imfrEEkinhobbit: Thanks for your review again!
Anon: Thanks for your advice. When I was a kid, English was not the first language for me at home or at school but sad to say, I can only read in English or my country's national language. Anyway, thanks again for your advice. I would try my best to improve on it.
CloudXZax: (cries) I'm so happy that you are always supporting me. Hehe… Well.. Sorry that there is no Yuki again. He will be out hopefully in next chapter.. I hope so. Haha… Thanks for your review!
Blu3girl1986: Yeah, I'm from Malaysia. Thanks for your good luck and thanks for reviewing my story too. Thanks!
Mitsubishie Eclipse: Good to hear that you are starting to understand. I hope that I don't make things too complicated. Thanks for your review!
Amyrose: I'm not too sure about the ending too. Anyway, thanks for your review and keep reading till the end. Thanks!
Death and Rebirth 13: Confusion and Lament… What are there more?
The next morning, Shuichi went out from his room yawning.
"Woke up already, Shuichi?" Rye asked as he placed the two plates of breakfast on the table.
"Yawn…. Yeah. I had the best sleep yesterday!" Shuichi exclaimed.
"Good for you then…" Rye said and sat down at his place. He then began to eat the food when Shuichi sat down.
"After this, I'm going to work. Can you go to the library?" Rye asked.
Shuichi raised an eye brow and looked at Rye, "Library? For what?"
"I want you to check on books on occults."
"Books on occults? Can't we get it from the Ju-oh Cho library?"
"Yeah… Remember the sign that the victims always draw? If there is some connection with the demons, then books on occults would be the best and since this case happened in the land of the living, the person who summoned the demon would have no other place to get the resource but from libraries or bookstore. (And besides, the library is blown up by the senior shinigami, Tsuzuki Asato(laugh))." Rye explained.
"Oh… I see… Sure no problem. At least we can get more information than wait for it to come to us."
"Okay.. That deals it. I'll see you after work today. Bye." Rye stood up and went and gets his coat.
"Huh? You're done?"
Rye wore on his coat and smiled at him, "Yeah… While I was talking, I did stop for awhile to eat. I wasn't like you to be gapping like an idiot."
Shuichi glared at Rye with a pissed off look. Rye just smiled at him and turned to walk out the door.
Before he stepped out the house, he called out aloud, "Oh yeah.. Since I cooked today, don't forget to wash the dishes but don't break them, I don't have extra money to buy any new ones."
"Shut up!" Shuichi shouted at Rye but Rye just went out the house laughing.
He is just so gonna get it from me when I see him tonight.
XXXXX
Rye reached the N-G building at his usual time but what have surprises him is… Ryuichi is already there before him.
"Eeh… Ryuichi-san. It's rare for you to reach here in time." Rye said to Ryuichi when he saw him.
"Oh.. Umm… Yeah… I thought of coming early to give people less trouble." Ryuichi said with a small smile. On the other hand, K-san who came in overheard it and choked in surprised.
"It's rare for you to say 'give people less trouble', Ryuichi." K-san said with sarcasm in his voice.
Ryuichi looked at K-san and gave him a stupid smile.
"Once in a while… I do.. Hahahaha…"
K-san raised an eye brow and looked at Ryuichi before he asked all of them to start their work. After half a day stuck in the studio, they managed to get 2 songs done and this pleases K that he allowed them to have one and a half hour of break.
"Hey, Hiro-san. Want to have…." Rye wanted treats Hiro to a lunch but then he was cut off by Ryuichi who called him suddenly.
"Rye-san." Ryuichi said in his serious mode.
"Hai..? Nani, Ryuichi-san..?" Rye asked Ryuichi is a surprised mode as this was the first time he saw Ryuichi that serious.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Well… Sure."
"Then let's take our break together." Ryuichi said as he walked towards the door.
"Okay…" Rye answered Ryuichi back softly and then he followed him out the room.
When they were about to leave the building, Ryuichi put on his disguise first to avoid from any rabid fan chase as he was not in the mood today. Both of them then went to a café nearby and sat down at one of the corner, hidden from prying eyes.
"So, Ryuichi-san. What do you want to ….." Once again Rye was cut off by a waiter who came down with a menu. They ordered their food and the waiter then left to submit their orders to the chef. Rye then continues his question.
"Umm.. Ryuichi-san. You said that you wanted to talk to me about something. What is it about?"
"……… Rye-san. You see… Yesterday, I went back to N-G building as I left kumagorou there. I was surprised to saw someone in the recording room, singing with you handling the system. Who is that person?" Ryuichi asked Rye in a calm and serious attitude while Rye stared at him in shock as he never thought that Ryuichi actually saw him and Shuichi.
XXXXX
Shuichi left the house an hour after Rye as he was washing the plates cleanly while trying not to break them.
"Now I must get my butt to the library… I hate library! It's so quite and it's making me sleepy… It must have been miracle that I even sat at the Enma-cho's library for hours to revise for the shinigami exam." Shuichi complained to himself as he walked in the crowd less street.
Shuichi reached the library in 15 minutes and then he quickly went to the supernatural section. He browsed up and down to look for a related title on demon summoning till he found it.
"Hmm…. Demon summoning, demon summoning… Where is it?... Ah! Found it!." Shuichi quickly pulled out the book and flipped through page by page but fast. He scanned each of the pages for the demonic symbol that had appeared in every case including his hand. Finally, nearing the end of the book, he found the symbol.
"It's this!" Shuichi exclaimed silently in his heart. He had learned not to make any noise in the library ever since he was knocked on his head a lot of time by the Gushoshin brothers for making noise.
Let see… What does it says here… 'This is an extremely dangerous demon among all the demon that are written here. Unlike other demon who takes the summoner's soul, this one consumes other soul that is sacrifice to him by the summoner. To say in short, he is a manipulator.'
Shuichi flipped to the next page to continue to read but then he found out that the page was torn out.
Damn…That was the summoning spell part… Could this book be…?
Shuichi quickly took the book and went towards the librarian's reception.
"Excuse me. " Shuichi called out to the librarian politely and the librarian turned around.
"Yes. How can I help you, sir?" The librarian asked Shuichi.
"Yeah.. Could you tell me who borrowed this book last?" Shuichi placed the book on table to show the librarian.
"Sure. Wait for a moment." The librarian then took out a scanner and scans the code.
"Let see… It's by a guy named Kirisato Jun." Shuichi's eyes widen in shock when he heard of the name.
Sensei?
Shuichi stayed stagnant there for a moment until the librarian broke him out from his trance.
"Sir? Sir? Are you okay?" The librarian asked Shuichi with a frown.
"Ah… yeah… Sorry to bother you and thanks." With that Shuichi walked away from the library silently.
He was wondering in the streets once again without an aim but his brain is full of thoughts.
Sensei? Why is sensei the last one who borrowed…? Why is the last page missing? Before I died, I was cutting myself without any knowledge… What could all this means? Is everything connected?
Being too caught up his thoughts, Shuichi accidentally bumped in someone.
"Ouch… Sorry! I was too caught up in my thoughts." Shuichi quickly bowed down and apologized to that person.
"It's okay. I was too caught up in my thoughts too." That person smiled at Shuichi gently.
"Oh… Well, that makes us even." Shuichi laughed a bit. "Well, anyway. Sorry to have bumped into you."
"It's okay."
"Then, I'll be leaving now. Bye." Shuichi left after he said bye to the stranger.
He stared at Shuichi as he was walking away from him.
We'll meet again soon, Shuichi…
XXXXX
"What do you mean by that Ryuichi-san? What yesterday?" Rye gave Ryuichi a confused look, hoping to fool him off.
"I'm asking you who are that guy with you." Ryuichi asked Rye once more. "I've asked the security this morning and he said that yesterday was only you and your friend entered the building. Who is that person?"
"…………."
"Rye-san, please answer me. He looked and sound too much like that person. Who is he?" Ryuichi asked again, but his voice was trembling.
"Ryuichi-san…"
The waiter came and placed down their order on the table and then he moved away. Even after the waiter moved away, they continued to stay in silent.
"Rye-san… Please. I just want to know who that person with you is yesterday. That's all." Ryuichi broke said as he broke the few minute of silent. Rye stared down at his food as he was unable to look up at Ryuichi.
Finally, Rye looked up and stared straight at Ryuichi's eyes.
"I'm sorry, Ryuichi-san. I would like to lie my way out of this thing but I just couldn't put myself into doing this. Please... Don't force me anymore. Just forget what you see yesterday would be the best way." Rye stood up and walked off after he finished his sentence leaving Ryuichi who just sat there in shock.
XXXXX
After taking a walk, Shuichi decided to go back to the apartment to tell him about the book. Suddenly, two girls came up to him.
"Ano…." One of the girls said.
"Hai.. Nani?" Shuichi asked the girl.
"Could you take a picture with us?" The other girl continued.
"Huh?" Shuichi looked at them confusedly. "Nani…?"
"Could you take a picture with us?" The girl asked again.
"Why? I'm not some superstar or anything." Shuichi gave out a fake chuckle.
"But you looked Like Shuichi-sama and that is enough for us already. Besides, your hair color is around Shuichi-sama's hair color."
"Is it?" Shuichi frowned.
"Yes!" The two girls exclaimed in unison.
"…. Sorry. I can't. Bye, girls" With that, Shuichi walked off leaving the two girls in disappointment.
Shuichi then began to wonder back to his apartment. He was passing by a shop and he saw an interesting item. When he looked up, he was looking at his own reflection.
………My hair dye is coming off… It's starting to turn back to pink… (sigh) Maybe I should go…
Shuichi looked around and spotted a saloon. He then entered the shop. After nearly an hour there, Shuichi finally came out. He dyed his hair black with blue highlights hoping that this would help him to make less people think of him as the deceased Shindou Shuichi.
XXXXX
Ryuichi sat at the same place unmoved for a few hours. Arizu then entered the café and went towards Ryuichi.
"Ryuichi-san? Are you okay?" Arizu asked Ryuichi but he did not answer her. Ryuichi just sat there with his hair covering his eyes. Arizu tried again, hoping that she would get some reaction from Ryuichi.
"Ryuichi-san? Are you okay?" Arizu asked again and this time, Ryuichi looked up at Arizu with a pained expression and this shocked Arizu.
"Ryuichi-san! Why do you look so hurt?" Arizu asked Ryuichi as she embraced him.
"I just want…" Ryuichi muttered softly.
"Huh?"
"I just wanted know is he really back or not… Was it hard for me to know the whole truth…?"
Arizu kept quite as Ryuichi continued.
"It was my entire fault. If I would just stop him, he wouldn't have died. I have killed him.. I have killed him because of my own ignorance."
"Ryuichi-san… It's not your fault. Don't blame it on yourself…" Arizu said, hoping to make the older man feel better.
"Why is everything in a maze now?"
-End of Death and Rebirth Chapter 13: Confusion and Lament… What are there more?-
Finally… I'm done with chapter 13 only. Hahaha… I'm really sorry for a late update as my exam is getting near and near. I basically have 1 more months and I'm not even prepared except for my math…. (sigh and cries) Anyway, I really hope there is nothing wrong with this chapter as I don't have anytime to go through the whole chapter here. Oh… Two.. Three more guest appearance! Nah.. Just their name only. Haha… They are The Gushoshin Brothers and Tsuzuki Asato. Another thing, Know who is that guy who bumped into Shuichi? I bet ya all know… I hope so. Hehehe… So, what you think about Shuichi new hair color? I hope it's not too bad. Anyway, my babble is too long already. So, see ya next chapter.
P/S: As you know that my exam is getting near, I might not able to update this story for a time being. Sorry!