7. Truth.
T: Beware the cliff hanger and the Christmas hiatus that follows this chapter…hopefully I should be back with another chapter next Sunday but, what with the festive season upon us, I make no real promises! Oh also the slash becomes deeper from here on in…though there shall be nothing explicit I fear (quell your disappointment people!) Nothing here is mine apart, in part, for Myagi-san and the plot (such as there is a plot!).
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They eventually find Tsuzuki curled beneath Hisoka's desk, the significance contained within this choice of refuge enough to bolster the younger Shinigami's confidence.
Luka talks to the child alone, the gentle manner in which she treats the other and the manner in which the child responds to this kindness, sending the oddest of aches through Hisoka's heart. Eventually the child comes to stand before him and, fear clear still in his eyes, he says,
"Neesan says that I can trust you, that you are not as the other and that I should apologise for my rude manner."
"I made you a promise and then broke it, had you done the same to me I believe I would have been rude also."
"Neesan thought that you would tell me that."
"Did she?" Talking to Tsuzuki, understanding the other, had always come so naturally to him before and he hates that that has been taken from him, hates that he finds himself constantly scrabbling for words and, most of all, he hates that he is still holding to the belief that, somehow, Tsuzuki would make everything 'all right' again.
Luka had made the task in hand sound deceptively easy and yet, faced with the reality of the situation, he finds his previous confidence flaking away into little more than dust. Desperate for some form of guidance his eyes drift the illusionary world about him and, as they set onto an object amid the paperwork on 'his' desk, hope blossoms again in his heart.
Reaching out towards the object, he wills his mind to forget that the world about him is not real, focuses all of his will into the desire to have the object there within his grasp. Only when the cool smooth texture of glass is beneath his fingers does he let out the breath he had been holding and, feeling now surer of himself he says,
"A week after the fire you voiced your desire to 'get some fresh air' and forced me to sneak out from the infirmary. Neither of us was in any fit state to wonder far and we ended out simply sitting by the lake, talking of idiotic things and watching the sakura blossoms drift on the water's surface. Watari found us after an hour and gave us a long lecture on the limitations of our regenerative powers and the need for sleep. I recall that you watched him with a very stern face but that, inside, you were full of a bright laughter that filled me with such warmth…I was just drifting off to sleep when you hobbled over to my bed and, that warmth present still within your heart, you thanked me and gave me something to recall the day by." He opens out his hands then in order to expose a simple photo frame, pressed between the glass of which, is a delicate skeletal leaf.
The child regards the leafs fragile beauty for a long moment then, an understanding coming to his face, he says,
"That was the first day that I believed that I could keep my promise to you, that I truly believed that I could learn to continue onwards as the man that I had become. I knew that you were the reason that I felt that way, that your stubborn nature had given me a third chance at life and I wished to repay you somehow." With each word the child grows older, his skin stretching and tightening until Hisoka is again looking into his partner's face.
Filled with relief he catches the elder Shinigami into an embrace and, seeking out his 'link' to the 'outside' he enquires,
"Are you ready to come back, Tsuzuki?" The other's confusion crashes over him like a tidal wave, yet despite this bewilderment the other graces him with a smile and responds,
"Of course."
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He wakes to the gentle scent of Hisoka's skin and, upon opening his eyes, to the sight of the other curled tight into his chest. He can not quite resist the temptation to run his hands through the other's hair, the movement enough, despite his caution, to wake the other from his slumber.
"Tsuzuki?" The doubt evident in the other's voice is unsettling and, smiling brightly, he replies,
"It's me, Hisoka."
"Then you have forgotten." The statement confuses him greatly and he is just about to press the other for more information when a voice from his past remarks,
"It is best that you give his memory a moment, Kurosaki-san."
His sister is sat at the edge of the bed, her face older than he recalls it and filled with a content that brings a glow to her features and makes her, somehow, even more beautiful to his eyes.
"Neesan…" Looking at his sister's face recalls to him the face of the man who had looked so much as himself, the panic that that face had sparked in his heart, the odd dream that had followed that panic and, finally, the relief he had felt as the dream had reached its conclusion.
"Perhaps I should give you two a moment." But a moment after the utterance of these hard words Hisoka's warmth is gone from his side, the ache this absence places in his heart eased as his sister embraces him.
"What is happening, neesan?"
"What do you recall of the day that we fought?"
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"Asato-san?" The boy looks worn, the wobble in his step as well as the dark circles about his eyes, both clear signs of how much of a toll his task has taken out on his body.
"Have you been successful?"
"Thanks to your help."
"I am glad that sending her to you was the right choice. I had a want to help you directly but I could not do as such without abusing the trust you had placed in me." Feeling oddly uncomfortable under the boy's quiet scrutiny he enquires, "Is kasan talking to him?"
"Ah."
"Once she has imparted her story to him she shall have nothing to tether her to this world."
"I am certain that she shall linger long enough to bid you farewell, Asato-san."
"Thank you."
There is a long moment of silence and then the boy says,
"I encountered no sign of a trap within Tsuzuki's heart."
"Then perhaps we were simply being paranoid."
"Or perhaps Muraki did not care if I saved Tsuzuki."
"I do not understand."
"What if he did this to learn all that he could of Tsuzuki's powers?"
"You really are far too smart for your own good, bouya."
"You should not be able to breach the wards on this house." He remarks, his voice calm despite the distress running rampant through his heart.
"I am sure that would be true enough were you at your strongest, Myagi-san and yet that is not the case, is it?" A sudden, terrible, realisation, comes to him and, already aware of what the other's answer shall be, he enquires,
"You knew that I would send for kasan's spirit?"
"Correct."
"Yet why come here, why risk exposing yourself when you have achieved all that you set out to achieve?"
"Not quite everything."
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T: I apologise for leaving it in such an evil place and for Muraki…he wanted more lime light than the meagre amount I gave him and kept stomping about in my head until I was forced to put him back in the story! As stated previously I'll try to update next Sunday, should things be as hectic as I fear then that'll be pushed back to Monday at the latest. Hopefully this shall be the one and only hiatus (touch wood). Please review.