CW: Graphic violence, blood, trauma themes, threat of sexual violence, and coercive language.
The enforcer straddled Kuro's chest, pipe wedged against his windpipe. Kuro's muscles strained, veins bulging as he fought to hold the metal back. Above him, the boss's voice spat venom through the speaker: "You thought you could resign? Live a peaceful life? After humiliating me all these years!? Once in this life, Kuro—NEVER out!"
The pipe inched downward. Kuro's gasp was a wet, ragged thing. "All those times, ALL those times you made me—" the boss roared, cut suddenly by a choking voice, "—made you look like a fool?" Kuro choked out barely, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth as he strained against the pipe crushing his windpipe.
His knuckles were white where they gripped the pipe with shaking hands, tendons standing out.
Despite this deadly situation, Kuro muttered: "You were born a fool, Hideo. This meat puppet you sent... to get me, reminded everyone... what a fool you are."
The insult crackled through the phone speaker. A guttural roar answered it—not from the device, but from the enforcer straddling Kuro's chest. Fury ignited in the man's swollen eyes. He leaned his full weight onto the pipe.
Crack.
A rib? Hikari flinched as Kuro's body arched violently beneath the blow. His breath whistled—thin, desperate.
The whistle in Kuro's throat sharpened into a wet, ragged gasp as the enforcer bore down. Rain thrummed against the enforcer's back, sluicing pink streaks of Kuro's blood down the pipe pressed to his neck. Hikari huddled against the alley wall, the business card crumpled in her fist like a shard of ice. Every choked breath from Kuro echoed the suffocating grip of her stepfather's hands—the same bruise blooming beneath her own collar, phantom fingers digging into her windpipe.
〖Run. He told you to run.〗
But her legs were stone. Her stomach twisted, nausea rising with the coppery scent of blood. Kuro's eyes locked onto hers again—dull, fading, but insistent. Go.
The enforcer snarled, wrenching the pipe sideways. Kuro's body convulsed, a sickening crack punctuating the motion. Another rib.
The boss's voice screeched from the discarded phone: "CRUSH HIS SKULL!! MAKE HIM BLEED OUT LIKE THE DOG HE IS! THEN—"
He took a few hasty breaths.
Kuro chuckled, his face still unreadable.
Even beaten and broken, he heard only the pathetic wheeze of a senile, humiliated old man behind the fury.
The enforcer's grip on the pipe tightened at the sound of Kuro's laugh. Hideo heard it too.
"LAUGH WHILE YOU CAN!! I WILL SKIN YOU WITH THE LAST BIT OF CONSCIOUSNESS YOU HAVE LEFT!" I WILL FEED YOUR ORGANS TO THE RATS!"
Every command screeched through the tiny phone like a mask cracking, humiliation bleeding into rage.
Kuro looked over, not expecting Hikari, yet she was still there.
She seemed to realize this would not end in Kuro's favor; her eyes brimmed with gentle tears as they met his.
〖He's dying, just like.. just like —〗
"go..," Kuro managed to mutter, his hands barely holding the metal.
"Die!" the attacker screamed, lifting the pipe high.
Kuro reacted too late. As he turned, the pipe crashed into his head with a sickening thud. Silence.
It was exactly what Hikari had feared, but her mind could not grasp it. She drew her legs to her chest, trembling in disbelief.
The attacker heard the scrape of her shoes and met Hikari's eyes. For a moment, his gaze lingered on her trembling form—then he twisted his head toward the phone lying beside Kuro.
"Boss."
"What?! Did you finish him?"
The attacker looked down at Kuro, pressed two fingers to his throat. A pulse.
"He's sleeping. Finally. But, Boss—"
"What? Bring that deserter to the base and—"
The attacker's gaze flicked back to Hikari, locking with her tearful eyes before he spoke again.
"His girlfriend, Boss. His girlfriend was here the whole time."
"That stoic bastard had a girlfriend?! And she was there the whole time?!" His voice cracked with disbelief, louder, almost mocking—like he couldn't accept it as truth.
Hikari's breath hitched—a ragged, broken sound that barely escaped her throat. The word girlfriend hung in the air like a physical blow. 〖Girlfriend? M-Me?〗 Her mind stuttered, recoiling. She tried to shake her head, tried to back away, but her body refused to obey. Only her lips moved, trembling, whispering a silent, desperate no. Tears slid down her cheeks, carving pale tracks through the grime and rain on her skin.
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