Betwixt Heaven and Earth

Third Divide: Initiation

She could tell that something was not right. She could feel the vibration in her bones – an all-too familiar sensation that had gotten frequent as of late. The vibrations had reached their peak that night, which meant that something had happened.

Change had come, as she knew that it would, but she did not think that it would happen so soon.

She sighed. She hated it when she could not predict these sorts of things.

    "Do not scold yourself so for it. You are only human, after all."

She looked over her shoulder, and smiled wryly at the speaker: a beautiful man with flowing hair and eyes of a shade of silver that was not plain and simple silver, but something brighter, and did not tarnish. "I cannot help it, I suppose." She sighed as she gazed out the window, her eyes trying to see farther than they could. "Something has happened, and I do not like knowing what it is."

    "To realize that you know nothing is the beginning of wisdom," the young man replied. "Was it not a mortal philosopher that said such?"

    "Yes: a Chinese philosopher whose name eludes me now." She gave her companion a sideways glance. "But it was a Dragon who taught him that, was it not?"

The young man smiled. "That is the truth, though I may not speak the name of she who did so." His eyes followed hers, and she knew that he could see much farther than she ever could. "What you seek will come to you eventually – perhaps sooner than you wished it to come."

    "Maybe that will be the case – it usually is, at any rate," she replied with a sigh. After a long moment, she asked: "What do you see, Oramarne? What do you see in the distance?"

    "Nothing – and something," replied the Mithril Dragon. "You will find out soon enough."

At that precise moment, a knock sounded on her door, and she blinked. She glanced up at Oramarne, who merely nodded at her to go the door – something that she did immediately. The large brass knocker that she had installed on the door tapped against the door twice more before she finally opened it a crack to peer outside.

    "? I must speak with you immediately. It is very important."

's eyes widened as she gazed up at the speaker: a tall, handsome young man with somewhat messy brown hair and dark brown eyes that looked back at her from behind frameless oval glasses.

The man's name slipped from her mouth without her even realizing it: "Tezuka!"

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

    "Wakey, wakey..."

A familiar voice roused from the dreamless sleep she had been enveloped in. She groaned softly as her eyes opened, her vision blurry at first, but gradually clearing up. For a while she thought that she was looking at the ceiling of her apartment, but slowly, as her eyes focused and adjusted to the light of her surroundings, she realized that what she had initially thought was a wet spot on her ceiling actually moved.

She squeezed her eyes shut to totally clear them of any and all bleariness, and when she opened them again, she found that she was staring up at a rather familiar face framed by rather familiar silver hair. She blinked. Wasn't this guy named Niou...?

The young man smirked, and nodded. "In case you forgot, my name is Niou Masaharu."

blinked again, somewhat impressed at her ability to remember this fellow's name. So she was right after all.

    "Yes, you were, as a matter of fact."

Suddenly could taste the panic at the back of her mouth as she blurted out the first question that came to mind: "How did you know what I was thinking?"

And then it happened: the world suddenly swirled into place, and sat up with a jerk as memories of what had just taken place flooded her mind. This man – this Niou – had flown into her apartment on a pair of black wings, and the cat...it had turned into a boy...

In the meantime, though, Niou was actually answering her question: "It's a skill. I can read and control weak minds, and since you just woke up, your mind is weak, hence easily accessible to me. If you noticed, when you were wide-awake – not to mention angry – the only thing I could do to you was put you to sleep."

blinked. What the hell kind of explanation was that supposed to be? No one had the ability to read minds, much less control them. It was completely, utterly illogical. As a hacker, her world relied on logic, like algorithms and formulae and codes. Those things made sense, because they were real, and provable – as long as one had the knowledge and know-how, of course.

Telepathy, mind reading, and mind control did not make sense. They simply did not fit into the world as she knew it.

Then again, neither did shape-shifting cats and men with bat wings.

    "And...what about the cat?" she asked. "Are you going to tell me that the cat transformed into the boy I saw sitting on my kitchen counter."

    "Bingo!" Niou replied cheerfully. "That's precisely what happened. The cat you took in was actually Kirihara Akaya, resident cat demon."

    "Yo!" A face popped up over Niou's shoulder, and recognized it as that of the cat-boy: same curly black hair, same green eyes, though the ears were gone, and couldn't see a tail.

Kirihara grinned at her, and noticed, rather idly, that his canines were fine and a bit sharper than what was normal for humans – the only clear indication of what he really was. "So, you're awake now eh? Sorry about what happened before. I was looking around for a computer genius, and I managed to find you. Niou and I brought you here after he made you take a nap."

At long last, 's temper caught up with her, and she scooted as far away as possible from the two boys she was talking to. "What the hell is going on?!" she demanded. "And what the hell are you?!"

    "Demons."

At the simple, matter-of-fact answer from both boys, practically felt the muscles in her jaw loosen as her mouth fell open. Demons? Demons?

Something was very, very wrong here...

It was Niou who laughed, and responded: "Yes, , we're demons. We belong to a group called the Ten of Swords Organization."

    "Ten of Swords?"

    "It's after a Tarot card of the same name." Here, Niou flicked his wrist, and watched as a thin piece of cardboard landed in her lap. When she picked it up to look at it, she saw that, on what would technically be the face of the card, was drawn a very disturbing image: a man, lying on a desolate plain, with ten swords pierced through his body and into the ground.

As she stared at the card, Niou continued: "Our job is mostly one of maintenance. We get rid of the lesser demons – the type that just cause havoc and can't really think on their own – as well as ghouls and zombies. We also break curses, purify defiled ground, and above all, make sure that you humans don't ever find out of our existence, because if you do, then a whole lot of us are going to be royally screwed over considering just how paranoid you folk are about everything connected to the supernatural."

nodded her head, still not quite convinced about this whole explanation. "Okay... I get that... But why did you bring me here?" Her eyes widened in shock as a thought occurred to her. "You're not going to eat me, are you?"

To her surprise, Akaya snorted. "Us? Eat you? Please, don't flatter yourself. Humans taste like crap. And besides, even if you did taste good – and I really don't think you do – we still wouldn't eat you because you're more useful to us alive."

Niou nodded. "We need your computer skills, ."

blinked at them completely baffled by the way that these two seemed to jump from one topic to another without allowing her to recover – or perhaps they just expected her to be very quick on the pick-up in spite of the shock that she had just received. "My...what?"

    "Your computer skills," Niou repeated, and then frowned as he looked at the desktop computer that was standing at the other end of the room. "We need your hacking skills to help us out."

nodded her head, her mind trying to process everything that she had just heard as quickly as it could. These people – demons, she corrected herself – didn't want to eat her. In fact, they wanted her to help them out with some hacking business – though why that was she really didn't know. Although one part of her brain was insisting that she get out, and fast, before she got sucked even deeper into this mess, another part of that same brain was saying that she ought to stay. After all, whatever it was that these guys did for a living, it was bound to be interesting in some way or form. They had kidnapped her, after all, and any organization that kidnaps people for their services instead of just hiring them the legal and proper way was sure to have its hands dipped in something very interesting – most likely the exact same things that were going to get her in trouble at best, or killed at worst.

Well, she thought, it couldn't be that bad. After all, they did say that they weren't going to eat her.

She raised her head, and looked at Niou and Kirihara with an even gaze. If they wanted her services, they were going to get it – but she wouldn't do jack just because they asked her to.

    "It's going to cost you," she reminded them. If they wanted her help, they were sure as hell going to pay for it. It was the least they could do after all the aggravation she had been through.

Besides, a girl had to eat and pay the bills somehow.

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

Marui sighed contentedly as he stepped out of the shower, wrapping one towel around his waist before grabbing another to rub through his red hair. It felt good to be clean again, so he thought as a bubble of green apple-flavored gum emerged from his mouth. It had been a long, hard day, and he hoped that he wouldn't have to get all dirty and grimy again before the day was out.

He felt a small hollowness in the pit of his stomach, and he knew what that meant: it was time to go and find himself something to eat. Yes indeed, he thought, it was important for the necromancer of the Ten of Swords Organization to keep his strength up and make sure that he didn't grow weak; after all, no one knew when his services would be needed.

He made a brief stop at his room in order to put on something decent, before he headed over to the kitchen, still rubbing the towel through his hair. As he did so, however, he noticed that there Niou and Kirihara were standing around the computer that their organization used to pinpoint the location of supernatural occurrences. This really didn't surprise him much, but as he passed them by, he noticed a strange presence, one that was clearly not demonic. He did a double take, and realized, only then, that there was a girl sitting in the chair that was normally occupied by either Yanagi or Yagyuu.

    "Niou, Akaya, is that a living human girl with you?" he asked as he approached them, his original goal forgotten in the face of his curiosity.

Kirihara answered with a nod and a grin. "This is . She's now our computer expert."

Marui blinked at the response, but smiled nevertheless at the girl – who, frankly speaking, didn't seem to be paying much attention to any of them, if that absorbed look on her face was any indication. "Marui Bunta. Pleasure to meet you." With that out of the way, he looked at Niou. "How in the world did you get her here? And why is she doing what she's doing? After all, I assume that you did tell her what we are, right?"

Niou nodded, but like the girl – , Marui reminded himself – he was too focused on the computer screen. Nevertheless, he replied: "We hired her."

    "Hired...?" Marui raised an eyebrow. He knew that neither Kirihara nor Niou had the cash to pay for anything if they had to.

    "Yup," Niou replied, "using Sanada's credit card. I know his PIN and everything."

Marui opened his mouth to ask which sorcerer cast a spell on Niou to make him do something as stupid as that, when a loud – yet definitely feminine – voice shrieked from one of the nearby bedrooms. "What?!" Immediately after, Marui heard footsteps come charging down the hallway until a woman entered the room: petite and compact of build, with dark brown hair and equally dark eyes, which were currently swirling with fury and rage.

Kirihara winced upon seeing her. "Oh no...here comes the witch – literally," he muttered, the latter word added for 's benefit, who had apparently managed to surface from her engrossed state long enough to give Kirihara an inquiring look regarding the sudden noise that had intruded on her concentration.

    "I heard that, Akaya!" the woman growled at the cat-demon. "Is that what you call your older sister?!"

    "Sorry, Sis!" Kirihara yelped, but Marui knew that he wasn't going to get the full brunt of his sister's ire.

Oh no, that privilege was reserved for Niou – especially since the woman was glaring at him with all her might. One eyebrow arched, accompanying the look that Marui knew all too well as the Glare of Doom. "You are so dead, Niou Masaharu."

Niou rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissively. "Oh please, , you're overreacting. Trust me: Sanada's money is going to a better place."

Marui sensed someone looking at him, and when he turned to the source, he noticed that was looking at him with a rather inquiring look. "Who's she?" the mortal asked, careful to keep her voice down – obviously she didn't want to call 's attention to her.

    "That'd be Sanada , our vice-president's wife," Marui explained with a smile, to which nodded before turning back to her work, her fingers flying over the keyboard with admirable speed.

Marui had to hand it to her: this girl could really keep her cool under pressure. That was always something to be admired.

In the meantime, marched over, and reached up to yank on Niou's braid – hard. "You are in such trouble when Genichirou and the others get back! I hope you think that this was worth it, because Genichirou is going to tan your hide!"

    "Ow!" Niou yelped as he jerked his head away from before giving her a maddened look. "It's going to be worth it, , I swear! Besides, are you sure you ought to be flying into a rage like that over such a little thing? What about the baby?!" Here he gestured to 's stomach, which was, at the moment, still quite flat.

opened her mouth, already prepared to give what Marui was thinking would be the tongue-lashing of the century, but was interrupted when leaned back into the computer chair she was sitting in, a look of satisfaction on her face. "Got it," she murmured, the words containing a note of triumph in them.

Niou smirked at , who merely glared back at him, before the Manipulator turned to the computer screen. "Sweet. Now then, let's see who managed to call down hellfire and destruction upon even someone like Atobe go...oh."

    "Well?" Kirihara demanded. "Who is it?"

The name emerged from Niou's lips as an exasperated groan. "Echizen Ryoma – again."

At the mention of that name, Kirihara hissed, scowled, and Marui frowned. All the members of the Ten of Swords Organization were more than familiar with that name. Echizen Ryoma was one of the most frequent instigators of supernatural havoc – the only problem was, they were foiled, time and again, in the attempt to pin any evidence on him, or he simply eluded them through some strange and mysterious means. Once more, as they had so many times before, they had a chance to bring him down.

However, it just so happened that they also had something else to deal with.

    "I hate that brat," growled, to which Marui nodded in agreement. It was very annoying, after all, that they had to do something else instead of going straight for Echizen's jugular.

    "We need to clean up the ghouls first," Niou replied, stating plain and simple fact: they weren't going after anyone much less Echizen Ryoma, without dealing with the ghoul problem first.

There was, however, one slight problem in the plans: none of them had the ability to locate where the ghouls were once they were in the field. That was the problem with ghouls: they were devoid of souls, which was why they lived by sucking out the souls of other people – and even other supernatural entities – in order to survive. However, since they lacked souls they had no spiritual energy, and hence were undetectable except through contemporary technology like radar. Niou and Kirihara, Marui knew, would not know where to go if they wanted to kill those things...unless...

Marui watched as Niou opened one of the cupboards, and brought out a laptop computer, which he promptly placed in 's lap. "You are going to be our mediator. Don't worry: you won't have to do any killing or the like: you just have to sit down and tell us where the ghouls are." He smiled. "Yes, you are coming with us."

    "What?!" sputtered. "Me, come with you?!"

Niou nodded. "Yup."

    "What do you need me for?!" Marui could clearly hear the panic in 's voice – obviously she wasn't expecting to be out in the field and fighting. "I can't fight!"

    "You're not supposed to," Niou clarified. "Didn't you hear what I just said? All we're asking you to do is sit there and tell us where the ghouls are."

    "Aren't you supposed to know that already?"

Kirihara spoke up then. "We would if we could, but thing is, we can't tell where the ghouls are. They haven't got souls, see, so that means we can't read their spiritual power."

    "Can't you smell them or something?"

Kirihara glared at the hacker. "We're demons, not dogs, ."

Marui snorted at that, resisting the urge to point out to Kirihara that, while he might not be a dog, he was a cat – but he hesitated doing so because was the exact same thing, and he wasn't as worried about Kirihara as he was about the retaliation that he would receive from .

Necromancer though he was, Marui was scared of the objects that could throw his way if she was angry – among other things of a more magical nature.

    "And besides," Niou added then, a grin spreading on his face as he looked at , "it's not as if we won't compensate you for your troubles."

paused then, giving Niou a serious look. "What do you mean?"

    "I know we hired you on to do some hacking work for us. This little bit of going with us into the field was not in the contract. Naturally, that means we're going to have to compensate you." The grin on Niou's face grew wider. "Are you amenable to...say...twenty percent more being added onto your fee? Negotiable, of course."

That caught 's attention. She looked at Niou for a long, long while, before she finally sighed, and nodded her head. "Fine, fine, I'll come along."

Niou grinned. "Great! Now, while technically you won't have to kill anything, you might as well take this along, just in case something happens while we're not around." With that, he handed a pistol. "That's a semiautomatic, in case you were wondering, so you shouldn't have any trouble using it. All you have to is to flip the safety, point, and shoot."

nodded in response as she tucked the pistol away in her bag, most likely hoping that she wouldn't have to use it. Marui hoped so too – after all, not only would Sanada roast them for getting a human in trouble, but Yukimura would see to their punishment as well.

In the end, although they lived in constant threat of their vice-president's temper, they were all still very much afraid of what their president could do when he was upset.

sighed, and merely shook her head. Marui could almost tell what she was thinking: they were going to be in so much trouble when her husband got back from wherever he was. Nevertheless, as his wife she was currently the one who held the highest position in their organization at the moment, and since this was a threat that they could not ignore, she had no choice but to deploy them.

She looked up, and there was a new expression on her face, one that showed that she was used to command – not just people, but other things besides. "Very well then: Niou Masaharu, Kirihara Akaya, and , you will be deployed to Site C in order to deal with this ghoul threat. , your role is to direct Niou and Akaya using that laptop you have there, while you two are to exterminate the ghouls. Is that clear?"

    "Yes ma'am."

As Marui watched the three of them leave, he glanced at , and asked: "You sure it was a good idea to send her along with them?"

remained silent for a while, before she relaxed, and shook her head. "Honestly, I don't really know if it was a good idea. Still, there was something about her that I couldn't really place." She looked up at Marui, and there was something in her eyes that told Marui that something had occurred to her when she saw , only she didn't know what it was just then. "There's something about her, Marui. I can't place it, but I don't think she's just human."

    "Maybe she's half-demon then," Marui suggested. "It happens. Or she could be a witch like you, only she doesn't know it."

nodded her head, though there was uncertainty in the gesture. "Maybe."

Proceed to [ The Fourth Divide ]

Return to [ The Second Divide ]
 

+ + + + + + + + + +
Kage
29.May.2006

NOTES:

Once again, a great majority of this chapter was almost directly lifted from the original Ten of Swords, written by Akatsuki.Saga and based on a dream from Kanzaki Kei. I have merely reworded and re-adapted some of the scenes and dialogue to conform to my style of writing.

THEME MUSIC: "Ebla" – E.S. Posthumus

SOURCE OF IMAGE USED FOR DESCRIPTION OF TEN OF SWORDS CARD: here