𝑸𝑶𝑻𝑪:

𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅, 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏'𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒂𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅.

***

Asami had never, after attaining her powers, given in to the other side. Even with the catastrophe of the power plaguing her soul, and Matsuha on her back, prompting her to find an escape from humanity, she had never relinquished the thought of being partially human. Consequently, she had never experienced how it felt to just give in, to bask herself in the force that could drive her actions to absolute unpredictability. Now that she did it, it felt like wings sprouting on her back, making her feet light, and a stranger ecstasy house her heart. The cry of blood heaved her mind, more and more heavily than ever.

But there was something; that heavy, unsettling something that was pooled inside the pit of her stomach, and though she paid no mind to it, for the sight before her was alluring, she couldn't vanquish the feeling.

Shaking her thoughts off, she gave another look to the women fidgeting before her cell. The sight made her stomach growl, and it resonated like a predator's roar in the deafening silence weighing in the air. How she was fantasizing about tearing their skin apart to bathe herself in their deliciously enticing, crimson bodily fluids, each single drop filling the pores of her skin—no! She would lick it, slurp it, taste it with her own tongue until her heart would have had enough rapture.

"Hey," she found herself calling out, making the two women's head turn her way, eyes faltering with anxiety and lips quivering. It made her smirk to herself.

𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦. 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘮𝘦, 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴!

The women, one of them being Kite's assistant, exchanged a look before pivoting to her again, though not pursuing to diminish the distance in the least.

"Help me." Her voice rang so distant, as if it wasn't her own. The words sounded even more offshore, and she never foresaw her own tongue reciting them. It dragged itself like feet on broken glass, agonizing against her throat, but calmed when the addressed woman raised a brow in curiosity.

She lifted her face from the cover of her dirty, snow fringes to find tears pricking in the corners of the woman's eyes, indiscernible under the sheen of sweat on her face as her brows shook in terror.

"No."

𝘛𝘴𝘬! She cursed under her breath when the latter woman clasped the former's shoulder to renounce an approval for the task. 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩. 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺.

"P-please," her voice croaked out and the flinch she caught in the woman overshadowed her disgust of speaking the word. Biting her lip, the said woman braced her clipboard, glancing sideways for a spot to focus her anxiety on. Her being here was already a caution to the wind, no less approaching the monster in the face of a teenage girl. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders, and set firm eyes towards Asami.

"What is it?" For all her confidence, her voice came out as a measly squeak as of mice, and she buried her face in disgust at the gruesome sight of the half-healing, battered mess of skin in lieu of what used to be a pretty face. Cold glass and a few meters separating them seemed deficient in providing a sense of security and the stillness in the air kept up its dexterity in butchering the dainty bit of courage she gathered to face the voice pleading for help.

Gathering her voice, she yet again breathed out, "What's your problem?" The target of the question raised her head, white eye closed shut, half face layered with a shade of brown with desiccated blood. "Come closer," she ordered, with a proud whistle to her voice, barely suppressing the growl her stomach seemed to make, as observant, sapphire eye scrutinized its prey.

"No!" Her voice reached her ears, face forming a scowl sheltering the panic behind it, "I may not enter the premise of experiment. If you need water, I can switch it on for you. For anything else, remember that you are a captive, not a guest. Do not ask demands of your free will or make excuses to."

"There's...," Asami inhaled, finding strength to get her point across the goddamn human, "there's an eyelash in my eye. It hurts. Can you remove it?"

The said woman scoffed, narrowing her eyes at the silver-head, "Surely it won't hurt more than it did in the last ten days. Bear it."

A beat of silence passed before Asami spoke again, "Yes. But it's the only hurt I can relieve myself of. If you're too scared, just free a hand. I will—"

"No." she hissed, "What makes you think such excuses might work. You just want to free yourself."

"And that's why I asked you to do it." Shutting the remaining eye close, she gritted her teeth, "you don't want to? Fine. Ask Kite to do it. He seemed to enjoy touching me, apparently."

"Shut up!" The woman growled, and Asami smirked under the cover of her hair.

𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥.

"You don't seem to deny it."

"I know it's false. His only intention is to direct his hatred towards you."

"And I suppose it required stripping me naked?"

"Just shut up." Her voice rose an octave higher, before she was stopped on her tracks by the woman following her, making Asami frown.

𝘕𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦.

"Exactly," Asami resumed her assault, "either you do it or ask him to. Sure, you have the option of leaving me be, but I assumed you to be a woman with a kind heart. This organization's goal doesn't exactly fit you, but here you are, helping the man you love, a man who doesn't bat an eyelash towards you and yet you find your way to him. For all the loyalty you feel towards him, I hope his sick intentions don't sway your heart, and you enshrine your kindness through your actions."

Her feet trembled as she scrunched her brows together, biting her lip and shaking her head. Counterintuitively, no matter how unseemly it may sound, a woman's greatest strength and greatest weakness is the man she loves, for she has the power to go at unbelievable lengths if it serves his greater good. And Asami knew it.

 The woman behind her looked equally affected, familiar with the actions of their leader and troubled.

"What are you plotting?" She asked, but Asami noticed the lack of malice in her voice. That alone was the sign of them being human. A trick of words and a flicker of emotions is all one always needs to get a human weak in its knees, jeopardise a soul, especially a woman's. Ruled by the heart, the creature, no matter how intelligent, would be forced to take its emotions into consideration once that one closed wound is open again.

"I just want to feel one less hurt. Even if its physical," her eyes, curtained by her hair, held infinite vicious emotions, all of which were oblivious to the women under Asami's blasé expression, "you won't understand how much it hurts."

And it did affect her, Asami noticed, when the sound of glass riding against concrete and footsteps reverberated in the facility. She peeked at her with her lone sapphire eye, features holding hurt facing her own, in complete contrast to the blatant tone as she commented, "Just this once."

Asami could barely keep her teeth from trembling with excitement, ignoring the loud whispers of warnings by her companion from outside the chamber, as the woman leaned closer to her face to inspect her eye.

It barely took half a second before she registered what happened to her. Eyes wide, mouth slightly open as fear knocked her face when her brown orbs met Asami's incandescent pupil-less eye. Asami's teeth had dug deep into her throat, fangs and molars equally gnawing on skin before she tore it apart, making the head and body fly in opposite directions. Blood splashed on her face, sinking into her skin as Asami closed her eyes to feel slight power surging through her body, as her hands caught the flying head, lifeless, distressed eyes still wide and jaw still hanging. The same expression, jaw hanging with fear and terror, eyes wide and flooded with tears and a soundless scream, adorned the other woman's features, as she suddenly felt the sensation of a warm liquid between her legs but barely had any incentive to be abashed by her actions. Her eyes registered Asami holding her companion's head – the chains restricting her and cannulas connected to her skin now hanging lifelessly beside her – licking and slurping the blood oozing out from exposed muscles and her stomach turned as she threw up a sour liquid over the warm one she released earlier.

Meanwhile, Asami was on cloud nine. The taste of blood on her tongue, the feel of raw bone and warm meat against her muscles, the exquisite texture of the warm, crimson liquid, she felt intoxicated. Scaling her fingers up the brain muscles, Asami yanked her arms sideways with brute force, splitting the organ into two and making way for more blood. 

The surge of heat driving through her veins was a testimony of her existence. She was a POWAN. Blood was her fuel.

The POWAN woman flicked her eyes towards the other half of the body and with a single glance, its insides exploded, spewing the warm, thick liquid forcefully, making a thwack sound against the white walls, glass-door, and Asami's body. Absorbing it, she instantly felt power radiating from her body, her scars healing at lightening speed, sucked-in cheeks coming back to life and colour returned to her skin. However, the delight of the feast and power still wasn't enough.

𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.

She directed her gaze towards the dumbstruck human witnessing her actions. The woman found herself hyperventilating and paralysed. She ordered her body to scream, run, even flinch a bit, but neither a movement nor any voice dared to leave under Asami's merciless aura. Shadowed face under white hairs heavy under a glaze of red with blood didn't do much to disguise the sole proof of her identity. The gleaming white eye. As Asami lifted her head, her beautifully terrifying features came into view, face impassive as if she had just woken up, as she lifted her previously bloodied finger towards the woman and a choking noise escaped her stretching jaw.

Asami's thoughts were no longer clouded by meaningless emotions, conflicting stories from strangers, and heartbreaking betrayals from loved ones. She was intoxicated. The rancid smell of blood, which once choked her, didn't seem so repulsive. In fact, Asami found herself engulfed in its consistency. Her hand outstretched towards the falling woman slightly flinched and she bursted like a water-balloon, spurting crimson liquid in all directions, leaving only soaked, red clothes and indiscernible pieces of skin scattered around the floors. No, it was still not enough.

The lust for blood had just begun.

The game had just begun.

_______________________________________________________

So.... umm.. how was it?? I had so much trouble not only because I accidentally deleted half the chapter and forgot what i had written but also because it took a lot more concentration than any of the previous chapters. But... it is done. Thankfully. And this arc is coming to a climax. Three to four chapters at least. But the story still goes on. 

Anyway, even though I said I will update faster, I couldn't because I have been addicted to Haikyuu. (Noya-chan is mine. Period) I will make time for more but I have to prepare for competitive exams, apparently, so I might lag sometimes. 

Thanks for reading. Vote. Comment. Share. ❤