04:17:24
Outside a Warehouse, Stainless Steel Street, Industrial District.
In the midst of a heavy curtain of smog two goons, dressed in typical thug attire, engaged in a conversation.
“Did you watch the latest episode of ‘Valiance’ last night?” The first goon asked his partner.
Blowing a puff of multicoloured smoke out from his mask, the partner answered, “Yep. They did my boy ‘Jynx’ dirty, man!” His thick voice was chockfull of resentment.
“Oh, please!~” Goon #1 scoffed. “That bastard had it coming after what he did to Cass. Watching him suffer retribution for what he did to my poor angel was the best thing to happen to me this week.”
“B*tch!” Goon #2 spat out venomously. “Don’t even go there. You dare call that b*tch your ‘angel’ after what she did to the party in the last arc!? My blood still seethes whenever I recall that scene.”
“Yeah, right. Like your ‘boy’ is any better,” Goon #1 snickered. He then shrugged his shoulders and continued with a condescending smile, “At least Cass is hot. Jynx, on the other hand, looks like an inbred rat.”
“Oh? So you think that she should be forgiven just by virtue of her appearance?”
“Why not, I say? ‘Forgive and Forget’. That’s what the cultists who go around preaching say, don’t they?”
“Why should Jynx be any different then?” asked Goon #2. “By your logic, he should also be forgiven for betraying the party.”
“No, that rat bastard deserves to rot in hell. Having his arm cut off and getting kicked off of the party was a mercy,” Goon #1 instantly replied.
His partner watched him with incredulity. Forcing himself to calm down the boiling rage threatening to leak out of his heart, he puffed another mouthful of the addictive and said, “You know, you’re going to die a pitiful death at the hands of some crazy woman one day. All ‘cause you can’t stop thinking with your d*ck.”
“Eh. Better to die at the hands of a beauty than to live like you,” Goon #1 replied casually. “You can’t even pay a lady to touch your little guy. Heh!” The instant he finished saying that, a startled and regret-filled light flashed across his eyes.
Goon #2 stared at his friend speechlessly. He then looked away and lowered his head. Silence descended.
“Ah, sh*t, look dude…” Knowing that he had spoken wrongly, Goon #1 started with an apology. However, he was soon interrupted by the sound of sniffling.
“...It’s not my fault, you know,” Goon #2 spoke quietly, repressed sobbing evident in his voice. “The… the doctors told me… that it’s a… a real medical condition.” His words grew intermittent as he began to cry.
Facing his friend’s quivering shoulders, Goon #1 walked closer and enveloped the former in a hug. Patting his back gently, he spoke apologetically, “I know. I know. I messed up. It’s not your fault. I was an assh*le.”
Goon #2’s sobs grew quieter with his head buried inside his friend’s embrace. “It's… been… so… long… Why did this happen to me!?!” His emotions exploded causing him to cry loudly.
“Hush. There, there,” Goon #1 gripped him tighter and gently consoled him. “It wasn’t your fault that the house you rented coincidentally happened to be a site where depleted radioactive cores were illegally disposed of and that your bed was coincidentally placed on top of a partially unsealed core. These things happen. You were just unlucky enough for it to happen to you.”
“Do you… know? How my thing… looks like… down there?”
“I’m sure I don’t need to know.”
“IT HAS A MOUTH, MAN!!” Goon #2 screamed, his finger digging into his partner’s arms. His face positively radiated with madness. “And there are these bulb-like outgrowths that look like eyes—”
“AND THAT’S ENOUGH!!” Goon #1 quickly yelled, interrupting his friend’s frenzied description of the eldritch horror that his meatstick had now become. “I did not need to know that! God!”
Goon #1 looked away with closed eyes and furrowed brows. He focused 120% of his meagre brain to stop imagining the image detailed by his friend. He knew that was his mind to complete its task of drawing a picture, he would never be the same man thereafter.
After a long and arduous battle fought between his lacking creativity and faltering will, he finally managed to tire his mind into giving up on the unholy image. For now, he succeeded in protecting the chastity of his mind.
As the two men rested after being bruised and battered by their respective horrors, the pocket of Goon #1 suddenly buzzed. “Hmm?” He reached into his pocket and recovered the button-like device.
Seeing that his communicator was buzzing with a call, he answered. A holographic screen showing no image popped up and a voice followed.
[Are you done?] A husky, grim voice asked.
Noticing the name of the caller, Goon #1 unconsciously stiffened. The voice that followed prompted Goon #2 to also do the same. Hearing the caller’s question, Goon #1 nervously replied, “No-Not yet, Boss.”
[Mhm.] The voice mumbled in affirmation. [Is he with you?]
Knowing the subject of his superior’s question, he replied, “No. He asked us to wait outside and leave him alone.”
[Mhm. Tell him to be done quickly. The Don wants to have a word with him.]
“Understood, Boss!” Goon #1 saluted albeit engaging in a voice call.
[Go tell him now.]
“N-now?” Goon #1 gulped in horror.
[What? Is there a problem?]
“Y-you know how he is, Boss. He hates when someone intervenes in on his fun time,” Goon #1 explained. Goon #2 who was standing quietly next to him vehemently nodded his head.
[Tell him it’s the Don and that it’s urgent.]
“Got it,” Goon #1 replied, unconvinced. However, he understood his Boss’ temper and knew that it was fruitless to ask for further concessions.
Biting the bullet, he said, “I’ll go now, Boss.”
[Mhm. Go.] The voice replied and the call ended. The holographic screen collapsed and silence was restored in the scene.
Exhaling a heavy sigh, Goon #1 turned around. He walked up to the loosely shut entrance doors to the warehouse and paused his hands just short of the handle.
Turning his head, he asked his partner, “Wanna come?”
“Screw you. I don’t wanna die!” Goon #2 rapidly shook his head.
“Hah!” Scoffing loudly in derision, Goon #1 shook his head before turning around and pushing the entrance doors open. Instantly, he felt a bone-chilling freeze brush past his body.
Breathing deeply a few times, he extended his legs and took a step. Entering the dark and eerily quiet warehouse, he forced himself to look at the ground and walk ahead without stopping.
Walking for a few dozen seconds inside the numbly cold warehouse, Goon #1 felt the presence of a light a few metres away from him. Knowing that he had reached his destination, he raised his head, suppressed his terror and spoke in the calmest voice that he could muster. “The Boss called. He asked if you were done and said that the Don wanted to meet with you immediately.”
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The scene before Goon #1 eyes was a page out of a horror novel.
A meathook hung from the ceiling where a middle-aged man, his body broken and lacerated beyond recognition, hung with blood constantly dripping from his mutilated body and adding to the pool of crimson on the ground. Standing before his tortured person was a thin young man, with his back turned again the goon, holding a set of bloodied hammers and pliers in his hands.
“...pwea…sh… sp…are… me…” A mumble of incoherent words escaped the throat of the tortured subject.
Goon #1 acted as if he hadn’t heard anything and stiffly waited for the young man’s reply. After what seemed like an eternity, he heard the youth speak.
“The Don?” he questioned hoarsely.
“Yes,” Goon #1 stiffly nodded his head and replied as concisely as possible. He knew that this person before him hated hearing complicated or roundabout answers.
“Now?” he asked, displeasure evident in his voice.
“Immediately,” Goon #1 answered.
After a few seconds of silence, the thin youth suddenly moved. He walked up to the middle-aged man hanging on the meathook and said, “How cruel. I wanted to converse with you a little while longer.” While his words sounded apologetic and sympathetic, his tone was frigid and indifferent.
“You’re finding it hard to breathe, right?” The youth suddenly asked, having arrived near the tortured subject. “Your mouth, it’s asking for release, right?”
The tortured subject, whose eyes had long since gone blind from the torture, rapidly blinked indicating his reply.
“Okay. I’ll help you now,” the youth replied and shot out with his right arm. He grabbed tortured subject by his chin, specifically, the air filtration mask that rested atop his chin. His thin, long finger extended and pressed on the release button mouth on the two opposite cheek sides.
“This should be better.” Saying so, he pressed his fingers. The air-filtration mask hissed with a stream of air and disengaged from the middle-aged man’s mouth. “There. You can breathe now.” A pool of blood which had been clogging the mask immediately fell with its removal.
With the mask removed from his person, the middle-aged man dumbly hung from the meathook for a few seconds before suddenly convulsing with his entire body. The convulsions grew more and more intense with each passing second before becoming a full-on seizure.
The middle-aged man began to moan and gasp as hoarse breaths left his body. Each breath exchanged without the mask caused the convulsions to intensify and for violet-blue veins to appear on his tortured skin. The veins continued to intensify and throb when suddenly… a pop sound was heard.
The tortured subject’s struggle vanished and his body hung limply on the meathook. He was dead.
Turning around, the thin youth looked at the horrified expression on Goon #1 and numbly said, “Let’s go.” He then began walking without waiting for a reply.
---
08:01:13
Outside the Chrysanthemum Bud, Entertainment District.
“Fuwah!~ I’m finally outta there!” With grand strides and a brilliant smile, Cypher exited the doors of the cabaret club and announced with joy. His beautiful face was the very picture of happiness.
Aether, who exited after him, saw his reaction and joked, “If people didn’t know, they would think that you were finally released from prison.” Coughing twice and adopting the standard pose of a reporter, Aether asked while extending his non-existent mic, “How does it feel to be free, Mr Cypher?”
“Very good. It feels very good,” Cypher joined Aether’s role-play and replied with seriousness. “The air outside of prison is incomparable.” The instant he finished saying that, the two of them broke into laughter.
Laughing heartily, Cypher then assumed a stiff attention posture and bowed before Aether. “Thank you for helping me today, Aether. I’m very, very grateful.”
“Oh my, oh my, our Cypher is being very polite isn’t he?” Aether joked in reply before urging Cypher to stand up.
After the duo left the premises of the establishment, Aether recalled the scene from thirty minutes ago and remarked, “They were desperate to not let you go, huh? I never imagined for the owner to get on his knees and beg for you to remain.”
Cypher flashed a bitter smile and replied, “I didn’t expect that either. However, giving it some thought, it makes sense why he did that.”
“Oh? Why?” asked Aether, feeling curious.
Cypher showed an expression of conflict and embarrassment on his face before giving a deep sigh. He then hid his face in his left hand while pointing in a certain direction with his right.
Picking up on his clues, Aether followed the direction of his right hand before falling into a daze. His eyes landed on a large, holographic billboard flashing some distance away.
[Noble elegance and Angel’s purity. Experience royal class like never before in Chrysanthemum Bud.] What caused Aether his befuddlement wasn’t the message but the image that filled the remaining 90% of the billboard.
It was a picture of Cypher dressed in a noble three-piece suit wearing an ambiguous smile.
Aether did a double take. He then did a triple-take. He then proceeded to alternate his astonished gaze at Cypher and the holographic advert.
Each time Cypher felt Aether’s gaze land on him, his desire to bury into the earth and disappear forever stacked and multiplied exponentially. Just as his very existence was about to crumble down from shame and embarrassment, he heard Aether ask.
“Can I get an autograph?”
---
“Humph!” Harrumping and pouting cutely, Cypher kept his arms crossed as he stiffly walked a good distance away from Aether. His demeanour resembled that of a dissatisfied lover who had been pranked by their partner.
Aether, who followed behind him, had a hard-to-conceal teasing expression on his face. It was evident that his bad habit returned in full force the instant he gained suitable ammunition on Cypher.
“I’m very sorry.” His apology contained not a single trace of sincerity.
“Humph!” Cypher snorted, not graving Aether with even a look back. As experienced as he was with the world, he recognized Aether’s ‘not apologetic’ apology. Replying to him with anything but indifference would mean falling into his trap.
“I’m very, very sorry,” Aether wasn’t disheartened and tried again. This time he added another ‘very’ before his sorry.
“Humph!” Cypher’s reaction, however, remained unchanged.
The duo continued this interaction back and forth multiple times. Aether added a modifier to his apology in each iteration while Cypher's reaction remained unchanged. Neither of them gave up, however, and stuck to their corners.
After almost half an hour of exchanges, a change finally occurred.
“Hey, I’m very, very, very, very, very, very—” While amidst his very ‘sincere’ apology, Aether was interrupted by the buzz in his pocket. Taking out the source of the buzzing, Aether stopped to read the message sent to him.
Cypher naturally reacted to Aether’s change and stopped walking.
While the two of them kept quarrelling for the last thirty minutes or so it was all done in good nature. He was naturally not angry at Aether’s teasing but was instead incredibly embarrassed by it. While he could have simply explained it away, for some reason, Cypher’s heart leapt with joy when he engaged Aether in this sort of childish, playful banter.
When he tried to investigate the reason behind this joy, Cypher felt his pulse speed up and his face mysteriously blush. A shy reluctance to continue further caused him to drop his investigation.
While he waited, Cypher noticed Aether’s expression change. Worried that the message was informing him of some bad news, he worriedly asked, “Is something wrong?”
“My employer messaged me that there is no work today,” Aether summarised the message sent to him. In essence, the two jobs that he had lined up for today were postponed to tomorrow. Unexpectedly, he had received a free day today.
Hearing his reply, Cypher felt his worries ease and his heart relax in relief. Blinking at Aether, he said, “Uhm, we don’t have any practice today either.”
“That’s right,” nodded Aether.
“Do you have anything to do today? Somewhere to be?” Honestly, Cypher did not understand why he was asking this question to Aether. Mysteriously though, he wanted Aether’s reply to be negative.
“Nope!~” replied Aether. Showing a polite smile, he continued, “I wasn’t expecting my shifts to be postponed suddenly. I’ve unexpectedly received a free day.”
Again, for some inexplicable reason, Cypher felt his heart jump with joyousness. Trying his best to suppress his excitement, he asked, “Uhm, then, do you… want…” He stammered with nervousness.
Why was he stammering from nervousness? Cypher asked himself this very same question. All he wanted to do was invite his friend (and saviour) to lunch and thank him for all the help that he had received. Yet, for reasons beyond his comprehension, Cypher felt incredibly nervous.
And he couldn’t understand why.
“Uhm… so… can we… do you…?” The more he hesitated, the more his nervousness showed on his face. And yet, he still couldn’t find the words within him.
Looking at Cypher who had turned into a blubbering, nervous mess, Aether tilted his head in confusion before suddenly coming to a realisation.
A bright smile filled his face as he connected the dots and understood the reason behind Cypher’s nervousness. After patiently waiting for a few minutes and seeing his friend make no progress whatsoever, Aether stepped in to help.
“Say, since I have nothing to do today, what do you say that we hang out together?” asked Aether.
Cypher, who was on the verge of tears, felt Aether’s words strike him like a hammer to a nail. He was instantly flooded with relief which was then immediately followed by boundless joy.
“Really!? Do you really want to!?!” Cypher’s eyes sparkled while his body bounced with excitement.
Caught off-guard by the intensity of his reaction, Aether fell into a daze for an instant before replying with a nod, “Yep.” He then looked around at their surroundings and said, “To tell you something, I’ve never actually been to the Entertainment District for its intended purpose?”
“Intended purpose?” asked Cypher, confused.
“For ‘entertainment’ you see. I’ve never come to the Entertainment District to play around. Every visit has been for some job or another,” Aether confessed. Aether then looked at Cypher with a smile and asked, “Can I ask you to guide me around some fun places today?”
“Yes! YES!! Thousand times yes!!” Cypher exclaimed. The sparkle in his sapphire-coloured eyes intensified as he grabbed Aether’s cuff, turned around, and started running with excitement.
“Let’s go! I know some awesome places! There’s a go-kart place, a VR place, an arcade…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down!” Unfortunately, Aether’s cries went unheard as Cypher entered a new realm of excitement.
He was beyond excited to spend today with Aether.