Betwixt Heaven and Earth

Sixth Divide: Rivalries

If he were to be honest, it looked completely normal, no different from the other apartment blocks around it. Perhaps that was the whole point: hide a tree in a forest, and no one will notice it, no matter how many times they might walk by. Certainly, eyebrows might go up at the eccentricity of the resident of said apartment, but since she mostly kept to herself, then they did not trouble themselves over her.

But for those who had at least some form of psychic awareness, they would often feel the hair on the back of their necks stand on end when they passed by. More often than not, they dismissed it as static electricity. Sometimes, though, they knew precisely what it was, and knew to leave the resident of the apartment well enough alone for fear of reprisal.

To Kirihara's senses, though, what he felt as he approached the apartment was more than just the mere crackle of static electricity. Although he was no demon – well, not really – he could instantly tell just what sort of entity lived in that apartment. Demonic energy usually felt like a slightly viscous liquid: solid but not quite stable. This was different. The moment they got within twenty meters of the apartment, it felt as if he was flying through a forest of crystal, the shards rubbing and prickling against his consciousness like pine needles. They did not hurt him, but the sensation was a constant reminder of what they were going to deal with – and what sort of help they needed.

He glanced over his shoulder at Niou, who was flying with in his arms, and at Marui, who was using one of his summoned necromantic spirits to give him temporary wings with which to fly. Niou had his own wings that he was able to hide whenever necessary, but he and Marui had to make their own to allow them to fly. In Kirihara's case, that meant partial shape-shifting – perhaps the one sorcery skill he had completely down to pat.

The three of them landed in front of the apartment block with nary a sound, and as soon as they did so whatever they used to help them fly disappeared: Niou's wings furled and sank into his back; Marui dismissed the summoned spirit; Kirihara's wings dissolved into nothingness.

Kirihara glanced at his companions, and noticed that even though Marui seemed calm on the surface, there was no denying the nervousness in the way that he moved and in the look of his eyes. This was not a place the necromancer wanted to be, and if the person they were visiting was still as sharp as she used to be, she would already have felt his presence.

Kirihara only hoped that the fact that she hadn't yet blasted them into cosmic dust was an indication that she had forgiven them somewhat, because if it were otherwise, it only meant that she planned to kill him and Niou quickly, and take her time with Marui.

He reached out to press the button of the doorbell, in order to announce their presence to the apartment's resident. A few moments later, he heard footsteps on the opposite side of the door, which was followed by a voice that wasn't quite feminine, but not quite masculine, either.

    "I know he's there," the voice said. "Tell him to piss off and I'll open the door."

    "I can't!" Marui called back. "I wouldn't be here if I could avoid it."

    "Oh. Well, tough luck then." These words were followed by the sound of footsteps going away from the door.

    ", wait!" Niou called. "Come on: hear us out, at least. We need your help here." As he spoke, he shifted in his arms, the poor girl drifting in and out of consciousness as her soul struggled to break free of the necromantic binds that Marui had cast in order to keep said soul in her body.

Kirihara heard muttering on the other side of the door, before the voice said: "Fine." The door opened, revealing a girl with dark purple hair, a long fringe falling over one dark gray eye, though it did nothing to diminish the brilliance of those eyes. The girl looked them all over, and sighed. "Guess today's your lucky day. It's a good thing I'm feeling generous, or you three would've seen nothing but the sole of my boot." With that, she moved away from the door, but left it open for them to pass through.

Behind him, Kirihara heard Niou say to : "She's a really artsy kind of girl, if you noticed."

In his head, Kirihara completely agreed, even as his gaze roamed around the apartment. It was done up in a minimalist, postmodern style: stark and Spartan, with all the lines straight and clean, the edges softened only by the occasional round table or the flowing, auricular sculpture. "We've got a problem on our hands, ."

    "I know," replied, her tone redolent of boredom and apathy. "Greater ghoul issue, right? You guys must suck so much now that I'm gone, especially if you couldn't handle a greater ghoul."

Kirihara twitched. "It wasn't as if we were nearby to handle it," he muttered.

shrugged. "Either way, you lot still suck."

    "Who...is she?" 's voice was weak, but Kirihara could tell that she was trying to put up as good a fight as she could muster in order to keep her soul where she wanted it: in her body.

Despite the softness of 's voice, still heard it – then again, Kirihara always knew that she had some pretty sharp ears. strode over to the girl, and gave her a long look before nodding. "I'm , or , whichever you prefer. These guys just call me , so I guess you can do that too." At that moment, they reached what looked like the living room area, and made a gesture towards the couches. "Sit, all of you."

Kirihara sank gratefully into one of the upholstered chairs. It had been a long day for him, and he was glad that he now had a chance to get off his feet and relax a little. In the meantime, Niou lay down on the couch, before sitting down at one end of it while Marui sat on the other, occupying the farthest spot from the other chair that was obviously going to be 's.

sat down unceremoniously in her chair, and gave that same, bored look Kirihara knew she got when she was dealing with something that she didn't want to do, but had to do. "And you...er..."

    " ," Niou replied, since was too weak to be able to answer promptly. "Her name is ."

    " ...right." got to her feet, and walked over before kneeling down so that she was looking down at from a more comfortable height rather than towering over the girl. "Right now, you're in really bad shape. You probably didn't do anything but sit and stare when the greater ghoul tried to suck out your soul, so that's why you're like that." She paused, before adding, a little icily: "It's a good thing a necromancer was able to keep your soul in your body, or else no angel would be able to help you: not even Michael or Uriel themselves."

With that, reached for the chain around her neck, on which dangled a cross encrusted with small crystals. Holding this tightly in her hand, she muttered a few words in Latin, and a soft glow emanated from between her clasped fingers and from 's body. A few moments later, large white wings burst forth from 's back, expanding behind her in all their glory. For a brief moment, Kirihara swore that the wings themselves seemed to flicker with fire, but in a few moments, the illusion was gone, as were the wings, and was like a normal person again – or at least as normal as any human being could look.

    "There, all done," said with finality as sat up, the latter looking much better than she did earlier thanks to the fresh color in her cheeks that drove away the deathly pallor that had settled on them. looked at them then, and jerked her thumb to the door. "Now: get off my property."

    "Wait!" Kirihara called as he stepped in front of to prevent her from bodily picking them up and booting them out of her apartment. "We still have one more request!"

sighed irritably. "Make it quick then. A certain redhead's presence is really starting to tick me off."

Kirihara knew that he had to talk, and fast, because there wasn't much time before made good on her implied threat of physically kicking them out. "Echizen Ryoma's behind what happened to ."

shrugged. "I don't care."

    "There are zombies out there."

    "So what? Holy magic will get rid of them quickly, but so will you guys – eventually." She crossed her arms, her eyes clearly showing her displeasure. "Now: out."

Kirihara opened his mouth to argue some more, but then Marui spoke up behind him: "If I wasn't here, then none of this would have happened... You would have gone out and cleared those zombies and ghouls in no time flat... This is all my fault!" With a sigh that reeked of dramatics, Marui whirled around, heading for one of the rooms not that far away from where they were. "That's it, I've decided: I'm going to stay in your room until you agree to help us!"

blinked, surprised by the outburst, but then her eyes narrowed, and she growled: "Not over your dead body." A bright ray of light shot out from her hand, aimed directly for the base of Marui's head. However, Marui must have seen it coming, because he quickly turned around, a summoned spirit already in his hand, and absorbed the magical burst as if it were nothing. He smirked triumphantly, and then turned around once more, still intent on going to 's room.

    "Bastard!" swore as she ran after him. "If you so much as dare set one dirty foot in my room I'm going to vaporize you!"

    "Erm... Niou... Is an angel?"

Kirihara turned to look at , who was looking up at Niou with an inquiring look.

    "Sure is," the Manipulator said in response to 's question. "She's the genuine article. Oh, and before you say it, yes, she really is like that. Angels aren't as soft or as wishy-washy as the world thinks they are: the older, more ancient descriptions of what they were like are far more accurate than any of the stuff that's come out recently."

nodded, taking in the information and digesting it carefully. "Uh huh... So why does she hate you all so much?"

Niou laughed uneasily. "She doesn't hate us; she hates Marui."

    "Why's that?"

    "Well, it's a little complicated. You see, a couple years ago—"

    "Now that was pure genius!" At that moment, Marui came out of wherever he had gone to, a smirk on his face as he flashed the peace sign to his companions. "I am such a genius."

was right behind him, and if looks could kill Kirihara knew that Marui would already have been a tiny pile of ashes on the floor. As things stood, however, couldn't kill Marui simply by glaring at him, and instead seemed to have settled for two daggers that she was currently holding in her hands. Kirihara knew these daggers: he had seen them in action more times than he could count. He also knew how accurate was with them, especially when dealing with things or people she didn't really like much.

    "I so want to kill you," she muttered under her breath, and Kirihara thought that it was the end for Marui, but instead, quickly twirled the daggers, and returned them to their respective sheathes in her boots. She whirled around, and headed for a small table next to the door. "Because the idiot over there refuses to let up, I'm going to come with you. However, I demand to be paid well for services rendered, and you lot all need to remember that you owe me a very big favor now."

Kirihara glanced at Niou and Marui, and the three of them grinned at each other. Sanada was probably going to tear them to shreds because was asking for payment, but still, they had managed to get her cooperation on this whole affair. They were most likely going to make it out with their lives and with their limbs still intact.

There was the jingle of metal as snatched up a keychain, and stuffed it into her pocket. "Okay, I'm all set." She glanced at Niou, and jerked a thumb at . "By the way, you might want to pick up demon girl over there. I don't think she's going to be able to move much given her condition."

Kirihara stared at , unable to believe his ears. What in the world did just say?

She must have noticed how quiet they'd gotten, because looked back at them just as she was opening the door, irritation and impatience mingling in her expression. "What are you doing gawping over there? You told me this was a crisis, right? So let's go."

    "," Kirihara said slowly, "what did you just call ?"

    "Eh? You mean that she's still weak? Well that's kind of obvious, isn't it?"

    "No. You called her demon girl."

    "Well isn't that what she is? Her name kind of slipped my memory a little bit back there, so that's what I called her." raised an eyebrow. "Why? Was it offensive or something?"

    "I'm not a demon! I'm human!" exclaimed. "I only learned about this whole demons-and-angels thing today!"

    "Yeah," Niou replied in agreement. "She's human, ."

blinked, her expression shifting from irritation to confusion. "What the hell are you talking about? That girl's a demon. When I put her soul back in I— Oh!" snapped her fingers in a gesture of realization. "Well what do you know? No wonder you guys couldn't tell. It makes perfect sense."

    "What makes perfect sense?!" Kirihara demanded, his exclamation multiplied threefold by the voices of , Niou, and Marui.

smirked, and shrugged as she stepped out the door. "I can't explain it here. We're going to need to see Yukimura before I say anything further."

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

The grounds were peaceful in an almost eerie sort of way, and the gravel that made up the walkway only barely stirred as he changed out of his bat form and back into his human shape. He looked up at the night sky, which was partially blocked by the spreading branches of an old, gnarled oak tree, its trunk covered with ivy.

He inhaled, and smiled slightly. Every time he came here to visit, it was as if nothing ever changed. To him, who had seen the world undergo so many changes and upheavals, this place and its environs were comforting to him.

    "What are you doing here, vampire?"

Yukimura smiled wryly as he turned around to face the speaker, bowing graciously as he had been taught to do so long ago. "Good evening, Khayeseadae."

    "Do not get started on the niceties with me." A little girl with golden curls and bright amber eyes, for all appearances no older than ten, appeared from the shadows, shooting him a most baleful glare. "What are you doing here, vampire?"

Yukimura straightened from his bow. "I came here to pay a visit."

Another figure stepped out of the shadows: this time a young man, with pale hair that gleamed like a polished silver mirror in the moonlight, and bright silver eyes. "She is already entertaining another guest. It would be best for you to leave."

He frowned. "I know how you feel about me, Airgead, but you have no right to send me away when the mistress of the house is not even aware of my arrival. Respect, at least, that little bit of common courtesy."

The Silver Dragon raised an eyebrow at him. "Courtesy? And how can we expect you to repay that courtesy? By draining the life and soul from our charge?" He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "I think not."

Yukimura's eyes narrowed even as his heart ached at the accusation. Here it was again: the old charge, the old indictment. He would never be free from it. "I would never do that to her. I would never do that to her."

    "So you say," Khayeseadae replied. "You say that now, when you are full and not hungry. But what will happen later? You will turn to her, and you will drain the life from her, not even realizing you had done so until it was too late."

    "Or perhaps you would change her," Airgead added. "You would change her into a creature like you, forced to give up the joy of the sunlit world, forced to bear the weight of sacrificed human souls on her heart for the rest of eternity only because she needed to survive."

    "I have claimed no soul for my hunger because I do not take any lives!" Yukimura threw back, his anger rising quickly – too quickly – to the surface in the face of these accusations. "The only souls I can and do claim are the souls of the wicked and the evil: souls for whom eternal damnation is too kindly a gift. Do not accuse me of taking innocent lives, and do not say that I would take hers, or lay this curse which is mine to bear upon her, because I could never do something so cruel to her."

    "What is going on out here? What's all this noise about?"

Yukimura's head snapped up at the familiar voice, and he smiled upon seeing the person he truly wanted to see. "."

stood in the doorway, dressed in her sleeping clothes, her hair falling all around her shoulders, and staring straight at him. "Yukimura! What are you doing here?"

    "I came to ask for your help," Yukimura replied with a soft smile as he approached her, glad that Khayeseadae and Airgead were now silent. "You are the only one I can trust right now, since Yanagi is too busy with other things of importance."

    "Oh, I see. Please, come in then." She stepped aside, and he walked in gratefully. As soon as she had closed the door, he smiled at her. "I am sorry if I have disturbed your sleep."

shook her head, smiling slightly in response. "No, you didn't disturb me. I was only about to go to bed."

    "So late? What is keeping you up these nights?"

    "Many things, Seiichi...many things..."

Hearing his first name from her mouth made him smile; and he walked up to her, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You should not overwork yourself. It will do you no good to fall ill."

The smile on her face widened a little bit, and she looked up at him, her dark brown eyes meeting his gaze head-on. "I am quite well, though I do thank you for your concern."

Yukimura chuckled, and allowed his fingers to slide down to catch a lock of her hair. "It warms my heart that you appreciate my concern." He lifted the lock of hair to his lips, and kissed it, his eyes never leaving hers.

    "? Is someone there?"

Yukimura looked up, and watched as another tall figure emerged from the shadows: a young man, with brown hair and brown eyes that peered back at him from behind glass lenses.

    "There's no need to worry, Tezuka," replied. "It's Yukimura, is all."

Yukimura gave Tezuka a polite, controlled smile, bowing to him in greeting. "It is a surprise to see you here, Tezuka. It has been ten years since you departed to study the ways of onmyodo with your grandfather, am I correct?"

Tezuka nodded. "Yes, it has been ten years." He bowed as well. "You are looking well, Yukimura."

    "The past years have been quite kind to me. You, too, are looking well. Your studies have done nothing adverse to your health, it would seem."

    "Mountain air is good for one's health."

Yukimura nodded, falling silent as he observed the onmyoji. Though on the surface their conversation was nothing more than polite gentility exchanged between two acquaintances, he knew that underneath the veneer of civility was the issuance of a challenge: the revival of an old rivalry between the two of them.

He had thought that this particular rival had long since faded from his plans. He had thought that, by choosing to follow his grandfather, Tezuka had given up on the rivalry that existed between the two of them.

Apparently, he was wrong.

He turned once more to , who was watching them with one eyebrow raised slightly. It would do no good to raise any suspicions now, so he merely smiled, and said: ", perhaps it would be best if you went to bed. I will come back tomorrow night – earlier, of course."

blinked, and she shook her head. "No, there is no need for that. You would not have come here so late at night unless what you needed was important." She turned to look at Tezuka. "I will take care of things here. I know that you need your sleep, and don't you deny it."

The smile that she gave the onmyoji was a thorn in Yukimura's heart, but the way that Tezuka responded to it pushed it even deeper. "Very well then, I shall do as you ask." Tezuka smiled slightly, and nodded his head. "Good night." With that, he turned around, heading for one of the bedrooms in the upper floor.

Yukimura knew deep in his bones that that "good night" had not been meant for him at all.

As soon as Tezuka was out of sight, turned to him, and asked: "What was with all that yelling a while ago? Did you startle Khaye and Airgead?"

    "Perhaps I did," Yukimura replied, before smiling wryly, and adding: "You know that they do not appreciate me coming over to visit."

sighed, and shook her head. "I'm sorry for that. They do not get along well with demons."

    "They fear that I will kill you," Yukimura murmured. "They fear that I would take your soul. They fear that I would turn you."

    "And have you ever done so? In the years that I have known you, have you ever done so?"

    "No."

    "Do you plan to do so?"

    "I never wish to do that to you. And I have no desire to turn you into...into something like me." Yukimura lowered his gaze then. "Though I will admit, it has crossed my mind."

The feel of her fingers curling around his hand made him look up at her, and the smile on her face was a soothing balm to his heart, allaying nearly all of his fears and doubts. "The fact that you haven't done so yet is an indication of your control, and the fact that I have granted you access to my home means that I have enough faith in you to know that you would never deliberately harm me."

    "I would commit myself to the dawn before I ever harmed you," he murmured, his voice soft with sincerity.

She laughed quietly, and let go of his hand. "No need for such powerful vows, Seiichi." She tilted her head then. "What do you need then? What information could I give you?"

The spell was broken, and Yukimura knew that. Now was time for business, and no longer for tender affection. "I came to ask if you knew anything about Echizen Ryoma."

He had known her long enough to understand the meaning of that slow blink she did upon hearing Echizen's name. "Tezuka came here telling me how Echizen was behind the tearing of the Veil," she murmured, "and now you come here asking for information about him. What is the Ten of Swords planning?"

    "We plan to stop him," Yukimura replied. "We cannot let this get out of hand. If the Veil is destroyed, no one will be safe." She would not be safe, he thought, but he did not say that.

She nodded her head solemnly. "All right," she said. "Come with me. It should not take us long to find the pertinent documents."

Yukimura smiled at her, and tried to conceal the emotion that threatened to bubble to the surface. "Thank you, ."

looked over her shoulder at him, and smiled, nodding her head. "You're welcome."

Proceed to [ The Seventh Divide ]

Return to [ The Fifth Divide ]
 

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Kage
6.June.2006

NOTES:

Again, I have lifted parts and pieces of this story for Akatsuki Saga's story The Ten of Swords, though they have been adjusted to suit my writing style. Credit for those parts goes to her, while credit for the concept goes to Kanzaki Kei.

THEME MUSIC: "Harappa" – E.S. Posthumus