Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Incubi, Succubi ❯ 05 Held ( Chapter 5 )

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

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~ 5 ~ Held

"This shattered dream you cannot justify.."
- Pat Benatar, Invincible

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"I couldn't kill him..." Aya whispered, gripping tightly the broom in his hand.

Ken nodded lightly as he swung his legs from atop the Koneko's main counter. "That's all he said." He'd used a light blue bandanna to hide the bandage around his head, which he tugged at nervously. The tight gauze itched, wrapped so tightly against his skin, and his hair was all mussed. "We can't blame Youji, really. I mean..."

Aya waved the issue away quickly and continued sweeping. "Wakatta." He looked back up at Ken when Kiki darted past his broom to take her place on the counter.

The brunette looked distant as he held his hand out, allowing the kitten to run her body along beneath it. To kill a friend. For Ken, it wasn't such an elusive concept - though still disheartening. For Youji, it was much more than that. They had only to see how much damage Omi would cause.

"I just wish she hadn't died so early," Ken whispered. "We'd barely returned then..."

"Momoe?"

"Yeah. She was always so sweet. And I'm sure there was some point in the past week when she would've intervened and prevented all of this. I know there's something she could have done." Ken paused as Aya stalked quietly toward him. "...What?"

"Daijoubu ka?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah--"

"--Usotsuki." The redhead leaned forward, tracing his fingers lightly against Ken's cheek. "Don't lie to me." Their noses almost collided. "You're playing regrets; you know full well that you're not allowed to."

Ken looked into Aya's expectant gaze, and he could almost see his own glistening chocolate-colored eyes giving his thoughts away. Closing his hand, he realized that Kiki had left them a while ago. "I just..." he shrugged, "I just don't want anyone else to die." His voice felt smaller, his throat tighter. "I don't--"

Aya's lips caught his mouth mid-word for a short kiss. A strong arm caught him as he began to fall backward, and they broke away from each other as he regained his balance.

"It'll be ok," Aya nodded, combing Ken's hair back into place with a finger. "There are two people in this world who I would die for, and I've promised that I will make both of them happy." His eyes sparkled with faceted amethyst vehemence.

And for a moment, Ken felt himself doubt Aya's reasons for noting such things, forgetting almost the blaze behind his steel exterior. Only for a moment. He knew what Aya really meant, could translate those words like clockwork in his heart. Letting out a soft breath, he nodded. "Youji needs that."

The instant was broken by a soft mewling near the door, where Kiki had taken it upon herself to glare viciously at the lazing florists. Aya reached into his pocket to quiet the watch alarm that had begun to sound.

"Time to open shop," Ken murmured, gingerly tugging at the bandanna that masked his gauzed head injuries. "Let's hope Manx doesn't come in today."

*

Fallacy.

/All of life... is a goddamned fallacy./

God... *damned*.

Schuldich stared at the ceiling of the Schwarz household, watching patterns dance before his eyes against the rugged terrain of plaster and paint. His arms twitched from their position beneath his head, and he squinted away an odd green glow that had splashed itself into his mind. He'd wanted so often to just reach a hand up from his position on the couch and flatten the bumps, hundreds of millions of them, just to achieve perfection. But whenever he tried, he found that he was too far from them, with his arm extended and palm flat open. Perfection just wasn't easy to achieve.

Nagi, the brat of a telekinetic, could do it easily if he tried. Unfortunately the teenager never achieved that level of boredom, in his job and shocking youth, he'd achieved a much higher level of boredom - apathy.

Apathy fit him, surprisingly well. After all, what better reaction to all of life than none at all? All images and reality one perceives is merely a physical reaction that occurs between the brain and eyes of a person's physical body. The rest is left to the imagination and mind of the viewer. If all of life is a physical reaction, how can one be sure to avoid or observe imperfection? What better way to deal with the inability to observe true imperfection than to ignore it all?

Schuldich shook his head. Nagi thoughts. Nagi's thoughts. They'd been overwhelming in the past few days, what with the excitement of the artifact. What a confusing little mind the kid had. Even worse were his rebellious tendencies; he's just realizing his role in Crawford's plans and wants to go out on his own. Nearly blasphemous thoughts, when Schwarz could become an ultimate power. But the notion did make Schuldich think - which isn't always a good thing.

Why *should* he stay with the prick that wouldn't even listen to him? Especially when he could make a better living on his own?

And what in all of hell was the point to being evil?!

"Dammit! Stop it Nagi!" Schuldich hit his temple with the heel of his palm. Having spent so much time home with the boy must've leaked something into his brain. The thoughts were getting stronger each day. Half the time, he almost believed them. The other half, he had enough trouble dealing with his own perverted self.

As if that weren't enough. It was some sneaking suspicion he had, as Crawford had implied earlier, that he actually was starting to care for the boy. For Nagi. The very implication disturbed him. Love itself was bad enough, he'd experienced that through people's thoughts throughout his entire lifetime... but the act of loving - holding love himself - seemed impossible. Schuldich had grown impervious to the general human's emotions since he'd learned to experience them vicariously. Emotions were nothing to him. So how could this one have gotten to him?

Schuldich sighed as he relaxed back onto the leather couch, feeling the thoughts grow definitively stronger and louder. "Bishounen's home..." he stated exhaustedly to no one, settling himself in for another lazy nap. He closed his eyes and tossed over as the doorknob turned.

*

Omi watched blankly as the world passed by. He'd been with Nagi the entire night, both of them trying to think of a way to prevent the third Estet executive from gaining a body, but they had no idea who the body could be. Nagi had tried various times to see if his power would work, but barely managed to move anything. Omi wondered if Nagi's thought-driven power were still his own, why was he having trouble using it?

As he worked over the logistics in his thoughts, he realized that his body was following Nagi's into a foreign apartment. Schwarz's apartment?

/Nagi, do you live here?/

/Yeah, this is where we live. Cozy, huh?/

The younger boy continued to the kitchen, but Omi remained near the door, staring at a sleeping form. Schuldich. He sensed a smirk forming on his lips.

Then his entire essence became frigid with panic.

/Nagi! How important is Schuldich to Schwarz?/

/Well, Crawford's the leader, but Schuldich advises. You don't think they'd.../

/I would imagine that they're pretty mad at Crawford. Taking his team would be a good way to exact revenge./ Omi felt calm for some reason, dissecting Estet's vendetta. /Do you think he'll hear you?/

/I'll try anyway./

*

"What went wrong?" Manx burst into the flower shop at full speed, pushing through the doors with such force that the hinges cracked, and the doors immediately slammed shut from the ricochet. The horde of fangirls that had accumulated within the first half-hour of opening time immediately silenced, taking one look at the expressly unhappy woman in red and marching straight out. It was obvious that she was here neither for business nor play - she looked as if she could kill someone. And she probably had done it before too, one muttered, with the lack of cloth in her skirt.

Ken regarded her killer look with surprise, and Aya followed the departing swarm with his eyes. Things just weren't going his way lately. "Manx... How did you know?"

"I didn't get a report." Manx turned to confirm the last girl had left.

Aya nodded, then extracted a ring of keys from the counter. "I'll lock it."

"Report?" Ken asked. "Since when do we send reports?"

Ah. Manx bit her lip. All of these years, and still Omi hadn't told them. "Omi sends short reports indicating when missions have concluded, so that we don't overwork you boys." Ken seemed to buy it. "But I'm more concerned that I haven't received anything from the last mission yet. Are Balinese and Bombay all right?"

"They're fine. They're alive," Aya replied stiffly, which was normal for him. Ken swallowed nervously, hoping the informant wouldn't delve any further. They *had* failed the mission, and it had been the result of Omi's tampering - whoever had control of Omi. The situation was too outrageous to believe, and most likely provoke obvious thoughts of a traitor.

Manx leveled her gaze with the brunette's, her voice softening a bit. The solemnity in her expression had faded to curiosity. "Observations taken from other agents state that the museum was left in much more of a mess than is characteristic of Weiß. And the complaint of a missing artifact. Did you get it?..."

Ken shrugged. "Estet doesn't have it," he said absently, going back to work on a bouquet.

"Do you have it?"

"No."

Manx exhaled. "Do you know who does?"

"Schwarz."

Manx stiffened. "Your possibly worst enemies - who are supposed to be dead - have the artifact that could bring end to earth as we know it? Need I remind you that they kept your sister for their own purposes, Fujimiya? Which they have yet to carry out."

Before Aya could respond, his eyes slit dangerously and fists clenching tightly, Ken stepped in front of him. "Yes, Manx, but we can *beat* them. We just need to find them."

Manx's eyes thinned as she crossed her arms. "... Where's Youji?"

"Apartment. It's his day off."

"Where's Omi?"

"He's... studying." Ken wished he hadn't tried to lie. He knew the second the words dropped from his lips they weren't right.

Manx slammed her parcel onto the counter. "Security tapes - film which Bombay should have taken care of. He decided to take care of you all instead," she looked at both of them steadily, wavering for neither the teal nor violet eyes that challenged her. "Explain. Now."

*

Schuldich frowned, his eyes still closed from the sleep hovering in his mind /Nagi?/

/Schuldich, you can hear me?!/

/How the hell couldn't I, with you screaming like that?/ The telepath sat up, noting the noises in the kitchen. /What do you want?/

/I want you to listen to me. Get out of here. Now. It's--/

/What'd you do, bring a whore home?/ Schuldich yelped when he felt a force shove him to the floor. "Hey, you don't have to be so mean, you could just ask!" He pushed himself up to a sitting position.

/It worked?!/ Nagi paused to think. His powers were still active, held back only by what David could see. Though the telekinesis was a physical ability, he could still control it with his own consciousness and will! Now, if only...

/Hell yes, what'd you expect?!/ Schuldich replied.

/Never mind. Just go, you ass!/

"What?" Nagi called out from the kitchen. "Do you need something, Schuldich?"

"Well, no I..." Schuldich paused. "I thought that you-"

/SCHULDICH! GO!/

Two different tones, coming from the same person. Schuldich frowned. Either Nagi was turning oddly schizo or...

Again, the invisible hands attacked him, hauling him up and shoving toward the door. As soon as he hit the hallway, the force stopped, and he tumbled to his knees. He looked up to see youngest member of Weiß staring down at him.

/It's not me, it's not him. It's THEM--/

"What are you doing here?" Schuldich blinked, reaching for his gun.

Omi smirked down at him, eyes narrowing with contempt. "I should have suspected... these children are more stubborn than we thought."

A new voice in Schulidich's mind made him jump. /Schuldich, you know who I am. We're enemies, but I'm telling you, right now-you know--/ The blonde. He knew without even thinking that the blonde was not capable of looking that cold, uncaring, or malicious. He'd spent enough time in that mind to know... and he recognized that the blonde's thoughts didn't match his behavior.

"Really, though," Nagi came out from the kitchen, wiping one of Farfello's knives with a towel. The Irishman's favorite knife, borrowed from the night before. "All of these new ideas. They're so rebellious. That's the downside of acquiring young talent. Isn't it, Schuldich?" The boy's lips quirked quickly, then sank into an eerie smile.

That look. Schuldich backed away, reaching for the doorknob. Only one other person in the world had that look, and he was...."Oh sh---!"