Disclaimer: If I owned Yami no Matsuei, the mangas would still be getting published. I don't own Bath & Body Works either, but a fragrance they came out with about two Christmases ago inspired this story.
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"For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories..."
-Rachel Carson
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Hisoka had only gone in for a moment, but it was long enough to shake him to the core.
He had stepped into Bath & Body Works to get ideas for last-minute Christmas presents. Definitely something sweet-scented for Tsuzuki, but would he find anything for anyone else? Tatsumi didn't seem like the 'scented candle' type...Watari might enjoy one, if he could find the right fragrance...He browsed the wall, stopping to smell bath soap or a candle every now and then in a search for ideas.
He had just smelled a French vanilla candle experimentally when another scent filled his nose…a disturbingly familiar and unwelcome scent. His heart stopped as he turned to see the newest products in the store.
Bottles of perfume lined the wall he was now facing, along with body lotion, pillow mist, and massage oils. The smell itself would have been enough, but upon seeing the label clearly, Hisoka's emerald eyes dilated and his breathing halted.
All the products were labeled "Japanese Cherry Blossom."
Memories of that night filled the boy's head…the smell took him out of the store, into the past, and he felt the ground against his back, the marks burning into his skin, the sadistic amusement and lust of Muraki as he ripped an innocent life apart…
Hisoka quickly bought Tsuzuki's present and left the store, pale, sweating, and shaking like an aspen tree.
A few minutes after the boy left, a white-clad man smiled as he placed a bottle of body lotion from the new fragrance line on the counter, saying "I'd like to get this gift-wrapped, please."
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A/N: I actually wrote this story a long time ago, at least two years. But my old computer ate it and I had to rewrite it from a printed-out copy - and edit it a bit.
Read and review please!