The Intersection of Heart and Stomach [BurdgeBug x Viktoff Samson]

[Viktoff Samson]

The Intersection Of
Heart and Stomach
BurdgeBug
Viktoff Samson​

Tables lined a wall with many different faces and alcoholic beverages adorning the spaces above and on said tables. The very sound of drunken social delights had been heartwarming to contrast the dark and cloudy night sky outside. Despite wearing a smile as he readied up a serving platter with glass mugs, Koji was most certainly the opposite of awake or excited. Truth be told, the darkness beneath his green eyes grew as he humbly worked his way into a second shift right after his first one. He could summon a laugh in response to a joke a human made behind him, but the agitation of a tired and hungry beast swelled beneath the surface. How he managed to keep himself under control was beyond him. These years spent working for Hayato must have changed him.

Hayato. "That old bastard..." Koji thought to himself as he finished filling the final mug and headed towards a table. As grateful Koji was that Hayato was so kind to a street urchin like himself, making Koji put up with humans for what had already been ten hours was quite the stretch. He'd honestly rather be ripping apart Hayato's enemies and biting into their putrid flesh. Even fighting doves without sleep was far more palatable than this. Nobody ever accused Koji of disliking humans, but it certainly tried his patience. In any case, these faces were ones Koji would never get to know if it weren't for Hayato. The wavy brown haired ghoul just wished the old man was a little less aloof about these matters.

And in almost no time at all, Koji couldn't think about anything he previously mulled over. His mind was renewed and a sinister smile etched across his face. Just as he finished serving a table across the bar, he noticed a particular young man that he's known for a week or two. And what really caught Koji's attention was the woman talking to him. This busy bee couldn't trust that no good thug scum with an indestructible toy, let alone what Koji assumed to be some human beauty he certainly never saw before. Just what was going on here? Koji thought even human women could smell that poorly dressed sorry excuse for a man's wretched stench. It almost made him sick. And with a aigh, Koji let it go for now and resumed his various job-related chores.

 

[BurdgeBug]

Tokyo was definitely a beautiful sight to behold and Beth instantly knew she had made the right choice. Of course, she assumed that Italy and England were just as wonderful in their own right. But she had always been fascinated with Asian culture and Japan was no exception. So she signed up to study abroad for the entire first semester of her sophomore year. She wasn’t alone, either. A handful of her close friends and fellow classmates that were also art majors joined her. Whenever they weren’t all busting their backsides in the classrooms, they were out among the vast city and enjoying all that it had to offer.

And so it was that the small clique found themselves in a quaint pub towards downtown Tokyo. Dull vibrations of blaring music could be heard from a nightclub just next door and vibrant lights from the adjacent buildings filtered in through the glass windows. Boisterous laughter echoed off of the walls as the many patrons of the pub enjoyed their liquor with flushed cheeks and wide grins. Beth and her friends were of no exception. And, after downing another shot of tequila, the young woman looked up through glazed over eyes to see a man approaching their table. It didn’t take long for him to convince her to join him in the nightclub next door due to the alcohol clouding her judgement and the fact that this stranger was quite the looker.

Beth wasn’t a heavy drinker and, when she did partake in it, she was normally responsible. But it was the weekend and they were through with mid-terms. A celebration was in order. She clumsily followed her suitor out of the pub and into a narrow alleyway. The pounding music of the club was more prominent and nearly ruptured her eardrums in her stupor. Despite this, however, she could sense that something wasn’t quite right. The air seemed far colder then it had seconds ago and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood on end. Before she could question it, a sharp gasp escaped from Beth’s parted, pink lips. The man had grasped her fish tail braid tightly and yanked hard on the golden strands of hair. Pain shot through her scalp as she was dragged backwards and up against the brick wall.

She had every intention of screaming but it seemed that her assailant had predicted it, clamping a hand over her mouth. Beth began to hyperventilate as tears pricked her hazel eyes. “Hush now~” he growled in a low voice while a predatory gleam soon appeared in his golden irises. “I’ve never had a foreigner before.” With that, he extended his tongue and slid the muscle along the prominent vein in her throat before stretching his mouth wide open and tearing into the flesh.

 

[Viktoff Samson]

Watching the male ghoul and the golden haired woman he was wooing wasn't easy for Koji as he kept looking away. There were even attempts to keep himself busy by approaching some of the regulars. Between questions, short strings of conversation and a brief offer of free refills at a certain table, Koji snaked his way into a distraction as he readied another round for his not-so-sober human pals. In a way, seeing these college students smile in celebration after a year of weekend and even week nights of stress drinking somehow brought a warmth to Koji's smile. His dorky bookworm companions were really coming into their own with confidence and strength that they used to lack. It wouldn't be until Koji delivered this fresh round of inhibition killing delight that he'd catch the duo leaving out of the corner of his eye.

There wasn't enough time to consider if he should just stay out of it or at least grab his mask. A small female ghoul employee had been in the back on break, and Koji didn't even have the time to consider calling out to her to cover the bar for just one moment. The clunky sounds of his black boots sounded off as he followed them after the briefest of delays. Surely the patrons of the establishment were thoroughly preoccupied with their growing buzz and the nuanced thumping that came from the nearby night club.

Kohl's head tilted as his wavy brown bangs hid his eyes. The darkness of the alley could barely even draw shadows on his sharper jawline and peculiar grin as his steps became deafened by a subtle technique. Left foot, right foot, his imposing height entered just behind the duo as the grossly predictable scene occurred and played out. However, Koji was regretfully unseen by his prey. Scum he's been dying for an excuse to get rid of, and this display of bold predation in Hayato's territory was the perfect one. Giving this swine even a chance to blabber up any sort of second chance or even defend himself wasn't going to come to fruition tonight. Not with the most notorious cannibal in the ward closing in.

Had Koji been a hero, he could have slipped into their conversation and tried to persuade this foreign beauty to go home with her friends. He ought to have been capable of at least spinning a tale about the degenerate she was talking to in order to make her at least second guess he following decisions. And even worst case, he could have confronted them before the bite. Ghouls can be fast, but Koji was out of this world in this area of note.

Just as the teeth of the ghoul found her neck, the predator's eyes opened to find Koji's own pair of black kakugan distorted by his bangs. "Yoink." Koji comically expressed himself as he caught the ghoul by the neck and the momentum of the action caused the ghoul's spine to pull upward and become disjointed. The end result was a quick and arguably clean death for what should have been an epic battle to the death with their kagune. Dropping the ghoul's head, the blackness faded from Koji's eyes as he dropped his smile and attempted to catch the woman so that she wouldn't fall. It was his hopes that she wouldn't howl to draw attention to the situation. But, then again, he didn't know what to do if she'd lose consciousness from the bite. There was a perfectly disgusting ghoul corpse to much on and hide, after all.

 

[BurdgeBug]

The pain that came from sharp teeth biting into her tender flesh was excruciating. Beth’s scream finally tore free from her throat but it was muffled by her assailant’s hand and the pounding music of the nearby club. She could feel a warm, sticky liquid dribbling down her collar bone and instantly knew that it was her own blood. Who the hell was this guy? What was he?! Some kind of cannibal serial killer? However, within seconds of biting her, the man was yanked off and a sickening snap filled the air as he was thrown to the ground and lay there, motionless. Beth instantly clasped a hand to her wound and her knees wobbled as she attempted to look up at her savior. It was hard to see him properly in the dim light of the alleyway, however.

Black dots began to swam in the young woman’s vision and her hand was growing red with her own blood as it poured out of the bite marks at a steady pace. Nothing serious but the combination of pain, alcohol and the experience that just unfolded was enough for the darkness to beckon her into its sweet embrace. And so Beth’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she fell unconscious and her body slumped forward against the mysterious man. She was small compared to him, only five feet and three inches in height.

 

[Viktoff Samson]

Koji was of two minds as far too many concepts flew through him. A human stood before him, her hand failing to keep her own blood at bay. The executed filth that he beheaded also lay before him. They were both edible treats, and the clean up for either would be comparable. The shorter blonde foreigner was still alive, and whether that increased her value as a meal typically depended on the ghoul. The tall 'savior' couldn't seem to pull his eyes to anything in particular and he couldn't ignore every possibility before him. Was this woman saved by some quality of compassion within Koji? Did he use her as a perfect excuse to finally eliminate that parasite? In a numbing moment like this, not even Koji could wholeheartedly devote himself to either answer. In a way, Koji felt like even humans had to be kept to some semblance of responsibility. She did slip out of the bar with that creep of her own accord. She definitely didn't seem to be a child. But, Koji couldn't avoid that crushing feeling of guilt in his chest. There just wasn't a way that any given human was going to escape such a clash with a ghoul and she definitely didn't know what she was getting into.

"Bite. Eat." A whisper came to his ear. Such a familiar whisper. Koji has long since learned that this distortion belonged to him alone. Not even other ghouls heard it when he did. Judging by the way his pupils shrank and began to shift from place to place when that peculiar distortion visited him: He was surely losing his marbles. Not that he was maintaining a valuable full set to begin with.

And this violent swing of possibilities came to an end as the human victim fell forward and her body laid into his own. He'd catch her smaller body with his two large arms without a pause. For once, her warmth and scent bled through the iron-like odor that their blood left in the air. Despite a growl in his stomach, Koji moved the woman so that her legs were propped up by his left arm and he held her upper body up with his right. There wasn't an abundance of time for him to make up his mind about saving her and then disposing of the ghoul's body. Going with his immediate instinct, he'd take her with him as he launched up to the roof of the bar. Like a speedy bug, he maneuvered around the building before slipping into the window of his room that was conveniently almost always open.

The care he could devote to her wasn't immense or overwhelming. He ripped up his closest t-shirt and layered it's fine black fabric over her wound and then let her body lie on his bed, even though her blood would inevitably stain everything. Doubting she'd even be awake soon, Koji rallied the night shift manager and his immediate subordinate who was staying in another nearby room. The night shift manager was a female ghoul with freaky red hair and a height even shorter than the human victim's. Koji directed her to hold the makeshift shirt bandage against the human's neck while the other employee manned the bar.

Koji had to suit up and deal with the ghoul's body. He'd dump the leftovers he didn't feel like finishing into a stolen shopping center cart before plopping said cart into a storage unit. The rest of the night was also restless as Hayato returned to the pub to find Koji operating his morning shift on the brink of breaking. Despite their vocal dispute about the situation with the ghoul Koji had slain, Hayato did try to persuade Koji to catch a nap as the old ghoul closed the pub contrary to it's popular and reliable schedule. The sun was just rising, after all. The older ghoul mused that he was simply extending additional parenting to the lost souls that came to such a place to drink so early in the morning. Koji couldn't muster the ability to chuckle as the skin beneath his eyes grew even more dire.

---

Regardless of when Beth would open her eyes, the two ghoul men would be in the room. Koji's bed was near to the window, all that was left to the simple wood floored room was a desk with a laptop and a computer chair and a bookcase. She'd be laying length wise towards the bookcase and desk. Koji had been wearing a new pair of pants and a blue t-shirt as he leaned against the bookcase watching her. At his desk sat an old Japanese male wearing a fancy black hat to go with his mafia-esq tuxedo with a red tie. The older male had long white hair and bushy white eyebrows with eyes that didn't quite seem to be open. "You killed that no good brat, but saved this human?" Hayato's deep grumbling voice rolled past his bushy white beard. "Koji... This woman."

Her 'savior' only responded by looking to Hayato now as the old male continued. Hayato's eyes opened slightly to reveal his own Kakugan.

"She's a risk if she is allowed to live."

 

[BurdgeBug]

Darkness. That was all that surrounded her in that current moment. She seemed to be floating in it. Her body was numb to any sort of sensation and silence rang through her ears. It was quite peaceful but it seemed that it wouldn’t last long. Soon she began to rouse from her deep sleep in a similar manner to one rising towards the surface of a body of water. She could feel the warmth of a blanket cocooning her figure. She could faintly smell something old and coppery. And she could hear a voice speaking, the tone deep and masculine.

It was at this point that Beth felt a dull throbbing in her neck. It hurt to make any sort of movement in that area and she expressed her discomfort by parting her pale, pink lips and releasing a low moan. Long lashes fluttered as her protuberant eyes attempted to pry themselves open after such a long and well needed sleep. When they finally did, her vision was momentarily blurry. It took several blinks for her to focus and her pupils dilated when they caught the soft golden rays of late morning sunlight.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could spot two figures sharing the unfamiliar room with her. A lump suddenly formed in her throat and she could feel her poor little heart thumping madly underneath her ribs as she tried desperately to remember what happened last night. She was only aware that she had been out drinking with her friends. That much was obvious from the intense ache in her cranium. As if many tiny men where hammering away at her skull from the inside. Beth felt utter fear in that moment as she had never experienced a blackout before.

“W-Where am I?” She managed to whisper, wincing softly at how harsh and rough her voice sounded. Like dry sandpaper. “Who...Who are you people?” Her chest began to rise and fall more rapidly, showing that she was on the verge of hyperventilating as tears pricked her eyes.

 

[Viktoff Samson]

Koji wasn't even close to working up a response to what his employer had to say. The reality of the situation was: Hayato gave Koji everything. This human life he can live. A good job. A way to earn respect from others. Everything. Without Hayato's direct influence, Koji could have died being a street urchin. His bizarre yet continued devouring of ghouls would have escalated much more quickly and he'd likely lose his mind completely to devolve into a monster. A genuine monster. Knowing all of this, Koji couldn't simply oppose Hayato on moral grounds alone. Even practically speaking, the old ghoul was correct and he spoke from both authority and experience. But, Koji didn't even summon vocal agreement or so much as a nod. Luckily, a distraction served to break down the tension of the room. At least for Koji.

The sounds of the young woman forcing herself awake had been enough to make Hayato's kakugan evaporate to a normal pair of old man eyes and his narrow barely open expression returned. Both of the males looked to her as she spoke and Koji's green eyes narrowed just slightly. "Hayato, let me handle this." Koji's confident and manly voice left his nearly expressionless lips.

A small grumble came from the older male as he stood just an inch or two shorter than Koji. He'd courteously tip his hat to Beth before making his way to the door and pausing. "Just remember Koji... Your life isn't the only one at risk." The increasingly familiar old man's voice worked out this dark note before he'd leave the room. To this, Koji folded his arms and looked to Beth again.

"You were attacked." Koji started rather nonchalantly, like he wasn't uncomfortable with or unfamiliar with bad news. His left hand raised to his neck to touch the spot on his own body as a way to direct her to the bandages without walking towards her and touching her. Although he wasn't being deeply empathetic, or sad, or happy, he certainly wasn't taking any risks to make her feel uncomfortable either. "Your attacker won't be returning. You'll never see him again." This followed the same tone as before, and he'd make his way to the front of his desk to sit on it facing her. "I know you had a few to drink. I served it to you. But, it's vital that you tell me what you remember." He titled his head and with the next few words his voice got deeper and his expression grew more serious. "Exactly what you remember."

 

[BurdgeBug]

Beth watched with anxiousness as the older male stood and exited the room. She didn’t know these people and she was laying in a strange bed, god knows where. She had every right to be weary of them both. And yet, it seemed highly unlikely that they would be willing to help her and keep her safe if they had intentions to harm her. When she was alone with the younger male, her hazel orbs followed his every movement and, upon seeing him motioning towards his neck, they widened considerably. “W-What?!” She hissed in alarm and attempted to sit up. The sudden strain of her neck muscles caused her to give a soft whimper of discomfort before she fell back onto the soft pillow once more.

The American woman groaned, instead bringing her hands up and covering her face with them as though to hide the shame she felt. This was all her fault. She should have never been so stupid to get drunk and follow a stranger into an alleyway. She had better sense than that. A lump formed in her throat as she fought back tears of embarrassment. She could hear Koji moving across the floor and listened intently to his demand.

Slender, pale fingers twitched slightly until one eye was visible between them. Beth stared up at the male before closing her orbs. Her brow furrowed as she attempted to recall everything that happened last night. “I...I want out with my classmates to celebrate the end of mid-term exams. And I obviously got drunk. Something I don’t notmally do because I’m not very smart when I’m under the influence.” A particular throb resounded in her skull as if to mock her the moment those words slipped past her lips.

“And then...” Beth could briefly remember the alleyway and an ominous shadow looming over her. She gasped, her fingers suddenly tracing the clean bandage resting against the flesh of her throat as beads of sweat coated her brow. “There was a man that came to me. I...I think he asked me if I wanted to go to the club next door.” A look of regret suddenly morphed her pretty features. “But the details of his face are all forgotten to me.” Her gaze suddenly snapped upwards as she met Koji’s. “You said I’d never see him again.” A deathly silence followed her statement and she swallowed thickly before bravely continuing. “Did you do something to him?”

 

[Viktoff Samson]

In a way, he couldn't help but adopt a sort of detective persona as he registered this mythical woman who previously had been resting in his bed. There were some features of this situation which just plainly didn't line up so clean. Features like her reaction to being told about her neck wound. Did she really have this much of an adrenaline reaction to seeing two strangers when she woke up that she was numb to the grisly wound? Even the non-human Koji figured it had to be something else. Perhaps it was the hangover? She definitely didn't handle her drinks well.

He'd listen to her story actively by not interrupting her for a second and offering nods here or there to physically signal to her that she had the floor as she told him what she'd remember. While he wasn't exactly some deep psychologost and he was far from an expert on either humans or women, Koji did trust that she was being open and honest. She didn't seem to be hiding anything in his opinion. It was either that, or he was simply too gullible. Even with the added stress of his actions having consequences that effects people other than himself, he couldn't bring himself to view this woman as the enemy.

Deep down a part of him was twisting in confusion. She was human. How could he let her slip right in under his defenses like this? He owed it to the ghoul children he feeds and protects with his abnormal strength to put this female on notice and really test her. But, he couldn't. Just as he was starting to let his own conflicting thoughts distract him from this serious situation, she pulled him right back with a totally fair question. Did he do something to her attacker? He certainly gave her enough to assume so.

She was inquisitive. Koji always thought a thinker like her would do a little better when she was liquored up. In this instance, he grossly underestimated her. He'd fold his arms again as he adjusted his viewpoint so he was looking out the window. The sun's golden rays turned his eyes into emeralds and put the various shades of brown in his hair on full blast. Perhaps there were even strands of gold within them. His brow furrowed as his response delayed further. He couldn't be more divided about this. Part of him wanted to grin and make a pun about losing his head. Another wanted to flatly lie.

"You're dealing with danger." He finally spoke, turning his emerald gaze to her hazel eyes. "The answer to your question is yes." His emphasis was an attempt to persuade her into understanding that the less she knew the better. But, he was sure she wasn't the type to just shrug. "Don't you have a phone? Your friends didn't assume you spent the night in some guy's..." And then he paused and his eyes would turn to the wall immediately opposite of her. "I mean, would they know if you were safe or not?"

 

[BurdgeBug]

Hearing him speak brought out a sudden emotion within her. Fear. Not the normal kind that she felt last night with a predator pinning her to the wall and chomping down on her throat. This one was deep and primal, alerting her for the first time that, even though she was technically in a safe setting and being looked after, there was something hidden behind the facade of her savior that she couldn’t quite detect. And, because of that, she would have to be on her guard. It seemed Koji had gotten rid of her attacker and Beth instantly knew that he wasn’t alive. Call it intuition. But how had he done so without even receiving so much as a scratch on his body?

The male then suddenly asked about her phone and her friend and the young woman’s brow furrowed. That’s right, she hadn’t been alone last night. She licked her dry lips before speaking softly. “My phone was in my purse. I had it with me when I went into the alley but...I don’t remember what became of it. My friends saw me with the man. I remember that Sara even encouraged me to go with him. I-I assume that they believe I’ve had a one night stand or something.” Beth winced at the very idea. She hated such a term and was further embarrassed that she almost allowed her drunken self into doing something like that.

“I....I should at least text one of them to let them know what happened. Otherwise, they are in for quite the shock when they see the bandage on my neck.” The blonde gave a humorless chuckl as her fingers traced circles into the clean bandage. “You don’t think I’ll need to go to the hospital, do you? How bad is it? What if it gets infected? And....why did he bite me of all things? Didn’t think that cannibal serial killers actually existed.”

 

[Viktoff Samson]

Beth's eyes, if they'd make the attempt, would find Koji's green orbs effortlessly as he looked right into her soul as she spoke. Again, he wasn't some biological lie detector. But he had way too many reasons to remain diligent in his inquires. The young ghouls who relied on his strength were the primary driving force for his intensity. She'd be allowed to speak uninterrupted as he took longer moments of deeper thought between her own pauses or he didn't have anything of immediate importance to assert or ask. In the truest fibers of Koji's heart, he wished he could just get lost in her eyes and forget this whole mess entirely. A human's life was a big responsibility. Especially a human who has reliable witnesses and evidence to suggest that she would have went missing at this very bar. A human whose bite wound could probably be deduced to be from a Ghoul. Her death could easily trigger international problems, let alone directing doves to Hayato, the ghoul employees and the children that Koji kept safe. His own death was less frightening of a concept than even a mildly poor scenario that could arise should this woman talk about what happened. And killing her didn't fix the issue outright either.

Finally standing on his boots again, Hayato briefly sighed a stressed note before looking around the other side of his desk. "Yeah, here." He'd pluck up her previously mentioned item that the night shift manager picked up for here. "Don't worry, we didn't go through it." He spoke of her purse as he delivered it calmly and slowly to her lap. This motion led to him sitting perpendicular to her at the foot of the bed. "I think I have an idea for something that could really benefit us both." He relaxed a noticeable bit and summoned just a little smile as he continued. "You could tell your friends that you spent your night out getting a good look at Tokyo with me. And if they ask, we can both say nothing... Physical happened." Koji fought the urge to accent what he was saying with his hands. He figured he'd be taken less seriously if he made it seem like a joke with such friendly gestures.

"I'm Sakurai Koji. The guy behind the bar serving drinks last night." He gave her a thumbs up incidentally. He just felt fairly invested in the idea and that gesture slipped through.

"As for your wound?" He dropped his smile to his normal expression. The darkness under his eyes growing more noticeable as his face was closer to the window's light. If she were looking for that detail, it'd be safe to assume as she lied in his bed, he didn't get any sleep himself. "I'm no doctor, but it just looks like with a little time and some ointment or antibacterial stuff should keep it from being a problem. Worst come to worst I could just lend you my red scarf and that should cover it up until it looks less serious."