Sitting down on his bed, which was nice and soft and even had blankets in his favorite colors, Kenji tried to think of where to put Mr. Fluffles. There was a shelf high on the far wall, but there was nothing on it and Mr. Fluffles might be lonely up there. So he couldn't leave him alone up there, especially since he wasn't going to leave Kaji up there. There was a table next to his bed, Kenji noticed, just like in Dad's room.
Setting Mr. Fluffles down there, Kenji plopped himself down on the bed.
-Dad?-
-How are you settling in, Kenji-chan?-
-I'm okay. Mr. Fried'rich and Mr. Shin have been really nice to me. And the views here are really neat!-
-I'm glad you're settling in so well, Kenji-chan,- Dad said, and he did sound happy, but he also sounded kind of sad, too.
-Are you lonely, Dad?-
-I'm fine, son. It's just not the same without you here, but you'll be back in Japan Section soon enough, so I can tolerate it well enough.-
-You mean you're really okay?-
-Yes, Kenji. I'm really okay.-
He got the feeling that Dad was smiling at him, so he smiled, too. It felt like dad patted him on the head, but he wasn't really there so he couldn't really have done that. But then, Alkanphel had done things like that without touching him, so maybe Dad was learning how to do it, too.
XxXxX
When he came to visit the boy in his room, Luggnagg had not known exactly what he would see when he looked in on the boy. It was rather interesting to speculate, though; the boy was so clearly dependant on his father for even the smallest things that a mere separation like this was more than likely to be causing him quite a bit of mental anguish. It would hence be very simple to slowly insinuate himself into the child's life while he stayed at the Pillars of Heaven. Getting the young Mirabilis to trust him would merely be the first step, and although it would be a large one it was not the whole of his plans involving the boy. Still, the other steps of his plan would of course be contingent on the successful completion of the previous step, and gaining the trust of the young Zoalord was indeed the most important of them.
"Kenji?" he entreated, knocking on the threshold of the open door. "I was wondering if you would like me to show you around the Pillars of Heaven?"
"Oh, hi, Mr. Luggnagg," the boy-Zoalord called, raising his hand to wave even as Luggnagg took the liberty of entering the child's temporary quarters. "Dad and I were just talking."
Of course, the boy really was little more than an appendage of his father. It would only make sense that he would want to keep in contact with him even when they were separated by a continent and several hundred miles of ocean.
"I'm certain your father would want you to learn as much as you could about the workings of other Sections of Chronos while you are staying here," he said, trying to sound reasonable while fighting not to smile too widely and possibly spook the boy. "Why don't you come with me and I can show you around?"
"Okay, Mr. Luggnagg," the boy said, taking his outstretched hand with a bright smile.
Phase one was looking quite successful at this point.
XxXxX
Once they had all gathered together inside this transport van that Agito had provided for them, he'd hoped that Mr. Ego would stop pestering him about what Aptom had gotten up to, but he'd only taken up his tirade over the link, probably cause he didn't want Sho to know what was going on with Aptom. Of course, Ryan himself wasn't too keen on letting Sho know what had gone down in the woods, mostly because he'd get all worried about it. The guy always tended to worry more than was really healthy. If he kept it up, pretty soon he wouldn't be able to make any decisions for fear of how they might affect someone else. Ryan tried to take some pressure off him whenever he could, but that still didn't change the fact that Sho Fukamachi – his many redeeming qualities notwithstanding – was a chronic worrywart.
It was just best not to tell him some things.
)I guess you'd know best about these kinds of things, kid.(
Settling himself deeper into the seat, Ryan stared out the passing scenery and continued to ignore the rather pointed questions that Agito was firing at him over the link. The tinted windows of the van made it nearly impossible to see anything outside, but that also meant no one would be able to see in. That, of course, meant that no one from Chronos would be able to spot them while they were making their way to these Pillars of Heaven that Chronos had set up.
That was a good thing.
Yawning as he settled back into his seat, Ryan swept his gaze over his two companions. Sho looked anxious, as usual, but Agito seemed more pissed than usual. It wasn't something most people would have been able to spot, but he'd stayed with Mr. Ego more than long enough to know when he was pissed off. And Mr. Ego was well and truly pissed off. It wasn't any skin off his back, but it was kind of fun to watch, like his own private floor show.
"We'll be arriving at Chronos' Illinois stronghold very soon," Mr. Ego said, turning to subtly glare at him once he noticed he was being watched.
Ryan, for his part, waited for Sho to turn away and then stuck his tongue out at Mr. Ego.
+You're embarrassingly juvenile, Crouger.+
+Yeah, well, if I wanted your opinion on the matter, I wouldn't be trying to studiously ignore you, now would I, King Bastard?+
+I've tolerated your unwillingness to discus the matter of Aptom for long enough, Crouger. Now, you will tell me what he tried to do to you.+
+Yeah? Or what?+
King Bastard glared at him for that one; apparently no one had called his bluff before and it was making him pissy. Fuck him.
+Your mother depends a great deal on the protection that I provide for her. I imagine that Chronos would be very interested in possessing such a valuable hostage.+
I'm going to remember you said that, you twisted little fucknut. Gritting his teeth behind his lips, so the bastard wouldn't know what he was planning for him, Ryan dropped his eyelids to half-mast and sat back in his seat. +Are you threatening my family, Agito?+
+Only if you fail to tell me what I want to know,+ the little shithead said calmly.
+Well then, let me put that to you another way: are you inviting me to murder you in your sleep?+
+What?+
It was the first time he'd ever seen Agito, the Almighty Bastard King, actually show some form of emotion. Admittedly, it wasn't anything like the raw fear that most people would have been feeling once they'd heard him ask that question, but the dawning apprehension he was getting was almost as good, at least considering who it was coming from.
+You'd really be amazed how many things you can do with common household items. Oh, like driving a chopstick into the brain of a certain someone. Or smashing their head in with a cast-iron frying pan.+
+Are you threatening me, Crouger?+
+That depends; are you threatening my family?+
Agito glared at him again, but he didn't say anything. Turning back to the walls of the truck, or at least the painted-over windows, he decided that he would do at least one other thing to a certain someone, just to make sure that he wouldn't ever try to threaten what was left of his family again. After what he had in mind, only a spectacularly idiotic person would think to try to make any threats against him or the people he loved.
Once the truck had stopped, leaving him with no more time to think up a proper punishment for His Royal Assness, he made a mental note to remember what he had been thinking about later. Ducking out of the van, which he noticed was parked under the shelter of an old, rusted out warehouse, he followed Sho to where King Bastard was signaling them to meet.
"We're going to have to move quickly if we don't want to be spotted by Chronos," King Bastard said, hustling them out of the van and into the deep shadows of the warehouse by where they were parked.
Following along with Sho and King Bastard as they made their way out of the abandoned – or at least abandoned-looking – warehouse, Ryan took a bit of time to look at the place where they had taken refuge. It wasn't much, really, but that was a good thing as far as not getting caught by Chronos went. If it wasn't much, they were bound to overlook it. Most people seemed to be doing just that, so that made this place a very good spot for that whole hiding-in-plain-sight thing.
"All right," King Bastard said, holding his arm out to stop Sho but basically ignoring him. "This is close enough. We'll cover the rest of the distance in the air. The Pillars of Heaven are the two tallest buildings in the area, very easy to spot. Fukamachi, you take the middle section. Crouger—" Here he paused a moment to level a glare at him; Ryan grinned back at him. "You come in from above; anything that tries to defend the top levels will be your responsibility."
"And I guess you're going to be coming in through the sewers, right?" he drawled.
"That's correct, Crouger."
"Well, as much as that suits your personality," he said, grinning again while King Bastard gritted his teeth, "why are you taking the easiest way in, I wonder?"
He deliberately left the question hanging; King Bastard would get it, unless he was all ego and no brains. Of course, he'd proved that that wasn't the case the first time they had ever fought together. He was pretty much the epitome of the Brilliant Asshole, a name Ryan had coined for someone who knew everything there was to know about some cerebral thing like chess or books, or in this case combat strategy, and seemed to go out of their way to fail at relating to other people.
He related to Sho pretty well, but then Sho wasn't exactly what anyone would call confident, at least not most of the time. He could be pushed into kicking some ass, sure, but that took a lot of pushing, and he tended to go a bit overboard those times. That was probably why the Almighty Bastard King seemed to like him so much: you just had to give him a good shove off the deep end, point him in the right direction, and get the hell out of the way.