Disclaimer: all Weiß Kreuz related characters belong to me not...!!

---### Reflection ###---

Chapter 2

I made my way to the Koneko as soon as my meeting was finished. It was not a very big deal to have everything finished before five and now I am standing at the door of the flower shop. It is still the old building where the four Weiß used to live. It was also the place they used as the head quarter. Where Weiß head quarters is now, it's none of my concern. I just feel a bit funny to come here this evening to meet a former victim.

I take a deep breath before finally pushing the door open and enter the shop. The bells on the top of the door frames are jingling to tell whoever taking care of the shop to notice me. A young boy shows up from the back door. He was a bit surprised to see a white man entering the shop. He must be very nervous to think about speaking English. In a few moments now he's going to stutter in his Japanized English. There he goes.

"A… Irashaimase… anou… I-I m-mean, whe-rucome. C-can I he-p you, Sa-?" He bows low. I can see a tint of blush on his cheeks. A person like this would be fun to play with if I were Schuldig. Lucky for him that I am not that little red head. I am Brad Crawford and I don't fool around with useless people like this one.

I choose not to answer. I less than 2 seconds after he finishes the sentence, Aya will show up from the door and….

"Kurafodo-san!" She turns to the boy and says, "He's a friend of mine, Hikaru-kun. Are you going to bow forever?" She giggles. Her eyes give out twinkle. She then turns back to me and says, "Come in. We can sit inside. I'll prepare some tea if you like. Or perhaps some coffee?"

I don't see any threat around. I don't see my life become endangered if I accept her offer. I give her a nod and follow her to the kitchen. The kitchen is not very big but it looks very inviting. A very homey kitchen indeed. It's true, perhaps, that a woman in the house will make the place homey. There's a small round dining table at one corner with a very nice pot of flowers. The room is also filled with many kinds of flowers. It makes the air feels somehow fresher.

"Please have a seat," she says, "Which do you prefer, coffee or tea?" Her smile is still plastered on her cheerful face.

"Just tea," I answer while my eyes follow her every gestures.

How different she is from her older brother. I remember the other Aya as a very cold looking person. Even until the last time I saw him, I don't remember if I ever saw him smile. At least I smirked quite often on the irony in my everyday life. That man didn't. I find this little fact somehow amusing. It makes me wonder how the male Aya was had he not joined Weiß.

"Here you go." Aya puts a tray on the table. She takes one cup for me and pours some tea. The fresh fragrance of Japanese green tea fills the air. She then put several slices of cake at the table and then sits in front of me. She helps herself with the tea and then asks me if I want some sugar or milk.

When she has done with everything she looks at me in the eyes and asks what I need to talk to her about. I become a bit uneasy that I have to take a deep breath several times before I settle my mind to say anything. I feel like a man who is about to make a proposal to a girl he likes and I just feel so stupid being this awkward before the girl.

"Look, what I want to say is," I finally open my mouth. I take another deep breath and continued, "I might have done wrong to you and therefore I think I owe you my apology for dragging you into that plot. I think I owe you my thanks as well."

Now I know why it was very hard to say those words. I am not very keen in asking for forgiveness, I don't even like to feel sorry about anything either. Saying sorry is like submitting myself to someone else. It makes me feel defeated to the bone and makes me feel like being one of those useless people I got rid of in the past.

The young woman stares back at me with her wondering black eyes.

"Look, what ever I have done to you in the past was not 100% my intention. " I continue. I don't know why but the next excuses come easier from my mouth. It feels like I'm being a stupid bastard asking for mercy from a diva girl or something. The only thing is that I refuse to be a bastard and the woman before me is not a diva. "I was doing as it was ordered from the head of my organization then."

And like being under a strange spell I somehow keep on talking about the past I have long left behind. I tell her about the Eszet and how I came to join them. I tell her about why I used the name Schwarz for my team. I explain the every details of my plan to get rid the three old siblings, including how I made use of Sakura's and her similarity. After I tell her everything about my past with Eszet I fall silent and start to stir the tea. I really don't know what to do.

Aya is also looking at her tea cup, her fingers playing on the edge of the cup, turning the cup like her fingers move. She will be talking later. I can see it already in my mind, but I fail to hear what she is going to say. I only know is that I don't see her angry. Her face shows no trace of anger. She's somehow a very different personality than from any other that I have encountered.

"Anou, Kurafodo-san," she finally speaks. Her face is still down and her fingers are still playing with the porcelain tea cup. "I really don't know what to say…. I mean, hearing all of this from you. I… I mean, I have heard from Sakura-chan, but this is something different."

I can see tears welling at the corner of her eyes. OK, perhaps I was saying a bit too much. But I myself don't understand the urge to tell her about those many things I have kept hidden for a long time. Perhaps it's because she's one of the pieces of my past, perhaps because I want to ask for… forgiveness. I have done so much in the past and since my list of sins consist mostly of murder; I don't think I have many people to ask forgiveness to. Well, perhaps after I die later. But how long do I have to wait for that? I cannot foresee my death.

"You don't have to say anything," I finally say, "I just want to tell you my version of truth. It is up to you to believe my story or not." I continue, "I was not a good person, and maybe I'm still not. I really don't expect anything from you. I just want to clarify things. It's OK if you want to hate me. You deserve it."

The woman shakes her head. "I… I don't know what to say. I mean, it's been such a long time and suddenly you are before me. Even onii-san never tells me the story himself. He's much too deluded with his obsessions. And one day he just went away," she starts to sob, "He promised to tell me the whole story of why and how. But he suddenly left and he never tried to contact me."

I look at her in awe. I have just told her about her kidnapping and now what she's talking about, her own brother. It's not that I'm jealous… well, I am. I mean he's a person I wanted to get level with anyway. But what's actually going on in here? I thought all of those Weiß members were considerate people who would share with each other freely. That's what I strived for. That's why I left my old life behind and start a new. This is really news for me. The persons I want to be level with, the persons I set as my semi model figure to start my life are actually fake! And even the one I respect most somehow abandon the person he said he wanted to protect. This news is such an irony. I can't suppress my laugh and I feel that it is quite hysterical.

"So that's the real Fujimiya Ran?" I ask in the middle of my burst, "Then this is all a joke!" I stand up and look down to Aya who is looking back at me. She looks scared to see my burst. Maybe this double shock is just too much for her. No, maybe I am crazy; I'm just able to keep it hidden. "I guess there's no use in talking in here. Farewell, Miss."

I take my leave as soon as possible. I bump into Hikaru who is just going to enter the kitchen to ask if there's anything wrong. He's going to soothe Aya somehow. I see it coming. She will be fine. She's a strong girl but she needs to burst sometimes. I'm just unlucky because I was playing with fire and got burned. She bursts her worries before me. Unlucky me. But that woman, somehow she didn't show any hatred towards me. Or was it because her mind was too clouded with the matter of her missing brother?

I pace my way back to the hotel.



I keep on turning on my bed the whole night. Even if I try to close my eyes, sleep doesn't take me in. It somehow abandons me and leaves me tossing and turning in the middle of the night. I can't stop thinking about what happened at the Koneko. I cannot forget those teary eyes and the muttering lips. The movements of the lips said "onii-san", brother. Aya. Fujimiya Aya. Not the raven head, it's the red head that I'm thinking about. Fujimiya Ran.

I still remember the first time I met him. I regarded him as a weak and slow person. He was raged with fury, willing to revenge for his parents and only sister. He was so easy to defeat. But there came the second encounter, and then the third, and then the fourth. I somehow realized that I had underestimated him. He proofed to be an interesting enemy; something that would always be tailing from behind so you would always try hard to step forward. And then one day I realized that he had moved a step forward from me. No, it wasn't about the physical power. I know that I can easily defeat him if I want to. It's about his stubbornness and his belief.

It's not that I share a common belief with him. Trust me; I am not going to share the belief of sacrificing myself to be a sinner so that others can live happily. No way. That's too clichéd. The way he strives to survive, that is. That's why I respect him that I somehow decided to just move out and made a new start.

But hearing what Aya has said this evening, "Onii-san is much too deluded with his obsession." I know what kind of obsession she was talking about. It must be about the cross he has to bear by killing people. Has Ran fell into the fun of murdering others? No, I don't think that's the point. Perhaps he's getting drowned in the concept of killing the bad guys. He's drowned in his own concept of justice. But really, Ran, does your concept really exist?

I have fought him many times. And in each of our fights we always have this little "why are you doing this" sort of chat. You may find it crazy but that's all the fun in fighting him. The other Weiß didn't speak as much as him when fighting. They were too absorbed in giving a payback, to anyone – hey, Schwarz had nothing to do with Ken's soccer incident but still he fought Farfarello mentioning it. Ran somehow ceased speaking about revenge after our first encounter. He talked mostly of justice and protecting the weak. It amused me to see him messing around with my concept of evolution and survival.

True he was still willing to revenge for his family. But as time went by, he became this stubborn yet interesting persona I liked. That's why I chose him to be my opponent. The other Weiß would be far more boring. With Ran, it's like a mutual chat in the middle of a fight. Now, you can really call me crazy. But once again, are we all not?

I grab for my watch from the bedside table. It's already some minutes past two. I really have to get some sleep now. I have a meeting early in the morning and I don't want to spoil anything. Especially not with this haunting past. Really.

I close my eyes shut; ready to count the imaginary lambs in my mind; when I suddenly remember the picture of the crying girl again. Perhaps I should meet her again before I leave for Taiwan. There are things I want to ask her on Weiß' whereabouts. I want to know what exactly happened after I left for America. I really have to meet the girl again.

- to be continued -

Umm.... When I started to write the fic I wanted to make Brad and Aya-chan as a pair... but somehow I failed miserably. My beta told me that I put several hints on BradxSchu and I realized I really did it on the first chapter (No, Moussy, I saw the hints too).... And on this 2nd chap I found several BradxAya-kun hints. So? I think it's gonna be changed into Brad-centered ficcie. That's the only thing I can think about for now.

For tea drinker out there, I'm not sure whether or not there's Japanese green tea (dried tea leaves - not fermented) ... I'm a massive coffee drinker (about 4 cups a day, and even after drinking a bottle of Red Bull energy drink, I would soon fall asleep).... And some of you might guess why Brad decided to have tea instead of coffee, perhaps he's more health conscious lately and realized that although a cup of coffee a day is good for your health to keep your concentration level, it's going to ruin your body piece by piece sooner or later when you're taking it too much.... But decaffeinated coffee is not coffee at all..... Long live Robusta!!!