Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Bradley's Devils ❯ Words ( Chapter 4 )

I mean, these are real people, here, not just characters. That means that when I write stuff, a lot of this has actually happened in some way shape or form. And if 'Schu' isn't a telepath, then she's just really really really good at reading body language. Even when we're still.

-----------------------------

Bradley's Devils

-----------------------------

Schuldich sat on the couch with her CD player beside her and headphones on her ears, dressed in red and black, and carefully drew a dragon-snake in the same colors on the inside of her right heel, just below the ankle. The ink spread a bit, and the black ink ran out so she had to switch to dark blue over red to get the same look, but she was fairly content with the `tattoo'. Farfarello had interesting ideas at times.

When she finished, she twisted her foot a bit, seeing how the pattern changed, then put it down and leaned back, sighing. She was bored. B-O-R-E-D, bored. She was almost to the point of spelling words out and then switching languages and starting over. Like onomatopoeia, for example, or coque-monsiuer. Did any other languages she knew have a translation? Hmm…

She glanced over at the shelf of dictionaries and didn't feel like getting up to reach them. She'd have to think of something else, then.

Schuldich contemplated falling over into Fredley the stuffed gorilla's embrace, but she'd have to move her CD-player to do that and her headphones probably wouldn't let her get comfortable anyway. Pity. He was nicely fuzzy.

She yawned and twisted so that she was resting on her thigh instead of her tailbone. This position meant that she could let her head flop to the side and rest against the back of the couch without her headphones getting in the way. Maybe it was time for her version of a meditation session.

Schuldich was taking a break fro her shields and using music to drown out the voices. And, focusing on the song (one she liked in particular) she fell asleep.

Some time later, Nagi came in, moved the CD-player to the floor, telekinetically moved Schuldich into the gorilla, and curled up with her. The player started again with a nudge, and the room was still again.

-

"Aww, how cute."

Schuldich woke to the point of hearing minds again, and they jolted her awake. She slammed her shields up, fumbling a bit, then turned a lethal stare on Farfarello.

Farfarello grinned. The picture Schuldich and Nagi had made was cute.

The glare turned from lethal to murderous and Schuldich abruptly shunted the voices over to her `friend's' mind and turning up the proverbial volume. She smiled in grim satisfaction when Farfarello winced, and took her time and carefully rebuilt she shields right, smoothing over the accidental damage she'd done to herself with the fudged ones where she could.

Farfarello grit her teeth and struggled to deal with the migraine of epic proportions she was getting form the people yelling inside her head. Then it was gone, leaving only a faint ringing, and Schuldich said intensely, "Don't ever wake me up when I've been listening to music."

"Okay, sorry! Sheesh." She really didn't see what was wrong with what she'd done.

"I listen to music to cover the sound of people's thoughts. What you did to me by waking me up is pretty much the same as what I did to you. Okay? It's one of the tings you don't do unless you want me to kill you."

"You wouldn't kill me."

"I've done it before."

"It's okay, Schu," Nagi said, hoping to soothe her. "She just made a mistake."

"One that nearly cost her her life. You mess with my mind, and I destroy yours. Automatically and completely." Schuldich got up and stormed around Farfarello to hit her in the back.

"Uff."

"The first guy who woke me up - accidentally, by mistake - was someone I had a ­­crush on, and now he's a fucking vegetable!" She spread her fingers over her face and calmed her breathing. "Let's talk about something else before I go psycho."

"Okay." Nagi folded her legs underneath her, smoothed her skirt, and shoved Farfarello's broken rib back into place. The white-haired girl let herself grunt at the pain (instead of screaming, like anyone else would have done) and adjusted her bindings to keep everything in place. "What did you find out about the guy that attacked Takatori-san?"

Schuldich blinked. "Brad never told you?"

Nagi shook her head.

"Fujimiya Ran - who goes by Aya, by the way, and his sister's a pretty nice girl - Fujimiya is the newest member and sorta-leader of Weiß, that team we're supposed to pretend to be opposites of. He joined because of his sister, who's the real Aya, and for vengeance because Mr. Takatori had his parents killed and tried to get them too. He's fairly crazy in his own way. He uses a katana, and Brad's probably going to be his opponent for the most part. And his code name is Abyssinian. His teammates are Hidaka Ken - Siberian - who'll be yours, Farf, and who uses a bugnuk. It's kind of like a glove with claws coming out of the knuckles."

Farfarello grinned, drew a knife from nowhere, and started chewing on it.

"Nagi, your opponent is Tsukiyono Omi - Bombay - who works with a bow or crossbow and darts. And mine is Kudou Yohji - Balinese - and he uses some kind of wire - he thinks it's monofilament, but I'm not so sure. The reason why he's against me is because I've got the advantage in speed."

Nagi snorted.

"Omi's mind was significantly more tasteless than yours, Farf, so I went and checked their boss to see if it was something we could use against him, and guess what? He's really Mr. Takatori's third son! Only he's really the result of an affair between the late Mrs. Takatori and Mr. Takatori's younger brother - who just happens to be `Persia' to Weiß, and the one who formed them and gives them their missions. It's so convoluted!"

Nagi and Farfarello giggled.

"They're cats!"

"Hmm?"

"They're cats. Abyssinian, Siberian, Balinese, Bombay, Persia - they're cats!"

Schuldich giggled as well. "Ja. And `Persia's' two secretaries are Manx and Birman." She put a finger to her cheek and tilted her head. "Well, Manx is appropriate."

"Oh?"

"Ja, she hasn't got a tail. Unlike the guys."

"Get yer mind outta the gutter, Schu."

Schuldich laughed.

Nagi hoped she wasn't blushing. "Anything else we could use against them? Like - why are they assassins?"

"Huh. Hadn't thought of that. Let me check." A few minutes later, she said, "Oookay, these are kind of cryptic answers, but this is what I got. Abyssinian - for the one he loves. Siberian - for his own revenge. Bombay - for the truth. Balinese - for the meaning of life."

"The meaning of life?"

"He's not goin' to find the meanin' o' life by bringing death to people. That's loony."

Schuldich sat down suddenly, then sprawled out on the floor and just laughed and laughed and laughed…

~~~-~~~

"Everyone- Schu, why are you on the floor?"

"Farf thinks that Kudou is a loony."

"Hn." But he smiled. "Everyone go get changed for going out. We're going to need to help Mr. Takatori try to frighten his son."

"Alright."

"Just in time! My rib is all healed."

Schuldich raised an eyebrow at the speed, but said instead, "In that case, help me up."

"Why?"

"Because I asked." She held a hand out imperiously.

Nagi gave another little shove.

"Thanks- Oo, thank you, Nagi." A grinning Schuldich let herself lean against Farfarello (where she'd fallen) long enough to plant a quick kiss on the corner of her mouth, and then was off to change. Nagi sighed and followed.

"You're not going to wear anything else?"

"I already look male, and I dun wanna stress my ribs any more than I have ta."

Brad nodded.

-

"How could you let this happen?" Takatori Reiji, their boss-of-the-moment, slammed his fists on the desk and scowled. The test subjects disappeared two days ago. I found out about it this morning..." He leaned forward. "Because the media was going nuts. What were you doing? What are you going to do if this gets out?"

Takatori Masafumi smiled his smarmy little smile and Farfarello, on Schuldich's left, fought not to roll her eyes, while Nagi, on her right, repressed a giggle, and Schuldich herself very firmly did not smirk. Brad, on Nagi's other side, remained as impervious as ever. "There's no need to worry about that, Father. They'll lose their ability to speak as they become mutated."

The girl with blue hair in the line behind him giggled and hugged her stuffed rabbit.

**Hmm, you may like her,** Schuldich commented.

"Masafumi, you don't get it, do you? I've let you have free reign over this company. But if you cannot manage this... And any of this should come back on me..." He reached across the desk and grabbed his son by the tie, pulling him closer, and eight of the ten people in the room tensed. "I will have to rethink how to handle you."

Masafumi smiled again. "I understand, Father. I'll be more careful."

**Such an ugly smile,** Farfarello mused. Nagi stifled another giggle.

The elder Takatori made some sort of disgusted sound in the back of his throat and let go. He turned and stalked out of the office and down the hall. Brad and Nagi kept pace with him and Farfarello and Schuldich took up the rear.

"Are you sure you want to let Mr. Masafumi get away with this?," Brad said. "Isn't this why you brought us along?"

"This is his last warning. If he makes a mistake again... You take care of it, Crawford."

"Yes, sir."

They came to the elevators, and while they waited, Nagi stepped back to form a loose circle-ish… formation behind their `boss' while Brad stayed by his side.

**Shall we confuse the enemy?** Nagi asked.

**Hm?**

She shared the location of the hidden cameras. **Turn to me in a bit as if you were talking, but don't move your mouth.**

**You want them to think I'm a telepath?**

**It'll scare them if they figure it out - but they'll be off on the amount of time it takes for us to communicate.**

**Aww, do it,** Farfarello added.

**Fine, fine.** Schuldich smiled mentally and turned to Nagi. **Notice the girls?**

**He wants to be just like his father.** Nagi was amused.

So was Farfarello. **Aww, how cuuuuuuuuuuuuute.**

**Hah.** Schuldich brushed their minds. **Smarter that his pa, though. They're intensely loyal to him - unlike us.**

**Will we have to fight them?** asked Nagi, who was rather envious that they got to be openly female.

**No idea. Brad?**

**Hm?**

**Will we have to fight those girls?**

**Weiß will do that for us. Why are you looking at Nagi?**

**We're creeping people out them and giving them misinformation.**

**Hah.**

Schuldich faced forward again and smirked. **They're called Schrient.**

**Inappropriate.**

**Oh?**

Brad allowed himself to smile just a very tiny little as the elevator arrived. **They're gaudy dolls, not screamers.**

**Well, we don't know that for sure…**

**Schu!**

Schuldich didn't snicker. She didn't even snigger. She just kept on smirking and stepped into the elevator. She was a trained assassin, after all.