Disclaimer: I do not own Yami no Matsuei

Shout-outs:

AnimeAngelRin: It makes me sad to see Kira go, too, but she had to, for several reasons. 1) It ties in with the overall theme of the trilogy story, 2) It was highly unrealistic that everyone survived Hell so I had to make up for it, and 3) I was channeling Joseph Campbell and had to get rid of the Wise Mentor.

What did you find intriguing?

I hated writing that fight scene. That's what took me a month. I'm never going to write action ever again after this story.

laustic: (Hugs) Thanks, sweetie.

jennamarie: Here we go!

SoE, chapter 3: Rui's relationship with her children is going to be explored in FP, and eventually resolved, hopefully believably.

SoE, chapter 4: I love Miya, ergo I put her through Hell. In the next story I might put up here, lots of crap happens to Miya.

SoE, chapter 6: I loved paralleling the end of the King of Swords arc. And I can see where you'd be leery of a holy entity being crass. But, it fits her.

SoE, chapter 8: Yes, I loves me some TeraBa.

SoE, chapter 10: His Empathy expanded because I didn't think that through very well. Okay, revisionist explanation: With Akuko's spirit in Hisoka's body, the Empathy's power was naturally somewhat suppressed. When Akuko was forced out of Hisoka's body, he manifested a body and his power returned fully. During the second rape, Akuko removed some of his amplified power and sent it into Hisoka. Then he died. When Hisoka woke up, his practice with controlling the Empathy helped him from completely overloading, though he had some trouble, which is why he later collapsed.

SoE, chapter 11: Ruka is made of awesome. I'm so glad I invented Illusory Magic. And I hope you start to like Touda/Suzaku. They are so Darcy/Elizabeth.

SoE, chapter 14: I just hope I pulled off all the emotions and drama that came with the recovery. I really wanted it to contribute to their emotional and romantic growth. And as for the plants conversation…read into it as much as you want.

FP, chapter 8: I'll explain what happened with Tsuzuki this chapter. And yes, Kira has unfortunately died. She threw herself against Shizonai's barrier, causing herself to explode. As she did, the vials full of Holy Water also broke, and enough did so that Shizonai was splashed and killed. Kira dying would have erased her soul, so she asked Hisoka to channel her. He did so, and once Shizonai was gone she left Hisoka's body to go to Heaven.

Amethyst-eyed Koneko: I thought Ed/Winry was sweet. See, I'm not especially enamored of Het, Slash, OR Femme Slash. In fact, in YnM, I have eleven Het pairings (Terazuma/Wakaba, Tenko/Riko, Oriya/Kira, Miya/Tatsumi, Seiryuu/Kouchin, Touda/Suzaku, Miya/Rikugo, Muraki/Ukyo, Maria/Kijin, Hijiri/Kazusa, and Miya/Hisoka puppy love—thirteen if you count Ruka/Shinji and Seiryuu/OFC), but only eight Slash (Tsuzuki/Hisoka, Kotaro/Kojiro, Mitani/Izuru, Tatsumi/Tsuzuki, Watari/Tatsumi, Tatsumi/Muraki, Watari/Oriya, and Muraki/Oriya) and four Femme Slash (Yuma/Saya, Chizuru/Rika, Maki/Mariko, and Tsubaki/Eileen—five if you count Ruka/Ukyo). Point? My shipping interests range far and wide. (Though I do love to see boys kissing, yes I do)

The Holy Water killed him. More on Kira's death this chapter. And we're just starting on the road to Nagare's character growth. And I don't think Hiko is especially stubborn or disobedient…I actually think I gave him ADD. That's a scary thought.

Kagehime: I love all my littl'uns, too. (Snuggles them) Yes, Kira is dead. (Sad)

A lacto-ovo vegetarian is one who has given up meat and animal products (gelatin, leather), but still eats eggs and dairy (milk, cheese). That's what I am, but I insist on organic eggs and milk. Oh, and my high school sang "Only Hope" last year, too.

MeghanthePagan: You are an absolute sweetheart, you know that?

Chrono21: Hope you had a safe plane ride.

Off-Topic Rambling: I seem to have a thing for losing pets during the course of this story. Our last pet chicken passed on today (5/3/06). She was twelve, double the average chicken's lifespan, and like Sebastian died peacefully in her sleep. I guess we jinxed ourselves, talking about how old she was…man, I wish the Gushoshin were real; they'd love her.

Regroup

"Hisoka, I'm…"

"Hm?" Hisoka turned around. Tsuzuki stood behind him, biting his bottom lip uneasily. For the half hour after the battle he had doggedly, almost religiously, avoided looking in Hisoka's face. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry…about earlier." He gestured helplessly. "That hasn't happened for nearly a year…I thought it'd stopped for good."

Hisoka studied Tsuzuki's face for a few seconds, before going forward and wrapping his arms around Tsuzuki's neck and planting a kiss on his lips.

"Don't worry about it so much," Hisoka assured in a soft voice. "You can't help it. You didn't ask for it to start happening to you. And I can always stop it, somehow…"

"It scares me, Hisoka," Tsuzuki protested, somehow unable to disengage himself from Hisoka's hold. "I could barely do anything to help you all today because of it…and if I ever lose complete control…"

"Stop it," Hisoka ordered, stepping back and slapping Tsuzuki's collarbone. "We already decided what we would do if that should ever happen, and I don't want to talk about it again. I don't even want to think about it again. Ever. So just shut up about it, okay?"

"Okay," Tsuzuki assured quickly, hearing the shake in Hisoka's voice. He pulled his husband back into the embrace. "I'm sorry."

"Just…can you stop dwelling on it, please?" Hisoka asked, turning his head away. "It won't change anything."

The last time this had happened, the last time the power that Akuko and Muraki's torture of Hisoka had unleashed inside Tsuzuki had threatened to take over the man's mind, was on a particularly dangerous mission just a year prior. Hisoka had been seriously injured, but he'd managed to drag himself out of his pool of blood to banish the red from Tsuzuki's eyes.

"I know," Tsuzuki said, releasing his hold and taking Hisoka's hand. "I guess…we should start fixing this up. And afterwards…I guess to Kokakuro, to tell Oriya that…"

He gestured around the battlefield, where not even a scrap of clothing that could be identifiable as Kira's remained.

"How you doing, miss?"

Kushinada's head snapped up from where her bloodshot eyes had been staring into a teacup of hot water. Touda was standing over her, looking down on her quizzically, holding a sake dish in his fingertips.

"Not so great," Kushinada said with a small ironic laugh. "I have an awful habit of losing any family I get. Just can't seem to hold onto them." She choked on the last word and buried her face in her hands.

"Hm. You're not your typical demon-queen-next-door," Touda said, sitting on the ground next to the scaffolding where Kushinada had been sitting for at least an hour.

"I guess that's a good thing," Kushinada said, taking a deep, shaky sip of her tea. "Can I ask…how is your family doing?"

"Suzaku stopped yelling at Hiko about fifteen minutes ago. Now she's crying. And scaring the hell out of him. Doubt that boy'll ever disobey her orders again." Touda allowed himself an affectionate chuckle at Suzaku's hysterics; his way of coping with the fact that he had almost lost someone as precious to him as his wife and his master.

"I'm glad to hear that," Kushinada said sincerely.

"Hey. What about you?" he asked, tapping her legs with his fist. "You've still got some of your family left. Tsuzuki."

"I'm just glad he wasn't hurt when Kira…in that blast."

"Why would he be?" Touda asked, straightening and turning towards her.

"The Holy Water…is toxic to us demons. The spray from the explosion might've…"

Touda racked his brain. Tsuzuki had never touched Holy Water as far as he knew, though he'd certainly been near it, but…there was that thing that Amaterasu had given him six years ago, for Hisoka's injuries. "He's touched Holy Oil before."

Kushinada smiled weakly, dredging up bittersweet memories of what the exorcist had explained to her when she had come across Kira's arsenal three days ago. "Holy Oil is oil and balsam. It can only heal. Holy Water both heals and kills. If I drank it or touched it…well, I'm only a synthetic demon, but it would target the powers I was given. It could weaken me enough to kill me."

"And Tsuzuki?" Touda demanded.

"I don't know," Kira said, leaning her head back and looking up at the sky. "He's demon and human…and since Susano started off in Heaven, Tsuzuki's part-angel, too. I have no idea what would happen to him if he touched it. I just…didn't want to take the chance."

"So keep this away from him, eh?" Touda said, and before Kushinada could acknowledge the comment Touda had snatched the vial from her side. "This all that was left?"

"That was all…Kira-sama…could afford not to use."

"But your evil genius has got to be stronger than Shizonai. This isn't going to help much."

"Kira-sama told me there's a miko to Amaterasu-kami in Meifu. She doesn't know, but the miko might be able to create some, or beggar some off Amaterasu-kami."

"Nice crapshoot," Touda said.

"Huh?"

"Never mind." Even Touda himself wasn't aware when or where he picked up the metaphor. He stood, tossing the Holy Water in the air and catching it in his hand, before holding it up by the rim. "I'd better go warn Tsuzuki about this stuff. Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome."

"The city didn't take much damage."

"Thanks, I noticed."

"You don't have to be an asshole, you know," Hisoka snapped, glaring at his only Shikigami. "There's no law."

"Apologies," Kurikara muttered ambiguously. "What do you want?"

"I was walking past you. I wanted to say something."

"Like what?"

"Like something civil? Like…like "thanks for helping us fight earlier"?"

"I'd have done that with or without you."

"Again, with the law about being an asshole…"

"You'd be better off thanking your father, given how much hatred you harbor for him—"

"I know why he fought," Hisoka interrupted snappishly. "He wants revenge on Kushinada as much as she wants on us."

"Doesn't explain why he saved Touda's brat."

"Why the hell should I know why he did that?" Hisoka shot back, and Kurikara smirked at the loss of temper. Hisoka caught it and gritted his teeth.

"You're damn desperate to make your father the scum of the earth, Hisoka-neko."

"I have every reason to," Hisoka said through gritted teeth. "The man f-cking abused me and took me off Life Support after letting me suffer in the hospital for three years. Pardon me if I'm not too keen on forgiving him for that."

"You wouldn't want my pardon anyway, even if I were to give it."

"That's probably true," Hisoka admitted unrepentantly. "Incidentally…"

"Yes?"

"What you said earlier."

"What about it?"

"Did your son forgive you? Or, would he have if he were still alive?"

"In that respect he was just as immature as you."

"So…you view us as the same?"

Kurikara shrugged. "I liked him better."

Hisoka could not smother the laugh that erupted suddenly from his throat. "I bet you did. I hope you did."

"Aside from that…yes, you two are disgustingly similar."

Hisoka moved to reply, but Kurikara had disappeared into thin air.

Sometimes Suzaku hated being a mother. It was difficult, it was time-consuming, and most of all, it was terrifying. Especially when you had an eternally distracted and consequently disobedient son to look after.

"I take it the boy is fine?"

Suzaku swung around, her hand going for the hilt of the zanbatou strapped to her back by its sheath.

"For Heaven's sake, woman, calm down," Nagare said flatly.

"Hmph. I'd just as soon treat you as an enemy as Kushinada," Suzaku snapped, turning around.

"Ah. Another person who hates my guts. You're becoming quite an organization, you know."

"Don't tell me you don't expect our hatred," Suzaku said, snorting.

"Oh, I expect it. I was also at least expecting some sort of begrudging gratitude out of you."

"My son is alive because of you. I thank you for that."

"Well, then."

"But your son is dead because of you."

"I realize that."

"One doesn't cancel out the other. I still think you're a scumbag."

"Ah. Then there's no reason for me to stay in your company, is there? I'll take my leave of you."

"Hang on a minute." Suzaku turned around once again. "Why did you save my son? He's of no consequence to you."

"I had no reason to let him die. Good Lord, you people must think I kill and eat babies."

"Somehow that mental image isn't hard to construct."

"Well, that's of no consequence to me. Think what you like. I saved your son because there was no reason for him to die. Whether you believe me or not is your own business. If you'll excuse me."

"Asshole."

"As you like."

"Damn it's hot."

Kushinada had not been exposed to high heat for six years and so the Fuyuu Desert, once a barren alternate dimension, now proved to be a sweltering refuge.

"Shit," she swore, wiping sweat off her brow. Her only ally remaining from Hell, now dead. The handful of surviving demons had left neither hide nor hair of their whereabouts, and it was laughable to entertain the notion they might want to do battle with those Shinigami again, if they were even up to the task.

She felt a twinge in her stomach at the thought of those demons, demons that had loyally served her and Susano a bare six years ago, now scrounging for survival in Chijou, a plane they could help shape but barely survive in, especially with Hell eradicated.

She bit her lip and forced them out of her mind. They were out of her sphere of influence now. The only thing that mattered was revenge.

She pulled her sleeve up her arm and conjured a ball of energy in her palm. With her free hand she flicked the small mass away and watched as it morphed, beginning to take shape into a tiny, parasitic Shikome. Perfect as a spy. Without a powerful arsenal for direct combat, espionage was the trump card.

She pointed to the small parasite, sending a telepathic message to him. Without acknowledging that its psyche had been touched, it flew off, back from where Kushinada had just come from.

And we're back to the Boring Set-Up Chapter From Hell™. I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm letting you guys down big time; I haven't written anything this crappy since the chapter six fiasco in Second Death. And the fact that it's taking me a month to pump out this drivel…I'm really sorry.

Please put up with this for a little while longer. The next chapter gets started in on the suspense, and from then on it's pretty much pure action until chapter fifteen.

Once again, I'm really sorry.