Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ New Rules, New Ruler ❯ Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Der narr, <trans: the fool>" Schuldig murmured as the young woman made her way down the mountain, barefoot and naked apart from a rapidly disintegrating sheet.

"Quite." Crawford handed Nagi his gun and fetched some hunting rifles from a cupboard.

"That won't work," Schuldig pointed out. "I mean, what with her being invulnerable and all."

"We have to try."

"Why?" Nagi stared at them. "I mean, there's a lot of unrest and stuff, war, pain and so on. Why is it stupid to want to make people happy?"

Schuldig chewed his lip, considering. Crawford opened his mouth to reply, but Schuldig waved for him to be quiet.

"She was going to kill Ran," he eventually began. "I mean, we've tried that before, but this was different. He was our enemy; we wanted him dead because he wanted us dead. She was going to kill him because he wasn't happy. She… she isn't all there, well, that's obvious, but she isn't thinking this through. What about famine? What about floods and droughts and other natural disasters? What about pain, things like childbirth? What about grief and death and mourning and getting on with your life? What about freewill?

"It's a nice thought, I know, but it's also a really cruel one. She wants to take away people's choices. She did it to you, ja? And when she stopped, how bad did you feel? And now she's a telepath too. She'll change people's minds if she doesn't like what they're going to do. She'll repress thoughts she doesn't like. She'll kill people who might interfere.

"The end doesn't justify the means, nor the means the end. What's the verdammt saying, oh ja, `Happiness is a means of travel, not a destination'. Sums it up, I guess. Basically it's all oppression and self-gratification. You think anyone does these things because they want people to suffer? Nein, well, rarely. Mostly, they want people to be happy, they want to be liked. That's Tash, that is. She wants to be liked. And she doesn't know how to react to people who don't like her, or her methods, so she's willing to kill them. She's a dictator. She takes away freewill and replaces it with what she thinks they should think."

"You had a lot of time to think, didn't you?" Nagi grinned.

"You have no idea."

Schwarz set off down the mountain. It wasn't long before they came across the remains of the curtains, badly singed. A young man was lying dead nearby, burnt from the inside out.

"You know what her name means?" Schuldig asked offhanded.

"Short for Natasha, right?" Brad glanced across at him.

"Nein. Test A Sample H. Damn lucky it spelt something reasonable, really. She's been a telempath for most of her life, but her original power was just, well, possession, but she wasn't keen on leaving her own body. Knocks you right out of yours though."

"So what do we do if she tries something?" Nagi asked nervously.

"Keep your verdammt shields up! For Gott's sake, she's a telepath, a telempath, a pyrokinetic, a healer, a clairvoyant…"

"What?"

"She killed Tanya. Our Russian lass was going mad, Tash couldn't take it, so she let her go and took what she wanted."

"She's wandering about stark naked having absorbed the powers of one of the most powerful clairvoyants ever?" Brad gave him an incredulous look.

"Hey, I already said she was insane!"

* * *

They came across a scorched patch of earth. Tash's instability was making itself more and more apparent. As they neared the city and the clairvoyance became more powerful and demanding her emotions were running wild, which triggered the pyrokinesis.

"We're not getting any closer," Nagi observed.

"Well if someone hadn't destroyed all of our means of transport…" Crawford shot Farfarello a look.

"I'll pay," he grinned. "Should I replace Ran's car too? Would a hearse be a little more fitting?" This witticism received a slight chuckle.

* * *

They reached an out jutting rock, overlooking the main road. The occasional car sped past them.

"She took one of those and headed towards Tokyo," Brad informed them. "She'll arrive at seven this evening and head towards our apartments."

Schuldig spotted a scorched corpse at the side of the road, stripped of its clothes. She'd used the telepathy to lure a victim, stripped it, and used her pyrokinesis to kill it. It was very much an `it' now, though what gender the corpse had been was anyone's guess. Schuldig was having nasty thoughts about the origin of the pyrokinesis. A certain Irish smoker from Rosenkruez kept springing to mind.

A driver pulled over and climbed out of the car. By chance, it was a black BMW of the same year and model as Brad's. He made a mental note to collect his license plates from the car Farfarello had destroyed and claim this one as his own. The driver, a woman, lay face down on the grass without a word, and Nagi shot her in the back of the head. Schwarz climbed into the vehicle and set off once more.

* * *

Nagi dozed in the back eat of the car while Farfarello struggled with theology. Schuldig sat in the front with Brad, who was driving, and occasionally distracted him by running his hand up and down his thigh. This made Brad's foot spasm on the accelerator, sending them in fits and bursts down the increasingly busy highway.

"How are you coping?" Brad glanced across at Schuldig, who had his hand buried in Brad's crotch.

"With all the people? Just great. I missed it, to be honest. I mean, it wasn't exactly quiet in Farf's head, you know, but it lacked variety. Love people, love society, love the seething hysterical masses." Schuldig grinned.

*Suppose Nagi needs a bathroom break, * he hinted. Crawford frowned at him.

*We don't have time to stop. *

*If you want to avoid an accident… *

*Nagi doesn't need to use the bathroom, does he? *

*No, but if I squeeze just so, * Crawford gasped and had to slam on the breaks, *we're going to cause a nasty little mess. * Schuldig grinned at his own double entendre.

"No, Schuldig," Crawford snapped. Schuldig sighed.

"Hey, how's things back there?" he called to Farfarello. Nagi twitched in his sleep, squirming uncomfortably.

"God gave us freewill. If Tash takes it away from us, she is hurting God," Farfarello frowned. Nagi's eyes opened and he sat up, scowling slightly.

"But she'll stop all the pain, Farfarello, all the hurt and anguish that hurts God," Schuldig told the Irishman. Nagi loosened his seatbelt and stared pointedly out of the window.

"But he allows it anyway. Would stopping it hurt him, or would it be what he wants? If he didn't want pain, why give us freewill?" Farfarello pointed out. It wasn't a particularly coherent argument, but Schuldig had had plenty of experience in these little talks. Nagi chewed his lip and stared at the floor of the car.

"She'll stop all the pain, Farf. Childbirth hurts, and she'll stop that. Not the actual births, but the pain. And God didn't want us to hurt, he preaches that we shouldn't hurt each other. If she stops everyone from hurting, she'll be pleasing God."

"By taking away freewill?"

"J-"

"Crawford-san?"

"Fine!" Crawford snapped suddenly. "We'll stop. But if Tash gets away I want you know the blame lies solely on your head, Schuldig."

"Head? Now there's a thought," Schuldig smirked.

Brad pulled into a small roadside cafe. After locking Farfarello into the car the three set off towards the men's, Nagi at an almost jog, soon outstripping the older men.

"You are cruel," Brad commented.

"You cut that a bit fine too. The kid was fit to burst." Schuldig smirked. "Okay, so it was with a bit of subliminal prompting, but bladders do have a set capacity."

"You owe me," Brad told him, pulling him behind the toilets.

"Here?" Schuldig wrinkled his nose.

"I know you've done worse in worse," Brad commented. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to drive when someone's massaging your balls?"

Schuldig smirked. "Live dangerously, liebhaber," he purred, pressing Brad against the wall and forcing his tongue into his mouth. Schuldig rubbed up against him. "Do you know the last time we did this?" He growled. "Not since before I had to retrieve that damned hacker. I hate it when we fight!" Brad would have agreed, but he was way beyond comprehensible thought, let alone speech. He moaned into Schuldig's throat, biting the exposed skin.

"Hey, are we…" Nagi trailed off. He hadn't even known you could do it like that, not in that position. He stared at the two bodies moving together. Hey, it was educational, and would fuel a few teenaged fantasies whenever he next got the chance to sleep. He wondered vaguely if Omi was as supple as Brad seemed to be.

*Fuck off, Bishie. *

Nagi blushed and fled back to the car.

* * *

Brad bit back the smile for what must have been the fifteenth time. Schuldig lounged on the front seat, unlit cigarette clamped between Cheshire Cat lips. His eyes were emerald slits. Brad positively glowed.

"Next stop, the Koneko," Brad sang out as he pulled up, then frowned at himself. Was he usually this happy after sex? He was in danger of making a fool of himself. He spotted his old car, yet to be towed away. Nagi snatched the license plates for him and stowed them in the trunk without question.

"Everybody out," Schuldig called out, clambering out of the seat. Brad took a moment to admire his lover's lithe body.

They lined up on the pavement. Brad to the front, flanked by Schuldig and Farfarello, both fingering rifles, and further to the back, Nagi. It was a powerful picture they presented, powerful and united.

The twee tinkling of the shop doorbell lessened the effect slightly. Ken looked up. Farfarello stiffened <not in that sense, you hentai! >. His last visit was all too well imprinted on his memory.

"Not you again!" Ken gasped. Crawford watched water form the hose dowse his trouser legs and slowly raised his had to glower at Ken. It occurred to him he was still wearing the same clothes he had been last time they had come to the shop.

"Gomen nasai."

"Tash. Where is the weibsstuck?" Ken looked utterly blank. "Tash? English brunette, about so high, gave you all a happy last time she was here?"

"Why would she be here? Farfarello kidnapped her. What's a weibsstuck?"

"Bitch."

"Hey!"

"Weibsstuck. Means bitch," Schuldig snapped. "So, Oracle, where is she?"

"She was going to come here," Brad insisted. "I don't understand."

"Perhaps… perhaps she just hasn't arrived yet?" Ken suggested.

"The idea does have credence," Bard admitted. "Perhaps you and the rest of Weiss would be advised to leave," he suggested.

"I'm the only one here," Ken told them plainly. His face crumpled as he realised what he just said.

"Okay, how to get this through to you," Schuldig growled. "We. Don't. Want. To. Kill. You. We're. Not. Going. To. Kill. You. Ja?"

"Okay, sure, um, yes, right, okay…" Ken backed out of the shop.

"I wonder where everyone else is?" Nagi murmured.

"Your little crush is at school, like you should be," Schuldig informed him with a grin. Nagi turned beetroot red. Brad frowned.

"Omi?" he queried. Schuldig nodded cheerfully.

"It's all very kawaii. Let `em be, Braddy, it's doing no harm. Practically good, as far as I can see."

"Guten Tag," a voice said from the doorway. Schwarz turned.