Chapter 82: Detox

Silence was all that lingered between Wave and Parc as they walked through the halls of Bolic's manor towards the rooms where Wave and the others were stationed. Specifically Wave and Run while Bolic and Seryu took another part of the manor leaving Kurome, Esdeath and him to keep watch over the southern entrances.

Parc's arms had come to hang over Wave's neck as if a threat to keep silent or he would choke the living out of him. "For your own safety. I advise you to forget everything you saw just then."

"But…" Wave tried to select his words wisely, "why was Kurome in the room and why was Esdeath trying to-"

"I'm serious Wave. If you want to live. Shut up. And never say a word of anything you saw to anyone." Parc interrupted.

"Is that a threat?" Wave's hand shot to his waste just above his swords hilt.

Parc raised a brow to his action efore smirking and removing his hand from the boys shoulder. "Wave. Who were the two women in that room?" he questioned.

"The captain and Kurome." He blankly asked, feeling an ominous premonition coming to the forefront of his mind.

"And pray tell. What would happen if you pissed them off and blabbed about what you saw?"

Wave swallowed hard, yeah, shutting up was in his best interest. "They'd, uh, kill me."

Parc snapped his fingers and pointed at Wave with a click of his tongue, "exactly. I am literally the least of your worries at this point. If either of them learnt of what you know. Hee," Parc chuckled, "yeah, doubt I'd be seeing you in one piece. Maybe a few thousand after Esdeath shatters your body into small little icecubes. So. Tell me, what did you see?"

"Nothing. I saw nothing at all."

Parc nodded in approval. "Good boy. Now, why don't you tell me about why you need Esdeath? I'm guessing it has to do with the girl? Aina, I think you called her?"

Wave perked up at the mention of Aina, a sadness taking to his eyes. Lifting a hand to his shoulder and squeezed, "yeah. She, uh, woke up but she's acting erratic. Scared. Run's keeping an eye on her said she's going through withdrawal from whatever Bolic has been feeding her." Wave growled out the mans name.

"yeah. Wouldn't be surprised. Happened to Kurome before," Wave's brows rose at that.

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm? Oh, the assassin corps drugs all of their members with some sick concoction of strength enhancing chemical." A sad frown came to Parc's lips, "it wasn't good. She went into convulsions at first, took a bit of effort to get her body used to not relying on those sick things."

"That-that happened to her? I never saw her ta- her candies. They drugged her candies?"

Parc nodded along, "yep. Once she got used to not needing them I had her start replacing them with similar ones from a store in the capital whenever she got a new batch. Nowadays she's completely off them and everyone's been none the wiser." It was painful seeing her like that. But now she seemed so different, happier. He couldn't help but feel he had a particularly big part in that.

"How did you help her?" he could hear the desperation in Wave's tone and the pleading in his eyes.

Parc smirked, "The girl. She's not a simple friend. Is she?"

Wave seemed to hesitate and slumped in on himself, "I… I don't know. I think she likes me and I like her but I was so oblivious to her that I was scared of confessing to her."

Parc's chest rose into a hearty chortle, "Yeah, sounds like a crush." Parc rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, "tell you what, you get me some good seafood back in the capital and I'll help your girlfriend get off her high. Deal?" Parc held his right hand out to Wave.

Wave's eyes lingered on Parc's hand before turning to meet his eyes, "you can help her?"

"Wouldn't say it if I couldn't."

Wave raised his hand, slapping it into Parc's both clenching their fingers into a tight hold, "if you can help her. I'll fish the fish myself."

"Ha! I'll hold ya to it Wave." Separating their hands, Parc turned down the hall, "well, get a moving fido. We've got a lady to detox."

Exactly twenty minutes of walking later they arrived before the door to Wave and Run's room. Wave taking centre stage to push open the door and reveal to Run standing a bit away from the same woman Bolic had sent to try and seduce him who was now tearing at her head, her entire body covered in sweat with a scared expression to her face.

"Moremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremore-"

On and on she chanted the same word again and again. So thoroughly hooked to the drug was she that she could think of nothing but the drug.

"Aina…" Wave's voice was downtrodden and sad as he approached the girl. Run's eyes wandering to Parc who gave the man a simple nod, getting one in return.

"She hasn't changed much since you left. Though I do believe she urinated judging by the ammonia I smell." Run calmly stated. "Were you able to get the Captains permission to return to the Capital?"

Wave shook his head coming to walk past run towards Aina who froze in place. Her chanting halting as her head raised up. Looking to Wave with glazed, desiring eyes that quickly turned to the man behind him, Parc where pure happiness rose onto her expression. Her nostrils flaring all the while.

"More, please give me more!" she hobbled towards Parc on all fours, passing by Wave who watched her in shock. "I can smell it! Please! Give it to me! It hurts! I want it please! Fuck me! Use me! Just give me moooooreeee! She gripped Parc's pants for the second time in twenty-four hours, staring up at him blearily.

Parc frowned; her most beloved scent was that of the drugs? Had they even converted her mind to a pure dependency on them. It was far from Kurome who only seemed to take the drugs to keep herself from going into withdrawals. But this girl, she seemed to have been pumped full of them until all she could think of was them.

"That's… not good…" Parc muttered lifting his head to look to Wave and Run, both giving a worried look towards the girl. "Wave. I'm going to start. Okay?"

"Yeah. Just please. Help her."

Parc nodded, that was his intention anyways. Lifting his left hand up, he summoned his gauntlet, immediately sending the last of the chains with energy in it to coild around Aina's upper arm, the golden glow of mind controlling energies pumping into her until her eyes glazed over and her arms sagged down to her side. Loosing all sense in her body.

"Get up and sit on the bed." Parc ordered, getting the girl to stand up and walk towards said bed with surprisingly steady steps for a woman in drug withdrawal. Though he knew they were still assaulting her mind as she screamed in silence inside her head.

Placing a hand on his neck, Parc twisted his head until a sharp pop came from it, "this is going to take a bit." He turned to Wave. "Okay. Aina. Look at me." He squatted down before her. "from now on, you will feel no pleasure from any drugs. Furthermore, you will become sick at the taste or sight of them." To be perfectly honest, that was about as much as his orders went for Kurome, the rest of the detox just happened over a few weeks until she got to the point where she never needed to touch them again.

But, that was because Parc could regulate her intake because he knew what she was taking. But Aina, for her he knew absolutely nothing about what Bolic had been putting in her nor if he could get any. So it was time to improvise and come up with contingencies.

"Aina. When you feel symptoms of a withdrawal coming along. You will find that eating your favourite meal or snack will rid yourself of the feeling. If you are unable to find any food, doing something you like will also lessen the feeling.

"Lastly, when you wake up. You will not remember anything of what happened since Bo-"

"NO!" Wave suddenly shouted, "don't take her memories from her!" he pleaded. Causing Parc to raise his brow.

"you want her to remember the horrible things Bolic likely did to her?"

"No its just. I-she deserves to know what happened to her. No matter how terrible it is."

"It's going to make recovery harder." Parc frowned at him, "especially when I'm gone." He could take memories, a helpful thing he learnt when he told a giant pig to forget how to walk, or breath. So this would be childs play.

"That's fine. I'll take care of her. I'll get whatever she needs. Just don't. take. Her memories."

Rolling his eyes, Parc just shrugged and pushed himself to his feet, "your pain." Parc twisted his wrist, retracting his mind controlling energies from Aina's body as well as returning his chain to its extra dimensional storage area.

Aina's glazed eyes, marred by want and desire seemed to clear and grew a shine to them that they didn't have before. Her head swivelling around the room in confusion before she spotted Wave where a bright smile drew to her face. "W…ave…" her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed back onto the bed, falling to the thralls of unconsciousness.

Parc stepping away from the bed letting Wave charge to Aina's side to check she was okay.

"She's going to be asleep for a while. Let her rest. My orders should remain for about a month give or take before deteriorating. Hopefully by then she'll be mostly off of them." Parc grunted turning his back to the two, lifting his hand to give them a short wave.

"You two have fun doing your things. I'm going to see if I can get some food before I get hunted down by the demons." A thing he was fully expecting would happen.

Both Run and Wave just cast him a silent glance, wondering if maybe one of them should be with the supposed to be prisoner instead of letting him wander through a mansion on his own. Yet neither got up to follow him.

***

"Haa…" Parc rubbed the back of his neck, collapsing against the wall lightly knocking his head against it. He was tired and disgusted. As the moths turned to a year turning to a year and a half within this world. Parc was missing his stable homeland of skyscrapers and laws.

It seemed that everywhere he looked in this world there was some new tragedy or travesty. It was tearing at his mind. How could people stay sane in this land was beyond him. They were certainly stronger than him while he had to effectively block out all of his morals to deal with this place.

Not even back home were things ever as terrible as this, yes sure the event leading to his mother losing her wings were still at the top of his nightmares. But this place had quickly come to assimilate the other fifteen places below it. Making him incredibly grateful to the things he knew as but a fleeting memory after so long away from all his amenities. Like a phone or internet—both of which he lost within the first week up north.

"You look depressed," Parc flinched at the familiar, feminine voice causing his eyes to shoot open and lock onto the black-haired rakshasa girl approaching him wearing a suspicious black robe.

The memories still fresh in Parc's mind about how she looked at him with want after he ordered Ibara to eat his fingers and tear off the titans arm. Parc found himself pushing off the wall and backing away from the woman step after step while she followed him with what he knew to be drool on her lip.

"Oh don't run~" she hummed a singsong tune lowering her hand to the sash wrapped around her waist keeping her robe closed. Pinching either side of it and tugged it open before raising her hands to the hem of the robe and tore it open. "Dominate me."

Parc's eyes widened at what he saw, a blend of shock and horror, "Oh, what the fuck."

***

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Thanks to Devin Morris for the generous donation!