This looks like it's shaping up to be a four parter, minna-sama...interesting interplay between Jyou and the Kaizer in this one...
Faith Lost
Part One
Jyou awoke to darkness and silk. Glancing around at his surroundings, he realized that he was stretched out on a humongous bed. There was an almost phosphorous glow surrounding the pure white bed sheets, making the surrounding darkness of the room seem endless, as if he was forever lost in some formless void."Good morning." A darkly teasing voice caressed his ears. For one frightening moment, Jyou half thought the other boy was laying beside him, until he figured out the voice was coming from somewhere else…out of the very walls, it seemed. Now he was assaulted by biting laughter.
"What…is this place?" Jyou choked out through a sudden dryness in his throat.
"Your room." The Kaizer chuckled at the other boy's bewildered expression from his control room several stories away. "Were you expecting a dungeon cell?"
"Yes." Jyou found himself responding with a coolness he certainly didn't feel inwardly. He wondered if the room was designed purposely to be so unnerving, and immediately decided it was a likely probability, given his captor. His warden was speaking, Jyou realized dimly, jerking his attention away from the surroundings.
"Let's review your situation." There was a sharp edge to the Kaizer's voice, and Jyou instantly understood another thing about this boy: the Kaizer was used to his captives reacting with fear, anger –anything but calm acceptance.
Whereas Jyou couldn't seem to make himself react any other way.
This was not looking good.
"You have free range of my fortress," Jyou could hear the other boy's smirk. "Except for the locked doors." Obviously.
"I thought I was your prisoner." Jyou said to the voice in the air.
"How uncouth." Amusement, bitterly dark. "I much prefer the term 'guest'."
A pause, giving Jyou time to digest his current circumstances.
"You will be given food and water. But…in exchange…"
"Yes." Jyou wished his jailer had less of a flair for the dramatic, and more of a way of getting to the point.
"I expect information. If you withhold information, then I withhold your food."
"I'm not going to betray my friends." Again, a calm promise, rather than a passionate exclamation. This boy was interesting…now, if only he had displayed a bit more wit…
It was a long time before the laughter in the air died.
I'm glad someone finds the situation amusing. Jyou thought darkly.
"Spare me. If this exchange gets any more cliché, I'll be explaining my master plans to you and boasting that I have a device that can blow up the world."
Silence.
"I don't care about your little friends. They're nothing to me. I want to know about you. Personal information, that's all."
Two hours later, the questioning started.
***
"Tell me about your family."
"My family?"
"Yes, your family. Are your ears as bad as your eyes?"
Something mumbled into the silken bedcovers.
"I'm sorry; I didn't quite catch that." Mocking and harsh, and with the air of someone who's enjoying themselves immensely.
"I said, 'You're not much of a host to your 'guests'.' Then again, I doubt you get that many visitors with your manners."
In the inky shadows of the control room, the Kaizer's lips upturned in a slight grin. A fascinating development; it appeared this one did have a bit of a spine after all. Not many would respond to an insult from the Kaizer with one in kind.
"Do you have any siblings?"
A long pause before a reply.
"Two older brothers."
"That doesn't tell me very much. Elaborate. What about your parents?"
"Well, my oldest brother is a doctor. Or, actually, he's finishing up his last year of internship at the hospital. My other brother is currently studying in Kyoto with his professor. My father is a doctor at the same hospital my oldest brother is interning in. My mother is dead." It was strange talking to someone he couldn't see, almost as if he was holding a conversation with himself.
The sensation was unnerving.
"Do your older brothers tease you?"
"Sometimes. Don't all older brothers?"
"The house must be lonely, with your middle brother being out of town, and the other members of your family working at the hospital. Don't doctors keep long hours?"
"Yes, that is a fairly common trait."
"Do you sit down to dinner as a family?"
"When we're all there, yes."
"I take it by your tone of voice that's not a common occurrence."
"You said it yourself, doctors keep long hours."
"No, I asked you. You said it."
"Would you like to argue about it?"
"Perhaps sometime later…" There was almost a tinge of real amusement in the other boy's tone. For one scant second it felt as if Jyou was having a conversation with a friend, rather than someone who was keeping him hostage.
"I have one more question."
"What is it?"
"Do you think anyone will notice you're gone tonight?"
A deadly silent jab to the heart, it came so quickly that Jyou didn't even have time to flinch.
Will anyone notice you're gone tonight?
His father usually didn't make it home until sometimes two in the morning, considering the commute to the hospital. And his older brother left at the same time his father did. Even with juku, Jyou would come back to a house that curled around him like a clammy wet blanket, chilling him with emptiness. Dinner was often a bowl of instant noodles, or what ever he could find in the refrigerator. The television's company was harsh and tinny, with forced laughter and exuberant voices echoing ghostlike through the apartment.
Once he had stayed up silently in his room, unable to sleep. He wondered if his family ever checked on him when they got home, just to make sure he was there. The door to the apartment had opened. Heavy footsteps down the hall. Neither of them paused at his room.
And he had felt as phantasmal as those voices from the television set.
"No…" Jyou finally replied to the darkness. They won't notice I'm gone tonight…
Will anyone notice you're gone tonight?
This room felt like a tomb.
***
"It's all my fault!" Before the younger boy could collapse into tears again, Takeru moved to comfort him.
"It's okay…" Takeru murmured soothingly, unknowingly a mirror image from a time long ago, when his brother was there to soothe him. "It's not your fault."
"There was nothing you could have done, Iori-kun." Hikari, moving to rub the boy's back consolingly.
Not one of them spoke, but they were all wondering…
Somehow, the situation seemed out of their hands. In the Digital World, they were heroes; they had control over the situation. But like the clothes they gained and shed in their coming and going, so did they lose their power when they came back to their world. They became children once more, bound by the rules of their elders. With those rules came a feeling of helplessness.
What could they do?
Who was going to tell Jyou's family?
What were they going to say?
Not one of them spoke, but they all were wondering…
And finally, they said the only thing they could.
Nothing.
***
"I'd like you to dine with me tonight." The dark voice from the cool atmosphere around him, it floated around him, stroking his ears.
"Hmmm, I don't suppose I have a real choice."
"You were the one who said I should be more hospitable to my guests."
"Did I? I thought I merely drew it to your attention." Light, almost mocking. Touché, Ken thought, recalling his earlier words.
"Perhaps we should both pay more attention to what we say."
"Perhaps we should…"
There was a sound, almost like a glass breaking. And harsh angry breathing filled the air.
"Don't presume to try and play a game when you have no understanding of its rules!"
"Is this a game? I wasn't aware I was in any position to be a player. Perhaps you're only playing with your own shadow…"
Ken didn't like this little development one bit. He had to regain control. Certainly he wasn't expecting his opponent to wrest it from him so easily. Opponent? He banished the thought from his mind. This was an insect, a bug to be crushed at his will, and his will alone!
"Why would I need to play with shadows when I have an excellent little toy right here in front of me?" There, just right. The perfect blend of lightness with sinister overtones. The effect was unmistakable.
Dead silence.
tsuzuku