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Part Six
Reika looked around nervously. "Look," she said, "Isn't this illegal? It is your flower-shop, but . .
. well, I mean, you're dead and all, so is it really yours?"
Youji didn't look in her direction, focused as he was on trying to pick the lock on the door of the
shop. "What do you know?" He snorted and glared at the lock, as yet another attempt with
Reika's hairpin resulted in failure.
"I know that it's called breaking and entering by the law," she replied tightly.
Youji paused in his work, his eyes moving upwards to look at her. "We just got locked out, okay?
How were we supposed to know that they were going to close early today?"
"You can't just knock?" Reika asked, rubbing at the goose-bumps on her arms.
Youji just snorted by way of response, and went back to trying to pick the lock.
"You're ghosts. Aren't you supposed to be able to walk through walls and stuff?"
"Angels, thank-you-very-much!"
"Then why don't you call down the power of God or whatever and have him blast the door
away?"
"Because . . ." Youji abandoned the door as he floundered for a response.
Omi let out a laugh. "I think she's got you there!"
Youji tossed the hairpin down to the ground, with an exasperated noise. "I told you we should
have just left her at the hospital!"
Reika turned her nose away. "It's not like I wanted to come."
Ken shifted slightly. "Youji, it's very cold out here. Even though none of us are affected by it,
Reika's probably freezing."
Youji peered closer at Reika, who was still dressed in her short-sleeved, short-skirted nurse's
uniform, and trying not to shiver overtly. "Well, the lock just won't get picked," he said firmly.
"I'm cursing the fact now that we personally picked out this lock so that people wouldn't be able
to get into our base of operations. This door isn't gonna open anytime soon. We should just find a
hotel or something to stash the girl."
Ken glared at Youji. "What sort of way is that to speak about a woman?" he asked, as he
removed his jacket. He handed it to Reika, who took it but not without muttering, "I'm not cold,"
under her breath.
Aya stepped forward, crouching silently by the door and startling Youji into flopping backwards
on the pavement. He reached up and touched the doorknob lightly, his lips curved ever so slightly
in a frown of concentration.
Youji rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. Don't try to tell me that you think you can pick the lock. I
used to be a detective, you know. If I can't pick it, there's no way you wi--" There was a faint
click, and Aya straightened up. He turned the doorknob and went in, moving silently as a cat.
Youji blinked and watched him go, before standing up himself.
"Wh-What did you do? You didn't even touch the hairpin."
Aya glanced at him over his shoulder. "I don't need a hairpin."
Omi walked past Youji, following Aya into the shop. "He's got that talent now, remember? He
can move stuff with his mind. Like when he pushed the demon away, and like when he opened the
hospital doors without using his hands."
Youji frowned. "Well that's hardly fair. He could pick any of us up and do whatever he wanted,
then, couldn't he?"
Omi hid a grin. "Well, he only just figured it out. I doubt he can do anything that big unless he's
really worked up. Like with the demon."
"And anyway," added Ken, "Yours is just as unfair. You can control anyone's mind you want,
right? I mean, all I can do is see the future. It's definitely not fair."
There was a pause, as Youji mulled this over. Then, as a slow grin went across his face, Omi shot
Ken a grief-stricken look. "You had to tell him that, didn't you?" he hissed, his eyes anguished.
Ken grinned sheepishly. Aya suddenly turned around, standing at the door to the basement, and
said sharply, "This door's locked, too."
Youji frowned. "So? You just do your little Aya thing and 'tell' it to open."
Aya shook his head. "But why is it locked? Why now, when it's been unlocked all this time?"
Youji bit his lip, his brows furrowed in thought.
Omi stepped over to the door, jiggling the locked doorknob thoughtfully. "Hmm . . ." Then his
eyes widened. "You don't think one of them saw us, do you? And so they're trying to keep us out
of there so they can see us for sure?"
Aya shook his head. "They would have tried to talk to us if they had seen us, right? I know my
sister."
"But what about Sakura-chan?"
Aya started to answer, and then hesitated.
Ken made a face. "I know you think she's so much like your sister, but you have to admit that she
is a separate person. She's more independent, for one thing."
"I don't know. It seems odd, but maybe." Aya shrugged. "I suppose we might as well go in." He
concentrated on the lock for a moment, and the doorknob turned by itself and the door swung
open.
They went down the stairs, Reika trailing along behind them hesitantly. Ken looked at her,
sympathy on his face. "You've got to be tired-- and confused. You deserve an explanation for
this all. We just haven't had time until now."
Omi spoke up, a worried overtone in his voice. "Yes, but don't you think she should be allowed
to sleep first? She's got to be exhausted by all this."
Ken nodded. "We don't have an extra room, but if you want to sleep on the couch, you can."
Reika blinked. "Well . . . alright, I guess." She sat down, as Youji rolled his eyes and sauntered
down the hallway, shutting the door to his room behind him slightly louder than was necessary.
Aya sighed. "Just ignore him. He's temperamental sometimes. Do you need anything else?"
Reika shook her head numbly and Aya nodded once in acknowledgment, before retreating to his
own room. Ken waved, Omi smiled at her, and they too disappeared down the hall. Reika sighed
and lay back on the couch, staring wide-eyed and sleepless at the ceiling. Out loud, she
murmured, "Oh, good lord . . . what have I gotten myself into?"
Youji crouched down by the corner of the alley wall, his gun held ready near his face so he could
aim and fire it easily if he had to. He glanced at his companion, and grinned charmingly.
"Here," he said lightly. "You go around this way, and I'll hold them off back here while you get
away. Then I'll follow you."
His partner grimaced. "Are you sure you'll be all right?"
Youji's grin widened. "Of course! Now hurry, run! Before they get here!" He took a quick, last
look at her face, not knowing then that it would indeed be his last look. Then she darted around
the corner, sprinting for safety. Youji let out a sigh of relief-- he hadn't been sure if he'd be able
to persuade her to go. As he glanced behind him to make sure he wasn't being followed yet, a
strange sound reached his ears. It was like someone dropping marbles on a trash can lid, but
much louder. Gun shots. As the echoes ricocheted around the brick walls of the alley, Youji's
eyes widened.
"ASUKA!" he shouted, blood draining from his face. "Asuka, come back! It's a trap!" The
leaden weight of the gun pulled his hand down limply by his side as he watched, unable to do
anything else. The look of shock on the girl's face as she fell mirrored his own . . .
"ASUKA!"
Except that the girl wasn't Asuka anymore. She was someone else, very like Asuka, but still
different. She fell to the pavement just as the gun fell from Youji's limp hand and clattered
against the ground . . .
"Asuka!" cried Youji, as he sat up in bed. For a minute, he stared at the wall opposite his bed,
eyes wide, lungs gasping for the air he couldn't seem to breathe. "A dream," he murmured
desperately. "The same nightmare, the exact same nightmare. The usual nightmare."
He stayed there for a few moments, trying to calm his shaking limbs and twisting thoughts. He
closed his eyes and swallowed, the movement causing a droplet of moisture to roll down his
cheek and off his chin, splashing down against his hand. He wiped at his face with his hands,
surprised at how slick with sweat he was. Youji swung his legs out of bed and wrapped the sheet
around his waist as he trudged over to the mirror. Surprising, but there weren't any circles
beneath his eyes-- probably because, since he wasn't exactly a normal human being, sleep-deprivation didn't affect him.
"The same dream . . ." he murmured, his eyes troubled as they gazed back at him out of the
mirror. Except that it wasn't the same dream. It was very like the recurring nightmare he used to
have about losing his partner, Asuka, except that the girl hadn't been Asuka. She'd looked like
her, spoken like her, moved like her-- but hadn't been her. Maki? For a moment, he entertained
the idea that the dream had simply been a memory of the young prostitute that had been murdered
early on in his Weiß career. And yet, something was different . . . what was it? Youji closed his
eyes again, trying to recall the girl's face. But the memory was slipping away, even as he tried to
grasp it . . . And then it was gone, sinking back into his subconscious as if he'd never had the
dream in the first place.
Youji sighed, shaking his head. He ran a hand through his damp hair, noting with some distaste
how limp it felt. "Shower," he murmured. "I need a shower." He firmly put the thought out of his
mind that an angel shouldn't require a shower.
He let the sheet drop to the floor and poked his head out of the door of his room. It was late, or
early, perhaps-- about 2:00 in the morning. The other three members of Weiß should still be
asleep, so they probably wouldn't even notice if he dashed down the hallway to the bathroom
with no clothes on. The thought of pulling clothes on over his sweaty, stuffy-feeling body made
his skin crawl. So, he slipped out the door and did just that, sliding down the hall and shutting the
door after him. He flicked on the light switch, wincing as the light struck his eyes, and glanced
around.
Towels . . . soap . . . no shampoo. Youji sighed and grabbed up a towel to wrap around his waist
and turned off the light as he left the bathroom to search for a new bottle of shampoo. He trudged
down the hallway, yawning, and entered the main room, trying to think where shampoo would be
stored. He'd never been the one to go grocery shopping or run errands, or put things away;
usually Omi had done that, or sometimes Ken would if Omi was busy or he really needed
something. Youji, on the other hand, firmly refused to do anything of the sort. The others said it
was because he was lazy, and Youji didn't mind that verdict, possibly because it was true and he
knew it. Youji grinned to himself in the darkness-- being notoriously lazy definitely had its
advantages when things like spring cleaning came around. Then his grin faded a little as his mind
turned back to his search for shampoo. Right now, Youji wished that he had perhaps paid a little
more attention to where things were stored. Omi probably wouldn't appreciate being woken up at
2:00 in the morning because Youji had had a sudden need for utter cleanliness.
As Youji looked around the dark common room, the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly lifted.
Without changing his posture, Youji immediately forgot his shampoo as he tried to figure out
what had tripped his finely tuned senses. Someone was watching him, from the shadows of the
pitch-black room-- he could feel their eyes boring into his skull. Schwartz? Youji didn't want to
contemplate a confrontation right now. They, after all, appeared to know what they were doing
and why they were here, while Weiß was still groping around in the darkness for answers. Even in
his wary, cautious state, Youji had to grin at the irony of that last thought. After all, he was
groping around in the darkness-- literally.
Youji concentrated outwards, letting that odd second-sight that was related to his so-called "gift"
ooze around the room. He had a little trouble locating the source of the tension he felt, but when
he did, it shocked him. There was definitely someone in the room with him, and they had hostile
intentions. All he could pick up was a desperate violence, and it was coming closer-- right behind
him. Youji turned suddenly, seeing a shape loom up in front of him in the darkness with
something like a club held up over his head.
"Take . . . THAT!" The thing shrieked.
Youji saw stars that faded into blackness and slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Aya turned on the lights of his room, his heart pounding. He'd heard a loud yell, and a thud--
what was going on out in the main room? Schwartz?
He opened the door, and found Ken and Omi in the hallway, having been woken up as well. Ken
was in the process of scrambling into his jacket, with the ties of his bugnuks caught in his teeth,
while Omi was hurriedly unpacking his little darts. They both looked up as Aya exited, and noted
his lack of weapon. Aya shrugged. "I can defend myself if there's need," he said simply, and then
proceeded down the hallway. He paused before he reached the common room, and asked,
"Where's Kudou?"
Omi and Ken exchanged glanced. "Dunno," said Ken. "That's what we're worried about."
They continued the rest of the way down the hall and turned on the light. They paused there for a
moment, surveying the scene. Youji was in a sprawled heap on the floor, his towel only barely
covering the essentials, a rather conspicuous lump forming on his upper forehead. And, standing
above him, holding the base of a lamp raised slightly in her hand, was . . .
Ken suddenly burst out laughing. "Reika?" he asked incredulously. "What are you doing?"
Reika jumped and glanced at Ken with wide eyes, lowering the lamp slightly. She wobbled a little,
staring at the three assassins, letting the lamp slide from her nerveless fingers. It landed on Youji,
hitting him squarely in the stomach, causing him to twitch, and moan slightly, shifting pathetically
on the floor. Reika blinked down at him for a moment, as if surprised that he was there. "What . .
. huh?" she murmured, confused.
Omi's eyes widened. "He didn't!"
Aya raised an eyebrow at the youngest member. "Didn't what?"
Omi flushed a little. "Well, you know Youji . . . he might have, well, been rather improper to her .
. ."
Reika suddenly turned bright red. "That's not it! He-- well, it was dark, and I thought he was . . .
Well, the whole night, there's been these shapes across the windows, people looking in, and I
thought he was one of them and had somehow gotten inside. He was just creeping around in the
darkness, I didn't know he wasn't . . ." She actually looked worried as she watched him. "I . . .
didn't hurt him that badly, did I?" For someone who'd had years of medical training, she appeared
to be rather dazed at the moment.
Aya crossed the room and knelt down by the fallen man. "He probably forgot you were here and
sleeping on the couch." His lips twitched, for a moment making it look as if he was trying not to
laugh. "It's probably the first time he's been decked by a woman, however. This may be a rather
mighty blow to him, and I don't just mean that lump on his head."
Ken was grinning broadly as he joined Aya. "Here, help me get him onto the couch." He and Aya
lifted his prone body onto the piece of furniture. Omi disappeared for a moment into the kitchen,
returning with some water, which he used with a washcloth to try and revive the unconscious
assassin.
Meanwhile, Reika had regained some of her equilibrium. "What exactly was he doing, sneaking
about in the middle of the night, anyway?" she asked, suspiciously.
Omi shrugged. "Who knows?" He dribbled some water over Youji's face, causing him to mumble
something and open his eyes blearily.
"Ah . . . S'ka?" he asked incoherently, and sat up abruptly, knocking his head into the bowl of
water Omi was holding. The younger boy managed to keep it from spilling as Youji's eyes glazed
a little and he held a hand to his head. "Oh, bloody hell," he muttered. "How much did I have to
drink, anyway?"
Ken was unsuccessfully trying to hold back his mirth. "None. You just startled our heroine here,
and she smacked you a good one for disturbing her sleep."
Youji followed Ken's gesture, his eyes falling on Reika. They widened for a moment, and then
assumed Youji's usual slit-eyed, almost feline look of laziness. Puzzled, he watched her for a
moment before turning back and asking plaintively, "What?"
Reika swallowed and replied rather heatedly, "You were creeping around in the dark, so how was
I to know you weren't some burglar, or one of those faces at the window? I had to do
something." Her eyes flicked briefly towards her make-shift club, still lying on the floor.
Youji blinked dazedly a few more times, and then chuckled weakly. "Well, that's a first, I
suppose. Being knocked out completely by a woman. Most men don't even manage to do that to
me very often."
Aya was watching Reika with a slightly calculating look on his face. "What's this about faces at
the windows?"
Reika started to look a little subdued, almost as if she was beginning to doubt herself. But when
she spoke, her voice betrayed nothing of such a sentiment. "I couldn't really get to sleep," she
admitted. "This is all kind of frightening, to be honest. I don't know what's going on, and yet you
can't let me just continue with my life, apparently, because you're afraid I'll go blab to someone
about it and blow your cover; or what little of it's left." She smiled ruefully at the surprised looks
on their faces. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not offended. I'd probably do the same thing. But don't, for
a minute, think I'm dumb enough not to know why you brought me along."
"The faces," Aya reminded her quietly.
"Oh, right," she said. "I couldn't sleep. I don't know how long it was, but after a while I saw a
shadow pass in front of the window." She nodded her head towards the window near the
basement ceiling, now dark because of the light inside the room. In the darkness, however, a
street lamp outside shone into the room. "I thought it was just people walking outside, but then I
saw someone stop in front of it and look in."
Omi asked, almost whispering, as if afraid to speak loudly lest he interrupt her story too much,
"What did he look like?"
Reika shrugged. "I don't know. He was lit up from behind, so I couldn't see his face. But other
people came and looked in as well. Once I saw the light reflected in the eyes of one of them, and
his eyes were this odd golden sort of color. So when I heard someone moving around quietly, I
naturally thought . . ." She glanced down at Youji, almost apologetically.
Youji spoke up then, his words startling the other three assassins. "You were right to be
alarmed." Then, after pausing for a moment, he added almost sulkily, "'m sorry."
Reika raised an eyebrow. "What happened to not trusting me? To my being the very bane of your
existence?"
Youji shrugged, grinning that charming grin. "Oh, I still don't trust you. But who trusts women,
anyway?"
Reika rolled her eyes in annoyance, and asked testily, "Well, why were you sneaking around like
that?"
Youji looked sort of embarrassed. "I wanted to take a shower, but there wasn't any shampoo. I
was trying to find some."
Omi let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a choked cough. "There's extra shampoo and
soap in the cabinet under the sink in the bathroom, Youji."
Youji sniffed. "Oh." He paused, aware of the idiocy of the situation. "I didn't know that."
Aya leaned against the wall. "Golden eyes . . . sounds familiar, doesn't it, gentlemen?"
Youji blinked, looking confused at the rapid change of subject, but then sighed ruefully. "Mm-hmm," he murmured, glancing up at the window. "Schwartz."
Ken groaned and flopped into a chair ungracefully. "What I don't understand is what they're
trying to do! They're dead, after all-- for what reason would they come back and mess with these
kids?"
Omi glanced at him. "You're forgetting that we don't know the reason we're here, either."
Aya made a thoughtful humming noise in the back of his throat. "Perhaps our reason is tied into
theirs. In fact, it's fairly well sure. You don't see demons and angels just roaming the streets every
day, after all."
Omi looked puzzled. "Like maybe our purpose is to prevent them from completing theirs?"
Aya allowed a corner of his mouth to quirk. "Exactly. The problem is, they know what they're
doing, and we have no clue what-so-ever."
Youji, who had been silent throughout this, suddenly began to chuckle. The others looked at him,
annoyed.
"What is it now?" asked Omi.
Youji grinned. "Look at Reika. She looks like she's about to keel over or something."
The others all glanced at her, and indeed, she looked completely lost and confused. Ken winced,
and said apologetically, "I suppose we owe you a full explanation, don't we?"
Reika smiled weakly. "It . . . might help."
Aya sat down in a chair. "I suppose I'll start. When we were alive, we were all part of an assassin
group called Weiß."
Youji grinned, amused at the look of surprise on Reika's face. "Don't underestimate us, hon. We
may all look like useless pretty-boys, but we're trained killers. It's not a pretty job, nor is it fun,
but no one ever said we had to like it."
Ken broke in, offering a fuller explanation. "Our . . . well, I suppose our opposites were part of
another group, called Schwartz. Our missions were generally to seek out and dispose of those
monsters and criminals hidden in society, so deep that the police couldn't even seek them out.
Schwartz's, however, were generally to support them, and to follow their own causes no matter
how much it harmed others."
Reika hesitated. "So, why are you . . ."
Aya answered, quietly, "We died in a building that sank into the ocean, to keep them from
reviving an ancient demon in the body of . . . in the body of a little girl."
Reika was staring, rapt in the story. "Did they die too?"
Aya shrugged in a noncommital fashion. "I assume so. They're certainly not mortal beings now.
They've been trying to possess teenage boys--"
"The coma cases!" Reika exclaimed, as certain things fit together in her mind.
Ken nodded. "Exactly. Anyway, one minute we were all falling in that cave-in, and the next, we
were here once more, the same as if none of it had ever happened. Except for two things: our eyes
had all changed to this identical violet color, and each of us knew he had a certain set of
instructions. We haven't shared them; we get the feeling that they are for us and us alone." He
paused. "And that's as far as we've gotten."
Omi spoke up then, adding, "We're fairly sure that Schwartz is back as demons, and that they've
got some sort of purpose, some task to fulfill. We don't know what it is, but we know we have to
stop them. When they aren't in possession of a body, they manifest as some sort of dark shadow."
Ken nodded earnestly. "It's weird. And now, since you were just a tad too smart, you've found us
out."
Reika let out a long, steady breath. "And you didn't want me to stay there and alert whatever
authorities there were that four ghosts, or angels, or whatever supernatural beings, were
wandering around the city." She nodded. "It makes sense. I just . . ."
Ken raised an eyebrow. "Just what?"
Reika smiled wanly. "I just sort of wish it hadn't happened to me."
Youji made a face. "I'm sure we all wish the same thing."
Reika paused, as if remembering something. "But what about how Aya-san blew those doors
apart? And picked the locks? And how you all made everyone in the hospital forget about you?"
Aya concentrated a moment, and the lamp base rose unsteadily off of the floor. After letting it
hover there for a moment, he brought it up and set it on the table from which Reika had snatched
it in her haste. Then, as an afterthought, he brought the lampshade up as well and set it neatly on
top of the base. He smiled slightly, at the look of wonder on Reika's face. "We were all promised,
by whoever-- or whatever-- gave us our 'instructions,' that we were to get some sort of talent
or power. We didn't know what they were, and it took a while for us all to realize them. We each
have a certain limited invisibility. People can still see us, we just make it so that they ignore us as
if they never saw us. Omi's specific ability is electronics-- he can infiltrate wires, computers,
phone cables, anything like that."
In response, the lights flickered briefly. Omi grinned. "Doesn't seem terribly useful to you, I'm
sure, but in our assassin days we would have killed for someone able to get into the security
systems, into enemy operations computers, etc. . . ."
Aya nodded. "Exactly. And Ken, his is some sort of ability to see the future. Right?"
Ken shrugged. "I can't really explain it. It's like a very strong premonition. I knew Aya was in
trouble when he met that demon yesterday, and it manifested as a sort of headache. But if I
concentrated on it, it got stronger and I could almost tell what was going on."
Omi piped up, "And the lock-picking, that was because Aya can move things with his mind. Like
the doors."
Ken scowled at Youji. "And Youji can read minds, and other things like that."
Youji grinned broadly. "I can tell what you're thinking, m'dear. I'm not good enough to tell
deeper thoughts, only what's on the surface of the mind. Let me demonstrate." He paused, his
eyes unfocusing for a minute. Then, in surprise, he looked down. "Oh, she's noticed; I am still
wearing nothing but a towel." He had the grace to look embarrassed.
Reika turned bright red, and glared at him. "Stop that!" she exclaimed in outrage. "And go put
some clothes on, for goodness' sake."
He stood up and performed a mocking little bow. "As the lady commands," he responded
promptly, and padded down the hallway into his room.
Ken rolled his eyes. "He's really a nice guy," he said, "but sometimes his personality can be a little
overwhelming."
Reika glanced down the hallway. "It's almost like everything's one big joke to him, or
something."
Aya spoke up, his face impassive. "When you kill for a living, you have to learn to take things
lightly or else you'd go mad."
Reika shivered slightly. "I suppose so. But still . . ."
Omi laughed. "Don't let it get to you."
"What are you all going to do with me now?" she asked.
Aya sighed. "I don't know. We can't ask you to stay, it's too dangerous." Youji returned then, in
a pair of baggy jeans. He nodded gravely as he pulled one of his too-short, skin-tight t-shirts on,
and Aya added, "But we can't let you go back to the hospital, because Schwartz will investigate
and if they find you, they will know everything about us."
Reika sighed, and asked plaintively, "You can't just wiggle your fingers and make me forget all of
this?"
The others glanced at Youji, who shook his head. "No, and I'm sorry for that. You've been
interacting with us too long. Your memories of us are too complicated now, and to erase them
would be to erase a significant part of your personality along with them."
Reika looked at him blankly. "I didn't understand that, but I'll accept it." She closed her eyes for
a moment, and inhaled deeply. When she opened them again, she looked firm, resigned. "Well
then, boys, sign me up. You just earned yourselves a tagalong. I know a mere mortal like me
doesn't seem like much help, but you'll probably need someone to do undercover stuff for you."
Aya's eyes widened slightly. "Are you sure? You don't know the sort of enemy we're dealing
with--"
Reika smiled wanly. "Well, since I can't be left by myself, and you can't just wiggle your fingers
at me and make me forget all this, I don't really have much of a choice, do I?" Her weak smile
widened into a true one. "What, did you think I was being brave, or something? I'm scared out of
my wits, to tell you the truth."
Ken grinned back at her. "Join the club. So-- we can assume that Schwartz knows we're trying
to stop them. Them looking in the windows, one of them having an encounter with Aya, that note
in the graveyard--"
"Graveyard?" asked Reika, curiously. "I never heard that part. What note, what graveyard?"
"Do you remember the little girl I visited in the hospital when I first met you?" Aya asked. When
Reika nodded, he continued. "Well, the reason she was in that accident was because her brother
got taken over just as they were crossing the street. When I was talking to her, she said that her
brother whispered that 'they were meeting in the graveyard' just before the girl got hit by the
oncoming traffic."
"And?" Reika asked. "This note?"
Aya nodded. "We went to the city's graveyard to check, but only found a note from Schwartz
telling us to give up."
Ken nodded. "So we can assume they know we're trying to stop them. The question is, what can
they do to us, exactly? We're already dead, so it's not like they can kill us or anything."
"But we can't kill them either," Aya pointed out. "We're still worse off than them. We need
something to put us back on the same level."
Omi made a frustrated noise in his throat. "Something's just not quite right about this. I'm-- I'm
going to do some research." He stood up and crossed to the computer, where he waved his hand
imperiously. The screen came alight and immediately began scrolling text at him, faster than the
others could read.
"Whoa, slow down, Omi!" cried Ken, his eyes flickering back and forth across the page
desperately. "What're you doing?"
"Researching," Omi muttered. "Leave me alone." A strange, focused expression had come over
his face, and the look it gave him made Ken back off.
"Well . . . as long as you promise to tell us what you find out."
Omi didn't respond, and instead switched to another window on the computer, his eyes scanning
it quickly.
Youji rolled his eyes upwards, with a melodramatic sigh. "Must have to do with that talent of
his-- Here's hoping he can make some sense of all this."
"In the meantime," Aya murmured, "I think Reika needs some sleep. She's nodding off where she
sits."
"But Omi's using the computer, so it'd be light in here. How's she going to sleep?"
"Oh, it's alright," Reika said, desperately stifling a yawn. "I've worked night shifts at the hospital
before--"
"She can use my bed," Youji cut in. "I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon, and it's not as if I
really need it anyway."
Reika gave him a suspicious look, as if suspecting some sort of joke or trick. Ken looked at him in
surprise, asking, "What, have you decided to start treating her as a human being all of a sudden?"
Youji stuck his tongue out at the younger boy. "Oh, stop it. It's just logic. She needs a bed, I'm
not going to sleep, it's all good." He made a shooing motion. "Go on ahead, missy. Just be
careful where you step, I've got clothes and CD cases lying all over the floor."
Reika smiled slightly, but wasted no time in heading for the room. She shut the door behind her,
and there was silence for a while before Youji spoke up again. "And you two, go to sleep.
There's nothing for you all to do while Omi's looking, and you won't be all nervous as you wait
for his information."
Ken frowned, puzzled. "What're you gonna do?"
Youji shrugged. "I'm gonna go find a nice place outside somewhere to sit and make sure them
Schwartzies don't come back to haunt us."
Aya raised an eyebrow. "And why are you trying to get rid of us?"
Youji looked chagrined. "I guess I wasn't too subtle in shooing you all off, was I?" Aya didn't
respond, so Youji added, "I just want to be alone for a bit."
Ken rolled his eyes and headed down the hall towards his room. "Well, I for one want to go to
sleep so I don't have to think about this anymore." Aya shrugged and followed him, without a
word.
Youji sighed after they left and, shooting a glance towards Omi to make sure he was engrossed,
before he sagged down onto the couch and stared sleeplessly up at the ceiling, watching the
flickering changes in the light as the computer screen flashed.
Asuka . . .
Sakura was awakened in the morning by a faint sound coming from the room next to her.
Groggily, she stared up at the ceiling as she tried to make sense of the noise. Unable to figure out
what was causing it, she swung her legs over the side of her bed and got to her feet, pausing to
wait through the rush of blood caused by the sudden movement.
She padded across the floor, rubbing at her eyes as the sunlight filtering through the blinds hit
them. Sakura opened the door to her bedroom, and went down the hallway to Aya-chan's room,
and tapped on the door. There was no response, but the noise was louder-- loud enough now to
be recognizable.
Eyes widening slightly with worry, Sakura opened the door. "Aya-chan?" she called, "Are you
okay? Why are you coughing?"
Again, no response. Sakura shut the door behind her and went towards the bed. The other girl
was half-upright, her head leaning against the headboard of her bed. There were dark circles
under her eyes, easily visible through her pale skin.
"Aya-chan!" said Sakura, distressed.
Aya turned her head to look at Sakura, controlling the spasms of coughing long enough to
whisper hoarsely, "O-Ohayou gozaima-su--"
"What's the matter?" Sakura hurried to the bedside and sat down.
Aya smiled weakly. "A cold," she whispered, her voice sounding thin and strained. "Nothing
more."
Sakura's brow furrowed and she placed a hand on Aya's forehead. "You're burning," she
murmured, worriedly. "You're going to sleep today, since you obviously didn't get any rest last
night."
Aya-chan tried to sit up, but Sakura pushed her back down. "But what about the shop?"
whispered Aya, distressed.
Sakura grinned, trying to look as soothing and reassuring as she could. "I'll be fine, I promise,"
she replied firmly, more-so than she felt. "Trust me. After all, you'd be more of a hindrance down
there today than a help." She paused to let that irony soak in-- after all, a day before, it had been
Aya-chan saying that about her momentary clumsiness.
Aya rolled her eyes and sank back down into her pillow. "Just don't break anything," she
murmured, her hoarse voice cracking slightly on the last syllable.
Sakura nodded seriously. "I won't. It's alright." She stood up. "I'll go get a thermometer just to
be sure you're running a fever, okay?" Aya nodded, and Sakura left for a few moments. When she
returned, Aya was coughing again-- a moist, lung-wrenching cough that made Sakura wince in
sympathy. She crossed quietly to the bed and put an arm around Aya's shaking shoulders until the
fit passed.
"Here, hold this under your tongue," Sakura said, holding out the thermometer. "How are you
feeling, besides that cough?"
Aya merely shook her head as she stuck the thermometer in her mouth, settling back with a little
sigh. As they waited in silence for the timer in the automatic thermometer to go off, Aya shivered
a little, as if chilled. Sakura drew the blankets up around the girl just before the timer beeped
loudly, startling the both of them.
Sakura read the display on the thermometer to herself, her eyes widening in alarm. A hundred and
one . . . Aya-chan, what's going on?
Aya must have seen something in Sakura's expressed, for she smiled wanly. "Daijoubu, Sakura-chan . . ." she whispered. "I just need some rest."
Sakura nodded and stood up, setting down a glass of water that she'd filled when she'd gotten the
thermometer. "Try to drink all of that, alright?"
Aya nodded, clutching the blankets around her chin like a small child.
Sakura took one last worried glance behind her, to see Aya's large, dark eyes staring back out of
her pale face. The sudden gauntness of the other girl surprised Sakura-- had she just not noticed
when she'd gotten so thin? Or when her face had grown that pale? A small, nasty voice in her
mind asked insidiously: Or were you just too caught up in your own problems with Ran's
supposed appearances to care?
Sakura pushed feelings of guilt away as she quickly shut the door behind her, and hurried to get
dressed so she could open the flower shop for the morning's customers.
First of all, big thank-you's go to those of you who have responded with emails to me about this
story! I've never had such a good reaction to my writing before, and it's very helpful. Especially
those of you who said you were confused about Chapter Four-- it was that confusion that made
me re-read it, and I found out that something had gone wrong with the HTML and only half of
the chapter had been uploaded. No wonder you were confused. ^^;; But anyway, thanks for all
your comments and compliments, etc. ^_^
Next, I apologize for the slowness with which this chapter was written. First there was crew
season, then finals for school, and now summer rowing season has just started, so I've got
practice every day, with Sunday as my only day for work and recuperation. So my writing time
has been . . . well . . . rather limited, but I still hope to get a lot done now that school's over.
Hope being the important word here . . .
But anyway, thanks for reading, and I will be good and stop talking now before your eyes all
glaze over. ^_~ Ciao!