He started as his eyes opened. He didn't know where he was, he didn't recognize anything offhand. His eyes darted around, and finally landed on the .44 laying on a table next to the bed he was laying on. His hand wrapped around the grip as he surveyed the room. Then he saw the Red Special. Polished and gleaming in its stand. He let go of the gun.
This was his dorm room. A place he hadn't seen in eight months. He knew where he was though. It just didn't feel completely real yet. He had only been back for less than twenty four hours.
He swung his legs over to sit on the edge of the bed. Everything was like he had left it, except cleaner. He wasn't a very domestic person, which wasn't a surprise given what he was good at. Truth be told, his mother wasn't either, and his father didn't push it since they had servants to do the cleaning back at the manor.
It might have been Utsuki or Deesseedra. Wait, Deesseedra wasn't Deesseedra anymore. She had said she had taken the name Karasu. Which had led him down an hour long back and forth not understanding why she had decided to change something that he thought was perfect for her. He relented in the end though, it was her name, and if she felt that Deesseedra no longer was right? Well, it wasn't his place to tell her otherwise.
He stood up. He felt better rested than he had in longer than he cared to think about. It may have been having a proper bed, and his long missed weighted comforter. He hadn't taken one with him, given that he figured he wouldn't have the chance to sleep in a regular bed real often, and he had underestimated just how much he was going to suffer for it.
He went over to the window. It was late in the morning, probably close to noon. He needed to talk to his old man about how he was going to get started back into classes, and if he was going to have to repeat an entire year due to his long absence,. He wasn't that worried about it though. He was just happy to be home.
"You look much happier than you have the last few months. That kiss did wonders for you," Akasha said from the top of his dresser.
The top of his dresser? He had to look over at her more than once. She was only three inches tall. This was a very new thing, that he wasn't quite sure how to deal with.
He walked over and squatted down to her lever, "Grandma, uh, should I be concerned with your sudden lack of height?"
"I honestly don't know, uh, I was just like this when I appeared. I'm not going to worry about it too much, unless I stay like this for a long time. Still, we are talking about you. I'm barely real as it is. How do you feel?"
Tekeshi was still a little wary of the change in his grandmother, but he went ahead and answered, "I'm calm. I feel calm, and at peace. I haven't felt like this in so long, that I don't know how to process this. I mean, I still woke up and the first thing I did was go for a gun. I may take a while to fully come back to Earth, but I think that I am going to have the best help to do so."
"She seemed so happy too. Everyone did to see you. I can forgive your Mother's complete breakdown on seeing you back where you belong. Though she only saw you a few weeks ago, so I don't know why she is acting like that," Akasha shrugged.
"I'm going to say it is the fact that she is pregnant. That is still, I almost can't believe it. I had the feeling that they wanted another kid, but to know I am going to have a full sibling, is something else. I, I need to go to the mausoleum, but first," he looked at a black case that sat on his desk.
He had the Hearstone now. He was going to be able to save his sister. He just, didn't know how, and wasn't looking forward to what he was going to have to do learn.
Akasha looked at the case as well, "As much as I hate saying to do this, you should take those pills, now. That way, you don't have to worry about the pain hitting you."
Tekeshi frowned. He really didn't like the pills, but he really didn't have a choice. The pain the memories caused him almost crippled him more than once. While he would have recovered quickly, he didn't know just how quickly.
He also didn't want his parents to find out. He knew they had some very strong views on drugs, which wasn't a surprise with them being parents, and being Japanese. He also knew that they wouldn't approve given the fact that he stolen them, which was something he didn't have a choice on, but they wouldn't care about that.
"Yeah, you, are probably right. I don't know what I am going to do when I run out, but hopefully I won't need them forever," he said as he summoned the bottle.
As the handful of pills made their way to his stomach, he walked over to the case. He, had trouble getting himself to open it. Now that he had it, and was actually going to be able to touch it. After weeks of chasing it. From the desert outpost in Mexico, to the grounds of Yokai Academy somehow, it didn't feel real.
He took a breath, and reached for the lid. His mouth went dry, and he felt a little cold. This was a now or never thing, and he wasn't sure what he was about to see in his head.
He felt the fake leather under his fingers as he gripped it. He raised the lid, and there the stone laid. The whore had said he was going to have to work for it, and, well here he was now. The heart shaped stone was his now.
His? Was something this powerful, something that should really belong to a single person? What should he do with it, after it had served its purpose? These were very important questions, that he didn't really have a good answer to.
He didn't know if he would be able to destroy it, either himself, or whether it could even be destroyed. Shinso had been the more powerful force on the face of the planet for millennia, and Tekeshi wasn't arrogant enough to think that he could match the ancient's power anytime soon.
Tekeshi looked at the stone for several minutes, giving time for the medicine to do its job. Once he started feeling slightly numb, he touched the stone.
The body was laid before him, bare of all clothes and decoration. It had been cleaned and was ready to be dressed for burial. The bruises and lacerations that had been left by the beasts that had taken her life enraged him. She had never done anything to deserve this. They would pay, and pay dearly for her death.
Her parents stood in the corner of the room. As much as this angered him, he could imagine how much this pained them. Sixteen years, and to lose her in such a violent and senseless way. He wondered if his experiments may have someway to reverse this. He wasn't sure, but stealing from the Dark Immortals would be the least of the sins he had committed in the thousands of years he had walked the Earth.
"I will not let this stand. You have served me well for so many years, as had your families before. She will not be subjected to the ravages of the earth, and she will not lay beyond the veil of this world," Shinso said to the couple, a smooth controlled tone to his voice.
It seemed as if Shinso was in much better control at the time this occurred. Possibly pre-1000 AD. Incredible. It would be neater if he wasn't seeing through the dead demigod's eyes.
"My Lord, as much as we would love to have our daughter to walk, and dance as she did, she is gone. God had a reason for this to occur, and no matter how much trust we have in you, even you cannot steal a soul from Heavan," the woman said, tears streaming down her face.
Shinso turned his head to look at them, "I have committed much greater acts. However, I can see no reason to worship a being, that would allow the death of such a pure creature. Regardless though, I shall not allow these animals to roam these lands."
He reached out to touch at the top of where the valley of her breasts began, and he felt the cold as a casket of ice encased her body. Her parents looked concerned, but they had seen him perform acts that this would pale compared to. What they didn't see, was that he felt her last lingering echoes. Her soul.
He bound it to the ice. Not willing to let it escape, before it could be returned to where it belonged. If only he had been close enough that he could have given her even a drop of his blood. Not enough to damn her to be one of his, but enough to heal these wounds.
The scene seemed to speed up, so fast that he couldn't process the information. Occasionally he suddenly understood things. Esoteric ideas on death and reanimation. The nature of a soul as an echo of a person, what made them who they were. Metaphysical workings of the bodies of both humans, and multitudes of yokai.
"Bring her out,"Shinso stood in the rain.
The weather didn't matter for what he was about to do, nor did time. Many believed that there were certain days that the veil between the worlds of the living and dead were thinner. He snorted at the idea. The idea of the veil itself was worthless. The whispers did have a keeper, and he was not happy with Shinso for his defiance.
He turned his eyes to the ice crystal, and the ravaged body of the girl he hoped to return to a life that should have never been cut short.
"My Lord, I am wary of what you intend. My wife, she refuses to be here, afraid that God will kill all that stand within your presence for this sin," the girl's father stood tall, and Shinso could see how tired the man seemed.
"Alexander, I promised you that God will not interfere with what I do. I feel that even he understands that this was an act of man, not something that he believed would lead to anything good in this world. Please, step back though. I have had some failures, to reach the point of success that I have," Shinso stepped to the girl's body.
The ice transpirated, and there she laid, bare to the world once more. A woman stepped forward to dress the body, to give the girl some dignity upon her awakening. When she moved away, he sat a heart shaped stone on the body, where her heart lied. On the right side of her body, rather than the left where most people had theirs.
So it had to rest directly over the heart. Also, dextrocardia in that time period? It would make sense that Shinso would have noticed it, and been able to understand what it meant. Even though they didn't actively think about it, vampires could hear the beat of every heart around them. They were natural hematophages after all, and it was just something that they found normal, even though it would be defeaning to others. Actually, he needed to ask his dad and Utsuki if they ever noticed.
For several minutes, nothing happened. It seemed like a corpse with a rock upon its chest. Nothing more. Only Shinso realized what was happening. Only the damage that killed the subject would heal. The rest would have to heal naturally, but it would still take time to fix the cause of death.
The girl had died of massive bleeding. From a variety of lacerations, tearing within her nethers, and internal damage. It would take time for that to repair. Time for the body to realize that it was right. Time for the heart to start again, and the blood to move. Time for what little oxygen to start waking up the organs. Time to show if he would succeed.
A twitch. No one else saw it, but he did. A slight twitch of the eye. A finger. A knee. She was waking up. She was going to live. He had stolen from the one who kept the souls of the dead. He had saved the girl that he had fallen in love with. It was not something that was unknown to him, but this was not like the concubines and queens had taken in centuries past.
Her eyes opened, and the first face she saw, was his. He could see lingering pain in her eyes as she tilted her head. She was mute, so she had so few ways that she could make herself understood. Her eyes though, told so much.
"It is ok Candace, you are safe, and you are with the world again. For as long as you live, none should ever harm you again."
The memory faded, leaving Tekeshi sweating in a pile on the floor. That had been the most intense of the memories that he had suffered. The hydromorphone had done nothing to deaden the pain. The fact he had been able to process any of that was incredible in and of itself.
"Tekeshi, are you ok? I just came in here to check on you, and you were lying in the floor," As his vision started clearing he could see Utsuki's face hovering above him, carmine eyes wide in horror.
With some difficulty he managed to get himself sat up against the drawers on the side of his desk, "Much better seeing your face. I didn't know they let angels slum around with people like me."
"Hmph, Heaven can have my halo if I can't be with you. Seriously though, you looked like you had a stroke or something. You were just lying there, and I was afraid that I was going to lose you, when I just got you back," Utsuki wrapped her arms around him as she spoke.
"Seriously, she opened the door, and both of us nearly had a heart attack," he looked over at the door and saw Dees- Karasu, he was going to get it eventually, leaned against the door breathing hard.
"I kind of feel bad that you aren't coming over here for a kiss as well. Yes, I already know you two. You thought that I wasn't going to wake up and follow after you get up in the middle of the night, and sneak out of camp. I didn't push it before I left, but I figure that I should start getting used to it," the girls were shocked when he told them.
Karasu looked over at Utsuki. She was a little hesitant, even if it had been decided months earlier. She loved Utsuki just as much as she loved Tekeshi, and she didn't want to do anything that would hurt her.
"It's ok Sis. I'm not going back on my word. You are half my soul, and he is our soulmate," Utsuki told her resolutely.
"I, I just... Are you absolutely sure? You just got him back, I'm willing to wait while you get acquainted with each other again," she fidgeted, something that seemed so strange to Tekeshi.
"Kari, come on. You know that as much as I love him, I love you too. If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have said it was ok," Utsuki stood up and went over to hug her.
Karasu closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them, she saw Tekeshi standing just to the side of them. She had trouble taking her eyes off of him, as he stood there in nothing but a pair of pajama pants. She had forgotten how well built he was, and started to feel something that she hadn't felt as often as she used to. She was getting horny, which, what woman wouldn't looking at him?
"Deesseedra, may I kiss you," he used her original name unconsciously.
"Only you get to call me that now. Yes, you can," she stared into his eyes.
He dipped his head down, and the world seemed to cease. She had felt the feeling in a much damped form from her link with Utsuki, but this was so different. It was like nothing else had to exist, just their lips. Why had she resisted?
When he had pulled back, and she opened her eyes, she saw two smiling faces looking back at her. Her thoughts weren't very clear at that moment, but she knew that was the greatest thing that she had ever felt in her existence.
"I told you Sis, nothing is better than kissing Tekeshi," Utsuki was looking at her like the cat that ate the canary.
It took almost another minute for her to be able to speak, "You, were not lying. I swear I went to planes that even I didn't know existed, and my whole thing is walking between other planes of existence. I ought to start doing that again, I could use the break from Akoni's bullcrap sometimes. So, I know that she hasn't asked yet, and no one else has. Are you staying?"
Tekeshi looked at the two girls as they looked away from him, afraid of what he might say. He hadn't actually thought about it, given that he finally had part of his goal. What would he do when Yusa was back though? He had planned to ask his father about getting back to classes, but, would he be able to stay put now?
He looked over at the pistol on his bedside table. Who was he now, and was he the kind of man that could really come back down from the killing fields so easily?
"I can't speak beyond now, but I can tell you, I will be here for every tomorrow, that you truly need me to be here."