Silence In Numbers: File One (30 page)

She dodged to the side but the bar hit her hand, breaking several bones in it and sending her pistol backwards through the glass behind her and out onto the street. Katsumi cried out at the pain in her hand and Ayane bared her teeth in anger, vaulting up the stairs onto the second floor and charging Joseph. Her hands and feet moved rapidly and expertly but her father barely even seemed to try as he dodged, simply leaning or taking a single step in one direction or another.

His expression had remained the same the entire time, calm and impassive, uninterested even. Despite this Katsumi knew he could kill her sister at any time with the saber hanging from his right hand so she ran for the stairs herself, willing her legs to get her there as fast as they could. Joseph didn’t seem interested in killing, however. He finally caught his youngest daughter’s wrist in his empty hand, shaking his head as if in disappointment as he flung her aside and into the elevator doors to his left. She hit them hard enough to dent the metal inwards, slumping to the ground with all the breath knocked out of her, her fists still clenching in anger.

“Ayane!” Joseph turned as his eldest daughter reached him in a rage, launching her unbroken left fist at him. He shifted to the side with little effort and his own hand curled into a fist, driving up into Katsumi’s stomach with an impact that sounded like a gunshot. Katsumi’s eyes went wide as all air left her lungs and she coughed up blood that spattered onto Joseph’s arm.

“Katsumi!” Ayane yelled as she pushed herself up from the wall, steadying herself against it.

Katsumi seemed frozen at the moment, her face a mask of wide-eyed pain as she leaned against her father, unable to move or even breathe. Joseph placed a finger beneath her chin, pushing her back enough to look at her face. “I had thought perhaps you had improved since our last real meeting,” he said in an even tone.

Katsumi finally managed to grit her teeth, though her body still refused to move. “You-“ She was cut off with a pathetic, whimper-like cry as Joseph’s hand slammed into her stomach again. This time the blow lifted her off her feet and into the air and sent her rolling and tumbling until she skidded to a stop, laying face-down.

Ayane watched with a dozen emotions as Katsumi slowly placed her unbroken hand on the floor, attempting to push herself up, shuddering with every movement. She managed to make it to her knees but her hand remained on the floor supporting her. Her broken hand was pressed against her stomach as her body shook unnaturally, her eyes once more frozen wide open in shock and agony. She coughed again and more blood fell to the floor beneath her, dripping from her lips.

Ayane ran to her and fell to her knees to slide to a stop beside her, setting her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Katsumi…” Her voice was torn between anger and fear as she laid her right hand on Katsumi’s on the floor, reaching her left up to brush her sister’s violet hair out of her face. “You’ll be okay,” she stated softly, trying to convince herself as much as her sister.

Joseph shook his head. “This… is pathetic.” Ayane shot him a glare filled with hatred, while Katsumi was still shaking, unable to move enough to even look up. “This is supposed to be my legacy,” he said in disbelief. His words were made even worse by the lack of emotion in them; if they were filled with anger, hate, even sadness, anything, it would’ve been better. But they were even and uninterested, showing not even the slightest bit of care for his daughters, not even the negative kind.

Ayane growled, starting to stand before she felt Katsumi’s fingers weakly grip her own. She looked to her sister who was still unable to move, but she saw added fear in her lavender eyes now. She understood that her sister knew neither of them could take on their father, and she could see how scared she was of what would happen to Ayane if she tried. So instead she threw another glare at Joseph, remaining at Katsumi’s side. “Your legacy is hatred, cruelty and the murder of your wife, nothing more.”

Joseph slid his saber back into his belt. “Naomi died by Katsumi’s hand, not mine.”

“That’s a lie!” Ayane yelled, her voice full of rage. She could feel her sister shaking beside her and saw the tears forming in her eyes and dropping to the floor that her gaze remained fixed on; tears of frustration, hatred and sorrow. Ayane understood all of it; after all the times she’d promised to kill this man, all the promises she’d made that she’d protect Aya from him, and their dreams that they’d be entirely free of him on
e day…

He shattered all of that in his usual cold manner. They couldn’t kill him; they hadn’t even been able to touch him. He could’ve killed either – or both – of them at any time; he simply hadn’t because he, apparently, didn’t think them worth the effort. It seemed they weren’t even a big enough annoyance to be removed.

“Believe whatever you wish to believe,” Joseph stated, obviously not caring what they wanted to think was the truth. He lifted his phone to his ear as it signaled and Sigma’s voice crackled into life.

“I hate to cut the play short considering how much I’m enjoying all three of your performances, but it’s done.”

“Very well.” Joseph shut his phone, taking another look down at his children. “If this is as strong as you can be, then I was wasting my time with you in the first place.” He turned his back and walked away. “I suggest you simply stay out of the way.”

As he disappeared from sight Katsumi began to fall but Ayane caught her, pulling her against herself and not caring as her own hair and clothing got Katsumi’s blood on it. “It’s okay,” she whispered to her older sister.

Katsumi closed her eyes, her jaw clenching with a shudder of pain. Her breathing was extremely shallow and she found it impossible to actually speak out loud.
It’s not fair… We worked-

“I know,” Ayane cut her off, looking at the exit Joseph had taken. “But this just means we haven’t found the way to do it yet. We will.” She watched Katsumi nod silently and tried to keep her own hands from making fists. She lifted Katsumi’s shirt very gently, inhaling sharply as she saw her stomach; the skin was already dark and the bruising was spreading, purple and even black in some spots. “The internal bleeding is… worse than I thought,” she said softly, her voice nearly breaking.

Ayane kept one arm on Katsumi’s back and slid her other beneath her legs, lifting her up and making sure her head was resting on her shoulder as she steadied her feet. Katsumi gave a very slight smile.
I prefer being the one carrying…

“And I prefer being carried,” Ayane smiled as she carefully made her way down the stairs. Her back burned with pain thanks to the meeting with the elevator doors, but at least she could move; she’d get it checked as soon as her sister was examined. “I don’t think that would work very well this time, though, Sumi.” She heard a faint rasping that she was able to recognize as a chuckle; this wasn’t the first time either of them had been hurt so badly, after all, which was the only reason Ayane was able to remain as calm as she was.

As she came into view of the car Hitomi gasped in shock and Sano and Reno leapt out of the car, running to her. “What the hell happened?!” Sano yelled.

Ayane sighed gratefully as he and Reno helped her lay Katsumi in the car’s back seat. She gave Sano a hard look. “Father,” she said in such a cold, hate-filled voice that suddenly everyone could see just how similar the two sisters were in many ways. She then climbed into the car and moved to sit under Katsumi, laying her older sister’s head in her lap.

Hitomi worriedly looked over her seat, speaking quietly to Ayane about Katsumi’s injuries. What she wanted most to ask about was the fact that Ayane had just said their father had done this, which she could barely believe; fortunately she managed to stay quiet on that, figuring it wouldn’t help at this moment. Still, she filed it away for later.

Sano and Reno looked at each other, their own anger rising. “I’m going in,” stated Sano, drawing his pistol.

“No!” Ayane yelled, looking at him worriedly. “He’ll kill you. That gun won’t do anything to him.” Her eyes narrowed as she continued speaking through bared teeth, “We were just lucky he didn’t kill us.”

Sano growled, looking back at the building. Reno set his hand on Sano’s shoulder. “She’s right. He may have left his daughters alive, but I doubt he’d do the same for any of us.”

Hitomi moved to the edge of the car, leaning out. “We should tell the others what happened. What if he runs into them?”

“Shit,” Sano muttered as he clapped a hand to his ear.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rufus and Law watched as the two Blood Angels they hadn’t killed ran back through the door, shutting it behind them. “They’re retreating?” Law said with a frown.

Rufus stood up, heading for the door. “Or they’re done.” He paused as he noticed he was being contacted, and who by. “Sano? Something wrong at the car?” he said as he looked behind them, ready to run back out to them if they were in trouble.

“Wrong on Katsumi’s end,” Sano replied, obviously angry. “She’s seriously injured, barely conscious.”

“Fuck!” Rufus cursed, looking at Law who was listening as well and seemed to be growing angrier by the second. “What happened? Is Ayane hurt too?”

They heard Sano ask, followed by his reply, “Yes, but not bad. She says it’s only some bruising. She said they ran into their father in there.”

Law growled, heading for the door the Angels had retreated through. “The fuck is he doing here?”

“That might explain the Blood Angels,” Rufus said as he followed Law. “They must be working with him.”

“Hold on…” The two heard the door open behind them and saw Sano enter. “Ayane’s watching the others,” he continued in person, catching up to them. “We’re gonna check for this demon. But she made me promise we’d leave if we saw Elwood.”

Law slammed his fist into the locked door, punching it straight off its hinges and watching it crash to the ground. “We’ll try…”

Rufus finished reloading his pistol, chambering a round. “…But no promises.”

“That’s what I said,” Sano agreed.

The three entered cautiously and then began moving quickly through the halls. Eventually they found the security room and Sano’s hands dropped to his sides as they saw the obviously-lifeless human bodies. “Damn it… Too late.”

“They’re long gone,” Rufus said as he typed a few things on the security console and let out an angry breath. “Wiped the camera records, too.”

Law shook his head. “Guess we weren’t meant to end things here.”

Sano called in the body count and then looked to the others. “Let’s hope we get another chance.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ayane sat in the back of the large car with Katsumi’s head in her lap, watching her breathe as she
held on to her. It seemed that, lately, every day together ended with one of them in pain. Today couldn’t be blamed on any accidental sickness, though; this was all the fault of the man they hated most.

She looked up as she felt the car shake, watching Sano, Rufus and Law climb back in. Reno started the car as Ayane leaned forward. “Did you find anything?”

“Just bodies,” Rufus muttered, looking back over the seat. He removed his shades, ice blue eyes focusing on Katsumi. “Is she okay?” he asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

“No worse than we’ve been a million times,” Ayane answered with a sad smile.

Rufus smirked at that, sliding his shades back on. “Survivors. I admire that more than anything.”

Ayane gave him an appraising look that he met with his own gaze, seeing in him an understanding about certain things that most people would never be able to accept; Katsumi had told her about his past as an assassin and she saw it now, that will to do anything to survive, the will that had pushed him to do things normal people would never consider, just like it had pushed
her and Katsumi. She gave him an appreciative smile – appreciative of both the sentiment and his skills – and he returned it. It was rare they met anyone that shared an understanding of those certain things.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Law, who tried to look less worried than he was as he asked, “Is it bad? An’ what about you?”

“Internal bleeding,” Ayane answered the first question, deciding to take a clinical approach rather than an emotional one in order to keep her emotions in check. “I’m not sure of the extent of her injuries; I only know that he caused a lot of damage to her core. Certainly some muscle tearing and… I’d say the lower two ribs, at least, are broken, though it’s probably four…” Ayane looked down at her sister. “I’ve been listening to her breathing and her lungs seem to be working; she coughed up blood so I think one may have been punctured by a rib, but that isn’t as serious an injury as it would have been when we were… fully human.”

Law reached a large hand back and patted her shoulder. “It’s alright, blue-hair. You can get upset.”

Ayane took a deep breath, fixing him a strong gaze. “I get upset after the fact.” She gave a weary smile. “Once she’s stable, recovering and awake, then I’ll get all emotional. But you keep control of the emotion before then, because that’s when you need to make rational decisions and get things done.”

Hitomi watched her, having been listening quietly up until that point. “That sounds like a very difficult way to live…”

Ayane’s blue eyes shifted to her and she smiled again. “It’s a difficult way to live, but the only way to survive. If we lost ourselves to emotion any time one of us was hurt, we would’ve been dead by now. Once you’ve been through enough, eventually you learn to keep control when it matters, and only let it go when you’re already safe. If you break down crying in the middle of a fight, that’s a weakness that might just get you killed. Then you won’t get to cry about it later.”