Ken
"Omi!!! Watch your back!!!" I called out, a second too late.
Omi turned around. "What the---? Ugh!!!" he fell limply to the ground, the razor sharp knives piercing his legs.
Damn! I ran to his location and stabbed the man at the back; just before he planned to strike Omi's body this time.
I turned to Omi. "What the heck were you thinking?!?"
He didn't respond. Maybe it was because of the pain. Or was it?
He pointed behind me, his eyes widening.
That figures. I turned around, and the very same thing that happened to him was about to happen to me. But then the man stopped short, his now lifeless body falling towards me. I stepped back, and saw that the man's back was stabbed by hundreds of icicles, and Tokiya was behind him, smirking.
I looked at him gratefully, but he just turned around and did some more killing. I turned back to Omi. "Can you walk?"
"Um…" he said. I looked at his injuries. Ooooh boooy. Man, that's gotta hurt! Surprisingly, Omi wasn't wincing or showing any signs of pain. Tough kid, huh, Omi?
I bent down and pulled the knives off his legs, blood pouring down. I grabbed the shirt around my waist and tore it to tie the separate parts around his wounds.
"That'll stop some of the bleeding for a while," I told him. He nodded and struggled to stand up.
"Whoa, stop with the attempts, you stay here for a while and let us handle this," I pushed him back down against a tree. He looked at me disapprovingly, but I ignored that and joined Yoji and the others.
Moments later I was kicking butt again. And after wiping out my horde, I stopped short in awe at Tokiya's techniques. Man, this guy's a born killer, I thought, watching him move.
"Mizu Hebi!!!" he raised his sword and a water snake came forth, annihilating every man that came its way, until it killed the last man standing.
Aya was oblivious to it, but Omi, Yoji, and I gawked at him, bewildered.
I walked over to Yoji. "Hey, you're right about this guy helping us out in our missions and all."
He grinned. "Yep, this guy's a major asset."
***
"Give it back, you little twerp!!!" Yoji hollered, loud enough to wake the dead.
"Not until you tell me what file you deleted in my computer!!!" Omi yelled back.
"It was a stupid accident!!! I'm sorry, okay?!? Now give the blasted thing back!!!"
"Not in your life!!!" Omi ran down the stairs, tucking Yoji's "special" shades so firmly in his pocket. So much for his so-called injuries. They had healed pretty quickly. Yoji bounded down the stairs, failing to catch up with Omi. He tripped, face-flat on the floor. Omi laughed his life off.
Yoji glared at him. "Drat!!! I'll get you for that!!!"
"Pipe down, darn it! I'm trying to read here!!!" I bellowed. But it was no use. The two were bickering too loudly that neither of them heard me.
I sighed. Why were they screaming so loudly at this time of night? If they didn't quit arguing soon, the neighbors would come barging in here, wanting their heads cut off.
I stood up and headed for the living room, at least a little bit farther from the rampaging war going on between Yoji and Omi.
"Why do they have to bawl so much?" I grumbled, heading for the sofa. But someone was already there. I paused, then walked over behind the sofa, resting my elbows on it, peering down on him, wondering what he was doing.
"What do you want from me, Ken?" Tokiya muttered, his back still to me.
"Nothing. Is there anything wrong with checking on you?" I grinned.
He kept silent.
"You did a pretty cool performance out there tonight," I continued.
Silence.
Then I noticed that he was looking at a picture of a brown-haired young lady in his hand. Huh?
I jerked my head towards the picture. "She your girl?"
He slowly turned his head towards me and gave me another look of death.
I waved my hands in front of me. "Whoa, hey, I was just askin', you know."
He sighed and his eyes softened a bit. "She's my sister," he said almost inaudibly.
"Your sister?" I looked at him, then back at the girl in the picture. Her brown hair resembled Yuriko's brown locks, and all at once all of Yuriko's memories came back to me, each one piercing my soul as extreme sadness overwhelmed me once more. The scent of her hair, the striking features of her beautiful face, her soft skin, and…her tears…tears that she cried when she asked me if I really loved her. It was then that she asked me to leave the country with her…but I hesitantly refused…and now…
I clenched my fist. I miss her so much…Yuriko…I want you to know that no matter how far apart we are…I still…
I still…
"She's…very pretty," I remarked, admiring the resemblance of Tokiya's sister with her.
"Did someone say, pretty?" Yoji came in the living room, grinning like crazy, a death grip on Omi's collar. He stepped beside me and peered over Mikagami's shoulder at the girl in the picture.
Omi winced. "Y-Yoji, let go of me…"
I sighed. Yoji no baka…
"Whoa!!! She's one heck of a cute gal!!!" Yoji howled, little hearts forming on his eyes. He turned to Tokiya. "Are you dating her or something? Hey, d'you think you could spare me one?!? Huh? Please, please, please? Buddy?"
I glanced at Tokiya, who was now narrowing his eyes at him.
"Hey, c'mon, just one little date! Kudasai?" Yoji gave him a pleading look.
Omi, who was still in Yoji's grasp, took advantage of the situation, since Yoji's hold softened a bit. He slowly slipped his hand into Yoji's pocket and retrieved the glasses that Yoji took back. Then, he slowly extricated from Yoji's grip and came running down the hall, snickering.
"Hey, you little weasel!!! Get back here!!!" Yoji ran towards him, forgetting all about the little date he was asking for.
I grinned and turned back to Tokiya. "You can't blame him for wanting to ask for a date with her, you know. Your sister is pretty," I said. He just kept quiet.
"Where does she live anyway? She never really stopped by the shop to see you, or anything. Does she even know that you're moving?" I sat down beside him.
He gave a faint snort. "She probably does, only…she won't be able to visit me," he replied.
I looked at him in shock. He was talking to me? But I had thought that he was more like Aya.
Cold. Quiet. But I guess I was wrong.
I grinned, seeming to have more interest in the conversation. "Why do you say that?"
He paused and hesitated for a while. "She's dead."
"Nani?!?" I stared back at him, extremely unaware of it.
He just nodded and blinked absently. "It's ironic, isn't it? She never got to show around her beauty much longer." He looked down at the picture with hooded eyes.
I was surprised at how…how… calm he was. I mean, he didn't seem upset much, like it was no big deal. "Don't you miss her?"
"Are you kidding?" he mumbled wistfully. "I have her in my mind 24/7."
"Let me guess. That's all you've been living for, right? You want nothing more but to avenge her death, ne?" I asked smugly.
"Well, at least that was what I used live for," he turned to face me. "How'd you know that, anyway?"
"That happens to everyone," I sighed. He cocked an eyebrow at me in question.
"Well, that happened to Aya, at least," I continued.
"Aya? His sister died, too?" he looked at me doubtfully.
"Well, it's almost like that. She's in a pretty awful coma right now; and Aya's been living pretty much for revenge, too. That's why he always has bad days," I shook my head. "It gets in my nerves sometimes. He's just too quiet; you never know what he's thinking. One moment he's just sitting there, and the next thing you know, his katana's at your throat just because you cracked a lame joke. He's too darn touchy," I complained.
Tokiya looked down at the floor.
"Heck, his name's not even Aya," I continued, "he's just---"
"Yo, Ken!!! Get down here!!! Omi's got something in the Net!!!" Yoji yelled from downstairs.
Nani? The two had already gotten along? I stood up. "Say, Tokiya, call Aya for me, will ya?"
He just nodded and went upstairs. I rushed downstairs to check things out.
"So what did Computer Kid find now?" I grinned at Omi. He stared back at me, his eyes narrowing.
"Beats me; this kid just find things that pop outta nowhere," Yoji lit a cigarette and I stepped beside him to peer at the screen.
Omi ignored that remark. "Where's Aya?"
I shrugged. "I told Tokiya to call for him."
"Shouldn't we wait 'till he comes?" Omi asked.
"Nah, he wouldn't be interested in this much. I think it's about Tokiya's orb, and Aya's definitely not into that topic," Yoji took a puff.
I gave him a small glare. He was oblivious to it, though, since he was too busy smoking. I turned back to Omi. "We'll just tell him what it's all about again later. In the meantime, spill it out for us both."
Omi just shrugged. "Okay then," he turned to the screen. "See this?" he clicked on an image.
"Yeah, so what's that supposed to be?" I looked closer.
"That's Tokiya-kun's orb. It's a 'psychic device' as they call it, and it gives his sword the power of water and ice. It's a rather powerful device, but Tokiya-kun was able to master the techniques."
"I'll say. Check out the way he had wiped out those crappy idiots tonight in just a single water snake. And do you remember that time he sent icicles towards us? Boy, those blasted things sure hurt," Yoji complained.
"That's the reason we're after it, right?" I reminded.
"That's the whole point, see," Omi clicked on another image. "The one on the Ensui isn't the orb we're after. It's this."
"That?!?" I pointed to the image on the screen. "That filthy old thing? You've got to be kidding."
"Yeah, how come you're so sure about it?" Yoji frowned.
"I'm positive that this is what we're after," Omi gave the image a zoom. Heck, the orb didn't look powerful at all! It was like some sort of junk. Tokiya's orb looked way more powerful than this.
"You mean, you're not kidding?" I asked Omi.
He shook his head. "It's called the Ruffian's Sphere. It has the power to trap souls in it. Legend has it that the Ruffian's Sphere, together with the Ghost Slayer sword and the Mirror of Utter Dark, belongs to another world, and that it is not found in this world."
"Great. We're supposed to look for something that doesn't even exist. How are we supposed to do that?" Yoji grumbled.
Omi just shrugged. "This means that Tokiya's orb doesn't have anything to do with us at all."
"Look, quit fooling around, okay, Omi? We need some cash, and right now we're out of 'em since we've practically failed all of our latest missions. So you better not kid around at a time like this, Omi. Cut the joke and get to the real thing," Yoji demanded.
Omi shook his head. "I'm not fooling around, Yoji-kun. This is the real thing," he said.
Yoji cocked an eyebrow at him. "Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"So how in the whole universe are we supposed to gain that imaginary thing?" I asked in frustration.
Omi grinned. "Check this out." He clicked on something else. "See that lady in the picture?"
I squinted. It wasn't too clear, but yes, I could make out the features of the girl. She had pale, blue hair and purple eyes. She was kneeling over someone, her hand on the guy's forehead. I made a face. It didn't make any sense.
"What's that gotta do with anything?!?" Yoji remarked impatiently.
"Some news reporter captured this picture and placed it in the papers. Some guy in this site scanned it from the papers and now here it is. This incident just happened yesterday afternoon, when two guys some blocks away from here were having a street fight. The other one got hit and fell down to the ground with a lot of injuries. That guy, happened to be Tokiya-kun," Omi explained.
Tokiya? I looked closer at the guy the lady's hand was on. Silver-ish blue hair, light blue eyes, an ice sword in hand. Indeed, it was Tokiya.
"Now, this blue-haired girl here, came to him and performed some sort of medication on Mikagami-kun, to the amazement of the onlookers. That was how it got in the news in the first place. And the amazing thing is, that the girl didn't have any device on her that could've triggered her healing powers. Now, many suspect, including the media people, that this girl came from another world," Omi continued.
"Oh, I get it. So this pretty babe here could be our cue and our key to getting that darn orb that comes from another world," Yoji grinned.
"Is she our target now?" I asked.
Omi nodded. "We need to get some information. The odds of her knowing anything about the Ruffian's Sphere aren't too many, considering that the orb coming from another world is only a legend and this girl coming from another world, too is just a guess, but we've got no other alternative. We might as well take the chance and question her," he suggested.
I nodded. So desu ka…
Tokiya I knocked on Aya's door lightly. It wasn't like I was expecting an answer or anything, so I slowly opened it and stepped inside. Aya was sitting by the window, an expression on his face that meant he didn't want to be disturbed.
"Hey, they've got something for you downstairs," I said simply. Naturally, he didn't respond.
I plopped down on the edge of his bed. He didn't even budge or look at me. Then I noticed the earring that was dangling on his ear.
I cocked an eyebrow. "You know, I also used to think that killing was the only thing that made me feel contented with myself. I always thought that avenging my sister's death would be the only time when I'd feel peace. I thought that by killing her murderer I'd make her happy because her murderer had paid. But I guess I was wrong. Someone just told me this afternoon that killing would never bring her peace. It would just make things worse. It wouldn't be what she'd want me to do if she were still alive. And that it would never change anything if I killed more and more people."
"Stop with the damn lecture, Mikagami. I've heard lots of this before. Besides, why are you telling me all this, anyway? Stay out of my business, you don't even know me," he turned to face the window again.
I looked at him. His back was still to me. "Maybe you're just the same, Aya. It wouldn't be what your sister would want you to do."
He narrowed his eyes at me, as if wanting me to leave before he got the chance to cut my throat off.
But I stayed in my position. Keeping my cool just like I always did. And it always worked.
He kept glaring at me, but after a few moments, he sighed and returned his gaze out the window.
And unpredictably, he replied lowly, "Have you avenged her yet?"
I hesitated. But what was the use? "I've found out who killed her, but I never really got around to killing 'em. It wouldn't make any sense anymore if I did." I replied slowly. No, it wouldn't make sense at all. Nothing would change. Mifuyu would still remain dead. Nothing could possibly change that now. No. Nothing at all.
Silence dawned upon the room for a while: neither of us speaking nor budging. I took another glance at my Ensui. Are the Weiß Kreuz still after it? What was their purpose? What did they want from it?
So much as I had wanted to make peace with the group, I couldn't just give it up. Besides Botan and Yanagi, it was my only reminder of her, and I wouldn't want to lose it, just like I had lost Yanagi to Recca. Yanagi, another reminder. Would I lose Botan soon, too?
No, I don't want to. I don't.
Or did I? Did I want to remove every reminder I had of Mifuyu so that I could go on living in contentment, without painful memories of the past?
That I didn't know for sure.
After a few moments of reconsideration, Aya stood up and headed for the door. Then he paused and turned to me. The corners of his mouth tugged a tiny bit. He was, at least…well, smiling, if it was even counted as a smile. It was unforeseen, yes, but it was good that he finally was. I could tell that he had given my words some thought.
He nodded at me, the expression on his face that was beyond description still not fading. "Let's go."