Disclaimer: I do not own Yami no Matsuei
CrazyYnMLoverxD: Welcome, Newbie!
AnimeAngelRin: Really? You like it that much? Well, thanks! I'm not used to characterizing someone as a b-stard, but if I'm pulling it off, well, it's all good. Nagare has plenty in store for him, as do the rest of the Kurosaki.
Kiko812: I used my Tarot cards. You see, I really wanted to do a plotline with Yoshiro, and had many vision snippets of what to do with him, but I didn't have a concrete plot. So I did an inspiration spread and tried putting action with principles (I use my cards very differently than most readers), and this was the result.
Amethyst-eyed Koneko: Konoe wins at life (or death. Or whatever). Maybe George can just burn Nagare in effigy (but make sure he's out of the house).
I had a feeling you'd find Kyoko's sing-song funny. I'm so glad I expanded on that scene (it was originally supposed to end when Terazuma introduced Nagare).
Now that you've pointed out how blasé Nagare is, it makes me feel better about having him go straight for Yoshiro first. My muses feel they are forgiven now. (Pets muses)
The quote comes from Far and Away (mid-90's movie about two Irish immigrants, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, one of the best movies ever).
My sister-in-law and I are huge Toriphiles (as Tori Amos fans are known as). Why shouldn't we be? The woman's amazing. I saw her in concert, and she stood between an organ and a piano and played each with one hand. Note-perfect. If you go to youtube, there's a YnM video to her song "Cruel" (it's kinda MurTsu, but it's pretty good nonetheless). Okay, end babbling. I have an LJ that I've yet to post at, so maybe my first post will be the YnM jukebox. Believe me, I have plenty songs for it. About the Etheridge song…perhaps "she" could be understood metaphorically for all the lies and excuses Tsuzuki made up to keep him from hating himself? BTW, I've seen that song for a MurTsu fic somewhere on this site.
laustic: Thank you!
FaerieRikki: I do believe we have another newbie on our hands! (Glomps)
Eternity's Heir: Here's the next chapter!
ureshiibaka: Wow, um… (Blush. Grins like an idiot)
Off-Topic Rambling: I'd just like to wish the trilogy a happy birthday (two days late)! 1/17/06 began Second Death, and here we are a year later! Thank you, all my reviewers, who have made the past year such a great experience for me with your feedback and enthusiasm. This chapter is dedicated to all of you!
All In The Family
"There'll be a storm tonight."
"Happy about that, Kasane?"
Kasane smiled widely and turned toward her boyfriend. "What, you're not, Byakko? I thought you liked storms."
"I do, but," Byakko said reluctantly, kicking at the wall of air bubble the wind Shiki had conjured to allow himself to breathe within the lake, "it makes the lake thrash around a lot. Besides, I broke my legs in the war a couple years ago, remember? Storms make my bones hurt."
"You're supposed to be a tiger, you wimp," Kasane teased, sticking out her tongue. "I can handle a little rain."
"Hey, if we had kids, they'd be ligers?" Byakko said, as if in a sudden flash of brilliance.
"Are you asking me something?" Kasane put forward coyly.
"What?"
"Never mind," Kasane said dismissively. "In case, I wouldn't want any kids of mine anywhere near this house."
"Yeah, your sister's not the greatest mom in the world, is she?" Byakko asked innocently.
Kasane stuck out her tongue, but in agreement. "I really screwed myself over when I agreed I wouldn't leave the lake unless Rui was in danger. I wanted to smack the sh-t out of her for what she did to my nephew."
"You'd think she wouldn't have been so down on Hisoka, seeing as what you two are."
"Oh, Heaven knows what she'll do if she ever acknowledges what exactly she is. Poor thing's head'll explode."
From somewhere within the house, Rui screamed.
From somewhere within the lake, Kasane broke her chains.
"What in hell…?"
Rui cowered in a corner, blood turning cold in her veins, as a transparent blue wall that smelled of freshwater blocked her from being impaled by a sword encrusted with an amethyst in the hilt.
"What's this?" Shizonai cried out, pulling Kushinada away from the barrier. "What the hell did you do?"
"Correction: I did this. At least give credit where credit is due."
"Who the hell are you?" Shizonai spat.
"Kasane!" Rui gasped, covering her mouth.
"Well, she just said it," Kasane said, gesturing to her sister. "Name's Kasane. And…"
The wall suddenly disintegrated into a tidal wave that crashed upon the proverbial shore of the floor, knocking Shizonai off his feet. He inhaled some water and choked.
"…that's my sister you're screwing with, so I'm gonna kick your -ss, okay?"
"No," Rui said, shaking her head. "No, no no…"
"Byakko!" Kasane called to her companion. "Do me a favor, sweets? Take Rui out of here?"
"Will do!" Byakko called back cheerfully.
"Unh-unh-uh!" Kasane chastised, sending a harsh spray of water at Shizonai as he lurched forward, wielding Kushinada.
"Maybe I should transform, yeah," Byakko advised himself aloud, changing into his white tiger form as unthinkingly as batting an eye. "'Scuse me, madam," he growled upon reaching Rui.
The woman promptly fainted upon hearing his voice.
"Uh…okay, it's not like she's never seen a Shiki before," Byakko muttered to himself, slipping underneath Rui to carry her on his back.
"What did I just say?" Kasane screeched, a glistening blue sword in her hands and blocking Kushinada as Shizonai put his full weight into the blow. "You are not…touching…my sister!"
Kasane threw herself forwards, knocking Shizonai off-balance, and suddenly in the place of Rui's identical twin was a shimmering light turquoise lioness, fangs bared, fur raised.
"A freakin' Shiki, is it?" Shizonai muttered, wiping a splash of blood away from his mouth.
"It's a tad obvious, don't you think?" Kasane returned, claws extending. "How many normal humans can randomly turn into a lion and do this?"
And with her last word, her mouth opened and a white ball of light shot forward from her throat. Shizonai moved to dodge but it caught his arm and slammed him against the wall.
"What the…" Kasane muttered, as the water receded and Shizonai was nowhere to be seen.
A sharp pain sliced through her front right leg, and a scream mixed in with a pained roar escaped from her throat as she half-jumped, half-stumbled away, blood gushing from her ankle.
"Kasane!" Byakko yelled, catching sight of her as he escaped.
"I'm fine!" Kasane yelled, suddenly again in her human forms and clamping her hand against her wrist to stop up the bleeding. "Get Rui out of here!"
"Don't think so!" Shizonai yelled, and suddenly he was next to Byakko, Kushinada raised high above the tiger and his passenger.
With twin yells Kasane and Byakko let out simultaneous attacks; the air and water combined upon impact and sculpted itself into a water tornado; sucking Shizonai into it and throwing him against the ceiling.
"Byakko, go!" Kasane shouted, shooting another stream of water at Shizonai through her hand even as blood from her wrist stained the palm she was using to support it. "Now!" she screamed, throwing more energy into her attack.
Byakko took off, his cargo flopping softly against his back.
"Next time, do a background check so you don't get your -ss handed to you!" Kasane screamed at Shizonai, wrenching her hand away and sprinting away in the path Byakko had treaded.
"Come on, come on, into the lake!" she yelled at Byakko. "Before they figure it out, please!"
"No need to yell at me, Kasane!" Byakko shouted back over the raging wind and rain, pouting. His feet planted into the ground and a translucent white bubble circled its way over him and Rui. With one final leap he sunk into the lake; a splash told him that Kasane had followed him.
"Kasane, where are we going?"
"Don't know about you, love," Kasane called back, and the rest of her reply was interrupted as they passed through a rain cloud. There was a sensation of falling through the air, and then Byakko was underneath her and she was arranging her sister so she was not sitting on her.
"But I think I should take Rui to Meifu," she concluded, ripping off her sleeve to tie a bandage around her bleeding wrist, and ripping off her other one to mop the blood off of her sister.
"Well, well, Bouya. It's been a long time."
"You don't normally talk to me in these dreams," Hisoka said, eyeing Muraki.
"And you're not normally aware these are dreams. Just proves that all things change," Muraki said, shrugging offhandedly and lighting up a cigarette.
"When did you become a Buddhist?"
"It's just common sense, Bouya. After all, I changed plenty in my lifetime—and now I don't exist at all apart from your memory." He took a drag. "But one has to wonder why I still exist even there; why I have such a firm grip on your psyche."
"Um, maybe because you raped me," Hisoka spat incredulously. "Twice."
"Well, that's certainly a factor," Muraki said, blowing out a stream of smoke, "but that's not the core issue, Poppet."
"Don't call me that."
"But you're just that." Muraki chuckled in his throat and took another drag. "Remember the last three years of your life? You weren't aware of me, but every once in a while I would visit you. It was deathly funny, watching you for that first year. My adorable little Bouya, clinging to the dead hope that your parents would actually feel some kind of compassion for you."
"Shut up."
"I think you hate me even more than you would have under normal circumstances because I proved to you that you are as much their poppet as you are mine."
"I am no one's poppet."
"Bouya, all one needs to do to make someone a poppet is to assign them a status lower than their own and then act on it," Muraki said, taking a drag on his cigarette. "You see, Poppet, to me, you were nothing but a blow-up doll that I had fun deflating when I was done with it. And to your parents, you are shit on their collective shoe. Moreover, Poppet, you look at your parents like bugs to be squished. That makes you as much a poppet master as I am. How's it feel? Invigorating, isn't it?"
"You're full of sh-t."
"Be that as it may, I make a valid point," Muraki continued. "And that is why I'm still here, Bouya. You've allowed me to conquer you. You might be able to shag Tsuzuki without having a seizure now, but I'm here nonetheless. Because you keep me here."
"Hisoka-niisan?"
"At this rate, Yoshiro is never going to sleep ever again."
"He's sleeping right now," Tsuzuki corrected, pointing towards his brother-in-law.
"You know what I mean, Tsuzuki," Hisoka said. Yoshiro was sitting in his lap, using his stomach like a pillow, lightly dozing after the cognitive nightmare that had sent him running into his brothers' bed. "This is the second time in a row he's woken up in the middle of the night."
"I know," Tsuzuki said, running his hand over Yoshiro's black hair. "So this time we have two women, a tiger, a demon, and a sword."
"The demon and the sword are obviously Kushinada and whoever split her soul," Hisoka said. "The tiger…Byakko? He's the only thing I can think of."
"What would he have to do with this?"
"Oh, hell, I don't know, but he's the only thing we've got," Hisoka said. "What about the two women? It's kinda obvious that one of them is my mother, but the other…"
"Kushinada?"
"No, she's the sword, remember?"
Yoshiro stirred in Hisoka's lap and both of his brothers tensed, preparing for him to cry out again, but he merely resettled himself.
"It scares the crap out of me to think what my father would have done with Yoshiro had he been able to take him," Hisoka said, brushing Yoshiro's bangs out of his face.
"Yeah, me too."
"You remember when we first found out my mother was pregnant? I didn't know if I could love my brother. I remember specifically asking myself if I would kill him out of jealousy. You told me I had too much self-control to do that. Too much…" His hand went to his mouth. "And now I'm as terrified of losing him as I am of losing you. I can't believe I ever thought that about him…"
"That changed, though, remember? When you brought him home, you wanted to save him from your parents."
"Looks like that backfired on me," Hisoka said with a bitter laugh.
"Hey, we still have him, don't we?" Tsuzuki replied. "And no one else is ever going to have him. Until he gets older, and then Kyoko or Ayame, or hell, Hiko or Daichi might snatch him up."
"Let's not play matchmaker with our five-year-old, okay?" Hisoka said, relaxing against the wall he was using to support himself.
"You're already playing the mother-in-law…okay, I'll stop," Tsuzuki said, seeing Hisoka's eyebrow cock dangerously.
"…I had a weird dream, too," Hisoka said after a long pause.
"You haven't had one of those in…hell, practically not since you brought Yoshiro home."
"It wasn't that dream, exactly," Hisoka said. "Muraki and I were holding a conversation."
"That's not something I expect to hear from you."
"He was once again trying to convince me that I'm like him, and this time he was using how I feel about my parents."
"What, did he say that you want to rape and murder your parents?"
"No…he said that because I despise them so much, I've dehumanized them…just like he did with me."
"No, that's not the same," Tsuzuki said. "You have a reason to hate them. He had no reason to hate you."
"Mm." Hisoka looked down, running his fingers through Yoshiro's hair.
"What's wrong?"
"You remember how you said to Yoshiro, the first day he was here, that we loved him already? You said that because he's family, right?"
"I guess."
Hisoka hesitated. "That's…exactly. Family should have unconditional love for each other. That's hardwired."
"Yeah."
"So why the hell…why did my family not seem to get the memo? Including me?"
"Hey, hey, hey. No self-hate. That's my department." Tsuzuki smiled, leaning forward on his hands. "I'm about to have one of my very rare insightful moments, so no interruptions. You had the memo, and they ripped it up into little pieces. But you obviously remembered what it said, because we have this one." He gently ruffled Yoshiro's hair. "And besides, I think love is conditional. You love people, not…"concepts", is that the word I'm looking for?"
"Sounds right."
"So stop worrying," Tsuzuki said, taking Hisoka's face between his hands and kissing his husband's forehead. "You are nothing like that bastard. I wouldn't be here if you were."
Hisoka let a half-smile trip from his lips. "Thanks."
"That's what I'm here for," Tsuzuki said, and smiled. "Okay. Let's put this one back to bed. Let him think he can teleport in his sleep. He'll think that's cool, right?"
"You're such a loser," Hisoka said, allowing a laugh in his voice as he cradled Yoshiro and slid his feet onto the floor, exiting his room and entering Yoshiro's to deposit the little boy into his own bed.
"I swear, you are so much like him that you could be his brother," Hisoka muttered, seeing the deadweight of Yoshiro flop gracelessly on the bed even as he tried to arrange Yoshiro neatly.
"Thanks," Tsuzuki called from the other room.
Hisoka rolled his eyes and managed to get his brother underneath the blanket. He paused, staring at Yoshiro's face. It really was like looking at himself with black hair.
"You're never going to feel that way about me," he said quietly, wondering if Yoshiro could hear him. "Okay? Never."
He bent down to kiss his brother's forehead, and then left the room for his own.
"I mean, 'cause yeah," Tsuzuki said, looking up at Hisoka as he re-entered their bedroom. "You wouldn't like it much if I loved you just because, right? It wouldn't really mean anything."
"But that's—…"
"What?"
"…Nothing," Hisoka said, sitting down on the bed. "It doesn't matter," he added, sliding underneath the bedclothes. Tsuzuki joined him.
"And why do you love me, anyway?" Hisoka asked, turning over to look into Tsuzuki's face.
"Because you are you," Tsuzuki answered, his hand traveling from Hisoka's face to his waist and pulling the blond closer to him. "And you are perfect for me," he added, planting a kiss on Hisoka's cheek.
"You're a total suck-up," Hisoka accused teasingly, burying his fingers in Tsuzuki's hair.
"Doesn't matter, does it?" Tsuzuki asked, smiling as he slid his arms underneath Hisoka.
"Guess not, because I'd say the same thing," Hisoka replied quietly.