(A/N: Yeah I know in Chapter 7 I had the guy ask Karma to bring 1000 yen because I don't understand converstion rates, but lets just say the guy said 100,000,0

Also remember when I said I was making shorter chapters and quicker updates? Well, I did the complete oppisite of that. Enjoy the violence, kiddos!

"He told me to come alone." Karma growled as he stepped off the train at his stop, his backpack full of the cash, but Ren wasn't deterred from tailing him.

"If you're saying Asano is behind Nagisa being kidnapped, I have to see for myself." The poet replied, grim determination in his voice. "If Asano's involved in something shady, I might be able to talk him out of it."

"Talk him out of it?" Karma scoffed. "Do you really think that guy actually values your opinion? You're just another faceless follower to him."

"Th- That isn't true!" Ren cried, sounding a little desperate, as if part of him had already contemplated what the red head was saying. "I've been right by him all through middle-school and first year of high school! We've always been in the student council together, and I've tutored other pupils with him, and helped him run events! I'm more than just his follower- We're friends."

"Friends? Ha. That guy doesn't do friends." Karma said as they walked along the street together towards the abandoned factory. A malicious humorless grin grew on his face. "Ne- Before this whole 'dating' thing had you ever actually met up with him for reasons other than school? Have you ever actually just hung out with him without work being involved?"

"Well. that's..." Ren faltered, racking his brain for times he and Asano had hung out. But other than the cinema and Mcdonalds trip Akabane had orchestrated, nothing came to mind. "Well! It's not like you and Nagisa have such a great relationship anyway! You treat him like your helpless little pet half of the time!"

Now it was Karma's turn to go on the defensive.

"Hmm? For somebody who's meant to be good with words you do talk a lot of crap." The Red head mused, his eyes scanning the road ahead as they neared the factory.

"It's true and you know it, Akabane. You're constantly trying to shield him from life as if he can't handle it or something, and you go around his back to 'protect' him, but really all your doing is creating more problems." Ren spat, sounding uncharacteristically harsh. Karma flinched slightly at his words, but before he had a chance to reply, a large figure stepped out of the factory. The red head grabbed the Poet and dived behind a wall.

The severity of the situation hit Karma like a ton of bricks; It was time to make rescue Nagisa and make his kidnappers pay, but he'd need more intel before diving in there.

Nagisa felt like he'd been kneeling on that cold factory floor all day, but in reality it had only been a few hours. His wrists ached from the rope encircling them. The blunette was terrified, but not really for himself, for Karma; He prayed to god that the Red head wouldn't put himself in danger by storming down here with the ransom money, but unfortunately, he knew Karma wasn't the type to just leave him.

Asano was next to him. He'd been pretty much silent since he'd seen the driver's body, his head was bowed, blond hair covering his eyes.

"Asano-kun, are you okay?" Nagisa asked under his breath so that the gang member standing guard over them across the room wouldn't notice. It sounded like such a lame question; Of course Asano wasn't okay, neither of them were. But the blunette felt the need to say something.

"Sorry, Shiota, for dragging you into this mess." The blond whispered, with a defeated tone that didn't suit him.

"It was a mistake, right? This whole thing wasn't your fault." Nagisa said with conviction. Asano shook his head.

"I've been making too many mistakes lately. it all started with letting that bastard Akabane blackmail me.." The blond growled, more to himself than anyone else. But Nagisa picked up on it- He'd had a suspicion since the Mcdonald's incident that Asano and Karma's relationship wasn't genuine, but now he had confirmation. To say he was disappointed in Karma was an understatement. Why would Karma blackmail somebody into a relationship?

"What did he blackmail you with... if you don't mind me asking." The Blunette asked tentatively. Asano huffed, but apparently decided there was no point in lying about it.

"Smoking. He managed to get a picture of me smoking." The blond said, not meeting Nagisa's eyes. "It was around the back of school, I didn't think anyone would be there- but of course that rat would catch me."

To say that Nagisa was surprised was an understatement; Of all the things he could imagine Asano being black-mailed with, smoking was not on the list. It was a frowned upon, not to mention illegal for people their age. It was a habit people associated with delinquents and flunkies, not star-students.

"Why?" The blue haired boy asked, totally confused.

".. It helps with stress."

Before Nagisa had the chance to ask him to elaborate, a big bulky gang member stomped over, a lecherous grin on his face, his eyes boring into Nagisa.

"Hey. Kid. If you don't stop whispering to your boyfriend then I'll find something more useful for your mouth to do." He called out, before blowing Nagisa a kiss. The gang erupted into laughter, a few of them yelling other rude things to Nagisa about 'what he could do with his mouth'. The blunette shuddered, forcing himself not to react to the guy's remark, although he couldn't help the feelings of disgust and fear creeping down his spine. They had been making remarks like this to him the entire time, telling him how, if the money didn't get here on time he'd be sold into a 'certain trade', how they might just sell him into it anyway.

"Leave him alone!" Asano growled, clearly loosing his temper. Unlike Nagisa, he had a bigger ego and a lot more pride, which wasn't always the best thing in situations like these. The bulky gang member laughed, turning his attention to the taller captive.

"Who said I was talking to him?" The guy taunted, grabbing Asano by the hair. Amethyst eyes widened in mortification. The gang member grinned, satisfied with the reaction, he let Gakushuu go and laughed.

"You two just better pray that your contact gets here with the money before me and the boys start to get bored." he chuckled, before stomping off back to the rest of the gang. Once he was out of earshot, Asano glanced at Nagisa.

"I have a plan for escape. Are you willing to take the risk? The chance of success is less than 45%. But it's better than being at their mercy" He hissed under his breath. Nagisa didn't need to think twice, he just nodded.

"Hey! I'm hungry. Somebody buy me something to eat!" Asano called out, with the most obnoxious voice he could muster. The Gang members turned to look at him, first in disbelief, then in annoyance. "Are you too stupid to understand me or something?"

The bulky gang member from before stormed over. "I'll make you regret showing us cheek you little brat!" The guy growled, grabbing Asano by the front of his shirt. Nagisa watched warily, resisting the urge to intervene; He had to play his part.

Asano looked scared for a moment, but his fear melted away into a sinister smile. He pulled his hands out of the rope, which Nagisa had loosened when they were sat back to back, and punched the guy in the face.

The bulky gang member fell back onto the floor, clearly Asano was stronger than he looked. The blond grabbed the guy's knife from his waistbelt. The rest of the gang stared in shock.

"Now." The blond said with a smile, brandishing the knife. "Let me and my associate go or I'll stab our fellow member here."

The rest of the gang narrowed their eyes, but the leader stepped forward, his eyes flashing with amusement.

"So, you actually managed to break free from the rope. Congratulations. This makes things a little more interesting, at least." The leader said, looking at Asano fondly. "But I can tell you're bluffing. Sweet, innocent high school kids like you wouldn't dare kill a guy."

Gakushuu gripped the knife harder, and dug the tip of it into the unconscious gang member's shoulder. he had the guy in front of him, like a shield. "You shouldn't have such high expectations of my morality. Ethics always was my worst subject." He said, casually. At this point, Even Nagisa wasn't sure if he was bluffing.

"Kill him then." The leader shrugged, unconcerned. "It's one less person to share the bounty with."

The other members all stared at their leader, shocked by his betrayal. Was he serious?

The standoff lasted a few more tense seconds, before Asano made a move. He pushed the bulky unconscious guy forward, and he went bowling into the rest of the gang. He took advantage of the brief moment of panic, and ran, heading for the front door. He was almost there..! But all of a sudden, there was the sound of gunshot. Asano felt a sudden, sharp pain in his calf, then went tumbling to the floor, his leg no longer able to support his weight. It wasn't until the leader crouched down next to him, Gakushuu realised he'd been shot.

"Oh dear. I really don't like damaging my goods." The leader cooed, smirking at Asano's pained expression. The teen clutched his leg, it took all of his willpower not to cry out in pain. "It hurts, doesn't it? Well, I'm not finished punishing you yet. Perhaps if I have some 'fun' with your blue-haired friend you'll learn not to defy me."

The leader's eyes flicked over to were Nagisa was kneeling. Was supposed to be kneeling. Instead, all that remained of their former captive was a pile of discarded ropes.

"Where is he!?"

Nagisa stared at the scene below him, hidden from view in the darkness of the factory's ceiling beams. He was moments away from safety; The window to the outside of the factory was seconds away. He could easily escape.

I'll draw their attention by fighting my way through the front, you sneak out the back when they're focusing on me.

That had been Asano's 'master-plan'. The blunete suspected even Gakushuu knew it would likely fail and was fraught with danger, but he clearly saw it as preferable to being a slave to the gang. It had half-worked, anyway. Nagisa could escape thanks to Asano's diversion. He had once again found himself falling into the role of the 'protected one' like he so often did with Karma.

Of course, Nagisa could just leave Asano; It wasn't as if the guy was even his friend. But for him, that wasn't an option.

He was through being the weak one. Now, what would Karma do in this situation?

"Where did he go?" The leader hissed in Asano's face, gripping the front of his shirt tightly. The teen grinned (Although the pain made it look more like a grimace).

"No idea." He replied, glad he was infuriating this man. He kept up his guise of confidence, not allowing himself to show any of the pain and fear he was experiencing as he felt the blood draining from his leg.

"Well. If you insist on being difficult, we have ways of making you talk." The leader said darkly, his hand traveling down Asano's leg towards his wound. All of a sudden, there was an almighty clatter.

One of the gang members fell to the floor. The another. And another. And another.

Both Asano and the Leader stared in shock at the perpetrator of the attack; Standing there with an innocent look on his face, despite the blood lust behind his eyes was Nagisa, a wooden beam clutched in his hands.

"How the hell did that pipsqueak take out that many men!" One of the still-conscious gang members cried. The leader's lips curled into a grin.

"Why didn't you.. run?" Asano groaned from the floor.

"Oh look. The little lost kitten has returned to us." The leader said, cheerfully. "And Kitty's got claws."

Nagisa dropped the wooden beam in his hands. "I want to fight you. One on one." He said, calmly. "Unless you don't think you can take me, in which case, you can call your gang to attack me, or just shoot me."

There was an eruption of jeers from the remaining gang-members. Of course, the leader wasn't going to damage his pride by refusing Nagisa's offer.

"You must really enjoy being humiliated. Let's go then." He said, throwing of his jacket. "It'll be fun teaching you a lesson."

Before Nagisa had a chance to react, the guy launched forwards and punched him across the face. The pain was sudden. Nagisa knew he had no chance of winning; He'd never been in a fight in his life, and this guy was a seasoned brawler. But it was the only way he could think of to buy them some time.

The guy was brutal in his attacks. Nagisa attempted to dodge, but the blows were as fast as he was strong. The leader grabbed him by the neck, cutting off his oxygen supply. The blue haired boy panicked, realising just how much danger he was in. He attempted to claw the large hands off him to no avail. His vision became bleary.

Karma? Will I ever get to see you again?

Just as he was on the verge of loosing consciousness, the leader let go, and Nagisa fell to the floor, gasping for breath, his body too weak to stand. Mercilessly, the leader stamped on him, crushing the boy beneath his boot.

"I'm going to take my time with you, boy." He said, twisting his heel and exerting more force on the boy's ribcage. Nagisa heard a dull snap, and was suddenly engulfed with an explosion of pain as his bone broke beneath his captor's foot. "Now. How should I punish you for hurting members of my gang, hm?"

His words became distorted to Nagisa, and his vision was hazy with the pain and the strangulation from earlier. It was all a blur he could only vaguely comprehend; The Jeers of the Gang members as he was brutalized. Asano being held back as he yelled "You've made your point!", The Unconscious members starting to wake up.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of familiar red. The sound of a commotion; Shouting, fighting, loud noises. The pressure was released from Nagisa's chest, and he felt himself being lifted up in somebody's arms.

"Nagisa?"

A familiar voice said in his ear. For some reason, the voice made his heart flutter, and his earlier fears dissipated.

"Nagisa?"

The voice called again, and Nagisa finally remembered it's name.

"Karma!"

Poor Nagisa. Sorry for torturing you bby. You too, Asano. I only had you shot because ur one of my favs. I swear.

Next Chapter; Karma and Nagisa's reunion. And everyone now knows the truth about the blackmail relationships. So they're gonna have fun with that! (Remember... fake relationships.. it was what this story was about before it got all dark n' edgy)

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How do u think the main story will end? How do you think it SHOULD end?

(Since I might include an extra chapter after official stories over, feturing alternative endings with different pairings).