*****
The Shinigami's hotel, 10:05 that morning
Tsuzuki sat in a chair next to Soka-chan's bed, watching the boy sleep. The assassin's blow had uncharacteristically missed the heart by a good four inches so he would recover very shortly. He held the youth's hand gently, fear and anger and uncertainty clawing at his fine features. The normally lively eyes were dark and brooding, his forehead furrowed into a deep frown, and Tsuzuki touched Hisoka's hand to his forehead, hoping to give the boy the strength to wake up but actually being reassured by its presence. He couldn't understand how the Sakurazukamori could be so powerful his ofuda was wound with anti-dark spells Sure, the shiki had scared him away, but now that Hisoka was temporarily hurt, potentially killed it was personal.
"You don't have to get revenge for me, Tsuzuki." The weak voice from the head of the bed jolted Tsuzuki back to the present. Bright green eyes stared at him from under half-slits.
Tsuzuki kissed Hisoka's hand. His throat caught "Hisoka-chan, you're awake! That's excellen!" He felt his good spirits returning. "How do you feel?"
"Like somebody stuck their hand through me."
"Hahaha! You're so funny, Soka-chan. *twitch*" Tsuzuki sweat-dropped.
"How long have you been sitting there?" Hisoka withdrew his hand from Tsuzuki's suffocating grip.
"Oh, all night. I wanted to make sure that you didn't go out on me" Tsuzuki waved his hand as if it was nothing, hiding his concern for the boy.
"Tsuzuki, when will you learn that I can feel what you feel?"
Tsuzuki leapt to his feet in mock rage, then turned bright red. "^^;; well Ok Soka-chan, I guess I was a little worried about you." Hisoka smiled at the admission, small though it was. He had really grown since their last encounter with Mura-san. "Soka-chan. Do you feel ready enough to go out?"
"Soon, Tsuzuki. But I think we need to talk about what happened. You first."
Tsuzuki's crystal eyes hardened again. "I shouldn't have let you fight the Sakurazukamori! Kusooo Gomenasai, Hisoka. I don't know why I let him beat me I was prepared for the dark onmyouji!"
"Are you really sure it was the Sakurazukamori?" Tsuzuki stopped in the middle of storming around the room. He stared at the boy as if he was an ant on a cinnamon roll
"Are you kidding? Of course it was! The maboroshi, the Sakura tree, the pentagram, hell, the damn hand sticking through your back Those are the trademarks of the Sakurazukamori!"
"Then why did your ofuda shatter?" Tsuzuki stopped in the middle of storming around the room again.
"What are you implying, Hisoka?"
"I don't think that that was the Sakurazukamori. When he was inside me I read his thoughts, his emotions. He wasn't with the Blossom Star until very recently, someone he loved very much came before him. And his name is Subaru.
Subaru killed that one person, and thus became the Sakurazukamori."
"But how does that explain why the ofuda shattered?" Tsuzuki's brow creased again, still not comprehending what the smaller boy was saying. It was almost as if the boy felt an attraction, connection to the person that had almost killed him. A wave of jealousy swept over him, but he quickly suppressed it. Hopefully Soka-chan didn't notice
"Well, to kill the Sakurazukamori requires a massive amount of power. What if that power wasn't dark magic? Then the new Blossom Star would have both the dark and the different magics. Your aura was only meant to protect against the dark magic; maybe that mixture was the difference." Hisoka sat up on his bed and rubbed his shoulder; the wound was almost healed. Sometimes it was good to be Shinigami.
Tsuzuki mulled that over for a few seconds. "^^;; Oh man. I guess I'd better get some more information before I start attacking, neh? Ok, since we can't see the Sakurazukamori anymore, let's try the Sumeragi. Do we know where he is? I don't suppose he'd be in the phone book"
"Call Goushoushin. Have him look it up."
Tsuzuki sweatdropped; he'd been hoping that the flitting ball of fluff wouldn't have to make an entrance He sighed. "Ok, fine. Meanwhile let's get something to eat! I'm starving."
*****
"Haiii!!!! Tsuzuki-san! How are you?" Tsuzuki looked to the sky in exasperation; he'd forgotten how annoying Goushoushin's voice was
"Domo, Goushoushin. What did you find for us?" The flying avian produced a package of paper bigger than himself from his pocket. He flitted over to a table.
"This is all the contact information that you need I have the Sumeragi Estate address but I couldn't obtain the name of the head. Nobody would tell me the onmyoujistu are very secretive about their members. Oh, and Watari-san wanted me to give this to you, Hisoka-chan." Goushoushin whipped out a small book titled "How To Dodge" with a note saying "For you, Bon!" Hisoka blushed and sweat-dropped.
"Ayee thank you Goushoushin. Is that it?" Tsuzuki peered through the pile of paper looking for anything important.
"The Boss wants me to remind you that your primary goal is researching the magical grid disturbances, not the rivalries between the onmyoujitsu. And no personal vendettas, Tsuzuki-san." With that last statement hanging in the air, Goushoushin flew off.
Hisoka stared at Tsuzuki long after the bird had departed; the other Shinigami wouldn't meet his eye. The empath tried to reach out, but such was Tsuzuki's strength that he couldn't penetrate the wall that the older Shinigami had built up well, why not ask? "What did the Sakurazukamori do to you, Tsuzuki, that makes you hate him so much?"
"What are you talking about?" The words were controlled, calculated, better fitting to Tatsumi-san than to the amethyst-eyed youth.
Hisoka walked from Tsuzuki's side to his front. Grabbing the rumpled suit softly, he forced Tsuzuki to look at him. "Don't give me that bullshit. A personal vendetta, and when I last looked into your emotion, there was a memory of a body with a hole through it; as if somebody had punched it. I think I would know what that feels like, neh?" He let go with a little shove, then hugged Tsuzuki. "What happened?"
Tsuzuki reached up with one hand and stroked Hisoka's hair gently. "Ok fine.
"This was before you and I were partners, back, oh, maybe nine or ten years. There was a string of murders in Tokyo of innocent victims. Normally, serial killers didn't catch our attention, but the lack of bodies and excess of blood in spite of that caught our attention. These weren't political assassinations either so we were especially interested. I was sent in to investigate.
Of course I knew of the existence of a Sakurazukamori, but I didn't have any specifics. Not many people did. But what showed me that this was the assassin was that all of the random victims were killed in or around Ueno Park. So for several evenings I staked out the park at nighttime, looking out for the next victim. One night, I saw the maboroshi go up; the same one that encased you and me. I could see it because Shinigami are special like that. *sweatdrop*. I moved in fast, summoning up my powers as I went.
When I entered the maboroshi, I saw a man standing over a woman, his hand pointed at her chest. Using my ofuda, I surprised him enough to get him away, but he was quick- quicker than I thought he would be and when I reached the girl he appeared to be so far away He looked at me, and with an unfeeling yet superior grin, dissolved into a cloud of sakura. Then I looked down at the girl."
Tsuzuki sighed. "She was beautiful. I hadn't seen anyone quite like that before and I haven't since." He winked. "'Cept for you, Soka-chan."
Hisoka sweat-dropped.
Tsuzuki sighed again. "But I took her home while she was still unconscious and never got a chance to meet her face to face. I told the Boss that the Sakurazukamori would come back for her, and that I was protecting her, but I was really falling in love from afar. Please don't make me go into the details. But one day, I drew away from her for just ten minutes. I don't know how he knew or how he did it, but when I returned, the maboroshi appeared along with the same Sakura tree. The assassin, a satisfied grin on his face, looked right at me as he plunged his hand into her body.
"He killed her. And then disappeared, leaving me there inside the illusion with the Sakura. I reached for her hand, thinking to spend at least a little more time with her, but as I grasped her fingers, they slipped from my own with a touch lighter than silk. I looked up, and somehow the Sakura tree had taken her in its roots and branches, the tendrils violating her in every way. I screamed and my powers tore at the illusion, ripping it to pieces, and at the end there was a final shriek and I was left alone, spattered in the blood of my love.
"I never knew her name, or even talked to her. I knew that I would meet the Sakurazukamori again someday, to get my revenge."
Hisoka absorbed the story in silence, recalled what he had felt inside of Subaru, and made preparations to leave for the Sumeragi estate in deep thought.
*****
