Sukuu, Chapter 01

Chapter 1

Heero Yuy looked up as Quatre Raberba Winner and Trowa Barton entered the briefing room, frowning at their lateness.

"You’re late," he informed them sternly. "If it were not for the fact that Chief Une has not yet arrived herself, you would both be in trouble, and that would reflect badly on all of us. Wufei and I managed to get here on time, you should have no trouble doing so as well." From his seat next to him, his partner, Chang Wufei, smirked. He knew how seriously Heero took their reputation. The four of them had been friends since childhood, and all four had joined the Preventer Academy straight out of high school. They had graduated from the four-month training program as the top four students in the class, and had thusly been paired up when assigned partners. They had quickly earned great respect and admiration within the Preventers for their excellent work. Only last month, the four of them had been transferred to the elite Preventer Special Crime Unit, also known as the Specials, something virtually unheard of for agents so young, only twenty-one years old. Heero was very concerned that they live up to their excellent reputation and not give Chief Une cause to regret her decision to recruit them into her Unit. Tardiness was unacceptable, even if Chief Une was late as well.

"Sorry, Heero, Trowa had a little car trouble. If the two of you hadn’t already left, we could have gotten a lift with you," Quatre said, playfully defensive. The four of them shared a large, sprawling mansion, Quatre’s gift from his family upon his graduation from the Academy. "At least Chief Une isn’t here to see that we’re late. I wonder where she is, anyway? She’s never late for the morning briefing!"

"Hn," Heero scowled. He, too, was curious as to what could be keeping her. Their wait was over, though, as Chief Une came striding into the room, her face especially grim, with her second-in-command, Captain Lucrezia Noin, trailing after her, an equally grim look on her face.

"Whatever it was that was keeping her, it looks serious," Wufei remarked softly. The others silently nodded their agreement.

Une turned to address the twelve members of the Preventer Special Crime Unit. "I apologize for my lateness, but a very important matter has come to my attention. We have a new case and it is to be given top priority." She nodded to Noin, who went to the computer terminal and inserted a disk. She typed a few keys, and an image of a run-down two-story building came up on the overhead-viewing screen. Quatre shivered when he saw it. Trowa shot him a questioning look, but all he could do was shrug. The building gave him the creeps, though he could not say why.

The chief motioned at the screen. "This building at 7881 Pine St. is believed to be the location of a brothel. The local PD have apparently known of its existence for some time, but did nothing, reflecting their policy that if the prostitutes are not out on the street, and are therefore ‘out of sight, out of mind’, then they are not their problem." Une sneered, showing her contempt for this lax attitude. "However, they had a disturbing visit yesterday, from a local small-time crook known to them as an informant that they’d used several times in the past. This man claimed to have visited the brothel in search of a good time, but had been horrified to discover that it was not your ‘run-of-the mill’ establishment." Heero glanced at his friends, and he could tell from the looks on their faces that just like him, they were getting incredibly bad feelings about this.

Une continued, her face showing her own distaste. "He said that when he went to this brothel, swearing that he was looking only for adult female company, the proprietor offered him a selection of underage prostitutes of both sexes. He was also told that they had a ‘special’ selection, with whom he could do just about anything he wanted, ‘whether the kid liked it or not’, as he put it. The informant claims that he was horrified, particularly when he was shown the young boy… chained to a bed in a small, windowless room in the basement." Une’s body quivered with repressed rage and disgust. Most of the agents in the room stared at her, since they had never seen the normally implacable chief so worked up before. Not that they could blame her, there was not a single person in the room who was not horrified at the idea of a human being… a child being chained to a bed and forced to sexually service clients.

"The informant says that he was also asked if he was interested in renting or purchasing a video from their considerable library, featuring the prostitutes with clients willing to be filmed. He says that he fled the place, wanting nothing to do with such perversions, and decided to report them to the police. So what we have here is a case of forced child prostitution and pornography. Like I said, this is now our top priority. Captain Noin and I have come up with the loose outline of a plan. We will spend today hammering out the details and then put the plan into action tonight if possible, tomorrow morning at the absolute latest. Now that we know this place exists, we’re going to put them out of business as quickly as possible. I’m going to assign several of you to digging up all the information you can on the building’s owners, see if you can figure out who’s responsible, how long they’ve been in business, etc. Another team will get blueprints for the location and the surrounding buildings as well. Work out the preliminary plans for a raid, coordinating with the Medical Unit. We don’t know what kind of condition the people we find inside are going to be in. Captain Noin will hand out those assignments."

She paused, taking a deep breath. Heero suddenly realized that it was taking all of her considerable self-control to keep her emotions in check. She turned her attention to them. "Agent Winner and Agent Barton, you are being assigned to reconnaissance. 7881 Pine St. is to be put under immediate surveillance. I want a photographic record of everyone who enters and leaves the building, got it?" They both nodded solemnly. "You are to leave as soon as this briefing is concluded. Now, Agent Yuy and Agent Chang, I have a special assignment for you two. You are going to interview this informant for any and all useful information, and then Agent Yuy is going to infiltrate the brothel this afternoon while Agent Chang provides backup."

"Infiltrate, Chief?" Heero asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"You will go to the brothel posing as a client. That way you can get a look at the inside of the place and confirm the informant’s information. Also, since you will be left alone with one of the prostitutes for a little while, you can see if you can get any information from them." She turned to once again address the room at large. "Okay, that’s it people. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how important this case is. Those needing assignments report to Captain Noin. Agents Yuy and Chang, follow me. Our informant is waiting."

* * * * * * * * * *

Duo blinked into wakefulness, wiping the dried tears from his eyes. Though the room was pitch-black, his internal clock told him that it was nearly morning. He stretched his aching limbs, wincing at the sharp pain that stabbed up through his body from his ass. He stared up through the black emptiness that mirrored the emptiness inside him. He didn’t want to be awake. He wanted to sleep forever. He sighed, the familiar ache in his heart tightening.

Groaning, Duo pulled himself up to a sitting position. He knew that he really should get off the bed and stretch his muscles as much as he could. It would not be long before the dark-haired man, Trant, brought him his breakfast, and after that, it would begin… the endless procession of men coming to hurt him. He shuddered.

Duo carefully slid off the bed, his entire body protesting. He knelt on the floor, reaching under the bed for the chamberpot. After emptying his bladder, he slid it back and gingerly climbed to his feet. He could barely stand up straight, he was in so much pain. Each and every last bruise, cut and welt on his body announced its presence with dull throbbing aches or sharp stinging pain. But it was not something he was unaccustomed to, and he started to pace back and forth across the couple of feet the chain shackled to his ankle allowed him, trying to loosen up his muscles. These early morning ‘walks’ were the only real exercise he ever got. He felt perpetually weak enough as it was, and he never knew when he might be hurt badly enough to be confined to the bed for a few days. Sometimes he felt like his muscles were going to waste away.

The pain getting the better of him, Duo eased himself down so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered, why he didn’t just let himself wither away and die. It’s not like he was ever going to get out of here. He’d given up that hope long ago. And he couldn’t even remember the last time he wasn’t in pain. He hurt so much, all the time. Every movement was a painful reminder of the hell he lived in every day. His hands moved to touch the iron collar at his throat. It’s weight was a reminder as well, that his life was not his own, that the people who kept him here considered him their property. Him especially.

Duo shuddered again. It had been some time since he had paid a visit to his ‘pet’ so he would probably be back sometime soon. The man who haunted Duo’s dreams. The man who had brought him here, so long ago. He had never known his name. The man had never shown him such a courtesy as an introduction. Back then there had still been a hint of blonde in the man’s hair, but now it was completely grey. The lines on his aged face seemed to have grown deeper each time he came. Duo wondered for the millionth time just how long he’d been here. It felt like an eternity. Sometimes it was even hard to remember a time before, as if his entire life had been spent in this room, though Duo knew that wasn’t true. He had brought him here, the details of his life before that could just be… fuzzy at times, lost in distant memory. Perhaps it was just too painful, remembering that he had not always lived like this.

Just then the door was opened and the lights turned on, bathing the room in sickly yellow light. Duo squinted his eyes at the onslaught, waiting for them to adjust.

"So, how’s the star attraction this morning? Up to another day?" Trant sneered as he entered the room, carrying a tray. Duo remained silent. Trant placed the tray on the bed and Duo reached for the bowl of tasteless mush that was his breakfast. He ate mechanically while Trant once again changed the chamberpot. After the mush there was the handful of pills. Several vitamin and mineral tablets. Wouldn’t want the ‘star attraction’ to die from malnutrition. A strong calcium supplement was included amongst those, to make his bones harder to break, though customers still did manage to do so now and then. A stool softener, so as not to cause any more damage to his already abused rectum, though once again that was more to keep him able to see customers rather than for any concern for his pain. He was also never given solid food for the same reason. He washed the pills down with a large glass of water. He would receive the same bowl of mush and glass of water between customers sometime in the early evening, and that was it for sustenance. Duo sometimes marveled at the fact that he was even alive, with a diet like that. It was no mystery why he was little more than skin and bones. Once Duo was finished, Trant handed him the comb for his hair, and stood leering at him while he worked the knots out.

"I’ve got a feeling that today’s going to be really busy. Early morning and there’s already a couple of customers waiting for you. Bet you can’t wait, huh?" Trant said, his voice dripping with maliciousness. Duo merely shrugged, averting his eyes. He never knew what to do around Trant. The man was so volatile. He finished his hair and returned the comb, and was given a damp cloth from the sink to wash the sleep off his face. When he was done Trant started to caress his cheek, and then he leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "Just consider yourself lucky that you do have people waiting, it’s been awhile since I’ve given you a proper fucking. Guess it’ll just have to wait until tonight. Pity. But I know you’ll be looking forward to it, you little slut." With that he ran his tongue up the side of Duo’s face and then shoved him hard, so that he went sprawling back onto the bed. Laughing, Trant picked up the tray and headed out the door. "I’ll be back in a few minutes with the first one, Duo, don’t you worry your pretty little head," he sneered as he closed the door behind him.

Duo turned onto his side and drew his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them in a tight embrace. He would not cry, not now. There would be plenty of tears later, when he wouldn’t be able to stop them. He shivered, and it was not just from the cold. Another day. Another long, endless day of pain and torture. Why couldn’t he just die?

* * * * * * * * * *

Trowa turned the keys in the ignition, shutting off the surveillance van’s motor. They were parked on the opposite side of Pine St., and a few buildings down, but still had an excellent view of the front door. From the outside, the van’s windows looked heavily tinted, making it nearly impossible to see inside, though the view from the inside was un-obscured. The van itself was light grey, unmarked, and totally unremarkable in every way. They shouldn’t draw any unwanted attention from the low-lifes in the neighbourhood.

Quatre eyed 7881 Pine St. uneasily. The bad feeling he’d gotten when he’d seen the picture of the building back at headquarters was magnified tenfold now that he was seeing it in person. He still couldn’t pinpoint the source of his discomfort. The brick building looked perfectly ordinary, if a little rundown, though that was far from unusual for this neighbourhood. It just seemed somehow… sinister. He sighed and reached into the bag at his feet for the surveillance camera. The silence was beginning to unnerve him.

"So, do you think it’s true, Trowa? That they have some kid chained up in this place?" The words twisted his stomach even as he said them. The very idea was just so… sickening.

Trowa was quiet for a moment before responding. "It’s not pleasant to think it’s possible, but we have to accept that it is. It’s why the Special Crime Unit exists, to handle cases of a… sensitive nature. Like child slavery. We all have to learn to keep a certain amount of emotional distance from our work if we’re going to be able to handle working in the Specials." He patted Quatre’s leg reassuringly.

Quatre blushed slightly. Trowa may have said ‘we’ but he was really only referring to Quatre. The others never seemed to have a problem with emotional distance. Not that they were cold-hearted, quite the opposite in fact. He knew that his lover and his two friends were very caring people. They just seemed to be able to draw the line, something Quatre often failed to do. He was glad, at least, that Trowa was his partner, in work as well as life. As long as he had him by his side, he was pretty sure he could handle whatever the Specials threw at him.

"Quatre," Trowa said, and nodded toward the building. Quatre looked and saw that there was a man approaching the door. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and looked to be in his mid-fifties. His heavily lined face was remarkably unattractive, as was his chin-length haircut. His stylish business suit was decidedly out of place. Quatre lifted the camera and took several shots as the man opened the door and stepped inside.

"Who goes to a brothel in the middle of the morning?" he scowled. Trowa shot him a sidelong glance and actually chuckled.

"Oh? And what exactly is the ‘proper’ time of day to go to a brothel?" he asked with a sly smile.

"Oh, leave me alone," Quatre grumbled, lifting the camera to photograph the pair of men stepping out of the building.

* * * * * * * * * *

After Trant closed the door behind himself and the pair of men, Duo lay curled on the bed, shivering and gasping. He could still feel blood and cum trickling from between his legs. He fought the urge to vomit, swallowing several times in a vain attempt to rid his mouth of the slimy taste of semen. His head was really pounding. They’d beat him, the cries of pain they’d wrung from him fueling their excitement, before finally raping him, one forcing his cock into his mouth while the other jammed his cock into his ass. The pain was so intense it fogged his vision.

The door opened and Trant reappeared, accompanied by his next client, a tall, broad-shouldered businessman. Tubarov, one of his regulars. Duo’s eyes widened with fear. The man was a brutal sadist.

"Doesn’t our little Duo look pleased to see you, Tubarov?" Trant snickered as he handed the man the small key to Duo’s leg chain, which every customer received, and the key to the toy cabinet, which cost extra. "Have fun!" With that Trant was gone.

During his time in the room, Duo had had the misfortune of meeting a lot of cruel and sadistic people, but Tubarov ranked amongst the worst. He eyed the man with growing terror as he casually began to remove his clothing, carefully folding and setting it on the shelf next to the sink. Wouldn’t want to return to the office with blood and cum on his suit now would he, Duo thought bitterly. Once he was completely naked Duo noticed with dismay that the man was already semi-hard.

Giving him a cold-eyed look, Tubarov turned to the cabinet and unlocked it, swinging the doors wide open. The bottom consisted of a bin filled with miscellaneous items. Above that were a few shelves, and then finally a couple of rows of hooks. The man’s gaze swept over the selection before he reached for a coil of rope hanging on one of the hooks. He turned his attention to Duo.

Duo watched the man approach the bed with widening eyes. Fear coiled in the pit of his stomach, every muscle in his body tensing painfully. He felt absolutely helpless. Tubarov’s eyes glinted with malice as he backhanded him hard across the face, stunning him. He flipped him over onto his stomach, pulling his arms back and behind him until his forearms were parallel at the small of his back, then lashing them tightly together with the rope. It put a painful amount of pressure on his shoulders, and Duo knew it would not be long before the muscles would be cramping. He tried to take deep, even breaths, but his shallow, hitching gasps were threatening to send him into a full-blown panic attack. He struggled to squirm away as Tubarov continued to position his body, lifting him up onto his knees. Without his arms to support him, his ass was stuck up in the air while his head was buried in the thin pillow, his upper-body weight being supported by his neck and shoulders. He had to turn his face to the side to keep from suffocating. Tubarov’s fingers dug painfully into his bruised hips, eliciting a whimper.

"You know better than to struggle, Duo," Tubarov said, his voice low and dangerous. Duo immediately ceased squirming, his muscles quivering both from fear and from the uncomfortable strain of the awkward position. From the corner of his eye Duo saw Tubarov walk away from the bed and then return with a meter-long spreader bar from the cabinet. He shackled it to Duo’s ankles, forcing his legs wide apart. Duo felt a hand run over his ass, and then cried out when two dry fingers were suddenly forced into his already sore anus. As suddenly as they had appeared, the fingers were withdrawn. Duo waited, trembling. He knew that Tubarov was standing at the cabinet, choosing what toy he’d play with today. He closed his eyes, which were already threatening to spill tears. Tubarov always chose the most tortuous items from that damned cabinet….

His eyes flew open in shock and he screamed as he heard the crackle of electricity and his right side suddenly exploded with white-hot pain. The stun baton. Tubarov was standing at the side of the bed, pressing the stun baton into Duo’s side. His eyes glinted as Duo screamed and screamed, his vision starting to go black, until he finally released the switch. Duo sagged as much as his position allowed him, panting hard. Every nerve in his body felt singed. He screamed again as the stun baton once again made contact with his skin, this time at his abdomen. Tubarov moved around the bed, pressing the stun baton against random spots all over Duo’s body, his back, his legs, his ass, no place was spared. Sometimes he would hold it there for only a split second, sometimes for as long as a minute. Duo’s throat was raw from screaming, and he turned his face into the pillow, white sparks exploding behind his closed eyelids. His head was swimming, and he thought for sure that he was going to pass out at any moment. He could barely even draw a breath. Finally, the onslaught stopped. Duo gasped hitching breaths, the pillow beneath his face damp from his tears. His nerves were singing with pain and his muscles twitched involuntarily, the strain of the unnatural position and the electric shocks simply too much.

Suddenly his head was jerked to the side as Tubarov forced him to look at him. Duo’s eyes widened and his heart hammered in his chest as he saw what the man was holding. "N-no… please… please don’t…" he begged, his voice a hoarse whisper. Tubarov merely sneered and unscrewed the cap off the tube of lubrication he held, and then began to apply the lube to the stun baton in slow, even strokes. Duo’s mind revolted, and he began to sob and whimper piteously. It was something Tubarov had done before, and he couldn’t think of anything that caused a comparable amount of agony. Tubarov watched him avidly, enjoying his pain and fear. Then he disappeared from Duo’s line of view as he moved towards the end of the bed. Duo panicked. He didn’t care about any possible consequences; nothing could hurt as much as what Tubarov was planning anyway. He began to struggle against his bonds furiously, but his abused muscles were so cramped and weakened that he could do little more than squirm. He felt Tubarov kneel on the bed between his spread legs, and then the stun baton, not yet activated, was being forced into his sore anus, sending waves of pain along his spine. Once he had slid it in as far as it could go, Tubarov paused, drawing out the torture as Duo sobbed beneath him. Then he grinned and pressed the switch.

Duo’s eyes rolled back in his head and his world exploded. Wave after wave of pure agony assaulted his brain. Dimly, he was aware that someone was screaming, but it sounded far, far away. His body convulsed, and Tubarov reached one arm around his hips to hold him up on his knees, otherwise he would have collapsed against the mattress. Then, it stopped. Slowly, the world came back into focus, his ears ringing and his heart palpitating alarmingly in his chest. It felt like a hole had been burnt out of the very center of his being. Tubarov turned the switch back on, and it all started over again.

Duo had no idea how long it went on for. Tubarov usually paid for fairly long sessions. Time lost all meaning as Tubarov continued to intermittently switch the stun baton on and off. At long last, he became aware that the stun baton had been removed from his ass. In its place, Tubarov’s dry cock was forcing its way in, which was a whole new kind of pain. Duo stared unblinkingly at the wall, his gaze unfocused, as Tubarov’s thrusts rocked his body forward. He was barely aware of the man’s lust-filled grunts or of his own hitching breaths. He couldn’t even scream anymore. His throat felt like sandpaper. Tubarov finally came, shooting his load deep into Duo’s abused ass. Duo barely noticed, lost in a haze of pure agony, as the man cleaned himself up, got dressed, and left the room.

The next thing he knew, Trant appeared at the side of the bed, a huge grin on his face. "Boy, he sure did you over good, didn’t he?" he laughed as he untied Duo’s arms and removed the spreader bar. Duo collapsed bonelessly onto the bed, his muscles cramping in protest, his whole body twitching spasmodically. He continued to stare at the wall with an unfocused gaze, taking uneven hitching breaths, as Trant cleaned the stun baton and put it and the rope and spreader bar back into the cabinet, locking it. He turned to look at the wreck on the bed, still grinning.

"Guess what? I’ll even take pity on you and let you rest for fifteen minutes before I bring the next one in. Aren’t I good to you?" he laughed as he left the room. Duo merely closed his eyes, taking no notice of the tears that spilled down his cheeks, his entire being consumed with pain as he continued to draw labored, painful breaths. The beat of his wildly palpitating heart seemed to fill the room.

* * * * * * * * * *

Quatre rubbed at his chest, which felt uncomfortably tight. He also felt vaguely nauseous. Trowa looked at him with concern.

"Is something wrong, Quatre?" he asked, reaching over to rub his shoulder.

"I’m… I’m not sure. I’m just getting a really bad feeling from this place," Quatre replied uneasily. It was something he’d always had a knack for, picking up on particularly strong emotions and impressions. Nothing had ever affected him as much as the building at 7881 Pine St., though. "There’s… a lot of pain here."

"Someone’s leaving," Trowa said. It was the businessman from earlier. Over the course of the morning they had photographed several people coming and going, but no one had been in there as long as he had, well over an hour. Quatre’s chest tightened even more, and his hands trembled slightly as he raised the camera to take a few shots. The man was seriously creeping him out.

"I can’t wait until this case is over and done with," he murmured.