Chapter 23

Watari grimaced; the painful prickle in his wrist was growing worse. At first the sensation had reminded him of stinging bees, but now those bees had gotten bigger, meaner, and more poisonous with barbed stingers a foot long each. But even worse than that was the feeling of the malignancy spreading, he could still feel it trying to spread, if not for Hisoka it would be spreading. Hisoka gripped his arm above and below the discoloured flesh, the teen's natural healing abilities supplementing his shinigami healing.

Finally the stabbing pain began to ease, only to be replaced burning itch that was almost worse than what had been before. His whole body spasmed involuntarily, nearly pulling his arm from Hisoka's grip. His other hand twitched; he wanted to scratch the affected area, claw at it, through the skin to get that itch that went down to bone.

"Grab him," Hisoka demanded, sounding strained.

Watari wanted to cry with frustration as he felt Tsuzuki catch his free arm before it could touch the darkened flesh, and held it firmly to his side.

"Hang on Watari," Tsuzuki encouraged quietly. "Just hang on for a few more minutes."

A few minutes turned out to be a small stretch of eternity before the itch finally began to recede, and the mottled discolouration began to disappear from his skin, leaving it creamy pale as it had been before.

Hisoka let out a sigh of relief and let go of Watari's arm, he fell back, almost seeming to fold in on himself. His eyes drifted closed.

"Hisoka?" Tsuzuki asked worriedly, freeing Watari's other arm and moving to his partner. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Hisoka mumbled, not opening his eyes. "Fine."

Amber eyes met violet, then flicked over the youngest shinigami appraisingly. Hisoka looked drained; his skin had taken on an unhealthy, greyish cast and there were signs of stress and fatigue in his face. On top of everything Freddy had put him through in the dream, he had just expended a great deal of energy helping Watari heal, the kid had to be running on empty.

Then the green eyes blinked open, and the expression there was as steady and determined as ever.

"We have to go. Wakaba and Terazuma won't be able to take care of Freddy on their own," Hisoka said as he got to his feet. He staggered slightly and Tsuzuki was at his side instantly, steadying him.

"Maybe you should wait here," he suggested.

Hisoka glared at him. "No."

"You need to recover your…"

"I'll recover after Freddy is dealt with."

Tsuzuki looked at Watari for help. Watari shrugged. "Sorry, I agree with Bon. How do you expect him to sleep again if he doesn't see for himself that this Freddy guy is gone for good?"

XXX

Wakaba walked silently along beside KokuShunGei, her hand resting against his warm side. It amazed her how the large shikigami could travel without making a single noise, even with his nose to the ground paying little to no attention to where he was going. It was up to Wakaba to pay attention to their surroundings and keep them from being seen by stray mortals; not that was any real difficulty, with his black fur against the night, even she would have a problem finding him again if she lost track of him. The winged lion was all but invisible in the darkness. It was KokuShunGei's job to find Krueger, all they had to do was find the place Freddy had landed and the shikigami would be able to sniff him out.

The sound of quickly approaching footsteps made her tense momentarily, but when KokuShunGei didn't react, she relaxed.

So she was unsurprised when Tsuzuki, Hisoka and Watari stepped out of the shadows and joined her at KokuShunGei's side. A frown touched her lips as she got a good look at the three of them. All of them looked like they had gone through the proverbial wringer. Watari looked shaken, Tsuzuki looked tired and singed, and Hisoka looked half dead and ready to drop at any moment.

The observations were registered and dismissed in an instant, and the frown made way for a rueful smile. All in all, Wakaba was sure she looked no better than the others, and immediately had to repress the urge to so something with her hair. However she looked, she was positive her hair had become a tangled mess around her head.

Watari twitched, then reached out to gently touch a shiny patch of fur on KokuShunGei's shoulder. The lion growled lowly at the contact, and Watari pulled back his hand, examining the wetness on his fingers. "What happened to him?" the mechanical engineer cum doctor asked as a nearby street lamp revealed the red tint of the moisture.

"It was raining psychopaths," Wakaba told him with a half shrug.

KokuShunGei and Hisoka stopped moving at the same time. KokuShunGei's head snapped up and Hisoka shivered.

"He's there, ahead," Wakaba said, correctly interpreting her partner's reaction.

Tsuzuki nodded, doing like-wise. He moved closer to Hisoka protectively, and got an elbow in the ribs for the effort.

KokuShunGei snorted and opened up his mouth and let out a jet of flames that set the night on fire. The four shinigami jumped into action, spreading out from the shikigami, and surrounding the blaze as KokuShunGei fed the flames. As soon as everyone was in position, KokuShunGei closed his mouth and the flames began to recede, burning away any concealing cover. To his right, Wakaba stood, a fuda held ready between her fingers. Further on was Tsuzuki, who stood similarly prepared. Next was Hisoka, standing rather closer to Tsuzuki, but still with enough distance between them to avoid giving Freddy an opening to escape through. Watari stood between Hisoka and KokuShunGei's left side, amber eyes focused intently on the fire which was shrinking in on itself.

The agents of Enma-cho closed in the circle as the blaze died down to reveal a dark shape crouched in the hear of the flames, arms protectively around itself to ward off the burning heat.

As the flames died out completely, Watari threw something into the air, and there was a burst of light above them. Like a flare, the light shone down on the group, but not carrying far into the trees of the park.

Freddy straightened, his malevolent black eyes touching on each of them in turn. A nasty grin turned up his lips as his gaze moved over Hisoka, Tsuzuki and Wakaba. He laughed, and the sound was like broken glass in the mind, and the trio who had dreamed jerked back in reaction. Freddy stood straighter, seemed almost to grow in response, he took a threatening step forward, jeering. "Your fears are mine, your secrets are mine, even your souls belong to me."

"No."

Every eye turned to Hisoka, but his gaze stayed unwaveringly on the thing from a nightmare. "You have no power over us, nothing of us, save what we gave you."

Freddy barred his rotting teeth at the youngest shinigami, crouching slightly as if preparing to attack.

"And we take it back; now."

At the words, both Wakaba and Tsuzuki stood straighter, and Wakaba felt a surge of pride for her colleague. She could see that Tsuzuki felt the same, it was there in his face for anyone to see.

Freddy looked furious, feral, and somehow diminished. He all but hissed at Hisoka, "you don't know when to roll over and die, and you won't be the one to suffer for it!"

Wakaba saw Hisoka flinch at Freddy's accusation, and she thought she saw the beady black eyes flick towards Tsuzuki, but before she could make sense of it, Freddy moved to launch himself at Hisoka.

Wakaba's hand flicked out, and Tsuzuki's moved in syncopation. The two fudas they had held both hit Freddy and he froze in place.

Freddy growled as he fought the paralyzing jitsu. "What are you doing?" The circle closed in around him, with Tsuzuki and Wakaba taking a place directly in front of him.

"We're doing what we always do with restless spirits. We're going to send you on to judgement." Tsuzuki informed him.

"We're shinigami, this is our job," Wakaba concluded.

"You can't get rid of me!" Freddy yelled.

Tsuzuki stared at him for a long moment, then his lips turned up in a tight smile. "We can, and we will."

"Wait."

Once again all eyes turned to Hisoka. The teen pushed in between Tsuzuki and Wakaba, directly in front of Freddy. He raised a hand and with only a momentary hesitation, placed it on Freddy's chest. His face twisted in pain and disgust, and his free hand groped blindly, finding and latching onto Tsuzuki's wrist.

Wakaba could almost see the energy moving between them as Hisoka drew on his partners strength to supplement his own failing reserves… And then…

And then…

Freddy howled. The scared abomination twisted and writhed under Hisoka's hand. His skin seemed to bubble, and his body jerked and spasmed into strange contortions. A small globe of pure white light tore free of him and began to drift away.

Then another; and another, almost a dozen in all.

Souls.

Tsuzuki looked as horrified as Wakaba felt, at the thought of those souls being trapped by such corruption and depravity; it was monstrous.

With the loss of the souls that sustained him, Freddy was little more than a heap on the ground.

So was Hisoka, he had collapsed as the last brilliant sphere departed. The empath was so exhausted that he didn't react as Freddy's razor tipped glove moved, slashing towards him; not as inhumanly fast as it had moved earlier, but still to fast for Tsuzuki or Wakaba to interfere.

The clawed glove, the hand within it, and a good portion of the arm they were attached to, disappeared beneath KokuShunGei's heavy foot before reaching their target.

KokuShunGei let out a yelp as the blades cut his paw, and he pulled away, but by that time Watari had swept in and pulled Hisoka back out of the way.

The priestess and the oldest of the shinigami folded their hands in unison and began to chant.

A minute later, Freddy Krueger was gone.