In Holy Matrimony - Chapter Three
by Sau-Chih
Feng
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Gundam Wing does not belong to me. No profit is gained. Usual disclaimers apply.
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Noin examined the numerous reports on her desk detailing the murder of Heero Yuy. She was mutely grateful that she hadn't been at the scene; the pictures alone were nauseating even without the smell of blood in her nostrils. Dealing with dead bodies was something along Sally's line of work, not hers. Sighing, she shifted through the photographs, trying to find anything suspicious.
"Was Yuy a religious man?" Zechs asked, bending over her shoulder to get a better view of the photograph she was currently examining of Heero hung up on the cross. He carried a mug of coffee in his other hand, which he offered to Noin. She took it gratefully, feeling the heat seep through the ceramic and into her fingers. He took a sip from his own mug.
"Hmm, not that I know of," Noin confessed, "but I don't think he'd talk about it even if he were one."
Zechs took the photograph from her. "I've never seen him wearing a cross before; and I don't think he'd be able to hide one anywhere, not with the clothes he wears," he said. Noin smiled at the latter of what he said, wondering if he knew how strange his words sounded.
"You'll also realize," Noin added, pointing at the photograph, "that the slashes on his chest are actually rather shallow; he couldn't have bled as much blood as we found. I'm betting most of that blood is some animal's, maybe more. Also, the cuts are rearranged strangely, like a pattern...or...."
"Or maybe the killer was carving words, only carving words isn't exactly something easy."
"Probably. Speaking of which, there was something carved on the cross," Noin added, putting down her coffee and picking up a sealed plastic bag containing the silver cross that had hung from Heero Yuy's neck. Flipping the bag upside-down, she emptied the cross onto the table. The words "If you believe, it will crumble in these uncertain days; but, if you are here, I will never let you go"* glimmered on the surface, scrawled onto the back of the cross. "You wouldn't happen to know what the killer is trying to say, would you?"
Zechs shook his head. "As far as I can guess, it's an allusion to the Eve Wars and the -- or lack of -- convictions of us all during a time of changing loyalties."
Noin smiled at him and reaching for his hand, squeezed his fingers reassuringly. "Some loyalties never change," she offered.
"Yuy was a strong man, I doubt if he ever lost his convictions, if he did lose sight of his goal. His loyalty never wavered either," Zechs stated almost bitterly, though his hand tightened around Noin's warm and soft one.
"Maybe one day, you'll tell me about Epyon," she ventured softly and timidly, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to his fingers, "and maybe, just maybe, I can help you. But you don't have to worry, because as long as we're alive, we have all the time in the world."
The door was flung open, and a Preventer officer ran panting into the room. "Zechs Marquise?" he gasped with the exertion of having run up five flights of stairs and down the ridiculously long corridor, at the end of which Zechs had chosen for his office for the sake of privacy. All messengers sent to deliver word to Zechs resented the location and exertion required, because it was almost always foretold that the elevator would be too slow for Une's taste.
Zechs stood up quickly and released Noin, nearly spilling his coffee as he set the mug heavily onto the table. "Yes."
"Lady Une wants to see you."
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The boy was very young, almost sinfully so. The Preventers uniform hung loosely upon a slender figure too small for someone his age, making the boy look even younger. But then, Zechs amended, he himself had not been much older when the wars broke out and he had led the troops in countless battle as well as the forces of Libra and White Fang against the Earth Sphere. Tousled dark hair suggested that the boy had just returned from a mission somewhere and had not yet had time to tidy his appearance. A bandage peeked from somewhere behind the fall of bangs. As Noin and Zechs entered the spacious office, the boy turned around to glance at them. There were shadows under his blue eyes.
"Zechs, Noin," Une greeted. "This is another one of our field agents, Shin'ichi Kudou**. He just got back from Siberia from destroying the remnants of old battles." She gestured at the boy, who nodded respectfully. "He used to help in a detective firm before becoming a hacker for the colonies during the war. I thought he might prove helpful for that case."
Shin'ichi held out a hand, which Zechs and Noin both shook in turn. "You'll have to fill me in on most of the details; even though I was there, I wasn't fortunate to be privy to most of the discoveries. What I know is mostly hearsay and what I saw with my own eyes."
"He's an excellent field agent, although his skill behind a computer will be wasted," Une supplied with a smile. "He's a great eye for detail. If he can't find anything, I don't think anyone else can."
Zechs raised an eyebrow.
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The kaleidoscope of lights flashed across the stage in a dazzling show of colors, illuminating the band in a dizzying effect. Around the stage, the crowd convulsed in a frenzy of motion, dancing or simply jumping as they screamed with the music. A sea of hands reached out and tried to touch him, but he danced out of their grasp, laughing, always dancing back within their reach before retreating again. As long as he held the microphone, as long as he was singing to them, everything was alright.
Lost in the multitude, Duo screamed with the rest of the faceless shadows and tried to reach for the shining figure on the stage. Adrenaline pumped through his veins; drunken with exhilaration, he inhaled the energy the crowd emanated. Now, he was alive.
Passion is fragile
Just like life
If I embrace you harder
Your breath may suddenly stop
Overlooking the waterways is an old room
From its flapping doors
The cold wind shrieks like a whistle
It flows but never disappears
Just like scars from a wound
Even in my memories
I can't bury you away
nor the image of your
eyes
The pain remaining is exquisite
Your illusion shattered
After we sought each other too far
The fading consciousness
Contemplates the riddle of love
Slowly they traveled
To some perfect stranger's eyes
Even in my memories
I can't bury you away
nor the image of your eyes
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* for any rabid Weiss Kreuz fan, these lines came from the first ending song, "Beautiful Alone."
** The name was stolen from Detective Conan. Conan fans or those who've simply seen the Conan movie The Fourteenth Target may have some inkling at what I'm getting at.
*** These are butchered lyrics of another Weiss Kreuz song, "Perfect Stranger" sung by Koyasu Takehito and Miki Shin'ichiro.
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