One Light in the Dark

He was furious as he burst into Tatsumi's office. "You killed him, didn't you?"

Tatsumi had started to rise at the sound of the door banging open, but he paused and stared at Hisoka. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"That day I saw you in the hospital," Hisoka accused him. "Now that I know you're a shinigami, what else would you have been there for? You were assigned to kill him!"

Tatsumi straightened after a moment, pushing up his glasses in a gesture that seemed to return his composure. "If I had been assigned to kill Tsuzuki-san that day, Kurosaki-kun, he would have died."

"So who killed him, then?" Hisoka demanded angrily. Anger was safer than other things he might feel if he let himself.

All that time he'd spent talking to these people, filling out stupid paperwork, waiting to learn how to go back - and when he finally got the chance, all he found was a room, empty aside from painful emotional residue. A quick walk around the ward had confirmed that his suspicions were correct.

"...He killed himself," Tatsumi said emphatically. "Knowing what you did of him, why would you think otherwise?"

Because Hisoka didn't want to believe it. He had asked Tsuzuki to live; as far as he could tell, it had been more or less his dying wish. And Tsuzuki was his friend - it would have been less painful if someone had killed him despite his best efforts, instead of going against Hisoka's wishes like that.

Hisoka was so distraught by the realization that Tatsumi's sadness barely registered, except that he hadn't expected it. "Kurosaki-kun, his time had passed long ago. His case had been passed from shinigami to shinigami for years - it would be a simple matter for a new shinigami to begin with, taking the life of a comatose man when that flame finally flickered out. But Tsuzuki-san was... no ordinary man. His flame continued to burn, even when there was nothing left." The tone of Tatsumi's voice, and the subtle shadings of emotions, made Hisoka look up; he got the strong impression that this "flame" was not the only thing that had made Tsuzuki extraordinary to Tatsumi.

In a way, it made Hisoka relax to realize that Tatsumi apparently understood. "...Then why is he dead now?"

"I can only assume," Tatsumi began, "that he finally died because he wanted to die more than he ever had before. Whatever inner power kept him alive all this time was turned upon himself, perhaps."

Echoes of the old rumors flooded Hisoka's troubled imagination. Words like monster, demon, inhuman...

Hisoka didn't care a bit, and he looked up at Tatsumi defiantly, putting two and two together. "Tsuzuki was the assignment that Konoe-kachou suggested, that he said was cancelled, wasn't he?"

"Yes," Tatsumi confirmed. "...I hadn't told him the name of the boy I'd spoken to at the hospital, so he didn't know you were connected to Tsuzuki-san. For that, I apologize."

Hisoka shook his head - that wasn't it at all. Something else had just occurred to Hisoka as well. "People who commit suicide are sent to hell, aren't they? That's what kachou said in training."

"Yes, or they're simply not permitted to reincarnate - and that is the way things are," Tatsumi stated firmly.

"It wasn't his fault!" Hisoka exclaimed, furious. "If you'd seen inside his mind - if you saw how much pain he was in, you'd understand why he did it!" The words had only just left his lips when he realized he'd forgiven Tsuzuki.

Fortunately, he still had plenty to be angry about; Tatsumi refused to budge in his stance. "I'm sure they'll take everything into consideration. You did an admirable job trying to prevent that fate for Tsuzuki-san, but the matter is beyond your control now."

"We'll see about that." Tatsumi's words had nearly confirmed what Hisoka had been wondering about. "He hasn't been brought to judgment yet, has he?"

"It usually takes longer than that, with a case like..." Tatsumi realized what Hisoka was getting at mid-sentence, and stopped dead. "Kurosaki-kun, your job is only to bring souls for judgment. That is all."

"This has nothing to do with the job."

Tatsumi nearly gaped after him as Hisoka turned to leave the office. "Kurosaki-kun! You can't interfere with the process once your task is completed!"

"Yeah? Watch me." The door nearly slammed behind him.

Enma was not pleased. The man before him was on his knees, crying and pleading - but for once, he wasn't pleading for mercy. Rather, just the opposite.

"I don't want to stay here and work for you, I don't want a new body!" The words spilled out from him like a flood. "I'm sure, absolutely sure!"

"...You do realize that my judgment can be... harsh." Enma's tone was threatening.

"I deserve it, I deserve the worst," the man confessed. "I couldn't help... I couldn't help anyone, all I could do was hurt people, people got hurt because I exist, I don't want to exist anymore..."

Enma sighed as the man broke down sobbing again. He'd had his eye on this one for quite some time, waiting... His case was messier than the vast majority of people to be judged - a prime candidate for staying on. And that, of course, was all as Enma would have it; Tsuzuki Asato was so captivating that he'd intended to keep him ever since the man had come to his attention. Tsuzuki had therefore been offered every deal that could be offered to a dead man's soul.

Yet he'd turned each one of them down, truly believing he was unable to be redeemed. Free will among mortals was often a nuisance.

"So what you crave is oblivion...?"

Tsuzuki nodded, wiping the sleeve of the hospital's yukata across his eyes and visibly relaxing at the hope that his wish might be granted. "Yeah... yes," he murmured, exhausted. "I've lived for too long... seen too much... done too much. I'm tired... there's no one left who cares what happens to me - the last one is gone now..."

"Tsuzuki! You idiot!"

Tsuzuki cringed as he and Enma alike both looked up in surprise at the outburst, and the sound of the door at the other end of the room banging open. Enma's eyes narrowed in indignance; Tsuzuki's widened in disbelief. "Hi... Hisoka...?"

It nearly broke Hisoka, hearing his name from Tsuzuki for the first time. Hearing Tsuzuki's voice for the first time - clearly, not even hoarse from years of not speaking. It was almost enough to make him forget his anger as he stalked across the room to where Tsuzuki knelt. Almost, but not quite.

"You have no idea, do you? I asked you to live, Tsuzuki - and despite all the misery and abuse and everything else, I stayed here instead of moving on so I could make sure you did live!"

He was standing over Tsuzuki now, trying to glare down at him, but seeing those familiar violet eyes looking up at him - really looking at him and seeing him, dark and wet like that first time he'd caught a glimpse of them as Tsuzuki was rushed past - was ruining all his efforts to keep his stare cold and his anger hot.

"And then you had to go and... and do that... and now you're even trying to get out of..." Hisoka's angry shout trailed off into a sob as he fell into Tsuzuki's arms.

It was nearly overwhelming, having Tsuzuki holding him in a physical sense - being surrounded by not just his painful emotions, but his arms too, much stronger and firmer than he'd have expected them to be after a lengthy period of being bedridden. Or maybe he just didn't remember what it was like to be held at all.

Despite his shock and his guilt over the accusations, Tsuzuki felt glad to be holding him, and now Hisoka could feel the warmth and conscious gratitude that he'd before felt only dimly. He could feel reaction, too, to his own relief and anxiety and determination as they flowed the opposite way through their empathic bond. Tsuzuki could tell that Hisoka was serious, even though he couldn't understand why.

"Why... why are you doing this...?" he asked brokenly. "...You... don't even know me."

"I know you better than anyone else," Hisoka muttered, in what would have been a fierce growl if his throat wasn't too tight to allow it. "Even if we've never spoken in words before, I felt all the things you kept hidden inside - I know you."

Tsuzuki paused for a long time, deliberating, and when he spoke again, his words weren't to Hisoka. "...Am I still allowed to stay?"

Smugness broke through Enma's annoyance with the ridiculous mortals. "If you agree to the conditions I informed you of earlier... then yes."

Tsuzuki nodded very slightly, and this time spoke to Hisoka. "I'll stay," he murmured into Hisoka's shoulder, holding him tighter.

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...And that is that! Yes, I know it's short - but hey, it was based on a drabble series. For the record, according to the word processor I used, each chapter has an exact multiple of 100 words.
Thanks much for all the kind reviews - I may write more in this alternate universe, but who knows? The little tiny story I felt compelled to tell ended here, and I've got other weird ideas for this new fandom of mine...