*****3:He walks in Beauty like the Night*****
/Tsuzuki. I fear I have slipped within the fabric of a nightmare. This place is not at all what it first seemed. The count is like no man I have ever known, as if I am mistaken to even call him a man. I feel the dread of his presence overwhelming me. I am surrounded by terrors I dare not believe are true.../
The storm outside breaks open, ripping through the night. Wakaba's bedroom is veiled in darkness, not yet disturbed by the crashes of thunder and mad strikes of lightening across the sky. Somehow, an eerily crimson moon hangs full through the ashen clouds, while torrents of rain pelt the side of the house mercilessly, madly pounding against the walls.
For lack of a suitable guestroom, and at Wakaba's insistence, Tsuzuki lies asleep on the chaise that rests beside the far wall. Wakaba herself is soundly slumbering in the bed, but her sweet dreams are about to be shattered.
The storm rages on, and outside the sound of a wolf is suddenly heard echoing over the landscape, far in the distance. At this haunting, animal cry, Wakaba stirs, sits up, and begins to escape the bed as if in a trance. She is sleepwalking, eyes dull and half-open, as she makes her way to the window. The drapes are thrown wide, revealing the chaos of the storm, and she longingly caresses the glass.
The wolf howls again, forcing Wakaba up against the window completely, as if captured by the glass itself. She longs to pass through it, meld with it, until she is free amongst the night.
CRASH. Thunder sounds again, this time shaking the very foundation of the house, and Tsuzuki jolts awake. Instinctively looking to the bed as he rubs his tired eyes, he sees that it is empty, noticing the shadow pressed against the glass of the window.
"Wakaba...?" he inquires groggily, sitting up with a yawn. "What are you doing?"
Wakaba offers him no reaction, still caught up within this unexplainable rapture.
"You're dreaming, Wakaba-chan. Sleepwalking. Come back to bed, kudasai."
Still, she gives no reaction, remaining right where she is.
Rightfully worried now, Tsuzuki gets up from the chaise, shivering at the feel of the floor so cold beneath his bare feet. He advances on Wakaba at the window, hugging himself around the shoulders.
Modest, but as comfortable as a brother would be around his dear friend, Tsuzuki had gone to bed in his usual, cotton pants - nothing more. Now, he finds himself regretting that choice.
"The storm woke you, I bet. Woke me, too." Tsuzuki begins, taking hold of Wakaba's shoulders to pull her away from the glass. "You're just dreaming, Wakaba-chan. Come morning, it will all be gone."
Another howl cries out from that distant wolf and Wakaba pushes Tsuzuki away, leaping forward to throw back the windows, allowing the rushing wind to blow harshly inside. Climbing up unto the windowsill, she reaches out, beckoning the night to come in with it.
"Nan desu, ka, Wakaba-chan?" Tsuzuki cries, shivering even more at the feel of that biting wind. "What's there? What do you see?"
"...the waves..." she answers, sounding faraway, in a singsong voice that is not her own. "...the waves are wild! The ship is tossed about!"
"You're scaring me, Wakaba. Please...come down from there -"
"Fear not! The ship will find its port. The ship will best the storm!"
"Wakaba, there are no ships. None would be out in a storm like this -"
"There it is! Riding the waves! Pounding on the blood of the Earth!"
CRASH! Lightening again, and Tsuzuki jumps, frightened for so many reason he cannot explain. This storm is unnatural, Wakaba is acting wild beyond imagination, and something else...something else stirs within him like nothing he has ever known.
In the far distance, the ocean stretches before them, and if he didn't believe it was impossible to see through such a storm, on such a dark night, save the red moon above, he would swear he could see the very ship she speaks of.
----------
CRASH.
"He is here! He has come for me! The Master has come!"
So close, and yet so far away, Watari is wild with the storm as well, madly darting from side to side, clinging and clawing at the padded walls.
Outside the cell, Terazuma dashes down the hallway, able to hear those violent screams from his office as clearly as someone standing at the door. GuShoShin Senior flutters about nervously, afraid to go inside himself, and is overjoyed when he sees that the doctor is coming towards him.
"What on earth is going on in there?!" Terazuma demands, skidding to a halt.
"The storm." GuShoShin explains. "It seems to have set him off somehow."
Daring the possibilities, Terazuma pushes past the bird and throws the door open, discovering the lunatic in a frenzy, straining his chain as he haphazardly moves from one corner of the cell to another.
"Nan desu, ka, Watari?!" he barks, forming back against the far cell wall for fear of getting in the blonde's way.
Watari takes a momentary pause, grinning slyly back at the frightened doctor. "My master grows near." he laughs, before darting about again.
"Watari, what are you talking about?"
"He is coming! Coming to take me away from here and join him for all eternity!"
Terazuma swallows hard, still pressing his back into the wall as he surveys the cell. Despite being distracted by Watari's frantic flitting about, he notices that the room is surprisingly clean. Not a single insect roams about. Not a single one.
"The flies are gone...and the spiders as well..." he comments, absently leaving the all too recent haven of that wall. "Look at me, Watari. Tell me. Tell me what became of them."
Watari grins again, pausing in his rants and raves to curl tightly against the padding of the furthest corner.
Frowning deeply, Terazuma surveys the room again, this time noticing the birdcage, still in its usual place, but without it's usual occupant. That darling owl 003 is nowhere to be found.
"What happened to the owl?" he asks now, crossing the cell to where Watari has snuggled in. "Where is it? What did you do with it?!"
Terazuma's fearful anger is clear, but Watari merely keeps on grinning, starting to cough as the doctor circles him, demanding a reply. Watari does not give a reply, though; he can't. He continues coughing, more and more harshly, as if something is caught in his throat.
To Terazuma's complete disgust, the madman suddenly coughs up what he has been struggling with: a handful of saliva-soaked, brown and white feathers.
"My God..." the doctor breathes. Then, without a second of hesitation, he dashes to the doorway. "Bring me the straitjacket! Now!!" he orders, and in a panicked flight, GuShoShin flies off to retrieve it.
Waiting with wild anticipation in his eyes, Watari giggles happily, enjoying the disgust Terazuma assesses him with. Sodden with renewed dementia, he is truly something to be feared.
----------
/...the digging! All day and all night, this constant sound of digging! Oh, Tsuzuki, if only I knew what it all meant. I long to have you with me. I don't understand why only thoughts of you seem to bring me peace, but they do. Even in this God-forsaken place. Perhaps it is your smile, your pestering, or even the annoying way you beg and plead to have your way, but I wish to God you were here. Great, wooden boxes have been hauled away, but why, I have no idea. I fear I am the only living soul within this place, trapped by some unknown evil. Everywhere I turn there are doors. Doors, doors, doors - all locked and bolted. I am a prisoner! I must escape from here. Dear Tsuzuki, if I fail, please remember me as I was, as your friend. I was never good at expressing the love I have for that friendship, but please, do not hold it against me now, at this dark hour. Remember me and keep me in your prayers. Tsuzuki! REMEMBER!/
"Wakaba, no! Get down from there!" Tsuzuki cries, held back by the impossible force of wind blowing in through the window.
Still dangerously up on the sill, Wakaba reaches out again and again, basking in the spray of the rain. "I want to see the ship!"
"No! Take my hand, Wakaba. It isn't safe."
"Look! He's coming for me!"
"Wakaba, stop this. You're dreaming -"
"I'm here! Take me away! I'm here!"
----------
"Watari, that's enough! I'll not have you acting this way." Terazuma warns, inching closer to the tensing lunatic still crouched in the corner.
"My Master will protect me...he'll make you pay dearly for locking me away..." the blonde rants, staring at the outstretched straitjacket in the doctor's trembling hands. GuShoShin is long gone.
"Stop this nonsense! You will be punished for defiling yourself in such a way."
"Do not weep for 003." Watari grins, speaking in oddly soothing tones. "He was not frightened to give me the power I required. It was an honor. Just as it will be an honor when the Master tastes from me again -"
"Enough!"
CRASH. This stroke of lightening and thunder does more than just startle the poor doctor, it leaves him and the cell in complete darkness.
Turning madly from side to side, Terazuma stands on guard, unable to see anything, even what is right in front of his face. In a heartbeat, he suddenly feels the straitjacket being pulled away from him, and before he can defend himself, he is whipped around violently, with a course sleeve wrapping tightly around his throat.
CRASH. The lights are back, and the tables are turned.
"Wa...Wata...ri..." Terazuma gasps, unable to breathe, let alone form words.
"You should have been nice to me." the blonde whispers, nuzzling against Terazuma's face, while powerful arms tighten the straitjacket around the doctor's neck. "Now *you* will be the one who is punished. I think I'll make you my new pet...Hajime-chan. Hehehe. You know what happens to my pets, ne?"
Terazuma shudders, struggling wildly to free himself.
"You will be a fine sacrifice to my Master." Watari purrs, licking his lips. "He gains power through me, you see. Not nearly enough to sustain him, but enough for him to grant me favors should I offer something ripe and full of fear...like you."
Terazuma shudders again, but this time, it is much deeper. Slowly, Watari has begun running his silky tongue up along the exposed part of the doctor's throat, and further along his cheek.
"Mmm...you taste good...Hajime-chan...but I think my Master has a taste for someone else to give him back his strength...someone who will fall easily under his spell...before he takes the one he has truly come for...hehehe...perhaps then...you will be an appetizer, ne?"
"Not while I'm on watch!"
ZAP! Soaring in heroically, GuShoShin appears to toss a magical ward in the madman's face, and Watari recoils back, releasing Terazuma as the doctor scampers away, gasping for air.
GuShoShin retrieves the jacket, making sure Watari has been rendered unconscious, and returns it to the much relieved doctor.
"Well done...GuShoShin." Terazuma expresses laboriously. "When the lights went out...he caught me by surprise, and...he was so fast..." Absently, he rubs at his bruised neck, happy to be free of the cell as he leaves it behind. "Remind me to...be more cautious with him...from now on..."
"Hai. A wise decision, sensei." the bird agrees, floating down the hallway beside him.
"For now...keep an eye on him...while I...go out and see what kind of affect this storm has had...on the rest of the town..."
----------
"It's just as they said..." Terazuma breathes, walking the length of the ship's deck, and approaching the wheel.
The entirety is weathered and surrounded by battered planks of wood. This ship has seen a dark and dreary night, the sun still not risen, and only the good doctor is out and about now to see what is left of a once grand master of the sea.
Only he...and one more, that is.
"Hai...it is just as they said." echoes an unearthly voice, causing Terazuma to jump nearly a foot backwards.
From out of the shadows, a man has appeared, dressed all in black, his face hidden by a highly drawn scarf and low-riding top-hat.
"Forgive me if I have frightened you." the stranger laments, coming parallel to Terazuma and the ship's wheel.
One of the crew is fastened to it, long dead, as if he had hung on for dear life only to die at the mercy of the storm.
"It's easy to be jumpy on a night like this." Terazuma smiles weakly, stepping closer again, but failing to make out more of the man's face. "Tell me, do you know if any of the crew survived?"
"Only a dog, they say." he replies smoothly, like liquefied silk pouring from a silver tongue.
"A...dog?"
"A large, grey dog, like a wolf, that leapt from the ship as it struck land. Or so they say."
"It's a wonder the ship made it to port at all in such a storm." the doctor replies, bending beside the fallen crewman to get a closer look.
"Hai. Truly...a miracle."
Tensing at the feel of the stranger's gaze watching him, Terazuma stands quickly, turning back to face him. "Pardon my manners, I don't believe I know you. I am Terazuma Hajime."
The stranger ponders this, eyeing him carefully. "You run the asylum, do you not?"
"Hai." Terazuma answers slowly, strangely uncomfortable. "And...you are?"
"Kurosaki." he answers, almost haltingly, as if sizing up his own name. "Kurosaki Hisoka."
Looking curiously up at this tall figure - for he is indeed strikingly tall and well-built - Terazuma extends an unsteady hand in introduction. This...Kurosaki-san...eyes that hand for a good handful of awkward moments, before extending his own.
Neither men are wearing gloves, even on such a chilly night, and when Terazuma pulls his hand away, he has the strangest feeling that it has gone numb. An intense cold shivers through him like ice water in the veins after feeling the man's freezing skin.
Nevermind. It must just be the wind.
"Well, Kurosaki-san, this is a true pleasure. I've heard of you from Kannuki Wakaba. It seems her good friend, and an old acquaintance of mine, are one in the same: your partner, Tsuzuki Asato."
"Tsuzuki..." the strange man whispers, tasting the name on his unseen lips. "You are correct. And...if I am not mistaken, I believe you are rather close with Wakaba-san, ne? I hear she is very beautiful."
Despite himself, Terazuma represses a blush. "Very. But...how odd to meet you here like this."
"Where would you have had us meet?"
Terazuma doesn't have an answer to that. "Well. I suppose you have a point there. Good to know you finally, at any rate."
Sadly, the smile Terazuma had attempted falls away fast as this looming Kurosaki-san crouches beside the dead body much as he had before.
The strange man touches a hand gently to the gaunt, lifeless face in a manner that seems far too...affectionate. "He was a righteous man. Is this, you suppose, what happens to righteous men?"
"The strangest fact I've heard...is how he lashed himself to the wheel with his own rosary. Now, up close, I see it was not a lie. What a wonder."
"Aa. Wonders never cease, they say."
Eyeing this cryptic man as he stands once more, Terazuma shudders at how the shadows seem to flock about him, desiring to be apart of him. "We'll never know, will we?"
Kurosaki-san turns, only his eyes visible in the darkness. They are unlike any natural color. Colorless, actually. Gleaming silver with hints of eerie light. "That depends."
"On what...?"
"On what you're hoping to know." he grins, or so it would seem, if Terazuma could make out the man's mouth. Then, with a tip of his hat... "Good day...Terazuma-sensei." ...he turns and disappears into the fading night.
Terazuma is left to stand on the deck alone as the sun begins to rise. Such peace, such promise, and such power the rising sun holds. For reasons he cannot yet comprehend, Terazuma is grateful the day has appeared when it has.
*****A/N*****
Long and full of action! Hope you're enjoying. Obviously, Kurosaki-san was not actually Hisoka, but I'm sure you can guess who it really is. :-) As for the others, everything will fall into place. Next, Wakaba begins to get her midnight visits. Ja!
/Tsuzuki. I fear I have slipped within the fabric of a nightmare. This place is not at all what it first seemed. The count is like no man I have ever known, as if I am mistaken to even call him a man. I feel the dread of his presence overwhelming me. I am surrounded by terrors I dare not believe are true.../
The storm outside breaks open, ripping through the night. Wakaba's bedroom is veiled in darkness, not yet disturbed by the crashes of thunder and mad strikes of lightening across the sky. Somehow, an eerily crimson moon hangs full through the ashen clouds, while torrents of rain pelt the side of the house mercilessly, madly pounding against the walls.
For lack of a suitable guestroom, and at Wakaba's insistence, Tsuzuki lies asleep on the chaise that rests beside the far wall. Wakaba herself is soundly slumbering in the bed, but her sweet dreams are about to be shattered.
The storm rages on, and outside the sound of a wolf is suddenly heard echoing over the landscape, far in the distance. At this haunting, animal cry, Wakaba stirs, sits up, and begins to escape the bed as if in a trance. She is sleepwalking, eyes dull and half-open, as she makes her way to the window. The drapes are thrown wide, revealing the chaos of the storm, and she longingly caresses the glass.
The wolf howls again, forcing Wakaba up against the window completely, as if captured by the glass itself. She longs to pass through it, meld with it, until she is free amongst the night.
CRASH. Thunder sounds again, this time shaking the very foundation of the house, and Tsuzuki jolts awake. Instinctively looking to the bed as he rubs his tired eyes, he sees that it is empty, noticing the shadow pressed against the glass of the window.
"Wakaba...?" he inquires groggily, sitting up with a yawn. "What are you doing?"
Wakaba offers him no reaction, still caught up within this unexplainable rapture.
"You're dreaming, Wakaba-chan. Sleepwalking. Come back to bed, kudasai."
Still, she gives no reaction, remaining right where she is.
Rightfully worried now, Tsuzuki gets up from the chaise, shivering at the feel of the floor so cold beneath his bare feet. He advances on Wakaba at the window, hugging himself around the shoulders.
Modest, but as comfortable as a brother would be around his dear friend, Tsuzuki had gone to bed in his usual, cotton pants - nothing more. Now, he finds himself regretting that choice.
"The storm woke you, I bet. Woke me, too." Tsuzuki begins, taking hold of Wakaba's shoulders to pull her away from the glass. "You're just dreaming, Wakaba-chan. Come morning, it will all be gone."
Another howl cries out from that distant wolf and Wakaba pushes Tsuzuki away, leaping forward to throw back the windows, allowing the rushing wind to blow harshly inside. Climbing up unto the windowsill, she reaches out, beckoning the night to come in with it.
"Nan desu, ka, Wakaba-chan?" Tsuzuki cries, shivering even more at the feel of that biting wind. "What's there? What do you see?"
"...the waves..." she answers, sounding faraway, in a singsong voice that is not her own. "...the waves are wild! The ship is tossed about!"
"You're scaring me, Wakaba. Please...come down from there -"
"Fear not! The ship will find its port. The ship will best the storm!"
"Wakaba, there are no ships. None would be out in a storm like this -"
"There it is! Riding the waves! Pounding on the blood of the Earth!"
CRASH! Lightening again, and Tsuzuki jumps, frightened for so many reason he cannot explain. This storm is unnatural, Wakaba is acting wild beyond imagination, and something else...something else stirs within him like nothing he has ever known.
In the far distance, the ocean stretches before them, and if he didn't believe it was impossible to see through such a storm, on such a dark night, save the red moon above, he would swear he could see the very ship she speaks of.
----------
CRASH.
"He is here! He has come for me! The Master has come!"
So close, and yet so far away, Watari is wild with the storm as well, madly darting from side to side, clinging and clawing at the padded walls.
Outside the cell, Terazuma dashes down the hallway, able to hear those violent screams from his office as clearly as someone standing at the door. GuShoShin Senior flutters about nervously, afraid to go inside himself, and is overjoyed when he sees that the doctor is coming towards him.
"What on earth is going on in there?!" Terazuma demands, skidding to a halt.
"The storm." GuShoShin explains. "It seems to have set him off somehow."
Daring the possibilities, Terazuma pushes past the bird and throws the door open, discovering the lunatic in a frenzy, straining his chain as he haphazardly moves from one corner of the cell to another.
"Nan desu, ka, Watari?!" he barks, forming back against the far cell wall for fear of getting in the blonde's way.
Watari takes a momentary pause, grinning slyly back at the frightened doctor. "My master grows near." he laughs, before darting about again.
"Watari, what are you talking about?"
"He is coming! Coming to take me away from here and join him for all eternity!"
Terazuma swallows hard, still pressing his back into the wall as he surveys the cell. Despite being distracted by Watari's frantic flitting about, he notices that the room is surprisingly clean. Not a single insect roams about. Not a single one.
"The flies are gone...and the spiders as well..." he comments, absently leaving the all too recent haven of that wall. "Look at me, Watari. Tell me. Tell me what became of them."
Watari grins again, pausing in his rants and raves to curl tightly against the padding of the furthest corner.
Frowning deeply, Terazuma surveys the room again, this time noticing the birdcage, still in its usual place, but without it's usual occupant. That darling owl 003 is nowhere to be found.
"What happened to the owl?" he asks now, crossing the cell to where Watari has snuggled in. "Where is it? What did you do with it?!"
Terazuma's fearful anger is clear, but Watari merely keeps on grinning, starting to cough as the doctor circles him, demanding a reply. Watari does not give a reply, though; he can't. He continues coughing, more and more harshly, as if something is caught in his throat.
To Terazuma's complete disgust, the madman suddenly coughs up what he has been struggling with: a handful of saliva-soaked, brown and white feathers.
"My God..." the doctor breathes. Then, without a second of hesitation, he dashes to the doorway. "Bring me the straitjacket! Now!!" he orders, and in a panicked flight, GuShoShin flies off to retrieve it.
Waiting with wild anticipation in his eyes, Watari giggles happily, enjoying the disgust Terazuma assesses him with. Sodden with renewed dementia, he is truly something to be feared.
----------
/...the digging! All day and all night, this constant sound of digging! Oh, Tsuzuki, if only I knew what it all meant. I long to have you with me. I don't understand why only thoughts of you seem to bring me peace, but they do. Even in this God-forsaken place. Perhaps it is your smile, your pestering, or even the annoying way you beg and plead to have your way, but I wish to God you were here. Great, wooden boxes have been hauled away, but why, I have no idea. I fear I am the only living soul within this place, trapped by some unknown evil. Everywhere I turn there are doors. Doors, doors, doors - all locked and bolted. I am a prisoner! I must escape from here. Dear Tsuzuki, if I fail, please remember me as I was, as your friend. I was never good at expressing the love I have for that friendship, but please, do not hold it against me now, at this dark hour. Remember me and keep me in your prayers. Tsuzuki! REMEMBER!/
"Wakaba, no! Get down from there!" Tsuzuki cries, held back by the impossible force of wind blowing in through the window.
Still dangerously up on the sill, Wakaba reaches out again and again, basking in the spray of the rain. "I want to see the ship!"
"No! Take my hand, Wakaba. It isn't safe."
"Look! He's coming for me!"
"Wakaba, stop this. You're dreaming -"
"I'm here! Take me away! I'm here!"
----------
"Watari, that's enough! I'll not have you acting this way." Terazuma warns, inching closer to the tensing lunatic still crouched in the corner.
"My Master will protect me...he'll make you pay dearly for locking me away..." the blonde rants, staring at the outstretched straitjacket in the doctor's trembling hands. GuShoShin is long gone.
"Stop this nonsense! You will be punished for defiling yourself in such a way."
"Do not weep for 003." Watari grins, speaking in oddly soothing tones. "He was not frightened to give me the power I required. It was an honor. Just as it will be an honor when the Master tastes from me again -"
"Enough!"
CRASH. This stroke of lightening and thunder does more than just startle the poor doctor, it leaves him and the cell in complete darkness.
Turning madly from side to side, Terazuma stands on guard, unable to see anything, even what is right in front of his face. In a heartbeat, he suddenly feels the straitjacket being pulled away from him, and before he can defend himself, he is whipped around violently, with a course sleeve wrapping tightly around his throat.
CRASH. The lights are back, and the tables are turned.
"Wa...Wata...ri..." Terazuma gasps, unable to breathe, let alone form words.
"You should have been nice to me." the blonde whispers, nuzzling against Terazuma's face, while powerful arms tighten the straitjacket around the doctor's neck. "Now *you* will be the one who is punished. I think I'll make you my new pet...Hajime-chan. Hehehe. You know what happens to my pets, ne?"
Terazuma shudders, struggling wildly to free himself.
"You will be a fine sacrifice to my Master." Watari purrs, licking his lips. "He gains power through me, you see. Not nearly enough to sustain him, but enough for him to grant me favors should I offer something ripe and full of fear...like you."
Terazuma shudders again, but this time, it is much deeper. Slowly, Watari has begun running his silky tongue up along the exposed part of the doctor's throat, and further along his cheek.
"Mmm...you taste good...Hajime-chan...but I think my Master has a taste for someone else to give him back his strength...someone who will fall easily under his spell...before he takes the one he has truly come for...hehehe...perhaps then...you will be an appetizer, ne?"
"Not while I'm on watch!"
ZAP! Soaring in heroically, GuShoShin appears to toss a magical ward in the madman's face, and Watari recoils back, releasing Terazuma as the doctor scampers away, gasping for air.
GuShoShin retrieves the jacket, making sure Watari has been rendered unconscious, and returns it to the much relieved doctor.
"Well done...GuShoShin." Terazuma expresses laboriously. "When the lights went out...he caught me by surprise, and...he was so fast..." Absently, he rubs at his bruised neck, happy to be free of the cell as he leaves it behind. "Remind me to...be more cautious with him...from now on..."
"Hai. A wise decision, sensei." the bird agrees, floating down the hallway beside him.
"For now...keep an eye on him...while I...go out and see what kind of affect this storm has had...on the rest of the town..."
----------
"It's just as they said..." Terazuma breathes, walking the length of the ship's deck, and approaching the wheel.
The entirety is weathered and surrounded by battered planks of wood. This ship has seen a dark and dreary night, the sun still not risen, and only the good doctor is out and about now to see what is left of a once grand master of the sea.
Only he...and one more, that is.
"Hai...it is just as they said." echoes an unearthly voice, causing Terazuma to jump nearly a foot backwards.
From out of the shadows, a man has appeared, dressed all in black, his face hidden by a highly drawn scarf and low-riding top-hat.
"Forgive me if I have frightened you." the stranger laments, coming parallel to Terazuma and the ship's wheel.
One of the crew is fastened to it, long dead, as if he had hung on for dear life only to die at the mercy of the storm.
"It's easy to be jumpy on a night like this." Terazuma smiles weakly, stepping closer again, but failing to make out more of the man's face. "Tell me, do you know if any of the crew survived?"
"Only a dog, they say." he replies smoothly, like liquefied silk pouring from a silver tongue.
"A...dog?"
"A large, grey dog, like a wolf, that leapt from the ship as it struck land. Or so they say."
"It's a wonder the ship made it to port at all in such a storm." the doctor replies, bending beside the fallen crewman to get a closer look.
"Hai. Truly...a miracle."
Tensing at the feel of the stranger's gaze watching him, Terazuma stands quickly, turning back to face him. "Pardon my manners, I don't believe I know you. I am Terazuma Hajime."
The stranger ponders this, eyeing him carefully. "You run the asylum, do you not?"
"Hai." Terazuma answers slowly, strangely uncomfortable. "And...you are?"
"Kurosaki." he answers, almost haltingly, as if sizing up his own name. "Kurosaki Hisoka."
Looking curiously up at this tall figure - for he is indeed strikingly tall and well-built - Terazuma extends an unsteady hand in introduction. This...Kurosaki-san...eyes that hand for a good handful of awkward moments, before extending his own.
Neither men are wearing gloves, even on such a chilly night, and when Terazuma pulls his hand away, he has the strangest feeling that it has gone numb. An intense cold shivers through him like ice water in the veins after feeling the man's freezing skin.
Nevermind. It must just be the wind.
"Well, Kurosaki-san, this is a true pleasure. I've heard of you from Kannuki Wakaba. It seems her good friend, and an old acquaintance of mine, are one in the same: your partner, Tsuzuki Asato."
"Tsuzuki..." the strange man whispers, tasting the name on his unseen lips. "You are correct. And...if I am not mistaken, I believe you are rather close with Wakaba-san, ne? I hear she is very beautiful."
Despite himself, Terazuma represses a blush. "Very. But...how odd to meet you here like this."
"Where would you have had us meet?"
Terazuma doesn't have an answer to that. "Well. I suppose you have a point there. Good to know you finally, at any rate."
Sadly, the smile Terazuma had attempted falls away fast as this looming Kurosaki-san crouches beside the dead body much as he had before.
The strange man touches a hand gently to the gaunt, lifeless face in a manner that seems far too...affectionate. "He was a righteous man. Is this, you suppose, what happens to righteous men?"
"The strangest fact I've heard...is how he lashed himself to the wheel with his own rosary. Now, up close, I see it was not a lie. What a wonder."
"Aa. Wonders never cease, they say."
Eyeing this cryptic man as he stands once more, Terazuma shudders at how the shadows seem to flock about him, desiring to be apart of him. "We'll never know, will we?"
Kurosaki-san turns, only his eyes visible in the darkness. They are unlike any natural color. Colorless, actually. Gleaming silver with hints of eerie light. "That depends."
"On what...?"
"On what you're hoping to know." he grins, or so it would seem, if Terazuma could make out the man's mouth. Then, with a tip of his hat... "Good day...Terazuma-sensei." ...he turns and disappears into the fading night.
Terazuma is left to stand on the deck alone as the sun begins to rise. Such peace, such promise, and such power the rising sun holds. For reasons he cannot yet comprehend, Terazuma is grateful the day has appeared when it has.
*****A/N*****
Long and full of action! Hope you're enjoying. Obviously, Kurosaki-san was not actually Hisoka, but I'm sure you can guess who it really is. :-) As for the others, everything will fall into place. Next, Wakaba begins to get her midnight visits. Ja!