Chapter 8.
 
28 February 1998
10:00 PM
 

The safehouse looked like an abandoned parking garage from the outside. Their car safely parked inside and out of sight, they had slipped through the hidden door Persia had indicated in the rear. It led them down.

"This ain't so bad." Youji stretched out on the couch in the main room they found. It was obviously only meant to house people temporarily. It was one large room with two bathrooms on the sides. Couches sat around a TV, a computer, and cots sat against the wall. A small phone hung on the wall, completing the needs for communication.

Ken pulled open a cot and crashed out on it, stretching and sighing. "So we'll be safe here, ne?"

"We should be," Omi agreed, hooking his laptop up by the other computer. Aya poked around till he was satisfied with the place, then pulled out a cot for himself.

"Let's all get some sleep," he suggested.

"Hai, hai," Youji sighed from the couch. "I can't meet the devil without my beauty rest."

"Set your watch for 10 years," Ken snickered from his cot.

"Yare, yare." Youji waved a hand at him. "Even 10 years won't help you."

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Aya helped to set up the other cots and fetched the pillows and blankets from the closet as Omi contacted Persia to let him know they had arrived safely.

"How are the feet looking, Youji-kun?" Omi asked as Youji kicked off his shoes. Youji blinked down at his feet.

"Fine, they haven't bled much," he assured the boy. Omi checked on Ken's wrists and Aya's head before he settled down on his own cot. He curled up under the blanket, hugging the pillow to his head and closed his eyes.

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Youji sat up, eyes wide open and alert, scanning the room. He heard Ken's gentle snores, spotting the soccer player to his right, and the other two quietly sleeping to his left. No one else stirred. He wasn't quite sure what had woken him, and finally decided it was nerves.

A check of the time indicated just over an hour and a half had passed. He lay back down, pulling the covers back up only to sit up again at a gentle scraping sound from above. He eyes shot upward, scanning the ceiling for more noise.

Maybe just something moving in the wind, he tried to reason the sound. The sound came again, and Youji slowly slipped out of his cot.

"Aya," he whispered, shaking the redhead. Aya grabbed his wrist violently, eyes jerking open and finally recognizing him.

"What?" he whispered, blinking. The scraping sound came again and both heads looked up.

"Do you think..." Youji asked quietly. Aya thought for one second and slipped out of his cot, running for his katana.

"Wake them," he said quietly, watching the door. Youji quickly shook Omi awake, clapping a hand over his mouth as Omi began to ask sleepy questions.

"Shhhh," Youji whispered to him, finger to his lips. "Put on your shoes."

Omi nodded, eyes wide, and Youji went to wake Ken. Ken floundered with him at being woken, trying to struggle with him, and nearly bit Youji when the blonde's hand covered his mouth to cover his cry of surprise. When he finally became coherent, Youji gave him the same instructions.

"Maybe it's just rats," Ken whispered.

"Maybe not," Aya whispered back. The other assassins grabbed their weapons as Aya slowly walked up the stairs.

Aya grabbed the door handle, glancing back to make sure the others were ready, and slowly turned it. The garage above was quiet. Aya slowly stepped out into the garage, eyes scanning and ears carefully listening for movement. Nothing but the pattering of rain on the roof and walls.

"False alarm?" Ken whispered.

"Let's just make sure." Aya slowly stepped to the wall, looking all around him as the others stringed out behind him. After a few steps, Aya paused to hear Youji humming the Pink Panther theme. He turned to glare at the blonde, who only grinned. They conducted a sweep of the garage, checking every nook and cranny.

"I guess it's clear." Aya lowered his katana, looking to the others.

"Sorry, just jumpy," Youji apologized.

"But what was scraping?" Aya looked upward at the ceiling for anything loose and dangling.

"Maybe there's a weathervane on the roof?" Ken suggested.

"But it would be scraping still," Omi protested, stepping toward the window to look at the blowing rain outside. Lightning flashed and Omi screamed, drawing everyone's attention to the dark shape outside the window.

"Shit!" Youji yelled, dashing forward. His curse was drowned out by the following thunder and the exploding window. The cloaked man had punched the window out, grabbing Omi by the front of his shirt, who had frozen in place in startlement as glass pelted his face.

"No!" Aya ran for the boy as he was jerked through the broken window.

"AYA!!" Omi shrieked as he disappeared into the rain outside. Youji reached the window first, curling his arms around his face as he crashed through what remained of the glass and struck the water-covered road outside.

"OMI!" Ken screamed into the rain as he followed Aya through the window.

"HEEEERE!!" came the cry through the crashing rain and the Weiß members were in hot pursuit.

Omi kept obligingly yelling, leading the others on a zigzagging pursuit.

"He's trying to lose us!" Ken yelled, having to lift his feet high to get through the water. Aya said nothing, just remembering the race with Omi in the church. He had to beat the figure in black. He had to get there first. He had done it before. And he meant to do it again.

Youji stumbled, and fell hard in the water, causing Ken to stop and run back to him. Aya slid to a stop, glancing back at them in disapproval.

"We have to think!" Youji yelled as Ken tugged him back to his feet. "Where would you go if you were the devil?!"

"Hell?" Ken asked, looking to Aya.

"No! Somewhere in Tokyo!"

"THINK!!" Youji smacked his head repeatedly with the palm of his head as he ran.

~ We all see the same sun ~

Youji blinked in the rain, wondering where the perfectly clear voice was coming from.

~ Each day the golden praise is sung ~

Youji's eyes widened. "Praise is sung..."

~ To the wonder of man ~

"The Church!" Youji yelled. "Go to the church!"

~ Yeah, the wonder of man ~

Ken changed direction, followed by Aya, and they trudged through the flooded streets.

~ And when we look why we can't see ~

"Who are you?!" Youji yelled at the voice.

~ All riches that are free ~

"What?!" Ken yelled back.

~ Oh, we don't understand ~

"I don't understand!" Youji yelled in response. "Who are you?!"

~ Yeah, we don't understand ~

"Who are you talking to?!" Ken looked back at him.

"I don't know!!" Youji blinked when the voice didn't continue. "Hurry!"

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"Put me down!!" Omi flailed at the man in the cloak, determined not to die without a fight. "Why are you doing this?!"

The man wasn't running, the ride was too smooth. He was floating. Floating to where ever it was he was going. Omi struggled against the arm around his waist, but the grip was like iron, unyielding and firm. His stomach rose to his throat as he suddenly felt the man jump. Omi gulped air, squinting in the rain as the man suddenly stopped all motion.

This is it, Omi thought and stared in surprise at a thin iron cross that stood up out of the ground beneath his feet. Another look told him it wasn't the ground. The street was far below.

A church. The thought ran through Omi's mind as he realized the man still hadn't moved. Tensing his muscles to run, he viciously swung his elbow into where he thought the man's face was. His elbow sank into something spongy and slimy that gave under the assault.

Ewwwwww! Omi tried to squirm loose, hoping it distracted the man enough to loosen his hold. Nothing changed.

All hope of escaping began to die then, and his mind immediately switched to planning how he was going to face his death.

"All right, kill me then," he said quietly. He no longer felt fear, his mind having accepted he was going to die, and he felt startlingly calm. The man said nothing and still didn't move.

"Are you going to hold me here all night or get on with it?"

"It is time."

Omi felt himself being released and hope flared to life. He leapt forward out of the man's arms, grabbing for the iron cross in front of him. He felt his hands close on it and looked back at the shrouded darkness behind him.

Glowing red eyes stared back at him from within that darkness. "Madriiax ds praf Lit, chis micaolz saanir caosogo..."

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Aya raced after the others, seeing the church ahead and gaining a new burst of speed. Don't let us be too late!

A bright burst of light shot up into the sky from the top of the church, stopping them in their tracks. A scream tore through the rain and darkness. Somewhere, a clock began to strike twelve.

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30 December 1998

We've been tracking Omi's movement though the world. Horrible disasters seem to follow him where he goes.

I still can't believe we failed. And because we failed, the world is doomed. I know it sounds hard to believe. I'm not sure what he's waiting for. But he keeps moving. And we still have a job to do. It's so hard to just stay here and feel so helpless.

So that's what El Niño means. The boy child. It all makes sense to me now. He IS El Niño. I think he stirs every so often, looking for his host. And found him this time. They say this year was one of the two worst El Niño's of this thousand years. Then it was followed by La Niña. I don't quite know who La Niña is supposed to be. The girl child. I wonder who that is...

He's on a killing spree.

Flooding, drought, wildfires, tornados, tropical storms... He's killed over 18,000 people this year. What was it Youji said about storms, and floods, and horrible disasters signaling the end of the world?

1 March 1999

Happy Birthday, Omi. Or the closest date to it. You're 19 now, aren't you? I want nothing more than to just celebrate it with you. Youji, Aya, they both miss you. Aya, he's so cold. Far more than ever, and I realize it was you that kept him from being as bad as he is now. And Youji, he's sending himself to an early grave. He drinks himself into a stupor when he can. Sometimes when I fetch him, he calls for you, so drunk he's forgotten. Me, I've gotten better on the computer. I had to. I'm sure you would be proud of me. Don't give up hope, Omi. I know we will be able to stop this. Somehow. I don't know why I'm writing this like you're going to receive it. Maybe...it's just...hope.

31 December 1999

Another year has passed, and He's still out there. He's gotten worse. Now that it's December, He's gotten even crazier, and everyone is chanting that the end of the world is coming. It might be. The turn of the century. Is that what He was waiting for? That all this death and tragedy was just Him wasting time? I refuse to believe it.

This year there were more floods, cyclones, avalanches, hurricanes, and tornados. He's killed about 40,000 people this year. It's gotten even more intense during these last couple months.

Omi, don't let him do this. There's hardly any time le...

"Ken."

Ken turned from the computer, looking to Aya.

"Omi has been spotted."

"Where?!"

He's back in Tokyo. It's time for our rematch."