The Imaginings of a Feeble Mind

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. They belong to Matsushita-sensei and rest assured, she’d be pissed if she ever found out what I was making her characters do at night. They should all be ashamed of themselves. –wags finger-

A/N So yeah…chapter 4 already. Things start to get a bit more explanatory from here on out so forgive me if it gets wordy. I have this deep love for whatever dark secrets Tsuzuki might be hiding and I intend to drag them out into the open and parade them around for all to see. –snerkgigglesnort-


“The Sinner, Touda. Tsuzuki has let his mind deteriorate to the point where Tsumibito has had a chance to seep back in…”

SohRyu dropped his head and went back to gently rubbing the warm cloth along his master’s face, wringing it out often and replenishing it with the rapidly cooling water, dabbing at his cheeks and neck to both soothe and cleanse. His body smelled of sweat and the dragon instantly felt bad for him, wondering what he was going through and if he was indeed having the nightmares the Emperor had warned them about. He heard a soft rustling off to his lefthand side and he peeked over with a slight tilt of his head, watching Touda move to sit in the thickly padded armchair that was normally reserved for guests and dignitaries. The snake sat forward enough so that he could rest his head on his raised hands, his elbows propped up on his splayed knees as he regarded the other two with a concerned face.

“I have known for quite some time what it was, Soh. This is not the first time I’ve had to bring him back from a nightmare. I’ve stayed with him those nights and he had always improved by morning.”

He lowered his head and sighed out loud, giving a small grunt just as Tsuzuki groaned and tried to roll onto his right side, the dragon easily restraining him before looking back to Touda and frowning forlornly, ignoring the way the other shikigami addressed him, the shortened pet name being something they had given up years before.

“He is not well. I’ve never had this pain before either. It was always a slight twinge of..something that warned me about him. You understand what I mean, right?”

Touda looked up at the dragon lord hopefully, knowing that he understood but curious if he’d acknowledge it with their master present.

“How long has it been since the Emperor rebuffed his restraints? Would he rather Tsuzuki be taken over by it than busy himself with keeping the wards up?”
He snorted angrily and clenched a leather clad fist, the material creaking solemnly.
“It’s ridiculous.”

SohRyu shook his head, the damp cloth now hanging lifeless from his right hand, an inch above the now cold water, his mind unconsciously considering the snake’s words. It had been more than sixty five years since the Emperor had even spoken of the violet eyed shinigami, their last meeting having been one of absolute disarray, Tsuzuki ending up in the JuuOhCho infirmary and the shikigami lord grumbling behind his curtain about wards and seals, everything to do with keeping the hidden darkness within the cheerful young man a secret. It had almost broken Soh’s heart to see his master lying in the small hospital bed, his body fine but his mind broken.

He dropped the cloth into the water and moved to stand, his clothing swishing neatly around his lithe form. “I’m leaving you here to guard him, Touda. This is a matter for the Emperor to be made aware of. I won’t be longer than I must be.” He turned his back to the hellfire creature and exited the dark chambers, the doors once again closing without assistance. There were no footfalls heard coming from the hall as shikigami nearly made no noise as they walked, Touda’s mind slightly less at ease from the mention of the Golden Emperor. He snorted out loud and lifted himself from the chair, making the few feet across the room and easily scrunching down to sit at the foot of the bench, lifting his master’s feet to rest across his lap. He looked down at his recent lover and felt a sharp stab of pain, this time in his heart, a place he thought he’d never feel anything ever again. It frightened him, something that he thought would also never happen again, the fear of losing his love to the darkness that lay within him a true reality.

In Tsuzuki’s mind however, things were just as hectic, if not more than what the two shikigami were going through, the dream about the boys with their gardens thankfully not returning. He dreamt with a little bit more fervor this time, the scenes moving like a roll of film, one after the other in quick succession but fast enough so that the viewer couldn’t really discern what each picture was. He noticed a recurring image through the haze and he almost smiled through his state of semi consciousness, the obvious depiction of a happy moment when he was a child seemingly innocent amidst the gorier images that flashed over it.

His body and mind visibly relaxed for a brief second and Touda felt it, turning his head down from where he was looking out of SohRyu’s large picture window, a curious uptilt to his lips as he rummaged through the man’s mind for a clue as to why he wasn’t so tense anymore. The image of a child sitting crosslegged in a grassy spot, the foliage tall around his small body as he smiled, his eyes closed and his hands folded neatly in his lap. He was obviously happy to be where he was, his body looking healthy and mark free, the snake immediately remembering how bad the other’s childhood had been, what with being bullied and beaten on so often.

He raised one large hand to rest it on Tsuzuki’s forehead, patting him gently and silently wishing for the dragon to hurry in his small mission. It wasn’t hard to find the Emperor as he never left his own chambers, but it was hard to get personal time with him, regardless of the situation. It was soothing for the firetype shikigami to caress his master’s brow, his body feeling warm to the touch and welcoming to the other, who as a snake, enjoyed soaking up the slight heat anyways.


It would be nearly two hours before the Eastern guardian returned, his brow creased with slight confusion and anger, Touda recognizing both on the man’s face as he re-entered the rooms, the air of calmness now crushed by one of worry and fright. He stayed where he sat but looked up curiously, eager to hear what their lord had to say. SohRyu sat down in the stuffed chair the snake had previously occupied and sighed audibly, letting his head tip back to rest on the upper part of the furniture.

“The Emperor knows about Tsuzuki’s weakening condition. He’s been aware of it for the last three months, Touda.”
He lifted a set of accusing azure eyes towards the other shikigami, his hands tightly clenching the high arms of his seat.

“How long have you been hiding his condition from the rest of us? Remember that his life is important to us all, not just yourself.”

Touda smirked and tipped his head back down, still gently caressing his lover as the other hand drummed clawed fingers against a leather clad thigh.

“I have not hidden anything from you, Soh. I have gone to his home on three occasions, including last night. The first two times, he woke the next morning sleepy, but otherwise fine. There were no signs for me to even consider. He was his normal self.”

He was telling the truth but he knew the dragon thought otherwise, his body language giving him away as it always had in the past.

“You don’t believe me.”

He peeked up at the other creature and waited for his answer, the hand not touching his human slowly grating furrows into his thick leather pants.

“No, you’re right. The Emperor has told me otherwise and I’m not totally sure what to think. I know Tsuzuki has been moodier than usual but that normally happens around this time of year. His death was in the autumn after all. This though…it just doesn’t make sense.”

He would have told Touda all about the conversation were it not for the sharp gasp of pain that came from the shinigami, his body arching slightly away from the bench, Touda’s hand moving from the man’s brow to gently hold him down by the shoulder. It seemed to have passed until Touda grunted loud enough for it to almost be called a cry, his furrowing hand quickly flying to his temple where he clenched his head tight enough to draw his own blood.

It was the worst stab yet, the pain echoing right through his body and even affecting the dragon for the first time, Soh’s short gasp not going unheard by Touda’s ears. It was considerably less for Soh but no less upsetting. It only fueled Enmadaioh’s explanation. Soh stood up again and walked to the other men, kneeling beside the now shaking shinigami and lowering his head sadly. Touda looked from SohRyu back to his lover, quickly taking his hands from him and standing up away from the bench, hissing threateningly from between his bared teeth, earning a shocked look from the eastern beast.

“What is it Touda?! You should know better than to be angry at a time like this!”

He rocked back onto his heels incase the snake gave him trouble, the past experiences with him telling Soh that there very well could be, especially when their master was injured.

Touda stood his ground despite Soh’s anger, lifting his left hand to point accusingly at the prone shinigami, his own eyes doubtedly deceiving him as he waited for the dragon’s to see what he was so upset about. Once the blue pools had settled back upon their master Soh gasped in total shock, embarrassingly tipping back too far and falling onto his ass with a thump, his hands falling to his sides to soften the fall.

“Gods! He..he can’t possibly be..”

The man’s words were cut off as he watched Tsuzuki’s small body being engulfed by purple fire, spiritual flame more or less, the flames licking at his entire form but leaving everything else unharmed. Spiritual flame of course, doesn’t burn anything but life essence. Touda’s black flames worked in much the same way.

Touda stepped closer to the bench but recoiled as if struck, a thin lash of purple flame hanging threateningly in the air infront of Tsuzuki’s right shoe, almost like a snake waiting up high for prey to come into range of its strike. SohRyu begrudgingly tried it as well, earning himself a shriek of pain and a nasty mark across his right palm where the flame had slightly kissed against him in warning. Again it bothered the dragon as to why the presence acted differently between himself and the snake shikigami. He hissed in his own dragon like way and backed up to a safe distance before addressing the seemingly irate hell shiki.

“We have to take him to his rooms. He needs a proper bed and time. More time than we could possibly even give him. This is the absolute worst case scenario.”

He slammed his fist down on the heavy oak desk, an unnatural angry streak the snake hadn’t seen in the dragon in what seemed like eons.

“The Emperor gave me instructions should this happen but I fear the worst.”

He looked to Touda with a pained expression that made even the snake’s black heart pain for a second, the concern for their master overriding any sort of anger he felt this time around.

“The last time Tsuzuki fell apart this badly, he killed an entire village worth of people, bathed in their blood and then tried to kill himself for the first time. He cut his wrists to within an inch of severing them completely. These were all things he did when he was still relatively sane. Imagine a mind in that condition given almost eighty years worth of festering time, suddenly breaking loose of its moorings. It’d be like a full scale massacre. Nothing compared to what any of us have done or have seen in our lives…”