Circle of Blood

Disclaimer:


Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz, Hellsing and/or their characters do
not belong to me, I just wish they would like every other author.
They are really property of some big Japanese company. I\'m not
gaining any profit from this and I\'m simply twisting and turning
them into my own depraved directions.

"..." Speech
//...// Thoughts
:: ... :: Telepathy

Some warnings for this chapter would perhaps be in order I
suppose... ^_^ : blood, gore and sadism, swearing, \'mild\'
yaoi/shonen-ai, near the this shit gets pretty
disturbing/disturbed I think... -_-;

==============================================

Circle of Blood - Chapter 3 (Awakenings, Your Pain is My
Pleasure [part 1])
By: Azrael\'s Wing

==============================================

It\'s a bad start for a day when the firhinghing you feel is pain.
It w't e't even the usual \'I drank too many Bloody Maries last
night and I\'m now suffering an infernal hangover size of the
Tokyo\' kind, oh no that would have been too easy. Instead it was
pure, undiluted and mind numbing pain, the kind that makes you
wonder what just what the fuck have you been doing. Not
surprisingly, that\'s what was going on in Omi\'s head at the
moment he woke up.

//Now what the hell happened to me last night? I feel worse than
the time when I woke up after getting wasted finishing the mess
with with my dad. The next evening I woke up tied up with several
whip wielding nut cases from the club cuddled next to me, my skin
colored black and blue. It was a quick cure for a hangover
though, I\'ll have to admit that. The feeling of having gone
through a meat grinder afterwards wasn\'t that nice side effect
though... Unfortunately, that isn\'t too far from what I feel
right now.//

As his scrambled brain finally starts to kick some synapses into
working order, the situation finally begins to make some kind of
sense, painful sense but sense none the less... Being beaten
senseless with blunt objects would indeed make someone hurt like
this, the fact that they had been just extremities of some goon
squad instead of baseball bats... or whips was just a small and
minor detail. One thing was sure though, he felt like hell, there
was no doubt about that and he had bruises to match the feeling.

//Well, now at least I have some idea what happened, if only I
could remember a bit more... Oh well, guess I\'d better take a
look around to see what\'s going on, as if things could get much
worse anyway... Kuso, I hope I just didn\'t jinx myself!//

As Omi tried to take some notice of his surroundings, it did
prove to be somewhat difficult, main problem being that
everything seemed to be black. After few moments of near panic he
realized he hadn\'t even opened eyeseyes yet, a proof that his
marbles weren\'t indeed in a top condition after the beating.
//Great, now it\'s official: I\'m a moron!//

Omi would had even slapped his hand to his forehead... that is if
he could have moved that hand an inch, or at all for that matter.
//What the hell, I\'m tied up or something? Right, I suppose
that\'s to be expected since I\'m captured and all...// Since
trying to move his other hand and legs met the same difficulties,
Omi could at this point sum up his situation pretty nicely.

//Ok, so I\'m captured, tied up like I\'m some friggin christmas
present and feeling as if my body had been tenderized with a
battering ram... covered with salt. I wonder what else could go
wrong? Oh shit, I didn\'t think about that again, did I?//

Finally managing to open his eyes, his body decided to give him
an another reminder of it\'s state again. It came in a form of a
nice painfully throbbing headache, happy combinide-ide-effect of
bright lights and the impressive black eye he seemed to have.
Taking a moment or two to get used to the new feelings of pain,
he finally managed to dull those feelings just a bit, enough at
least for him take a good look of his surroundings.

What he got was somewhat puzzling though, he wasn\'t in the kind
of place he\'d have expected to be in. An old dirty warehouse, a
nice cell or perhaps even a motel room or another such classical
place, those he could have easily understood. Instead it
resembled more some kind of a strange hospital room, an unwanted
remainder of Masafumi Takatori and his \'scientific\' experiments.
He never had liked hospitals after that.

This errant thought made chills run briefly down his spine as he
remembered his older brother and his monsters. Omi franticly
pushed those thoughts away from his mind, they weren\'t anything
he\'d like to think about now, especially in a situation like
this...

Getting his mind back to the business he could see that the room
was painted white from top to bottom in the usual hospital
fashion, as if they couldn\'t imagine any other color, and was
illuminated by numerous halogen lamps hanging from the ceiling.
Taking a look at himself, he could see that he was bound tightly
into a some kind of metal table. Numerous leather straps were
fitted over his arms, legs and waist, making it impossible for
him to move his limbs.

With nothing else to do Omi tried to take a better look of the
area, twisting his head as much as he could from left to right in
an effort to see something usefull. What he saw wasn\'t that
helpfull as much as infuriating though.

Next to him he could see another such table, empty at the moment
and between these two was located a small stand. On it were piled
numerous odjects, including his spare darts and a tanto that was
supposed to be hidden in his left boot. There also was a strange
looking dagger next to them, somewhat familiar looking but he
just couldn\'t remember from where or why at the moment.

After much of useles twisting and turning on the table, Omi had
to accept the fact that all those useful sharp objects were
clearly out of his reach. A fact that was annoying him a lot at
the moment. //So close but so far... Kuso! They, whoever \'they\'
are must have put them there just to annoy me. Psychological
torture my ass...//

Indeed, it wasn\'t a nice situation to wake up into, something
that Omi\'s thoughts were processing at \'alarming\' speed. //Kuso,
what have I gotten myself into this time.

...Ok ok, lets think about this rationally. I\'m good at that,
right? I left Koneko\'s, removed some human waste on the way and
finally got in the club, so far so good. After that I had some
fun at the club, found Kojiro and seduced him. After that I of
course had sex with him but what the hell happened after that? I
vaguely remember getting beaten up by some morons in black
uniforms but when and more importantly why?//

As Omi\'s memory was still quite messed up from the fight, and of
ce fre from repeated hits to headhead, it took him a while to
start finally remember what had happened. In the end it all came
back to him, giving him back his memories of that night and soon
making him wish that some of them hadn\'t come back at all,
instead staying in whatever murky abyss they\'d gone into.

//...it was Kojiro\'s scream that woke me up that night, just in
time see those goons sneak in. I was so surprised that I think I
acted only on my instincts. Even so, I think I managed to kill
one of them... and maybe hurt some the others... but then the
bastards ganged on me. Strange though, it took them a lot longer
than I expected to knock me down... I didn\'t think I was that
strong, they trained me to be a hacker not a frontline fighter
after all...//

Thinking that, Omi\'s thoughts were distracted for a while,
reminding him of these recent oddities in his body and mind.

//Another one of these changes I seem to be going through I
suppose, my eyes, my dreams and my senses... Now it seems to be
my body as well, I wonder whenever it\'s all going to end? Feh,
there\'s no use to worry about it now I guess, I\'ve got more
important things to worry about. Like that night, as if wasn\'t
there still something after that, after they beat me up?//

After a moment, the final memory of the night comes to Omi, last
piece of the puzzle falling into it\'s p and and making him soon
wish that it hadn\'t. A bitter smile comes to his face as he
remembers Kojiro fate. "Those bastards killed him," Omi
whispers as his mind staro reo recall all the \'nice\' details he
saw before he passed out.

"Just because he saw then! Hell, he had no idea what was
going on but it didn\'t matter to them of course,"
Remembering his last thoughts before passing out, Omi can\'t but
chuckle at bitter irony of them.

"I guess I really wasn\'t that good company to him..."
Omi whispers, //Yet another death I seem to be responsible of,
this time it an innocent life that was snuffed out because of me.
It seems I must be cursed to bring death to this world, an Angel
of Death as a white hunter indeed... My dreams must be prophetic,
after all isn\'t white a color of death and mourning as much as
black is? It is strangely fitting...//

Omi\'s depressive thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a sound somesomeone speaking. The sound is weak, obviously coming behind some
kind of an obstacle but audible none the less, for him at least.
Quickly deciding that any information is good information at this
point, Omi drops his morbid musings and begins to listen keenly,
hopinghearhear something useful to the mess he\'s in and hopefully
helping him to escape.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"...is this kid anyway and why in hell do we have to babysit
him? I\'d figure there to be something more important to do for
us, were elite mercs for fucks sake!" A young brash male
voice complains loudly behind the door. //Must be a guard duty or
something, he don\'t seem to appreciate it though...//

"Don\'t know, don\'t care. You should know by now this is a
job where you don\'t ask unnecessary questions rookie," Says
another voice. An older, cynical and quite tired sounding voice
responds to the complaints of the younger man.

"What the hell! The bosses around here can\'t be that bad...
can they Kaze?" //Bosses? Now this is starting to sound
interesting.//

"Hell, you\'re really clueless about this place, aren\'t you!
Ok, let me tell you something kid, I don\'t know what kind of
missions you did before you came to this place but now you\'re in
dangerous business. Those guys up stairs aren\'t your usual
bastards in suits, we ce mae made disappear just as easily that
kid down there, you better believe that." //...!//

"Shit, you\'re kidding, aren\'t you?"

"Wish I were rookie, I really wish... Now, here\'s a hint for
you: Never, ever fuck up a mission if you\'re working for Mr
White. If do sdo so, you might as well be finished in this place.
Around here you can take that quite literally sometimes, if you
get what I mean." //Oh, what nice place this is...//

"...the hell! Who the hell is that nut case?" //That\'s
something I\'d like to know as well, thank you very much...//

"That nut case, as you so nicely and eloquently put it, is
one the Triad. I\'d figure that even you might have heard of them
kid. I think his name is Yusanori and he\'s the most soulless son
of bitch I\'ve ever seen in my life!" //Triad, what the hell
is that? Something to do with Esset?//

"Fuck!"

"Yeah, that about sums it rookie."

"What about the others, aren\'t there supposed to be three of
them in this fucking Triad of theirs?"

"Well, as for the others, lets just say that pray whatever
you can that you\'ll nevet tet to the bad side of Black lady.
Better yet, that you\'ll never have to work for her... or even get
her attention."

"Black lady?"

"Lady in Black, otherwise known as Helena Fleisch, she\'s the
scariest woman, or a human being for that matter that I\'ve ever
seen. As far as Yusanori goes, that\'s Mr White for you, he might
just fire you or kill you but that black hearted bitch is hundred
times worse." //Oh great, this is just getting better and
better. What\'s next, couple of oni\'s and Satan himself?//

"How the hell can she any be worse!?"

"Simple, whatever White does it\'s over quickly, whatever it
is that happens to you. But with her... I\'ve heard she takes
pleasure in torturing people to death, even up to drinking their
blood while their still alive and screaming... If Nataku doesn\'t
have soul, Fleisch has a one so dark and twisted not even hell
would accept it." //I knew shouldn\'t have said that, me and
my big mouth!!//

There\'s a brief pause and then rookie continues with a weak
voice. "What about Re..."

His question is interrupted by a sound of phone ringing and the
conversation stops as the older guard answers to it. "This
is Sargeant Honda Kaze reporting from Laboratory Holding Cell
1." //Laboratory Holding Cell, what the hell is that exactly
and better yet, why I\'m in a one? ...and do I really want to
know?//

"..."

"No, there hadn\'t been any problems. The prisoner seems to
have been behaving himself." //Sure, as if I\'d do anything
while being wrapped up like a christmas present...//

"..."

"Yes sir, we\'ll prepare for them, there will no
problems." //Prepare for who, what, where? This is really
starting to annoy me.//

"..."

"Very well, sir. Kaze over and out...&;
;

There\'s a long pause until the younger one speaks breaking the
silence.

"What the was that all about man? You look as if you\'d seen
a ghost."

"Worse than that rookie, we\'ve just got double whammy. Black
and White are coming down here bringing in a new prisoner. We\'re
supposed to help them." //Both of those nut cases?! Don\'t
these happy surprises never end?//

"Oh fucking hell!" //Amen to that...//

"Took words right out of my mouth rookie, now stay sharp as
they\'re coming soon..."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the conversation fades away, Omi\'s senses return their
attention back to his body, painfully reminding him of it\'s less
than perfect state. Strangely though, it doesn\'t feel nearly as
bad as it had felt before, almost as if his body had been fixing
itself while he was listening those two.

Omi is unnerved by that thought, it\'s supposed to be impossible
after all. But on the other hand he can\'t but to wonder about it
none the less. No human body should be able to heal itself at
that speed from the damages it had taken, no matter how well
trained it might be. And if it took this long to fix itself, how
badly hurt must he have been in the first place, shouldn\'t he be
dead or paralyzed after taking such a beating?

These thoughts finally made Omi realize just how strong his body
had become. //What the hell, I can hardly be normal human
anymore, can I? Oh... sure, I knew there were people with strange
abilities and such. Schwarz comes to mind and of course there
were Masafumi\'s experiments, but where in the hell could I have
got these... powers?//

Trying to figure out when these strange abilities had started to
come up, he realizes it all comes back to a certain day. The day
when the Weiss had fought against the Schwarz and Esset elders at
their... ceremony. It really started when I saw whatever it was
that possessed Sakura-chan, it was the eyes... //In the chamber
of summoning a moment of rapport with that daemon, or whar itr it
was, started this. Ever since I\'ve had those dreams... The
changes and new abilities began to appear soon after them.

Only thing I had to worry before was my interest with blood. It
was because of that I began to use the arrows and darts as my
main weapon wheey tey trained me. Of course there was the
Persia\'s gift... but I never used them in a real fight, afraid of
what it would invoke in me...

But what am I then? Think Omi, think! You\'re supposed to be the
smart one of the team. Let\'s see now: eyes changing color, dreams
of blood and death, senses becoming sharper and to the top of it
now it seems that my body is becoming stronger. Of course there
my strange craving for blood as well but... wait a moment,
blood!? Dreams of it? This is starting sound as if I\'m becoming
some kind of a...// Suddenly feeling the need to vocalize this
incredulous thought, Omi yelped his conclusion out loud.
"I\'m turning into a freaking vampire?!"

An involuntary chuckle escapes from his lips after he vocalizes
the incredulous tho. //. //Hell, it would explain lot about me
AND my family. Having the lot of then turn into basket cases like
they did, myself and Persia included I suppose, would require
something little extra, more than simple human blood.//

After entertaining that thought for a while Omi\'s common sense
tries to invade his thoughts, in the end having very little
success though. //What the hell am I thinking, vampires? There
aren\'t such things... right? Then again, there aren\'t supposed to
be psychics assassins or demon summoning rituals that work either
so...//

Omi would have continued this line of thinking little longer but
it was suddenly interru as as his ears picked faint sounds of
footsteps coming outside the room. Remembering that his captors
were to bring in an another prisoner, Omi decided to act
unconscious for the time being. Closing his eyes and trying to
control his breathing, he hoped to avoid any attention from his
captors for the time being.

As the sound of footsteps came closer and closer, Omi suddenly
had to fight an urge to shudder as he remembered just who were
supposed bring the prisoner, those two insane members of this so
called Triad...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A sound of door opening told Omi that his visitors had finally
arrived. All that he heard for a while were the grunts and groans
of physical labor, sounds of securing the other prisoner into the
table besides him. The sounds of creaking leather told him that
he or she was being tightly secured with restraints similar to
his but there still was no hint of the identity of his captors.

It wasn\'t until his fellow prisoner was secured tightly that Omi
heard voice of someone. It was cold and clinical, somehow
reminding him of Brad Crawford from the little he had heard the
man, but even he had been more alive than this man. This
mechanical voice reminded him more of a machine than a man,
making shivers run through his spine with its inhumanity.

"I hope you are planning to take better care of these two
than you took of the Oracle, we don\'t need any more losses. I am
well aware of your methods and interests Helena, I would hate to
be the one to tell master that you were the one to ruin the best
chance we\'re ever going to get," To Omi\'s ears this voice
had a strange mix of annoyance and amusement within the
mechanical tone. Almost as if this man had to force himself to
voice these, or for that matter any kind of emotions.

Then he heard the voice that answered to these comments. It
couldn\'t have been more different in comparison, for where as
where as the man\'s voice had been cold and mechanical, the voice
of the woman that answered was quite the opposite. So much in
fact that if the man would remind him of a machine, then this
woman gave him an impression more of an animal instead of a human
being. Deceptively soft and having an almost noticeable tone
of... purring in it, it reminded Omi of a some kind of a feline,
while still remaining a voice of a human. This must have been the
feared Lady Black, Helena Fleisch...

"Oh please, don\'t worry about it. As if I\'d do anything to
disturb our chances for finally gaining the serum, I want it as
much as anyone. This boy is quite safe from me and my...
appetites, same cannot be said of the other one though. He really
isn\'t a necessity anymore. That group of his really isn\'t that
much use for us anymore and the information gained from my
\'session\' with the Oracle clearly proves it. Even you cannot deny
the efficiency of my methods, however distasteful they may be to
you."

There\'s a sound mocking chuckle from the man at that point,
something that the woman seemed more than happy to ignore as she
continued.

"Really, I just don\'t see why I can\'t enjoy this one. He
could quite easily handle my type of fun much better than the
other one, that ability of his is useful to something after
all."

The man didn\'t seem to hold those thoughts in high value though,
this clearly shown by his responce to Helena\'s comments.

"Hmph, do as you wish Helena. I am assuming that you still
have masters permission to do this. Not even you could be as
foolish to go against his wishes, no matter what deranged hobbies
you practice in your spare time. As long as the project proceeds
in schedule you can do as you like. Just remember to clean up
when you\'re done, I don\'t like to loose my footing into a pool of
blood if I come to visit this place sometime."

This voice hadn\'t lost any of it\'s coldness during it\'s
commentary, making it quite clear him that this other speaker
would be no other than the infamous Mr White. Apparently there
was some internal rivalries between the members, something that
he could perhaps take advantage of. If only he would be in a
situation to do so that is, being tied to a operating table isn\'t
exatly a position of power, more like a reverse of that...

There was a sound of footstes going away, apparently leaving the
cell, but suddenly the sound stopped again and he heard the man
speak oncre wre with his cold voice.

"Oh, one last thing Helena. I doubt that you\'ll enjoy your
new pet that much. After all, you enjoy causing pain to your
\'pets\', to make them suffer greatly. Since this one does not feel
pain at all, your enjoyment may fall a bit short of the usual.
The suffering of your victim feels is a large part of your
enjoyment, is it not?" His last words were said in a tone
that was undeniably smug, even if it was coming from that
seemingly cold shell of a man.

After that there was a sound of door opening and closing but Omi
kept his act going on, sensing that the woman was still in the
room. A belief that was proven right soon enough as she started a
monologue, as if speaking to her seemingly unconscious prisoners.

"Oh that infernal man, trying to take away my fun is he?
<giggle> Don\'t worry, I\'ll make sure that you\'ll be able to
feel the delicious pain, little guinea pigs. After all, I\'d be so
terribly unfair of you to miss such a wonderful feeling. I\'m sure
that I can make things \'right\' for you in no time, just you
wait..."

Suddenly the clicking sound of high heels came closer to Omi,
making him worry that she might have seen through his ruse.
Thankfully, his fears were unfounded as the woman continued her
disturbed monologue.

"...And as for you, our little project, you may be safe for
now but that won\'t last long, only as long as you\'re useful for
master I\'d say. Of course, there still may be fates worse than
me, something that you will come to realize under the care of
Doctor Nalim. Now there\'s an interesting man indeed, even I could
learn something from him."

Suddenly Omi felt her glowed hand on his cheek, stroking it
almost fondly and forcing Omi to fight down shudders. Whispering
to his ear, she continued. "I do hope you survive his
administrations little one, for a little while at least, \'cause
I\'d like to have more than little taste of you as well..."
After saying that she suddenly bites down on Omi\'s earlobe,
making him bleed slightly. Then, he feels as she licks the drops
of blood away with delicate strokes of her tongue. Fighting down
his reactions, Omi simply jerks a bit, forcibly keeping up his
unconscious appearance. The woman doesn\'t seem to notice anything
out of ordinary, being in her own dreamy fan wor world.

Finally her hand leaves Omi\'s face and she backs of, making Omi
almost sigh in relief. The now familiar clicking sound starts to
go further and further away from him, weakening until he hears
the door opening again. While walking out of the cell she starts
to giggle, seemingly unable to hold her amusement in check, and
soon these giggles turn into full fledged maniacal laughter. As
the door closes behind her Omi can still hear the laughter of
this insane woman as she walks away from his prison, just leaving
the echoes of its chill sound behind.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the remains of the laughter fade away Omi finally has chance
to relax, or at least in comparison to the previous situation
that is. Thinking of the hints he gained for his predicament and
the identity of his companion, it is quite obvious to him who it
is. Figuring that I\'d be best to confirn it before doing anything
else, Omi opens his eyes and turns his head to look at the table
left of him.

It was as he\'d expected, tied to the table was no one else but
Farfarello, the berserker of Schwarz. Now that he has a chance,
Omi takes a good look at him, observing him much more closely
than he ever had a chance, in the heat of the battle a close
examination would have been quite impossible.

Surprisingly, Farfarello doesn\'t really look that much older than
Omi, few years perhaps, but it is the numerous scars and that eye
that make the difference. It\'s them that give him the foreboding
look that he has, making him seem older than his years. In a
fight they would be the first thing to notice of course, shocking
as they are, but seeing the man like this... Seemingly calm and
at peace, it really takes away the edge from him.

It also made Omi think something he would previously dismissed
without a second thought. This look of peace, especially after
knowing it was false, made the berserker look strangely
attractive to Omi. It made him think how cute he looked like
that, and wonder what re was was hidden under that mask the man
wore...

If he\'d had such a thought before he would have probably keeled
over in shock, now though it wasn\'t that strange idea for some
reason, a fact that he tried to process right now. //The
berserker attractive... Now there\'s a thought that would knock
out the rest of Weiss, if only I\'d be in a situation where I
could tell it to them. Here I am, captured be some lunatics and
what I\'m thinking is Farfarello\'s good looks. <chuckle>//

The absurdity of the this whole situation brought a brief bark of
laughter from Omi\'s throat, a sudden sound that seemed to wake
the subject of his musings as he saw a single golden eye suddenly
fix on his face. A sudden waking up that happened far too fast to
be real. //Hmm, I guess I wasn\'t the only one to act
unconscious... Interesting, there indeed seems to be more than
expeexpected about you...//

In this kind of a situation there was only one thing he could do
and that was...

"Hi there Farfie." ...greet his new psychopathic
roommate of course.

"Bombay..." Farfarello didn\'t say anything else, just
kept glaring at Omi with his single golden eye, clearly annoyed
of Omi\'s mangling of his name.

"What! ...Bombay? That\'s all I\'m gonna get? I\'d imagine
you\'d greet your new roommate with little more enthusiasm."
//Let\'s see how he deals with someone who isn\'t intimidated so
easily. Heh, this might be fun... Hell, there isn\'t much other
entertainment around here, isn\'t there?//

The look on Farfarello\'s face would have been worth of an album
of pictures, his surprise to Omi\'s glib response leaving his jaw
hanging wide open. It was logical reaction though, not many would
engage in such barter with psychopathic assassin. Such a response
from the youngest member of the Weiss would be quite a shock to
this irish madman, effectively scrambling his brains for a
moment.

Once Farfarello got his brain back to its so called working order
he was understandably a wee bit puzzled of this responce.
"...are you mad? You do realize who you\'re talking to
Bombay? Then again, madness hurts god but..." Farfarello
trails off, mumbling about hurting god. Strangely, these
mumblings didn\'t seems as \'natural\' as those Omi had heard
before, lacking something in them and making him wonder just how
insane this man was. They also made him wonder how real had they
been before, another thing to think about while in this prison.

//Hmm, I wonder. Is he really as mad as he seems? He is mad of
course, but I don\'t think he\'s always as bad as he likes to
people think though. I think my \'unnatural\' reaction shocked him,
made him lose his mask a bit. I wonder... What is he like under
those masks he likes to wear? Perhaps I can find out, lets get
digging! <giggle>//

"Oh, I don\'t know. You tell me, you\'re more of an expert
about that I\'d think. Then again, what would that really mean,
can\'t someone insane act quite sane and vice versa? Who\'s insane
and who\'s not, where do the masks end and insanity begins."
Omi gave Farfarello an impish smile. "I don\'t think you\'re
quite as incoherent as you\'d like people to think... Jei."

Hearing that name Farfarello\'s gaze turns even more intense if
possible, his original name obviously a sore spot for him.
"How do you know that name!?" Farfarello growls at Omi.
"...not that it matters anyway, he\'s dead, Jei\'s DEAD! God
killed him... and I will hurt god that!" Farfao yeo yells
the last words, grinding them through his teeth as if they were
something he wished to turn into dust.

Undisturbed by this sudden outburst Omi simply continues smiling
as he answers the question with a cheerful tone of a voice.
"Is he really? How can you be so sure? ...and as for knowing
of him... I\'m the hacker and strategist of the team after all, it
was my job to research you after we run into you the first time.
How interesting reading material it was... Quite colorful indeed.
"

Smile on Omi\'s face disappears as he continues with a more
serious tone becomes.

"Jei\'s dead you say... Remember what I said about masks we
wear? I\'d say Jei\'s as dead as Mamoru Takatori is and however
dead he is, he\'s likely to rise from the whatever grave he might
have been put into... Heh, who indeed knows the future? Not God,
that\'s for sure..."

Puzzled over the apparent change of topic Farfarello can\'t help
but to voice a question. "What has the Takatori\'s dead son
have to do with this. He is dead, isn\'t he? Dead long time ago,
they told me so when we worked for Takatori I think..."

That irritating little smile once again on his face Omi answers
back, eagerly expecting the other man\'s reaction to his words.
"Dead? Really? Then I suppose I really am one of the living
dead after all, that would explain many things indeed..."
Omi trails off, amusement clear in his voice.


It takes few moments for Farfarello to connect the dots and
couple more mange a understandable responce. Finally some pieces
of a bigger puzzle seem to fit together as Farfarello remembered
bit and pieces from conversations his team mates had in the past.
Being the madman of the group had meant that they really wouldn\'t
tell him anything but the necessary things, what he remembered
though did agree with what Bombay, no... Mamoru had said. That
didn\'t make his reaction any less shocked though.

"Mamoru Takatori, Reiji\'s son... you?!"

Clearly amused of Farfarello\'s shocked reaction, Omi keeps
smiling but his strange purple eyes hold a different kind of
emotion. Something far closer to the one found in Farfarello\'s
eye, only more refined and perhaps a bit more in control. As Omi
responds to the half exclamation half question, the tone of his
voice remains the same as before, look in his eyes however gives
it a strange and creepy quality it lacked before.

"Oh yes, a real kick in pants isn\'t it. Think about it, just
how much it would hurt god to kill own own family. Not many get
to do that but I... I killed one of my brothers by myself you
know, we even killed Masafumi twice, the bastard just couldn\'t
stay dead... and of course, I was there when Abyssinian sliced
Reiji wide open with that nice katana of his. What a happy family
we are... or were at least..."

"Killing family hurts god... But for you, member of the
Weiss to kill yours... Aren\'t your kind, the Weiss, supposed to
be the heroes. The white knights hunting the evil in the
night?" The last word were spat out as if they\'d leave bad
taste to the madman\'s mouth, tainting it with its purity.

Omi\'s smile turns sour as he thinks about Farfarello\'s bitter
words. //Heroes? Hardly... killers, that\'s what we are. Perhaps
we kill to protect those that are innocent, perhaps just to fill
our own lust for blood, it doesn\'t matter in the end. I\'m no
white knight, perhaps I\'m a red knight instead, drenched in the
blood of my enemies and looking for more. I might kill to protect
the innocents but is any innocent really worth of killing for,
perhaps not but I do not care anymore...//

"Hmph, heroes? White knights? As if, we\'re killers plain and
simple. The others might still believe in what you said of us but
I don\'t. I don\'t see us any different from Schwarz anymore, we
simply kill for different reasons, that\'s all. Murder is murder,
death is death. It doesn\'t matter what you kill for, it taints
you none the less. I should know, I\'ve done it long enough."

Having said what was on his mind, Omi continues in baiting
Farfarello... No... Jei even further in hopes of seeing past his
shields.

"Of two of us, as insane as you may be, am I really that
different? Can someone who\'s been trained to be a killer for a
decade be that sane anymore, think of that... Jei."

Farfarello indeed seemed to think of this as he digested what
he\'d just heard. Trying to accept that one of the Weiss\' little
kittens might be more like them, like the Schwarz, was difficult.
As his mind trying to unravel that puzzle Farfarello asked Omi
one more time... "Why do you insist on calling me Jei? He is
dead and gone isn\'t he? Lost due the false god..." But this
time there was none of the usual anger present, only deep
puzzlement, as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The new smile on Omi\'s face wasn\'t as mocking as it had been
before, you could almost call gentle and the look in his eyes was
unreadable. When he answered the question his voice seemed to
lack the usual sarcasm, in a way maching his voice with the look
in his eyes.

"Why? Perhaps simply because was your name... It still IS
your name. You say that god killed him, perhaps stole his name.
Wouldn\'t it then hurt god to resurrect him, take the name back
and use it again. You call yourself Farfarello because this false
god but aren\'t you just honoring his name by this? We both may
have lost our true names because of actions of others, that
doesn\'t mean that they\'ll have to remain lost forever...

Our current names are but mask, something others have given or
forced upon us. Why should we honor these bonds and chains
they\'ve made us wear? I think can see past yours masks, can you
see past mine? Can you see beyond Omi Tsukiyono, Jei? Can you see
who I really am, what I really am?

As his tired body once again began to fall asleep, Omi had one
last amusing thought. He looked at Farfarello to the eye his
usual smile on his face and said his last comment before he
passing out.

"Oh, and if you were wondering what was amusing me back
then... I realized that you look really cute while you\'re
asleep." And at that, Omi fell unconscious, leaving behind
one bewildered, for for some reason blushing, madman to mull over
the things he said...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Second time Omi woke up wasn\'t that much of an improvement
for the first time. After all, when the wake up call comes
fo
form of a backhand that rattles your teeth, you really need a
better roomservice. Then again, this place didn\'t have much of a
room service and the bedside manners weren\'t that great either,
clearly demonstrated by the mean and ugly bastard yelling into
Omi\'s ear right now.

Things didn\'t get any better afterwards. A full brigade of
guards, clearly ordered to take him somewhere as the \'where\'
quite undefined, were waiting for him. Remembering the words of
certain she demon, it was quite likely that they\'d be taking him
to this so called Doctor Nalim, a fate that he\'d rather avoid if
possible. Unfortunately avoiding anything right now would be
quite hard, wrapped up like a christmas present but instead of
ribbons he had steel chains, as wonderful the idea might sound at
the moment.

As fighting against all those guards would be an effort in
futility, Omi decided to go along and obey the orders he was
given, for now at least, and look for a chance to escape if he
would have such luck. Stepping out of the door for the first time
was somewhat anticlimatic experience in overall, the place was so
generic you wouldn\'t know what diraction to go. It simply lead
into a long hallway peppered with doors from left to right, wall
pad whd white of course and the doors had nice coat of festive
gray. There wasn\'t even anything to hint of the floor he might be
in or a window to look out of, something like that might have
been useful if he\'d ever manage to escape from those shackles of
his.

Following not so nice orders and even less nice \'guiding\', Omi
was eventually led towards a single door at the end of the
hallway. The door was nothing special, another sturdy metal door
painted grey, but into it was painted in clear and precise
letters: Dr Talim. Taking a quick look of his captors, Omi saw
that they weren\'t exactly overjoyed to be here either, something
that reinforced hpinipinion of not wanting to go in there.
Unfortunately, his opinion didn\'t matter that much as one of the
men quickly opened the door and pushed him in as fast as he
could, sending him sprawling to the rooms floor.

Two pale and sweating guards followed right behind him, closing
the door behind them. They remained next to the door though,
unwilling to go any further into the room than necessary. He
wasn\'t alone in this room with them though, there was someone
elsere, re, sitting behind a desk and busily writing up
something. So far the man had been seemingly uninterested of his
visitors, ignoring them in exchange for whatever he was doing. It
was something Omi hoped wouldn\'t change as long as he was here.

Being ignored for the moment, something that Omi gave silent
thanks to whatever was favoring him, he then took a quick look of
the place, hoping to gain some hint of what was going on...

The place was larger than he had expected, not that it did any
favors to it, it still looked like some mad scientists
laboratory. Then again, that\'s what it most likely was anyway, so
it wasn\'t so big deal, only a confirmation of his suspicions.
Numerous strange machines covered the walls and parts of the
ceiling. Where there weren\'t any machines, there were cabinets
full of things he likely didn\'t want to know of. In the middle of
the room there was a shiny steel platform that seemed to be just
waiting for him, as much as he hoped othervise, and his dread
increased at this sight.

"Damm, do they have some kind of fetish for metal tables or
something around here." //Kuso, did I say that out loud
again, I don\'t think I\'d like the answer anyway,// Omi really
hadn\'t expected an answer to his question, he got it none the
less to his horror.

A dry and vaguely amused voice answered Omi from behind the
table. "<chuckle> Oh, there\'s a quite good reason for
those metal tables, after all they are suitably hard to escape
from and easy enough to clean. My experiments do tend to cause a
bit of a mess, I\'m sure you do understand my boy."

Omi paled as he turned his gaze towards the voice. //Me and my
big mouth!//

The man behind the desk had by now risen from his chair and was
walking to Omi slowly, thus giving him a chance to observe him.
It was an opportunity that Omi tried to gain most of.

What he saw though wasn\'t really all that much: A man of
mid-eastern descent, average height and slightly overweight. He
had gray hair with a large bald spot on the top, clearly a man
past of his middle age. With his plain white labcoat and almost
forgettable face he didn\'t really seem that dangerous, more like
some friendly family doctor or such. It was a belief that Omi
didn\'t believe in at all. After all, every one here seemed to
some kind of a nutcase, this \'doctor\' wouldn\'t be an exception to
that, that was for sure.

It was really the eyes that told of his true nature to Omi.
Someone who lives and deals most of his life with killers and
madmen eventually learns to recognize such, he was a professional
after all. Of the many that Omi had seen in his life, this one
remainded him much of his dead brother Masafumi. To a one such as
this everything was an experiment, a toy to take apart to see how
it would work. Mechanical or alive, human or an animal, it
wouldn\'t matter in the end at all. To those eyes it would be one
and the same, something to play with, something to experiment
with... A useful tool at mos most, a discarded plaything more
often.

Suddenly Omi was shaken out of his thoughts as Nalim gave orders
to the two men standing besides the door, motioning them to grab
Omi. "All right boys, why don\'t you fix my new specimen to
the table so we can get started, I do have a job to do you
know."

As soon as Nalim gave the order, the two men took hold of Omi by
his shackles and literally dragged him to the metal table. At
this point Omi tried to fight them off, realizing that anything
would be better than this madmans experiments, unfortunately even
though he gave quite a struggle it was to be no use. They threw
him to the table and zapped him with a tazer, stunning him for
long enough to remove his shackles and tie him tighly to the
table.

Thanks to this, when Omi woke up some time later he was greeted
by the unsavory sight of Nalims face, far too close for his
comfort and breath smelling quite bad. Having finally had enough,
this manhandling only being the last straw, Omi decided to give
the \'good doctor\' a piece of his mind in a most colorful way
possible.

"You goddamm bastard! When I get my hands on you, I\'ll have
you castrated, disemboweled and quartered. I\'ll boil what\'s left
of your carcass, serve the remains to your friends with whipped
cream on the top and defenestrate the rest! Then I\'ll..." As
one could figure from this tirade, Omi had finally had enough of
this mess he was in, unfortunately his host seemed only amused by
his antics, smiling indulgendly at his caustic commry. ry.

"My my, what language from such a nice young man. As much as
it amuses me, I really can\'t have any distractions during my
experiments. If you two boys would be kind enough to hold him
still while I look for something to keep him quiet..."
Having said that Nalim went to a nearby cabinet and pulled out a
device that looked lin odn odd mix of a gag and jaw breaker. As
the guards held Omi still, Nalim showed this into Omi\'s mouth,
stopping him in a middle of a rant concerning Nalims probable
ancestors and their sexual practices, something that seemed to
include anything from chimpanzees to demons from hell.

"Oh my, what a vocabulary this boy has. It\'s a shame I can\'t
enjoy any further. Oh well, I guess I have a job to do. You can
wait outside if you want, I\'ll call you back when I need
you." Hearing that, the two guards seem to vanish in a blink
of an eye, leaving grumbling Nalim behind, "Hmph, no one
seems to appreciate my experiments around here..."

After a brief moment of lamenting on that, Nalim brightened
considerably as he looked at the table bound Omi, "Then
again, it\'s not as if they matter. I do have you here after all.
Oh, I hope you don\'t mind speak a while I operate on you... No,
of course you wouldn\'t mind, how silly of me. ...Right, enough of
these silly ramblings of mine, lets get started shall we?"
Nalim finished with a happy smile on his face.

What followed then was for Omi as close to hell on earth he\'d
ever known to be. Nalim wasted no time as he began to prod and
probe Omi, the various instruments put in places not commonly
used in medical examinations. It was almost as if this torture
was meant to test his pain treshold as well, and were not for the
gag in his mouth, Omi would have proved it quite effective by
screaming his vocal cords into shreds.

His outward appearance wasn\'t that great either after those tests
had gone for a while. The remains of Omi\'s outfit were cut into
pieces and were covered in blood. There hadn\'t been a place or an
aspect of Omi\'s body that Nalim hadn\'t been interested of, a fact
that might had worried Omi somewhat were not the pain the only
thing running through his mind at the moment. Thankfully though,
Nalim\'s interest in Omi\'s body seemed to be purely scientific, if
you can be thankful of such a thing, and wasn\'t interested in any
other kind of \'examinations\'.

On the bad side, Nalim seemed to be especially interested of
Omi\'s new found regenerative abilities, eagerly cutting new
wounds all over his body, then watching them knit themselves
together at slow pace. All this time though he made sure that
none of the wounds were lethal to him, and that Omi wouldn\'t lose
too much of his blood. A fact that isn\'t really as beneficial as
sounds when you\'re suffering the torture of thousand cuts.

Then again, the scalpels and knives weren\'t the only things that
Omi got to experience on that table. Nalim seemed to have some
more exotic experiments in mind as well, things that involved
syringes full of strange liquids and different kinds of acids
poured upon his bare skin. Thankfully his skin had become more
than slightly resistant to these substances through his changes,
the substances not being capable of doing much morehim him but to
cause mild burns. Those his body seemed to be quite capable
handling, making them dissappear within minutes at most. Happily,
this resistance also seemed to prevent any scarring this might
havesed,sed, not that it would be much of a reason to rejoice at
the moment.

All this time Nalim scribbled into his notebook and mumbled of
his own, something that Omi could pay very little attention to,
due the haze of pain he under. As this proressed further, soon
the only thing undamaged in and on him were his leather boots,
becoming painted red as things progressed. It did seem that Nalim
wasn\'t interested of his feets at least...

Finally the torture ended, thus giving Omi a moment of peace from
the pain. Nalim walked back to his table, the notebook in hand,
and sat down writing down whatever results he might have gotten
from his \'experiments\'.

As Nalim recorded his results Omi tried to relax, or at least
dull the pain he was in. He could sense his body trying to purge
itself from the poisons it had been injected, that and the slow
regeneration of his physical wounds. The source of this internal
healing still puzzled his mind, making him wonder once again
where could these abilities come from, almost hoping that his
wild guess would the truth. Perhaps it would give him a chance to
give some payback to the \'nice\' doctor.

Finally a sound of footsteps alerted Omi of once again of the
approaching mad scientist. As the source of his pain came near to
him once again, Omi looked at the happy smile on his face and
made the correct deduction.

//Things can get even worse...!?// Omi though, color draining
from his face, making it even paler than it was after all the
bloodloss.

Nalim didn\'t seem to notice though... or perhaps he just didn\'t
care about the look on Omi\'s face as he approached him. For the
moment he passed Omi and went to a nearby stand, there choosing a
large syringe from a pile of strange equipment. When he finally
seemed to notice that Omi was aware of things, and not in pain
induced haze, he began happily explaining what he was going to do
to him.

"Now, in case wondering about this big syringe here, it\'s
nothing to worry about. I\'m just going to need a good sample of
your blood. You wouldn\'t mdonadonating some for a good purpose,
would you?" Waiting a moment as if axpecting an answer Nalim
continues. "Of course you wouldn\'t, how silly of me to even
ask. Now, don\'t worry, this should only sting a bit." Nalim
commented as he plunged the needle deep into Omi\'s jugular vein.

Since the recent activities had hightened Omi\'s pain threshold
considerably for the moment, the pain he felt from the intrusion
wasn\'t that great, something that he was relatively happy of for
the moment. In the end it didn\'t take very long for the syringe
to fill with blood and soon the needle left his throat, leaving
even more weakened Omi behing.

Omi had hoped that this would be the end of his ordeal but
unfortunately it wasn\'t to be so... Almost falling asleep due the
cumulative bloodloss, Omi was suddenly jerked back from his daze
as Nalim quickly grabbed his head and secured it tightly in place
with straps similiar that rest of his body was bound with.

Again Nalim decided to share his plans with his not-so-voluntary
patient. This time though, what he was planning wouldn\'t be so
painless... or without consequences, something that Omi would
find out soon enough.

"Now, I\'m afraid I must do something bit more permanent to
you, my dear boy." Saying that, the look on Nalim\'s face
became closest to a remorse Omi had seen on the man but even so
it was still annoyingly smug and patronising, as if talking to a
pet instead of a human. "Since I\'m going to need a tissue
sample from you for future experiments, I will have to remova a
certain body part from you. //WHAT!!!// You see, I have a kind of
a hobby, everyone needs a one those, right? As it is, I\'m a bit
of collector and since your eyes are of such a peculiar color it
would be a shame to let such a chance slip through my fingers,
wouldn\'t it?"

At this point Omi began thrashing in his bonds, hoping to get far
away from this madman, but unfortunately the straps were tightly
bound and well made, therefore preventing Omi from doing anything
else but to shake the table a bit. Seeing this, Nalim frowned as
he searched for the right tools for this kind of a job. As he
finally found them he just noted, "You really shouldn\'t
worry about it, you\'ll still have the other one after all. You do
want to further the progress of science, don\'t you?" and
continued in his preparations unconserned of his thrashing
\'patient\'.

Finally everything in place, Nalim calmly placed a device on
Omi\'s face designed to keep his right eye open no matter what he
might do. That done, Nalim took few intruments from a nearby
stand and stepped closer to Omi. As much as he tried to fight he
couldn\'t do a thing as Nalim came next to him armed with those
nasty looking instruments in his hands.

Accepting the inevitable Omi tried to steel himself for what was
to come, but nothing could prepare him for the horrendous pain he
felt as Nalim\'s instruments began to pull his eyeball out of the
socket. He lasted long enough to feel something metallic to
touch... something behind his eye, but then he suddenly felt
enough pain to knock him unconscious in a blink of an eye. His
mind taking a trip into the abyss, it left his body to Nalim\'s
\'loving and tender\' care...

TBC in part 2