The Black Cross

Yohji started a little at the intrusion and couldn't stop himself from shiftily looking around to double check if they'd left any visible evidence of what they'd been doing a few moments ago. The only telling thing he could see was how close they were sitting. Well, that and the fact that he was now suspiciously looking around like they had something to hide....

He snapped his eyes back to Omi and gave the boy a warm smile. "We were inventorying," he said unflinchingly, "and took a break." He didn't expect Omi to believe that for a second, but didn't especially care.

His smile was brief though as the detail of Sato's presence started to sink in. He made an inarticulate noise of general disapproval acknowledging that he'd heard, but remained in place, not willing to disturb the companionable contact he'd been sharing with Ran any sooner than he had to.

Edited Date: 2009-05-25 03:30 am (UTC)

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Ran pushed up off of the floor at the drop of the name "Sato"; he did not look at Yohji when he did so. Omi would know soon enough if he didn't already, but he did not trust or like their new liaison enough to give him any personal information about them. Especially not knowledge that could potentially be used against them, although nothing had ever been said against in-team 'fraternization.'

He briefly made eye contact with Omi; he was having to rely on the teen to take care of his sister when he was not with her. He did say that Sato refused to give details, he would have to assume that meant Aya-chan remained ignorant of who the man actually was.

Though perhaps that would have to be rethought, soon. Perhaps the tactics he'd been employing to keep her safe weren't enough. Perhaps knowledge was her best weapon, and his.

He gave Omi a brief nod.

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Omi raised an eyebrow at Yohji but didn't say anything. He was sure that if he thought about it he'd be able to guess the answer to his own question. But he still wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answer so he left it alone. Turning his attention to Ran.

"Aya-chan went upstairs." He informed him. "I'm going to find Ken-kun now. Don't take to long getting downstairs." He said before turning to leave the shop to go hunt down Ken.

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Ken was fortunately pulling up on his bike, and after cutting the engine and putting down the kickstand, he grabbed a couple bags from the back and started making his way towards the house.

A good chunk of the afternoon was spent doing light cleaning, more as a distraction than anything else, and when he nearly walked in on Ran and Yohji it seemed like a great idea to go get more first aid supplies. ASAP.

"Hey Omi! Grab the door for me would you?" Ken smiled when he spotted Omi from behind the bags. He felt like he could breathe for the moment, and it made him feel great.

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Omi grabbed the door for Ken quickly. "don't bother putting that stuff away right now. We have to go down to the mission room. Sato is here." Omi said. "And he's in pretty bad shape." Omi grabbed a bag from Ken and set it on the table.

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Ken balked for a moment, but he hastily put the bag down. "He's here? What happened to him? Did he have a run in with, wait, never mind."

Ken threw the volley of questions at Omi even as he began running down the stairs, but he was still far too wary of Sato to continue.

Instead he skipped the last four stairs and half-stumbled into the mission room.

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Yohji sighed and followed Ran to his feet, steadying himself against the wall. He briefly made eye contact with Ken before the brunet rushed past him. He couldn't blame him though; that Sato was injured was somewhat startling news. He stubbed out his cigarette in the sink before silently following his two younger team members down to the mission room. He knew without looking that Ran was close behind him.

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Sato stood up from the couch at Weiss's entrance, a smile lightening his bruised features. "Hunters. I'm glad all of you are here."

Immediately the smile fell away. He looked down; one of his brown leather shoes had bloodstains and the shoelace was undone. He bent down to tie it. He straightened before speaking again, but when he did, it was uncharacteristically halting. "As I told young Omi here, acquaintances of yours failed to kill me."

He paused, taking in each of their expressions. "There is no question they have a copy of the disk you retrieved for us. I was expressly sent there..."

Sato broke off with a cough. His eyes unfocused; the betrayal once voiced was not something he could deny to himself. His gaze sharpened again. "By someone within Kritiker. I hope you follow.

"But that boys, that is something to be dealt with later. As is, I suppose, the question of my failed assassination. Why fail, after all?" Again Sato trailed off. He coughed. "That disk cannot safely be allowed to exist. It needs to be retrieved."

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Omi frowned watching Sato carefully. "you keep saying they're acquaintances of ours. Yet you have failed to mention exactly who they are." Omi said. "You keep expecting us to do our job, but you refuse to give us full details. And I refuse to drag my team out unprepared." Omi's face was as serious as he could get it, but at the same time he didn't like the sound of Sato's coughing.

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Yohji halted on the second to last stair, his eyes widening slightly as he took in Sato’s unexpected statement. His gaze raked over the man. He looked bad. Well, he looked bad for a white collar agent. In actually Sato didn’t look a whole lot different than himself or Ran did a day or two ago. Or how all of them had looked stumbling home after any number of less successful missions. But high level Kritiker agents weren’t supposed to end up like that.

“I was expressly sent there by someone within Kritiker. I hope you follow.”

“You were sent to rendezvous with a would-be assassin?” Yohji asked, although he already understood what Sato was inferring. “Intentionally?”

He finally stepped off the stairs but chose to lean against the wall instead of sitting down on the couch or chair. “What I’m following there is that Kritiker decided to make a most extreme termination of employment.”

He watched Sato’s face very closely. The man had always been an enigma to him, his demeanor always artificially pleasant but completely blank of clues to what lay beneath the social niceties. Yohji had never trusted him. But then he had never trusted Kritiker either. The thought that Kritiker might not be above ‘erasing’ its employees had occurred to him in the past. He had never really believed it though.

He folded his arms across his chest. “Are we talking about a rouge agent that’s out to get you, or are our dear benefactors just even less morally upstanding than we already believed?”

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Ran halted on the stairs behind Yohji, eyes wide with unusually expressed surprise. Sato's words were almost more shocking than his appearance, they were far more straightforward than he ever would have expected from a Kritiker liaison, let alone a virtual acquaintance such as Sato.

Recovering, he pushed past Yohji and took a post on the wall by the stairs, crossing his arms to wait and hear out what was going to be said.

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Sato began twiddling his thumbs, hands held close to his waist. He sat down on the couch again, propped on the edge.

"All of that really doesn't matter quite yet," he said to Omi. "Our boy Mr. Kudoh here has it. I came here because quite frankly..." He looked at each Weiss in turn. "No, I do not think it was our mutual employer...well. Kritiker is an involved organization, as you know...well, if it came from the top, I don't think there would have been any confusion. I most certainly would be dead now...there just isn't any point to it. The disk would be theirs anyway, now wouldn't it? If I was to be assassinated, no, they wouldn't have hired this outside..."

Sato had taken to mumbling half to himself. He refocused as his words trailed off. "But I am not so certain of that that I would want them to know this little attempt at my life has failed. However, that disk, that copy, there is certainly a copy, there is no other point to it...there's simply no one else to go to. I hope you follow."

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Omi looked at Yohji, a little surprised that he would think that Kritiker would try and get rid of Sato. Omi didn't really like the man, but he had no logical reason why, so Omi ignored it. And Omi was sure that Kritiker had gotten rid of people like that before, but again, he couldn't think of any logical reason why they would want to get rid of Sato.

"I still don't understand how you know there is a copy of the disk. But it's quite clear that we need to get that one as well." Omi said and hated hearing the words even as he spoke them. He hated working with little to no information. And the more he thought about this disk, the more he wondered what was on it, which in turn made him curse himself for not making himself a copy so he could find out what was on it. Which brought it all back around to the fact that he missed when Manx was around.

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Sato sighed. "Because I still have the disk itself, the one you retrieved. Nothing else is missing, and really, it's the only thing of value I have..."

His eyes trailed to the briefcase.

"While our employers might not have ordered this, what I'm saying is that it doesn't exclude coworkers...like I said, Kritiker is a complicated organization, we all have our reasons for being there, but as you boys should know, those reasons are rarely pleasant..."

Sato glanced around the room again. "But perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions. Just because this team was there where I was told to be at the exact time of our scheduled meeting, just because he wasn't there...does it really matter until I know for sure?"

He shook his head. "I suppose I am telling you more than you really need to know. That might be foolish, but what's done is done, eh?" He chuckled weakly. "At any rate, I suppose you should be clear. This is not a mission given to you by our new head, your Persia. I doubt they even think I'm alive at the moment. But it is one that needs to be done...can you think, boys, of any reason why the Schwarz team would leave me alive? And make it seem like another dead body was me? It sounds like they were doing a job for someone other than themselves, now doesn't it? I'm missing my ID, you see..."

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"SCHWARTZ!" Ken blurted out in shock. He'd been doing his best to figure out just what on earth was going on, but all that derailed with the mention of their enemies.

He leaned back against the wall. Was that why they'd been suddenly tangled back up in their lives? It really couldn't have been a coincidence: new liaison, reappearance of Schwartz, sketchy mission...

"What the hell did you send us to get, huh?" Ken lowered his head, but his voice held the barest hint of a growl. "Ever since you showed up there's been nothing but trouble, and you've been jerking us around. I'm sick of it."

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Yohji frowned at the familiar name drop. He wasn't terribly surprised to learn that Schwarz was involved, they seemed to be lurking around every single corner these days.

"If I've learned one thing about Schwarz," he said grimly, "it's that they think it's hilarious to fuck with people. There may be no logical explanation to you being alive at all beyond the fact that Mastermind finds it amusing to watch us confused. He operates on whims more than you might expect from someone in our profession."

You're one to talk, an obnoxious voice interjected in his head. His jaw clenched and his eyes guilty darted to Ran, remembering that he had failed to disclose about chasing after Nagi that afternoon.

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Ran caught Yohji's inscrutable look and frowned slightly at him, unsure what it meant.

"Or maybe they have a reason for being so involved with us after all," he stated. "This time."

There was that nagging sensation that suggested everything was connected again, the one he'd been trying to ignore since Mastermind's last visit.

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Sato raised an eyebrow at Siberian's outburst, ignoring the others. "Is that so surprising? Their file said that team has an unusual interest in the four of you boys." He gave a jerky shrug. "But I only have access to files. Your last liaisons were not...available...to update me on your recent activity."

Sato smiled at Ken. "To the contrary, Mr. Hidaka, to the contrary. I have only been doing my job. This mission seemed as if it would be easy for your team, as trained as the four of you are. Were there complications I am not aware of?"

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"There were no complications." Omi said flatly. Hoping he made it quite clear that that part of the topic was closed. "I gave you the report on the mission. And requested more information on further missions if you expect us to do our job effectively in the future."

"And whatever we know about Schwartz, has already been reported to Kritiker. Why they left you alive is beyond me."

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[BIG EDIT: This is what I get for writing at work. I dunno what I was thinking. Anyway, above, where Sato says he still has his disk? Ignore that please. No disk. He in fact says "Because the disk is missing." Duh. Because Schwarz stolez it. Not copied it. In my defense, it's cause I was getting ahead of myself and Sato does have a copy of it...but Weiss doesn't know that. So yeah. *looks pathetic*]

"Very well, Bombay. No complications." Sato passed his eyes over the other Weiss. It wasn't obvious what his thoughts were. He continued without further comment on the matter, however. "Your mission. The disk. Kritiker sent you to retrieve it, and now, I'm afraid, it needs to be retrieved again, or many, many innocent lives will be in danger."

Sato frowned. "And I caution you again - it might be best for the moment for you to assume ignorance about my survival."

He gave a heavy sigh, and fell silent.

Edited Date: 2009-06-09 03:08 am (UTC)

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Yohji was caught between a sinking feeling at the distrustful look Ran had just shot him, and gratefulness at Omi’s refusal to disclose the details on what he certainly would have considered ‘complications’ on the mission. He didn’t particularly care that Sato obviously didn’t buy it, the man apparently had lost a lot of his leverage over them if things really had played out the way he said.

“I don’t like this,” he announced, frowning. Duh. As if anyone would. Well, Schwarz probably did. They were probably all gleefully laughing their asses off right now. The thought of having to go anywhere even remotely near them made Yohji’s stomach turn.

“So you’re saying…Schwarz has the disk. Right? You want us to retrieve the disk. From Schwarz.” Yohji’s eyes darted around the room, checking the other’s expressions to see if they’d read that the same as him.

“You’ll need me, then.” He finally sighed, and avoided Ran’s eyes.

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Ran frowned heavily at Yohji. He didn't even know what the disk was - he didn't like any of the obscurity surrounding any of the events of that week.

And he definitely did not like the implications of Yohji's cryptic statement.

"Who's paying us?" Ran snapped. "You're saying you're giving us this mission, but you're a dead man. Why should we care? Because it sounds like you're asking us to go against our employers."

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Sato held up a hand. "You're not listening then, Mr. Fujimiya. I'm saying that...our common employer...I simply have no way of knowing at this moment. But I have ideas, yes, but...I'm here on a mission of goodwill, boys. I'm trying to prevent a tragedy!"

It may have been the first time Sato expressed anything approaching passion. The emotion was gone as quickly as it had appeared.

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Yohji shut his eyes for a moment and slumped against the wall.

He wanted nothing to do with this. He was still injured. Half of their entire team was injured. The request wasn’t even coming from someone who necessarily retained authority over them. (That actually almost redeemed it.) The loyalty Manx would have inspired with such a request was almost tangibly absent.

And yet, if he let himself really dwell on it for even a second. He knew….

“He’s right,” Yohji opened his eyes again, straightening. “Bad shit will happen if we don’t get that disk back. Schwarz has been way too fucking interested in us recently. I know it’s because of that mission. And it looks like they now have whatever it was they wanted. Something bad is going down, and I think we’ll regret it if we ignore this.”

He looked at Omi briefly and then at Sato. He still avoided Ran. “I…might have a vague idea of the general vicinity of their headquarters.” It was a very optimistic statement; he’d been blindfolded and under an extreme amount of stress at the time he was escorted back from there. He was also fairly certain Prodigy had taken an indirect route to throw him off. Still, he had done his best to commit what little he knew to memory. And of all of them, it was the closest shot they seemed to have at tracking Schwarz down intentionally.

“…Maybe.”

He shrugged a little dejectedly.

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"I would like to know why that disk is so important. Why we had to get it in the first place. The only reason I'm even thinking of accepting this mission is because Yohji-kun is right, Schwartz has been far to interested in us." Omi said, though he couldn't clearly say if they were interested in them, or if they were just board. He could never tell when it came to them.

"However, since you are requesting that we risk our lives to get back a disk we've already risked our lives once to get for you, and where as this is a unofficial mission and we'll probably not get paid for it. You won't get the disk back until I know what is so damn important about it."

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Sato sighed. "I suppose you really should know. It will help that you're already familiar with the Schwarz team. You already know there are people out there with...special...abilities. The disk is a recording of a voice, boys, and that voice belongs to a very dangerous, very top secret project. That mere recording of a sound..." Sato's voice caught in his throat. He continued without clearing it, trying not to draw attention to his weakness. "Has the devastating power to kill quite messily anyone who hears it. So I don't imagine I have to tell you - don't open the disk, boys."

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Ken had been losing the battle to descend into a royal sulk during most of the conversation, but this last bombshell had him almost springing to his feet.

"What...are you serious?" He demanded in slack jawed surprise. "Why would someone even *invent* something like that--wait, no, what the hell did Kritiker *want* that for?" Ken strode over to Sato in a fit of slowly simmering, but rational anger, grabbing the fabric of the man's shirt in a tight grip.

"If you knew what this was, and knew how dangerous it was, why. Didn't you. Tell us. TO DESTROY IT? Huh? We could've trashed that whole place in a heartbeat, that disk would be gone, and SCHWARTZ has it now?" Ken barked at him through clenched teeth, giving him one small shake to emphasize his point.

The whole thing was absurd. Kritiker...someone at Kritiker...was playing with all of them. The whole thing stunk to high heaven, and Ken did not like it one bit.

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"Those weren't my orders," Sato replied, eyes widening at the rough handling. He made no move to dislodge Ken however. "And they weren't yours. To be frank, you'll most likely hear from Kritiker about that disk whether you choose to listen to me or not, Mr. Hidaka. You'd best remember you still don't know what it contains yes?"

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"Fuck," Yohji muttered, mostly to himself. "I doubt I'm even creative enough to imagine what Schwarz could do with that..."

He fixed his eyes on Sato. "I'll go after the disk," he said seriously. "But if I manage to get my hands on it, it'll be in pieces before Kritiker ever gets to see it."

He let his eyes briefly glance over his other teammates.

"Take it or leave it."

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Omi moved forward and put his hand on Ken's arm giving him a warning look before looking at Sato. "Orders or not, you are telling us that the disk has been stolen by Schwartz no less. No matter how you put it, we really have no choice but to try and get it back. But I agree with Yohji-kun that we get it back, neither you or Kritiker will see it again. Because I will make sure it does get destroyed.

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Still in Ken's grip, the corners of Sato's mouth twisted. It wasn't exactly a smile or a grimace. "I'm a dead man for the time being."

Not exactly permission, but it was an acknowledgment that he was off the clock, so to speak.

He brushed Ken's hands away with an apologetic look and stepped toward the doorway. "You're doing the people a service, boys, indeed."

[Sato exits]

Edited Date: 2009-06-29 01:47 am (UTC)

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Ken’s agreement ought to have been a reassurance like Omi’s support, but it made Yohji frown. If the thought of having to get reacquainted with Schuldig made him cringe, the idea of Ken in the telepath’s hands was beyond alarming. At the moment he wasn’t even sure if Ken was safe left to himself anymore. There was no doubt in his mind that clashing with Schwarz would send the burnet over whatever edge Ken was already teetering on.

“One person has a better chance of getting in than four,” Yohji stated in a rarely used don’t-bother-arguing voice. “And I have the best shot at finding them.” Not to mention they already didn’t kill you once, so maybe they wouldn’t kill you again. Who knows what the other’s chances were.

…Or maybe you’re the only one who’s already used up their get-out-of-jail-free card….

He shook off the thought and steeled his resolve. “I’ll try in the morning. There’s a smaller chance all of them will be in at once.”

Edited Date: 2009-07-16 04:02 pm (UTC)

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Ran kept his face tilted toward the floor, trying to keep his expression to himself. They all knew that a mission against Schwarz required every one of Weiss, and that while they had crossed paths, this was something entirely different. If their visits were anything to go by, Schwarz didn't have all the information yet either, and that, by Ran's assessment, was the only thing working in their favor.

Aya-chan. A knot of worry began tangling in his stomach. If they pitted themselves directly against Schwarz, that meant his sister was his greatest liability, and one that absolutely could not be bargained with.

But Kritiker might be behind the attack against Sato, if the agent is to be trusted. Which meant it was absolutely out of the question to send Aya-chan through the proper channels to a safehouse. He needed to find Manx, or Birman. The only two he gave a modicum of trust.

Ran felt his world tilting, at an angle closer to his life a few months ago. A life with a sister, his only family, alive but out of reach.

It will be temporary, Ran told himself disgustedly, fighting against his fear. And it's something you should have done before now. You've been self-indulgent.

But he still felt as if he were the only one capable of protecting Aya-chan adequately.

There is no choice here. No debate. Loyalty to this team and the rigid line he walked in his current position would not allow him to leave Weiss. His sister could not be allowed to become entangled any further in the current web that Schwarz was weaving. There was no decision to be made.

Conclusion reached, Ran looked up, mouth twisted faintly at one corner, the only tribute to his thoughts. "Fine."

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"Ken," Ran interjected mildly. "I meant that I'm going too."

He turned his head on the last word to meet Yohji's eyes.

The blonde's suggestion was unusually self-sacrificing (and idiotic, to face Schwarz alone). He got the feeling again that Yohji hadn't told them the whole story.

He shifted his gaze to Omi, waiting for his say.

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Omi shook his head and looked to Ken. "Ken-kun take a chill pill." he said and then turned his attention to Yohji. "And you, you may have the best chance at finding them, but just because you got out of there alive once doesn't mean it will happen again. I want this mission done quickly, but not at the expense of anyone's life." Omi said and looked at the floor and started to pace looking thoughtful. "I know all four of us can't go in, but it's more safer then sending just one of us. Two of us will go in." Omi said stopped pacing to look at the three of them. Yohji was still injured, but he was right that he had a better chance of finding them since he had been there recently, Omi didn't trust Ken to keep his cool around Schwartz so him going was out of the question, and it would be suicidal to send two injured people into the lions den. Omi thought as he looked at Ran.

"I'll go with Yohji-kun." He announced.

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Yohji's mouth was frozen open in objection, although his brain hadn't yet decided whether to direct that objection towards Ran or Ken first. They were being so predictable he wanted to bash his head against the wall. Although part of that was probably the frustration of knowing that he would do the exact same thing in their places, and it was utterly futile to try changing their minds....

He looked at Aya, then at Ken, frowning heavily and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I happen to know exactly what Schuldig wants to do to me," he said to Ken darkly, with no intention whatsoever of elaborating on what that happened to be. "I'll stay in one piece."

At least your body will….

He looked away as Omi stepped up to exert his authority, relieved for once to have someone else telling them all what to do. He still wanted to do this alone, but he found Omi's partnership the most acceptable compromise. He didn't have to worry about Omi losing it. With Omi, he didn't have to worry about himself losing it. Were Ran involved he couldn’t be so sure about that. Although he was sure that Schuldig would find Omi's mind a pretty delightful playground to dig through. But the boy had more years of training than any of them, so who was Yohji to jump to conclusions about possible catastrophic outcomes.

"Alright," he agreed with a short nod. "Just Omi. More than that will just give us away."

Edited Date: 2009-07-22 06:53 pm (UTC)

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[Oh man, you have Ken's characterization down!!! *happy dance!!!*]

Ran watched Ken carefully, up until he stalked off. He felt mildly relieved, however, it was a reminder that putting Ken anywhere near a telepath or a trigger like Farfarello would be disastrous.

He looked at Omi. Omi looked completely sure of his decision. Ran wished they had more time, a retrieval mission against Schwarz was not something he was certain they could pull off.

And he wanted Yohjino where near the other team. Not again.

But the blonde looked grimly certain it was the best option as well.

"So what's your plan?" Ran gritted out. Sneaking into their safehouse was not likely.

He was withholding his answer to their suggestion of going alone until the plan at least approached accomplishable.

You need to call Manx, or Birman, he reminded himself. Set up a safehouse for your sister.

There was no time left to do that either.

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The look Ken gave him before exiting was like a knife in the gut.

You hurt him. Again. You promised to be there to watch his back and all you ever do is fuck it up.

…I am watching his back though. He just doesn’t see it. He has no idea what Schuldig could do if he wanted to….

Yohji ran his hand through his hair in frustration and forced himself to refrain from calling Ken back or going after him. It was way better to have Ken mad than broken. Or dead.

Nonetheless he distractedly stared at the empty door frame far longer than necessary, mouth set in a grim line.

“Plan?” he finally replied, train of thought pulled back by Ran’s question. “I haven’t got one.” He shrugged. “My only plan was to see if I could even FIND the damn place. I don’t know if I can. From there I was going to improvise. What I’ll do will depend on what sort of set-up they’re in. I think it might have been an apartment building, but I don’t even know that much.”

He stared off at the wall for a moment, lost in thought. “It also occurred to me that Prodigy might go to school. I could try to single him out away from his teammates. See if I could negotiate with him. But even with leverage I doubt that would work. I don’t really see him mutinying, even for the girl.”

He shook his head dejectedly. “Yeah, afraid I’m a little short on plans there.”

Edited Date: 2009-07-23 04:02 pm (UTC)

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Omi blinked watching Ken leave the room. He sighed inwardly at the fact that he hadn't been able to find time to talk to Ken at all today. Shoving that aside yet again he turned his attention back to the other two left in the room.

"Finding the place again will be first priority." Omi said as he looked at Yohji. "Then we'll work on a plan from there. I COULD try and find out what school Prodigy goes to. Do you remember what general area you were in when they let you go?" Omi asked. It would be enough to get started at least. "we can work on that first thing in the morning."

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Ran frowned, considering. "Cornering the youngest Schwarz might be a sound plan," he concluded. He too had witnessed the care he'd shown toward the Schrient girl. Nagi was young enough that despite his abilities, hormones still had to come into play. Also, he wasn't psychic, could not see the future and was not a full-fledged psychopath, based only on past observation. "Going straight to the whole team sounds like suicide."

He fixed Yohji with a hard glare as he said the last.

He hadn't yet said that he would stay behind, but if he needed to, he would tail them. For the moment, they needed as few weaknesses as possible, and though he was loathe to think of his sister in those terms, she was a bargaining chip, and one that would bring the whole game to a close for him. Her safety had turned into the most important item on the present agenda since Sato's revelations.

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Ran's agreement on -any- part of what he had just proposed caught Yohji rather off-guard. He had expected nothing but objections once it became apparent that he was grasping at straws just as much as any of the rest of them.

The glare didn't have it's usual effect on him though, Yohji was too awash in relief. The thought of trying to track down Prodigy (while not giving him much hope for results,) was vastly preferable to the concept of trying to break into Schwarz central. Because he would be the last person to argue Ran's assessment of that 'plan' being suicidal.

"Start searching school records," Yohji agreed with a nod towards Omi. "They didn't 'let me go' until I was down the street from the Koneko, here. Prodigy escorted me back, I couldn't see anything. I counted steps, tried to memorize turns, but that's all I've got. I don't have a clue if I'll be able to back-track until I actually try it." He searched both Ran and Omi's faces for feedback, waiting for either of them to tell him he was stupid for even thinking this would get them anywhere.

"We could see if I can find it first, but not immediately move on it. Try and single out Nagi before resorting to going in..."

He stopped and blinked. Since when had he thought of Prodigy in terms of an actual name?

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"I'd say we try and do that tomorrow. But I think going after Prodigy is our best bet. So you take tomorrow and try to rest a bit, you're still hurt, and I'll be on the computer most of the day looking up school records and such." Omi said.

"So now, unless there's anything else to talk about tonight, I'm going to bed so I can search with a fresh mind tomorrow."

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Ran kept his frown, he wanted to ask Yohji finally for the details he was now sure he was keeping from them regarding his past meetings with Schwarz. The man was reacting strangely to his own words, as if they surprised even him.

There would be time to do that though. More pressing was the feeling that he had to talk to his sister.

Not that he wanted to. The sooner that discussion happened, the sooner...

...the sooner she'd be gone.

The difference is that she's well this time, Ran told himself, Remember that. This is what you wanted for her, the chance for a normal life that you've been too selfish to give.

Ran nodded at Omi and dragged a slow look across Yohji, examining him for anything that would tip him off that it did need to be dealt with now. Finding nothing incriminating in his expression, he turned on his heel for the door.

[Ran exits]

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