Title: The House of the Cabinet
Author: Mizuki
Bands: Pierrot, X Japan, L’Arc~en~Ciel and Plastic Tree
Pairings: Yoshiki x hide so far, more to come I hope!
Archive: Sure.
Story: AU, a big mystery about a house and a cabinet that ate
children(Nothing AM themed so far, not very yaoi either, lemon
is impossible...I'm really sorry about that!
Comments: let me warn you now…what you are about to read
in this chapter is an amazingly awful piece of Eng writing…really
awful I mean…please be careful!
Special thank to Tendai, Mat and those who enjoy this fic!
An Ornamental Doll series
The House of the Cabinet
Sequel of The Doll Inside The Box
Prologue II
***
It was another peaceful afternoon for the Ornamental Doll Shop.
Tetsu, the dress designer was working for the new clothes for
two dolls within one of the rooms, together with the shop owner,
Yukki , who was enjoying his afternoon tea, sitting nearby at
the other side of the room.
“You had done extraordinary job for us this time Tetsu!
Look at what this two doll look like now! Their shirts are so
beautiful!” When Tetsu’s work was closed to an end,
Yukki studied the new clothes the blonde had made, then commented.
“Oh…thank for appreciating my work…”
“The job for today was finished! So would you mind having
some tea with me before you leave?” Yukki grinned.
“Errr…Yukki chan…”Tetsu took a few
steps forward, but then stopped dead in the middle of the room.
“anything in your mind, Tetsu chan?”
“there’s something I really need to ask you…”Tetsu
spoke hesitatingly. It seemed that the question he was about
to ask was something really strange.
“Go ahead then!” Yukki smiled warmly to the blonde,
putting his tea cup back to the table, and waiting for Tetsu
to ask his question.
”that is it…I wonder why every time I come over
to make clothes for this two dolls, you have to stand with me
in the very same room, and staring at me at work?”
“Oh? Is there any problem?”
“Of course! ”Tetsu complained.” I feel quite
uneasy to have you looking at my back!” in normal condition,
Yukki only appeared when the blonde needed some comment on his
work. However, every time when he was working on this two dolls
in question, Yukki would stand in the same room with him until
he finished his work. First Tetsu hardly paid anything attention
to this phenomenon, but soon he couldn’t help noticing
this strange habit of the shop owner…
Yukki simply looked at Tetsu’s face for a couple of minutes
without saying anything, as if losing in his own thought. And
Tetsu could barely believe his own ears when the shop owner
finally came up with something again.
“…Tetsu chan, you won’t leave Hyde behind
and run away with some other of my doll, right?”
Tetsu first met Hyde in Yukki’s shop too, when the blonde
was out of job a year ago. And after working for Yukki for a
couple of months and with some incidents happened between the
two men and one doll. Finally much to Tetsu’s surprise,
one day Yukki passed Hyde over to him and then the two were
together since then.( the whole event took place at sasa’s
first Ornamental Doll fanfic…the first of the whole doll
fic series!^^;;;;)
“Of course I won’t!!!” Tetsu didn’t
notice that he was shouting now. ”Why…Why you have
to ask thing like that!?”
“Oh…it’s just that…I just happen to
think of this subject, so I being the issue up! Nothing big
actually!^^;;; ”Yukki answered the blonde’s question
carelessly, as if trying to hide his embarrassment with this
manner.
“WHAT???” How come people could joke over something
that serious!? Tetsu didn’t believe that the shop owner
couldn’t tell his feeling for Hyde, so why he still had
to ask the question.
“And there’s something else in my mind ne…normally
all of the dolls have their eyes close as if they were sleeping,
but why does this doll has his eyes open for so long?”Tetsu
was pointing at one of the two dolls in the room. The blonde
could tell that Yukki wasn’t going to answer his previous
question seriously, so he had no choice but to come up with
another question, hoping for better luck this time.
“So…what’s wrong with it then?” Yukki
replied, still not so willing to answer seriously.
“You asked me what’s wrong with it! Don’t
you notice that…An Ornamental Doll with his eyes wild
open…sitting still in a chair without moving a muscle…staring
at you with this kind of blank look…it is so much familiar
with a dead body of a child? It’s really scary!”
“I know what you mean now! Tetsu chan, you’re afraid
of my dolls, right? I can’t believe that you’re
such a chicken! ”Yukki gave out a sudden laughter, smirking.
“No I don’t!” Tetsu had to defend himself.
“Hahaha! You’re scared! Chicken!”
“I’m not scared!
“Ano...” While the two men were so busily arguing,
there was a voice came out from the front door. “…is
anybody here?” it was clear that they had got a visitor
out there.
“Sorry! But we’re having afternoon break now!”
upon hearing the voice, Yukki stood up and walked toward the
door. ”Please visit later!” He moved to the front
door, trying to advice the visitor to come again a n hour later.
“Hum…would you please break your little rule of
afternoon break for your old friend once? Count Yukihiro. D?”
Count Yukihiro. D?
Still sitting inside the shop, Tetsu was so surprised to hear
some one calling Yukki in such remarkable way. Unable to suppress
his curiosity, the blonde made his way toward the front door
as well to see who their visitor was.
How strange! He was suddenly awoken of the fact that Yukki
hadn’t made any further sound since he got to the door
step. The shop owner was simply stood dead at his position,
gazing at the visitor, who had just moved forward into the shop.
There was a figure standing at the entrance of the Shop, his
face hiding in the shadow under the dim lamp light.
While Tetsu was busying to study the figure, Yukki also seemed
to come out of the pause he had been in for the previous couple
of second. And when he was able to speak again, he cheered the
stranger with his usual calm manner.
“There you are, Yoshiki Hayashi sama… I almost failed
to recognize that it’s you…”
“Really? You said that could recognize me no longer? It
really isn’t a nice way to treat your old friendne…Yukki
san…” upon speaking, this stranger, Yoshiki slowly
moved forward into the Shop, and now Tetsu was able to see this
stranger clearly. Yoshiki was attractive enough to look at even
with a dark sunglasses hiding his eyes and most of the upper
part of his face away. He was dressed in a fine piece of dark
color suit with a cravat wrapping away his neck, and was wearing
a pair of dark velvet gloves. He had a long curl brownish mass
of hair curling all the way down his waist , which tricked Tetsu
into thinking that it was a pretty lady that he had been looking
at for a instant, but fortunately, Tetsu also noticed that this
*lady*’s voice was so deep and manly that was to manly
for a real lady quickly enough to correct his mistake.
“Please accept my apologize, and now please come in!”
Yukki tried to ignore Yoshiki’s badinage.
Meanwhile, Tetsu could hardly believe what his own eyes while
watching Yukki led this unexpected guest into the shop, breaking
the “No business during afternoon-break” rule, (Author:
It’s one of the countless unofficial rules that Yukki
had made to run Ornamental Doll Shop. Usually in order to be
able to make deal with the shop owner smoothly, Customers *must*
not break any one of them after they had set foot into the Shop.
^_^) and it was obvious that this Yoshiki-san and Yukki known
each other well, maybe they were close friends for quite a long
time ne…
However, another doubt rose from Tetsu’s heart quickly
as he continued to study the way that two men acting together,
and he soon notice that the way they talk and act to each other
were too unnaturally polite for a pair of friends.
“ What would you prefer today, Yoshiki san?” Yukki’s
mind was focused on Yoshiki so totally that as though he had
long forgotten Tetsu’s existence.
“I’m here to see your lovely products of course,
why you have to ask, Yukki san?” Yoshiki giggled a little.
“No problem, I’m more than grateful to hear it
from you…it’s my honor to serve you …”
Tetsu could tell that the tone Yukki had used to pronounced
the word *grateful* ,sounded a little eerie. “So please
let me bring you to the most high-class products ne.”
“No need please,” Yoshiki declined unexpectedly.
“I ‘m not going to spend time on those ordinary
products today. All I want to see are those antiques, which
are century old… ”
“Antiques that are century old? I don’t think we
have that kind of product in store for you yet…”
“Yukki san, you are making fun of me again!” Yoshiki
chuckled .” According to the information that I had collected
from my agents. It is obvious that for about 2 years ago, Yukki
san had already inducted a one hundred years old Taciturn Type
Ornamental Doll which is so precious that he had rarely been
seen even among the antiquaries for all these years. But in
our case, you have kept the existence of this doll as a secret
for two years till now. Is my information correct? Dear shop
owner sama?”
“You surprise me…Yoshiki san, you must understand
that the event about this doll is still haven’t been sloved…so
I…”
“But still my information is corrected, right?”
Yoshiki leaned against the wall in a relaxing position, smirking
to the shop owner.
“Errr….this…okay, you win this time!”
And finally, Yukki smiled bitterly.
“ I don’t think that I could hide thing from you
anymore, so I have to admit that the Doll is here in my shop
ne, but…” And then suddenly the shop owner’s
sights turned into Tetsu’s direction all of the sudden.
“Tetsu-chan, I think you’d better leave, see you
tomorrow.”
“Hum? Err…errr…that… this…Oh!
Okay! I’ll go now!” Not being able to react so quickly,
Tetsu almost chopped by his own words.” So…I’ll
see you tomorrow, Yukki chan. Ja na.” And then Tetsu nodded
slightly to Yukki and left the Shop.
“Please come this way, Yoshiki san. I’ll lead you
to the Taciturn Type Ornamental Doll now. ” Soon after
Tetsu was gone, Yukki led his visitor further into the shop,
making their way to the room where he had just been having conversations
with the blonde not long ago in this afternoon.
Then he opened the wooden door for Yoshiki, the latter slipping
into the room almost soundlessly . and soon as he entered, Yoshiki’s
breath was simply took away by the sight of the Doll, who sat
in the chair opposite of the door.
“He…is still so pretty…just like the first
time I had seen him 20 years ago…so elegant and charming…I
can’t see nothing of him has ever been changed ne…”
“You can see this brilliance upon the Doll too right?
Even this remarkable brilliance is unchanged ne…still
so beautiful to look at… that’s something that you
can never see upon the other dolls indeed.”
“Yes, I agree that he’s such a masterpiece of all
time ne…but as you can see, this doll has been in deep
sleep for two years, so far no one can wake him from his sleep…”
Yukki told his guest.
“Really?” Yoshiki made his way toward the Doll,
reaching his hand out to stroke the Doll’s pale cheek
feather-lightly . “So do you think that I would be the
expectation? ”
Then unbelievable thing do happened, the Doll open his eyes
slowly under Yoshiki’s touch.
“How could this possible?” Yukki was stunned.
“Who else could wake him but me? For my ancient was the
Dollmaker who had brought him to life one hundred years ago,
and I’m the only remaining heir of his blood ne…”
Yoshiki explained calmly. “ and we will make our deal
following your old rule right? Once the Doll has accepted me
as his new owner, you would have to admit my right to him then,
am I correct? Yukki san?”
“You…You are correct, perfectly correct.”
“So…this Doll belongs to me from now on, do you
agree with it too, dear old friend?”
“…Yes, I agree.”
“And so we make the deal!” Then Yoshiki passed his
band check to Yukki’s hand quickly and told him.”
You are free to write down the price for the Doll, Yukki san.”
Now Yoshiki took the Doll’s hand and was about to leave.
“Thank you very much then…Yoshiki san. ”Yukki
took the blank check and thanked his customer with the most
polite manner he could manage to offer, trying to hide his gratefulness
to have Yoshiki leaving his Shop.
However, another interesting object captured Yoshiki’s
attention before he left the room…
“This doll…” He stared at the doll which was
sitting quietly at the corner, unlike most of the other sleeping
dolls in this shop, this particular doll had his eyes widely
opened…
“Yukki san, please wait a minute!” the brown haired
called to the shop owner, and asked him.” This doll…I
think I know who he really is…or maybe I should say what
he used to be back then…”
Yukki turned to see Yoshiki approaching the boy doll, a gloom
__expression flashed though his face immediately. ”Yoshiki
san…this doll…” To his fear, Yoshiki really
knew all the event about this Doll! Even the event of the doll
maker and the school boy! And now he had recognized the Boy,
who was now another Ornamental Doll! So what he was going to
say about this? Yukki didn’t know…
“This doll doesn’t have a *mind* of his own, right?”
without waiting an respond from the latter, Yoshiki approached
the boy doll.
(Author: don’t know whether it’s right to use the
word “mind” in this case, but *mind* here means
emotion, feeling and will of ones own, okay?^^;;;)
“Yoshiki san…what are you going to do with him?”
Now an alarm look was on Yukki’s face, his self-composed
manner was long gone.
“Why are you so nervous? All I mean to do is to get a
closer look of this doll! it would do him no harm right?”
“But…” Yukki was about to say something, but
he suppress himself quickly because he knew how pleased the
brown haired would be to see him getting nervous. And he was
certainly not going to let the latter to have such satisfaction.
(Author: Poor, poor Yukki!Q_Q)
So all the shop owner could do was to stare as Yoshiki walked
calmly forward the boy doll, and started talking to him. Meanwhile
Yukki realized that he was now powerless to stop Yoshiki to
do whichever he want to this doll.
“Are you in pain...?” Yoshiki first asked the boy
doll…
And then…
****
The next day…
“What? You sold that two dolls off? That quickly?”
Tetsu was stunned upon hearing this new.
“Tetsu chan, you don’t need to make this face! Here
in this Shop, a doll being sold to a nice customer is something
as normal as the sun rising from the East!” Yukki frowned
slightly.
”Gomen ne….but who is this nice customer actually?”
” it is Yoshiki san who took them away, you had met with
him yesterday, right?”
“He is the one who brought both of the dolls home? Both?”
Tetsu was surprised to heard this.
“Yes.” Yukki answered matter of factly, chewing
another mouthful of chocolate biscuit.
”I thought you weren’t going to sell anything to
this customer actually…”
“Really? What made you belive that?”
“Because I could tell that you don’t like this gentlemen
ne…”
“Err… I can’t believe that I was that obvious!”
This time it was Yukki to be the one that felt surprise.
“But I really think that you were that obvious!”
Tetsu nodded. ”The way you talked to that customer yesterday
was completely different from the way you talked to an ordinary
customer! How could you think that I wouldn’t pay any
attention to this?”
“Really…?”Yukki smiled bitterly. It seemed
that things about Yoshiki and the two dolls could always drive
him out of his own mind sometime.
“Is there any thing wrong about this customer? Is that
the reason why you don’t want to sell him the dolls? ”
Tetsu asked.
“No need to worry about this, Tetsu chan…”
“Yoshiki and I have known each other for years, his knowledge
of Ornamental Dolls might be
even richer than mine…but still…it’s hard
to tell whether I had made the right decision to send these
two particular dolls to him…”
****
The Hayashi Family once was a family that famous for the Ornamental
Doll they had been made for generations. For almost a century
talented doll makers who came from this family made some of
the most elegant Ornamental Dolls the world had even seen before.
The family gained their flame soon afterward and almost all
of the dolls they made had became the most precious collection
among those Doll Fanciers worldwide. Naturally enough, doll
making also gained huge number of fortunate for the family.
But about forty of thirty years ago, the last doll maker of
the Hayashi Family suddenly decided to quit his business and
stopped all of the production. Instead he decided to use his
fortunate to build up a huge mansion, which locating in a hillside
wood, and started to live a hermitic life with the rest of his
family there since then.
Now many years had passed and people no longer remember the
name of Hayashi anymore…nor the location of the House
of Hayashi either…
***
There was a old wooden door at the end of the bitter cold long
staircase of the House of Hayashi. Behind this door there was
a small cockloft, where a secret of the Hayashi Family had been
sealed there for generations…
The existence of this cockloft was a taboo of the Family, and
nobody was allowed to enter for many years…
As far as Yoshiki could remember, not only this cockloft alone,
but the whole House of Hayashi, this heirloom itself was a taboo.
The Elders of the family used to warn him from time to time
since he was a child.” There’s something *bad* resident
within the cockloft, so you must never enter into this cockloft…and
never let that *thing* to have a chance of escape…”
So Yoshiki had never dreamt that he would be the one to break
this unspeakable taboo of the Family shortly after he became
the heir of the heirloom…
Tonight, the brown haired stood in the middle of this cockloft,
the room was empty expected of a old, huge cabinet placing in
the center of the floor. This cabinet was centuries old, with
delicate embossment upon it.
The reward of breaking the taboo was this cabinet, an the secret
power sealing inside the cabinet that could fulfill his wish…
In his most desperate moment, the *thing* inside the cabinet
told him.” I can fulfill your wish…”
This *thing*…perhaps it was what one might call demon.
But Yoshiki paid little attention to the nature of this creature
of his…God or demon were no different to him now…as
long as he could bring his beloved back…and whatever this
*thing* was, Yoshiki knew that it was powerful enough to fulfill
his desire…
After breaking the taboo and free the sealed object, the evil
power did keep its promise to help him fulfilled his wish.
and soon Yoshiki learned another thing.
The fulfillment of a wish always has a price to pay.
And now at that night, Yoshiki handed out another sacrifice
to this damnation again in order to keep his long lost beloved
by his side, this time was for eternity.
“ I think he is ready now, master…” Yoshiki’s
butler---Toshi stepped into the cockloft with a boy doll in
his arms, who remained completely still like a dead object when
Toshi carrying him in to the cockloft.
People would be truly stunned or even scared by the sight of
this boy doll…they would be stunned by his hideous way
of beauty, and scared by his lifelessness. And the fact was,
this doll was still alive but he had not been robbed of life.
“Thank a lot, Toshi chan.Š Give him to me&I
would handle the rest of it.You might leave now. Yoshiki ordered.
Toshi bowed to Yoshiki after handing the boy doll to his master,
then left the room without a word.
Yoshiki studied this doll of his once more&this boy…this
doll…had once spoken to him in Yukki’s Shop miraculously.
But it was just for once, since the brown haired took him back
to his house, the doll still had not been able to move, nor
to speak.
Morph Type Ornamental Doll. A subspecies of Ornamental Doll
even expert such as Yoshiki had never seen before. A monstrously
beautiful mixture of human and Ornamental Doll. A human kind
that being transformed into Ornamental Doll. the example of
human transformed into dolls were so rare that not a single
official record about this type of dolls had ever been reported,
which made the existence of this type almost legendry. And there
were countless of fearsome tales, mysteries and rumors around
the Morph Type.
(Author: Morph Type Ornamental Doll…this name sounds like
something from SF novel…Sasa san had helped me to figure
a name for the boy doll which is much more imaginative and lovely…but
I failed to translate this name into english…Forgive me
then!
Under normal circumstances, the more seldom the doll was, the
more famous it became. But this consuetude didn’t fit
to the Morph Type at all. People always ignored this subspecies,
and even to those real experts of Ornamental Doll like Yukki
and Yoshiki who knew the existence of the subspecies, still
the words “Morph Type” was still unspeakable like
a curse that you would refuse to mention.
According to the rumors, it seemed that somehow defects always
came together with the transformation. Some of the Morph Type
were short lived, they could only survive for not longer than
five years, the other of them were unable to move their bodies
at all…Therefore, even Yukki, a experienced man to handle
Ornamental Doll, was not able to decide what to do with the
boy doll for the past two years without selling him off.
Nevertheless, this boy doll was a gift to Yoshiki, even he
still wasn’t sure whether his plan could work out on the
doll. But what harm could be done to him if his plan back fire?
So why not?
” it was such a surprise to find you there…”Yoshiki
chuckled.
Slowly, the boy doll blinked as to respond Yoshiki’s words,
it was the first sigh to show that he was alive.
“Take it easy, child. There is nothing to rear ne…I
promised to bring you to a place where you could forget all
the pain and sadness,right? and now there we are.” Yoshiki
comforted the boy, his __expression was surprisingly soft and
tender.
“But you aren’t an Ornamental Doll for real, so
that you couldn’t move your limbs by your own…butdon’t
worry about it…I’ll help you. I know how to make
you back to be normal again ne…so you must trust me, okay?”
“and in order to heal you, I’ll have to place you
into this cabinet…” the boy doll show no sigh of
emotion upon hearing Yoshiki’s sentence. It was hard to
tell whether he had given up of himself or really didn’t
care what himself would become.
“When you woke up again, everything would be so different
ne…by that time I’m going to give you a new name…”Yoshiki
murmured to himself before carrying the Boy into the cabinet…then
closed the lib carefully.
The darkness which hiding in the cabinet swallowed the Boy quickly
as if welcoming a lost child return to its embrace. Everything
was in silence.
This time I really need to say Thank You…Count Yokihiro.
D…
I couldn’t imagine having found a *container* that is
so prefect like this one……and it was for your sake
that I found him…
The End of Prologue II
Part 1 to be continued…
it took me forever to finish translating this chapter! And more
to come in Part 1!!__
but the good new is, Pierrot and Plastic Tree’s characters
are about to come out! And so does hide!!!XXDDDDD
[next
chapter]