1514kuro requested: How about a Tagami/Hirahara fanfic where the two are trapped during a mission, one of them gets injured badly and the others save them at the end?
Admin Notes: Sounds like it could be either really cute or really sad. Hm… cute, or sad? Cute? Sad? Wait! Both?! (It's long, so look to the undercut!) -Admin Hirahara
Early one morning, a little too early in the morning, Tagami and Hirahara found that they were called to Rokkaku's office for an urgent mission. The two were the only escorts awake, Tagami still ready to go back to sleep, but Hirahara already bouncing excitedly. "You'll have to leave early if you want to get to Shikoku while the sun is still up." Rokkaku informed, giving both escorts the reports for their mission. "It would seem some people have been calling her an Ameonna for the eternal rain that's plunged the area since her first sighting."
"Another deceased one?" Tagami asked, looking over the report.
"Spotted in the village Nagoro, The Valley of Dolls." Rokkaku added. "It's a particular deceased one, who has been disturbing the peace in the small village." Ameonna brings rain as she comes across the village. Because Nagoro is virtually a ghost town, there shouldn't be much disturbance. However, this particular deceased one has caused flooding to the few who do live in the area, injuring them or killing off many of the vegetation. "It is your duties to capture this deceased one at all cost, for that is what it means to be an Underworld Escort."
"Yes sir!" The two saluted Rokkaku. With that, they were off on the long journey from the city to the island of Shikoku.
—
The two didn't reach the small ghost town until the afternoon. Since Kirika hadn't come to the headquarters yet, neither had eaten anything before setting off, leaving Tagami in a bad mood. Already, it was looking like a bad day. "We should be finished in nooooo time!" Hirahara offered, when Tagami complained about having to travel so far. When the two entered Nagoro, the first thing they saw were the strange life sized dolls that lined various areas of the road. There was a doll of an elderly couple, sitting with each other on a bench, someone waiting for the bus, and another two of children playing with a ball. They weren't scary looking things, but the whole idea was rather unsettling for the two escorts.
"So this is why it's called The Valley of Dolls…" Tagami muttered. He didn't see any actual people, though, which made him think that perhaps the deceased one scared them all away. It could get difficult telling what was real and what wasn't around there. "Come on, let's just look in some of these buildings." With that, Hirahara and Tagami ended up splitting up to cover more area.
Tagami entered a school building, only to be surprised with a teacher and a full classroom - all dolls. It leaned on the more creepy side, but still not sign of any deceased ones. Hirahara entered an old unoccupied house, finding only a doll sitting at the table as if he was partaking in a meal. The search continued with both only finding dolls in the buildings. It wasn't long before they both met up again in exhaust.
"She isn't here." Tagami concluded.
"Maybe we should wait for it to rain…" Hirahara agreed. The two aimlessly stood at the steps of the school building, looking in the streets for any possible clues. There weren't any… at least that's what they both thought. However, Hirahara soon realized that the umbrella he'd been staring at for almost ten minutes wasn't actually being held by anything. "Ah!" He exclaimed, running over. Tagami followed at a walking pace.
In the middle of the road was an umbrella that was floating in midair. It moved, though, as if someone was holding it and walking with it. "Hm?" He asked, slowing to a walk. The closer he got, the more… he could see some sort of a faint outline of a person carrying the umbrella. It was a young girl, he realized, her hands going white from holding it so tightly.
"It's not this one either…" He heard her mutter, as she looked down. "I wonder where it is…" She turned to walk down the road when she spotted Hirahara and the approaching Tagami. She froze in place, not expecting to see anything but dolls in the village. "Who-!" She exclaimed, backing up.
"Ah. The deceased one." Tagami said, now that he was able to see her as well. The girl, the Ameonna, threw the umbrella to the ground.
"Didn't I tell you wall to just leave?" She shouted, glaring at them both. When neither knew what she was talking about, she started shouting again. "Just leave me alone! I'm not going anywhere until I find it!"
"We're Underworld Escorts." Tagami said, as if he didn't hear anything she said. "You've interfered with the living and now need to be punished." With that, he swung his pick axe down so that it rested at his side. "Come with us." That only seem to throw the Ameonna into a panic, and she screamed up to the sky. It was a horrible scream, nearly shattering Hirahara and Tagami's ears. It echoed into the clouds, until, the two realized, it had summoned the rain.
"Just leave! Just leave!" She yelled, hurrying off while the two escorts were distracted.
"Eh? She's getting away!" Hirahara exclaimed, chasing after her. He was stopped, suddenly, by one of the house's doors opening. Perhaps a person? But they checked. The place was abandoned except for- "HAH?!" Hirahara took a step back. One of the dolls the two had seen earlier had gotten up and started moving on it's own. However, this doll had a dark shadow surrounding it, as if it was being held and manipulated.
"It couldn't be…" Tagami wondered, turning around. The dolls they had seen in the streets had started moving as well. "This rain…" Could it have summoned vengeful spirits? He wondered. Hirahara ignored the doll in front of him, smashing it down with his shovel and continuing after the Ameonna. "Wait!" Tagami tried stopping the golden eyed escort, but he had already run off. The dolls looked more menacing, now that they were moving around. He easily swatted a few with his pick axe, but he worried that if he focused too much on the dolls, Hirahara would disappear. In the end, he ended up chasing after the other escort, leaving the dolls in pursuit.
—
Hirahara had managed to follow the deceased one for some time, but it suddenly veered off a hill and went out of sight. After that, there were no signs of her anywhere. He turned, thinking Tagami had been following, only to realize he was alone. Wondering if he should just go back, he was stopped by the sound of crying. It didn't sound like the girl from earlier. He slowly stepped down the hill, making sure he wouldn't slip because of the rain. Below, there was a gush of running water, smaller than a river, that must have been due to the excessive flooding. Beside it was a little boy, crouched down and crying.
"Hm?" Hirahara thought, approaching him. "Eh? What are you doing here?"
"I'm… alone…" He muttered through his tears. "And I'm scared." Hirahara wasn't exactly used to these sorts of situations. Still, he wondered if he could help the kid as well.
"Are you waiting for someone?" Hirahara asked, crouching next to him. "I'm waiting for someone to catch up to me as well!" The boy shook his head.
"It's lonely, and no one will find me." He said. The boy suddenly stopped crying, and looked up at Hirahara. The escort didn't even have time to jump back when he saw the boy's face - it was that of a vengeful spirit. "Come be with me!" It's form changed into that of one of the shadows that had been possessing the dolls, grabbing Hirahara's arm. The escort had made the mistake of leaving his shovel on the ground to comfort the boy, and soon found himself being dragged into the low river. It actually began to fill up more, he realized, because of the rain. Maybe it's not as shallow as I thought… Hirahara thought in panic.
"Hey!" He heard someone yell, and a pick axe came flying at the vengeful spirit. The thing screeched as it fell back into the river, being carried off swiftly. Tagami slid down the wet hill to retrieve his weapon, grabbing Hirahara's shovel as well and handing it to his partner. "Idiot. Don't run off…" He grunted. Hirahara nodded, clutching his shovel tighter. The rain was now in a downpour, and the two quickly decided that they'd best wait out the storm somewhere. The village was off the list of safe places because of all the moving dolls, but there wasn't many other options. In the end, they concluded that the library was the one building neither found any dolls, and hid there as thunder and lightning cracked in the sky.
"I wonder why she's so angry…" Hirahara said, noticing the rain getting bigger. He touched his arm, where the spirit had grabbed him, and felt a slight pang of pain. He ignored it, though, since it would heal in no time. Tagami, on the other hand, began looking at some of the records on the bookshelves.
"Maybe there's a hint somewhere here." He said, pulling a few newspaper records from the village archive. They stopped a long time ago, so the clippings weren't too hard to sort through. Specifically, Tagami tried to find some that related to the girl of the deceased one. "Here we go…" He said, finally getting to something that could be related. A Girl Drowned in the River. Some of the paper was faded, and Tagami couldn't make out her name, but the article summed up the story of a girl who tragically fell into the riverbank trying to retrieve an umbrella that had been blown away. There was also a picture of the girl, but to Tagami's surprise, it wasn't a picture of the deceased one.
"Tagami…" His thoughts were broken as he heard Hirahara's strained voice. Looking back over, he noticed that the golden eyed escort was gripping his arm tightly, looking pained.
"What is it?" He asked, hurrying over. There were strange claw marks that dug deep into flesh left on Hirahara's arm that weren't there before. It also looked like it was slowly rotting away. The spirit must have done this…! Tagami realized. Hirahara was breathing heavily, and his eyelids began drooping. "Hey, hang in there!" Tagami said, shaking the other.
"Haha… of course…" Hirahara mumbled, but he looked ready to pass out. Tagami wanted to capture the deceased one as soon as possible and hurry Hirahara back to the headquarters. He'd never seen an injury like this before, and didn't know what to do. It looked like their regeneration wasn't helping heal it at all. The umbrella… Tagami thought. The deceased one had discarded one on the ground earlier. Perhaps if he found the one the drowned girl had dropped… "Stay here." He said to Hirahara. "I'll be right back." He hurried out of the library and into the heavy rain. Looking around, it didn't look like any of the dolls were around.
—
Tagami hurried down to the riverbank mentioned in the paper, slipping every so often because of his footing. He managed passed a group of dolls, preoccupied with something or other, and quietly slipped under the railing. He nearly fell into the river himself, now very high because of the rain, but managed to grab ahold of a rock to keep his balance. It was dangerous to be there, of course, but he had to hurry and find the umbrella. It would have helped if he knew what it looked like.
As he struggled to shift along the rocks, he thought he saw an area where the rain fell around. The spot floated in mid air, and sometimes drifted from left to right. Once he was closer, he could see an illuminated person, her feet not touching the ground. She looked like the girl in the photograph. She seemed to spot Tagami, and extended her arm as if to call him over. Tagami, skeptically, slowly made his way over until he was on even footing again. The girl, as it turned out, looked very gentle, and smiled kindly.
"Amaya's probably looking for this…" she said, pointing into the river. "It's stuck between a rock, though." Tagami looked down into the river, noticing the strong waves. Had the water been calmer, he might have been more willing to dive in a find whatever the ghost girl was talking about. He still didn't know if her intentions were good at all, but he had to take the chance. He didn't want to leave Hirahara alone any longer. With that, he took a deep breath and jumped into the river. The waves pushed in down stream, but he managed to swim against the current. It was deeper than he expected.
He couldn't quite see underwater, but he could make out something that was out of color stuck into the ground. He got close enough to put a hand on it before he felt the current dragging him off. Whatever it was, it kept him from being pushed away, meaning it was very stuck. Something red and yellow. With a heavy shove, he managed to dislodge it from it's resting place, and together, he and the object broke the surface. The current nearly swept him back under had he not felt someone grab his hand.
The ghost girl, still smiling, was holding onto him and keeping him from drifting away. "You got it…" She whispered, pulling him out of the water. "Amaya will be happy." However, she quickly turned around, as if seeing something that was very concerning. "You'd better hurry. There are vengeful spirits who are looking for you." She looked at the object in Tagami's hands. "Take care of that, okay?" With that, she slowly began to fade out.
Now that he could, the amber eyed escort got a look at what he had pulled from the river. It was an umbrella, surprisingly still intact. With that in hand, he began running back to the library, hoping Hirahara had stayed out of trouble. However, to his fear, there were dolls at the entrance of the building. Having to debate whether to take the umbrella or swing his pick axe, Tagami discarded it in order to clear a path for him to enter. As soon as he released it, though, the umbrella flew off by the winds. "Dammit!" He yelled, but it was too late to go and look for it again. The dolls had managed to get back up after he beat them down, but he slammed the door shut and put a chair up against it to keep them from getting in, for the time being.
He hurried to where Hirahara had been to find said escort barely hanging on. His arm was now entirely black and rotting, and Hirahara was biting his lips to keep from saying anything. "Hirahara!" he exclaimed, kneeling down and pulling the escort closer. He heard a banging at the door that could have possibly been the dolls trying to get in, but he'd have to ignore that for now. They were trapped anyways. Hirahara opened his eyes slightly. "Did you… get it?" He asked in a voice barely audible. Tagami shook his head, scowling.
"No, I dropped it…" He said, feeling something cloud his vision. Hirahara slowly lifted his good hand and touched it to Tagami's cheek, and the amber eyed escort realized that he was crying.
"Don't be upset…" Hirahara smiled weakly. "It's not like you…"
"I'm sorry…" Tagami gripped the golden eyed escort a little tighter, feeling helpless. There was one more loud knock before he heard the chair breaking apart. In a few more seconds, the dolls would surely break in as well…
"HEY!" He suddenly heard someone call from outside. "TAGAMI! HIRAHARA!" The call was followed by the sound of gunshots and cloth ripping, along with some angry yelling. Is that…? Tagami questioned, wondering if he was starting to hear things. The banging at the door stopped, and for a few moments, there was only silence. The door then suddenly sprang open, and standing in the doorway, equally drenched in water, was Saeki.
"Hey! They're in here!" He shouted outside before quickly coming in and checking on the two escorts. He gasped when he saw Hirahara's injury. "What happened?" Tagami did his best to explain what had happened while trying to hold back his surprise that Saeki was currently standing in front of him. "Rokkaku suddenly called for us when you two hadn't returned from your mission. We were all worried so he sent us after you." Saeki explained as he pulled a first aid kit from his cape.
In the doorway, Tanizaki entered next, followed by Kinoshita, and finally, Kirishima, who was holding a red and yellow umbrella. "I found this in one of the doll's hands." He said, shaking it dry. "It looked important."
"That's-!" Tagami recognized it as the umbrella he had gotten from the river. He was about to ask Kirishima for it when another figure appeared at the door. It was the deceased one, her hair in her face from the rain. Tagami quickly grabbed the umbrella from Kirishima, walking towards the girl.
"So your name is Amaya…" He said, handing her the umbrella. "A girl by the river wanted you to have this. It's what you've been looking for, isn't it?" The girl lightly tapped the umbrella at first, as if it would fight back if provoked, but then grabbed it and opened it above her head. The rain suddenly stopped outside as she did so.
"…han's umbrella…" she muttered, gripping it until her knuckles went white. She then began to cry heavily, saying something like "I'm sorry" or "It was actually my fault." When she finally calmed down, she looked a lot more solid than the ghost she was. "I'll go with you to be judged…" She said in a quiet voice. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused…"
—
"So in the end, everything worked out." Rokkaku said, reading Saeki's report over. "There were only minor injuries, and the village seems more or less back to normal. Good job." Tagami nodded, although he felt like there were still many unanswered things concerning this mission. "Do you still have any issues?" Rokkaku picked up on his doubt. Tagami nodded.
"That deceased one…" He said. "What happened?"
"Here," Rokkaku said, handing Saeki's report to Tagami. "Why don't you read this and find out?" With that, let the escort go take a break. The amber eyed escort decided to go check up on Hirahara, since after the whole incident he was rushed back and was forced to be bedridden. The Ameonna, previously Amaya, had a best friend by the name of ××× who was pushed into the river by a group of people. It had been raining and she tripped over the railing, falling back and being carried off. Amaya tried to go after her friend, but never found her. She later killed herself in her room, wanting to join ×××.
"How sad…" Tagami said, putting the report away as he knocked on Hirahara's door. "I'm coming in." He said, opening the door. Hirahara had a magazine in his hands, and he looked up happily to see Tagami.
"Taaaagami!" He waved with his good arm. His other one, the one that had been rotting, was bandaged up completely. Saeki had said it would get better after a few days, but the golden eyed escort wasn't allowed to use it at all. "How did it go with Rokkaku-san?"
"It's all done, so just go to sleep or something," Tagami grumbled. Hirahara pursed his lips, but didn't say anything back. "How's your arm?"
"I'm fine no~w!" Hirahara stated, although he was clearly not fine. "Hey, how about we play a game?"
"Gah…" Tagami rolled his eyes, "you're so annoying…" Still, he couldn't help but feel relieved. I could have lost Hirahara as well… he thought to himself, shaking the idea away. But I didn't. With that, he let the other talk him into playing a card game to keep the two occupied.