Can you believe that I ended up writing the beginning of this story in around 48 hours? As advised in the summary, this story is AU so characters won't have their powers from Demon Slayer / Kingdom Hearts. I have, however looked to write them as they are in the Show / Game. Hope you enjoy this first chapter and feel free to review it at the end!!

- Demon Wielder

Red Is All Around

Chapter 1

'Monday. It's Monday, you know this. You're going to be okay.'

Kyojuro flexed his hand around the pen in his hand, the plastic feeling warm and sure in his palm.

This was something that he was good at, he excelled when he was in-front of people; even if the only people in-front of him right now were just his two best friends, Tengen Uzui and Giyu Tomioka who weren't even paying attention to him.

In-fact, at that very moment, Tengen had his head bent down, frowning as he marked English Lit papers; occasionally the other man would run a hand through his pale white hair 'It's a personal choice, Ky.', muttering about how kids today don't know anything about making things FLASHY.

Giyu on the other hand was staring out the window, a bored, almost expressionless look on his face. However, Kyojuro knew better. Even though Giyu looked like he might be watching paint dry, his second best friend had something else on his mind and by the movement of his head, Kyojuro was sure he was counting down until…..

"I simply can't do this anymore. There isn't a hint of Flashy or Flamboyant work in here whatsoever. If I have to stare at this one more second, I'll slice my arm off."

Giyu lost his composure for a second, chortling and muttering 'Five seconds more than last time.', before spinning around in the chair, the same expressionless look back on his face.

"Why did you even bother to bring your papers to Ky's tonight when you know they just piss you off?"

"Plus, isn't tonight meant to be 'guy's night', as you so called it?" Giyu held up four fingers, inverting them around the words Guys Night, all whilst staring at Tengen, his expression bare.

"You know nothing do you, Tomioka? Of course it's going to be guy's night. And no inverted commas of yours. However, if I don't get these done, Heart'll have me for breakfast. Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually taste that good."

Tengen smirked up at Giyu, using one hand to shove his half marked test papers back into his multi-coloured folder until he was able to sit back again, his booted feet propping up onto the table in-front of him.

"Well maybe I just wondered as you've never seemed to care about work before. I would like to see Heart try his luck…."

"What, you want him to eat me?"

"No. I was simply saying that if he tried then…."

"What? What would happen oh dear Tomioka? Why don't you tell us? I'm sure we'd all love to hear your great story of victory. It's no wonder no-one likes you. You're not flashy enough."

"I… I don't think I'm unlikeable."

"Ha! You don't think you're unlikeable? Wow, dude. You should see all the females in that school, they run away from you and ..."

"Please. Stop."

"What's wrong, Ky? Don't like hearing the truth? No-one likes you. Except for me. So why don't you just cut those losers out of your life and come live with me, huh?"

"No. That's not true. They're my friends."

"Some friends. They've not even been in touch with you for the last seven days now have they? I mean why would they even bother? You're useless. At everything….."

"A….."

SMACK

"DID I LOOK LIKE I WAS FINISHED TALKING? Now, where was I? Oh yes, you're completely and utterly useless. You keep on whining to me that your friends aren't contacting you. Well, wake up, Kyojuro. YOU. HAVE. NO. FRIENDS."

KICK.

GROAN.

"Even I don't want to be with you half the time with how you keep whining, but you're a good fuck. When you can actually keep it up."

Laughter. ANOTHER KICK. A PUNCH.

GROANS. THE SMELL OF BLOOD IN THE AIR.

"So why don't you just move on over to that couch right now? And we'll see if I can't get you in the mood."

Laughter again. The sound of a body being shoved. ZIPS. GROAN. SCREAMS.

More blood. There was always more blood.

"Kyojuro?"

"Kyojuro??"

"Ren? Ky?" A hand was shaking his shoulder. What did he want? He wasn't in the mood for whatever he wanted.

He shoved the hand off his shoulder, ignoring the laughter in his head. This wasn't happening. Was it? Where was he?

"Ani?"

Kyojuro came to, his head resting on something soft and warm, whilst he could feel fingers running through his hair. Where was he? Did he really hear? But that wasn't possible.

He'd never want his…

Kyojuro's eyes slowly fluttered open, straining to take in all that was happening. The last thing he could remember was Tengen and Giyu arguing in the living room.

Why was he in? Why was there so much white around him? He wasn't? No… no…

"Ani. Calm down. Please, Mr Tomioka said if you freaked out that you could go back to that bad place. Please, please, Ani. Don't go back to that bad place. I need you here. Please."

Kyojuro let his eyes finally fully wander the room. That was right. He wasn't in a hospital at all. He was right at home in his own bed, which meant that Tengen and Giyu must be downstairs whispering about him and the hand running through his hair must belong to.

"Ani." That was all the warning he got, before his little brother was jumping onto him, his little fists clinging to his back, whilst his legs wrapped around his brother's waist.

"I was so worried, Ani. Why did you faint like that? Wait, Mr. Uzui said not to ask you too many questions when you woke up. Is that too many questions, Ani?"

Kyojuro could hardly believe what he was hearing. He'd fainted? When? He didn't even think that he felt sore, at least it didn't hurt when Senjuro had jumped onto him. Had he missed something?

"Ani. Please say something. You're scaring me. Ani, please."

"Ani?"

"A…A….A…ni."

Hearing Senjuro's voice start to break, Kyojuro could feel his heart clench, his arms finally coming up to wrap around his little brother and pull him closer.

"Sen…juro." Breathe. Clear your throat. Try again. "Senjuro." Success.

"I'm so sorry Ani scared you. Ani didn't mean to scare you. Ani loves you Manchikan."

The dam broke, both brothers held onto each as one sobbed into his elder brother's chest, the other softly letting his tears fall onto the top of Senjuro's head.

He couldn't believe he'd actually been stupid enough to let Tengen and Giyu's petty fight get to him like that. He was over it, wasn't he?

He'd been free from that place for over three years now. Tengen had recommended that he get therapy, said it was something flashy that he and his wives sometimes went to when they were having issues.

But Kyojuro refused, he wasn't crazy, there wasn't anything wrong with him. Sure, if he maybe had a couple of flashbacks every second month that was normal. He didn't need help. He was getting better.

He didn't need anyone else. He had Tengen, Giyu, and Senjuro.

That was enough for him, because he was fine. Completely and utterly fine.

"Now and then I think of when we were together."

"Like when you said you felt so happy you could die."

"Told myself that you were right for me, but felt so lonely in your company."

"But that was love, and it's an ache that still remembers."

*TWO WEEKS LATER*

"Ani! Hurry up, otherwise I'm going to be late and I can't be late. I can't be late on my first day."

Kyojuro laughed softly as he opened the bathroom door, having fixed the sleeves on his white shirt whilst he made work of pulling part of his hair back into a small ponytail, gold irises and blonde hair with red tips staring straight up at him.

"It's not funny. Ani. You know that when I'm late, I need to walk into the main building with you or Mr. Uzui or Mr. Tomioka and you all make fun of me."

"Come on Machikan, you know that we only do what we do because we love you. Does that mean that you're now too old for Mr Uzui to take you to the Arcade on Friday?"

Kyojuro couldn't help the next huff of laughter that escaped him in that moment as he watched his little brother's lip pout, the golden eyes watering.

"Ani! That's not fair. You know that me and Mr Uzui have had those plans in place for two months. He told me if I was good all week, then I could go to the arcade."

Kyojuro tapped a finger against his lips, a small smirk starting to appear; "Oh, is that what the rules were? Cause I was sure that they included no pouting or telling me that I was being mean."

"Should I just call Mr. Uzui, and tell him that you broke your promise already?" Kyojuro slid his hand towards the phone in his pocket, seeing the way Senjuro's eyes widened in fear first, then a hand came up and he watched as his brother proceeded to imitate like he was zipping his lip.

"I didn't think so, Manchikan. So when will we be ready to leave?"

"Whenever you're ready." Senjuro responded, Kyojuro gasping at the sight.

"Oh my gods. My brother is a ventriloquist dummy. Come one, come all. And gaze upon the wonder that is Senjuro Rengoku. He can speak even with his lips zipped. Isn't that a wonder folks?"

"Ani!" Senjuro laughed, playfully rolling his eyes when his brother gasped again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, are we filming this? This boy has got lots of talent. Whatever will he do next? Will he be bested by the unforgiving Rengoku tickle monster?"

"Ani. Ani. No." Kyojuro would forever remember this as one of the happiest moments of his life, one moment he was standing at the bathroom door, the next he had his little brother in his arms and was tickling every inch of him he could reach, laughing heartily whenever Senjuro would screech 'No.' louder.

Fifteen minutes later, after calling Oji and declaring Kyojuro to be the champion of tickle wars, the two set off, Kyojuro carrying both his briefcase and Senjuro's lunch box in one hand whilst the other held his little brother's hand to ensure he didn't run on ahead.

"Ani?" Kyojiro indicated with his head that Senjuro was free to carry on with whatever he wanted to ask. "Do you ever think that you'll get married, Ani? Like Mr Uzui and his wives?"

"Whatever made you ask that question Senjuro?" Kyojuro squared his shoulders slightly, his grip on his brother's hand still strong as he tried to think of an answer.

Did he ever think he'd get married?

Wasn't that an odd question? Kyojuro had been single for over three years now, his little brother knew that, but yet here he was being asked about marriage.

"I really don't know Manchikan. Probably not, no. Not since…." Stop. Breathe. Deep. In. And. Out. Don't let it control you. Just. Say. The. Name. Come on Kyojuro.

"Not since your Ani and his boyfriend broke up three years ago." Coward. Why can't you just say the name? You can't let it control you forever.

"Oh. That's cool, Ani. I think I'd miss you too much if you were to go off and get married to someone random that you didn't know."

Kyojuro couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of his little brother's words. Him? Go out and marry someone that he didn't even know. That was funny, Kyojuro himself hadn't even been out of his house for something other than school, grocery shopping or getting takeaway in three years.

He simply couldn't risk it. What if he found him? What if he recognised him? What if?...

"..."

"...Ky???..."

"...BEEP….."

"...KYOJU???..."

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Ani?" The sudden pull on his arm brought Kyojuro out of his nightmares and back into the present where he could see that his little brother was trying to pull on his arm, pulling him towards a Silver Volvo…

Silver. That was his colour… No. He wasn't safe. He had to get his brother out of here. NOW.

"Senjuro!" Without realising, Kyojuro had grabbed his brother around the waist, dropping his briefcase and lunchbox in the process, pulling him to the ground, ignoring his brother's cries of pain.

"No. No. Senjuro. Get down, get away from that car. It's dangerous."

"Ani. Ani. You're scaring me."

There were screams. He could see the door of the Silver Volvo open, a booted foot emerging from within. No. No. He couldn't have found him No. No. And he didn't even have a weapon on him.

Wait. "Senjuro. Stay here." Removing one of his hands from Senjuro, he felt back for his briefcase.

Fingers closed around it, bringing it to his side, he clutched it tight, seeing that the booted feet were heading their way.

"Ani. Ani. What are you doing? What are you going to do?"

Okay. 1. 2. 3. That's it. Deep breaths Kyojuro. The feet drew closer and closer. He was almost on top of him. It was time to strike. It was time to.

"Kyojur-OW." Kyojuro wasn't even aware of what he'd done exactly, one second he was still on the ground one hand clutching his briefcase, the other protecting his brother and the next he'd slammed his briefcase hard into the shin of the man who'd been approaching them.

Yes. And he'd been victorious. Hearing that the man was in pain egged him on as he lifted the briefcase again, preparing for a second blow when arms grabbed him from behind, pulling him back.

No. One of his men had him. It was only too obvious. The man never moved alone. He always had his minions with him.

Which one was it this time? He didn't really care.

Kyojuro screamed, trying to whack the new man with his briefcase, ignoring the look of fear on Senjuro's face.

Yes. Senjuro should be scared, he had him. But he wasn't going to be held back by his goons. It wasn't going to end like this.

"Kyojiro. I'm really sorry about this."

Wait? Why was one of his men sorry? Had he? No, he didn't hurt his brother, did he? Oh he was going to kill him.

He'd kill him. Nobody touched his little brother and got away with it. No-one. No-one. No…..

"You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness."

"Like reginstation to the end. Always the end."

"Ahhh."

Kyojuro sat up for the second time that day, his eyes immediately wandering the area and trying to zero in on where he was.

He could see light around him. It was obvious that his men had decided to take him somewhere to trick him. But where was Senjuro? Where was his little brother?

"Come out and face me. Don't harm my little brother. I know it's me you want."

The room was still for a few moments, before light was flooding into his eyeballs, causing him to throw his hands up to his face to block out the light. What kind of an asshole would shove light into someone's eyes like this?

Why wouldn't he just come out and speak to him? If he was man enough to do everything that he had before, then this should be a walk in the park to him. Come on, come on. Come on.

"I'm not kidding around. Let me see that my little brother is unharmed and I'll take it easy on you."

He was expecting the sudden appearance of a face in-front of his own, what he wasn't expecting though was to feel suddenly incredibly cold and wet. Something had been thrown into his face.

Rubbing at his eyes and trying to rid himself of whatever this was, Kyojuro blinked a few times, bringing everything back into focus and stopped still.

No. This wasn't possible.

"Hey Ky. You back with us now? You know you really did a number on my shin back there."

Tengen Uzui and Giyu Tomioka were standing in-front of him, Tengen, with an empty jug of what he could only guess must have been water - that must've been what the wet stuff was - whilst Giyu had his arms crossed. However both men looked incredibly worried, something that Kyojuro wasn't used to seeing on the two men.

"Tengen. Giyu. I'm so glad you guys are here. You've got to help me. He must have Senjuro. We need to save him. We need……" Kyojuro stopped as Tengen shook his head, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"Ky. Senjuro's okay. He's currently downstairs with Makio making pancakes to try and distract him from what happened earlier."

What was Tengen talking about? How could Senjuro be okay when he was grabbed by those men? Were Tengen and Giyu in on it too?

But no, they wouldn't do that. They were his best friends.

"Kyojuro." And that was Giyu finally speaking, stepping forward,.unfolding his arms, placing them onto the edge of the bed he was lying on.

"What happened to you whilst you were out there? Tengen was calling you and beeping at you for a good ten minutes. Then suddenly it was like you saw a ghost and you pulled Senjuro to the ground."

Huh? But he'd only done that to ensure that he wouldn't get anywhere near his brother. He promised he'd never let that guy touch Senjuro.

"What? What are you talking about?" Kyojuro couldn't wrap his head around this. What was going on?

"Ky. It's perfectly normal after you've gone through something traumatic like you did with Aka…."

"NO!."

Kyojuro couldn't help but spin his head left and right for a moment, wondering who'd screamed at first. There was no way that he'd screamed just like that. Was there?

"See. That's exactly what we're talking about. Anytime me or Tengen even try to mention that asshole's name, you lose it, Rengoku." Kyojuro looked up into Giyu's dark-blue eyes, seeing the thunderous look that was being sent his way.

Why was one of his best friends looking at him like that? What was he talking about? He didn't lose anything.

"Kyojuro!" SLAM.

Kyojuro jumped, golden eyes fixating directly onto one of Tengen's large hands that'd just slammed down onto the wooden nightstand. Why had he? What did he do wrong? Was he going to be? He needed to get out of here now.

"This isn't right, dude. You shouldn't be so frightened of some Flashy asshole's name. I told you right after I got you out of there, I told you to go to therapy. But you refused, told me you were fine. And I accepted that. But I just can't anymore. Ky, you're scaring me, you're scaring Giyu….

"But worst of all, you're scaring Senjuro. All he could ask as we were in the car was 'Is Ani going to be okay? What's wrong with my Ani? Is Ani hurt?' The kid didn't even care that his arm was bleeding, he was that scared about you."

"Senjuro? Senjuro's hurt?"

SMACK.

"Damn-It, Kyojuro." Kyojuro's eyes widened seeing the usually put together and stoic Giyu lose his composure as his hand smacked against the wall.

"Don't you even care about what Tengen just said to you? You've not dealt with this at all. For three years, you've been bullshitting and telling us that you're fine, that you're taking it one day at a time. You can't even say his fucking name, Ky. That to me doesn't seem like someone who's fine…

"In-fact, that sounds to me like someone who went through one of the most traumatic experiences of his life and now he doesn't want to think about it so he's pushing it all to one side and bottling it all up."

"No. I'm not finished. Kyojuro, when I saw you the next day in the hospital, do you know what my first thought was? It wasn't I'm going to kill that bastard, it wasn't Kyojuro deserves better - which you do -. No, it was Why didn't he tell us it was this bad. We're your best friends, Ky. A…. A….nd… you cou….ldn't even tell us tell us how fucking bad it was."

It was so strange to Kyojuro, he could see that Giyu was continuing to lose his composure, could see the beginning of tears gathering in his eyes, could see that he looked only seconds away from screaming, but Kyojuro didn't know how to feel.

He felt a little bit empty. He didn't even know that his friends had felt like that at the time, he didn't even know that this had been flying around their heads for the last three years. Keeping them awake, giving them nightmares. He wasn't alone. He was loved.

It was almost like the damn burst at that moment. Kyojuro turned his head slowly to look at Giyu, tears gathering in his own eyes as the other man moved towards him, grabbing him in a tight hug, sobbing into his shoulder whilst Tengen watched on.

"I.. I…thought you were dead. I thought you were dead." Giyu gripped his shirt tighter, his sobs becoming more erratic as he struggled to speak.

"It's true man." Tengen was finally able to find his words, it would seem, Kyojuro looked away from Giyu, seeing his other best friend was still sitting on the edge of the bed, his arms crossed over his chest.

"We tried to contact you day and night. But nothing worked, eventually if we sent you a text, it would pop up saying that the number was no longer in use. Even if we tried to call you, at first it would go to voicemail. But then, eventually the calls wouldn't even connect. It was like there was a block somewhere."

Kyojuro couldn't believe what he was hearing. All those years that He'd told him that his friends didn't care about him. Told him that they didn't even try to contact him and yet here was proof that they had. They had cared about him. Hell, they still cared about him. Even now…

"Ten…" But Tengen was shaking his head at him now, clapping Kyojuro on the shoulder, the two's silent way of saying that everything was okay. They'd started that back in high school.

How could he have been so stupid?

It was all HIS fault….

"Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over."

"But had me believing it was always something I'd done."

"But I don't wanna live that way….."

*A YEAR LATER*

"You're doing a great job here, Mr Rengoku. Let me be the first to say that. No-one at this school appreciates your hard work more than me."

Kyojuro smiled, silently batting away the praise that Mr Heart had given him for the fourth time within the last half an hour.

He still couldn't fully believe it'd been a whole year since his break down. Since he realised that what his friends had been telling him was true. That he needed help.

After that day, once Kyojiro and Giyu - especially - had calmed down, Kyojuro had finally been allowed to leave Giyu's bedroom.

On the pretence that he was to only go to the bathroom, splash his face with water and then come straight back.

Kyojuro could remember how he'd stood in front of the bathroom mirror for a good ten minutes, not recognising the man he could see staring straight back at him.

Had he always looked that old? Were his eyes more red or gold looking? Was his hair really that long? And did it always hang flatly around his face like that? Had he always looked so gaunt?

Trying to push the thoughts to the back of his head, Kyojuro had turned on the taps, letting the bathroom mirror steam up for a few minutes before he finally gathered the courage to run his hands under the water, ignoring the shakiness.

Twenty minutes later, he was back in Giyu's bedroom, feeling slightly more like himself and finally able to take in his surroundings.

Giyu's room was horrendous. It looked like the other had simply rolled out of bed that morning and forgotten what the word tidy meant, there was a mixture of shirts and pants thrown across the room, two mismatched shoes sat by the bedroom door and to top it all off, there was a strong smell of hairspray in the room - though admittedly that could've been because of Tengen -.

"How are you feeling, Ky?" Kyojuro jumped, having forgotten about the two occupants of the room.

"I'll be better once I'm away from this mess. God, Giyu. Do you even have a window in this room?"

Kyojuro missed the smirk exchanged between Tengen and Giyu, however he didn't miss Tengen's loud boisterous laugh or the way he threw his arm around Kyojuro's neck, leaning a bit of his weight onto the other man.

"Quite right, Rengoku. I was just telling Tomioka here that it's not very flashy to have a bomb site for a room. Can you imagine if someone tried to find Tomioka in this room? He'd be lost amongst the other rubbish."

"YOU. ARE. NOT. FUNNY."

The three had moved from Giyu's room to the kitchen, where after much poking and prodding, Senjuro finally jumped into his brother's arms, cuddling him close and sobbing into his chest, Kyojuro sobbing in response whilst apologising again and again.

In the end, it was decided that Kyojuro would be required to attend therapy at least three times a week, his doctor had originally argued four, until Tengen had shot back that wouldn't give him enough time for his new job.

Kyojuro's jaw had dropped at that moment. Job? What job? For the last three years, he'd been rotating between taking Senjuro to school, then riding the subway all day until around two thirty in the afternoon by which time, Senjuro would be finished school and they could head home, Kyojuro making up stories about how he'd narrowly avoided spilling coffee on a six foot giant at his made up job.

From there, the two would head home, Kyojuro biting his lip as he'd check the electric metre, wondering how much longer it'd be until he had to ask Tengen to borrow $80 just until the end of the month for Groceries. To which, the next day he'd wake up to a delivery from Wal-Mart on his door-step along with a little envelope of cash, his electric bill fully paid again for the month and the landlord not knocking on his door for the fifth time that week as miraculously his rent had been paid for the next month.

So when Tengen was suddenly piping up, saying that four visits to a therapist would affect his job. Kyojuro couldn't help but be surprised. Did Tengen think he actually had a job at whatever Café name he'd told them it was.

But no….

"Yeah, Kyojuro is going to be working at Wisteria High School with me and Giyu from this Monday."

Kyojuro was pretty sure that if he'd been drinking something, he would've choked on it or spat everything back up again. Did Tengen really say that he?...

"Yep. Already all cleared with Mr Xemnas Heart himself as well. Just in-case you wanted to know who to speak to, see how he's getting on."

He really did. Not only had Tengen bent over backwards, paying his electric, his rent, his groceries and giving him extra money just in-case, his best friend had also managed to secure him a job.

And not just any job. He was going to be working at his old high school.

A few weeks later, Kyojuro found himself sitting, arms crossed over his briefcase, gulping in deep breaths and trying to remember what Tengen had told him before he'd left that morning.

He could remember Tengen telling him to be Flashy. But not too Flashy. Then a bunch of mumbled nonsense that he'd now wished he'd paid more attention to and finally a smack on his backside, telling him to 'Go Get Them, You Flamboyant Son Of A Bitch.'

But everything else had left his brain once he'd gotten past the receptionist, a lively young woman by the name of Aeris or Aerith - he'd have to double check with Tengen or Giyu later on - and he was finally sitting on one of the plastic seats outside Mr Heart's office, wincing everytime he moved and the chair made a farting noise and he tried hard not to listen in as Mr Heart gave a student into trouble.

This student, Axel, by the sounds of it, or at least from what Kyojuro could make out, not that he was listening, had set fire that morning to the English department because he was bored.

"Bored? You. WERE. BORED. AXEL. THIS IS THE TENTH FIRE YOU'VE SET THIS MONTH. AND IT'S ONLY THE SECOND WEEK."

Kyojuro moved again, missing what this Axel character had to say in response, but whatever it was couldn't have been helpful as Mr Heart's voice rose an octave as he went on about the rules and regulations that were to be expected at his school and that there would be consequences for his actions.

Ten minutes later, it was decided that Axel would have three months worth of detentions and that if one more fire was set then Mr Heart would personally see to it that he was expelled.

Kyojuro looked down as the door opened, revealing two tall men, one whom Kyojuro saw very briefly had bright long red hair, styled back into spikes and what looked like two upside down teardrops tattooed on his cheeks, whilst the other had silvery long hair, mostly spiked back on-top whilst the rest hung loosely down to his shoulders and there was two spikes that splayed onto his face.

Kyojuro wasn't overly too sure, but he had a feeling that the man with the silvery hair was Xemnas Heart.

That meant that the other man must be.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr Rengoku. It would seem that some of our students just simply can't wait to get back to work." Now that he wasn't angry anymore, Kyojuro couldn't help but notice how low and gravelly Xemnas's voice was.

"Not at all, Mr Heart. You have a school to run. Plus, I couldn't hear too much of the conversation."

Kyojuro could've face palmed, he just admitted that he'd heard part of the conversation that Xemnas had had with Axel. He was an idiot, he was going to get turned away. Tengen was going to….

"Ah. But of course. Then you should understand Mr Rengoku, Axel's reputation is widely known amongst our staff. He also knows not to be listening in to the ends of conversations when he's been dismissed."

There was a huff of laughter from the end of the hall before the door shut behind them, Kyojuro finally being able to focus on what he'd come here to do.

And he'd aced it, he'd only been in the office for around twenty minutes when Xemnas was shaking his hand and welcoming him to the team, apparently his school records had spoken highly for him and Xemnas - as the man had asked to be called - was more than impressed with his fantastic grades and attendance. There was no question about it. The job was his.

And the job itself? He was going to be teaching US History to high school students. His favourite and best subject when he'd attended this school. And he was going to get to teach it.

Which brought him back to the here and now as Xemnas praised him for the fourth time within the last half an hour.

"It's no problem at all, Mr Heart… Um, I mean Xemnas. I love this job. It's fantastic to be teaching the youth of today."

Mr Heart seemed pleased with his answer and nodded his head, patting Kyojuro's desk.

"I am glad. Keep up the great work Mr Rengoku."

And without a second glance, Xemnas - Mr Heart was leaving his classroom, leaving Kyojuro to shake his head, beasumed as he started to clear up his desk, ready for the next class to begin after lunch.

He still couldn't fully believe this was his life. How had he gone from lying about his job to his younger brother to suddenly working at his old high school, his brother's school being only a five minute walk away and he hadn't had any flashbacks to that god-awful asshole in over a year.

Finally, He was finally able to say it….

Goodbye Aka…..

"I'll admit I was glad it was over."

Buzz. Buzz.

That was strange. Why was his phone vibrating? He'd already told Tengen and Giyu that he'd met them in the staff room once he'd spoken to Mr Heart.

Picking up his phone, brightening up the screen, Kyojuro could only stare in wonder as he clicked on the icon that read one new message.

"But you didn't have to cut me off."

"Make out like it never happened and like we were nothing."

Kyojuro's eyes skimmed over the message once, twice, three times, unsure of what he was reading.

It wasn't until he finally allowed his eyes to focus did he fully take in the words.

Hi Kyojuro.

Did you miss me?

Did you really think it was going to be that easy to escape me?

I'm coming for you.

This time I won't stop. Until you're dead.

See you soon, flame head

AKAZA!

"Now you're just somebody that I used to know."

Erm... Well. Yes. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter guys... Remember to review and I'll be back with the next chapter very soon! I promise not to keep you guys in the dark for too long.

Signing Off Again;

Demon Wielder!

Japanese Words/Translations!

Ani - Older Brother

Manchikan - Munchkin

Oji - Uncle