Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ False Realities ❯ The Ninth ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I'm a Japanese man by the name of Koyasu Takehito and I own Weiss…NOT! The man mentioned above owns Weiss, and I claim no rights to it. This is just done for pure fun.

Legend:

'Thoughts'

Telepathic speech

"Speech"

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Flashback

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Chapter 6::The Ninth

by Johin

Rain poured down outside the world of the class as they listened to their homeroom teacher drone on and on about an upcoming academic week. The day had just begun yet it seemed like it was about to end. Everyone just wanted to get everything over with today and rest, but since they have their obligations to attend to, everyone is stuck in the confines of their classroom walls.

Omi paid little to no attention to his teacher and watched in fascination the droplets of water spraying against the glass windows then forming a trickle downwards, going with the flow of gravity. He was still staring outside of his window when he felt a piece of paper slip onto his hand. He looked up at the teacher to see if he would, by any chance, be disturbing him if he put his attention on the paper instead of the world outside, seeing that he wouldn't disturb the said teacher he read the writings on the letter and it said:

Why did you come to school today? You're still injured, as far as I know, albeit covered up professionally. Omi frowned at the thought that Nagi had thought of him invalid. He scribbled something down and passed it to the table behind him when another hand snatched it away from him making him unable to convey his message.

"Now, now, what's this? A letter? Tsukiyono-kun, I think you know very well the classroom rules, go stand outside." Satou-sensei stated and thus causing Omi to go outside. "Who's the receiver of this letter anyway? It would be unfair if you stood alone." He opened the letter and inspected it but just as he was about to begin reading the said letter he found that he was tearing it himself, though not out from his own will and just like that the letter was torn in to little pieces.

Nagi stood up from his seat and picked up the small pieces of paper that fell on the floor, after doing such he bowed in front of the teacher and said, "I am the one who gave him the letter in reality, sir, I think I will go outside now." He shoved the pieces of paper into his pocket then headed to outside, tugging on Omi's sleeve and leaving his teacher, with no time either to talk or to reprimand him.

Two boys were standing at the hallway holding buckets of water with each hand. One of which looking at the other boy every once in a while and then back to listening to the lecture inside the class for lack of anything better to do and then he would look back again to the boy beside him.

The boy being observed had his eyes closed but was well aware of the back and forth movement of his companion. He sighed when Omi wouldn't stop. He opened his eyes slowly and then said, "If you have a question, you better say it now, rather than trying to keep it to yourself, I doubt you'd be able to answer it."

Omi made an indignant sound then pouted. "If you're saying I'm stupid then I'm not talking to you."

"I didn't mean that--"

"I know!" Omi said perkily then smiled. "Nagi-kun, why did you destroy the paper? It wouldn't have gotten you in trouble anyway it didn't have your name on it."

"It would put you in trouble. They will start questioning your injuries." Nagi explained as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, he shrugged then smiled at the other boy. "Besides what good would it do if they got on both our cases?"

"If you say so...." Right after Omi had said those words the bell rang, indicating that it was the next class already. Omi sighed, as did Nagi. Their class filed out of the room and headed for the dressing room to change into their Physical Education uniform. Both Nagi and Omi had to dispose of their load on the way there and chatted away just like two normal kids.

Three men were arguing for what seemingly was about their young friend and it wasn't going very well for the defending side of the fight. Crawford sat on one of the chairs seemingly unfazed by his other two companions while the said companions trying to get his attention. Farfello was trying to hit the American albeit unsuccessfully. Schuldig in the meantime was trying to do two things at the same time one of which was trying to sedate Farfello and the other was talking some sense into his leader.

"Crawford won't you listen? By the way, I REALLY don't mind that you aren't helping me here, it's not as if I mind Farfie killing you, you know." Schuldig said as he struggled to get a hold of the Irishman's hands. He tried entering the said man's mind but it was too dangerous at this point in time.

"I am listening, Schuldig. The question you should be asking is this, 'aren't you going to do anything about it?' "Crawford said passively, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly there was no noise of struggle and no screaming, he opened his eyes, disturbed, and found that he was alone in the room now. He guessed that both his companions were probably in Farfello's quarters which was only affirmed by the slamming of the door across the hall.

"Damn him!" Schuldig screamed as he slammed the door behind him. He dragged Farfello inside, seeing that he was still in one of his 'moods' and will not possibly cooperate and stand up and walk on his own away from their leader.

"Swearing hurts god."

"Shut up, Farf!" Schuldig snapped as he sunk on the bed. He covered his face with his hands and shook his head as he thought, 'He's just in his moods now. He'll get out of it after a while. Patience, Schuldig, patience.'

No one spoke and no one wished to do so, both of them had kept their thoughts to themselves as they struggled with what to do, how to escape even if for just a while. After a long and loud silence Schuldig began to notice that the struggling had ceased so he checked up on his friend, it was apparent that the Irish man had fallen asleep.

"Well, I'm not going inside his mind right now..." Schuldig said to himself, he stood up from his place and went up to his silver haired friend.

Schuldig observed his friend and made sure he was already in a deep sleep, he nearly snorted when he found out that he was. "I can't believe that one such as you can sleep so easily as one two three." He got Farfello from the floor and settled him on the bed he had been on and took of the other's bonds so as he could rest easily. He looked at the other man for a while longer and then left, closing the door behind him.

"Sleep well. Time here... is cheaper than the cheapest metal in town."

Nagi and Omi were stretching together with all the other students while waiting for their teacher, not wanting to waste time or to place the wrath of the "demon woman", as they called her, on them by not following her instructions. The stretching exercises went on for a few more minutes before they had to run around inside of the gym two times.

The class had just begun the run when Omi started to feel pain from his wounds. He didn't allow it to hinder him though so he kept on but stayed at the very back of the line that the class had formed. Nagi actually noticed the difference in his actions but Omi just smiled and mouthed that he was fine.

One lap done and Omi was already feeling light-headed. He thought of stopping but just brushed it off, 'Nagi would definitely send me home and not make me come to school. I don't want anyone to worry anymore, I'm fine now and I can do this!'

Their teacher walked in, together with her male assistant, and checked the attendance as they ran past her. Everyone stayed quiet not wanting to waste his or her energy on pointless chatter. After noting that everyone was present, the two adults went to the front of the gym and awaited the remaining students at the back of the line.

Omi ran and ran, his breathing was very hard now and he was sweating profusely, he was about to reach the rest of his classmates when he noticed he wasn't moving forward anymore, in fact he falling and he couldn't move anymore. He was inching towards the floor very slowly and was already having a hard time seeing. There was a few more seconds after he fell on the floor and blacked out, the last thing he heard was Nagi's voice.

"Omi! No!" Nagi ran back to his friend as fast as he could and not heeding the teachers' orders. Upon reaching his friend he checked the boy's breathing and when he found that Omi was going to be all right he checked the wounds that may have reopened and caused Omi's blackout. He began panicking when he saw his friend's shirt becoming a morbid color of red.

Other students were crowding around trying to see what was happening but to no avail. The assistant teacher was warding them off and it was working pretty well. "Alright everyone, Move along, show's over! Give the boy some air. He'll be fine after you guys go back to Sei-sensei."

"Sensei, we need to get him to the clinic now!" Nagi screamed, panic was filling him and guilt came over him like a wave. This was clearly not good.

"Calm down, your friend will be okay."

"Calm down? Calm DOWN?! For crying out loud, he's bleeding! And if you don't do anything now you might as well have killed him!" Nagi then lost all logic and did the best he could to seal the opened wound with his powers, though little it may be. With out care to the world around him and letting them think what they thought, Nagi set his hand hovering above Omi's wound and unleashed his power, though this was the first time he had heard of his power being used as such, he really didn't care, there was just so little time with too much to do. After using great anounts of his gift in elping Omi from having too much blood lost, Nagi blacked out without knowing if Omi ever got to the clinic.

Crawford came home to the apartment they, Schuldig, Farfello and he, had rented. It was a bit earlier than his usual arrival from work, which was around six o'clock and it was just about lunch time, but there had been no mistake in this little trip. He set his things on the side table as soon as he entered the place and headed for the German's room, which was barely used by the way.

Once inside the room Crawford picked up a notebook from the shelves carefully hidden, he had made sure it was there before leaving to go to work for this morning, and opened it. It was where he would find the answers to all of his questions and the certainties for his doubts. He flipped through the first pages and skimmed through the rest of the notebook until he found the entry that might be of relation to the little one in their unit.

Nine

1. Friendless

2. Este

3. No childhood

4. Assassins

5. Loveless

6. To steal the family

7. To take away his life

8. To leave him alone in guilt

9. To corrupt him

This is what we have done to him what more could we do? We corrupt him to the core and then leave him to rot. To whoever may be listening to me out there, help him for we aren't there with him to correct our mistakes. Erase this truth from his mind and let him be free. Open the cage and let the bird fly with its wings spread out and let it soar to the ends of the sky, the sky so blue and full of hope. Let him be a child once more...

The American took in a deep breath, closed the notebook and put it back down to where he found it before finally letting out whatever he had took in. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and massaged his forehead. "This is going to be harder than you think, Schuldig. I hope you appreciate this."

"Come back."

"He still needs you."

"Don't leave him alone."

"Will you let the bridge that you made burn without even crossing it?"

"This is both your chance to be free of the pain."

"Don't let it go, never lose hope."

"Tsukiyono-san? Tsukiyono-san? Are you fully awake now?" A male voice said.

Omi squinted his eyes in an attempt to paint a face for the talking figure but to no avail, everything was just a blur of colors. A swish of white was here a swirl of green was there along with others that made up of the room he was in now. "Hmmm?"

"Ah, it's so good to see that you're all right, young man."

'A man in white...? A doctor? Where the hell am I? The school clinic? No duh, Omi. You're in the sea with the fish.' Omi sat up from his earlier position, or rather tried to do so.

"Don't move around too much, you'll end up hurting yourself again." The doctor said as he helped Omi up. "Your friend did the same, not heeding my words and now he's unconscious again."

'Wait did he say friend?' Omi's head shot up, but it was apparently the worst thing to do right now since it caused him a lot of pain but he brushed it off. "Doctor, what do you mean friend? Whom are you referring to?"

"Oh, silly me of course you wouldn't know." The doctor looked past Omi and to the bed beside him and sure enough there was another person there, sleeping peacefully. "Nagi Naoe, came in with you but don't worry, he just fainted. He'll be fine after a few hours of sleep"

Omi nodded and the doctor went back to the external parts of the clinic to check up on whatever needed to be done. Omi tried to get out of bed once again but failed to do so, his mind swirling like the colors from before successfully making him fall limp on the bed in the immaculately white room. Omi realized his inability to do much of anything so, he settled to do something much easier, he began to think.

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"Come back."

"He still needs you."

"Don't leave him alone."

"Will you let the bridge that you made burn without even crossing it?"

"This is both your chance to be free of the pain."

"Don't let it go, never lose hope."

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'What were those voices? Who were they referring to?' Omi thought, closing his eyes as he looked back to the dream like scene he had been in prior to his wakening. He covered one eye with his right hand making a calming effect to his stressed nerves. 'I must be out of my mind...I'm hearing strange things.'

The doctor's voice had reached Omi's hearing suddenly, effectively breaking the boy's train of thought. "Tsukiyono-kun, I must ask you some questions, may I?" The doctor then came in with a clipboard and a pen, not waiting for the answer of the young one.

"What kind of questions?" Omi asked cautiously, not wanting to cause trouble for himself and for Nagi. This time he did not get up from his position on the bed, he lay on the bed staring right up, though he still regarded the man in front of him with vigilance, observing every movement the man made through the corner of his eye.

"You see, your injuries are very..." there was a pause in the doctor's explanation as if just for the dramatic effect, Omi was ticked off."Deathly, fatal, drastic, whatever you want to call it. The fact is that you have them, and I'm sure you know of it. The question is how you got them. How did you, Omi?"

"It's nothing, doctor. Don't worry about it. By the way you're exaggerating on the fatal part." Omi said going back to staring at the ceiling giving the other man, little to no regard. His hands were forming fists, making his knuckles an unhealthy color of white, and the doctor noticed this.

"Look, Omi. I have yet to make my report to the higher offices. If you don't want them to know I won't tell them, I'll respect your decision, but I have to know what happened so I can make a diagnosis. I can only assume what had happened - I don't know - a few days a go." The doctor said closing the space between the entrance of the clinic ward and the bed, he opened the blonde's fists, making them relax and made the boy settle down. "Think about it, you can tell me tomorrow. I'm always here." The doctor then stood up, and without a backward glance, he left the room.

Omi watched the man leave through the brown door that separated them from each other. "Dr. Toru Ishida, black hair, brown eyes, a typical Asian" he whispered, voicing out his observations to the wind. 'Damn! I should've paid more attention to the man. He was nosier than I thought, I shouldn't have labeled him ordinary'

Omi came across the wall clock, heard the soft "tick-tock" it made and saw that it was an hour before dismissal. He thought of his chances in getting out of the white room without notice and began weighing the pros and cons. He would actually have left that instant if he hadn't been reminded of the fact that he couldn't just leave the Schwarz Prodigy with the possibility of getting them both in trouble.

'I'm already in as much trouble as I can dig up, how much worse can it get?' Omi asked himself. He pushed himself to go to his friend's bed, unmindful of the great pain that had accompanied it and tried raising the other boy from his slumber, shaking him on the shoulder incessantly and calling his name persistently until the guy had come to which was around a minute or so after Omi had begun on his task.

"Come on, Nagi. We need to get out of here before the doctor comes back." Omi said softly, just loud enough for Nagi to hear. He lugged all the way to the window that faced the backyard of the school, which was lush with trees and greenery and Nagi made some incoherent sounds and sat up straight as Omi went about the area, clearly saying that he was having a hard time understanding what was being said to him.

Not knowing what was happening around him Nagi blinked and rubbed a hand against an eye in an attempt to wake him up from his sleepiness. "Omi, do you think you can even attempt to escape? Also why do you even want to escape? It's not as if we are prisoners." Nagi asked as he watched the blonde boy move around to the only possible exit.

"We have to go. I think he noticed that something's amiss it'll just cause us trouble" Omi explained as he launched himself up on the windowsill. He looked at Nagi, as if to ask if he would follow then looked back to his destination. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

"Fine, I'll come. Just promise you won't do anything crazy." Nagi said irritated and he stood up from his position from the bed and followed Omi all the way to their escape.

"Here, drink this, both of you'll feel better" Ken said to the two teenagers, now soaking wet from the rain outside, both of which he had found running towards the Koneko, seemingly like two deer running away from their predators, it had been an hour now ever since he had found the two. "What were you doing anyway? It was as if you saw a ghost." He asked, sitting down on the table where the two other boys sat, with their respective towels draping over them.

"Uhh... you see." Omi began stumbling all the way since the beginning of his explanation.

"Omi wanted to get away since the doctor seemed to know that it is not normal for a student to have the injuries Omi has." Nagi said patently sipping at his tea at the same time, not even pausing to give notice to the topic of conversation.

Omi, who was currently pouting at the wayward act of Nagi, decided that it was time to interrupt before the conversation became more against him than needed. "Well it's true, besides, you stuck it in my mind to do so. Remember the letter?" Omi retorted in his defense and threw the question right at Nagi.

"I don't trust the teacher. I trust the doctor."

"Well, I don't. So knock it off will you." Omi said with a little more venom that he had intended to put in. He stood up from his position and began heading for his room, but only before he said his apologies. "I'm sorry, just forget it. Yeah, it's my fault you had to run in the rain. Have a safe trip home, Nagi." And with that he went up to his quarters without even seeing his friend off.

"What's up with him?" Nagi asked as they watched the retreating form of Omi.

"Leave it, Nagi. He has his own issues, just like you have yours. It's just that doctors are his. Don't let him get to you" Ken said, turning around making his back face Nagi and continuing on the cooking for the day, not wanting to face his childhood friend.

"Ken?"

"Hmmm?" Ken inquired as he concentrated on the task at hand, which was chopping onions, in effect making him cry.

"...I'm leaving," Nagi said in monotone voice, just like the time when he was working something out. Ken nodded and Nagi headed for the outside as he said, barely a whisper. "And, Ken, don't let it get to you to."

Ken was surprised at the boy's words and turned to find that Nagi had gone. Nothing in the room seemed to say that the boy had been there, nothing at all, the chairs that they had sat on was in place, the tea cups were back on the shelves and when the older man ran after to give Nagi an umbrella, he found no trace of the fragile boy.

Nagi came home soaked through the bones and shivering. "Maybe I should've gotten an umbrella before I left."

He ran up the stairs and slammed the bathroom door. He immediately stripped himself bare, sometimes having trouble with a certain button on his shirt, and got in the shower, turning it on immediately and adjusting it to the hottest temperature he could take, surrounding himself with heat, killing the cold efficiently that he had felt enveloping him before as he ran from the Koneko to his house.

'Why'd I do that?' Nagi thought as he stood under the heat of the water, his head held up high covered by his hands. 'My god, what's happening to me? I heard it again. Those voices...' His eyes widened as if it would pop out from its sockets and he covered his ears trying to block out any unwanted sounds that he might hear when he couldn't he began to ask himself and, maybe, the voices that had began invading his mind. "Why? Why do you haunt me?"

Nagi punched the wall beside him, venting out all of his confusion on the unsuspecting, innocent tiles, making them break and shatter on to the floor, also aquiring some of his own scratches from that outburst. He stood still, not minding the fact that his blood was mixing with the water and going down the drain or the pain he felt prickling across his right arm.

Nagi held on to the wall that he had destroyed and slid to the dirtied door, sobbing. "Stop it. Don't come near me. Go away..."

He gripped his aching arm, crying out in pain as it became unbearable. 'I've got to get out of here.' He forced himself to stand up and turned of the shower that was spewing all over the place. He heaved himself out of the room and did his best to walk straight. It was then that he noticed the pain all over his body. The cold wind came upon him making him shiver and loose his balance, falling helpless on the floor.

Schuldig went straight to his room after he got home from work and noticed a notebook that lay open on his desk. He knew of only two people that would know where he hid it and of the two he was only suspicious of one man. He went in search of Crawford until the time that he reached the American's study. There was another man inside other than the stuck up leader, he hid just right outside of the room and began to listen not bothering to even think of the possibilities of a reprimand that might come.

"Then we can?" that voice was Crawford's

"Of course" the voice was somewhat low and gruff but Schuldig couldn't put a name on him. There was a sound of paper shuffling and chairs being pulled back.

"It's a deal then" Crawford said there was more noise of the scratching of chair on wood. Two pairs of feet then headed for the open doorway and Schuldig ducked out of sight.

"We shall meet again then Crawford-san" the nameless voice said before closing the apartment's main door and there was silence.

Crawford stood in the hallway, unfazed by the fact that Schuldig was in front of him and glaring. "What do you need?" Crawford asked in a way that it seemed like a statement of annoyance rather than a question.

"Well, if it isn't the Oracle. Now that you've tried staying out of people's lives you're actually trying to meddle in them now? Tell me is it fun?" Schuldig mocked the pre-cognitive, not letting his guard down one bit.

"I don't know, Schuldig. You tell me and what's this meddling thing about?" Crawford asked back not wanting to lose this little fight to the German.

"Look, people. It's a first. The Oracle doesn't know what I'm talking about." Schuldig said as if in awe, he laughed his head off. He turned away from the other man and began shaking his head as if finding it the most amusing thing in the world.

"Schuldig, I really don't know what you're talking about." Crawford said in defeat and all pride lost. He touched the German's shoulder as if telling the red-haired man to face him but that hand was slapped away.

"Damn you, Crawford! You don't want to go home to Nagi when you know the boy probably needs us and then you start invading the only thing left I have. I already submitted myself to you, gave my body to you! Don't you dare open that notebook again, that notebook that has my sanity!" Schuldig argued, he pushed the man away and ran back to his room, not stopping for his leader's call to come back.

"Stop it, Omi!" Yohji said trying to make the young blonde sit still as he fixed the boy's injuries up. They were in Omi's room, on the bed and if Omi continued doing what he was doing they'd end up looking like they were up to something other than patching up the young boy.

"But, Yohji, it hurts! Call Ken at least he won't give me as much trouble as you do." Omi explained as he tried squirming away from the older man's grip.

"So it's that way, is it?" Yohji asked as he glared at Omi. "And to think, I even wanted to help you." Yohji stood up and exited the room, grumbling about picky brats and stuff. Omi blinked once then started to follow the man.

Yohji went in search of the man named Ken Hidaka, he went to the man's room, the kitchen, but there was no Ken in sight. He reached the shop proper and found the man he had been looking for. "Ken! Why are you...? Don't tell me you ran in the rain like Omi?" Yohji asked as he got nearer to the man being addressed and directed the man to a seat.

"Yeah, but I have a reason to and I just kinda forgot to use the umbrell a I was holding." Ken said as his teeth chattered while he spoke. "Nagi went out on his own, without an umbrella or anything that would protect him from the rain, but when I went after him he was gone." He hugged himself tightly indicating that he had felt very cold.

"Wait there." Yohji instructed. He went out of the room and came back in less than a minute carrying a towel. He handed the towel to the shaking guy and headed for the phone. "We could try and call. He did give us his contact number yesterday." Yohji suggested and without further ado he dialed.

Both men waited for a long time, waiting for the other boy to pick up but no one was answering. Yohji shook his head and began to think of the possible places that Nagi was in.

"That can't be, he should be home now. I spent almost an hour trying to find him. He has to be home." Ken said to himself analyzing his friend and his actions. "I'm sure he'd home Yohji." Ken said trying to press the issue on to the man in front of him. Yohji tried another time and there was still no answer

"But no one's answering, Ken. I tried a second time already."

"Then try a third!" Ken snapped

"Calm down, Ken!" Yohji shouted as he put his hands on the other's shoulders.

Something's happened to him and it's my fault." Ken said shaking his head, reprimanding himself silently and Yohji could do no actions to comfort him.

"...Omi" Yohji said and a soon as he said it he bolted to the young one's room followed by a shivering Ken.

"Yohji, what about Omi?" Ken asked, trying to catch up with the other man.

"He must've heard or he would be calling for us right now." Yohji explained and opened the door to Omi's room to find that no one was there. Omi left no trace that he had left except for the open window and the water that came through it.

Monday, September 9, 6:32 PM. Tsukiyono Omi, injured and on the verge of a break down, is missing.

-----------------To Be Continued----------------