I do not own DNAngel
"She's not going to wake up for a while. Why don't you get some rest?" Offered Kosuke, holding a cup of tea. Satoshi was sitting on the bed against the headboard in Shizuka's room. He was shirtless, but had bandages covering most of his upper body. Over the huge slice in his chest was a cloth that tied around him in the back, since none of the bandages were big enough. Shizuka was lying next to him, still unconscious and surrounded by the green light—since there was a lifetime's worth of damage to repair, it would be a at least a day before she could wake up. Daisuke had fallen asleep in the living room a while ago.
"I want to be here when she does." He replied. Kosuke came forward and put the tea on the nightstand.
"In that case, this should help keep you awake." He said, slightly amused. "You really should try and get some sleep, though. Your wounds need to heal, too."
"I'm fine." He said, his voice serious and mature. Kosuke took a seat on a stool next to the bed.
"You know, that cut should have killed you. Not so much the initial impact, but the loss of blood. From what Daisuke told me, you were still fighting even after you got hurt. You know what let you keep going?" He asked. Satoshi shook his head. "That pendant around your neck. Even though you didn't see or feel any sort of magic, that's what stopped that cut from killing you. It's an amazing artifact—not Hikari magic, though." He stood and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
Satoshi was hit with sudden realization. It hadn't even crossed his mind that the wound was fatal, but now that he thought about, anyone else would have died from that. He brought a hand up to the pendant hanging around his neck—the one Shizuka had given him. It's really subtle magic—I didn't even feel it working.
Satoshi sat up a little bit, cringing all the while. His wounds still burned and ached every time he moved, so he didn't want to take a chance and lie down. He reached for the tea that Kosuke had left on the counter, and took a small sip.
I hope the police found him alright… He thought, thinking of his father. He'll be charged with breaking and entry, kidnapping, and child abuse. That's a life-long sentence.
He took another sip of tea, then turned his attention towards Shizuka. Whatever bruises she had gotten had healed. Satoshi placed his free hand over one of hers, immediately feeling the warmth of the glow around her.
……………………………………
"Did you give him the tea?" Asked Emiko. Kosuke nodded his head and took a seat at the table next to Daiki. She sighed, putting a small blue bottle back in a cabinet. "Thank goodness. He should fall asleep soon, then. He won't get any better if he stays awake all night. The sleeping drug should numb the pain, too."
"Sleeping drug?" Asked Daisuke, who had just woken up. He stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. "What sleeping drug?"
"O-oh, you're awake? Nothing, just something to help your friend." She said nonchalantly.
"You drugged Hiwatari-kun?! Why do you do this to all my friends?" He exclaimed. While he and his mom bickered, Kosuke flipped through an old, worn out book with pages torn and pictures shoved between pages. It was hand-written, and the pictures were hand-drawn, all sketched in charcoal. There were notes in the margins, and odd symbols adorning the cover. He pulled out one drawing from the back of the book. It was a sketch of a fireplace with an open bottom—a hidden door. There was no signature or date on the painting, but judging by the book's appearance, Kosuke figured it to be several hundred years old, at least.
"I'm going to go tell him not to drink it!" Shouted Daisuke as he began walking towards the hallway. His mom began to protest, but Kosuke stood and stopped her, holding her back gently.
"While you're there, can you put this in his back pack for me?" he asked, handing him the book. Daisuke nodded his head and turned the book around in his hands a few times, examining it. He exited the kitchen and walked down the hall to Shizuka's room. The door was opened just a crack, and the lights were still on. Daisuke swung the door open and tiptoed inside. Satoshi was already asleep—he was still sitting up leaning against the backboard. Daisuke sighed and took the half-empty cup from the nightstand.
I think drugging people like this is illegal… oh, well…
He put the book in Satoshi's backpack against the wall, and walked over to the bed. Shizuka was asleep on the far side, and was still glowing vibrantly. Daisuke pulled the covers back a little on Satoshi's side and carefully maneuvered him from sitting upright to lying down—he was in such a deep sleep that he didn't even stir. When he was finally in a seemingly comfortable position, Daisuke pulled the covers back over them, then turned out the light and closed the door.
They really do make a great couple… Now I just have to tell Riku-san…
…………………………………
Kosuke leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms. He was seated at a computer desk, with a laptop running and a book opened to the last page. He had finally found what he was looking for—the town that the resource of the book, "Art Myths", was living in. He had gotten the book from Satoshi's backpack earlier that day, and had read the Cultural Reformation section from start to finish.
"Are you still reading that book, Kosuke?" Emiko asked, flicking on the lights in the dark room. She began dusting off the pieces of furniture.
"No, I'm finished. Say, Emiko… what do you think of taking a little vacation in a few months?" He asked casually. She stopped what she was doing abruptly and spun around to face him.
"Vacation? Since when do you plan vacations?" She asked suspiciously.
"Well, I just thought that the kids—"
"So you do mean everyone."
"—Could use a break now that everything is over and done with… after all, they have some major adjusting to do, what with Daisuke getting used to not having Dark around, and Satoshi's father in prison… I'm sure Shizuka doesn't know anything really about how to use her powers now that she has them…"
"And how will a vacation solve all this?" She pressed, still suspicious of his motives.
"Well, I think it would get their minds off everything."
Emiko sighed and walked over to the computer. "Just tell me what this is really all about."
Kosuke opened a page up to the local airport's website and typed in the name of a town. Only one flight was leaving for that destination, and it wasn't direct. They would have to take three planes to get there.
"This town is in Hokkaido? Why there? And in the middle of nowhere…"
"Actually, it's an old village with its roots in art history. Look, the resource of this book lives in this town. Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to ask him what he knows on the Cultural Reform?" He said nonchalantly.
"I knew it! I knew it was something like this!" She said, flipping through the book on the desk. "I don't see exactly how this is going to 'get their minds off of everything', though."
"I think it would be a good experience. After all, how much do we, hundreds of generations and miles away from the roots of the family's history, really know?"
Emiko sighed, then counted on her fingers. "We need seven tickets. That is, if Daisuke plans on taking Riku along as well." Kosuke smiled and began clicking buttons and typing in information.
……………………………………
By the time Shizuka woke up, it was already late morning. Sunlight was streaming through the window, and there was bustling in the hallway. She sat up dazedly and brought a hand up to push her hair back when she noticed that she was glowing bright green. She blinked her eyes a few times, then threw the covers off her. Sure enough, her entire body was glowing. She looked around the room in shock, unable to remember anything after fainting in school and falling asleep next to Satoshi, still feeling sick. Now, she felt wide awake and better than ever.
The next thing she noticed was that Satoshi was still sleeping next to her, only he had slashes and bruises all over his face and shoulders. She pulled the blankets back slightly, revealing the bandages that wrapped around his torso.
What's going on? Where did all these cuts come from? And what's this green…
"Oh, you're awake? Good morning!" said Daisuke from the doorway. "Do you feel any better?"
"Yeah… Niwa-kun, what happened?" She asked, observing the glow around her arm.
"Oh, wait… you've been unconscious the whole time…"
"How long?
"All of yesterday, up until this morning, I guess." He said, taking a seat on the foot of the bed. "The curse is broken now."
She waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "Wait, what? How?"
"I'll let Hiwatari-kun explain everything to you when he wakes up." He said, smiling. "It's kind of a long story."
"But how did he get so…"
"He fought really hard. I think you should hear the story from him." He got up and started walking out the door. Shizuka turned back to Satoshi and covered him with the blankets again. She had so many questions to ask—the last time she'd been awake, she was too weak to sit up, but now she felt stronger than she had ever felt in her life. And to think she had been unconscious for only one day.
She could hear excitement in the hallway—Emiko and Daisuke were just outside her door, and it sounded like Daisuke was trying to convince her to leave them alone. She could also hear excited talk coming from the kitchen.
If the curse is really broken, I guess everyone is celebrating it…
She was about to get up and walk around the room a little bit, when she felt Satoshi start to stir next to her. He slowly tried to sit up, clutching his head tightly, but just sunk back down. The pain in his chest was still searing and preventing him from moving. Shizuka knelt next to him on the bed and placed a hand on his shoulder where there were no injuries. His head snapped up and he turned his body towards her carefully.
"Don't move too much—" she started, trying to push him back down. He sat up anyway, clutching his side and bending over slightly. His hair hung down over his face.
"You're okay? How do you feel?" He asked, his voice a little shaky.
"How did all of this happen? You're all beat up—who did this to you?!"
He let out a dry laugh, followed by a few coughs. Shizuka kept a hand on his shoulder the whole time, feeling him start to shiver. She took one of the blankets and draped it over him, but kept her hands on his shoulders to help him in case he started to lose balance. When the coughing subsided, he finally raised his head and looked her in the eye.
"Hikari-kun, what happened?"
"My father kidnapped you. He must have drugged us or something—we didn't know until morning. Daisuke and I went to find you, and we went to the well from the other day. It had a fake bottom, and led to a chamber with the Black Wings. That's why you were drawn there—my father was tampering with magic and trying to lure you there."
His voice was a little groggy as he spoke. Shizuka slowly lowered her hands from his shoulders and waited for him to continue.
"When we found you, you were unconscious. He had this rutile he used to give your life to the Black Wings, then he released Dark and Krad with black magic and forced them to join together again. Everything was messed up—he was trying to break the curse by repeating history." He stopped for a minute to catch his breath, and broke eye contact.
"I… I tried to fight him, but everything was happening so fast, and there was nothing to do to stop it... you were still dying. I tried to break the rutile he had used, but it didn't work, and you… you died, Shizuka."
"W-what?" She half whispered.
"After that, I was so angry… the Black Wings was alive, and it was just standing there breathing and flapping its wings… I ended up breaking it, and then it returned everything it took from you." He said quietly. He took one of her hands in his, feeling the warmth of the light surrounding her. "You've been recovering since then."
"All that really happened?" She asked.
"Yeah. But my father's interference really left its mark. Dark and Krad were forced out with black magic—Niwa-kun didn't even get a chance to say anything to Dark before he disappeared."
"Where is he now?"
"Prison. We won't be hearing from him ever again." He said quickly, a hint of relief in his voice. Suddenly, he started coughing again, and Shizuka turned to leave to get him some water. Just as she was about to get up, Satoshi drew her back in and wrapped his arms fully around her.
"W-wait, I don't want you to make your injuries worse like this—" She protested, trying to slide out of his grip. He only pulled her closer, burying his head in the crook of her neck.
"Please… just stay still. You have no idea how I felt back there when you…"
She sighed and slipped her arms around his neck gently. They stayed like that for a while, before finally, the glow around Shizuka disappeared. It dissolved off her body into thin air. Satoshi pulled back a little, letting her new appearance sink in without the glow.
"I can't believe how different you look, Shizuka."
She laughed nervously, brushing her hair back. "I hope that's a good thing…"
Suddenly, something caught her attention. She started examining the large cloth wrapped around Satoshi's torso while he continued talking.
"It is. I—wait, you shouldn't—" He began when she started feeling for the knot of the cloth around his back. When she found it, she pulled it loose and carefully removed the cloth without disturbing the slice beneath it. Before Satoshi could realize what she was doing, she reached out and placed her hand lightly over the cut, causing him to shudder slightly. Satoshi's whole body became engulfed in a green aura, similar to the one that was currently surrounding Shizuka again, and the wound began disappearing. When the first one was gone, she traced her hand up to the next deep one and so on, until they were all disappearing. The process felt warm, and sent a light, tingling sensation throughout his body. When all the wounds were completely gone, the auras disappeared as well as all the pain.
"That was… incredible… thank you." He said after a period of silence. "But do you think you should be doing stuff like that so freely? After you just got better?"
"Would you rather be bed-ridden for the next month? Besides, I wanted to try it out." She said bluntly. Shizuka tossed the blood stained cloth aside, examining her work. All traces of any bruises or cuts were gone. Now that he wasn't wrapped in bandages, she noticed for the first time that he wasn't wearing a shirt. He wasn't muscular by any means, but his chest was slim and toned. She blushed, then turned away quickly and hopped up off the bed to look for a clean shirt he could use.
"And anyway," she continued, murmuring more than speaking, "you saved me before, so I want to eventually return the favor."
"You already did." He replied, holding up the pendant that was still around his neck. "Those wounds would have killed me if you hadn't given me this…"
She picked up a white cotton shirt that was draped over a chair in the corner of the room, and was about to hand it to him, when she realized that it was still stained with blood. She sighed and walked back over to the bed. A silence settled over them again. Shizuka sat at the edge of the bed with her feet dangling off, drowning in her own thoughts.
What do I do now? I'm free—I can do whatever what I want, so why do I feel so lost?
"Is something wrong?" He asked, scooting closer.
"No, of course not. Why?" She said hastily.
"I thought you'd be happy, now that the curse is broken. Are you?"
"I am. I really am. I just can't really believe it, that's all." She confessed. "I don't know what I should do with my life, now that I have it…"
Satoshi smiled and shifted so that he was sitting in the same position as her, his feet hanging down. "You can just take one step at a time. You don't need to decide everything right now." He wrapped an arm around her waist. "And you don't need to decide it on your own."
"What are you going to do now, Hikari-kun?" She asked. She had started swinging her feet back and forth. Satoshi frowned slightly at her question.
"I don't really know, I haven't thought about it yet." He said just to answer her, not really going into much thought afterward. "Shizuka? Can you call me by name from now on?"
She looked up to see Satoshi's troubled expression. He continued, "I never really asked for your permission to use yours but…"
"Of course!" She exclaimed, trying to hold back a laugh. "And you didn't have to ask for my permission!"
Just then, Kosuke opened the door holding two glasses of water and what looked like white cloth. His expression was amused and surprised.
"What's all the excitement? I didn't know you two were awake yet." He set the glasses on the table. Satoshi and Shizuka both became a little more serious, and Satoshi withdrew his arm from her waist almost as soon as Kosuke had walked in the door.
"Well, it looks like you're all better." He said to Satoshi, handing him a clean shirt. He slipped it over his head and on. "That's good. I wasn't sure if you would know how to heal him, Inochi-san. We would have called a doctor, but we figured it was better to keep the general public away from magic, and we were afraid to move either of you from the bed."
They both nodded their heads, and Kosuke sighed and sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the room.
"I just wanted to let you two know that you're welcomed to stay here. I know you're both independent and I respect that, but you don't need to distance yourselves. I think a family environment would be good for you. Especially now that everyone needs to adjust to their new lives."
He paused, watching the two of them sitting next to each other awkwardly, since they were in an adult's presence.
"Also, and I hope you don't mind my butting in, I think that it would be a good idea for you two not to rush your relationship. You're both still young. You should be around a bunch of other people—you don't have to live by yourselves anymore. And if you decided to rush and move in together—hypothetically, of course," He added, seeing their embarrassed faces, "I'm afraid that you'll put too much strain on your relationship."
"W-we're not thinking anything like that…" Shizuka said quickly, followed by a nod from Satoshi. Kosuke smiled and stood up.
"Well, all that aside, you're both welcomed to stay here. We encourage you to stay here—we have plenty of room." He gave the couple one more glance before walking out the door and closing it.
When he left, both of them let out a sigh of relief and stretched from their uptight positions. Shizuka let herself fall backwards so she was half lying on the bed, with her legs hanging off the sides. Satoshi stayed seated on the edge facing the floor.
"Niwa-kun's parents are really nice."
"Yeah, Niwa's lucky." Satoshi replied, looking back at her. He gave an amused smile, then fell back to mimic her position. They both lied there for a minute, staring at the ceiling. The room they were in was like a haven from the chaos outside—it felt like its own little world at the moment. The sunlight streamed through the blinds creating patterns on the ceiling and walls. Satoshi slowly sat up, still leaning backwards but holding himself up.
"I think… I want to keep living on my own."
Shizuka sat up too, waiting for him to continue.
"But not the apartment my father gave me. I'm going to find somewhere I can keep and afford on my own. I'll continue working with the police for now, and I'll keep going to school." He said. Shizuka smiled and nodded her head.
"Then I guess… I'll move back into my apartment." She decided. Satoshi looked back at her in disapproval.
"You should stay here. Niwa's family will take care—"
"No, I don't want to stay here. I came here to live on my own, so that's what I'll continue doing. I already had a family—I don't need to latch onto anyone else's." She said. Now that she was actually talking about her plans out loud, she felt much better and much more excited to continue her life. "I do like it here, and I love Niwa-kun's family, but I don't want to become dependent on them."
She looked back at Satoshi's discontented face, then giggled. "Don't worry—I love you more."
Satoshi sighed. "If you're going to leave, at least find an apartment in a better neighborhood. I'll help you look."
"Thanks, Satoshi."
…………………………………
"Here we are. Seven plane tickets for June 18th to Hokkaido. Three plane connection flight." Emiko said reluctantly, holding out the tickets to Kosuke. "I still don't know why we're doing this. We haven't even told any of the kids yet, let alone asked their permission."
"Trust me—they'll come." He said confidently. He took the tickets and placed them in an envelope and into a drawer. "Where's Daisuke?"
"I think he went to meet up with Riku and explain everything to her." Emiko said. "I wish I could be there when he does—this is so exciting!"
"I hope he brings Riku back here afterward. This way, we can tell all the kids about the trip together." He suggested.
"Poor Riku will have a lot to absorb by the end of the day!" She exclaimed. "But do you really think this little town has so much to offer?"
"This is going to be a great experience—I'm sure there's stuff about our family's history that's dwindled down to nothing over the years. The town we're going to is the core of art history. Specifically, The history of the Hikari artworks." He reassured her.
"Sounds more like a field trip than a vacation."
………………………………
AN: Okay, so. I know I cut the chapter off at the worst possible spot, but I'm not too worried about it, because the story isn't over yet. This was the first half, so the second half will be a continuation, not a 'sequel'. (I've decided that's how I'm going to word it).
Anyway, thank you to everyone who read this to the end, and for all the lovely reviews throughout the story! I won't be taking any sort of break before I start, so part II will be up as soon as I update my other story, the same way I balanced this one. Updates will continue regularly, so please stay tuned. I don't have a name for part II, yet, though, so unfortunately if you want to read it you'll have to be on the look out for it. And also, I write a lot on my profile under the 'news' section, so if I haven't updated in a while, you can check there to see what the hold up is.
Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed the first half of this story! Please review this one last time to give your input!