Hello loyal readers,
I just got back from my vacation and boy am I excited to be back and to have another installment of our story for you all! For all of you who were asking, Rome and Greece were beautiful, historic, and chaotic. I always find vacations to be somewhat exhausting though, so I am somewhat relieved to be home. Hotel beds ain't got nothin' on my own bed!
This past week, we crossed another landmark – 50 faves! We're almost to 100 alerts and 150 reviews as well. Brings a tear to my eye – thank you all!
Today, we get the reveal of several new characters and our two favorite agents get sucked a little bit deeper into Delta's organization.
Enjoy!
As always, thank you so much for your reviews, favorites, and alerts. Please remember that your responses are a great source of motivation for me. Love you guys!
-x-
CH21
"Nii-san! You mustn't kill!"
Nii-san?
Ren felt as though he were waking from a dream, struggling up through the depths of his consciousness and the darkness before he emerged into reality. Like a near-drowned man, he sucked in a desperate, gasping breath that left him feeling exhausted but finally whole. Panting in exhaustion, Ren realized that he still had the smuggler pinned at the ledge of the platform. Though he felt the brief temptation to just let go, Cain Heel was only meant to capture, not to kill. Shifting his arm down to lay across the man's collarbone, Ren pulled him with an almighty heave over the metal railing. The man landed with a shout and a crash onto the metal platform behind Ren.
Feeling like a man half-possessed, Ren watched the smuggler lay at his feet, coughing and gasping for air. A surge of anger rose up within Ren again. This was the man who had caused Rick's death—.
"I guess Nii-san is the type who likes to go all out at work. You really beat the living crap out of this loser."
Ren turned and saw his partner, fully in character, climbing leisurely up the metal ladder to the platform. With a sinking sensation, Ren realized that he had completely cast aside his roles – both as Cain Heel and as Tsuruga Ren. In front of Mogami-san, no less.
Oh no… Had she found out? Was she scared of him? Would she –?
Interrupting his panicking thoughts, Setsu unhurriedly finished climbing to the top of the platform, dusted off her black leather pants, and peered up at his face.
"What?" Ren tried to summon Cain Heel to the forefront and was only partially successful. His heart was thudding too wildly inside of his chest for him to fully concentrate.
In lieu of answering, Setsu merely brought her hands up, smacking him on both cheeks. Ren barely repressed the instinct to flinch, thinking he was getting slapped. Instead, Setsu only began pinching his cheeks then digging her fingers into the corners near his mouth, pulling up and then pushing down.
Slightly annoyed now, Cain Heel slipped easily into place.
"Setsu."
"Hmmm…?"
"What are you doing?"
Still squinting up at his face, his younger sister finally stopped and dropped her arms to her sides, shrugging with one shoulder.
"I don't know," she intoned as she continued to inspect him by tilting her head this way and that. "Nii-san had a weird look on his face for a while."
Wincing internally, Ren waited for the other shoe to drop.
However, Setsu merely tipped her head forward and gave him her sultry-smooth smile. "But Nii-san is back to normal now. Although, I wish sometimes you'd chase after me like that…"
"Ugh! Can you stop, you perverted siblings! My ears are going to start bleeding!"
Cain turned to glare at the smuggler, who was still sitting on the floor.
"You…" Ren struggled to keep his voice steady as Cain Heel. "You know who I really am?"
The smuggler glared in return and rose shakily to his feet. The hood fell back off his head, revealing a mop of mussed, dark wavy hair.
"That's right!" The man crowed tauntingly. Ren's heart beat wildly in his chest as the smuggler reached up to yank the mask off his lower face. He was a young man with sharp, handsome features and a haughty smirk. As he pointed an accusatory finger at Cain, he cried with all the enthusiasm of a TV-show detective, "You're really… the serial killer, BJ!"
Ren merely blinked. Then blinked again.
Clearly not expecting such a lack-luster response, the young man tried again, jabbing his finger at Cain, "You're not just a bounty hunter – you foreigner British scum – you're really a blood thirsty serial killer!"
From a corner of his mind, Ren heard Setsu ask wryly, "Does Nii-san know this idiot?"
Before he could stop the words, Ren heard himself reply incredulously, "Who the hell is this guy?"
However, before Ren could get an answer, he heard the sound of solitary applause from below. He and Setsu exchanged looks then leaned over the railing to stare down at the command deck.
On the deck, next to a short young woman with light brown hair stood a middle-aged man with round glasses, clapping and grinning widely.
"Well done, Murasame-kun! And bravo to our newest recruits, Setsu and Cain Heel!"
-x-
"So it was all just a test." Setsu stared flatly at the pudgy, spectacled man in front of them. Cain could tell from the slight tension in her voice that she was annoyed.
"Yes, quite!" The man, who had introduced himself as Konoe Tomohiko, the Strategic Operations Director for Delta, was obviously pleased with himself. He stood proudly, fists on hips, trying desperately to ignore the smuggler and girl squabbling behind him.
Cain didn't say a word. He just turned around and started walking away. With a flip of her hair, Setsu followed right after him.
"Wait wait wait!" Hearing the man run across the deck after them, Cain paused. Clearly panicking, the Director held his hands up in defense. "This wasn't a waste of your time! You responded to an audition invitation, correct? We are in great need of someone with your particular talents within our organization."
At that, Cain turned fully back around, leveling his most menacing glare at the Director. "And what do you know about my talents?"
"Hah!" Clearly eavesdropping on the conversation, the dark-haired smuggler, who Konoe had introduced as Murasame Taira, dashed forward to stand next to Konoe. He again pointed an accusatory finger at Cain. "Your only talent is that you're a ruthless, merciless serial killer!"
Murasame turned to address Konoe, crossing his arms over his chest. "Director Konoe, I already told you. We don't need a guy like this in Henshin. Why the hell would Delta want a serial killer pretending to be a bounty hunter?"
'Henshin?' Agent T noted from the back of his mind. 'Was that the name of Delta's organization?'
Nonetheless, this guy had it all wrong.
"How sad…" Cain intoned, ever the minimalist with words.
Murasame perked up, clearly and correctly feeling antagonized. "What did you say, asshole?"
"He means," Setsu piped up while continuing to give the smuggler her most withering stare, "'How sad, your brain is so full of holes that it must be like emmental cheese.'"
"…What's emmental cheese?"
"Here, Murasame-san!" The short, brown-haired girl popped up beside him, holding a high-tech looking tablet in her hands. "I did a quick Google search for you!"
As the smuggler looked at the tablet and then started spluttering another round of curses while the girl giggled, Konoe simply sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose under his spectacles.
"Murasame-kun… Did you even read the mission briefing?"
"Of course I did!"
"Then you read it backwards," the Director said flatly. "You have it reversed. Cain Heel is not a serial killer pretending to be a bounty hunter. He is a bounty hunter pretending to be a serial killer."
"Ah–! Oh… Ehh?"
Cain tried not to get distracted mentally cataloguing the myriad of stupid emotions that crossed the smuggler's face as he grappled with this clearly paradigm-shifting information. Instead Cain turned back to Konoe, who had coughed politely into his hand to bring the focus back to the matters at hand.
The middle-aged man regarded Cain thoughtfully. "You created the legend of a bloodthirsty but imaginary serial killer so you could frame him for your abductions of targets. All you need is to stage the scene of the 'murder' with a previously acquired but quite unrelated body that you've mangled beyond recognition. After all, in many situations, certain gangs or criminal networks would become suspicious of police activity if one of their members suddenly went missing without a trace.
"It's a very unique approach to the age-old problem of bounty hunters: how to acquire targets without stepping on the toes of the government enforcement bodies who write your paycheck. The fact that the Japanese cremate all their dead has certainly worked to your advantage. No one really misses the bodies."
The Heel siblings merely accepted this lengthy explanation in silence.
"Am I wrong?" Konoe chuckled heartily. "My intelligence gathering is rather top notch. And your contact at the morgue is quite chatty."
Before Cain could say anything else, the girl with short brown hair ran up to him, eyes wide in awe.
"Cain-san is not nearly as scary as I had thought. Maybe your scary attitude is just an act and you really are kind at heart, but just seem scary because you don't know how to deal with people well and are just waiting for someone to notice you and help you to change for the better—!"
All Cain could do was stare in incredulity at this bizarre specimen of a female as she continued her fantasy-infused rant with exuberant gesticulations. The only person who had a wilder imagination was—
His eyes darted down to look at Setsu who seemed at a similar loss for how to deal with such an odd character.
However while he was distracted, the brown-haired girl had taken it upon herself to pull his focus back to herself by looping her arm around his and yanking him downward to her eye level.
"What the hell?"
"Ne, ne Heel-san! Rule #3 of proper social interaction is to always pay attention to someone who is talking to you!"
"Manaka-chan!" Both Kondo and Murasame snapped out of their own shock to leap forward and try to detach her from Cain's arm. Murasame reached her first and pried her off, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck.
"Stop getting ahead of yourself, you crazy girl! This isn't one of your damn mangas."
Manaka took an unsuccessful swing at Murasame. "No, this is just how the hero and heroine usually meet – under bad circumstances! You don't know anything, baka-Murasame! Then the two get over their initial dislike and eventually fall in love and–"
While the two squabbled and Konoe tried to keep the peace, Cain glanced down. Setsu had fortunately stayed put, but her eyes held this lifeless, glassy quality that he didn't like one bit.
"Setsu."
"…"
"Setsu?"
Snapping back to herself with a soft but sharp gasp, Setsu turned and pointedly glared at the ground. Before she could respond, Konoe was clearing his throat.
"My apologies Heel-san. Ono Manaka is our organization's surveillance and technology expert. She... Let's just say that she doesn't get out much. However, back to the matter at hand. If you two would like, even though the test may have gotten cut short this time–" Konoe pointedly looked at Manaka who avoided eye contact with feigned innocence "—It was still a good enough show of skill that Delta has authorized me to extend you both an invitation to join Henshin."
"Henshin?" Cain echoed.
"Delta?" Setsu asked at the same time. Agent T almost smirked. Well played, Mogami-san. The Heel siblings shouldn't know about Delta quite yet.
"Ah! Yes," the Director's voice took on a wistful quality. "Though we are but a meager, rag-tag bunch who don't always play on the right side of the law, our leader Delta has brought us together to help us redeem ourselves by changing society for the better and reforming the corrupt within it."
Setsu crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing. "And how the hell are we supposed to reform society with what Nii-san does?"
Konoe rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "That information, unfortunately, is classified. However, you can be assured that Delta has a thorough plan to use every single one of you to your utmost abilities. And pay you handsomely for your troubles."
Cain and Setsu shared a glance. Agent T knew that they had been playing hard to get up until this point, but now their hard work was about to pay off. He had so many more questions for the man in front of him, yet Cain Heel wasn't one to pry. It was going to be a delicate balance acquiring information about Henshin and Delta without revealing their hand and raising suspicion.
Taking their silence for indecision, Konoe's hands flew up again, palms open and pleading. "It really is an arrangement that can't be far from your current one –obtaining targets for whoever promises to foot the bill. However Henshin has a much better payoff. Both financially and morally."
"Maybe Cain-san is worried because he is supposed to go back to the UK next week?" Manaka piped up from behind Murasame who quickly slapped his hand over her mouth.
Cain exchanged a sidelong glance with his sister. Now how would they know something like that…
"I guess we can postpone going back home." Setsu looked at the surveillance expert with narrowed eyes.
"Well, if you two have no pressing matters back in England–!" Konoe interjected with the rushed cadence of someone trying to change the topic. He offered his hand to Cain. "How about it?"
After a pause and a curt nod from his sister, the bounty hunter leaned forward to grasp the Director's hand in a firm shake.
-x-
Director Konoe promised to keep in touch for their next assignments, eagerly christening Cain and Setsu as Chi and Sigma, respectively. However, as the Heel siblings were about to depart, Manaka managed to wriggle out of Murasame's grip, dart forward, and grab Cain's arm, demanding that the bounty hunter stay in contact with her as well.
Apparently, that was the last straw for Setsuka. As the younger Heel stalked off toward the docks, Murasame pried Manaka off Cain again before pulling her back to the bridge to collect her "stupid equipment" while Konoe fretfully trailed them. With one last lingering glance at the Henshin operatives, Cain followed his sister off the ship and to the pier. He retrieved the unneeded body bag and its occupant before walking to the car and tossing the body in the trunk. They would have to make a pit stop at the Yokohama city morgue on the way home.
Setsu was already sitting in the passenger's seat, arms folded tightly over her chest. The radio blared heavy death metal music at a volume loud enough to cause Agent T's chest to vibrate in time with the bass. When he entered the car, she merely harrumphed and refused to even look at her brother for the duration of the trip home.
Agent T chuckled internally. He supposed that this was Setsu's version of brooding.
Settling in for the drive back to their apartment, Ren's thoughts turned to his frantic chase across the cargo ship. Stifling an internal groan, Ren remembered that he had almost compromised their entire mission with his rash assumptions. Fortunately, his partner had been there to stop him.
A quick glance revealed that Setsu was still glaring at the dash with such intensity that Ren was surprised it didn't erupt into flame.
Turning his attention back to the road, Agent T tried to quell the nauseous, nervous feeling that had been burbling up from his gut the moment since Setsu had called out to him on the command deck. All of the darkness that he was supposed to have suppressed had come bursting out like an unholy geyser at the slightest provocation.
'Will this mission be ok?' Ren thought grimly as he took a left turn a little more sharply than he had meant to. 'Will I be ok?'
But he was getting closer to Delta's organization, and the man within who had caused Rick's death. Years of dead ends and failure and false hopes – Ren couldn't turn back now. He would just have to try harder to control himself in the future.
It was all for the sake of his vengeance. If he couldn't get revenge… if Ren didn't have a scapegoat to target, then he might just be forced to come to terms with the fact that by his own hand, he had actually been the one–
No. Immediately Ren stuffed all of his doubts and uncertainty back into that dark, untraversed corner of his mind.
Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Ren scowled at the road ahead. Closing his eyes momentarily, then opening them, he was once again Cain Heel.
There was no turning back now.
-x-
"Tau-san? Are you cold? Do you want me to ask the driver to turn up the heater?" Manaka cocked her head and watched him. The flick-flick-flick of the passing street lights illuminated in segments the concern etched on her face.
Slightly embarrassed to have been caught mid-shiver, Murasame Taira, or Tau, raised a sheepish hand and shook his head. "No need to worry, Omi-chan. I'm absolutely fine!"
Though he had meant it to sound firm and manly, his last statement came out a strangled squawk.
Puffing her cheeks out, Omicron planted fists on her hips and frowned at the smuggler. "But you're completely blue in the face! You must've caught a cold or something!"
Murasame let his eccentric flat-mate continue to rant, promising that as soon as they got home, she'd order in some Murasame-core and Murasame-blood, then he'd feel as right as rain.
However, Murasame couldn't even begin to think about fried food and soda. Even though he was far away from that crazy bounty hunter, he still felt chills running down his spine.
An image flashed through his mind – the tall man stalking toward him on the platform, his dark hair whipping crazily back and forth in the wind. His unhinged, manic smile.
"You're the one who caused his death. My life has been a living hell… and now, what remains of your life will be too!"
An uncontrollable tremor that felt like an 8.0 on the Richter scale of shivers rippled through his body. Even when he was a juvenile delinquent, he had never felt anything larger than a 6.5! Surreptitiously so Manaka wouldn't see, Murasame started blowing warm air into his fists.
It was unlike him to make such an obvious mistake like misreading the mission briefing, but could anyone really blame him?
That was no ordinary man… More like a monster. Despite Director Konoe's insistence, Murasame felt more inclined to believe his own version of Cain Heel's story – that the man was a serial killer posing as a bounty hunter, instead of vice versa. Someone had definitely been conned into believing otherwise.
That guy was the real deal. A blood-thirsty, cold-blooded killer.
What on earth could Delta want from a guy like that?
-x-
NOTES:
Made up names: Manaka to my knowledge does not have a last name. Everyone just calls her "Manaka-chan" –hence Ono Manaka. I figured that you guys wouldn't mind a little pun at our obnoxious little hamster's expense. ;)
Konoe's first name Tomohiko was chosen because… He kind of looks like a Tomohiko!
Henshin – to transform, metomorphosize
-x-
MAILBAG:
Shizuhoe – Thanks for the well-wishes for my trip! I really wish I'd had time to go visit Pompeii as well; I've wanted to see the ruins ever since reading about it in 4th grade. Rome was pretty great too, but definitely do-able in a few days. The most interesting thing I saw was on a Crypts and Catacombs tour. There was an early monastery decorated entirely with human bones! I'm very proud that I made you laugh twice! Once for Maria and another for Lory's speech. I might have said this before, but I feel like one of my weaknesses is writing humor, so I'll take what I can get! As for Kanako, the person contacting Ren, and Kappa… We shall see! Muhahaha! Thanks again Shizuhoe!
Guest – Hello fellow Miraculer! Leave a name next time so I can differentiate you :D. I recently had "Bavarian camembert," but it wasn't smelly at all unlike Plagg's version. I was kind of disappointed and felt as if it wasn't authentic… but then again, it was served on an airplane during a 13 hour flight, so I guess it was for the best that it wasn't particularly odorous. Haha
Guest – I'm really glad that you like it! Good question about the grudge demons: in my AU, Kyoko is not as explicitly supernatural. She does manifest some sort of creepy aura that has a tangible impact on reality (see CH4 when she confronts Sho for the first time), but other than that, no manifested grudge demons. But obviously, this universe is supernatural enough that Maria can actually place a curse on Sho. ;) Thanks for the review! Leave a name next time so I can differentiate you :D
Guest – Thank youuuuu! Glad you think it's exciting!
MWEH – I know right?! Ugh… I really hope that for the acting test, Kyoko gets paired with Kanae so they can pull another Curara stunt that blows all the other competition out of the water! I'm looking forward to seeing what Ren gets Kyoko for White Day… After all this time and pain and effort, it better be something good! I agree about Koga; it was refreshing to see someone who doesn't fawn over Ren all the time, but I think that Koga means "bully" in a good-natured sort of way. Certainly not in the underhanded, malicious way that Kimiko is bullying Kyoko right now. (rolls eyes) Hahaha, I take it the music suggestion didn't agree with you? I do admit that the original piece has a very jarring first 10-15 seconds. The song after that intro part really gets the blood pumping! Then again, to each his own with music! Thanks again MWEH!
Aikori Ichijouji – Thaaaaaanks! Both for the compliments on the action sequences and for the Santorini recommendation. Unfortunately, I visited Santorini as a part of a cruise that moved pretty fast between the islands. We had two different excursions per day, each at a different island. While this meant that I was able to see Mykonos, Ephesus (Kusadasi, Turkey), Patmos, Crete, and Santorini in the span of 3 days – it also meant that there was pretty much no down time to explore and really enjoy the location. Now that I know what I liked (Santorini, Mykonos, Ephesus) and what I didn't (Patmos was so-so and Crete was a snooze-fest), maybe next time I'll be able to pick a different cruise and enjoy it more. And lol, same here. I feel like almost everyone who was really into the manga/anime scene in their teen years has cringe-y stories. Don't worry. You're in good company. Lol
TaleWeaver – Thanks for the PM! I really, truly appreciate that you didn't write what was a pretty accurate guess of one aspect of the story's biggest twists in the public review section for everyone to see. LOL High five though! I'd say you're 90% accurate – the best so far! Given your track record, I'd guess that you're either a fan of mystery novels or ought to be writing them yourself. ;) As for the online manga, I usually read it off of mangahere but I also became a member of a Facebook SB fan group recently, and I find the newest chapters are posted there faster. I look forward to hearing your feedback once you've "glutted" yourself on all the other chapters! Haha Thanks TaleWeaver!