PART XIV

"I'm so sleepy!" exclaimed Alex the next day. She stretched her arms and yawned. Omi yawned out as well as he closed the door behind him.

"Should we still help them in the shop?" Alex asked.

"No, Aya-kun suggested that we get some sleep when we get home." Omi answered locking up.

"Oh good." Murmured Alex as she proceeded to go up her room. "But I don't feel like sleeping anymore. If I sleep now then I would be up for the rest of the night."

Omi stopped as he considered the thought. Then he smiled.

"So what do you want to do?" He asked. They both became silent for a while. Then after a few seconds they smiled.

"PS!" They exclaimed as they both scrambled down the basement.

"I can beat you at Tekken now!" Alex said as she took a seat on the couch.

"Ha! Let's just see!" Omi replied as they sat before the TV set, the PS already plugged in and ready.

"Yeah! Let's see your face when I win!" Alex declared.

"Yeah, yeah just get on with it." Omi mumbled as he took his place beside her. Alex laughed as they waited for the game to appear. She was about to push the start button when she remembered something.

"Look-out." She said.

"Huh?"

"I said look-out… for Aya-kun."

They looked at each other in stony silence. Then after a moment they laughed.

"Nah!" They chorused as they resumed in the game.

"Just be alert." Omi mumbled as he began pushing the control pad.

After three games, with Omi winning two and deliberately losing one, Alex decided that her uniform is making her uncomfortable. She turned to Omi and smiled.

"I want to change." She said. "I'll just go up and change."

"You'll be back to lose some more?" Omi asked grinning.

"Idiot." She laughed as she stood up and bounded up the stairs.

Alone at last, Omi stood up and went to his computer. His leather organizer in his hands, he swiftly took out Alex's picture from it. He stared at it for a moment, a smile on his face.

"Kirei…" He whispered as he put the picture in his scanner.

After the task, he then saved Alex's picture in one of his zip discs, in one of his floppy disks and in one of his folders. Then he placed it back inside his organizer without the intention of returning it to her.

Smiling, he settled once again on the couch and played while waiting for her to come back.

He would let her win this time.

==========

Alex proceeded immediately to her room, her body itching to get into something more comfortable. She was about to unbutton her blouse when she felt a hand clamping her mouth and something sharp poking at her ribs. Realizing that it was a knife, she gave out a muffled cry.

"Shut it bitch!" The masked man behind her hissed.

Alex's eyes sharpened as she brought her teeth against his hand, biting it hard. The man gave a low howl, its grip loosening. Grabbing the opportunity, Alex kicked him hard on the groin and ran away from him.

"P----ina!" The man hissed, desperately fighting the urge to scream out loud. He clutched his crotch, all the while crumbling on the floor in pain.

Alex immediately opened her drawer and fished out her revolver. She aimed it straight at the man while her brain furiously contemplating the face behind the mask.

"You're Filipino." She said. Her hand held the gun easily, the clicking sound of the safety mode quite audible. She looked behind him and discovered her broken window. Fuming she turned once again to the man.

"Who do you work for?" She asked as the man began to regain his composure.

"Bitch!" He said.

"Who do you work for?" She hissed as she fearlessly placed the revolver nozzle against his temples. "I may be young and a girl to boot but I can kill you. Speak before I blow your brains out."

The man let out a humorless laugh.

"Then we die together." He said unbuttoning his shirt only to reveal a set of explosives tightly wrapped against his chest. "Together with your little sweetheart, we can blow this place to little pieces."

She looked at him straight in the eye and found the death in them. She had known that look before, a kind of look that doesn't give a damn about dying. The man is definitely not bluffing. He would really blow them to pieces if she provoked him.

"Damn you!" Alex cursed out.

The man just smiled upon feeling his victory. Without a word, he forced the revolver from her hands, dropping it uselessly on the floor with a faint clutter. He then tied Alex's hands behind her, gagging her mouth at the same time.

"Fujito-sama's going to be happy seeing you, you little bitch." The man hissed against her ear as he carried her up.

Alex suppressed her cries of protests thinking about Omi's safety. One fatal scream would set the trigger off, blowing them to smeethereens. Without a word, Alex submitted to the man.

She was hoisted up easily, her body too light for his bulky frame. Just then her sharp, trained eyes caught something sticking out of his coat pocket. She squirmed a little, her hands desperately reaching out. Then with a grateful sigh, the wallet dropped to the floor unnoticed.

She closed her eyes in silent prayer as they went out of the window.

Now she had successfully dropped a start-up clue. It would be up to them to figure everything out.

==========

"Arigato Gozaimashita!" Ken called out after the beautiful customer just leaving the shop. She turned around just give Ken a suggestive smile and a wink before going out. Once gone, Yohji snickered behind him.

"The girl has a hot thing for you Kenken." He mused. Ken immediately blushed.

"Mou, Yohji-kun." He said. "I'm not like you, baka!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Yohji dismissed with a wave of his hand. "But surely you felt something just below there, ne? After all you’re a man."

"Urusai na!" Ken said his face turning red. Yohji laughed as he went back to his arranging. Next to Omi, he really enjoyed teasing Ken.

"I wonder how's our little Omittchi doing right now?" He suddenly blurted out, asking no one in particular. "After all he has found a steady girlfriend… makes me kinda feel envious of the little sucker." He added. Then his features lit up.

"Do you think our little Omittchi's you know, um… like doing things kids his age are not supposed to do with Alex-chan already?"

"Please shut your mouth if you don't have anything good to say, Yohji-kun." Ken said with exasperation. He tried his best not to give in to irritation since there is really no way he can force some clean sense in the blonde's perverted mind.

Aya, on the other hand, granted him a stare that if stares could kill, Yohji would be lying flat on his face right now, not breathing.

"What?! Did I say something?" Yohji protested.

"Need you ask?" Ken answered back with full sarcasm.

"Well I'm just telling the inevitable." He retaliated. "Omi's a man, a live, healthy young man. And the fact that Alex is also a young woman, a beautiful one to boot, always being alone with him in that empty apartment, just the two of them- "

"Well they aren't like that." Ken said remembering the scene he had witnessed early that morning.

"Oh yeah? Do you know them?" Yohji asked. "Do you really know what's going on between them whenever we are not around?"

Ken was about to speak out about what he had seen earlier as proof but thinking about what the two would feel suddenly made him shut his mouth. Telling something like that to this idiot here would surely result to chaos, with one blonde lying face flat on the ground with dart pins sticking out of his body.

And besides, it was Omi and Alex's private moment together, a sweet and innocent private moment in which they kindly shared with him. And he greatly respected that.

"Even so Omi and Alex are not like that." Ken answered instead. "I may not know what they are doing but I'm sure they are not doing anything wrong."

"Yeah right." Yohji chuckled, rolling his eyes.

This time Aya cleared his throat. He stopped mopping the floor and faced Yohji, his eyes blazing coldly.

"Whatever's going on between the two is not your concern." He said flatly. "Just let them be." He added but in truth he was actually thinking about what the older man had said earlier.

Should he forbid them to be alone together? Kuso! Stupid Kudou! Now he had polluted his mind as well! Yohji was about to begin his protests when suddenly the door swung open. They looked up only to find Omi huffing and puffing with exhaustion, his face rosy with the sudden exercise.

"Omi-kun!" Ken exclaimed walking towards him. "What's the matter. You're trembling." He added as he forcefully led the youth in a chair.

Omi swallowed deep breaths, his hands wordlessly handing them a leather wallet. Aya took it from him and furiously flipped it open only to find several identification cards, a couple of credit cards and a foreign driver's license. When his eyes landed on the small 1 x 1 photograph, his eyes narrowed. Somehow, he had a feeling that he will not like what Omi has to say.

"A-alex…" He began his voice shaking. "She- she has been kidnapped!"

"What?!" Ken exclaimed.

Omi fell quiet, his mind and body going numb.

It is beginning again! Everything's happening all over again! He felt his body shudder as painful memories crashed at him. Then he suddenly remembered her words last night.

He thought.

He then looked up but instead of seeing the bright fluorescent lights of the shop, he saw darkness, the blackest night surrounding him… and rain? He felt rain, wet and slick rain! He looked down and saw Ouka's face… pale and white… deathly white, staring up at him with those blank, lifeless eyes…

Then a loud slap. Painful. Stinging. Burning.

"Omi!" Yohji shouted at his face. "Get a hold of yourself!"

"I-it's happening again." He said softly cowering away from them, his trembling unstoppable. "I-its all my fault! I shouldn't have-- she will die like the rest! Everyone I love dies! I shouldn't have-- "

Slap!

Blood.

Omi felt his head thrown back at the force of Yohji's hand. Felt something rolling from his lips, smelled something pungent, tasted something salty… But strangely he didn't feel any pain.

"Stop it!" Yohji yelled at him.

"It's the curse." Omi whispered bringing his knees up to his chest in a vulnerable position. "I'm cursed. I shouldn't have…"

"Yamero, Omi-kun!" Ken said shaking him back to his senses. "Just stop thinking that, kure?"

"B-but--"

"Bakero!" Yohji said looking at him straight in the eye. "She will really die if you just sit there and cower away from your fears!"

With that, Omi slowly looked up only to meet the seething gaze of the older man settling on him. Yohji's face softened as he got his handkerchief and proceeded to wipe the boy's bleeding lips.

"There is no curse, Omi-kun." He said softly. "There is no curse." He repeated.

Omi searched his face and found not a trace of doubt in them. With that, he slowly smiled.

"Yes." He slowly said, the truth and realizations hitting him. "There is no curse."

Yohji smiled and ruffled the boy's hair fondly.

"That's the spirit!" He exclaimed.

Omi suddenly felt hope and courage surge up at him. He will save Alex. He will not let the one he loves die this time.

"Just what did happen, Omi?" Aya asked rationally.

"W-we were playing PS in the basement when she suddenly stood up to change." Omi answered. "She was gone for so long that I decided to check on her. When I got to her room, I found a broken window, her revolver on the floor, that just under her bed and no Alex."

Yohji frowned as he contemplated about the scenario. Strange, Alex is a trained Crasher agent, kidnapping her wouldn't be a snap like this, it would really be difficult, but then-- He looked at Omi and suddenly realization hit him. Something must have prevented Alex to resist.

"I just don't understand why she didn't scream for help." Omi said.

"She won't." Yohji said thoughtfully his detective instincts surfacing up.

"What do you mean?" Ken prodded. Yohji shook his head and turned to Omi.

"She saved your life, Omittchi." He answered instead. "Something definitely must have prevented her, whether threatening your life or whatever, it was you whom prevented her from resisting."

"This is the same man that we encountered at the bar." Aya said coldly. Yohji leaned over him and took a peek.

"Yes that's right!" He said. "So the bastard's really one of them."

"What should we do then?" Ken asked as he took off his apron. Aya, instead of answering, walked towards the door of the flower shop and flipped the close sigh over. He then turned to them, his eyes blazing with fury.

Omi stared at the older man before him. He had never seen that look on Aya's face ever since Reiji Takatori died. The murderous look was enough to send Omi on to his feet.

Now they had done it. Aya would never stop until everyone of them dies.

His eyes confirmed it.