.
Hikaru and Kaoru, age fifteen (one month earlier).
"THAT'S IT! WE'RE OVER!"
With those words, the Club fell silent as the Hitachiin Twins, who were inseperable since birth, went their seperate ways for the first time ever. But something even more remarkable happened just moments ago: for the first time in their lives, someone- a commoner of all people- managed to tell the two of them apart. Now one redhead stormed out of the Club in fury while the other waited his turn to turn his nose up to the bewildered onlookers and storm out in suit.
They kept up the silent treatment toward each other all the way until they each entered the limo which would drive them home. Once in the backseat, Kaoru was taken by surprise when face was captured by his brother's hands. Hikaru beamed delightfully at him; "Kaoru, you evil genius, you! I can't believe how quickly you came up with that new routine!"
Indeed, it was the younger twin who initiated the fighting, as he laughed uncontrollably at a comment the commoner girl made about Hikaru earlier. "Aw gee," he smiled meekly, "I couldn't think of anything else to say."
"It's brilliant," cheered Hikaru. "Now everybody's gonna be so caught up in our fighting, that they'll completely forget that we lost the game."
"...Yeah... about that..." started Kaoru, but then he faltered.
"Hm?" blinked Hikaru.
"I was just thinking... Is it really a bad thing that someone finally told us apart? Isn't this what we've always wanted, Hika? To be seen as individuals for once?" The boy turned his head, looking guilty for having started this distraction.
His brother, on the other hand, protested. "I thought so at first, but now... Now it just scares me. Don't tell me you weren't freaked out back there."
"I was... But now, I kind of feel... I dunno... Relieved?"
"Relieved?"
"More like, liberated."
Hikaru stepped back in disbelief. "How could you say that? We've always been together, no matter what!"
"And we still are, Hika. Nothing's changed that. Only now... Now we can be ourselves instead of just a team. We're not just Hikaru-And-Kaoru anymore. ...It feels kind of nice."
Hikaru blinked, confused by his brother's words. His body started to tremble in fear, but his tremors quickly disapated once his twin's hands clutched onto his.
"I know it's weird, Hikaru, but this is a good thing. We can still pretend to fight and make everyone else feel uncomfortable, so we don't have to. But even after we're done with this routine, she's still going to tell us apart. And we're just gonna have to adjust to that. Who knows? Maybe everyone else will start to see us differently. But no matter what happens, we'll still be together."
"I don't want this," whispered the elder twin, still feeling faint of heart. "I don't want..."
Kaoru pulled him in with a tight hug, then rested his chin on his twin's shoulder. "Hey, hey... I'm still here, Hika. ...I'm not going anywhere."
As though he needed some reassurance, Hikaru closed the hug with his own arms to feel his brother's presence. His short breaths cooled into deeper ones, and soon he was calm. Kaoru gently patted his back before pulling away.
He smiled, "Don't worry. We'll get her back one of these days. Just for messing with us."
Hikaru gulped and forced a smile. "Yeah. We'll show her. Nobody messes with the Hitachiin Twins." They shook on it.
And the Hitachiin Twins would go on to have their fun, causing chaos and confusion even among their closest of friends. But something significant happened on that day, shortly after Haruhi Fujioka came barreling into their lives; for on that day, everyone began to take notice of the Twins' subtle yet present differences. Their lives were never truly the same again.
..
..
Present Day, somewhere in deep Limbo.
She watched with a heavy heart as the slumbering form of Kyoya Ootori was being connected to a third chamber. With his tie and jacket removed and a breathing apparatus latched onto his face, the unconscious boy's chamber filled with pink liquid and soon he became afloat, just like Tamaki and Kaoru in their chamers beside his.
The female Agent shook her head in displeasure. "This is wrong."
Her words managed to alert her male counterpart, who was activating the newest chamber. He turned to her curiously.
"We were only supposed to take one boy, not three."
He frowned, "They were interfering with our study, I had no choice." He then approached her with a look of concern. "We do what we have to, to fulfill our assignment."
She remained troubled. "We should have stopped the moment Subject A showed signs of rememberance. The goal was to see how long his memories would kick in."
"That is just the problem though, is it not? The first erasing did not work, we need to try again."
She shook her head in defiance. "No. This has gone on for long enough. We must shut down and return the stolen children."
"Do not let their emotions rub off on you, Agent. We are not like them, we do not let our personal feelings get in the way of progress."
"How long must this go on, Agent? How many more lives are you willing to interefere with before your own curiosity is satisfied?" When he failed to give her an answer, she boldly declared, "I am going to talk to the Engineer; he must know about this."
She started to walk away when her male counterpart blocked her path. "We must not get him involved, he is far too busy to be bothered by this."
Her dark eyes narrowed. "Are you afraid of what he would say?"
"No... I just do not think it is that important. This is all just a minor setback. Let us just proceed with the observation. If any other people interfere... we will deal with them a different way."
"Is that a promise?"
"It is."
There was a pause before the female Agent sighed in compliance. "Proceed."
..
..
Saturday morning, in Hunny's bedroom.
"Here ye, here ye! The Host Club will now come to order!" announced Club President Mitskune "Hunny" Haninozuka, as he pummeled a toy gavel onto the head of an old, ratty brown teddy bear.
With both Tamaki and Kyoya out of everyone's memories, it seemed that the club- now down to four members- instinctively assumed that the oldest among them, Hunny-senpai, was their club president. And so here they were, gathered in his bedroom full of stuffed animals on his bed and dressers, awaiting his orders.
"It's time for the club to come up with ideas for our next cosplay!" cheered the small Host King. "Takashi, any suggestions?"
Mori, leaning against a wall by the door and looking as stoic as ever, gave his beloved cousin a shrug. "No."
Haruhi, sitting on a very comfortably cusioned rocking chair, put her finger to her lips in deep thought. "Let's see... We've already covered Fuedal Japan, tropical paradise, Midevil Europe... What do you think, Hikaru?"
She motioned to the teen sitting on the floor leaning back on a giant stuffed lion as though it were a pillow. He looked drained and distant, his eyes staring up at the ceiling that was sparkling white. "Hm?" he hummed, slightly coming out of his haze.
"Haven't you been paying any attention?" scoffed Haruhi. "I understand you've been stressed out lately, but you're still part of this club. Aren't you?"
"Sorry, Haruhi," he sighed softly. He had been feeling guilty for having to hide out at his friends' homes out of fear of being recatured and taken back to the mental ward, even though it seemed he was deemed sane. He just wasn't willing to take any chances. "I..."
Then at last, he came alive again. He noticed the small brown bear that Hunny was just itching to hit again with his gavel. "Hunny-senpai, where'd you get that bear?"
"Dunno," he looked down darkly at it. "It must have been with me for a long time, I can tell it's really old. Anyway, you've got an idea for a cosplay, Hika-chan?"
Hikaru stared at the bear for a few more seconds. He knew he had seen it before, somewhere...
"We've lost him again," frowned Haruhi as she narrowed her eyes in frustration.
"Alright then, since no one else can come with an idea, I suggest we do a fairy tale theme! We'll dress Haru-chan up as Prince Charming; Hika-chan will be the Beast; I'll be Red Rising Hood, and Takashi can be the Big Bad Wolf! All agree?"
"Agree."
"Agree."
"...Meh... Agree."
"The voting is unanimous! Fairy Tale theme it is!" And with that, Hunny hammered down on the poor ratty old teddy bear again. And again. And again. And again, only harder. Each time that gavel hit that bear, something in the back on Hikaru's mind popped like a firecracker. That bear was significant somehow. He knew it. He just knew it!
"Stop!"
"Huh?" peeped everyone, their eyes falling on the redhead.
"Stop... hitting that bear!" he protested, pointing a finger at his club president. "That poor thing's taken enough abuse from you already!"
"W=what're you talking about?" blinked a confused Hunny.
"Hikaru," hissed Haruhi, "calm down. It's Hunny-senpai's bear, he can do what he wants to it."
"No... No, he can't. Because..." It was just scratching at the surface of his brain, this uneasy feeling inside. He started to squint his eyes shut and grit his teeth, looking more volitile than ever. Than all of a sudden, it burst out through his mouth: "BECAUSE IT'S NOT YOUR BEAR!"
The other three hosts jumped back in shock, even Mori who until now was like a stone statue of tranquility.
"Not... my bear?" blinked Hunny again, now looking fearful as he looked back down on the ratty old bear. "But... But I... love plush animals."
Hikaru's demeanor calmed only slightly, his hair still looking more frazzled than normal. "Yes, you love all of the ones that belong to you, senpai. But this one... This one belongs to someone else. Someone we're all connected to."
"Who?" asked Haruhi and Hunny at the same time.
"I dunno," frowned Hikaru somberly. "I knew his name a moment ago. It's back here somewhere, in the corner of my mind..." He placed his hands on his head as though he were about to squeeze it open. "I remember our club president was always a blonde... But... It wasn't you, Hunny-senpai. And Mori-senpai!"
"Hmm?"
"You remind me of someone else. Someone with black hair, tall and thin. You're in charge of the club's finances, right?"
"Yeah."
"And you've always been there for Hunny-senpai, always guarding him. Like, like, like... Like a shadow!"
"Uh-huh?"
"A shadow," muttered Haruhi, her brown eyes lighting up. Again, she placed a finger to her bottom lip. "Oh, yeah. That word sounds familiar... I think I've heard it before."
Hikaru jumped in front of her, giving her a brief fright. "You feel it too, don't you Haruhi? You feel like something's off. Like people are missing, but you can't quite remember their names or faces, isn't that right?"
"Uh... I... recall smelling mushrooms in my house for no good reason."
Hunny cocked his head like a puppy. "This is all sounding really weird. Are you sure you don't need to see a doctor, Hika-chan?"
Hikaru turned to the Lolita boy and replied, "I have seen some kind of specialist recently, Hunny-senpai. I went to see Ootori Yoshio."
"Ootori," peeped Mori. "The group who runs the doctors and nurses at the school."
"Yes," nodded Hikaru. "I remember going to him about something- probably had something to do with my missing brother- and he deemed me crazy. Except I'm not! He's covering up for someone else... I know it sounds weird, but I feel like I have to see him again. I have to find out what it all means."
"Hikaru," pondered Haruhi, "if Mr. Ootori deemed you crazy, then who exactly gave you the clean bill of health?"
"Whoever it was," said Hikaru darkly, "must have already been taken by... Them."
"Wh-who's Them?" asked a now shivering Hunny, hiding behind his beloved Usa-chan.
"Whoever Mr. Ootori is covering up for," explained Hikaru. "They are the ones messing with us. They know where my brother is. And I have to find Them. I have to..." He paused to see the looks of fear and confusion in the faces of his dearest friends. And all at once, his heart dropped with a sad realization: "You all think I'm crazy, don't you?"
No response.
"You think I should just crawl back to that padded cell and be done with it?"
Still, quiet.
"...Yeah, I get it. I'll leave you guys alone... Hunny-senpai, thanks for letting me crash here for a while. I'll just pack up my things and head back to my house. ….And if it makes you guys feel better, I won't show up at club anymore. ….I'm sorry I freaked you guys out. It won't happen again."
They watched silently as Hikaru walked out of the room with his tail between his legs. Haruhi took a deep breath and sighed.
"Do you think he's telling the truth, Haru-chan?"
"I want to believe him, senpai. It's just that he's been acting so strange lately... Moreso than usual. If he is right and that there's some mysterious group out there stealing people, then how do we prove it?"
"Ootori," muttered Mori.
"That's it," snapped Hunny's fingers. "We can try to find answers at the Ootori mansion."
Haruhi raised an eyebrow. "You mean break in and sneak around like petty thieves?"
"We've got bandit costumes," said Mori dryly.
Hunny clapped his hands gleefully. "Yay! New cosplay idea: Bandits in the name of love! The club has spoken!" With that, he absent-mindedly hammered the poor ratty bear with his toy gavel again.
Haruhi sighed to herself. "Please tell me they're kidding."
..
..
They weren't kidding.
That night, in the Ootori mansion, only a few security guards dressed in light blue blouses and navy blue pants and matching ties with badges on their left breasts stood like statues around the front and back doors. They were ready for anything... except, apparently, for ninjas.
Dressed all in black from head to toe, the trio of Hosts scaled the front gates of the mansion with a hook and rope, away from prying eyes. From there to the side of the massive building, Mori and Hunny flipped and cartwheeled like gymnasts, while the far less acrobatic Haruhi walked nonchalantly after them. They stopped at a long and wide window, perhaps to the kitchen or dining hall, and ducked down in case there were guards present. When the coast seemed clear, Mori pryed the window open with a small knife. Hunny flew in with ease, while Mori gave Haruhi a boost.
.
Indeed they entered the dining hall of the mansion, their bodies pressed against the lavender wall. There were no guards or maids in sight, and so the two boys continued to show off their amazing acrobatics by flipping and spinning from wall to wall, all the while Hunny softly sang the theme to "Mission: Impossible."
Haruhi sighed and shook her head in embarassment while simply walking behind them.
.
The trio stopped at a corner when they noticed two guards standing outside a room with closed doors. They silently assumed that the room was important and therefore needed to be broken into. Mori nodded to Hunny to activate his decoy. The small blonde nodded back and tossed something across the room.
Curious, the guards lit their flashlights and followed the sound of something dropping onto the floor. Their flashlights led them to a small plush bunny- Usa-chan- dressed in its own ninja outfit. The guards marveled at the strange object long enough for the Hosts to pry the doors of the once guarded room, and slipped inside.
.
The room they entered was none other than Yoshio Ootori's private office, with tall cabinets lined along the walls and a desk built for a president. Hunny pulled down his black mask to gasp in awe at the place. "This must be where Ootori-sama keeps his medical files."
Haruhi opened the drawer of one cabinet to find a slew of files, all alphebetically ordered. "What exactly are we looking for here, anyway?"
"Look for Hika-chan's file."
"Hmm... He'd be under 'H,'" mused Haruhi as she skimmed the files with her fingers. As she did this, Mori and Hunny also opened up cabinet drawers to find the file.
But just as the other two were caught up in their search, Hunny's attention was captured by the presidential desk in the heart of the room. As he circled it, he found that on the back of it was a silver drawer with a keyhole. "Locked," he mused softly. He then pulled out a pin from his jacket pocket and began to fiddle with the lock.
Two minutes later, the light flicked on.
"AAAHH!" screamed the Lolita boy. He jumped into Mori's arms and yelled, "WE'VE BEEN COMPROMISED! TAKASHI! EVASIVE ACTION!"
"Hmph!" huffed Mori, as he pulled from his pant pocket a small ball, which he threw to the ground.
The trio, plus Yoshio who stood at the doorway, all stood there in awkward silence.
"Let me guess," said a deadpanned Haruhi, "that was supposed to be a smoke bomb."
"Yeah," frowned Mori.
"Where'd you get it?"
"Commoner's discount store."
Haruhi facepalmed.
Meanwhile, Yoshio mused at the teens' antics while holding Ninja Usa-Chan under his left arm. "Let me guess, you're all friends with Hikaru Hitachin. Yes?"
"How did you know?" blinked Haruhi in surprise.
"I had a feeling he'd try to pull a stunt like this," replied the old man as he approached his desk, "but I didn't expect him to involve his friends."
"He doesn't know about this," confessed Hunny. "We're here because we're worried about him."
"You could have just asked me personally for answers," the old man chided.
Hunny and Mori narrowed their eyes at him. "You threw him in a mental institute," Hunny chided back.
The man pulled out a key and placed it inside the lock of his silver cabinet, opening it. "None of this should be your concern, children. But if this is what you were looking for..." He pulled out from within the cabinet a thin file and handed it over to Hunny.
"Wait," blinked Haruhi in surprise (again). "Y-you're... helping us?"
"This charade has gone on long enough," frowned the old man. "Besides, They're not concerned with you, they only want to study the Hitachin boy. As long as They're focused on him, then you three should be safe."
"So there is a 'They,'" shuddered Hunny. "Who are They? What do they want with Hika-chan?"
"That," said the man coldly, "is classified."
"He's hiding something, Takashi! Let's beat it out of him!"
The two boys whipped out from behind their backs two sets of plastic weapons; Hunny a pair of sais, Mori a nunchaku.
Haruhi noticed the blandness of the weapons easily. "Commoner's discount store?"
"The whole set was on sale," said Hunny innocently.
Taking to his seat at the desk, Yoshio leaned forward and growled, "You have everything you need, now be good little children and get out."
Clutching onto the mysterious file, Hunny led the trio out of the room, leaving Yoshio alone with his thoughts.
He then reached back into the silver cabinet and pulled out a large picture of his family. In it was a third son, whom he only had faint memories of at this point.
As he stared intently at the third, bespectacled son, Yoshio could feel the presence of another forming into the room. He lowered the picture and stared into the dark, empty eyes of the male Agent.
The Agent frowned, "You have interfered with our study."
Calm as a cucumber, Yoshio glared back at him. "You've made it personal."
"Are you referring to the one called Kyoya?"
"Is that my boy's name? Hmm..." He smirked. "I've kepy my family's image with me just in case you pulled a trick like this."
"You are indeed a clever man. But you do know what this means, do you not?"
Yoshio leaned back in his chair, still calm as ever. "Do what you want to me, I know how this works. You'll just keep snatching up people until that Hitachin boy breaks. I've seen you do it before. And you call my people uncivilized."
"Enough." The Agent waved his hand forward, and suddenly the wall behind Yoshio's desk opened up into a void of white light. A great force pushed him back into it, swallowing him up.
The Agent paused for a moment when he heard his female counterpart behind him say, "You have broken your promise."
He turned to her, looking only slightly concerned.
"You told me you would not take anyone else."
"The situation has changed," he tried to explain. "Too many people are interfering with the study."
"This is no longer about the study. You have become obsessed. I must report this to the Engineer immediately."
She had only taken a few steps in front of him before she had suddenly felt faint. Her body weakened, her thoughts diminished, and she fell to the floor. Standing behind her, the male Agent had been holding out his hand, as thought he had some kind of psychic control over her just then. It was the same gesture he made before he had sent Yoshio Ootori to the white void.
"I am sorry about this, Agent, but I must proceed with the observation. I must finish what we have started."
He picked her up, cradled her in his arms, and carried her off into the white light, presumably toward an incubation chamber.
.
TBC