Karasu no Tengoku

Chapter Eight: Calm Before The Storm

(“A partner for eternity?? Ikeda, why to ask such a foolish question??”
“Well...isn’t every vampire and immortal being out there troubled to find one??”
“By the way in which you refer to it, you should know, you’ve just answered yourself…”
“Oh right! Right! How could I forget that you already have a companion??? Uncalled for, but you have it…”
Ikeda said the last sentence kind of bitterly and sat on the floor, next to the table while Makoto, across him, lied on the floor and sighed heavily, though they were in London, the house had a Japanese style in the inside, Ikeda crawled towards him and straddled him, sitting upon Makoto, though he wasn’t at all that heavy, Makoto seemed quite displeased
“What do you think you’re doing Ikeda? Get off of me…”
“My, my, why might you be asking that of me?? You didn’t seem to complain back in Kushiro…”
“So what?? Get. Off. Me…”
Makoto began to rise, but Ikeda crushed him back into the floor, his hand settled firmly upon Makoto’s chest, he began to descend upon him, Makoto’s head jerked back as much as it could as he felt Ikeda’s lips approaching his own and then turned to the side, Ikeda’s lips fell on his cheek, kissing it and Makoto’s eyes closed
“Ikeda…please…get off me…NOW!!”
He pushed back Ikeda, and the chaos god fell off him and onto his side, Makoto kneeled quickly and quite agitated stormed out of the living-room into the kitchen…Ikeda followed after a while, saw Makoto by the counter, facing the garden and stood next to him, though, in the floor, Makoto didn’t bother in looking at him as he spoke
“What did you come here for, Ikeda??”
“At first…to bring you back with me to Kushiro…”
“After you left me with all the trouble of facing the Council and after you escaped like a coward and after I got punished for your crimes in your place…did you know you caused the death of eight out of ten Kurotenshi????”
“I did…but I can’t say I feel sorry for it, I might just feel sorry for the judgement the Council made concerning you…you really didn’t deserve it…but there’s nothing that can be done Makoto!”
“So you keep saying…”
“Makoto…has turning into a vampire changed you that much??”
“No…I don’t think I’ve changed…ah…he’s coming, I guess you’ll better leave, you’re not well received in this house anymore anyway…”
“So that’s how it is…I’m being thrown away like a rag-doll…how pitiful…”
“Ikeda…you brought this upon yourself…it’s your own fault I don’t want to see you ever again…”
“Guess it can’t be helped…good-bye Kurotenshi…”
Ikeda rose and gave Makoto a little kiss on the cheek before banishing into his weird dimension towards his castle…
Makoto’s eyes opened all of a sudden, he was confused, he’d not dreamed of that day in quite a long time, he barely remembered what’d happened sometimes, he disentangled himself from the sheets and sat on the edge of the bed, resting his forehead on his hand, a long sigh, out of frustration maybe as he walked towards the bathroom, closed the door and gathered some towels, turned the keys of the shower and began to undress as the water warmed up…after some minutes he got himself inside the shower and closed the curtains, the water wasn’t scorching but it do was fairly hot, it relaxed him, that dream had brought back old tension to his body, tension he’d like to forget since it brought memories back too…after rinsing his hair and body he sat on the edge of the shower, the water reaching his feet still, and rolled his head back, thinking, he felt old, of what use was to have a body that didn’t age if your mind did age?? His hair was still as black as it’d always been, his skin did not wrinkle, but he felt old, oh so old, the water began to cool so he reached the keys and closed them, a quiet knock on the door brought him back to his senses, his pawn)
“Master…are you alright??”
“I’m perfectly fine; begin with your day’s duties!”
“Oh…yes master…”
(Makoto suddenly felt way too useless…)

“Hideki’s become too isolated, he’s closing himself to everything…I don’t think that’s any good…”
(The girl kept on talking, though she was not being listened, or at least not with attention)
“I suppose it has something to do with all what’s happened…”
“Mmm…Hikari, I wonder, just where did you get all that information from??”
“My family’s supposed to be the guardians of your clan, is it not so?”
“Yes…”
(Gin left a book he’d been previously reading in its place on the shelf, and walked towards the other bookcase, taking from it a quite thin book this time and sitting back at his desk)
“So, as we’re supposed to follow wherever you go, I’m a bit more informed about it all, that’s all…”
(Gin paused his reading for a bit, and eyed Hikari a bit curiously)
“What??”
“No, nothing…”
(He went back to his reading)
“Hey…you’re not ignoring on me purpose, are you??”
“I’m not ignoring you at all…but, I can’t say that I understood what you’ve told me…”
“I’m saying that I’m keeping an eye on you and your business…”
“Oh…blunt as ever…but, doesn’t Hideki have someone to look after him already??”
“Yes…that Kaito, but it seems that he recently was ’kidnapped’ by Makoto…”
“Really??”
“Yes…so, Kaito has seen Makoto, it could be said he’s scared…”
“Scared of what?”
“I don’t know…maybe even Makoto…”
“He’s kind of dangerous, that’s not something that should be ignored…”
“I know…but, what I want to know…is what did Makoto tell Kaito that caused this…I just can’t bring myself to think that Makoto’s that scary…”
“Kaito’s been wiser than Hideki in not making a direct approach to Makoto but waiting for him to make the first move…”
“Yes…but now that’s done…what are they going to do?? Neji’s not awakened yet, and certainly not Kaito either…”
“Everything’s got its due time…”
“So you say…”
(Hikari returned to reading the book she’d been reading before while Gin continued to skip pages and pages of different books, obviously looking for something…)

(Several cartridges were scattered upon the table in front of Hideki, he wondered which one should he use this time…the cold stare he wore, ran from one to another, until he picked one lastly and loaded the gun, attached the silencer and walked across the attic, through the hidden window he aimed it at a by-passer, but he gasped and nearly dropped the gun when Kaito’s voice surprised him…)
“Hideki! You have to see this!!”
(Hideki locked the gun and hid it inside his jacket quickly and left the attic, locking the door behind him, he was descending the stairs of the attic at the same time Kaito was climbing them, he handed him over a newspaper with a headline that said: ’Another murder at Shinjuku! No clues!’, Hideki eyed it curiously, and walked towards the kitchen with Kaito following him…)
“It’s the same method as the other 5 previous cases…”
“Gunshots…”
“Right…and it’s becoming weird for another thing…”
“What??”
“Complete blood loss…all of it, ALL…”
(Kaito bumped into Hideki, who’d stopped just so unceremoniously after hearing this that nearly hurt Kaito’s nose if the later hadn’t been taller than Hideki…)
“What’s wrooooong?? Why did you stop like that??? Hideki…Hideki??”
“No...nevermind…”
(Hideki continued walking into the kitchen and Kaito following, Hideki made his usual drink, coffee, and sat on a stool in front of Kaito)
“So, do you think the loss of blood could mean a vampire is doing all this??”
“It’s pretty appealing…though it doesn’t have why to be definite…”
“I know…besides, if it was a vampire, why would it need to shoot its victims, wouldn’t that be…impractical…??”
“A lot indeed…”
“It might be a cult…”
“Or a normal serial killer, wanting to make it look completely different…”
“Good one…do you think we should investigate??”
“Wouldn’t we have to put in hiatus our other case??”
“Yeah…not that we have any leads to continue it anyway…”
“Awfully true…”