I'm back again with Chapter 11! By the way, if anyone was wondering whether Syaoran or Sakura might appear in the story, they will, albeit a little later.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa, not now, not ever. (sob)
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Kyle sat on the chair, guarding the current hideout of one of the Mafia branches with a very, very bored and miserable look on his face. A few days ago, the man had been yelled at by his boss for losing Fai back in Japan, and there was a strong suspicion that they might already be here now, though there were still no traces of their appearance by any of the guards keeping watch around Italy. Still, that didn't quell the boss' fear and anger.
He ran his hand through his hair, unleashing a string of very foul curses. Well, you would be if you have your butt kicked out of the committee and have your life's work stripped away for you. Right now, he was reduced to nothing but a bodyguard, banned to take part in any mission.
Cursing once again, Kyle drew his gun out of his pocket and tapped it on his palm. He would have to vent out his anger in some other way than shooting his boss.
Soft footsteps alerted him as he sprang out of his chair, gun aiming at an unseen enemy. "Who's there?" he half-yelled, voice cutting clearly through the night air.
"It's just me," said a woman's voice as a figure shone clearly in the light afterwards, walking towards Kyle.
"Xing Huo?" eyed Kyle suspiciously. "What the hell are you doing here?" The woman has currently replaced Kyle as the boss' assistant, so what the hell was she doing here, talking to a low life? Kyle's eyes never left Xing Huo as he lowered his gun cautiously.
The woman threw a file towards Kyle and he caught it swiftly, then opened and inspected the file. Slowly, his eyes widened.
"They found him a few days ago, along with Subaru and the so-called Kurogane. They're all currently in Rome, and we suspect they might be living in his old house," said Xing Huo in a monotonous voice. "Boss is giving you a chance to get your position back. You have three days." With that, she turned and walked away.
Kyle was left dumbstruck for few a moments, hardly daring to believe the godsend chance that was given to him. Slowly, a smirk spread on his face as he clutched the file tightly.
"My lucky day."
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Fai clutched his head in his hands and let out a cry of frustration. He had spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out the rough location of the place Ashura was held captive, and so far, all he met was a dead end at every attempt.
The chemistry teacher frowned and took the paper in his hands, inspecting it once more, trying to figure out where the hell he was supposed to go.
Fine art surrounds you as you fall,
Our men shall come to you at four,
Evening would be better than dawn,
C you at the 14th of May, right there.
No doubt this message was supposed to be passed to him a little later with a threat, since it was only the start of April. In order to find the Mafia's branch hideout, he needed to solve where in the world he was supposed to meet them. Usually, the hideout of the specific team for handling this mission is located somewhere near that place. The message clearly said 'fine art', but Italy is filled with art. So where the hell was he supposed to go? The blonde was sure that 'C you' must mean something important, since they could write 'See you' instead of 'C you'. So that means the beginning of the alphabets of each sentence was needed, but by putting it all together doesn't make any sense, so how…
"Fai?"
The blonde turned around. Upon seeing Subaru's worried face at the door, he smiled.
"What is it, Subaru-san?"
"I've been calling you for at least 10 times now. Dinner's ready!" His eyes followed Fai's hand to the note that was held in his hand.
" … Any breakthroughs?" Fai shook his head. "I tried using the first words of every sentence and arranging the sentences according to the number of words in ascending and descending order and at least 10 other complicated ways, but none of it makes sense!"
Subaru shut the door from behind. "Well, I tried taking out all the important bits from the message and add together the first or last alphabets together as well as from the unimportant bits and nothing came up, so perhaps you can save doing that as well." Subaru smiled. "C'mon, come take a break and eat something." With that, the man grabbed Fai and dragged him out of the room in a playful way.
"Besides, it's not like you can afford to stare at the message from head to tail for the whole day," Subaru laughed gently.
They were half way to the kitchen before something struck the blonde.
Head to tail.
He said head to tail.
Head and tail.
Fai's eyes widened.
Immediately, the chemistry teacher broke free from Subaru's grasp and ran back into the room, grabbing a pencil and scribbled down all possibilities available. No wonder something felt wrong, he had been doing it all in the wrong way! After a few attempts, Fai finally got the answer. He smiled in satisfaction.
By joining all the first alphabets of the sentences with the last alphabets of the sentences, one will get…
"Florence." Fai whispered excitedly. He looked at Subaru who just entered the room. "Florence," he repeated.
Subaru blinked.
"What?"
"Ashura's in Florence."
Subaru stood there, blinking stupidly for a moment before smiling. He raised his hand.
"High five." The both of them clapped each other's hand at the achievement, grinning.
When they proceeded to leave, there was a crash from the living room. Both men jumped and quickly backed away, staring at the slightly opened door.
Shouts from familiar and unfamiliar voices could be heard. Adrenalin kicked into action as Fai quickly opened the table's drawer and drew a few knives and hid them from view. It wasn't long before Kurogane rushed into the room, sword drawn as he panted heavily.
"Get the hell out of here!" he yelled.
Shortly after, the door to the room slammed open and a number of armed men entered, guns pointing at three of them. Instinctively, Kurogane stepped between them; sword drawn.
"What the hell-" Kurogane hissed. At that moment, another man entered the room, a smirk painted on his face. The gym teacher growled.
Kyle.
"Damn it!" Kurogane cursed. How did they found out they were here so quickly? His mind slipped back a few days ago when Fai went out to the Piazza di Spagna. Someone in the shadow must have seen them. He cursed the lithe man mentally for being so reckless.
Kyle's smirked grew wider at Kurogane's obvious anger before turning his attention to Fai. "You gave me the slip in Japan, my dear Fai. That's not going to happen again, I can assure you." He signaled to the men around him. "Get him."
The men surrounding them raised their guns.
Kurogane's red eyes widened and Subaru quickly pulled all three of them down to the ground.
Instantly, Kurogane drew his sword as he attacked from below, rushing towards them who just started firing. With a loud cry, the gruff man shoved his sword forward, killing one of the men as he rammed into another, forcing him to stumble as he knocked heavily onto the others before charging at them and brought his sword forward.
With that distraction, Fai drew his knives from their hiding place and threw them towards Kyle. The man saw it and quickly dodged, drew his gun and aimed at the blonde. Instantly, Subaru threw himself forward, tackling Kyle to the ground as Fai rushed to grab his gun. With much struggle, he finally managed to pry the gun away from the stone grip and pointed it at the owner himself as Subaru finally managed to pin him down on the ground.
With that, all action in the room suddenly ceased. Kyle's men – some injured by Kurogane's sword or Fai's knives – stopped fighting as they saw their boss' life being threatened. Not that they really cared, they just didn't want to be killed if Kyle managed to live through this. All eyes were on Kyle. They expected him to growl, curse, or doing whatever that was Kyle-like, but they never expected him to do what he did next.
He chuckled.
"What is it?" snapped Kurogane as Subaru tightened his grip on the man, refusing to let him go.
There was a hidden glint of amusement in his eyes. "No, it's just, I just can't imagine the man who kidnapped dear Fai here, killed his family and made him suffer through all those tortures in the Mafia for years actually protecting him with his life right now."
Silence hung in the air and things stayed like that for a while. Kyle smiled inwardly as he saw the blonde struggling to regain his composure. For a moment, he just stared at Kyle and remained speechless.
"What… are you saying?"
"C'mon, can't you tell the difference?"
"Shut up!" hissed Subaru as he tightened his grip further. Kyle cringed in pain, though the smirk never left his face.
"That night, that figure that killed your mother and brother, can't you find any similarities with someone here in the ro-"
"SHUT UP!" yelled Kurogane. God, please, not here, not known. Fai had suffered as much as he had, the gruff man knew that. He didn't want to add to his misery. He spared a glance at the blonde worriedly. "Don't listen to him."
It was too late. Fai's eyes started to fade as he spaced out; drowning in the sea of memories. Kyle's words sunk into his mind as he remembered the incident that still haunts him at night, even though it was such a long time ago.
The dark figure that stood before his mother's body.
The bloody blade that glistened in the moonlight.
Fai shifted his gaze to Kurogane's sword, now bloody. He almost choked, eyes widening in fear and disbelief.
The figure that stood over him mercilessly as he cried and sobbed, clutching his dead brother's body tightly to his chest.
He remembered staring at the evil figure looming over him as he cried, before grabbing him and shoving his head into a bag. The hand was strangely calloused and rough.
He looked so young, probably older than him by merely a few years.
Fai looked at Kurogane in horror, his mouth opening in a silent scream.
The figure had spiky hair, and with the moonlight, Fai thought he saw red in those eyes, the eyes of a demon, but thought better of it. Must be a trick of the light. No man has red eyes.
Fai looked like he was losing himself as the images piece themselves together and the cruel yet undeniable truth finally washed over him. He stared at Kurogane for a long while and his eyes were horror stricken.
A heavy silence wrapped in the room. Kurogane could feel himself panic slightly. He had hoped that Fai wouldn't have to find out about that bit of information, at least, not that soon, and especially not now. He could feel fear creeping into his heart. How would Fai react? Judging from his wide eyes that looked like it was about to pop out from its sockets as well as the mouth hanging open, the gruff man could feel himself being crushed under the cerulean gaze roiling with mixed emotions: surprise, anger, fear, disbelief, but foremost, betrayal.
"… It was you?" A choked voice whispered, tears forming in his eyes. "…You killed my mother? You killed Fai? You-" Fai's voice was interrupted with a sob, tears slowly trickling down his cheeks as his mind relived the memory again and again. Oh, how could he have missed it?! Everything he remembered about the dark figure he was trying so hard to forget fit perfectly with the man he loved standing in front of him right now.
… So that was it? That was the reason why Kurogane had been trying so hard to protect Fai ever since Subaru came? That was the reason for his sudden change of behavior towards him?
You mean… he never loved him at all? All this time? You mean, all this time, it wasn't love? It was just pity? Or was it guilt that drove him to do what he did and nothing otherwise?
That… was it?
That was it?
All of a sudden, the betrayal quickly turned into red hot anger as hatred soared from the very core of his heart, blocking all rational thoughts and filling him with nothing but fiery rage that tore through his lithe body.
"You…" he hissed and narrowed his eyes, and Kurogane shrank back inwardly at the amount of anger and hatred, insanity slowly creeping into those dark, blue eyes.
"You..." Fai panted in anger. "It was you. You ruined me. You ruined my life. You killed my mother and brother when we had the chance to live. You… you.." Fai didn't notice his voice getting louder and louder. "YOU TURNED ME INTO A VICTIM OF SNUFF FILMS!! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR THAT?! IF IT WASN'T FOR ASHURA-SAN I WOULDN'T BE ALIVE NOW! EVEN SO, I HAD TO ENDURE YEARS OF TORTURE ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU… YOU RUINED ME! YOU RUINED ME!!" he yelled, tears streaming down his face faster than ever. His whole body shook violently as suppressed sobs wracked through his thin frame. It wasn't long before the man found it harder and harder to breathe.
"Fai…" a timid voice broke through the air and snapped him out of his thoughts. The blonde looked down at Subaru, panting heavily, sweat rolling his forehead, eyes shining with endless rage.
Guilt was the first thing he saw in those eyes. Those eyes he trusted so dearly.
"… You knew?" Fai whispered, hardly daring to believe. "You knew… and never told me a fuck about it?!" The rage inside him quickly escalated, and at that moment, Fai's heart broke and shattered, leaving nothing but a void of emptiness which quickly filled with anger, distrust, insanity and hatred. … Subaru never trusted him, this whole time?
Unconsciously, Fai's wide, empty eyes shifted to Kyle. The man was smiling, his eyes shining with pure happiness at the breaking man.
He was smiling at his grief, his pain.
He was happy that that the blonde was breaking.
Hatred finally took over every inch of Fai's being and he lost control.
Eyes reflecting nothing but the insanity taking over, the blonde raised his gun.
Subaru yelled.
Kurogane rushed forward.
And with a loud, piercing scream, Fai pulled the trigger.
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Blood was everywhere.
The enemy retreated, running off in fear.
Kyle's lifeless body lay slumped on the floor, eyes grey and dead.
Silence hang in the air, the only thing heard was Fai's ragged breathing, his body covered in the dead man's blood.
The blonde stared at the body, and at the blood on his own body. Horrible memories in the past returned to him suddenly and all at once, flashing images of times he was so desperately trying to forget. Fai clenched his eyes shut, trying to block those images out of his mind.
His family's death.
The countless rapes and tortures.
Their gleeful laughter as they laughed at his pain.
The pain, God, the pain.
Kurogane.
Nothing existed now but hatred.
"Fai…"
The chemistry teacher's eyes shot open at once. Kurogane stood quite a distance away, his face scrunched up slightly in pain, guilt and worry. Tears flitted down Subaru's face as he tried approaching the blonde. With trembling hands, Fai pointed his gun at Subaru, who froze on the spot immediately.
"Leave me alone," said the distressed man, his voice raspy. Several tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to breathe with the realization that he is now responsible for another man's death. Another wave of hatred accompanied with guilt swept through him. "Leave. Me. Alone," he repeated.
It was his fault, all his fault, that a man is now dead.
He was no better than the others. The others who enjoyed hurting him so much.
Immediately, Fai dashed out of the room and out of the house, shoving Kurogane aside who was blocking the door. Both men chased after him but Fai suddenly turned around, pointing the gun at the both of them, glaring. Subaru cried harder when he realized that he couldn't find any traces of the boy he once knew. All he saw was a stranger, a mad man, craving to do nothing but get revenge. Kurogane still had his scowl on, but agony emanated from his very being in seeing Fai in such a state, and with the horrible possibility that Fai would never turn back to normal again.
"Follow me, and I won't hesitate to shoot," he managed through gasps of breath. Slowly, the blonde backed away, gaze never leaving both men, before dashing away when he reached a corner and into the darkness.
As soon as he was out of sight, Kurogane and Subaru chased after him, but the blonde has disappeared, hiding somewhere from sight. After spending hours trying to find the man, the both of them finally gave up at the crack of dawn. Subaru broke into violent sobs as Kurogane stared into the sky, a line of tears visible in his eyes under the moonlight.
Fai was gone.
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I feel slightly disturbed.
For anyone who doesn't know what a snuff film is:
A snuff film shows a person (in this case a child) that's been kidnapped and sold being killed on film. First, they're given a mild sedative to calm them down. Then, male or female, they're sexually assaulted (raped). After that, the torture begins (ex: fingertips are cut off, fingernails are pulled out), and once they've been made to suffer, the victims are killed (beat with chains to death, run over with motorcycles etc.)
Yes, I know, it's sick, very, very sick. But please don't hate me for this. If you guys are wondering why Fai's still alive and what the hell's gonna happen, then you'll just have to wait!
… Reviews?