Our lives are like a bunch of billiard balls bouncing off each other creating paths and diverting others.  Each instant, a possibility is given life and another dies forever.  Have you ever wondered what would have happened if things had gone another way?  If someone had taken a step in the other direction instead of this one, would this change everything and everyone’s fate?  I invite to step into an alternate reality where things have gone another way, where a man’s altered decision and his son’s hidden power changes their fate and the fate of all those lives that they touched… Welcome to the dark side of the mirror…  Where Sensitive exists instead of Abyssinian…

I. Raw Silver

“How are you doing against Schwartz?” Asked Manx just as soon as the shop doors were closed and the iron gratings down on the front.  She was going around the counter to the Weiss briefing room.

“Badly, Manx.  Don’t tease us you know from our reports, how we’re doing against THEM!”  Hidaka Ken, a.k.a. Siberian, said, wincing as he did so.  His brown eyes were a bit unfocused from the pain meds.  The medication helped somewhat but he had taken quite a beating from fighting with Schwartz.  The icy swordsman and the psychotic knife-wielder had tag-teamed him in their recent encounter.

“Are you willing to play hardball then?”  Manx positioned herself by the VHS player.

“What do you mean by that?”  Youji said where he sat on the sofa.  It was the measure of the seriousness of the situation that he didn’t even try to flirt with the lovely Manx.  Weiss had been doing quite abysmally against Schwartz, barely surviving their encounters with the rival group.  If nothing was to be done soon they might end up losing one of their team.  Still, Manx was behaving rather oddly today.

“Yes, what do you mean by that Manx?”  Omi said from his perch on the sofa arm.  He had gotten off relatively lighter than the other two Weiss, though he was bruised from head to hip, at least his skin and bones were relatively whole.  Youji had fractured a shinbone on impact and would limp for a while yet.

“Something that might even the odds a bit between Schwartz and Weiss.  Though it means playing the game by their rules.  Rather underhandedly.”  Manx was clearly discomfited by the mission she was about to give them.  Though they had no real choice in this matter.  Every advantage was to be had no matter how small or mean.  Five to three odds were not fair by any measure of the word and when those five had esper powers, the odds goes beyond unfair to insane but still…must it come to this?

“Well, let’s have it.”  Omi said rather savagely.  He hadn’t forgiven Schwartz for endangering Ouka in their quest for power.  Though his sister had not been hurt at all by the experience and that they might not have found each other was not the issue.  It had been a close thing, if Sensitive hadn’t pushed Berserker’s gun away Ouka would have been dead or at least grievously injured.

“In what way?”  Ken asked, both he and Balinese traded a look of concern over Bombay’s bloodthirstiness.

“Watch the tape.”  Manx suited action to words by popping the tape into the player.

“White hunters your objective for this mission is to get this young girl, Fujimiya Aya, away from the custody of Schreint…”

A young girl that looked to be all of thirteen appeared on the screen.  Her hair was in braids and her eyes were closed as if she was asleep.

“I can’t see how…”  Youji started but was shushed by Manx.

“She is the younger sister of Fujimiya Ran a.k.a. Sensitive of Schwartz and is being held for ransom by Schreint who desires to raise their master from the dead.  Though in a coma for all these four years, her brother still hopes that she will awaken one day.  She is very important to him…”

Bright lights, a restaurant full of noisy people, one of which was recognizable as the late and unlamented Reiji Takatori.

“This was taken ten years ago at one of Takatori’s family events…”

The camera zooms in on a table full of children with a nanny or two in the background.  A redheaded figure with softer facial features came into focus.  He was serving a much younger version of the girl they just saw and smiling as the young girl, all of seven, protested the indignity.  Somewhere else a commotion broke loose, a child was crying.  The redhead looked up, purple eyes suddenly solemn…the tape panned back to “Persia”.

“It is important to take the girl away from her captors who are also using her as a guinea pig.  Besides she could be important in the battle against Schwartz.  Since her brother could be induced to see reason.  White hunters hunt the Dark Beasts now!”

The screen darkened and the three Weiss members were left to process what they just heard.

“’See reason’.  Does that mean what I think it means?”  Ken said, recovering first from the shock that had overtaken Weiss.  They had never seen anyone in Schwartz act the least bit kind or caring and had viewed them as true “Dark Beasts” in human form.  Black to Weiss’ white.  But the look on Sensitive’s face and the way he had plainly cared for his sister told them otherwise.  It bothered Ken more than a little that they were going to use such pure emotion to meet their goals.  It somehow sullied them, making them no better than Schuldich who had tried to use Ouka against Omi.  We’re the good guys damn it!

“I’m afraid so, Siberian.  Anymore questions Weiss?”

“None?”  Manx asked again.

“Aya is the reason why her brother is in Schwartz, isn’t she?”  Omi said, it was more a statement than a question.

“Partly…her upkeep is expensive.”  Manx was growing more uncomfortable by the moment.  She knew where the questions were leading to and though she could lie her way out of it, she didn’t think she should.  This was too important.  Besides, Weiss had been loyal, they were entitled to the truth.

“No shit, Manx.  From the way you’re pussyfooting around the question, I’d say there’s more to this than you’re letting on.  Spill!”  Youji said finally stubbing his cigarette in the ashtray.  The uncomfortable silence had made him restless and his injury made pacing not an option, these factors combined to make an irritable Balinese.

“The Fujimiyas were the first of the Takatori cronies assassinated by Kritiker.  Aya’s unconscious state was a by-product of the attempt.  We suspect that the trauma of his parents’ deaths was the one that ‘opened’ Sensitive’s power.”

“And you’re asking the guy to join the very organization that brought him into this hell of a life… Manx, you’re cruel!”  Ken accused for all of them.

“It’s necessary.  I don’t like it anymore than you do.”  Manx said feelingly.

“One last question.”  Omi said.

“What?”

“What happened when the party video cut off?”

“Hirofumi and Misafumi was trying to bully their half-sister Ouka…”

“And…?”

“Ran defended her.”  Manx said softly, almost inaudibly as she gave them a folder with the additional information.  There was no doubt that Weiss would accept this mission.  No matter their misgivings, there was too much at stake.

***

Elsewhere in the Schwartz safe house somewhere in Tokyo.

“No, Nagi-kun, the order is not reversible in matrix multiplication only in matrix addition¹…  Yes, that’s better.”  Ran said as he helped Nagi with homework.

“Thank you Ran-san.”  Nagi replied as he finished the calculations and tucked them out of sight.

“Hn.”  Ran replied a half-foot away as he rose to go to his room.  He almost smiled.  Helping the youngest Schwartz with his schoolwork reminded him of the times he had done so for his sister.  It was the most normal thing in his life right now…

***

“Ran-nichan, U’s love Aya-chan doesn’t he?” Aya-chan said when her aniki had refused to answer the math homework she had presented him.  She felt a bit desperate to have her work done, an aura of red-white flashes surrounded her, more white than anything.

“Yes, Aya-chan, that’s why I’m not going to answer it for you.  You can find the answers yourself, they’re not that hard.”  Ran said as he looked at his own pile of papers to read.

“’Niichan!”  Aya-chan had squealed with outraged indignation, stamping her foot on the floor.  She was so cute that Ran had felt his heart softened.  She was three years younger than him and was so kawaii as she stood there smiling, he felt like a tyrant.

“Oh all right, I’ll see your answers after I finish this okay?”

“Arigatou, ‘niichan.”  Aya-chan said flouncing away into her own room.

Ran true to his promise had come into his sister’s room to correct Aya-chan’s answer later that night.  They had ended up arguing about one of the answers.

“This is wrong.”

“No, it’s right.”

“Wrong!”

“Right!”  Aya-chan said, stamping her foot and throwing a pillow at Ran’s head.  Her aura was now flashing predominantly sooty red of rage and the anger that was not his pulsated into Ran.

“It’s wrong…” Ran said ducking then heaving a couple of pillows at Aya-chan’s head, not to be outdone.  His anger rising warmly in response.

“Right, right, right…”  Aya-chan had thrown several more pillows.

“Well, if that’s how you feel about it then I’m not correcting your assignments anymore.”  Ran said in a huff and went out the room.  Why did I bother rushing over my own schoolwork…

In the afternoon, Aya-chan had come into his room to apologize.

“’niichan, I was wrong about that answer…”  His sister said hanging her head, her foot tracing an imaginary pattern on the floor. She Felt gray and cold with despondent.

“It’s all right…at least you admitted that you were wrong.”  Ran said, hugging Aya-chan as he did so comforting her.   Feeling the gray turning to yellow-warmth of contentment.

***

Ran shouldn’t have been too hard on her.  She had been only nine at that time after all.

Then his thoughts darkened a bit more when he remembered, those bitches will pay dearly for taking Aya-chan.  Besides, it wouldn’t do to get close to any of his teammates; he might forget himself one day and try to touch them spontaneously.  He cannot be too careful not to touch another person.  It would mean their death or at least their consciousness if they hadn’t the diamond hard shields like Crawford.  His feelings hardened as he thought about the American.

No, don’t think about that.  Don’t think of things that you cannot change…

***

Nagi watched as Sensitive go out of his room.  Of all his teammates, he had felt most at ease with the empath and not because of the redhead’s gift or his nationality.  For his silent and icy ways, Ran was the only one who didn’t exhibit the streak of cruelty that was almost a prerequisite for joining Schwartz.  The redhead was the only one who actually took care that Nagi ate healthy food and to keep Farfarello locked up at all times.  The latter didn’t use his gifts to pry either.

:Hey, chibi, stop stairing at the iceberg’s ass.  You’ll get into trouble with the boss-man for that.:

:Schuldich!:

:If your tastes run to redheads you should look to my direction…:

:Ie. I’m straight!:

:I know that chibi and so does Crawford.:  An implied threat in that.

:He knows about…:  Nagi cursed his vulnerability to the telepath’s manipulations.

:Tot.  Yes, and he’ll talk to you soon.  I expect.:

:Schuldich!:

:Our leader doesn’t approve of allegiances outside our little group.  Ran’s turn will come in due time as well.:

:Poor, Ran-san.:  Nagi said truly meaning it forgetting his own dread over somebody else’ fate.  Ran had too many attachments outside Schwartz though he pretended otherwise.  There was that girl, Ouka, Reiji Takatori’s only surviving child and Aya, his sister.  Nagi knew that Crawford had been very displeased when Sensitive had prevented Farfarello from pulling a bullet through Ouka’s head.  The storm over that controversy had weathered and battered Schwartz for weeks.  He had Tot to lose but Ran had it worse, twice worse!

***

¹ Basic algebra ^__^().  Got reminded of this while taking graphics programming, “matrix transformations are your friends!” phooey!  It’s hard work :p  and gives me the woozies!
Back to the Text
 

Review this Fic...