More unnamed story
Mar. 14th, 2006 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Ah, I'm finally starting to approach the end. And I've passed 100K in file size... currently at 106. ^_^ Although I think I'm telegraphing again. Ah well.
Suigintou waited in the church. It was, as always, peaceful here. She loved the stained glass. It was a pity that the building was soon to be destroyed. She wondered absently if there might be a way to save the glass, then let the thought go. She loved the church for Meg, and with Meg gone, the church was empty. It was only a building, a shell without a heart to warm it. A hand touched the rose at the center of her chest. She was only a doll, without a heart beating in her chest.
Rozen, too, was gone.
She thought of singing Meg’s song one more time into Meg’s church, but in the end didn’t do that either. Kazutaka had spoken to her of the advantage of the element of surprise in capturing the undead man he sought, and she knew too well how such a thing could work in her favor.
Particularly against one who had powers, wasn’t a normal human.
The corners of her mouth turned down in a slight frown. Encounters with magicians seldom went well in her experience. They had their own agendas and powers, were tricky and lied to get their way. They drove her from safety, and she had no love for the human magic-wielders.
Instead, she concealed herself in the shadows of the altar, positioning herself to see the door.
*
The doctor knew he was being hunted. Hisoka could /feel/ it, the shivering delight of malice and glee, the calm elation at Tsuzuki’s presence, the bored amusement at his own. The doctor was waiting for them, sure he had the upper hand as always, and on his home ground.
/Not this time,/ Hisoka thought grimly as he and Tsuzuki walked calmly into the hospital. Any other mission and he’d have been wary that the building or the people in it were a trap, but not this time. Not when they’d looked around already. If Muraki had a high ground, it wasn’t the home field advantage.
The Sumeragi had split from them as soon as they’d left the cafe. He was taking the high route, springing from lamppost to building ledge to hospital roof with the greatest of ease and working his way down from the top. Distantly Hisoka could feel the darkness of the power he cloaked himself in, a shadow taste on the psychic palate that made up the onmyouji’s complex sense of self.
If Muraki didn’t know... if he and Tsuzuki could manage to hold and match whatever it was the doctor thought he had, and Sumeragi get the drop on him....
It was a very faint sense of hope that shivered down Hisoka’s spine. The chance to finally end the hell Muraki had put him through and send the man to his rightful judgment would be worth it all. Then maybe he could start with a clean slate. Then maybe he and Tsuzuki....
The doctor was a flight or two up. Even though the Sumeragi’s shikigami had been blown to bits, Hisoka didn’t need any such guidance to find the twisted mind with which he was so familiar. Up and around the stairs and up again and they came to a bustling floor where the nurses barely glanced at him and Tsuzuki as they passed. A right and a left and a right again led them to a quieter wing and closer to the doctor. But maliciously the man was on the move again, going downstairs now. Hisoka indicated this to his partner and as they entered the outer staircase they could hear a door closing several floors below them.
“Why do you think he’s running?” Tsuzuki asked as they wound their way back down.
“/He/ doesn’t think he’s running,” Hisoka replied, keeping a steady bead on that person whose delight and sense of self-cunning was only increasing as he led them on this chase. And Muraki knew that he had them on tenterhooks, that they were following him. And if he was leaving the hospital grounds, maybe the hospital wasn’t his home area and he did have a nasty trap set for them elsewhere.... “He’s stopped somewhere outside.”
“Have a bad feeling about this?” Tsuzuki asked him with a grin, like he hadn’t been the one twisting napkins into shreds earlier.
Hisoka glared at him. “Don’t you?”
Tsuzuki stopped. Hisoka went down another step before stopping too. Tsuzuki’s expression had turned abruptly serious. “I meant what I said,” Tsuzuki said. His hand raised to hover just by Hisoka’s cheek, almost but not quite touching. “I’ll kill him before I let him hurt you again.”
It somehow wasn’t fair that even in an adult body Tsuzuki was still that littlest bit taller than Hisoka. “Then you’d better make sure,” Hisoka replied, “that he doesn’t hurt you either.”
Tsuzuki understood that for exactly what it meant and smiled one of those sad, sweet smiles that broke /everyone’s/ hearts. For a few instants Hisoka realized exactly why Tatsumi and the Count were so drawn to Tsuzuki, and why he was too.
He looked away first. “We’d better get going,” Hisoka said gruffly. “If we’re to catch him.”
And he could feel Tsuzuki still /looking/ at him that way, feel the same tenor of emotions in the man’s heart like a catch of breath in wonder in his throat, until they faded somewhat, concealed behind a no less affectionate caring manner that somehow spoke of business more and not the shining creature that Tsuzuki could become. Which was good, because Hisoka never knew quite how to react to Tsuzuki when he was like that.
“Yeah,” Tsuzuki said quietly. “The doctor’s waiting for us.”
*
Subaru ghosted through the halls of the hospital, following the trail left for him. Whispers of magic users trailed colored through his senses, half-obscured by the protective magics of the hospital itself, but still always there. The doctor had strode through his hallway recently, his sorcery ruffled by the little attack on Subaru’s shikigami. The fresh trail overlaid the old ones he might have laid.
Pausing by a familiar room, Subaru realized the doctor had been inside that evening, and surreptitiously entered himself, closing the door and blanketing the brightness of the hallway.
It wasn’t that the room was wholly dark, though. In the window a single candle burned. Moving forward, Subaru frowned as he brushed through his own spells. He’d cleansed this room of old influences a few days before, but even without their record or the confirmation from the Sumeragi estate, he knew the answer to a question he had asked and been asked.
Doctor Muraki had attended the girl in this room.
He had helped her to die.
He stood by the window and looked out at the hospital grounds.
A silver figure in a white coat walked unhurriedly toward a small building, a chapel unless Subaru missed his guess. Subaru turned to look at the empty bed. The girl, she would have seen the chapel from her window.
He didn’t know how yet, but it all tied together. He /needed/ the missing pieces, and he needed them before he entered into battle.
The doctor disappeared into the building, door closing behind himself.
Subaru unlatched the window, sliding it open, and pushed up onto the sill.
The candle guttered and went out as he launched himself out into the air.
Suigintou waited in the church. It was, as always, peaceful here. She loved the stained glass. It was a pity that the building was soon to be destroyed. She wondered absently if there might be a way to save the glass, then let the thought go. She loved the church for Meg, and with Meg gone, the church was empty. It was only a building, a shell without a heart to warm it. A hand touched the rose at the center of her chest. She was only a doll, without a heart beating in her chest.
Rozen, too, was gone.
She thought of singing Meg’s song one more time into Meg’s church, but in the end didn’t do that either. Kazutaka had spoken to her of the advantage of the element of surprise in capturing the undead man he sought, and she knew too well how such a thing could work in her favor.
Particularly against one who had powers, wasn’t a normal human.
The corners of her mouth turned down in a slight frown. Encounters with magicians seldom went well in her experience. They had their own agendas and powers, were tricky and lied to get their way. They drove her from safety, and she had no love for the human magic-wielders.
Instead, she concealed herself in the shadows of the altar, positioning herself to see the door.
The doctor knew he was being hunted. Hisoka could /feel/ it, the shivering delight of malice and glee, the calm elation at Tsuzuki’s presence, the bored amusement at his own. The doctor was waiting for them, sure he had the upper hand as always, and on his home ground.
/Not this time,/ Hisoka thought grimly as he and Tsuzuki walked calmly into the hospital. Any other mission and he’d have been wary that the building or the people in it were a trap, but not this time. Not when they’d looked around already. If Muraki had a high ground, it wasn’t the home field advantage.
The Sumeragi had split from them as soon as they’d left the cafe. He was taking the high route, springing from lamppost to building ledge to hospital roof with the greatest of ease and working his way down from the top. Distantly Hisoka could feel the darkness of the power he cloaked himself in, a shadow taste on the psychic palate that made up the onmyouji’s complex sense of self.
If Muraki didn’t know... if he and Tsuzuki could manage to hold and match whatever it was the doctor thought he had, and Sumeragi get the drop on him....
It was a very faint sense of hope that shivered down Hisoka’s spine. The chance to finally end the hell Muraki had put him through and send the man to his rightful judgment would be worth it all. Then maybe he could start with a clean slate. Then maybe he and Tsuzuki....
The doctor was a flight or two up. Even though the Sumeragi’s shikigami had been blown to bits, Hisoka didn’t need any such guidance to find the twisted mind with which he was so familiar. Up and around the stairs and up again and they came to a bustling floor where the nurses barely glanced at him and Tsuzuki as they passed. A right and a left and a right again led them to a quieter wing and closer to the doctor. But maliciously the man was on the move again, going downstairs now. Hisoka indicated this to his partner and as they entered the outer staircase they could hear a door closing several floors below them.
“Why do you think he’s running?” Tsuzuki asked as they wound their way back down.
“/He/ doesn’t think he’s running,” Hisoka replied, keeping a steady bead on that person whose delight and sense of self-cunning was only increasing as he led them on this chase. And Muraki knew that he had them on tenterhooks, that they were following him. And if he was leaving the hospital grounds, maybe the hospital wasn’t his home area and he did have a nasty trap set for them elsewhere.... “He’s stopped somewhere outside.”
“Have a bad feeling about this?” Tsuzuki asked him with a grin, like he hadn’t been the one twisting napkins into shreds earlier.
Hisoka glared at him. “Don’t you?”
Tsuzuki stopped. Hisoka went down another step before stopping too. Tsuzuki’s expression had turned abruptly serious. “I meant what I said,” Tsuzuki said. His hand raised to hover just by Hisoka’s cheek, almost but not quite touching. “I’ll kill him before I let him hurt you again.”
It somehow wasn’t fair that even in an adult body Tsuzuki was still that littlest bit taller than Hisoka. “Then you’d better make sure,” Hisoka replied, “that he doesn’t hurt you either.”
Tsuzuki understood that for exactly what it meant and smiled one of those sad, sweet smiles that broke /everyone’s/ hearts. For a few instants Hisoka realized exactly why Tatsumi and the Count were so drawn to Tsuzuki, and why he was too.
He looked away first. “We’d better get going,” Hisoka said gruffly. “If we’re to catch him.”
And he could feel Tsuzuki still /looking/ at him that way, feel the same tenor of emotions in the man’s heart like a catch of breath in wonder in his throat, until they faded somewhat, concealed behind a no less affectionate caring manner that somehow spoke of business more and not the shining creature that Tsuzuki could become. Which was good, because Hisoka never knew quite how to react to Tsuzuki when he was like that.
“Yeah,” Tsuzuki said quietly. “The doctor’s waiting for us.”
Subaru ghosted through the halls of the hospital, following the trail left for him. Whispers of magic users trailed colored through his senses, half-obscured by the protective magics of the hospital itself, but still always there. The doctor had strode through his hallway recently, his sorcery ruffled by the little attack on Subaru’s shikigami. The fresh trail overlaid the old ones he might have laid.
Pausing by a familiar room, Subaru realized the doctor had been inside that evening, and surreptitiously entered himself, closing the door and blanketing the brightness of the hallway.
It wasn’t that the room was wholly dark, though. In the window a single candle burned. Moving forward, Subaru frowned as he brushed through his own spells. He’d cleansed this room of old influences a few days before, but even without their record or the confirmation from the Sumeragi estate, he knew the answer to a question he had asked and been asked.
Doctor Muraki had attended the girl in this room.
He had helped her to die.
He stood by the window and looked out at the hospital grounds.
A silver figure in a white coat walked unhurriedly toward a small building, a chapel unless Subaru missed his guess. Subaru turned to look at the empty bed. The girl, she would have seen the chapel from her window.
He didn’t know how yet, but it all tied together. He /needed/ the missing pieces, and he needed them before he entered into battle.
The doctor disappeared into the building, door closing behind himself.
Subaru unlatched the window, sliding it open, and pushed up onto the sill.
The candle guttered and went out as he launched himself out into the air.
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Date: 2006-03-15 02:49 pm (UTC)*waits eagerly for climactic encounter*