HAAHAAHAAA!!!!! I love South Park!! "Hahaha! Butters doesn't know how to make semen come out of his body!" -laughs- Gods, I need to stop watching Comedy Central while I do computer things. HAHA!! SOUTH PARK!!!!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Days just keep getting longer and longer don't they? Where is one supposed to fit sleep in now?" Youji griped, stealing Aya's pillow to protect his own head from the sunlight attempting to sear his retinas. Aya punched him in the ribs.
"Mine," he proclaimed, stealing the pillow and rolling over, taking most of the blankets with him.
"Mm." Youji turned with him, snuggling up against his back, comfortable and sleepy. "I had this weird dream."
"Don't tell me about it."
"There were like these people, wearing war paint and feathers, and they were having this huge party inside a tent, with tribal things 'n' everything, beer and drugs and all that. And this bear comes waltzing in through the door, on his hind legs you know, and he's got like a bear mullet."
Aya sighed heavily, trying to tune out the pointless babbling for both of their sakes.
"And all the people at the party are all bowing down and chanting at this redneck bear, and the bear goes like 'What the fuck?' and they tell him he's their great bear god and they've been waiting for him all this time. And the bear puts his paws up and tell them 'Dude, I only showed up because I heard you guys had free beer.' Then the bear was Oprah, except she wasn't Oprah, she was someone else too, from a video game I think. MegaMan, you know."
"Youji."
"Hmm?"
"Shut up."
"Okay."
Aya's clandestine smile was hidden by the bunched up pillow beneath his cheek, the sun polished hair across his face further obscuring his features.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"You still have key thing for Cobarde's hiding files?" Fate looped a friendly arm around Youji's shoulders as soon as he gimped into the kitchen. "What is wrong with your leg, stupid boy?"
"Yes, and I fell over a chair in the dark. Why?"
"Hmm, we all go to Cobarde's house today. Why you not turn on lights in this house. Not work in bathroom at all, you need new light bulbs?"
"Faulty wiring." Ken, looking up from the newspaper, cup of coffee in hand. "We can't get it fixed no matter what we try." His face darkened as he caught sight of Youji.
"I go fix." Fate strode off to work her magic.
"What happened to you?" The dark haired assassin rose to his feet, face creased in concern, Omi following suit.
Youji shrugged. "I made the mistake of poking around where I shouldn't have. I got knocked down some stairs."
"You mean you fell." The sound of the fridge opening behind him as Aya got out the milk.
"Fell, yeah, whatever." A nonchalant toe scuffing immaculate linoleum.
Ken gave him a quick sideways grin to show he understood, that instantaneous camaraderie they'd always shared.
"Well, you heard the lady, get ready for an outing." Hesitant glances in Aya's direction, hoping he wouldn't decline. Youji wouldn't set foot in that building again without Aya. No one else could be counted upon to refuse to get the jitters in that anomalous atmosphere. He'd had enough of frightened paranoia for this week.
"Who put her in charge? This is our fight." Ken crossed his arms. "I'm not going if you're all going to defer to her like she isn't some nutcase who followed Youji home." He looked over to Youji for support. No one wants to take a stand by themselves.
Youji had to look away, guilt eating at his gut and starting up a bit of that nausea from last night. No breakfast for him then. Two days without food again. At least sleep wasn't on that list anymore. Omi looked almost discomfited for a moment, shamed by Ken's inherent hostility. The expression on that guileless face hurt more than Youji's betrayal. Aya didn't even acknowledge the issue at hand.
"All right." He left his cup in the sink.
"What's wrong with Ken?" Omi frowned. "Why's he so against Fate?"
Giving into the culpability, Youji trailed after Ken.
"Stop huffing ahead. My knee's sore and I don't want to try to keep up. Can you at least let me talk first?"
"I'm alone in this house." Ken stared out the window in his bedroom. "You and Aya both sided with Omi earlier, and now you're all siding against me again. She's not right, she's up to something; don't you see that?" Helpless fists clenched against his thighs.
"We're all alone in the end. Even if other people don't believe you or agree with you, you have to stand firm for what you want, what you believe in. Either way, things will play out as they're destined to."
"You really believe that?"
"No." Youji snorted. "That's just a line of crap I read in a novel once. It's a bit true though. You can really only trust yourself, no matter how much you love and believe in someone."
"I trust you, probably the one of us I trust the most, because while you can be a bit self-obsessed at times and a tad too glib for most serious situations, you listen to your hunches, you follow your emotions, and tell the truth." Ken turned around. "Why isn't your gut feelings one of dislike and suspicion? It leaks from her pores like bad perfume."
"Omi likes her well enough. She likes Omi. People who like Omi can't be all that bad. He's the only one of us who hasn't been called stupid more than once or twice." A smile tugged at the corner of Youji's mouth.
"That doesn't tell me what you feel about her though."
Youji scanned the hallway before shutting the door, sealing them into their new atmosphere of secrets untold. "Look, there is something strange going on right now if you hadn't noticed. People are coming back from the dead for one. Cobarde was just another link in the chain, a lesser version of One-Eye, now he's hanging from his ceiling with his chest torn open, part of some cult ritual Fate says. She knows what's going on here. She told me that we should stay out of things and let her take care of it all. She's just caught up in all of this like we are. If she has another agenda, so be it. We're all moving towards the same means of an end."
Sighing deeply, Ken relented. "I'll leave her alone. That doesn't mean I won't be watching. Trust only yourself, right? Well, she makes me chary, that's what my gut tells me to feel."
Relief from Youji. "Thank you. We need her right now. We're in shambles. She may not look it, but I'd be willing to stake my life on her skills if it came to fight. Hell, she's armed to the teeth as we speak. Someone comes bursting through our front door they'd have one of her bullets between their eyes before you could even draw another breath."
Ken shrugged. "Whatever. I don't trust her. That's all there is to it." Ken sat on the edge of the bed, toeing his sneakers on.
"Join the club." A facetious finger to his lips, Youji backed out of the room.
"I don't like this." Memories of Omi's bloody face lit by the stark glow of a streetlamp. Youji was right. If push came to shove she was still another warm body seemingly on their side.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I see why this make you all creeped out."
Youji glanced over his shoulder at Fate. "What makes you think this bothered me? I kill people for a living."
"You come see me after first visit here, no? You look plenty upset then."
Watching Aya's face, Youji tried to gage how things would progress. This was where Aya validated his belief. One of them had to be entirely unafraid. He hoped.
Fate bounced forward, an awkwardly young move for her middle-aged frame and face. Some people could pull of cute, some not. Fate had the height and build, but no the spirit. "I tell you not to deal with those atrocious men." She mocked the corpse, dancing around in that obscene, capering parody of youth.
"Definitely scary." Ken brushed against Youji's side, going to examine the fridge. "Very clever," he said in regards to the hidden-room-fridge-contraption. Youji was sure it had some technical name that the now deceased Cobarde had referred to it as, but the dead didn't talk. He hoped.
They all watched as Youji started things up, expressing mixed reactions as the dark stairway revealed itself. Omi grinned and skipped down, eager for a new computer system to examine. He returned in a matter of moments. "Ken, can you go back and get my bag of gear? I'll need something to tap into his system. You guys, can you all look around for another hidden room? There's something else missing, I think."
"What you thinking?"
"Just something I half-way remember. Look for an icon; something with an upside-down triangle I think." Omi frowns.
"A hollow upside-down triangle with a notch on one side." Youji swallowed, that sickness pooling in his stomach again. "I know what he's talking about. You shouldn't find it here. It has something to do with Ko-ishi, I saw enough of it earlier, when-" he stopped.
Ken stepped closer when Aya ignored the outburst. "'S okay, we know what you're talking about. Aya, you and Fate search for that icon. I'll go back to the house and get Omi's stuff. Youji, why don't you help Omi go through files down there?" No one protested as they went about their suggested tasks.
"Are you okay?" Ken found himself asking the question that once again should have come from Aya of all people.
"Yeah." Youji's eyes kept straying back to the dangling corpse.
"Do you want me to take that down first?"
"No, no! Don't touch it! Just leave it there."
Narrowed violet eyes watched the whole encounter, arms crossed below spanning a tense chest. Aya didn't like the atmosphere; it made him antsy. It was hard to concentrate with the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, telling him danger was near. He gave Youji one last lingering look, leaving him to his own devices.
"Want me to walk you down?" Ken shifted from foot to foot.
"Fuck no. I don't need to be catered to." With a flash of flying flaxen hair, Youji stomped past him, down the stairs. "Go ahead and run off. Errand Boy."
"Youji, help me look." Omi rubbed his forehead with a reddened hand as his comrade huffed down to his level. "I'm trying to move these damned filing cabinets. Give me a hand." He reeled back, balance offset by the sudden rush to his head.
"Whoa, sit down." He caught Omi by the shoulders, propped him up against the one slim sliver of wall showing. "Sit down. Are you alright?"
"My head, all the blood is throbbing behind my eyes, just a bit dizzy." He pushed the heels of his palms against the dark slashes of his eyelids.
"Well don't try to move heavy things by yourself, you'll pop a blood vessel or something." Youji rocked the heavy chest back and forth, inching it forward. By the time he's maneuvered it back a foot from the wall he was sorely out of breath. "This is NOT assassin work." Youji sat next to Omi, long legs splayed before him.
There was a crash up above in the kitchen; the noise filtered by the acoustic challenging damp walls of the stairwell, followed by a rattling that could only be chains.
"You guys okay up there?" Youji stood, brushing off his behind.
"No." The voice was moist, earthy, bubbling, born on a reeking breath of air.
"This is mine, and you are trespassing." That swinging hundred-watt bulb fully illuminating the ravaged, decaying body from the kitchen before one darkened, dead hand reached out to turn off the light switch.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How's THAT for a cliffhanger! In your face! -spins around- Booyah! I guess this means I've got enough spare time now. Please, keep the startled gasps to yourself. Hehe, okay. Thanks. Well, this means I need to get something else up in a semi-timely manner now, just because everyone loves talking corpses, and I love gory, violent shit. Who doesn't? Anyway, give me feedback, it makes me write faster! It really does! Or give me an e-mail if you would like at darkhunter@ijustdontcare.com or akainobaka@mchsi.com .
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Days just keep getting longer and longer don't they? Where is one supposed to fit sleep in now?" Youji griped, stealing Aya's pillow to protect his own head from the sunlight attempting to sear his retinas. Aya punched him in the ribs.
"Mine," he proclaimed, stealing the pillow and rolling over, taking most of the blankets with him.
"Mm." Youji turned with him, snuggling up against his back, comfortable and sleepy. "I had this weird dream."
"Don't tell me about it."
"There were like these people, wearing war paint and feathers, and they were having this huge party inside a tent, with tribal things 'n' everything, beer and drugs and all that. And this bear comes waltzing in through the door, on his hind legs you know, and he's got like a bear mullet."
Aya sighed heavily, trying to tune out the pointless babbling for both of their sakes.
"And all the people at the party are all bowing down and chanting at this redneck bear, and the bear goes like 'What the fuck?' and they tell him he's their great bear god and they've been waiting for him all this time. And the bear puts his paws up and tell them 'Dude, I only showed up because I heard you guys had free beer.' Then the bear was Oprah, except she wasn't Oprah, she was someone else too, from a video game I think. MegaMan, you know."
"Youji."
"Hmm?"
"Shut up."
"Okay."
Aya's clandestine smile was hidden by the bunched up pillow beneath his cheek, the sun polished hair across his face further obscuring his features.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"You still have key thing for Cobarde's hiding files?" Fate looped a friendly arm around Youji's shoulders as soon as he gimped into the kitchen. "What is wrong with your leg, stupid boy?"
"Yes, and I fell over a chair in the dark. Why?"
"Hmm, we all go to Cobarde's house today. Why you not turn on lights in this house. Not work in bathroom at all, you need new light bulbs?"
"Faulty wiring." Ken, looking up from the newspaper, cup of coffee in hand. "We can't get it fixed no matter what we try." His face darkened as he caught sight of Youji.
"I go fix." Fate strode off to work her magic.
"What happened to you?" The dark haired assassin rose to his feet, face creased in concern, Omi following suit.
Youji shrugged. "I made the mistake of poking around where I shouldn't have. I got knocked down some stairs."
"You mean you fell." The sound of the fridge opening behind him as Aya got out the milk.
"Fell, yeah, whatever." A nonchalant toe scuffing immaculate linoleum.
Ken gave him a quick sideways grin to show he understood, that instantaneous camaraderie they'd always shared.
"Well, you heard the lady, get ready for an outing." Hesitant glances in Aya's direction, hoping he wouldn't decline. Youji wouldn't set foot in that building again without Aya. No one else could be counted upon to refuse to get the jitters in that anomalous atmosphere. He'd had enough of frightened paranoia for this week.
"Who put her in charge? This is our fight." Ken crossed his arms. "I'm not going if you're all going to defer to her like she isn't some nutcase who followed Youji home." He looked over to Youji for support. No one wants to take a stand by themselves.
Youji had to look away, guilt eating at his gut and starting up a bit of that nausea from last night. No breakfast for him then. Two days without food again. At least sleep wasn't on that list anymore. Omi looked almost discomfited for a moment, shamed by Ken's inherent hostility. The expression on that guileless face hurt more than Youji's betrayal. Aya didn't even acknowledge the issue at hand.
"All right." He left his cup in the sink.
"What's wrong with Ken?" Omi frowned. "Why's he so against Fate?"
Giving into the culpability, Youji trailed after Ken.
"Stop huffing ahead. My knee's sore and I don't want to try to keep up. Can you at least let me talk first?"
"I'm alone in this house." Ken stared out the window in his bedroom. "You and Aya both sided with Omi earlier, and now you're all siding against me again. She's not right, she's up to something; don't you see that?" Helpless fists clenched against his thighs.
"We're all alone in the end. Even if other people don't believe you or agree with you, you have to stand firm for what you want, what you believe in. Either way, things will play out as they're destined to."
"You really believe that?"
"No." Youji snorted. "That's just a line of crap I read in a novel once. It's a bit true though. You can really only trust yourself, no matter how much you love and believe in someone."
"I trust you, probably the one of us I trust the most, because while you can be a bit self-obsessed at times and a tad too glib for most serious situations, you listen to your hunches, you follow your emotions, and tell the truth." Ken turned around. "Why isn't your gut feelings one of dislike and suspicion? It leaks from her pores like bad perfume."
"Omi likes her well enough. She likes Omi. People who like Omi can't be all that bad. He's the only one of us who hasn't been called stupid more than once or twice." A smile tugged at the corner of Youji's mouth.
"That doesn't tell me what you feel about her though."
Youji scanned the hallway before shutting the door, sealing them into their new atmosphere of secrets untold. "Look, there is something strange going on right now if you hadn't noticed. People are coming back from the dead for one. Cobarde was just another link in the chain, a lesser version of One-Eye, now he's hanging from his ceiling with his chest torn open, part of some cult ritual Fate says. She knows what's going on here. She told me that we should stay out of things and let her take care of it all. She's just caught up in all of this like we are. If she has another agenda, so be it. We're all moving towards the same means of an end."
Sighing deeply, Ken relented. "I'll leave her alone. That doesn't mean I won't be watching. Trust only yourself, right? Well, she makes me chary, that's what my gut tells me to feel."
Relief from Youji. "Thank you. We need her right now. We're in shambles. She may not look it, but I'd be willing to stake my life on her skills if it came to fight. Hell, she's armed to the teeth as we speak. Someone comes bursting through our front door they'd have one of her bullets between their eyes before you could even draw another breath."
Ken shrugged. "Whatever. I don't trust her. That's all there is to it." Ken sat on the edge of the bed, toeing his sneakers on.
"Join the club." A facetious finger to his lips, Youji backed out of the room.
"I don't like this." Memories of Omi's bloody face lit by the stark glow of a streetlamp. Youji was right. If push came to shove she was still another warm body seemingly on their side.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I see why this make you all creeped out."
Youji glanced over his shoulder at Fate. "What makes you think this bothered me? I kill people for a living."
"You come see me after first visit here, no? You look plenty upset then."
Watching Aya's face, Youji tried to gage how things would progress. This was where Aya validated his belief. One of them had to be entirely unafraid. He hoped.
Fate bounced forward, an awkwardly young move for her middle-aged frame and face. Some people could pull of cute, some not. Fate had the height and build, but no the spirit. "I tell you not to deal with those atrocious men." She mocked the corpse, dancing around in that obscene, capering parody of youth.
"Definitely scary." Ken brushed against Youji's side, going to examine the fridge. "Very clever," he said in regards to the hidden-room-fridge-contraption. Youji was sure it had some technical name that the now deceased Cobarde had referred to it as, but the dead didn't talk. He hoped.
They all watched as Youji started things up, expressing mixed reactions as the dark stairway revealed itself. Omi grinned and skipped down, eager for a new computer system to examine. He returned in a matter of moments. "Ken, can you go back and get my bag of gear? I'll need something to tap into his system. You guys, can you all look around for another hidden room? There's something else missing, I think."
"What you thinking?"
"Just something I half-way remember. Look for an icon; something with an upside-down triangle I think." Omi frowns.
"A hollow upside-down triangle with a notch on one side." Youji swallowed, that sickness pooling in his stomach again. "I know what he's talking about. You shouldn't find it here. It has something to do with Ko-ishi, I saw enough of it earlier, when-" he stopped.
Ken stepped closer when Aya ignored the outburst. "'S okay, we know what you're talking about. Aya, you and Fate search for that icon. I'll go back to the house and get Omi's stuff. Youji, why don't you help Omi go through files down there?" No one protested as they went about their suggested tasks.
"Are you okay?" Ken found himself asking the question that once again should have come from Aya of all people.
"Yeah." Youji's eyes kept straying back to the dangling corpse.
"Do you want me to take that down first?"
"No, no! Don't touch it! Just leave it there."
Narrowed violet eyes watched the whole encounter, arms crossed below spanning a tense chest. Aya didn't like the atmosphere; it made him antsy. It was hard to concentrate with the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, telling him danger was near. He gave Youji one last lingering look, leaving him to his own devices.
"Want me to walk you down?" Ken shifted from foot to foot.
"Fuck no. I don't need to be catered to." With a flash of flying flaxen hair, Youji stomped past him, down the stairs. "Go ahead and run off. Errand Boy."
"Youji, help me look." Omi rubbed his forehead with a reddened hand as his comrade huffed down to his level. "I'm trying to move these damned filing cabinets. Give me a hand." He reeled back, balance offset by the sudden rush to his head.
"Whoa, sit down." He caught Omi by the shoulders, propped him up against the one slim sliver of wall showing. "Sit down. Are you alright?"
"My head, all the blood is throbbing behind my eyes, just a bit dizzy." He pushed the heels of his palms against the dark slashes of his eyelids.
"Well don't try to move heavy things by yourself, you'll pop a blood vessel or something." Youji rocked the heavy chest back and forth, inching it forward. By the time he's maneuvered it back a foot from the wall he was sorely out of breath. "This is NOT assassin work." Youji sat next to Omi, long legs splayed before him.
There was a crash up above in the kitchen; the noise filtered by the acoustic challenging damp walls of the stairwell, followed by a rattling that could only be chains.
"You guys okay up there?" Youji stood, brushing off his behind.
"No." The voice was moist, earthy, bubbling, born on a reeking breath of air.
"This is mine, and you are trespassing." That swinging hundred-watt bulb fully illuminating the ravaged, decaying body from the kitchen before one darkened, dead hand reached out to turn off the light switch.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How's THAT for a cliffhanger! In your face! -spins around- Booyah! I guess this means I've got enough spare time now. Please, keep the startled gasps to yourself. Hehe, okay. Thanks. Well, this means I need to get something else up in a semi-timely manner now, just because everyone loves talking corpses, and I love gory, violent shit. Who doesn't? Anyway, give me feedback, it makes me write faster! It really does! Or give me an e-mail if you would like at darkhunter@ijustdontcare.com or akainobaka@mchsi.com .