The next move was done, but Hikaru's voice was not heard. His eyes roamed over the board, the table and the room. He skipped Yomi on purpose.

The youko seemed so distant, so lost in his own thoughts and considerations that Yomi allowed him his own time.

The King turned his face to the opposite side, but he kept attentive to the youko's reactions and attitudes via his inner perception. Then, he noticed the fox huddle and shudder.

"Are you feeling well?"

Hikaru answered the King although he did raise his eyes.

"I'm just feeling a little cold."

The blind, but extremely sensitive youkai knew such reaction was not caused by the temperature. No... Hikaru had felt that chill in his heart, as the terror and disgust of recalling his most painful memories was closing in.

That grey youko was proud too, just like the silvery one Yomi knew before. It must be something of their race; probably no youko appreciated letting their emotions show.

Yomi imagined he could allow the youko the satisfaction of the pretense.

"Yes. Gandara is rather cold during the night."

The fox agreed. Then he crossed his arms and slipped his hands into the robe's loose sleeves. A soft tossing of his head caused his hair to slide down and along his shoulders, covering him like a cape.

 Yomi observed it with his inner-sight, and heard the silk swoosh softly along the floor as Hikaru shifted position, hugging tighter to himself. Just a little bit, of one pale foot showed under his robe and crossed ankles.

The sudden sorrow which Yomi had felt disappeared then. In fact, he almost laughed with the crazy thought that crossed his mind. About how tasty it would be to bend over and take a delicate, playful bite at that pale, chubby toe...

He chewed his lips, and one hand clasped his own robe firmly, as he made a true effort to keep himself serious. It was the sake, definitively. Hikaru owned a Tavern, he must be used to heavy drinking. Much more than Yomi, who avoided spirits not to have his sixth-sense numbed.

"If you wish you can come closer and lean on me. It would keep you warmer."

Yomi could not believe he had said that. The words had left his lips faster than his reason could judge them.

In a reflex, the King placed the cup back onto the table, a little further from his reach; he should try to slow his drinking pace, or that evening would end sooner than he expected, and much differently from what he hoped for...

The youko smiled, softly.

"Is this a literal or a figurative offering?"

Yomi smiled back.

"As you like, Hikaru. I'll be here anyway you wish me to."

Then, Yomi became much more surprised when he noticed the sound and the movement come from Hikaru's direction. His perception followed the youko's body shifting closer to him.

Hikaru crawled to Yomi and stopped at his right side, facing him. Then he half-sat on his ankles, in a way his knees grazed Yomi's thighs. The youko propped himself on one arm, and leaned closer, so closer that Yomi could actually circle the fox's shoulders with one arm. Tentatively, Yomi pushed Hikaru against him, to make him rest his face on his chest.

The youko yielded to Yomi's touch. He sighed, and rubbed himself against the King's body, to accomodate himself better. Then, Gandara's King noticed one very gentle, very delicate hand move around his body and nestle on the curve of his waist.

"Thank you, Yomi-sama. It makes me feel better."

Yomi just nodded his head, very slowly. He breathed in deeper, enjoying Hikaru's  perfume. He hesitated, but he finally dared then to make his fingers touch the beautiful grey hair which cascaded down the youko's back.

Yomi caressed that soft fur delicately, afraid he might disgust Hikaru somehow.

"You have such tender hands..."

Yomi's smile widened with such a response. And even though he wished to proceed further with his affectionate strokes, he preferred not to push his luck so far yet.

Satisfied with the affectionate closeness they had just settled, the youkai and the youko kept their first embrace for a long and very quiet moment. Yomi realized then that both the game and the sake would be left abandoned for the rest of the night.

They needed no other relief, no more pretexts, because now they had one another to lean on.
 

It was very cold. Hikaru huddled tightly to himself, observing the stars, but keeping his ears prickled, very attentive to any noise.

He walked up and down that area of the platteau, using his other senses instead of vision, to keep guard. Once in a while he crouched down and touched the soil, trying to sense any incoming steps through the layers of rocks and earth.

It was dark, but the eerie glow coming from Makai's nightsky still made it possible to devise shapes and forms, and even some colors. Whenever he came to the edge of the cliff for observance, he did it always under the shadows cast by the rocks, crouching down to avoid being spotted.

He was not worried with Hayashi's psychotic brother. What made him upset was the possibility of being located by search parties from his own people. If found, he knew there would be no escape, no possible indulgence given to Hayashi. He would be killed on the spot, accused of the unlawful and immoral seizing of the Crystal City's Heir.

What strained Hikaru the most is that he had already felt the presence of those teams coming after them. He had just avoided mentioning it to Hayashi not to make him more nervous yet. The troops from his city were already on his track, but they were yet far away. But he tried not to worry because soon the vast plains and mutating dunes of the desert would cover their fugitive steps and all tracks would be lost.

All he cared is that then he would be truly free, free to live with the lover he had chosen to himself. He could not stop smiling whenever he though about it... He was so happy...

He looked over his shoulder to the den in between the rocks where Hayashi was sleeping, guarding him sweetly. That sloven dog-fox was so handsome, and yet so fragile... He had that wild, barbaric appearance, and yet he was sweet and caring. His smile, his hands, the warmth which came from his body...  He was like love and affection in youko form. Hayashi was not an ordinary demon for him; he was true affection and comfort personified as a youko...

Hikaru felt he could never let go of that arresting youko. It was not love; love was such a simple word. It did not comprise the whole intensity of the feelings of desire, need, hunger, passion, trust and adoration which he had for Hayashi.

It was all far more than love; love was for mere mortals...

It was the most overwhelming passion.... It was higher than life, higher than their own souls, higher than their own existence, because life could only make any sense when they were together and...

He turned his eyes from the flickering stars above to the shadows of the rocks which surrounded the area. He had heard steps...

Hikaru smiled and waved when he saw his lover walking to him.

"Don't you wanna sleep a little longer, sweet? I'm not tired yet."

Hayashi stepped forward decisively. He smiled back to Hikaru; a sexy sideways smile. His golden eyes locked at the grey youko, observing him with a wild, intense expression. He stared at him very carefully, from head to toe, all the while keeping a strange little smile on his thin lips. It was a twisted kind of smile he had never showed before.

"What's going on? You look at me as you had never seen me before..." Hikaru reacted, stepping back, alarmed by the ferocious intensity of his lover's eyes.

Hayashi shook his head. He embraced himself  as he approached Hikaru.

"I'm just cold. I need to be next to you, darling." He proposed, reaching out to hold his youko lover's hand.

Hikaru relaxed into that familiar embrace, when the brown youko grabbed him by his waist, drawing him closer for a kiss. Hikaru did not resist. He easily surrendered to his lover's arms, but as the kiss deepened and their tongues touched, pressed and slowly rolled one around the other, he felt sick. There was a strange taste in that kiss;  there was a weird, disgusting flavor in that mouth he had kissed so many times before... Hikaru's body grew tense, taut, and after a while he tried to withdraw from the other fox's cold hands, eager to leave that repugnant kiss.

He struggled himself backwards, but Hayashi insisted. Hikaru felt his knees fail, but not for the passion which flooded his body everytime that youko took him in his arms. He felt weak, but it was a different, a harmful type of weakness.

Hayashi wrapped Hikaru with his arms again, tighter, in a hungrier embrace.

Hikaru started feeling so cold... His lips became dry, and he could feel his throat made sore, as if the kiss was hurting him somehow...

"Hayashi... I..."

Hikaru wanted to pull himself away, but he felt so tired... Somehow he felt deplenished of his own energy, dizzy...

"Hush... You love me, don't you? So let's celebrate. Let me give you all I've got..."

There was another kiss. And Hikaru indeed wanted to fight it, but he found he had no strenght left to struggle against those clammy hands and that sick, perverted kiss. He felt the other youko's tongue and his saliva flow into his mouth like a bitter, dark poison, which made him feel even worse.

It was then one of Hayashi's hands was placed on the small of his back. At first it was a soft, caressing touch, pressing the deep curve of his spine. But the inicial feeling of care was broken by a violent blow. All of a sudden, instead of comfort and support, Hikaru felt an immense shock of pain stabbing his back.

The pain was so intense he wanted to scream, and yet his mouth was muffled by the repulsive kiss Hayashi still forced upon his lips. The pain hit him like a violent tide, and the weakness sprawled all over his body, blackening his vision and and numbing his senses.

Hikaru fell down then. His legs failed his weight completely, and he dropped from his lover's embrace, so stunned with the pain that it were like all nerves along his body had been carved by a sharp blade...

He gritted is teeth. His body locked in a spasm of pain and he could not even breath, let alone scream with the ferocious agony taking over his reason.

The brown youko quickly fell onto Hikaru, pressing his whole body on him, pinning him against the hard soil. A tight hand was cupped on Hikaru's throat, covering his pale neck with avid clasping fingers. The hold was tightened then, not enough to suffocate, but enough to harm.

It was then Hikaru heard the youko speak at him. It as not a scream, it was just a murmur, but it was uttered with such hatred and such enmity, that sounded like the voice of death itself. It was a low, frigid, sterile murmur of innescapable condemnation...

"I'm Hiroshi; I'm sure you've heard the name. My brother must have told you lots of terror tales about me..." He chuckled then. "But I assure you, the reality is much worse than fiction..."

The youko stopped the pretense then, and Hikaru squirmed in pain and terror when he faced the evil grin on the other youko's lips. He wanted to escape his grasp, but he was so weak... He could feel his own life being drained while that massive, sharp pain smothered him...

"I am the guardian of my brother. It must have been very easy to seduce my poor baby, was it not? He's so naive, so trusting... But I will teach you a lesson and you will never ever go around raping naive kids again!"

Hikaru could not even keep his eyes open. The pain flooded his body with the most torturing sensation ever... It was like being smashed under tons of rock, squinched, squished, till all his limbs, all his muscles, all his bones had become one whole large pool of pain. He started to shiver, convulsively, with cold... A high fever had started, as the plague invaded his body, paralyzing his you-ki.

He panicked. He tried to scream, but he felt his throat smothered, congested, pressed from the inside, as if there was an alien thing growing there, locking his voice, and making his breath difficult and noisy. His blue eyes widened when he realized he could not move his legs. He wanted to kick that thing off him, but he could not move, he could not even feel anything from his waist down...

The foe crept upon Hikaru, leaning his whole body on him. The weight increased the pain in his back. It felt as if a pair of claws were stuck right into his back, severing and crushing skin, flesh, muscle and nerves, digging into his bones and then shredding them into splinters...

Hikaru was starting to loose the strenght of his arms too. In terror, still not believing what was happening to him, he looked up at the skin showing over Hayashi's high collar. There were no markings... There was no trace of the black snakelike tattoos which covered the sides of his neck...

He looked up at his torturer. How? But he was so alike...

His eyes looked down to the spread hand that evil youko placed on his chest, right over his solar plexus. The long sleeve did not let much show, however he still could see enough. Part of the tattoos drawn along Hayashi's arms extended down to the back of his hands. But that hand over his chest, pressing him down showed no markings at all...

Hiroshi spoke very softly, almost candidly, into Hikaru's ear.

"I broke your spine. Can you feel it, pretty fox? Now you won't escape. There's no way you can go from here but the Land of the Dead. This is the price for messing up with my baby brother..."

"H-Hay-Hay-a-shi... W-where..." Hikaru asked in a feeble, broken voice, as faint as the shadow of a breath...

The youko smiled evilly. He kept his whole hand onto Hikaru yet, applying his evil you-ki to him, poisoning, sickening his body with his monstruous power.

"He betrayed you, fucker. Do you really think he would trade me, his dear brother and lover, for a scrawnny, effeminate, pitiful youko like you?" The brown youko added, propping himself on an arm to face Hikaru. The grey fox was so weak now he could not struggle at all. He quivered. He trembled from head to toe, murmuring  terrified, disconnected protests. He shook his head, and the other youko, who had so wickedly impersonated hayashi, held him firmly by his chin, to force their eyes to meet.

"You shall face a very slow, agonizing death for daring to steal Hayashi from me. Did you enjoy fucking him? He's good in bed, is he not? But he is mine!" That devil laughed then. "He fooled you all the time; he always does that. I am the only one he loves. We do everything together, since we were kits. We play together, we sleep together, we steal together, we hunt together... He is my twin, he is just like a part of me, and no one ever managed to set us apart."

Hikaru whimpered and squirmed, but his body could only offer him jerking, innarticulate attempts to fight back his foe. He was losing coordination; he was losing his own reason, as his mind seemed to be unable to resist the pain and despair. He did not want to listen to that sicko's insane musings because they it hurt even deeper, but he had no means to stop him...

"We have a pact. He acts the good youko and attracts our victims, and I kill them. He betrayed you, you silly pansy! He loves me, only me! You are nothing but a sick thing he fucked and dumped!"

Hikaru cried. Warm tears rolled from his eyes. Helpless and miserable, he could not prevent his foe from bending over him for another revolting kiss. He could not avoid inhaling that foul breath which was blown, forced, impelled into his mouth, nose and throat, and then sprawled along his body like a multi-tentacled monster of pain. It kept on spreading, expanding, growing, hurting, like a malignant tide taking over his blood...

Hikaru trembled more. He felt cold. It was so cold it seemed he had been wrapped with ice. But yet he refused, he could not believe Hayashi would deliberately...

He felt his entrails hurt as if a huge claw was squeezing and squishing him...

"Hayashi..." Hikaru hissed. He was voiceless, weary, and he could only move his eyes, which rolled all over in a desparate search for his true lover... "He would never betray me..."

That monster pulled away from Hikaru, but he did not leave him.

"I bet my baby brother can't wait to go back home with me. He must have hated fucking an effete such as you." The brown youko stood up then, very elegantly. Now, that he was not pretending to be his brother, Hikaru could perceive all the differences. Hiroshi was more slender, and he had a very erect, self-centered pose, different from Hayashi's bent, lazy posture. That fiend was a little taller, and the haughty airs he showed now could have served as a hint... But he had pretended to be Hayashi too well; he must have done it dozens of times before.

Hikaru wanted to react, but he had never met such a powerful youko. Hiroshi had defeated and paralyzed him with nothing but the touch of his hands and the breath and saliva from his mouth...
 
He squirmed, in a convulsive attempt to sit up and try to do something. His fingers wormed up into the hard sandy soil, as he struggled to use his you-ki. But the attempt just caused an atrocious pain in the very core of his chest. It was then he was bound to perceive he had no power left; Hiroshi had left him totally drained, limp, sick...

"I offer you a very macabre, creeping death. Its a special present; I have to be distinctively generous to the motherfucker who's been screwing my brother without my consent!"

Again, he approached Hikaru, and bent over, enough to impose the touch of his both hands on his chest.

"You're gonna die very slowly. I want you to suffer. The pain will not leave you any moment. The fever will consume you, and all your internal organs will rot and decay into a bloody, messy, painful slime while you are still alive. You're gonna feel them melt inside you, and slip down through your entrails. You're gonna shit, piss, sweat and vomit blood, and squished, rotten bits of your own guts, till the pain and the plague consume the whole of you..."

Hikaru panted, terrorized with the cruel intensity of that youko's touch on his chest.

Weak, he struggled to keep his eyes open, and even with the torturing pain he felt, instead of moaning, protesting, his lips gave out a voiceless plead while he mouthed Hayashi's name again...

Hiroshi got on his feet, proudly. He took an moment to spit, right on Hikaru's face.

"That will teach you. Hayashi belongs to me."

On the verge of unconscience, Hikaru just rolled his head from one side to the other, in a desperate 'No" without words. He was fading out, when he heard his foe start singing a terrorizing, devilish lullaby.

"Die, die, die, my darling... Don't utter a single word... Die, die, die, my darling... Just shut your pretty eyes... I'll be seeing you again... I'll be seeing you in Hell..."

Hikaru still felt a very soft touch graze his brow. Hiroshi closed the youko's eyes, but  he was so weak he had no energy to open them again.

When Hiroshi moved away, he was still singing...

"Don't cry to me, oh baby... Your future is in an oblong box... Don't cry to me, oh baby... Should have seen the end a-coming on... Don't cry to me, oh baby... Now your life drains on that floor... Die, die, die, my darling..."
 

Hayashi smiled. He cuddled tighter to himself, while he slept around Hikaru's knapsack. He held to it, so he could sleep feeling his lover's scent, and dream with him...

"Gorgeous... I love your hands..." Hayashi murmured, half-asleep, when he felt that soft touch stroking his hair. He stretched, and opened his eyes, sitting up. Then, all of a sudden,  he felt hands seize him violently by the collar of his tunic, and start shaking him, in a demented protest.

"You! You betrayed me! You ran away from me again!"

Hayashi recognized the voice. He wanted to scream, but a slap hit his face so hard he fell down to the ground.

"You left the band and cheated me! After all I did for you!"

Hayashi was hauled up. His brother's fierce hands grasped him again by the front of his tunic and pulled him up, forcing their eyes to meet.

"You slut! Whore! If you were not my brother I'd kill you!"

Another slap cut the silence of the night, loud like a whiplash.

Hayashi started to cry. He refused to look at his torturer, he knew him well enough. He sobbed, not for the pain, although his face was marked by two huge reddish marks where his hand had hit him... He did not cry of shame, he did not cry of humiliation...

The moment he heard Hiroshi's voice, he knew it had all been lost.

He cried for Hikaru... The light of his life, his jewel, his blue-eyed lover...

Hayashi brethed deeply. He propped himself on one arm, and slowly sat up again. He looked around, trying to find a way out, but his brother was blocking him. Hayashi felt a pain inside; it happened every time he was confronted with his own weakness. He could not summon plants, he could not make the earth and the rocks shake... All he had apart from his healing powers was his charisma; a personal magnetism which he sometimes used to attract favors from strangers, but that never worked on Hiroshi.

He turned his face to his brother and lowered his eyes humbly. His face burned from the slaps. He felt a trickle of blood slide from the corner of his mouth down his chin, and even though he trembled with indignation, there was nothing he could do... It had always been like that.

Hayashi knew it was his karma; the healer which had saved his life so long ago had mentioned him that Fate controlled the existence of humans, gods and demons alike, and he could not escape the design planned for his life. But it was too hard to be a demon whose only powers were to heal and offer solace in a world where the strong ones ruled. Weak, he was merely a puppet in the hands of the wicked ones.

"Hikaru! What did you do to him?"

Hiroshi slapped his brother's face again, this time more violently yet.

"That slut? The blue-eyed pansy fart I met down the way? I killed him! I squished his heart with my hands and watched him puke his own blood till he died!"

Hayashi closed his eyes, and felt a shock, like a spear, boring through the middle of his chest, stuck deeper and deeper in...

"No... Please... I know he is still alive... Let me go there! I can heal him, I can even try to bring him back to life! Please... I will never escape you again if you let me save him..."

An insane giggling was the only answer Hayashi obtained from his twin brother. But he insisted.

"Please, my brother.. Let me save Hikaru... He matters the world to me... Let me go there and..."

Another vicious slap, harder than the others, tossed Hayashi away with violence. Hayashi was thrown back against the rocks, hit the head, and fell splat on the ground, dizzy because of the blow.

Hayashi's golden eyes, so similar, and yet so different in intensity to his brother's widened. In shock, he cried out Hikaru's name, the louder he could. He cried his lover's name again and again, begging to be answered, begging for a sign of life...

Hiroshi merely observed the other youko's despair, with an ironic sneer. he still  blocked the way out of that small gorge, on guard, attentive to the slightest reaction Hayashi might have against him.

"Hikaru? Hmmm... Beautiful name. But now he's dead, baby brother. Your dear Hikaru is dead..."

Hayashi was caught in a turmoil of emotions; fear, anger, and anguish. He quiverd He clenched his fists, and his arms tensed and he craved to jump at Hiroshi and snatch him by his throat, and strangle him,  kill him, so he could save Hikaru.

But he had not the instict of a murdered. Inside himslef, he fought against such a harsh reaction, and tried to be rational, for one last time. And if he knew his brother, he would not have killed Hikaru so hastily. Hiroshi delighted with the suffering of his victms... Hikaru must be still alive. He needed to keep a positive mind and think; then there might yet be a chance to save his Blue Eyes.

"Why do you kill everything I love?" Why?"

Another slap hit Hayashi's face. He could feel the blood fill his hurt mouth.

"I have to take care of you! You are my baby brother! I am in charge of your safety, I know what's best for you!" Hiroshi cried out, enraged. But then he crouched next to Hayashi, and his wrath seemed to give way to happiness; a rapacious kind of contentment.

He bent over Hayashi, and made his fingers squeeze his chin, in a harsh caress.

"You know I love you, brother..."

Hiroshi kissed his brother then. But it was an inmune, safe kiss, and even though he slowly slipped his tongue into Hayashi's mouth, and pressed his lips hard onto Hayashi's bleeding ones, he tried to offer affection, not illness.

Hayashi did not react. He knew there were things against which he had no power. He had no means to fight Hiroshi. But he did not kiss back. The youko just remained there, cold and very still, the way he used to act every time his brother forced him to incest.

All Hayashi experienced with that kiss and that whole situation was misery and despair.

Hiroshi's cold hands stroked his brother's sides while they parted the kiss.

"You are brushed, bathed, perfumed... You've got yourself new clothes and is well-fed and groomed... I like that."

The younger twin looked at the older one with all contempt and despise.

"Fuck you! For you I'll take special measures to smell as bad as shit!"

Hiroshi smiled indulgently. Funny how his brother had not learned yet there was no way he could avoid his love...

"Do it, and I'll give you a special tongue bath, baby..."

The repulse was so intense Hayashi shuddered.

"I hate you, Hiroshi."

A calm smile was Hiroshi's response.

"I know you hate me; that's why you cuckold me. But as I am your older brother, I love you enough for both of us, and I will always take care of you." He reached out to play with Hayashi's hair, very aware he was eager to snap at a chance to run out of there. But Hiroshi was alert, still blocking his brother's way very diligently. "I told that blue-eyed slut about us. I told him you betrayed him. It was the last thing he heard before he died."

Hayashi jumped up at once. He could not control himself after hearing that infamy. He roared, and attacked Hiroshi.

His hands clasped around the other youko's neck, and he shook him violently, pushing him back, to hit his head right on the side of the large rock behind them, and he wanted to hit that head and crush it into tiny little pieces of bone and squished brain... He took a wild bite, and tried to kick the other youko's nuts, his belly, he tried to trip him down and mount on him to strangle him....

"You could not do it, Hiroshi! I didn't betray him! I would never betray him!"

Hayashi used all the strenght he had to smash Hiroshi's skull against the nearest rock, and his nails clasped around his evil brother's throat as firmly as he could. He was enraged, possessed by ire, and he leaped forward, gritting his teeth and growling...

Hiroshi just laughed. He managed to skip aside Hayashi's attack, and with a nimble twist of his body, he used an armlock to immobilize his younger brother. Yet, Hayashi still struggled feverishily.

"Be quiet, kid!"  Hiroshi commanded. Then in a quick move, he just placed the palm of his hand onto Hayashi's brow.

It was a clammy touch and Hayashi quivered with the chill it caused him. He tried to shake that touch off his head, but he felt as if the world spun around him, struck by a violent dizziness. He felt he was going to faint... He had to stop resisting and crouched down. Then, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath...

His brother always used this trick... To make him lose his conscience, to make him lose his you-ki, so he could not react...
 
"Enough of this melodramatic bullshit!" Hiroshi yelled while he bent over Hayashi, and yanked him off the ground, by one arm. Then taking the chance as Hayashi was yet disoriented, Hiroshi bound his wrists at his back, and tied them up with a piece of rope he had brought. "You're back to your brother now, and no bad blue-eyed youko is ever going to harm you again! We are going to wreck their whole city, and no one shall escape alive! You'll see!"
 

Hikaru closed his eyes to prevent his tears from falling, but yet they found passage in between his shut eyelids and slipped slowly down his face. He nestled tighter to Yomi's broad chest, deliciously surprised with that demon's warmth and size. To lean on him was very comfortable and soothing.

He still took one last look at the table, and even though the sake left on his cup seemed tempting, he did not reach out for it. Ity was so much better just to cuddle to that broad-shouldered demon. He had not been that close to another male since... since...
Well, in fact, Hayashi had been the first and the last dog-fox whom he had allowed such intimacy...

Hikaru smiled sligthly, despite the pain in recalling all that happened then.

"All I wanted was to die right away, to be rid of the pain. It was maddening... I felt as if my entrails were being slowly squished in a grinder."

Yomi caressed the curve of Hikaru's waist. He rubbed his face on his hair, and curiously observed the dejected way his ears bent forward. He said nothing; he just caressed him warmly.

"When I was left there, I could feel my body dying. I could feel Hiroshi's dark power working in me, like a multitude of silent worms eating me from the inside. And I had no voice. I could not cry for help, I could not move my legs, and after a while, even my hands started to become numb and cold as dead." Hikaru embraced his own chest then. "I actually prayed to Inari before losing my conscience. And all I asked was that Hayashi might still be safe..."

The youko sighed in, very deeply.

"I blame myself, for my stupidity. If I had noticed it was Hiroshi I could have gathered you-ki enough to react."

"But it was so dark, was it not? And he had pretended to be Hayashi exactly to fool you. You are not guilty of anything, Hikaru."

The King's hands played with the strands of hair which fell along the youko's face.

"King Yomi... It was just a matter of instants... If I had realized the pretense just a split second before I could..."

"You are wrong."

Yomi's voice was so intense, that Hikaru sat up, to gaze at the King.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You blame yourself of something which had no solution. Hiroshi had followed your track. He would have found you sooner or later. It is not your fault, Hikaru. That bastard was just too powerful, and too tricky... "

Yomi felt regret for saying it so bluntly, but he needed to make that youko understand that. He could not go around dragging that immense burden of self pity behind forever...

"Set yourself free from these ghosts. You are not guilty of anything."

Hikaru said nothing more. He lowered his head, but instead of pulling himself away, as Yomi imagined, he drew himself closer to him once more, leaning his head on his chest just like before.
 

To be Continued...