antiTHESIS

edit: There will be no updates until September because I am to be entertaining my cousins from HK until the end of August. I'm sorry DDX

This is the next chapter, a bit late, sorries. XD

(This is now beta-ed.)

revised 2008.07.15

x falsities explained by more falsities

'Ryoma-chan, tell me about your family.'

Ryoma stared at Yukimura, who was smiling. 'Why?' he asked bluntly.

The older boy just continued smiling. 'Why not? I want to know more about your family. Just humour your senpai, would you?'

Ryoma sighed, sure that Yukimura would just find a way to trick Ryoma into telling eventually anyway. 'Well, my mum's like any other mum, I suppose, except that she must be crazy, 'cause she likes my dad, who's a pervert.'

Yukimura chuckled. 'A pervert? Is that his job, Ryoma-chan?'

Ryoma stared at his senpai. 'Of course not, Seiichi-senpai. He works as a...'

'A...?' Yukimura prompted.

'I'm not sure, actually,' Ryoma admitted. He brushed back his short hair. 'He never told me.'

'Well, that's not very nice of him,' Yukimura replied with a chuckle. 'Does he work long hours?'

Ryoma pondered this for a second, and then nodded. 'Yeah. Sometimes I don't see him for days.'

'Really now?' Yukimura asked, frowning. 'That's not very responsible of him.'

'Well, that's 'cause he's not responsible at all,' Ryoma grumbled.

Looking amused, Yukimura reprimanded, 'You shouldn't speak that way about your father.'

Ryoma shrugged. 'Whatever.'

'So, why don't you tell me more about your father?'

Confused about why Yukimura would even want to hear about his pervert father, Ryoma nonetheless started talking. 'Well, he always does these weird things...'

xsx

'What do you mean, Meino Ryoko doesn't exist?'

'I mean exactly what I said,' the doctor said firmly. 'There is no Meino Ryoko in our database.'

Tezuka had had a headache ever since he'd heard of the explosion, and it was only growing. Fuji and Meino were both injured, though Fuji was already 'doing wonderfully, Tezuka, so don't you worry', though he was still confined to a hospital bed. As of the moment, Tezuka was in Fuji's hospital room, with the doctor and Inui, who had insisted he be there.

'Inui?' Tezuka prompted, hoping that the data man had some sort of information on their mysterious secretary, but Inui shook his head.

'I never had time to do a background check,' he replied apologetically, pushing up his glasses. 'Since you had allowed her...' Inui's voice trailed off, Inui obviously not wanting to implicate Tezuka of being the person at fault.

'It is my fault,' Tezuka said quietly.

'And that it is!' was the cheerful reply from the bed, and both Tezuka, Inui, and the doctor turned to look at Fuji, who had just drifted back into consciousness. 'First, you lose Sakuno-chan, who has to be the best secretary you've had, and then you pick up this Ryoko-chan who isn't even a girl.'

Inui's glasses flashed as he processed this information. 'Not even a girl?' he asked with a frown, his notebook suddenly in his hand.

Fuji attempted to sit himself up, but gave up after the doctor sent him a withering glance. 'Oh, fine, fine, I'll just speak like this,' Fuji said with a smile, his head on his pillow. He turned to Tezuka. 'But really, Tezuka. Your actions that day were not the actions of the usually composed Tezuka that we know and love,' Fuji continued, scolding. 'And look what's happened now!'

'This is a very nice conversation and all,' the doctor interrupted, 'but I do need to know the name of the young man in the room next door.'

'Meino Ryoma,' Fuji said without hesitating, and both Tezuka and Inui stared at him. 'That's his name,' Fuji continued, addressing the doctor, who nodded and left the room.

'Meino Ryoma?' Inui repeated after Fuji, looking perplexed. 'I was never told of this, Fuji.'

'That's because I just found out today,' Fuji replied cheerfully. 'What do you think I was doing with Ryoma-chan here all day, hm?'

Inui frowned and said in a voice close to a mutter, 'Something illegal.'

Fuji only chuckled. 'Oh, Inui, do you really think so?' he asked playfully.

Tezuka was quite unaware of the banter around him, however, his mind elsewhere, elsewhere being the room in which a certain greenish black haired boy was lying unconscious.

Suddenly standing up, Tezuka said, 'I'm going to check on Meino-san.'

Fuji chuckled again. 'Tezuka, don't worry. Ryoma-chan isn't going to die or anything.'

Tezuka repeated himself firmly. 'I'm going to check on Meino-san.'

An 'I'm sorry, but you can't right now, sir' was what halted Tezuka, this having been said by the doctor who had just returned. 'With Meino-san in his current condition, the only people allowed to visit him are his family.'

Tezuka opened his mouth to say something back to the doctor, but shut it when he realised he didn't know what he was supposed to say. He sat back down, feeling strangely like a wilted flower.

'But doctor,' Fuji persisted, a wide smile on his face, 'Tezuka here is as close as it gets to being Meino's family, you know. Tezuka's been worried sick about Meino-chan, and I just don't think it's right to keep the two apart.'

Tezuka watched with horrified fascination as the doctor looked from Fuji to Tezuka with a look of dawning understanding of something that Tezuka didn't think was supposed to be understood. Pursing his lips, the doctor shook his head, albeit with a small smile. 'I suppose we can bend regulations just once, seeing as Meino-san has no other visitors. I'll show you to his room then, Tezuka-san.'

Before Tezuka could utter any protest, he found himself ushered out of the room, with the last thing he saw inside the room being Fuji's mischievous grin.

Tezuka's headache had just gotten worse.

xrx

'Tell me!' Shishido shouted for the umpteenth time, face red from anger, rage, and things of the like.

'I can't!' Choutarou seemed almost manic when he replied back, his voice wavering. 'Please, Shishido-san, just come back with me to the company building and I promise you, I'll tell you everything!'

'Why can't you just tell me now?' Shishido retorted. 'What's wrong with you, Choutarou? You've always been honest and nice and everything - I thought I knew you!'

'Please, Shishido-san,' Choutarou begged, 'I promise to be honest about everything if you just come back with me now.'

'And what's so important about going back now?' Shishido shouted. 'Something else you can't tell me? I've been asking you for hours, Choutarou - why couldn't you have just told me then?' Just tell me that you had nothing to do with it, Shishido's mind pleaded, tell me you had nothing to do with Fuji Yuuta's death.

There was a knock on the door that stopped Choutarou from answering, but nobody moved to open it.

The door clicked open to reveal a certain silver-haired trickster with an implacable smirk. 'Time's up, Chou-kun, Ryou-kun. So what shall you do now?'

'Time's up?' Shishido repeated dumbly, while Choutarou's expression changed from sad to extremely afraid.

Noticing Choutarou's change in expression, Shishido glared at him. 'What is it then? What else haven't you told me? What's happening?'

Niou snorted. 'Still haven't told him anything, Ohtori?'

'You're no better!' Shishido yelled back. 'You killed Fuji-kun!'

Niou stared right at Shishido and burst out laughing. 'You still believe that?'

Startled by Niou's sudden change of demeanour, Shishido said hesitantly, 'Yes?'

Niou just continued laughing. 'Oh, that's just rich. Spending hours in this room with the-'

'Shut up.' The voice was cold, quiet. 'Just shut up, Niou.'

Shishido and Niou both turned to Choutarou, his hands in tight fists. 'Don't you dare say anything,' Choutarou continued, his voice barely above a whisper.

Niou smirked. 'So what if I do? He was your first, wasn't he?'

'Just shut up!' Choutarou sounded almost crazed, his hands shaking violently.

'Oshitari would have done the job normally,' Niou stated matter-of-factly, walking closer to Choutarou, 'but Atobe had wanted you to prove your worth, right? It's a funny thing - the police chief was my first, his assistant was yours. Quite the coincidence.'

'Please, please, just shut up,' Choutarou said quietly, changing his tactics. 'Please.'

'What's this about Oshitari?' Shishido pressed, but neither of the other two paid any attention to him.

'And after I did my job, dear Yuuta-kun just had to get in the way. "What have you done to Mizuki-san?" he'd shouted. Quite like you in that aspect, Shishido, always yelling,' Niou commented, but Shishido didn't rise to Niou's taunt. 'So of course I told him, and explained why I did it. And that was when you showed up, right, Chou-kun?

'I'm sure you weren't planning on doing it - you just had to strike a deal with Mizuki, right? And then with the assistant there knowing everything I had just told him...' Niou's voice faded, before he added maliciously, 'You know, Ohtori, that the dagger used to kill Mizuki was found in Yuuta-kun's body?'

Shishido's head was whirling with all the new information, and he stared, horrified, at Choutarou. 'You didn't actually- you didn't - were you there - did you?' he asked feebly, feeling as if he already knew the answer.

'He did.'

The voice was not of any of the three inside the room, but instead, a low, suave voice.

'And well, now you know.' Oshitari smirked at Shishido, pointing a handgun straight at Shishido's chest as he stood in the recently vacated doorway, with Gakuto looking far more serious than usual behind him. 'I really don't know how you got into Hyoutei's higher ring of employees in the first place - oh wait, Ohtori pulled the strings for you, right? Funny that Ohtori's the reason you're going to be leaving as well.'

He pulled the trigger.

xxx

White.

Everything was white. Even with his eyelids closed, there was light.

And everything was all too familiar. The starchy sheets, the bright fluorescent lights, the too flat pillow. Ryoma had been in countless hospital rooms, and didn't appreciate being in another one...

The explosion. Ryoma suddenly remembered the fiasco at the hotel, though his memory was a little but fuzzy, and wondered how Fuji was doing and why on earth there had been an explosion anyway. It was quite obviously that either he or Fuji or both of them had been the targets, but why? He had to get out of this mess before he actually lost his life.

His eyes still closed, Echizen Ryoma speculated over what it would be like to have a normal life.

'Ryoma.'

Ryoma had to be hallucinating, because he had just heard his name. The only people that knew his actual given name would be his cousin, Meino Nanako, his old employer, Atobe Keigo, and Yukimura Seiichi (and anybody else that Yukimura had decided to tell regardless of Ryoma wanting to let go of his old persona, of course, being Yukimura and thus being a bastard).

'Meino Ryoma'

Now, it would be plain weird if Ryoma was hallucinating the same thing twice. He opened his eyes, very bright light suddenly flooded into his vision, and he blinked, a headache deciding that now would be a good time to join in on the fun.

Above him was a ceiling, and that couldn't possibly be the source of the voice. He glanced to his right. A window. To his left...

'Tezuka?' Ryoma rasped, making the man in question look actually surprised.

'I didn't think you were awake, Meino-san,' Tezuka said stiffly, looking oddly uncomfortable.

Ryoma sat up, the slight action immediately sending waves of pain through his body. Tezuka looked at him, frowning in a way that Ryoma assumed was to express concern. 'Ow,' Ryoma said for Tezuka's benefit, rather belatedly.

'You shouldn't move around,' Tezuka replied, quite redundantly in Ryoma's opinion. 'You're injured.'

'I know that,' Ryoma grumbled. 'You could have told me before I sat up.'

Then, Ryoma's thoughts drifted back to the matter at hand. How would he ask whether Tezuka actually knew his name or not? Asking Tezuka to say Ryoma's full name, just out of the blue, would raise suspicions. And asking Tezuka what he had just said would make Ryoma sound crazy if Tezuka hadn't actually said anything.

'Is your name Meino Ryoma?' Tezuka questioned unexpectedly, halting Ryoma's thoughts.

Well, that made things easier. Ryoma's golden eyes narrowed in confusion. 'How do you know that?'

'Fuji.'

Ryoma reran the events of the previous night in his head. They had gone to the hotel, and then they had ordered food and wine... And that was probably the source of the headache and fuzzy memories.

'Why were you saying my name?' Ryoma said after a pause, and Tezuka looked away, as if embarrassed - which didn't make sense. What did Tezuka have to be embarrassed about?

'I just wanted to see how the name sounded.'

'Oh.'

The room fell back into a dull silence, though this time, it was more awkward.

'Could you turn off the lights?' Ryoma requested, making Tezuka glance at him. 'I have a headache,' Ryoma elucidated.

'Maybe I'm contagious,' Tezuka said in a flat tone. Ryoma stared at him, and Tezuka looked away again - was that a tinge of pink of his cheeks?

'I mean, I have a headache too,' Tezuka continued, standing up to turn off the lights. 'I'll... leave now.'

'Don't leave,' Ryoma immediately replied, flushing afterwards. What the hell was he saying? ...But he really didn't want to be left in the hospital room alone. Too many people left him and never came back, or came back when unwelcome.

The lights stayed on. 'You should get your rest,' Tezuka said, sounding a bit uncertain as he sat back down.

'Where's everybody else?' Ryoma asked blearily, which, for some reason, made Tezuka look a bit frazzled, which Ryoma hadn't thought possible.

'They're in the hallway or with Fuji.'

'Fuji was injured?' Ryoma asked suddenly, feeling rather guilty about not questioning Fuji's health earlier.

Tezuka nodded. 'Not gravely. You're in far worse condition than he.'

Ryoma yawned, which made Tezuka say at once, 'You need your rest. I'll-'

'Don't leave,' Ryoma reiterated, his voice tinted with a bit of a whine. 'I won't rest if you do.' Ryoma cursed at how childish he sounded after he spoke - what was he, twelve?

After a pregnant silence, Ryoma added hesitantly, not really meaning it, 'You don't have to stay if you don't want to.'

'I don't mind.'

Tezuka's voice was a comforting rumble, Ryoma decided, and closed his eyes, letting sleep take him, feeling more relaxed than he had in a long time.

xhx

Atobe sat at his desk, his fingers drumming a rhythm on the hard wood. As he looked out the window, he wondered how things were going.

Shishido would be a loss, Atobe thought, but not too much of one. He'd always had too much of a conscience to do anything truly useful, only there because he had an unexpectedly sharp mind for business. But brains were easy to come by - Atobe had only promoted Shishido because Ohtori had wanted him up at the top of the company with him, and Ohtori was somebody that Atobe couldn't get rid of.

The newest addition to his circle that was still living - it was a pity about Hiyoshi though - Ohtori had the heart of a weak angel - someone with enough morality to be blackmailed but not enough morality to stop himself from doing something that would make blackmail material. Plus, Ohtori had the face of an angel as well, and his smile was something that Atobe couldn't achieve, perfect for clinching deals and making people feel like they had done something great instead of something illegal.

Atobe had no doubt that Ohtori wouldn't be able to convince Shishido, Shishido having the stubbornness of a dumb ox. He only hoped that Oshitari was up to the job - Oshitari had been gaining a bit of a conscience lately, especially after the thing with Hiyoshi.

And then there was the wild card: Meino Ryoma, properly known as Echizen Ryoma - though Ryoma didn't know that Atobe knew about his past. Ryoma didn't know very much about anything, which was quite good for Atobe.

Ryoma held the key to everything, of course, though Atobe had never been able to find said 'key' - which was why Atobe had fired him. Atobe would never have fired Ryoma had he known that he'd end up, somehow, in Tezuka's clutches - Seishun was far more trouble than it was worth, though at least he had somebody there to keep watch.

Atobe only hoped that things would work out soon - he didn't have any intention of ending up like his own father:

Dead by the hand of Rikkai.

x tsuzuku

I had to have something in Atobe's point of view, so...there it is. I really would like to know your thoughts on this chapter - a lot of things have been happening, and I want to make sure that they still make some sort of sense. -awinchan