Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Empty Spaces	By : Macx Category: Descendents of Darkness/Yami No Matsuei > General Views: 3189 -:- 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-Empty Spaces
- 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
- 11-part 11
- 12-part 12
- 13-part 13
- 14-part 14
- 15-part 15
- 16-part 16
- 17-part 17
- 18-part 18
- 19-part 19
- 20-part 20
- 21-part 21
- 7
- 8
- 9
III: Empathy

Tatsumi Seiichiro watched his lover and partner as he absent-mindedly
walked around his lab, picking up one thing, depositing it somewhere else,
just to pick up another. It served no purpose, appeared to be very random,
and Watari's face was pale, the eyes distant. It was a far cry from the
happy face, the sometimes manic grin, the bounce in his voice, the joy
he could spread, the little screwball of a scientist he could be.
The latest events had left traces.
Those were traces Tatsumi didn't like.
He had watched his lover ever since Watari's return from GensouKai and
he knew that telling the shikigami what had truly happened didn't sit well
with Watari. Like so many things lately.
"Yutaka," he murmured as he stepped up behind the slender form, catching
a hand that was reaching for a pile of papers to sort them; they were blank
printer sheets.
"Huh?" Watari made, startled.
"Come home. You're done for today."
"I... I need to... I'm not..." His hand rose to touch one temple, rubbing
it faintly.
Tatsumi caught it again, holding it, and amber eyes that had this strange
golden sheen me this. "Seii?"
Watari sounded lost and alone, and so very, very young. He was young,
Tatsumi reminded himself. Twenty-four when he had died. Too young; too
bright; too much of a genius. He had been betrayed by his lover, his soul
promised to Baal. He had been sold by Enma to the Five Generals. They had
used this incredible mind, this potential, and he had created Mother, had
given her life. People used him. People had abused him. And even the position
as the Chief Researcher couldn't make up for what he had lost.
And then there were the nanites.
Tatsumi drew him close, raised the captured hand to his lips, kissing
the slender fingers.
"I love you, 'Taka," he spoke words that had been hard to in the beginning
of their relationship. "Let's go home. There is nothing here that can't
wait."
Watari had been under so much pressure, had kept a knowledge that a
super-computer had placed into his mind, and he hadn't had the necessary
time to really deal with his emotional response. One event chased the next,
things happened with increasing speed, and even now there was actually
no time for the luxury of relaxation.
Watari was working at his limits; his emotional and mental limits.
"Come home with me," he coaxed. "Please."
Watari's eyes were huge, reflecting his youth, his need, his blatant
hunger for support, and Tatsumi brushed their lips together.
"Come."
"Okay," was the faint reply.
°
Watari fell asleep in his arms, so exhausted... too exhausted to undress.
Tatsumi just removed the shoes and sweater, holding the semi-nude man as
his lover slept. He looked into the lined face, aware that they were not
the only ones suffering. Tsuzuki was trapped in the Palace of Candles,
a guest of the Count as long as no one knew what Enma-Daiou would do next.
For whatever reason, the Count was the only one capable of protecting the
shinigami; or was it the Palace? It was holy ground, neutral ground, outside
JuChoOh's jurisdiction. Watari hadn't gone any deeper than that. Then there
were the shikigami, all of GensouKai reeling under the impact of the truth.
No, they weren't alone.
But right now, Tatsumi didn't care about the rest of the world as he
held his lover, felt the warm weight in his arms, listened to the steady
breaths, and he vowed to be there should Watari need him, work be damned.
Right now, he couldn't care less.
° ° °
It didn't get better in the next few days.
It got worse.
Watari was literally burned out, physically as well as psychologically.
He was suffering from migraines that only grew in intensity, and they left
him a whimpering bundle in a darkened room, curled up on cool sheets and
sometimes crying from the pain. It was a pain no healing abilities could
ever fight because it came from something that had been in his body ever
since he had died.
The nanites.
Tatsumi was with his lover, recovering from his own abuse. He had gone
up to his limit and maybe even beyond with two very brutal fights in such
a short amount of time. What the four Generals hadn't managed Tsuzuki had
� he had knocked him out. His energy lines were raw and painful, and the
slightest twitch of shadows was like a searing agony inside his body.
So he spent the hours with Watari in the dark room, listening to the
harsh breathing, the soft pleas to make it stop, the cries of pain as something
vicious hit the bright mind that had no defenses left, and all he could
do was wait.
°
Watari had never known such pain. Well, almost never. There had been
one occasion in his life after death and that had been when the nanites
had originally been injected into him. It had been after that, when he
had been connected to Mother and they had rearranged themselves, that he
had screamed in pain. After the first connection and disconnection he had
needed a day to be free of the debilitating pain. Each touch of Mother
after that had been gentle, with hardly any discomfort when the nanites
received updates, but the first time... was like now.
He could hardly think clearly now. Watari had no idea how he had managed
to stay sane and sensible up till the moment the mind had shut down and
the pain had taken over. He had done so much, had even fought Tsuzuki,
had then gone into GensouKai and given them all the truth on a silver platter...
and then it had hit him.

Mother had updated him by force. She had taken thirty years and compressed
them into one file, erasing the prior and last configuration of his nanites
to overwrite them with the latest one, the one he needed to synchronize
with her. While connected to her he hadn't really felt it, but later...
like now...
He couldn't quiet down.
Migraines were chasing each other. There was this pulsing pain behind
his eyes, behind his forehead, behind his temples.
Everywhere.
And no pain-killer could help. Nothing could. It would get even worse
before it got better.
And then it stopped abruptly.
It was like being able to breathe again.
--
A hand touched his hair, stroked over it in a soothing pattern,
and Watari whimpered with the familiarity. He was gathered into strong
arms, heard a gentle voice whisper reassurances, and he cried soundlessly
with the relief.
"It's over," he managed. "Enma's name, it's over..."
Tatsumi only held him, his anchor, his sanity, and the only one who
had been with him in the last few... days? Hours...? Whatever...
He didn't care.
Right now, he only wanted to feel. With all senses. Everywhere. And
he buried against the tall form of his lover, not caring what anyone thought.
°
Tatsumi had made a light meal and carried it over to the bed, smiling
at Watari. The smile of his lover was tentative, almost careful, as if
he wasn't ready to believe that this was the end of it all.
"Any pain?" he wanted to know.
There were too many lines from what Watari had gone through. The face
was too thin, too chalky, too haggard, and the circles underneath the too
dull eyes spoke volumes.
"No," was the soft answer and Watari pushed a piece of scrambled egg
around on his plate with a slice of toast. "It's over. Really over, Seii.
It was just my mind dealing with the update."
The blue eyes were full of questions, but the Shadow Master didn't voice
a single one of them. He wanted to wait, give Watari a chance to recover,
so they ate in silence. When his lover had placed the plate onto the bedside
table, Tatsumi rose to clean it all away.
Watari stopped him with a softly whispered, "Seii?"
"Yutaka..."
"Leave it," was the reply. "Just... I want to... I want to tell you...
I want you to know..."
Tatsumi sat down on the bed, then slid onto the mattress when Watari
made room. He looked into the amber eyes, their golden sparkle missing,
and caressed the beloved face.
"You don't have to tell me anything, Taka. Not now. You need to recover..."
"No. I want to tell you. I want you to understand..." Watari inhaled
deeply. "I want someone else aside from the Five to know..."
"Yutaka..."
A finger was placed onto his lips. "You want to know about the nanites.
I can see it in your eyes."
Tatsumi sighed. "Yes. I find it rather hard to understand that... that
you have tiny machines in your body..."
"In my brain, my spine," Watari explained softly. "They were injected
into me when I agreed to become part of the Mother project. It was the
only way any single one of us could work with the super-computer. We had
to be able to access her on levels no computer programmer could ever dream
or think of. So the nanites were used. Kazei Reina had come up with the
idea, and she had configured them to work so perfectly inside us and with
Mother."
"How many are there?"
Watari smiled dimly. "Millions. Once inside, you'll never get rid of
them. They are the key to becoming an Interface. I wouldn't have been able
to interface without them and I so wanted to help, needed to be a part
of this."

Tatsumi pushed back some unruly strands of blond hair, looking into
the amber eyes that showed so many emotions.
"They are in your mind?"
"Yes. The nanites are attached at the end of the nerve cells of the
brain. Think of them as artificial nerve cells, artificial brain synapses.
You can't just plug yourself into a computer because your body still has
its own organs and cells to take care of. Even a shinigami body. So the
nanites kind of stop those nerve cells not needed throughout an interface,
like muscle cells, to boost your performance. New resources are created
by redirecting your brain from working your muscles to just storing information."
Tatsumi stared at him, aghast. "What?!"
"When I Interface I don't need to see or hear, I don't need to talk
or digest food. I don't need my kidneys, my reflexes, anything. All that
is stopped and their original storage or memory capability rerouted. The
moment I wake, it's back. It takes a moment to reboot, but it's there again."
Watari chuckled darkly. "It's not like shinigami can die when the heart
stops beating; we always come back. But it puts a crimp into working inside
Mother, so the vital functions are kept. Took one or two deaths and resurrections
to make it all work."
Tatsumi was pale from shock. "Yutaka..."
He took one tightly clenched fist, covering it with his own hand. "It
hasn't happened since. All uplinks are safe. They were perfected a long
time ago. The nanites are always update, always perform efficiently, like
us. Like me. I can enter Mother and work as if I had never left... after
she updated me."
"You said so before. And it was painful."
"Because there were thirty years of updates to consider. Every time
I log into Mother, I have to update myself on the new configuration. Mother
changes. She evolves, and we evolve with her. Nanites have the old configuration
before a reconnect, then get the update signal and reconfigure themselves
to fit the new Mother pattern. The first time was excruciating... and this
time, too."
Tatsumi tugged gently at one hand and Watari slid against him, heaving
a deep sigh.
"I'm always compatible. Unless Mother refuses me. I am a walking computer.
I am an extension. A machine of sorts."
"No, you're not. You're Watari Yutaka, the loveable screwball who blows
up his lab more often than not," Tatsumi whispered. "And you're Watari
Yutaka, who has the power to give life and soul to inanimate objects, who
is a fierce fighter, a serious opponent for every demon or devil or human.
And you're Taka, my lover, my friend, my partner... everything. You're
not a machine."
"I'm also the Chief Researcher of the Five Generals, their leader, and
the one who gave life to Mother, who created her, who gave her a soul."
"And you didn't even blow her up," Tatsumi teased, smiling.
Watari gave a weak chuckle. "No, I didn't."
Tatsumi kissed his head, his forehead, his nose, then caught the pale
lips in a gentle, deeply emotional kiss.
"I love you, Watari Yutaka, all that you are."
There was a little smile and Tatsumi tangled his hands in the waves
of blond hair, pulling him close for another kiss.
"All of you," he repeated. "Nanites and all. And I'm in awe of you."
"Why?" came the confused question.
"Because of your strength."
Like Tsuzuki. There was such a core of steel underneath an exterior
that easily deflected any deeper scans.
"Because you still feel and love and hope and dream," Tatsumi went on.
"That you are you."
"You don't know if this is who I was before."
"Isn't it?"
The younger shinigami sighed and rested is head against the shirt-clad
chest. "I'm not sure. I had a lot of ideals. I was innocent, bright-eyed,
naïve... traits I really wouldn't want to still keep within me. Mother
changed me. Mother gave me an insight into the true nature of things. And
Mother was the reason why I finally turned my back on them. I wanted to
be a shinigami, help people, guide lost souls home... and I didn't care
that it was an underpaid job, that I would be confronted with human suffering
and pain and guilt and the need to hold onto a life that was already over.
I didn't care I would be the target of demons and devils. I just wanted
out."
Tatsumi just held him. "I'm glad you left," he whispered after a while.
"You weren't so happy then."
"After the first lab explosion... could I have been?" he teased.
"It was just a minor burn..."
"It took out three windows, a brand new computer and your desk."
Watari chuckled. "Like I said, minor."
Tatsumi rolled them around, Watari now on his back and smiling tentatively
up at him. "I threatened to cut down your budget back then."
"And you did. You still do."
"It doesn't stop you."
"Nothing really does."
The blue eyes softened. "Yes. Nothing really does." Lips met briefly.
"And that's why you also got me. Because you were persistent and tenacious
and wouldn't give up. I love you, Watari Yutaka."
"I love you, Tatsumi Seiichiro," Watari whispered the sentiment exactly.
He wrapped his arms around the older shinigami and drew him down, both
men lying on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs, Watari's head tugged
under Tatsumi's chin, his cheek pressed against the broad chest.
It was how they stayed for the rest of the night, neither asleep nor
really awake. Just dozing, recovering, safe within each other's embrace.

tbc...
- 7
- 8
- 9
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Empty Spaces