I am
you, Hisoka, and you are me.
If
you say I am a demon, then so are you...
Those few words, like a poem, echoed through Hisoka’s mind and soul. He stood with his back turned to the water fountain, facing Sakura as she stared in utter horror at him. Behind, Kataki slowly began to make his way out of the fountain with the aid of Nanami, Streeten, and Gaiger, who suddenly surfaced out of no where.
How did this
happen? How did he suddenly lose
control and attack Kataki like that? It
wasn’t like some other force made him do it; he wanted to fight Kataki. It was true. He hated him maybe as much as Kataki despised him back. Even though he hadn’t seen him much at
school since he returned home, Hisoka still felt like Kataki was always there,
watching him and maybe he was. Perhaps
that underlying feeling is what added to the tension between them, how dislike
instantly advanced to hatred. Or maybe
it was a cautionary measure of survival.
Hisoka knew how much Kataki hated him and that he would do anything to
get rid of him again. The incident at
the fountain was proof of that.
But now things
were different. Hisoka felt like the
bad guy here, with Sakura staring back at him so coldly. He didn’t know what to say, but what could
he tell her? That Kataki attacked him
first and that he was merely fighting back?
She’d never believe him! The
only option that was left was to run.
In a cloud of
black turmoil, Hisoka quickly looked away then began to run past Sakura. As he passed her, he said, “I’m sorry.” What else could he say? He felt so strange, even yet. The energy from his arm throbbed almost
painfully as he ran down the sidewalk and pealed off to the left. He had to make it to Kaori’s place and
fast. There was no wondering what this
strange feeling could influence him into doing next.
**********
Sakura turned around and watched as Hisoka dashed around the corner. How could he? How could he do such a hateful thing, to her brother, no doubt. He knew how much Kataki meant to her, then why would he provoke him and then punch him into the fountain? It didn’t make any sense. She never knew Hisoka to be so violent and sporadic. That punch seemed like it came from no where. Of course, Sakura had just stepped out of school and was walking down the path when she saw Hisoka standing by the fountain. She only wanted to say hello to him, but when she stepped closer... That’s when she saw him punch her brother. Her older brother! Her over-protective brother! Why would he do such a thing... Why?
“That bastard hit
me, Sakura,” Kataki said, holding his bottom jaw in his hand. There was a small line of blood oozing down
the corner of his mouth. He held onto
Gaiger’s arm as he stepped out of the fountain. The black cane that he used to attack Hisoka lay on the ground
beneath the crystal clear water of the fountain. Streeten noticed it and picked it up, handing it back to Kataki
with nothing but a slight curvature of his mouth. Kataki snatched the cane from the boy, then returned his gaze to
Sakura. “You saw it didn’t you?”
Sakura turned to
face her brother and she nodded.
“Then you
know... You know that he’s not all with
it! I’ve been telling everyone that for
years, but no one believed me! Now I
have the proof that I need!”
Kataki was
ecstatic, far more so then Sakura thought was normal for him to be acting. It was almost like Kataki wanted Hisoka to
attack him, that he wanted Sakura to see it.
But why? If that was the case
and Hisoka didn’t punch her brother out of pure hatred, then what really
happened?
“Kataki, what
just happened here? Are you all right?”
she said, trying to stay as impartial to the situation as possible. She already managed to drive Hisoka away
with out getting the truth out of him first.
She’d have to meet him later and apologize for her rash and sudden
outburst. Sakura didn’t want to believe
that Hisoka would do such a thing.
“What happened
here? Dammit, Sakura! You saw with your own eyes what happened
here! I saw you coming over this way
just before he lost it. You should have
seen his eyes! They were the same as
five years ago, at Mt. Sakuba!” Kataki
nearly screamed at Sakura as he attempted to stand again.
Sakura didn’t
understand. How could somebody’s eyes
look different than normal? Kataki must
not be completely with it either.
“Kataki, I don’t know what you’re talking about! You’re starting to scare me...”
“Sakura, you have
to listen to me. That guy is
dangerous. If you stay near him, you
will only get hurt. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you fine,
Kataki, but I don’t understand. You
make him sound like some evil person or something. What were you saying to him?
He wouldn't just punch someone for nothing. He’s not like that!”
“And how long
have you known him?” Kataki responded in a much softer voice. A wicked grin began to unfold across his
face. “Not including the time during
the accident, you’ve probably only known him for a few days, whereas, I have
known him for much longer than that.
And I was the one who was with him on that cliff. I was there, no one else knew what happened
there, but me. Even Hisoka didn’t know
what happened then!”
“You’re wrong!”
Sakura said, remembering the story Hisoka told her about the incident on the
cliff. If Kataki lied about the whole
thing, now was the time for him to come forward. “Hisoka lost almost all of his memory of that time, but it’s been
coming back lately.”
His memory... is
coming back? So that’s why he’s been
acting so moody. He was attempting to
deal with those old memories, make some sense out of them, and deal with
everything else in the present. Haha,
how enjoyable! Kataki now knew how and
possibly why Hisoka did what he did. At
last the puzzle has been pieced together, for the most part. “So, you say he’s regaining his
memories. And he told you this?”
“Yes, he told me
all about them,” Sakura said, her eyes wavering here and there. She didn’t want to tell Kataki what she knew
and yet she wanted to tell him, to redeem Hisoka’s side in the whole
thing. “He said that he couldn’t
remember the entire thing for a long time, then one day... he had a really bad
nightmare...”
“A
nightmare. Haha,” Kataki laughed. “Poor guy, I bet he’s all torn up inside,
especially with you now involved it.”
Sakura gave her
brother an angry look and said, “Would you please just be quite while I
explain?”
“Oh, right. Sorry,” he replied.
Before Sakura
could continue, the other three students seemed to be thinking of other
things. Nanami kept looking off in the
distance while both Streeten and Gaiger were attempting to get Kataki’s
attention. Then finally Streeten tapped
Kataki’s shoulder and told him, “We’ve gotta run, man.”
“Don’t get
yourself caught up with that weirdo without us around, ok?” Gaiger added after
his twin.
“Right, well you
enjoy your after school activities. I
will be walking home shortly.”
The three of them
nodded, then walked away from the scene.
“It’s amazing
that none of the teachers saw what was going on here,” Kataki said once his
three understudies finally departed from the area. He looked up at the Pride Fountain then glanced over at the main
school building. There weren’t many
other students hanging around now and it seemed as if all the teachers had left
somehow before the mass of students were excused. “It makes me wonder who’s really in control of this place, you
know?”
“Kataki, I don’t
know what to say about any of this, but you have to understand...”
“No, you
understand this, Sakura,” Kataki said fervently. “Whatever you think you know about that kid, forget about
it. You don’t know anything about
him. Nothing, you hear me? He has always been a demon and he always
will be. I will not allow you to stay
near him when he can fly off the handle at any moment.” He could tell his words were striking a weak
spot by the look of her increasingly saddened face. This was good. She was
starting to feel sorry for the way she tried to support Hisoka’s actions and
denied her own brother’s position.
Kataki saw his opportunity and took it.
He put one arm around her as they started to walk away from the
fountain. He said, in a much softer
voice, “Sakura, I just don’t want anything to happen to you, you know that,
right?”
Sighing, she
answered, “Yeah, I know, but you don’t need to protect me. I am old enough now to be able to make my
own decisions.”
“But how could I
let you make the wrong choices when I can clearly see the certain choices that
were meant for you? Look, I may not
know much, but this I know. If you
continue to stick around that kid, something awful will happen. I don’t know what and I don’t know
when. It’s simply a possibility.”
“Then if it’s a
possibility, then there is an equal possibility that nothing will happen.”
“That’s true, but
fate has a way of having its way, despite what other people want it to do. Fate.
Destiny. Possibilities. They’re all the same and still completely
different. Sakura, I have an idea for
you to ponder. If there was a way to
change fate, would you do it?”
How awkward this
whole situation had become! One thing
certainly does not lead to another.
Where was Kataki going with all of this talk? He had never spoken to her like this before, and this long in
fact. He would only say a few words or
less to her at a time, but now it was as if they were great buddies. It was simply too awkward!
“Kataki, I don’t
understand what you’re trying to say,” she said, her face contorting with a
mass of confusion.
Looking away,
Kataki sighed and decided to drop the idea.
He had already said far too much.
“Ehh, never mind. Sorry, I
didn’t mean to get spacey with ya there.
Anyway, you don’t think any less of me now, right? Because of all this weirdness.”
“No,
Kataki... I... I just don’t know what’s going on in my life
anymore.”
“Well, you won’t
have to worry about that much longer.”
**********
Hisoka ran all the way to Kaori’s office in the PCM building. He ran past the receptionist at the entrance of the building, completely ignoring their remarks as he past by them. He didn’t know what else to do. Before when he watched the mist rising from his hand, he couldn’t have been more excited and curious about it, but now just the feel of the heat crawling up his arm was enough to make him want to rip it right off. All he wanted was for the world to stop, stop and maybe just go back to the way it was before that strange lightning burst. But even if that didn’t happen, would that have changed every other event after that time? No... No looking back now. There was only the future to look forward to. But would the future bring an end?
Finally making
his way around the maze to Kaori’s office, he instantly opened the door and
jumped in, slamming the door behind him.
He leaned against the door for several seconds trying to catch his
breath and maybe calm down slightly before he began to speak. Kaori was sitting at her desk, reading out
of the same book as before, but when Hisoka dashed into the room, the book fell
from her hands out of shock.
“Hisoka! You’re early...” she said, reaching back
down for the book. Hisoka was rarely on
time with his meetings, but being early...?
That was not like him. It was
especially not like him to show such weakness in front of others. Something must be up. Setting the book on her desk beside the numerous
piles of papers and candy wrappers, Kaori looked back up to Hisoka standing
against the door with his eyes closed.
“Something bugging you?”
When he opened
his eyes again, she knew something was wrong.
She had never seen such a look of hopelessness and despair from
him. It was as if he had nothing else
to look forward to. He slid down the
side of the door until he reached the frozen, tiled floor. From that moment, he held up his left hand
and showed her the smoke coming from it.
How fascinating Kaori
thought it was! By the seat at her
desk, she couldn’t tell if he was holding a cigarette or what, but when she
stood up and walked next to him, kneeling down to his height on the floor, she
could see that he held nothing. She
couldn’t imagine how anything like this could happen, but from the story about
the lightning incident he had told her some days ago, there had to be a
connection.
Just as she was
about to grasp his hand to look at it more closely, he jerked it back. “Don’t touch it. It will burn you if you do.”
Burn? How could anyone burn another by merely
touching them? For all the strange and
unusual things she had seen and studied in the past, nothing was this far out.
“Hisoka, what
happened today?”
He knew he would
have to retell today’s goings-on at some point, but he did want to think of it
again, now. The last couple minutes on
school campus were the ones that stuck out brightly in his mind even if he
wished to forget it all. But still, if
he ever wanted to find out what was going on with him, then he would have to
tell Kaori everything.
Hisoka, still
leaning heavily against the door, cleared his throat and began his story. “On the way to school today, I passed by the
Hokage mansion and felt something strange from it again. Almost every time I walked past that place,
something would happen...but this time was a bit different. Nothing terribly frightening happened,
instead, my whole body felt warm and that feeling only grew as the day went
on. But while I stood in front of the
old house, I looked at my one hand and noticed it starting to smoke, like
this,” he held up his hand again for her to see. “Heh, I thought it was amusing at the time. How could I have known where that was going
to take me...”
In the middle of
his story, Kaori stood up and retrieved a special pair of clear, plastic gloves
from her desk’s bottom drawer. She put
them on and sat back down next to Hisoka.
“Ok, let me see it again,” she told him.
“But I told
you...”
She shook her
head fondly and grinned. “It’s ok. These are special gloves. However hot
your little arm may be will not matter one bit with these puppies on. Heehee, isn’t that cool?” Kaori really didn’t expect Hisoka to be
excited for her, but she still had to be her same, perky self. Perhaps that would loosen him up a little
and calm him down.
Hisoka then held
out his arm for her to examine, trying to see if her facial expressions could
tell him anything about what she saw.
Kaori took his arm and flipped it over to see the underside and
instantly she looked back into his staring blue eyes.
“What is it?” he
said.
Looking back to
his arm she pointed out five strange markings on the underside portion of his
arm. They weren’t very detailed, but it
almost looked like they were claw marks.
Very, very old claw marks.
“Where did you get these?” Kaori asked, pointing to the five marks.
“Those? They were birth marks, as far as I
know. Why?”
Kaori shook her
head, still grinning. “No. Heh, these are not birth marks. Who told you that, anyway?”
“My mother...” he
said, looking confused.
“Hmm, that’s
interesting. Well, anyway... Ok.
Um, I don’t know why you’ve suddenly got a steamy arm there, but let me
show you this.” Hopping back over to
her desk to pick up the book she had been reading, she flipped through the
pages as she sat back down next to the boy.
Finally finding the correct page she was thinking of, she turned the
book around in her hand and showed it to Hisoka. “Tell me what this looks like.”
Too far confused
and not knowing what it was Kaori was getting at, Hisoka took the book from her
hands and looked at the image on the page more carefully. Apparently it was an old hand drawing of
someone’s arm, who just so happened to have the same five markings as what
Hisoka had. He recognized the way it
the markings appeared and he couldn’t help but to look back to his own arm.
“Remarkable
resemblance, isn’t it? I came across
those drawings in there as I read through the book, but I didn’t think much of
it until now.”
“What does this
mean?” he asked her, never glancing away from the page.
“Well, that’s a
very good question. Either it’s one
major coincidence, or it’s something else.”
Looking back up
to Kaori, Hisoka repeated, “Something else?
What else could it be?”
Casually
shrugging her shoulders, Kaori looked about the room. “I dunno. There could
have been another person with the same sort of markings on their arm during
that time period, about 300 some years ago, or...”
The suspense of
everything was starting to bear down all too heavily upon him. He couldn’t take much more of it. “Or what?”
“I don’t know,
but I think I know of a way how we can find out. The writings in this book, for the most part, talk about very
unrelated stuff to this case, however, there are little bits and pieces of
strange coincidences here and there.
The one,” Kaori said as she took the book back and flipped through it
some more. Once she found the page, she
handed it back to Hisoka and continued, “here, and a few others struck my
curiosity.”
The picture she
showed him this time was a highly detailed sketch of a young man holding what
appeared to be some sort of sphere in his left hand. Since the drawing wasn’t in color, the more detailed things like
eye and hair color were absent from the drawing, but still the man’s physique,
posture, and overall appearance was nearly identical to Hisoka. The artist also managed to sketch in the
five markings on the man’s arm that held the object.
This was all too
strange, too awkward. Hisoka had never
seen this book before in his entire life and all of a sudden he sees himself in
it? What was going on? This was impossible!
“What is
this...?”
Looking down at
the book in his hands, Kaori said, “Well, it looks like you.”
“I can see that,
but why...?”
“I don’t
know. But you can see why I’m so
interested in this little volume, now can’t you?” She grinned as if she discovered the only map to the city of
Atlantis and was finally able to show it off.
“Now, I’m sure you’re just as curious about this as I am, so I assume
you’d like to do whatever you can do find the truth, right?”
He nodded his
head. “Of course. Just tell me what I have to do.”
“Right well...
hold on a sec.” She stood back up and
plopped into the chair at her desk.
Picking up the phone and dialing some number and while it was ringing,
she told Hisoka, “Why don’t you have a seat, hun. You’ll be more comfortable there.”
“Yeah, right,”
Hisoka replied. Gradually standing
again, he made his way slowly to the chair and sat down. He felt so tired all of a sudden, and...
very cold. He touched his left hand
with his right to see if it was still boiling hot like it was earlier. To his dismay, it was not. It was the normal temperature that it should
have been, only he still felt something throbbing. He looked at the marks on his arm again and thought that they
could have been from the lightning bolt that supposedly struck him... but he
knew that wasn’t true. His mother knew
nothing about the injury the lightning caused him, but she did know about the
marks on his arm. So that idea was
out. If these markings were not birth
marks, then what could they be?
“Yes, could you
please tell Dr. Frankoli that I’d like to use the facility now. Yes, right now or as soon as the lab is
ready. Uh-huh, ohh ok, that’s
great. I’ll be right up then. Thanks.
Uh-huh. Bu-bye.” Kaori hung up the phone and slammed her
hands down on the desk for enthusiasm.
“Well, ya ready to find out the truth?”
Grinning because of Kaori’s over-exaggerated enthusiasm, Hisoka
grinned and said, “Anytime.”