7
Chapter Thirty-Eight:
Mr. Blaze
"Soo... what do you think, Mo? Am I gonna live?" Nami asked, sitting motionless on a bench in the stadium lobby. Mamoru had unearthed the first-aid kit there, and had insisted on bandaging Nami up before they left.
"I think the odds are in your favor," Mamoru assured her, fixing a bandage over the spot. "It's not deep, you'll be fine. Just... no more fighting. Not for a while, at least. Especially no more crossfusing."
"NAMI!" Ailee, Raize, and Sean came bursting through the doors, pale and confused. "Omigosh, Nami, are you okay?" Ailee asked in a panic.
"I'm fine..."
"We heard a gunshot," Sean added, also terrified. "Did anyone else get hurt?"
"No, everyone's fine," Chaud assured them.
"Good..."
"I don't get it," Raize said, sitting on the bench armrest next to Nami.
"What, why your sister's not dead?" Ailee asked.
"NO—well, yeah, sort of, but..." He shook his head, looking at the bandage on Nami's throat. "I mean... this guy's a world-renowned killer, and he just gave you a scratch? I don't know about you, but that's a little anticlimactic for that kind of guy."
"I agree," Nami sighed, "but I'm not complaining."
"Come on, guys, we've got dinner," Mamoru reminded them.
"Unfortunately," Raize scoffed. "Ridiculous, really."
"How so?"
"What's the point?" Sean asked. "We go, we meet him, then what?"
"We drop stain remover on a puppy and tell the six-year-old down the street that Spot's gone," Raize suggested seriously.
"Stop being so immature!" Ailee snapped. "Act your age, not your shoe size."
---
"There CANNOT be nothing! There HAS to be something on this guy!" Nami lamented, staring at the blank screen in disbelief. She and Chaud had spent the past hour searching for a site on Johnny Thirteen. "There is no possible way on Earth that there isn't a single reference to him..."
"I would think the DNN journalists would have at least mentioned him in something. Match updates, latest news, something," Chaud agreed, searching online databases with his PET. "This is unbelievable."
"And it's only gonna make our job harder," ProtoMan added. "Then again, with tomorrow night being New Year's Eve, what did we expect?"
"An info site," Nami sighed, shutting the computer down. "A past news article, archived reference, something..." With that, she flopped down on her bed. "Ow..."
"Be careful," Sen belatedly reminded her.
"Thanks..." She frowned at the clock, showing 3 PM. "I... hate... knives."
"Don't we all." Chaud crossed his arms, shaking his head. "I didn't think he'd make such a public appearance. I mean, the entire city was watching that—I assume."
"Probably," ProtoMan said. "Considering you two were all over the news..."
"Don't remind me," Nami moaned, clamping a pillow over her head. "I have half a mind to just live in my room until some meteor decides to crash down on all the paparazzi of the world..."
"Don't say that," Chaud said wryly, sitting on the bed beside her. "That'd be no fun."
"But it'd be safe," Nami pointed out.
Chaud shook his head. "We're in agreement that we think all paparazzi deserve nothing less than to die a slow and utterly painful death. But that's just it. We think that. There's not much we can do about it."
Nami shrugged. "I guess you're right..." She sat up, smiling at him. "When are you planning on going home?"
"Soon, I guess," Chaud said, frowning. "Earning some brownie points with my dad couldn't be a bad thing."
"I hope so." Nami stared at the blank computer screen on her desk.
"What?"
"I keep thinking that there's something we're forgetting about Johnny..."
"How so? We only just heard about him," Chaud pointed out. "Besides, we'll get some info eventually... I bet you anything that Officials will put together a conference within the next two weeks that I'm expected to ditch school to go to so I can give firsthand accounts," he added.
She smiled. "Have fun with that."
"Yeah." He got up. "Hey, I should go home..."
"Okay..." Nami stood up too, taking his hand. "I'm sure everything will be fine," she said. "Don't worry."
"I'm not worried," he sighed. "I'm just... nervous."
"Relax," she told him. "We'll come by around six, 'k?"
"Okay..."
---
Three hours later, Chaud stared out the window from his bedroom, watching for the Hallissys. "I CANNOT believe this is actually happening..."
All five of them appeared out of the darkness onto the doorstep, Raize ringing the doorbell.
At the sound of the bell, Chaud raced down the stairs, skidding to a halt in front of the door, pulling it open.
"Hi, Chaud!" Nami smiled brightly. "Can we...?"
"Yeah..."
"You ok?" Mamoru whispered as he passed Chaud.
"Yeah... just nervous."
"Don't worry, this shouldn't be brain surgery or anything," Raize added cheerily.
"You. Quiet. All night," Ailee warned him.
"What!?"
"If you MUST speak, make it a useful contribution to the conversation," Mamoru concurred, casting a Look in Raize's direction that clearly told him to shut up.
"Fine." Raize glared at them for a moment, then promptly snapped back to reality as someone walked into the room; the cook.
"Hello!" she said cheerily. "Mr. Blaze just called me, he wanted to tell you that he'd be late to dinner tonight, and he wants you to start without him."
She walked out, leaving the other six speechless.
"My dad... is late?" Chaud asked in shock.
"I take it this is unusual." Mamoru led the way into the dining room, where they discovered that someone, undoubtedly Mr. Blaze himself, had arranged name cards throughout the table.
"Um... wow... it's not like this EVERY night, is it?" Nami asked, casually examining one of the cards.
"No..."
Once everyone had found a place, Chaud finally saw the purpose of the cards. "It's so he can remember your names," he told them.
"Really?" Sean asked incredulously. "He could have just asked."
"True. But still..."
With a sigh, he took the place across from Nami. Looking down the table, he thought he saw a second purpose of the arrangement.
Mamoru was conveniently placed at the opposite end of the rectangular table, directly across from where Mr. Blaze himself usually sat. On the long side of the table, Raize and Sean were grouped together with Chaud, Raize closer to Mamoru, Sean in the middle, and Chaud next to his father. Ailee and Nami were together on the other side, Ailee next to Mamoru. Once Mr. Blaze got home, Nami would be sitting right next to him.
Perhaps this wasn't just a name issue.
"Um... this is... nice," Ailee said, desperately trying to start a conversation in the uneasy silence. No one responded for a moment.
"Oh, will everyone just relax?" Nami sighed. "It's dinner. Hardly the end of the world, guys."
Chaud didn't hear her. He was busy speculating the point of their positions.
Mamoru was obviously across from Mr. Blaze since they were both in charge of their households. But putting him next to Ailee confused him. Why would he put the twins together? They're the two oldest...
Sean was closer to Mr. Blaze than Raize, which could have meant that he'd heard Raize talk before, and was intent on making Sean say something.
And, of course, his father would NEVER have put him and Nami on the same side. He wanted to keep them separate, but at close range.
God forbid we kill someone or anything.
A sharp kick from Nami under the table snapped him back to reality.
"Chaud. They're just name cards," she told him. "It's not a big deal. Get over it." She smiled as the door opened. Mr. Blaze had arrived.
"Hello!" His cheerfulness was unusual enough for the entire room to notice as he sat down. Looking around the table in a slight confusion, he asked, "Is something wrong?"
No one immediately answered him, finally Mamoru had the sense to speak up. "Nothing, just a little edgy..."
"No need to be 'edgy' here, but I can imagine that you would all be very hungry."
"Absolutely!" Raize said without thinking. Mamoru kicked him too. Lucky thing, too...
The awkward silence ensued well after they had started eating. Looking down the table, Chaud noticed that it wasn't just silence. He saw Ailee and Mamoru subtly communicating in what could only be described as a sort of wordless twin language.
"So then!" Mr. Blaze finally said. "Tell me about the match."
"Wha—you weren't there?" Chaud asked, almost disappointed.
"Not for the last bit of it, I'm afraid," he sighed. "After the power cut out I was escorted out."
After a few minutes of him and Nami piecing everything together, Mr. Blaze finally cut in. "Wait—there's another assassin out on the loose?"
"We're not sure if Johnny Thirteen is an assassin, or just some random person," Mamoru clarified.
"But he's still out there. And we don't know who he is," Ailee added.
"And no one got hurt?"
"Nami got cut, but that's the only known injury," Chaud told him.
"I noticed—that bandage of yours."
"Yeah..." Nami laughed a little. "I'm glad no one else got hurt."
"Indeed... has anyone tried to find out anything more about Johnny Thirteen?" Mr. Blaze asked.
"We looked him up," Chaud said. "Nothing."
"Not a single reference?"
"Not one," Nami said. "It's almost like he doesn't really exist."
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough, won't we. 24 hours..."
"I wonder if he'll even pull through and show up," Ailee said.
"He will," Nami sighed. "Criminals seem to like working together against a common enemy."
"Which would be us," Mamoru added.
"Perhaps he's not an assassin, just suppose," Nami suggested. "What then?"
"We assume he's some master of grand larceny, or the like," Chaud told her. "Since he was 'called out' by the Black Assassin, we know he's a criminal."
"What if he's not?" Mr. Blaze asked, startling everyone. "Say he's not a criminal."
"How are we supposed to know?" Chaud asked.
Mr. Blaze looked questioningly at his son. "Innocent until proven guilty, I trust, is the standard belief."
"True... but what does that mean for us?" Nami asked. "We treat Johnny like a lost child until we find blood on his hands and a corpse in a back alley?
Mr. Blaze stared at her in shock. Oh, Nami... what on earth are you thinking!?
"I don't mean that we should treat him as an innocent," Mr. Blaze said icily, "simply that we should collect more evidence until we jump to conclusions. What are they teaching you at that school?"
"Things we'll need if we want a good occupation," Chaud said, jumping in before Nami could further upset Mr. Blaze.
"Such as?"
"Math, science, English—"
"Second languages, history, and networking," Nami added, completely nullifying Chaud's rescue.
"Why on earth would you need to understand history?" Mr. Blaze asked curiously.
"History has a habit," she told him. "And that is to repeat itself, quite often, in fact. And so, if we're going to avoid making the same mistakes as the Trojan War, the Boston Tea Party, and World Wars, we have to study them."
He stared at her again. "I see..."
"Aimes-tu l'histoire, Monsieur ?" Raize asked scathingly, receiving another kick, from Ailee this time.
"Sorry?" Mr. Blaze asked. "I didn't quite catch—"
"It's nothing! Never mind," Mamoru told him firmly, shooting another Look at Raize.
"If you say so."
The room fell back into silence as they continued eating.
"Are there any suspects?" Mr. Blaze asked finally. "For the Black Assassin or Johnny Thirteen?"
"None that we can think of," Chaud answered. "The Black Assassin is definitely male, though."
"And we can assume that Johnny is too," Nami added.
"What if Johnny Thirteen was a girl?"
This statement brought a completely different kind of silence to the table. Not awkward silence, but confused silence.
"If... a woman?" Chaud asked
"Not even a fully grown woman, an adolescent girl," Mr. Blaze corrected.
"What do you mean by that?" Nami asked, sounding more shocked than everyone else.
"What do I mean? Exactly what I said," Mr. Blaze snapped. "What if Johnny wasn't a man at all?"
"I think Johnny would be male, adolescent or otherwise," Mamoru said.
"What do you think, Chaud?" Nami asked.
Chaud sighed. "This is the disadvantage about work as an Official... there's so much conjecture and what-iffing involved..."
"So?"
"Yes, I think it's possible that Johnny could be female. No, I don't think it's a very high possibility, and I don't think we have enough information to make that kind of assumption."
"I... see..."
"But with all common sense, would it even be logical?" Mamoru asked. "For him—or her—or whatever—to be a girl?"
"Eventually, you get to a point in life when you've seen everything," Mr. Blaze said. "It wouldn't surprise me."
"It'd shock me," Ailee said truthfully, stabbing at a potato.
"Why an adolescent girl?" The whole table turned to look at Sean, who hadn't said anything else all night.
"Sorry?"
"Why would you think Johnny was a teenage girl?" Sean asked, looking Mr. Blaze square in the eyes. "I mean... it's a little... out there."
"True. But I think it's a possibility."
"So then, you could also say that Johnny Thirteen is a chinchilla, and that would be a possibility too, since we don't know anything?"
Raize quickly turned his laughter into a sneeze, getting kicked again by both of the twins.
"I'm... not sure I'd pin chinchilla as a definite alternative," Mr. Blaze said slowly, "but I do suppose anything goes at this point."
"At what point?" Nami asked. "We've only heard about him maybe six hours ago, what point can we possibly have already reached?"
Mr. Blaze eyed her suspiciously. "For you, young miss Hallissy, the point of no return."
Nami frowned. "Wh... What?"
"The point of no return. Everyone has secrets. And, in time, of course... all secrets are revealed."
It took everyone a moment to completely understand what he was getting at.
"You're accusing me of being Johnny Thirteen?" she asked.
"Must I spell it out?"
"You can't be serious," Chaud shot at him, indignant. "What grounds do you have to make that kind of accusation?!"
"I don't."
Chaud stared in shock at his father. "So, then, it's just some wild guess?!"
"If you would choose to call it that."
"If it were true, why would the Black Assassin try to kill me?" Nami asked. "If he was looking for me, why didn't he just kidnap me right then?"
"You tell me," Mr. Blaze suggested calmly.
"That's enough!" Ailee snapped. "Nami's not a criminal!"
"SOMEONE at this table has to be," Mr. Blaze said, still inexplicably calm.
"Again, on what grounds?!" Chaud barked.
"Angel."
The entire table went silent, there was an unmistakable taboo about the name that reminded Chaud that Angel was dead.
"What about him?" Mamoru asked, deliberately stressing each syllable.
"He was killed, wasn't he? By that Black Assassin."
"What on earth does THAT have to do with anything?" Ailee asked.
"Father, stop this—" Chaud was cut off by his father.
"I wouldn't know. Tell me what happened."
No one spoke.
"Why would the Black Assassin choose such a seemingly random family as yours?"
"Seemingly random?" Sean sighed.
"I would assume he had help."
"Nami would NEVER have helped him kill Angel," Mamoru snapped.
"Then explain to me how this Angel came to be killed out of the blue," Mr. Blaze said, undaunted.
No one could answer him.
"Unless you were a family incredibly well known in a crime ring – which I would not doubt," he added, "it seems to me like someone had to have singled him out. Someone who knew him well... like a sibling. Perhaps a sister, maybe?"
"Father!"
"I beg your pardon?!" Ailee demanded.
"Not you. Nami." Just by saying her name,
"I did NOT help the Black Assassin kill my brother!" Nami shouted, her eyes filled with tears.
"Nami..." Chaud could see it was taking all of her composure and self-control to keep from dissolving into tears.
She didn't answer him, instead she quickly got up, and rushed up the stairs to the sanctity of a bathroom.
The silence at the table was suffocating. Sean looked up the stairs, as though he was debating following his sister up there. Mamoru and Ailee both looked at each other, then quickly turned away, staring at their half-empty plates. Chaud himself was upset with his father beyond words.
Raize, on the other hand, appeared to be the only one with the strength to say something. A look in his eye Chaud had never seen before, Raize glared at Mr. Blaze.
"I would expect that you, sir, would have a better disposition around guests. Those scars run deep in all of us."
Mamoru didn't try to shut him up, nor did Ailee or Sean.
"Although, I notice your wife isn't here."
Mr. Blaze looked shocked, almost offended. What was Raize thinking? He knew as well as Chaud himself did that Mrs. Blaze was long dead.
"Please tell her we said hello. When you see her next, of course."
Mamoru and Ailee both stood up without a word. Ailee headed up the stairs to get Nami.
"As wonderful as this night has been," Mamoru said darkly, "I think we should stop wasting your time here. You're a busy man, and probably have better things to do than put up with us."
Raize and Sean took the cue, standing up too as Ailee and Nami came back downstairs.
"I'll walk you out," Chaud said, still in utter shock. The six of them walked out of the completely silent room.
---
"Guys... I am SO sorry," Chaud told them as they walked out of the dining room.
"It's not your fault," Nami said softly. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, 'k?"
"Okay..."
The Hallissys left quietly. Chaud closed the door behind them, sliding down to the floor, his back against the wall.
"I canNOT believe this just happened..."
7