Karasu no Tengoku

Chapter Eighteen: The Sutras’ Dance Towards a Discovery…

(Hideki began feeling the changes of turning into something nearly immortal about 10 months after it had taken place, he’d gone to a hospital by that time and asked a nurse to check his blood pressure, the nurse had been more than panicked when she’d seen the blood pressure, the normal human blood pressure was 100/70, his was 20 heartbeats per minute, if he’d been alive he’d been in real trouble…after calming down the nurse [something that was attainable because she was superstitious], they called in a doctor, the doctor did panic, and couldn’t be calmed down, he wanted to hospitalize him, when that happened, Hideki sneaked into the rooms of the hospital and made his way out saying he was just a late visitor leaving…he told himself he’ll never see a doctor again, maybe the doctor was right, Hideki’d been changed by turning into a vampire, not only physically, his mind’s structure had modified bit by bit too, and of course, the outer appearance, he had gone from pale to dead-pale, his hair seemed to have turned even blacker, his eyes were already reddish brown, but now, the red ring he’d mentioned before was visible, his mind was becoming colder, he couldn’t care less for humans right now…and he was beginning to lose hope on ever finding his partner…)

(Kaito was still lost, it’d been a year ago he’d transformed and the All-Seeing Eye hadn’t shown any completely concrete place yet…he tried looking for Kaito’s life energy and he’d found it, it was dim, so he was losing life, but not so quick, it was actually dim but stable, not really preoccupant, so he went on, trying to track it, and he closed the possibilities to all Europe and parts of Russia, how the hell did Kaito get that far, he couldn’t tell, and about Russia, he didn’t want to go back there, but somehow knew that, if he wanted to find Kaito, he’ll have to try all the possible locations, and he didn’t want to use the Fore-Seeing Eye until he was sure he could do something about what he might see…)

(So he left Japan and Eiji and Gin behind, and went to live where his mother’d been born, in Berlin, his cousin came to visit him from Leipzig from time to time…that night he’d decided to go out for a while, he hadn’t done it lately because he was trying to track down the source, the places where he’d sense it the strongest were 3 countries, and they weren’t close to each other, that made it quite difficult to track down and actually confused him…the 3 countries had been Belgium, Ireland and Italy, he was near the Brandenburg Gate, so he stopped a bit, and seeing there was no one around, he recited the Gitas and the All-Seeing Eye went at its strongest, this time he tracked it down and was able to see something, a dark place, it was a room, it was nicely furnished and Kaito was there! Though he was lying on a bed, his life energy was still dim and seemed too volatile to be placed somewhere, at least he now knew he wasn’t dead, the All-Seeing Eye still took too much energy out of him so he stopped and decided that, someday, he’ll find him and find out what had happened, with this said to himself and his energy partially drained out from him, he went back home and prepared himself for more nights to come until eternity…)

“Hideki! Hideki open up!”
(It was broad daylight and Fritz had come to visit him, how very NICE of him…Hideki did the super-human effort of getting off his bed and walking down the stairs, awakening was always difficult, and Eiji’d said it’ll always be, it would feel like trying to lift a dead body and forcing it to move because it WAS dead after all, and it really was bothersome, because all the muscles got rigid and things like those he was thinking when he reached the door and he was about to pull it open when he remembered he couldn’t let himself be touched by sunlight…)
“Fritz…I’m going to slide the key under the door and you come in, ok??”
“What’s wrong? Are you sick or something?”
“Yeah, something like that…just do what I said ok? Please…”
“Sure…”
(Fritz was a bit freaked out because of this but didn’t question his cousin any further and grabbed the key the moment after it appeared at his feet and opened the door only to find the whole flat in darkness, all the curtains closed, he couldn’t say that Hideki had a bad taste in decoration and the flat was well-kept and clean, but it was just SO dark, he saw Hideki sitting an a sofa on the living-room, falling asleep…)
“I can’t believe you were still asleep! It’s 3 o’clock p.m. already!! Are you sick or something??”
“I said…something like that…”
(He approached Hideki and felt his temperature with the back of his hand…)
“Hideki…you’re freezing! Aren’t you cold at all?? Are you alright??”
“I know I’m deadly cold…but I’m alright…I’m quite alright, so let it be…”
“Ok…”
“So…why did you come?? And during daytime of all times??”
“Ah…I thought you’d like to go to eat with me and Juliette…but I certainly didn’t expect you to still be asleep! And besides, I wanted to pay you a visit since we’re here in Berlin…”
“When did you arrive??”
“Two days ago…”
“When do you leave?”
“We’ll be here for 3 weeks more…Juliette is on holidays from work…”
“Really??”
“Yeah…Hideki, why is your flat so dark?! Do you not like sunlight or what?? Besides, the day is beautiful, is not sunny at all!”
(Hideki, who had been with his head thrown back all the conversation, looked at him now…)
“Is it really not sunny???”
“Nope…not at all…it’s cloudy and as you can hear it’s raining…it looks like if we were in London…there must a typhoon or something near…”
“…well, then I guess I CAN go eat with you both…”
“Really?! Excellent, it’s on me then!”
“I’m expensive, you know?”
“Oh really?? You haven’t seen Juliette’s jewels then….”
“My God…”
(Hideki went to change his clothes, he grabbed some sunglasses too and put on his typical black raincoat, Fritz had been right, the weather was certainly chilly, so he brought an umbrella with him too…)

(Juliette was already at the restaurant, she was inside and when she saw them she stood and welcomed them, the last time Hideki’d seen Juliette, she’d just graduated, it’d been some time since that, so they sat and ordered…Hideki still was addicted to coffee, so it was all he drank during the meal…he’d tried eating normal food from time to time, and it wasn’t bad, his sense of taste was still there so it was good, and it didn’t do any harm or anything to his body, so the meal went in peace…)

(Juliette went to their house in Berlin and Fritz went with Hideki to his flat, he’d decided he’d been curious about some things for some time now, when they entered the flat, Hideki threw away his sunglasses, shoes and raincoat, Fritz took off his shoes and jacket and they both sat again in the living room…)
“Hideki…there’s something I want to talk about with you…”
“…what might it be??”
“Ever since you came to Berlin, you’ve been like that…you avoid going out during the day, and until now, I’d just visited you during the night, but now that I see it, you’re not awake at all during the day…what’s going on??”
“Fritz…really, I think you should stop asking questions and go home now…”
“No! I want to know what’s going on!”
“It’s a long story…”
“I have time…and it seems like you too…”
“Me? I have ALL the time in the world…I’ve got ETERNITY alone…”
“Huh?”
“Do you still don’t get it??”
“No…not quite…”
“I’ll say this as flat, dry and simple as I can, ok?”
“Go ahead…”
“I’m a vampire…”
“Don’t joke around Hideki! I’m really worried about you!”
“It’s true! I AM a VAMPIRE!”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“Not at all…it’s up to you if you want to believe it or not, I’ve just told you the truth and that’s fine with me…”
“And…if you really are a vampire…why??”
“Do you remember my investigation for finding a shinigami?”
“Yeah…”
“It got mixed up with a serial murder, and after that was over, my partner disappeared…”
“Kaito?!?”
“Yeah…so, I turned myself into a vampire so that I could find him by no conventional means…”
“Which are??”
“The Third Eye chakra…you know how it works, don’t you??”
“I do…but I didn’t know you’ll go this far…”
“Have I really gone that far?? Just for his sake…”
“Kind of…”
“Well I don’t care…if I’ve gone this far already it’s no use to go back anymore…”
(They were in silence for some minutes, in which Hideki thought of all that had happened from the time Kaito had disappeared until then, and for finding him he’d come all the way to Berlin…then Fritz broke the silence…)
“So…that’s what’s happening…”
“Yeah…”
“I guess…I didn’t expect it…but I can’t blame you…”
“Glad to hear that…”
“I’m leaving then…”
“Ok…”
“See ya…”
“Bye…”
(And he left…)