Act IV: Quid quid latet apparebit nil inultum remanebit

(All that is hidden will be revealed, nothing will remain unavenged)

Wooyoung is not the only one with a ghost from his past visiting him as Rai is now haunted by Suijin who now goes by his given name Kazuki. Junsu, Chansung, and Jinwoon all find something that sparks their interest as they continue to review Seiryuu’s history, while Nichkhun is more frustrated than ever.

Schatten is at another standstill as Lee Sooman orders their arrest, framing them for the deaths of General Yang and Wahrheit, however this is the least of their problems. Mai wants to know who the woman in the coma is, while Fuu is still struggling to make sense of all the information she has received.

As the evening settles say your prayers let me kiss you tenderly

As the moon begins to rise above I am forced to change drastically

Don’t forget the person I am in the day, don’t forget the good in my life

Don’t forget this ache I feel in my heart, don’t forget my strife

- White Flames, Weiss Kreuz -

CHAPTER: 37: ♖

~ ♖ ~

Kurenai no Hana

(Crimson Flower)

As they settled into their room, Chansung couldn’t help but think Jinwoon was overworking himself again. The archbishop was crouching over old file cases and cross checking them with his computer. Chansung knew exactly what it was that was going to keep them both up that night: Rai. After his comment about the picture Junsu had found, Jinwoon had not stopped searching it out. According to the younger man, the circumstances of the first case were too similar to their own methods- Jinwoon was right, but not in the way they had thought.

Literally digging through files was not Jinwoon’s favorite activity simply because of the fact that it was not easy for him to move around. Still, his persistence paid off and he unearthed several of the Main Office’s early missions from a stack of papers the former bishop left for him. Normally these files were stored at the Main Office archives, but one simple request to Min and Kwon and they were delivered to him with no questions asked. Ever since Jinwoon realized that Dr. Aybarra had been involved prior to the formation of Hell, Jinwoon nursed an interest for the history of the organization as a whole. There were still more questions than answers, but he was closer to finding out what he most desperately wanted to know. “I know the Main Office has been around for a long time, longer than I think and guess what I found.”

“Right,” Chansung dropped into his bed and made himself comfortable. He was tired from the night’s mission. After setting the children at a strategic location that would bring them to an emergency room, he had hoped for a good sleep. There was no way he was working or thinking. He just wanted to rest. The traumas of seeing all these dead children would haunt him, and the knowledge of how the branding process went about left him with his nightmares. “Let me guess, Hell twenty years ago saved the little kids?”

“Well, not exactly Hell.” Jinwoon answered. “They weren’t called that, they were called Lucis. Some names sound familiar, but that’s not my point. I mean, we had these guys before, what are the chances they’d revive again?”

“We did kill their leader? And Nichkhun’s gonna get Fortuna for sure. What I want to know is why weren’t the missing kids found?”

“If you’re really going to say that Rai is Renzaki Ai, then something must have happened in between. What I don’t understand is what kind of father would let his daughter be changed like that.” In a sense Jinwoon felt for those children, he didn’t grow up in the best of homes himself, and when the opportunity arose that he could do something to extricate himself from that household he took it.

Chansung shuddered at the memory of the branding iron and the scars on the children’s bodies. “You know about Rai’s...iris brand, right?”

“Yeah, I’m aware. She doesn’t really talk about it. I don’t even think she knows where she got it. Junho has the same. If Lucis rescued them, it would follow that no, they wouldn’t return Rai to her obviously incompetent parents, and there were no records for Junho.”

“But Junho went to the Academy and Rai...for some reason grew up wanting to kill Nichkhun. Are we piecing together what happened in between?”

“Does it matter? In the end Rai killed the man who could have been her father-”

When Jinwoon didn’t continue that thought, Chansung sat up and watched him on his computer, “What are you thinking?”

Jinwoon didn’t look up from his screen, “DNA. I have samples, and I can test for paternity.”

“What are you hoping to find exactly?”

“A match.” A beep signalled the end of the search and Jinwoon’s hand froze as it hovered over his keyboard.

“What is it?” Curious, Chansung stood from the bed and walked over to Jinwoon’s table. He peered into the screen and even though he didn’t understand much of the science, he knew enough to know what the results meant. “She’s related to...a Staunton, our Staunton...and...to you?!”

…

Perhaps it was inevitable that Rai would wake and seek him out first. Nichkhun was not under the illusion she would thank him for what he did, he was all too aware that the few hours before would have her even more confused and angry. At him. Who else would Rai have to blame? After all, he was to Rai what Kazuki had been to him. Fortuna all lay in the background, taunting him, taunting her, moving them around like pieces on a chessboard. It would end soon and the whole project would fall. He would have exacted his revenge and brought down the whole organization that lead to this point.

June’s pains would not have been in vain. Her efforts would take a concrete form in him, and Nichkhun would finish what she had started. Everything would be set right regardless of all the mistakes he may have committed in the past. His sacrifices would all be justified, every hurt would be healed, and at the end of it all he would finally find peace.

His waiting would end.

Rai stood in front if him, eyes flaring with anger and hurt. He knew what she was going to say, she was going to ask him why and how. He had no answer for not even Nichkhun knew how or why Kazuki was still alive. She staggered towards him, unsheathing Sadame and Izayoi from her back.

Above him the full moon was unobscured by clouds, there was no wind around him, and the static crackled in the air. “What are you going to do now?”

Rai swiped a tear from her eyes, “Why is he alive?!”

…

Suijin was dead and her clan brothers were nowhere to be found. Rai woke up alone at that beach, surrounded by the corpses of the only people she knew. People she thought of as her family. Suijin was dead, and there was only one thing she could do about it.

Amidst the carnage around her, there was one thought that dominated her mind. Revenge. She had to avenge her fallen brothers, and that began by finding the pale platinum-headed man that took their clan leader’s life. Her feet made no sound on the sand as she trudged towards the bodies before her.

The clan leader’s sword, passed down from generation to generation, lay dirtied on the beach front, and Rai picked it up carefully, feeling its weight on her hands. Izayoi, the moon of the sixteenth night. It joined it’s sister Sadame, Fate, on her back, and she proceeded to building a funeral pyre for her fallen comrades.

She chose the largest twigs and the smoothest rocks she could find. She struggled to put them together, stopping every other step, dropping to her knees from the pain from the wound she received the night before. It bled very slowly, spilling crimson blood and outlining the scars from the brand on her skin.

A crimson bloom, a blood iris.

She couldn’t remember where she received the blow, but the burning sensations were getting stronger no matter what she did. Even bound tightly, it nagged at her, announcing its presence, screaming that it existed. It was a wound like she’s never received before. It didn’t appear serious, but her body wasn’t healing at its normal pace.

A cut from the shadows, a wound that would never heal. Rai had only heard stories about it before, but if the injury was what it was, then she knew she had a limited time to find and kill Suijin’s murderer.

She kneeled down before the pyre and muttered an old prayer her sensei taught her. A prayer of goodbye, a prayer that would send her thoughts to the people who have left her behind. Pain still crept up her body, clinging to her veins as they usually did. Pain was a part of her as much as sensing the slightest changes in the topography and in the air were.

With her eyes shut tightly she could feel the world around her more clearly, more distinctly. Every vibration in the air, every tremor in the ground, she even sensed the presence of another person coming up behind her.

“I can help you find him, but you have to help me in return.”

He spoke slowly with a high pitched manicured voice. Rai didn’t sense the man as a threat, and she turned towards him. “Who are you?”

“My name is Kwon, and I was sent to come fetch you.”

Rai was on her feet unwilling to trust this man. “Who sent you?”

Kwon replied with an enigmatic smile. “A secret benefactor, Staunton, if you will. So, shall we?” He spread his hand gesturing her to follow, but Rai did not move.

“How did you find me? How do you know about all this?”

Kwon pulled out a picture from his coat’s inner pocket. “Is this the man you are looking for?”

Rai’s eyes widened at the photograph, “You can take me to him?”

“Oh yes, but first you must do something for us.”

Rai didn’t take a moment to consider. “What.”

“Have you heard of the Fortuna Project?”

Bells were ringing in her ears, but she didn’t know why. The promise of killing that man weighed heavy in her heart. She had been warned against trusting people too easily, that she should always be on guard. Right now she didn’t care.

Rai had nothing to lose.

…

The air was dry and humid and Nichkhun knew Rai would feel his every movement from the static in the air. He smirked. He has never seen her this unhinged since the first day she was brought to Hell. He recognized her voice immediately, he knew why she wanted to kill him. Rai understood how Nichkhun felt about Fortuna, and that was how they came into the agreement that she would help him first before they dueled one final time.

She would never win against him, at least, not in her current state.

“Why?!” she shrieked. Her voice displaced the air around her creating a chain reaction of hissing sounds only Nichkhun could hear.

“I know as much as you Rai, I don’t know why he still lives, but I will kill him.”

“Then I will kill you first!”

Rai jumped towards Nichkhun, diving at him head first, both swords already positioned. It was an easy parry for Nichkhun, even though Rai was a deadly double wielder, he knew exactly how to predict her movements. She reminded him of someone he knew, Wooyoung.

Nichkhun’s Krabi gleamed silver under the moonlight, and Rai was left staring at the script carved onto the sword and at the pearl camellia dangling from its hilt. There was nothing special about this sword, the script was an engraving from the forge it came from, though it had been in Nichkhun’s family for generations.

Only believe in a figureless, shapeless destiny

where the feeling of hesitation is within the moon of the sixteenth night

In his younger days it meant nothing to him, but now it was everything, the only thing he held on to. Rai gritted her teeth as Nickhun loomed over her, he was stronger than she was, and she couldn’t break free as much as she tried. She let her knees collapse and rolled away from him. He wasn’t even breaking a sweat and he followed after her. He didn’t intend to hurt her, but he wanted to subjugate her to knock some sense into her.

Rai wasn’t thinking clearly, she wasn’t thinking at all. Kazuki was alive, and she demanded answers. She knew that Nichkhun didn’t have them, but he was a threat to Kazuki, she wouldn’t let Nichkhun kill him.

“He’s a part of them,” Nichkhun stated, “he’s Fortuna.” He watched the emotions splay on her face. The usual tough act she wore faded in an instant and Nichkhun knew he was getting to her.

“It doesn’t matter,” she breathed. “Suijin, he-”

“He’s no longer Suijin.”

Screaming, Rai attacked Nichkhun again. Even with her flurry of whirlwind attacks, Nichkhun blocked every one of her strikes. They were getting progressively weaker, and he didn’t know if it was an aftereffect of her injury or something else. One more strike, and Nichkhun easily overpowered her, taking her down to the concrete floor. He hovered on top of her, one knee on top of her sternum as he kept her immobile.

“Kill me,” she said, tears stinging her eyes.

“No, the agreement was you bring down Fortuna with us, and then you can try to kill me again. Maybe by then you can refine your technique.” He lifted his knee from her chest and sat her up, pulling her up by the collar of her shirt.

Rai looked up at him, the moon reflected off his platinum hair creating a halo over his head. She couldn’t think. She didn’t know what to think and tears ran down her face. “I don’t know what to do.”

Nichkhun sighed knowing exactly how Rai felt. Like him, Rai knew nothing more but her mission, and for the last two years, that was to kill him. Now what she lived for had been ruthlessly taken away from her, she was left exposed and vulnerable. “Your mission.”

She saw glimpses of Suijin in the way Nichkhun spoke to her. Her clan leader, always strong for her even when he wasn’t supposed to, had been the one person other than her sensei that she looked up to. She knew no one else. She had no one else.

Looking up at him, her body quivered violently, and without knowing why, Rai closed the gap between them and crashed her lips against his.

Nichkhun laid a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her away. Wordlessly he stood up and walked away. Rai felt helpless as she crumpled down on the roof of Fourth Avenue. Her body still shook uncontrollably and she tucked her legs in, wrapping her arms around them and holding tight. She stayed that way for an indeterminable amount of time.

A warm pair of hands picked her up, and by the feel of his heartbeat alone, Rai knew who it was. Junsu cradled the broken girl in his arms and brought her back down to his room. He didn’t now exactly what was going on, but details didn’t matter. Being hurt and confused was all the same no matter what the cause.

Rai didn’t reisist and Junsu took that as a good sign. He softly laid her on his bed, not once letting her go. “You ma’am, are in desperate need of a long warm hug.” he murmured into her hair.

Her hand found his shirt and she clawed at it, dragging her nails over the fabric of his clothes. Tears flowed nonstop from her eyes, and a silent cry emerged from her lips. was painfully constricted like thorns were jammed into it, and she pressed her nose against Junsu’s collar bones.

He rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down, and when that didn’t help, Junsu only knew one other way. Rai was frustrated about something he didn’t understand, he wasn’t looking to talk to her. He just wanted to maybe prove a point. To say he wanted to help her was a stretch, but Junsu had no one else and he had no doubt Rai would save his life given the proper circumstance.

He would just have to save her the only way he knew how.

He tilted her chin up slowly and gingerly brushed his lips against hers. She was still shaking when he kissed her more thoroughly, and little by little the shivering stopped. His hands held her face still, and when she started responding to him, they moved downwards to rest on her waist.

Her eyes were closed when he broke off from . With his forehead pressed against hers, he dared to very slightly lift up her shirt. He bit his lip a the sight of the bloody transdermal patch. “One day you’ll have to tell me where you got that.”

His cool fingers touched her heated skin, and when he moved to kiss her again, Rai’s eyes snapped open and her fist met with his face.

Junsu reeled from the force of the blow. He the blood of his lip and stared bewildered at the shinobi before him. He wanted to ask what that was about, but her dilated pupils held him back. The smell of blood sent a heightened rush through him, and when Rai moved to punch him again, he grabbed her and pushed her down the mattress. “Can’t believe I’m actually going to do this your way.”