A/N: Only one chapter left after this one; the Epilogue. ;) Also I topped the largest word count (previously 10.4k words in Ch5, There is One Road to Hell) - this one is 12.8K words. Woohoo ... Was the longer chapter worth the wait?

WARNING: The end of this chapter is (reasonably) graphic (I've written worse - siriusly it's on my page, go read it if you want xD) and non-consensual. The rating of this story has been changed from T to M to accommodate it, since in the original plan for this fic I was going to skip it, but I decided that it actually served a purpose and was necessary to establish a point. Anyway, please read at your own discretion.

Chapter title, "Hana ga Saku" means "The Flower Blooms"

Hana ga Saku

"Now now Tsuzuki … No need to be hasty," the tall, pale man said as he put both hands up in a show of surrender, moving them a few times palms down in a gesture as if pacifying a dog. This served to have the opposite effect, as it only made the violet eyed Shinigami see red even more. He didn't understand – none of this made any sense to him. A demon possessing Hisoka, and now Muraki was here, in the flesh, standing in front of him? It all seemed more than a bit too coincidental.

"If you'll excuse me," the Shinigami's eyes hardened as the doctor continued speaking, "I, regrettably, have other matters to attend to, so –"

"You aren't going anywhere." There was suddenly a spell tag in each of the brunet's hands as he growled out his interruption. He wasn't letting Muraki get away so easily; he had to have something to do with this mess. At the assertion, the man in the white coat, who had turned to walk away, paused for a long moment.

"Oh," slowly, Muraki brought a hand up to push his glasses up a little as he turned around partially to face Tsuzuki again, "aren't I?"

"Not until you tell me what you have to do with all of this." True, the Shinigami wanted nothing more than to rip the man in front of him to pieces, reassemble, and repeat the process ad infinitum, but he had more important things to worry about than vengeance. Which was really probably the only reason a fight had yet to actually break out as far as Tsuzuki was concerned.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid you'll need to be a bit more specific than that Tsuzuki; I haven't the foggiest idea what 'all of this' even is, much less what I might have to do with it."

"Cut the crap, Muraki," the brunet ground out in a warning tone – he wasn't messing around, and he didn't have time for the white demon to be coy. "I know you had something to do with this; you were the doctor who called Ikeda Muchiro yesterday, weren't you? Hell, you probably 'cured' Aneko and started this mess."

"Oh dear," the pale doctor said in a tone that could never be mistaken for concerned, "how on earth do you know about that pathetic woman?" Tsuzuki set his jaw, pushing his hands into his pockets, though he still had the spell tags clenched tightly in his fists just in case he needed them. After another moment of silence, the silver haired man sighed heavily. "Well, it can't be helped, I suppose," came Muraki's almost bored assertion before he started walking away.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"

"Obviously," the man in white explained with a dismissive shrug, "you aren't going to allow this to rest until you've spoken with me, and you're beginning to cause a scene out in the open. Which I assume is not your intent?" Violet eyes glanced around the street in spite of not wanting to listen to what Muraki was saying – and he was right. There weren't many people on the street, but a couple of those that were kept looking over at the two of them.

"There is a small café right there," he continued, gesturing down the street with one hand, leaving the other in the pocket of his coat, "perhaps we should go where it's more private, and I'll be able to … satisfy you." The way Muraki spoke made the Shinigami's skin crawl. No, he had already played this game once – Hisoka had been in danger once before and the brunet had been forced to play tea party, go shopping, and do whatever other petty whim struck this man's fancy. But this time it was different – a simple tracking spell couldn't fix this; this time, he needed answers from Muraki, and he wasn't wasting any more time.

The force with which Tsuzuki struck the brick wall the man in the white coat stood next to was enough to spider web cracks along it and kick up a noticeable amount of dust. If the doctor hadn't moved, even just the small degree that he had, it would have been his face. As it was he had only leaned slightly out of the way, so Tsuzuki had just barely missed him – it was so close that the cheek he would have connected with turned red from the minuscule amount of friction it did receive.

"Tsk tsk tsk …" the doctor murmured; his eyes were closed, but he had that irritating smirk on his face, as if he were pleased as pie that the brunet had impulsively brought the soundness of a building into question. "However, if you want whatever answers you seem convinced I have, you'll simply have to come with me." Pulling his now bloody knuckles away from the wall, Tsuzuki couldn't think of anything else to say, so he asked Muraki's retreating back,

"What about Muchiro?" His tone was a bit less than irritated now; the pain in his hand had cleared his head a little, and he absently watched the skin knit back together over the gravel that was embedded in his flesh from the wall. He wasn't worried about it. Receiving another non-committal shrug from Muraki, the white demon said absently over his shoulder,

"What about him? Whatever has you so desperate is far more interesting to me than that crying, pitiful fool."

As expected, the 'good doctor' seemed to have no intentions of divulging any information quickly. Tsuzuki had a maddening sense of déjà vu across the table from the man in white, with the grating knowledge that, had Tsuzuki not taken matters into his own hands last time, he might have never gotten to Hisoka...

He managed to keep his composure through Muraki ordering tea for both of them and some confection the brunet didn't care to remember the name of ... But for the past few minutes they'd been sitting in complete silence, almost as if he was waiting to see how long it would be before Tsuzuki snapped. This time around it didn't take him long at all, which was demonstrated when he slammed a hand on the table, half to get Muraki's attention and half to vent a little before his temper boiled over. People looked over at the sudden loud noise of his palm hitting the table, but he didn't care - it was all he could do to keep his voice down and avoid causing more of a scene. "Tell me what you know!"

The waitress walked over meekly with a tray containing two cups of tea and of whatever dessert Muraki had asked for; she set it in front of him with one of the cups while the other landed quietly in front of the doctor, who began languidly but diligently fixing it to his own liking.

"I'll never understand what it is about that boy that makes you lose all of your composure," was the only response he received as Muraki, seeming entirely non-pulsed, brought his teacup to his mouth and took a sip, not even glancing at his intrepid companion. Glaring, Tsuzuki didn't relax at this snarky comment; in fact, if Muraki knew that, then ...

"If you had nothing to do with this, then how do you know it has to do with Hisoka?" the violet eyed Shinigami's tone was a bit suspicious and slightly less infuriated, when he said this.

"My Dearest Tsuzuki, if I have learned one thing about you, it is that there is nothing else in this world or the next that can get under your skin like that boy can," came the simple, maddeningly unhelpful answer. Setting down his cup, he looked Tsuzuki in the eye for a moment with an almost ... Irritated, knowing expression. "If it didn't have something to do with him, you wouldn't be this worked up, so ... Tell me again what you think it is that I've done?" The brunet had taken to staring at the tea in front of him, rather than look at Muraki, as if that might somehow help in keeping the Shinigami calm. It didn't.

"There is a demon that was attached to someone - she was spared from dying," Tsuzuki ground out through his teeth, "and it's attached to Hisoka now. As soon as it left the sick person, she died - clearly it was keeping her alive, somehow. So, I'll ask again - what did you do, Muraki?"

"Well, to me," Muraki paused to take a sip of his tea, "it sounds as though you are dealing with a chaos demon. How interesting."

"And why is that?" Tsuzuki's question was suspicious and very cautious; clearly the man knew something ... Staring at the teacup didn't seem to be helping any, so he glanced at the pale demon, who didn't make eye contact with the Shinigami as he responded.

"... It just so happens that the pathetic woman you were referring to earlier was healed by a chaos demon." The answer made Tsuzuki pause. He hadn't made any mention of Aneko ... Muraki knew Muchiro; not that it had been rocket science to figure out or anything, but obviously he had his hands in this mess.

"...And how could you possibly know that?" Tsuzuki asked the question, but it was painfully obvious that he hadn't been fooled; he'd known from the beginning that Muraki had played a part in all of this.

"It also happens that a man by the name of Ikeda Muchiro heard of my expertise a while ago," he explained nonchalantly, "and I gave him a cure."

"...You summoned a demon?!" Not only did the man call up a demon, but he also left it unhindered afterwards? True, Muraki was crazy, but even he couldn't be that kind of reckless; if that demon had decided when it was summoned that it didn't like Muraki or something for example, even the doctor would've likely had his hands full, and Muraki never seemed the type to gamble with his own well-being.

"Of course not Tsuzuki-san; that would be an egregious waste of my time. I gave him a spell to do it himself."

"A spell to do - so this is all your fault!" the accusatory air in the words was nearly palpable, but the only response the Shinigami recieved was a vaguely amused chuckle. "What did you want to get out of It? What did you hope to gain?"

"Well, I am a doctor; perhaps my intentions were simply to heal a sick woman?" he was staring at the brunet, almost as if to challenge the Shinigami to argue with what he was saying. Oh, and argue he did.

"Please," he scoffed, "nothing you do is ever innocent." Sure, Muraki had no regard for human life, but these were innocent bystanders, looking for something to end their misery - and instead, they'd found the devil. "You gave them a spell to summon a demon. And you're trying to tell me that somehow you had good intentions? ... You're more insane than I thought." At that comment, Muraki frowned slightly before stirring his tea absently.

"... And did it not heal her?" he asked, as if this were some sort of sly, absolute truth that couldn't be argued with. The brunet's hand curled against his own pant leg as he took a breath; shouting was only going to make Muraki more cocky and insufferable, and as of yet he hadn't garnered anything useful from this interaction.

"I'm not arguing with you about this; I don't care what you think your intentions were," he wanted to add an insult to the tune of something you wouldn't want your mother to hear, but he refrained. Again, not exactly conducive to extracting information - so far all he knew was that this was Muraki's fault, which he'd basically known from the second he'd seen the man, though now it was confirmed. However, that still didn't help him. Clearly trying to persuade Muraki to say something useful without prompting wasn't getting him anywhere ... So suppose it was time for a slightly different tactic.

"So, you taught them to summon a chaos demon. It's possessing Hisoka. Unsummon it?" the growl in the brunet's voice was unmistakeable; he was an inch away from throwing the tea the waitress had brought all over the white devil, which was the least violent action he could take. The only thing stopping him was the fact that Muraki would be even more infuriatingly likely to divulge little to no information to help Tsuzuki's situation. Though he was beginning to think this was less and less worth it as time progressed. He could feel the doctor's strange eye boring into him, even if he couldn't see it behind Muraki's long fringe of hair.

"You should learn to keep that lovely temper in check ... Though it does stir something in me to know that I have the power to incite you so." He really didn't have time for this utterly useless banter, and he noticed a frown cross Muraki's face as the brunet moved to get out of the booth and leave. "Though it is a bit annoying that I need a catalyst such as that boy in order to catch your notice." The violet eyed Shinigami stood, ignoring the words; he would be just as well off if he wandered around looking for clues as he was here, and he stood to be far less irritated if he left as well.

"I didn't summon this particular demon, so I won't rid your little boy of it either ... However. If I wanted to remove this particular entity," this nonchalant sentence, aimed at Tsuzuki's retreating back, caused the brunet to slow to a stop. Muraki took a sip of his tea before he continued. "I'd lure my rather unfortunate partner to a particularly, shall way say 'good', place." Another sip, and Tsuzuki turned back slightly to look at the doctor. Muraki had his head on one hand, and was watching the Shinigami intently as he stirred his tea with the other while he spoke. "The place the boy was possessed, Unzen Hell, there a long history of Christian priests being slaughtered there. I'd venture a guess," he said, making eye contact with the brunet, "to say that this demon probably doesn't like them much. And by them, I of course mean Christian priests. So perhaps you should devise a way to do your exorcism somewhere they frequent."

"You mean a church ...?" his tone trailed off; how on earth was he supposed to trick a demon into going inside a church? True, it was a myth that they couldn't set foot on hallowed ground, but any entity of opposed energy was bound to avoid a place like that.

"Amazing," came the slow, almost carelessly response, "and they say you aren't the brightest bulb in the socket."

"... There's only ever one bulb in a - nevermind." The brunet no longer cared to waste any more time bothering with this waste of space. He'd deal with Muraki later - right now he had a demon to exorcise.

"What, no 'thank you' for my assistance? No show of gratitude after all of that?" Violet eyes narrowed and the trenchcoat clad Shinigami rounded on the white doctor, glaring darkly.

"The only reason I'm not turning you into a blood splatter on the floor right now is because I have to go deal with a demon. As soon as I'm finished with that, I'm coming for you. And this time, you're not going to make it." Absently, Muraki moved his hand to the spoon sitting in his teacup, lightly stirring it for another moment before he looked up at the brunet.

"I look forward to it, Tsuzuki." He ignored the laughter that followed him out of the cafe that grated on his last raw nerve and escaped the establishment. Tsuzuki did so with such a flourish that he failed to notice the pleased expression that slowly spread across the doctor's face as he intently watched the Shinigami take his leave.

Black … Everything was black.

Violet eyes looked around quickly; he knew Hisoka was here, somewhere - he just needed to find him, and maybe help him. No, not maybe. He had to help his partner. Stumbling through the blind landscape, he had no idea where he was or what he was headed into, only that he needed to find the blond as quickly as possible.

After a short while of wandering around in the darkness, Tsuzuki paused. He realized he heard something. It was faint, but there was a slow, rhythmic ... dragging sound ahead of him. Picking up his pace slightly, he followed the noise until he came across a form walking down a path he hadn't realized he'd been following - it was etched out on the ground and almost appeared to be emitting a light of it's own in the blackness. And the path was red, as if it were painted on the ground in blood.

"Hisoka - oi, Hisoka!" Tsuzuki hurried to catch up, sure that this was his partner. And, when he did catch up to the figure moving ahead of him, he wasn't disappointed ... per say. It was the blond he'd been searching for but .. he was so small. The boy couldn't have been 4 or 5 if he looked a day old - and the poor thing seemed exhausted. The dragging sound had been Hisoka's slow footsteps as he dragged his feet along this path. The yukata he wore was dirty and ripped, and the little feet were scraped and bloody and blistered ... And as he walked, the violet eyed Shinigami could see silent tears raining down from his small green eyes. Clearly he was in terrible pain - and still he continued his journey, as if he had no other choice.

Around his thin, pale wrists were wrapped vines - tying them together wtih thorns like barbed wire. The vines entwined up around his arms to his neck, where they joined together, and there in the front of his throat was a bright red bud, as if the blood running down his pale skin from where the barbs on the vines punctured it was somehow feeding the flower.

Tsuzuki had the sneaking suspicion that if he tried to stop Hisoka, even if he bodily picked up the boy and stopped him, it wouldn't matter. He'd manage to continue this journey alone, just like that strange poem said he would. A sense of futility gripped him for a moment as he watched his partner move farther and farther away ... Before he suddenly caught up to him with a burst of determined speed, unsure if he had walked or teleported, and not caring either way. He would figure something out to help his partner - anything.

"Hisoka?" he asked quietly, trying to get the blond's attention. As expected, he was ignored, but as he fell into step next to the small boy, he realized he was hearing another sound. Hisoka was saying something. It was slow, and repetitive - in time with each agonizing, slow step he took, which might've been why Tsuzuki hadn't heard the sound at first. Honestly, it had seemed like the green eyed boy was muttering gibberish, nonsense sounds and syllables and noises that didn't mean anything ... But the harder he listened, the more he realized that they were syllables that eventually repeated themselves ... And formed words. Words that this small version of Hisoka repeated over and over, slowly and meticulously, as if it were a mantra.

"Ha ku mi ni mu ka e ni ... Ha ku mi ni mu ka e ni ..." Brow furrowing, Tsuzuki listened harder. It sounded like he was saying 'Hakumi ni mukae ni' (1) ... Who was that? And then, the brunet was thoroughly distracted by something else he noticed. The red path; it was blood. There was also a small glimmer on the blond's shoulder where there was a hole in his yukata Tsuzuki noticed - and upon closer inspection, he realized there was a hole because there was a small glistening silver needle sticking out of his skin ... And that there was blood dripping from his partner's hands and legs ... Blood that mingled with the path as if invisible once it fell. The path was made of Hisoka's blood, coming from those needles, of which he realized there were quite a few sticking out of the little boy's clothing, and thereby his body, that Tsuzuki hadn't noticed before. As the brunet watched, he realized that slowly, one at a time, new needles were emerging out of the fabric, clearly passing through Hisoka's skin first, which explained why he was constantly bleeding ... He was constantly sustaining new puncture wounds.

The brunet could see it was painful; whenever he caught glimpse of a new glimmer in the eerie light from the path, a new needle pushing through, he realized that Hisoka's breath hitched and the rhythmic steps and syllables faltered for just a breath.

"Tsuzuki ..." at the soft, raspy sound of his own name, the violet eyed Shinigami froze, immediately looking at the small blond. He had been sort of lost in his reverie, so he was surprised that now Hisoka's yukata was down off of his shoulders, hanging at the boy's elbows. Hisoka himself was still walking in that slow, staggering pace as before, with his back to the brunet ... But it was his back that had Tsuzuki's attention. In it were rows of long, glimmering needles - they almost looked like a morbid form of acupuncture. What caught the Shinigami's notice, however, was that the neat rows of needles formed a sigil. Almost like a sign that sparkled against the fresh puncture wounds that left trails of blood down Hisoka's spine.

"Help ..." that last word was so soft and weak - so pleading. And, as he watched, suddenly, before Tsuzuki could react at all, he saw those vines constrict sharply around Hisoka's throat as his partner made this raspy little choking noise. Even looking at him from behind, Tsuzuki could see the bud on the front of his throat blossom at the same moment so fully that the blood red petals splayed out on either side of his neck enough to be easily visible ...

As Hisoka staggered.

And started to fall.

Violet eyes with dark circles under them stared at the coffee cup that was sitting in front of him, its contents long since cold. Tsuzuki had been torturing himself for the past two hours; after he'd woken from that dream, he'd decided he wasn't going back to sleep until he figured this out. He didn't remember everything he had seen, but he knew one thing. It was the same thing he felt every time he had woken up since they'd gone to Unzen.

Hisoka was in danger.

And he didn't want to feel like that anymore; he needed to do something to help the blond, and he felt like up until now he'd done nothing of value.

It wasn't just the blond being in imminent danger that was spurring him on ... He really ... he missed his partner. He saw "Hisoka" every day but it was so painfully obvious to the brunet that it wasn't him. The brunet even missed the blond telling him that he was an idiot and yelling at him ...

Hakumi! … Tsuzuki paused a second as the exclamation occurred to him suddenly; that was an instance of Hisoka yelling, yes, but … That wasn't Hisoka yelling at him. Strange ... When was that from? Leaning back in the chair he was sitting in, he put his hands against his forehead and let out a breath, trying to figure out where that memory was from. It was only a second in time, so it took a few moments for his sleep deprived brain to call up the memory he was looking for. Eventually, it occurred to him that it was the morning they had gone to Unzen; he'd come across Hisoka sitting by himself, like he had been for most of those days they were investigating the case. And, he'd suddenly yelled that word. Tsuzuki had repeated it, confused, but he hadn't gotten an answer about it at the time.

Maybe it was because he was tired. Or exasperated and he had nothing else to think about, but he started turning the word over in his head absently, murmuring it back and forth almost languidly, as if he were in a trance. He wasn't sure when he started saying it aloud almost dreamily, like it was some password he needed to decode, but he did.

"Hakumi … Hakumi ... Ha ... ku … mi …" he let out a frustrated sigh and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes and made an irritated noise because it occurred to him that he still hadn't figured out what he'd been trying to for days. "Tomino … To ... mi ... no … Hakumi." Tsuzuki sat bolt upright in his seat, violet eyes snapping open and widening. That was it. The answer had been staring him in the face all along; Hisoka had given it to him. The brunet had thought it was strange when his partner had randomly said that word, that name – and even stranger that it had occurred to him just now … But it was the same name Hisoka had been saying all along; or at least, the same characters. There was a set of Kanji, which could be read "Haku mi" or "Tomi no".

Nearly throwing himself on his nightstand, he pulled the pad of paper out of it that he'd written down every permutation of characters he could find that would spell out Tomino and started skimming it almost frantically. He knew it was one that he'd found online; one that he hadn't thought of himself. In cases of those, he'd written out the furigana of other readings in case he wanted them, which was what he was looking at now. An old, outdated pronunciation of the kana for "Tomi" and "no", and its more common use of "Haku" and "mi".

There it was. The first could be read "Tomi" or "Haku", and it meant "to lie" or "tell lies". The second could be read "no" or "mi", and meant "the truth".

Bingo.

Violet eyes looked at the file on his desk intently. Tsuzuki was waiting for his partner to show up at work, though to be fair he'd gotten to the office particularly early. That had made Tatsumi raise an eyebrow in question, but otherwise the brunet's punctuality seemed to go unnoticed.

He'd kept up formalities to the necessary extent - said good morning with his normal chipper tone to everyone he met, taken forever to get coffee from the break room, wasted time at the copier ... However, as it became closer to when his partner was due to arrive at work, the more agitated the older Shinigami seemed to become, to the point that in order to keep himself from pacing, he glued himself to his desk, listening for the blond's body to saunter in.

He wasn't disappointed - at exactly 9am, just as he always did, Hisoka's body came through the door quietly, not bothering anyone, not saying anything - just nodding if anyone acknowledged him, and as per usual, a few did. Normally Tsuzuki would stand next to his partner's desk and pester him but ... He had a file sitting open on his desk today, and after saying hello with a well faked happiness, he proceeded to act as though he were engrossed in reading it.

He could feel his partner's green eyes on him, and had learned to become acutely aware of the fact that it wasn't Hisoka behind that gaze - but it didn't matter; he just calmly kept reading the file, unsure of whether or not the demon was reading his mind or not. However, just in case, he acted as though he were captivated by what he was reading, thinking about every word on the paper.

It was a fake file; he'd written it up the night before, printed it off in the proper format at home, and brought it to work with him. Once there, he'd snagged a file folder from the supply closet, labeled it appropriately, and put all of the falsified information there as if it were a real case file. Nothing too big; more like a routine investigation of their district than an actual case that needed attention. The point was that they had to go investigate on scene in Nagasaki - this was how he was going to get his partner's body into a church. Specifically, Oura church. (2)

He figured he couldn't seem too gung-ho about going out into the field with his possessed partner; that would be suspicious. Instead, he was purposely agonizing over how to look into this assignment from the office, or possibly go quickly on his lunch break or something and not involve his partner's body at all ... Anything to keep the demon in the office and away from the public.

A few minutes later, just as he was thinking that he was being ignored and would actually need to draw attention to the case he was looking at, Tsuzuki got his answer as to whether the demon was listening in on his thoughts. It came in the form of the very tangible feeling of a tap on his shoulder - except there was no hand to accompany it.

Glancing up in confusion, he wasn't entirely surprised to see Hisoka's body standing there languidly, hands on the wall of Tsuzuki's cubicle, head on said hands, looking a little sideways at the brunet.

/So - when are we leaving? ... And don't worry so much; I do know how to behave in public./ Truth be told, Tsuzuki actually was on edge because of the idea of going out around people with Hisoka's body and the demon inhabiting it ... But he didn't have any time to waste on uncertainty; not with those words that kept echoing in the brunet's head; how much do you really think is left ...?

/Would it kill you to speak aloud?/ the response was a little testy, but the edge to them was more exasperated than anything. This didn't seem to bother the demon as Hisoka's body slowly curled when he put his arms down, hands going to the pockets of his jeans. The violet eyed Shinigami fought the urge to roll his eyes, instead closing the folder on his desk and offering it up to the blond, who waved him off casually.

/Don't need it; I heard enough from your loudspeaker,/ green eyes watched him, tapping Hisoka's temple lightly with a finger. For a moment, Tsuzuki's heart stopped; had he been too obvious? Was he broadcasting too much - had the demon figured him out? The panic was short lived though; and apparently was mistaken for concern for his own privacy considering the response that was injected into the brunet's head.

/Oh please - calm yourself. You nearly shout when you're thinking hard; if I want to know what you're thinking normally, I have to make an effort listen in. Not that it takes much in this lovely body, but I can't usually be bothered./

"... You can go ahead," Tsuzuki muttered, "I'll let Tatsumi know we're leaving ... Meet where we normally do?" /At the cafe on the corner .../ there was a silent almost grudging map handed over to his psychic partner's body as the brunet envisioned the cafe he was referring to as well as corresponding street signs. The demon seemed to understand with no trouble because he said nothing about it. Tsuzuki's voice when he spoke aloud was far more restrained than it normally would've been had he and the blond been getting out of the office ... But it didn't show on Hisoka's face if the demon was suspicious; the younger Shinigami's body shrugged absently and strolled back towards Hisoka's desk, presumably for the demon to get Hisoka's jacket.

Now, Tsuzuki and Hisoka hardly went anywhere separately - which meant they didn't really have a 'usual spot' that they met ... But luckily, the demon truly didn't seem to have access to Hisoka's memories, because he never seemed to question it when Tsuzuki acted like something was normal, even if it wasn't ... Which was a small mercy here. It was probably banking on the idea that the older Shinigami didn't want anything to happen to his partner, so he didn't want anyone to think anything was strange about "Hisoka's" behavior ... Either way, Tatsumi would have no idea why Tsuzuki was telling him that the partners were going to go to their district so he had to go to the secretary alone and tell him what was happening. The demon thought that this was a legitimate assignment, if low priority, and a discrepancy with Tatsumi wouldn't fly.

Needless to say, Hisoka's blond head nodded, and a moment later he was gone. After a few more seconds of holding his breath to be sure he really was gone, the Shinigami let out a quiet sigh and slouched in his chair for a few moments. Eventually standing,Tsuzuki picked up the fake file and put it in his briefcase, putting on his coat and heading to the secretary's desk.

As the brunet approached, Tatsumi looked up from the paper he had in his hands, smiling when he saw his former partner. And, for a moment, when Tatsumi looked at him ... Tsuzuki had the overwhelming urge to tell him what was happening - with that last assignment, with Hisoka, with this demon ... Hell, he didn't even know what the demon did outside of the office. Hisoka's body always arrived at the office exactly when it was supposed to, and he left quite promptly as well. Which was perfectly normal for Hisoka, and evidence enough that the thing had at least some small degree of access to some of his partner's memories, or how would it know what time to get there or leave, or even how to get to the office?

It was another thing that he was trying not to let bother him; he had no idea what the demon was doing for a good 12 to 16 hours a day - and not for lack of trying. Any time he had gone to Hisoka's apartment after work, he hadn't been there; it had honestly looked like a cyclone had blown through it when he had gone ,which was extremely disorienting. Hisoka was the type of person to methodically put everything back where it came from once he was done with it - everything has a place and all. But this had just been chaos...

Violet eyes blinked as he shook his head; he'd stared off into space for a moment, and Tatsumi was giving him a vaguely concerned look.

"Aa, Tatsumi - 'Soka and I are going to Nagasaki ..." He had been afraid of that vaguely curious look on Tatsumi's face; the caramel blond secretary was obviously confused, as he had every right to be, because truthfully, Tsuzuki and Hisoka had no reason to visit their district as far as Tatsumi knew. However, it wasn't unheard of for Shinigami to take unsolicited trips to their areas, so he was reasonably confident he would get away with this.

"Just to check things out; the paperwork from our last assignment is finished, so ..." The brunet was hoping that, rather than get suspicious, Tatsumi would take this as him wanting to get out of the office, which had been know to happen during long stretches with no assignments.

"... ... Alright," Tatsumi said after scrutinizing the brunet a few moments and adjusting his glasses. Reaching into his desk drawer, he pulled out a sheet of paper, but Tsuzuki beat him to the punch. He knew the secretary was going to tell him to fill out a form, but he didn't have time for that, and he didn't want the demon to get suspicious.

"ThanksTatsumiwe'llbebacklaterby~~e!" The violet eyed Shinigami had sprinted out of the office and disappeared before Tatsumi could protest. Glancing at the door, normally he would shake his head at Tsuzuki's predictable antics, but this time there was just a small frown that the spastic Shinigami didn't see in his rush to escape the dreaded paperwork ...

Tsuzuki glanced around; more than nervousness, he was feeling agitation, though he was trying to mask it as best he could. He was supposed to be meeting Tomino, or Hakumi, or Hisoka's body, or whatever we were referring to the demon as today, in about two minutes. And then there was a long, drawn out yawn that he realized he didn't hear aloud, and Tsuzuki froze, eventually turning in the direction it was implied Hisoka's body would be. And speak of the devil, as it were, there he was.

"Soooo ..." the demon dragged out the syllable as it languidly stretched, exposing a thin, pale midriff. "Nice to finally get out of that stuffy office, ne, Tsu-zu-ki~~?" The brunet adjusted his sunglasses without responding. He normally wore them if it wasn't wildly inappropriate when out among the living, mostly so his eyes didn't draw too much undue attention.

In this case, it was to keep the disgust off of his face at the antics his partner's body was made to partake in.

"Oh Tsuzuki ... Those emotions are so delicious ..." the brunet nearly squwaked when arms were suddenly flung around his neck and the blond's body was pushed up against him. "They almost tickle ..."

"Get off of me," Tsuzuki snapped, semi-violently waving the blond's body off; he was getting extremely sick of these frequent invasions of his personal space.

"Oooh - so fierce and ... potent," a short laugh only served to irritate the brunet more as Hisoka's body half slid half danced off of him. "Alright, alright - I'll behave ... For a while, anyway." The demon made Hisoka put his hands on his hips and walk away from him a few steps before turning and facing the older Shinigami. He had no idea how to get Hisoka's body in that church .. But he did know one thing. This demon seemed to really like to talk ... About itself.

So maybe he could use that to his advantage.

Starting to walk away, Tsuzuki hunched his back and put his hands in his pockets; they had shown up several blocks away from Oura, to avoid arousing suspicion. He felt more than saw his possessed partner fall into step beside him as he started off.

"What do you even want with Hisoka's body? What are you trying to do, and what did you mean by how much do I think is left of him?"! There; several quiet, irritated questions at once. Hopefully it would take the bait.

"Why Tsuzuki, is this what you call work? We are here for a reason you know~~!" The tone is teasing, in that slow drawl he would never get used to, not that he ever wanted to. "But, lucky for you I couldn't care less about why we're here," the boy's body followed up as it was forced to put Hisoka's hands behind it's head, strolling a step or two ahead of Tsuzuki before he continued. Good.

"What did you want to know? What I meant by how much is left?" The demon in Hisoka's skin glanced at Tsuzuki sideways for a second before continuing, "wow, you must not know a whole lot about possession, huh, Kichiku-san?" The brunet was starting to become very tired of that nickname as well ...

"Here; let me paint a picture for you," he started, as he strolled ahead of the brunet a few feet. "Most demons are parasites; don't have their own bodies, so we need hosts like this sweet thing here," at that he'll pause, hugging Hisoka's middle and glancing over his shoulder at the brunet, "to stay in this rather delicious living world." Tsuzuki knew the demon was trying to get a rise out of him; and it wasn't doing particularly bad in that respect, which made the blond's body laugh.

"If you're upset about that, just wait until you hear the next part," he continued; the expression he flashed the brunet was another that didn't belong on Hisoka's face. It was a grin, but it was wrong; twisted ... Almost cruel looking.

"In order to keep the body from rejecting me ... I use 'Soka-kun's own spiritual energy," another giggle, "Pretty clever, huh? Honestly, you should be thanking me. The more developed his powers are, the more spiritual energy he has, and the faster it replenishes ... Which means the longer I go without consuming his life force to keep things comfortable."

Tsuzuki's steps faultered. His what? Valiantly he kept walking but ... It was consuming Hisoka's ... He'd never heard of that before - was it true? Or was he trying to upset the brunet, as the demon has been fond of doing in the past.

"Ohhhh - don't worry, Kichiku-san," the demon crooned, once again going back to the brunet as they walked and hanging on him irritatingly, "or rather do, but not over that. I'm not going to kill him or anything; where would that leave me? I'm not even going to hurt him; not really. I don't care much about the mind, but I wouldn't want to damage the body - it's far too fun to play with." Just keep walking - it's fine. Just keep walking, Tsuzuki mentally chanted to himself. They were almost there and the demon seemed none the wiser; he just had to keep this up for a little longer.

"Oh?" Hisoka's body took a few steps ahead of the brunet again, turning to walk backwards so it could face Tsuzuki this time. "Oh dear; are you jealous, Kichiku-san? Did you want to play with this body too?" The brunet knew it was coming, and reflexively shoved the demon off when it tried to push up against him. One disgusted half-snarl later, and he muttered,

"Cut it out. We're on an assignment." Hisoka's body let out a dramatic sigh, but the demon backed off, falling into step beside the other Shinigami.

"You're no fun; would it make any difference if we weren't 'on an assignment'? Or maybe you just aren't into having a voyeur? Would it make a difference if I wasn't here, Ki-chi-ku?" Tsuzuki ignored the question and the giggle that accompanied it; but his hands did curl into fists. Most importantly, he forced himself not to think about anything ... The last thing he wanted was the demon reading his thoughts.

They continued in silence, however that didn't last for too long.

"You asked something else too, didn't you? What I wanted this cute little body for? That was it, wasn't it?" Tsuzuki didn't acknowledge the question. He wasn't sure he wanted to know anymore, and it wasn't like it would matter much anyway if all went according to plan. However, the demon kept talking as if it had received some sort of confirmation from him. "Does that mean you haven't figured it out yet? Oh Kichiku-san; you're so cute!"

He managed to bite back the irritated growl, but only just as he hunched his shoulders slightly more and started ahead of them, walking purposely down the road and trying to ignore the demon's antics.

"Well," the demon continued, "if that's the case ... I can't very well tell you, now can I? Hi-mi-tsu!" (3) A small, exasperated, oddly unsurprised sigh was all that escaped him as he kept walking. Otherwise, he didn't respond; so once again they continued to travel in silence. For a few moments.

"Oh alright; if you insist. It's sort of like telling you what kind of demon I am. Not like there's anything you can do about it anyway, even if you do know." It seemed Tsuzuki's silence coupled with this thing's tendency to enjoy being long winded was enough to distract it into continuing to talk, even as they rounded the corner and faced Oura church. Tsuzuki was hard pressed to project disdain over the pleased sense that gripped him for a moment when he realized that the demon seemed none the wiser as they started towards it, but he managed to maintain his irritation.

He didn't even care what it was chattering on about at this point; he waltzed right up to the steps and started climbing them, silently grateful that they could bypass any sort of gate, because he had a feeling if they were interrupted or made to pause for even a second, the demon would realize where they were and react badly. It was almost like the brunet had tunnel vision he was focusing so hard on the 'assignment' - that was just what he kept ambiguously referring to it as in his head so the demon would think he was just trying to drown out the irritating chatter by only thinking about work.

Opening the large door irritably when they got to the top to further distract the demon, he heard the footfalls of his partner's body slow. It must have started realizing what was going on, which meant it was time for this charade to end. So, the brunet did the only thing he could.

Punched his partner's body square in the face hard enough to knock it out cold.

Tsuzuki knew he needed to work quickly - he had no idea how long that hit would keep it out for, and if he didn't at least have it bound by then, if not exorcised, the brunet wasn't sure what would happen. Luckily, his partner's body was already rail-thin, a point made more poingnant because the demon still hadn't "developed a taste for human food" or some such idiocy, so the body was even more light and gaunt than usual. Suffice to say Tsuzuki had no trouble picking his partner up, carrying him through the pews, and hiding him in a secluded corner of the church. He was taking a bit of a chance in going up near the altar to do this, tucking Hisoka's body in the small space between it and a statue with offering candles lit in front of it on a small bench, but ... He thought it might be more effective, and the place was pretty deserted; he had yet to see another person inside of the establishment.

Laying the blond down, he started to mark up the ground with a symbol to imobilize the demon - just in case it woke up still possessing Hisoka and was a little upset. (4) Diligently, he finished marking the lines of the sigil on the ground and muttered the words to activate it. There was a vague purple flash and that much was done at least.

For a moment, the brunet paused, looking at his partner. The blond's face was bruised on one side, and blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth ... The brunet felt a little badly about that, but it was all for a good cause - freeing Hisoka. He was just a little afraid of what might happen to the younger Shinigami ... He couldn't quite shake those words; how much is left? The demon had been right; if he damaged Hisoka in the process of removing that thing, he would never forgive himself. But, he'd also never forgive himself if he didn't try.

Shaking his head, he knew he needed to stop procrastinating; it was now or never. Taking the blond's hand, he didn't have anything sharp to do this with, so he had to rely on his teeth to draw blood from one of Hisoka's fingers. That done, he took out the blank spell tag he had with him, and using his partner's bleeding fingertip, he wrote out the demon's name, Tomino, in the characters that could also be read as Hakumi. Setting Hisoka's hand back down, he let out a shaky breath as he set the tag that was now inscribed on the ground for easy access before clasping his hands, two fingers of one extended in much the same way he did when summoning his shiki.

However, he was startled by a voice just before he started the chant to remove the demon that was possessing his partner.

/You stupid ... Sonuvabitch/ the demon's slightly taxed, slightly amused, mostly intensely irritated voice nearly shouted in Tsuzuki's head. /I don't need to be able to move to fight you./ Before the violet eyed Shinigami could react, he noticed a light moving out of the corner of his eye. Several lights, actually.

Tsuzuki was just able to move out of the way as laughter resounded in his head, and not only did the candles from the offering bench whip towards him, but the entire bench did as well. Picking up the prepared spell tag with Tomino's name on it and shoving it in his pocket, he managed to get out of the way, pulling out a tag. He hadn't realized the demon was able to use Hisoka's abilities do well. He'd seen it move small things before, but it was only seldom and was always accompanied by a gesture of some kind. Clearly he'd underestimated its abilities, but he could fix that -

/Not if you can't concentrate~~!/ there was a sudden screeching, as if someone were abusing a few hundred violins in between his ears. A groan escaped him, and he put his hands over his ears, though that only seemed to amplify the noise further. Gritting his teeth, he could hardly register words being said above the sound.

/I can take feelings away from you, and I can dish them out too./. And suddenly, the painful, screaming noise in his head was dulled down and ... the brunet had the sudden intense urge to help his partner. It was like he still knew there was a demon possessing Hisoka's body but this seal was hurting the blond somehow. It was like all of the sympathy and protective urge he'd ever felt towards his partner surged up in him to the forefront of his mind ... And without his consent, he started to reach towards the markings he'd put on the ground to disrupt them so they'd no longer be in effect.

No no no nonononononono- Tsuzuki was helpless except to watch his own hand slowly erase one of the lines on the floor the moment it was gone, the Shinigami flew across the room, slamming back first into the wall hard enough to produce a cloud of dust. The brunet's vision blurred for a moment, but he immediately forced himself upright even as the taunting began.

"Awww ... What's wrong Kichiku-san? Can't bear to hurt your poor, widdle, pawtner?" Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself up off of the ground, thankfully not having damaged the building irrevocably.

"I hope you don't think that's all I'm capable of ... Kichiku-san ..." A slightly manic giggle escaped Hisoka's body, wide green eyes staring at the Shinigami as he slowly approached Tsuzuki. "Because we are just getting started." As the trench coat clad Shinigami was made to fly again, he realized he was going towards a row of pews, which was likely to have unpleasant consequences for both him and the furniture. Drawing a shield ofuda (5), he was able to cushion his fall a bit from the angular backs of the wooden, boxed-in seats as a few quick little claps cut through the silence obnoxiously. If Tsuzuki didn't know any better, he'd almost say the demon was excited about all of this ...

"Suzaku!" Well, that was soon to change as the phoenix's cry pierced through the room to accompany the ball of flames that escaped from her. National Treasure or not, with the abilities this demon had exhibited dominion over, the violet eyed Shinigami knew he needed to end this fight sooner rather than later. Which meant pulling out all of the stops, and quickly. So you can imagine his surprise when Hisoka's body just giggled, and made no move to dodge.

/Do you really want to damage this poor, frail little body ...?/ The taunt came just before the fireball hit his partner's form and Tsuzuki froze. However, he apparently needn't have worried; the flames that should have consumed or at least badly damaged Hisoka's form flared up before very suddenly being snuffed out as another short, manic giggle resounded.

"You should see the look on your face Kichiku-san. Priceless!" Violet eyes narrowed. No one could stop Suzaku's flames - he didn't care how powerful this demon was, so what had just happened?

"I do prefer feeling that delicious anger of yours; but the confusion just tickles! You're right, no one can stop Suzaku without a lot of preparation and power. Except you, of course. She's just a big softie! She won't attack someone unless you want her to, and you wouldn't want this cute little body to be nothing more than an ash stain on the wall ... So she won't make it happen." More tittering laughter. "See? You can't beat me while I'm in this body simply because you won't."

Tsuzuki will look down at his own hand in disbelief for a few moments. He'd never ... stopped Suzaku-onee (6) from attacking after he'd already summoned her. It was true though. Hisoka's body would heal up to a certain point, but if he went too far to get this demon out, there might not be much for his partner to retake control of, and Tsuzuki knew that.

"Mmm uncertainty now. You are just a buffet of flavors." Ok, Tsuzuki was sure he wasn't going to be able to exorcise this demon outright unless he distracted it first. He'd just be stopped as long as it could use Hisoka's powers and move around freely. Violet eyes searched the room for something he might be able to use to his advantage while the demon spoke and approached him. Tsuzuki couldn't care less about what it was saying, so long as it kept monologuing because that gave him time to think of a plan. He couldn't stop the demon from moving around with a seal, and that hadn't gone well before ... So, what else could incapacitate his partner's body? Nothing really; he just used to yell when Tsuzuki felt something too strongly and got too close to him ...

And then, their first meeting in the library occurred to him. When he hadn't know about the blond's abilities, and had been so angry with him ... It was almost like Hisoka had started to shut down with the way he staggered back from the brunet and had nearly collapsed. Hmm ...

"-but, since I can tell you aren't listening, it doesn't matter at all that I just explained exactly what I was doing in your partner's cute little body all this time when you weren't around." The brunet didn't even let the statement phase him as he heard it. It didn't matter. He was exorcising this thing, or he was going to die trying.

Think ... what used to overwhelm Hisoka ... Tsuzuki thought to himself quietly, thinking far more loudly about how he was upset that he hadn't heard whatever the hell the demon had apparently explained to him a moment ago. Thinking in two continuous streams at once was difficult, but he had to manage it. He had no idea how to tell if his mind was being read or not, and he had to assume it always was, or else the second he didn't at least try for a decoy, the demon would know anything he was planning.

This thing seemed perfectly pleased to feel emotions from him; he kept bringing it up and almost praising him for it in a weird way. It was always worse for Hisoka when someone came into direct contact with - aaand it suddenly felt as if Tsuzuki had been backhanded with a brick. His head snapped up, neck bending at an uncomfortable angle, and he was honestly in a bit of shock. His partner's body was nowhere near him so he was surprised, but in retrospect he supposed that really didn't matter.

"Pay attention. Stop trying to come up with some way to fight back, it won't work; I've already proven that. Twice." The teenage body made a gesture, and it felt like something was forcing Tsuzuki to kneel, pulling and pushing on him at once to get him to sit up so straight he felt his neck straining, and it absently occurred to him that, Shinigami or not, he wasn't sure he could recover from his head being pulled off.

"Do you know how easy it would be to just tear your head off right now? Or maybe just slowly choke the life out of you?" He felt something constrict around his throat, even though he knew there wasn't anything there . No. No it couldn't end like this; he had to help Hisoka. He'd come too far to just let himself die. "Perhaps snapping your neck would be a better method?" Another little laugh, this one marginally less hysterical than the last few had been.

"Mmm, panic. Haven't felt that from you since ... Well, since after I asked you how much of your beloved partner was still left in here." The voice taunted, but Tsuzuki ignored it. If he was going to do something, he had to think fast.

"You can't beat me! Just stop trying; you just care about your poor ickle partner too much. Too bad I'll have to get rid of you; it's more messy than I usually operate, but apparently you aren't attached to him enough to keep quiet and just let things be."

The Shinigami that was straining to breathe suddenly whipped through the air, careening into a wall. Tsuzuki's breath came in short, uneven bursts as he crouched behind a pew, using the back of it to keep himself upright as he felt a broken bone knitting itself back together. He had no idea what to do. The demon was right, no matter how much Tsuzuki struggled against it he couldn't attack Hisoka. It was a little hard to turn off years of concern and caring about someone just because it would be convenient.

"Awwwww. Tsk tsk tsk, giving up already, Kichiku-san?" he ignored the nasty croon in his partner's voice as Hisoka's body walked slowly towards him like the demon had all of the time in the world. The blond body came into Tsuzuki's line of vision and it suddenly felt as if his entire being was hit by a giant fly swatter. A strangled noise escaped the brunet as he slumped against the pews, Hisoka's twisted, sneering face moving into view.

"That's ok; you're smarter than I pegged you for, honestly," the words were almost floating away from the trenchcoat sporting Shinigami as the blond's head swam slowly in and out of his vision. The mouth was moving, even though Tsuzuki eventually couldn't hear what it was saying anymore. And he couldn't see the pale, thin fingers that wrapped around his throat, slowly choking away his air. Even if he did, he would have been too disoriented to do anything about it.

But, what he did notice and could see was his partner, Hisoka. The loud mouthed brat; his partner. When they'd first paired up, he'd never thought it would work out between them. Sure, the blond was sort of cute when he was asleep, but he more than made up for it when he was awake with his short temper and attitude. Coarse, angry, jealous, defensive ... Hisoka was all of the bad traits you found in a stubborn little kid. And yet, he was all of the good things too. Mistrustful, yes, but once you earned that trust he was loyal nearly to a fault, even if he would never in a million years admit it. He acted worldly, but he still had the naivete of a child because of the sheltered life he was forced into while he was alive. And, he didn't do it often, since he prefered to feign anger or displeasure or annoyance rather than show it when he was actually happy, but when he did ... Suffice to say it wasn't a mystery why Tsuzuki couldn't shake the fond attachment he had to the blond.

It took a few moments for the brunet to realize that Hisoka's face, contorted by rage, was no longer in view. Brow furrowing, the violet eyed Shinigami, no longer held in place, dragged himself into a sitting position and saw Hisoka's body, kneeling on the ground, clutching at his own shoulders and head. This was familiar to the brunet, he had seen it before ... Tsuzuki's brain attempted to make sense of the situation as quickly as possible, and realized that it was the same reaction Hisoka had had to Tsuzuki's anger when he'd found the boy in the library just after they'd met. But, Tsuzuki wasn't angry now, and this wasn't the library ...

Eventually, his slightly oxygen deprived mind caught up with the rest of reality, and it occurred to him that the demon inside his partner was screaming at him, demanding that he stop.

"Auugggh! I can't stand it; what are you doing!? STOP!" But stop what? He didn't understand; all he'd been doing was thinking of Hisoka. Tsuzuki decided almost immediately that he didn't care; it didn't matter, now was his chance. Pulling out the ofuda he'd prepped earlier, the brunet began that chant, advancing closer to his partner's body, spitting out the syllables as quickly as he could and still remain accurate. It looked as if the demon was starting to recover from whatever had been injuring it, but was still disoriented enough that he wasn't countering immediately, and that was all the pause the brunet needed.

A guttural scream erupted from the perpetually teenage throat as the Shinigami came to the end of the exorcism. It didn't bother Tsuzuki as he continued on as loudly as he could, concentrating hard as he finished the kuji-in (7) that would rid his partner of the demon. However, it seemed the thing wasn't leaving without one final display of violence, because as the scream escaped, a wave of Hisoka's energy slammed into Tsuzukiand hard, sending him flying into the wall with enough force to damage it and nearly bring part of it down.

As he was knocked back, the brunet's head hit the ground, and then there was nothing more he could do; the world went dark and both his body and his partner's slid to the floor.

Black; everything is black.

But it's something I've become accustomed to.

I don't know how long I've been here for, and it probably doesn't matter anyway. I'm sure I'll never leave. For some reason, it doesn't bother me. I don't feel anything about it, even though I probably should. But wait ... No. Everything is more like gray. Even now ... flowers could grow in this darkness.

"Now ... let's persuade your powers to ... blossom ... Shall we?" A rhythmic noise tap tap tapped nearby, the sound slowly escalating as it came closer to the point that it was almost deafening. "It really is a shame." There was a voice. Green eyes blinked slowly. Someone was speaking to him from far away, or at least, that's what it seemed like. Blinking again, his vision started to clear, and he saw something gray approaching him. No, not gray ... Silver. "... That I didn't kill you that night." This silver person was speaking the blond realized as his awareness slowly became more stable. "You were far more beautiful then."

He felt his body being moved. He'd been laying on his stomach, looking up, but something, a foot perhaps, pushed him over so he now laid on his back. It was when the man leaned over him to begin methodically unbuttoning Hisoka's denim jacket that he vaguely realized who it was.

"You aren't as scrawny as you were the last time we did this," Muraki commented absently, as if this were something they had decided to do together as the jacket was removed from the blond's heavy, lethargic arms, "but you aren't putting up nearly half the fight." The last time they did what ..? His thoughts were slowly colliding with one another; the blond shinigami couldn't think. Every time he tried to focus on something, he felt sick. He could hardly make sense of anything, and he barely registered a sway in his vision as the orange shirt was pulled over his head. This however seemed to wake the blond a bit, because his sluggish muscles reacted, attempting to push the silver figure away as his mind struggled to comprehend what was happening.

Muraki's only response was to scoff and push the disoriented hand away, and it didn't return to continue the protest. Even if it hand, to Hisoka it looked like there were three of the silver man. He probably would've missed the real one anyway. Through the strangely shifting shadows that kept darkening his vision, he realized that the man with the piercing violet eye had pulled something from underneath his coat; it glinted in the sparse light. The knife was familiar, he thought hazily. Not this particular knife, but the fact that one existed like this. Except this one wasn't covered in blood. Someone else's blood.

Or maybe that had been the moonlight on the clean blade.

The muscles in his brow twitched slightly; why would there have been blood on the knife? Moonlight isn't red, is it? Hisoka's head was starting to hurt. It was like he was having flashbacks to the present, like an extremely strong case of deja vu. But, it also felt akin to looking through a kaleidoscope. Most of the time what he was seeing didn't make any sense, but eventually the picture came together and for a few moments the blond could make sense of things before they twisted out of focus again.

His awareness sharpened however when he felt the first cut. Hisoka didn't know if he'd made a sound or not, but there was a sudden intense, almost burning pain in his left wrist. The young Shinigami tried to recoil, but he didn't have the strength to do much else besides squirm. He couldn't pull away from the grip the pale demon had on his forearm.

"Tsk tsk. Hold still; wouldn't want to make a mistake." the voice still sounded like it was coming though some strange filter, or like it was speaking from a long way off. Looking at his own arm, he watched in a daze as Muraki cut open the flesh in an oddly recognizable pattern. As the blood started to flow more freely, it was odd - how it sort of started to clear his head, and at the same time, it made everything seem not only like it was far away, but also like it was echoing. "It's futile anyway ... Far more so than the first time. Having a demon exorcized from you does tend to tax the body. Leave one weak and ... pliable."

The blond might've said stop. He thought he'd said stop, but that also could have been a thought itself. Either way, his body didn't seem to be responding well to any prompts Hisoka tried to give it. That sharp feeling of injury spread down his arm to his shoulder, then to the other arm. As it moved, as new marks were carved into his pale flesh, the sensation of it changed. By the time he was pushed over onto his stomach again, it wasn't just a sharp cutting feeling. It was almost like it started to burn. As if there was something crawling into his skin through the wounds. Something incorporeal. Unnatural.

He couldn't hear the words Muraki was saying, or even really identify the fact that he was murmuring something at all. But he had the faintest idea that the marks, oozing red with his blood, began to glow as if they were coals on a fire. Orange, yellow, red ... Maybe he was hallucinating, but he didn't currently possess the capacity to even consider that as what felt almost like tiny, burning insects crawled under his skin, covering every inch of him as the knife moved over and through his flesh.

The blond was turned back over once the skin on his back had been covered with that burning, crawling pain, and he could hardly breathe as he laid there, unable to see the ceiling his vision was so dark. Shapes blurred past his vision as the cuts went down his chest, almost like falling cherry blossoms. But then, he was under a tree, wasn't he ...? Maybe that was why he had such a hard time focusing, he hadn't been able to sleep ... right? ... But at the same time, it felt like he had been sleeping for far too long.

The cuts continued, that fire scorching his legs and thighs; he could hardly writhe in pain at this point, his body was so exhausted, and so foreign to him. It was almost like he had been exiled from his own skin, and just now put back into it.

He heard the knife clatter to the ground as Muraki put it on the floor, and he hardly understood what was happening. It was like he had a fever and cold sweats all at once. Like he was sick and hyper focused at the same time. Almost as if something was in him that shouldn't be. Dull green eyes gazed at the glowing, hot, painful marks. He knew this was wrong.

"You remember what comes next, of course? To ... consummate ... the spell?" the voice was closer this time, and heavy green eyes blinked again. For a moment all he could see was a hypnotic, glowing purple; he didn't realize it was an eye looking at him. But the moment passed when there was a sudden sharp movement. Those green eyes widened as he choked on whatever air he had in his lungs, and his body went rigid as it was abruptly and intimately intruded upon.

All the blond Shinigami could feel was pain; that terrible, familiar pain he'd felt so long ago. Pain he could understand, though mercifully, or perhaps cruelly, it was all he could feel. Oh, he could feel the white demon's body against his, pushing against him, forcing him open, caressing his hair in some mock display of tenderness, spreading his own red flowering blood into it. But he couldn't feel anything else. It was so strange. He was supposed to feel that calm, cold, methodical mind ... Twisted, cruel lust ... But it was like there was a wall stopping him from feeling that memory. Feeling anything, really. Pain, he could feel physical pain, and did, but ... he couldn't feel anything else.

"No screams? None of those beautiful tears?" the doctor chided, as if the blond were meant to do these things, and it was strangely rude if he didn't. He vaguely heard the man above him grunt as he moved more fervently. Hisoka could feel his shoulder blades grinding against the rough stone floor, but his listless muscles would hardly allow him to wince. He was so disoriented. Physical pain ... That he felt in spades. But upset, disgust, shock, outrage? Nothing. He wasn't even sure he knew what those things felt like. He wasn't sure of anything. The blond wasn't even sure he should be feeling those words. To Hisoka, they were just that. Words, and nothing more. Emotionally they meant nothing to him.

"Here; perhaps this will inspire you," he heard the white devil murmur before Muraki grabbed his chin a bit roughly and forced it back at an extreme, uncomfortable angle. "Your precious Tsuzuki is right there. If only he were awake, perhaps he could save you." Another grunt of exertion from the extra force Muraki moved with to accentuate those words, and for a moment the blond's vision blurred from the spike of excessive pain. Ts... Tsuzuki ...? It looked like the brunet was sleeping just a few inches away, upside down because of how Muraki forced the perpetual teenager's head back.

Strange, this sudden discomfort lasted more than a second, and the source didn't appear to be the additional pain Muraki seemed to be making an extra effort to cause. As his body was jostled even more roughly and forced to yield, flopping like a boneless, broken doll, Hisoka faintly realized that his vision had blurred as his partner's face went out of focus slightly. Then, he felt something wet rolling down his cheek ... a tear.

He was crying?

Strange.

But, even stranger still ... ... he couldn't figure out why.

Tsu zu ku ...

(To be Continued)

Footnotes:

1 - "Hakumi ni mukae ni" means "Welcome Hakumi", almost like a command he's telling himself.

2 - Oura Tenshudou is a Catholic church in Nagasaki. Known as the church of 26 martyrs, it is said to be the oldest church in Japan, and was the first western style building in Japan to be declared a National Treasure, and remained the only western style National Treasure for many years.

3 - "Himitsu" means secret, and Hakumi is being irritating and dragging out the syllables ...

4 - Sort of stealing the Devil's Snare from Supernatural here; similar idea ... xD

5 - An Ofuda is a paper spell tag; Tsuzuki uses them from time to time.

6 - Suzaku-onee is what he calls her; the suffix sort of loosely translates to 'big sis'.

7 - Kuji-in is a chant or mantra. Refer to an anime like Ghost Hunt or Tactics; the chants that are never translated because they are supposed to be written in Sanskrit, and so they can't be translated - usually it sounds something like "On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan".