Betwixt Heaven and Earth

Eighth Divide: Close Calls

The sun was warm overhead, and the weather of that perfect, balmy sort that one expects to find in the tropics. The sky was a perfect, solid blue, without a single wisp of cloud to mar it. Had one been standing by the sea, one would not know where the ocean ended and the heavens began, so well did the two merge at the horizon. It was as if one could swim, if one were brave enough, to the edge of the horizon and straight into the sky.

He, however, could not really enjoy it much. Saltwater had an adverse effect on him, and besides, he liked staying close to his home.

    "So this is where you've been all this time."

He glanced over his shoulder, and smiled at the person who was approaching him. "I can't exactly move all that far from home now, can I, Eiji?"

Kikumaru Eiji grinned, and shrugged. "No, I guess you can't – unless you let me put you in a fishbowl and take you around with me."

Oishi Syuichiroh frowned. "That's mean."

    "I was just kidding! No need to take it so hard!" Kikumaru's face took on a serious mien then. "I heard from Fuji that something's happening."

Oishi gave him a look. "What do you mean?"

    "You know how everything seems to be a little...I don't know...weird lately? I've had a couple of people on the street tell me that I look cute with cat ears." Kikumaru frowned. "They're not supposed to see that I have cat ears."

    "What?" Oishi asked, his voice showing just how deeply disturbed he was by that statement. Kikumaru belonged to a family of obakeneko⁽¹⁾ that had managed to live normal lives because they were extremely skilled at hiding their true nature. If what Kikumaru said was true, then...

    "Won't be long until someone sees my tail," Kikumaru added. "When I went to Fuji to ask about it, he said that something was happening to the Veil."

A chill went down Oishi's spine. Then all his speculations were true, after all: someone was trying to destroy the Veil. He didn't want to think it was true, but there was no other explanation for what was happening, like the fact that some people could see Kikumaru's ears, or that there were more and more people who were running away from his little pond because they had seen a kappa⁽²⁾ – otherwise known as him. "Did Fuji say who was behind it?"

Kikumaru nodded his head. "He said Echizen was trying to do it."

It took a while for that information to sink in, but when it did, Oishi felt himself blanch. The image of a young boy with wide, curious eyes and an eagerness to learn emerged in his memory, and for some odd reason he could not reconcile that image with the idea that this same boy would wish to destroy the very thing that protected them all.

Kikumaru must have known what was going on in his head, because he murmured: "I didn't want to believe Fuji either, but he said that even Yukimura and Atobe know it's him. Also, Tezuka's just come down from the mountains, and he's staying at Kaida's place."

    "Which means that this is really serious," Oishi said quietly. He glanced at Kikumaru. "What are you going to do now?"

    "I don't know. I'm part of the reason why this is happening, so I guess that I have to help in fixing it. But that means going to war against him." Kikumaru shook his head as he gave Oishi a helpless look. "But he's still my friend, Oishi. What Echizen might be doing is wrong, but he's still my friend."

Oishi smiled, and approached his friend, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "This is one of those times when being a friend means pulling the other one down. And you're not the only one at fault here. I had something to do with it, so I have some responsibility too." He smiled then, hoping to ease Kikumaru on the matter. "It will be okay. We just have to find a place where we can be safe, and then plan what we are going to do."

In the end, Oishi thought, they really didn't have much choice. Although he did not like the idea of running so far from where he was used to staying, but there was nothing he could do. The world was circling back to the concept of "eat or be eaten," and he very much wanted to stay alive.

He didn't like the idea of running, but for now – for now – retreat was the best and most honorable option.

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

She hadn't imagined that a small body like that could have so much blood inside of it. She was practically swimming in the stuff, the smell rising to her nostrils with a scent like rust and rain and tears.

    "No," she murmured, the calmness in her voice belying the cries that echoed in her heart. She pressed her hands to the wide, gaping wound, but the blood only seeped through the cracks between her fingers, the drops falling into the pool that slicked her black leather pants and made it so hard to crouch properly without feeling as if she was going to slip and land on her butt.

    "......"

She smiled as reassuringly as she could, exerting all effort into stanching the blood. "Yes? What is it, sweetie?"

She was given a smile such as only a child can give, while two pudgy hands – also red with blood – reached up to touch her face. "I was...a really bad girl."

shook her head hard, mentally cursing the fact that the blood wouldn't stop flowing. "No, no, you weren't a bad girl sweetheart."

    "I was. I lied to you...about what was happening. I lied to my guardian angel. That means I was a bad girl. Good girls aren't supposed to lie."

could already feel the soul tearing itself away from the body – a bad sign. She called upon all her powers, the powers that would allow her to keep this little one alive – but it was to no avail, because not even she, in all her might and splendor, could fight the inevitable arc of the Reaper's Scythe when it comes to gather up the souls destined for the Other Side.

    "No, no, sweetie, don't go...don't go..." For the first time since she could remember, begged, and pleaded with an entity that she knew she could not fight. "Just hang on a little longer..." She would fight the inevitable, she would protect this child...she had made that promise, and she would keep it, no matter what.

She was offered another smile, one of peace and acceptance as only a child may give. "I see...Heaven, . It's really pretty..." A convulsion, one last whisper of breath as tiny lungs finally breathed their last, and the light went out in those large brown eyes. The pudgy hands slackened and dropped, leaving a streak of blood on her cheek.

stared, and stared, and stared at the body in her lap, not wanting to believe what had just happened. She had failed in her mission. She had failed miserably. She, who was once known as Derdekea, Drop, the Supreme Mother⁽³⁾, could not, with all the powers that had been bestowed upon her at her creation, save the life of one little human girl.

She lifted her head, and screamed a scream that shook heaven and earth to their very foundations.

She woke with a jolt to the feel of sunlight burning its way through her eyelids.

She groaned, and rolled over and away from the sunlight that filtered through her window, burying her face into her pillow. Of all the dreams she had to have, it had to be that one...

Her stomach rumbled, and she growled in the hopes that it would shut up. "I hate being in this form," she muttered to herself as she sat up, running her hands through her unkempt hair in order to give it some semblance of neatness. "It's fun to eat just for the heck of it, but it's damn inconvenient to have to eat because you need to..."

Was this how the Nephilim⁽⁴⁾ felt? They used to speak about how the very thought of living seemed pleasurable, and how those who had not followed their example could ever understand it. After all, angels had no need for food, so why did they need the sense of taste? The Nephilim, cast as they were amongst the humans, took on human bodies and lived the same way they did, and so partook of the pleasures that were denied the other angels, down to the simple pleasure of being able to eat and taste food.

But wearing a human form had its own disadvantages and remembered that the reason why humans ate all the time was because they needed it to stay alive. Certainly, there was pleasure to be found in food and drink, but at the end of it all, the reason why humans ate and drank was to survive.

Her stomach rumbled again, and decided to simply shut it up once and for all. She made her way to the kitchen, and opened the fridge, sticking her head into it in order to see what there was available for her to eat. As he gaze roamed over the contents, her gaze alighted on a slice of cake – strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, judging from its appearance.

She was thinking about skipping over that one and eating something else, but then a thought occurred to her: cakes were Marui's favorite food. This was obviously the last piece. She hated Marui's guts.

Her decision made in a flash, reached out, and took the cake, grinning evilly as she did so. She might have promised not to kill Marui, but she hadn't promised not to make his life a living hell. If that meant going out of her way to consume the last slice of cake, she would do that with a smile on her face.

Just before she could even close the fridge door, a hand shot out, and grabbed the wrist that was holding the cake. When she looked, she saw Marui looking at her, looking for all the world as if he had just rolled out of bed. She speculated that he had gotten up because of one of his hunger pangs and decided to take a snack before he tumbled back into bed again – never mind that it was already morning.

    ", that's mine," Marui rasped groggily. He blinked, and then added with a small smile: "If you want some, though, I could share it with you."

felt a smile creeping up on her face. Marui looked so sleepy that he probably didn't realize that she could easily tear his throat out if she wanted to.

Memory stabbed its way into her consciousness for a few brief seconds: warm sunlight filtering through the windows in the kitchen, the counter cool underneath her palms, his lips sweet and luscious like strawberry jam—

She forcefully shoved the memory into the back of her head, and snorted as she handed Marui the slice of cake. "Forget it. Now that I know it's yours, I don't think I could tolerate the idea of eating it. I might get indigestion."

Marui grinned, and took a large bite out of the cake. "Thank goodness," he muttered between chews. "I was almost afraid that you wanted it."

wanted to throw in his face that she had wanted it, but she didn't do that. Instead, she turned back to the fridge, and pulled out a wedge of cheese that she had spotted earlier. She popped it into her mouth, finished it off quickly, before turning to Marui, who was licking his fingers clean of any remaining cream. "I know it's unfair to get a man while he's down." She shrugged. "But life's not fair, and neither am I." With that, her hand shot out, reaching for Marui's throat like the talons of an eagle.

Marui's eyes widened, having already woken up enough after eating the slice of cake to be aware of what she was doing, and swatted her hand away in a defensive move. "What the—, that's not fair!"

's smile was feral. She had him right where she wanted him. "Deal with it." She moved forward, attempting to hook her foot behind his leg so that she could pull his legs out from under him and send him toppling to the floor, but Marui was just too nimble; he dodged her feet, and was even able to grab 's wrist when she tried to backhand him.

's eyes widened when she saw the mischievous smirk on Marui's face, but before she could hurl an insult at him, he roughly twisted her around so that her back was facing towards him, and both her arms were incapacitated behind her, wedged between his body and hers. She tried to struggle, but she couldn't, and she realized, much to her dismay, that Marui had gotten stronger – which had not been the case before.

Marui laughed, and could not help but shudder at it: so dangerous, so malicious, but at the same time, so utterly seductive. "Now this is pure genius." He leaned closer, and purred in 's ear: "Doesn't this feel familiar, angel girl?"

And it was: remembered the hard thump of her heart in her chest, the thick scent of vanilla and sandalwood in the air, the pressure of his hands as they went around her abdomen and pressed her close...

shivered in horror. There was no way she was going to let him get to her like that. "Jackass," she snarled under her breath. "Those days are long dead and gone, and are never, ever coming back." With that, she snapped her head backwards, her skull colliding with Marui's nose with a loud crack, followed by a yelp as Marui staggered backwards, letting her go in the process.

She stood up, and smiled with wicked satisfaction when she saw that Marui was leaning over the counter, holding a hand to his nose, which did nothing to stop the blood from dripping down onto the tabletop. Seeing a set of knives, smirked as she casually walked over, and pulled one out, sunlight dancing ominously along the edge. "Today's my lucky day."

    "! You said you wouldn't kill him!"

stopped dead in her tracks, and when she looked up she saw , Kirihara, and Niou watching her from the doorway that led to another part of the headquarters. gave her a disapproving look as she continued: "You gave your word you wouldn't, . Remember?"

    "Damn it," muttered as she threw the knife onto the counter. "If you guys had come just a little later, I'd have rid myself of that bastard."

Niou gave her a look – the one that annoyed the most, because it meant that he knew and understood something that the others didn't. ", you know you're just going to regret it if you kill him, especially given your past history."

For even mentioning that, was more than willing to kill Niou, but she was fond enough of the Manipulator to find the idea mildly distasteful. She grunted, and said: "I knew I'd regret it, that's why I left Ten of Swords. But then," here she turned to Marui, and she looked at him with so much hate that she could see it as a red haze in her vision, "every time I look at him, my blood burns and cries for vengeance."

Memories again: so much blood that it was as if she was swimming in it, and a little voice calling out to her, begging her for salvation...

A little girl's corpse in her lap...and a howl of grief to rend apart heaven and earth...

She turned her back on them abruptly as tears threatened to well up out of her eyes. To mask her emotions, she uttered a dry laugh, and started heading back to the sleeping quarters. "I'm the worst angel around. It's a good thing I'm a renegade; I'd hate to imagine what sort of disaster I'd bring if I was still working with Michael and the others."

    "Hey, aren't you going to heal Bunta's nose?" Kirihara demanded. "Yagyuu's not here and you're the only one with healing powers around!"

spun around, and gave Kirihara look of disbelief. "Are you insane? He deserved it!" She glanced at Marui, who in turn gave her a glare that seemed to contain a great deal of pain – and not of the physical kind.

For some odd reason, that one look hurt more than Marui twisting her arm.

    "Just piss off," the necromancer muttered as he turned around, seemingly intent on heading back to his room.

sighed, and strode over to Marui, grabbing him by his elbow so that he didn't go any farther than he already had. "This is for you, Kirihara," she said, and yanked Marui's hand away from his nose, replacing it with hers. Her energy flowed through her, and she guided it accordingly so that it fixed bone, knit flesh, and smoothed skin in the proper way and order. When she finally took her hand away, Marui's nose was as it had been prior to her smashing the back of her head into it.

stepped away, and bowed to the other three who had gathered in the doorway. "There, done. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going back to my room now."

Her mind worked at triple-speed as she walked. She had to finish this up as soon as possible. The sooner she was far away and not breathing the same air as Marui, the better for her and for everyone concerned. If she stayed any longer, she was bound to go crazy, because it was either she killed Marui and be done with it once and for all, or slip back into the way it had been long ago...

She shook her head hard before memories could invade her consciousness, and started thinking logically. If she wanted this to be over, that meant that she had to deal with Echizen Ryoma as soon as possible. However, no one knew where Echizen Ryoma was, because the only one who had seen him since this whole fiasco began was .

She stopped as a thought occurred to her, and a small smile crept on her face. She had thought that there was no shortcut to this, but it was only then that she remembered that the Ten of Swords did have a shortcut.

With that thought in mind, strode over to 's room, determined to make the girl work for her keep – or at least, speed up the process a little so she didn't have to hang around longer than she really needed to.

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

was having a good dream – or rather, she was having no dream at all. She was just floating in sleep, not really worrying about anything.

That was, of course, and earthquake decided that she'd had more than enough sleep, and it was time for her to wake up.

She groaned as someone continued to shake her, and tried to lose herself in sleep once more. "Go ‘way," she muttered.

    "Get up, Forsaken," a somewhat familiar voice ordered. "You've got a lot to do, and not nearly enough time to do it."

opened her eyes, trying to see if the voice registered, and when it did, she groaned as she rolled over, and glared at the speaker. "You called, God?"

smirked. "Not quite God yet, though I wish I was."

sighed, not finding the joke funny at all. "What do you want?" She wondered if a bolt of lightning was going to strike her for being rude to an angel, but she figured that since she was still alive three seconds after she spoke, she wouldn't be struck down for running her mouth at every so often.

Hell, she thought, she deserved to be a little rude – especially since had been none too gentle in waking her up.

gave her a look, and then sighed, her expression softening just a little. "Sorry about the rude awakening, but you do have to get to work already."

    "Oh yeah?" asked as she reached for her glasses, and put them on. "Why's that?"

    "Because I want to get out of here as soon as possible, and the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if you find Echizen."

gave a look. "If you don't want to be here, why don't you just leave? It's not as if you've signed a contract or something... Or is there something here I don't know about?"

    "There's a lot here that you don't know about," muttered, before continuing: "Look, I just want to leave soon, because the longer I stay, the higher the likelihood that I'll end up killing Marui, and believe me, you don't want to be here when that happens."

tilted her head in curiosity. She knew as much from yesterday's events that and Marui didn't get along, but the others had hinted that once, long ago, they did. A part of her wondered what had happened between the two of them that was so bad that wanted Marui's head for a wall trophy, but she figured she'd find out eventually – if she stayed long enough.

    "Fine," replied slowly. "What do you want me to do?"

walked over to the nearby desk, picked up the laptop that Niou had lent the night before, and put it on 's lap. "I want you to start scrying, and I want you to do it fast. At the moment, you're the only one who's seen Echizen, which is already a pretty big deal in itself. However," here 's voice deepened, and there was no denying the hint of foreboding in her voice, "it also means that he's going to act. Sure, he won't do anything big, but that won't stop him from playing games with us while he waits for allies."

nodded, feeling a chill creep down her back. She remembered the faceless ghoul from the night before, and shuddered. "What am I supposed to do, then?" she asked quietly. "What do you want me to look for?"

shrugged. "Anything and everything that could possibly link to Echizen: doesn't matter how big or small it is. Just do it, and do it fast. Because if I'm right – and I really hope I'm not – he's already got something planned for us tonight."

Proceed to [ The Ninth Divide ]

Return to [ The Seventh Divide ]
 

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Kage
17.June.2006

NOTES:

(1)= Obakeneko are like the kitsune, only they're cats as opposed to foxes, and are not as popular. They are said to possess quite a bit of magical power, though they normally use it to disguise themselves. I am not quite sure as to the personality quirks of obakeneko, but given how, in Japanese culture, cats are associated with mischief of a playful sort I decided that while they are quite given to pranks and jokes, they are not malicious in their intent like kitsune.

Making Kikumaru into an obakeneko was an allusion to the fact that he is often described as "cat-like" in the series.

(2)= Kappa are Japanese water imps, often said to look like frogs with a tortoise shell on their backs. They are said to inhabit ponds and streams, preferring freshwater to saltwater. They are sometimes described as being malicious, since they will often pull unwary swimmers, especially children, down into the depths of the pond in order to drown them, after which they will consume the corpse. Sometimes, however, they are described as being kindhearted, offering their knowledge of medicinal plants and treatments to worthy humans.

The choice to make Oishi into a kappa was somewhat obvious on my part, since his haircut rather resembles the hollow area at the top of a kappa's head that contains the water it needs to keep itself alive, and his enjoyment of swimming ties him in to the element that the kappa is most comfortable in. In this story, however, I have given him the ability to transform into a human, though he can only barely disguise his true nature, since he can never really be very far from his pond or any body of water (lest the water in his head runs out), and he can only disguise his head-hollow as an unusual haircut. [SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa]

(3)= Derdekea, or Drop, is a powerful female angel who is sometimes called the Supreme Mother. She is said to descend to earth for the salvation of humankind at its hour of greatest need. In this story, this is 's real name. Why she does not use this name is something that will be explained later in the story.

(4)= The Nephilim are the so-called "fallen angels," the ones who, before the Great Flood described in the Bible, descended to earth and lay with the Daughters of Man (human women). Their brood resulted in a race of giants and wise-men that were wiped out during the Great Flood.

THEME MUSIC: "Ssalvete Virgines" – The Da Vinci Code OST