Hayate Igarashi is a Tokyo rich kid who finds life extraordinarily boring, that is until his attention is gripped by the angel-faced Touma Kirigaya who ebbs him every time he looks at him. Why can's he forget about Touma?
Not only that, but one nig...
"My lords!" The messenger fell to his hands and knees, chest heaving.
At first it was quiet in the tearoom. The messenger refused to meet the eyes of either twin. Daisaku and Naozumi stared at him in silence. "What is it?" Daisaku asked.
The messenger glanced up, but immediately angled his eyes back down once he met Daisaku's gaze. "Lord Akano," the messenger began, "Yuuki of Akano has committed seppuku."
The room was dead silent, safe the pants that came from the messenger. "Why?" the voice was cold as ice, a voice that could only belong to Daisaku. If one listened carefully, one could almost hear a tremble in the normally smooth voice.
The messenger looked up. He felt that he was being pinned to the spot by the eyes of
*The King of Buddhist Hell and the judge of the afterlife.
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"Dashi?" Daisaku murmured. He was in thought for a moment. He turned his eyes toward the messenger once more. "You may leave." The messenger bowed in thanks and rushed out of the tearoom.
Naozumi watched Daisaku with a careful eye. How would he react? Daisaku stared at his cup of tea for a long while. The tearoom was completely silent. Naozumi had never been able to talk to Daisaku like a brother should. He glanced at Chiga who guarded the door, then back at Daisaku. His face was unreadable. Naozumi looked down at his hands, allowing himself to slip into his own thoughts for the moment.
A sudden thud brought him from his mind. Daisaku had abruptly stood from his seat. He did not say a word as he exited the tearoom, leaving Naozumi confused.
Daisaku walked through the halls of Akagi. His feet thudded against the wood floors. Servants watched his movements in silent fear.
Katsu of Akano had died in battle when Daisaku had turned twenty. The servants missed Katsu, who, though a bit negligent, had always been as kind as he was allowed. They did not dare to speak of him. there was, perhaps, resentment there.
Daisaku climbed the ladders that lead down to the dungeon. The mountains of corpses piled up to the ceiling. Once one entered the pungent stink hit one like a brick. Recently, Daisaku had to wrap a cloth around his mouth and nose. The stench messed with his focus.
Daisaku finally stopped in front of the cells where he kept his test subjects. These cells were roughly the size of a small broom closet. Daisaku would force as many subjects as possible into each cell. They would be so full that there was barely enough space for any person to stand.
At least he had when Katsu was still the clan leader. Now, Daisaku's responsibilities piled up. He never had time for research and experiments anymore.
There was no one alive in here. Some of these cells were still being occupied by corpses.
Daisaku stopped by the cell at the end of the hall. Unlike the others, this one was occupied by only one body. Daisaku had given him the nickname Faceless after he started wearing the different faces of the dead in the dungeon. His wrists were bound in chains that kept his arms dangling above his head. He sat with his legs crossed, his spine bent uncomfortably.
Daisaku stared at Faceless. He stared back with a nonchalant expression on his face.
"Where did you go?" Daisaku barked.
"What do you speak of?" Faceless asked slowly. He was still learning to speak with his stiffened body. He was in a place between life and death. A state he had ended up in by Daisaku's hand.
"At the beginning of summer, you disappeared for about two weeks." He repeated his words very slowly, "Where did you go?"
"To a place near here."
"That is not an answer." Daisaku's brows furrowed, "Did you look for Dashi?"
Faceless shrugged his shoulders.
"Why?" Daisaku asked, anger was rising in his voice. "Was it because he could not save you back then?" Faceless smiled, flashing his inky black teeth. A cruel cackle ripped from his throat. Daisaku sneered, "What kind of pettiness is that?"
"What are you accusing me of?"
Daisaku's jaw tensed. "My brother, Yuuki, committed seppuku."
His wrists shifted, turning to shadow. He pulled his wrists from their bonds like a ghost phasing. He crawled forward, toward Daisaku. "What proof do you have, hmm? I was not the one that killed your beloved brother. I did not force him to commit seppuku. He made that decision..." he said slowly, "All. On. His. Own."
Clenching his teeth, Daisaku turned his back on Faceless. His eyes shifted as he thought. "Dashi. What about her? What was her part in this?"
Faceless snickered.
Daisaku turned his head back. Realisation flooded his expression. "You." He grabbed the bars of the cell, staring into the glowing eye. "You slaughtered the Fujimaru clan, did you not? Dashi was there, at their territory, and you went to hunt her down, did you not?"
His jaws widened. His eellike black tongue slid across his lips. "What if I did? They were unimportant humans. What importance do they have to you, my creator?"
Daisaku shook his head, "It is not their lives that has meaning to me," he forced out. Daisaku glared at Faceless.
The barred door swung open. Faceless grunted as Daisaku grabbed his throat, thumb pushing his Adam's apple into his throat. "You have overstepped!" he yelled. Daisaku's mask of calmness was gone, in its place only fury. Daisaku's fingernails dug into his throat, making him groan. The skin was easily broken, and stinky black blood oozed from his wounds. "You may be dead, but you still feel pain. Have you forgotten?"
"My pain is subjective," Faceless mumbled. His words melted together due to the wounds dealt to his vocal cords. "It merely exists because I cannot accept that I am dead."
Daisaku's eyes grew darker and darker. He threw Faceless against the floor. He paced back and forth inside the small prison cell. Faceless rubbed his throat. The wounds were slowly mending themselves.
Daisaku knelt, gripping his hair, forcing the remaining eye to meet his own. "I understand that you have come into some great power recently, but do not forget who gave it to you." Daisaku's voice was low, threatening. "If I had not pumped Dashi's blood into your veins you would have died. And I only did it because of the scene Yuuki made. Technically he saved you, and you caused his death." Faceless never stopped grinning at Daisaku. "Remember, I am the only one who knows how to kill you. You had best tread carefully."
