Title: Under the Bloody Ceiling

Rating: K+ for violence

Summary: A cutscene from the Nagasaki arc in the first manga. We saw Tsuzuki talking with Maria's mother, but how did Muraki get his hands on Hisoka, and how did the ceiling get covered in blood?

"He's coming, you have to get out of here, he'll kill you both, he's coming, oh, god, he's here!" Maria babbled and shook, crumpling helplessly to the floor. Hisoka knelt to comfort her and nearly keeled over as her terror slammed into him. The panic he felt tight in his throat, and, unbidden, his heart began pounding, and his eyes kept darting around the dark hallway. He needed to calm down and think, but Maria's terror crumbled his composure, a burning, itching fear clawing at his skin as she clung to him.

"I-is someone there?" Dammit. He couldn't keep the quaver from his voice.

To Hisoka's alarm, someone replied, "Of course. Your friend told you I was coming." The voice was deep and nonchalant, but Hisoka only felt Maria's fear spike.

"Who- who are you?" Hisoka demanded. "Show yourself!"

There was a soft rustle of fabric and a figure stepped into the pale light of the door's magic shield. It was a man in his late twenties, but his hair was completely gray. No, not gray... silver? Long bangs obscured one eye, while the other watched Hisoka and Maria with an unfathomable expression. He was tall and attractive, with broad shoulders and elegantly sharp features. He was dressed all in white, from his tie to his shoes, and the trench coat covering most of his white suit. He looked like an angel, much more so than Hisoka, with his rumpled outfit that he'd worn for two days now, and his gawky teenage body. But there was something not right about this man, an emotion all Hisoka's own that clenched in his stomach.

"Stay away from me!" Maria whimpered, shrinking away from the man as he approached.

The man blinked. "He lifted the control spell? How bothersome," he said with detached indifference.

"You're the one who brought Maria back?" Hisoka's question came more like a demand. When the man said nothing, Hisoka exploded. "Answer me!"

"I have no obligation to answer a..." the man trailed off as he looked at Hisoka, noticing him for the first time. Hisoka fought a blush as he felt the man's eyes rove carelessly over his body. "How unexpected." He was intrigued, Hisoka could feel it, but it was masking other emotions, a shield that should have been so frustratingly simple to break through but that held up so rigidly.

"W-what was that?"

But the man turned towards the door, ignoring that question. No... The man had resurrected Maria, there was no telling what power he had. Hisoka couldn't let him sneak up like this on Tsuzuki, he had to stop him somehow. Prove to Tsuzuki that he was an equal partner, not just a dead weight. Hisoka rose and ran to the door, blocking his way in. He felt a dangerous surge in the man's emotions, bulging against his mental shield of composure.

"I can't let you go in there," Hisoka said, defiantly meeting the man's gaze. His eye was silver too, hard and impenetrable and... amused?

"I don't want anything in there," he replied, before grabbing hold of Hisoka's wrist. Hisoka screamed. He had never felt something so black, so sick, and it was ripping at him and it felt familiar, his senses flaming with memory, but he didn't know what and oh god, it felt like ice and fire tearing his skin off and-

Hisoka hunched over, clawing at the man's hand, trying to get it off his wrist, but the man kept a firm grip and passed his other hand over Hisoka's back - suddenly there was an explosion and Hisoka heard the splatter of blood before the agonizing, blinding pain tore through his back. As Hisoka cried out, his back already began to heal itself, skin and muscles reconnecting at an alarming rate to compensate for the sudden injury.

"Interesting," was all the man said, only it was something lower and far more disgusting to Hisoka's ears. And then the man grabbed him by the neck and turned him over, twisting the air in his hands and gashes burst open the skin all over Hisoka's body in response - and finally he savagely ripped open Hisoka's jugular, and there was blood everywhere, even in Hisoka's eyes, and on the ceiling and walls, and on Maria, who was sobbing. Hisoka blacked out for a moment and when he opened his eyes weakly - he had lost so much blood, he couldn't see straight - he could feel he was being carried, and Tsuzuki... there was Tsuzuki yelling, but he couldn't hear what, he just felt so tired and weak, but there was something... someone... he had to- to warn Tsuzuki... Hisoka's eyes glazed over and again he slipped into unconsciousness.