Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Asylum ❯ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: We're updating!

Kathrine: Family has been real annoying and have allowed us no real time to work on things since school let out. Now we just decided to do all our work while they're sleeping.

JC: This was updated first because Shadow requested it.

Kathrine: We know it's short, but this was the best spot to leave it at.

JC: We hope it was worth the wait and we will definitely be trying to update sooner.

Kathrine: Now read and enjoy.

Disclaimer: We don't own them. If we did then there would have been at least two of them shagging each other in every episode. Yes, we are crooked. ^_^

Warnings: Angst, Dark themes, Crazy Seiji trying to hurt himself. At least he's not homicidal though, but he is insane. That's why he's in the institution in the first place.

Asylum

BY Kathrine and JC

Chapter 2 - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Seiji didn't understand what was going on. Touma was crying and the man in the white coat, whom he thought to be a doctor of some sort, was just staring at him with concern, but was doing nothing to calm his tears. What was going on? Where were they? He looked about but then realized that it was his room, the room that he'd been brought to by Kizu. The man in the white coat was Kizu, Dr. Kizu.

But why was Touma upset? Had he done something wrong? He turned his hand and took a hold of the one that had been against his own. This seemed to make Touma stop crying, but he pulled the blonde's hand to his chest, holding it there as if it was his anchor to sanity. What was so wrong? He didn't understand, but he hoped that one of them would be willing to tell him.

" Gods, we looked everywhere for you," the blue-haired man started. " You just disappeared after we got back and none of us knew where you could have gone. What happened? Why did you leave?"

What was Touma talking about? Where had he gone? He thought for a moment and then remembered. Home…I went home, he thought. Grandfather wanted me to come right home. He didn't know that he had made the others worry.

" G-g-g-goooommmmennn," he forced out in his underused, raspy voice. " W-w-wennnt h-hooommmme."

Touma stared at him for a moment, taking in what had just been said. Went home? He went home when he disappeared? Gods, then how did he get here? Did his family send him to the asylum before he got here? Why did they act like they didn't know anything? He had to know the truth, had to know how his friend had come to be a seemingly permanent resident of the Institution. " Seiji, who sent you here?" he asked. " If you went home, then why aren't you still there?"

The blonde said nothing. He seemed to think for a moment before turning away his eyes, as if he remembered something that wasn't pleasant. " Seiji?" The blonde then shook his head, showing that he didn't want to say anything. It must not be anything good, he thought. It seems that his mind is still somewhat within his child mentality. He just might not remember.

Seiji wasn't going to tell him. He didn't want Touma to know that he was a bad boy. That his grandfather had sent him away because he wasn't a good grandson anymore.

/ The boy's gone mad! He's lost his mind! We have to send him away…This child isn't my grandson… /

" Seiji?" Touma asked him, with concern in his voice. " Are you all right? Why are you crying?" The blonde lifted his free hand up to his cheek and touched it, feeling the wetness on it. It didn't surprise him. Kizu had said before that he cried a lot. Whenever he thought of something bad or sad, he started crying even though he didn't know it. Thinking of his family always made him cry.

He then turned his eyes onto Dr. Kizu, looking for answers about something, anything. The dark-haired man kneeled down next him, much like Touma was, only with a little more difficulty. " Do you know where you are Seiji?" he asked. The blonde nodded. Of course he knew. He was in his room, the room that Kizu had brought him to after something bad happened at the other place that his family had sent him to.

" Do you know why you are here?" He nodded again. He was there because he was a bad grandson. His grandfather didn't want him around anymore. " Do you want to tell us?" He shook his head. He didn't have to tell. Kizu had told him that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to. So he didn't have to tell them.

" All right Seiji," the elderly man nodded. He knew that the blonde didn't like to be told what to do. He might not have ever spoken until now, but he still was very rebellious when it came to orders. He liked to follow his own ways, though they only seemed to be of solitude and peace. The most reaction he'd had to anyone was to the boy next to him, Touma. He hadn't responded to anyone like he was now.

Seiji then turned his attention back to his long lost blue-haired companion. Touma was immediately taken in by his pale violet gaze that was so different from that of his old friend and yet so similar at the same time. The bags beneath his eyes showed the lack of sleep that Doctor Kizu had spoke of, but there was still a calmness within them that only Seiji possessed. Then the child-like innocence that showed he was not the Seiji he remembered, but that Seiji within a child's mind waiting to be brought out.

The blonde looked down at his hands and saw that they were covered in mostly green paint with specks of different colors on a few of his fingertips. Where…? He almost didn't remember how he had gotten paint on himself. Instantly, he turned around and stared wide-eyed at the mural behind him on the wall. The green armor, golden crest of the helmet, the long battle sword he remembered from so long ago. He touched the bottom of the painting, finding it to have already dried. " K-korrin," he gasped out, his speaking becoming slightly easier. " Korin."

" Hai, that's Korin Seiji," Touma nodded. " Do you remember Korin no Yoroi?" He didn't care that Kizu was in the room at that moment. He could easily come up with some explanation. All that mattered to him was trying to bring out the old Seiji, the Seiji that he'd lost during the incident in New York. His friend nodded to him and he almost smiled. It seemed that the child Seiji did remember. Or is he just remembering the legend he was told as a child?

" So this 'armor' is the Korin he would speak of at night during his nightmares?" Kizu stared at the large portrait in awe. But why would Blondie be so concerned about this armor? Was it because of something he remembered? " Seiji, what do you remember about this 'Yoroi no Korin'?"

The young man stared at him while he thought. Korin was the armor that his grandfather had spoke of when he was training to get him to behave. Korin would only come to a bearer who was good at heart and deserving of his power. But wait… He'd found Korin… That was how he met Touma, after Korin had come to him. And then he'd met the others. Ryo and Shu and Shin… his mind brought their names up with little difficulty now that he was beginning to remember.

They had been together, him, Touma, Ryo, Shu, and Shin. They had done something, fought against someone. The Masho…Kayura…Arago… he could remember them all. They fought against Arago, the demon emperor that had wanted to enslave everyone, to hurt people. But then Ryo… Ryo had stopped him, used a white armor against him. Kikoutei… Everything was fine then, everyone was okay and safe.

They'd been living together after that with a woman, she'd helped them to defeat Arago along with a little boy. Nasuti…Jun…She'd taken them in so that they could remain together, they'd been like a family. Family… But his family wanted him to come home. They wanted him to come home for a while during the vacation from school. And he had, he'd gone home.

Then he got the letter… Someone… Someone had found a sword from his family. They wanted to know if it was real. Grandfather told me to go, to make sure it was real… he told himself. So he'd gone, gone to the United States, gone to New York.

/ Put on the armor… Show me Korin's true power… The pain will go away… Show me the power! /

The voice. It was HIM again. HE was telling to do things, bad things. HE wanted him to hurt people. He wanted him to give him Korin, his wanted the armor. No…no…stop…I don't want to hurt people…I don't want to kill people… He put his hands against his head, trying to ignore the words, trying to make HIM go away. He didn't want to do the bad things, but he made him do them anyway. He made him hurt people. He made him kill people, little babies and their mothers, their fathers, their grandfathers. He couldn't hold it in anymore, couldn't hold it in…so he screamed.

Touma watched as Seiji's eyes filled with fear, pain, and apprehension. He was scared, quickly becoming terrified. Suddenly he placed his hands over his ears, as if he was trying to ignore what someone was saying to him. He started shaking his head, acting as if someone was yelling at him. " What wrong Seiji?" he asked. " What the matter?" The blonde ignored him, continuing to shake his head faster and faster, unconsciously backing away form him.

" Blondie, stop," Dr. Kizu told him. He'd seen this before. Whenever someone had tried to get the younger version of Seiji, the child, to remember something this would happen. He would shake his head and refuse to do so. It was obvious he didn't want to remember. But now it seemed somewhat different. His movements were so frantic and fearful. Much like when he was trapped in his nightmares. And that was when the blonde was backed up against the wall and let out a loud, terrified scream that echoed off the walls.

" Seiji!" Touma tried to go to him, but the blonde only shook him away. He wouldn't stop screaming, still holding his head, trying to dispel whatever demons were plaguing him. He wanted to help him, to make whatever was hurting him go away, but he had no idea what to do. He was stuck with no way of helping his friend, only able to watch his inner torment.

/ Raise the dosage…His heart rate isn't up far enough…He won't listen… /

No, leave me alone! I don't want to hurt people! I don't want to kill people!

/ Please help me… Stop… God, save us… NO!/

They were crying again. The people, the people that he'd hurt, the people he had killed. They were crying, begging for mercy, begging for him to let them live. I didn't want to hurt them…I didn't want to… I'm sorry…I'm bad… I didn't mean to hurt you…I didn't mean it… He continued to scream, now pulling on his hair, trying to make to voices go away. He felt so disgusting, so dirty. He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands.

Gods, no please no… He could see it. Blood. So much blood. Their blood. The blood of the ones he had hurt. The blood of the ones he had killed. He clenched his eyes shut and began to dig his nails into his skin, scrapping away the filth and the blood. He couldn't take the sight of the blood. I didn't mean to…I didn't want to hurt them…I didn't…

Touma could take it anymore. He jumped at the blonde, grabbing his wrists and pulling them away from his arms. But the damage was done. Long red lines, all looking ready to bleed, were going down his arms. Seiji refused to open his eyes, his screams not lessening. " Seiji, it's me!" he tried to soothe him. " It's all right! You have to stop, you're hurting yourself!"

" That won't work," Dr. Kizu replied and he pulled a needle from one of his coat pockets and a vile along with it. " When he gets like this, he doesn't even realize anyone else is in the room." Measuring a certain amount from the bottle, he readied the syringe. " Hold him down, I have to administer the sedative."

Seiji's eyes flashed open at those words and he continued to struggle with even more ferocity. His eyes were wide with fear as he shook his head, trying to pull away from the two men. He didn't want drugs, not drugs. They made him bad, made him hurt people. Anything but drugs. He took the chance and attempted to bite Touma, but the blue-haired boy held him back, pushing him against the wall.

" Is this necessary?" Touma looked uncertain. " He's scared to death."

" He always is when he's like this, but he won't calm down any other way," He helped hold down the blonde's one arm and he pressed the needle into it, quickly injecting the tranquilizer into the younger man's body. He watched as the screams died away, turning into shallow breaths and sobs from his patient. He hated when he was forced to sedate the boy, but it couldn't be helped when he was getting himself into a hysterical fit and hurting himself as he was.

Touma felt his heart breaking with the look of sadness and betrayal in the violet eyes that stared at him. They seemed so scared and yet they could still tell who he was, the crime he had done by helping hold him down. " I'm sorry," he whispered as the blonde began to lose himself to unconsciousness. The fragile boy went limp, sliding down the wall to the ground once again. Touma caught him before he fell over to the floor, but he was already out cold.

" Gods…" he was in shock. " How many times a week does he get like this?"

" Usually only when he awakens from one of his nightmares and tries to hurt himself," the dark-haired man replied. " When he first came to us he would get like this often during the day, many other doctors wanted to keep him sedated on a constant basis. But it lessened. He only got hysterical when he remembered something that wasn't pleasant. I believe it is what caused him to become like this in the first place, something so traumatic that it causes pain whenever he remembers."

I know what did this, Touma said to himself, mind filled with anger and malice. New York did this to you, Shikaisen did this to you. Gods, he broke your soul so badly that you mind was lost with it. He held the smaller man to him, shocked at how frail and breakable he seemed. He was much like a small child, malnourished, afraid, and unable to forget the horrors he'd seen.

" Place him on the bed," Kizu told him. " His rest won't last long. His nightmares awaken him no matter how he fell asleep. I'll send someone in to clean up his room."

" NO!" Touma shook his head in disagreement. " Please leave it. It might help figure something out." He rose to his feet, the blonde held carefully in his arms as he carried him towards the messy bed. Kizu cleaned it off, taking all the papers and neatly putting them on the desk. Touma laid Seiji down and almost pulled the covers over him, but stopped. " Shouldn't we clean him up?"

" I've got it," Kizu walked out of the room adjoined to the main cubicle, a wash cloth and basin in his hands. " He usually become messy from his painting so I always have something that he can clean himself up with ready." He dampened the rag and cleaned the green and black smudges off the blonde's face. Wetting the rag again, he cleaned as much of the paint off Seiji's hands as he could.

" He'll have to take a bath to clean up the rest," Kizu sighed, putting the rag in the basin and standing to take it back into the bathroom.

" What do we do now?" Touma asked.

" We wait until the nightmares come to claim him," Kizu replied when he walked back into the room, but then gave the blue-haired man a curious eye. " But I do need to ask you a few questions. I have to know about Seiji's past. So much of his file was lost and I believe you can help me with that."

" Uh…okay," he agreed, finishing tucking his lost friend in. He looked so calm and peaceful now, so unlike only a few minutes before. It was obvious that his friend was indeed in need of help, but was this Institution the proper place for him to receive it?

Kizu touched his shoulder and motioned for him to follow him out of the room. The blue-haired man conceded, but kept the door opened in case Seiji should be plagued by nightmare as the older doctor had said. " What do you need to know besides his name?" he asked.

" That would be a good place to start and the just go through whatever you know," Kizu told him.

Touma let out a deep sigh as he leaned against the closest wall to him. " His name is Date Seiji," he began. " His birthday is June 9, 1977. He's my age, but a few months older. His blood type, if I remember is…B."

" What about his family? Are they the Dates?" the doctor questioned.

" Yeah, the ones and only," he frowned for a moment. " He has two sisters, an older, Yayoi, and younger, Satsuki. His mother's name is Kita and his father is American, which is pretty obvious. His grandfather is leader of the family and makes all major decisions."

" Well could you explain what might have caused his, traumatic state of mind?"

" Not really," he lied. " We went to the United States on vacation with three friends back in '93 after one of them, Shu, somehow won the lottery. He said he had to do something for his grandfather while there so we didn't think anything of it when he was gone in New York for a few days. When he came back it was time to return to Japan, but he was acting very 'different'. He wouldn't tell us anything and we just decided to ask him later. But when we got back here to Japan he just suddenly vanished and we couldn't find him."

" You called his family to see if he'd gone home?" Kizu inquired.

Touma nodded, " Yeah, but they wouldn't explain anything to us and then for some reason our number was blocked so that we couldn't call them anymore."

" How close were you to him back then?" he asked. " He seems to remember you very well."

" We were best friends," the archer answered. " He was the first person to stick up for me about being smart, besides my friend Shu, and I actually took the time to see past the cold exterior that he put on. He never wanted people to know what he was feeling or what he was thinking. To a lot of people he was an enigma unto himself."

" So you were close, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary until after your visit to New York?"

The blue-haired man almost cringed at just the thought of the incident, but merely nodded his head. " Yeah, after New York."

" Well, I need to put all of this down," Kizu replied as he jotted the information into Seiji's written file.

" Would you mind if…if I made a call?" Touma glanced back at Seiji's door.

" Go on ahead, this must be something big for you," the doctor understood perfectly. " I'll be here if something should happen. Besides, I still need to ask you some more questions."

" All right," Touma nodded before taking off down the hall towards where he'd seen an empty waiting room earlier. He had his cell phone on him, but didn't want to make his call around anyone else. Everything was going too fast for him and he knew he had to tell the others about Seiji. They'd all thought something had happened to him and would be glad to know that he was fine. If you can call trapped in a Mental Institution being sedated constantly fine, he thought bitterly.

A/N: Well? Hope that was good enough for ya.

JC: Now we know that the year of his birth is different, but we're going by 2003 so the year has to change or else it would be kinda screwy.

Kathrine: We are definitely working on updating more, but we have lots to update. Not to mention we actually have an ORIGINAL story we're working on.

JC: Now Shadow we hope this was what ya wanted and ya KNOW what we want. ^_~

Kathrine: Now we want to know what yall want to be updated next. We just HAVE to update our YGO fic, but after that we need something to do.

JC: So your choices are- 1) Clash of the Realms, 2) CftH, and 3) True Bloods. Tells what ya want and the one with the most votes will be updated first.

Kathrine: That way ya get what ya want.

JC: Now review yall! Until next time.