-Again I am back to write more of Sympathy. I am sorry to those who the last chapter disappointed and decided to flame e-mail me. It was my own failing as a writer that caused you to write the flame, so my deepest apologies. Thank you to those who did enjoy the story. Also, sorry for the fact that I had to reload the chapter before this… I realized a bit late that the quote was missing! SORRY! (Does a full body bow) Now then, onto the story line…
-One night I demanded of God, "Lord, when are You going to pardon Lucifer?" and God answered, "When he pardons me." – Nikos Kazantzakis
Three days passed. Three perfectly peaceful days passed before Lucas emerged out of the hotel, his mood only slightly improved as he strolled down the street. His body moved lankily, like a cat sulking home without dinner. As usual his attire was warm considering the hot weather of a Japanese summer. A pair of baggy black slacks were resting lowly just under his hip bones with many thick black belts criss crossed over his waist, doing little to keep his pants up but managing to at least look cool. Barely buttoned over his pale skin was a tailored white Oxford shirt with a thin black tie hanging limp around his slender neck. Pulled on hastily was a vest, the collar high around his cheek bones and the hem falling onto the floor when he stood still, though at the moment it was billowing out from behind him like oil. His sleeves were rolled up to reveal a thick black manacle clamped on one wrist while on the other were a mass of silver bangles that clattered noisily as he moved. His hair for once was flowing free about his face which was glaring off, annoyed as ever.
To be honest, he didn't entirely know why he was so upset as he made his way though the streets of Japan and people cleared away without knowing what they were doing. His mood getting slightly worse as the day was once again perfectly wonderful he finally stopped at the park where, only a few nights ago, he had fought the spirit detectives and had to make a hasty leave. As he made his way through the winding, grassy paths he heard a familiar voice.
"Ah, would you mind picking up that book for me?"
Lucas looked down to see that, indeed, there was an ancient looking leather bound tome resting in the grass to his left. Stooping down to pick it up he handed it causally to the speaker.
"You should take better care of your book, Michael. Someday you'll lose one, you know."
The man sighed, leaning back in the chair. It was indeed the man who had stopped his deal with a young woman a few nights back, though he was no longer dressed in the guise of a deli worker. Instead he wore a pair of light baby blue jeans, soft leather sandals and a loose, pale periwinkle t-shirt with an old peace rally advertisement from the 70's on printed on it. Sun glinting off the glasses resting casually on the thin bridge of the man's nose, he didn't look at all threatening as he smiled warmly at Lucas.
"Yes… someday I might lose my books, but until then…" he trailed off, looking away from Lucas with a careless shrug of his shoulders.
"Hmpf, that lackadaisical attitude is going to get you in trouble someday," Lucas replied as Michael began to snigger. "What are you going on about now!" he snapped as the man now burst into full on laughter.
"It's nothing… it's just…" he stopped to calm himself and catch his breath. "… I rarely hear people use that word, 'lackadaisical', anymore. You really need to get out more often!"
"Shaddup. It's not like I get the chance to go vacationing often!" Lucas glared off, getting ready to leave.
"Why not join me? I would like some company, and despite the fact that we're related, Gabriel is never as much fun to talk to as you."
Leaning backwards and folding his arms behind his head, he stared up the sky, though both were so blue it looked instead like his eyes were mirrors, reflecting the heavens down upon him. Before anyone could wax poetic about the man anymore, Lucas sighed, sitting down on the bench, his arms crossed over his chest.
"You act as though WE are not related, dumbass!" he growled, rolling his eyes as Michael started laughing once again, as cheerful as ever.
"True, true. I do apologize. What a glorious day though, hm?"
His mood already foul, being reminded of what a "glorious day" it was certainly wasn't helping. Glaring off at various "happy" things, including the cuddling songbirds, cute couples and the blazingly brilliant sun, he went back to sulking.
"Yes… Glorious…" Lucas snarled.
"Oh, you're always so…" Michael sought the word he was going for and finally settled on one, "…dismal! A real downer, you know!"
A little ways in front of them, children were playing, climbing trees and imagining worlds for them to populate until their parents called them away. One child stood like statue of some old general on the blackened stump of the tree Lucas had killed. Others tackled him off and tried to show that they were indeed the strongest by standing where he did until another friend of theirs shoved them off.
"If I am dismal, it is simply because I have no reason to be cheerful," Lucas replied darkly, watching the kids play their game.
"You have every reason to be cheerful; you simply choose to ignore it!"
"I wonder why…" he trailed off sarcastically as Michael tucked his book away into a soft leather messenger bag.
"You choose to make yourself miserable. Perhaps you should look at the good side of humanity. Take those children ahead of us. They are perfectly innocent, as pure as fresh fallen snow. Enjoy that, rejoice about it," Michael nodded his head to the scene ahead of them, smiling calmly as he pushed his glasses up his nose once more.
"What is there to rejoice about? They will be tainted sure enough, and a few already have sinned. Stealing a sister's toy… breaking a neighbors nose. There is no purity left, yet you still serve them," Lucas replied, chewing on his bottom lip to pass the time, his right shoulder aching it's same, familiar burning throb, reminding him of everything he had lost.
"Because there is hope. Must you always hate these people? Why can you not forgive Him?"
"Because he has not forgiven me.'
With that reply Lucas got out off the bench quickly and stormed off, flicking his hair over his shoulder as he walked off, leaving Michael sitting alone on the bench, still smiling the same bemused smile as ever.
"Funny…" he mused quietly as Lucas disappeared into the crowds on the sidewalk. "He said the same thing about you…"
As he stormed off, his mood, if possible, worse he passed by a house and heard the sounds of someone having more than their fair share of trouble with the groceries. Pausing for a moment he debated on what to do before he turned on his heel and walked over to the woman who was now standing, exasperated, in front of the trunk of her car. She was middle aged, and probably once rather pretty, with heavy scars criss crossing all over her forearms, which were revealed because she had rolled the sleeves of her sweater up past her elbows to ward off the heat.
"Excuse me, ma'am. Are you alright?"
She turned around, surprised and definitely startled as she placed a hand over her heart, as though to steady it. Smiling in relief when she saw that it was a rather kind looking young man she nodded her head.
"Yes… I'm fine," she turned to back to her groceries before sighing, "I should have waited for Suiichi."
"You are having trouble, aren't you?"
Though he would honestly admit to being evil, he was originally a good guy. Sighing, he gave into the "good" side for a while.
"I… well…" the woman looked off and then nodded her head in defeat. "Yes… Yes, I am having trouble."
"Would you mind if I helped?"
She looked off, debating on whether or not to accept the help of a stranger. Deciding to take a good look at him, she noticed that he didn't honestly look like a bad person, and nodded slowly.
"Yes, please. So long as you don't have anything more important to do," she replied gratefully as he walked over to the trunk of her car.
"To be honest, I really don't."
"Are you American?" she asked, looking him over, noticing that his features were vaguely European.
"Hm? I guess you could say that," Lucas replied as he managed to grab a hold of the many paper grocery bags and followed her until she reached the modest kitchen of her house. Unloading the bags he smiled slightly, dusting off his hands even though they were in no way dirty.
"Oh, thank you," the woman bowed politely at him, to which he just smiled.
"No problem. I'm AWOL from my business right now, so this gave me…" Lucas trailed off, trying to figure out just how to put all that back into words.
"A welcome distraction?" she asked, smiling warmly at him as he stretched his body out and smiled at her with that same level of kindness.
"Exactly!" he snapped his fingers to emphasize and grinned at her cheerfully.
Yes, the day was perfect, yes, birds were sings, yes, life was good, but Lucas was ever the type to let such trivial things as listed above ruin his day. His mood far better than it was that morning, he leaned up against the kitchen counter casually, smiling at her, enigmatic as ever.
"Well, again, thank you. You really saved me quite some time," she replied.
"And, again, no problem. Do you need some help putting all these away?" he motioned casually with his hand at the bags, the silver bangles ringing out an energetic little melody.
"I'm fine, I've already asked you for too much," she replied cheerfully, waving him off with her hands.
"Hm? Alright then… Looks like Suiichi is back," Lucas noted, looking over at the door, though as far as the woman could tell, nobody have even knocked.
"Really? I didn't hear a-"
There was a sharp rap at the door, than the sounds of someone inserting a key and stepping in.
"Mother! I'm home! Sorry I'm a bit late, studying ran late!" the voice sounded definitely apologetic as the door clicked shut and there was a heavy thud of a book bag hitting the floor.
"I'm right in here!" the woman called out cheerfully, wiping off her hands on a dishtowel before looking around the fridge. "I should get started on dinner," she muttered.
"Alright! Let me come and help you," he called out.
"That would be my cue to leave you," Lucas said quickly, not willing to see what would happen when her red-haired son would come in and see him.
"Hm, well thank you very much… Though… I don't think you gave me your name!" she exclaimed, making him pause at the doorway.
"Hm? Lucas," he replied, anxious to get away before Suiichi could get any closer. "Uh, what was your name?" He knew he was wasting time saying that, but it was an almost automatic response.
"Shiori."
"Lovely name, really, I must go! Hope you and your, ah, son have a nice day!" he managed to dart through the door and hurry down the stairs, off to somewhere else.
"My, he really WAS in a hurry!" Shiori exclaimed as, in that moment, her son walked in, just in time to see the man's blonde hair whip through the door way…
"THIS IS WHY I DON'T DO GOOD THINGS!" Lucas cried out once he was three blocks away and on a rather deserted street. "DAMMIT! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REDEEM MYSELF WHEN THIS KEEPS HAPPENING!"
Panting, his rant over, he finally took the time to look around. Odd, this street really DID look deserted. In fact, it looked like Japan's version of Harlem. That's odd, oh look! People! Sighing, Lucas looked over at the group of people walking ever closer. Was it just him or did they look distinctly Yakuza? Just his luck. Moaning slightly, he thought over, who ever said that people had the devil's luck… he really wanted it back!
"Ah, Hello! I was just passing through… And I'll be leaving, if you'll just excuse me!" Lucas tried to step away when he felt a rather heavy, large hand settle on his arm.
"I don't think so," a scratchy, nasal voice stated calmly, making Lucas bless under his breath.
"Actually, I do think so, and unhand me this instant. They say ugliness isn't contagious, but I don't want to take any chances," Lucas quipped, tugging his arm gently from the man's grasp.
"What if we don't? What are you going to do, pretty boy?" another voice asked and Lucas closed his eyes and counted to ten. Nice easy breathes… Did that ever work on ANYBODY!
"Then you'll regret it," he replied calmly, his voice growing icy as dark crimson flames began to lick up his arm.
Surprised, like any normal person, the men began to flee, running quickly away from the man that had seemed like an easy target.
"I don't think so," Lucas muttered under his breath, flicking the flame covered hand at the men…
"What will you have to drink, miss?"
"Huh?"
"Drink, what will you have to drink?" the young man across the counter was getting annoyed, as though those seconds of re-asking wasted far too much of his valuable time.
"Oh… Just an iced coffee."
"Alright, it'll be ready for you a few moments. Please pay now."
"I KNOW that," she snapped, digging around her purse to find, with some dismay, that she was short a few hundred yen. "Oh crap…"
"Can you pay, or not?" the counter worker asked again, rolling his eyes as he tapped his fingers against the counter.
"Uhm, just a minute," she began to rummage around her purse, furtively praying that she might find that extra bit of change, wishing that she didn't lend that money to Yusuke, he probably spent it on cigarettes anyway.
In the background, someone stepped into line behind her. He was brushing something ashy off the sleeves of his button down shirt and down the hem of his long black vest.
"There's another person behind you, hurry up!"
"Is there a problem?" the man behind her asked, shuffling his feet slightly, getting more of the gray powder off his rather thick shoes.
"Yeah, this girl can't pay!"
"I didn't say I couldn't pay!" she cried out, outraged.
"How much does her drink cost? Ah, does it really matter? I'll pay her drink and mine, I want a cup of coffee, black as night, hot as hell and sweet as sin," the man added quickly, handing over a shiny credit card and taking the girl's money, handing it back over to her.
"Uh… thanks?" the girl looked over surprised, as the man took back his credit card and sighed, waiting for his drink.
"Don't I just really badly need a cup of coffee," he replied quickly, tapping a foot against the floor.
"Oh. Right." That's what Yusuke would have said in that situation.
"Actually, if you want to thank me, how about having that drink with me."
Shocked, she looked him over. He was definitely older than her, in fact, he looked like he should be a college student.
"And it's not a date, or anything, I don't go for younger girls, trust me. I'm bored and would like some company," he added hastily, holding up his hands as though trying to ward off the rather wary expression on her face.
"Really?" she cocked an eyebrow at him, skeptical.
"Yeah, really. Besides, you look like you could at least hold on a conversation," he added, waving a hand nonchalantly as the girl noticed that the café was oddly quiet.
"Mmmm…. Alright, I guess," she sighed, taking her drink as the barista handed it over to her quickly.
"Good, there's a table outside," he motioned for them to step out onto the street where small, quaint metal place settings were scattered around.
"Good luck, they're all full," the barista warned, rolling his eyes as, regardless of what they had just been warned, the two quickly walked out and, sure enough, there was a table waiting.
"Wow, what luck!" the girl exclaimed while the man next to her laughed.
"Truly, luck has nothing to do with it. What exactly is your name?" he asked, gently pulling out the chair for her.
"Oh, Keiko Yukimura, uh, thanks," she sat down in the chair as he pushed it back in for her and handed her the napkin.
"No problem," he replied quickly, taking a seat himself and blowing gently on the coffee.
"Wow… you've got manners you normally don't see everyday," she mused, taking a sip of her own drink.
"Hm, comes with the job."
"What kind of job?"
"Trading… uh, I'm a stock broker!" Lucas sighed; it wasn't exactly a lie… was it?
"Hm… Well, just be careful. I hear there are a lot of suicides in that business," she replied thoughtfully, looking off down the street.
"You don't know the half of it," Lucas muttered off, smiling slightly at the inside joke. She looked over at him, oddly worried.
"Did you know someone who did?"
"Hm? Oh, not exactly… I've just dealt with a lot of it," he replied, oddly cool about a rather depressing subject.
"Oh."
"Sorry, this isn't exactly "dinner conversation," he apologized, taking another sip of his drink and smiling at her rather endearingly.
Smiling back at him she looked over the rim of her own drink and replied, "Well, this isn't exactly 'dinner', now is it?"
Laughing, Lucas leaned back in his chair and pushed his hair out of his face. Though he wouldn't admit it out loud, this was actually an engaging conversation.
"No, I suppose not, though for some people it might as well be," he said, waving his hand at some of the rather beatnik people filling the area.
Rolling her eyes, Keiko decided not to answer that statement, instead seeking refuge in finishing off her drink.
"Oh my, it seems I've frustrated you. What are you doing here anyway, meeting someone?" he asked, swirling the contents of his cup absentmindedly with a straw.
There was a groan, "Sort of."
"Hm? Sort of? What exactly do you mean by that?" he asked, cocking his head playfully at her.
"Well, I am waiting for someone… but I don't really have to because he's always late anyway," she finished, shaking her head slightly in disgust.
"Oh? Then why bother to come on time?"
"Because, unlike him, I was brought up with manners and have long since learned to expect the unexpected with him," she droned, giving the same answer she gave all her friends when they asked the same bloody question.
"Well, manners are becoming an endangered species now-a-days… I don't really know what to expect anymore," Lucas added, sighing slightly and seeming vaguely like an old man remorseful over the death of a long since lost age.
"Well even you'd be surprised by this guy."
"I doubt that. In my line of work, I've seen ALL the bad guys. Things have honestly stopped shocking me."
Taking a deep breath, Keiko decided not to say anymore, fully intent on thanking him for the coffee and "finding" her friend.
"Of course, there is more hope than you'd expect… I do believe I sound like an old man!" Lucas cried out in shock, surprising her.
Laughing, she tried to figure out just what it was about this man. He honestly didn't act like anybody she knew.
"Better that way; younger people don't hold as good a conversation."
"True… but you seem to be holding up quite well."
"Thank you… Ah! Well there is Yusuke!" she cried out, standing up quickly.
"WHO?" Lucas looked around quickly, afeared that the overzealous Spirit Detective might ACTUALLY attack him IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!
"Oh, Yusuke, the friend I was waiting for… the one with the bad manners," she added the last part off-handishly, waving energetically at her friend.
As she looked back, Lucas was gone. In fact, it looked as though he had never been there. She was starting to wonder if she really had gone crazy as Yusuke made his way over, already apologizing for being late…. Again…
Off down the street, Lucas was currently banging his forehead against a wall. Would his luck ever change? He was going to personally hunt down the bastard who took his freakin' luck, and kill him. As slowly and sadistically as possible.
"Hey… got a cigarette?"
Yup.
His luck would NEVER change.
-Tren: ALRIGHT! That part is over… thanks to none other than SABS! Who is… chewing on my shoulder? Ouch.
Aillas: Uh… she getting closer to your neck now…. I think you might need shots,.
Sabs: (Fwaps Aillas and continues to gnaw on Tren)
Aillas: Well, Sabs is… gone? WHERE'D SHE GO? (Searches around frantically)
Tren: Back to whence she came… (Looks off ominously as the lighting dims)
Aillas: Well, it's around time to answer those fantastic reviewers!
Tren: That's right… ready?
Aillas: To HottieTottie90: Quizilla too much on your brain?
Tren: Don't worry, happens all the time to me! And no… Gabriel is not a Fallen Angel.
Aillas: But close enough.
Tren: To Shadowcat: Thank you for telling me about the chapter lengths… how is this one?
Aillas: How did Kurama seem OC?
Tren: And… not that bad? Ouch… sorry!
Aillas: Oh… and sorry our fight scenes aren't that dramatic… but only "understandable?"
Tren: Alright. Thank you very much!
Aillas: to sugar high water uma: Yes. You got who Gabriel is!
Tren: You win the washer dryer combo!
Aillas: And yes, if you couldn't tell, Tren LOVES to write out detailed outfits.
Tren: And… (Pulls over microphone) Drool clean up on chapter 5! Drool clean up!
Aillas: To Niana Kuonji: Gabriel is supposed to be insane? Whoa… didn't know that!
Tren: And what was God thinking let him out of heaven… why don't we ask GOD?
Aillas: God… why did you let Gabriel out of heaven?
GOD THE ALMIGHTY: Huh? (looks up from video game system)
Aillas: That is your answer.
Tren: Sorry to any this offended. And OH! THAT Pocci! I love those little fish! C'mere Gabe… give me some of that sweet stuff!
Aillas: and to Pyscho anime luver:
Tren: YAY! SWEET
Aillas: That is the last bit of the reviews
Tren: Thank you so much reading this and please, review! See you next time!
Aillas: Cheerio!