Roses of Pain

Roses of Pain Chapter 7

The next morning, Hide and Yoshiki stood silently side by side at the iron gate to the cemetery, watching behind dark sunglasses the few random people that walked the cemetery. "You still up to this," Yoshiki whispered to his companion, reaching out to snake his arm through Hide's.
The other nodded slowly and began forward, forcing Yoshiki to follow.
Marilyn leaned up against the rental car and lit a cigarette, taking a long, relaxing drag. He hated cemeteries, hated the dead. He watched Hide closely as the pink head bobbed across the cemetery, clutching tightly to Yoshiki.
A gentle breeze blew through his orange hair as he blew smoke rings. He watched one drift off into the wind, watching as it drifted in site of the road. A sleek black limo was coming up the cemetery path, pulling to a halt directly behind him.
He pushed his sunglasses up further on his nose and pretended to watch the horizon, keeping an eye on the limo. A woman stepped out of the limo with long, curled blond hair, heavy makeup and a blue dress. Behind her closely stepped a man all in red, died red hair sprouting from his head. The two looked around a moment, seeming to overlook Marilyn.
Next out came a man all in black leather, pink hair sprouting from his head. And lastly, a man with short brown hair, the most normal-looking of the bunch. The last man out looked around until sunglassed-eyes fell on Marilyn. He cocked his head to the side and smiled, reaching over to tap on the pink-headed man's shoulder.
"This doesn't feel right," Marilyn whispered behind his cigarette. The two men broke and began walking towards him. "Not right at all."
"Good morning," the normal looking one greeted in English. "Beautiful day, no?"
Marilyn tried to smile and shook his head.
"You're Marilyn Manson, are you not?"
"No, sorry pal. Name's Brian," Marilyn spoke. It wasn't all-together a lie.
"Ah, I see," the normal looking man laughed. "Playing coy?" He looked past Marilyn to Hide's grave. "Well well. I see we've all had the same idea this morning," he extended a hand, waiting politely until Marilyn shook it. "I'm Toshi� I trust you've heard of me."
Marilyn's eyes widened. "�shit�"

Hide took a deep breath and kneeled down beside a large, black marble headstone. He traced a thin finger over the scrawling kanji that formed his name above his epitaph: "So rests our beloved son," he whispered.
A hand came down to rest lightly on his shoulder, Yoshiki's chin coming to rest on Hide's shoulder. "I've come here quite a few times to wish you well. I always wondered if you heard me or not."
Hide turned eyes up to Yoshiki. "I heard them all," he whispered, raising a finger to trace over Yoshiki's cheek. "All of them."
Yoshiki hung his head as he blushed, chuckling to himself. "I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything."
Hide's head appeared in Yoshiki's field of vision for just an instant before Yoshiki felt warm and soft lips envelope his. He closed his eyes and reached for Hide, pulling him closer. Reality melted around him and it seemed that only he and Hide existed in the world.
Yoshiki relaxed as he felt Hide's tongue exploring his mouth. He had dreamed often of being able to sit and just kiss the younger man, if that's all he would ever be allowed to do. There was so much he wanted to do�
Hide's arms encircled Yoshiki tightly and he then felt the soft, silky presence of Hide's black wings, encircling him and shielding him from the soft breeze that blew through the cemetery. The kiss deepened and became more passionate, Yoshiki's heart beginning to pound out of his chest. Conscious thought began to leave him�
"Oh, now this is just simply adorable!" a voice chuckled over them.
Yoshiki and Hide broke suddenly, Yoshiki looking up over one of Hide's wings.
A tall man in red leather stood rather vainly aside from a blonde-haired woman. "Very rude� but cute."
Yoshiki grumbled. Why didn't he mention Hide's wings? "Who are you?"
"Kozi� this is Mana," the man gestured around. "And a cemetery is hardly a place to make out�" Kozi looked over Yoshiki to see Hide, "� and with another man no less! Very interesting!"
"Get lost," Yoshiki snarled, feeling Hide's arms tighten around his waist.
"Yoshiki�" Hide whispered in his ear. "Where's Marilyn?"

Marilyn found himself being thrown rather forcefully into the limo, his head hitting the far door. "Damn.. what in the fuck is with you?"
"You're in the way� and seeing as how your guardian isn't with you�" Toshi snarled, crawling into the limo. "It seems you're vulnerable."
"What do you mean , my 'guardian'?"
"The one who protects you� we all have them."
"Then where's yours?" Marilyn snarled.
Toshi frowned. "He's around," he reached into his suit coat and pulled out a long knife. "So, first thing's first..", and Toshi leapt.

Twiggy had been driving aimlessly around the countryside of Yokosuka for almost an hour now. The country was beginning to look the same, and his driver only spoke Japanese.
A long, winding road verred off the main road just ahead and wound up a tall, green hill. Something in his mind was pulling him to that hill. "Turn ahead," he instructed.
"Nani� no Engurish."
"Turn, you idiot," Twiggy leaned up over the seat and pointed to the turn coming up. "There, stupid."
"Hai hai�"

Yoshiki's brown eyes swept the cemetery quickly. Marilyn was gone.
Mana chuckled lightly and bent down beside Yoshiki, leaning over his shoulder to see Hide. "Hello there, little one," he smiled, reaching out towards Hide.
"Don't touch him," Yoshiki snarled, knocking the hand away.
Mana's eyes narrowed. "Don't you EVER touch me again!"
With a sickening speed, both Kozi and Mana leapt, Kozi grabbing Hide by his pink hair and easily dragging him away as Mana tackled Yoshiki flat.
Hide yelped and grabbed at Kozi's hands, meaning to fight back when he saw a familiar face lean down beside Mana.
Sugizo reached around Mana and gently tugged Yoshiki to his feet, securely holding his arms. "Well, so we meet again, hide."
"Sugi!. What's going on here?"
Sugizo shrugged and smiled. "I don't think I would tell you anyway."
Across from them, Kozi jerked Hide to his feet, Mana going to join him. Hide struggled violently under Kozi's grip, the other was much stronger and larger than he. "Let him go!" Hide was screaming to Sugizo.
"Careful careful," Sugizo chuckled, drawing a finger down Yoshiki's cheek. "I would hate for such perfect skin to be damaged.
"What the hell is with you people!" Hide screamed again. "SUGIZO!"
Sugizo turned his hack to hide and paused a moment, wrinkling his forehead as if he was just a little confused. He rubbed his eye a moment and turned back on hide, one of his trademark Lucifer smiles painted heavily on his face. "Shall we go for a ride, hide-chan? Ya know� for old-times sake?"

Marilyn ducked in time to let Toshi's knife imbed itself in the door of the limo, leaving Marilyn half a second to try his escape. In a rather sloppy Superman imitation, he threw his tall body across the interior of the limo, diving for the door and crawling out in nearly one fluid moviement. Needless to say, Marilyn himself was more than just slightly impressed at his own effort as he more or less fell out of the limo door, landing in a dusty plop on the ground below.
"Where do you think you're going!" Toshi screamed behind him, pulling himself through the limo to follow the other.
Marilyn made it to his feet just as Toshi leapt out of the car door and tackled him flat, Marilyn's tall form hitting the dirt and gravel below him in a blow that almost knocked the wind out of him. Toshi wasted no time in quickly imbedding the knife in Marilyn's side, twisting the blade sideways.
Marilyn yelled something inaudible and managed to roll out from under Toshi, clutching at his side in pain. Above him, Toshi was readying himself for another blow, arching wildly above his head.

Twiggy's cab bounced slowly up the cemetary hill� all too slowly, as far as Twiggy was concerned. "Fuck, I can get out and run faster than this!" He yelled to the driver. "MOVE IT!"
The driver, not understanding a word of Twiggy's English shrugged and repeated for what seemed like the 30th time in the trip "No Engurish!"
"Christ�" Twiggy grabbed the door handle and kicked the cab door open, watching the ground pass below him. As if finally getting the clue, the driver spead up, kicking dirt and gravel behind him. The force of the change in momentum sent Twiggy sprawling back into his seat. "That's more like it!"
The cab was peaking the hill quickly, Twiggy making out two black limo's and a vast cemetery laid out over gently rolling hills. He saw a mall group of people in the cemetery � and saw the two men fighting beside the limo. "Lyn!"

Toshi lunged� and barely missed as Marilyn tried his best to roll out of the way. His side hurt in paing like he had never felt before, the roll nearly paralyzing him with a sudden shock over the entire left side of his body. Whether he could help it or not, Marilyn just laid on his side. Get up, you idiot, he thought to himself.
He heard the shuffle of feet behind him. This was it� the final blow. Marilyn pressed his eyes closed tight with such pressure that his eyes started watering� watering from either the pressure or the pain.
There was a loud "oof" and something heavy fell to the ground behind him.
The sudden presence of Twiggy Ramirez flowed into Marilyn's senses and he opened his eyes in time to see his bassist land in an all-too un-Twiggy like gracefulness beside him. "Hold on a sec, Lyn�" Twiggy laid a hand out on Marilyn's shoulder.
Marilyn felt a sudden surge of warmth flow through his body and concentrate on the wound in his side. Within seconds, the pain had faded, but Marilyn still couldn't move. As he looked up with confusing eyes to his bassist, Twiggy was suddenly gone.

Hide laughed nervously as he walked along infront of Mana and Kozi, his wings having disappeared. "Cute joke, sugi-chan. Very convincing�" he nervously chewed on a fingernail. "Sugi?"
Sugizo threw a Lucifer smile over his shoulder. "Joudan ja nai�" Sugizo slowed and reached back to hide, pinching one of the cheeks rather roughly.
Again, hide chuckled. "O�okay, Sugi. If you wanted to scare the shit out of me�. You've done it. Enough fooling around�"
Sugizo turned on hide with a speed and agility that he had never seen. Before he knew it, hide was on his back on the ground, Sugizo looming above him. "Do I LOOK like I'm fuckin' JOKING, SPIDER???"
Hide made a strangled sound somewhere between a cry of shock and fear.
"Leave him alone!" Yoshiki screammed, trying to turn and lunge after Sugizo. He was caught off-guard by Kozi� who only had to stick out a foot to trip the taller man to send him sprawling face-first into the dirt.
Kozi chuckled a bit before breaking out in utter hysterics, pointing and laughing at Yoshiki.
Shaking his blue-curled hair, Mana pulled a knife from his "purse" and bent down beside Yoshiki, pointing the menacing blade. "Back to your feet. Would hate to ruin that perfect complexion or yours.
Yoshiki snarled and sit grass and dirt from his mouth, watching as Sugizo rolled off of Hide and tugged the littler guitarist to his feet by way of his pink hair. Hide squeaked in pain, but made it to his feet beside Sugizo, scared brown eyes finding Yoshiki through all the confusion that was happening. "Yoshiki�"
Sugizo elbowed hide in the back. "Move it, spider." Sugizo chuckled and straightened his body out, mixing around with his pink hair until it mirrored hide's. "Hn� we could be brothers," he threw a loving arm around hide as the group walked across the cemetary, Kozi still chuckling to himself. "You know the story of Romulus and Remus, ne, hide-chan?" Sugizo didn't give the other a chance to answer. "One brother killed the other because he wanted possession of Rome all to himself� or something like that." He turned thin brown eyes down to hide.
"Ah shit�" Kozi's grumble broke the crowd apart.
All eyes shot up to the limo's.
"Hn� that's a small problem," Mana growled.

Twiggy loomed protectively over Marilyn, placing his bulky frame as a barrier between his leader and Toshi. Toshi seemed indifferent to Twiggy's presence, but took caution of him anyway. He was almost twice Toshi's size in sheer body size alone� never mind how much more power Tiggy held.
"Who are you?" Toshi snorted, wiping the blade clean on his shirt, leaving a sickening red trail over the white fabric.
"Your worst nightmare it seems, you little jerk. Ya want Lyn, you go through me."
Toshi stood straight and nodded in approval. "I could do that� but I won't have to."
Marilyn made a strangled noise of alarm behind him, Twiggy instantly ducking.
Kozi came stumbling into view, throwing a punch that missed its mark completely.
Twiggy looked the other over, looked at the odd clothing, hair and makeup. "You little japanese twits sure are weird, ya know. I'd consider counceling or somethin�"
"Shut up and give up. You're outnumbered, round-eye," Kozi tossed a hand through the air as if shooing off a cat.
Twiggy glanced out of the corner of his eye. Sugizo and Mana stood aside from him with Hide and Yoshiki in their custody. Marilyn was definitely out of the game.
"In the car," Toshi motioned with the knife. "Cooperate and I promise no one hurts him," he pointed the blade back down to Marilyn.
Given the options, Twiggy mentally smacked himself. "Doesn't look like I have a choice."

On to part 8

© 1999 Korogi Nagisa, Jiminy Cricket Presses.