R e d S e a

Part Six

Ran had his hand pressed firmly on where he was shot, and refused to look there. He did not need to scare himself, raise his own heartbeat and in turn lose more blood. Instead, he examined his wet suit. Where it ripped, the sleeve had came of completely. There was a slash created by a piece of metal in the water when they escaped, but that injury was nothing to worry about.

Youji had frantically pushed him away when Ran tried to get to him under water, and Ran almost had to wrestle him out. Once in the speedboat, Youji stared at his friend for a long while, until his eyes suddenly flickered with recognition as if he did not know who it was that dragged him out of the water earlier. Then he turned away to look at the sinking boat until they got back on their own boat, by which time things turned urgent.

"Where's the fucking kit?" Youji yelled, his head still bleeding from the impact earlier. "I need some fucking tweezers and anaesthetic!"

No anaesthetic, nothing. The boat they were on did not even have anything they could dig out the bullet with, but they had to fix up Ran's leg soon, because it was at least half a day before they could get on shore.

Sitting on a table, Ran had his leg stretched out and was applying as much pressure as he could to the wound. He was intensifying the pain himself, but he had no choice.

"Omi, go and drive this goddamn boat."

"Youji-kun, you're bleeding too - "

"Go! Get us back on shore!" Youji pointed at the controls, leaving no room for discussion. "Ken, find me some cloth! Anything!"

Youji picked up his bag he brought to the boat on their way to the mission, and waited until Ken came back with his own shirt, and started ripping it apart with the help of Ran's katana.

"Aya." Youji looked at Ran in the eye. "Do you trust me?"

The redhead stared at his friend, and nodded.

With that, Youji dug out his packet of cigarettes and began tearing open each one, collecting the leaves inside. Then he took out his glasses and carefully took off the arms, revealing two small blades that were concealed inside. With his lighter, he burned the blades to sterilise them.

"Hold the torch for me." Youji pointed at the wound, and Ken shone the light on.

Ready to begin, Youji asked again. "Aya, do you trust me?"

"Do it." Ran muttered.

"Bite." Youji rolled up a piece of cloth, and Ran held it with his teeth. This was going to be unpleasant. He looked away when Youji started to insert the blades into the wound.

"Be absolutely still, Aya. It's two centimetres from your artery." Youji whispered. "I'll get it out for you."

Ran was in too much pain to either agree or object. He bit hard on the cloth, his hands desperately looking for something to grip on.

A moment later, Youji had managed to put the tip of his blades into the groove of the bullet. Slowly, he tweezed out the foreign object, dropping it unceremoniously on the table. More blood came pouring out. He gathered the cigarette leaves onto a new piece of cloth.

"This will hurt bad. Really bad. But it'll stop the blood and kill germs temporarily." Youji told his friend. "Aya, grab my hand."

Fingers twined together.

"I hope you like Silk Cut."

Getting the bullet out was nothing compared to this. Ran's hand squeezed hard on Youji's, showing white knuckles, and the cloth he had been biting on fell as he opened his mouth to scream.

Beside them, Ken thought Ran was going to faint.

But he held out. Ken wrapped up the wound with more torn shirt, and then tended to Youji's head wound, which Youji himself had forgotten about.

Nobody said anything more until they were back in the house, and gave Ran's wound a proper clean-up.

"What happened, Ken-kun?" Omi went to the porch, where Ken rested under the sun.

The weather was sinfully good. Ken wished it would at least rain a little, it seemed more appropriate. Thirty lives just went, dammit.

"Ken-kun?"

"They were dead when we got there. Suffocated in the heat. I'm glad you didn't see it; it was enough to make Youji and Aya wrench. I didn't even dare look."

Omi held his breath as he imagined the scene, then he shook his head. No, he did not even want to imagine. "Ken-kun... would you - "

"Yeah, I'm going to." Ken did not need Omi to finish. "You go check Aya out?"

Omi found Ran in the bathroom, cleaning the arm wound and replacing bandages. Omi went forward to help. "Aya-kun, you are okay?"

"Hm." Ran bit his lip. "Omi, would you have let Youji gone on this mission?"

Omi paused to comb his blonde hair out of the way with a hand, then continued wrapping the bandage. "I would have done what you did. He asked to go, Aya-kun"

In the water, Youji had pushed him away. Through his goggles, Ran could see the fear on Youji's face, it looked almost like hatred, like an accusation. Despite being in water, Ran thought he could hear Youji telling him to get away from him. Or maybe he read it from Youji's lips. In fact, the whole of Youji's reaction to him screamed "get away from me". But then suddenly he...

Ran could guess Youji saw something when he went under. Something that seemed to have hurt and shaken him.

Ran got up, glanced at Omi, touched the bandage that was carefully put on for him, and left the bathroom.

Omi knew fully well that it was a "thank you" in Fujimiya Ran's language.

"KenKen." Youji smiled the usual Youji-smile as Ken entered the bedroom. "What can I do for you, young man? You don't look so well. Would some tea cheer you up?"

"We need to talk about what happened, Youji." Ken sighed, finding a place to sit on the bed. "We have to submit the report to Manx by tomorrow."

"I don't know what happened, KenKen."

"Well neither do I, Youji, but - "

"I mean I really don't know." Youji's smile was gone. He glanced outside his window, where there was a good view of the sea. The sun was still high, and there were people doing water sports. "It felt like a long dream."

On a normal day, Ken would have thought Youji was joking. But Youji looked lost, as if he could not tell what happened was real or not. "What do you mean?"

"What happened?"

"The mission, yeah, you remember that? Aya got shot. You cleaned that up on the boat." Ken got an affirmative nod from Youji. "You got hit by some falling metal when we were swimming for our lives?"

Youji looked inside his head. He could vaguely remember something like that. "Yeah."

"After that, we dived down to get you."

After that...

"By that time, the boat's half gone, all those... thirty corpses had joined us in the water." Ken recalled, fighting back an urge to pour his stomach out. Bodies were blown apart, tainting the water red. Ken remembered swimming pass the head of a young woman. The water tasted of blood. "After a while, Aya dragged you out. You don't remember that bit? At all?"

"No..." In the water...

"Well I don't blame you, you got hit on the head. Hey, let me check." Ken went over to Youji and checked the bandages around Youji's head. There was caked blood in his hair, but the bleeding had almost stopped. If they try to clean it up though, it might start again. "I think you need to get this stitched up."

"Small job. You can do it." Youji dismissed the seriousness with a wave of his hand.

Ken laughed, backing off. "Omi's got steadier hands!"

"KenKen," Youji rolled his eyes. He knew Ken didn't like doing anything medical unless he absolutely had to. "You've got to practice once in a while."

"Yes, but not on your head. I'm off. I'll get Omi for you."

"I told you not to open the door."

"Just so that I would open it."

"What, are you blaming me now?" There was a hint of amusement in her voice. "I never knew you were capable of blaming others."

"Am I supposed to be flattered?" He chuckled a little bitterly. "What do you want from me? Is this not enough for you?"

She did not answer.

Youji rubbed the cream onto his hand, which had gone black and blue after Ran gripped it hard on the boat. He could not feel it then, seeing his friend in that sort of pain had diverted his attention away completely. Now, studying his own hand, he wondered if any permanent damage was done. At the moment, the hand was completely useless, the joints hurt when he tried to hold things.

"For the best, I think. You probably can't strangle any more women now."

"It's none of your fucking business."

"Of course it is. You do remember what you did to me..." Neu paused. "Next time, bastard."

"Youji, dinner." Ken appeared beside the open door, wearing his pajamas, chocolate brown hair uncombed. It had been less than 24 hours since the mission, and they decided they would rest until further notice.

"No thanks, Ken. I'm going out." Youji lit a cigarette using his good hand, with a little difficulty.

None of it missed Ken's eyes. "Your hand?"

Youji smiled around his cigarette. "Don't tell Aya, you know him." Putting on his sunglasses, he waved. "Gone now, don't miss me."

"Hey, Youji..." Ken called as his friend pushed past him to leave.

"Hm?"

"Don't drink too much, huh?"

Youji only replied with a dismissive wave.

In the water, Youji saw Asuka. Everywhere above him, in every face, through the tainted sea water.

Then her hand pushed through that water, reaching for him.

He fought with all his strength, pushing her away. All he knew was that she was coming for him. It was the same nightmare he had over and over again.

But then something was different. He stopped and wondered what he was doing. Why push her away when there was nothing to fear? There really was nothing to fear. Even if he was going to die... so what?

Youji stopped. Instead of pushing Asuka away, he grabbed her and pulled her towards him, holding her close.

Everything stood still.

Then he was back up the surface.

It felt like a dream. It was just like one of his dreams, with a new ending. No, that was not it. He never saw the ending in his dreams. He would see the hand, and then he would wake up.

But... did that really happen, was it not just a dream? And... that was Ran?

Youji would prefer to go clubbing, but that would not be good for his head. He ate some fastfood and wandered around a little before going back. There was no need to eat with the guys and let Ran notice his hand. The consequences of making Ran feel guilty about something are often catastrophic and he would rather avoid such an unhealthy situation.

"Manx's arranged to have us fly back tomorrow."

"Greetings to you too, Aya." Youji laughed as he locked the door. "You prefer the light off?"

"Do you still see her, Youji?" Ran's purple eyes glistened in the dark. "Neu."

Youji found himself looking for something to fidget. He found the ashtray and squashed his cigarette butt, took off his shoes, and sat down on the couch.

"Youji."

"Yeah."

"... You saw her in the water."

"I was hallucinating. It wasn't until I talked with Ken afterwards that I realised it wasn't one of my dreams. Sorry."

"It's fine." Getting the answer, Ran got up, ready to go to bed. "... What does she say to you?"

Youji could not bear the thought of letting his friends know that he was strangling every woman he went to bed with.

"Go and rest, Aya. You've got a gunshot wound to heal."

Gentle breezes entered the room through the open window. The night was hot but not overwhelmingly so, just enough for Ran to rest comfortably without needing air conditioning. The house was silent after Ken came over to check on him and said goodnight, dropping painkillers on the bedside table in case Ran needed them to sleep. Birman also called earlier and extracted a promise from him that he would see her when they get back to Tokyo, so that she could make sure he heal properly. It reminded him of his sister and his parents.

He had a cigarette lit between his fingers. He had not smoked for a few years, but he stole one from Youji's pack on the coffee table. Youji probably knew. He had a talent for spotting small changes in things, and had lifted an eyebrow when he picked up the pack.

"I hope you like Silk Cut."

He does.

[onto part 7]