"Why do you think the moon just sits up there like that?"
Juuzou's voice was nothing but static in the back of her mind while she drowned in the middle of the room.
Stretching.
Pulling.
Aching.
Emiko was being met with the feelings again. The feelings that plagued her every once in a while. In general, she fights off any feeling that approaches her but this was different. This was an ache deep inside of her.
The ache was something that went nowhere no matter what she thought or tried. It yelled at her and fried her brain to scrambled eggs.
"Hello?"
The voice was a mumble in the background along with the pressure on her finger tips. She found it so hard to focus on where she was and what she was doing. Everything just felt fuzzy and drained.
Pulling.
Stretching.
Suffocating.
She knew it would come back because she was too weak for it not to. Pretending to be strong got her places in reality but never in her own head. She knew this was because her mind was never fooled by her charades. Her mind knew she was sick and frail. No amount of snapping and cursing could ever convince it otherwise.
Her mind whispered to her the end. Her mind whispered that her end was not the end of her body, but that she was gonna lose. But she would never admit she was truly terrified of losing.
"Hello? Emiko?" Cold hands wrapped around her wrists and bubbling crimson eyes were focused on her. Juuzou was always impatient with being ignored and so such a dramatic reaction was unsurprising but still so very annoying.
"What?" The snap was almost enough to hide the shock factor that was there from being shaken from her thoughts.
"You're tearing up your skin." Juuzou tsked at the bleeding skin of Emiko's fingers. She had chewed the sides until they were bleeding. "And I asked you question."
Anger before concern.
Defiance before worry.
Illogical fury before acknowledging fear.
"What do you want?!"
Juuzou's eyes dilated at the behavior of Emiko. He looked at her form sitting on the counter. She was slouched over her bleeding and peeling hands that were attached to the wrists he held.
She was obviously being irrational. He could process that much easily as he is usually the irrational figure in the equation. His gaze moved to her angry bright coffee colored eyes and felt the bloodlust tug in his belly.
Juuzou did not like her tone or attitude.
As poorly behaved of him as it is, the way she just yelled at him out of nowhere made him was to cut someone. Whether he would ever cut her for doing something so small was always in the air for him.
He just knew he liked the way she was losing her shit but could not promise she would like his reaction every time. It made him feel warm and that rocking sensation seemed to return. Almost like the idea of her being angry was enough to make him flushed. But he knew he liked it when she lost control. It was what made him feel drawn to her.
"Emiko... You should not yell at me like that.~" He giggled and squeezed both wrists firmly. Edge cutting the tone he used with her.
She paused at his unspoken threat. Emiko forgot her problems for a second as his voice made her bones shudder with fear. Not terror but the healthy amount of fear you would feel before getting on a roller coaster. The fear that gave you jitters before you ignored it anyways.
Coffee brown eyes stared back at lulling crimsons with defiance.
"Or... What?..." She drawled.
She felt self destructive and was not afraid to light the flame to bring someone with her. Was encouraging Juuzou's sadistic behavior the smartest thing to do for herself? Absolutely not.
Did she care?...
Suddenly she was shoved flat on the counter and his pale body was pinning her down. A blade against her throat reminded her that she might care at least a bit as a bead of sweat dripped from her forehead.
Juuzou stared down hard as he pressed the blade against her flesh and thought about drawing blood. His skin wriggled at the thought and his blood pressure swelled at the idea.
Cut her. Cut her. Cut her.
"The hell are you doing?!" She roared at the pale man on top of her while grounding her teeth. Her mind weighed the chances of Juuzou slitting her throat and did not like the probable outcome it came up with.
"I'm hungry." His voice came out simply but the two words made her shiver beneath him. Her face pooled with warmth as she stared back harshly at his gaze. Survivalism slowly inching its way back into her.
"That's too damn bad." She ground out as she wiggled just to stop the moment the pressure on her throat increased. "Get off of me."
"I quite like it up here, Emi. What are you gonna do about it?"
His voice was teasing but not as sadistic as she thought it would be. She was more annoyed that he was so close to her face and she could feel the pressure of his body on her own. The way his breath fanned over her face made her queasy and she was getting more pissed off by the second.
So she threw her body up and snatched her wrists back from the fiend. He froze up and she shoved him off before standing in front of him.
His gaze remained at her neck and when she raised her hand to it, the was a small amount of blood on her palm.
She frowned.
"You could have really hurt me you know?" Her voice was a mumble of sarcasm as she thought about shoving him into the wall.
"I'd like to think that."
She shoved him into the wall.
"What made you make Juuzou move in with Emiko? If you don't mind me asking?" Shinohara ate along side Arima at the bar. He had never been asked out by the investigator and it felt like such a privilege every time he was in his presence.
"Would you believe me if I said it was simply for my entertainment?"
His voice never changed and it made it so that Shinohara questioned the seriousness of what he just said.
"Oh don't look at me like that. Emiko is not in any real danger and I'd never use that as a reason for anything revolving her." Arima puffed out before taking a swig of his drink and Shinohara could only laugh.
The air was warm in the bar as Shinohara stared as his superior and craved an answer more than anything. Juuzou is currently living with his superior's daughter and he did not even bat an eye. Shinohara however did not let this news fly over his head. He was more than astounded and wondered the reason since the moment he found out.
"That Juuzou... The way we found him almost reminds me of how we found Emi. A little pale fragile girl with needle bruises and scars filling her arms. Even had a choker but hers was more of a collar than anything." Shinohara could tell Arima was more talking to himself but he was still interested in what he had to say. He knew of Emiko being found but did not know the whole story.
"She woke up with nerve damage and was broken but threatened everyone in the room with a scalpel blade. Does that not sound like something she would pull?" Shinohara laughed deeply at the image of a younger Emiko holding a scalpel blade like a sword. He agreed with Arima as she always had such a feisty character in front of her shattered pain.
"I'm trusting your protege to care for my daughter in a way she won't let me, got that Shinohara? She's too set in her ways and she decided I was the enemy this time, so I have to respect her mind." He went on before drinking a little more of the beer in his hand. "So stubborn but so fragile."
Shinohara began to process the words and found them almost unbelievable. To think of Juuzou caring for anyone outside of animals did not really strike a chord with him. He has not seen such a thing before. Juuzou does not really show emotions such these well and does not seem to like people well either. He wanted to trust Arima and his thoughts but it was hard when he could not see the same perspective.
"I don't think I've even seen Juuzou love a person." Shinohara chuckled to himself.
"Emiko needs a different kind of connection. My existence smooths over what happened to her while Juuzou is going to make her face her emotions. She will drown in both of their emotions if she does not." Arima speculated aloud to Shinohara who leaned in his seat to mull over it with him.
"How exactly would that happen when she goes to fight anything that comes her way emotionally?" Shinohara and Arima both chuckled as they remembered the girl in their own ways. All Arima saw was a spitfire child who threw up fists before feelings. The one he took on as his own. Her imagery in his mind was always her as a child because he could never let his little girl go. Even when she cursed at him, belittled him, and cried at him.
"She won't get by too far with her mentality. She will crack eventually and will frantically search for something concrete enough to be stabilize her. While she will come to me for council, it will piss her off to need me." Arima's answer slowly became a mumble the deeper it got. "I trust my idea of her mind and I am not concerned Shinohara. You should not be either."
Even though Arima gave the final word, Shinohara could not help but sigh in worry. He feared things not going quite as smooth as Arima had worded it to go.
"And what of the group Kumo sir? I know the brothers that died were part of the organization."
Arima hummed lowly as he remembered the night he thought he would lose Emiko. He understood the death of another while working for the CCG is not supposed to break you but he questioned it when put to the test. Watching her little brown eyes close that rainy night with her bruised and battered body had almost caused trauma to the man.
"Emi, you can't sleep right now... Please open your eyes Emiko."
"D-Dad... M-My leg, my body feels numb... Am I dying?"
Arima swallowed thickly as he remembered the night clear as day. Swallowing his brew with a frown he mulled an answer for Shinohara as he was not prepared to touch the subject.
"The twins were apart of Kumo but we are not sure if they are active in the ward entirely. Though I'd like to have something to blame that attack on, we have to be cool and calm about this." Deep down, Arima felt the splashes of anger in his stomach at the idea of ghouls hunting his daughter. It made him want to keep her in arms reach at all time after blood transfusions, internal bleeding, and rib complications. But respecting her space is all he can do to keep her from falling off the rocker as he watched her descend from stability.
"What about protection? We know that she was actively hunted that night... Is that why you chose Juuzou?"
Arima smirked as Shinohara placed the puzzle pieces together.
"That is... They were found in the same condition and Juuzou is a determined fighter. He is the perfect person to watch Emiko isn't it?" Shinohara laughed at the small smirk that decorated Arima's face. It seemed to all suddenly make sense.
"Exactly."