The Wound That Never Heals
Chapter 1
Life is like a coin. For every head, there must be a tail. In life, the amount of happy times will be cancelled by the amount of sorrowful times. The number of failures will determine the joy of your success. Everything is perfectly balanced. That's why, the amount of sugar you eat will be equally balanced by the amount of bitterness you get. This is life. Tsuzuki Asato, happily eating every dessert he could get his hands on, clearly did not know this.
"Baka, you will get retribution for eating so much sugar," was Kurosaki Hisoka's pleasant reply to Tsuzuki's offer to share the food.
"So mean!" Tsuzuki pouted but his displeasure lasted only for 3 seconds as he began to attack the apple tarts and the fruitcakes with renewed vigour. Hisoka watched his partner with disgust and returned to his book, Crime and Punishment Volume II.
"Oh my Emma, these are good," Tsuzuki said through a mouthful of tarts and cakes. "And I almost forgot, how did these get to be on the table?" Hisoka was thoroughly disgusted.
"Of course, not even a bomb could stop our glutton from eating whatever he could get his paws on," came the familiar voice radiating disapproval. Terazuma Hajime soon followed his voice into the room.
"Really Hajime-chan, that's not the nice way to start the morning with your colleague. Don't be so mean to Tsuzuki-chan," another cheerful voice was heard and the owner came only a few seconds after Terazuma.
"I just knew it, Wakaba-chan, you made all these. You are wonderful, Wakaba- chan, these are delicious," it would be redundant to state who said this.
"Well, I'm glad you like it and you can have all of it because somebody said that he did not want a single bite. Of course, Hisoka-kun would be welcomed to it as well," Wakaba Kannuki gave a very pointed glare to Terazuma.
"Oh Wakaba-chan, you are the best. I love you," Tsuzuki glomped Wakaba. Terazuma's head snapped up from behind the newspapers. Hisoka remained passive, muttering baka under his breath.
"Tsuzuki Asato! What the hell do you think you are doing with my partner? You this good-for-nothing-forever-eating glutton! I will never let you off today! Don't you dare touch Kannuki!" Terazuma stood up suddenly, crushing the paper into pulp in his hands. He aimed a kick right in the middle of Tsuzuki's face. Tsuzuki was knocked off his feet. He got up with deliberate slowness.
"You this shape-changing freak! Is this the way you treat your sempai? Don't make me call Byakko to deal with you. It's not as if you could touch Wakaba-chan even if I do not touch her," Tsuzuki growled, oblivious to Wakaba's nervous attempts to get him interested in the apple tarts again.
It hit home. Terazuma froze, then with a deep growl, black hair started to sprout. Tsuzuki shook off Wakaba's insistent arm and started to chant.
"Bowing before you I present my wish, the twelve gods who protect me! Blade of air, steel of vacuum, bearing fang of silvery-white! Appear before me! Byakko!"
At this very critical moment, Tatsumi walked in. Taking one look at what was going on, he lost it.
"Tsuzuki Asato, Terazuma Hajime! What the hell are you doing?" he roared. There was a sudden silence and everybody froze. Terazuma stopped in his mid- changing and Byakko, who was beginning to materialize, quickly disappeared.
"Well, Tatsumi, I." Tsuzuki was cut off as he suddenly found himself surrounded by shadows.
"One more word from you and all your breakfast will be banned," Tatsumi said calmly as he gave him a deadly glare. Terazuma gulped and tried to change back.
"I'm here to remind you that there will be a 60% reduction in salaries for a indefinite period of time. This applies to everyone with the exception of Tsuzuki, who will experience a 100% reduction. All tea will be reduced to plain water and breakfast is self-provided. From today onwards, all of you have to take care of your three meals and nobody is to work past 7pm using electricity. If you want to work during the night, please remember to bring a candle. All lamps in the office will be switched off until 5pm and yes, please bring your own coffee. Kurosaki-kun, can you come out for a while? I need to speak to you. To the rest of you, have a nice day," with a heartfelt chuckle, Tatsumi left the room, leaving everybody in it stunned.
"Waaaa! How can he be so mean?" Tsuzuki's wail could still be heard as Hisoka followed Tatsumi out of the room. The cut in salary did not particularly bother him as he practised economy more than anything and had saved quite a lot of money. He was curious as to why Tatsumi wanted to speak to him alone.
"What is it, Tatsumi-san?" Hisoka asked the moment Tsuzuki's ranting and ravings could no longer be heard. Tatsumi halted and turned to face him. Hisoka was startled by the serious expression on his face.
"Kurosaki-kun, you are requested to assist Watari in a case in Kyoto. It is a very crucial case and he needs your help urgently. I hope you do your best to assist him," Tatsumi said as he placed a hand on Hisoka's shoulder. To the teenager's surprise, he felt tremendous concern flowing from the normally emotionless man.
More on his guard, Hisoka asked, "Of course I will do my best but what about Tsuzuki? I can't just leave him here, he's my partner."
"I'm sorry, Hisoka. It seems that you have to. It's orders from above that you leave with Watari immediately. We are going to his lab now. He will brief you on the details," Tatsumi resumed his pace and quickened it as they neared Watari's lab. "Of course you are expected to keep the expense of this trip within the budget and any excess will be deducted from both of your salaries." Hisoka sighed inwardly with relief. Now he knew that Tatsumi was back.
They finally arrived at Watari's lab.
"Did you bring him? Konnichiwa, bon," even the seriousness of the situation did not affect the smile on the blonde man's face. Hisoka felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He nodded his acknowledgement to the man.
"So you did not tell him?" Watari Yutaka's tone changed immediately when he addressed the older man. Hisoka saw them exchanging worried looks.
"I will leave you to brief him. I believe you will do a better job. After all, you have all the evidences. Please be careful. If it really turns out to be him..." Tatsumi paused uncomfortably, not knowing how to continue.
"Good luck." It seemed to Hisoka that Tatsumi almost ran out of the room. He was getting really bad vibes about this whole situation. Firstly, why did Tatsumi call him alone to assist Watari? Why had he excluded Tsuzuki? The three of them had worked together on cases before? Did he think they would not get along? Hisoka shook his head. That was ridiculous. But what did Tatsumi say when he left? If it really turns out to be him? Who? It was getting more and more confusing. Never mind, Watari would brief him and that should clear his doubts.
"Um..bon," Watari began hesitantly. Hisoka's head snapped up and he looked at the blond man expectantly.
"You see, there has been a series of murders in Kyoto. Up till now, 8 people have been killed. I have been assigned to this case quite some time ago but had not made any breakthroughs until the last victim." Hisoka nodded knowingly but he still did not understand why Tatsumi and Watari were so nervous. This sounded like a typical case to him. He waited patiently for Watari to continue.
"The victims did not seem to share anything in common. All of them vary in gender, age, physical appearance, family background and preference. The time of death ranges from a few minutes to a few hours after midnight. The only similarity is that all of them are murdered under a sakura tree." Hisoka shuddered involuntarily. This sounded too much like a certain hated person for his comfort.
"How did they die?"
"Their throat was torn open and they bled to death. The reason why we are called in is because their souls did not return. All of them."
"Are the souls locked up somewhere? Do we need to rescue.."
"No Hisoka, the souls are not kidnapped. Upon closer investigation, it is discovered that their souls have been torn apart, mauled beyond repair. That is to say, all eight of them, have completely vanished from this earth. Someone, or something has destroyed even their soul. And this someone or something, is still at large."
Hisoka was speechless. He had never encountered something like this before and from the look the scientist was giving him, it was obvious that he did not either. Complete destruction of the soul was only given to people who have traded their souls with demons, the most serious crime you could commit on earth. Even murders kept their souls. It meant that your existence would be utterly wiped from the face of the earth. You could never enter heaven. You couldn't even hope to enter hell. It was the worst punishment you could give to anyone. To think that someone or something actually had the ability to do something like that. A soul was supposed to be the saintliest thing on earth, wasn't it? What can destroy it?
Hisoka felt cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. His mouth felt dry and he felt sure that a headache was coming on. "So we need to take care of this thing fast before anymore soul was destroyed right? Wait, why did you call someone like me? Shouldn't you call Tsuzuki? He is much more powerful than I am. He should be dealing with this kind of thing " Hisoka felt his suspicions returning.
Watari cringed. "There's more. Did I mention to you just now that we don't have the faintest idea who or what was doing something like that? It could not be a demon because it is not their tendency to tear souls apart and waste the precious energy that can be obtained from the souls. As there are no similarities among the victims, we could only wait for the next victim. However, we learnt something very important about the murderer from the eighth victim. Under her nails, we found some dead skin cells. We assume that they belong to the murderer as they are fresh and they do not match with the victim's. Take a look at this."
Watari strode to the computer. Hisoka followed him, a little afraid of the results.
"Owing to the fact that the cells are dead and there's not much of it in the first place, I can only do a partial analysis of the DNA that made up the cells. They yield a very interesting result." Watari was clicking away at the computer. Hisoka licked his parched lips. His ears were pounding with anticipation and nervousness.
"This is roughly the genetic makeup of the DNA and after further analysis, it is found that the owner of this DNA is a male with blood type B and black hair. Mostly importantly, he has a pair of purple eyes."
Watari heard a sharp intake of breath and he closed his eyes wearily. However, he forced himself to continue. "I was inclined to believe the results to be wrong and the redid the test 20 over times. They yield the same results. I'm sorry Hisoka, but DNA never lies. Then I matched Tsuzuki's DNA with this DNA and, Hisoka, it's a 100% match. Watch."
Hisoka watched with disbelieve as the two DNA fit each other perfectly and formed one single picture. The words below proclaimed a 100% match and he still could not believe his eyes when the resulting picture appeared on the screen. It was Tsuzuki Asato, his best friend and partner.
Hisoka did not believe this. He did not want to. This is crazy. It has to be. This could not be true, this could not be true. How could his gentle and lovable partner do something like this? No, this has to be one huge, big, horrible nightmare. This could not be true. It could not. Hisoka muttered continuously under his breath. He was vaguely aware that Watari was still saying something. He did not want to hear it. He refused to hear anything that tried to convince him that the nightmare was the reality.
"Bon, did you hear what I said?" Watari shook him gently. Hisoka felt concern from his touch and his distraught mind was unconsciously comforted. However, his numb brains still could not register what Watari had said. He stared at him uncomprehendingly. Finally, he nodded unconvincingly. Watari frowned a little. Hisoka felt more concern flowing from him. It was too much. It was blinding him. It was drowning him. For a while, he thought he was hearing the ocean. Above the roar of the waves, he seemed to hear Watari's voice.
"Bon, I was saying, I need you to do a final test to confirm whether the mur-the person behind all this is Tsuzuki. We have to go the Chijou immediately."
Hisoka felt himself nodding. He blinked. Watari's face seemed so blur and who is switching off all the lights? Why did the room seem so dark all of a sudden? Wait, even the ground is getting bigger. Oh no, I'm hallucinating, was the last thing Hisoka thought as he fell to the ground.
****===================================================================****
A/N: hiya ppl, this is a long chapter. Hope you like it. I'm still not a very experienced writer so pls be kind with me. Oh and pls very kindly leave a review. I would appreciate it very much. Thanks.
For people who reads my the other fanfic, Black Sins, im sorry it's not updated but I think the nxt chapter is going to take sometime to come out. ::coughs:: um, this is becoz, well, you see, I have gone for holiday for sometime [actually im still on hol but I managed to obtain a computer ::yeah::] so all my thoughts for that fic is disrupted. ::coughs again:: so yar, my apologies but I need some time to gather my thoughts again. This occurred while im on hol and this is supposed to be the sequel for Black Sins [in order for Hisoka and all the rest to come out] and beats me why I'm writing this now. Actually I was very clear about what to write for Black Sins but after the hol, im not so clear but never mind, im sure it will come back so in the mean time, pls review this story :)
Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei does not belong to me ::sniffs:: and I sincerely thank theria for providing the translations for Byakko's summoning
Chapter 1
Life is like a coin. For every head, there must be a tail. In life, the amount of happy times will be cancelled by the amount of sorrowful times. The number of failures will determine the joy of your success. Everything is perfectly balanced. That's why, the amount of sugar you eat will be equally balanced by the amount of bitterness you get. This is life. Tsuzuki Asato, happily eating every dessert he could get his hands on, clearly did not know this.
"Baka, you will get retribution for eating so much sugar," was Kurosaki Hisoka's pleasant reply to Tsuzuki's offer to share the food.
"So mean!" Tsuzuki pouted but his displeasure lasted only for 3 seconds as he began to attack the apple tarts and the fruitcakes with renewed vigour. Hisoka watched his partner with disgust and returned to his book, Crime and Punishment Volume II.
"Oh my Emma, these are good," Tsuzuki said through a mouthful of tarts and cakes. "And I almost forgot, how did these get to be on the table?" Hisoka was thoroughly disgusted.
"Of course, not even a bomb could stop our glutton from eating whatever he could get his paws on," came the familiar voice radiating disapproval. Terazuma Hajime soon followed his voice into the room.
"Really Hajime-chan, that's not the nice way to start the morning with your colleague. Don't be so mean to Tsuzuki-chan," another cheerful voice was heard and the owner came only a few seconds after Terazuma.
"I just knew it, Wakaba-chan, you made all these. You are wonderful, Wakaba- chan, these are delicious," it would be redundant to state who said this.
"Well, I'm glad you like it and you can have all of it because somebody said that he did not want a single bite. Of course, Hisoka-kun would be welcomed to it as well," Wakaba Kannuki gave a very pointed glare to Terazuma.
"Oh Wakaba-chan, you are the best. I love you," Tsuzuki glomped Wakaba. Terazuma's head snapped up from behind the newspapers. Hisoka remained passive, muttering baka under his breath.
"Tsuzuki Asato! What the hell do you think you are doing with my partner? You this good-for-nothing-forever-eating glutton! I will never let you off today! Don't you dare touch Kannuki!" Terazuma stood up suddenly, crushing the paper into pulp in his hands. He aimed a kick right in the middle of Tsuzuki's face. Tsuzuki was knocked off his feet. He got up with deliberate slowness.
"You this shape-changing freak! Is this the way you treat your sempai? Don't make me call Byakko to deal with you. It's not as if you could touch Wakaba-chan even if I do not touch her," Tsuzuki growled, oblivious to Wakaba's nervous attempts to get him interested in the apple tarts again.
It hit home. Terazuma froze, then with a deep growl, black hair started to sprout. Tsuzuki shook off Wakaba's insistent arm and started to chant.
"Bowing before you I present my wish, the twelve gods who protect me! Blade of air, steel of vacuum, bearing fang of silvery-white! Appear before me! Byakko!"
At this very critical moment, Tatsumi walked in. Taking one look at what was going on, he lost it.
"Tsuzuki Asato, Terazuma Hajime! What the hell are you doing?" he roared. There was a sudden silence and everybody froze. Terazuma stopped in his mid- changing and Byakko, who was beginning to materialize, quickly disappeared.
"Well, Tatsumi, I." Tsuzuki was cut off as he suddenly found himself surrounded by shadows.
"One more word from you and all your breakfast will be banned," Tatsumi said calmly as he gave him a deadly glare. Terazuma gulped and tried to change back.
"I'm here to remind you that there will be a 60% reduction in salaries for a indefinite period of time. This applies to everyone with the exception of Tsuzuki, who will experience a 100% reduction. All tea will be reduced to plain water and breakfast is self-provided. From today onwards, all of you have to take care of your three meals and nobody is to work past 7pm using electricity. If you want to work during the night, please remember to bring a candle. All lamps in the office will be switched off until 5pm and yes, please bring your own coffee. Kurosaki-kun, can you come out for a while? I need to speak to you. To the rest of you, have a nice day," with a heartfelt chuckle, Tatsumi left the room, leaving everybody in it stunned.
"Waaaa! How can he be so mean?" Tsuzuki's wail could still be heard as Hisoka followed Tatsumi out of the room. The cut in salary did not particularly bother him as he practised economy more than anything and had saved quite a lot of money. He was curious as to why Tatsumi wanted to speak to him alone.
"What is it, Tatsumi-san?" Hisoka asked the moment Tsuzuki's ranting and ravings could no longer be heard. Tatsumi halted and turned to face him. Hisoka was startled by the serious expression on his face.
"Kurosaki-kun, you are requested to assist Watari in a case in Kyoto. It is a very crucial case and he needs your help urgently. I hope you do your best to assist him," Tatsumi said as he placed a hand on Hisoka's shoulder. To the teenager's surprise, he felt tremendous concern flowing from the normally emotionless man.
More on his guard, Hisoka asked, "Of course I will do my best but what about Tsuzuki? I can't just leave him here, he's my partner."
"I'm sorry, Hisoka. It seems that you have to. It's orders from above that you leave with Watari immediately. We are going to his lab now. He will brief you on the details," Tatsumi resumed his pace and quickened it as they neared Watari's lab. "Of course you are expected to keep the expense of this trip within the budget and any excess will be deducted from both of your salaries." Hisoka sighed inwardly with relief. Now he knew that Tatsumi was back.
They finally arrived at Watari's lab.
"Did you bring him? Konnichiwa, bon," even the seriousness of the situation did not affect the smile on the blonde man's face. Hisoka felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He nodded his acknowledgement to the man.
"So you did not tell him?" Watari Yutaka's tone changed immediately when he addressed the older man. Hisoka saw them exchanging worried looks.
"I will leave you to brief him. I believe you will do a better job. After all, you have all the evidences. Please be careful. If it really turns out to be him..." Tatsumi paused uncomfortably, not knowing how to continue.
"Good luck." It seemed to Hisoka that Tatsumi almost ran out of the room. He was getting really bad vibes about this whole situation. Firstly, why did Tatsumi call him alone to assist Watari? Why had he excluded Tsuzuki? The three of them had worked together on cases before? Did he think they would not get along? Hisoka shook his head. That was ridiculous. But what did Tatsumi say when he left? If it really turns out to be him? Who? It was getting more and more confusing. Never mind, Watari would brief him and that should clear his doubts.
"Um..bon," Watari began hesitantly. Hisoka's head snapped up and he looked at the blond man expectantly.
"You see, there has been a series of murders in Kyoto. Up till now, 8 people have been killed. I have been assigned to this case quite some time ago but had not made any breakthroughs until the last victim." Hisoka nodded knowingly but he still did not understand why Tatsumi and Watari were so nervous. This sounded like a typical case to him. He waited patiently for Watari to continue.
"The victims did not seem to share anything in common. All of them vary in gender, age, physical appearance, family background and preference. The time of death ranges from a few minutes to a few hours after midnight. The only similarity is that all of them are murdered under a sakura tree." Hisoka shuddered involuntarily. This sounded too much like a certain hated person for his comfort.
"How did they die?"
"Their throat was torn open and they bled to death. The reason why we are called in is because their souls did not return. All of them."
"Are the souls locked up somewhere? Do we need to rescue.."
"No Hisoka, the souls are not kidnapped. Upon closer investigation, it is discovered that their souls have been torn apart, mauled beyond repair. That is to say, all eight of them, have completely vanished from this earth. Someone, or something has destroyed even their soul. And this someone or something, is still at large."
Hisoka was speechless. He had never encountered something like this before and from the look the scientist was giving him, it was obvious that he did not either. Complete destruction of the soul was only given to people who have traded their souls with demons, the most serious crime you could commit on earth. Even murders kept their souls. It meant that your existence would be utterly wiped from the face of the earth. You could never enter heaven. You couldn't even hope to enter hell. It was the worst punishment you could give to anyone. To think that someone or something actually had the ability to do something like that. A soul was supposed to be the saintliest thing on earth, wasn't it? What can destroy it?
Hisoka felt cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. His mouth felt dry and he felt sure that a headache was coming on. "So we need to take care of this thing fast before anymore soul was destroyed right? Wait, why did you call someone like me? Shouldn't you call Tsuzuki? He is much more powerful than I am. He should be dealing with this kind of thing " Hisoka felt his suspicions returning.
Watari cringed. "There's more. Did I mention to you just now that we don't have the faintest idea who or what was doing something like that? It could not be a demon because it is not their tendency to tear souls apart and waste the precious energy that can be obtained from the souls. As there are no similarities among the victims, we could only wait for the next victim. However, we learnt something very important about the murderer from the eighth victim. Under her nails, we found some dead skin cells. We assume that they belong to the murderer as they are fresh and they do not match with the victim's. Take a look at this."
Watari strode to the computer. Hisoka followed him, a little afraid of the results.
"Owing to the fact that the cells are dead and there's not much of it in the first place, I can only do a partial analysis of the DNA that made up the cells. They yield a very interesting result." Watari was clicking away at the computer. Hisoka licked his parched lips. His ears were pounding with anticipation and nervousness.
"This is roughly the genetic makeup of the DNA and after further analysis, it is found that the owner of this DNA is a male with blood type B and black hair. Mostly importantly, he has a pair of purple eyes."
Watari heard a sharp intake of breath and he closed his eyes wearily. However, he forced himself to continue. "I was inclined to believe the results to be wrong and the redid the test 20 over times. They yield the same results. I'm sorry Hisoka, but DNA never lies. Then I matched Tsuzuki's DNA with this DNA and, Hisoka, it's a 100% match. Watch."
Hisoka watched with disbelieve as the two DNA fit each other perfectly and formed one single picture. The words below proclaimed a 100% match and he still could not believe his eyes when the resulting picture appeared on the screen. It was Tsuzuki Asato, his best friend and partner.
Hisoka did not believe this. He did not want to. This is crazy. It has to be. This could not be true, this could not be true. How could his gentle and lovable partner do something like this? No, this has to be one huge, big, horrible nightmare. This could not be true. It could not. Hisoka muttered continuously under his breath. He was vaguely aware that Watari was still saying something. He did not want to hear it. He refused to hear anything that tried to convince him that the nightmare was the reality.
"Bon, did you hear what I said?" Watari shook him gently. Hisoka felt concern from his touch and his distraught mind was unconsciously comforted. However, his numb brains still could not register what Watari had said. He stared at him uncomprehendingly. Finally, he nodded unconvincingly. Watari frowned a little. Hisoka felt more concern flowing from him. It was too much. It was blinding him. It was drowning him. For a while, he thought he was hearing the ocean. Above the roar of the waves, he seemed to hear Watari's voice.
"Bon, I was saying, I need you to do a final test to confirm whether the mur-the person behind all this is Tsuzuki. We have to go the Chijou immediately."
Hisoka felt himself nodding. He blinked. Watari's face seemed so blur and who is switching off all the lights? Why did the room seem so dark all of a sudden? Wait, even the ground is getting bigger. Oh no, I'm hallucinating, was the last thing Hisoka thought as he fell to the ground.
****===================================================================****
A/N: hiya ppl, this is a long chapter. Hope you like it. I'm still not a very experienced writer so pls be kind with me. Oh and pls very kindly leave a review. I would appreciate it very much. Thanks.
For people who reads my the other fanfic, Black Sins, im sorry it's not updated but I think the nxt chapter is going to take sometime to come out. ::coughs:: um, this is becoz, well, you see, I have gone for holiday for sometime [actually im still on hol but I managed to obtain a computer ::yeah::] so all my thoughts for that fic is disrupted. ::coughs again:: so yar, my apologies but I need some time to gather my thoughts again. This occurred while im on hol and this is supposed to be the sequel for Black Sins [in order for Hisoka and all the rest to come out] and beats me why I'm writing this now. Actually I was very clear about what to write for Black Sins but after the hol, im not so clear but never mind, im sure it will come back so in the mean time, pls review this story :)
Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei does not belong to me ::sniffs:: and I sincerely thank theria for providing the translations for Byakko's summoning
