The Angel's Façade
Chapter Four – Introspection

"Rest assured, Dark," That lustrous voice purred, "I was the cause of my own demise."

The violet haired thief could only stare down at the opposite being and try to let it truly sink in. He had let that concept fester in his mind for long enough to possibly push it out and finally upon asking he was almost surprised to find that his first impression seeing that flash of memory in his mind was true. Krad had killed himself. Not a Hikari…Not a Niwa. He had been the one to choose his death. Dark had thought he'd figured it out…

Watching Kosuke bandage Krad, while the man was probably talking to his weird little host, he had thought that perhaps Krad had died in a scuffle with the Niwa over the Kokuyoku. Perhaps he'd been there….and perhaps the original Kokuyoku had been tainted… All Dark knew was that that massive painting had not been the beginning of their life, no matter how muddled the story may have become.

'…He…committed suicide?' Daisuke asked, his voice explicated the shiver that would have trailed his body had he been in control.

'That's what he's saying…' The phantom thief's words seemed merely to alert Daisuke that he was paying enough attention to know that the boy spoke. His mind was too wrapped around Krad's words…and his sick smile. He smiled, recalling his own death!

"What…What more do you aspire from me Dark? I cannot access my own memories beyond the given until you have liberated yours. We are connected, you and I. I can tell you nothing more than that I was not born this repulsive creature and that I put an end to myself in the life previous bestowed upon me."

"Re-repulsive?! What the hell are you saying!?" Dark barked at him, forgetting momentarily that Krad had no way of shirking away from his unusual display of behavior.

"Do you like who you are?" Krad asked. This freakish complacency sent warning lights on in his head.

"You certainly don't like who I am."

"Perhaps I detest your very presence…but do you like who you are?"

A furrowed brow expressed the confusion also detectable within those violet eyes. "Of course I do!"

"You and I are very different, Mousy, you like who you are. I do not like what I am."

"You say it like you're just an object."

"And what, pray tell, should I lead myself to believe I am? I once thought absurdly how envious I am of Daisuke Niwa. He has the capacity to exonerate wrongs done to him. Whereas I have been beaten into bearing a grudge that I sought to end by my own blood spilt. He can love with the soul of a beautiful person…I cannot feel the same for anyone ever again."

"Sure you can, Krad!" Dark tried to place an encouraging smile and tone, but it seemed that the atmosphere was too heavy for it. Krad knew more than he let on, but perhaps he was merely biding his time before he had to allow the rest to flow.

"Don't asphyxiate me with your foolish confidence. You brought this on yourself. If you'd neglected that...piece of junk in the Hikari mansion then this would have never happened."

'Holy crap we were in the Hikari mansion!? Then that explains why-'

'Not now Daisuke!' Dark hushed the alarmed boy before he could get distracted. "I went to it because it was calling to me! You sealed it didn't you? You hardheaded bastard!"

"Who else, half-wit? Obviously it was not enough because you still ascertained it." Krad fell silent for a moment and he closed his eyes. His breathing was soft and rhythmic and is body was in a state of almost an aching comfort. He didn't want to move any time soon. "Bring me the infernal thing." He said suddenly.

"The book?"

"No, your head on a silver platter…yes the book, you idiot."

"You can't even sit up on your own and you're down talking me?"

'Dark, just work with him please.' Daisuke asked softly. He had just as much stake in this as Dark, considering they shared an existence. He wanted to know what the truth behind this, for at least Hiwatari's sake.

'Fine, but he's already pissing me off…' Dark grumbled and frowned at Krad. "Once you're healthy again, I'm kicking your ass." He whispered.

"Go ahead and try."

Dark stood and left Krad. He passed Kosuke, who had taken that as his cue to reassess Krad's stability. He had not broken either arm, thankfully; but he had certainly attained a bump on the head in the fall and bruised his shoulder. His knuckles were injured, but that was clearly from earlier. The other arm had been badly gashed and would have to be monitored very closely to stop the profuse bleeding. Kosuke smiled softly, watching Dark leave to find the book that he'd last seen in the kitchen, in front of the laptop.

"So, I take it you're not very pleased with all of this." The gentle man kept a soft smile on his pleasant visage. He wanted to provide a positive figure for Krad to turn to while Dark was being his usual stubborn self.

"Would you be? I can't really move. So I have no choice but to look at his obnoxious face."

Kosuke chuckled, "You sound less angry and more tired."

"I fell off a roof. Not to mention didn't even think to stop my own fall. I blame Dark for this as well."

"May I ask what else you blame him for?"

Krad eyed Daisuke's father with simple curiosity. From his position lying flat, with only a thin futon mattress between him and the floor, he saw a pleasant aura radiating from the man. He was just like Daisuke Niwa; a positive figure with a penchant for drawing away negativity. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really. I just see a little hurt in your expressions. You may be more like Dark than you think. Just in a slightly different way."

"What's that supposed to imply?" A faint irritation flickered across Krad's face.

"You are quite bound to taking all the pain in yourself, aren't you? That's either massively masochistic, or you have some emotional center keeping you from drawing up a bad past onto everyone else."

"…You must be the smart Niwa."

"I'm not a Niwa by birth. I am an outsider looking in. Which is why I feel just as available to you as well as Dark."

"Are you offering consolation to me?"

Checking the wraps carefully, the dark eyes man nodded briskly, "I am. I offered my help to your tamer. But he, like you, is very stubborn and didn't open up to me. I don't think you will either, but I'd like to think I tried my best to be an option. Dark is a fantastic thief, but he is also an undeniable incarnation of stubbornness."

"I can agree to that." Krad closed is eyes. He didn't feel threatened by this man. This man was not a Niwa and some how he knew that already. "What do I call you?"

"You can well me Kosuke. I don't think you would appreciate calling me Niwa. Now would you?"

"Not particularly."

He tried to focus his mind and block out the stinging sensations continued to plague him like an irritable tick, constantly humming unpleasantly. He was to far close to unlocking the long distant past that had gotten them into this unfortunate circumstance. He had always figured that it was better left a forgotten past, once the curse saw through to the last Niwa and the last Hikari, then there would be nothing left and the curse and past would die.

Regrettably, this had not been the way it had seemed to play out. He could still hear the voices and almost could see the people and places.

'Come on Krad, come with me just once.'

'Are you out of your stupid mind?! You want me to come with you to steal my own family's works! That's more insane than you usually are!'

'I'm insane? You're the freak who punched my lights out because I came through the window.'

'The wrong window, numskull!'

'Your brother didn't even know I was there.'

'You're going to get caught doing stupid stuff like that! I told you I would meet you outside!'

'But then you're going to get caught! That's not much better.'

'Dark! Just listen to me for a change. Or so help me if I ever even look at your stupid face again!'

'Stubborn ass.'

'You more than me!'

'Heh…I love the fuck outta you, sometimes.'

'You…damn it…Don't change the subject Dark!'

Krad blinked. He couldn't shake the multitude of flashbacks he'd suffered since that apparent day Dark had uncovered his secret hidden within the Hikari mansion. 'Oh I should have killed that bastard when he tried to kidnap me the first time.' He said, mostly to himself.

'But you didn't.'

'Ah, Master Satoshi. It's so pleasant to hear your lovely voice.' Krad spoke in facetious pleasantness.

'You are a parasite. And why are you taking advantage of the Niwas' kindness?'

'I don't know what you're implying.'

'You're not fooling anyone, Krad. You're hiding the pain from me because it's not nearly as bad as you want me to believe.'

'My, my, you certainly are the genius, Master Satoshi.' The blonde cradled Hiwatari within his mind. He couldn't help the delighted smirk that edged his face onto a place of almost insanity. Krad had never had all of his screws in tightly even before the incidences he would prefer to completely erase. There was always a sliver of lunacy in him that just being a Hikari had instilled. Dark had merely been an unwanted break into a different form of madness.

'Krad, what do you think you're doing?! Give me my body back.'

'No can do, my lovely host. If I can pique that bastard's curiosity I can do away with him and end this.'

'But if he dies, so will you!' Hiwatari argued. There had always been that. The notion that Dark's death would kill him as well. Yes…such was true, but he never exactly expressed that his form of 'life' wasn't in death. Dark's destruction would give him life in a form far too complicated for a simple fourteen year old—though genius in his own right—to understand.

'Master Satoshi…my death, as I am certain you heard, is nothing of real presence in my mind. I ended my life in a much less pristine fashion. Why would this be any different?'

'Stop…Stop talking about it like there's nothing wrong with it!'

'Would you like me to brood over it, Master Satoshi? I apologize, but that's just not my style. What is done is done. Why let it fester?'

Hiwatari fell silent again. Unable to gain control of his body as usual alarmed him at first. Normally it was a matter of will power that released him from Krad's hold. But it seemed that Krad's will power was the dominant one this time. He was certain it had something to do with this supposed broken seal that brought back every piece of history that he had seemed determined to keep locked in that house of death. Hiwatari hated being a part of it. He wanted to make Krad disappear, not bring about a refreshed and more unsystematic version of the same creature that sought to take his body from him; though the purpose of that he never had made clear to him.

"Here's your book." Dark's voice erupted into the silence. "What do you want me to do with it?"

Krad's rich voice delivered his answer after a moment of thought, "Open it. Since generally that is one does to make use of a book."

Dark repressed a bark, but grit his teeth instead. "You know what…Daisuke can't stop me if I decide to off you right now."

"You enjoy living too much." Krad's eyes dared Dark to deny it, and as he thought, Dark made no effort to disclaim Krad's statement. "Open it to the thirtieth page. The page numbers should be written in German, but you can read that. Read me that passage."

"What do you think I am?! Your bitch?!"

"You are the reason I fell from the roof."

"I am n-"

'Dark! He is right! It's because of us that he got hurt, just please listen to him!'

With a frown, Dark started shifting through pages. "You know, I'm only doing this because Daisuke feels sorry for you. Though, I don't understand. He seems to think there's hope for you." He continued to thumb through the hand written pages. The book had much more in it than he had thought. Daisuke had been the one playing around with it. Once he'd found it, he hadn't cared anymore. He was content to let it sit and decay.

"He's very compassionate, but he's also very wrong. I am far beyond help."

"You don't know that." The thief replied without thinking about the words he had let fall out his mouth.

"I assure you. Even if I'm not beyond help, I'm beyond your desire to 'fix' me." Those golden eyes said with certainty. "Now, read the passage."

Dark scowled but looked down. He felt a tinge of guilt toward Krad…well, more toward Hiwatari. He pressed his finger on the first word and traced the sentences as he read.

"The first snow fell, the first day of the year

He reached in my window, I reached away

He wanted in, and I needed escape

A lamenting exchange of a sorrowful play

What does he see, looking at me?

A lone figure perched by an icy sill

Locked in a room, frozen behind glass

Colder in here than in the Tempest's chill

Come sweet fortune and take him

Away from my wretched song.

Krad Hikari."

"My very early attempt at English," Krad said, appreciating the language barrier the hosts had. Master Satoshi would pick up some words, but he doubted the Niwa boy knew English.

"What the hell does this mean?" Dark announced his question loudly and furiously confused. He read the words again. He knew there must be significance in this passage if Krad specifically pointed it out to him.

"Some things cannot be spelled out Mousy. You must infer. When I sealed these things away, I did a good job. My intention was to cease to exist before anyone ever figured out how to release my seal."

Dark's violet eyes studied Krad for any clues. He could only hide his own surprise for so long. He hadn't considered that this was something that didn't want to be found. The book called out to him after all. Perhaps that wasn't an intentional feature. Perhaps the book had actually retained its creator's spirit within it enough to rebel against the wishes of the binder. It had certainly made him find it and apparently leaked out memories progressively. Here was the most important question: 'did Dark want to know?' Did he want to understand his predicament beyond what they were made to believe? Did he want to know what really happened to the Niwas and Hikaris? Did he really wish to find out what happened that last day? What he had with Krad? Why he wanted, not to fight with Krad, but to be at peace with him? And…and what could possibly have made such a strongly appearing man commit suicide?

Did he want to know?

…Well fuck yeah, he wanted to know.

"Well, until I figure this out, you're not going anywhere." Dark announced. "So get comfortable."

"If I wished to leave, you couldn't contain me, thief." Krad stated casually, his eyes half lidded and seemingly devoid of any lively spark. He was unaffected by Dark's declaration, but he didn't show any movement that would suggest he had plans to leave. He had no intention to leave anyway.

Dark frowned and folded his arms. "You've got to be the most depressing person I've ever met, and that is sad coming from a man that looks like a damn angel."

Krad looked up slowly, "And it's probably your fault that I am this way. How does that make you feel, Mousy?" A gentle smirk touched the lips of that golden angel.

"If it's my fault, Krad, then I'll just have to fix you, then won't I?" There was a challenging edge in Dark's tone. He didn't want to think he really was responsible for this crazy bastard's insanity, but he couldn't deny the possibility.

"You do not listen, I already told you that you cannot fix me."

"You don't know yet, Krad. I can steal anything, and if I have to steal a miracle to make you not such a hate-filled, depressing, asshole, then I will."

"Good Luck."

'Good luck, Dark.'

'I don't need luck, baby. I got skill and even if I muck it up, I'll be fine. After all, I got an angel praying for me,' A tender kiss was placed on a pale hand as the thief perched the window sill, standing before the 'angel'.

'If you get killed, I will not forgive you.'

'I can't die before I steal my biggest treasure of all.'

'Which is?'

'You, but of course. I will steal you from this prison and make you the keeper of my castle.'

'You make me sound like a princess from a fairytale.'

'No. You're much more glorious than that. Like stealing an archangel from God.'

'Stop that! You're making me uneasy with all this ridiculous talk. Now go…and Dark…be careful.'

'I told you, baby. I got the skills. I'll be back, my angel.'

Dark opened his eyes without even noticing that he'd closed them. His dark eyes squared evenly on Krad's golden eyes. "I don't need luck, Krad. I have skill."

To be Continued….