A/N: I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY EVERYONE! Please forgive me for updating so
late!!!!!! I'm really sorry! It's just that this past week a lot of things
came up. . . LOTR: The Two Towers, I finally get to hang out with a close
friend whom I haven't hung out with for over a year. . . . Gomen!
This is, unfortunately, the last chapter but before you bash me over the head, * grin* there will be an epilogue. . . so watch out for that really soon, ne?
Oh yeah, after this story ends, I definitely will start on the story of how Kyo & Taka met and it will still be under the Yami no Matsuei category as I feel that the two of them are really part of that universe now, so please take the time to read it when it comes out!
Oh yeah, does anyone want to be my muse? I'd love to do a new arc/storyline for our bishounen but am currently out of ideas. Anyone?
Lin.exe: Thank you for that really amazing review you gave. I loved it! And I love your fic too!
Poison-Ivy: Read on!
Ice-Phoenix: Gomenesai! Hontoni! Btw, how's your computer doing?
Lil Yaoi Kitten: Aw. . . .thanks. . . I did consider writing seriously but my muse left me. . .would anyone be interested in filling up that position?
Shaynie: I hope you like the way I did this chapter!
Daemonchan: Aha, gomen, gomen, well, here's the next chapter! I can't help it, I love Kyo-Torture. It doesn't help that M.s Author also loves it and constantly encourages me to do it. . . . Anna: Yeah! Damn Akuma!
DeathAngelCreo: You're question is answered. . . .
CHAPTER 19: If I Should Fall From Grace
Hands were reaching out to him from the deep darkness of the black that surrounded him. Hands that were pale and fleshless yet as substantial as steel as they swarmed over and around him, grasping, pulling, guiding.
He didn't mind them. He knew that they were trying to help him, to show him something. Something he was desperately looking for but cannot find. He needed their help for it and he was grateful they had appeared. Those hands stopped in their gentle exploration and waited, as if asking a question.
/Are you ready?/
And he let himself fall back into their embrace and they guided him deeper into the dark, well beyond the reach of man or god.
Kyo dreamt.
* *
{Words came to him, even as he flew the starless depths of that place those hands took him. It was as if he was there and not there at the same time. His subconscious seemed to have been divided into two. One that was searching for the answer, and the other that kept a light and tenuous hold on that thing you called presence of mind and sensation of body.
His other self didn't mind this separation and the subsequent drifting from his body. It distanced him from the pain of the curse until he was barely aware of his surroundings. But the words came to him. They ought to have meaning to him. He was sure of that. But all they are were just that; words.
". . . . .proud. . . Shinigamis. . . .have failed. . ."
". . . . . .human?"
The voices should be familiar too but he didn't care. It was nice, just floating here, a white hazy shroud blanketing his vision and the words coming to him first loud then soft. . .like the chirping of birds on a breezy summer's day when the winds would snatch the trilling, dancing them so close you could almost touch it and in an instant, laughingly ran away with it until all you could hear was a faint hum, barely a sound.
He dreamt}
*
Kyo was standing in Josui High's soccer field. His old school. He was wearing his soccer uniform, the dark green jersey and white shorts just as he remembered them, his name emblazoned across the back. He was clutching a soccer ball in his hands and he stared down at it in fascination. It was amazingly smooth and shiny, the leather untarnished by wear and tear, gleaming slightly in the last rays of the evening sun.
That ball of fire splashed streaks of red across the verdant green sea and showed him that he was all alone on the field, the grass seeming to stretch far off to disappear into the horizon. And lying innocently on the emerald carpet, were hundreds of those same, pure white balls, gleaming and winking back the red light of the setting sun.
He blinked in bemusement. Those guiding hands had brought him here and he looked around in consternation. He will not find the answer here. This was not the place and time. The answer is not here.
Those hands came back and wrapped a warm embrace around him. The darkness claimed him back.
*
{". . . . . sacrifices. . . prolong life?"
". . . . .of course. . . ."
". . . .why . . ."
". . . . .death. . . .Shinigami. . . .judgment. ."
He really wished that those voices would just go away and leave him alone. He liked the white haze and that alternate dual feeling of travelling through comforting dark. He wanted to be where his other self was, riding the waves of his memories and help search the answer but he couldn't.
There was another answer here. One that could help him. One that he had to search for.
But what?}
*
"Everyone has all these smart and grand sounding theories of the origin of magic and they all think that they themselves are correct," Grandfather harrumphed in disapproval. He took a slow drag from his tobacco pipe and blew out a smoke ring, hovering indecisively in the still air of the evening, only to be whisked away by an errant breeze.
Grandfather. Yes, Kyo remembered him. The old man with his neatly trimmed white hair and who was lounging in a worn robe in that small room, on the opposite side of the low table, wasn't really his grandfather. He had a name. . . .but for the life of him, Kyo couldn't recall it. Their first encounter, Kyo had teasingly called him that and it has stuck. Kyo never really knew his own birth grandparents so he was quite happy to have one to call.
The fact that they were both dead was a simple matter of physics. Kyo had only just recently accepted the post of Shinigami and had been assigned to the old man by Enma to train in 'jitsu and in mastering his own birth power; controlling the elements.
Kyo sat back on that threadbare cushion, a thin barrier from the tatami but he didn't mind. An indulgent smile crossed his face as Grandfather continued to smoke in silent contemplation, letting the evening breeze carry away his ghostly rings. The shoji had been slid open to do just that because as much as he liked the old man, Kyo simply could not tolerate the smell of tobacco while the old man was addicted to it, even in death. So they had come to a compromise.
"Tell me some of the theories," Kyo asked, a curious tilt to his head. Life as an ordinary high-school teenager had never exposed him to such exotic studies and he was curious. The first time he had been taught 'jitsu, he nearly drove Grandfather crazy with the number of tracking birds he had folded and played with, just for the fun of it.
Grandfather shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, the usual, a god falling in love with a maiden, accidentally giving his child the power of gods, thus creating the first magic in the world, or a god carelessly dropping his magical powder on some unsuspecting sap, the usual." He gave a glance at the boy. "All total crap if you ask me."
"So what is the true origin of magic then?"
Grandfather appeared to give his question serious thought, contemplating on his words and frowning over the intricacies of succinct speech. At last, he shrugged again and said, "I have no idea."
He let Kyo roll around on the floor, clutching his sides as he laughed until he cried, and when the boy finally let up with an occasional hiccup, he explained further.
"But I do know what magic is," Grandfather raised an eyebrow meaningfully. "And it isn't all that mumbo-jumbo crap either."
Kyo sat up straight and gave the old man his full concentration. Grandfather looked pleased at that and went on.
"Every form of magic; omnyoujitsu, witchcraft, voodoo, all of it, is basically manipulations of the elements. Because that's what magic is. It's using everything that's around you and twisting it around until you get what you want.
And everything around you, is nature. Nature is made up of the elements of fire, earth, water and air. Self-inherent powers though, are different," here, he nodded at Kyo, making sure he was listening.
"Powers that you were born with are natural things itself. Governed by nothing but your will and mind. Like one of the Shinigamis you'd be working with, that Kurosaki. I heard he's an empath."
"So," Kyo started slowly, trying to piece together what he heard. "Magic is basically nature and nature is made up of the elements. My born powers is apparently controlling the elements . ." he ended in an enquiring note.
Grandfather nodded in agreement.
"So where does that leave me exactly?"
"You boy, are one of the lucky few in the whole world who in essence controls the very fibre of magic. You power is magic itself, not manipulating magic."
Kyo was quite impressed by that. It was all still very confusing on how he can use magic but it's actually not magic but is still magic but it was all very impressive anyway. Grandfather caught his rather baffled look and sighed.
"In other words, YOU are magic incarnate. It's in your blood."
The hands came for him then and pulled him away. That small room and its occupant faded from sight and he willingly let the darkness take him. He still had other answers to search for.
*
{Those words were still there, buzzing around him, trying to slip inside him but he refused to let it. It still wasn't time yet.
Time for what?
What was he waiting for?
Oh, yes, he was searching. . . . . .for an answer. . . . to what?
The white haze had thicken and they now seeped into his very body, numbing it and driving away the pain even further until it was but a memory. He liked that. He opened himself more to let the haze in and-
PAIN. SO MUCH PAIN. IT HURTS!
With a painful gasp, Kyo felt his two awareness being rudely wrenched back and meshed together, two realities once again merging as one as the fire filled his body, mind and soul. Why was this happening? Why?
He looked up to see a curtain of blood hair and golden eyes.
Akuma.
Just as suddenly it came, the burning fire left him, leaving him weak with the aftermath and the curse still burning dully within. He remembered then.
He was searching for the answer.
Eyes that had regained some awareness when that tidal wave of hurt had crashed into him, slowly faded until those dark orbs were once again glazed and empty.
He had to find the answer.}
*
He was just about to finally find the answer, those hands eagerly tugging him forward when he felt himself wrenched back by the pain. It filled his vision and awareness until all that he was became lost in that sea of torture. When it finally receded though and he saw his tormentor, he knew that time was running out. He had to be quick.
Once again, the hands came for him and he let the incoming darkness swallow him.
The answer was waiting.
*
{" . . . . effort. . . . .dying. . . ."
Something gleamed in that returned white haze. Something so repulsive and totally repugnant that it sent a shimmer of pure wrongness into that white of his vision and managed to tear enough of it away that he got a look at the source of that evil.
A knife. A cruel knife. A flash of insight came to him as the blade shone with reflected light and he understood.
A blood-knife.
Was that his answer?}
*
He was in the school library, facing one of their huge windows and letting the rosy glow of the evening light fell on him. He closed his eyes in dreamy bliss as that glow warmed him up and sent sparkles of color dancing beneath his closed eyelids.
Taka was busy in the infirmary, tending to a student and Kyo had promised to wait for him in the library while he finished up. The place was empty by now, the students gone home for the day and the librarian herself had stepped out. Kyo opened his eyes and regarded the shelves of books before him lazily.
He wasn't really looking for anything particular that day and his wandering eyes fell on a slim volume, nearly hidden by the two thick books of history that sandwiched it. He lifted the small book out of its place and gave a curious glance at the cover. It felt like velvet, smooth and rich and beautiful, cursive letters were stamped in gold foil on the front.
'Words From A Stranger'.
Intrigued, he opened the book and flipped through the pages idly. It was a book of poems and his roving eyes fell on one that caught his attention.
It was short but the sheer poignancy of it caught his breath and he mouthed the words silently;
'If I were to cry
Would you be the one to wipe these tears dry?
If I were to laugh with mirth
Would you be the one to have given it birth?
And If I should fall from grace
Would you be the one to save me with your embrace?'
A hand crept over his from behind and gave a gentle squeeze. Kyo turned in the sudden embrace to smile into those eyes of forest-green and gold. Love was there in those eyes. Love that covered him and protected him. Love that he knew was reflected back in his own eyes.
He had found his answer.
*
{Hands were touching him. Not those ephemeral hands that was guiding his other awareness but real hands. Warm hands. Hands that had slid off his yukata until his body was exposed for all to see.
He could hear screaming too. But it wasn't coming from him. Nor was it from the man who was touching him. It came from somewhere else. . . Someone. . . .
/If I were to cry, would you be the one to wipe these tears dry?/
He didn't like this. Why was the haze leaving him? Letting him feel those touches and hear those screams? He wasn't supposed to come back. Not yet. He still needed his answers. This other half of his consciousness, though losing its wall of separation from his surroundings, nevertheless maintained an abstraction about him. Though he could feel and hear again, it was as if it wasn't really happening to him yet at the same time, was.
Is this making any sense? He felt himself being gently laid back, velvet warm underneath his bare back, the yukata bunching up around his waist and just barely covering him. Blank eyes stared ahead in incomprehension as those hands continued their invasion of his body, touching here, caressing there and stroking everywhere. There were a lot of those screams going on now, from more than just one person. Why were they screaming?
/If I were to laugh with mirth, would you be the one to have given it birth?/
There was even the warm and wet feel of a tongue licking his chest, playing seductively over a nipple but still his eyes were blank.
But he could still sense and feel. Though his mind stayed numb with immobility, his body responded. A quickening of breath, the flushing of pale skin and the hardening of his arousal.
How could you feel and not feel simultaneously? It was puzzling and his mind wondered about it, thinking it over even as those touches, caresses and licks continued. His hand had fallen down the side of the sofa and they clenched in automatic response. Was this the answer?
If it was, he didn't like it. It came then. Sharp pain, in a way, sharper even than the red wave that had swamped over him earlier, pierced through him, pushing deep inside of him only to withdraw and plunge back, each thrust tearing through him until all sense of separateness, all the abstraction and numbness was thrown aside and his consciousness became as one again.
His back arching off the sofa, Kyo screamed in total comprehension, pain and fury as Akuma violated him, still pumping into him and his weak hands grasped at silk-covered shoulders for support.
With a last, final gasp and thrust from Akuma, Kyo felt the wetness bursting in him and dripping down his thigh. Kyo fell back on the sofa and eyes that were blank now looked at his tormentor with sudden clarity and hate. His friends had fallen silent when he screamed and as he turned his head slowly, his eyes came into contact with Taka's.
There was so much anguish in those eyes. So much anguish. They reflected Kyo's own pain as tears fell unchecked. The glowing pentagrams chaining the sensei and his friends down lent a red glimmer to those salty tracks and Taka mouthed his name silently. Kyo.
And if I should fall from grace,
Would you be the one to save me in your embrace?
Kyo smiled. He had found his answers. All of them. He knew what he had to do now.
He turned back to Akuma who was still leaning over him, placing tender kisses down the length of his neck. His hand reached up and gently cupped Akuma's cheek, pushing back until the man was face to face with him.
Gold yellow eyes met his and questioned him silently. Dreamily, almost lovingly, his hand crept back to finger Akuma's hair and with that same dreaminess, pulled the demon down again.
Lips that were pale with oncoming death met his tormentor's in a sweet touch and Kyo could feel the man relaxing into it. As the kiss deepened, his other hand reached out and without even fumbling, closed upon one of his answer.
Cool, slightly slick hardness met his touch and he grasped the blood-knife firmly. Even as Akuma's tongue duelled with his own, he brought the knife high up over them, blade poised downward.
It could have been his stealthy movement, it could have been the choked gasp that his friends and lover gave, it could have even been a silent warning from the blood-knife he held but with sudden agility, Akuma broke the kiss and with catlike grace, twisted himself away.
As it was, the knife whistled down through unresisting air and plunged deep into Kyo's own chest, just beside his weakly beating heart.
Blood, warm and rich, soaked his fingers which still grasped the knife with the blade completely buried in his flesh. It was his blood that was pumping out and it was his own agony that he was feeling as the double wave of the curse and the knife wound tore through him.
"Kyo! No! What are you doing?" Taka screamed. In fact, they were all screaming again as they redoubled their efforts to physically and magically break the pentagrams. Cracks had even appeared now in Taka's and Tsuzuki's but the bonds held strong.
Akuma ignored them to stare quizzically down at Kyo, still straddling the boy. "Why did you do that for?"
His only answer was a blood-stained smile as Kyo coughed, the red liquid bubbling up in his mouth to smear stains down that smooth, white cheek. Akuma made to reach for the knife, to yank it out but Kyo's hands stopped him. Instead, the boy reached up and pulled the man down for another kiss, this time, the blood flavour of Akuma's mingling with Kyo's own.
It was a short kiss, simple and brief and Kyo broke off the contact first and smiled again into those puzzled eyes.
It was time to give Akuma his answer.
"By flesh and by earth do I punish you."
That look of puzzlement in the demon's eyes became one of slowly dawning comprehension and horror. Too late, he tried to push himself of the boy but tendrils of pure power, crackling and glowing a blinding white encircled both him and Kyo, chaining them together.
It was all quite simple really, Kyo thought absently to himself even as the pain doubled. As Grandfather had said, magic was manipulating nature and nature was made up of the elements and he can control those elements. And as Grandfather had explained it, his power was basically magic given flesh. It was in his blood.
And it was from his blood that was still pouring out from the knife wound that the chains of power streamed out, binding Akuma to him. But it was more than that. The blood-knife had been crucial. It was made by Akuma from his own blood, Kyo knew that without a doubt. He could feel it. And it was the knife that made the binding possible. Stained with his own blood, the receptacle of his power, it linked him to Akuma in ways that went even deeper than flesh. It struck the red-haired man to his very soul.
The only sound in the room was the snap and crackle of those chains of pure energy and the half-shrieks of Akuma as he tried to claw his way free from Kyo's deadly embrace but to no avail. The bonds were too strong and his struggles became that like of a wild animal; mindless and heedless.
Kyo ignored that violently struggling form and said the next lines of invocation, the words rolling off easily from his tongue.
"By breath and by air do I punish you."
More of those chains came streaming out from his wound, this time colorless lines that were as strong as the first.
Everything has its price. It was like that rule in witchcraft; any deed you do will come back to you times three. And Akuma had done many deeds. All of them evil and the foulest manipulation of magic that there ever was. Blood magic was a serious business in the first place but to carry it to the extent that Akuma did. . . .Nature was very angry. And now Nature will have her revenge.
Smoke started to billow out from beneath his costly robes and Akuma shrieked even more, his face twisting grotesquely with pain and horror. The more he struggled, the tighter those bonds became until he could barely move. He lay gasping against Kyo's chest, his own blood-knife that had given him his momentary immortality now proving to be his doom just inches from his face. It seemed to be mocking him as he stared at it helplessly.
"By blood and by water do I punish you."
These chains were pure silver in color and by now, all Akuma could do was whimper.
"Kyo," Taka whispered. "Stop it, please. Please."
He wasn't begging for Akuma to be saved. He didn't care what happened to the bastard. All he cared about was Kyo. From his limited experience with magic, he knew that the spell Kyo was doing was killing him. But Kyo ignored him and said anyway, the last line that will seal Akuma's death, and perhaps, his own.
"By life and by fire, do I punish you."
This time, Akuma screamed as red-hot chains added the final binding, completing the spell. But it wasn't just himself. Kyo too screamed as he suffered the burns of those chains, the blood-tie that made the binding possible in the first place letting him the full extent of Akuma's punishment.
Those thin wisps of smoke now became thick, black and oily, smelling of burnt flesh as Akuma writhed and shrieked. His flesh became sunken and looked like canvas stretched too tightly over its frame. As the smoke grew thicker, his skin cracked and crumbled away into fine dust, showing the white bones beneath.
His shrieks became no more than whistling gasps and even that dwindled as the bones too crumbled into powder until all that was left was singed and rumpled silk. After a heartbeat, the chains disappeared and the grey silk that once contained Akuma slithered off, falling gracelessly to the floor.
Kyo lay still and unmoving.
With a sudden wrench, the other Shinigamis suddenly found themselves on the floor as the pentagrams that had bound them disappeared and they quickly picked themselves up, running over to Kyo's side.
Taka was the first to reach him and he had to stifle his gasp at the sight that met his eyes. Kyo's body was damaged nearly beyond recognition from the spell he launched. Thick, shiny blisters and angry red skin covered his entire body and where it wasn't red or filled with blisters, the skin had burnt black, showing the gleaming red muscles underneath.
At his hesitant touch, Kyo's eyes fluttered open and they fastened upon the sensei. The irises were a blue so dark, Taka couldn't tell whether it was still blue in color or black now. Kyo opened his mouth and his throat worked up and down spasmodically.
"Is he gone?" His voice was thin and scratchy and even those few words seemed too much, sending agony through his burnt body.
Taka nodded his head and smiled a reassuring yet somewhat wobbly smile. "Aa. You were great. He won't bother us anymore."
"That's good. . ." His voice trailed off but a moment later, he spoke again, his words pleading and soft. "Taka. . . it hurts. . . . make the pain go away."
Taka could have cried there and then. Kyo was never the sort of person to complain about physical injuries. He was the kind that could laugh and joke even with a broken arm while everyone around him was running around in panic.
"I will Kyo, don't worry. Sleep now," he whispered and after a last look, Kyo gave a small sigh and his eyes drifted close.
The darkness was swift in claiming him and he knew no more.
It was, to some if not all of them, incomprehensible why Shinigamis needed a hospital wing in the first place. True, sometimes they brought in injured living humans to Meifu to be protected but it was a rare occurrence. When Shinigamis got injured, all they had to do was put on some bandages and try to not move around so much as their wounds healed.
So all they had in their hospital room was a couple of beds and a standing screen to change behind. And lots of bandages in the cabinet. As Taka had said, their most sophisticated equipment was a stethoscope.
And now, it was unnerving to see that same room now truly living up to its name. The still figure that graced a bed was covered neck down in bandages which were rapidly stained with blood and off to a side, a machine gave a soft whoosh as it pumped oxygen into those barely functioning lungs. Another machine gave a slow beeping sound, indicating that the body was still alive, though hardly.
The hospital room was now really a hospital room and the Shinigamis didn't like it one bit.
Taka and Watari had done all they can for Kyo and what they could do now was just sit back and wait. As proven with the pentagrams, Akuma's magic had truly broken with his death and the curse on Kyo was undoubtedly broken. But was it in time?
Even if they were, did Kyo still have the strength to heal himself after all the injuries he sustained both from the curse and the binding he did?
Taka sat by Kyo's side, holding on tightly to one hand while the other stroked that silky raven hair softly. There was no response from the boy but he kept at it anyway. The other Shinigamis kept back but all of them were there with him, keeping silent vigil as they waited.
Or sitting the deathwatch.
Either way, they waited.
Taka leaned down to whisper into those unhearing ears. "Kyo, please, come back. I need you.
You can do this, I know you can. Please, I need you so much. Don't leave me like this. Not again."
There was no response and he added a last broken plea, "Please, Kyo."
Silence still reigned supreme, until. . . .
"Kyo? Kyo! Please, no! Kyo!"
His scream rang out through the night, reverberating down the empty halls to linger in the cold air.
"KYO!"
The sakuras wept.
~is this the end?~
A/N: So is this really the end? Did Kyo really die again? How could it be?
WATCH OUT FOR THE UPCOMING EPILOGUE!
Oh, evil me.
This is, unfortunately, the last chapter but before you bash me over the head, * grin* there will be an epilogue. . . so watch out for that really soon, ne?
Oh yeah, after this story ends, I definitely will start on the story of how Kyo & Taka met and it will still be under the Yami no Matsuei category as I feel that the two of them are really part of that universe now, so please take the time to read it when it comes out!
Oh yeah, does anyone want to be my muse? I'd love to do a new arc/storyline for our bishounen but am currently out of ideas. Anyone?
Lin.exe: Thank you for that really amazing review you gave. I loved it! And I love your fic too!
Poison-Ivy: Read on!
Ice-Phoenix: Gomenesai! Hontoni! Btw, how's your computer doing?
Lil Yaoi Kitten: Aw. . . .thanks. . . I did consider writing seriously but my muse left me. . .would anyone be interested in filling up that position?
Shaynie: I hope you like the way I did this chapter!
Daemonchan: Aha, gomen, gomen, well, here's the next chapter! I can't help it, I love Kyo-Torture. It doesn't help that M.s Author also loves it and constantly encourages me to do it. . . . Anna: Yeah! Damn Akuma!
DeathAngelCreo: You're question is answered. . . .
CHAPTER 19: If I Should Fall From Grace
Hands were reaching out to him from the deep darkness of the black that surrounded him. Hands that were pale and fleshless yet as substantial as steel as they swarmed over and around him, grasping, pulling, guiding.
He didn't mind them. He knew that they were trying to help him, to show him something. Something he was desperately looking for but cannot find. He needed their help for it and he was grateful they had appeared. Those hands stopped in their gentle exploration and waited, as if asking a question.
/Are you ready?/
And he let himself fall back into their embrace and they guided him deeper into the dark, well beyond the reach of man or god.
Kyo dreamt.
* *
{Words came to him, even as he flew the starless depths of that place those hands took him. It was as if he was there and not there at the same time. His subconscious seemed to have been divided into two. One that was searching for the answer, and the other that kept a light and tenuous hold on that thing you called presence of mind and sensation of body.
His other self didn't mind this separation and the subsequent drifting from his body. It distanced him from the pain of the curse until he was barely aware of his surroundings. But the words came to him. They ought to have meaning to him. He was sure of that. But all they are were just that; words.
". . . . .proud. . . Shinigamis. . . .have failed. . ."
". . . . . .human?"
The voices should be familiar too but he didn't care. It was nice, just floating here, a white hazy shroud blanketing his vision and the words coming to him first loud then soft. . .like the chirping of birds on a breezy summer's day when the winds would snatch the trilling, dancing them so close you could almost touch it and in an instant, laughingly ran away with it until all you could hear was a faint hum, barely a sound.
He dreamt}
*
Kyo was standing in Josui High's soccer field. His old school. He was wearing his soccer uniform, the dark green jersey and white shorts just as he remembered them, his name emblazoned across the back. He was clutching a soccer ball in his hands and he stared down at it in fascination. It was amazingly smooth and shiny, the leather untarnished by wear and tear, gleaming slightly in the last rays of the evening sun.
That ball of fire splashed streaks of red across the verdant green sea and showed him that he was all alone on the field, the grass seeming to stretch far off to disappear into the horizon. And lying innocently on the emerald carpet, were hundreds of those same, pure white balls, gleaming and winking back the red light of the setting sun.
He blinked in bemusement. Those guiding hands had brought him here and he looked around in consternation. He will not find the answer here. This was not the place and time. The answer is not here.
Those hands came back and wrapped a warm embrace around him. The darkness claimed him back.
*
{". . . . . sacrifices. . . prolong life?"
". . . . .of course. . . ."
". . . .why . . ."
". . . . .death. . . .Shinigami. . . .judgment. ."
He really wished that those voices would just go away and leave him alone. He liked the white haze and that alternate dual feeling of travelling through comforting dark. He wanted to be where his other self was, riding the waves of his memories and help search the answer but he couldn't.
There was another answer here. One that could help him. One that he had to search for.
But what?}
*
"Everyone has all these smart and grand sounding theories of the origin of magic and they all think that they themselves are correct," Grandfather harrumphed in disapproval. He took a slow drag from his tobacco pipe and blew out a smoke ring, hovering indecisively in the still air of the evening, only to be whisked away by an errant breeze.
Grandfather. Yes, Kyo remembered him. The old man with his neatly trimmed white hair and who was lounging in a worn robe in that small room, on the opposite side of the low table, wasn't really his grandfather. He had a name. . . .but for the life of him, Kyo couldn't recall it. Their first encounter, Kyo had teasingly called him that and it has stuck. Kyo never really knew his own birth grandparents so he was quite happy to have one to call.
The fact that they were both dead was a simple matter of physics. Kyo had only just recently accepted the post of Shinigami and had been assigned to the old man by Enma to train in 'jitsu and in mastering his own birth power; controlling the elements.
Kyo sat back on that threadbare cushion, a thin barrier from the tatami but he didn't mind. An indulgent smile crossed his face as Grandfather continued to smoke in silent contemplation, letting the evening breeze carry away his ghostly rings. The shoji had been slid open to do just that because as much as he liked the old man, Kyo simply could not tolerate the smell of tobacco while the old man was addicted to it, even in death. So they had come to a compromise.
"Tell me some of the theories," Kyo asked, a curious tilt to his head. Life as an ordinary high-school teenager had never exposed him to such exotic studies and he was curious. The first time he had been taught 'jitsu, he nearly drove Grandfather crazy with the number of tracking birds he had folded and played with, just for the fun of it.
Grandfather shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, the usual, a god falling in love with a maiden, accidentally giving his child the power of gods, thus creating the first magic in the world, or a god carelessly dropping his magical powder on some unsuspecting sap, the usual." He gave a glance at the boy. "All total crap if you ask me."
"So what is the true origin of magic then?"
Grandfather appeared to give his question serious thought, contemplating on his words and frowning over the intricacies of succinct speech. At last, he shrugged again and said, "I have no idea."
He let Kyo roll around on the floor, clutching his sides as he laughed until he cried, and when the boy finally let up with an occasional hiccup, he explained further.
"But I do know what magic is," Grandfather raised an eyebrow meaningfully. "And it isn't all that mumbo-jumbo crap either."
Kyo sat up straight and gave the old man his full concentration. Grandfather looked pleased at that and went on.
"Every form of magic; omnyoujitsu, witchcraft, voodoo, all of it, is basically manipulations of the elements. Because that's what magic is. It's using everything that's around you and twisting it around until you get what you want.
And everything around you, is nature. Nature is made up of the elements of fire, earth, water and air. Self-inherent powers though, are different," here, he nodded at Kyo, making sure he was listening.
"Powers that you were born with are natural things itself. Governed by nothing but your will and mind. Like one of the Shinigamis you'd be working with, that Kurosaki. I heard he's an empath."
"So," Kyo started slowly, trying to piece together what he heard. "Magic is basically nature and nature is made up of the elements. My born powers is apparently controlling the elements . ." he ended in an enquiring note.
Grandfather nodded in agreement.
"So where does that leave me exactly?"
"You boy, are one of the lucky few in the whole world who in essence controls the very fibre of magic. You power is magic itself, not manipulating magic."
Kyo was quite impressed by that. It was all still very confusing on how he can use magic but it's actually not magic but is still magic but it was all very impressive anyway. Grandfather caught his rather baffled look and sighed.
"In other words, YOU are magic incarnate. It's in your blood."
The hands came for him then and pulled him away. That small room and its occupant faded from sight and he willingly let the darkness take him. He still had other answers to search for.
*
{Those words were still there, buzzing around him, trying to slip inside him but he refused to let it. It still wasn't time yet.
Time for what?
What was he waiting for?
Oh, yes, he was searching. . . . . .for an answer. . . . to what?
The white haze had thicken and they now seeped into his very body, numbing it and driving away the pain even further until it was but a memory. He liked that. He opened himself more to let the haze in and-
PAIN. SO MUCH PAIN. IT HURTS!
With a painful gasp, Kyo felt his two awareness being rudely wrenched back and meshed together, two realities once again merging as one as the fire filled his body, mind and soul. Why was this happening? Why?
He looked up to see a curtain of blood hair and golden eyes.
Akuma.
Just as suddenly it came, the burning fire left him, leaving him weak with the aftermath and the curse still burning dully within. He remembered then.
He was searching for the answer.
Eyes that had regained some awareness when that tidal wave of hurt had crashed into him, slowly faded until those dark orbs were once again glazed and empty.
He had to find the answer.}
*
He was just about to finally find the answer, those hands eagerly tugging him forward when he felt himself wrenched back by the pain. It filled his vision and awareness until all that he was became lost in that sea of torture. When it finally receded though and he saw his tormentor, he knew that time was running out. He had to be quick.
Once again, the hands came for him and he let the incoming darkness swallow him.
The answer was waiting.
*
{" . . . . effort. . . . .dying. . . ."
Something gleamed in that returned white haze. Something so repulsive and totally repugnant that it sent a shimmer of pure wrongness into that white of his vision and managed to tear enough of it away that he got a look at the source of that evil.
A knife. A cruel knife. A flash of insight came to him as the blade shone with reflected light and he understood.
A blood-knife.
Was that his answer?}
*
He was in the school library, facing one of their huge windows and letting the rosy glow of the evening light fell on him. He closed his eyes in dreamy bliss as that glow warmed him up and sent sparkles of color dancing beneath his closed eyelids.
Taka was busy in the infirmary, tending to a student and Kyo had promised to wait for him in the library while he finished up. The place was empty by now, the students gone home for the day and the librarian herself had stepped out. Kyo opened his eyes and regarded the shelves of books before him lazily.
He wasn't really looking for anything particular that day and his wandering eyes fell on a slim volume, nearly hidden by the two thick books of history that sandwiched it. He lifted the small book out of its place and gave a curious glance at the cover. It felt like velvet, smooth and rich and beautiful, cursive letters were stamped in gold foil on the front.
'Words From A Stranger'.
Intrigued, he opened the book and flipped through the pages idly. It was a book of poems and his roving eyes fell on one that caught his attention.
It was short but the sheer poignancy of it caught his breath and he mouthed the words silently;
'If I were to cry
Would you be the one to wipe these tears dry?
If I were to laugh with mirth
Would you be the one to have given it birth?
And If I should fall from grace
Would you be the one to save me with your embrace?'
A hand crept over his from behind and gave a gentle squeeze. Kyo turned in the sudden embrace to smile into those eyes of forest-green and gold. Love was there in those eyes. Love that covered him and protected him. Love that he knew was reflected back in his own eyes.
He had found his answer.
*
{Hands were touching him. Not those ephemeral hands that was guiding his other awareness but real hands. Warm hands. Hands that had slid off his yukata until his body was exposed for all to see.
He could hear screaming too. But it wasn't coming from him. Nor was it from the man who was touching him. It came from somewhere else. . . Someone. . . .
/If I were to cry, would you be the one to wipe these tears dry?/
He didn't like this. Why was the haze leaving him? Letting him feel those touches and hear those screams? He wasn't supposed to come back. Not yet. He still needed his answers. This other half of his consciousness, though losing its wall of separation from his surroundings, nevertheless maintained an abstraction about him. Though he could feel and hear again, it was as if it wasn't really happening to him yet at the same time, was.
Is this making any sense? He felt himself being gently laid back, velvet warm underneath his bare back, the yukata bunching up around his waist and just barely covering him. Blank eyes stared ahead in incomprehension as those hands continued their invasion of his body, touching here, caressing there and stroking everywhere. There were a lot of those screams going on now, from more than just one person. Why were they screaming?
/If I were to laugh with mirth, would you be the one to have given it birth?/
There was even the warm and wet feel of a tongue licking his chest, playing seductively over a nipple but still his eyes were blank.
But he could still sense and feel. Though his mind stayed numb with immobility, his body responded. A quickening of breath, the flushing of pale skin and the hardening of his arousal.
How could you feel and not feel simultaneously? It was puzzling and his mind wondered about it, thinking it over even as those touches, caresses and licks continued. His hand had fallen down the side of the sofa and they clenched in automatic response. Was this the answer?
If it was, he didn't like it. It came then. Sharp pain, in a way, sharper even than the red wave that had swamped over him earlier, pierced through him, pushing deep inside of him only to withdraw and plunge back, each thrust tearing through him until all sense of separateness, all the abstraction and numbness was thrown aside and his consciousness became as one again.
His back arching off the sofa, Kyo screamed in total comprehension, pain and fury as Akuma violated him, still pumping into him and his weak hands grasped at silk-covered shoulders for support.
With a last, final gasp and thrust from Akuma, Kyo felt the wetness bursting in him and dripping down his thigh. Kyo fell back on the sofa and eyes that were blank now looked at his tormentor with sudden clarity and hate. His friends had fallen silent when he screamed and as he turned his head slowly, his eyes came into contact with Taka's.
There was so much anguish in those eyes. So much anguish. They reflected Kyo's own pain as tears fell unchecked. The glowing pentagrams chaining the sensei and his friends down lent a red glimmer to those salty tracks and Taka mouthed his name silently. Kyo.
And if I should fall from grace,
Would you be the one to save me in your embrace?
Kyo smiled. He had found his answers. All of them. He knew what he had to do now.
He turned back to Akuma who was still leaning over him, placing tender kisses down the length of his neck. His hand reached up and gently cupped Akuma's cheek, pushing back until the man was face to face with him.
Gold yellow eyes met his and questioned him silently. Dreamily, almost lovingly, his hand crept back to finger Akuma's hair and with that same dreaminess, pulled the demon down again.
Lips that were pale with oncoming death met his tormentor's in a sweet touch and Kyo could feel the man relaxing into it. As the kiss deepened, his other hand reached out and without even fumbling, closed upon one of his answer.
Cool, slightly slick hardness met his touch and he grasped the blood-knife firmly. Even as Akuma's tongue duelled with his own, he brought the knife high up over them, blade poised downward.
It could have been his stealthy movement, it could have been the choked gasp that his friends and lover gave, it could have even been a silent warning from the blood-knife he held but with sudden agility, Akuma broke the kiss and with catlike grace, twisted himself away.
As it was, the knife whistled down through unresisting air and plunged deep into Kyo's own chest, just beside his weakly beating heart.
Blood, warm and rich, soaked his fingers which still grasped the knife with the blade completely buried in his flesh. It was his blood that was pumping out and it was his own agony that he was feeling as the double wave of the curse and the knife wound tore through him.
"Kyo! No! What are you doing?" Taka screamed. In fact, they were all screaming again as they redoubled their efforts to physically and magically break the pentagrams. Cracks had even appeared now in Taka's and Tsuzuki's but the bonds held strong.
Akuma ignored them to stare quizzically down at Kyo, still straddling the boy. "Why did you do that for?"
His only answer was a blood-stained smile as Kyo coughed, the red liquid bubbling up in his mouth to smear stains down that smooth, white cheek. Akuma made to reach for the knife, to yank it out but Kyo's hands stopped him. Instead, the boy reached up and pulled the man down for another kiss, this time, the blood flavour of Akuma's mingling with Kyo's own.
It was a short kiss, simple and brief and Kyo broke off the contact first and smiled again into those puzzled eyes.
It was time to give Akuma his answer.
"By flesh and by earth do I punish you."
That look of puzzlement in the demon's eyes became one of slowly dawning comprehension and horror. Too late, he tried to push himself of the boy but tendrils of pure power, crackling and glowing a blinding white encircled both him and Kyo, chaining them together.
It was all quite simple really, Kyo thought absently to himself even as the pain doubled. As Grandfather had said, magic was manipulating nature and nature was made up of the elements and he can control those elements. And as Grandfather had explained it, his power was basically magic given flesh. It was in his blood.
And it was from his blood that was still pouring out from the knife wound that the chains of power streamed out, binding Akuma to him. But it was more than that. The blood-knife had been crucial. It was made by Akuma from his own blood, Kyo knew that without a doubt. He could feel it. And it was the knife that made the binding possible. Stained with his own blood, the receptacle of his power, it linked him to Akuma in ways that went even deeper than flesh. It struck the red-haired man to his very soul.
The only sound in the room was the snap and crackle of those chains of pure energy and the half-shrieks of Akuma as he tried to claw his way free from Kyo's deadly embrace but to no avail. The bonds were too strong and his struggles became that like of a wild animal; mindless and heedless.
Kyo ignored that violently struggling form and said the next lines of invocation, the words rolling off easily from his tongue.
"By breath and by air do I punish you."
More of those chains came streaming out from his wound, this time colorless lines that were as strong as the first.
Everything has its price. It was like that rule in witchcraft; any deed you do will come back to you times three. And Akuma had done many deeds. All of them evil and the foulest manipulation of magic that there ever was. Blood magic was a serious business in the first place but to carry it to the extent that Akuma did. . . .Nature was very angry. And now Nature will have her revenge.
Smoke started to billow out from beneath his costly robes and Akuma shrieked even more, his face twisting grotesquely with pain and horror. The more he struggled, the tighter those bonds became until he could barely move. He lay gasping against Kyo's chest, his own blood-knife that had given him his momentary immortality now proving to be his doom just inches from his face. It seemed to be mocking him as he stared at it helplessly.
"By blood and by water do I punish you."
These chains were pure silver in color and by now, all Akuma could do was whimper.
"Kyo," Taka whispered. "Stop it, please. Please."
He wasn't begging for Akuma to be saved. He didn't care what happened to the bastard. All he cared about was Kyo. From his limited experience with magic, he knew that the spell Kyo was doing was killing him. But Kyo ignored him and said anyway, the last line that will seal Akuma's death, and perhaps, his own.
"By life and by fire, do I punish you."
This time, Akuma screamed as red-hot chains added the final binding, completing the spell. But it wasn't just himself. Kyo too screamed as he suffered the burns of those chains, the blood-tie that made the binding possible in the first place letting him the full extent of Akuma's punishment.
Those thin wisps of smoke now became thick, black and oily, smelling of burnt flesh as Akuma writhed and shrieked. His flesh became sunken and looked like canvas stretched too tightly over its frame. As the smoke grew thicker, his skin cracked and crumbled away into fine dust, showing the white bones beneath.
His shrieks became no more than whistling gasps and even that dwindled as the bones too crumbled into powder until all that was left was singed and rumpled silk. After a heartbeat, the chains disappeared and the grey silk that once contained Akuma slithered off, falling gracelessly to the floor.
Kyo lay still and unmoving.
With a sudden wrench, the other Shinigamis suddenly found themselves on the floor as the pentagrams that had bound them disappeared and they quickly picked themselves up, running over to Kyo's side.
Taka was the first to reach him and he had to stifle his gasp at the sight that met his eyes. Kyo's body was damaged nearly beyond recognition from the spell he launched. Thick, shiny blisters and angry red skin covered his entire body and where it wasn't red or filled with blisters, the skin had burnt black, showing the gleaming red muscles underneath.
At his hesitant touch, Kyo's eyes fluttered open and they fastened upon the sensei. The irises were a blue so dark, Taka couldn't tell whether it was still blue in color or black now. Kyo opened his mouth and his throat worked up and down spasmodically.
"Is he gone?" His voice was thin and scratchy and even those few words seemed too much, sending agony through his burnt body.
Taka nodded his head and smiled a reassuring yet somewhat wobbly smile. "Aa. You were great. He won't bother us anymore."
"That's good. . ." His voice trailed off but a moment later, he spoke again, his words pleading and soft. "Taka. . . it hurts. . . . make the pain go away."
Taka could have cried there and then. Kyo was never the sort of person to complain about physical injuries. He was the kind that could laugh and joke even with a broken arm while everyone around him was running around in panic.
"I will Kyo, don't worry. Sleep now," he whispered and after a last look, Kyo gave a small sigh and his eyes drifted close.
The darkness was swift in claiming him and he knew no more.
It was, to some if not all of them, incomprehensible why Shinigamis needed a hospital wing in the first place. True, sometimes they brought in injured living humans to Meifu to be protected but it was a rare occurrence. When Shinigamis got injured, all they had to do was put on some bandages and try to not move around so much as their wounds healed.
So all they had in their hospital room was a couple of beds and a standing screen to change behind. And lots of bandages in the cabinet. As Taka had said, their most sophisticated equipment was a stethoscope.
And now, it was unnerving to see that same room now truly living up to its name. The still figure that graced a bed was covered neck down in bandages which were rapidly stained with blood and off to a side, a machine gave a soft whoosh as it pumped oxygen into those barely functioning lungs. Another machine gave a slow beeping sound, indicating that the body was still alive, though hardly.
The hospital room was now really a hospital room and the Shinigamis didn't like it one bit.
Taka and Watari had done all they can for Kyo and what they could do now was just sit back and wait. As proven with the pentagrams, Akuma's magic had truly broken with his death and the curse on Kyo was undoubtedly broken. But was it in time?
Even if they were, did Kyo still have the strength to heal himself after all the injuries he sustained both from the curse and the binding he did?
Taka sat by Kyo's side, holding on tightly to one hand while the other stroked that silky raven hair softly. There was no response from the boy but he kept at it anyway. The other Shinigamis kept back but all of them were there with him, keeping silent vigil as they waited.
Or sitting the deathwatch.
Either way, they waited.
Taka leaned down to whisper into those unhearing ears. "Kyo, please, come back. I need you.
You can do this, I know you can. Please, I need you so much. Don't leave me like this. Not again."
There was no response and he added a last broken plea, "Please, Kyo."
Silence still reigned supreme, until. . . .
"Kyo? Kyo! Please, no! Kyo!"
His scream rang out through the night, reverberating down the empty halls to linger in the cold air.
"KYO!"
The sakuras wept.
~is this the end?~
A/N: So is this really the end? Did Kyo really die again? How could it be?
WATCH OUT FOR THE UPCOMING EPILOGUE!
Oh, evil me.