[Multi-Chapter] Hell Can Wait - Chapter 7, Lives
Title: Hell Can Wait - Chapter 7, Lives
Author:
rainbowdots888
Pairings: Ryo x Ohkura
Rating: PG15
Length: Multi-Chapter
Words: 1983
Genre: AU, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Disclaimer: Too bad for me, I don't own these men... just these stories.
Summary: "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."
*****************
The burning smell that reigned all around Ryo was nauseating. It reeked of burnt flesh and wood, slightly subdued by the fragrant pine beams that supported the roof over their heads. Ohkura was there, standing next to his master, looking at the numerous fires devastating the village from the engawa of a villa. Ryo knew he was in the other's memories this time. He had traveled there by himself, so easily.
In the darkest of the night, as his lover was sleeping peacefully next to him, he had been devoured by curiosity, by the desire of knowing everything about who they were, about their fate. He had put his hand in Ohkura's messy bangs, brushing them back tenderly until his palm settled on the top of his head. And then he had closed his eyes, feeling the connection between them unfurl, his brain very fast colonized by images thrown at him in a dizzying chaos.
After a little while, he mastered the way to skip the memories he didn't need or the ones he didn't want to see. Ohkura's wedding night. The moment when he'd lost his son. How he had buried his wife with his own hands. The terrified look in the villager's eyes when they had grown old and he had remained perfectly young, accompanying one after another to the grave. These were terrible moments and shuffling through them was already more painful than what he had expected. So he kept looking for Eiji's presence and suddenly found him, in the middle of the flames, walking towards Yokoyama and Ohkura, a contented smile adorning his lips.
“A good day to you, Brother!” He screamed at Yokoyama among the thunderous noise of the fire licking every bit of the houses around them.
“What have you done, Eiji?” Answered the master, with a voice so cool it could have extinguished the roaring blaze.
“They got what they deserved. They'd lock me up in a cave, for two years. Where have you been when your little brother suffered from hunger? Did you even try to search for me? No. You were with your... your... pet.”
“They had a reason to do this. You killed three of their children...”
“My children, Brother! Mine they were those miserable bits of walking flesh. It's a pity they couldn't stand receiving the Gift, but still, I'd fathered them. I can do whatever I want with my own offspring.”
“You shouldn't have fathered children in the first place. What if the Gift passed into them just by being born? What kind of new species would walk this earth? Father told us it's forbidden.”
“Is that why you're lying with men, Brother? Truly, your pet can't give you a child...”
Swiftly, so fast that Ryo almost missed it, Ohkura moved and ran to Eiji. In the blink of an eye, his sword was on the other's throat, already cutting through the skin.
“What if I severed your head from the rest of your body, Eiji? Would your stupid head continue living without the rest? If so, it would be a pleasure to tie it to a stone and throw both in the nearest lake. How about feeling like you're drowning for the rest of eternity? How does that sound, monster?” Ohkura spat to his opponent face, his voice boiling with fury.
“Tadayoshi. Stop.” Yokoyama walked up to them, stoic, and put a tender but firm hand on his lover's forearm. “Don't fall into his trap. One day or another, he will pay.”
Ohkura lowered his blade, reluctantly, as Eiji was laughing low. He took a few steps backward and before running away from the two others, took a long breath of the air saturated with the smell of the burning bodies he had just killed.
“Don't you think this smells like power? No? Father has made one mistake: splitting his Gift between the two orphan boys he'd found. Now there are two immortals walking this earth, Me, and you. You have to come to terms with this, Bro.”
“I'm not an Immortal anymore. Tadayoshi is. And he'll make sure to prevent your murders.”
“So it's the last time I see you. Next time, I'll visit your grave. I wish you have a painful death, Brother, because it's what makes eternal life worth living.”
Stop, Ryo!
Eiji turned heels and vanished in the blaze, his darkened silhouette melting in the heat.
Stop! It hurts!
Ryo turned towards Ohkura. He could hear his voice, somewhere, far and close from him at the same time. But the other man was not moving, ignoring everything of Ryo's presence. He was looking at Yokoyama in dismay and his long hair was slightly moved by the hot breeze coming from the flames. He was so handsome. Looked so powerful. And cursed with a mission...
“Stop, Ryo! Please!” His shoulder was roughly shaken and he opened his eyes again in his bedroom. Ohkura was holding his head in pain, shaking and screaming. When the connection broke, when Ryo was definitely back in the present, his lover fell on the bed before him and took a whistling gulp of air.
“You okay?” He asked, panic rising in his voice. The other was terribly pale and struggled to breathe.
“No! Why did you do that, it's so painful!”
“I... I'm so sorry... I thought... I... You told me that... I could read in you.”
“I'm not an Immortal anymore, you'll kill me if you keep doing this.”
“Oh I'm so sorry... I was so curious, I'm sorry!” Ryo fell sobbing on the other, realizing with horror how stupid and how intrusive he had just been. How violent. He stayed for a while with his ear on Ohkura's chest, checking his breath and the beatings of his heart. “Can you forgive me?”
“What did you see?” It was said in a breath, with a voice full of fear and pain. It reminded Ryo the day Yumi had told him about her condition, and his stomach was pierced by a spear of cold panic.
“I saw... You. And your Master. Eiji. A burning village and... Oh my god, the smell. It was awful. He has killed them! It's been centuries that he's killing children. Why?!”
“Because I was weak and I didn't cut his head off as I should have. Can you forgive me?”
It took Ryo aback, that strange confession. He looked up and noticed the redness of Ohkura's eyes.
“Of course, I... I love you.”
“Will you forgive me if I told you why I chose you?”
“You told me already... I could bear it? I'm his descendant.”
Ohkura sat back up, took Ryo in his arms, and buried his nose in the crook of the other's neck.
“I had a mission. I had to get rid of Eiji. But the power Yokoyama sama gave me was flawed. It was altered, and I wasn't of his bloodline. I wasn't a powerful immortal, you know.” He laughed slightly, nuzzling a little more. “I couldn't fight Eiji, so I had to find someone potentially powerful enough for this. Someone with his blood running in his veins. I chose you not just because you could survive the process but because I could give you my mission. I gave you my curse.”
“But, Tadayoshi... If you'd let him give me his Gift, he would have died, right? Why, then?”
“Eiji must not pass the Gift to anyone. For his madness would also pass with it and the next Immortal would be even thirstier for blood, with a power so fantastic that it could trigger wars. Eiji needs to be locked up in a cell and forgotten forever. You have this power in you. I'm sorry.”
“Is there at least a little love for me in you, or was it all a game?” Ryo's heart pounded painfully but he couldn't let go of Ohkura, clenching his shoulders with as much force as he could gather.
“Love is another matter. Something that fell upon me thrice in my long life, every time different. I loved my wife, almost because I had to. I loved Yokoyama, he was everything I wanted to be. I love you, and it's so scary because I don't know why. Ryo, I'm asking again, will you forgive me?”
“It goes without saying. Remember, it's all that there is now, you and me.”
****************
“Ryo, I'm not sure that I can accept the fact that, amidst all the dying people on this earth, you, who were ready to give up on life, were the one chosen for immortality. I spent the night thinking, and despite all the love I have for you, my friend, it's still not fair. I want to talk to that guy, Eiji. I want him to give what he has... Maybe to a child I know from the hospital. Someone worthy. He wants to get rid of it, right? Does he want to die? Good. Some want to live. If he dies, the murders will stop, and a worthy child will be granted life. That's why I won't come to your place this afternoon. Don't wait for me, we don't have much left to say anymore, when we are next to each other anyway. Stay safe, Ryo... well, I don't know if I should still say that... “
*******************
When Ryo finally checked his phone, the message was already registered on his voice mail. He listened to it and started shaking. What was Shota thinking? Why hadn't he given him just a tiny chance to explain everything before drawing terrible conclusions by himself?
He dialed Shota's number nervously and let the ringing stretch for a while in his silent apartment. It hung up with a crack so Ryo dialed again, and again, until the noise of the speaker woke Ohkura up. He entered the room with messy hair and the frown of someone whose waking had been rough.
“What are you doing? Wasn't your friend supposed to come over?”
“He wants to make a deal with Eiji.”
“What?! That can't be! You can't make a deal with him!”
“He doesn't know, he hasn't seen... what you and I have seen.”
“We need to find them, or else your friend will die quicker than he thinks.”
“But how?”
“Concentrate, Ryo. You can find Eiji, I gave you that power...”
Ohkura claimed his mouth passionately, and everything in him changed. The panic, the fear, the questions, all of this calmed down into the kiss and he could see clearly. The world was now a pool of darkness through which luminous and throbbing threads were running, expanding at every turn they took or turning dull as their pulsations died. Lives, he thought, the lives of billions of humans, stretching out before me, and I'm looking for only one... Where?
It's the shiniest one, it's so bright it burns, he heard as an answer when he felt his lover's hand touch the naked skin of his back. So he searched, among millions of threads, blue, red, green, large or thin, bright or not and he saw it. A white laser beam like line, the brightest of them all, going through the knot some of them formed as if it was cutting through those lives without even caring. Ryo touched it with the tip of his fingers and he saw a place, a mountain, no, a volcano, perfectly shaped and so dry that no trees were growing on its faces. Eiji was there, sitting on a rock, and not so far, Shota's blue and dull life thread kept moving towards him.
Ryo opened his eyes and let Ohkura's lips go.
“I know where to find them.”
Author:
rainbowdots888
Pairings: Ryo x Ohkura
Rating: PG15
Length: Multi-Chapter
Words: 1983
Genre: AU, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Disclaimer: Too bad for me, I don't own these men... just these stories.
Summary: "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."
*****************
The burning smell that reigned all around Ryo was nauseating. It reeked of burnt flesh and wood, slightly subdued by the fragrant pine beams that supported the roof over their heads. Ohkura was there, standing next to his master, looking at the numerous fires devastating the village from the engawa of a villa. Ryo knew he was in the other's memories this time. He had traveled there by himself, so easily.
In the darkest of the night, as his lover was sleeping peacefully next to him, he had been devoured by curiosity, by the desire of knowing everything about who they were, about their fate. He had put his hand in Ohkura's messy bangs, brushing them back tenderly until his palm settled on the top of his head. And then he had closed his eyes, feeling the connection between them unfurl, his brain very fast colonized by images thrown at him in a dizzying chaos.
After a little while, he mastered the way to skip the memories he didn't need or the ones he didn't want to see. Ohkura's wedding night. The moment when he'd lost his son. How he had buried his wife with his own hands. The terrified look in the villager's eyes when they had grown old and he had remained perfectly young, accompanying one after another to the grave. These were terrible moments and shuffling through them was already more painful than what he had expected. So he kept looking for Eiji's presence and suddenly found him, in the middle of the flames, walking towards Yokoyama and Ohkura, a contented smile adorning his lips.
“A good day to you, Brother!” He screamed at Yokoyama among the thunderous noise of the fire licking every bit of the houses around them.
“What have you done, Eiji?” Answered the master, with a voice so cool it could have extinguished the roaring blaze.
“They got what they deserved. They'd lock me up in a cave, for two years. Where have you been when your little brother suffered from hunger? Did you even try to search for me? No. You were with your... your... pet.”
“They had a reason to do this. You killed three of their children...”
“My children, Brother! Mine they were those miserable bits of walking flesh. It's a pity they couldn't stand receiving the Gift, but still, I'd fathered them. I can do whatever I want with my own offspring.”
“You shouldn't have fathered children in the first place. What if the Gift passed into them just by being born? What kind of new species would walk this earth? Father told us it's forbidden.”
“Is that why you're lying with men, Brother? Truly, your pet can't give you a child...”
Swiftly, so fast that Ryo almost missed it, Ohkura moved and ran to Eiji. In the blink of an eye, his sword was on the other's throat, already cutting through the skin.
“What if I severed your head from the rest of your body, Eiji? Would your stupid head continue living without the rest? If so, it would be a pleasure to tie it to a stone and throw both in the nearest lake. How about feeling like you're drowning for the rest of eternity? How does that sound, monster?” Ohkura spat to his opponent face, his voice boiling with fury.
“Tadayoshi. Stop.” Yokoyama walked up to them, stoic, and put a tender but firm hand on his lover's forearm. “Don't fall into his trap. One day or another, he will pay.”
Ohkura lowered his blade, reluctantly, as Eiji was laughing low. He took a few steps backward and before running away from the two others, took a long breath of the air saturated with the smell of the burning bodies he had just killed.
“Don't you think this smells like power? No? Father has made one mistake: splitting his Gift between the two orphan boys he'd found. Now there are two immortals walking this earth, Me, and you. You have to come to terms with this, Bro.”
“I'm not an Immortal anymore. Tadayoshi is. And he'll make sure to prevent your murders.”
“So it's the last time I see you. Next time, I'll visit your grave. I wish you have a painful death, Brother, because it's what makes eternal life worth living.”
Stop, Ryo!
Eiji turned heels and vanished in the blaze, his darkened silhouette melting in the heat.
Stop! It hurts!
Ryo turned towards Ohkura. He could hear his voice, somewhere, far and close from him at the same time. But the other man was not moving, ignoring everything of Ryo's presence. He was looking at Yokoyama in dismay and his long hair was slightly moved by the hot breeze coming from the flames. He was so handsome. Looked so powerful. And cursed with a mission...
“Stop, Ryo! Please!” His shoulder was roughly shaken and he opened his eyes again in his bedroom. Ohkura was holding his head in pain, shaking and screaming. When the connection broke, when Ryo was definitely back in the present, his lover fell on the bed before him and took a whistling gulp of air.
“You okay?” He asked, panic rising in his voice. The other was terribly pale and struggled to breathe.
“No! Why did you do that, it's so painful!”
“I... I'm so sorry... I thought... I... You told me that... I could read in you.”
“I'm not an Immortal anymore, you'll kill me if you keep doing this.”
“Oh I'm so sorry... I was so curious, I'm sorry!” Ryo fell sobbing on the other, realizing with horror how stupid and how intrusive he had just been. How violent. He stayed for a while with his ear on Ohkura's chest, checking his breath and the beatings of his heart. “Can you forgive me?”
“What did you see?” It was said in a breath, with a voice full of fear and pain. It reminded Ryo the day Yumi had told him about her condition, and his stomach was pierced by a spear of cold panic.
“I saw... You. And your Master. Eiji. A burning village and... Oh my god, the smell. It was awful. He has killed them! It's been centuries that he's killing children. Why?!”
“Because I was weak and I didn't cut his head off as I should have. Can you forgive me?”
It took Ryo aback, that strange confession. He looked up and noticed the redness of Ohkura's eyes.
“Of course, I... I love you.”
“Will you forgive me if I told you why I chose you?”
“You told me already... I could bear it? I'm his descendant.”
Ohkura sat back up, took Ryo in his arms, and buried his nose in the crook of the other's neck.
“I had a mission. I had to get rid of Eiji. But the power Yokoyama sama gave me was flawed. It was altered, and I wasn't of his bloodline. I wasn't a powerful immortal, you know.” He laughed slightly, nuzzling a little more. “I couldn't fight Eiji, so I had to find someone potentially powerful enough for this. Someone with his blood running in his veins. I chose you not just because you could survive the process but because I could give you my mission. I gave you my curse.”
“But, Tadayoshi... If you'd let him give me his Gift, he would have died, right? Why, then?”
“Eiji must not pass the Gift to anyone. For his madness would also pass with it and the next Immortal would be even thirstier for blood, with a power so fantastic that it could trigger wars. Eiji needs to be locked up in a cell and forgotten forever. You have this power in you. I'm sorry.”
“Is there at least a little love for me in you, or was it all a game?” Ryo's heart pounded painfully but he couldn't let go of Ohkura, clenching his shoulders with as much force as he could gather.
“Love is another matter. Something that fell upon me thrice in my long life, every time different. I loved my wife, almost because I had to. I loved Yokoyama, he was everything I wanted to be. I love you, and it's so scary because I don't know why. Ryo, I'm asking again, will you forgive me?”
“It goes without saying. Remember, it's all that there is now, you and me.”
****************
“Ryo, I'm not sure that I can accept the fact that, amidst all the dying people on this earth, you, who were ready to give up on life, were the one chosen for immortality. I spent the night thinking, and despite all the love I have for you, my friend, it's still not fair. I want to talk to that guy, Eiji. I want him to give what he has... Maybe to a child I know from the hospital. Someone worthy. He wants to get rid of it, right? Does he want to die? Good. Some want to live. If he dies, the murders will stop, and a worthy child will be granted life. That's why I won't come to your place this afternoon. Don't wait for me, we don't have much left to say anymore, when we are next to each other anyway. Stay safe, Ryo... well, I don't know if I should still say that... “
*******************
When Ryo finally checked his phone, the message was already registered on his voice mail. He listened to it and started shaking. What was Shota thinking? Why hadn't he given him just a tiny chance to explain everything before drawing terrible conclusions by himself?
He dialed Shota's number nervously and let the ringing stretch for a while in his silent apartment. It hung up with a crack so Ryo dialed again, and again, until the noise of the speaker woke Ohkura up. He entered the room with messy hair and the frown of someone whose waking had been rough.
“What are you doing? Wasn't your friend supposed to come over?”
“He wants to make a deal with Eiji.”
“What?! That can't be! You can't make a deal with him!”
“He doesn't know, he hasn't seen... what you and I have seen.”
“We need to find them, or else your friend will die quicker than he thinks.”
“But how?”
“Concentrate, Ryo. You can find Eiji, I gave you that power...”
Ohkura claimed his mouth passionately, and everything in him changed. The panic, the fear, the questions, all of this calmed down into the kiss and he could see clearly. The world was now a pool of darkness through which luminous and throbbing threads were running, expanding at every turn they took or turning dull as their pulsations died. Lives, he thought, the lives of billions of humans, stretching out before me, and I'm looking for only one... Where?
It's the shiniest one, it's so bright it burns, he heard as an answer when he felt his lover's hand touch the naked skin of his back. So he searched, among millions of threads, blue, red, green, large or thin, bright or not and he saw it. A white laser beam like line, the brightest of them all, going through the knot some of them formed as if it was cutting through those lives without even caring. Ryo touched it with the tip of his fingers and he saw a place, a mountain, no, a volcano, perfectly shaped and so dry that no trees were growing on its faces. Eiji was there, sitting on a rock, and not so far, Shota's blue and dull life thread kept moving towards him.
Ryo opened his eyes and let Ohkura's lips go.
“I know where to find them.”