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firstlight...I can't believe this is over. Ok. Please excuse any typos in this, I'm not entirely sure where my usual checking-through people have gone. I'll fix stuff as I find it. >_>"" This chapter was written over the space of... goodness... four months? Five months? Too long. It was written in three different notebooks and using multiple different computers, at least one of which did not have a QWERTY keyboard. Life is chaotic as ever. :D I realise that the summary is no longer an accurate or at least anywhere near full description, but I fail at summaries. Live with it. :) (It's not very complete. There are other fics waiting to happen in the same universe. But Niou & Yagyuu's part is over, so this is complete.)
Title: Gentleman and Trickster (9 of 9)
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairings/characters: Niou/Yagyuu, implied Yanagi/Kirihara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Disclaimer: violence, language, slash, not mine.
Summary: Welcome to the streets of Tokyo, in the not-so-distant future. Meet Niou and Yagyuu, a slightly unlikely pair, running errands for whoever will pay. Cyberpunk AU.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8
There was nothing. It lasted for a moment - a second? Yagyuu couldn’t say - and he had enough time to think so this is what death is like, then before the world came back. A world, anyway.
It wasn’t the disjointed, miss-matched space of the matrix sector he’d been investigating before, and it was a long way from the crowded space of Yanagi’s apartment. It wasn’t even pretending to be real but somehow the surreal landscape managed to look more... solid, more convincing, than even the most skilfully coded pieces of virtual reality that he had previously encountered. In the matrix you could always tell you weren’t in reality if you focused hard enough on the details. He had a sense that he could pay attention to detail here for as long as he wanted and not find anything to tell him how the place was created.
This is not what I expected, he thought or maybe said - the distinction didn’t seem to mean much here. He didn’t have a body to speak with, but...
The words, then what did you expect? lined themselves up in his mind, though he was not sure that he had actually heard them.
If this was not dying then perhaps it was going mad, he thought.
Nothing much at all, he replied, because although he couldn’t see anyone the silent emptiness felt somehow expectant. But if you mean what I expected of my recent actions, I expected to die or succeed. Which had happened remained in question.
You are not dead, he was told, and if unspoken words could have sounded amused then these, he was certain, would have. But your full attention is required. Distractions have been removed.
And there was someone, a figure amongst the solid-but-unreal shapes, though Yagyuu had no memory of seeing the individual appear. Its features were not those of anyone he knew, precisely, but he felt an unshakeable sense of familiarity. Non-specific, but definite.
I am lastlight, it said, or communicated, and the space you find yourself in is an expression of ----
Even if Yagyuu couldn’t discern the final... word, he found that he understood.
Tell me what you want, then.
Lastlight smiled. Further familiarity; a nagging sense of a name on the edge of his mind.
What I want is irrelevant. I am an aspect or avatar only. But I will tell you what is required of you.
And it told him; poured knowledge into his mind in a rush.
Yes, he told it, when he’d processed the information sufficiently.
And he opened his eyes to reality, feeling light-headed and nauseous -- but alive.
“Niou?” he croaked, disturbed at how hard it was to speak, as though he was unused to controlling his own body. He briefly considered trying to reach Niou over their link instead, but he couldn’t find the signal - a quick inventory showed that all of his software was closed off.
* * * * *
In retrospect it could only have been seconds, a minute or two a most, but the period for which Yagyuu had been... gone... had been a pretty good example of the relative nature of time, or some shit like that. And Niou had spent much of the time, however long it had been, freaking the hell out - for want of a more tactful way to put it. You always liked to think that you’d keep your act together in even the most stressful of situations, and in the past he generally had; had been able to think things through and, even if all else failed, just do something rather than freezing up.
He’d tried. It hadn’t really worked. He hadn’t known the correct things to do. He was no medic. But even so... there’d been the inescapable fear settling somewhere in his chest, telling him that this was it - and it’d seemed like it was far too soon, and just not right, but there hadn’t been a thing he could do to change things.
And then Yagyuu spoke, and Niou just stayed frozen to the spot for a moment, because he had no idea what the hell would constitute an appropriate reaction and, hell, it was just possible that this was the stage at which the last fragments of his sanity gave up on him.
But Yagyuu was moving - adjusting his glasses and looking around, so that Niou could almost believe he’d imagined the whole damn thing, except Yagyuu’s movements were clumsy and slow, and his body was shaking, ever so slightly.
Niou watched him silently, allowing himself to regain mental balance.
“Are you alright, Niou?” Yagyuu asked, cautiously, and that finally snapped Niou out of it: the sheer ludicrousness of having a man who had just been clinically dead for a minute or so enquiring after his welfare.
“Yeah,” he managed, trying not to laugh, “seriously, Hiroshi, what the fuck? You died. If I wasn’t so glad to see you alive I could fucking kill you.” Which was his way of saying don’t scare me like that. This much, at least, Yagyuu should be able to understand.
“I’m sorry,” the Gentleman told him with a very small smile. “I... didn’t anticipate this.”
Which was weird. Yagyuu must have considered the possibility of dying; it was possible even when using the matrix in more ordinarily illegal ways. More probably what he meant was that he hadn’t envisioned coming back, being flatlined and then restored to life. No middle ground; success or death. Niou had known that much before he’d let (though let wasn’t really the right word) Yagyuu go on his mad quest, but still.
Fucking idiot.
Fucking typical of Rikkai as it had been, too. Which was why they’d always succeeded. But he was getting tired. Maybe they both were.
“You should’ve,” he told Yagyuu, looking away. He was being slightly unreasonable, but he’d just had an unpleasant experience. “Knew there was a risk, but...” he shrugged awkwardly. Imagining Yagyuu dead, actually gone.
“I know,” Yagyuu replied, and Niou saw movement from the corner of his eye and was already beginning to look up when he felt Yagyuu’s fingers under his chin, making him face his friend; a weird mirror of his last action before Yagyuu entered the matrix. They were very close, face to face; Yagyuu was still moving awkwardly, not fully in control of his body, but he could stand, so that was...
Yagyuu’s eyes were really distracting.
“You’re a bastard,” Niou mumbled, and then Yagyuu kissed him and any other insults were temporarily forgotten.
It felt good; awkward because Yagyuu wasn’t in the best physical state, but amazing because he’d taken the initiative. Niou really couldn’t have asked for anything more.
“Ah...” Yagyuu managed a few minutes later, in a pause for breath. “This is enjoyable, but...”
Yeah.
“Work,” Niou agreed vaguely, leaning against Yagyuu, not moving away. No avoiding it, pleasant as the distractions which suddenly seemed open to them would be. He wanted... he took a deep breath, willed himself to calm down. “How about we start with what the hell just happened? You met the AI?”
Yagyuu blinked at him with a how did you know sort of expression, but Niou couldn’t see what the hell else could have happened. There’d been no build-up, no warning, and if anything had the ability to instantly overload someone’s brain to the level where they had no control over their body any longer without actually destroying them, it would be something like that. Leaps of logic were his speciality, after all, and he could tell from Yagyuu’s reaction that he’d been correct.
“Yes,” Yagyuu confirmed. “It is... very hard to understand, which I suppose is not unexpected. But I don’t believe it understands us much better. And at least a part of what it wants is simple enough.”
Right - the destruction of the copied code and data. But they knew it wanted that. Why bother flatlining Yagyuu? Just to make sure they were taking it seriously? If it wanted the data destroyed it could have killed him and sent in human agents - at least one of the groups involved in this mess had to be working for it, surely.
“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked, because he still couldn’t quite fit everything together, so something was missing and Yagyuu might have it. Yagyuu’s arms tightened around him, possessive. Oddly reassuring.
“It gave me a lot of information,” Yagyuu said quietly. “I agreed to a new contract with it.” He didn’t apologise for doing something like that without consulting Niou; the situation was beyond that and they both knew it.
“Terms?” Niou asked.
“Destruction of the data in our possession; and of the data Hyoutei should still have. I think they will negotiate reasonably. And...” Yagyuu sighed slightly, “alteration of the data already gathered. I have information on the responsible parties, but it will still be a huge amount of work.”
Niou closed his eyes, thought.
Yagyuu had done the right thing; played for time, possibly got them off the hook. At least somewhat.
“How many of the people we’ve encountered have been working for it?” he asked. That was the key.
“Not many,” Yagyuu said flatly, and Niou cursed to himself. “And it has no knowledge of what has become of Yanagi. It has largely been moving against Hyoutei. I understand that a message of warning was ignored at some stage. It hired agents to destroy the data, which was the attempt at the warehouse, but it seems it didn’t choose very well...” which was a polite way of saying that the people who’d tried to kill them had sucked. And Niou had figured it was just an attempt at a scare, which would’ve made more sense. But apparently the inept were still hard at work. Thank fuck. He really should take the possibility of outright incompetence more thoroughly into account at times.
“So we know it won’t make more attempts on our life so long as we keep up our end of the deal,” he said, working his way through things - out loud, for Yagyuu’s benefit. “But we’ve got at least one other group to deal with. They sent St Rudolph’s lot after us, which was to try and distract us from coming back here. Do you know who’s behind... no, of course you don’t. They might not even have anything to do with this whole mess, you know? It’s possible.” It was. Borderline, but you had to account for the possibility that not everything was a giant conspiracy. There were so many forces at work in their world at any one time, and Yanagi especially must have made enemies.
“I’m inclined to believe it’s the corporation we failed to complete the deal with,” Yagyuu suggested. Niou nodded.
“Yeah, that’s an attractive idea - well, not really, but it is an explanation that fits. But...” Niou shifted a bit, feeling a touch uncertain, “it’s still an assumption. We’ve got nothing to prove it one way ot the other.” It was definitely the first thing to investigate though.
There was a nagging feeling in his mind that he was forgetting something. The apartment was too quiet, wasn’t it, and... oh. Kirihara.
“Hang on a minute,” he said, pulling free from Yagyuu, “gotta check on...”
Kirihara wasn’t there.
Predictably enough.
He must’ve gone while Yagyuu was searching and Niou was hooked up as a passenger, though he could also have gone while Yagyuu was out. Niou... probably wouldn’t have noticed, right then. He’d had other things on his mind.
“Shit,” he muttered. That seemed to sum things up.
“Should we try to find him?” Yagyuu asked. “He may have been gone for some time. And we...”
“...have a lot to do. I know. Damn, why couldn’t he just stay put?”
“Kirihara can make his own decisions.”
That was open to debate, as far as Niou was concerned, but he’d have to trust that Yagyuu was right for now. If they discovered anything concrete they could probably try to communicate it to the younger agent, though he wasn’t going to throw hints to Kirihara without anything solid behind them. He’d be liable to do something stupid without planning it out properly.
* * * * *
“We’re really alone, aren’t we,” Yagyuu observed, later, watching Niou working through plans of security systems to figure out how to get inside corporate facilities.
Niou looked up at him, tired and strained. “No. Kirihara will be fine when he calms down, and we’ll get Yanagi back.”
It didn’t sound convincing; Niou didn’t even look as though he was convinced himself.
“We are alone in this, though,” Yagyuu said. He didn’t quite have the heart to fully contradict Niou.
Their circle of support had been steadily shrinking for the last year and it felt as though they’d finally reached the logical end-point, where they had noone to rely on but one another. But there were worse people to be left with.
His uncertainty was fading regarding Niou, at least. Perhaps he was thinking more clearly now that they had a definite course of action to solve the problems they were having regarding the AI; perhaps he’d been clued in by how lost Niou had seemed, when he’d thought Yagyuu was dead. But there was something there. Niou cared enough.
“We’ll get by,” Niou said, and Yagyuu didn’t know, but felt - hoped - that it was true. “Come and take a look at this for me, and I’ll go and contact Atobe.”
* * * * *
It was impressive how much things could fall apart in just a few days, Niou decided, looking around the flat for one last time. Yagyuu had done his best, picking out as much as was salvageable and locking it away in the most secure-looking cupboards he could find, and Niou had done a rushed repair job on the door so that it at least closed and, hopefully, wouldn’t look unusual from the outside. They were acting on the assumption that they had to keep the place as secure as possible. Yanagi would be wanting it back, after all.
Niou had been carefully refraining from calculating the odds of getting their data-master back intact. Some things he would simply rather not think about.
“Alright?” he asked Yagyuu, placing a hand on his partner’s shoulder. “We need to leave.”
The slight softness in Yagyuu’s expression when he turned to face Niou was... was something pretty damn special, anyway. “Yes,” he said, almost-smiled. Niou started slightly as Yagyuu’s hand closed over his, fought down a ridiculous rush of happiness. There wasn’t much to be happy about, but somehow - for just that instant - there was enough.
“Let’s go, then,” Niou murmured, keeping his voice steady because he was a professional, not a kid with a crush. By this stage Yagyuu must have a pretty clear idea of how much of his indifference was a front, but he could still keep up some pretence of dignity.
* * * * *
It helped somewhat to think of this as simply another job, putting aside the sheer improbability of the events which had pushed them to this point. But if it had been another job, just like any other one, they’d have had backup; Yanagi taking out security systems for them, or other agents hired by their employer working to cover such weaknesses as the pair of them had - which were remarkably few compared to most teams’, Yagyuu believed, but did still exist. One of them was currently making itself apparent.
He was having to do his own hacking, and between his arm and the slight lingering disorientation from his earlier experiences, it wasn’t going as well as could be hoped. Not that he’d slipped so far, but he could feel his own hesitation - and if it was noticeable to him, then it must be glaringly obvious to others.
Don’t tense up so much, Niou told him. It won’t help.
He knew. But he couldn’t help it.
A vague awareness of reality told him that Niou’s hands were on his shoulders again, trying to rub the tension out of them. Strangely enough, that was helpful; at least it calmed him. Thank you, he sent, and imagined Niou smirking in response.
He was still slow, but he wasn’t damaging his own performance further by thinking too hard about the problems.
They had a physical location to aim for, but the level of security was a problem. The storage unit they’d lifted before had been in what seemed likely to have been temporary storage, not its intended final location, and Yagyuu rather thought that the people in that facility had not been informed of what exactly they were looking after. The security had been... well, the matrix security had been respectable, but the physical security had been honestly terrible.
He was not accustomed to giving up; he and Niou did not fail. They could succeed here. They had as much of a plan as they could hope to put together without Yanagi’s help, and they were well-equipped.
They will be aware that something is wrong, he warned Niou a few minutes later, satisfied that he had done as much as he could on the first stage, but I hope it will take them some time to decide what it is. I have tried to make it look like a technical failure.
He tuned out of virtual space and blinked, adjusting. Niou was already moving, working on the solid lock which had accompanied the electronic protection on the side entrance they had selected. I think the bastards have actually thought to bolt it, he commented. He was facing away from Yagyuu, but his expression would be something between annoyance and amusement.
Well, hurry up and do something about it, Yagyuu suggested. Even if they take it to be a technical fault, extra security will be sent to the area as a precaution. All the deception changes is how quickly they arrive.
Happy now? Niou asked, and the door swung open. Yagyuu looked at it as they went in and noted that there was in fact a bolt, which had been shorn neatly through. Niou’s toolkit had vanished into a pocket.
When the door was pushed closed again the damage was barely even visible, although it would become obvious fairly quickly if anyone was actually paying attention.
Yes, he sent, though most of his attention was already diverted to the security systems again. A map of the facility partially obscuring his vision; a constantly-updating map of the security measures overlying that, pulled directly from the central database which had had managed to remain mercifully unnoticed in his use of. We need to move out of this area, though. Third door on the right. The security passes we have don’t cover us to be in this area. He was working on the understand that the checks were most thorough for actually entering the building; once in the area they were supposedly cleared for they should pass relatively unhindered. It was a shame they had been unable to obtain passes convincing enough to get them through the first automated scanning procedure but it also wasn’t that much of a problem. It was amazing, the gaps apparently sensible people would leave in their security. To be fair, they would probably never have discovered its existence without a few tricks of Yanagi’s, and would certainly never have been able to exploit it without more of the same. Even absent, the hacker was helping them considerably. Maybe they weren’t quite alone. Yet.
* * * * *
There was a slightly unreal quality to this job now, Niou decided. Perhaps they’d just been through so much that his mind had just decided it had to distance itself from the whole thing, or perhaps he really hadn’t slept enough. What they were doing wasn’t easy, but it didn’t feel as though it was him putting in the effort. He was drifting through, reading the game, and things were falling into place.
He and Yagyuu hadn’t spoken once since they got inside, communicating silently over the carefully encrypted link between them; and when they reached the first security check, speaking out loud felt wrong, almost jarring.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he answered the guard who’d stopped them to ask for ID. “We’re just working here this week, on transfer from the centre in twelfth.” It felt shaky to him, unconvincing; but the guards were, as they’d counted on, working on the basis that anyone who’d got this far must have already been checked at least once, probably twice.
They’d made it most of the way in by the time Yagyuu let him know that the damage to the door they’d entered through had been noticed. Not quite far enough.
Couldn’t they have held off on being observant for five more fucking minutes? he sent.
At least the onset of problems had removed the feeling of disconnection, throwing him back into reality headlong, forcing him into rapid observation and analysis.
They’re locking the facility down. Presumed intruders. No reported irregularities amongst staff yet but if they don’t find anyone sneaking around then the staff who people are not familiar with will be the most obvious suspects, Yagyuu sent.
Thank you. I know. If he’d been speaking he might’ve snapped. Yagyuu frowned, obviously recognising his irritation. Unsurprising.
Apologies. Slightly cold, but not, because they weren’t real words.
Let’s just keep going as before. Hurry it up a bit, but not more than if we were late for a meeting or whatever the fuck these people get up to.
Yagyuu didn’t bother answering, just kept walking as though he owned the place, which was always a good skill to have. Confidence made a surprising difference - at least against the human parts of the security network.
* * * * *
“We’re on alert. Noone has clear--” the man had begun, but that was as far as he got before Yagyuu decided that, gentleman or not, he only had so much patience to spare for the world in general.
I hope you didn’t let that get caught on camera, Niou told him. Yagyuu shrugged.
I’m afraid I didn’t have time to prevent it, but I have attempted to isolate the cameras in this area from the network. I am not certain it worked. We shall see. People would still know something was wrong, but it would give them a little extra time before they were positively identified as the intruders.
They were almost there, anyway.
Passkey? Yagyuu suggested, when they were facing the door. Niou shook his head.
Noone is cleared for this area right now, so they’ve probably closed off the locks as well, he pointed out, but fortunately, electronic locks are a fucking stupid idea anyway.
Well, Yagyuu told him, tracking the movements of security teams, time is short.
In an ideal situation, one could complete a job and leave without anyone being aware of one’s presence. This was not an ideal situation.
No problem, Niou told him moments later, grinning up at him and indicating the largely dismantled control box for the lock. We’re in.
Ah, yes, Yagyuu observed, And they’ll certainly never know which way we went now.
You’re too picky. You wanted speed, you got it.
Yagyuu gave up on arguing. It only wasted more time. The pressing concern was to finish the job and get out. Mostly, getting out. At least as far as Yagyuu could see.
Finishing it was easy. Destruction of information was somewhat counterintuitive for anyone who’d been trained by Yanagi, but simple to accomplish. If there were further copies beyond those they were aware of, it frankly wasn’t their problem.
He was about to tell Niou to try opening the door on the other side of the room, but his partner was ahead of him, fiddling with the mechanism for a surprisingly short period of time.
Easier to open from the inside than the outside, Niou informed him, expression smug. Let’s get the hell out.
* * * * *
Leaving was an adrenaline-fuelled rush, the reverse of the weird detachment he’d felt on the way in. Leaving the way they’d come in wasn’t an option, but he’d never expected it to be. And noone was being let out through the main doors until the intruders had been found or the hunt had been called off.
Fight our way out? he asked Yagyuu when they’d tried every exit they could think of. He hoped the answer would be no - something with a lower risk of death would be preferable. Or you got something else? He paused, thinking for a moment. Send in a false report of intruders captured. It’ll distract them for a moment.
Yagyuu nodded, to his relief. I will need to obtain the appropriate codes. I am not certain my hacking skills are sufficient, but it’s certainly worth trying.
Can I help?
Just keep watch.
He hated having nothing much to do. Even keeping watch was pretty much a token job. But while neither of them were truly expert at this, Yagyuu was a lot better, injured or otherwise.
Or you could put together the transmission, Yagyuu suggested, apparently relenting. I’ll encrypt it when I have the codes.
Niou got to work, grateful for having slightly more immediate purpose. He looked over the plans Yagyuu had just sent to him, and tried to figure out a suitable location - perhaps back towards the place they’d broken in, to give the impression that they had been trying to escape via the most obvious route. It wouldn’t do to have the report come from a security team; they’d all be in good communication with one another. General staff taking matters into their own hands, then.
Fill in the blanks, he told Yagyuu, sending the message over. Isn’t this a fun game?
If you say so, Yagyuu replied, belatedly. His expression was still distant; presumably he was having to work hard to get the codes and make the thing look convincing.
And...
There, Yagyuu told him. Got it. Now we have to see how they react.
They waited, tense; Niou watching Yagyuu’s face, Yagyuu watching whatever was projected onto his datascreen. Yagyuu was the one to relax first, but Niou took that as his hint that they weren’t about to get a horde of armed guards descending on their location. Which way now? he asked.
There’s an exit that has been left relatively light on security, Yagyuu sent back. They sent the main team nearby to confirm the reports of capture. We may have to fight our way past the men who remain, but there are not many of them.
Nothing we can’t handle, Niou said, with a cocky grin. I’m not going to be beaten now. We’re not going to be beaten now.
* * * * *
They fought to get out, but it was... brief. Niou was beautifully skilled, if brutal; Yagyuu sometimes suspected he took entirely too much pleasure in getting to fight and hurt people - if not when anticipating it then at least in the actual moment - but... he was somewhat the same. They had no space to criticise one another.
“Is that it?” Niou asked. It wasn’t really a question, but he could feel his partner’s disbelief; could feel echoes of it in himself. Well, perhaps disbelief wasn’t the word. But it was something of the sort. “Is it over?”
Yagyuu looked up at the glowing network of lights, strung on wires across the sky. “I suppose that depends on how you define over.”
“Mm. Guess so.”
“There’s still Yanagi.”
“Yeah.” Niou threw an arm across his shoulders, leaned against him, a line of warmth against his side in the cool afternoon air. The contact meant something different now, and that was alright. “But... shit. We’re alive, Hiroshi.”
Yagyuu actually laughed. It wasn’t funny, it was just... amazing. “Yes,” he agreed. “We’re alive. And it’s the end of something, anyway.”
They weren’t exactly out of trouble, but when were they ever out of trouble?
“Home?” Niou asked, muttering the word against his shoulder, and Yagyuu realised that really, at the end of the day, they’d been running on empty for hours now, maybe for days.
“Home,” he agreed.
Tomorrow they could start to worry about the rest of the world again. For today, it really was over.
Title: Gentleman and Trickster (9 of 9)
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairings/characters: Niou/Yagyuu, implied Yanagi/Kirihara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Disclaimer: violence, language, slash, not mine.
Summary: Welcome to the streets of Tokyo, in the not-so-distant future. Meet Niou and Yagyuu, a slightly unlikely pair, running errands for whoever will pay. Cyberpunk AU.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8
There was nothing. It lasted for a moment - a second? Yagyuu couldn’t say - and he had enough time to think so this is what death is like, then before the world came back. A world, anyway.
It wasn’t the disjointed, miss-matched space of the matrix sector he’d been investigating before, and it was a long way from the crowded space of Yanagi’s apartment. It wasn’t even pretending to be real but somehow the surreal landscape managed to look more... solid, more convincing, than even the most skilfully coded pieces of virtual reality that he had previously encountered. In the matrix you could always tell you weren’t in reality if you focused hard enough on the details. He had a sense that he could pay attention to detail here for as long as he wanted and not find anything to tell him how the place was created.
This is not what I expected, he thought or maybe said - the distinction didn’t seem to mean much here. He didn’t have a body to speak with, but...
The words, then what did you expect? lined themselves up in his mind, though he was not sure that he had actually heard them.
If this was not dying then perhaps it was going mad, he thought.
Nothing much at all, he replied, because although he couldn’t see anyone the silent emptiness felt somehow expectant. But if you mean what I expected of my recent actions, I expected to die or succeed. Which had happened remained in question.
You are not dead, he was told, and if unspoken words could have sounded amused then these, he was certain, would have. But your full attention is required. Distractions have been removed.
And there was someone, a figure amongst the solid-but-unreal shapes, though Yagyuu had no memory of seeing the individual appear. Its features were not those of anyone he knew, precisely, but he felt an unshakeable sense of familiarity. Non-specific, but definite.
I am lastlight, it said, or communicated, and the space you find yourself in is an expression of ----
Even if Yagyuu couldn’t discern the final... word, he found that he understood.
Tell me what you want, then.
Lastlight smiled. Further familiarity; a nagging sense of a name on the edge of his mind.
What I want is irrelevant. I am an aspect or avatar only. But I will tell you what is required of you.
And it told him; poured knowledge into his mind in a rush.
Yes, he told it, when he’d processed the information sufficiently.
And he opened his eyes to reality, feeling light-headed and nauseous -- but alive.
“Niou?” he croaked, disturbed at how hard it was to speak, as though he was unused to controlling his own body. He briefly considered trying to reach Niou over their link instead, but he couldn’t find the signal - a quick inventory showed that all of his software was closed off.
* * * * *
In retrospect it could only have been seconds, a minute or two a most, but the period for which Yagyuu had been... gone... had been a pretty good example of the relative nature of time, or some shit like that. And Niou had spent much of the time, however long it had been, freaking the hell out - for want of a more tactful way to put it. You always liked to think that you’d keep your act together in even the most stressful of situations, and in the past he generally had; had been able to think things through and, even if all else failed, just do something rather than freezing up.
He’d tried. It hadn’t really worked. He hadn’t known the correct things to do. He was no medic. But even so... there’d been the inescapable fear settling somewhere in his chest, telling him that this was it - and it’d seemed like it was far too soon, and just not right, but there hadn’t been a thing he could do to change things.
And then Yagyuu spoke, and Niou just stayed frozen to the spot for a moment, because he had no idea what the hell would constitute an appropriate reaction and, hell, it was just possible that this was the stage at which the last fragments of his sanity gave up on him.
But Yagyuu was moving - adjusting his glasses and looking around, so that Niou could almost believe he’d imagined the whole damn thing, except Yagyuu’s movements were clumsy and slow, and his body was shaking, ever so slightly.
Niou watched him silently, allowing himself to regain mental balance.
“Are you alright, Niou?” Yagyuu asked, cautiously, and that finally snapped Niou out of it: the sheer ludicrousness of having a man who had just been clinically dead for a minute or so enquiring after his welfare.
“Yeah,” he managed, trying not to laugh, “seriously, Hiroshi, what the fuck? You died. If I wasn’t so glad to see you alive I could fucking kill you.” Which was his way of saying don’t scare me like that. This much, at least, Yagyuu should be able to understand.
“I’m sorry,” the Gentleman told him with a very small smile. “I... didn’t anticipate this.”
Which was weird. Yagyuu must have considered the possibility of dying; it was possible even when using the matrix in more ordinarily illegal ways. More probably what he meant was that he hadn’t envisioned coming back, being flatlined and then restored to life. No middle ground; success or death. Niou had known that much before he’d let (though let wasn’t really the right word) Yagyuu go on his mad quest, but still.
Fucking idiot.
Fucking typical of Rikkai as it had been, too. Which was why they’d always succeeded. But he was getting tired. Maybe they both were.
“You should’ve,” he told Yagyuu, looking away. He was being slightly unreasonable, but he’d just had an unpleasant experience. “Knew there was a risk, but...” he shrugged awkwardly. Imagining Yagyuu dead, actually gone.
“I know,” Yagyuu replied, and Niou saw movement from the corner of his eye and was already beginning to look up when he felt Yagyuu’s fingers under his chin, making him face his friend; a weird mirror of his last action before Yagyuu entered the matrix. They were very close, face to face; Yagyuu was still moving awkwardly, not fully in control of his body, but he could stand, so that was...
Yagyuu’s eyes were really distracting.
“You’re a bastard,” Niou mumbled, and then Yagyuu kissed him and any other insults were temporarily forgotten.
It felt good; awkward because Yagyuu wasn’t in the best physical state, but amazing because he’d taken the initiative. Niou really couldn’t have asked for anything more.
“Ah...” Yagyuu managed a few minutes later, in a pause for breath. “This is enjoyable, but...”
Yeah.
“Work,” Niou agreed vaguely, leaning against Yagyuu, not moving away. No avoiding it, pleasant as the distractions which suddenly seemed open to them would be. He wanted... he took a deep breath, willed himself to calm down. “How about we start with what the hell just happened? You met the AI?”
Yagyuu blinked at him with a how did you know sort of expression, but Niou couldn’t see what the hell else could have happened. There’d been no build-up, no warning, and if anything had the ability to instantly overload someone’s brain to the level where they had no control over their body any longer without actually destroying them, it would be something like that. Leaps of logic were his speciality, after all, and he could tell from Yagyuu’s reaction that he’d been correct.
“Yes,” Yagyuu confirmed. “It is... very hard to understand, which I suppose is not unexpected. But I don’t believe it understands us much better. And at least a part of what it wants is simple enough.”
Right - the destruction of the copied code and data. But they knew it wanted that. Why bother flatlining Yagyuu? Just to make sure they were taking it seriously? If it wanted the data destroyed it could have killed him and sent in human agents - at least one of the groups involved in this mess had to be working for it, surely.
“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked, because he still couldn’t quite fit everything together, so something was missing and Yagyuu might have it. Yagyuu’s arms tightened around him, possessive. Oddly reassuring.
“It gave me a lot of information,” Yagyuu said quietly. “I agreed to a new contract with it.” He didn’t apologise for doing something like that without consulting Niou; the situation was beyond that and they both knew it.
“Terms?” Niou asked.
“Destruction of the data in our possession; and of the data Hyoutei should still have. I think they will negotiate reasonably. And...” Yagyuu sighed slightly, “alteration of the data already gathered. I have information on the responsible parties, but it will still be a huge amount of work.”
Niou closed his eyes, thought.
Yagyuu had done the right thing; played for time, possibly got them off the hook. At least somewhat.
“How many of the people we’ve encountered have been working for it?” he asked. That was the key.
“Not many,” Yagyuu said flatly, and Niou cursed to himself. “And it has no knowledge of what has become of Yanagi. It has largely been moving against Hyoutei. I understand that a message of warning was ignored at some stage. It hired agents to destroy the data, which was the attempt at the warehouse, but it seems it didn’t choose very well...” which was a polite way of saying that the people who’d tried to kill them had sucked. And Niou had figured it was just an attempt at a scare, which would’ve made more sense. But apparently the inept were still hard at work. Thank fuck. He really should take the possibility of outright incompetence more thoroughly into account at times.
“So we know it won’t make more attempts on our life so long as we keep up our end of the deal,” he said, working his way through things - out loud, for Yagyuu’s benefit. “But we’ve got at least one other group to deal with. They sent St Rudolph’s lot after us, which was to try and distract us from coming back here. Do you know who’s behind... no, of course you don’t. They might not even have anything to do with this whole mess, you know? It’s possible.” It was. Borderline, but you had to account for the possibility that not everything was a giant conspiracy. There were so many forces at work in their world at any one time, and Yanagi especially must have made enemies.
“I’m inclined to believe it’s the corporation we failed to complete the deal with,” Yagyuu suggested. Niou nodded.
“Yeah, that’s an attractive idea - well, not really, but it is an explanation that fits. But...” Niou shifted a bit, feeling a touch uncertain, “it’s still an assumption. We’ve got nothing to prove it one way ot the other.” It was definitely the first thing to investigate though.
There was a nagging feeling in his mind that he was forgetting something. The apartment was too quiet, wasn’t it, and... oh. Kirihara.
“Hang on a minute,” he said, pulling free from Yagyuu, “gotta check on...”
Kirihara wasn’t there.
Predictably enough.
He must’ve gone while Yagyuu was searching and Niou was hooked up as a passenger, though he could also have gone while Yagyuu was out. Niou... probably wouldn’t have noticed, right then. He’d had other things on his mind.
“Shit,” he muttered. That seemed to sum things up.
“Should we try to find him?” Yagyuu asked. “He may have been gone for some time. And we...”
“...have a lot to do. I know. Damn, why couldn’t he just stay put?”
“Kirihara can make his own decisions.”
That was open to debate, as far as Niou was concerned, but he’d have to trust that Yagyuu was right for now. If they discovered anything concrete they could probably try to communicate it to the younger agent, though he wasn’t going to throw hints to Kirihara without anything solid behind them. He’d be liable to do something stupid without planning it out properly.
* * * * *
“We’re really alone, aren’t we,” Yagyuu observed, later, watching Niou working through plans of security systems to figure out how to get inside corporate facilities.
Niou looked up at him, tired and strained. “No. Kirihara will be fine when he calms down, and we’ll get Yanagi back.”
It didn’t sound convincing; Niou didn’t even look as though he was convinced himself.
“We are alone in this, though,” Yagyuu said. He didn’t quite have the heart to fully contradict Niou.
Their circle of support had been steadily shrinking for the last year and it felt as though they’d finally reached the logical end-point, where they had noone to rely on but one another. But there were worse people to be left with.
His uncertainty was fading regarding Niou, at least. Perhaps he was thinking more clearly now that they had a definite course of action to solve the problems they were having regarding the AI; perhaps he’d been clued in by how lost Niou had seemed, when he’d thought Yagyuu was dead. But there was something there. Niou cared enough.
“We’ll get by,” Niou said, and Yagyuu didn’t know, but felt - hoped - that it was true. “Come and take a look at this for me, and I’ll go and contact Atobe.”
* * * * *
It was impressive how much things could fall apart in just a few days, Niou decided, looking around the flat for one last time. Yagyuu had done his best, picking out as much as was salvageable and locking it away in the most secure-looking cupboards he could find, and Niou had done a rushed repair job on the door so that it at least closed and, hopefully, wouldn’t look unusual from the outside. They were acting on the assumption that they had to keep the place as secure as possible. Yanagi would be wanting it back, after all.
Niou had been carefully refraining from calculating the odds of getting their data-master back intact. Some things he would simply rather not think about.
“Alright?” he asked Yagyuu, placing a hand on his partner’s shoulder. “We need to leave.”
The slight softness in Yagyuu’s expression when he turned to face Niou was... was something pretty damn special, anyway. “Yes,” he said, almost-smiled. Niou started slightly as Yagyuu’s hand closed over his, fought down a ridiculous rush of happiness. There wasn’t much to be happy about, but somehow - for just that instant - there was enough.
“Let’s go, then,” Niou murmured, keeping his voice steady because he was a professional, not a kid with a crush. By this stage Yagyuu must have a pretty clear idea of how much of his indifference was a front, but he could still keep up some pretence of dignity.
* * * * *
It helped somewhat to think of this as simply another job, putting aside the sheer improbability of the events which had pushed them to this point. But if it had been another job, just like any other one, they’d have had backup; Yanagi taking out security systems for them, or other agents hired by their employer working to cover such weaknesses as the pair of them had - which were remarkably few compared to most teams’, Yagyuu believed, but did still exist. One of them was currently making itself apparent.
He was having to do his own hacking, and between his arm and the slight lingering disorientation from his earlier experiences, it wasn’t going as well as could be hoped. Not that he’d slipped so far, but he could feel his own hesitation - and if it was noticeable to him, then it must be glaringly obvious to others.
Don’t tense up so much, Niou told him. It won’t help.
He knew. But he couldn’t help it.
A vague awareness of reality told him that Niou’s hands were on his shoulders again, trying to rub the tension out of them. Strangely enough, that was helpful; at least it calmed him. Thank you, he sent, and imagined Niou smirking in response.
He was still slow, but he wasn’t damaging his own performance further by thinking too hard about the problems.
They had a physical location to aim for, but the level of security was a problem. The storage unit they’d lifted before had been in what seemed likely to have been temporary storage, not its intended final location, and Yagyuu rather thought that the people in that facility had not been informed of what exactly they were looking after. The security had been... well, the matrix security had been respectable, but the physical security had been honestly terrible.
He was not accustomed to giving up; he and Niou did not fail. They could succeed here. They had as much of a plan as they could hope to put together without Yanagi’s help, and they were well-equipped.
They will be aware that something is wrong, he warned Niou a few minutes later, satisfied that he had done as much as he could on the first stage, but I hope it will take them some time to decide what it is. I have tried to make it look like a technical failure.
He tuned out of virtual space and blinked, adjusting. Niou was already moving, working on the solid lock which had accompanied the electronic protection on the side entrance they had selected. I think the bastards have actually thought to bolt it, he commented. He was facing away from Yagyuu, but his expression would be something between annoyance and amusement.
Well, hurry up and do something about it, Yagyuu suggested. Even if they take it to be a technical fault, extra security will be sent to the area as a precaution. All the deception changes is how quickly they arrive.
Happy now? Niou asked, and the door swung open. Yagyuu looked at it as they went in and noted that there was in fact a bolt, which had been shorn neatly through. Niou’s toolkit had vanished into a pocket.
When the door was pushed closed again the damage was barely even visible, although it would become obvious fairly quickly if anyone was actually paying attention.
Yes, he sent, though most of his attention was already diverted to the security systems again. A map of the facility partially obscuring his vision; a constantly-updating map of the security measures overlying that, pulled directly from the central database which had had managed to remain mercifully unnoticed in his use of. We need to move out of this area, though. Third door on the right. The security passes we have don’t cover us to be in this area. He was working on the understand that the checks were most thorough for actually entering the building; once in the area they were supposedly cleared for they should pass relatively unhindered. It was a shame they had been unable to obtain passes convincing enough to get them through the first automated scanning procedure but it also wasn’t that much of a problem. It was amazing, the gaps apparently sensible people would leave in their security. To be fair, they would probably never have discovered its existence without a few tricks of Yanagi’s, and would certainly never have been able to exploit it without more of the same. Even absent, the hacker was helping them considerably. Maybe they weren’t quite alone. Yet.
* * * * *
There was a slightly unreal quality to this job now, Niou decided. Perhaps they’d just been through so much that his mind had just decided it had to distance itself from the whole thing, or perhaps he really hadn’t slept enough. What they were doing wasn’t easy, but it didn’t feel as though it was him putting in the effort. He was drifting through, reading the game, and things were falling into place.
He and Yagyuu hadn’t spoken once since they got inside, communicating silently over the carefully encrypted link between them; and when they reached the first security check, speaking out loud felt wrong, almost jarring.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he answered the guard who’d stopped them to ask for ID. “We’re just working here this week, on transfer from the centre in twelfth.” It felt shaky to him, unconvincing; but the guards were, as they’d counted on, working on the basis that anyone who’d got this far must have already been checked at least once, probably twice.
They’d made it most of the way in by the time Yagyuu let him know that the damage to the door they’d entered through had been noticed. Not quite far enough.
Couldn’t they have held off on being observant for five more fucking minutes? he sent.
At least the onset of problems had removed the feeling of disconnection, throwing him back into reality headlong, forcing him into rapid observation and analysis.
They’re locking the facility down. Presumed intruders. No reported irregularities amongst staff yet but if they don’t find anyone sneaking around then the staff who people are not familiar with will be the most obvious suspects, Yagyuu sent.
Thank you. I know. If he’d been speaking he might’ve snapped. Yagyuu frowned, obviously recognising his irritation. Unsurprising.
Apologies. Slightly cold, but not, because they weren’t real words.
Let’s just keep going as before. Hurry it up a bit, but not more than if we were late for a meeting or whatever the fuck these people get up to.
Yagyuu didn’t bother answering, just kept walking as though he owned the place, which was always a good skill to have. Confidence made a surprising difference - at least against the human parts of the security network.
* * * * *
“We’re on alert. Noone has clear--” the man had begun, but that was as far as he got before Yagyuu decided that, gentleman or not, he only had so much patience to spare for the world in general.
I hope you didn’t let that get caught on camera, Niou told him. Yagyuu shrugged.
I’m afraid I didn’t have time to prevent it, but I have attempted to isolate the cameras in this area from the network. I am not certain it worked. We shall see. People would still know something was wrong, but it would give them a little extra time before they were positively identified as the intruders.
They were almost there, anyway.
Passkey? Yagyuu suggested, when they were facing the door. Niou shook his head.
Noone is cleared for this area right now, so they’ve probably closed off the locks as well, he pointed out, but fortunately, electronic locks are a fucking stupid idea anyway.
Well, Yagyuu told him, tracking the movements of security teams, time is short.
In an ideal situation, one could complete a job and leave without anyone being aware of one’s presence. This was not an ideal situation.
No problem, Niou told him moments later, grinning up at him and indicating the largely dismantled control box for the lock. We’re in.
Ah, yes, Yagyuu observed, And they’ll certainly never know which way we went now.
You’re too picky. You wanted speed, you got it.
Yagyuu gave up on arguing. It only wasted more time. The pressing concern was to finish the job and get out. Mostly, getting out. At least as far as Yagyuu could see.
Finishing it was easy. Destruction of information was somewhat counterintuitive for anyone who’d been trained by Yanagi, but simple to accomplish. If there were further copies beyond those they were aware of, it frankly wasn’t their problem.
He was about to tell Niou to try opening the door on the other side of the room, but his partner was ahead of him, fiddling with the mechanism for a surprisingly short period of time.
Easier to open from the inside than the outside, Niou informed him, expression smug. Let’s get the hell out.
* * * * *
Leaving was an adrenaline-fuelled rush, the reverse of the weird detachment he’d felt on the way in. Leaving the way they’d come in wasn’t an option, but he’d never expected it to be. And noone was being let out through the main doors until the intruders had been found or the hunt had been called off.
Fight our way out? he asked Yagyuu when they’d tried every exit they could think of. He hoped the answer would be no - something with a lower risk of death would be preferable. Or you got something else? He paused, thinking for a moment. Send in a false report of intruders captured. It’ll distract them for a moment.
Yagyuu nodded, to his relief. I will need to obtain the appropriate codes. I am not certain my hacking skills are sufficient, but it’s certainly worth trying.
Can I help?
Just keep watch.
He hated having nothing much to do. Even keeping watch was pretty much a token job. But while neither of them were truly expert at this, Yagyuu was a lot better, injured or otherwise.
Or you could put together the transmission, Yagyuu suggested, apparently relenting. I’ll encrypt it when I have the codes.
Niou got to work, grateful for having slightly more immediate purpose. He looked over the plans Yagyuu had just sent to him, and tried to figure out a suitable location - perhaps back towards the place they’d broken in, to give the impression that they had been trying to escape via the most obvious route. It wouldn’t do to have the report come from a security team; they’d all be in good communication with one another. General staff taking matters into their own hands, then.
Fill in the blanks, he told Yagyuu, sending the message over. Isn’t this a fun game?
If you say so, Yagyuu replied, belatedly. His expression was still distant; presumably he was having to work hard to get the codes and make the thing look convincing.
And...
There, Yagyuu told him. Got it. Now we have to see how they react.
They waited, tense; Niou watching Yagyuu’s face, Yagyuu watching whatever was projected onto his datascreen. Yagyuu was the one to relax first, but Niou took that as his hint that they weren’t about to get a horde of armed guards descending on their location. Which way now? he asked.
There’s an exit that has been left relatively light on security, Yagyuu sent back. They sent the main team nearby to confirm the reports of capture. We may have to fight our way past the men who remain, but there are not many of them.
Nothing we can’t handle, Niou said, with a cocky grin. I’m not going to be beaten now. We’re not going to be beaten now.
* * * * *
They fought to get out, but it was... brief. Niou was beautifully skilled, if brutal; Yagyuu sometimes suspected he took entirely too much pleasure in getting to fight and hurt people - if not when anticipating it then at least in the actual moment - but... he was somewhat the same. They had no space to criticise one another.
“Is that it?” Niou asked. It wasn’t really a question, but he could feel his partner’s disbelief; could feel echoes of it in himself. Well, perhaps disbelief wasn’t the word. But it was something of the sort. “Is it over?”
Yagyuu looked up at the glowing network of lights, strung on wires across the sky. “I suppose that depends on how you define over.”
“Mm. Guess so.”
“There’s still Yanagi.”
“Yeah.” Niou threw an arm across his shoulders, leaned against him, a line of warmth against his side in the cool afternoon air. The contact meant something different now, and that was alright. “But... shit. We’re alive, Hiroshi.”
Yagyuu actually laughed. It wasn’t funny, it was just... amazing. “Yes,” he agreed. “We’re alive. And it’s the end of something, anyway.”
They weren’t exactly out of trouble, but when were they ever out of trouble?
“Home?” Niou asked, muttering the word against his shoulder, and Yagyuu realised that really, at the end of the day, they’d been running on empty for hours now, maybe for days.
“Home,” he agreed.
Tomorrow they could start to worry about the rest of the world again. For today, it really was over.
