Disclaimer: Isn't it obvious? YnM is a work of Matsushita-san… -o-" And I was hoping I could torture them….

A/N: Okay, this story was reposted due to the fact the chapter I put up was a total mess! –o-" Sorry for that… I hope this one will turn out just fine… (or it might suck again… hopefully not...) Enough with my notes and here's the chapter!

Legend:

------- means that it's still the same speaker

the divider means that the POV has been shifted to another person

Chapter1: Shuffle

It has been a year since the aura of Enma-chou changed. The secretary no longer speaks with his co-workers excluding about case files and paperwork, the vibrant scientist locks himself up in his lab, looking for a spell of resurrection, the chief seemingly unfolds his case files over and over which will occasionally stop at the violet-eyed shinigami, which he'll stare and muffle his weakening voice at. The rest of the employees in the department have lost their spirits in working, all wearing gloomy faces. But the worst part is, I have not been in myself lately, ever since the flames of Touda engulfed my partner.

I still remember vividly the summoning of Touda; I just watch over the older shinigami bearing a teary-eyed face. He was wishing that the flames would burn him right away; that his existence would vanish forever. I wanted to engage in the crimson fire and save him but Tatsumi's words, that we should let Tsuzuki do what he wants, pierced through me. As I have looked in his eyes that day, he was determined to make Tsuzuki's secretary and raised my balled fists, punching his face and inflicting severe wish prevail, for he, himself, couldn't stop the top shinigami. Even though I pursued my will, those grubby hands stretched out to restrain me and allowed Tsuzuki to burn into ashes. The view of the building and my consciousness fades together, letting the amethyst-eyed shinigami's images shattered into pieces, unable to be reformed again. As I have awoken after my vital fall, I had thought about the events and rushed to Tsuzuki without a word to the other two. Then my world collapsed. His crumpled form has given sign that he had vanished forever. I continuously said his name, hoping that he would respond. Tatsumi and Watari came towards me and sadly watched my figure. I took a glimpse upon the damage on Tatsumi. Watari had charged over the guy and yelled at me, defending the secretary but I just shook off his insignificant words because I didn't care about them; because only Tsuzuki mattered to me. Soon, hatred filled me. Gathering up as much energy, I closed myself from others and made an indestructible shield, not letting any thoughts of theirs and other people enter my mind. I stared at Tsuzuki; his body has been burnt badly but those pair of amethyst eyes still glimmered. I felt my arms moved automatically and shoved my partner off the ground, carrying him within my embrace. Then, I teleported back to Meifu… My heart had closed its gates to the entire world…

Still, all my nightmares represented Tsuzuki's images, of what I had experienced with him, his absolute love for sweets and that goofy, irritating smile that kept reappearing in my mind. Often, I clutch the nearest pillow in my bed at night and imagined that I was holding Tsuzuki. To my despair, all the tears I had shed could not bring him back to life, to me. I just wandered on with my thoughts of him and forget the world little by little.

Seeing that my other comrades still have concern about me, they try to comfort me, especially Wakaba-san, who consistently brings food and the overdue paperwork at my apartment. I am grateful to her but I find it more hurtful, noticing that all those gestures only reminded me of that violet-eyed man. A week later, those deeds faded because she had given me the time to be alone.

I wished that the world would embrace me once again with Tsuzuki by my side. I can't continue on without him. I feel weak…Lifeless…

I saw Bon just now, whimpering inside the office. God, why did you make him suffer like this? But to think of it, it was basically Tatsumi… no, our fault. If I hadn't stopped him from going into the flames, then maybe he can save our humorous shinigami. My topaz eyes just constantly stared at him with awe until an idea sparked inside my mind. Maybe assigning him a new partner would do him good. But as I avert my bronze-like eyes to his emerald ones, I disregarded that idea. It might cause him to agonize more. I just shook my head and walked towards my lab.

There, I sat helplessly, thinking of a way to brighten him up or in other words, to remove my debt from being unable to make him the rescue force of Tsuzuki. I blinked then shut my eyes tightly. Then I thought, why just give him a new task to pursue? But what? What would be suitable? I ended up searching all the case files Kachou had lent me to reorganize and noticed a familiar client of ours. This person might be the answer, I said to myself, raising a smug.

I awoke from another terrible nightmare, another dream of Tsuzuki, that event in Touda's fire. I felt sick and weakened from waking up. From my current sitting position, I raised myself up by shuffling my feet and placing them on the ground firmly. Just as I got near the door, some annoying guy banged it and opened the door forcefully. Unfortunately, I was hit on the forehead because of the impact he had put to push the door. I stumbled down the floor and landed on my bottom.

Just as I reopened my green-hued eyes, a silhouette appeared before me. Then I noticed the other characteristics as well. The guy had a blue-dyed hair, wearing a green polo with a tie of some sort and light brown pants. He was panting; his fist was clutching his knee and the other hand held onto the door; his body was in a bent position.

It was Terazuma, the most irritating guy in our branch.

All of the sudden he spoke, "Hey kid, the chief needs you right now!" in a shouting manner. I was still recovering from the fall but still, I gave him the infamous glare in return, "I'm not in the mood to do cases. Plus, you haven't even said sorry yet" and I got up, pushing him out of the way. He replied to my gestured, "Well, I'm not in the mood to say sorry too" and grunted. I just glared at him all the way but ended up meeting Kachou-san in the corridor.

"Kurosaki-kun, I need to speak with you" he directly spoke, ill-mannered.

I chose not to look at his eyes directly but still replied with respect, "If this is about Tsuzuki sir, then I decline" and pocketed my hands, going pass the old man.

Before going to an exit, a large hand stretched from behind and grabbed my wrist. I stopped but avoided his eyes. He let go of my wrist and sighed. "Kurosaki-kun, Enma-chou still needs you. You've got to pull yourself together"

I didn't know what hit me but I burst out and cast him an angry glance, deeply burnt in my eyes.

He decided to calm me down and stared straight into my eyes, "Sulking isn't going to help you recover, little boy" sternly, he delivered that message.

I want to tell him how much I am grieving over my partner's loss, suffering over Tsuzuki's death. He doesn't how I really feel! But seeing things are going much more complicated in the branch, I chose not to argue with him and followed his command. The chief gave me a signal to proceed at the conference room.

He gave me a couple of folders and a brief case, and in additional, he handed out an envelope.

"This case will be yours to solve. You will not be partnered with anyone; only yourself." and folded his arms in a proper manner.

I stared at the items blankly. Why didn't the chief fetched me a new partner and get this over with? My thoughts ate my presence. The chief, looking at me emotionless, snapped me back to reality and explained some crucial details of the case. Then, he gave me a batch of documents, "Before departing to Kyoto, go first to Yutaka. He'll know what to do with these papers" and those were the last words Kachou has spoke to me the whole day.

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The things that I held were heavy that I ended up slipping one of the pieces that fell and the items that I carried went flying in the air. Even though a lot of people were at that hall, no one dared to laugh at me, or even to help. I got mad but chose not to let anger take over me again. Picking up the materials one by one, I cast my hand, reaching for the smudged picture on the floor.

I gently smeared the blurred picture with my slender fingers and dotted my eyes on it. I gulped. The photo had guy standing firmly, wearing a black-suit like uniform with dark blue in its sleeve edges. The guy has about the same height and physical features like mine. And he possess those jade-embedded eyes with an almost black-hued hair. There was no doubt; the client I was assigned to was Minase Hijiri.

I hesitantly checked all of the documents as well. Sliding my hand through the envelope, I found two other photos. I first looked at the class picture. Nothing seems to be the problem at first, until I saw a familiar orange-brown hybrid haired girl in the upper right corner of the photo. She was holding her hair in a two braided style and wore a fuku of the Shion University. I already knew who she was and I proceeded to the last one. Of all the clients, this one poke my mind. She was gesturing the fingers of her right hand in a V-form and was standing with a background I haven't seen before. She also wore a strange uniform that had a logo of a sword and a shield placed in the upper left portion of her dark blue blouse and dressed in a skirt about a few inches beneath her knees in a sky blue color. I was shocked when I looked at her face. She has a sleek black hair and has the same violet eyes that I admired in Tsuzuki. I didn't want to remember Tsuzuki now so I turned all the photos in the rear view. The first former ones didn't have any writings or info. Only the latter had some handwriting on it. It had some characters in Japanese and foreign ones. I decoded the japanese letters and read them silently. 'Mio Rumina Akiyama' was the translation. I left the other words behind and chose to let Watari decipher them since I can't read most of the foreign ones.

I just stuffed them into the briefcase for safety (to avoid them from slipping again) and rushed on to the scientist's lab.

I didn't know that I fell asleep from thinking of a better plan. But at least I got the target to begin with. Just then, someone knocked on the door. I proclaimed the person to come inside and I felt uneasy after looking at him. It was Bon. I then thought that maybe he had come for revenge, revenge for taking Tsuzuki away from him. My mind kept filling with weird thoughts until the lad let the words flow from him.

"Uhm… Watari-san, I need your help in this case Kachou given me"

I was relieved that he wasn't mad at me. I offered him a seat beside me and he followed my lead. After Bon got a comfortable feel, he placed the stuff on the desk. I examined first the materials before opening them. I noticed that the young shinigami was staring hesitantly at the envelope near my left index finger. With his cue, I slowly opened the envelope and scanned the photos. My face lit with a smile when I saw the guy with the jade eyes. I guess this could be my first step to brighten the lad up, for now. I was alarmed seeing that Ikaruga-san was also in the case because it meant that Muraki may have been involved. By casting a glance at the last picture, I was astounded to see another person having the same eyes as our fellow shinigami. A thought pondered on my mind: 'Maybe she has also been cast out of the society for being a monster'. I continuously think over that this girl might be also a demon.

The empath interrupted my thinking by his cough. He was becoming paler and weak. I was concerned and wanted to comfort him but I didn't know of a good method.

The same yellow eyes locked upon him with an awful concern for him, "I'll help you figure out these things. For the meantime, you should just take a rest. You're becoming weak and it's not good for you, Bon"

Hisoka must have sensed a hint of my concern and tried his best to thank me with a light smile, "I'm okay, Watari. You don't need to worry" and he got off his seating position.

Still wearing a concerned face, I lead him to the infirmary and told the nurse to take care of him. The conversation between the lady must have gone too long because the moment I reset my eyes to him, he had curled up like a cat, sleeping soundly on the clinic bed. I could have sworn that he mumbled Tsuzuki's name in his sleep…

It hurts. It hurts to see my beloved partner suffering like this. I stood on the edge of the infirmary room, not looking away from the empath. His face seems swollen, probably because he hasn't eaten anything since I passed away. But I am more afraid of his empathy. His emotions is taking him apart, causing him to feel pain, agony and guilt… Guilt over my death.

My amethyst eyes couldn't help but stare of what had become of the teenager. To be honest, all I'm searching for was a person ready to accept me, to care for me and to treasure me as a human. I was too stupid to begin with. I didn't realize that the person was already beside me; always looking up to me whenever he has problems; always smiling at me whenever things are going fine; and he had treasured me more than a partner. This lad I'm staring at is the person who had sparked my life.

A watery substance swarmed my eyes and began flowing down my cheeks. I wiped them away, thinking that Hisoka wouldn't want me to glom when it's already too late. Perhaps he was right about my stupidity after all. I smirked sadly and went near him to take a deeper look onto the entity.

He was breathing drastically, more to my surprise. He seems peaceful when sleeping, which got me into a positive mood. I just stared at his majesty beauty, unable to even hold his fingers. My large hand just passed through his and I trembled. I wanted to embrace him dearly. But due to my idiocy, now I am holding dread in my chest; suffering from the separation from my partner.

Suddenly, I heard a rustling sound; the sound of the wind gushing through the clinic window which collided with a set of images on the desk. Watari must have dropped them by earlier without my knowing. My feet shuffled and took a step forward, nearing the photos.

The room was dark and I couldn't see clearly the pictures but there was only one thing that struck my mind. A familiar face shaded my vision and upon the lockage of my eyes to the figure, it only triggered a memory inside my mind; and it only suggested one thing: I need to find Muraki and find out what he did to reraise Ikaruga. I swiftly left the clinic and with it, the partner I grew close to.

Strange. I thought I heard Tsuzuki just whispering words, speaking about things I didn't quite understand. I only remember some words and it becomes vague by the time morning had crept through the window. I pondered, bearing a thought that it was only a portion of my dream. I stretched out my long arms and lifted an arm, grasping to the materials left on the table.

Watari sure is hasty when a case indulges his interest. I already found the document that necessitates the mission. I dug out the papers and held upon them with a tight clutch and proceeded to the scientist's lab. With that, I started the day with a pure smile engraved on my face.

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I noticed a few staff members of mine in the hallway laughing secretly but since I was too excited to go to the lab, I didn't pay any attention to their sneer.

The moment I arrived at my destination, I took a quick glance at the lab, just making sure he's in his office. Then, my embedded emeralds saw those topaz ones.

"Hiya Bon! I was expecting that you'll look for me… Erm…" he mouthed and half-blinked at my appearance.

I took on his cue and looked at my clothes. My cheeks colored in a pinkish-like shade; my jacket was gone and my top was lifted upwards, revealing my navel and stomach (which almost ticked Watari off because of the sexiness) and my jeans flapped on both the bottom edges, not to mention that my hair was all frizzy and messed up. I shrieked and rearrange all of the stuff.

"So…uhm, what brings you here today, 'Soka?" he gestured his hands in a colliding position and began to crack his knuckles.

I shuffled my things upon his message and brought out the blue-papered files.

"Kachou-san told me to hand these documents to you"

Examining the parchments and stuff included, he adjust his spectacles and looked at me briefly.

"Hehe… I think I just forgot to investigate this stuff" he scratched the back portion of his head. Before he went to proceed inside, his body then averted to me and words escaped out from his breath. "Oh yeah, the chief said that you should head to your office right away. He meant something about giving you a new partner. Well, later!" he twisted the doorknob and went inside, leaving me out cold in the corridor.

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My arms were fixed in a subtle gesture, wondering who Kachou chose to be my partner. He said that I didn't need to be partnered in this mission since the Meifu had already permitted me to do this solo. The door to the office was already in front of me while my eyes just were just set there, staring blankly at it. My hand shuddered from the tension, doubting whether I will enter the site or not.

A hesitant smile crossed my face and let an exasperated sigh. Without no further ado, the doorknob released a silent clicked sound and the door carried itself further form me and an entity was revealed, smirking at me slyly…

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