Author's notes: Ahhaha! Hint-dropping and Muraki-Tatsumi fighting and so much fun in writing this chapter!

Warning: OCs can win fights.

Disclaimer: YnM and all characters from that series do not belong to me and I do not profit from them. All the OCs and plot within belong to me. :)

Hi ya laustic! Thanks. It always calms my nerves when reviewers remind me that they read 'cause they think it's good. :)

Hey Experimental. Your review set me off to write the scene where they do meet face to face (Last chapter or epilogue, I'm not quite certain yet!) which slowed me down in posting this, and hell yea it's AWKWARD. :D Ashtarothe in this chapter here.. yesss. Nui's past will be expanded on later. Have you wondered why Tsuzuki doesn't remember moving on? hinthint. And again, sorry if this chapter isn't very long! Been having mucho computer failures.. :(

Hi Literary Eagle. You're welcome, but why wouldn't I continue this story? I'm going for the long haul. :D Yes.

Everyone I really appreciate you hanging in with me. The story is coming to a close, so bear with me! Sadly, I lost my library of quotes and excerpts when my computer kicked the bucket. I'll take any anyone would like to throw at me! Be sure to at least include who said it, though if it's written the title and the date would be an immense help too! My computer's death has thrown a wrench into alot of things it seems.

Lastly, if anyone sees any discrepancies between this chapter and the last ones, please, please PM me. I can't possibly keep track of every little thing anymore, now that my computer is dead.

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."

-Sam Ewing

"Abalim has betrayed our code. Do what must be done before the Prince decides to take action. Be sure not to bring any attention to yourself, Kato, or the deal is off."

He breathed out carefully, fingering the camera case idly. The grassy rolling plains they were traversing led up to the small inn they were headed for, having decided to teleport some distance away. Tsuzuki was downright babbly, a strange reprieve from his intimidating quietness. However, he had grown into a sort of bubbly silence allowing them privacy, when Kato and Nui hung back away from him.

"Are you uneasy about the rematch, Sachi-kun?" She breathed out, smoking next to him with a watchful eye on his hands and the camera bag, announcing her point by nonverbal communication.

"What idiot wouldn't be?"

She chuckled, eyes drifting to Tsuzuki's back. "I doubt we will have to battle with him around."

"But…" His own eyes tracked the movement of the bouncing back of said subject. "He couldn't move last time."

"Because Demons, especially ambitious lower-ranked ones, will let loose important clues if they think the person they have challenged rank to is a weakling. You should have heeded the lessons in Demonology 101."

"It was an optional course." He looked down at the ground, regretting that he hadn't taken it. "So it was a bluff to get more intel."

"Precisely such."

"And, I figured he was just a powerful moron. My bad." Sachiya paused and Nui waited. "You said it was a 'challenge'. Why would a demon—I mean, Tsuzuki would have to outrank him, but then how did that happen?"

"It apparently occurred in a case involving a boy with a transplanted contract and a cursed violin. Zukin killed Sagantanus, who had been attempting to dispatch the newly contracted as he had already fulfilled his side of the bargain with the original contracted. The Duke of Hell, Ashtarothe, decreed Tsuzuki was the rightful heir to the position."

"Oh. That's why bu-the Demon we're after dropped Sagantanus' name."

She hummed an affirmative, and snuffed out her cigar out on the bottom of her wooden sandals, not speaking further. They had arrived at the quant, well-maintained Tate-yama.

"Hey! I'll check us in, okay?" With that, Tsuzuki strolled in dufflebag over his shoulder, perkily. Sachiya could only stare in fascination at the oldest Shinigami's sudden mood shift from yesterday.

"Shade, what is troubling you?"

His eyes got distant then, before he smiled sheepishly. "I've just a bad feeling about all of this."

"All rookies burned once become paranoid." Smirking, she huffed and walked through the shoji that their hostess slid open, greeting them politely.

Kato smiled at his quirk in fate, greeting the hostess with a courtesy nod and entering.

As he strolled through the park directly across from his condominium, Muraki realized with great amusement that a barrier had enveloped him. That is, he was amused until an enormous raging black lion lunged for him.

Narrowly sidestepping the flurry of movement as it tore a gash in the flaps of his coat, he effortlessly signed calling on the spirits residing in the manmade pathway to ensnare the dangerously furious beast. The spirits had little issue responding to his evocation of power, understanding his complex chain of brief, self-made chants. The concrete, defying gravity and its own inert solid state, flowed up.

Finding itself suddenly in a vulnerable position, the black lion recoiled from the thrust of watery concrete, fleeing just beyond reach as Muraki evoked a barrier around himself. A great molten fireball blasted from its mouth crystallizing and shattering the wave, slamming into Muraki's newly made barrier. However, the rest of the wave crashed into the beast, solidifying on the spot and pinning him into place like a fly caught in spit.

"Hajime!!!" The outer barrier flickered and then brightened as another energy signature joined hers.

With a smugness befitting his confidence, he examined the squirming creature, and, recognizing the mark of Enma within it, he paced a circle around it. "Well, well. What an exemplary sample of a parasitic type." He stopped clasping his elbow with a hand, and with the other made a sign and flicked a finger up. "Seal." The ground around his feet outpoured bright radial streaks like the spokes of a wheel, connecting and filling the circular path he had just walked with crimson light. It constricted on the beast as it flailed angrily, bellowing its resistance until an unconscious 'Hajime' emerged naked as its bulk disappeared within him.

Standing close to their coworker Muraki turned to the pair supporting the barrier. "Did you think I would be so easy to capture, when even your best had been thwarted? Or did you think he was as incompetent as he was oblivious?" His gaze raked over the unusual markings and signs of a Shinigami who had rejected the Shikigami he was forced to bear, reminded of his own experimental toy whose refusal had made the marks set and their bond stronger.

Neither of them responded to his taunt.

His face lost his smile. "Release me or watch my art unravel your partner from the Summon he carries. I'm sure its hunger will tear him to pieces, if the process doesn't destroy his soul first." He gazed coolly out at the petite female who had yelled, and then met the glare of the familiar scientist.

"On orders from Lord Enma, you are hereby summoned to the Ministry." She responded lowly, sounding as if she was suppressing her anger. Muraki wished he could taste it, but their barrier was remarkably effective. He could sense only the energy used for the dome.

"If you insist…" With a few weighty etches in the air, bewitched charms spawned from them, connecting to his previous sealing circle and skimming the ground to stop at seven equidistant points around his captive. As he chanted, they hovered around expanding to an enormous size, four representing the well-known names of the strongest Guardian beasts at the cardinal points in clearly written kanji, while three more represented the next most powerful Summons in their other-dimensional world. Sohryuu, Suzaku, Genbu, Byakko, interlaced with Rikugo, Koujin, and Touda.

With a cutoff chant, energy of varying color shot out from each floating name and lassoing around the chi center they were affiliated to as Terazuma was lifted from out of the rubble of the dug up sidewalk. He woke up terrified and screaming from the pain of what amounted to a double-quartering to his energy centers.

"Hajime!!" Wakaba's eyes widened recognizing their names and fearing for the worse, nearly dropping the barrier, but Watari's firm hand kept her doing what needed to be done.

While the other foolish Shinigami dared not remove the barrier, Muraki intensely focused on the last character, 'sever'. With a sharp laugh, he swung the character forward towards the binding that Terazuma was in, only to frown when shadow encased and dissolved his target into a not-world, instantly undoing the delicate links of magic. Their dissipating remains fell apart in colorful glittering sprinkles of light.

"You are not allowed to harm any more of the Ministry's employees, Muraki-san."

Mouth a thin line of displeasure, he swiftly turned around to face the infamous Shadow User behind him, forcing a smile of pleasantness back onto his face. "A pity, since pain is an essential learning experience for your line of work, Tatsumi-san."

Eyes glancing towards the two Shinigami maintaining the barrier, Muraki caught the glimpse of their companion reappear from nothing near them.

"Some lessons are best taught through mistakes. Yours are a character flaw of arrogance and self-indulgence. How much power did you wastefully expend just now torturing Terazuma-san?" Tatsumi adjusted his glasses, his amiable smile changing effortlessly into a dark, menacing visage. "Possibly more than you can afford before a fight with me. The barrier around us will ensure you cannot run away this time."

"Why would you bide your time waiting for an opportune moment to arise?" He knew that a Shadow User's strength varied on the lunar cycle regardless of how much light was around them. "Because it's a new moon in a few days. Your pretense of strength would only deceive someone less wise, Secretary."

"Let us see how much is pretend, Doctor." With a calm step forward, shadows rose flapping around him like a tattered robe in a nonexistent wind. Then suddenly they were upon Muraki. His shield bent under the weight and Muraki felt the ground underneath compact, as if a giant plow had suddenly raked the ground, turning it over all at once. Then the dark cloud was gone, revealing a slightly bleeding, hunched Muraki, his face devoid of glasses, and gripping his right arm with his left. His shield would have failed, and, rather than be a fool and let it collapse on itself, he had simply released it.

"Is that all you are capable of Kagetsukai?" Laughing, he straightened and let his arm go to let enough of his blood drop to the ground in front of him. Another dark cloud sliced towards him, but he twisted out of the way slamming the damaged arm into the loose soil and calling upon his servant. His blood was the sacrifice to its summoning, as his eye had been to bind it to him long ago. The golem climbed out of the ground before him, raising itself to a meager height of seven feet, letting out an enraged howl at Tatsumi. The secretary took a careful step back, steeling himself. Muraki reinstated his shield, and ordered it to kill.

His shadows tore into and rendered his golem to bits. However, his golem was far sturdier than that and smarter, reforming arms before anything else. It slammed a hand into Tatsumi's side throwing him into a tree. His body made a satisfying crunch as his glasses flew off his face. Lip bleeding, Tatsumi stood, ignoring the dirt on his otherwise immaculate suit.

Though both were weaker than they had been in their first unexpected match, they were evenly matched now, which pleased neither of them.

As the creature reformed of dirt and mud, Tatsumi sliced it into portions, encapsulating them into shadows and lobbing them in the shadow realm, but they slipped back refusing to stay put dimensionally like a normal, corporeal being. The secretary directed his attacks on Muraki then, knowing that he could not win against a thing that was un-killable.

Muraki laughed as he was again encased in shadow and his shield battered at. Again, he released it just before it imploded, and was only cut by the remaining shadow, while Tatsumi was again pummeled into the ground, sacrificing defense for aggression. They did not pause to look at each other, knowing they were quite at an impasse and continuing their strikes.

With a spurt of blood, a sharp object slid into Muraki's back and through his abdomen twisting, before he could set up another shield. His jaw clenched as he shoved the dismay at the sword piercing him away. It was roughly yanked out, and he could feel it clip bone as his blood sprayed onto the ground and causing his golem to pause sniffing in his direction.

Outraged and snarling, Muraki attempted to turn on the twit who had dared, a slender petite woman who had very little power to speak of, but his legs were already folding under him from a nicked spine. The irony was not lost on him, having murdered many of her type. His hand shot out quickly, before she had a chance to think of moving, roughly grabbing her ankle and laying a curse. He basked in her pain as the wicked spell he laid siphoned energy out of her to feed his golem. Her anguished screams were the last gratifying memory he had before passing out from sudden, extreme blood loss.

The exorcist-issued sword clattered to stillness on the ground. The screams continued.

The golem roared and shriveled up despite the fresh fuel it had been given, dying because the dead could not feed the nonliving. A shrunken well-preserved eye with an iris of silver, laid upon the tumbled mud and rock it had been comprised of, was all that remained. A heavy wind foretold of an eminent violent thunderstorm.

Dropping the barrier together, Wakaba and Watari rushed to the exorcist's side. Terazuma had already been looked over and, having borrowed Watari's lab coat, the scientist had to carefully take it off while focusing on the barrier, Terazuma was busy sulking and smoking, refusing to budge viewing her screams as a sign that her vigilantism hadn't ended so heroically. Wakaba worked to seal the curse's movement at her knee and Watari examined her ankle where an intricate Gaelic knot tattooed her. Pulling some supporting fuda out as Wakaba finalized the temporary seal, Watari set one ablaze trying to determine what base had been used for it. Araki Hana was completely silent staring down in shock at the shrunken remains of her leg. "What the hell is he to be using tainted magic like that?"

"What were you thinking jumping into a fight like that?" Wakaba met her question with another, sternly looking down at her.

"It was the thing to do. At the rate they were going, it was going to take too long." Araki flinched expecting to be yelled at like the past two days.

"That was very stupid of you!" Wakaba admonished her as the exorcist winced, but then smiled at her. "But thank you."

Araki couldn't believe her ears. The high and mighty shinigami thanking an inexperienced exorcist? She was taken aback.

Watari clarified, misinterpreting her confusion. "We probably would have run out of juice for the barrier before they were done fighting, and we would have lost him." He nodded in Muraki's direction.

Shadows had surrounded and covered Muraki like thick gauze, staunching the blood flow and stabilizing his spine. Then he simply disappeared under it as Tatsumi sent him to his shadow realm.

"Onto other matters... how the bloody hell did he do that?" The scientist sat back on his haunches talking more to himself than anyone else. "He used a rebounding curse based on karma. By stabbing him, the balance of negative karma shifted to her. Regardless of the fact that he is a conundrum of negative karma himself, he cursed her for her own." He looked up flashing an apologetic smile though it was no fault of his. "My best guess is you're stuck with the dud leg until you decide to quit the job. I'm sure I could outfit you with something if I put my mind to it!"

"Ah… No thanks." Araki meekly said, fearing the kind of things the mad man would try to affix to her leg.

"I'll deliver Muraki to Enma's agents." Tatsumi, cranky from being tired, adjusted his glasses disappearing.

"Godspeed, Tatsumi!" Watari said cheerfully anyway, even though the secretary had already left.

"You people are off your rockers!" Araki blurted out suddenly, and then averted her gaze self-consciously as three pairs of eyes stared at her. "I mean, killing demons is one thing but that's easy in comparison to this!... well, I-I mean, their M.O. is clear that they want to collect souls, and since our souls have already been collected by Lord Enma, they usually try to kill us as quickly as possible, instead of drawing it out." She looked down pointedly at her leg.

Terazuma huffed muttering, and walked away pissily. Muraki had worked him over and it still hurt like a bitch, even though there wasn't a single mark on him. His petite partner excused herself smiling, hopping after him in concern.

Then, Watari laughed. "Ohhooo? Is that a compliment?"

"Uh…" She started again as the suddenly friendly scientist thrust a finger at her face, waggling it under her nose.

"Missy, killing demons is serious business."

"Yes …?"

"Could I interest you in some tea before you head back to your chief?" The grin was ten times wider now, so how could she refuse? Of course, she couldn't tell that his flirtatiousness had nothing to do with liking her, and all to do with ulterior motives, involving potions.

"Sure."

"Great!" He clapped his hands and stood up, then stopped just then noticing the mess the fight with Muraki had left behind. At his curious halt of movement, Araki surveyed the scene.

There were deep claw marks in the ground that could only be made by a huge animal, broken concrete sidewalks torn and scattered about like lopsided marbles, and let's not forget the distinct scores of overturned dirt that amounted to hundreds of kilos in weight. Not to mention the large mound laying in the middle of all of it.

"Huh. I guess Tatsumi will notice the damage he caused when he gets the bill." With a throaty chuckle at the irony, Watari looked back at her, holding a hand down to her. "Shall we?"

She nodded and he teleported them to JuuOhCho's medical suite.

The hunger was a living ravaging thing, writhing about in his mind. His master hadn't seemed to have the same affliction as he, only needing to feed every week or so.

So, he was refused, and his hunger sneered at. 'They are near' was the reasoning he caught, but it soon became inadequate.

"Why are we hiding, master?"

An annoyed snort was issued, but his master said nothing more.

Frustrated by the gnawing pain in his gut, he finally ceded to the transformation clawing to be free. Power wafted over his form as his body expanded and molded into an enormous four-winged black crow with a hooked beak and viciously sharp talons.

"Excellent, boy. You've finally matured." His master didn't look the slightest bit scared.

He attacked at his underbelly knowing the thinness of shell at that point. His talons melted through it and his astonished master's own survival instinct kicked in, using anthropoid claws to rip him off. Standing his full height on spindly legs, he lifted the caught crow and stabbed him with the stinger that tipped his muscular tail.

Pinned down, body on fire from the poison leaking into him, he hooked his beak into the tail and ripped it apart right below the stinger. His master shrieked in pain and anger, as the tail poured blood.

With a quick flick of his head, the stinger too was thrown away leaving a gelatinously bleeding sore on his breast, and he took flight.

Claws snapped only feathers as they chased to crush the crow's head, but the scorpion was no match for the crow's speed despite how his poison had drastically reduced it. Blistering talons sunk into the hard shell of his master's back, digging for the pulse as he dived with an open beak. A quick recoil with it closed nearly separated his master's head from his body. Blood emptied from the gaping wound, and the crow feasted from his master's remains.

"You stole everything from me!!!"

"It's cold and dark in there, isn't it?"

"Wait just a little longer, my step-brother."

"Kazutaka, this is Saki Shidou… your step-brother."

"… I'll kill you with my own… hands!!!"

He remembered who he had been, how he had been shot in the back by the family butler, and his soul contained in a doll for what seemed like an eternity, but he was no longer what he was in memory.

Saki Shidou was not a demon. He was certainly a monster in the guise of a human, but still only human.

He felt his power deepen in strength as the demon's, Abalim's, memory filled in the gaps of how his soul had been transferred into a newly born demon. He saw Abalim's intent, and all his questions were answered and then some. The idiot had been falsely accused of breaking the Prince's edict by devouring a contractee's soul, but he had no proof and was doomed to die, regardless of whether or not he defeated the current Right Hand of Ashtaroth.

He was still hungry. Shrinking back into his lesser form, he padded over to the wall grabbing semi-whole clothes that had belonged to the humans he had eaten.

Dressing himself, he wondered what the Halfling would taste like as he descended on the inn below. He would manage the unfinished matter of his little brother after that. His father's descendants were all infected with his genetic insanity.

"My lady." Her servant bowed its head. She preferred loyal humans whose souls she kept to the sniveling likes of the kind that surrounded her. Uncrossing her legs, she stood lightly shaking her long, transparent white hair to the side. Black silk shimmered over the creaking leather of her scant garments, bosom contained only enough not to be a nuisance, as she walked gracefully down the steps leading to her obsidian throne.

"What news do you bring, Erond?"

He shivered at her close proximity, and she could taste his fear. "The Tome of Rank has decreed a new challenger and struck Abalim out. He is dead."

"And the call name of our new challenger?"

"Hidouzaki."

She smiled. The god of the dead had given them the name of the human whose soul had been grafted to a demon, so they would recognize him if he ever appeared in the Tome.

"Send word to Pruslas to bring my armies back, and a messenger to Enma. Use the Complex to contact Rashaverek to let him know the situation. Don't bother reminding him the price of failure."

"Yes, my lady."

"Erond." Crooning like most people did to their pets, she leaned down to pat his head, her bloodless hand a stark contrast to the burgundy of his hair. Stretching the muscles in her back, a lone black feathery wing fluttered softly in response while the remains of the other could only flex sinew and cord. She had won her position for returning the favor threefold to the fool who had torn her wing asunder.

"Yes, my lady?" His panic was a soothing balm to her nerves.

The Prince had been very pleased to see her join the ranks and personally granted her demonic power. Fallen angels were a rare affair after all, and one that willingly became contaminated even fewer. The contamination had carved out the place where ever-present pain from not being in her Creator's presence had resided, but in its place it had filled her with unnatural emotions and urges. The taint changed her intrinsic nature of goodness to one tainted with sin that could willfully serve under the Prince, and modified her form from a sexless ambiguity to something no longer celestial or heavenly. It suited her well.

"You have remained in my favor for months." Stroking his soft hair, she whispered in his ear, and granted him what not even many demons had. "You may address me by name when you feel it is appropriate."

"As you wish, Lady Ashtaroth." He swallowed heavily, his panic subsiding, but the fear remained strong in him as she suggestively touched his back and his face. He did not speak even though his countenance had grown red and his breathing irregular.

With a content sigh, she pulled her hands back and climbed the stairs turning her back on him. "You are dismissed, Erond." Seating herself again on her throne, she smiled, fully energized by the power of his fear and dissatisfaction.

"Yes, my lady." He choked out, backing out of the room submissively to run his errands.

She really had looked forward to the Halfling joining their ranks, but no matter the negotiating Enma would not loosen his hold, claiming that his soul determined him to be more human than not and therefore under his jurisdiction of authority. She had begged to differ and had cited several instances of prevalent demonic ability that could only be inborn, but arguing with a god was ultimately futile if you weren't one yourself.

She expected Hidouzaki would prove to be a better substitute for Tsuzuki, anyway.

TBC.

Abalim, Pruslas, and Rashaverek are all bonafide demons. The last two are known assistants of Ashtaroth. Sagantanus as far as I can tell doesn't exist, so for all intents and purposes his replacement can be made up too!