Sooooo, guess who's back with a brand new chap! (If you got this reference, you are awesome). Mock exams are over, and I have extra days of holidays, so I will try to finish this story, because my other ones are piling up faster that I can post them.
Drop me a PM if you want to see a story; I work better with requests if I'm stuck.
Enjoy!
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Monk sat in a small booth, his arm around Ayako. She was staring at her glass of red wine, slightly morose after another failed meeting with her parents, and was possibly contemplating the meaning of life within the depths of her wine. He'd picked up Ayako three blocks away from her family hospital, after she'd walked out in frustration and anger at their attempts to 'rein her in and stop this rebellious nonsense', and had showed up to the pub two hours early, mostly to wait for Ayako to calm down. His drink was sitting in front of him, collecting condensation, and a solitary drop slid down the side, making a bid for freedom, before it soaked into the beaten and battered wood of the table.
They were waiting on the arrival of the other 'old' members of SPR, for an impromptu meeting 'for the sake of having a goddamn drink with people', according to Madoka, who'd been tetchy all week and flinching at loud noises, although Naru and Lin had assured them that it was normal for Madoka to have off days like this around June, for some weird reason that neither could explain. Naru he could understand; he'd shrugged and just said that she'd always been like this since he'd met her. Lin had looked at him blankly, explaining that nature-based spirits always got like this before summer. Monk remembered brushing it off as a prank, yet…there were some things about Madoka that didn't quite add up.
As if his thoughts had summoned them, Madoka and a tall, dark-haired man that was definitely not Lin wove their way through the crowd in the pub, Madoka leading the man by the hand, giving the Cheshire Cat a run for his money and wearing bumblebee tights, while the man looked slightly uncomfortable in black jeans and a Para-natural shirt. Ayako blinked, and sat up straighter, narrowing her eyes at the man, before they widened in recognition and, Monk noted with a slight twinge of jealousy (he squashed it without mercy), the faintest bit of hero-worship.
"It's Dr. Li. He owns a small hospital near the red-light district, called Misfits."
Monk raised an eyebrow at her impressed tone, and wondered idly that if he'd managed to get through both high-school (he'd dropped out when he was seventeen, in order to pursue music) and med-school, if Ayako would have even looked at him twice with the same amount of hero-worship that she obviously held for this Doctor Li.
"Loaded, or…"
"Hard-working. He bought a run-down building, and transformed it into an emergency clinic for the poorer districts, specializing in paranormal and supernatural injuries. We took Mai there a few times, and it's where John and Masako went after their accident two cases ago, with Maya."
Monk nodded, and returned Madoka's cheery greeting, the man's soft-spoken "hello" almost drowned out by the noise of the pub. Monk stood to shake his hand, noticing the faint sheen of sweat on his brow, and the stress lines at the corner of his mouth. His hand was slightly clammy, and Monk thought that he was sick for a moment, while the man froze momentarily upon taking it. Monk frowned when the man didn't let go and the hand pressure increased as if he was clinging to Monk like a life-line.
"Um…"
"Your uncle was a fool, and the blame lies with him, not with you."
Monk blinked, stunned, and the man flushed, releasing his hand as if it scalded him, and gave Monk an embarrassed grin.
"My apologies, my gift often reaches out like that. Tajo Li, although Tajo will do just fine."
"Houshou Takigawa, call me Monk."
They both sat down, Madoka beaming at Ayako, who gave her a half-hearted smile in return, mood momentarily lightening at the sight of her slightly crazy friend. An awkward silence fell after Ayako and Madoka got their "are you alright", "how have you been" talk out of the way.
"So, Tajo,' Monk began, wishing to end the uncomfortable situation, 'if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is your gift?"
Tajo shrugged, a light flush adorning his cheeks as Madoka whispered something in his ear. Monk thought that he was either easily embarrassed, naturally shy, or lacked people skills, but Tajo seemed alright. The noise of the pub seemed to be getting to him, as he reached up and rubbed his temples.
"I have a large amount of PK-LT. Occasionally, I will be able to…read someone, or more accurately, their pain, be it physical, mental or emotional, no matter how old." Tajo gave a shy grin. "Very handy in a hospital, as Dr. Matsuzaki can attest to. But, in social situations like this…" he paused to take a sip of his water, 'it can be irritating. The information overload can sometimes overwhelm my shields. I don't get out much because of this."
Monk turned to Ayako, who lifted her shoulders.
"My parents have been trying to get him to work for us for years. He declines, politely, every time they ask, no matter how high they make his salary. It's something of a sore point with them; they're in the habit of comparing myself to him."
"Your parents are very constricting, with little tolerance of things that they don't understand, such as my desire to work with the less fortunate." Tajo replied, not unkindly, but merely stating facts. Ayako snorted.
"Tell me about it." She muttered, taking a sip of her wine. "Though, it would be funny if they find out how you actually diagnose your patients. It would probably give my mother a heart attack." Tajo narrowed his eyes, seeing something that Monk couldn't see. He decided to intervene, before Ayako got upset again. But Tajo beat him to it.
"Your parents are idiots. If they can't appreciate you for who you are, then they don't deserve you."
Ayako choked for a moment, before nodding, giving Tajo a sideways glance. Monk blinked. He hadn't seen that coming. But still, the opportunity to learn about the different aspects of Psychokinesis was too good to pass up.
"So, when you said read someone…" he began. Tajo gave him a wry look.
"It's a weird concept, really, but it's not as if there's a guidebook for this sort of stuff. Everyone is different; Mai is a good example of this. Hers is primarily PK-MT, yet her gift borderlines on LT as well. From what Madoka told me of the last case, she used the hand-tingly thing, and…"
"The what?" Ayako interrupted, face blank. Tajo shrugged, self-depreciating.
"I honestly don't have another name for it. It's what I did with Takigawa-san."
"Monk." Monk corrected. "Takigawa-san is my father."
"Right. So, it's basically when we have skin-to-skin contact. Most of the time, we can't stop it, but it's a matter of control. We can see images, or sense feelings of that person, but it stings a little, like pins and needles, hence the name. It doesn't fall into the category of psychometry, purely because it isn't an object, and we don't fall into the typical coma-like state. Anyway, back to the original question. When I read someone, it really depends on the context. For a patient, I would normally initiate contact to read them, often on the forehead, because of the nervous system. For anyone else, I can either use their aura, or merely focus on them, and take a few guesses."
"Can we get an example?" Ayako leaned forward, fascination rampant upon her face. Tajo gazed around the pub, and paused.
"You see the man wearing a dark red shirt at the bar, near the end? He just lost his job for the third time, his wife left with his only daughter, and he is estranged from his family. The man sitting next to him broke up with a long-time girlfriend because she was cheating on him with his best friend."
Monk blinked in shock, his eyebrows trying to merge with his hair.
"I'm impressed." Tajo stared at him.
"That's a first. Normally people cry "bullshit" or "fuck off" and mutter about exaggerators being the scum of the earth."
Monk couldn't help himself; he laughed, Ayako and Madoka giving him strange looks.
"Oh man, that's exactly what I get when I say I'm a Buddhist Monk who plays bass in a successful underground band." He chortled. "It's because of the hair and the earrings, I just know it."
Tajo smiled at him; a true, genuine smile, and his shoulders noticeably relaxed.
"When I tell them that I'm a doctor, it's even worse. 'But you're too young! You must be a student still!'" Tajo pitched his voice higher into a falsetto, and Monk wasn't the only one who laughed that time. Madoka checked her watch, and her brow furrowed.
"It's not like Koujo to be late."
Tajo looked at her, eyebrow raised, a smile still lingering on his pale features.
"It is if he's brining Ruka."
Monk blinked, remembering the bubbly ginger that had appeared at a case with Lin's ward, Ren, and had lectured Maya in a most spectacular fashion that had left even Ayako chagrined. Madoka nodded in understanding, a wry smile on her face.
"For a lawyer, she sure has no concept of punctuality." Tajo smirked in response, morphing his face into that of a prankster that had Monk checking his drink discreetly, and rolled his eyes.
"I do seem to recall a time when you were…they're here." His head snapped in that direction, and Monk frowned.
"You can tell when Lin is near you?"
Tajo shrugged, examining his bottle of water, a bit discomfited.
"I lived with Lin since we were eleven, so I know him pretty well. That, and he was dating my twin sister seriously, so…oh, and his aura's bright. Like, blindingly bright. It's a bit hard to look at, to be honest, but you'll never lose him, that's for sure. Most PK-LT users can see aura's, to help with the influence over the living beings. Lin's is like…staring into the sun on a summer's day, for about six hours, compared to, say, Matsuzaki's, which is like a forest; green and soothing."
Ayako raised an eyebrow at the comment, and leaned forward.
"Is it because I use tree spirits for exorcisms, instead of my own power?"
Tajo licked his lips, then nodded.
"It's entirely possible. Like I said, there isn't a guidebook for this stuff. Monk's is a mix between orange and red; most Buddhist exorcists are usually warm colours, and Madoka's is…pale, like a mix between grey and silver. Ruka's is black, like her non-existent soul."
Madoka coughed 'soulless ginger', and Ruka made a rude gesture towards the two, gaze dark, as she slammed her drink down on the table.
"Why Tajo! If I'd known that you find me hard to look at, I would have made it a point to stop by in the morning every day."
Lin gave Tajo a saccharine smile as his arm slung around Tajo's in a friendly half-hug that had Monk doubting his eyesight for a moment, and Tajo glared at him.
"Is there any way you could, you know, flip a switch and turn it off? It's very distracting."
"So you're saying that I'm distracting to look at now?" Lin leaned in, an intense look on his face. A hand trailed down Tajo's shoulder suggestively, and Tajo flushed, ducking his head, and shifting away from Lin's face, which was coming closer, fluttering his eyelashes.
"That's not what I meant." He snapped, falling halfway out of his seat. Madoka crossed her arms petulantly, and stuck her nose up in the air, snubbing them both.
"Tajo, I'm upset now. You find Koujo more distracting than me?"
Monk and Ayako watched with a mixture of amusement and disbelief at the teasing that was taking place before their very eyes, and the fact that Lin was the instigator, and was flirting with Tajo. Monk didn't pick him to be one that played for the other team, but to each their own, he supposed.
"I…um…he…" Tajo stuttered, looking between Madoka and Lin, before turning to Ruka, beseeching her for assistance.
"Help?"
Ruka sighed in exasperation, although her eyes were dancing with a mixture of mischief and amusement at Tajo's situation.
"Koujo, behave. Madoka, don't tease the poor boy. Honestly, the three of you are like children when we get together."
Madoka stuck her tongue out, and Tajo slumped into his seat, relieved. Lin huffed, but took a sip of some weird concoction that looked toxic, wincing at the taste.
"Last time I try anything you suggest, Ruka. This is foul."
Ruka shrugged, and snatched it, swapping the drink with hers, before takin a sip and sighing.
"You just can't feel the burn, that's your problem."
"Yeah, and getting you home after you've been drinking is also a problem." Lin muttered, causing Ayako to snort into her wine, and Monk to hide his smile behind his hand. Ruka ignored him in favour of flicking Lin's fringe, to which Lin hissed at her, making sure that it lay flat again, before turning to Monk, an expression of long-endured suffering etched upon his face.
"This is what I have to put up with." He deadpanned, causing Monk to snort.
"You love us!" Ruka declared, draping an arm around Lin's shoulders. Lin gave her a flat look.
"How much have you drunk already?"
Ruka pouted, and crossed her arms, and Monk sniggered under his breath at the childish action. It was so odd to see Lin's personality in a non-working environment; he was lively, almost bouncy, and had a wicked sense of humour to go with his equally sharp wit. Paired together with either Madoka, Ruka or even Tajo (when he wasn't ribbing him), they continued to shoot plastic daggered words at each other, including some very creative insults that bordered on the obscene. Ayako leaned into him, and smiled.
"It's weird to see them out of a work environment."
"Tell me about it." Monk murmured, watching as Lin moved Ruka's drink around to rest next to Madoka, before leaning back and watching the chaos that ensued, exchanging sly grins with Tajo. "But it's nice to know that both Lin and Madoka are just the same as everyone else. Well,' he paused, seeing Madoka pull a sleight-of-hand, and swap Lin's drink with Ruka's, while Lin stabbed a pen into the table next to Tajo's hand as he tried to slip something into Madoka's drink. "…Mostly normal." He amended.
Ayako smiled up at him as they continued to watch one of the most composed members of SPR goof around like a teenager, and grin unashamedly at the mischief he was causing. Yes, it was well worth coming to the pub tonight.
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In her cell, Cho paced. Her cell was 5 paces by 6 paces, and the padded walls and floor muffled her otherwise angry and worried footsteps. Her wrist ached and throbbed, the purple colour starting to spread up her forearm, while a cut on her forehead itched, but she dare not scratch it, least it get infected. In the cell next to her, Rose sat huddled in the corner, blonde hair almost brown with dirt and grease, and her ankle bound with bandages, uniform replaced by medical scrubs of some sort. They hadn't been touched yet; the last one who tried to force himself on Cho had regretted his mistake very quickly, but it was only a matter of time.
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Time that they were rapidly running out of.
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In a high tree overlooking a once-abandoned facility, Professor Ying, known as Hawk, perched, her yellow eyes scanning the grounds. She was diligent in noting all angles of escape, the guardhouses, the electric fence that was on (the power box was sparking) and the movement of various people in and out and around. Her pencil scribbled on the map, and noted which areas were occupied.
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Lives depended on this.
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In the mountain forests, Fox packed her bags, her car already running. A wolf spirit and her shiki had shrunk to fit into her satchel, and she double checked her knives, before loading a gun, and slipping it into a holster on her back. Looking back on the small cottage that had been her home for many years, she lit the match, the smell of petrol permeating her nose and attempting to pierce into her brain, and threw it inside, before shutting the door and jumping into her car, peeling away from the fire.
The explosion that followed was put down as a gas leak that had built up for years, before the wiring in the old house had short-circuited and sparked a flame. It had looked recently lived in, but that was put down as squatters or tramps taking shelter. Fox, meanwhile, was driving towards one of her old haunts, a wolf sitting on her passenger seat and hanging his head out the window, and a glass bangle of smoky red encircling her arm.
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Playtime was over.
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On the other side of the world, a man was buying an airline ticket to Japan at the airport, using cash in order to avoid being tracked. His hair was all one colour courtesy of hair-chalk; he'd wash it out on the plane, and he had brown contacts in that hide his normally white-blue eyes. His clothes were non-descript, and he blended in with the masses well. Anyone looking for him would have had to help him with his disguise. His pocket held an address on a scrap bit of paper, slipped to him during a hunt last week, and written in a code only known to him and his brothers. His phone had been left at home, and he had a card under a different name that he would be able to use.
He had been taught too well.
One bag held clothes and a few vials of holy water (it drew raised eyebrows at security, but they were used to stranger things, while a backpack held various weapons (his permit was examined thoroughly, but passed inspection) and a Japanese phrasebook.
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The deception commenced.
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A young man stood on the top of a hospital, looking out over the city, and his eyes raked the skyline intently. His hair was tossed by a light breeze, mussing it into a birds-nest, and his dark clothes soaked up the meagre heat that the sun offered. Closing his eyes, he came to a decision.
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It was time.
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Hey! REVIEW THE STORY PLEASE! TELL ME THAT YOU ARE READING IT! Also, tell me what you want to see next, or any case suggestions. Ta!
Cheers,
Siofra