Chapter Ten

The next day, after a very long night, Nagi poked his head into Schuldig's room. There were dark smudges underneath his eyes. Schuldig chose not to comment on that; he knew that when Nagi got involved in his hacking, he generally forgot to sleep. "Ne, Schu . . .?" Nagi spoke up hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Schuldig asked, looking up from the book he was reading. Brad had finally taken pity on him and told him where he could find a library with books in German or English. The selection wasn't great, but it was better than nothing.

"Can I come in?" Nagi asked, so polite it bordered between painful and cute.

"Sure," Schuldig said, setting the book aside.

Nagi stepped in and closed the door behind him, standing uncertainly just inside. "I found Crawford's file, and looked up the things you wanted me to."

Schuldig gave Nagi a look, taking in his uncertain posture and weary look. "I take it that it wasn't good?" he asked. "You can sit, you know."

"Oh, yeah." Nagi laughed a little and settled gingerly on the long chair in Schuldig's room. "No, it wasn't good news. The accident happened as Crawford foresaw it. His family was killed."

Schuldig sighed a little and considered this. "It must have been a media circus," he mused. "Family killed and remaining son kidnapped in the same day."

Nagi shook his head slightly. "No . . . it was listed that Crawford was killed in the accident as well. There was nothing about a kidnapping."

"He said he was with a sitter," Schuldig said, frowning in perplexity. "Didn't they notice that there were only three bodies, not four?"

"Esstet probably did something to the sitter to make her forget," Nagi said with a slight shrug. "As to the bodies, the accident was caused by a propane tanker that had jackknifed on the highway. There was an explosion. They couldn't even scrape up enough to do DNA testing."

"Damn," Schuldig said, impressed in that sort of sucks-to-be-Brad sort of way. "Esstet got lucky."

"You think it was a coincidence?" Nagi asked, looking at him curiously.

Schuldig pondered this. "You think it wasn't?"

"I guess I don't know," Nagi admitted. "It just seems very . . . neat somehow."

"You do have a point," Schuldig admitted. "Though if they arranged things that neatly to get him, they've probably done it to others, too." He thought back to his patchy memories of his own past, but couldn't make any connections. Brad had picked him up off the street, but he had done that on his own. Schuldig couldn't even remember his family.

Nagi scuffed the floor with one foot. "Well . . . we're different, aren't we? Because Crawford picked us up, not Esstet."

"Yeah," Schuldig said, nodding. "He got us both off the streets."

"And from what I had gathered from things he's said, and what some people said to me at the Institutes, Esstet wasn't pleased when he picked us up," Nagi added. "So I don't think it applies to us, no."

"But I have to wonder why they weren't pleased," Schuldig said thoughtfully. "Well, I can see why they wouldn't have wanted me, but why not you?"

"I don't know," Nagi said, his hands fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "But I think it has something to do with my Talent. The teams aren't supposed to have precognition, telepathy, and telekinesis all at once. Those are the three most powerful, so it would set a team up to rival the people in charge."

"I suppose," Schuldig said, frowning. "I know he didn't get any help for me, but didn't they give you some formal training?"

"Yeah. They put me in classes and stuff." As always when Nagi talked about the Institute, his hands clenched down on his shirt and his eyes were fixed on the floor. "But they were in a bit of a hurry to get us here, I guess, and . . . they probably realized how spineless I am and let me go."

Schuldig realized with some amount of amusement that Nagi hadn't been listening in the slightest when they'd been talking about this the previous day. "I wouldn't call you spineless. Maybe a little too pliant, but not spineless."

"Well, whatever it is, they seemed okay with it," Nagi stated.

"And even I can see that you have enough power to make you valuable," Schuldig said, getting a blush out of Nagi. "And a mind like a steel trap."

"But they don't worry about us," Nagi said, changing the subject hastily. "It's Crawford they worry about. You're a few cards short of a deck, and I'll do whatever they tell me if they glare enough, but Crawford . . . Crawford is the one here who poses a danger to them."

"Then you'd think they would be more than pleased to give them people like us," Schuldig said thoughtfully. "More me than you. I mean, saddle the dangerous agent with the screwups, slow him down. That's what Farferello was put here for. I really don't get those old prunes."

"But we don't drag him down," Nagi said with a slight smile. "That's one of Crawford's gifts. He takes the screwups and turns them into . . . well . . . us."

"Yeah, despite my best efforts to take him apart at the seams when we first met," Schuldig said with a laugh. "He's turned me into a useful person at last." He grinned at Nagi. "Though you were easier. You didn't fight him, because you were looking for a chance to improve yourself." He hoped that Nagi would take that as the subtle boost of self-esteem he meant it as.

"I was looking for a way to feed myself," Nagi said, but he was blushing slightly, so Schuldig took it as a success. "What happened when he found you?"

"I fought him every step of the way," Schuldig said, looking back on the memories with absolutely no fondness at all. "I was a mess, and a heroin addict. He had a real fight on his hands."

"What did he do?" Nagi asked curiously. He found himself wondering about this chapter of history that had taken place before he had met Schuldig and Brad.

"It was really easy to get me to go with him," Schuldig said. "He was a quiet mind, and I was drawn to that. I didn't really realize what was going on until he locked me into a hotel room and then sat on me until I was through withdrawal."

Nagi laughed. "It's hard to picture Crawford as the nurturing type."

"He was afterwards," Schuldig said, with a thoughtful little frown. "He might have been during, too, but I don't really remember it much. All I really remember is that I hurt and I hated him. But after that, he was nurturing. You know, in his own anal retentive bastard sort of way."

"He wasn't nurturing to me," Nagi remarked, amused. "Although he was pretty good about not freaking out when I blew up the hotel room."

"What did he do with you?" Schuldig asked. "And why were you blowing up hotel rooms?"

"Well, you know Crawford," Nagi said. "He's rather . . . abrupt. He just sort of showed up and waltzed off with me, and I thought when we got to the hotel that he was . . ." He trailed off, blushing slightly. "I guess I was preconditioned. So I panicked."

"Ah," Schuldig said. "Yeah, when he picked me up, I was thinking the same thing. But I had been running that drill for a while. I can see where that would have scared you."

"Yeah," Nagi said, looking at his hands. He had been running that drill for quite a while too, quite possibly longer than Schuldig had, but he wasn't going to say that out loud.

Schuldig picked it up, but decided not to mention it directly. That probably wouldn't help matters any. "It's just common sense to be scared, even if you are used to it," he said, keeping his tone comforting. "I would have been too, if I'd been able to scrape up enough sanity together to think straight."

Nagi laughed a little. "Well, Crawford just waited until I had blown up everything in the room that could be blown up, then calmly explained who he was and why he was there."

"How'd you take that?" Schuldig asked curiously. "And if you were so scared, why destroy the room but leave him intact?"

"Uh . . . I don't know," Nagi confessed, looking steadfastly away. "I think because I was afraid he'd be angry if I hurt him."

Schuldig sighed. "Nagi, I'm not going to think badly of you for being scared."

"Hm?" Nagi's eyes flickered up to him briefly before fixing back on the floor. "Oh."

"What are you afraid of?" Schuldig asked.

"I don't know," Nagi admitted.

"Well, I hope it isn't that Crawford or I will think badly of you or anything like that," Schuldig said.

"No, not really. Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure," Schuldig said. "You think we should tell Brad?"

"About his parents?" Nagi asked. "I don't know . . . didn't he tell you that he didn't really want to know?"

"Yeah, he did," Schuldig said. "My theory was that if I had good news, I would tell him, and if it was bad news to say nothing. But if the old prunes planned it all, I think he might have a right to know."

"Maybe . . . but what can he do about it?" Nagi asked.

"I don't know if he can do anything, but it makes me nervous. Knowing that they're manipulating the world that much. Though I suppose that's what they're all about in the end."

"Yeah . . . I guess they'll go to any lengths to get the people they want," Nagi mused.

"And that creeps me out," Schuldig said with a little shudder.

"Well, so tell him," Nagi said. "Crawford will know what to do. Crawford always knows what to do."

"Yeah. I'm just sort of stuck," Schuldig said. "If I tell him, I have to tell him that his family's dead. If I don't, there's a dangerous secret floating around." He slouched further into his pillow.

"I think he already knows that his family is dead," Nagi said softly.

Schuldig nodded sadly. "Yeah. I guess I'll just tell him."

"Good luck."

"Thanks."

^^^^

Schuldig plunked on the sofa, where Brad was having his ritual morning coffee and reading the paper. Schuldig knew that soon he would finish with the paper and begin looking through things that might affect their day. It was routine; something he was intimiately comfortable with.

Brad glanced up after he finished the article he had been in the middle of. "Did you need something?" he asked, flipping the page.

"Well," Schuldig said, trying not to dither, "I was sticking my nose where it doesn't belong again."

Brad rolled his eyes. "What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?" There was an exasperated tone in his voice that suggested he wouldn't be helping Schuldig out of whatever he'd done.

"No actual trouble," Schuldig clarified quickly. "Just some info hunting."

"And what were you hunting?" Brad asked, starting the next article.

"Your family," Schuldig said, his tone somewhat less than cheerful. Brad raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing. "See," Schuldig continued, "originally my plan was only to tell you if I found something good, but, well, I didn't like what did come up and I figured you had a right to know."

Brad folded the newspaper carefully and set it aside. Then he took a long drink of his coffee. "I'm listening."

"Well, it just all seems too neat," Schuldig said, trying not to squirm under the close look that Brad was giving him. He didn't like having to deliver the next piece of news. Or, for that matter, any of this news. "I mean, the records say that you died with them. There weren't any reports of a missing child, and everything just seemed carefully arranged so no one would look for you."

There was a long pause while Brad turned this over in his mind, sipping his coffee. "So they are dead, then," he said, in a flat tone of voice that made Schuldig wonder if Brad had even heard any of the rest of what he'd said. He nodded, feeling shitty. Brad sat in silence for another minute. "Oh. And I'm listed as dead as well?"

Schuldig nodded again. "According to the reports, there were four of you in the car, and not a babysitter to be seen."

"That's very interesting," Brad said, "but Esstet could have changed the report after taking me. What struck you as odd about it?"

"The accident itself," Schuldig said, declining to mention the fact that it was Nagi who had picked up on the strangeness of it, not him. "A collision with a propane truck. Nothing left. It just seems so perfectly airtight. Especially since they came to get you at the same time."

Brad considered it. "Yes, that does seem very neat," he finally said.

"It just struck me that you should know," Schuldig said softly. "I mean . . . that's a lot of manipulating."

Brad reflected briefly on Schuldig's own past, and thought that if the redhead remembered it, he probably wouldn't think that this was 'a lot' of manipulating. "You're saying Esstet killed my family to get me," he replied. "No, that doesn't really surprise me at all."

"It just . . . sort of gives me the willies," Schuldig admitted.

Brad gave him a glance. "They didn't kill yours, so I suggest you don't worry."

Schuldig blinked at him. "When did you find that out?"

"I looked up your family when I first picked you up," Brad said, casually dropping this bombshell. "I suppose Esstet could have killed them since then, but seeing as you're safely in their grasp, I don't really see the point."

"Why bother?" Schuldig asked, somewhat bitterly. "They didn't like me or want me, so why bother doing anything to get me or keep me?"

"Exactly," Brad said.

"I don't get it," Schuldig complained. "Why put so much effort into getting hold of you and then let you pick up potential failures like me?"

"I think in your case they were trying to teach me humility," Brad replied. "Remind me that they know better than me."

"Oh," Schuldig said, and considered this. "Did it work? Or did I turn out the way you wanted me to?"

"I was right," Brad said with a superior smile.

Schuldig laughed a little. "Must have pissed them right off."

"Very much so."

"Should I be fearing for my life?" Schuldig asked, only half joking.

"Not that I'm aware of," Brad said, and gave Schuldig and odd little half-smile. "And believe me, I have been checking. Don't worry. You're a valuable member of this team, and I won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm flattered. Really."

There was a pause. "Thank you for telling me," Brad finally said. "I know that can't have been easy for you."

Schuldig smiled a little. "It was one of those things that I would have felt bad about telling you and nervous about not telling you. It's just . . . you just seemed like you would have liked some good news. I was hoping to offer some."

"I guess it backfired on you," Brad said, rolling his eyes.

"Horribly," Schuldig agreed. "Do you think Nagi was just chance? Or do you think the old prunes had a hand in him too?"

"I've checked into Nagi's past," Brad said carefully. "And I don't think there's anything that Esstet could have had a hand in. He's been on the streets his whole life; God only knows who his parents are."

"I suppose we never should have thought about this," Schuldig said with a sigh. "I might have been happier."

"Well," Brad said, picking up the newspaper and opening it again, "I doubt we'll be working for Esstet forever."

Schuldig hesitated for a few seconds. He had not precisely heard Brad's thought there, because he hadn't specifically directed it, but Brad's shields had dropped for just long enough for him to get a definite feeling that there was more to that statement than met the eye.

He smiled at Brad. "I can always trust you to have our best interests at heart."

^^^^

Nagi waited until Schuldig was at the library to timidly approach Brad. The older man was sitting on the sofa with the newspaper, perusing it with interest. Nagi cleared his throat slightly and waited to be acknowledged. Given the rarity of Nagi voluntarily approaching him, Brad was quick to look up. "What is it?"

There was a pause while Nagi shuffled his feet. "Schuldig talked to you about . . . what I was looking up, right?"

"Yes, he did," Brad said. He folded the newspaper and set it aside, giving Nagi his full attention. "I was rather impressed, actually. It takes a great deal of talent to hack into Esstet's mainframe."

Nagi turned slightly pink. "Thank you," he said. "But . . . while I was looking things up, I pulled up Schuldig's file as well. And . . ."

"And?" Brad prompted, when he saw that Nagi was having trouble.

"I don't know how much of it he's aware of," Nagi said, shifting uncomfortably. "Or how much you're aware of, either."

"Unless it's recent, I should be aware of all of it," Brad replied. "I went to pick up Schuldig after seeing his file myself. They may have decided to let him rot, but I didn't think that was the best course of action."

"Schuldig doesn't remember any of it, does he," Nagi ventured.

"Not that I'm aware of, no," Brad said. "He remembers some of his time in the mental institutions. Most of his time on the streets is blurred because of all the drugs he was on. But what happened before the mental hospital? No, I think he's very carefully repressed that."

"But . . ." Nagi's hands twisted in his shirt. "If they wanted him so badly, why give up on him like that?"

Brad shrugged. "They didn't expect him to go insane. Once he did, they didn't think they could use him anymore. I suggested that his insanity was due more to the fact that the mental institutions were wreaking havoc with his telepathy, which was out of control due to their initial attempts to wake it. They didn't listen to me, so I picked him up myself."

"Oh," Nagi said. "They let you keep him?"

Brad smiled slightly. "It was supposed to be a lesson in humility. They didn't think I could succeed, and they thought my failure would bring me down a few pegs."

"It didn't work very well," Nagi replied, smiling shyly back. "But . . . is that why they made me go to the Institute?"

"There were a number of reasons why that happened," Brad said. "One of them was that I had no idea how to go about training a telekinetic, and they wouldn't let the trainer leave the Institute. They also didn't want you to be more loyal to me than you are to them."

Nagi blushed at that, and scuffed the floor with his foot, refusing to look at Brad. He was loyal to Brad, but he was terrified of Esstet, and in the end he didn't know whose orders he would follow. "Oh," he said.

"Indeed," Brad replied.

"So I take it that I shouldn't mention any of this to Schuldig?" Nagi asked.

"I'd appreciate it," Brad said. "If he ever starts to remember, I'll explain it to him, but for now, he doesn't need to know. If he doesn't remember, it's because he's not ready to."

Nagi nodded. "All right."

^^^^

Later, Yohji would blame the entire mission on himself, because he uttered the words that should never be spoken before any mission.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Ken elbowed him. "Don't say that, you idiot!"

Yohji blinked. Aya and Omi were both giving him glares. "What?" he asked. "I do. We're going up against a mob boss and we don't know how many bodyguards he's got. What, I'm supposed to be confident about this?"

Ken rolled his eyes. "Whenever someone says they have a bad feeling about something, everything inevitably goes badly. Don't you read?"

Aya let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Besides, you've seen Star Wars," Omi said. "Every main character said it right before a disaster."

"So sue me," Yohji replied.

"You don't have any money," Aya said. "It's not worth it."

"But I do have that picture of you with your stuffed hippo," Yohji said. As usual, he was not about to miss an opportunity to bring up said photograph. He tormented Aya with it on every available occasion.

Aya just gave him a look. "You might want to rethink your survival on the mission."

Yohji rolled his eyes.

"Stop it," Omi said. "Jeez."

"Yeah, if you kill each other, Omi and I have to do this all by ourselves," Ken complained. "And then where would we be?"

Yohji snorted. "Knowing you two? Probably dead."

"I will have you know that we survived many missions before the two of you got here," Omi said.

"Yeah, yeah," Yohji said. "They probably gave you baby missions since you weren't a full team."

"Oh, shut up."

^^^^

Schuldig was in the living room reading, and had even managed to pry Nagi out for some valuable hours outside his room, when Brad came in. Farferello had been let out of his room and was doing some math. He had claimed he was good at it, so Brad was letting him do the accounts to see how well he fared.

"I need to talk to you about something," Brad said, then took his sweet time getting himself some coffee while Schuldig tried to not twitch. When Brad came in, he thought he saw a ghost of a smile on his face. "Schuldig, I'm presuming that you haven't seen Yohji for quite some time?"

"Nearly a month," Schuldig confirmed, looking at Brad suspiciously. "Because he can't get over himself."

"Mm hmm," Brad said noncommittally. "Have any of you ever heard of Fujikata Shindo?"

"Should we have?" Schuldig asked.

"I have," Nagi said shyly. "He's one of the upper echelon in the Yakuza in this city, isn't he?"

Brad nodded. "Yes, he is."

"Crawford, just spill it," Schuldig said, annoyed.

"Weiss is going to assassinate him tonight," Brad said, smiling slightly. "Aren't they intrepid."

"Usually," Schuldig said suspiciously. "Are we going to get in trouble if this guy dies?"

"Not that I know of," Brad said. "No, unfortunately, Fujikata has a great number of bodyguards. I'm not entirely sure that Weiss will be, shall we say . . . a full team, tomorrow."

Schuldig's jaw dropped slightly. "Oh, for fuck's sake, just tell us the rest of it so we can . . . so we can do whatever it is we're supposed to do."

"There's nothing you're supposed to do," Brad said. "I just thought you might like to know." With that, he turned and walked out of the room, into his own, shutting the door firmly behind him.

"Hold on!" Schuldig got to his feet and started yelling at Brad's closed door. "Where is this? When's the mission?"

There was no answer.

"Asshole." Schuldig kicked the door. Then he turned to Nagi and Farferello, who were looking on in interest.

"I'm not going to rescue them," Farferello stated, and went back to his math.

Schuldig looked at Nagi, who blinked back at him uncertainly.

"Well, do you want your boyfriend to get splattered or not?" Schuldig snapped.

Nagi squeaked. "We've only met once! Briefly!"

"Get those fingers clicking on that keyboard," Schuldig said. "Come on."

"Oh, since when are you in charge anyway," Nagi grumbled, but he went to his computer.

"Since Brad turned into a giant asshole," Schuldig said, directing the last word at Brad's door, quite loudly. Then he followed Nagi into his room as he sat down at his computer and started typing. Having hacked into Weiss' mainframe before, it was a relatively short trip.

"We don't have much time," he said, grabbing a printout and standing up. "There's no time given, but they're probably doing it tonight, because the location they have will only be good for one day."

"Do you know where that is?" Schuldig asked.

Nagi held up the printout. "I have a map."

"Let me go get my gun and off we'll go."

"Why do I have to go?" Nagi asked, trailing behind him as he crossed the hallway and went into his own room.

"Because if I go and get killed, you'll feel guilty," Schuldig told him, getting his gun and make sure it had a full clip in it. He went out the front door to the apartment without even bothering to check if Nagi was following; he knew that the younger boy was.

^^^^