Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Past is Passed ❯ Part One: Emptiness ( Chapter 1 )

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Past is Passed By ReddAlice

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Author's Note: I decided to take a step back and write about the mission Hisoka and Tsuzuki were on the day Muraki got his cold smooth hands on Tsuzuki's body. Also I wanted to give a note to everyone reading this... while this does contains spoilers for both the series and the manga, I wanted to let everyone know that I have somewhat mixed both the anime and the manga to give myself a stronger foundation. Which means, I do draw on the manga for some sources. ^-^ 'Scuse me... Hehe, I hope you don't hate me for it! Oh and I call a young girl in the story an apparition, that will be explained a bit later. Yes, I know it means ghost, and no... she is NOT a ghost.

Warning: I decided to make the warnings, ratings and such on a chapter-by-chapter basis. - Small Angst

Songs: Amethyst Embrace (exotic version) - Yami No Matsuei

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Part One: Emptiness

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"I held a Jewel in my fingers

And went to sleep,

The day was warm,

Ah winds, winds were prosy

I said, I said 'Twill keep'" -Amethyst Embrace

(Also an excerpt from Emily Dickinson's poem: "I Held a Jewel in My Fingers"

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The wind carried through the sakura blossoms sweeping their tear shaped petals across the ground like rolling waves of foam. It wouldn't hurt to take just a moment to enjoy the night, to feel the crisp white moon's silver radiance.

Hisoka turned his face up to the sky and closed his eyes, allowing himself to become vulnerable under the ominous glow of the stars. The silence of the street washed up around him. How much longer till the peace was shattered?

A voice seared him like a poker fresh from the burning coals of a fire. "It's a beautiful night tonight... wouldn't you agree?"

Hisoka fell back a few steps, his breath hitching his lungs. The fear... it was back again, clawing at his inside and dredging up images of the night under the red moon. "Muraki..."

Standing below a weeping sakura tree several feet away, Muraki plucked an unbroken blossom from the throng of soft petals. "It's night like these that bring fond memories to mind." Smiling dejectedly, the doctor's eyes rose to Hisoka's. "Alone?" He asked, spinning the flower between his thumb and forefinger with delayed precision.

"I-..."

A subtle frown befell Muraki's pristine features, "I see."

In fact... Hisoka was alone, and if circumstances held he would stay that way. He and Tsuzuki had split up in search of a young girl who had eluded their grasps more than an hour earlier; they were to meet up in five minutes at the temple a few blocks away. He would be damned again before he would let Muraki break the fragile reign Tsuzuki now held over his emotions.

Though Muraki had been gone for well over a year on Earth, Tsuzuki was still healing, and coming to terms with the past he had hid from everyone, and did to this day. He needed more time before he faced the man who symbolized everything he dreaded from his youth. What exactly Muraki reminded Tsuzuki of was not shared knowledge, but the look in Tsuzuki's eyes after he summoned Touda, the impartial destructive Shikigami of fire, to burn the world around him to the ground whispered of ghosts better kept locked up. Muraki couldn't have him! Not now... not ever!

"No..." Hisoka whispered, his eyes coming alive with a rebellious fire. "You can't have him."

-2-

The apparition had dodged into the very building Tsuzuki was scheduled to meet Hisoka in. Chewing on his lips absently, he checked his wristwatch and looked around. It was unlikely the girl would run out the way she came in, he would have to go inside.

The temple grounds were silent; the smooth gravel path leading to a small outside altar was undisturbed and lightly dusted with stray pink flora. "Hisoka?" His voice rang out rustling the raw calm. Something was unnerving. Something was winding and wrapping its sleek body through the air, bristling up against his senses. Something unseen.

Tsuzuki didn't have time to wait for his belated partner, what a problematic time for them to switch roles! Brushing his hair back, he took off in a sprint towards the looming red doors of the shrine. He had to catch that girl!

-3-

Muraki saddled Hisoka with a foreboding gaze of boredom. "Who said I was after him?" He murmured, letting his voice carry in the wind.

Hisoka refused to be bested; he wouldn't sink into the trembling that threatened his posture. He had to be the one to protect Tsuzuki this time; he had to prove to himself that he was strong enough.

Muraki cocked his face up considerably, his pallor unrivaled by even the ivory goddess in the sky. "I could be after you."

"But your not..." Hisoka dared refute.

Silken laughter broke through the air, "Your right, I'm not after you, however..." He let the rest of his reply drift off into quiet.

-4-

Tsuzuki and his partner Hisoka had been diligently following the child who had fled the scene in trepidation. They didn't blame her; though she must have felt the entire tragedy had been her fault, they just wanted to see her to safety, guard her from the harm that would seek to abuse her unique abilities.

Hisoka had warned Tsuzuki as they approached the huddled body covered in the fresh blood of her immediate family, her mother, her brothers, and a baby, that she was terrified and would probably be easy to startle. He should have just come out and said that his eyes would scare her, they belonged to a demon, not a savior; Hisoka had known that and couldn't bring himself to say it.

She had ran from Tsuzuki's rich amethyst stare... She had ran from him... It had hurt watching a creature of innocence flea him, her face twisted with fear as she turned away. It reminded him so dearly of the girl who had kept him company in his youth, shielded him from the young terrors that harassed him, and in the end the girl he had failed to save.

Tsuzuki brushed off the thoughts.

Before the altar knelt the little girl, her long brown hair swept back into a wistful waterfall that cascaded over her back and pooled over her feet. Her shoulders shuddered with sobs, her body turned away from the intruder.

"Are you alright?" He inquired through gasps for air, man he hated to run. The moment the words fell from his lips, his mouth was filled with the thick temple air, substantial as mud and just as distasteful to his sweets inclined tastes.

The child slanted her eyes towards him with a turn of her head, and watched him through her hair over her shoulder.

"I won't hurt you." He said quickly, earnestly. "I promise, I won't. I want to... I wanna help you."

The girl shook her head and scooted forward on her knees, too exhausted to get up and scamper away, let alone turn around and face him in panic. The little apparition had covered quite a long ways on her small thin legs clothed in nothing more than a stained nightgown and bare feet, out running both the Shinigami with anomalous agility.

"Hisoka, where are you?" Tsuzuki mumbled apprehensively ebbing closer to the altar and the pale mortal cowering below it.

-5-

"Not to cut our meeting short, it's always a pleasure, but I have previous engagements. Obligations, you see..." His tilted to the side, "but I won't leave you unable to finish your objective." He stated considerately.

Hisoka's protests were cut off as a small figure sidestepped around the doctor in white, the little girl.

-6-

"I won't hurt you, I won't... I promise... I want to protect you." Tsuzuki exhaled precariously, his heart breaking.

-7-

The girl!

Hisoka moved forward instinctively, "Get away from him!" He cried.

Muraki's lips turned up in a loving face, a malevolent but loving expression as he put an encouraging hand on the child's shoulder and guided her forward a few steps before releasing his grip. "Go play."

The gears in Hisoka's head slowly turned deducing what this could mean. Was she being controlled like Miss Maria Wong? Was she ill? Hisoka froze... the girl was grinning... at him.

Muraki turned his back on the mislead child and the contemptuous Shinigami, the apparition would have no trouble at all boiling down Hisoka's burnt out candle and licking up the melted wax like her family's blood. He would leave the unsightly task to his little collectable, and go seek out the man who he was finally prepared to conquer.

-8-

There was nowhere for the girl to go. Tsuzuki would take her back to the bureau and have Watari make sure she was okay before finding her a good place to live in peace, away from the glare of persecution. "Shh... It's okay, I'll make sure everything is okay." A smile tugged at his heart when she didn't flinch away from him, but instead kept her head lowered and still. She wasn't afraid anymore! She understood! Maybe even sensed Tsuzuki was on her side!

"Here let me help you up." Tsuzuki offered reaching down to pull her to her feet.

Tenderly his fingers encased her cool hand, and he began easing her to her feet. "See, I told you I wouldn't hurt you, I just want to hel-"

In his grip the small limb began to retract like a snake into its hole, shrinking and becoming more skeletal as it pulled into the socket. Startled, Tsuzuki let go, and watched in unadulterated alarm as the small frame cluttered to the floor and shattered.

It took several minutes for Tsuzuki to reach down and pull away the rust colored gown, and even then his mind was riddled with shock. Broken amidst a headless mop of long human hair were the pieces to a pastel bisque doll flecked with red.

It was just a doll...

Tsuzuki's body ran cold like ice. "No... Hisoka!" How could he be so blind? It was a trap! He had to save Hisoka!

Somewhere in the distance, the small girl was screaming, her mind pulling apart in ruin, and falling to the ground, and Hisoka was going to be fine thanks to his unknowing partner... but in the moments to come, that was everything but how Tsuzuki would be.

-9-

Tatsumi reached up to his face and removed his glasses with a disinterested sigh of resign, he couldn't concentrate, and his eyes wouldn't focus, his mind kept wandering. Drifting to those darkened eyes. Tsuzuki would be fine; he always was, wasn't he? Now two months since he was found drowning in his own blood on the floor of that white-carpeted room, he had fallen back into the customary routine, and resumed his carefree, lazy, tardy attitude.

Still... To the Shadow Master something didn't quite seem right- something was dreadfully off kilter... but what? Pinching the bridge of his nose, he dropped his glasses on his desk, and let his chin rest in his hand. "What happened to you Tsuzuki Asato? What did he do to you?"

To be CONTINUED...

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EN: Thank you! I've finished the first chapter! Yes ma'am! I told you all I would and I did... I don't abandon my fics... it may take me a while to construct a chapter (sometimes... not always) but it will always come! Now, I can't wait to hear from everyone! Thanks for reading!

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