Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Seventy Four - Kuzureru [崩れる]

Amaya's heart pounded heavily within her chest as she stared at the slumped, bloodied form of Katsuragi Toji at the far end of the room, eyes wide as the last twitch of fading life escaped the physical form of her literal past nightmares. Just like that, without word or pause for thought, he'd been gunned down. As if he were nothing more than an insect to be swatted away.

And in spite of herself, she couldn't grasp whether she was creeped out by that... or terrified.

The swift carelessness of Katsuragi Toji's execution was jarring in as many ways as it was anticlimactic. The monster that haunted her for most of her life, the being that put her and so many others through so much torture and pain throughout the years, was now gone. Without so much as granting him the smallest semblance of acknowledgement as his life was swiftly snuffed out.

...It was oddly merciful.

The slamming of a set of double-doors jolted Amaya out of her daze, alerting her to the immediate danger staring her down from that stack of wooden pallets. Of what she should be paying attention to.

Heinrich was gone; The double-doors to Amaya's far-right were swinging back and forth as they lost their previous momentum. Wherever he was going didn't matter anymore. If his declaration had been truthful, she wasn't his concern and he'd leave her be. She had served her purpose to him... and now, she was in a different pocket of trouble.

The real danger was the psychopath reclined lazily upon the pallets, eyeing her with a look that was more unnerving than the glimpses of blood lust she'd seen throughout the past year. It was the predatory grin that spoke not of swift death but cruelty-borne amusement.

Amaya slowly flexed her hands within her binds, keeping her gaze firmly fixed upon Kei and his immediate surroundings.

'Let's have a good old heart-to-heart, Tenth.' Mizumoto Kei declared as he straightened up atop the stack of pallets, his gaze still unwaveringly trained upon her very form. 'That very same chat I was hoping we would have back at that party the other month, before your little friend interrupted us.'

Amaya was silent, inwardly scoffing in return.

What could she even do at this point? Argue? There was no way for her to truly know if he had anything lethal hidden behind the pallets. She couldn't run, couldn't fight back without clear, careful planning. She didn't even know if fighting back would even help her, or if it would just land her with a bullet through the head.

'So, what's your deal? I get "Tallyman". Revenge and whatnot. It's fitting. But you?' She huffed, feigning a pained, awkward shuffle to guise her attempted pull against her duct tape binds. 'What purpose do you serve?'

After a moment, a smug, cocky glint appeared in Kei's eye, and he gave her a brief, dismissive shrug in response.

'I've wanted to have this opportunity for a long, long time. Unfettered... and I guess final, too.'

That time, Amaya couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes dramatically.

She should have guessed he wasn't going to make this easy for her.

But... she felt less out of her depths. Less like she was just sitting there waiting for death. For as dangerous as Kei clearly was, he seemed overly cocky. Like dealing with a regular, 20-something moron in the street, who believed the sun shone from out of his own ass. Accompanying that, she had mostly recovered from being tasered, beyond some lingering discomforts she'd need medical attention to treat.

Not to mention... not a single weapon had been left on that table.

No stray handguns, no rifle. Every firearm had been whisked away in the wake of Heinrich's departure.