Alternatives

Machinations


\"Some of your memory was deliberately wiped.\"

Yohji stared, unable to take in the full import of what Aya had said. \"Wiped? What the fuck do you mean, wiped?\"

Aya glanced up from whatever programme it was that he was running on his laptop, his eyes sympathetic. The softened expression made Yohji almost gasp aloud at the beauty of the man but, right now, he wanted to know what the hell was going on and who had been tampering with his head. A flash of red-gold hair and a mocking smirk ran through his head. He shook his head, not knowing who the man had been.

\"Yohji, have you been listening to a word I’ve said?\" Yohji gave a slight start and came out of his reverie.

\"Sorry. I just had a flash of someone else. Don’t know who he was though. What have you found?\"

Aya indicated the screen. \"Looks like Omi also either knew or suspected that your mind had been tampered with in some way. He seems to think that the people responsible might have some use for you and is trying to keep you safe. Sounds very like him.\"

\"That would explain a false identity and job offer. He’d be able to keep an eye on me.\" He hadn’t meant for his voice to be so bitter. This wasn’t Aya’s fault after all.

Aya shrugged and tapped in some code. \"There’s also the fact that without memory of what you were, you became a liability.\"

\"Apparently, I was liability either way.\" Had he always been so bitter? Was this why everyone preferred it if he stayed oblivious?

Aya glanced up, his reading glasses sliding down his nose. He looked so fuckable. A whole barrage of images came from that thought. The memory that he’d always thought those glasses on Aya’s nose so sexy. And the contrasting vision of an efficient killer. \"Which one is the real you, the warrior or the scholar?\"

\"Both.\" There was no pride in the way Aya said the word, merely truth, and an acclimatisation to the fact. It was the attitude of a man who’d come to terms with himself.

Something in Yohji responded to that and presented him with several images of a cold, uptight youth with those outrageous, blood-red eartails. \"Did you dye your hair?\" That earned him the glimmerings of a smile.

\"Yes. It was considered expedient at the time.\"

\"So is that why I’m having to grow out this revolting daffodil yellow?\"

\"I have no idea what possessed you to do that to yourself.\" A faint trace of the smile lingered on Aya’s face as he said that and his eyes were full of amusement.

Yohji grimaced. \"It’s faded a bit,\" he muttered. \"So, why haven’t you answered my question?\"

Aya’s eyes immediately went wary. \"Which one?\"

\"The one about us being lovers.\" Yohji watched with quiet amusement as Aya blushed. He was pretty certain that it wasn’t that common an occurrence.

\"Yes, we were…lovers. Sometimes. A long time ago. When we needed comfort. That was all it was.\" Aya wouldn’t meet his eyes as he spoke and his long fingers were nervously pleating the sheet.

Yohji suppressed the urge to call him a liar. After all, he wasn’t even sure if he was lying. No, he knew somehow that there was more to it. He sighed softly. \"Did I hurt you?\"

\"I…no…yes. Why are you asking me that? It finished a long time ago.\"

Yohji wanted to punch the wall in frustration. \"Aya, I’ve remembered that I was a fucking killer without falling apart at the seams too badly. Why would our relationship have you running scared?\"

\"It. Was. Not. A. Relationship.\"

\"Oh? What the hell was it then?\"

\"I told you. A comfort thing. Dealing with bodily needs. That’s all it was.\"

\"Or all you wanted it to be? I remember you being an uptight little prick. Cold. Aloof. So I guess I was something you just picked up and discarded at need. Is that it?\"

\"Something like that.\"

Yohji leaned closer to the bed and had the dubious satisfaction of seeing Aya flinch back, away from him. \"Then what are you so afraid of?\"

\"Getting hurt, hurting you, I don’t think it was such a good idea. Anyway, you always preferred your women.\" There was no disguising the very real pain in Aya’s eyes.

Yohji pulled back and ran a hand through his hair. \"So I did hurt you.\"

Aya shrugged. \"You couldn’t help your nature. You loved women.\"

The constant reference to women was beginning to confuse Yohji. He simply couldn’t imagine himself choosing a woman over the beautiful, exotic creature on the bed. And, since he’d come to in a hospital, he had a wary, suspicious view of them. Only Asuka had been able to get through and she, he regarded as a friendly nurse no more than that. If only this infuriatingly reticent man would tell him more. \"I must have changed a lot then. I don’t much like women, Aya. I don’t trust them.\"

Aya gave him a sharp glance over his glasses before returning to his computer search.

Yohji sat back down and swallowed the last of the rather vile coffee before simply studying the man. Eventually Aya looked up and frowned. \"What?\"

\"Nothing. I guess I’m trying to match what I have in my head to what I’m seeing now. Only your eyes seem to be the same.\"

\"Things change.\"

\"People too, it seems.\" Yohji sighed. \"I’m going outside for a smoke.\"

\"Some things obviously don’t change. You don’t need to go outside, this is a smoking room.\"

Yohji frowned at that. \"You? In a smoking room?\"

Aya shrugged. \"All they had left when I checked in. Besides, I feel the occasional urge for the smell of a cigarette.\"

Yohji lit his smoke and sat back in the chair after snagging the ashtray from the night stand. He blew smoke rings and gazed into the distance, trying to force his mind to remember.

\"Don’t force it. You’ll give yourself a headache.\"

\"Why should you care? The only feeling I’ve got from you is the strong desire to be rid of me!\"

\"Bit late for that now.\" Aya switched off the laptop and sat back against the pillows. He seemed preoccupied and whatever was going through his mind didn’t appear to be giving him any joy.

\"Listen, I’m sorry if I fucked up some grand master plan by saving your hide and regaining some of my memories, but I have a say in my life too, you know.\"

\"Yes, you’re right. Ask your questions, Yohji. I’ll answer as best I can.\"

\"Why did we split up?\" Yohji kept worrying at that but he knew he had to try and get back to what they might once have had.

\"I almost got you killed. Myself too. It wasn’t good for us to be so…attached. Then Omi became heir to his grandfather and we both felt it would be expedient to split up Weiss. You and Ken were sent to Europe on a mission and I stayed to train your replacements.\"

\"Did either of you think to ask Ken and I what we thought?\"

\"No. It was for the best, Yohji.\"

\"Best for whom, Aya? You or me?\"

\"Both of us. Do…do you remember your mission in Europe?\"

\"No. Its a blank.\" Which really was upsetting Yohji. He needed to know what it was that he’d done to have Aya distance himself by half a world. \"I must have been a real shit to make you send me that far away.\"

\"Yes and no. I was probably as bad.\"

\"The guy on the roof, Takatori? Why did you kill him?\"

\"He was responsible for killing my parents and the coma my sister was in at the time.\"

That didn’t really mean much to Yohji either. Yet he knew he’d been there, helped to kill the man. They all had. \"Why did we help?\"

\"Weiss was put together by Omi’s father, Takatori Shuichi. He deliberately chose those with a reason to hate his brother. You knew him as Persia.\"

Persia! A whole series of new images hit Yohji. A TV screen with a figure in silhouette, some stupid phrase about denying dark beasts their tomorrow’s. A bearded man with Omi crying over him in an office. \"Okay, I can see your reason. And there was something about Omi being kidnapped as a child. Wasn’t there something about a football scandal that Ken took the fall for? What was my reason?\"

Aya’s eyes shut and a look of acute grief crossed his face. \"Riot. Your reason was tied up with a prostitution ring called Riot.\"

\"Riot? Oh, yes. There was a girl called Maki. The bastards killed her after she helped me. But wasn’t I already in Weiss by then?\"

\"Yes. But Maki was the repeat of something that happened when you were a private investigator.\"

Yohji stared. He had been right, after all. \"So I was a P. I.! I thought I might have been something like that, or a cop.\"

Aya remained silent, his eyes watchful and wary.

\"I’m lost as to the earlier incident, though. I’m guessing another girl was killed by them.\"

\"She was your partner and, I think, your lover. Her name was Asuka.\"

Yohji wondered why Aya looked as if he were braced for a blow. Asuka was the name of the nurse in the hospital but it must have struck some chord in him. Yet he couldn’t remember anything about the original girl.

\"No. That’s a blank. I remember that poor little Maki though. She was so courageous, you know. That was enough reason to hate the bastard, if he was behind it.\" He glanced up and surprised the strangest look on Aya’s face. \"What is it?\"

\"In the four years I’ve known you, you’ve carried the guilt of Asuka’s death like a cross on your back. Yet now, nothing. Just before you had your accident, you were seeing her everywhere. It was driving you slowly insane. I don’t understand how you remember us yet not her.\"

\"Perhaps it will come back later. I’m still only getting bits and pieces and then only of the time in Weiss. Four years you say?\"

\"Four since I joined. The rest of you were already there. Though you told me that both you and Ken had only been there a matter of months.\"

\"So I’m getting tiny little fucking pieces of four years? How old am I? You realise I don’t even know when my birthday is?\"

Aya smiled slightly. \"That I can tell you. You’re coming up for your twenty-sixth birthday on March third. Just a couple of months away.\"

\"I was very young for a private investigator.\"

\"I guess. But you were always good at working things out on missions. I suppose you’d always had that talent and it helped to keep you in business.\"

Yohji stubbed out his cigarette and stood up, stretching his arm muscles as he did so. \"You about ready for some lunch? I could collect some bagels or something.\"

\"Bagels sound good. There’s a place on the corner of fifth that does good ones. My wallet’s on the counter there.\"

Yohji shook his head. \"My treat for being honest with me. Honest about most of it, at least.\" He smirked slightly at the look of consternation on Aya’s face as he picked up the key card and quietly left the room.

* * * * * * *

Aya stared at the door after Yohji left. What had he meant by most of it? He’d even told the bastard about Asuka and all he seemed bothered about was their…thing. He refused to think of it as a relationship. He couldn’t place that burden on his friend. Then he realised that he thought of Yohji as a friend. He was your lover, a small voice in his head was thinking. Your first real love, despite Kikyou’s advances and that little fling with Yuushi. He told the irritating little voice to go to hell and concentrated on trying to find out how much Kritiker knew about what Tsuji Mayumi had done to Yohji’s mind.

He knew it had to be her. Yohji had been tense, nervous and looking for someone to simply tell him what to do when he and Ken had arrived back from Europe. However, he had not been seeing Asuka everywhere at that point. That started after Tsuji had got her claws into him.

All he found in the files was Takatori Mamoru’s similar belief, mostly based on his own reports. It was frustrating as all hell to have no idea what had really happened in those times Yohji had spent with the bitch.

An idea struck him suddenly and he hacked into the files that Kritiker had on Rosenkreuz. He ignored the obvious background files that stated that Rosenkreuz was an organisation that trained the ‘psychically talented’ for its own, mainly unknown, agenda. That it had links with Essett and that the talents it produced were always damaged in some way. He might have to swallow his pride and discuss their ‘training’ methods with Schuldig.

He dug deeper into what was actually known about the recruitment and training of talents and found something that made his blood run cold. Although most trainees were recruited via subliminal campaigns that only the talented would recognise, a small percentage were thought to have had their minds altered or tampered with in some way. These usually fell into the category of minor talents. Was Yohji of their number?

He shut down the computer and folded down the screen, still trying to make sense of it all.
He was returned to a sense of his surroundings by the door opening and Yohji appearing with several paper bags and a tray of styrofoam cups. \"I took the opportunity to get some decent coffee,\" he said with a grin. \"I even found a small grocers and got a bag of ground coffee for the machine.\"

\"I’m surprised you’re not raiding the mini bar.\" What the hell had possessed him to remind Yohji about that? Now the man would get good and drunk at his expense.

Yohji turned to stare at him. \"You’re not allowed alcohol until you’ve finished the antibiotics and I’ve no desire to drink alone.\"

\"Hn. Maybe things do change after all.\"

\"Now what does that cryptic comment mean?\"

\"Only that you used to come up with the flimsiest of excuses for drinking like a fish. Are you trying to tell me you’ve sobered up?\"

\"No. I still enjoy a beer and I like good wine. I just don’t like drinking for the sake of it.\"

The new, improved Yohji was taking some getting used to, Aya decided. Then he remembered what he’d read in the files and his expression darkened.

\"Something wrong?\" Yohji asked as he placed a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of coffee on the night-stand within Aya’s reach.

He nodded slowly. \"I think I need to have a long talk with Takatori Mamoru.\"

* * * * * * *

Ken picked up the ringing hotel phone and listened. \"Yes, I’ll speak to him. Put him through.\" He placed a hand over the receiver and mouthed ‘Takatori’ at Schuldig who was sitting on the second bed.

Schuldig watched the range of emotions that crossed Ken’s face as he listened to what his boss had to say. They ran the gamut from satisfaction, through anger, then disbelief, a touch of horror, back to anger, and came to rest on resignation. The kitten almost broke the receiver when he slammed it back into the cradle.

\"Why does he have to be so arrogant about everything these days?\"

Realising that the question was purely rhetorical, Schuldig made no comment, merely waited for Ken to tell him whatever Takatori Mamoru had decided.

\"He’s agreed to your deal on the proviso that he doesn’t ever have to see you. Nagi or I are to act as go-betweens.\" That seemed to anger Ken for some reason.

Schuldig shrugged indifferently. It was pretty much what he had expected. It might have been Farfarello who’d actually pulled the trigger, but both he and Takatori knew that it was his meddling that had got his first love killed. \"As long as he agreed, I’m content.\"

Ken had gone quiet, staring at the wall.

Schuldig was intrigued but had the sense to stay out of the kitten’s head. \"There was more.\" He said it with conviction.

\"Oh yeah. There was more. He’s going to contact Aya and order him to come to London immediately and to bring Yohji with him. You and I are to meet them at the airport and make sure Yohji stays safe. Can you believe that? Little Omi giving us all the order to jump and expecting to be obeyed! He will be, of course. Damn, this sucks!\"

\"You really cared about him, ja?\"

\"Yeah. I really did. Stupid, dumb footballer that I am.\"

\"I don’t think you’re either stupid or dumb. I think that the little Takatori has changed. He’s no longer the Weiss baby that you fell for.\"

\"Yeah. And he has his beloved Nagi now.\"

Schuldig winced at the bitterness in Ken’s voice. He could sympathise with Ken’s loss, but, at the same time, knew that Nagi’s quiet and loyal nature were of more help to Mamoru in his current position. Still it must hurt to be thrown aside. \"What say we go and drown our sorrows in a few beers?\"

\"Before we do that, you’d better hear what your first task is. After that you might want to get even drunker than me.\"

\"Oh? What does he want me to do?\"

\"Get inside Yohji’s head and fix the damage.\"

Schuldig repressed the urge to laugh aloud at the absurdity of that ‘request.’ Didn’t the young fool realise that it was impossible? No, he probably didn’t.

\"I can probably speed up the retrieval of his long-term memory. But anything that had to do with the tampering is gone for good.\"

\"Perhaps that’s what he wants.\"

\"Maybe. Has anyone bothered to ask Kudoh what he wants? Let’s face it, any memories he has of me are going to be as an enemy. What makes Takatori think he’s going to let me anywhere near his mind?\"

\"The fact that he ordered it, probably.\"

Schuldig stood up. \"You’re right, Hidaka, suddenly I feel the urge to get very, very drunk. Let’s go.\"

* * * * * * *

In Japan, Mamoru replaced the receiver, after his call to Ken, and looked up to find Nagi staring at him as if he’d gone insane. \"What?\"

\"Schuldig can’t do that. He can’t mend the damage done by the tampering. Even if he tried, it could alert Rosenkreuz to both his and Kudoh’s whereabouts.\"

\"Oh hell!. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll phone Ken-kun again.\" How stupid could he be? He had probably just succeeded in making what was already bad even worse.

\"You may not have to. Schuldig’s not stupid. He won’t touch the tampering. He might even be able to help Kudoh retrieve everything else.\"

Mamoru’s eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. \"Just how easy is it for you two to communicate?\"

Nagi shrugged. \"Thought is instantaneous. Schwarz built a mental link and half of it is still in place. I haven’t told him anything important, though.\"

Mamoru’s gaze softened. Nagi didn’t have to tell him that. He knew he could trust his lover. He stood up, walked around his desk, and enfolded Nagi in a hug, \"You don’t need to tell me that, Nagi. I trust you implicitly. You’d better let him know that he’s not to attempt the part of Yohji-kun’s mind that has been tampered with though.\"

Nagi nodded and returned the embrace. \"I’ve passed on the message.\"

Mamoru grinned. \"Useful link, that.\"

* * * * * * *

Dietmeiller was pacing his office in frustration. It was all very well to have Crawford in place, but he needed Schuldig, Naoe and Kudoh in order to finalise his plans. And the three men had apparently vanished off the face of the earth.

\"Where are you?\" he muttered aloud as he paced.

Naoe, he knew, might be difficult to find. There was no trace of Rosenkreuz in his talent or training. The damned pre cog had made certain of that. He stifled the urge to go and torment Crawford some more. Unfortunately, he needed the man both sane and in good health. A pity, really. He could do with venting his frustrations on something.

Kudoh should be much easier to unearth. He was a clean slate waiting to be written on. His very slight empathy was an added bonus that could be trained and exploited when they had him.

Schuldig, with his Rosenkreuz training should be the easiest of the three to track down. They had silenced him once and he left a trace like a static charge whenever he used his talent. Yet the telepath had, so far, eluded all his efforts to find him. Someone had to be helping the man.

Of course! That was it! Find the organisations who could find a use for Schuldig’s talents and narrow it down from there. He crossed quickly to his desk and immediately began a computer search of such organisations.

He smiled to himself. Soon he would have control of a new, improved Schwarz. With his own power and theirs in conjunction he was unstoppable. The true power behind every government, every political group, every terrorist activity. The guiding hand of organised crime the world over. He would be invincible.