Author's Notes

I put the ransom as roughly $75,000 US dollars, so that's 6 million yen (it's normally around $60,000 but 6 million yen was a easier figure to handle). Japanese CEO's earn about 1.5 million US per annum, but that's less than their employees, contrary to other countries. The average cost of living is $1000 US dollars in Tokyo per person, not taking into account the extra things. I think that's the bare minimum. I don't know how much someone would normally request as ransom or in what circumstances and I can't seem to find it on the internet. And the Hawaii Five-O episodes I've watched had the ransom as people being released or cocaine shipments. No good here.

Negative transfer is when a series of things get you thinking in a particular way, then you get a similar question or scenario that requires to think a completely different way. I did my ERA on this in year 12, using the year 10s as my subjects. I was both the lucky and unlucky one; unlucky because I didn't have a partner but lucky because one of the teachers did me a favour and set up the class for me and then let my discuss my results with him.

I forgot to mention this, but uni's started up again. So slower updates, but I do have a few chapters of various things already written so my backlog will last a couple or weeks, maybe more depending on how I can add to it.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.


Slaves to the Trade

Money. Power. Domination. These things caused his world to be stripped away. 'You may hold my body, but my soul is free.' Can that truth be saved, or is it doomed to be forever squelched beneath a master?

Character/s: Kouichi K

Genre/s: Drama/Angst

Rating: T


Chapter 8

'How many cups of coffee have you gone through?' was the first thing Kousei heard when he woke up from his little "power-nap"…or what had been intended to be a power-nap. He had truthfully drank quite a bit, and would no doubt have drank more if it hadn't been for two reasons. The first was that the pot he had boiled the water in was dry and he, for some reason, simply couldn't bring himself to get up and fill it again for a reboil. The second was nowhere near as petty a reason; the police and the only private detective that seemed available had both come up dry.

'I'm sure you've been counting Satomi,' he yawned right back, too fatigued to figure out who it was that was talking to him. 'And you'll tell me when it's one too many.'

He looked up as he said that, then blinked. Satomi seemed to have shrunk. Then he blinked again, then a third time to find Kouji staring at him incredulously.

'I do not look like 'kaa-san,' he muttered, turning away, before reconsidering and taking the empty pot with him to the sink. For a moment, there was only the sound of the running water.

Then Kousei rubbed his eyes a little vigorously. 'Kouji?'

'Yeah.' Usually, there would have been a sarcastic reply to a misunderstanding as grave as that, even if Satomi had grown her hair out in the last year so it fell halfway down her shoulder blades. Somehow though, he felt that would be a bad idea. With his hair sticking out in all directions as it was, barely held in tact by the rubber band, he might have thought, or hoped, for a fleeting second he was Kouichi.

Heck, even he wished he was Kouichi. For the simple reason that he would know his brother was safe and sound.

'Right,' Kousei mumbled to himself, now rubbing his head to relieve himself of his headache. 'Kouji.' Perhaps he had a little too much coffee, even if he had messed up the proportions and had it too watery. Actually, it was probably a good thing he couldn't even grasp the simple art of making a pot of coffee, because otherwise he'd have been sitting on a seriously caffeine high and have to suffer even more painful and inconvenient circumstances as a rebound. 'Has the phone rang?'

Seeing as the cordless was right by his head, it was highly unlikely Kousei had missed a call. In any case, Kouji answered in a single no as he rinsed out the pot and cup before putting it on the drying rack and pulling out a bowl and an instant ramen packet.

'Is…there a reason I'm not under silent treatment anymore?' That was, admittedly, a very un-parental thing to say, but the situation was asking for it. But as Kouji had done the dishes, and was now withdrawing a bowl of ramen from the microwave and putting in a second.

'Satomi left something in the fridge.'

'I'm sure she didn't intend for us to eat at eleven thirty and go hungry till six,' Kouji replied, dumping the bowl a little roughly, but with obvious peace-keeping intent as he mumbled something under his breath that his father knew well enough to interpret as an apology.

Kouji just withdrew his own bowl and started playing a little with its contents. There was no point in asking if there was any news. If there had been news, good news that was, his father wouldn't have fallen asleep waiting for the phone to ring. He lifted a scoopful of noodles to his mouth, before dropping it back into his plate. The smell was making him slightly nauseous.

No wonder too. He'd somehow managed to grab the one flavour he could barely stand. Now that it had been heated up, he'd have to eat it, otherwise it would turn into rubber and his father would be scolding him for wasting food.

If he looked up, he'd realise Kousei was also playing with the chopsticks and the contents of his bowl, actually grimacing when the scent wafted up to his nose. Kouji had actually been right in realising he hadn't had his breakfast yet. He'd be making do with a little more than his usual cup of morning coffee. But coffee, especially more than two cups full, had a habit of ruining one's appetite.

If Satomi had been home, she'd be forcing food down both their throats. The poor woman was at the end of her patience with the two idiot men in the household. It was a miracle she had lasted so long, but the last couple of days had been pretty trying on everybody.

They were all just lucky they had friends around. With the kids the Kanbara boy had rounded up within ten minutes through rather unspeakable means, ranging from the closest group of friends that was the centre of the Venn diagram to Kouji's kendo team, Kouichi's, Takuya's and Tomoki's soccer teams, the elder brunette's baseball team and some friends of Yutaka's from college both sets of parents were sure the twins had only met once or twice at the most. More than half the people Kouichi didn't even know, but they'd made quick work of all the areas between the Kimura's apartment and the Minamoto's house…somehow. Miracle working probably, but apparently having a lot of people who knew a lot of people payed off and they worked in a search-grid. The adults had started with a different sort of search-grid. It was amazing how they'd managed to come up with absolutely nothing.

And as the police kindly pointed out, they could do nothing until there as a ransom call. If, there was a ransom call that was…but as the detective had pointed out, considering there had been several kidnappings about a month apart in a loophole fashion, all for ransom, the likelihood was actually quite high. Unfortunately, that made the chances of finding him a little low as well, considering he didn't actually live with his father. Why, the detective had asked, hadn't those kidnappers, if they were after ransom, have gone for Kouji? What was their motive going for the other twin?

While they were at it, they might as well question what was their reason for kidnapping pre-teen and teenage children and get money off the parents, and then never return them? Between all the searching everyone had done over each child, they'd probably searched the whole of Japan at least twice over. More or less.

It was rather embarrassing no-one had found the person, or people responsible. Most of the kidnappings, furthermore, had been inconspicuous. Security cameras had been blurred enough to not pick up any defining features in each individual case, and when they had put every image they could find together…either they were masks or different people. Or both. And every person private detectives had managed to catch (the police were unfortunately utterly useless when it came to child abductions) had proved to be ill connected with the rest of the system. Simply pawns in a much larger game.

In other words, everything had come up dry, but those closest to the victim (or the victims, depending on how you looked at them) weren't about to give up. Satomi had gone over to Tomoko, and Kousei was waiting for any updates, having people he owed favours too doing the best they could in finding his son. And they knew him well enough to do their best in not letting him down.

Apparently, they were all stubborn people. Every single member of that, admittedly a tad unconventional, family. Of course, each one of them had gone through a "breaking-point" moment as well, which had succeeded in the end in bringing them closer together. But like everything else, it had to get worse before it got better.

Whoever made up that damn cliché, Kousei thought to himself, should roast in hell for jinxing the entire world when they said that line.

Then he looked at his other son, who was still picking morosely at his food. 'I had a dream,' he said suddenly. 'I couldn't make heads or tails of anything, but I was…well, I was scared,' he admitted, glaring at the slightly smoking ramen. 'It felt like I was losing something, and the worst part was, I couldn't think about anything…'

Kousei couldn't help but stare a little. It wasn't every day Kouji decided to spill his heart out, even of late. Late as in the last year or so. But the fact of the matter was that Kouji simply did not mince words. Kouichi did…a lot. But not Kouji.

'I'm sorry,' he said suddenly, either going completely off the tangent or apologizing for his little epiphany. His next words made it clearer, even if he was mumbling them. 'I shouldn't have yelled at you. I know you love him.'

'I love both of you,' Kousei said, pushing his chair back with a scrape before leaning over the table and embracing the other loosely. 'And I love both Satomi and Tomoko, even if I am no longer married to her.'

Kouji, surprised, hugged back for a moment before pulling away. He knew it. He had just been hurt, and upset, and scared. He was still all of those things, but it did feel better knowing everybody was doing everything they could. He would feel better still if he knew Kouichi was safe and sound, but contrary to what a lot of people (none of whom knew him at all) believed, he knew his brother was strong. If anything, the Duskmon saga of his life had given him more hope to that fact; lightning could seldom be made to strike in the same place after all.

'You and 'kaa-san fought.'

'It is a stressful time.' Kousei withdrew his warmth and rubbed his head again. 'I'll admit I blamed her. We agreed when we divorced that you would be my responsibility and Kouichi hers, but it is not that simple. I've asked myself many times since then, if someone does ask for ransom, whether I'd do the same thing for him as I would for you. Whether I'd give them what they want in the knowledge that few people return to their families once the demands are made, or risk everything trying to find him with the possibility of being the sole hand responsible for anything that happens as a consequence.'

He buried his head this time, giving up trying to get rid of the headache.

The phone rang at that moment, and he hurriedly snatched his head back up and answered.

'Hello?' he said hurriedly, forgoing common courteously in the slight feeling of urgency.

'And here I thought all businessmen acquired common courtesy at the very least,' an unfamiliar voice replied. 'Or perhaps you need nothing more than the money you already have.'

A hissed breath, and he quickly left the table and his son…just in case, stopping just outside the door. 'Who are you?'

'Someone who has one of your precious children.' There was a pause, as if the speaker; he couldn't even place whether it was male or female, was considering something. '6 million yen. Unmarked. Cash. I'll call you again tomorrow at this time with instructions. I await your answer then.'

There was a click as the caller hung up, and then the dial-tone.


6 million yen was…a lot. An average person could live at least three years, maybe four, with that sort of cash in hand in Tokyo, even longer in some of the more country areas, provided they weren't studying or being abstentious in their spending. Someone could study two years at Tokyo University, give or take a little, including all costs of living: accommodation, food, fees…6 million yen just wasn't the type of money someone had lying around. It was to be expected though. That was probably the reason why they targeted the wealthier inhabitants of Japan. It was more profitable. But still, 6 million was more than they had asked from any other family.

They did save money for college, as much as they could spare. They had money for "rainy days". They had cash on hand. They had assets. They had friends; they could gradually pay off loans on a later date. They could mortgage the house. The bank was open. Theoretically, it was possible to get that much money, but…

'There is no guarantee,' the middle-aged detective sighed.

He'd just finished grilling the father on the telephone call, trying to milk anything that would be of use.

'If only there had been some background noise.'

But there hadn't. Luck was against them. And not only that, but time was against them too.

In movies: TV dramas and that sort of thing, the police or the special task force always found the children abducted before anything happened. They always said not to pay the ransom. When it was a group, the kid of the parents that did pay the ransom came home in a body bag while all the others were safe. But this wasn't TV. It was real life. Only 40% of children were released after paying a ransom, and considering there had been several in a chain that had not, the guarantee for a safe retrieval was extremely low. In fact, the chances he was still alive were pretty low too.

But if they'd somehow managed to connect the dots, that meant they were getting close. And the detective said as much.

'I'm not risking my son's life on the chance that you lot might find him,' Tomoko had snapped, a little shrilly. Understandably so since she had head all the news reports, and seen through the sugar coated facts. 'You haven't found anything so far.'

It was true. Apparently one kidnapping had thrown them all for a loop. It hadn't fit in with the targets that had been predicted. The pattern was a tad different too; it wasn't unheard of forging legalities and using them to one's advantage, but the care taken proved it couldn't possibly have been a spur-on-the-moment idea. A little too well thought out actually, because it had thrown them all off track. Almost a classical example of negative transfer.

'What other choice do you have?' the other said, a tad coldly, before turning to Kousei as the woman turned her face away. 'Besides, it's not your call to make anyway.'

He looked at the father, who was looking at his ex-wife's face, drawn and pale, but with no tears outlining her eyes. Just like the day they had divorced. Just like the day her mother died (though he hadn't seen that part).


'If something happens to him now, it really will be my fault.' He said it in a monotone, should his tone try and rebuke him.

It was, without a doubt, one of the toughest decisions he would ever be faced with. It was worse, far worse, than signing the divorce papers. Worse than agreeing for the divorce; he could have fought custody with the courts and he had a possibility of winning too, what with Tomoko's illness, her lack of a job at that point in time (she had actually managed quite well, all things considered) and his own rather well off position, he stood a rather good chance of winning.

But that stranger, as much as one could argue had no emotional connection, had a point. It was entirely on his shoulders now.

'It won't,' Kouji muttered to his lap. 'It's their fault.'

Just like it was Lucemon's fault, all that had happened in the Digital World…

He was going to say this. Thank God he had his family and friends. He couldn't even imagine what it must be like for Kouichi, all alone.

He closed his eyes. He wasn't exactly religious, but that didn't mean he didn't believe in a divine deity, or look to them in such needy moments.

Please, don't let him suffer any longer

He didn't deserve it. Just like he hadn't deserved to be seized as a puppet and paraded across the digital world. But the world wasn't fair. That was what made it so beautiful and so deadly.