Touda was not improving and Tenkuu had kept herself present in the room where the fire shikigami was fighting to live. The Palace's feelings about Touda were split. One side of her hated him for what he had done, for killing thousands, for taking lives and leaving widows, widowers and orphans or taking whole families. Another side now knew the truth and it was trying to adjust to the new facts.
She sighed softly, the sigh translating into a minute shiver of the ancient stones. Tenkuu still didn't feel very good about one thing that Touda was so closely, intimately linked to their master. Touda was a lethal creature, dangerous and able to take down all of them should he ever lose it again. Tenkuu, while she loved Tsuzuki and knew he was powerful, doubted that the young shinigami would be able to truly keep him in check should he ever completely flip once more.
He was a killer, a murderer. Tenkuu had accused him of being unable to differentiate between friend or foe when in battle rage, and she knew it was right. It was what had made him go berserk and kill thousands of souls.
Touda had never denied it.
She believed that eliminating him would save them all in the future from what Tenkuu was convinced was only a matter of time until he lost control once more. The visor, while not to her complete satisfaction, had been a measure of control. Now it was gone.
He had once almost killed Tsuzuki while wearing it in the past though Tenkuu knew that it had been by Tsuzuki's orders. Still... like Suzaku she had been furious when she had heard about it. Touda had been her prisoner, had been meant to serve his life sentence, which meant eternity, and not ever be freed.
Tsuzuki had freed him.
Tsuzuki was his master, like he was for all of them.
Tsuzuki was the only one Touda was completely, unshakably loyal, too.
'I will never betray him.' The words echoed through the Palace's mind. 'Never. Even if all of you are my enemies. I live by his will.'
His words had been serious, true... deep. Touda wasn't lying. He didn't talk much, but he wasn't lying.
Both were now connected, both were dependent on each other... and the serpent loved him. There was no denying the protectiveness, the fierce way he defended the shinigami. They would all die for Tsuzuki...
There was no reason to think he would ever hurt him, but currently he was. Touda was dying and taking Tsuzuki with him. He was comatose, he was weakening, and Rikugo couldn't stop the downhill process.
The serpent was killing their master; not through force, but because of some kind of infection...
° ° °
Byakko was a constant in the room now, never leaving it any longer than a call of nature took. He sat with his unconscious lover, talked to him, touched him, did everything to get a reaction, but that had long since been fruitless. Touda was comatose.
There was a brief surge of energy and Byakko looked over to the opposite side of the bed. Rikugo hadn't moved in a long time. His hands either rested on Touda's chest or the arm closest to him, frequently injecting energy into the feverish, sick man. Each time it was more. Small amounts, growing larger and larger, and by now it was enough to have Byakko worried for Rikugo as well.
Water in a hot desert, someone had said. Whatever Rikugo did, Touda soaked in the energy and soon needed more because it was evaporating faster and faster. The blond shikigami looked bad, had started to look bad a few hours ago. His skin was paler than normal, the tendons standing out against his neck whenever the energy was injected, and his usually blood red, second eyes had taken on a glazed, dull sheen.
"Rikugo," Byakko murmured. "Stop doing this."
Onyx eyes opened, just as dull as the second set. "I can't, Byakko," was the raspy answer. "If I stop, he will die for sure. I can't let that happen as long as there's a chance."
The tiger understood. He didn't want Touda to die. The very thought had him close to hysterics and a nervous breakdown, but Rikugo was committing suicide in steps.
Still, he relented, kept his quiet, and sat guard over two now.
° ° °
Tatsumi walked into the lab, carrying a sandwich and a piece of apple pie. Watari was whirling around his lab, sliding over the slick floor with his chair as he rolled from one table to the other, typing, reading, pulling print-outs from his printer. Tatsumi watched his lover, blond hair slightly undone, glasses perched haphazardly on his nose, and he smiled.
Watari in action.
As he closed the door, his lover looked up, beaming at him.
"Hey! Right on time!"
"Really?"
Tatsumi held out the sandwich and Watari grabbed it as he rolled past, taking a bite.
"Yesh," he mumbled around the lettuce and ham, with a hint of tomato. He waved Tatsumi over. "The results should be ready just about- now."
Watari glanced at his computer screen where the results of his analysis were starting to display and started to read. Tatsumi watched breathlessly how his lover scanned the results and then stopped, blinking in obvious confusion and disbelief. The sandwich was placed onto the plate, forgotten.
"'Taka?" he queried.
"This is... nearly impossible," he croaked, staring at the monitor, "but, well, given the fact that GensouKai is part of a virtual reality...
"What is it?"
"It's a computer virus."
"What?" Tatsumi exclaimed.
"Yes, I know! It's the same virus that infected my computer! I recognize the algorithms!"
"Are you sure?"
Watari gave him an offended look. "Seii, I didn't hear this. Of course I'm sure! A virus is made up out of replication strings. This baby here has them by the ton! Viruses reproduce. They enter a host, latch onto a cell, and they make more of themselves. It's their whole purpose in life- more and more and more.
"How is that possible?" Tatsumi demanded. "Touda's a shikigami and your computer is a machine!"
"The only explanation I can think of is the internet connection I had with Touda throughout the creation of Terazuma's dimension device. That was when I caught mine, maybe it got transmitted to Touda that way."
"But Touda is... "
"...a shikigami, I know." Watari shrugged. "GensouKai is a virtual world inside the Net, so it's possible that a virus gets through. Touda's a regular, maybe the only one, going in so deep, becoming part of that network. He might have caught in that way. If I had a better explanation I'd give it but these don't lie." He pointed toward the screen. "It's the same virus. All the algorithms are the same. And I think we could very well presume it's following the same rules."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning the virus that contaminated my computer started out by simply duplicating itself, causing some minor irritations like screwing up my monitor display. If I hadn't stopped it, it would have spread to the CPU itself, contaminating and destroying sector by sector."
Tatsumi felt his mind firing up. "Touda has contracted a computer virus and it's destroying him layer by layer?"
"Yes!"
"Can we counter it somehow?"
Watari grinned triumphantly. "Yep! All I have to do is change some algorithms in my anti-virus and voila!"
"Do it."
"On it, Seii."
And Watari was, typing madly away.
tbc...