Author's Note: This is my first YnM fanfic. I had this idea, gave up on it, but yesterday it started bothering me again and I felt like writing so here it is. The plot is more or less complete in my head. I just hope I can write it all down. Oh, and a great big thanks to my beta-reader, Blue Lure (BL for short XD). Please review, it'll be a blessing to me.
xXx
Amaryllis
Chapter One: The BookHisoka was bored. Idly he twirled a pen in his fingers and yawned. For once, there seemed to be nothing unusual going on, therefore, no case to be solved. It didn't bother Hisoka's ever-genki partner, however, who was probably wandering around the cake shops.
The boy sighed. Generally no case meant good news but as the library, which Tsuzuki and Terazuma had blown up, was still undergoing certain rebuilding, it left Hisoka with practically nothing to do. That of course was not a good idea for he tended to start brooding, which always made him depressed and short-tempered. He put down the pen and decided to take a walk.
It wasn't long before he was outside, surrounded by all the magical sakura trees that stayed in bloom all year. He strolled lazily, enjoying the spring weather and letting his mind drift. He was thinking about Tsuzuki when it suddenly triggered a thought. He decided to pay a little visit to the Hakushaku.
xXx
Tsuzuki had just come back from his favourite cake shop when he realized that he was in trouble. Tatsumi was pissed. Tatsumi was scary when he was pissed. And Tatsumi was pissed at Tsuzuki.
"Where have you been?!" It would have been a roar if it was anyone other than Tatsumi but Tatsumi never roared.
Tsuzuki cowered and tried to make himself invisible. "Um...the cake sh..."
"You do realize it's not lunch time yet," the secretary glared.
"...I know...but we haven't had a case for a while and I was...hungry..." Tsuzuki gave Tatsumi his best whipped-puppy look complete with drooping tail and ears. He flinched when the other shinigami slammed a piece of paper on to the desk. Tsuzuki stared at it then looked up at Tatsumi.
"Your next case," Tatsumi smiled icily before leaving a very dejected looking Tsuzuki with the sheet of paper and the cake.
xXx
"Feel free to take whatever you like,"
"Thank you, Hakushaku-sama,"
"Oh and next time, do bring Tsuzuki with you. I haven't seen him in a while," With that the Hakushaku left with a wink at Hisoka. Hisoka rolled his eyes.
He was soon captivated by the size of the library. Like the rest of the rooms in the manor, it was decorated elaborately with sofas, desks, reading lamps and shelves of books. It was beautiful and looked to be quite comfortable.
He took a few minutes just wandering between the shelves staring at the different labels and titles on the spines. He loved books. They were filled with such intense emotions portrayed by the words. And words were something that he can handle unlike the raw emotions from people that constantly gave him a headache.
Hisoka stopped in front of a collection of Shakespeare's works. He ran his hands across the bindings gently. He had read all of the plays and most of the poems and had found Shakespeare quite wonderful, especially the tragedies. Somehow, they gave him a feeling of reality because Hisoka just didn't believe in happy endings.
It's a good thing Tsuzuki had that accident or else I would never have discovered Hakushaku-sama's library.()
He plucked a book off the shelf at random and headed for one of the cushioned sofas. The title read 'Amaryllis'. There was no author. Hisoka stared at it in curiosity. But before he could open it, the Hakushaku came in with a message.
"Kurosaki-kun, Tatsumi said he needs you back immediately. I think you have a new case."
Hisoka only nodded, grabbed the book and left.
xXx
It was just his rotten luck to be getting a case right when he had actually found something to do! And on top of that, Tsuzuki had to get Tatsumi mad and now they had to leave in a hurry to get away from Tatsumi's wrath, which was why he was still holding that damn book with nowhere safe to put it down. He had a feeling that Hakushaku-sama wouldn't be very happy if the book got destroyed. And what had Tsuzuki just said about the case? Potentially dangerous. Great! No pressure, no pressure at all! Tsuzuki was muttering something again...
"WHAT?!" Hisoka exploded.
"I said, I think I just saw Muraki over there..." Tsuzuki pointed.
Hisoka groaned. "I have a headache."
All the panic from the people screaming and running toward the exit is taking a toll on his empathy. He rubbed his temple briefly and gritted his teeth.
"You ok?" Tsuzuki asked, concern written all over his face.
"'m fine. Come on, we have to find that last bomb and figure out how to lower those shields so that the people can get out!" Hisoka grabbed Tsuzuki's sleeve with his free hand (the other was holding the book) and pulled him in the opposite direction from where the crowd was gathering. They ran inside the concert hall only to see a few dead bodies and cracked walls and ceiling that threatened to cave in any second.
"Back stage!" Hisoka yelled out before jumping onto the stage and running behind the curtains.
It was here, the last bomb. He could sense the residue of emotion from the culprit. His heart pounded furiously and sweat began forming on the palms of his hands. How long did they have before the bomb went off? Don't think about it! Concentrate on finding the bomb! But too late, he was already nauseated at all the fear and panic drifting from the crowd and the thought that all those people might die did no good in calming his mind.
A gentle, soothing hand landed on his shoulder, "It's alright, Hisoka, calm down." Tsuzuki's said, looking into his eyes. Hisoka stared back, relaxing a little under his partner's gaze. He wondered how Tsuzuki could affect him like this every time. He wasn't complaining though because Tsuzuki's presence did help him concentrate and get a grip on his empathy. He took a deep breath and opened himself completely to the emotions in the darkened backstage.
xXx
Tatsumi and Watari stood on the stairs of Hakushaku-sama's manor and knocked on the door. They had been summoned with great urgency by the Count who had sounded very troubled. Actually he had asked for Kurosaki-kun but Tatsumi had told him that he had already left.
Now both the secretary and the scientist, with 003 on his shoulder, stood, waiting for the door to open while wondering what on earth could make that Hakushaku-sama afraid.
Watson opened the door and quickly led them to the library where a very distressed looking count was pacing around behind the library door.
"Ah, Tatsumi and Watari, you're finally here." He waved a hand for them to sit in the couches while Watson poured tea for them.
"So, what is this big emergency Hakushaku-sama...Thank you Watson," Tatsumi picked up his tea and took a sip out of it in a casual manner that betrayed nothing of his nervousness inside.
"My book,"
"Huh?" Watari said. Tatsumi only raised a brow.
"That boy took my book," Hakushaku-sama said, sounding hysterical.
"Uh...I had the impression that you gave Bon permission to borrow a book from your library." Watari said, exchanging a bewildered look with Tatsumi. If he hadn't had a bad feeling about this, he would have laughed at the strange look coming from half of a mask that was on the Count's invisible face.
"I did," The Count replied.
003 hooted and tilted his head to the side as if confused. "Ya, my thoughts exactly," Tatsumi muttered under his breath.
He placed the teacup back onto the plate and cleared his throat. "Hakushaku-sama, would you get to the point?" He gave a threatening glare at the Count who seemed to understand the warning and dropped down into another couch across from the two shinigamis.
"You remember that a few months ago, Tsuzuki accidentally ended up in one of my books?()" He asked. The shinigamis nodded. "Well, after that incident, I didn't think it was safe for that kind of thing to occur again so I placed a spell on the books I created. The spell, once activated, will prevent anything from passing into the world of the book so it would be safer if anyone else actually managed to find those books."
"But that's good isn't it? So what's the problem?" Watari asked.
"Kurosaki-kun has one of those books," The Count replied.
"I still don't see the problem here. You have that spell on the book don't you, well, then no one can get in the book." Tatsumi reasoned, annoyed that the Hakushaku won't get to the point.
The Count fidgeted uncomfortably, not looking at the secretary he replied in a small voice, "The spell hasn't been activated. It only activates when the plot and the characters are set and the story starts."
The shinigamis sat frozen in their seat, understanding finally dawning on them. "You mean whoever opens that book will become a character for whatever plot that the book comes up with?"
"Exactly,"
xXx
Well, he found the bomb and he found something much more dreadful than a bomb too.
"Konnichiwa, Tsuzuki-san," The ever smooth voice greeted from somewhere in the shadows. Tsuzuki jumped up immediately from where he had been dealing with the bomb, which was now a pile of ash, and placed Hisoka behind him protectively.
Hisoka just felt vaguely pissed that Muraki hadn't seen the need to greet him as well, as if he was worth nothing. But that thought was soon gone from his mind as Muraki showed himself.
The doctor was impeccable as ever with his white coat and pants. His mechanical eye glowed eerily in the semi-darkness. He had a huge smile on his face as if very satisfied and happy with himself. Indeed he had much reason to feel like celebrating. His plan was going well after all. There were two pretty toys to play with and his sweet Tsuzuki-san standing right there. He thanked his lucky star that he had stumbled upon this boy currently shaking in his arms. The boy didn't really need to be afraid of him, He had told him that he was going to let him go later. He just needed him for bait and he preferred his victims pretty. It was just a coincidence he happened to be a double of Hisoka, except for the hair, and that he was actually acquainted with the shinigamis.
"It's a trap!" The boy squeaked out a warning. Muraki grinned. Maybe the boy wasn't afraid for himself after all.
"Hijiri," Hisoka gasped.
xXx
"So I need the book back as soon as possible," The Count concluded.
Watari glanced at Tatsumi who was deep in thought. "That'll be kinda difficult." He said. At the Count's questioning look, he answered, "'Cause Bon took it with him on his case,"
the Hakushaku seemed like he was going to have a stroke soon.
"We'll go after them," Tatsumi stood up briskly and walked quickly for the door while Watari ran to catch up. He paused for a second before asking another question thoughtfully. "What's the plot like?"
"That depends on the characters,"
Tatsumi remembered the case he had briefly read over before handing it to Tsuzuki. He frowned, the only indication that he didn't like the situation. Whatever had caused trouble at the concert hall didn't sound like a spirit, heck, it didn't even sound like an evil spirit. So that limited the choices to a demon, or demons, which were bad enough and he didn't want to think what the book could come up with, with a bunch of demons and two shinigamis if they got sucked in. He didn't even want to think about something worse than the demons either.
"What would happen if...something unfortunate happened to the characters in the book?" He didn't want to know the answer but he had to ask it to understand the extent of the crisis they were in.
"For a normal human the effect will be permanent. I don't know about a shinigami though."
Tatsumi nodded. "Let's go, Watari-san," and he took off out the door. Tatsumi rarely ran but he did now.
"How in Enma's name did Bon pick out that book?! I mean that library is huge! Is it so hard to find something else?" Watari groaned.
Tatsumi shrugged. "We'll just have to get to them before that book gets opened."
"Easier said than done," Watari said. Tatsumi only shrugged again.
Watari groaned again, "I knew you shouldn't have said 'I will dock your pay if you're not out of Meifu in thirty seconds.'"
xXx
He could feel what Muraki wanted. Even before Tsuzuki asked the question and hearing Muraki's answer. A shiver went down his spine as unwanted memories assaulted his mind. His hand automatically tightened on Tsuzuki's sleeve. The other shinigami responded by giving him a light squeeze to his hand and sending out waves of reassurance while completely blocking Muraki from his view.
"I want my doll back, Tsuzuki-san," Muraki repeated pleasantly.
"No," Tsuzuki firmly replied.
Muraki turned his attention toward Hisoka. "Boy, you know what's going to happen to him if you don't come out from behind Tsuzuki-san. He'll do just fine too, you know. After all he is exactly like you,"
Hisoka heard a gasp from Hijiri and he felt Tsuzuki tense up. He closed his eyes tightly as if that could stop whatever Muraki was doing.
"You don't want him to suffer the same fate you did do you?" Muraki said in a coaxing tone. "But then again, maybe it'll be fun to see how long this one lasts."
Hisoka felt deep horror and disgust well up in him and he felt like throwing up right then and there. He didn't want another person to die like him, especially not Hijiri. He didn't deserve it. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out from behind Tsuzuki.
"Good boy," Muraki smiled and as Hisoka met those cold silver eyes, he suddenly felt a jolt of pain through the curse across his body. He cried out and dropped the book. He was falling, heard Tsuzuki's voice calling his name, and felt warm arms catch him. But as his vision blurred and blackness came to claim him, he saw a white light erupting from somewhere on the ground and felt a strong pull before he succumbed to the darkness.
To Be Continued...
xXx
() – For those of you that haven't read the manga, in vol. 5, Tsuzuki gets sucked into one of Hakushaku's books (the Count's own creation) and meets all the characters who the Hakushaku based on all the shinigami. Tsuzuki (in the book not the one that got sucked in) was a girl who was supposed to marry the count. At the end of the story, Watari pulled him out of the book.