Writer's note: Dear readers of this fic, I apologize for letting you wait for more than a year and a half for this chapter. It was unforgivable of me, but still please, forgive this unworthy writer for her errors. A lot of things have happened to me in a year. You can read about it more, at the end of this chapter. But until then, enjoy reading this long, LONG waited chapter of "Lonely Souls"; half re-written from the print out and the second half re-written from the notebooks. Hopefully, I haven't lost my touch with the fic…
Pairings: Ran + Omi / OMC x OMC / others may appear in later chapters
Rating: PG-13 (for now. This fic will turn into a R-rated in later chapters!)
Category: Multi-part, shounen-ai, yaoi, definitely an AU
Fiction note: Takes after the ending of the anime. Remember, that this is a sequel to the prequel "Something Much More"-fanfic. Every soul has someone. Every soul needs someone. Ran is becoming more his old self again… and less the Abyssinian of Weiß.
Warning: This fic contains mild male x male relationship. If you're bothered with that please, leave! Those who aren't bothered and are matured enough, enjoy reading the fic! But on this chapter, violence & blood will appear, so read this chapter with cautious.
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A Weiß Kreuz Fanfiction
LONELY SOULS
Chapter 7: After the Mission
Written by M.K. a.k.a. Fall Angel © 2004 - 2005
"Manx-san?"
The red-haired woman looked at the girl who was hanging onto Omi's arm and then at the direction where the mission room was located at. "I think we should take this business elsewhere, from civilians…"
"Civilians? Now, hold on there, ma'am!" Aya had her arms unwrapped from Omi's and took a step toward the older woman. "I know everything what is going on around here! My oniisan told me about their… other 'job'!"
"I see. Even so, this is none of your business young lady. So you should go to the room while we are talking."
"Hey, I'm not a---"
"Aya-chan. Please, do as you were told to."
The girl turned around and scowled at her brother, but did as she was told to, muttering and huffing on her way to her room. 'Not fair! He still treats me like a child!'
When Aya finally was out of the sight, Manx and the Weiß moved to the mission room, to hear out their mission.
"Now then. Here's your mission for tonight… your last mission," Manx calmly told them.
"Last mission?"
"That's right, Omi. The Kritiker had come to decision to give you a chance to live a normal life… but only, after this mission. But I will have to ask you a question. Do you still want to work for the Kritiker or not?"
All four of them exchanged glances with each other, thinking through what Manx asked of them. Out of the four of them, Omi was the only one who truly hadn't experienced living "a normal life". Sure he had graduated from high school and worked at the 'Koneko', but those were his cover-ups to hide his true job. Being an assassin.
And now Manx told them they have a chance to live a normal life. That chance Omi does not want to miss in his life.
"Thanks for the offer, Manx but I think I will try my chance to live my life again," Yôji stated out his decision to the red-haired woman. "Who knows, if I will work as an investigator again or something like that."
"Very well. How about you, Hidaka-san?"
"Eh? Me? Well… my chances as a soccer player are gone… but… I could continue working at 'Koneko' and as a coach for the kids."
Manx thoughtfully hummed. "That can be arranged. And you, Fujimiya-san?"
Ran sighed before he looked at Manx, "I would like to live with my sister as I used to live before all of this… now that she's awake. She has missed so much of her life already and I want to be there for her."
The red-haired woman sighed and turned to the fourth and the youngest of the team. "Omi? What about you?"
Omi was still looking at his hands when Manx spoke to him and didn't turn away from them. "I… I would like to…live my own life, Manx-san… Since my childhood, since the day Persia rescued me, I have been an assassin for Kritiker. I was trained to kill and taught to use computer, crossbow and daggers… but I have never had a chance to be a normal kid or live a normal life.
Three older men were silent. All of them knew that Omi hadn't had a real childhood, but never have they heard what Omi really felt like. They were a little bit shocked of hearing this from their youngest teammate.
"So you want to live as one, right Omi?" the woman calmly spoke to the honey-blonde youth.
With hope and slight sadness in his blue eyes, Omi finally looked up at Manx and nodded. "Hai, I would like that very much."
Never have Ran saw that kind of look in Omi's eyes before. Such sadness, and yet there was also hope within them.
"Very well. If that's your decision, all of yours, then it shall be. But the Kritiker will help you start your new lives and give you new background information so the people won't be too suspicion of your disappearing and re-appearing. With the help of Omi, of course."
Omi nodded, smiling.
"Now then. For your last mission," Manx opened the file she was carrying. Since the death of Persia, it didn't seem right for Manx to use Persia's method giving Weiß new mission through VHS and that was the reason why she is carrying a file with her. Members of Weiß knew this.
"Your last mission is quite simple. Lately, some of agents of Kritiker had found traces of drug dealers on the streets."
"What else is new?" Yôji asked, bored.
"They were selling opium, which had an unknown drug within them. Whatever this unknown drug is, it had already killed five people within a week. According to the police files, the buyer who had bought the opium had died two days later. Whether they were criminals or not."
"You mean that some civilians had bought opium from them?" Omi was taken by surprised hearing this.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Do they have any clues of the dealers?"
"No. But the Kritiker has. What we know about them so far is that the dealers are minions. Working for this man," Manx showed them picture of a man in middle age with gray-black hair. "Ikeda Takashi."
"Isn't he the owner of a computer company?" Omi looked at the photo.
"Yes, he is."
Yôji whistled. "Some cover up for this guy. This is no ordinary 'bad guy'."
"Lately, his company hasn't been quite successful," Omi told them as he remembered reading about it from the papers. "In fact, the company was close being bankrupted, but for some odd reason, it was saved from it."
"And then the drug dealing stepped in and saved the man's ass." Yôji bluntly pointed out.
"No. He has been dealing with drug business a long time now. But the police haven't found any evidence about it. And the drugs back then were… "clean" and haven't caused any deaths."
"So our mission is…" Ran raised an eyebrow at her.
"…To hunt down the evil and save the innocent lives, before the tainted drug will take more lives."
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Before the mission was put in action, Omi began to look for more information on Ikeda's company and history with his laptop – only finding them to be clean in public eyes. But when he began to gather more information, he found the same information and evidence that Manx had given them two days ago.
While searching for more information about Ikeda's drug dealing, Omi came across with a helpful information for their mission. It seemed that Ikeda Takashi was having a company party in two days from now. Holding a celebration for the "unexpected" success.
Honey-blonde boy smiled. This will be quite helpful aid for the mission. It was time for the Weiß begin their mission.
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"Tell me again, why is it that you and I must be in a look out, chibi?"
"Because, we all know very well that if we let you to blend into the party group, you would only start looking for beautiful women. And that would be a waste of time and not to mention our mission is more important that women, Balinese!" replayed Omi from their headphones, starting to get annoyed of Yôji's continuous "whining". It was all the same. Whenever the mission took its place in a party or a club, Yôji began to complain that he wasn't the one to look for target.
This wasn't the only one, but it will be the last mission for all of them.
"Fine. I will be the "watchdog" in the hallway for guards and other "gorillas"," Yôji leaned against the corner within the shadows.
"Good. Siberian? Abyssinian? Anything yet?"
Ken was near to the dancing hall when Omi called for them. "Nothing yet."
While Ran was near the bar hiding behind the tall plants and looking for the target. "No sight of the target yet. What about you?"
Omi, himself, was at the security room monitoring the building from there and trying to hack into Ikeda's computers with his laptop. Both security guards were knocked out, lying on the floor. Young assassin thought there was no need to kill them since they were civilians doing their job.
"Nothing, I'm afraid," sighed Omi, "I haven't seen Ikeda from where, either. Hey, wait a minute… Abyssinian! Siberian! I found him!"
"Where is he?"
"Not far from your right side, Abyssinian! He's leaving from the party with three men! Do you see him?"
Down at the bar, Ran did saw Ikeda and the three men. "I see them. I'm going after them. Bombay, get yourself out of there. Just in case"
"I'm on my way in two minutes!"
"Siberian? You see them?"
"Yeah, I see them. I'm going after them."
"Hm." The scarlet-haired sword-wielder straightened up and began to follow their target, with Ken not far from him.
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As he promised, Omi managed to clear things up in two minutes and was now trying to locate his three teammates. He downloaded enough information of the other dealers who were working for Ikeda for later uploading into Kritiker's databank.
"I will give the information to Manx after this is done!" Bombay thought out loud and ran his way to help the others. Just then, around the corner, he saw two bodyguards who noticed him and took theirs guns out to fire at him. Bombay managed to dodge the bullets and throw his daggers at their throats and hearts, killing them instantly. The guards gurgled before they hit the floor dead. The dead guards didn't stop Bombay and he continued on running.
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Abyssinian and Siberian were following their target quietly, hiding themselves in the shadowed corners. Abyssinian glanced at Siberian, signaling him to be ready with a nod. Siberian answered to him, understanding his signal and they were off. The guards who were guarding by the doors tried to stop them but it was useless. Before they could do anything, they were killed by sword and claws.
"Now that the guards are out, we go after Ikeda," Abyssinian said emotionlessly.
"Tell me something that I don't know," Siberian joked at him as they entered inside, facing yet other guards.
Abyssinian got to his fighting stance. "That there are still more guards here."
"Bad time for jokes, Abyssinians," Siberian took out his claws, smiling grimly.
"You started it."
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"Oh? More guards on their way here?" Balinese lifted his eyebrow at the approaching men dressed in black and carrying guns. "I better put a stop on them." With that said he took out his wire, and aimed at the guards' neck level. That did the trick; he managed to knock them out for a while for him to run to the safer distance.
"Here's something to remember me by," the blonde assassin threw over his shoulder a bomb given to him by Bombay, which exploded immediately when it touched the floor.
"Heh, that's our chibi. You never let us down, ne?" He smirked and went his way to the others.
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As Bombay arrived to help his two other teammates, he noticed them having a bit trouble with the guards. He loaded his crossbow and shot them.
Siberian noticed a body fall down from the corner of his eye and looked behind. "Bombay! I'm glad that you made it!"
"Yeah, sorry that I couldn't come any earlier. I had some trouble on my way here!"
"You and me both, kiddo!" The brown haired assassin as he made a slash at the guard.
"What about Ikeda? Haven't you got him yet?" Another set of arrows flew from the crossbow at its target.
"Abyssinian's taking care of it!" Siberian dropped the dead guard and cleaned his claws from the blood.
"I see!"
As they spoke, their leader-in-action was approaching frightened Ikeda by the corner, his katana soaked with blood and ready to strike. Ikeda took a step backwards, away from the scarlet-haired man. "W-who are you people? What do you want from me!"
"We're Weiß, the hunters of darkness. And you're the evil that is needed to be executed from this world, so that you won't harm any innocent lives anymore."
What Abyssinian failed to see, was a hidden gun in Ikeda's sleeve, which was pulled out at the nick of time when Abyssinian was about to strike Ikeda down with the katana. Ikeda took an aim at the scarlet-haired assassin, but Abyssinian's instincts came to his help and he managed to dodge to the left before Ikeda fired his gun.
The gun shooting didn't stop there; in panic, Ikeda continued on firing his gun around the room, not caring whom he was really aiming at. He managed to hit at some of his own men, but not the Weiß, they managed to avoid the shooting.
However, when Bombay thought he was safe from the shooting as he landed on his feet, at that same moment, Ikeda took an aim at the youngest assassin. It seemed like the time stopped for the young honey-blonde when the gun was aimed and then fired at him twice. Bombay barely heard both his teammates' shouts and warnings, ordering him to take cover.
Bombay tried to move to his right, but one bullet did hit him on his left shoulder, the other on his left side, making him cry out pain and agony and then collapse on the floor, bleeding heavily. People before him were getting all blurry in his eyes, and he was panting heavily. Unable to stay awake any longer, he surrendered to the fatigue and closed his eyes, with one thought in his mind: Ran.
Abyssinian saw the honey-blonde assassin fall down, which made him tremble in rage and then he roar with anger. Sharply turning his head at Ikeda, glaring at with such anger he haven't felt for long time. Without any warnings, he ran at the frightened criminal with his katana high above his head, bringing it down and then it was over. Ikeda's blood was splashed over the leader-in-action himself, on floor and on the walls. Abyssinian didn't know why he was feeling so much anger when Bombay got hit. He didn't have a moment to think about it when he heard Siberian's voice.
"Abyssinian! We need to get out of here, right now! Bombay needs medical help, or else he will bleed to death!"
"Bombay," the said man whispered. "Let's go then! Fast! This mission is done!"
"Roger on that!" Siberian took the wounded youth into his arms, and started to run to the doors, almost running to Yôji who was about to enter.
"Hey, whoa! Where's the fire--?"
"No time, Balinese! Bombay's down! He's bleeding heavily!"
"Nani! Let's get going then!" The all three of them made a run for it, Balinese and Abyssinian making the way clear for Siberian who was carrying Bombay by striking down the guards who were still in the building. There was no time to lose; Bombay's life was at its stake.
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"Will he be alright, 'niichan?" Aya whispered sorrowfully and quietly as she was looking at sleeping Omi in a hospital bed.
"No worries, Aya-chan. Omittchi is a fighter, he will pull it through." Yôji tried to consol the distressed girl when Ran didn't answer to her question. "The bullet on his shoulder went through it and the second bullet missed his vital organs. He just lost a lot of blood, which made him faint from blood lost."
"Yokatta. I'm glad that he will be all right then."
"Me too, missy. Me too," the lanky man sighed in relief with her.
All his time at the hospital and waiting for Omi coming out of operation room, Ran has remained silent; he hadn't spoken a word since he set a foot to the hospital. It was no news for Yôji and Ken since they knew Ran to be a man with few words, but Aya was starting to worry about him as well. Have her brother been like this when she was in a coma? According to what she had heard from the others, he had.
"Maa, we better get going then. Omittchi will be just fine once he have rested well enough."
"Yeah. In matter of fact," Ken yawned, "we should all get some rest as well. I'm getting tired, and my muscles are hurting a bit from the yesterday."
"I won't leave him alone," a quiet voice spoke out. Yôji, Ken and Aya looked at Ran in amazement, with questioning looks written over their faces. "I will stay here and look after him."
"But Aya, Omi will be just fine. He's in the good hands now. You don't have to remain here…"
"I said that I will stay here." Ran narrowed his amethyst-violet eyes, staring right into the chocolate-brown eyes. 'I don't want to leave him alone…in a way; it was my fault that he got injured… I was not able to protect him.'
"Geez, Aya… you sure are a stubborn one sometimes." Yôji scratched his neck in annoyance.
Aya smiled at her brother, "Ne, if that's your decision, 'niichan, then I won't be in your way. Just remember to rest and not stay up all night." Ran snorted quietly; she was acting like their mother in the past. No wonder why, since she resembles a bit of their mother.
"Now then, I will let the nurses to know that you will stay here and ask them to arrange you a sleeping place." With that, Aya left from the room. Yôji and Ken stayed behind for a while, but then they decided to leave also, leaving Ran alone with sleeping Omi.
Ran sat down on a chair that he had brought closer to Omi's bed, sighing deeply. 'Dejá vu. I've done this far too many times now. And I was hoping that I wouldn't experience this anymore. But then, here I am again, worrying.'
"Omi, you said that you wanted to have a normal life after the mission. This is a small price to gain a normal life. But it will be worth for you to pay this price, eh? I will make sure that you will have what you have desired for long time now. A normal life."
To be continued…
Next: Chapter 8: One Step at a Time
Translations:
1. –san a polite suffix meaning Mr., Miss or Mrs.
2. (o)niichan older brother
3. –chan a suffix meaning cute or little, a common endearment; used to address children, (close) younger friends and relatives, mainly females
4. hai yes
5. chibi a preshrunk version of a character; also literally means 'kid'.
6. ne? a very common supporting word; eh, right?
7. katana a Japanese sword.
8. nani what.
9. Omittchi a nickname for Omi.
10. yokatta that's good.
11. maa oh well.
Remember, this is fictional! 100 pure fictional!
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First draft: January 10 – February 24, 2004
Re-written & second draft: May 28 – May 30, 2005
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Writer's note continues: I owe you an explanation for my long absent from my writings. And about WHY I haven't wrote any chapters or new fics for so long. (More than a year and a half…) Well, I was writing this chapter on January 2004 when suddenly, I received news on my grandpa who died from a heart attack in a hospital. That made me stop from writing for a month. I just couldn't continue with this fic until I've gotten over my grandpa's death.
Just when I was about to continue this fic, my rented computer crashed down. Just like that. (The piece of junk.) I was without a computer for 6 damn months and that just pissed me off! Oh, I could've used my dad's laptop, but I refused writing any of my fics with it. (That one just acted weird whenever I tried to write with its MS Word.) Good thing that I managed to ask the repair man to copy down ALL my works from the old computer's hard drive into CD-ROMs. My works were saved and I was able to print out the fics and see where I was left off with them. I began to re-write the next chapters & new fics into my notebooks.
But then, on June 2004, my grandma died, and again it made me unable to write any fics at all! The loss of both grandparents at short time was too much for me. (sighs) 3 months later, after my grandma's funeral, the writer's block came back to haunt me. On September, I finally managed to buy myself a laptop of my own. Even though I had the laptop, I still couldn't write my fics into my laptop – I simply was not in the mood. From autumn to spring time, I was busy with my Japanese class, social life and with my job, so I wasn't able to write them down… until just recently.
So that's the whole story, people. The reason why I haven't been updating for this long. Again: I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. I feel terrible about it, please forgive me. Thank you for the reviews and emails you've sent to me.
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