Disclaimer: Yoko Matsushita is the creator of all Yami no Matsuei. The
only thing that's mine is the character Rina Ito, any other OCs that I
might create will be listed when they show up.
Warning(s): This is an AU... Basically, if you've made it this far you already KNOW this warning so aren't you sick of seeing it over and over again? Well, this chapter is, uhh.... VERY violent and much tragedy is filled within, so if you don't think you can handle it, you could skip this chapter. I'll give a brief sum up at the very end. If, however, you're like me and you like this kinda stuff, please enjoy
POV: First person POV will always be Tsuzuki and no one else; however POV will change when I feel it's best for the story.
Notes: Again, '...' thoughts and //...// is memories.
This is the end of the Rina/Maria case.
My World of Strawberries and Cream
The Eternal Whisper in the Shadow of Surging Tears
There's a constant tapping sound filling my ears. A light feeling of my body's trembling. I've been trying to focus, to pay attention to what Watari and Tatsumi have been saying. What was it, something about the blood of the victims? Oh, that's what he said, he said that they all shared the same blood type; 'AB' is what he said... Or, at least I THINK that's what he said. I press my eyes closed hard a few times, as they are getting hazy yet it does nothing to help my body return to normalcy.
"Well, I can see how that would be over looked, it's not like they were a rare blood type." I can hear GuShoShin speaking, and I turn to face the figure next to me. He too, is becoming like everything else in the room, softly blurred.
"Well, there's still a chance that this isn't related at all to why they were chosen, it's the only thing we've been able to find so far though, even if it is a feeble connection." I can hear the words, but they don't make any sense in my mind, abstract ideas, words and meaning are so inconceivable right now. Tatsumi says something next, but again words, just words with no meanings behind them.
I have a strange feeling, like I can see all of us as we sit right now, in this very room, like I'm watching things unfold in a story, someone not connected to any of it. Suddenly, there is a soft constant and growing apprehension in my heart. Reaching up to my chest, I feel for the irregular rhythm that has possessed my heart's beating.
"Something's not right. Something's very wrong." The words are hard to choke out, like someone has their hand around my throat, and all my words pinched off from there.
Every eye in the hotel room looks up to me with my whispered announcement. Tatsumi is asking me something from his position in the monitor, yet his words are so very far away now. I try closing my eyes, try to block out this deep shadow that is clenching hold of my heart. Something is very wrong. It hurts, a shade, a cloud of deep heart felt anguish and pain, and these distant emotions feel they are taking over me. I open my eyes, and the world has abandoned its usual perception, as every thing around me is covered in a haze, shifting slightly in and out of its usual clarity. There's a light buzzing, and a soft pressure is being applied to my arm. I try to focus on the source, yet I can barely make out the form of my white feathered friend.
"Gu...Sho....Shin......?" My tongue becomes as a lead weight in my mouth, a mouth that is dryer then the cotton grown in fields of sun. I can't even focus on the words I want to speak, the thoughts I carried before have taking flight now, far from my reach.
The hazed world spins before me and I feel the most light headed and the heaviest, more so then I have ever felt. Both of the extremes are pulling me to the brink, and rational thought is far beyond any point of being conceivable. The only constant thing is the increasing feeling that I'm falling, sinking into a black nothingness that is not just pulling me, but the entire world into its depths. The darkness grows, and it is all that I can see now, nothing but the black void of emptiness as the real world just evaporates like mist.
Somehow, it feels so very....relaxing, to be in this flowing, rippling void, where nothing is, and nothing matters.
'Wait, no, this isn't right. There's something important I'm forgetting isn't there?' My brow furls in thought, yet, the more I try to focus on what was important, the more blurred and distant the idea becomes. I soon stop in my efforts. I feel good here, here in this empty placid world where nothing exists to play on my senses, nothing to remind me that I'm alive.
'Is this death then? If it is, then how? Oh, that's right; it doesn't matter,' I can feel my lips pull up lightly into a soft, pathetic grin; 'Nothing is here, just this cold black darkness. It's cold, yet, that's fine.' I wrap my arms around my body, closing my eyes and letting my consciousness slip into the darkness, letting go of any will I had left to remain me, to linger in my world.
'I finally get my wish, to fade into nothing, to be nothing.... This is all I wanted for so long now. To be nothing...that would be just so...nice..."
Just when I reach the point of evaporating like the world had before, of becoming one with the shaded abyss that has lulled me silently into its depths, I can hear something, something that is softly forming out of the empty black world. It's calling to me, sending warm caresses out to me. It's so soft, yet pleading so deeply. I wish it would leave me be, leave me to what I've yearned for, longed for with all my heart. In truth, I'm tempted to ignore the plea, the call, yet there is something so familiar in this warm presence, something that I know I should remember, an important thing, but I can't clear my head, nor can I find the will to challenge that dark clouds that have gathered there. I slowly open my eyes, question held on the tip of my tongue, as I'm greeted by a white light that is pushing the inky dark away into shadow. The source of the light, the warmth, is a blond haired boy who is curled in upon himself. His eyes are veiled under tightly pressed long dark lashes, with tears that are spring out from underneath the lashed viels, to fall softly down his face. He's mouth is moving ever so slightly, as though he's mumbling something that isn't meant for anyone in particular. He's talking, his mouth is moving, yet no words issue forth. A pained expression filled with sadness is infused in his visage. I move my lips and tongue, call out to him, yet, I too am muted by this dark abyss.
//...There's no such thing as a promise like that//
A light stirring in my mind draws forth odd memories, of times and places from when or where I can not say, yet they are spilling over from my deepest hidden memories into what's left of my hallow heart.
//Words don't mean anything in the end, now do they?//
I remember, these things with no recollection, yet inside my heart is the stirring of feelings that were distant at first, yet in them is something so warmly familiar. As I reach out a hand to the blond before me, I feel as though I'm doing the same to those distant memories.
//Words, NEVER mean anything, then just that... Words, will always be just words.//
The closer I get to both, the clearer one thought in my mind becomes, there was something important, there was something that hide, guised under all my horrid memories, something that I want so desperately to clarify, something I know I want to remember.
//Then, I'll tell you again... I'll tell you, with more then words.//
The importance, of what, of why, I can not say, yet this is the only time I know of, when I can say that I have touched a memory from my past, and not felt tainted by it. No, in fact it was the opposite. The memory made me feel warm, comforted, and something else, something that was so much more than could ever be fit into such simple things as words.
//It's a promise.//
As I reach the boy, I half expect to drift right through him, wholly expect this peace I've found, this light before me to disappear on touch. That thought stills my actions and my hand drops lightly to my side. It would be better to live in an illusion of this feeling, of this idea of peace, then it would ever be to risk destroying it. If I touch him, then that fleeting memory would evaporate, just as he would from me. I crouch before the child that is sitting there still curled in his tight ball, his knuckles strained white.
'He looks like he's in so much pain...' If I touch him, he'll disappear, and so would this illusion of peace... Yet, when I see that look, those tears, somehow, I don't mind the idea of being alone in my own misery. Just as long as it would mean that he could stop crying, stop existing in pain. Gently I place a hand on his head, shocked slightly that he hasn't disappeared right then and there. His head whips up and his eye lids fly open. The emerald irises that are embedded there are wide and filled with so many emotions that pain my heart to see them imbedded so deep, yet just under the surface of the glistening tears.
"...Tsuzuki!?"
"Hisoka...?"
"TSUZUKI!?!" A high and frantic child like voice jerks my eyes open to be greeted by the glaring light that has now filled in where blackness once was. I quickly close them again as it feels like this light is burning my eyes, so much different then the light from before. A soft moan escapes my lips as the pain in my head recedes ever so slightly. Carefully I open up my eyes again, this time much more slowly. I can see two huge childlike eyes that are looking back at me. Though, these ones are not green.
"Hisoka?!" I quickly sit up and am just as quick to fall back down. I crash back onto a carpeted floor, my first big sign that I'm not floating around in a black void.
"Tsuzuki, are you alright?!?" Multiple voices all ringing with the same question. Learning my lesson from last time, I slowly sit up. I'm back in the hotel room; Tatsumi and Watari are still facing me on the monitor, though both look as to have nearly had a heart attack... Meaning Watari is practically giving himself CPR and Tatsumi, well I think he looks to have perspired a little...or I think so, at least. The rain is still tapping at the windows to the hotel room, and the darkness outside has not been prevailed over by the sun's first light. I look back over to my feathered friend, a questioning look over my face. He pulls himself together, as he seems to have been staving off tears, a few of which still hung in his wide eyes.
"Tsuzuki, you collapsed, you fainted so quickly..." Well, despite how much he didn't look it, GuShoShin was still just a human child in heart, and he could no longer fight back the waterfalls that had built up in his terrified eyes. Throwing himself into my arms, sobbing widely, giving into his emotions. I strongly embrace him, trying to reassure him that I'm alright.
"You got really pale, and you wouldn't wake up!" GuShoShin tried to continue between the sobs that racked his small body.
"GuShoShin, I'm alright, I'm okay. You should know that just a little thing like fainting would NEVER hurt me!" I'm smiling and trying my hardest to calm the little guy in my lap, yet he just quickly shakes his head from side to side furiously.
"NO!! No, Tsuzuki, you weren't okay. You're heart had STOPPED!!" I can't hide the shock that hits me at his words.
'Does that mean... I really HAD died then? But that doesn't make any sense, because why would I see Hisoka there...?' Dread crawls slowly into my heart, feeling as though a long sharp claw is running itself up my spin, making my skin crawl and all the hairs on my body stand on end.
"GuShoShin!" I yell at the young librarian, determination seeping though out my body. He looks up at me, startled out of his sobs. "You brought it, right?"
"It...?" The little bird meeps out, his eyes are wide with a strange kind of expression that has taken over them. I think its fear, yet I don't have time to explain myself to him, I'll fully apologize later.
"Hisoka's file, you brought it right?"
"Y-Yeah..." His eyes doge away from me and seek the school bag he was carrying before. He quickly shuffles it open and returns with the file for me.
"Hey Tsuzuki," the GuShoShin fidgets slightly, almost whispering, "You just wanted this as a cover I thought. I mean, so that ol' Tatsumi would let me come here, right?"
"GuShoShin," a menacing voice projects from the open screen still sitting up on the table, "I CAN hear you. Besides, I already knew that's what you were doing, so you don't have to whisper about it. I'll also have you know I'm not THAT old." Tatsumi is rather prickling at the implication of his age, but a jolly Watari comes up behind the man and begins to pinch and pull at his cheeks. Watari really likes doing that to people.
"Of course he's not 'that old'! LOOK at this face; does this look like an old person's face??" I can hear Watari's smile in his words, my eyes though, are taken to the task of reading the file, so I don't see what happens next, but it sure sounded like something snapped.
"Uhh, Watari, I don't think that Tatsumi-san likes that..." GuShoShin nervously began, trying to point out the scientist's folly to him before Tatsumi composure broke.
"Pish-Posh! How would you know if he doesn't like it, have you ever tried to do it?"
"Watari~~" The name was spoken with such rage, one that I've heard in old samurai movies, you know, when the evil shogun is speaking? The threating voice was quickly followed by the sound of loud crashing, and threats of death, or no funding for a month. Quickly flipping the next page in the file, I scan down it till I finally find what I was looking for, all the while oblivious to the extent of the chaos around me.
"I HAVE IT!!" I exclaim, yet it's not one that is attributed to relief. I had a hunch, and this might just have confirmed it... It and also what was now becoming my worst fear.
"What?" Two faces turn to me, Watari, currently can't as doing so would break his neck, that is, judging by the neck lock Tatsumi has him in. It doesn't seem to be stopping him from trying though.
"Watari," I begin, trying to fight off the desperation in my voice. "You said that their blood type was all that they had in common, right?"
"Yes," The blond tried to crane his neck ever so slightly as Tatsumi loosened his grip on the other man, but by no means let go. "The only reason it was over looked before, was because it didn't really come off as odd. Type AB blood is not rare, and the only reason that I know it's really connected, is by the translations I was able to get off the spell. The spell was designed to release a 'pureed, living, free heart' from its victims. It was specifically written to only work on type AB blood. Though, that's rather an odd thing to purposefully write into your spell, don't you think?" My head sinks down and I can only look at the picture Hisoka in the folder before me.
"I've done it again, it's my fault."
"Tsuzuki?" The scientist's voice is filled with curiosity, no doubt at my words. My chest is becoming stiff, and I can't seem to draw breath to answer him, so my next words come much quitter then I meant for them to be.
"The hospital," I begin, my brain finally catching up to me, "this area of Nagasaki only has one hospital."
"What?" I stare up to find a bewildered look on everyone's face. Yet, I can't explain right now, there's no time.
"I have an idea," I shout back at my friends as I rush to grab my coat and run out the door, my face turned from them. I can't let them see my face now, not now, when my mask is breaking with all my fear and guilt. There is only one hospital in this area of Nagasaki, the area where all the bodies were found. All the victims had to be known to have type AB blood. The blood of every patient is taken when administered to the hospital, and that's probably how the killer knew who type AB was. I quicken my pace, once I leave the lobby. I'm standing in the rain, and looking at were my car is. I blink away the drops of water that have fallen from the sky, and turn away from the car.
"I need to go faster then that..." Picking up an Ofuda from my pocket, I chant a spell, one that calls out to the spirits of wind. Unseen, they gather and swirl around me, gently picking my body off the ground, and granting me flight into the stormy night's air.
"Please," Quietly I chant to whatever god can hear me, to whatever god will take my words as though they were a spell, and infuse them with power as such, "Please, let me be wrong. Let him be okay"
Deep green eyes blinked twice, staving off the remnants of the odd dream and returning to the real world. He knew that place form whence he came; he had been there many times before. This, however, was the first time he had ever seen anyone else inside the shaded abyss. Of all people he could have seen, too, it had to be that man. Something inside Hisoka laughed at his own remark. He knew why too. He was glade to see him there, he was glad for the calm and giving emotions he had felt from him, as though he was really there with him. As though he had really placed his hand on the boys head, and tried to dispel all the pain that he was in. It brought a very soft smile to the boy's lips, though; the smile quickly became a hissing scowl, as the last of his consciousness returned to his body. He felt the pain again, with the wounds now covering the whole of his body. Red blood seeped from still fresh wounds, crimson was now puddled below him. It was always an amazement how much blood could come from one person, or at least, how much could come from him. With no strength to even move his head, Hisoka let his eyes wander the dark, damp room, searching for the one who had inflicted the pain on him, the one who had answered to 'Maria'. He found her, just to his side, as she looked to be embracing the sickly girl who had called her by that name. Hisoka understood this one, the one with the dark hair and eyes, to be 'Rina' in turn. At least, he could say, he knew the names of the ones who had killed all those other people. He had solved the case, yet he really, REALLY wished this wasn't how he had come to the knowledge.
Brief fluttering of pain rolled off the girl named Rina. Her body trembling ever so slightly inside Maria's long demon arms. Hisoka looked closer, and saw that Rina had her shirt undone, and Maria was carving runes, much like the ones she had given him, over area where the sickly girl's heart rested. Maria was taking the gentlest of care, trying to inflict as little pain as possible to the smaller girl. This didn't surprise Hisoka too much. Well, he was surprised by the fact that Maria was also carving into Rina, that wasn't expected. What didn't surprise him, though, was how Maria cradled the other girl, as gently as her dark red claws would allow, how she whispered a comforting tune to the other girl, how it pained Maria to cut her. Hisoka had known from the time when he felt into both of their souls earlier; both of them carried a strong love for each other, stronger and more pure then anyone Hisoka had ever seen before. It remained there, pulsing strongly in that demon woman, whenever she directed her attention to the dark haired girl. Yet, once away from Rina, her emotions turned volatile, very much fitting to the demon façade she bore.
"Maria, please don't. I don't want it...!" Weak words broke from the sickly girls lips. She was trying not to cry with all her might, yet a few tears leaked out at the corners of pressed lashes. Maria, however, kept on cutting, as though she had not heard her love's plea. Hisoka tried to move, yet the invisible force that had chained him down before had not dissipated in the least. Trying to focus his mind to allow him to attack with his mental abilities proved futile, his mind only growing weaker with the effort. This was the very reason he had held off on using his mental abilities to attack, he still wasn't strong enough to control or release them properly, so, in the end, it always only left him in a worse position then he started out in; His mind disjointed, and muddled. He could also become physically ill, or injure himself if he strained to attack too hard. With his body already this worse off, he knew there was no way he could attack like that, yet he still had to give it a try. He had to fight, to keep on fighting, for himself. In the end, it would always be him; he needed to survive, because he didn't know how to do anything else.
Maria finished her work on Rina, and gently laid the weaker girl down on the ground. Her cuts on Rina weren't ones that covered the body like Hisoka's did. They were centralized over her heart, and no where else. Maria buttoned up the shirt half way on the dark eyed girl, granting her some sense of modesty by covering most of her naked chest. Maria returned her attention to Hisoka, who caught a glimpse of hazel, before it was over run in a tempest of black.
"Why are you doing this?" Hisoka mustered up all his strength, as the demon approached his prone form. He soon regretted even speaking, as the small action, a hand pressed firmly to his chest, sent jolts of pain all the way down his body. The demon stared in slight annoyance at the boy, many of its thoughts ran briefly through the surface of its mind, and Hisoka caught most of them, all of which involved ideas that were in no way beneficial to the blond boy.
"I was a grand demon once," Hisoka was caught off guard slightly, with the thoughts he received, he never expected an answer. The demon's mind was full of menacing thoughts that didn't lighten even in the slightest though, remaining much as they were. "I was given a great name, and I had a place under a strong elder. However, one day, I was killed. My spirit is very resilient though," The demon came in close, her face an inch from the empath's own, gently caressing his features with a clawed hand. Hisoka quickly tried to wall up his psyche, tried to block the horrid emotions, and awful visions from his invading his mind. However, exhausted both physically and mentally, he could not keep the images of the past that were running through the creature's own mind, from taking over him, running thought him. Hisoka's eye's dilated, and he verged on blacking out again, only the pull of the demon's physical touch kept him in this world, anchoring only halfway in reality, while mentally, images of a past not his own pressed hard into his mind. The demon's words melding with the images, becoming a sort of narration for the story unfolding to him.
"It's a great book!" A young woman's voice echoed around Hisoka, "It's about God's of death who take people to the other world."
"You're lending me your manga?" another feminine voice answered the first, "I usually don't read these kind of things, but if you're going to be so pushy about it, I'll give it a try."
A raining day, a side street, and a woman with hazel eyes waving goodbye to a girl with raven hair and near black eyes, eyes which looked on at her friend with worry and care. Hisoka felt like he was watching a black and white movie from long ago. Looking at the parting friends, he could tell that they were the same age, and the young hazel eyed girl greatly resembled the demon who held him down, yet, the dark haired girl was hard for him to see at first, focusing and squinting his eyes, though it were blurred, he willed the picture to become clear for him. It wavered slightly, as it adjusted, finally becoming clear, and reveling the other girl to be a healthy Rina. Hisoka's eyes became wide in shock. While it was obvious Maria was younger now than she was in the present, the other girl, besides being healthy looking, appeared exactly the same, as though her body hadn't aged a day!
Rina stood in the rain, holding the umbrella and the book her friend had given to her, watching the other woman sprint off into the down pour that covered their world. Hisoka noticed how he could feel no emotions from the girl, nothing as she had her hand clench tightly around the umbrella; eyes focused dead center on Maria who was fading into the misting blue down pour. Finally, she turned, and started to walk in the opposite direction. Hisoka's vision could not follow her though, as he was pulled forcefully to follow the retreating form of the young Maria, who had her school briefcase over her head, trying to prevent her eyes from being clouded from the rain.
Maria rounded a corner and went down an alley. She was desperate to escape the chilling rain, and through this ally there was a short cut that she had taken often to get home. Jumping the puddles that marred the way, and dogging the trash cans that lined the ally, her mind was filled with reflections on her joy, her happiness, and more than anything her fully blossomed feelings love. She was happy at present, so many possibilities stood before her, her life was going more perfectly then she had ever dreamed it could. She had swore once a long time ago that she was not born to live a life cursed with pain, and right after that vow, she met Rina. Rina made all this happen, had turned her world around from hell, to heaven. A soft smile graced her warm features.
'It's good to feel this alive!' The school bag was held out far to her sides, as her long arms stretched, and she twirled in the rain. Letting it fall to her face, letting herself feel the drops as each one touched her skin, making her fell more alive with the tapping, cool sensation it sent through her body. Taking a light, graceful jump, Maria exited her passageway.
Maria's shoe softly tapped down onto the hard stone of the ground on the other side of the alley, and at the same moment, she was illuminated in a bright light.
Hisoka saw everything, as though the world was placed in slow motion. The sound of the rain slowed, the tapping as it hit the ground grew longer in between its loud murmurs. Maria's long, brown hair, lingered slightly as it felling down around her shoulders. Her face, still a visage of joy, slowly turned toward the direction of the light, becoming that of curiosity, and finally horror, as she saw the car to her left, as she saw it grow closer. It bore down fast, as it was nearly already on top of her. Hisoka tried to move to help, to reach out to the girl, the girl whose life flashed and reflected in her deep hazel eyes. Hisoka, though, was unable to move rooted in his spot, just inside the mouth of the alley. Suddenly, there was dark shadow that passed in the corner of Hisoka's eye, one that passed through his body as if he was a shade that haunted this dim, rain soaked world. It ran through him, and hurled straight into Maria, who was harshly knocked out of the way of the oncoming car. Maria's body crashed hardly down to the cement, rolling a few times, her arms and legs taking a brutal assault from the hard concrete before a light pole made contact with her back on the opposite side of the road, stopping her frame's swift momentum, knocking the breath from her lungs.
Hisoka suddenly found himself behind the scraped, and bloodied girl, his eyes following where her shifting vision lead; to the scene before them. Blood mixing with rain, a maroon tint in it as it streamed down the street, it source was a few feet away from the car, the body, thrown from where it had absorbed the impact of speeding metal. Hisoka's hand flew to his chest, unbidden horror shot deeply into the root of his being. The heart felt agony was not his own, yet it was so strong, it crashed into his core, filling him to the brim. Tears streamed from his eyes, tears that belonged to Maria, as she gapped, coughing, and wide eyed at the scene before her.
"No... No... No," Maria kept chanting over and over again, her voice a chilled whisper. Picking up her scrapped body, the girl stumbled to the one who had saved her, the one who lay steeped in her own blood, and the one whose dark eyes stared widely up at the clouded heavens.
"Rina...?" Maria gingerly reached down to the girl who lay there on the street, fingers brushing lightly over a face that had paled far in comparison to the deep red that flowed freely from parted lips. Maria gently brushed her fingers at those lips, lips which she knew to be warm, to bestow more warmth when touch, had already become as ice. Hazel eyes searched dark clouded ones, looking desperately for a sign, an indication that the one loved was still here, still with her.
"RINA~~~~~~~!!!" Maria flung her arms around the stilled form before her, as she saw no signal from her love. She somehow gathered the crumpled body into an embrace, one that was more fervent, more needy, then Hisoka had ever seen. He felt the girl's pain turned cries inside his mind as the emotions she had pushed into him. He could see everything in Maria's heart as if it were as wide open to him as his own. Rina was her one, her everything in this whole messed up world. She was the one who saved her from hell, brought her to heaven. She loved her, with more feeling then a heart can ever posses. She had experienced the epitome of rapture when those feelings where returned to her in kind. She NEEDED her! Every part of her being, even her very soul cried out to attest to this simple truth. Rocking back and forth, Maria sobbed and wailed as she held the most precious person in the entire world in her arms.
"My love," Rina sobbed into the mated black hair that now was stained with dark shaded crimson. "I had sworn to never leave you, so you can't do this. I swore my whole being to you, so, so you can't leave me. Please my love, my one and only, please, I swore to be with you always. You can't leave me. RINA PLEASE STAY WITH ME!!!" Desperate pleas were answered with a mouth which remained silent, the only sound being the dripping of blood, with eyes, that had no focus on any point in this world. "Rina, aren't you even going to say...something, anything? Not even a...goodbye?" With the silence, Maria turned shocked wide eyes onto the one she held, "No. Rina," The reality of the situation grew with the heaviness that encompassed the girl's heart.
"Please, it's all meaningless without you here." Maria's sobs had stopped, yet Hisoka could feel as though the girl's very soul had broken in that clam sentence. He couldn't tell if she still cried as she continued, though, for she was dripping from head to toe with the storm's down pour, one that went unseen in her eyes.
"Rina... I can't live in this world without you. I'll give up anything, everything, my body, my soul, if only you would come back to me."//
"Finally, I heard a human offering up their very being in a bargain."
// "It's all YOU'RE FAULT!!" A frantic, woman with dark hair and green eyes howled as she crossed the street toward the two girls. She wore a blue and green Chinese style dress, her heals falling heavy in determined strides as she approached the two bodies that lay strewn in the blood soaked street. Her eyes seemed crazy, full of anger. Hisoka noted the direction she approached from and found that it came from the car which had crashed into the side of one of the buildings that gadded the alley. This woman was the one who had been driving the car, yet her words were screamed, menacingly down at Maria, fear twisting firmly into her face. Maria looked shocked at the older woman, before recognition finally hit her.
"...Aunt??"
"IT'S YOU'RE FAULT!" Maria's Aunt continued, unbidden by the question, confused face before her, "I too came to Nagasaki when I was young, and I worked so hard." The woman was quickly becoming more and more hysterical with each word, her voice raising and her right hand flailing through the air. Her left hand never left its place at her side, but Maria didn't take note of this small fact, she couldn't take in anything in her current state.
"I worked to become a singer all my life, it was my dream, it's what I lived for. It's why I left my family and everyone I ever knew to come to Japan. Even yet," The older woman's eyes filled with amusement and scorn as she looked down at her young nieces, "Nothing ever came of my dream, nothing ever came of it. But you," all amusement was lost from her now, as eyes flashed with long hidden anger and hatred, "You come here, and everything is given to you so easily! It's not fair! It was my dream!!" With her last words she raised the black gun up from the hand she had let lay hang at her side before. Its aim came to fix at confused, pain stricken hazel eyes.
"Maria, I was only trying to kill you, not her," Her crazed tone turning accusingly at the young girl, "It's you're fault she's dead, not mine. Everything, everything that's gone wrong, EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT!!!!" A single shot rang clearly in the tears that fell freely from the heavens.//
"So, I grasped onto the opportunity, as soon as it presented its self."
// Hisoka's eye's pressed closed of their own volition, trying to keep the gruesome scene from scaring his memories. A sickening thud as a body fell heavily to the ground. Hisoka's eyes snapped open, beckoned by a dark evil laugh filled the air around him. Turning his face back up to the world before him, he saw Maria: alive and still wide eyed, holding a bloodied Rina, as she looked up at a dark shadowed shade that took a misty, incorporeal form before her. It laughed menacingly as its hand passed though the fallen Aunt, reaching into the woman's chest. The Shade was garbed in black tattered cloths, a hood coving its head, one which had no eyes, or even a face that shone through, to speak of.
"Do you really mean what you said?" A deep voice hissed out from underneath the black hood. Maria could only stare on dumbly at the sight before her, unable to answer or think straight in the face of so much evil.
"Tell me that you mean it," Again the dark being almost purred out it's request, "Tell me that again, let me hear the words from your lips, that you would 'give up anything, everything, my body my soul,' in exchange for life to be granted to the one you hold in your arms." His free hand gesturing over to the lifeless form of Rina, "This, I can not help you with, unless you say such words in accord to me."
Maria gasped, breaking free of her mind's stupor, as she realized that the ghostly figure before her was real, and even more so, that he also meant what he said.
Maria didn't even blink, she couldn't find the ability to do so anymore it seemed. Her eyes stayed trained on the black creature, which had saved her life, and in doing so, had killed her Aunt. Hazel eyes traveled again down to the lifeless form of her aunt, she had not even seen how he had killed her, as she herself had been bracing to die. Maria fully took in the gruesome scene that lay before her, as she slowly lifted her head up to the faceless phantom.
"You're... a demon?"
"Don't start to speak of such human notions of demons or angels!!" The black figure roared out, his tattered robes billowing like living snakes at his fury. "Don't speak of God, or Satan, right or wrong, not now. Right now –I- am the only one who is here. I am the ONLY one who was willing to answer your call. No one else cares for your misery, no one else cares if the Seer lives or dies." The Demon's free hand shot up to point its long dark clawed finger at the quaking girl. "Right now, child, your friend is DEAD, this is it, and there is nothing anyone of this world can do!" Maria's eyes flooded with tears, her arms pulling Rina's lifeless body into a tighter embrace, the act was desperate, as if by holding onto her body tightly enough, she could keep her soul from drifting off. It was impossible, as Rina's soul was nowhere to be seen in her eyes, eyes that had once seen so much more then the world around them allowed most people to see. Her eyes had once gleamed, as if she held in the mysteries of the universe in that calm gaze. Maria wanted that look to return, to dissipate the blank, empty one they now held.
"There is no one who cares if such a girl as her lives or dies," Maria turned her gaze away from the blank eyes that had held her own. The demon's anger subsided slightly, pulling its incorporeal, clenched hand from the chest of the lifeless aunt. The shade of a demon it held it clasped closed before Maria.
"I can take this, you're aunts still beating, yet soulless, heart, and with it, cast a spell that will grant your friend life once more, pulling the Seer back from the land of the dead." Dark mist rippled off of his hand, in time with the beat of the heart he held there. Hisoka could hear it's beating, pounding heavily against his head. Placing his hands up to his ears he tried to block out the sound, yet the rhythm only increased with the attempt.
"The choice is yours."
Maria's large, wide eyes fixated on the offered fist, the deal set before her. Hisoka still stood from the sidelines, looking on as it all happened before him, watching in forced silence, as Maria accepted the offer, as black energy rippled around the shade, around the heart he held inside his hand. Engrossed in wonder and horror as the energy took the essence of the heart, twisting it, and then finally shooting its power into Rina's stilled chest. Upon impact with the energies, Rina shook, and convulsed in harsh seizures. Rina's mouth dropped opened and out of it issued screams that pierced throughout the echoing reality, slicing deep into the core of this world of memories. Rina's body mended unnaturally fast, broken arms and legs righting themselves, her eyes returning a faint shimmer of life, yet the entire time, the blood chilling scream continued. It was the scream one gives when they see their worst nightmare materialized before them, one of pain, beyond the knowledge of the living.
"Rina?!?" Maria tried to hold down the violently shaking girl whose face was twisted in terror. "RINA!!" Maria pressed all of her weight onto the other girl. Finally, after sometime, her tremors lessened, and her screams stopped, only to be replaced with a light sobbing. Maria turned her eyes up to take in the sight of her friend, returned to her from the dead. Shaken at what she beheld, Maria's heart clenched as Rina was clutching her body, sobbing softly. Her eyes missing the light that they once bore so easily, now were clouded in pain, her skin, paled, almost see through, as though death had touched it. Maria ran her fingers, over her love's face and recoiled slightly as she felt the slight chill pushed into her touch.
"Rina?? W-What... WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!" Maria turned, enraged at abyssal creature before her, lunging for the shade, and passing through it, falling hard to the concert on the other side of its incorporeal form. "What have you done to Rina?!?" Maria sobbed, fury building deep within her small form, causing it to shake slightly. The demon laughed callously, as though hearing a good joke.
"Human child, I have done as promised, I have returned your friend to you," If there was a face hidden in all that darkness, Hisoka knew it must have been smiling. Proud in it's deception of a girl who was as he had said; a child. Hisoka's fists clenched at his sides, not for anger of compassion for the girls, but out of anger at the twisted game the demon played, at the way his voice smiled as he spoke so easily, while the another person's world crumpled at his hands. It was getting to him, the emotions of Maria, the human Maria, the CHILD Maria. Her innocent soul was being crushed, torn and it all was far too familiar a scene for him to bear to see it happening again, as though fate enjoyed the painful game of repetition that it loved to play on the people of this world.
"Your friend is alive, her soul is returned to her body, yet, even I am just a demon after all. I can not cast a holy resurrection spell that would return her wholly to this world. However, I cast the strongest resurrection spell in all necromancy, allowing life where death once ruled, pulling the soul into its former shell, yet, it can not pull all of the soul in. With its limited power in such areas, the body will remain close to as it was when death claimed it; the pain of death, will always haunt her." Maria remained as she had landed, on her knees with her hands clenched tightly into fists on the cold hard ground. Nails pressing into flesh, pooling blood that slowly seeped from her self inflicted wounds, Her body trembled, racked with burning hot tears. "It does have a benefit though," The shade moved toward the shaking girl, his robes shifting weightlessly around his form, "Something the holy resurrection spell lacks, for you see," the demon leaned in close to Maria, whimpering into her ear, "Those who are to receive THIS resurrection, will not die so easily as humans do, nor will their bodies age a single day. Your Seer will live on, forever, with you."
A black hand pressed down onto Maria's back, and her mouth fell in a scream of pain as black energies pushed into her body from the contact.
"The contract has been fulfilled," A sneering voice laughed at Maria, who collapsed forward onto the wet ground. The demon's body became as dark mist, as the turbulent purple energies wrapped around the girls body, the black mist entering her body through her eyes and mouth. Maria's beautiful hazel eyes clouded over with tempest black, and her face, which was a second ago, a mask of pain, now twisted into a sickening smile. Once the shade had completely entered her body, and the thrashing hued forces died away, Maria pushed her self up off the ground, and turned her now black clouded eyes over to the sky above. Water poured over her face, and down her neck, it seemed as though heaven its self was crying for the girl, who gave up everything, everything she had and was, to this deceitful demon.
"A body, for my very own," Casting the inky eyes toward the sound of consistent sobbing, the smile faded slightly, and hazel shone ever so lightly under the shades of black.
'I will find a way, a way to make her whole,' a voice echoed deeply with the body that moved under the foreigner's will.
"You're able to resist?" The shade's voice announced in shock through the girl's own lips.//
"It was the first time I ever cast such a spell."
//"How?" Suddenly a great hacking cough broke through the demons thoughts. Turning Maria's head, he cast his eyes down onto the girl who still held a prone position on the rain drenched ground. The black eyes watched, in slight horror as blood burst from the straining mouth. "It can't be..." The demon ran over to the girl's body, turning her onto her back, and pacing Maria's hand, HIS hand, onto her chest, just above her new heart. Hisoka moved in, trying to focus on the scene before him, yet the closer he tried to get, the more unfocused and distant the world became.
"No..."//
"The spell I cast was flawed. The heart was not taking properly, so the spell is only just keeping her body alive. I was not aware that it required someone with the same blood. My contract," the demons words became clearer, as the shadowed world of Maria's memories faded, and the demon's hand let go of the boy, "was left partially unfilled, and as such, I have to bear sharing this body with that girl."
Hisoka's eyes focused in on the ground around him, noticing a change in the blood that had pooled on the ground. Squinting his eyes, he strained to see just what was different. Eyes became wide with terror as he took in the scene before him: He was lying in the magic circle drawn from his own blood, just like the ones he had seen in the crime photos. Casting his shaken eyes around the room, his focus on this world going in and out between shadows. Maria, no, the demon that possessed her body had pulled back away from him, seeming to admire his handy work. Letting his head fall to its side, Hisoka saw the prone and pale form of Rina, only the slight shaking of her body showing any sign that she was alive.
"You're wrong...."
"What?" Black swirling tempests narrowed on the bleeding boy who lay before the fiend. He was trying to fight off the binding spell that held him down again, and again, he failed.
"You're wrong, my heart..." Hisoka turned only his eyes to glare at the demon, as he had no strength left to even turn his head. His body felt like it was covered in ice, and gravity was trying to push him through the earth it's self. Even the words he had meant to say, somehow become a hazy inpalatripale thought, dieing in the back of his throat. A dark curtain was falling over his thoughts and mind. The demon saw the light flickering in the boy's emerald eyes, a slow smile creeping to its face.
"No..." a firm command followed by a sudden movement, and a blood soaked hand covered the boys face. "I can't let you fall away into the dark sleep just yet... I need your heart; I need your soulless heart." The contact of the possessed girl's flesh against his skin knocked Hisoka out of his muddled thoughts. It felt like the demon was melting into him, spreading thought his body. Every muscle tensed, every hair standing on end. He felt as though the essence of the demon was encompassing his eyes, his mind, his heart.
The demon's energies wrapped around and in the boy, constantly moving, searching for something that was hidden in him. Finally they stopped and concentrated, finding what it was looking for, deep within his heart. The energies caressed it gently, as though trying to awaken it, old memory, or feeling, that was hidden deep within him. Slowly the emotion rose to the fore front of his mind, it was just like what he felt when he was in the alley the first time, when the dead woman's emotions had taken over him.
It was that same fear!
........................... To Be Continued
Author's lil' note section
This is actually the second loading of the chapter, noticed a few stupid mistakes when I re-read it again, sry!
Ahhh, okay so this is the chapter when I will end the Maria/Rina case, I had had the initial ending for the case planned out, but two things happened. First, the chapter started to become FAR longer then I had intended. Second, the ending has been, uuh... well I thinking about changing how I planned the case ending, it's going to be one of two, but.... Ahhh well I'll decide shortly, can't give any hints now can I? ;P
Noticing how sad this story is going, kinda depressing.
For this chapter I get to tie in a lot of the lose ends AND start setting up some more things that wrap into the main plot.... Damn plot's starting to get fun.
Well that's it for part A, part B is already started. I'll try and update with the new chapter as soon as I can.... Later tonight...? Well here's hoping
So, just what do you think so far? Good, bad, ugly? I really appreciate the time you all have taken to read and follow this story, thank you so much
Arigato Gozaimasu!!
Warning(s): This is an AU... Basically, if you've made it this far you already KNOW this warning so aren't you sick of seeing it over and over again? Well, this chapter is, uhh.... VERY violent and much tragedy is filled within, so if you don't think you can handle it, you could skip this chapter. I'll give a brief sum up at the very end. If, however, you're like me and you like this kinda stuff, please enjoy
POV: First person POV will always be Tsuzuki and no one else; however POV will change when I feel it's best for the story.
Notes: Again, '...' thoughts and //...// is memories.
This is the end of the Rina/Maria case.
My World of Strawberries and Cream
The Eternal Whisper in the Shadow of Surging Tears
There's a constant tapping sound filling my ears. A light feeling of my body's trembling. I've been trying to focus, to pay attention to what Watari and Tatsumi have been saying. What was it, something about the blood of the victims? Oh, that's what he said, he said that they all shared the same blood type; 'AB' is what he said... Or, at least I THINK that's what he said. I press my eyes closed hard a few times, as they are getting hazy yet it does nothing to help my body return to normalcy.
"Well, I can see how that would be over looked, it's not like they were a rare blood type." I can hear GuShoShin speaking, and I turn to face the figure next to me. He too, is becoming like everything else in the room, softly blurred.
"Well, there's still a chance that this isn't related at all to why they were chosen, it's the only thing we've been able to find so far though, even if it is a feeble connection." I can hear the words, but they don't make any sense in my mind, abstract ideas, words and meaning are so inconceivable right now. Tatsumi says something next, but again words, just words with no meanings behind them.
I have a strange feeling, like I can see all of us as we sit right now, in this very room, like I'm watching things unfold in a story, someone not connected to any of it. Suddenly, there is a soft constant and growing apprehension in my heart. Reaching up to my chest, I feel for the irregular rhythm that has possessed my heart's beating.
"Something's not right. Something's very wrong." The words are hard to choke out, like someone has their hand around my throat, and all my words pinched off from there.
Every eye in the hotel room looks up to me with my whispered announcement. Tatsumi is asking me something from his position in the monitor, yet his words are so very far away now. I try closing my eyes, try to block out this deep shadow that is clenching hold of my heart. Something is very wrong. It hurts, a shade, a cloud of deep heart felt anguish and pain, and these distant emotions feel they are taking over me. I open my eyes, and the world has abandoned its usual perception, as every thing around me is covered in a haze, shifting slightly in and out of its usual clarity. There's a light buzzing, and a soft pressure is being applied to my arm. I try to focus on the source, yet I can barely make out the form of my white feathered friend.
"Gu...Sho....Shin......?" My tongue becomes as a lead weight in my mouth, a mouth that is dryer then the cotton grown in fields of sun. I can't even focus on the words I want to speak, the thoughts I carried before have taking flight now, far from my reach.
The hazed world spins before me and I feel the most light headed and the heaviest, more so then I have ever felt. Both of the extremes are pulling me to the brink, and rational thought is far beyond any point of being conceivable. The only constant thing is the increasing feeling that I'm falling, sinking into a black nothingness that is not just pulling me, but the entire world into its depths. The darkness grows, and it is all that I can see now, nothing but the black void of emptiness as the real world just evaporates like mist.
Somehow, it feels so very....relaxing, to be in this flowing, rippling void, where nothing is, and nothing matters.
'Wait, no, this isn't right. There's something important I'm forgetting isn't there?' My brow furls in thought, yet, the more I try to focus on what was important, the more blurred and distant the idea becomes. I soon stop in my efforts. I feel good here, here in this empty placid world where nothing exists to play on my senses, nothing to remind me that I'm alive.
'Is this death then? If it is, then how? Oh, that's right; it doesn't matter,' I can feel my lips pull up lightly into a soft, pathetic grin; 'Nothing is here, just this cold black darkness. It's cold, yet, that's fine.' I wrap my arms around my body, closing my eyes and letting my consciousness slip into the darkness, letting go of any will I had left to remain me, to linger in my world.
'I finally get my wish, to fade into nothing, to be nothing.... This is all I wanted for so long now. To be nothing...that would be just so...nice..."
Just when I reach the point of evaporating like the world had before, of becoming one with the shaded abyss that has lulled me silently into its depths, I can hear something, something that is softly forming out of the empty black world. It's calling to me, sending warm caresses out to me. It's so soft, yet pleading so deeply. I wish it would leave me be, leave me to what I've yearned for, longed for with all my heart. In truth, I'm tempted to ignore the plea, the call, yet there is something so familiar in this warm presence, something that I know I should remember, an important thing, but I can't clear my head, nor can I find the will to challenge that dark clouds that have gathered there. I slowly open my eyes, question held on the tip of my tongue, as I'm greeted by a white light that is pushing the inky dark away into shadow. The source of the light, the warmth, is a blond haired boy who is curled in upon himself. His eyes are veiled under tightly pressed long dark lashes, with tears that are spring out from underneath the lashed viels, to fall softly down his face. He's mouth is moving ever so slightly, as though he's mumbling something that isn't meant for anyone in particular. He's talking, his mouth is moving, yet no words issue forth. A pained expression filled with sadness is infused in his visage. I move my lips and tongue, call out to him, yet, I too am muted by this dark abyss.
//...There's no such thing as a promise like that//
A light stirring in my mind draws forth odd memories, of times and places from when or where I can not say, yet they are spilling over from my deepest hidden memories into what's left of my hallow heart.
//Words don't mean anything in the end, now do they?//
I remember, these things with no recollection, yet inside my heart is the stirring of feelings that were distant at first, yet in them is something so warmly familiar. As I reach out a hand to the blond before me, I feel as though I'm doing the same to those distant memories.
//Words, NEVER mean anything, then just that... Words, will always be just words.//
The closer I get to both, the clearer one thought in my mind becomes, there was something important, there was something that hide, guised under all my horrid memories, something that I want so desperately to clarify, something I know I want to remember.
//Then, I'll tell you again... I'll tell you, with more then words.//
The importance, of what, of why, I can not say, yet this is the only time I know of, when I can say that I have touched a memory from my past, and not felt tainted by it. No, in fact it was the opposite. The memory made me feel warm, comforted, and something else, something that was so much more than could ever be fit into such simple things as words.
//It's a promise.//
As I reach the boy, I half expect to drift right through him, wholly expect this peace I've found, this light before me to disappear on touch. That thought stills my actions and my hand drops lightly to my side. It would be better to live in an illusion of this feeling, of this idea of peace, then it would ever be to risk destroying it. If I touch him, then that fleeting memory would evaporate, just as he would from me. I crouch before the child that is sitting there still curled in his tight ball, his knuckles strained white.
'He looks like he's in so much pain...' If I touch him, he'll disappear, and so would this illusion of peace... Yet, when I see that look, those tears, somehow, I don't mind the idea of being alone in my own misery. Just as long as it would mean that he could stop crying, stop existing in pain. Gently I place a hand on his head, shocked slightly that he hasn't disappeared right then and there. His head whips up and his eye lids fly open. The emerald irises that are embedded there are wide and filled with so many emotions that pain my heart to see them imbedded so deep, yet just under the surface of the glistening tears.
"...Tsuzuki!?"
"Hisoka...?"
"TSUZUKI!?!" A high and frantic child like voice jerks my eyes open to be greeted by the glaring light that has now filled in where blackness once was. I quickly close them again as it feels like this light is burning my eyes, so much different then the light from before. A soft moan escapes my lips as the pain in my head recedes ever so slightly. Carefully I open up my eyes again, this time much more slowly. I can see two huge childlike eyes that are looking back at me. Though, these ones are not green.
"Hisoka?!" I quickly sit up and am just as quick to fall back down. I crash back onto a carpeted floor, my first big sign that I'm not floating around in a black void.
"Tsuzuki, are you alright?!?" Multiple voices all ringing with the same question. Learning my lesson from last time, I slowly sit up. I'm back in the hotel room; Tatsumi and Watari are still facing me on the monitor, though both look as to have nearly had a heart attack... Meaning Watari is practically giving himself CPR and Tatsumi, well I think he looks to have perspired a little...or I think so, at least. The rain is still tapping at the windows to the hotel room, and the darkness outside has not been prevailed over by the sun's first light. I look back over to my feathered friend, a questioning look over my face. He pulls himself together, as he seems to have been staving off tears, a few of which still hung in his wide eyes.
"Tsuzuki, you collapsed, you fainted so quickly..." Well, despite how much he didn't look it, GuShoShin was still just a human child in heart, and he could no longer fight back the waterfalls that had built up in his terrified eyes. Throwing himself into my arms, sobbing widely, giving into his emotions. I strongly embrace him, trying to reassure him that I'm alright.
"You got really pale, and you wouldn't wake up!" GuShoShin tried to continue between the sobs that racked his small body.
"GuShoShin, I'm alright, I'm okay. You should know that just a little thing like fainting would NEVER hurt me!" I'm smiling and trying my hardest to calm the little guy in my lap, yet he just quickly shakes his head from side to side furiously.
"NO!! No, Tsuzuki, you weren't okay. You're heart had STOPPED!!" I can't hide the shock that hits me at his words.
'Does that mean... I really HAD died then? But that doesn't make any sense, because why would I see Hisoka there...?' Dread crawls slowly into my heart, feeling as though a long sharp claw is running itself up my spin, making my skin crawl and all the hairs on my body stand on end.
"GuShoShin!" I yell at the young librarian, determination seeping though out my body. He looks up at me, startled out of his sobs. "You brought it, right?"
"It...?" The little bird meeps out, his eyes are wide with a strange kind of expression that has taken over them. I think its fear, yet I don't have time to explain myself to him, I'll fully apologize later.
"Hisoka's file, you brought it right?"
"Y-Yeah..." His eyes doge away from me and seek the school bag he was carrying before. He quickly shuffles it open and returns with the file for me.
"Hey Tsuzuki," the GuShoShin fidgets slightly, almost whispering, "You just wanted this as a cover I thought. I mean, so that ol' Tatsumi would let me come here, right?"
"GuShoShin," a menacing voice projects from the open screen still sitting up on the table, "I CAN hear you. Besides, I already knew that's what you were doing, so you don't have to whisper about it. I'll also have you know I'm not THAT old." Tatsumi is rather prickling at the implication of his age, but a jolly Watari comes up behind the man and begins to pinch and pull at his cheeks. Watari really likes doing that to people.
"Of course he's not 'that old'! LOOK at this face; does this look like an old person's face??" I can hear Watari's smile in his words, my eyes though, are taken to the task of reading the file, so I don't see what happens next, but it sure sounded like something snapped.
"Uhh, Watari, I don't think that Tatsumi-san likes that..." GuShoShin nervously began, trying to point out the scientist's folly to him before Tatsumi composure broke.
"Pish-Posh! How would you know if he doesn't like it, have you ever tried to do it?"
"Watari~~" The name was spoken with such rage, one that I've heard in old samurai movies, you know, when the evil shogun is speaking? The threating voice was quickly followed by the sound of loud crashing, and threats of death, or no funding for a month. Quickly flipping the next page in the file, I scan down it till I finally find what I was looking for, all the while oblivious to the extent of the chaos around me.
"I HAVE IT!!" I exclaim, yet it's not one that is attributed to relief. I had a hunch, and this might just have confirmed it... It and also what was now becoming my worst fear.
"What?" Two faces turn to me, Watari, currently can't as doing so would break his neck, that is, judging by the neck lock Tatsumi has him in. It doesn't seem to be stopping him from trying though.
"Watari," I begin, trying to fight off the desperation in my voice. "You said that their blood type was all that they had in common, right?"
"Yes," The blond tried to crane his neck ever so slightly as Tatsumi loosened his grip on the other man, but by no means let go. "The only reason it was over looked before, was because it didn't really come off as odd. Type AB blood is not rare, and the only reason that I know it's really connected, is by the translations I was able to get off the spell. The spell was designed to release a 'pureed, living, free heart' from its victims. It was specifically written to only work on type AB blood. Though, that's rather an odd thing to purposefully write into your spell, don't you think?" My head sinks down and I can only look at the picture Hisoka in the folder before me.
"I've done it again, it's my fault."
"Tsuzuki?" The scientist's voice is filled with curiosity, no doubt at my words. My chest is becoming stiff, and I can't seem to draw breath to answer him, so my next words come much quitter then I meant for them to be.
"The hospital," I begin, my brain finally catching up to me, "this area of Nagasaki only has one hospital."
"What?" I stare up to find a bewildered look on everyone's face. Yet, I can't explain right now, there's no time.
"I have an idea," I shout back at my friends as I rush to grab my coat and run out the door, my face turned from them. I can't let them see my face now, not now, when my mask is breaking with all my fear and guilt. There is only one hospital in this area of Nagasaki, the area where all the bodies were found. All the victims had to be known to have type AB blood. The blood of every patient is taken when administered to the hospital, and that's probably how the killer knew who type AB was. I quicken my pace, once I leave the lobby. I'm standing in the rain, and looking at were my car is. I blink away the drops of water that have fallen from the sky, and turn away from the car.
"I need to go faster then that..." Picking up an Ofuda from my pocket, I chant a spell, one that calls out to the spirits of wind. Unseen, they gather and swirl around me, gently picking my body off the ground, and granting me flight into the stormy night's air.
"Please," Quietly I chant to whatever god can hear me, to whatever god will take my words as though they were a spell, and infuse them with power as such, "Please, let me be wrong. Let him be okay"
Deep green eyes blinked twice, staving off the remnants of the odd dream and returning to the real world. He knew that place form whence he came; he had been there many times before. This, however, was the first time he had ever seen anyone else inside the shaded abyss. Of all people he could have seen, too, it had to be that man. Something inside Hisoka laughed at his own remark. He knew why too. He was glade to see him there, he was glad for the calm and giving emotions he had felt from him, as though he was really there with him. As though he had really placed his hand on the boys head, and tried to dispel all the pain that he was in. It brought a very soft smile to the boy's lips, though; the smile quickly became a hissing scowl, as the last of his consciousness returned to his body. He felt the pain again, with the wounds now covering the whole of his body. Red blood seeped from still fresh wounds, crimson was now puddled below him. It was always an amazement how much blood could come from one person, or at least, how much could come from him. With no strength to even move his head, Hisoka let his eyes wander the dark, damp room, searching for the one who had inflicted the pain on him, the one who had answered to 'Maria'. He found her, just to his side, as she looked to be embracing the sickly girl who had called her by that name. Hisoka understood this one, the one with the dark hair and eyes, to be 'Rina' in turn. At least, he could say, he knew the names of the ones who had killed all those other people. He had solved the case, yet he really, REALLY wished this wasn't how he had come to the knowledge.
Brief fluttering of pain rolled off the girl named Rina. Her body trembling ever so slightly inside Maria's long demon arms. Hisoka looked closer, and saw that Rina had her shirt undone, and Maria was carving runes, much like the ones she had given him, over area where the sickly girl's heart rested. Maria was taking the gentlest of care, trying to inflict as little pain as possible to the smaller girl. This didn't surprise Hisoka too much. Well, he was surprised by the fact that Maria was also carving into Rina, that wasn't expected. What didn't surprise him, though, was how Maria cradled the other girl, as gently as her dark red claws would allow, how she whispered a comforting tune to the other girl, how it pained Maria to cut her. Hisoka had known from the time when he felt into both of their souls earlier; both of them carried a strong love for each other, stronger and more pure then anyone Hisoka had ever seen before. It remained there, pulsing strongly in that demon woman, whenever she directed her attention to the dark haired girl. Yet, once away from Rina, her emotions turned volatile, very much fitting to the demon façade she bore.
"Maria, please don't. I don't want it...!" Weak words broke from the sickly girls lips. She was trying not to cry with all her might, yet a few tears leaked out at the corners of pressed lashes. Maria, however, kept on cutting, as though she had not heard her love's plea. Hisoka tried to move, yet the invisible force that had chained him down before had not dissipated in the least. Trying to focus his mind to allow him to attack with his mental abilities proved futile, his mind only growing weaker with the effort. This was the very reason he had held off on using his mental abilities to attack, he still wasn't strong enough to control or release them properly, so, in the end, it always only left him in a worse position then he started out in; His mind disjointed, and muddled. He could also become physically ill, or injure himself if he strained to attack too hard. With his body already this worse off, he knew there was no way he could attack like that, yet he still had to give it a try. He had to fight, to keep on fighting, for himself. In the end, it would always be him; he needed to survive, because he didn't know how to do anything else.
Maria finished her work on Rina, and gently laid the weaker girl down on the ground. Her cuts on Rina weren't ones that covered the body like Hisoka's did. They were centralized over her heart, and no where else. Maria buttoned up the shirt half way on the dark eyed girl, granting her some sense of modesty by covering most of her naked chest. Maria returned her attention to Hisoka, who caught a glimpse of hazel, before it was over run in a tempest of black.
"Why are you doing this?" Hisoka mustered up all his strength, as the demon approached his prone form. He soon regretted even speaking, as the small action, a hand pressed firmly to his chest, sent jolts of pain all the way down his body. The demon stared in slight annoyance at the boy, many of its thoughts ran briefly through the surface of its mind, and Hisoka caught most of them, all of which involved ideas that were in no way beneficial to the blond boy.
"I was a grand demon once," Hisoka was caught off guard slightly, with the thoughts he received, he never expected an answer. The demon's mind was full of menacing thoughts that didn't lighten even in the slightest though, remaining much as they were. "I was given a great name, and I had a place under a strong elder. However, one day, I was killed. My spirit is very resilient though," The demon came in close, her face an inch from the empath's own, gently caressing his features with a clawed hand. Hisoka quickly tried to wall up his psyche, tried to block the horrid emotions, and awful visions from his invading his mind. However, exhausted both physically and mentally, he could not keep the images of the past that were running through the creature's own mind, from taking over him, running thought him. Hisoka's eye's dilated, and he verged on blacking out again, only the pull of the demon's physical touch kept him in this world, anchoring only halfway in reality, while mentally, images of a past not his own pressed hard into his mind. The demon's words melding with the images, becoming a sort of narration for the story unfolding to him.
"It's a great book!" A young woman's voice echoed around Hisoka, "It's about God's of death who take people to the other world."
"You're lending me your manga?" another feminine voice answered the first, "I usually don't read these kind of things, but if you're going to be so pushy about it, I'll give it a try."
A raining day, a side street, and a woman with hazel eyes waving goodbye to a girl with raven hair and near black eyes, eyes which looked on at her friend with worry and care. Hisoka felt like he was watching a black and white movie from long ago. Looking at the parting friends, he could tell that they were the same age, and the young hazel eyed girl greatly resembled the demon who held him down, yet, the dark haired girl was hard for him to see at first, focusing and squinting his eyes, though it were blurred, he willed the picture to become clear for him. It wavered slightly, as it adjusted, finally becoming clear, and reveling the other girl to be a healthy Rina. Hisoka's eyes became wide in shock. While it was obvious Maria was younger now than she was in the present, the other girl, besides being healthy looking, appeared exactly the same, as though her body hadn't aged a day!
Rina stood in the rain, holding the umbrella and the book her friend had given to her, watching the other woman sprint off into the down pour that covered their world. Hisoka noticed how he could feel no emotions from the girl, nothing as she had her hand clench tightly around the umbrella; eyes focused dead center on Maria who was fading into the misting blue down pour. Finally, she turned, and started to walk in the opposite direction. Hisoka's vision could not follow her though, as he was pulled forcefully to follow the retreating form of the young Maria, who had her school briefcase over her head, trying to prevent her eyes from being clouded from the rain.
Maria rounded a corner and went down an alley. She was desperate to escape the chilling rain, and through this ally there was a short cut that she had taken often to get home. Jumping the puddles that marred the way, and dogging the trash cans that lined the ally, her mind was filled with reflections on her joy, her happiness, and more than anything her fully blossomed feelings love. She was happy at present, so many possibilities stood before her, her life was going more perfectly then she had ever dreamed it could. She had swore once a long time ago that she was not born to live a life cursed with pain, and right after that vow, she met Rina. Rina made all this happen, had turned her world around from hell, to heaven. A soft smile graced her warm features.
'It's good to feel this alive!' The school bag was held out far to her sides, as her long arms stretched, and she twirled in the rain. Letting it fall to her face, letting herself feel the drops as each one touched her skin, making her fell more alive with the tapping, cool sensation it sent through her body. Taking a light, graceful jump, Maria exited her passageway.
Maria's shoe softly tapped down onto the hard stone of the ground on the other side of the alley, and at the same moment, she was illuminated in a bright light.
Hisoka saw everything, as though the world was placed in slow motion. The sound of the rain slowed, the tapping as it hit the ground grew longer in between its loud murmurs. Maria's long, brown hair, lingered slightly as it felling down around her shoulders. Her face, still a visage of joy, slowly turned toward the direction of the light, becoming that of curiosity, and finally horror, as she saw the car to her left, as she saw it grow closer. It bore down fast, as it was nearly already on top of her. Hisoka tried to move to help, to reach out to the girl, the girl whose life flashed and reflected in her deep hazel eyes. Hisoka, though, was unable to move rooted in his spot, just inside the mouth of the alley. Suddenly, there was dark shadow that passed in the corner of Hisoka's eye, one that passed through his body as if he was a shade that haunted this dim, rain soaked world. It ran through him, and hurled straight into Maria, who was harshly knocked out of the way of the oncoming car. Maria's body crashed hardly down to the cement, rolling a few times, her arms and legs taking a brutal assault from the hard concrete before a light pole made contact with her back on the opposite side of the road, stopping her frame's swift momentum, knocking the breath from her lungs.
Hisoka suddenly found himself behind the scraped, and bloodied girl, his eyes following where her shifting vision lead; to the scene before them. Blood mixing with rain, a maroon tint in it as it streamed down the street, it source was a few feet away from the car, the body, thrown from where it had absorbed the impact of speeding metal. Hisoka's hand flew to his chest, unbidden horror shot deeply into the root of his being. The heart felt agony was not his own, yet it was so strong, it crashed into his core, filling him to the brim. Tears streamed from his eyes, tears that belonged to Maria, as she gapped, coughing, and wide eyed at the scene before her.
"No... No... No," Maria kept chanting over and over again, her voice a chilled whisper. Picking up her scrapped body, the girl stumbled to the one who had saved her, the one who lay steeped in her own blood, and the one whose dark eyes stared widely up at the clouded heavens.
"Rina...?" Maria gingerly reached down to the girl who lay there on the street, fingers brushing lightly over a face that had paled far in comparison to the deep red that flowed freely from parted lips. Maria gently brushed her fingers at those lips, lips which she knew to be warm, to bestow more warmth when touch, had already become as ice. Hazel eyes searched dark clouded ones, looking desperately for a sign, an indication that the one loved was still here, still with her.
"RINA~~~~~~~!!!" Maria flung her arms around the stilled form before her, as she saw no signal from her love. She somehow gathered the crumpled body into an embrace, one that was more fervent, more needy, then Hisoka had ever seen. He felt the girl's pain turned cries inside his mind as the emotions she had pushed into him. He could see everything in Maria's heart as if it were as wide open to him as his own. Rina was her one, her everything in this whole messed up world. She was the one who saved her from hell, brought her to heaven. She loved her, with more feeling then a heart can ever posses. She had experienced the epitome of rapture when those feelings where returned to her in kind. She NEEDED her! Every part of her being, even her very soul cried out to attest to this simple truth. Rocking back and forth, Maria sobbed and wailed as she held the most precious person in the entire world in her arms.
"My love," Rina sobbed into the mated black hair that now was stained with dark shaded crimson. "I had sworn to never leave you, so you can't do this. I swore my whole being to you, so, so you can't leave me. Please my love, my one and only, please, I swore to be with you always. You can't leave me. RINA PLEASE STAY WITH ME!!!" Desperate pleas were answered with a mouth which remained silent, the only sound being the dripping of blood, with eyes, that had no focus on any point in this world. "Rina, aren't you even going to say...something, anything? Not even a...goodbye?" With the silence, Maria turned shocked wide eyes onto the one she held, "No. Rina," The reality of the situation grew with the heaviness that encompassed the girl's heart.
"Please, it's all meaningless without you here." Maria's sobs had stopped, yet Hisoka could feel as though the girl's very soul had broken in that clam sentence. He couldn't tell if she still cried as she continued, though, for she was dripping from head to toe with the storm's down pour, one that went unseen in her eyes.
"Rina... I can't live in this world without you. I'll give up anything, everything, my body, my soul, if only you would come back to me."//
"Finally, I heard a human offering up their very being in a bargain."
// "It's all YOU'RE FAULT!!" A frantic, woman with dark hair and green eyes howled as she crossed the street toward the two girls. She wore a blue and green Chinese style dress, her heals falling heavy in determined strides as she approached the two bodies that lay strewn in the blood soaked street. Her eyes seemed crazy, full of anger. Hisoka noted the direction she approached from and found that it came from the car which had crashed into the side of one of the buildings that gadded the alley. This woman was the one who had been driving the car, yet her words were screamed, menacingly down at Maria, fear twisting firmly into her face. Maria looked shocked at the older woman, before recognition finally hit her.
"...Aunt??"
"IT'S YOU'RE FAULT!" Maria's Aunt continued, unbidden by the question, confused face before her, "I too came to Nagasaki when I was young, and I worked so hard." The woman was quickly becoming more and more hysterical with each word, her voice raising and her right hand flailing through the air. Her left hand never left its place at her side, but Maria didn't take note of this small fact, she couldn't take in anything in her current state.
"I worked to become a singer all my life, it was my dream, it's what I lived for. It's why I left my family and everyone I ever knew to come to Japan. Even yet," The older woman's eyes filled with amusement and scorn as she looked down at her young nieces, "Nothing ever came of my dream, nothing ever came of it. But you," all amusement was lost from her now, as eyes flashed with long hidden anger and hatred, "You come here, and everything is given to you so easily! It's not fair! It was my dream!!" With her last words she raised the black gun up from the hand she had let lay hang at her side before. Its aim came to fix at confused, pain stricken hazel eyes.
"Maria, I was only trying to kill you, not her," Her crazed tone turning accusingly at the young girl, "It's you're fault she's dead, not mine. Everything, everything that's gone wrong, EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT!!!!" A single shot rang clearly in the tears that fell freely from the heavens.//
"So, I grasped onto the opportunity, as soon as it presented its self."
// Hisoka's eye's pressed closed of their own volition, trying to keep the gruesome scene from scaring his memories. A sickening thud as a body fell heavily to the ground. Hisoka's eyes snapped open, beckoned by a dark evil laugh filled the air around him. Turning his face back up to the world before him, he saw Maria: alive and still wide eyed, holding a bloodied Rina, as she looked up at a dark shadowed shade that took a misty, incorporeal form before her. It laughed menacingly as its hand passed though the fallen Aunt, reaching into the woman's chest. The Shade was garbed in black tattered cloths, a hood coving its head, one which had no eyes, or even a face that shone through, to speak of.
"Do you really mean what you said?" A deep voice hissed out from underneath the black hood. Maria could only stare on dumbly at the sight before her, unable to answer or think straight in the face of so much evil.
"Tell me that you mean it," Again the dark being almost purred out it's request, "Tell me that again, let me hear the words from your lips, that you would 'give up anything, everything, my body my soul,' in exchange for life to be granted to the one you hold in your arms." His free hand gesturing over to the lifeless form of Rina, "This, I can not help you with, unless you say such words in accord to me."
Maria gasped, breaking free of her mind's stupor, as she realized that the ghostly figure before her was real, and even more so, that he also meant what he said.
Maria didn't even blink, she couldn't find the ability to do so anymore it seemed. Her eyes stayed trained on the black creature, which had saved her life, and in doing so, had killed her Aunt. Hazel eyes traveled again down to the lifeless form of her aunt, she had not even seen how he had killed her, as she herself had been bracing to die. Maria fully took in the gruesome scene that lay before her, as she slowly lifted her head up to the faceless phantom.
"You're... a demon?"
"Don't start to speak of such human notions of demons or angels!!" The black figure roared out, his tattered robes billowing like living snakes at his fury. "Don't speak of God, or Satan, right or wrong, not now. Right now –I- am the only one who is here. I am the ONLY one who was willing to answer your call. No one else cares for your misery, no one else cares if the Seer lives or dies." The Demon's free hand shot up to point its long dark clawed finger at the quaking girl. "Right now, child, your friend is DEAD, this is it, and there is nothing anyone of this world can do!" Maria's eyes flooded with tears, her arms pulling Rina's lifeless body into a tighter embrace, the act was desperate, as if by holding onto her body tightly enough, she could keep her soul from drifting off. It was impossible, as Rina's soul was nowhere to be seen in her eyes, eyes that had once seen so much more then the world around them allowed most people to see. Her eyes had once gleamed, as if she held in the mysteries of the universe in that calm gaze. Maria wanted that look to return, to dissipate the blank, empty one they now held.
"There is no one who cares if such a girl as her lives or dies," Maria turned her gaze away from the blank eyes that had held her own. The demon's anger subsided slightly, pulling its incorporeal, clenched hand from the chest of the lifeless aunt. The shade of a demon it held it clasped closed before Maria.
"I can take this, you're aunts still beating, yet soulless, heart, and with it, cast a spell that will grant your friend life once more, pulling the Seer back from the land of the dead." Dark mist rippled off of his hand, in time with the beat of the heart he held there. Hisoka could hear it's beating, pounding heavily against his head. Placing his hands up to his ears he tried to block out the sound, yet the rhythm only increased with the attempt.
"The choice is yours."
Maria's large, wide eyes fixated on the offered fist, the deal set before her. Hisoka still stood from the sidelines, looking on as it all happened before him, watching in forced silence, as Maria accepted the offer, as black energy rippled around the shade, around the heart he held inside his hand. Engrossed in wonder and horror as the energy took the essence of the heart, twisting it, and then finally shooting its power into Rina's stilled chest. Upon impact with the energies, Rina shook, and convulsed in harsh seizures. Rina's mouth dropped opened and out of it issued screams that pierced throughout the echoing reality, slicing deep into the core of this world of memories. Rina's body mended unnaturally fast, broken arms and legs righting themselves, her eyes returning a faint shimmer of life, yet the entire time, the blood chilling scream continued. It was the scream one gives when they see their worst nightmare materialized before them, one of pain, beyond the knowledge of the living.
"Rina?!?" Maria tried to hold down the violently shaking girl whose face was twisted in terror. "RINA!!" Maria pressed all of her weight onto the other girl. Finally, after sometime, her tremors lessened, and her screams stopped, only to be replaced with a light sobbing. Maria turned her eyes up to take in the sight of her friend, returned to her from the dead. Shaken at what she beheld, Maria's heart clenched as Rina was clutching her body, sobbing softly. Her eyes missing the light that they once bore so easily, now were clouded in pain, her skin, paled, almost see through, as though death had touched it. Maria ran her fingers, over her love's face and recoiled slightly as she felt the slight chill pushed into her touch.
"Rina?? W-What... WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!" Maria turned, enraged at abyssal creature before her, lunging for the shade, and passing through it, falling hard to the concert on the other side of its incorporeal form. "What have you done to Rina?!?" Maria sobbed, fury building deep within her small form, causing it to shake slightly. The demon laughed callously, as though hearing a good joke.
"Human child, I have done as promised, I have returned your friend to you," If there was a face hidden in all that darkness, Hisoka knew it must have been smiling. Proud in it's deception of a girl who was as he had said; a child. Hisoka's fists clenched at his sides, not for anger of compassion for the girls, but out of anger at the twisted game the demon played, at the way his voice smiled as he spoke so easily, while the another person's world crumpled at his hands. It was getting to him, the emotions of Maria, the human Maria, the CHILD Maria. Her innocent soul was being crushed, torn and it all was far too familiar a scene for him to bear to see it happening again, as though fate enjoyed the painful game of repetition that it loved to play on the people of this world.
"Your friend is alive, her soul is returned to her body, yet, even I am just a demon after all. I can not cast a holy resurrection spell that would return her wholly to this world. However, I cast the strongest resurrection spell in all necromancy, allowing life where death once ruled, pulling the soul into its former shell, yet, it can not pull all of the soul in. With its limited power in such areas, the body will remain close to as it was when death claimed it; the pain of death, will always haunt her." Maria remained as she had landed, on her knees with her hands clenched tightly into fists on the cold hard ground. Nails pressing into flesh, pooling blood that slowly seeped from her self inflicted wounds, Her body trembled, racked with burning hot tears. "It does have a benefit though," The shade moved toward the shaking girl, his robes shifting weightlessly around his form, "Something the holy resurrection spell lacks, for you see," the demon leaned in close to Maria, whimpering into her ear, "Those who are to receive THIS resurrection, will not die so easily as humans do, nor will their bodies age a single day. Your Seer will live on, forever, with you."
A black hand pressed down onto Maria's back, and her mouth fell in a scream of pain as black energies pushed into her body from the contact.
"The contract has been fulfilled," A sneering voice laughed at Maria, who collapsed forward onto the wet ground. The demon's body became as dark mist, as the turbulent purple energies wrapped around the girls body, the black mist entering her body through her eyes and mouth. Maria's beautiful hazel eyes clouded over with tempest black, and her face, which was a second ago, a mask of pain, now twisted into a sickening smile. Once the shade had completely entered her body, and the thrashing hued forces died away, Maria pushed her self up off the ground, and turned her now black clouded eyes over to the sky above. Water poured over her face, and down her neck, it seemed as though heaven its self was crying for the girl, who gave up everything, everything she had and was, to this deceitful demon.
"A body, for my very own," Casting the inky eyes toward the sound of consistent sobbing, the smile faded slightly, and hazel shone ever so lightly under the shades of black.
'I will find a way, a way to make her whole,' a voice echoed deeply with the body that moved under the foreigner's will.
"You're able to resist?" The shade's voice announced in shock through the girl's own lips.//
"It was the first time I ever cast such a spell."
//"How?" Suddenly a great hacking cough broke through the demons thoughts. Turning Maria's head, he cast his eyes down onto the girl who still held a prone position on the rain drenched ground. The black eyes watched, in slight horror as blood burst from the straining mouth. "It can't be..." The demon ran over to the girl's body, turning her onto her back, and pacing Maria's hand, HIS hand, onto her chest, just above her new heart. Hisoka moved in, trying to focus on the scene before him, yet the closer he tried to get, the more unfocused and distant the world became.
"No..."//
"The spell I cast was flawed. The heart was not taking properly, so the spell is only just keeping her body alive. I was not aware that it required someone with the same blood. My contract," the demons words became clearer, as the shadowed world of Maria's memories faded, and the demon's hand let go of the boy, "was left partially unfilled, and as such, I have to bear sharing this body with that girl."
Hisoka's eyes focused in on the ground around him, noticing a change in the blood that had pooled on the ground. Squinting his eyes, he strained to see just what was different. Eyes became wide with terror as he took in the scene before him: He was lying in the magic circle drawn from his own blood, just like the ones he had seen in the crime photos. Casting his shaken eyes around the room, his focus on this world going in and out between shadows. Maria, no, the demon that possessed her body had pulled back away from him, seeming to admire his handy work. Letting his head fall to its side, Hisoka saw the prone and pale form of Rina, only the slight shaking of her body showing any sign that she was alive.
"You're wrong...."
"What?" Black swirling tempests narrowed on the bleeding boy who lay before the fiend. He was trying to fight off the binding spell that held him down again, and again, he failed.
"You're wrong, my heart..." Hisoka turned only his eyes to glare at the demon, as he had no strength left to even turn his head. His body felt like it was covered in ice, and gravity was trying to push him through the earth it's self. Even the words he had meant to say, somehow become a hazy inpalatripale thought, dieing in the back of his throat. A dark curtain was falling over his thoughts and mind. The demon saw the light flickering in the boy's emerald eyes, a slow smile creeping to its face.
"No..." a firm command followed by a sudden movement, and a blood soaked hand covered the boys face. "I can't let you fall away into the dark sleep just yet... I need your heart; I need your soulless heart." The contact of the possessed girl's flesh against his skin knocked Hisoka out of his muddled thoughts. It felt like the demon was melting into him, spreading thought his body. Every muscle tensed, every hair standing on end. He felt as though the essence of the demon was encompassing his eyes, his mind, his heart.
The demon's energies wrapped around and in the boy, constantly moving, searching for something that was hidden in him. Finally they stopped and concentrated, finding what it was looking for, deep within his heart. The energies caressed it gently, as though trying to awaken it, old memory, or feeling, that was hidden deep within him. Slowly the emotion rose to the fore front of his mind, it was just like what he felt when he was in the alley the first time, when the dead woman's emotions had taken over him.
It was that same fear!
........................... To Be Continued
Author's lil' note section
This is actually the second loading of the chapter, noticed a few stupid mistakes when I re-read it again, sry!
Ahhh, okay so this is the chapter when I will end the Maria/Rina case, I had had the initial ending for the case planned out, but two things happened. First, the chapter started to become FAR longer then I had intended. Second, the ending has been, uuh... well I thinking about changing how I planned the case ending, it's going to be one of two, but.... Ahhh well I'll decide shortly, can't give any hints now can I? ;P
Noticing how sad this story is going, kinda depressing.
For this chapter I get to tie in a lot of the lose ends AND start setting up some more things that wrap into the main plot.... Damn plot's starting to get fun.
Well that's it for part A, part B is already started. I'll try and update with the new chapter as soon as I can.... Later tonight...? Well here's hoping
So, just what do you think so far? Good, bad, ugly? I really appreciate the time you all have taken to read and follow this story, thank you so much
Arigato Gozaimasu!!