Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Second Stringers ❯ A New Type of Jepardy ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

SECOND STRINGERS

Chapter 7 --- A New Type of Jepardy

//mental talking//
‘mental thoughts’

There was a sharp knock on the door to the mansion that Schwarz called home. It was one that Takatori had put them up in. Since his demise Nagi had changed the deed to make it theirs. It worked for what they needed. Plenty of bedrooms, a large office for Crawford, and cells in the basement to house Farfarello. All in all it was a nice place to live.
Upon hearing the knock, Nagi and Schuldich exchanged glances. Crawford hadn’t said anything about anyone coming by, and being that Crawford was a precog, he knew things like that. Right now Crawford was trying to clean up the mess Tinkerbell and Farfie had made in the kitchen with the blender. Now the two of them were both down in the cells, playing jacks of all things. 'Oh well, the place needed another lunatic would enjoyed licking knives, yeah, RIGHT!' Nagi thought as he followed Schu to the door.
Schuldich pulled open the door and nearly fell back over on to his ass from the sight, and he was as flamingly gay as they come. Nagi, well he nearly sprouted a nosebleed, among other things. A young girl stood on the other side of the door. She leaned against, well actually was draped over, the doorframe with one arm, her legs crossed at the knee and the other arm lazily was placed on her hip. The tight sharpie red pants she wore were so tight on her skin, it looked as if they were painted on. They showed off every curve and every line perfectly well. They fell from low, very low on her hips to her feet and at the last second opened up enough for her to be able to pull on the high heeled boots she was wearing. The boots were of the darkest black leather anyone could ever have saw. They gave at least three inches to her height, yet she was still short. Without the boots she wouldn’t even be as tall as Nagi. The shirt, though it covered so little it barely earned the right to be called that, was a sharp yellow. Not the soft pale colors that Crawford wore at times, but a sun shine color. Neon and flashing, it would have blinded them if direct light hit it. It looped up around her neck and had one thin strip of cloth that tied behind her back. It was low cut, and high riding, and also beyond skintight. The outfit was made to get her noticed, get attention, and get people to look at her. And at the same time there was just as much skin showing as there was clothing. And all the skin that was reveled had a beautiful darkness too it, not of nationality, but just of the most perfect tan ever. And it served to compliment the dark shade of violet that was her hair. It hung loosely about her face in small tuffs, pin straight and almost unruly, if it hadn’t been for the way she managed to make it look perfect. Her make up was set to show off every tiny feature in the face that most people didn’t know existed. She peered up at Schuldich through half lidded eyes. Eyes that shown a magnificent violet. Dark and hard, yet willing to be so much more. One single nearly smoked cigarette was in her lips. She never said a word but instead pushed past the speechless German and in to the living room, swaying her hips in rhythm to the rising pace of the heart rates in the room, grinding the cigarette out on the steps. She then turned and looked at the room. Nagi and Schu had come to stand together by the coffee table staring in spectacle at her. No one knew where this mansion was. And if someone just waltzed right in here, well, it didn’t bode to well for them. And Crawford would have their necks for LETTING her in, in the first place.
“I, I, think you have the wrong place. We already have one whore..umpf.” Nagi’s protest was cut off by a dirty look and elbow to the ribs from Schu. She just placed a smirk on her lips, well it was supposed to be a smirk, it didn’t look right on her face though, and sighed, looking past them to a folder on the coffee table.
“No, I got the right place. You’re looking at my profile after all.” Her voice came out in a delicious twirl of the Japanese language, proving she was not only an expert at using it and manipulating it, but probably a natural born speaker. Not many people outside of true Japanese could master the language. Farfarello never tried, he didn’t need to, he got by with licking knives and scaring priests. Schu knew the language and could use it, but still he was horrible at best. Crawford was the best, besides Nagi who was native, he had learned perfect German, and French, and he knew Japanese very well, but even Crawford still said Mister. This girl though, Nagi couldn’t pick up any of those unusual characteristics about her speaking. Though she didn’t look exactly what you’d expect a Japanese to, it was close.
Nagi stared at the girl for a moment more then flashed his eyes back to the folder. It hadn’t said much, only she worked for Esstet from the age of 4 to 15. A large part of that time was spent undercover as part of Kritiker. Then she disappeared a few years back. The only photos they had of her were black and white ID pictures. One from when she was first brought in to Esstet and another a few years later, right before she went undercover. And the only name given for her had been her codename, Jepardy. And unlike most codenames, where they'd give you an idea of the person’s powers, hers didn't. Nothing else at all. No real name, or background, no idea of where she came from, or what her power was. Nothing. And now out of the blue here she was in all her glory. 'Something doesn’t make sense, how did she know that we were looking for her, much less where to find us? And why come back? Okay its not just something, a whole hell of a lot doesn’t make sense.' Nagi thought to himself as his eyes took in the person before him.
“Ah, you’re here. Earlier then I expected though.” Crawford said as he entered the room from the kitchen. He wasn’t shocked at all to find a hooker standing in his living room. Sometimes it seemed HE was the one with the repressed emotions. The most he did was flash a disapproving look at her and her ensemble. When his eyes reached her, almost, smirking face, he nearly scowled at her. And her facial expressions didn’t offer much better for him.
“Now, for introductions…”
“No way.” She promptly cut him off. He wanted this cutthroat, and she wasn’t about to let him have his way. She was going to drag it out as much as she could, if for nothing else then to piss him off. And she tried for that in every way she could. Stretching in front of him, literally inches from touching him, in a way that managed to drop the pants lower and raise the shirt higher. She was blatantly showing herself off to Crawford. Even Schu never went to extremes like this, but she was, and she’d just met the man.
“Shower first, then nap, then I’ll introduce myself in my own time.” Came a sleepy, yet damn sexy response from her, and at the same time she stroked his check with her hands and pouted. Crawford’s eyes flared with anger at already being disobeyed.
“No. Now.” He was pissed off. More then Schu even got him after trying for hours, and she’d only been at it 5 minutes.
“Okay, okay, just a shower then Braddy. But I’m at least getting that.” And before he could introduce her, push the argument further, stop her, or even kill her for not only saying Brad as Schu sometimes could, but Braddy, she was up the stairs and all three of them could hear the water running. Crawford glared at where she had disappeared and whirled around on his heels back to the kitchen. Okay, pissed didn’t even begin to cover this. That man would kill the first thing that came with in five feet of him, given the chance something in the house was stupid enough to come that close to a pissed Crawford. Schu just stared after him, and Nagi stared after the girl. ‘This is turning out to be a VERY interesting couple of days indeed.’ Nagi thought to himself. //And even without my help liebe.// Schu purred back in to his mind.
It wasn’t until a good twenty minutes later that the girl stumbled down the steps wearing a battered gray tank top and a pair of babies breath blue boxers, with yellow cartoon duckies dancing on them. They were slowly sliding lower and lower on her hips to revile more and more skin, but it seemed okay with her. Her wet hair was pulled back in to a lumpy ponytail. And water still dripped on to her back where it lay. Without her makeup, the darkness under her eyes was evident, not just from a lack of sleep either. Schu could tell the minute she hit the landing, not only was she a trick, which had been fairly evident before, but also a junkie in need of a fix. He’d been there himself, he knew the signs and he knew what this poor kid would be put through as soon as Esstet found out. And he knew, again from personal experience, it wasn’t fun. It did give a slight insight in to her, and her powers though. If drugs were in her life, it was a 99% chance her power dealt with some sort of mental abilities. It was too easy for powers like that to get out of hand, and the quickest way to shut them up was drugs.
Crawford stood from the couch where he had been pretending to work on a file, in truth he had been sulking. Schu followed suit and stood with him, barely letting his full attention wander to the girl, he had liked that show that was on the TV, old American reruns of M.A.S.H. were the best,(*1) even if the dubbing was worse then Godzilla movies. What finally drew his attention off the TV was Nagi. Nagi was blushing feverishly hard and not looking at the girl at all as he came to stand by the others. She apparently picked up on this right away as she finished the walk down the short hall and in to the living room. She also apparently knew why he was blushing.
“Gomen nasai. Yours were the only clothes even to come close to fitting me in this place. All mine are for the street or the clubs, and those ain’t very comfy. I mean I couldn’t fit in too anyone else clothes. Even these are too big, haní(*2).” The girl told Nagi as she motioned the fact that the boxers were falling off if it wasn’t for her hand on her hip holding them in place. Schu turned and smirked at Nagi.
“Dancing duckies. Cute.” His laughing was barely contained. Nagi would have liked to dodge out the door, and even started to, with Schu almost casually following him, laughing, but Farfarello picked that moment to come in to the room, blocking off his escape.
“Yes. Now that everyone is here, lets begin.” Crawford snapped at his followers to stop the impending fight he saw as a possibility. He wanted this out of the way, fast, he knew what was coming, even without his precognitive abilities, and he wanted that done quickly too. The girl shot him a dirty look, as if there was a reason why he should be handling this different in her mind. Schu tried to pick that up from her thoughts, knowing that even Crawford had surface thoughts he could always pick up on. And again, he was shocked to the core of his existence. He couldn’t get anything from her, at all. But even the brick wall that he encountered when trying to read Tinkerbell’s thoughts was better then this. It was like a black hole that sucked in everything around it and left an empty spot on the planet. Not even could he pick up on the fact it was another shielded mind, it was nothing but an abyss. She shot him a look, almost as if to say, ‘don’t try that again’, and then turned back to Crawford.
“Allow me Braddy. You’d get my name wrong anyway.” She told him as she snaked around behind him so that she now stood facing them in a row in front of her. Crawford’s eyes flashed again. At the arm around his waist, the use of the name, being told he’d be wrong, or again being disobeyed, who knew?
“Well, Farfie-koi, long time no see, just as crazy as last time though. As always, not a really pleasure but oh well, I’ll make do. I’ll give you a knife and you don’t mention god, and we’ll both be fine.” The tall white haired Irishman simply let out a half growl and smirked his lip up at the corners. That was his way of saying ‘hi’ back. He remembered her, but didn’t really care about her, so this was pointless to him. He just wanted to get back to Tinkerbell and their game of jacks.
“Naoe Nagi, mind if I call you Nags, you do, I don’t care, I will anyway. The resident telekinetic. Has no emotions, or just likes to think he doesn’t. When it comes down to it, you do, and when they get out of control, holy shit watch out. You’re a live wire inside, and I like that.” Nagi gapped openly at her. She was right and he didn’t like that.
“Braddy, well who cares about you, I don’t, oh wait, the German over there does, but I haven’t gotten to him yet.” She said with a twitch of her head to Schu. Then she turned to face him.
“And you,” she then broke out laughing, well a cute little giggle that was trying to be a laugh at least, “I think, I KNOW, I’m going to like you. Not only do we share a similar past, but” she paused again for laughing, “Schuldich, I’d like to introduce myself,” she held out her hand, and as he leaned in to take it she finished, “The names Sünde.” At that Schu laughed as well. They were a lot like, even without him knowing her past, with a name like that, he could only guess.
“I think I’ll like you too, Sünde.” He told her. His own lips curling up at the ends as he said her name in a perfect purr of the word. It fell naturally from his lips.
“I know you will.” Then she turned back to Crawford. A Crawford who was steaming mad and had nearly lunged at her neck upon the act of saying her name. Apparently she hadn’t said what he expected her to. And he didn’t like it.
“There Braddy, I know you don’t need me for the rest. I’m gong to get some sleep. I had a long night.” She again wound her hand around him again on her way back up the stairs. If looks could kill, the rest of Schwarz wouldn’t have to worry about learning about another new member, only where they'd want to be buried. In two bounds and with enough speed to almost make Schuldich himself jealous Crawford was at the top of the stairs facing her.
“Just what do you think your doing?” he growled at her, it was less of a question and more of a simple growl of annoyance. It didn’t faze the girl at all.
“I think I’m getting some sleep. I told you, I had a long night, a long morning, and I’m planning on having another long night to hopefully get rid of this shinigami damn headache I have haní.” She told him as a mother would explain to a 3-year-old why they can’t have a cookie before supper. It looked ridiculous. The girl was at lest a foot, if not shorter, then Crawford, and had to be at least ten years younger. On top of that the leader of Schwarz had a look on his face like he was ready to kill her, and she was merely pouting at him. Then, more to break his concentration then anything else, she pushed up against him and wound her hands behind his neck and played with the tail ends of his hair.
“K..” was the only sound he got out before she placed one of her fingers over his lips to silence him.
“See, I told you, you would use the wrong name. It’s Sünde now. Remember that, cause I think,” she paused for a mere second as it looked like she winced with some unseen pain. “I know, I can make it so that you never knew me by any name but Sünde. And you don’t want that, I know.” And then, leaning in even closer to him, and brushing her lips against his ear to be sure that he was the only one who could hear her words said one last thing. “It’s been six years Braddy, and you don’t even give me a second glance as I walk through those doors. Precog or not, you should have known better then to do that. Goodnight Braddy.” She unwound herself from him then and walked in to the room that had been set up for her, with no one ever telling her which one it was, but then again they never told her where the shower was either and she found that just fine. In her walk away she managed to add a swagger to her hips that could be nothing short of complete eye candy motion. It had Nagi's, and even Schu’s, undivided attention. It seemed to just piss Crawford off even more though. The brief look of inner pain that swept through his eyes at her last words, now was completely gone. He turned back around to the others, anger flashing behind his eyes.
“And just what are you looking at?” he snarled at them, but focused his gaze on Nagi.
“I, ah, well,” Nagi tried to formulate words that would save him a harsh lesson from Crawford, and failed. Luckily for him, Schu came to the rescue.
“Give the kid a break, he’s just enjoying the view of one fine ass. Her picture really doesn’t do her justice.” He purred as he motioned the file.
“I though you were homosexual, Schuldich.” Crawford snapped at him.
“I am, but when it looks THAT good, it don’t matter who or what you are, you’re going to look, and like.” Crawford managed to turn red with anger at those words. It was quickly becoming evident that this was a touchy case to him. The only thing that saved a massive blow up on everyone’s part finally, was Farfarello. He had stayed to the back ever since it all had begun, and now decided to part for good.
“I’m going back down to Tinkerbell. I already know how most of this goes.” He said as he retreated back down to the cells. Those words caught Nagi’s attention.
“Yeah, she said she already knew him. How?” he asked.
“And she obviously already knows you too, Braddy.” Schu purred at the older man. He was received with a swift punch to the stomach that nearly made him collapse completely. At what he did receive he could already imagine a very black and blue couple of ribs.
“You EVER call me that again, you WILL die. That understood.”
“..yeah..” came the muffled reply as he tried to straighten himself out.
“K.., Sünde, has been a part of Esstet for as long as I have. We were both on the team that first assembled Schwarz. Soon after Farfarello was brought on, she was removed from Schwarz and placed undercover. That is how she knows both Farfarello and myself.” He told them as flat as he could, yet there was something just hiding behind his voice. Something more that he wasn’t sharing with them.
“And her power?” Nagi asked. New people would make it interesting, sure, but if at the same time they were useless, then they did no good. And so far to him, Tinkerbell didn’t seem that useful, he hoped that this girl would be.
“Answers.” Was all Brad said. Apparently he thought that was enough for them.
“Answers to what?” Schuldich’s nasal voice was slowly returning to normal.
“Everything. Jepardy possess the answer to any and every question that ever has, or might be asked. It is a tremendous gift, yet at times it makes her quite unstable.” He glanced at the two members. They were staring back at him as if he’d just spoken in Greek. He sighed bitterly and turned to head in to his office. He could foresee that Esstet had sent him the next phase of this assignment, and he wished to get working on it so that all of this could be done as quickly as possible.
“That is all for now.” He said over his shoulder as if he was dismissing the other two. He really wasn’t for they could do whatever they liked as long as there was no mission, but it was the idea that he had that power that made him to do it. To Bradley Crawford everything was always about power.
Crawford sighed as he shut down the laptop. Not the greatest way to start things. There wasn’t much he could do about it though. At least that’s what he was going to keep telling himself. That way he wouldn’t feel so much like shit when it came down to it. Not that he would ever admit those feelings to anyone to begin with, but still, he didn’t want to feel it. //Schuldich. Get in here. I have an assignment for you.// he sent out on the lines of mental telepathy that always seemed to be open between him and the German.
//Does it involve me, you, and those silk sheets on your bed?// the mental reply came back. Crawford cringed at the thought, and the pictures that Schuldich had sent along to accompany it. Crawford was straight, again, something he just had to keep telling himself to make sure that he believed it.
//NO.// was the firm answer.
“Then I don’t think I want it.” Schu said as he walked in to the room and draped himself over the edge of Crawford’s desk, gazing sensually in to the eyes of the man he loved, and who refused to show any of that love back.
“Get off my desk.”
“I’d rather get off on you.” The only thing that made him miss another gut punch was his lightning fast reflexes, and then it was still close. “What’s this about? I got things to do.”
“No, you don’t. Its pointless to lie about the future to a precognitive Schuldich, I thought you would have learned that by now.” Crawford looked at the man with blatant detest in his eyes. Nothing new, Schu should have been used to it by now, but it still hurt.
“It has come to the attention of Esstet that, Sünde, did not come directly back to us.”
“I don’t get it, so what?” Schuldich declared as he flopped in to a chair on the other side of the desk. Trying to look as tempting as possible, it never worked though.
“She originally broke contact with us while heavily undercover with Kritiker, as part of the Crashers to be precise. When she first become aware of us trying to get a hold of her again, she returned to Kritiker first, and one of her old ‘teammates’ from the Crashers, Fujimyia Ran, also know as Abyssinian of Weiss.” Crawford finished. He didn’t appear shocked by this news, or startled, or anything. Part of Schu was beginning to wonder if he had been taking lessons from Nagi in “How to Hide Your Emotion 101”, but the rest of him was starring open jawed at Crawford in disbelief. Crawford saw the look on Schuldich’s face and waited for the man to recompose himself before he moved on with the new assignment.
“We need to collect information from her. We need to know what she knows about Weiss, Kritiker, and we need to know what she told them about us, Schwarz and Esstet, on top of what they already knew. Is that understood.” He asked, well for him it was asking, but Schuldich knew it was already an order.
“So, I pick the little things brain, and tell you just what I found, right?” Schuldich was used to this routine. It wasn’t the first time that he had been asked to do something similar to this. He was already on his feet and half way to the door before he heard Crawford’s reply.
“No. Not this time. It wont be that easy.” He was still sitting calmly behind his desk, but his voice seemed, strained. “She has shields that are nearly impossible to break, due to her own powers. She knows how to construct them to keep EVERYTHING out, especially telepaths.”
“Well, I did kind of notice something like that earlier, I thought it just might be a fluke. If its not, then just how do I go about this?” the redhead asked turning from the door to again face the man of his dreams, who was at the moment giving him a reason to have nightmares.
“You have to break her shields.” He said simply, and Schuldich’s stomach plummeted. He had known that was the answer, but he hadn’t wanted to hear it. He knew what that meant. He himself had gone through it with a few of the trainers Esstet had sent in his earlier times with the organization, to make sure he wasn’t holding anything back from them. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience. He had only one last hope to hold on to, and he knew that as soon as he asked it, it too would vanish.
“Drug her?”
“No. You know that would be a futile point. Drugs on people with mental powers is hard to handle. When you yourself are placed on ones of the magnitude that is needed to break ones shields, the results are disastrous. Imagine that on someone who hardly has any control over themselves, much less there power to start with.” Crawford stared intently at the man before him. Trying to judge his reaction. Schuldich had a heart, one that in spite of everything he was and did, hadn’t been destroyed. This was going to hurt him, weather he had just met her, or had known her for years. But it was orders, that’s all it was. That’s what Crawford had to keep telling himself, yet at the same time, he wasn’t the one to do the deed himself.
“No. I wont. I can’t. Do it yourself.” Schuldich met his cold stare with one of his own.
“I’m not a telepath, it will do no good for me to break down her shields. I wouldn’t be able to get anything from her.” Orders, they were orders. He had to follow them, even when he knew they’d do no good. Even when he knew there was no way to break her shields. Orders were orders. He had to follow them. Even when he couldn’t, wouldn’t, do it himself, that’s why Schuldich was here.
“Brad, she’s just a kid….” Schuldich was now pleading. He didn’t want this to happen, and he damn sure didn’t want to be the one who did it.
“No. She’s a member of Schwarz, she’s an assassin, and she’s fucked her own life up, now she has to live with it.” His voice almost shook, almost.
“And if she doesn’t know anything, or doesn’t talk, or, or..”
“It will be inconsequential. She will be placed through detoxification and retrained before she actually begins to accompany us on any future missions.” He moved his eyes. While he didn’t, wouldn’t, admit to feeling anything for another male, much less Schuldich, he couldn’t look him in the eyes and tell him this. It hurt to see his eyes in that much pain, and he knew his own shields wouldn’t hold up much longer if he kept the gaze. He turned and opened his laptop again with the premises of going back to work.
“Then, then why?” his voice was filled with concern and compassion. He didn’t want to do this, especially if it was blatant that there was no real point to it at all.
“She will be in mission room two at nine tomorrow morning. Meet her there. Orders are orders, don’t disobey.” He made it clear that that was that. No further discussion. Schuldich just shook his head and sulked out of the room. He was left with no choice. Crawford was right, orders were orders. No matter what.
Schuldich walked in to the room well over an hour late. He had held the hope that if he showed up late enough she would have left already. As it was she was curled up in a corner asleep on the ground. She still just had on Nagi’s boxers and battered tank top. She looked peaceful lying on the mat by the weights, dozing lightly. Schu was ready to turn right around and leave again, and say he never saw her, but she chose that moment to wake up.
“Gomen,” she said sleepily as she sat up rubbing one eye with the back of her hand. “I can’t sleep in a bed, so I didn’t get much sleep last night. This was comfy.”
“You can’t sleep in a bed?” he asked her as he walked farther in to the room. Maybe if he made conversation with her, she’d just tell him what he needed to know.
“Not alone.” She told him simply. He thought about laughing for a second until he realized from the look in her deep violet eyes, she wasn’t kidding.
“You really..”
“Not alone, I don’t remember why, I just cant, don’t you dare ask me another fucking question this early in the shinigami damn morning.” She told him firmly as she stood up and leveled him off with an icy glare that made the temperature drop a good four degrees. It would have been even more effective if she had come slightly higher then his armpit and her hair wasn’t in a sleep tousled mess, clinging to her face, and if the boxers hadn’t been sliding down just a little to much to show her finely curved hips. Even with all of that though, she looked fairly menacing. He had the good idea that she could handle her own in any fight, no matter the circumstances. Schu gave her a slightly hurt, yet baffled look, for her sudden outburst.
“I know Braddy told you, answers. That’s my oh so wonderful gift. You ask, or I ask, or anyone even starts to ask a question and I get the answer running through my brain at top speed. I can’t block it like you can thoughts either, cause this isn’t something someone else is thinking, it’s coming from inside my own head.” He nodded slowly at her, understanding more then she knew, well actually she probably knew given what she'd just said, but still.
“That’s why the drugs.” He didn’t ask it, he stated it. He had already guessed that it was something like that. She instinctively pulled her arms in tighter. She didn’t have many scars, at least not from needles, her power helped her make sure of that. She knew where they wouldn’t scar.
“It gets hard. Too many questions can draw a mind in and it loses focus and then a person can’t even think much less function. Sometimes the ‘perfect’ answer is flawed too. I always get the right answer, but if the right answer isn’t known to anyone, or its two different things, one real truth, yet someone believes it fully to be something else, well, it hurts.” She told him. Then frowned. Nearly her whole existence was summed up in a few sentences, she felt cheap. Then he helped make her feel even cheaper.
“Tricking?” Maybe she was wrong for the first time ever. She was getting the impression quickly that she would NOT like this man after all.
“Need money for the poison of the day. But don’t get me wrong, I may be, or was, up until last night, a whore, but I never was a slut. That was one benefit, I knew who wanted what, and how to make it great. The guys who wanted a good blow and would pay well were the best. And it really didn’t matter what they paid, I’d just take the whole wallet. I was above all a thief.” She finished her little monologue and looked up at Schu. Looked up because he was the same height as Braddy, which was a lot taller then her. She was short in every sense of the word. He refused to make eye contact. She nearly laughed, but didn’t. The drugs from last night, or was it this morning, were fading and harsh reality was setting in. She now had to listen and accept the answers that in a cloud of drugs could have been avoided. She knew the minute he had walked in through the doors what he was here to do. Orders were orders. She knew that. It wasn’t him, it was really Braddy, but that she’d forgive. She would always forgive that man more then he was worth. It was just who she was.
“Come on. Those aren’t the questions you’re supposed to be asking me. You’re supposed to be trying to break my shields and get the info Esstet wants, I’m not about to give you, out of my head yourself.” With that she moved to the center of the room, and the thicker training mats. This was going to hurt, and when she fell to the ground she wanted the most padding she could have. He realized then that even after trying to open up to her she wasn’t going to tell him what he was here to find out. Still, he didn’t want to hurt her.
“I, I cant.” He told her as he watched her move. ‘Never punch a lady, isn’t that what people say.’
“Orders are orders.” She told him. She was waiting for it, but she thought he’d argue a little more, or at least not move that fast, even waiting for it, it hurt more then she expected. His fist connected very solidly to her ribs. They didn’t crack, but then neither did her shields.
“I’m so so sorry.” He whispered to her as she nearly crumpled over. “Just answer the damn questions, I know you know the answers.” He didn’t demand, he begged, he really didn’t want to do this. She knew that, but it didn’t change anything.
“No.” was the half-muted replay that she finally choked out. Schuldich sighed and swung again.
“Es tut mir leid süßer…”(*3) he whispered again as she fell to the mat with a hushed cry.
Crawford watched from the other side of the two-way mirror. He cringed every time that Schuldich hit her. He didn’t want this, but orders were orders. It was something Esstet required from all, never disobey. He had no choice here. OK, that was wrong, he did have a choice, and he chose to follow orders. He heard Schuldich’s gasped sobs of distress for not being able to break her shields. He heard Sünde’s pained cries. He felt like shit. Though admitting it was too far below him.
She hit the ground again. Hard. Her wrist twisted in a struggle to stop herself. Two, no three, or was it four more punches? Those would all bruise. It went on for well in to an hour and a half. Finally Schu smirked at her. He was going to end this.
“I ain’t sorry for this one liebechan.” He said to her. Crawford watched in shock and horror as Schu connected as hard as he could his fist with her jaw. If it didn’t break it, it would be a miracle. She didn’t get back up. She was knocked out for quite a while. It was over then. Schu hadn’t gotten anything. Everyone knew he wouldn’t. This was less about information then it was loyalties. Crawford’s to Esstet, and Schuldich’s to Crawford. They had both passed. The next set of tests wouldn’t be as easy, but they didn’t have to worry about that for a while, at least that’s what Crawford hoped. He left the observing room then and met Schuldich in the mission room where he had been ‘interrogating’ Sünde.
“Take care of her wounds and put her in her room.” Was all he said to the German.
“Nani! Have Nagi do it. He’s better at it, and if I were her, I wouldn’t want someone who just beat the shit out of me anywhere around, much less touching me.” Schu protested.
“Nagi is busy.”
“Then do it yourself!” Schu normally didn’t talk back this much, he tried to keep things civil between the two of them. Friendship was the closest he would ever have to a relationship with the man, and he tried not to push the limits too much and risk losing even that. This was just too much though. He couldn’t take it any longer. He didn’t care what was between Crawford and the girl in the past but goddamn it he didn’t want to be put in the middle of it.
“No. If it were up to me, she’d stay just like this. I won’t touch her, so either you do, or I’ll call Farfarello.” Crawford told him as he turned and left, already knowing Schuldich would take care of the girl. He should have done it himself, but he couldn’t, not after everything else. Not yet. And just maybe, not ever.
She gently stirred. Well she tried to gently stir, but it hurt like hell. Everything hurt like hell. Why, beat up by that ever so kind German. How bad, oh shinigami, a broken rib, four more cracked ones, three bruised. A twisted wrist, a black eye, and a nearly cracked jaw, any harder of a punch and it would have been broken, and multiple cuts, scrapes, and bruises, lots and lots of bruises. She didn’t open her eyes at first. The light was on, and that would hurt her head, a head that was to shinigami(*4) damned clean, so clean it pounded its protest in to her. Just another hurt, and shinigami be damned again she hurt. She just let herself try and learn how to breathe first, then she would work on opening up her eyes. That idea didn’t last long though. Someone was gently holding a cold cloth to her battered eye. It felt nice, but who, oh hell no.
“Ahh.” She bolted up, or tried to, just getting away from the cold compress and the person holding it would be enough. The problem was it hurt like hell to move. She ended up falling back down in a ball of pain. And she was falling back on a bed. That didn’t put her in any better of a mood, in fact it made her even pissier if possible. She hated beds.
“Hold still, I won’t hurt you.” A heavy nasal voice rang in her ears. She avoided the look that poured out of his heavy emerald eyes. It was full of compassion, and she didn’t want that right now. No, right now she wanted to be pissed and so help her Shinigami she was going to be!
“Yeah, a little late for that one.” She mumbled. It had started out as an almost curse, but her jaw hurt to bad to barley move it. She wasn’t a stranger to pain, but this on top of the undulated answers in her head, and the cramps of withdrawal on top of broken, bruised, and cracked ribs made her nearly lose composer to the point of crying. And that was something she would never do.
“Can’t say sorry about that one.” He told her as he gently pressed the compress to her jaw. “That was completely intentional. I was hoping to break your jaw.” She gave him a look of horrid disbelief, and pain as answers to questions she hadn’t even asked herself yet went following through her mind to fast for her to make sense of. All she ended up managing was to try and pull back even farther. Not smart with her body in the broken and battered shape that it was, but it was the point of it all she was going for at the moment. Not the lack of logic that it showed.
“Hey, not like that. I couldn’t break you shields, and if I broke your jaw, you really couldn’t talk, I’d get to quit.” He tried to give her a real smile, it came out as a stupid looking smirk. But it was the thought behind it. She didn’t care for that thought in the slightest. She still pulled away. She knew that it wasn’t really his fault that this happened, but still she didn’t hold the best feelings to him at the moment. And damn it all, she wanted off of the fucking bed. She really hated those shinigami-damned things.
“Hold still, you’ll hurt yourself worse. Here,” he attempted to take her wrist. She yanked it away from him and whimpered. Half in pain, half in fear of him, and half from the knowledge of who really made this happen. But she wouldn’t blame him, it was her fault really, not his, at least in her head that’s how it went. Schuldich sighed and sat back in the chair that he had pulled over by her bed. She stayed curled up in a half ball. He just sat there and looked at her with eyes that tried to convey just how sorry he was. She didn’t want to see those eyes.
“Let me wrap it. It will help it heal.” He said in a quite voice, but he didn’t make a move to touch her wrist, or any part of her. She looked at him with cold eyes. Hard and set, and uncaring. Not the eyes one would expect to see on a girl like her, but then most girls weren’t like her to begin with. After what seemed like hours she finally held out her wrist to him. He carefully took it and with as much care as possible wrapped it in the bandage.
“Leave that on for at least a couple of days. And try to stay still.” He said as he finished and stood up to leave. She crawled out of the bed as soon as the chair he had been in was out of her way, and took a pillow with her. She then flopped down on the floor next to the bed. She caught the baffled look in his eyes.
“No beds.” Was all she said. She closed her eyes and tried to find some silence in her head away from the questions, and those damn answers, that ran through it. She was at one time able to control them extremely well, but being on a heavy supply of drugs for so long had made it like starting all over, and that hurt badly. And it was for that reason, along with half a dozen others, she barley noticed when Schu pulled the blanket from her bed and draped it over her small frame.
She was so small, like she’d be breakable if you touched her wrong, but he’d proved that wasn‘t true. Nagi’s clothes just fell off of her, and that kid was practically anorexic in Schuldich’s opinion. He stayed there for longer then he’d expected, knelling over her. Gently he traced the line of her bruised jaw, pulling her hair back and away from her face. Even painted in the black and blue he’d made her, she was beautiful, ‘Mein Gott!!! What am I thinking?!?!’ He asked himself in shock as he jumped back away from her and out of the room. ‘I’m gay, I’m gay, I’m gay. I don’t like chicks, I never have, I wanna fucking fuck BRAD! I mean mein gott!!’ His thoughts poured through his head in a very hard attempt to remind himself that he didn’t like females, but it was soon evident that that wasn’t the only ‘hard’ thing about this situation. He groaned and banged his head against the door. He needed a cold shower. A LONG cold shower. He stumbled to the bathroom more awkwardly then normal. He closed the door behind him and locked it. Soon he was standing in a blast of icy water, trying to ignore the raging erection that was prominent on his body. ‘Think of unsexual things, the girl, OK that wont work that’s what got me here, Brad, oh hell like that will help, Nagi, well, too young, get away from those thoughts Schu, Farfie….YIKES!’ those last few thoughts were all he needed to make his once hard penis shrink and shrivel up. Farfie was not a sexual type of person, and with that knife infatuation he had, Schu was scared to even imagine what he was like in bed. It gave him nightmares. Finally he crawled out of the frigid water and toweled off. Throwing on his same cloths and pulling his hair back with the same old bandanna he always tied in it. When he opened the door he was face to face with a grouchy looking 15-year-old Japanese boy.
“What’s wrong now Nagi?” he asked patiently.
“You were in there for over an hour Schuldich, you used all the hot water again, and I need to take a shower.” He snapped at the older man in front of him.
“Trust me Nags, you have all the hot water you want.” He said as he patted the boy on the head and walked past him to the stairs leading back down to the living room. Nagi stomped in to the bathroom and flipped the water handle to hot and stuck his hand under it to prove Schu wrong and yell at him some more for his repeated use of all the hot water. 'If he didn’t have such long hair..'
“OUCH!!” He screamed out as the boiling water hit his hand.
“Told you.” Came echoing back to him from the stair way as Nagi cradled his burned hand and wondered just what Schu had been doing in a cold shower for so long, that wasn’t like him.
Everything seemed to float around on a see of stars and nothingness. It swirled around the room in sweet clouds. Tink could just sit in the space room of the mansion and stare off at the swirling blackness for hours. But today she wasn’t being given that option. The door cracked open and the young boy, Nagi if she remembered right timidly stuck his head in.
“Umm, Dasha Crawf..AHH!!” with moves so fast that he didn’t even have time to use his powers, and pulling knives out of who knows where even better then anyone on ‘Highlander’(*5) ever could have thought of, Nagi was pinned to the very door he had been opening. One dagger landed on the outside of either hip, just above his knees. A third, and more dangerous, was placed right between his legs, and very much to close for comfort. In that same second Tinkerbell herself flung on to the door and was crouched with one foot on either of the outer daggers, knees bending so that she was eye to eye with the terrified boy. In her hand she held her, by far, favorite dagger and was slowly pressing it farther and farther in to Nagi’s throat, slowly beginning to draw a thin line of red from him.
“DON’T YOU EVER FUCKING CALL ME THAT AGAIN!! THAT IS IF YOU EVER LIVE TO SEE PAST THIS!!!” she screamed at him as loud as humanly possible. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to push her off. Both his hands were trapped anyway. He did the next best thing, he used his powers to remove the daggers that the madwoman on top of him was using as foot holds. She slowly slipped down his body, dagger still in hand, slicing through his shirt as she slid. It landed just at his pants line. Before she had a chance to severely injure him for life though, Crawford intervened. He appeared suddenly on the other side of the hall that the door Nagi was still pinned on swung open in to.
“Tinkerbell, I need to speak with you.” His voice held a clam tone, as if he didn’t see, or care, what she was doing to Nagi. Those words though were enough to get her off of him. She flung out her wrist, taking with it the dagger from between Nagi’s legs. It landed less then a hairs breath from Crawford’s temple.
“You gott verdammt fucking asshole precog, don’t you EVER stop me again. And I won’t miss again, just try and give me a chance. I want you dead anyway!!” Her voice echoed off of every wall in the entire house. She grabbed the two daggers off the ground and tucked them back under her clothing in such a way, you had no idea where or how she put them away. After she stormed down the hall, Nagi finally let out the breath he had been holding. His shirt was torn open and a thin line of red traced down his white chest. Crawford simply straightened his jacket and shot Nagi a dirty look.
“I warned you about calling her anything other then Tinkerbell.” And he too turned and left. Nagi slid down the door and lay in a heap on the floor. His eyes were still as wide as saucers and he was finding it hard to breathe. Blinking might resume in a week. At the moment he was most thankful that Crawford hadn’t noticed the fact that Nagi had pissed his pants. Black was good for something after all.
“What the hell is this all about anyway Braddykins you fucking asshole?” Tink spat at the man, with a maddeningly evil grin on her face though, as he walked in to join them in the mission prep room. Them consisted of herself, Schuldich, and Farfarello. Nagi had disappeared somewhere, probably to change his clothes, she really didn’t care, she didn’t like that kid now. At her words Schu’s eyes jumped four sizes larger. Braddykins! And he thought Braddy was bad. But the man before him seemed to have a lot less temperament and restraint with this nickname then he did with Sünde. One thing that he was leaning quickly though was that these girls were something else all right.
“I have a mission for you.” He said simply. He was getting a hell of a lot of hostility from Tinkerbell, and he just couldn’t figure it out. He had worked with her around the same time as Sünde, and he thought they had parted on fairly normal terms. Sure he had dumped her off in the streets of Berlin, but she had come off of those streets, it didn’t seem to bother her too much at the time. But he was getting the distant impression he needed to watch his step around her or by maimed in as many ways possible as she could come up with. He couldn’t help but wonder why.
“Does it involve me?” Schu asked lazily. He had other things to do, places to be, men to flirt with.
“No, you may go.” As Schu walked by, he was very tempted to grab Crawford’s ass, but he had grown to like having his wrist in one piece, not three, so he decided against it.
“Can I hurt god?” the white haired Irish lunatic asked. Crawford sighed. He really didn’t like the idea of sending these too out together, but he needed, Esstet needed, that damned Chinese ambassador dead. He had gotten to close to what had gone on around the time of Takatori’s death, and they didn’t need him poking his nose around now. The quickest way would be for both of them to go and finish him off.
“Answer the fucking question Braddykins?” Tink purred at him, pulling out a knife and flashing it in the light to occupy herself, when he took too long to answer the question. Crawford’s eyes roared at the sound of his name.
“Do not call me that. That is not my name.”
“Close enough.” She said pointing the knife at him in a very unfriendly manner.
“No. If you want your right to be called Tinkerbell respected, please only refer to me as Crawford.” His voice was steaming with anger despite the kindness the words by them selves seemed to have.
“But that’s two separate things Braddy.” Came a voice from near the door. Tink barley looked over in that direction before continuing.
“Damn straight it is Braddykin……JEPARDY!!!!” she started talking to Crawford again before she realized that it was Sünde in the doorway. Once she did connect the two though all thoughts of what she had been doing slipped out of her mind. She tore across the few feet of space and threw herself at the shorter girl, hugging her tightly. Sünde winced slightly, and drew a quick breath. Most people wouldn’t have noticed, if they did, they wouldn’t have thought it anything other then the force of the hug. Tinkerbell knew better. She instantly dropped back and off of her friend. And then she also noticed the bandaged wrist.
“What happened?” her voice held a serious tone that a person would not have expected to come out of the bouncing green haired girl. Sünde just met her look, and lightly shrugged.
“Welcome home party.” She said simply. She wasn’t much for talking. Never had been, never would be. Tinkerbell just backed up from her and shot Crawford a death ray of a look that would have made anyone else ‘eep’ out of fear. He simply glared back at her, and somewhere in the back of his mind wondered again just where in the hell that hostility came from. Pissy, yes, mad, yes, annoying by calling him ‘Braddykins’, oh god yes, but LITERALLY trying to kill him, no, she had never been that pissed at him even at the height of her full force Farfarello ‘soul drain’. And now anything and everything was making her ready to kill him. This was going to be a LONG mission, fuck that, they were back to stay this was just going to be long in general.
As Crawford stood off scowling and thinking about the twist of fate that had screwed him over so badly, Farfarello stood by and smiled around the blade of the knife that was in his mouth. It was nice to see those two together again. He knew that they had been friends from far back, and if the sinner and the lunatic were together again then there was no way god was happy. No, if they were near each other again, then god would be stomping mad. He liked that idea.
“Sünde, what pupos..” Crawford tried to ask, after his thoughts regained focus again, but he was promptly cut off by Tinkerbell.
“Sünde? That’s the name you’re going by now. Well, that’s new, but totally sugee.” Tinkerbell was happily chatting to, not with because she wasn’t responding, Sünde. “I’m still only calling you Jepardy though, no sense messing with a good thing right?”
“TINKERBELL! Shut up.” Crawford snapped at the girl. He was rewarded with silence, and a double cold glare, one from each girl.
“Sünde, what purpose do you have here?” He said, trying to ignore both of them, yet still scold them both with his tone. It didn’t really work, but he was trying. Sünde shot him and even colder glare, Tink laughed. Laughed so hard in fact that she fell to the floor in tears. Sünde shot her a glare too, but it didn’t have the same coldness in it that she gave to Crawford. Crawford was literally shaking with anger and hatred for the two standing in front of him. Farfarello was still off to the side, still smirking around the knife in his mouth.
“Answer the question Sünde.” Crawford spat at her again. Trying to hold back his rage to the best of his ability.
“I’m heading out. A night on the town. I thought Tink would like to join me. What’d ya say haní?” She told Crawford, helping her friend up off the ground as she did. Crawford almost lost himself in his thoughts again. He had forgotten just how close the two of them were in the years they had spent training in Germany. Now in these few seconds it had become crystal clear to him. And he was hoping it wouldn’t become a problem.
“Tinkerbell has a mission.” He finally told the two in front of him.
“Yeah, we gitta hurt God.” Farfarello chirped in from the background. Everyone ignored him, but that was normal, he didn’t mind.
“Ah, yeah, besides, I don’t think I’m up with your crowed.” Tink replied as she looked at Sünde’s clothes. What few there were on her anyway. The paints were a sparkly purple that was a good two shades lighter then her hair. They were so low on her hips that her entire tight stomach and navel were shown very clearly. Her shirt was a tube top of the same color, tight beyond belief, and covering just the essentials. Her hair was tied back in several small ponytail like clumps, swinging with curls. She looked ready for the nearest street lamp, or dingy dance floor. And if Tink knew her friend like she thought she did, she knew Sünde would be hitting both. Tink herself was wearing a pair of Farfarello’s bondage pants, with loops and straps and buckles enough to trip over. It had three belts around the waist to try and keep them up. The rest of her was covered by one of Crawford’s best dress shirts, it was well over three sizes too big. Half the buttons weren’t hooked, showing off part of her stomach. She was wearing it mostly to piss him off, and it was working well too. Sünde eyed Tinkerbell’s outfit the same way Tink had eyed hers.
“I guess your right. Oh well, I’ll see you later then haní.” And with that she turned to walk out, sashaying her hips with each step.
“I don’t think so.” Snapped the voice of Crawford. He was fuming with anger to a level that smoke was ready to come pouring out of his ears. Sünde turned to look at him with a distinctly annoyed look.
“You are NOT going out.” He growled at her between clenched teeth.
“Yes I am. I won’t get the chance to do this once Esstet starts in, and we ALL know that. So, I’m taking tonight at least.” And before he could protest anymore, which he was trying to do, she was gone. Crawford stood and fumed for a while longer, while Tink tried to hide her giggles at how much she loved the idea of Sünde telling him off. Finally it was Farfarello who snapped them both out of it.
“So, can we go hurt God now or what?” he asked, waving the knife around for emphasis. Crawford glanced at him and sighed. Yes, it was VERY stupid to send these two out together. But they’d at lest get the job done quickly. After it was done, well that was a whole other story, but at least the guy would be dead.
“Yes, as I was saying before..” he started as he gave them their assignment.
Tink skipped down the hall towards the living room. The mission went well. Well in theory anyway. The ambassador was dead. That’s what mattered. The fact that her and Farfie had some fun after words, well that wasn’t her problem. If Crawford had wanted it done nice and neat, he shouldn’t have sent the two of them together. Farfie was now sleeping off whatever tranquilizers that had been pumped in to him to try and get him back under control. She was just given a dirty look and told her to clean herself up. Crawford knew that she only went as far as she did because Farfie was there. He also knew that she went as far as she did to piss him off. Why, he STILL didn’t know, but if he didn’t that was the bakas own fault. She wasn’t going to tell him. If he couldn’t figure it out, that his problem.
As she passed the living room she caught the faint sent of cherry kool-aid. A smell that never failed to make Tink smile. It always made her happy. Not REALLY happy, but as happy as someone like her could get when Crawford was still alive. That smell meant that Jep was around somewhere. Tink wondered what Jep was doing back so soon though, it had barely been a couple of hours since she said she was going out. If Jepardy was still her same Jep that normally meant ‘don’t wait up’. But that was definitely Jep’s sent, cherry kool-aid. It was an unusual smell, but for Jep, it worked. It had become a comfort thing to Tink in their early years together, and now, it still served to make her smile. Especially now. Now that they were again together, they had each other back. Tink would be damned if she let ANYONE take that away from her now. Jep was back and they were going to stay together through whatever hell Esstet tried to put them through. Tink bounded in to the living room still deeply inhaling the fresh sent of cherry kool-aid, expecting to run smack dab in to her friend, and ask her what she was doing back so soon. The problem was, Jepardy was NOT in the room. The only people in the room were that little fucking Nagi brat, who as she entered immediately began to crawl farther back in to a corner, and Schuldich.
“Where’s Jep? Did she just come by or something?” Tink asked. Schuldich turned off the television he had been watching as he stood and prepared to leave.
“No, she went out. Which sounds like a good idea to me too.” He started to head for the door that Tink still lingered near. She didn’t get it. The smell was faint, to faint for most to notice it, but it was cherry kool-aid. Jep was the only one in the world that wore kool-aid scented perfumes. Then as Schuldich passed her she caught a stronger whiff of the sent. It was coming from him. Suddenly things made sense. The bandaged wrist, the pain when Tink hugged her, her own words, ‘Welcome home party.’, this was the one who had done that to Sünde, to her Jepardy. Even if she didn’t have shields that were nearly as good as Jep, and he had been able to read her, he still wouldn’t have seen it coming. She was scrawny as hell, but strong. Her fist connected immediately with his gut, sending him lurching forward and crumpling to his knees with a small ‘poof’ of air. With her fist still buried in his stomach she harshly whispered in to his ear.
“If you ever even think of touching her again, I WILL kill you.” And then she removed her hand and let him fall the rest of the way to the ground. Just before he hit, and passed out, she heard him mumble one word.
“..orders…” that one word made it crystal clear in Tinkerbell’s head just who had been the one to truly cause that pain to her friend. Even if it had been Schuldich’s hands, he had been behind it. ‘Another reason for me to hate that fucking asshole bastard Bradley fucking Crawford.’ she thought to herself as she stormed off. Not like she really needed another reason, but oh well, now she had one.
It had been a long night. So long a night that it was actually morning when she stumbled in to the house at, well even with being Jepardy, she didn’t know. //Wow, maybe I overdid it with the drugs and alcohol.// she thought to herself. She had gotten trashed before, but if she tried she could always answer even the harder questions. And something in her head told her that what time it was WASN’T a hard question. Oh well, she deserved it. This would be the last time she ever would be able to use those methods to shut up the shinigami verdammt answers in her head. She needed it. Well, at least that’s what she told herself.
She had some vague recollection of someone being there when she stumbled in to the house. A someone who carried her up the stairs and in to a cold shower, trying to blast away some of the cobwebs in her head. It didn’t help. The water had tickled her skin, skin that was on fire from the last trip she was still floating on. That same person then helped her out of her, then wet and ruined clothes, and in to some of someone’s, Nagi’s most likely, his would be the only ones to even begin to fit her. Then that same set of hands, fuck, she really wished she knew who’s they were, threw her, none to gently either, in to her room, and unfortunately on her bed. She hated fucking beds, but before she could roll off it and on to the floor, she passed out. The owner of those nearly helpful hands stood in the door for a brief second. Watching the girls small form try to roll off the bed, and not make it. He silently shook his head.
“Why do you do this to yourself?” he asked in a hushed whisper, one that was ate up by the silence around them. He then shut her door and left. Moving down the hall to his own room. Thoughts still filled with mixed emotions of the young girl. Tomorrow morning Esstet trainers would be there to start her ‘re-joining’ of Schwarz. He knew their efforts wouldn’t get them far. Once she was clean and sober, she was going to be at her best again. Yet that wouldn’t stop them from putting her through the wringer. He tried not to think about that as he rolled over in his own bed and fell asleep. Just before he shut his eyes he cast a glance at the nightstand clock. 5:17. He wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight either. He probably shouldn’t have stayed up and waited for her to come home. Oh well, that was in the past, and he couldn’t take it back now. He was always more interested in what the future had to offer anyway. Now all he could do was just try and get what little sleep he could.
The light blinked on bright, directly over her head. It hurt, badly. Bright lights over a beat body, and a head that was screaming from a very, very severe hangover. And she was on a bed, she hated beds, but at least she didn’t have to worry about that problem for very long as a pair of firm hands yanked her up, off of it, and in to the middle of her room. It helped the whole ‘bed’ problem, but not the fact that her stomach was now lurching seven different ways.
“Verdammt! Don’t you fucking people know how to say good morning!” She spit out as she hit her knees in a feeble attempt to stop the world from spinning and hopefully not hurl the very slim contents of her stomach. Before she even managed to stabilize herself she was hoisted back up and shoved roughly forward. She went flying in to the hallway, which unfortunately for her throbbing head, was brighter then the room had been. She toppled forward and threw her hands out to stop herself from going headfirst in to the floor. The shooting pain in her wrist made her realize that that was most likely a bad idea. With in a split second she found herself lying on her back, on the very cold floor, with the pajama pants someone had given her, from Nagi's closet, twisted around her legs in a very uncomfortable way, and the thin tank top riding up to show off part of her smooth stomach. Her wrist was clutched to her chest with her good hand. Her long midnight purple hair fanned out around her now too pale face. Her eyes were closed tightly and her features were scrunched up against the light, the pain, and the impending nausea. 'What a great morning this is turning out to be.' She was very clearly remembering the reasons that she never woke up till after noon.
“GET UP!” A dark voice sounded above her. She didn’t recognize it. 'Who would be…Mauro, who the hell was…..an Esstet trainer, why wa….they wanted her back in condition, how did….complete retraining, condensed. This was not going to be fun.'
“I said, GET UP!!” Mauro snapped at her again, this time accenting his sentence with a sharp kick to her side, hitting ribs that barley had begun to heal.
“AHH!!” she rolled over to her other side, away from both his foot and that shinigami damned light.
“FUCK YOU!” she snapped back at him, in English. 'Wow, this is a bad morning. I just swore in English. I NEVER swear in English. Not even when pissed, or high, or drunk, or in the middle of...well I just NEVER do.'
“NOW!” another kick to the middle of her back.
“Esel, knock it off! She’s already been beat once!” a heavily accented nasal voice said from the background. Schuldich. 'His room was next to this one, the noise must have, no, DID get him up.'
“What do you care? You were the one to do it to her.” Mauro turned his wrath away from her for a second to turn and face the intruder. That gave Sünde the chance to struggle in to a sitting position with the wall bracing her. She kept her eyes tightly closed against the swirling that made her insides both heave and contract at the same time. The only problem with that plan was that it made it impossible for her to see the foot that knocked in to her shoulder and tossed her down to her side again.
“Stand up!” was all that he could yell at her. She mildly wondered how in the hell he expected her to be able to stand up when all he did was keep knocking her down.
“Knock it off!” Schuldich yelled at him again. He understood the same line of thoughts that she was on and was attempting to give her the opportunity to stand up. She tried to take the chance, she didn’t feel like getting kicked anymore. It wasn’t working very well though. Early morning withdrawal, bruises and breaks from a, no two now, beatings, and a damned head that kept over flowing with answers to questions she couldn’t comprehend, made it nearly impossible to stand up. She leaned her head back against the wall behind to try and get things under control. The wall moved. 'How in the hell….a door…Nagi’s door…his room is across the hall…the only other one on this side of the wing…Farfie’s is in the cells…Braddy’s is…AHH SHUT UP!!' she screamed at herself in order to stop the endless flow of answers. It didn’t work any better then her attempts to stand up had.
“Can you stand?” a calm, unmoved voice asked from near her ear, so that the others wouldn’t hear. She turned slightly and saw Nagi crouching down next to her by the small gap he had caused when he opened the door. 'What did he care if…oh, that’s what, I COULD stand, but his idea is better.'
“No.” she whispered to him and let her eyes slid shut again. Nagi stood and slowly sighed.
“Fine.” He said as he shut the door. At that same second though a pair of gentle hands helped to boost her up in to a standing position. She had to walk on her own, but at least she was semi stable being held up, and kept up.
“Shut up. I’m standing.” Her voice sounded as hard and cold as ever, despite the fact that her face was still caught between pain and nausea. The two men who had been bickering during that short time stopped. Mauro stormed off, expecting her to follow. He didn’t notice the unusual way that Sünde was standing. Schuldich smirked as he took note of it. He didn’t say anything about Nagi holding her up though. He knew if he did Mauro would come down harder on her, and he still felt guilty about being the one who helped put her in that position.
Nagi continued to help support her weight as she followed Mauro down the hall. At the main juncture Crawford met them. He too instantly saw what, luckily, Mauro still missed, Nagi holding her up. Crawford quickly grabbed her arm in what looked like an attempt to hurry her up. In truth, he was taking over for Nagi. 'Why, is he being caring…no, just didn’t want Mauro to find out,…why…he’d have it in for me then…maybe he did care..no..yes..part of him…what..'
“AHH!” the pain shot through her head again, worse now. It was a good thing that Crawford had her arm, her knees gave out from under her.
“Your not even dressed.” He told her in a cold voice. Ignoring everything except the fact that she was only wearing pajamas.
“No shit Sherlock.” She mumbled as she tried to regain some balance and stability so that she didn’t need to rely on Crawford to hold her up.
“Why not?” he asked her in that same demanding cold voice, it made it more of a demand then a question. He was standing there in a perfectly pressed three-piece Armani suit of a delicate cream color, and disgusted she wasn't in something similar.
“Cause I had a rough night, all right Braddy.” She shot back at him as she was able to finally detach herself from his grip and stand on her own. She didn’t want anything to do with him at the moment, and it was a good thing too. The moment that the word ‘Braddy’ fell from her mouth, he released the hold on her arm voluntarily. Part of him wishing she would fall. He shot her a look of pure hatred for daring to call him something like that in front of a direct Esstet employee. He looked sharply from Sünde to Mauro, the light that reflected off his glasses when he did so didn’t help her headache.
“The first thing you need to do is get her clean. A junkie is of no use to Schwarz, much less Esstet.” And with that he stormed off down the opposite hallway towards his office.
“Humph. Come with me.” Mauro snorted in Sünde’s direction as he walked down a different hallway towards the mission/training rooms. She stared after Crawford for a brief second before she struggled down after Mauro.
“Baka.” She mumbled under her breath. No, this definitely wasn’t a good morning, and she already knew, there would be no ‘quick fix’ this morning, or any other morning ever again. 'Why did I come back again?….Him, and her to a lesser extent, but it was him, lot of good that’s doing!'
“Baka.” She mumbled again, this time more at herself then anyone else.
She hurt. Bad. Worse then before, and it was only the beginning. She hadn’t had any drugs, or even alcohol for that matter, in over two days. That normally wouldn’t be so bad, except a week ago it had been hard for her to go 15 minutes between hits. On top of that the trainers were relentless. They put her through heavy-duty martial arts workouts, true in her earlier years she had been the best at it, but she hadn’t done anything of that sort in over three years. The mental drills that they had her jumping through had been hard when she was in her prime, with that golden silence, her 'calming wind', to fall back on, now though they were murdering her. The only silence she had recently obtained was drug induced, and even that hadn’t helped much. This, this was really pushing her limits. Crawford stayed close by, to offer her the same refugee he had Schuldich, and even her many, many years back. A calm wind in the storms of her mind. Just like everything else, he couldn’t block the answers from coming, they were from within her own head and not someone else, but he gave her a silence to concentrate on, to focus with, to comprehend. But now she did her best not to accept it. She didn’t want anything to do with him, or at least part of her didn’t. The other part of her insisted she needed to stay at least partly sane, and sometimes retreated in to his world of calmness. But not very damn often.
Of course at moments like this she didn’t need his quiet to concentrate on to lessen the burden of her ‘gift’, the pain did that for her. Nausea, cramps, fever, and just general hellish pain. That was something to concentrate on, even if she didn’t want to. It also made it impossible to sleep. She had been tossing and turning for the last 48 and a half minutes on the floor. The pile of blankets and pillows that laid next to the bed, and what she used as one, had become twisted and tangled around her. Finally she was able to come to a position that wasn’t too bad. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but maybe she could just lie there for a few minutes…no seconds, three seconds to be exact.
“AHH!!” and the light came on again. Still right overhead. The small part of her mind and body that wasn’t screaming in pain told her she should pull that damned bulb out. But then again, she was too short to reach it, maybe Tink could..
“UP!” Yoko’s voice screamed at her. 'Who the hell was…another trainer…. Mauro’s boss…a step up.' Despite everything, she was improving, and moving ahead at fast.
“Uh, Don’t you people ever learn, NO MORNINGS!” before the whole of her sentence had come out, and she could turn away from this new presence, the thin blank that was half under her, and still half tangled around her was whipped out from under her. Her body twisted in protest and she ended up sprawled across the floor, her head cracking against the bottom leg of her bed. 'Great! A new form of torture, at least she isn’t kickin..'
“OW Scheiße, I’m up, shinigami verdammt.” She tried to stand. She honestly did. But the cramps in her body chose that moment to remind her of there presence. She very soon found herself folded over in a ball of pain on the floor. She was ready for the next kick, hit, whatever Yoko was going to throw at her. The gentle hands that were helping her up came as a shock to her. 'Who, Nagi, no, to strong, there real. Gentle, that rules out Braddy, then it was, but why…'
“You’re interfering. Leave now.” Yoko snapped at the man helping her to her feet.
“Nein. She’s in pain, she’s on a serious withdrawal, give her a fucking day off.” Schuldich responded, still helping Sünde stand. 'Why, he cared...no he still felt guilty and why was...he did care…no not…yes…but then…and no….but yes…if I….and then….he didn’t know…I couldn’t…but….'
“SCHU! Get away!” Sünde snapped at him, pushing him away from her. His faced crossed over in to a hurt expression that just didn’t look right on the normally cocky red head. Sünde didn’t see it. Her eyes were still squeezed tight and she was holding her head to try and stop it from spinning out of control.
“I…”
“I know, but it’s making it worse.” She told him, standing, almost, steady on her own two feet.
“All right.” He said gently as he turned and left he room. As he passed by the door, Crawford walked in. More and more Sünde was beginning to realize the importance of a decent lock. 'Of course with Nagi around…'
“Ahh.” She cried out as the new set of answers that were flying around in her head met up with the searing pain spreading through her veins. She was on her hands and knees again before she knew it.
“He’s right.” Came the cold voice of Crawford, echoing in the small, mostly empty room.
“NANI?!” Yoko turned from the crumpled form of the girl to Crawford. Framed by the light of the hall behind him, making him look even more intimidating then normal.
“Crawford, you know that Esstet needs her mission capable as soon as possible.” Yoko snapped at him.
“Yes, but it will do no good to put her through this today. It will only hurt our future cause.” He spoke in that same overly cold voice. She wondered sometimes how he managed not to form ice in his mouth. It certainty could have formed in the air.
“A vision?” Yoko asked, backing down a bit already. Crawford just stood there and glared at both the occupants in the room. Apparently that was his way of answering. At least Yoko took it as a ‘yes’ and left with a small huff and a promise of starting again tomorrow. Sünde couldn’t wait. Once Yoko was gone from the room Crawford spoke again.
“Get back in bed and rest. Tomorrow I expect you to be dressed before the training session if nothing else.” He then spun on his heel and marched out. Shutting the door and flicking off the damned light as he left. 'Had it been a…no…then why…STOP THINKING!!!! That train of thoughts wont do anything but hurt.' she yelled at herself. With that she fell the rest of the way back down in to the mess of blankets on the floor and tried to capture some sleep, no matter how uneasy it maybe.
She had had enough. Two weeks and four days and she couldn’t take it much more. Getting the shit beat out of her ever morning, cursed at all through the day, and the same drills again and again. Between Mauro and Yoko, it was a surprise she was even still alive. Plus, they had not made withdrawal a very kind experience for her. She had had enough. 'and in five, four, three, two,...' The light blinked on.
“AHHH!!!”
“OWWW”
“Fuck, what the hell!!!”
“HEY! Watch it!!”
“DAMN IT ALL!!”
“NO!”
Schuldich ran in the room at brake neck speed. Every morning he had been coming to the rescue of the girl he had beat at the start of this whole endeavor. The sounds of the poor girl who was suffering the before said beating, withdrawal, and gods knows what else at the hands of those fucking trainers. Being pulled very roughly from her room and forced in to training he honestly thought she couldn’t handle, psychically or mentally. Ever morning, despite how ever late his night was, he would come in and try to rescue her. Part of him said it was just that he was the one to have started this, another part of him knew better, but that’s what cold showers were for. He WASN’T straight. This morning he figured he would have the same routine. Pull the two Esstet assholes off of her. That wasn’t quite what he found.
The doors to both Sünde’s room and Nagi’s were wide open. Nagi was standing there gaping in awe with his mouth, literally, hanging open. Sünde was lounging against the side of her doorframe. She was wearing a pair of Nagi's pants that were sagging down, extremely low on her hips to show off a pair of Nagi’s boxers as well. It was amazing how large the Japanese teenagers clothes were on her, when you considered how small he was to being with. The pants hung well past her feet though, he was considerably taller then she was. Her top wasn’t hers either. It was a crop top of Schu’s that hung like an over sized tank top on her. Her hair was pulled back it to a fairly neat and tidy ponytail. The biggest shock though wasn’t to see her in fairly good condition, it was to see the heap of battered and bloody trainers behind her. Alive, but definitely going to be in pain for a long time to come.
“Nani?” she said, as if confused by their looks. “I felt better, so I thought they might like some of there own medicine.” With that she took off down the hall to where she knew Crawford would be waiting for her. Schu and Nagi still stood transfixed where they were.
A moment latter Tinkerbell bounded up the steps from the cells below. She had been offered a real room, but had opted to take a cell with Farfie instead. That had caused a moment of relief from everyone, except Sünde who trusted the manic for some reason. The idea of a cell that could be locked form the outside was a reassuring thought to the rest of them. Though it really didn’t matter too much, after all her time on the streets, a simple lock wasn’t enough to stop her. As she passed Sünde’s room, she paused and gave a small look to the two trainers rising from their crumpled pile on the floor.
“Jep’s feeling better. That’s good.” She chirped happily as she continued to bound down the hall with her neon green ponytail bouncing to the rhythm of her steps.
//Well Nagi, I think you got your excitement. How do you like it?// Schu smirked in to the back of Nagi’s thoughts. His laugh tickling like spiders in the boys mind.
“Shut up.” Was all the kid could respond with as he retreated back in to his room.
“Okay, begin now.” The slightly strained, due to a broken nose, voice of Yoko called out. Sünde sat in a chair in the middle of one of the mission rooms. She was hooked to electronics and computers, and a lot of other high tech equipment. All of the wires ran in to the joining room on the other side of the glass divider. Every wave of brain activity, every heartbeat, every everything was being watched by the two trainers, and Crawford. After her little incident a week ago, they had gone easier on her. They quite the martial arts training all together, she had more then proved to them that she was capable of that. They decided to forgo the weapon training, assuming that she knew it already. In truth they were just scared as hell to hand her a katana or gun and say ‘see what you can do’. They didn’t know that she had a dagger concealed on her from day one. She managed to hide it almost better then Tink. Tink was the one who had showed her how, hell she was the one who had given her the dagger. When she had given it to her she had told Sünde that if she ever needed one again, it would be easier to have her own, rather then track Tink down to steal one from, which was what she had just done at that moment in time.
Now most of her training was centered around mind drills. Figure out just how much damage she had done to herself, if any, and prepare her to keep a sane head without the aid of drugs to the best ability that they could. Every now and then they would throw in a general drill. See just how good her crude abilities were. She hated this. She knew she wasn’t going to get any better then she was right now, but they didn’t seem to realize that yet. Crawford did, but he kept his mouth shut and his lips pressed against Esstet’s ass. Today’s little drill was one of those crude everyday ones. See how well she could identify her comrades, enemies, and bystanders without the use of her powers. Well, at least without using them too much. Not to use them at all was an impossibility. She knew that from trying to do it for the 18 years she had been alive. As Yoko called out for her to begin, instantly the room was filled with heavy background noises. Everything from gunshots, to music, to construction, and in between it all was snips of voices, words, or even just sounds that she was expected to identify, without asking herself who they were, just saying the name. Every time she did forcefully use her powers, it would register as a spike on one of the many machines in the adjoining room. When it came to a point that it was becoming too much for her, Crawford would call it and give her a break before they moved on to the next set. Yoko and Mauro didn’t appreciate it, but they went along with it, realizing he knew better then they did. But at the same time, they were trying to push past the limits that both Crawford and Sünde had set for herself. In the grand scheme of things they wanted her broke completely down and rebuilt from scratch. But they knew that Crawford wouldn’t allow for it, even if they had the time to do so. Which they didn’t if she was to be mission capable anytime soon. And she still had to go through the final conference/testing level with a master trainer before that as well.
The tape was blaring away and Sünde was lazily listening to it as she shouted out the names that buzzed by. Annoying them the best she could and still getting away with it by simply refusing to use the appropriate code names.
“Omi, Ken, Nagi, Schuldich, Ken, Aya, Braddy, Farfarello, Yohji, Aya, Omi, Tink, Nagi, Braddy, bystander, shopkeeper, Omi, Nagi, Yohji, Ken, Braddy..” she spat out with dead on accuracy. Suddenly the tape hit a blank spot, the room was filled with complete silence, before her mind even caught up with her, Sünde answered.
“Aya.” All three pairs of eyes that had been looking down to fix the problem snapped up. None of them were amused. She looked up and in to the angry faces.
“Nani?” she asked, never allowing herself to register any emotion except mild curiosity at why they were displeased. “Sounded like him to me.” She said simply. Mildly in the back of her mind she thought that if Tink had been there she’d be laughing hysterically, and she didn’t even know who Aya was. And the look on Braddy’s face, that would have had her rolling on the ground giddily in tears. Tink hated Braddy. Sünde didn’t know why to a full extent, she had an idea though and for her that was more then enough. She didn’t need to know, Tink had her own reasons and that was good enough. She heard the mic click on near the window that separated her from the others suddenly.
“Stop messing around Jepardy.” Snapped Crawford’s voice across it. She could hear a loud beep from one of the machines in the room behind him before he cut the connection. Her mind and maybe, no definitely, her heart rate jumped in a brief flash of anger. She hated being called Jepardy. Only one person in the world had that right, and it sure as hell wasn’t him.
“And stop calling me Brad.” He hissed as it clicked on again. She had half a mind to tell him that she hadn’t been calling him Brad, but rather Braddy, but then she figured that wouldn’t help her situation much. 'No, I know it wont, it will just make things..'
“BZZT” another buzzer was going off in the control room.
“Calm your mind down.” Mauro coughed across the connection. He tried to hold the same authority he had before, but with a black eye, a sprained knee, and a broken wrist, it didn’t work very well.
“Easy for you to say.” She muttered under her breath. She could feel Braddy’s mind open up to hers. A small safe haven. She refused it. To her it was under the same category as selling your soul to the devil, and she had already done that once.
“We just want to run one more round.” Mauro was telling her. “While it seems that you’re getting them all right…”
“Duh.” Sünde interjected. Getting a small ‘humph’ from Yoko, a twitch from Braddy, and a dirty look from Mauro.
“Yes, anyway, you seemed to be accessing your powers more profusely when it comes to distinguishing Balinese's voice above that of the others.” Sünde kept her face a complete stone expression, not reveling anything as she looked in to the window and the glass-framed eyes of Brad Crawford as she spoke.
“Yeah, well, if this were a ‘taste’ test, I’m sure I would be doing better. I’d never forget something that sweet.”
“Begin now.” Yoko’s voice cut in just before the test started again. Sünde happily tucked away the small piece of information that Braddy had promptly stormed out of the room spouting curses in English, German, French, Japanese, and at least one other language. She knew that would get to him. She was so happy, she could have smiled, but she didn’t. That wasn’t who she was.
When she walked into the room everything was just as she would have liked it. Quite, mentally anyway. Braddy was in his office, Schuldich was out, literally passed out, on the couch. Another night of drinking at the local club, trying to find someone to get his mind off Crawford. Nagi was sitting in front of a blaring television set, with a laptop blaring some J-pop song. Farfarello had moved the blender in to the room and was feeding it pillows, books, and anything else that would fit in it. Tinkerbell was perched on top of the baby grand in the corner, poking at he keys with one of her daggers. Farfarello knew about how Sünde’s powers worked, and respected her the best he could, in other words he never asked a single question of her. Ever. Nagi was too absorbed in the yaoi site he was on to think about anything else. Sünde laughed inside at that. Nagi, yaoi, who knew. Tinkerbell, well, even when she wanted to, Tink was the one person that her powers never worked on. Normally only family members would be immune from one anthers powers, and sometimes not even then. No one quite knew how it had happened, but those two girls had developed an immunity to one another. Tink couldn’t ‘soul drain’ Sünde, and Sünde couldn’t answer any questions of Tink. It made it easy for the two of them though. Neither one had to worry about the other affecting them.
As she walked in to the room she relaxed. It was nice to just relax once in a while. And lately thanks to all that shinigami damned training she hadn’t been able to. She threw herself down on the couch and stretched out. This was nice. Or it would have been nice if the fiery haired German on the couch next to her wasn’t snoring.
“Move it Schuldich.” She spat as she used her foot to kick him down to the floor. He fell in a pile and a slight ‘umpf’ left his throat, but not much else. She was just starting to settle back in when she could feel Nagi’s confused stare on her. She turned to the young kid sitting in the chair near her.
“Nani?” she asked him. So much for her peaceful relaxing time off.
“You’re not Japanese.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. But a confused one at that.
“I never said I was.”
“You look it, you sound it..” he started, staring at her, trying to find out how he missed any signs that might be there.
“I was supposed to. Undercover remember, I was trained to look the part. But tell, me, how do you figure it out?” She had been trained to be Japanese and with her powers to help her it was quite convincing, and she knew she had had him fooled at first.
“Schuldich.” He said, or tried to. The word would always get caught on his tongue and changed around. In fact it was nearly impossible for any Japanese person to be able to pronounce his name. Then she figured it out. She had just said it, perfectly.
“Ah, yeah. My German gave me away. I knew it would eventually.” She said with a smile, in fact she had thought about even saying that much in German. She had restrained herself though. Barely. Tink at this point had stopped playing the piano and was laughing at the conversation her friend and that damned brat were having.
“He doesn’t know what you are, does he?” she asked, and just for fun she asked in her native, but seldom used, Russian.
“Nein. I wonder if he even knows what Sünde means, or that it’s German too.” She replied to Tink, speaking to her in German for Nagi's sake alone. Though her eyes never left the more and more shocked look that was crowding in on Nag’s face. To say he was confused would have been an understatement. He was bewildered beyond normal conventions.
“Did she just speak in Russian?” he asked. If the girls hadn’t known better, they would have thought that he was on the verge of tears.
“Ja.” They both said in unison.
“Der koft tut weh.”(*6) Came a mumbled breath from the man still lying in a pile on the floor.
“Of course it does, Tinks poking it.” Sünde said nonchalantly as she looked down at Schuldich. Tinkerbell had moved over during their conversation with Nagi and was now sitting next to Schu, poking roughly at his head, prodding him awake. Nagi’s eyes went wide again. German, Russian, Japanese, the girl was a mystery to him, and was delighting in the fact that all of this was giving him a migraine. He just continued to stare at her and Tinkerbell in shock as they ‘helped’ Schu wake up and get to his feet. Neither one of them were very gentle in their means of doing so. Still it all appeared good old-fashioned fun. Then of course it all had to come to an abrupt end. Crawford stormed in to the room and towards the couch, though never getting to close to any of them.
“Just what the HELL do you think you’re doing?” he bellowed at them, though it was very obvious his comment was directed at Sünde. She mindlessly blinked at him and pretended she had no idea what he meant. Which of course she did, without even using her powers.
“Pissing off Schu and annoying Nag’s.” she told him calmly. Tinkerbell glared at him with furry in her eyes. Schu leaned back against the couch, stopping trying to get up. He knew better then to mess with a Crawford who was already pissed off. Nagi very quickly became devoted to his computer, pretending to ignore the impending fight that would surly emerge from this. Farfarello was still enjoying the blender, not noticing anything.
“You know what I mean.” Crawford snapped at the girl again. She moved out from the couch and stood facing him, glaring him down the best she could, considering while she did look threatening, she was much shorter then he was and so glaring him ‘down’ was actually glaring ‘up’ at him.
“No, I don’t, enlighten me.” She was now just as pissed as he was.
“You are treating your training like its nothing. You are disobeying…” he started before she cut him off.
“And why the hell not, why the fuck do I even have to go through all this shit. Tinks already running missions..”
“Tinkerbell didn’t go out and make herself a whore, a junkie, and a trick. Esstet is trying to make you what you once were.”
“Well they’re the ones that made me a fucking whore in the first place now aren’t they Braddy!” At that an eerie silence fell over the room. Even Farfarello stopped the blender to listen to this fight. That last comment stilled any rebuts that Crawford had planed. The meaning of it was mostly lost on the majority of the room, but it had hit a sore spot in the fearless leader.
Sünde and Crawford just stared each other down, both fuming, barely able to breathe they were so angry at one another. Suddenly a dagger went flying past Crawford’s head and embedded its self in to the wall behind him. It had missed purposely, yet still came close. Both Crawford and Sünde turned their heads to stare at Tink. She was still on the floor by the couch. She held a look of confused innocence. As if trying to pretend she hadn't done anything.
“What, it missed.” She said plainly. Sünde growled, literally, and stormed out, slamming the door to her room so loud that the whole house echoed with it. Loud music then could be heard blaring from behind it. American music. Nagi groaned. Just another part of the mystery. Crawford growled out loud and retreated to his office at the sound of her music. He too slammed his door with enough force to shake the house. Schu mumbled something in German about that not helping his head. Tinkerbell retrieved her dagger and left the room, not giving any indication of where she was heading, and no one bothered to ask. If any one could, that girl could take care of herself. The silence that droned on in the living room was then finally shattered by Farfarello. He started up the blender again.
“Crawford?” Nagi asked as he looked at the man behind the desk. He’d just come in from school, a necessary discomfort he felt. He had to check in with Crawford after he came in. He always did, which he felt was pointless. Schu could sense if he was in the house or not, and Crawford would be able to see if Nagi did anything but come straight home. But he did as he was told. He stopped by Crawford’s office everyday as soon as he came home.
The man in question at the moment had a glazed over look on his face, and his eyes weren’t looking at anything, just gazing off in a daydream state. A state that was not a normal thing to be seen on him. His breath was also caught slightly in his chest. He was having a vision. At Nagi’s words he blinked, causing his eyes to refocus and his head to clear. Quickly he shut the laptop and stood.
“What is it Crawford?’’ Nagi asked again.
“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. Go find Jepardy and have her come to my office. Esstet has another training session for her.”
“Another one? That’s all she’s been doing since she came in.” Nagi shut up in his protest as soon as the glint off of Crawford’s glasses caught him.
“I’ll go get her.” He mumbled at the older man. Nagi realized as he turned and left that Crawford must be just as peeved about all of this as anyone else. He had a different look on his face. One that didn’t cross it very often. Nagi didn’t see it hardly at all, but had quickly learned to be watchful when he did catch it.
Crawford had had that same look on his face the day that Schwartz had plummeted in to the depths of the ocean, and again on the day Schuldich had attempted, and nearly succeed, to commit suicide. The look meant something bad. Nagi didn’t know Sünde that well yet, but he didn’t like the idea of something bad happening to her. He felt though that if it was too bad, Crawford would stop it from getting too far out of hand. Just like he had before.
Before Nagi even reached her door, he knocked on it. Before he had even finished the second rap, she answered.
“Come in Nags.” He instantly opened the door and a few seconds later when he finally reached it he walked right in. Sünde was stretched on the pile of pillows and blankets that she had gathered, and used for a bed instead of her real one. Her hands were pillowing her head. One of her short legs was bent up on to the real bed behind her bouncing to the beat of some unknown American song he couldn’t understand. He gently frowned at her in confusion.
Sünde was a mystery and a half to him. She looked, acted, and spoke the part of a perfect Japanese girl. Her name itself, which he had finally gotten Schuldich to tell him meant ‘sin’, was German. Also the way she could so easily speak and pronounce the German that troubled all Japanese with its harshness of dialect, that would make it seem that she was a German. Yet all the music she listened to was American, and half the books she read were in English. And to help completely confuse the young boy, she spoke better Russian then Tinkerbell did, and Tinkerbell WAS Russian. She had no background, and no feelings that could ever be displayed, much less read. It wasn’t fair. It annoyed Nagi to no ends. And on top of that she called him ‘Nags’. A nickname he hated, yet when she called him that, he couldn’t even tell her not to. He liked hearing her call him that. And that too annoyed him.
“What do you..ah man, again?” Sünde whined as she swung around and sat facing Nagi. She looked like she was almost ready to pout. “I’m sick of this.”
“Gomen.” Nagi told her as he closed his eyes for a brief second and simultaneously her radio snapped off.
“Danke.” She mumbled as slid, literally, up off the ground and stretched. “At least this is the last one.”
“How do you..” he started before being shot an almost smirking glare.
“Nags, you really are more naive then anyone gives you credit for.”
“Your not as out of control as you think you are.” He told her, taking into a count that despite everything she had done, and the way she tried to present herself, she knew what she was doing. Not many people could take down three Esstet trainers, piss off Crawford at every given chance, AND stay alive. He allowed himself to return her smirk with one of his own. Neither one of them were actually very good at showing feelings, so the unusual ‘smirks’ they were giving each other would have made anyone watching this show crack up laughing. They weren’t real smirks, or real smiles, hell, not even real expressions, just something on both of their faces.
Then Sünde turned and stretched out the creaks that had settled in her limbs. Her shirt, or more correctly Schuldich’s crop top, that had the look of a normal tank top on her, crept up across her flat stomach. Her skin had a naturally darker tone to it then most Japanese. Her pants, no, wrong again, Nagi’s pants, slipped easily down a few inches on her slender hips, showing off a pair of baby blue boxers with pink flamingos dancing on them. Nagi briefly blushed at that fact, realizing that they too were his. She hadn’t even realized that this little show of hers was in fact a show. Nagi realized that to her, this was just stretching. It wasn’t the blatant show of skin and skill that she did in front of Crawford to get a rise out of him. Nagi wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she was trying for whenever she did that, but she normally got anger. But then again Schuldich got that same reaction. No, this was just stretching. Yet damn, if she kept this up much longer she was going to get a ‘rise’ out of Nagi. 'Hell, I'm closer to her age then Crawford is anyway and…Oh my gods what in the HELL am I thinking!' Nagi screamed at himself, trying to stop those thoughts. The only comfort he had was the fact that at least she wasn’t a telepath.
“You’d better get going, Crawford’s waiting in his office.” Nagi finally managed to say to her, and quickly turned around in a manner as if to leave. At this very moment he didn’t give a fuck if Schu had used all the hot water in the shower, he wouldn’t be needing it anyway.
“Let him wait.” Sünde replied, yet she still followed him out of the room and started down the hallway that led to Crawford’s office. Nagi openly smiled, or at least the best attempt he could manage of a smile, at this. She liked pissing Crawford off yes, but she still followed the simple rules for self-preservation. Make Crawford wait, piss him off, don’t show up, die. He needed Weiss alive for his plans to work, his own group, they weren’t as important. Nagi watched, almost against his will, as she walked slowly to his office, swaying her hips side to side gently. Left over from her days on the street, Nagi knew it was hard to get some things out of your system from personal experience, but still, wow. ‘God I need that cold shower now.'
“Why head all the way to the shower when I’m right here?” Schuldich purred from behind him. His mocking seductiveness was marred only by the fact that the red-haired German was practically shaking with laughter.
“I’d go to Farfarello well before you Schuldich. At least I know where he’s been.” Nagi shot back, trying to sound firm and insulting but blushing intently at the idea of Schu picking up his thoughts about Sünde. Schu just smirked and turned back into his room.
“Remember Nagi-kun, you wanted it to be more interesting. Now you got it.” He called out behind him. Nagi just groaned and headed down to find that cold shower.

*1: Inside Joke
*2: Honey (Japanese)
*3: I’m sorry sweetheart (German)
*4: Japanese God of Death. The only god that Jepardy will claim to believe in.
(It’s also an inside joke)
*5: Come on, anyone who has ever seen the show has wondered how those
people pull a three-foot sword from nowhere.
*6: My head hurts. (German)
Anything else that was in either Japanese or German that you didn’t recognize was either a word of affection, like love, dear, honey. Or it was a curse word. You should have been able to guess that though from the content around them.
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