Eight -
Yami no Matsuei/Descendents of Darkness, Watari and Tatsumi
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Watari took one look at that pleasant little smile and immediately dove under his desk. "I'm not here!"

"Ah? That's a pity." Tatsumi's voice was as mild as ever, even sounding slightly amused. Crouching in the kneehole of his desk, Watari cringed. "If, as you say, you aren't here, where are you? I have a few things of very slight importance I need to go over with you. When you have a moment, of course."

"I don't know where I am. But I'm not here. Ask the Gushoushin, they'll tell you!"

The elder Gushoushin jerked his head up from his computer screen, his feathers puffing out in panic. "Aaaa, Watari-san, that isn't fair! I don't want to get involved!"

"Hsst! Tell him I'm not here!"

"Ah... ah... ah..." The Gushoushin swallowed, his eyes enormous and terrified, and then he jerked up out of his chair to hover at Tatsumi's eye level. Pressing his palms together the Gushoushin bowed frantically over them. "I'm sorry, Tatsumi-san! Watari-san isn't here right now! I am very sorry to have put you to such trouble, to have you come all the way out here for nothing! If there is any way I can serve you, I shall do so! Please refrain from eating this humble chicken!"

"Ah, I see." Tatsumi's little smile widened, just a bit, and he bowed formally to the elder Gushoushin over his file folder, his eyes closing. "In that case, please inform Watari-san that I would like to speak to him at his earliest convenience--" Tatsumi's head lifted again and his eyes slitted open, and for a moment, just a moment, there was fire in those faded blue eyes. "--and it is to be hoped that his earliest convenience is very soon indeed."

Watari cringed back into the dust under his desk. The Gushoushin, meanwhile, squawked in terror and abruptly backpedaled a few feet in midair. "Ah... ah... ah... yes... I'll tell him! Thank you for coming by! I hope that it was not too much of an imposition!" The Gushoushin bowed frantically, again and again, his hands trembling in front of his chest. 

Tatsumi inclined his head again, straightened up with a precise little click of his heels, and vanished. The smile did not falter once.

"Is he gone?" Watari hissed, not daring to stick his head out from under the desk.

"Aaaaah..." The Gushoushin drifted slowly back down into his chair and more or less melted onto it. "He-he's gone, Watari-san..." And then he jerked back upright and whipped his chair around until he could glare at Watari, still lurking in the darkness under his desk. "What did you do?"