Bad Kitten: Chapter Four
By. Bento Box
04/05/03
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The transaction hadn't gone as smoothly as he would have liked. He would be detained here in Tokyo for another two weeks.
Two weeks... hm.
He pursed his lips, his features schooled into a thoughful look of consideration. He hadn't planned on keeping his newly acquired pet for any longer than a few days. But with the new setback in his plans, perhaps it would be best to make the most use of his time here, with the pretty little kitten.
He smiled.
Indeed, it would be best to take advantage of the extra time fate had bestowed him.
Who knows, maybe he'd even take his little kitten out of Japan back home once the transaction was done.
He chuckled softly to himself.
Good mood returned, he toyed with the thought of making his business partners' deaths painless once the deal was completed. After all, he did owe them a slight favor for giving this unforeseen chance to spend more time with his little kitten, hm?
—
Crawford smoothly shifted the gears of the two-door car. Schuldig, who sat next to him, shifted restlessly. Farfarello had been left behind back at the apartment, his presence not required in their search for Nagi.
Luckily for them, their new client had not required their presence at the evening's meeting. The freedom from duty had enabled them to investigate around Nagi's school.
When Schuldig had called earlier in the day, Nagi's teachers informed that he had indeed been there all day. Most of Nagi's classmates had been out of comfortable range for Schuldig to have pinned them down specifically, but he had been able to sift through the memories of a couple of the teenaged girls who lingered at the nearby café. But their memories only served to confirm that Nagi had been in attendance right until the very last class, and that he had been behind them when they had all walked out of the school building.
There were some people in the area, employes of the stores and restaurants, who had vague recollections of the boy walking by but they were completely useless.
To surmise the entire investigation: they came up empty-handed.
And throughout their entire time out, Crawford had had no visions, and Schuldig had had no telepathic calls or answers. Instead, Schuldig had gotten an unpleasant, and rather unsettling, feeling towards evening. The sensation had been reminiscent of having to do something important, but not remembering what was so important until too late.
Except that didn't make sense to Schuldig, because he never forgot anything; voluntarily at least.
So after several fruitless and frustrating hours, with nothing except for a confirmation for Nagi's school attendance, they headed back towards their current apartment.
As they neared their destination, Schuldig suddenly turned to the other man.
"So what the hell are we going to do now?"
Crawford kept his eyes trained on the road before him.
"We wait."
Schuldig snorted. "Jaaaaa. We wait, and in the meantime Nagi could be tortured for information or some shit. Hell, he could even be dead. INGENIOUS idea Brad! Let's wait and see how much there is of the chibi left when we finally DO find him!"
Crawford remained outwardly impassive to the German's sneering jibes.
"Nagi is more than capable of handling any punishment dealt to him. He will not betray Schwarz."
Schuldig gave the American an inredulous, disgusted look.
"He's a FUCKING KID Brad. I don't give a flying fuck if he's been trained since the day he could fucking walk! He can BREAK with the right amount of pressure."
The redhead glowered at the seemingly statue-like creature next to him. What the fuck was wrong with the American?! Men were the most corrupted, cruel creatures to have ever been created and God fucking knows what they'd be able to come up with, to DO, to a young boy.
"Do not underestimate Nagi."
The statement surprised Schuldig a bit. It showed how strongly the American believed in the young boy's abilities to take care of himself in any imagined or real hostile environment. But while they all possessed amazing abilities, they were all still mortal. They could die. Nagi could die.
"Damnit."
The redhead sprawled as best as he could back into his seat. He heaved an exasperated snarl.
"This shit doesn't even make any fucking sense. How the FUCK could Nagi have been taken out? WHO the fuck got Nagi? It makes NO FUCKING SENSE. Your magical crystal ball's busted and I can't get SHIT on the kid's mind. Who the fuck is strong enough to be able to shield him like this?!"
The American remained silent as his teammate continued to vent out his frustration and anger.
Though Crawford said nothing, Schuldig was verbally voicing his own questions. The situation disturbed him, to be sure, but there was nothing he could do about any of it. His powers had, it seemed, failed him horribly this once. As Schuldig had mentioned, none of it made any sense.
Why Nagi? Who? How? Those were just the basic queries that flitted through Crawford's mind.
It couldn't be any of their old enemies--they had either been destroyed, or were oblivious to Schwarz's presence. Schwarz were believed to be dead, and in a figurative sense, they were. In the circuits, they weren't Schwarz, merely a group of four men on hire whose names and faces were blurred and cloudy. No one in the dark underworld were even really sure, or overly concerned, of their true existance or not--thanks to Schuldig's abilities to play with memories.
And it was most certainly NOT Weiß who had been able to get ahold of Nagi. One, they didn't have the abilities to. Nagi would have been able to take them all at once by himself. Two, they were part of the very few people who had known them and they too believed that Schwarz was gone. Three, Weiß, unlike Schwarz, had truly dissipitated.
Crawford could feel the headache steadily grow between his temples.
Today had not been a good day.