Chapter Seven
VII
"What?" Soubi's eyes went wide as his mind registered the magnitude of the news. Sure, there had been disappearances throughout the year, but none of them had hit any of the six on this sort of personal level until now. That was how they had been able to put off deciding what to do, or even talking about how the taken students and Seimei's death were connected. But now they had to talk about it.
Koya and Yamato were Nagisa's two adopted daughters, and Natsou and Youji's sisters. Nagisa actually cared for them, unlike her two experiments. She bragged about them often and they were her only company. They hadn't lived with her but, besides Seven, they were the only ones who would visit her. To lose her two daughters would crush Nagisa.
The other disappearances had all been connected to them in some way, but never on this level. The kidnapper had gone too far this time.
"Tell him what happened, Nagisa," Ritsu told her.
Nagisa looked up, tears streaming down her face, and glared at Soubi. She stood, slamming her hands on the table, her chair rolling backwards a few feet. "I'll tell you what happened," She raged directly at him. "He took them. He snatched them when he had no fucking right to! He's-!"
"Nagisa," Ritsu hissed. "Sit down and stop yelling!"
"Don't tell me what to do, Ritsu!" Nagisa snapped at him.
"Until you calm down, this meeting has ended," Ritsu dismissed them and gathered his papers.
"NO!" five of them turned to the voice. Chouma had stood, her eyes a blazing. "No more putting this off! We can't leave it be any more! We need to deal with this now!"
Ritsu was struggling to regain order, "Chouma, sit down! All of you-!"
"Shut up for once, Ritsu, and let me talk!" Chouma yelled at him. She had a way of getting what she wanted or what she felt was right, and that way was taking control of the situation. "We have to do this now. There's no choice. Tonight's the night we make a decision, whether we like it or not. We all know who did this."
"Seimei," Nagisa growled.
"Show your proof," Ritsu ordered.
"We don't need any goddamn proof!" Chouma snapped. "Everyone knows he's alive." With the exclusion of Soubi, everyone nodded in agreement. Even Kio, who shot an unsure side glance at him as he did so.
"Wait," Ritsu calmly held up his hand. "I would like to say something, just for a moment. What do you think, Soubi-kun?"
Listen to them, Soubi.
"Yes, what do you think?" Nagisa sneered. "You were the one who saw him last."
Soubi's heart beat franticly and his breathing quickened. Seimei's voice was loud, echoing in his ears. This was driving insane. He was hearing voices, just like some of the idiots he saw. This put him on the same level as them.
"I-I don't know," He mumbled.
Open your eyes, moron. Can't you see it?
"Open your eyes," Seven said, speaking the words in his head only moments before. "Look at the world around you. How can you not see it? Make up your mind."
"Make up your mind now," Chouma added.
Soubi looked up at them, his appearance clearly a mess. "He's alive." And he's in my head, He wanted to add. "And the only way to stop him is to kill him."
A tall man stood beside his sadistic companion, watching him watch a meeting through a bug placed on someone. A girl's screams faded into the background, as she was in the room next to them. A black haired girl sat in the corner, gagged and bound to the wall behind her. Her pink blouse was cut open, exposing her white bra. Her glasses were dirty and crooked on the bridge of her nose, but useless due to her tightly-shut eyes.
"Eh, Seimei," The standing man said to the more refined one. Long black strands of his hair hung down past his waist and his soft-looking face was alit by the screens in front of the pair. The girl's eyes opened at the sound of his voice, and she began struggling again. She twisted her arms, attempting to get out of the restraints that held her arms to the wall behind her. She gave up soon, though, and slumped back down against it.
"Yes, Nisei?" Seimei said, irritation showing in his tone.
"I'm not sure if I understand," Nisei replied. "Could you explain it to me again?" The girl's eyes widened and she sat up a little, careful not to make too much sound as to alert the two men.
"I faked my death because I want to take down Septimal Moon-"
"I got that," Nisei interrupted rudely. "But why?"
"Shut up and let me explain," Seimei ordered. Nisei rolled his eyes but shank back a little. "I have a bit of technology I had to test out, as you have seen. This will become vital in my ulterior plan. I'm going to implant my own board and take everything from Ritsuka. I'll be the only one he has to run to. Then, with him at my side, I'll be able to move in for the final step to my end plan."
Nisei raised an eyebrow at him, "And your ulterior plan is…?"
"Quiet, Nisei!" Seimei turned his full attention back to the control board in front of him. "Go try to get answers out of the girls again. I don't care what you have to do to them, I need information."
Nisei's grin glinted in the computer glow and he moved to unchain the cowering girl in the corner.
Soubi kicked the door hard, busting it open and off of one its hinges. He had grown frustrated with attempting to find the right key in the dark and had just resolved to breaking the door open. He was in the library, in the records section that was only open to authorized personnel. Soubi was one of those persons, but the records room was only open during the regular library hours, which did not include 2 AM.
The records room was a huge room which was in the basement level of the library. It held the case of every single student who had ever come to the institution. Soubi wanted ten out of about a million tightly-packed files. It was a good thing that they were in alphabetical order.
Entering the room, Soubi closed what was left of the door and locked it behind him. He flipped on the lights, watching each flicker on all the way down the long room. Sighing, Soubi started on finding all the files he needed.
Sitting on the floor towards the front of the room, Soubi spread the fourteen files all around him. Ten were cases were connected, two he believed to be next, and the other two were Soubi's own profile and Ritsuka's. Ai, Ginka, Kinka, Koya, Yamato, Mei, Mimuro, Yurio, Nakahira, and Hideo. They all had one thing in common; every one of them had been taken. Ai, Mei, and Kinka were the three survivors that had been returned. Pieces of Ginka's body had been found three months previous strewn across the beach. Mimuro was presumably alive. Koya and Yamato's conditions were unknown. Yurio and Hideo were working with their kidnappers, for they had been transmitting the occasional cryptic message. Nakahira was being held against his will, but alive and well.
They were all connected to the seven/six members on the board and had all possessed both a strong will and valuable information. Midori was Seven's trainee and sometimes came to meetings. Ai had been his girlfriend and he confided everything in her. Koya and Yamato were Nagisa's pride and joy. Ginka and Kinka had been Kio's distant cousins, and he had often visited both. Yurio and Hideo had always been two shady characters. They were tied for the second best student in the school and had both been befriended by Seimei. Mei was the top student, and also a patient Chouma had bonded with the most.
Nakahira's case was the most interesting of all. Soubi remember him as Seimei's mentor and predecessor. He wasn't much older than Soubi, making him Seimei's senior by less than five years. Something had compelled him to step down from his position, despite being only twenty-one and hand it off to Seimei, for reasons nobody knew. Messages Yurio and Hideo had sent back contained images of him healthy and looking as if he was the caretaker of them.
Soubi had used a certain formula to try to determine the next victim. His profiling intelligence told him that the kidnapper was prone to taking two at a time, and those two had to be very closely connected, if not in a relationship or related. They had to be in direct contact with one or more of the board members. And last of all, they had to be privy to classified information. Using these four points, Soubi had come up with which two would be next. To his devastation, his calculations led straight to Natsou and Youji.
Soubi stared at the fourteen files spread out around him. The time was now. He had to face it. Seimei was alive. Seimei was alive and screwing with Soubi's head. Seimei was alive and he was taking students. He was taking students, experimenting on them, and then killing them or returning them. He was operating illegally on students and making them sicker than they were. He wasn't supposed to be alive but he was.
Kidnapped by Seimei. Soubi wrote the three words in the ten victims' files. The red underlined words stood out against the bland black ink on the rest of the page. The only words that mattered on the pages were the ones that Soubi had just written. Seimei was…alive.
The moment Kio saw the door to the case room told Kio exactly where his friend was. Soubi had left the board meeting silently the previous night. Kio had gone to his apartment looking for him at seven the next morning, and upon finding it empty, had embarked on r long journey to try to find Soubi. The time was now two pm. His last stop had been the library, where he'd seen the half-broken down door that was obviously the work of Soubi.
He unlocked the latched door to find Soubi towards the front of the room, fast asleep on the floor, files spread out around him. He looked like a mess and extremely stressed.
Curiously, Kio stooped and picked up one of the files. Kidnapped by Seimei was written at the bottom in Soubi's handwriting. At a closer inspection, the same went for nine more of the files. Kio glanced back at Soubi, understanding that what had been said the night before had really shook him up.
"Soubi," Kio said, kneeling and shaking Soubi's sleeping body.
"…what? Where…?" Soubi sat up, holding his head in one hand.
"In the records room," Kio finished for him. "Your head hurt?" Concerned for his friend, he pressed the back of his hand against Soubi's forehead.
"Like hell. Damn… what time is it?"
"Two. You've got a slight fever," Kio stated, feeling a slight abnormal rise of heat on Soubi's skin. "Give me your wrist."
"Pm?"
"Pm. How long have you been here?" Kio felt for Soubi's pulse on his wrist.
"Since two? I can't remember what time I fell asleep at. There's nothing wrong with me. Stop that," Soubi ordered as Kio pressed down when he'd found the beat.
"Ritsu ordered me to do this everyday," Kio reminded him. "Especially on the days you wake up with a headache." When Kio had told Ritsu of Soubi's constant headaches, he had ordered him to do a checkup on Soubi everyday to make sure nothing would change or be out of the ordinary.
"Why should we listen to that bastard anyways? Where's Chouma?"
Kio looked straight into Soubi's eyes, willing him to finally tell him what his problem with Ritsu was. Yeah, Ritsu was a bitchy bastard. He liked to order everyone around and yell at them, but Soubi's problem with him went way beyond that. He hated him and everything he did. Soubi could barely even stand to be in the same room as Ritsu.
"Doing the same thing as I was; looking for you. Push against my hand," Kio ran the same tests every day but something was off today. Soubi's core temperature was higher than usual, his pulse a bit quicker. Something was off, and it wasn't anything normal.
"I ran the same tests on Ritsuka yesterday," Soubi said, pushing against his hand.
"You're a bit weaker today, Sou-chan," Kio noticed how Soubi smiled a bit when he said Ritsuka's name. "Tell me about him."
"Ritsuka…" Soubi said his name again, this time pausing and smiling for real. "He's… nothing like Seimei." Soubi touched his lips, still smiling slightly and clearly remembering something.
"Do you want to… take a ride?" Kio offered, holding out his car keys. "We can go to a bar or something. You know, to get away from all this." Soubi didn't have his own car, so to go anyplace he usually had to go with Kio.
"Hell no. I hate crowds. So much stupid in one place isn't good. Actually," He took the keys from Kio's hand. At least Soubi was acting normal. "Grab Chouma. I'll meet you down in the parking lot in fifteen minutes." Looking a little unbalanced, Soubi lifted himself off the floor, gripping onto the front of one of the shelves to keep himself steady.
"…yeah. Fifteen minutes," Kio glanced away from his friend, knowing that whatever was wrong with him was only getting worse.
Ritsuka checked the number on his class schedule one last time before pushing the door open and stepping into the classroom. Twenty cat-eared heads turned to look at him, along with the teacher, Shinonome-Sensei.
"Ritsuka!" She exclaimed. "I was expecting you yesterday! What happened?"
Ritsuka smiled, putting on a very happy front for them. His thoughts wandered for a brief moment to Soubi, the person he just been himself for. For everyone else, Ritsuka would be somebody else.
"I got… held up?" Ritsuka said it as more of a question then an answer. Not wanting any further questions, Ritsuka brushed past her, taking his place in an empty seat next to a familiar pink-haired girl. Yuiko's face turned red as he did so and she buried her face in her math book.
"Hey," Ritsuka whispered to her. Her face still red, she turned to him and made a tiny squeaking noise of acknowledgement. "Let's try to be friends."
"R-Ritsuka-kun?" She stammered louder than she was supposed to. Several kids turned around and glared or shushed her.
"Shush!" Ritsuka told her franticly. "I don't want to get caught! Listen, you just have to agree to a couple things."
"Yuiko understands!"
"Be quiet!" Ritsuka snapped, glancing up at the teacher who had taken no notice quite yet. "First of all, stop referring to yourself in third person. And you have to tell me why you're here." Ritsuka was curious. She didn't seem insane or criminal, just dumb. What could be her true reason for being at the institution?
"Yes! Yui-I mean I will tell you after class!" She grinned and finally dropped her voice. "Want to go down to one of the cafés after class?"
"There's cafés on campus?" Never had Ritsuka been to an institution like this. It wasn't like a hospital at all! It was more like a city than anything, but Ritsuka could see how this environment would help kids and teens more than the usual dull locked-up place.
"Sure! There's lots of shops and places to go!" Yuiko blabbered. "Ritsuka-kun, do you have a cell phone? Who's your favorite idol?"
Zoning out, Ritsuka tuned out her mindless chatter and focused on the world outside the window he sat next to. His thoughts wondered to the mysterious blonde doctor he'd gotten to know in the past couple days. Just the way Soubi looked at him with those blue eyes made Ritsuka's heart flutter slightly and his face go red. He saved him from his mother and took him into him home to care for him. He kissed him gently and held him in his strong, protecting arms. Ritsuka maybe… had a little crush on him?
"Ritsuka-kun," Yuiko pulled on his arm at the end of class. "Let's go! Oh, we should invite Yayoi-san, too!" Ritsuka followed her out the door, hearing the teacher tell the class goodbye. Some girls stayed back to talk to her.
"Ritsuka!" A hand grabbed onto his suddenly, and Ritsuka recognized the grip and voice easily.
"S-Soubi!" Ritsuka turned around to face the tall blonde who was waiting right outside his classroom. His appearance was disheveled again and he looked paler than usual.
"Who's this, Ritsuka-kun?" Yuiko asked, coming up behind Ritsuka, curiously looking at Soubi.
"Hello," He greeted cheerfully. "I'm Agatsuma Soubi. And who are you, I may ask?"
"I'm Yuiko!' Yuiko responded. "Say, how old are you?"
"How old are you, Soubi?" Ritsuka asked, jumping into the conversation and realizing that he had never asked him himself. "You never told me."
"You never asked, Ritsuka. I'm twenty. I'm the head doctor here, Yuiko. I'm on the Septimal Moon council," Soubi smiled at them and released Ritsuka's hand.
"Really?" Yuiko gasped. "You must be, like, famous then! Wow! I've never met anybody on the council! Risuka-kun is very lucky!"
"Yeah, not really," Ritsuka shook his head. "Why did you come here, Soubi? I'm going someplace with Yuiko now. I can't stay long."
"You can come, too, Soubi-san!" Yuiko offered, overjoyed to have met the doctor.
"I'm sorry Yuiko. You two will have to reschedule your plans," Soubi told her, glancing down at Ritsuka. "I'm going to need Ritsuka for the day. How about on Saturday?"
"What?" Soubi hadn't told Ritsuka of any plans. Why was this so sudden. Well, he is my doctor, Ritsuka reminded himself. He probably needed Ritsuka for a therepy session. Or maybe he had come up with a diagnosis. Or worse… What if he hadn't come up with one and was sending him back to his mother?
Ritsuka didn't want to go back to her. She had tried to kill him in their last episode, and she had almost succeeded. She was bound to do it again. Plus, he'd finally found some friends. Septimal Moon institution was more of a home than anything else Ritsuka had ever had.
"Saturday's fine! Will you come with us, Soubi-san?" Yuiko seemed not to catch on with Soubi's subtle glance at Ritsuka.
"If you would like. I have to take Ritsuka now."
Ritsuka waved to Yuiko as Soubi put his arm around him and started towards the door with him. Ritsuka's heart was beating franticly with fear and anticipation as the two walked around the building and out of earshot and sight of anyone out in front.
"Calm down, Ritsuka," Soubi advised. Ritsuka had been walking with his ears folded against his head and his head down. He hadn't come up with any idea as to why else Soubi had wanted to take him.
"W-Where are we going?" Ritsuka's voice shook a little as he spoke.
"Look at me," Soubi tilted the boy's head up, forcing him to do so. "There is nothing wrong with you," His voice sounded soft and reassuring, but it did nothing for the fact the Ritsuka's greatest fear had just been confirmed. Ritsuka tried to pull away but Soubi had too firm of a grip. "Don't run. I'm not sending you back to your mother's."
"What?" Ritsuka's eyes went wide in shock.
"I've got Chouma and Kio waiting for me. We have to hurry before they come looking for me again," Soubi let go and Ritsuka followed him as he walked. "The four of us are going into the library in the nearest town. We're going to fake a diagnosis."
"That's illegal!" Ritsuka snapped. "You can't do that! Besides what town is around here? We're in the middle of nowhere!"
"I can't let you go back with that woman. Do you know what she'll do to you?" They were coming to a parking lot in the back of the main building. Ritsuka recognized Kio and Chouma near one of the cars, waiting for them. "We're going to falsely diagnose you."
"Ritsuka!" Chouma grinned at him as they came closer. "You're coming, too?"
"Where are we going anyways?" Kio questioned, crossing his arms and leaning against the black car while looking Ritsuka up and down.
"We're going to commit fraud," Soubi said, going to the driver's side of the car. "Who's in?"
Hello again!
I have to say that last line is really my favorite. And the 'so much stupid in one place' thing about crowds is what I said to someone a couple days ago.
Updates might be a little slow due to my terrible health issues. Not to rant or anything but I have a fracture that I was born with in my back and the doctors told me that I'm too young to operate. See, I'm in pain from my back and leg everyday, but that's nothing compared to what happened last night. I couldn't even move then. It sucked
So anyways I the updates may be a bit slower.
But I worked hard on this chapter, so please review! and vote on the poll on my page!
Thanks!
~Wolfie