A Sense of Dark
Chapter Three
by PenguinKye
October 11, 199X—4:10 AM
I questioned the wisdom of our decision to retrieve Schuldig as the stairs sank without noise beneath my weight. My most analytical mind told me that we who remained would be safer if he went unrescued. Additionally, Schuldig's ability to take a reasonably controlled situation and magnify and distort it into an incalculable chaos had itself magnified in recent weeks. After the death of Takatori's offspring, I had, I believe sagely, refrained from allowing Schuldig to go on assignment. Such sloppiness as that fatal mistake, left to itself, could cause even greater damage at any opportunity. I had hoped that by waiting for some month before letting him into the field, I had safeguarded us from catastrophe. I certainly hadn't Seen otherwise.
Yet now Schuldig had gotten himself captured by the very enemy we had gone to kill, an enemy which, by my calculations, ought not to have been a great trial to apprehend, and ultimately remove from our list of troubles. Preserving the life of one suddenly so inept, in the strictest logical sense, made no sense whatsoever.
Unfortunately for strict logical sense, I liked Schuldig, the same way one might like an uncontrolled puppy or small child. He was a creature to be steered gently in the right direction, and when properly steered, he usually performed admirably. Conscience would not allow me to leave him in the hands of those who did not…appreciate him, any more than it would let me walk by an abused dog. I had a weakness for such dependent beasts.
Thus it was that we made our way down these steps into the den of the dullest of cats to spirit our Schuldig away. Farfarello and I followed close behind Nagi, all three of us invisible to the absorbed and bitter spirits we hunted.
Nagi reached the bottom step and melted into the shadow behind them as though he were shadow himself, and Farfarello followed suit. I did not. I was the one who called attention to the silent. I felt a swirl of anger as, unseen by Weiß, I saw what they did to our Schuldig.
He is not theirs to hurt, I thought, and I did not question our wisdom anymore.
One of them raised something sharp. I had to speak before the surprise made the Weiß jerk, and hurt Schuldig more seriously than he intended.
"Is that the only weapon you hold against me?" I said, and, as I had anticipated, the boy swung around, his limbs leaping in his surprise. Schuldig stirred at my voice, stirred like a well-pawed mouse.
"Who's there?" demanded the one with the sword. I stepped fully from the stairs and into the light of the room, and the Weiß gasped collectively. As though it would be someone else, when the blood of my kin stained their blades.
"You have something not belonging to you," I said. "You have not taken good care of it."
"He's a murderer," said the blond one.
"So are you," I said. Sword-boy growled.
"We only hunt the wicked," he said through his teeth. "It's your kind that deserves death. You are perverse, evil. You kill because you can, because it is a pleasure for you." I laughed at that, and their scowls deepened.
"Is it?" I said. "No, we kill for business." Except Farfarello. "As far as I can tell, it is you who are doing evil for pleasure, and you have not even the decency to kill. You are petty torturers, and you berate me for my evil ways." The youngest one, the feminine one with the blood on his hands, emitted a small, strangled noise and dropped his knife. It clattered on the floor, loud in the silence.
"It doesn't matter what you say," said a dark, and thus far silent, young man. "You are our enemy. Why would you come by yourself to fight us? You know you must fight us." I smiled.
"You do not think that I, unarmed, am enough to fend you off?"
"No," said the young man. His eyes were serious and thoughtful, and he seemed not as easily distracted as the other three.
"Well, I think that what I've got with me will be enough," I said. They had only enough time to look quizzical before the young, bloody one shot with alarming speed across the room and into the wall.
They didn't know Nagi, and they were astounded.
"Omi!" cried the serious one, roused from thoughtfulness. Omi sagged limply against the wall and whimpered. I couldn't blame him. High speeds and concrete walls rarely make a comfortable combination.
"How--?" gasped the blond, as the sword-boy growled (it seemed a favorite trick of his). Nagi stepped out and looked at him. His eyes had only a tint of red in them, which meant he hadn't exerted himself in throwing the boy. The blond didn't have Nagi to fear, though, because Farfarello leapt out of hiding and cornered him in an instant.
As for sword-boy, suddenly sensible, he raised his katana to have done with Schuldig before we could get to him. I shot forward and struck the back of his head, and he fell limp at my feet without striking the blow. The serious boy looked uncertain about what he was to do, and as long as he was uncertain, I thought to leave him be. Farfarello was a more pressing engagement.
I looked to Schuldig with some concern; he was breathing shallowly, and what time they'd been given had clearly been used thoroughly by Weiß. Farfarello, standing, blade drawn over a crouching enemy, was whispering, "Kill, kill, kill!" I knew that if he got started, it would take time we hadn't got for him to finish. And I certainly didn't need to give the other three an extra reason for vendettas.
"Farfarello!" I said. "Let it wait. Schuldig needs you more." Farfarello's blade disappeared and he materialized next to me, leaving a shell-shocked opponent in the corner. Nagi looked at Schu's wrists and, with a little nose wrinkle, unlocked all four pair of handcuffs at once. He looked at the offending items for a long moment, and then up at the remaining Weiß.
"I never knew kittens were kinky."
The serious one, to my great surprise, grinned and let loose a single bemused bark of laughter.
"Good to know you're still a teenager, even if you are a killer." Nagi's eyes narrowed, and he raised a finger in the direction of the limp Omi.
"So is he," Nagi said. Schuldig, meanwhile, was hissing as Farfarello lifted him onto his back. His eyes were open to slits, but he didn't seem to see clearly. Considering the damage dealt him by our enemies, this was unsurprising.
"Are you going to kill us today?" the dark one asked.
"No," I said. "You and your companions have not left us with time for such luxury." I gestured to Schuldig. He was awake enough to sound wry, even if he couldn't look it.
No luxury, Brad? Then why the chitchat?
Awake enough to pester me as well, it seemed.
No scolding, just leaving! Hurting!
It felt odd to receive such adamant commands from the silent, catatonic form on Farfarello's back.
"Yes, Schuldig, we are leaving," I said, and looked at the Weiß. "Do not even consider the foolish acts of which you and your associates are so fond. We may be fewer than usual, but we will win regardless."
He nodded, still so calm that I could not help but wonder whether he was part of Weiß at all, whether he cared in the least about his temporarily fallen comrades. They groaned on the floor, and he looked as cool as if we were discussing tulip care. It was discomfiting. But it was not, I supposed, something to be considered now. There were already things to be taken care of, and before anything else, I would take care of them.
"Good evening," I said irrelevantly, nodding to the calm young man opposite me. I turned to the stairs we had come down minutes before, and lead the silent way out of the earth and onto it, out of falsely lit prison into free and midnight dark.
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PenguinKye
July 13, 2004
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