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Into The Sun	By : scarecrowslady Category: J-Rock/J-Pop & K-Pop > D Views: 812 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: This is a piece of fiction. Ergo: not real or factual. I do not know D (or any other jrock band) and I am not gaining profit from this!

Chapter List
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Into the Sun
Chapter 5: Day 5 and 6: Truth Triumphs
"I do..." -- Confucius

Pain has a wonderful affect on man. To Hide-zou, arms and legs spread at the whipping post, his torn muscles tensed for another strike from the whip dangling from the prison official's hands, it had a clarifying effect. More than ever, he was aware of himself, dirty, beaten and weak. Somewhere, over his torn shoulders, he knew several constables were standing behind him in the small prison yard, eyes watchful for any weakness...
Weaknesses - Hide-zou knew them now, even better than before.
Every thought was focussed on the dreadful burning sensation now running across his shoulders and spine. His wrists bled with the yanking on the thin ropes holding him in place - and standing there - just barely on his toes, the samurai found it rather hard to breathe. Yet, somehow, in between the frantic gasping for air, the half-sobs of pain forced themselves past his gritted teeth.
Sweat and cold water chilled his skin, although the cheerful morning sun beat down on his shoulders. Half an hour before, he had endured the fires of torture... Half an hour before that... was the beating... and before that...
The whip descended with a startling, unannounced CRACK! And as he curled back, a loud cry from deep within his gut found voice. And in that moment of pain, he remembered -
Asagi, silent and still, curled up on the rough bed inside the small isolation cell. He had said nothing when Hide-zou had been dragged away. The courtesan's eyes had been, as always, dark and unreadable. Perhaps even darker if possible because of the fatigue. Hide-zou had said nothing as he was hustled out the door, knowing that the shock was finally setting in on the slim man.
For buraku such as he, there was nothing before him but darkness and death.

Not that my future is looking any brighter, thought Hide-zou morosely, blinking away tears that leaked out treacherously from his shut eyes. His head was pounding with the need for water.
Under the sun, his skin prickled - blood running uncomfortably down the small of his back, while his slowly exposed spine felt as it if were set on fire. Behind them, the whispered conversation ended, as did the short respite - and the whipping resumed at a faster pace, finding every weakness in the slender samurai's frame. At one point, his cries fell silence as darkness swarmed over his vision - the tiny black dots on the edge of vision expanding into blessed silence...
He woke up rather rudely with a bucket of water to his face. Without warning, just as he shuddered into full consciousness, he was cut down and a hand grabbing his filthy hair by the roots forced his head into a trough of water. Several seconds passed before he was let up, choking and vomiting what little food and water had descended down his throat. However, before Hide-zou could beg for clemency, the rough hands forced him under again. After the fifth time, he lay there on the ground, gasping for precious breath and writhing on the ground - only to be yanked to his knees.
"W-w-w-wa-wait! Wait!" He gasped desperately, as his head was forced downwards.
They paused and a few constables moved over. To even lift his head to meet their eyes was impossible - instead he stared at a particularly colorful pair of haori...

Haori... What...
"Dunk him in again," grunted a hard voice.

"N-no-no-" Hide-zou panted. "I - I've got something to say."

"A confession then," sighed a younger, familiar voice. "Thank kami..."
Hide-zou shook his head.
"Not... not really..." He tensed as the grip on his arms tightened. "I saw something that night... that I didn't say before... Before... But... I was drinking with... Lord Hoshi - and left for... a piss... and... I saw... the courtesan Asagi and Lord Ruiza outside my master's bedroom. You said he may - he may have... have died in the night - and it was rather late - so... that is..."

"Lord Ruiza?" Tsunehito asked suspiciously, bending down to look Hide-zou in the eye.

"He's lying -"

"Buying time, most likely," snarled another, kicking the shivering samurai in the ribs.

"It's the truth," begged the samurai, choking back another cry.

"Send him back to his cell..." Tsunehito said finally.

"But - Tsunehito-san - he -"

"He's not going anywhere," replied the young constable darkly. "I need to follow this up."
-
As he tumbled into the tiny isolation room, Hide-zou forced himself to his hands and knees slowly, raising his eyes under lank hair - to stare at the dead eyes of the courtesan.
"I'm sorry," he whispered - but his hushed apology was cut off by Tsunehito's arrival with the prison master.

"He's in here?" Tsunehito sighed at the sight of the huddled buraku under a tiny piece of sacking. "That's not... wrong... just... I could have sworn..."

"Well... his Lordship Ruiza was concerned... that is -" the prison master trailed off with embarrassment.

"He bribed you?"

"Well..."

"He bribed you. Still..."

One cannot say no to the nobility - however misguided they may be...
Without further word, Tsunehito forced the prison master behind him as he found some space in the small room - to loom over the bed, ignoring the almost prone samurai on the floor. On the bed, huddled under the rough sacking, his kimono obviously torn - and the pale face - and the body underneath - he knew was brutally ravaged. Tracing his fingers over the bruised cheek of the once beloved Asagi, Tsunehito's eyes darkened.
Whether it was rage or pity, Hide-zou couldn't tell. But the constable's voice was soft.
"Were you and Lord Ruiza ever in his Lordship's bedroom last night?"

"No," came a whispered reply after a long moment.

"Did you ever see Lord Yasume?"

"No."

"You do know that I will be able to get the truth out of Lord Ruiza easily enough - if your life is endangered."

"He had nothing to do with this," Asagi sighed, pulling the sacking up further to his chin, exposing long equally bruised legs. "If you must have another death to avenge that man, then let it be mine."

"Your life and your death are worthless to us if you are not the murderer," Tsunehito replied with calculated brutality, watching the slender man flinch under the words. "Still...." He jerked the covering down and sighed at the ripped fabrics clutched in twitching fingers, barely covering the courtesan's chest and shoulders. He recognized the kimono as the same one from that evening... Tsunehito bit his lip. Running his fingers over the cloth and the smooth skin in betweeen, the constable sighed.
"Such a pity..." He murmured.
Whether the constable had been refering to the cloth or the buraku who had once been human... Hide-zou couldn't tell. Tsunehito turned and left the cell.
Behind him, silence fell with the darkness.
-
The hand clamped down over his mouth and a knee followed in the dark, pressing him down on the floor. Jerking in vain, he tried to rise - but the large hands and the knee kept him down easily. Muffled yells of protest were followed by horrified yells as the other free hand ripped the light shirt off his back.
His fingers failed to find purchase against his attacker's long dark sleeves -
The hand, curled around his mouth, shifted, pinching his nose shut. For a moment, his mind shut down in an intense need for air - thrashing, he tried to pull the hand away from his face -
Uncoordinated and terrified, he found himself face down on his pillow - his bedroll on the floor thrown carelessly across the floor. Released he lay there, panting and sobbing into the pillow, as the hand smothered him in the pillow and blankets. The heavy body above him shifted, grabbing his hands and pinning them down followed by a hard elbow at his neck.
Before he could react, the other free hand shifted below the knee, jerking his pants down to his knees, effectively pinning his legs together. Already he was crying like a woman, his tears running into the pillow and the back of his throat. And when he felt the already hard erection of his attacker against his skin - he froze as reality kicked in. But it was too late. Curling up into a ball was impossible - and any weapon was too far out of reach. Air was also precious - and the sake which still flowed in him made his response sluggish.
Unfortunately, he had not drunk enough to dull the pain - and he screamed hoarsely into the pillow, biting first his lip until blood came - and then the cloth itself as his rapist thrust deeply into his tightly puckered entrance. The bloody rhythm came to an end with an orgasm on the part of his attacker -
The moment of slackness was all he needed - pulling away, eyes blank with terror, he scrabbled among the bed linen and his torn clothing. Pushing his heavily panting attacker aside, he lunged for the nearest thing and swung with all of his might.
Just as the sliding door clicked open and the face of an angel apparated out of the shadows.
-
Tsunehito, sitting beside Hiroki, three hours later, watching Lord Ruiza watch them nervously - couldn't help shake his head at the randomness of the whole case. How these men from different parts of the country, different backgrounds and different futures had clashed within these bizarre series of events. How the truth behind the masks had been revealed bit by bit.
And now it is full circle again to another darkness behind yet another shadow, Tsunehito thought. The courtesan, once known as Asagi, lying in the cell - a beautiful broken doll... and the lines between him and a cruel customer and the young heir, Lord Ruiza... what binds them all? Is it merely the passion of a few moments... was it all worth it?
His musings were cut short as his older partner began the interview.
"We have heard from a reliable source..." Hiroki began, his sharp eyes watching Lord Ruiza's tense hands gripping his knees. "That the courtesan, once known as Asagi and you were both outside of the Lord's bedroom. Is that true?"

"We did walk about... as we said before," Lord Ruiza replied steadily, his face a pale white. "I am sure we passed his door... seeing as we were all on the same floor..."

"This could affect the future of many," interjected Tsunehito, coolly. "Asagi -"

"Has nothing to do with this!!!"
Hiroki's eyebrows rose at the passion in Lord Ruiza's voice.
"He is burakumuni. He passed. That is enough."

"But he is not a murderer!"

"He has enought to condemn him," Hiroki replied. "Murder or no. Be that as it may, I feel that your feelings are too close in this matter. It is a common fact that this was your first time to stay here - and yet you fall in love with a courtesan? We both find this odd -"

"For a young man such as you, so soon to be married," pressed Tsunehito. "How could we not find this suspicious? Asagi would do away with this cruel master to spend a lifetime as your lover, would he not?"
As he said that, he pushed away the pain of guilt.
"I find it odd - that the both of you should say the same thing. Denying - denying what?..."
Tsunehito couldn't help but remember Asagi's contented face as he enjoyed the gardens that one morning - it seemed so long ago...

Surely the courtesan could not kill the man - to risk his position... would be madness... As men of the free world, the idea of a place in this dark paradise would seem - untenable. But for Asagi... To spend a week every five months with Lord Yasume, no doubt, outweighed the burden of a buraku's lifetime... Buraku to courtesan - would seem like a change in fate for the better. Our position is weak here... But Lord Ruiza...
Lord Ruiza's blonde head bent, rose slowly, revealing tear streaked cheeks, his bright eyes brilliant.
"You don't understand," he said, softly. "It's nothing like that. It was an accident - and it was all my fault."
-
Watching Lord Ruiza leave the room under strong guard - to be placed under house arrest in his bedroom suite, Tsunehito sighed, rubbing his forehead. Hiroki said nothing, for a change, instead, thoughtfully sorting through their papers.
Looking around the bedroom, where the Lord had lain, Tsunehito wondered if this brothel was ever going to be the same. He supposed so - after, perhaps, an expensive redecoration...

But the rumors would never die...
"But that's silly," he corrected himself aloud. "It's not like he died in here, after all."

"As far as we know," Hiroki mused.

"What?"

"Something isn't right. So we have motive: rape. We have time. We have witnesses. And yet... this was an accident. This was no murder."

"Yes. And so many... lost because of it..." Tsunehito murmured thinking of the two men in the jail - both suffering.

Their futures were...
"They have no futures, now."

"Who?" asked Hiroki absentmindedly.

"Hide-zou... and... Asagi..."

"Mhm... well... They should not have gotten involved."

"But they did - to protect a Lord... surely -"

"It's not our decision," Hiroki sighed. "We have to lay all of this before the daimyo tomorrow and let him decide."

"He'll decide nothing, and you know it," protested the younger constable. "Lord Ruiza will be placed under house arrest and nothing else. Asagi will be drowned, or raped to death. Hide-zou... seppuku... and Lord Hoshi gets the big house and the assets he wanted all along..."

"That's life."

"That's shit. And you know it."
Hiroki sighed, settling his elbows on the expensively decorated table. After closing his eyes for a long while, he reopened them. His dark eyes wandered around the room which they had lived in for the past several days - the dark painted panels, the large windows, the dressers and the wardrobes. The table they sat at - the little tables with drinks and cups for guests to drink from...
"The poison..."

"Is still not explained..." Tsunehito said softly and then rose to his feet suddenly. "I'm going... I've got an idea..."

"Idea?" Hiroki looked up at his partner's set face. "Tsunehito - you know that no matter what you do - that butterfly will never be saved."
Tsunehito paused at the door, his head down, his mind's eye filled with nothing but torn fabric and empty eyes.
"I know... but this is... for posterity... and because... truth... is important... that's why we are here..."
Hiroki sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I'm going to read more - and maybe... somewhere - all our doubts will be set aside. And we can shake the dust of this place from our feet - and leave this transient, shadowy world..."

"It's all around us - whether we leave The Five Roses or not," Tsunehito replied softly, thinking of a particularly dark cell. "We are all... in cages... one way or another..."
With that, he disappeared.
-
That night, Ruiza found his way onto the balcony under the watchful eye of his guards. Ignoring their stares, he stared at the moon wistfully remembering that night - he had seen Asagi face to face -
There had been something there - and it felt so right - in such a short time, so strange.
Something beyond the physical...
Lord Ruiza sighed, resting his head on his arms, he stood there, eyes full of tears, hoping that Asagi could see the moon at least with him.
-
There was a ground level window far above their heads - as unreachable as the moon. Asagi leaning against Hide-zou chest, sat there and watched the pale moonlight travel across the bars... and then disappear....
-
Early the next morning, with three suspects in custody, Hiroki felt really confused. Even more odd - Tsunehito had disappeared. Most of the time, the older constable could find his younger partner easily. But even though he thoroughly searched the kitchen, the sewing maidens' rooms and the back garden, Hiroki could not find the fashionable constable anywhere. Not one bit of lace was anywhere...

So confusing.... he thought.
With that in mind, he returned to his tedious reading... and as he tried to decipher the scrawls across the aging parchment, Hiroki felt, more and more, that something has hovering over his shoulder. Fancy played on his tired nerves - and as time ticked by, the constable felt it looming over him - that feeling that something was missing.

Something missing....
Was it there in front of him? On the page? Or something in the room? It was so unsettling for the man. But he continued on reading, searching even deeper than before - looking for anything that would solve the mystery once and fo all. For that thing that had caused worry in Tsunehito's eyes...

It's been so long since he's shown interest in anything other than fashion... he has gotten in involved...
Even to the point of pleading for a ronin and a buraku... Truth... Tsunehito... what is it that you saw?
-
The day passed by, with no sign of Tsunehito. Hiroki finished the diary and then laid back, thinking on the Lord's life. Thinking about the courtesan. The ronin. The noble and the brother. Four men.

Four lives destroyed by a cruel man. Rape. Greed. Miserliness. Was it done in passion? Or in cold blood?
Flipping idly through the large sheaf of papers left behind Tsunehito, Hiroki read the scrawled loopy kanji. At the bottom, he came to a page edged with scratches that looked like a fabric pattern - edged with...

Lace?
Hiroki shook his head and sighed. But his eyes narrowed at the words. And as he kept reading... he realized suddenly -
The big questions...
"Why an injury to the head - AND poison?"

Well... Lord Ruiza answered that question partially... But the poison has always been unexplained. And Tsunehito has written here...
"When did the poison set in? If at all? And when was it inserted into his system?"

It was a good point.
Another question:
"Asagi as buraku had a pretty good position... why risk it all with murder?"

Damn...
Hiroki bit his lip.

He's got a point...
"Where DID the money go?"
And then at the bottom:
"We never did find out what Lord Yasume and Lord Hoshi were arguing about..."
Hiroki bounded from the bed, the schedule the two constables had drawn up now scrolled through his mind's eye. Suddenly it was clear. Suddenly, it all made sense. It was glorious. It was wonderful.
The constable remembered the events of the previous week and sighed.
It was a tragedy.
-
By noon, the whole brothel was abuzz with excitement at the news. The constables had a breakthrough! The evidence would be retrieved from the room tonight! Up and down the red and brown panelled hallways, the doors slammed open and shut in the commotion of the announcement. Maids bounced around red-faced and giggling at the sight of Hiroki's serious face and the beautiful round face of Tsunehito. Strange people had been seen, entering and leaving the crime scene, shaking their heads with amazement, which increased the interest even more among the brothel workers and guests.
Hiroki and Tsunehito's bedroom next door to the Lord's suite was filled most of the time by the garrulous Doctor, the Prison Master and the constable Chief. Teapots were brought in full, pushed out empty over and over again - until even the brothel owner felt more tense than ever before in his entire career.
"They say they have evidence," drawled the brother of the dead man, lazily, as he lolled at the bar, idly swishing his sake around in his cup. "What kind is it - do you think?"

"I don't know," breathed the bartender. "But I heard from Tsunehito-san himself that this news would be most sensational. And that the murderer's cunning was so suprising. It involves..." and here the bartender dropped his voice. "Poisoning!"

"Poisoning?" Lord Hoshi cocked his eyebrow. "Really? How... suprising..."

"Yes. Apparently, they kept it secret up until now... but it's true..."

"And I heard," a buxom maid giggled as she set down a tray of glasses. "That it's to be taken away for further investigation tonight. But Tsunehito-san and Hiroki-san and the others are leaving a guard on duty, whilst they go to interrogate the others. The..." Here, she lowered her voice. "... culprits..."

Lord Hoshi and the bartender nodded their heads thoughtfully.

"I wonder what it is," Lord Hoshi. "Since I'm his brother... surely I could look?"

"Perhaps," the girl smiled. "But I know there is a guard. He's not too bright... but... he knows his duty... no one is to go in until the constables retrieve it. Apparently it is a delicate kind of... clue? I forget what Tsunehito-san called it."

"He's been talking more than usual, lately," chuckled the bartender. "He's that excited, right? I bet he'll be glad to clear this up once and for all - so we can all move on with our lives... so everything can go back to normal."

"I agree," Lord Hoshi grunted. "We've been kept here too long. I have things to do - gotta get home and start running things... get my ideas and buisnesses up off the ground... fire the steward..." He sighed long and hard. "Just kill the samurai already..."
Everyone laughed then, but then, silence fell, remembering the beautiful buraku who had once graced their brothel. When Lord Hoshi left the hall, it was shadowy and silent.
-
"They say there is evidence to be removed tonight late at night - or perhaps in the morning? I forget," babbled the young girl who was removing Lord Ruiza's dinner tray.
But the back of the slender lord did not move - Ruiza continued to stare out over his balcony to the blue sky which was slowly darkening overhead. He had movement - but was unable to leave the brothel. It was suffocating.
But the thought reminded him of the daily life of Asagi - stuck here, day after day after day. He had thought it was a shame - had wanted to set the courtesan free. But in doing so... in doing so... had lost everything - and had destroyed Asagi's future.
He wanted to cry but the tears had dried up a long time before then.
When the maid left, Lord Ruiza wondered idly what evidence could possibly be discovered to make things any worse than they were right now. Nothing brought against him would stand. He was upper class after all, and nothing could touch him.
Only Asagi mattered...
Asagi... he would save...
-
That evening, Tsunehito and Hiroki sat side by side, cramped behind the closet doors, elbows in each other's ribs, waiting, waiting. Tsunehito knew - he knew - but still... the question gnawed at him.

If he was wrong...
The door rattled open quietly - Hiroki tensed, gripping his sword scabbard which stood beside him in the dark. Tsunehito laid a silencing hand on his older partner's arm, waiting for the person to move cautiously into the room. A carefully placed teapot was hit -
Quiet cursing filled the dark room, as the culprit's toe smarted from the hard china.
In the closet, the two constables could hear him bumping around the room, pulling drawers in and out of the bureaus. The first closet doors creaked open and then, the wardrobe door. Nothing stirred for a moment then, until a tiny light hovered over the cracks of the closet.
Tsunehito took a deep breath, Hiroki's muscles tensed as he half-rose -
The door slid open -
Hiroki bounded forward, kicking it down on top of the intruder. Tsunehito watched as the light went rolling, spilling oil across the carpet. Rushing over, he stamped out the flames and turned in enough time to see Hiroki pin the culprit down with the edge of his blade.
"Don't move," the constable said in a deadly quiet tone. "I think... you have done damage enough."
Both of the men looked down at the enraged face of Lord Hoshi.
-

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Into The Sun