Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami Zutto ❯ China Doll ( Chapter 6 )

Tsuzuki will be referred to as Duo for quite a large portion of this chapter, as he is acting as he did during the war…mission mode, if you like. I hope I don't confuse too many people!

 

Tsuzuki and Heero walked quickly through the streets, heading for the mall where Quatre had planned to take Hisoka. Heero was pleasantly surprised to find that Tsuzuki traveled the way he did - in straight lines. Over fences, through alleyways and the ground floors of buildings, dodging the security with more skill than Heero. The ex-pilot hadn't had someone synchronize with him this well since Duo back in the war.

Heero felt a stab of loss shoot through him. He missed Duo. He missed the way he was so sleepy in the morning if he woke in a proper bed, and yet Heero knew that if they had been out of doors or woken by a sound from outside he would be awake in an instant. He missed his cheerful banter, and he missed his fiery kisses… Heero quickly shut down that train of thought and concentrated on hurdling a six foot wooden fence using some packing crates.

He hadn't been the only one to miss Duo's presence. Wufei had even grown out his hair in remembrance, although he would deny it fervently if it was mentioned.

They arrived at the entrance and screeched to a halt. Tsuzuki pulled Heero into an alcove by the main doors and looked at him seriously.

“Have you been here before? Are you familiar with the layout?”

“Iie.”

“I'll get a floor plan from the main desk then. Contact base and see if they know where they were last. Follow me at a reasonable distance, be discreet.”

“Ducai.”

Tsuzuki nodded and headed into the glass and concrete edifice. After a quick glance around, Heero followed, pulling his mobile phone out of his pocket and calling Wufei. He kept an eye on Tsuzuki through the reflections in the store windows as he pretended to browse.

 

Tsuzuki sauntered unhurriedly to the large `Information' sign. He pulled out his cheerful jester's mask from the war and revised his American accent in his head. He'd become used to speaking Japanese without an accent, it was strange to go back to speaking with one.

“Hey, ma'am, I was wondering if you could help me?”

“Yes?”

“I'm a little lost here, do you have a map of this place or somethin'?”

“We do. Would you like one?”

“Well, that's why I was askin'!” Duo exclaimed cheerfully.

The lady, who had curly brown hair tied back in a tight ponytail and looked extremely fed up, gave him a smile that was more like a pained grimace and handed him a glossy leaflet. The Shinigami thanked her politely and headed over to his partner, who was apparently engrossed in a necklace display.

“Any news from the others?”

“Café, from the sounds. Second floor.”

Duo scanned the map and nodded. “Got it. Follow me.”

They took the elevator up two floors and quickly made their way to the Starbucks. Duo queued for coffee while Heero secured a table, looking around all the while for suspects, suspicious behavior or anything that was out of place. Well, as out of place as anything could get in a mall filled with all sorts of different shops and people.

Duo used his American accent again on the coffee lady - consistency was everything, and Heero was too far away to hear and wonder. He bought Heero a double espresso, exactly the same as he always used to have, and got a cappuccino for himself.

The Japanese man stared at him in amazement - well, as much amazement as you could get on Heero's features - when the drink was placed in front of him.

“How did you know that I drink this? I didn't tell you.”

Duo paused. Crap. He didn't want to lie… “Quatre told me,” he said finally. It was true; he just didn't mention that Quatre had told him about eighty years ago back during the war. Heero nodded and took a sip, watching as Duo added six packets of sugar to his cappuccino.

“What?” Duo asked, when the gaze began to get a little unnerving.

Heero shook his head. “Sorry. It's just… Duo used to drink his coffee like that.”

“Really? That's odd. You talk about him a lot, were you close?” Duo asked, trying desperately to keep his Tsuzuki mask in place.

“Very close.”

Duo nodded. “He sounds like an ok guy.”

“He was amazing.”

“Do we know the direction that Quatre and Hisoka headed after the café?” Duo asked, changing the subject. “If we follow in their footsteps we could get jumped too, if maybe the assaulters assume that we're following them to meet up or something. Only we are prepared.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Heero pulled out his cell phone again and called Wufei for the second time. After a quick conversation, during which Duo finished his coffee, Heero stood up.

“I know where they went. With me?”

“Woah, oh, all the way,” Duo muttered as he stood and slid into his full length coat.

 

Heero led the way out of the café, trying to figure out why that phrase sounded so familiar to him. As they reached the service corridor where Hisoka and Quatre had last been traced, he pushed the thought aside and focused on the mission. He needed to concentrate; he couldn't mess up the mission because he was thinking of something else!

They walked past the entrance, but nothing happened. Once they were a little way away, Tsuzuki tapped Heero on the shoulder, frowning.

“Maybe they've gone now that they have Quatre and Hisoka. Lets go into spirit form and check it out.” [Spirit form is when they are invisible and can walk through walls and stuff. Pretty cool, ne?]

“Hai.”

The two Shinigami stepped behind a large potted palm and disappeared when no-one was looking.

 

*

 

Meanwhile, in Muraki's lab, the two prisoners were getting very worried. The lights still hadn't come on, but some machines had started humming, and faint shapes could be made out in the faint green light a few of the screens gave off. It felt like something big was about to happen.
Their instincts were proved right when the lights flickered on and the door swung open simultaneously.

“Well, my little pets, how are you doing?”

Quatre snarled at the silver-haired man while Hisoka shrank back against the wall.

“I think I shall start with the blond empath first….such spirit!” Muraki declared, smiling sinisterly. Quatre struggled against his manacles, but there was nothing he could do. For a moment, he wished he was Heero. The perfect soldier would have been able to snap the chains with ease.

Muraki advanced, a hypodermic needle in his hand. He injected the substance into Quatre's neck and the ex-pilot felt his muscles turn to jelly. He stared at Hisoka in horror. He couldn't even speak, let alone lift a hand. Hisoka's green eyes filled with tears.

Muraki unlocked the wrist and ankle cuffs, lifted him easily onto the examination table and restrained him again. An unnecessary gesture, Quatre thought, seeing as he could barely blink. Still, he could be on this table a while.

Muraki attached electrodes to his forehead and chest, placing one with care over his heart. Then he flicked a switch on the machine next to the bed, and Quatre felt a sharp stab of agony before everything went black.

 

Hisoka huddled as far away from Muraki as he could. Quatre had passed out, and he was glad that the blond didn't have to suffer much pain. The young empath fell back on his usual safeguard when he was distressed; he thought about Tsuzuki. The man had become a walking security blanket for Hisoka, and he didn't have a clue. Hisoka even managed a smile, thinking of his partner's delighted, over the top reaction would be if he told him.

Tsuzuki had been different since they had arrived in Sanq, however. He hadn't gone overboard on sweets, deserted any meetings in favor of apple pie or even joked much. Hisoka had never seen Tsuzuki serious for this long before. He had asked his partner about it that breakfast time, but the violet-eyed Shinigami hadn't been forthcoming. Hisoka had rationalized it to dislike of the country, but given what Quatre had just told him…

Was he suppressing his normal, jokey self ican 'ndows as he pobile phone out of his pocket and calling Quatre. He kept an eye on Tbecause that was how he had acted when he was Duo? Maybe it was a safeguard to keep his identity safe? But he had been a Gundam Pilot! Surely he hadn't been a joker then? The pilots had been terrorists; they couldn't have had time for practical jokes, could they?

Although, thinking about his partner, Hisoka wouldn't put it past him…

A moan from the table drew Hisoka's attention back to the present. He felt so helpless and useless! He'd never wanted his gun so much in his life. Muraki wasn't even looking at Quatre; the blond was writhing in pain on the table, his face paler than the electrodes attached to his skin. Meanwhile the sadistic scientist was fiddling with a large machine, looking at the printouts spewing out a slot at the side, frowning and then twisting knobs and pressing buttons. Every now and then a fresh burst of agony shot through the blond, making Hisoka wince.

He brushed the edge of Quatre's thoughts, almost without meaning to, trying to soothe away the pain. He wished that he had paid more attention to his gift, learned how to use it rather than being afraid of it and falling back on guns and fuda.

Quatre's head was filled with a name.

/Trowa Trooooooooooooowa TROWA! Trowaaaaaaaaa oh Trowa!/

Hisoka sniffed and felt the tears spill from his eyes. He wished more than anything that Quatre's husband was on his way to take his little blond partner away.

 

 

*

 

Heero and Tsuzuki melted through the door into the small room and materialized on the other side. Heero immediately felt for his gun, and a glace to the side showed that his partner had crouched into a fighting stance. The stance seemed vaguely familiar - Heero shook his head at himself. Of course it did! He'd seen many, many fighters over the years, it made sense that he had seen this particular stance before!

They were in a dusty, deserted office. There were two monitors on a rickety desk and a waste paper basket, overflowing with something - exactly what was in it was hidden by the thick layer of dust that coated everything. The monitors were light grey with the stuff.

To his left, Tsuzuki stiffened.

“Nan ka.” Heero muttered, using the particle to make his question apparent rather than raising his voice.

“Muraki was here.”

“ne?”

“Look at the filing cabinet.”

Heero looked. Then he frowned. “A doll?”

“Hai. Muraki has a thing about them.”

Heero detected a slight accent to his partner's words, but it was gone before he could identify it.

Tsuzuki approached the cabinet carefully, making sure not to touch the doll. It was new, and dressed in a fancy dress that reminded Heero of a peacock's tail. There was a small pair of gold-rimmed glasses with only one handle attached to it's tiny hand.

“Opera glasses,” he told Tsuzuki. He was familiar with them thanks to the many trips to the Opera that he had had to accompany Relena on. Once he had made it clear that he was not interested in her romantically, she had still insisted on becoming his friend. He had given her away at her wedding, he remembered. Tsuzuki stepping away from the cabinet snapped him from his thoughts. Why was he so easily distracted today? True, he had remained focused on watching the room while he was thinking, but being able to multi-task was no excuse. He had to keep a tighter reign over his thoughts, or he could inadvertently put Quatre and Hisoka in danger!

Tsuzuki nodded at him and dematerialized again. They took the quick way back to base - rising up through the support struts of the mall and then surfing the wind to the helicopter pad on top of Sanq's JuChoOh.

As soon as they got back into the building, Tsuzuki made a beeline for his laptop. He seated himself cross-legged on a sofa and sat there, frowning intently at the screen as he tapped busily on the keyboard.

Heero shook his head and went for coffee. When he returned, two steaming cardboard containers of coffee in his hands, Tsuzuki still hadn't moved. He had a cute frown mark between his eyebrows- Heero froze. Had he really just thought that?

Well, Tsuzuki was sitting exactly as Duo used to, he reasoned. A small smile crossed his normally stoic features as he remembered one incident. Duo had liked to listen to apparently endless lists of music tracks as he worked, occasionally singing along. One time, they had been on a plane flying to visit Quatre in Arabia. Heero had wondered why Duo was typing, they were supposed to be on vacation - this had been just before Duo had disappeared. Then, Duo had mysteriously shouted “Why is it always those damn scribal schools that inexplicably burn down? I swear that's the third time!”

“Do you even know what `inexplicable' means?” Heero had asked after a moment of speechlessness.

Duo had huffed and pouted cutely. “Yeah, I do. G did teach me some stuff, ya know!”

A few weeks later Duo had mysteriously vanished. Heero still had his partner's old laptop, he'd even kept it thorough becoming a Shinigami. It was in an apparently innocent cardboard box. Well, it was in a triple locked safe, wrapped with steel chains hidden inside an apparently innocent, ratty cardboard box that happened to be gundanium plated. Being a wanted pilot had never really worn off. The building could fall on their heads and that laptop wouldn't even be scratched. Although it already was from Duo dragging it everywhere. So…it wouldn't get another scratch.

 

“…are you ok?”

“Huh?”

Tsuzuki was staring at him, concern shining in his large purple eyes. “You've been staring at nothing for quite a while.”

“Oh, I was just thinking.”

Tsuzuki carefully took one of the coffee containers from his hand and sipped at it. His fingers were warm, Heero noted absently.

“What about, if I can ask?”

“It's ok. I was remembering my partner.”

A strange look came into those bright eyes, and their sparkle faded a little. “Duo right?” Tsuzuki asked casually.

“Yeah. You reminded him of me just then, the way you were concentrating on the screen.”

Tsuzuki stiffened a little, and then relaxed. The movement probably wouldn't have been noticeable to anyone else, but Heero had been trained as an assassin. Tsuzuki appeared to be hiding something. Maybe he had been killed by one of the pilots? He seemed uncomfortable whenever Duo was mentioned.

“I've contacted Tatsumi back home. That means that Konoe and the Count-” here Tsuzuki shuddered again but didn't try to hide it “-will know in approximately ten minutes.”

“You know your colleagues well.”

“Seventy years does that to you.”

Heero gave into his curiosity. “What's wrong with the Count?”

Tsuzuki shuddered again. “He likes me,” he mumbled, turning red.

“Nani?”

“He keeps on… stroking my cheek, coming on to me.”

“Well… that doesn't sound too bad.”

Tsuzuki gave him an incredulous look. “Have you met the Count?!”

“No, is he ugly?”

“He's invisible! He's a pair of white gloves and about half of Trowa's clown mask! Do you have any idea what it's like to be chatted up by someone who may as well be a ghost!?”

“Uh, iie.”

“Exactly my point,” Tsuzuki concluded with an offended huff, sticking his nose in the air. “Besides, he likes drinking tea and his servants are weird little goblin things.”

“What's wrong with tea?” Heero dared to ask. He decided not to comment on the goblins.

“It's not coffee,” Tsuzuki stated with an air of great offence. “Tatsumi keeps on trying to get me to drink it too. I admit that the sakura blossoms look pretty when they float in it, but I hate the drink. Reminds me too much of Wufei's green tea, and that was just painful after-”

Tsuzuki immediately snapped his mouth shut, and picked up his laptop. “I have to go,” he muttered as he headed out the door.

“Tsuzuki, matte! Chotto matte!” Heero called after him. But it was too late; the Shinigami had already disappeared.

 

*

 

Trowa sat tucked up on the bed that he was sharing with his gentle husband. He could hear Quatre calling for him, but he had no idea where his little love was. The ex-pilot gripped his hear with his hands. Quatre was in pain, his voice told him that, and there was nothing he could do to help. His angel needed him, dammit!

Suddenly, the tall Shinigami uncoiled from the bed and prowled to the door like one of his circus lions from the old days. He stormed his way over to Heero's office, and curtly demanded an update on the situation. Once he knew what had been found at the shopping mall, he took over Heero's computer and started searching for clues, for anything that would help bring Quatre back to him.

He could still hear the blond repeating his name, screaming his name, over and over in the back of his head…