A/N: See! I said I won't neglect EOTW even with the other new stories!
Literary Eagle, Twylise: *sings* Oooh. . .my cliffie. . .my darliiiing. . .I hun~ger for your touch! Your. . .erm. . . .thingy! Yes! Another cliffie! May the cliffie be with you!
NekoMoon-chan, Daemonchan, Sakusha-san, Shaynie & inami: Wahahahah! Yes! There were no lemons then and there will be no lemons here! Die Sakusha! Die! Wahahaha! And there will be another cliffie! Mainly because if I went on then the chapter is likely to go on to like 20 pages and that means you'll get in like. . .next week or something. So better a cliffie then a no-showie, eh?
Warning: New OC! Kinda. I mean, you saw him earlier. You remember, when he was being such a prat with Enma. Ooh, and a cliffie. Did I mention that there's a cliffie?
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Chapter 22
Prepare to die, fools!
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Consciousness came as the slow awareness of a dull throbbing. Throbbing that indicated pain and it was mostly centered on the left side of his face and his left arm and ribs. His eyelids felt inordinately heavy, as though weights were attached to them and he felt the need to do something, to assure himself that he was alive, despite the ever-increasing pain.
He groaned.
"Oh, Kyo! You're awake!"
With some effort, he managed to force his gummed eyelids to open and noticing as he did so, that dry flakes of. . .something drifted free from his clumped eyelashes. He lifted his right hand wonderingly, touching it to the side of his face and his fingers came away sticky with half-clotted and already dried blood.
Blinking and getting more of the flakes onto his cheeks and lips, he shifted position, getting his uninjured hand underneath him and pushing up slowly. With the movement, his whole left side protested and he nearly slumped back down to the floor when the throbbing increased anew. But Kyo could be stubborn when he set his mind to it and pain had never really deterred him. Not when it was a part of your everyday life.
But then. . .that life was a lie wasn't it?
Gritting his teeth, which also ached, he managed to get into a sitting position, favouring his left side and looked blearily around him, trying to get his bearings. His first impression was of a purplish-white haze, fuzzing his already blurry vision and he rubbed his hand over his eyes, trying to clear it. That only brought the haze into clearer view.
So it's real then, he surmised. Taking in mind the haze, oddly-colored as it was, he thought that he was outside. But the ground beneath him wasn't grass and dirt. It was cold concrete.
//A cold floor that never seemed to warm, no matter how long he had lain on it. . .the shackles clinking and scraping gently across the blank grey surface. . .the haze that was as impenetrable as thick steel. . .//
Kyo shivered, the reaction involuntary which immediately brought his mind back to the present predicament he was in.
Right. Haze. . .weird haze, concrete floor. . .oh, shit.
Kyo, despite having lost any memories of the time he served as a Shinigami and wouldn't have recognized a curse if it bit him on the nose, knew with absolute certainty that he was caught in some magical trap and it won't bode well for him in the immediate future.
It helped that he was currently sitting in the middle of a pentagram, over laid with a circle and the whole construct glowing with the same purplish-white light that permeated the haze that was swirling. . .no, it was stationery. In fact, it was more of a weird, transparent barrier than any haze. It circled him, its circumference the exact size of the inner circle of the pentagram, roughly six feet across. He could also make out five candles on each point of the star and that the flame was burning an otherworldly purple.
And right outside the unearthly construct, sitting as primly as though she was sitting on a seating cushion right in their living room instead of a cold hard floor, and wearing a loving smile, was none other than Ayame.
"Kyo," she breathed, the low whisper passing easily through the ghostly barrier as though it didn't exist. He could hear her perfectly and see her quite clearly as well. As clear as one could as though seeing the world with cotton candy covering your eyes. Wispy, hazy, but yes, still visible. He reached out a tentative hand to the barrier.
Ayame started. "Kyo, no-"
The warning came too late. The instant his questing fingers touched the haze, the whole thing shimmered with a deep purple light and something akin to a thousand volt of electricity flashed through his hand. Kyo yelped, snatching his hand back, cradling it to his chest. Upon closer inspection, the fingers showed no mark for the intense jolt that had coursed through it moments earlier. But his body was still tingling with the aftereffects though and it wasn't pleasant. It made the earlier throbbing start up with renewed vengeance.
"I'm sorry Kyo."
Yep, definitely a magical prison. Thinking back to his last memory of consciousness, he realized that Ayame had somehow managed to pull him through between the worlds, a feat that he was sure was supposed to be unmanageable. Looking up, he noticed that the barrier-haze extended up as far as the eye can see. Logic dictated that he must have fallen hard from above due to the forced transfer, accounting for his injuries.
He fixed emotionless eyes on the woman whom he thought he'd love all his life. If he had doubted what the Shinigamis told him, this helped clear away any vestiges of it.
"Why?" It was sharp and brutal, delivered with the same emotionless gaze that he kept trained on her.
Somehow, he had not expected the affectionate smile, tinged slightly with wry amusement. It felt decidedly at odds with the whole situation.
"Oh Kyo," she sighed, still smiling. "It's all for your own good," she assured him. "I love you! And you love me. You'll never leave me."
"Do I?" he asked quietly. "Or was that just another lie?"
She still kept the smile on her face but it turned into brittle ice. She gestured briefly to one side, beckoning to someone.
"Aki," she called. "Don't you want to see your dad? You miss him don't you?"
Slow horror finally colored his eyes as his daughter hesitantly edged nearer to the magical cage. Through the misty light, he could make out the discolored mark of a fading bruise on her cheek and another on her jaw. The horror was replaced with rage and he surged to his feet, crashing against the barrier and despite the barrage of electrical-like shock the contact caused him, he pressed insistently against it anyway, ignoring the pain.
"What the hell did you do to Aki!" he shouted, hammering against the solid haze. "Aki! Are you alright?"
Aki nodded slowly, casting a fearful glance to her quietly sitting mother. "Daddy," her voice was a near whisper but it stopped his mindless fury. "I'm okay," she smiled shakily. "It's nothing, really. It looks worse than it actually is." Once again, her eyes slid to the side, resting briefly on her mother before meeting her father's enraged eyes. "Really," she assured him again.
But Kyo was in no mind to hear assurances when the truth was there in front of him. Finally stumbling back from the barrier, his body shaking with the aftermath, he fixed a cold glare on the still smiling woman.
"What did you do to her?" Each word was a slow hiss and it was with dim satisfaction that he noted Ayame's slight cringe at his words. He was also aware that his eyes felt uncomfortably hot but he reasoned it was due to all the blood that covered his face.
"Nothing that a loving mother won't do. After all," she chuckled, "she is our daughter. I love her too."
It was the utter conviction of her belief in the rightness of her words that finally threw Kyo. He stared at her with something akin to disbelief and let himself crumple down the floor. He realized that his leg didn't hurt as much as before. His Shinigami healing power had started. Slow, but working.
"You call that love?" he asked incredulously. "Hitting your own child? Lying to your. . ." he hesitated to use the word 'husband' but went on anyway, "your husband your whole life, taking me from apparently everything that I ever loved, and you call that love?!"
She blinked at him owlishly, as though not understanding why he was so upset. "Of course it is," she countered. "Isn't that what love is? Sacrifices? I've sacrificed so much for you Kyo," her voice softened and a wistful smile lit her face. "I knew from the moment I met you that we were meant to be together. It just took you longer to realize it. It didn't help that the sensei showed up and took advantage of you." Her smile turned brittle again.
"What do you mean?" Kyo asked softly. The feeling of horror was back again but he couldn't pinpoint why exactly.
"I knew you love me Kyo. You were just blinded by the sensei to realize it. I had to make you see the truth."
"What do you mean?" he insisted.
The smile turned positively cheerful then. "I was the one who set fire to the school. Only, it was supposed to kill Takashi, not you." She frowned. "I didn't expect you to show up. You had no idea of the pain I felt when I saw you. . .dead." she covered her mouth with a manicured hand, overcome with old grief but not a trace of guilt.
She went on, still with the same, driving force of love shining through each word. "I thought my world would end when you died. I wanted to kill myself but I realized that there were other ways for us to be together. I tried learning necromancy and I had almost achieved it when I found out that you became a Shinigami! You have no idea how happy I was! It shows that we were meant to be together!"
"It shows that you are insane!" Kyo snarled.
It was her turn to fix him a cold glare, her eyes hard and unblinking. "I'll ignore that since you're obviously distressed and in shock, Kyo," she said calmly.
His heart sinking deep, Kyo realized with an inward shudder that his accusation was true. She was insane. Utterly and totally beyond help. He was afraid. As he shrank slightly underneath that venomous gaze, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Aki was edging closer to the edge of the pentagram. One hand was slowly extending out to the nearest burning candle. Intuitively, he knew that if even one of the candles were put out, the trap would weaken. He had to distract Ayame then.
"What are you going to do with me?" he asked quickly, trying to look as though he wasn't paying any attention to Aki who was moving with agonizing slowness.
Ayame quirked an eyebrow. "Do? Nothing. Nothing but take back what is rightfully mine. What is rightfully ours. We were happy Kyo, before he took you away again. Weren't you happy these past 15 years? Didn't I make you happy?"
"It was happiness based on a lie," Kyo said evenly. "From all accounts, I was already happy with Takashi. But then you had to take me away from that."
"Because I love you Kyo! I know you deserve better than him!" Ayame threw her hands up in despair. "Can't you see that-What the hell are you doing Aki?!"
With a speed that was astounding, Ayame, in the blink of an eye had her hand around Aki's throat and slammed her against the wall. She hadn't even managed to snuff out one candle. Aki choked slightly and turned pleading eyes on her mother.
"Please mom," she croaked. "Let daddy go. He's hurting! Please!"
"You interfering idiot!" Ayame snarled and she raised one hand threateningly. Red light filled the palm of her hand and fear clutched Kyo's heart for his daughter. Before he could do anything though, a deafening explosion rang out.
"Aki!" he shouted, surging again to his feet. It was with puzzlement mixed with relief that he saw Aki wasn't hurt at all. If anything, Ayame herself looked puzzled. Turning, the three of them saw the reason for the explosion.
The far wall was now mere rubble and dust and rising above it like an avenging angel, was the glowing form of Takashi. Kyo couldn't help the cry of relief that he let out at the welcoming sight.
"Takashi!"
The glowing figure flew over the rubble and landed inside the room. Not far behind, three other figures joined him, each spread out in a line and poised for attack. Through the settling dust, Kyo could make out that the three were Tatsumi, Tsuzuki and Hisoka. But it was the figure in the middle that his eyes locked on. The other three Shinigami were giving Takashi a wide berth and he could understand why.
The earlier glow had dispelled, but Takashi was still an arresting sight. His face twisted in a snarl, his hands were balled at his sides and his body quivered with unreleased tension. But the most extraordinary thing was that his eyes, normally a hazel-green was now literally glowing with the occasional lines of fire erupting around him.
Kyo knew without a doubt that Takashi was beyond angry. He was enraged.
Ironically, he felt a twist of fear for Ayame. Takashi was out for blood.
"Let. Kyo. Go. Now." Each words were punctuated with more of those fires erupting and surreptitiously, the three Shinigami moved further away from Takashi. But it was a mark of how far gone Ayame was that she actually laughed, releasing Aki as she strode to the center of the room with her hands on her hips in a challenging pose.
"Sensei," she sneered. "You never learn, do you? He is mine. Accept that and maybe I won't destroy you."
"Let him go," Takashi repeated, the fury not abated even a bit.
Ayame threw down the gauntlet. "In your dreams."
Apparently, that was the last straw for Takashi. With a scream of rage, the lines of sporadic fire coalesced into a whirling ball that encased him and the fight was on.
All Kyo could make out was the flashes of bright light interspersed with booming thunder. He fell to the floor with the first detonation and each attempt to stand up was foiled repeatedly as the ground shook and roared with the stress of wild magic flying all over the place. Hearing a small cry, his throat constricted as he recognized Aki's voice.
"Aki!" he called out, his voice drowned out by the new explosion. "Aki! Where are you?"
"Daddy! Over here!"
He spun to his right, still on his knees and saw through the haze that Aki was directly opposite him, crouched in the same position. She was trying to put out the candles. She managed to put out one when a sudden shadow loomed up behind her. His cry of warning died in his throat when the figure quickly turned out to be Hisoka, flanked by Tatsumi and Tsuzuki.
"Let me help," Hisoka said hurriedly and from a back pocket, took out a gleaming revolver.
Kyo had the momentary distraction of wondering why on earth a 16 year old boy had a gun when Hisoka calmly, rapidly, took out the remaining candles with four accurate shots. Kyo wasn't prepared for what happened next.
A high-pitched whine and snap rang out that cut through even the ongoing explosions as the barriers dissolved, hurting his ears. In a shower of sparks and glowing shards, the whole construct rippled into nothingness. The instant the trap weakened, the three Shinigami were by his side, helping him to his feet.
"We can't transport from inside," Tsuzuki said hurriedly from Kyo's left. "We have to go outside the wards she had placed. Tatsumi, you-"
What he wanted Tatsumi to do, Kyo never knew. In a movement that was just a blur, Ayame materialized right in front of them, chest heaving with exertion and a trickle of blood flowing from a nasty cut on her forehead.
"Kyo!" she shrieked. "You are not leaving me again! I won't let you!"
But the three Shinigami were prepared for her. In an enviably coordinated move, the three of them withdrew several ofudas and in the same instant, threw them at Ayame. The paper talismans flew with uncanny accuracy, spreading out in a 5-pointed star formation. The explosion that resulted was impressive. Kyo didn't really see what happened but he definitely saw Ayame flying back at least 10 feet away.
"Kyo? Are you alright?" It was Takashi and Kyo was relieved to note that the erupting fires and glowing eyes had died down. Instead, the man looked positively normal. Well, dust-covered, disheveled and bruised everywhere but still normal.
He nodded an affirmative and the Shinigami drew up in a protective triangle around them with Takashi supporting him as his injured leg still hadn't recovered fully. They had barely gone more than 5 steps when Kyo skidded to a halt.
"Wait! What about Aki?"
"Oh, shit," Takashi swore eloquently.
"Looking for her?"
Spinning around, the Shinigami were confronted with the sight of Ayame holding on to Aki, a death grip around her neck with the blade of a knife hovering near her throat. And it wasn't just any knife. At the audible intake of breath, including the obviously disturbing sight of the knife which glowed a dirty red, Kyo knew that they had found what they were looking for; the blood-knife.
Amidst the settling dust, a strained silence enveloped the room with each side poised in tense anticipation. They were frozen in a tableau, the Shinigami unwilling to test how far Ayame would go while she herself seemed perfectly willing to go all the way.
"She's your daughter," was Kyo's choked cry. "She's our daughter."
A feral snarl twisted Ayame's graceful features, turning it into a demon mask that showed not a hint of love or affection for the girl that lay limp in her arms.
"She is nothing but a bargain tool. Leave me, and she'll die."
It had to come to this. An impasse. How were they going to walk away from this? They couldn't. Not without some sacrifices and Kyo wasn't sure if he was willing to make any of it. As he stood there, trembling with indecision, the Shinigami were also frozen into inaction by the fact that to attack would only hurt Aki and to hurt Aki was to hurt Kyo.
But as it turned out, neither had to make any choices.
The air around the spot to their left and Ayame's right rippled suddenly like heat-stressed air. The colorless ripples spread outward from a point and when it was human sized, a figure coalesced into being.
But apparently, even if it was human sized, it didn't mean that the new arrival was human. He (it?) couldn't be human. No one could look like that and still claim to be one. Of average size, the newcomer stood with hands crossed, tapping a foot impatiently against the floor. The utterly blasé attitude was at odds with his hair that was so long, it twisted and curled on the floor, looking for all the world like it was on fire. The little snaps of flame that licked the air around it reinforced that image on from what they could see of his face, they knew then for sure that he wasn't human. Even if the hair hadn't convinced them.
He was a god.
What else could he be with the perfect beauty that was his face? So perfect that they felt pure fear gazing on it for to be that beautiful was to not be human. And what added to the fear was the fact that not one scrap of compassion or mercy was in those flame-colored eyes. Only a hint of malicious humour and complete boredom.
Somehow, that look o boredom terrified them more than the fact that this god showed no mercy. Wouldn't you, if you had on your hands a bored, merciless god?
It was only thanks to the fact that they were Shinigami they could stand the presence of the god, though Kyo was taking it harder than the rest. He shrank back against Takashi who immediately cradled him close and tried to stifle the instinctive whimper that rose up.
"Ayame," the god drawled lazily. "What the hell are you doing?"
Apparently, the new god was an acquaintance of their Ayame. The woman actually threw the god an irritated look.
"What do you think I'm doing, Hino? I'm protecting what's mine!"
"By threatening mine?" the inflection was still a lazy drawl but there was no mistaking the flare of anger that rose up in the endless depths of those inhuman eyes. But Ayame, in her insanity, saw nothing.
"You promised me help in return for her!" she screeched suddenly. "So help me!"
If anything, the anger dissipated to be replaced with veiled amusement. The god, Hino, rolled his eyes and sighed. "Oh, fine. Whatever." And turned to face the cowering Shinigami.
Like a voiceover from a B-grade horror movie, the god Hino intoned, "Prepare to die, fools."
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to be continued when I feel like it
. . . .kidding!
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A/N: Tsk, tsk. A new Oc who's a god, of all things. What DOES this means? Hmm. . .I wonder. Is something. . . .MAJOR going to happen? Will there be loads and loads of. . .BLOOD? Oh my.