Chapter 7:
Disclaimer: Same as always.
Author's Note: Before I get on with the chapter, I have a little story to tell. Last April, my beloved chaos (aka my computer), died. Yes, poor little chaos' 60Gb harddrive, one day, decided it wouldn't start up anymore. And so began my long months of torture, working on 'piece of crap,' my old computer (I won't scare you with the actual specs). It was, however, on 'piece of crap' that I started writing this fic. So, when chaos was resurrected (via new harddrive, and some other upgrades), I of course copied all of my files onto chaos' new harddrive. However, 'piece of crap' didn't copy all the files correctly, and I was stuck with some .zip files that wouldn't copy over. One of those contained the full copy of This Side… meaning it was lost, and I'd have to re-write it.
However, just yesterday, I noticed that I never deleted the .zip files off of the discs. Hoping that the problem was within one of the files, and not the .zips themselves, I opened the file, and found the full This Side! And lo, it allowed me to copy it over! So rejoice, for I can now continue this fic!
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Hisoka did indeed wake up before Tsuzuki returned. He looked much better when he came out of the room than when he'd gone in. However, his mood changed when he saw that Tsuzuki wasn't there.
"Where did he go?" he asked quietly, but Mikan could tell he was angry. She probably would, too, if she were him, and her partner had gotten her comfortable and asleep, and then went off on his own to look into an old enemy.
"He said not to worry. That he's just going to be checking out a few things. He said that he's not gonna try to pick a fight."
"Pick a fight? Muraki doesn't want to fight him, he just wants him!" Hisoka grabbed his jacket and ran toward the door, but Mikan beat him there, and leaned against it. "Mikan, move! I have to go get him!"
"No," she said quietly. "He said to keep you here. I might not be empathic like you, but I could tell that he wasn't planning on going off to fight on his own, to protect you." Hisoka glared at her, but she ignored it. "Hisoka-kun, we need information. I have no experience with this Muraki person except for earlier, so it wouldn't make sense for me to do the reconnaissance. You obviously can't, because of your reaction. So he's the only one who could go."
She steered Hisoka to the couch, and sat down next to him. He still had his jacket on, but she figured that she could beat him to the door again, if she had to. "You know," she started, trying to change the subject. "Shinigami like you and Tsuzuki-san, and shinigami like me, obviously have different powers. I wonder why that is?"
Hisoka glared at her, fully aware of what she was doing, but took the bait anyway. "I suppose we become shinigami for different reasons, so that's why our powers are different. I mean, we have different jobs, right?"
Mikan grinned at him, and leaned back and got more comfortable. "True, that. You guys track down people who didn't die like they should've, or that did when they shouldn't've. I take out hollows, before they can kill innocent people or spirits."
"You guys must be pretty good, you know," Hisoka said, with an almost-smile. "Since I've never heard of or seen hollows before, and I don't even know if they're in our demon database."
"Hollows aren't demons," Mikan explained to him. "They're spirits, who have some reason why they can't move on. Whatever that problem is, it eats them up, making them 'hollow' on the inside, and that emptiness takes them over. I think that's why they go after 'plusses.' People and spirits with high spiritual power have that thing that they lack." She fell silent, and Hisoka could feel that she was uncomfortable, wishing that she hadn't started this subject.
"For us, we become shinigami if there's something left in our lives that we didn't complete, or if we seek revenge on the cause of our death, or anything else that keeps us from being able to pass on." He didn't elaborate, and Mikan couldn't tell which category he fell into. Heck, for all she knew, he fit into all three.
"In Soul Society, there's an academy. If your spiritual power is high enough, and you get accepted, you can train to become a shinigami. When I died… I was killed by a hollow. The shinigami who was trying to defeat it… didn't get there in time. The hollow killed me, and almost killed my little brother… I hated it. That feeling of helplessness, of powerlessness." Hisoka nodded, understanding her feelings. "When the shinigami took me to Soul Society, I asked him what I had to do to become a shinigami, like him. I wanted to be able to protect people like he did, so that other little brothers wouldn't have to cry when their sisters died. I don't know why other souls choose to become shinigami, but that's why I did." After she finished, silence came upon both of them.
Hisoka looked like he might've been able to say something, when they felt it. It was definitely a hollow. Mikan grabbed her jacket, and as they reached for the door, it opened from the other side, revealing an out-of-breath Tsuzuki. The three locked eyes, then Tsuzuki nodded, and they took off in a run for the park, where the feeling was coming from.
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Review, onegai shimasu!