Confidence in the Domination by Penguin
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is obviously not mine…:O
A/N: I had insomnia last night and fell back to thinking about books I've read recently — among them, Nabokov's Lolita. In the novel, Lolita is a young, orphaned girl who develops an affair with Prof. Humbert Humbert, a pedophile. Then I thought what if Hisoka and Hijiri were orphans? That is, I guess, where the whole thing took off.
Yes, this is an AU fic. :P But you'd be happy to know that all of the characters in this story are from the manga + anime, except for various characters from various animes who masquerade as orphans in different chapters. xD
THE SETTING;
The name of the orphanage Hisoka and Hijiri are residing in at present will be kept confidential (that way, privacy for everyone concerned will be enforced). It will be referred to at various points in the story as ….
THE CAST AT PRESENT;
KUROSAKI, HISOKA --- M, 16. Came into our custody at age 13. Orphan with no known living relations. House, and all surrounding areas, burned down in a fire. Was found unconscious in the basement, half-dead. Boy is unusually secretive and not much is known about Kurosaki-san's family history, except for basic details.
MINASE, HIJIRI --- M, 16. Bright young boy, found at age 12 in a cathedral, late at night. Apparently tried to take his life, but didn't go through at the last minute. Was brought into our custody by social worker Tatsumi-san. Lies about family history frequently and is of dubious origins. Has taken up the violin and is excelling at it.
KANNUKI, WAKABA --- A bright, young girl of fourteen. Loves to bake for the other orphans and help out with the staff. Altruistic and helpful. A few potential adoptive parents are showing a fair amount of interest in her. Perhaps she will have a real family soon.
TATSUMI, SEIICHIROU --- Tatsumi is a social worker and a civil servant. His life seems like an open book, but he's actually rather secretive and distrustful. Careful not to mess with his belongings; he's very touchy about money. Presently single and unmarried.
WATARI, YUTAKA --- Has visited this establishment multiple times 'looking for kiddos to adopt', but has never actually adopted a kid. Personal life seems a bit hazy, but no reason for suspicions… right?
KAZUMA, SHIN --- The strange directress of the establishment. A fierce nature and fascination for weaponry goes hand in hand with her finely honed sense of justice. Little is known about this woman as she is mostly away on business.
TERAZUMA, HAJIME --- A worker here. Gets annoyed quickly. Brief, concise, to the point, matter-of-factly sort of person. Is nervous around girls, except for one of our charges (Kannuki-san).
XXX --- A man with unusually colored eyes. Came barging in here looking for our charge, Keitaro, who was stricken with polio. Has been a frequent visitor since, for various reasons. Seems to be developing friendships with our employees and charges, but has attracted the ire of Terazuma-san.
(TAKEN FROM HISOKA'S DIARY…)
Look, let me tell you.
Life here is pretty boring. Life at the …, I mean. I've been here since I was thirteen. Considering the alternative, which is life at the Kurosaki estate, I'd choose …'s boring to painful any day. In a twisted sort of way, I miss my disciplinarian father and mother. But it's best not to dwell on the past.
"Hey, Hisoka!" Hijiri yelled and looked at me with a grin.
What is it now?
"I've heard that Watari-san will visit us again, today. And I think he's really going to do it this time. Adopt us!"
I shook my head softly. Hijiri has always been every inch the dreamer that he was. He came in here a year before me but we're roughly the same age (he's only older than me by a few months).
"I wouldn't pin that much trust on a fool's hope, Hijiri."
He rolled his eyes at me and mouthed 'killjoy'. With one final pout, he rushed from the room and hurried down the stairs, presumably to meet Watari-san and try his hand at getting adopted.
Well.
I've had people tell them that I'm a spoilsport, a 'killjoy', in the past. Like when I was fairly new, Hijiri tried to convince me to put a dead frog in Wakaba's room. I was mortified and said no, but he managed to drag me into it, anyway. Wakaba screamed so hard when she saw it on her bed and Kazuma-san heard it from wherever she was (which turned out to be the kitchen). She ran into the room with a butter knife in hand (she was apparently making pancakes), expecting the worst. She made us scrub the floors for two weeks, even though she knew perfectly well that it was mainly Hijiri's fault.
There was also this other time when he glued a coin (taken from me, of course, so I was dragged into the whole mess) to the floor. Tatsumi-san passed by and tried to pry it off the floor, smiling to himself. He realized — after squatting on the floor with his head bowed, looking like an utter ignoramus for, oh, five minutes — that it was a prank and he got so angry with us that we were afraid to speak to him for months.
Mischievousness aside, Minase is a pretty swell guy. He's a good violinist, too. He's kind of attractive in a way a lot of guys (or girls) would never be. Some people have said that we look alike, but that's absurd… right?
Pfft. Whatever.
I looked at my wristwatch — the only fairly expensive thing I was able to scavenge from my room (the basement, actually) in the wake of the fire that devoured everything I knew; including the prison that held me for thirteen long years (the prison that my parents called 'home'). A lot of my family's properties were stolen by fleeing servants. Not even one of them came back for me.
3:15PM. I should be watching little Kei now.
I stood up, pulled on a new shirt — my favorite orange one with red stripes at the arms — and, even though it was not cold, a denim jacket. I strolled out of the room I shared with Hijiri and nearly bumped into Wakaba.
"Hisoka!" She gasped. "Kei's at it again."
I narrowed my eyes. "He's at what, again?"
"Temper tantrums," she whispered forebodingly.
I shuddered and nodded, bracing myself for one of Kei's temper tantrums. Keitaro was displaying symptoms of non-paralytic (thankfully) polio. Irritability at this stage was normal, as was insane abdominal pains and frequent vomiting, coupled with only… oh, fevers and muscle pains. I felt sorry for Keitaro, but, according to Kazuma-san, he ingested some food he found on the park grounds when she took him out for a stroll. Seriously. He found some food on the group, thought 'hey, never mind the ants crawling all over it; it looks really yummy!' and ate it. He came down with the symptoms of mild polio shortly after.
It was then that I reached Kei's room. I thought I heard faint mumbling in the room — Kei must still be ranting — and knocked softly. Kei managed a 'come in' and I went.
Surprisingly, he brightened up when he saw me come in. "I thought Wakaba-chan was mad at me and that she'd leave me alone!"
I scowled without quite meaning to. "Wakaba would never do that, Kei. So, how've you been?"
He flashed me an uncharacteristically sweet smile. "I've been thinking a lot about my future. (I swear those word the exact words he said.) I want… I want… to study at Tokyo University!" He beamed.
I raised an eyebrow. We were given a satisfactory education here at … but we didn't have class field trips like those fancy private schools. Hijiri and I were only tutored, as Kazuma-san didn't think it was worth it pay a dozen teachers to hold a class for only two boys (as we were the only sixteen-year old boys there) so she — upon Tatsumi-san's suggestion — simply hired an all-around tutor for us. For little Kei to aspire for something like that…
"Why?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Because… when I went to the park with Shin-chan… I met," he giggled, "a girl!"
"A girl?" I mimicked, trying to fight back laughter.
"Yes! And we had to go, we would never see each other again. So she said that we should both study at Tokyo University. 'Cause… lovers who –"
It was at this point that the door flew open and in tumbled a man. He was an unfamiliar face, his trench coat and loafers were muddy, his shirt was rumpled and his hair was all ruffled.
"…excuse me? May I help you?" I asked, suspicious of the stranger.
He looked at me through his lashes and I was taken aback at how… at how… okay, I admit, beautiful his eyes were. Still, beautiful or not, I was wary.
"Um… ah… (almost a whisper) I didn't think anyone was going to be with him… (he said the next part a little louder) This is Keitaro's room, right?" He laughed nervously. I didn't see anything funny. Maybe he was mental.
"Kazuma-san didn't tell us about a new visitor today. Are you related to Keitaro?"
Keitaro protested: "I've never seen that strange man before!"
Well.
That about sums it up, doesn't it?
I realized I was dealing with a nutcase here. Maybe he was out to kidnap Keitaro or whatever. One thing for sure, though, is that I wasn't going to let him do it. My heart started to race as I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon, if worse comes to worst. My eyes settled on a mop in the back of the cabinet situated near Kei's bed. I pressed my back against the wall and reached for it with a hand.
"May I see your visitor's pass, mister?" I glared at the man.
He coughed and ran a hand through his dark hair and tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Funny thing, I don't remember the guard giving me one."
I tried to think about what I was supposed to say ('Please leave or I'll call the cops'? 'Go away you psycho and never come back again'?) but he wasn't as tongue-tied as me. He stood beside Keitaro and poked him in the shoulder.
"Hey, little guy." He grinned.
Except Keitaro yelled. Touching an irritable, polio-stricken child with muscle pains all over his whole body wasn't exactly a good idea. When Keitaro screamed again, I didn't hesitate.
I hit the man with the mop — which was very handy and worked almost like a bokken — across the head hard. And not just once.
He was shouting foul words at me ('stop it, you brat!') but I just continued.
"You're not harming Keitaro, you psycho!" I retorted.
So imagine my surprise when Tatsumi-san and Watari-san ran through the doors, breathless, and the latter shouting for me to stop.
"Don't! DON'T DO THAT, BON!"
I shook my head furiously and attempted to stab the stranger in the solar plexus. He yelped again.
"He's going to kidnap Keitaro!"
It was Watari-san's turn to shake his head.
"Tsuzuki happens to be an employee of mine."
My mind started to connect things. The strange man… Tsuzuki, lay curled up on the floor, whimpering and rubbing two large bumps on his head.
The realization and the consequences of what I had done began to sink in.
I had beaten up a visitor.
I had beaten up Watari-san's employee.
I had beaten up and verbally degraded his employee.
…
…
I was so dead.
Last notes: So, did you like it...? Yeah, I know the characters are pretty OOC. And you might be very confused right now, asking questions like 'where does Hisoka's empathy start to kick in?' 'whatever happened to Muraki?' 'why won't something traumatic happen to the boys already?' etc etc. All I can say is… things will happen in due time. XD
What you can do now, however, is leave me a review and tell me what you think. All feedback is appreciated and I try to answer questions as best as I can.
Oh! And I was stuck on what I was going to call this… so I randomly picked a song title. 'Confidence in the domination' is part of the Valkyrie Profile original sound album. I love that game.