Day 018

Part 2

"The seventh floor is the most heavily protected," Nakahira told Ritsuka as the two reached the fifth floor. People were still gawked at Ritsuka and bowed whenever he made eye contact. He noticed how everyone was dressed formally and how they all carried themselves with dignity. "It's not just the hidden elevator. There are hiding trigger-happy snipers who'll blow your head off at any second. They're all trained to protect that floor, since it's where you and Seimei both live. There are also cameras that watch everybody's every move on that floor and people that guard the elevator and the railing. You don't notice them because you never realize they're there."

Just the thought of being watched every second sent shivers down Ritsuka's spine. He knew that Seimei probably watched the tapes. If Seimei watched Ritsuka's every move, how would he ever find a way out?

An idea crept into Ritsuka's mind, one that he didn't like one bit, but he knew would work. To get Seimei to stop watching him, Ritsuka had to gain Seimei's trust. He had to make him think he was on his side. That way he could betray him without Seimei ever seeing it coming. Maybe Seimei would also tell him about his plans. It was foolproof, even though Ritsuka hated it.

"Ritsuka," Nakahira lightly shook his shoulder, drawing Ritsuka out of his thoughts. "Are you alright?"

Ritsuka smiled again, sincerely, knowing he could trust this man, "I'm fine. What's the sixth floor used for?"

They had reached the fifth floor now. Nakahira led him into a long, deserted hallway just off of the landing. "It's just interrogation rooms and storage rooms," He shrugged, starting to lead him down the hallway. "This floor has a lot of hallways like this one. My bedroom and office is on this floor, even though my lab is in the basement."

"Are we going to your room now?" Ritsuka questioned innocently. Nakahira cast his gaze down at him, his eyes a bit dark. "No. I'm taking you to Seimei's office."

Ritsuka stopped. He didn't want to see Seimei yet, not until he got himself ready for actually being nice to him. He started to walk away when Nakahira called back to him.

"He's not going to be there. He just instructed me to show it to you."

Soubi watched as the little girl on the other bed blinked huge, blue eyes open. He was leaning heavily on Kiyoshi, who was the one who helped him over to the child's bed. It had snow white long, neatly cut hair and extremely albino skin. It was almost…scary.

"Hello Agatsuma-san," She said to Soubi in a sweet, innocent voice. She looked no older than eight but she didn't have her ears.

Nagisa was looking at it with analyzing eyes and she wrote down something on her clipboard. The girl, Hiro, reached towards her but couldn't reach very far because of the handcuffs that chained her to the railing of the bed. She glanced at them and pulled again and again

"How do you know…Agatsuma-san, Hiro?" Nagisa asked, making another note.

The girl giggled, blushing. This girl was creepy in a way Soubi couldn't explain. She looked directly at him, her bright blue eyes pouring into his. She laughed again, this time in an even more high-pitched way, "He's cute!"

Soubi rolled his eyes. "I'm leaving," He growled, wanting to go back to his side of the room, or, better yet, back to the dorm room.

"Wait!" The little girl said loudly before he could get anywhere. "I know where Aoyagi is~!" She sang and laughed again. She was taunting him now, and she knew it. Something about her made Soubi want to kill her all over again. He felt no shame, because she wasn't really a child, she just had the body of one.

"She has the mentality of an eight year-old," Nagisa told him quickly, probably sensing his anger. "She can't help it."

"Tell us what you know about Ritsuka," Kiyoshi demanded calmly.

"Ritsuka?" The girl repeated dumbly. "I know where Seimei is. Maybe he's keeping Ritsuka with him! Seimei lives in the Aoyagi Manor. I don't remember where it is. It looks like a castle! It's so big! Lots and lots of people live in there. There's a school, too! They trained me there, though I don't really remember what. Oh! They taught me to make pretty, pretty words! There's a mean, mean man named Nisei there. He punishes the kids at school. They also taught us about bad people called Septimal Moon. They said something about a resistance, whatever that means!"

Nagisa was already on her phone, calling Ritsu, "You should come down here. I think there's something you need to hear."

Seimei's office was big and extremely organized, almost to the point where it looked like nobody had ever been there. Nothing was out of place on the large wood desk. The huge picture window behind it didn't have a smudge on it. Even the books in the bookcase were arranged in perfect alphabetical order. The only thing that seemed out of place was the black leather tasseled whip with blood on it lying on the coffee table by the perfect couch.

The sight of it and the crimson blood that dripped off of it scared Ritsuka. He pulled at Nakahira's arm, wanting to leave before even stepping a foot inside the office. Nakahira seemed to understand, though and closed the doors to the office, leading Ritsuka back down the hallway.

Apparently, the fifth floor was used for offices of important people like Seimei, Nisei, corrupt lawyers and government officials, and even some of Seimei's higher up henchmen. The fourth floor had doors that simply led to hallways and the rooms of some of the most important people. The third floor had more offices for the less important people, as well as some guest rooms and interrogation rooms. The second floor was primarily for interrogation and conference rooms. Why Seimei needed so many interrogation rooms was beyond Ritsuka's imagination.

"And this is the first floor," Nakahira led Ritsuka to the bottom floor which was by far the busiest. One lady accidently knocked Ritsuka down and looked terrified when she realized that it was him who had fell over. She kept apologizing franticly, even though Ritsuka told her over and over that it was okay.

"This is the entry hall," Nakahira went on once the woman left. "Over there," Nakahira pointed towards the south wall, which was almost completely taken up by a huge archway. "That's the entrance. Over there," He pointed at the north wall where there was a smaller arch. "Is the entry to the rest of the manor. I'll leave you to explore the rest of your own, but I'll show you the outside, first."

They made their way through the crowd and out a large set of stained-glass doors Cold air hit Ritsuka's face and he shivered, glad he had worn a heavy sweat-shirt. He didn't look back at the manor until Nakahira stopped and Ritsuka involuntarily glanced back.

It was huge and it looked like a 16th century castle with some gothic architecture. There was the main building they'd come out of and a lot of towers and other buildings behind it. It looked like one of the stone castles in a history book. Ritsuka was almost surprised to see that there was no moat surrounding it.

"How'd he build this without anyone knowing?" Ritsuka asked quietly.

"The castle was already here. He just had Fighters mask it from the common eye while he did modifications. Masking means that its hidden, but a heat graph could still detect it," Nakahira was looking at it too, squinting in the bright noon sun. "Let's hurry and get to the school before nightfall."

"You ready for this?" Kiyoshi asked. Soubi sat on the steps of the marble city hall building in the city nearest Seven Voices. Kiyoshi stood on the step above him, keeping an eye out for reporters. Soubi was feeling better, even though he still felt a bit dizzy and couldn't breathe well. If someone were to attack him, he wouldn't have the strength to fight or to run. That was why Ritsu had ordered a unit to tail them, both of whom were sitting in a black window-tinted car out on the street.

It had taken them a full hour to get here and they still showed up thirty minutes early. It was nearing noon. Soubi was nervous, as much as he hated to admit it. If this didn't work, they would have to go with the other option. If the public didn't take well to the story, if it didn't go nationwide, they would have no other choice. Seimei was already trying to kill Soubi. If he continued working just with Kiyoshi and Septimal Moon, Seimei might eventually succeed.

Soubi had been going over their story over and over again, making sure he had it down. If he messed up just once, it would all be over. Kiyoshi had done this before. He wouldn't mess up. He was used to speaking to cameras and the public, where Soubi had never done it before.

"It doesn't matter whether or not I'm ready," Soubi replied as the two watched the first news truck with several cars tailing it approach. "What matters is that the public takes to the story and we find Ritsuka."

Everything depended on the public, as Kiyoshi had told Soubi during the first day of coming up with the cover. The public would be the ones to receive the story. They would have two possible reactions as a whole group; they would take well to the story and it goes nationwide or they hate it and pass it off as nothing. Kiyoshi and Ritsu had both used sources to increase the possibility that the story would be received well, but there was still the chance that the public wouldn't like it at all.

"Here we go," Soubi muttered under his breath when a woman came running out of the car towards them.

"Are you Aoyagi Kiyoshi and Agatsuma Soubi?" She asked, grinning excitedly. She was a young, pretty woman dressed in formal clothing. The head reporter, Soubi guessed.

Kiyoshi smiled back at her, "We are. You're here because of our story, aren't you?"

"Yes!" She motioned to the others and her cameramen and a couple other reporters came running. Another car drove up just as she was introducing herself as Kaiko, the head reporter for channel six. The street soon filled with cars and news vans and people surrounded them, half holding cameras, the other half speaking into them. Kaiko was the first to introduce them to the camera, making some joke about how everybody was here and didn't even know why.

"We were told to meet here today with these two for a very important, life-changing story," She spoke into the camera, casting glances at Soubi and Kiyoshi. "I think we all want to know exactly why you're here today."

The crowd went dead silent and all cameras were trained on the two adults everyone circled around. Soubi found himself speechless, trying to find the right words to talk, but not being able to speak. Kiyoshi, though, was looking directly into the camera with knowing eyes.

"Twenty days ago my youngest son, Aoyagi Ritsuka went missing," He spoke boldly and strongly in a way that Soubi didn't know he could.

Murmurs of surprise rippled through the crowd, but they soon quieted down again. Kaiko began to speak again, "Aoyagi…I've heard that name before. Are you by chance related to Aoyagi Seimei, who died a year or two ago?"

"He's my oldest son," Kiyoshi's voice was still strong, but now with a bit of anger in it.

As soon as he heard Seimei's name Soubi remembered what he was fighting for. Ritsuka could be dying and Soubi was at a press conference, doing nothing to help him. Seimei's name also ignited a fire within Soubi, something he had never felt towards Seimei before, but was the same kind of anger he felt towards Nisei.

Soubi stepped forward, looking into the bright light of the camera. "Seimei's not dead," He shocked himself with how mad he sounded and how he was actually able to keep a steady voice. "He faked his own death and now he's kidnapped his own brother."

More noise from the crowd sounded as he said it, this time louder. A man yelled from the crowd, "Who are you and how do you know?"

Soubi glared at the person who had said it, a short older man towards the back. "I'm Soubi, a family friend. I go to a university in Tokyo and I dated Seimei for more than a year," The crowd silenced again to listen to him. "Seimei kills people. He tortures them, he takes everything away from them and they lose the will to live. A few weeks before he died, the government got a warrant for his arrest and then he just died." Soubi noticed his voice gradually getting stronger and louder. "I bonded with his brother, made friends with him. Seimei always spoke of love for him. He was even…inappropriate with him at times."

Kiyoshi was nodding, "I never knew until Soubi told me." That seemed to be enough to convince the crowd.

"He would kiss him and even touch him while he was asleep," This part was true, too. Seimei always made Soubi hide whenever his brother would come in unexpectedly. He often watched Seimei kiss his brother's neck or even kiss him full on the lips. Sometimes Seimei would even leave Soubi in his hiding spot for hours while he put Ritsuka to sleep in Seimei's own bed and then he would watch over the sleeping child. Often, he put his hand under Ritsuka's shirt or run a hand down his thigh. Soubi had never told Ritsuka of this, and he hadn't really thought of it much, either.

"Why didn't you ever report it?" Kaiko pressed, sounding shocked.

This was actually working out well. "I wanted to," Soubi admitted, trying to sound somewhat sad. "But Seimei beat me nearly every day." Another true part. Soubi felt the bandages around his neck, briefly wondering how much of it disappeared. "He would torture me, both physically and mentally. I was also privy to his frequent crimes. All the fraud, the conspiracy, the murdering, everything. I knew about, but I couldn't tell anyone about it because Seimei threatened to kill me and everyone around me."

Ritsuka shivered from the cold, but darted after Nakahira anyways. They had been walking for almost a half hour. Nakahira had led him into the woods towards the left of the manor and down a beaten down path. Snow was still on the ground and Ritsuka was wishing he had put something even heavier on. Nakahira walked ahead of him at a fast pace, probably trying to save time.

Ritsuka found himself thinking of the last time he had gone out with Soubi in the cold. They'd gone out for a walk and had stayed out longer than they had expected to. It had been a cold night like this and they had gone for a walk around the city. Soubi had wanted to show Ritsuka the Christmas lights that were up. Not very long into the walk Soubi had noticed Ritsuka staring longingly at the couples holding hands as they walked, so he had taken Ritsuka's hand. Ritsuka smiled at the memory, remembering looking at the beautiful display of lights around town as the two held hands. It was one of those memories Ritsuka would never let go of.

"We're here," Nakahira had stopped and waited for Ritsuka to catch up as they came to a clearing. In front of them was a large, plain, rectangular building with no windows. Nakahira put his hand on Ritsuka's shoulder, speaking to him softly, "You're going to see some things here that you don't like. This is where children are trained. It's sort of like Seven Voices in that sense, but completely different… You'll see when you get in there."

When he started to walk towards the building, Ritsuka hesitated but followed anyways. They walked up the stone steps and into the building. The inside was just as unwelcoming as the inside. There was a wooden bench in a small entry area, as well as a gloomy receptionist. She glanced up at them, her eyes dark and a deep red scar going diagonally across her face. She bowed to Ritsuka and buzzed them through the intimidating large wooden door.

Ritsuka held onto Nakahira's arm again as they walked down the hallway. Something gave Ritsuka the same eerie sense that the manor did. A student walked past them in the hallway, his head dropped in submission. As he past, Ritsuka looked back to see blood soaking through the back of his shirt. Ritsuka whimpered, knowing what had probably happened to him.

"Students here are punished by whip and knife for bad behavior and grades," Nakahira murmured to him. "I'm sorry, Ritsuka. I know it's hard to see. I didn't want to take you here, but Seimei told me to."

"Can we please take a break?" Ritsuka remembered the first time he'd seen Soubi's back. It had been scarred from the base of his neck down past the waistband of his jeans. They were healing over, so they weren't like the Beloved scar, but they were there. Ritsuka could tell they were old, but some were newer than others. Ritsuka had always known that they were from a whip.

Soubi had stopped asking, but when they first met Soubi would always ask Ritsuka to punish him. He had stopped when Ritsuka finally told him that it was fine to make mistakes. Ritsuka understood after seeing the whip scars that that had probably been how Seimei had punished him.

"Of course," Nakahira pulled Ritsuka into a tiny closet. Things were piled on both sides of the closet on shelves. Nakahira closed the door and sat against the far wall, pulling Ritsuka down with him.

Ritsuka pulled his knees against his chest, feeling safer in the little supply closet. "Do you have any family?" He asked Nakahira after he calmed down a little.

Nakahira smiled sadly at him, "No, I don't. They were all killed in an explosion."

"An explosion…?" It sounded suspicious. It wasn't that Ritsuka was suspicious of Nakahira; he just thought it was odd.

"Seimei," Nakahira said simply, confirming Ritsuka's suspicions. "It was a family gathering. I had betrayed Seimei, told someone of his crimes. I wanted out. This is like the mob, Ritsuka. Once you're in, you can't get out. If you try to get out…well, Seimei blows up your family."

"How'd you first get involved with Seimei?" It was a question that had been nagging at Ritsuka. He had been too afraid to ask, though.

Nakahira stared at the floor, not saying anything for a while. Ritsuka started to apologize for asking when Nakahira spoke up, "He kidnapped me. I was a valuable asset. I knew some things about the origins of Fighters and Sacrifices. I had done some experiments without Septimal Moon's consent. He threatened to tell them on me unless I gave him all my research and went to work for him. After awhile, I wanted out, so I told my father. Less than a week later my entire family died in the explosion and I woke up in the same situation you did."

Ritsuka was a loss for words. "I'm sorry," Was all he could say.

Nakahira was smiling again, "Ritsuka do you have a father?"

Ritsuka looked down this time, remembering his drunken father. Aoyagi Kiyoshi. Ritsuka had never really thought of him as a father, though. He probably hadn't even noticed Ritsuka was gone. "Yeah…" Ritsuka said, dragging the word out uncertainly. "But Soubi's more of a parent than he is. Neither my mother nor my father ever really took care of me. For the last year or so, Soubi's been taking care of me. My mother beats me and my father just drinks all the time. Soubi treats my injuries, picks me up from school, and cooks for me."

"He's looking for you," Nakahira told him absentmindedly. He gasped suddenly, probably realizing what he had done. "Please disregard that."

Ritsuka looked at him as he hung his head and dropped his gaze in submission. "I'm not Seimei," Ritsuka's voice shook a little. "Please don't talk to me like I'm about to hurt you. I could never hurt anyone. Thank you for telling me. Do you want out, too?"

Nakahira took a long time to answer again. When he did, his eyes and expression were too hard to read, "Everybody does, even the students. They don't know it, but they talk of feeling out of place and how bad they're treated here."

"Why do they hate Septimal Moon?" Ritsuka trusted Septimal Moon, now. He knew that he always should have. They were not the bad ones, Seimei was the lying, evil one.

Nakahira sighed, "They don't know any better. The truth is with held from them. They know nothing of Seimei's crimes. If Seimei were to tell them to fight the Septimal Moon counsel, they would, simply because they don't know the truth."

For the rest of the press conference, Soubi and Kiyoshi were asked thousands of questions like how they didn't notice Ritsuka's disappearance sooner, more about Soubi's history, about Kiyoshi's parenting, why they thought Seimei had taken Ritsuka, and so many more. Finally, at almost ten pm, the reporters started to clear up. By eleven they were able to be back on the road.

At the end, the crowd was about three times the size of when they started. It wasn't just reporters; it was also civilians coming to listen to the story. They must've repeated the story about five times over. The crowd had been especially interested in the 'person', as Soubi told them, who had been sent to kill him.

They had slipped the words 'Fighter' and 'Sacrifice' into their speeches occasionally, but not in places where it would be out of place. This way, nothing would be suspected but units watching would know.

The reporters had left saying that it'd be all over the news in less than an hour. Fourteen had asked for interviews afterward, which they had given. Five woman and two men reporters had asked Soubi out. Three had promised later interviews. Even the director of one of the enormous news companies had talked to Soubi and Kiyoshi. He had seemed ecstatic about the huge story, and had promised to feature primarily them on his network the next day.

When they finally got back to Seven Voices, Soubi was having breathing issues and problems walking again. He leaned on Kiyoshi again as the other man took him back to the ICU. The curtain was pulled so that it was dividing the room again. Kiyoshi helped him into the bed and grinned wide.

"Why are you smiling like that again?" Soubi glared at him, knowing that he had probably just had another one of his ideas.

"I have a good feeling about this," Kiyoshi's smirk just grew wider. "Hey, get some sleep for once, will you? If you don't then I'll just get Nagisa to sedate you again."

Soubi laid back, closing his eyes, tired from the day, "Yeah. See you tomorrow."

long chapter is loooong. So I'll try to keep this short.

I'm going to start talking about some of the characters in my author's notes staarting with the next chapter.

HOLY SHIT GUYS, 80 REVIEWS? I was extremely happy with the response I got for the last chapter, so I updated as fast as I could. I WANT TO TRY FOR AT LEAST A HUNDRED REVIEWS! Well, not in the next chapter, of course. Maybe in the next three or four, though.

Oh boy, this AN is getting long-ish. ANYWAYS, I have most of this story planned out in my head. In my mind, there are 3-4 'parts' to the story. We're in the first one which I titled 'Seimei'. Though we're nearly at the end of that one, this story probably won't end soon. :D

No chapter tomorrow. I'm getting out patient surgery. Maybe the next day though, if you guys review :D
KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

Wish me luck for tomorrow,

~Wolfie