Story Type: Requested Dare-Fic

Genres: Supernatural, Horror

Rating: PG-13

Beta-ed: Yes

Part: 2/3

Last note: Thanks a great lot to you people who reviewed!

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"...Shocked?"

The other person laughed. Oriya didn't have to see the other's features to know that a light, haughty smile was gracing her lips. Suddenly Oriya wasn't so sure that the figure in front of him was a female at all anymore. Although the refined gestures and the fact the he/she wore their long hair open made it easy to assume that it was indeed a woman he was talking to, the broad, well-formed shoulders made it somewhat hard to believe. Also, the voice had been just a tad too deep to properly pass as a female's.

The person he was talking to was more than likely male.

"So? Cat got your tongue?"

The other had tilted his face lightly, a gesture that fit only too well with the cat mask he wore. All the time Oriya had scrutinized him, the other man had watched him back just as closely as well. Taking a few considerate steps closer to the taller man, he gestured his hands, putting the flute away.

"-Or is it that you thought me a woman on the fist sight?"

Oriya jerked lightly at that. Seeing this, the figure chuckled again, raising his fingers to the mask. "Please, don't feel upset about it. Neither am I. With this clothing and wearing my hair like that, it's only natural to assume that I'm a female."

Still chuckling, he completed the motion of his hand and swiftly brushed the Neko- Noh-mask off.

Oriya felt his body turn to ice at what was revealed.

Not only the mask and, as he realized in an afterthought, also the clothes and the way of wearing his hair, but also the face that faced his were absolutely identical with his own.

They weren't really quite complete identical, he realized after the first, shocked moment. There was a difference.

No matter how skilful the artist and how perfect the picture, there were always some small, insignificant differences between the artwork and the original, living life.

The man opposing him was too young.

Mibu Oriya wasn´t vain. And he most definitely was no fool. He also was no twenty-one or something odd almost teen anymore. Though people tended to majorly mistake his age for several years too young. Still...

Feeling a sudden wave of anger surge through his veins, Oriya let his face turn into a frown. The other man blinked, obviously caught by surprise at such an reaction. Oriya caught another difference the impostor had overlooked. The eyes. They were a different colour than his.

Were Oriya´s eyes were of a supple, gentle honey-liked brown, those ´boy's´ were of a striking garnet colour. Those were unholy eyes. Seeing them, Oriya unconsciously made a step back. But then he felt anger again. What was wrong with him?! He'd witnessed more un- and supernatural things enough to last for more than twenty lives in his time with Muraki alone! Not to mention that he'd already fought a very real Shinigami with a Katana!!... So why were that strange boy's eyes distressing him that much?

No... It wasn't only the eyes or the strange behaviour he displayed. It was the whole boy itself.

"...thing wrong?"

"Eh?" Oriya jerked up, noticing for the first time that the other had been speaking with him. "What did you say?" Giving him a surprised look, the boy's lips curled into an amused smile that Oriya immediately didn't like.

"...Really." He remarked, his voice velvety and enticing. "You weren't even paying attention." His voice withheld a little pout. Oriya instinctively strengthened his resolve. His voice was like honey; or liquid amber. If he didn't watch out he'd end like all those unfortunate insects that were seen enclosed in that amber-trinkets. Although he was curious, Oriya didn't plan on ending like this.

Whatever it was that motivated the boy, it didn't know what it got itself into by choosing out-of-all-people Oriya for the role of it's prey. Nobody who had been around with somebody like Muraki as long as him could be taken lightly.

Muraki... Who had left him now forever due to his stupid hunting for that shinigamis! That thought came unwelcomed and stung through the long-haired man's brain like on scorching flames.

"Kukuku..." The other wore a sly face again and suddenly his face looked nothing like Oriya's anymore. The expressions on it resembled Muraki's more. Garnet eyes kept smirking at him. "Looks like our meeting's stirring old wounds open again." He questioningly tilted his head. "Or are they only bad memories that you wish to forget?"

For a moment silence reigned. The words had stung, and Oriya himself was surprised just how much. The other one had no right speaking to him like that.

"Enough."The word left Oriya´s mouth like an angry growl. "Finally tell me, who are you?!"

The younger shadow doppelganger chuckled, raising his elegant fingers in front of his mouth in a feeble attempt to hide his apparent amusement. The gesture was as effortlessly elegant and mocking as Oriya had only seen somebody else perform it once. Muraki.

"Language, language, Oriya..."

The younger male's bright, garnet eyes watched him with barely hidden glee.

"That's not a fine way for an educated brothel – lord to speak, now is it?"

Oriya felt a cold shudder running down his spine. Even his mocking resembled Muraki's! "Where... How do you know me..?" The words left his throat in a dry croak. The other man chuckled again.

"Nothing's for free, especially not answers to certain questions... You'll know all you need to know once you're willing to pay the price. Otherwise, I fear I'll have to remain silent."

The expression on Oriya´s face fell. That ´boy´ obviously knew something, - a lot more than he even dared to assume-, but like he'd said, certain knowledge only came with certain prices that were to be paid. It was that way with the supernatural. The tall man didn't even get close to the question of what that price would be, knowing that it was the same as signing his upcoming destiny.

Giving the other a long, stern last look, he silently turned to leave. "Ah?" The disappointment in the other's voice was not to be overheard. Oriya allowed a little smile to cross his lips. He hadn't survived with Muraki close to him that long for nothing.

Giving the other a sideway-glance back from the corner of his eyes, he shrugged lightly.

"I'm leaving. Since my companions will probably already be searching for me and you obviously don't want to talk with me..." He shrugged again.

"Hey. I AM talking to you!"

"You've been talking a lot. But you didn't actually SAY something, did you?"

The other's red-clad shoulders slumped. "But- !!"

Oriya suppressed a grin. Gottcha! Pulling his pipe out and lightening it, he inhaled a deep drag of the legal drug. Behind him, he could literally hear the gears in the boy's head spin, desperately trying to find a way to wiggle the situation back into his control. Finally, he only shrugged his shoulders, trying to make a great show out of his disinterest of Oriya´s actions.

"Fine. Be that way." He glared at him in a way that made the older man need all of his control to not burst out laughing at him. Really, that glare was more of an angry child's pout than anything else!

Catching the other man's facial expression, the doppelganger's face twisted into a defiant smirk.

"Clever, clever, oh so terribly clever Oriya-san..." He all but sang. "I have to admit you're the first to react to me in that way. Just as you're the first to get me out of it like that. I admit this much." His smirk turned from defiant to sadistic. "However... You're alone and there's always a next time for the likes of me. Remember that."

Those garnet eyes possessed nothing human more.

Oriya firmly held his ground. Showing a supernatural creature like this his fear was like asking it for a long, painful dead. He met the inhuman glare coldly. Suddenly a little thought made him twitch visibly. He'd never turned around! The boy had just vanished from the spot he'd occupied behind him and reappeared in front of him again. How could he-? Immediately recovering his indifferent features, Oriya already knew that it was too late. The ´boy´ had noticed his temporal weakness.

However, the expected following attack never came.

Instead the other one just chuckled darkly, his features once again back to being dark and elegant. "I see you finally realized... You played a very dangerous game just now. I could have easily lost patience and killed you more than once. –You had luck." He nodded at him, like a teacher who'd handed out a great praise.

Waving his hand in a mocking way, he slowly walked past the stunned man. A few meters behind him, he stopped again; blazing garnet eyes drilling their gaze into the ebony-haired man's back.

"Tepesh."

"...?"

Pale, blood-less pallid-coloured lips turned into a tight smile. "My Name. You asked for it. I'm not normally using it, but the ones like you are calling me Tepesh." He explained.

"Uh...Yeah." If there was one good thing to say about Oriya, then that would be that he recovered quick from surprises. This time was no exception. Shooting this strange ´Tepesh´ a last glance, he raised his hand to the end of his pipe in an absentmindedly manner.

"Yeah. I too thought you were interesting company."

Having said those growled words, he turned and went his way back to the still ongoing festival.

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Tepesh´s eyes glittered as he watched him go. A cat-like expression was painting his lips. There he goes. Back to the festival with all it's food, the music, returns to his subordinates and servant girls... His eyes turned blank for a moment, following the run of his thoughts.

"You really think that you can run form me, huh? Back into that living world and all it's lights...? You poor fool." He chuckled, a cruel sound telling of torture and viciousness. That's what all those fools thought. But wasn't it just that loud, annoying and brightly living world that drove them all back to him one day?

He laughed again.

He had time. Gods knew, if somebody, then Tepesh truly had time! All the Time of the World. Though it wouldn't take Oriya that long to come back searching for him. He chuckled to himself. The darkness creature could wait.

Oriya would return.

Mibu Oriya... What an interesting choice fate's made this time for the two of us, don't you think? He laughed again.

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Mysteryland (Mysteryland), Mysteryland (Mysteryland)...

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