Desire and Love [AkiraxYusuke P5]

Chapter Thirty One

"Hello again, Phantom Thieves," Alice greeted the thieves as they approached her in the large room where their first battle took place.

"Jackie is checking the area. He's trying to locate Kitsune-Kun so..." Alice glanced at Yusuke. "... you'll all be safe..."

The artist kept a blank face. Everyone else had the same skeptical look aimed at him, but he didn't notice. Just then, Jack came running in, looking exhausted and flustered. Alice faced him, but still spoke in her soft, polite tone.

"Did something happen, Jackie?"

"The prison has warped a lot since yesterday! Prince Akira must really be losing himself! It's gotten so much scarier down there!" Jack squealed.

"The Anesa in the real world can't be doing anything, right?" Ann asked.

"I wish I put a camera on her! Then I could keep an eye on—" Futaba was cut off.

"I took care of it," Yusuke gripped his katana and took a few steps toward the doors.

"Anesa won't cause any trouble. Let's hurry on, shall we?"

The thieves stared at the artist with suspicion, but began to following behind him. Mishima pulled Ryuji back a little and spoke softly.

"What do you think he did?"

"I don't know..." Ryuji looked back at Yusuke and bit his lip.

"Hopefully it's nothing bad..."

————

"Help... s-somebody..."

Anesa's tears ran dry an hour ago. The ropes were practically cutting her bare skin by now. She made many desperate attempts to free herself, but slowly began to give up. No matter how much she tried to cry out, her voice went unheard in the city noise. Countless people wandered past the mouth of the dark alley way, and not one noticed the girl completely naked and tied up, with her body in the worse position.

"Please... c-can't anyone hear me...?"

Her throat was dry, causing her voice to be hoarse. Her glasses had fallen off God knows when so she could barely see anything, and pain thundered in her skull.

All Anesa could remember was returning home after exploring the shopping district. Erin was at work, Jaehyun took Pico to his house, and Yusuke and Akira were at the art studio. After a few seconds in her home, Anesa heard her phone ringing. An anonymous text was asking her to come to a place in Shibuya—it said it was a male from the club that wanted to get with Akira and needed more information. Anesa went right away.

Then she was walking down a dark alley, in search for the person in question. Then she felt something hard make impact with her head.

Then the rest was black.

She tried to pull free from the ropes once more, but had no strength. Every time she so much as thought of moving the pain in her head increased. Now she sat there, praying someone would save her.

That was when she heard the footsteps...

"Whoa! Look here, isn't she pretty~?"

Anesa could make out the silhouettes of two adult men coming toward her. She tried desperately to close her legs or cover her chest, but the ropes wouldn't let her.

"Looks like a high school girl... what a turn on~"

The tears came back. Anesa trembled and tried to cry out, but her voice had left her. She felt warm hands touch her skin and winced.