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FIC: Decisions, Part 3 (End)
Title: Decisions, Part 3
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Victor (reincarnation of Vesca)/Young Count
Word count: ~5,550
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Matsuri Akino. No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Daiki (last chapter ended here)
Summary: Victor returns with his report on D's father.
Part 1, Part 2
***
Victor returned to the shop a few weeks later, looking grave and troubled. He set a Madame C's pastry box down on the table, and very carefully laid down a fat manila envelope beside it, handling the envelope as if it were made out of glass--or as if it contained something explosive.
"This is my report," he said. "There's still a lot of mystery surrounding your old man, but I managed to find out how he died, along with some of his background. It's not pretty--in fact, some of it's downright ugly. Are you sure you still want the truth, D?"
D's heart beat a little faster, partly out of fear, and partly out of elation that Victor had finally called him by his name instead of his title. Though as a Count D, he should not want a human to be so insultingly familiar with him...and yet he did.
He took a deep breath, then answered Victor's question in a firm voice. "Yes, I do."
"Very well, then," Victor said, opening the envelope. "I got off to a slow start because I was looking for a petshop, and your father didn't run one."
"He didn't?" D asked incredulously. "But...that is our tradition. That is what we do."
"Yeah, well, your dad chose to break with the family tradition. Maybe that's partly why your grandfather doesn't like to talk about him."
"But if he didn't run a petshop, then what did he do?"
Victor pulled a college brochure out of the envelope. "He enrolled at S.U.N.Y. Albany over forty years ago, claiming to be a transfer student from Hong Kong."
"My father went to college?" D asked, leafing through the brochure. "What on earth did he study there?"
"Genetic engineering," Victor replied. "He worked as an assistant to a professor who was doing research in biotechnology. The professor got the official credit for some groundbreaking advances in the field, but I talked to some of his colleagues and students, and unofficially it seems that the work was actually done by your father, though he let his teacher take the credit." He pulled more papers out of the envelope and handed them to D. "Here are some copies of articles published under the professor's name."
D skimmed the articles, but found the technical and scientific terms bewildering. "I do not understand," he said, frowning. "Why would my father be involved with genetic engineering? The very idea of meddling with nature, of genetically altering a creature, is abhorrent to us. That is something that humans do." Victor raised his eyebrows, and D hastily added, "I mean, the people who arrogantly assume that humanity is the most important species on the planet, of course."
"But humans are the real monsters," Victor added, with bored air of someone echoing an oft-repeated phrase. "According to the people who knew him at the university, your father said that all the time, too."
"What was he doing with his research?" D prompted impatiently.
"Right; sorry," Victor apologized. "He told a few people that he was working on engineering a virus for the U.S. government. One of those people was a medical student named Vesca Howell, who joined the F.B.I. when he graduated."
There was a very odd look on Victor's face that D couldn't quite read. "I wasn't aware that a medical degree was a requirement for joining the F.B.I."
"It isn't," Victor replied. "He had been planning to become a doctor, but according to some of his old friends from S.U.N.Y., he became obsessed with the idea that Count D--that is, your dad--was up to no good, and that influenced his decision to go into law enforcement instead. He was convinced that your father was trying to create a biological weapon, an airborne plague that would target only humans."
D felt frozen in place, as if his blood had turned to ice. Yes, he hated how humanity had despoiled so much of the earth...but to wipe out an entire species? And there were a few humans that he liked--Chris Orcot, for one, and he even liked Agent Orcot's abrasive and foul-mouthed older brother. And of course there was Victor...especially Victor. He had known the detective for only a few short months, but he could not imagine living in a world without him.
"Hey, you okay?" Victor asked gently, laying a hand over D's, and the warmth of his touch thawed D slightly. "We can stop now if you want."
"No," D said faintly. "Please continue, Mr. Holland."
Victor squeezed D's hand comfortingly, but D felt rather disappointed when he released it a moment later. "Howell spent the next twenty years trying to track down your father," Victor continued briskly. "He worked on other cases, of course, but he never lost his obsession with Count D. In fact, it seems that he grew increasingly obsessed as the years went by."
"This sounds a little familiar," D murmured, and Victor smiled.
"Yeah, kinda like Detective Orcot and your brother," he said. "Only Orcot and Count D...um, your brother...managed to come to an understanding, and Howell and the older D never did. Although..." He hesitated for a moment. "Some of your father's and Howell's classmates thought that there might have been something going on between them--a flirtation, if nothing else. They always argued, but Count D spent more time with Howell than anyone else. They seem to have been friends before they became enemies. The classmates say that D was very popular at school, and that he was always unfailingly charming and polite with everyone--except Howell. With Howell, it seemed like he could let his guard down a bit enough to exchange cross words. They argued a lot, like I said, but Count D never stayed mad at him for long; it was more like he enjoyed teasing Howell by provoking him on purpose. As for Howell, he claimed that he found D arrogant and annoying, but he spent an awful lot of time in the company of someone that he supposedly didn't like."
"I see," D murmured, ducking his head to hide his smile as he thought to himself that Howell reminded him a bit of Victor. No doubt the comparison had occurred to Victor, too, and when D glanced up again, he expected to see a scowl on the detective's face. However, he still had that odd, troubled look on his face.
"There was another student at the university, a wealthy young man named Albert, who was infatuated with your father," Victor continued. "He tried to court D, without much success, but I was able to find out a few of the details you wanted to know through him. He wanted to woo the Count with special gifts, so he asked D what his favorite color and foods were. Your father's favorite color was blue, and his favorite food was chocolate--he was especially fond of chocolate-dipped strawberries, it seems."
"Chocolate like me, and strawberries like Father," D said, tears welling in his eyes. Victor offered him a handkerchief, and D accepted it with thanks, using it to dab at his eyes.
"He was also a vegetarian like you," Victor told D. "He never ate meat--called it 'barbaric'--and he was crazy about sweets in general, though chocolate was his favorite. Albert also said that your dad had eclectic tastes in music. He liked going to classical music concerts, but he'd also hum along with the latest pop tunes on the radio. Sometimes he'd go to movies or watch TV with the other students, but he always had this slightly detached air about him, like he was a sociologist studying some interesting foreign culture. Maybe it was just that American college life was novel compared to his life back in Hong Kong." He paused and added, with a bit of his usual suspicion, "If that's where he really came from."
D had managed to compose himself enough to respond innocently, "My family is originally from mainland China, but we have traveled all over the world."
"Uh-huh," Victor replied skeptically, then continued with his report. "I prepared a more detailed file on this Albert guy's background, in case you were interested, but he seems to have been peripheral to your father's life. Poor guy; he was way more interested in Count D than the Count was interested in him. He's married with kids and grandkids now, but he still thinks fondly of your father, and was happy to talk about his college days. He refuses to believe that his Count D was really a terrorist."
"Do you think that's true?" D asked hopefully. "Is it possible that Agent Howell was wrong about my father?"
"I'm afraid not," Victor said gently, shaking his head. "Albert has a somewhat romanticized and idealized image of your father. Do you still want to know how he died?"
D didn't trust himself to answer, so he nodded mutely, and Victor continued.
"So after leaving the university, your dad pretty much dropped off the radar for about two decades, although rumors of a Count D would crop up every now and then. Of course, most of those involve petshops, so they were probably about your grandfather and your brother rather than your father. Eventually Howell tracked 'Count D' down to L.A. shortly after your brother left his shop in Chinatown. My boss had to call in a favor from a friend at the F.B.I. to get this info, and some of it's classified, so I don't have the whole story. But I can give you the gist of what happened."
He paused, as if asking for permission to continue, and D nodded again. "Because of Detective Orcot's obsession with the L.A. Count, Howell allowed him to assist in the search for Count D. He was convinced that Orcot's Count and his old classmate were one and the same, even though the L.A. Count appeared to be in his early twenties. He claimed that their fingerprints were exactly the same, so they had to be the same man.
"Howell found evidence that the Count was in Colorado, and went there to arrest him. Orcot had to stay behind in L.A., since that was out of his jurisdiction. Howell managed to catch up with the Count and shot and wounded him, but the Count escaped by throwing himself off a cliff into the Colorado River. The local police said that no one could survive a fall from that height, but Howell was convinced that he was still alive. The Count had left behind a suitcase, and Howell said he was going to take it back to the Bureau for analysis while the locals continued the search for Count D's body. And that's when things start getting fuzzy.
"Howell never made it back to F.B.I. headquarters. Somehow he, Orcot, your brother, and your father all ended up in a private office building in L.A. It was owned by a dummy corporation that was traced back to your father; he seems to have been conducting his research there. The boss's contact isn't sure exactly what happened, but apparently your father threatened to unleash his biological weapon, and Orcot shot and killed him. Before he died, he triggered a bomb to destroy his lab, and Howell was killed in the blast. There was something kind of weird about that explosion--witnesses claimed that they saw ghostly images of mythical creatures flying out of the ruined building--dragons and flying horses and stuff like that. The F.B.I. said that there may have been some chemicals released in the explosion that caused the witnesses to hallucinate.
"At first it was thought that only Orcot made it out alive, but the younger Count's body was never found, and Orcot insisted that he was still alive. He even quit his job to look for him, and was proved right when he brought your brother back to L.A. with him two years later. The F.B.I. questioned your brother, but it was determined that he had been unaware of his father's terrorist activities, and he was let off with a warning. Of course, he does have friends in high places, including a former President. But Orcot has a reputation as a stand-up guy, and I don't think that he would be living with your brother if he was a terrorist."
"So it's true," D said numbly. "Detective Orcot killed my father." He had been half-expecting this all along, but the impact still hit him harder than he had thought it would.
"He did," Victor said quietly, reaching out to take D's hand again. "But it was in self-defense--and not just to save himself, but the entire human race, if your father's weapon did what it was supposed to. Though I know that you think most humans aren't worth saving."
"Most humans," D whispered, clutching at Victor's hand as if he were drowning and it was a lifeline. "But not all."
"Glad to hear that," Victor said with a genuine smile that eased D's pain just the slightest bit.
"So that is all?" D asked. "That is the entire story of my father's life and death?" It seemed so sad, that the sum of his father's life could fit into a single envelope, but on the other hand, D wasn't sure if he could handle any more.
The odd expression was back on Victor's face. "Well...not quite," he replied. He reached into the manila envelope with his free hand pulled out a photograph. "Albert gave me this picture of your father and some of his college friends, including Howell. He took it on a trip they all went on."
D recognized his father instantly, of course, but he was shocked to see the man standing next to him, scowling at the camera: a young man with a lanky build and spiky blond hair, who could have been Victor's twin brother.
He released Victor's hand to snatch up the picture and stare at it more closely, to see if his eyes had been deceiving him, but the image remained unchanged. He pointed at the blond man with one of his long, elegant fingernails and demanded more than asked, "This is Vesca Howell?"
"Yeah, it threw me for a loop, too," Victor replied. "When I met Albert, he thought I was Howell's son at first."
"But you aren't," D said, his voice hovering somewhere between a question and a statement.
Victor shook his head. "I'm not related to him at all. I even researched my family tree to see if we were second cousins twice removed or something, but as far as I can tell, we have no blood relation to each other. There's a saying that everyone in the world has a doppleganger, so maybe I'm Howell's. Although..." He hesitated.
"What is it?" D prompted.
"Well, I'm sure it's just a freaky coincidence, but I was born exactly nine months to the day after Howell was killed," Victor finished reluctantly.
"When I first met you, I felt as if I had known you before," D said, suddenly recalling their first meeting, which seemed hazy and dream-like to him now. "I called you a strange name that just popped into my head...it was 'Vesca'!"
"Yes, and I felt the same way," Victor agreed, still looking uncomfortable. "And for some reason, I called you 'Doc'. Your father was a scientist, a doctor of sorts, and, well...Albert said that 'Doc' was Howell's pet name for Count D."
"Perhaps...we knew each other in a previous life?" D suggested.
"What?!" Victor exclaimed, although from the expression on his face, he had considered this possibility, too. "You're a reincarnation of your dad, and I'm Howell's reincarnation? I don't believe in shit like that, and besides, weren't you born before your father died?"
"I'm not sure," D replied, frowning thoughtfully. "I was told only that my father died when I was a baby, but it is possible that I was born after he died, though probably not very long after." Father had explained how the Ds reproduced, by using their blood to generate a vine which would then grow and birth the new D. It was possible that with his last dying strength, the former Count D had created a child to...what? Become a receptacle for his soul? Or perhaps he had just wanted to create a child who would have a better chance at happiness than he and Howell had had.
"Hey, that reminds me," Victor said, breaking D's train of thought. "During all my research, I never found any mention of your mother, and there were no rumors of Count D having a wife or a lover."
"I do not need to know about my mother," D said, knowing that he couldn't tell Victor that he didn't have one--unless one counted the vine as a maternal parent. "Her identity is not in question. It was only my father that I knew nothing about."
"Well, you're the client," Victor said with a shrug, although he was obviously still curious about D's non-existent mother. "There's a written report in the envelope, but I've covered just about everything. So...what are you gonna do now, D?"
"Yes, child, what are you going to do?" a smooth, dulcet voice asked. D looked up to see Father standing in the doorway. He was wearing the illusion that made him appear to be older, if not quite the proper age for a grandfather--a few lines on his face, and a few streaks of gray in his otherwise raven-black hair.
Father's golden eyes transfixed D's with an intense, piercing gaze. "Will you take revenge upon Detective Orcot, and thereby break your brother's heart?" he asked, his voice still smooth, but taut with tension now. "Will you make war with your kin? Your brother, I believe, could not bring himself to harm you no matter what you did, but..." He paused, then switched to Mandarin so that Victor could not understand. "Daiki acts sweet and gentle, but he has some of his human father's fire within him. If you harm Leon, he will come after you with a vengeance, probably with the wolf, the kitsune, and the Tou-Tet, not to mention his own personal dragon bodyguard..."
Victor might not have been able to follow all of Father's words, but the part that he'd heard in English was enough to alarm him. "Hey, wait a minute!" he exclaimed. "I know that you're upset, D, but you can't go taking revenge on a police officer! If you try to hurt Orcot, every cop in L.A. will be gunning for you! Not to mention that Orcot's an experienced cop--if you try to kill him, he might end up shooting you instead!"
"Like he did my father," D whispered, and Victor turned pale.
"D..." he said helplessly.
"My dear child," Father said, his gaze and voice gentling now. "If you wish to blame someone for your birth father's death, blame me. For it was I who drove my son into obsession and madness."
"I do not understand," D said, staring pleadingly at Father, silently begging him for some way to make sense of what he'd just learned, and to come to terms with it.
"Your father was in love with Vesca," Father said, his face shadowed with grief and pain. He suddenly looked decades older, and D didn't think it had anything to do with the illusion he was wearing for Victor's sake. "But I forbade that romance, because I thought it would interfere with..." His eyes flickered towards Victor for a moment, and he paused before finishing, "...the family business."
"You did not want him to take a human mate," D said in Mandarin, as Victor stared at them suspiciously.
"Yes," Father replied in English. "I had not approved of him attending university in the first place; I wanted him to take over the shop as I had from my father, and his father before him. But my son was convinced that he could use human science to mend some of the harm that humans had done to nature."
"So he had good intentions when he started at S.U.N.Y.," Victor murmured, more to himself than the eldest Count, and D was surprised when Father acknowledged the human's words and nodded.
"But when I ended his romance before it had even really begun, something snapped in my son's mind, and he went a little mad. The Count Ds have always been interested in, ah, protecting nature, but my son took that to an unhealthy extreme, and became obsessed with creating the virus that he told Vesca about--a virus that would destroy all humanity and leave the earth solely to the plants and animals that it truly belonged to."
"Wouldn't the virus have killed him as well, not to mention the rest of his family?" Victor asked, but there was a speculative look on his face, as if he were wondering if the Ds were really human.
"At that point, I do not think that he cared about his life or anyone else's," Father replied. "Which is why I took his young son, the one that you know of as the L.A. Count D, into my care, because I feared for his safety. Which only gave my son another reason to hate me." He sighed wearily, and turned to address D. "I was not the loving father to him that I was to you, child. I loved him, of course, but perhaps I did not show it as well as I should have. I was very strict with him, always emphasizing how he must do his duty and carry on the family business. I denigrated his interest in science, but he enrolled at the university against my wishes. He was always a rebellious child." The eldest D's lips curved in a smile filled with both fondness and sorrow.
"Then why did he not rebel further and take Vesca Howell as his lover?" D asked, and Father's smile faded.
"Going to university was just a small rebellion. In the end, he heeded my orders about Vesca, but he hated me for it, and he never forgave me. Ironically, I may not have needed to incur his wrath, for Vesca was a rather narrow-minded man. I do not believe that he could have accepted my son wholeheartedly, with all of the...ah...complications that came with him."
"Like being a man?" Victor asked wryly.
"That, among other things," Father replied. To D, he said, "I tried to atone for my mistakes with you, child. I tried to raise you with more affection and freedom than I gave your father."
"You have been a good parent to me," D assured him loyally. "I have always felt loved and happy growing up. I wanted to know the truth about my birth father, but I am sorry to have brought back painful memories for you."
"It is I who should apologize, child," Father said, with a humility that D had never seen before. "I told myself that I was trying to protect you, but perhaps it was only myself that I was trying to protect...I feared that you would think less of me for the mistakes that I made with your father, and I feared to have my family torn in two if you should decide to seek revenge upon your brother's lover."
D's confusion and pain was replaced by a wave of tenderness and compassion for the man who had truly been a father to him. "I do not think less of you," he said, reaching out to take the old Count's hands in his. "I think more of you for raising me with such love and care, and for trying to make up for your past mistakes. That is why you did not interfere when my brother chose Detective Orcot as his mate, is it not? You did not approve, but still, you let him choose his own path and find his own happiness." Father nodded, with unshed tears glistening in his eyes, and D continued, "Do not fear--I will not seek revenge on the Detective. I mourn my father's death, and also his unhappy life, but I do not wish to cause more pain and suffering for my brother and Daiki...and you, Father." He switched to Mandarin for a moment and added, "And you are allowing me to choose my path as well, aren't you? That is why you are here, in human form, discussing personal family matters in front of Victor." Until this day, D would never have dreamed that Father would do such a thing.
Father nodded, squeezing D's hands gently. "I wish you happiness and joy, child, in whatever path you choose." His eyes flickered towards Victor and back again, and gave D a resigned smile. "Even if it is not the path that I would have chosen for you."
Victor blushed and mumbled, "Hey, I think we're kinda getting ahead of ourselves here..."
Father glared at him indignantly, as if offended that this mere mortal did not appreciate the incredible honor that had just been bestowed upon him, and D could not help but laugh, which caused both Victor and Father to forget their other concerns and gaze at him with relief.
"I am not ready to make such a momentous decision just yet, Father," D laughed. "But I am glad that I have the freedom to choose, and gladder still that I have your blessing."
Just then, a familiar aura of power swept over the shop. From the way that Father flinched, D could see that he felt it, too, although Victor didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. The doors to the shop began to swing open, and a cheerful voice sang out, "I brought a strawberry cheesecake for you today, Sofu!"
But apparently, even strawberries were not enough to tempt Father into spending time with the Kirin, because he got a frantic look in his golden eyes and hissed, "Tell him I'm not home!"
Father fled into the back rooms as Souki entered the shop with a large pastry box. "Hello, Count D," he said pleasantly.
D bowed respectfully and said, "Good day, Lord Souki. Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Holland, the detective that I told you about. Mr. Holland, this is Lord Souki, who is a very good friend of my brother."
"Nice to meet you," Victor said, rising to his feet and extending his hand; the Kirin shook it firmly.
"It's nice to meet you as well," Souki replied, then smiled at D. "Does this mean that you found out what you wished to know about your father?"
"I did," D said.
"And what will you do with that information now?" Souki asked. He wore a carefully polite and pleasant smile on his face that revealed nothing of his true feelings, not even to a kami who was trained to read the innermost desires of men and women.
"Nothing," D replied. "As you warned, I discovered some painful truths about my father, but I do not wish to avenge his death. I only wished to know the whole truth about my father so that I might understand him and mourn for him properly. And perhaps so that I could learn from his mistakes, and not repeat them myself."
Souki's smile seemed more genuine as he said, "I am glad, for both your sake and your brother's. How fortunate that I brought this to celebrate, then." He held up the pastry box. "Is your grandfather in?"
D did not dare to lie directly to the most senior of the Kirin. "Well..." he hedged. "Father is a bit indisposed at the moment."
"This strawberry cheesecake will make him feel better in no time," Souki said confidently, then headed for the back rooms, calling out, "Yoo hoo, Sofu, I know you're in there! It's useless to hide from me--I can read minds, remember?"
"Is that guy a psychic or something?" Victor asked as Souki went off in search of Father.
"Ah...something like that," D replied. Victor was becoming more receptive to the realities of the petshop, but he didn't think that the detective was ready to believe in the existence of a Kirin just yet.
Victor just smiled and shook his head. "You sure know some interesting people, Count. By the way, what was it that he was calling your grandfather--Sofu? Is that his real name?"
"It is a nickname of sorts," D explained. "It is Japanese for 'grandfather,' and that was what my elder brother called him when they were living in Japan for much of my brother's childhood. Because it gets a little confusing when more than one Count D is present at the same time, Detective Orcot and his family started referring to Father as 'Sofu D,' and Lord Souki has also picked up that habit."
"You can say that again!" Victor exclaimed. "The confusing part, I mean! It got really confusing at times when I was talking to that Albert guy about you and your dad and your grandpa. Whose bright idea was it to give everybody in the family the same name, anyway? Doesn't it get kind of awkward at family dinners, like if someone says 'D' and all three of you look up?"
"I suppose it was my ancestor's idea originally, the very first Count D," D laughed. "I do not know why, though. Perhaps to emphasize the importance of carrying on the family tradition of caring for the shop over our individual desires."
Victor frowned. "Well, this may be my biased American viewpoint, but I think that you oughta be free to do as you like, and not be tied down to what your great-to-the-umpteenth-power-grandfather decided before you were even born."
"Father has given me his blessing to choose my own path," D reminded him. "I am content to run the shop, but I thank you for your concern..." He was about to say "Mr. Holland," but at the last second, decided instead on "Victor."
The detective flushed, looking pleased that D had called him by his first name. "So is there some nickname that you have, D, to distinguish between you and the other Counts?"
"Hmm," D mused thoughtfully. "I do not, but there is no reason why I cannot choose one for myself. Why don't you call me 'Shiro'? 'Shi' means 'four' in Japanese, and 'ro' is a common suffix for a boy's name, so 'Shiro' is a name often given to the fourth son in a family. And I am the fourth Count D, after my grandfather, my late father, and my elder brother."
"Shiro," Victor said experimentally, trying the name out. "Shiro...that has a nice ring to it. So I can call you that from now on?"
D nodded. "It pleases me that you have a special pet name to call me by," he teased, and Victor turned beet-red.
"Hey, that's not what I meant," the detective grumbled, but he looked rather pleased with himself, albeit in a sheepish manner.
"Detective Orcot also complains that it is confusing to have three Count Ds," D said, smiling mischievously. "He calls me 'Count Junior' behind my back, although he thinks that I don't know about it. At least this will give him a more dignified name to call me by."
"Hey, I thought it was my special pet name," Victor said jealously, in a voice that was only half-joking.
D leaned over and purred seductively into Victor's ear, "It is special, because I chose it for you."
Victor turned red again and said hoarsely, "Well, I guess it's okay, then."
In a more serious voice, D said, "Thank you, Victor, for discovering the truth for me, and for giving me my freedom. Though the truth was sad, I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from me."
"Well, I was just doing my job," Victor mumbled modestly. "I didn't really--"
He never finished his words, because D leaned over and kissed him in the middle of his sentence. Victor didn't seem to mind, though; after a few seconds in which he was too stunned to react, he recovered and began returning the kiss with enthusiasm.
***
A few minutes later, Souki came back out into the lobby, pastry box still in one hand, and a small, squirming babbit clutched firmly in the other. "I found Q-chan!" he announced. "Now we can have our cheese--" Then he laughed as he caught sight of the couple entwined on the couch.
"Well, I guess we shouldn't disturb them," Souki whispered to Q-chan. "But on the bright side, there's more cheesecake for us, right?"
"Kyuu," Q-chan squeaked resignedly as Souki turned and headed back down the corridors of the petshop, humming a cheery love song under his breath.
THE END.
***
Afterword: I must offer special thanks to N. Ranken, from the Pet Shop of Horrors Fanfiction Yahoo Group, who suggested the nickname of "Shiro" for the young Count when I complained about how confusing it got writing about 3 Count Ds at the same time while I was working on "Daiki". ^_^
Victor returned to the shop a few weeks later, looking grave and troubled. He set a Madame C's pastry box down on the table, and very carefully laid down a fat manila envelope beside it, handling the envelope as if it were made out of glass--or as if it contained something explosive.
"This is my report," he said. "There's still a lot of mystery surrounding your old man, but I managed to find out how he died, along with some of his background. It's not pretty--in fact, some of it's downright ugly. Are you sure you still want the truth, D?"
D's heart beat a little faster, partly out of fear, and partly out of elation that Victor had finally called him by his name instead of his title. Though as a Count D, he should not want a human to be so insultingly familiar with him...and yet he did.
He took a deep breath, then answered Victor's question in a firm voice. "Yes, I do."
"Very well, then," Victor said, opening the envelope. "I got off to a slow start because I was looking for a petshop, and your father didn't run one."
"He didn't?" D asked incredulously. "But...that is our tradition. That is what we do."
"Yeah, well, your dad chose to break with the family tradition. Maybe that's partly why your grandfather doesn't like to talk about him."
"But if he didn't run a petshop, then what did he do?"
Victor pulled a college brochure out of the envelope. "He enrolled at S.U.N.Y. Albany over forty years ago, claiming to be a transfer student from Hong Kong."
"My father went to college?" D asked, leafing through the brochure. "What on earth did he study there?"
"Genetic engineering," Victor replied. "He worked as an assistant to a professor who was doing research in biotechnology. The professor got the official credit for some groundbreaking advances in the field, but I talked to some of his colleagues and students, and unofficially it seems that the work was actually done by your father, though he let his teacher take the credit." He pulled more papers out of the envelope and handed them to D. "Here are some copies of articles published under the professor's name."
D skimmed the articles, but found the technical and scientific terms bewildering. "I do not understand," he said, frowning. "Why would my father be involved with genetic engineering? The very idea of meddling with nature, of genetically altering a creature, is abhorrent to us. That is something that humans do." Victor raised his eyebrows, and D hastily added, "I mean, the people who arrogantly assume that humanity is the most important species on the planet, of course."
"But humans are the real monsters," Victor added, with bored air of someone echoing an oft-repeated phrase. "According to the people who knew him at the university, your father said that all the time, too."
"What was he doing with his research?" D prompted impatiently.
"Right; sorry," Victor apologized. "He told a few people that he was working on engineering a virus for the U.S. government. One of those people was a medical student named Vesca Howell, who joined the F.B.I. when he graduated."
There was a very odd look on Victor's face that D couldn't quite read. "I wasn't aware that a medical degree was a requirement for joining the F.B.I."
"It isn't," Victor replied. "He had been planning to become a doctor, but according to some of his old friends from S.U.N.Y., he became obsessed with the idea that Count D--that is, your dad--was up to no good, and that influenced his decision to go into law enforcement instead. He was convinced that your father was trying to create a biological weapon, an airborne plague that would target only humans."
D felt frozen in place, as if his blood had turned to ice. Yes, he hated how humanity had despoiled so much of the earth...but to wipe out an entire species? And there were a few humans that he liked--Chris Orcot, for one, and he even liked Agent Orcot's abrasive and foul-mouthed older brother. And of course there was Victor...especially Victor. He had known the detective for only a few short months, but he could not imagine living in a world without him.
"Hey, you okay?" Victor asked gently, laying a hand over D's, and the warmth of his touch thawed D slightly. "We can stop now if you want."
"No," D said faintly. "Please continue, Mr. Holland."
Victor squeezed D's hand comfortingly, but D felt rather disappointed when he released it a moment later. "Howell spent the next twenty years trying to track down your father," Victor continued briskly. "He worked on other cases, of course, but he never lost his obsession with Count D. In fact, it seems that he grew increasingly obsessed as the years went by."
"This sounds a little familiar," D murmured, and Victor smiled.
"Yeah, kinda like Detective Orcot and your brother," he said. "Only Orcot and Count D...um, your brother...managed to come to an understanding, and Howell and the older D never did. Although..." He hesitated for a moment. "Some of your father's and Howell's classmates thought that there might have been something going on between them--a flirtation, if nothing else. They always argued, but Count D spent more time with Howell than anyone else. They seem to have been friends before they became enemies. The classmates say that D was very popular at school, and that he was always unfailingly charming and polite with everyone--except Howell. With Howell, it seemed like he could let his guard down a bit enough to exchange cross words. They argued a lot, like I said, but Count D never stayed mad at him for long; it was more like he enjoyed teasing Howell by provoking him on purpose. As for Howell, he claimed that he found D arrogant and annoying, but he spent an awful lot of time in the company of someone that he supposedly didn't like."
"I see," D murmured, ducking his head to hide his smile as he thought to himself that Howell reminded him a bit of Victor. No doubt the comparison had occurred to Victor, too, and when D glanced up again, he expected to see a scowl on the detective's face. However, he still had that odd, troubled look on his face.
"There was another student at the university, a wealthy young man named Albert, who was infatuated with your father," Victor continued. "He tried to court D, without much success, but I was able to find out a few of the details you wanted to know through him. He wanted to woo the Count with special gifts, so he asked D what his favorite color and foods were. Your father's favorite color was blue, and his favorite food was chocolate--he was especially fond of chocolate-dipped strawberries, it seems."
"Chocolate like me, and strawberries like Father," D said, tears welling in his eyes. Victor offered him a handkerchief, and D accepted it with thanks, using it to dab at his eyes.
"He was also a vegetarian like you," Victor told D. "He never ate meat--called it 'barbaric'--and he was crazy about sweets in general, though chocolate was his favorite. Albert also said that your dad had eclectic tastes in music. He liked going to classical music concerts, but he'd also hum along with the latest pop tunes on the radio. Sometimes he'd go to movies or watch TV with the other students, but he always had this slightly detached air about him, like he was a sociologist studying some interesting foreign culture. Maybe it was just that American college life was novel compared to his life back in Hong Kong." He paused and added, with a bit of his usual suspicion, "If that's where he really came from."
D had managed to compose himself enough to respond innocently, "My family is originally from mainland China, but we have traveled all over the world."
"Uh-huh," Victor replied skeptically, then continued with his report. "I prepared a more detailed file on this Albert guy's background, in case you were interested, but he seems to have been peripheral to your father's life. Poor guy; he was way more interested in Count D than the Count was interested in him. He's married with kids and grandkids now, but he still thinks fondly of your father, and was happy to talk about his college days. He refuses to believe that his Count D was really a terrorist."
"Do you think that's true?" D asked hopefully. "Is it possible that Agent Howell was wrong about my father?"
"I'm afraid not," Victor said gently, shaking his head. "Albert has a somewhat romanticized and idealized image of your father. Do you still want to know how he died?"
D didn't trust himself to answer, so he nodded mutely, and Victor continued.
"So after leaving the university, your dad pretty much dropped off the radar for about two decades, although rumors of a Count D would crop up every now and then. Of course, most of those involve petshops, so they were probably about your grandfather and your brother rather than your father. Eventually Howell tracked 'Count D' down to L.A. shortly after your brother left his shop in Chinatown. My boss had to call in a favor from a friend at the F.B.I. to get this info, and some of it's classified, so I don't have the whole story. But I can give you the gist of what happened."
He paused, as if asking for permission to continue, and D nodded again. "Because of Detective Orcot's obsession with the L.A. Count, Howell allowed him to assist in the search for Count D. He was convinced that Orcot's Count and his old classmate were one and the same, even though the L.A. Count appeared to be in his early twenties. He claimed that their fingerprints were exactly the same, so they had to be the same man.
"Howell found evidence that the Count was in Colorado, and went there to arrest him. Orcot had to stay behind in L.A., since that was out of his jurisdiction. Howell managed to catch up with the Count and shot and wounded him, but the Count escaped by throwing himself off a cliff into the Colorado River. The local police said that no one could survive a fall from that height, but Howell was convinced that he was still alive. The Count had left behind a suitcase, and Howell said he was going to take it back to the Bureau for analysis while the locals continued the search for Count D's body. And that's when things start getting fuzzy.
"Howell never made it back to F.B.I. headquarters. Somehow he, Orcot, your brother, and your father all ended up in a private office building in L.A. It was owned by a dummy corporation that was traced back to your father; he seems to have been conducting his research there. The boss's contact isn't sure exactly what happened, but apparently your father threatened to unleash his biological weapon, and Orcot shot and killed him. Before he died, he triggered a bomb to destroy his lab, and Howell was killed in the blast. There was something kind of weird about that explosion--witnesses claimed that they saw ghostly images of mythical creatures flying out of the ruined building--dragons and flying horses and stuff like that. The F.B.I. said that there may have been some chemicals released in the explosion that caused the witnesses to hallucinate.
"At first it was thought that only Orcot made it out alive, but the younger Count's body was never found, and Orcot insisted that he was still alive. He even quit his job to look for him, and was proved right when he brought your brother back to L.A. with him two years later. The F.B.I. questioned your brother, but it was determined that he had been unaware of his father's terrorist activities, and he was let off with a warning. Of course, he does have friends in high places, including a former President. But Orcot has a reputation as a stand-up guy, and I don't think that he would be living with your brother if he was a terrorist."
"So it's true," D said numbly. "Detective Orcot killed my father." He had been half-expecting this all along, but the impact still hit him harder than he had thought it would.
"He did," Victor said quietly, reaching out to take D's hand again. "But it was in self-defense--and not just to save himself, but the entire human race, if your father's weapon did what it was supposed to. Though I know that you think most humans aren't worth saving."
"Most humans," D whispered, clutching at Victor's hand as if he were drowning and it was a lifeline. "But not all."
"Glad to hear that," Victor said with a genuine smile that eased D's pain just the slightest bit.
"So that is all?" D asked. "That is the entire story of my father's life and death?" It seemed so sad, that the sum of his father's life could fit into a single envelope, but on the other hand, D wasn't sure if he could handle any more.
The odd expression was back on Victor's face. "Well...not quite," he replied. He reached into the manila envelope with his free hand pulled out a photograph. "Albert gave me this picture of your father and some of his college friends, including Howell. He took it on a trip they all went on."
D recognized his father instantly, of course, but he was shocked to see the man standing next to him, scowling at the camera: a young man with a lanky build and spiky blond hair, who could have been Victor's twin brother.
He released Victor's hand to snatch up the picture and stare at it more closely, to see if his eyes had been deceiving him, but the image remained unchanged. He pointed at the blond man with one of his long, elegant fingernails and demanded more than asked, "This is Vesca Howell?"
"Yeah, it threw me for a loop, too," Victor replied. "When I met Albert, he thought I was Howell's son at first."
"But you aren't," D said, his voice hovering somewhere between a question and a statement.
Victor shook his head. "I'm not related to him at all. I even researched my family tree to see if we were second cousins twice removed or something, but as far as I can tell, we have no blood relation to each other. There's a saying that everyone in the world has a doppleganger, so maybe I'm Howell's. Although..." He hesitated.
"What is it?" D prompted.
"Well, I'm sure it's just a freaky coincidence, but I was born exactly nine months to the day after Howell was killed," Victor finished reluctantly.
"When I first met you, I felt as if I had known you before," D said, suddenly recalling their first meeting, which seemed hazy and dream-like to him now. "I called you a strange name that just popped into my head...it was 'Vesca'!"
"Yes, and I felt the same way," Victor agreed, still looking uncomfortable. "And for some reason, I called you 'Doc'. Your father was a scientist, a doctor of sorts, and, well...Albert said that 'Doc' was Howell's pet name for Count D."
"Perhaps...we knew each other in a previous life?" D suggested.
"What?!" Victor exclaimed, although from the expression on his face, he had considered this possibility, too. "You're a reincarnation of your dad, and I'm Howell's reincarnation? I don't believe in shit like that, and besides, weren't you born before your father died?"
"I'm not sure," D replied, frowning thoughtfully. "I was told only that my father died when I was a baby, but it is possible that I was born after he died, though probably not very long after." Father had explained how the Ds reproduced, by using their blood to generate a vine which would then grow and birth the new D. It was possible that with his last dying strength, the former Count D had created a child to...what? Become a receptacle for his soul? Or perhaps he had just wanted to create a child who would have a better chance at happiness than he and Howell had had.
"Hey, that reminds me," Victor said, breaking D's train of thought. "During all my research, I never found any mention of your mother, and there were no rumors of Count D having a wife or a lover."
"I do not need to know about my mother," D said, knowing that he couldn't tell Victor that he didn't have one--unless one counted the vine as a maternal parent. "Her identity is not in question. It was only my father that I knew nothing about."
"Well, you're the client," Victor said with a shrug, although he was obviously still curious about D's non-existent mother. "There's a written report in the envelope, but I've covered just about everything. So...what are you gonna do now, D?"
"Yes, child, what are you going to do?" a smooth, dulcet voice asked. D looked up to see Father standing in the doorway. He was wearing the illusion that made him appear to be older, if not quite the proper age for a grandfather--a few lines on his face, and a few streaks of gray in his otherwise raven-black hair.
Father's golden eyes transfixed D's with an intense, piercing gaze. "Will you take revenge upon Detective Orcot, and thereby break your brother's heart?" he asked, his voice still smooth, but taut with tension now. "Will you make war with your kin? Your brother, I believe, could not bring himself to harm you no matter what you did, but..." He paused, then switched to Mandarin so that Victor could not understand. "Daiki acts sweet and gentle, but he has some of his human father's fire within him. If you harm Leon, he will come after you with a vengeance, probably with the wolf, the kitsune, and the Tou-Tet, not to mention his own personal dragon bodyguard..."
Victor might not have been able to follow all of Father's words, but the part that he'd heard in English was enough to alarm him. "Hey, wait a minute!" he exclaimed. "I know that you're upset, D, but you can't go taking revenge on a police officer! If you try to hurt Orcot, every cop in L.A. will be gunning for you! Not to mention that Orcot's an experienced cop--if you try to kill him, he might end up shooting you instead!"
"Like he did my father," D whispered, and Victor turned pale.
"D..." he said helplessly.
"My dear child," Father said, his gaze and voice gentling now. "If you wish to blame someone for your birth father's death, blame me. For it was I who drove my son into obsession and madness."
"I do not understand," D said, staring pleadingly at Father, silently begging him for some way to make sense of what he'd just learned, and to come to terms with it.
"Your father was in love with Vesca," Father said, his face shadowed with grief and pain. He suddenly looked decades older, and D didn't think it had anything to do with the illusion he was wearing for Victor's sake. "But I forbade that romance, because I thought it would interfere with..." His eyes flickered towards Victor for a moment, and he paused before finishing, "...the family business."
"You did not want him to take a human mate," D said in Mandarin, as Victor stared at them suspiciously.
"Yes," Father replied in English. "I had not approved of him attending university in the first place; I wanted him to take over the shop as I had from my father, and his father before him. But my son was convinced that he could use human science to mend some of the harm that humans had done to nature."
"So he had good intentions when he started at S.U.N.Y.," Victor murmured, more to himself than the eldest Count, and D was surprised when Father acknowledged the human's words and nodded.
"But when I ended his romance before it had even really begun, something snapped in my son's mind, and he went a little mad. The Count Ds have always been interested in, ah, protecting nature, but my son took that to an unhealthy extreme, and became obsessed with creating the virus that he told Vesca about--a virus that would destroy all humanity and leave the earth solely to the plants and animals that it truly belonged to."
"Wouldn't the virus have killed him as well, not to mention the rest of his family?" Victor asked, but there was a speculative look on his face, as if he were wondering if the Ds were really human.
"At that point, I do not think that he cared about his life or anyone else's," Father replied. "Which is why I took his young son, the one that you know of as the L.A. Count D, into my care, because I feared for his safety. Which only gave my son another reason to hate me." He sighed wearily, and turned to address D. "I was not the loving father to him that I was to you, child. I loved him, of course, but perhaps I did not show it as well as I should have. I was very strict with him, always emphasizing how he must do his duty and carry on the family business. I denigrated his interest in science, but he enrolled at the university against my wishes. He was always a rebellious child." The eldest D's lips curved in a smile filled with both fondness and sorrow.
"Then why did he not rebel further and take Vesca Howell as his lover?" D asked, and Father's smile faded.
"Going to university was just a small rebellion. In the end, he heeded my orders about Vesca, but he hated me for it, and he never forgave me. Ironically, I may not have needed to incur his wrath, for Vesca was a rather narrow-minded man. I do not believe that he could have accepted my son wholeheartedly, with all of the...ah...complications that came with him."
"Like being a man?" Victor asked wryly.
"That, among other things," Father replied. To D, he said, "I tried to atone for my mistakes with you, child. I tried to raise you with more affection and freedom than I gave your father."
"You have been a good parent to me," D assured him loyally. "I have always felt loved and happy growing up. I wanted to know the truth about my birth father, but I am sorry to have brought back painful memories for you."
"It is I who should apologize, child," Father said, with a humility that D had never seen before. "I told myself that I was trying to protect you, but perhaps it was only myself that I was trying to protect...I feared that you would think less of me for the mistakes that I made with your father, and I feared to have my family torn in two if you should decide to seek revenge upon your brother's lover."
D's confusion and pain was replaced by a wave of tenderness and compassion for the man who had truly been a father to him. "I do not think less of you," he said, reaching out to take the old Count's hands in his. "I think more of you for raising me with such love and care, and for trying to make up for your past mistakes. That is why you did not interfere when my brother chose Detective Orcot as his mate, is it not? You did not approve, but still, you let him choose his own path and find his own happiness." Father nodded, with unshed tears glistening in his eyes, and D continued, "Do not fear--I will not seek revenge on the Detective. I mourn my father's death, and also his unhappy life, but I do not wish to cause more pain and suffering for my brother and Daiki...and you, Father." He switched to Mandarin for a moment and added, "And you are allowing me to choose my path as well, aren't you? That is why you are here, in human form, discussing personal family matters in front of Victor." Until this day, D would never have dreamed that Father would do such a thing.
Father nodded, squeezing D's hands gently. "I wish you happiness and joy, child, in whatever path you choose." His eyes flickered towards Victor and back again, and gave D a resigned smile. "Even if it is not the path that I would have chosen for you."
Victor blushed and mumbled, "Hey, I think we're kinda getting ahead of ourselves here..."
Father glared at him indignantly, as if offended that this mere mortal did not appreciate the incredible honor that had just been bestowed upon him, and D could not help but laugh, which caused both Victor and Father to forget their other concerns and gaze at him with relief.
"I am not ready to make such a momentous decision just yet, Father," D laughed. "But I am glad that I have the freedom to choose, and gladder still that I have your blessing."
Just then, a familiar aura of power swept over the shop. From the way that Father flinched, D could see that he felt it, too, although Victor didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. The doors to the shop began to swing open, and a cheerful voice sang out, "I brought a strawberry cheesecake for you today, Sofu!"
But apparently, even strawberries were not enough to tempt Father into spending time with the Kirin, because he got a frantic look in his golden eyes and hissed, "Tell him I'm not home!"
Father fled into the back rooms as Souki entered the shop with a large pastry box. "Hello, Count D," he said pleasantly.
D bowed respectfully and said, "Good day, Lord Souki. Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Holland, the detective that I told you about. Mr. Holland, this is Lord Souki, who is a very good friend of my brother."
"Nice to meet you," Victor said, rising to his feet and extending his hand; the Kirin shook it firmly.
"It's nice to meet you as well," Souki replied, then smiled at D. "Does this mean that you found out what you wished to know about your father?"
"I did," D said.
"And what will you do with that information now?" Souki asked. He wore a carefully polite and pleasant smile on his face that revealed nothing of his true feelings, not even to a kami who was trained to read the innermost desires of men and women.
"Nothing," D replied. "As you warned, I discovered some painful truths about my father, but I do not wish to avenge his death. I only wished to know the whole truth about my father so that I might understand him and mourn for him properly. And perhaps so that I could learn from his mistakes, and not repeat them myself."
Souki's smile seemed more genuine as he said, "I am glad, for both your sake and your brother's. How fortunate that I brought this to celebrate, then." He held up the pastry box. "Is your grandfather in?"
D did not dare to lie directly to the most senior of the Kirin. "Well..." he hedged. "Father is a bit indisposed at the moment."
"This strawberry cheesecake will make him feel better in no time," Souki said confidently, then headed for the back rooms, calling out, "Yoo hoo, Sofu, I know you're in there! It's useless to hide from me--I can read minds, remember?"
"Is that guy a psychic or something?" Victor asked as Souki went off in search of Father.
"Ah...something like that," D replied. Victor was becoming more receptive to the realities of the petshop, but he didn't think that the detective was ready to believe in the existence of a Kirin just yet.
Victor just smiled and shook his head. "You sure know some interesting people, Count. By the way, what was it that he was calling your grandfather--Sofu? Is that his real name?"
"It is a nickname of sorts," D explained. "It is Japanese for 'grandfather,' and that was what my elder brother called him when they were living in Japan for much of my brother's childhood. Because it gets a little confusing when more than one Count D is present at the same time, Detective Orcot and his family started referring to Father as 'Sofu D,' and Lord Souki has also picked up that habit."
"You can say that again!" Victor exclaimed. "The confusing part, I mean! It got really confusing at times when I was talking to that Albert guy about you and your dad and your grandpa. Whose bright idea was it to give everybody in the family the same name, anyway? Doesn't it get kind of awkward at family dinners, like if someone says 'D' and all three of you look up?"
"I suppose it was my ancestor's idea originally, the very first Count D," D laughed. "I do not know why, though. Perhaps to emphasize the importance of carrying on the family tradition of caring for the shop over our individual desires."
Victor frowned. "Well, this may be my biased American viewpoint, but I think that you oughta be free to do as you like, and not be tied down to what your great-to-the-umpteenth-power-grandfather decided before you were even born."
"Father has given me his blessing to choose my own path," D reminded him. "I am content to run the shop, but I thank you for your concern..." He was about to say "Mr. Holland," but at the last second, decided instead on "Victor."
The detective flushed, looking pleased that D had called him by his first name. "So is there some nickname that you have, D, to distinguish between you and the other Counts?"
"Hmm," D mused thoughtfully. "I do not, but there is no reason why I cannot choose one for myself. Why don't you call me 'Shiro'? 'Shi' means 'four' in Japanese, and 'ro' is a common suffix for a boy's name, so 'Shiro' is a name often given to the fourth son in a family. And I am the fourth Count D, after my grandfather, my late father, and my elder brother."
"Shiro," Victor said experimentally, trying the name out. "Shiro...that has a nice ring to it. So I can call you that from now on?"
D nodded. "It pleases me that you have a special pet name to call me by," he teased, and Victor turned beet-red.
"Hey, that's not what I meant," the detective grumbled, but he looked rather pleased with himself, albeit in a sheepish manner.
"Detective Orcot also complains that it is confusing to have three Count Ds," D said, smiling mischievously. "He calls me 'Count Junior' behind my back, although he thinks that I don't know about it. At least this will give him a more dignified name to call me by."
"Hey, I thought it was my special pet name," Victor said jealously, in a voice that was only half-joking.
D leaned over and purred seductively into Victor's ear, "It is special, because I chose it for you."
Victor turned red again and said hoarsely, "Well, I guess it's okay, then."
In a more serious voice, D said, "Thank you, Victor, for discovering the truth for me, and for giving me my freedom. Though the truth was sad, I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from me."
"Well, I was just doing my job," Victor mumbled modestly. "I didn't really--"
He never finished his words, because D leaned over and kissed him in the middle of his sentence. Victor didn't seem to mind, though; after a few seconds in which he was too stunned to react, he recovered and began returning the kiss with enthusiasm.
***
A few minutes later, Souki came back out into the lobby, pastry box still in one hand, and a small, squirming babbit clutched firmly in the other. "I found Q-chan!" he announced. "Now we can have our cheese--" Then he laughed as he caught sight of the couple entwined on the couch.
"Well, I guess we shouldn't disturb them," Souki whispered to Q-chan. "But on the bright side, there's more cheesecake for us, right?"
"Kyuu," Q-chan squeaked resignedly as Souki turned and headed back down the corridors of the petshop, humming a cheery love song under his breath.
THE END.
***
Afterword: I must offer special thanks to N. Ranken, from the Pet Shop of Horrors Fanfiction Yahoo Group, who suggested the nickname of "Shiro" for the young Count when I complained about how confusing it got writing about 3 Count Ds at the same time while I was working on "Daiki". ^_^
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In the previous story, Chris was the one who saw Young D/Shiro and Victor's first meeting, and he figured out that Victor was Vesca reborn. He told Leon and D about it, and Sofu figured it out on his own, so Shiro and Victor were probably the only ones left who didn't know.
And yay, a Souki fan--he's my favorite character in Genju no Seiza! He'll be doing his best to help Sofu lighten up! ^_^