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Bete Noir	By : Macx Category: Descendents of Darkness/Yami No Matsuei > General Views: 1911 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Bete Noir
- 2-part 2
- 3-part 3
- 4-part 4
- 5-part 5
- 6-part 6
- 7-part 7
- 8-part 8
- 9-part 9
- 10-part 10
- 5
- 6
- 7
He was in a desolate place. Not a room, but a landscape. A landscape
with walls. Surreal and hurting him without inflicting physical wounds.
Tsuzuki gasped softly at the darkness everywhere. It wasn't nightfall.
It wasn't even sunrise. It wasn't anything at all.
No light, no warmth, no colors. Just grayness.
And in the middle of it, curled up against a low wall that looked like
there had been a house once, was his first shikigami. Byakko.
He whispered the name and a shiver raced through the tiger. He was dressed
in rags, gray and brown and black, a mockery of his former splendor, his
expensive and representative robes as the Protector of the West. The hair
was filthy, the whole body appeared frail, and the skin was sickly in color.
"Byakko," Tsuzuki whispered again, walking over to the suffering man
like on automatic, drawn to him, needing to help.
He sank to his knees at the tiger's side, Rikugo forgotten, and reached
out to touch a slender shoulder.
"Byakko," he coaxed.
Red eyes blinked open and peeked at him. Their light was dull.
"Hey," Tsuzuki whispered softly. His hands stroked over the cool skin,
ran along the filthy hair.
Byakko started to tremble. A soft gasp left his lips and he began to
push himself more against the wall, as if he was afraid of Tsuzuki.
"It's okay," Tsuzuki soothed him. "This is a bad dream, a nightmare.
Whatever you think happened, it didn't. Byakko, it didn't."
He wrapped his hands around the cold fingers.
"I'm here. You're safe."
And he kept up the litany of words, of caresses, feeling the world shrink
away, reduced to only the pain-filled red eyes that stared at him with
such terror.
"...didn't mean to..." the wind god suddenly whispered, voice soft,
broken, almost dead. "... killed... didn't mean... didn't want... my fault..."
"You didn't kill anyone. Sohryu's fine, Touda's fine, everyone's fine.
It was a nightmare. Nothing is real," Tsuzuki told him.
"Mad at me... banished me..." Tears tracked over the grimy cheeks. "Tsuzuki...
you left... me... there..." he stammered. "I never wanted... meant to...
never!"
"I know," Tsuzuki murmured and gathered the unresisting form into his
arms.
He didn't care about the filth, the smell, anything. He only felt the
too thin, starving form cling to him heard the dry sobs, and the tears
ran free. Tsuzuki's aura rose, enveloped them, and Byakko cried out at
the sensation of the darkness. It wasn't fear. It was like... despair.
"You're dreaming," the shinigami repeated. "Please come back to me,
Byakko. I love you. I need you. I need you with me. We all need you. Touda
is going crazy with worry."
"Killed him..."
"No, you had a nightmare, Byakko. You didn't kill anyone."
The tiger was shaking so hard, Tsuzuki wrapped his arms more tightly
around him.
"Come home," he begged. "Come back to me."
"I don't know how," was the tremulous and so very soft reply.
Tsuzuki framed the haggard face and smiled warmly. "I'll show you. Do
you trust me?"
The nod was almost immediate. The red eyes were filled with need and
so much pain, Tsuzuki had to lean forward and place a little kiss on the
cool forehead.
"Let's go home."
° ° °
Sohryu didn't know all the details as to what Rikugo had seen in Byakko's
mind, but one look at the pale shikigami told him that whatever it was,
it hadn't been pretty. The astrologer had released little information about
Byakko's state of mind, about what the devil had done. Only so much that
the dragon knew enough. The devil had inflicted a lot of psychosomatic
damage on their fellow God. He had twisted the truth, had made Byakko suffer
fates worse than anything that had ever happened to anyone. He had changed
the truth.
Sohryu was aware that his role in Byakko's past, the past the tiger
had been forced to live through in his nightmares, had been far from nice.
He had apparently incarcerated Byakko for killing his family.
Rikugo didn't know how much their friend would remember of the dreams
and horrors when he finally woke, but he had warned everyone of his role,
of possible reactions until Byakko could differentiate between truth and
lies. Most likely the memories would face in time, but until then, confusion
might happen.
Sohryu had watched the other dragon closely throughout the whole time
he had reported his findings, and he saw bone-deep exhaustion and weariness
that was only a breath away from what Rikugo had looked like weeks before
when he had kept Touda alive. The astrologer had been asked to dig deep
into his powers twice within a few weeks and it was costing him.
"Rest," Sohryu ordered.
"I'm still needed."
"Rikugo..."
Black eyes flared with a little more life. "I can't leave him now!"
"Tsuzuki is here. You said it yourself: he is out of his coma and sleeping.
Our master is there with him and he won't let him do anything harmful.
Don't you think

Tsuzuki can handle him?"
"Of course he can, but..."
"Rikugo, sleep. Get some rest and recover! That's an order."
The dark eyes flared more and Sohryu smiled at the open anger. Giving
the astrologer an order was a sure way of getting a strong response out
of him, especially when Rikugo didn't feel like the order was justified.
Now the blond stopped and inhaled sharply, trembling a little. One shaky
hand rubbed over his pale features.
"Okay," he gave in, voice soft. "For a few hours."
Sohryu nodded, keeping himself from patting the other dragon's back.
Rikugo wouldn't appreciate it. And Sohryu couldn't be sure he would still
have a hand afterwards. Their relationship wasn't physically violent, but
Rikugo was under a lot of stress right now, combined with the aftereffects
of what had been before.
He was dangerous.
"I'll call you when something changes," the dragon promised.
Rikugo shot him a suspiciously surprised look, then just nodded. Sohryu
watched him go and sighed softly. He really needed to work on their relationship
-- what there was. After Touda's near-death and after really looking at
his political opposition, Sohryu had sworn to himself to work on their
interaction. He couldn't continue treating Rikugo as he had, especially
after what the shikigami had done. Things were changing, and he had to
change, too.
Sohryu walked the halls of his palace, servants bowing but not approaching
him. Everybody knew that the Protector of the West had been attacked, was
in a terrible condition, and that this reflected on all twelve Commanders.
He found himself in the inner garden not much later, inhaling the sweet
scent of the flowers, the crisp air of a rather cool night, and his thoughts
strayed to Terazuma. He wished his partner was here. He needed someone
to lean on, something he had never confessed to before.
What is going on here?
The thought came again, unbidden, as it had come so often in the past
months. A lot had happened lately. It had opened his eyes to his master,
his friend, Tsuzuki; it had made him aware of changes, of necessary adaptations,
and of his fellow shikigami in a way he had never thought possible.
And it had all started with the moment Enma-Daiou had linked Tsuzuki
and Touda with the bond. Ever since then, it had begun, had been set into
motion, and Sohryu was hard pressed to understand everything. A lot of
good had come out of it.
Touda had been pardoned. They knew the truth behind his black-out now.
Byakko had found a partner who, despite looking the opposite, matched
the tiger perfectly.
Sohryu himself had found love again, and in turn he had helped a shinigami
accept who he was, what he could do, and to see more in the shikigami that
possessed him than a necessary evil.
But there had also been revelations...
Like Tsuzuki's role in the survival of all realms. GensouKai owed its
safety and prosperity of the last decades to this unassuming young shinigami.
Because he had mastered all twelve of the Commanders, all four Gods with
them, the strength of the twelve had surpassed everything that had been
there before, allowing Sohryu to stabilize GensouKai in the digital world.
Tsuzuki was their strength and he was their main weakness, though since
GensouKai's instability also meant the breakdown of Hell and with it Meifu
and the world of the living, Hell wouldn't try to take out the one center
point to their existence. It would mean total chaos.
Sohryu closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He felt so tired, so
restless, so exhausted, so... helpless.
A devil had made it into a shikigami, a God, had broken him, and had
entered GensouKai undetected. Why? How?!
The Golden Emperor wasn't answering his representative's requests to
talk to him, and he had been ominously away and silent ever since Tsuzuki's
bond to Touda. Sohryu could feel him still, but he wasn't there any more.
It was like he had pulled away, simply watching.
Why should he watch the downfall of his realm? Why should he leave it
up to his shikigami and a few shinigami along the way to save the day?
"What is going on here?" he murmured.
Are you sure the Emperor is even still alive?
Words that still rang in his ears. Back then, those had been traitorous
words. He had been furious at the other dragon for even thinking something
like this. Sohryu knew the Emperor was alive since he could feel his presence,
but lately... lately feeling the presence wasn't enough to convince him
any more.
But if the Emperor was dead... if Kurikara had been correct... shouldn't
GensouKai be victim to Hell already? The Emperor kept this realm safe from
invasion. Hell wouldn't just sit back and send one devil, hiding in Byakko.
They would have launched an all-out army.
Sohryu sighed softly once more. For the first time in centuries he wished
he could talk to his former friend, but Kurikara had disappeared. Not even
the destabilization of the realm had brought him back into the picture.
Wherever he was in GensouKai, he hid.
There was a whisper of a movement and someone stepped out of the shadows
of the building. Slender, dressed in a very rumpled looking suit, Tsuzuki
looked pale and tired, but the violet eyes were burning. Sohryu rose automatically.
"Tsuzuki..."
"He's sleeping," the shinigami answered the unspoken question. "Touda's
with him."
Sohryu nodded wordlessly. Tsuzuki looked at him, a gentle smile on his
lips, and suddenly the regal Protector of the East found himself hugged
by his shinigami master. A shudder went through his body as he reacted
to the offered comfort, as his mind cried out to accept the embrace as
what it was, and he felt muscles relax. He rested his chin on the tousled
head and closed his eyes, lungs inflating as he inhaled deeply.
"You should rest, too," Tsuzuki murmured into the folds of his rather
simple robe. "Rikugo isn't the only one who needs sleep."
Sharp as ever. Despite his appearance and the sometimes clueless behavior,
Tsuzuki was far more.
"I can't."
"You have to. They need you awake later on. I'll be here, too, Sohryu.
Nothing will happen."
He chuckled softly. He knew his servants would follow Tsuzuki's orders,
too. The shinigami had power here, though he had never used it before.
Hands stroked over him. "Sleep," Tsuzuki suggested.
"I will, Asato. I just need a bit to unwind."
Amethyst eyes danced a little as the shinigami looked up, meeting blue-gray
eyes. "Maybe I should call Terazuma?" he suggested.
"I thought you said I should rest?" Sohryu teased.
Tsuzuki grinned. It was an infectious smile and Sohryu stroked over
the smooth skin of one cheek. He placed a little kiss onto the forehead
of his friend.
"I promise to sleep, Tsuzuki."
"Good."
And he would honor that promise.

tbc...
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Bete Noir