Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Yami no Kenzoku ❯ Chapter Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Notes: I get kinda Memento-ish in this chapter. ^^ If you've seen the movie, you'll know what I mean.

I had the comment left that apparently when touched by women, Terazuma becomes er . . . the shikigami in him, I guess. If that's true, then I wasn't aware of it. I know enough about him to know that his shikigami is a part of him, but I didn't know that it could come out like that. Like I've said, I'm more familiar with the TV series than the manga, so . . . yeah. Please excuse that Wakaba is able to constantly glomp on him with no problem. Maybe he's built up a resistance with her or something.

Oh, and I know that Tsuzuki calls Suzaku 'neesan' but since I have that as what he calls his sister . . . there's just a minor difference of him calling her 'Suzaku-neechan.' ^^

Yami no Kenzoku

Chapter Six

Hisoka was of the opinion that the moment they saw and heard Muraki's voice, it would have been in their best interests to turn and bolt right back down the stairs. Tsuzuki had not seemed to agree, however, and he was still rather mind-boggled at how they had quite suddenly been pulled into the secret room, sat down at a table, and served tea by Muraki. Tsuzuki had put up no fight at all, and as long as he did nothing, Hisoka was not about to start something. Whatever Tsuzuki was doing, he trusted him.

Muraki was the same as he remembered him. The same glasses, the same metallic silver hair, the same obsession with wearing pristine white clothing. He was a gracious host, as he had always been, and polite to a point. Hisoka found it infuriating how calm and composed he was. It did not seem to suit the personality of a serial killer at all. Not that he had ever known many homicidal maniacs, but Muraki's personality simply did not match up to the image of one in his mind.

"I read about this establishment in a magazine," Muraki was saying. "It intrigued me, so I thought that I might see what it was all about. I am surprised to see you and the boy here, though, Tsuzuki-san."

That yet another feature of Muraki's personality that irritated him. The man had tortured him for three years, marked him with the curse that was still on his body to this day, done God only knew what else to him, and finally murdered him, and yet he could not seem to call him by name. He was polite with everyone else, with Tsuzuki and Tatsumi, but not with him. Hisoka took that was a direct insult.

"More tea, boy?" Muraki asked, glancing at him.

Hisoka had not touched his. "No thanks," he said curtly, folding his arms over his chest and looking away. He glanced briefly at Tsuzuki; the older shinigami said nothing, only continued to stare directly at Muraki and nothing else. Muraki seemed to be enjoying his attention immensely.

"He must be a terrible pain to work with," Muraki said conversationally. "What with that attitude of his, after all. Isn't it troublesome, Tsuzuki-san?"

Tsuzuki did not respond. Muraki did not seem to have expected him to. Nor did Hisoka. The younger shinigami almost felt nervous. He could feel no emotion from Tsuzuki, but he did not have to use his empathy to know that he was absolutely furious. The hardened look of his eyes and the way his hands were balled into fists on the table were clues enough.

"I think I shall enjoy playing this game immensely," Muraki continued, smiling that smile of his. It was a smile unlike any other. It was a smile that seemed to promise that there was more to come, but what there was more to come of was a mystery until he did what he was plotting. It made Hisoka nervous.

"You'll make it real, won't you?" Tsuzuki asked.

Muraki glanced up from taking a sip of his tea, having the nerve to look startled that Tsuzuki had finally spoken. "I'm not sure I know what you mean, Tsuzuki-san."

"It won't be a game as long as you're here. You'll actually kill these people."

"Tsuzuki-san, I'm rather appalled you think so."

Tsuzuki, if it was at all possible, looked more furious than he had before. Hisoka glanced between the two men, one nearly ready to boil over with the anger, the other only continuing to smile charmingly. If he were in Tsuzuki's place, he would not have wasted time with idle chatter like this. He would have punched Muraki in the face and broken his nose.

"Besides," Muraki continued, "if I were going to do such a thing, do you think I am a stupid enough man to do it while there are eight shinigami here?"

Tsuzuki stood up. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to trust you? I'm not going to allow you to kill any of these people, Muraki. Come on, Hisoka."

Startled by the firmness of his voice, Hisoka stood quickly. Muraki followed them suit, but in a much smoother, slow manner, as though he had all of the time in the world to waste.

"These corridors are misleading in the dark," he said. "Allow me to guide you."

"I think we can manage," Tsuzuki responded.

Muraki raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain? You did get lost and find your way to me, after all. The next person you find may be our murderer. I won't take no for an answer, Tsuzuki-san."

Tsuzuki did not look as though he was pleased at all, but in the end, he accepted the offer and soon they were walking down the stairs, Muraki leading the way with a candle in hand. Hisoka kept close to Tsuzuki, as he had before, and both shinigami held back a few paces from Muraki, not wanting to be any closer to the man than they had to be.

Hisoka had wondered what had happened to him after Kyoto. He had known that Muraki was alive; the marks on his body proved that. But he had wondered when he would make an appearance again. It would not be like him to leave them alone after all that had happened to between them, and as it had turned out, Hisoka was right, much to his displeasure. He only wished that Muraki had chosen some other moment to invade their lives. Like Tsuzuki had told him, a vacation was meant for fun. This one would most certainly not be fun as long as Muraki was around.

"Tsuzuki," Hisoka spoke softly, when it seemed that Muraki was not listening to them, much less giving them very much attention. The older shinigami glanced at him to acknowledge he had heard, but did not respond. "Are you okay?" Hisoka continued, speaking very softly. He did not want Muraki to decide to invade their conversation.

Tsuzuki shrugged slightly and gave no definite response. Hisoka thought to try again, to gain some word out of him, but he realized that Tsuzuki was not in a mood that would allow him to speak rationally or calmly. Nor did Hisoka want to anger him more somehow, and for that reason, he kept his mouth shut and his thoughts contained to his own mind.

"Now that I stop and think, it will not be long before the anniversary of your death, will it, boy?" Muraki asked suddenly, conversationally. Hisoka stiffened.

"Shut up, Muraki," Tsuzuki said quietly, but he was able to put his point across effectively. Muraki chuckled softly under his breath, murmured something about an apology, and continued to lead them through the corridors. Hisoka's muscles loosened somewhat.

What seemed an eternity later they had arrived at the long corridor where the shinigami were staying. Muraki smiled charmingly, infuriatingly.

"I do hope I will see you again, Tsuzuki-san," he said. He glanced slightly at Hisoka. "Preferably alone. You and I have much to talk about."

Hisoka glanced at Tsuzuki. He was not going to take him up on that offer, was he? Would he?

"Good night, Muraki," was what he said curtly, and with that he turned and went into the room he and Hisoka shared. Hisoka did not waste a single moment to follow him and deadbolt the door behind them.

"I'm going to take a shower," Tsuzuki said, and he disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Hisoka alone in the enormous room.

The younger shinigami let out a sigh and padded softly across the room to his bed. He sat down on the steps leading up to it, folding his arms over his knees and resting his chin there. A moment later the shower water began running. Hisoka closed his eyes, tipping his head to the side slightly.

The moment did not last for long. Someone began to knock at the door, and grudgingly, Hisoka dragged himself up and across the room. There was no peek hole to see who it was at the door, but judging by the knock, it was probably Tatsumi or someone come to check on them. Muraki did not have a knock quite like that.

He opened the door and found that it was both Watari and Kai that had come to check on them. Watari let out an audible sigh of relief.

"We were worried about you two," he said. "If you were gonna run back here, you could have told us, you know."

"We didn't exactly run back here," Hisoka replied. "We were separated from you guys somehow . . . We ended up meeting an old friend."

"Old friend?" Watari repeated.

"Muraki is here."

Watari slumped slightly. "Oh, marvelous."

Hisoka glanced at Kaiki. Suddenly he looked rather sick to his stomach, and not in the way he looked when Terazuma and Tsuzuki began fighting, or when Wakaba shoved yet another sweet tasting thing under his nose. He honestly looked disturbed by something.

"Kai, are you okay?" Hisoka asked.

"You said . . . that name . . ."

Hisoka felt his heart skip a beat. "You know Muraki?"

"I . . . I know . . . that name, I . . ."

Watari was looking at his younger partner with concern in his eyes. "Take it easy, kiddo," he said gently, settling a reassuring hand on Kai's shoulder. Hisoka moved aside and allowed Watari to lead him into the room and over to where the sofas were. Kai slumped down beside Watari, his eyes still wide with shock. Hisoka sat down across from them. He did not notice that the shower water had stopped running.

"You recognize the name Muraki?" Hisoka asked Kai.

The younger shinigami - that much was true, he was sixteen, while Hisoka would be seventeen soon - could only give a very slight nod of his head.

Tsuzuki had stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and running a towel over his head. "What's going on?" he asked, catching all of their attention.

"Kai knows Muraki," Hisoka explained.

"Oh."

Tsuzuki crossed the room and sat down beside Hisoka. If it had been any other situation, Hisoka might have been embarrassed at the close proximity of Tsuzuki when he was wearing as little as he was, but the situation being what it was, he hardly noticed at all.

"I don't remember anything about . . . anything before about six months," Kai said slowly. "Everything before that point of my life I don't know anything about. I dream about it sometimes, but it's always too blurry, but sometimes . . . sometimes I have really vivid dreams, and I know everything, but I forget again before the day is over. I had a short term memory problem for a really long time. I don't know why . . . something had happened to me, I guess . . ."

"Before six months ago, you said?" Tsuzuki repeated.

Kai nodded. "I don't remember really how it happened, but I think . . . I don't know, I was an orphan or something. A family took me in months ago, and that was when the short term memory lapses stopped, but I couldn't remember anything. All the pieces I once had of my past kept slipping away from me. But I remembered one thing and one thing only, and so that I would never forget, I . . ."

He stopped suddenly and began to uncuff the sleeve of the button down shirt he was wearing. Slowly, he rolled away the sleeve from his arm until it was bare, and in the dim light of a candle, he held his arm out. In dark, crooked letters, the words 'Muraki killed my mother' were burned into his flesh.

"I knew I would forget," he explained. "I'd forget the one thing I knew about my past. So I did that. I burned it into my skin, so I'd never forget . . . It's why I became a shinigami. I wanted to find out who Muraki was, and now . . . well, you said the name, and I guess I sort of lost it . . . sorry, Hisoka, Watari."

Watari smiled reassuringly. "Not your fault, kiddo."

"Who is he?" Kai asked. "Who is Muraki?"

"An old pal of ours," Tsuzuki replied dryly. "And I can tell you it's probably the truth that he killed your mother."

Hisoka and Watari both exchanged glances. Tsuzuki's behavior was not at all like that they knew him to exude. From the tone of his voice, to the his posture, to the very look of his eyes, it was not the Tsuzuki they knew as their friend. It was most certainly not the person that Hisoka knew as his partner of a year, the person he trusted and needed. It was remarkable, what one man could do to transform Tsuzuki.

"Muraki is a serial killer that we've run into a few times in the past," Hisoka explained quietly. "He was the one that killed me."

"You?" Kai exclaimed. "He . . . I'm sorry."

Hisoka smiled slightly and waved the apology away. "It was a year ago," he said. "Watari can fill you in on the rest."

Watari nodded slightly and stood. "Aa, but for now we should get some sleep. Come on, kiddo."

Kai stood, somewhat shakily at that, but he was able to make it out of the room with some help from Watari. Hisoka closed and locked the door behind them.

With a sigh, he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the cool wood. He had thought, for however brief of a time, in some vain hope, that Muraki would finally be gone from their lives. When six months had passed with no sign of him, much less a mention of his name, he had only been able to hope more and more than Muraki really would leave and Tsuzuki alone.

But he was wrong. He should have known that he would be wrong and that Muraki would once again invade their lives. It was not like him to allow his pray to roam free so easily.

"Tsuzuki."

He turned slightly. Tsuzuki was still seated on the sofa. He glanced up as Hisoka said his name, and for once, did not look away immediately. The guarded look of his eyes had disappeared and was replaced with the expression that Hisoka knew so well, an expression that actually suited him. But he almost looked hurt, in a way. Hisoka took a tentative step forward.

"Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly.

Tsuzuki did not reply for a long moment. Finally, he sighed, and said softly, "I wasn't able to stop him last time. What makes me think I can this time?"

Hisoka crossed the room and settled down beside him. "We don't know if he's actually going to do anything. He did say it'd be stupid to do anything with so many shinigami around . . ."

"That's just it!" Tsuzuki exclaimed. "It'd be a challenge for him! It would be /fun/ for him to kill people with us around! He may still . . . and I can't . . . do anything . . ."

With painfully slow movements, Hisoka reached out and began to smooth the long, dark strands of hair from Tsuzuki's eyes. It was a gesture that Tatsumi did often, but Tatsumi never continued to do it like Hisoka was, simply running his fingers through the dark hair soothingly and comfortingly. Tsuzuki sighed. Hisoka could feel some of the tension in his body slip away.

"You're always telling me to be optimistic," Hisoka said softly. "If I'm going to be, you have to be too, you know."

Tsuzuki smiled slightly. "I knew those words would come back to bite me someday," he said.

Slowly, he stretched out on the sofa, drawing his knees up so that his feet did not hang off the sides, and settled his head in Hisoka's lap. The younger shinigami was somewhat startled by this, but it was not the first time that Tsuzuki had come to him seeking comfort in this form. He adjusted so Tsuzuki could rest more comfortably, keeping on hand on Tsuzuki's head and combing his fingers through his hair, while the other rested on the older shinigami's shoulder.

"Hey . . . Hisoka." Tsuzuki closed his eyes. "Stay here with me for awhile."

Hisoka smiled down at him.

"I wasn't planning on going anywhere."

Hisoka awoke, rather unfortunately, to the sound of someone beating on the door to he and Tsuzuki's room. Each successive beat was followed by the sound of Wakaba's voice, calling their names in an attempt to wake them up.

"Hisoka-k~un! Hisoka-k~un! Tsuzuki-s~an!"

Hisoka did not think that he wanted to get up at all. He was perfectly content where he was, and aside from everything last night, from Muraki to learning more about Kai, he thought that it would be very nice to simply remain here all morning. Of course, it was a wish that would never been granted, for the reason of the latter person aforementioned. As long as they were here with Muraki around, they would not have any peace. But he was allowed to hope.

He had fallen asleep sitting up, with Tsuzuki curled up beside him and using his lap as a pillow. He could vaguely recall sometime the evening before having been gently roused by Tsuzuki, and he remembered that Tsuzuki had told him that sleeping and sitting up would give him a bad crick in the neck. Hisoka had simply shook his head and mumbled some kind of apology. Tsuzuki had given a shrug and lied back down to sleep. Hisoka had then stretched out more comfortably to sleep once Tsuzuki was settled in, and that position had ended up being lying with his arms folded over Tsuzuki's shoulder and leaning against him. It sounded uncomfortable, and probably looked the same, but Hisoka didn't think he had ever slept better in his life.

"Hi-so-ka-kun! Tsu-zu-ki-san!"

Hisoka groaned slightly below his breath. Maybe if he ignored her for long enough, she would go away.

That hope was short-lived. Tsuzuki had been awakened by her calls and began to shift beneath him as he woke up. Hisoka pulled away from him reluctantly.

"'morning," Tsuzuki greeted with a yawn and a smile. "Is that Wakaba-chan?"

"Yeah," Hisoka confirmed. "It's probably time for breakfast."

As he said those words, the knocking at the door ceased, and was replaced by a more natural, simple knock, that had the slightest edge of urgency.

"Tsuzuki-san, Kurosaki-kun, there has been an incident. Please dress and come out as soon as possible."

Tsuzuki and Hisoka exchanged glances. If Tatsumi said that it was important, it had to be /very/ important. They both dressed quickly and were outside within a few moments.

Tatsumi and the others had gathered outside. Or at least, Tatsumi and a small number of their party had gathered. Hisoka noticed immediately that Konoe and Kaiki were missing from their group.

"What's up?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Konoe-kachou has gone missing," Tatsumi said, "but Watari and I think that much is simply a part of the game. Terazuma-san was able to . . . extract some information from Lucille."

Wakaba's brown eyes widened twice their size. "Hajime-chan!! What does /that/ mean?!"

"It doesn't mean anything!" Terazuma exclaimed irritably.

Tatsumi ignored Terazuma and Wakaba's antics and continued, "Shinori-kun is missing as well. But we know at least that he is not missing because of the game. Lucille claimed that she had no idea where he had gone, and we have searched the entire area."

"What do you think, Watari?" Tsuzuki asked, shifting his gaze to the other shinigami. Watari, normally almost as bright and bubbly as Tsuzuki could be, had a frown on his face and a hardened look in his eyes, that only intensified as Tsuzuki asked the question.

"I think he might have gone to look for Muraki," he answered finally.

"He wouldn't do that," Hisoka said quickly. "He wouldn't, would he? I mean . . . Muraki may have killed his mother, but he wouldn't . . ."

"Shinori-kun has a troubled past," Tatsumi said thoughtfully. "He may very well have done so. And if he did, we must find him before Muraki does. We should split up and search the grounds. I'll go with Watari."

Tsuzuki nodded. "Meet back up here later?"

"In a few hours, yes," Tatsumi replied. "Good luck."

"You too."

By a few hours, Hisoka should have known that Tatsumi had meant four or seven or ten or some other impossible number like that. Though he did not show it to anyone except where Tsuzuki was concerned, Tatsumi did genuinely care for all of his co-workers, and Kaiki was no exception. As long as their was a single chance that they would be able to find him, Tatsumi would not give up until someone forcibly dragged him away. Bordering on their fourth hour of searching, no one had found even a trace of the youngest shinigami, but no one even dared mention that they stop.

Hisoka trailed along after Tsuzuki, allowing the older shinigami to lead the way through the corridors. It was still daylight, that he could see when they passed the cathedral-esque great windows, but often their path took them to places where there was no light. For that reason, Tsuzuki carried a candle with them, but after how long they had been searching, the wax had almost completely melted away.

Another dark corridor Tsuzuki led them into. Hisoka kept close to him. There was nothing particularly frightening about the dark to him, but he felt comforted when he was close to Tsuzuki. After all, there /was/ a serial killer within the manor, and Hisoka did not like the thought of running into him in a dark hallway very much.

"Damn," Tsuzuki hissed suddenly, and as he uttered the curse, the candle's flame flickered out of existence. Hisoka unconsciously stepped even closer to Tsuzuki, so that he was practically pressed against the older shinigami's back.

Tsuzuki began to utter a few words beneath his breath, all of them the words of an incantation that Hisoka did not recognize. He concluded not with a final word to end the spell, but with a soft murmur below his breath, that Hisoka was able to hear as, "Help me, Suzaku-neechan."

Hisoka did not even have the chance to blink before a ball of flame had appeared in the palm of Tsuzuki's hand. It lit up the entire corridor and made it seem less forbidding as it had seemed to him before, and reassured, Hisoka took a small step away from Tsuzuki.

"I didn't know you could do that," he said offhand. "Ask for their help like that, I mean . . ."

Tsuzuki glanced at him over his shoulder and smiled. "Just another of my talents, I guess," he said with a slight shrug. He frowned down at his finger. "And at least Suzaku's flame doesn't burn me like that candle's did." He popped the finger into his mouth, despite the fact that it would be completely healed in a few moments. He was a shinigami, after all.

"I think we should go search where we found Muraki last time," Tsuzuki said as he started forward again, holding up the hand wielding the ball of flame to guide their way.

"Oh, goody," Hisoka replied dryly. "Just where I want to be."

Tsuzuki did not reply for a moment. Finally, he spoke again, "You probably shouldn't go with me. I can go there on my own."

Hisoka looked at him as though he had sprouted a third head. Not even a second head; he just skipped right on to the third.

"No way am I letting you go see that guy alone."

"I just don't want him to do anything to you," Tsuzuki said quietly.

Hisoka resisted the urge to reply that it was most certainly not him that Muraki seemed the most interested in. "I'll be okay," he replied. "Don't worry about me."

Tsuzuki did not look at all comforted by his words, but he gave a slight nod of his head to acknowledge Hisoka's words before continuing onward. They soon came to the end of the dark corridor, and before they stepped out into the sunlight, Tsuzuki extinguished the flame in his hand so as to not catch unwanted attention. Fortunately, the corridor beyond was empty when they stepped into it.

For someone as scatterbrained as Tsuzuki was, he had an amazingly good sense of direction when he needed to use it. Before Hisoka knew exactly where they were going, Tsuzuki had brought them to the same corridor they had walked only the night before, that had lead them to Muraki. It was far darker than any other hallway they had walked before. Tsuzuki brought back the flame to his hand and led the way.

"I'm almost sure that it was here we found the staircase . . ." Tsuzuki said with a frown. "But the hall keeps going . . ."

"Maybe it's further down," Hisoka suggested.

Tsuzuki shook his head. "No . . . I'm /sure/ it was right here. I remember that portrait."

Hisoka glanced to the picture he was indicating to. It was quite possibly one of the more disturbing ones he had seen throughout the manor. It was of a young woman, dressed in stiff clothing from somewhere around the nineteen hundreds, he imagined. Dark curls fell to frame her porcelain-like face. The crimson mouth was set in a very firm line, and the green eyes seemed to burn into his. The paint had begun to chip away in some places, leaving an unshapely scratch down her pink cheeks. She was like a human porcelain doll, Hisoka realized, and thinking of Muraki, he suddenly didn't like the picture very much at all.

"Maybe there's a switch or something," Tsuzuki was muttering to himself as his hands wandered the wall in search of the secret passageway.

"It's always if you pull the candlestick in the old movies," Hisoka said thoughtfully, and experimentally, he tugged on one that jutted out from the wall.

There was an almost immediate reaction. Tsuzuki jumped backward in surprise as the wall he had been touching began to move. A panel in the wall slipped aside to reveal the staircase. Another panel came out to block the hallway they had been following.

"Well . . . that explains that," Hisoka commented, trying to sound light-hearted. He failed miserably.

Tsuzuki started up the stairs, leaving Hisoka with little to no choice but to follow. The second time up the stairs was no better than the first time. He supposed that this time it was worse because he knew what awaited them beyond, and he was not at all eager to see Muraki again. Much less did he want to see Muraki if Kai had found him and Muraki had done something horrible to him . . . images of what had happened in Nagasaki when Muraki had kidnapped him came flooding back to his mind.

"Hisoka?"

Tsuzuki's voice came to him quite suddenly. Tsuzuki was looking to him with concern in his eyes, one hand resting on his shoulder. Hisoka realized that the memories must have overtaken him for a moment; that was why Tsuzuki looked so worried about him.

"I'm okay," he said. "It's not Kai or anything, I was just thinking about some things."

"Can you sense Kai?" Tsuzuki asked, continuing up the staircase once he was sure that Hisoka was not lying when he said that he was fine.

"No . . . not right now. He hasn't built up walls to keep me out; he doesn't know how. But I just can't get a sense of him . . ." He glanced up at Tsuzuki and offered a reassuring smile. "But if something really bad was happening to him, I'd know. Maybe Tatsumi and them have already found him, anyway. Who knows."

Tsuzuki smiled. "You being optimistic is the strangest thing in the world."

"Hey, being around you has actually influenced me in /some/ good ways."

"Are you saying I'm a bad influence?"

"I'm saying you're not a /good/ influence."

"That's the same thing!"

"Not quite."

Tsuzuki did not retaliate this time, because they had reached the top of the staircase and the door that would take them into Muraki's chambers.

"You can go back, you know," Tsuzuki said quietly. "I can call Suzaku or Byakko to go with you, if you're not comfortable going alone . . ."

"I already told you I'm not leaving you, baka."

Tsuzuki sighed. "I knew you'd say that," he said, and with that he reached out and turned the doorknob.

He slowly pushed the door all of the way open and stepped into the room. Hisoka followed at a safe distance. It was the same as they remembered it to be. Same rich embroidered carpet, same bookshelves, same ceiling height windows, the same furniture. But no Muraki in the area this time, and not even the slightest hint of his aura either. Somehow, Hisoka was not comforted.

Tsuzuki led the way, as he always did. The room seemed much larger than it had been when he and Tsuzuki had been here the night before. There was another adjourning room that Hisoka had not even taken notice of before. It was in that direction Tsuzuki headed.

"Tsuzuki," Hisoka started. He could feel something, a very slight feeling, beginning to creep up on him as they stepped nearer and nearer into the room.

"Are you okay?" Tsuzuki asked immediately, turning around to look at him.

"Just . . . I know Kai's here. I can tell. I . . . think he might be hurt."

Tsuzuki speeded up his pace somewhat and continued deeper and deeper into the room. They slipped around a corridor that Hisoka had not noticed until now, and eventually were brought around to yet another room. Tsuzuki tried the handle and found that it swung open easily on its own accord. The feeling had become so strong by then that Hisoka could barely stand without gripping Tsuzuki's arm for support.

"It's bad," he managed to say softly.

"Hisoka, you should go back," Tsuzuki argued. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

"No," Hisoka said firmly. "I'll deal with it. I'm just not as used to Kai as I am with the rest of you; I can't block him out as easily."

Tsuzuki wanted to argue, he knew. But he accepted Hisoka's decision as he always did and nudged the door completely open. It was dark in the room, and to light their way, he once again summoned the flame to his palm.

"Kai?" Tsuzuki called. "Kai, where are you?"

Hisoka heard a slight sound coming from further away. Tsuzuki went immediately in that direction, Hisoka on his heels. At the far end of the room, near a window that beamed light in on one central point of the bare, dank room, there was a simple table. Nothing particularly extraordinary about it at all, except for the fact that Kai was on it, and fastened on it in cruciform style. Hisoka recognized at once the wires that bound him to the table; they were the same that Muraki had once used on him.

"Hold on, Kai, we'll have you out of here in a second," Tsuzuki said reassuringly, and he immediately set to working away the wires, ignoring when they pricked his own skin and made him bleed. Hisoka helped him by starting on the side opposite of Tsuzuki.

"I'm sorry . . ." Kai was speaking, but they could barely hear him. His voice barely raised a pitch over a faint whisper. "I had to . . . see who he was . . . that man . . . I bet Watari is mad at me . . ."

"He'll be ecstatic you're okay," Hisoka said, unwinding another wire and tossing it aside.

"It was stupid to go alone . . ." Kai continued, and Hisoka wondered whether or not he was delirious or simply attempting to remain conscious. "I didn't really . . . even /do/ anything . . . next thing I knew I was being strapped down here . . . and he was just /smiling/ at me . . ."

"Yeah, that's Muraki," Hisoka said under his breath. "There, that's the last of it. Can you stand?"

Kai attempted to prop himself up and inevitably failed. Tsuzuki put an arm around him to support him, and with Hisoka's help, they were able to move him down from the table. He tried for a moment to stand on his own two feet, but that too was an inevitable failure. Tsuzuki ended up sweeping the small shinigami up into his arms to carry him.

"Let's get back," he said softly.

But it was, of course, by a stroke of that dreaded thing called irony, that at that moment their enemy chose to make his appearance.

"Tsuzuki-san, don't be in such a hurry. Now is when the fun starts to begin."