Title: Access Denied
Author: evilgeniuskoji
Beta: visualcomplex
Chapter: 4/??
Pairing: Ruki/Reita
Genre: Mystery, Scifi, General
Rating: PG-13
Warning: None
Summary: AU. Saiko Reality is the hottest new virtual reality simulator. With an in-game experience that questions your reality and theirs, PSC's newest product has establishd a wide branch all over Central Tokyo. Such a large corporation cannot go witout its dark secrets...and as he struggles to remember his past, Ruki finds himself ensnared in the very heart of the problem.

File 01 | File 02 | File 03

“The number you are trying to reach is not available. Please hang up and redial again.”

Ruki resisted the urge to snarl and threw the phone on the bed. It bounced several times over the mattress, but Ruki ignored it and resumed his pacing, wearing a trail into the beige-colored carpet. The lamp on the nightstand threw shadows onto the walls that chased him around the hotel room.

He jumped when his phone rang shrilly. “Hello?”

“Ruki-san?” It wasn’t Kai’s voice, to his disappointment, but a woman’s. He recognized it as the inspector who spoke to him after the firemen had gotten the fire under control. “This is Sakuma from the police department.”

“Oh, yes. Have you found anything?”

“No, we didn’t. No remains, either, so that means your friend must have been out at the time, at least. Have you received word from him?”

“No, I’ve been unable to reach him.”

“Please keep trying to do so. What about his work?”

Ruki sighed. “It was his day off and they haven’t heard anything either.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Sakuma said. “It seems the fire wasn’t set, so it must have been an accident. A candle, maybe someone left on the stove—”

“I haven’t touched that thing for weeks now.”

“Then maybe your friend did,” the inspector replied calmly. “In any case, there’s nothing we can really do.”

Ruki snapped. “Nothing you can do?” he exploded. “My apartment has burnt down, my roommate is missing, and you tell me there’s nothing you can do?”

Sakuma’s voice was calm and professional, which for some reason just aggravated him more. “Please think rationally, Ruki-san. Most of your things have been salvaged—it seems to me that the most damage has been done to Uke-san’s side of the apartment—”

“Is that supposed to be some sort of consolation?”

The inspector studiously ignored his outburst. “We’ve reached the landlord of your apartment—”

“You have?”

“Ruki-san,” she snapped at last, her patience seemingly gone. “Do you mind?”

The blonde narrowed his eyes, but pressed his lips together.

“It seems you’re apartment complex belongs to a company called PSC. We have contacted them and they have agreed that it was a freak accident. They’d like to discuss things further with you, actually.” Sakuma’s words were calmer now. “They’ve proposed a meeting in their office building in the Tokyo branch next week.”

“Fantastic,” Ruki said, sounding anything but enthused. “I’ll take the appointment then.”

“Excellent. You will have to call them and arrange a time. Shall I give you the number now?”

“Please.”

He scribbled down the string of numbers that Sakuma recited and thanked her before hanging up, collapsing on the bed as weariness creeped onto him. It had been such a long day, and so much, too much, had occurred already. If anything else happened…

Exhaustion washed over him again, and his eyes grew heavy. Sleep was not far off.

“The old man left the store to me.”

“What? But…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, okay? S’not like I’ll do anything with it…I’ll probably close it down.”

“Aren’t you attached to it at all?”

“Look, man, the memories are attached to the person, not the place. And I don’t know how to run the place anyway. The only thing I’ve ever done for it is design new products.”

“It just seems a bit…sad…”

“We’ll get him back. I’m not gonna leave you guys. But to do that, Harugin will have to close.”

The phone rang shrilly, startling him into wakefulness again. A bleary-eyed glance at the clock told him that it was only twenty minutes after seven. Another revealed the caller to be Doctor Morita. He fumbled for it and clicked it on. “Yes?”

“Ruki-kun?” There was obvious relief in the doctor’s voice. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alright. I heard about the fire on the news just now. How are you?”

“Fine, sensei,” Ruki sighed, scrubbing his face with a hand. “I wasn’t in the apartment.”

“Good, good,” Doctor Morita replied. “Was anyone else hurt?”

“No, no one was home and the fire stayed in our apartment.”

“That’s a relief,” the phone buzzed. “No one was in? What about your roommate?”

Ruki frowned, trying to remember if he’d ever told Doctor Morita about Kai. “…He wasn’t in.”

“Oh? Where was he?”

A sigh escaped his lips. “I don’t know. We haven’t been able to find him.

“What?” the older man’s voice was suddenly alert. “You haven’t found Kai?”

“No,” Ruki replied, frowning at the unexpected interest in his roommate.

“This is terrible,” Morita muttered, and Ruki had a feeling he was talking more to himself now. “I didn’t think they’d go so far…from now on, you have to be more careful, Ruki-kun. It’ll only get more dangerous.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t think that the fire was an accident, did you? As if it wasn’t enough that you nearly got hit—”

“How do you know about that?” Ruki asked sharply. “I haven’t told anyone.”

On the other end, Doctor Morita fell quiet.

“And Kai! How did you know his name?” the blonde pressed. “I’ve never told you!”

Silence.

Ruki tried again. “Someone’s after me?”

A sigh came at last in response. “They know you,” Morita said simply. “From before your amnesia. I have not been entirely truthful with you…”

Ruki sat up, heart pounding fast. “Who?”

The doctor was silent again.

“Why are they after my life?”

No answer.

“Morita-sensei!” he snapped at last. “Don’t you think you’ve said too much to stop now? Hasn’t too much happened, as well?”

That did the trick. After a pause, the doctor spoke again. “Come to my office at the hospital later today,” he said, “at one. I’ll tell you everything then.” Then, before Ruki could voice his protest, “It’s not something to discuss over the phone. I promise I will tell you everything, Ruki-kun.”

For a moment, Ruki was quiet. Then, “How do you know all this?”

Doctor Morita sounded old and weary when he answered, as if years had been loaded onto his shoulders. “I know your past, too.”

It should have been obvious, and somewhere in the back of his mind, Ruki had come to that conclusion as well in the course of their conversation. But hearing it confirmed out loud was a different matter. Shock extended its grip onto him.

He heard a tired sigh. “I will talk to you later, Ruki-kun.”

It was the last time they’d ever speak.

---

The last of his change disappeared into the vending machine slot, clinking into place with the other coins. He punched in a combination without thinking it and automatically stooped to push the flap aside when the can clanked out. Still absentminded, still wrapped up in the conversation from hours before, he cracked the tab back and took a sip.

And immediately spat it out. Incredulously, Ruki looked at the label on the can.

“Strawberry milk?” he muttered in disbelief. “Strawberry milk? I must really be out of it…”

Realizing that talking to himself in front of a vending machine was just as strange, he quickly dropped the can of strawberry milk into the trashcan. It made a muffled thump as it hit the bottom.

Deciding against getting another can, he turned away from the vending machine and resumed his walk to the hospital. It was a clear day, sunny, but not warm. The wind whipped through tree branches and tore fresh spring leaves, blowing them along the gutter. Shivering, Ruki drew his hands into his pockets again and sped up, eager to get out of the cold digging through his clothes.

The hospital was in sight. Ruki himself had only visited the place a few times, complying with the doctor’s request to keep their appointments to his small and out-of-the-way clinic. The hospital, while it did contain a psychiatric ward, was not a place that was centered around the problems of the mind.

He reached the entrance and the doors swept open before him. As he stepped through them, his phone rang for the third time that day. Ruki answered it with a flip of his wrist. “Hello?”

There was no reply.

“Hello? Who’s this?”

A TV was mounted on the wall opposite the waiting area, playing some sort of commercial. He passed underneath it just as a cool female voice issued from the speakers.

“At Sanno Hospital , our number one concern is our Patient’s Safety and Care! Whatever the case, that is our motto and we care for you with your safety in mind.”

“Hello?”

A quiet click ended the call. Frowning, Ruki pulled the phone from his ear and pulled up the ‘Recent Calls’ screen.

Number Unknown

“Hi, may I help you?” the receptionist interrupted with a friendly smile.

“Ah, yeah…” Ruki slipped his phone back into his pocket and resolved to deal with it later. “I have an appointment with Morita-sensei…”

“Oh, of course.” The other man turned to his computer screen and began typing, his fingers a flurry of motions over the keyboard. “Ruki-san, right? He’s on the seventh floor, room 513.”

“Thank you.”

He stepped into the elevator and jammed his finger into the button. The doors slid shut and there was the faint pressure that was the defiance of gravity as he began moving up. Shortly after the doors slid open onto a strangely quiet hall. Somewhere in one of the rooms, there was a quiet murmur of conversation going on, and somewhere else the click of a woman’s heels striding across the floor, but other than a handful of other, little noises, there was nothing else.

Doors were lined up systematically on either side of the wall with name plates set up beside them. Ruki step forward hesitantly, his own footsteps adding to the quiet cacophony of noise as he searched for the room the receptionist had directed him to. He passed open doors to rooms that were empty of people, leaving the equipment inside looking oddly abandoned. The voices faded instead of getting louder as he walked down the hall.

At last he found the room with the mounted plaque of Doctor Morita’s name. It was open, but he knocked on the frame politely before putting his head in cautiously. “Sensei?”

The window was open, and from the sudden gust that stung his face, the wind was still strong outside. A long white curtain flirted with it, tossing wildly until the wind ebbed and died. The curtain dropped down onto a form slumped over the desk facing the window.

“Morita-sensei?” Ruki stepped forward. “Are you asleep?”

He shook the old man’s arm gently and raised his hand to brush the curtain aside, but an odd splash of color caught his eye. The curtain, trailing off the doctor’s shoulder lightly, was dipped into a blooming patch of bright, liquid red that continued to grow and seep.

With shaking fingers, Ruki shoved it aside. “Sensei?”

Doctor Morita’s eyes, glassy in death, stared up in reply.

Notes: From here on out, the plot thickens aaaand I still need to work some kinks out. It's also the weeks of testing for me, so updates will be a bit slow, forgive me. ^^