[blinks] I seem to be attempting a form of Haiku fanfic: these are getting shorter and shorter! Still, the next one should be a little longer...


Oriel

There is a type of window used in the architecture of western churches, especially the larger, more elaborate ones. They're mostly round, and filled with coloured glass, sometimes making a picture, more often in a symmetrical pattern. They're mostly very beautiful - though useless. Their only purpose seems to be to colour the light that enters the building: you couldn't see through them even if you could reach them - the glass is too thick, too heavily coloured.
      I believe they're called 'rose windows'.
      Talking with Oriya was a little like trying to see through a rose window. Beautiful to the eye, impossible to see through.
      Very annoying.

003 hooted at me quietly as I mixed the wrong two - or was it three? - chemicals together for the fourth time that morning and had to drop the beaker as the resultant bright blue liquid heated it to more than I could stand. It seemed to fall and shatter in slow motion, and I sighed. Another breakage. Tatsumi would be angry. Again. Especially since what I was working on had no practical use here…
      The spilt liquid was beginning to eat away the flooring. Better do something about that before any further damage was done!
      It's a standing joke in Juohcho that I'm tied to my lab by some sort of invisible umbilical cord that only stretches as far as the meeting room and rest room. It's not true, of course: sometimes I even go outside!
      Heh, weak joke.
      It's just that I'm more comfortable here. I know who and what I am: Watari Yutaka, chemist and overall medic to those who work here. Yes, I know shinigami heal quickly from most wounds, but sometimes a little extra is needed. No-one else would have known to check Tsuzuki-san for signs of Saagatanus' possession, now, would they? Or thought to investigate Hijiri's eye - and how many other people here would have recognised what they found?
      Perhaps I should add demonologist to my areas of expertise…
      Dammit - what's wrong with me today? I can't concentrate, can't stay focussed.

Perhaps a short break would help.

There's bound to be someone in the rest room - most likely Tsuzuki, eating, skiving off, as usual. Though not quite so usual, these days, now he has Hisoka as a partner. They're very good for each other. But I'm not sure I want to be sociable, not right now.
      Outside then. 003 would like that too.

The cherry trees bloom all year round in Meifu, their delicately tinged white petals always falling, like warm snow. White… the colour of death. The petals fall while still at the height of their beauty, a symbol of resignation, a graceful acceptance of death, however it may come. In the land of the dead, what else should they do but fall forever?
      I miss my partner.
      Where did that come from!? Damn but I'm in a weird mood today! What's brought this on?

      ………………

      Ah, of course. Oriya.
      I just don't understand him. How can anyone sit back and let a friend do such things, and not try to stop them?
      Without realising it I start to walk, 003 on my shoulder, hooting almost soundlessly into my ear.
      Oriya. The man should have been a samurai; his skill with the sword left me breathless. He is very beautiful - male-beautiful, not effeminately pretty. Strong, masculine, self-confident… well, he'd have to be, to wear those robes in this day and age! Yet he looked so comfortable in them, and moved so cleanly and easily. I'd have tripped up, fallen flat on my face…
      And the way he fought! Effortlessly.
      So why is such a man so… unfulfilled? Is that the right word? So weary, somehow. Lacking in direction, perhaps. Goal-less?
      Perhaps being Muraki's friend has affected his mind. Muraki does not appear to be sane, after all. And blaming one's past for one's present actions and behaviour is… cowardly. Yes of course the past counts, it's where we all grew up. But we also all have free-will. We can choose to grow, to develop, to make things better, or we can stay stuck in the past and repeat its pains and errors over and over again…
      Heh, look who's talking.
      But at least I tried.
      I sighed, pulled off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. Perhaps Muraki had tried, and failed. I didn't know his history, only how it applied to my friends. Oriya did know. Perhaps that's why he's the way he is…
      There's another kind of western window, something I've only ever seen in pictures. It's almost like a tiny separate room, sticking out from an upper storey of a building, not touching the ground. From within you'd be able to look out - but no-one would be able to look in - at least, not very easily or very well. They're striking things, oriel windows. Decorative, and at the same time functional, giving an excellent view of the outside. So you can see who's coming, decide whether they're friend or enemy, take appropriate action.
      I shivered suddenly, told myself it was because of a sudden cool breeze. Time to go back in.

Evening. Most people have left, gone back to their homes. I'll stay here again, tonight. It's more home than anywhere else. Warm and familiar, almost cosy.
      Oriya's eyes are warm brown. The same colour my partner's were.
      I miss him.
      Perhaps I should carry on for a while. I feel less lonely when I'm working.




© 2004 March 19th Joules Taylor




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Meifu - the land of the dead (as opposed to Chijou - the land of the living). A mirror image of Chijou, with certain important differences!

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