Episode: 3.7

--- Rai ---

“What’s that supposed to- and she’s gone…” he growled, as Chess’s perception filter began to affect even him.

(‘Because you have to’? What’s that supposed to mean?)

He scoffed, before letting his eyes fall onto the brunette down below.

(This is going to suck…)

With a sigh and a groan, he forced himself to climb onto the ledge before slowly turning his attention back to the drunken brunette who was stumbling a good distance from him down the street.

(Since I’m the one hunting, Chess won’t use her filter until I make a move…)

His eyes scanned the street once more, noting a handful of people besides their target still walking the streets.

(Not too many people, but still enough to call Sanctuary if we’re not careful…)

(Best to just follow for now.)

With another frustrated sigh, he quickly unfurled his tail and leapt off the roof much like Chess had just a moment before.

His body moved easily enough on its own, without him even needing to think about it, as he subconsciously relied on built in instincts, letting his hands shoot out and catch a street lamp, before curling and flipping him into a crouch atop the light as the shadows of the street wrapped around him, keeping him just out of sight enough for no one to notice him.

(Breathe… Calm…)

He kept his eyes on his target who was about to round the street corner.

(You’ve done this before, so there’s no need to make a big deal about this…)

Leaping once more he caught the building corner, before letting his eyes wander just enough to try and sense out his missing sister.

He shook his head.

(She’ll be there when it’s her turn.)

Slowly he pressed his fingers against the wall and let a bit of the Malice in his veins flow freely, subtly releasing a black mist from where is skin met the wall, much like he had earlier that morning, before letting go of the building corner and repeating the process with his other hand.

(This is taking longer than it should…)

He frowned noticing his target was a bit further along than he liked.

Repeating the process slightly faster with each foot, he began to cling and crawl along the wall, being sure to stick to the shadows flittering around the light of the building’s windows, as he moved to catch up to his target, before swinging into an alleyway and watching from a distance as he waited for a decent opening.

A creeping and crawling sensation began to itch beneath his skin, causing him to subtly twitch as he was once more consumed by the pins and needles feeling that took over whenever he used his abilities without any real motivation or desire.

(The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go back home…)

He glanced down at his target and made sure the brunette was still in his sights, before closing his eyes with a resigned sigh.

(Let’s get this over with…)

Slowly he breathed in, filling his lungs as he cleared his mind.

(Inhale…One… Two… Three…)

He slowly breathed out, a faint black mist carrying on his breath as he drew on his… other self.

(Exhale… One… Two… Three…)

His eyes shot open with black sclera and two pinprick white pupils, and as the world slowed to a crawl, he made his move.

Leaping at his target, black mist continued to pour from his hands and feet leaving a faint shadowy trail in his wake as he soared through the air.

(Stun…)

He wrapped his arm around his target’s throat.

(Relocate…)

He spun on his heel, shadows erupting from where his feet touched the ground making his maneuver all the easier as he threw his target back into the alley.

(Eliminate witnesses…)

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Chess briefly fade into existence, before knocking out the brunette their target had been following and fading away once more as she dragged the drugged woman to the nearest clinic.

(Eliminate witnesses.)

He shook his head, what little humanity he still had, suppressing the bloodthirsty instinct, as instead he used his shadows to slip back into the alley, both his and Chess’s actions taking less than three seconds from an outside perspective.

Licking his teeth, he glanced at the unconscious form of the dark-haired man in a khaki colored polo, an (acceptable prey) who’d been stalking the drugged woman for almost six blocks, deciding what to do with him, after all there was (more than one way to do what he had to do…)

He paused, noting the fact that his hand was already half-way to the man’s throat.

(Make him bleed…)

His fingers began to burn as bone began to push against flesh, his claws begging for release.

(No…)

He shook his head and ground his teeth together, already regretting the fact he’d let his other-self become dominant.

(Need his blood…)

His teeth began to itch as the shadows filed them into points.

(But I don’t need to hurt him more than I have to…)

He forced his eyes shut.

(He was going to hurt that poor girl…)

(I should make it quick…)

(We should make it slow…)

(It’s the humane thing…)

(We’re not human…)

“W-what’s going on…”

His eyes shot open and jumped to the man in front of him.

“W-where am I?” the man continued in a slurred voice.

(Shit, he’s awake…)

The man’s eyes, glazed by a concussion, drifted around the alleyway before landing on Rai who stared at the man with a blank expression.

“Wh-who are y-”

(Eliminate witnesses…)

He leaped away from the dead body, pulling out his bloodstained claws as he did so.

His eyes drifted to the blood on his hand as his mind tried piecing together what just happened, and what was happening.

Logically he understood what happened…

His other-half fully took over when his primary objective was threatened, killing his target… something he was planning on doing regardless.

Emotionally he understood what he should feel…

He should be panicking over losing control to his other-half so easily.

Something he’d probably spend the rest of the week doing once his Malice wore out.

No, what he was having trouble understanding was why he felt he should turn the Malice off before Chess got here, after all he still needed it to help him keep a straight head when they drained the target’s blood for their artificial Malice dosages.

Then again, if he could talk himself through the panic attack he had each and every time he killed someone off of Malice, (something that’s actually very annoying in hindsight) then Chess wouldn’t feel obligated to talk him through it, something that would end in her crying since she was the one who told him to (hunt), which she probably did as an attempt to force him to use his abilities, thus trying to raise his concentrate into a healthier range.

A completely understandable series of events, and (honestly it would’ve been a good idea if she hadn’t forgotten that Malice mixed with her numbness to killing made her oblivious to the fact that if I had to kill our target without her, I’d go through the whole panic attack garbage, because non-malice me is a bit of a little bitch about this whole thing.)

Hell, even the difference between the double and single digits was fairly noticeable, in his current state of mind.

He glanced at the corpse at his feet before throwing it over his shoulders and licking his fingers clean.