
Chunks of...rust? Blood? Perhaps both splattered in chunks from the wound, but the Red Guard was unphased.

....But a mechanical growl emanated from the metal helmet, and the Red Guard raised the hilt of his blade, and in one thrust, buried a foot of the metal into the concrete.

The roar of voices, shrieking accusation, and truth through the condemned's mind rose to a crescendo as the blade sank into the floor.

Hands, now unencumbered, the Executioner brought one gnarled hand up to almost lovingly pet Kantarou's cheek, a meaty thumb passing dangerously close to the condemned's eye....

...And without any preamble pressed that thick thumb into his eye socket.

Kantarou screamed. The pain remained, no matter how hard he screamed. Blood gushed down from his eye, warm and thick. He writhed as he cried some more. His tears mingled with the blood.

Itwasmyfaultwasmyfaultstopplease-- The pain. This was his punishment. It would stop if he... stopped too, wouldn't it?

But it was so painful but--

It was still there, pressing his eyeball-

Pain. So much.

He could not think anymore and felt the darkness closing in.

The condemned was babbling, and the Executioner was pleased.
No one understood the levels of pain and punishment like the Red Guard, because for all that those judged felt true horror, Red Pyramid felt it far more....

The Eyeball itself exploded from pressure in seconds, leaking fluids mixed with blood around the Executioner's finger, and washed down Kantarou's face like crimson tears.

The young man screamed from the pain....

Felt nothing but pain...

He became the pain...

Know your sin

Once the Executioner's finger encountered the back of the socket, he stopped pushing, and instead started to rub the meaty socket in slow, concentric circles; stirring the fluids and detached optic nerve into so much soft flesh.

Feel your sin.

One final sharp scream when his eyeball exploded. The darkness exploded, mingled with the pain.

Kantarou knew nothing now but the pain.

And regret.

And guilt.

Most of all, the guilt.

And then he slipped into unconsciousness.

The condemned, now unconscious, was finally accepting of his judgment.
Done with cruelty, there was no need now, The Executioner, removed his hand from Kantarou's eye, and his opposing hand from around the condemned's neck.

Bleeding, and weak, it was no trouble to gather his burden, and his weapon up, one over his left shoulder, and the other dragging behind with the halting grinding noise the Executioner was accustomed to.
The dark decay reversed itself, and receded as the Red Gaurd's footsteps did.

Darkness fading back into the night.

JUDGMENT ALWAYS FINDS YOU

[log] [ongoing]

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