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Title: Jellyfish Love [Chapter Eighteen]
Author: Matrim Email: [email protected] Warnings: *blinks* Huh... Comments: MWAHA. MWAHAHAHA. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! ++ There is nothing in the strange movies that Kyo produces that could possibly evoke the same emotions that Matatabi and Maneki can evoke. Imai does not consider himself attracted to anything but at this moment, he desires�something. The brothers continue to prepare themselves for their oncoming mission. They are matched in that they aren't matched. The only thing that tells anyone else that they are brothers is the long hair that extends past the waist and the eyes. You can always tell brothers by the eyes. Other than that, Matatabi is taller than Maneki by many centimeters. He almost towers over the younger. Matatabi clothes his brother in black and pulls the obi around him tight. He ties it off and no sooner than he does that does Maneki turn to stroke his brother's face. He murmurs something that Imai can't hear but Imai thinks he knows what the younger man is saying. Maneki always told Matatabi that he wasn't allowed to die. Matatabi smirks at him, smiles and asks Maneki a question before crushing his brother's lips into a kiss. Matatabi's reply was always the same as well. Maneki would be displeased if that happened because Maneki was the fated one to kill him. If it were any other couple, Imai would roll his eyes. But it was true. Maneki and Matatabi's father tried to pit the two against each other but the two had come under Imai's care and Maneki and Matatabi's father was no longer much of a threat. He was quite satisfyingly dead but Maneki and Matatabi still relished the idea of having to kill each other. Sometimes, Imai didn't think they were joking. When Maneki finishes dressing Matatabi, the two look as if they've come out of a strange Heian era play. The way they dress sometimes fooled the people they were about to kill into thinking they couldn't move very fast. It was almost a pity. Imai sets his teacup down on the table and stands. The two brothers instantly look away from each other and prostrate themselves before Imai. They may work for Kyo and Atsushi but Imai trained every single person on Kyo's side. He's seen generations of men and women come before him and go off to battle. On the day Kyo killed Shinya's father, Kyo trained with Imai first. Imai tells them quietly, "We must learn from Toshiya's mistake. He was not ill-prepared physically but mentally. This foe that you must face is a lot more cunning than you have ever faced before." Matatabi and Maneki are one of his best and most beloved students. If he loses them in battle, Imai doesn't know what Kyo or Atsushi will do. He isn't even sure what he may do. ++ Die waits outside of the house with a silly smirk on his face and as soon as Kaoru steps out of the door, he grabs the man's wrist. Die is the only one who can wake Kaoru in the morning or grab him by surprise and not risk getting his face punched. It's instincts-the kind that Toll-ani has trained into them. Kaoru is the only one who can wake him and surprise him without getting hurt as well. "So�what'd she say?" "She didn't say anything." Kaoru remarks and leans against Die for a second before pushing away. "She was too busy ignoring me in the kitchen, pretending to be interested in what the housekeeper was doing. Shinya just took me aside and advised me to keep it down whenever I want to take advantage of you." Die grins again but frowns when Kaoru doesn't grin back at him. "What's wrong?" "Die, remember when you were talking about BoA and Shinya?" "When?" Die is confused. "A long time ago." Kaoru shakes his head and waves it off. "It isn't important when. But I seriously think there's something wrong with them. And with Kuroneko-the housekeeper." Die pauses for a second and thinks of the multitude of responses he could come up with. And then he chooses the least suitable one. "So you think Shinya's banging the housekeeper?" "DIE!" Kaoru says it like he wants to yell but also wants to whisper so it comes out as sort of a hiss. Die knows it's wrong to laugh but he can't help it. He laughs anyway. Kaoru doesn't laugh. "I think BoA's been doing something to spook her but I can't�there's no way I can find out. Shinya's calm and quiet as always but it's like he's being barely restrained with BoA. And he's not going to tell me about it. And there's the phone calls." Die thinks to himself for a second. He does remember BoA getting some strange phonecalls on her cell phone but it wasn't his business. The weird thing was that she was speaking in English and not in Japanese. Die didn't know English which made it even more none of his business. "Shinya'll handle it." Shinya always handled things with BoA. "Yeah." Kaoru didn't sound convinced. "What are we going to do today?" "Lida has reported that Aya's new boyfriend is one of Kyo's men. So Seek and Daishi are going to be handling that." Kaoru began moving to the car. "We can trust them to do that. But since it's one of Kyo's men, you know what to expect." Die waits for Kaoru to unlock the doors of the car and climbs in. He only nods to what Kaoru says. It could only mean some sort of diversion was going to happen and they'd have to go in and fix it. "You'd think they come up with some sort of new plan to keep us on our toes," He mutters to Kaoru and Kaoru gives him that look he does when Die says something potentially dangerous. "I know-don't wish for trouble�" Kaoru doesn't say anything. This perplexes Die. "Are you okay? 'Cause if you really wanna help that Kuroneko kid, we could go in there now and try to scare the crap out of BoA and then have Shinya string us up and torture us-" "It's not that, Die." Kaoru says as he starts the car and backs out of the driveway. "I just feel as if something might happen today and it's not going to be great for any of us. Anyways, I called Yomi and Hitsugi to keep an eye on the house." Kaoru looks vaguely embarrassed about it but Die decides not to pry about it anymore. "If you say so. Where're we going?" Die glances out the window. He knows they're not headed anywhere toward the club. "The construction site." Work had started on a building that would house a number of restaurants. Shinya had dreamed up the idea suddenly and never told them his motivation for it. He just wanted restaurants and he wanted to employ people there. He said that this project would have nothing to do with him. Someone else would manage and he would just own the land. Kaoru and Die just looked at him and nodded because that's what henchmen did. "Lida has also reported that a few shady figures have been poking around there." "So? It's not as if anything's up yet." Die tells him but he only wants to say that to cause a reaction. He likes being contrary with Kaoru because the other man's prone to make all sorts of faces. He knows that if anyone hangs around one of Shinya's construction site without permission, then they must be dealt with. "What do they look like? What have they been doing? I hate having to rely on Lida when Kirito's not around." Kaoru smirks but whatever he's thinking, he knows better than to say it. He'd probably try to say something like--'Oh, so you miss Kirito? I knew all that hostility meant you had a crush on him.' -something stupid like that. Kaoru says, instead, "They don't look as if they want to plant explosives around the property. They're also not one of our people and they don't like any of the kids that around here. They're not foreigners." Die stares out the window again and then spots the seatbelt. He grabs it and puts it on which was a little too late considering they were halfway to the site. "Are we going to scare off some young punks then? Then poke around the place to see if anything's up? Why can't the security guard handle it?" His question was rhetorical which was why Kaoru didn't bother to reply. Construction workers worked for their company and the company didn't know anything about Shinya other than the fact that he was a businessmen. People who worked for different companies other than Shinya's didn't count as their people and these people came with their own crappy security. And Die and Kaoru had to go in and take care of the problem before Shinya even heard of it because if he did, heads would roll. Mostly their heads because they didn't anticipate it. Kaoru parks the car and in a move that usually frightens people, both he and Die get out of the car and close the doors simultaneously. Kaoru locks it and both he and Die move into the construction site. The sun has already set and all that's left is a sort of grey-purple light. Die hopes they're not here too long. They didn't have any flashlights and the light from the surrounding buildings could only do so much to help them. ++ Maneki leans against his brother's side. Matatabi has a strong arm around his middle. Together, they stand off to the side, behind a steel girder and watch as Kaoru and Die move toward the construction site. Maneki wears a simple black kimono but Matatabi wears white and black. When Kaoru and Die move further into the structure, Matatabi and Maneki shift to watch them. They had agreed before this moment that the two would be like them. Inseperable. So they had to be separated, no matter what the cost. Maneki watches for a bit then he looks to his brother. He signs something to the taller man and Matatabi releases him. Maneki wants Kaoru. Maneki steps carefully around construction equipment and uses the shadows to keep hidden. When he glances back to check on Matatabi's position, the older man is gone. Matatabi will take Die, then. They're nearly the same height. Maneki crouches and scoots inside the steel skeleton of the budding building and watches as the two switch positions. Now, Kaoru is closer to him. He can hear them speaking. "This place is huge," Die tells Kaoru. "If someone were here by now, they'd have made themselves known." Kaoru shrugs. When Maneki dares to glance out, he can see that Kaoru posseses a long black tail of hair that hangs past his waist. It is about as long as Maneki's hair. "There's going to be seven floors." "We should split up then. I don't think they would've gone on the other floors." Die looks up and Maneki does too. He can see the faint glow of lights from the buildings around them, the gathering of suspiciously dark looking clouds and beyond that, a tiny speck of stars. And he can see something white and fluttering in the wind. He looks away. It must be Matatabi but he can't concentrate on his brother right now nor bother to ponder how he got there without anyone noticing. What was important was Kaoru. Maneki watches as Die leaves Kaoru alone. He watches Kaoru move for a second. Master Imai always told them that their enemies were chosen for a reason. There was something in their enemies that reminded them of the worse part of themselves. If they could defeat their enemies, it meant a triumph over one's vices. Maneki did not want to think that Toshiya had been defeated because he was bad or cowardly. No one ever said that sort of thing. Maneki drew the sword that was strapped to his side and when Kaoru turns his back and begins walking, Maneki follows close behind. Kaoru pauses and Maneki lifts his sword. It will only take a quick slash and it will all be over. Maneki's kind to his victims because Matatabi never is with his own. The sword gleams in the city lights as it strikes and Kaoru's tail of hair falls to the ground. ++ Die does not see or hear anything that suggests that Kaoru is in danger. His attention is focused solely on keeping the jackass with the long hair and sword away from him. He hasn't received so much as a scratch on his body yet but Die's clothes bear witness to the fact that it's only a matter of time before Die starts bleeding. What's frustrating Die is the problem of trying to get a good shot at the man. Bloody jerk moved too fast and he wouldn't admit to anyone else except perhaps Toll-Ani. Die was supposed to be the fastest shot on Shinya's side if not the entire country and he couldn't bloody get a good shot at him. And he's running out of bullets. Sure, he's got a clip or four on his body to reload and he's quite fast at that, but Die's not sure if this guy with the long black hair and Heian style kimono is slow enough to let him do it. Die runs down the planks of the wood set down between certain steel beams and expects that at any moment, a line of fire will slice down his back. When it doesn't, he stops and turns to check back on his opponent. The guy's still there. Just staring at him and smiling as if Die were suddenly a rare dish to be eaten. And there's someone else, too, someone smaller and in black. And if Die looks hard enough he can see a resemblance in them-just like people have to do when they're staring at him and Seek. "Fuck." Die says under his breath. The taller one smiles and Die immediately hates him now more than ever. "Don't take this personally. You must understand that it's only business. And so, I ask that you go ahead and reload your gun." Die glares at the two of them and sits down on the steel beam and begins to reload one of his guns and then takes out the other. Two of them shouldn't be hard. All he has to do is get back down to where Kaoru is and they can even this entire thing out. Casually, he glances down to check on Kaoru's location. He can't see the other man. He doesn't panic-Die never panics and he certainly wasn't going to call out Kaoru's name either to see if he was okay. There's a sudden laugh and Die glances up. The smaller one is grinning at Die. "I wonder who this belongs to�?" And he holds up a long tail of hair with the rubber band still attached at the top. Die never panics but his heart does stop for a second and when it remembers that beating is a good idea, it begins pounding in his chest. Die decides to ignore him. Just because Kaoru suddenly got a hair cut does not mean-he couldn't even think it. And until he checked for Kaoru's body, he couldn't even be sure if the man really was dead. Die scoots back a little on the beam and when both of them leap forward as one, just like Kaoru and Die do when they're about to kill someone, Die lets himself fall back. He shoots at them and knows he's hit them-they don't scream, but he knows he's at least hit one of them. Die twists and lands on his feet and begins to look for Kaoru. It doesn't take long. Die makes his way to the still figure on the ground and he is almost unable to roll him over. But he does because he doesn't have much time. He wounded the two, but he didn't kill them. It begins to rain as Die checks Kaoru's body. He can't see if the man is breathing but a trail of blood has escaped the corner of Kaoru's mouth. There is blood near Kaoru's chest. He can see it in the same way one can see a wet tshirt in the evening. Die's breath catches in his throat. It takes an extra effort to breathe. Die strokes a hand across Kaoru's forehead then begins to look for Kaoru's weapons. He removes a few knives and Kaoru's guns and kisses the man's forehead. Die is still fussing over the body when two figures with swords descend upon him. ++ To Chapter Nineteen Jelly Home Fics Home |