A/N: Yosh! Much love to everyone!

Warning: Cliffie bug! Cliffie bug! Achoo!

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                                                                   Chapter 23

                                                               Happy Mother's Day

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"Prepare to die, fools."

The Shinigami cringed back as one, forcing Kyo to be kept within their huddle as Takashi shielded him from the front and the others to the side and back. He could just make out the god, Hino, from over Takashi's shoulder and the flame-haired god raised a hand into the air slowly and with all the drama of a deity.

He paused, the air around the upraised hand fairly crackling with power and Hino then said, "Kidding!"

The Shinigami gaped as one also as Hino chuckled and waved the earlier-threatening hand, a smile crinkling his eyes. "Oh you humans, you believe anything a god says, don't you?"

Ayame, though, was none too pleased. "Hino! What are you doing! We had a bargain!" she shrieked.

"Ah well, I'm a god. I make my own bargains," Hino tossed over his shoulder. "Oh, and Aki? Be a dear, won't you?"

"With pleasure." With that, Aki, who was still in Ayame's death grip, literally disappeared, only to reappear a moment later behind her mother to take Ayame's head between her hands.

"You know, mom," she said casually, "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."

With a small grin, Aki broke her mother's neck.

In the movies, whenever a terribly important or climatic moment comes on, everything moves into slow motion and to Kyo, it seemed to take forever for Ayame to fall to the floor, her head a grotesquely wrong angle to her body. The audible crunch and crack of her bones and spinal cord breaking rang like a bell and he could have sworn that it echoed throughout the room.

With a final thud, Ayame lay like a broken doll on the dust-covered floor, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Aya!" Kyo screamed and lunged forward. He was quickly caught by the Shinigami, Takashi straining to keep a hold on him as he bucked and twisted, trying to get to Ayame. It didn't matter then, that Ayame had brought all of this about in the first place. It did not matter then also that Ayame had taken from him everything he knew and loved and fed him a lie for more than 15 years. All that mattered was that his wife had been killed in front of his own eyes and that the murderer was his own daughter.

"No!" Kyo lashed out, a hand reaching desperately to the wide-eyed corpse but it was impossible for him to throw off all four Shinigami. The more they tried to pin him down, the worse his struggles became. "Aya! Please! Aya!"

"Come now, you already got around to hating her in the end. Now you're acting all hysterical? Make up your mind will you?"

It was more effective than a slap to the face, which was what Takashi was seriously considering. The scornful bite to Hino's words shocked Kyo still and he trembled in their many-armed grasp, face pale and slick with sweat and blind tears. Slowly, he turned to face the two watching them almost impassively. Aki had come to stand by Hino's side, a secretive little smile on her face as Hino placed a friendly arm on her shoulder.

"Aki?" Kyo whispered. "You didn't mean to do it, right? He made you do it. He's a god after all. Who could resist that? You didn't mean to do it. She's your mother."

"But daddy," Aki's smile grew wider. "you always said that I should never lie. Why should I start now?"

His mouth moved silently but no sound came out. Kyo seemed to have been struck speechless. Takashi and the others, shocked and horrified as they were, were better able to cope. Surreptitiously, with an unspoken signal, they moved back slowly as one to the large hole in the wall that Takashi had blasted in earlier. They had barely gone for more than 5 steps, Kyo frighteningly quiescent in their grip when once again they were stopped in their tracks by Hino.

"What?" he raised an eyebrow. "Leaving already? You haven't forgotten anything, have you? What do you say, Aki?"

Aki chuckled quietly, leaning back in Hino's loose embrace. "Oh, you're right. I think they have forgotten something. Something quite important too. Say. . .a knife?"

"Really? A blood-knife right?"

"Quite."

"Can't leave without that can we?" with a twirl and theatrical flourish, Hino brandished the knife, waving it in the air almost negligently.

Takashi eyed the two warily. "What are you going to do with it?" he asked quietly.

"Do? Nothing much," Hino shrugged. "After all, your Kyo is a Shinigami. And we all know that Enma loves his Shinigami. Can't stand to see them hurt and all that, the old crackpot. And since Enma is Lord of Death and I'm an obedient, generous, deity," Aki laughed outright at that, "what say you to me helping out? After all, I am partly responsible for this whole mess. Hmm?"

"What do you mean, helping us out?" Tatsumi asked suspiciously.

"You need to destroy this knife to break Ayame's curse on Kyo. But if you go about it the wrong way, you might end up damaging your little Kyo more. We don't want that, do we now? So why don't I do it for you?"

"Why are you doing this?" Takashi asked.

Hino smiled again. "Because, it won't be as fun when I finally destroy all of you if you don't realize just what exactly are you losing."

They had barely taken in the meaning of his words when Hino raised the knife. "You might want to keep an eye on him afterwards," he said casually. "I imagine the aftereffects of the curse can be quite painful for him."

And without due ceremony, the knife broke into two in his hands.

They felt it then, the backlash from the curse breaking and it made them stumble, the waves contained in that space by the wards still set up. The minute it broke, Hino and Aki disappeared and in their arms, Kyo gasped.

"Kyo?! Kyo!"

Kyo had lost consciousness.

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They had barely laid him down on the bed in the infirmary when they finally understood what Hino had said about the aftereffects of the curse. Takashi was changing Kyo out of his shirt, the boy still unconscious when Takashi stilled suddenly, his hands arrested over the opened shirt.

"Takashi?" Watari asked. "What's wrong?" He had been preparing some painkillers for Kyo when he noticed the sudden lack of activity from Takashi. The others had as well and they crowded close with Watari at the side of the bed.

"Takashi-san?" Tatsumi frowned, placing a hand on his shoulder. "What's wr—"

The opened shirt laid bare Kyo's chest, the skin pale. But not for long. Like a still-motion picture, they saw clearly the skin slowly stained with a pale red. At first, it emerged as blotches on the skin but slowly grew clearer and they could see it crisscrossing the boy's chest and torso. From a red that was like bad sunburn, it began to darken until they could tell that it was forming patterns. Patterns like that of chains. . .

"Oh dear god," someone breathed.

"Takashi," Hisoka spoke up in a frightened voice. "What's happening?"

Takashi shook his head jerkily, his hands trembling and unsure. "The curse," he gasped out. "It must have been designed to trap his spirit, suppressing his real self. The curse acted on his spirit directly and now that it's broken. . ." he trailed off, his eyes widening in horror as the reddened skin began to pucker and break. "Now that it's broken, the backlash is taking a physical manifestation."

It was too much like the time Kyo had burned Akuma to death, and he himself in the process. But this time, they got to actually see, in slow motion, how skin actually changed when burnt.

"No," Takashi moaned helplessly, his hands fluttering over the breaking and oozing skin. The others could only stare as well, none of them having any way to stop what was happening. It was the nature of a magical backlash. You could only endure it, not stop it. "No, please, stop it! Please!"

"Watari!" Tatsumi snapped suddenly. "Get some bandages, ointment, salves, anything! Hurry!"

Watari nodded and quickly ran out of the room. But he had just flung the door open when he was stopped by Kacho stepping inside suddenly.

"Everyone!" he barked, his eyes taking in the scene before him with agitation. "In the staffroom! Immediately!"

Takashi didn't even look at his superior as he shouted back. "I am not leaving him! He's hurt Kacho! We can't—"

"We can and we will."

The complete finality in his tone convinced them that something wasn't right, if the fact that Kacho had demanded they leave an injured co-worker hadn't. It was Tatsumi, as always, who asked him.

"What happened sir?" he asked calmly.

Kacho shook his head in terse agitation, his tone clipped and apologetic but firm all the same. "Two members of the Shiroku are here. They want to see all of us. We've been accused of treason against Enma-Daioh."

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                                                          to be continued

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A/N: How? How could I leave it just like that? How could I??? Easily. I just did. Hahahaha. I will rule the world with Cliffies! No one, except those that praise my genius, will escape the torture of cliffies! No one!