Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Ragnarok ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Ragnarok

The End is only The Beginning

All was silent in the main hall of Tenkuu, except for the steady click of shoes on tile. Byakko watched Sohryu's troubled expression, all the more clearer on the dragon god's human avatar, his white tail swishing back and forth unconsciously in an accompaniment rhythm to the terse symphony.

"Are you sure, Byakko? I mean, absolutely sure?" The blue dragon god asked for what felt like the umpteenth time. In all the years the white tiger had known his companion, he had never heard him sound so much like a little lost child. Not even when KuraiKaraOh…

But he wasn't going to even think of that. It was over and done with, the traitor locked safely away.

"Yes, Sohryu," he replied softly. "What I had been summoned to fight was, indeed, a daemon." The dragon flinched at the response, the staccato tempo faltering just a bit before picking up the pace once more.

This situation, Byakko mused, was entirely too strange. Sohryu, for the most part, had always been able to handle himself. But now the white tiger god, the silly one of the group, had to play comforter, even when he himself wanted nothing more than to hide underneath a bed.

Daemon. True demon. A thing of nightmares and grim fairytales. Most weren't powerful, but they were, in fact, completely immortal. Nothing could kill them. They could only be destroyed, and scattered to the four corners to prolong the time needed to pull themselves back together.

He had been only a small kitten when the last of the daemons had been sealed away - one of the few who knew what they were without having known the true terror facing a being could be. They had been a second reason why Gensoukai had detached itself from other planes - the ranks of the Shikigami had become so depleted by that time. Even now, the only Shikigami alive today that had actually faced a daemon was Genbu, and he still bore the scars from its incessant attack.

"Byakko." The soft voice brought the Tiger God out of his musings. "Did you remember to scatter the remains of the…daemon after you had finished destroying it?"

Byakko's eyes widened. "Oops."

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It was a scene of war.

Sunlight filtered in the room, striking an abandoned, black make-up bag turned on its side, forgotten. Red rouge sat on the dresser, undisturbed, the lid lying beside it. Spread all around the dresser were other instruments of torture: nail clippers, powder, base, lipstick, eyeliner, and eye shadow - just to name a few.

Tatsumi stood by the foot of the bed, only a few feet away. His glasses gleamed in the light, hiding his expression. Tsuzuki sat on the bed, a mix of emotions playing across his face. The two men were watching the cause of the impromptu war: Yuma, Saya…

…and mascara.

Hisoka stood with his back firmly pressed against the wall, one eye firmly kept on each of his attackers. Both stood with exasperated expressions on their faces. The duo had lost their enthusiasm quickly once they learned just how unwilling a participant Hisoka could be.

Though, he ruefully admitted, his obstinate unwillingness to participate had not helped him one bit. His gaze flickered down briefly to the girls' uniform enfolding his body. The forest green, pleated skirt ended about six inches above the knees. The shirt, also forest green, had short sleeves, double bands of gold encircling them. The bow on his uniform was also gold.

Too late did he realize his mistake. Green eyes flicked back up to find the mascara brush a mere inch from his left eye. He yelped and tried to edge away, only to find he had nowhere to run. He was trapped, and at the mercy of women who wanted to make him one of them.

Not for the first time, the empath wondered just what he had done to deserve such bad karma.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the walls of JuOhCho, another blonde was wondering the same thing.

Watari eased back in his chair, taking a sip of coffee as he studied the screen before him. The reincarnation files on both Tsuzuki and Bon were missing.

He frowned. No, he admitted to himself, they weren't precisely missing. The Gushoshin were meticulous about their work - they would not have lost important files like these. The correct term, Watari supposed, would not be "missing" but, rather, "purposely misplaced".

The questions, then, were these three: Who misplaced them? Where would they put them? And - most importantly - Why?

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A squeal. "He's sooooooooooooooooo cute!!"

A giggle. "A pity we had to put him in a school uniform."

An amused tone. "Kurosaki-kun, I do indeed think you'll be capable of pulling this off."

An awed voice. "Hisoka, you really do look like a girl."

Staring into a mirror, Hisoka wondered which of them he would kill first. A hand fisted itself at his side, and a spark flickered within his eyes.

He. Looked. Like. A. Girl.

In fact, he almost didn't recognize himself. Emerald eyes framed in long lashes stared back at him from a soft, unlined face. The blush highlighted his cheekbones and the black eyeliner made his eyes look bigger, the entire effect giving him a more innocent appearance. The dark green of his uniform emphasized his pale skin, giving it an almost ethereal quality.

Tatsumi cleared his throat, dissipating the pregnant stillness hovering within the room.

"It is good that I planned ahead. Otherwise, Kurosaki-kun, you would be late for your…first day of school." A corner of his mouth twitched in an almost smile. "Yuma, Saya, escort him to Sakurayuki High and teach him to…*Ahem* act like a girl."

Hisoka opened his mouth to protest as the demonic duo started to giggle. "Tatsumi-san, I don't think - "

"Lets go!" Still giggling, Saya grabbed Hisoka's wrist, dragging the unwilling boy behind her. Yuma brought up the rear, intent on not letting their prey escape.

"Oi, leggo!"

"No way!" Came the laughing reply.

"Yeah," Yuma chimed in. "You look like a girl, now you must be a girl!"

Any rebuttal was drowned out by laughter - and even the laughter faded as the trio made their way down the hallway and out the door.

"Well." Tatsumi commented, fiddling with his glasses. "I must return now. Yuma and Saya will be returning every morning to make sure things go smoothly. I hope for his sake that Kurosaki-kun finishes this assignment quickly, I'm not quite sure how much more of this he will be able to handle." With those parting words Tatsumi left down the same path, but with a much less noisier exit.

Tsuzuki pouted at thin air. "Awwwwwww, but I like Hisoka better as a guy!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taunt, scarred skin blended in with the crimson stain splashed across the brick of a dead-end alleyway. A noise rumbled through the daemon's throat, a cruel mockery of a purr. Its half-lidded eyes stared at the puddle of blood at its feet in worshipful admiration before it started to feed.

The victim had been a wonderful screamer. Even now, it could hear her soul's outraged, despondent wail against his intrusive violation. Her terror, which continued into the afterlife, excited it. The daemon could feel every shudder, and smell every spike of fear like an aura around her entrapped soul. Her expressive eyes were blank of spark and life - broken, abused, and dead.

But it wasn't enough. It was another's eyes he wanted to witness; it was another's blood he wanted to drink. It was another's screams it wanted to hear, and it was another's body the daemon wanted to writhe underneath its own, helpless to escape.

However, you do not live for over 500 years without acquiring patience. Once the daemon had been rash, and such behavior had cost it. Not now. Now it would wait, hiding in the shadows for the perfect time to strike and seize its victim.

The daemon rose, stepping back from its meal. Sharp claws pierced the nearest brick wall as it lifted itself up. One of its companions could collect the soul and drag it to Hell. It usually didn't bother itself with such trivial matters anyway.

The daemon heaved its body onto the roof. It took one last look down the alleyway before languidly stretching its wings, allowing the wind to carry it into the air.

All in all, it was in no hurry. When both one and one's prey were immortal, you had all the time in the world. And the satisfaction of a successful hunt made the pleasure taken from one's prey that much more sweeter.

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The outside court of Sakurayuki lived up to its name. Stone benches, sanded down to a smooth surface, were arranged in a precise order around a fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Each bench had engravings of sakura blossoms, slender branches, and fragile doves in flight.

A garden of miscellaneous flowers made a ringed border around the fountain, their soft, unobtrusive colours pleasing to the eye. The water of the fountain itself was a clear, soft silver. It reflected the sun in random places, giving the entire pond the appearance of a large crystal.

Sakura trees encircled the fountain, flowers, and benches, giving the entire area a feeling of privacy. The clearing was paved in cream tile, stopping just short of the trees. A four tile wide walkway gave the only path back to the school building.

Hisoka sighed as he plopped down on a random bench. The entire day, as a whole, had been stressful. The introduction had been completed without a hitch, though his new classmates seemed a tad too enthusiastic.

A suspicion began to form in his head. Were his classmates just that carefree, or did they already know? They could be somewhere else, making fun of the new boy who was trying to pass for a girl…

He shook his head. Nonsense - there had been nothing from his empathy that suggested any such knowledge. He was just getting paranoid from waiting. He hated waiting. The sense of impending doom was a cloud hovering just above his shoulder - too far away to be considered a threat, but close enough to be a distracting annoyance. After all, it was a given that someone would discover he wasn't as feminine as he looked.

Hisoka was a firm believer in the universal truth of Murphy's Law.

A bento box slid into view. "Here, you can have some of mine."

Hisoka blinked at the lunch, his gaze traveling from the food to the bright pink colour of the container. From there it traveled to a slim hand, a green-clad shoulder, and a delicate neck. Gaze traveling upward, he found himself staring into warm brown eyes, and a cherubic face framed by deep red hair. Caught completely flatfooted, he replied with the first thing that came to mind. "Huh?"

The stranger giggled, then leaned forward and waggled her finger an inch from his nose. "Forgetting your lunch, and on your first day of school, too! Tsk! Tsk!"

Hisoka leaned back, eyes widening. "Wha - What?" He blinked, not quite sure what to make of this strange girl before him. She seemed almost like Tsuzuki, but she didn't have that tragic air around her. In some ways, she was even more foreign to him than his partner used to be.

She straightened back up and sighed, placing her free hand against her hip as she closed one eye, the other giving him a critical once-over. "Definitely not the brightest cookie in the package, are ya?"

He straightened, green eyes sparking. "Oi!"

She giggled, placing her lunch beside him before clapping her hands in glee. "Yay! She speaks after all! I was beginning to wonder if you were like Kageko, a woman of few words and much silence. But you're not, so I have another person to talk to!"

This girl, Hisoka decided, had to be completely off her rocker. There was no way she could be this cheerful without trying to hide some sort of underlying sadness. But there was nothing of the sort from her - just a sense of enveloping happiness.

"So," she continued, undaunted by his silence, "you're Kurosaki Hisoka-san, ne? Where are you from? What school did you formerly go to? Have you made any friends yet? Have -"

"Hotaru."

The girl yelped, collapsing backward on the bench. There was a moment of silence before she giggled nervously, glancing up at the girl behind them. "Kageko! How…errr…nice to see you again. Eheheheheheheheheheheheh…how long have you been…ummmmm…"

"'Listening'? 'Standing there'?" Kageko asked dryly, light blue eyes twinkling with hidden mirth. Her whole face suddenly lit up as she clasped her hands together. " 'Yay! She speaks after all!'" She trilled in a surprisingly accurate falsetto.

"I won't be able to explain, will I?" Hotaru asked timidly, hunching her shoulders together.

"You could," Kageko replied. "It just won't do any good." She waved her hands as the red-head opened her mouth. "Don't explain, just drop it." Her eyes shifter to Hisoka. "You are…?"

"This is our new classmate - Kurosaki Hisoka!"

"…"

"I think she can speak for herself, Hotaru."

"But -!"

He listened to the two strange girls bicker good naturedly, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach. Not for the first time, Hisoka wondered just what he was being dragged into.

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Watari walked up to the main desk of the library, his face serious. "Gushoshin."

The younger Gushoshin jumped. "Ah! Watari-san has finally taken a break!" It smiled, cocking its head to the side. "Or maybe Watari-san is going to report his findings to Tatsumi-san?"

Watari blinked - was it just him, or were the Gushoshin up to something? "Errr…no. Actually, I've just discovered that the reincarnation files for Bon and Tsuzuki have gone missing."

Bang!

Watari jumped in surprise as the elder Gushoshin dropped its books in shock. Floating down, it began to gather them up, avoiding the scientist's gaze. "Do not worry about such things, Watari-san," it stated calmly.

The younger whimpered, but quieted at the other's glare.

"Well," Watari tried again, filing away their strange behavior to contemplate later. "I need their reincarnation filed for research. Do you know where they could be found?"

The older Gushoshin shook its head before giving Watari what was supposed to be a piercing glare. On a creature resembling a floating chicken, however, it simply looked ridiculous. "Watari-san, you are not cleared for that information." It shoved the books into the younger Gushoshin's hands, its annoyance clearly showing. "These need to be put away."

The younger opened its beak, but said nothing as it departed, finding silence to be its wisest course of action. Watari frowned slightly - the older Gushoshin was lying. Like Tatsumi and Konoe, as a researcher Watari had one of the highest security clearances in JuOhCho. There were still a few types of files he was denied access to, but reincarnation wasn't one of them.

Unless…

Watari smiled. "Okay then, I guess I'll do the best I can without the files." Turning his back on the Gushoshin's suspicious glare, he started back the way he had come.

Behind his smile, however, Watari's brain was working at a furious pace. There was something terribly important in their files, something that caused them to be elevated to the highest level of clearance. Something that had caused their very existence to be struck from public record.

That something, Watari decided, was most likely the key to this whole puzzle.

A book from high up fell to the marble floor with a dull thud. Looking skyward, Watari caught a glimpse of feathers and blue cloth zipping around the corner. Genuinely curious, he picked up the fallen object, examining it. Was the younger Gushoshin trying to lend a hand?

The book was simple and unassuming. The faded, black leather had been designed to avoid catching an eye. He opened the book to find fragile parchment. The black ink had dulled to a dark gray. He flipped through the book carefully, all too aware of the crackling produced by each page as he turned it. The text had been handwritten, and the pictures drawn in painstaking detail. There were a few ink blots dispersed throughout the pages - whoever wrote this had been an amateur.

Watari closed the book, scrutinizing the cover. The front was just as plain as the rest of the cover - if not for the title he would have thought this was a simple journal. The title was silver, one word written in flowing calligraphy .

Ragnarok

Author's Notes ~ Wow, a lot of things to say about this chapter, but I'll give you the brief, condensed version. First off, Tenkuu is a palace Shikigami, one of Tsuzuki's twelve. I've gotten this information about him (as well as translations) at : http://theria.net/yaminomatsuei/index.html

Second: Everyone give Ryou Delphis a big hug. My new beta was very swift to manage to get this chapter corrected in time for the update. I look forward to a wonderful working relationship together.

Third: *Huggles Amet and Sephy* I've never dedicated a chapter of any of my stories before, but now is a good time to start =P. Along with Ryou, chapter four is going to be dedicated to them. Why? Because they liked my story so much they asked to archive it on their site. *Is flattered* To be honest, I can be extremely shy, and it takes a while to work up courage to actually ask anyone for such a favour. *Grins* You can go see the stuff they host at : http://www.angelfire.com/anime5/phantommoon/main.html . They write awesome stuff. ^_^ And, hey, they like Hisoka too, so it's good all around. ^_-

I think that's about it…other than the fact that I might not keep the 15th deadline thing. I'm writing too fast and its actually holding me back. 0_0 I had this chapter done (minus the beta reader) April 4th. *Sweatdrop* Talk about sad….

I do not own Yami no Matsuei. If you think I own YnM, please don't tell me. Then I'll be committed and Ragnarok will never get finished. So there. =P