A/N: Well, here's the second chapter! Time for our favorite shinigami to meet our infamous bad-tempered CEO. It is just me, or do Seto and Tatsumi seem as if they would get along quite well…?
And as for the time-line for this fic, it takes place after the KC Grand Prix in Yu-Gi-Oh and err… sometime well after the Kyoto arc in the anime for Yami no Matsuei. I'd rather go by manga canon… but seeing as someone who shall remain nameless (coughPKcough) likes skipping around volumes in her manga shopping… I haven't read a lot of it yet. And manga summaries online can only do so much… (cue sighing)
Sad to say, but this chapter was quite reluctant to come forth. I was never any good with introduction chapters, after all…
DISCLAIMER: I do not own either Yami no Matsuei nor do I own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, Watari-san would get a helluva lot more screen time and Seto would kick Yami/Yuugi/whoever the blasted kid is at the time every damn duel. 'Cuz that's the way it's supposed to be. :D
"So you don't care about destroying an innocent soul?"
"As president of a major corporation, I have to do that everyday."
-Dartz and Kaiba, Yu-Gi-Oh! - "The Duel with Dartz" (Waking the Dragons/DOMA arc).
Life After Death
Chapter Two: A New Recruit
-bohr-d
Two Weeks Later…
Tsuzuki Asato was late for work. This was not an unusual circumstance, as one would think, seeing as the brunet was usually always so. But unlike most mornings, Tsuzuki was actually rushing to try to make it on time. There could be a few reasons for this, other than the man actually wanting to get into work on time, and by simple process of elimination it could be narrowed down to two:
One, a certain Tatsumi Seiichirou was finally dead serious about docking his pay if he was late one more time.
Or two, the board meeting that Tsuzuki was currently about to miss was to introduce a new shinigami. New recruits were few and far between, and Tsuzuki was anxious to meet him or her.
'Oh boy… Tatsumi's gonna have my head for this!' Tsuzuki moaned internally, racing up the steps of Meifu's JuOhCho (1) building, oddly colored violet eyes widening as he almost ran into a few people, 'How am I supposed to afford my sweets if he docks my pay? …Not to mention Hisoka'll be cross with me again…'
Tsuzuki moaned internally, racing up the steps of Meifu's JuOhCho building, oddly colored violet eyes widening as he almost ran into a few people,
Tsuzuki Asato was a shinigami, a god (or in this case, guardian) of death, who worked in the Shokan Division (2) of Meifu, which in laymen's terms could be called Purgatory. With his friendly, joking personality, lanky and thin frame, as well as messy appearance, no one would expect the brunet to hold such a high position in the afterlife, much less be considered the most powerful shinigami that Meifu currently employed.
In the Shokan Division, shinigami worked in pairs. Tsuzuki's partner, one Kurosaki Hisoka, was a highly serious individual who had been killed at the young age of sixteen. His bright, bottle green eyes were seemingly stuck in 'glare-mode'; usually directed towards his lazy, sugar-obsessed partner. Each shinigami had some kind of special power, or talent, and Hisoka's happened to be empathy, which helped him sense the feelings and emotions of others. Too bad Tsuzuki couldn't be the one with this talent, seeing as he never knew when to back off when Hisoka was in one of his moods.
Stumbling into the meeting room, Tsuzuki received one of Hisoka's patented 'Tsuzuki you idiot' glares from his partner. The other four occupants stared at the brunet, but shrugged as if it was nothing.
It seemed that the meeting was already under way as another brunet man but with striking blue eyes was standing at the front of the room, glaring somewhat exasperatedly at the interruption.
"Sorry… for being late… again." Tsuzuki panted, taking a seat next to Hisoka.
The blue-eyed man sighed and pushed his glasses up a bit, "Luckily for you, Tsuzuki-san, we were just about to begin."
Tsuzuki gave an inner jump for joy.
"But seeing as you were still late for work, I am docking your pay by twenty percent."
"What? Tatsumi! I said I was sorry! I promise it won't happen again!" Tsuzuki cried, eyes welling up in an impression of a kicked puppy. Tatsumi on the other hand gave the violet-eyed man a small smirk.
Hisoka sighed and nudged his partner with his elbow, "Shut up, idiot. You know he never enforces it."
Tatsumi coughed, "Ahem, if we could please get back to the meeting, gentlemen?"
Tsuzuki's whimpering and muttering ceased and all eyes returned to Tatsumi, "As you know, the Shokan Division is receiving a new recruit, hand picked by Emna-Daioh himself. He will be Watari-san's new partner, as he has gone far too long without one, even though that Block is rather quiet," here Tatsumi stopped and looked around the room, "And just where is Watari-san this morning?"
"Probably still in his lab," Chief Konoe, a man who looked to be in about his mid sixties or so as well as the division's most senior resident, replied.
Tatsumi muttered something along the lines of, "Probably blew up the memo…" under his breath as he continued.
"Chief Konoe had an audience with Enma-Daioh earlier this week, and learned about our new recruit. Chief?"
Konoe took Tatsumi's place at the head of the room and began to speak, pulling out a file folder and passing it to Hisoka, who briefly glanced at the cover sheet and passed it on to Tsuzuki. Tsuzuki took his time looking over the front cover, noting that there was no picture of their new arrival, nor was there a name. Frowning, Tsuzuki asked about it.
"Apparently, our new arrival has a few memory problems, not unlike some people who can't remember when a board meeting starts..." this was aimed at Tsuzuki and the ever absent Watari. "It seems his death caused some psychological trauma causing him to having a hard time remembering a few things, or so Enma-Daioh has told me. His name though, is Kyouji (3) Seto, and he will be joining us later today," Konoe turned to Hisoka, a small smile on his face, "He's about your age, Kurosaki, and from what that file says, he's got about the same temperament as you do."
Figuring that to be an underhanded complement, Hisoka sighed and didn't comment on it. Hopefully, though, to him this meant that there would be someone around who wouldn't persist to annoy him like the overly hyper and annoying Tsuzuki and the equally exasperating Watari would.
"So… who'll be the one to inform Watari that he has to share his lab?" Konoe asked. No one volunteered. The grey-haired man turned to Tatsumi and smiled, "Well, since he usually comes to you, begging for research funding every morning, I guess we'll leave that up to you, Tatsumi."
The blue-eyed man could only sigh in resignation.
The meeting adjourned soon after, and the shinigami went their respective ways. Tatsumi went to his office, looking forward to finding the Shokan Division's pay roster and making a few alterations concerning the pay status of one Tsuzuki Asato.
'Not serious, am I? Well… he'll see how serious I am once he finds out he won't be able to afford his Cinnapons every morning.'
Now, Tatsumi Seiichirou was indeed a shinigami like Hisoka and Tsuzuki, but unlike the pair, he didn't go out on missions very often, if at all. Tatsumi was Tsuzuki's former partner, but because of difficulties with the violet-eyed man, he opted for the position of being the Shokan Division's secretary, in charge of the budget and pay of the employees. Which was a bad thing for the rest of the division as Tatsumi was very miserly and very cheap. Once Tatsumi's mind was made up on a matter concerning the budget, it was hard to waver it. Most of them were frightened that if they angered Tatsumi enough, the man would send a horde of shadows after them, as Tatsumi was a Kagetsukai, or Shadow User, and was irritated easily. There were few that would risk trying to persuade him otherwise on matters concerning money, and only one had the gall to come in daily to haggle over it.
His name was Watari Yutaka.
"Knock, knock, Tatsumi!" a cheerful voice rang as Tatsumi's door opened, revealing a man in probably his mid-twenties with long blonde hair held back by an orange ribbon and friendly amber-colored eyes. He strode confidently into Tatsumi's office, clutching a folder filled with papers that looked as if they were just stuffed in there.
Tatsumi mentally thought of him as a walking headache. Watari was almost a big of a pain in the butt as Tsuzuki was.
"Watari-san." Tatsumi greeted, "Why weren't you at the board meeting this morning?"
The man blinked, his expression all but saying, "we had a board meeting?".
"I take it you lost the memo I sent out yesterday." Tatsumi sighed and returned to the various reports lying on his desk, all of them waiting to be looked over and then archived.
"Umm… maybe." Watari said sheepishly, throwing his folder on top of Tatsumi's desk and smiling slightly as the brunet frowned, "But I was in the middle of an experiment, you know, and I guess it must have slipped my mind! Oh by the way, I'm afraid I do need some—"
"No."
Watari's smile turned into a pout, "But you never even let me finish!"
"You're going to ask for funding for your experiments, Watari-san. And the answer, as per usual, will be no."
"Waaah! You're mean, Tatsumi."
"So I've been told," was the dry reply, "Now if you'd take a seat, I have some things to go over with you."
Shrugging, the scientist sat down in a chair across from Tatsumi's desk. He absently wondered what Tatsumi wanted to talk about; it couldn't be about any of his experiments… he hadn't tampered with the coffee or blown anything up recently.
"Sooo… what did you need to tell me, hmm?"
"We're receiving a new recruit sometime this afternoon. He—"
Watari smiled and clapped his hands, "Ooh, now that's news! I assume that was what this morning's meeting was about?"
Tatsumi glared at the genki scientist, "As I was saying, Watari-san, he will be working with you. In other words, he will be your new partner and you will have to share your lab with him."
He blinked owlishly, not expecting this. "What? You mean I'm getting a partner? But, I've worked a few decades without one fine…"
"Enma-Daioh's orders, I'm afraid. Looks like even you aren't above the law of two shinigami per Sector."
Watari shrugged, "I guess it'll be fine. …But why am I sharing my lab? This new recruit, he's not a scientist, is he?"
Tatsumi shook his head in the negative, "No, but he is a technological genius… or so his file says. His name is Kyouji Seto, but other than his physical statistics, I really don't know much else."
Looking up from Seto's file, Tatsumi noticed that Watari had a small smirk on his face and the Secretary could just hear the gears in the scientist's head moving.
"Watari-san, I do have some ground rules for you," Tatsumi said, causing golden-brown eyes to snap to him in curiosity, "You will not use Kyouji as a test subject for any of your ridiculous potions or experiments."
"But Tatsumi…" Watari huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, "You just have to go take away all my fun, don't you."
Slightly amused blue eyes raised up to meet Watari's sulking face, "Hai. And any reports of such activity will result in funding to your department getting docked or taken away completely."
The sulk turned into a glare. Tatsumi chuckled slightly, "At least give the kid a few days to get used to the place… and if I catch you spiking the coffee pot again, the consequences still stand."
Watari waved off the threat, "Fine, fine, fine. Now, speaking of funding…"
"I thought I said no."
"Oh, come on!"
Seto fingered his new outfit: a pair of simple black slacks and a white button-up dress shirt with a black tie resting across it. A deep blue duster sat on a chair nearby, but he didn't put it on. The medical examiners gave him the clothes and told him to dress, as he was scheduled to leave shortly.
As he looked at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but feel as if the outfit was missing something. His neck felt oddly light, and the outfit looked out of place on his form.
'I feel as if I should be wearing something… flashier,' the brunet thought, running his hand through his hair as he sighed. The last two weeks had the brunet dressed in casual wear: jeans and t-shirts mostly. And to him, those were far more awkward than what he was dressing himself in now.
The doctors and examiners had told him that he had some sort of head injury when he died that caused him to forget some things that had happened in his mortal life. Hell, he hadn't even remembered his own name when he finally woke up. Kyouji Seto, that was his name. Age seventeen at death, born and raised right outside of Domino City, Japan. Smart enough to skip a grade or two in school, and worked at a computer company for a part-time job. A pretty average life ruined by a dumb car accident all because he dropped his book-bag in the middle of the road. He remembered that much. The whole shinigami mess had been explained to him, and for the most part he understood what was going on.
But somehow, it all just felt off in his mind.
"Maybe it's just because I'm dead now… this is going to take a lot of getting used to." He muttered to himself, picking up the duster from the chair and putting it on. It flared out behind him as he walked, and a smirk appeared on his face.
He looked at his reflection in the mirror in approval. "Now that's more like it."
One of Enma-Daioh's lackeys escorted Seto to the entrance hall of JuChoOh, where he was introduced to a grey-haired man who gave him a small, friendly smile.
"So you must be Kyouji, eh? I was wondering when you'd show up," he asked, looking up into Seto's deep blue eyes, seemingly saying to him 'get on with it, will you please?'
"Yes. And you are?" Seto replied; ignoring the frown he was receiving from the man.
"Chief Konoe of the Shokan Division. I'm your new boss."
"Aah. Shall we be going, then? No offense to Enma-sama's staff, but they are neither the most hospitable nor competent of workers. They should be replaced."
Konoe was suddenly reminded of Tatsumi and wondered what he had gotten himself into with this recruit of his. Not only did the boy remind him attitude-wise already of the cold, aloof secretary, but they could pass for one another with the same sharp blue eyes and dark brown hair. Standing next to each other, they would probably be roughly the same height as well.
Seto's slightly annoyed voice broke Konoe's train of thought. "If you're done staring at me, Konoe-san, I believe you were going to show me my new place of employment sometime this decade."
"Err… of course. This way, Kyouji, let's get you situated."
Seto's first thoughts upon meeting his co-workers were ones of surprise and slight disgust. From what he was told, the position of being a shinigami of Meifu was a high honour given to those with high spiritual power and potential. He was expecting to meet a group of focused, determined individuals. What he met, however, was a motley crew made up of adolescents, sweet-obsessed workers, and a pair of girls who seemed driven to dress him up in a dress within the first five minutes of walking through the division's door.
'And I haven't even met them all yet… Enma help me.' Seto thought dismally as he was introduced to Tsuzuki and Hisoka. He had, quite literally, run into Terazuma in the hallway, and already the two were rather on bad sides with one another. Wakaba however had managed to calm the shinigami down, and introduced herself as well.
"So you're Watari's new partner! Nice to meet you, I'm Tsuzuki Asato, shinigami of the Kyushu sector!"
"…Kurosaki Hisoka of the same."
Seto concluded that Tsuzuki was friendly enough… but much too friendly for his tastes. It reminded him of someone he knew… but he just couldn't place it at the moment. Hisoka was labeled in his mind as one of those antisocial teenage types. He suspected that they might get along fairly better than he would with Tsuzuki. The man was bordering on annoying.
Seto nodded to them both, "Kyouji Seto."
Tsuzuki turned to Konoe, "Hey, Chief! I'll go show him around, okay? You can get back to work and all."
The man frowned at the violet-eyed shinigami but shrugged, "I know this is a ploy to get out of doing your work, Tsuzuki… but for once I really don't give a damn. You better just hope that Tatsumi doesn't figure it out. I'm not bailing you out if he starts ripping into you."
"Yes!" cried the brunet, totally missing Konoe's warning, "All right, Seto, let's go find Watari and the others."
The brunet twitched slightly at the informal use of his name as well as the arm that was suddenly swung over his shoulder in a friendly gesture. He shrugged off the offending arm; "I would prefer you called me Kyouji, if you don't mind. And please, refrain from… doing whatever that hell that was you just did now."
Tsuzuki frowned, while Hisoka smirked slightly, "You know… he reminds me a lot of Tatsumi-san, Tsuzuki." Hisoka said, watching as Tsuzuki groaned and nodded his head in approval.
"You need to lighten up, Se— I mean, Kyouji. You're gonna turn out like Hisoka here if you don't— oof. Ouch! Hisoka, that hurt!"
"You idiot… now are you going to show him around or not?"
Seto had stood there while this exchange went on, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited. His temper was running thin as is, and he was going to just go try to find his way on his own if need be if this didn't stop soon.
"Excuse my partner, he has a one-track mind most of the time. If it's not ways to get out of working, then it's snack food." Hisoka said, sighing at Tsuzuki.
"It's all right, Kurosaki-kun. He reminds me of someone I once knew." Seto replied. The 'but I don't remember who it was…' he neglected to add.
Tsuzuki was in a better mood as they got going, and Seto was first introduced to Tatsumi when the three came across him on their way to Watari's lab.
"Oh! Tatsumi! Did you meet the new guy yet?" Tsuzuki asked upon sighting the secretary. Seto watched slightly amused as Tatsumi's shoulders tensed when Tsuzuki called his named from across the hall.
"No, I'm afraid I did not." Tatsumi replied, turning identically hued eyes to Seto, "I'm Tatsumi Seiichirou, Secretary of the Shokan Division. Pleasure to meet you." He said, giving a polite yet still friendly smile to Seto.
A smirk graced Seto's face, "Kyouji Seto. So you're the one everyone keeps saying I remind them of. Yet I wonder… is that a good or bad thing?"
Tsuzuki started chuckling nervously as Tatsumi's steely glare focused on him; the brunet took Seto by the wrist and began to drag him away, all the while muttering something about jokes and the like. They turned the corner, and Tsuzuki let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.
Seto yanked his arm out of Tsuzuki's hold, "What was that for?"
"Tatsumi's… scary, I guess you could say. Y'know how I said earlier that all the shinigami have special abilities?"
"…This was never mentioned. And where did Kurosaki-kun go?"
Tsuzuki looked around for his fair-haired partner, but didn't see him anywhere, "Ummm… I dunno. But anyways, each shinigami has some sort of special ability… a supernatural one. Hisoka for instance, is an empath, which—"
"Which means he can tell the feelings of others," Seto finished, now listening to Tsuzuki intently, "Interesting."
"Yeah. Well, you see… Tatsumi's a Kagetsukai, which means he's got control over the shadows. He's also not my biggest fan as of late, and I can kinda see the shadows in the corner start to waver when I get him ticked off at me."
Seto nodded at this new information, "And so, I just made the situation a bit worse."
Tsuzuki nodded, "But that's okay. The worse he'll do is just dock my paycheck probably… again."
"What's… your special power, Tsuzuki-san?"
The violet-eyed man blinked, "Me? Oh, well… I guess it's my ability to summon Shikigami (4). Twelve of them, actually. And I'm really good at Fuda magic too."
Seto, having heard about Shikigami from the doctors when it was slightly mentioned during his examination, was impressed that the seemingly incompetent man in front of him could be capable of all that power. A slight new respect grew for the shinigami in Seto's mind.
"Are you really interested in all this?" Tsuzuki asked, to which Seto nodded, "Well, what about you? What can you do?"
Seto frowned and crossed his arms, not saying anything. Tsuzuki blinked and sighed, "Or you could not tell me and totally pull a Hisoka on me… well, we better get going; Watari's lab is just up ahead."
Back in the corridor that Tsuzuki and Seto had fled from, Tatsumi was questioning the abandoned Hisoka on the newest addition to the Shokan Division.
"He's… different, that's for sure," was Hisoka's opinion of him.
Tatsumi looked interested, "How so, Kurosaki? All I got from him was that he's a bit arrogant. Then again, I only got to talk to him for all of thirty seconds."
"He's guarded. Quite well. I sensed slight amounts of hostility, and a bit of confusion earlier, but he's guarded again."
"You mean his emotions?"
"Exactly. I was expecting a sudden onslaught from him, since he's new and doesn't know about my empathy. I had extra barriers up, but… I could barely feel any hint of emotion from him except what I already mentioned."
Tatsumi nodded, "It might be an after-effect from the memory restoration Enma-Daioh's doctors did on him. Chief Konoe said that the boy couldn't even remember his own name when he got here." Shrugging, Tatsumi started to walk off, probably back to his office when Hisoka's slightly amused voice stopped him.
"I kind of feel bad for Watari-san…" the green-eyed boy began, making Tatsumi's eyebrows raise in question, "Kyouji-kun didn't take too well to Tsuzuki's friendly welcome, and I could tell that Tsuzuki was holding back in order to not scare him off."
This drew a chuckle out of the stoic secretary; "Well… it'll be interesting to see how Watari-san and Kyouji get along, won't it?"
(1) Meifu's JuOhCho Building: In the dub, this is called the Ministry of Hades. Basically, it's Enma-Daioh's center of command, where all Japan's otherworldly business is conducted. Well, most of it, at least.
(2) Shokan Division: Another term that the dub changes. This is the Summons Section of the Judgement Bureau, where the Shinigami are employed.
(3) Seto's new last name: For plot reasons, Seto was given a new last name by Enma-Daioh/his lackeys. I had a hard time deciding between "Kyouji" and "Kouryou" for this one, and I didn't even dare contemplating changing Seto's first name. But anyways, "Kyouji" I found out from a Japanese dictionary means "pride", which is perfect for our once-CEO, ne? And for those who want to know, the other choice (at least, this particular kanji of it) means "the dragon which has already ascended to the heavens". Which of course I liked better… but it didn't really have that ring to it. D:
(4) Shikigami: For those not all that familiar with Yami no Matsuei, Shikigami are spiritual creatures that a select few Shinigami can summon. Tsuzuki, however a bumbling idiot he may seem, can call upon twelve of the strongest Shikigami.