Chapter Nine: The Mocking of the Innocent

Kousei had awoken to a still sleeping partner. Their beige sheets had called out to him to stay, but he needed his morning coffee, on a day this important. "Tomorrow is the competition, and we both need to be in the right mindset." He mumbled this to himself, knowing that Kaori would be sleeping for a while yet.

His checkered pajamas were caught under his heels as he opened the door to their shared room with a rightward twist.

The hallways were desolate, everyone still sleeping. Almost everyone, anyway.

But Kousei had no way to know that he would be faced with a nightmare in the hallway. So, he took the elevator downstairs, intent on getting his energy for the day somehow.

It was a quick ride down, and a ride devoid of any normal elevator music. The doors opened, revealing only two other people in the lobby; a very tired looking staff-member, and a man that Kousei didn't know. At least from behind, as when the man turned his head towards the sound of the opening doors, Kousei could see the monster himself, Matthew Poulsen.

"Oh, fuck this…" Kousei thought to himself, determined to get his coffee, but terrified at the prospect of interacting with the serial murderer and rapist.

The room itself had three sections. The dining area, the recreational seating area, and the front desk/ bellhop area. And while the man might not recognize him, Kousei definitely knew who he was.

The man's look turned awkward, and he turned back around. He wasn't anything more than a violent nerd. That's what he was, really. He wasn't exceptionally intelligent, but he was definitely not good with women, or anyone, for that matter.

And Kousei was everything he had wanted to be, as a child. Successful, talented, and had a beautiful girl in his life. As Poulsen had become a teen, he had still wanted a beautiful girl in his life, too. Not a woman, but a girl. And that had been when he had been sane enough to want to get help. But as he went through puberty, his sanity left him behind, leaving him a shell of the once ambitious, if average, young man that he once was.

Kousei had wondered about the sort of person that Poulsen had been.

As he walked over to the coffee bar, he imagined what Poulsen had been like, as a child. "Was he always so evil?"

Poulsen didn't know what to do. He knew this young man was the only thing that stood between him and Kaori Miyazono. But it would be too reckless, to try anything, before the competition.

"I suppose that's the part of me that's still sane speaking, huh?"

Kousei turned around, startled at the first time hearing the evil man's voice. He was surprised that Poulsen deigned to speak in English, if they were in Denmark, and Poulsen was supposedly from Denmark, too.

"Why did he speak in English? Is he just trying to throw me off, or is he really that insane?" Kousei didn't know what to think. But he didn't have to think that hard, as Matthew Poulsen clearly didn't know he was thinking out loud and continued talking.

"I can't wait until I can get my hands on that Miyazono girl… she'll be so sweet as she bleeds out." He almost seemed ready to drool.

The employee in the corner suddenly snapped to alertness, a look of shock prominently displayed on her fair features.

Kousei stopped moving. He felt the blood drain from his face, and he slowly turned around. He was suddenly very awake, and very angry. "What did you say, sir? Because I'm not sure I heard you right, but you seem very enthusiastic about something you have no right to be enthusiastic about."

And Matthew Poulsen's mouth snapped shut, and his eyes widened. Even insane people knew when they'd been cornered. And Matthew knew that he needed to escape that situation, and quickly.

So that's what he did, jumping out of his chair, running for the elevator, intent on getting his things and leaving. But little did he know that he was much, much slower than an incensed, if tired, Kousei Arima. Whose legs were currently working separately from his upper half, avoiding chairs and furniture as he ran after Poulsen, catching up to him in seconds. He high-jumped over a couch, and was essentially on top of the man.

"Huh? Chickenshit goes what?" Kousei said this as close to Poulsen's ear as possible. And with that, Poulsen tripped, falling face-first into the elevator doors. And Kousei realized that this wasn't the right approach, and let him go. He'd be charged as a criminal if he out-right attacked Poulsen without a serious reason to. And after a moment of hesitation, Poulsen was in the elevator, frantically pressing the button for his floor. And Kousei let him go.

Turning back around, leaving the employee still stunned, he got his coffee and sat down.

Turning to the employee, who was about half a second from calling for security, he said, "Sorry. My brother and I aren't exactly getting along at the moment, and he likes to try and get on my nerves."

The employee didn't really seem to buy it, but she didn't call security, either. At least not yet.

But that man was definitely going to try something. The question was, when?

Their shower had been bliss. What else could they agree on more? "Hey, hon?" You feel amazing." Kousei was laying it on thick this time. Kaori blushed, her cheeks turning an almost comical pink.

"Shut up and get dressed for bed, dork. Your time to stare and be a perv for today is up. And you won't be getting any tomorrow because of the competition." She was very firm about this. But she turned and leaned her back against his bare chest, looking up into his face. "So I hope that I felt good enough to last you for a while." It was Kousei's turn to blush.

He pushed her onto the bed, a foot or two away. "Do you want to get me going again? Because it doesn't take much, and a naked you does it, usually."

"The baby goes 'waah,' Kousei." Kaori stuck her tongue out at him, still annoyed about being pushed. "And what are you trying to do, huh? Would you rather I not rub my body up against yours? Would you prefer it if I didn't make your heart race?"

"You know that that's not what I meant. You're an excellent lover, Kaori, but we need to get to bed, and you know it." His eyes were intense, boring into her. "The competition is tomorrow, and I refuse to lose. If you're not at your best, I can't guarantee we'll win. Put on your pj's. Now."

Her face became fake-angry. "What does he think he is, my boss? No more shared showering for him, I guess," Kaori watched as his expression flashed into a smile for a second, amused. "Don't be making too serious of threats, now."

Their bond tightened a little, apparently recognizing a threat of its own.

And then they heard it. The breathing, coming from outside their hotel room door, and a suspicious noise.

Kousei's feet hit the ground with a loud thud, as all 180 pounds impacted the floor. A scurrying was audible from the hallway, and then, as he reached the door to unlock it, an elevator ding was also audible further down the hallway.

Poulsen had escaped. They had been listened in on.

Kaori was having a moment, her eyes widened, pupils dilating with fear. "He…. was spying on us? He knows...where our room is?" Her voice was filling with absolute terror. She tried to grasp his hand but missed because of the tremors wracking her body. "Hey, help me out here?"

His hand touched and held hers. Immediately he threw all the love he had at her, almost overwhelming their connection. She buckled under the weight of the emotions, physically being pressed down. "Too...much, hon," she gasped out, straining.

He lessened the flow, and instantly it was like a fourth dimensional feeling was now three dimensional, and thusly understandable. All that love had been lost on her, in her state of fear and panic. "I get what you mean, now, love. Thank you." She pulled him in, still in a state of undress. There was a pulse of light as they thought in fear, panic still largely unabated:

"What can we do now?" Their connection pulsed once, twice, three times, before swallowing the two of them in an orb of gilded light.

Everything around them faded away.

And they sank into a memory of eons past.

A man sat in front of them. If you could call him a man, that is. He was known by many names, but really only preferred one.

A fourth dimensional being, trapped outside his own plane of existence by his own people, forced to live in three dimensional space, where everything was dull and grey, and nothing was everywhere. He decided to use his talent to create, and create something beautiful.

Life.

So he created six beings, similar to him, but constrained by the three-dimensional nothing that they were created out of. They were like light given form, like him. He glowed with a grey tinge, casting a silver light across the heavenly space he created to live in with his children.

Their light was that of the gilded chariots back home, which he had ridden in his youth.

Two of his finest creations, Octavian and Marina, stood before him now. He knew that two other children of his were now watching. He knew everything. It was a burden, being the absolute author, but he dealt with it.

They would soon understand who they were, or at least who they used to be. Because they had to, or else his other, lesser half would win, and Kousei would spiral into darkness.

He couldn't control them. But he could push them in the right direction.

"Children, now that I know that you're listening, listen clear. Heed these words, for this is technically all I can interact with you without breaking your minds. I am the Origin. The creator of everything that is. I am the author of the book, so to speak."

Kousei opened his mouth to speak.

"I even know what you're about to say right now, Octavi- Kousei. But please, I don't have much time left to do this in. The timeline here is unbalanced, and the universe has been destabilized enough that it needs restarting. So please, allow me this time to speak."

Kaori's mouth was wide open. The figure smirked. "Kaori, save that sight for Kousei later when you overreact to this memory. As I was saying, there are a few parts of the book that have been corrupted, you see. For evil dwells in every heart, and what was left of the evil in me was cast out long ago, and became Death. The man you are dealing with now is not my creation. He should not exist, a shade on the paper, the shadow of words. A creation of Death himself. Matthew Poulsen was designed to drag the innocent to death, where they mourn in purgatory for eons, suffering, away from me. I cannot do some things, and defeating part of myself is one of them. That is where you come in, children. You have to make sure he dies, by human hands or otherwise. I know it is a high price of you to ask. But it must be done, so this shade of the future doesn't destroy everything. When I create, everything is balanced. When death creates, it's like replacing part of a sentence with something that doesn't fit."

Kaori and Kousei stood in absolute silence as the gray sky around them started to fade back into their room.

The Origin got the last word, though.

"Oh, and children? Don't die. I love you too much to see you trapped away from me."

His final words echoed through their minds.

At once, they collapsed, the bond having drained what little spiritual strength they had built up. And they slept there, on the floor, dreamless.

And dreamless they were, for a time.

And then they awoke to the sunrise creeping in their hotel window, their room awash with auburn light.

"Kousei, you didn't close the curtains last night," Kaori said, sunlight hitting her face.

"Uh oh, she sounds pissed…" Kousei tried to keep this thought out of their connection, but it didn't really work.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be annoyed! But I guess it does give us more time to talk about that memory…"

"What memor- Oh. Yeah. That." His mind flashed back to the previous evening, and the connection surged with his understanding. "What do you think, hon? I honestly thought the last divine intervention we'd get would be Markus, but apparently I was wrong...Now we've gotten orders from "God" himself!" Surprisingly, it was Kousei that was freaking out, instead of Kaori.

"What are we going to do?" Her side of the thread felt strained and confused. "How are we supposed to kill a person, even one as terrible as him?" Her eyes held plenty of fear in that moment, and she clearly didn't want to be the one to put Poulsen down, as she wasn't a violent person.

And he understood that thought perfectly, even though he wasn't the one thinking it. "We don't have to kill him, you know. We just have to expose him for his crimes, and the Danish authorities should make sure he can't ever harm another person." His declaration was certainly agreeable to his other half, who nodded in an adorable affirmation of his words.

"Yeah! We shouldn't be responsible for all the work, after all!" His eyes softened at her smile. "You're so cute, even when in danger." He was still so devoted, even through their greatest challenge so far. And they hadn't even gotten to their favorite pre-competition ritual yet.

They started to get dressed, their favorite part of the morning before a competition. They would help each other get dressed.

Kousei helped her get into the scarlet dress, closing up the zipper with ease.

She helped him into his dress shirt and vest after helping him with his pants.

He sat behind her at the mirror and sink across from their hotel bathroom, brushing her hair as she did her makeup, even though she didn't need makeup. He was more kind than she'd ever had any right to expect him to be. And she was more than he could ever have deserved.

And everything, just for a moment, was perfect. The scars in the mirror weren't even thought of anymore.

Author's Notes: Did you like it? Please review if you thought it was a good read!