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Kyuuketsuki Duo
Episode XXV
Off
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	"I give up, woman.  What is your problem?"

	Meiran blinked her attention back to the present.  "Excuse me?"

	Wufei stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, forcing her to stop 
as well.  "This is the third time I've caught you spacing out since we 
got to school this morning.  Why?"

	"Don't you feel it, Wufei?"

	He was taken slightly aback, having expected her to respond 
sharply with her usual biting retort.  She was throwing the rhythm off 
by being all quiet and pensive.  "Feel what?"

	"Something's just... off."

	"Are you sure it's not just you?" he answered, trying to bring 
the conversation back to familiar ground.  Truth be told, he was 
slightly disturbed himself by the scent in the air, but had dismissed 
it, thinking it was only him.  He supposed it was natural, coming back 
to the city after a few days' absence.  All the tiny changes would be 
more noticeable then, and even more jarring to plunge back into the 
routine of daily life immediately after coming back from a small family 
gathering and his mother's funeral.

	She didn't rise to the bait.  "Duo didn't show up to school 
today."

	Wufei started walking again slowly back to their home.  "Perhaps 
he was preoccupied with his work."

	Meiran took a few swift steps to regain her position by his 
side.  "How often does he work during the day?"

	He shrugged.  "I'm sure it happens."

	"And Quatre.  He feels... different."  She made an exasperated 
sound when she caught the glance out of the corner of her eye.  "Don't 
you give me that strange look.  You're not the only one that can sense 
things, you know, and no, this isn't just some silly woman's intuition 
or something.  You know very well that I've always been able to feel the 
power, even better than you, when it comes to the subtle stuff, and it 
would just be ridiculous to deny it.  And especially now that Duo's 
given me some pointers."

	Wufei shut his mouth.  She had neatly countered all of his 
impending arguments before they had had a chance to be uttered, and all 
with the truth.  He recalled when they were children, when her family 
was still living near the compound.  He had been jealous of her ability 
at first, until it came to him as well.  Even then, she had always been 
better suited for the finer points of it all; however, Wufei had made it 
a point to rile her up enough that she rarely spent much time refining 
her skill.  But that was years ago, and they had moved beyond such 
pettiness.  Hopefully.  "Then perhaps you can tell me what's so 
different about him today," he replied mildly.

	There was a brief pause in her step as she tried to figure it 
out.  "I'm not sure.  He seemed more... collected, maybe."

	"He did indicate earlier that he was practicing a bit on his 
own.  Perhaps that would explain it."

	"Probably," she conceded.  "But there might be something else, 
too.  It just feels... not just different, but off-kilter somehow, you 
know?  And Trowa.  He just disappeared right after school, as soon as 
Quatre did."

	"Perhaps it's all just different... without all of our comrades 
together as always."  It slipped out from Wufei's lips without his 
really intending it to.  It was far too much like a confession that he 
actually enjoyed their company, but luckily, Meiran was enough of a lady 
to let it pass.

                              ************

	"So why are you here, anyway?" Quatre asked.  "Were you just... 
passing through?"

	Penny looked up from her book.  "It took you this long to ask?"

	He told himself firmly not to blush.  She was always able to 
needle him.  "It didn't seem important at the time.  Besides, it wasn't 
my business."

	She gave him a pointed look.  "It's still not your business."

	Quatre shrugged ruefully inside his head.  At least when this 
was all through, maybe he'd be able to stare down a charging bull 
without flinching.  "Perhaps.  If you don't want to tell me, then that's 
fine.  I thought that I'd at least earned the privilege of asking by 
now."

	She gave him one of her heavy, measuring stares before marking 
her place in the book and shutting it.  "I came here on the trail of 
something.  Something dangerous.  Something that has hurt people before, 
and will hurt them again."

	"Oh.  My."

	Penny snorted derisively.  She seemed to be endlessly amused by 
Quatre's mild temper and good manners.  "'Oh my' indeed."

	"Am I... distracting you from your search?" he asked 
considerately, although if he were really considerate, perhaps he could 
have found out about this sooner.  Then again, didn't he just say that 
he was being considerate by not asking earlier?  Sometimes good manners 
were such a bother.

	She snorted again.  "Don't flatter yourself, kid.  You haven't 
been my sole point of focus for these last few weeks, you know."

	Quatre caught himself grinding his teeth and stopped that 
immediately.  "You traced it to this area, then?"

	"Yes.  And it's still here.  And while it's here, I'm not going 
anywhere."

	"What is it?  Supernatural, I'm assuming."

	Penny looked cautiously at him, as if gauging his interest level 
to see if it fell within acceptable ranges.  "I'm not precisely certain 
what it is, but I know it's dangerous.  To put out this sort of energy, 
it has to be powerful."

	"What sort of energy?"

	"You probably don't sense it," she said, surprisingly not a drop 
of scorn in her voice.  "I can tell, it's been here for a while.  
Probably since before you developed your powers, so you probably just 
think it's normal, but I'm telling you, the way the energy has been 
pooling around here is not normal."

	It disturbed Quatre that something may have been going on right 
underneath his nose for a long period of time and he had not been aware 
of it in the slightest.  "Is that dangerous?"

	"Usually not.  But it's been in an unstable state of flux 
lately, and something must be happening to make it that way.  I could 
sense it even when I wasn't close to this area.  Anything powerful 
enough to mess with the local flows has got to be a menace to humanity.  
The fluctuations seem to be a recent phenomenon.  My guess would be that 
something big has moved into this area.  It could be something more 
flashy, less sinister, like someone just casting a major spell, but it 
doesn't seem nearly static or regular enough for something like that."

	"Something big...," Quatre repeated to himself, thinking through 
all the things it could be.  Would it be something that he ought to warn 
Duo or Wufei about?  Indeed, maybe Duo already knew about it.  That 
would explain his recent absences.  Maybe he was looking into it as 
well.  If it was as big as Penny thought, maybe they could all pool 
their resources and work together towards eliminating the threat.  And 
then maybe Quatre wouldn't feel so bad about feeling like he was hiding 
information from Penny.  But first, he would have to find out a little 
more about this disturbance.

	"So say it sticks around for a while.  And say you go out to 
deal with it.  Do you suppose you'd mind a little company?"  He was 
rather proud of the way he said that so casually, despite his real 
interest in the matter.

	A barely interested glance came his way.  "You offering?"

	He nodded.  "Unless you think it's more than I can handle, of 
course," he added.  Duo's admonishments came echoing back to him, but 
they warned him against taking things on by himself.  They said nothing 
about having trained accompaniment.  "I wouldn't want to get in your 
way.  But it would probably be a good experience.  I'd follow your lead, 
definitely.  I can take care of myself, I hope I've proved that.  So--"

	"Enough," she cut off exasperatedly.  "Enough already."  She 
opened her mouth to finish her answer, and from the expression on her 
face it didn't look promising for the boy, but then she stopped what she 
was about to say and gave her student a second appraising look that made 
Quatre resist squirming.  A small smile bloomed on her face.  "Now that 
you mention it, perhaps you can be useful to me in some way."

	Quatre smiled nervously in response.  This is not a mistake, he 
told himself.  Duo said to check in with him when dealing with any 
Shinma, but this wasn't a Shinma necessarily, and he wouldn't want to 
unnecessarily disturb the guardian.  Duo was a busy man.  And he wasn't 
rushing into things by himself, either.  In fact, he would probably just 
be playing backup to a woman who didn't need it.  Everything would be 
fine.  It'd be an educational experience.  He'd prove to himself, and to 
Duo and all the rest of them, that he could handle himself, that he'd 
come a long way from that innocent little boy that had had his powers 
seized by some slimy Shinma-priest-thing.

                              ************

	The floorboards hadn't creaked at all to give him away, yet just 
as he was about to head down the stairs, Meiran's bedroom door opened as 
if on cue.  "Where are you going?" she asked.  He obviously wasn't just 
going to get a drink of water, not dressed the way he was.

	Wufei didn't turn around at the sound of her voice.  "Out."

	"What have you sensed?"

	An automatic denial rose to his lips and died there, where 
before he might have let it out.  But before, he hadn't been re-exposed 
to his family.  The private gathering for his mother's service had 
reminded him of a few things: the number they had lost when Epyon had 
gotten free, the debt he still owed to all those lost and still living 
to rebind the demon, the burden he carried now as the technical head of 
the clan.  It made him tired and serious all over again.  "Something."

	"Something you're going to go out and deal with?"

	His silence confirmed her suspicion.

	"You're not going anywhere.  Not without me."  Her door was left 
open as she quickly ducked back inside her room, presumably to get 
herself ready to go with him.

	He recognized the stubborn tone of voice, and turned wearily 
around.  "Meiran, I'm just going to go check it out.  It'll probably be 
nothing, so stop your worrying."

	She drew the tie closed on her knapsack and looked up at him.  
"I'm not--"  She averted her eyes again, hugging her bag close.  
"Please, Wufei.  I just don't like knowing you're out there by 
yourself."  Normally she might comfort herself with the thought that Duo 
was probably out there somewhere, but they couldn't even be sure that he 
was in town.

	Her position reminded Wufei that she was nearly a member of the 
Chang family herself.  The gathering and funeral would have reminded her 
of a few things as well.  "Alright," he muttered, looking away.  "But 
don't do anything stupid."

_________________________________________
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been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 6/10/2002 00:48:58 PST