Silence In Numbers: File One (31 page)

Rufus spoke up, drawing the attention of the others to him. “They’re professionals,” he said simply; to him it was a factual statement, a description worthy of respect. “You have to master your emotions as thoroughly as you master your body if you want to be the best.” He looked back and met Ayane’s eyes. “I didn’t join this team because they do good or because they protect people. If I’m honest, I don’t care about any of that. I would’ve joined if they were criminals, too.”

Hitomi blinked. “You’d work for criminals?”

“I did,” Rufus smiled in amusement at her before he looked back to Ayane as if making sure she knew he meant what he said. “I joined because of Katsumi. I haven’t respected anyone in a long time as much as I respect her. She’s not just a survivor, she’s a fighter, determined to do what it takes to make it. I’ll be on her side no matter what she chooses to do.” He extended a hand over the seat. “And after the few days I’ve known you, I’ve discovered you to be the same kind of person. So I’m on your side, too.”

Ayane smiled, accepting the hand with a firm grip. Again that understanding passed between them; the others in the car were idealists and optimists. Ayane, Katsumi and Rufus were pragmatists, though; realists. They knew that, sometimes, you had to put survival over morals if you wanted to live. Sometimes you needed to just do what it takes and damn the consequences.

“I appreciate your respect and loyalty to my sister,” Ayane said softly. “We lived a long time without seeing much loyalty. Allies are important to have.” She gave a wry smile as she tilted her head. “Especially allies who understand you’ll shoot them in the back if you have to.”

Rufus chuckled, and both of them enjoyed more the looks of confusion on the others who were trying to understand how that was funny; they never would, which was even more amusing to the two. They were looking for a joke, but Rufus and Ayane were laughing because they understood that dismal fact as the unavoidable truth, and they understood that the only way to live with such a truth was to laugh at it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hours after the car had arrived at the hospital Ayane stood beside the bed watching her sister open her eyes. Night had fallen by now; it’d taken the doctors hours to stabilize Katsumi’s condition. Ayane had been correct in her assessment of her injuries. The doctors had been shocked at the damage done and asked if she’d been in some sort of a construction accident. Fortunately they’d been able to repair most of it, though they said moving would be hard for a few days.

Ayane smiled at her sister once she noticed her eyes focus. “I’m supposed to be the one in the hospital bed. It’s not nice of you to change our positions without telling me.”

Katsumi groaned, closing her eyes for a second. At first Ayane was worried, but when she opened them again she seemed much more awake and alert. “I’m older,” she said in a raspy voice. “I get to make the decisions.”

“That’s not fair. I’ll have you know-“

“Aya…” Katsumi said softly. Ayane met her gaze and wasn’t surprised her sister had already figured out she was avoiding things. Katsumi held her arm out and she took the invitation to climb onto the bed, carefully curling up against her side. Just as she’d explained earlier she began to cry, taking comfort in the arm around her that rubbed her shoulder, and the whispered words.

She’d lost count of how many times they’d played through this sequence of events. Eventually the repetition itself became comforting in some twisted way, as if it promised that it would always happen and neither of them would actually die. But this time Ayane also found herself crying over their father and their failure. And this time Katsumi was the one promising her things would change and it would eventually be over.

Ayane looked up as she felt Katsumi’s fingers wipe the tears from her cheeks. “You know the worst part? He told us to leave… He gave us the option to get out of the way and we… we can’t take it.”

Her sister shook her head, sighting. “No, we can’t. As much as we want an ending, we both know the only way it can come.”

Ayane nodded. “I just… I just wish we had a guarantee. I wish we knew when it would happen. It’s been almost twenty years, now, since we started running. Will it be another twenty?”

Katsumi traced her fingers down her cheek and Ayane leaned into the hand, looking at her for some sort of certainty. She got it, because her older sister gave her a smile that seemed to ignore everything that said their hopes were impossible. “It won’t be twenty. It won’t even be two. If you’ve ever trusted me at all, Aya, then trust me on this: before this year is out, we’ll be free of him. I promise you.”

Ayane sighed, a smile spreading across her face at the words. She trusted them; truly, she did. Her doubts disappeared all at once because, in over thirty-one years of life, Katsumi had never once failed to deliver on a promise. Not once. She still had no idea how it would happen, but that didn’t matter anymore now that she knew it would. She laid her head back down, saying softly, “Thank you, Sumi.”

Katsumi let out a breath, giving her own smile as she threaded her fingers through Ayane’s, holding her hand. She didn’t know how they’d do it, either, but that was no longer the point. It didn’t matter how, it didn’t matter where, and it didn’t matter what she’d have to do in order to make it happen. All that mattered was that, somehow, she was going to do it. For herself. For their mother.

And, most importantly, for Ayane.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Katsumi was out of the hospital already. Ayane had barely managed to convince her to sleep in, and that had only worked because she couldn’t get out of bed without her help. Now, as the two rode the subway, Ayane was of course taking advantage of the captive audience and lecturing her about her health.

“It’s just not smart. I don’t know how you’ve survived so long, refusing to get healthy before moving on,” she said with an exasperated sigh.

Katsumi smirked as she watched her sister cease her animated hand gestures and slump back in defeat. “Are you done?”

Ayane jerked forward again, pointing her finger in Katsumi’s face. “Not even close! I’m not done with you until you learn how to take care of yourself.”

Katsumi sighed, looking away. “I miss my normal crutches. At least they were quiet.”

“Are you telling me to shut up?” Ayane narrowed her eyes. “Because I think you’re telling me to shut up.”

Katsumi didn’t know what it was, but for some reason whenever Ayane got into full-blown mothering mode, she herself took the role of a petulant child. Psychologists likely had all sorts of words for it, but she only knew it as ‘fun’. She looked back at her younger sister with wide eyes, overdoing the ‘innocent’ tone as she replied, “I would
never
secretly wish for you to stop talking, dear sister!”

That obviously wasn’t bought for a second. Ayane folded her arms and gave her a stern-but-amused look, and Katsumi couldn’t prevent a smile at how much she reminded her of their mother at that moment. “Do I have to turn this train around? Apparently you need more discipline.”

Katsumi grinned. “How are you planning to discipline me?”

Ayane blinked, then frowned, then looked at the ceiling in thought. “I don’t know yet.” Her sister chuckled and she glared at her. “I’ll think of something!”

“That’s a terrifying threat.”

Ayane huffed. “You’re mean.”

“Sorry. It’s just hard to fear you.”

Ayane frowned.  “Well… maybe I’ll let it go this once.”

“Can’t remember what you were mad about, can you?”

“It’ll come to me!”

“Uh-huh.” Katsumi leaned her head back with a smile.

They got off at their stop near the HQ and headed for the building. Though Katsumi could more or less walk on her own, Ayane insisted on supporting her, so she had her arms around one of Katsumi’s as they walked, letting her lean into her when she had to.

The main problem was that, while Katsumi’s limbs were more or less fine (with the exception of her damaged right hand), her core had been severely damaged. Though the damage had mostly been fixed she was still in a fair amount of pain and had trouble holding herself up, as her abdominal muscles seemed all but useless at the moment.

Katsumi soon found she’d overestimated her ability a bit and ended up with her arm around Ayane’s shoulders. Fortunately her sister was too concerned to say “I told you so”, but she figured she deserved it anyway so she brought it up herself. “Okay…” She grimaced a bit. “You were right. Maybe I should’ve stayed in bed a bit longer.”

Ayane sighed, stopping to look her sister over. “I knew it was a bad idea.” She laid her hand on Katsumi’s stomach, lifting her shirt. “Well, you don’t seem to be bleeding again,” she said with relief before looking at her with worried eyes. “Do you want to go back?”

“We’re already here,” Katsumi said with a nod at the building. “Might as well go in. I don’t plan on doing anything today, don’t worry.”

“Asking me not to worry is like-“

“Asking rain not to fall, I know.” Katsumi smiled at her. “You’re here in person, though, so I have nothing to worry about.”

Ayane allowed herself to smile at that; yes, she was back to being at her side instead of on the sidelines. “C’mon, let’s get inside where you can sit down.”

Once inside the building they ran into Kurasano, who warily asked, “Hey guys, how’re you doing? Are your injuries… er… better?”

Katsumi sighed, not out of exasperation, but acceptance. “Just fine, Sano,” she said with a small smile. “Painful but healing.”

It looked like his assumptions had been right; normally asking his boss about injuries was a bad move, but she seemed not to care – and was more honest – since she was with her sister at the moment. Sano had to wonder just how much of her mood was based around Ayane. “How about you?” he said with a look to the younger girl.

Ayane blinked. “Me? Oh, I’m fine,” she smiled. “I got checked up just in case, but they said I didn’t take any real damage. I was lucky I hit the elevator doors; the thinner metal bent during the impact. A solid wall would’ve caused more damage.”

Katsumi nodded. “Combined with a knowledge of how to minimize impact damage, she escaped with some bruises and nothing else.”

Despite passing it off as light, Sano noticed an undertone of failure in Katsumi’s statement; judging by Ayane’s look at her older sister, she caught it, too. He wisely decided it wasn’t his business and moved onto another topic. “Oh! One of our clean-up crew found this; fortunately I recognized it,” he said as he pulled a pistol from his bag.

Katsumi and Ayane both looked at it in recognition and Katsumi took it with a sad smile. “Thank you, Sano. It wasn’t any use yesterday, but hopefully it will still fulfill its intended purpose at some point.”

Sano ran a hand over his hair. “Um… Yeah, I’m just gonna skip past that awkward conversation.”

“Good idea,” Ayane said with a smile. “In fact, let’s all do that.”

Since he could tell neither of them wanted to go back to that subject he felt annoyed at himself, having moved from one bad subject to another. Best to quit while you’re behind, he thought. “Alright, well I’m gonna get going. M has me looking into something we found at the scene; weird box thing, don’t know what it does yet. Did learn it was stolen from some murdered Red Sun members during transport, though, so me an’ Rufus are gonna see what they know.”

Katsumi frowned. “First Blood Angels were involved with that incident yesterday, and now Red Sun? What’s going on?”

Sano shrugged. “Beats me. Not often you see crime wars and demons intersecting this much.”

“Not to mention Father has something to do with this,” Ayane said quietly. “But what, I can’t imagine. Do you think he’s working with the Blood Angels, Sumi?”

Katsumi blinked. “Sano, did you learn how those Red Sun members died?”

“Uh… Yeah!” He nodded. “I remember ‘cause it was kinda odd; they were cut up, like with a sword.” He blinked as both girls in front of him gained hard looks that made him nervous. “Did I say something wrong?”

“He uses a saber,” Ayane replied fiercely.

“In 2068? When everybody else is using crazy amounts of guns and exploding things?”

“He’s… not human,” Katsumi said as she shook her head. “If you’re different… Or you have a high enough CP… A melee weapon like that becomes a lot more useful because you’re so much faster and stronger.” Katsumi looked at her sister, her expression changing to one of pride. “Aya is actually rather amazing with a sword.”

Ayane looked embarrassed.  “I wouldn’t say
amazing.
” She sighed. “I’m not as good as Father, unfortunately. I’ve tried beating him that way. Anyway, we were both taught to use swords from a young age; speed, utility, versatility, no ammunition, and great stealth value. Not to mention that when you can punch through concrete, swinging a blade actually has more force than most bullets.”

“Wow. I didn’t know all this.” He looked at Katsumi. “Does this mean you have a sword, boss?”

Katsumi frowned as Ayane giggled at her. “I do… I never quite took to it like Aya did.”

“Sumi doesn’t really like swinging things,” Ayane said with a smile. “She prefers hand-to-hand, you know. It’s actually best if she doesn’t use one because this one time-“

“ANYway,” Katsumi cut her off, eliciting a laugh from her sister, “The point is that they’re not my thing. And getting back to the original point, I’m almost certain Joseph killed those men and stole that box, considering we encountered him where the box was left.”

“Alright,” Sano nodded, accepting that assumption. “And what about the Blood Angels? Is he working for them?”

Ayane shook her head. “That doesn’t sound right. Father never liked working for others.”

“Several years ago their leader was killed,” Katsumi stated. “We never learned the identity of the new leader.”

Sano’s eyes widened. “Wait… You think Joseph Elwood is leading the Blood Angels?”

Ayane bit her lip. “It does make all the facts fit.”

“So your murderous, beyond-human, lunatic asshole of a father is heading one of the most powerful terrorist organizations in the world, and they’re currently helping a possible Ancient One demon do who-knows-what.”

“That seems to be the situation…” Katsumi grunted, leaning more heavily against Ayane who shot her a worried look. “We’ll look into all of this, then. You and Rufus learn what you can from the Red Suns. Be careful. In the meantime we’re going to talk to Hitomi.”

“Sounds good. What are you going to tell her about yesterday?”

“The truth,” Ayane said with a shrug.

Katsumi nodded her assent. “Now’s not the time for secrets, and besides, she deserves to know what she might be in the middle of.”

“That’s good. She has seemed a little lost.”

“We’re here to fix that,” Ayane assured him. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get my sister to at least sit down somewhere.”

“Oh, right. Take it easy you two,” he said as he headed for the exit.

“Sure,” Katsumi said to her sister after he left, “just treat me like an invalid.”

“Pff, what are you going to do about it?”

“…Something.”

“Uh-huh,” Ayane replied with a truly disbelieving look.

“I’ll do something!”

“I believe you.”

“Really, I will!”

“I’m sure you will, Sumi. I’m sure you will.” She grinned at her older sister’s defeated sigh as they walked slowly through the hallway, Katsumi leaning on her more as they went. It was obvious she shouldn’t have even left the hospital, but seeing as how she was
impossible
, Ayane had no idea how she could’ve kept her there. They made it to Hitomi’s room and, out of a good bit of luck, the woman was returning to it right as they got there.

“Katsumi, Ayane!” she said in surprise, switching the bag of food she held into one hand so she could open the door. “What are you two doing here?” She looked at Katsumi in confusion. “Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?”

Ayane shot her sister a glare as she adjusted the arm around her shoulders. “She
should
. Sumi is very stubborn.”

“I hate hospitals,” Katsumi said with a sigh. “And staying in bed.”

“That isn’t healthy! You could be doing yourself more harm!” Hitomi said with a disapproving look. Katsumi only grunted in response; it wasn’t like she could argue considering that she was currently slumped against her sister and, if it wasn’t for her strong hold, she wouldn’t even be standing. Hitomi swung the door open wide. “Well, get in here, at least you can lie on my bed.”

They walked in and Ayane helped Katsumi into a chair. “That’s too much like being stuck in bed to her,” she stated, worriedly watching Katsumi wince as she bent enough to sit down.

“Honestly, Sumi…”

“Okay,
enough
,” Katsumi said with a tone of finality, her expression becoming more serious.

Ayane understood she’d gone a little too far; certainly she was allowed to say what she wanted to her sister, and to worry and chide her and tell her what she should be doing. Others weren’t allowed into that, though, and Ayane realized she’d been a bit too open around Sano and Hitomi about her injuries. Katsumi
hated
people seeing or hearing about her being hurt; she shouldn’t, but Ayane understood it like she did everything, so she should have remembered to keep it more private than she was doing. She sat close beside her in the chair, whispering into her ear rather than using the cyber link because it felt more sincere, “Sorry, Sumi. I guess I’m not used to talking to your friends yet.”

Katsumi immediately smiled, her fingers affectionately brushing Ayane’s hair from her face as she spoke softly, “It’s alright. I’m sorry for sounding harsh, I just-“

“I know,” Ayane cut her off with a smile, giving her a look that showed she truly understood. “I kind of got angry and forgot I was sharing a little much.”

Katsumi chuckled. “I noticed. Trust me, next time I’ll listen to you.”

Ayane’s eyes shone. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

For her part, the polite Hitomi didn’t listen in as the sisters whispered to each other, instead taking the chance to set out her food on her table and adjust the curtains to the now-noon light since she hadn’t been in since morning. She smiled happily as she looked out of the window. It really was a nice room they had her set up in, more like a nice apartment, really. Once she decided to stay longer they’d moved her to this expanded room. Now she had things put the way she liked it.