Chapter 5

It had taken a lot of effort for Hisoka to wake Tsuzuki up, he didn't want to interrupt that pleasant face's dreams but they needed to go back and see if Hijiri was alright, not to mention, in his previous state of emergency he hadn't taken the time to realize that they were in the girls' bathroom, they found this fact out the hard way when one of the students entered and screamed "perverts!" at the top of her lungs.

Tsuzuki walked up to Hijiri's side, it had been a year since he saw him last and his form seemed the same, however, his face was a deathly pail and his eyes were like hollow sockets painted with ash. If it wasn't for the slight wheeze emanating from his throat he could have easily passed for dead.

"Is he going to be ok?" Tsuzuki said looking at the pale form.

"Well, I was able to open his air ways," Asai said as she chewed on a pen, her face looked puzzled "but he's in really bad shape, there isn't anything I can do with the lack of equipment here. All I've been able to accomplish is giving him a slight check up."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes I did," Asai said, she then unbuttoned Hijiri's shirt Tsuzuki's eyes widened into concerned shock at the picture before him, bright red welts striped Hijiri's colorless neck. "If I'm correct, these are the symptoms that have been described, red lash marks on the neck that travel a little lower on the chest, along with trouble breathing, and then this would mean that following this would be…"

Tsuzuki felt weak; in the back of his mind he hoped that he wouldn't have to see Hijiri again. It wasn't because he didn't like Hijiri, in fact it was because he did like him. Their reunions, if they had anymore, would always be like this though; Death would always hang over Hijiri's head, his scythe constantly poised over his existence, and it would be Tsuzuki's job to knock it away only for it to return for the boy's life once more.

"We have to keep an eye on him tonight; maybe we'll get a clue to what's doing this and we-" Tsuzuki said but was caught in the middle of his sentence when a group of men in white clothing accompanied by a stretcher entered the room.

"Is this the kid?" One of the men asked.

"Yes, his name is Minase Hijiri, I have his records here" Asai said as she handed a manila folder to one of the men. She then helped pick him up and put him on the stretcher.

"I'm going to come along." Tsuzuki said

"I'm sorry sir, but if you're not a blood relative we cannot allow you to." Another one of the men said, they then began to cart Hijiri out of the room.

A slight pang of jealousy crept up inside Hisoka as he watched Tsuzuki's concerned purple eyes follow the boy out of the room, but what right didn't he have to be worried, Hijiri was possibly in a life and death situation. Hisoka should have been smacking himself for not being concerned too.

"Are you alright, Hisoka?" Asai said to the boy, who gave her a confused look.

"You ran out of here looking quite sick." She said with a little amusement in her voice yet her face was pleasant. Hisoka paused for a moment and then had relapse of the violent imagery. He tried the shake the images out, he had no clue how he could have even forgotten such a thing.

"Jesus…What the hell was that?!" He said forcefully.

"Was what?" She asked; her face still held its softness.

"I grabbed your arm and then…" He grit he teeth and wished the images would stop coming back.

"Oh…I think I understand now," She said as the pleasantness in her gray eyes faded quickly, "I imagine you saw some things that were a bit peculiar."

"Something a bit peculiar?! Peculiar doesn't even fit what I saw! Maybe we didn't see the same thing."

"What did you see?" Tsuzuki asked; he had an idea that maybe this all had to do with the strange energy he felt earlier before Hisoka left.

"He saw the fates of the students who came in here earlier. Normally peoples' deaths are not so horrific but in their cases," she paused with a sigh, "well, their going to have an unclean death. Hisoka must have picked it up with his empathy."

"The fates?" Tsuzuki questioned.

"Well, it's more like the state of their body after death. It's an ability that I've had for a long time, I found out that I had it days before my older sister died, it was from a sickness so I could see the marks it left on her body. It horrified me at first, but over time the shock of it dulled. It's only in these cases where the corpses appear with such morbid looking injuries that shock me…" she seemed to drift off with the last of what she said.

Tsuzuki just looked at the growing sadness in her eyes, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her, "I'm sorry to hear it…living that way for so long must have been so depressing, knowing when the end is near for your loved ones must have been a hard thing to bear."

"Not really, death was something I had accepted from the day I was born. It's the world's precept. It just wouldn't work if no one died." She came back her once softened eyes were now as sharp as ever. Hisoka was shocked, the entire time she was talking he was trying to trace the woman's feelings but he suddenly could pick up nothing, not a single feeling or thought was exposed to him.

"Well," she changed the subject abruptly, "you two seemed to have had enough for now. Why don't you guys go take a break? I'll notify you if anything comes up."

"All right, if you think you'll be ok." Tsuzuki as he began to leave the room.

"No worries…" She said waving them out.

"I don't like her." Hisoka said as he placed his tea cup down on the table, they had decided to take a break at a small book café, he looked up from his tea directly at Tsuzuki, who responded with a confused, "Who?"

"Asai, I don't like her, there are things about her that are…strange."

"How so?" Tsuzuki leaned his head to the side onto his hand.

"You didn't notice?"

"Not really…"

"Your so oblivious…," Hisoka he said with a sigh, "She knew I about my empathy…"

"So?" Tsuzuki said and tried to ignore that last comment.

"I never told her I was an empath, she could tell. There isn't anyone I know who can sense that from me, she's obviously run into others like me…I'm not sure but…" he paused for a second.

"But what?"

"We should be careful around her, I think she is a very dangerous woman."

Tsuzuki gave a sarcastic chuckle, "I think your over analyzing, Hisoka. Asai is a perfectly good woman, not to mention she's a shinigami like us, she's our ally, I don't see why you-"

"No you don't get it, Tsuzuki, that woman has an immense mental strength. She's able to toss aside her feelings with great speed and perfection. I pried my mind into her while she was talking just a few minutes ago, and I got nothing at all. She's sealed up and locked tight and there's more-"

"You really shouldn't be-"

"Damn it, stop thinking the best of her! You need to hear me out, its for your safety." Hisoka was beginning to sound a bit frantic.

"My safety?" He said with a confused look on his face.

"When she was talking about her sister I noticed something…"

"And what was that?"

"For a brief moment she let her barrier down slightly, it wasn't much, but from the emotion that I could feel from her, I felt something disturbing…it was pleasure…she was pleased about her sister's death…"

Tsuzuki looked down at his coffee, it did shock him that she would be happy about the death of her sister, but he had a hard time believing it, the look on her face when she told them, completely contradicted what Hisoka picked up, "Maybe she has her reasons…"

Hisoka's eyes blazed a brilliant green; he stood up and slammed his hands on the table making his tea slosh about. "Even if her sister was a horrible person no one would feel this pleased over death! Please, Tsuzuki! I don't want you to get hurt, promise me you'll keep your eyes on her!"

"Hisoka…" Tsuzuki said, he didn't know what to say, Hisoka's open concern for his safety was astonishing.

"Promise me!" He demanded again.

"Ok, I promise." Tsuzuki gave a tired smile and stood up, "…Its almost noon , I think we should go and visit Hijiri, hopefully he'll be awake enough to answer questions…" Hisoka watched as Tsuzuki sighed and picked up his coat which was draped on the chair, he stopped for a moment and his eyes grew wide, he dropped his coat and began to collapse. Hisoka luckily caught him and settled him down to his knees on the floor, his hand braced the violet eyed man and kept him from falling over.

"Tsuzuki, what's wrong?" Hisoka said in a panicked tone, Tsuzuki then stood up again this time he wobbled a bit but soon caught his balance. He picked his coat up for a second time and slipped it on.

"Sorry, Hisoka… could you go visit Hijiri without me?" He asked his voice was a little weaker than normal, "I think I need to see Watari…"

"O…k…" Hisoka said as he watched the other man slowly exit the café.

TBC

Ok… sorry, I'm a little tired so if some bits of this didn't make sense, forgive me. Anyways tell me what you think please…you guys who read this are the reason I continue so R&R please.

Also if you like this story remember to tell your friends and family, so then more people can feel the love! Love! *yay!*….wow….I'm gonna go to bed now…g'night folks.