Sleepwalker Part 9:

Kurogane knew this was important as soon as Yuuko declared that she was coming along. The lazy woman almost never left the office if she didn't absolutely have to. He had never really understood why she was always there when things got dangerous, but he had sometimes found her in the middle of places to which you didn't went if you didn't know how to take care of yourself. No one ever questioned this. Once there had been a new recruit in the staff, trying to tell her to step back during a drug raid, after this, that man had never spoken up to anyone at all.

They sat in his car; he, Miss Andersen, Yuuko and the young police who was friends with Watanuki. He drove too fast, but no one of the others said something. One of his older colleagues had once said that a good police knew when it was time to break the law, and this was something that Kurogane could agree with. He wasn't scared, at least he didn't think he was, but he definitely felt uneasy. Were these people that Fay feared about to catch up on him? If so, would they be direct enough to follow him into Tomoyo's office?

Actually, he would have preferred to go there at once, storming the office and dragging both Fay and Tomoyo out and away to somewhere safe. But that would be reckless and stupid, what if the danger lay in something completely different? And for all he know the girl and the blonde could be somewhere else right now, Tomoyo was not the kind of person to spend all day in an office building.

As they drove into the car park he saw Watanuki sitting at one of the stones in front of the entrance with a small, blonde girl by his side.

"Isn't she too young?" Doumeki uttered the same question as Kurogane had on his tongue.

"I thought so too," Miss Andersen said, "and I can't really explain it, but this girl has to be much older than she looks. She looks the same at all the pictures I have."

"Are you sure it's the same girl then?"

"It has to be!" the Norwegian woman stated, "It's impossible that anyone except twins could be so alike."

However, it didn't sound like she believed in her own words.

The girl appeared to be in her teens, cute with long hair and pretty looking clothes. As they got out of the car she turn around and looked at them with big eyes like if she wondered if they were friends or foes. Just like Fay, Kurogane thought, lost and scared. But she probably had at least a decent source of money, judging by the clothes which looked rather expensive. Still, she looked very tired and not too clean.

Watanuki glared at them as they stepped out of the car as if he wanted to tell them not to scare her.

"These are nice people," he told her softly as they came closer, "they won't hurt you or Fay, and you will tell them the same thing you told me, alright?"

The girl nodded, still not taking her eyes off them for a single moment.

"Doumeki-kun," Yuuko turned towards the laconic young man, "could you go buy some food for this young lady, I'm sure she's hungry. I'd send Watanuki-kun but he has such a good hand with pretty girls."

Kurogane caught something in her voice and as he glanced over at the tall woman, he saw that her face and eyes, despite her light words, were serious. Doumeki saw it too, nodded and walked off without unnecessary words.

"So," Watanuki held one of the girl's hands between his own, "tell them…"

"Chii came here to look for Fay," the girl said quietly, apparently referring to herself in third person, "Fay left and told Chii to stay but Chii was worried."

"And you found him…" Watanuki spurred her patiently.

"Chii found Fay in a dark room, Fay was bloody and hungry and Chii got him clothes and food and water. Then all the people came when Chii was out," she looked mainly at Kurogane, "Chii has followed Fay since then, but Fay looked safe so Chii didn't think Fay needed her."

So this was it then? Kurogane almost gaped in surprise. This was why Fay had only had blood on his cheek, how he had survived in the cellar, why there was still a smell of blood down there…

And also, it was the answer he had expected from the beginning; he was guilty to the murder.

"Why did he kill him?" he asked fixing the girl with his crimson eyes, "Why did Fay kill that man?"

Chii looked at him, perplexed.

"Because it was a demon," she said, "Fay kills demons… Master taught him so…"

"A demon! What the hell does that means!?"

"Kurogane-san!" Watanuki glared at him with unexpected anger in those oddly mismatched eyes he had, "You really shouldn't be screaming at Chii-chan like that, she hasn't done anything wrong!"

"Technically," Kurogane growled, "she has hided a murderer…"

"That doesn't matter, she helped a friend, which I thought that you were trying to do too!"

That boy was too smart for his own good sometimes…

"Alright," Kurogane frowned, "when you called, you said he was in trouble?"

Chii suddenly stood, walked over to him and looked up at him with eyes much older than her childish looks.

"Are Kurogane-san Fay's friend?" she asked gravely.

"Well," he clenched his teeth, "yeah… Fay is… my friend. Please tell me why he's in trouble."

Both Yuuko and Watanuki smiled briefly at this. Miss Andersen seemed to be fighting with some inner demons, probably she saw herself guilty for not taking away Fay from his foster parents when he was a baby.

"Fay didn't want to kill demons anymore," Chii explained slowly," that's why Fay ran away. But Fay has to kill them, that's what master said. This morning, Chii saw a demon girl and Chii don't want Fay to have to kill her."

"Chii," Yuuko suddenly decided to invite herself to the discussion, "why do you think that he would meet this demon girl?"

Chii bit her lip.

"Because the demon girl followed the black haired girl who Fay met with Kurogane-san."

For the first time ever, Kurogane saw Yuuko flinch. Like in slow-motion the tall, beautiful woman raised herself from the stone she had sat down on and looked straight at Kurogane. The laid-back sarcasm was gone from her eyes and replaced with something that the black haired man couldn't name.

"Kurogane," she said slowly, "I've made a terrible mistake."

In the same moment Kurogane's cell phone started to ring, and as he looked at the display he saw Tomoyo's name flash in red. Suddenly the fear came, making his mouth dry and he prepared himself for the worst as he pushed the answer bottom at the cell, quite sure he didn't really want to know what he was about to find out.

At first, it was impossible to tell what the girl tried to say. She cried and every word turned to desperate sobs. Kurogane was already running. His car was only a few metres away but it felt too long. Miss Andersen tried to follow him, but Yuuko held her back.

"Yo… you ha… have to c… come here," Tomoyo's normally so cheerful voice was muffled and hoarse as if she had been screaming.

"I'm already on my way, Tomoyo-san," he told her in what he hoped was a calming voice, how could he calm someone when he himself was more upset than he had ever been before? "I'll be there soon, take yourself out at the street, if you can, and meet me there."

The sobbing continued but he could tell that the girl was moving, probably walking towards the entrance as he had told her to. And as he stopped abruptly in front of the huge building she was already standing outside.

She looked like something out of a horror movie. The hair hanged in tests around her pale face, redden by crying and she had blood sprayed all over her blue dress. People stayed, stared and screamed as they saw her and she didn't even seem to take notice. The other persons working in the building were also standing out at the street, even if none of them were covered in blood. They looked shocked, all of them, like a herd of sheep with a wolf among them.

"Oh, Kurogane-san," Tomoyo jumped him as soon as he was out of the car, crying hysterically, "she- she is dead and I think he is too, and there is blood everywhere!"

"Calm down, Tomoyo-san, please," he tried to free himself from the girl as carefully as possible. "There will be other police men here soon, stay here and wait for them."

He pushed her away and held her steady, trying to meet her eyes.

"Where, Tomoyo?"

"My office," she whispered, her eyes terrified and misted by shock.

Tomoyo's office was on the second floor, he remembered how to get there without having to stop to think. He ignored the elevator and ran up the stairs, taking three steps at once. He came up in a big room, full of desks, computers and copy machines. It was easy to see that the people working here had fled; papers and pens were thrown at the floor, right where they had stood. Tomoyo's personal office was a big room with walls made of panorama glass, like a crystal castle at the end of the hall. The glass walls were red, blood still running down, making patterns at the once clean surface.

He walked towards it, feeling each heart beat like a hammer in his chest. Normally he would have drawn his gun by now. But he knew that he wouldn't need it.

A girl lay in the door to the glass room, she was young and cute and very dead. Kurogane knew her, had met her with Tomoyo many times, a cheerful, sweet girl who always smiled and talked to each and everyone. She had gotten her throat cut, by a letter knife; it was now buried deep within her heart. He took a deep breath and stepped over her, into the room.

Fay lay on the floor, leaned back against the back wall, also he bathing in blood. He had cut his wrists; a pack of razor blades normally used for opening letters, was placed in the red pool besides him. As Kurogane entered the room he lifted his head slowly, looking at him with dazed eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm so sorry, Kuro-sama."

Kurogane had seen injuries before, he knew very well how much blood a man could lose and survive. Fay had gone past that limit already litres ago, actually Kurogane was surprised that he was still alive. A voice within him, a voice he tried to fight down, told him that Fay had been waiting for him to come.

He kneeled besides him, ignoring the blood that wet his pants, and carefully put his arms around this stranger that had invaded his life less than two weeks ago, feeling a strange despair filling him from inside.

"It's not you who ought to be sorry," he whispered into the blonde hair, ironically, it was completely free from blood stains, "I still don't know what the hell happened to you, not really, but I know this isn't something you did by your own choice. I'm sorry, sorry I couldn't make it in time."

Fay looked up at him with a brief and very real smile on his now almost blue lips.

"It's alright," he said, "thanks for coming; I think I needed you here."

Kurogane felt the thin body relax in his arms and only seconds later it got limp, Fay's head fell over against his chest and the shaky breaths died away. Whatever he had meant to say didn't matter anymore, not in this life…

Yuuko and Doumeki found him there some minutes later still holding on to Fay's body. As he looked up at them, his eyes were dry.

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