Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Yami no Kenzoku ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

Notes: Ah, the dreaded created character! I hope you all like Kai. He's going to be around for awhile. (oh, and look up the meaning of 'kaiki' sometime . . . it has some real interesting ones)

I kept this chapter short and sweet. The point was to introduce Kai, then move on with everything else I have planned. So I hope this serves as a good introduction.

Also, the TV series has Tsuzuki working in Nagasaki in the first episode arc, and Konoe mentions that Nagasaki is his region. In the manga, it always says his area is Kyushu, and I'm not sure which exactly to have Tsuzuki and Hisoka working in . . . so I may mention Kyushu, and then that they are working in Nagasaki, or whatever . . . like I've said, all the Chos and districts and everything confuse the hell out of me, so . . . ^_^;;; When Tsuzuki is explaining everything to Kai, I'm sure I'm getting everything wrong, but that's as far as my understanding goes, so please just bear with me.

Oh, and I use the word shiryou when referring to a spirit, which means 'spirit of dead person' or 'ghost' or 'departed soul'.

And I apologize for Tsuzuki and Terazuma being such dorks at the end, but I couldn't resist . . . I love it when they fight. ^-^

Yami no Kenzoku

Chapter Four

"Waaaaaaaai! Wakaba-chan knows all the best things that I like!"

Hisoka glanced up from the book in his lap. Tsuzuki was seated at his desk, an array of desserts lined up before him in alphabetical order. Wakaba had kept her promise when she had said that she would make him more good things to eat, but he had not expected her to give him as much as she did. Probably she had tried to coax Terazuma into sharing it with her, but being the way he was, Terazuma had declined. Not likely very kindly at that, and Tsuzuki was the fortunate one that won out in the end.

"Apple pie, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, and strawberry sherbet," Tsuzuki declared happily, reciting their names in order. He shoved a piece of apple pie into his mouth and leaned back in his chair to wave slightly to Hisoka, in order to catch his attention. "Ne, Hisoka," he said, his mouth full, "y'want sum?"

"Uh, no thanks," Hisoka declined politely.

Tsuzuki shrugged. "Your loss!" he said, shoveling in another piece of apple pie. Hisoka sighed and shook his head.

He had not proceeded another three pages in his book before he was interrupted again, this time by Wakaba coming into the office he shared with Tsuzuki. Since it was Wakaba and not anyone else, he did not get as irritated as he normally might have. Unlike some people at EnmaCho, he genuinely liked Wakaba. As long as he was not the object of her desires, that was. He honestly felt bad for Terazuma at times.

"Ne, Tsuzuki-san, you like?" she asked.

"I love!" Tsuzuki replied cheerfully.

Wakaba smiled brightly. Hisoka wondered what it was about her that made her so happy just to please someone else. Maybe she just liked to see people smile, and if she could be the reason, she was all the happier. She succeeded in this with almost everyone but Terazuma. Hisoka supposed that was why she liked him so much. He was a challenge.

"Tatsumi-san said to come and get you two," Wakaba said. "They're having a staff meeting."

Tsuzuki looked down mournfully at his food. "Why do they always have meetings just when I get good things to ear? Waaaaai, it's so unfair!"

Hisoka stood up, took Tsuzuki by the back of his collar, and proceeded to drag his older partner out of the room and down the hall. A few eyebrows went up, but no one looked that surprised at all. It was a common occurrence around the Shokan Division of EnmaCho.

Konoe, Tatsumi, and Terazuma were all seated in the meeting room when Hisoka came in with Tsuzuki following grudgingly along behind him. Wakaba followed them in and immediately plopped down beside Terazuma. They seemed to be the only two other shinigami that were not out of the office working on a case of some kind, and if Konoe had gathered all of them, what he had to say had to be of some importance. Hisoka wondered what was going on.

"What's up?" he asked, taking his seat beside Tsuzuki. The older shinigami had smuggled in a few chocolate chip cookies and was attempt to take discrete bites without Konoe noticing.

"We called you all together to introduce you to someone," Konoe explained. "Oh, and Tsuzuki? Cookies. Table. Now."

Tsuzuki sighed long and hard, but did as he was instructed and put the smuggled cookies on the table.

"As I was saying," Konoe continued, "we brought you together to introduce you to the newest of the shinigami."

Tsuzuki looked around. "I don't see anybody," he said. Terazuma made some kind of comment below his breath, but fortunately, Tsuzuki did not catch wind of it. Otherwise the entire building would be brought down by their battling shikigami like it once had before.

The door opened and Watari burst in, a cheerful smile on his face, as always.

"Got him, Kachou!" he said, as though he had made some kind of great accomplishment. He moved aside from the doorframe and made a vague gesture of his hand. "Your new shinigami, sir."

Another person, apparently whom had been hidden behind Tsuzuki, appeared in the doorframe. Hisoka fell over backward in his chair with an audible thunk. The boy standing in the doorframe blinked.

"Uh, Hisoka?" Tsuzuki asked, peering down at him. "You okay?"

"That's! That's! It's!" Hisoka sputtered. He yanked himself up off the floor and pointed. "You're Kaiki! The guy from Hijiri's school!"

The boy nodded his head slightly, and almost seemed to be smile. It was in fact the boy Hisoka had met when he and Tsuzuki had been working on the case at Hijiri's school. No one could mistake that golden hair and those silver eyes for anyone else. But why had /he/ become a shinigami?

"Shinori Kaiki," he introduced himself quietly. "That's just Kai to most everyone."

"I'd like you and Hisoka to take Kai and show him around, Tsuzuki," Konoe said.

Tsuzuki blinked. "Oh, sure. No problem!"

"Shinori-kun is a replacement shinigami, should anything happen to anyone putting them out of commission for awhile," Tatsumi explained. "We thought that considering how often Tsuzuki is out of work, it might be necessary to bring someone in."

Tsuzuki slumped as low as he could possibly go in his chair. "Tatsum~i, you're so mean . . ."

Tatsumi was not insulted. He simply gave a very slight shrug of his shoulders and proceeded to shove a folder at Tsuzuki. The other shinigami took it and blinked at it in confusion.

"What's this?"

"You and Kurosaki-kun's next assignment," Tatsumi said. "You are to take Shinori-kun with you, to show him what exactly a shinigami does."

"Are you sure you want /him/ to teach the kid?" Terazuma spoke up.

Tsuzuki shot a glare at him. "Yeah, like /you'd/ do any better."

"I've never drowned any of my partners."

"That was an accident!"

"And then brought them flowers that gave them an allergic reaction."

"How was I supposed to know?!"

"That's /enough/," Tatsumi interrupted firmly. He had the patented 'Evil Look' in his eyes, and both Tsuzuki and Terazuma gave an eep and slumped deeper into their chairs.

Wakaba laughed nervously. "I'm sure you'll like it here at the Shokan Division, Kaiki-kun."

Hisoka was seated in the office while Tsuzuki gave Kaiki a detailed tour of the agency. He had been invited to join them as Tsuzuki showed Kai around and introduced him to everyone, but he had politely declined, deciding instead to return to the office and review their next assignment. In truth, he had not even looked at the file Tatsumi had given them all morning. He could not help but be distracted by wondering for what reason had Kaiki become a shinigami.

He had attempted to search Kai's thoughts and feelings, but found that he had some very thick and high walls surrounding him, preventing Hisoka from learning anything about him. That much was not that surprising. Aside from Tsuzuki, who consciously made an effort to hide his feelings for Hisoka's sake, many people built up walls around themselves without realizing what they were doing. Most of the time, people did this either when they had something to hide, or had lived a terrible lifetime and did not want to reopen old wounds. There was nothing Hisoka could find out, unless Kai lowered his walls, or consciously told anyone what reason he had to become a shinigami.

Hisoka realized that he did not even know for what reason Tsuzuki had become a shinigami, much less the reasons of Tatsumi or Watari, or even Wakaba and Terazuma. He knew that for someone to become a shinigami, that person had to have a strong connection with the living world, and oftentimes that meant they had to have had something terrible happen to them while they were alive to tie them to that world. But everyone, even Tsuzuki when he was not depressed, were very cheerful and bright people. It almost seemed like nothing could have happened to them.

But deaths, though they surrounded them and were solely what the shinigami functioned on, were not ever discussed. Not when it was their own death. Tsuzuki was a prime example that even after seventy years of living in the afterlife, he still suffered from what had happened to him when he was alive, whatever /that/ had been. Hisoka knew that he had been persecuted as a child. He knew that he had been secluded from others and treated like some kind of monster, until he had honestly started to believe that he was not human. But Tsuzuki's pain went far deeper than that, and Hisoka had no idea how deep it would actually go.

The door suddenly burst open and Tsuzuki appeared, smiling broadly and looking as cheerful as ever. "We're ba~ck!" he called, as though Hisoka had not noticed after /that/ particular entrance.

"How'd it go?" he asked. He quickly shifted a few papers on the desk around to look as though he had actually been doing some work, not just sitting there daydreaming about things.

"Pretty good, ne, Kai?" Tsuzuki turned to the younger shinigami, whom Hisoka had barely noticed. He had an odd way of not catching any eyes, which was rather strange, considering his appearance. After all, how many people had that golden of hair, or those silver eyes?

Kai slipped into the room and gave a slight nod, smiling very faintly. "Thanks for showing me around, Tsuzuki-san."

"Tsuzuki is fine," Tsuzuki said. "Oh, yeah, and this concludes the tour, I guess. This is Hisoka and I's office. And you already know Hisoka, right? So no need for introductions."

"I remember from school," Kai replied, giving a polite nod in Hisoka's direction.

Tsuzuki plopped down in his desk chair, delighted to find that none of his sweets had mysteriously disappeared since he had been gone. He immediately began to gobble them all up, but not after politely offering some to Kai, who declined and took a seat across from them on the sofa.

"So what's our next case, Hisoka?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Huh? Oh, right!"

Hisoka had completely forgotten about the case. He spent a moment of two searching for the file that Tatsumi had given him, causing Tsuzuki to raise an eyebrow at him and wonder what was up. Hisoka always kept his work space very neat and organized. It was not like him to lose anything.

"Here," Hisoka said, finally finding it beneath a pile of papers. He flipped it open and skimmed through the document inside.

"If there's anything you don't understand, you can just ask me," Tsuzuki was telling Kai as he read. "I've been here for seventy years, so I think I've got everything down."

Kai blinked, awed by the fact Tsuzuki had been a shinigami for so long. "If you become a shinigami, is it forever?" he asked. "Do you not go to Joukai or Makai ever?"

"Well, you definitely don't go to Makai!" Tsuzuki said, laughing. "Your reward for being a shinigami is a straight ticket to Joukai when you die."

"Die?" Kai repeated.

"Well, not necessarily die," Tsuzuki said slowly. "But when we're on Chijou, we're in physical form, so we /can/ be killed. We'd just go straight to Joukai if that happened. But say you're already here, in Meifu, when you decide that you've had enough. Basically you just kinda . . . I dunno. Take a step through some door and boom. You're not a shinigami anymore."

"Oh," Kai said. He wasn't quite sure that he understood, but he did a good job of pretending that he did.

Hisoka cleared his throat, to catch their attention. "A person whose name has appeared in the Kiseki has not been recorded in Meifu. We're to find the person and deliver her to the JuOhCho to be judged."

"Oh, that's simple," Tsuzuki said. "Much better than the last one. Er . . ."

He paused and winced slightly, glancing at Kai. He knew that Kai was the person that the demon had last occupied before he had been able to do anything to stop the demon. Saving Kai had never been an option for them. He was simply the person that they had to let go, for the sake of dozens of others. But Kai only smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'm not sensitive about it."

Tsuzuki smiled, relieved.

"Well, in any case, it's a good assignment to show you a little more of what we deal with most of the time," Tsuzuki continued. "Not everything is fighting demons or dealing with serial killers, you know."

"Well, of course not . . ."

"Ahhhhhh! Work in Nagasaki is the best work!"

Tsuzuki was extremely happy, Hisoka noted. He was pleased that their assignment was not nearly as difficult as their last, and then there was the fact that Konoe was giving he and Hisoka an extended amount of time to work on it, for the sake of Kai. To Tsuzuki, that meant it was all the more time that he could spend visiting restaurants and sampling their desserts. That was, if he kept in mind that there was a limit of how much they could spend, and if he were to go over it, it was his head Tatsumi would have.

"Don't get too cocky," Hisoka advised. "This may turn out to be more difficult than the last one."

"Naa, Hisoka, you always have to burst my bubble . . ."

Kai glanced between the two of them and smiled slightly, amused by their antics.

Hisoka shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and began walking, leaving Tsuzuki and Kai with no choice but to follow him. He supposed today they looked less conspicuous than they usually did, what with Tsuzuki always rushing off on a whim when he thought he saw the person they were searching for. Hisoka could remember a great number of cases that Tsuzuki had nearly blown their cover by saying something quite loudly about JuOhCho or the shinigami, or anything else that would give away what exactly went on in the afterlife. But today they looked no different than anyone else, and Tsuzuki was doing a good job of not saying anything that would gain anyone's attention.

"So you and Hisoka are in the two in charge of the second block, right?" Kai asked Tsuzuki as they walked.

"Yup," Tsuzuki replied. "They didn't explain all of this to you?"

Kai shook his head.

"Oh. Well, okay. You know that JuOhCho is Japan's processing organization for the deceased, ne? And that every country has one of these. JuOhCho is just specific to Japan."

Kai nodded, like an obedient student. Hisoka rolled his eyes as he walked ahead of them; Tsuzuki loved to explain everything as though he were the amazing person that had come up with the entire system.

"Japan is divided into ten separate Chos. There's the ShinkouCho, that's the first block. Then ShokouCho, the second, where Hisoka and I work. Third block is SouteiCho, and the fourth is GokanCho; that's the one Terazuma and Wakaba-chan supervised. Fifth is EnmaCho in Tokyo. Tatsumi and Konoe handle there mostly, since they're the most senior people in the Shokan Division, and Tokyo gets a lot of crazy deaths. Sixth block is HenjouCho, that's where Watari works, and the seventh is TaisenCho. Eighth block is HeizeiCho, ninth is ToshiCho - Yuma and Saya work there - and the tenth is GodouteninCho."

Hisoka glanced over his shoulder at Kai to see whether or not he was absorbing any of what Tsuzuki was saying. He was listening, but judging by the hopelessly confused expression on his face, he was not understanding.

"Two shinigami are assigned to each district or Cho to take care of any of the deaths of people that do not go directly to Meifu, or people who are listed in the Kiseki but aren't dead yet," Tsuzuki said. "So the shinigami bring them to the JuOhCho and there they're judged and placed where they belong in Meifu, either in Joukai or Makai. Make sense?"

". . . not really . . ." Kai admitted.

Tsuzuki laughed. "Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it.

"Kyushu is the best area to work," he continued cheerfully. "The work isn't too much and it's not too little. We get lots of extended vacations since not much happens in this place."

"Worse things than that demon happen?" Kai asked nervously.

"Well, yeah."

Kai looked suddenly like he was going to be sick.

"So where do we start looking, Hisoka?" Tsuzuki asked, fastening his steps to catch up with his younger partner.

"Well . . ." Hisoka was carrying the file on the case Tatsumi had given him, and he flipped it open to where there was a name and picture of the person they were searching for. "Her name is Watase Iori. Sixteen years old. Cause of death was suicide."

"Suicide?" Kai repeated.

Hisoka handed the file to him, to let him get a look at some of the things shinigami were forced to deal with. "Yeah," he replied. "About fifty percent of the people that are listed in the Kiseki but not in Meifu are people that have committed suicide. People who commit suicide always have something that's holding them back in Chijou, or they don't want to go on because they're afraid they'll go to Makai."

"Why would they go to Makai?" Kai asked.

"Suicide is considered a mortal sin by the Christians," Tsuzuki answered. "If you commit suicide, their religion states that you go straight to Hell. So it's natural to believe that if you kill yourself, you'll go to Makai."

"So . . . where do you start looking for a . . ."

"Shiryou," Tsuzuki filled in. "Usually we look places like their homes, their schools. We question their friends and family and try to find out where they could be. Shiryou can sense shinigami and know when they are coming for them. Most of them run."

"Let's start at her home," Hisoka suggested. "It's closer anyway."

"/Now/ who's lazy?" Tsuzuki demanded, jabbing Hisoka in the side.

Hisoka shook him off and made a face. "It's not a matter of being lazy. It's just closer. It's pointless to make a trip to the school and then come all the way back here to go to the house."

"Sure, sure . . . lazy."

"Tsuzuki . . ."

Hisoka and Kai glanced at each other in turn, to Tsuzuki, and then to the garments he had been able to convince them to wear. It was his bright idea that they get into the house by claiming that they were exterminators, making it easier for them to investigate without being suspicious. Hisoka had argued that it would be more simple to take on a spirit form and search that way, but Tsuzuki was quite insistent on his way, saying that if they did that, it would be all the easier for the shiryou to sense them.

"This is your worse idea yet," Hisoka mumbled. He tugged irritably at the coveralls he was wearing and adjusted the baseball cap on his head. "What kind of exterminator goes door to door offering to do a free search of the house for termites?"

"Us, that's who," Tsuzuki replied cheerfully, and he knocked lightly on the door.

A few moments later it was answered by a middle-aged woman, though the lines under her eyes caused her to look far older than she actually was. She had the look of a person that had only recently been woken up, and Tsuzuki felt slightly guilty, if he were the reason. She looked liked she could use all the sleep she could get.

"Ah, good afternoon, ma'am," he said politely, offering her a bright smile. "We're doing routine checks for termites in the area. We were wondering if you would be interested. It's free and it will only take an hour of your time."

"Termites?" the woman repeated.

Tsuzuki nodded. "Aa. There's a lot of termite activity in the area," he said seriously.

The woman glanced over her shoulder, as though she expected someone to be coming down the stairs, or around the corner to join her at the door. When no one did, she returned her gaze to Tsuzuki and his younger counterparts and smiled wearily.

"I suppose it won't hurt," she said.

Tsuzuki shot a quick, defiant look at Hisoka. The younger shinigami resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at him.

"It will only taken an hour, ma'am," Tsuzuki said again. "Since we're working with some heavy-duty equipment though, may we ask that you leave for that time?"

"I suppose you and your co-workers are too sweet-looking to rob me," the woman replied, smiling. "That's quite all right. I'll come back in an hour, then."

"Ah, thank you!"

Tsuzuki shot another look at Hisoka, this time smirking infuriatingly. Hisoka could not resist the urge for very much longer and gave in, sticking his tongue out at Tsuzuki and then proceeding to put his nose in the air haughtily. Tsuzuki blinked, surprised. Kai laughed softly below his breath.

Once the woman was gone, they slipped inside of the house and immediately began a thorough search of the area, to pick up on anything that would tell them more about Watase Iori.

"I get the feeling the father is dead," Hisoka murmured as he walked through the living room, looking at all of the family pictures. After a certain point, the pictures of an older man simply stopped, and were replaced with single photos of the woman and a young, pretty girl, whom he assumed was Iori.

"He must have died awhile ago," Kai surmised. He was standing behind Hisoka, looking at all of the pictures as well. "See? They stop when the girl looks about twelve. So it would've been four years ago, I guess."

"Well, it's definitely not his death that has that lady looking like she does," Tsuzuki put in. He sighed. "Poor woman. Lost her husband, and then her daughter went and committed suicide . . ."

"What was that?" Hisoka asked suddenly.

Tsuzuki glanced around. "What was what?"

"I heard a noise from upstairs."

Tsuzuki frowned slightly. "All right. Let's check it out."

He started up the staircase, leaving Hisoka and Kai with little to no choice but to follow them. The two younger shinigami did, tiptoeing after him as Tsuzuki lead the way up the stairs and through the halls. There was only silence for several long moments, but after Tsuzuki had stopped and listened for a brief second, they heard another sound, coming from the room farthest from them. He started again in that direction, Hisoka and Kai following him more closely than before.

Tsuzuki pushed the door slowly open to the room. It was perfectly organized and neat, all of the books lined perfectly on the shelves, the bed neatly made, and everything in its own place. It was obviously a young girl's room, that much was obvious by the variety of stuffed animals on the bed. And seated on a chest at the end of the bed was the person they were looking for.

The door creaked protestingly as Tsuzuki placed too much pressure on it. The girl's head whipped around, and at the sight of him, she immediately stood and began backing away.

"No! I don't want to go!"

"I'm sorry," Tsuzuki said slowly, "but I'm not the one that makes these decisions . . ."

He opened the door fully and stepped inside of the room. Hisoka followed him, but Kai, being the inexperienced one of the three shinigami, hung back in the doorframe to watch.

"You're going to take me to Hell," Iori accused.

"Not necessarily," Tsuzuki said rationally. "That's not up for me to decide either."

She had reached as far as she could go and stood with her back pressed against the closet door, her hands balled into fists, as though she thought that she could fight her way through them. But as Tsuzuki spoke, in a soft, rational voice, she seemed to be losing her resolve.

"People who commit suicide go to Hell, don't they?" she asked. She sounded frightened.

"I don't know," Tsuzuki answered. "Maybe if they've had bad lives, they go to better places. You shouldn't be so afraid."

Hisoka glanced at his older partner, surprised. This was not at all like the Tsuzuki that he knew. He had seen Tsuzuki be compassionate with those they were to deliver to the JuOhCho, but he had never seemed as genuinely concerned as he seemed to be now. Hisoka realized that he was worried for the girl, the same as she was, that she might not go on to a better place. He /wanted/ for her to have peace in the afterlife.

Wasn't that why Tatsumi had dumped Tsuzuki as his partner? Because he was too compassionate, too caring of the people they delivered to JuOhCho?

"Why did you kill yourself?" Tsuzuki asked.

Iori looked startled. "Wh . . . why are you asking me that?"

"I was wondering what reason you had."

She looked away, almost nervously. Hisoka could sense that she was troubled. She was having difficulty in deciding whether or not she could trust Tsuzuki and tell him the truth. On the one hand, he seemed genuinely concerned for her, but on the other, he /was/ a shinigami. She knew that he was the one that had been sent to deliver her to Meifu. For that reason, he was not to be trusted. But . . .

"My life . . . I couldn't get out . . . it was so horrible . . ."

"Why?" Tsuzuki asked, gently.

"When my father died, I was so upset . . . It was just me and my mother. I never saw her because she had to work two jobs just to put food on the table for us. And then my friends . . . I never had many growing up, but after my father died, I didn't have any but a few. But then they started to leave me too. They said it was because they didn't want to deal with me when I was upset. That unless I could get better, they didn't want to be near me, because it was upsetting them. I didn't /mean/ to upset them! I /needed/ them!

"I couldn't live like that. I knew I wasn't going to get better, no matter how hard I tried, and unless I got better, my friends wouldn't want to be near me. There was no way out. So I . . . I found my father's gun, and I . . .

"But I felt so guilty for leaving my mother! I didn't even think of her feelings! Dad was going, and she was all alone, and then I . . . I went and did such a stupid thing just because of people who were never even my true friends to begin with . . . I can't leave her. She'll be all alone . . ."

"Your presence is probably only hurting her more," Hisoka spoke up.

Iori looked at him, startled to hear someone aside from Tsuzuki speak. Tsuzuki did not stop Hisoka from speaking and allowed him to say what he needed to say, whether or not those words would be harsh or damaging.

"She can probably sense that you're here," Hisoka continued. "If you stay, then it will only make it more difficult for her to cope and accept your death."

"But she . . ."

"Don't underestimate your mother."

Tsuzuki and Hisoka both turned to look; it was Kai that was speaking. He had stepped completely into the room and was smiling very faintly, a compassionate, understanding, and gentle smile.

"People suffer when those they love die," he continued, "but they learn to accept and move on in time. They keep those people alive in their memories and hearts. But if you stay here, your mother will never be able to do that. She may begin to think that you will come back to her, and you must know as well as I do how much that would hurt her when you never came back.

"If you come with us, I'm sure you will be judged fairly and maybe you'll be able to be with your father again, and your mother will join you someday. Don't stay here and make it any harder for her."

Tsuzuki took a step forward to Iori and slowly offered his hand to her. "Come on. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that you join your father in Meifu."

"Really?" she whispered.

"Really."

She looked from him to Hisoka and Kai, debating her decision in her mind. Finally, very hesitantly, she placed her hand in Tsuzuki's, and allowed him to lead her from her sanctuary.

"You are most fortunate that the Earl is as enamored with you as he is, Tsuzuki-san, or otherwise that girl may not be in Joukai."

Tsuzuki smiled brightly at Tatsumi. "I was only doing what was right, Tatsum~i."

He and the other shinigami were sprawled around the workroom, sharing in the wealth of the dozens of souvenirs Tsuzuki, Hisoka, and Kai had brought back to the agency for Konoe. It seemed that Tsuzuki's plan to buy as much as they possible could had worked, because after eating two pies and another half of one, Konoe had become rather sick to his stomach and was still in the bathroom suffering. Which meant all the more for Tsuzuki and everyone else.

"That Earl is creepy anyway," Tsuzuki pouted over his slice of carrot cake. "Why does he have to like /me/?"

"At least it worked out for the best," Kai said optimistically, smiling. "Iori was judged fairly and able to go to Joukai to be with her father, right? So she should be happy now."

"Happy endings are so great!" Wakaba exclaimed. "Tsuzuki, you're soooo sweet!"

Terazuma turned a rather interested shade of red with anger as Wakaba said those words. "How can you call a bonehead like that sweet?" he muttered, chewing irritably at the end of his cigarette.

"Who are you calling a bonehead?!" Tsuzuki exclaimed, standing straight up in his chair. Terazuma followed suit, towering above everyone else. There were collective sweatdrops around the room.

"You, Tsuzuki-CHAN!"

"C-C-C-C-CHAN?! I'll show you whose a CHAN! COME FORTH, SUZAKU---!!"

"CH---"

Wakaba slapped a hand over Terazuma's mouth. "NO!"

Hisoka likewise grabbed the feet of his partner and dragged him down from the table. "Shut up, Tsuzuki!!"

Suzaku, obedient as she was, had appeared on cue and now sat blinking around the room, hopelessly confused.

"You're really going to like it here at EnmaCho," Wakaba said to Kai, laughing nervously. Kai looked at her as though she was insane.

"I'm ah . . . sure I will . . ."