Author's Notes

I've already gotten the last bit written, but no first bit till now. Silly ne? Oh well, I do that sometimes.

Keep in mind that this is rated M for a reason. Should be obvious from the genres though.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think. Gets way interesting later on, trust me.

Knowledge without Force

Knowledge is power, but sometimes you need a little force to push. Experience shuns childhood, so it's not children caught in an adult's game. But a player had better yield, before others pay the price.

Kouji M & Takuya K

Genre/s: Drama/Suspense

Rating: M

Chapter 1

A Game of Hunt

Kouichi drummed his fingers gently on the strings of his brother's cello to tune the sounds, wrists carefully flat, floor pin loosened and extended so the cello body say easily between his knees.

Kouji, arms crossed and leaning against the bedpost, grinned. 'You play that thing better than I do. And I have to wander what it's still doing in my room.'

His brother returned the smile, right thumb at the side of fingerboard and index sitting on the A string, beginning to gently pluck at the strings. A four times, then D, G and C with a steady count.

'What are you playing?' The younger twin asked curiously.

'Just warming up,' the other replied, continuing the steady pizzicato, before stopping as the phone suddenly rang downstairs.

The longer haired of the two growled in annoyance. 'I'll get that.'

'Suki ni shiro,' the slightly elder of the two replied, lips twisting into a slightly playful grin as the other scowled at his stolen line.

'Don't even try Ni-san,' Kouji deadpanned. 'You've got the wrong tone.'

The other laughed outright at that, before drumming the strings again, drowned by the phone still ringing downstairs. 'The phone's still ringing.'

Kouji harrumphed and trudged downstairs to silence it, a little irritated.

It better not be a telemarketer, he scowled, picking up the receiver.

'Moshi moshi, Minamoto-' He stopped as the dial-tone registered in his ears.

That always irritated him. Not being able to see someone face to face, he felt that others should at least attempt to hold onto common courtesy while on the phone, where meanings couldn't be mistaken or warped or lost. One should at least have the decency to go through with a call once they've started, making someone stop what they're doing to answer the phone only to be greeted with a dial-tone.

'Wrong number,' he scowled when he got back upstairs and to his brother, still rhythmically drumming away.

Kouichi caught the annoyance. He knew his brother well enough for that. 'Cheer up,' he said instead. 'What are we doing with the rest of today?'

'The rest of the morning you mean,' the other corrected. Because the twins lived so far apart, they only were at the other's house once every other month, and since school ran on Saturdays for half a day, it coincidently meant that the travelling twin would have to leave as soon as school finished to make it to the other's house before dinner, and then leave straight after a late lunch the following day to make it back.

'Are you going to play on that thing all day?'

'Of course not,' Kouichi smiled. 'But if we want to meet the others for lunch, you'd better hurry up and get ready.'

'And you?' Kouji raised an eyebrow, realising his brother was already dressed in his blue and white jumper and black pants.

'I was cold,' the other shot back defensively. 'And excuse me if I didn't want to be wandering around the house in my pyjamas, especially since the rest of you slept through the morning grocery delivery.'

The younger twin looked down at his pale yellow shirt and pants.

'Oh yeah. Oh, stop snickering.'

'I'm not,' Kouichi responded, not very convincingly as he was trying to stifle the laughter.

Kouji threw a stray jacket at him, causing him to put down the cello to worm his way out.

'No fair.' But he smiled when he noticed the other undoing his shirt buttons with one hand and looking for a clear and hopefully warm shirt with the other. 'You need to clean up more otouto-chan,' he said teasingly. 'You might actually be able to find something in here then.'

'I don't know how you can stand clean rooms,' the other muttered, finally locating a shirt and taking the jacket that was tossed back. 'I've having a shower.'

'Because messy ones make me claustrophobic,' Kouichi replied, trailing after his twin.

'You're not following me.'

'Of course not. I'm heading downstairs.'

'Oh all right.'

The phone rang again, causing Kouji to groan. 'I'm not getting that.'

'Oh, I'll get it.' But he didn't like phones any better than his brother did.

It took a couple of minutes to get to the phone in the hallway, namely because he had a tendency to take them slowly. Even if it had been four years since that day, the image of his near death was still rather firm in his mind.

'Moshi moshi, Minamoto residence.' At least he managed to get the entire greeting out before the dial-tone sounded.

Kouichi blinked at the handset, before replacing it, only to jump slightly as it rang again.

He snatched it quickly, repeating the same greeting.

'Kouichi?'

That was Takuya's voice, sounding rather suspicious. 'Did Kouji put you up to it?'

'Iie,' the elder twin replied. 'Did you ring twice?'

'I was going to ask you that,' the brunette replied, before making a shrugging sort of noise. 'Oh well, maybe it was the wrong number or something. You two still coming?'

'Hai. We'll be there in…' He looked at the clock in the living room. 'Half an hour.'

'We're roping Kouji and Junpei into a soccer match so be ready.'

Kouichi laughed and hung up with a farewell. He knew his brother didn't like soccer all that much. Martial arts were one thing, running around like crazy after an elusive ball was not.

Upstairs, he heard the sound of water turn on. It was a bit of a cold day for Autumn, and he couldn't help but wish he had brought a change of clothes so he could have a shower too. Only, there hadn't been much point for a single night.

He eyed the phone, a little apprehensively. It wasn't normal to get three calls so close to one another, especially since there was now proof that they weren't from the same person. At least, the first two wasn't from the same person as the third.

He must have jinxed the phone, he thought, as it rang again.

Like before, he snatched it up.

'Moshi moshi, Minamoto residence,' he said a little hurriedly. If whoever it was had been tired of waiting for somebody to pick up, there was no way they'd hang up that fast.

But as he replaced the phone in its cradle after hearing the dial tone again, he was wondering if he had been reading too many mystery novels recently.

He shrugged it off when the phone didn't ring again. Probably just a wrong number, he thought.

The catch sunk as the receiver was placed into it for the fifth time. The first time, the recipient had sounded rather annoyed. As had the second. The third and fifth times had been a third person, one he had not been after, so he couldn't really care less what he thought. The fourth was even more annoyed.

He'd talk to them later. No need to…worry them as of yet. There was plenty of time.

He looked around his little laboratory. The basement always provided a good field. But this time, that field was spreading. Beyond the computers networked together to give maximum capacitance. Beyond the years of labouring in the darkness only to constantly fail. Not many people knew what had really happened that day four years ago, when an apparent electrical surge had hit the city, short circuiting the train lines and cutting life support in the nearest hospitals in Shibuya and its neighbouring districts.

Fewer still knew of the people who had passed through the gate that had opened in its midst. And only six children knew the truth of what had happened in that other world, and the power that existed there. Out of those six, one had remained in the real world, never truly touching that force that opened the gate and unlocked the potential behind it. Out of the five remaining, only two still had that power. Two who had reached and surpassed the transcend level of evolution, who had unlocked his programme to its ultimate stage.

The charging process was complete. He only needed their help, and the final steps of his plan would come into fruition.

There was no need to rush though. Haste always resulted in something backfiring. Hadn't he known that well enough with the fiasco with the warrior of darkness? A boy who hadn't even set foot in the world and changed its play so much, going so far as to turn the tide of battle and rekindle his own flame in the process? A wanderer; it was interesting, but it was also useless to him. No-one could touch a wandering spirit without crushing it.

He watched two near-identical boys leave a double-storey house. On another screen, another boy left as well. On the other three, a girl clutching a container, a younger boy with an envelope he had just pulled out of the mailbox, and an older one, all heading towards the same place.

A reunion they had better savour. The board would have shifted by the next one.

Hmm…nice weather for a walk. And a bit of prey-stalking.

'Hey guys.' Tomoki waved a hand, coincidently the one that held the letter that had been sticking out of his mailbox. 'What's up?'

'Oh, what's that?' Izumi asked curiously, looking at the white envelope sealed with a red love heart. She suddenly grinned. 'Ooh, does little Tomoki-chan have a secret admirer?'

'Oh don't do that Izumi,' the brunette flushed, as Junpei stood curiously, accompanied by the twins after having spread out the mat. Takuya was, as usual, running a little late. 'Besides, it could be for Yutaka.'

'Nope.' The half-Italian grinned as she snatched the letter quickly way. 'Look. It says "Dearest Tomoki".'

Tomoki went even redder. 'Gimme that.'

The blonde surrendered the letter and the brunette hurriedly buried it into his jacket as Takuya came running up.

'What's up?' he asked, looking at the crowd.

Izumi was grinning like a Cheshire cat, while even Junpei looked somewhat amused. The twins simply shared a collective eye-roll; both had their share of fan-girls and neither one of them were a big fan.

'Tomoki's got a secret admirer,' the girl sang. 'Our little brother's growing up.'

'Secret?' Takuya repeated. 'Geez, can't a girl say anything straight.'

The girl glared.

'Not you,' the brunette sighed. 'You're fine.'

'Gee, thanks.'

'Guys,' Junpei cut in wisely before the pair got too out of hand. 'Can we eat already?'

'No way,' Kouji and Takuya answered at the same time.

'Well, what then?'

'Talk?'

'Play soccer.'

'No way…Kouichi, did you know about this?'

Kouichi couldn't help but laugh at his brother again. 'Of course.'

'How you like running after the ball, I have no idea?'

'Me neither,' the other admitted. 'Hence why I play goalie.'

'Oh yeah…wait a sec.'

'Hey Kouji!' Takuya yelled from the makeshaft field. 'Get over here.'

Junpei was standing at the other goal while Kouichi claimed his one.

'But you like soccer.' He groaned, a little playfully like he only would with his brother and friends.

'Sure,' Kouichi replied, pointing to the field. 'Make sure you don't kick into my goal this time.'

'Oh do,' Takuya disagreed. 'Then we'll win again.'

'Yeah right,' Izumi snorted, scuffing her sneakers. 'If you remember correctly, we still beat you.'

'They did Takuya,' Tomoki validated.

'Oh all right.' The brunette sighed, before taking in a deep breath. 'Let's play ball!'

'Hey,' Kouji snapped. 'Shouldn't we take care of our stuff first?'

'Oh yeah.'

Izumi had, it turned out, been right. She and the twins had managed to win…again, though it had been a rather close match. The scrimmage had however been cut short and redealt when their match had attracted a bit of attention, so Takuya and Tomoki, spotting some of their sport buddies in the crowd, had invited them to join, eventually causing others to jump in to even up the playing field while parents tried to keep track of their children in the now twelve member teams playing across the soccer field.

No-one noticed the extras in the crowd. Why should they? No-one knew everyone after all.

Post Author's Notes

Translations

Suki ni shiro – informal for as you wish/whatever

Ni-san – (dearest) older brother

Moshi moshi – hello when you're talking on the telephone

Otouto-chan – (dearest) little brother