Hisoka groaned as he plopped down on the bench. Of course Tatsumi had been lying when he had told Hisoka the train left at five. The ticket agent sat there and laughed at him for a solid minute before finally telling Hisoka the train to Hiroshima departed at seven. Hisoka supposed he could go back to his apartment, but what was he going to do there? He hadn't been sleeping well so it wasn't like he'd catch a few more hours. And he had already managed to choke down a piece of toast and an apple, so he didn't need breakfast.
Hisoka knew why Tatsumi had told Tsuzuki the train left at five. Chances were, the man wouldn't show up until six thirty at the earliest. He would come and cry to Hisoka about how his alarm was broken and how his watch was broken and how he needed to get breakfast but the line was too long. Hisoka would of course forgive him because Hisoka was unable to stay mad at Tsuzuki for very long. It was all rather annoying.
Though, lately, Tsuzuki had been getting worse. Hisoka made it a point not to peek at Tsuzuki's emotions, it was an invasion of privacy. But he couldn't help himself. Tsuzuki's shields were getting weaker everyday, and he didn't seem to notice. So sometimes Hisoka couldn't help but get hit with Tsuzuki's emotions, like in the conference room. But because he was getting hit with such hopeless emotions, he started peaking in more and more, trying to see what was bothering Tsuzuki.
He could never put a finger on it. But he knew enough to guess the watch Tsuzuki had was connected.
Settling down on the bench, Hisoka settled down and started to watch the people. Ever since he had been with Tsuzuki, his empathy had started to even out, and was easier to control. Before, even the tiniest of emotions would be enough to smash through Hisoka's walls. But now, only more major emotions managed to break through. Sadly, Tsuzuki's emotions were anything but tiny.
Hisoka closed his eyes, trying to feel if anything malicious stood out to him. The train wasn't here yet, and neither were the passengers. Unless they were all of course tricked by Tatsumi into arriving over two hours early. But you never knew what drove a ghost and where you would feel the residual energy. It was a frightening thing, being able to look into people's thoughts like this. But there were times Hisoka was glad he had it. In times like this, it helped with the investigation.
Slowly, the noise from the platform started to fade away. Hisoka felt his breath slowing down. The people became less substantial. Instead, they began morphing and shifting into colors and vague outlines.
Their inner thoughts and feelings. There were no genders, no words, no images. Just a vague shape of a human with a swirl of colors. That's the thing no one understood about empathy. It wasn't something Hisoka could touch or explain. To truly access the emotions, he had to let go of the material world.
He was sitting right in the middle of the human shaped. They were moving slowly. Hisoka stood up and began to walk amongst them. Even though there were no genders and no voices, he could tell who said what and who was thinking what. In front of him, a human full of worry and regret, tugging along a slightly smaller human, full of similar emotions.
Hisoka felt himself sway and his head begin to roll. The people began moving more slowly, almost to a stop. It was like they were going round and round in a circle. Entrapping him here, in his mind. He was getting too deep. Anymore and he might expose himself to something that would overtake him and hurt him. He needed to return.
Hisoka tried to pull out, he tried to detatch himself from the emotions. But he couldn't. The people descended on him. There was a loud buzzing sound in his ears, like a bee flying around his head. He felt hands gripping his arms. He saw teeth in those circles that represented heads.
Hisoka's breathing picked up. He had never seen anything so solid in this state before. His mind reached out for Tsuzuki. He wasn't sure what time it was or even where Tsuzuki was. But he kept stretching.
"He's next. He's next." One of the humans repeated. He couldn't tell which one. Their mouths were all stretched into a smile.
"So lovely. Like a picture. He jumps. Won't see the final piece. Can never see the final piece. She sings and sings but can never find peace. He won't die. Takes more than will to die. He's next."
"Hisoka!"
Hisoka bolted up from where he was lying down. Tsuzuki was gripping his arms, keeping him steady. Hisoka wasn't on the bench he had sat down on. They were in a tucked away corner. Hisoka could hear the people rushing about outside. He could hear the occasional announcement over the intercom for trains and passengers.
"What's wrong?" Tsuzuki asked, pulling Hisoka up. Hisoka pushed him away and tried to get his breathing under control.
"I just lost control of my empathy," Hisoka said. He wasn't sure how much Tsuzuki needed to know.
"How did that happen? There was no one around when I found you," Tsuzuki said, allowing Hisoka some space. Hisoka's head jerked up and he stared at Tsuzuki.
"No, there had to be. There were too many people and that's why I lost control and got sucked up," Hisoka said. Tsuzuki shook his head.
"Kid, there was no one when I got there. There wasn't even a ticket salesman. You were all alone."
Hisoka leaned back against the wall. That didn't make any sense. The people who attacked him…the people attacked him. Emotions didn't attack anyone but their owners. There would have been no way for them to attack Hisoka. Hisoka felt Tsuzuki's emotion spike with glee. It was somehow both fake and real. Tsuzuki was excited, but he was also scared and depressed. Hisoka hated it.
So he did what he thought would help, he put a hand on Tsuzuki's arms. Except it didn't help. Tsuzuki's emotions spiked again, this time worrying about Hisoka. Hisoka pulled his hand away and stood up, Tsuzuki following behind him like an eager puppy. He was trying to make Hisoka at ease. It wasn't working.
"Ah, you should see this train we're going on. It's like this whole tour. And it's an antique rail car so there's food and drinks. And it's all included. And this time, I don't have to work!" Tsuzuki said. He took ahold of Hisoka's arm and began tugging him to the platform.
"Antique?" Hisoka asked, allowing himself to be dragged behind Tsuzuki. The depression was fading away, so he was obviously doing something right.
"Yup. The car was originally built in the 1950s. I read the pamphlet last night. Because of that it takes about a day and a half to get to Hiroshima, even though you can get there in about four hours nowadays. We're going to have so much fun!" Tsuzuki chattered.
"Tsuzuki, we're here to work. Remember all the suicides?" Hisoka grumbled.
"But we can still have fun. Not everyday I get to relive the fifties. That was a fun time," Tsuzuki said.
"I bet." Hisoka was starting to feel a bit calmer now. He didn't want to admit it, but Tsuzuki holding his wrist was probably helping. He took this time to look around. It was close to six thirty, so their train was boarding. He had lost close to an hour. That was strange. It only felt like a few minutes had gone by.
Several people were rushing about, most content. Not happy, just content. Hisoka glanced at the train to see a woman standing beside the engine. She didn't look much older than Hisoka. Her hair was short and curled with a black tilt hat on her head. A string of pearls was around her neck. Her dress was a checkered, off the shoulder with a golden broach pined above her heart. Hisoka noticed there was a stool next to her, stacked with tools for traditional styles of painting.
Hisoka slowed to a stop, his hand slipping from Tsuzuki's. The woman was running her fingers along the side of the train. Even with all the noise, Hisoka could tell she was humming under her breath.
"That's her," he whispered before taking off towards the front of the train.
"Hisoka!" Tsuzuki called, chasing after him. Hisoka almost jumped onto the tracks, but Tsuzuki caught him around the waist and yanked him to the ground, just in time for a train to whiz by. Tsuzuki pulled Hisoka up and practically carried him to the train door where he crossed and pushed Hisoka into the car. Several people started whispering to themselves. Hisoka could feel them. Some worry, some disdain, some sympathy. They thought he was going to jump in front of the train. They thought he was going to kill himself.
"What were you thinking?" Tsuzuki hissed. He still had an arm around Hisoka's waist. Hisoka wanted to tell him to knock it off, but Tsuzuki didn't seem to be in a very good mood.
"I thought I saw the culprit of the suicides. I went to catch her. I didn't see the train," Hisoka hissed. Tsuzuki pulled him into a compartment, complete with a bed and table. He finally let Hisoka go and collapsed on the bed.
"Don't do that again. I know we're hard to kill, but the time it would have taken you to heal from that would have made us miss this train and then someone else would have died."
Hisoka felt a little guilty at those words. As much as he complained about Tsuzuki, he did really care about his job. He didn't want to let anyone down.
"Look, you've been here since five, right?" Tsuzuki asked.
"Yes," Hisoka spat out. Although he admitted in his head Tsuzuki was right, Tsuzuki didn't need to know that.
"Why don't you stay here, get some rest. I'll start snooping around."
Hisoka opened his mouth to protest. He was the one with the empathy. He was the one that was better at detecting spirits. But Tsuzuki held up a hand, effectively silencing Hisoka.
"I know you want to help. But let's face it, right now your too tired. Your empathy overwhelmed you, you're seeing things that aren't really there, and you almost jumped in front of a train."
Hisoka snapped his mouth shut. So Tsuzuki hadn't seen the woman. Something was up here.
"Tsuzuki, she was really there. I can describe her to you!" Tsuzuki pushed Hisoka down on the bed.
"Just sleep for an hour or two, just enough to get rested up. I promise if anything happens I'll come get you," Tsuzuki said. Somehow he had managed to remove Hisoka's shoes and tuck him into bed.
"You promise at the first sign of trouble you'll get me?" Hisoka said. Tsuzuki laughed and pushed Hisoka back onto the bed.
"Yes. I promise. I'm just going to have a look around." Tsuzuki stood up, flicked off the lights and left the room. Hisoka stared up at the ceiling. This bed was nice and soft. It wouldn't hurt to have a few hours of sleep.
oOoOoOo
She saw the tall man with the purple eyes catch the child. She smiled and sank back against the train. So it would be harder to kill the child than she originally thought. That was interesting. Perhaps she would get a chance to punish the man who had killed her. Perhaps she would finally get her revenge.
The train whistled. The cars jerked and pulled as they started to move. Her hand gripped the side of the train and pulled her along. She opened her mouth and started to sing. This time she would not fail. This time, she would succeed.