Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz is among others owned by Project Weiss. I merely use the characters for enjoyment and earn no money with them. No copyright infringement intended. goldenflame.net, the chat room #7thPitchOfHell and the hotel Golden Palace are purely fictional. The Eroica quote I believe is from www.eroica.nu but I'm not sure
Timeline: Alternate session two.
Rating: PG-13
Chapter: 1/?
Pairings: NagixOmi, in later chapters bits of SchuxYohji
Summary: Sometimes it's easier to pour your heart out to a stranger…
Warnings: AU. A lot. If you like Kritiker and dislike the idea of Weiss as freelance assassins you probably shouldn't read this. Maybe OOC, that depends on how the story will evolve. I think you'll notice it's m/m slash soon enough. But is there any WK romance that isn't slash?
Author's note: If you would like your ship in the fic, then write it in your review and I'll see if I can fit them in the story. But I can't promise anything, there are some characters I just can't write IC. I don't have a beta reader, so you read this at your own risk, if you get a headache from my mistakes (native German) don't blame me :-)
Author's note 2: If you send me feedback you'll make me very happy.
Love@Net
By Artemis
Chapter 1
"Chibi, where are you?", bellowed Yohji through their apartment. He'd searched the whole apartment, every single room of the flower shop and his favourite spots, now he'd more or less given hope up.
Omi rolled his eyes in exasperation and shouted back, "in my room, baka!"
Yohji flung the door open, sat down on Omi's bed and winced as the door slammed noisily shut. "I'm no baka! Anyways, Aya sent me in search of you because he needed you down in the shop. But as the shop has closed… four minutes ago, I guess it isn't anymore necessary."
"I'll ask him at dinner. You can leave now." He clicked on the small box telling him that the download of a song had been completed and opened his chat software.
"Oh, is our little Chibi waiting for someone?", cooed Yohji gleefully.
"No, I'm not, Yohji. I promised to meet with some hacker acquaintances tonight and help them to figure a new firewall out." Omi smiled sweetly. "But of course, if you offer your help so freely, who am I to deny it?"
"Nope, I'll rather help Ken with cooking dinner."
The redhead grinned to himself. Yohji had virtually fled the room as soon as he mentioned work, you only had to figure out how to handle him and then… Omi leafed through the list of chatrooms till he'd found one that appealed to him.
-- Now talking in #7thPitchOfHell
Bombay: Ooi! Anyone here?
Bombay: No? Alright then. Hell, why am I even talking to a vacant chat room? Maybe I'm just such desperate and at least an empty channel won't answer me with some stupid remarks, that I ought to get a girlfriend or my opinion really isn't relevant for the success of the mission and that I should stop whining and do my work…
-- Prodigy has joined #7thPitchOfHell
Bombay: Goodness, I'm such pathetic!
Prodigy: *blinkblink* Pardon?
Bombay: Sorry, I thought I was alone here and just felt like ranting…
Prodigy: You were, I just joined a couple of seconds ago. You wanna tell another person why you think you're pathetic or continue ranting at the computer? :-)
Bombay: That's nice, but I don't want to bother you with my problems.
Prodigy: You don't have to be concerned about that, I've so many problems myself, a few more won't make much of a difference !:-t
Bombay: Arigatou. You see, I'm living with three guardians, most of the time they're like brothers or older friends to me, but sometimes they're treating me like a kid, though they're only a couple of years older. Only recently I found out that my father isn't my father, I'm the son of my allegedly father's wife and his brother (and only shortly before I was reunited with them since I'd amnesia). My real father raised me without ever telling me the truth and he only cares about me as assets, an employee. To top it off my supposedly father and my real father were both killed, like my cousin, my uncle and the rest of my family. Or at least the ones I know and cared about, there may be still some other illegitimate children.
Prodigy: Wow, that's hard.
Bombay: Yeah, it is.
Prodigy: Who killed your relatives? And what about your mother? Maybe she can still offer you a family.
Bombay: That's another touchy topic and my common sense says me not to talk about it, but it's not as if there's anyone else I could tell this kind of stuff… The only neutral person, who'd have accepted me the way I am if I'd been able to tell her, that was my cousin, but she's also killed.
Prodigy: You sure you even still want to belong to this family? You guys all seem to have a pretty short life expectancy.
Bombay: Quite so! My real father was killed by my uncle – the one I thought to be my father – then one of my guardians killed my uncle cause his lackeys slaughtered his parents, my cousin was killed in a fight with the lackeys of my uncle, who'd kidnapped my cousin as decoy for my guardians and me.
Prodigy: Who happened to the rest of you guys?
Bombay: Several people, but mainly my guardians and me.
Prodigy: Something tells me you're serious.
Bombay: Because I am.
Prodigy: That's good.
Bombay: ???
Prodigy: Okay, that sounded weird. I meant, that's good because in this case the odds are that you won't totally freak out if I tell you about me.
Bombay: You know, I just noticed that you're awfully cool about the whole thing. Most people would be running by this time screaming out of the room, calling the police or having left the chat room afraid that they'd met a psychopath.
Prodigy: I'm not one to be easily scared/Then my own guardians would bump me off for attraction the police's attention/I'm living with one psychopath and two people who're so close before loosing it, I know a lunatic when I see one.
Bombay: You know my life story and stuff that would get me in jail for the rest of my life and I don't even know how old you are :-)
Prodigy: I'm 15, from Tokyo and part-time assassin.
Bombay: 17, Tokyo, part-time assassin.
Prodigy: You ought to be kidding!
Bombay: I'm afraid not, though I would give a lot for a normal life
Prodigy: Yep, you sound like you're telling me the truth. I wonder if we've ever met each other. There can't be that many assassin groups in Tokyo, now can there?
Bombay: It's a big city and I never actually researched how many competitors we have, but I guess you're right.
Prodigy: Will you tell me the name of your group?
Bombay: Maybe after you told me more about yourself.
Prodigy: Fine, have it your way, but my life story is much less interesting than yours.
Bombay: Spill!
Prodigy: My childhood was just as fucked up as yours. I was an outsider, neither my family nor my friends wanted anything to do with me because I was different. People fear strange things they can't understand and fear turns easily into hate… None of the other children so much as talked to me, maybe they thought I would rub off on them, maybe they're just afraid what their peers and parents would say, maybe they'd already adopted the beliefs of the adults, I don't know and don't give a damn anymore.
Prodigy: I wanted so badly to escape my social background and the discrimination, so I did something very stupid. When weird people came who told me that they'd make sure I had a good life if I only occasionally showed them my gratitude with helping them, I believed them. My urge to get revenge on the world made me blind. At first they pretended that they cared, but as soon as they'd turned me into their perfect little killer they left me with other assassins who'd pose as my guardians – always on disposal to do their bidding.
Bombay: I'm sorry for you.
Prodigy: Don't be, if I'd stayed with my family my life would've most likely been worse.
Bombay: No, really. I can understand fully how you feel. I also believed that my real father would care for me and give me a better life, that he'd saved me and not just got himself a new assassin trainee. But I found quickly out that he only wanted to turn me into his perfect assassin. Unfortunately he wasn't as good an instructor as he thought.
Prodigy: You should be glad he didn't succeeded. They almost managed to erase the last traces of humanity in me and trust me, it's not a pleasant feeling.
Bombay: It would make killing easier.
Prodigy: Maybe. But do you find a life as a killing machine, a robot with a beating heart desirable?
Bombay. Touché.
Prodigy: g2g. Boss is home and he won't be pleased if he finds out about our little chitchat.
Bombay: No problem, we'll anyway have dinner in a couple of minutes. Can we meet again?
Prodigy: Tomorrow, same time, same place. Bye.
Bombay. Bye.
-- Prodigy has left #7thPitchOfHell
-- Bombay has left #7thPitchOfHell
Omi was still slightly shaken from the encounter with Prodigy as he logged out.
He'd hoped for someone to talk to, someone who'd understand him at least a little bit, at the very least an opportunity to rant without his team mates forcing him into a straightjacket and calling the men in the white coats…
But he'd gotten more than he'd bargained for and Omi wasn't sure whether that's good or bad. It'd be nice to be for once able to tell the truth. The only people from whom he hadn't to hide anything were the assassins of Weiß and Schwarz. The Weiß boys were much more than friends, they're the family he never had, but there were just some things you didn't talked about with your brothers. And as amusing as the mental picture was, he didn't thought Schwarz would react very well if he invited them to a heart-to-heart after a battle…
So far the pros. The cons were obvious. He'd no idea who Prodigy was, it could be some kid wanting to make themselves seem more important than they were or to make fun of him, it could be a real assassin who's only interested in a friend, it could even be one of his least favourite colleagues, namely Schwarz…
Omi felt a steadily growing headache making itself known and rubbed
his temples tiredly. There was really only one way to find out who Prodigy
was…
At the other end of the city Naoe Nagi was thinking along the same line of thoughts.
He'd saved the ip address of his chat friend and it shouldn't be hard to track him down. He only had to hack into his provider's database, find out whom they'd given the ip address at the time of their chat, then search for him in the databases of the Tokyo residents' registration office and what they'd been able to save of Estet's database and soon he'd know everything he wanted to know about the alleged assassin.
Nagi expected no troubles, after all the other boy hadn't mentioned
that he knew more about computers than how to operate them, it's unlikely
that he'd taken any precautions to conceal himself…
"Damn! Damn! Damn!", yelled Omi at no one in particular.
He felt like kicking his own backside, he'd been such naïve! How could he have assumed that Prodigy would give their identity freely away? Well, he consoled himself, at least he knew now after three hours of unsuccessful attempts of tracing Prodigy's – very fake and for him useless - ip address back to a name that they were indeed who they claimed to be…
The only persons who had the necessity and know-how for such paranoid security measures were elite hackers, terrorists and assassins. Neither a hacker nor a terrorist had any need to pretend that they're assassins, so it seemed like Omi's anonymous friend had told him the truth.
Although he'd now his proof that Prodigy was an assassin, he wouldn't forgive them easily for making a fool of him – the worst thing was that Omi couldn't even take them to task for it. His only satisfaction was that Prodigy wouldn't find out more about him than Omi had about them.
While he's still nursing his injured pride with Belgian chocolate, the
redhead had to admit that he's intrigued in spite of himself. He knew already
now that he'd go again into the chat room next night and hope that Prodigy
came.
-- Now talking in #7thPitchOfHell
Prodigy: Finally, Bombay! I thought already you wouldn't come.
Bombay: And I didn't thought you'd come. Did you got in any trouble with your boss last night?
Prodigy: No, I logged out just in time. One of my friends always warns me when he comes back.
Bombay: And how does your friend knows that?
Prodigy: He has his ways.
Bombay: I thought we'd be honest with each other.
Prodigy: I'm honest with you about things that can get only myself into trouble. But I can't endanger the safety of my team mates just because I want to make friends, it wouldn't be fair.
Bombay: Point taken. Please tell me something about yourself, I'm dying of curiosity.
Prodigy: I'm a hacker and a pretty good one at that, for my assassin team I plan the hits, do the research, you could say I'm the brains of the group. People say I'm highly intelligent, but I for my part believe that many people my age could get the same test results if they would only take school seriously. Apart from that I'm your ordinary Japanese teenager.
Bombay: Are you a boy or a girl?
Prodigy: Boy. What about you?
Bombay: Oh, there's nothing special about me either. I'm pretty good at school, but I think about the "highly intelligent" tag the same as you. I hate celery and ignorant adults who treat me like a kid, I love the internet, the great indoors and older people cause my life was just too different to feel comfortable around people who only care about parties and girls. Oh, and I have another part-time job beside slaughtering people, I work in a flower shop.
Prodigy: Cool. If your employer ever needs a temporary help, then give them my e-mail address, I'm always in search of a job. It's not like I wouldn't earn enough money as assassin, rather in the contrary, but it's deadly boring to spend all your life studying, doing homework and planning assassinations. Usually I'm forbidden to get a job, but I mean, really, what can be dangerous about a flower shop?!
Prodigy: I like spending time with my fellow assassins, although they've troubles accepting that I'm an equal member of the team instead of a little kid, they're the closest I have to a family. The second youngest member is like a brother, the two older ones like fathers – at least when they're in a good mood. I like to protect people and hate it when people don't do their job properly.
Bombay: I wish I would have also a father figure, but the oldest one of us is only 24 and 99 percent of the time a playboy with a big trap, so he doesn't really qualifies for the parental substitute… *g* Time for a change of topic, we're spending already enough time being annoyed about our stupid team mates, we don't have to talk about them here as well. You mentioned something that made you different in the eyes of your neighbours and classmates, what did you meant?
Prodigy: *smirk* That's a nice try, Bombay, but there's no need lying. I know that you're a hacker. Don't you think I would have "alarms" in case one of our enemies gets the very unhealthy idea to hack us, huh…?
*Bombay eeps and hides
Bombay: *fearfully* You haven't tracked me down, have you?
Prodigy: Not yet. But if you continue to be this careless I'll succeed rather sooner than later. But please come back now, I'll even treat you to a cyber coke.
*Bombay comes out of hiding, snatches the cyber coke out of Prodigy's hands. *g,d&r*
*Prodigy chases after Bombay and tackles him
Prodigy: *evilcackle* Hah! My cookie, all mine!
Bombay: Gimme back! You promised it!
Prodigy: I lied, what do you expect, I'm an evil assassin! *menacinglook*
Bombay: *rotfl*
Prodigy: *lol*
Bombay: Goodness, Prodigy, I haven't had so much honest fun for a long time. :'-)
Prodigy: Me neither. Daijoubo desu ka?
Bombay: Daijoubo. I'm sorry for being so mushy, I don't know what's happening with me. Maybe the whole stress of the last weeks is just catching up with me…
Prodigy: Please tell me more
Bombay: My fathers died only last week, that's why I went to this chat room. I hoped for someone who'd just listen, someone whom I could tell about my problems without endangering the team and maybe even make a friend – and now that I've met you I know that it's a good idea
Prodigy: *blush* You're giving me too much credit.
Prodigy: I also went through difficult times, we had a permanent employer but he's killed now and we're… well, more or less unemployed. Nobody knows what will happen now, after all assassins can't go to the employment office and apply for unemployment compensation. We were his bodyguards and got rid of the people that got on his bad side, we could be sure that he'd get us out of jail, finance us and we'd still have a job the next day. We're all tense now and fear what the future may bring, especially me. Our leader is a good businessman with degrees and everything, but the rest of us needs the assassin job, we have no other profession and nowhere else to go – I also need them to stay my guardians or I'm doomed.
Bombay: I can understand you fully
Prodigy: It's nice of you to say that but you can't
Bombay: But I can. You see, my real father was also our employer and none of us knows what's going to happen now. We're his executioners like you guys and now… maybe someone else in his organization will take command over, we have no idea. At first we considered closing down too, but then we realized that we have no homes to return to, no way to earn our living. With my father dead I have now absolutely no one but my friends, the youth welfare office will put me into an orphanage if they stop being my guardians. Our leader needs still more money than he can earn as florist, he has a relative requiring very expensive permanent medical treatment. Another of us was an athlete, but his career was ruined and he hoped to start anew as assassin. Only one of us could return more or less to his old life and he won't leave us behind.
Prodigy: So you're now self-employed?
Bombay: Yeah, pretty much. We really hope that we'll get very fast orders – we're quite successful but it seems to take some time till people find out we're looking for customers. The money is running low. We earn enough money in the shop to pay our costs of living, but we also have to pay the hospital, weapons, equipment…
Prodigy: We met many people through our former employer and we're optimistic that we'll soon have missions. Hence if we get an order that we can't or won't accept I'll tell you, okay? I fear that's all the help I can offer you at the moment, we're also still learning how to survive as freelance assassins, it's a completely new feeling.
Bombay: Arigatou, that means a lot to me
Prodigy: My pleasure. I'm sorry, but it's bedtime for me now, we have to fly tomorrow to Korea for a meeting with a possible client and it won't do when I fall asleep in the middle of our interview, boss would kill me.
Bombay: Good luck.
Prodigy: We keep each other up-to-date and meet Sunday night again, okay?
Bombay: I'm already looking forward to it.
-- Bombay has left #7thPitchOfHell
Prodigy: Me too, Bombay.
-- Prodigy has left #7thPitchOfHell
-- Now talking in #7thPitchOfHell
-- Prodigy has joined #7thPitchOfHell
Bombay: Hey Prodigy, how was the interview?
*Prodigy makes a victory dance
Prodigy: Yippy! We have our first client!
Bombay: Congratulations, Prodigy, that's great! I'm so happy for you!
Prodigy: How's your own job hunt going?
Bombay: I think we'll have also soon a customer. In my mailbox were today a few offers. I can't thank you enough for that, Prodigy.
Prodigy: You're welcome!
Bombay: What do you wanna do tonight? Usually I would suggest that we go and celebrate, but as we're both sitting in front of laptops… ;-)
Prodigy: How about we celebrate with some hacking?
Bombay: Cool! What do you wanna hack?
Prodigy: Any government?
Bombay: I know it! A secret service! I'm sure we can find something interesting there that nobody is supposed to find ever out! *g*
Prodigy: Who finds first compromising data about a random secret service head wins?
Bombay: I'm game!
Prodigy: Ready or not, here I come!
/Schu, what was the name of that cute Weiß assassin again?/
/Are you talking about Balinese, Chibi?/
/No! Are you even capable of thinking about anyone who isn't Balinese? Goodness, you're having issues!/, sniggered Nagi.
/I have no clue what you're talking about. And anyway, what do you want his name for? Planning to send flowers?!/
/If I get his name I'll be finished with the research in time for breakfast news, please, Schuldig!/
/What research?/
/Just give me the damn name or your so-called dinner could accidentally float itself into the wastebasket…!/
/Tsukiyono Omi?/
/Hai! Hai, Omi, that was his name! Thanks, Schu, I love you!/
/Uh… you aren't meaning that, are you, Chibi?/, Schuldig asked alarmed.
Nagi giggled again. /No, of course not, silly!/
/What the heck has happened to make you so damn happy? You're almost acting like your age./
/You'll find out soon enough, Schu. Call me when you managed to cook something that doesn't has to be labelled with "toxic" or the delivery service brought my cheese pizza./
Nagi could hear from the kitchen German curses and a muttered, "who
died and made you the god of cooking?!" He smiled inwardly before he turned
back to the task at hand, which happened to be unmasking Bombay.
Thanks to inhumane amounts of work in the flower shop, interviews with possible customers for Weiß and his teachers discovering a sadistic streak, Omi only managed to find Wednesday the identity of Prodigy out.
He knew he shouldn't have met with the other boy again, only half an hour after he'd found out who he was, but he realized that he couldn't cut the contact off. In only a few days he'd become his best friend and closest familiar, this Prodigy, or should he rather say Naoe Nagi?
And nonetheless it's a matter of course that Omi joined, almost automatically by now, the channel where he's supposed to meet his online friend and real life enemy this afternoon.
-- Now talking in #7thPitchOfHell
Bombay: Hi!
Bombay: Hello? Prodigy? Why are you so quiet?
Bombay: Did I do something wrong? Because I'm sorry, even though I don't know what I did.
Prodigy: Gomen, I'm just thinking.
Bombay: 'bout what?
Prodigy: A lot of things. You know, when we're still working for my former boss I'd to do a lot of things I never really wanted to do, at least not to the people I did them to. I wonder if they could forgive me if they knew why I did all these things. I still think that being an assassin isn't wrong and there are a lot of people who deserve to die, but some people I treated wrong.
Bombay: What are you hinting at? Come on, Prodigy, I know you too well, you can't lie to me.
Prodigy: That's one thing that scares me. You know me already now better than my team mates and we're for how long friends? A week maybe?
Bombay: I don't see the problem. You also know me better than my team.
Prodigy: What do you mean?
Bombay: In front of them I've to pretend always that I'm happy because they don't need another gloomy brood boy – one of them is already more than we can bear - they require me to be the jester and heart of the team. When I'm with you I can just be myself, when I feel sad then I can show it to you and when I'm happy then I can show that to you too. I've told you things I've never told anyone else, things I was afraid to only think before I met you.
*Prodigy gives Bombay a hug in spite of how unmanly he thinks that is
Prodigy: I'm sorry for being such a weirdo. I just…
Bombay: Yes?
Prodigy: I guess I'm afraid of how you'll react when you find my identity out. I'm afraid that you'll go back to hating me then and that you'll use everything I told you against me. I doubt that I can still fight you, at the very least I don't want to and it would be paining me. I never before had a friend that I could've lost – my team mates are different, they have to be loyal to me or they would loose themselves also too much – and it scares me. I'm not used to having to handle such feelings. I just don't want to lose you, I guess.
Bombay: I promise I won't betray you. And if it makes you feel more comfortable, you have the same power over me that I have over you. I also never had a best friend like you, and I realize now that you're my best friend even if we aren't friends for long, with you there is blind understanding, it's totally different than with the team.
Prodigy: Gods, this has to sound terribly girlish… But will you stay my friend no matter what?
Bombay: I promise, no matter what. Do you promise me the same?
Prodigy: We're friends no matter what comes.
Bombay: Please tell me now what made you think that I wouldn't want to be your friend any longer?
Prodigy: Tuesday I killed again for the first time since… since my employer was killed. And it was like a Déjà vu.
Bombay: Don't worry, I'll cheer you up
Prodigy: Thanks. You always know the right thing to do, I wish my team mates would show the same sensibility.
Bombay: Please accept my sincere condolences !:-t My team mates have also the sensitiveness of an elephant.
Prodigy: I can't say how glad I am that I've now someone who really understands me.
Bombay: Absolutely the same here. I believe I promised to cheer you up. You wanna hear some funny quotes I found today?
Prodigy: Sure
Bombay: Here's something that reminded me of my playboy team mate who's afraid of work like a vampire of sunlight: "Laziness is the inclination to relaxation without preceding work."
Prodigy: *lol* I ought to tell that my boss, it fits perfectly to my own playboy team mate as well. He thinks he's so great and wonderful and though he's most of the time a decent bloke I'm often just fed up of his megalomania.
Bombay: The same with mine. What about the other? I'm curious if they're also the same.
Prodigy: He's a lunatic.
Bombay: Mine's a sane soccer player. Here's another one: "the best way to keep your promises is to give none." "Our team loses never, even if the other team wins."
Prodigy: *g* That's just like my boss. Or how about that: "an intelligent man has to be intelligent enough to employ people who're more intelligent than him."
Bombay: *lol* I ought to tell that my leader, that'll make him so nicely angry! Or something from Eroica: "Silk scarves are appropriate for any occasion -- such as cocktail parties, or kidnapping the Pope..."
Prodigy: Good one!
Prodigy: I guess I shouldn't ask and I'll regret this, but would you like to help me with some research?
Bombay: What research?
Prodigy: I have to find informations about the visit of a British corporation CEO whom we're asked to kill. He'll visit from the 21st till the 28th and live in a hotel here in Tokyo, but we don't know yet in which hotel. If he wants a rival company then he just kills the major stockholders or owners and their competent heirs. Then the stockholders become nervous and he can buy the company dirt cheap. The only surviving heir of one victim company is our client, he asked us to be his bodyguards when he heard that we're now self-employed – he's living here in Japan where he has an own small company and hence was safe so far.
Bombay: …and now you've found out that he'll visit Japan, most likely with his assassins to kill your client and complete the takeover, hence you have to assassinate him before he assassinates your client. Why are you doing this? I can't imagine that the head of a small company can pay you well.
Prodigy: He can't. But we have to gain a reputation for ourselves and it's a challenge. Unfortunately I don't know if I'll manage the workload, so it would be nice to have someone who helps me a bit. We'll pay you once we get the salary.
Bombay: You don't have to.
Prodigy: But I want to. Do you want to think about it first?
Bombay: No, of course that's not necessary, I'll gladly help a friend.
Prodigy: Thanks, you're great! Oh fuck, boss calls me for a lecture. I'll send you the details later by e-mail. See you tomorrow.
-- Prodigy has left #7thPitchOfHell
"Omi? *Omi*? Hey Chibi, where are you hiding? Are you brooding again on that laptop of yours? You really should go outside sometimes, you know, you wouldn't even notice if the world ended, such a loner you are."
Yohji checked every room Omi could be in their shared apartment, from his room over the living room to finally the kitchen.
There he found indeed Omi, his head laying next to the laptop on the kitchen table, surrounded by scraps of paper, plates with sandwiches, half-empty delivery boxes sushi, pizza, French fries and hamburgers.
The blonde wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Chibi? You better clean that mess you made fast, it looks really yucky and Aya won't be happy if he has to have breakfast in the middle of a heap of rubbish."
Omi's only answer was a soft snore.
"Hm…" Yohji fought an internal battle with his conscience. They're all wondering whom Omi was talking to all the time – and why he's suddenly so cheerful – but when they tried to take a peek at his files Weiß' youngest member's security systems turned out to be an insuperable hurdle for them. The laptop was now only on standby, one click and he'd solve the mystery… On the other hand Omi would skin him if he woke up and saw that Yohji was touching his baby…
He clicked the space bar and prayed fervently to whatever gods would listen that this click didn't started anything he couldn't get under control again…
The laptop hummed and buzzed to life, fans started to spin and the screen turned from black to a, for Yohji confusing, mess of Omi's new science-fiction wallpaper, icons and minimized windows. Since he'd no idea what the whole chaos meant he just maximized one window after the other, hoping that he wouldn't walk straight into a trap. "Now let's find out what you've been hiding from us, Chibi!"
"Free Cell … Solitaire … whatever Registry Keys are …", a triumphant smile, "*aha*, here, we go!" The ICQ software held no juicy gossip, but the categories were interesting. Under "Hackers" Omi had listed maybe a dozen names, "Contacts and Resources" included another dozen nicknames. But at the top, under the category "Friends" was only one name listed, a Prodigy. There were only two windows left, one an e-mail and the other a chat software. First he checked the e-mail software, which held quite a surprise for him.
Subject: Re: Instructions
Date: July 14th 99, 23:27:59 (+9)
From: Bombay bombay@goldenflame.net
To: Prodigy prodigy@goldenflame.net
Ooi Prodigy!
How is it going?
We got just a few minutes ago a call, we're hired for our first mission as freelance assassins! Our team will be paid from a rich tycoon heiress 2.000.000 yen for killing her cheating husband and his mistress. After we deduct the expenses it won't be a fortune, but sufficiently to pay the hospital bill for a quarter of a year. That's going to make our leader happy and when he's happy our lives will be a lot easier. I think self-employment isn't so bad after all… I really can't thank you enough for helping us so much, I don't know what we would've done without your help.
I thought you'd perhaps be interested in my intermediate results:
I'm finished with hacking the company.
I copied the electronic appointments book of your target, quite interesting, I can tell you so much already.
They're really stupid, they saved the reports about their murders and takeovers on a server that's only protected from a ridiculous little firewall, you could think they'd be more interested in staying out of jail. Anyway, I copied some of these data for you, if your team thinks it's worth the effort we can hack them again and retrieve the rest of the files. The four of you can't slaughter the whole conspiracy, so maybe it'd be handy if the others spend the rest of their lives in jail.
A reservation confirmation I've found as well, they'll live a luxury hotel downtown, Golden Palace. But don't worry, we assassinated someone there a couple of months ago and their security systems are just pitiable. Hack them and order for you and your friends security cards a week before the hit (it's such a big hotel, nobody will notice that you're no employee and if you chicken you can just add your names to the personnel files) then it's a walk in the park. Get an accreditation as room waiter, cleaner or chambermaid, they've the best ones for your uses.
Now listen, Prodigy, I really don't want you to pay me. It's only a small hack, I have a flatrate and our former employer paid for the equipment. Besides, there's no one else I can ask to help me with research for a murder and it would be nice to have someone around who'll help me when I'm in a fix. And anyway, you've done already so much for me, for all of us, just think that we're now even.
I'd love to write you more, but I better finish my part of the research now, I still have to do some studying cause we'll spend all spare time tomorrow planning the mission and I can feel my eyes beginning to droop.
Bye
Bombay
PS: The data I got till now I'm sending you as attachment.
2nd PS: I'll meet you in chat again Friday, ne? I'm going to have only classes from nine till twelve, the flower shop closes earlier since Friday the school girls will rather go home than to unnerve us, so unless we have many deliveries I'm free for you early in the morning and in the night. Oh, know what, I'll just log into our chat room whenever I'm free, sometime we'll meet.
"Well isn't that interesting, our little Chibi has a girlfriend!", murmured Yohji gleefully. He knew all about "curiosity killed the cat", but he just couldn't help himself and checked hastily if Prodigy had already answered.
Subject: Re: Instructions
Date: July 15th 99, 02:11:09 (+9)
From: Prodigy prodigy@goldenflame.net
To: Bombay bombay@goldenflame.net
Hey tom-cat! ;-)
Have you fallen asleep yet? I would love to see the faces of your team mates when they find you with your head on the keyboard and messages from a strange "online boyfriend" in your mailbox.
Congratulations, I'm sure you and your guys will be great!
Thanks, Bombay, we all owe you, you did a wonderful job. And I'll head that advice about the hotel. You don't happen to have still some maps from the grounds and hotel, do you? I know I've to sound lazy, but it's just a difficult time. All the time two of us (and we're four like you) have to protect our client on the spot, and because I have school I barely find the time to sleep, let alone do the research. I tell you, that small payment isn't worth it, I wish we could afford to turn her down.
I'm just peachy, inhumane amounts of work merely aren't my favourite kind of entertainment. Who the hell ever said that being an assassin is a way to earn fast and easily money?! Our boss is making us slave away, there is absolutely no mean thing he can't think of. Fucking bastard!
See you soon in our chat room
Prodigy
"Or maybe rather a boyfriend than girlfriend…" Yohji quickly pondered the risks of taking a look at the chat software as well, maybe Omi had kept a record of their conversations. But Omi was already waking up, the risk was just too high. With a regretful sigh the blonde returned the laptop to the state he'd found it in and fled the kitchen.
To be continued…