Chapter Seventeen
—-
Yuri couldn't decide what to bring.
He brought roses, that one time, but it didn't seem right for this occasion.
What kind of occasion was it? A serious occasion? What did one bring for a serious occasion?
Wine didn't seem right. Flowers didn't seem right. Food? People liked to have food during awkward moments. Was there going to be awkward moments? He hoped not.
This was his sister after all. They were so close. Of course there wouldn't be any awkward moments.
Chocolate.
Chocolate was good. Yor would like chocolates, he thought.
Chocolates in the heart shaped box he held in his hands as his knuckles rapped on the door.
The light steps of his sister approaching, twisting the doorknob, revealing her face.
"Sis!" Yuri exclaimed. He didn't care he was here for serious reasons, he'd always be happy to see her.
Yor greeted him with a smile, and thanked him for the chocolate. Her visage outwardly happy to see him, but Yuri picked up on the uneasiness that came with it. Followed her as she gestured for him to sit.
"I'll make us some tea." She said, leaving her brother with her husband as she entered the kitchen.
"Loid." Yuri said flatly, as he stepped further inside. Disposition changing in an instant as he spotted him rising from the couch.
"Yuri, welcome." Loid responded, smiling as if to challenge him. The smile he knew had to be hiding secrets and lies.
He moved to a chair as Yuri found his seat at the couch. Loid talking about something trivial, Yuri ignoring him. His attention on Yor as the sounds of teacups clanked on the counter, the kettle heating up.
He nodded like he was listening until Yor returned, a tray of tea in her hands. Placed it on the table. Sat down beside her brother.
He noticed Yor tensing up as the three of them drank in apprehensive anticipation. Loid holding the smile of a host, not tense, but knew what was coming.
Yuri started to worry. 'Why is Yor nervous? It can't possibly be that bad. Was it Loid's fault she was at the lab, after all?! He immediately assumed. 'Is she going to ask me to get rid of him?!' His heart soared at the thought. A momentary shining beam of hope that faded instantly.
No.
It wasn't that, Yuri thought dejectedly. They wouldn't be sitting here like this if that was the case.
No matter. He'd get rid of him soon. He just needed proof.
"Yuri." Yor placed her cup down, angling herself to face him. Nerves running down her arms to settle in her fingers that she clutched in her lap. She had no idea how he was going to take this. She'd rehearsed what she might say to him, but nothing sounded right. A pre-written script she couldn't compose.
There were so many ways this could turn badly.
The possibility he'd be fine with it, smaller than she wanted. A secret she'd kept from him for eighteen years. Killing people without his knowledge. An SSS agent she now knew.
Was that going to complicate things further?
It didn't matter. She'd promised to tell him the truth in that hangar, she couldn't back out now.
"Yuri." She said again, her nerves passing to her little brother that took hold in the shape of paranoia. Unable to release the idea she was going to give Loid up. Right in front of him and ask Yuri to arrest him.
Yuri became very serious, ready to jump into action as soon as the words left her lips.
But her words were not what he expected.
She had planned to lead into the topic smoothly. Ease Yuri into it. Lessen the shock and maybe he'd accept it more readily.
A nicely laid explanation that slowly soaked him in the idea so when she told him, he could think reasonably and calmly about it. Much like a frog in a pot of water, heating little by little, that it didn't notice the temperature change.
That is not what happened.
Much like with Loid, the air was heavy and tense, Yor feeling it press in on her. The possible outcomes she created in her head lending to her anxiety. The carefully planned reveal, lit on fire, her last effort of improvisation escaping her.
So once more, her mouth spoke as if on it's own, Yor bending under the weight of it.
"I'm an assassin." Her eyes widening slightly, surprised at herself. It just came out. Felt unreal as she finally told him.
A response of stunned silence following her confession. No sign of comprehension from Yuri. Dead eyes staring back at her.
He blinked, once. Twice. Three times.
"What?"
"I'm. . . an assassin?" She repeated carefully. Not sure how she would deal with this, if he took it badly.
Yuri blinked once. Twice. Three times.
"What?" He said again.
Yor wasn't sure if he could actually hear her. She continued, anyway.
"It's why I was able to track Anya to the lab. And. . . may have killed some people along the way." She eluded to the dead lab agents warily, watching for a reaction, but he had yet to give one.
Yuri blinked, once. Twice. Three times.
"What?
Was this real? Was he dreaming? Did he hear her right? Was he in a parallel universe? Did she say she was an assassin? Were his ears plugged?
'Assassin. . .
Assassin. . .
Assassin. . .'
What did that word mean again?
"Yuri. . .?" Yor prodded, a glance to Loid who turned his palms up, elbows resting on his knees.
But Yuri didn't hear her. He was in a fog, comprised of the words spoken by Yor, trying to put them in the right order. Why couldn't he understand? Why was this concept so hard to grasp? Yor and assassin. These two words just didn't connect.
"Are you sure?" He asked, dazedly. His tongue slow and thick.
"Pretty sure. . . " She replied, brows furrowing.
"Hmm." Yuri nodded, sagely. Sat quiet for a moment. She said it was true, so it must be. Tried to connect the words again. Failed.
"Are you sure?" He asked again.
"Yuri . .?" Yor asked. Concerned that he couldn't seem to process.
He was looking at her as if he was rethinking everything he knew. His thoughts piled up like jammed traffic. He didn't know how to sort through them.
It was like looking at a bunch of words, scrambled, and pinned all over a wall. A mess of notes, memories, and disorganized thoughts, that someone had come and haphazardly rearranged with no rhyme or reason.
He looked at a word on the wall, unable to find the other that was supposed to connect to it. And another. And another. There was no sense to it. A mockery of his usually focused mind. A muddle of things he couldn't seem to comprehend for the life of him.
One word standing out to him that he would always recognize, keeping him tethered.
Yor. His sister. Forever holding fast to the centre in big letters. A circle of bare wall around it, as it's resplendence kept everything else at bay. Bright and beautiful, eternally reminding him why he wished to make the world safer.
Her name having come undone from the words associated with her. Scattered across the wall in his brain-dead state.
A travesty that he couldn't seem to remember what had been there. His mind, clogged and inoperable, the words so packed onto each other, they were hard to discern.
Sweet.
He grasped for the word when he saw it, connecting it to her name on the wall. Knowing it when he saw it.
Kind.
Recognized it, the word filling his childhood.
Hard-working and loving, he uncovered.
Warm and brilliant, he found next.
Reliable and steadfast.
Strong and capable.
Sister. Mother. Wife. Civil servant. Amazing cook. The centre of his world. The epitome of human kind.
Absolutely and unequivocally perfect.
Her name drawing him back together. Things he knew of her, things he wanted for her, things that described her essence and her being. The wall naturally forming around her name, Yuri, on the precipice of regaining clarity. A word lingering on the edges he had ignored.
Assassin.
He knew this word. It stuck to the wall mocking him. He didn't know what it was doing here. It didn't belong. But he was compelled to take it. Compelled to find a spot surrounding Yor's name and place it there.
Assassin.
And Yor.
Yor and assassin.
Yor was an assassin.
His sister was an assassin.
His sister was an assassin. His sister was an assassin. His sister was an assassin. His sister was an assassin?
His sister.
Was an assassin.
This woman he knew all his life.
Was an assassin.
The word plunging him back into semi-awareness, words suddenly finding their place again. His wall fixing itself into what it was before, with one modification.
His sister was an assassin.
The new word affiliated with her, strange and foreign. A concept that looked out of place next to her other attributes.
'Does this make sense?' He thought. 'When did this happen? How did this happen?'
Looked at the wall again.
Assassin.
He thought he knew everything about her. . .but. . did he not? The thought there were things he didn't know, a crushing notion.
But also exciting.
He thought he'd known of every wonderful, exquisite, facet of her person. The thought there was more to learn, more to see he had not yet experienced, thrilling and saddening and astounding at the same time.
He prided himself as the one who knew her best. He was afraid that wasn't the case anymore.
Assassin.
It sat snugly among the other words, but there was room for it. He thought he'd filled it to it's limits but there was still room. There'd always be more room for her. Room for the assassin.
Assassin.
Assassin.
"Assassin. . . ." He mumbled, finally capable of discussing this with her. "You're an assassin." He said.
Yor nodded, brow furrowed, Yuri noticing her tightly clasped hands.
"When?" Yuri asked quietly, adjusting to this development.
"When our parents died."
'When our parents died.' Yuri repeated to himself. 'When our parents died.'
The blood when she came home after work. Her hands calloused and rough. Her immense fortitude and perseverance. The late hours. The odd hours.
She had been killing to provide for him.
Killing so they'd survive.
He couldn't imagine taking on all that responsibility at such a young age. Yor, his saving grace and inspiration. The life they led so full, because of her. Yuri, tearing up thinking about it. His face warming from the emotion choking him.
He loved her so much.
"Siiis." He cried, taking her hand, his forehead resting on her shoulder. "YOU WORKED SO HARD TO TAKE CARE OF ME!" He bawled.
"Yuri. ." Yor started to cry, too, a hand on the back of his head that turned into a hug as his tears soaked into her neck. Took a couple minutes to themselves, while Loid stepped into the hallway to give them some privacy.
Heard Yuri's dramatic sobbing as Loid paused in front of a door.
Grimaced.
He put a hand on the knob. Wanted to check on her, but she was probably still asleep. It had only been a couple hours, he didn't want to wake her.
He was worried about what happened earlier, Anya dissolving into tears and panic by a mere question. He wouldn't have asked if he knew what was going to happen.
He was also concerned it occurred in the first place. He couldn't for the life of him, imagine why it upset her. Why did she not want to say? Did she think he'd be angry? Did it involve the lab in some way? He couldn't figure how, but he couldn't rule it out, either.
A whisper in the back of his head as he ignored it.
Loid turned to peek back at the siblings, drying their faces. A quiet conversation picking up as they calmed down. Closer than they were before if that was possible.
Their heads turning to the sound of Anya's door opening, rubbing a sleepy eye as her head appeared.
"Anya, what are you doing up?" Loid asked, setting a hand in his pants pocket
"Anya's hungry." She yawned.
'She never did finish her dinner." He thought. "I'll warm up your leftovers, go and sit." He ruffled her hair, turning in the direction of the kitchen. Anya taking note of the Briars in the living room on her way to the table.
"Unkie." She observed.
His nose twitched. "Don't call me that." He grumbled. His eyes following her as she sat, recently gathered info on his mind when he saw her. Inquiries to fill in some gaps. The second purpose to his visit.
Excused himself from Yor, regrettable as it was.
"Chihuahua." Yuri stood to come join her at the table. Sat down across from her. Elbows rested on the surface to lace his fingers "Do you mind if I ask you some questions about the lab?" He asked, all business now.
Yor stood instinctively, ready to intervene. Loid turning his head in the kitchen, pausing what he was doing.
Well, crap. Anya thought. Looked into Yuri's head before she answered, but it was hard. His thoughts, racing with everything he'd learned and things he had to find out. He had a lot on his mind. She got out of there, quick.
"Like what. . . ?" She cautiously asked.
"A couple things. Do you know anything about the director?" He asked. Suspicions and facts not lining up. The pink hair the director shared with Anya could be a coincidence, but it wasn't a common colour. Loid could by lying about his relation to his daughter and he would expose it.
Questions for the Forger on his tongue as well. If Anya had been to the lab before, how did they get her back? Did she escape? He didn't know how the lab procured these kids, but surely Loid would have been searching for her. Put up missing posters, alerted the police. But when Yuri checked, there were no such records making him all the more suspicious.
These thoughts running through Yuri's head while he waited for his niece to answer. Hoping it would connect some dots. Loid and Yor, nervously watching Anya, for any signal to involve themselves. Her previous episode, alarming them heavily.
Anya made herself be calm. Yuri was just asking. He didn't know. She could give him pieces without him figuring it out. This was easier to deal with than what her Papa asked. The only reason she left her room, because she knew he wouldn't ask again.
"Maybe his name?" Yuri prompted.
Anya considered. She could give him his name, she thought. Nearly said it before it occurred to her.
If they catch Kai, would he tell them who she really was? What she was? Would she be making this harder for herself if she gave him up?
His lab was basically destroyed, he was done. Would it be so bad if she stayed quiet? Could he really hurt anyone else now?
Of course he could, she thought. He was an awful person.
If she didn't help Yuri find him, would that make her a bad person? Putting herself ahead of whoever he hurt next? She was the only person she knew of they could ask this. The only subject who had his name.
For obvious reasons.
When she really thought about it, she didn't like the idea of the director running around, doing whatever he wanted. If he was caught, it would make her feel better, but terrified at the same time. The director, knowing what he knew about her. Could tell someone at anytime.
She also knew he'd say nothing of his business if he could help it. He liked to keep things secret. To keep information close to his chest and use however he liked, without anyone knowing. Used peoples ignorance against them. Took advantage.
If he was caught, she knew he probably wouldn't say a thing about her. Or the other subjects. But it was scary that he could.
"Kai Forester." Anya said, deciding she wouldn't feel right withholding it.
Yuri blinked, a little surprised. She actually answered. He finally had the name he needed. Loid, thinking the same thing.
It made Yuri ask himself how she knew that. Why did she have his name, but none of the other subjects did? Was she actually related to the director? Or did she come by it some other way?
"Do you know anything else about him?" Yuri asked, any detail could be useful.
"Not really." She lied. She knew plenty, but not what he was looking for. And anything else would give him too many hints.
Yuri sighed. He'd have to be satisfied with the name for now.
"Can you tell me what your subject number was?" Yuri asked. If he could narrow it down at all that'd be helpful. He'd visited the kids in the hospitals, hoping to use process of elimination, but they all insisted they didn't know.
He wasn't sure he believed them. Some gave away definite ticks of lying, which led him to think they were all lying. As if in solidarity. To protect them.
'Protect them from what? The police? What did they think would happen to them?'
But it made sense when he thought on it. These kids were used and experimented on. The espers even more so. It made sense they wouldn't trust people, if any one of them would be locked up or taken advantage of.
What was he supposed to do with this information, then? He needed to know. He couldn't ignore any possible threats to the state. They would need to be monitored.
"Anya doesn't know." The little girl answered, as Loid came out with her plate.
Yuri, realizing he'd gotten lost in his head, and refocused. He couldn't tell if she was lying, but he guessed she was.
Loid coming to join at the table as he placed the food in front of Anya, who happily took the excuse to break contact with Yuri without appearing guilty.
What would Yuri do if Anya was one of them, he thought. Yor wouldn't like the SSS keeping tabs on her all the time. He knew he couldn't let Yor down if she asked him to keep it a secret.
'That is what she'd want', he thought, the knowledge drastically declining his fervour to find the truth. He could never do anything that would upset Yor.
It was very possible that none of the subjects they found was even an esper. The number of children found, not matching the count on the sheets. Others probably dead, or elsewhere. Like Brook who had been on missions.
Quite a few were missing, that even the deceased couldn't account for. Which meant determining the lab kids subject numbers would only get him so far.
It was inconclusive enough that missing one telepath wouldn't be strange. He could keep it to himself if Anya was one of them. No one else would have to know if it meant securing Yor's happiness. He couldn't say the same for the others, but he'd try to deal with it delicately.
Yor would appreciate that, he thought.
He then asked Anya what she knew about the scientists, but it was nothing he didn't already know.
Insisted she was ignorant of the numbers.
Convincing Yuri he'd have to find another way to further his investigation if those involved, didn't talk. He couldn't very well torture children for it.
Wishing there was more Anya could give him, but she said that was all she knew.
Paused in his thoughts, curious if she could hear him.
How did that work anyway? Could espers hear all of it?
It was disquieting to think they could listen in to his subconscious. Disquieting they could listen in to anything.
Wanted a way to test it. To know for sure. he couldn't stop thinking about it when he was around the lab kids.
With his vision on Loid, he looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, watching her stick the prongs into a piece of broccoli.
Anya, just trying to stay awake while she lifted her fork to her mouth. The rumbling in her stomach motivating her to eat before she went back to bed. Fairly unaware of the people around her when there was a voice in her head.
'Chihuahua.' Her uncle thought at her, making her jump inside. Willed herself to be still, forgetting to breathe in that moment. Resisted the urge to look up at him.
Yuri knew.
Anya expected him to find out what the experiments were for, but it still rattled her to her core.
'Relax', She thought. As long as she stayed calm and un-reactive he wouldn't find out. Every cell in her brain freaking out, opposing what she just told herself.
She ignored it and ate her dinner. Loid, entangling Yuri in conversation, but he still managed to try again.
'Chihuahua.' Thought Yuri, a little louder.
Kept her eyes on her plate. Didn't look at him. Yuri, sighing inwardly that it didn't work. It didn't prove she wasn't an esper, but he would have liked to solve this one.
He left it alone when Yor suggested he stay for another cup of tea. Asked discreetly about her assassin work in code, so Anya wouldn't know, but of course she knew.
Yor, answered him as best she could. Avoiding some, skirting around others.
Yuri, standing to leave as Anya finished eating and climbed off her seat. Took her plate.
Donned his coat as he said his goodbyes to Yor. Saw Anya stepping away from the table. A last effort to try again.
'ANYA!'
The sound reverberated through her skull, Anya leaping out of her skin, goosebumps appearing as the dish shattered on the floor. Her head whipping towards him, bug-eyed. Her response startling Yuri as he took a step back. Anchored in place.
"Anya! Are you okay?" Loid and Yor said in unison, turning away from the door. Lifted the stunned girl away from the sharp slivers that decorated the ground. A quick look at her feet before fetching the broom.
The staring match between Anya and Yuri, going unnoticed.
Anya would have cried. Would have run. Would have slammed the door to her room if every part of her wasn't paralyzed from panic and fear.
Heart racing, she felt it might burst. Gaze holding his. The silence from Yuri's mind, loud and consuming as every thought left him. His brain in frozen shock.
He knew it was a possibility, but knowing it was true was a different matter. His processing slow, as the girl by the table watched him intensely. Hands gripped in front of her. Unmoving. Barely saw her breathe.
Terrified.
Standing in weighted tension, Anya, unable to look away from him. Drawing Yuri into the halted moment where sounds were muffled and far away. Keeping him rooted there, her gaze holding him in place. Making any thoughts to move or speak, falter.
He glanced to his sister, Anya's eyes flicking briefly to her as he did so.
They didn't know, he realized. She never told them. Kept it to herself. Afraid he would tell them. Uncover everything she'd hid in the dark where they couldn't see it. Afraid he'd make known what he'd gathered at the SSS.
Anya shook her head, ever so subtly, unnerving Yuri. Had heard his thoughts as he considered it. The action, inexplicably swaying him.
Feeling like he couldn't speak it, looking at her now. Her deep fear of anyone finding out.
Feeling wrong to divulge her secret when the idea scared her so much. Couldn't do it even as his instincts told him to. Forced himself to think through the stupor.
Felt disoriented as he broke free of the muted bubble that deadened his thoughts and stole his senses. His environment slamming into him, shifting back into himself. Sounds of clinking porcelain, clearer than before, as they slipped into the garbage bin.
Felt Anya's eyes on him as he finally broke contact to look at her parents who were wondering what was going on. The knowledge of what just occurred, only known to the two. The knowledge rampaging through Yuri's thoughts. The knowledge that would continue to rampage for a while yet.
He gave one last look at his niece, a haze still holding him as he reached for the doorknob.
And went home.