BIG FISHES, rizuna ann

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sometimes it was needed to cross the line, dig your own grave with bare hands and let the dirt dry beneath your nails. Sometimes you needed your parents to cry to and your heart to shed its skin, and haunt the ghost light that slipped through the veil. Sometimes it was okay to want so bad it wounded you deeply inside your gut and let it on replay, a beat your blood would flow itself into, like a snake enchanted by a flute. Perhaps that was their mistake, letting their hunger starved them to the point anything felt tasty enough to take a bite from.

"I'll ask again." Niragi called out, "Who agrees that Aguni should be the new leader?"

No one said a word.

"This is not a majority rule." A woman complained. However, she was quick to swallow her opinions at the sound of a firearm being directed towards her.

"It is, isn't it?" He murmured, "You're free to vote after all. What about the former Number Two over there? What will you do?"

At first, it was hard for Saki to tell what was going on even though it was somewhat obvious. Niragi seemed to be having the time of his life, he clearly had been waiting for that to happen for a long time, his playful tone and the vibrations of his steps gave away the joy to be in control over them and their own voices.

"What about you?" The militant was interrogating all of them one by one without exception, "Are you looking down on us, Chishiya?"

"But you guys really are stupid."

Saki's stomach started hurting. She needed air, a seat to collapse on. Everything became too hot to not feel her beach shirt itch her neck and burn her spine. A tingling sensation ran down her forearm, and, for a second, she had to hold her breath and wait for it to happen again to double-check if she'd imagined it or real fingertips touched her to get her out of her mind.

"It's so condescending."

Someone stepped closer to her and she felt an internal warning sign spike up.

"I vote for Aguni to be the leader. Are you okay with losing me as a precious yes vote?" Saki heard Arisu's accomplice respond, but Niragi changed his focus almost immediately.

"Hey, what are you spacing out for?"

Her heart skipped a beat.

"Were you never taught that you should reply to people?" Saki didn't know who was next to her, but they seemed to be as equally out of words as her as no answer came, "Whose side are you on?"

Last Boss made a sudden move towards them, startling them.

"You were really scared for a moment there, right?" Niragi walked away laughing out loud as if the whole situation was too hilarious to keep it to himself. "That's so funny!"

But then, silence drowned down his giggles and blood pressure clogged her tympanums, and she just knew she was his next target.

"You'll vote yes, am I right, dolly?"

"I don't think- I-" Saki's words mixed, her chest went up and down erratically. Niragi got so close to her she couldn't concentrate on anything else than his presence dancing around her, his smell intoxicating her lungs, and the sound of his voice, heavy steps, and weapon ready on hand. As he surrounded her, the tip of his tongue grazed her earlobe and she felt the necessity to throw up.

"What?" He asked, "Speak up, I couldn't hear you clearly before." His fingers pushed her shoulder from behind, provoking her.

"Hey-" Arisu tried stepping in, but the militant didn't even give him the chance to interrupt them.

"Honestly, I don't see what you'd be good at for us," He whispered just for her, mouth to neck, hot breath burning her skin, "But, you know, even if you're not exactly my type, I bet we could have fun one of these days, huh? What do you say?" She wasn't dumb, she knew what he was implying. "I'll take your silence as a yes."

A hard surface peeping out Niragi's jeans brushed her hip bone as he decided to back off. It was just a touch, and still, it was all she needed to let everything get out of control.

She wanted to be angry, to not feel any pain other than her heartbeats pressing hard on her chest, her breathing choking her, and it didn't take much for the blood to fill her head, to put her into automatic pilot and let the anger that had been dying to be let out finally slip between her bones. Her brain shut off, a repulsive sensation closed her throat, and sickness stiffened her body in place. The only thing that moved was her hand, faster than her reasoning, catching everybody in the room off guard, even herself, when the characteristic sound of a gun's safety lever moving up caught everyone's breath at the same time a cold metal touched Saki's chin. It happened as a slightly late response for her sudden movement, yet either way, nobody else interfered. Except their new leader.

"Do you really think this is the right thing to do? You're blind, you're the most disadvantaged person in the room." Aguni finally addressed her, "And this is the kind of imprudence that will end up with you hurting someone you don't want to hurt."

Something made pressure inside her chest, perhaps her heart making itself smaller and smaller and smaller. A type of feeling she knew like the back of her hands, one that she had felt too many times and wasn't ready to let herself feel it once more. There were still traces of it inside her flesh, sprouting around her internal tissues, fed by her prayers and embarrassment, interlacing a thread around her organs and picking at her temples with a needle. She remembered the fish trapped in her hands, her knees bruising, the emptiness consuming her whole bit by bit, the feeling of her house's walls and the wrinkles on her mother's eyes, a teacher's muffled talk about a fight she got into by the age of ten, the first time she felt how blood tasted and one time she made another person do.

Her tongue numbed and it was only then that she realized how hard she had been biting onto it.

She gulped. The katana's cold point got an inch closer to her skin.

"Lower the gun." Aguni ordered.

"Lower the blade." She copied him, as if the militants under his charge would respond to her.

Her hand got a tighter hold on the firearm's grip, putting an immediate stop to the trembling that dared to take over her limbs.

"There's no point in starting a fight you're not going to win," He spoke softly, his tone sweetened by what a spoon of hope would taste like, honey sticking to his tongue, the one he would whisper a wish to not make the situation worse than it was before swallowing it all. Though, that didn't mean he would be a father calling out his daughter with pleading eyes to make her think twice about her words and actions. He was a leader, a man who was respected, who would do whatever it took for people to follow his lead. So he tried to be one, to taste honey in the roof of his mouth, but his lips pursed and only sourness met his taste buds the instant he added, "Because you know you won't ever win one."

A sudden rage boiled inside her torso, behind her ears, at the back of her neck just on top of the horrible pain she woke up with and hadn't gotten rid of. Perhaps it was being talked as if she was a child what made her comply and move the gun's mouth the slightest so it lingered next to Niragi's earlobe, but she knew it were exactly those words coming out of Aguni's throat what made her pull the trigger before anyone could even react.

Niragi screamed almost instantly, grasping the left side of his head as the sound resonated inside his skull as hard as Saki felt the shame she'd experienced many times in her life come into the form of a sighted man who understood nothing of his own.

"Mind your own business and get your puppies a leash." Saki spat, kicking the gun away before she stormed out of the room.

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hellooo
sorry for taking so long, i had guests at home 💀

hope you're all doing good in life and your studies, sending loveee ♥️