Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Through the Eyes of an Immortal ❯ Haunting Memories ( Chapter 7 )

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

I don't own Weiss Kreuz, but I think we all are beginning to understand that by now aren't we? I've written how many fan fictions? I also don't own Highlander the Series, it's was produced by David Panzer though… think that's how his name is spelled…
 
 
 
Note: Italics within this story are used for thoughts. Also anything in between ---- and ---- are flashbacks ^__^.
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter 7: Haunting Memories
(Part 1)
 
 
Darkness, it always had to happen around darkness. Although, at this time it was very bright, but it wasn't the sun lending it's golden warmth to the people. It was the cold artificial light that had become a widely used luxury, invented by Thomas Edison, of America. It was rather impersonal, but at least the air smelled cleaner than what it had before, well before crude oil was discovered and turned into a fuel for automobiles to use.
Ran thought it was all useless junk, but he had to admit to himself that it did make life a bit easier. He did like his Porsche as well, but in a way there could be no comparison between what they called horse power used to push cars to incomprehensible speeds on an open freeway; to that of the awesome gait of a horse galloping at an insane pace of an open field in broad daylight.
One good thing about his car was it at least kept him from getting saddle sore unlike the horse.
All of it was just to convenient, but like the fast food restaurants, he just had to accept the fact that his beloved Japan was changing, and for the better he hoped.
And this change, he thought to himself. A sigh hovering at his lips. Is what the others are working towards.
He gave his head an imperceptible shake and wiped clean a glass he had just finished washing only a few seconds ago.
It was always the same. They had a target, some evildoer; the unjust one, the one that the laws turned a blind eye too. It was the one they had to destroy, maim, kill, however you wanted to call it. This was their duty in life, or at least for him a small fraction in his seemingly never-ending one. This is what they chose to do and most of them never looked back at their old life with regret.
Who would want to anyway? They were paid handsomely for their deeds. Then again all assassins were.
“Hey bartender!” A man called to him, interrupting his thoughts. “I'm tired of this swill they call wine. I want a decent drink. Do what you're getting paid for and give a scotch on the rocks!” He ordered Ran. A sneer graced the drunken man's face almost as if Ran was nothing but the dirt off his shoes or that the immortal in front of him had no clue to what he wanted or what he was doing.
“Yes sir,” Ran acknowledged quietly, suppressing the desire to kill such a young whelp standing in front of him. Such arrogance that the human race had no a days was astonishing, then again Ran was now seen as a nobody instead of the son of a samurai like he had been in the eighteenth century. Besides this wasn't their target someone else was.
He had to grin and bear it, well he never smiled, but he didn't let it get to him either.
This was his job to do after all.
He quickly fixed the ordered drink and turned his back before the man could order something else. He wasn't about to kill the man for stupidity.
All of this should be simple, he though picking up a glass of water; he'd fixed for himself earlier and took a long drink from it.
So far, this is all that the night consisted of; rude, drunken or half drunk depending on how early in the night it was, men and women would walk up to the bar, order some heavy drink then walk off. Sometimes they would actually leave a tip for him. It didn't happen very often.
Most of the time it would be some stupid slogan they thought was funny, but in reality it wasn't.
It was at best to say that he enjoyed getting the money, which he pocketed as soon as they handed it to him, than the idiotic sayings. The money could at least be spent.
He, in all honestly, didn't need the money. Being just over three hundred years old did have it's uses, yet it wasn't a bad idea for him to save it either. Who knew when there would be a time in which he would need the money? Hell, Japan could go through an economical slump like America did for a decade. He of course hoped that it never happened but he was only an immortal not a fortuneteller.
Even with him it was the same, except for the gathering and that was tenuous at best.
Only one immortal was going to win but no one knew who it was going to be.
He idly glanced around the room looking for their target.
Chandeliers hung from vaulted ceilings, high enough so none would bother any of the taller party goers but low enough to occasionally cast a sparkle of it's prism luminance across the floors.
It was an upper class affair filled with politicians and their spouses
Women in sequin gowns of all hues either twirled around the floor or stood next to black tuxedo dressed husbands. Everyone was at ease and the soft murmur of voices that filled the room told the immortal that everyone was enjoying themselves as well. The only thing that wasn't right about the ball was that it was missing one person.
The man they were hunting hadn't arrived yet to their knowledge, but their sources said that he was going to show up.
He was after all one of the major supporters for a politician named Reiji Takatori, but other than that he was a scumbag. Weren't they all? He dealt in the illegal selling of children as well as a few other things. Ran figured that when the guy had started out he thought, “why the hell not” and did it all as if he were a man damned from the beginning.
Then again he was.
Ran continued to casually glance around the room hoping that the target would arrive shortly. Before he could finish his look around a body stood directly in front of him and blocked his view.
“Aya,” Yohji said softly while removing empty champagne glasses from a tray.
That was his duty for the night, to play waiter for all the foolish men and women out there. He didn't have to take orders though; all he had to do was walk around carrying glasses around. Ran was the one who actually did the work of filling the glasses. “Omi's reported in, so far there hasn't been sight of our target. However, he did over hear two men that work for him saying that he should be here sometime soon.”
Ran nodded. It was bad enough that the man was running late for the party, but they couldn't do anything about him until after he left. In addition, it didn't help much that they had to use two different trackers, one for his car, and one on the man himself. There was no telling if he would leave on his own or with somebody else.
“What's Hidaka doing?” Ran asked, looking around once more trying to find the young man and couldn't.
“Our little overseer decided to be nice to us and gave him a fifteen minute break, so I suspect that he's down in the parking lot kicking a ball around. God only know where he keeps one on his bike, but he sure as hell doesn't go anywhere without one.” Yohji leaned against the counter. “So are you going to fill up some more glasses or are you going to continue standing there staring everyone down to the first floor of this place, Aya?”
Ran jerked his eyes back to the lanky young man standing in front of him. Truth be told, he had almost forgotten that Yohji was standing there waiting for him to do his job. “ I know how to do my job Kudoh.” Quickly he brought out some clean glasses and set them on the tray.
“Right, right,” Yohji agreed, watching the red head fill the glasses with a cheap wine. “Maybe you should end up keeping this job instead of staying with our other one.”
Yohji picked up the now full and glass heavy tray and let himself be engulfed by the crowd of partygoers.
Soon enough, fifteen minutes had passed and Ken walked into the ballroom heading directly to the bar.
“Aya, why don't you go take a break? I'll cover for you here. Besides,” he lowered his voice. “Yohji and I can be on the look out for him for the little while you're gone.”
“Why don't you have Kudoh go instead of me,” Ran said shortly. “I don't need a break.”
“Hmph, this is the first time tonight that I've actually seen that lazy good for nothing do anything… except for hitting on anything in a skirt. Most of them are married to boot.”
Ran glanced over to where the young playboy was and couldn't help admitting what Ken said was true.
Although out the night he hadn't really seen the young man do anything. Most of the time, he would stand there talking to one woman or another while the other guests would walk up to him and grab a glass off the tray that was so conveniently held out almost at arms length from him.
It surprised Ran with how much tenacity his supposed elder had when it concerned anything walking about on two legs while wearing a skirt. He was almost beginning to think that it didn't matter to Yohji how they looked. They could be fat, ugly, bald, brunette, red haired, married, single, or divorced… the list went on and on but he would give them all the same amount of attention he did to the others.
Well he did make on little distinction with them, Ran amended mentally. He will never touch anything under eighteen. That's jailbait to him. I wonder how he would act if I told him that with the way laws are today anyone would be considered that to me. Unless, of course they were another immortal, then perhaps it might just be the reverse.
“Ken…” Ran started to speak again but was cut off by a wave of the brunet's hand.
“No, Aya, you're going to take a break and I'll cover for you, besides I think Yohji needs to suffer for a bit longer.” He gave Ran a quick smile before pulling him out from behind the bar. “No go… but be back in fifteen minutes.”
Before Ran had another chance to say anything he was out from behind the counter and Ken was in his place, a smiling gracing his lips for the next person to come up.
Ran raised one delicate eyebrow before mentally shrugging it off. There was no way he would ever be able to talk Ken out of something like this when he had already set his mind to it. What really caused Ran to almost stop in his tracks was that every time Ken stubbornly panted his foot down on the ground was when he wanted to be of some kind of assistance to the immortal.
He'd seen women act this way before towards him, mortal and immortal alike. Most of the time it happened was when the woman in question wanted to share his bed, but he couldn't believe that of Ken. No, he wouldn't believe it so he let it go and started to leave the building.
It was only a moment later when Ran found himself standing outside.
The lights from the streets sparkled like diamonds against the pavement, showing that while they had been inside, the night sky had shed its moisture onto the parched ground.
It's so much like that night, he thought. No, not exactly, that night it seemed as if the sky was weeping for what was about to happen. This one feels different almost as if the earth is trying to cleanse itself of the cankerous taint that was dwelling inside the hotel's very walls or perhaps it's even more than that.
Whatever the case may be Ran stood there watching the starry sky, searching for something to hold on to for a short period.
 
 
____
 
 
It had only taken a few moments for the weather to go from extremely pleasant to uncomfortable.
A little while ago the weatherman had been predicting that the skies that night would be clear, so clear that one could see into the Kami plains. At least that was what the man had said verbatim. It was a to find out that he had been wrong, but then again even the forces of nature were likely to be unpredictable as with human tendencies.
Aya stood under a shelter, her braided hair hung damply at the sides of her face while tiny beads of water slowly dripped down.
Today was the day of her fifteenth birthday and from the time she had awakened she had commandeered the body of her favorite older brother. “Aniki? You're going to take me, mamma, and papa out to eat when we get back right?”
Ran smiled at her, “What's this? No more calling me ni-chan?” He gave her a bemused look. All throughout the day she had been calling him Ran ni-chan. He didn't know what had brought about the sudden change but he could guess.
He thought it had something to do with the two young ladies standing on either side of his young cousin. All it took was two looks of disdain, one from each of the ladies, upon hearing her call him that and she was automatically changing to show her friends that she wasn't a child any longer but a young woman.
Ran shook his head. No matter what century it was, teenagers were all the same.
It amused him to no end but hurt as well. Pretty soon, this little band of sunshine would be gone from his immortal life and it was coming sooner than he wanted it too. “However, to answer your question, yes, I am taking you three out to eat. Why would I?” He smiled softly at her. “First, we have to wait for the rain to stop. If I don't and you get sick from being out in the rain too long you're mother would kill me.”
“Alright,” she said, a bright smile forming on her face. “Can we have French? I've been wanting to try it ever since my teacher came back from France over the holidays.”
“We'll have whatever you want. It's your birthday after all.”
“Yay!” She bounced excitedly. “I can't wait!”
 
 
 
 
Author's Notes: hehehehe, sorry stopping it off in the middle of a flash back… I had to got a bit of writers block but I do at least have a bit over two thousand words with this… so it's all good.
Schu: All good my ass you need to write more
Hn, you're one to talk Mr. I'm too lazy to even give any inspiration to help me write.
Schu: … that's a mouth full
I'll give you a mouth full if you don't start working! -Coughs- uhm yeah anyway tell me what ya think if you are thinking anything ja!