Ai No Kusabi Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten Day ❯ Unexpected? ( Chapter 5 )

Author's Note: This was hard in coming for some reason. Please review if you like!

Summary a.k.a. Extended Predicate: Riki meets Blondies Part 1! Riki's first hours with the Blondies come with strange refusals. It seems like some were prepared for Riki and Iason to meet...

Chapter 2 of...Unexpected?

Today had to be the lousiest day of Riki's entire life; the only way it could get any worse is if he had actually died in one of the occasions that momentarily called for it.

First, Cousin came over to 'check things out'. Cousin's lifelong job , despite his extraordinary abilities that could land him an early retirement on the beaches of Aristia, was to help the poor mongrel kids that either didn't want to go to one of the orphanages or were too old for them. Most kids were put under his care by parents who felt they weren't ready, and that was okay for Cousin, too. After a certain age, he let the kids go with a group already established out there in Ceres. From what anyone could tell, he has been doing this for over a hundred years.

Cousin sounds like a real softy when someone hears about him the first time, but for older people, people older than fifty usually (the infertile girls were given a bit more leeway), Cousin could be a real mean. He gives specific orders to the groups he chooses to watch over kids along with money. And the Bison gang is one of his favorites. They not only did odd jobs zealously, and were wicked good with the cops, they tended to the kids well. There's no surprise there, the leader, Riki, was a 'kid' of his not too long ago.

However, that particular morning, the three new members had run off, and some acquaintances said they saw them running around Midas- but only two of them. The only reason some kids would be running around Midas is if they were in trouble.

So the first thoughts that ran through the Bison members' head were the many ways Cousin could hurt them. After that, they called as many people as they could and organized several search parties. The members themselves separated.

Cousin saw Riki first, his smirk showing two outrageously huge, sharp fangs, one from the top curving smoothly against the one on bottom. A 'yo!' and 'hiya' passed between them before Cousin noticed that the others weren't there, noticeably the kids.

“Where they at?” The smirk disappeared.

“Midas,” was the shaky answer. “Somewhere in Midas.”

“You lost them.”

Lost, such a strong word, especially these days. When you lose someone, you've probably lost them forever.

“They... They kinda left, and people say they saw them walking around Midas.”

Don't mention running, don't mention there were only two of them now. Definitely don't mention that they left yesterday while we were drunk off our asses.

Cousin's long wild hair stuck up in a vicious halo around his head. The sun shone around it. At his height, Riki was angled just right to fall in a deep shadow, and deeper still as Cousin walked over to him and gave him a swift blow to the stomach. Any ruptured organ quickly healed itself as soon as Riki coughed out the first spurt of blood, but the bruise will stay there for awhile.

Cousin didn't say anything more. Riki knew what he had to do. Find those kids, or else his big friend will serve him another knuckle sandwich.

Out of the four regular members, Riki was at the same time the most responsible and the most reckless, which was why he was taking the most dangerous route into Midas, the West Side a rock's throw away from the Blondie Academy (that's what most mongrels called the school, though Elites went there as well). Whenever he went on a pickpocket mission, he always tried to go this way. There wasn't much security here, but whatever security there was would shoot- and there isn't anything in the schedule about asking a mongrel any questions.

Of course, today just so happened to be the one of the busiest days of the year, a new generation coming out to start the rest of their lives. Riki made one slip on the tree he was going to use to launch himself across the electric gate, and some guards around the corner heard and waited for him to drop. When he did, they surrounded him with high-powered excimer lasers, or something like that. Whatever they were, Riki dodged them and ran. He managed a far lead and hid himself in a nearby building- an apartment complex. It was there that he caught the youngest kid's scent. Without a second thought, he followed its trail.

The kids were drinking too- they weren't that young, after all- and they should have had hangovers from hell. So why were they in Midas? And on a day that was strictly off-limits for mongrels! Riki couldn't wait to break their neck in three different places.

That thought broke into to pieces when he found the first kid, in wolf form, skinned. It hadn't been that long, some blood still dripped off him into the small pool the boy had made for himself. Many humanoids, especially Wolves, had the ability to regenerate broken flesh. Somehow, when transformed, the healing of flayed skin didn't work so well. Besides the fact that the pain could put any person in shock and kill him in a matter of minutes, the skin's ability to stretch well enough that it could cover half a tennis court didn't help matters. Then there was the matter of hairs.

The Bison gang only had one phone, the kind that ran on electricity, not a mirror which relied on Spirit, and his lover Guy had it. He would have told his friends that the search was off, except for him, he would keep going. But, of course, that wasn't an option. He sniffed around for the other two's trail and found one; he continued on.

In his panicked, grief-stricken mind, it didn't occur to him that the scents were oddly trail-like, as in leaving a trail. For him. If the guards hadn't heard him, Riki would have recognized the scent by the gate. Of course, it was a trail, just for Riki the Black. The Blondie in the car behind Iason's limo had planned the trail. The shocking green-haired beefcake was supposed to have tied up the mongrel and wait for his car, then put the mongrel in the car. The Blondie would make quick work out of Riki, and then there would never have been the problem of Riki the Black meeting Iason Mink, again.

However, when Riki found the next child, the oldest, the girl, he began to think. Why hadn't the guys that captured the kids just kill them all at once? Wasn't it a bit of a hassle to bring them to a new spot, leaving a trail? Riki concluded correctly that the whole thing must have been a trap. It might have started as soon as they got drunk the night befor, an idea that made Riki shake. They must have gotten the kids early, knowing that the almost-dead Bison members shouldn't be disturbed yet or else they would have been in a lot of trouble. Kill them off one by one, get Riki tired and anxious, unprepared. The trap had to be for him because it was on his side.

Riki didn't like the idea that someone he didn't know knew him well enough to leave a trail on his doggone pickpocket route. But what other choice did he have other than to follow? Anyway, this was the last one... And there was the tiny chance that he was wrong. Plus, the guys responsible had to pay, and for some reason Riki believed that he could handle them on his own.

The last one was still alive, gasping for breath before succumbing to death, fully relieved from his unimaginably pain-filled dying. Riki looked around. He sniffed the air for other scents, anything else, but he couldn't smell a thing.

No, it wasn't that. He could smell everything; whoever brought the kids all over the place didn't have a smell. Like any regular scent, the non-smell left a trail that cut through all the regular oiled respiration that soaked the air. An incensed Riki followed the absolute freshness. He followed all the way to where Bad Man one through five waited with all the doohickeys. There was just a minor confusion on what was going on.

Riki thought he was about to be skinned for his fur that would sell for about four thousand bucks, top. He wasn't that young of a Wolf so his coat wouldn't be so nice, but he was three-tailed, so his fur was thick. Then there was the added amenity of his completely black hair. Dark as midnight. But, as aforementioned, he wasn't led there so that they could skin him; they were being paid fifty grand to capture him alive and bring him to Blondie.

Seeing himself so outnumbered by men so well-prepared, Riki began to run. When he saw that they were just as good as running, he looked for a car.

When Iason came on the scene, two of the men kept on tying, so that the Blondie wouldn't have trouble with him. Another recognized the man as Iason Mink. They were quite confused when the Blondie ordered them away without giving them their pay. Shocking-green knew the man wasn't their Blondie; they had to go. They weren't going to get their pay.

Riki should have let Iason go. But, like with that obvious trail, pride overtook him, drove him to say that he needed to pay him back, any way he could. The Blondie had shrugged, uninterested in the meager offer. What would he need from a mongrel, he had said.

But as he turned around, Riki saw his face go flat again, as if he had been hit with a hard realization. Oh, yea, Riki had thought, the Blondie wanted something from him, had a couple jobs in mind, sure. So Riki tried again. That ended with the bloody cockring from hell in a (don't mention how nice) limousine with a bunch of Blondie crooks. One of them, big and muscular, wearing a sleeveless shirt, wouldn't shut the fuck up.

“This is a terrible idea, Iason! Who knows what diseases he has crawling all over his body!”

“Diseases crawl?” snickered the golden-eyed Blondie. Every now and again he and the Blondie with the slicked back hair and entrancing face would interrupt with some snide comment. And this was all the way through traffic into the highly crowded Elite restaurant. Luckily for Iason, there was a collar and leash in his ride, for Jupiter knows what reason. Still, even with the leash and the 'Pet' ring, Riki looked further from a Pet than would a Blondie.

“Maybe so. How else do they move?” Even his voice was a bit mesmerizing. “Heiku, could you please explain to us how diseases move one place to another?”

“I’m not going to encourage you and Xian, Omaki,” muttered Heiku. “However, Raoul, to make it clear, Wolves are resistant to most diseases. They can’t even carry influenza; it just passes right through them.”

“Look, that’s not even the point!” Raoul yelled.

“You were the one who brought it up.” And now Heiku was smiling at him.

“Please calm down, Raoul. You’re all red in the face.”

Riki was trying his hardest to ignore that Blondie. He smelled like… like… like good stuff. It was bad enough that he was fighting an erection whenever he thought about Iason’s scent. How could something so fleeting have an impact on him, something he was supposed to hate? It was analogous to the ring, stupid thing was what was holding him back. Excruciating pain was holding him back, to be fair.

The mongrel spared a seething glance at Iason, who endured Raoul’s rant with closed lids and clasped hands. He opened his ice-blue eyes momentarily to look down at him, as calm as could be, then closed them again, and once more opened them fully.

“Who the hell you lookin’ at, Blondie?”

Iason furrowed his brow. “Do you have any idea who I am? Who any of these Elite are?”

“Of course I know who you are,” Riki replied, smooth as silk. “You’ve told me. Twice. I think I could care even less the third time.”

Iason ignored this sass. He realized with great astonishment that the mongrel had no idea who he really was.

“He’s a mongrel, Iason. They are as ignorant as they come,” Raoul said, glowering distastefully at said mongrel.

Scented Blondie answered softly, “I like to think that no one has told him. Anyway, Raoul, who we are doesn't benefit him in the least.”

Riki had a strong feeling that he was going to like Scented Blondie. He seemed like just the type of Blondie that were rumored to get filed. Jupiter would take him away because he was some sort of bad Blondie. The irony amused some mongrels, happy with their freedoms.

“If I knew you didn't know any better, Elusiax-” Elusiax must be Scented Blondies last name for he frowned considerably at the distanced tone. “-I say you pity the rodent.”

“If you are, I don't need it,” Riki spat and buried his head in his arms that rested on his knees. He could hear the angry honking all around them and a few exchanges of not-so-pleasant comments.

This silenced Elusiax for the rest of the ride, which oddly also quieted everyone else. From what Riki could feel in the tension, Iason was still in the middle though he had said little, Elusiax (Riki couldn't help thinking what an appropriate last name that was for the Blondie) definitely the queen of the little chess board. It was in this small battle of pride of multiple levels that they arrived at the restaurant. Two Blondies, one whose hair curled over one shoulder and the other with softly enveloping bangs framing his face, stood at the front of the small, two-story building isolated from any other businesses, but surrounded by cars.

The group had to go around a few in order to meet the two. They greeted each of them as they arrived on the curb, naming themselves Enil and Kyle, who had the bangs. Elusiax gave them both hugs. Riki didn't know Blondies were even capable of giving hugs, and nothing that looked so warm and sincere, but then he noticed Elusiax's more brown-than-blonde hair and that he had dark greenish eyes, not blue. Scented Blondie wasn't a Blondie at all; he was some tall, super popular Elite, maybe.

Kyle and Enil bowed low at the waist, and it was at this lower level they noticed a roughed up mongrel at the other end of Iason's Pet chain.

“You're not thinking of bringing him in, are you?” Kyle asked, his smile turning a perfect one-eighty.

“You do know my policies on humanoids, even if they are, somehow, Pets. The policies specifically refer to mongrels in general.” Enil began elbowed Kyle slightly.

“Surely we can make an exception for the Sovereign, Kyle.”

“I've actually made promises to valuable customers that I would make exceptions for no one.” Kyle's eyes narrowed severely. “No one.”

Riki had the funny feeling that Kyle didn't like Iason. But it seemed as if Iason, too, was at a lost for why that would be, and perhaps everyone else. Enil elbowed him again, a little harder this time, but his friend didn't answer. He only ushered them inside with his hands, staring purposefully at Iason.

“There's a room already occupied by two humanoid Pets, just to the side there.”

Iason looked a tiny tad upset. Riki would bet a tail that he's never been treated by anyone like that, that's how much an uppity Blondie he was.

Damn bastard, it's a sign to let me the fuck go before they chase you outta town. Riki grinned, only to have it fall when Iason gave him a glare. For a moment, Riki thought Iason was going to force him to sit like the regular Pets, at the feet of their masters on an elaborate pillow, eating from their Masters' hands little scraps and bits. Riki will kill Iason, for sure. But the Blondie didn't do that, and instead locked him to a post in the humanoid Pet room, where there was an garnet Dragon and colorful Bird, maybe a Parrot. Both turned their noses up in distaste, pointedly turning their backs to them.

At this moment, Riki began to pull fiercely at his leash, despite it really being a sturdy chain. Upon closer inspection, both his collar and the leash had little white speckles in what was probably steel- diamond specks in the damn leash! How rich was this guy that he could sprinkle diamonds on his sex toys? How much of a sick fuck was he, too. Maybe he's had a humanoid Pet before...

Riki gave up soon. The hook at the other end of the leash wrapped around a sturdy marble post, probably bound to a steel column in the middle. Riki couldn't force his way out of here, so he decided to brood once more, for the next three hours. Another Pet joined them after two, some Fox girl with short orange hair that kept looking at him, but Riki paid her no mind, he was too busy planning some escape.

But none came to mind, other than perhaps killing Iason, but that was highly unlikely. In the improbable chance that he gets the time, place, and energy all right, he would be a Blondie-murdering mongrel. He might as well skin his own damn self. Perhaps knocking him out temporarily... cutting off the finger with the damn ring... and making a run with it. With the cockring still inseparable from his penis. Yep, that was also a great plan.
So what it came down to was that Iason is going to have to remove his ring or dismiss him completely from Pethood, unless the fucker decided to put him in eternally, or make him a Furniture, or sell him into cheap labor- unless he just doesn't let him go home, period. Riki began to bang his head against the marble column to which his leash was attached, scaring the Bird and Dragon, but more-or-less capturing the Fox's interest.

Again, Riki was uninterested. He always had said to others and many that he would rather kill himself than be a slave or Pet or some other such thing, but he knew now that he wouldn't kill himself over this. Not now. Plus, he still had a chance to really screw things up for Iason so that, at least, the Blondie wouldn't want him anymore.

After awhile, Iason came and escorted him out to the car, still looking a little angry. Riki had just decided he would make a scene but thought better of it. Something told him he would get a little more than a stinging jolt to Riki Jr.

While walking towards the car, another vehicle passed in front of them and they had to wait for it to pass. There on that same curb Riki smelled a whiff of that non-smell. It was strong and deliberate- too strong, like a piece of meat on a plate leading to a clever trap by skinners. If he noticed, he would fall, fall hard. So Riki pretended not to notice. As the time went on impossibly long, the smell of nothingness became stronger and stronger until the mongrel finally gave in to temptation to find the source.

But the only people behind him were more Blondies, obviously also waiting for a ride. Weird thing was that they all stared at him, smiling just a little, as if they wanted him to notice them, they wanted him to fall. Riki subconsciously moved closer to Iason, bumping against him.

Iason obliviously thought Riki, perhaps, was a bit lonely from his time in the Pet room, and probably hungry. He loosened his hold on the chain and wrapped an arm around Riki, who was hotter than any living thing he's ever touched.

At this, the non-smell Blondies snarled, just briefly. Riki didn't know whether to move away to please them or to move closer to protect himself. Mongrel pride or not, he couldn't do anything against all those angry Blondies. He was actually relieved to get back inside the limo, but he wasn't too happy to sit at Iason's feet and be handed what seemed to be a container of food. He changed his mind once more when he saw there was zebra inside. Real fucking zebra.

One part of his mind reminded him that his pride was at stake with this offering, another screamed it was zebra, you bloody wanker. He's only had it twice, and that was the only thing he ate both those months. The mongrel has already gone two weeks without much food except for recently thrown away pieces of meat or bread, and now there was zebra.

And it was so big, a slab! How much was this? The bits his gang had saved up for made up a corner of this piece and costed three thousand konits. Why the buy? They recently lost eight of their members and didn't want to waste the money on drugs and alcohol and so bought zebra. It was money well-spent.

Riki was already eating while thinking these thoughts, each stuffing engorging a self-hatred sort of anger. When he finished, he loathed himself so much, but was so satisfied, that his conflicting self caused his eyes to water. A few tears escaped as soon as he dropped himself into his knees and covered himself with his arms like on the way to the diner.

This amused Iason greatly, he could easily break through that pride barrier if he continued giving the mongrel things he liked, or couldn't help starting to like. At least, that's what he thought.

Raoul didn't say anything the whole ride, though he was still seething over this obvious soot to Iason's so far untarnished record.

Each thought his own when they arrived at Nico Tathen's Elite and Pet clothing and items stores, Galleria Fantastipo. None of them had lost their sleepiness as they had hoped, even with the shock of the new member to their group, who seemed to think that his angry glares would get him freed. Even with the poor dispositions, they looked forward to Nico, Treasurer of the State, who loved fashion more than money, but not as much as a certain Sky Captain, Co-President of the War Council, Aether Illini.

“Eadni, dear!” He was even worse than Omaki with Elusiax's little pet names, and couldn't care less. The public was his audience and anywhere he stood was his stage and the nearest pair of eyes was all the limelight he needed. Voted most eccentric (close second Junior Physician Yutaku Iman) for his yearbook, if one didn't know Nico Tathens they either didn't read the name signed at the bottom of their checks or weren't alive in Amoi.

This time, Nico gave Elusiax and the others hugs, stopping at Riki, wondrously curved eyebrows raised to the middle of his high, fitting forehead. His hair looped in a mess of tiny ringlets reaching to his thighs, pulled loosely back with a blue ribbon that matched his darker blue tunic and breeches outfit. On the next page of that same yearbook, he had another picture of himself, as most attractive.

The bright blue eyes followed Riki's chain from his neck to Iason's hand, and he puckered his non-too-small lips in his usual characteristic expressions of anything unique, slightly sucking in his lower lip.

“What's your name?”

“Riki,” Riki hurriedly said after Iason moved his hand towards his ringed finger.

“Ooooo-kay!” Nico turned to Eadni, finding that Riki fit his bill for whatever test he had in his head. “Where you want to go first? Since you were gone, I've added- well, not me, really, Megala, of course. But anyway, we've added seven new stores individually, three new floors with about ten or eleven places to shop each, and Kyle has a little franchise up there somewhere, and Aether...” He paused, amusing those he had commented to with such emphasis on his 'bestest best friend'. “He might be coming, too.”

Suddenly, Nico made eyes with someone across the street, but Riki was the only one to see the split-second visual exchange.

“But your mongrel can't come in. Why doesn't he just stay with your bodyguard? Odi, was it?”

“Now, what is this? First Kyle and now you,” Iason murmured, his fiery anger easily hidden. “Your 'policy', as well. Something which you presume I know about though I've never visited?”
“Eeeh, yes, policy. Uh, yes, it's my policy. Leave Riki with Odi, and we'll get going.”

“What is going-”

“Or you can stay outside with him?” Nico offered; he looked less confident than Kyle in his threat but was nonetheless very serious over his decision.

“Fine, I will stay with my new Pet.”

“Iason! Don't be stubborn,” Raoul coaxed, greatly irritated. He had already decided to forgo the evening dinner at Serendipity; he was just too tired.

Iason paid none of them any mind. With perfect placidity, he told them, “These sudden events has put me in sour mood, not to mention the lack of sleep I had last night. I will have to retire for the rest of the night and will go home by taxi. Perhaps we can meet again later this month? Eadni, welcome back.”

“Iason!”

“Come on, Iason. Just leave Riki and we can go have a good time.”

“Strange day this has been.”

Iason ignored his friends, contacting the Spirited mirrors of his personal taxi service. While he and Riki waited for the taxi's arrival, Riki noticed the exact same Blondies that were at the restaurant, the ones who had given Nico a visual reminder to probably keep Riki out of the mall. What had the mongrel done to deserve any of this was anyone's guess, but he had just been had today. How were they so quick to get against Iason at the places he was going to go with or without Riki?

Something was super fishy, but Riki had bigger stuff to fry. The taxi came and he was faced with the very surreal realization that he was going to Iason Mink's home, a place where Pets did all sorts of things for their Masters.

But Riki the Dark was no one's Pet, if he had anything to say about it.

-Unfortunately, I'm thinking this is the last chapter on Mediaminer. It's not very popular after all. It's not very good anywhere...Maybe I should just quit Forgotten Day-