Tour Guide to the Underworld - Chapter 12 - Choices *FINAL* (part 1 of 3)

[yoru-no-hikaru.livejournal.com]

Pairing: KinKi Kids
Characters: Nishikido Ryo, Uchi Hiroki, Nagase Tomoya, Takizawa Hideaki, Okada Junichi (and others)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Don't own the JE boys (duh!), but OCs are mine and I created the story
Setting: AU
Warnings: Creepy, language
Multi-Chapter


Notes: After an incredibly long wait, finally updating this story again. But not just that, at the end of part 3 the story will be finished. So, these will be the last entries for this series. It's all done already, but I decided that it would be too long for one post, so I split it into three parts that will give the last story-lines of this. Please, look forward to it. ^_^


Intro: After Koichi has been forced to flee, he has to decide what to do and where to go. However, he is not the only one who will have to make some life-changing decisions...

*~Koichi~*

“Fuck.”

Koichi screwed his eyes shut tightly. That had gone wrong all the way. His heart was still racing from his confrontation with Tackey. What was he supposed to do now?

Get out of here. They’ll come looking for you. But where to go?

Then he remembered something and quickly picked out the small paper Tsuyoshi had given him. He kept staring at it for a while, then gave determined nod. Within a mere few minutes he gathered everything he could remember to be remotely important, or should for whatever reason not be left behind, stuffing everything randomly into his biggest bag. As soon as he thought he was finished, he grabbed the bag and swished out of the room. It was some kind of rotten luck that he’d never been to Tsuyoshi’s place before, so he could not gotsob. Yet, the fact was helpful too, because Tackey could not so easily find him there. He realized, though, that it was just a short-term solution. Even so, he took one more deep breath and with that emerged into the stream.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

“Yes, can I help you?”

“Ah, hi,” Koichi said warily. “Sorry, I… Tsuyoshi wouldn’t happen to be in?”

The man in the door eyed him skeptically. “Are you his collector friend?”

“On the specification, I’m afraid I have to say no, although I am the person that you mean?”

The other blinked at him. Koichi would have laughed at his face, had he not still been so worked up about everything that had happened.

“It’s… complicated,” he explained. “Can I come in?”

After another moment’s hesitation the man held the door open for him and Koichi happily stepped in. The guy proved to be pretty nice, actually. His name was Okada, Koichi found out. They sat down together and Koichi started to relate what had happened.

“So, you’re on the run,” Okada analyzed once he was finished. “And the first place you go to is here? Making things dangerous for Tsuyoshi.”

“I’ve never been here before,” Koichi assured him. “And I know I can’t stay here. I just needed a few minutes to think properly.”

“You should have done that before you got involved in this shit,” Okada told him.

“I don’t think I have to take shit like that from you, hunter,” Koichi countered bitingly.

“It’s interesting you seem to hold so much contempt for our league,” Okada sneered, “when your own crime weighs so much heavier.”

“People are just totally over-reacting,” Koichi scoffed. “She’s doing fine.”

“Which was not a very likely thing to happen,” the other stated pointedly.

“I know what I’m doing,” Koichi spat at him.

“Really? Getting involved with a hunter, while working in that department. Do you think that was a smart move?”

Koichi had had it and decided to finish the discussion with a slay.

“You’re the one who’s got the hots for Tsuyoshi, right? Guess it sucks to host the guy who gets to fuck him, but really, you’re just being noisy.”

Okada stiffened visibly at that. At first he looked like he wanted to fly right at his enemy, but then apparently he thought the better of it and retreated.

“My, you’re one touchy kitten,” he commented, trying to sound amused, but his voice was tight and pressed.

Koichi sighed. “Sorry,” he apologized. “I had a really rotten day. I didn’t mean…”

“To scare off your opponent?” Okada grinned. “It’s not like I’m in the delusion of having a good chance. We had this little thing going way back, but he ended it.”

“So you were together?” Koichi asked, blinking in surprise.

Okada tilted his head, musing. “I wouldn’t exactly say together. We were more like… involved. I really think he just took pity on my constant nagging. I was being quite insistent, really. So he kind of took me to his bed. But only a very short while later he gave me that speech of how he didn’t find the feeling and he didn’t want to exploit me and that he loved me as a friend and was scared of losing me… the kind of shit you tell someone when you’re not interested in them,” he shrugged.

“That sucks,” Koichi commented.

“Sure does,” Okada agreed with a nod.

“And you’re still living here?” Koichi wanted to know.

“Ah, I got together with this guy, but it kinda didn’t work…”

“Oh, right,” Koichi nodded. “Tsuyoshi told me something. Like, he wasn’t really nice to you.”

“Seems my taste in men is pretty bad,” Okada stated.

“I wouldn’t say Tsuyoshi is bad taste,” the smaller man stated with a wink. “He’s… something.”

“Very true,” Okada agreed. “I never really got to the bottom of him, to be honest. He’s not like the rest of us. I don’t even know why he joined the league.”

“Because hunting on your own is more dangerous,” Koichi told the other. “It’s wise to find yourself a group.”

“Does that mean you’re joining the club now as well?” Okada asked amusedly.

“I don’t think so,” Koichi waved him off. “I’m not… like that.”

“So where are you gonna go, then?”

“I’m not sure,” Koichi admitted.

“Tadaima!”

Both men looked up at the familiar voice that sounded from the door.

“Okaeri,” Okada gave right back. “We have a visitor.”

The next moment Tsuyoshi was standing in the living room door, blinking in surprise.

“Koichi,” he gasped out. “Something wrong?”

“I got sacked,” Koichi told him, getting up from his place on the couch.

“Sacked?!” Tsuyoshi gasped out, alarmed. “Why?”

“I… I did something…”

“He committed soul transmission,” Okada cut in.

Tsuyoshi’s eyes grew wide. His gaze flew from his friend to his lover, back and forth several times.

“I… what?! Soul transmission?” he asked in disbelief. “What – are you mad?!”

“I didn’t harm anyone,” Koichi defended himself. “I merely transmitted the soul back into its former body.”

“But why did you do that?” Tsuyoshi wanted to know.

“Because she wouldn’t stop insisting,” Koichi burst out. “You told me that you want to help spirits. Well, I was doing the same thing.”

“But transmitting… it’s too risky,” Tsuyoshi insisted.

“I told her all about that,” Koichi told him. “She knew all the risks and yet she wanted it. And it all went well. Nothing would have happened – had that prick not spied on me.”

“Spied on you?” Tsuyoshi asked, frowning.

Koichi sighed. “It seems that my boss grew suspicious and he started to follow me around. He knew about us and he was just waiting for a good moment… good thing you taught me how to get out of tricky situations. Otherwise I might already have gotten dissolved – or committed another crime,” he grunted bitterly.

Tsuyoshi sighed heavily, shaking his head. “And… what are you gonna do now?”

“Well, I can’t go back,” Koichi analyzed agitatedly. “Dammit! I hate that I had to leave Ryo there.” He bit his lip. “Ryo… I have to go back.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Tsuyoshi demanded. “They’re gonna dissolve you.”

“I won’t get caught,” Koichi assured him.

“Like you didn’t before?” Tsuyoshi bit at him.

“Rotten luck,” Koichi grumbled. “But there’s still something that I have to do.”

“The kid’s gonna be okay,” Tsuyoshi tried again. “Plus, I don’t think he’d be too keen to see you. You heard him before. Two men together – he thinks it’s sick.”

“And what do you know about it?!” Koichi burst out. “Guess what, you’re not the only person in this world who’s had it rough.”

Tsuyoshi stared at the other in shock. He had not seen Koichi like that before. His face hard, his eyes dark and clouded. Koichi looked a bit like a demon in disguise. The very next moment the sensation was gone, though, as Koichi sighed, calming himself.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Look, there are just some things you don’t know.”

“Oh, you’re keeping things from me?” Tsuyoshi scoffed.

“It’s not like that,” Koichi argued. “I… Ryo-kun. He wouldn’t want people to know… If he could choose, he wouldn’t even want me to know. And I understand him. It’s just… horrible. It has to end,” he decided. He looked right back at Tsuyoshi again. “Tsuyoshi… Please trust me.”

“Of course, I trust you,” the other assured him, although his stomach twisted slightly.

“And you love me,” Koichi wanted to confirm.

“Can’t you tell?” the younger man grinned.

“No matter what?”

“No matter what.”

“Please wait for me,” Koichi requested. “I’ll be back as quickly as I possibly can. There are some things that I need to prepare. I’ll probably be away for a few days. But I’ll finish this and then I’ll come back here. And I’ll think about what I want to do.”

“Okay,” Tsuyoshi nodded, pulling Koichi in for a quick kiss. “Please, be careful.”

“Of course,” Koichi nodded back and then faded out to go back to his former working place – for one last time.




________________________________________________________________________________________________

*~Nagase~*

“Okay,” Nagase muttered checking through his papers. “Seems all pretty well today. No wrong assignments, no problems at the transformation area, no evil spirits… close to boring, actually.”

He threw the papers onto his desk, grabbing for his can of coffee to fix himself a hot drink. Just as he was about to grab for milk, he jumped in shock, spilling quite some of the liquid onto his floor.

“What the… Yuri-kun!!!” he gasped. “What are you doing here?!”

“Ah…” Yuri rasped out, looking around as if to find some kind of escape.

“Where is your mistress?” Nagase frowned.

“Please,” Yuri whined desperately, suddenly clinging to Nagase’s sleeve. “Please don’t tell mistress. I just… looked for food. I’m a bad dragon, I know. I’ll just… go and never bother you again.”

It was only then that Nagase noticed the miserable state the dragon was in. The poor boy was completely bruised up, even some bad-looking streaks were drawn over his face and shoulders.

“What happened to you?” Nagase asked, frowning.

“I… I was disobedient,” Yuri admitted shamefully.

“And now you’re hiding,” the taller man analyzed.

“I’ll be going back soon,” Yuri promised.

“I’m sorry, Yuri,” Nagase said sympathetically, “but I cannot hide you here. Look, I promise I’ll talk to her, okay? She’s not going to hit you again. But tell me where Hatori is, okay?”

“Mistress,” Yuri mumbled warily. “Ah… she came to see Koichi,” the kid finally stated.

Nagase frowned. “Koichi?”

“Yes,” the dragon nodded eagerly.

“Yuri, Koichi hasn’t been here for three days. Tackey has branded him and I’d be very surprised if Hatori-san didn’t know about that.”

Yuri’s face fell, his hope slowly fading. “Koichi’s gone?”

“What is going on?” Nagase wanted to know.

Yuri sighed. “She was… it was horrible,” Yuri sobbed. “So I ran. I wanted to ask Koichi… he’s always good with these things. And his trainee too, Ryo. He’s always nice to me.”

“Fine,” Nagase sighed. “If I promise that you can see him, will you wait calmly for your mistress to pick you up?”

Yuri nodded eagerly, a bright smile on his lips. Nagase smiled back at him sympathetically.

“Okay, then, mister,” he stated cheerfully. “Let’s get going. This way.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

*~Uchi~*

“Good job, Ryo-kun,” Uchi praised his new trainee. “It’s okay to call you that, isn’t it?”

“Ah, sure,” Ryo nodded, smiling at the other. “Thank you.”

“You’re really learning very quickly,” Uchi stated. “We kept entirely to our schedule this morning. You’ll be doing level jobs soon too, if you keep going like this.”

“Doing what?” Ryo blinked.

“That’s for later,” the other waved him off.

Ryo merely nodded back, placing his book in his bag for later usage. They were taking a short break for lunch and Uchi was glad to see that Ryo had found his way back to an every-day schedule. It had already been three days since Koichi had “left”. At first the boy had been in total shock, unable to really comprehend what had happened. Uchi himself was still feeling quite helpless, though. There was Ryo, who obviously needed a lot of support. Then, there was Tackey, who wanted him to get a hold of the book Koichi had entrusted to Ryo. He didn’t really understand why Koichi had done this in the first place, but as it was, it was impossible for him to retrieve the book and when he was being quite honest, he didn’t think it was such a bad thing if Ryo had it. He quite liked the young man. He was very considerate and kind of… innocent. Something Uchi did not encounter very often. He shook his head slightly. It was no good to look at Ryo too closely. Even if it weren’t for the fact that he obviously didn’t like him, there was still the story with Takeuchi. There was no way Ryo would let himself be touched by a man. At least not any time soon. And then the incident with Koichi, which had obviously hit the boy quite some. It would be better to focus on his work with the young man.

“Ne, Uchi-san?” Ryo addressed him carefully.

“Hm?” Uchi gave back, not looking up from the book he was studying, trying to look casual.

“Can I… ask you something?”

“What is it?” Uchi asked back, shifting his attention to his trainee.

“Ah, you know… it’s about…” he stuttered.

Uchi smiled sympathetically. “Koichi?” he guessed.

Ryo blushed and the other had to chuckle at the reaction.

“It’s okay,” Uchi assured him. “It’s been three days. Has somebody told you anything yet?”

“Not really.” The other shrugged.

“Okay, first off, do you know what Koichi did?” Uchi asked, his voice growing darker.

“He er… he sent that spirit back into an already dead body,” Ryo recalled. “Takizawa-san said it like it was something really bad.”

“It is,” Uchi told him. “What he did is called soul transmission and it’s a serious crime.”

Ryo blinked at that. “But…”

“It might seem unreasonable to you now,” Uchi smiled at him. “But the thing itself is really much bigger than what you have apparently witnessed. I’ll explain it to you. Spirits without a body are vulnerable creatures. They lack substance and they will latch onto anything that will give them stability. It’s very easy to violate a soul in this state, or to misuse it. For example, you can force it into another body and cause serious damage.”

“But… I don’t think Koichi meant to do anything bad,” Ryo mused.

Uchi sighed. “You don’t get it, do you? That guy really got to you like that. Ryo-kun, please understand. His means are immaterial. He broke the law. And we’re talking about a serious crime here, not the kind of prank Koichi was up to every-so-often.”

Ryo bit his lip. “I understand,” he muttered. “What would be his punishment?” he asked carefully. “You know, if they catch him.”

“As with any other crime, it depends on many things,” Uchi explained. “However his record would definitely not be working in his favour. And if Tackey gets to be a witness, I’m afraid he’d be quite done for.”

“Koichi’s got a record?” Ryo asked, his stomach twisting a bit.

“Nothing drastic thus far,” Uchi explained, “but considering his `career´, the punishment would be severe, I think.”

“You make it sound like he’s a hideous bastard. The truth is that Tackey is mad because he’s gone rogue.”

Uchi glared furiously at the tall man standing in the door.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

*~Tackey~*

Tackey sighed as he opened the door to his office. Another day in his office. And it was bothersome to admit it, but Koichi’s absence showed in many ways. Would for quite a while. Somehow the lack of his presence seemed to make the entire building colder. While he was impulsive and completely unpredictable, Koichi was also loving and sympathetic. He wasn’t a bad person. And he had… Tackey blushed. Then he shook his head, though, sighing as he tried to push the memories of Koichi kissing him out of his head again. It was long-gone. And it always too two people, to get engaged and to end something. It wasn’t entirely his fault. Koichi had known about his feelings – and he hadn’t been able to handle them, or Tackey. It was too late to mourn over that anyway, so he decided to concentrate on his work. There were many things to do. Sure enough, as if on cue, there was a knock on his door.

“Good morning, Tackey,” Yamapi said with a smile as he slid into the room. “Tonight too, nobody saw Koichi, or witnessed anything that could help us. But I have a few reports of collection trouble of this week. Do you want to have a look at them?”

“Yes, leave them on my desk, please,” Tackey requested.

“Of course,” the other nodded. “I’m sorry I’m not more of a help to you. You called me in especially to track down that hunter… and now he even took one of your men.”

“Forget Koichi,” Tackey waved him off. “He’s been out of my grasp for a while, there was no keeping him. Actually, while it might be troublesome for a while, in the end I think things will be better and easier for us without him here. He was more like a rebellious teenager you had to watch on top of whatever else was going on.”

“Still,” Yamapi insisted. “I don’t have any results as of now.”

“Don’t worry,” Tackey assured him. “You’re doing your best and I’m glad that you are here.”

“Thank you,” Yamapi nodded. “Well, if you should need anything, I’ll be in the room you so generously provided for me.”

“Thank you too,” Tackey nodded back. Now I had better get to work…”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

*~Ryo~*

Ryo felt quite drained as he and his trainer returned from their morning tour to take a short break. They had finished three jobs, two of which he had handled by himself. It hadn’t been too difficult, but collecting still took a lot of him. He wasn’t used to the stress and the emotions he always had to deal with. It had still been a good morning and the fact that Uchi was praising him made him feel even better. In a way, it felt really good to work with Uchi. While Ryo hadn’t really liked him much when they met, Ryo could see that he was a very determined and hard-working guy. Much like Koichi. Ryo frowned. He didn’t want to think about Koichi. He had lied to him, after all. Not to mention that he simply left him. Uchi would not simply disappear right in front of his eyes. As Ryo watched his new trainer, he couldn’t help a tender smile. The situation must have been very difficult for him, but he never let Ryo feel any of that. He was kind and supportive and Ryo was very happy that he got a new trainer, who took good care of him. But still, questions about Koichi kept spinning around in his head. Was it okay to ask? He bit his lip.

“Ne, Uchi-san?” he finally asked carefully.

“Hm?” Uchi gave back, not looking up from the book he was studying, trying to look casual.

“Can I… ask you something?”

“What is it?” Uchi asked back, shifting his attention to his trainee.

“Ah, you know… it’s about…” he stuttered.

Uchi smiled sympathetically. “Koichi?” he guessed.

Ryo blushed and nodded. Fortunately, Uchi talked to him very willingly, answered all of his questions and explained everything he did not understand. Ryo took in all the information he received, trying to store as much as he can. So, what Koichi did was some kind of bad manipulation. He’d have to read up on the details in his study book. At the time he wondered what Koichi had been thinking, what had been going on in his head, why he had decided to do what he did. Koichi had always been a mystery to him. He had always only thought of him as a nice person, who took good care of him. But then, he was also involved with that hunter. And Yuri had also told him that there was more to Koichi than the surface showed.

“But… I don’t think Koichi meant to do anything bad,” Ryo mused, more to himself than to the other.

Uchi sighed. “You don’t get it, do you? That guy really got to you like that. Ryo-kun, please understand. His means are immaterial. He broke the law. And we’re talking about a serious crime here, not the kind of prank Koichi was up to every-so-often.”

Ryo winced slightly. Uchi had no sympathy for Koichi like that. Carefully Ryo asked about Koichi’s punishment for committing this crime and was shocked to hear that obviously the law would show no mercy concerning his actions, no matter his reasoning.

“You make it sound like he’s a hideous bastard. The truth is that Tackey is mad because he’s gone rogue.”

Ryo jumped at the voice behind him. Then he blinked in surprise. There was Koichi’s friend standing in the door.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, that much for part 1. It feels both satisfying and a bit sad to bring all of this to an end. I hope you like this and that you will keep sticking with it until the end. I love this series a lot and I am glad that I could write it in this way, mainly because all of you always show me so much support. Thank you, everybody an thank you for reading! <3

Chapter 11

Chapter 12 (FINAL - Part 2)