Weiss Kreuz: Lady Killer 6
by K.Huntsman
released 24 December 1999

 

Fall.

Ken bounded up the steps to the roof, looking for Akayuki. Whenever she wasn't in her shop or in her room, it was the most likely place to find her. She seemed almost obsessed with her practice.

Then again, when he'd been in J-League, had he really been any different?

//But I'm not in J-League any more,// he reminded himself, //and she's no longer an Olympic contender.//

He got up to the roof and stopped, watching her. Akayuki was doing a handstand, her body as straight as an arrow. As he looked on, she picked one hand up off the ground and tucked it behind her back in a slow gesture. Then the hand which remained, her sole support, arched. Her entire body weight was held on the tips of her five digits.

Ken's jaw dropped open and he gaped.

After a moment, she lowered the other hand again, then flipped forward.

She grabbed up a towel and a water bottle which lay near her and came over to the stairs, dabbing at her wet face. "Thank you for not interrupting, Hidaka-san," she said. "That's harder than it looks." Blue eyes searched him. "Did you want me for something?"

He recovered his brain. "Um, yeah. Manx is here. Work."

"Ah." She smiled at him and his brain shut down again. "Guess I'll finish practice later, then."

"Do you do that every day?" he asked as they started down the steps.

"Handstand?" she asked. "Yes. It's a good exercise for my balance."

He didn't ask another question, just looked at her. She'd slowly been opening up to them since she'd joined them in February, nearly six months ago. But there were still a lot of things he didn't understand about her, things he tried to get out of her once in a while. Ken was born curious, he couldn't help it. He knew she was a Buddhist and a vegetarian because of that. It was a weird thought, an assassin who didn't eat meat because it would cost a life. But whenever the five of them ate dinner together, usually at Aya's place, he always made sure to cook something Akayuki could eat. Youji'd harrassed him about it more than once, but he and the others took their turns cooking vegetarian too. When Akayuki got depressed, she ate apples and nothing else.

"What's soccer like?" she asked when they got down to the second floor.

"Like?" he asked.

"Yes." She nodded. "I never played it or watched it, but you were pro, weren't you? What's soccer like? All I know is that it's running around on a field kicking a ball."

"Heh. It's a lot more than that. Tell you what, I'm meeting up with the neighborhood kids later for a game. You wanna come?"

She smiled at him again. "Sure."

 

Akayuki waved at Sakura as the girl left her shop carrying a Beanie Baby named Halo. The girl had enquired about a part-time job at the shop, and Akayuki was considering employing her despite reservations about letting a "normal" person so close to an assassins group. Youji waltzed into the store on Sakura's heels, calling a hello to the schoolgirl as she left.

"What can I do for you, Kudou-san?" Akayuki asked, smiling at him and the insane, merry light in his green eyes.

"I have come to take you away from this common life, o princess, and carry you away to my castle, where I shall ravish you and keep you in a position of decadent debauchery!" he said exuberantly.

She raised an eyebrow. "What are you on?"

"Life," he laughed, extending a ticket to her. "You, Ken, and I are going clubbing tonight. Aya's going on a date with Sakura and Omi has a test tomorrow. Now don't say no, these were hard to get ahold of!"

She studied the ticket, which was for a club she'd never heard of. "Fine, then I won't. What's the dress code?"

"Sharp and stylish. Sexy, if you can manage it. We're leaving at seven sharp, and I am in charge of Ken's wardrobe for tonight, because he has no style."

She nodded. "I'll see what I can drag out of my closet. Has Tsukiyono-san had much luck with his homework?"

"Oh, that's part of tonight. Ecstasy," and that happened to be the name of the club, "is right under the Mikishima building. We're to look around and see what we can see. But," and here he held up a cautionary finger, "we are also going to have a good time."

"Yes, yes," she sighed, smiling as she waved the ticket around in a circle. "I'll meet you at Hidaka-san's room at seven, then."

"It's a promise!" Youji flashed the V-sign at her as he went back to Kitten In The House.

She thought about him as she went around the shop and adjusted the bears. "Kudou-san..." she mused aloud. He was charming, gorgeous, a bona fide playboy, and a damn fine killer. And a friend. But sometimes, in the green depths of his eyes, there was old, fragile pain.

"I've come so far since meeting them," she murmured to a Steiff bear, "yet I don't know if I have the right to say things like that to them."

She'd tried hard to be likeable once she'd realized that Kritiker intended for her to work with Weiss for a very, very long time. Sometimes she still needed that space to herself, the space that other people could not violate, but she'd reached out and tried to make them understand that she did like them. She'd even managed to win Aya's approval, and that was no mean feat.

"Tsukiyono-san is so easy to be a friend to. Hidaka-san, also." She had something in common with Ken, she'd found, both of them having been sports professionals. He'd taught her a little soccer and she was helping him work towards achieving the single-handed handstand he wanted to copy. Once in a while they'd spar against one another a little, just in fun. She hadn't yet opened up enough to let him see the full extent of her practice, though. "Fujimiya-san you have to work at. At least I have his respect." Sometimes she thought he might understand her need for being alone better than the others. It had surprised her when she'd bumped into him at the local library and seen his stack of books. She hadn't realized he was even more voracious of a reader than Youji. "Kudou-san is complex, though, with many shadings."

She sighed and turned her mind to what she would wear that night. It would be work, so black, obviously. Kudou-san had requested "sexy"....

 

There was a knock on Ken's door promptly at seven. Youji went to open it to let Akayuki in. Ken glared at him, uncomfortable in the tight black leather pants Youji had borrowed from Aya and forced him into. He looked stupid!

Akayuki came in, covered in a long gray coat, her hair stuffed up under a matching hat, and looked at him. "Hidaka-san, you look quite good," she said. "Though the hair...."

"It's Youji's idea!" Ken defended himself, grimacing at the feathered, colored, and hairsprayed layers of his hair.

"It's stylish!" Youji said, still wielding the hairbrush. He'd also picked out the form-fitting black and red turtleneck Ken wore, and the black leather jacket which was over it. He himself was dressed all in black, with a blue jacket that fell past his hips.

"In any case, gentlemen, shall we go?" Akayuki asked.

"Not until you show us what you're wearing," Youji haggled.

She smiled, secretive. "This coat comes off at the club, and no sooner, Kudou-san."

 

As she'd never been on one before, Akayuki ended up riding on the back of Ken's motorcycle, wearing his spare helmet, arms wrapped around his midriff. Since he knew that she was as well-paid for what she did as they were, he'd asked Akayuki why she didn't have a vehicle of her own. She'd laughed and said that the concept of driving scared her.

The two of them beat Youji to the club by half a minute. It was easier to park a bike than a car, but somehow Youji, having the luck of the devil, had managed to find a near space. After presenting their tickets, the three of them were shown inside by tuxedo-clad men. He and Youji looked around at the marble foyer of the very ritzy club as Magician repaired her hair and dress in the ladies' room then surrendered her hat and coat at the desk.

"Well?" she asked in a sibilant voice. The two of them turned around.

Her hair was in soft waves, framing a face touched by the merest hints of makeup. The dress she'd chosen was black as night and covered with shimmering jet beads and black sequins. It draped over one shoulder and curved across her body, revealing flashes of soft, pale flesh before ending shortly after her thighs. It fit her like a second skin and showed off the body which was slender, toned, and perfect from a lifetime of gymnastics.

Ken's brain hung up an "out to lunch" sign as his cheeks flushed to match the red of his shirt.

Youji whistled. "Very nice," he said softly, appreciatively.

She crossed the floor to them, her strapped high heels making a delicate "click" on each step, and Ken noticed the glittering black choker around her neck, with the silver cross in the center gleaming white. It matched her earrings. Her nails were as red as her lips.

THIS was what had been clinging to him on the back of his bike?

"Do I dare ask if that lipstick is 'regular' or 'special'?" Youji inquired, his hand resting on Akayuki's bare shoulder.

"Special," she replied. "I'm a big girl and capable of taking care of myself." Her eyes met Youji's behind his shades, and she smiled, doing something to Ken's gut. "And if anything happens, spiked heels can be a nasty surprise."

"May I?" Ken asked, offering his arm. The Magician and Youji both blinked at him, then she smiled, just at Ken, and linked her arm through his.

"I'd be honored," she said, and her voice was like ribbons of honey and silk, shooting right through him.

 

//Oh man,// Youji realized suddenly, looking at the two of them, //Ken has got it for her, and he's got it bad.//

He grinned to himself and decided he shouldn't let it be too easy for his fellow assassin. If Ken wanted Akayuki, Youji had no objections, but he was definitely not going to let the Siberian go through this infatuation without being presented with some challenges.

So Youji smiled at her and took Akayuki's other arm. "Shall we proceed?" he asked, gesturing at the stairs. He didn't miss the glare Ken shot at him, and decided he was definitely going to enjoy the night.

 

They walked down the grand marble staircase, either man having an arm linked in Akayuki's. She looked around, admiring the club. Taking in the exits and the location of anyone who looked like a guard.

Ecstasy was arranged into three levels. The top was a restaurant. The middle was a bar and casino. The bottom was a dance floor. Access from one floor to the next was an easy matter of gilded elevators or marble staircases. "Food, drink, or dance first?" Youji asked once they'd ascertained that.

"I don't drink," Akayuki offered.

"And I'm not hungry yet," Ken said.

"Dance, then," the eldest of Weiss decided, "and work our way up from there."

"You dance, Kudou-san?" Akayuki wondered aloud as they continued downwards.

"A gentleman must be skilled in all areas," Youji replied.

"Translation, it gets chicks," Ken muttered.

She laughed at that. "And you? Do you dance, Hidaka-san?"

"No," he admitted. "I never had the chance to learn."

"Really? Why not?"

"I didn't grow up in the best neighborhood," he said. "It was school, soccer, and trying not to get beat up or robbed. That didn't leave much room for cultural refinement."

"I see," she said, looking into his deep brown eyes. "If you want to learn, I can teach you sometime."

"In the meantime," Youji said, separating her from Ken with a slight tug, "you and I are going to dance, lovely lady."

Akayuki smiled at him, challenge in her eyes. "We'll see if you can keep up," was her response as they walked out to the center of the dance floor, leaving Ken behind them looking impotently on.

 

The Latin beat of the song began, guitars singing in her veins, and Akayuki moved confidently into position with Youji. She had few doubts he was as good as he claimed. He wouldn't be bragging if he wasn't.

They moved across the floor in sure, easy movements. Her eyes were steady on him as he led, and he smiled at Akayuki as he moved her into a spin. She returned the smile in pleasure as she came back into his arms. He was good, and it had been far too long since she'd danced with an experienced partner.

People were clearing space for them as Youji's hands began to slip slowly lower on her body, making the music into the sensual thing it was supposed to be.

She played along, turning her back to him so that their shapes melded together into one, moving in smooth curves and slinky, seductive undulations. His hands were on her hips now, his breathing steady in her ear.

It was only his touch which steadied her as she caught sight of Ken from across the room. His face was a mask of pure jealousy, and her eyes widened at the sight. Feeling the slight shift in her body language, Youji spun her out of the intimate pose and they flowed across the floor again, soft and easy.

"Kudou-san," she asked as they moved, the music falling away from her as her thoughts spun around only that one thing she'd seen, "does Hidaka-san... like me?"

"So you saw that too, Kitten," Youji replied, grinning. "It seems he does." He let her absorb that for a few seconds, then asked, "What are you going to do about it?"

"Think," was Akayuki's response as he led her into the end of the song with a series of complex spins in and out, the two of them circling on the floor while the music wound up behind them, then drifted away into silence. The people in the space around them clapped and they both bowed.

"Where did you learn to dance?" she asked as they made their way across the floor back to Ken.

"...Asuka liked it," was his slow response, and she knew enough about him to know what he meant.

"I'm sorry," she said, meaning it.

"No need to be. It was a long time ago. And," here he faced her and smiled his madcap smile, putting on a show for Ken, who was just a few feet away, "now that I know you're a great dancer, my lovely lady, I am going to be seeking you out more often to do impromptu displays like this at clubs!"

She laughed. "If you seek me out for it, it's hardly impromptu, now, is it?" She looked at Ken. "Would you like to learn, Hidaka-san? Dance is not hard compared to handstands."

"...Yeah," he replied softly, and she could see him trying hard to swallow down his jealousy.

 

Ken sipped at a soda as he watched Akayuki. He was confused by what he felt. He knew damn well he was attracted to her--he'd better have understood that, after being nearly sick with jealousy watching Youji seduce her during that dance the two of them had done--but he didn't know what to do about it. It was not a good idea for any of them to get involved in romantic relationships since it would put the lover in danger. But she was a fellow assassin, he argued to himself. Surely the danger wasn't as great to her. But did he have the right to try to make a move on her and risk putting a fracture into the tentative teamwork she had with Weiss? And what if she didn't return the way he felt?

--"I do not like men,"-- she had said when initially refusing to work with them. Was she a lesbian? Oh Gods, he hoped not, but he couldn't deny that she never seemed attracted to any of them, or to any man at all. The feelings in the pit of his stomach turned to acid, eating through him.

"He's been gone a long time, hasn't he?" she asked about Youji.

Ken looked up into her concerned eyes. "Youji's probably fine. He would've let us know if he wasn't."

She cocked her head to the side a little. "Why don't you wear a transceiver earring? Kudou-san and Tsukiyono-san both do...."

He grinned. "'Coz my mother would've slapped me upside the head if I'd ever thought of getting my ears pierced."

"What was your family like?" she asked. Ken shot Akayuki a sharp glance, but there was only gentle inquiry in her eyes.

He breathed out and relaxed back into his chair. "There was only me and 'Kaasan for as long as I can remember. I don't even know who my father was. We didn't live in the best part of town... but I never missed out on anything if she could help it."

"She sounds like a good mother," the Magician said. "Is she still alive?"

Ken shook his head. "Nah. She died right after I made it into J-League. She was so happy that I had... that I'd gotten out of the slums." He smiled, remembering that, remembering the warm, comfortable woman who had been all the family he had ever had. Then his happiness fell a little. "I don't know what she'd think about me being in Weiss, though."

"Well--"

An explosion shook the room, and a sudden voice called out from Akayuki's earrings, "Siberian! Magician! I could use some help here!"

"That idiot," the Magician swore, standing up. "Didn't he say this was supposed to be recon only?!"

"It's because he never leaves his weapon at home," Ken decided as they ran towards the interior door Youji had taken. "Youji thinks he's invincible or something."

"Or he was just unlucky," Akayuki said. "This is a wonderful conclusion to the evening."

"Let's hope it's not fatal!" Ken grinned at Akayuki as they ran, relieved to get away from his thoughts.

 

Magician found herself tumbled into a corner with Siberian. There was blood on her hands and on the heels of her shoes. She studied the latter, wondering how hard they were going to be to clean. "This is not my idea of how to ruin good shoes," she muttered. She glanced across the hallway at where Balinese was hiding from the strafing bullets. "If I can't clean these, you owe me a new pair!" she called.

"Size twenty-four, right?" he called back, smiling. His fingers were handling the monofilament wire he'd pulled from his watch. His eyes, as they looked over his glasses at her, were amused. She shook her head at the green-eyed one's levity even now, and turned her attention to Siberian.

There was a tear in his black jacket from a bullet, but he hadn't mentioned anything so she assumed it had just nicked the leather and not him. "You all right?" she asked.

He nodded. "I just don't like doing this kind of thing without claws."

"Poor kitty," she chuckled. He'd taken down as many with his street-style karate as she had with her highly trained blend of three forms and gymnastics. She looked at her hands and wished she had something to wash them with.

The flow of bullets paused. Balinese looked at the two of them and nodded. Akayuki watched as he moved into the hall, casting out his slicing wire. In the time it took her to round the corner he'd taken down both of the men and their Uzis. "Shall we go?" he asked, bowing and gesturing at the unobstructed exit door.

"Thought you'd never ask," Ken replied, and the three of them sprinted out into the early morning air.

 

Youji drove carefully, not wanting to attract police attentions when Magician, buckled into the passenger seat of his car, still had blood on her. He'd given her his jacket once they realized her own had been abandoned at the club ("No great loss," she'd said, shrugging), but the sticky, dark redness was still speckled onto her here and there, and her hands were coated with it. His nose, too used to the smell, could clearly pick it up on her. "You fight better than you let on," he commented, making small talk, keeping an eye on Ken's headlight in his rear-view mirror. "Most of what you've done up until tonight has been ducking, evading moves, being faster than the other person. When you go on the offensive, though...."

She shrugged, her shoes cradled in her lap. --"Wouldn't want to ruin the interior of your car."-- "I don't have to show you all of my secrets, do I?" she asked. "I've been studying martial arts for as long as dance and gymnastics. It was all part of the program to make me the best. I'm as good at attack as defense. That doesn't mean I like it, however."

"Because you're Buddhist?" He asked rhetorically, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "You haven't let us see what you're really capable of, have you?"

She turned her head and looked at him. "No," she replied flatly. "What I am capable of worries most people."

"Wouldn't worry me. Or Ken." He kept his glance on her. "Have you decided what you want to do about him yet?"

"No," she said as they reached Kitten and pulled into the garage behind it.

"Let me know when you do," he replied as Ken pulled in behind them.

"Mmm." She nodded, unfastened herself and slid out of the car. Then she stopped, examined the vehicle, and looked at him. "Kudou-san, one thing."

"Yes?"

"Do the girls you date really believe you can afford this car on a florist's salary?"

 

Ken followed Akayuki as they went up the stairs to the third floor. "Good night," she said as she took the first step up to the fourth floor.

"Can I ask you something?" he blurted.

She turned around to look at him, still in Youji's jacket, shoes carried in her arms, feet bare. "Yes?"

He didn't know how to say it, how to ask if there was a chance for him. "I..." he tried, and failed.

She was there waiting for him.

//Screw it// Ken decided, and stepped closer, holding her by the shoulders. He bent over to kiss her.

She jerked out of his arms before his lips made contact. Her eyes glittered in the night.

"Don't kiss me," she said.

He'd blown it.

But he had to know, fool him had to dig his own grave. "Because you don't like me? Because you don't like men?" He remembered the way she'd moved so easily in Youji's arms. "Or because you like Youji?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Because I have blood on my hands and poison on my lips and would much rather kiss you under different circumstances."

He blinked.

She smiled. "I never said I didn't like you, did I, Hidaka-san?" Her eyes were soft in the light from the streetlamp. "We'll talk about it later, okay?"

"Yeah," he agreed, a silly smile coming to his lips. "Later."

"Good night," she said again, and went up the stairs to her own apartment.

For a long time after he heard her door close, Ken stood outside, just smiling.

 

The song to which Youji and Akayuki were dancing (or at least the song I put on "repeat" while writing the dance scene) is Santana's "Smooth." Since I gave her height in centimeters earlier, I decided to stick to the Japanese measuring system; size 24 is an American six and a half.

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