The title of this Chapter is "When Life Takes Your Lemons and Gives Them to Someone Else" Take it however you want. I prefer to think of it as life only giving you lemons, then taking them away so you have nothing...
Anyway, here's the not-quite-as-infamous Chapter 8!
Daisuke noticed his left arm starting to get numb. Glancing over at his armpit (his shirt had fallen down some), he saw that it was turning slightly purple.
:How long does it take these janitors to come?:
:They usually come every 20 minutes or so.:
:So I'll be dead if one's not coming until then.:
Keitara winced. :I...suppose. But you've still got around ten minutes!:
Daisuke sighed. He heard another farther down the hall. :Is that an echo or...:
:It's the janitor!: Keitara exclaimed happily. :We're saved!:
Soon Daisuke heard footsteps as well. "Hey! Down here! I need help!"
The footsteps quickened and a gray-clothed man with a belt full of syringes came into sight. He stopped when he reached the light-headed Daisuke. "Where'd you get hit with what?"
"Left arm. Spike pit. Thank you," Daisuke said shortly.
The janitor grabbed a needle off his belt and stuck it into Daisuke's arm. He hardly felt it. "You can sit down now."
He fell down on his face and pulled himself into a sitting position. He could feel the pain in his arm getting stronger.
:That's good. It means that your nerves didn't die.:
"So you're the new one, eh?" the janitor asked rhetorically. "My name is Yakusoru Ueda."
"Nice to meet you, though I have to say it'd be better if it wasn't this way. I'm Kitara Daisuke." Daisuke extended his claw, then paused. He wasn't sure how to greet the man, since he didn't have much of a hand anymore. Ueda didn't hesitate, though, grasping the thumb or Daisuke's claw and shaking it up and down. Smiling, the janitor offered, "I can take you back to the rooms, if you want."
:That would probably be best," Daisuke replied. Ueda bowed deeply and said, "Kaita."
Daisuke's confusion must have shown, because Ueda quickly explained, "It means 'Today is good' in the tongue of the lower islands. This Post has sort-of adopted it as it's motto." The man gestured for Daisuke to follow. This time, the Tsuki no Youji tried to memorize the passages taken, but even then got hopelessly lost. If the janitor hadn't been there, he was sure he would somehow wind up poisoned, or worse, again. At last, they turned into a more familiar hallway where all of the rooms layed. The janitor bowed again and left again, probably to finish what he'd started before Daisuke called him. The pain in his arm flashed through him again, and he walked over to the shower. Even if the poison was gone, he still had a hole in his shoulder where the spike had hit him. He washed the wound out, biting back colorful curses and gasps of pain. When his wound was washed clean of dried blood and other debris, he wrapped a bandage around it, careful not to rip it apart on his claw tips.
Once finished, he went back to his room and changed into a cleaner robe. He exited and looked up at the clock. He'd spent a whole two hours wandering around. The sound of a door opening made him turn his head. Miyako stepped out with a look of surprise on his face as he saw Daisuke. "I see that you're up early." His face turned grim as, stepping toward Daisuke, he noticed the smell of dried blood. "What have you been doing?" he asked, concern plain in his voice. Daisuke cringed and told his story.
"You found the
Torture Room?!? You're lucky to be alive!"
Daisuke cringed again. "As I've been told," he replied with a look down at his claw. Miyako sighed and raised his claw. "Let me take care of the wound."
Daisuke obediently pulled up his sleeve and took off his bandage. The still-awing blue whip wrapped around his arm and started to heal him. Soon both the pain and the wound had disappeared. Miyako started at Daisuke for a while, studying him. After a long pause, he nodded at something and said, "It's about time to learn your elements and how to use them. You already know them," he said when Daisuke shot him a quizzical look, "but we don't." He led Daisuke down the halls to the room overlooking the Colusseum. Daisuke took his seat across from Miyako. The Tsume pulled out a folder full of papers. He spread them out on the desk. "This is for your benefit as well as ours. Though you know what your elements are, you don't know what they stand for or what it may mean to your future. First, just wave your hand over this." He pointed to a white paper with a circle printed on it. Daisuke did as he was asked. The paper seemed to swirl, and as it settled, he could see that it was forming into a wolf. Miyako's eyes were wide as he stared at the paper. "This is...bakana...the Banchou-Spirit...but that means...it can't be...how did you...I...wow...," he stuttered out eventually. Daisuke patiently waited as his mentor's shock turned into excitement. "I can't believe that I found you. After all of these years, the kid I brought in so that the people wound be safe turns out to be the new Banchou-Ookami."
"You've searched for me?" Daisuke asked with wonder in his voice. He never thought he was anything special. "Yes, we all have. Every Chief in the Southern Posts has spent many years searching for the Banchou-Ookami. In the larger cities, children are being tested for even hints of power. So many are dying too..."
Daisuke's eyes widened. "You mean, because you couldn't find me, people have been forced to take the tests?!"
"Not forced," Miyako said quickly. "No, we wouldn't sink to that. Only...encouraged. I've heard stories of kids running away from home so that we wouldn't be able to bring them to be tested. But now we've found you, and that can all stop. We can tell the cities that their..." :No,: Keitara spoke into both of their minds. Miyako's eyes again widened and he stared at Daisuke's claw. "You're...speaking to me?" he asked.
:Yes, I am. You may
not, under any circumstances, reveal that Daisuke is the Banchou-Ookami. It would put him in too much danger. Tell the people that he has been found, but don't say where. We don't want the Orochi to find him.:
Miyako nodded. "You're right, Banchou-Spirit. We can't put Daisuke in any more danger."
:Thank you...:
Daisuke looked up at Miyako. "Don't we have more tests to do?"
Miyako smacked his head. "Yes, I almost forgot! We still haven't finished!" He shoved several more papers at Daisuke. "What do you see?"
Each paper had a blotch of ink on it. "This one," Daisuke said pointing to a paper, "looks like a fox stalking a rabbit in the brush. This one looks like a wolf howling at the moon. And this one," he paused, and as he stared at the last paper, tears started rolling down his face. "This... looks like Kasan when she baked bread. She would always let us mix the dough when we were little. She showed us how to knead the dough until it was ready to bake, and how to mold it into the shapes of animals. She would scold Ayame for trying to eat the batter before we cooked it, and Koichiro would make sure we measured everything right. We would wait for hours to watch the bread rise. And Kasan..." His throat closed around a lump. The tears streaming down his face formed a puddle on the desk. He faintly heard the scrape of a chair on the floor. Suddenly there were big, powerful arms around him. It didn't matter that one ended in a claw, or that the hand that wrapped around him was softer than the rough hands of a logger, he felt like his father. Daisuke turned and buried his head in Miyako's shoulder and wept.
Miyako held him until his sobs faded away. "What happened?" Miyako said as soon as Daisuke had wiped away the last remnants of tears. "I'm... not sure. When I came home... they were dead. Both of them. That was a day before you found me..."
Miyako nodded. "I'm sorry."
"No," Daisuke said, shaking his head. "It's nothing you could do anything about."
"But I might have. If I had found you sooner..."
Daisuke asked hesitantly, "That was what you meant, wasn't it? That if I wasn't accepted I would be a threat to people? My power lured whoever killed them to my house?" Miyako nodded wordlessly. Daisuek scowled and replied bitterly, "So whoever killed them can stalk power sources. Great. So we'll only find him once he's ready to kill us."
"Not neccessarily. He probable has power of his own, in which case we can track
him. If he's using some sort of tracking device, then he'll be hard to find."
Daisuke shook his head. "Enough about that. What else do I have to do?"
Miyako came back to the table and grabbed the last paper. "Read this and tell me what it means to you."
Daisuke picked up the sheet and read,
Destruction comes
even when those who
are good and kind
try to stop it.
Heed this warning:
All who try to prevent death
allow death to enter.
It will consume,
and anger will arise.
Soon you who seek to stop
death shall find it close by.
As sure as the wolf saw
the moon, your time will come. I
tell you this so that you soon
shall stop protecting mortals,
and start protecting gods.
...And I'll post the last bit in a couple days, after someone reads this and gives their own interpretation of the poem. I'll give you some hints: there is one message, four names (no-one you know), and a horrible secret locked in this poem. See if you can find them all!