Chapter III
“What do you mean you can’t find him!?” Crawford screamed at the poor German and Irish, pacing around the room as he bit his thumb in nervousness, “He’s got to be out there somewhere…. He just got to be….”
Schuldich sighed, and traded looks with Farfarello. It wasn’t as if they didn’t try… In fact, they did, hard, and they even involved We — no, ex-Weiss — to help them. Omi had been on the computer for almost fourty-eight hours straight now, only stopping every now and then to use the bathroom and drink more coffee. Yohji had been on the streets with Ken, each going to their own private sources to see if anyone had seen Nagi while Aya had been trying to negotiating with Kritiker to get them to help.
Which was not pretty, by the way.
“Brad, chill,” Schuldich said slowly, “You panicking ain’t gonna help us anywhere. Look, even Kritiker had finally agreed out of favor of Aya to help us out, so we should have some trails pretty soon. In the mean time, can’t you at least try to use your power?”
Oops, bad choice of words! “YOU THINK I HAVEN’T TRIED YET!?????????”
“Sorry,” he apologized quickily, not wanting to be dead at such a young age, especially when he finally found his true love. Oh~ no no no.
Farfarello shook his head, his golden eye which now shone with sanity and intelligence (thanks to modern medicine,) was filled with worry as well. Not that he had learned much about love or human emotions even when he was on the pills, but to him, Nagi was like his little brother, just like Schwartz his family. He wasn’t good at talking, but he showed his concern for his family with his action. For the last fourty-eight hours he had been driving around some dark, sickening area of Tokyo, beating up punks and drunks just to get some information out, which was none.
No one had even heard of a boy named Nagi Naoe, let alone knowing where he was.
And Schuldich’s cell phone rang the same time Crawford let the German go. He picked it up quickily, knowing from the special music he had set that it was his kitten that called. “Well?”
“Kritikers are still searching, but nothing so far. But Omi did come up with a discovery….”
“What?”
“Appearantly, Takatori Reiji has two brothers. Shuichi, or Persia, was dead, and the other one named Takatori Kenichi disappeared many years ago after a major scientific accident.” Aya’s calm voice came through the receiver, but only Schuldich could found a bit of surprised and dispise in it.
Schuldich frowned, “Scientific accident?” his instinct told him that this Takatori Kenichi means serious trouble, and he won’t debate with his instinct. “Do you have anymore information?”
Aya sighed, “No, not at this moment. Takatori family has their unique way of consealing things, and this was even more serious than Omi’s past… He’s still trying, but it might take a while… What about over there?”
“Nada. I’ll tell Crawford to search on this Takatori Kenichi. You be careful, alright?”
“Hai.” Dialer tone.
Putting his phone away, Schuldich found Crawford already on his computer, typing furiously at the information he just received over the phone. Even though Brad Crawford was not as good at computers as Nagi or Omi, he still know his way around, and he was the one that held the key to the Estet database. When they planned on bringing down Estet, Crawford had foreseen the necessity of keeping the Estet database, which he was glad he did so back then.
But it came up with nothing. As if there was no Takatori Kenichi existed in this world before.
And Estet’s database was one of the best in the world.
Great. Just great.
*****
Aya put down the receiver, and shook his head, reaching up to touch the corner of his bruised lips. He would have to hide from Schuldich for a while until the swelling goes down then….
Turning to the lonely living room, he sat down onto the couch, recalling the memory of his meeting with the new Kritiker.
“Say it again, Abyssinian,” Botan — no, not the one he respected, but a new young man with three earrings on the left that took the code name, snarled as he glared at Aya.
“…. I wish to request Kritikers’ help on finding an ex-Schwartz. Nagi Naoe.” Aya replied smoothly, and didn’t even tried to dodge when a flying fist came punching him right in the cheek and knocking him down. He sat up, his eyes never flickered in pain or anger, just mere observation as he looked up to the enraging Botan.
“How DARE you, Abyssinian!?” Botan screamed, and was held back by his partner Bara so he couldn’t hurt Aya more, which the young man desperately wanted to. “After what they did — They killed my Father! I’m already mad at you for fucking one of them, now you came here without shame to ask for help!? What do you think you are, Abyssinian!??”
“Enough, Botan!” a commanding voice stopped the querrel, and Aya turned to face another redhead, Manx, or the now Persia, silenced the enraged agent. She sighed, and turned to look at Aya, “Aya… You do know we can deny this request?”
Aya nodded, “But you wouldn’t.”
“And why is that?”
Aya smiled softly, a gesture he started to learn after accepting and returning Schuldich’s love, “Because you care about Schwartz just as much as you do us.”
Manx watched the ex-Weiss in front of her, someone she had seen to mature, to lost hope, to gain hope, and finally, to love. She knew he had told the truth, because she did care about the Schwartz, ever since she learned that Weiss had came to good terms with Schwartz, and that Schwartz gave up on their ‘conquering the world’ theme.
Especially when Schwartz were the ones that saved Weiss from the sea that fateful night, and contacted her and Birman where to locate them. When Manx and Birman got to the little wooden shack Schwartz had directed them, they found all four of the kittens neatly wrapped in dried clothings, with fire being started in the fire place and their wounds all bandaged. They never understood why Schwartz would even bother, especially they were trying to kill each other just minutes before. Weiss’ weapons were even retrieved and placed neatly on the table in the room, which confused the two Kritkers even more.
Manx chuckled, “Very well. I will assign a special team to track down Nagi Naoe, but it would be a great help if Omi can help Bara on database hacking.”
Aya nodded, and got up, straightened out his shirt and turned to leave.
“Aya?”
Aya stopped before he opened the door, and turned his head to look at Manx.
“Say thanks to Schuldich for me. He finally got that orange turtleneck off of you.”
Which Aya forgot to do while ago…. Damn. Oh well, the bruise should be able to heal within a week or so….
The redhead looked up when Omi got out of the room, yawning and stretching. The boy had grown for the past years, and now he was at a height that’s matching Ken’s and still growing. Yohji had joked that Omi was a bamboo sprout, which the boy retorted that it was because the other Weiss were shrinking due to old age.
Aya got up, and followed Omi into the kitchen. “You need anything?”
“Nah, just looking for some left overs,” Omi said, downing what’s left in the milk carton. Aya glanced at the boy’s room, hearing printer’s working noise.
“You found something?”
Omi shrugged, “Some. More about that Kenichi person, and about the ‘scientific accident’,” the boy paused, and tossed the milk carton into the trash bin easily. He turned and sat down to the dinner table, since Aya started to heat up food for him already. God how he loved Aya.
“Appearantly, Takatori Kenichi was doing some kind of human genetic mutation experiment that’s similar to what Takatori Masafumi was doing, only more advance. Very impressive since it was dated 30 years ago.
“But the Japanese government had forbid such experiment to go on, because the International Board of Science Association* had put extreme pressure on the government, claiming that it was immoral and against the will of God, that the IBSA will ban all interaction and membership of Japan if they don’t stop Takatori Kenichi. So, the government did.”
Aya nodded, placing a large plate of teriyaki salmon, rice, salad, soup and a cup of coffee for the boy, taking a seat across him. Omi beamed at the sweet scent of food, knowing that it was Aya’s way of showing appreciation by making his favorites. He took in a big bite of the fish mixed with rice, and resumed talking before he swallowed them, “Of course, Takatori Kenichi didn’t want to give up the experiment, so he asked a large amount of money from Takatori Kyoji, Kenichi’s father, and hid away into the wooden shack where we first found Takatori Hirofumi, and resumed his experiment.
“But something had gone wrong with the experiment, it seemed. The people they had kidnapped and experimented on were all dead but four escaped. The four people had reported to their counsolates, and pretty soon, an army of interantional combined soldiers were marching through the Forest of Mount Fuji, hunting down Takatori Kenichi. In fear of losing his wealth and power, Takatori Kyoji erased every record of ever being related to Kenichi. Without help from his mighty father, Kenichi did the only thing he could. He mixed a potion of some sort that I still don’t know what, but he used it. The soldiers arrested his assistants, but they could never find him.”
By the time Omi finished talking, half of what Aya prepared was gone. The boy smiled as he sipped the soup, and glanced up at Aya. “Now, brace this, Aya-kun. Be very scared. The four that escaped from Takatori Kenichi’s grasp were from four different countries. United States of America, Ireland, Germany, and England, and guess what? The one from England was actually a Japanese.”
Aya paled, his eyes widened as realization kicked in. “You mean…..”
“Yup. They were the parents of Schwartz.”
*****
The man in a black coat strolled into the dark room, where the boy laid on the examination bed, sleeping restlessly. He stroked the boy’s cheek slowly, a vicious grin tugged on his lips.
“Soon, my little Nagi….. Very soon….. Your beautiful body will be mine…… Thanks to your beautiful mother, they were able to escape and destroy me…. Well, you will have to pay for her sin, won’t you?”
“……Brad…….” the boy moaned, turning away from the sickening touch.
Kenichi smiled, “Ah, yes…. and the other kids….. My children….. They will accompany you…..”
And I am God….. The Controller…….
—–To Be Continued