Kinou, Kyou, ano mada iie Ashita 5 by Vanessa S. Quest

~*‡.Weiss Kreuz Gluhen.‡*~

Sena watched Kyou sharpen his long-handle battle-axe.

"Kyou...?"

"Hai Sena-chan?"

Sena looked down with a slight blush, "Nothing."

Kyou glanced up Sena once, "What's on your mind?"

The brunette boy squirmed, "Isn't it weird how they all talk about Omi and we don't even know him, that we don't know anything about him? It's like this place is a frozen memory and we've broken some vow by walking into it..."

"You're being silly. We're welcome- wanted- here. People talk about the ones they love, I think it's kind that they still concern themselves with a fallen comrade, in fact it makes me feel like if something happened that my life would still be remembered- all parts of it, the good, the happy, the sad and the bad."

Sena's brown eyes glazed over with moisture, "Don't talk like that. You act like you're going to die, don't say things like that!"

"Gomen, I didn't mean to make you worry." He hugged Sena, "I'm not going away, not tonight at least. It's just... I guess this cross carries more than Persia thought."

"What do you mean?"

"He, and Aya, they both think it carries few benefits and many burdens, I think they forget one very important thing it also brings- it carries hope. Forgiveness, betrayal, hurt, but with everything it carries- it carries memories and as sad as memories can be, they are what makes us who we are."

"Memories?"

"Hai, our past shapes us, and from our past we spring into our future, we never live in either world though- always between yesterday and tomorrow."

"And in Weiss our destiny is to live on the coattails of those times, to learn from our pain to ease that hurt in others."

"I'd like to think that, Sena. I really would and that's why I joined." Kyou squeezed Sena's shoulder, "So, are you ready to get going?"

Sena slid his vest on, "Hai. Kyou-kun, arigatou!"

"No problem, Sena."

~*‡.Weiss Kreuz Gluhen.‡*~

Ken watched Yoji with a calculating look, "Is this right to you? It's our first mission without him..."

"We'll just have to be more careful."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN KUDOU! I don't doubt Persia... how could I? I trusted him with my life countless times... it's just... now we have to watch out for these two kids, these amateurs."

"As I said Ken, we'll just have to be more careful. We have to train them. Persia thinks they have potential otherwise he wouldn't have given them to us of all people. You know we have the most dangerous missions, you know that better than anyone else."

Ken bowed his head once, "Hai, do you remember the time with Schreient... in that abandoned military deposit?"

Yoji nodded, "Could I forget something like that?"

"That was the first time I realized Omi was still a kid- that he could bleed and that he could die. I didn't like that feeling at all."

"I know Ken, but listen... Tsukiyono Omi, that incarnation of him may be dead and buried... but ...but he lives on, in a different form but he's still the same, just farther away, in a better place. Gods, I hope it's better at least he never deserved this. Aya and I, we deserved this shit, even you didn't deserve this hell... but at least the three of us sought this out, Omi... he never had that choice to make, sometimes I think we all gave our heart to a puppet. Maybe even a doll, damn he was just too perfect for this world."

Ken nodded, pulling on his bugnuks, "I like that, he was like a doll... a youthful face, that same happy expression- but those sad, dead eyes always gave him away."

"Yeah."

Aya listened from the doorway, "Don't talk about him like that. He was no puppet and no doll. His eyes were not dead. Maybe neither of you looked deep enough into them, but there was life there, all his joys, sorrows, pleasures and pains they were all there if you stared deep enough- you just had to stare far enough past the blood spilt on his hands and in his arms." Aya looked upward, "I think he is the most alive person in this world, no- maybe not even a person maybe an angel."

Aya raked his fingers through his eyes, "I'll get the others, its almost time to go."

Ken and Yoji looked down in shame for a moment.

Ken broke the silence first by punching his hand with a smile, "How many do you think the amateurs will kill? I bet you one beer a body each."

"You're on!" Yoji said with a snigger, "I bet the big one will get one and a half- he and Sena will double team Sena's first."

They shook hands and accepted the terms of the bet.

~*‡.Weiss Kreuz Gluhen.‡*~

Aya wandered past Omi's door as per ritual this time noticing the door slightly ajar. Quietly Aya walked inside the door, he wondered who would go into Omi's private room and wondered if it was to meditate, snoop, or just to feel safe and comfortable.

Aware that his presence if detected prematurely could ruin either of those states, he used as much stealth as he possessed. He expected it to be Ken to say the least, Yoji and himself had been in fact the ones to insist the door remained closed, Persia had said that it was a well needed resting place and understood it needed to remain as intact as possible- a shrine to Tsukiyono Omi if just a relic. Ken had for the first week gone in it regularly at 8 AM to wake Omi up when he hadn't come into work yet, each time he opened the door to see the bed packed away a deeper cut was made into his heart strings. Aya had no doubt loved Omi as a partner, but Ken had also loved Omi- as a brother.

When he peered in and saw not Ken but Kyou surprised would be to say the least. Aya almost jumped out of his skin, although that was much too uncouth for him to actually do that. Instead, Aya cleared his throat.

"What are you doing in here?"

Kyou's hand pulled back sharply from the photograph of the four happy florists standing proudly on Omi's windowsill.

"I... I was just wondering... who this Omi was."

Aya lowered his head, he stood beside Kyou and put an affirmative hand onto his shoulder, his other hand instinctively turned over the photograph. "Omi was and is one of the most amazing people in this world. Though Persia has asked you to fill the position Omi left void he did not ask you to fill his shoes. He knows better," Aya took in the smell of Omi before shrugging towards the door. "We keep this door closed for a reason, this room is the only thing we have left of Omi- it's sort of a museum to him."

"And the letter?"

Aya closed his eyes, "I haven't opened it; I like to think I know what it says."

"You did love him... was it allowed? Was that what went wrong?"

Aya shook his head, "We didn't care if it was allowed, we were always careful ALWAYS careful." Aya sighed, "And nothing *went* wrong... what happened couldn't have been avoided by us had we tried to do things in a million different ways."

"Then how did he die?"

Aya froze, "I... can not answer that."

Kyou walked out of Aya's grasp and to the door, "I see. Is it too hurtful or is it just something you aren't permitted to speak on?"

"..." Aya's mouth hung slightly open, it was all of those things and many more, down to the last pulls of Aya's icy insides that Omi had done so well to melt.

"I see. It is amazing how much he and Persia look alike, isn't it." Kyou said in a knowing voice, "You're right... it probably couldn't be avoided and we all become martyrs for what we truly love, and sometimes we also make sacrifices. Shall we hunt some wolves to spare the flock now?"

Aya collected himself, snapping his mouth closed, "Hn. Get Sena the others are waiting."

~*‡.Weiss Kreuz Gluhen.‡*~

They had arrived with little incident to the Daranghend Warehaus as Aya had expected. In his seven years working with Omi, Omi had taught him tricks for things to look for, Aya had too of course taught Omi some of his craft, like hand-to-hand combat or at least enough moves to keep Omi's body out of harm's way from even the most skilled attacker for at least three or four blows. Aya had been thankful that Omi had rarely needed to call upon the use of those skills but the few times he had it had saved his life. Omi had staved off enough blows for Ken or Yoji or Aya to come to his aid a handful of times, once including a battle royale of sorts with Takatori Reiji's private army.

No he was not some unstoppable force to be reckoned with but he had been able to keep back his predators after his bullet wound.

In turn, Omi had shown Aya backdoors into major computer programs, how to erase the data trail, how to log in as an admin on a server to remove his ICP address and make him that much harder to trace, and even how to trace ICP addresses. These were the sorts of skills people did not tend to teach in computer classes and Aya was happy his 'instructor' had decided to add them into the curriculum on this mission. But that was just how Omi was- he always was looking ahead and figuring out the best ways to do things.

Once on the property they were able to hide their two vehicles with relative ease. Security was mild to moderate but Yoji made quick work of the guards with a few sets of wire, a few of the unluckier of guards met with Ken and the end of his claws.

Ken's leather jacket was soaked with enough blood to signal he would soon need to get a new uniform, but apparently Omi had thought ahead and ordered Ken a jacket before he went away, that or maybe Persia had figured it out with Ken's new-found blood lust that Aya had reported on. That or perhaps Persia had decided to give Weiss a new set of uniforms to symbolize a new Weiss, whatever it was it really didn't matter because it was all the same- this jacket was retiring before Ken was, though he couldn't say he was unhappy about that.

The jacket was decorated in bullet holes bloodstains and the weight of what he had done to earn each badge including murder his best friend Kase. The added bonus of outliving the jacket meant he had lived all the bit longer, so really he couldn't be upset by the idea of the new outfit someone saw fit in him possessing.

He cut through another man, the soft skin of his belly parting like butter with a warm knife, really that had come from Ken's amazing arm strength and grace- and the mounts of adrenalin racing through his veins. As Yoji witnessed Ken drop down another three guards he wondered if the 1600¥ an hour they made were worth dying in the arms of a man with insane eyes. That just meant Yoji had to work that much harder and that much faster.

Sena worked in clearing a path from behind Ken and Yoji, using what Ken thought of as a glorified Frisbee the sixteen-year-old brat cut a row down for just long enough to move through and kill more guards. Ken didn't feel like complaining it kept his hands busy.

Aya and Kyou had moved through the other end of the building, in effects trapping their targets to the confines of the building. Aya and Kyou notably had fewer guards. Once inside the factory turned lab Aya quickly sent Kyou to work ordering him to smash all controls while setting explosives himself.

Aya looked at the sky from the windows, the moon had moved enough to signal about an hour's worth of killing. Where the hell were Kudou, Hidaka, and Izumi? He'd have to lecture Sena on punctuality later.

Perhaps cued by the sound of years of work being destroyed Uragi Make came from his office, four assistants behind him, they were amazingly similar to Schwartz for four women.

The first woman wore a pale blue ribbon in his ebony hair, her eyes a black so hot it looked as though they were really twin sized coals replacing her entire eyes- no white could be seen around them, her fair complexion countered the image of her dark hair and eyes and made her seem almost like a machine. Aya presumed a killing machine as he gauged her. She didn't seem to have any weapons on her, her blue spandex bicycle shorts hidden partially by cut up light blue pants, an over-sized black t-shirt with a denim jacket a size too small over that, to her right was a woman perhaps two years younger, she had a long braid that was a striking red color, her eyes covered by sunglasses, she held a lighter that she kept flicking open and closed, she had a designer dress shirt, white button down with sleeves too long for her arms as the cuffs covered her fingertips, underneath it a black tang top could be distinguished, her long legs reached up to her high thigh where a pleated skirt blended with the un-tucked shirt to form a trim waist and hour-glass shape, she had half-laced combat boots and blue fishnets as well as a leather spike collar and wristbands. The her right was a woman older than all of them, she had short white-blond hair and eyes that pulled to you more so than the woman with ebony eyes, the clarity of her ice-blue eyes was like looking through the arctic, barren and cold. She wore an all black leather uniform that made her seem to be a dominatrix and the obvious pick for leader to Aya's mind. Unlike the other two, she held a whip though it looked as though it was much more for show. Across her arms were scars that would make Farfarello aroused by sheer quantity. Lastly there was a girl with hair well past her hips, a soft char-brown, she had a sense of timeless beauty like a geisha and a quietness as she hid slightly behind the domme to her left. She wore a traditional styled kimono colored by a white background and red rising suns and cranes the sleeves trailing leaving wooden sandals with white split-toe socks to slip out of the bottom.

Aya looked at the man hiding behind four women, "Uragi you coward."

"Why hello, Weiss. Let me introduce you..."

'How did he know who we are...?'

"Blau Kreuz," Make cocked his head cuing them to introduce themselves.

The domme started, "Itami..." She held out her whip, as it slid into her hands an eerie icy glow emitted from her back.

"Kyoufu," the brown-haired girl added, holding her hands up a small opening appeared in the center of each, a bubble of a mixture of air and energy came to her command in each palm.

"Zetsubou," The black haired vixen said with stoically, parallel to Aya's most nonchalant moments.

"Niru." The redhead said and then smiled darkly, she flicked the lighter somehow summoning a dragon made of heat.

"Blau Kreuz!" They struck a pose.

"Oi..." Ken started, "They always have to bite off our name."

"Girls, leave me... Your job is not to guard me, now be dutiful my children."

They each bowed, "Hai."

"Well that was stupid." Kyou mentioned from the backdoor Aya had once entered through. "You just turned a fight of 5 to 6 to 1 to 6 our favor. Baka, you won't live to repeat the mistake."

The man smirked, "Oh really..." Charging a beam of light in his hand he buckled his arm through the motion of the crane discharging the energy towards the door behind Kyou welding it closed in impact.

Ken swallowed back, "Aw shit." He laughed in an oddly giddy fashion, "A challenge. Aha ha."

TBC.