“I’m hungry.”
Hisoka nodded indifferently, brow furrowed in concentration.
“Is recapturing a shikigami suppose to take this long?” Tsuzuki grumbled, stretching to relieve his back.
Tsuzuki scanned the thickly warded warehouse floor from the decaying wooden stairs, borrowing the added height. After almost four hours, he was still chasing shadows, with barely a glance of the animal. Shikigami recapture wasn’t his department, but then again, it was so rare that they never had any specialists trained for it; he had never been assigned to it before. He turned to the younger boy behind him, nothing the ghastly paleness of Hisoka’s face with concern.
“Are you tired?” Tsuzuki softly asked.
“No,” Hisoka answered automatically, rubbing his throbbing temple.
He had been trying to trace the beast, but it was like trying to catch sakura petals with a hand. Wisps of thoughts licked at his mind, but he couldn’t decide whether it was the shikigami, Tsuzuki, or just some living passing by. Then there was the headache rapidly settling in, a reward for him using his curse much longer than he was normally used to. Hisoka sighed inwardly, shaking his head to clear foreign thoughts.
“Want to take a break?” Tsuzuki asked.
Hisoka looked doubtful as he surveyed the crates, scattered adventitiously across the storage room floor.
“Come on, its still going to be here when we get back. Nobody uses this warehouse anymore anyway,” Tsuzuki insisted, patting his partner on the back encouragingly. Hisoka slapped the hand away on reflex, but Tsuzuki continued, innocently oblivious, “We’ll just go to the gas station for some coffee or something.”
“Idiot! This is serious!” Hisoka glared in frustration, the headache making him much more irritable.
“There’s a shikigami loose and the sun’s going to rise soon. We’re suppose to finish before the morning traffic.” He turned to give his partner a warning glance, “We’re not suppose to damage anything this time either. We’re close to some very valuable property. Tatsumi’s not going to be very happy if you mess up.”
“Hidoii! Hisoka, did you have to remind me?” Tsuzuki pouted. He paused when Hisoka scowled in anger, his deceptively innocent giddiness fading. “There are wards all over this room; no one can come in, and it can’t get out. Its just some third-class thing anyway, nothing to worry about.”
Hisoka glanced at his partner out of the corner of his eye hesitantly. Tsuzuki’s offer was tempting, especially with his blinding headache. Tsuzuki was being considerate, but at that thought, his stubbornness returned stronger than ever. He didn’t think he was capable, Hisoka noted with a slightly defensive edge.
A gently flicker just beyond the edges of his mind. There were steps of something distant, tracing gentle fingers across the walls. Hisoka froze.
“There!” Hisoka hissed. He motioned for his partner to listen.
Tsuzuki stiffened, the smile vanishing in an instant as he reached for an ofuda. Hisoka strained to pick out the whispers of the foreign presence, but there was only the trees raking its branches across the walls outside, and crickets chirping timidly in corners.
What…? Seconds ago, he could have sworn he felt it.
Hisoka didn’t reply, eyes carefully examining the warehouse floor as he treaded softly down the steps. It couldn’t have disappeared that quickly; it was still lurking somewhere, just waiting for one of them to weaken his defenses. This was a sneaky shikigami…
The wood creaked.
Hisoka hissed as a blur of scalding white streaked past, nicking his cheek and burning his skin. He jumped aside, keeping precarious balance in the narrow staircase. Fragile boards cracked, groaning loudly under the added weight. Hisoka instinctively shifted again, trying to find a firm spot. But the next step blessed him with something slippery, and Hisoka could feel the floor pull away and the dark ceiling tilt at a wild angle.
Before his mind could even register what was happening, he was falling. He slipped down the ancient and jagged staircase, with his back against a broken surface. Hisoka threw a random limp to stunt his fall, and almost screamed when it caught a rusted railing. Out of blind instinct, he grabbed a jagged portion of the wall and managed to stop his fall before he slammed against the cement floor of the basement.
“Hisoka!” Tsuzuki’s voice seemed to come from far away.
Dazed, Hisoka could only stare at the ceiling for a long minute. His back was still stinging with splinters and cuts, and he felt as if he had been skinned. Gritting his teeth, Hisoka forced his protesting limbs to move and sit up.
There was a sudden pressure on his shoulder. His first instinct was to slam it away, but Hisoka only managed a weak gasp of pain when he attempted to lift his hand.
Dammit, his arm hurt like hell…
“Hisoka, are you alright?”
It was Tsuzuki, Hisoka noted distantly. His partner’s odd purple eyes registered in his mind in a thick haze. Hisoka forced his head in a slight nod.
“Yeah,” he choked out through clenched teeth. “Get the shikigami first.”
Tsuzuki seemed to hesitate. He was motionless for a long moment. The concern he radiated was almost suffocating, and Hisoka felt a surge of frustration at the insecurities that foreign emotion brought.
“Just capture the damn thing!” Hisoka gritted out exasperatedly, pushing Tsuzuki’s hand away. “It’s more important right now!”
Tsuzuki firmly shook his head, “It’s too dangerous. We have to first get you to a safer place…”
Tsuzuki’s next words were drowned out when the wooden wall beside them exploded into millions of rough strands. Hisoka instinctively ducked, hissing in pain as a few sharp edges grazed his back. Without warning, Hisoka found himself pushed against the rough surface of the stairs with Tsuzuki’s hand pressing his head against the coarse cloth of his trench coat.
The surprise only lasted for an instant, before he was frantically pushing his partner away. “Get off!”
Tsuzuki’s too close… Dammit! His head was killing him!
“No, you’ll get hurt!” Tsuzuki whispered close to his ear, sounding far more composed than Hisoka felt.
Tsuzuki abruptly pulled away, leaving him breathless and disoriented on the warehouse steps. Hisoka muffled a groan when his head began to pound brutally.
*
He had to distract it… get it away from Hisoka.
It took him only seconds to realize it, but the shikigami was far more powerful than they had expected. It was far above Hisoka’s abilities to capture, and Tsuzuki wasn’t even sure he could manage it. It wasn’t that the animal was unusually strong, but it was fast, and it had a sinister presence that sent shivers down his spine.
Tsuzuki scrambled to his feet, taking care to leave a barrier around his young partner before dashing towards the center of the basement. He looked up just as the walls of the room glowed a brilliant blue. His ofuda had been triggered. There was a ball of light hovering overhead, the first real glance he had of the animal. Tsuzuki paused, surprised. It was unusually small.
Tsuzuki kept his eye on the animal as he approached, a white streak in the dimly lit room. It hovered above the floor, a silver light like the moon in a cloudless night.
And then it was a fury of activity, stretching almost twice its size as it bounced against the shield again. Tsuzuki almost didn’t notice its change of direction, barely twisting out of the way. Tsuzuki could feel the fire rip across his arm. Blood washed the floor in a sudden flood as he staggered.
The wooden crate beside him abruptly exploded. Tsuzuki instinctively ducked, hissing. Years of experience took over as he jumped aside, staggering as hot waves of pain washed down his side. The floorboards beside him shattered forcefully. Tsuzuki mentally cursed. He would never be able to reach for his ofuda at this rate.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could barely make out the slim form of his partner at the foot of the stairs. Hisoka was shaking trying to stand, hands reaching for wards hidden in his pockets..
Desperately, he dashed for the crates nearest to him, huddling against the rough surface as he surveyed the boxes above his head with a sinking heart. He didn’t even want to think about the possibility of the entire stack raining on him. His throat was dry and raw as he struggled to regain his breath, trying to calm his heart and preparing to bolt at a moment’s notice. But surprisingly, the shikigami didn’t follow.
Tsuzuki reached for the ofuda in his trench coat pocket, drawing deep breaths to calm himself. But before he could even begin the spell, he was knocked forcefully to the ground, dazed and breathless. At the corner of his eye, he could see that white streak of light, spinning wildly as it rebounded from the attack. It slowed in its raving flight, hanging in midair for one frozen moment.
And then a burst of raw power tore the beast forcefully out of his realm of sight. He could hear it slam unforgivingly against the wall.
“Tsuzuki, stay down!” Hisoka ordered.
Hisoka ordering him around in battle. Tsuzuki grinned inwardly. That was new.
There was a dull throbbing on his arm. He lifted it to the light, and his hand gleamed red. How? A shinigami should have healed minutes ago. The floor rocked under a small explosion. Distracted, Tsuzuki staggered to his feet.
The ofuda had struck too far right, and the spirit beast sprang away. Instinctively, Tsuzuki flung handful, not even pausing to count, in the general direction of the shikigami. The purple sheets flew haphazardly, thrown more out of frustration than anything else. Several skimmed off walls, bursting with a blue flame of energy before sizzling into a small pile of dust. Others fused against crates, staining the floors. It drove the wild spirit back in fear, and it unconsciously shrank against a corner.
Tsuzuki drew a few deep breaths, weary from the drain in magic. Hisoka was standing up and slowly approaching the animal. He hurried towards him, feeling wary and defensive. He wasn’t sure if Hisoka knew how powerful the animal was. He wasn’t going to take any chances if the younger man was hurt.
Tsuzuki hesitated as he approached blurred form, huddled against the wall, unsure of exactly how to seal it. But Hisoka was already chanting. Eyes narrowed in concentration and hands tightly clenched, Hisoka eyes gave off an unnatural glow. Tsuzuki carefully stepped in front of him, keeping an eye on the shikigami and a hand on an ofuda.
Hisoka locked his fingers firmly as the air current in the room shifted. An angry gust of wind swept the floor, jarring sheets of dust. The translucent barrier was rapidly forming around the spirit beast, a thin film that crackled and burst. With one desperate attempt, the shikigami sprang forward, sliding between a narrow seam that was just beginning to seal. The crack clamped shut, and the beast howled in pain. There was a soft thud, and everything was silent.
Tsuzuki caught his breath.
“Did I kill it?” Hisoka whispered, hints of fear in his voice.
Tsuzuki gave Hisoka a comforting glance as he bent down to examine the shikigami. It was clearly visible even in the dark warehouse. Two slender parts lay neatly side by side. A snake, he realized in surprise. The shikigami was a snake.
“Its dead,” Tsuzuki whispered. Hisoka’s expression fell, and Tsuzuki quickly forced a reassuring smile on his face. “But it’s not your fault. Konoe will understand.”
He nudged its head, surprised at what appeared to be so dangerous could be so small. It jerked violently at his touch, and Tsuzuki reeled back in surprise. Its amber eyes stared back at him for a blinding moment and snapped forward. Gleaming fangs, dripping with yellow venom, gleamed under the dim light. Fluid streamed from a gapping hole below the neck, painting the winter night with a splatter of blood. Hisoka froze in shock.
It happened to quickly for him to see. But at the next moment, Hisoka was staggering back with a faint grimace of pain on his face.
“Hisoka!” Tsuzuki jumped to his feet frantically. He knocked the beast aside with his hand out of pure anger, and steadied the younger boy against him before he fell on the floor. “Hisoka, are you alright?”
The snake landed on the floor with a soft thud. It was already dead, but Tsuzuki grinded it against his shoe. Its skull cracked with a satisfying crunch, and its entire body evaporated in a mist of white steam.
Hisoka said nothing, his hand pressed tightly against his face. Tsuzuki pried at his fingers, gently coaxing him to let go, but his partner only seemed to stiffen more. Face lowered and arms drawn protectively over his head, Hisoka shakily sank to the floor.
“What’s wrong?,” Tsuzuki frantically asked, kneeling beside him. “Are you hurt? Let me see.” He hesitantly touched his arm, but Hisoka pulled away almost angrily. “Hisoka, I… please… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
