Chapter Eighteen

It was two hours later that they trooped back into the apartment, bloody and bruised and exhausted. Schuldig had eventually knocked Farferello out rather than letting him cause any more damage. Because he had to carry Farferello, he unfortunately couldn't carry Nagi, who was wavering decidedly.

Schuldig dumped Farferello unceremoniously in his room. Although he was grateful to his teammate for the help, he didn't want to take the time to deal with him at the moment. Nagi had settled on the sofa, holding his head in his hands. Just brushing up against his mind briefly, Schuldig winced at the throbbing headache the younger boy had.

He went to get some painkillers and ice. Chien was still standing in the doorway, apparently watching how Schuldig handled his team. Schuldig gave him an extra glare for good measure, then handed the painkillers and a glass of water to Nagi. He took them without even asking what they were, apparently not caring. Schuldig held the ice to the back of his head.

"I suppose if I said there was still time to complete the original mission, you'd refuse?" Chien asked, giving Schuldig an even and expressionless look.

"Did you look?" Schuldig asked. "Could we do it with just two people?"

"What would you do if I said yes?"

"I'd ask to see the vision to make sure I wasn't walking into my own death," Schuldig said bluntly.

There was a pause. "You're a valuable member of Esstet, and despite what you may think, you are not being set up," Chien said. "But if you really wish -- "

A few seconds later, Schuldig staggered back, unprepared for the sudden wash of bloody images. He really hadn't need to see that to spice up his evening. He snarled at Chien. "Don't you ever fucking do that to me again."

"You asked to see it," Chien said.

"Don't you ever fucking intrude in my head," Schuldig said. "Or I will kill you."

Chien smiled. "Noted. You've seen the vision. Shall we?"

He looked at Chien, then down at Nagi, who had partly passed out again. "No," he said, knowing that he was risking a lot by refusing. He patted Nagi on the cheek until he roused slightly, giving a small moan. "If you and I go kill Weiss, we'd lose Nagi."

"We could do something novel like bring him to the hospital," Chien replied.

"Do you want to try to explain this mess and your lack of control over Farferello to your superiors?" Schuldig asked with a charming smile.

Chien paused, then backed down. "It can wait," he said brusquely, then turned and walked into Brad's room, closing the door behind him.

Schuldig sat down on the sofa next to Nagi. "You want to stay out here, or go to your room? Or go to my room?"

"Oh gods . . . no moving, please."

"Okay."

^^^^

Schuldig managed to keep Nagi awake until dawn, at which point his eyes were tracking well enough that Schuldig decided it was safe for him to sleep. He dropped into unconsciousness nearly immediately and slept until past lunchtime.

Lunch itself was cold and barely even civil. Farferello was still in his room. Chien sat in the kitchen as if he were the reigning king and champion. Schuldig did his best to ignore the man.

Around one o'clock, Nagi woke up. Schuldig knew immediately because Nagi still had a splitting headache. However, Nagi gave no sign of this. He stood up, straightened himself quickly, and went into the kitchen. "Is there anything to eat?" he asked Schuldig.

Schuldig nodded and gave him the plate of food he had set aside. Nagi sat down and tried to eat it, feeling ill. "Do we . . . have any missions today?" he asked hesitantly, trying to direct the question to both Schuldig and Chien, so he wouldn't get in trouble.

"It doesn't matter if we do," Schuldig said, just before Chien could speak. "We have work." /Are you up to it? Or up to pretending you're up to it? I could cover it./

/I'm fine, just headachey,/ Nagi replied. "That's right."

Chien cleared his throat. "I need to see the details of your latest contract," he said shortly. "Esstet has work for you to do, and I'd like to know what you've been doing and when you can get out of it."

"We can't get out of it 'til the contract is up," Schuldig said with an inward grin. "But you can see it if you want."

Chien gave him a look. "I'd like to know for when we can reschedule last night's mission."

"I don't know," Schuldig said. "You tell me. Isn't that your job?"

"I'll have to see the contract first," Chien said evenly.

Schuldig shrugged and fished it out of the desk they kept in the living room, tossing it in front of Chien. "Yo, Nagi, you'd better get ready if we want to make work on time."

Nagi glanced up. "Hai," he said. /We don't work until three./

/Yeah, but this fucker doesn't know that./

/Aa. True./ Nagi disappeared from the room. A few minutes later, the door to the bathroom clicked shut and the shower turned on.

Chien put the contract aside. "Fine," he said.

"Glad you agree," Schuldig said. He had no idea what Chien thought was fine, but he didn't precisely care.

Chien looked up and suddenly smiled. "There's one thing you might want to keep in mind, if you'd like to keep up this defiant attitude of yours, Schuldig."

Schuldig just waited.

"I do believe that the superiors in Esstet have someone that you consider an important member of your life," Chien said significantly. "If you'd ever like to see him again . . . in one piece . . . you'll follow my orders without complaint."

Schuldig turned and left the room, going into his bedroom and slamming the door. He had already relayed the previous night's events to Brad while he had been watching over Nagi, but he thought this might be something he'd want to know. /Crawford?/

Brad's response was immediate. /Yes?/

/Are you sure I can't kill him?/

/Quite so, yes./

Schuldig took a deep breath and let it out slowly. /I don't know how much longer I can keep this up./

/Sooner or later, we'll find out what they're after,/ Brad replied with his infinite patience. /You just have to wait for that. We can't act to thwart them until we know what they're trying to do./

Schuldig threw himself onto his bed, pouting. Chien was wearing on his last nerve. /That little fucker threatened me. He said that they'd kill you if I didn't follow his orders./

There was a pause. /Technically, that's threatening me,/ Brad replied, apparently not unnerved by this.

/Fine. Threatening us. Why isn't this bugging you?/

/Because there's nothing I can do about it at the moment, so worrying will only cloud my judgment./

Schuldig just groaned.

Nagi walked in a few minutes later. "Are you ready to go?" he asked quietly.

Schuldig nodded and rolling to his feet. The ride to Weiss' passed in silence, mostly because Nagi's head still hurt and he was not particularly in the mood for conversation, particularly not with a pissed off Schuldig. They got to the Koneko at about quarter to two. As it was a busy weekend afternoon, all four members of Weiss were working.

"Hi," Schuldig greeted them, wandering into the store with Nagi in tow. The others looked up.

"Yo," Yohji said, leaning over to kiss his cheek, apparently not caring that they were in full view of everyone. Omi smiled over at Nagi, who tried to smile back, but moving his face muscles made his head hurt more.

"Can I take Nagi into the back?" Schuldig asked. "He's concussed."

"Concussed?" Omi asked, looking taken aback. He shoved the flowers he was holding at Ken, who glared at him, and ushered them into the rest of the house. Yohji trailed along after them, ignoring Aya's death threats for abandoning the store. "What's going on?" Omi asked.

Schuldig gave them a simplified version of the previous nights' events. "We had a slight altercation. You'd better appreciate the things we do for you."

Omi gave him a narrow-eyed look. Schuldig, fearing that look, gave them the details.

"That's bad," Yohji stated.

"Oh yes," Schuldig said. "The fucktoy represents all things bad." He glanced at his watch. Work was on the other side of the city; he was going to have to leave soon to get there on time. "Can I leave Nagi here for the day? I'll pick him up later."

"I'm fine," Nagi protested, getting to his feet. His hand clenched down on the table as his head felt like it had split in two. "I'm fine," he repeated, through clenched teeth.

"Nagi-chen, sit down," Schuldig said firmly.

"What if he checks up on us?" Nagi asked, not sitting.

"Well, you're in the back doing computer work and can't be disturbed," Schuldig said, gently pushing him back into the chair. Nagi allowed himself to be pushed. "And you," he said teasingly to Yohji, "had better get back to work before Aya removes something I find valuable."

"Yeah, yeah," Yohji said. He leaned in and got another kiss, this one a bit more involved than his kiss on the cheek, then winked and went back into the store. Schuldig patted Nagi's shoulder reassuringly before following him out.

Nagi looked up at Omi, then sighed slightly. "You know . . . when I go home tonight, I think that'll be it for a while," he said, sounding miserable. "We're going to be lucky if we can keep Chien from killing all of us . . . inviting trouble by being friends with you doesn't seem like a good idea."

"No, it doesn't seem smart," Omi said, "but I doubt Schuldig and Yohji-kun will pay attention. So why should we?"

"I don't want you to get hurt . . ." Nagi said, looking away.

"You worry too much," Omi said. He scooted his chair over to Nagi and announced, "I'm going to kiss you."

Nagi squeaked, but he couldn't react fast enough to actually pull away. His eyes closed most of the way as Omi pressed his lips against Nagi's. "That . . . isn't very conducive to staying away from each other," he said, once Omi had pulled away.

"But I don't want to stay away from you," Omi said, and kissed him again. Nagi gave up and relaxed, attempting to kiss back with what little skill he had. Omi reached out and put his hand on Nagi's cheek, still kissing him.

"Oh," Nagi finally said, pulling away for air. "I'm sure I could process that if I wasn't concussed . . ."

"You're not supposed to overanalyze kisses," Omi said, trying not to look too sappy.

"All right," Nagi said. "My head hurts."

"You want to take a nap?" Omi asked.

"I'm not tired, just . . . ow."

"Want to watch a movie?"

"Okay. Just . . . do you need to get back to work?"

"They can handle it," Omi lied, giving Nagi another smile. He managed to get him over to the couch and flopped down on the end, letting Nagi lie down with his head in Omi's lap.

^^^^

Schuldig came to pick up Nagi on his way home from work. Nagi had spent most of the day on the sofa feeling terrible, but he insisted that he was fine to go home and face Chien. Fortunately for them, when they came home, Chien was nowhere to be seen.

Given this, Schuldig poked his head into Farferello's room, as soon as Nagi was safely ensconced in his room. "Yo," he said, and offered Farferello a deck of cards. Unsurprisingly, the albino was in the straightjacket.

Farferello looked at the cards, then up at Schuldig. "I'm not telekinetic, you know."

"Well, before I leave, I'll be checking to make sure you're secure in your straightjacket," Schuldig said, and smirked. "And I'm an inobservant guy. I make mistakes all the time."

Farferello thought about this for a few seconds. "That's acceptable," he finally stated.

"Is there anything else you want?" Schuldig asked.

"I want a cookie."

Schuldig wondered if this was Farferello's bizarre way of requesting a reward for helping them the previous day. It seemed best to not question. "What kind of cookie?"

"A really big one," Farferello replied.

Schuldig frowned. "Did anyone feed you today?"

"I am subsisting on irritation alone."

"Right. Dinner and a cookie."

^^^^

The next morning was quiet. Neither Schuldig nor Nagi needed to work, so both of them just did their best to stay out of Chien's way. This actually worked very well. On the other hand, Weiss had a much more interesting morning.

The flower shop was crowded, given that it was a Saturday, and all four of them were working. The phone was ringing almost constantly. All of them were beginning to dread what was going to happen if they ran out of flowers.

Yohji scooped up the phone one-handed, his arms filled with ferns. "Koneko no Sumi desu," he said. There was a pause, then he handed the phone off. "It's for you, Aya."

Aya scowled at both Yohji and then phone before taking it. "Aya desu."

There was a long pause.

"What?" Aya asked. It wasn't an 'I didn't hear you' sort of what. It was a 'what the hell do you mean?' kind of what. The flower shop quieted suddenly as the other members of Weiss glanced over. "No, I don't want to hear it," he said, his voice rising. "This had better be some sort of horrible joke, and when I find out who's playing it, they're going to die."

Several of the schoolgirls gave him shocked looks. He didn't sound like he was joking in the slightest.

"What's going on?" Yohji mouthed at him.

"I will not calm down!" Aya said, nearly yelling. "You lost my sister!"

Omi looked around. "I think we're having a personal emergency," he said in a slightly raised voice. "I'm afraid everyone will have to leave. Koneko no Sumi is closed for the day. Please come back tomorrow."

Moaning and griping, the customers (mostly schoolgirls) shuffled out. Aya was still yelling into the phone. Omi locked the door behind the girls, and glanced at Ken, who went outside to close the shutters and put the closed sign up.

"When I get there -- " Aya yelled.

Omi looked at Yohji and muttered, "How do you lose a comatose girl?"

Yohji shrugged helplessly. "Bad eyesight?"

Aya threw the phone at the wall, where it cracked and the pieces fell to the floor. Then he turned and stalked out of the shop.

"Now what?" Ken asked.

"Now I think one of you should follow him to make sure he doesn't run over anyone, or at least call the hospital if he does. And I'll stay here and call Kritiker." Omi paused. "How do you lose a comatose girl? It's not like she got up and walked away."

"Odds are probably good that she wasn't lost," Yohji said, this time without a trace of humor in his voice.

"Who steals comatose girls?" Omi burst out.

"Someone who knows they have a brother in Kritiker?" Yohji suggested.

"They must be stupid!" Omi protested. "He's not going to give up until whoever it did it is dead! In probably a slow, painful way. If they shot him full of holes, he'd probably still live long enough to kill them! Oh God, one of you follow him."

Yohji rolled his eyes. "Crowded store getting to you, Omittichi?" he asked, ruffling Omi's hair on his way by and not waiting for an answer before he left the room.

"I'll go, too," Ken said, following Yohji.

Omi called Kritiker, but received absolutely nothing useful. The person he spoke to merely said "we'll look into it", and then brushed him off when he tried to get further information. He was pacing around the store restlessly when Ken and Yohji returned, about a half hour later.

"Where's Aya-kun?" he asked.

"Beats me," Yohji said, pulling a can of soda out of the fridge.

Ken saw Omi's look and hastened to explain. "He was freaking out, and he stormed off to look for his sister. Yohji and I thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea to get in his way."

"He's not armed, is he?" Omi asked.

"Not unless he's come back here for his katana," Ken told him.

"No. Okay."

Yohji reached out and ruffled his hair again, ignoring Omi's glare. "Don't worry. He'll be okay. He just needs to blow off some steam, then he'll figure out that he can't find her just by driving around Tokyo, and he'll come back here. So I suggest we start doing what we do best, and try to figure out what's going on."

"That's not what we do best," Ken pointed out.

"Fine," Omi said, "we'll find out what's going on so we know who to kill. Is that better?"

"Much."

"Well, I called Kritiker," Omi said. "They fobbed me off."

"Surprise, surprise," Yohji said dryly. "You know, given that we're one of their best teams, they treat us like shit."

"Yeah, apparently they didn't notice that they don't want one of their most lethal agents wandering around Tokyo enraged. And probably hysterical."

Ken made a face. "I'm having trouble connecting hysterical with Aya."

"I'm sure he'll get there sometime today."

"Well, I'm gonna call Schu," Yohji said. "When weird stuff goes on, they usually know what's up, so . . ."

Omi grabbed his wrist as he began to leave the room. "Don't they have somebody new in charge?"

"Oh, damn, that's right. I'll have to . . . uh . . ." Yohji frowned, not knowing that Omi had, by this point, been informed of Schwarz's talents, and almost positive that Ken didn't know. "I'll call his cell." With that, he wandered out of the room.

Ken frowned. "What was all that about?"

"Schuldig's a bit crazy. I try not to ask. I just let them deal with each other as they see fit."

"Oh, sure," Ken said, rolling his eyes. "Fine, don't tell me."

"Well, he's right. They might know something."

Yohji, meanwhile, had gone up to his apartment and flopped onto his sofa. He tried, rather fumblingly, to get Schuldig's attention.

Schuldig made an alarmed noise. /Not so loud!/

/Sorry. I don't know what I'm doing, remember?/

/Remind me to give you lessons,/ Schuldig said, feeling a migraine coming on. /What can I do for you?/

/I was wondering if you knew anything about the kidnapping of one Fujimiya Aya./

/Uh . . . no. Should I?/

/Well, we're kind of at a loss. Omi just keeps saying 'who would kidnap a comatose girl?' And Aya -- I mean, the other Aya, not the kidnapped comatose one -- is freaking out and going on a rampage around the city, so we sort of want to find her as soon as we can./

/What is Aya good for?/ Schuldig asked, half thinking to himself, half asking Yohji.

/Beats me. I've never even met the girl. You guys just sometimes know stuff that we don't, so I thought I would check with you./

/We don't have anything./

/Could Nagi look? Or do you think that would be too dangerous for you guys right now? I mean, I'd understand if you couldn't. You don't want to be caught helping us right now./

/I can ask him. I'll let him decide whether he can do it safely or not./

/Okay. Hey, are you still supposed to be killing us?/

/I'm hoping he forgets./

/Oh, that's comforting./

/Well, yeah, a bit./

^^^^

Aya came home late that night. As Yohji had predicted, he had blown off enough steam to be coherent again, although he was by no means happy. He sat at the table silently seething.

"Look, we're gonna find her," Ken said, trying to be helpful. "Just . . . I don't know . . . hold it together, okay?"

Aya glared at Ken, who held up his hands in surrender and wandered away. Omi was downstairs on the computer, trying in vain to find anything in Kritiker's records about Aya's sister. "Any luck?" he asked.

"No," Omi said tensely. "I've got her hospital records, but . . . nothing useful."

Yohji was lounging on the sofa, reading a magazine. "We have faith, Omittchi. You'll come up with something."

"I hope so," Omi said. "Or Aya-kun's going to explode." There was a pause, during which the only noise was his typing, then he made a brief noise of surprise.

"What's up?" Ken asked.

"E-mail. From . . . Nagi-kun?" He frowned at the address. "Here, I'll just read it aloud." He cleared his throat. "Omi-san -- he calls me Omi-san? I've gotta work on that -- e-mail seems to be the best way to contact you, since I can make sure this is secure, whereas calling or coming to see you would be much more dangerous. Schuldig asked me to check into Fujimiya Aya-san's disappearance. I can't say precisely that I know what happened, but I've found records in Esstet's mainframe that lead me to believe that group of women called Schreient was behind it. Since Esstet was looking to hire them, it's reasonable to extrapolate that Esstet wanted Aya-san for some reason. However, I couldn't find anything that would explain what that would be. I'll let you know if I find anything else. PS -- Schuldig is moping terribly without Yohji-san. Just thought I'd let you know."

Yohji laughed. "Schuldig's gonna kick his ass."

"Well, at least we know something," Omi said, trying to look on the positive side.

"Oh, sure," Yohji said, "I'm sure that telling Aya that his sister has been abducted by a very dangerous, mostly insane and rather powerful organization is really going to make his day. Great idea, Omi."

"Look, at least I have something to work with," Omi said, glaring at him. "And just for that, you get to go tell him."

"Make me." Yohji picked up his magazine again.

Ken hastily exited the room.

"Just go tell him while I look for stuff," Omi said. "Fix him a drink."

"What's the point in telling him?" Yohji asked. "It'll only make him more upset."

"I suppose it depends on whether we think he'll be more upset now or whether he'll kill us later for hiding things from him," Omi said, going back to typing.

"Right." Yohji stood up to leave the room.

Omi went back to the Internet.

^^^^

Chien called Nagi and Schuldig into the kitchen that evening for a 'meeting.' Schuldig tried to not appear too put out about this, and Nagi sat quietly in his chair, waiting for the bombshell. "This had better be good," Schuldig said, lounging against the counter.

Chien arched an eyebrow at him. "Is there some place you'd rather be?" he asked mildly. "Your friend Yohji's, perhaps?"

"Actually, I was watching a movie," Schuldig said. "And this is right in the middle, and I don't have it on tape."

"I'm sure you'll survive," Chien said dryly.

Schuldig just gave him an annoyed look.

"I have new orders concerning Weiss," Chien said, then paused, with a small smile.

Nagi shifted, but said nothing.

Schuldig smiled back, hoping to remind Chien that he was crazy and unstable.

The moment drew out further.

"God, spit it out," Schuldig snapped.

"Esstet has decided that they may, in the end, prove useful," Chien said. "So they're not to be killed. However, you two are to cut off contact with them. Our superiors aren't fond of your . . . relationships."

"Oh, yeah, 'cause we've seen what abstinence is doing for you," Schuldig said, sneering.

Chien just smiled. "I wasn't under the impression that Kudou Yohji was just sex to you, Schuldig. And that's what has them concerned."

"Are we done here?" Schuldig asked.

"I don't like your tone, Schuldig."

"Well, I don't like you," Schuldig snarled back. His frustration level had reached its limit, and he was tired of talking around the subject.

"That's just fine with me," Chien said, "but I'm still your superior and as such, that demands a little respect."

"I haven't killed you in your sleep," Schuldig said. "That's as much respect as you're going to get."

Chien gave him a cool glance. "You're dismissed. However, I advise that you do some thinking about your attitude."

Schuldig was gone halfway through the sentence.

"May I go?" Nagi asked in a quiet voice.

Chien waved abruptly, dismissing him. Nagi was out of his chair and in his room before Chien had even seen him move.

Schuldig flopped down on his bed, sulking. After a few moments, he decided it might be a good idea to give this news to Brad. /So guess what?/ he asked, linking to Brad easily now that he'd made the connection once. /We're not supposed to kill Weiss anymore. Bully for us!/

/Come again?/ Brad asked, sounding amused.

/Well, the little fucker that's supposed to be in charge just informed us that he has orders from on high that we're not supposed to kill Weiss anymore. I hate that man. I'm going to kill him./

/That would be a bad idea./

/Someday I'll be able to, and I'll take great pleasure in it./

/Did he give any reasons for why you're suddenly not supposed to kill Weiss? It's not like them to change orders so drastically./

/He said that they may 'prove useful.'/

There was a long silence while Brad pondered all this and Schuldig waited. /It's almost as if they never expected you to kill them at all, when you got the first set of orders,/ Brad finally said.

/Then why make us jump through the hoops?/ Schuldig asked, annoyed.

/I'm not sure. But if I had to guess, from what I know of Esstet, they were curious to see if you could get out of the orders without outright disobeying and proving yourselves traitors. A test of your resourcefulness, so to speak./

/Well, I'm a regular Boy Scout,/ Schuldig snarled.

/Quite./

/And speaking of them being useful,/ Schuldig said suddenly, /Esstet has had Aya kidnapped./

/Which one?/

/Aya. Not Ran./

/And you're sure that Esstet was behind it?/

/Pretty sure./ Schuldig went over what Nagi had found, and had conveyed to him in hushed tones the night before, after Chien had gone to bed. /So, yeah. Pretty sure./

/That's interesting./

/Any ideas?/

/Several, each one more nonsensical than the last,/ Brad said dryly.

/So tell me anyway. It'll be fun./

/I'd like to think about it a little more first./

/Oh, okay./

^^^^