Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Discord in the House of Assassins ❯ I am But Mad North Northwest ( Chapter 11 )

I Am But Mad North-Northwest

 

 

It was actually possible for Yohji to overthink himself, though Aya would be the first to ask if the man actually ever thought at all, but that's the kind of comments Aya made about his unfortunate comrade all the time, so we can overlook it at this point. When Yohji surfaced up from his hands and his thoughts he had the eyes of a hunted rodent, and he stood up so quickly he would have toppled over in a very embarrassed way if his left hand hadn't remembered itself and shot out for a hold at the counter at the right moment (it is after all an assassin hand, one that holds the other end of a garrote, and due to it's job's nature can be very quick, as well as strong and steady). Steadying himself, he looked about trying to find something, remembered Aya was still sitting on the floor, and then looked down to the upturned and questioning face of a slightly amused Aya. It was amused, until Yohji yelled.

 

“They're out to get me Aya, me!”

 

Despite the fact that it was him who was freaking out with rage earlier (because Rage for Aya is not something to control, it's actually his very life force), Aya did what he thought was the right thing to do, which was to backhand Yohji right across the face. This was the scene that Ken and Omi barged into (barged, because Ken was on a mission from God, and Omi was hell bent not to be sent to Manx's idea of psychological treatment). Everyone froze, and in this strange tableau Yohji went on automatic, wide-eyed he yelled, “What the hell was that for man?!”

 

Omi groaned, and taking advantage of the strange frozen moment, dragged Ken back into the kitchen by one unresisting arm before he, or worse, him and Ken, got sent to some loony bin. Aya followed their movement with his eyes and when the other two men were well away whispered in a low voice (if that is at all possible, given that Aya's vocal range is all low) “You're becoming a grade- A paranoid, you idiot.”

 

“Wha---?”

 

Aya looked both ways before grabbing Yohji by the shirtfront and dragging the confused man into an unyielding flower stockroom*. His movements screaming `CONSPIRACY!', Aya carefully closed the door while keeping an ear to it, and after that he gave all the flowers, especially the petunias**, a cold, hard glare before resuming the conversation.

 

“Listen to yourself”, maintaining the low whisper, Aya animatedly explained, “Oh, they're out to get me! Mastermind wants me! They want the V-Man! Santa-fuckin'-Claus wants to deliver my fuckin' presents!”

 

Yohji thought about this for a millisecond before shooting Aya a `you're-weirding-me-out' look, which he did do so. Aya let it slide, sighed, and dropped down beside a pot of tulips, minding his injured leg as he did so. “All I'm saying is, ever since that V-Man of yours came sucking into our lives, you think everyone's out to get you.”

 

Yohji slumped down beside the pot of petunias. “We-ell… aren't they? I mean, not me, but after the V-man, but since he's comfortably metaphysical, being that he's something that I don't really understand that well still but he went on ahead and squatted inside my head anyway, hence physically he is me, so the logic train would lead us to a town named,” and here his measured whisper became frantic (which is to say, a whispered scream), “they're out to get ME!”

 

“And who are they, exactly?”

 

“Well, they… them. You know,” the blonde waved a hand vaguely towards the general direction of an irreproachable bunch of daffodils, “the police, the bad people…” he murmured, and then he chipper-ed up, as when people usually do when they thought of something that they think can prove their point, “… and Mastermind!”

 

“Yohji, the case about…” Aya paused, looking for the right way to structure the following thought without further distressing the blonde, “the case about the V-man's earlier killings prior our arrangement (and he said this word that made you hear the italicism of it) are at a dead-end, lost as paperwork in the cold cases shelf because the police can't figure out anything, and would've considered the `killer' to be non-existent or probably moved to a different country for all they care. It's a cold case, not worth their precious time, which they'd rather invest in some other solvable crimes they can deliver justice to. And as far as I know, Kritiker isn't even considering those cases, and so far there'd been no incident of teenage vampire slayers out looking for any idiotic blonde vampires.”

 

Yohji raised a finger in protest, and put it back down when Aya shot him a look.

 

“And as for Mastermind, well, who knows what that loon wants? He can want a dumpling for all I care.”

 

“But… they attacked us…!”

 

“From all our experiences with them, Berserker would attack the pavement if it so much as looks at him funny or even just plain look at him at all. And Mastermind is generally malicious. Listen, they're always out to get us, and we, on our part, are always out to get them and the people they work for (here Aya's hands tensed, clenching as if holding his sword that, thankfully for Yohji, was not there). We're rival assassin groups Yohji. Our goal is to kill the other team.”

 

“So…”

 

“Point being they're out to get us.”

 

“Precisely my point! Out to get me!”

 

“No-o…” Aya pinched the bridge of his nose in silent exasperation. “Okay listen, I'll pretend that you actually can understand what I'm saying here, okay? Nod. Good. Now, we're Assassins right? We're generally paranoid people, because that's how the job description goes. But only up to a certain point- you become too paranoid and you end up pointing the gun to your head, get my drift? Good. What I'm saying is, Mastermind's not out to get you for anything special, he's just out to get you for the normal reason that you're Balinese, and I'm Abyssinian, and he's a malicious bastard.”

 

“Not for the V-man?”

 

“Forget… I mean NOT for the V-man.”

 

“But…”

 

“NO BUTS. Now get up, get out, and make me something to eat, will you?”

 

Yohji stared on for a few more minutes, then nodded mutely and stood, as per orders. Presumably a moment later he'd be rummaging in the pantry for something capable of being deep-fried or something, Yohji had never really been particular as to what type of food is proper for what time of the day, but the smell of cooking bacon always took his mind off of anything. There was also a lack of any Omi or Ken in the kitchen, odd as it was the former left his laptop on the table. However Yohji paid the existence or non-existence of anyone or anything a significant lack of attention.

 

Aya, left to the privacy of the flower stockroom, rested an arm over the rim of the pot of tulips next to him, and gave the unfortunate tulips a menacing glare. It was all he could do, he reasoned, glare at some unfortunate tulip. The thing with Aya is this: he must have something to vent out his frustration on. And so, since he couldn't very well glare at the confused blonde earlier since he feared that would only make things worse, he let out the brunt of his anger on some poor tulip. Mind you, he doesn't really hate tulips, actually he finds them properly appealing, but it just so happens that that was the closest thing to him to glare at. Just as Yohji was the closest person for him to control earlier. Another thing about Aya is this: whenever he feels his feet slipping out from underneath due to any kind of hesitation, confusion, etc, to cope with the situation he masters to control any immediate (and unfortunate, if it is other people) thing. Most times, it's his feelings- he controls them like a military man would his platoon. Exerting control over something gives him the grip he desperately needs, a grip that says `you're still in control of at least something…'

 

And what happened earlier in the park really disturbed him. Yohji could've been right, he thought with a hint of guilt, they may have been after the thing inside Yohji's head, and no, that doesn't mean his brain. And now he's bulled out the older man into believing the opposite, just because he didn't like being unsure of anything… and lately, he didn't want Yohji being unsure of anything at all. It didn't mean anything, really, Aya reasoned out in his head, it's just that there are things between him and Yohji that only they know and when you're carrying a large wooden chest over thin ice with somebody else, it always helps if the other man holding the other end of the heavy chest was actually sure of himself, or else they'll end up with broken toes and a future of ice-cold pain.

 

 

 

 

* there seems to be a lot of grabbing and dragging in this point of the story.

 

**he could have spared the flowers the terror of his evil eye though, because the hidden Omi-spycam installed somewhere between leaf and petals of the long unsold pot of petunias had long been disconnected, thanks to the fumbling yet good-natured right foot of Ken, which almost tripped over the thin, thin wire curiously coming from the pot of cunning petunias.