Authors Note: IMPORTANT! This is OC-centric! This means that an OC (or original character) takes center stage. Please don't flame me about it, as I am telling you (in a SHORT note) about it.
Disclamer: Yami no Matsuei does not, nor has it ever, belong to me. I have no money, I make no money. Leave me alone!
Warnings: Death (duh), shonen-ai (bigger duh), possible yaoi, possible shojo-ai, possible het (don't count on it, though), torture, rape, Muraki (I believe he needs his own warning), insanity, mentions of child molestation, creatures of hell, bad language. That should about cover it. I'll add as we go along.
Blue Moon: Veriduin
Chapter One: Shadow Master
The first thing Tatsumi saw upon entering the room was a brilliantly gleaming lock of dark red hair. Under the circled pentagram of red candles and wax was a small tendril of red hair that led off into the shadows. As his eyes adjusted to the unnatural dimness of the room, he spotted the head that went with the that small stripe of hair. Blood had created a pool of liquid rubies around her, not even having the time to begin clotting into the rusty brown that came with old death. The eyes, still and unmoving in their sockets, glared hatred and fear to the room. Even in death, she seemed almost alive. According to his information, this young woman had formed a pact with a demon, and then tried to break it. Apparently the demon had broken free from her confinement, and attacked her. Looking around, Tatusmi found he couldn't locate the rest of the body.
There was a bloody trail leading to a corner of the room, that escaped notice. Tatsumi found his eyes sliding away from the sight, as if something there didn't want to be noticed. Narrowing his focus, Tatsumi found an impressive shield wrapped around two women. Or rather the rest of Miss Karen Kubo and a gaijin spirit. As Tatsumi approached, the damned thing hissed at him. Getting ready for a battle of wills, the man drew upon the shadows of the room. The gaijin's spirit glared up at him with dark, slightly slanted eyes, making Tatsumi think that maybe she wasn't a foreigner, after all. The barrier fell gracefully in upon itself, and the not-gaijin clutched the dead body closer to herself. She made a small gulping noise in the back of her throat.
"You aren't going to …eat her…Are you?" She said in a tiny voice. Curling in upon herself like this, she looked like a kitten caught doing something it shouldn't. Or a five-year-old with her hand in the cookie jar. Tatsumi felt his temporary partner, the twelve year old shinigami prodigy Rin-chan, enter behind him.
"Oh, dear…" Rin-chan muttered as she took in the scene.
"Rin-chama?" The spirit on the floor said, looking to the young girl.
"Veri-chan, you need to let go of her spirit, OK?" Rin-chan said, gently uncoiling the older girl from the corpse. Slowly, the girl let go and Karen Kubo's spirit yanked itself free.
No one really questioned it when Rin-chan walked in that first day after the Kubo fiasco with an older teen woman trailing around behind her. Rin was something of a spirit magnet, and sometimes she would have three or four spirits following her around until she uncharged. However, this one felt different. And that was besides the fact that she called the girl 'Rin-chama'. The gosip chain of Ju-Oh-Cho found out the solid facts of that night included a battle against a demon that had returned for Kubo's soul, and then against Kubo herself.
The doctor of dead guys, Watari, usually de-magnetized Rin-chan, so when he noticed that a spirit attached itself to her, he called her into his work space. However, when Rin-chan came in with the elder teen's ghost following her, he found that this particular spirit was not attached to Rin-chan as the others had been. He poked and prodded at what he thought might be the cause, but found no solution.
"Ano…Long-Blonde-Haired-Guy-san? Whatcha doing?" Said the spirit, nearly scaring Watari out of his lab coat. Usually the stuck spirits didn't talk.
"Baka!" Rin-chan said, bapping the elder girl over the head. "This is Watari-sensei! I told you we were going to meet him today."
"Demo…" Moaned the elder. "I though you said that today!"
"At least you remembered that much…" Murmured Rin. She glared a hole into the other girl before sighing. "You should at least have a proper introduction."
"HAI, RIN-CHAMA!" She shouted.
"Watari-sensei, may I introduce my elder sister, Veriduin." Rin said with a sigh.
"Um…Rin-chan?" Watari said hesitantly. Rin nodded, her eyes turned away. "She doesn't look much like you at all…" Glancing between the two girls, it was glaringly obvious they did not come from the same family. While Rin-chan was a traditional Japanese girl, with large, dark eyes and pitch black hair, Veriduin-chan had more of an Irish coloring, with deep red hair, though her eyes were a shade of indigo he had never seen before. While Tsuzuki had true violet eyes, Veriduin's were more of a blue with a tint of purple that shown out when she was happy. They both had full lower lips and the same straight nose, yet neither had any other genetic link in their physical makeup.
"We're half sisters." Said Veriduin in a sing-song way. "My mother was half American, and when she died, daddy married a true Japanese woman and Rin-chama was born."
"Well, Veriduin-chan. It is a pleasure to meet you." Said the good doctor, making up for lost courtesy.
"Nope! The pleasure is all mine!" Beamed the elder girl. Rin-chan sighed.
"Don't be fooled. She's really twenty-one." Rin added.
"Truly?" Watari said, his interest in the other girl renewed. She could almost pass as a fifteen year old, with the way she smiled so openly.
"A'yup!" Veriduin replied.
"You aged well!" He muttered, eyeing her intently. Maybe he found the secret of youth! That was before Tatsumi rounded the corner.
"Veriduin! We have a little training session to complete!" He shouted and grabbed her elbow. Walking backward, Veriduin waved a quick good-bye to Watari and her sister. Watari opened his mouth to ask a question, when Rin-chan gave him a stern glare.
"Veri is in training to become a shinigami." Rin supplied.
"Will she make it?" Said Watari, suddenly very aware of the fact that Tatsumi of all people just dragged the innocent looking woman out the door.
"Baka! I'm not a seer anymore." Rin-chan said with a snort. She often was teased around the department about loosing her precognitive powers upon dying, and had finally learned to joke about it herself. "In all seriousness, we should be glad it's Tatsumi who's guiding her. Any one else, and Tsuzuki will no longer be the grand champion of destroying the department." Watari's eyes widened considerably.
"She has that much power!" Watari exclaimed, eyes wide in fear. To think he almost insulted her!
"She has no concept of control. A simple flying spell would send her through the roof and possibly to the next realm, as well as exhausting her power for the next few weeks." Rin-chan said. Her tiny feet were swinging underneath the chair she was sitting on, reminding the doctor just how young the girl had been at death. Watari shook his head at nothing. These sisters were a mystery.
Three days later, Watari found himself facing the oddity known as Veri. She wandered into his office with a slightly bewildered look on her face. Her left arm was cut and bleeding, but he knew that would heal up in just a few minutes. What confused him was the lack of recognition in Veri's eyes.
"Veriduin-chan! How can I help you?" He said, remembering how friendly she had been the day they had met. She blinked at him.
"Have we met? Oh, we probably have! I'm sorry, but are you Watari-sensei? I was practicing with Tatsumi-san and I think I got a curse stuck under my skin here." She said with her usual bright smile, holding out her bleeding left arm. Watari was officially stumped as to how Veri seemed to forget him so quickly. He took her arm and glanced it over. There, just under the skin, was a fragment of a shattered curse. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be from a vaudune practitioner. The original spell seemed to be focused on physical weakness, and would probably make her arm heal with a human slowness. Gently, Watari wrapped the arm in soft bandages and told her to come in tomorrow morning to have them changed. She left with a smile and a wave, using her right arm, promising to remember.
Not five minutes later, the youngest shinigami came in to Watari's office carrying two bento boxes. Presenting one to the doctor, she set her own well away from his experiments. Rin-chan usually ate lunch with Watari, when she wasn't needed as an extra backup for a shinigami on a tough mission, and it looked like today would end up as usual. Rin-chan usually teased him about not eating if she wasn't around to cram food down his throat, and Watari felt unusually privileged to be on of the few people that Rin-chan would joke with. However, today Watari felt a need to ask her about her elder sister's odd behavior.
"Ano…Rin-chan?" Watari started, not sure how to ask his question.
"Hai, Watari-san?" Rin-chan said with the same amount of confusion in her voice, both mimicking and answering.
"Is there something wrong with your sister's memory? She came by earlier, and didn't seem to remember who I was." Watari said, glancing over his onigiri at the child. Rin's face grew sad and cold.
"Are you familiar with the theory that if something truly terrible happens to a person, their mind refuses to remember it?" Rin asked the doctor. Watari nodded, and the child continued with a heavy sigh. "When Veri-chan was nine, she had already lost two mothers, and our father was going slowly insane. A nice doctor named Muraki…" Watari gasped at the name, eyes wide and wondering what would come next. Knowing Muraki, it wouldn't be good. "I take it you have experience with the man? Well, Muraki told her that if things got too bad at home, we could move in with him. I was seven when we ran away from an abusive household to the arms of a twisted doctor. I died trying to escape him, but Veri had gone through too much. Her mind shut down, and if it hasn't happened in the last hour there is no guarantee that she will remember." Watari noticed he was clenching his teeth, and opened his mouth for his next bite of lunch.
"I am sorry." Watari said, right before sticking a small hotdog squid in his mouth. Rin-chan shook her head with a sad smile. "Would you remind her to come here to get her bandages changed tomorrow?"
"Bandages!" Rin-chan said, her head shooting up.
"Maa, maa, Rin-chan! Tatsumi was playing around with some voodoo spells. Why Veri-chan needs to learn them, I don' t know." Watari said in explanation.
"I can guess…Most likely for instances of gaijin deaths." Rin-chan said. It sounded plausible to Watari. After all, there were only full-blooded Japanese on staff, unless there was something the Count wasn't telling them. Not like any one would notice.
"But what does Veri-chan know about gaijin?" Watari asked, curious.
"Besides being one?" She asked in a teasing tone. "After I died, father found her and took her away to America for a few years. The culture beat itself into her personality. I lost track of her after that." A comfortable silence settled over the two shinigami, and they ate in peace.
Tsuzuki Asato peered over the edge of the table in the office lounge, watching as a beautiful, cream-filled chocolate covered donut vanished from the top of the stack. Whimpering, he looked around. No one else was in the room, so he tiptoed over to the plate. There, on the other side of the table was the newest shinigami, Veriduin-chan. Her fingers were covered in chocolate, and cute little kitten-ish whiskers were covered in heavy cream, knees tucked firmly up against her chin and tiny cat ears poked themselves in Tsuzuki's direction. There, in her chocolate coated paws, lay the missing donut! The puppy-like man reached for the sugary treat, only to find, for the first time in his life, he was faced with a super-pout much like the ones he performed to wring dessert money out of Tatsumi. And just like everyone else, he was not immune to such cuteness. Tsuzuki let her have the donut, and turned to get his own, even though all the chocolate covered ones were gone, when he felt a small tug at his pants. The cute little kitten-girl held out half to the puppy-boy and the two chibi animals ate together in friendship.
Tatsumi, who had been on his way to grab a cup of coffee, actually grinned at the sight of the two child-like shinigami who were completely ignoring him, in favor of picking out the best donuts. Two hours later, Tatsumi was seriously regretting his decision to leave the pair alone. Whiskers and paws had been licked clean of all traces of sugar, and the only donuts left were actually crumbs. With the two 'adults' in the next room, disturbing every body else, Tatsumi knew that sooner or later, some one would get hurt.
In the hall, there was an impromptu chase game, started by Veri, and ended by an irate Terazuma. Of course, Terazuma was expecting to see Tsuzuki today. His office was only a few doors away, and he knew the immortal dingbat was there by the sound of the screaming giggles. Terazuma heard his enemy running down the hall at a break-neck speed. The hallway Terazuma happened to be standing it was much too small for two people to safely pass, and at the speed Tsuzuki was heading…
Terazuma didn't even have a chance to finish his thought as a ball of hyperactivity ran headlong into him, and pushed him into the commons area where the photocopier whirred its dull song to the room. The UFO (or unidentified furry object) bounced off Terazuma's chest, and shouted it's apology to him before he could even realize he was glaring after a bouncing blood-red braid. Before Terazuma even had time to figure out what had happened, Tsuzuki ran passed, calling a greeting to him as he flew down the hall. One of the female shinigami, Seiya, leaned over Terazuma making sure they didn't touch.
"Are you alright, Terazuma-san?" Seiya asked the pole-axed man.
"Huh?" Was the most intelligent thing he could think of to say.
"HEY! You didn't transform when Veri-chan touched you!" Seiya shouted, bringing Terazuma to the startling conclusion that there was a female Tsuzuki running around. Literally. Terazuma, unable to cope with this, passed out.
Before the day was over, the entire department was talking about how Veri-chan practically tackled Terazuma, and he didn't transform. It was almost as big as when Terazuma transformed when touching Hisoka. Tatsumi promised himself that none of the staff would be seeing a donut again until the end of the world. The next day, a large basket of apples was found on the table in the staff lounge where the donuts used to be. Seiya and Yuma had placed up a little index card reading 'Tatsumi's Revenge' with a chibi drawing of ryuu-Tatsumi breathing fire at inu-Tsuzuki and neko-Veri.
Rin-chan watched these happy days, as a chill crawled its way over her spine. Something in her gut told her that her last prophecy was about to be fulfilled.
((OK! Quick note: This chapter is just short snippets of Veri's first three months in Ju-Oh-Cho. A short and sweet intro to Veri and her hyperactive personality. In the next chapter or so things will pick up, and the Veri here won't be the Veri later.
On another note: If you absolutely hated this chapter and think everything I have done so far is bull, please don't waste my time and yours to say so. I would much rather you didn't say anything at all to reading 'U suk u dont desrve 2 be here'. CONSTRUCTIVE critisizm is welcomed with open arms.))