Title: Four things that never happened
to Saki
Summary: Some spoilers through Kyoto Arc. Inspired by Brigdh's fic, "Five things that never happened to
Hisoka."
1. Be dead.
"Thank you for your assistance in our case," Saki bows politely as he's let out the door. "In the meantime, please accept this protective spell from my partner. It should protect you from the evil spirit." He hands the ofuda to the little old woman who tucks it into her purse with quavering fingers.
"Thank you young man," she says, as she closes the door. With a sweep of his dark crimson coat, Saki sets off down the street, streetlights flickering and fading as he walks past.
"So, are you all done for the night?" His partner appears beside him, like a black shadow with piercing violet eyes.
"Yep. Everything's settled. How about you, Tsuzuki-san? Is everything all right? Did you find the spirit?"
"Only for a few minutes. But I'll get him next time, Saki-kun" Tsuzuki says, ruffling Saki's black hair. Saki only smiles, heedless of the indignity. "How about a drink, kid? I'll buy you a soda."
"Coke with a slice of lime?"
"Absolutely. We can get some dessert too. It's my treat."
"That sounds really great, Tsuzuki-san," Saki smiles, basking in his partner's approval.
Dying was definitely the best thing that ever happened to him.
2. Be the survivor.
"Hello, little brother," Saki smiled gently, his eyes soft with some
unexpressed emotion, as he ran the length of the sword along his fingertips,
marveling at the tiny scratch it left along his fingers, so thin, so neat as to
barely draw blood, merely a micron fraction of skin penetrated. Kazutaka moved
as if to run, but Saki was too fast for him, knocking Kazutaka's feet out from
under him, making him hit the ground with an unwieldy thud.
Blood welled out from Kazutaka's lips where his teeth cut his lower lip. The
red stained along his pale skin, the only hint of color. Surprised, he touched
a finger to the growing crimson, the coppery taste filling his mouth.
"Saki!" It was an exhalation of breath, almost a whisper, fed along streams of
horror and fear.
"That's me," Saki grinned, as he swung the blade in a practiced sweep, his arm
moving through the form smoothly. "And now, it's your turn. I'm really sorry
that it turned out this way, Kazutaka, but it's nothing personal. Just so that
you understand. It's something I have to do. Goodbye, little brother."
Kazutaka scuttled back against the smooth wooden floor, stumbling to get away,
to protect himself somehow, as the blade came down in a sweep of steel, the
metal flying inexorably toward him and then there was no time and...
Bam. The ricochet of the gun. The bullet slammed into the steel blade, snapping
the tip off as neatly as the shatter of a winter icicle breaking off the eaves.
Time froze momentarily. Saki would always remember, because of how slow it
felt, the gleam and flick of the katana's tip as it went sailing through the
air, the hint of his own reflection passing by him as the momentum of the
broken blade sent it forth, slicing into Kazutaka's throat. A second later, the
servant dropped his gun, horrified, and went to Kazutaka's aid. Saki
dispassionately dispatched the man with the broken remnant of the blade.
Kazutaka
clutched at the blade's tip, still lodged in his throat, his eyes desperate as
his fingers scrabbled uselessly at the lacerating steel.
Blood. It was everywhere.
"Sorry, brother," Saki whispered again, his words tight in his throat. "This is
for you, mother. Now you can rest in peace." He brought the blade up once more,
this time for the killing stroke...
3. Be alive.
Rain. But
it was salty.
It wasn't really rain; it was just the salt spray of water as waves pounded the
stones, and droplets flew up into the air like a blowing whale's breath. It
left Saki's black wind-blown hair strewn with bright beads of water.
It took him nearly half an hour to walk out this far, clambering from one rock
to the next until he came to the edge of the stone barrier that sheltered the
harbor from the worst of the Pacific.
Above, the sky changed from summery blue to an autumnal gray as the chill fog
rolled in.
Saki was lonely out here on the wrong side of the ocean. Few here speak
Japanese. Even the few Japanese kids that he knows aren't really Japanese at
all, other than by blood. They have nothing to say to each other.
Their parents look at him in pity.
Saki was given a new name after his life was saved. Sometimes he doesn't answer
when he's called on in class, because he forgets. He's strange enough without
that. It had made things particularly difficult.
His lips tasted liquid, warm and salty. But at least he was alive.
4. Be the best man.
"How does it look?" Kazutaka fiddles nervously with his bow tie, uncharacteristically
anxious.
"Relax, you look fine," Saki says, lounging in a chair behind his brother,
plucking idly at his boutonniere, the crimson and white orchid petals feeling
delicately waxy beneath his fingers. "But you know, it should be the other way
around. The bride's supposed to wear white, not the groom. And what possessed
Ukyou to get married in all red?"
"Her own choice," Kazutaka says absently, as he looks to the right and left,
making certain that there are no stray locks out of place. His prosthetic right
eye stares back at him in the reflection. Ukyou had never allowed him to grow
his hair out like he once thought about doing, to cover the unsightly scar that
marred his face, to veil that strange pale eye that didn't match. She had said he
should be proud of what he had survived, and damn anyone who was going to think
him less handsome for it.
"That's what I get for moving overseas," Saki says with an exaggerated tone of
exasperation. "All the people I care about develop terrible taste. When I come
back next time, will you have an afro?"
"I don't have terrible taste! Remind me to poison your wine before you give the
toast, that way you can skip that affair as well," Kazutaka snaps, as he checks
the mirror again.
"I'll make sure to tell your mother you said that," Saki snickers, as he
unfolds himself from his chair, and stands to help his brother straighten his
bowtie.
"I'm sure she'll get a real kick out of it. Honestly, you are a lot of trouble
sometimes."
"My apologies, nii-san," Kazutaka says softly, looking oddly worn and weary. "I
did not mean to sound so harsh."
"It's okay," Saki says, pulling Kazutaka into a brief embrace from behind.
They're like light and shadow in the mirror, reflections paralleling each other
in dual contrast. "It's your wedding. You have a right to be nervous. Besides,"
he adds, "I'll get my revenge."
His hand moves faster than Kazutaka can react. Before he can flinch, Saki is
mussing up his hair into a staticky fuzz.
"Saki! You bastard!"
"That's me!" Saki laughs as he dances away from Kazutaka's half-hearted attempt
at elbowing him.
"My hair! I'll kill you!"
"It's what big brothers are for!"
"SAKI!"
Author's notes: Inspired by Brigdh, but definitely not as good. Check out her
"Five things that never happened to Hisoka" which can be found here:
chosenone.envy.nu/5things.html
Including
the titles, parts 2-4 are 400 words each, and parts 1-3 are 200 each (which of
course add up to 400). The significance of the number 4 is that in Chinese,
it's almost a homonym for the word 'death.' It's an unlucky number. Some of the
Saki ideas were inspired by one of my other fics.
Different tenses are intentional. Thanks to RubyD for prereading. :D
