Part 15

"Well," Yohji said leaning forward over the small table. Schuldig's ears perked up, glad that he was going to get some information from Weiss, even if it was only from Yohji. "There's this child slavery ring operating in Gion and it seems that they have some powerful political backing. We were sent in to take it down, but although we know that they are working out of a certain tea house we had to get someone invited."

"And what's this to do with Aya being a prostitute?" Schuldig asked.

Yohji, who had just taken a mouthful of the ginger lemonade went for the distant spitting approach. "Who told you that?" he asked, wiping his mouth, his eyes wide, "Aya, a prostitute, I'm going to tell him you said that. he'll threaten you instead of me for a change."

"You said that he had clients and you couldn't afford him." Schuldig said, "I just guessed."

"Aya's deep under cover." Yohji admitted, "as the geisha Murasakiiro."

Schuldig started to giggled, "Murasakiiro, you say." He asked, "Murasakiiro." He laughed out loud. "Priceless."

"What?" Yohji asked. He had no idea where Schuldig was going with this.

"Crawford's in love with Abyssinian, oh priceless." Schuldig laughed, "I am so never letting that go. In love with the ice maiden of Weiss. That's got years worth of mileage." He wiped his eyes, he was laughing that hard. "Oh, what I wouldn't give for a photo."

"Crawford?" Yohji asked incredulous, "Aya's mystery customer is Crawford?"

Nagi ran into the street pulling the over sized sweat shirt over his head as he ran. He was sobbing. He ran and ran and ran with no care where his feet took him, all he could focus on was the sharp edges of the netsuke in his hand. The man grabbed him hard and the world went black as all he could focus on was the sweet smelling cloth over his mouth and nose and the way his eyes felt sore and swollen from crying. He didn't even notice the person who picked him and threw him over his shoulder. His hand fell open and the small white netsuke fell out, landing in the grass.

Schuldig stood up straight, as if a rod had been slid down his back. Yohji backed away from him, they were in the torture museum at the time. He had gone from being animated and saying how much Farfarello would have loved it, which Yohji didn't doubt, to going wide eyed and silent as if a switch had been thrown. His mouth made futile little gestures and he started, just a little, to drool. Then he fainted.

The manager came flying around the corner, where he nearly tripped on a screen and knocked the head crusher flying. He apologised profusely as he phoned for an ambulance, Schuldig opened his eyes and grabbed Yohji's ankle. "Something's happening," he gasped out, "something's wrong with Nagi."

Aoi was beside herself, sobbing violently into Ken's arms as if the world was ending. Her crying as impossibly loud and she had gathered Ken's sweater in her fists as he patted her on the back softly. Crawford looked discomfited. Ken rolled his eyes, the last thing that Weiss needed was the problems of Schwarz added to their own. Aoi was reaching an almost unbearable level of volume and no amount of coaxing would reveal why.

"He ran off that way." Ken said pointing, "towards town."

"I'll go with you." Aya said, slipping on a pair of pink trainers. "Two pairs of eyes can see better than one."

Nagi woke up with a head that felt that it was full of cotton wool. His tongue was swollen and his throat dry. He looked around his surroundings, it was a small underground room, the walls were painted a dull grey and there was a distinct smell to the green carpet. There was some ragged furniture and an empty water cooler sat in a dark green pool. Three other teenagers, all younger than he was, were huddled in the corner around a small heater. They were all hobbled. He sat up and swung his legs down. His head still felt stuffy and he thought he might be sick. He moved his tongue around in his mouth and felt the filling. Oh well, he thought, there's worst things to be than kidnapped.

"You're awake." One of the others said turning, the three of them were practically joined at the hip. "You were out for so long."

Nagi's smile was as vulpine as the way his head felt let it be. "I'm Nagi, and I'd say by nightfall we're going to be free."

"But," the smallest boy protested, he had a shock of blonde hair and his eyes were grey, there was a smatter of freckles over his nose. "They're never going to let us go, they said that they were going to sell us in Hong Kong." He wailed out loud. Nagi shuddered his hands flying over his ears, his head was stuffy.

"They will come and get us, by nightfall." He repeated. "My family will come and get us." His head rested between his knees as his breathing steadied, the chloroform was affecting him too much. He was beginning to wonder if he was drugged. "They'll make them suffer."

"I'm Paul." The blonde boy said quietly, "I was on holiday, they took me from the hotel."

"I'm Miko." The Japanese girl said, her hair was short, and there was a terrible scratch along her cheek. She was very pretty, "I was on my way home from school."

"I'm Shinji." The last boy said, "I was with my girlfriend, I don't know what happened to her. I've been here the longest."

"Well," Nagi said, "it wasn't entirely my intention, but I was bait."

Authors Note

Sorry about the short update but I had completely forgotten I hadn't finished this, and I was happily planning the sequel. Umm, all will be resolved, dear reader, rest assured.

Also why you shouldn't kidnap telekinetics.

And Hannah, I know I didn't send the picture but you need to give me the rest of your email.

Please review.