The Unstuck Country (KR Kiva), part 2

[estirose]

Here is part 2, which also happens to pretty much be chapter 2!

Chapter 2

It wasn’t Watanabe re-introducing him back to his Board; it was Okamoto that did it, sweat breaking out on his human face as Taiga stood up. He hoped things wouldn’t take long; he’d promised Wataru that he’d get to the wedding of the two Blue Sky operatives, Aso Megumi and Nago Keisuke.

Not that he always felt charitable about the Blue Sky Association, but it was at Wataru’s urging that he swallow his pride and go to his foster father for help. Not that Wataru would have said anything about swallowing his pride, but Taiga felt like he was. To go to humans to help with a Fangire issue was humiliating, but as Wataru had said, Shima had been in business long enough to know how to do such things. Plus, as Wataru had also mentioned, Shima had as much reason – if not more – to want the war between human and Fangire to cease.

He knew that Shima’s beliefs had wavered on that – had gone from acceptance to hatred back to acceptance – but for the moment, he had the man’s cooperation. He still wasn’t completely convinced that Shima wouldn’t betray him, but Wataru had faith in the man, and Wataru had been the one that Shima had tried to have killed at the dam. Wataru, who held no grudges about it. Wataru, who didn’t care about species, but tried to help human and Fangire alike.

Taiga wished he had his little brother’s optimism, but he didn’t. Still, he hoped, for everyone’s sake, that the Board would accept that they did need to find a food source that wasn’t humans. After all, it prevented humans trying to kill them – at least for that reason. And what if humans died out, or nearly did? Something would have to keep the Fangire going.

As he led the board through his proposal – after Shima had coached him on how to do it – he glanced around. Many of them were frowning, though he expected that. Change wasn’t going to be easy, and he didn’t blame them for being skeptical. He was sure that some of them thought that Wataru was influencing him improperly and the death of Bishop was a huge blow to the dignity of the Checkmate Four. After all, Bishop had been very traditionalist, and Mio would never be seen as a proper Queen.

Of course, Mio had never really been great at her role, so she could see their point, but he had to admit, it was her stubbornness – and Wataru’s – that had ultimately changed things.

Things didn’t always go one’s way, and the best one could do is accept them, learn from them, and move on. He’d learned that, and hopefully some of them had learned that too.

Thanks to his own resources – things that he’d been given and remembered from the time when Bishop was teaching him how to be a proper Fangire – he’d found the small publications and websites that covered Fangire culture and attitudes. It seemed things were changing for his generation, this desire to see humans as something more than meals, attitudes similar to, but not quite as inclusive as Wataru’s. He’d already contacted a publication or two aimed at his generation, getting Wataru out in the public eye.

By the time that the board had left, still reading his proposal and, he noted, extemely quietly discussing it with each other, Taiga was more than ready to do something mindless. Like a wedding.

Of course, the wedding had to be disrupted by… well, mutated Fangire of some kind from the future, if he’d understood his nephew-to-be right.

The thought that his brother was able to find a Fangire spouse cheered him a little, at least. And the fact that he was still alive and King twenty years in the future cheered him more, assuming things didn’t change between his and Masao’s time.

And at least the Board seemed afraid enough of him that he didn’t expect them to do much except hastily agree to his plan. There might be some resistance, but for someone who had managed to kill off everybody who had come against him, with the exception of Bishop, well… he hoped none of them were that stupid.

He had carefully gone through his office, thoroughly checking for bugs and other such devices. He’d found nothing, which was good, unless there was something he’d missed. That could be a disaster. Resolving to check the place over again after he was sure that the Board had time to think things over, he opened his laptop and started typing.

Sometime later, he left the office, bowed to by various staff members as he checked over and mounted his motorcycle. It had been a long time since he’d ridden a motorcycle in a full suit and tie, but he didn’t have a car and he preferred to have total control of his drive rather than using a driver.

A few days passed uneventfully, and he was surprised by the lack of complaints on his Board’s part, though one or two non-Board members had approached him, questioning the sanity of his plan. He’d sent them home with explanations of why he was doing this once again and the importance of diversifying food sources. He was sure that some of them weren’t pleased, but none seemed to want to challenge him.

That in mind, he drove to Wataru’s house on his bike, eager to see his little brother and make sure he was safe.

As he arrived at Wataru’s, he parked his bike inside his brother’s gates and went upstairs. He knew that Wataru was expecting him, and he’d never really been big on the formalities, especially around Wataru.

“Nii-san!” Wataru’s face lit up brightly as he finished putting clamps on a large violin. Well, actually, as he looked at it, it was a viola. No matter what, it was clear that Wataru was done with it, for the moment, or at least he was sure that’s what the clamps meant.

“What’s wrong with the viola?” he asked casually.

Wataru looked down at it. “It was losing its seam,” he said. “It just needed a little bit of fixing.”

Taiga nodded. He’d definitely never be much of a fan of music, but it was Wataru’s passion, so he could deal. “You probably have worse repairs.”

Wataru nodded. “I… people don’t mean to, but sometimes things happen,” he said. “I… fixed one with a big hole in it, but that was really making a new violin more than anything else.”

“How did that happen?” Taiga asked casually. Given the care that he saw Wataru treat his violins….

“It was an accident.” Wataru looked down, frowning. “Or actually, the owner was attacked.” He seemed fascinated by the wood of his workshop table, and Taiga wondered what had happened.

Of course, apparently it was something that was personal to Wataru, something he didn’t want to talk about, so he let his little brother keep his silence.

“Ramon-san stopped by today,” Wataru said, to break the silence. “He says that now that I don’t need to fight as much anymore, he has a lot to do in the outside world….”

Ramon. The one remaining Merman, or at least that’s what he’d heard. He wondered what Wataru’s servant – of sorts – was up to. He hoped nothing complicated, or anything that involved the Fangire. “Like what?”

“He… said something about a daughter, but he’s too young to have one. Even though he said she’s older than me.”

Taiga didn’t care one way or another if the Wolfen, Franken, and Mermen died out – there was nothing he could do about that, anyway. “I presume he’s much older than he looks.”

“I think so. Would Nii-san like some water?” Wataru asked.

Taiga nodded, and Wataru moved to the workroom sink, fetching a mug for him. “Are you a light eater?” he asked, suddenly wondering how much human food his brother ate.

“Shizuka-chan always said so,” Wataru responded. “But that’s okay. I never have been really starving, even when mother left me alone….”

At least she hadn’t abused him or starved him, as Shima had starved him when he was younger. In fact, Wataru was healthier than he had been when he’d found out what he was. And he would stay that way, if Taiga had anything to do with it.

“So, Nii-san,” Wataru asked, “How did your meeting go?”

Taiga gave him a summary of how things had gone, just in case Wataru had any insight. “I’m sure there will be objections.” He himself would have thought it crazy, to even think of a food source other than humans, more than a few months ago. Then his baby brother had turned his life upside down.

“You’ll overcome them,” Wataru said with a smile.

Wataru made it seem so easy. His smile projected hope, and his modest demeanor reminded Taiga of what he’d gained in his little brother.

“With your help,” Taiga responded. “Why don’t we have dinner?” He was about to suggest going to a restaurant when Wataru smiled even more broadly.

“I can make something, Nii-san,” he said cheerfully. “We can have dinner together.”

Taiga nodded. “I’d enjoy that.” He would never have asked Mio to cook for him… she was Queen, after all, and that was below her, but he was sure that if she’d asked, he wouldn’t have turned her down, and the same with Wataru.

Wataru got busy with his cooking, and Taiga relaxed on Wataru’s couch. He had to admit, the place was perfect for Wataru, though a bit small for a family. Maybe Wataru would move into something bigger when it came time to raise Masao.

As Wataru bustled about, Taiga realized how much he enjoyed watching his little brother do things. Sure, he wasn’t keen on music, or cooking, but as long as Wataru was doing them, it was okay.

Finally, Wataru was ready and Taiga moved down to the small table that served as the center of the downstairs area. His brother thoughtfully had not served him anything other than another glass of water, but had prepared a fair amount for himself.

Wataru didn’t seem to be weak, so Taiga let him be fore the moment, Life Energy-wise. Though he did seem tired, and Taiga wondered if he’d tangled with another Fangire and how to get him to stop. If he did want Wataru to stop. It occurred to him that Wataru’s tendency to go after Fangire might work either way for him; either as a good reason to change food sources, or as a reason why doing so was dangerous.

“Are you ready for that interview?” he asked abruptly. He remembered, belatedly, that Wataru had an interview with one of those magazines coming up shortly, and he wanted his little brother to look his best. After all, Masao would have to be born soon, and Wataru and his ideas needed the exposure. Mostly Wataru himself, if he wanted to hear the pitter-patter-thud of little feet.

Wataru smiled. “If it’s going to help you, then I’m going to do my best.”

“Do you need any new clothes?” Taiga asked. He had to admit, Wataru had quite a few now, but he didn’t have that many, or at least Taiga didn’t think so, back when they were kids.

“No,” Wataru said, shaking his head gently, though it still made his pale hair fly around a bit before settling down. “Nii-san, I can afford clothes now.”

“I know, but I want you to look your best.” Though some of the magazines would probably just focus on Wataru’s looks and not bother much about his clothes.

“I’ll be fine, Nii-san,” Wataru told him, bashfully tugging at the scarf he always wore.

“Yes, but….”

It was then that he heard a very loud BOOM, and the windows upstairs lit up.

He hurried upstairs, followed by Wataru, seeing that whatever had happened, it had happened somewhere nearby. “Let’s go out the back, Nii-san,” Wataru said, urging him back downstairs.

Taiga gave him a tight nod before following him.

They went out the back door, circling around Wataru’s house. Taiga could see a crowd gathering, smoke coming out nearby.

As they rounded the front of Wataru’s home, he could see what had caused the noise, and his heart skipped a beat when he realized what it was.

It was his motorcycle.

He stared at it, simultaneously uncertain – after all, what would he do without it – and annoyed at whoever had done something to it. Which he had to assume they did.

Wataru himself was hurrying over to the neighbors, most of which seemed to know him, talking about the police and he was sorry for the explosion and he didn’t know what caused it and yes, the motorcycle belonged to a guest, a family member and yes, he was so sorry for the noise.

Eventually, as he paced and Wataru kept talking, the police arrived. Of course, they probably heard the boom, too; he was sure that people a few kilometers away had heard it, so they arrived fast. Wataru was soon bowing and talking to the police and being distraught – or at least Taiga thought he looked very much so. Which, given that someone had snuck into his yard and blown up his brother’s bike – or at least caused it in some way to blow up, assuming it was not natural – was very credible.

Wataru was explaining that he’d been having dinner with his brother when they’d heard the boom, and that this was his brother’s bike and he’d been visiting at the time. The policemen asked Wataru a few more questions, about his property and was he having problems, and if there had been any threats, and Wataru had told them no.

Once they were somewhat satisfied with Wataru’s answers, they turned to him.

“So, you were visiting your brother?” the first policeman asked.

“Yes; we didn’t know about each other until we were adults, and we’re trying to make up for lost time.” He smiled at the human police officer, hoping that the man didn’t do too much poking around.

“Are you on each other’s family records?” Taiga had to blink at that, wondering if that was some human bureaucracy thing that he didn’t know about.

“My mother wasn’t married to his father, so I’d guess not,” he said smoothly, not missing a beat. He wondered if Wataru was in any records, human or Fangire. Certainly nothing official that Bishop had maintained, because if Bishop had known, Wataru would have been dead. And his mother didn’t strike him as someone who would pay attention to such things as human records unless she had to.

The police officer nodded slightly. “And that was your motorcycle, was it?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to park it on the street, and I don’t have a permit for parking it anywhere in my neighborhood, but he’s given me permission.” Normally, houses didn’t have space for parking motorcycles like that, but there was a fair amount of room around Wataru’s house. Especially since it looked bigger on the outside than it did on the inside.

“Have you been receiving any threats?” the police officer asked.

“Not lately,” Taiga said, with a small grin. “I’m the president of the funding company Development and Pioneer. Most of the threats I get are attempts at hostile takeovers, anyway. The occasional person disappointed by a decision, but it’s nothing that we can’t handle. And very rarely against me.” Fangire going after his throne, yes, but nothing he couldn’t handle himself, and was expected to.

He wondered if this was going to be someone’s first, violent protest about his plan. Or if he’d just lucked out and some unfortunate human was going to be his next meal because they thought blowing up his bike would be fun.

A meal sounded appealing at the moment, but it was more likely that someone really didn’t like his plan.

“So, what happened, from your perspective?”

“I wanted to spend more time with Wataru, so I came over to talk. He made us some dinner, but I wasn’t hungry so I just had water.” That would match with what actually happened. “We were talking about things when we heard the explosion.”

The police officer noted it all down dutifully.

“I don’t know why someone would want to kill me,” he said, “I know that not all my board members are happy with me, but they’re all older gentlemen, and I think it’s more likely they’d fire me instead of blowing up my bike.” Best to deflect inquiry of Development and Pioneer early, at least with the human police. “They have before.” It was only a few days, of course, but it would lend more credibility to him. “I restored my reputation with them, of course, and got my job back, but I know they’ll do it if they think I’ve led the company astray.”

Which didn’t mean the person that had done this wasn’t a Board member, but he doubted any of them wanted to be King, just like Watanabe. They might deliver a warning, but they wouldn’t try to kill him themselves. Best to leave that to the younger hotheads, less than three centuries old, who were prone to do that.

Of course, the person who had successfully challenged the last King was Wataru’s human father, who was, by Fangire standards, very young indeed. Wataru had told him that he, Taiga, was the actual one who killed his father, but Kurenai Otoya had been the one that had initiated the fight, and Wataru had been there too.

It was funny to think that had Wataru succeeded, he might have trapped himself back in time, becoming the next King.

Taiga wondered for a moment on how that would have been like – he was sure Wataru wouldn’t have let him be placed into Shima’s custody, for one – but realized that Bishop would have been so much against Wataru that he wouldn’t have lived that long. He’d probably have been dead, too.

Shoving that uncomfortable thought to the back of his mind, he forced himself to pay attention to the human police officer. The officer asked him how to reach him, and Taiga pulled out one of his new business cards, writing his cell phone number and address down for the police officer. The officer received it with both hands, inspecting it before putting it away.

“Thank you. If we have more questions, we’ll contact you.” With that, the officer was done. At least one new police officer had arrived to take a look at his ruined motorcycle, taking pictures and measurements. Another seemed to be doing something – checking for further explosives, perhaps? – before they probably took it away for further examination. And at least if they removed it, it wouldn’t be cluttering up Wataru’s yard.

Wataru came over to join him, and they stood, Taiga not sure what to say to Wataru. “Sorry, someone blew up my bike?” That would have been obvious. Wataru knew how new Kings were made, and he also knew that the proposal Taiga was making had to be one of the most radical in the entirety of Fangire history. What King would champion the cause of saving humans?

Evidently, him. And Wataru, though as Bishop had said truthfully, Wataru had been an impostor King. Not in the sense that Wataru had planned, but he’d still been an impostor in order to save the real King.

And yet, Taiga had to admit, Wataru had been an impressive King, and had he not had to die in order to pass the powers along, he would have handed them to Wataru, who seemed comfortable dealing with them. Though Taiga couldn’t imagine Wataru going to board meetings and dealing with Elders who would no doubt sneer at him for his human blood.

Chances were, if anybody was stupid enough to denigrate Wataru for his human blood, they’d be dead. He was sure it was a topic that didn’t come up too often, but crossbreeds were rare – and should stay that way – and people did perceive them being weaker than normal Fangire. Not to mention that said children tended to live with human mothers, and were the result of one-night stands, as to avoid getting a rather fatal visit from the Queen. Though as the Fangire became more accepting as his generation and younger seemed to be, there was no doubt that some Fangire had taken advantage of Queen’s absence.

He made a note to find out how many hidden half-humans there were out there and make sure they had been educated correctly. Someday, after everyone had accepted that the Fangire were going to find an alternate food source, like it or not.

The fact that his motorcycle was now a sooty heap, a mangled thing of metal and plastic, told him that they really didn’t like it.

“Nii-san, do you want to stay over tonight?” Wataru asked.

Taiga smiled. He knew that Wataru didn’t have that large a bed, and that one of them would either be squeezed to the wall, or sleeping on the upstairs couch. But it would probably make Wataru happy if he stayed over. After all, Wataru cared about his health and well-being, as opposed to so many others who just pretended to. He wasn’t even sure that their mother would be interested in making sure he stayed alive.

And there was something that appealed in sharing a bed, non-sexually, with his younger brother, both of them making sure the other was all right and safe. They should have been together for years, but at least they knew of each others’ existence. Which made things all right.

“Yes,” he said, smiling even more at Wataru. “We’ll finish dinner and then we can see if we can figure out if anybody’s after us.”

That was said quietly, or at least the last part, because Taiga didn’t want the human police to interfere. Humans were much more useful as food at the moment, not getting killed by accidentally interfering with Fangire affairs.

“I understand, Nii-san,” Wataru said just as quietly. The two of them watched as a truck arrived to take Taiga’s motorcycle away. Police techs – or at least Taiga assumed so, from watching TV – loaded the remains onto the truck, and soon, everybody was off. “I guess the neighbors will disapprove of me, again. I promised not to make as much noise….”

Taiga smiled once more. “Don’t worry. I don’t think they’ll think it’s your fault for someone trying to kill me.” If someone was, but as Taiga thought about it, no doubt it was someone. And that it was a warning.

Once everybody had cleared off, and Wataru had finished talking to his human neighbors – which required a lot more bowing, Taiga was very surprised to see – Wataru came back to him, and the two of them retired to the house.

Taiga sat down in the chair he’d been sitting in when his motorcycle had blown up, thinking of how much things had changed, as Wataru reheated his own dinner, which had gone cold in the incident. Glancing over at Wataru’s bed, he was not surprised to see that it was a single bed, and that he’d been right, they’d either have to squeeze or someone was going to have to sleep upstairs. He decided that they’d have to squeeze, as there was no way Wataru was going to sleep on the couch.

“Here’s more water, Nii-san,” Wataru said, placing a glass in front of Taiga and then putting his own food down, off the tray he’d been carrying both on.

“You’re very graceful, Wataru,” Taiga noted, with a little surprise, and more approval. He probably had to be, to work on violins.

Wataru smiled at that as he sat down. “I once played a waiter, because Megumi-san asked me to.”

“For?” Taiga asked. He hoped it was for some party, and not Blue Sky Association business.

“There was this chef, whose customers kept getting killed,” Wataru said, obviously thinking about it. “Megumi-san wanted me to see if he was doing anything suspicious. I guess he was doing some extra feeding, but neither Megumi-san nor I knew what. And after he fired me, Megumi-san asked me on a date. Well, a pretend date. And then Shizuka-chan showed up, and… well, the chef ended up dying.”

“She had no right to pit you against your people… even if you didn’t know about your Fangire blood at the time.” Taiga clenched his fist. “Was that how you started hunting, Wataru?”

Wataru shook his head. “No, I’d been doing it a while before Megumi-san found me,” he said. “I didn’t even know what the chef was, at first, but he made a great varnish….”

Taiga wondered how the chef in question would have liked that for a eulogy, but it wasn’t like the humans would know, because no identifiable body would have remained.

He hadn’t really tried to think about Wataru’s hunts before, because it had hurt him too much that Wataru was doing it at all. He was sure that Wataru really had his reasons – and if that chef was being so obvious, Taiga rather thought that he was asking for it – but it still stung that Wataru had been doing so much killing on the humans’ behalf. He placed the blame for Wataru’s behavior on their mother – why couldn’t she have told Wataru about his heritage – and partly on anyone else that had kept his little brother in the dark.

Wataru’s Kivat flew into the area, followed by Tatsulot, and Taiga realized that he – the Kivat, that was – was probably as guilty as their mother was. But he wasn’t going to talk about that in Wataru’s earshot, as he didn’t want Wataru to intervene or feel guilty about something that wasn’t his fault in the first place.

“Was he being that conspicuous?” Taiga asked, trying to say it in a way that he could convince Wataru that he was not at fault for what he had done, or at least not completely at fault. He’d still killed the chef, but if he hadn’t, the humans would have killed him anyway, and at least he wasn’t killed by a human. Wataru was Fangire and so at least the man had that comfort.

“A lot of them were,” Wataru said. “I don’t want the Fangire to be hunted out of existence, either, Nii-san. I didn’t know it at the time, but I knew it was wrong.”

“It’s all right, Wataru,” Taiga reassured him. “If they continued hunting like that, they would have been killed by humans. You going in there was a mercy.” If only everybody thought like that, Wataru wouldn’t have been needed.

Unfortunately, apparently, not everybody did, and Taiga was starting to wonder if Rook’s original purpose hadn’t been King’s bodyguard or somesuch, but one that kept Fangire from being noticed, as King’s had been to protect Fangire from human evolution, Queen’s to keep Fangire from falling for humans, and Bishop’s to keep order, including keeping the rest of the Checkmate Four in line.

If that was true, they would have made a terrific team; the protector of King and hider of Fangire, Rook; the keeper of records and morality, Bishop; the protector of Fangire purity, Queen; the protector of Fangire superiority, King. When they all worked together, they brought good to the Fangire.

Taiga wondered if there was a way to make Wataru Rook, for if his ideas had been correct, that meant that he had been doing a Checkmate’s job and was already qualified. If he could find allies among the elders, perhaps they could tell him what they knew.

Of course, that assumed any of them were trustworthy, or if they were all going to try to kill him, as Bishop had. Maybe some of them were open enough, but he doubted it. After all, better to doubt than to be surprised and dead. Bishop hadn’t taught him directly, but had taught him through his own actions, trying desperately to keep Taiga in line.

If only he hadn’t killed Mio. No matter what she’d done, it was up to King to fight off those who would kill him, not Bishop, even if it was Queen. Plus it had been his confused Queen, who had, if she’d settled down and he’d let her be with her love, would still be with them.

Of course, Mio had never really intended to kill him, or at least she’d changed her mind in mid-stab. She was a good person and she should have survived, but she hadn’t. Taiga knew he’d be mourning her forever, but there was nothing he could do about it now. If there was a way to bring dead Fangire back, he didn’t know of it.

But all that was past and done… or something he couldn’t take care of at the moment. He contented himself with keeping watch over Wataru, and working on finding out who bombed his motorcycle.

Wataru’s phone rang, and he answered it. “Hello… oh, hi, Megumi-san!” Taiga listened as Wataru talked. “Yes, Nii-san’s bike was… we don’t know what happened. We were just eating dinner, Megumi-san. Um, well, yes, I guess you can come over and eat too. I should have enough food. Okay, I’ll make some food for Megumi-san. Please let me know when you arrive.”

It amazed Taiga, as Wataru hung up and placed the phone back in his pocket, how courteous, submissive, and quiet Wataru was when he wasn’t fighting Fangire or standing up for his ideals. Yes, his brother had a stubborn steak a kilometer wide, but he was also very, very polite. It seemed like only when others were threatened, or his ideals were, that he stopped being quiet and polite and started being quiet and stubborn.

That stubbornness, he hoped, would save both their lives.

Crossposted from Ramblings Yet Once More here.