Tatsumi checked his watch. He was five minutes early, which meant he was a little late. Frowning, he made his way behind Tsuzuki's house, to the big empty field which had once, in years past, been a pretty decent restaurant that Tsuzuki and Terazuma had destroyed in a drunken after-work battle royale.

In the distance, Tsuzuki sat in the tall grass with his legs crossed, fingers going through the complex motions of summons. Tatsumi's breath caught; he had never seen Tsuzuki form a summons so complex, so long…had he really been at it for the entire time that he had asked for? Tatsumi stood away, giving him plenty of room to work.

Finally, Tsuzuki called out a long sharp phrase, and the air shimmered before them.

Lightning cracked the sky, splitting it, and a maelstrom of black wind twisted down from the torn sky.

Tatsumi stumbled back in awe as a giant palace…mansion…no…house…no…hut suddenly tumbled down from the heavens and plopped itself before Tsuzuki.

Tsuzuki laughed and stumbled onto his feet, suddenly embracing this strange and unwieldy little shack with his arms stretched wide.

"Tenkuu!" Tsuzuki plopped a kiss against the wooden door. "I haven't seen you in forever! Oh, I missed you…"

"Tenkuu?" Tatsumi jogged up to the little shack. "I thought it was bigger…"

"Oh, he's scaled himself down to keep from smashing the entire neighborhood." Tsuzuki grinned. "Though I think he went too far down…I've never seen him this tiny before." He gave the door another smacking kiss. "You're so thoughtful, Tenkuu."

"Did it really take three and a half hours to summon him?" Tatsumi stared incredulously, touching the shack as if to see if it really existed. It felt like wood, but suddenly he realized what made it so strange; it cast no shadow.

"Well, about two. I took a nap. Also, I had to get something else to eat, because this kind of summon can't be done on an empty stomach." Tsuzuki smiled. "Come on. Let's go. Hisoka needs us."

"Wait…" Tatsumi smiled gently. "Hisoka needs you. I don't think-"

"Tatsumi." Tsuzuki took his hand, meeting his eyes. "You're right. Hisoka needs me. But I need you. I need your help. I can't do this alone. Please?" Meltingly. Plaintively.

Tatsumi sighed. It was impossible to say no when Tsuzuki looked at him like this. But there was also the matter of duty. "I don't know, Tsuzuki. I could stay and try to plead with Enma for Kurosaki-kun. Buy you time…"

"Tatsumi. You know. What happened…the last time Sato-san was sent to bring back a Shinigami." Tsuzuki's face had grown pale, and his trembling fingers felt like ice. "Remember? There…wasn't enough to bring back in a bag…"

"Tsuzuki…"

"No, listen to me, Tatsumi. You know a kagetsukai can get anyone with a shikigami, because summoning them takes too long. And I can't just have Touda or Suzaku following me around out there. The energy drain would be too much. I'm just saying…please…you're the only one in Meifu who can fight him."

"I can't, Tsuzuki. I can't…" Tatsumi shuddered. "He was my teacher. And…a friend."

"So don't fight him. But at least. At least try to slow him down a little. Before…before we lose Hisoka." Tsuzuki's voice cracked.

They stood there for a long moment, and Tatsumi looked at him, giving his hand a squeeze. Tsuzuki smiled at him faintly.

"Let's go."

"All right!" The door slid open soundlessly, and Tsuzuki stepped in, drawing Tatsumi along with him.

----

As they went quickly down the halls that branched out to infinity inside Tenkuu, Tatsumi caught glimpses of doors, of decorations. A glazed ceramic pot speckled with brown and black like a bird's egg, a branch of cherry flowers cut from a tree and set in water, a discreet wall scroll with an elegant line of flowing calligraphy celebrating the illusionary nature of the moon upon a mirror of water.

"Do you know where we're going?" Tatsumi felt nervous, fumbling around the insides of a powerful shikigami. "Does Tenkuu?"

"Tenkuu holds everything inside him. And outside. Worlds, dimensions...heaven, hell…" Tsuzuki grinned madly as they nearly sprinted along the vast corridors, their shoes echoing on the polished wood.

"How do you know which way to go?"

Tsuzuki tapped his chest. "Whatever I want to find, Tenkuu knows. And he'll guide me to the right door…it'll feel right. Right…right here." They skidded to a stop.

"Are you sure?" Tatsumi felt his stomach churn, imagining the possibilities of ending up somewhere awful.

"Sure as…sureness!" Tsuzuki's hand paused before the door, and he took a deep breath. "Thank you, Tenkuu-ojisama. Be sure to tell everyone hi for me." He slid the wooden panel back.

Tatsumi felt a rush of wind, the scent of the ocean…and suddenly they weren't in Tenkuu anymore.

----

It took them a little while to get their bearings, stumbling around in the dark, crunching through dead leaves. Finally, Tsuzuki summoned a little ofuda light, a pale luminous orb that followed them around, illuminating the orchard around them.

Climbing up a steep embankment, they looked around. Fields as far as the eye could see in a little valley studded lightly with farm houses.

Suddenly, Tsuzuki whipped around, pointing toward the hills. "Tatsumi, look!"

For a moment it had seemed as though the crimson streak over the distant hills would blot out the pale moon, swallow it like a snake eating an egg. But then almost as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.

"I…oh…oh my goodness." Tatsumi blinked. "Do you think that was-?"

"Kurikara? I don't know." Tsuzuki stared thoughtfully, as though he could fix the image in his mind. "But I know how we can find out!"

"How?"

"Go up there, use some ofuda magic…trace any lingering energies to its source." Tsuzuki grinned. "Maybe…maybe it can lead us to Hisoka. It's worth a shot."

"Do you remember where it was?"

"Not exactly. But this will help." Tsuzuki brought out a crumpled ofuda, smoothing it out before whipping it into the air. "Take us to the strange magic!" The paper folded and unfolded itself, before becoming a bird, hovering in mid-air as if waiting impatiently for the Shinigami.

"Well?" Tsuzuki floated up alongside the bird. "What are we waiting for?"

Tatsumi nodded, and with a little jump, floated up toward Tsuzuki. "Let's go."

----

Kagome, kagome…

Dark pink petals scattered, mixed with pine needles caught in the wind. He opened his eyes to find himself facing Kurikara.

Kurikara's hand brushed his cheek, moving a lock of wheat-blond hair out of his eyes. "Hmm. It doesn't look so strange. You're so dramatic, Hisoka. The things you were thinking, I thought your face had turned into a mirror of hell…"

Hisoka slapped the hand aside. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just being honest." Kurikara looked at him sidelong, and Hisoka's vision doubled strangely, one eye seeing Kurikara, the other himself. "See? You don't look as bad as you think you do."

"Shut up!" Hisoka screwed his eyes shut for a moment to block out the vision, and then ran, leaving Kurikara far behind him.

A few steps later, everything around him changed, and Hisoka found he could open his eyes without seeing himself running away.

A garden, weeping willows, a scatter of pink petals. A stone path. A broken arch that was somehow repaired. His childhood home.

He didn't remember it like this, trees lush and green, throbbing with life, the water beneath the footbridge teeming with fish, gold and silver, white and red.

"What…what have you done?" Hisoka stumbled through the garden, cracked flagstones replaced with smooth, dying ivy giving way to jasmine, filling the air with a faint sweetness.

"I'm making it better." Kurikara sat on a stone bench, and as his hand smoothed over the rock, it became lustrous, glossy with care, as fine as a pedigree horse. The ravages of time reversed itself, and under his hand, Hisoka could see the edge of curling scrollwork reveal itself again.

"You can't…you can't do this! This is my mind! These are my memories!" Hisoka raved, and he could feel himself turn in his sleep somewhere far away, his hair ruffled by a strange breeze.

"I'm a part of you now. And I'm not letting you go another step like this."

"Like what?!"

"Like a cripple." Kurikara looked up at him with mismatched eyes. "Like a weakling. Like…"

The sky turned dark, and the moon glowed a crescent silver in the sky. And then as he watched, the moon changed, fattening to a crimson yolk that hung bloated in the sky.

Kurikara caught the shred of a cherry blossom in his fingertips as it floated by and he curled the little shard between his fingers before letting it fall. "Like the dream you have almost every night."

"No…no…! You…you stay away from my memories!"

Muraki's unnatural eye glowed a ghastly blue, floating over him like a neon firefly.

Any moment, the pain would begin again, and-

"No!" Hisoka startled awake so violently that he flung himself out of the narrow bed.

"Holy shit!" A second later, James hit the floor hard, falling out of his chair. "For the love of- what's going on…is something wrong?" He rubbed at his eyes, startled out of deep sleep.

"No…no. Sorry. Just…a bad dream." Hisoka straightened himself up sheepishly, embarrassed.

"Oh…is that it…" James winced, rubbing his hip.

"Are you okay?"

"Course I'm fine." James stood up, dusting himself off, careful not to stare too much. "Uh, guess it must have been a hell of a nightmare."

"Yeah. I guess so."

"Well, I'd have nightmares just as bad if I could call up uh, big ol' flying snakey things too." James nodded. "No disrespect meant, but I'm just saying, it's not natural. Never seen anything like that before, 'less you count that year I got sent out east for a spell and saw them thunderbirds…"

"James uh-san… If you don't mind." Hisoka rubbed at his head. The last thing he needed was another rambling story at whatever o' clock it was.

"No, not at all…" James replied quickly. Too quickly. "Uh, you want some breakfast? Bout sunrise anyhow, and I don't think I'm gonna…well, maybe I'll catch a nap later…"

"Sure." Hisoka wasn't hungry though, but anything to keep the foreign Shinigami busy and not filling the air with useless chatter.

Like Tsuzuki. It left an aching, stinging guilt in the pit of his stomach.

Hisoka sighed and sat back down on the cot, watching James fumble his way through eggs and pancakes.

----

Tatsumi stood on guard, feeling the shadows of trees, grasses, and scrub shiver in the wind as Tsuzuki walked around the grid he cast. Absently, he listened to Tsuzuki list the trace energies he could follow, Hisoka's, the demon's, the shikigami's…

And remembered how a long time ago, as a new Shinigami, he had been drawn aside while others studied ofuda magic, separated from the others like wheat from chaff. Taken by Konoe to Sato's house, to train in the art of shadow magic…

"Tatsumi!"

"What?"

"Are you listening?"

"Yes, sorry. I was just thinking. Did Sato leave any traces here?"

"No." They both sighed in relief.

"I think I figured it out. See? Only one set of footprints leave the site, and they're not Hisoka's."

"Boots?" Tatsumi stepped closer, tracing the imprint with his senses, feeling the way the shadow settled in the footprint.

"I guess…whoever it was, carried Hisoka away."

"An enemy, perhaps?"

"No, I don't think so. I don't get that feeling from this." Tsuzuki scratched his head. "But at least we'll know where to go now." Tsuzuki twisted the ofuda in his hand, and the grid twisted to the north, Hisoka's energy signature floating above the air like a pale green mist.

Tatsumi nodded, and began following the faint glow. They walked in silence, Tsuzuki turning and shifting the ofuda grid here and there as the trail wound its way through the hills.