The Healer Chapter 4, a weiss kreuz fanfic

The Healer

Disclaimer: I do not own Weiss Kreuz or any of its wonderful characters.

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Chapter 4

Ken took a deep breath and began his tale, "First of all, I came from a family of healers-I probably told you that, right?"

Ran nodded, "Yes."

"Yeah. I studied to be a healer since I could remember. Of course, at the time, I'd much rather be playing with the other kids. But still, I did study hard. Almost everyone in my family was one, even some of my cousins."

Ken paused for a moment, than continued, "Well, one day I was out-probably goofing off or something. When I came home, my house was on fire and later on I found out my family was...gone. For the next few days I wandered around, in shock, I suppose, than this guy comes up to me, says his employer knows what happened to my family. Well, as you can imagine, that shook me back into reality. So, I stupidly went with this man to meet his employer. His employer was none other than Reiji Takatori."

Ran hissed at the man's name. He looked sheepishly at Ken, "Sorry, habit."

Ken nodded and continued, "Takatori seemed to know a lot about my family and offered me a job as a healer. Well, I knew my father didn't like Takatori," Ran nodded approvingly at this, "So, I said no. Takatori asked me how much would I like to see someone from my family. At this point, one of his men brought in my cousin, Yumi, whom I thought also died in the fire. Takatori told me if I wanted my cousin to stay alive, I would work for him- but not a healer, but as a...an assassin."

Ran stared at him, "An assassin?"

Ken took a deep breath, it was going to get worse, "Yeah, but I would be a healer on the side, so to speak. So, I agreed, what else can I do? My cousin's life was in my hands and she was the last family I had. The agreement was she'd stay at his mansion out in the country and she would be allowed to write to me. I wasn't allowed to see her and I didn't like the arrangement at all, but there wasn't anything else I could do. The next couple of years were only bearable because I thought of my cousin and I had also met Omi."

Ran frowned, "That kid? He worked for Takatori as well?"

"Not exactly. Omi is Takatori's son."

Ran stood up, "His son!" He was about to bolt when Ken grabbed his arm.

"Wait! There's more! Please listen!"

He sighed and sat down by Ken again. Ken held onto Ran's arm while he spoke, "Omi thought I was only a healer. Omi and I got pretty close, as friends," he added when he saw a flare of jealousy threatening to rise up in Ran's face, "Despite of who his father was, I didn't care. But still, it was hard-to take lives on a weekly basis. But, on my 19th birthday, I met you. You remember that day?"

"Yeah," Ran rubbed his jaw ruefully, "We had an all-out-brawl. What was it over?"

Ken laughed, "I don't remember, it was probably something stupid. I never met someone like you before, and right there and than, I fell in love."

They both fell silent for a moment. Ken began speaking again, "Over the next few months was probably the happiest for me, but also I felt the most guilty." Ken glanced at Ran and gave a sad smile, "I wanted to tell my cousin about you, but since our correspondence was being monitored, I took the chance to go see her myself. It was actually pretty easy, I had a job to do near Takatori's country mansion. I asked Omi about the mansion and he described it to me."

"Didn't you worry about him slipping that information to his father?" Ran asked through gritted teeth.

Ken shook his head, "No. As lucky it was for me, Takatori didn't speak to Omi, showed no desire to either."

"Why is that?"

"I'll get to that. Anyway, for a month I planned to go see Yumi. I sneak into the mansion and I go to where I thought she would be. Yumi wasn't there. I didn't have much time so I tackled one of Takatori's many assistants. After 'persuading' the man to talk, he finally let out that there were no guests at the mansion. But he did remember my cousin."

Ken stopped again and shook his head sadly, "Apparently shortly after I agreed to work for him, Takatori had my cousin put to death. I was so angry, I killed the assistant and left."

Ran stared at Ken and put his hand on the other man's shoulder. Ken smiled at the gesture. "Well, I was ready to kill Takatori, damn everything else. I get back to him and, of course, he's surrounded by his bodyguards. He wants me to do another job. He tells me to kill Omi and have as to look like he was kidnapped. I was floored, I mean how can he do that to his own son? This shocked me out of my anger, I now realized what I had to do."

Ran slowly nodded, "That's why you left and with Omi."

"I went to see you that night and it must have been fate or something. You were on your way to see your sister."

"I never let anyone see her. But you were special and I felt that I could trust you."

There it was, Ken thought to himself. He betrayed Ran when he left without saying a word to the other man. But he'll make up for a fraction of that betrayal, by telling Ran the truth.

"There she was, in a sleep she could not wake up from. I wanted to do something for you, ease your pain. I remember my father telling me it's difficult to wake someone up and it couldn't always be done. But I was determined to do it. I put my hands on the sides of her head and reached in, somewhere deep and it took all the energy that I had. But it worked, she woke up. I'll never forget the look on your face, I knew that it was all worth it and maybe it would make up for what I was about to do."

"You told me you would meet me later and check up on Aya."

"Yes, but I knew that it was a lie. I'm so sorry, Ran. But I had to get Omi out of there and I knew that I couldn't continue working for that man. So we left and Omi became my assistant. We travel around to different towns and villages helping people who could not afford doctors. It's also my way to work off the debt of all the lives I took, but also for leaving you behind." Ken stared at Ran and asked hesitantly, "Ran? How is your sister?"

A smile twitched on Ran's face, "She's feeling wonderful. She's actually studying to become a healer herself."

Ken breathed in relief, Ran also added, "Ken, Reiji Takatori is dead."

Ken stared at him, "What? How? Who?"

Ran had a bitter smile, "Me. I killed him. I guess since we're sharing secrets, I'll tell you why. You see, he was the reason Aya was in a coma. She was in a coma for two years because of him. So I killed him."

Ken looked up at the stars, "Well, he had it coming, so good riddance."

"Ken," he turned to look at Ran, "I'm glad you told me."

Ken smiled.

To Be Continued.