Chapter 7.
28 February, 1998
6:00 PM
Youji got to his feet painfully, glaring at the flower shop door. "Aya, you must die."
He lurched over to the door with every intention of beating Aya to a pulp, to see Ken coming back up the stairs, looking carefully back at Omi, who followed. Aya followed behind them, eyes glued to Omi's back.
Omi dripped water and Ken's shoes squelched as he stepped up the stairs.
"It flooded, didn't it?" Youji asked with his teeth still clenched. Ken didn't answer, merely stepping past him into the house.
"Okay, Aya, round two," Youji snapped as Omi passed him, and he kicked Aya full in the jaw, sending him flying back down the stairs to strike the bottom with a loud smack against the water, underscored by a hollow thud.
"Youji-kun!" Omi shrieked.
"What the hell!" Ken leapt forward and grabbed Youji, slamming him into the wall. Youji coughed as his breath was nearly stolen for the second time that day.
"Bastard deserved it!" he snarled and Ken slapped him.
"What's gotten into you?!" Ken shook him, and shoved him to the side, hurrying back down the stairs after the redhead.
Omi stared at Youji with disbelieving eyes and Youji glared defiantly back, feeling his cheek sting.
"Asshole." He grit his teeth, looking back at the door.
"Aya-kun?" Omi ran to the door, looking down the stairs, and Youji stared. Omi's jacket had been torn and slashed across the back, revealing the white lining. The sagging material had been stained with red, revealing the boy's skin beneath marked with blood.
Youji's throat constricted as his mind registered what he was seeing. His vision seemed to telescope in to see the dark wound which had opened in a line across the boy's skin between the folds of ragged cloth.
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Aya slowly sat up, holding the back of his head.
"You okay?" Ken asked, hovering over him. Aya nodded calmly, blinking against the numbing sting on the back of his head.
"Damn that Youji," Ken cursed. "What's he thinking?"
He held out his hand to help Aya to his feet. Aya took it, getting to his feet shakily. Then his muscles stopped spasming from the shock, and he regained his balance.
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Up at the top of the stairs, Youji had pulled off Omi's shirt, examining his back.
"Youji," Ken growled as he emerged through the door.
"Enough." Aya held out his hand to stop the angry brunette. "I deserved that."
Ken blinked at him in surprise, not sure how to respond. To Youji, it was already forgotten. Omi stood patiently, biting his lip in fear of how bad it really looked.
"And so it's gotten all of us now," Youji said quietly. "I'm going to get the first aid kit."
"Are you okay, Aya-kun?" Omi asked worriedly.
Aya nodded and motioned for the boy to turn around. Omi did so, revealing the bleeding lines crisscrossing his back from his shoulders to the top of his pants.
"That's a stigmata?!" Ken gasped in horror.
"Jesus was whipped before he was nailed to the cross." Youji stepped back with the first aid kit. "There's only one stigmata left."
"You're saying one of us is gonna get another one?" Omi asked fearfully. Youji sat down at the table, motioning him over. He pulled the rubbing alcohol from the kit as Omi obliged.
"I'm not an expert on this," he said quietly as Omi hissed over the gentle dabs at his back. "I just know there were five."
"Where's Manx at?" Ken scratched his head. "She should have been here by now."
Aya walked over to the window, looking out at the dark, flooded streets.
"Ken's right," he said quietly. "She should have been here by now."
"You don't think...anything happened...do y-ow!" Omi jerked away from the bloodied cotton.
"I'm almost done." Youji waved him back. Aya clenched and unclenched his fists as he watched the rain.
"Call her again." He looked to Ken, who obediently went for the phone. Youji wrapped gauze around Omi's torso.
"You'll look like a mummy." He grinned as Omi turned helpfully to wind the gauze.
"I do not," Omi protested, arms up in the air.
Ken put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. "I'm not getting an answer."
Aya turned to look at him, walking over and taking the phone from Ken's hands, listening to the continuous ringing. He hung up the phone, staring at it.
"What do you think happened?" Ken asked quietly. "She should have been here..."
Aya stepped away to the closet, pulling out his jacket.
"Aya-kun!" Omi started toward him, but was stopped by the gauze Youji was still trying to tie off.
"Where do you think you're going?" Ken slapped his hand against the wall next to the closet.
"I'm going to find Manx." Aya buckled his jacket closed.
"But you can't go out there alone!" Omi protested, impatiently waiting for Youji to finish.
"Don't be stupid, Aya." Youji rolled his eyes, lifting his hands away from the finished knot.
Aya narrowed his eyes at them. "She came for us. We need to find her for our sakes as well as hers. He's not after me. Stay."
He grabbed up his katana and turned to see Ken holding the car keys out. Aya grabbed for them, and Ken closed them in his fist.
"Didn't you learn when you joined us that you can't do everything alone?" he demanded. "It's like you're suicidal, Aya! It's driving me crazy!"
Aya remained calm. "Give me the keys, Ken. She's out there. When I find her, I won't be alone."
Omi shook his head, fingering his earring in agitation.
"Damn, stubborn, piece of..." Youji muttered, trailing off, closing the first aid kit.
"I'm not abandoning any of you." Aya looked to the others. "And I'm not going to abandon Manx either. But we can't all go out there. Too vulnerable. And one of you can't take him on. So I have to go. Alone."
"You're forgetting me, Aya-kun." Omi pointed his finger accusingly. "I can fight too. I don't need to be protected like a child."
Ken and Youji looked at Aya with I-told-you-so looks.
"Indeed, the three of you." Aya nodded slowly. "But he has you targeted. Remember?"
Omi sucked in his lower lip, lowering his gaze to the floor.
"The keys."
Ken laid the keys in Aya's hand, and Aya nodded at him. "I'll be back."
"Yeah, him and the Terminator," Youji said dryly.
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Aya drove carefully through the water-filled streets, keeping an alert eye for any sign of the redheaded secretary. The streets were silent. The city looked like a washed out ghost town.
"No sane man would be out there. Only Aya."
Aya grit his teeth. Sometimes Youji was so correct it made his teeth hurt. Not that he'd ever admit it. At least not to the lanky blonde's face.
He rounded another corner and slammed on the brakes as a light flashed across his eyes. The tires slid him forward a small distance before stopping. Aya cursed, blinking as the light moved, revealing itself to be a flashlight. More flashlights and swirling blue lights on cars were in the street before him. In the center of the hubbub was an overturned van.
Aya blinked at the black van, thinking of how close he himself could be to the same situation. It had been smashed so badly, the police had it up on jacks to get into it.
"Sir." The police officer with the flashlight tapped on his window. Aya rolled it down, blinking as the rain sprinkled into his eyes.
"Sir, I'm going to have to have you go around," the police officer explained, pointing back toward the street Aya had come from. "You shouldn't even be out here in this rain, it's dangerous."
"I see," Aya agreed quietly, putting the car into reverse. The police officer waved after him in the dark as Aya pulled back onto the street and drove past. He parked the car a block away. He silently cursed the water that lapped around his boots about calf level as he stepped out. At least the boots were waterproof.
He slipped back up to the scene, sticking to the shadows between the buildings. He got in place in time to watch two medics climb out of the back of the van, carrying a woman between them. Blood coated her face, but the face was unmistakable.
"Birman." Aya clenched the hilt of his katana. They'd crashed. Impossible. He felt as if cold water had filled his stomach as Birman was laid out on a cot with a black bag on it. He swallowed hard as they closed the black bag around her body and zipped it closed.
As that cot was wheeled through the water to the first ambulance, another cot with a black bag was wheeled forward. Aya gripped the edge of the wall as the medics stepped back into the back of the van. He bit his lip hard enough to taste blood to see the next body come out. All he needed to see were the red curls.
He turned away from the scene. Impossible. Manx and Birman both. A little water couldn't have defeated them. Impossible. Unless...
He swallowed the taste of copper in his mouth as he walked back to the car.
It's all on us now. He did it. He stopped them from helping us. It's the only explanation.
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7:30 the car clock read. Four and a half more hours till Omi's birthday. Normally, Aya would have been thinking of what kind of cake to get the boy. Instead, he was thinking of how to keep the boy alive.
He drove home solemnly, carefully. Making sure he got home alive. When he approached the door, he was startled to hear singing. He opened the door cautiously.
Ken had a paper birthday hat on, askew. Youji wore two on his head, next to each other like horns. Omi wore his on the front of his head, giving him a single horn. The cupcakes Ken had bought two days ago had candles in them. At hearing the door open, everyone looked to him.
"What's this?" Aya asked quietly.
"Welcome back!" Omi said in relief. "Did you find her?"
Youji gnawed desperately on a plastic straw, looking at him as well.
"There was an accident," Aya said quietly, and watched three faces pale.
"Is Manx okay?" Ken demanded.
"Manx and Birman were together." Aya leaned his katana against the wall, unbuckling his jacket. "I don't know how, but the van flipped."
"Dammit, Aya!" Youji snapped. "ARE THEY OKAY?!"
Aya looked back at him coldly. "They're dead. We're on our own."
The room was silent, till it was broken by the sound of Omi sniffling. Youji pulling him into his arms, stroking his hair as the boy cried. He couldn't even glare at Aya, looking down at the floor past the boy's back. Ken just stared at Aya in shock. He started to stutter wordlessly.
"M-maybe you...just saw two people th-that looked like them..."
Aya shook his head, closing his eyes. Ken bit his lip as his eyes became glassy.
"What...what do we do now?" he asked meekly. Aya shook his head again.
"All I know is that we should contact Persia. He...he needs to know about this."
Ken slowly nodded, looking away from him, walking to grip the back of the couch and ducking his head.
"He...needs to...know," Omi agreed with hiccupping breaths as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "I'll...I'll go do it."
Aya nodded at the boy as he ran for his room, still wiping at his face. Youji sighed and slowly looked at the redhead. "You sure know how to ruin a party, don't you?"
"You asked." Aya looked at the cupcakes, counting the candles. Eighteen. Omi was finally turning eighteen. He couldn't really be considered a child any longer.
"Early party," he said softly.
"We're going to have the real one tomorrow." Youji clasped his hands between his thighs. "But we thought we'd have a rehearsal."
"A rehearsal." Aya picked up a cupcake, looking at the blown out candles in it.
"Ken might have forgotten the words to the song."
"Did not," Ken protested quietly. "That's one song you don't forget."
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Omi's breath still jerked in his chest as he waited for a response from the mysterious man known as Persia. It was too much. The storm, the monsters, the bleeding, and now this...
Manx had been around as far back as Omi could remember. Like an older sister of sorts. And now she was gone. Gone, like that. What had she done to deserve it? She didn't kill. She only delivered the missions. The messenger didn't deserve to be shot.
Omi folded his arms on the desk and rested his head on them. Times like this made him want to just give up. To just hand himself over to be killed if it would stop all of this. He was tired. It would be so much easier.
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He opened his eyes with a jerk to hear the computer tone and blinked his eyes at it. He glanced at his watch. Half an hour had passed.
Half an hour?! Omi hopped out of the chair, running back for the main room. Aya sat at the table with a cup of coffee, Ken was eating one of the cupcakes, and Youji was...smoking...
"Oh, Omi," Ken muffled around the cupcake, seeing him step out.
"Why didn't you wake me?" Omi demanded.
"You were tired." Aya pressed the warm coffee cup to his cheek, holding it with both hands. Omi frowned.
"You needed it, Omi," Youji called from the couch, watching a game show with a lit cigarette between his fingers. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Where did you get that?" Omi pointed accusingly.
"I found a spare pack." Youji stuck his tongue out. "So your life is spared for now."
"Oi, hmph a crupcuk." Ken handed him a cupcake, mumbling around a mouthful. Omi took the cupcake, looking at the small holes in the frosting where the candles had sat. His wish hadn't come true. It had been so simple too. Let Aya and Manx make it back safely. And they'd lost Birman in the deal too.
"Here." Ken handed him a cup of tea, wiping crumbs from his own lips. Omi took the tea gratefully.
- This is my body -
Omi blinked at Ken, curious at the words. "What?"
"Hmm?" Ken asked, looking back to him in surprise.
"What do you mean?" Omi asked.
"Did I say something?" Ken blinked. "It's tea."
"No, about your body."
Ken flushed and jabbed a finger at him. "Don't be thinking about my body at a time like this!"
Omi flushed, backing up. "That wasn't what I meant!"
- This is my blood -
Omi blinked again. Ken's lips hadn't moved. Warm liquid dripped onto his hand and Omi looked down at the slightly spilled tea. Deep red.
"Ne, Omi-kun, thinking about Ken here?" Youji folded his arms over the back of the couch.
"No!" Omi protested. "I heard a voice."
Aya put his coffee cup down. "And what did it say?"
"This is my body. This is my blood."
Ken and Aya blinked, looking at him, then to each other.
"Communion," Youji said quietly. "So he CAN hear me."
With that, Youji turned back to the TV.
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Omi opened the mail from Persia that expressed sorrow over the loss of Birman and Manx and gave them directions to a safehouse across town. They quickly packed up some clothes, food, and weapons for their stay. Omi hugged his laptop inside his jacket as they hurried for the car in the rain.
He looked back at the building that had been their haven and safety for so long, till Aya turned a corner and it was out of his vision.
