It had been about a week since Airi and Jurou had gone out for sake, and to say that the two had hit it off was an understatement. She just felt so undeniably drawn to him, and the stories he told her about his travels, she could have listened to him talk for hours. And the two of them did talk for hours over sake, then over dinner, and then over mochi in her apartment after work. She felt as though she could never get tired of the older man.

Older being ten years her senior, but age had never stopped Airi from getting what she wanted.

Kaito had been pushing her for details on her budding romance, but she had been a little reluctant to give him too many. Something was holding her back from telling him, even though they had told each other everything in the past. But times were changing, and so were they as they got older, so it was only normal to feel a little hesitance, right?

These were the thoughts running through Airi's head as she walked through the lower levels of the Angeli Mortis building, where all of the dirtier work took place. Today she would be demonstrating how her curse worked, and why she was so good at getting information out of enemies that they captured. Jurou had asked to see some of their extraction methods, and Chuuya more than happily obliged. Anything to make his daughter look better before the Board meeting came around.

If only he knew how close Airi and Jurou were, maybe then he wouldn't be worrying about what kind of impression she was making on him.

Airi's black heels clicked against the cement floor as she made her way to the assigned room, where her father and Jurou would be watching from the one way glass, as well as a few other higher ups. She rarely allowed a crowd for her killings, but this was a rare exception for her father.

And it was only fair that Jurou see firsthand how monstrous she could be, before their relationship got too serious. He wouldn't be the first man to back out upon seeing just how dangerous her curse could be.

Most men seemed to dislike it if their female lover was more powerful than them, but Airi was thankful for that. Because she didn't want to be stuck with a man who was so clearly physically and mentally weaker than she was, for that to be a problem.

She stepped up to the locked door, looking into the retina scanner before the door clicked open and she walked inside. Her newest victim had his wrists chained to the wall, in a standing position, and his gaze was poisonous as he glared down at her. Airi paid him no mind as she grabbed a pair of twin blades from the table, flipping one in her hand nonchalantly before she finally met his gaze.

"I assume that you don't find our cells much to your liking? I can't say I'm surprised, though I've heard that you prisoners do get well fed. Better than most of the people living in the slums, at any rate," she said calmly, making her way up to him. The man clenched his jaw as he stayed silent, though his piercing gaze never left her.

"Oh, I see how it is. You're just not going to talk to me, and then you expect that I'll kill you out of frustration without getting any information out of you. Really, I know I'm a natural pinkette, but do you think I'm that stupid? I'm a little insulted," Airi said disapprovingly, shaking her head at him before she threw one of her knives at him. It landed in his arm with a thud, embedding itself in the wall behind him so that way he couldn't move.

The prisoner let out a hiss of pain when the knife landed in his arm, unable to even pull it out because both of his wrists were chained up. "You little bitch," he spat down at her, though she didn't even flinch as she watched him. She merely flipped the second knife in her hands, her expression passive as she took a step forward.

"I'll give you a chance to tell me yourself before I get it out of you. Let's start with an easy question, shall we? Who sent you after Sachi yesterday?" She asked, her gaze unwavering as she watched him closely. When he stayed quiet once more, she didn't hesitate to throw her second knife right at his chest, listening to his cry of pain.

Airi walked over to him and twisted the knife deeper into his body, knowing it would cause him even more pain, before a silver glow outlined her petite figure. She pushed the hilt of the knife into his body, the silver glow only getting stronger as his cries got louder. She closed her eyes as she listened to his sounds of pain, seemingly focusing on something, before she stepped away from him, and glanced at the side wall. "I got the information. Leave this one to die, he's no use to me anyways," she said simply, before she made her way back out of the room as calmly as she had come in.

From behind the glass, Jurou looked over at Rin in confusion, noting the proud expression on the father's face. "But how? She didn't get any answers out of him," he said, furrowing his brows slightly as he glanced back over at the bloody scene behind the glass.

"She didn't need to get any answers out of his mouth, Jurou. All of the answers she needed were in his mind. Her curse allows her to access all of the information in someone's mind, but the catch is that they have to be on the verge of death. And she has to be the one who caused it," Rin explained patiently, watching as his daughter left the room, before he looked back at the Board member.

Jurou nodded in understanding as he listened to Rin, before he frowned slightly when the realization hit him. "But she went on her first real assignment at age ten," he remembered, watching Airi's father closely.

"That she did," Rin agreed grimly, crossing his arms over his chest as he met Jurou's gaze. "And we had no way of knowing what exactly her curse was until she made her first kill. Maybe if we had known, we wouldn't have sent her out alone at that age, but no cursed man or woman knows how their curse works until they do the necessary evil to activate it."

Ah yes, Jurou was all too aware of the many atrocities that most children of cursed parents were forced to commit in order to see if they too were cursed.

That was why he considered himself a savior to the woman that he had kept in captivity for so long. He had saved her from a life of misery and pain with parents who would use her and exploit her curse for their own personal gain. He would never do that to his little dove, he had kept her safe from all harm. 

And all that it had cost was her freedom.

~~~

This was kind of a short chapter, only about 1.2k words, and it's unedited. However, the overall word count for this story is over 10,000 words, which is about a fifth of the minumum length to enter into the Wattys this year, so that's pretty cool.

I hope you guys are seeing how the story is very slowly, but surely falling into place, and I really hope you're enjoying it. I really don't know how to write a full length story, but I'm doing my best.

See you next update!