And now, one of many moments you've probably been waiting for, the scene in which Watari gets to do some ass-kicking. I won't spoil anything, I promise. Just go on and read the chapter, I'll talk at the end.
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The wind whipped at Watari's hair, but he'd braided it too tightly for anything but the shortest wisps that refused to obey to bluster against his forehead. It was dark, and a big pumpkin moon hung over the crest of the hill, over the crypt where he knew Muraki to be. He wasn't afraid. He was angry, fury boiling in his blood. There would be a reckoning tonight that would shake the cosmos right down to the core.
"Muraki!" Watari's voice rang through the cemetery, sounding sharp to even himself. "I know you're here!"
Nothing but silence and the sound of Watari's own heartbeat resonated in his ears. But there was no mistaking the gravity in the air, it was heavy with the touch of impending death, the taste of blood. The wind licked at the hem of the black trench, Tatsumi's coat, giving the young man dressed in black the appropriate atmosphere, making him seem as otherworldly as he should be.
"Muraki! I won't repeat myself!"
He appeared almost instantly, the doctor dressed in white from head to toe. Not a single spatter of blood on his clothes, though Watari could certainly smell it on him. His lips were curved into a sinister, smirking grin, the kind of look that promised pain and a slow torture. He seemed to glow in the dim light, though his countenance could not nearly compare to that of the ethereally pale man with burning amber eyes, dressed in billowing black.
"Mr. Watari, I presume," he said, giving a mocking bow. "I expected more of a challenge."
"Don't discount me yet. I'd give you the whole speech, Muraki, but you already know what crimes you've committed against Meifu and we both know you're not going to surrender peacefully. But I will say this. If you let Tatsumi go now, I'll let you walk away from this fight."
"Making threats, aren't you cute? And what makes you think I took your precious secretary? How can you be sure he didn't just grow tired of all of you and just leave?"
Watari's eyes narrowed. "Because I can smell his blood on you."
"You know, you picked a rather inopportune time to arrive. I was rather in the middle of something…" his smile widened enough to split his face. "Something like raping your lover."
"Shut your fucking mouth, Muraki. I'm not afraid of you."
"You should be."
Watari smirked. "You know what your problem is, Doctor? You can't handle facing your own damn demons so you make everyone suffer with theirs. Your half-brother was a fucking bastard in the figurative sense of the word and made your childhood a living Hell. He killed your family and you don't even get to take revenge for them. And so, in retribution, you take away things that aren't yours; life, happiness, everything that you were denied. And I'm telling you right now that you can't take Tatsumi away from me. So you can either stand down now, or crawl back to your pal Oriya in pieces."
Muraki simply stared at him, trying not to let on that a nerve had been struck, that his usually unflappable nature had just been ripped away, exposing the quivering insides of the truth. This worthless-seeming little man had just stripped him down to his faults and damned if he wasn't right. The only thing he could do now was to throw back on his cool composure and pretend as if he hadn't heard a word.
"How do you propose to do that, Mr. Watari? I know of you, your powers are limited to bringing life to the inanimate. Are you going to throw a toaster at me?" Muraki taunted, lighting a cigarette. His sleeve glinted with something blue. Cuff links, Tatsumi's cuff links, ones he only wore with his best suit. Watari could have torn the windpipe clear from Muraki's throat with just his fingers.
"Life to the lifeless, actually, " he corrected, placing one hand on the ground. "And it works out so nicely that you decided to hold this little party in a cemetery."
The ground shuddered, crypts quaking as rivulets of purple-black power streamed through the earth. Muraki merely laughed.
"Most of these people were cremated, Mr. Watari. You're going to fight me with a cloud of ashes?"
To his surprise, bones shot up from the earth, forming skeletons clad in samurai armor, waving ragged banners. Ghostly warriors from every era sprang from the ground and stood in marked battle lines behind their summoner. Watari's face broke into an eerie grin, eyes flaming with a mad fire.
"The most recent people were cremated, Doctor, but as any scientist would do, I did my research. Almost all of the Kanto Plains were, at one time, used as battlegrounds and burial grounds alike. There are bones buried deep in every square inch of Japan, you just have to know where to find them. Gentlemen," he cried, turning to his army. "That pasty-pale man standing over there reeking of the blood of the innocent is the one you're after. Make him pay, but leave him alive. The honor of killing him belongs to some friends of mine."
"Afraid to fight your own battles, Mr. Watari? Cowering behind these pitiful summonings because you can't face me on your own?" Muraki called.
"I simply don't have the time to waste on you, Muraki. You're always conjuring up some hell-spawn from the netherworld to sic on us while you're scampering off, I don't see why I can't. And, just as a precautionary tactic, I brought along a little something else, in case the skeletons don't get you."
Watari pulled the ream of papers from the inner coat pocket, untying them and tossing them into the air, charging every sheet with his power. Monstrous women pulled themselves out of the photocopied image on each piece, horrid creatures with serpentine hair and blood dripping from their cat-pupil eyes. They flew on black wings that smelled of decay, claws clacking.
"The Furies, Greek goddesses of vengeance. They enjoy preying upon those who murder and those who torture the innocent. The gentleman in white, my ladies! And leave him alive, if you'd be so kind, his head is marked for another man who deserves to rend it from his shoulders far more than I do!"
Muraki was surrounded by hundreds of creatures, bent on ripping him apart. Watari smiled at him, a cold smile that promised suffering, a smile that usually graced his own lips.
"How does it feel to fear, Doctor?" he asked, striding across the grounds to stare at Muraki nearly nose-to-nose. He held out his hand. "The cuff links, give them to me."
The steel-eyed doctor threw them at the younger man. Watari's smile didn't fade as he cocked his fist back, fingers clenched around the cuff links, and slammed it full-force into that perfectly pale face, the satisfying crunch of bone breaking ringing in his ears. Muraki hadn't even dodged the blow. Watari knew not to take his small victory lightly, certain the madman was merely toying with him. But Muraki stepped aside, walking into the midst of Watari's conjured warriors with his usual aplomb, blood running down his face.
"Don't think, just run," Watari muttered to himself, charging for the door to the crypt. He could hear roaring and shrieking behind him, not even stopping to look. His hands closed around the rusty door-pull, tugging at it with all his strength. The door wouldn't budge. He tried infusing it with his power, but there wasn't much left of that. He braced one foot against the opposite door and tugged, growling, muscles straining with the effort.
"For the love of…I can teleport," he realized, shifting from one side of the door to the other. It was probably a waste of power, but at that moment, he didn't care. Muraki was busy and there was time enough to grab Tatsumi and run.
"Please be all right…please be all right…" he whispered, seeing nothing but pitch black. "I'll never forgive myself if anything's happened to you."
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Notes: Okay, so Watari summoned a whole bunch of skeletons. I honestly don't think he can do that for several reasons…
1. It is Japanese tradition to cremate the dead, so there probably aren't skeletons buried anywhere in Japan, but I had an episode of Shaman King on not to long ago and that takes place in Japan and they had skeletons coming out of coffins, so I thought, why not? At least my idea sounds vaguely plausible.
2. I honestly don't think Watari's powers extend that far. But I wanted to give him a fair fighting chance against Muraki and the Furies, though they are rather cool, just didn't seem to have enough oomph.
And with regards to breaking Muraki's nose, I just really wanted Watari to kick some shit out of him on his own, and I figured he'd be pretty pissed if ol' One Eyed and Sadistic was wearing something of Tatsumi's on his personage. So, the moral of this chapter, kids, don't mess with Watari or Tatsumi's cuff links if you don't want your nose broken! See you next chapter!