Chapter Two
Tulips
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The Border between life and death can be accessed by Necromancers, denizens of death, Abhorsens, and other creatures of magic. The Border is thinner when creatures die, but it mostly depends on the person/creature's willpower to pass through the Border.
Death is divided by nine precincts and eight gates. Each precinct has different dead lurking in it trying to make it to the living world. The different precincts have different attributes to make them unique. The gates separate each of the precincts and to go through the gate the person has to repeat a spell to go through it. Death is described as a long river that flows through each precinct and ends in a large lake at the last precinct. Death is also described as having grey type of visibly.
Going to and from Death has side effects for those of the undead variety. The person suffers frozen limbs, upon leaving, and erosion of the mind. Also the person who goes into Death leaves their body at the mercy of whomever find it.
This much is general knowledge of Death. More knowledge is passed down by Necromancers, Abhorsens, and those it pertains too.
-Excerpt from Magic Theory and History-
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Heihachi slowly pulled to a stop. As he was waiting for the light to turn back to green, he listened to his wife and Hikaru's discussion over the movie. He was glad to see his grandson in a better mood. Going to the film was a good idea. His smile slowly fell from his face when he saw some blurry shapes off the side of the road.
"Must be hitchhikers…" he muttered under his breath.
His frown deepened, some of the hitchhikers were wearing odd clothes for the season. There was a small dusting of snow on the ground, and some of the hitchhikers had no shoes on. Just as Heihachi was about to pass the odd group, he suddenly knew what was wrong about the group. They were denizens of the dead. To late did he notice the cold touch of Death take his spirit. He paled.
The Necromancer controlling the dead pulled Heihatchi, his wife, and Hikaru into Death. He smirked maniacally when he noticed that the young Shindo was disoriented and pale from his first stint in Death. 'And his last,' the Necromancer thought.
The old couple had to quickly grab a hold of the child, before he was pulled along the knee deep river. While they were distracted, he quickly pulled out the smallest bell, Renna, from his bandolier. The bell sound rang out sweet and clear. The tone of the bell put all three of his victims to sleep. He failed to notice Heihachi putting a necklace around Hikaru's neck before he was overwhelmed by the power of the bell. Nor did the Necromancer notice the slight glow coming from Hikaru. Just as he was about to put up Renna and use Kibeth, something unheard of happened.
Lights started to dance around the gray confines of Death.
Hikaru opened his eyes, just in time to hear the toll of a bell. The Necromancer used Kibeth once he got over his surprise, and force Hikaru's grandmother further into death.
"Grandma!" With his small terrified yell he lunged after his grandmother, not even once noticing where he was or how cold he felt. Just as he was about to reach her a particularly violent shade of red light burst in front of his eyes, and throwing him back. The Necromancer couldn't see his targets through the spontaneous flashes of light that started to gather around the grandfather and grandson pair. However he did notice a bulge in the collecting light lunge toward the grandmother, just as she was pulled into the second precinct of Death. The violent colors became too much for him to bear so he left them for later, "At least I got one of them" he thought.
Hikaru kept lunging, form inside the ball of flashing light, to get to his grandmother, who was getting farther and farther away from him. He didn't even notice when the tears flowing down his face started to freeze into ice-sickles. He was so intent on reaching his grandmother that he didn't notice some of the light surround his grandfather in a soothing blue light, and take Heihachi's soul back to the living.
When he saw his grandmother disappear down a waterfall he became frantic and rammed the light till he fell into the cold waters up to his neck and cried. The light continued to condense around him till every part of him was consumed. The light separated into different colors suddenly, and Hikaru was so startled that he stopped crying, and starred at the different colors with wide eyes. Before he could give anything other than a startled yelp, the different colored light latched onto him. Odd symbols appeared all over his body in different colors before it faded into his skin.
Hikaru passed out, and a small purple dog that watched the proceedings in silence, before wondering over to Hikaru's prone body waging his tale happily as he sniffed him. Tale still wagging he dragged Hikaru gently back through the Border. Once the ice covering Hikaru and Heihachi started thawing, the unusual purple dog left the still car, and left no foot prints on the newly fallen snow.
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In the early hours of the morning, Carl the cop was going down the road on his usual routine of the day. As he slowly meandered past a stoplight, a small white hill started to form in his car's path. Curious as to what the foreign white hill was doing in the middle of the road, Carl got out of his curser and into the cold crisp morning air. Taking his time, he made his way over to the hill, and found that it was a car covered in the night be fore's snow fall.
He wiped off the driver's side window, and looked inside. He found an old frozen man seemingly asleep at the weal, a completely frozen old lady, and a kid in the back seat who, not to his surprise, was also frozen. He quickly called an ambulance for the people. When the ambulance arrived the old lady was pronounced dead on the spot, and the old man and kid were taken to the hospital for further treatment.
About a week later, Hikaru's parents returned from their vacation, for Heihachi wife's funeral. After she was buried, only four people remained at her grave. It started snowing and Mirsuko and Masao tried to usher Hikaru away. He refused by latching onto his Grandfathers' legs. Heihachi remained motionless, staring blankly at the grave. Finally after many minutes of the fruitless tug o war, Hikaru's parents let him stay with his grandfather.
The two figures remained standing in front of the grave, unmoving. It only lasted for a minute before Hikaru got tired of just standing by the grave. His six year old face suddenly broke into a smile and he looked up at his grandfather. The smile faded slightly and then turned to the grave and placed a single white tulip on the grave. The action brought his grandfather out of his daze, and Heihachi looked sadly down at his grandson. "Tulips were her favorite."
Hikaru looked up and said, "She told me, that's why they're going to be waiting for her to come back. Mommy told me to give flowers to say 'get well soon.' Do you think grandma will like it?" Heihachi looked sadly down and put his hand on Hikaru's head.
"Let's go home 'k?" His voice was slightly horse. Hikaru nodded and the duo slowly left down the path. The next day the entire grave was covered in white tulips.
I was going to stop with the purple dog leaving, but decided not to.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go, Harry Potter, or the Abhorsen Trilogy.
Reviews welcome and anything you have to say! Oh can any one guess who the dog was? I think I made that easy. Okay hears another question! Can anyone guess the significance of the tulips? To who ever gets it right gets a surprise!