And here we go again - from broody ex-doctors to something more lighthearted.

Also, pin method in plant cover density estimation is more time consuming if you reinsert pins for every row.

Hisoka looked into his watch. He had been standing in the yard of Judgement Bureau for good 15 minutes and neither Minami nor Tsuzuki had shown up yet and the youth was starting to get worried. Tsuzuki was habitually late but always some 5 to 10 minutes - irritating but not too problematic. He was not sure about Minami`s lateness policies so he assumed they both got lost. Not a wonder if Tsuzuki was leading the way. He paced some more, and finally sat down on the park bench. There was no point in wearing out his shoes.

He looked at the sakura trees and the pond. Next to them some sassafras was coming into bloom - apparently a new introduction of Count`s gardener to make the terrain less monotonous. Unlike the enchanted cherry trees which were meant to lose their pink petals for eternity in order to symbolize transience of human life, sassafras was put there on a whim and followed it`s natural life-cycle. Mostly because Emna could not be bothered to enchant that too.

-"These heels are killing me but they looked so innocent."

-"They always do."

Hisoka turned his head in direction of the voices. In distance he could see Tsuzuki limping with one shoe in hand whilst supporting himself on Minami`s shoulder. The lace high heels apparently had been a bad idea on his first heel training day, but they had looked so great on him that he just had wanted to risk it.

-"You could have just teleported here, you know?" Hisoka approached the pair whilst Minami was trying to suggest Tsuzuki half-floated while wearing heels to make it easier on him.

-"Sorry, Soka, I wanted to show Minami the shortcut, furthermore she is not yet too sure of herself when it comes to teleportation."

-"Also, I am horrible with finding my way so Mr. Tsuzuki kindly showed me the way should I ever decide to walk to work." That was the company policy though seldom the employees forewent that in cases when they were running late or just wanted to sleep in longer after a night out.

Hisoka eyed the smiling Minami warily, then shifted his stare to unhappy Tsuzuki. His sprained ankle was visibly healing so they should be ready to go shortly.

-"It is ok, just try to appear on time, we are at work." Hisoka mentally noted that he should practice teleporting with Minami since he was the second youngest employee and still was aware of how it was not to be able to do it well. Tsuzuki had finally decided to ditch his shoe attempt. Hisoka turned to him in a more stern manner and asked "Tsuzuki, could you manage wearing some more sensible footwear today?"

-"Ah yes, just let me teleport back." The brunette disappeared before anyone managed voicing their opinion on this. Hisoka groaned and rubbed his forehead. Minami just smiled bashfully.

-"Miss Minami, why don`t we practice teleportation in the meantime?" he finally suggested seeing that it was going to take a while.

They were being watched. A pale finger released the office shutter from where it had been bent open to form a gap for observation. A sliver of light fell over a black markings etched into the milky skin. Unpleasant, Emna had insisted on putting those restraints on him a couple of weeks after his arrival. He had heard rumors that Count had had a hand in creating those. They might as well have peed on his leg.

Muraki had been confined to this office for an expanse of four weeks now. From the two newcomers one of them would eventually become his partner, or so he had been told. He leant backwards and touched his eyepatch; in a way he was still recovering after emerging from death, his body still had to adjust. Or rather, he had to adjust to how his body felt to him now. It was not dissimilar to wearing a shoe which just does not fit. It was not painful, it was mostly tiring and he wondered if everyone in the office felt the same way and if so, how they dealt with it.

After the fatal night in Kyoto he'd also realized what fool he'd been. Even after the death, Saki had had control over his life. Come to think of it, Muraki had spent .. how many years that was again? He figured that would be most of his existence plotting to revive that person whom he hated so much. Just to take Saki's life himself. It dawned on him. I was thoughtless, how could I have killed him once he came to life with Tsuzukis immortal body sustaining him? He laughed at his folly. That wasn't even evil, that was foolish. His life-long experiment was gone now and so was the majority of his lust for Tsuzuki. Before Muraki desired him manically for his body and what it could offer him, harassment and emotional torture he put Tsuzuki through whilst delightful on their own served a greater purpose - his experiment. With that perspective now gone, he was more assertive about his views on the dark-haired guardian. Unless he managed coaxing Tsuzuki to destroy the ministry again he was useless to him at the moment. It was refreshing not to want him, it opened space for thought.

He remembered his victims. That was fun, he had to admit he missed the thrill of the hunt, the warm stickiness of blood on his fingers and fulfilling flow of mana through his body. He ached to feel that again. Ah He sighed, Nostalgia does no good at all. He returned his attention to the commotion in the yard. The girl with inappropriate footwear, as he had named her in his mind, had returned. From distance and with one eye it was difficult to say but she reminded him of Tsuzuki a little. Her gestures, the relationship with the boy, he could not make out what it was that they were saying, but the way they interacted rung bells. The markings on his arm prickled and he brushed a hand over them to soothe the sensation. That was odd, he had not felt them until now. He initially assumed that the branding was in place to make sure he kept his hands to himself with regards to the dark-haired guardian and would not cause trouble in the bureau, which would oftentimes fall in the same category. However when he experimented with the limits of the branding he found it more difficult to figure out. During his wildest daydreams which the brunette often was part of he did not feel any reaction. He was expected to use spells in his line of occupation in Meifu, so he did not believe that it would be a magical seal. So unless that was an equivalent of "Emna`s Bitch" in some demon language, the reason for it still evaded him. He really hoped it was not "Emna`s Bitch" though, that would be annoying.

He was disturbed from his musings by Huia, the second in charge of the demon extermination unit. She was one of the few people he was permitted contact with. The heavily built woman had the muscle mass equivalent to that of a professional rugby player, judging by her stance and attitude she must have been a soldier in her previous life. Her hair was jet black and long with a pearly white band across the tips much like the feathers of her namesake bird. It was not her real name though, no one in his department used their real names because of how dangerous it was to reveal it to a demon and should one drop a name carelessly in heat of the fight the repercussions might have been devastating for the entire department. So she was Huia the Bird, Muraki was yet to come up with his name but he had plenty of time before he went on missions and met the others. In the meantime she called him "You".

-"A pleasure to see you." In some aspects she reminded Muraki of Oriya, that was - quick to annoy.

-"`Afternoon, I have an new schedule for you. Looks like higher ups are done with you twiddling thumbs. Take a look at it before tomorrow."

After having a brief glance at it Muraki stated that he would need his both eyes for what was in for him. -"I cannot effectively confront a demon let alone cast a spell without precision of a binocular sight."

-"Tell me about it." Huia groaned. "Look, tomorrow you show us what you`ve got and it should suffice for now."

-"As a former physician I must stress that it will be dangerous for others involved."

-"Don`t worry, Doctor " she added mockingly " the rest will be out of shot."

He did not like this one bit. Facing off a demon with only one eye was as good as going against it blind, not to mention that his mana reserves and thus spell casting ability was close to naught. He closed his eye and meditated, trying to sense the presence of things around him. It would have to do for now, but he was not sure if his improvised and untested method would work.

Another location

The shinigami Trio finally arrived at the destination with one hour delay. Hisoka had abandoned all hope, anger and frustration and just ignored everybody. That made Minami and Tsuzuki feel bad, so the party was not what one could call happy. Their assignment was to pose as new service staff in a hotel fashioned after the immage of French province in order to conduct investigation. Hisoka was to be the bell boy while Minami and Tsuzuki would fill in for the two maids who were currently on pregnancy leave.

-"Wow, two at once." Tsuzuki sounded surprised. Minami was very quiet about the topic though.

-"I do not think that was a coincidence." Hisoka added.

"Such grand place, with an impressive amount of fancy stuff around it." Tsuzuki looked around the driveway which had bushes trimmed to resemble a barocco-style garden. That was fancy for him, that and seed catalogs which mysteriously appeared at his desk every once in a while. Ever the green thumb he rubbed the leaves of the foreign-looking bush together to see if it smelt familiar. They were being observed by a butler who had come out to greet them. Minami became visibly agitated.

-"Miss minami, are you ok?"

-"I-I cannot go in there." She whispered in a small voice. "I, I must leave, I cannot stay here."

Tsuzuki and Hisoka looked at eachother.

-"You take her to infirmary and I will talk to the butler." Hisoka whispered at Tsuzuki hastily. The brunette nodded swiftly and disappeared out of sight whilst carrying Minami in his arms. He was happy that even though his body had changed at least his strength had remained the same.

Hisoka pinched the ridge of his nose and exhaled. He will have to explain all this to the butler but luckily being an empath he could probably tamper with the perception of the human just enough to pass this up for something normal. He turned around and made a serious purposeful expression. He was well-aware that he looked like a boy and would not be taken seriously so he had to give it all he had.

-"Hello, Monsieur Lelust, I am representing the agency you hired for the supernatural investigation, pleased to meet you. My colleagues had to leave on an urgent errand - I believe our trainee had forgotten an important piece of equipment but I assure you they will return as soon as they can. In the meantime could you please give me some background details about what has been happening and I will make sure to relay this to my colleagues."

On the other side of the veil Tsuzuki landed with Minami in grasp just at the ministry door but something was off, she was starting to have a seizure.

Oh God, Tsuzuki thought. "- Someone help me!" He yelled whilst charging down the corridor in direction of Watari`s lab with the unconscious woman writhing in his grasp. "Minami is in trouble!"

-"I am a scientist, not a doctor Tsu! We need to take her to the infirmary."

They laid her on the bed in the infirmary. Tsuzuki was holding her down so that Watari could examine her as she writhed on the bed in agony. She did not seem to be hurt and she did not have any signs of bleeding however she suffered not like an immortal but like a human.

-"What is happening to her?"

-"I do not know but we need a doctor. Call Steller!"

Tsuzuki dialed the number of the demon extermination department as they were the ones most stocked with pro doctors - mostly because of occupational hazards relate with fearsome critters not willing to die. Steller was the main field doctor of their unit and unsurprisingly he was currently busy on field, whilst taking care of his team on the distant Shikotan island. The call got redirected and a sharpish voice responded.

-"Huia, great to hear from you - we need someone with medical experience and Steller is out on a mission. Yes, it is very urgent. You have somebody? Great come here ASAP!"

Tsuzuki turned back to help Watari to keep Minami from hurting herself, she did not seem to be getting any better so they both were relieved to hear the door of the infirmary open. Huia came in first accompanied by Muraki.

Tsuzuki fainted, Watari stood there trying to keep Minami down with one arm and trying to prop Tsuzuki up with the other so he would not hit the floor face first. Huia caught on quickly and came to Watari`s help by hoisting Tsuzuki in her arms.

-"Did you go to the depths of hell to find this guy?" Watari noted in passing still trying to keep Minami from flailing.

-"You told me you needed someone STAT, he is with us now, so what is happening?" She retorted whilst putting Tsuzuki on the neighboring bed and drawing the curtain, she was well aware of the precarious situation everyone was in.

-"How long has she been like this?" Muraki joined Watari at Minami`s bed and examined her pupils and mouth.

-"Ever since Ts.. This morning when they arrived at the location of the mission." Watari internally slapped himself for almost giving Tsuzuki away.

Muraki kept examining Minami noting that the convulsions she had seemed to be originating from her abdomen. "You would not happen to have an ultrasonic imaging device handy would you?"

In response to that Huia snorted and Watari shook his head.

Muraki frowned and placed his one hand on her abdomen and the other on her lower back -"I am not a midwife but judging by the manner of her convulsions it almost seems like she is giving birth." Muraki did not waste more time in letting his two other colleagues acknowledge what he was saying. "Either way she needs muscle relaxant shots if we are to stop this."

Watari dove into the side cabinet and retrieved the medicine in question, pulling a syringe full of it he handed it to Muraki. "Please hold her one arm steady for me." Muraki stated. It felt awkward for Watari to cooperate with Muraki on such casual grounds but the situation called for it. Once they noticed Minami was starting to calm down, Watari plopped on the nearby chair, Huia lent against the wall and Muraki felt as if finally days of his restraint were over.

-"What about your other colleague, is she ok?" he referred to Tsuzuki who still had not stirred from his dramatic faint. Muraki was curious about her but he did not want to make it look too obvious.

-"Huh?" Watari blinked and suddenly it clicked. "Yes, yes, she is fine, just a bit sensitive - I think seeing this was a bit too much for her."

Muraki turned his attention to currently still Minami. -"I am fearing that this may start again once the relaxant wears off. What were you doing?" The guardians were dead for all reproductive purposes as well. "The place she visited might have triggered a traumatic memory?" Muraki offered based on his infamous experience with Tsuzuki and restoring his memories.

-"I`ll run background checks on this but it would be highly unlikely that she was sent to a place which held so much significance for her so soon."

-"She might have volunteered to do it." Muraki offered. "Grudges run deep."

Watari was already getting up in direction of the door when Muraki stopped him by putting a hand on his forearm gently.

-"Excuse me Mr... Watari, is it? Seeing as I am not allowed to come into contact with anyone from summons section unless it is an emergency I wanted to ask how Mr. Tsuzuki was doing."

Watari balked at such blatant question but stopped Huia before she managed to intervene.

-"Thanks Huia, I will take care of this." The blonde turned to stare Muraki in the face despite being shorter than him. "Look, Muraki, I know for a fact that many of us here linger because of what we did in our previous life. And unlike you most of us have the privilege of others not knowing what it was that we did. I like to think that most of us try to change and become better people than we used to be, you included. However, in light of what happened and how close to home your question hits I do not think you are entitled to this answer. "

Muraki bowed his head. -"You are right, Mr. Watari, it was selfish of me. Good day." He turned and walked out the door and Huia followed.

Watari made a mental note to talk to Huia later about their Muraki situation and turned around to check on Tsuzuki. When he drew the curtain two anxious purple eyes stared up at him.

-"Is he gone?"

-"Yeah, man, who would have thought. We will need to speak with Chief Konoe and Tatsumi as well."

-"I was thinking about Hisoka." Tsuzuki drew his knees to his chest.

Watari plunked himself on infirmary bed next to Tsuzuki and tilted his head back and exhaled. "Myeah... Though give the kid some credit - he has faced the guy off on several occasions with better results than you, Mister."

-"He is strong, but should we tell him or should we let him find out by himself."

-"You have a case to solve, right? You will probably want to stay 100% focused on that and granted that you personally will not be able to do that anymore I would vouch for after you return to bureau."

-"He is an empath, he will know something is off."

Watari shrugged - "Then you tell him if you cannot sidestep the issue and explain why you decided not to tell in the first place. He is a reasonable enough guy to understand."

-"Do you think he recognized me?" Tsuzuki said after a pause.

-"Difficult to say, if he did he made no actions to confirm it."

-"He asked how I was..."

This made Watari stand up, seize Tsuzuki by the shoulders and give him a shake. "Stop Stockholm-syndroming and better yet - forget you ever heard what he said. With that question he might have been gauging whether or not you were still present or still in the active force. On the off-chance he was being sincerely worried about your well-being, well, too bad, he should have worried about that before."

Tsuzuki nodded faintly and looked outside the window. -"I am scared, Watari."

-"They better have a damn good reason for reviving that asshole." Watari`s expression was uncharacteristically dark.

-"I should be going now." Tsuzuki started shuffling his butt off the bed. "Hisoka has been on his own way too long, would you mind keeping us updated on how Minami is doing?"

-"Sure thing, Huia will send Steller over the moment he arrives."

With that Tsuzuki teleported out of the infirmary. He did not go straight back to their assignment area either. He needed some time to come to terms of what he had witnessed that day. Surely a half an hour more would not change much in terms of their progress. Not on this case anyway and he needed to get his bearings together before he could face Hisoka. He went to the human world and perched on the rooftop of a Christian church. Sitting next to a gargoyle he wondered many things. For one, until that moment he was under impression that Muraki was still alive. Hisoka had confirmed it a couple days after Shion University fire - his curse marks were present but were they still there now? He had forgotten to ask, Hisoka also never mentioned them again. He now regretted having blissfully pushed Muraki out of his mind on account of the complicated cases they had been going through recently. Had he died in weeks following that incident? Why did no one tell him? Who else knew?

Most importantly - what had possessed Lord Emna to revive him of all people? Then again, he thought back to his sins ashamedly, probably the same reason why Emna had revived Tsuzuki - their potential. He shuddered, he had not voiced his thoughts to anyone, walls had ears in the department and unless it was some silly banter about the private lives of his colleagues such disturbing thoughts were better kept to himself. Even so - one could not be forced to become a shinigami - agreement was always necessary. Some of the occupation would make the occupation appealing to a man such as the pale doctor; becoming a guardian of death would mean an immortal body which Muraki coveted and a green light to take life, when necessary. However serving anyone seemed out of question when it came to Muraki. So why did he agree? Probably out of fear of whatever was in store for him in hell, Tsuzuki reasoned. Didn`t they all...

Sympathy felt strange and unnerving when applied to Muraki and the brunette left it at that - no need to burden his mind more then necessary. If Huia was half as good a superior as he`d been let to believe, there should be no issues...unless Muraki was better at fooling everyone.

Tsuzuki let out a sigh and looked into his wristwatch, his half an hour was up. He braced himself before meeting Hisoka, they had that tedious case on hand which was initially meant to train Minami... he did not dare getting too hopeful but perhaps she knew something about the place they did not. He vanished from the rooftop to land on the same driveway from which they had started just that morning.

The following day Muraki met Huia in the training room. She was dressed in dragon-skin suit which was naturally impervious to a wide array of spells.

-"Fetching." Muraki noted. He wore a similar attire but in regular leather.

-"Judging by your record I will assume you are familiar with the majority of low-energy demons out there."

-"To a certain degree, yes, the readings did help filling in the gaps." Muraki admitted.

-"Good, because we will try something else today." Huia`s expression was neutral. "Try casting a spell."

-"I cannot." Muraki explained having mentally accessed his mana pool at the very beginning of his new existence. Not having drained a human life since he had been reanimated meant he had no mana of his own left.

-"Just checking." Se looked at him snidely, from the corner of her eye. People being familiar with his circumstances made him feel uneasy, it went in contrast with the way he had shaped his entire previous life. Chances were Huia knew the way he operated better than anyone else. "Now, try casting a spell." She repeated.

-"It is a futile..."

-"Do it!" She interrupted him not impolitely but in a manner which indicated he had no clue what he was talking about. To his surprise he started feeling the rush of mana flowing through him. It was like drinking water after being dehydrated. It hurt and it felt glorious. Just like his first kill Muraki thought he might faint. His fingers trembled, had he been a more reckless man he would have blasted Huia away with the strongest thing he could muster, but he did not have enough mana for that. In fact now that he had grasped the volume of what was available for him it felt like the flow was controlled. He could not conjure anything serious with it or summon anything.

-"A controlled mana flow, who is the supplier?"

-"Why don`t you show me some fireworks instead?" Huia ignored his question. Probably the information was classified.

-"I do not have much for anything impressive."

-"You have plenty if you are mana-efficient." When Muraki was alive he had plenty of prey and his hunting created a desirable side-effect for his purposes so he had never bothered with it. However until he could kill again it would be useful to learn to retain some of the mana channeled through him. He focused and threw a spell at Huia, she did not even budge, the spell of this caliber could not hurt her. Just before making contact the seal changed the direction and veered upwards from her and attached itself to the ceiling, creating a twin seal below it on the ground inches away from her feet, opening a portal.

-"OK, so this is your best shot."

-"Unfortunately mana efficiency had not been on my priority list."

-"I see that, it is not a dimensional portal is it?" She examined the spell, it was a portal to a floor below and above. She nodded to herself. "Did you make it unpenetrable on purpose or were you unable to overcome the seals in the room?"

-"I believe having future colleagues fall through the floor would make for an unpleasant first impression."

Huia snorted at that. "By now you should have enough mana for another attempt. Show me an attack spell."

By the end of their session Muraki felt drained, the mana had left his body again and he was aching to feel that flow once more. Huia unbuckled the sleeves of her suit to let some air in. "You are lacking in things which can be learnt." She concluded. "You do have a very low mana retention capacity and I am not sure that can be expanded much."

When he had been alive he had sacrificed his one eye in order to be able to retain mana. Which was also a reason why his mechanical eye used to glow red whenever he tapped into abilities which required mana. However fashioning a new one was not an option for him anymore. "Would it matter if I have my anonymous source of mana?"

-"Yes it would." Huia pushed the suit sleeve up revealing a tattoo on her arm similar to his. "Distance matters."

-"Figures, if the room was sealed you had to be the supplier." Large body mass worked similar to a resistor when it came to mana retention. However what seemed curious was the interface for mana reception - a branding not dissimilar to the curses he used to draw on his victims to drain their energy. "This is a modified curse, isn`t it?"

-"Yes, but unlike a curse, the recipient-supplier relationship is interchangeable."

-"What if a doppelganger mimics the tattoo? How do you prevent hijacking the connection?"

-"I am afraid I cannot disclose that but rest assured we have safety checks in place for these situations." With that bit of information Huia dismissed their session and Muraki left for the showers. He removed his training suit and took off his eyepatch, Huia did not feel like the type that generated mana on her own either, so how did she get it? He examined his markings in the mirror; their initial purpose was not to restrain him but to give him access to mana, however that did not explain why they reacted earlier that day. He slid his fingers over the dark marks, they did not possess the same quality as a tattoo which would feel a bit raised from the level of the skin. It looked more like something someone had done with a permanent marker. The good news was that the markings were not visible to regular public, so he did not have to worry about looking conspicuous, that is more so than he already did.

He dried his hair and rested the back of his head against the tiled wall of the shower. More importantly he had to figure out where he was going with this. Not having a plan made him feel inert and dull. He needed an aim just to keep his senses sharp.

Once he was done he met Huia in the corridor and she escorted him to his office.

-"Is there any chance that you will stop treating me as a fugitive?"

Huia shrugged -"That is not up to me to decide. You caused a pretty big mess here a while ago, higher ups do not take that lightly. Which brings me to wonder why they bothered reanimating you at all."

Muraki gave her a wry smile. He was not expecting to be treated any better than this. -"I fully understand the concern but despite all odds I am here and I have been idle for the last 4 weeks."

-"Time is not of concern to us, if anything that is what we have in abundance though..." She trailed off. "Ok, here is something you can do - we will see how much mana you can retain and hopefully with practice we will be able to increase your capacity. You are to retain the amount of mana I give you now for 2 days." She clicked a little timer on her wristwatch. "This will be keeping your score."

Muraki felt that familiar comforting flow through his body. "You would not have any tips for that I imagine?" He referred to his current mana problem.

-"Check the intranet, I`m sure they have tips for newbies."

-"What if I fail?"

-"The joke`s on you then, smartass." She gestured with one hand by swiftly moving it up in a manner which indicated that she was of Italian descent. "Also," she added, "if you will use that for any funny business trust me I will know."

Back at the manor

-"Its tasteless." Hisoka announced, when they were having their evening tea at the servant quarters. He and Tsuzuki had been shown around the impressive building – all mahogany and velvet, shiny gold and silk tapestry with Japanese motive. Tsuzuki was impressed with such lavish furnishings but then again, he was easy to impress when it came to things he did not know well.

-"Island of French culture in Japan, my ass." Hisoka used an expression uncharacteristic to him and Tsuzuki took notice.

-"Did you pick that up from Saya?" Tsuzuki asked casually making Hisoka spit his drink. The senior colleague chuckled good-naturedly and patted Hisoka`s shoulder. "It`s ok, man."

That evening they had introduced themselves as Haiu Tasoka and Amie Yokushe. The butler from before, Monsieur Lelust, had shown them to their quarters - a small studio-like apartment with shared a bathroom and corridor. They had the rest of the evening for themselves, or rather - the rest of the evening to search for new clues.

-"Care to take a look around?" Tsuzuki offered once he was done with his cup. He felt uneasy resting in one room with Hisoka now that he new Muraki was around and closer than ever.

-"You go, I'll catch up with you." Hisoka mumbled, fumbling about his cellphone. Tsuzuki took the que and left the youth to sort out his love life.

He went out, breathing deeply, he liked spring and he needed moire time and fresh air to think than ever before. The setting sun cast long rays over the yard warming the balmy air and outlining each and every thing that flew through the air with a shimmery halo. He twirled a bit – he liked dancing and it was curious to see how his new body would respond to the moves. He wandered the vast garden aimlessly until he discovered a bush maze with trimmed, green passages. Out of curiosity he entered the maze feeling the joy of curiosity and just being alive, Watari said it had something to do with oestrogen – female hormone or something, anyway, that felt good. In close to no time, he ran into a man, not older than 25, quite attractive, he wore a work suit and held pruning-shears. Tsuzuki stuttered, that was unexpected.

-"Whoa there, lady, you shouldn't be wandering here, these are private grounds." He smiled in a friendly manner.

-"I work here, just started today." Tsuzuki laughed a lightheartedly, unaware of what effect he had on the man.

-"You must be the new babe everyone's talking about. I see you like the maze." Tsuzukis jaw dropped, BABE? He`d just arrived. He started feeling even more uncomfortable, it seemed like the gardener was talking to his cleavage, or at least his gaze lingered there. Suddenly the entire situation was skewing in direction which Tsuzuki was not wholly comfortable with.

-"You look lost, I'll guide you out." At the same moment Tsuzuki felt the heated forearm press into his waste.

-"Em, thank you, but I'm not lost." The man didn't seem to notice this polite statement, instead his hand "accidentally"slipped lower to Tsuzukis firm buttocks. "I said, I'm not lost! Stop groping me! And leave me alone!" The shinigami pushed the man away.

-"Look baby, there is no need to be so stiff." The gardener was approaching him again, arms half outstretched on his sides.

Something clicked in Tsuzuki which was as close to self preservation instinct as he could muster. He pulled his arm back and punched the man. He heard a satisfying crack in the vicinity of the man`s nose however he did not linger to gloat about it. Using the temporary stunned state of his unwelcome companion he fled the scene.

And this, my friends, concludes the next reviewed chapter.