Chapter 10: Warriors
"Is it gone?" Tetsuya whispered breathlessly, stirring slightly beneath Orochi.
He remained on the ground and curled around Kisho as Orochi sat up and crawled to the protective barrier, reaching out with his senses and peering into the darkness. Flickers of lightning offered brief illuminations, but the whistle of the wind, pounding of rain and intermittent thunder made hearing more difficult.
"I do not sense it anymore," Orochi answered finally.
Tetsuya rubbed his tired eyes and sat up as Kisho complained noisily for food.
"There now," Tetsuya replied, picking up the baby and resting him against his shoulder.
He started a reiatsu infusion to quell the child's hunger, but blinked in surprise as Kisho was taken from his arms and Orochi began the infusion instead.
"You barely slept," he commented, "and you should eat some more. You need to regain your full reiatsu, Tetsuya. It is going to take both of us to break through that doorway. You must have realized by now that this is definitely a restricted world. No one is going to come for us. We are going to have to find a way out ourselves, or we will have to just stay here permanently. And I do not think that you want that, especially with that monstrous thing wandering about out there. That must be why this pocket dimension was sealed. It is beastly. I don't know that both of us together could manage it. If it could be beaten by any less that a legion of fighters, it wouldn't just be trapped here. They would have just destroyed it."
Tetsuya nodded in understanding.
"And you realize too, do you not, that we must kill that thing before we make any attempt to break through the door?"
Tetsuya swallowed hard, looking out into the darkness and nodded again in assent.
"We could not take the chance of letting it escape as well," he agreed.
He watched silently as Orochi finished the reiatsu infusion, then laid the infant down to rest. Orochi waited until Kisho was asleep, then moved back to the barrier, where he sat, gazing out into the darkness. Tetsuya remained beside the sleeping infant for a time, watching Orochi with troubled eyes, before moving to join him.
"Is there a problem with Kisho-sama?" Orochi asked, his eyes still fastened on the darkness outside the barrier.
"No," Tetsuya replied, glancing back at the baby, "Kisho-sama is fine."
"Then, you should be sleeping as well."
"I will. But first, I should tell you, I sensed Arashi briefly a little while ago."
Orochi's eyes widened hopefully.
"The connection was weak, but if he moves closer, I could communicate with him. I am not sure what we will be able to do beyond that, but it would be good if we could at least have some contact with Byakuya-sama."
"It would," agreed Orochi, thinking carefully, "Tetsuya, I know that you and Arashi share powers. Could he perhaps pull us out of here? Your waterforms...he could perhaps use them to free us?"
"I don't know," Tetsuya said, gazing out into the night, "We can use waterforms to move ourselves and others. But...you must have sensed it as I did after entering this pocket dimension, the restriction makes it easier to enter this world than it is to leave. That makes sense as they would have wanted a way to enter the world to manage the creature in here. But they would have wanted stronger protections to keep it from escaping. Still, if I get a strong enough connection, I can bring Arashi to us...Arashi and others who might be with him. Then, we could have a better chance of defeating this creature."
Orochi sighed and rubbed his hands over his face.
"I don't know about that," he said softly, "That thing is horrendously powerful. I don't know that an army of shinigamis could face it down."
Tetsuya thought quietly for a moment, then bit his lip gently and continued.
"What about a divine attack?" he asked quietly.
Orochi gazed at him silently in the darkness. Tetsuya read the look in his eyes and registered surprise.
"You...know?" he asked.
Orochi hesitated, then nodded briefly.
"I have known that something was going on between you and Arashi for some time. I did not know the full nature of what it was. But...I have long known that your connection with that stallion is unusual...and that it is very uncommon for a shinigami to have a familiar who shares his powers. I wonder if Arashi is even really a separate being from you."
"He is and he isn't," Tetsuya confessed, "You know that Arashi first appeared after my release from the prison. When the seal on my powers was shattered, my powers proved to be too much for my weakened body. The force of my will to remain free once I left the prison caused the power to swell. I wore a limiter at first, but time and again, the power outstripped the limiter's ability to hold it back. And finally, it could not be held back anymore. I lost consciousness, and when I woke, Arashi was standing over me. He explained to me that my power could not be held within my body. It was slowly destroying me. The only way for me to manage it was for my soul to split. Arashi is a part of me. And when we join in our entirety, we are capable of unleashing a divine attack. We take the form, Shinigami Tenba, the Pegasus, and then we can fight on the level of a transcendent being."
"But...there is a price?" Orochi asked.
Tetsuya nodded.
"I cannot maintain that form for very long, so any fight must be handled quickly. Because I am a shinigami and I have not transcended, using my divine power will result in a loss of consciousness for a week or so...then a loss of my reiatsu for a month, perhaps two. I have only practiced with this power in my inner world, where I do not have to pay the consequences for its use. But...I could use this power against that monster if I can call Arashi to me."
He paused for a moment, considering his words carefully.
"Should it come to that, you must do whatever it takes to protect Kisho-sama from the combined release of power from that monster and from me as we fight."
Orochi hesitated, then nodded briefly in agreement.
"First things first," he said, coaxing Tetsuya to the back of the enclosure.
"What are you going to do?" Tetsuya asked, a bit breathlessly, a blush coming onto his face and throat.
Orochi read his cousin's expression and smirked.
"Don't look at me that way," he said reprovingly, "I am only going to make sure that you are working at your utmost capacity."
Tetsuya quieted and laid down, looking up into his cousin's dark, troubled eyes while Orochi's hands opened his yukata and laid themselves on his chest and lower abdomen.
"If I feed reiatsu directly into your spirit centers, it will restore you more fully and more quickly, so that you are ready to fight."
"But it will drain you because of the increased speed of the transfer," Tetsuya added, "Orochi, is that wise? With that thing around..."
"Do we have a choice?" Orochi asked, looking out through the barrier into the blackness, "I cannot kill that thing. I do not have a divine attack. So, my energy must be devoted to making you as strong as possible."
"But what if I cannot pull Arashi to me? Then..."
"Then, we will have to evade this monster until you can. Tetsuya, we are out of other options. You know that I am right. Hold still now."
Tetsuya relaxed his body, flinching only slightly as Orochi's hands first touched his skin, causing the blush to return, then settling again. Orochi's eyes held his quietly as his reiatsu flowed down into Tetsuya's spirit centers, flooding them with renewed power and softly lighting his body from within.
"There," Orochi said finally, pulling his hands away, "You are at full power...beyond your usual capacity, actually. This will also amplify your ability to connect with Arashi. You..."
Orochi's voice trailed off suddenly and his body sagged and slowly collapsed next to Tetsuya's. The younger man sat up and leaned over his senseless cousin, touching his face gently and calling his name urgently.
"Orochi! Orochi, you shouldn't have done that. You drained yourself too much. Let me..."
"N-no!" Orochi objected, forcing Tetsuya's hands away, "You need to be as strong as possible, Tetsuya. I w-will be fine. I just need to rest...to restore my own power now."
Tetsuya gazed at him quietly for a moment, then nodded. He turned away and sought their meager supplies, returning with hot green tea and several pieces of the fruit that Orochi had gathered. He expected that his elder cousin would refuse the offering, but to his surprise, Orochi merely nodded in quiet acceptance and consumed the food and drink in silence.
"Orochi, are you feeling better?" Tetsuya asked, glancing over at him, then looking out through the barrier again.
"I am fine. Don't worry. Lie down now and get some sleep."
"I am cold. I cannot seem to stay warm," Tetsuya confessed softly.
"Don't tell me that your fever has returned," Orochi said, sitting up too quickly, then stiffening and starting to fall back.
A moment later, he was caught gently and laid down again, and Tetsuya's warm body curled into his arms.
"Tetsuya..." he objected, but found himself unable to speak as his cousin's lips touched his very lightly, as though asking permission.
Orochi's eyes widened in surprise and his heart flickered restlessly in his chest. And looking into Tetsuya's oddly trusting eyes, scenting the soft air of sakura around them, feeling the closeness of their two entwined bodies slowly overcame him.
"Tetsuya," he whispered again, more breathlessly, his loins aching longingly as his body remembered his cousin's, "Tetsuya, this is wrong, but I..."
Tetsuya's lips took his more forcefully, silencing him and stealing away whatever resistance he had left in him. He returned his cousin's kisses, feeling a storm of arousal in his tired body that seemed to send the energy back through him. His hands clenched Tetsuya's yukata tightly and he thrust his tongue deeply into the younger man's mouth, treasuring the familiar softness and sweet taste within. Tetsuya's body settled on top of his, the soft thighs parted and his hips pressing forward so that their awakened members touched through the barrier of their thin clothing. And as much as he knew it was wrong, as much as he knew he should stop his cousin before they made love, the cavalcade of hard events, the precariousness of their situation and the rage of emotions that battered at him became suddenly unbearable.
He moaned Tetsuya's name more wantingly and shivered as he heard Tetsuya's hungry reply. Orochi's heart ached at how he had hurt the younger man before, thinking it justice, when it was truly the farthest thing from it, and he swore to himself that if it took an eternity, he would make up the debt he owed to that one person with whom he had shared the full weight of his lifelong pain.
With an effort, he unclenched his hands where they held on to Tetsuya's yukata. He turned his cousin onto his back and loosed the ties that held the clothing that separated them. He looked down into Tetsuya's widened eyes and brushed his lips against his cousin's.
"I am afraid I can't hold myself back anymore," he said in warning to the younger shinigami, "but it is not like before. I am not angry anymore, Tetsuya. I don't want to hurt you this time."
Tetsuya didn't answer, but merely bit gently at his lips and nodded in acceptance. He made a soft sound somewhere between anticipation and distress, but found his anxiety quickly undone as Orochi's mouth captured his and the hands that caressed Tetsuya's softly shaking body were gentler and more patient in their explorations. And to a body that had been accustomed to experiencing sexual pain, the erotic effect was sweetly amplified. Tears flooded Tetsuya's eyes and leaked onto his face at the intensity of love and pleasure those formerly cruel hands now gave him.
He turned his head away and caught his breath in surprise as Orochi's mouth fastened on his throat, sucking hungrily at the tender, white flesh, while his hands seemed to invade every part of him. He felt the searing heat of Orochi's hardened arousal against one soft, inner thigh, then flinched at the memory of how it had hurt to be penetrated by it before.
But where Orochi had been full of anger and impatience always before, this time he moved slowly, distracting his cousin with penetrating kisses and pleasantly erotic strokes, while slowly preparing the younger man for their joining.
"I know that it's wrong for me to let this happen," Orochi whispered in his ear, "but you are the only light left in this darkness all around me, Tetsuya."
"We will find our way home, Orochi," Tetsuya said reassuringly, "We will not be trapped here forever. I feel it. Arashi is getting closer. I will be able to connect with him soon."
Orochi shook his head and sought Tetsuya's warm, hungry lips again.
"I wasn't speaking about that," he explained, "I was talking about the blackness inside me...the hatred. All I've known is that darkness since my mother went mad and left our home. And all I have longed for is revenge. I am just sorry that I took that revenge on you, when in truth, I was the one that drove my mother mad!"
"But don't you understand?" Tetsuya asked, taking hold of his hands, "It wasn't you at all, Orochi. And it wasn't your mother, your father or Kaiyo. Remember the man who infused those doubts in your mother's mind. Aizen Sousuke is a cruel, sadistic psychopath. He was only posing as a gentle, trustworthy person back then. He played with your mother's mind and left her bound in an illusion. That must be what afflicts her. Orochi, when we return, we must go to her and try to shatter those illusions! We can free her. Perhaps now, she can get better."
"I find that hope a slim one," Orochi said softly, "but...I am...grateful to you for trying to give me hope, Tetsuya. I don't know how you are able to forgive me what I did to you..."
"Don't think about that anymore, Orochi," Tetsuya said, interrupting his words with kisses, "Let all of that go now. You said that I have been a light in the darkness. Think on that instead. All of those years ago, your body taught mine the meaning of darkness, anger...revenge. Make love to me, Orochi. Now, let my body teach yours to have hope, and teach mine to know love/ You said that I belonged to you."
"But that was..."
"I know. But I accepted it then and I still do. I belong to you. I have ever since that first time we were together. However dark it was, it was the beginning of our pathway to this."
"Tetsuya, look around you! All there is, is darkness! Darkness and that horrid monster! There is no real hope left for us and you know it! All we have left is..."
Tetsuya's fingertips touched his lips, shocking him soundly into silence.
"All we have left is here, now...each other," Tetsuya said, kissing him again, "But...that is all we have ever had, Orochi. Don't you see?"
Orochi went still and breathless, his hard, black eyes glaring down into Tetsuya's.
"Damn you, for getting inside me, you ridiculous pest!" he hissed, "You never give up, do you? You never give up on anyone. You arrogant little ass! You probably think that you could redeem the devil himself!"
Tetsuya's lips curved upward into a smirk.
"I have turned the devil, haven't I?" he asked, a bit smugly.
"Have you?" Orochi asked, his eyes glinting in challenge, "Is that what you think? We shall see then. I am either going to kill you or make love to you. Even I don't know which. But if the light finally dawns and you are still alive, Tetsuya, I will marry you. I will marry you and take you back to my family and let the chips fall where they will. And when I lose everything and we end up living like animals in some shack out in the wilderness, you can decide whether or not I am worth the redeeming."
Tetsuya laughed and started to answer, but found his mouth busied with hard kisses, and his body reeling under a rage of erotic touches and caresses. He met Orochi's mouth eagerly, leaning into his cousin's hands, wholly unafraid, despite his cousin's final, half-hearted attempt to push him away. And even when the other man's fingers breached his entrance, Tetsuya's body remained blissfully calm and deeply aroused. He moved restlessly with the fingers that worked to prepare him, snapping more impatiently at his cousin's lips and attacking his exposed throat almost viciously.
He meant to enter slowly, so as not to hurt Tetsuya, but the younger man's body felt the beginning of the waited for invasion and reared upward. A harsh sound of mingled pain and arousal escaped Tetsuya as the two men's bodies joined and thrust heatedly against each other, seeking bliss and completion. Anger, hatred, revenge and darkness fell away as the two embraced each other, holding on tightly, looking into each other's eyes and seeking what they could find only together.
Tetsuya's eyes fluttered as pleasure began to overtake him. A beautiful, erotic cry of completion escaped his lips and traveled across the distance between them to crash headlong into the other man's heart. Heat exploded between the two, raging more fiercely than the storm had been. Tetsuya gasped as Orochi's seething release filled him, and he felt his own seed spill out onto their still writhing, bare bodies. Orochi collapsed onto him, and the two went quiet and still, panting more softly and basking in the warm, lovely haze of satedness.
The two had nearly fallen asleep, when suddenly the barrier protecting them shattered and unseen hands grabbed Orochi and dragged him out into the darkness.
"Orochi!" screamed Tetsuya, scrambling instantly to reach Kisho.
He gathered the infant into his arms and pressed deeply into the corner, peering into the blackness.
"Orochi!" he cried desperately as lightning flashed suddenly, illuminating the scene outside.
Tetsuya stiffened.
"No!" he cried, setting Kisho down and quickly setting a protective spell around him.
He flash stepped towards the two struggling forms on the beach,
"Stop!" he cried desperately, "Don't!"