Things were given freely then. These days the price is known by both sides.
Makubex tells himself that this is an improvement.
---
Kagami's simplest; he wants to know, he watches with those coldly covetous eyes and moves through spirals of light and shadow to pry secrets open. His smile is a statement of the bill which he will present when everything's done, the calm assurance of a man who expects to get value for money. Each step of his through Mugenjou is the stroll of a customer considering the goods, and each time he unlocks another door, it's an instalment on the final account.
Makubex imagines long-fingered hands on computer keyboards, and the flashes of an earring reflected in a monitor screen.
---
Fudou's desires are more complicated. Makubex has baited him with blood, tempted him with blood, promised him blood, sworn that he will let him fill up his mouth with Midou Ban's blood and tear the GetBacker apart, and indeed Makubex does not care to think too deeply about the matter, or to ponder exactly what combination of desire and lust and hatred drives Fudou. He can appreciate the clinical mechanics of passion without wanting to touch it himself. He withdraws, his hands clean.
He doesn't even consider how much Midou Ban's death will settle a debt that Raitei owes him.
---
Emishi doesn't know what he wants. He's told Makubex that he wants Shido. Everyone wants someone. Makubex is aware of that much. And Emishi walks the canyons of Mugenjou to the tune of whipcrack and whipdance and leather biting into flesh, and listens for lions that won't come to him, and for wolves that left long ago. Emishi giggles and laughs and makes jokes and tries to drag a smile out of Makubex as if that would be payment, but Makubex knows that it isn't his lips that Emishi wants to compel, isn't his eyes that Emishi always looks for.
---
Juubei wants to serve. That's his price. Since he can't have the man he was born for, he'll have Makubex instead. Makubex is gracious and never mentions this fact. He throws in an extra service by letting Juubei pretend that he was betrayed, that they all were; but really, Kazuki only did what Makubex wishes so very much he could do himself, and of all the people who he intends to kill, Kazuki is perhaps the person he bears the least malice towards. But for Juubei's payment, he'll still those quick hands and close those dark eyes in atomic fire.
---
Sakura wants to serve Makubex. Makubex knows this; he's quite certain of the fact; she doesn't ask for anything else, she doesn't want anything else. She's just like Juubei, needing a master, and it pleases him to be able to give her directions. That's all that there is between them, and if he takes comfort in the shelter of her long drapes of cloth, then that's another transaction, paid for by letting her comfort.
More than that would be a flaw in his logic; more than that would turn his hard-won truths of payment and hatred and despair into lies.
---
Makubex knows the payment that he wants for all that he's giving his people. He wants them to perform flawlessly, to follow his directions, to make the reality which will bring back the old days and let everything be all right again. He's giving blood and mastery and secrets and silence, and surely that's enough to be worth it? His equations tell him that it is. They are precise. They admit no error.
His world is bounded by walls and computer screens and promises. He's done all these things to get what he wants, and he'll have payment. He will.
---