[Multichapter] The Watches Series: Apocalypse (6/??)
Title: The Watches Series: Apocalypse
Authors: syunikiss1990
Beta: andreja1989 <-- as always arigatou ♥
Pairing: SakurAiba, MatsuMiya, OhnoxOC
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Romance
Rating: PG-15 (this chapter)
Disclaimer: No, we don't own anything... We're just Border Watch's glaziers
Summary: It looks like the end of everything they knew... Will their world collapse?
*MASTERPOST*
"Masaki?" Sho tried not to panic when he heard a thud, followed by a lot of noise from the phone falling on the ground together with something even heavier. "Masaki pick up! Where are you! Masaki!" He screamed in his phone as he started to run but the other end stayed awfully silent for a while before the line was broken. Even though he knew it was useless he dialed the number again and again, going straight to voicemail every time. Adrenaline and fear rushed through his body, making him run almost impossibly fast towards the hotel even though he was sure the taller man wouldn't be there.
"Masaki!" He yelled, throwing open the door of their room as soon as he reached it, being greeted by only silence. He immediately noticed there was nothing strange in the room, making it completely sure Aiba hadn't been here for a while. Trying to get himself together he breathed deeply a few times. He knew he had to find the other man, as fast as he could, but he had absolutely no clue where to start looking. Groaning with frustration he walked in circles through the room until a knock on the door made him snap out of it. Hoping for the impossible he ran to the door, not even trying to hide the disappointment when he saw Ninomiya and Matsumoto stand in front of him.
"Is Aiba-san back already?" The shortest man asked, making Sakurai frown.
"No, but how do you know?" He felt rage fill his veins, making it even more impossible for him to think straight. "You knew he was going out?! How could you let him?! You both know there are fucked up things going on here!" The Dark Watch officers stepped back a bit, startled by the sudden outburst of the Border Watch officer.
"Sakurai-san calm down..." Jun tried.
"How the fuck can I calm down?!" Sakurai hit the frame of the door with his fist, not even winching with the pain he felt. "Masaki is gone! Something happened to him and I have no idea where he is! Why doesn't that idiot ever listen to anything I say? Why didn't you stop him when he said he was going somewhere?" The realization of the situation hit him with double force, making his whole body tremble. The other two men took this as the sign to move forward again, pushing him back into the room and making him sit on one of the beds.
"I'm an idiot. Such an idiot. I could have known Masaki wouldn't stay in the hotel. I should have brought him with me." Sho mumbled, hiding his face in his trembling hands, cursing his own stupidity.
"Sakurai-san, you have to snap out of it now." Kazunari's voice sounded harsh but at the same time it was just what he needed to make his mind clear a little again. "Aiba-san came to us before he left. He told us he would go to Sachiko so I suggest we start by going to her. If our information is right she is staying to a hotel close to us." Sakurai took a deep breath and nodded.
"Let's start there. But I'm sure he wasn't in a hotel, it sounded like he was outside and close to water or something. Maybe a river or fountain? I don't know..." Ninomiya nodded and searched in his pockets, getting out a folded map and placing it on the bed.
"Our hotel is here." Kazunari pointed at a marked place on the map before moving his finger a bit. "Sachiko's hotel is here. There is a river close to it so maybe he went there? I suggest we start looking there, maybe find some clues." All agreeing on this they rushed out of the hotel, going to the river and following the water towards the general direction of Sachiko's hotel. It didn't take them long before Sho froze on the spot when he saw something lying in the grass not far away from where they were standing. Slowly he walked closer, feeling his heartbeat rise when he noticed that the grass close to a bench was covered with blood. His hands shook when he picked up a green scarf, covered with blood and familiar initials on it. There was no question that this was Nila's scarf.
"Masaki!" He yelled, looking around and hoping the taller man would mysteriously pop up from somewhere where he had been hiding from possible attackers.
"My God what happened here?" Jun softly asked as he stepped beside Sakurai.
"Nila's scarf. Masaki was looking for her." Sho said, giving the piece of cloth to the man next to him, yelling for Aiba again.
"There is no way she survived this." Matsumoto muttered, looking around them and at Ninomiya who was still searching the ground. "With this much loss of blood... Nobody survives that."
"You think Masaki was here?" Kazunari asked, his eyes still on the ground.
"He was upset and frightened when he called me. I can't think of anywhere else he could have been... if he saw this he must have panicked." Sakurai looked around, still hoping he would find anything that could give them any clue where Aiba had gone.
"Sakurai..." Kazunari's voice trailed off slightly, something inside it that made Sho look at him with wide eyes immediately. "Is this his phone?" The smaller man held up something which Sho recognized as Masaki's.
"He was here when they took him." He mumbled, grabbing the device out of the other man's hand.
"Sakurai-san I'm sorry." Jun softly mumbled.
"We have to find him." Sakurai said strongly, putting the phone in his pants and looking around again.
"No, listen. All this blood... There is no way it could come from only one person. And there are two trails leading towards the river." The tallest man pointed at the two trails close to each other but with too much space between them to be from only one person.
"What do you mean?" Sho asked, trying to avoid the horrible scenario that already formed in his head.
"I think... I think they didn't only murder Nila here." Matsumoto carefully said. Sakurai shook his head, starting to follow one of the trails of blood which leaded to the river. Close to the water something shiny caught his eye, making him frown and crouch close to it, carefully removing the dirt that was partly covering it, his hands shaking as he picked up a necklace. He immediately recognized the small, silver ring attached to a thin, silver chain, both his and Masaki's initials engraved inside of it. The necklace he had given his lover on their fifth anniversary.
"No... Masaki..." His legs gave in, not supporting his weight and not noticing his knees fell into the wet grass. This could not be happening, there had to be some other explanation. Somebody had to be playing games with him. That had to be it.
"We can do a blood test to be sure." Ninomiya said behind him, making Sakurai realize he had been mumbling his thoughts out loud.
"Why Masaki? He never did anything wrong. It's my fault, I should have stopped him from going here." Sho's eyes stared at the river but the water was quiet, no big disturbances that could be caused by something big lying in it.
"You know you couldn't have stopped him. He's stubborn, he would have gone on his own." Kazunari laid a hand on his shoulder but Sho shook it off.
"No. I could have stopped him..." Some loud noises close by made them look around. Sakurai wanted to jump up and see where they were coming from but Ninomiya stopped him.
"It's not safe here. We should go back to the hotel." The smaller man said, gesturing towards Matsumoto that he should come.
"But Masaki." Sakurai tried to get away from the grip on his arm but even though the Dark Watch officer was smaller, he seemed to have some impossible strength at the moment to make sure he wouldn't get away.
"Sakurai I'm sorry but there is nothing we can do here right now. If they dumped his body in the water the river would have taken him away by now. If they took him somewhere else we won't even know unless we get some sort of clue from someone or somewhere. I'm sorry for being so harsh but if we don't leave now we will all end up dead."
"But what if we missed something here?" Sho asked desperately, not ready to leave yet until he was sure of everything. As if the Gods had heard him there was movement in the water, a shoe popping up from under the surface. His eyes widened with shock.
"No... No, no, no..." He wanted to jump into the water but Kazunari still had an iron grip on his arm. He could hear the smaller man curse.
"J, what are you waiting for?! Let's go!" Ninomiya snapped at the youngest who was staring somewhere in the distance.
"I swear I'm going insane." Matsumoto mumbled softly but hard enough for the other two to hear. Ninomiya sighed and pulled Sakurai with him whose eyes were still fixated on the shoe that was slowly flowing away, his mind in a daze. When it went out of sight his eyes moved to the necklace in his hand, insanely hoping it would turn into Aiba.
"Seriously insane." Jun mumbled to himself when he came closer.
"What now?" Kazunari asked annoyed, pulling Sho with him who wasn't really listening to their conversation, his eyes still on the necklace in his hand.
"I'm seeing dead people." Jun muttered, grabbing the other arm of the Border Watch officer to help with getting him away from the scene.
"This is not the time to be joking about dead people." Kazunari hissed but it got Sho's attention.
"Masaki?" He asked with a tiny spark of hope in his voice but the tallest man slowly shook his head.
"Ohno..." He mumbled but he continued before anyone could say anything. "But it was probably the light playing with me. This tension about Aiba-san doesn't help either. Let's just go, this place gives me chills."
"Like I said in the first place." Ninomiya muttered, clearly getting more and more annoyed and tensed with each passing second. Sakurai stopped giving attention to the other two, his eyes on the necklace again, trusting the other two to get him back to the hotel or any other place they wanted to go to. He didn't care anyway, nothing seemed to matter anymore now. Aiba was gone and with that the only bit joy in his life. He had never loved anyone this deeply and there was no way he ever would again. Numbness spread through his veins, intoxicating his mind and making him want to do nothing more than give in to it. What use had anything else now anyway? For the past few years he had lived more for his lover than for himself.
He didn't notice they were back into the hotel until a glass of water was pushed into his hands. When he looked up he saw Matsumoto look at him with a pitiful look.
"Drink a bit. If you want to talk we are here." Sho shook his head and gave the glass back, staring into the empty space until his eyes fell on his suitcase. Slowly he got up, searching for something inside of it and dragging himself back to the bed when he finally found it. With shaking hands he took the ring out of the small box in his hands.
"I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him." Sho softly said, still looking at the ring in his hands. It was almost identical to the ring on the necklace which he knew Masaki had loved from the moment he saw it.
"Don't tell me..." Jun didn't finish his sentence. He didn't have to, seeing the pained look in the older man's eyes.
"For the last two weeks I tried to bring it up but every time something came in between. Maybe if I would have had the guts to just ask him instead of letting myself be pushed back every time he would have been more careful. It could have stopped him from doing something this dangerous." His eyes filled with tears.
"You don't know that." Jun said but he didn't sound very convincing, though Sakurai didn't really hear him anyway.
"Oh God... Masaki..." Sho's whole body started to shiver, the thought of never seeing his lover again hit him hard and making it unable for him to breathe normally. "What do I have to do without him? I can't... Please tell me this is just a bad dream. That I will wake up and he will be right next to me. Please..." Jun looked at Kazunari, not knowing what he had to say or do to comfort the Border Watch officer. Warm tears started to flow out of Sakurai's eyes, clenching the fist with the necklace and the ring to his chest, sobbing wholeheartedly without caring about the other two men in the room.
"I'm sorry." Matsumoto muttered, awkwardly patting Sho on his back. "I wish there was something we could do."
"You could have stopped him from gong but it's too late for that." Sakurai said between his sobs. He knew it wasn't fair to blame the other two officers but it came out before he could stop it. "You could have stopped him but instead you let him go. I trusted you two, brought you here because it's was dangerous but instead you let him leave." Ninomiya sighed.
"I think it's better if we leave for now." He said, making Sho realize what he was actually doing.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean that it's just..."
"We know. We will be in our room if you need us, we will let you grief alone for now." Jun said, pulling Kazunari out of the room and closing the door behind them.
"Thank you." Sakurai muttered into the empty room. Right now he did want to be alone with his thoughts, processing what this would mean. His thoughts went back to last night. Their closeness, the warmth he had felt. But for some reason he wanted to take it all back, the words he had said now seemed like some scary forebode that had made this happen.
"That wasn't serious, you idiot." Sho muttered to himself, sniffing softly. It had never supposed to be the last time. There was still a little voice in his mind that was telling him this wasn't real. There was no body so no real proof he died right? But Jun had said there was too much blood, there was no way anyone would have survived that. And he didn't need to examine the scene much more to know that it was Masaki who died there as well. His phone, the shoe in the water and his necklace. Enough proof in any other case but at the same time he needed more. He needed the body, no matter how horrible that would be but he would need it for complete closure. But if it had been dumped in the water the chances were so small of finding a body that he would have to live with the fact that he would never find this closure. He would have to live with the small trace of hope that would eventually either kill him or make him go insane.
He had no idea how long he was staring in the empty room, different emotions rushing through him, until a knock came on his door. Outside it already started to turn dark and it made him feel uneasy. The small trace of hope of Masaki standing in front of him was pushed away roughly when he opened the door, seeing the two Dark Watch officers standing in front of him.
"We brought food." Matsumoto said, holding up a bag and trying to smile but it was not much more than a grim smirk. Sakurai nodded and let them in, sitting down on the bed again.
"Since we are in Italy I thought pasta would be a good idea." Jun said, giving Sho a plate with spaghetti. The other two men ate their food silently but Sho played more with it than he actually ate. A lump in his throat blocked everything if he would even want to eat in the first place. When the other two finished he sighed and placed his plate on the floor at the side of the bed, hoping they would bring some news.
"We went back to the river. There were a few officers cleaning everything, they looked like Border Watch officers." Ninomiya said softly, making Sakurai frown. "It looked like they were removing every possible evidence."
"You think the Border Watch is behind this?" He asked, even though he knew the answer himself already. There were too many strange coincidences which all seemed to lead to the Vatican and thus the Border Watch.
"I'm not sure but there are definitely strange things going on. I don't think they are coincidences anymore, there are too many of them. But then the question is why would they kill Aiba?" Sho didn't need to think of it much as he had already been wondering about this and speculating about it with Masaki.
"Past vessels." He said. "We know about three murders and all of them have been past vessels for the Treaty. The Vatican is luring past vessels to them, saying it is for some research but they are all dead now. Sachiko should know more about this, they told me she is leading the research."
"Sachiko? That's why Aiba went to her?" Jun asked.
"Knowing Masaki yes. But what I'm really worried about is the silence the Border Watch keeps about it. They didn't seem happy I'm here, the Vatican is really closed and they have the Treaty locked up there. They don't even seem troubled by the fact that past vessels are dying." Sho sighed. "I'm not sure if I'm right about this but something tells me the Vatican is behind this."
"That is a big accusing Sakurai-san." Kazunari said slowly. "Even bigger coming from you seeing you have to be on their side."
"Right now I don't know what side I'm supposed to be on." Sho grumbled, tightening his grip around the jewelry in his hand. "Right now I only want to know whoever did this to Masaki and make sure the bastard get's punished for it."
"And we will help you with that." Ninomiya said, getting up. "We will start investigating all of this thoroughly tomorrow, I think it's best to call it an early night tonight. Try to get some sleep Sakurai-san, you will need it."
"I'll try." Sho mumbled, getting up to let the other two out. He sighed deeply, turning off all the lights and sitting on his bed in the darkness again, playing with the ring and necklace in his hands. With shaking hands he opened the lock of the chain, hanging the ring around it as well, the two rings touching and making a soft sound. As he hung the necklace around his neck a sudden determination came over him. If Aiba had to die he had to make sure it wouldn't be for nothing.