Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Meetings ❯ 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Meetings

By: Aya1412

 

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The trick to hanging on to one's sanity through what felt like eons of confinement, Touda found, was to keep one's mind busy. In the beginning, he had been unsure how big his prison was. Using his feet as a measure, he discovered that he had twenty steps leeway in three directions, which was the equivalent of seven and a half strides, and 3.4 seconds (he got the number down to .3 by the time he was released) . But when he came to the end of the chain, he did not meet a wall or a door. So for the first century or so, he decided to figure out how large his chamber of the basement (Tenkuu separated into rooms, he had seen that before the light died) was, using echoes when he shouted. It took many years, as he had no standard to measure against and no enclosures to create one, but he eventually gained success: the prison, he guessed, was 4100 steps; 2500 steps long and 1600 steps wide.

Next Touda tried to keep track of how much time had passed. A Shikigami's human form did not need to eat but every New Year, Taimou (he could tell by her silhouette) brought him a plate of food. In the beginning he used his plates to keep track of the years, but when he ran out of room in his chain length, he threw them to the far end of the prison and tried to figure out next how to keep track of the time. Eventually he discovered that he could tell using the length his hair grew every two years, one fist length. Touda was there for many thousands of years.

Often times the snake thought about how he would kill each of the many Shikigami involved in his imprisonment. And eventually he vowed to kill the person who let him out of his damned cage. He was just that bitter.

Tsuzuki let him out. Touda had not been able to kill Tsuzuki. The man could change into spirit form, for one thing, allowing him to get out of reach of currently-humanoid hands. Also, the Shinigami had fussed over him like a mother bird, made disapproving clucking noises over the situation, and murmured soothing words at the same time. Had his will been slightly weaker, the snake was sure he would have blushed. Touda had never been fussed over before, and it surprised him greatly. Tsuzuki had pretty much cooed at him. The Shikigami had been so surprised at this that by the time he remembered about his vow, the chance -and the will- to kill his liberator had passed. Once he had gotten over his shock over the mortal's actions, he took a good assessment of the Shinigami.

Touda was surprised at what he saw. Concern was written all over the man's face, and though he looked to be in about his twenties, the Shikigami had a feeling this person was much older (for a human, of course). Violet eyes radiated sincerity, and at that moment Touda realized that this Shinigami had no ulterior motives for freeing him. Killing the man, then, was obviously out. But his liberator was no weak do-gooder simply opposed to locking Shikigami up in basements for thousands of years. A human would not notice it, but he could tell Tsuzuki had awesome power. He could practically feel it hanging in the air around the man, subtle but there nevertheless.

“I'll get you out,” the human said, interrupting his thoughts.

And to his own surprise, Touda had believed him.

At first he had been worried about the effect the sun would have on him, but the visor prevented the light from burning his eyes. That was the only good thing it did. The visor was in actuality a power limiter of sorts, dimming his world to an eternal twilight. He wasn't complaining. It was much better than the total darkness he had become used to. Fiddling with his newly acquired control devices, the fire Shikigami followed his master around Tenkuu's courtyard, savoring his quasi-freedom.

Touda was an exceptionally poor conversationalist and at first he was worried the Shinigami would be annoyed, but it seemed to be okay because once Tsuzuki realized his snake wasn't very communicative he talked more than enough for the both of them, telling stories of how he got his various Shikigami, about his co-workers in Meifu, and adamantly stated that Touda was never to refer to Tsuzuki as “master” because it implied the Shinigami was somehow better than him.

For fifteen minutes, however, the topic of choice had been Tsuzuki's favorite sweets, of which there were many. He spoke happily about each one, face lighting up like a child's as he went over their merits. This had caused Touda to raise his eyebrows; he hadn't anticipated this odd facet of Tsuzuki's personality and was unsure whether he should be disgusted or amused. Either way, the one-sided conversation did not take up a very large part of his attention; as long as he nodded in the right places, the Shinigami was perfectly content to babble on and on.

He was being entertained by a recipe for raspberry cheesecake when a fuming woman seemed to appear out of nowhere, startling him.

“Tsuzuki Asato,” she roared, “just what the hell do you think you're doing?”

Touda suddenly found himself being used as a shield. He was slightly confused, though. He could sense this woman's bond with Tsuzuki, so why was she raising her voice against him?

“Um...taking a walk?” the Shinigami replied.

“I can see that! What are you doing taking a walk with him? Do you have any idea of the crimes he's committed? He was imprisoned for a good reason!”

“Well, yeah. SohRyu told me.”

“And you thought it was a good idea to dismiss what he told you? I thought you were smarter than that! If you were anyone else I swear I'd smack you so hard.....”

“But, 'Nee-san-” he whined before being cut off.

The snake was nearly appalled at the lack of respect she was showing her master. If he didn't know better, he'd assume Tsuzuki was subservient to this Shikigami -Suzaku, he remembered- rather than the other way around.

“Don't you `but 'Nee-san' me!” her glare was fierce. “This...this scum deserves to be chained up. There's no telling what he'll do to you as soon as he gets the chance.”

Tsuzuki peeked out over Touda's shoulder. Everything seemed surreal to the Shikigami; Shinigami just weren't treated that way by the ones they controlled.

“SohRyu gave me a very detailed account of what happened,” he said, still cowed but earnest all the same. “But still...don't you think he's been punished enough? He didn't seem like a psychotic mass-murderer when I found him. I think he's good now, if he wasn't before. Touda looked so sad and unhappy...”

His newest Shikigami blanched. That was not the image he wanted to have. Suzaku glared at him again, fire springing up around her. For a moment he thought she was going to attack Tsuzuki. The air around them kept getting hotter and hotter and Touda didn't think he'd ever seen a glare so fierce before. Just when it was starting to get unbearably sweltering, she stopped what she was doing completely, her anger obviously gone. The snake Shikigami wasn't surprised; fire elements were just like that; their tempers were easily roused and very dangerous, but short-lived and their anger usually evaporated as suddenly as it appeared.

Faster than he could follow, the phoenix had gotten behind him. She swept Tsuzuki up in a tight hug.

“You're far too compassionate for your own good,” she said.

“I couldn't just leave him there....”

“I know,” Suzaku replied, stroking his hair. “I know. Don't ever expect me to like him, but if you say Touda is trustworthy, then I believe you. You know how precious you are to all of us.”

“Thank you, 'Nee-san.”

When her gaze shifted from Tsuzuki to the dark fire snake, her expression changed from tender to smouldering.

You'd better be as good as he says you are, her eyes said. And if you hurt him I swear by everything dear to me that I'll make your regret it.

Touda nodded. He wasn't particularly intimidated, but knew she could probably go through with her threat. That was okay, though; he didn't plan on hurting Tsuzuki. Not ever, and not just because he was bound to the human.

Eventually, of course, Tsuzuki had to go back to Meifu. The Shikigami had not given him any orders, though. He had been told to do what he wanted. Touda looked around him, but took no action. Eventually he just sat under a tree. He would wait there for his peculiar new master to visit again.