"Miss Ijima!"
Takasaka's good intentions had got the better of him. For the life of him he couldn't just abandon an unwitting, ignorant (and, if he were to be fair, just plain stupid) girl to the less than tender mercies of the Secret Police without at least warning her of the dangers of carrying on in the way she was. He had found it impossible to sleep for the last few nights, first from guilt, then from fretting about how he was to approach her discreetly. He had eventually settled upon the idea of calling her to one side and mildly rebuking her for speaking too freely of supposedly confidential matters in the canteen and hope she would get the hint.
Eri started-someone was calling her. Curious, she turned wide blue eyes to discover who it was and what they wanted and hoping that it was a cute someone. Looking at her, Takasaka felt his heart sink. The girl was even more vacuous than he had at first thought-he could see very little evidence of intelligence behind those eyes, for all that they were pretty. Takasaka, like most of the intelligent men who came into contact with Eri, was making the discovery that the old cliché was true-beauty was only skin-deep after all. Eri was a pretty girl, but he could see now that she probably had little of any moment to say.
Eri smiled flirtatiously. The man in front of her was, in an understated and wholly unconventional way, kind of attractive. He would make good practice. She hadn't flirted with anyone in a long time and needed to make sure she was at her best for the day she finally met Koji.
"Can I help you?" she asked, and blinked at him a couple of times. "There was something you wanted to see me about?"
If their situations had been reversed, Takasaka liked to think that he would have picked up the connotations. Being spoken to in such a manner would certainly have made him keep a low profile for a few days, and only resume his normal patterns once he was absolutely sure all the danger had passed. Somehow, he doubted the reprimand had worked on Eri. He saw no concern in her eyes, just wounded pride and defiant anger.
Well, he'd have to wait and see. He hoped he had been wrong in his assessment of Eri's intelligence, but somehow he doubted it. It seemed to him as if her head was not so much full of air as full of candyfloss.
***
Four thousand miles away, Izumi sat on his bed and sighed. So it had come to this. He'd been given an impossibly elaborate and expensive way in which to kill himself.
"This probably isn't what you want to hear, Izumi."
He really hated government ministers too, sometimes. Why the hell did they have to have families? Or rather, why couldn't they keep their home lives and their professional lives separate?
The reason for Kimie's embarrassed expression had been twofold, most likely. He knew Izumi hadn't wanted to waste any more time on some half-assed mercy mission for someone only important because of his relations. Although he hadn't actually said it, Izumi would have been perfectly unconcerned to hear that the boy he was looking for was dead. It would have been sad for his family, sure, but life goes on. Kimie, therefore, felt awkward revealing that he was alive. What had happened was probably just about the worst possible scenario: he'd been arrested and imprisoned. That meant, naturally, that the Powers That Be wanted him rescued as soon as possible before he could inadvertently reveal something important, which he probably would. Izumi knew, fortunately not from personal experience, however, that the enemy could be incredibly… persuasive when it came to interrogating prisoners of war, and that was ones who had no real political significance. Katsumi did have significance, but only if you made the connection between him and his uncle. Yet Minister Shibuya's nephew wasn't so important that it was necessary to send more than one person looking for him, and that one person was Izumi.
If Izumi ever did manage to rescue that kid, he'd let him know exactly what he felt about this totally stupid situation in no uncertain terms. That said, he had to admit there was an incentive to find him now, if only on humanitarian grounds which Izumi didn't have much time for.
Izumi flipped through the contents of the envelope again. There wasn't much. A photocopied map, a travel pass which would get him to the front line (after which he was on his own-thanks a million, guys), some faked identity papers, a few pieces of information, also photocopied, and a picture of Katsumi taken about four months ago for no obvious reason other than that someone had wanted to take a photo of him. It was slightly better than the last one he had seen, but not by much-he still looked like a pretty airhead who wasn't quite sure where the camera was. He was assured that the boy hadn't changed much since then, though he privately doubted that. Four months could be a very long time indeed, especially when one was in prison.
***
It was nearly midnight and Yoshiya couldn't relax. He had too much on his mind for that. Holding a sleeping Katsumi in his arms, he lay on one side on his bed gazing at a discoloured spot on the wall, and sighed like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Almost a week had passed since Katsumi's mysterious disappearance, and…
…Not that it was so mysterious anymore. For most of the day, Katsumi had been on the verge of telling him what had happened, he'd said he'd wanted to talk early that morning and Yoshiya had guessed why that was, but they had barely spoken at all until mid-afternoon, by which point Katsumi had found the silence unbearable. Yoshiya still didn't know why he had felt compelled to talk about it at all. Maybe he'd thought it would help relieve the strained atmosphere between them, maybe he'd felt that talking would help him overcome something, or maybe he'd felt that he had to tell him… to warn him? Maybe.
Katsumi had been raped. Yoshiya realised he really should have expected it to be something like that, and indeed in a way he had, for all that he'd hoped that whatever had happened hadn't been that bad, yet to hear Katsumi actually say it had appalled him and it had shown. He could tell by the look in his companion's eyes after he'd finished talking.
It had taken him a good few minutes to realise that Katsumi had assumed that he had been disgusted by him, not by what had happened.
Yoshiya had only a vague idea what reaction Katsumi had expected to what he had revealed, although he had a horrible feeling he'd expected him to be angry with him. His apprehension had not been entirely unfounded, as Yoshiya had been angry and had spent much of the remainder of the day attempting to suppress his temper. His anger hadn't been directed at Katsumi, though, which appeared to be what had been expected. Katsumi, though, had spent much of the last four days blaming himself for what had happened (to his mind, he had to have done something to deserve it. Katsumi had spent much of his childhood believing, as a lot of children did, that bad things only happened to bad people and although he now knew, intellectually at least, that the world didn't work like that, he still felt as if he'd somehow brought his situation upon himself.) and he had expected Yoshiya to feel the same. Yoshiya had thought that particular sentiment was total rubbish and had told him so. It wasn't his fault; there was no way it could have been.
Not his fault… Yoshiya had no way of knowing if Katsumi had believed it or not, but if necessary he would prove it to him.
Yet he couldn't sleep. Nerves, he guessed. Yoshiya was incredibly afraid of what would happen if the same thing happened to him, and it seemed more than likely that it would. He wasn't sure he could cope with it. He also felt frightened for Katsumi-he knew the boy would not be able to cope if it happened again. Logically he knew that there was nothing on Earth he could do to protect himself without laying himself open to even worse, and he certainly couldn't protect Katsumi (which, he realised, he desperately wanted to do. He didn't want anyone to be able to hurt him again although he knew logically that in a place like this all you could really do was look out for yourself, and sometimes not even that). He'd never felt so powerless in his life.
Yoshiya sighed again, and shifted position a fraction in an attempt to stop his shoulder from becoming completely numb. Katsumi stirred slightly, but did not wake up. He'd been unable to relax for a long time, and as a result was deeply asleep through sheer exhaustion. It would take more than that slight movement to wake him up. Yoshiya ran his fingers through Katsumi's hair and noticed with surprise that he looked pretty whilst he was asleep, despite the fact that he'd lost quite a lot of weight since they'd met, and he hadn't exactly been overweight to begin with. Now he looked distressingly thin and incredibly vulnerable. Childish, even.
But then, that was the whole problem. Katsumi was childish. He shouldn't have been at war or even anywhere near it. Some boys of his age could cope perfectly well with the business of being at war, but Katsumi was one of those who couldn't. Yoshiya wasn't sure he could cope with it either. Some people just weren't meant to be soldiers.
***
Akihito had been so absorbed in thinking of silly little Miss Eri Ijima that he didn't notice Koji had disappeared again until a few days after the young man had left the house, and even then it was only by accident. He had been sitting in one of his rooms, busy on his computer where he was attempting, just for the fun of it, to hack into the military computers the hard way and whilst there to check if there were any traces that someone had been tampering with the system, when he had overheard a pair of maids talking outside about how sad it was that Koji-Sama wasn't there any more. He had immediately stopped working and had sat listening intently to the conversation, whereupon he had discovered that Koji had left the house four days ago and had not been seen since.
He had immediately taken it upon himself, after first yelling at the maids for not telling anyone in the family of Koji's disappearance, to inform Hirose of the development. Standing in the gloom of his elder brother's office, he had felt a surge of gratification. Hadn't he said all along that his little brother was not to be trusted? Finally, after thirteen long years, he had been taken seriously.
Looking up, Akihito met his brother's eyes. "Hirose, do you want me to send out a search for him?"
Hirose paused for a moment, thinking. Koji was impetuous and irritating, but he was also important. He was also determined enough to resent his position as Hirose's inferior, and intelligent enough to carry through any ideas he may have had about seizing control. Whatever he was planning, he had to be brought back to his family. By himself, Koji was a threat. Since taking control, Hirose had feared Koji's ambition. Of course, Hirose had plenty of other things to worry about, so he hadn't allowed this to spiral over into paranoia, but hearing that Koji had left the house altogether and could be anywhere was a major cause for concern. If there was nothing untoward about Koji's disappearance and he had merely become bored with the dullness of his life, there was still the danger of what could happen were he to be captured. Koji was a distinctive-looking young man; there would be no doubt in the minds of their enemies as to who they had managed to capture.
Whilst Hirose remained unaware of where Koji was, he remained a danger to security. Therefore…
Therefore, ascertaining his whereabouts was a matter of some urgency. Akihito, as the head of the Secret Police, was the natural person to head a search for him. Akihito hadn't struck any of the family as the most obvious choice for the job, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was very, very good at it. If it hadn't been for his holding down this position and his infatuation with Hirose, Akihito himself could easily have ended up posing a security risk himself, but as it was, he was no threat to the family's position at all. He was also probably the best person in the country to come to if one needed to find someone or something in a hurry. The communications networks of the Secret Police were practically infallible.
"Yes, send out a search, Akihito. But when you find him…" Hirose paused. There was no doubt in his mind that Akihito would manage to find their wayward brother, but nonetheless, he had to make sure that he didn't get carried away. The Secret Police, though effective, also had a reputation for casual brutality that disgusted most liberal-minded men. "When you find him, make sure you don't… damage him. I want him back here unharmed."
The only safe place to keep Koji was here. Effectively under house arrest.
***
"Izumi? Where are you going?"
The idea of going on suicide missions had never bothered Izumi much before, but that was because he'd normally seen the point to them-certain sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. There didn't appear to be any point at all to this one. If he'd had anything to do with it, he'd have left Shibuya to it. He'd got himself into the situation, let him get himself out. Just because he had important relatives didn't mean that he himself was any use at all to anyone save those in his immediate family. It wasn't so much the principle of what he was going to do that he objected to, it was that he had to do it for someone of such negligible importance.
Izumi wouldn't have minded putting his life on the line to go and rescue a captured spy, or a high-ranking soldier… or even a competent soldier. But doing it for a conscript who hadn't, judging from the reports the man who had trained him had submitted, been a terribly good soldier anyway and who had twice been court-martialled for minor acts of insubordination (one involving a hardback book-Katsumi's claims that he had been acting in self-defence had cut very little ice) went totally against all Izumi's value systems.
"Don't be surprised if you never hear from me again, Mori."
***
Koji climbed gracefully and purposefully out of his clumsily-parked car and, hands in his pockets, looked around the base. It was only forty miles from the front and a bit too close for his own comfort (Koji had never experienced war up close and the sound of distant explosions was unnerving him slightly), but it was quite large and would do for what he had in mind. The fact that it was so out of the way meant that it would be harder to find him, after all, and if all went to plan he wouldn't be here long enough to be traced anyway.
He had placed a phone call to the CO of the camp a few days ago, saying that he was coming over to do an inspection. Considering that he was a general (albeit an unwilling one who hadn't really wanted the rank), that at least provided him with a plausible cover-not that he really thought anyone would question what he was doing, but it would help to have some kind of alibi when his brothers discovered he'd come to this base.
It didn't take much to work out what Koji was really planning. He had wanted Hirose gone for a long time, and with the right kind of support-military support-he could do it easily. If the country was to win the war, they needed a strong leader and Hirose, for all his qualities-not that Koji dwelt overmuch on them-tended to err on the side of caution when it came to policymaking. That was what Koji thought would win public support over to his side. What was more, his father would have put up only a token resistance had Koji been to depose Hirose-Koji was, after all, his favourite son and more than capable of doing the job.
Practically with his father's blessing, Koji had left with the express intention of raising an army to overthrow his brother.
Lighting a cigarette, and smiling in a manner which would have reminded anyone who knew his family of Akihito, and with good reason considering how mirthless and cold it was, Koji walked into the camp.
***
That evening Eri went back to her flat and fumed. She had forgotten everything that Takasaka had said to her, and hadn't thought of actually taking any of it in, let alone wondering what his motives may have been. All she could remember was that some dumbass guy with glasses had hijacked her whilst she'd been going to lunch and proceeded to accuse her of being stupid and incompetent and indiscreet and she knew that she wasn't any of those things!
Eri thought he'd even gone so far as to imply that he didn't find her attractive. How could that be? Didn't he have eyes? Surely everyone found her attractive! To Eri, it was inconceivable that she should be considered as anything but. Her father was always telling her how pretty she was, and Hisaya thought she looked beautiful. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and surely that was all she needed? She was the only person she knew with looks like that! Oh, apart from Koji, and he was special… maybe their similar colouring was another clue that they were destined to be together?
(Actually, although she didn't like to dwell on the occasion, she wasn't the only one who looked like that. She'd once met Katsumi-prior to his conscription, the fact that they both had relatives in the government meant they both had to go to official engagements, something which she enjoyed and he found incredibly tedious-and he had similar colouring… the difference was that his eyes were intelligent. The reason she didn't like to think about it was because she'd absolutely failed to get anywhere with him, after she had been talking to him for about fifteen minutes he had told her straight out that he didn't want to talk to her any more because he was finding it boring. It wasn't normally his style to be so blunt but he'd been dropping subtle and not-so-subtle hints that he wanted to be left alone for all the time they had been talking.)
Well, no one did that to Eri Ijima. NO ONE. She would get that stupid ass if it was the last thing she did. She'd get him. She'd set him up for something. He was a government official-he had to know some important stuff. She'd look through his desk drawers as soon as she got the chance and make sure everyone knew someone had taken his stuff then everyone would know that he was the incompetent one.
Ha. That would show him, wouldn't it?
