Clary: I'm soo sorry~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm so sorry you guys, yes, I know I haven't updated for over a month~~~~~~~~~~ -cries- See, Lia went away for some girl scout camp thing and I'm useless without Lia~~~

Lia: This does not flatter me at all. I'm still angry at you.

Clary: But Lia~~~~~~

Lia: I told her to write at least two chapters while I'm gone and I come back to find out that she has written a grand total of ONE phrase: CHAPTER NINE. What kind of self-respecting, decent author makes her readers wait for over a month and only manages to write CHAPTER NINE?

Clary: THIS is why you exist, Lia. You're the editor here, so you're not supposed to go and leave. (And yes, I'm talking about college, not your stupid girl scout jamboree whatever)

Lia: We are not having this discussion. You are trying to revert the topic.

Clary: YES WE ARE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION! Do you guys know what she plans to do? No, you guys don't know what she is planning to do. She plans to go to college in FRANCE and LEAVE ME. Lia, I don't give a damn about your whole I-want-to-study-in-my-home-country-again complex, you haven't studied in France for more than ten years so don't fucking start now.

Lia: You're being selfish.

Clary: No, YOU'RE being selfish. What kind of good friend (and editor) leaves their friends (and writers) all alone?

Lia: Good ones.

Clary: ...Go jump off a cliff, Lia.

DEATH PLAY

Written by: Clary~

Acknowledgements to: not Lia, that's for sure (go and hang yourself, Lia, I hate you), Alatarielf (maa, I'm really, really sorry –cries- I missed writing for you guys, don't worry, I'll try to not let this happen again :)), neumegami (your AU was AWESOME! Can I just say that I love you and your drawings, they are AWESOME, I don't even know where to start with the awesome-ness :)), phoenixfirekitsune (-winkwink- Yes, we all love flirts~ I hope you don't get disappointed with this chapter... Lia took one look at it and yelled at me), lemon-and-chai (ohmygosh I love Ku-nii too! We'll see if Syusuke stays happy for long, ne? –wink-), Shuzuka (ooohhh... Don't worry, I love inappropriate things~)

IX. UNDOING DEATH

Persona was... nice.

Syusuke didn't understand it, but the closer they had gotten to Persona's temporary office, the more fidgety and nervous his brother seemed to become, and Syusuke became a little nervous himself, too. His brother rarely talked about Persona, he avoided the subject as long as it was possible, but body language said a lot of things.

All other Dangerous types that he knew who were in Persona's little circle talked about him rarely, but when they did, it was easy to see they were uncomfortable doing it.

It was almost as if they were... scared.

Even Atobe, who never looked afraid of everything, because 'ore-sama is superior to all, be awed by the sight of ore-sama's prowess' hesitated at the topic of Persona.

And nii-san, too.

They never had anything bad to say about him, though, and Syusuke knew enough to know that he treated those students he acknowledged nicely, so he didn't understand why nii-san worried.

It wasn't like Death was going to kill him or anything (... was that a pun?).

They'd reached the office, and nii-san had robotically ushered him inside, took one look at Persona and moved back to the hallway, closing the door as he passed.

And Persona was... nice.

He made tea (Darjeeling, his favorite), and smiled (not exactly friendly, but not hostile, either), exchanged pleasantries like a normal person (he was quite the conversationalist, Syusuke found out) and had a pet bird (small and black, whose breed he did not know).

Persona said it was not a pet, exactly, and told him to think of it as just a bird in a cage in the office that Persona was currently occupying.

"I've been wanting to meet you for a long time, Syusuke-kun," he said, eyes glinting with something Syusuke couldn't quite place. "Your alice is something of a rarity, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't know," Syusuke answered politely, staring at his teacup. "I... don't know much about alices to be sure."

Persona's smile widened a bit at this, though Syusuke didn't understand why. "Of course. You're quite sheltered, which is good."

Syusuke didn't answer, he didn't know if he should. It seemed more like Persona had been mumbling to himself than talking to Syusuke so he just kept his mouth shut and stared at the bird.

"I'll be frank," he heard Persona say, and he looked back at Persona once again. "I want you. Very much. I never expected to encounter someone of your type of alice after the massacre, but I'm glad I did."

Syusuke didn't answer again, this time because he didn't know just what to say.

Persona chuckled. "Did you know, you and your brother," he started, moving from where he was seated on the other side of the desk to where Syusuke was seated, bending so they were face to face. "Are both something of a legacy?"

"Legacy?" Syusuke turned his face up to meet Persona's gaze before he flinched and turned away again.

"The Tezukas have been in the Academy for decades. I knew your father. Your mother, too." Persona paused, and Syusuke bit his lip, staring down at the teacup clutched tightly between his hands again. He hated being reminded of what he'd lost. "Pretty thing, Ayana. And always full of surprises. I didn't expect her to be able to bear a child with such a close affinity to Death."

Syusuke followed the movement of Persona's hand as it carelessly indicated the bird in the cage. The bird gave one long screech, before it fell slowly towards the bottom of its cage, dead.

Syusuke felt its life snuff out, felt its spirit enter Death's waters. It was fighting, like the rabbit was, because its entrance to Death, too, was premature.

It wasn't supposed to die yet.

He looked at Persona's smirking face again, with a horror-filled realization.

He killed it.

"As I was saying," Persona continued, unconcerned, but Syusuke heard him vaguely, his voice was becoming distorted. He could feel himself slipping little by little to Death, drawn to the bird in the waters before the First Gate. "I never thought Ayana could bear a child like you. Her best friend, maybe, but that was before the massacre of the-"

The words cut off abrubtly and he was in Death again, reaching for the bird's soul and quickly turning back to life.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in Persona's office, the birds was chirping softly once again, albeit a little weakly, and Persona was looking at him with a smug, satisfied smile.

"You did that," Persona stated calmly, nodding to the direction of the bird. "You can undo Death."

Syusuke bent his head, trying to avoid the piercing gaze. There was frost covering the rim of his teacup, it must have been a repercussion of his entering Death. "I... I can. As long... As long as the soul has not passed through the First Gate yet and as long as the body is intact, I could do it without any lasting consequences on the person."

"And if the soul has passed through this First Gate?" Persona smiled at him, and raised his eyebrow questioningly, clearly expecting an answer.

He hated that question. He'd never tried it, he never did, he'd never wanted to (barring that one time of his family's death, but he wasn't thinking straight and he was just a child then, he had refused to know about the consequences), bringing back a soul that had passed through the First Gate meant... "I... I could still bring it back, as long as it hasn't passed on to true death, but not without a dilution of the spirit."

Syusuke looked away, wanting to be anywhere but here, talking about anything but this. "I could bring the spirit back, but it wouldn't... be the same. It would be... It would be bound to my will, and its body will continue to... rot."

"But it would still be alive." The tone was flat.

Why were they even talking about this? Syusuke didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to think about it, it was one of those horrible, ghastly things he knew that he wished he didn't. "Until I... allow it back to death, no matter what... no matter what happens to the body, the spirit would still be there. It would not die."

"Even if the body has... let's say, lost an arm or a leg or even the head?"

He didn't want to talk about this, he didn't want to talk about this, he didn't want to talk about this, he didn't. He found himself gasping, there suddenly wasn't enough air in his lungs, he wanted to stop talking about this.

"Answer me, Syusuke-kun."

No, he didn't want to answer him. They both knew the answer to the question anyway and Syusuke would rather not think about it, why was he even asking?

But he found himself gasping out a small, feeble, "Yes." He felt the tears gathering in his lashes, but he'd already started, what was the point? "Yes, a lost arm or leg or head or anything else wouldn't bother it. When it passed through the First Gate... the spirit's connection with the body had already been... terminated. If I bring it back, the body... would just be a mere... vessel. Whatever happens to it physically wouldn't matter much."

"It wouldn't matter at all, if I understand you correctly," Persona said, his hand cupping Syusuke's cheek.

Syusuke gasped at its coldness. He barely felt cold at all, considering how cold his skin was, but Persona... was icy.

Persona brought his face up so that Syusuke had to look at his eyes. Persona was smiling, smiling, and Syusuke suddenly understood just why all the people who knew him were afraid of him.

"Excellent. You're perfect,"he said, his fingers digging in to the skin of Syusuke's cheek. "Your brother is already mine, Syusuke-kun. And I want you."

He brought his face closer, and Syusuke had to work very hard not to flinch away. "You'll be mine, too, won't you?"

./.

Chizuru was getting tired of playing around.

It was fun, cutting down everything in the stupid park. It was ugly, she didn't like it, she hadn't liked it when they first came hereand she sure as hell didn't like it now, she didn't understand why the damn owner of the damn high-rise wanted a park made beside his high-rise in the first place, it wasn't as if business men had time to schmooze with each other on the sad, pitiful excuse for a damn park.

It wasn't fun that the only thing the damn brat was doing was dodging her, and doing a great job of it, too. She took pride on her precision, but it seemed that, no matter how fast she was, he was faster and he knew exactly where to go so she would have a damn hard time making a follow up.

Spending time playing around with an Academy brat that was doing nothing but putting a huge blow to her ego and making her sweat in her kimono wasn't doing anything good to her mood. One of the things she hated the most was sweating in her kimono, she never liked the sensation, and she absolutely hated what sweat did to her precious kimono.

That was it.

This brat was going to die and he was going to die very, very, very painfully. She didn't think Ashikaga-san would mind if this brat's pretty little face was damaged and cut up, she was damn angry and right now, she was past the point of caring for the damage blood would do on her kimono, it had already been damaged by sweat anyway, she was highly unlikely to want to wear it ever again.

The only thing bugging her was she couldn't seem to remember what those two brats did. She knew their names, she could identify it with their faces, and she'd painstakingly typed every single information she'd had on each and every one of Persona's little puppets in Ashikaga-san's computer after she broke into the Academy and she was sure she hadn't missed a single, vital piece of data.

But right now, when she actually needed it, she couldn't remember.

She had perfect memory.

"Getting distracted, Yurehime-san?"

She jolted back to the present. The voice came from somewhere to her right, closer than the brat had been the last time she looked, before she fucking spaced out.

What the hell was she thinking, letting her guard down like that?

She whirled to her side to face him, tightening her grip on her hilt, making sure that this time, this time, she was going to hit his pretty little face and make him beg for her to kill him.

Only she didn't.

She didn't move at all, she couldn't, her body was frozen in the position it had been and she couldn't get any part of it to move, no matter how much she tried.

"It was just too bad you had to forget about me," the brat was saying, moving into her view languidly, giving her a pleased, supercilious smile. "Or you would have known better to keep me away from your shadow."

He gestured to the ground, and Chizuru, who still had the freedom to move her eyes looked down as best she could to see that he was standing on her shadow.

He was the shadow alice user.

Fuck.

He must have seen something in her eyes, because the next moment, he had raised his clenched fist...

And her arm followed precisely every movement, down to the angle of the arm so that her katana was buried a few centimeters into her chest.

Blood was welling up around the weapon, and falling down her kimono, staining it. She supposed she really shouldn't be thinking about things like that right now, and she wasn't really, only a small part of her lamented about the irreparable damage this was causing her kimono.

For the most part, she was thinking of how to regain control of her body back so she could thoroughly mutilate the smirking little brat in front of her.

Damn him and his pretty little face all to hell.

"Let's see if I understand your anatomy, lady immortal," he said, eyes as sharp as ever. "If I pushed and hit your heart, you would die. You would awaken, yes, but you'd still die."

That was true and that wasn't a problem for her. He could kill her as many times as he liked and she'd still wake up without a single injury on her, and she, unlike Hinako, was fine with dying.

She'd just wake up again, anyway.

"I could kill you how many times I like and you'd still wake up so that I could kill you again." The brat paused, moving his arm so now her katana's bade was pressing lightly at the side of her neck. "Tell me, if I dismembered you, would you attach yourself back together?"

... Persona raised these kind of brats? No wonder, they were all just as sick and twisted as he was. She'd still wake up, of course, no matter how she died, but dismemberment was her least favorite. She'd tried before, once when she was in London and she had gone a step too close for a lord's liking, she'd woken up on a small dirty forest on some backwater little town that she'd rather not remember.

She was not overly eager to try again.

"Of course you would," the brat was answering for her, with the same patronizing tone. "I, on the other hand, play with shadows. They dance to my tune, and now that I have yours, I do suppose you understand that you can't escape right now.

"If you did, anyway, I'll just kill you, and your shadow would still be mine."

His smug smile was pissing her off. She wanted to-

"Oi, Yukimura!"

She hadn't even been aware of the presence of the other brat, but she suddenly felt her chances of escaping dropping from slim to none at all. She didn't remember what the other brat could do, either, and she suspected they were the ones who tampered with her memory.

The Yukimura brat was turning away from her, his gaze falling on the other brat outside her field of vision.

"You know, the park could be prettier," the other brat commented and she had to refrain from rolling her eyes.

"It's protected by a damn illusion, Chitose-kun," Yukimura answered back, his voice calm, though there was a sickly-sweet edge to it. "Can you get this over with? I'm tired and I want to go back to the Academy already."

There was a pause, and Chizuru used it to try and get escape from the control the brat had on her shadow. They couldn't kill her, she knew that, but she wasn't sure what that Chitose could do, and she'd rather not find out the hard way.

"What's her name?" she heard him say, and she had to admit she was surprised when the Yukimura kid, who had been calling her Yurehime up until now answered, "Maihara Chizuru."

Then suddenly, the other brat's face was the only thing she could see, with his slight smile and his magnetic eyes.

"Chizuru," he breathed. "Maihara Chizuru, from this moment on you'll do whatever I say. No one else's opinion would matter, you'll obey only me and no one else."

Just like that, she didn't want to struggle anymore.

Her body relaxed as she stared back at Chitose Senri, smirking at her as he pulled away, thinking how good an idea it was to follow him.

./.

He didn't know how long he had been lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, but he had been staring long enough to know that there were exactly 116 flowers, 92 leaves and some 21 vines carved on the white molding decorating the side of the ceiling near his bed. He was sure of the number after he'd recounted. Seven times. He wasn't sure if he was up for counting yet again, finding exactly the same results, but it was better than thinking about other things he'd rather not think about.

Maybe this time, he should count the petals of the flowers and the thorns on the vines, too, just for the heck of it.

He'd wheedled off of afternoon class easily, his nii-san thought it was 'prudent' because he was having 'post-death-walking-trauma'. He didn't have post-anything, of course, not anymore, not after he'd spent the entire day yesterday having 'post-death-walking-trauma' and he could have gone to his afternoon classes if he wanted to.

He didn't want to.

He suspected anyone else wouldn't want to do anything after meeting someone like Persona either, he was lucky he still had the strength to count moldings (and recount them seven times).

Who was he kidding? He was lucky he survived the meeting.

Why did he even think Persona was... nice? He wasn't, but he wore the mask easily, and Syusuke had been fooled by the act, and the mistake had driven him almost to the point of being hysterical.

He knew so much about what Syusuke can do, maybe even more than Syusuke knew himself, because Syusuke supressed most of the knowledge sometimes, he didn't want to be reminded of the horrible things he could do to the people he loved.

And Persona knew so, so much about him, it scared him.

Not to mention all the things he knew about people in general.

What was that he said about his mother? Something about not expecting her to have had a son like him.

What did that mean? What was so wrong with his alice that Tezuka Ayana couldn't have carried him for nine months, just like any other baby?

No, wait, he was thinking too much into it.

Count, just start counting again and stop thinking about it, he told himself.

He was just thinking too much.

./.

Persona knew he should somehow feel victorious over his latest (and frankly, one of his most prized) conquest. And he was, of course, he was ecstatic, but his inner celebration was somehow muted by the fact that he was baffled.

He'd been too busy being irritated these past few days to have thought about it, sure, but now that he wasn't irritated or busy or scheming, he had the time to think, and he was baffled.

He knew Tezuka Kuniharu, he was one of the students Persona cared cared about in his time in the Academy, and he knew Tezuka Kuniharu's pretty little thing of a girlfriend, too. She was his leverage against Kuniharu, and he'd been very glad of her existence, actually, because ever since he found her, all he'd had to say was 'jump' and Kuniharu would've had instantly replied 'how high?'.

He'd been able to squash all of Kuniharu's fucking morals because of one girl.

She hadn't been under his jurisdiction at all, and he couldn't recall which of the other ability types she belonged in, all he remembered was that Ayana was the Academy's best healer in her day.

Her alice was something deeply rooted to life, and not Dangerous Ability Type material at all.

He'd heard that they married, and he hadn't expected anything else, and he'd been looking forward to having their son(s) or daughter(s) to play around with, really, Kuniharu had been quite the effective, obedient puppet.

It turned out they had two sons.

Tezuka Kunimitsu, the older one, had the Alice of Pain. It was quite typical, for a Tezuka, though one with an alice as potent and as powerful as Tezuka Kunimitsu's was hard to come by, even for a Tezuka. He'd expected the older to have that kind of alice, too, though not as powerful, considering pretty Ayana and her healer abilities, but he was that powerful, and Persona had very gladly taken him under his wing.

On the other hand, one look at Tezuka Syusuke and all Persona had been able to think about, at that time, at least, when he hadn't known any better, was why the hell was this kid in the Dangerous Ability Type? Tezuka Syusuke looked as delicate as pretty little Ayana (and served as good a leverage as she had been) and Persona had often thought, more than once, that the kid had his mother's alice of healing, which begged the question why was he even in Persona's jurisdiction?

It turned out that Tezuka Syusuke had an even more covetable alice than his brother.

How it was possibe, though, was what Persona can't understand.

Tezuka Ayana was basically the embodiment of an alice of life, and even though the kid Syusuke had Kuniharu's genes, it shouldn't have been possible for someone like Ayana to bear someone like Tezuka Syusuke, whose alice provided him control and hold over death that Persona couldn't even hope to find somewhere else in the next fucking millennia.

Life and death. Together for nine months.

It shouldn't have been possible. Not for an alice as potent as Tezuka Syusuke's.

Or maybe it could be possible, Ayana was a strong healer after all. Knowing how celebrated her abilities had been, she could have kept herself and her baby healthy (not to mention alive) all through her nine months of pregnancy and labor.

... No, it still wouldn't have been possible.

It wasn't in their genes, they could not have given the fucking alice to Tezuka Syusuke even if they fucking wanted to, both of them had absolutely no fucking affinity with death.

Unless he missed something and the Tezuka family actually branched out and intermarried with another clan, it couldn't have been possible (should he dig deeper and research?).

If it was Ayana's pretty thing of a best friend though (what was her name? Yo-something), who married-

But they were dead. And so were all the Tezukas.

He had to bite his lip to keep himself from screaming in frustration.

... Perhaps he was just thinking too much. That could be it. It would probably save him a lot of trouble if he was.

Lia: You guys can see why I yelled at her for this chapter.

Clary: (Whatever, Lia) Not my best, I know... I'm sorry~~~~~~~~~~~~ Waaaaaahhhhhh~~~ I can't write properly when I know Lia's gonna LEAVE ME ALONE this time next year~~~~~~~~

Lia: I was talking about the fact that Issa couldn't write a single decent fight scene, I had to scrap it all off and just make do with what you guys read there. But once again, Issa blows things out of proportion and steers the topic back to college. (I'm still APPLYING, Issa, it's not even final yet.)

Clary: But Aunt Alice (and Rien) is (are) all for it! That's as good as final! Why can't you be like Elle and just study here?

Lia: Elle's majoring Music. I'm not.

Clary: I don't care, you're AMAZING at the clarinet, you could be a Music major like Elle.

Lia: Right, and you can write a decent chapter without me hovering at your back telling you to write already.

Clary: Liaaaaaaaaaa~~~~~~ I can't finish this without you~~~~~~~~~~ This is why we share an account remember? So I finish my stories?

Lia: There were extenuating circumstances.

Clary: What extenuating circumstances? Extenuating circumstances my ass, Lia. You guys all agree with me, don't you? LIA COULD STAY HERE and study to her heart's content.

Lia: ...(ignoring Issa) Please review~ I promise I'll make Issa write seriously so the same circumstances won't happen again. I promise. :)