Diverse Inverse: Encounter of Inami and Ceal [Inami/Ceal]

Even as the insane shadow was repeatedly mocking Ceal's last words, Ceal didn't want the fear rising from within her to reach the surface. It was there, but it was building, amplifying and folding in on itself. Inami's tone as she gently whispered the word, over and over again sense chills down Ceal's back, adding to her shuddering, shaking fits as she was wrought with pain. Without the inherent manipulation that all demons seemed to contain within them, this was a wound that would take her likely weeks to heal from, possibly months. Inami had for the most part, destroyed proper use of those fingers, likely permanently.

She continued to look up to her with dull, pleading eyes, her hand becoming mostly numb as endorphins and adrenaline filled her veins, Ceal's natural fight or flight instinct showing itself. Her heart was racing, she was breathing heavily. Her brow furrowed into a face of worry as she looked up with that same pleading expression. Tears of pain seemed to mark the edges of her eyes as her eyes glossed over a bit from the wetness, making her emerald eyes even more vivid within the darkness.

The pain did something else to Ceal though. Despite the fear, despite the jarring sensation of her knuckles being crushed, it caused her to regress into something of a more childish mood. Her mind began to show unhealthy images, display personalities that clearly didn't befit a girl of apparent normal upbringing. One could say her psyche was degenerating into something far more primitive than her clear-headed mind usually would be. It was a common state of mind that came along with victims who are kidnapped or tortured for any length of time.

The fumbling girl began to place blame on herself, wondering what it was that she had done wrong. If it was something that she said, or did. She couldn't understand why Inami would do something like this. She didn't realize that there probably wasn't a rhyme or a reason for someone as crazy or as unstable as the apparition in front of her. Ceal's body trembled with this state of mind setting in, her body involuntarily convulsing as it was racked with panic attacks that she could not understand. Did she fear death far more than she realized, or was it just wanting a way to escape the pain that she supposedly liked? Perhaps there was a capping point to everything.

Ceal froze up, fearful of Inami's next move if she tried to pull her hand away and scurry backwards. Still, her mind went around and around as she thought of how this could somehow have been her fault, and wanting to rectify it. Even as the demon Queen formed a clawed hand and began digging into Ceal's palm, -no doubt invoking a face of surprise and denial from the little lamb- Ceal's face contorted, displaying the clear sight of someone wrought with indescribable pain as she was forced to witness the gory sight of the fingers splitting the flesh and digging in, no doubt causing sickening sounds as flesh parted and blood soaked muscle was torn through.

Her eyes widened as she shifted her gaze from it to the queen. She was grinding her teeth together now, an anguished cry escaping through the white as the hand jerked and wriggled in Inami's grasp, automatic reactions of pain intolerance.

”I-Inami.. p-please, My Queen... I-I'll. I'll be good, I'll... do anything, just.. p-please, it... it hurts... I'm sorry.. I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I'm sorry,”

Ceal's pleads grow more desperate as the tendon was revealed, as Inami spoke in that same silky toxic voice of hers, gripping onto that fleshly cartilige and pulling on it caused a surge of pain unlike anything before shoot like lightning down her arm. She screamed out, repeating the words “I'm sorry” over and over again, whispering them, squeaking them out among the pain, she was pleading, begging at this point. Looking at the cruel Queen.

Even as Inami mockingly insinuated that Ceal was a toy, she didn't have the capacity at this time to reply, merely repeating the sames words, over and again. She repeated them with increasing desperation until Inami finally pulled the tendon to it's breaking point, forcing it to snap as several of Ceal's fingers suddenly twitched to an eerie halt.

Then Ceal's scream filled the halls. It was terrible, blood curdling. It would give goosebumps to any sane person as the girl's voice would be ran raw.

The fear, as it build up, was met with confusion. It was met with bewilderment and a despair that Ceal had yet to experience yet. She had fallen into a pit, she had been broken. Even as the hand came to a lifeless halt, blood soaking the floor below her, she was reeling in pain, squirming on the floor. Inami had finally let her hand go, not that it did any good. Ceal was reduced to featile position, writhing in pain, reeling from the insane emotion as her body was racked with anguished sobs.

Of course, it was obvious to anyone that Ceal was beyond the breaking point. She was beyond the point of denial, the fear morphing, evolving into something else as her mental state grew further unhinged, furthering her degeneration into something far different. Perhaps it was the Seal of Eris, perhaps it was Ceal's own twisted nature that had simply been in the closet this whole time. Regardless of the reason, the gleam from her emerald eyes changed, they grew flat before the color was dominated by a redness, the hue changing completely as her writhing stopped. Her pain getting dull as her mental state began to slip.

”...Of course it was. Of course, Yes, it was that all along,” She spoke as if she was talking to someone, but she wasn't. It wasn't Ate, nor was it Inami. Ceal was merely talking to herself, having come to the apparent conclusion she had been searching for. Her voice was flat, void of any inflection. She spoke softly, though the tone was raspy as it it had become raw from her screams. ”I've been bad. Bad people deserve pain, to be punished, to be broken. Of course....” She spoke, her voice slowly growing into one of tense insanity, her one good hand rising to her face, forming a blackened claw. Her eyes were wide and unfocused as a her lips fell into a flat state. It would almost look sorrowful, except that it wasn't. It was no emotion at all, a Doll. The hand slowly drug it's claws down the side of her face, the side of her plush cheek, effortlessly splitting the skin as blood flowed freely from the slashes.

She was crumpled up on her side now, her knees brought in close, her right arm sprawled out on the floor as the left continued to claw at herself.


She could have ran, she should have ran. She should have heard and listened to the final words of the Demon Queen, but even as she uttered her words, it was too late for the poor girl. She had already -at least for the time being- completely lost it. Her body trembled, jerked, and wriggled as she was stricken with fits of insanity, the whispers of madness pulling at her mind.


Ceal's willpower was destroyed, the girl.... well, she was broken.