CHAPTER 12:
Subterfuge

It seemed that Steve was not the only one who was going to keep watch of Harry and Jessie the week after they had gone to see The Returner. Umi was making it her business to know what the man was doing while the others were still mildly surprised at their impromptu exhibition of teamwork in taking care of the mugger. Her series of interrogations began on Sunday.

"Where did you learn how to do that move with your cane?" she asked as she was walking by him with the protective cover of Patricia and Richard.

He blushed again at the mention. "Umi, you were there. It just seemed like the most natural thing to do."

He didn't direct a question back to her about her little trick with the belt. Though it was common knowledge that Umi had been involved in fencing, it still didn't explain how she'd done it.

"Maybe you were involved in some kind of sport before your accident," she supplied.

Patricia latched on to that idea quickly. "Umi is right, Harry. Maybe there's more to it that we haven't thought about."

"Oh, I don't know," he protested weakly.

"Well," the blue haired girl stated slowly, "I was involved in fencing. My best friend Hikaru has a kendo dojo, and my other friend, Fuu, was on her school archery team."

"But what could I do with a cane?" he sputtered.

Richard supplied a possible theory. "There's quarter staff fighting like in the Robin Hood days," he said as he stroked his chin. "Maybe you were one of those men who dressed up for SCA. That's the Society for Creative Anachronism. They go around the country to various Renaissance fairs.

"Maybe that's how you got here!" he concluded with a snap of fingers. "You might have gotten lost from your troupe."

"Anything is possible," Umi said to keep conversation going. "My magician friend that looks like you had a staff instead of a cane, and he was known to threaten someone with it when he was having a fit of temper."

Harry shook his head. "I wasn't having a 'fit of temper.' I was helping my friends. You're more dangerous than I am, Umi! You play with swords!"

"Not here at the ranch," she finally said in annoyance, "and I was just curious."

He pursed his lips. "I'd like to tell you all that it triggered something in my memory, but it didn't. The only thing I felt was anger that my friends were being violated. Right now, I am feeling an anger of a different sort."

The trio got the hint and left the man alone. He took his cane and walked over to Will and Derrick who had decided to learn a new sleight of hand trick. After a few practices, it went perfectly without a hitch.

000

On Tuesday Umi tried to jog Harry's memory again. She came to the table where he was sitting with Will and Derrick, who were doing their homework. He watched her coming closer and could not decide if he was happy or sad about it. While he enjoyed spending time with her, the hints and prodding that she was starting to do had become obvious to him, at least, even if the people around him didn't notice it.

He was not sure why he was resisting her. The truth was that Umi could be right, and if his identity was so easy to find, he would be a fool to refuse it. Unfortunately, his gut emotional response was a jumbled mix of anger and fear. He had to admit that part of him did not really want to know. Being Harry wasn't so bad, and he had no guarantees that the person he was before would even be worth human flesh.

He let out a contemplative sigh as Umi sat down at the table. "Hello, Mr. White!" she said cheerily.

Though he was looking down on his homework assignment, Derrick snickered. It was still too funny to him to find a white man who had voluntarily called himself "white."

"Hello, Miss Ryuuzaki," Will said to her with a partially dazed look on his face. He was smitten with the Japanese woman, and the fact that she was both fierce and feminine seemed like something out of the best video gamer's fantasy.

"Hello, Will," she acknowledged with another big smile.

While she was usually friendly, she was acting more boisterous about her good mood than normal. It was yet another give away to Harry that she was up to something. He looked at her through the corner of his eye and waited for her next move, which was quick in coming.

"I know I've told you about my two best friends before. Fuu, Hikaru and I were all traveling together when we met that magician friend of mine that could be your twin. I thought you might want to see a picture of them," she offered with a smile.

Before Harry could answer, Derrick asked a question. "You mean that he has a twin out there somewhere?"

Umi nodded. "Either a twin or it could even be him! Wouldn't that be great, Harry?"

"It would be interesting," he said, softly looking at her. If he had known her before it might better explain the familiar or possessive feelings that sometimes came over him.

"Wow! She's cute!" Derrick said as he looked over and saw a picture of Hikaru. "I didn't know Japanese girls could have red hair."

Will was still staring dreamily at Umi, but he answered Derrick. "If they can have the softest looking blue hair, I think they can have red hair, too." He realized he spoke that out loud and immediately he blushed.

"She's nice looking, too," Harry said as he saw the picture of Fuu. "You have attractive friends."

"I just thought that if you were my friend, you might remember better with the photos. You can keep them if you like," she offered.

Harry looked again at the pictures of the very sweet-looking girls. He could tell they were enjoying each other's company very much. They were nice, but he just didn't want them. He shook his head to the negative about taking her photos away from her.

"Miss Ryuuzaki," Derrick asked, "if he is your friend, how come you don't know for sure?"

"It's a good question," Harry said, interested in her answer.

It was Umi's turn to blush. "I was about Will's age then, and my friend was… very short. He would have needed a huge growth spurt to become as tall as Mr. White."

"Oh, that's logical," interjected Will. "But Mr. Ford told us in the weight lifting group that some men grow until they're twenty-one years old."

"Right," Umi said as she stood up and took her photos. "He's definitely older than that," she said and walked away.

000

"One more. You can do it…" a voice above his head encouraged.

Harry grunted and did the last of leg presses for the day. He'd made it to the end of the week and had been doing wonderful progress in his physical therapy. Steve's joke was that he found his inspiration after the events of the previous Friday.

"Very good! You're almost back to perfect condition," Ford said with one of his winning smiles.

"Yeah," he answered as he sat up, "almost perfect except for this." Harry tapped his temple. "I still don't know who I am."

"Hit the showers guys!" Steve yelled out to the boys who were in the weight room. When they were alone, he took his attention back to his friend. "You can't rush something like that, and some people never regain their memories."

Harry glared at him. "You're not helping. You're supposed to tell me everything will be okay."

"It doesn't work like that," he laughed. "A real friend won't lie to you just to spare your feelings. Have you been journaling and working on it like Patricia told you to do?"

"Yes, yes, and yes!" he answered irritably. "And Umi seems to think she knows who I am, and she has been helping this week, too."

"Maybe she does," Steve answered thoughtfully. "She could have heard something back after putting your information up everywhere. Plus, I haven't heard you complaining too loudly about all the attention she's given you this week."

Shaking his head, the other man replied, "She's off limits. Engaged. And I have a date with Jessie tomorrow."

"I know. She's been waiting for this all week. Jessie really likes you, so you'd better appreciate what you've got."

"Thanks. Look, I have to go take some books back to Patricia's office, so I will talk to you later." Harry stood up and gathered his things so he could leave the weight room.

"Hey, cheer up, man," Steve said. "Worst case scenario is that you still have friends here who care about you."

"Right," he agreed glumly. "But there's only so long I can stay here using the Templeton's kindness."

000

Harry made it to Patricia's office, but she was not there. She had probably already gone up to her home for the day since it was the weekend. He placed the items on her desk that she had wanted him to bring, and he turned to leave the building. He still needed the shower he had skipped, and afterward he might go watch a movie in the common room.

His thoughts were elsewhere when the same blue-haired woman who was always on his mind trapped him. "Just the man I wanted to see. I wanted to talk to you some more. I think you really could be that friend of mine, Harry."

"You've been dancing around this all week. He wasn't just a friend was he? I think there's more to the story than just that."

"Yes, well, there wasn't really. We never said anything, if that's what you mean. But I just know that you're him. I wasn't so sure before, but I am now." She clenched her fists for emphasis.

"Damn it!" he swore, much to her surprise. "Don't do this to me, Umi! I have amnesia, and I can't forget that. Don't you dare come here toying with my emotions and make me think that I could have been someone who was important to you."

"I don't do that," she said unsurely.

"Yes, you do," he accused. "You parade yourself in front of me reminding me just how out of reach you are. Do you even know how much I'm attracted to you? You are a very cruel woman, and you need to just leave me alone."

At first Umi looked to him timidly, saying, "I'm sorry." Then, the former Magic Knight did what usually came out of her in times like that. She got angry.

"No, I'm not! I'm not teasing you, either. I think you are him, and you don't know it yet! Everything you do is like something he used to do. Everything!"

"Everything?" he mocked.

"Yes! I don't know how you got here or how you grew up, but you are him."

"I see," he said sounding angry at her. "You think I'm that man you left behind, and now you're punishing me for it because you can't get to him!"

"I'm not punishing you, you idiot! You need to remember who you are. I know with everything I have that you're him," Umi said again.

"You!" he shouted. "You're delusional. You want that perfect man you used to love, and you seem to think you can mold me into him! I'm not having it, Umi."

"He wasn't perfect!" Umi corrected with her own sharp tongue. "He was a short, perverted old man with a quick temper. That's what he was!"

"Perverted?" he asked as he gave her an appraising look. "I see. So now you're into kink? All this time I thought you were a nice girl, except when you were flaunting yourself in front of me, that is."

Pointing out fact, Umi said, "He tried looking up my best friend's skirt the first time we met. And I haven't been flaunting!" Her hands were balled in fists at her side so she wouldn't be tempted to beat him.

Harry rolled his eyes and shot her a disgusted look. "Oh, he sounds like a real gem."

Her hackles were up in defense of Clef. It might not have been anything she hadn't initially said herself, but no one else was allowed to criticize the man she loved. She admitted that to herself now. No matter how much she cared for Scott, her love of Clef had never gone away.

"Just wait minute!" she chastised immediately.

"I'm not him, Umi!" he growled at her in interruption. "You want me to be, but I'm not!"

Her eyes narrowed angrily. "How do you know? You don't even know who you are!"

"I'm not him," Harry repeated. He looked sadly at her. "I want you to like me, whoever that is, and not try to make me into some man who lives in your memory."

"I do like you," she said with her voice lowered in surprise.

"How can I trust that?" he asked. "You're not even allowed to like me. Can you understand that? You are an engaged woman."

Umi couldn't argue that, so she looked away from him.

"Scott is in love with you, Umi," Harry said. "Whether or not you love me, the real me, you owe it to Scott to treat him better than that. And you'd make my life a whole lot easier if you stop trying to tempt me with what I can't have."

"What's that?" Umi asked foolishly.

"You," he answered fiercely.

Harry turned away from her and walked stiffly out of the room. Umi sadly watched him go and suffered pangs of guilt for having been a part of the cause of his injury. It seemed that she was causing pain and trouble again, except this time it was to his heart.

Unknown to either Umi or Harry was the fact that Steve had seen most of their argument. He had picked up a piece of paper that had fallen out of one of the books that was supposed to be delivered to Patricia. After witnessing this, he knew that things were a lot more troublesome than he originally thought.