Part 10
Omi looked at the spread of games that Aya handed him, "but these are the wrong games," he said, "not that I'm complaining, but I thought I wasn't allowed Manhunter."
"The man in the shop was an ass." Aya answered, "so I bought all the games he said that were too violent for me, all the ones I said you couldn't have, just to annoy him. You shouldn't have any of them."
"Oh no," Omi said, "you said I couldn't have them and being afraid of your room raids I knew better than to get them."
Ken wandered into the kitchen and picked up one of the dvd boxes on the table, "Fatal Frame." He said with a bit of a laugh in his voice, "perhaps walking through a gloomy haunted mansion where several horrific murders took place doesn't sound so terrible to you?" He shrugged, "Hey, Omi, this sounds fun, can I borrow it?" Omi just shrugged. "How bad can wandering through a house with a camera taking photos be? It seems to have a high rating as well, could be fun."
"Don't you have that motor cycle rally tonight?" Omi asked, working out that the evening would not go to plan unless the house was empty.
"Yeah, but that's not for hours and hours, I can make a start on this and still be out for nine." Ken was almost wheedling.
"You know what that game is, don't you?" Omi asked, having a single worry about Ken playing the game.
"Taking photos of murder scenes, how hard can it be." Omi bit back his answer, if Ken wasn't going to listen then the only way he could learn was to actually go hands on.
Aya watched Ken go with a small amount of trepidation, "shouldn't we warn him about that? I mean, I've heard that that game is terrifying and Disney movies scare Ken."
"He'll learn, I doubt he'll get past the intro." Omi shrugged, "and besides, it's only a game, how scary can it be, oh, you got me Silent Hill as well." He was beaming, "Nagi is going to be so jealous, Crawford said he couldn't have them either."
"If that's the case then you're not to play them tonight, because the vast majority of these have NC-17 ratings and he's only fifteen." Aya did his best to look parental, "and Crawford will kill me."
"Kill you or kiss you?" Omi said with a smile.
"Do you want me to kill you?" Aya answered with a smile, "now I suppose you want to go beautify yourself for your baby sitting date?" Omi just grinned, "it'll only be two hours, is that enough time."
In the mission room Ken sat on the floor, it was darkened apart from the flicker of the TV set where the game was opening. How bad could it be? He thought, though the intro. wasn't pleasant. Then he noticed the shortness of Miku's skirt and decided not that bad at all.
Aya opened the door to Nagi where he stood looking as spruce as he could, in fact if Aya wasn't mistaken he would guess that someone was wearing aftershave, taking a deep breath, someone was wearing Crawford's aftershave. If it had have been for anyone else then Aya would have found it cute.
"All the things for Mi-chan have been done." Aya said as he pulled his coat on to go, "there's food in the fridge, you have to sit with her when she's going to sleep, or she won't, and make sure she has at least two blankets." He looked around, "and check on her, okay, and I'll have my cell if you need me."
"Go," Omi said from the door, "Ken's going to be here till nine, and Yohji doesn't normally go out till ten, that means we're only going to be alone for two hours and she'll be asleep. It's all right, go."
Aya looked skittish. He looked at Nagi and then Omi and then at the door, "It's not too late for me to cancel."
"Aya," Omi said in his Bombay "the mission's gone to hell because you're all incompetent" voice, "go, enjoy your date with Crawford."
"I'm not going with Crawford." Aya insisted.
"Then why is he sitting outside waiting for you?" Nagi asked.
"He's giving me a lift. Car pooling." Aya answered, "now if you're sure you're fine."
"Crawford's waiting." Nagi jibed.
"I've got my cell." Aya said as Omi closed the door behind him.
In the mission room Ken was entranced and horrified, he knew he had to beat the game before he started crying, then a pair of arms dropped from the balcony above, he jumped a clear foot in the air with a yell.
"What was that?" Nagi asked as Omi pulled a pair of sodas from the fridge and handed him one.
"Ken," Omi answered, "he's playing Fatal Frame."
Nagi nodded, "ah," he said, "that game's freaky, it scared the bejesus out of Far who still runs from women in white kimonos, are you sure you want him to play that?"
"He's a grown man." Omi answered, "and he wouldn't believe us when we told him. Ken's not stupid but sometimes you have to let him make his own mistakes."
"You look really nice tonight," Nagi said a little shyly, he made sure that Mihana was in her pen with her toys and was playing happily, then he stepped forward and kissed Omi.
"Aw, bless." Yohji said from the door, "a jailbait orgy." He reached forward to pinch Omi's cheek.
"Aw, bless," Omi answered, "a pink cowboy." He was wearing a pink cowboy shirt and a snakeskin cowboy hat.
"Isn't that an awful lot of clothes for you?" Nagi asked. "I mean if you're clubbing and all."
Yohji leant back against the fridge with a grin, "I aint dressed for clubbing, little men, not yet, at any rate. I just wanted to see if you had anything for dinner."
Both of them shook their heads, Yohji reached into his pocket and handed them a ten thousand yen bill, "get yourself some pizza and I went out dressed to kill, okay." He blew them both a kiss as he left.
"Well, that was just weird." Nagi said.
"He'll be back later, there's no way he'll go out like that," Omi said, "he wasn't showing any midriff."
In the mission room Ken was weeping but he really did not want to stop playing the game, because if he did then he would definitely have nightmares. "Ken?" Omi shouted down the stairs.
He came to the conclusion that his resulting scream was not in any way girly.
Aya looked at the pay phone in the opera house with undisguised longing. Crawford rolled his eyes. "It's been fifteen minutes," Crawford said quietly, "they'll be fine, you can call them at the interval, but they'll think that you don't trust them."
"I know," Aya answered, "but…"
"I know," Crawford said taking his hand, "but they'll be fine, they're both qualified assassins and they're both old beyond their years and people their age look after children all over the world."
"I know." Aya said, "but…"
"They're going to be fine." Crawford squeezed his hand.
"But Ken's in the mission room playing Fatal Frame and if I phone he might jump out of his skin." He gave a rather sly grin.
"Now that's the best excuse I've heard you make, but phone his cell, so I can hear the yelp."
"You're wicked." Aya said with a grin.
"It was your idea." Crawford answered, scandalised. "Far bought it, because it caused such blasphemy it had to hurt god." He laughed to himself, "he wouldn't come out from under the kitchen table for a week." He outright grinned, "but it was much funnier when Schuldig tried to find out what was so scary and read his mind." He sniggered "but you really had to be there." He bit his knuckles trying to hide his laughter, "but the resulting scream of "dear sweet Jesus-God" got Far out from under the table and chasing him around the kitchen."
"Did you play it?" Aya asked as they started walking towards their seat.
"Do I look possessed?" Crawford said, "I read the reviews in Nagi's magazine and then bought stock in Tecmo, they've made a sequel you know." He looked at Aya with a smile, "are you going to play it?"
Aya shook his head, "I just wanted to know how to scare the wits out of Ken."
In the mission room Ken sneezed thinking someone might be talking about him, then he saved, knowing that if he went into the hidden sacrifice room without saving he would die and he'd have to do that bit in the corridor again. He didn't want to do that again, so he saved.
Yohji opened the door, "chibis, I have returned." He shouted, it gave Nagi and Omi the warning they needed to peel apart and fling themselves at opposite ends of the sofa. "Did you miss me?" He asked popping his head around the parlour.
"where did you go?" Omi asked, scratching his neck in the hope that the red lines might cover his hickey.
"To see a man about a dog." Yohji answered with a grin, "now I'll just go get changed and let the ladies of Tokyo appreciate minna no Kudoh Yohji."
"From a distance?" Nagi asked in his most innocent voice, "through the group of men."
Yohji just grinned, "I'm gonna get ready for the beauties of Tokyo."
"Schu's out tonight, he's going to be in Feathers." Nagi said with a bit of a smirk.
"Now is that a fashion statement or a club?" Omi said with his puppy dog eyes.
"Ha ha, is that baby meant to be asleep on the floor?" Yohji said as he left them.
Omi looked at Mihana who had, it was true, fallen asleep on the floor. Nagi noticed it and lifted her with his power as Omi stepped over and took her from where she was levitating, "I'll take her and put her to bed, you want to wait for me and then we can go back to tormenting Ken."
Nagi just smiled.
Yohji came down the stairs dressed in the manner of David Lee Roth, wearing heavy boots, spandex trousers and a crop top that looked more like a sloggi sports bra, over it he was wearing a vintage army jacket from what might have been the American civil war, complete with epaulettes. "How do I look?" He asked.
Nagi burst out laughing, "yeah, Omi, that joke was really funny."
"I hear you, chibi." Yohji said, "is it that one about the two frogs in the bath, because that is really, really funny." He looked around, "have you seen my hair-spray."
"Yeah," Omi said with a smile, "it's in the mission room."
Omi looked at Nagi, Nagi looked back, "we'll go with you." He said.
Yohji went down the stairs where Ken was sat in almost pitch darkness apart from the flickering of the screen, the game appeared to be playing a soundtrack of white noise. Yohji lifted his complete hold concrete in a can hair-spray, and started to spray, Nagi used his power to push him so the fine mist went everywhere but his hair. "My eyes!" Yohji yelled.
"By all that's holy." Ken screamed and not even seeing them he ran up the stairs and slammed all the doors on the way into the kitchen.
Yohji watched him go with a look of bemusement, "registered assassin," he muttered, "all right, chibis, I'm out for the evening. How do I look?"
"You look like a gay prince charming." Nagi supplied.
Yohji beamed, "do I need more make up?" He asked.
"Go," Omi said, "you look fine, now we have to send Ken to his motorcycle rally."
"How are you going to do that?" Yohji asked as he reached the front door.
"Easy," Nagi answered, "a judicious application of telekinesis."
Author's note:
I have played Fatal Frame, or as it's known in the UK Project Zero, and it is incredibly frightening for many reasons, it might even be scarier than Silent Hill, though it's a close call.
One of the most disturbing of the ghosts (with the possible exception of the broken woman from 2 who has every bone in her body broken and flops around after you- ugh) is the blind woman who for the most part is just a disembodied voice screaming my eyes, my eyes, give me back my eyes, usually when you've nerved yourself up to open a door you're pretty sure something nasty is behind. So you're wound as tight as a guitar string, you've found out that the door you've just come through has been fastened with human hair no less, and this disembodied voice starts telling you about her eyes. It's not pleasant. And they have names like that "the hanging woman, crouching child, running child, the broken woman, the bound man, the shrine maiden, the rope maiden, the falling man, Kirie's love." You've not known fear till you've come up against the high priest either.