Tangent to a Line
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I I [ c h a p t e r . o n e ] I I
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moonmagicks
AU; Kanone's on the run because of a secret he can't bear to hear. Eyes gives chase. How the hell is Hiyono involved?
starring: Yuizaki Hiyono, Hilbert Kanone, Eyes Rutherford
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No way.
No way.
Impossible.
There is no way Hizumi could have said what he just said. There is no way this can be the truth. Hizumi's mouth is moving; it's talking and sneering and downright laughing at Kanone shamelessly. It is the truth. It is the truth because it is the only way everything can make sense. It is the only way. Hizumi's not stupid (despite whatever he does) and he knows Kanone knows what two plus two is.
Kiyotaka wants him to die.
No; Kiyotaka wants him to die.
No, no; God wants him to die.
Kanone is not one to believe in God (cross on his neck or not) and it used to be that nothing but skill would hold weight in his eyes. After all, Evangeline Hilbert had taught him nothing if it weren't for the survival of the fittest. But that man; that one smiling, seemingly-stupid, completely-insipid man--he had blown his world away. And Kanone had seen God. kanone had seen the power the light, the raw feeling and absolutism that one can't help but feel when near Kiyotaka.
And now, now?
Hizumi, the devil, lies in front of him.
For every coin, their must be a "heads" and their must be a "tails". There must be a darkness for every light. A wrong, persay, for every right. Hizumi speaks the truth, that is the truth right now. But Kanone will never acknowledge that what he's saying is right.
God wants his life taken.
But God does not want his life to end by normal means. He wants the weak-ass devil to take his life.
God is absolute.
The string (ropes, chains, red threads) that holds the cross tightens against his throat. God has given the Devil a gun. God has given the Devil one of his guns.
Kanone, for all the soppy shows he's seen, does not see his life flash in front of his eyes. He only sees snippets of moments, careless, dry moments that he didn't know he had taken the time to remember. Evangeline is cutting flowers with bullets. Eyes is playing one song after another. Ayumu mindlessly fingering the keys. None of them are "Bénédiction de Dieu dans le Sólitude". A cat scampers across the street; he manages to save it. Kousuke is getting punched in the face by Ryouko. Rio's face as he's just about to kill her. Hiyono's unconscious form leaned against his arm.
This is life--this is what it's all come down to.
The guns and violence and bloodshed and sacrifice.
The tears and whimpers and forsaken dreams.
God says he must die.
God wants him to die.
The Devil--Hizumi is smiling at him. His gun is in his grasp.
No.
In one swift movement, Kanone sprints forward. Hizumi is taken by surprise (or at least that's what his face says) and he manages to wrench the gun out of the other boy's hand. This is the Devil, only Ayumu-otouto can kill him.
A bang. A bullet. Blood seeps out of a teenaged head.
Hizumi doesn't even blink.
"People have been doing that to me ever since I was a kid," he yawns and stretches, as if a hold through his head is nothing to be concerned about. Kanone would be disconcerted, but he's mad. God and Devil have taken away everything--his freedom, his bullets, his cats; now they want his life? Ridiculous. He is a fighter and for that, he will fight until the end. Maybe he won't be able to kill Hizumi (that is Ayumu-otouto's "job" after all), but Kanone has no doubt he'll be able to inflict some form of damage or another on the Devil.
Hell's fires lick at his heels but he pays them no heed.
- - -
"What do you mean he's gone?" Kirie demands into the cellphone. Eyes raises an eyebrow; this must be serious--she's even taken the ever-present cigarette out of her mouth. "I thought we had the state of the art security in his room! Didn't the guards or cameras catch anything at all?" A pause. A hurried voice could be heard muttering rapidly on the other end. "Oh my God," her eyes widen and the cigarette drops to the floor, forgotten. "Yes, he's here. We'll be over immediately."
The phone snaps shut and Kirie smoothly puts it in her purse.
Eyes' patience is rewarded during the rapid walk towards the car.
"I've just got news that Hizumi had a meeting with Kanone," she doesn't fumble with the keys, but she presses the wrong button--twice, "it seems like he tried to kill him."
"Who tried to kill who?" the back of his throat is clenching as he remembers their last conversation. Kanone looked perfectly happy and healthy... If Hizumi--
"Hizumi tried to kill Kanone. But apparently," Kirie motions for him to get in; he complies, the engine starts up with a roar. She keeps her eyes on the road but grips the wheel a bit tighter as she continues. "Kanone quickly got the upper hand and attempted to kill Hizumi."
If Eyes were Rio, he would've probably guffawed, or at very least choked on his own spit. But instead, his eyes simply widened at the pure ridiculousness of the action. But then again, it was Kanone after all. He swallows; a question--he needs to know the answer.
Kirie knows him too well.
"Hizumi's alright. It's Kanone that's the real concern..."
His breathe hitches. Damn.
"What happened to Kanone?" He prays, begs, pleads to a God he does not believe in (Kiyotaka may be God, but Eyes will never refer to him as one...) that his best friend and brother is in stable condition. But it doesn't matter, because neither God nor Kiyotaka listen. (Are they the same person?)
"The agent says that Kanone's run away after inflicting a large amount of damage on Hizumi."
"...what?"
It's funny--God and Kiyotaka have the same sense of humor.
- - -
"Ick," Hiyono wrinkles her nose at the scene, "Well this is rather gruesome, isn't it?" Once again, hacking and "special" permission allow all the doors in the world to open for Narumi-san and herself. Narumi-san is regarding the scene as calmly as usual (she swears that he's becoming more and more like his older brother everyday; she hates them both for it), as if this were all a portion of his calculations and schemes.
She hopes not.
"Well, what else can we expect from Kanone Hilbert, neh?" is his reply. She tries not to roll her eyes or barf at the sight. Hizumi's eyes are blinking and whole situation freaks her out.
House arrest.
Such a quaint term for a such boring activity; she could -almost- understand Kanone's motivation for trying to kill Hizumi in such a gory manner. If she was locked in a home with only two visitors for two hours everday, she'd probably go crazy too. But even granted that, Hiyono highly doubted the carnage of her work would to amount to something like...this.
Hizumi's head has three bullet holes, but all of them are in the cranium and nowhere near his eyes. His eyes are simply blinking, and his mouth is moving, almost in a smile. She shudders to think that anyone could be smiling with their body in such an improbable and disgusting manner. Half of his arm is brutally torn off, carelessly flung onto the opposite side of the room. His clothes, needless to say, are completely bloodstained, and the carpet is as well. A broken vase lies in pieces around his matted, bloody golden hair.
In short: it looks like a horror movie gone right.
And through it all, she can see the perfectly-white teeth and the cheeky angelic grin.
The hand that has not been torn off lifts itself off the ground. It waves at Narumi-san and her.
She can't help but recoil; it is foolish.
"So-orry!" the voice quakes out, "I'm all bloody and ugly to see-ee! I'm sure Ojou-cha-an is dis-gusted with me ri-ight now!" Hizumi finishes cheerily, allowing his arm to flop back down. The smile still remains, and all of a sudden, she gets the urge to bolt out of the room.
Stupid, she chides herself. She's been the witness to much more horrific crimes. She has been accepting of people who have done worse than this. She will be able to shrug it off and go to sleep and pretend to be a normal teenager once again.
Hizumi opens his mouth to speak once more.
"Kiyotaka said that I could kill him," he grins; the bullet holes stretch, "he gave me this so I could finish him off." With great difficulty, the boy on the ground manuevers his unharmed hand, reaching for a weapon a couple feet away. His fingers fall a couple inches short of reaching their target.
"Kanone's gun," Rutherford-san interrupts, a stone-hard expression pasted over his already-stoic features. He steps through the door calmly and were it not for his snatching of the fallen weapon, Hiyono would have thought him to be completely unaffected.
"Heh heh heh..." Hizumi chuckles darkly as his eyes close, "I'm rather ti-ired."
There is a pregnant pause; they don't know what to do. Thankfully, Kirie does.
"Alright everyone, clean up the room and get him to a hospital immediately!" in a swirl of movements and hurried goings, Kirie managed to get everyone moving. Within minutes, Hizumi's body (sans left arm) is loaded into an ambulance and the four of them are standing solemnly where his body was laid moments ago.
Rutherford-san turns around to head out of the room, Kirie whips out her hand, grabbing his arm, "Where do you plan on going?" she demands to know.
The look Rutherford-san has is something Hiyono hasn't ever seen.
"I'm going to find Kanone. This is not normal, and if you continue to treat it as so--" his fist smashes into the wall. There's a crater the size of a skull, and his hand is not bleeding at all. Kirie takes a step back, but she doesn't quite release her grip.
"Ruth-kun, you must think rationally--" she begins.
"No, he's right," Ayumu interjects softly. Everyone turns to look at him in surprise. "I'm sorry, it was mostly my fault. I thought Onii-sama was going to have Kanone be killed. But I guess I don't know my own brother that well either..." he laughs bitterly, "I'll come with you Rutherford, the backup would be nice."
"Are you crazy?" Kirie demands. Hiyono thinks that it's funny how odd she looks without a cigarette in her mouth. "Ruth-kun, you have to understand that this is all part of Kiyotaka's master plan! Ayumu, I expected that minimum of you! And besides, when you're gone, who will be there to maintain order within the Blade Children? Think things through first."
"Rescuing Kanone comes first," Eyes replied steadily.
"Rescuing him?" Kirie nearly-screams, "Rescuing him from what? He's the one that tried to kill Hizumi as miserably as possible. He's the one that ran away."
"Precisely," Ayumu says, "Why would Kanone run away? Why would Hizumi provoke him? Why would Kanone try to kill Hizumi in the first place?"
"Oh, that's an easy one; it's because you," Kirie points an accusing finger at Ayumu, "--are not doing your job of killing him!"
"There must be a better solution than that," Ayumu persists.
"Fine!" Kirie lights up another smoke, "Go off chasing after Kanone. It is not my job to make sure that all the Blade Children don't cause havoc. It is not my job to make sure that you stay alive. It's not even my job to assure them that Hizumi is going to be killed," she inhales heavily, blowing a smoke ring off to the side.
"I'll go in his stead," Hiyono volunteers. Now, the attention is turned on her.
"What are you talking about you stupid girl..." Ayumu complains, "Don't be--"
"It's not stupid, Narumi-san," Hiyono replies testily, "I can go with Rutherford-san to look for Kanone while you stay here and keep the peace."
"How ridiculous!" Kirie argues, "You can't possibly allow her to--"
"I think that's a rational plan," Eyes says flatly. All thoughts of discussion and argumentation are dropped then and there. Hiyono smiles widely as Ayumu's displeasure.
"It would be ideal to get your bags and meet at the airport in half an hour," Eyes puts in immediately.
"Airport? Bags?" Hiyono laughs, "How far away can Kanone run in two hours?"
Eyes cocks an eyebrow at her, replying sardonically: "You'd be surprised how many places he can find to hide in."