Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Away From Me ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Notes: I was assuming when Tsuzuki and Tatsumi could have been partners. There was never specific time mentioned, nor how long Tatsumi had been a secretary, or any of that. So I figured sometime around the 1950's Tsuzuki and Tatsumi could have been partners. Not like it really specifically matters when, so!

Miyazaki is a prefecture in Kyushu.

Chapter Two

Great things had been expected of Tatsumi Seiichirou when he had come to JuOhCho. He had scored higher than any other person on the exams every person had to take to become a Shinigami. He was known to be a charming young man, polite to a point, and extremely intelligent. Though somewhat stoic, people found him enjoyable to be around, and those in charge were delighted with his work ethic.

And then he had been partnered up with Tsuzuki Asato.

His work ethic had not changed, but it took him longer to get anything accomplished. A case that would have ordinarily taken him no more than two days would take two weeks. Paperwork that he had usually seen to and disposed of within the hour began to stack up, until he could hardly be seen behind his desk. He was often sleeping less, and by the looks of things, did not have a very healthy diet with all the sweets being shoved down his throat.

He could simply not say no to Tsuzuki.

Tsuzuki had several partners before him, three or four at least. The running joke was that Tsuzuki went through partners faster than he went through Kleenex. Either people could not put up with his antics for more than a few weeks, or he did something that made them split up with him. The last partner he had, he had nearly killed. First he had knocked them accidentally into a lake while on assignment, and when the man was in the infirmary, he had sent him flowers that he had an allergic reaction to.

Needless to say, when Tatsumi heard that it was Tsuzuki he was partnering up with, he was less than pleased. In fact, he had flat out demanded that they not be put together, but Konoe believed that it was the best match. He claimed that if anyone could teach Tsuzuki to have a better work ethic, it was Tatsumi.

When Tatsumi had walked into his office that morning to find Tsuzuki eating candy bars and Skittles, he began to have second thoughts about it.

Two weeks he had been partnered with Tsuzuki. He had a feeling he was quite possibly going to go mad if things continued the way they were.

But if there was one thing that Tatsumi prided himself on, it was that he was a patient man. Which would have meant something, if Tsuzuki was not constantly testing that patience. He was beginning to dread coming to work in the morning.

Then he would open the door to his office, see Tsuzuki sitting there waiting for him, smiling at him, and those feelings would melt away.

Tsuzuki was not as bad as people made him seem. True, he did go through partners faster than any other Shinigami in the Shokan Department. True, he was a glutton for trouble. True, he did never clean up after himself, and was always griping about not having enough sweets to eat. But there was more beneath the surface few were able to see.

It was just hard to see when he was digging through his desk drawers for the bag of M&Ms he had hidden the day before.

Tatsumi sighed. "Tsuzuki-san..."

Tsuzuki's head popped up from behind the desk. "Ah, Tatsumi! Hi!"

"We have an assignment," Tatsumi said. He took the manila folder he had tucked beneath his arm and held it out to Tsuzuki. Tsuzuki took it without looking, still immersed in rummaging around his desk drawers. He emerged after a moment looking triumphant, a half-melted bag of M&Ms in hand.

With a sigh, Tatsumi settled down behind his desk. He took a folder from the multiplying stack on his desk and opened it up to continue writing a report of the last assignment he and Tsuzuki had been on. It would have been simple. They were simply to find a wanderlust soul and deliver her to where she belonged.

As it turned out, she had a passion for art, and had not moved on because she wanted more than anything for a piece of her work to be displayed in a popular art contest. So instead of delivering her soul to where it belonged, finishing the assignment in mere hours, Tsuzuki had decided it would be better to see to it that her piece was shown, and that she received first prize.

A one day assignment, two hours at that, had taken them four days.

"We will be going to Miyazaki," Tatsumi said. He glanced over his glasses to see if Tsuzuki was listening to him. His partner was instead licking melted chocolate from his fingers, looking with one amethyst eye at the open folder on his desk. Chocolate was smeared across his cheek.

"Looks messy," Tsuzuki said. "Kids doing weird things?"

Tatsumi rose from his desk and crossed the small office to stand before Tsuzuki. "Children being possessed," he said. He reached out with one hand, gripped Tsuzuki's chin gently between his thumb and forefinger, and materialized a handkerchief from the confines of his jacket. Tsuzuki made a face not unlike a child embarrassed to have their mother cleaning their face in public.

"No one has died yet, but while under the influence of whatever it is that is possessing their minds, they tend to do destructive things." Tatsumi folded the handkerchief and returned it to his inside jacket pocket. Tsuzuki rubbed at his cheek.

"So," Tatsumi said, straightening his suit jacket and crossing the room back to his own desk, "we will need to find the source of the problem and eliminate it, if possible."

"Mm."

No longer concerned with his candy, Tsuzuki leaned over the folder, eyes narrowed as he read what little information they had been given. Three children had done strange things, out of their usual behavior, it claimed. One had slipped detergent into a glass of water anyone could have come along and drank. Another had located a book of matches and a container of gas. The entire house had burned down. The third child had tried to deliberately do something wrong; she had taken one of the butcher knifes from the knife block and tried to kill her brother.

None of them were any older than seven years old.

"Why would someone use children this way," Tsuzuki murmured softly. "What kind of sick person is this..."

Tatsumi glanced up. "Tsuzuki-san?"

Tsuzuki shook his head, and when his eyes met with Tatsumi, all traces of his disgust with the case were gone. A smile on his face, he looked as though nothing was wrong. It was a smile that would have made anyone else smile in return, but Tatsumi could only frown. He had known someone like that, someone that had been able to turn off their own feelings like a light switch, and to smile in such a way...

He shook his head. Memories had no place within the workplace. That was what made him the devoted worker he was known to be, the man that everyone depended on.

"Miyazaki, right?" Tsuzuki asked. "They have great cheese cake. Can we get some?"

Tatsumi sighed softly, lifting a hand to push back his glasses. "Perhaps."

"Really?" Tsuzuki perked up.

"I said perhaps."

"Perhaps is better than no." Tsuzuki beamed.

His smile was infectious. Even Tatsumi, stoic, serious, work-driven Tatsumi, was unable to hold back the slight twitch of his lips.

"We'll see."

In their brief time as partners, Tatsumi had learned one thing. When Tsuzuki asked for food, he fully expected food, and he would whine for hours on end before he had his food. Tatsumi had learned this the hard way and had once spent an entire day dragging Tsuzuki behind him as the other Shinigami begged and begged to have even a morsel of food. So instead of put up with that, he had a very simple tactic. He would buy Tsuzuki his food, let him scarf it down, and if he complained later in the day, he could always tell him that he had already eaten, and he should be full.

It tended to work, most of the time.

Once Tsuzuki had the cheese cake he had asked for, he followed Tatsumi without complaint as his partner led him through the city where the strange occurrences were happening. Tatsumi wanted to have a chance to speak to one of the children, if possible. He thought it might give them some insight on what they were dealing with. Tsuzuki did not care either way. Tatsumi was the one leading the show.

"Na, Tatsumi," he spoke up, "are you sure you know where we're going?"

"It's just a bit further," Tatsumi replied.

Tsuzuki sighed. When Tatsumi said 'a bit further' he usually meant that it was another six blocks away... His feet were beginning to ache from walking so long.

"Besides," Tatsumi said, with an inkling of amusement in his voice, "walking will help burn off those calories from that cheese cake you just devoured."

"W-what? What's that supposed to mean?! Are you calling me fat, Tatsumi?"

Tatsumi chuckled. "Not at all, Tsuzuki-san."

Tsuzuki blew a raspberry at his back. Tatsumi did not seem to notice.

"This is where one of the children lives," Tatsumi announced.

They had rounded a corner to come to a more expansive space of the city, less packed than all of the buildings and businesses they had been passing on their way. The neighborhood was more spread out, and stood surrounding an enormous park. Being a Sunday afternoon, several children were playing there, under the watchful eyes of their parents. Tsuzuki had a feeling he and Tatsumi, dressed in their dark suits, stood out quite a bit.

But fitting in was something Tatsumi hardly ever thought about, and unconcerned, he stepped into the park and began walking along one of the twisting, winding paths. Tsuzuki sighed and followed.

Natsuo Ayaka was the name of the girl they were searching for. She was the child that had attempted to kill her brother. There were dozens of groups of children in the park. How they were supposed to just find one girl, Tsuzuki had no idea. If she was a spirit, that would have been easier. Shinigami had natural 'homing device' when it came to finding a spirit. Finding people that were alive was harder.

Still, Tatsumi always managed to find them. Tsuzuki was not very surprised when he found Natsuo Ayaka out of two dozen other children.

She was seated on a swing in the playground. A boy her age was on the swing beside her, scraping at the ground with his feet, but not bothering to try and to build up any momentum to actually swing. She simply sat there, legs pulled up, arms clutching the chains that held up the seat. Neither spoke.

Tatsumi took a step forward. Tsuzuki held out a hand and stopped him.

"I'll talk to them."

Tatsumi frowned. "Tsuzuki-san..."

Tsuzuki smiled at him. "You're no good with kids, Tatsumi. You scare them."

"I... what?"

Tsuzuki shook his head, barely able to contain a laugh. He made a gesture for Tatsumi to stay put, and when the other man seemed less inclined to argue, he started down the hill they stood on to the playground. The boy glanced up at him, stared for a moment, and then, unconcerned, looked away. The girl, Ayaka, did not even do so much as that.

"Hi," Tsuzuki greeted.

The girl did not move. The boy glanced at her, at Tsuzuki, at the girl once again, and then finally fell back on Tsuzuki.

"Hi."

There was a swing unoccupied beside the girl. Tsuzuki settled himself down on the seat. It was somewhat of a tight squeeze for a grown man, but he managed. Truthfully, he was more worried about the chains snapping beneath their combined weight. That would have been impossible to live down...

"Is your friend okay?" Tsuzuki asked over Ayaka's head.

"Her mom won't let her go home," the boy answered.

Tsuzuki frowned. "Why not?"

"The police are there." It was a hushed whisper. Tsuzuki thought for a moment he hadn't heard, but she then lifted her head and looked at him.

"She says I should stay outside," she said. "Because... I shouldn't be home."

Tsuzuki inclined his head slightly. "Why shouldn't you be home?"

Tatsumi had started down the hill toward them. The boy noticed his movement, but neither Tsuzuki nor Ayaka seemed concerned.

"Mom says they might take me away," she said.

"Who?"

"The police." She kicked at the ground with her feet, building up enough momentum to swing back and forth slowly. "I did something bad, and bad people go to jail."

Tsuzuki shook his head. "Little kids don't go to jail."

"But I did something really bad. I stabbed my brother."

Tatsumi frowned, watching Tsuzuki and the child interact from where he stood alongside the swings. The girl sounded remorseful for what she had done, but there was something wrong. There was something unnerving about the way she held her gaze, something off about the tone of her voice. She knew what she had done was wrong, but she did not seem to grasp the magnitude of what that meant.

"Why did you do that?" Tsuzuki asked gently.

"I don't know."

The caw of a crow had both adults and children looking up, toward its source. Tatsumi saw the enormous black bird beat its wing and lift itself from a tree that stood shading the slide. It fluttered away, becoming a distant dot on the horizon. He shook his head and looked back to Tsuzuki.

"I think something told me to do it," Ayaka said softly.

"Something told you to?" Tsuzuki asked.

She nodded. "A voice."

She looked up at him suddenly, and Tatsumi saw for a moment that she was any other ordinary child. She did not understand what she had done, but she was frightened, like any other child would be.

"Kids really don't go to jail?" she asked Tsuzuki.

Tsuzuki smiled at her and nodded. "Kids really don't go to jail."

"So I'll be okay?"

"You will."

"You promise?" She held out her hand, pinky finger extended. "Swear."

Bemused, Tsuzuki did not know what to do for a moment. He looked back at Tatsumi, as though seeking an answer from him, but his partner could only shrug his shoulders.

Slowly, Tsuzuki locked pinkies.

"I swear."

"You shouldn't make promises you don't know you can keep."

Tsuzuki only barely glanced at Tatsumi. They were seated in a café, across from one another in a secluded booth. Tatsumi had green tea; he had a coffee. After speaking with the girl, finding she was not forthcoming with information, Tatsumi had suggested that they come to the café for a small break before they attempted another route to find the source of their problem.

She had said only that there had been a voice that told her to do what she did. She could not explain what the voice was like, or when she had begun to hear it, because she did not know if she had in fact heard a voice. She did not know if she was imagining it, trying to place the blame on anything else, or if it was true.

"She was scared," Tsuzuki said softly. "I wasn't going to tell her that things wouldn't be okay."

Tatsumi set down his cup of tea. "Tsuzuki-san, you--"

"--are too involved." Tsuzuki looked at him, gaze sharp. "I know. 'You care too much.' 'You have to separate yourself from your work.' I know, Tatsumi. But she was scared."

He looked away. "I couldn't let her feel like that."

It was the side that no one else knew. It was what only people that partnered with Tsuzuki saw. Everyone thought him a moronic waste of space, not even capable of the most simple of assignments. Capability had nothing to do with it. It had everything to do with what he felt for the people involved in the assignments. He did not see any of them as just another job. Everyone had a painful story, a reason why they did what they did. He felt something for all of them.

His fault was that he wanted to save them. He did not want to let one person be in pain. He would have taken it all, if he could, if only to not see someone else hurting.

He was utterly selfless. And instead of admiring that trait, Tatsumi saw it as his curse.

"Tsuzuki-san," he began, slowly, "please do not get as involved in this as you did our last assignment."

You only hurt yourself in the end.

"... for your own good."

Don't get involved.

Just do your job, Tsuzuki.

You feel too much. Just finish the assignment.

None of them understood.

Tsuzuki sighed, lifting a hand to brush a water-logged strand of hair from his face. Tatsumi had said that there was some office work he needed to do, that they would pick up from where they had left off the next morning. He could have gone with him, but Tsuzuki had remained behind. Not to continue their investigation... he just didn't want to go back to EnmaCho yet.

The rain had started abruptly. Clouds had gathered around the sun, blanketing it, and then the rain began to fall. Most people had gone immediately to shelter to wait it out, but unconcerned with getting a little wet, Tsuzuki walked through it, hands deep in the pockets of his dark trench coat.

They always told him that he was too involved with his work. They said that he had to let go of his own personal feelings in order to do his job as a Shinigami as well. It was no use, they said, to get involved with someone that would never be seen again.

Yet he always did. He knew that he shouldn't, but he did, always... because it was unfair for those people that had suffered to be treated as just another assignment. Just another lost soul in the thousands. Just another person that had lived through their pre-determined life period.

If he treated them that way, then they became nothing. What they had suffered through meant nothing. Their trials, their sorrows, nothing would have ever meant a thing. And he couldn't let people feel that way.

Maybe he did care too much, like Tatsumi said he did. But he would rather care too much rather than not care at all.

Sudden movement from the corner of his eye caught him off guard; something dark, just out of his line of peripheral vision had gone by, disappearing into an alley. Confused, he turned toward it, in enough time to see something -- or someone -- disappear into the darkness.

He followed. He did not realize he was moving until he was, and soon he was running, across the street and down the sidewalk, into the alleyway.

The dark figure was crouched at the end of the alleyway, kneeling on one knee, before a small girl. Tsuzuki recognized her at once -- it was Ayaka, the girl he had spoken to in the park. The dark figure lifted a hand to her face, touching her rain-covered cheek gently. He -- or she, or whatever it was -- was murmuring something quietly to the girl. She nodded her head, and blank-faced, began to walk away from him.

"Hey!"

The dark figure whirled around as Tsuzuki came barreling down the alleyway. He made a move to escape, but it was too late; Tsuzuki had caught up to him and seizing him by the shoulders.

"You -- you're the one!" Tsuzuki exclaimed. "What are you doing to those kids?!"

The stranger suddenly let out a burst of energy. Tsuzuki was blown backward by the force of it. He cried out as his back struck the brick wall of one of the buildings the alleyway was nestled between, and stunned by the impact, he slumped uselessly to the ground. The dark figure slowly approached him, lifting his hands to pull back the hood concealing his face.

"You shouldn't put your nose where it doesn't belong, Shinigami."

Thick, dark strands of hair, matted down by the rain pelting down on him, thinly veiled the pair of piercing blue eyes that stared into Tsuzuki. He was still a young man, but Tsuzuki could see, by the glare of his eyes, the lines of weariness on his face, he had seen too much in such a short span of time to not have been damaged by it.

"You--"

"Just leave here before you get hurt," the dark man advised, softly. "This has nothing to do with you."

He turned away.

"Wait!" Tsuzuki used the wall as leverage to pull himself to his feet. "Don't..."

"I told you, it has nothing to do with you. Go away."

"But..."

The dark figure let out another burst of energy. Tsuzuki was thrown back into the wall once again. This time, he felt something in his back give, and he slumped uselessly to the ground. He could feel blood rising up into his mouth.

"You won't be able to save her!"

Tsuzuki stared at him.

"You won't," the figure repeated. "So let it go."

He turned away and began walking. Tsuzuki watched his retreating form walk down the length of the alleyway, stop at its entrance, cast a single glance over his shoulder... and then continue on as if nothing at all had happened.

Let it go.

Tsuzuki put his face to his hands.

I can't save her...