A Sense of Dark

Chapter Fourteen

by PenguinKye

October 12, 199X 7:20 P.M.

Ran Fujimiya, the fool with the sword, was exactly as easy to dispatch as I had guessed; in other terms, after a few drunken, misguided swings, his hands, wrapped around the hilt, were wrapped in my hand. He uttered some unmentionably foul language, so I put forth a hand to silence him. I put it around his throat, and after a minute or two of bulge-eyed, incredulous wheezing, he dropped like a stone to the floor. Mission very much accomplished. For a brief and frivolous moment, I felt as though I were one of the Shinsengumi, and these drunk, arrogant satires of heroism were Choshu samurai who had been too sure of their security at the Ikeda Inn.

The ease of it made me sigh, because if it weren't for Farfarello's…unique quirks when it came to murder, we could have done all four of them in the night we had come to retrieve Schuldig.

This, of course, made me think to inspect Farfarello's progress, and after a cursory glance at Fujimiya, who was blue and truly dead, I turned to the corner where Omi Tsukiyono, or Mamoru Takatori, or whatever the hell his name was, was currently trapped.

Farfarello, of course, was doing something extremely violent, and Omi/Mamoru was screaming his little head off. I decided that Farfarello had the situation well in hand.

Apparently Nagi did as well, because he was sitting with his legs tucked in, staring at a vocal and squirming Youji Kudou. I couldn't see what Nagi was doing to him, exactly, but it was probably as unpleasant as what Farfarello was at this moment doing with his fingernails.

Nagi leaned over and whispered something in Kudou's ear, his face vicious. This was a mistake; the Weiß tensed, and one of his arms shot, quick and jerky, at Nagi's face. It dragged him to the floor by his hair and said something in reply, something that made Nagi flinch. Nagi pulled back, catching Kudou's nails across his face. His face was enraged now, and his eyes were red almost to the center. He bared his teeth and I could see him push with his mind. Kudou screamed, curled, slumped, and was still.

I leapt over the sofa, seeing Nagi sway, but I was too late to catch him before he hit the floor.

I checked once again to see that Farfarello was diverted, and then lifted the lids of Nagi's eyes. They stared past me, unseeing, and as red as a gaping wound. What he had done had to have been incredibly difficult; this was the first time I had ever seen him driven unconcious by his efforts. At the least, it was the first time since his talent had been trained.

A piercing shriek emanated from the corner, and Farfarello chuckled.

"Farfarello, have done with it," I snapped. He glowered back over his shoulder, and for a disconcerting long moment, our eyes were locked. At last he shrugged, snarled, and his hand flashed against Omi/Mamoru's throat. The boy whimpered and was silenced.

Our boy was silent too. I checked for his pulse, pressing my fingers beneath his jaw. His heart was beating. His skin was cold.

I picked Nagi up and considered tossing him over one shoulder, but I thought perhaps that enough blood had travelled to his head for one night. Instead I carried him in both arms, trying to avoid seeing him. I could already feel him, boneless and lighter even than he looked, and if I'd had to look at such uncontrolled, undisguised weakness it would have made me sick.

I took a glance around the room and was overwhelmed by the conviction that we should have waited until they were all here.

It wasn't a vision, but it was the closest thing I'd had all day. Wonderful, I thought, feeling as though I had ingested an entire lemon, wait until after they're lying in pieces across the floor to give me a pointer.

"Hurry, Farfarello," I said, and he dragged his eyes from his victim with only a tinge of regret. He wanted to leave.

Animal instinct did not secure me from my concern.

We moved more quickly than usual on our way to our hidden car. I deposited Nagi, still senseless, in the front seat and made certain that the doors were locked around Farfarello in the back. Perhaps I drove too fast, but so did many people, because it was October and the sun was gone by seven o'clock. They were anxious to be at home, I suppose.

I merely wanted to be somewhere where I would not be caught. I thought it a minor miracle that Schwarz's collective dwelling had not yet been discovered, by one enemy or another. It was not that we were either unskilled at covering our trail, or that our foes were much to cause fear—but there were a great number of them, and statistically, one ought someday to find out where we were.

We reached our destination without incident (and I was looking for tails). I carried Nagi up the stairs and Farfarello followed, subdued as he sometimes was after a kill. I had just begun to worry about opening the door when it opened itself, Unmei behind it.

"Come in, Mr. Crawford," she said, as though it were her home. We did go in. I deposited Nagi in his room. Before I left, I glanced at his cheek, where Youji Kudou's nails had cut him—the last stand of the Choshu. Little dotted lines of blood, three of them, rose nearly invisibly from his eye to his mouth.. Surely the blood was dressing enough.

He was sweating a little. I covered him with a blanket and left the door ajar.

Farfarello stalked past me, no doubt to nurse the mirth of murder in his room. I would leave him be at least until the next afternoon.

"Madam," I said, when Unmei and I were alone. "Is there any news for me?"

She told me what there was to tell, and then glanced, unhurried and piercing, around the room. When her gaze slid back to me, she pressed that same gaze into my eyes, and then pressed her lips to my neck, long and slow. Her breath warmed my skin, but her touch made me cold. She straightened, and putting a hand to my face, said, "I will speak to you soon, Brad Crawford."

Then she turned around and left with neither a backwards glance nor a final goodbye, and shut the door behind her. I stood for a long time, alone in the middle of the room. Then I realized I couldn't stand forever, and I looked for a place where I wouldn't have to.