By yumeneko
Disclaimer: As usual... Saiyuki is Kazuya Minekura-sensei's... I'm just torturing some characters here.
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Note: This can be the start of everyone's confusion… The story links to Never Eternal and Warau Kisetsu (Both are my older stories) at this point.
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Chapter 8: Two Sides Separated
"What's happening?" Hakkai asked as his surroundings started to become blurry again. When his surroundings came into focus, he found Hiro in front of a pool of souls.
"What are you doing outside the pool of souls? You're supposed to be dead." A hooded man ordered Hiro. He kept silent and later, a young girl with brown hair and purple eyes came into the picture.
"Leave him alone, Macabre… Hades' orders. His other half is still alive. Cho Hakkai File 2 is a glitch caused by one of the computers in Destiny… Although the first file is whole, this second file is supposed to be a back-up file. Unfortunately, one of the computers thought it was a twin file and loaded it with File 1. They don't know that File 2 can't completely die without the first file."
"Yes. I understand, Azrael. What does Hades want to do with this defect?" The man called Macabre questioned.
"He wants him to be the Grim Reaper for the meantime. He says I'm too young to be the Grim Reaper." The young girl, Azrael replied, "Hades will be brainwashing him to believe that we're twins. Then we'll have to fabricate his past of being brought up in Pandemonium."
"Don't you think it's quite complicated?"
"Not so…" Azrael smiled, "He's only a solid soul. He can be seen and touched even if he's just a soul. But he can also possess bodies."
"Sounds like you… The only Grim Reaper ever to have to power to possess souls…" Macabre laughed, "You'd be perfect twins. Then we'll also have to fabricate a story on why you're the only one who can remove her body like a mask…"
"Leave that to Hades…"
"Do you mean I'm immortal?" Hiro asked Azrael.
"True. You are. Not unless you die at the same time as your other half. File 1." Azrael replied.
"Before you brainwash me, tell me what happened to my brother… and Emiko."
"Un. File 1 found the two of you dead. He went into shock, sold the house and lived with Genjo Kouryuu… Y'know. The guy who your bro's going out with… Anyway, Emiko is not here anymore. She's part of one of those multi-lived priestesses. She went back to earth to be reincarnated as part of the eleven lives of the wind priestess. See those bright pillars there?" Azrael pointed at four colored pillars of light, "Those are the soul tunnels of the priestesses. All those who are meant to be the priestess will instantly be brought back to earth through their respective elements."
"Thank you for telling me. Now, I'm ready to be brainwashed…"
Another bright flash of light. The brainwashing was over.
"What is your name?" A burly man seated on his throne asked.
"My name is Quietus, Hades-sama." Hiro replied. He didn't look like the same Hiro Hakkai recognized. He looked menacing. He looked as if he really was bred in the underworld. His green eyes were cunning yet shone a certain depth of coldness within. His eyes looked like a killer's eyes. His mouth was curled into a smart smile. He became someone else…
"Who is Hiro?"
"Hiro? I've never heard that name before, Hades-sama."
"Who is Hakkai?"
"I don't know him either, Hades-sama. But his name seems to bring something back to me…"
"Who is Emiko?"
"I'm sorry again, Hades-sama, I don't know anything about anyone named Emiko."
"Where were you born?"
"In the underworld. Under the family of Grim Reapers."
"Who are you related to?"
"Azrael. My younger twin."
"What is your job?"
"I am the Grim Reaper. I will reap the souls of the dead and take them back to the pool of souls."
Hiro did not exist anymore. Hiro was dead. Quietus was born. A flash of light appeared again. This time, the scene was of Quietus sacrificing his body to release the pool of souls. The Quietus in this scene had a body similar to Azrael, purple eyes and brown hair, that was the sacrificed body. Then the scene blurs to reveal Quietus possessing Hakkai's lifeless body on the Terra battlefield. Then another flash of light, Sanzo killing Quietus and making him die again. The bullet hit Quietus in the same place Emiko shot Hiro at. Square in the middle of the forehead.
A final flash of light. Hakkai was back where he started. The computer and the two CDs.
"That's the truth… The man who took my soul tonight was my future brother. A perfect copy of me. Because that is who he is. Me."