Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Talking To The Dead ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1

A tentative hand reached up and grabbed the doorknocker, giving it three solid raps before retreating back down to the side.

This is ridiculous, he thought, fingering the key ring in his pocket. It's not as if I can't let myself in if I really wanted to.

Though I suppose it's possible they changed the locks...

He was interrupted from his reverie by the bright smiling face of boy easily four years his junior. "Hello! You must be Ken!"

Taken aback slightly by the familiar greeting, Ken nodded dumbly.

"Good! Rex told me to expect you sometime this evening. We were just about to sit down and eat dinner. You can join us if you'd like." Bright blue eyes smiled at him from underneath a mop of unruly brown hair; Ken was unconsciously reminded of a very similar pair of cerulean eyes.

"I've, ah, already eaten. I think I'll pass. Though I appreciate the offer," he called out, his eyes following the boy as he darted into the kitchen to stir the meal. He smiled in fond remembrance of a time not long past, when Yohji regularly burned their meals and ended up making takeout into a staple of his diet.

"Sena?" an unfamiliar voice rang through the building. "Sena, where's the latest shipment of fertilizer?"

Moments later a spiky head peeked around from the back entrance of the store. "Sena?" Catching a glimpse of Ken, the other stepped into view, straightening up abruptly. "Excuse me," he bowed his head slightly, wiping soiled hands on a dark green apron. "I don't believe we've met."

Ken stepped forward, offering his right hand. "Ken Hidaka."

The younger man accepted it without hesitation. "Kyou Aguri. Codename Havana. You're Siberian, right?"

Ken nodded. It was a fair assumption that his new teammates would already know about him. "Sena just ran into the kitchen to take care of dinner. I think you'll find him in there."

Kyou made a motion in that direction, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "But if you don't mind, I can help you with the fertilizer. They probably still deliver it to the same loading pallet in the back."

A small smile graced Kyou's face. "Really? I'd appreciate it. I've only been at the shop for about a week now, and I'm still getting the hang of everything. Sena signed off on the shipment, so I assumed he'd know where it went."

Ken lifted his hand from Kyou's shoulder and began walking in the direction of the shop. "Probably, but he seems pretty preoccupied right now. We can check my hunch, and if it's wrong, we'll go and bother Sena."

Stepping into the back entrance of the shop, Ken was momentarily overwhelmed by the myriad of scents assaulting his senses. He was able to distinctly recognize at least fifteen of them without thought, and a quick glance around the shop verified another ten. Making his way briskly across the shop, he took a quick look around to re-familiarize himself with the layout. The shop itself was mostly as he remembered seeing it last time; many of the displays were in the same place they had been when he left, excepting the seasonal displays, which had been rotated into an autumnal theme.

He made a quick detour to the front to inspect the new displays. It looks like Kyou and Sena do nice work, after all, he thought, admiring the bunches of bright red and yellow dried leaf accents. To the right of the entrance, a painted pumpkin whimsically greeted customers.

He was so caught up in looking at the pumpkin that he did not notice Kyou's approach. "Cute, isn't it? It was Sena's idea." Ken turned to follow Kyou, when something on the counter caught his eye.

"Freesia?" Ken picked the vase up, studying the blooms critically.

Kyou shifted in place, uncomfortably. "Yeah. Rex insisted, even though they're out of season. But they're nice, aren't they?"

Ken nodded slowly. "It's just... I went all over Tokyo looking for this flower, and then to find it here..." He shook his head. "I guess I really shouldn't be surprised." He replaced the vase onto the counter. "Come on, I'm delaying you from your dinner. Let's go find that fertilizer."

Kyou followed Ken outside to the alleyway, where a larger, secondary loading pallet stacked high with bags of fertilizer sat next to the greenhouse entrance. With the aid of a forklift, they made short work of transporting the fertilizer inside. He helped Kyou finish a few last tasks before Kyou locked the door to the shop behind them and headed back inside toward the kitchen.

As soon as the door shut, Sena's voice greeted their ears. "Kyou? Kyou! Dinner's on the table! Kyou -"

"Sorry, Sena. Ken was with me in the shop, helping me with the new fertilizer shipment."

Sena looked around the corner of the doorframe into the living room, where Kyou stood to the right of Ken. "Oh! I'm sorry, I was supposed to help you with that..."

Kyou grinned at his younger teammate. "It's okay. I was in luck - Ken already knows the lay of the land here."

"Thank you, Ken." Sena inclined his head gratefully in Ken's direction. "I apologize for not formally introducing myself earlier. I am Sena Izumi. Codename Laperm."

Ken looked down at his hands, completely covered in fertilizer. "Ken Hidaka. Codename Siberian, as you probably already know."

Sena nodded and smiled. "Well, if you've changed your mind about dinner, the offer is still open. Otherwise, you can grab a seat downstairs in the mission room. Rex should be arriving any time now for our mission briefing."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ken watched Kyou remove his shop apron and hang it up on the hook next to the door. "I think I'll still pass. I'll see you downstairs after dinner."

Making a quick detour to the bathroom to wash off his hands, Ken noticed his reflection the mirror for the first time in many days. Washed out brown eyes ringed with dark circles stared back at him, betraying evidence of sleepless nights spent debating the decision to come back. He raked wet fingers through his hair, surprised by the length it had grown. It nearly covered the back of his neck.

I guess that's what Yohji meant about the barber. He considered it for a moment, tilting his head to the left, and decided he liked the new look.

He dried his hands off and walked downstairs to the mission room, taking the oft-fought-over prime spot on the center sofa. He leaned back, his eyes drifting shut as the toll of the previous nights caught up with him.

A harsh feminine voice jolted him awake. "Siberian, I presume?"

His eyes flew open, focusing quickly on an attractive woman in her late-twenties/early-thirties. Steel-gray eyes pinned him in place, the most prominent feature of a narrow face framed with straight blue hair.

"That would be me," he replied tersely. He could tell this was already not starting off as well as he had hoped.

The woman frowned and pursed her lips, clearly unhappy. "I'm Rex. I am here to give Weiss the new mission objective. Am I correct in assuming that your presence here indicates your decision to rejoin Weiss?"

"Rejoin Weiss?" He snorted. He did not know what it was about the woman's manner, but she was already setting off his fuse. "What Weiss? I don't see anything here that resembles the Weiss I knew."

"Really," she drawled, leaning back and placing her right hand on her hip. "I'd be inclined to say the same thing, looking at you."

Ken leaned forward dangerously, right hand unconsciously gripping into a fist. "The only Weiss I knew is dead."

"Oh? Then why are you here?"

Ken considered the question a moment before answering. He flexed his fingers, feeling phantom bugnuks between them. "I'm here to take care of some unfinished business, and to get some answers. Is that sufficient?"

"No." Leaning forward, she stared him directly in the eyes. "Weiss or not, I can care less. You're here to do your job and follow Persia's orders. Otherwise, you can leave right now."

Ken seethed. In the background, he heard footsteps on the stairs. Sena and Kyou were probably finished with dinner, and heading downstairs for the mission briefing. It occurred to him at the same moment that it would probably be a bad idea for his new teammates to see him clashing with their new boss. He needed to stop this now, before his anger got out of control.

"Fine," he spat. "I'll give it a try." Sena and Kyou were at the bottom of the steps now, staring at the confrontation between them. "But I want you to tell me one thing. Was I the only one fool enough to accept Kritiker's offer?"

"Obviously not."

Ken jerked his head to the side, following the voice back to the source. Resting against the wall, eyes closed and expression grim, the former swordsman of Weiss stood with arms crossed.

"Aya?" It was Sena's voice that broke the silence. "Aya! You're back!"

Aya nodded, stepping forward into the light. Finally out of the shadows, Ken was able to get a better look at his former teammate. The first thing he noticed was the braid. He smirked, imaging Yohji's reaction to it. After the crap he had given Ken over a couple of missed haircuts, Aya could expect a full-out inquisition over the new look.

But other than the hair, and a slight update to his wardrobe, Aya appeared much the same as he had the last time Ken had seen him, nearly six months ago. Ken was both relieved and a little disappointed, thinking back to his meeting with Yohji. Maybe Yohji had been onto something - maybe it was time for a change...

But Ken could not help but think that there was something different about Aya that he still had not figured out. He stared at him as Aya retreated back to the shadows, once again leaning against the wall to his right. Sena and Kyou took the sofa to Ken's left, leaving him alone on the central couch. Rex crossed the room to the front and powered on the television, inserting a tape into the VCR, one well-manicured finger poised over the play button...

"Wait," Ken started, looking around the room expectantly. "Is this everyone?"

Rex frowned at the interruption, turning to face him. "Were you expecting someone else, Siberian?"

"I - I..." He looked around the room. Sena blinked at him curiously, and Kyou appeared to be puzzled. Aya, as usual, ignored him. "No, nevermind."

"Then let's start this briefing." Rex moved to the left of the television and dimmed the lights as the tape began to play. The picture flickered, resolving itself into the shadowy figure of Persia, seated with his back turned to the camera. The glare from the window behind him obscured the details of Persia's true appearance; such as it had always been, with all of the previous men named Persia that he had worked under.

Hiding from us, Ken thought dismally. Just as he always has, no matter who he is.

Coward.

His dismay furthered when the voiceover started up, and an obviously scrambled voice began speaking.

"A high number of recent suicides in the Ministry for Science and Technology points to a conspiracy within the Ministry to overthrow current technology policy, and change Japan into a technological superpower."

The image of Persia darkened, replaced by a series of headshots. "There have been ten suicides in the past two months alone; the most recent, Kouri Inamura, a clerk for the Atomic Energy Commission." A woman in her late thirties, her hair tied back in a severe bun, frowned off-camera.

"Previous intelligence efforts correlate the suicides to the presence of a new statistics software package being used exclusively within the department." A screenshot of a spreadsheet, with bar charts lining the left side of the page, filled the screen. "The software was developed in-house by a group of college-age software engineers..."

A series of headshots flashed by on the television screen as Persia droned on, but Ken was no longer paying attention. Software engineers? he wondered to himself. "Previous intelligence efforts"... "college-age software engineers"...

Was this the mission?... Did Omi...?

He balled his fists at his sides, squeezing tight enough to leave small crescent imprints in his palms. How could Persia be so callous, dismissing his fallen comrade so easily?

Would he be dismissed the same way when he died?

The screen flashed to show a building, and Ken buried his anger for the moment to focus again on the mission. Persia's scrambled voice continued to fill the silence of the room with its strange discordant timbre.

"...in this building. Your mission is to eliminate the creators of the software and all existing copies and backup tapes of the program. Additional information will be distributed by Kritiker agents before the mission.

"Hunters of the night, deny these dark beasts their tomorrows."

The screen flickered and dimmed. Rex pushed the eject button on the VCR and raised the lights. Picking up a pile of folders from one of the end tables, she regarded each of them critically. Her gaze lingered on Ken. "Is everyone in?"

Voiced assent issued from all mouths. Ken found himself nodding as he offered his agreement. He did not particularly like this mission - especially the lack of information going into it - but if accepting the mission meant getting some answers to the circumstances surrounding Omi's death, then he was in.

The corners of Rex's mouth turned up slightly, the small smile offsetting her otherwise harsh demeanor. She walked around the room, distributing folders to each member of the team. "This folder contains additional details about the mission and the targets. The mission will commence two days from now. There will be another meeting to map out mission strategy. Further intelligence will be available at that time."

Ken looked at the pitifully thin mission file in hands.

Granted, he had taken missions with less information before, but that was back when they had Omi as their tactician.

Omi...

He risked a glance around the room, noting he was not the only person dismayed at the lack of information. Sena frowned, and Kyou stared at the folder in his lap as if his gaze could burn a hole in it. He wondered, suddenly, if this would be Kyou and Sena's first mission. What a hell of a mission to start with...

Rex cleared her throat. All eyes shifted to train on her. "Are there any questions?"

The clock ticked in the space of the silence. After a half minute, Rex addressed them again. "Fine. Expect to meet back here two days from now at eighteen hundred for the planning meeting. Dismissed."

No one moved while Rex made her way across the floor and up the staircase. As soon as she left, a collective breath expelled, and everyone seemed to move at once. Ken stood and stretched, intent on leaving quickly and avoiding Aya as long as possible.

"Hey Ken!" Sena's voice stopped him mid-movement. He turned in step to face Sena's friendly smile.

He summoned up a smile in response. "Yes?"

Sena tilted his head. "Do you have a place to stay tonight? Because we have a spare room, if you need a place to crash."

Spare room? Oh no, not... "No thank you," he responded quickly, managing to keep his tone even. "I've got an apartment nearby." He was about to end the conversation when a thought occurred to him. "Would it all right if I stopped by tomorrow to do some research on the mission? I don't have a computer at my place," he shrugged, by way of explanation.

Sena was only too happy to comply. "Sure!"

Kyou interceded. "I'll get you a key so that you don't have to deal with the, err, daytime customers." He shifted in place, rubbing the back of his head in apparent embarrassment.

"Ah, thanks. I don't think I'm ready to go back to having a fan club again just yet." Sena blushed and Kyou smiled.

Ken followed Kyou upstairs and obtained a copy of the key to the back door. He thanked Sena and Kyou and headed for the door. As he rotated the handle, he turned around to take a final look around.

Aya stood with his back against the opposite wall, arms folded, staring in his direction. Swallowing the urge to look away, Ken made a point of deliberately meeting Aya's gaze equally. Not a word was spoken during the minute-long stare; finally, Aya broke his gaze, and Ken looked away. He turned the knob of the door and stepped outside into the cold Tokyo night.