Title: Angel's Fall
Part: 2/?
Author: focsfyr
Pairing: TasukiChichiri
Warnings: yaoi, AU (reincarnation), angst
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the movie "Fallen." No copyright infringements are intended.
Archive: my site, fanfiction.net (pen-name D. focsfyr) and the ML archive. Anyone else, just ask
C&C: loved
::thoughts::
emphasis and the occasional sound
random language that I made up
ANGEL'S FALL
Despite what the world at large thought, Shun'u "Genrou" Kou had always been a light sleeper. The moment he sensed an unexpected movement, his mind was awake and ready for action...until his subconscious identified the noise as something routine and relatively harmless.
It wasn't his fault the alarm clock fell into the "routine" category. It didn't even really wake him up any more; he just rolled out of bed, staggered across the room, turned it off and fell back to the mattress. He went through the motions in a daze.
It wasn't his fault that he slept through the second alarm, either. His watch alarm turned itself off after ten minutes, and was too quiet to penetrate his sleep-fogged mind anyway.
Half an hour after ignoring two alarms and rolling over so the morning sun no longer shone in his eyes, it was no great shock that Shun'u didn't get out of bed when someone started pounding on the door to his apartment.
"GENROU! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! Get your lazy ass out of bed before I kick down this door and make you!"
The semi-conscious redhead pressed a pillow against his ears.
BAM BAM BAM
::Dammit you queer bastard, can't you just let me sleep?:: Though accustomed to the morning drama of five sisters and one bathroom, Genrou was no match for an irate best friend.
His sisters' tempers couldn't hold a candle to a cross dresser scorned.
splash!
"AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" Genrou yelped and tumbled out of bed to the wooden floor, sheets a tangled mess around his legs.
The redhead shoved wet bangs out of his eyes and glared at his sniggering assailant.
It didn't help. If anything, the other boy laughed even harder, collapsing into giggles and scattering a few makeshift lock picks across the floor.
::'Rou-chan's just too cute for his own good!:: Chuin[1] snickered to himself. ::No wonder half the girls at school regularly break their hearts over him!::
"You BITCH!" Genrou lunged to his feet, tackling the long-haired boy to the ground. The cross dresser screeched theatrically as his skirt flared out, exposing the long line of his legs...then promptly got the redhead in a headlock. Genrou retaliated with a sharp jab to the stomach and tried to squirm free.
It all went downhill from there.
They kicked. They pushed. They tickled, elbowed, grappled and struggled until they were both laughing hopelessly and short of breath.
But no matter how wildly they fought, Genrou made certain not to pull his friend's hair. The first (and only) time he had yanked that dark ponytail he'd ended up with a black eye and a newfound respect for his slender friend's strength.
Chuin made a habit of wearing girl's clothes, but he could be damn intimidating when he wanted to!
Finally, by silent agreement, the wrestling match was over and the two friends sprawled across the sun-warmed floor.
They looked at each other. A damp lock of hair fell into Genrou's eye, forcing the cross dresser to smother another round of giggles.
"So, why the hell'd ya drench me?"
Chuin smiled impishly. "It always takes sooo long for me to drag you out of bed, and then we're always late, so I decided to try something new."
"Did it ever occur to you to come over earlier? Like maybe more than twenty minutes before school? Just for variety? Maybe even so we wouldn't have to run?"
The brunette gave him a disgusted look.
"What?! Quit lookin' at me like that, it's a perfectly good suggestion!"
"I do."
Shun'u blinked. "Who proposed?"
"Moron. I usually start bashing in your door 'round seven. In case you hadn't noticed, that's an hour before class starts and you still make us late."
"...Oh..." The redhead sat up and yawned hugely. "What time's it?"
"Ten 'til." Chuin smirked. ::This should be entertaining.::
He was right.
"WHAT?!?" Genrou actually shrieked as he leaped to his feet and dashed to the closet. Shit. No clean shirts. He snatched a ratty T-shirt off the top of the dirty clothes pile and tossed it on the bed, pulling on a mostly-clean pair of jeans while frantically searching for his shoes.
::Where the fuck did I put 'em?!:: The redhead fell flat on his face as he tripped over his backpack.
::Owww...oh! There they are!:: He hauled his shoes out from under the bed and somehow succeeded in putting on both shoes and shirt while shoving his books into his backpack. Chuin tossed Genrou his jacket, grabbed his own book bag and the two boys were gone, pounding down the hall in hopes that they would beat the teacher to their first class.
----------
Apparently Lady Luck hadn't entirely deserted them. The teacher was there, but she was talking to the TA [2] and not paying attention to the students that were chatting.
The two slid through the open door, making a bee-line for their seats.
"Mister Kou."
Genrou froze.
"And Mister Ryo. So nice of you to join us."
Genrou and Chuin exchanged a pained glance and sank into their seats.
::Oh look, here comes demerit number eight, along with afternoon detention.:: The redhead stifled a groan. Only midway through the semester and already he had teachers out for his blood.
It looked like his track record was screwing him again.
----------
Luckily, they both had last period free, and with the block scheduling that meant an hour and a half of free time between the end of lunch and going to receive their sentence. Determined to make the most of it, the two friends spent that time on worthwhile pursuits like snacking in the quad while smirking at the class-bound kids that looked wistfully out the window.
It was good to be a senior. You got away with everything!
Well...almost.
Half an hour later, their time ran out and the two miscreants abandoned their spot in the sun for the dreary confines of a class room.
----------
Genrou stared into space as their teacher droned on, berating them for their repeated tardiness.
It was just their luck that their first period teacher was not only neurotically punctual, but also despised "slovenly children who wore clothing not appropriate for a school environment (she cast a pointed glare at Chuin's short skirt) and disrespected their teachers by being constantly late."
The brunette snapped his gum (god damn that was annoying!) and continued filing his nails to points with a lackadaisical smirk.
Genrou couldn't help but grin at his friend's actions. ::What was it he said? All the better to claw someone with?::
Those few who had tried to beat up the "prissy fag" had learned very quickly just how "prissy" he was. Chuin didn't consider himself bound to male fighting protocol (i.e. punches, kicks and pushes...no hair pulling or scratching allowed) since the reason he was targeted was his girly demeanor.
Chuin had no qualms with putting those manicured talons to good use, and several members of the football team had the scars to prove it. Of course, it helped that he also knew dozens of dirty little street-fighting tricks and could punch hard enough to deck anyone -- though to date, there had been no broken bones, just a few black eyes and loosened teeth.
Who said football players are brainless? Genrou thought they'd shown amazing intellect by taking the bruises as a hint to piss off before their prospective victim really got mad.
"Is that quite clear, gentlemen?"
The redhead lurched back to the present a moment too late to beat his friend's reply.
"Crystal," the brunette drawled, managing to sound both respectful and impertinent as he held his hand out before him and inspected his nails. "Now, if you'll excuse us, it's time we left to pay our penance."
Without awaiting permission to leave, Chuin made a mocking bow and sauntered out of the room, ponytail lashing behind him.
----------
When Genrou finally got home, he found the door to his apartment unlocked. That in itself wasn't much cause for worry. The apartments near the campus were used exclusively by students and were surprisingly safe. Hell, there were some people in his building that left their door unlocked almost all the time, knowing that the unspoken rule was if a door was shut and no one answered your knock, you leave.
There were enough groups of friends living on this floor that if something was stolen, the thief would be found.
All in all, it worked surprisingly well, and pity the moron that dared to screw up their system.
Thing was, there was someone in Genrou's apartment. Nothing was out of place. There was no evidence of an intruder, but that didn't matter. Someone was there. Genrou could feel it. The only person that had standing permission to come in whenever he wanted was Chuin, and he had just gone off to his own room.
The redhead slipped into his apartment and sidled along the wall, noting Chuin's lock picks still lying just inside the doorway to his bedroom.
He crept down the hall, past a tiny kitchen and bathroom, all his attention focused on the hushed presence in his room. A rush of adrenaline tingled through his body and he drew his switchblade from its belt sheath.
Genrou nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud voice rang out right behind him.
"Nice work your friend does."
The redhead whirled and glared back the way he came. The hall was empty. He swallowed nervously, ears straining for any hint of the intruder's whereabouts.
An amused snort broke the silence. "In the kitchen, genius."
Genrou peeked through the doorway and immediately covered his surprise with a scowl. "Doncha know there's a law against breaking and entering?" he frowned at the woman casually seated on his kitchen counter.
"Don't you know the police have the right to enter if they believe the situation warrants it?" his sister mocked, hand gesturing toward the front door. "I believe a door left ajar with the room showing signs of a struggle constitute enough reasonable suspicion to justify my presence."
A challenging grin spread across her face as Genrou's frown deepened. He hated it when someone usurped his role as resident smart-ass.
Jiang saw the scowl and silently resolved to do it more often. It would irk Genrou to no end if she acted as cocky as he usually did. "What?" she crooned obnoxiously, "You gonna report me, Shun? When all I did was come to visit my darling baby brother?"
Genrou glared poisonously at Jiang and their gazes locked, neither one willing to back down first.
Jiang's grin widened imperceptibly as she watched her brother try to hold his stern expression. He never could stay annoyed when faced with a grin, and once he cracked a smile the whole façade would come tumbling down.
From the way his lips were beginning to quirk, she knew it wouldn't be much longer.
Restrained laugher is the easiest to provoke.
Without warning, the smile vanished from her face like fog in the morning sun and her pale gray eyes went hard. "Yeah, that's it, Gen-chan," she glowered. "Don't you dare crack a smile."
In moments they were both grinning like maniacs and carefully smothered snickers progressed to full-scale laughter. They wrapped each other in a bone-creaking hug and laughed to hard their eyes began to tear up.
Jiang finally pulled away and scrubbed the tears from her eyes. "God, I needed that! It's good to see ya, bro."
Genrou responded with another quick hug and ruffled her hair. "You too, sis."
"Hey!" Jiang protested in mock outrage, "Since when do you get to mess up my hair?"
Genrou grinned unrepentantly. "Since I got taller 'n you."
"Watch it, brat. You know I can kick your ass!"
"Hah!" he scoffed.
She was right though, and he knew it.
Being a woman in law enforcement meant she had to be tougher than everyone else, tough enough to hold her own in a fight. She was a crack shot with most firearms and could use a knife like a pro, but it was hand to hand fighting that had earned Jiang her respect.
Jiang was only 5' 4" tall, making her the prime target of anyone who wanted to kill an officer or obtain a hostage. Knowing that she was often judged to be the weakest and most vulnerable of a group, Jiang made a point to be one of the strongest. She'd learned self-defense, aikido [3] and ninjitsu [4]. She kept her petit body strong and flexible, using her lower center of gravity to her great advantage. Anyone who though her an easy target would very painfully be dissuaded of the notion.
Add to that a hefty array of rather illicit skills including picking locks, throwing knives and being able to hot-wire almost anything, and Jiang became a very formidable enemy and a competent friend.
Which brought Genrou to another point. "What didja mean 'my friend does nice work'?"
She held up a thin, flat metal rod: one of Chuin's lock-picks.
"These aren't store bought," she announced. "They're surprisingly well made and polished for something he probably whipped up in metal shop. They're a lot better than any homemade kit I've ever seen."
Genrou rolled his eyes. Leave it to Jiang to compliment something like that. It was probably the highest praise she'd ever given the cross-dresser (unless you counted her jokingly complimenting Chuin's fashion sense).
"I'll tell him to make you some for Christmas," he mocked.
"Would you?" She was dead serious. "A good set really costs 'cause so many of the commercial producers use rather inferior metal."
"...Yeah...sure."
"Cool."
"Now why're you here anyway?" Genrou asked. "I know you didn't pay those extortionate parking fees just to say 'hi.' What's up?"
The petite redhead fell silent, her lighthearted grin vanishing. Instantly, Genrou's face sobered.
If "Detective Kou" was coming out to play, it had to be bad. Jiang tried not to talk shop around the family. All of their relatives (Jiang and Genrou not excluded) were extremely nosey, and it was frustrating for everyone since she couldn't discuss the details of her cases.
"I just finished up a hard case," she said, "A real nasty piece of work. They even stepped up the time-table for his execution. Most people wait on death row for years...he was only there a few months."
Genrou blinked in astonishment. "Ya mean that serial killer that was on th' news the other night?"
"Ayuru? Yeah."
"...Damn...You were on that case?"
Jiang nodded. "Not only that, I was the one who caught him."
Silence.
"So, what's up with you" she asked, firmly steering the conversation elsewhere. "Anything interesting going on?"
He snorted and followed her lead. "Other than detentions and my teachers hating me? No. School's still boring, homework still sucks and weekends are still too short. Other than that, everything's fine -- oh, except some idiot tried to pick a fight with Chuin again."
Despite herself, Jiang smirked. "I'm not gonna have to lend you money to bail him out, am I?"
He shot her a wounded look. "Of course not! That was a once off --"
His sister arched an eloquent eyebrow.
"Oh c'mon, sis! Everyone knows he's not one to throw the first punch. It wasn't his fault that some moron called the cops. And you got your money back after the hearing..."
His face was so earnest she just had to laugh.
Her brother was addicted to mischief, but he had a good heart. On those rare occasions when his good will showed through, you couldn't help but love him.
"I know, I know," she laughed. "I'm just teasing."
"Sure ya were."
"Really!" she protested with wide-eyed innocence. She knew he'd never buy it, but hell, she wasn't even trying! Over the years, the two siblings had raised bickering to an artful form of entertainment. Their caustic exchanges may have seemed bad tempered, but both of them enjoyed trying to verbally outmaneuver the other with puns, needling and perverse double-meanings.
There were distinct benefits to being able to make your own entertainment when there was none to be found and confuse everyone else in the process.
"Now then," she said, once again serious, "Where were we?"
"My fascinating life."
"Oh," she smirked, "Yeah. Well, I was just wondering how things were going for you. Wondering if anything...strange...had happened recently."
Genrou blinked in bewilderment. "Why wouldja ask that?"
She took a deep breath -- then paused. "It's stupid," she warned.
"So am I."
"And wildly improbable -- at least a little bit ridiculous."
"I'm good at ridiculous."
"Quite honestly, it's bordering on paranoia..."
"JIANG!" he shouted, "Just spit it out already!"
For the first time in his life, Genrou saw his fire-cracker of a sister at a loss for words. Jiang sighed heavily and prepared to be scoffed at. "I've just had this really bad feeling..." She paused.
No laughter.
"When I went to see Ayuru a few days before his execution, he...said some things that really creeped me out. He made threats against you --"
"You mean our family --" he corrected.
"No. Against you."
"But...how'd he know...?"
Jiang shook her head. "I don't know. He didn't even know who I was until after he'd been arrested, but somehow he found out about you."
"Creepy."
She nodded. For a moment she reconsidered her decision to tell Genrou the whole truth. The more she though about it, the more it all seemed to be the product of paranoia run rampant. Was her uneasy suspicion really worth terrifying her brother?
She recalled the knowledgeable malice she had seen in Ayuru's eyes.
Yes. The deceased killer's words may be empty threats, but her instincts were telling her otherwise. If nothing happened, then they'd both feel like fools for a while, but if his threats proved to be real...
Well, at least they'd have some warning.
"It's more than creepy," she said, "It's frighteningly accurate. He knew your nickname, Gen-chan. He spoke to me in Japanese, and then in some language I didn't recognize. I don't know what it was, but it felt wrong. It was dark, dangerous and reeked of blood." Her words stumbled over each other, tripping up her tongue. Though every word she spoke was true to her conversation with Ayuru, no language she knew possessed the words to describe the feel.
"Listening to him was like stepping barefoot on something slimy in a dark room...and then feeling it move," she continued. "It sent a shudder right down my spine, and with every passing second the tension built.
"Trust me, Genrou, there was something of pure evil in that man. It showed in everything he said and everything he did. And his eyes...It was like he knew something he shouldn't...and was gloating."
The room fell silent, the noise of the streets only faintly audible through the walls. Even the bright laughter that trickled from the neighboring apartment could not shake loose the somber atmosphere that weighed down on the two siblings.
Jiang gathered up her keys and jacket and, hesitating a moment to place a small package on the table, wordlessly left the apartment.
Standing alone in the daytime glare of his tiny kitchen, Genrou found himself, for the first time in years, fearful of what night would bring.
[1] Nope, it's not Nuriko. Ryu Chuin is Tomo's real name. Personally, he's my favorite Seiryuu seishi, and I don't think he gets nearly enough recognition as a potential fic character (especially since he's one of the two official gay characters in Fushigi Yuugi)
[2] Teacher's Assistant
[3] Aikido is a martial art that is primarily used not to attack, but to defend (except for the moves that included in fighting with a bo-staff or boken. Those definitely are aggressive.) It's a good form of martial arts for girls because it's not dependent upon pure strength, but on manipulating the other person's center of gravity to pull them off balance. Then you use a variety of holds and twists to take them down and keep them down without hurting them.
Since girls have a lower center of gravity than boys as well as generally being shorter, they actually have an advantage.
My first Sensei explained it as "taking down the attacker quickly without hurting them…Unless they decide to struggle, in which case it's gonna hurt like a bitch." Once you've got the person under control, any struggle will wrench their joints, which makes it very difficult for them to escape without causing themselves a great deal of pain and/or tearing tendons, ligaments or breaking bones.
[4] Ninjitsu isn't really built on a moral code like most martial arts. There is a lot of work done with a short staff as well as some knife work and throwing stars. (Note: throwing stars were not actually made to be thrown. They are palmed so that two of the edges (on a three pronged star) barely stick out and are used to cut throats etc.) A lot of the knife work is disengages, and disarming. The martial art is made up of five basic moves: earth, wind, fire, water and void. The idea is that the movements of these moves mimic the element they are named after. There are a lot of pressure point moves, emphasizing the pressure points in the wrist, forearm and elbow.
Most ninjitsu moves are not flashy. They tend to be very balanced and quick. They're meant to kill, not to intimidate (which is why there are no ninjitsu tournaments). There is some sword play in ninjitsu. Lots of rolls...forwards, backwards, sideways, spring rolls, flying rolls with weapons...jumping over people and rolling (to get height)