Pain Is The Main Course

[itami]

{It’s a quiet afternoon on MOD Island and Itami is in her bedroom reading a book on Tibet folklore when her phone chimes. Unlocking the screen, she sees that she has an e-mail from Hiroshi Suzuki sent from his private account.}

Itami,

I hope that you are doing well, and taking full advantage of the opportunity that you’ve been given. The truth of the matter is that your training is not the real reason that I have sent you to stay on that island with Gregor Winter, just like my meeting with Mr. Winter was not to just buy palm oil.

The Island that is now known as MOD Island was once called Takaramono because of the natural resources that were found there during the Greater East Asia War. I will soon be sending you a package that will contain the equipment that you need to take soil samples throughout the island to send back to corporate headquarters. Our goal is hopefully buy Takaramono if the information that we have found is accurate.

Please do your best to keep your work a secret. You will be greatly rewarded for your help if we are able to find any natural resources that might benefit the Corporation.

Sincerely,

Hiroshi Suzuki

{Itami quickly deletes the email and smiles. She finally knows the real reason that she has been sent to MOD Island.}

____________________________________________________________________________

{Itami sits in the small office off of the main gym in the MOD Compound, with her laptop on the desk in front of her. She is carefully reviewing the training plan for every one of the twenty people that she trains beside every single day. She takes notes on their progress, and makes notes on how they could change their regiment to see faster improvement. Most importantly, she makes notes of the members that aren’t quite up to snuff and should be shipped back to the main land to continue their training in a traditional gym.

Finished with her work, she closes the spreadsheets and opens up the camera program. Hitting the record button, she begins to speak.}

If I were to tell you the story of my life, you would say that I was dishonest. There is no way that one person can face so much heartbreak and come out standing on the other side. I would agree with them if I had not lived it for myself. I will not bore you with the details, but there was a long line of misfortune that led me to working for the Kontorōru Corporation. Let’s just say that my only choices were the Corporation or a meeting with Izanami.

The Corporation found me when I was at my lowest, and I would have welcomed death. The only thing keeping me alive was the violence that The Demoness craved. I was willing to hurt anyone for any reason if it kept food in my belly and a roof over my head, and that is what made me perfect for the kind of job that one of the largest corporations in the world needed to be done off the books.

Most of the time I was a fixer, taking care of problems caused by some visiting business or another. I made sure the right people were paid to make issues go away, threatened to right people to keep mouths shut, or in some cases I fed The Demoness. It was my job to take of the Corporation’s friends and injure its enemies. I was good at my work, probably too good, since I drew the attention of none other than Hiroshi Suzuki himself.

The CEO of Kontorōru Corporation is a quiet man that wields more power in the stroke of a pen than most countries armies. There wasn’t anyone in their right mind that would ever try to take him out, and they’d have to go through an entire police force to do; but for some reason, Suzuki San wanted me to be his private bodyguard. The second that I signed the contract for my new job, The Demoness was locked inside a cage and never allowed out to feed.

Day after day her hunger built until she was screaming so loud that I could barely concentrate. I spent hours in the gym training just hoping to quit her only to fail time and again. She and I were both slaves to the whims of Suzuki San, and to cross him would mean both of our deaths. That is what I thought was going to happen when he instructed me to go to MOD Island with Gregor Winter because I knew that I would never be able to tolerate working with another Lucipher Crosse.

{Itami’s usual scowl is replaced by a grin.}

It turns out that I was wrong, as Gregor Winter is my light at the end of the tunnel. The MOD system is exactly what I need to keep The Demoness fed, and she and I both grow stronger by the day. When I stepped inside the ring for the first time in well over a year, The Demoness purred because she knew that a feast was coming. She knew That her priestess was going to be giving her the gift of the song of agony soon, but the screams never came. I was in a sad excuse for a wrestling match where the only way to win was to throw your opponent over the top rope like some bastard son of sumo.

How was I supposed to feed The Demoness in this battle royal?

{She shrugs her shoulders, admitting that she doesn’t know the answer.}

When she didn’t get the feast promised, the screams returned so loud that they kept me awake at night. My head hurts so bad that I’ve barely been able to eat, and training has been nearly impossible. I’m not sure how much longer I can survive with a starving Demoness inside my head, but lucky for me, I don’t have to for much longer. Tuesday night, The Demoness is going to finally be given the feast that she deserves.

I know that it is customary to ramble on about how my team is going to win the match, but I don’t care if we win or lose the match. The only thing that matters is feeding The Demoness, which means that the only thing that matters is hurting my opponents. Emmanuelle and ULTIMO Valiente you were both in the Invictus Proelium Regium with me at Legacy, and The Demoness wants nothing more than to witness your pain. She wants to hear the sweet sounds of your screams as they echo throughout the arena.

Please don’t think for one second that I won’t take every single chance that you give me to kick your head off of your shoulders with Baku, or take every possible opening to choke the life you of you with Shinigami. Make absolutely no mistake, I will do everything that I can to win this match. It’s just that victory is the dessert, while pain in the main course.

All praise The Demoness!

{Itami reaches up and closes the laptop.}