[Yami no Matsuei] "When Asato Met Ukyou" (PG)

[mtxref_fic]

Author's Note: Written for
fic_promptly's Any, Any, defeated by sympathy for the other side, featuring Tsuzuki and Ukyou, because I wanted to see these two characters meet each other.


That evening on his day off, at the bookstore, Tsuzuki spotted a schoolgirl trying to reach a book on a shelf above her head, stretching up on her tiptoes and craning her arm up as far as she could reach, but her fingertips only just brushed the edge of the shelf.

"Oh, here, let me get that," he said, approaching, reaching for the book closest to her fingers. "Isn't it a bit late for you to be out? It's a school night, isn't it? And isn't this book a bit old for you?"

The girl looked up at him. "Oh, no, I'm older than I look. My body just hasn't caught up to my calender age."

"Whoops! I didn't mean to say what I did," Tsuzuki said, awkwardly.

"It's all right, I get that a lot. I'm used to it," she said, reassuringly. "It's worse when I'm with my gentleman friend: we've had people mistake me for his little sister, and then there was a time when someone said to him, 'Oh, it's sweet that you go shopping with your daughter'. And we don't similar at all: he's a tall albino man with white-blond hair and silver eyes."

Tsuzuki felt his insides tightened: he knew only one man who met that description, but other men had to look as she described. "Ugh, that's gotta be awkward," he said. "And I think this is yours," he added, handing the book to her.

"Oh, thank you," the girl said, taking it from him and smiling up to her. "I have to keep reminding myself that my fiance isn't here to help me reach for things on high shelves," she added, with a small laugh, though a sad and thoughtful look crossed her dark eyes.

"He must take good care of you," Tsuzuki observed.

The girl, or rather the woman, since her eyes looked much older than the rest of her, replied with a nod. "Oh, yes, he does, or he did," she said, holding the book against her chest.

"Mind if I ask what happened, or is that too painful for you to talk about?" Tsuzuki asked.

"No, it's all right: he disappeared when that fire a few years back destroyed one of the medical research buildings at Shion University," she said.

Tsuzuki's heart skipped a beat: even after enduring (and triggering) that fire, he had seen newspaper accounts after the incident, which listed the names of those missing in the fire, including one name that haunted his mind, the mere thought of Muraki set his blood boiling and made his heart race with anger and desire.

"Where are my manners?" she said, unwittingly rescuing him from his own emotions. "I've been chattering like a sparrow and I haven't introduced myself: I'm Ukyou Sakuraijii."

"I'm Asato Tsuzuki," he replied, bowing to her. "There's a cafe here in the bookshop: would you like me to cup of tea?"

"I would like that, thank you," she said.

A few minutes later found them sitting across a cafe-style table with a steaming pot of tea between them.

"Your fiancé, he's Dr. Kazutaka Muraki, isn't he?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Oh, yes, he is" she replied, setting down her cup. "Did you know Kazu-kun?"

"Oh, I met him once or twice when I was working a case," Tsuzuki replied.

"Oh? What do you do for work?"

"I'm ...a paranormal detective," he replied. "But when things get slow, I've worked some down to earth cases, too."

"Oh, that must be exciting," she said. "Though I imagine it's different from what people write about in horror novels."

"Oh, it is: most of it isn't chasing monsters, though I've dealt with some of those," he replied. "Most of the time, I help the souls of the dead cross over into the next life and find the peace that they can't find as long as they stay in stuck in the mortal world."

She looked up into his face, then looked away before looking back to him. "You probably have cases to handle that are bigger and more important, but I couldn't help wondering..."

He tilted his head, leaning closer to close the gap between their heights. "Wondering what? I'm listening."

She leaned closer, cautiously. "I was wondering if you would consider... well, when Kazu-kun vanished, it wasn't a normal disappearance. The fire crews never found any trace of him."

He nearly drew back, but he kept himself from doing that. "Well, we do get busy from time to time, but I promise you, I can find the time to pursue it. I've been looking for him myself, but there's always some other case that I gotta take care of, since it's more pressing."

She looked him in the eye. "You said you knew him. You weren't one of his... you didn't ever..." She dropped her gaze, blushing.

He got what she meant. "Oh, no, never... I, no..." he faltered, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

She smiled up at him, reassuringly. "It's all right: I knew where Kazu-kun's desires ran: it used to bother me, but over time, I got used to the idea. I know I have his heart, even if I can't him all the things that he needs."

"You must love him deeply: not every woman can accept that in the people they love," Tsuzuki said, with a smile.

"You never were with him though?" she asked, clearly just to know for certain.

"No, not intimately," Tsuzuki replied, his mind recalling times when Muraki had approached him, the times when the pale man had stepped into his space, his presence inspiring feelings within Tsuzuki which he had hardly dared let himself feel, either in life or his afterlife.

"But you wanted to be with him?" she asked, her voice and face free of judgment or suspicion.

"Well, ah, I don't have to tell you he's a very attractive man," Tsuzuki admitted, feeling his cheeks grow warm.

"No need to feel embarrassed: lots of people feel that way about him. It used to bother me, but now I feel lucky," she said.

"Well, you are lucky: lucky to have someone as handsome as him," he said. Does she know what kind of things he can do and has done to people? he wondered. Probably not: she does not show the least bit of fear in talking about him, and she speaks about him so warmly. Then again, so did Tsubaki Kakyouin.... He would have to have Hisoka meet with her to know for sure, but if he did, he knew Hisoka would sense things he didn't need to.

"Are you feeling all right, Mister Tsuzuki?" she asked.

He shook himself a bit. "Oh, sorry, I just... well, I had a few thoughts I probably shouldn't. Just that, though: thoughts."

"Don't worry: it doesn't bother me," she said. "Loving someone means you accept them as they are, even when you don't always understand every part of their personality."

"I admit... I saw a different side to him, the times I met him," he said, skirting the issue of that darker side to Muraki, the face he had seen.

"Oh, I know what you mean: he can be difficult and particular, and he can be so vain; he spends more time preening in front of the mirror than I do," she said, with a roll of her eyes. "I've known him for a long time, since we were both in high school. He was different back then: he was warmer, less guarded, but when he's with me, he's more like the shy, bookish boy with the sad grey eyes that I met."

"Were you in love before you met him?" he asked.

"I had a teensy crush on an older boy, Oriya Mibu, one of Kazutaka's classmates. He liked me, but he looked at me as a friend, almost a younger sister, than a girlfriend. Oriya introduced me to Kazu-kun," she replied. "I won't say it was love at first sight: I was a little afraid of him before I met him. My father knew his family, Kazu-kun's grandfather had invested quite a bit in my father's pharmaceutical company. I had a mental image of him as a much more aloof and commanding person than he was when I met him. I'd heard he ranked among the top of the class in his subjects, and that he had a near-photographic memory, so that made him loom even larger in my imagination."

"Sort of like how he is now, your mental image of him, I mean," Tsuzuki put in, with a gentle, perhaps even nervous laugh.

She chuckled in reply, though a sad look lingered in her eyes. "Yes, he really has grown into himself, has he?" she said.

She paused, then reached into her purse and took out her wallet, opening it to show him a photograph, somewhat worn, of three young people seated around what looked like a cafe table: a younger, slighter version of herself in a high school blazer, on her right, a tall boy with long, dark hair pulled back from his face, his blazer unbuttoned and his collar open, and at the right of the viewer, looking into the camera as if it caught him off guard, a shorter and younger version of Muraki, his eyes a shade or two darker. He looked almost waifishly thin, reminding Tsuzuki of someone, though he could not place who.

"So.... I don't know if this would fall into your range of work, but I was wondering... if you would be willing to take on the case?" she asked, looking up into his face.

"Well, I don't usually take on cases like this, but I have had cases that looked like something normal on the surface, but turned out to have an element of the supernatural once we started digging into it," Tsuzuki admitted.

"The thing is... I don't think there's a natural explanation for Kazutaka's disappearance," Ukyou replied.

He could not argue that: he had witnessed Muraki's disappearance, he had seen the man -- if he call the weird doctor a man or a human -- vanish from Tohda's fire as if some nameless force had snatched him away. He could not tell her that, not yet, anyway: if she knew he had had a hand in her lover's disappearance, if she knew why he had gone to that extreme, she would flee in terror, if not lash out at him, and she had gone through enough.

He reached out, intending to cover his hand with his. She gently withdrew it. "I'm sorry, it's not you, I just... I'm not fond of being touched by people I don't know well," she admitted.

"I hope I didn't cross a line," he said. "I just wanted to reassure you: I'll take on the case and see what I can figure out."

She breathed easier. "Thank you, it means the world to me," she said. "I'll pay any price you need."

"It's all right: we'll look into that when I find him," Tsuzuki replied.

She got up, slipping her bag onto her shoulder, then taking out a silvery card case. "I should get going, but... could we meet again here?" she said, opening the case and taking out her calling card. "You can call me at this number, when you find anything at all."

"I will, I promise you that," he said, accepting the card.

* * * *

"Something on your mind?" Tatsumi asked, approaching Tsuzuki's desk the next morning.

"Hm? Oh," Tsuzuki said, looking up. "Nothing, really: you know how air-headed I can get," he added with a self-deprecating chuckle.

Tatsumi smirked a bit, but that quickly relaxed. "Not really: Hisoka peered into your mind; he's concerned for you: Something has you worried."

"Well, I wouldn't call it worry, but I've been chewing over something," Tsuzuki replied. "I met someone connected with Muraki. I met his long-time ladyfriend."

"You know that he preys on the affections of people around him," Tatsumi replied, frowning now.

Tsuzuki shook his head. "This is different: he's been with this girl since they were both in high school. I don't think he'd hurt her, or if he did, he would have done that by now."

"Have you questioned her about his whereabouts?"

"She doesn't know a thing about that: I gave her my usual cover and she asked me if I would look for him," Tsuzuki replied.

Tatsumi wrinkled his lips, incredulous. "Did you accept her request?"

"I told her I would consider the case, though it really isn't my specialty," Tsuzuki replied.

Tatsumi nodded. "You know that his case is still open, and he attacked a Ministry employee." He had no further need to elaborate.

"But he's still alive and we aren't supposed to judge the living, if we can help it," Tsuzuki replied.

"I've heard talk that the King of Hades plans to make an exception, given the crimes Muraki committed. And for that reason, Hisoka is devoting every minute he can spare to training himself up so he can take on that monster," Tatsumi replied.

"But is he approaching this the right way?" Tsuzuki replied, thoughtfully, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. "And what about Ukyou? She can see a side of him we haven't, and she genuinely misses him. If we were to destroy him, even though he deserves punishment, what would happen to her? If she loses him, her world will fall apart."

"That's true, but you'll have to look past that," Tatsumi said. "You'll have to see him as he is, not as she sees him, however kindly a face he's shown her."

"I suppose," Tsuzuki replied, dropping his gaze to the desktop.

"What is she like, while we're on the subject?" Tatsumi asked.

Tsuzuki looked up. "Oh, she's normal: she's small and slight, she looks young for her age."

Tatsumi raised an eyebrow. "Really? I suppose it's like the saying go, that opposites attract."

"What about opposites attracting?" Hisoka asked, entering the common room, a sword case under his arm, which he laid down on his desk.

"Tsuzuki met Muraki's lady friend," Tatsumi replied.

Hisoka frowned, wrinkling his nostrils. "Don't tell me she got her hooks into you, Tsuzuki."

"Hooks? She's not the kind of person who's even got hooks, let alone sink them into anyone," Tsuzuki retorted.

"So she's normal or something?" Hisoka asked. "I figured he'd be engaged to some slinky heiress every bit as devious as he is."

"She's an heiress, but she's as normal as he's weird," Tsuzuki replied.

"I'll have to meet her, make sure she's the real deal and she's not weaving some kind of net around you," Hisoka said. "The seemingly normal ones can be the most twisted, under the surface."

"Usually I'd disagree, but not when you're involved," Tsuzuki said. "I could arrange for you to meet her: I got her number."

"Sounds like a plan, not sure I'm looking forward to it, in case I find something nasty."

* * * *

On a cool morning a week later, Hisoka and Tsuzuki entered the bookstore where Tsuzuki had met Ukyou, heading for the cafe. Tsuzuki scanned the handful of tables, looking for Ukyou.

"No sign of her, I hope she's all right," Tsuzuki said.

"The Public Security agents said her health isn't the best," Hisoka said, sitting down at one of the tables. Tsuzuki couldn't help a brief inward wince at the thought of even the agents of the Ministry of Hades snooping around the woman's home and life.

"That doesn't surprise me," Tsuzuki replied, pulling up a third chair and sitting down across from Hisoka. "She looks frail." And he pushed back a dim memory of the three days he'd spent strapped to a table in Muraki's sub-basement lab, when Muraki had told him exactly what he wanted from Tsuzuki and why.

Hisoka looked at Tsuzuki dubiously, as if he had picked up on some of his partner's thoughts, but said nothing. The bells on the front door of the bookshop tinkled and a small figure in a long coat approached their table.

"Tsuzuki-san? I'm sorry I'm late," Ukyou said, unbuttoning her coat and taking off the scarf draped over her head. "I felt a little shaky when I woke up this morning and I had to take things slowly."

Tsuzuki got up and drew out the third chair for her, while Hisoka helped Ukyou take off her coat. As Ukyou seated herself, Tsuzuki glanced to his partner, looking for a reaction, but Hisoka's face betrayed nothing as yet.

"Such gentlemen," she said, her cheeks showing a little color and her eyes dropping modestly.

"Tsuzuki's old-fashioned, it rubbed off on me, too," Hisoka replied, sitting down. "I'm his partner, Hisoka Kurosaki."

Once they had ordered tea and the waitress had brought it, the two shinigami asked her the usual questions: how had Muraki seemed in the days leading up to his disappearance? Did she know much about what he did at Shion University? What did she know about his relationship with Dr. Hideaki Satomi? Tsuzuki asked most of the questions, while Hisoka jotted notes and observed her. She answered in earnest, though with a tired air, which discouraged Tsuzuki from pushing (not that he ever pushed much). He kept expecting Hisoka to interject something pointed, but his partner asked only the most perfunctory questions. Ukyou teared up at one point and Tsuzuki refilled her teacup, gently pushing it toward her, which she accepted. Hisoka, at that point, glanced away, with something close to a pucker of guilt gathering his face.

"I wish I could be more helpful: I feel like I'm wasting your time," she said, looking up from her cup, trying to give them a brave smile.

"You've given us a lot of information, and there's places we can go and things we can do that the police can't," Hisoka said.

"You... you won't be doing a séance or something like that?" she asked, brow furrowing with concern.

"No, nothing as cheap as that," Tsuzuki said, with a quiver. "Séances scare me: too weird!" Hisoka darted a Look at him, but said nothing.

"So, what do you propose to do?" Ukyou asked.

"It's hard to explain, but we have ways of putting feelers out into the aether and picking up on where he could have gone," Tsuzuki replied.

Ukyou widened her eyes, then she relaxed and nodded. "You know what you're doing: I trust you. As long as you bring him home to me."

"And that's what we intend to do," Hisoka said, with a conviction that surprised Tsuzuki.

* * * *

"You got into the case more than I expected," Tsuzuki said, once he and Hisoka had crossed back into Meifu.

Hisoka shook his head wearily. "She's either far more manipulative than he is, or she's a purely normal mortal who wants her fiancé back home," he said. "And the latter rings more true." He looked up at his partner. "So now what do we do? We can't rightly end him, now that we've taken on this case, and we can't deliver him back to her arms, for the things he's done."

"But you didn't unmask him to her the way you did with Tsubaki-hime," Tsuzuki noted.

"I couldn't bring myself to," Hisoka said. "She's innocent, but she's not deluded: she knows there's something up with her man, but she's not sure what it is. I'd rather leave it up to him to take that mask off and show his other face to her.

"If anything, there's something about her that keeps him sane: if he hid anything from her, it's because she keeps him grounded, she keeps his demons at bay."

"That's good to hear: you're learning to see things from both sides now," Tsuzuki said.

"So why do I feel like I'm betraying myself, for what he did?" Hisoka rasped.

"If it's any comfort, I feel the same way, for the things he did to me; but we've got to see this to the end, however it turns out," Tsuzuki said.

"Well, we've got paperwork to do, and I've got things to pass on to Watari," Hisoka said.

"Spirit wavelengths to record?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Yeah: he left a resonance on her, made it a bit hard to talk to her, even after they've been apart all this time," Hisoka said.

"Well, next time we check in on her, to report on any progress, I'll take care of that," Tsuzuki promised.

"I'd appreciate that," Hisoka said, breathing easier.