Khaos Wars

Chapter 10 - The price of a secret

Ryuuzaki laid on his bed and admired the ceiling. The wood grain made some interesting patterns; intertwining in some areas and racing forward in others. He had been staring at it for two hours now. It was still dark out when he had woken up, but now the sun shone brightly through his curtains.

He had one of those awful nightmares again; those where a horrifying monster killed him. This repeated itself every night and each time he woke up when he died in the dream. He hadn't been able to fall asleep again after that. For a while now he had been trying to avoid sleep because of this; even though he knew it was impossible.

Every morning, he stared at the ceiling like this; confirming that the patterns were still the same. That meant everything was the way it should be; he had lived through another day.

He finally stood up, changed his clothes and walked tiredly into the kitchen. Hiroto, his father, was making breakfast; scrambled eggs. The smell wasn't bad, but smell of food generally made him nauseous this early.

"Good morning, up early again I see. Do you want breakfast? I've made your favorite." Hiroto sent him a warm smile.

"No thanks. I'm not hungry." Ryuuzaki answered. He did his best to smile back at his father.

"Again? You're eating less and less lately. I'm worried about you, Ryuu." He sighted and put the frying pan away and turned his attention to his son. "I can see that this has become too much for you. Maybe it is time for you to move on; Kazuki would have wanted you to be happy. What happened wasn't your fault; don't beat yourself up over it." Kazuki. That name brought back hurtful memories.

"Kazuki is gone; his death is not what troubles me. It is that I never know when I'll be next. Those terrible monsters could strike at any moment and I have their enemies in my home. They seem to be somewhat intelligent; what if they come here?" Ryuuzaki admitted. Hiroto turned off the plate and touched Ryuuzaki's shoulder.

"Come here." They both walked over to the couch and sat down. "Do you regret making the restaurant their meeting point? This is not your fight, you don't have to risk your well-being for this; the girls could meet anywhere."

"No, they'll be safer here. It is good for them to have somewhere they can always come to. Also, they are risking their lives for us, I can't just abandon them." Ryuuzaki thought back to when there was just him and Emiko. How the two of them planned all of this; he gave them a second home while she gathered the other girls. Now all of them were finally together, but he couldn't enjoy it. Too much had happened in between then and he had faced death too many times.

"Ever since Nikka came to me and told me to find the girls, I've had a feeling that it's my duty to help them with what I can. I can't fight, but I can support them in other ways."

"I understand. But what about Tsubasa? You're worried about him too, aren't you?" Hiroto asked.

"Of course I am. What if what happened to Kazuki happens to him as well? I don't want to lose another close friend. Besides; he has been getting curious lately. Especially since Emiko, Yumiko and Reina come and go from work as they please."

"Do you want me to fire him?" Hiroto looked concerned at his son.

"No. Or maybe... I don't know. I'll think about it. Either way I need to go downstairs now. The new employees should be here soon." Ryuuzaki stood up and walked down the stairway to the staff room. Tsubasa walked past, completely ignoring him. If he only knew...

Ryuuzaki picked up two uniforms, one with a green ribbon and one with a purple. He waited for a while. The door to the staff room opened and Emiko and Aika entered. Emiko greeted him and went to the changing room. Aika stood there, looked at him and waited; seemingly for him to say something. He should have done something about his appearance to give her a better first impression. Maybe some cleaner clothes? Or at least combed his hair...

"Welcome to King and Queen, my name is Ryuuzaki, but you probably already knew that. Here is your uniform." After his brief introduction he handed her the uniform.

"Um... thanks? Nice to meet you too..." She looked strangely at him for a second and followed Emiko to the changing room. She seemed nice, but he didn't have the energy to small-talk.

Some time passed. Where was Zakura? She was half an hour late. Hopefully this wasn't a habit of hers. Just then the door opened once again and Zakura ran in with Nikka hovering beside her. She stopped in front of him to catch her breath.

"You're late." He looked strictly at her.

"And you are?" She asked and inspected him from top to bottom. Nikka flew to his side.

"Oh! You must be Ryuuzaki-san. I know, I'm sorry. Nikka went off on another false alarm earlier and I had to check it out. You never know when one of those is real after all." Emiko must have told her about him. Ryuuzaki studied the soaring creature. It stared back at him with it's huge, pitch black eyes; that thing had always given him the chills. He stepped away from it, but it followed.

"That's an acceptable excuse I guess. I have to ask; do the others know about this? The false alarms I mean." Zakura shook her head in response. "Good. Let's keep it that way. It is better if they don't know." He handed Zakura her uniform and stared at Nikka for a few more seconds.

"You can take that... thing with you." He shoved Nikka towards her. Zakura's eyes lit up.

"So I can keep her?" She asked in a high-pitch, happy tone. Her? Did the thing have a gender now? Either way, this was not a conversation he wanted to have with her. Whatever, as long as someone would keep it away from him. Zakura went into the changing room.

"What is the meaning of this, Ryuu?" An angry voice asked behind him. That could only be one person.

"So you met the new girls?" Ryuuzaki turned towards Tsubasa, his best friend. Or, at least he used to be. Until Ryuuzaki started to push him away in fear of losing him. Of course Tsubasa didn't know that; he wouldn't understand.

"Is this why you fired those other two last week? What is happening to you, why are you firing all these people and employing teenagers who don't do their work? Haven't you noticed how they leave as they please?" Tsubasa sounded even more frustrated than usual. Ryuuzaki didn't really know what to say; he knew Tsubasa was right. But it had to be this way. If they couldn't leave work then who would protect them?

"You can't defend yourself can you? You know I'm right. We're practically understaffed; I can't do the job of five others!" Tsubasa's anger rose and turned into pure rage. He grabbed Ryuuzaki by the collar and shook him. "Get your shit together! What's wrong with you? Don't you care anymore? AM I GOING TO BE NEXT!?" Tsubasa yelled. Ryuuzaki couldn't meet his gaze so he just looked away. Right then someone came down the stairway. His father.

"What's all this fuss about? Tsubasa, what are you doing to my son?" Hiroto grabbed Tsubasa's shoulder. He let go of Ryuuzaki and started walking angrily towards the kitchen. If he only knew how badly Ryuuzaki wanted to tell him. But he had told Kazuki and he got too involved. There was no way Ryuuzaki would let Tsubasa suffer the same fate; even if it meant he would hate him. Right before Tsubasa entered the kitchen, he turned around.

"Mark my words! I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!"