A Short Summary of 'Yami No Matsuei'

        (for those unfamiliar with the series)

        The passage of souls from this life to their next is monitored and controlled by Enma-Daioh and His subject Gods. They have a list of all the souls that are supposed to arrive, written in the Book of the Dead, but every so often, souls arrive who aren't scheduled or a scheduled soul doesn't arrive. Naturally, this causes problems. The problem in the mortal world must be fixed, but the usual flow of souls from life to life must not be interrupted either. So They recruit fieldworkers, to go into the Human World and fix the problems, from those souls who haven't gotten rid of all their baggage from their latest lives and/or aren't in a hurry to get to their next. When those fieldworkers enter the Human World and encounter humanity, humans call them 'Shinigami' ('Gods of Death').

        'Yami No Matsuei' is the story of Tsuzuki, a Shinigami in one of the departments of the Japanese branch of the afterlife. (Yes, it's a bureaucracy. This explains a lot.)

        Tsuzuki has a lot of problems, not least of which is the fact that he's not sure he was even human.  But the most recurring is a human doctor named Muraki.  Muraki is obsessed with immortality and has absolutely no morals or scruples. (If Muraki has ever heard of the Hippocratic oath, he certainly shows no indications of it.)  Muraki is also obsessed with Tsuzuki.  Whether he first became interested in Tsuzuki's immortality, or if he was gay and was attracted, is not known.  The question is pretty much moot by now anyway: Muraki has made it clear that he will stop at nothing to get Tsuzuki, any way he can.

        All Shinigami work in pairs, and Tsuzuki is no exception.  His partner is Hisoka, the youngest Shinigami in the office.  Before his death at sixteen, Hisoka was kidnapped and tortured by Muraki for three years.  This experience has left the younger Shinigami more than a little cynical.  He's also cursed.  Hisoka is also about the only person in the office who doesn't have a sweet tooth.

        There's a lot more to the story... but that's enough to make sense of my fanfic.  For more information on the series, please go to my links page.