Disclaimers: Yami No Matsuei is not mine. No one has to send me to an asylum. I am not that crazy. (Laughs like a maniac.) Really I'm not. Please do not sue or send me to jail.

I am assuming you have gone this far because you got hooked. I'm not giving warnings.

Read further at your own risk.

------------------

Muraki released Hisoka's bonds, and just left.

Hisoka was too wrapped up in losing his senses that he did not realize the absence. He had been crawling around the room in circles trying to find a way out. He had no idea where he was or what time or day it was. How long was this going to last?

Then suddenly he felt someone touch his shoulder.

"WATARI!" Hisoka had screamed in his mind.

"Bon! What's the idea?!?" Watari shouted as he backed away.

Hisoka said nothing but was crawling around again trying to find him.

"I'm right here." Called Watari, but it didn't seem to help. "This doesn't make sense." He took the empathic shinigami by his shoulders. "You called and told me that you escaped from Muraki."

Hisoka shook his head, taking a grip on Watari's hand; he spoke again with his mind. "No. I never called. Watari listen. I can't see, talk or hear."

"Then what do you call this? How is it that we are talking?"

"It's part of my power. As long as we are in physical contact I can establish a mental link."

"We are in touch because we touch."

"Yes. Wait. Why are you alone? Where is Tsuzuki?"

"He's at the asylum."

"Wait a minute... You mean Tsuzuki is completely alone right now? And Muraki is on the loose?"

They both became upset and Watari began to draw away. "Sorry."

Hisoka pulled him back. "No! Wait! I need you!"

A light bulb went on in Watari's head. "I have an idea!"

Hisoka released his hold because he knew Watari needed both hands to work. After waiting impatiently for what seemed like eternity, he felt something like an over sized globe go over his head.

"Meet Ken-kun!"

He could hear!

He could see. He caught sight of his own reflection. It was like having an over turned beaten up cauldron on his head with painted face. A face painted by a second grader.

"I look like a total dork!" He could speak.

"Let's go!" Watari sang.

Still Hisoka was disturbed and it wasn't just how he looked. The way Muraki forced his mind into his. There was this vague feeling that they had exchanged identities. It wasn't impossible, one of the potions Watari invented, unintentionally, was a mind-switching potion. (1)

"Let's get out of here!"

-------

Muraki had tricked Watari into leaving the accommodations that Tatsumi had arranged for them. He had used Hisoka's voice to lure Watari away.

He came in to look over the working conditions of his patient. How Tsuzuki could choose to live like this when Muraki had offered him much more was a puzzle, but then that was one of the things that attracted the doctor to Tsuzuki.

"Abandoned warehouses? Is this the best that your secretary can do?" The doctor chuckled to himself.

He found Tsuzuki's coat. He drew marks on the inner lining.

Watari had left his computer on his desk. Muraki found what he came for and when he had finished that he then took out a white disk and uploaded a little surprise for the scientist.

Of course, he couldn't forget his most helpful puppet... It was his knowledge that had made all of this possible. He had a special souvenir for him.

"Soon enough."

--------

tbc

(1) Manga 8 side story, which makes me think of Valentines.

02-10-04