Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Weiβ and Gravitation, I don't make money with this fanfiction and I don't want to be sued. Thanks to a certain medical website (http://www.healthcentral.com), that provided me with the information about anaphylactic shock. Remember kids, just say no to drugs…sheesh, now I'm a preacher as well.
Chapter III. D: Hanami
Ken hummed softly to himself as he carefully arranged the flowers they were going to sell at the 'store'. He checked whether the stems of the flowers were properly submerged in the water.
"It's nice to have a quiet morning, ne, Hidaka-san?" a pleasant voice inquired. Ken looked up to see Patricia standing in front of him, eyes sparkling with mirth. "No screaming fangirls, thank God," she remarked, ostensibly looking around.
"It's quite early, you know, so there aren't any customers yet," Ken explained, smiling sheepishly.
"Yeah, I know. That's why I came here. No one to block my way. Where are the others?" she asked.
"Somewhere–oh, there's, uh, Aya." Ken's voice slightly faltered as he spoke.
Aya walked purposefully towards Patricia, his face an unreadable mask. Patricia gave him a slight smile. "What are you doing here?" he asked bluntly.
"I came here to tell you that I have a date with Tanaka at his country mansion, which gives me the opportunity to snoop around his house and possibly obtain information that will help us in our mission," she shot back sharply. Ken was once again startled by how sudden Patricia's change of mood was. Her eyes suddenly flashed with irritation. "We do work in the same team, ne? Or have you forgotten that?" She turned to Youji. "And next time, please don't be so obvious. Tanaka isn't dumb, you know. He would have noticed you."
"I was just making sure you were safe," Youji protested.
"And I happen to be a nun," she retorted sarcastically. "I'm not really all that offended. It's just that I want as little interference as possible when I do my job."
"So what did you find out?" Aya cut in, ignoring Patricia's ranting.
Patricia took a deep breath, calming herself. "Nothing that we don't already know. Tanaka's guards were all over the club." She saw Youji's eyes widen with surprise. She smirked at him. "You didn't notice, did you?"
"What are you going to do now?" Aya asked blandly. "Sleep with him?"
Before Patricia could react, a voice said coolly, "You should be more polite in talking with the ladies."
Aya's head snapped to the direction where the voice came from. A tall blonde wearing black shades stood behind Patricia, his mouth pressed into a frown. "And who are you?"
"What are you doing here, Eiri?" Patricia asked, staring at the blonde.
"We're here to buy flowers for his sister," another, more cheerful, voice announced. The speaker had pink hair and had a startling resemblance to Omi. He seemed to be full of energy.
"Shuuichi-kun!" Ken exclaimed when he saw the boy.
Shuuichi gave Ken an incredulous look. "Ken-kun! You work here?" His face broke into a cheerful grin. "I can't believe it!" The two immediately began to talk to each other.
Completely bewildered by the turn of events, Omi burst out, "Wait a minute! You know each other?"
Shuuichi nodded. Ken did a double take. It was still a shock to Ken to see the resemblance between Omi and Shuuichi. "Hai. I'm Shuuichi Shindou and this," the pink-haired boy pointed to the blonde, "is Yuki Eiri."
"The novelist?" Youji wanted to know, looking at the blonde, who ignored him.
"You're going to visit Mika?" Patricia asked Eiri. Eiri lowered his shades slightly, revealing amber eyes. He nodded curtly at her question. "How nice," she murmured. Eiri gave her a mocking smile. Eiri then turned to an expressionless Aya. "Friends of yours, Angélique?" Eiri queried Patricia, although his eyes were still on Aya.
The four members of Weiβ Kreuz were surprised. Angélique? They turned to Patricia, who was smiling slightly. "I work with them," she replied, tossing back her hair.
Eiri turned to her, the mocking smile still on his face. "I see." Then he looked back at Aya. Eiri's golden eyes were penetrating but then, so were Aya's. They stared at each other for a few moments, silently assessing each other. It was possible that they'd have spend the day staring at each other if it weren't for Shuuichi's insistent tugging of Eiri's sleeve. "Oi, Yuki, shouldn't we get moving?' he asked, holding in his hand a bouquet of beautiful spring flowers. "The flowers will wilt." Then Shuuichi yawned, rubbing his eyes.
"Didn't get enough sleep?" Ken inquired, looking at Shuuichi's face. Shuuichi looked very tired.
Shuuichi nodded. "Don't worry. I still have this." He held up a small bottle and took out a small capsule. Without warning, Patricia snatched the bottle from him. "Angélique-chan!" the pink-haired boy cried in protest.
She held the bottle away from Shuuichi's reach, dodging his attempts to grab it from her grasp. "Didn't I tell you yesterday not to take any more of these?" she chided the pink-haired boy. "It isn't good to depend on vitamins too much. Especially an untested one."
Shuuichi pouted. "If the product were that bad, why are you dating the CEO of the company that makes it?"
She smiled sweetly. "I'm dating the CEO, not the product." She took out several capsules then gave the bottle back to Shuuichi. "Take the vitamins more sparingly now. I don't want you getting an overdose."
Shuuichi nodded, almost snatching back the bottle. "Yes, doctor," he muttered meekly.
Patricia turned to Eiri. "Make sure he follows what I said." Eiri managed a curt nod and without another word, headed for their waiting car. Shuuichi trailed adoringly behind him. Shuuichi waved at Ken and Patricia as their car drove off.
When the car was about a tiny speck away, Patricia handed a few capsules from Shuuichi's bottle to Omi. "Run a thorough analysis on this," she ordered crisply. "I want to know what are the exact chemicals in a capsule."
"Angélique?" Youji asked mildly.
"My second name. My full name is Patricia Angélique," Patricia replied, giving Youji a small smile.
"What are those two? Best friends?" Omi asked. To his surprise, Patricia laughed.
"They're not friends, Omi. Yuki Eiri and Shuuichi Shindou are lovers," she explained gently.
"What?!?" Omi and Youji cried. Aya was impassive "You mean those two…but they're guys!" Omi sputtered. "Is that possible?"
"Do you think the heart cares about that?" Patricia sighed dramatically. "I love seeing those two together. They are so kawaii!" she gushed, eyes glittering with mischief. She lightly placed a hand on Omi's arm.
"I'll never understand women–or other men," Omi muttered darkly, face flushed. He headed for the back of the van.
"Why didn't you just take the whole contents of the bottle away?" Ken asked Patricia. "I mean, wouldn't he get–"
"I wish it was that easy, Hidaka-san, but it's not. Shuuichi has been taking that capsule for a while and if I were to suddenly deprive him of the capsule, he might suffer unforeseen consequences. I have to wean him off the drug slowly," Patricia explained. She checked her watch. "I still have to change my dress so I'll be moderately presentable when Tanaka picks me up for our date tonight." She gave Aya and Youji a hard stare. "Don't try to follow me. I can take care of myself, thank you very much. And to answer your question, Fujimiya-san, whether I sleep with him or not is none of your concern."
Aya gave her another one of his death glares. Patricia smiled sweetly at him. "Don't look so miffed, Fujimiya-san or else you'll look jealous," she teased. Laughing softly at the expression of outrage on Aya's face, she said, "You're so easy to tease, Fujimiya-san." She then jauntily waved at them then walked away, disappearing into the crowd of girls heading towards the boys.
*******
Spring was at its height this week. Flowers littered the city park, but by far the ones that attracted the most attention were the flowering cherry trees. Hanami was in its full strength. Families spread their picnic baskets on the city park grounds, admiring the sakura. Fallen cherry blossom petals covered the grounds like a soft pink carpet.
However, Ken and Aya were not there to admire the sakura. They were in the City Park to meet a Kritiker agent who had once been a member of the cult Shiro. After looking for hours, they finally spotted the man they wanted. He was sitting on the petal-covered grass underneath one of the most massive sakura trees the two had ever seen. The man seemed to be asleep but when they got a few feet from him the man's eyes opened. Ken felt a sudden chill when he saw the man's eyes. The pupils of the man's eyes were completely blood red.
The man frowned at them and he squinted his eyes. He then flashed them a humorless grin, revealing horrible yellowed teeth. "I didn't think Kritiker would have boys as pretty as you are," the man remarked, grunting as he shifted in his seat. He looked up, admiring the sakura. "They're pretty, aren't they?"
"We're not here waste our time by admiring the flowers. We're here for information," Aya said cuttingly.
The man ignored him and continued to ramble on. "I was once pretty, just like the sakura are now. I was a well-known male model. But I tasted Tanaka's forbidden fruit and became this." He gestured to himself. Then he held up a wilted sakura petal. "Just like this petal."
"Are you through with your melodramatics?" Aya was getting increasingly impatient with the man.
"Impatient, you are." The man shifted once again. "Tanaka recruits members to his cult by giving a potential new member a drug–a vitamin, a cough medicine, you know, common 'safe' drugs. Moreover, since Tanaka's a respected businessman, the potential member trusts Tanaka almost immediately. Little does the potential member know that the drug has addictive properties and after taking a few swallows of the drug, he becomes addicted. Then he begs for more of the stuff, which, as you may have guessed, Tanaka only provides if the poor man joins his cult."
"Is that what happened to you?" Ken asked curiously.
The agent nodded. "Tanaka usually recruits those who have irregular lifestyles–singers, models, people who have little time for food, drink or sleep. In that way, Tanaka's offer of medicines wouldn't be all that conspicuous." Suddenly, the man coughs, spitting blood.
Ken looks anxiously at the man. "Are you all right?"
"No. But don't bother with me. My time's nearly up." The man turned to Aya. "Tanaka usually holds our 'meetings' in his country mansion. This is the place where members are given experimental drugs–turned into guinea pigs. It can also be a member's ashes' final resting place. I call that place 'hell on earth'. I was lucky to get away from it." The man stood up unsteadily, his hands braced against the sakura tree as a means of support. "That's just about all I can tell you. Hope you find it useful." He sniffed the air. "Lovely spring, isn't it?" he said wistfully as he tottered away from Aya and Ken.
*******
"So, what's our game plan?" Youji asked when he sauntered into the room. Four pairs of eyes glared at him, conveying volumes of unspoken words that can be summed up by one timeless sentence: You're late. Unconcerned as usual, Youji sat on the couch. " I'm sorry I'm late. Traffic was terrible."
"Omi will brief us in," Aya said shortly, turning to the boy. Omi nodded and dimmed the lights. He turned on the projector, which then showed a floor plan of a house and its surrounding grounds.
"We will carry out our mission in Tanaka's country mansion. This is the house's floor plan," Omi said.
"Why there?" Youji asked. "The place is big. I thought we'd kill him in his penthouse."
"The country mansion's where the center of his cult is," Ken explained. "The labs for experimental drugs are also located there. Besides, that's his retreat, the place where he relaxes. And relaxed man is easier to get."
"He's relaxed because he knows he's safe," Youji mused. "How good is his security, Omittchi?"
Omi glanced at Patricia. "The security outside the mansion is pretty good," Patricia replied. "Tanaka has guards posted at virtually every corner. The total number of guards would be around two or three hundred, not including the number of guard dogs."
Youji thought for a moment. "Three hundred? Isn't that a bit small for someone like him?"
"He compensates that with an incredible computerized security system in and out of the mansion." Omi's voice was filled with reluctant awe. "I could probably break into it, but it would take me weeks to completely hack into it. The system's a tough nut to crack. A very tough nut."
"The company which made Tanaka's security system should have a blueprint of it," Ken suggested, frowning slightly.
Omi threw up his hands. "I did check into the company, but it turns out all of the files about the security system they did for Tanaka were erased. Not only that, the employees who designed and installed the system were killed soon after they finished Tanaka's system."
"Smart man. He's also very paranoid," Youji remarked dryly. "So how are we going to get in that mansion?"
Patricia held up two MO discs. "I already took care of that. Here are the security system plans of Tanaka's country mansion." She handed them to a stunned Omi.
"How did you get that? Don't tell me Tanaka just gave that to you?" Ken demanded in an incredulous voice.
She raised her eyebrows. "How I got it is not important. What's important is the fact that it's here," she replied smoothly, shrugging.
Omi stared at his paternal aunt with disbelief. Omi was about to ask her something when a shrill ringing interrupted him.
"Do you always carry your cell phone with you?" Youji asked in a mocking voice.
Patricia nodded at Youji. "Hello?" she answered. "Who–Eiri! What–" Her gold-green eyes widened. "WHAT?!?" she half-shouted. "Shuuichi–where is he? Have you–" she paused, her voice still a little shrill. "You're in the hospital? Good. Now STAY THERE! You are not going anywhere, Yuki Eiri, STAY PUT!" she ordered in a no-nonsense voice, ending the phone call. She began to dial a number, muttering something.
"What happened to Shuuichi?" Ken wanted to know, suddenly worried. Shuuichi was a sweet, nice guy. Ken had been furious when he found out that Shuuichi was fast becoming Tanaka's newest recruit. Ken liked the young man. They were about the same age and were both passionate with their talents.
"He's in the hospital, suffering from anaphylactic shock," she informed them gravely. She sweatdropped when she saw their blank looks. "It's the severest form of allergic reaction that usually occurs after subsequent exposure or intake of something a person's body is allergic to. It usually occurs after a person becomes sensitized."
"Sensitized?"
"It happens when the immune system has been triggered to recognize a substance as a threat to the body."
"Isn't that a good thing? After all, the immune system's the body's defense, isn't it?" Ken wanted to know, a little fascinated with Patricia's mini-medical lecture. He had forgotten that Patricia was studying to be a doctor.
She shook her head. "Not in this case. The immune system releases antibodies, which then causes the tissues to release histamine and other substances. Histamine causes the blood vessels to dilate, thus lowering blood pressure and fluid to leak from the bloodstream into the tissues which then lowers the blood volume, ultimately resulting in shock. Fluid can leak into the air sacs of the lungs causing pulmonary edema. To make a long story short, anaphylactic shock is usually fatal." She placed her cell phone near on her ear. "Hello, Tohma? It's me, Angélique. You've heard? Good. I want you to go to the hospital and watch over your brother-in-law. Don't let him do anything stupid. Put some sense into his brain. You will? Thanks." Patricia hastily put the phone down. "Sorry for the interruption. Let's proceed with the discussion, shall we?"
"What was that all about?" Youji demanded. "You sound...agitated."
"It's none of your concern, Kudou-san," she replied. She turned to Aya. "When will we make our move?"
Aya narrowed his eyes. "As soon as we figure out a way to get into the mansion safely. Will you be able to manipulate the security system, Omi?"
Omi was busy studying the data inside the discs. After a moment, he replied, "Yeah, I think I can."
Patricia thought for a moment. "Once Omi has disabled the security system, it would be easy to enter. That leaves the guards and dogs. Some distraction perhaps? An explosion of some sort?" she suggested. "Woods surround the mansion. A little explosion here and there could go a long way."
Ken nodded. "Sounds like a good plan. What do you think, Aya?"
Aya gritted his teeth. He had a feeling that in a very subtle manner, Patricia was taking control over the mission. He didn't like it, but his common sense told him that her plan was a good one. Instead of answering Ken's question, he asked Patricia, "How and when do we enter the mansion?"
"Tanaka's having a party tomorrow at the mansion. It's a fundraiser for–would you believe it?–A rehabilitation center. Of course, no party is complete without decorations and food so you'll be able to go there as– fanfare, please–florists or waiters. The timing would be perfect. When the little explosion goes off, the guests will panic and panic is contagious. The guards would try to calm down the guests but it usually takes a while to calm down hysterical people. The guards will be very distracted."
"You planned this earlier, haven't you?" Youji accused.
She smiled at him. "A little. It's my second nature, I guess. I've always been the one in charge of planning missions back in Europe. I'm not just 'the one who sleeps with the target to get information'. I can use my brains as well as I can use my body." She shifted her attention to Aya. "Is the whole thing all right with you?"
Aya nodded, his fists clenched. "Will you be in the party?"
"Yes. Tanaka invited me." Turning back to Youji, she said, "Kudou-san, can you stay here to keep an eye on Shuuichi and Eiri? They're in a nearby hospital. There's a chance Tanaka would have them killed."
"The lovers? Why–oh, yeah. The pink-haired boy might accuse Tanaka of giving him a dangerous drug, thus damaging Tanaka's untarnished reputation."
"Actually, Tanaka could probably get away with what he did to Shuuichi very easily. Tanaka doesn't have to kill them. Nevertheless, I don't think we should take chances."
"Can we finish the job in the mansion without Youji-kun?" Omi wanted to know. "Aren't we going to be a little undermanned without Youji? Manx and Birman could take care of Shuuichi and Eiri."
"Omi's right. We need Youji in the team," Ken said with a slight smirk. "Who would watch the van?"
*******
A few minutes after the meeting, Aya heard a knock on his door. When he opened the door, he was more than surprised to see Patricia standing before him. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.
"I want to talk to you. Can I come in?" Patricia asked in a no-nonsense voice. She noticed his hesitation. "Don't tell me you're afraid of me." She spread her arms. "See, I'm unarmed. Search me if you want."
He gave her a dark look then wordlessly stood back to let her in. He shut the door with a loud thud.
"I'll be brief. I want a truce," she told him in a firm voice.
"A truce?" Aya's eyes narrowed.
She looked at him straight in the eye. "I'm not blind, Fujimiya-san. I know you resent my being a member of Weiβ. Unfortunately, this is my order and I intend to obey it. Now, what I'm asking is, for the sake of the success of the missions, we put aside our differences. You can rant and glare at me all you want when we're not working as members of Weiβ but when we're working, we put that all aside."
"And why should I agree to such a truce?"
"Because I don't think you can be so narrow-minded as to endanger the mission and the other members of Weiβ." she retorted. "Are you in or are you not?"
He stared at her for a moment. Aya didn't like entering any pact that he hadn't made himself, especially if a Takatori made the pact. However, he wasn't dumb either. He saw the merits of the truce and although he acted as if he couldn't care less what happened to his friends, he did care. Hell, they were his friends, weren't they? "Fine. I'm in," he replied curtly, a thinly veiled threat in his voice.
She smiled complacently. "How nice. Thank you, Fujimiya-san."
*******
Raizo Tanaka surveyed the garden of his country mansion with a small smile of triumph on his face. Everyone he invited was at in attendance. He prided himself for being an excellent host of parties. The food and the champagne were always the best.
"You hold the best parties, Raizo-san!" A giddy lady had gushed to him earlier. "Not only is the food sumptuous, your entertainment is just divine!"
Tanaka shielded his eyes from the bright lights. Speaking of entertainment, Tanaka was a bit worried when he heard that Shuuichi Shindou, the singer-songwriter of the band Bad Luck, was rushed to the hospital because of drug-related allergies. Tanaka liked the boy. Shindou was strong, healthy and completely naïve. It had been an easy task to get him to take the drugs. Now, the boy was sick and might press charges. Tanaka didn't like lawsuits that may damage his reputation. He'd take care of the boy later. He has more important things to take care of.
A new batch of drugs was being made in his laboratory. Tanaka once again needed to test these drugs on humans. A few years ago, Tanaka was content to test those drugs on animals but animals were not like people. Tanaka had to know how a human would respond to his drugs. So, he tried buying people who are willing to take the drugs but they turned out to be very expensive. That was when the idea of founding a cult as a way of acquiring human test subjects came to him.
As a teenager, he had tales of cults being used an excuse for people to use drugs. Tanaka didn't want to be branded as a drug pusher so he recruited his members secretly–usually by offering a harmless-looking vitamin, which in truth is a very addictive psychoactive drug that would leave his recruit begging for more in a matter of days. Tanaka named his cult Shiro, which meant white, after the color of his choice drug, cocaine.
A tall raven-haired girl stood a few feet away from him. Raizo smiled to himself. The girl was Patricia Takatori. He had invited her to attend his party. He frowned as he thought about the amount of effort that he exerted to convince her to come to his party. However, it was all worth it, he mused as he stared at the girl. She was stunningly beautiful as usual, attracting everyone's attention.
"Nice party," a mocking voice remarked from behind Tanaka. Tanaka whirled around to see a tall handsome blonde. The blonde was wearing a black suit and was holding a glass of wine.
"Ah, thank you, um…"
"Yuki Eiri, the novelist," the blonde answered smoothly, inclining his head.
"Eiri?" Tanaka muttered. The blonde was studying him with intent amber eyes. For some reason, Tanaka felt that he should know who this blonde is. "I'm afraid I–" Tanaka started to say but he was interrupted by a sudden and powerful explosion somewhere in the woods that send him and everyone else diving for cover.
"What was that?!?" someone demanded hoarsely, his voice barely heard because of the deafening roar of the explosion. There was a moment of calm as the fact that an explosion had happened sank into the dazed minds of the guests. Then everyone bolted, running to every direction.
Tanaka wasted no time. His bodyguards quickly converged about him and herded him towards a safe place. Meanwhile, some of the guards moved to investigate the explosion while the rest of the guards tried to bring any semblance among the guests.
"He's moving," Himalayan confirmed after she saw Tanaka disappear inside the mansion. "I'm moving into position." She cautiously stood up, surveying her surroundings.
"Tanaka left you alone? That's not a nice way to treat a date," Youji remarked through the transceiver as he moved into his position. "Now, if I were him, I'd–"
"You could give him dating tips later, Balinese," Abyssinian cut in sharply. He was busy trying to shrug off his waiter's jacket. "We have work to do. How's the security system, Bombay? Where's Tanaka now?"
"He's moving towards the 'panic room'," Omi told Aya. Omi was in a van hidden in the woods not far away from Tanaka's estate. "We have to stop him before he enters the panic room. If he were to get inside the room, we might have a very hard time getting him out there." The panic room was something that popped up at the last minute. Omi had discovered through the files in the MO discs that Tanaka had a room built that was similar to the room in the movie The Panic Room. Like the fictional room in the said movie, Tanaka's 'panic room' was designed to keep intruders out and him safe for days, even weeks. Omi could probably overcome the 'panic room', but that would take a while and they have only so little time before the local cops show up.
"How far is he from the panic room?" Himalayan demanded. "Am I anywhere near him?"
Omi glanced at the screen that showed the locations and movements of almost everyone, indicated by different colored dots, in the house and the nearby grounds. He spotted Himalayan's blue dot. "You're about a few meters away from him. He's almost at the room."
Patricia swore under her breath. "Take care of security, Bombay. I'm moving in." Quickening her pace, she headed for Tanaka. A guard suddenly appeared out of a corner. He took one look at her then pulled out his gun. Moving fast, she swung her staff, knocking the gun off the guard's hand. Then, before Patricia could give the fatal blow, the man slumped forward, spewing blood.
Aya stood behind the man, pulling out his sword from the fallen man's stomach. "Where's Tanaka?" he asked without any preamble.
Patricia sidestepped the corpse and continued her pace, Aya beside her. "He should be ahead of us. How far, Omi?" Another guard appeared in front of Patricia. This time, she killed the guard in one blow.
"Tanaka's climbing the staircase. Siberian, behind you!" Omi shouted when he saw several violet dots appear behind Ken's brown dot. "You also got company, Youji-kun!" Omi warned Balinese, who, along with Ken, was busy penetrating Tanaka's illegal drug laboratory.
"Where should we turn?" Aya asked Omi.
"Left. You should be seeing the staircase now. Be careful. Tanaka has a lot of guards."
"I'll keep that in mind," Patricia remarked dryly as they turned left. The two spotted Tanaka and his guards. Without pausing, they hurried towards him. Tanaka spotted them, and his eyes widened when he saw their weapons. "Get them!" he commanded. His eyes fixed on Patricia before moving again. The guards rushed to obey him. The two assassins looked at each other.
"Go. I'll cover you," Aya told Patricia flatly. Patricia looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. She headed towards the staircase, dodging and killing guards who were foolish enough to get in her way. She finally managed to reach the top of the stairs. "Where is he?" she asked Omi.
"On your left. He's almost there!"
She hurried towards where Tanaka was. When she did see him, he sent his bodyguards towards her. She methodically killed them until the only ones left were she and Tanaka. She was about to make a move on him when she froze. Tanaka was pointing a gun at her.
"An assassin. I should have known. You were just stringing me along, you bitch." Tanaka's eyes were wide as he stared at his dead men. Patricia took a step to her side. "Stay where you are, you filthy lying slut!" he demanded, swinging the end of the gun towards her.
A calculating look crossed Patricia's face. Smiling a cocky little smile, she jumped to her side.
"I said, stay put!" Tanaka roared, pulling the trigger. His bullet missed Patricia by a few inches, hitting and shattering a vase, one shard wounding her cheek. "You move, you die!" Tanaka threatened, voice shaking.
Eyes narrowed, Patricia gripped her staff. In her next move, he will be the one to die. Lowering her staff slightly, she prepared to strike.
Another gunshot filled the air. Patricia stared at Tanaka, eyes wide with astonishment. Tanaka's gun clattered to the floor and a bright circle of blood spread on his shoulder. She stood still for a moment, then moved in for the kill. Tanaka gave a loud gurgling shriek before falling lifelessly on the ground.
"Who was that?" Ken demanded through the transceiver. "Who made that shot?"
"Tanaka's down," Patricia replied in a cold voice. She turned off her transceiver. "What the hell are you doing here, Eiri?" she asked the blonde novelist who stood a few feet away from her, a mocking smile on his face.
"I could ask you the same question, Himalayan," Eiri asked her. He looked critically at the spiked-edged staff Patricia was carrying. "Nice baton."
Patricia opened her mouth to rant at Eiri but she heard footsteps. Aya. "We'll talk later," she told Eiri in a controlled voice. "Go. Now. And for Pete's sake, don't be stupid enough to carry that gun around," she added in a disgusted tone of voice.
Eiri held up the gun that he held in his glove-clad hands. "It isn't mine. It belongs to one of his guards." He dropped the gun then sprinted away from her, disappearing through a corner. That was when Aya arrived. He took one look at Tanaka's dead body. "Who shot him?" he asked, noting the huge crimson spot on Tanaka's shoulder.
"Later." She turned her transceiver back on. "How are you doing back there, Siberian?"
"We're finished here," Ken replied. "We better get out of here. Then we blow this place up."
"Got that." Patricia faced a very miffed Aya. "Let's go."
When the two arrived on the rendezvous point, the others were already there. "Who made the shot?" Ken demanded as soon as he saw Patricia.
"Yuki Eiri," Patricia replied in a cool voice.
"Nani? What's he doing here?" Omi asked, eyes wide. He had been taken aback when he saw an unidentified man suddenly approach Patricia. He had thought it was one of Tanaka's secret guards, ready to shoot Patricia.
A look of annoyance flickered on her face. "I don't know. I thought Manx was going to handle him." She gave them a level stare. "Don't worry, he wouldn't tell on us."
"How can you be so sure?" Aya asked, eyes penetrating.
She gave him a beatific smile. "How can you not be sure?"
"That's a ghastly thought," Youji murmured.
*******
Patricia hurriedly put on the apron, then tied her hair into a ponytail. It would be her first day of work in the flower shop on wheels and she didn't want to be late. She glanced at the mirror. Her eyes fell on the tiny cut on her face, near her cheek. She absently ran her forefinger over the wound.
It had been two days since Tanaka's death and the subsequent destruction of his illegal drug lab. Two days since she last seen Eiri. As she walked towards the van that served as the flower shop, she wondered where Eiri was. She needed to talk to him.
"You're early," Ken remarked when he saw her. "You can start by arranging those flowers." He pointed to a stack of spring flowers on a table.
She smiled at him. "Thank you, Hidaka-san." She hurried towards the sack of flowers.
"Call me Ken. It's my name. Hidaka-san makes me feel so…old," he said, smiling back at her.
She raised her eyebrows. "If that's what you want…Ken. And please call me Patricia."
"Ohayou!" A cheerful voice greeted them.
"Shuuichi-kun! You're OK now!" Ken exclaimed, giving the pink-haired boy a high five.
Shuuichi nodded. "Hai. But I thought for a while that I'll never get well at all." He pouted. "No more vitamins for me!" he declared. "Eiri says I really don't need it. I'm way too hyper already."
Patricia smiled at him. "Where's Eiri?" she asked.
"Right here," Eiri said, appearing suddenly, a huge bouquet of tulips in his hand. He handed them to Patricia. "This is for you, Himalayan," he whispered softly.
Ken's eyes widened at Eiri's words. Patricia winked at Ken as she took the bouquet. "Thanks. They're my favorite." Her eyes narrowed. "Why didn't you kill Tanaka?" she asked. "You could have, you know."
"Tanaka wasn't worth it," he replied shortly. Eiri glanced at Shuuichi who was busy admiring the cherry blossoms falling from the sakura tree His usually hard amber eyes softened for a moment as he stared at his young lover, whom he had nearly lost, but was returned to him by a miracle.
"I see. Going on a vacation?" she asked, looking pointedly at the stack of suitcases strapped on Eiri's car.
"Hai!" It was Shuuichi who answered. "Doctors said I need a lot of rest so Yuki came out with the idea–"
"Vacation? Your idea?" Patricia demanded with a laugh. Eiri bonked Shuuichi's head. "We should go," Eiri said. Hauling off Shuuichi, they headed for their car, got in, then drove away, scattering the fallen cherry blossoms.
Ken glanced at Patricia. There was a small smile on her face as she watched the car disappear.
~To Be Continued~
Aww…I love Gravitation. It's so sweet. Yuki is just like Aya, but Yuki's more…sarcastic I guess…
This is probably the longest chapter I ever wrote…
For all those who took the time to read my story, I thank you for giving me your time!!!!
If you're not familiar with what Hanami is, It's the time in spring when the Japanese go out, view the cherry blossoms, and have outdoor picnics…