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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 10, 2011 0:12:12 GMT -5
This man thought far higher of himself than he should have. It was obvious from his actions that he thought he had Kousei whipped into being his little servant. The man had no intentions of doing anything of the sort. There was so little benefit in following Aswad's orders that it would not be worth it. They were very plainly blackmail.
In this business, it was Kousei Hikaru who did the blackmailing and the men with the magical powers that were crushed under his foot.
But he kept his expression cool as ice. There was no need to ruin a potential deal now. He could negotiate later, when he didn't have another appointment on the horizon.
"You imply I had any intentions of letting him out of my grasp," Kousei said with a chuckle.
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Atsuro sat down in a chair. He avoided looking directly at Manako, choosing to instead look down at the floor. He gave a light cough, causing his entire body to shake. The week since his last visit had been noticeably hard on him, and while his appearance hadn't changed much since the festival, it was certainly different from the last time he'd been in the office.
He patiently waited for Aswad to exit. He didn't recognize the voice in the other room, but he could tell they were talking about him from the snippets he could catch.
He sighed. He didn't like this, but he had to for Bakura's sake. If he could save someone for once...
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 10, 2011 0:20:49 GMT -5
Aswad gave a grin, "Yes well, I never can know with you humans. I'll see you later then."
He turned the handle to the door and pushed it open, turning to Kousei to give him one last smile before stepping out. Let the man think he was in charge. The fool had no idea what he was dealing with. And even if he did, if he suspected as his mind's thoughts has implied? Well, it would do him little good.
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Manako tightened her lips and went back to what she was doing at the computer. Or at least seemed to, but the screen she brought up was a nice normal office screen. She was typing with a more than respectable speed (no faster than Naoya, but it was clear she wasn't the bottom of the barrel for her profession) when the door to Kousei's office swung open, revealing the man from before, his head turned inwards. She caught the smile on his face and her expression tightened. Not so much a frown as a sudden focus on anything but the man at the door. Atsuro would know it, it was the type of sudden busy focus people might have during violence in a Lockdown...
Aswad stepped out of the office. He looked up towards Atsuro as if with surprise and let out an almost congenial grin. It was more like a predator might have towards a prey he recognized and had never truly released. He walked forward towards the door afterwards, but paused after opening it. He turned back towards Atsuro, his expression more gentle yet somehow more... unsettling.
"It's been a while, Atsuro. Do look after your health, you'll worry people looking like that," he said. And then he left, not giving the teenager a chance to respond to the strange man.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 10, 2011 23:46:29 GMT -5
Atsuro would have been perfectly content to continue examining the carpet if Aswad hadn't addressed him. The boy jerked his head up to look at the man, only to find nothing about him looked familiar. He felt unsettled just looking at him. His face (or at least what was visible) looked unnatural, a kind of uncanny valley effect. And that expression...
His gaze followed Aswad out the door, his expression turning rather violent. He was very sure that man was a demon, and a very specific one at that. Only two demons knew him as personally as that man had, and that wasn't Abel's human form.
Atsuro stood up once Aswad left and walked into Kousei's office.
"I'm glad to see you came," Kousei said with a smirk. "We have much to take care of."
"Why didn't you have me meet you at the jail?"
"Because I actually exist, Kihara-san."
Atsuro noted that Kousei was a lot more 'playful' so to speak, but it was an annoyed kind. The man was being incredibly spiteful with his words. Whatever had gone on with Kousei and Aswad hadn't gone well.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 11, 2011 7:27:46 GMT -5
Manako looked startled at Aswad's words towards Atsuro, words that indicated the man knew the teenager, but she followed Aswad out the door just like Atsuro. She looked back to let Atsuro know he could go in when she caught his expression. It almost made her let out a startled gasp of surprise, but she caught herself. She busied herself with her work as Atsuro stood up and went into the office, but she couldn't help but think that the expression the boy had worn over his gaunt face was one she hadn't associated with him prior.
He seemed like a nice boy... a nice boy caught up in nothing short of a living hell now that Kousei had sunk his claws into him, but a nice one none the less. She closed her eyes and shook the thoughts out of her head, pressing the right keys to set up a new recording for the conversation between Atsuro and Kousei. He liked having the files seperate, and with two people setting up recording. The latter was in case someone caught Kousei (as had happened in the past) and destroyed the set up. They often thought they were free of the recording then...
The man that had left still made her shudder, though. Who was that?
(OOC: As much as Kousei is suffering, did you want to continue to write between Atsuro and Kousei? If so, it might be better to just make a large post out of it so we only have one or two more posts each in this thread. XD)
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 13, 2011 1:35:18 GMT -5
Atsuro sat down across from Kousei. Though Kousei was obviously trying to give the appearance of being cool and collected, there was an obvious hint of rage in his features. Normally Kousei was as hard to read as Naoya had been, but now the mask had cracked. Atsuro wondered if he could pull the situation to his benefit this time around. He knew how Kousei worked after last time, and Kousei would make mistakes if he was agitated. Which he obviously was, after that encounter with "Aswad".
He wasn't exempt from this, though. Atsuro was bothered by the "foreigner". He was sure that had been Nyarlathotep in human form. He hadn't even known the demon could take a human form. He'd been of the opinion it wasn't strong enough for that. Somehow Nyarlathotep had gotten stronger. Maybe Lucifer was related.
He wished he hadn't run into "Aswad". It just made him feel more like shit than he already did. He was trying to get away from all of this now, and he kept getting pulled back in. He was caught in a whirlpool of demons and demon kings and no matter how hard he tried to get free he kept getting pulled under.
"Are you quite done?"
Atsuro was brought back to attention by Kousei's irritated voice. He blinked at the man.
"Excuse me?"
"It's been five minutes since you've sat down. Were you perhaps having a flashback? Such actions tend to make one curious as to what exactly you've been up to."
The stern silence from Atsuro was the signal to move on to a different subject. Kousei shuffled some loose papers on his desk and handed Atsuro a blank sheet of paper and a pen.
"Your non-existence makes it rather difficult to arrange any kind of proper meeting, Kihara-san. You see, while the police station may be so poorly organized to let a non-person into their jail to talk to a murder suspect, the prefectural jail is not so lax. So instead of talking to Bakura-san directly, you'll be writing him a letter. I'm sure he'll understand."
Atsuro grimaced at the sheet. He understood perfectly what Kousei wanted him to write. He had to try with all of his might to pretend to be Bakura's concerned friend and to convince him to plead insanity. Atsuro didn't doubt his ability to forge this kind of message. He just didn't like being used like this.
"That's all I'll have to do?" Atsuro asked.
"That's all you have to do for Bakura, yes."
It took Atsuro only about ten minutes to write the letter. He could have gone faster if he'd been on a computer, but Kousei had wanted a physically written copy for a reason. Such letters typically felt more "personal". He handed the letter to the man, but he couldn't help but feel this had been a little too easy.
He stood up from his chair and turned to leave. He didn't leave the room yet and turned to look at Kousei again.
"That's it?"
"That is all."
"My friends will be safe?"
"Bakura will be safe."
That statement just felt wrong to Atsuro. Kousei saw his expression shift, and the man's mouth curled into a smirk. "You've paid for one person's safety, Kihara-san. 'Ryou' will escape jail time. I can't make any claims for the safety of your dear Egyptian friend, though..."
"You told me if I worked with you, Atem would be safe!" Atsuro yelled, outraged.
"Things change, Kihara-san, and so have the terms of our agreement. But don't worry, your end of the deal is fairly simple. All I want you to do is erase Ali Aswad."
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 13, 2011 11:17:49 GMT -5
Manako was back to her search, but it was coming up empty. It was even emptier than her attempts to find information on Atsuro had been. With the man's connections, the searches had been usable to find news clips, blurry photographs, some sign of the teenager's existance. She shook her head and closed out of the account she was doing the searches from, instead returning to her normal work. The conversation was still being recorded in the other room, although Kousei hadn't returned the ability for her to hear it after Aswad. That was usually a sign that it would be deleted.
She tensed up as she heard Atsuro shout at Kousei, and hse closed her eyes and forced her attention away from the door. He was just a boy! It was bad enough that Kousei used her and pretty much everyone else that he could, but... she bit her lip and tried to bury herself in her work.
Jun-san...
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Aug 23, 2011 21:43:53 GMT -5
Atsuro stared at Kousei, his eyes wide. Kousei wanted him to kill Aswad. The man couldn't know what that man actually was, and even if he did, did he actually believe it? Atsuro doubted it. No one would believe that they'd encountered that particular demon. Even if Aswad had been human, Atsuro didn't think he could actually kill anyone. It was stupid, of course. He'd killed plenty of demons. But Nyarlathotep would know his weakness and use that against him.
There was also the fact that he knew Nyarlathotep could blow him away without even trying. That demon was incredibly powerful, and if anything, its power had to have grown since the last time they'd met. Atsuro couldn't remember it having ever been able to take a human form.
"I'm sure this will be no trouble for you," Kousei continued. "As a non-person yourself, you should have no issues with removing Ali-san from existence. And you two are such good friends that you should know all of his weaknesses, right, Kihara-san? I don't even have to know that Ali-san is dead. In fact, it's better that his body doesn't show up anywhere, because then he can be tracked back to the last ones who saw him alive. And that wouldn't do any good for any of us, would it?"
Atsuro couldn't speak. He didn't want to believe what he was being asked. Kousei couldn't possibly know he was sending him to certain death, could he? At this point it didn't matter whether he killed himself or not; he was going to end up dead anyways. He opened his mouth to speak an objection, only for Kousei to cut him off.
"Ali-san told me something rather interesting, Atsuro-kun. Apparently your friend took something of his... And of top of stealing something from poor Bakura-san too... what a pity..." He shook his head sadly. "I'm a good person, so I should help the police in any way I can. Reporting a thief is the best way one can help keep the peace, wouldn't you say?"
"I..." He didn't have any options. Kousei had completely backed him into a corner on every issue. And Kousei would keep calling him up for little "favors" like this so long as he could hold his friends over his head. He shouldn't have thought he'd be smart enough to get out of this situation. Now he was trapped.
"I'm waiting, Kihara-san."
"I'll do it," Atsuro whispered.
"Good boy. You're free to go."
Atsuro walked out the door. His expression as he passed Manako was incredibly similar to the one he'd held the last time he left this office. It was arguably worse because of his sickly appearance and the fact that he very seriously appeared to be considering something. He looked toward the woman. Had she been forced into working for Kousei in much the same way he'd been? She looked to nice to work with him willingly. He wondered what she'd been through to land her in this position.
Shaking his head, he walked out the door of the office.
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Post by mugenginga on Aug 23, 2011 21:52:02 GMT -5
Their eyes locked for a moment, Manako's and Atsuro's. Hers seemed incredibly pained for a moment before she suddenly became very busy with whatever she was doing. As soon as Atsuro was out of the room she glanced up at Kousei's office before looking down at the ring on her left hand and clenching the hand into a fist. Jun would have known what to do, but Jun was dead.
I'm sorry, Kihara-kun...
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