Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Perchance to Dream ❯ Discovery ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I wish I could have them…but they could prove hazardous to my health.

Farfie: YES!!! *stab stab stab*

Isa: O_o

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" Anything in this " is spoken

' Anything in this ' is thoughts

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Chapter Seven

Manx walked out the back door of the building, pulling out her cell phone before dialing a number she knew by heart. "This is Manx, he doesn't remember anything yet." She paused, and then nodded. "Yes sir, but when I mentioned Kikyou, he reacted badly, seemed upset that we would suggest such a thing. Do you think that this might clear him of the actions? I know that Ran doesn't remember what happened but subconsciously, could he have known who attacked his team that night?" She paused, looking down then nodded. "I understand, that he can not be cleared until we find him, Persia. I told Weiss to watch him closely, that Ran could be in danger, so he should be safe enough with them." She breathed out, rubbing her forehead as Persia began speaking once again. She knew that the man was as upset about this as she, but sometimes she wondered if he was seeing this problem clearly. 'Or maybe I am the one that is not seeing this clearly, maybe he is right and this was an inside job. But why would they do it, what could any of them gain by killing off the others, what would be so important?' Her boss's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Yes sir, I know, we can't afford to lose Ran right now, he's the only link we have left." With those words she hung up the cell phone, jade eyes glanced around as an uneasy feeling overcame her. 'It's not right here...something is very wrong.' Pulling open her car door, she drove off, unaware of the man watching her from the shadows.

He couldn't help but smile as he overheard the conversation that the redhead was having with Kritiker's commander. 'So part of the truth is uncovered but they still don't know the whole of it. To think, these are the people who trained us and they can't even solve one stupid incident.' When Manx finished, he watched as she looked around then got into her car. The woman he had known as Erika, she was a smart one, he did know that much. It was an undeniable fact that she knew she had been watched, but when had she realized it? He breathed out, dark eyes falling on the building across the street from where he hid. 'So the boy doesn't remember what happened at Kyoto, he's forgotten?' That singular thought brought a rush though his body, a slight smile pulling at his lips. "My beautiful one, my Orchid… this is where they hid you? I've come back to finish what we all have started. Don't you know that you will never escape from me, Ran?"

Looking up as the lights came on in one of the rooms above the shop, he stepped further back into the shadows. After a moment the stranger turned, walking down the alley behind him and into the night. The darkness had always been a friend to him, like it had been to his teammates. Darkness that had ended up possessing their souls; a never-ending void that had brought their downfall. Jealousy and hate, fear and need, weren't such things considered a weakness? But it was those exact things that fueled his obsession for the crimson haired man, his need to possess or destroy the man. Ran was his and only his, this new team of his might not know it, but soon he would make it a very clear fact.

Violet eyes looked down at the alley across the street, he could have sworn something had been there, or someone. It was odd how he could sense it, like a humming inside his body as it called. But there had been nothing, at least nothing that he could see. 'But this feeling, it won't go away. I know this as I know myself, it is fear, desire, and hate all mixed together in a delicate balance. It is like one going mad, the darkness pulling them downward into hell.'

"Ran?" The pale redhead jumped at the singular world, turning to meet the deep green eyes of his eldest teammate. "Omi is going to cook dinner, are you hungry at all?" When he didn't respond, Yohji frowned. "Well, you need to eat, so I'm going to tell him to make you something. Why don't you go take a shower, try to forget what Manx said, Kritiker always makes assumptions before they know all the facts."

Ran nodded, seeing the man smile as he made his way across the living room towards the kitchen. "Yohji?" He paused, looking back at the oddly silent man. "N-nothing, never mind...thank you for, well everything."

"Not a problem, now relax because you're beginning to make me jumpy!" He said, laughing at those words. Ran knew the man was only kidding, but listened anyway, making his way upstairs to his room.

Omi looked up, brushing long blond bangs from his eyes. "Does Ran want some food, Yohji?"

Shrugging, he took a seat at the table, glancing first at Omi then to the brunette beside him. "He didn't say yes, but he needs to eat so go ahead and make it. If he doesn't eat it, Ken will."

"Yohji!" He growled, glancing towards the living room. "Where is he?"

"I told him to go take a shower because the man is just too stressed out." Ken breathed out, looking back at the food he was cutting up for the blond beside him.

~

It was four in the morning, no sensible person called at four in the morning. Then she remembered whom she worked for, Kritiker was in no means sensible, and with them everything was a 24-hour operation. Picking up her phone, she switched it on. "Yes?"

"Manx? This is Carter down in research, I think I have something that you are going to want to see." That caught her attention as she sat up in the bed. "We were looking at the swords you brought in for us, I found a clue that might help us solve this crime."

"I will be there in twenty minutes, don't let anyone else know about this until I have arrived." Hanging up the phone, she pulled on some clothes then ran down stairs to her car. Walking out the door, Manx made her way across the parking lot to her car but paused when she saw an envelope on the windshield. "What the…" Jade eyes glanced around the surrounding area before falling on the white paper once again. Manx reached out for the object below the windshield wiper and pulled out the paper inside. "Stop searching for the answers." She whispered, her eyes glancing over those five words once again. A shudder ran though her body as Manx jumped into her car, tossing the note onto the passenger seat. `Does that mean that we are close? Or is the person who did this giving us a warning?'

As she made her way down to the Kritiker headquarters, Manx couldn't help but think over the occurrences as they had occurred. It was true that the team up in Kyoto was very capable; therefore they were not contacted often. Usually if there was a problem Shion would tell them, when Ran was sent there she knew he had called them on many occasions saying that the boy was stubborn. He had even gone as far to say that he would die on the first mission with his rashness, but over time those messages had become few and far in between. Shion's last report on Ran had even said the man was doing very well and should make a fine assassin.

So that point is where everything began to blur together. Ran had tended to keep in contact with her as well as Shion, and never had the redhead told her of any problems in the team. In fact, he had told her that for the first time since his family had died, he felt like he had found security in his teammates. The very notion of the murderer being one of his teammates seemed so ridiculous. But then things changed, Shion's reports didn't come in as often and Ran had stopped writing her, the whole team seemed to break itself off from Kritiker. The one time she had gone to make sure everything was still in order they seemed distracted and Ran's demeanor had changed, he had gotten colder. Manx knew that should have been a warning to her right then, but she figured they were just going through a rough period.

They hadn't, she now knew that and it seemed as if Persia had known it beforehand. But when that came into play, if he had known something was wrong why hadn't Persia acted sooner? Did he not think it would develop into something far worse? Or did he think the problem would fix itself? She knew her boss would never tell her those answers, but from the way he was acting, he hadn't expected this. So it came down to those months, from the point she left to the point Ran showed up in Tokyo. In those months something had set off the group, either an outside force or treachery from within. But that question was the very one the consumed her, who did this to the Kyoto team and why?

Coming to a stop, she jumped out of her car and walked into the building that served as their base of operations. Nodding to the guard as she walked in, Manx stepped into the elevator and took it down to the research office. `I hope he's right about this, that whatever he found will solve this case.'

The blond man looked up as the elevator opened, smiling at the woman as she stepped out. "Wondering when you were going to get here."

"I was caught in traffic." She kidded, knowing he would find it humorous. Out of everyone who worked in Kritiker, she had come to like this man. Bright blond hair and pale skin surrounded blue-gray eyes. This week he had put green streaks though his locks, but she knew in a day or two it would be some other odd color. He was simply known as Carter, if that was his first name or last, she had never figured that out. Supposedly Persia had stumbled upon the man on a trip to America, he was in his early twenties and was brought into Kritiker on the sole fact that he was brilliant. He had created many unique weapons while with this group, which included improving on Yohji's garrote and finding a way to make Ken's Bugnuks lighter. "So what extraordinary find did you wake me up for?"

He winked, pointing over to the sword that was sitting on the counter. "You do know what that is?" Manx frowned, shooting the man a half-annoyed look. "Shion's sword… look in the microscope and tell me what you see."

She did as he asked, frowning as jade eyes looked at a magnified version of the metal. "What am I supposed to being looking at?"

"Do you see the dents?" He asked, fiddling with another microscope.

"Yes, but that's not unusual." She answered, pulling away. "Shion was an assassin, he used this katana frequently."

"True." He answered. "But I also know that he was meticulous about keeping the weapon clean." She nodded at those words, knowing that all assassins had that particular twitch to them. "So he would have smoothed out those dents when sharpening the weapon. Now, come over here and look." She did as he asked, looking into the other microscope. "Those are fibers that I found caught in those dents. When I went back to Kyoto I found that the fibers in the burnt mats matched with these fibers." The redhead nodded, looking up at him. "So we have the sword, we know that at some point it hit the floor hard enough to snag and tear the matting."

"Fine…if this is all you got me up for then I am going to be very angry."

Carter's eyes shone as he looked down at Manx. "Nah, I wouldn't do that to you." Waving for her to follow, he brought her over to another counter. "This is the mat from Kyoto, it's a little dirty from the fire but luckily cement doesn't burn. So here, this is where his sword fell and where it was snagged. You can see here, where the metal caught on the fibers." She nodded. "But look here." He said, pointing at another cut in the mat. "Whoever attacked him hit his sword with enough force that the killer's weapon went through the mat. Because of the wounds, we already know that Shion was killed by another sword."

Green eyes looked from the mat to the man beside her. "So what are you telling me, Carter?"

"All the rooms in the building we found them in had wooden floors but that room, it had concrete. So when I went to go take this piece of the mat away guess what I found underneath?" She simply shrugged, waiting for him to continue. "Aww, you're no fun…fine I'll just tell you. Not only did his killer go through the matting but also went into the concrete." He finally said, pulling out a small plastic bag from his pocket. "I found metal shards in the concrete, therefore the metal that matches these shards is the sword that was used to kill Shion."

Manx looked from the bag to Carter. "Have you analyzed them yet?"

"Should be getting the results back very soon." He answered, seeing the redhead finally smile. "I'm amazing, aren't I?"

She couldn't help but smile at those words. "You are amazing, Carter." She answered, kissing his cheek as he blushed. "Great work. So now the question is, how do we match up the metals?"

"There in lies the problem." He answered. "I have already analyzed all the swords that were found on the premises and at the scene of the crime. Once these results come back I'll be able to compare them, but if none of them match up that means the murderer has the weapon with them."

"So what is the good news?"

"Good news is we can use this to prove that Ran had no part in it, maybe that would help him remember what happened." He said, seeing that Manx seemed to relax at those words. "So just ask him if we can borrow his weapon for a few days and I'll get the results back."

~

It was truly beautiful, the way that Ran moved across the floor. Like dancing with an invisible partner, slowly moving in and out of patterns with a grace he had never seen in another person before. He had watched his other teammates practice before; there was nothing to their motions. Yohji and Omi were purely based on long rang attacks, focusing more on centering and targeting. He, his whole weapon was based on pure brute strength, dodging and hand to hand combat. Ran weapon was as graceful and the man welding it, the whole thing was erotically beautiful yet dangerous. Dark eyes looked to the two men beside him, watching as well. For a moment a surge of possession ran though his body, wishing they had left him alone to watch in peace. But, like him, they were curious to what their new team member could do with the weapon he held.

"Beautiful." Omi whispered, looking up at Yohji. "He's very good, seems to have wonderful control over his actions."

Yohji nodded, leaning his chin down on his arm as he leaned against the short wall. "Maybe we should go, let him practice alone."

"We came up here for a reason, Yohji." Ken answered, his eyes never leaving the pale figure out on the floor. "He's been up here for six hours now, he should come eat something and take shower or he's going to stiffen up."

The brunette grinned, forest green eyes twinkling in amusement. "What happened to not getting close to our new teammate?" He teased, poking the man in the side. Ken twitched, growling at his friend before smacking the hand away. "Come on, it's obvious that you like the guy… maybe even more than just like?" He asked. Yeah, he knew it was immature to tease Ken, but it was the only way he knew of to show that he actually cared about the man. He cared about all of his teammates, but Ken was like fire, if you got to close you would get burned. So though he tended to be very straight forward, he wouldn't talk about everything. `Sometimes teasing him is the only way to get a reaction about something he doesn't want to admit…or talk about.'

"Yohji!" Ken growled, stepping away from him as he walked up the last few stairs.

Omi shook his head at the two. "You shouldn't tease him, what if he does like Ran more than just friends? It's not nice to make fun of someone's love, so be good."

"Yeah, I'll be good." He answered, allowing the smaller assassin to pull him out of the room. `Let Ken deal with Ran.'

Ken sighed, making his way across the padded floor to the redhead. He was still doing it, that same pattern over and over as if he was caught in a spell that he couldn't break from. He knew he should have been careful; walking up to a man with a sword that didn't know you were there, was stupid. But walking up to a man who didn't know you were there, who was obviously very good at what he did, holding a sword was insane. Then again Ken wasn't exactly thinking along those lines, all he could think was that the redhead looked worn out, violet eyes closed in concentration and slight pain. The brunette knew he had to get the man to slow down, to stop this persistent dance that he had pulled himself into. So he shouldn't have been surprised when Ran hit a turning point in his pattern, his sword coming out at an angle as it cut into his skin.

Violet eyes flew open at the cry of pain, losing all concentration as the sword fell from his grasp and clattered to a stop a few feet away. "Ken?" He saw the brunette smile slightly, one hand over his arm. "What happened?"

"My fault!" He said, trying to hide the pain that was making itself quite obvious. "I shouldn't have walked up to you, I was trying to get your attention."

"I-I… cut you?" He whispered, pulling Ken's hand away from the wound. The redhead frowned as his eyes fell on the slash on the man's tanned upper arm; it wasn't deep but would need a few stitches. "I'm so very sorry." Ran whispered a moment later, rich purple eyes falling on the blood that coated Ken`s fingers. "Let me fix it for you?"

He could only nod in response as a pale hand fell to the cut, one finger gently brushing across it. "I-it's bleeding worse than I thought it would." He said, watching the redhead closely. Ran had that look on his face again; the one he had seen up on the roof where he had been lost in thought…or was it memories.

A shudder ran through him as he looked down at the blood that covered his skin. The image stirred something inside of him, almost as if this had happened before, but differently. Putting the finger into his mouth, he met the brunette's chocolate eyes as he watched him. The metallic taste of Ken's blood was almost sweet on his tongue, taking over his senses. Pulling it out a moment later, he smiled slightly at the man before him. "Let's get you fixed."

Ken could only nod as the odd redhead led him out of the training room and down into his own. Ran walked over, pulling open the brunette's closet. "What are you looking for?"

"First aid kit." He answered.

"In the bathroom."

He nodded, entering the smaller room, coming out a moment later with a large blue case. "Don't you know that you shouldn't walk up on people when they are training?" He asked, watching as the tanned skin flushed slightly. "So why did you?"

"Oh, you looked… well, you had been in there for hours and I was worried about you." He responded, watching as the man threaded the needle. "You have done this before, haven't you?"

Ran paused, meeting his eyes once again. "I don't remember." He answered, a blank look on his face. Ken frowned, unconsciously moving slightly away from the man before him. "I'm kidding, yes I know how to sew up a wound." Ken seemed to relax after hearing those words. "I have thought about it," He continued, pushing the needled into his flesh, seeing the man flinch. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, it's just a few stitches." Looking down at the cut, he then looked back up at Ran. "Just do it, but keep talking… it will distract me."

The redhead nodded, continuing to push the needle though. "Anyway, I have been thinking about it and I figure I have lost a little over a year of my memory. I remember being with my last team, their faces and they way they acted." He whispered, the man beside him letting out a hiss. "Are you sure you don't want anything?"

"Yes, just… ramble or whatever."

"Very well." He answered, smiling up at the brunette. "I also remember there was a point that we did have a slight problems, but that was mostly my fault. I was angry, it was right after my mother and father…" Ran paused; looking down for a moment then felt a hand on his knee. Breathing out, he met Ken's eyes again and smiled. "Going past that, I can't really remember anything but I sometimes get feelings. Almost like I have forgotten something important, but it's right there, trying to get out." Reaching down, he picked up the scissors beside him, cutting the string and picking up the roll of bandages. "Not bad if I say so myself."

Ken glanced down at the stitches, roughly three inches long and nodded. "I will never doubt your nursing skills again."

"Good, if you did I wouldn't take care of you anymore." He whispered, the slight humor reaching his voice. Wrapping the bandage around his arm, he tied it off. "Just be careful for a few days till it can begin to heal."

"Do you remember who taught you this?" He asked, gesturing to the bandage.

"Shion."

Ken nodded, brushing scarlet bangs from the older assassin's eyes. `He will remember one day, then everything will be okay.'

~

kami: *purrs* I'm not ever gonna get bored with reading this story!

Ken: It's nice… but… *rubs injured arm*

Ran: *swats Ken's hand away* Stop that, you'll aggravate the wound.

Ken: ;_; But it hurts!!

Ran: *kisses wound* Better?

Ken: ^___^ Yeah! Come to think of it, other parts of me are injured…

Ran: Is that so? *grabs Ken and runs away*

kami: … My god, they're nonstop. So meanwhile they're doing that, leave a nice review for Isa-chan? Pretty please?