VIII
"I can not believe I'm doing this," Kio repeated from the seat beside Soubi. "You know what? Let me the hell out of here. I'm not going to be a part of this. I'll get my license taken away."
"We're all in danger of getting our licenses taken away," Soubi pointed out, growing annoyed with having to deal with Kio and drive at the same time. Ritsuka and Chouma were in the backseat. Ritsuka didn't talk much and stared out the window, while Chouma joined their conversation. "And if you try to get out of this car I will handcuff you to your sister."
He had taken Chouma and Kio off to the side before they started and explained to them what they were going to be doing. Kio hadn't objected or really said anything about it at first, but about half-way into the trip it seemed to hit him just how bad it would be if they were to get caught.
"You carry handcuffs with you, Soubi?" Chouma giggled. "I didn't know you were like that."
Soubi rolled his eyes, "I would expect that out of Ritsu, not you. And yes, I do, in case one of my patients attacks. I've had it happen before. Now shut up before I wreck this car."
"It wouldn't surprise me," Kio muttered, just loud enough to be heard. "You're the worst driver. Ever."
"Where are we going, anyways?" Soubi was shocked to identify that voice as Ritsuka's. "I thought the institution was in the middle of nowhere…"
Kio turned around and grinned at Ritsuka, "You ever been to downtown Tokyo?"
"He lives in a suburb a ways away," Soubi told him, remembering what he read on Ritsuka's file.
"No, I haven't. Is that where we're going?"
"Get off here," Chouma pointed out the exit to Soubi and turned her attention back to Ritsuka. "Yes. Toshokan Library is the largest in Tokyo. It's like the Library of Congress in the United States. The medical reference section is huge, so the three of us go here a lot. Its perfect for what we need now."
"Welcome to downtown Tokyo, Ritsuka," Soubi said upon seeing the first high-rise buildings. "Luckily, Toshokan is on the outskirts, so we won't see many crowds or hit much traffic. We should be coming up to it."
"What kind of illness do we need anyway? Can't we just make him an abuse victim or something? Isn't that really what he is?" Kio asked, finally giving up fighting Soubi about making him come.
"If you do that," Ritsuka replied quietly. "My mother will pull me out of here before you can even say anything."
"Okay," Kio thought for a moment. "Then what about OCD or something easy?"
"Ritsuka's been to fourteen different mental hospitals," Chouma put in. "We can't do something that obvious. People will wonder how those fourteen other facilities missed something that clear. We may be smarter, but give them some credit."
"We need to find something that would have flown under the radar," Soubi finished as he pulled into the giant white library's parking lot. "That way nobody will question us. Let's try to get out of here by dark. I cleared all of Kio's and my appointments today. Ritsuka's class wasn't doing anything tonight…"
"And I have the night off," Chouma informed them.
"Right, let's go," Soubi glanced down at Ritsuka, who seemed far away. Soubi felt sorry for him. Ritsuka had been through so much in the past year. Doctors had examined him like a lab-rat. He'd been poked at, prodded at, hell, probably even experimented on. Soubi had read his file forwards and backwards. Ritsuka had had almost every test there was ran on him. No wonder he was touchy when it came to the subject of a diagnosis.
Soubi slipped his arm around the boy's shoulders, earning him a sharp glare from him. "Don't do that in public!" He snapped without much ferociousness.
Soubi grinned, seeing Ritsuka back to his normal state.
Nisei smirked, seeing the black haired girl in pain and raised the whip again, preparing to mar that pale, perfect skin one more time. A blonde, large-breasted girl sobbed in the background, tied up to a chair and unable to save her girlfriend from Nisei's cruel tactics. He turned to her, that amused gleam still in his eye.
"Are you going to tell me everything about what Septimal Moon is planning to do?" His voice spoke out, darkly, of course, against the near-silence.
"Don't do it Yamato!" The black-haired high schooler told the blonde. She was sprawled on the stone cellar floor, blood pouring out of her wounds, and trying to get up. "You know what will happen if you tell him what Nagisa has been telling us, you know what they'll do! I can take a lot more than this! Don't say-!"
Nisei kicked the girl hard and growled, "Shut up, bitch." She landed against the wall with a soft thud. Nisei looked back at Yamato. He felt no 'regret', no 'love', nothing of the kind. He was a sociopath and the only thing he was feeling was amusement.
"I'll never tell!" Yamato sobbed, hanging her head and closing her eyes. "Koya… Koya… Please don't kill her…"
Nisei grabbed her hair, yanking her head up. He pulled his knife from his back pocket and held it against her throat. "Open your eyes, slut!" She just cried harder and Nisei pressed the knife in just enough to skin.
"Nisei!" A voice called as the door to the cell in the basement opened. An adult in his mid twenties with short brown hair stood there. "Aoyagi-san wants to see you. Shall I take over?"
"Nisei smiled innocently. Not you, Hideo-san. Get Yurio to do it," He walked swiftly past him, feeling Hideo glare at him. Seimei was first in command, but Nisei was in second, leaving Hideo and everyone else below him. He was allowed to order them around to his will. Being a sadist, Nisei exercised that right more then he probably should.
"Hello, Nisei," Seimei greeted, the warm words sounding cold out of his mouth. The group's caretaker, Nakahira, sat beside him, looking upset and grumpy. "You're late."
"Ah, that's not my fault," Nisei said, pulling a chair up across from them. "I came as soon as Hideo told me that you wanted me."
"I'll have to punish him, then," Seimei closed the book he was reading and set in beside him on the table. "Soubi has already guessed who the next victims are. Abort the plan we have to take Natsou and Youji."
"Oh?" Nisei cocked his head to one side. "And how do you know this?"
"Don't question me, Nisei," Seimei growled. "I've told you this before. Have you forgotten? The Reader interprets thoughts put out in brain waves and puts them into words so that I can see them. It's a complicated process. Soubi has developed a formula to guess who the next victims will be. He guessed right."
"Ah, maybe your plan is falling through," Nisei commented, smirking. Seimei stood abruptly, his hand flashing out and the back of it hitting Nisei on the cheek.
"Shut the hell up," Seimei said angrily, watching Nisei stumble backwards after being backhanded. Regaining his composure, Seimei sat back down and waited for Nisei to do the same. "Did you get anything out of the girls?"
"A little. The blonde one-Yamato, is it? - said that Chouma is planning to take Aoyagi Misaki to court for child abuse and attacking her."
"Chouma," Seimei repeated. "She was top of her class in college. She has a master's in psychology and she had law as her minor. I would expect nothing less of her. Make sure that the case gets a corrupt judge and pay him off to have Misaki's case win."
"Understood," Nisei nodded and began to leave.
"And we're moving on to plan SM, or do I need to remind you what that is, also?"
"No, Seimei," Nisei grinned again. "I'll head right over to Septimal Moon."
Soubi leaned over Ritsuka, who was seated at a table with Kio and Chouma across from him on the second floor of Toshokan Library. He placed a book in front of them all, flipping it open to a random page in the middle.
"Give me ideas," He told the other two doctors. "Anything. Go."
"Let's start with OCD, then," Kio stated, not even looking at the book.
"We already ruled that one out," Soubi pointed out, looking up from his position over the book and Ritsuka. "I meant throw anything out that does not seem stupid or presents itself in obvious ways."
"Capgras Delusion," Chouma offered.
"What's that?" Ritsuka asked, clearly already lost in their medical talk.
"It's where you believe someone has been replaced with an identical looking impostor. Its common in schizophrenic patients," Chouma rolled off, sounding like a textbook.
"Which is why we can't use it," Soubi sighed. "Somebody would have diagnosed that long ago. If you really had it, Ritsuka, you'd be walking around mumbling about someone being replaced. That being said," He glanced back up at the two doctors across from him. "Don't even suggest Fregoli Delusion. That, Ritsuka, is the exact opposite of Capgras, and is where you believe every person is the same person who just changes appearance."
"Munchausen's Syndrome," Kio said suddenly, reading off of the book. "Or, should I say, Munchausen's biproxy Syndrome. That's where somebody does stuff to someone else to put them in the hospital to gain attention. Munchausen's Syndrome is where you do things to yourself to get attention."
"Don't be such an idiot, big brother," Chouma grinned. "Munchausen's Syndrome is just stupid and diagnosing Munchausen's biproxy Syndrome would be diagnosing his mother, which, in the end, would just get him sent off to a foster home."
"I'd rather have that not happened," Ritsuka frowned as Kio huffed with defeat.
"Alice in Wonderland Syndrome?" Chouma suggested. "Nobody would question it, if Ritsuka never told them about seeing things larger or smaller than they really are."
"It's too easy to treat," Soubi said, shooting her down once again. "If I diagnose him with that, I'll have to send him back to his mother." Desperate, he glanced down at the book. "Multiple personality disorder…?" He read aloud and to himself.
Multiple Personality Disorder
Please see Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
"Why didn't we think of this before?" He asked the others." We could pull this one off. Easily. There's no way in hell we can get caught."
"And how the fucking hell do you think we can do this," Kio reasoned, sounding a bit enraged. "Ritsuka would have to act like a bunch of different people."
"No, he wouldn't. And keep your voice down," Soubi lowered his voice a bit, knowing that if anyone overheard them, they could be turned in to the police. "Look, Ritsuka's mother claims that he is not 'her Ritsuka'." Soubi wanted to chose his words carefully, knowing that Ritsuka could easily take it the wrong way. "We can claim that the other Ritsuka is Ritsuka's other personality, or alter ego, and he only shows up around his mother."
"That's perfect, except for…" Chouma paused for a moment. "What about my court case?"
"Court case?" Ritsuka questioned.
"What case?" Kio demanded.
Chouma looked at Soubi, as if asking him to help her out. "I'm going to court to try too put Ritsuka's mother in jail," She finally said quietly.
"What?" Ritsuka exclaimed, wide-eyed. "No! You can't!"
"It doesn't affect your case at all," Soubi told her. "Having an ill child with another personality is no excuse to beat them senseless. We can put him on fake meds administered by Chouma and we keep him here to 'monitor him'. It's a fool-proof plan."
Nagisa was still depressed. Seven had been staying with her ever since she had found out about Koya and Yamato's disappearances. Although she was Nagisa's only friend, that didn't make it any better. Nagisa still sulked around the large apartment, not even changing out of her pajamas or bothering to put her hair up. Her children were gone. What else could she do?
"Nagisa-tan," Seven called from the kitchen. Nagisa raised her head slightly and looked out of the panes of glass she sat by. The sun was setting over the treetops of the forest, the place where Koya and Yamato had been taken at. Flashes ran through her mind from that night. She placed her hand on the glass, letting her head focus on that.
She had run when she'd found the book deliberately dropped on the forest floor, along with broken pieces of Koya's glasses, a couple buttons from her blouse, and Yamato's bracelet. She knew that they had been taken. The dropped book was one of Seimei's favorites. Her precious daughters. Why them?
She had ran into the forest until she realized she would not find anything. Then she had allowed herself to fall to her knees and cry. Outgoing and kind Yamato. Shy and smart Koya. Her two beloved adopted daughters. Gone.
"Nagisa-tan!" Seven called louder. Sighing, Nagisa got up and shuffled her feet into the kitchen. She had never felt this old and tired. She felt fifty, which, frankly, would usually scare the shit out of the thirty year-old. Why should she care now, though?
Seven thrust a cup of coffee at her and had her sit down at her kitchen table. "Enough of your depressed mood," Seven said lightly and happily. "You look old."
Nagisa nearly spit out her coffee, "Did you just call me old?"
"There's some of your old spirit." Ugh. Seven could be so happy-go-lucky. Was Nagisa always like this, too?
Seven moved behind her and ran her fingers through her knotty hair, parting it into two sections. She carefully lifted each and tied it up with a bright pink ribbon. She clasped her hands together when she was done, "You look much better now. Ritsu wants you to teach some of your classes tonight."
"No," Nagisa said, not wanting to do anything at all.
"Do it or you'll have to go to the clinic with Soubi and Kio tomorrow," Seven taunted. "You know, your biology students have really missed you while I've been subbing."
Nagisa smiled, starting to feel a little better, "What'd they do to you?"
"The boys threw stuff at me and the girls made fun of me. And Natsou and Youji wrecked havoc on me."
Nagisa touched her lips, thinking of her two boys. They were experiments, but still her children. She often neglected them, but didn't feel bad since they had found someone to take care of them. She felt terrible now, knowing that she failed at being their mother. How had she never realized it?
A knocking at the door interrupted her thought process. Much to Seven's delight, she moved to get the door. A tall man with black waist-length hair, a soft face, and dark brown eyes stood in her doorway.
"Are you Sagan Nagisa?" He asked politely.
"Yes," Nagisa studied him. She'd never seen this man before in her life. "And who are you, I may ask?"
"I'm Akame Nisei," He told her, bowing to show his respect. "And I'm here to apply for Aoyagi Seimei's old job."
It had been two days since Ritsuka had last seen Soubi. Two days since he'd gotten his fake diagnosis. It was Friday. Ritsuka had finally began adjusting to life at the institution. It was a carefree environment, one that kids had the freedom to roam around. Some kids had therapists, others had group therapy. The grounds were safe and secure so that nobody could get in or out without permission. They had chores to do and every morning the kids who needed them had a medical doctor issue them medication. To his surprise, over half of the kids took meds.
Every morning, Ritsuka would go down into the common room on the first floor and would see Chouma waiting for him, usually telling stories to other kids. She would give him his fake pills, but today, today she slipped a note into his hand. Ritsuka had waited to read it until he was in class.
Yuiko sat beside him, reading out of a small chapter book. The kids in his class were all supposed to be doing what she was, free reading, but Ritsuka was slyly unfolding the note underneath his desk.
Ritsuka-
I've heard you've been asking around about sector three.
Go to Soubi's office after class.
-Chouma
Sector three. Ritsuka had been asking around about it after Soubi had said something to Ai about it. Not many of the kids his age had known anything about it, so he'd asked the adults. They didn't want to talk at all. Then, the day before, Ritsuka had spotted green-haired Midori out on the lawn in front of the main building and had asked him. All Midori had said was that they kept the craziest, most criminal people there and that, if Ritsuka could help it, to never set foot in that place. That just made Ritsuka even more curious.
What did Soubi have to do with anything? Why had Chouma put that part in her note? The two sentences seemed totally unrelated to Ritsuka, but maybe they weren't. Maybe Soubi would tell him something about sector three. Ritsuka would just have to wait until school got out.
"Who's next?" Soubi asked Kio, bored out of his mind. They were working in the clinic together, since a few of the doctors had taken their vacation time. Fridays was Soubi and Kio's day off, the day neither had to see anybody. They were doctors, not just psychiatrists, so both were over-qualified and able to work in the clinic.
Over a three thousand kids, ages five to nineteen were at the institution. Plus there were five hundred staff members and even more orderlies and security. They had to have a building as a hospital with a clinic in it so they could treat whatever colds a patient had.
"Yu… Watkins? Sounds partially American. He's new here."
"Great," Soubi hated working in the hospital in general. "Let's get this over with."
Kio nodded and lead him to examine room B. A black haired boy sat on the examination table with a binder beside him, waiting for them. He looked normal, unlike some of the other patients he'd seen in the last few days he and Kio had been working the clinic.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Kaidou Kio," Kio greeted happily. Soubi frowned and leaned on the counter, crossing his arms and examining the boy with his eyes. "Tell me, why are you here today?"
"I…um," The boy stopped and thought for a moment. "My leg hurts."
"Where?" Kio inquired, pulling his file out and noting something down on it. "I see you're new here. There's nothing in your file at all, not even medical history. Yu, have you ever been to a doctor?"
"Yes…" The boy pulled something out of the binder. "That's my medical records. Sorry that I couldn't get them directly sent here. Its pain shooting down the back of my leg and the front. It always stops at my knee."
Kio took the folder from him, "How long has this been happening?"
"Awhile…" He said. "The old doctors used to give me pain meds. Embeda, in fact."
"Why'd they take you off of it?" Soubi asked, knowing this was sounding a little bit suspicious. The pain he was describing, something about it made Soubi think he was lying through his teeth.
"I had to go off of it when I came here. Who are you?" It was true that everyone had to go off their meds when they came to the institution.
"Agatsuma Soubi, I'm the highest doctor here. I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of me."
"Let's just say that you never want to meet him," Kio commented light-heartedly. "I guess we're going to have to put you back on the meds. Sign this form and it'll be done," Kio held out his clipboard and a pen to the kid and his records to Soubi. Quickly looking down at the records, he noticed that the handwriting seemed a little… off. He glanced at Yu, who was printing his name on the line. Of course! Why hadn't he seen it sooner.
"Not so fast, kid," Soubi growled, snatching the clipboard from Yu's hands. He would mentally beat himself up later for not seeing it sooner, but now he had to deal with Yu.
"What the hell-?" Yu started.
"Lock the door, Kio," Soubi nodded to awestruck Kio. "If it had been any other doctor, you would've gotten away with it, huh, kid?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Yu stammered.
"You're a drug addict. You faked those records and you deleted the old records," Soubi moved in front of him in case he needed to be restrained. "Smart, but not smart enough."
"Soubi, how the hell do you conclude that?" Kio questioned from off to the side. "Don't make crazy assumptions."
"Look at the handwriting on those forms, Kio," Soubi looked away from the kid and, as soon as he finished talking knew he shouldn't have. A blow came to the side of his face, knocking him off balance.
"If I don't get those pills," Yu turned his rage towards Kio and hopped off the table. "I'll die." He ran straight for the green-haired doctor, throwing himself at him and knocking him off of his feet. He clawed at Kio, drawing blood from his arms and face. Soubi, knowing Kio had absolutely no fighting instincts or experience, shoved Yu off of him, fighting him to the ground.
"Give me the fucking form!" Yu screamed, scratching and hitting at every part of Soubi he could.
"Give me a sedative!" Soubi hissed to Kio, trying to keep the kid down. A blow to his stomach delivered by Yu's knee knocked him off of the teen. Yu took that moment to grab the form, which was on the floor, and scramble towards the door. Still recovering, Soubi grabbed his foot, managing to trip Yu to the ground.
"Which sedative? Where is it?" Kio was obviously panicking.
Soubi moved to try to pin Yu down again, "Lithium! It's in the very top counter! Hurry up!" Yu must have been going through withdrawal because he was acting like an animal. He bit, scratched, and hit and kicked as much as he could.
"Found it!" Kio gave Soubi a large needle with liquid medication in it.
"No!" Yu shrieked, trying one last vain attempt to escape. Soubi stuck the needle hard into the one place where a vein would definitely be hit, Yu's neck. His eyes went wide for a moment and they slowly closed as he went limp.
You should've seen that much earlier, Soubi. Kio probably got hurt because of you.
"Soubi!" Kio yelled as Soubi fell off to the side of Yu. His vision doubled and his head hurt like someone was driving nails into his skull. Bright lights met his doubled vision and the pain radiated down his spine. He tried to sit up but ended up only half accomplishing it because more pain shot through his head.
"Soubi! Can you hear me? Soubi!" Kio was at his side immediately when he fell back onto the tile floor. Soubi shut his eyes, trying to keep the bright lights out.
"Why is it so bright all of the sudden?" Soubi mumbled, knowing that it was coming out very slurred and broken.
"Damn! You're having a migraine!" Kio shook him, trying to get him to come out of his semi conscious state. Soubi groaned as the pain in his head only worsened. "I need to get you up to a hospital room! What's happening to-!"
Without fighting it, Soubi slipped into blackness, seeking only an escape for the pain.
Hello again~
Toshokan literally means library, so Toshokan Library actually means Library Library. Ha ha I thought I was being funny when I came up with that. It is not an actual library.
I really love it when people review. It helps me go on with my writing, because I know that people are actually reading it. I really apprciate you taking the time to write a couple words for me :) Thank you, everybody.
Please review and vote on my poll if you have the time,
~Wolfie
PS I put something on my page that says the status of all my on-going stories. If you ever want to check how I'm doing on chapter nine, just go check there :)