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Tsuzuki Asato
#1 somehow you've got everybody fooled
It had been a wearying day. Tsuzuki finished up his last ice cream cone, and turned back to his partner. The heat of early summer was so intense that Tsuzuki was wearing the loosest, most comfortable clothing he could find but Hisoka, in a sleek, dark jacket and leather pants, was looking extremely…cool. Tsuzuki sweat dropped. No pun intended.
The case was very simple, but it was of the sort he didn't like. A young girl had died recently of an extremely violent death. Yet instead of proceeding to the Meifu, her soul, clinging to life, possessed other children in the city of Kyoto. The girls' hosts would then slowly deteriorate and die as if from some unknown disease, from the stress and leech-like effects of her spirit.
Tatsumi had gingerly handed him a stack of photos, each picture one of the young victims when he or she died. His hands fingered the crisp photographs, touching at the once-blooming lives imprinted on the film. Destroyed. There had been nine in all.
Too many innocent lives, Tsuzuki thought sadly. Even the process of sending the child to the afterlife would also kill her young host.
"Hey Bon." He turned to his companion. Hisoka seemed dully bored and returned the look sullenly.
"Yes?"
"Did Goushoushin inform you of the girl's name?"
"Hn. Don't you know? I believe it was Tomoki, but what does that matter?" He licked his lips.
"Tomoko." Tsuzuki hesitated. "Kurosaki Tomoko. She was your first cousin, wasn't she? And she…"
Died a lot like you. He thought, unable to say it. Just eleven years old, she saw something she shouldn't have. Was raped and murdered by some psycho. But she was more of a child than he had been and no curse or memory spells had been cast on her. She had been strangled to death and her body, lying in a grassy ditch far from Kyoto, would probably be discovered by investigators only that day.
Yet Tsuzuki noticed that Hisoka didn't seem to care at all. The boy only restlessly folded his arms behind his back. Tsuzuki had scarcely seen Hisoka so unfeeling and insensitive. Now his eyes glowed with a different light. He longed to peer into them, take a closer look. What was there in those eyes? Anger? Ambition? Malice?
Or was it all of them?
"Tss…What's the difference. Do you want to use that in order to slay her?"
"I…"
The last school bell of the year from the grade school across the street rang clearly in the air. Then they saw her. A small figure radiating with an unholy aura standing out from the fresh batch of famished children rushing towards the ice cream stand. This time, the host was a young bespectacled boy of about twelve with large, globelike eyes. Green eyes. My god… Tsuzuki thought sadly. He must be just like 'Soka when he was cursed.
Hisoka looked on indifferently. Then, quite uncharacteristically flashed a crooked little smile.
"Let's go!"
"I would just like to commend you for this past week, Kurosaki. We're fortunate to have such a skilled, hardworking shinigami like you in the Shokan division." Konoe cleared his throat.
"That's right!"
"Not like your good-for-nothing partner!"
Tsuzuki glared at the chuckling people peeking into the chief's office from the doorway. "I resent that!"
He turned back to the small gathering in the office room. Hisoka had carried out the last mission perfectly. In fact, all of the past missions they'd been assigned that week had been promptly taken care of by Hisoka. Konoe complimented him openly, eyeing Tsuzuki the whole time, eyebrow raised. Goushoushin, Tatsumi and Watari beamed at the boy, Wakaba gave him sweet little smiles and even Terazuma looked impressed.
Why then was he so deterred?
"What could it be?" He thought aloud later when work was over and he was relaxing at one of his favorite cafes. His partner had been perfect but unbelievably rutal. The child whose lost soul had taken so many others had finally been relieved but at what cost. He recalled Hisoka's heartless look as the young host struggled for air at their feet. Ice-cold, he thought. Not Hisoka.
Not the Hisoka he knew.
"Excuse me sir!" Tsuzuki jumped. A waitress in a carnation pink uniform and even rosier cheeks was timidly holding out the bill. Her fellow waitresses spied from the counter, pointing and giggling. "Y-You've been here for three hours, and have pretty much cleaned out the whole kitchen. Um…would you like the bill?"
"Oh…yes please."
Oblivious to the shrieks of the café's staff and the fumbling of the smitten girl with the trays, Tsuzuki shook his head. If Hisoka was Hisoka, he'd have thought something up to get him out of blowing away his bonus on shortcakes. Hell, he'd have been there for starters and have prevented all that overspending.
But now icy and sullen, he'd his own agenda.
Comically, he brought a fist down onto his open palm with a determined look and nodded. There was definitely something wrong. And he was going to find out just what it was.
He emptied his pockets and left.
Notes: This is kind of an in-betweener chapter. Just to let you see Tsuzuki's side... Sorry if I'm prolonging this too much. It is my first fic after all. ;) Chapter 5 coming soon!
