Consequences everywhere or something.

[therealkaichan]

Chapter Ten

Death.


The knocking on the door woke Kana up with a bad feeling. It wasn’t often that something like that happened, since her so called intuition worked the best when she was awake, but still, a bad feeling.

She walked to the door, still gloriously clad in her pajamas, and opened just a little. It was rare for someone to knock like this after all, it was a weekend, class didn't start until the afternoon, and everyone knew pretty well how much she loved sleeping in.

She opened to find Kael in the door. He seemed to be thinking of something, and his hand was in his pocket, most likely fidgeting with that coin. It was rare to have Kael actually visit, so she smiled a little.
“Hello.”
“Kana, I have something I need to tell you.”
“Oh... Okay.” She moved aside to let him pass. He sounded really serious, and she knew he meant it.
“You may want to take a seat.” He said, as he walked towards the kitchen, to take one of the chairs.
“Okay...?” Kana sat as well. She was confused and still not fully awake.
“I have bad news. You know I’m just not good at delivering these, so maybe you’d like to find someone else to tell you about them.”
“No... It’s fine. I’m hearing you. Come on and tell me.” As she said this, Kana took a deep breath. For Kael to come personally to share news, something horrible had to have happened.
“It’s about Aileen.” Kana knew this tone. Damn she did. It was the exact same tone he had used for Evie.
“Did anything happen to her...?” Kana frowned.
“We found her body about two hours ago.”
“But... Why? What happened exactly?!” She was raising her voice without noticing.
“We are studying the body. Nobody is really sure.”
“Do you think this is related to what happened to Evie?”
“We can’t tell for sure until we are done. I’m sorry.” Kael sighed. He quite expected this reaction from Kana after all, she was the ‘revenge’ type.
“I don’t--- Wait. And Alyssa? How is she?”
“We found her as well... She was fine but unconscious. We don’t believe she was involved in this at all.”
“Let me know when she’s fine. I want to talk to her and she’ll probably need a hand...”
“I will. We will continue our investigations as usual while she does.”
“Then let’s look for whoever it was! Come on!”
“You are not looking for anyone. Aileen got into trouble because she wanted to look too deep, and this is how this life will repay that.”
“You’re not leaving me outside of this again! You can’t!”
“I am. I told Major Ahlgren I would take care of you, and I will. I apologize.” Kael stood in order to leave, and Kana stood immediately.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“I...” There was a pause. Kael didn't say a word, and finally Kana shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
Quietly he put his hand on her head, and she didn’t take long to give a few steps to rest her forehead on his chest. They didn't say a word about anything, as everything had been said already.

Kael didn’t leave until twenty minutes later.



She was back in bed as soon as Kael was gone. Her plans for the weekend had suddenly turned into ‘sulk the whole weekend and then attempt to get Kael to change his mind’.
Because of this, when there was knocking on her door again, Kana frowned. She wanted to stay under the blankets the rest of the weekend, who the hell was even thinking that coming to her room today was a good idea anyway? She got up, very slowly and feeling very very moody, and walked to the door, opening it just a little to see who it was this time.

Seeing Hans was probably the only thing more surprising than seeing Kael.
“I’m not going to class today.” She tried to close the door, but it wouldn’t move. She looked down to find Hans’ foot stopping it. “Come on, go away.”
“Kana.” He finally spoke, and she frowned. This wasn't the usual tone he used when calling her name.
“What.”
“I didn’t expect you to be the type to wallow in self pity.”
“I’m not, idiot!”
“Yes, you are. I can tell what you are thinking. You are blaming yourself, even if you had nothing to do. I bet you went trough this with Evie too.”
“Shut up! Go away!”
“Kana. You don't need this. You need to actually solve this.”
“What do you even know?! You don’t care about anyone anyway!”
“Maybe I don’t, but even I know that this is not the solution to it.” He was serious. It wasn't something Kana usually saw at least. “We are partners. I don’t need a useless partner by my side.”
“I’ll be fine on monday! Leave me alone!” She was angry. Really angry not playfully angry as she usually was. She grabbed the door and attempted to close it again. Hans was still keeping the door open but she didn’t mind pushing anyway, he’d take the foot off when it started hurting, right?
“These things are a weight in your soul. Of course it will stop the flow of energy trough your main charkras, and burden your abilities and slow down your shaping. That is common knowledge.”
“You say that as if I cared... The thing I need the least is a lecture! Leave me alone, I said!”
“But you don’t want to be left alone, do you?”
“Shut up! Shut up!” She was pushing more and more on the door as her tone went louder and louder.
“That’s annoying.” Hans said, looking down, and as soon as Kana looked down she let go of the door as if it were red hot.
“Just... Just... Do whatever you want, okay?”

She went in, and he followed suit.
“Nice pajamas there, partner.”
“Shut up. If you are staying you are staying silent.”
“But silence makes you think, doesn’t it?”
“Look. I already went trough the psychological tests when I entered the Academy, I don't need another round okay?”
“You sure seem to do so.”
Kana frowned but didn’t say a word as she resumed her way to her room. She would get under the blankets and she didn’t give a damn if her so called partner was going to be there complaining.


She had been under her blankets for an hour since Hans arrived to her room.

Annoying Hans was still in her room. She knew because he could hear the sound of him passing pages of a book, even from the other room.

Had the bastard even brought a book? Or maybe he had grabbed one of hers... Well, he sure wouldn’t find anything fun to read there unless he was into fantasy and adventure books. Because the few obligatory textbooks she had were in this room... Thinking about it, she noticed that she had never really asked what kind of books Hans liked to read...

She knew that Aileen liked the silly romantic ones. She was that kind of girl right? What could have ended up with her getting trapped into something so big that could get her...

“Your fridge looks really empty.”
“Go away.”
“I gave a call to the market and I’m having something delivered. You should consider cooking instead of buying your food.”
“I can’t cook, okay?”
“Then you should learn.”
“I’m not learning to cook.”
“Why not? Is it too girly for you?” Hans chuckled.
“Why don't you go and prepare something then?”
“Fine.”


She had been under her blankets for about two hours and a half since Hans arrived to her room.

The smell of food was coming into the bedroom, and Kana wasn't sure what to think. Why the hell would someone like Hans even know how to cook? It still smelt really good... She hadn’t noticed just how hungry she was until now.

But she wasn’t coming out. Damn she wasn’t. She had her right to stay in her room and feel like hell because she had failed at protecting someone dear to her again. She totally had the right and she wasn’t giving that up.


She had been under her blankets for two hours and thirty five minutes since Hans arrived to her room.

She wasn't under the blankets now, that’s for sure.

“What are you cooking?”
“Just preparing a simple sauce to go with the pasta.”
“Why are you cooking?”
“Because food is good to make you come out of your bed. And you like pasta.”
“How did you even know that?”
“Most of the food tickets you have around the house are for pasta.”
“My mother used to make pasta. I grew used to it.”
“That’s not a bad thing. So she knew how to cook?”
“Yeah. She was good at it.”
“Then why not learn?”
“It’s not useful.”
“Well I’d say it was quite useful now, wasn’t it? There isn’t such thing as useless knowledge.”
“I guess.” She frowned a little, and pointed to the frying pan. “So. Why are you doing that?”
“I can take a little to explain.”


They were sitting in the sofa now. The television was on, but neither was really hearing, especially since it was difficult to pay attention over Kana’s pretty incessant ranting.
“So I was like, no. Absolutely no. I don’t get why someone would even ask that kind of stupid questions.”
“That is easy. Because people can be really stupid.”
“I guess, but don’t they notice? I mean, I usually notice when I’m being stupid even if I’m not ever telling.”
“Well, sometimes they don’t notice.”
There was a long pause there. For a moment only the sounds of the television were heard, and Kana suddenly frowned.
“You are talking about me, aren't you, jerk?”
“I am.” Hans smiled, pleasant as ever.
“Look. I don’t know how the hell you even intend me to ‘solve’ this crap.”
“First of all you should accept that you didn’t have any kind of responsiblity for her safety. She went in too deep, and it was dangerous. She knew this.”
“How do you even know that?”
“I have a way of finding things out. It’s irrelevant.”
“Then do you know what she was investigating?”
“I do.”
“Tell me!”
“No. You are really stupid as you are right now, you’d go and get yourself killed and then I’d have to move to White to get a new partner, and that’s not something I plan on doing anytime soon.”
“I can’t believe you.”
“I’m selfish, and you are my source of entertainment. I’m not telling you until I can ensure you will survive.”
“I think I liked you better back when I didn’t know the kind of bastard you were. Thinking you were spoiled and a brat was better.”
“That’s a lie. You like having someone around who is easy to understand. You just needed a hint.”
“I guess... So if I solve this emotional blockage thing, then we can go and get into trouble finding out who it was?”
“I don't find any inconvenience in that.”
“Good! Then tell me how to!”
“It’s not something I have to tell you how to do.”
“Just tell me where to start or something, like you were doing a little ago.”
“There is nothing to say other than that. You had no responsibility for her safety. She knew the danger she was into. She didn’t want you to know, or she would have told you. Maybe she could’ve been protecting you like you wanted to protect her. Ever thought about that?”
“She could have... But that’s really weird.”
“You are wondering why she would want to protect you. Isn’t that response obvious?”
“Because she was my friend... Yeah.”
“So think about that.” Hans stood and took the dirty dishes to the kitchen. He then walked to the door, apparently satisfied with what he had done for the day. “Also, you get to clean the kitchen.”
“W-what?!”

Before Kana could protest more, he was out of the room.

That bastard... She’d get revenge for this.


Kana had never expected her chat with Hans to actually end up solving anything. Maybe what she needed was someone who wasn’t all concerned about telling her that she was an idiot...?

She had gone back to bed after cleaning the damn kitchen, and she had decided to think a little about the stuff that Hans said. About how both Evie and Aileen had been her friends. About how they were always ready to help or how they didn’t want to bother others.

It really got on her nerves, in a way. She remembers having complained at both about things that it turns out she also did herself. Well. The bastard was right. She was moping and letting those things eat at her, and it was absolutely pointless.



Even when she had just changed her point of view completely, Kana decided to stay in her room on sunday too. At least this time it wasn’t to mope, but to organize her thoughts and feelings. Kael always said that her heart chakra thing was important to her and that she should always keep it well cared for. She guessed he meant those kinds of things.

So there she was, the television on, and looking at the roof as she thought about the nice things she liked, when someone knocked.
That was really unexpected. Then again the word unexpected had popped up a damn lot that weekend, so by now it was almost becoming “expected”.

At least this time she wasn’t in her pajamas.

She opened the door to find a face she really didn’t know that much.
“Uh... Hi.” She said, her tone as confused as her face.
“Hello miss. I’m Private Dominic Evert, I started the third year this year.” He saluted. Of course the name tipped her off, Aileen had mentioned this guy once or twice. He was the director’s grandson right?
“Uh, hi again. I’m Kana. But I think you already know that since you are here?”
“I do, miss.”
“Kana.”
“Miss Kana?”
“No. Just plain Kana. Don’t make me beat it into you.”
“Y-yes.”
“So, what is it?”
“I... Have something important I need to talk to you about.”
“Oh. So you want to come in? I think that bastard Hans left some coffee around here.”
“Yes, please...”
“Then do. Come on, don’t be so tense, kid.”

Kana chuckled on her way in, and the boy followed her, as awkward as he was before. She went into the kitchen, checking for coffee. At least that she could perpare so it was okay.
“So, how much sugar.”
“Just two spoons, please.”
“Now feel free to tell me about it while I finish up.”
“Fine... I... I’m here because I know you were friends with miss Ivers...”
“So it’s about Aileen...”
“I... I know what she was researching when this happened.”
“You do?”
“Yes. And I’d be fine with telling you if you want to know.” His tone was a little lower now.
“And why would you do that?”
“I feel responsible for what happened to her... And I want to make ammends.”
“You feel responsible too, huh? We should make a support group.”
“E-excuse me...?”
“Nothing, nothing. I’m letting you tell me, but you have to do one small thing first.”
“What thing...?”
“Start by stopping thinking you are responsible. Whatever she got into, she knew it was dangerous. Aileen was silly, and sometimes got easily distracted, but she most definitely wasn’t an idiot.”
“I...”
“Think of that. It’s stupid to blame yourself, the only person to blame is the one who actually did it.”
“I understand...”
“And that’s the bastard I want to get. For hurting my friend.”
“Then I’ll help.”
“Now that sounds much better. You can tell me now.”
“All right... I’ll go slowly.”

Dominic then explained every single of the things he had learned. He talked about the things he had found when helping his grandfather out, about how he had decided to report everything to the Acting Director, and about how he had asked Aileen and her sister to investigate.

When he finished he was looking at his cup of coffee, still confused but clearly less burdened by the knowledge he had.

“You sure needed to talk about this.” Kana smiled, patting the younger student’s head. He took a sip of his coffee.
“I... In a way I caused this...”
“But it was the right thing to do. Many more could end up just like Aileen if we don’t get into action.”
“The Acting Director said he was already taking care of this...”
“Then why did you come all the way here to tell me?”
“Because you know him too... And I think he could be in danger. With this, if anything happens to him or to me, someone else knows. Someone who is involved enough to help stop this.”
“I see... That makes sense. You are good at this, aren’t you?”
“I just learn from the things I listen and see. It’s really important.”
“Yeah, that’s true I guess. I suck for that.”
“Then, mi--- Kana. I must go now, or someone could get suspicious... But if I can help you with anything, please do let me know.”
“I will, I will.”
“And thank you for the coffee.”

She saw him leave, and as soon as the door closed, she frowned. So that was it. This was the reason why Kael didn’t want to tell her anything about what was happening... It did explain a lot. If the Director was truly involved in something like this, he was sure not going to stop himself from killing more students if they proved to be dangerous to whatever he was doing.

This wasn’t good, no... Not good at all.

On monday, Kael would have a piece of her mind. A big piece.



When Kana went to class on monday, Hans looked at her and smiled.
“You look healthy.”
“You look like a smug asshole.”
“I do my best, dear partner.”
“I know you do. Damn I know.”
“But I’d say you look more brighter than you should, all in all.”
“I have something nice to do today. I’m finding the bastard who did this and I’m going to beat the hell out of him.”
“Hmm... It sounds like you have something in your hands, don't you?”
“That’s right.”
“You better let me know on time, I don’t want to miss a potential entertainment goldmine.” Hans chuckled before walking to his place and taking a seat.
Kana sighed. Well, if something in this life was certain, it was that Hans was still an asshole.

It was something.


The bell hadn’t even finished ringing and she was already halfway to Kael’s office.
She adored the bastard to pieces, but she sure wasn’t obeying that stupid request to stay out of this, and much less now that she knew so much of the background for the story. Okay so it was to protect her, she could get that, but...

Oh. The Serpent Lady was already looking at her as if she already knew why Kana was here. Did she have some kind of stupid magical secretary superpower? Because really. She hadn’t said a thing about her glorious plan to go into the office and somehow get Kael to collaborate. Well, she didn't care. Nothing, not even that Serpent Lady was stopping her today.

“I want to see Kael!”
“The Acting Director is available, please, do come in.”
Kana squinted a little. This couldn’t be the real one. She had to be some kind of clone or evil witch or something. Wasn’t she supposed to stop her and annoy her as usual? Did she have any kind of evil plan that included Kana going into the office?

There wasn’t time for that, and Kana was the type of person who took leaps of faith (or more accurately the kind of person who jumped before looking) so she nodded and went in. She was so totally ready for whatever fate had in store for her.


What fate had in store for her, however, was Kael leaning back on his chair and having coffee (as usual in that cup labeled ‘Kean’). The office looked the same as always, except for the desk, which looked surprisingly empty.
“Okay. I’m here now.”
“I noticed. Good morning, Kana.”
“Oh. Morning.”
“Please, take a seat. How can I help you?”
“D-don't do that!” She took a seat anyway, but that was besides the point. “You know very well why I am here.”
“Yes. I do.”
“Then?!”
“There is no ‘then’. I requested that you please stay out of this, and I will repeat my request if you need it.”
“I can’t stay out of this.”
“Why?”
“Because she was my friend! Because others could end up just like her, just because that guy is not under control!”
“And how do you intend to put him under control?”
“I’m not sure! But if I’m helping... Then at least I’ll feel like I’m doing something. Maybe we can avoid another death.”
“Do you think so?”
“You are there, sitting and looking really calm, but you are the same as me. You don’t want to lose the people that are close to you... Do you?”
“It’s a part of the process of the world. People die in order to let new souls be born. Those new souls are stronger, more apt to process energy so the world can keep on changing.”
“That’s crap. Yeah, we all die, and we have to, I know that, but why die so soon? Did her soul have the time to grow that much?”
“That is not something I decided. Death and energy are the only things that are true. Everything else, we humans twist so it will make us feel less alone.”
“Fine. That’s enough reasoning.” Kana was quick to stand from her chair, and rested her hands on the desk. “I didn’t come here to ask you to please let me help. I came here to tell you I would help even if you didn’t want me to. Even if I have to do my own investigation. Even if I end up getting expelled for being an idiot.”
“That’s good. Take good care of yourself.”
“Fine!”

And as she had come in, she was leaving. Kael smiled a little at her retreating form, his hand reaching for the coin. Little Kana had grown so much since she arrived to the Academy... She had grown so much since the day when they rescued her.

Almost there.

They were almost there.



---

Note:



Almost.


There.