FIC: THE QUEENS WE USE WOULD NOT EXCITE YOU for athena8
Author: red-squared
Recipient: athena8
Title: The queens we use would not excite you
Rating: G, at the most PG for implied violence.
Characters: Queen, Takatori Shuichi, Takatori Saijou
Summary: A pawn can become a queen if it survives the journey to the other side of the board.
Warnings/Content: Nope!
Word Count: ~ 3,000
Author's Notes: Written for athena8 who requested: ‘King and Queen | tensions between the ones who share the power. I think Queen had a lot of sway with Shuuichi...it might be interesting to see that power play, especially since they disagreed fundamentally on the necessity of "Weiss." Bonus if a Mamoru 'afterward' is included, to trace the arc of the King-Queen relationship. | any era so long as Shuuichi is mentioned (can be flashback)’. I originally had another prompt (or two!) in mind, but Queen insisted that I wanted to write about her instead, and I couldn’t really say no :D
The queens we use would not excite you
I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
(“One Night in Bangkok” - from “Chess: London”)
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to E4
“Your orders were to kill Shizuka, and you didn’t. Because of you, my first mission is a failure.”
“Takatori-san…”
“But that won’t matter to Persia - you’re nothing more than a pawn, after all. The mission was my responsibility, so your failure is my fault.”
“I - ”
“I could overlook it if it were just simple incompetence, but it wasn’t was it? You had more than one clear shot at him, but chose not to take it.”
“The files -”
“The files are useless! Shizuka and others like him can’t be tried in a court because their wealth and influence means that they are outside the law.” Shuichi pauses for breath, and then sighs. “When you disobey a direct order like that… Surely you can understand why I can’t have you working for me?”
“I quite agree,” Saijou Takatori says, holding said files firmly in one hand as he allows his assistant to help into the room with the other.
“Father,” Shuichi says, as he stands to attention.
She stands up as well, wondering about Saijou’s entrance and whether it is timed for maximum humiliation.
“The first couple of pages show what we already know - money transferred from Mori and Fukui to Shizuka. But this here,” Saijou says, flipping further along the packet she’d retrieved from Shizuka’s office. “Shizuka has been transferring most of the funds to Kagome… I didn’t realise that Kagome was involved in any of this.”
“What?” Shuichi says, sounding surprised. “No, Shizuka is leading the whole operation. Kritiker’s intelligence shows that the trail ends with him.”
“But the trail doesn’t end with him, which you would know if you had gone through the files thoroughly,” Saijou admonishes.
“Then what is Kagome’s involvement?” Shuichi demands.
“That’s up to you to find out,” Saijou says. It may just be her imagination, but she senses the faintest snap of impatience in his tone.
“Fukui and Mori... Sadly, both suffered fatal accidents three months ago,” she says, before Shuichi can dig himself any deeper. “But Shizuka-san… Surely he could be persuaded to answer any questions you may have for him?”
She looks from one of them to the other, as Saijou smiles and Shuichi stares.
“You see?” Saijou says. “Not fit to work for you at all.”
“Father, I ask you to reconsider. Perhaps she spoke out of turn, but if she’d followed my orders, we wouldn’t have Shizuka to - ”
“I’m well aware of that, Shuichi.” His impatience is definitely more than just her imagination. “She won’t be working for you. You’ll get much better results if she works with you, instead.”
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to E5
Right from the beginning, she’s had her suspicions about this mission, and the third wave of security guards all but confirms them.
The first wave can be explained by Kagome being sensibly cautious - any politician's house would have guards posted at key points outside, as well as perhaps inside. The second wave, undertaking regular patrols of each floor, could be attributed to Kagome being overly paranoid - a paranoia that is more than justified if even a quarter of what they’ve discovered about his dealings is true.
But the third wave, currently being made to crawl through the air ducts? She doubts even the imperial family is so well guarded on a daily basis. The third wave, which showed up as part of the ‘regular security detail’ for the first time two nights ago, goes beyond caution and paranoia, and can only be attributed to Kagome having been tipped off she is coming to kill him tonight.
Since she’s had her suspicions about this mission from the start, however, she’s done things a little differently.
Checking her earpiece, she waits while one of the second wave patrols goes into the wing that Kagome and his family should be sleeping in. Then, once she’s sure that they’re clear of the explosives she put in place a week ago, she removes her earpiece and triggers the detonator.
There is a lot of noise and light - the explosives have been set to attract attention, not to maximise damage - but not enough that she doesn’t notice the rustling behind her, in the garden.
She has her gun trained on a shadow that hadn’t been there the last time she’d checked, then lowers it as Shuichi steps into the light, staring at Kagome’s house.
If he were just here to observe, she’d continue as planned. But when he takes a couple of steps toward the house, she puts her gun away and moves out to him.
“I’m here,” she says, and tries to hide her disappointment when he nearly jumps out of his skin. “Is there a problem with the mission?”
“You’re… here? Oh, thank God!” According to the original plan, she is supposed to already be inside the house by now. “I thought you might need back‑up.”
“Back‑up?”
“Persia told me this afternoon - Shizuka managed to warn Kagome about our plans tonight.”
Her eyebrows go up at that. “Shizuka did? From his secure cell?”
“He had a connection amongst our people, to be able to get a message out.” She doubts that. Someone definitely tipped off Kagome, but it wasn’t Shizuka. “Persia has taken care of the leak and of Shizuka, but he didn’t tell me he’d informed you. Is that why you changed the plan?” He nods toward where almost all of the guards are gathering.
Stupid. Doesn’t it occur to them there might be a second round of explosions?
“We should go - they’ll eventually remember to start searching the rest of the grounds,” she says, already collecting her things to commence the withdrawal.
“But if he’s still alive… It's all right, I came to help you salvage the mission. A second failure so soon after the first time won’t look - ”
“I already have enough to take him down. A few phone calls and it will hit the press in the morning. Kagome and his family will be finished for generations.”
He gives her a look at that, but then puts out a hand to take her bag.
Such a gentleman. “Thank you.”
“So... the bomb?”
She almost tells him the truth.
From the moment she was given the solo mission, she suspected that Saijou Takatori might want to test her after the way she’d shown up Shuichi in the earlier assignment - something that only made her more determined not to kill Kagome as her orders had strongly implied.
So she’d gone into the field a full week before the plan had been completed - Kritiker were still collecting the necessary details about Kagome and his son’s travel plans so that the mission could be scheduled for when they were both home together - and gathered almost everything she needed from Kagome’s office in his absence. She’d also used that opportunity to painstakingly conceal her explosives underneath his floorboards, as well as to plant recorders in his office.
The bomb going off today… Well, that was mainly to draw the security away from Kagome’s office so that she could retrieve her recorders, but she’s fairly certain they’re not going to contain the evidence she wants - it’s not as though Saijou Takatori would have visited Kagome personally in his office and told him that he knew of an imminent assassination attempt.
She flips the switch on a second detonator, exploding a smaller, quieter bomb that destroys both of her recorders - if the security detail knows what it’s doing, the house will be thoroughly searched after tonight.
“I was never going to kill him,” she says instead. If Saijou is still serious about Kagome, even after the media are finished with him, then he’ll make his own arrangements in the same way he apparently has with Shizuka. “But I wanted to make sure he knew that I could.”
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to E6
“Do we really need the private room? The bar looks like so much more fun.”
“The service is better here,” Shuichi says, with a small smile.
A waiter takes her coat, while a bartender is already bringing over a bottle of an expensive - in an understated way - looking champagne.
“Ah, for your promotion?” she asks, once they are alone. She raises her glass and waits for him to do the same. “Congratulations!” She goes to touch her glass to his, but he moves it out of the way.
“Not for that! Anyway, it hasn’t been officially announced, yet.”
“You’re so superstitious!” But she understands. Since his promotion to Police Captain has not been officially announced, it may still be taken away, and it would be bad luck to celebrate while that was still a possibility. “Then, why…?”
“You haven’t worked it out yet? I thought you knew everything.”
“I know all of the important things,” she says, wondering what this is leading up to.
If not work, then what? Not love life - the wedding was only six months ago and he still isn’t past losing out to Reiji... What, then?
He hesitates slightly and puts down his glass, which worries her further.
“You say you won’t kill.” It’s a statement, rather than a question.
“Is that still a problem? I thought I’d proved to you that - ”
“I need to know why.”
“I’ve told you why,” she says. “It’s a waste. Most people are worth more to us alive than dead. I thought you learned that on our first mission.”
He doesn’t reply, choosing instead to stare into his glass.
“I don’t like waste,” she continues, hoping to get the conversation back on track. “It’s almost as bad as pouring out good champagne and then letting it go flat while we talk and talk.”
“All right, all right I get the hint,” Shuichi says, looking mildly chastened. “I wanted to make sure it isn’t because you’re frightened to.”
Frighetened to? In some cases, it is much more frightening to leave them alive.
“So... Congratulations,” he says, touching his glass to hers.
“To me?” she asks, too startled to take a sip. “For what?”
“Your promotion. Starting next week, you’ll have your own team.”
It takes a little while to sink in. “You think I need protection? I won’t kill, so you give me a team that will?”
“What? No!” He seems genuinely shocked at the accusation - in the three years they’ve worked together, she’s learned to tell it apart from feigned outrage. “Thanks to your work, I’ve managed to convince Persia that we need more people doing what you can do.”
“Doesn’t Kritiker already -”
“Most of Kritiker only knows how to gather information indiscriminately. Only a few know how to use it the way you do, so we need you to start training a few others. Experimental only, at this stage, and the budget is limited, but - ”
She smiles as he chatters on, genuinely happy that she’s managed to sway him on this.
Since he lost Kikuno to Reiji, Shuichi started to throw himself into his work with almost destructive dedication. But he seems to have found his way again if his promotion - and her own! - is any indication.
“In that case,” she says, raising her glass properly, “cheers!”
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to D7
Her phone vibrates silently against her hip, and she answers it with a quiet “Yes?”
Since her promotion, she is expected to be available at all hours - even if it is only to pass on orders to the others.
“The mission…” Shuichi starts to say, but hesitates.
“Complete failure,” she says. She doesn’t mean to sound flippant, but she also doesn’t want him worrying about her.
“Oh? Persia asked me to pass on his congratulations to you for a job well done,” he says, clearly not believing a word he’s saying.
How like you, Saijou Takatori.
Her experimental little team’s first mission went exactly to plan, with only one hitch. Critically, the hitch was the part where, instead of disarming and then disabling the target with a bullet to the leg, Megumi had slipped up and put a bullet in the target’s head.
The target had died on the ride to the hospital.
My team. My responsibility. My failure.
“Please thank him for me,” she says.
“Are you - ”
“I’m fine, Shuichi, thank you.” She means it. It is nice of him to check in on her, and he is always so considerate. “We’ll work up a new plan, and - ”
“There’s no need,” he says gently. “Persia is now delegating the matter to Weiss.”
“I see,” she says, trying not to sound choked. “Well, until next time, then.”
And when next time comes, she’ll make sure they do a lot better.
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to D8, promotion to Queen
“What is it?”
“Can you meet me at the usual place in half an hour?”
“What is this about?”
“The last mission. See you soon,” she says politely, as he hangs up on her.
He’s at the bar in fifteen minutes.
“What about the last mission? You have more information?” he asks, not bothering with ‘hello’. She flicks her gaze across to Manx and then back to him. “She can stay - anything you say to me, you can say to her.”
“I see,” she replies. “So… The child is to avenge his mother. Is that the plan?”
Manx looks bewildered, but Shuichi understands immediately.
“Manx, wait outside,” he snaps. The order is to his secretary, but the snap is all for her. “You don’t care what you say or do anymore, do you?”
She doesn’t mean to rise to the bait, knowing that he is still sick with grief over Kikuno’s suicide. At the same time, she is not sure how long she can allow him to continue to speak to her the way he does now.
“Do you? You know what it cost me to find that child,” she says. “And now I find out you’re not only starting a new Weiss unit, but you’ve started training him to join it,” she says, pulling out the papers detailing the boy's assignment to Kritiker. “Why else, but to avenge Kikuno?”
He stares at her as though she’s slapped him.
When did he become so stupid, thinking nobody would see what he's doing?
“And these?” she asks, pulling out more papers and handing them to him. “I’ll concede Hisakawa, but I don’t see what need there was to have Minami murdered. It’s the sort of thing I could have shut down easily enough.” He doesn’t meet her eyes as she adds, “Of course, he was close friends with Reiji. These days, that seems to be a death sentence all by itself. Isn’t that right, Chief Superintendent?”
The first time, she thought his promotion was as a result of his hard work fuelled by his sadness. This time, she suspects that it is something Saijou arranges to keep Shuichi motivated.
As if being promoted two levels would make up for any of this.
“Or perhaps I should be addressing you as Persia instead,” she suggests, wondering if he really thinks she doesn’t know or can’t work out what’s happening around her.
When he doesn’t reply, she sighs and pulls out one last envelope.
“What’s this?”
“What do you think? You avoid me, don’t return my calls, let Kritiker reassign my staff to support Weiss... You didn’t even tell me any of this - I had to work it all out myself, and I can’t even be sure that it’s everything you haven’t told me. This is my resignation.”
That finally seems to wake something in him. “No, you can’t resign,” he says, taking the envelope. “I still need you.”
“To do what? Manage Weiss?”
She sincerely hopes not.
Besides, shouldn’t you give the management of Weiss to someone who hasn’t worked out that all of this is just for revenge on Reiji?
“No, never that. I just… Need you. To remind me,” he says. He actually smiles, and while the smile is small and sad, he is starting to look like he did when they were better friends. “I’ll make the arrangements so that you have your own team and your own funding, separate from Weiss. Reporting only to me.”
She wonders if she should try to talk him out of using Kritiker to destroy Reiji altogether, but decides that it can wait. After all, Shuichi is finally speaking to her again for the first time in weeks.
“I’ll agree if you leave the recruitment and management of the team to me and only to me. I don’t want Kritiker interfering or reassigning my staff as they see fit.
“Secondly, any mission you have for Weiss, you give to me first and only if I can’t arrange for it to be done will you delegate it to Weiss.”
She’s surprised when he nods assent at that. She doesn’t expect that one to stick - certainly not if another of Reiji’s cronies dances too close to the line - but she wants it on the table upfront in case she needs it for leverage later on.
“Third - ”
“Should I be writing these down?” he asks, taking out a pen and making as if to write on the back of her resignation letter.
“No need - you’ll have me to remind you after all,” she laughs, taking back her resignation.
She’s always managed to make him see beyond his family’s machinations and behave honourably in the past. She’s optimistic that she can do so once more.
Recipient: athena8
Title: The queens we use would not excite you
Rating: G, at the most PG for implied violence.
Characters: Queen, Takatori Shuichi, Takatori Saijou
Summary: A pawn can become a queen if it survives the journey to the other side of the board.
Warnings/Content: Nope!
Word Count: ~ 3,000
Author's Notes: Written for athena8 who requested: ‘King and Queen | tensions between the ones who share the power. I think Queen had a lot of sway with Shuuichi...it might be interesting to see that power play, especially since they disagreed fundamentally on the necessity of "Weiss." Bonus if a Mamoru 'afterward' is included, to trace the arc of the King-Queen relationship. | any era so long as Shuuichi is mentioned (can be flashback)’. I originally had another prompt (or two!) in mind, but Queen insisted that I wanted to write about her instead, and I couldn’t really say no :D
The queens we use would not excite you
I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
(“One Night in Bangkok” - from “Chess: London”)
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to E4
“Your orders were to kill Shizuka, and you didn’t. Because of you, my first mission is a failure.”
“Takatori-san…”
“But that won’t matter to Persia - you’re nothing more than a pawn, after all. The mission was my responsibility, so your failure is my fault.”
“I - ”
“I could overlook it if it were just simple incompetence, but it wasn’t was it? You had more than one clear shot at him, but chose not to take it.”
“The files -”
“The files are useless! Shizuka and others like him can’t be tried in a court because their wealth and influence means that they are outside the law.” Shuichi pauses for breath, and then sighs. “When you disobey a direct order like that… Surely you can understand why I can’t have you working for me?”
“I quite agree,” Saijou Takatori says, holding said files firmly in one hand as he allows his assistant to help into the room with the other.
“Father,” Shuichi says, as he stands to attention.
She stands up as well, wondering about Saijou’s entrance and whether it is timed for maximum humiliation.
“The first couple of pages show what we already know - money transferred from Mori and Fukui to Shizuka. But this here,” Saijou says, flipping further along the packet she’d retrieved from Shizuka’s office. “Shizuka has been transferring most of the funds to Kagome… I didn’t realise that Kagome was involved in any of this.”
“What?” Shuichi says, sounding surprised. “No, Shizuka is leading the whole operation. Kritiker’s intelligence shows that the trail ends with him.”
“But the trail doesn’t end with him, which you would know if you had gone through the files thoroughly,” Saijou admonishes.
“Then what is Kagome’s involvement?” Shuichi demands.
“That’s up to you to find out,” Saijou says. It may just be her imagination, but she senses the faintest snap of impatience in his tone.
“Fukui and Mori... Sadly, both suffered fatal accidents three months ago,” she says, before Shuichi can dig himself any deeper. “But Shizuka-san… Surely he could be persuaded to answer any questions you may have for him?”
She looks from one of them to the other, as Saijou smiles and Shuichi stares.
“You see?” Saijou says. “Not fit to work for you at all.”
“Father, I ask you to reconsider. Perhaps she spoke out of turn, but if she’d followed my orders, we wouldn’t have Shizuka to - ”
“I’m well aware of that, Shuichi.” His impatience is definitely more than just her imagination. “She won’t be working for you. You’ll get much better results if she works with you, instead.”
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to E5
Right from the beginning, she’s had her suspicions about this mission, and the third wave of security guards all but confirms them.
The first wave can be explained by Kagome being sensibly cautious - any politician's house would have guards posted at key points outside, as well as perhaps inside. The second wave, undertaking regular patrols of each floor, could be attributed to Kagome being overly paranoid - a paranoia that is more than justified if even a quarter of what they’ve discovered about his dealings is true.
But the third wave, currently being made to crawl through the air ducts? She doubts even the imperial family is so well guarded on a daily basis. The third wave, which showed up as part of the ‘regular security detail’ for the first time two nights ago, goes beyond caution and paranoia, and can only be attributed to Kagome having been tipped off she is coming to kill him tonight.
Since she’s had her suspicions about this mission from the start, however, she’s done things a little differently.
Checking her earpiece, she waits while one of the second wave patrols goes into the wing that Kagome and his family should be sleeping in. Then, once she’s sure that they’re clear of the explosives she put in place a week ago, she removes her earpiece and triggers the detonator.
There is a lot of noise and light - the explosives have been set to attract attention, not to maximise damage - but not enough that she doesn’t notice the rustling behind her, in the garden.
She has her gun trained on a shadow that hadn’t been there the last time she’d checked, then lowers it as Shuichi steps into the light, staring at Kagome’s house.
If he were just here to observe, she’d continue as planned. But when he takes a couple of steps toward the house, she puts her gun away and moves out to him.
“I’m here,” she says, and tries to hide her disappointment when he nearly jumps out of his skin. “Is there a problem with the mission?”
“You’re… here? Oh, thank God!” According to the original plan, she is supposed to already be inside the house by now. “I thought you might need back‑up.”
“Back‑up?”
“Persia told me this afternoon - Shizuka managed to warn Kagome about our plans tonight.”
Her eyebrows go up at that. “Shizuka did? From his secure cell?”
“He had a connection amongst our people, to be able to get a message out.” She doubts that. Someone definitely tipped off Kagome, but it wasn’t Shizuka. “Persia has taken care of the leak and of Shizuka, but he didn’t tell me he’d informed you. Is that why you changed the plan?” He nods toward where almost all of the guards are gathering.
Stupid. Doesn’t it occur to them there might be a second round of explosions?
“We should go - they’ll eventually remember to start searching the rest of the grounds,” she says, already collecting her things to commence the withdrawal.
“But if he’s still alive… It's all right, I came to help you salvage the mission. A second failure so soon after the first time won’t look - ”
“I already have enough to take him down. A few phone calls and it will hit the press in the morning. Kagome and his family will be finished for generations.”
He gives her a look at that, but then puts out a hand to take her bag.
Such a gentleman. “Thank you.”
“So... the bomb?”
She almost tells him the truth.
From the moment she was given the solo mission, she suspected that Saijou Takatori might want to test her after the way she’d shown up Shuichi in the earlier assignment - something that only made her more determined not to kill Kagome as her orders had strongly implied.
So she’d gone into the field a full week before the plan had been completed - Kritiker were still collecting the necessary details about Kagome and his son’s travel plans so that the mission could be scheduled for when they were both home together - and gathered almost everything she needed from Kagome’s office in his absence. She’d also used that opportunity to painstakingly conceal her explosives underneath his floorboards, as well as to plant recorders in his office.
The bomb going off today… Well, that was mainly to draw the security away from Kagome’s office so that she could retrieve her recorders, but she’s fairly certain they’re not going to contain the evidence she wants - it’s not as though Saijou Takatori would have visited Kagome personally in his office and told him that he knew of an imminent assassination attempt.
She flips the switch on a second detonator, exploding a smaller, quieter bomb that destroys both of her recorders - if the security detail knows what it’s doing, the house will be thoroughly searched after tonight.
“I was never going to kill him,” she says instead. If Saijou is still serious about Kagome, even after the media are finished with him, then he’ll make his own arrangements in the same way he apparently has with Shizuka. “But I wanted to make sure he knew that I could.”
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to E6
“Do we really need the private room? The bar looks like so much more fun.”
“The service is better here,” Shuichi says, with a small smile.
A waiter takes her coat, while a bartender is already bringing over a bottle of an expensive - in an understated way - looking champagne.
“Ah, for your promotion?” she asks, once they are alone. She raises her glass and waits for him to do the same. “Congratulations!” She goes to touch her glass to his, but he moves it out of the way.
“Not for that! Anyway, it hasn’t been officially announced, yet.”
“You’re so superstitious!” But she understands. Since his promotion to Police Captain has not been officially announced, it may still be taken away, and it would be bad luck to celebrate while that was still a possibility. “Then, why…?”
“You haven’t worked it out yet? I thought you knew everything.”
“I know all of the important things,” she says, wondering what this is leading up to.
If not work, then what? Not love life - the wedding was only six months ago and he still isn’t past losing out to Reiji... What, then?
He hesitates slightly and puts down his glass, which worries her further.
“You say you won’t kill.” It’s a statement, rather than a question.
“Is that still a problem? I thought I’d proved to you that - ”
“I need to know why.”
“I’ve told you why,” she says. “It’s a waste. Most people are worth more to us alive than dead. I thought you learned that on our first mission.”
He doesn’t reply, choosing instead to stare into his glass.
“I don’t like waste,” she continues, hoping to get the conversation back on track. “It’s almost as bad as pouring out good champagne and then letting it go flat while we talk and talk.”
“All right, all right I get the hint,” Shuichi says, looking mildly chastened. “I wanted to make sure it isn’t because you’re frightened to.”
Frighetened to? In some cases, it is much more frightening to leave them alive.
“So... Congratulations,” he says, touching his glass to hers.
“To me?” she asks, too startled to take a sip. “For what?”
“Your promotion. Starting next week, you’ll have your own team.”
It takes a little while to sink in. “You think I need protection? I won’t kill, so you give me a team that will?”
“What? No!” He seems genuinely shocked at the accusation - in the three years they’ve worked together, she’s learned to tell it apart from feigned outrage. “Thanks to your work, I’ve managed to convince Persia that we need more people doing what you can do.”
“Doesn’t Kritiker already -”
“Most of Kritiker only knows how to gather information indiscriminately. Only a few know how to use it the way you do, so we need you to start training a few others. Experimental only, at this stage, and the budget is limited, but - ”
She smiles as he chatters on, genuinely happy that she’s managed to sway him on this.
Since he lost Kikuno to Reiji, Shuichi started to throw himself into his work with almost destructive dedication. But he seems to have found his way again if his promotion - and her own! - is any indication.
“In that case,” she says, raising her glass properly, “cheers!”
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to D7
Her phone vibrates silently against her hip, and she answers it with a quiet “Yes?”
Since her promotion, she is expected to be available at all hours - even if it is only to pass on orders to the others.
“The mission…” Shuichi starts to say, but hesitates.
“Complete failure,” she says. She doesn’t mean to sound flippant, but she also doesn’t want him worrying about her.
“Oh? Persia asked me to pass on his congratulations to you for a job well done,” he says, clearly not believing a word he’s saying.
How like you, Saijou Takatori.
Her experimental little team’s first mission went exactly to plan, with only one hitch. Critically, the hitch was the part where, instead of disarming and then disabling the target with a bullet to the leg, Megumi had slipped up and put a bullet in the target’s head.
The target had died on the ride to the hospital.
My team. My responsibility. My failure.
“Please thank him for me,” she says.
“Are you - ”
“I’m fine, Shuichi, thank you.” She means it. It is nice of him to check in on her, and he is always so considerate. “We’ll work up a new plan, and - ”
“There’s no need,” he says gently. “Persia is now delegating the matter to Weiss.”
“I see,” she says, trying not to sound choked. “Well, until next time, then.”
And when next time comes, she’ll make sure they do a lot better.
~~*~~
King’s Pawn to D8, promotion to Queen
“What is it?”
“Can you meet me at the usual place in half an hour?”
“What is this about?”
“The last mission. See you soon,” she says politely, as he hangs up on her.
He’s at the bar in fifteen minutes.
“What about the last mission? You have more information?” he asks, not bothering with ‘hello’. She flicks her gaze across to Manx and then back to him. “She can stay - anything you say to me, you can say to her.”
“I see,” she replies. “So… The child is to avenge his mother. Is that the plan?”
Manx looks bewildered, but Shuichi understands immediately.
“Manx, wait outside,” he snaps. The order is to his secretary, but the snap is all for her. “You don’t care what you say or do anymore, do you?”
She doesn’t mean to rise to the bait, knowing that he is still sick with grief over Kikuno’s suicide. At the same time, she is not sure how long she can allow him to continue to speak to her the way he does now.
“Do you? You know what it cost me to find that child,” she says. “And now I find out you’re not only starting a new Weiss unit, but you’ve started training him to join it,” she says, pulling out the papers detailing the boy's assignment to Kritiker. “Why else, but to avenge Kikuno?”
He stares at her as though she’s slapped him.
When did he become so stupid, thinking nobody would see what he's doing?
“And these?” she asks, pulling out more papers and handing them to him. “I’ll concede Hisakawa, but I don’t see what need there was to have Minami murdered. It’s the sort of thing I could have shut down easily enough.” He doesn’t meet her eyes as she adds, “Of course, he was close friends with Reiji. These days, that seems to be a death sentence all by itself. Isn’t that right, Chief Superintendent?”
The first time, she thought his promotion was as a result of his hard work fuelled by his sadness. This time, she suspects that it is something Saijou arranges to keep Shuichi motivated.
As if being promoted two levels would make up for any of this.
“Or perhaps I should be addressing you as Persia instead,” she suggests, wondering if he really thinks she doesn’t know or can’t work out what’s happening around her.
When he doesn’t reply, she sighs and pulls out one last envelope.
“What’s this?”
“What do you think? You avoid me, don’t return my calls, let Kritiker reassign my staff to support Weiss... You didn’t even tell me any of this - I had to work it all out myself, and I can’t even be sure that it’s everything you haven’t told me. This is my resignation.”
That finally seems to wake something in him. “No, you can’t resign,” he says, taking the envelope. “I still need you.”
“To do what? Manage Weiss?”
She sincerely hopes not.
Besides, shouldn’t you give the management of Weiss to someone who hasn’t worked out that all of this is just for revenge on Reiji?
“No, never that. I just… Need you. To remind me,” he says. He actually smiles, and while the smile is small and sad, he is starting to look like he did when they were better friends. “I’ll make the arrangements so that you have your own team and your own funding, separate from Weiss. Reporting only to me.”
She wonders if she should try to talk him out of using Kritiker to destroy Reiji altogether, but decides that it can wait. After all, Shuichi is finally speaking to her again for the first time in weeks.
“I’ll agree if you leave the recruitment and management of the team to me and only to me. I don’t want Kritiker interfering or reassigning my staff as they see fit.
“Secondly, any mission you have for Weiss, you give to me first and only if I can’t arrange for it to be done will you delegate it to Weiss.”
She’s surprised when he nods assent at that. She doesn’t expect that one to stick - certainly not if another of Reiji’s cronies dances too close to the line - but she wants it on the table upfront in case she needs it for leverage later on.
“Third - ”
“Should I be writing these down?” he asks, taking out a pen and making as if to write on the back of her resignation letter.
“No need - you’ll have me to remind you after all,” she laughs, taking back her resignation.
She’s always managed to make him see beyond his family’s machinations and behave honourably in the past. She’s optimistic that she can do so once more.