Title, "Shubusa" means "Red Marks" or "Red Welts"
Shubusa
A certain Shinigami groaned, and tried to roll over slightly before opening his eyes ... Which sent a shooting pain up his leg and made him gasp, immediately ceasing all movement. Violet eyes snapped open as a voice addressed him, trying to focus on something besides the sharp, stabbing pain in his limb.
"Tsuzuki? Hey – you awake?" Eventually, he identified the speaker as Watari, who was getting up from a chair and coming over. Then there was a bright light and his eye was being pulled open awkwardly … Tsuzuki made an uncomfortable noise and tried to squirm away as the other held him down and checked his pupils. "Oh hold still; I'm just checking a few things."
After he was sufficiently poked, prodded, and moved around in unpleasant ways, he managed to get a question in edge-wise.
"What … happened?" Watari's gold eyes furrowed slightly as he frowned a little at the question. He was jotting a few notes down on what Tsuzuki assumed was some kind of medical chart or something, so for a few moments, he didn't respond to Tsuzuki's inquiry. Finally, after Tsuzuki had been holding still and waiting for a good thirty seconds, he put down the chart he was holding along with the pen and looked a the bed-ridden Shinigami.
"What happened to your body? As far as I can tell a mild concussion and a broken leg. It won't be fully functional for a couple of days at least, but you should at least be able to walk on it ... As for what you were doing at Oura Tenshudou … Well, we were hoping that you could tell us that." The orange haired scientist pulled himself up onto the windowsill of the small room, sitting and looking at Tsuzuki intently for a breath before continuing with, "when you left the office earlier today, Tatsumi mentioned to me that you were acting strangely … I told him that was silly, and you were probably just going stir crazy after recently having your first taste of a job outside of the office, but he wasn't convinced … But, I was in the middle of something, so he followed you by himself, and, I guess he found you and Bon unconscious in the middle of some mild destruction at a National Treasure or something ...? So you know, no big deal there or anything …"
Watari's wry voice trailed off as he noticed that Tsuzuki had stopped paying attention to him the moment he had said anything about Hisoka. He sighed in exasperation, honestly surprised he hadn't been completely interrupted so Tsuzuki could find out where Hisoka was or what had happened to the blond. But that didn't make Tsuzuki's lack of response any less frustrating. Getting down from his perch, Watari took two strides towards the brunet in the bed. The movement garnered no response.
"Oi. Tsuzuki. Ooooiiii …" Waving a hand in front of the brunet shinigami's face seemed to be enough to re-capture Tsuzuki's attention, because he blinked and shook his head a little with a disoriented 'huh?'. Watari sighed as he shook his head a little, putting his hands on his hips. "You can go see him if you want; he's still sleeping though, so not much of a conversation partner … Not that he ever really is, to be fair."
Unsurprisingly, that was all the prompting Tsuzuki needed as he immediately set to freeing himself from the blankets on the bed, ignoring whatever pains he felt in his leg, which weren't rare at the moment. However, the other Shinigami in the room took another quick step forward and put a hand to Tsuzuki's chest to stop him. Confused violet eyes looked up at Watari for a few moments, mostly because the orange-haired male had a suddenly very serious expression on his face.
"Before you go Tsuzki … I need to know a few things first. And I need you to know a few things as well." Tsuzuki paused; the tone in Watari's voice matched his expression. Whatever it was, it was obviously important. Nodding slowly, he sat up, paying close attention. The orange haired Shinigami, in response, let out a slow breath, pulling his original chair to the side of Tsuzuki's bed and settling in what he hoped woudl be a productive chat.
"I ... probably should start from the beginning, actually. Earlier, Tatsumi came into the lab - totally unannounced by the way, which I've told him a million times is a good way to lose a limb ... But anyway, he came in, completely disrupted an experiment, and insisted that something was wrong with you and Bon. I told him I didn't understand what he meant, so he explained that you had come into his office about an hour ago and told him that the two of you were going to Nagasaki. Which didn't sound weird at all - I do think that Bon had been particularly grumpy recently, but I told him not to worry about it. He was totally convinced that something bad was going on though ..." Watari trailed off here, putting a hand on his forehead and running his fingers through his bangs a little, curling them in his hair about half way through.
"So, I mean," he continued, "in retrospect maybe it wasn't the best plan, but I told him to just go and check on you himself. It wasn't like either of you would notice he was even there if he didn't want you to." This was perfectly true; with Tatsumi's abilities, if the shadow user didn't want you to know he was present, you would have no idea. As he listened, a sinking feeling started gnawing at the brunet ... If Tatsumi had seen Tsuzuki fighting with Hisoka when he was possessed, then ... He would know what happened, or at the very least he would have known something was very wrong. And he would know that whatever it was, Tsuzuki hadn't told him. Guilt immediately started to set in, but Watari alleviated his fears almost immediately.
"He had a hard time finding you ... I guess until there was a strange red light for a moment, kind of like a beacon or something ...? That part's still a little fuzzy." At that statement, Tsuzuki was just confused. There was a what? "It flashed just long enough for him to get up to a higher vantage point and see that it was coming from Oura Church, so that's where he went ... ... And he found you and Bon."
"But wait ... what was the light?" Tsuzuki asked, and Watari shook his head with a sigh, putting his hand to the bridge of his nose, adjusting his glasses slowly. Whatever he was going to say next, clearly he didn't want to tell Tsuzuki; but eventually he seemed to resolve himself and continued on.
"We don't know, but ... What we do know is ..." Violet eyes stared intently at the overseer of Kyoto, waiting for his response. After a pause, Watari continued, "what we do know is that you were unconscious; so was Bon ... And it looked like his curse had been repeated."
"What!?" the shout came before Tsuzuki gave it permission, flying out of his mouth as he immediately went to jump out of the bed, clearly going to find Hisoka. Nevermind that he had no idea where Hisoka even was at the moment ... But a hair of very solid hands put themselves on Tsuzuki's shoulders, and forced him back down, which was sadly easy due to the state of his leg.
"Tsuzuki - calm down. He's still sleeping; rushing in there isn't going to help." But that did nothing to quell the brunet's anxiety; he had known Muraki would try something. Even if he hadn't believed that the white demon had nothing to do with all of this, he shouldn't have told him anything. And he shouldn't have blindly done what the man had suggested; this was all his fault, if he had just stopped and thought for a second ... "Tsuzuki calm down, you're only going to hurt yourself! We don't know if that's what happened; I mean, Muraki-" Is alive! was all Tsuzuki could think, but he stopped himself before he said it. "is gone, so ... The problem is what actually happened ... And I take it from your reaction that you don't have any idea."
"No ... I really wish I did though ..." Tsuzuki frowned; it was true in so far as after he fell unconscious he had no idea what happened. Of course, he knew why they were in the church, and he knew about Muraki, but ... Watari didn't know that. And for now, the less he knew probably the better.
"Ok; why don't we start with what happened in the church then? Why were you there in the first place?" Looking down at his hands, he avoided looking at Watari's face as he tried to think of an answer. What could he say? I went there because a demon has been possessing my partner for the past few weeks, and I couldn't tell anyone because he was threatening to kill Hisoka, so I have been trying to piece together how to exorcise it, and I only now was able to do it? Assuming that it had even worked; honestly Tsuzuki didn't know. That was the other reason he needed to get to Hisoka before the blond woke up - what if that demon was still in control? Answer - it was likely to be angry, and attack the first person or thing it saw ...
"I ... I don't remember. We were just walking around and ... ... something happened? I think? ... It's really fuzzy ..." It was probably one of the lamest excuses in history, but Tsuzuki was having a hard time thinking over his intense upset and worry at not knowing how his partner was. Watari frowned before nodding slowly.
"Well, like I said you did have a concussion; you must have taken a hard hit to the head at some point." He stood from the chair, and Tsuzuki couldn't help looking up at him. Watari wasn't looking at him though; he had his hands in his pockets and was half facing the door. "But, if you do remember anything, let us know - it could be really important. Both for the bureau and for Bon ... He was, uh ... He was hurt pretty badly when Tatsumi found him." The injured Shinigami winced painfully, hearing the grim tone in the scientist's voice. There was a long silence before anyone said anything, but eventually Kyoto's overseer broke it with,
"Come on - I know you're not going to sleep without seeing the kid, so let's go. I'll show you were it is, and you can relieve Tatsumi from babysitting duty." Sliding out of bed less enthusiastically than his previous attempts, he winced when he jostled the injured leg; there was an oddly flexible splint sort of device on it underneath his pant leg, which made it far easier not to fall over when he attempted to stand. "If you don't think you can walk on it, I can get you crutches; I just figured you wouldn't' want them."
To prove Watari right, Tsuzuki proceeded to hobble across the room after him, heading for the door so that they could go to another room in the infrimary. He was sure it wouldn't be too far away - probably right next door, honestly; the hospital wing wasn't particularly large, after all. The scientist said nothing as they traveled the short distance, as per expected, knocking lightly on the door to let Tatsumi know they were coming in before he opened the door slowly. Tsuzuki stepped into the room they were keeping Hisoka in as the orange haired Shinigami held the door for him. Watari was right; Tatsumi was sitting in with the blond, who appeared to still be asleep. When he saw the secretary, he didn't say anything, and neither did Tatsumi. But he did stand from the chair he was sitting in, moving towards Tsuzuki and, by proxy, the door.
"I'll leave him to you." the words nearly made Tsuzuki sigh with relief. He knew that Tatsumi wouldn't have been saying that if he knew what the brunet had neglected to tell the resident scientist, but ... The violet eyed Shinigami made no move to tell him anything either. He needed to talk to Hisoka. Alone. And if Tatsumi was leaving without any persuasion, then the brunet didn't want to say anything that would make him change his mind. So instead, Tsuzuki just nodded nodded with a smile he hoped looked sincere and a whispered 'sankyuu'.
Tatsumi gave him a slightly unreadable look, but he didn't say anything else. He continued past the brunet to where Watari was still holding the door, exiting and letting it close behind them. Tsuzuki let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding after he heard their footsteps go a ways down the hall before he glanced over at his partner. Hisoka appeared to be asleep, green eyes closed, mouth slightly open. According to Watari, it had been less than a day since they had gone to Oura Church, but ... Because this whole ordeal had been going on for much longer, not that either Tatsumi or Watari knew that, it felt like time had been protracted. Sighing quietly, he managed to drag a chair over from the foot of the bed where Tatsumi had been sitting to the side of the bed, hobbling a little as he went. he managed to stop it right next to the bed, sitting down gingerly. He was glad that his leg had healed as much as it had while he was unconscious; accelerated healing definitely had it's perks. At the moment it just felt like a shooting pain up the entirety of the limb - a far cry from how it would have felt if he had been trying to walk on it while it was still completely broken.
Pushing a few strands of hair out of his face, he let out another breath before glancing back down at the blond that was in the bed ... And green eyes met his violet.
"Hi ... Hisoka!? You're awake?" Tsuzuki started slightly when he realized his partner was looking at him; he had really thought Hisoka was sleeping. His tone was hesitant though; he still wasn't entirely sure this was his partner he was speaking to ... "Are you alright? How do you feel?" Green eyes watched Tsuzuki's face as the brunet spoke, but they were unfocused, as if Hisoka wasn't looking at the older Shinigami at all, but instead was staring through his skull and straight into his head. It was slightly unnerving, but the older Shinigami didn't let it phase him. He wasn't sure what to expect from his partner after what the blond had been through, so he certainly wasn't going to judge any of his behavior.
"You're hurt." The flat tone in the statement made Tsuzuki pause without meaning to ... So he didn't really give an answer to the allegation. His voice was so devoid of emotion … It wasn't even like when Hisoka was irritated and used that dead-pan to let the brunet know he wasn't amused. There was just … Nothing. Also, how he knew the violet eyed male was in pain was anyone's guess – there was no visible evidence of his injury thanks to the fact he was wearing pants, which meant there was no indicator to the perpetual sixteen year old that the brunet was aware of.
However, he didn't have time to dwell on that, because his injured leg, which Watari told him would take a good few days to heal fully suddenly … Stopped hurting. Entirely. No fanfare, no spectacle, hell Hisoka didn't even blink, but … Tsuzuki couldn't help but stare at his leg, pausing a few seconds before tentatively moving it. Nothing. It wasn't even asleep. There was no pain, no discomfort, no resistance in his muscles ... Nothing. Tsuzuki's leg was very suddenly perfectly fine.
"… 'Soka … Did you just -?" the brunet didn't finish the thought or the sentence, letting it trail off. The blond had begun looking at the wall, and for the life of him the brunet couldn't decide if he was being heard or not. At least he was reasonably assured that this was Hisoka; the blond wasn't trying to kill him or anything, which was a good sign. Gingerly, he decided to ask a simple question and see where it got him.
"Did you just heal me?" he hadn't known Hisoka to be able to do that but ... For some reason he just had a feeling that was what had happened. There was no evidence, and nothing to back the claim up, but honestly what else could it have been? Green eyes flickered over to the now-well Shinigami for a moment before glancing back at the wall.
"Yes." came the quiet, slightly parched response. And that was all; no explanation, no nothing. And whatever he was looking at on the wall that separated the small room from the hallway on the other side must have been extremely interesting, because he was still staring at it... Not as if it were interesting actually. It was more like he was looking at the wall because that was where his eyes happened to fall. Tsuzuki decided to leave the sudden rather miraculous healing talent alone for the moment. Instead, he asked a different question.
"Do you ... remember what happened? In Oura church?" Tsuzuki paused a little at the question before tentatively adding, "or before we went there ...?" Hisoka continued to look at the wall that separated the room from the
"No." Green eyes flickered to Violet, and once again it felt like Hisoka was just looking inside of his head. "Is there something to remember?" It was almost like he was looking for the answer to the question before Tsuzuki had a chance to even try to respond. Again, the feeling was slightly unnerving, and he wasn't sure what to make of it really ... But what he did know was that he needed to block himself off from the blond, if only to allow him to continue this conversation without being terribly distracted the entire time. The mental walls went up, and very slowly, Hisoka tilted his head to the side just slightly, but it was the only indication that he'd noticed, if he had in fact noticed at all. After a few more moments' pause, Tsuzuki remembered that he'd been asked a question, and set to trying to answer it.
"It's nothing; I just ... wasn't sure if you remembered ... going to Unzen National Park," he asked, choosing his words carefully. He wasn't sure if Hisoka even remembered being possessed - and if he didn't, Tsuzuki wasn't sure if it was the best idea to tell him right this second.
"... ... Unzen and Oura Church are nowhere near each other." Violet eyes furrowed slightly in confusion before he realized; Hisoka thought he meant they had gone to Unzen before they went to Oura church. Which meant that Hisoka had no idea what he was talking about. Holding up his hands and waving them back and forth, he laughed a little and said,
"Nevermind; it was a strange day - no big deal if you don't remember ..." he trailed off as he happened to glance down at Hisoka's hands, which were sitting on top of the blanket covering his lower half, and he saw that his wrists were bandaged. ... It looked like his curse had been repeated .. Watari's words echoed in the back of the brunet's head, and he paused a moment. If the demon had been exorcised successfully, and at the very least it seemed like it had, then ... Well, the last thing he remembered was finishing the Kuji-in to banish the demon, and then being thrown across the church ... Which mean that if Muraki had done anything, it would had to have been after the blond was rid of the demon ...
And then he realized that Watari told him that Tatsumi had found them both unconscious.
So if Muraki, or anyone for that matter, had done something to the blond, then Hisoka might not even know. He might have been unconscious for the whole thing - especially if he said he didn't remember what happened at the church at all. Which, from what he knew about what Muraki had done to the boy the first time around, might've been a small mercy. Standing from his seat, and still slightly disoriented that the pain in his leg was totally gone, he said,
"Right well - I'll let you rest. You don't need my big mouth bothering you." He knew this was wrong. His partner seemed completely out of it; maybe he hadn't even noticed that he was injured the way that he was. Tsuzuki didn't know - but whether he hadn't noticed yet, had noticed and wasn't acknowledging it, or noticed later, it didn't matter. His partner deserved to know what had happened. But then again ...
No one was actually sure of what happened. Or what the ramifications of the curse being enacted a second time even were. If that was what happened. Which it might not have. And it was a painful memory besides; there wasn't any reason to bring it up unless they were absolutely sure about what happened ...
Tsuzuki knew it was wrong, but he pushed that guilty feeling down and ignored it as he put his chair back against the wall where it belonged. Heading to the door, he turned back towards his partner, who was still watching him intently with those sharp green eyes, and he raised a hand with a smile.
"Feel better soon, ne, 'Soka-kun ...?" Closing the door behind himself carefully so that it didn't make a loud noise, Tsuzuki left the room with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He should have been happy that everything seemed to have worked out alright in the end; Hisoka might have been spared the pain and turmoil of the entire experience, but at the same time ...
The secrets were building up ...
No one knew that Muraki was still alive, or that he very likely had done something to Hisoka. Hisoka didn't know he'd been cursed again or worse ... Hell, Tsuzuki was the only one at all that knew Hisoka had been possessed in the first place. After he got a fair distance away from the room the blond was situated in, he leaned his back against the wall and sighed, putting a hand on his face and closing his eyes. Everything would be fine. If he just kept telling himself that, then everything was going to work out fine.
The only problem with that was, he wasn't sure he believed it.
Owari.
(The End.)
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! This is the end of the first fic in a trilogy I have planned. I know it takes me a while to update, but I do hope it's worth the wait! And, as a special treat, if you look on my profile, I have posted the prologue of the next fic in the triology on my account; it's titled Child's Play. So in a way, this update is sort of like two for the price of one!
All I have to say is that now, it's Tsuzuki's turn … ;)
