A Change of Sorts
A/N: My gosh, it's been over a year now! I've had a PM or two from some of you wondering if I was dead or not o.O I can't believe I put it off for so long! I'm so sorry, but I'd just open up this word document, stare at what I've started and close it without any motivation to write at all! Especially when it seems so utterly BAD to me. Rawr.
Not sure why now, but hey, it's hot, it's summer, and I felt like writing and it flowed. Somewhat. This feels like a filler chapter, at most. Please enjoy!
(I'm sorry it's short, on Word it looks so long and I feel proud, but…)
Chapter 17: Suspicions
"What we need to do is to find the location of this delightfully useful jewel." Dark stated, wording his sentence in such an abnormal way that Satoshi found himself cringing at it. "Once we've passed that obstacle, all that's left is for me to steal it and for you to let that Hikari side of you get to work. Simple?"
"It might be, if you hadn't been so regardless of the fact that the Jewel's whereabouts are completely unknown, and its last sighting was at least a few centuries ago." Satoshi drawled.
"Oh psh." The thief flapped his hand in a dismissing matter. "In case you have forgotten, I have a certain Eternal Guide on my side."
Somehow, someway…the conversation still resulted with Satoshi sitting here at 1 in the morning, hunched over the glowing laptop screen and slowly tapping away. His eyes were rimmed with red, and the occasional stifled yawn could be heard. Somewhere inside his dulled, sleepy mind, Krad sighed and muttered something about incompetent thieves.
Satoshi was a genius, no doubt about that, but everyone has their own limits when it comes to sleep. Apparently, Satoshi wasn't far from reaching his.
Yawning loudly, and not even bothering to stifle it, the young teenager leaned back from his laptop, rubbing his tired blue eyes. His brain was steadily finding it harder and harder to stay alert, despite the caffeine that was frequently being fed to it. It refused to focus on the apparently impossible task of locating the artefact.
"That stupid, idiotic thief, pushing all the work onto me…" He muttered angrily, pushing his glasses higher up his nose. "Towa no Shirube…tch, she won't be any help if Dark refuses to contact her…"
"Tell me by tomorrow if you've figured out its location!"
"What?! I thought you were going to get the Towa no Shirube to help you!"
"Well…"
"Well what?"
"I'm pretty sure that Emiko wouldn't be too happy about assisting the Hikari in any way, even if it were to help another family, and since Towa-chan's always relaying what I tell her back to Emiko then…"
"…you idiot."
.:Really Satoshi-sama:. Krad drawled, materializing next to him as a semi-transparent figure. .:By now, you should know better to listen to Mousy, let alone go along with one of his plans.:.
The only reply that he got was a half-hearted glare from his host. Krad chuckled lightly, a hand cupping his chin in a contemplative way. He leaned over Satoshi to look more closely at the contents on the computer screen, scanning the words briefly. The blue-haired boy flinched slightly as Krad's figure practically passed straight through him. Almost like a ghost, he dryly noted, but unfortunately, much more real than one.
His eyes fell on a shiny (transparent-ish) object that rested on the ground next to his feet, attached to the end of a very long golden ponytail. Although he had seen it countless times before, he studied it with renewed curiosity, pondering on its origin and powers.
"But…why did the Jewel put restraints on Krad? It could have easily let him off without the cross."
Dark stood up, hands in pockets. "Because…that artwork was just like all the other Hikari creations."
"What?"
"They all have an affinity of sorts with their creators. For the Jewel, granting Krad incredible power with no strings attached was like signing the death sentence for the Hikari, no, the world." Dark snorted. "Great way to say 'thanks for creating me', innit?"
.:Satoshi-sama, here.:.
Snapped out of his brief flashback, Satoshi followed Krad's gloved finger to the laptop screen. He couldn't make out much of the words (cause being awake at 1am in the morning does that to you, especially if you've been as stressed out as Satoshi has been), but in the midst of the blurs he did manage to glance a few such as 'the Jewel of Diversity', 'currently in possession of…', 'records state that it was claimed by the…'
Wait. Rewind.
Rubbing his eyes so frantically that it was out of character, Satoshi leaned closer to the screen, eagerly scanning the words (ignoring the fact that Krad's arm was pretty much going through his forehead). Finally! After a long night of searching tiredly, restlessly pouring through countless archives concerning the history of the Hikari artefacts, he was finally rewarded by--
---
Fast forward 10 seconds.
"…" A barely visible twitch.
.:I never have trusted these annoying creations they call technology.:.
---
Rewind 10 seconds.
--a brief message popping up directly in his line of vision, cheerfully stating that his laptop had run out of power and would immediately shut down, and reminding him that 'any programs currently running would be closed'.
Ah yes, the wonders of laptops.
---
Meanwhile, very far away from where Satoshi was having a minor crisis with his laptop, a certain author sat at his table, pen in hand. Shigure looked up, tapping the pen thoughtfully on the table, much to the annoyance of Mii.
"Y'know…" he started absent-mindedly. "I don't know why, but I feel really glad that I don't use the computer for my manuscripts…"
Mii cried and shoved him back to work.
---
Daisuke blinked.
"Hiwatari-kun? Are you alright?"
Satoshi barely heard him, too busy struggling to stay awake. Despite the fact that, as a major figure in the police force, he should be much used to pulling late nighters for some reason the huge information overload of the past day or so was really taking its toll on him. At the moment, he was sitting, looking quite disgruntled, in a local café in town, a steaming cup of coffee present in his hand.
Daisuke waved away an incoming waitress and took a seat next to the teen. He smiled slightly at Satoshi's half-awake state, yet wondering exactly what was wrong with him.
"You look tired, Hiwatari-kun." --Way to state the obvious.-- "Did something happen last night?"
Satoshi rubbed his eyes blearily underneath his glasses. "It's nothing. Something…mildly distressing just took place."
The redhead tilted his head a bit in confusion. For Satoshi to describe something as mildly distressing was a tad…worrying. "Such as?"
"…my laptop ran out of power at a very crucial moment. I lost the pages I was searching for."
Daisuke couldn't help but laugh. "Hiwatari-kun must have been quite tired if he didn't notice the warning notices of low battery."
"I turn them off. They get irritating after a while."
The redhead just shook his head, smiling slightly. "Well, that shouldn't matter too much. It was an internet page, right?" Nod. "Why don't you check your history? It should all be there."
Satoshi's head promptly hit the table.
---
Kyo lounged on the wall surrounding the Sohma estate, eyes closed in boredom. His sensitive ears could faintly hear the sound of talking from somewhere within the main house, not that he paid attention to what was being said. He had been allowed into the general area of the house for a total of five minutes, where they were briefly explained the details of the situation, before he was hastily shoved back to the outskirts of the estate.
One crimson eye opened in thought. So Akito was 'mysteriously struck down with an illness that has caused him to fall into a coma', although what exactly happened was unsure. As far as he knew, Hatori had been the first one to find him, slouched over his favourite window seat, unconscious.
If you asked Kyo (which no one seemed to like doing anyway), the circumstances were just the slightest bit suspicious. Replace 'slightest bit' with 'obviously' and you'd be about right. Sickness be damned, if they hadn't found anything wrong with Akito yet then it wasn't likely that the cause was natural. Even Kyo could figure that out.
Although, for the life of him, he could not understand how a coma could be inflicted upon another person without a visible cause. Neither could he understand why someone would want to do that.
A slightly feral grin appeared on his face. He himself though, had plenty of reason to wish to give that bastard a good punch in the--
"Oi. We're leaving."
His ears perked at the sound of another voice, and he looked down from his dramatic pose on the wall. His grin quickly transformed into a snarl.
"I'm coming, dammit!"
---
"And…here we go!" Daisuke smiled triumphantly, lifting his fingers from the keyboard. "Is this what you were looking for, Hiwatari-kun?"
Satoshi peered at the laptop screen, his mind registering that it was the same page from the night before. "…yes, this is it. Thank you, Niwa-kun."
Daisuke waved it off. "No worries." His red eyes ran over the lines on the screen briefly. "What's this anyway? Must be pretty important if you were that desperate to get it back, Hiwatari-kun." The redhead scrolled up, eyes flicking towards the title of the page. "The…Jewel of Diversity?"
He turned to look at Satoshi.
"Is that another Hikari artwork?"
"…yes."
"You were looking up a Hikari artwork."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I felt the need to know its whereabouts." Satoshi shifted his glasses indifferently. "Is something the matter?"
Daisuke didn't meet his eyes for a minute. When they did, there was a slight frown evident, yet there was a too calm look in them. "No, I was just curious." The redhead picked up his bag, the frown smoothing into a neutral expression. "Anyway, I have to be going Hiwatari-kun. I'll see you around!"
With a cheery wave, Daisuke quickly left the café.
Satoshi's gaze lingered at the door for a moment, before turning back to his laptop screen, dismissing the thought.
The dull murmur of people filled Daisuke's ears as he paced down the street, lost in thought. He wasn't focusing on the path in front of him; rather, he was concentrating on a certain thief inside his head.
-Dark.-
--Something the matter, Daisuke? Noticed the way you tensed up a bit back there.--
-Hm, maybe because I've heard of that artwork before?-
--…that's great?--
There was a cold, suspicious edge to Daisuke's voice now. -More specifically, I heard it echoing in your thoughts yesterday when you were heading home from god knows where. I'm guessing it was pretty important if I could hear it THAT clearly when I was half asleep.-
--Well now…--
-What is so important about it that both you and Hiwatari-kun are so desperate to find out about?- Daisuke demanded.
--Don't worry about it for now.--
-Tell me why, Dark! I have a right to know!-
--Well, I can't exactly do that.-- There was a bitter undertone in Dark's words. --You'd just forget it if I tell you.--
---