Return To Me

Chapter Two

******

As Aya sat on the plane, his anxiety gradually built. For some reason, ever since he boarded the flight, he felt a desperate need to hurry, almost like he should already be in Tokyo. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself. He couldn’t make the plane go any faster and they wouldn’t land for another eight hours. Hopefully once he arrived, the disquiet consuming him would lessen.

Two weeks had passed since his heart to heart discussion with Chloé. As much as Aya would have loved to have caught a flight then and there, he had obligations to Krypton Brand which needed to be fulfilled first. He now had a month off to take care of personal business. Aya had contacted Mamoru’s office to let him know that he would be returning to Japan for a visit. Unfortunately, the man was too busy to speak with Aya, but Nagi had arranged an appointment for Aya upon his arrival. Since his flight was due to land a little after nine a.m., Nagi had cleared Mamoru’s schedule for the entire morning as well as assigning someone to pick Aya up at the airport and transport him directly to the Takatori headquarters.

Unable to do anything else, Aya reclined the seat and extended the foot rest so he could try to get a few hours of sleep. He didn’t know what would await him in Japan and wanted to be prepared for anything. As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts were filled with happier times he’d shared with Yohji and a desperate hope that he’d experience them again.

*********

Yohji woke with a searing pain in his head and found that is was too painful to open his eyes, even though he could hear the sirens and felt the movement of being in an ambulance. He knew that there was something important that he should remember, but was soon dragged back into the oblivion of sleep.

When he woke a second time it was to the hushed voices of someone nearby. A woman was saying something about no visitors at this time of night and then he heard a door close. Something was setting off alarm bells inside his head and Yohji forced himself to sit up. The room spun around for a moment before it righted itself once more.

Raising his hand to his head, he found bandages there. For a moment he wondered why he was in the hospital without backup and suddenly the pain spiked. Backup? Yohji was almost smothered by the memories that flashed through his mind. Everything had returned. Every memory that had lain dormant inside his head for two years was suddenly back and Yohji couldn’t take it all in for a moment. But he focused all his thoughts onto the one that had haunted him the most: Aya.

With his memories returned, Yohji finally remembered all the things that had happened to drive the man away. No wonder Aya had let Ken come and retrieve his katana. Yohji had fucked up royally with his one-time teammate and realized that all his fantasies of finding his mysterious love and reuniting had been just that - dreams and fantasies. It was never going to happen. Aya surely hated him.

Yohji was about to turn over and sleep his misery away when he thought back to why his memories had returned. He then recalled the explosion. Asuka… there was another woman dead because of him, Yohji thought with a sardonic twist to his lips. He suddenly curled up on his side in almost physical pain from the waive of guilt that tore through him. Another Asuka’s death on his black soul. Yohji almost wished his memories hadn’t come back. That dazed thought led to another that someone was trying to kill him before he recalled the conversation when he woke. It wasn’t safe for him here at the hospital.

Not really wanting to get up, Yohji fought past the dizziness and nausea, forcing his tired and sore body to leave the bed and get dressed. He found his clothes hanging in the closet, a little worse for the wear but still functional. Just as he finished putting his watch on, his door began to slowly open. Quickly moving behind the door, Yohji almost puked on the floor from the sudden movement yet through sheer force of will pushed past the urge. His old instincts had rushed to the fore when Yohji realized that his life was in danger.

He could see through the crack that someone was slowly entering the room, gun first. Yohji slammed the door against the arm when the gun cleared the doorjamb, grabbing the weapon and tossing it aside before opening the door to pull the person in, then pushing them across the room as Yohji dashed out the door. Yohji ran for the staircase, and instead of going down, went up one floor to find the nearest empty room to hide in.

Yohji finally lost his battle with nausea, rushing into the bathroom to heave his guts up. He’d had nothing to eat that day, but there was still bile he brought up before having the dry heaves. Leaning against the wall when he’d finished, he breathed through his mouth and rested his aching head against the tiles of the wall, closing his eyes against the wave of dizziness. When he felt he was not in danger of retching again, he rinsed his mouth out and went back into the hospital room he was hiding in.

Yohji waited for about ten minutes and, when no one came into the room, decided it would be safe to leave. He cursed himself for not keeping the gun from his assailant, but at least he’d remembered his watch. Yohji looked down at his hands for a moment, thinking that he could do a lot of damage if he used his wire without gloves. That gave him an idea. Sneaking out of the room, he found his way to a supply room where he found some surgical gloves. Granted they wouldn’t offer as much protection as a pair of leather gloves, but if he wore two pairs, he could avoid some major injury and would have a means to protect himself.

Checking to see if the way was clear, Yohji waited for a nurse to walk past before he went out the door and headed to the elevator. A few minutes later he was walking out the main entrance of the hospital. Not really knowing where to go but not wanting to go home before he had a chance to check things out to see if it was safe, Yohji began to walk until he got his bearings. He finally recognized the neighborhood and knew of a love hotel he could stay at, no questions asked, not far from there. About to cross the street, Yohji realized he was being tailed. Acting as if he was going to still cross the street, he instead ducked into the alley, pulling a length of wire out as he did so.

Yohji heard rapid footsteps coming closer and prepared himself. As soon as the person entered the alleyway, he tossed his wire, dragging the man toward him and spinning him around so his back was to Yohji’s front. The man dropped his gun as he tried to loosen the wires around his neck.

“Who are you and why are you trying to kill me?” Yohji growled into his assailant’s ear.

The man ignored him and struggled against Yohji’s hold. When Yohji saw a flash of steel in one of the man’s hands, he tightened his grip on the garrote and pulled until the man’s movements slowed then ended and the knife fell from the man’s grip.

Letting the body drop to the ground, Yohji once more lost his battle with his stomach as the dry heaves took over again. When the tremors that racked his body ended, he slid to the ground, the dizziness too much for him. Yohji knew he couldn’t pass out. He had to get away from the body. Once more forcing himself to stand up and leave, Yohji stopped and picked up the man’s gun before tucking it into the back of his pants. He couldn’t be sure if this guy was working alone but somehow Yohji didn’t think so. Yohji didn’t recognize him, although his memory might still not be a hundred percent, but the man didn’t seem vengeful, only acting as if he were doing a job.

Realizing that is was too dangerous to stay there to try and reason things out, Yohji decided to head toward the hotel he’d earlier planned to spend the night at. He had very little cash on him, since his wallet was still at the apartment. Yohji had rummaged through the dead man’s pockets and only came up with a few hundred yen, no wallet to be found. Deciding that he’d worry about it in the morning after he’d gotten a little sleep, Yohji stumbled his way the last few blocks and got a room with the last of his money. He barely made it to the room before collapsing on the bed as things went dark once more.

*********

When the announcement from the flight attendant began, Aya closed his foot rest and brought his seat to the upright position, as requested. He’d slept part of the twelve hour flight which had made it a bit bearable. Forty minutes later, Aya was picking up his katana and bag in the luggage claim area. If he hadn’t had to check his weapon because of security regulations, he’d already be on his way. For some reason, he felt compelled to bring it along. Maybe because he could show it to Yohji and let the man know they’d had a connection at one time.

Realizing that his unease had only increased since they’d landed, Aya hurried to find the driver sent to fetch him. He nodded to the young man with the sign that read ‘Takatori’, relieved that someone had a bit of brains at Kritiker and hadn’t used Aya’s name. Probably Nagi again, Aya thought as he frowned. Sometimes Aya felt the only reason that Mamoru was kept from becoming like the rest of his family was because of the one-time Schwarz member.

The limo was comfortable, but Tokyo traffic was a nightmare as always. They finally arrived at the large office building where Aya was whisked off to the top floor. He was immediately admitted to the private offices of his former teammate where he found both Mamoru and Nagi waiting for him. Aya found little left of Omi in the young man before him who looked years older than his true age.

“Welcome back to Japan, Aya.” Mamoru said with a low bow.

Aya returned the gesture as he replied in just as formal of a tone, “Thank you, Mamoru.”

Nagi didn’t say anything, he nodded his head at Aya, to which Aya responded in kind.

“To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure, Aya? I thought you’d left Japan for good.” Trust Mamoru to come straight to the point when Omi would have worked more to put Aya at ease first. Another indication of how things had changed, Aya thought.

“I need to take care of a few unresolved issues.” Aya gave Mamoru a pointed look.

“And these wouldn’t have to do with Yohji by any chance, would they?” The expression never changed on the man’s face, but something in Mamoru’s tone set alarms off in his mind.

Not one to mince words, all he said was, “Yes.”

“You know how I feel about that situation, Aya.”

“That’s too damned bad, Mamoru. Yohji and I have some unfinished *personal* business. Note the word personal, as in no one else’s business.” Aya’s voice turned cold as he spoke. No one was going to tell him what to do, least of all the man who’d encouraged Aya to leave Yohji behind and let him build a new life without Aya.

Mamoru appeared uncomfortable as he looked at Aya for several moments before lifting some documents from the desk in front of him. Then with no warning whatsoever, he blurted out, “Someone is trying to kill Yohji.”

“What?!” Aya was so shocked the word left him before he could control the impulse.

“Yesterday, his wife was killed in Yohji’s car when it exploded. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but they’d separated and were getting a divorce. Why she was using Yohji’s car, I don’t know. Anyway, Yohji was caught in the blast as he was standing a few feet away when the car ignited.”

“Is he alright?” Aya felt the need to sit but continued to stand, not willing to show weakness in front of the men before him.

“Unknown. He was alive at the time, though injured. They took him to the nearest hospital, but he left in the middle of the night.” Mamoru continued in a voice that reflected no emotion.

“And where the hell were you? You were supposed to keep an eye on Yohji and protect him. That was the deal if I agreed to leave him behind with his new life.” Aya was getting angrier by the moment. He should have just taken Yohji with him, to hell with what everyone else wanted. But he’d left the man behind so he could have a life free from the pain and killing… just as Yohji had wanted.

Mamoru finally had the grace to blush. “I was in Kyoto and didn’t return until the early hours of this morning. Once I saw the reports, I immediately sent a team to guard him, but he’d already left the hospital. The nurse reported that there had been a strange man in Yohji’s room and she ordered him out, threatening him with calling security before he’d leave. It was shortly after that when she realized that Yohji was gone.”

Aya hadn’t stopped glaring at Mamoru, who was currently picking up a file from his desk, which he handed to Aya. “The team didn’t find Yohji, although they came across this scene a few blocks from the hospital.”

Looking at the photo, Aya recognized the marks around the corpse’s neck. Yohji had used his wire. Closing his eyes in pain, he opened them and pinned his old teammate with a cold look. “He wasn’t supposed to ever have to kill again. You failed him.”

Mamoru’s face betrayed little as he spoke again, “I know. I didn’t see this coming, but I should have been keeping better watch over him.”

Aya snorted as he tossed the folder on the desk and turned on his heel to leave, not stopping when Mamoru called after him, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find him and when I do, he’s not being left behind in your care.” Not sure how Aya could really make good on this promise, he nonetheless was not going to let Yohji stay in Japan alone after this. Even if Aya had to set him up in England so he could watch over him, Aya was never going to leave Yohji’s safety to anyone else ever again.

*********

The woman sat at her desk with a frown marring her pretty face as she read her computer screen describing the fact that a paroled murderer had been found strangled in an alley earlier that morning. Things were not going according to plans at all. The explosion should have killed Yohji, not his estranged wife. And now the second attempt on the man’s life had ended up with her contact dead.

She sat back in her chair as her mind worked through the chain of events and wondered what to do next. Bringing up her special list, she decided on a person who, while being a bit more dangerous than the previous man, seemed a bit more reliable. As much as she wished she could contact the man immediately, she’d have to wait until she was done with work for the day. The woman couldn’t run the risk of being connected in anyway to the events surrounding one Kudoh Yohji’s death.

*********

Yohji woke to the pounding noise from someone knocking on his door. Struggling to his feet, he lurched his way to the door, pulling it open to find an unknown man standing on the other side.

“Check-out is eleven unless you are renting for another night.”

Yohji looked at his watch to see he had about thirty minutes until his deadline and knowing that he didn’t have the cash for another night, told the man, “I’ll be out by then.”

Closing the door, he leaned against it, willing the headache to go away. His stomach was still unsettled but he didn’t have anything left to throw up. Yohji walked carefully to the bathroom so he could take a shower. Maybe that would help wake him up since all he wanted to do was crawl back into bed and pass out again.

Once under the hot water, his thoughts cleared a bit and Yohji decided that he’d hit up his safe deposit box for some money. At least he had his keys with him. He could also pick up some ID to use until he determined if it was safe to go back to his place.

Yohji walked out of the hotel and was immediately blinded by the sun’s glare. His headache only increased with every step and his body was loath to do as it was told. Yohji had to sit down and rest several times on his way to the bank, not even having enough cash to take the subway, so it was almost two hours before he got near his bank. He lifted his head and realized that he was just across the street from the Koneko.

His attention captured by the young woman watering the plants outside the shop, he never saw the person he collided with as he rounded the corner. Someone put their hands on Yohji’s arms to steady him; before the grip turned bruising, the dizziness had returned tenfold.

“Yohji!”

Yohji looked up and for a moment thought he was hallucinating before he was swallowed in darkness yet again.

*********