Purgatory

Rated: PG-13 for mild violence and language. Both will escalate considerably in the following chapter(s).

Genre(s): Romance/Suspense/Action. Kira/Rei, Harumi/Tetsuya.

Authors Notes: This is one I've been looking forward to writing for awhile. xD And finally, I've gotten around to it! Honestly, this is probably one of the longest chapters I've ever written. Six pages! It's a record! O_O Please review! I'll give y'all cookies!

His hand was trembling. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't really sure of much anymore, so it didn't bother him for long. He took another swig of his glass of vodka, feeling the warm liquid pour down his throat swiftly. It settled in his stomach; a burning sensation.

The bartender leaning on the dirt-soaked counter was scrutinizing him with a scowl, reaching to remove the almost empty vodka cup from Yusuke Yoshioka's greedy hands, but the alcoholic slapped his arm away.

Yoshioka's vision was blurred, his world tilting to a dangerous degree. He threw the remaining vodka in the flinching bartender's face and stumbled from the sleazy, run-down bar. A few other shady occupants turned to stare as he slammed the door behind him.

Yusuke Yoshioka's luck had gone down the tubes after the attempted molestation of Kira Aso. An anonymous high school student reported him to the principal who in turn reported him to the police, and his reputation was tarnished beyond repair. Jobless, and most likely to remain that way, he turned to liquid redemption and had been unable to leave it ever since. Wifeless, childless, and friendless. His pathetic life—or what was left of it—in a nutshell.

He staggered down the street, clothes messy, having been the only pair he had worn for the past two days. Full of five respectably large rations of vodka, the ex-English teacher stumbled down the streets of Tokyo.

***

"Kawaiiii!" Came a thrilled shriek. Rei Kashino turned to see his wife of a year squeal and stare at a plushie in the window display of a store. He sweatdropped a bit as a few passerby turned to gawk at Kira's exuberant behavior.

"Geez, Kira. What did you find?" He chuckled, coming up alongside normally introverted blonde, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen?" She giggled, pointing at the small, plush neko toy inside the store.  Its tiny glass eyes stared up at Rei; two black splotches in a sea of artificial pink fur.

Kira's face was alight with glee as she leaned against his chest.

"It's certainly... um, cute." Rei admitted. Kira laughed and swatted at his dangling arm.

"I have never heard you say that something's 'cute' before!"

"Eh, not very masculine," Rei muttered, a bit flustered.

"I never knew you had a feminine side to you, koibito!" Kira giggled again, as they started once more down the sidewalk.

It had been a year since their marriage, a year since the time Rei's life had almost been taken from him. They'd since moved into a nice apartment not too far off from where the old housing complex had been. Life was good. Work all day; play all night. It couldn't be better.

The happy couple waited for the lights to change, and then hurriedly crossed the street before it could switch back.

"Kira, where are we meeting Harumi and Tetsuya again?"

"They'll meet us in the park. And then we're gonna decide where to go from there," Kira responded. She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. A tingling shiver ran up and down her quaking spine, an electric shock to the brain. Her face grew pale. Someone was staring at her retreating back. Someone... but whom? She stopped dead in her tracks, thus pulling Rei with her. Kira released her tight grip on his arm and pivoted, expecting to come face-to-face with Masao. She'd felt the same way whenever he the psycho would gape at, that maddened expression twisted as he held the gun to her forehead...

"Kira? Daijoubu desu ka?" Rei asked in concern, gripping her shoulder tightly.

Kira took a deep intake of breath. There had been no one there. She was getting paranoid at the ripe age of eighteen and a half. "N-No..."

Rei could see she was visibly shaken. "We can call this off, you know. I'll call Tetsuya's cell when we get back..."

"N-No!" Kira repeated, a bit too harshly. She quickly calmed. "Gomen. I'm better now. C'mon, we don't want to keep them waiting, because you know how fast Tetsuya and Harumi get bored!" She was smiling again. Back to the same old Kira.

Rei nodded, still a bit worried. Nevertheless, he didn't express his concerns aloud. No need to dwell on a petty issue. The night was young!

***

He had seen her, and it had been like he was emerging from a nightmare.

Yoshioka recognized her, despite not having seen her in over two years.  He'd know those flowing blonde locks anywhere. It was her—Kira Aso. The one responsible for why he was spending his life in his gutter. The reason why he couldn't get a job.

A new feeling blossomed deep within his chest. It replaced the depression, and unhappiness, with... raw hatred.

He hated her. He hated Kira. He could picture grabbing those wavy, golden tresses in his right hand, and running a sharp, serrated knife over the pale, fine skin of her neck. How could she be so blissful, when he was in pieces? The inhumanity of it was sickening. Through an alcohol-induced stupor, Yusuke, for the first time in his forty-some years, felt murderous.

***

"Ru-u-u-mi-i-i-i!"

Harumi turned at the sound of her nickname to see Kira bound up to her, Rei following in pursuit. The two best friends gave each other a hug, and pulled away. Tetsuya leapt off the picnic bench he was seated upon and gave Rei a slap on the back in a much more masculine greeting. There was a chorus of "konnichi'wa"s all around.

"So how are you newlyweds?" Harumi joked, smirking at Kira playfully.

"Mou, Rumi," Kira protested. "We've been married for a year now! Our anniversary's tomorrow!"

Harumi just giggled, and replied with a casual, "So! Where to now?"

Tetsuya wrinkled his nose. "I heard it's supposed to rain soon, so we'd better do something inside."

"Aw, Tetsuya's afraid of a little precipitation?" Rei taunted, poking his friend smack in the center of the forehead. The two men lost all maturity gained in past years and began to horse around, wrestling each other playfully.

Harumi raised an eyebrow. "Would you two children please stop your testosterone-driven wrestling match? I swear, Kira, how do we put up with these guys?"

The four of them jostled each other and laughed like elementary school students, gladly relieving themselves of all responsibility that had been brought on by aging, even if just for a bit. None of them seemed to notice the darkening skies overhead, or the gradual emptying of all other human life from the park. Soon enough, only Kira, Rei, Tetsuya, Harumi, and another brave couple were left.

Kira stopped dead in her tracks when she felt something wet splash against her nose. Lifting her gaze to the heavens, she saw that the skies were ready to open up upon them. "Uh-oh," Kira murmured.

Before anyone could say another word, it began to rain, to pour. The storm hit them so quickly they had no time to seek shelter. Thunder rolled, lightning struck. Kira had never seen a tempest accumulate so fast.

"Shit!" Rei cursed, shielding him and Kira with his denim jacket, as they began to find somewhere dry. The denim allowed water to filter through though, and soon was too wet to be any good as a guard.

"Rei! Kira!" Tetsuya shouted over the pounding of the rain. "There's a gazebo not too far off from here!" When Harumi, who was huddling with him under his windbreaker, asked him which way, he jerked his head to the left.

"That gazebo got torn down a month ago! It's no good!" Rei yelled back, which caused Tetsuya to curse loudly. "But there are public bathrooms nearby. Let's go there!"

In unspoken agreement, the foursome headed off in the direction Rei indicated...

***

Yoshioka loved his knife. He held it to his face, admiring the glint off which it gave; admiring the way the water seemed to simply slide off, leaving only the slightest residue from impact. It was his only weapon, his only ally. This serrated butcher knife was the only thing he could count on. He smiled. Kira had escaped him one time. She would not escape again.

Then like a recurring nightmare, he remembered that Kira had not been the only one responsible for his ruin. That boy. What was his name? The one who had threatened him with the art knife, the knife that was so much smaller than his own. The one who had humiliated him in front of his English class.

He had seen Kira with another man. Was it the boy who had saved her? Yoshioka hadn't gotten a good look at him, but that didn't matter right now.

Yusuke was still drunk, but he was surprisingly clear-headed. His eyes were glossed over, determination evident within their fiery depths. Rain pounded about him as he sought shelter beneath a sakura tree, concealing himself well as Kira, Rei, and their friends ran past on their way to the bathrooms. Still grinning to himself, Yoshioka waited until they had gotten a considerable head start before him, and then began after them.

***

 "Ah, relief," Rei sighed as they huddled beneath a small awning outside the public female restrooms. The rain flowed consistently off the roof, soaking the pavement only inches before their feet. Kira sighed and wrung out her blonde mane. Harumi hugged herself, trying to keep warm. She nestled against Tetsuya, who wrapped his strong arms around her.

"Should we just stay here until the storm subsides?"  Rei asked uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot, doing a dance of sorts.

Kira raised an inquiring eyebrow. "What's wrong with you? Do you have to--"

"--Piss? YES I DO." He declared loudly.

Harumi jerked her thumb over her shoulder towards the restroom. "I doubt there will be any girls in there to squeal at you, Rei-kun."

Rei hesitated, and then nodded. He had to go. Badly. There was no two ways about it. He ran into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. The others chuckled a bit at his behavior.

After a moment, Kira sighed, leaning against the cool brick of the adjourning wall. Harumi and Tetsuya seemed to be whispering sweet nothings in each others ears', so she didn't want to disturb them.

Her stomach suddenly clenched, harshly, painfully. What...? A hand flew to her mouth subconsciously. This had been the feeling she had had before she and Rei had arrived in the park. Why did she feel this way?! Was she sick? The flu, maybe? She removed the hand clamped about her mouth to breathe. Glancing up, she saw a flash of silver gleam in the woods a mere ten meters before her. Or was it her imagination? Kira couldn't tell.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she was sprinting forward into the tempest once more, yelling over her shoulders to Harumi and Tetsuya that she'd be right back. She had to find what was causing her such agony. She flew into the darkening forest, searching for answers that seemed through her fingers to continually slip.  Who are you? What are you? Kira wanted to scream. Alarm bells were shrieking in her head, telling her to turn back, to get away from here...

...And then she was flying forward towards the ground. Something had tackled her about the knees. Her chin hit the moist dirt hard enough to make her head spin. She groaned, and the rubber sole of a sneaker pushed down against her back. Cold, greedy hands jerked her arms behind her with a cruel vengeance.

Kira, terrified out of her mind, opened her mouth to scream.

A/N: ^_^ Please review! Or else I won't continue! O_O