5. Truth.
T: Sorry about the delays guys but I stupidly burned myself at work and have been unable to type for a while…back now though! There is an up and coming evilness in this chapter but apart from that warnings remain the same…oh and nope I still have no ownership of these guy's.
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He has taken his lunch in the office canteen this morning and is learning about Usagi-san's 'special someone' from her co-worker, Sara-san..
"He is only just sixteen and yet the care he shows her is of the sort you would expect of a much older man.
"Chihiro-chan jokes always that she has aged him prematurely but…" He pauses to take a sip of his drink and then checking once over each shoulder, leans a little closer in order to enquire,
"Do you believe in re-incarnation, Monou-san?"
A sudden sharp image of Tenshi comes to mind and he replies strongly to the affirmative.
Sara-san smiles to himself and remarks,
"I thought you might say that, you seemed like the type. Myself, I have always been suspicious of such thoughts and the convenience of them, but then I met Tenshi-kun and…"
He freezes at that name and a sudden creeping horror spreading over him he enquires,
"Is Tenshi-kun Usagi-san's boyfriend?"
"Yes that is correct…Onitsuka Tenshi…he is quite a unique character and knows things that a boy of that age should not…"
Sara-san continues to talk, to discuss why he believes Tenshi is a re-incarnation of another and yet he is no longer listening.
He had known that it was more than possible that Tenshi was taken, an open and handsome boy such as that being a good catch for any woman.
Yet for Tenshi to be attached to one he had thought to seduce and then kill…
For Tenshi to be as a perfect weapon to use against Usagi-kun…
It was a thing that both pleased him and unsettled him at the same time.
He had not experienced such a conflict of emotions since he had learned that his Obaachan was to be his next opponent.
Fuuma has come to' keep him company' today, though he suspects that the young man's presence here is more because of his own loneliness rather than the Sakurazukamori's.
Their friendship is, at the moment, within one of the periods of genuine trust and thus he is little concerned that the younger man is rifling through the various faxes pertaining to his current assignment.
"It seems your target has drafted himself in a little protection." He remarks as he gestures to the most recent fax.
"Yes and I think we can both guess who that 'protection' may be."
"One of your old clan?"
"Who else would have the courage to stand against Sakurazukamori?"
Fuuma apparently hears something in his voice that he had not realised was there, for the boy places the fax to one side and says,
"It can not be your Obaachan, Sakurazuka-san; it has, after all, been four years since you changed selves and she was fragile even then."
"She is stronger than she seems and I think that for the sake of avenging her beloved grandson she could find herself super human strength."
"You fear crossing her, fear that she shall see you and know you for traitor at last."
"Maybe." He replies, the word seeming lost and small on the mouth of one who should be always certain…powerful
He shakes his head clear the memory but not before he sees, in the eye of his mind, the hatred that had been clear in his Obaachan's eyes as they had come face to face.
"Monu-kun, are you alright?"
"Forgive me, Sara-san, I was caught a moment in my memories."
"Forgive me, I did not mean to bring about any adverse recollection…."
"No, it was nothing you did; I simply just seem to get caught up in my thoughts every now and again."
The man smiles then and glancing to the puddle of coffee to his right he enquires,
"Do you always doodle as such when lost in thought?"
He takes notice then of the puddle of pail brown liquid and realises that he has sketched into it an inverse pentagram; the edges of which are fading already back into the puddle.
"Sometimes, yes."
"Tenshi-kun does the same, you know, though he draws always the more traditional pentagram.
"I asked him why once and he told me that he did not know…that it was something that he had simply always done.
"Would you give me such an answer if I asked that question of you, Monou-san?"
"To be honest I would most likely tell you that it is of no matter to you, that we do not yet know one another well enough got you to ask such questions and yet…
"I believe I can trust you Sara-san and so I tell you that I draw that shape because it recalls to me one who I lost in my childhood."
"Chihiro-chan was telling me last night that she thought you had been through the wars."
"You seem to be closer than work colleagues."
"You have a shrewd eye, Monou-san. Chihiro-chan, Richou-kun, our old manager Hichigo-kun and myself all went to university together.
"Of course we had not planned on going to the same company but when Hichigo-kun got a job here he found the people under him incompetent and asked us to help him.
"We agreed and after a few months together we could not imagine being anywhere else, Hichigo-kun was like family to us, after all and working for him made us feel appreciated."
"You speak in the past tense, did do something to lose your trust?"
"No, he was murdered."
"Really?"
The smile falls from the man and a nervous demeanour takes over his face, making him seem smaller and somehow less powerful than he had before this moment.
"The police said that they could not find his body, but there had been enough blood at the crime scene that it was impossible that he was anything but dead…before that Hichigo-kun had been nervous about this proposed change in taxation we were promoting…the night before though he seemed happier, he even said that he might soon have someone he could introduce to us and then…"
"Do you have an idea of who might have done such a thing?"
"Hichigo-kun was very superstitious and talked always of various ghosts and goblins following about him.
"It was part of who Hichigo-kun was though so we usually laughed it off and moved away from the subject.
"A few days before he vanished he told us about this legendary assassin who was meant to strike at the dead of night and leave no trace of ever being there.
"There was a not of seriousness in his voice this time and though we did not believe his legendary assassin was real, we did believe that he was being stalked by…someone…"
"This 'someone' is also who you suspect of killing him."
"That is correct."
"You fear that they are now stalking you?"
"This taxation is going to rock a few boats if it goes through, the sort of boats that it might not be wise to overturn…if they have gotten wind of our plans then it would make sense for them to stop things before they progressed too far."
He is about to find out what else Sara-san knows, for the other is clearly holding something back, when Usagi-san enters the room, her bright smile somewhat dimmed today.
"Chihiro-chan, what is the matter?" Sara-san enquires as he places a comforting had about his friends shoulder.
"Do not worry yourself, Shimbo-kun, I am being silly."
"Chihiro…"
"Tenshi was not his usual self today at lunch…his smile seemed duller and he seemed reluctant to talk to me of what he did with himself the day before yesterday.
"When eventually he did tell me his smile returned and yet it was not now for me but for whoever he spent the day before yesterday with."
"It is good that Tenshi-kun has made a true friend, is it not Chihiro-chan? Just yesterday you were telling me that you were sad that there was only his mother and yourself in his life."
"That is true and yet somehow this is different. The excitement with which he talked of that day was of a sort that I have not seen in him since we first started dating…"
"It will sort itself out, Chihiro-chan; Tenshi-kun loves you, after all."
She seems to settle a little at this and yet the doubt and the discomfort that that doubt brings her, is clear still in her eyes.
He watches this discomfort and has to fight a smile from forming onto his lips.
She had said that Tenshi has been happier than he had in a long time, that that happiness was for his sake…
To believe that the boy might care for him even just a little…to think that Usagi-san would never know that it was he who was causing a divide between them…
Perhaps there was no true conflict in this situation.
Perhaps there was hope for a suitable resolution to all of difficulties that he was currently facing.
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T: Tenshi was originally going to be the son of one of the people that Subaru has to kill but I thought this would be too much of a conflict for our hero, thus this scenario was born. Unfortunately things will be getting even more complex for poor Subaru in the next chapter, which is going to be a bit longer in coming as I haven't even finished inking it out! R+R I like to know where I'm going right & where I'm going wrong!