Warnings: Au, x-over, yaoi, possible violence as the story progresses, random moments of humor and/or fluff
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation or Weiss Kreuz. I take no credit for anything except my own characters and the plotline. I make no money off of this. And if you try to sue me all you will get is my manga collection.
…Nope, you won't even get that, because I will take my manga with me when I change my name and run away to Canada. Actually I may run somewhere other than Canada since you're onto me now. I hear Tibet is nice this time of year, hm…
Weiss Geräusche
'Hey Ken,
How is everything going for you at the moment?
I know, I should have just kept walking but… she knows me too well. Yep, you guessed it. Manx contacted me. It's hard for me because what she wanted me to talk to me about relates so closely to the field I want to go into. I know if I don't do something about it now and people get hurt later I will hate myself forever. Yet… I kind of don't want to get involved with it. I'm not- I'm not who I used to be, you know? It's not just my appearance. I really don't want to be Omi anymore. And yet I miss him so much I can barely breathe sometimes.
Silly isn't it?
Speaking of fields of interest, Bad Luck is doing great! We have a chance to play in a few days as the opening act for a concert. It's so… unreal, y'know? We're really good right now but I have high hopes that we'll become the best. Don't laugh at that. I know you are, but I will be as good as Sakuma-sama one of these days, and I don't care what it takes for me to get that good!
Oh, and of course Aya and Yohji are doing fine. Aya works construction part time while he tries to get his teaching degree and Yohji has returned to his carefree PI lifestyle. They seem happy. Or as happy as their natures will allow.
I hope to see you guys again the next time you're in town. Good luck with the children. They're really lucky to have acoach like you.
Love,
Omi'
"Damn it!" Omi swore softly but with feeling.
Someone had to have unplugged the computer. His program wouldn't allow anyone to turn it off, so the only way to stop him from taking everything was to cut the computer's power supply. Now he was going to have to restart his computer. He glared at his screen and the incomplete file transfer. He had a partial list of the employees there that he could get started with but not everyone.
He may just have to kick things up a notch and try and get someone from NG to scout them. It wasn't like Hiro and Suguru weren't good. He shook his head at the thought. They were good, and some kind soul might see their potential enough to want to waste time on them. Unfortunately finding a kind soul was going to be hard; most producers would pass them over without something to make them stand out.
He took a sip of cold coffee, with a grimace. The stuff was so nasty, but it was the only thing keeping him functioning at the moment though. He went ahead and started to reboot his computer.
Why was he even bothering though? What he was doing now could be accomplished by any Kritiker agent. He didn't have to let himself be pulled back, so why was he wasting his time trying to gather information? Was it because of the connection to the band he practically worshipped? Or was it something even he refused to fully acknowledge- a desire to hunt once more?
Omi stilled at the thought. In absolute silence he seriously considered the question. In his mind he replayed every memory of his time with Weiss- the good and the bad. Meeting his team mates, slowly gaining their trust and learning how to work together. The all night research and mission planning sessions, working with the flowers while trying to balance school work. The killing.
Did he miss it?
God, yes.
But then, what about the music?
It was so close, just within his reach. And he couldn't live without it. He'd tried for a short time when he'd been in Weiss. Even then he couldn't completely let go of the music, obsessing over the band that sang the words that he wished he had written first. And he had written his own words in response, his own songs. Even if they would never be heard by anyone they were songs that needed to be created. And he had done so, trying to shape them as best he could with the words he held in his heart.
He couldn't give up the music.
So where did that leave him?
Nowhere.
Suddenly his head hurt from thinking about it. He didn't know anymore, he didn't have any ideas. Maybe he should ask Hiroshi; the red head always seemed to have an answer.
A quick glance at the clock. Two a.m. Would Hiro take it personally if he called and woke him up right now? The pink haired boy debated for a minute. Then he realized that Hiroshi wouldn't be angry once he understood the gravity of the situation. With that bit of hope he reached for the phone on the edge of his desk.
The voice on the other end was very sleep garbled. He figured the word that reached his ears was meant to be hello, but it came out sounding more like "Ugnhlo?
"Hiro? It's Shuichi."
"Shu?" his voice was slightly more alert this time. At least he was becoming more coherent. "Wha'sit? You fin'ly going to tel'me wha's up with you?"
"I saw Manx the other day."
"What!" the voice on the end was completely awake by this time. Shu gave a small sigh of relief. Hiroshi did grasp things quickly. And, as one of three people outside of Kritiker who knew about Weiss, he realized exactly what Manx's presence meant to Shuichi.
"Yeah."
Then from the other end of the line, "What are you going to do about it?"
"I'm not sure."
"Well then."
"Yeah."
Silence again.
Hiro finally released a whoosh of air. "I take it you wanted to ask me for advice?"
"I was kinda hoping you'd have some idea of what I should do," Shuichi admitted sheepishly.
"Are you free to tell me what she wants?" Hiro asked.
"Well, theoretically, no."
"Theoretically?" Hiro was amused. Shuichi ignored that.
"You remember when Nittle Grasper was still away on tour in Japan right? They didn't come back to Tokyo because of all the trouble until everything calmed down. Then almost as soon as they did, they broke up. Do you remember what Tokyo was like then?"
"Madness," Hiro recalled. "There was rioting and violence, and eventually martial law was declared. You couldn't do anything without those Special Defense soldiers jumping down your throat. It was awful."
"Exactly. Well, not long before the violence in the city escalated there was a musician by the name of Isao Kawaji, who felt that his music was rather… under appreciated."
"We're all under appreciated. What makes him so special?" Hiro scoffed.
"Ha, ain't that the truth." Shuichi snorted, turning back to his computer which was now ready for use. "But Kawaji was really, really bitter about it."
"Really?" Hiro butted in to tease.
The pink singer laughed, "Really. In fact, he was so bitter that he actually designed a music system that manipulated the brain waves of anyone who listened to them and caused them to go violently crazy."
"Well that ought to learn 'em," Hiro observed wryly. "I can see it now, 'I am so angry that you don't think I'm brilliant that I will now proceed to drive you all crazy so that you will then be able to see that I am brilliant!' What the hell kind of musician would abuse their talent like that?" Hiro asked in disbelief.
Shuichi understood Hiro's outrage, had felt it himself at the time. He still felt the same way. Although there was that distant, dark part of his mind that acknowledged the sheer genius of the keyboardist's revenge. He ruthlessly quashed the trained part of his mind and drug himself back to the topic at hand.
"Kawaji would," Shuichi pointed out. "Anyway, he recorded his songs under a fake name and had them released under a fictitious label. The Wunder X cd was on the market for about two weeks before anyone made the connection about the random deaths that were occurring around the city with the music that they were listening to. Since Kritiker's main function was to stop criminals the police can't get, they took the job of stopping him."
"It was you. They sent you to eliminate him," Hiro guessed.
"Myself and the other members of Weiss, yes," Shuichi agreed. Another sip of coffee. This time the taste wasn't so bad. Amazing what unpleasantness you could become adjusted to, Shuichi mused, staring down at the dark liquid. "We had to take him out before he debuted in front of a crowd of fifty thousand."
A blinking on screen caught his attention. He clicked his cursor on the tiny screen in the corner, allowing a box to pop up with the announcement of 'You have 1 new e-mail!'. "Actually I created the mission plan that got us into the building. Abyssinian eliminated him," he corrected himself absently, his attention focused on the small announcement.
Who could be sending him an e-mail at this address? He narrowed his eyes. He only used this e-mail address when he as sending reports to Kritiker, or doing hack jobs. No one outside of Kritiker should be able to track the address down, let alone drop him a message. He hesitated, debating whether or not to click on the link and see who it was.
"Ok, there was this crazed musician that was trying to drive people crazy. And your guys killed him. So, what does that have to do with Manx contacting you?" Hiro's voice interrupted his thoughts. Once more Omi had to drag his attention back to the conversation at hand.
"You remember what I told you about Esset right?" he asked.
"Yeah. Crazy old bastards…ritual… resurrect evil Lord… take over the world, blah, blah, blah. Bad guys. Check."
"Close enough," Shu muttered, amused.
"It's two in the morning, can we please keep things simple?" the guitarist sighed. "Get to the point already."
"Well Esset was behind the sudden crime rise three years ago. Kawaji was an Esset puppet. So his music and anything related to it is automatically suspected of being evil, corrupting and assorted other adjectives of a similar bent. NG Studios bought up all of Kawaji's equipment and the building shortly after his unfortunate demise. Kritiker suspects Tohma Seguchi of being an Esset operative, and they think that he's going to recreate Wunder X's art." He hesitated for a moment then finished, "Manx was warned me not to buy any cds from NG for a bit."
"I'm apparently being very stupid at the moment, because I'm still missing something. So Manx wants you to come back to Kritiker and kill him? Or what?" Hiro was trying to work out what the actual trouble for Shuichi was.
"No. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want him killed. Manx never questioned orders or broke the rules before, so something weird is going on in Kritiker. That was her way of telling me. Now I have to find a way to keep Seguchi-san safe until I find out what's going on."
"Finally! We get to the problem! How do you plan on doing that?" Hiro demanded from the other end.
"I was trying to get the information I would need without actually breaking into the NG building," he answered very matter of fact, "But someone blocked my information retrieval. So instead I was thinking we could get scouted by NG and get in directly that way."
"Cuz that's going to be so totally simple." Shu could practically hear Hiro rolling his eyes over the phone. He stifled his snickers when he heard his guitarist speak again. "Wait a minute, 'we'? What's this we stuff? Suguru and I aren't exactly from the same background as you, ya know."
"I'd need the band to get in, but no you won't have to help beyond performing with me. In fact it would be better if you weren't involved beyond playing. That way if something goes wrong you'll be completely innocent."
"We're not ready to be produced," Hiro observed impartially.
"Not quite yet, you're right," Shuichi nodded his head, forgetting for a moment that his friend wouldn't be able to see him. "But we need to get in as quickly as possible so I can get to the bottom of this."
"So how do we plan on doing this?"
"I don't know. Maybe I can act obnoxiously over self confident in my abilities and pretend that we're good enough without our music being refined. Then maybe someone will take notice and try to polish us up a bit?"
"What a fabulous idea! Why didn't you think of that before?" Hiro exclaimed in an falsely enthusiastic voice. "Then they can laugh at us, before kicking our butts out of the building."
"Do you have a better idea?" Shuichi grumbled back.
"Well our music is better since Suguru has started reworking the arrangements, but we only have a week to go before the concert." Hiro spoke slowly, thoughtfully. "Maybe if we can just focus on one of our songs exclusively until then instead of trying to pile all of them on him, then we just might be able to really impress someone at the concert. Once we get signed on then we'll be in. Then we can work on the music while you do your Mission Impossible thing."
"That seems like it might be the best avenue," Shuichi agreed, rubbing his eyes.
"Well, now that we've gotten that straightened out, is there anything else that you need to talk about?" Hiro asked.
"No. That was it," Shuichi smiled, grateful that he had such an understanding friend.
"Good. I'm going back to bed now." The final words came out on a yawn, and Shuichi had to stifle his urge to snicker.
"Night Shu."
"Night Hiro," he responded. There was a click on the other end. Slowly Shuichi put the receiver back into the cradle, his gaze drifting back to the e-mail message box on his screen. He stared for a few more minutes, debating.
"I need to make some more coffee," he announced out loud when he noticed he was almost finished with the cup. Then he hesitated for another second. He gave a slight shrug, realizing he'd already made up his mind about the message. There was no point in stalling anymore.
"Ah, what the hell," the pink boy muttered, clicking on the link. The message had no subject line and the actual letter had only one line. A request to talk with on an instant message program and the screen name that would be used.
Pr0digE.
Omi stared.
"You have got to be bullshitting me," he breathed, his blue eyes tracing the line over and over again.
Nagi Naoe was the youngest member of Schwartz, the assassin team that his own team had run up against on several occasions. The young man had the most extraordinary skill-he had honest to god telekinetic abilities. If he hadn't been a victim of said powers he wouldn't have believed it, but Omi had been tossed into walls simply on the strength of the young boy's will more times than he was eager to count. He was a total believer in psychic powers after being pitted against the black team.
Of course, the Prodigy also happened to be one of the few hackers who could claim to be better than he himself was. Which explained how he was able to get a hold of his hidden address. Still, why would the psychic be wanting to contact him? And now of all times?
Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to find out. Here's hoping it wouldn't kill the cat.
'Prodigy?' he typed.
'Hello Bombay.' The words appeared on screen.
'What do you want?' Shuichi typed back.
'I received a remarkable proposition tonight. I thought it might be of interest to you.'
'What makes you think that?' he asked out loud, before typing the other boy the same question.
'I was just asked to take a job.'
'Was the money good enough to rate your skills:P'
'The job was Tohma Seguchi.'
Shuichi froze, keys hovering over the keyboard. The other boy seemed to read his mind because words appeared on screen as if in answer to his unasked question.
'I haven't formally accepted or declined.'
'Are you planning on taking the hit?' he practically jabbed at the keys as he typed.
'I am disinclined to accept. I have personal investments that would be devalued if he were to die. Also, I dislike being forced to work within a timeframe.'
"I knew it! You're a closet Grasper fan!" Shuichi crowed, keying the words in as soon as they popped into his head. 'Wait, there's a time limit on the hit?'
'I am NOT a closet Grasper fan.' Appeared in response. Almost as an afterthought, 'Twit.'
There was a moment where nothing else popped up on the screen. Then, 'It has to be within the next 48 hours.'
"Damn. Forty eight hours? Why does everyone want him dead all of a sudden?" Omi wondered out loud.
'Why are you telling me this?'
'I have my own reasons.' Was the other's enlightening response.
'Ok, let's try this again. What do you want from ME specifically?'
'I would like to hire you for a personal job.'
"HE wants to hire ME? What for? If it's information he could get it just as easily, if not more easily than I could. And for anything else, he has his super freaky powers, so what could he possibly…" Shuichi chewed his bottom lip. "He has to know that I don't take freelance jobs, so what is he up to?"
'What do you want to hire me for?'
'60,000,000 yen and two of Ryuichi Sakuma's American released album. Signed by the artist, of course.' Shuichi gaped at his screen. 'Shall we deal, Bombay?'
That wasn't what he meant when he asked, but…
'What do you need me to do?' he typed back.