What's Up?
By hrsapphire
Part IV. The BIG Problem
"What do you mean you can't cure her?!" Youji spat at Nicola, his hands grasping her arm tightly. "You're hurting me," she said trying to get away from his grip.
Ken came between them and pried Youji's hands from Nicola's arms. "Relax, Kudoh. You're going to wake Tiarra," Aya said, coming from Ken's room. Tiarra had fallen asleep on their way back to the flower shop. She was fast weakening. It was a good thing that they weren't followed.
"Now," he started again. "Explain to us why you can't cure her," he continued, leaning back on the backrest of the couch.
"I didn't say I can't cure her when the antidote's here," she said holding up the tube of blue liquid. "I said 'I can't cure her right now'," she continued.
Everybody sweat dropped. "Why can't you cure her NOW?" Youji said, emphasizing the word 'now'. Nicola sighed.
"A normal person wouldn't easily obtain the chimera virus inside their body. That would mean instant death. It has to be transmitted to them. That's what happened a while ago during the convention," she explained. The four assassins just stared at her, encouraging her to move on. "Same as the chimera virus, the antidote should also be transmitted in the same way as the virus," she continued.
"Can't we just buy an injection and inject it in her body?" Omi asked opening Ken's door slightly to see if the girl had awaken.
"You want her body to look like a hole that just grew a body, head, arms and legs?" Nicola asked sarcastically. Everybody sweat dropped. What images are being done in that small head of hers? Youji thought.
"Not an injection can take up this dosage. This whole thing should be injected in her, otherwise, the virus would only overpower the antidote," she said as a matter of factly.
Everybody was quiet. "So what you mean to say is we have to get that transmitter gun thingy so we can help her?" Ken asked still in thought. Nicola nodded. "Where can we find it?" Aya asked standing and getting his trench coat from where it lay.
"It's not that easy. There are only three kinds of transmitters in the whole world. Two of them are in Russia. You won't be able to get it from there and come back or send it here in time," she said, arising another problem. She was right. It was almost 4 am. Almost seven hours were taken from Tiarra's life. "And the other one is still at the convention," Youji said, his eyebrows creased in a manner that said he was thinking.
Everybody looked at him in awe. He was still deep in thought when he realized four pairs of eyes stared at him. "What? Did I say anything?" he asked in confusion. (A/N: to all Youji fans, sorry for making Youji a dumb blonde… no pun intended.)
"Kudoh, come with me. Omi stay here with Ken. I know he needs all the help he can get," Aya said, a grin forming on his lips. Ken glared at their retreating backs.
Aya and Youji arrived shortly at the venue of the convention. They looked around the rubbles from the incident earlier. A janitor was with them inside the hall. They approached him and asked if he had seen a gun like transmitter.
"Someone had just claimed it awhile back. He had some group of thugs with him and he said that if I didn't give it to him, he'd kill my whole family," the man said fear, evident in his voice. Shit! Aya thought. "Thank you," he just said.
Youji took out his cell and dialed Ken's number. The other line answered. "We may have hit rock bottom. Ravenna's got the transmitter," he said through the receiver.
"Ok, we'll be right here if you need anything else," Ken said before he clicked the 'end call' button. Omi and Nicola looked at the brown haired assassin. "So?" Omi asked.
"Ravenna's got the transmitter. They're going after it. Omi keep watch for a while. I'm going to check up on Tiarra," he said, standing from the stool and moving towards his room. He opened the door slowly so as not to wake the teenager from her sleep.
"You can come in you know. It is YOUR bedroom," the voice said. The room was well lit. The person in the room was looking at the books on Ken's shelf. "You have so many books. Have you read all of them?" she asked, not looking at the person she was talking to. Ken smiled and closed the door behind him.
"Nope. I'm still studying. How about you?" he asked taking his study chair, turning it around and sitting on it facing Tiarra. He looked at her form. She had changed into one of Aya's long sleeved shirts, which fell only until a little bit lower than her bottom. She wasn't wearing any short or anything below. A tinge of pale pink came to Ken's cheeks as he stared at the young girl's form.
"I stopped," she said flatly. She took out a book from the shelf and walked casually to the bed. She sat there and read through the book. "Smaller and smaller circles," she said in an impressed tone. She smiled. Ken didn't realize but he was staring at her. "Is it good?" she asked, looking up at the boy. Ken snapped out of his reverie, the pink blush, darkening in color. "Haven't read it yet," he said, shaking his head of the disgusting thoughts starting to form in his mind.
She smiled when the door opened. "Hey, you're up. Let me see the wound," Nicola said walking briskly and sat in front of Tiarra. Nicola pulled up the sleeve of Tiarra's shirt when she noticed that Nicola was wearing Ken's jersey. She looked at Ken and saw him staring at the girl before her. Something ignited in her and pulled her arm from the girl.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. There's nothing wrong with me," she said as she pulled the sleeve down to cover her arm. She stood and walked out of the room. After one door slammed shut, another door slammed shut.
Ken and Nicola looked at each other then at the door. HUH?! What was that? Ken thought as the door of his room opened again to reveal Omi's head popping through. "What was that all about?" he asked. The two forms shrugged an 'I-have-no-idea' at the blonde's question.