Chapter 2
Tsuzuki wandered the twilight lit streets of Tokyo, among the crowds of people bustling and rushing in every direction as the shadows lengthened. He knew that Muraki had a practice in the city, and although Watari had managed to contact his office only to learn the doctor had taken an indefinite leave of absence, Tsuzuki still felt that this was the best place to begin searching.
Besides, he had no better ideas.
But finding one or two people in a city teeming with millions would be next to impossible Tsuzuki acknowledged to himself, his shoulders drooping.
Not for the first time, Tsuzuki swore to himself that when he found his partner, he would never let the younger shinigami out of his sight again. Somehow it seemed that he hadn't realized exactly how much he needed Hisoka until it was too late.
I took him for granted.
Tsuzuki let out a long sigh and looked up at the street signs, wondering which way he should turn next.
I knew I cared about him, but I never told him…
The sound of the crowd and traffic around him were beginning to get him, although he'd had plenty of opportunity to get used to modern times, he had been born and raised in a quieter era.
And I expected him to stay with me, but I never told him I'd stay with him…
People brushed past him, bumped into him, and he found himself swept along with the crowds.
That I need him…
"Tsuzuki!"
Pulled out of his thoughts and growing sense of melancholy, Tsuzuki turned towards the voice calling his name. A tall man with long sunny blonde hair stood a short distance away waving madly. Behind him, the even taller dark haired shadow master rolled his eyes towards the heavens as if pleading for deliverance. The image brought a small grin to Tsuzuki's lips.
"Over here Tsuzuki!"
Tsuzuki waved back to acknowledge to Watari that he'd seen him and then started making his way through the throng of people, towards his co-workers.
"Anything?" Watari asked as he got close.
Tsuzuki shook his head. "No, nothing."
Watari appeared to deflate a little bit.
"Watari? Tell me again why you don't think Muraki will hurt Hisoka."
Watari sighed "I swear Tsuzuki, you're worse than a kid who wants the same bedtime story over and over."
Tsuzuki shrugged with a sheepish grin. "It makes me feel better."
"Fine, but don't ask me to tuck you in." Watari gave Tsuzuki a mock stern look. "The reason I don't think that Muraki will harm bon is because, while I agree you're right, he probably does have his memories back, he still has the memories of that last week that he spent as Kazutaka. You saw them together Tsuzuki, you had to have noticed the same things that I did!"
"Like what?"
"Like the way that Muraki protected bon, he was pretty damn protective of him, and he seemed to really like bon!"
Tsuzuki made a face at that.
"Not to mention he's going to remember the way that bon responded to him when he was not Mr. Evil Psycho Killer Doctor. Bon protected him, hell, I even saw bon smile at him! And all of this is going to affect how Muraki treats bon for the next little while."
"Just the next little while?" Tsuzuki asked frowning.
"Well, until his memories of being Muraki over-ride his memories of being Kazutaka."
"There's just one small hole in your theory." Tatsumi said, following along behind them.
"What's that?" Watari asked, looking over his shoulder at the other man.
"If Muraki has not harmed Kurosaki-kun, and is not likely to, then why hasn't Kurosaki-kun come back on his own?"
Tsuzuki paled, he hadn't thought of that.
Watari paled slightly as well. "I don't know."
XXX
Hisoka sat curled up in the same wingback chair that Kazutaka had occupied the night before, a book spread open across his lap. At the sound of approaching footsteps, he looked up to see the butler stop in the doorway.
"Would you be needing anything young Sir?"
"No Sakaki, thank you."
"Very well, I will be leaving to do the shopping now, if you have any problems, you have the Master's number, correct?"
Hisoka nodded and watched as the butler turned and headed away from the living room before turning his eyes back to the book, and his thoughts back to where they had been previously wandering.
Of everything in his life at this moment, there were two things that particularly disturbed him.
The first was his lack of memory.
When he had first awakened, he had been overwhelmed with panic when he'd realized that he was not in his own room, shaky and disorientated, he had climbed out of the unfamiliar bed and headed for the door, determined to find out where he was. Then he had passed a mirror. He had turned toward his own refection and not recognized the person looking back at him. He had been looking at a person a few years older than himself, and although the features were familiar, they were leaner, and the eyes! The green eyes of that stranger in the mirror, they looked so old!
Hisoka had reached out and touched the mirror, almost amazed when his reflection mimicked his actions. As his fingertips brushed the smooth glass surface, Hisoka had collapsed.
When he had awaked the second time, a pale man in white was seated on the side of his bed watching over him. The man had introduced himself as Kazutaka, and told him that he was his doctor and guardian. Kazutaka had then further shocked him when he told him he was sixteen. Hisoka's reaction had been one of disbelief and denial; in his last memories of himself he was thirteen. It had been difficult to accept that three years of his life had passed and he couldn't remember them.
Kazutaka had then informed him quite calmly that he knew about Hisoka's abilities.
He had flinched and waited for the hatred and scorn to wash over him as it always had from his family whenever anything had remotely hinted at his abnormalities, but all he had felt from the doctor had been understanding and acceptance.
And the darkness.
That was the second thing that disturbed him. In the past few days Kazutaka had been nothing but kind to him, but whenever he went near the man, he could feel a darkness in him, like a stain on his soul. It prickled his senses and made his skin crawl.
But he believed Kazutaka. His parents would never have told an outsider that their son was a freak and risk a stain on the Kurosaki name, so he must have told Kazutaka himself, and he would not have done that if he didn't trust the man, would he?
And for the acceptance he felt from the man, he would gladly overlook the darkness.
XXX
"Tatsumi desu."
Tsuzuki and Watari watched as Tatsumi wandered a little ways listening to whomever had just called him. Whatever the topic, it must have been serious, Tatsumi was frowning.
"Aa, we'll see you soon."
Tatsumi hit end, and put his phone away before turning to the other two shinigami. "That was Kanoe, he just came out of a late meeting with Enma-Dioh, and he wants to see us back in Enma-cho right away."
"Did he say what it was about?" Watari asked.
Tatsumi shook his head. "We'll find out when we get there."
XXX
Kanoe lead the way down the hallway to the briefing room, Tatsumi, Tsuzuki and Watari following in his wake.
"This is about Hisoka isn't it?" Tsuzuki asked.
Kanoe gave a brisk nod and opened the door of the briefing room, gesturing them inside.
"You don't need to be here Watari, if you have other things you need to do."
"I'll stay, if it's alright Kacho."
Kanoe nodded. "It's fine. Everyone take a seat." He waited while his subordinates complied. "As Tsuzuki guessed, this is about Kurosaki. We have four weeks, one month to find him and bring him back here. Since I for one, don't want to loose him, it becomes imperative for us to…" He trailed off at the shocked expressions that he was receiving, on Tsuzuki and Watari it looked fairly normal, but on Tatsumi it was seriously weirding him out.
It was Tsuzuki who spoke up first. "Loose him?"
Kanoe looked strained as he met Tsuzuki's eyes. "Aa. Enma-sama has decreed that if Kurosaki has not returned to his duties within the allotted time, his position as a shinigami will be refuted, and he will receive final judgement."
