The dead angle [Niou/Yagyuu, Yukimura; R]
Title: The Dead Angle
Author: umarekawareru
Fandom: Tenipuri
Characters: All of Rikkai, Kaido
Rating: R
Summary: "If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time." Written for ataraxistence for round 2 of switching_it_up
Warnings: violence, some sex.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. I just play with them.
A/N: Million thanks to sinnatious, who came to my aid when jumping out of the window was beginning to seem like a good idea. ♥
”If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.”
-- Chinese Proverb
01.
Niou is playing word games with Yagyuu on the day the shit hits the fan.
Marui and Jackal rescue Kaido's lifeless body from the snow and bring it into the house on stretchers. They place it in the Winter Chamber to delay decomposition, and arrangements are made for a ceremony in his honor, three days on.
Niou meets Yagyuu's eyes over the tea table, and makes a life-altering decision.
02.
All other members of Rikkai are already in their seats when Niou enters the ceremony room by the KRYPT. Breathing is uncomfortable at first, not because the air is cold - he's been through worse - but because of the stench of the funeral wreaths on Kaido's coffin. The novelty of seeing real, thriving plants outside of Yukimura's greenhouse puts Niou on edge. Tradition requires the presence of flowers at the memorial of a gang member, but next to Kaido's picture they seem to Niou a mocking gesture rather than a respectful one. Yet another of Yukimura's little games.
Yukimura himself is standing beside the coffin, with a hand out to support Kaido's picture from sliding off the smooth surface. Niou approaches to look at the face of the late Kaido Kaoru, yet another established sign of respect: it is said that on the Prison Worlds, only those who can stare Death in the eye without flinching will prosper. Superstition has never been Niou's style, but this time he's going to need all the help he can get.
Kaido looks grumpy even in death. He's still wearing the same suit he was on the day of the accident, though apparently someone got rid of his god-awful bandanna before the blood from his wound froze it in place. Kaido looks absolutely pissed, nothing remarkable, but rather understandable for someone in his situation. Niou sympathises.
A quick glance around the room shows Yagyuu on a chair on the second row and off to the side: just close enough to the coffin to look afflicted, but not so close that a deep bond with the deceased should be presumed. A good spot. Niou is sure it won't do anything to put Yukimura off their trail, but still, worth a try. Niou picks a seat in the back, from where he can expect to catch every detail, and settles down for the performance.
Yukimura catches Sanada's eye and nods. Sanada clears his throat loudly. Unlike Yanagi, who's taken a seat behind the desk, Sanada remains standing behind Yukimura like a bodyguard. Somehow he manages to look intimidating and uncomfortable at the same time. The image of an oversized penguin comes to mind.
"We begin now," announces Yukimura with a smile. His hand on top of the coffin speaks volumes.
"I called you here to have a drink in Kaido Kaoru's honor, now three days from his unfortunate demise. There are some who knew him better than others." The pause that follows is heavy and fully intentional, Niou knows. "However, we all stand here around his corpse with the knowledge that we too will be in a coffin one day. Now, we drink."
Chairs are pushed back as the occupants of the room approach the coffin one by one and take one of the eight shot-glasses arranged in a circle before Kaido’s picture.
"To Kaido Kaoru," Yukimura says, and lifts a glass into the air. "To his rest, and that of those grieving for his absence."
It is just a moment's glance, but it is impossible to miss. Yukimura meets Yagyuu’s eyes as he puts the glass to his lips and knocks back its contents. Once empty, he places it back on top of Kaido’s coffin with a resounding click. On cue, the remaining seven members of Rikkai swallow their shots in one gulp and put the glasses back on the wooden surface of the coffin.
The liquid fire of the vodka burns Niou’s throat on its way down and settles uneasily in his stomach, like a bad omen.
03.
On the outskirts of the universe, hidden beneath the Protectorate's proverbial rug, there is a star whose light grows fainter and fainter as time goes by. It produces barely enough heat to enable life - for some definition of the word - on the nine minor planets that orbit around it. The star is called Ballesta, the Fading Star, and its nine darlings are each named after a different mythological creature, and known collectively as the Prison Worlds.
As indicated by their name, the Prison Worlds support the life of a very select group of individuals: those whose criminal records (potential or realized) turn them into unwilling winners of a one-way ticket to Ballesta's frozen domains. Most of them are small children whose latent potential for criminality showed during KRYPT examinations, though there are some who managed to evade the Protectorate's Purification Plan at the tender age of six and grew up to put a dent in civilization's peaceful routine. Out of every ten convicts freighted to the Prison Worlds, one may even survive.
Niou has always been fascinated by the hierarchies formed by the alliances struck between the survivors. On a world where death is always an imminent threat, those who manage to elude an early demise form organized gangs especialized in whatever it takes to get a hold of edible game. They salvage old weapons from the debris of crashed spaceships, use the parts to create technologies applicable to war, and work together to eradicate all competition.
Empires rise and fall. Only one towers above them all. A web of tunnels and passageways built under the snow, inhabited at first only by three infamous children whose names are known and feared throughout the Prison Worlds. Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichirou, Yanagi Renji: an ambitious bastard with charisma, a kid with anger management issues and a born strategist, respectively. It must have been love at first sight, Niou imagines. When he's bored, he comes up with possible ways that first meeting might have happened. In Niou's head, the dialogue goes something like this:
YUKIMURA: [opens pocket knife behind his back, smiles] Hello there! Are you lost? I'm making a new gang. Would you like to come with me?
YANAGI: [steps out of reach] I don't think we will. We don't even know your name.
YUKIMURA: It's Yukimura. Yukimura Seiichi. And you are?
YANAGI: Skeptical. Most new gangs get crushed right away around here. The odds that a new gang will thrive are almost null. It's survival of the fittest. Why should we trust you with our lives?
YUKIMURA: Because I am the fittest.
YANAGI: I'll have to see that with my own eyes before I believe it.
YUKIMURA: Follow me, and you will see the established gangs grovel at our feet soon enough.
YANAGI: [raises an eyebrow] The name is Yanagi Renji.
SANADA: I'm called Sanada. I will go with you, Yukimura. I feel that it shall be my purpose in life to follow you around like a lapdog.
YUKIMURA: [pockets knife, smiles innocently] Let's go make some trouble for them, shall we?
[YUKIMURA, SANADA and YANAGI walk hand-in-hand into the horizon.]
Ten years. Iced passageways give way to a manor built from the ruins of other people's attempts at power. The "Three Monsters" recruit a few other problematic children, get their hands on an abandoned KRYPT terminal, become one of the top gangs. Twenty years, and Yukimura has almost made good of his promise to Sanada and Yanagi. Atobe's Hyoutei falls. Higa puts up a fight, but is exterminated all the same. The only real threat left is Seigaku, introducing double-agents in the other gangs in a desperate bid to stay afloat. On the Prison Worlds, either you succeed, or you die.
Kaido is just one more obstacle removed from Yukimura's path to hegemony. There are not many more left. From his memorial portrait, Kaido seems to be giving Niou a meaningful stare: I bet you know who's next in line. Yagyuu does not look at Kaido's face, but he knows, too.
Yukimura stands by Kaido's coffin, a hand protectively placed on the lid, like a hunter lays claim to his prey. He looks straight at Niou, and he smiles. The only thing left to do, thinks Niou, is to look at Yukimura's other hand, the one holding the knife behind his back, and hope he can get himself and Yagyuu out of reach fast enough.
04.
They're out of the door five minutes later. The power is still down, if the freezing cold out in the corridor is any indication, but nobody complains. Even Akaya is subdued on his way upstairs, which is as much a sign as anything of how fucked up things are. Still, Niou guesses only the Three know what Kaido was, which works just fine for him and Yagyuu. Jackal and the others return to maintenance and repairs around the manor in silence. They each go their own way, until only Niou and Yagyuu are left in the hallway.
Yagyuu's face is a perfect mask, a blank of emotion. On the outside, he is the living image of calm; Niou can only guess at the storm that must be raging inside. He matches his step to Yagyuu's almost unconsciously, slipping easily into the habit of hiding his footfall's within Yagyuu's, just like when they're on a mission. He's been doing it for so long it's become second nature. He follows Yagyuu down the corridor like a shadow, and stops when Yagyuu does.
They're in front of Yagyuu's room. Yagyuu slides an ID card out of his shirt pocket and holds it in front of the security interface on the wall. The scan beeps a confirmation of Yagyuu's identity, and the lock clicks open. Yagyuu walks in, does not shut the door after him; instead, he glances over his shoulder at Niou and says, "Well, are you coming in?"
Niou does not need to hear it twice.
He's crossing the threshold and reaching for Yagyuu in a heartbeat. He shuts the door and then Yagyuu is on top of him, pressed up against him, pinning him there against the door, the wall, whatever, it doesn't matter. All he can think about is Yagyuu, Yagyuu kissing him, Yagyuu in his perfectly tailored suit, with his perfectly combed hair and neutral expression; Niou wants to tear it all off of him, off, off, off -
"Eager, are we," breathes Yagyuu, and Niou shivers, which is ridiculous, because all Yagyuu's doing is talking, yet more evidence that he's going insane.
"I figure if I'm going to betray Yukimura for you, hell, I might as well get a reward for my efforts."
It's downhill from there: hands everywhere, touching, Niou's hands or Yagyuu's hands, it doesn't really matter. They're in Niou's hair, gripping Yagyuu's arm hard enough to bruise, and through the urgency and the heat Yagyuu still manages to be his usual efficient self, undoing Niou's fly with only the barest hint of trembling, and shit, Niou thinks, even the way he fucks is efficient.
"I reckon we should do something insane," says Niou later, looking up at the ceiling. "Blow everything up. Then piss on the cinders."
He feels rather than sees Yagyuu smirk on the bed next to him. "An interesting idea."
"Doing things is always better than thinking about them. You don't agree?"
"I am thinking of something," Yagyuu says, and then his mouth is on Niou's again, proving him right.
05.
Yukimura is alone in his office when Niou walks in a few hours later. The Go board is set on the desk; Yukimura stands to the side, holding a holographic map of Seigaku's turf in his palm. Niou shuts the door behind him with a click, and takes the seat in front of the desk. He takes out an envelope from an inner pocket, and leaves it gingerly on the wooden surface.
"Ah, you're here." Yukimura closes his hand into a fist, and the map vanishes. "Shall we finish our game?"
They play in silence. The Go stones clack loudly against the wood of the board as Niou and Yukimura place them every turn. Niou examines the situation, calculates risks, weighs advantages against disadvantages. Outside, a blizzard is raging, making today not the perfect day for a leisurely walk on the snow. Niou's never been in the middle of weather that awful, which is just as well, since lately his life seems to be all about new experiences.
"The reports from the scouting party came in this evening," says Yukimura out of the blue. He's toying with the holo-dice in his hand, throwing it in the air and then catching it again.
Up, down, then up again.
"Found Tezuka yet?" asks Niou, trying for casual.
"He's hiding with Yamato in the mountains. Regrouping. I was going to summon you for the strategy meeting, but lately you've seemed, ah, otherwise preoccupied."
"Headquarters is not the same without Kaido's good cheer around." Niou shrugs. "I guess I'm still in shock at his untimely demise."
"Quite," smiles Yukimura.
Niou can feel the heat radiating off the floor of Yukimura's office through the soles of his shoes, which means the energy generator must have made a comeback while he was in Yagyuu's room. KRYPT will take a day at most to go back up, Niou calculates. The archaic grandfather clock is obnoxiously loud in its ticking and
tacking. Out of time.
"It seems I was not born for this game," Yukimura says, giving a gracious bow over the board. "So, your request?"
Niou hands him the envelope. Yukimura opens it and reads its contents, then looks up at Niou.
"A vacation," Yukimura says, slowly, as if trying out the word. "Never have I heard of exiled criminals going on vacation, Niou."
"What can I say, I'm an entrepreneur."
"I'll say. Well, no matter." Yukimura rescues a pen from underneath the mountain of papers littering the left side of the desk and scribbles his name across the paper. "You won by ten points, so you get ten days. Take Yagyuu with you; he seemed rather off-color at the ceremony."
How fast will we be able to run?
Niou stands up and walks to the door of the office, all the while feeling Yukimura's eyes on his back. He knows he should get the hell out right that instant, grab Yagyuu and bolt, but before that he cannot help turning around just a fraction and asking, "Your first loss, Yukimura?"
Yukimura smiles in reply, slow and amused.
"I always win, Niou," he says. "Go have your fun. I'll see you in ten days."
06.
Down the stairs and through artificially-lit corridors, down, down, until the entrance to the KRYPT terminal appears in front of Yagyuu. The status display on the wall says 'DOWN', but when Yagyuu stares at the eye-scan, the thin metallic doors slide apart to grant him access to the cave beyond.
Jackal is sitting on the floor next to the main interface, fiddling with wires and data stacks. He looks up when he hears the hum of the doors, and raises a hand in greeting. Yagyuu returns the wave with his right hand, and bends down to press an old rag to Jackal's nose and mouth with his left. Once the chloroform does its job, Yagyuu leaves the unconscious Jackal on the floor and walks to the main computer, which is uncoding the member logs and displaying strings of data folders on the LCD screen. He finds the one labeled 'YAGYUU HIROSHI' and clicks on it.
Inside, there are decade-old logs of KRYPT-based military training, which Yukimura put them all through when the terminal was first set up. Yagyuu remembers it clearly: the years upon years inside the KRYPT, struggling to survive war after war, only to wake up and discover only an hour Real Time had gone by. To Yagyuu's knowledge, Rikkai is the only gang with the means to provide such training. Kaido had a theory, something about Yukimura being linked to the head honchos of the Protectorate, argued in detail in log after log of reports to Seigaku, though it's anybody's guess whether he was right or not. Yagyuu's fingers fly over the keys, rearranging and reprogramming. A farewell gift; it's a shame he won't be there to see the look on Yukimura's face when he opens it.
After that it's out of the door and through a maze of corridors again. Yagyuu doesn't meet anyone else until he arrives at the hangar. The gates are already open, and there's Niou, on the driver's seat of Sanada's favourite Jeep and playing with the keys in his hand. He grins when he sees Yagyuu approach.
"Going anywhere, Yagyuu?"
"Far. As far away as possible."
"Hey, that's where I'm going, too. Care about a lift?"
As soon as Yagyuu's inside the Jeep, the engine roars to life, loud enough to be heard over the sound of the blizzard outside. The whole vehicle vibrates as Niou's questionable driving guides it through the snow, into the horizon, away. Something in Yagyuu is trembling too, shaken awake by the freezing-cold wind and Niou's curses next to him, a new fire inside him coming alive.
07.
Once on the interplanetary station, stealing a ship is just too easy.
There are guards posted at the gates and patrolling the corridors, assigned there for the purpose of preventing a possible break-out, but only one in a dozen represents a real threat. Most of them are young, fresh off KRYPT training, assigned to the Prison Worlds on the kind of mission any ranking officer would piss on. They're the butt monkeys of the system, the dirt on the Protectorate's shoes. They grew up in so-called civilization, pampered by rich parents and a warmer climate. They are outlanders, just now learning what it feels like when your blood literally freezes in your veins, and how to walk around with a prayer on your lips that your legs will not fold beneath you in the middle of the snow. Like a house of cards: Niou and Yagyuu approach, blow a bit, and they come crashing down.
As he twists the cold-stiffened neck of yet another uniformed anonymous, Niou has a moment of enlightenment. The adrenaline is pumping in his veins, he is covered in other people's blood and in deeper shit than he's ever been, and when the sentry's lifeless body sags against him, he feels closest to happiness than ever. Ahead of him Yagyuu is giving out bullets like candy, adding casual genocide to a list of crimes too long to remember, and Niou thinks: gorgeous. There's spraying of blood and brain tissue like fireworks, exploding in utmost silence all around him and Yagyuu. Violence is a routine they've practiced their whole lives, but today Niou hears music in the crack of his victims' skulls, feels his bones sing with every blow he delivers. Today, the ones responsible for the corpses littering the halls are not Rikkai, not Yukimura Seiichi but Yagyuu Hiroshi and Niou Masaharu. It's Yagyuu and Niou's game now, and nobody else's.
When the last of the guards see them turn the corner, their mouths form the shape of an 'o'. Niou grins, and two seconds later the guards are crumbling one on top of the other like domino tiles. Remarkably, one of them manages to pull the trigger on his shard gun before going down, though the shot flies well wide of Yagyuu's head.
For someone who has just killed an uncountable number of people, Yagyuu's breathing is perfectly steady. He might look like someone just returned from a leisurely walk in the park if it weren't for the blood soaking his clothes. With a look of annoyance he bends to wipe his lenses clean on the shirt of one of the dead bastards, and then places his glasses gingerly back on his face, which is also dripping red. He looks like a madman, a fucking psychopath. It's one of the hottest things Niou has ever seen - clearly, he is out of his fucking mind.
"I believe we're done here." Yagyuu speaks in a tone of voice appropriate for commenting on the weather, but he's smirking. "What next?"
"Let's go jack the biggest fucking ship they've got," Niou says. "Let's finish this with the most grandiose
exit their cameras have ever recorded."
So they do.
Author: umarekawareru
Fandom: Tenipuri
Characters: All of Rikkai, Kaido
Rating: R
Summary: "If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time." Written for ataraxistence for round 2 of switching_it_up
Warnings: violence, some sex.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. I just play with them.
A/N: Million thanks to sinnatious, who came to my aid when jumping out of the window was beginning to seem like a good idea. ♥
”If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.”
-- Chinese Proverb
01.
Niou is playing word games with Yagyuu on the day the shit hits the fan.
Marui and Jackal rescue Kaido's lifeless body from the snow and bring it into the house on stretchers. They place it in the Winter Chamber to delay decomposition, and arrangements are made for a ceremony in his honor, three days on.
Niou meets Yagyuu's eyes over the tea table, and makes a life-altering decision.
02.
All other members of Rikkai are already in their seats when Niou enters the ceremony room by the KRYPT. Breathing is uncomfortable at first, not because the air is cold - he's been through worse - but because of the stench of the funeral wreaths on Kaido's coffin. The novelty of seeing real, thriving plants outside of Yukimura's greenhouse puts Niou on edge. Tradition requires the presence of flowers at the memorial of a gang member, but next to Kaido's picture they seem to Niou a mocking gesture rather than a respectful one. Yet another of Yukimura's little games.
Yukimura himself is standing beside the coffin, with a hand out to support Kaido's picture from sliding off the smooth surface. Niou approaches to look at the face of the late Kaido Kaoru, yet another established sign of respect: it is said that on the Prison Worlds, only those who can stare Death in the eye without flinching will prosper. Superstition has never been Niou's style, but this time he's going to need all the help he can get.
Kaido looks grumpy even in death. He's still wearing the same suit he was on the day of the accident, though apparently someone got rid of his god-awful bandanna before the blood from his wound froze it in place. Kaido looks absolutely pissed, nothing remarkable, but rather understandable for someone in his situation. Niou sympathises.
A quick glance around the room shows Yagyuu on a chair on the second row and off to the side: just close enough to the coffin to look afflicted, but not so close that a deep bond with the deceased should be presumed. A good spot. Niou is sure it won't do anything to put Yukimura off their trail, but still, worth a try. Niou picks a seat in the back, from where he can expect to catch every detail, and settles down for the performance.
Yukimura catches Sanada's eye and nods. Sanada clears his throat loudly. Unlike Yanagi, who's taken a seat behind the desk, Sanada remains standing behind Yukimura like a bodyguard. Somehow he manages to look intimidating and uncomfortable at the same time. The image of an oversized penguin comes to mind.
"We begin now," announces Yukimura with a smile. His hand on top of the coffin speaks volumes.
"I called you here to have a drink in Kaido Kaoru's honor, now three days from his unfortunate demise. There are some who knew him better than others." The pause that follows is heavy and fully intentional, Niou knows. "However, we all stand here around his corpse with the knowledge that we too will be in a coffin one day. Now, we drink."
Chairs are pushed back as the occupants of the room approach the coffin one by one and take one of the eight shot-glasses arranged in a circle before Kaido’s picture.
"To Kaido Kaoru," Yukimura says, and lifts a glass into the air. "To his rest, and that of those grieving for his absence."
It is just a moment's glance, but it is impossible to miss. Yukimura meets Yagyuu’s eyes as he puts the glass to his lips and knocks back its contents. Once empty, he places it back on top of Kaido’s coffin with a resounding click. On cue, the remaining seven members of Rikkai swallow their shots in one gulp and put the glasses back on the wooden surface of the coffin.
The liquid fire of the vodka burns Niou’s throat on its way down and settles uneasily in his stomach, like a bad omen.
03.
On the outskirts of the universe, hidden beneath the Protectorate's proverbial rug, there is a star whose light grows fainter and fainter as time goes by. It produces barely enough heat to enable life - for some definition of the word - on the nine minor planets that orbit around it. The star is called Ballesta, the Fading Star, and its nine darlings are each named after a different mythological creature, and known collectively as the Prison Worlds.
As indicated by their name, the Prison Worlds support the life of a very select group of individuals: those whose criminal records (potential or realized) turn them into unwilling winners of a one-way ticket to Ballesta's frozen domains. Most of them are small children whose latent potential for criminality showed during KRYPT examinations, though there are some who managed to evade the Protectorate's Purification Plan at the tender age of six and grew up to put a dent in civilization's peaceful routine. Out of every ten convicts freighted to the Prison Worlds, one may even survive.
Niou has always been fascinated by the hierarchies formed by the alliances struck between the survivors. On a world where death is always an imminent threat, those who manage to elude an early demise form organized gangs especialized in whatever it takes to get a hold of edible game. They salvage old weapons from the debris of crashed spaceships, use the parts to create technologies applicable to war, and work together to eradicate all competition.
Empires rise and fall. Only one towers above them all. A web of tunnels and passageways built under the snow, inhabited at first only by three infamous children whose names are known and feared throughout the Prison Worlds. Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichirou, Yanagi Renji: an ambitious bastard with charisma, a kid with anger management issues and a born strategist, respectively. It must have been love at first sight, Niou imagines. When he's bored, he comes up with possible ways that first meeting might have happened. In Niou's head, the dialogue goes something like this:
YUKIMURA: [opens pocket knife behind his back, smiles] Hello there! Are you lost? I'm making a new gang. Would you like to come with me?
YANAGI: [steps out of reach] I don't think we will. We don't even know your name.
YUKIMURA: It's Yukimura. Yukimura Seiichi. And you are?
YANAGI: Skeptical. Most new gangs get crushed right away around here. The odds that a new gang will thrive are almost null. It's survival of the fittest. Why should we trust you with our lives?
YUKIMURA: Because I am the fittest.
YANAGI: I'll have to see that with my own eyes before I believe it.
YUKIMURA: Follow me, and you will see the established gangs grovel at our feet soon enough.
YANAGI: [raises an eyebrow] The name is Yanagi Renji.
SANADA: I'm called Sanada. I will go with you, Yukimura. I feel that it shall be my purpose in life to follow you around like a lapdog.
YUKIMURA: [pockets knife, smiles innocently] Let's go make some trouble for them, shall we?
[YUKIMURA, SANADA and YANAGI walk hand-in-hand into the horizon.]
Ten years. Iced passageways give way to a manor built from the ruins of other people's attempts at power. The "Three Monsters" recruit a few other problematic children, get their hands on an abandoned KRYPT terminal, become one of the top gangs. Twenty years, and Yukimura has almost made good of his promise to Sanada and Yanagi. Atobe's Hyoutei falls. Higa puts up a fight, but is exterminated all the same. The only real threat left is Seigaku, introducing double-agents in the other gangs in a desperate bid to stay afloat. On the Prison Worlds, either you succeed, or you die.
Kaido is just one more obstacle removed from Yukimura's path to hegemony. There are not many more left. From his memorial portrait, Kaido seems to be giving Niou a meaningful stare: I bet you know who's next in line. Yagyuu does not look at Kaido's face, but he knows, too.
Yukimura stands by Kaido's coffin, a hand protectively placed on the lid, like a hunter lays claim to his prey. He looks straight at Niou, and he smiles. The only thing left to do, thinks Niou, is to look at Yukimura's other hand, the one holding the knife behind his back, and hope he can get himself and Yagyuu out of reach fast enough.
04.
They're out of the door five minutes later. The power is still down, if the freezing cold out in the corridor is any indication, but nobody complains. Even Akaya is subdued on his way upstairs, which is as much a sign as anything of how fucked up things are. Still, Niou guesses only the Three know what Kaido was, which works just fine for him and Yagyuu. Jackal and the others return to maintenance and repairs around the manor in silence. They each go their own way, until only Niou and Yagyuu are left in the hallway.
Yagyuu's face is a perfect mask, a blank of emotion. On the outside, he is the living image of calm; Niou can only guess at the storm that must be raging inside. He matches his step to Yagyuu's almost unconsciously, slipping easily into the habit of hiding his footfall's within Yagyuu's, just like when they're on a mission. He's been doing it for so long it's become second nature. He follows Yagyuu down the corridor like a shadow, and stops when Yagyuu does.
They're in front of Yagyuu's room. Yagyuu slides an ID card out of his shirt pocket and holds it in front of the security interface on the wall. The scan beeps a confirmation of Yagyuu's identity, and the lock clicks open. Yagyuu walks in, does not shut the door after him; instead, he glances over his shoulder at Niou and says, "Well, are you coming in?"
Niou does not need to hear it twice.
He's crossing the threshold and reaching for Yagyuu in a heartbeat. He shuts the door and then Yagyuu is on top of him, pressed up against him, pinning him there against the door, the wall, whatever, it doesn't matter. All he can think about is Yagyuu, Yagyuu kissing him, Yagyuu in his perfectly tailored suit, with his perfectly combed hair and neutral expression; Niou wants to tear it all off of him, off, off, off -
"Eager, are we," breathes Yagyuu, and Niou shivers, which is ridiculous, because all Yagyuu's doing is talking, yet more evidence that he's going insane.
"I figure if I'm going to betray Yukimura for you, hell, I might as well get a reward for my efforts."
It's downhill from there: hands everywhere, touching, Niou's hands or Yagyuu's hands, it doesn't really matter. They're in Niou's hair, gripping Yagyuu's arm hard enough to bruise, and through the urgency and the heat Yagyuu still manages to be his usual efficient self, undoing Niou's fly with only the barest hint of trembling, and shit, Niou thinks, even the way he fucks is efficient.
"I reckon we should do something insane," says Niou later, looking up at the ceiling. "Blow everything up. Then piss on the cinders."
He feels rather than sees Yagyuu smirk on the bed next to him. "An interesting idea."
"Doing things is always better than thinking about them. You don't agree?"
"I am thinking of something," Yagyuu says, and then his mouth is on Niou's again, proving him right.
05.
Yukimura is alone in his office when Niou walks in a few hours later. The Go board is set on the desk; Yukimura stands to the side, holding a holographic map of Seigaku's turf in his palm. Niou shuts the door behind him with a click, and takes the seat in front of the desk. He takes out an envelope from an inner pocket, and leaves it gingerly on the wooden surface.
"Ah, you're here." Yukimura closes his hand into a fist, and the map vanishes. "Shall we finish our game?"
They play in silence. The Go stones clack loudly against the wood of the board as Niou and Yukimura place them every turn. Niou examines the situation, calculates risks, weighs advantages against disadvantages. Outside, a blizzard is raging, making today not the perfect day for a leisurely walk on the snow. Niou's never been in the middle of weather that awful, which is just as well, since lately his life seems to be all about new experiences.
"The reports from the scouting party came in this evening," says Yukimura out of the blue. He's toying with the holo-dice in his hand, throwing it in the air and then catching it again.
Up, down, then up again.
"Found Tezuka yet?" asks Niou, trying for casual.
"He's hiding with Yamato in the mountains. Regrouping. I was going to summon you for the strategy meeting, but lately you've seemed, ah, otherwise preoccupied."
"Headquarters is not the same without Kaido's good cheer around." Niou shrugs. "I guess I'm still in shock at his untimely demise."
"Quite," smiles Yukimura.
Niou can feel the heat radiating off the floor of Yukimura's office through the soles of his shoes, which means the energy generator must have made a comeback while he was in Yagyuu's room. KRYPT will take a day at most to go back up, Niou calculates. The archaic grandfather clock is obnoxiously loud in its ticking and
tacking. Out of time.
"It seems I was not born for this game," Yukimura says, giving a gracious bow over the board. "So, your request?"
Niou hands him the envelope. Yukimura opens it and reads its contents, then looks up at Niou.
"A vacation," Yukimura says, slowly, as if trying out the word. "Never have I heard of exiled criminals going on vacation, Niou."
"What can I say, I'm an entrepreneur."
"I'll say. Well, no matter." Yukimura rescues a pen from underneath the mountain of papers littering the left side of the desk and scribbles his name across the paper. "You won by ten points, so you get ten days. Take Yagyuu with you; he seemed rather off-color at the ceremony."
How fast will we be able to run?
Niou stands up and walks to the door of the office, all the while feeling Yukimura's eyes on his back. He knows he should get the hell out right that instant, grab Yagyuu and bolt, but before that he cannot help turning around just a fraction and asking, "Your first loss, Yukimura?"
Yukimura smiles in reply, slow and amused.
"I always win, Niou," he says. "Go have your fun. I'll see you in ten days."
06.
Down the stairs and through artificially-lit corridors, down, down, until the entrance to the KRYPT terminal appears in front of Yagyuu. The status display on the wall says 'DOWN', but when Yagyuu stares at the eye-scan, the thin metallic doors slide apart to grant him access to the cave beyond.
Jackal is sitting on the floor next to the main interface, fiddling with wires and data stacks. He looks up when he hears the hum of the doors, and raises a hand in greeting. Yagyuu returns the wave with his right hand, and bends down to press an old rag to Jackal's nose and mouth with his left. Once the chloroform does its job, Yagyuu leaves the unconscious Jackal on the floor and walks to the main computer, which is uncoding the member logs and displaying strings of data folders on the LCD screen. He finds the one labeled 'YAGYUU HIROSHI' and clicks on it.
Inside, there are decade-old logs of KRYPT-based military training, which Yukimura put them all through when the terminal was first set up. Yagyuu remembers it clearly: the years upon years inside the KRYPT, struggling to survive war after war, only to wake up and discover only an hour Real Time had gone by. To Yagyuu's knowledge, Rikkai is the only gang with the means to provide such training. Kaido had a theory, something about Yukimura being linked to the head honchos of the Protectorate, argued in detail in log after log of reports to Seigaku, though it's anybody's guess whether he was right or not. Yagyuu's fingers fly over the keys, rearranging and reprogramming. A farewell gift; it's a shame he won't be there to see the look on Yukimura's face when he opens it.
After that it's out of the door and through a maze of corridors again. Yagyuu doesn't meet anyone else until he arrives at the hangar. The gates are already open, and there's Niou, on the driver's seat of Sanada's favourite Jeep and playing with the keys in his hand. He grins when he sees Yagyuu approach.
"Going anywhere, Yagyuu?"
"Far. As far away as possible."
"Hey, that's where I'm going, too. Care about a lift?"
As soon as Yagyuu's inside the Jeep, the engine roars to life, loud enough to be heard over the sound of the blizzard outside. The whole vehicle vibrates as Niou's questionable driving guides it through the snow, into the horizon, away. Something in Yagyuu is trembling too, shaken awake by the freezing-cold wind and Niou's curses next to him, a new fire inside him coming alive.
07.
Once on the interplanetary station, stealing a ship is just too easy.
There are guards posted at the gates and patrolling the corridors, assigned there for the purpose of preventing a possible break-out, but only one in a dozen represents a real threat. Most of them are young, fresh off KRYPT training, assigned to the Prison Worlds on the kind of mission any ranking officer would piss on. They're the butt monkeys of the system, the dirt on the Protectorate's shoes. They grew up in so-called civilization, pampered by rich parents and a warmer climate. They are outlanders, just now learning what it feels like when your blood literally freezes in your veins, and how to walk around with a prayer on your lips that your legs will not fold beneath you in the middle of the snow. Like a house of cards: Niou and Yagyuu approach, blow a bit, and they come crashing down.
As he twists the cold-stiffened neck of yet another uniformed anonymous, Niou has a moment of enlightenment. The adrenaline is pumping in his veins, he is covered in other people's blood and in deeper shit than he's ever been, and when the sentry's lifeless body sags against him, he feels closest to happiness than ever. Ahead of him Yagyuu is giving out bullets like candy, adding casual genocide to a list of crimes too long to remember, and Niou thinks: gorgeous. There's spraying of blood and brain tissue like fireworks, exploding in utmost silence all around him and Yagyuu. Violence is a routine they've practiced their whole lives, but today Niou hears music in the crack of his victims' skulls, feels his bones sing with every blow he delivers. Today, the ones responsible for the corpses littering the halls are not Rikkai, not Yukimura Seiichi but Yagyuu Hiroshi and Niou Masaharu. It's Yagyuu and Niou's game now, and nobody else's.
When the last of the guards see them turn the corner, their mouths form the shape of an 'o'. Niou grins, and two seconds later the guards are crumbling one on top of the other like domino tiles. Remarkably, one of them manages to pull the trigger on his shard gun before going down, though the shot flies well wide of Yagyuu's head.
For someone who has just killed an uncountable number of people, Yagyuu's breathing is perfectly steady. He might look like someone just returned from a leisurely walk in the park if it weren't for the blood soaking his clothes. With a look of annoyance he bends to wipe his lenses clean on the shirt of one of the dead bastards, and then places his glasses gingerly back on his face, which is also dripping red. He looks like a madman, a fucking psychopath. It's one of the hottest things Niou has ever seen - clearly, he is out of his fucking mind.
"I believe we're done here." Yagyuu speaks in a tone of voice appropriate for commenting on the weather, but he's smirking. "What next?"
"Let's go jack the biggest fucking ship they've got," Niou says. "Let's finish this with the most grandiose
exit their cameras have ever recorded."
So they do.