by Rina K. Fenderson
3. Exiled
"His soul has been claimed," Watari declared as soon as he entered, leaving no room for a greeting. Tatsumi rose from the long table, motioning for Konoe to remain seated. For a moment Watari stood in the doorway, his eyes settling on Tsuzuki, who had glanced up from staring at the untouched slice of cake before him. He frowned; Tsuzuki was still not eating well three days after Hisoka was placed in the safe house in Meifu and was constantly asking to know where they had transported him. The Earl demanded that those with the information not tell Tsuzuki. None of them had any knowledge of what held Hisoka and the Earl didn't want his favorite shinigami to be hurt, should a demon have control of his partner.
"What was that?" Tatsumi asked, blue eyes following Watari as the scientist made his way into the meeting room and seated himself opposite their chief. Tatsumi followed his lead, settling himself in his previous position next to Tsuzuki. "When we are given a physical form as shinigami, our souls are placed in those shells as if we were human. Even without the physical form we have souls...or more accurately are souls--" "As we know, but how can one put a claim on it?" Tatsumi asked, leaning back in his chair and raising his eyebrows. Watari pulled up a clipboard, showing them a sketch of a frightening looking demon. "With the help if this. Reikonkorekuta. Talking with the GouShoShin I found out that this demon --one known for collection souls before the shinigami were even formed-- was awakened and promptly killed." "Muraki," Tsuzuki hissed out, fisting his hands then slamming them on the table. The plate before him shook, the fork tumbling onto the floor. "He used his power of absorption to take that demon�s power!" "Possibly...but the problem is...if that's true," Watari looked back and forth between the small group. "He still has that power...because Bon still has his soul...there is just a claim on it. That brand on his chest, where the stab wound was, hasn't healed completely. I believe it is the mark of another curse, this one binding Hisoka to Muraki�s possession." "You think, because Kurosaki still holds his soul, that Muraki wanted to reserve the power to use it elsewhere?" Tatsumi asked, his hand to his chin. Watari bit his lower lip a moment. "I think Muraki only put a claim on it so he could separate Tsuzuki and Bon." "Then he's winning!" Tsuzuki exclaimed. "If you keep us separated he's getting what he wants." "But if we bring Bon here, Muraki will get what he wants as well!" Tsuzuki blinked in confusion and Watari felt his heart ache at the pained look on his friend's handsome face. "Tsuzuki, Bon is now Muraki's property. Where ever his claim is, Muraki can go. That is why Bon was exiled. If we bring him within *any* of the Chous Muraki will be able to infiltrate anything in JuoOhChou�s realm, including EnmaChou itself!" "He set it up so he could win either way," Konoe muttered, shaking his head. "Such a persistent demon, he is." "Then let me go to Hisoka," Tsuzuki whispered. Then attention turned to him and the trio watched their comrade lower his head and run his fingers through his chestnut hair. "So what if Muraki could get to me...I don't want Hisoka to be alone again...he's been through that enough in his life." "It's no use, Tsuzuki. Bon, still hasn't responded to anyone. He won't eat or drink, he won't talk to anyone," Watari explained, leaning on the table wearily. "I've had to give him sedative for fear he's going to rip his throat open the way he scratches at that scar there." Tsuzuki seemed to perk up with alertness, his violet eyes widening. "He has a scar on his neck?" "Yeah...that's right, it was still bandaged when you saw him last. It�s across his neck. Muraki must have slited his throat in attempts to keep him quiet." "He can't talk," Tsuzuki whispered, then stood up abruptly. His chair tumbled back, making the others start and rise in fear of Tsuzuki's rash behavior. "A mute soul...Muraki said something about a mute soul....a mute soul in possession of evil can not...cannot? Set foot in the Agency of Hades nor tell his tale of exile! He cursed Hisoka's throat!" Silence overcame the room and the others looked at Tsuzuki as if he had just lost his mind. Tsuzuki frowned, his arms out as he tried to explain meekly. "The slit on his throat is a curse to keep him mute. That's why he hasn't spoke...he can't!" *And it wasn't that he didn't care if we were separated...* Tsuzuki added on in his head. *He just couldn't tell me...* "That doesn't explain why he hasn't been reacting at all, Tsuzuki-kun," Konoe retorted, his frown lines more prominent with his worry. "Even if he can't speak he would try and tell us such with action." "Would he?" Tsuzuki challenged with a victorious smile. "We all know how poorly Hisoka expresses himself physically." "This is true," Watari claimed with a vigorous nod. "Because of his life before his death, he has always been very timid with his actions...or lack there of. He don't know how to express himself without facts and words, and even then he has some trouble." The blond scientist paused, tapping his finger to his chin as he began to pace, still not having sat after Tsuzuki had jumped up. "We need someone who understands Bon better than others...someone who has cracked a little of his walls..." Their eyes fell on Tsuzuki, then trailed over to Konoe, who slumped in his chair. "I see, I see...I will talk to the Earl...see what he says about Tsuzuki seeing Kurosaki-kun, but under no circumstances will the boy enter any of the Chous...nor should he venture to earth." And the meeting was adjourned with a chorus of "Yes, chief!"* * *
Emerald flashed up as soon as he opened the door, but the alert look in them didn't make the timid curl of his body, or the fidgeting of his fingers around his knees an oversight. Tsuzuki smiled warmly, but it faded to a gentle grin as that was all he could produce when seeing his partner to wracked with fear and inexpressible emotion. "Morning, Hisoka. How are you today?" Those deep green depths immediately turned away from Tsuzuki as Hisoka nudged his face to his knees, closing his eyes. Tsuzuki fisted his hands as a demand not to be put out or self conscious and walked farther into the room. He placed a paper bag next to the bed and sat down on it where the wrinkled sheets weren't occupied by Hisoka's slim form. "I brought you some of your belongings...I knew you wouldn't like me going through your things, but I thought this was a bit of an exception, ne?" Tsuzuki paused, leaning toward Hisoka with a puppy-dog pout and bright amethyst eyes. "You aren't mad at me, are you?" His heart nearly leapt in his throat when Hisoka shook his head. It was a meager response and if someone hadn't been looking for one they would not have see the slight movement, but for Tsuzuki is was enough to tell him all he assumed was true. He felt a lump forming in his throat and wondered if his heart really had leapt so high, but as he swallowed it back. Hisoka still refused to look him in the eyes. The boy normally was very flippant and moody around Tsuzuki, snapping at him and rolling his eyes, but now he had completely changed direction. He was being very fearful and timid, curling himself up as if to make himself smaller or invisible. Tsuzuki couldn't imagine what was going on in the young thing's head. Hisoka had barely wanted to become a shinigami in the first place and now here he was, finally enjoying the experience, and kicked out. "Hisoka," Tsuzuki said softly, his smile completely faded by now. He reached out a hand and stroked it down his partner's blond locks to Hisoka's nape. The blond boy made no move of recognition. "Hisoka, I understand...it�s okay...you can't talk, can you?" Tsuzuki was able to smile again, when he caught a glimpse of emerald through the curtain of honey blond, then Hisoka slowly raised his head, eyes wide, but body unable to respond negative or positive. Tsuzuki moved his hand to Hisoka's chin, grasped it, and moved it as he said, chuckling. "It�s quite easy, boy. Move your head this way for 'no' and this way for 'yes'." Hisoka smacked his hand away and glared, making Tsuzuki smile a little more genuinely. Even the boy's anger was refreshing after not seeing him for four days. "You feeling better now?" He stared at the elder male for a moment, then resigned his head to a nodding motion. Tsuzuki followed the movement. "Good...now...why didn't you try and tell us? Was it just that you didn't know how?" Another nod, this one a bit deeper. So much that Tsuzuki could no longer see Hisoka's eyes. "Well, we understand now, so you don't need to worry. They're already trying to figure this out...Chief asked for all the shinigami...there's a meeting today..." Tsuzuki blinked as Hisoka raised his head and opened his mouth, but only air escaped and he closed his eyes in defeat, once again turning away. Feeling a pang of sadness for his partner, Tsuzuki resisted the urge to huge him and settled on pulling a pen and notepad from the bag he brought with him. "Ne, Hisoka...I know it's silly, but this may be the only way we can communicate." Handing him the paper and pen, Hisoka seemed reluctant, then while frowning he started to write. Tsuzuki scootched a little closer to read over his shoulder as he wrote and again had to curb the impulse to hug the boy at what he read. *They shouldn't go to so much trouble.* "Hisoka...we need you...you may not be as powerful as some of us, but you keep me in line. I've gotten more work done with you than I have with any of my partners, sans Tatsumi, 'cause he worked me every second," Tsuzuki paused and allowed himself to lean his chin to Hisoka's shoulder. He half expected the boy to smack him away, but was pleasantly surprised when Hisoka just looked at him then went back to writing. *It�s a lost cause...I'm Muraki's, there is nothing we can do.* Tsuzuki's head snapped up, his fist in the air and clenched as he glared at the wall. "I won't except that...for as long as I have more power than him. No, as long as I have any power at all, I will not let him have you, not in anyway, shape, or form!" His violet eyes flickered back to Hisoka, whose eyebrows were raised, and he added meekly. "Got it?" Hisoka's expression suddenly darkened, his body visibly curling inward a bit more. *Too late...* It took Tsuzuki a moment to grasp the meaning of those gracefully written katakana, then... -I will not let him have you- -*Too late*- He wasn't speaking of the curse, or of Muraki's possession of his soul. Instead, Tsuzuki realized, he was revealing that Muraki had possession of something more... *His body...,* Tsuzuki thought, then swallowed hard his voice almost cracking as he asked. "Again?" Hisoka shifted, writing a bit more quickly before he pulled himself off the bed and over to the window over looking the grounds, which were lush and new, although in the land of the living in was nearing the fall months. *It�s Surprising?* Tsuzuki could here the sarcasm, see the incredulous look in Hisoka�s eyes even if he wasn�t looking to his elder partner. Once again the lump returned, making it painful to even swallow. �Hisoka...� He stood from the bed, walking slowly over to Hisoka, where he remained by the window, the sunlight playing brightly against the highlights in his hair. He left plenty of room for his young comrade to walk away and dismiss him, but even as he glance over his shoulder at Tsuzuki, Hisoka didn�t retreat. �Is there anything...I can do?�Emerald turned to amethyst and suddenly Tsuzuki felt that he didn�t need written symbols to know exactly what the boy was thinking at that moment. It was what they were all thinking, what they were all fearful of. *I don�t know.*
Author's Notes: Reikonkorekuta is UTTERLY made up. I
have never ever heard of it. The name was meant to
mean Soul Collector, or Soul Gatherer and he is
supposed to be the demon that gathers souls before the
shinigami for formed. His powers were to take (gather)
souls, put a limit on life expectancy, and claim souls
(mark them) for later death (or, as Muraki's using it,
for later possession). He was out of work once the
agency was underway. And Tsuzuki tried to put him back
in work, by making him a shikigami, though
Reikonkorekuta didn't want to. If anyone knows of an
*actual* demon or spirit that could work for this
purpose, please tell me.
-Rina-chan