L'Arc en Ciel fanfiction .::. Working the Streets

Episode 11 ~Child of Satan~

“...And... to top it all off... you are a sore loser!” Tetsu protested yelling as the three of them walked out of the pachinko.
“You cheated! Nobody can beat me so I gather you cheated!” Hyde protested bitterly.
“I didn’t cheat! I’m a natural at games!” Tetsu protested furiously.
“No way! You, big cheater!” Hyde screamed getting red in anger.
“Oe! Guys...” Sakura tried to calm them down.
“You don’t even practice as much as I do!” Hyde kept yelling.
“I don’t need it! I have the magic stone!”
“That’s cheating! The magic stone! I should have guessed it!” Hyde protested furiously as if the stone were really magic.
“Etoo... guys...” Sakura tried again.
“I’m not giving it back cuz you bet the stone!” Tetsu yelled furiously. “It’s almost as betting our friendship!”
“No, it’s not!” Hyde yelled back a little astonished.
“You don’t appreciate my friendship!” Tetsu replied. “That’s why the stone works for me, but it will never work for you!”
“Bastard! You can’t take it back cuz it was a present! Gimme that stone back!”
“I’d say you guys are kinda stoned...” Sakura muttered.
“Shut up!” Both Hyde and Tetsu replied.
“Oh... OK.”
“Stone...” Tetsu held the stone so that Hyde could see it. “Mine forever.”
“No fucking way!” Hyde wailed and jumped on Tetsu. They both started to fight.
“Uh... well... from my point of view, I’d say you guys are on the way to a beautiful friendship...” Sakura sighed and separated them. “Apologize to each other. Friends don’t fight like that.”
Tetsu started to sob as tears ran down his cheeks.
“You made Tet-chan cry!” Hyde yelled at Sakura.
“Ore?!”
“Yeah, you!” Hyde screamed and hugged Tetsu tightly. “You made my best friend cry!”
“You made me cry, asshole.” Tetsu said sobbing to Hyde.
“I did?” Hyde muttered holding Tetsu.
“Yeah...”
“I’m sorry...” Hyde said and squeezed Tetsu. “I apologize for yelling at you and calling you cheater.”
“Also apologize for pulling from my hair...” Tetsu mumbled.
“I apologize for that if you apologize for kicking my ankle...”
“I apologize, Hai-chan...”
“I forgive you. You are my best friend.” Hyde said and touched the stone.
“I forgive you too.” Tetsu sobbed. “You are my best friend too and you can keep the stone.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if world leaders could make up this easily?” Sakura wondered aloud.
“Let’s go to purikura together and get a pic of us, Tet-chan!” Hyde exclaimed rubbing Tetsu’s back.
“Well... OK.” Tetsu said and sobbed while he smiled.
“Daisuki, Tet-chan. Nakayoshi da na.” Hyde said and nodded.
“Un. Nakayoshi.”

“Well... These are Tet-chan’s, all of these are mine... and these two are Sakura’s.” Hyde started to split the huge bulk of purikura pictures they had taken.
They were all sitting at a table at KFC, and Tetsu was eagerly eating without really paying attention.
“Now... I have a very good idea, Tet-chan.”
“Un. Great idea.” Tetsu said focusing on the food.
“The very baka is not listening...” Hyde pouted. “Anyway... I’m gonna stick a pic of us both on the stone.”
“That’s a cute idea.” Sakura observed while playing with the sorbet between his lips.
“Of course. What do you say, Tet-chan?”
“’Bout what?”
“Sticking our pic to the stone.” Hyde said rather annoyed.
“Oh! Good idea!” Tetsu said and smiled.
“All in all this was a great day!” Hyde exclaimed while sticking the picture to the stone.
“Yeah... it was fun...” Sakura said and took a look at his watch. “But I gotta get going, guys...”
“Oh... that’s bad. I was hoping we could go to pachinko again...” Hyde said pouting.
“I’ve a meeting.” Sakura winked and waved goodbye. “I guess I’ll see you two around, boys. Behave.”
“Un!” Hyde waved and nodded.
“You too, behave.” Tetsu said and smiled broadly. He was beginning to feel a little more forgiving... Was it also the effect of the supposedly-magic stone?
“Ne... Tet-chan... Wanna do something?”
“Wah! Yeah!” Tetsu answered startled. “I had almost forgotten! I want you to come somewhere with me...”
“Where?”
“You’ll see. I want you to meet someone I know. Someone who is very interested in you.”
“A client? You’re gonna get me clients?”
“No! Not a client! Somebody who wants to talk to you.”
“Good or bad?”
“Good. Very good.”
“Hmm... Well, OK. I’ve nothing better to do... the cell-phone didn’t ring at all today.” Hyde answered and shrugged.

About half an hour later, Tetsu found himself trying to calm down Hyde from the incredible fit of wrath he was having in front of the temple gate.
“You are a moron! What the hell do you think you are doing? Why did you make me waste my time by coming down here where that asshole lives?! Has he washed your brain yet? I’m sure he has!! How can you be so pathetically weak to let him convince you of all his crap!!” Hyde yelled insanely and kicked desperately against the gate, while Tetsu, cautiously, had positioned himself behind the choleric boy and at a few steps from him.
“Hai-chan, calm down... this is not what you think...”
“This is what I think! I’m not an idiot like you! You believe everything people tell you! And you especially believe this son of a bitch because he pretends to be a saint!”
“No, Hai-chan... he said he’d give you a job... a decent...”
“I already have a job!! Fuck decency!! How many times do I have to tell you that?! Are you deaf, stupid or what?!”
“No, Hai-chan... listen to me, please...” Tetsu tried insisting in a pained tone.
“I don’t have to listen to your stupid reasons!! I just can’t believe you have taken me to him! You are a snitch! You are a filthy giver!”
“Haido!” Tetsu wailed in despair.
“You know what? You know why this guy wants to meet me? Wanna know why?”
“I know why...” Tetsu started.
“No you don’t!!”
“He wants to get you a j-...”
“No!! He wants to fuck me! I’m sure he’s a pedophile too! It’s either that or he wants to use me for his own avail, in order to look more admirable and glorious to his superiors! So that he will get a raise or a better position!” Hyde said banging his fists against the heavy gate in fury.
“He’ll be the one saving a child from the clutches of evil! I bet he has told you that. That he’d save me from the clutches of evil... Does this asshole know what evil is like? Has he ever seen it?” Hyde yelled frantically, his eyes bugging out and his face red in rage.
“I’ve stared into the eyes of evil, stared into the eyes of death, stared into the very eyes of every sin you can possibly imagine, and quite a bunch you don’t know yet! How on earth does he think he’s gonna save me from things he doesn’t know beyond a theoretical point of view? From things he has never been put through! Is he gonna change the world for me? Will he change the past for me? I’ll believe in him and his god if he can change the past for me, if he can bring my parents back and spare me of every misery I’ve been put through! Otherwise, he’d better keep his preaching to the good herd of right-doers that come here to pay the toll for Heaven!”
“Haido...” Tetsu tried to interrupt. Hyde’s frenetic speech was scaring him.
“You are a complete asshole, Tetsu! He’s not gonna help me or you! He’s only gonna help himself! He wants to use you and me! You can’t let him use us! For fuck’s sake don’t buy his lies! They sound so pretty and cool, he’s trained for it! He’s a poseur, just like everyone in this world! Tetsu you are so naïve!!”
“But... but... he said he...” Tetsu tried again.
“Bullshit!!” Hyde screamed on top of his throat.
“It’s really sad... that you have such a bad impression of me, without really knowing me.” A calm, deep voice spoke as the gate opened. The strict eyes of an otherwise seemingly gentle man met those of Hyde.
“There you are! Son of a bitch!” Hyde screamed bouncing and fuming in fury.
“Haido... the boy with the colorful vocabulary.” The preacher said and smiled calmly. “And Tetsu, the boy with the gentle smile.”
“Preacher, the prick with the messianic delusions.” Hyde added. “We have all been introduced, it seems.”
“Haido, I asked Tetsu to bring you here...” The preacher started leaving way to both boys to come inside the temple.
“Fuck you!” Hyde yelled angrily at Tetsu and blocked his accesss to the temple. Tetsu stood frozen behind Hyde, embarrassed and almost supplicating with his eyes to be spared of any violent incident between his friend and the preacher.
“...because I want to speak to you.” The lavishly clad man finished his sentence.
“You used my friend to bring me here and carry out your scheme of grandeur!” Hyde yelled and shook Tetsu in fury by an arm.
“No, actually, I just want to talk to you. I want to ask you some questions. I want to talk to you as a friend...”
“You ain’t no friend of mine!!” Hyde yelled and spit at the preacher.
“Fi-fine... I... understand you are afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you! I’m revolted by the likes of you! People who use innocent, naive and stupid kids like Tetsu here, who so answers to that description, only to get themselves a better position before someone else! I know people like you! I know lots of people like you! They make the best clients! The ones that pay the highest, the ones that believe they are fooling me into doing something I know quite little about! You are just like them! You are only interested in the hunt, and you think I’m gonna willingly accept to be your prey!”
“Haido... would you mind if we continue this conversation inside the temple?” The preacher suggested after snorting in a difficultly hidden annoyance.
“Of course I don’t mind! I will step into your holy temple and pee against the fucking walls!” Hyde yelled furiously and kicked the gate a few centimeters from the preacher.
“No! You aren’t gonna do that!” Tetsu tried to reprimand him.
“You shut up! Asshole!” Hyde retorted fuming. Tetsu obeyed fearing he might get strangled by his furious friend.
“Come on in, boys. I have cookies for...”
“I don’t give a shit about cookies! I’ve already fed Tet-chan with something a lot more nutritious than cookies!!”
“We went to KFC...” Tetsu relented almost in fear.
“Ah... I see, I see...” The preacher said and nodded trying to keep his temper at bay.
“I hate you, I hate you with all my guts! You want to save me and you let this poor boy starve! Where were you on Christmas when he almost got killed by a car? Were you saving him or were you celebrating with your rich and brain-washed blind followers?!”
“Shut up! Stop your slanderous speech right here!” The preacher hissed loosing the last traces of patience.
“Slanderous you say? I am speaking nothing but the truth!” Hyde screamed in wrath and the preacher took both him and Tetsu by their arms and dragged them inside the temple.
“I’ve had it with your biased words! You only want to turn Tetsu into the wrong path! Because you want him to be possessed by the same kind of fiend that has possessed you! This is why you reject me and fear me! Because you know I will cast you away from the innocent body you have taken by force and command you to the dark pits of hell where you belong!” The preacher yelled pushing both boys inside the main anti-chamber of the temple.
“What the hell are you talking about, moron? What innocent body?! This body has been ravaged quite before I turned into a hooker, and neither you nor your associates were there to prevent it or give me any help! What pits of hell are you talking about? Do you think I live in such happiness and glee, you moron? There is nothing you can cast away from me, asshole, because I have nothing left! Nothing, except Tetsu! And you certainly will never be able to split us apart! I’ll never let you! Asshole! Your idiocy will lead Tet-chan to the same kind of fate that I’ve been put through! But still... still you say you want to help me instead of him! I am beyond help! He needs help, not me! I’m not freezing my butt on the streets or hungering until I pass out! I have a warm home, ready food and a lot of clients that keep my butt busy and my dick entertained! He doesn’t even have decent underwear!”
“Don’t try to make yourself look good in front of this innocent child...!” The preach tried to counteract Hyde’s verbal attack.
“I don’t have to! You are the one trying to look good in front of him and in front of everyone else who is stupid enough to watch you and believe you! You speak of devious schemes and monsters, but the only monster with a devious scheme is you!
You want to see my innocent body taken by a supposed beast?! Take a look!” Hyde said and started undressing himself in rage.
“No! Hai-chan!” Tetsu shrieked and tried to hold Hyde and prevent him from undressing.
“Take a good look...!” Hyde kept screaming and pushed Tetsu apart. “A good look at the body that not a beast but a thousand beasts have taken for their own pleasure, their own joy, their own play... Take a good look at what your so-called-goodness-speech’s incapacity has been unable to prevent and take a good look at what your inefficacy and idiocy will one day do to Tetsu and to thousands of other Tetsus in this world, you motherfucker!” Hyde screamed baring himself and exposing the body of the child he was, bearing the invisible marks of abuse imprinted in his soul... the invisible marks that could be guessed beyond the immaculate perfection of his smooth skin.
“Look well! Look very well! This is the butt that people your age have the most fun with! These are the hands that are tired of holding so many dicks a day! This is the pee-pee that has been touched by so many strange hands already it can no longer recognize my own! This is the skin that has been kissed, licked and bitten by a million mouths, tasting of bitter lust and tainted desire, never caring about me, never caring about anything other than fulfilling their dirty dreams of having my innocence stolen! What kind of innocence do you think you can restore upon me? Everything has been taken from me when I was but a little child! All I have now is survival instinct and on the grounds of that survival instinct it is that I will not let you or anyone like you take my life for the sake of your fucking reputation or career ambitions! And neither will I let you use Tetsu in the same way I have been used!”
Hyde walked towards the retreating preacher that held a cross in front of him in a vain hope of protection. The older man was speechless.
“Take a look at what I can do with your cross!” Hyde said and taking it away from the preacher he licked it and rubbed it against his crotch. “Your religion means nothing if you can’t help those who come to you for help! Your religion is just a fucking career like anybody else’s if you care more about your position than helping out those who need you! Do you have the faintest idea of how many preachers like you, of all kinds of religious sects, have come to me for a little play? Do you have the faintest idea of how well I know that whatever you preach is not always what you do? If you want to help me, then help Tetsu first! He needs more help than I do. And keep your sacred objects somewhere where I can’t use them for my own satisfaction.
If you want me to trust you, earn yourself my trust!
Pretty words won’t do it... I’ve heard far too many, and I ain’t even old enough to know what my occupation really is about.”
Hyde threw the cross away and proceeded to get dressed while the preacher stayed gaping, frozen, sitting on the floor.
Tetsu didn’t dare to move, he was petrified in shame and horror, and he started crying softly while watching Hyde tie his shoes.
“Why are you crying, moron?” Hyde hissed still angry.
“He... he... he said he’d get you a job...” Tetsu mumbled and rubbed his hand to wipe his tears.
“If he gets YOU a job, then I’ll believe him.” Hyde snapped and rose to his feet. “But such a pussy man that lets a 13 year-old make a wreck out of him is not likely to do so. He’s only good for telling fellow pussy-people what to do.” Hyde cast a despising look on the preacher. “Let’s go, Tet-chan.”
“Gomen...” Tetsu said choking a cry and turned to follow Hyde. The preacher stayed in the very same position on the floor, still gaping, shaken by the words of a child who was by far, smarter and more hurt than he had ever imagined... than books had ever taught him.
“Welcome to the real world.” A far voice seemed to echo inside the preacher’s head, and he started considering that maybe in some way, Hyde was right. He had done nothing in all those years... he had only fought imaginary battles.

“Tetsu... stop... stop crying, will ya?” Hyde sighed rather annoyed as they walked towards Shibuya station.
“I can’t!” Tetsu exclaimed sobbing in frustration.
“Why do you like that preacher so much?”
“He... he’s a nice person. You didn’t have to insult him and you didn’t have to lower your pants the way you did! And in church! You big heretic! He just wanted to help you!”
“I don’t need help.”
“How can you be so stupid, Hyde?”
“If he’s such a nice guy, why doesn’t he help you? Huh?”
“Don’t start it again. He helps me when he can... And he wants to help you too.”
“Yeah, right... Why does he want to help me? I don’t want help. He could rather help you. You’d certainly appreciate it.”
“I tell you he helps me.”
“Well... I still see you in those rags, and I know you keep begging...”
“At least I’m decent... ah, wait. Decent means shit to you.”
“Exactly. All in all what I mean is... Why doesn’t he get you a job... A job you get paid for and you can afford school with?”
“Uh... well, I never asked him to...”
“I never asked him for help either... There is a reason why he wants to help me and not you.”
“Probably cuz you need help more badly than I do.”
“Really? I’m not hungering or getting hit by cars... my life is not at stake... I don’t sleep on the cold ground and it’s not very likely that I will die on the streets... What makes you think I need help more badly than you do? Just plain stupidity?”
“Well... OK, what’s your fucking point, Haido?!”
“He is not interested in you because he’s got you already.”
“Eh?”
“He’s like those... like those pervs, you know... The ones that want what they can’t have but once they’ve got it they don’t want it anymore.”
“What do you mean? Haido, you are sick.”
“No. I know what I mean. I’ve had a bunch of those. The ones that get horny at the children around them... but they can’t have them, so they come to me in order to live their fantasy... If they could have those children, they wouldn’t be interested anymore. They’d rape them and leave them to their fate without giving a shit. Just like my uncle.
The preacher’s got you. You listen to him and you do what he asks you to do. So, he won’t help you. It’s a waste of time! He’s already got you. The thing that motivates him is the chase, not the outcome.”
“Haido... why do you think you are so clever, huh? Do you ever consider you could be wrong and someone might try to help you just because...?”
“No. No one helps just because. There is always a reason.”
“You helped me on that Christmas night...”
“There was a reason. I was feeling lonely and a little guilty... and...”
“...and...?”
“And you reminded me of myself years ago.” Hyde said and shrugged. “So... all in all it was a selfish thing.”
“Oh...”
“But later I came to like you.” Hyde hurried to say. “So I would do it again but for different reasons now.”
“Oh... what reasons?”
“We are friends now. The preacher is not my friend. I don’t even know him. So the reasons behind his so-called help are probably selfish. And the least scandalous one would be the rush the chase provokes in him. I’m sure he’s already devising a way to lure me again to him. But I know what he plans. He’s the hunter and he wants me to be the prey. I am a smart guy and I won’t get caught.”
“Haido... you are psychotic. He doesn’t want to hunt you! He wants to help you! Oh, God... you don’t give a shit about him wanting to help or anything... you are so stubborn...”
“Hmm... I don’t want his help. If he doesn’t accept my word, then he’s not doing it for me. He’s doing it for himself.”
“You don’t want my help either, and I would help you if I knew how...”
“That’s different.”
“How come?”
“Because you are my friend, of course. I don’t need to ask you for help. I guess you don’t need to ask me for help either. I will give it to you freely. You said we are friends for free. You gave me that pretty speech some hours ago back at home so... I’ve been thinking about it...”
“I wonder when...”
“...and I’ve decided that it’s different with you and I can trust you, so I must be someone worth of your trust too. So... it’s different.”
“Uh... Well... then I’m gonna ask you something.”
“Hope it’s not money.”
“No. I’m gonna ask you to be nice to the preacher. Don’t yell at him, don’t snap at him, don’t insult him or swear at him. And don’t show him your private parts or try to masturbate with his belongings! If you don’t want his help just say it nicely.”
“Shit! Why do I have to do that?! You are ruining my fun!”
“You have to do it... cuz you are my friend and I’m asking you.”
“Big jerk... taking advantage of our friendship... you should be ashamed...”
“Ashamed?! Ashamed of asking you to be nice?!”
“Uh... don’t put it like that!”
“Why not? It’s the truth!”
“You make it sound like it’s so simple!”
“It IS simple!”
“It is not!”
“Is too!”
“Is not!”
“Is too, dammit!”
“Is not, fucking dammit!” Hyde protested and pounced on Tetsu. “But I’ll try to, only for you.”

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