djtenku | [writing] Project Epsilon

Title: Logic Board That Sinks in Diethyl Ether
Word Count: 2590
Summary: Thoughts. News. Panic.

Kento didn’t bother to go back upstairs when he arrived back at the loft. It was another two hours that he tried to sleep, but slowly he realized that it would never be there, even though he had taken the medicine for the back pain caused by the inch long spiked knuckles that had been donned by Xiong Lang a little more than a year ago. In some cases, they did tear into some muscles but it did no harm to anything else. The blow to his face left four streaks overlapped his old scar, and it resembled a partial railroad track. Between the second and third scar was his right blind eye, now taking on a soft grey instead of milky white – he decided there was no use to try and cover that up, and learned to just keep that one shut. In some act of compensation, the eyesight in his left eye became sharp [even though it did not make up for the lack of depth perception], and so did his other senses.

When he was always asked how did he survive such things, he’d always answer with, “I just ate my vegetables when I was growing up.”

He sighed as he sat up on the couch, and gazed up at the ceiling. There was really no use into going back to sleep. Maybe, he thought, it was fear that Rowan spoke of that robbed him of his sleep. It had been happening for a few weeks. The very idea of it disturbed him – the idea that he could not protect everyone. The role was practically a part of him, ever since his older brother Hayato had been killed in action – how long ago was it, almost fifteen years ago? – he made sure that his younger siblings weren’t hurt or anything. Of course, it got him a couple of black eyes and bruises.

Kento averted his gaze to the bedroom directly above the kitchen, and remembered what he had told Shin years ago. “I’ll protect you, no matter what,” he said. The fact that he wasn’t there with her for the duration of the Greenland mission with her bothered him greatly to the point he felt guilty about it, even though she was very capable of handling herself well. But, he still saw her as fragile, especially now that she was five months pregnant.

Somehow, he’d have to keep up with being a mercenary and being an husband and father. However, that certainly meant more scars, more broken bones somewhere along the way, or worse, death. Death, Kento felt, was like a vulture just waiting for that day. In honesty, it had poked its beak at him more times than he had liked, and he never wanted to experience again until he was of old age.

There was another feeling that irked him. Rowan had never looked so distraught and sick, on the verge of passing out even. And that sudden question and the envelope… Maybe it was changing him, a slow infestation…

He let the thought disappear, even though the feeling lingered for sometime. Kento didn’t even hear the light footsteps approaching him from behind the couch. A small, soft hand ran through his fading blue-gray hair and he smiled a little. “Good mornin’,” said Shin, voice equally soft.

“Mornin’,” he muttered, finally looking up at Shin’s bright, round face.

Shin brushed away strands of long, cherry red hair and rested her arms on the cushion next to Kento, still keeping a hand on his head. “The walk made things better?”

Kento was, for the most part, the first person to wake in the mornings and did calisthenics. Though this time, it provided a simple alibi. “Not really,” he said with a sigh. “Still can’t sleep either. I guess it’s one of those mornings.”

One of those mornings, Shin echoed silently, thinking back to a few hours ago.

“How about you?” he asked as she crossed to sit down next to him. He finally realized that she was wearing his old blue and white pajama set, and it hung loosely to her frame, except where her stomach had poked out. Kento reached over and lightly touched it.

“Until you fell out of bed again,” she remarked, putting her hand over his. “And this.” Shin giggled when Kento’s face suddenly lit up with shock and delight.

“Wow,” he said.

“I think it’s a boy,” Shin said, remembering the dream. The boy looked an awful like him “What do you think?”

“A girl,” Kento replied plainly. “They kick a lot harder, trust me.” A girl named Lily, he didn’t say, thinking back to the earlier conversation between him and Rowan. There was a curious look on Shin’s face, and he guessed she picked up the words. He couldn’t quite figure out how or why that kept happening in the past few months, and he shrugged. There was movement again. “Or…” he began with a sincere look on his scarred face, “could be twins. They tend to run both sides of the family.”

“How many sets?”

“Hell if I know.”

Shin sighed. “We won’t know for another few days anyway. Have you talked to your father?”

“Lately?” Kento started. “I don’t even know where he is. Last time I talked to him, he was in France, I think. I dunno…only thing he’d be good for is getting food for the reception for free. Well, it’s true!” he exclaimed when Shin shot him a look.

“Just humor me and do it,” she said to him, handing the phone to him, smiling. Her tone was sweet, yet, commanding.

“Fine,” he muttered, dialing the number, “just don’t expect this to be a normal conversation.”

“ – will require a transplant; as of this moment, she is listed in unsatisfactory condition,” the reporter said as the television was turned on, looking quite grave. Shin frowned and turned to something else. Can’t there be any good news to start off the day?

Kento suddenly pulled the phone away from his ear, and held it so for several moments, a look of exasperation on his face. ‘I swear,’ he mouthed. “Dad, can you tone it down; I’m about to go deaf,” he half yelled. “How did it happen? …back of a – no! It... well, let’s just say it involved cards and lots of” He held up a finger when Shin started for him. “N…what the hell are you talking about?”

Again, he held the phone away and gave her the ‘I-told-you-so’ look as she raised an eyebrow. “Do you have any advice for me? …that’s it? No, I’m not disappointed, it seems…yeah, a bit.”

Shin landed on another news channel after glancing at a profile picture of a rather gaunt faced, grey haired man that happened to look like… “ – Xander was found dead in his vacation home last night, and it has been confirmed that he died from complications of stroke - ”

Shin covered her mouth in shock and uttered a word, turning to Kento.

“Twenty-two year old Maria Meeko was also found dead in her apartment this morning from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning -”

“Dad, I’ll…” Kento had trouble thinking of the words. “I’ll call you back, something just came up,” he said hastily before hanging up.

Shin shook her head. “That’s not a coincidence at all,” she said as he quickly dialed another number. “You don’t think it’s the…HSA, is it?”

Kento growled in frustration as he heard the steady dialtone and the automated voice that chirped, “This number has been disconnected…”

“I can’t get to Michael or Rowan,” he said, rising from the couch. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. You’re right, this isn’t a coincidence.” He thought back to what Rowan had told him before, after the mission to Greenland.

“Sometimes, I dream of something happening to me, and a good deal of it actually happens. I still don’t believe it, because I’m touched in the head anyway,” Rowan told him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Shin demanded, watching Kento getting the helmet from the closet and dusting it off.

“I’m going to check on Rowan,” he said curtly, heading for the door.

“Go?” she half-yelled, glaring at him “There is someone targeting us. God forbid something happens to either one of us; I can’t take care of myself if something goes down, alright? Not right now!”

Kento stopped as his hand landed on the knob. He glanced over his shoulder; Shin was standing up glaring at him with angry, sapphire eyes.

“I can’t begin to imagine what will happen if you’re killed,” she said quietly. “I know you’ve taken a responsibility as squad leader, but, you have to consider what you’re about to do.”

“Stop exaggerating. Look, Rowan told me,” he began, “that I was like a brother to him. Shina, it’s the absolute least I can do at this point; it’ll only take me twenty minutes, alright? If you’re that worried, lock everything up as soon as I leave and try to stay calm.” Shin came up to the door after him, still glaring at him until Kento leaned in and kissed her.

“Promise?” Shin asked, anger melting away. Damn him for doing that. Kento nodded his assurance before leaving, and she immediately locked the deadbolts and windows – and even contemplating on reinforcing it with some furniture.

“ – has recevied the transplant and will be making a full recovery,” the television said, before the picture distorted into static and emitted white nose. Dismayed, Shin flipped through the channels, displaying the same. “Of all the things,” she muttered, approaching the television set, looking at the cables that were half hidden. Still intact. She turned and saw a little blond girl sitting on the couch, hands folded neatly on her white dress, while her legs swung idly. Odd eyes stared back at her, and smiling like an imp.

“You’re coming with us,” the girl said.

It only took about five minutes to get back to Rowan’s apartment, thanks to riding at over ninety miles per hour. He was surprised none of the police even noticed.

Kento knocked at the door as he did earlier, and waited. There was no answer this time. “Rowan?” he called, twisting the knob. Oddly, it was unlocked; most of the time it was locked unless he said otherwise. Maybe he forgot? No…that wasn’t like Rowan. Kento felt uneasy as he stepped into the apartment.

Several pictures lay on the ground. The table was split in two cleanly, and the wall adjacent to the couch sported a large crack, as if someone was rammed against it. Everything else was still together, from what he had seen. “Say somethin’ if you hear me,” he continued, making his way through the apartment, opening doors and even looking out the small balcony.

Yukinko the cat brushed against his leg as he arrived back into the living room. “I wish you could talk,” Kento said as he stooped to pet it. It was then he saw the back of the door, smeared with red paint and forming the words

THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.
ABANDON YOUR HOPE.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed. The paint was still fresh – it was running. At least, he assumed it was paint. The handwriting itself seemed frantic and it almost looked like Rowan’s handwriting. Kento looked towards the keyholder by the door and saw the arrowhead necklace and grabbed it. As far as he knew, the sniper was never without it since the Chaos mission.

Quickly, he dialed the number on his cellphone and somewhere within the room, Rowan’s phone rang.

“Shit,” he sighed, running a hand through his hands. Yukinko mewed, almost appearing forlorn. He dialed home, but he also heard the phone disconnection message. How can this be? “No use leaving you here, Yuki.”

Traffic was far heavier than he liked. Occasionally, the black and white cat poked its head out of the unzipped portion of the bookbag Kento found somewhere in the apartment. Dark thoughts began to surface in his mind. The messages, the deaths…the phones being disconnected all of the sudden. Was coincidence the right word for all of this? His decision to leave Shin behind was starting to intrude in his thoughts more and more.

Kento watched as the sea of pedestrians went by through the tinted visor of his helmet. He heard Yukinko hiss and glanced over his shoulder. “Keep it down, will ya?”

As he began watching again, there was a peculiar sight amongst the crowd. A man towered every person by nearly a foot and a half, in a solid black suit – almost the color of his skin - that hid his giant frame. A fedora covered his bald head and face, but did not obscure the piercing storm grey eyes when he looked directly at Kento. Briefly, Kento matched it until he saw another person beside the giant, holding his hand.

It was a little girl, perhaps a third or maybe a fourth of the man’s size. She wore a white dress, matching her pale skin. Her blond hair was neatly braided into a single ponytail. The girl, too, stared at him with odd eyes – brown and green, and wide. A shiver ran down Kento’s back, and he could not break his gaze. Slowly, the images from the nightmare came into mind, and for a moment, time slowed down. The girl smiled.

“You cannot save everyone.” Her voice was fragile – glass. “It is impossible.” The difference was that her mouth never moved at all.

By the time he blinked, time continued as if it never slowed. The giant and the girl was long gone. Kento barely realized his hands were shaking and he was on the verge of passing out. What the hell was that? Then, there was another shudder, deeper somehow, when he thought he had heard a distant scream. “Oh no…”

The tires screamed as he turned the acceleration bar.

* * *

“Shina!” he exclaimed as he searched through the loft. The mere thought of it terrifed him down to his soul. The door was wide open when he had arrived. There was nothing out of place, no sign of intrusion. “Shina!” She wasn’t in the bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, or even the closet. He even checked the roof, even though he knew that she was afraid of going up there. She was simply gone.

The phone was off the charging stand, blaring the busy signal. Kento picked it up and saw that part of his number had been dialed. He cleared it and listened when the signal gave out three staccato beeps. A message. He listened.

Dark laughter. “It seems that you finally put the pieces together. I am sure that you saw the news this morning? You left and others became very vunerable. Shina – is it? – is safe in my hands. Went without a fight. Rowan on the other hand, I had to subdue. Such a stubborn streak. You’re the only one that’s left. Kento, right?

“There isn’t a damn thing you can do to save them now. They’re mine, you see. Collateral. We figured out your little stint you tried to pull on us. Angry, aren’t you? You cannot go after me. You cannot find me. If you so much as think about going after them, I will have you killed – and no one will bat an eye.”

The message ended, and the phone emitted a steady dialtone.