Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Compact ❯ Chapter 1

DISCLAIMERS: All things Weiß Kreuz belong to Koyasu Takehito, Project Weiß, Polygram k.k., and Animate Film. Muraki, of Yami no Matsuei, belongs to Matsushita Youko. No infringement intended.
NOTES: Conceived during a dull, snowy, three-hour car drive from New York City to Camp Hill, PA with Covenant's United States of Mind on the player.

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"Compact"
By Viridian5
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Ran twisted in the chair and tried not to look at the newspaper. Lies. All lies. How could anyone believe them? At least now he knew why his parents had been killed. Dead people couldn't defend themselves against such slander.

The law certainly had no intentions of fixing the injustice. Ran had seen that in the interviews he'd sat through with the police. They'd been too busy trying to make him say something to implicate his parents to listen to him beg them to find the man in the limo who'd run his sister down. The bastard had aimed for her.... He had to be behind it all. They didn't care. Maybe he'd already gotten to them. He had to have money.

Ran wanted to find the man in the limo and all of his accomplices and kill them. He would find this man and kill him.

Who would gain from his parents being framed for embezzling? Once Ran found that out, he could start. It wouldn't bring his parents back or wake Aya up--

Oh, Aya. Ran put his hand to his hot face and winced at how swollen and tender it felt. He was all she had left. She was all he had left.

"You look like you need a friend."

Ran looked up at the doctor standing in front of him. The man was all white, even to his pale eyes and platinum blond hair. He glowed. Ran sneered at himself. Glowed. He had a head injury; he was lucky that everything didn't glow. The doctor looked kind and concerned.

Ran didn't believe in that, not anymore. Not after his friends and family had turned their back on him once the news got out. Some of them had tried to be kind while others hadn't bothered, but they'd all let him know that he was alone.

"I don't need anything," Ran answered but then amended it to "I need to see my sister."

"You will soon, once visiting hours start. Did you spend the whole night in the waiting room?"

"Aside from going out twice, yeah." He didn't have a home or anywhere to be anymore. A day ago already.... He felt dull, faded, tired, and unreal.

The doctor sat down next to Ran uninvited. Ran leaned away. "I'm Dr. Muraki. I was part of the team that worked on your sister."

This was the closest he'd been to someone who'd know anything. They'd run Aya past him once and said a few things, but he hadn't been tracking very well at the time. "How... how is she really? No one will tell me."

"Everyone is different, Ran. A coma can last for only a short time or for years. But she's strong, and I've used everything I know to help her. Now it's up to time and sacrifice." Muraki handed Ran a cup of juice. "You look like you need something."

A short time or for years.... "I do need something." His sister awake. Justice. Vengeance. In the absence of having time turn back and everything be fixed, those were the things he needed.

Muraki glanced at the newspaper in his lap. "Such lies."

Ran blinked. The doctor couldn't possibly be referring to.... "What?"

"What happened to your family is a horror. Evil men are a cancer on our society, Ran. They need to be sliced away so the organism can be healthy."

"Muraki-san!" a doctor called from across the room.

"Excuse me a moment." Muraki walked over to confer.

Perhaps he really was a doctor. Ran didn't take much on faith anymore.

The cup of juice felt cool in his hand. He drank a little and sighed as that coolness slid down his dry, swollen throat. The bright burst of flavor almost hurt his mouth but in a way that made him drank more.

He almost felt hungry now. Not that it mattered, since he had almost no money left. He'd bought her the earrings she'd wanted. The newspaper he'd taken.

"I'm sorry about that," Dr. Muraki said as he sat down again.

"It's okay."

"Doctors and hospitals today too often see their patients only as bodies. I prefer a more personal touch. You're as much a victim as your sister. You shouldn't have survived that explosion."

That was true. He shouldn't be alive, let alone alive with only a few scrapes. He shouldn't be alive. "I'm fine."

"It's all right to feel overwhelmed. You're orphaned and homeless."

"Thank you for reminding me."

Muraki looked surprised, then smiled ruefully. "I'm sorry. That was a bit tactless. But I know that you'll find the strength to do what needs to be done."

"What needs to be done?"

"Your sister needs to be taken care of. You need to take care of yourself. Justice needs to be done. I'm sure that a way to do all of those things will come to you."

Ran leaned back in his chair and rested his head against the wall. He felt tired. Fuzzy. He'd barely slept.

"Ran, you'll slide out. Lean against me instead."

How embarrassing. "I can't do that."

"Of course you can. I'm your doctor."

Muraki pulled him up and close. Strong doctor. Ran leaned into his chest and felt the man's chin rest at the top of his head. Muraki had a bit of a scent to him. Ran didn't know what it was. Dark and warm. Muraki stroked his hair. Was that all right? No, not stroking, writing against his head kind of.... He felt a distant sting in his scalp. It felt good to be held by... someone.

"When she wakes up, won't your sister be surprised and proud of what you've done and who you've become in her name?" the doctor murmured.

"What will I have done?" Ran asked back, sleepily.

"You'll have done things that other people are too scared or squeamish to do. You'll have sacrificed for her, because sacrifice is the only way you can take care of her and bring her back. Everything important demands a sacrifice. You'll bring her a gift."

Ran felt warm and numb. Blessedly numb. "I have... I have a gift."

"Show me."

Ran took the wrapped earrings out of his pocket and tugged the tissue paper away to reveal them. "She wanted them."

"They're perfect." Muraki stroked a finger up and down the length of one of the earrings, which gave Ran a squirming feeling of disquiet.

"Stop that. They're hers."

Muraki stopped. "Of course they are. Get some rest, Ran. Everything will be clear when you wake up."

After a nightmare of being crushed by something too big for him to see, Ran woke up alone sprawled atop three seats, knowing what he had to do.

"Aya, happy sixteenth birthday. Here, this is for you." He set the wrapping and one earring in her hand, then closed her fingers around it. The other one he clasped in his hand. She was so still.

His ear still stung, still bled, from the new hole he'd put in it, but the pain felt distant. Everything except for Aya felt distant, and that felt safe. It felt right.

"Aya, I will avenge your suffering. To always remember why I fight, why I will never stop," he put the earring into his own ear, feeling the pain and sudden weight of it, "I will take on your name."

Ran should have died. Now he had.

***********************THE END**********************

More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room version 2.0 at http://viridian.mrks.org/

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