Part Two: Winds of Revelation
Beeeeep Yohji, I was called for suicide watch in the long-term ward at the last minute, so I won't be home for supper tonight. There's some leftovers in the 'fridge that you can heat up for supper, and I bought you a new book today, it's on the counter next to the saito. Just pretend that I've already written 'To Yohji, the light of my life, love your wife, Asuka' And don't worry, I'll check in on the redhead before I leave.
I don't know when I'll be home, so don't wait up for me. Muah! Beeeeep
Yohji sighed as he carried Aya-chan's cattleyas to the kitchen and pulled down a vase from the cupboard. A headache pounded away at his temples, so he decided to live with the semi-darkness instead of turning on the harsh fluorescent light. He didn't have the irrational fear of hospitals that many people did, but still, spending nearly a full week there would wreak havoc with anyone's psyche. Doubly so since Fujimiya Aya had been moved to the same floor that Yohji himself had stayed in for the first month of his wakened life.
Aya-chan had been quite gracious and gave him the whole week off, including the weekend. Which was incredibly kind of her, even by Aya-chan standards of generosity. Not about to lose this opportunity, he'd had Asuka smuggle him in before official visiting hours had begun and well after visiting hours were over. Yohji barely left the room, acutely conscious of his promise to the redhead, and determined to keep it. After the first day of sitting around the room for eleven hours without anything to do, the blonde had started bringing books and music to occupy his time while Aya slept. That is, when Yohji wasn't talking to his sleeping companion.
Aya was not in a coma, but rather in a very deep sleep that the doctors had assured him was quite safe. Indeed, it was the best thing for Aya, as it allowed his body to heal without any "interference" from what the doctor claimed the patient might think was more necessary. Like trying to get out of the hospital.
...Apparently Aya-kun was a regular at the Magicbus, and had a notoriously low opinion of hospitals. Yohji had tried to ask for details, but the nurses and orderlies generally shut him down after a few questions. The Magicbus had a reputation in the Tokyo Medical circles that it was proud of. It was the one publicly funded institution you could go to if you wanted no questions.
But after a week of sitting around the sleeping man's starkly uniform hospital room that was so like the one that he had stayed in a year before, Asuka had forced him to take a break. By sending him to work. Kudoh Asuka could be pretty sneaky sometimes, and she'd called Aya-chan, asking the younger woman to call Yohji into work for one reason or another.
Aya-chan had risen to the occasion beautifully, calling Yohji's cell phone a scant fifteen minutes after speaking with Asuka. The blond florist panicked when he heard is young boss wailing into his ear, screaming about her parent's anniversary and how she had missed it, and if he could for the love of the Gods in the sky and underground please come to the shop so she could honour them properly...
Twenty minutes after Asuka's and Aya-chan's conversation, Yohji found himself behind the counter at the Koneko, petting one of the shops three tomcats and glaring at Aya-chan as she watered the roses contentedly. The shop was devoid of customers and the only sounds in the whole shop came from Aya-chan's hose and the Abyssinian purring beneath Yohji's deft fingers. The silence was a puzzled one as Yohji tried to figure out the cause of Aya-chan's newfound schizophrenia. Aya-chan, for her part was laughing silently at her friend. She could barely withhold a snicker as Yohji's frown steadily deepened, turning his face into a mask of concentration. Her amethyst eyes danced as she openly watched him now, the roses forgotten.
Her amethyst eyes...that were identical to Fujimiya Aya's eyes...Aya's eyes were the same as Aya-chan's eyes...Yohji didn't know Aya-chan's last name...but he knew the other purple-eyed Aya's last name...
A sly smile creeped onto his face, and Aya-chan narrowed her eyes. Her very purple eyes. Yohji never smiled like that unless he was planning something devious. Like hitting on Manx in his past life, or starting a water-fight with her, in this one. Cautiously she took a step backwards and clutched the trigger on the hose nozzle possessively.
"Aaaaaaaayaaaaaa-chaaaaaaaan." He drawled, leaning an elbow against the counter. Abyssinian objected to this invasion of space and yowled at Yohji to move over. The man simply pushed the cat off the counter. Offended by this, he stalked through the back door into the nursery, leaving Aya-chan completely at Yohji's mercy.
"Yes, Kudoh-kun?"
"Let's play a game."
The raven-tressed woman took a step back as Yohji came around the counter. "A game, Yotan?"
"Yeah. Let's play a game of 'guess the past'. I'll go first."
Aya-chan frowned. Kritiker had given her strict orders: Kudoh was to work for her at any cost, and she was not to reveal any of Weiß's secrets. Including Ran's, and by extension, her own last name.
Kritiker agents had informed her of her brother's condition, but because Yohji had made such a stink about staying with Ran and broadcasting to the world that his name was Fujimiya Aya, it was too dangerous for Aya-chan to go visit him. Kritiker couldn't risk one of their 'minor agents' to be seen visiting an active agent when a former one had taken so much interest in him. It was just all too suspect, and Magicbus was still a public facility. Anyone could walk in, get lost in Ran's general area, and walk out again. They'd only need to find him once in order to kill him...so there was no way of detecting malevolent forces. Aya-chan had had to content herself with phone-calls to the Magicbus front office, and sending red roses through Yohji to Ran's bedside.
But the very fact that Yohji had somehow recognized Ran, and was now spending all of his time focused on the unconscious redhead indicated that more than the subconscious parts of his memory were returning. Instead of just reacting to situations like the broken vases, or experiencing emotions that stemmed from his past life, it seemed that Yohji was beginning to remember solid facts about his life as Weiß. This could be problematic, if his memories overwhelmed this new Yohji, creating a carbon copy of the Yohji who had been reduced to self-destruction in order to escape Weiß and Kritiker. Just thinking about that circle of inquisitiveness and despair was enough to give Aya-chan a headache, and that was one she didn't want. Instead, she focused on the task at hand; how to distract Yohji until she could report to Omi, and ask his advice.
"Kudoh-san." She said severely, deliberately using a formal title and turning her voice ice-cold. "I thought I made myself quite clear on the subject of my past. I do not suffer busybodies kindly. One of my few rules is that you do not go prying into my history. I did not realize that it was such a difficult rule to follow."
"I was agreeable to that. Until I made a connection, Fujimiya-san." His own voice dripped icy politeness, but the use of her surname proved that he knew more than he was supposed to. "You see, Fujimiya-san, I recognized your brother when he was dying on the street. And I called him Aya. You and he share the most peculiar eye-color, did you know that? But I didn't remember, because I only saw his eyes for a few seconds, and I haven't seen you in a week. And then there's the fact that I call you 'Aya-chan' as opposed to 'Aya-san' or even 'Fujimiya-sempai'. But then, I couldn't have called you 'Fujimiya-sempai' because you never gave me your surname. And I've always wondered why. But now I know. Because you were protecting Ran- san."
He stopped suddenly, seemingly disconcerted. Sitting down at the table, he rested his head between his knees, shaking ever so slightly. Aya-chan knew why. "You didn't know that his true name is Ran. You only just remembered, didn't you?"
He nodded, and she sighed. She contemplated briefly asking him exactly what he remembered, but discarded the idea after little thought. It was her job to keep Yohji employed and relatively safe. She could no longer do that properly, so it was time to call Omi. Or rather, it was time to call Rex, and schedule an interview between the new Takatori and the old Kudoh. This situation was no longer her mess alone.
He'd misinterpreted her silence as anger.
"Look, Aya-chan, I didn't mean to piss you off, but if you know anything about me, I really really need to know. You don't know how frustrating it is...to be missing great chunks of time like this. If there's any way to fill in the blanks, then I need to do it. Please."
Aya-chan shut her eyes as her sense of duty wrestled with the desire to ease Yohji's pain. Desire won out. The young woman walked to the Koneko doors and flipped the sign to 'closed'. Then she took Yohji's hand and led him up the stiars to the apartment that Weiß had cleaned out for her. Once Yohji was seated in her social area and the kettle was on for green tea, Aya-chan sat down across from the leggy blond and spoke finally.
"I do know what it's like to be missing time, Yohji-kun. I was comatose for two years, between sixteen and eighteen. According to Ran and my doctors, for those two years I didn't age. I didn't age a single day. My hair didn't grow, my muscles didn't atrophy, nothing. I was literally frozen in time, stuck as a sixteen year old. The doctors couldn't explain it, they could only keep me on life-support, and hope that eventually, I'd wake up. I didn't lose my entire life, but I lost two years, and that was bad enough.
"That being said, I can't tell you what I know about your previous life, because of a promise that I made to one of our very close friends while you were in your own coma. I will call him, and he will come over later on today, and the three of us will sort out this mess. In the meantime, we will keep the shop closed, and you will tell me everything that you remember. Dreams, reactions, feeling, faint memories, all of it. But first, drink your tea, and I will call Omi-san."
Yohji only gaped at her dumbfounded. "You knew? You knew me before I came looking for a job? Why didn't you tell me? Why did you keep this a secret?"
Aya-chan sat down next to him and enfolded him in a hug. Tears piqued the corners of her eyes as he laid her head on his shoulder.
"Yotan, I am so sorry for everything that has happened these past two years. I am sorry that you got hurt, I'm sorry that the others got hurt. I'm so sorry for everything that has happened to you. But remember this; you wanted this. You wanted oblivion from your past life. You wanted to forget everything. So, when you awoke without a memory, we took it as a sign that your wish had been granted. I couldn't tell you, because this is what you wanted. I'm sorry."
"I...I wanted this?" he couldn't fathom a life that could drive a person to want to eliminate everything. But apparently, such a life had been his.
"Yes. You did." She said as she stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "And that's all I can say for now. I have probably already said too much, so we should wait for Omi-san to arrive."
"Omi...that name is familiar. Did I know Omi?" Aya-chan only nodded and disappeared into her bedroom, presumably to call this Omi character.
Rex be damned, she thought. I don't care if he's Kritiker's leader and head of the Taketori empire. He's going to take time out of his oh-so-busy schedule today, and look after Yotan. And that's all there is to it. Ran always told me...Weiß watches out for their own.
One wouldn't think that she'd have that much power, but because of Ran's devotion to her, Omi, Ken and Yohji had always had a soft spot in their hearts for the sleeping girl that Aya had adored so much. That soft spot had continued after she'd awakened and stayed with Weiß for a few short days before they'd left for their other appointments, and she'd taken over the Koneko. Each had kept in touch in their own ways. Aya had called her nearly every day for the first month, then kept up regular phone calls every two weeks or so. Ken had sent her postcards from each of the countries he'd visited while working for Kritiker. She and Omi –the closest in age- had corresponded regularily through email. And Yohji had collected little mementos from every little village, town and city he'd pass through. To each she'd felt a connection, and that connection had turned to limited trust and freedom between each of the WeIß and her. Damned if she wasn't going to exploit that connection to get what she wanted...
"Konnichiwa, Mamoru-sama... Hai, it's Aya-chan. You need to come to the Koneko very soon, and you must come as Omi, not Mamoru... I believe that Kudoh-san's memory has begun to return, and he is a very unhappy and confused man right now... Hai... Ano, I won't hold him here for days, Omittchi! Come tonight. Or better, come now. Whine whine, Persia. Make the time for Balinese. Once, Bombay would have jumped through hoops of fire if even one of Weiß had asked him to. I think it's time that Bombay came back, don't you? ... Arigatou, Omittchi. Bai bai."
Beeeeep Yohji, I was called for suicide watch in the long-term ward at the last minute, so I won't be home for supper tonight. There's some leftovers in the 'fridge that you can heat up for supper, and I bought you a new book today, it's on the counter next to the saito. Just pretend that I've already written 'To Yohji, the light of my life, love your wife, Asuka' And don't worry, I'll check in on the redhead before I leave.
I don't know when I'll be home, so don't wait up for me. Muah! Beeeeep
Yohji sighed as he carried Aya-chan's cattleyas to the kitchen and pulled down a vase from the cupboard. A headache pounded away at his temples, so he decided to live with the semi-darkness instead of turning on the harsh fluorescent light. He didn't have the irrational fear of hospitals that many people did, but still, spending nearly a full week there would wreak havoc with anyone's psyche. Doubly so since Fujimiya Aya had been moved to the same floor that Yohji himself had stayed in for the first month of his wakened life.
Aya-chan had been quite gracious and gave him the whole week off, including the weekend. Which was incredibly kind of her, even by Aya-chan standards of generosity. Not about to lose this opportunity, he'd had Asuka smuggle him in before official visiting hours had begun and well after visiting hours were over. Yohji barely left the room, acutely conscious of his promise to the redhead, and determined to keep it. After the first day of sitting around the room for eleven hours without anything to do, the blonde had started bringing books and music to occupy his time while Aya slept. That is, when Yohji wasn't talking to his sleeping companion.
Aya was not in a coma, but rather in a very deep sleep that the doctors had assured him was quite safe. Indeed, it was the best thing for Aya, as it allowed his body to heal without any "interference" from what the doctor claimed the patient might think was more necessary. Like trying to get out of the hospital.
...Apparently Aya-kun was a regular at the Magicbus, and had a notoriously low opinion of hospitals. Yohji had tried to ask for details, but the nurses and orderlies generally shut him down after a few questions. The Magicbus had a reputation in the Tokyo Medical circles that it was proud of. It was the one publicly funded institution you could go to if you wanted no questions.
But after a week of sitting around the sleeping man's starkly uniform hospital room that was so like the one that he had stayed in a year before, Asuka had forced him to take a break. By sending him to work. Kudoh Asuka could be pretty sneaky sometimes, and she'd called Aya-chan, asking the younger woman to call Yohji into work for one reason or another.
Aya-chan had risen to the occasion beautifully, calling Yohji's cell phone a scant fifteen minutes after speaking with Asuka. The blond florist panicked when he heard is young boss wailing into his ear, screaming about her parent's anniversary and how she had missed it, and if he could for the love of the Gods in the sky and underground please come to the shop so she could honour them properly...
Twenty minutes after Asuka's and Aya-chan's conversation, Yohji found himself behind the counter at the Koneko, petting one of the shops three tomcats and glaring at Aya-chan as she watered the roses contentedly. The shop was devoid of customers and the only sounds in the whole shop came from Aya-chan's hose and the Abyssinian purring beneath Yohji's deft fingers. The silence was a puzzled one as Yohji tried to figure out the cause of Aya-chan's newfound schizophrenia. Aya-chan, for her part was laughing silently at her friend. She could barely withhold a snicker as Yohji's frown steadily deepened, turning his face into a mask of concentration. Her amethyst eyes danced as she openly watched him now, the roses forgotten.
Her amethyst eyes...that were identical to Fujimiya Aya's eyes...Aya's eyes were the same as Aya-chan's eyes...Yohji didn't know Aya-chan's last name...but he knew the other purple-eyed Aya's last name...
A sly smile creeped onto his face, and Aya-chan narrowed her eyes. Her very purple eyes. Yohji never smiled like that unless he was planning something devious. Like hitting on Manx in his past life, or starting a water-fight with her, in this one. Cautiously she took a step backwards and clutched the trigger on the hose nozzle possessively.
"Aaaaaaaayaaaaaa-chaaaaaaaan." He drawled, leaning an elbow against the counter. Abyssinian objected to this invasion of space and yowled at Yohji to move over. The man simply pushed the cat off the counter. Offended by this, he stalked through the back door into the nursery, leaving Aya-chan completely at Yohji's mercy.
"Yes, Kudoh-kun?"
"Let's play a game."
The raven-tressed woman took a step back as Yohji came around the counter. "A game, Yotan?"
"Yeah. Let's play a game of 'guess the past'. I'll go first."
Aya-chan frowned. Kritiker had given her strict orders: Kudoh was to work for her at any cost, and she was not to reveal any of Weiß's secrets. Including Ran's, and by extension, her own last name.
Kritiker agents had informed her of her brother's condition, but because Yohji had made such a stink about staying with Ran and broadcasting to the world that his name was Fujimiya Aya, it was too dangerous for Aya-chan to go visit him. Kritiker couldn't risk one of their 'minor agents' to be seen visiting an active agent when a former one had taken so much interest in him. It was just all too suspect, and Magicbus was still a public facility. Anyone could walk in, get lost in Ran's general area, and walk out again. They'd only need to find him once in order to kill him...so there was no way of detecting malevolent forces. Aya-chan had had to content herself with phone-calls to the Magicbus front office, and sending red roses through Yohji to Ran's bedside.
But the very fact that Yohji had somehow recognized Ran, and was now spending all of his time focused on the unconscious redhead indicated that more than the subconscious parts of his memory were returning. Instead of just reacting to situations like the broken vases, or experiencing emotions that stemmed from his past life, it seemed that Yohji was beginning to remember solid facts about his life as Weiß. This could be problematic, if his memories overwhelmed this new Yohji, creating a carbon copy of the Yohji who had been reduced to self-destruction in order to escape Weiß and Kritiker. Just thinking about that circle of inquisitiveness and despair was enough to give Aya-chan a headache, and that was one she didn't want. Instead, she focused on the task at hand; how to distract Yohji until she could report to Omi, and ask his advice.
"Kudoh-san." She said severely, deliberately using a formal title and turning her voice ice-cold. "I thought I made myself quite clear on the subject of my past. I do not suffer busybodies kindly. One of my few rules is that you do not go prying into my history. I did not realize that it was such a difficult rule to follow."
"I was agreeable to that. Until I made a connection, Fujimiya-san." His own voice dripped icy politeness, but the use of her surname proved that he knew more than he was supposed to. "You see, Fujimiya-san, I recognized your brother when he was dying on the street. And I called him Aya. You and he share the most peculiar eye-color, did you know that? But I didn't remember, because I only saw his eyes for a few seconds, and I haven't seen you in a week. And then there's the fact that I call you 'Aya-chan' as opposed to 'Aya-san' or even 'Fujimiya-sempai'. But then, I couldn't have called you 'Fujimiya-sempai' because you never gave me your surname. And I've always wondered why. But now I know. Because you were protecting Ran- san."
He stopped suddenly, seemingly disconcerted. Sitting down at the table, he rested his head between his knees, shaking ever so slightly. Aya-chan knew why. "You didn't know that his true name is Ran. You only just remembered, didn't you?"
He nodded, and she sighed. She contemplated briefly asking him exactly what he remembered, but discarded the idea after little thought. It was her job to keep Yohji employed and relatively safe. She could no longer do that properly, so it was time to call Omi. Or rather, it was time to call Rex, and schedule an interview between the new Takatori and the old Kudoh. This situation was no longer her mess alone.
He'd misinterpreted her silence as anger.
"Look, Aya-chan, I didn't mean to piss you off, but if you know anything about me, I really really need to know. You don't know how frustrating it is...to be missing great chunks of time like this. If there's any way to fill in the blanks, then I need to do it. Please."
Aya-chan shut her eyes as her sense of duty wrestled with the desire to ease Yohji's pain. Desire won out. The young woman walked to the Koneko doors and flipped the sign to 'closed'. Then she took Yohji's hand and led him up the stiars to the apartment that Weiß had cleaned out for her. Once Yohji was seated in her social area and the kettle was on for green tea, Aya-chan sat down across from the leggy blond and spoke finally.
"I do know what it's like to be missing time, Yohji-kun. I was comatose for two years, between sixteen and eighteen. According to Ran and my doctors, for those two years I didn't age. I didn't age a single day. My hair didn't grow, my muscles didn't atrophy, nothing. I was literally frozen in time, stuck as a sixteen year old. The doctors couldn't explain it, they could only keep me on life-support, and hope that eventually, I'd wake up. I didn't lose my entire life, but I lost two years, and that was bad enough.
"That being said, I can't tell you what I know about your previous life, because of a promise that I made to one of our very close friends while you were in your own coma. I will call him, and he will come over later on today, and the three of us will sort out this mess. In the meantime, we will keep the shop closed, and you will tell me everything that you remember. Dreams, reactions, feeling, faint memories, all of it. But first, drink your tea, and I will call Omi-san."
Yohji only gaped at her dumbfounded. "You knew? You knew me before I came looking for a job? Why didn't you tell me? Why did you keep this a secret?"
Aya-chan sat down next to him and enfolded him in a hug. Tears piqued the corners of her eyes as he laid her head on his shoulder.
"Yotan, I am so sorry for everything that has happened these past two years. I am sorry that you got hurt, I'm sorry that the others got hurt. I'm so sorry for everything that has happened to you. But remember this; you wanted this. You wanted oblivion from your past life. You wanted to forget everything. So, when you awoke without a memory, we took it as a sign that your wish had been granted. I couldn't tell you, because this is what you wanted. I'm sorry."
"I...I wanted this?" he couldn't fathom a life that could drive a person to want to eliminate everything. But apparently, such a life had been his.
"Yes. You did." She said as she stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "And that's all I can say for now. I have probably already said too much, so we should wait for Omi-san to arrive."
"Omi...that name is familiar. Did I know Omi?" Aya-chan only nodded and disappeared into her bedroom, presumably to call this Omi character.
Rex be damned, she thought. I don't care if he's Kritiker's leader and head of the Taketori empire. He's going to take time out of his oh-so-busy schedule today, and look after Yotan. And that's all there is to it. Ran always told me...Weiß watches out for their own.
One wouldn't think that she'd have that much power, but because of Ran's devotion to her, Omi, Ken and Yohji had always had a soft spot in their hearts for the sleeping girl that Aya had adored so much. That soft spot had continued after she'd awakened and stayed with Weiß for a few short days before they'd left for their other appointments, and she'd taken over the Koneko. Each had kept in touch in their own ways. Aya had called her nearly every day for the first month, then kept up regular phone calls every two weeks or so. Ken had sent her postcards from each of the countries he'd visited while working for Kritiker. She and Omi –the closest in age- had corresponded regularily through email. And Yohji had collected little mementos from every little village, town and city he'd pass through. To each she'd felt a connection, and that connection had turned to limited trust and freedom between each of the WeIß and her. Damned if she wasn't going to exploit that connection to get what she wanted...
"Konnichiwa, Mamoru-sama... Hai, it's Aya-chan. You need to come to the Koneko very soon, and you must come as Omi, not Mamoru... I believe that Kudoh-san's memory has begun to return, and he is a very unhappy and confused man right now... Hai... Ano, I won't hold him here for days, Omittchi! Come tonight. Or better, come now. Whine whine, Persia. Make the time for Balinese. Once, Bombay would have jumped through hoops of fire if even one of Weiß had asked him to. I think it's time that Bombay came back, don't you? ... Arigatou, Omittchi. Bai bai."
