...
The weather is nice.
Not an ounce of rain in Indianapolis tonight... or, rather, today.
Today, in a few hours or so, the forecast said it will be sunny. An occasional cloud, perhaps, but the sun will shine brightly in Indianapolis once it rises. A warm, sunny, bright day lies in store for the city and its neighbors.
How fitting, she thought. Not a single drop of water will fall. No tears will be shed by the clouds. The sun will shine brightly this day. Its warmth ready to shine down on all that has happened, its brightness ready to smile at what she's done.
"..."
... hm.
What face should she wear? Which name does she take in this most wondrous of moments? Who should be the one to finalize and cement this most momentous of wonders?
Should it be Chouko?
Should it be "Kuroiwa"?
Which one should be out right now? Which one should be present, front and center?
For the sake of Charles Ashford, does she take his name? Does she do this as Chouko Ashford and reclaim what has been taken from her, take back everything she's worked years upon years to regain? Keep her name and face uncovered as she makes up for all those years with her father that she'll never get back?
Or does she hide the name, cover it with her moniker as she always has? Put the name away, hide away the little girl and keep her safe from the most unholy of sights? Take the name of what's ultimately killed him, take the name of the wretched fool that employed him to kill Charles and truly cement his fate in the most symbolic of ways?
Decisions, decisions... decisions that course through her mind as the gun smokes, as she's fired into the man's hand... staring forward and taking steps into the room, beholding the living walking corpse before her. Gazing upon him in all his lack of glory, the red-eyed woman took in each ounce of his fear, his distress, each single ounce that she could physically see.
A disheveled black crew cut.
A stubble under a wrinkled jawline.
His clothing as rugged as ever.
... and Chouko never paid much attention to him beyond that. He was always nothing more than a rotten excuse for a human being, one whose identity eluded her. A target that she's searched for, time and time again, roaming the darkness of his very occupation to find him and his superior. And she's readied and prepared herself for this exact moment.
With his fate impending... the Executioner looks to Chouko with utter tension.
"... w... well... well, then..." the man groans out, enduring the hole in his hand, turning to face Chouko... staring her down with a calm face, his wretched tongue having some more words for her. Gazing at her and enduring the pain in his hand, his- calm composure on full display. A legendary resilience, one that likely earned him fame in the Underworld... "I see that you-"
No.
Chouko shoots him in the knee. Gun raised, trigger pulled immediately, shooting his knee and interrupting him immediately before he utters another sentence.
The Executioner lets out a pained groan at this, his face wincing in absolute pain. Glaring forward, and...
... getting his knee kicked after that. A swift motion as the side of Chouko's shoe slams straight into his knee bone, a painful crack sounding out. All of her might put into the kick, one that Chouko hopes will likely critically injure him and run the risk of crippling his leg.
The Executioner drops his tough, resilient act as he falls backwards, crying out in utter pain. Sweat dripping from his face as he- as he backs up, as his back hits the office desk. His leg completely tense and stiff, body aching and trembling in horror. Feeling utter, pure distress as he's backed into a corner.
All of his mistakes came crashing onto him, each moment of mercy a wasted effort. Wishing that he had listened to Griffin, and that he wised up to escape while the office building was taken.
And in this shower of regret, the Executioner stares forward at Ashford, eyes twitching. Once again, aiming to speak, aiming to mouth off again as he's been doing again and again to this girl. "Y... You- you-"
Chouko shoots him in the shoulder, immediately.
Chouko fires into the side of his stomach, grazing his side.
Chouko even blows a hole in the ankle of the other leg. She was not having any of his crap.
The man lets out blood curdling screams as he's shot, an agonizing pain as he bleeds out. His vision going utterly hazy as he trembles, as he gazes upon Ashford with disoriented vision. The ringing of the gun echoing into his ears as his body endured the best it could, even as he begins to bleed through the bullets.
His eyes... squint, vision clearing to witness a deep red glaring into his soul, the pure darkness of the room behind Ashford as the gun smokes in her hand. It was too difficult to see anything else but the murderous glee coming closer to him.
The gleeful, gleeful Chouko cruelly holding the gun in one hand, and knife in the other. The Executioner's knife in her hand, picked up in the midst of his panic and turmoil. A playfully malicious glee and cruelty as Chouko approaches, every act playing in her mind.
Every threat she's made towards this man, having acted on the "promises" that she shouted upon their fateful reunion, having killed every last one of his mercenaries. Prying the life out of them, shooting them down and killing them. Saving the worst of fates to the bastard before her... fantasizing every organ in his body being pulled out in cruel, messy fashion, ready to draw his... his execution out.
The Executioner's eyes glare forward, letting out a shaky breath. The air fighting its way up his throat in the girl's eerie silence, a frightened feeling of... despair... coursing through his body as he- continues his- attempt- to speak. "D... Do you... really think-"
And Chouko, immediately, cuts him off again as her body lunges down, stabbing the bullet hole in his knee. A forceful, swift jab as she puts all of her weight into it, full force to the point where the blade goes all the way in. Carving away at the opening the bullet's made for her, deeply sinking in.
This absolutely drives the man mad in utter pain as he screams- as he wails, howls, bawls and squeals. Every agonizing word coming out his lips, the man wincing and gritting his teeth in utter anguish. Looking away from this wound, instinctively turning his head away, completely and utterly frightened as any weak soul would be. The pain is unbearable...
"Look at me," Chouko demands, gripping the handle of the knife tightly as she yanks and cuts open his wound further. Carving a massive split down his leg, causing his blood to come gushing out and seep into a puddle beneath his leg. "Look. At. Me."
"... ghk...! I- I will not, you-" the Executioner weakly shouts, pain oozing out of his face and leg, trembling before this monster. His gaze continuing to look away. "You really- you really think you're accomplishing anything here?! Do you really believe yourself to be high and mighty after killing a building's worth of us?!"
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Chouko grips the handle of the knife tightly, a wicked smile on her face as she stomps on his knee, as the bottom of her foot presses into his bloodied knee.
"G-GHKKK- FUCK-!" the Executioner screams out. "... k... killing... killing a building full of grunts, men who never even knew anything about you... what does that leave you with, once I'm dead?! You're a defenseless, pitiful... bitch... that- that will walk out of this building a dead woman, a target on your back, every single person in the Underworld out to get you...!"
"... and?" Chouko asks, lifting the knife up high before stabbing him right in the thigh- prompting another scream from the man as the knife punctures the soft skin.
"A-AND- and- ghhk..." the Executioner groans out, coughing- aggressively coughing as a cold chill goes throughout his body. "... y... you... aren't... going to..."
"I have spent years waiting for this moment, you butcher," Chouko blankly tells him, cruelly twirling the gun in her hand. A playfully malicious glee as she holds the gun against the side of his face, forcing his head to turn back to her and look at her cold and dead face. "Come what may... you will pay for what you've done."
"What I've...?! Tch-!" the Executioner barks out, clenching his teeth and biting his tongue. "You're going to highroad me?! Look at you...! I shot a man I was hired to...! You're just here- on a bloody slaughter! For no other reason than dear ol' Daddy staining the floor he-"
Chouko lets out a cackle, lunging the knife into his stomach, stabbing him in the darkness. Gazing at his pitiful face and watching as his utter despair and suffering worsens.
"GHKK-! I SHOT AN OLD FOOL... YOU'RE C-CARVING A MAN OPEN IN COLD BLOOD!" the Executioner screams out, head tilted up and looking away from Chouko's bloodied, savage hands. His eye twitching in utter agony, forcing his words out while he still can. "THIS DOES NOT MAKE YOU ANY BETTER... YOU'RE JUST A WORTHLESS, PRISSY LITTLE WHORE UPSET THAT YOUR DEAR OL' DAD IS DEAD...!"
The words go in one ear... and out the other. Chouko continuing to give her deranged smile, continuing- continuing her violent, gruesome, bloody assault.
"WHAT EXACTLY ABOUT ANY OF THIS MAKES YOU ANY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I'VE DONE?! HUH?! GO ON... GO ON-!" the Executioner screams out, lunging his upper body forward, trying to headbutt the girl-
Only to be met with a slap to the face, a hard whack of the gun whipping across his face. Red mark on his cheek, forced back into the desk.
"... I never said I was different..." Chouko tells the man, glaring as she slams the gun into the side of his head. Slamming the handle into his temple, utterly discombobulating him. A shuddering breath escaping her lips as she stares forward, enraged by his words. "I know what I've done. I know what I do. I know what I will do. All of it is knowledge I have, that anyone- everyone can see me as worse than you. More personal, more deranged, more... mentally insane."
The Executioner's head... falls limp, an expression forming on his face as he gazes down, as he stares down at his injuries... as his- body- trembles, and-
"And all of it... all of it is a product of you," Chouko growls out through her teeth, beginning to stab at the man's body. Aiming the knife at various spots, stabbing into his vital organs, each motion of her hand accompanied by a hard breath. A gasp of air, several lethal and forceful strikes, making good on her promise to- eviscerate the man.
The Executioner stares and screams helplessly, the last of his own wails drowning out Chouko's words... unable to do anything whatsoever against this onslaught... feeling all life starting to be forced out of his body with each plunge of the knife.
And Chouko's vision goes utterly red as the man before her bleeds out, as the man dies bit by bit. Chouko bites down hard on nothing, and continues... continues, even as the man is forced into incoherent screaming. "You are the one who DID this to me. You are the one who TOOK away what made me human. I was under that goddamned bed, saw the entire thing, watched as you left dead the only person I ever cared about in this world."
Tossing the gun aside, letting it slide across the floor as she frees her hand. Fingers wiggling as she grabs the man's neck, choking the air out of his body, knife jabbing and puncturing the man's chest... going for his heart, his lungs, committing the most heinous of actions.
"I don't care for what this makes me. I don't care about what I have BECOME!" Chouko continues to rant, her voice raising sharply at each forceful stab. "The words repeat OVER and OVER in my head, telling me that I don't care, that I just can't care about anything else! I lived for this MOMENT! Imagining it on repeat, for the last nine YEARS! EVERY~ SINGLE~ WRETCHED~ MOMENT YOU LIVE. EVERY MOMENT I STAND... awaiting this moment, bringing suffering to a piece of SHIT..."
Everything tunes out in Chouko's head, a hard static playing out in her mind, going from one ear to another. Her mouth gaping wide, unleashing maniacal laughs as she goes utterly insane. A crazed, unhinged look as she deeply stares at a dead body. Abandoning all of her humanity, ridding herself of what remains. Hand continuing to constrict itself around a corpse's throat, strangling the life out of him.
"Die... die, die, die, die die die die DIE DIE DIE DIIIIEEE~!" Chouko cries out, pure bliss on her face as the knife goes higher, as she gazes into the eyes of her deceased tormentor. Her words the last thing he ever heard, as the knife turns him into a pitiful pincushion, as Chouko stabs higher and higher, puncturing the man completely. Whatever else remains, utterly- UTTERLY helpless to her blind rage.
And as she lets go of the neck, as she stabs into it and forces his head back, Chouko stares into his dead eyes, gazing into his look of despair...
... and she will, forever, remember the agonizing face before her.
The Executioner died a screaming mess... eyes widened, tears trailing down his face, mouth gaping wide. Blood and saliva seeping from his chin. A shell of his former self, with a look that begged for death.
For a brief moment, gazing into his eyes, a part of Chouko could see a small, slight reflection of herself...
... as she forces the blade of the knife into the side of his head. Jabbing it over and over again, until the knife is deep in his brain.
Chouko stares forward, happily staring forward before she lets go of the knife, leaving it in his head, pulling away. Getting up from the man's body, backing away and watching as his upper body falls forward. Left in his own pool of blood, a gruesome slaughter to behold.
Chouko's legs tremble. Her injured shoulder aches. A heavy weight crashes down on her, as if her very soul felt the weight of the most heinous of sins she's committed. Her fate had already succumbed to the worst of fates, having committed the inexcusable countless times in the past.
And yet, she smiles helplessly.
Her head looking up as she begins... laughing... cackling and chuckling at the ceiling. Each shuddering laugh echoing out of the room. The crushing weight of her sins on her muscles, a mere feather for her joy. Her red gaze stares listlessly up in the darkness as the whole world disappears before her. As she spreads her arms wide, welcoming each ounce of joy possible from this most heinous of nights.
The sun will shine down on Indianapolis, and Chouko - in her overwhelming, unyielding high - will welcome all of what's to come. Allowing all to behold her, to behold this monster, to admonish and despise each waking moment of her existence. Any soul wishing she had never been born, craving her death now- Chouko cared not what they will do... for this feeling, this utter high is the first time in years that she has ever felt any joy.
All that time she'll never get back. All those moments she'll never get to live. A future was laid out before her, a life she had yet to live, Chouko did it for this moment... and helplessly loses herself to this lunacy, condemned to never see her father again.
Never to see him ever again, in this world or the next. Never to walk the path he wished of her, never to find success in the ways he wished. No, she could never... for that chance was lost long ago. Without a hand to guide her as an Ashford, Chouko's brought herself down to the levels of those that took that hand away.
None of Chouko's actions are right, and she knows that. None of them will ever be right in the eyes of whoever judges her.
And yet, she cries out joyous laughs, her blood soaked hands spread out and dripping to the floor beneath her. When this office space... this rental office space... begins to flood with investigators, with law enforcement bewildered by a collapsed floor, several dozen dead men across the entire building, and the helpless remains of an utter piece of shit in its main office, Chouko... Chouko will find quite the glee in all of it. The law finally catching up with a bloody killer, finally ready to take action...
... oh, it just brought joy to her. Pure bliss and excitement to a tainted, inhumane monster doomed to walk until her eventual demise and condemnation.
Not a shred of normal humanity left in Chouko, allowing herself to be the rotten monster she sought to take down, ready to accept all that will come for her.
"STRIKE ME DOWN IF YOU MUST!" Chouko cries out to the souls staring at her, crying out to the pits of Hell and the clouds of Heaven. "COME AND TAKE ME, FORCE ME DOWN TO THE FIERY PITS, IF YOU MUST! OBLITERATE MY BEING AND BURN IT TO ASH. PROVE THAT THERE STILL EXIST RIGHTNESS IN THIS WORLD AND STRIKE ME DOWN...! HAHAHAHAHA~!"
The souls of these mercenaries, the souls of their victims- the souls of HER victims. Every soul that lay witness to her sins... Chouko prepares herself to face all of them in death, with not an ounce of regret or remorse in her heart.
And with the real Kuroiwa over the horizon... Chouko knows... the next soul she'll be going for.
"... aaaahhhh...~" Chouko audibly noises, fluttering her eyes at the sight before her. Arms dropping and slumping to her sides as she looks to the Executioner. Staring in the dark at this, her eyes fluttering as she watches the faintest of pink glows over him.
...
P...
Pink?