My eternal gratitude to my fellow Seiji fanatic,
Kage-chan! Without you, this never would
have been written. Now can I read more
of Does Gender Matter? Pleeease?
Darkness Bind Them
Ginzai
Prologue: In Which
Events Are Set into Motion
______________________
Cut my life into pieces
This is my last resort
______________________
The frenzied
and panicked bleating of the machines had finally ceased, falling back to a
more constant rhythm. They echoed about
the still room, trying and failing to fill the gasp of silence. The feet of the men cowering in the back of
the room shuffled across the metal floor, barely causing a sound but irksome
all the same.
They'd reason
to be frightened.
Ancient eyes
shut slowly as withered fingers crept about a walking staff a full foot taller
than the top of the old man's head. His
face, usually calm and serene, twitched.
The men seemed even more uneasy at this, pressing backwards against the
far wall, each vainly trying to avoid that blind gaze.
On the
platform, the scientist raised a hand and ran it over a sweat streaked
brow. He peered close to the boy, eyes
nervously examining their prisoner, fingers pressing to a pale throat to
capture an erratic heartbeat.
"Well,”
he said, his voice high with nervous anxiety, if not the all out terror of the
expendables below. "He will
survive."
"Obviously,”
the old man said, eyes still shut.
"Eh,”
the scientist reached a hand into the boy's pale hair, staring at the strained
face with pure and cool objectivity.
"The specimen wouldn't die that easily, I suppose. The yoroi would prevent it, yes? Shikaisen?"
"It is
our hope." Shikaisen frowned, then allowed himself to float closer to the pair. "I had not expected this resistance,
however."
The scientist
nodded. "In all experiments there
is a measure of uncertainty. Humans will
never be able to determine the full truth of nature, not by conventional
means. We must grasp it with both hands
and subdue it, drag it down to learn all its secrets."
Shikaisen
ignored this. Though he liked to pretend
otherwise, the pale skinned Amerikanjin was just as
expendable as the men by the wall. His words
meant nothing to one who had lived as long as Shikaisen had.
"Have
you determined what the problem was?"
"Not
yet,” the scientist said, stepping back at last and moving back to his precious
machinery. "I suspect it was an
unexpected reaction to the Rohypnol, though it seems unlikely. I'll need a blood sample to fully determine
the cause of the cardiac arrest."
Shikaisen
lifted a hand from his staff and waved it lazily in the air.
"Fine. But
quickly; we are behind schedule."
The scientist
seemed annoyed at that, as he always did when Shikaisen spoke of things which
he was not to have knowledge of. He saw
this as a mere experiment, another way for mankind to rape the natural forces
of the world.
Shikaisen
knew better.
He turned
away from the unconscious figure strapped to the star, instead moving across
the room and behind the paper paneling, separating all but the boy from his
sight, and even that one was a bare glimmer of gold over the bulk of the Seal
of Solomon.
He ignored
their frenzied bustle and floated towards the balcony which overlooked the well
protected and completely bound yoroi.
Kourin was still, seemingly immobile.
Shikaisen opened his eyes, staring at it. Mortal eyes could not see the energy which pulsed
about the armor, could not see how the light of the room, even this artificial
nonsense that dared to call itself illumination, could not see how it bent
towards the still metal. /This was power. / Far more so than
anything made by the hands of Man, or that could be
controlled by them.
It was power
that he would possess. With or without the aid of the restless figure on the dais.
There was a
flutter of movement behind him. He spun, hands tight on the staff once more and froze, his
robes falling into place about him.
A man stood
there, dark of skin, with ink black hair that fell in a straight cut just past
his chin. He wore the traditional kimono
and hakama of Shikaisen's home, pale even in the dim light of the underground
chamber. He was also watching the Kourin
yoroi.
Shikaisen
managed to find his voice.
"Tanso-sama!"
Tanso took no
notice of his subordinate’s exclamation, but instead frowned at the armor.
"Does it
go as planned?" he asked, voice low, as if threatening that if things were
not going as expected, pain and torment would soon follow. "Will you be able to bear the yoroi as
expected?"
"Ah,"
Shikaisen said, releasing the staff to wring his hands together. The staff vanished. "Not as such, my lord."
The dark man
shot him a grim look.
"The
bond between the yoroi and the original bearer, lord, is stronger than we
expected. We cannot sever it. The bearer nearly died when we tried."
"And
this bearer is where?"
Shikaisen
nodded towards the star. Tanso flicked
his eyes towards it, took in the Seal, and looked back towards the armor.
"Is
there a possibility of recruiting him?"
"It is
not likely, lord. He seems to have a
....rather strong aversion to our kind.
I doubt highly that we could convince him to fight for us."
Tanso
shrugged at this, seemingly unconcerned about the implications of it.
"Then
find a way around the bond."
Irritation at that.
As though it was a simple matter, subduing the one without killing him
and subverting the other without loosing it!
One of the Nine did not allow itself to be held for long, as past,
painful experience had shown. Of
course, Tanso-sama did not care for this fact.
In the manner of employers for generations past, he gave an impossible
task and expected no contention to be found with it. Shikaisen inwardly twitched at the thought,
though no expression emerged. One did
not live long in the Youjaikai and wear one's emotions plainly.
A quick flash
of beetle black eyes convinced him that no matter how carefully his thoughts
had been hidden, his lord had managed to get the gist of them. Fortunately for Shikaisen, the other seemed
to be too impatient to deal with him at the moment. When he spoke, however, his tone if not his
words were sharp.
"Quickly, Shikaisen.
The war has already begun."
He turned,
vanishing back into the shadows as he did, leaving Shikaisen alone on the
balcony. The old man wheezed, fingering the air as his staff reappeared. Tanso would get what was his, he thought
darkly, turning back once more to gaze at the green yoroi. There was a way around the bond, that much he
was certain of, but he wouldn't share that secret with his dark lord. To give the power of one of
the Nine to that fool? He'd
sooner spill the secrets of the yokai to the knowledge hungry moral who was
tending the bearer.
No, that
would not happen. There was a way around
the cemented connection between the mortal boy and the immortal armor, and once
he had found it, the world would know and fear Shikaisen. Not Tanso.
Not Arago.
/Shikaisen./
*to be continued*
Author's Notes:
And thus begins another multipart fic. Fortunately, this one is different than most
of those which I start because I have a glorious and wonderful person who will
kill me if I don't complete the fic.
If you couldn't tell, this is a Gaiden story. In fact, it's a continuation of an oneshot
fic that I posted almost a year ago, and even bears the same name. I wrote this intending the two to latch
together, but soon determined that they wouldn't fit as such. Unfortunately, by that time, the name “Darkness
Bind Them” had already stuck with this story, not with the original one.
In any event, consider the prologue as taking place roughly in
early to mid June, with the first chapter starting on Ryo's birthday. There is a wee bit of time between the two
parts, and if you are desperate to know what happens in those weeks, check out
my oneshot "Dying of the Light" which should hopefully grant a few
details regarding what happened in the interim.
Next chapter, meet the boys, the Ma Sho make a less than
triumphant return, and both Anubisu and Shikaisen receive an unpleasant
shock. Oddly enough, they both relate to
the same thing. Go figure.