Chapter 3:
Satoshi now stood by the couch over Daisuke who was still fast asleep; he was so beautiful lying there…innocent and peaceful. Satoshi wanted nothing more then to spend all day staring at that sweet face…but he couldn't, he knew that as long as whatever escaped from the shadow world still roamed free Daisuke was in danger and before he had said he'd do anything to protect him.
Krad had only returned control over to him an hour or so ago, just as noon or so rolled around. Unfortunately, this marked one less day in which to seek out the cursed magic. He wanted to tell Daisuke everything, he hated to keep secrets from him, and in fact Daisuke was the only person on earth he didn't keep a thing from! And now he was with holding the truth about what had happened when he tried and failed to seal that painting. He wondered if maybe Krad had at least said something to Dark last night so that he and Daisuke wouldn't worry to much…for Krad had told him that he and Dark talked for a bit last night…but was very vague on the details.
Krad he could tell was also exhausted, he had after all been in control nearly all night last night and the night before. Flying around and using up most of his magic to see if he could locate whatever left that painting…but with no luck. However, they could tell that whatever it was never left the city, so it narrowed the search area a bit.
"Soon Daisuke…this will all be over…" Satoshi promised to the sleeping boy. He wanted so badly to stay and maybe even plant a kiss on him in his sleep…but Satoshi wanted Daisuke to be awake if he ever kissed him.
Slowly and hesitantly he left a note on the table beside the couch and left through the door leaving Daisuke alone again to continue the search.
"Hn…" Daisuke moaned as his large crimson eyes opened slowly. It must have been hours after Satoshi left, for the sun was now getting ready to set.
Slowly Daisuke sat himself up and shuck his head to wake himself up fully. Once he was confident that he was no longer asleep he looked at his surroundings, he was still in Satoshi's apartment? Then the memory struck him, after school he'd gone to Satoshi's place to see why he didn't show up for school and to see how sealing the painting went…but Satoshi wasn't home and he sat down on the couch for a moment then…Oh God! He must have fallen asleep while waiting for Satoshi!
Quickly Daisuke jumped to his feet, he wasn't sure what time it was but he was confident he'd missed the train to school, or school all together for that matter. Oh this was a disaster, he didn't even call his mom to tell her where he was! Then a piece of white paper caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He slowly reached down and picked it up…it was from Satoshi!
"Dear Daisuke," Daisuke began to read, "I thank you for coming by to check on me last night…but you don't need to worry about me. I won't be at school for a while due to some business that I have to take care of immediately. Not need to worry or be alarmed. Sincerely, Satoshi Hiwatari…and P.S. please try to keep Dark out of trouble in my absents if you know what I mean."
Business? What in the world could Satoshi be up to? And absents…does this mean he'll be out of town? No, it can't be, he'd never do that without telling Daisuke where he was going…something was wrong.
"Dark, hey Dark!" Daisuke called out.
Dark should have been asleep…but he wasn't. Daisuke could feel that he was to worry about something to sleep, though it seemed he was exhausted. Dark sighed, 'Yes, Daisuke?'
"Dark…you heard what Satoshi wrote here right? What in the world is going on?" Daisuke asked worriedly.
Dark remained silent for a long while.
"Dark answer me please! You know something don't you…please tell me!" Daisuke pleaded.
Dark remained quiet for a while, but he knew he had to tell Daisuke something to put him mind at ease…though Dark's wasn't either, 'Daisuke…uh…you shouldn't worry. Where ever Satoshi is he'll be fine. Remember he has Krad with him…' Dark said reassuringly.
"No Dark! You're worried about them too…did Satoshi tell you something last night?" Daisuke demanded.
'No…I didn't talk to Satoshi last night…' Dark began finally deciding that it would be best if he told Daisuke the truth, 'I separated from you for a while last night…as much as my magic would allow me at least…and I spoke with Krad.'
"And…what did he say…nothings wrong right?" Daisuke asked.
Dark remained silent again before continuing, 'Not really Dai-chan…' Dark replied, 'Satoshi and Krad couldn't seal the painting…whatever escaped from there must be extremely powerful, because not even Krad's magic could find it. They've gone out again searching for it…'
"Dark!" Daisuke exclaimed in shock that he wasn't told sooner, "Dark we have to help them!"
'No Daisuke…' Dark said in a firm tone much to Daisuke's surprise, 'I…I promised Krad we wouldn't interfere unless he asked us to.'
Daisuke stood there in shock, "Dark, why would you promise such a thing?" Daisuke nearly shouted in his head.
'…' Dark didn't want to explain it, 'Daisuke…you wouldn't understand…'
"I wouldn't understand?" Daisuke yelled, he'd never been so mad at Dark before, "Dark, you care about Krad don't you? You want to help him don't you? You don't want to see him get hurt do you?" Daisuke demanded.
'Of course I care about him, and of course I want to help him, and I never want to see him get hurt! But I promised him I wouldn't interfere!' Dark yelled in a rage.
Daisuke didn't say another word. He grabbed his school bag and ran out the door and down the stairs onto the sidewalk outside and took off towards the direction of his house.
'Woah! Daisuke where are you going!' Dark yelled as Daisuke continued to run.
"I'm going home to get some supplies!" Daisuke said as he took a sharp turn around the corner.
'What!' Dark demanded, 'And what may I ask do you plan to do once you've accomplished this?'
"You may have promised not to help, but I didn't!" Daisuke said and was nearly half the way there now.
'Daisuke this is crazy! I know you're worried about them and damn it I am too!' Dark yelled, 'But this is not the way to go about it!'
"Tonight I'm going to steal the 'Ein Fenster Nach die Vergangenheit'!" Daisuke said much to Dark's amazement.
'Daisuke I already told you I wasn't going to break my promise! Daisuke are you listening to me?' Dark shouted.
"Who said you were going to be the one stealing it? I'll get that painting even if it means I have to steal it myself! They might not have been able to seal the painting but maybe we can! Don't you want to at least try?" Daisuke asked accusingly to Dark for not thinking of this sooner.
'Daisuke you don't know what you're doing!' Dark yelled.
Daisuke wasn't listening to him any more and just kept running. His mind was made up, and not even Dark was going to change it. And to make sure Dark wasn't going to try a forceful take over, Daisuke quickly locked Dark away in his mind so that he wouldn't get out and stop Daisuke on his mission. He was going to help Satoshi in any way possible, with or without Dark's help.
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Another dead end. After spending nearly all morning in the achieves beneath the state library, searching through the histories of the ancient and prized Hikari art. Satoshi had decided that he should at least know what kind of magic was used to make the painting, for it was the magic itself that escaped…but he could find nothing so far. Searching under the name of the painting itself was proving to be fruitless and a major headache.
"Krad…weren't you around at the time this painting was made?" Satoshi asked becoming desperate for at least some information.
'Even if I was I wouldn't remember…' Krad replied and then suddenly his tone turned bitter, 'your family didn't exactly let me out of my cage very often…' He growled referring to the fact that he was kept under very close watch back then.
Satoshi remained silent for a while, he was sort of aware of what his ancestors did to Krad back then, he supposed it was the reason for his cruel nature, and even that was slowly changing…at least they had civil conversations now.
Krad sighed and calmed himself down; it wasn't Satoshi's fault for what happened in the past so he dropped it, 'Why not try searching for the artist instead of the art work?'
Satoshi looked up, he hadn't thought of that. He'd supposed that it was the artwork itself that had the powers…not the artist. He felt stupid for not thinking of it before…but maybe it was his lack of sleep and food that made his mind so slow and he quickly turned to the huge and ancient books he'd found on the Hikari family and their art work.
"Here it is…Ishoto Hikari," Satoshi said beginning to read, "A prominent painter of the Hikari family during the medieval century. Most of his paintings specialized in…illusions…causing the viewer of each work to be looking at something different then one another…" Satoshi stopped and looked up remembering what the picture looked like, "Wait…is that why…only Daisuke and I saw the clock in the painting?" He asked aloud.
'Your other classmates saw something different in the painting when they all looked at it…" Krad replied following Satoshi's train of thought.
"But what kind of magic is that?" Satoshi asked reading down more of the pages with only pictures of some of Ishoto Hikari's work.
Each one seemed stranger then the last…none of them seemed to have a certain theme at all…like…
'Like he couldn't make up his mind on the painting's identity…' Krad said reading Satoshi's mind.
"So…his paintings never truly had an…identity?" Satoshi asked, "Maybe… that's why the world beyond the painting we were pulled into…took our identities instead of ones of it's own. It would explain why Zanus looked like me…and Adel looking like Daisuke…" When Satoshi said Daisuke's name, he began to wonder how the young Niwa was doing and if he really believed the letter he'd written to him before he left this morning. And quickly Krad's voice brought him out of that train of thought.
'So that's why the world transformed into a shadowed world…based off of Dark and my memories…' Krad said deep in thought.
"Wait…" Satoshi said thinking back to something Zanus had said to him in Galseran…when they had first met.
"You entered this world through a painting correct?"
Satoshi stared at the sorcerer confused, "How did you know?"
"Because...unless someone enters that painting...this world doesn't exist..." He said, "You created this world...your memories...your emotions...your fears, they triggered the defense mechanism of this painting..."
"Defense mechanism?" Satoshi asked.
"The painting holds enormous amounts of magic...so powerful that it could cause great danger to the world of the light...your world...however...this energy has been sealed for centuries..." The sorcerer continued. "Let me explain how this works...when one with a vast amount of magic energy comes into contact with the painting, the person's soul and consciousness are transported into a world opposite their own, in this case, everyone you ever knew and every thing you ever loved is changed into the complete opposite of what they once were. Yet the inhabitance of this new world will have a complete memory and history of it's own...for instance, this war between Galseran and Madria that has been raging for two hundred years...has only lasted since you first entered the painting..." He replied, "But you were never suppose to be here..."
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"Our memories, emotions, and fears created that world…the magic of the painting had the power to bring them to life and created a world around it and us…but now that the world was sealed and has been destroyed, I doubt it will be able to create another world like that again…" Satoshi said thinking aloud.
'Then the power of the painting's magic…is to take the memories of others and…make them tangible?' Krad asked trying to make sense of this new information.
Suddenly a thought struck Satoshi, "No…it has the power to take people's memories and give itself…an identity." Satoshi said looking at the countless pictures of the paintings, "Don't you see? None of them have a true identity of their own, and only through other's memories can it have one!"
'That might be why my spells weren't working…I was tracking for something a signature of some kind…but without an identity it would explain a lot.' Krad replied.
Suddenly Satoshi's hand began to throb, the same hand he had touched the painting with the night before. Then he thought about the strange sting he'd felt from the contact with the surface of the canvas…wait…
"Krad...how far do you think it could have gotten…without an identity to inhabit?" Satoshi asked curiously.
'Hmph…not far at all I'd think…magic on it's own is unstable without a form to channel through…' The angel replied.
Satoshi thought about it a moment still rubbing his sore hand gently…Then it all made sense, the thing they'd been searching for all this time never left the museum. "Krad, it never left the painting!" Satoshi exclaimed leaping to his feet.
'What? I sensed no presences there at all.' Krad said confused.
"No! The string, that shock I felt from the canvas when I touched it…I didn't feel it until I thought of Adel and Zanus. It may have escaped the destruction of the world, but it's still within that canvas." Satoshi said closing the book quickly.
'Then…it reacted to your memory of…wait…' Krad began quickly, 'You mean it can now take on the form of your other self and the Niwa's?'
"Damn! We have to get back to the museum, how could I have been so stupid? I felt the demon's presence there, why didn't I see this before?" He yelled and quickly ran out of the room.
'Satoshi, on foot it'll take up at least forty five minutes to get there…let me take over.' Krad said preparing for a take over when he felt Satoshi lock the only way Krad had of getting out of his mind.
"No, it's to risky of someone seeing you…and since Daisuke and Dark don't know about it we won't have to worry about them showing up right? So it's not a necessity to use flight." Satoshi said forwarding the most logical approach.
Krad didn't argue with him nor did he fight to gain control of his Tamer. But he had a feeling that something wasn't right about this, he felt as though it was of all urgency that they get the that painting fast… before someone else did.
Notes from the Author:
Alrighty then! Daisuke has finally gotten himself the courage to go solo on a theft against Dark's wishes! We've answered the question of what kind of powers this painting had and that Zanus had warned Satoshi of it before! We also now know how dangerous this demon of the painting really is, we can assume that Daisuke's in for it unless Satoshi can get there in time. So will he, or will the red hair phantom thief make it there first? MORE CLIFFY GOODNESS! XD Sorry guys, I have a habit of doing that… sweat drop but I'll do my best to update soon! Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments! Wow…I have fans! cries insanely and deeply touched Till next time, c-ya later and enjoy the story!