There is a reason this chapter ends like this. There is only one
person who knows WHY it ends like this (Hey Averry :P). And yes, it
does have relevance to the story ^-^V *snickers wildly*
In other news, I've got a new fic. It's called "Shiva". It's final
fantasy eight. It's only on Fanfiction.net. And it's only being
updated about every three weeks. False Identity will still be coming
out every week.
Oh, yeah, my website's up and running properly, again.
Http://www.crosswinds.net/~li_xiang, for those of you who haven't
followed the link from my fanfiction.net account. The StoryTeller
needs updating. I'll get there... eventually.
False Identity
Chapter Ten: Pawns
Li Xiang
It was a three-man mission. Aya had bailed, due to Ranko's sudden
cold. It was the first time ever, but it wasn't all that important of
a mission anyway. Just some old politician who was wanted dead.
The redhead had a feeling that this would end up as an Schwartz/Weiss
battle. Again.
---
They had met, and they had fought just as Aya had predicted they
would. And, while it was not unusual for someone to return injured
from battle, it was unusual for only two of three to return.
Omi and Yohji stumbled into the Koneko, blood dribbling from wounds,
and soaking poorly crafted makeshift bandages. Yohji held his hand
over the left side of his face, glimpses of dark-red blood stained
skin between his fingers.
Omi, too, was bleeding, his white hood soaked with blood, he looked
unable to do anything but drag himself to a chair.
Aya had waited for his partners to return, first aid kit in hand. He'd
had a feeling it would be needed. Ranko was sleeping upstairs-- in her
own room, this time.
"What happened?" Omi looked like he could handle the wounds a bit
longer-- Yohji was about to collapse. In fact, the eldest of them
collapsed into a chair as Aya tugged his hands away from his face. It
wasn't really something he was used doing for other people, but
neither looked capable of caring for themselves.
"Schwartz," Omi muttered the obvious, "Farfello and Crawford double
teamed Yohji. Schuldich was on Ken, and Nagi, me."
Aya-- ever calm, ever cool, unless dealing with screaming fangirls--
winced. Farfello had tagged Yohji pretty bad. It looked like the
Irishman had tried to gouge the lanky man's eye out. The slash had
just barely missed Yohji's left eye, running at a diagonal from scalp
to cheek bone. There was less than two millimeters between the edge of
the cut and the outside corner of his eye.
There was no doubt in Aya's mind. He'd seen enough blade wounds to
_know_ Yohji's will scar. He also knew it would need stitches.
"How bad...?"
Aya had turned to pull the sewing needle and thread from the first aid
kit, "You need stitches."
The playboy gave a slight whine from the back of his throat, but sat
still as Aya pressed a wet cloth to the wound. A faint whimper of pain
from behind him had the redhead setting the needle down to check on
Omi. Hopefully it would only take a few minutes, and he'd be able to
get back to stitching up Yohji's face.
The youngest of Weiss had shed both of his jackets-- the black
crumpled across the floor, the white draped over the back of the
chair. Aya could see what looked like knife wounds that matched the
few throwing knives Omi had brought with him for the mission.
The logical conclusion was that Nagi had caught the blades with his
telekinesis-- and sent them back to the other hacker. All Omi needed
was a few proper bandages; he wasn't all that bad off, considering
he'd only had to fend off Naoe Nagi.
Once the boy had been taken care of, about five minutes later. Aya
turned back to the needle and thread he'd pulled out. Quickly
threading the needle, Aya tugged the cloth from Yohji's face, "Hold
still."
The assassin closed his eyes with a bit of a whimper as the needle
passed through the skin of his forehead.
---
Ranma paused at the top of the stairs. She'd heard two people enter
the Koneko. She'd heard them stop and not move again. She'd heard
slight whimpers of pain, and the statement of who was fighting whom.
Then she'd smelt the blood.
With the Cat's ability to use ki to heighten her senses, Ranma had
been on 'full alert' since the water fight. Consciously activating
said ability was a lot harder than letting the Cat do it
unconsciously. She _really_ didn't want to have to force it again, so
she hadn't bothered to "turn it off", so to speak.
She drifted down the stairs, wondering just what she'd see.
Aya putting away a needle and thread, Omi practically passed out in
his chair, and Yohji staring blankly at the ceiling with one eye-- the
other being closed as not to pull the skin beneath the stitches-- and
Ken nowhere to be seen had not been what she'd expected.
---
Ken, at that moment, was slowly regaining consciousness.
He found himself sprawled across a small bed, a thin sheet thrown over
his body. His bugnuks and communication devices missing-- not to
mention damn near all his clothing. He had his boxers and his t-shirt
still on, but that was it. The wounds on his arms and legs had been
bandaged.
All of this was, of course, offset by the shackle around his right
wrist, locking him to the bed with a chain of about five feet in
length. A test of its strength revealed that it was unlikely he'd
break it.
He raked his mind, trying to remember how he'd gotten to this small
bedroom/cell. He came up with a blank-- the last thing he could
remember was fighting Schuldich. He'd knocked the older man back and
went running to give Yohji a hand with Crawford and Farfello. He could
remember a sharp spike of pain lancing through both skull and mind,
and then... nothing.
With no idea where he was, or how he'd gotten there, Ken was leery of
trying the one thing that would get him free. It was one of the few
things he had from his life prior to Weiss; also one of the things
Kritiker did _not_ know about him. But he did not know what else to
do.
He relaxed his ever-present concentration. It had gotten to the point,
over the years, that even during sleep or unconsciousness his mind to
focused enough to control it. He was normally so focused on himself
that he was clumsy in doing mundane, everyday things.
Ken's wrist passed through the shackle, with no mark left behind. He
also happened to sink about halfway through the bed before noticing.
Shaking his head, the young man pulled himself free, snapping his
iron-clad control back in place. The feeling of passing _through_
objects had _always_ creeped him out.
Shivering as the cold air brushed across his skin, he grabbed the
sheet from the bed, wrapping it around himself. He was halfway to the
room's door when it swung open.
Schuldich stood there.
He also happened to look a bit surprised at Ken's freedom, but quickly
hid it. Ken growled at the sight of the black hunter.
"I take it I'm Schwartz's prisoner, now?"
"No," Schuldich said this with a maddening grin, "Crawford doesn't
know I have you. You're _my_ prisoner."
---
Ranko _stared_ at Omi.
"You don't know...? I thought he was one of your partners, Tsukiyono!"
"He's my friend!"
"Then how could you _not_ know where he is?" Aya's hand landed on her
shoulder, and she shot him a dark look. She may not have any "real"
friends, but she knew they were supposed to watch each other. Hell,
she'd looked out for enemies and allies who were normally enemies back
during her days in Nerima. The only one she did not know where he was
on a regular basis was Ryouga-- and that was for a very good reason.
Aya's look told her to shut up and sit down. She returned it with one
that had 'I'm not doing this because you said to, I'm just not feeling
well' stamped all across it.
She gave an exaggerated cough just for good measure.
Yohji had passed out in his chair-- which was expected, considering
the blood he'd lost, the pain of the wound itself, on top of having to
drag himself back to the Koneko in that state. Ranko dropped herself
onto the arm of the chair Yohji was in, with a scowl.
"Ranko."
"Yeeeeees, Aya?"
Aya paused for a moment, before firming his resolve. At this point, he
didn't really care that she found out he knew, "Contact Schuldich."
She blinked, "Eh? Why should I?"
"Because," the older redhead snapped, "He was the one fighting Ken!"
"Okay, Okay, no shouting necessary."
/Schuldich,/ she reached out along the thin mental pathway that
spanned the distance between their two minds and sing-songed, /Where
are you?/
There was a few minutes of silence followed by, /What is it, Bishoujo?
I'm busy!/
/Doing what?/
/Stuff. What do you want?/
Ranko snickered a bit, /Sooooo, you were fighting Ken?/
/The weiss katzchen returned, did they?/
/They did,/ Ranko smirked a bit. Of course, Aya shot her a look that
clearly meant for her to get their answer, /Any ways, Aya's giving me
evil looks... where is he?/
Schuldich gave a snort of amusement, responding, /What makes you think
_I_ know?/
/I don't. Aya says you do./
/Abyssian's a smart one, then,/ Schuldich started to withdraw from her
mind.
/You going to tell me where he is?/
/Unlikely,/ and then, the jade-eyed assassin's presence in her mind
was gone. Ranko returned her attention to the outside world.
"He's got Ken."
Omi's face paled, "Where? Where is he?"
Ranko's look was pure disdain, "Riiiight. Even if Schuldich had told
me, why would I tell _you_, Tsukiyono?"
"Ranko."
"Aya," she mimicked, "Like I said-- Schuldich didn't tell me where he
is." Her face lit up even as she fended off a sneeze, and jumped to
her feet, "Oh! I could go look for him!"
"You can't! Schwartz will kill you!"
Three guesses to who that was. Both Aya and Ranko ignored Omi's
outburst. Violet and blue eyes were looked in a test of wills.
Fujimiya spoke, not looking away, "You will not."
"Dammit Abyssian!" the girl's eyes narrowed into slits, "Your word
ain't law! Stop acting like you can dictate my life!"
"You let Farfello do it."
Ranko's eyes flared with anger, turning smoky-blue eyes into an ice
hard navy blue, "That's different. I owe Jei-sama a hell of a lot more
than I owe you."
"Sit. Down."
She sat before she even realized she was following Aya's orders. When
she did, she made as though she was going to jump to her feet just to
spite him. Something in his eyes, however, forced her to stay put.
---
Schuldich's gaze had wavered for a moment, and Ken dart for the door.
Schuldich, however, was faster. He grabbed the back of Ken's shirt,
tugging him backwards.
Mentally, Ken cursed. He cursed the fact that he couldn't phase
through living objects-- or at least, make whatever he was wearing
phase through living objects, and he really didn't want to stand naked
in front of the redhead.
Schuldich was grinning at him, "Abyssian tried to force me to tell
them where you are."
"Gwah?" the soccer player looked confused, "But Aya doesn't..."
"He got Bishoujo to do it," the redhead smirked at his captive, "not
that it helped." He used Ken's shirt to drag the boy away from the
door. He tossed the white hunter across the bed again, causing Ken to
lose his breath on impact. The jade-eyed assassin followed a moment
later, dropping onto the bed and propping himself up on his arms, over
Ken's stunned form.
"I wonder how long it will take him to figure it out..."
Ken's mind snapped back into focus. He shifted to bring his hands up
to shove the German away from him. Schuldich's response to both
movement and thoughts was to drop his full weight on the younger man.
Ken froze, and Schuldich smirked.
"...After all... this afternoon wasn't _just_ for fun..."
Ken was attempting to suffocate himself; he didn't even breath until
Schuldich sat up. The redhead was frowning slightly; while the
brunette let the German's words slide through his mind on auto repeat.
"...Farfie should be happy once he lets Bishoujo go..."
Who _was_ Schuldich talking about? Bishoujo had to be Ranko-- he
doubted Aya would be willingly in contact with anyone else linked to
Schuldich in any way at all. Still, he didn't know who this "he" was.
"He" could be anyone, and none of Weiss would go near anyone from
Schwartz without lethal intentions.
---
"Schuldich is playing mind games," Omi was pacing. After relocating
rYohji to his room, the three currently awake housemates retreated to
Weiss' mission room. The young brunette was halfway to panicked with
the news that Schuldich has Ken, "He's always playing mind games."
"No, he's not," Ranko snorted, leaning against the wall, "He wasn't
when we ran into him this afternoon."
"You... ran into him?"
"Yeah," the girl rubbed her nose, "You didn't think Aya and I had gone
running through park sprinklers on purpose did you? We got into a
water fight with the Guilty One."
Aya frowned, looking over at Omi, "Maybe he was..."
Ranko hiked an eyebrow, "Care to explain that?"
"He knows your abilities, correct?"
"Yeah, so?" Ranko's blank look made Aya sigh in irritation, as Omi
looked between the two of them, absolutely confused. It would take too
long to explain to Omi of Schuldich and Ranko's connection. Aya,
himself, wasn't completely aware of everything she was capable of
doing, but he'd seen her move; he _knew_ she was an exception martial
artist, he just didn't know _how_ exceptional.
"If Schuldich orchestrated this, he probably left some sort of clue,
specifically to torment us with trying to understand."
Ranko frowned, scratching at the scar in back of her neck, "You mean
he meant to run into us today?'
Aya shook his head, "I'm not sure. Ranko, did he tell you anything?
Like why he was going to the park in the first place?"
"Nothing," the female redhead frowned slightly, "Although, he did
smell funny; like he was nervous.
Both active members of Weiss gave her a surprised look. Omi was the
one who voiced their thoughts, "Smelt _nervous_? How could you smell
_that_?"
The look of disdain returned, "Jei-sama gave me the name 'Kitty' for a
reason, Tsukiyono."
"Oh," Omi's voice was quiet, until he lit up on what Ranko had said
originally, "Nervous? Why would he be nervous?"
"I'm not a telepath," the redhead snapped, "He was nervous, I smelt
it," tipping her head to once side, she spoke thoughtfully,
"Although... I sensed someone watching us. No one was there when I
looked, but..."
"It gives us something to work with," Omi gave a determined nod, "I'll
look around the city plans to look for a place near the park, which
one did--"
"Juuban."
---
"Stop teasing him."
The woman's voice came from the door, but Schuldich was in the way of
Ken's view. Whoever it was, she sounded... amused.
"Ah, but that's not fun," Schuldich returned in German. The woman
laughed lightly, and spoke in German, as well.
"Fun! He wants fun! Lord above, Schu, in ten years you haven't changed
a mite!"
The older man smirked, pulling away from Ken. He patted the
nineteen-year-old on the head, giving him a patronizing grin, "Don't
try to leave, liebe."
"I told you to stop teasing him, Schuldich."
"Aa, aa," as Schuldich moved away, Ken caught a glimpse of chin-length
brownish red hair, and emerald eyes. But it was, after all, only a
glimpse. Far from enough to be able to tell who it was.
---
The sun has risen four hours earlier. While it would not have been
impossible for Omi, Aya and Ranko to work in the shop-- they had more
important things to deal with.
Omi was skimming the net, looking for info on Ken's whereabouts. Aya
was in contact with Kritiker for the same reasons, and Ranko was
playing nurse for Yohji.
The two redheads had played jan ken pon and Ranko lost.
Yohji was still out as Ranko checked the stitches. She wasn't the
greatest choice for a doctor, or a nurse for that matter, but she knew
enough. She had, after all, been in a number of "incidents" and had
nearly everything possible done to her, before. She began to sing
under her breath as she did so-- musing that it would probably have
sounded better if she was male at the time.
"Forfeit the game/Before somebody else
Takes you out of the frame/Puts your name to shame
Cover up your face/You can't run the race
The pace is to fast/You just won't last
"You loved the way I look at you
While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through
You take away if I give in
My life, My pride is broken..."
"You're pretty good, Ranko."
The redhead gave the man under her hands a decidedly dark look, "How
long have you been awake?"
"Since 'cover up your face'," he gave her a grin, and in return, she
buried her fist in his stomach. It was amusing to see his eyes pop
open, and an expression of pure agony flit across the wounded man's
face.
"Careful Kudou," she sing-songed, with a malicious grin, "You wouldn't
want to pop your stitches, would you?"
She stood, sashaying out of the room, singing to herself, but
partially to Yohji,
"If I/Turn my back I'm defenseless
And to go blindly seems senseless
If I hide my pride and let it all go on/Then they'll
Take from me til everything is gone..."
End
The songs are "Points of Authority", and "By Myself", by Linkin Park
person who knows WHY it ends like this (Hey Averry :P). And yes, it
does have relevance to the story ^-^V *snickers wildly*
In other news, I've got a new fic. It's called "Shiva". It's final
fantasy eight. It's only on Fanfiction.net. And it's only being
updated about every three weeks. False Identity will still be coming
out every week.
Oh, yeah, my website's up and running properly, again.
Http://www.crosswinds.net/~li_xiang, for those of you who haven't
followed the link from my fanfiction.net account. The StoryTeller
needs updating. I'll get there... eventually.
False Identity
Chapter Ten: Pawns
Li Xiang
It was a three-man mission. Aya had bailed, due to Ranko's sudden
cold. It was the first time ever, but it wasn't all that important of
a mission anyway. Just some old politician who was wanted dead.
The redhead had a feeling that this would end up as an Schwartz/Weiss
battle. Again.
---
They had met, and they had fought just as Aya had predicted they
would. And, while it was not unusual for someone to return injured
from battle, it was unusual for only two of three to return.
Omi and Yohji stumbled into the Koneko, blood dribbling from wounds,
and soaking poorly crafted makeshift bandages. Yohji held his hand
over the left side of his face, glimpses of dark-red blood stained
skin between his fingers.
Omi, too, was bleeding, his white hood soaked with blood, he looked
unable to do anything but drag himself to a chair.
Aya had waited for his partners to return, first aid kit in hand. He'd
had a feeling it would be needed. Ranko was sleeping upstairs-- in her
own room, this time.
"What happened?" Omi looked like he could handle the wounds a bit
longer-- Yohji was about to collapse. In fact, the eldest of them
collapsed into a chair as Aya tugged his hands away from his face. It
wasn't really something he was used doing for other people, but
neither looked capable of caring for themselves.
"Schwartz," Omi muttered the obvious, "Farfello and Crawford double
teamed Yohji. Schuldich was on Ken, and Nagi, me."
Aya-- ever calm, ever cool, unless dealing with screaming fangirls--
winced. Farfello had tagged Yohji pretty bad. It looked like the
Irishman had tried to gouge the lanky man's eye out. The slash had
just barely missed Yohji's left eye, running at a diagonal from scalp
to cheek bone. There was less than two millimeters between the edge of
the cut and the outside corner of his eye.
There was no doubt in Aya's mind. He'd seen enough blade wounds to
_know_ Yohji's will scar. He also knew it would need stitches.
"How bad...?"
Aya had turned to pull the sewing needle and thread from the first aid
kit, "You need stitches."
The playboy gave a slight whine from the back of his throat, but sat
still as Aya pressed a wet cloth to the wound. A faint whimper of pain
from behind him had the redhead setting the needle down to check on
Omi. Hopefully it would only take a few minutes, and he'd be able to
get back to stitching up Yohji's face.
The youngest of Weiss had shed both of his jackets-- the black
crumpled across the floor, the white draped over the back of the
chair. Aya could see what looked like knife wounds that matched the
few throwing knives Omi had brought with him for the mission.
The logical conclusion was that Nagi had caught the blades with his
telekinesis-- and sent them back to the other hacker. All Omi needed
was a few proper bandages; he wasn't all that bad off, considering
he'd only had to fend off Naoe Nagi.
Once the boy had been taken care of, about five minutes later. Aya
turned back to the needle and thread he'd pulled out. Quickly
threading the needle, Aya tugged the cloth from Yohji's face, "Hold
still."
The assassin closed his eyes with a bit of a whimper as the needle
passed through the skin of his forehead.
---
Ranma paused at the top of the stairs. She'd heard two people enter
the Koneko. She'd heard them stop and not move again. She'd heard
slight whimpers of pain, and the statement of who was fighting whom.
Then she'd smelt the blood.
With the Cat's ability to use ki to heighten her senses, Ranma had
been on 'full alert' since the water fight. Consciously activating
said ability was a lot harder than letting the Cat do it
unconsciously. She _really_ didn't want to have to force it again, so
she hadn't bothered to "turn it off", so to speak.
She drifted down the stairs, wondering just what she'd see.
Aya putting away a needle and thread, Omi practically passed out in
his chair, and Yohji staring blankly at the ceiling with one eye-- the
other being closed as not to pull the skin beneath the stitches-- and
Ken nowhere to be seen had not been what she'd expected.
---
Ken, at that moment, was slowly regaining consciousness.
He found himself sprawled across a small bed, a thin sheet thrown over
his body. His bugnuks and communication devices missing-- not to
mention damn near all his clothing. He had his boxers and his t-shirt
still on, but that was it. The wounds on his arms and legs had been
bandaged.
All of this was, of course, offset by the shackle around his right
wrist, locking him to the bed with a chain of about five feet in
length. A test of its strength revealed that it was unlikely he'd
break it.
He raked his mind, trying to remember how he'd gotten to this small
bedroom/cell. He came up with a blank-- the last thing he could
remember was fighting Schuldich. He'd knocked the older man back and
went running to give Yohji a hand with Crawford and Farfello. He could
remember a sharp spike of pain lancing through both skull and mind,
and then... nothing.
With no idea where he was, or how he'd gotten there, Ken was leery of
trying the one thing that would get him free. It was one of the few
things he had from his life prior to Weiss; also one of the things
Kritiker did _not_ know about him. But he did not know what else to
do.
He relaxed his ever-present concentration. It had gotten to the point,
over the years, that even during sleep or unconsciousness his mind to
focused enough to control it. He was normally so focused on himself
that he was clumsy in doing mundane, everyday things.
Ken's wrist passed through the shackle, with no mark left behind. He
also happened to sink about halfway through the bed before noticing.
Shaking his head, the young man pulled himself free, snapping his
iron-clad control back in place. The feeling of passing _through_
objects had _always_ creeped him out.
Shivering as the cold air brushed across his skin, he grabbed the
sheet from the bed, wrapping it around himself. He was halfway to the
room's door when it swung open.
Schuldich stood there.
He also happened to look a bit surprised at Ken's freedom, but quickly
hid it. Ken growled at the sight of the black hunter.
"I take it I'm Schwartz's prisoner, now?"
"No," Schuldich said this with a maddening grin, "Crawford doesn't
know I have you. You're _my_ prisoner."
---
Ranko _stared_ at Omi.
"You don't know...? I thought he was one of your partners, Tsukiyono!"
"He's my friend!"
"Then how could you _not_ know where he is?" Aya's hand landed on her
shoulder, and she shot him a dark look. She may not have any "real"
friends, but she knew they were supposed to watch each other. Hell,
she'd looked out for enemies and allies who were normally enemies back
during her days in Nerima. The only one she did not know where he was
on a regular basis was Ryouga-- and that was for a very good reason.
Aya's look told her to shut up and sit down. She returned it with one
that had 'I'm not doing this because you said to, I'm just not feeling
well' stamped all across it.
She gave an exaggerated cough just for good measure.
Yohji had passed out in his chair-- which was expected, considering
the blood he'd lost, the pain of the wound itself, on top of having to
drag himself back to the Koneko in that state. Ranko dropped herself
onto the arm of the chair Yohji was in, with a scowl.
"Ranko."
"Yeeeeees, Aya?"
Aya paused for a moment, before firming his resolve. At this point, he
didn't really care that she found out he knew, "Contact Schuldich."
She blinked, "Eh? Why should I?"
"Because," the older redhead snapped, "He was the one fighting Ken!"
"Okay, Okay, no shouting necessary."
/Schuldich,/ she reached out along the thin mental pathway that
spanned the distance between their two minds and sing-songed, /Where
are you?/
There was a few minutes of silence followed by, /What is it, Bishoujo?
I'm busy!/
/Doing what?/
/Stuff. What do you want?/
Ranko snickered a bit, /Sooooo, you were fighting Ken?/
/The weiss katzchen returned, did they?/
/They did,/ Ranko smirked a bit. Of course, Aya shot her a look that
clearly meant for her to get their answer, /Any ways, Aya's giving me
evil looks... where is he?/
Schuldich gave a snort of amusement, responding, /What makes you think
_I_ know?/
/I don't. Aya says you do./
/Abyssian's a smart one, then,/ Schuldich started to withdraw from her
mind.
/You going to tell me where he is?/
/Unlikely,/ and then, the jade-eyed assassin's presence in her mind
was gone. Ranko returned her attention to the outside world.
"He's got Ken."
Omi's face paled, "Where? Where is he?"
Ranko's look was pure disdain, "Riiiight. Even if Schuldich had told
me, why would I tell _you_, Tsukiyono?"
"Ranko."
"Aya," she mimicked, "Like I said-- Schuldich didn't tell me where he
is." Her face lit up even as she fended off a sneeze, and jumped to
her feet, "Oh! I could go look for him!"
"You can't! Schwartz will kill you!"
Three guesses to who that was. Both Aya and Ranko ignored Omi's
outburst. Violet and blue eyes were looked in a test of wills.
Fujimiya spoke, not looking away, "You will not."
"Dammit Abyssian!" the girl's eyes narrowed into slits, "Your word
ain't law! Stop acting like you can dictate my life!"
"You let Farfello do it."
Ranko's eyes flared with anger, turning smoky-blue eyes into an ice
hard navy blue, "That's different. I owe Jei-sama a hell of a lot more
than I owe you."
"Sit. Down."
She sat before she even realized she was following Aya's orders. When
she did, she made as though she was going to jump to her feet just to
spite him. Something in his eyes, however, forced her to stay put.
---
Schuldich's gaze had wavered for a moment, and Ken dart for the door.
Schuldich, however, was faster. He grabbed the back of Ken's shirt,
tugging him backwards.
Mentally, Ken cursed. He cursed the fact that he couldn't phase
through living objects-- or at least, make whatever he was wearing
phase through living objects, and he really didn't want to stand naked
in front of the redhead.
Schuldich was grinning at him, "Abyssian tried to force me to tell
them where you are."
"Gwah?" the soccer player looked confused, "But Aya doesn't..."
"He got Bishoujo to do it," the redhead smirked at his captive, "not
that it helped." He used Ken's shirt to drag the boy away from the
door. He tossed the white hunter across the bed again, causing Ken to
lose his breath on impact. The jade-eyed assassin followed a moment
later, dropping onto the bed and propping himself up on his arms, over
Ken's stunned form.
"I wonder how long it will take him to figure it out..."
Ken's mind snapped back into focus. He shifted to bring his hands up
to shove the German away from him. Schuldich's response to both
movement and thoughts was to drop his full weight on the younger man.
Ken froze, and Schuldich smirked.
"...After all... this afternoon wasn't _just_ for fun..."
Ken was attempting to suffocate himself; he didn't even breath until
Schuldich sat up. The redhead was frowning slightly; while the
brunette let the German's words slide through his mind on auto repeat.
"...Farfie should be happy once he lets Bishoujo go..."
Who _was_ Schuldich talking about? Bishoujo had to be Ranko-- he
doubted Aya would be willingly in contact with anyone else linked to
Schuldich in any way at all. Still, he didn't know who this "he" was.
"He" could be anyone, and none of Weiss would go near anyone from
Schwartz without lethal intentions.
---
"Schuldich is playing mind games," Omi was pacing. After relocating
rYohji to his room, the three currently awake housemates retreated to
Weiss' mission room. The young brunette was halfway to panicked with
the news that Schuldich has Ken, "He's always playing mind games."
"No, he's not," Ranko snorted, leaning against the wall, "He wasn't
when we ran into him this afternoon."
"You... ran into him?"
"Yeah," the girl rubbed her nose, "You didn't think Aya and I had gone
running through park sprinklers on purpose did you? We got into a
water fight with the Guilty One."
Aya frowned, looking over at Omi, "Maybe he was..."
Ranko hiked an eyebrow, "Care to explain that?"
"He knows your abilities, correct?"
"Yeah, so?" Ranko's blank look made Aya sigh in irritation, as Omi
looked between the two of them, absolutely confused. It would take too
long to explain to Omi of Schuldich and Ranko's connection. Aya,
himself, wasn't completely aware of everything she was capable of
doing, but he'd seen her move; he _knew_ she was an exception martial
artist, he just didn't know _how_ exceptional.
"If Schuldich orchestrated this, he probably left some sort of clue,
specifically to torment us with trying to understand."
Ranko frowned, scratching at the scar in back of her neck, "You mean
he meant to run into us today?'
Aya shook his head, "I'm not sure. Ranko, did he tell you anything?
Like why he was going to the park in the first place?"
"Nothing," the female redhead frowned slightly, "Although, he did
smell funny; like he was nervous.
Both active members of Weiss gave her a surprised look. Omi was the
one who voiced their thoughts, "Smelt _nervous_? How could you smell
_that_?"
The look of disdain returned, "Jei-sama gave me the name 'Kitty' for a
reason, Tsukiyono."
"Oh," Omi's voice was quiet, until he lit up on what Ranko had said
originally, "Nervous? Why would he be nervous?"
"I'm not a telepath," the redhead snapped, "He was nervous, I smelt
it," tipping her head to once side, she spoke thoughtfully,
"Although... I sensed someone watching us. No one was there when I
looked, but..."
"It gives us something to work with," Omi gave a determined nod, "I'll
look around the city plans to look for a place near the park, which
one did--"
"Juuban."
---
"Stop teasing him."
The woman's voice came from the door, but Schuldich was in the way of
Ken's view. Whoever it was, she sounded... amused.
"Ah, but that's not fun," Schuldich returned in German. The woman
laughed lightly, and spoke in German, as well.
"Fun! He wants fun! Lord above, Schu, in ten years you haven't changed
a mite!"
The older man smirked, pulling away from Ken. He patted the
nineteen-year-old on the head, giving him a patronizing grin, "Don't
try to leave, liebe."
"I told you to stop teasing him, Schuldich."
"Aa, aa," as Schuldich moved away, Ken caught a glimpse of chin-length
brownish red hair, and emerald eyes. But it was, after all, only a
glimpse. Far from enough to be able to tell who it was.
---
The sun has risen four hours earlier. While it would not have been
impossible for Omi, Aya and Ranko to work in the shop-- they had more
important things to deal with.
Omi was skimming the net, looking for info on Ken's whereabouts. Aya
was in contact with Kritiker for the same reasons, and Ranko was
playing nurse for Yohji.
The two redheads had played jan ken pon and Ranko lost.
Yohji was still out as Ranko checked the stitches. She wasn't the
greatest choice for a doctor, or a nurse for that matter, but she knew
enough. She had, after all, been in a number of "incidents" and had
nearly everything possible done to her, before. She began to sing
under her breath as she did so-- musing that it would probably have
sounded better if she was male at the time.
"Forfeit the game/Before somebody else
Takes you out of the frame/Puts your name to shame
Cover up your face/You can't run the race
The pace is to fast/You just won't last
"You loved the way I look at you
While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through
You take away if I give in
My life, My pride is broken..."
"You're pretty good, Ranko."
The redhead gave the man under her hands a decidedly dark look, "How
long have you been awake?"
"Since 'cover up your face'," he gave her a grin, and in return, she
buried her fist in his stomach. It was amusing to see his eyes pop
open, and an expression of pure agony flit across the wounded man's
face.
"Careful Kudou," she sing-songed, with a malicious grin, "You wouldn't
want to pop your stitches, would you?"
She stood, sashaying out of the room, singing to herself, but
partially to Yohji,
"If I/Turn my back I'm defenseless
And to go blindly seems senseless
If I hide my pride and let it all go on/Then they'll
Take from me til everything is gone..."
End
The songs are "Points of Authority", and "By Myself", by Linkin Park