Chapter 2: Bind (mix one)
By Kaitou Magician
The organization had no name.
Names gave things shape, boundaries. Names defined things, and They were more than happy to be left as an amorphous shadow, untraceable and untouchable.
For the syndicate was not simply a collection of petty thieves, sulking in back alleys. Their goals were far grander, and their reach spanned all sectors of society. They dealt not only in guns and blood, but in stocks and technology and science—especially in science. The organization funded and ran laboratories throughout the world, fronts to hide cells of scientists working on more illicit experiments.
The syndicate carefully chose its scientists. Possible targets were tagged for observation when they were young, most of them barely into college when they caught the organization's eye. The organization wanted only the brightest students with intelligence and potential, but They were also careful not to chose those whose absence from the scientific community would be missed.
So They watched and waited, and when the syndicate found a target to Their liking, They then searched for the scientist's Archimedes' lever: that precise piece of information that would move the target right into Their hands.
The most common lever was blackmail, threatening retribution against family members unless the scientists cooperated. Men and women who would have readily died before performing the experiments they were forced to commit became compliant when the life hanging in the balance was not their own, but their child's or loved one's.
The scientists in Cell Six were a mixed bunch. Some of them were there because they wanted to be, because their passion for science had led them outside the realm of ethics and acceptability. Most of them were there because of such coercion.
When Bolero, her caretaker, pulled Shiho into Cell Six's laboratory for the first time, everyone stilled at their entrance, hands frozen over their current task as if the smallest movement could trigger an explosion. The lab was full of soft whirling noises and staccato beeps, and was blindingly bright compared to Bolero's dingy apartment, but it also felt sterile and oppressive. Before Shiho had time to examine this new world of strange equipment half-hidden on tall countertops, Bolero dragged her further into the room.
"Doctor Liu?" Bolero asked, though it came out more like a command. The frowning woman flipped her long, red hair over her shoulder in an impatient motion.
"Here," Dr Liu replied in a soft-spoken voice. Carefully and precisely, he stripped off the Latex gloves he was wearing and walked over to speak to them. A Chinese expatriate, Dr Liu was a small, neat man with wire-rim glasses, gray-peppered hair, and, Shiho soon would learn, a perchance for starched collar shirts under his lab coat.
Dr Liu stood calm and obedient as Bolero introduced her, though Shiho didn't bother to listen. In the small girl's opinion, the transfer of guardianship made no difference. Experience had taught her that this new place and living with Bolero (or any of the other members of the organization she had been forced to stay with over the years) were bound to be the same.
Shiho stared off into the middle distance, absently looking at the capillary sequencer on the far counter, pretending she didn't realize that everyone was staring at her and that none of the scientists had made a move back to the experiments they had abandoned upon her and Bolero's arrival.
But while the tension in the air may have been almost palpable, it was nothing compared to the sheer agony of being around so many members of the organization. The miasma which seemed to cling to everyone whose life touched the syndicate bore down on Shiho, slipping under her skin to press against her frail bones. Every second she spent here (spent anywhere really, because she was always with Them) felt like a hand pushing against her diaphragm, making her lungs struggle to expand and her heart beat erratically.
Every moment of her life was torture.
Bolero left without a backwards glace, but Shiho hardly noticed. Her guardian had never been much of a presence in her life. With Bolero's exit, though, Shiho could no longer pretend to ignore the staring. Defiantly, Shiho stared back, not letting any expression cross her face. Her view, however, was obscured when Dr Liu crouched down to her level and smiled.
This did nothing to reassure Shiho. In her experience, the adults that smiled were the worst. She expected some worthless platitude, like 'you're not alone anymore' (which was a lie, because she was always alone, every minute she spent away from Akemi) or 'don't be afraid' (which was impossible when terror choked her like poison whenever she was around Them).
Instead, he gently said, "My name is Doctor Xiaoyang Liu. I am the head of Cell Six." There was a pause, clearly intended so that Shiho could reciprocate the introduction, but the young blonde remained silent. Dr Liu had already been given a file with all of her personal data. There was no need to force herself to speak.
Dr Liu was the first to break their staring contest, taking off his glasses to wipe them clean with a handkerchief. Shiho inhaled deeply through her nose, glad that it was slowly becoming easier to breathe. None of these people felt as…bad as Bolero (Shiho had no idea how to explain the sensations she felt around members of the organization, and since every time she tried, her caretaker ended up giving her strange looks, Shiho had given up long ago), but there were far more of them in the lab than she was used to dealing with.
"Child," a woman with mousy brown hair and angry green eyes spoke up from behind Dr Liu. The way she lengthened the 'l' and snapped the 'd' made the word sound unfamiliar. "When Doctor Liu asks you a question, you will answer it."
"Adele," Dr Liu's voice was a mild reproach. "She is just a child."
But that flared Shiho's temper--because she might be ten, but she was not some stupid child--forcing the young girl to bite out, "It's pointless." The two adults turned back to her, confused. "Talking," Shiho clarified. "You already have my file."
"Ahh," Dr Liu considered this, "I guess you have been through this many times before." Shiho really wished he'd stop smiling.
"The file," Adele snapped coldly, "said that you were a silent, sullen child, and that-" The rest of her remark was cut off by Dr Liu, who laid a restraining hand on her arm. With his other hand, the scientist withdrew his wallet. Flipping it open, he held out to Shiho a picture of a smiling Chinese woman swinging a small girl in pigtails onto her lap.
"My wife Meigui and my daughter Jun," he explained. "Jun will be turning six in three weeks."
Akemi is in my file, Shiho realized, with a flash of fear for her sister's safety. Shiho looked up into Dr Liu's eyes, expecting to see that look of cold, smug superiority all of her other guardians had worn, but all she could find was understanding and sympathy. Disconcerted, Shiho looked down again at the tiny photograph, and realized that Dr Liu was here for the same reason she was.
It was a shock. Shiho didn't know what to think.
Hesitantly, Shiho reached out and closed his wallet. Looking Dr Liu in the eyes, Shiho considered for the first time that maybe his kindness was real.
"I'm Shiho," the young girl announced, abrupt and aloof. "Pleased to meet you."
"Pleased to me you," Dr Liu echoed far more gently, "and welcome to Cell Six."
This was not her room.
As always, the transition from sleep to reality was instantaneous for Ai, snapping her awake in the space of a breath. Her body immediately realized that this was not her bed, sending Ai instinctively into a state of panic.
They've found me, Ai thought wildly, breath hitching in her chest, but before fear could betray her further, logic ruthlessly reasserted control, clamping down on her fluttering emotions and pushing them away.
Think logically, Ai mentally scolded herself. The first step to solving any problem is observation.
The mattress, which had sent her into such a panic in the first place, was much firmer than her Western bed at Professor Agasa's house and most likely a futon.
Ai breathed in and out, slow and deep, trying to fake her sleeping patterns. She smelled wood and incense, but that wasn't very helpful. A better bit of news was when Ai pretended to shift in her sleep, testing for any restrictions, she found she was free to move, neither her arms nor her legs had been bound. Feigning settling back down, Ai strained to hear the faint sound of breathing or the slight scratch of shifting fabric that would betray the presence of another person, but there was nothing.
After several minutes, Ai risked opening her eyes (as Kudo pointed out, she had never been good at faking sleep anyway) to find herself in a traditional Japanese room with tatami mat floors and a beautiful wall scroll of a crane under a waterfall on the wooden wall in front of her.
It was ridiculous now to even think that They had captured her. They most certainly would not have left her unbound and unsupervised. Besides, They would have had to snatch her in front of hundreds of temple visitors and—
Ah, the temple. That would explain the room.
Shiho winced and closed her eyes again, mentally berating herself. Obviously, this was the temple. The fact that it had taken her so long to figure it out…
The dream had rattled her, far more that Ai liked to admit. It had been so long since she'd dreamed of Cell Six, of Dr Liu and Adele Bertrand, of Boston and—
No, Ai though, wrenching her mind away. Don't think about them.
Ai sat up, pushing away the heavy coverlet to find herself still dressed in her kimono. The young girl grimaced at the wrinkles in the fabric. It would be a hassle to smooth them out.
Ai could convincingly lie to herself (it had been necessary for years), but even she couldn't persuade herself that the state of her kimono was important at the moment. The dream tugged at her conscious, dredging up the shadows of other memories Ai would rather let lie, and such a weak diversionary tactic was not going to work.
Ai simply tried not to think about it. Some things, it seemed, she was still running away from.
I don't have time for this, Ai thought firmly. There are more important things to be done.
At the top of her list currently was leaving the as soon as possible.
Collapsing had thrown Ai off balance more than she liked. She didn't understand what had happened, and she hated it. As soon as she got back to the lab, she would run some tests (though what scientific tests would be helpful in diagnosing how she was able to feel other people's emotions, Ai hadn't quite figured out yet). Add to that the unsettling nature of her dream, and Ai did not want to deal with anyone at the moment.
But if she was here, Professor Asaga had probably stayed as well, and Ai was willing to bet Kudo had hung around just to spite her. The boy had absolutely no concept of 'personal' and an unhealthy curiosity she was sure her collapse had sparked.
Ai stood, already forming a plan to find Professor Asaga and get an explanation for their overnight stay here, preferably while on the way to the door. The first step, of course, was getting out of this room. There were identical rice paper doors on both sides of the room and no way to tell where they would lead; Ai arbitrarily chose the left one and marched towards it.
She slid open the wooden frame to find a small courtyard filled with a picturesque rock garden and surrounded by a raised wooden platform. Ai did not like to think she could be moved by such things, but, even so, she found herself lingering in the doorway, appreciating the beauty of the patterned swirls in the sand.
Ai's right hand was still resting on the doorframe, and after a few seconds, gravity managed to tug her kimono sleeve down to reveal a wooden bead bracelet wrapped around her wrist that had not been there the night before. Puzzled and surprised that she hadn't noticed it before, Ai pulled her wrist closer to her face to examine the new jewelry.
The bracelet was a strand of wooden beads, so tightly packed together Ai could not see the connecting material beneath them and so expertly made Ai could not tell where it began or ended. Under closer scrutiny, she realized that each bead was carved with an archaic kanji that Ai could not translate. She moved to take the bracelet off to inspect it further.
"You shouldn't do that," a voice mildly interrupted. Ai spun to find a young monk, bald but probably in his twenties, come out of a set of rice paper door on her left.
"Why not?" Ai asked, scientific curiosity peaked.
"That bracelet is blocking your ability to feel other people's emotions. If you take it off, you'll be overwhelmed by them again."
Ai froze in surprise. "How do you know about that?" she asked, slightly alarmed. She didn't like it when others knew more than her. It made her feel trapped.
Oblivious to her slight distress, the young monk crossed the distance between them and squatted down next to Ai. "Because I went through the same thing. I know exactly how it feels, how you feel. When I came to this temple a few years ago, I was frightened and alone, but, even though there was no one else like me here, Master Fusano and other monks were able to help me learn how to accept my ability and control it," he said, pausing to rest a hand on Ai's shoulder. Ai barely stopped herself from reflexively shrugging it off. "I'm here to help you, Haibara-san, just like the monks here helped me. Once you learn how to control your powers, you'll see that your ability is actually a wonderful gift."
"How do you know my name?" Ai questioned. The monk looked startled at her tone.
"We talked to Professor Agasa last night," he explained. "We had to convince him not to take you to a hospital. He was very supportive when we told him about your ability," the monk added encouragingly when Ai's eyes widened in shock. "He said that he'd do whatever it took so that you could learn to control it. It's wonderful that you have such an understanding guardian."
"Yes," Ai agreed distractedly, looking off to one side. It was nice, Ai supposed dubiously, that Professor Agasa didn't care about this "ability," but Ai wasn't sure--
"Ah!" the monk exclaimed, jerking Ai's attention back. "I just realized that I haven't told you my name yet." He gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm Tochi. Pleased to meet you. I hope we'll become friends." He bowed.
"Tochi?" Ai repeated. "Is that the name you took when you entered the temple?"
"Yes," Tochi said, looking surprised. "How did you know that?"
Dammit, Ai thought, Kudo's rubbing off on me. I'm starting to make deductions.
"You have an accent," Ai said, slightly embarrassed for bringing it up, "and your skin is tanned, but it's obvious that you're not Japanese."
"Impressive," Tochi complimented. "You're very observant for an eight year old." He laughed. "A Sherlock Holmes in the making."
Oh, God, Ai thought despairingly.
"But to answer your question," Tochi continued. "Yes, it is. I went to a temple in America a few years ago to learn some meditation techniques, hoping they would help me control my power. When the head adept learned about my ability, he contacted Master Fusano, who offered me a place here." Tochi's expression was far away. "It really was a lucky chance," he said softly.
"You called it an 'ability' and a 'power,' but does it have a name? And how is it possible to be able to sense other people's feelings?" Ai asked, thousands of questions piling up in her mind.
"Well, there is actually a lot that we don't know, but the best person to explain everything would be Master Fusano," Tochi replied. "Why don't you go back into your room? I'll go tell Master Fusano and Professor Agasa that you're awake, and get some breakfast sent to you. Then, after we all talk, you can rejoin your friends and go home and think about everything."
"Friends?" The disbelieving word slipped out before Ai could stop them.
"Yes," Tochi looked perplexed, as if he couldn't quite understand where this conversation was heading, "a young, high school age woman and four children."
They all stayed? Ai thought, off-balance once again. She had been joking when she thought about Kudo staying, and for all of them to…
"Oh," Ai managed, turning around before the monk could see the surprise on her face. "Thank you…for warning me not to take the bracelet off." Ai hovered in the doorway, wanting the conversation to end.
"It's no problem." If Tochi was disturbed by her rudeness, it did not show in his voice. "I'll go tell Master Fusano right away." He hesitated for a moment before closing the distance between them and lightly touching her head.
"Haibara-san," he said seriously. "This is probably very overwhelming and scary for you, but that's why I'm here to help. I've gone through the same things you're going through now, and its better if you don't keep everything bottled up inside. Always remember that you can talk to me, okay?" With a light pat on the head, he started to move away.
Ai stood in the doorway, hands curling into fists, hating herself for her instinctive standoffishness.
"Wait." She turned around, and Tochi paused in the doorway he had come out of. "T, thank you." Ai stumbled over the words, but she managed to get them out.
Tochi smiled softly at her. "It's no problem," he gently assured her.
And then he was gone. Ai let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and went back into the room she had woken up in to wait.