Chapter 15: The Devil

Author's Notes: Woo… A new disclaimer here! Amida Toki is property of Uesugi Yuriko aka Murasaki_Honou. If you wanna know more about him, might as well read her fic, "A Twist Of Fate" ^_^ Tragedy befalls the immortals! Boohoohoo… I took a lot of inspiration from "Interview With The Vampire" and the OST of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Sorry if Toki-san may seem somewhat OOC…

"Sou na…" Quietus sighed when the immortals inquired about the sutra to the head monk. The head monk reported that a blonde-haired man around his early twenties stole the sutra from the temple two weeks ago. They weren't able to capture him though.

"So, how do we track him down when all we know about him is his hair color and age?" Komyo pondered before he was asked by some other monks to preach to them.

"Oi, Komyo…" Nii started, "Why are you still respected as a Sanzo? You aren't even wearing a sutra…"

"It's the aura…" Komyo smiled, "They know I'm a Sanzo."

"But what about me?" Kouryuu asked, "I was a Sanzo six hundred years ago…"

"But you've been reincarnated. You've lost that aura." Quietus shook his head, "Anyway, if Komyo Sanzo here agrees to make you a Sanzo before he goes back to heaven, get ready to preach, Sanzo-sama."

"I'm not yet a Sanzo…" Kouryuu whacked the annoying immortal with a harisen on the head monk's table. Quietus simply giggled and watched Komyo preach.

"Great… I think having one of these harisen will come in handy…" Kouryuu smirked, looking at the harisen in his hands.

"Saa… I'll go find an inn to stay in tonight." Nii smiled.

"You don't need to." Quietus laughed, "Komyo's preaching has earned us a room here."

"Good." Kouryuu nodded.

Meanwhile, the sun was going down back in the temple where Hakkai stayed in. Hakkai watched the sun go down as Hibiemi and Goku went off into the kitchen to make rice cakes. Being the eccentric immortal she was, Hibiemi decided to wear a kimono the whole day. Hakkai on the other hand rested against the supporting beam of the roof on the porch wearing the same yukata he wore on the night he and Kouryuu became lovers. He held himself and sighed. He wished that Kouryuu would be there with him to see the sun go down.

"Ne, Hakkai-san…" Hibiemi waved a hand in front of the daydreaming brunette.

"Doushite?" Hakkai jolted from his daydream.

"Rice cakes?" The younger brunette smiled with a box of freshly made rice cakes, "I've been making them for a century. I'm sure you'll find them good."

"And they are!" Goku said reaching for a rice cake from the box.

"Hontou?" Gojyo came into the picture and took two rice cakes out of the box.

"I guess I'll have some, too…" Hakkai smiled as he took three, "Ichi… ni… san."

Sanzo…

Hakkai turned away and looked at the rice cakes in his hands. The same treat he brought Kouryuu on that same day.

"Sanzo… Genjo Sanzo…" He closed his eyes and recalled the name from his brought out memory, "But he's Genjo Kouryuu now…"

"Oh… I'd think again if I were you." Hibiemi pointed out, "Komyo-san could make Kouryuu-san a Sanzo before he leaves for Heaven."

"Aa…" Hakkai nodded as he looked back at the rice cakes, "So which one should I eat first?"

Back in the temple where the four immortals stayed, Quietus noticed that no one was with him in the room. He thought that Kouryuu wouldn't be going out of the room that night. Tracking down his aura, he followed the aura's path to the temple garden.

"Kouryuu-san…?" Quietus looked at the blonde staring into space, a cigarette dangling from his fingers. "You're worried about Hakkai, aren't you?"

"What makes you think that?" Kouryuu asked, his eyes not making any contact with the one who asked him.

"The way you stare out into space." Quietus smiled, "I know only someone worried could stare into space with eyes like that. So forlorn, so sorrowful… I've worried about the both of you for six hundred years."

"What do you mean, the both of us?" Kouryuu asked.

Quietus sighed and stared at the springtime sky, "You… and Hakkai. I thought I would have found the both of you a century ago, but I was wrong. That was the same time I found that little one you nicknamed 'Hebi onna'." The immortal laughed and shook his head, "Her family was killed in a car crash and since she couldn't die, she had to witness the gruesome deaths of her family. A few days after the funeral of her family was held, her brother's lover committed suicide. And a hundred years later, I've finally found the both of you. I don't want to let either of you go. Neither does Hibi-chan…"

No response came from Kouryuu.

A rustling came from the bushes.

"Who's there?" Quietus asked as he read the aura of the one who was hiding, "You're an immortal, aren't you?"

"Hakkai?" The one hiding asked back.

"I asked you first. It's polite to answer the first question." Quietus smiled as he got into a fighting stance.

"Hakkai, can't you remember me?" The stranger came out of the bushes. His blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes looking so similar parallel to Kouryuu.

He looks so heartbroken… I don't want to disappoint him by saying I'm not Hakkai or telling him that he has to die… Quietus looked down to the ground and decided to play this stranger's game for now, "I'm sorry. I don't remember…" He smiled, looking apologetically into the stranger's eyes. Somehow a little part of him felt something for the stranger at that moment.

"Amida Toki." The stranger made himself known, "Now can you remember?"

Oh… What can I do now? The best I can do is do the unthinkable and read Hakkai's memory from here… Quietus thought hard as he stood still. He closed his eyes and quickly read Hakkai's memory. He finally found his answers and smiled at him.

"Gomenasai, Toki-san… But it's been so long since I've last seen you. What happened these last six hundred years?" Quietus beamed at Toki. The blond stranger broke into sobs and held the supposed Hakkai in a tight embrace, "Toki-san… Doushite?"

"It's been so long, Hakkai… It's been so lonely being an immortal all alone…" Toki cried in joy, "But why are you crying?" He looked at the fake Hakkai's eyes brimming with tears.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Toki… But… I'm not Hakkai. I'm just a twin brother of his. I'm sorry…" Quietus looked down as tears trickled down his cheeks. He pushed Toki away and ran, crying all the way back to his room.

"Toki." Kouryuu looked at the stunned immortal.

"Onii-san," Toki began, "Where is Hakkai?"

"He's back in the temple where I live." Kouryuu said, "But he'll die unless we find all the sutras."

Toki's fists grew tighter and he quickly stood up and threatened to beat up his brother, "You idiot! Why would you let a fate like that befall Hakkai?!"

"It wasn't my fault, baka!" Kouryuu pushed Toki away, "If you're looking for answers, you should have asked Hakkai's twin back there! I don't have answers! I don't know a shred of what's really going on here! All I know is that if we don't seal that Silver Apocalypse or whatever it's name is, Hakkai will… Hakkai will…" Kouryuu turned away as hot tears of furious anger started to form in his eyes. At once, Toki seemed to understand what his brother meant.

"Here. Take this sutra." Toki said as he placed the heart sutra on the ground, "You'll find another sutra in a town south of here. By the way, what's the name of that twin who ran off?"

"Quietus. Why would you want to know?" Kouryuu asked, his voice still stubborn and stern.

"Nothing… Just curious, that's all." Toki said as he disappeared.

***

"Loneliness… Loneliness so strong that it would drive you mad…" Hibiemi sighed as she looked outside the window of her room back in the mansion. There was no one in the whole mansion except for herself. He sighed as she stroked the hair of one of her dolls, "A fate worse than death itself. It makes death look like Nirvana. But the problem is… we can't die. We can't die at all…"

Unknown to her, far away back in the temple where Kouryuu met Toki, while everyone fell asleep, Quietus tried to kill himself in the gardens. But being immortal, he was revived again.

"I hate fate… Why do you let me live alone!? Why can't you let me be happy for once, fate?! You're always taking happiness away from me! I hate you so much!" Out of rage, he stabbed himself again with his katana. Blood was poured over the walls of the temple. Quietus fell into another temporary death. And the one to witness it was Toki.

"Loneliness to the point of madness… Driving you to kill yourself over and over and over again…" Hibiemi sighed. The doll's face showed no emotion. It was almost useless to try and make inanimate things happy, "Lonely as a mortal. Even lonelier as an immortal. Such a cruel fate to befall me. Such a cruel fate to befall all immortals living alone."