Still more nameless fic
Sep. 23rd, 2006 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76I think, at this point, there's only the epilogue to go. But it's way past my bedtime, so bed calls.
Asato hovered in mid-air, slowly spinning away from Muraki and Sumeragi and Hisoka, all of whom watched him until he came to rest in a gentle hand.
“That’s no way to treat a doll,” a reproving male voice said quietly. Asato got a glimpse of eyes as purple as his own that regarded him for a moment, then blinked in puzzlement. “You don’t belong in there,” the young man said curiously.
“Sakon,” Sumeragi said from across the distance, a faint note of relief in his voice.
“Sensei.” The young man bowed.
So this was one of Sumeragi’s apprentices, then.
“Hey, Sakon, didja know you could do that?” a second voice muttered quietly.
“Not until now,” Sakon replied equally quietly.
*
His partner safe in the arms of Sumeragi’s apprentice, Hisoka turned back to Muraki, who for once looked completely pole-axed, and made a decision.
His hand formed into a fist, he hit Muraki as hard as he could, all the concentrated blankness of a kendo strike in the blow.
The man flew back and hit the stained glass window. The outside mesh held, barely, but all around Muraki the pieces of falling angels rained down, a chorus of glass at his feet.
“Bastard,” Hisoka muttered, cradling his hand.
*
The sudden lack of drain was palpable to Jun, like a lead weight taken off his chest, like a cold clearing up, like all the freedom in the world was suddenly his again. He sat up.
“Jun?” Shinku asked.
“It’s all right,” he reassured her. “Suigintou?”
Her face was still aged. She’d been through a lot. “It’s stopped,” she whispered, her voice broken and hollow.
Standing, Jun steadied himself then gathered Suigintou in one arm and Shinku in the other. Each leaned against him, a negligible weight of porcelain and magic, as he walked slowly into the other room where the onmyouji had gone.
Tachibana was there, kneeling next to a body and a huge white tiger (Jun gulped, but the tiger didn’t seem interested in him and there wasn’t blood all over the body, so he didn’t /think/ the tiger had killed him), a blond twenty-something guy holding another doll standing next to him. And the onmyouji stood behind the altar in this room, talking with a blue-haired girl in a very pink kimono who held an oar in one hand and a set of handcuffs in the other. Beyond them another body slumped against the wall and a gaping hole hinted at where a stained glass window had been.
“Him,” Suigintou whispered.
“Which him?” Jun asked. There were plenty to choose from.
“Against the wall,” she croaked.
He obediently walked over to the altar.
“A moment,” the onmyouji, seeing them, told the blue-haired girl. “I believe there’s unfinished business here.”
Jun set Suigintou down. She walked carefully, unevenly, over to the white-coated man. She stopped and looked at him. “I release you from our contract,” she said finally, and kissed the rose ring on his finger. It dissolved. She stood looking at him for a minute longer, then kicked him with one dark blue boot, and turned, walking back to Jun. Her gathered her up again, heart aching for the tears that streamed down her face.
“Let’s go home, Jun,” Shinku said as the blue-haired girl cheerfully knelt and placed the handcuffs on the man.
*
“Can you put him back in his body?” Hisoka asked the puppeteer, who had introduced himself properly as Tachibana Sakon and his puppet as Ukon while handing the Tsuzuki doll over to Hisoka.
“I don’t know,” Tachibana replied, studying Tsuzuki’s body. “Perhaps Sumeragi-sensei…” he suggested as Byakko investigated Ukon. Tachibana didn’t seem concerned; the puppet, on the other hand, shied back from the admittedly very large tiger.
“Try,” Sumeragi urged, coming up behind them. Hisoka spared a glance toward Muraki and saw Botan lifting off, Muraki dangling from her oar, handcuffs on either side of its shaft. “Unlock the spell first, then reverse it.”
“Yes, sensei,” Tachibana said obediently, and closed his eyes. He set Ukon down, the child puppet propped blankly by his side as he knelt, and held Tsuzuki’s doll in his left hand instead. His right rested lightly on Tsuzuki’s chest. “Puppetry is the same as humanity,” he murmured softly. The way he said the words gave them weight and depth. Hisoka cocked an eyebrow. A spell? “Ventriloquism is the same as telepathy. Mimicry is not just the tone of voice, but the voice within.”
The doll and Tzuzuki alike both began to glow a soft violet. Behind the puppeteer, almost, Hisoka could see an afterimage of his puppet partner, hands on Sakon’s shoulders, eyes similarly closed.
The Sumeragi nodded, eyes sharp on his apprentice. “Good,” he said quietly. “Once shown the path, Tsuzuki-san’s spirit will return naturally to his body. It’s like water flowing downhill, or gravity. Guide the path, and let him do the rest, Sakon, Ukon.”
They gave no sign that they heard, but the violet haze surrounding the doll slowly arched up and across, rainbowing into Tsuzuki’s body, the light flowing forth from the small figure until the last of it up and went over and absorbed. Tachibana opened his eyes and his hand moved away from Tsuzuki, who stirred and moaned softly like he had a hangover. “Hisoka?” he mumbled, opening his eyes, then winced, shutting them quickly.
Profound relief at having his idiot partner back in one piece warred with Hisoka’s reserve.
“You’re all right?” he asked softly.
“Turn off the lights,” Tsuzuki begged, hand groping along the ground until it encountered Hisoka’s denim-clad thigh where he sat on Tsuzuki’s other side. Some of the tension loosed from his form at the contact. “Glad you’re okay,” he mumbled incoherently. “Did we get him?”
“Yeah.” Hisoka covered Tsuzuki’s hand with his, willing his idiot partner’s pain to lessen. “We did.”
Tsuzuki breathed a sigh of relief and cuddled closer.
Hisoka blushed.
*
“Sakon!” Kaoruko demanded, stalking into the chapel. “What do you mean just leaving me in the car like that?”
“Kaoruko-neesan,” Sakon said, blinking. But there was no way she was going to let him off the hook.
“And you!” she said, pointing a finger at Ukon. “What do you mean, /I’m/ not supposed to get in trouble? You’re the one out smashing windows.”
“Actually, that was Kurosaki-san,” Subaru rebutted, interrupting her just as she felt herself building up to a good tirade. “Hello, Kaoruko-san.”
“Subaru-san,” she replied, taking his offered hand.
“Hey, what’s with the blushing?” Ukon demanded. She promptly whacked him a good one.
“What’s with leaving me in the car?” she demanded again.
“They had cause,” Subaru replied, probably thankfully overriding whatever the puppet was going to answer instead. “Crime scenes are one thing. Murderers who are also sorcerers are something else.”
She blanched a little. “You’re all right? All of you?”
“Most of us,” Sakon answered, looking sadly at a boy who held a doll in either arm. One was exquisite, golden hair and red velvet dress. The other showed signs of age, her facade worn and cracked.
“Sakon,” Ukon said, nudging him. Kaoruko’s nephew blinked at his partner, then looked into empty space for a minute.
“Oh,” he said. “Ukon, do you mind?”
Ukon shrugged. “Go ‘head.”
Sakon’s expression stilled in concentration. “Puppetry is the same as humanity,” he whispered, and Ukon’s features took on a different cast. Kaoruko, slightly unnerved no matter how many times she’d seen her nephew and Ukon do this same thing before, took a step back into the circle of Subaru’s arms.
Ukon’s fiery hair seemed to darken, its spikes falling down into length. His features softened, and when he opened his eyes, they were gray-brown. “Suigintou?” he asked, only it was a girl’s voice coming out of him, and he looked straight at one of the dolls the boy held.
The doll moved.
Kaoruko stiffened, stifling an “eep!” and stepping back automatically further into Subaru’s personal space. He laughed softly. “It’s all right,” he murmured to her. “They’re a bit like Ukon.”
*
Jun set her down gently and Suigintou shakily made her way over to the puppet who suddenly looked and sounded so much like her medium. “Meg?” she asked stupidly, voice breaking. It couldn’t be... Meg was dead....
She /wanted/ it to be Meg.
“My dark angel,” the puppet said, and touched a hand to Suigintou’s hair.
It was Meg.
Suigintou collapsed into her arms, holding her and crying.
“Shh,” Meg soothed, holding her. “It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt any more. It’s all right.”
“You’re gone,” Suigintou sobbed, feeling all the wrongs in the world to be centered on that one thing. “You’re gone.”
“It doesn’t mean you’re not still my angel,” Meg said. “I want you to be happy. How can I be happy if you’re not?”
“I didn’t keep my promise,” Suigintou sniffed. “I didn’t make the pain go away.”
“I shouldn’t have made you promise that,” Meg said softly. “It wasn’t fair. Because now I’m the source of your pain. Maybe it would have been better if we’d never met....”
“No!” Horrified, Suigintou pulled away.
“Then I want you to promise me to be happy,” Meg said simply. “Otherwise, leaving you behind will be my greatest regret.”
“How can I be happy?” Suigintou asked. “You’re gone.”
Meg shook her head, brown hair flying. “I’m not the only one who can make you happy. I was just the first.”
“But Meg--” Suigintou tried again.
“I don’t mean for you to forget, or never feel lonely or sad,” Meg said. “I just want you to promise that you won’t rule out happiness because of it.”
Suigintou hesitated.
“Promise me,” Meg pressed.
“I promise,” Suigintou whispered.
“Then I have no regrets,” Meg whispered back, and held Suigintou close one more time. “Goodbye, my dark angel.”
“Meg!” Suigintou cried, feeling the gentle presence fade away.
She collapsed back down onto the floor, sobbing, as the puppet’s hair faded back to spiky redness.
*
Sakon looked at the crying doll and felt pity for her. He’d once thought her as heartless as a murderer might be, but those who killed always had their reasons, and so had she. Now, like so many others he’d seen, she had nothing left.
A thought struck him. “Kaoruko-neesan,” he asked, looking up.
“Yes?” she asked.
Behind her, Subaru was faster to realize what Sakon was asking. His face showed surprise, then a considered approval of the idea.
“If it’s not something either of you would object to, perhaps Suigintou-san might recover better at your home than at Sakurada-san’s?” Sakon suggested, thinking of the crowding noise and bustle that the other dolls made and how it might bruise an already-wounded heart.
Kaoruko blinked. “I... If Suigintou-san doesn’t mind, neither would I,” she said, turning the idea over in her mind.
“I don’t want a new medium,” Suigintou whispered from where she huddled on the floor.
“It’s not a matter of want,” Shinku said primly as Jun let her down onto the floor. “She said she wanted you to be happy, Suigintou.” Her gaze on her sister was not without mercy. “To take another medium doesn’t mean forgetting her.”
“I don’t want to fight any more,” Suigintou said helplessly.
“So don’t,” Jun said. The silver-haired doll looked at him for a long moment, then her sister, and finally stood, crossing to the boy. She reached for his hand and he gave it to her.
“Thank you,” she said, and kissed his rose ring. Sakon watched the silver thread of power between them dissolve.
“What am I getting myself into?” Kaoruko asked Subaru.
“My world,” he answered with a small smile. Then he sobered. “If she truly doesn’t wish to fight any more, it should be no hardship on you.”
“Hardship’s not what I’m concerned about,” she sniffed.
She turned to look at Suigintou, and knelt down before her. “My name is Tachibana Kaoruko,” she said. She nodded at Sakon. “I’m his aunt, and Subaru-san’s girlfriend.”
“I’m called Suigintou,” the doll replied. She looked at Shinku. “She’s one of my sisters. I have six.”
“I only have one sister, and she’s much older than I am,” Kaoruko replied steadily.
Suigintou only nodded.
“If I’m not acceptable,” Kaoruko said delicately, “I’m sure someone else can be found.”
Suigintou looked down, then back up. “I don’t know how to be... nice,” she said, the word strange in her mouth like it was a foreign word.
“I don’t know anything about magic,” Kaoruko replied. “We could learn things together,” she suggested.
Suigintou looked away again. “...Yes,” she murmured.
“What do I need to do?”
Wordlessly, Suigintou lifted her hand. Taking it gently, Kaoruko pressed her lips to the porcelain fingers.
Sakon watched the ring form on his aunt’s hand, a silver thread stringing itself between her and Suigintou, and hoped that his thought had been a good one.
“Who better to care for a magical doll,” Subaru murmured to him as Sakon stood, “than a Tachibana?”
Asato hovered in mid-air, slowly spinning away from Muraki and Sumeragi and Hisoka, all of whom watched him until he came to rest in a gentle hand.
“That’s no way to treat a doll,” a reproving male voice said quietly. Asato got a glimpse of eyes as purple as his own that regarded him for a moment, then blinked in puzzlement. “You don’t belong in there,” the young man said curiously.
“Sakon,” Sumeragi said from across the distance, a faint note of relief in his voice.
“Sensei.” The young man bowed.
So this was one of Sumeragi’s apprentices, then.
“Hey, Sakon, didja know you could do that?” a second voice muttered quietly.
“Not until now,” Sakon replied equally quietly.
His partner safe in the arms of Sumeragi’s apprentice, Hisoka turned back to Muraki, who for once looked completely pole-axed, and made a decision.
His hand formed into a fist, he hit Muraki as hard as he could, all the concentrated blankness of a kendo strike in the blow.
The man flew back and hit the stained glass window. The outside mesh held, barely, but all around Muraki the pieces of falling angels rained down, a chorus of glass at his feet.
“Bastard,” Hisoka muttered, cradling his hand.
The sudden lack of drain was palpable to Jun, like a lead weight taken off his chest, like a cold clearing up, like all the freedom in the world was suddenly his again. He sat up.
“Jun?” Shinku asked.
“It’s all right,” he reassured her. “Suigintou?”
Her face was still aged. She’d been through a lot. “It’s stopped,” she whispered, her voice broken and hollow.
Standing, Jun steadied himself then gathered Suigintou in one arm and Shinku in the other. Each leaned against him, a negligible weight of porcelain and magic, as he walked slowly into the other room where the onmyouji had gone.
Tachibana was there, kneeling next to a body and a huge white tiger (Jun gulped, but the tiger didn’t seem interested in him and there wasn’t blood all over the body, so he didn’t /think/ the tiger had killed him), a blond twenty-something guy holding another doll standing next to him. And the onmyouji stood behind the altar in this room, talking with a blue-haired girl in a very pink kimono who held an oar in one hand and a set of handcuffs in the other. Beyond them another body slumped against the wall and a gaping hole hinted at where a stained glass window had been.
“Him,” Suigintou whispered.
“Which him?” Jun asked. There were plenty to choose from.
“Against the wall,” she croaked.
He obediently walked over to the altar.
“A moment,” the onmyouji, seeing them, told the blue-haired girl. “I believe there’s unfinished business here.”
Jun set Suigintou down. She walked carefully, unevenly, over to the white-coated man. She stopped and looked at him. “I release you from our contract,” she said finally, and kissed the rose ring on his finger. It dissolved. She stood looking at him for a minute longer, then kicked him with one dark blue boot, and turned, walking back to Jun. Her gathered her up again, heart aching for the tears that streamed down her face.
“Let’s go home, Jun,” Shinku said as the blue-haired girl cheerfully knelt and placed the handcuffs on the man.
“Can you put him back in his body?” Hisoka asked the puppeteer, who had introduced himself properly as Tachibana Sakon and his puppet as Ukon while handing the Tsuzuki doll over to Hisoka.
“I don’t know,” Tachibana replied, studying Tsuzuki’s body. “Perhaps Sumeragi-sensei…” he suggested as Byakko investigated Ukon. Tachibana didn’t seem concerned; the puppet, on the other hand, shied back from the admittedly very large tiger.
“Try,” Sumeragi urged, coming up behind them. Hisoka spared a glance toward Muraki and saw Botan lifting off, Muraki dangling from her oar, handcuffs on either side of its shaft. “Unlock the spell first, then reverse it.”
“Yes, sensei,” Tachibana said obediently, and closed his eyes. He set Ukon down, the child puppet propped blankly by his side as he knelt, and held Tsuzuki’s doll in his left hand instead. His right rested lightly on Tsuzuki’s chest. “Puppetry is the same as humanity,” he murmured softly. The way he said the words gave them weight and depth. Hisoka cocked an eyebrow. A spell? “Ventriloquism is the same as telepathy. Mimicry is not just the tone of voice, but the voice within.”
The doll and Tzuzuki alike both began to glow a soft violet. Behind the puppeteer, almost, Hisoka could see an afterimage of his puppet partner, hands on Sakon’s shoulders, eyes similarly closed.
The Sumeragi nodded, eyes sharp on his apprentice. “Good,” he said quietly. “Once shown the path, Tsuzuki-san’s spirit will return naturally to his body. It’s like water flowing downhill, or gravity. Guide the path, and let him do the rest, Sakon, Ukon.”
They gave no sign that they heard, but the violet haze surrounding the doll slowly arched up and across, rainbowing into Tsuzuki’s body, the light flowing forth from the small figure until the last of it up and went over and absorbed. Tachibana opened his eyes and his hand moved away from Tsuzuki, who stirred and moaned softly like he had a hangover. “Hisoka?” he mumbled, opening his eyes, then winced, shutting them quickly.
Profound relief at having his idiot partner back in one piece warred with Hisoka’s reserve.
“You’re all right?” he asked softly.
“Turn off the lights,” Tsuzuki begged, hand groping along the ground until it encountered Hisoka’s denim-clad thigh where he sat on Tsuzuki’s other side. Some of the tension loosed from his form at the contact. “Glad you’re okay,” he mumbled incoherently. “Did we get him?”
“Yeah.” Hisoka covered Tsuzuki’s hand with his, willing his idiot partner’s pain to lessen. “We did.”
Tsuzuki breathed a sigh of relief and cuddled closer.
Hisoka blushed.
“Sakon!” Kaoruko demanded, stalking into the chapel. “What do you mean just leaving me in the car like that?”
“Kaoruko-neesan,” Sakon said, blinking. But there was no way she was going to let him off the hook.
“And you!” she said, pointing a finger at Ukon. “What do you mean, /I’m/ not supposed to get in trouble? You’re the one out smashing windows.”
“Actually, that was Kurosaki-san,” Subaru rebutted, interrupting her just as she felt herself building up to a good tirade. “Hello, Kaoruko-san.”
“Subaru-san,” she replied, taking his offered hand.
“Hey, what’s with the blushing?” Ukon demanded. She promptly whacked him a good one.
“What’s with leaving me in the car?” she demanded again.
“They had cause,” Subaru replied, probably thankfully overriding whatever the puppet was going to answer instead. “Crime scenes are one thing. Murderers who are also sorcerers are something else.”
She blanched a little. “You’re all right? All of you?”
“Most of us,” Sakon answered, looking sadly at a boy who held a doll in either arm. One was exquisite, golden hair and red velvet dress. The other showed signs of age, her facade worn and cracked.
“Sakon,” Ukon said, nudging him. Kaoruko’s nephew blinked at his partner, then looked into empty space for a minute.
“Oh,” he said. “Ukon, do you mind?”
Ukon shrugged. “Go ‘head.”
Sakon’s expression stilled in concentration. “Puppetry is the same as humanity,” he whispered, and Ukon’s features took on a different cast. Kaoruko, slightly unnerved no matter how many times she’d seen her nephew and Ukon do this same thing before, took a step back into the circle of Subaru’s arms.
Ukon’s fiery hair seemed to darken, its spikes falling down into length. His features softened, and when he opened his eyes, they were gray-brown. “Suigintou?” he asked, only it was a girl’s voice coming out of him, and he looked straight at one of the dolls the boy held.
The doll moved.
Kaoruko stiffened, stifling an “eep!” and stepping back automatically further into Subaru’s personal space. He laughed softly. “It’s all right,” he murmured to her. “They’re a bit like Ukon.”
Jun set her down gently and Suigintou shakily made her way over to the puppet who suddenly looked and sounded so much like her medium. “Meg?” she asked stupidly, voice breaking. It couldn’t be... Meg was dead....
She /wanted/ it to be Meg.
“My dark angel,” the puppet said, and touched a hand to Suigintou’s hair.
It was Meg.
Suigintou collapsed into her arms, holding her and crying.
“Shh,” Meg soothed, holding her. “It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt any more. It’s all right.”
“You’re gone,” Suigintou sobbed, feeling all the wrongs in the world to be centered on that one thing. “You’re gone.”
“It doesn’t mean you’re not still my angel,” Meg said. “I want you to be happy. How can I be happy if you’re not?”
“I didn’t keep my promise,” Suigintou sniffed. “I didn’t make the pain go away.”
“I shouldn’t have made you promise that,” Meg said softly. “It wasn’t fair. Because now I’m the source of your pain. Maybe it would have been better if we’d never met....”
“No!” Horrified, Suigintou pulled away.
“Then I want you to promise me to be happy,” Meg said simply. “Otherwise, leaving you behind will be my greatest regret.”
“How can I be happy?” Suigintou asked. “You’re gone.”
Meg shook her head, brown hair flying. “I’m not the only one who can make you happy. I was just the first.”
“But Meg--” Suigintou tried again.
“I don’t mean for you to forget, or never feel lonely or sad,” Meg said. “I just want you to promise that you won’t rule out happiness because of it.”
Suigintou hesitated.
“Promise me,” Meg pressed.
“I promise,” Suigintou whispered.
“Then I have no regrets,” Meg whispered back, and held Suigintou close one more time. “Goodbye, my dark angel.”
“Meg!” Suigintou cried, feeling the gentle presence fade away.
She collapsed back down onto the floor, sobbing, as the puppet’s hair faded back to spiky redness.
Sakon looked at the crying doll and felt pity for her. He’d once thought her as heartless as a murderer might be, but those who killed always had their reasons, and so had she. Now, like so many others he’d seen, she had nothing left.
A thought struck him. “Kaoruko-neesan,” he asked, looking up.
“Yes?” she asked.
Behind her, Subaru was faster to realize what Sakon was asking. His face showed surprise, then a considered approval of the idea.
“If it’s not something either of you would object to, perhaps Suigintou-san might recover better at your home than at Sakurada-san’s?” Sakon suggested, thinking of the crowding noise and bustle that the other dolls made and how it might bruise an already-wounded heart.
Kaoruko blinked. “I... If Suigintou-san doesn’t mind, neither would I,” she said, turning the idea over in her mind.
“I don’t want a new medium,” Suigintou whispered from where she huddled on the floor.
“It’s not a matter of want,” Shinku said primly as Jun let her down onto the floor. “She said she wanted you to be happy, Suigintou.” Her gaze on her sister was not without mercy. “To take another medium doesn’t mean forgetting her.”
“I don’t want to fight any more,” Suigintou said helplessly.
“So don’t,” Jun said. The silver-haired doll looked at him for a long moment, then her sister, and finally stood, crossing to the boy. She reached for his hand and he gave it to her.
“Thank you,” she said, and kissed his rose ring. Sakon watched the silver thread of power between them dissolve.
“What am I getting myself into?” Kaoruko asked Subaru.
“My world,” he answered with a small smile. Then he sobered. “If she truly doesn’t wish to fight any more, it should be no hardship on you.”
“Hardship’s not what I’m concerned about,” she sniffed.
She turned to look at Suigintou, and knelt down before her. “My name is Tachibana Kaoruko,” she said. She nodded at Sakon. “I’m his aunt, and Subaru-san’s girlfriend.”
“I’m called Suigintou,” the doll replied. She looked at Shinku. “She’s one of my sisters. I have six.”
“I only have one sister, and she’s much older than I am,” Kaoruko replied steadily.
Suigintou only nodded.
“If I’m not acceptable,” Kaoruko said delicately, “I’m sure someone else can be found.”
Suigintou looked down, then back up. “I don’t know how to be... nice,” she said, the word strange in her mouth like it was a foreign word.
“I don’t know anything about magic,” Kaoruko replied. “We could learn things together,” she suggested.
Suigintou looked away again. “...Yes,” she murmured.
“What do I need to do?”
Wordlessly, Suigintou lifted her hand. Taking it gently, Kaoruko pressed her lips to the porcelain fingers.
Sakon watched the ring form on his aunt’s hand, a silver thread stringing itself between her and Suigintou, and hoped that his thought had been a good one.
“Who better to care for a magical doll,” Subaru murmured to him as Sakon stood, “than a Tachibana?”
