Gasping, Ran opened his eyes, only to see white. He was in a completely white room, with a pervading smell of medication lingering in the now empty room. He was supposed to be at work right now. What had happened? Closing his eyes, he sighed before opening them again in an attempt to remember. He couldn’t remember. Why was he here? In this place that looked like an insane asylum with its blinding white walls. Everything was white, from the bed sheets to the tables and walls. It was enough to drive a sane man crazy.

He tried to move then, only to realize that he was restrained to the bed with some leather straps. Why was he restrained?

"H—hello?" his voice sounded too raw. Why did he sound so horrible?

"Ah, I see you have finally woken up. Using all that power must be tiring."

Ran frowned, angry and confused at this new person. The man seemed to be in his early thirties with light brown hair and hazel eyes. He looked young but his eyes betrayed him, they reflected knowledge. The kind that came with having hard experiences through life.

"Who the hell are you?"

The young doctor smirked before looking down at his chart, " I see you are getting your energy back. I am Doctor Nakimura. Do you not know where you are?"

Ran glared before trying the bonds that kept him on the bed.

"I’m sorry to do this to you, but those are for your protection as well as mine."

" I fail to see how they protect me."

The doctor scratched his head a bit, "Well, you see, when you first came in you were attacking the hospital staff so we had to restrain you."

Ran was silent; he couldn’t remember that. Last thing he remembered was going back to his office to clean it out since he had been fired. Nothing came to mind after that.

"I know you don’t remember any of this, it is a side-effect of the drugs that we have given you."

"Drugs?"

"Yes, drugs. They were necessary."

Ran glared, "You keep saying that."

"Yes. The reason I am here today is to let you know that you are at the Kritiker hospital. I am sure you have heard of us one way or another. Rumor has a way of trickling down to the masses. You are here because you burned down a building. Ah, I can see by the way you are looking at me that you believe I am lying. No I am not. You burned down a building, however, we are not sure how. This is why you are here, once we know you will become useful."

"You kidnapped me."

"Well…yes. I am not much happier than you with this situation. Yet, I am a humble doctor and cannot help you. However, I can give you a piece of advice and do remember it, because I will never repeat it. The world is not black, white, or gray. It has different colors as do people. These colors blind us to people’s true intentions. Nobody is who or what they seem, and if I were you, I would try and get out of this situation as soon as possible. It might not be for a while, but remember, trust no one but yourself. It will keep you alive and hopefully in one piece."

"Hn."

"You might do well in keeping my advice; you are young and foolish. Remember as nice and trustworthy a person may seem, everyone has a secret agenda."

"So…do you?"

Doctor Nakimura smiled slyly, "Especially me. I learned what I am telling you the hard way, I just gave you a hint. Get some rest, Mr. Fujimiya, you will need it."

Ran tried to get up again, ‘"Can I get these off?"

The brown haired man stopped at the door, eyeing him for a long moment before smiling, "Nice try. Goodnight."

The doctor smiled at the scream that followed when he closed the door.

"It was a disaster," moaned Ken for about the tenth time that hour. It was driving the rest of his teammates nuts. "Not a warning, just a ball of fire coming at you. Can you imagine?"

"We saw it Ken-ken," snapped Yohji from where he was perched against the kitchen window smoking. It was one of those rare instances that Omi had allowed him to smoke in the house.

Ken pouted, flicking some hair out of his eyes before speaking. "You knew him, didn’t you?"

Omi tensed as he glared at the brunette; he had told Ken not to ask. Better to pretend nothing was out of the ordinary.

Yohji sighed, "Yeah."

"And?"

"And what? It’s over better to forget about it."

Omi sighed, playing with the ends of his black long-sleeved shirt. There was something out of place and he didn’t know if he should tell Yohji about it. However, when the blond looked in his direction the decision was taken out of his hands.

"You know something." More of a statement than a question.

"Well, I don’t know if I should tell you this. I knew it was best to break off any connections we had with Ran Fujimiya but I got curious."

"Uh oh"

The blonde turned to glare at the soccer fanatic, who had on an innocent smile.

"I couldn’t help it."

"It’s okay chibi. So what did you find?"

"Well for one he’s adopted."

A delicate blond eyebrow rose at that, Ran had never said anything.

"Yes, since he was a baby. That wasn’t weird in itself, except that his parents had found Ran in a park. They took him to the police and when no one claimed him, adopted him. Then there are notes from professors saying that the boy had exceptional talent at school; he was a gifted child. Worked as an intern in his father’s bank when he was 15. Never dated, great in kendo and martial arts."

"Well that’s nothing out of the ordinary, so he had a messed up childhood. We all did," said Ken.

" I know, but why would people keep tabs over what professors said about him? It was weird, then there’s this instance in which a professor called him a witch."

Yohji blinked, "A witch?"

"Yeah, it was weird reading it. Apparently, the professor was a bit racist, always bothering Ran because of his coloring and the color of his hair."

"Well it’s a bit out of place here."

Omi smiled, "I know and since his sister was so painfully normal he stood out even more. Well, according to student accounts, the professor was a bit out of line in what he said, making Ran angry. Nothing happened until the time came for the professor to go home; he saw Ran watching him before some weird signs started to appear on his car. A series of lines crisscrossing each other that faintly glowed. This happened for a while before Ran ‘snapped’ out of it. None of the teachers knew what made Ran snap out of it; some thought that the professor hit him or something. I honestly don’t know, it’s just too weird."

The other two were silent. It was Ken who first broke the silence, "Did any of you see any signs?"

"No."

"Well then, it must just be a mistake. How can a person be a witch? That’s stuff for stories."

"That might simply be the answer, but that’s not the problem. I got all this info from hacking into the Kritiker database. It wasn’t a restricted area, but nonetheless, Kritiker was watching him."

Yohji frowned. Why would Kritiker keep tabs on someone as unimportant as Ran? The guy didn’t even attract attention beyond his physical appearance. So he was good in school, so what? That still didn’t merit the amount of information Kritiker had on him. But then…

"Was there any information on his family?"

"Some on his parents, a bit more on his sister. Nothing very significant."

Ken scratched his head as he stood up, stretching cramped muscles, "Hmm, well it might just be that Kritiker became interested by studying the father. Ran would’ve stood out."

"Could be," answered the green eyed blond. "But still…"

"I know. You have his number, ne? Why don’t you try calling him?"

Yohji smirked, "This is the first time since I’ve known you that you have said something useful."

Ken glared, "I’m not the blonde one here."

"Shut up Kenken."

"Don’t call me that!"

"Kenken, what’re going to do about it?"

"Shut up freak, go call your boyfriend!"

"Are you jealous?"

"What?!?"

"Maybe want me to hit on you?"

"You’re sick. I would never sleep with someone as used as you."

"Ah, but that makes me better in bed."

"Ugh, I don’t need to hear this."

"Come on…"
Omi just sat there smiling as both boys kept on trying to insult each other. The smile faded when he started to think about Ran; why was Kritiker interested? Even after the fire, Manx had acted weird, as if she were hiding something. He was going to get some answers.

"Who the hell are you?"

To say that Ran was in a bad mood was a bit of an understatement. The redhead had been a prisoner of the hospital for about five days, if he had counted correctly. He couldn’t escape, and it wasn’t only because he felt bad with all the medication they were putting in him, but having him tied down in bed was beginning to be a bitch. It was ridiculous, one would think he was a public menace with the way they kept him doped up.

"Good morning Mr. Fujimiya. I hope you have enjoyed your stay with us."
Ran glared, "Bullshit."

"Well, we might have been a bit too harsh in our methods, but we had to understand how you could control such power."

Ran blinked. What the hell was this woman talking about? It made no sense.

"Power? Are you crazy?"

"About two weeks ago you witnessed a murder and, as a defense, unleashed the power that laid dormant within you. It almost cost our agents their lives, but they came out unscathed. However, you attracted too much attention with that little incident, thus we brought you here for your own protection."

Ran laughed, "I’m sure. If you were so self-sacrificing, how come I’m tied to this bed?"

The redheaded woman smiled before speaking, "I have a proposition for you. If you answer correctly, your leash will be a bit longer."

"What do you think?’

"Well, we don’t know. All the studies that were conducted came back inconclusive. If he has any sort of talent, it is very well hidden."

"A cloaking spell?"

"Perhaps…although we are not positive on the matter.’"

"How so?"

"Well, usually when a person is a pyrotechnic there are certain traces of it in the brain. Certain elements are different, such as a growth of the lower areas of the brain. However, none of these are present in the patient. There are no traces of any abnormalities; in other words he is perfect. It is only this lack of abnormalities that raises questions. Yet, who are we to question a person for being healthy and normal?"

A small laugh echoed throughout the room.

"You are right. Nonetheless, we still want him under observation."

"I know, but we can’t keep him here any longer. Somebody had proposed to put him into a team; that way we could monitor him."

Silence.

"How are we going to make him stay in a team? We have nothing to hold over his head."

"Yes we do." A new voice in the room said.

"What? Who are you?"

"Codename Manx, sir. I work under Persia."

Gray peppered eyebrows rose in faint amusement, "Oh? To what do we owe this honor?"

"Persia has become interested in the boy."

"How so? Does he realize that he belongs to us?"

Manx smiled, "Of course he does. You have made it painfully obvious, yet it will do you some good to remember that the only reason you were able to capture the boy was because Persia allowed it."

The old face became blotchy with barely contained anger. "Say what you have to say."
"Persia believes that the boy will disappear the moment we let him loose. With this concern in mind, we dug around his family history and have found out that his family was murdered when he was young."

"Do we know who did it?"

"Of course, sir."

The men in the room were silent, waiting for the name, but Manx wasn’t forthcoming with it.

"Okay…what does Persia want?"

"To bribe the boy. In return for his services in one of our teams, we give him the name."

"Any team in particular?"

"We are missing one person in Weiß. Mr. Fujimiya should fit in perfectly."

"Guys, I could use some help here."

"Sure chibi, I was just keeping our female customers entertained." The girls in question squealed in delight when the blonde flashed them his trademark grin.

Ken rolled his eyes, "How about keeping your coworkers happy? We do need help, besides it’s not fair that you should earn the same as we do and work less."

Yohji glared in his direction, "Better don’t mention that to Manx."

"Only if you’re nice to me."

"Guys, could you wait until we close shop to start your daily fight? Customers are waiting."

Yohji grinned as he adjusted his sunglasses on his nose, "Sure thing chibi, just keep the walking disaster away from me."

Omi smiled tightly as he saw Ken blush in anger. This was not his day.

It was time to close shop; Yohji was thanking all the deities out there for that. This had been a horrible day; the girls had been a bit crazier than usual. It was enough to drive a sane man crazy. Not that Yohji didn’t enjoy the attention, it was just that he had more pressing issues in his mind. Like where Ran had disappeared to. He had called everyday for the past week, only to have the answering machine pick up.

Walking out of the shop, he breathed the fresh air before tapping his box of cigarettes, removing one and putting it up to his lips. /Yeah, here I am Kudou Yohji, polluter of clean air. /

Chuckling a bit as he lit the cigarette, taking a deep drag before he heard a light tapping sound coming towards him.

"Hello, Kudou. Out for a night stroll?"

"What did I do to deserve such beautiful sight? You grow prettier by the day, Manx."
Manx smiled, "Keep your flattery for your customers."

Yohji pouted a bit before dropping the cigarette on the floor, "I’m wounded."

"I’m sure. Is everyone in?"

"Yes."

"Well then, come along."

Once they were in the basement of their house, Manx sat down on the sofa, looking pleased with herself.

"What?" asked Ken. Ken never handled it well when people tested him.

Sighing, the redhead got three manila envelopes out of her bag and placed them on the table, however, she kept her hand over them before speaking.

"Do all of you get along well?"

Three sets of eyes blinked at the randomness of the question.

"Of course we do, except when Kenken keeps his balls lying around the house. They’re dangerous."

Ken glared, "Well, with the amount of people you sleep with, I am sure death will not come from falling down a flight of stairs because of a ball."

Omi laughed nervously, "We do get along."
"Mmm, well then, in these envelopes I have the information for another team member. He’s pretty new at this so please make him feel at home."

Ken blinked, "A new team member? But we’re fine the way we are."

"Weiß was meant to be a four people team. The only reason there were three members was because we hadn’t found a person that was compatible with you guys. Now we have."
"Mmm, a new member. Is he cute?"

Manx blushed before clearing her throat, "Kudou, you should keep your hands off of him. This one doesn’t bark, but simply bites."

"I like biting."

Ken groaned, "I don’t need any mental pictures of this hentai."
"Hentai? Me? I’m not the one with the overactive imagination, Kenken."

Omi smiled a bit as he opened his envelope, "Not a dull day with those two." Looking at the picture his eyes widened, "Isn’t he…?"
Manx smiled, " I see you remember him."

"Wha…?" Ken and Yohji stopped at Omi’s perplexed expression.

"It’s him."

"Who…?"

"The guy from the building."

"Ran?"

Manx smiled, "Yes, Mr. Ran Fujimiya will be the fourth member of your group."

"Omi?"

"Huh?" Omi turned toward Ken, who was watching him with concern.

"You alright there, kiddo?"

"Yeah…Yes. I was just thinking."

Yohji smiled ruefully, "This is fucking ironic. Of all the people." He turned toward Manx, "Why is he joining us?"

Manx smiled and even though Yohji liked her, he knew. Manx had something up her sleeve, in his opinion all of Kritiker did, but he had no choice. And sadly, neither would Ran.

* Click *

Yohji turned off the television when Omi entered the room. Their living room was a complete disaster; maybe they should clean it before the new member arrived. There were bags of chips on the coffee table and floor. Games, balls, magazines, and candy wrappers were littered across the room. That wasn’t the worst of it; the room stank. Yohji was positive there was some food rotting around the room; it was just a question of finding it.

"It stinks."
Yohji nodded, "We should clean this room."

"Yeah, we will or he’ll hate us just by seeing the mess."

Yohji smiled, "The building’s fire was ruled an accident."

Omi stopped rubbing his eyes, "Well, that’s good to know. That must be Kritiker’s doing."

The older blond sighed as he rested his head on his hands. "Do you ever wonder?"

Yohji felt the sofa dip as the young boy sat beside him, "Wonder what Yohji-kun?"

"At what we’re doing? What we are? I met Ran almost a month ago, and he didn’t seem like the type of person to be an assassin."

Omi chuckled, lifting his hand to lay it over Yohji’s shoulder, "Neither do we."

"You know what I mean. What would make him turn from a normal life to this?"

Omi sighed, leaning close to the other man’s ear, "I think Kritiker is holding something over his head."
"Huh?"

"Well? Didn’t you see the way Manx smiled at you when you asked? Kritiker’s up to something."

"Like I don’t know already; there’s a reason why I’m here, you know."
Omi smiled, "Don’t worry, Yohji-kun; we’ll figure something out and then we will be free of this. I don’t want to kill anymore."

Yohji sighed, putting an arm around Omi’s shoulders. Ever since he had met the boy four years ago, he had hated Kritiker. How could they allow such a young boy to be an assassin? It was ridiculous.

"We will be free Omi, I promise you. I won’t let them use you anymore, or any of us. Even that idiot Ken."

Omi smiled, " You love Ken, you just won’t admit it."

"That is the part that scares me."
Omi laughed.

"Do you understand what’s needed from you?"

A glare was the answer.

Manx sighed before picking up the envelope and tossing it at Ran. "These are to be your new roommates and comrades. Please get along with them."

"You’re not making my life any easier, why should I make yours?"

Manx sighed. The boy was becoming a bit of a problem and he hadn’t been released yet from Kritiker.

"You have to understand that you will become an assassin. You will kill who we tell you to, and in exchange of that we will give you the name of who killed your family."

"How do I know you’re not lying to me? It is a possibility, with all the effort you people made in keeping me in your clutches. Letting the dog believe he’s free without actually being free, aren’t we?. Your bosses think they’re cunning."

Manx’s lips thinned in frustration, "What do you want?"

"An oath from you and your employers," said Ran, opening the envelope and shifting through the contents.

"An oath?"

"Yes. People in the past used to give them when they didn’t want the other party betraying them."

"So you believe we will betray you?"

Ran smiled wryly, "I know you will at the first chance you get."

"So what do you suggest?"

This time the redhead grinned; it was making Manx regret having asked the question.

" I want your employers to come see me and sign a paper."

Manx chuckled, "Ran.."

"I’m serious. I want them to come sign a paper…in blood."

Manx eyes widened, "Are you out of your mind?"

"They will agree if they want me to work for them. I will not become an assassin without this assurance, an oath that cannot be broken."

The redhead stood up, picking up her bag on her way out. She stood at the door, watching Ran look through the envelope files but not showing any emotions. This was a dangerous man; her employers didn’t know what they were getting into.

"I’ll talk with my employers, but I can’t promise you anything."

"I know."

Closing the door, Ran sat with an amused smile on his lips, "For the strong shall fall,

allowing the weak to grow."

TBC...