Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ The Suit of Swords ❯ Four of Swords ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: Four of Swords

When he woke again, it was to pain. He tried to scream but it came out as only faint croak. Trying to move, he discovered he was restrained. Panicking, he tried to use his telekinesis to release himself.

Nothing.

Forcing himself to calm down he tried again. Then he really started to panic. His powers were gone. He thrashed and struggled until he was exhausted, hyperventilating.

"Ah… you are awake again. I see that my combination of medication is working since you haven't leveled the lab. It was quite simple really. After dealing with those shinigami, a human, no matter how gifted, isn't as much of a challenge."

Finally getting his breathing back under control, he tried to test the restraints subtly.

"Oh… I wouldn't bother. They are plenty strong enough. Now, I have a few tests to run while you are awake. I am afraid they might be a bit painful. A pity you've already screamed yourself hoarse while unaware, your cries were beautiful." A cold hand stroked his cheek and Nagi felt the fear rising again. "Almost as beautiful as my other dolls'…"

**

Omi gave his 'family' a quick call to say he wouldn't be back for a while, then the three of them traveled to the Meifu to tell the others what they thought had happened to Naoe. The blond assassin was sent off with Watari and the GuShouShin to attack the situation from the technological angle. Tsuzuki and Hisoka returned to their office to go through what little information they already had… and found another 'gift' waiting for them.

This time it was sitting in the center of Hisoka's immaculately clean desk. A plain white gift box, but this time there was an envelope lying on top.

"What?!" Tsuzuki ducked back out the door. "Did anyone see THIS one get delivered?" He walked back in, shaking his head. Hisoka just stood in front of his desk, staring at the innocuous looking 'present'.

He didn't want to touch it. He didn't want to see what that twisted bastard had given them this time. He knew there would be residual emotions left on everything. Emotions he would be helpless to block. He stared at the envelope. His name was written in beautiful characters on the front.

"Are you going to open them?"

He looked up, into Tsuzuki's concerned amethyst eyes. He stepped back. "I… I can't… you'll have to…"

"Okay."

Hisoka wrapped his arms around his torso, he felt chilled. His partner didn't comment, understanding why he didn't want to touch the objects. He took the envelope first, opening it carefully and withdrawing the single sheet of rice paper. In the same beautiful calligraphy a short message was written. Tsuzuki read it, and sighed. He cleared his throat and read it aloud.

"Feel free to come join the party. I'm sure my new doll is going to get lonely. Muraki."

Tsuzuki dropped the note and picked up the box. He hesitated… then opened the lid and looked in. He frowned and pulled out the small piece of paper. "It's a map." He set it on the desk and looked at it. Hisoka stepped closer. There was something strange about it. He reached out a finger and when still centimeters from the paper, snatched his hand back. Tsuzuki looked at him strangely. "What?"

"He didn't…" Hisoka felt ill.

"He didn't what? It's a map, probably to wherever he is keeping Nagi-kun. You know how he likes to play games."

"Look at the ink…"

Tsuzuki picked it up, squinting at it. "What about it?"

Hisoka backed up till he hit the wall… but he could still 'feel' the pain radiating off the page. "It's blood… he used Naoe's blood…"

**

Omi felt vaguely ill as he sat in on the meeting. To use Naoe-kun's own blood to draw the map, that was just sick. Something he would have expected out of Masafumi. They had confirmation that Muraki did have the young telekinetic, and even knew where he was supposedly holding the teen. But it was undeniably a trap of some type. What the man wanted from them was unclear, except for their presence.

"We can't run into this blind, Tsuzuki."

"But Tatsumi, we can't leave Nagi with him."

"It is regrettable, but Naoe-kun is NOT our responsibility."

"You can't mean that…" The amethyst eyed shinigami looked horrified.

Tatsumi sighed and pushed his glasses back up. "No, I don't. I know we can't just abandon anyone to that man. I just don't think we can charge into what is surely a trap without some information."

"But we need to do something." Omi interrupted. "I don't know a lot about this Muraki… but from what little I saw at that laboratory, and knowing he already had Naoe-kun before…"

"He's experimenting on Naoe. We know it's a trap. There is nothing we can do about that. Either we go in or we leave the boy to him." Hisoka's green eyes burned.

"We go in of course." Tsuzuki stated.

Tatsumi sighed. "I knew you would decide that way. I've already recalled Terazuma and Wakaba. Watari is standing by. If we do not hear from you within two hours, we are coming in."

Tsuzuki nodded once then he and Hisoka stood. Omi followed suit. They walked out into the never-ending spring of the Meifu. Omi's blond hair was lightly ruffled by the gentle breeze. It was so beautiful. That just seemed wrong somehow. At this moment some mad doctor was likely experimenting on Naoe-kun, doing who knew what to the slender teen, and yet here… the trees bloomed, the sun shined, and a soft breeze blew sakura petals everywhere.

It was just wrong.

**

He couldn't stop shaking. He didn't think it was from being cold, in truth he felt uncomfortably warm. But his muscles twitched erratically. He wasn't sure exactly what the man had done to him, the last several hours had passed by in a haze from the pain and drugs. Finally he had just passed out. He had woken only a little while ago, with no idea how long he had lain unconscious. There was nothing he could use for reference, only a small plain room with a door and no window. He was laying on a futon laid out against the far wall wearing only his boxers. He wasn't restrained in any way, and that alone was enough to terrify him. If that man, who had struck him as very intelligent, frightfully so, wasn't worried about him being able to do anything; he had probably been rendered powerless.

He hated to be powerless.

After his time fending for himself on the streets and then the Hell on Earth that was Rosenkreuz, he had sworn he would never be powerless again. It scared him beyond anything else to have to lay there, unable to move, except for the involuntary twitching of his muscles. And wait.

Because the demon would be coming back he knew. And there was nothing he could do.

**

As they appeared at the back of an alley in Tokyo, Hisoka's mind was distracted by memories of their previous encounters with the psycho known as Muraki. He was still occasionally plagued by nightmares of his own assault and subsequent lingering death. Every time it seemed like he could finally but the doctor behind him… the devil sprang up again. Why couldn't the man just stay dead?

Tsukiyono knew Tokyo better than either of them since Hisoka had never been there during his life, and it hadn't come close to being this big when Tsuzuki had been alive. They followed the normally genki blond through the crowded streets. The assassin showed no trace of the happy teenager they had seen before. Now he was focused, deadly, like when Hisoka had first entered that storeroom. Even though Tsukiyono was only human, the blond shinigami was glad he was on their side.

And Tsuzuki. He felt guilty, and terrible for thinking it, but he was glad that it wasn't the amethyst-eyed shinigami that Muraki had in his clutches. Tsuzuki went all to pieces around the mad doctor, not that he was all that great himself. Alone they were usually unable to muster the strength to fight off the man, but together… together they had a chance. He just hoped it would be enough, for Naoe's sake… it had to be enough.

He nearly ran into his partner as Tsuzuki stopped suddenly. "Nani?"

"We're here." Tsukiyono said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a dart which he then hid in his sleeve.

"Ah." He looked up at the very modern appearing office building.

"Hmm." Tsuzuki looked a bit irritated. "It looks too normal. You don't think he actually has a real office this time, ne Hisoka?"

"How should I know? But I doubt that's where he would be holding Naoe."

The blond assassin nodded. "Basement or penthouse would be my guess."

"Basement, snakes like to be underground."

Tsuzuki nodded. "Yes, penthouse isn't his style, he likes to hide away, plus it would be easier to conceal the more… unsavory aspects of his experiments in the basement."

"There should be an entrance around the back somewhere, for deliveries, can't have those coming in the front door." Tsukiyono started around the corner. "A building this big will have several levels underground, may even be near enough to the subway system for Muraki to have made himself an exit that way as well."

"At least it's a national holiday so there aren't too many people in the building." He looked at Tsuzuki out of the corner of his eye. "Even so…"

"I know… I'll be careful."

He nodded, trusting his partner to make the right choices. Some of his shikigami were NOT suited for fighting in an enclosed space, especially one that had civilians around.

Finding a locked service entrance, the assassin produced a lock pick from somewhere. Within a minute, they were entering the building and looking for a stairway down.

**

TBC…