Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ A Certain Clarity ❯ 20 ( Chapter 20 )

Title: A Certain Clarity (20/30)

Author: Franzi Dickson

E-mail: fdickson@ix.netcom.com

Archive: The SxSAS Archive, fanfiction.net and others (eventually). If you want it on your site, just ask.

Rating: NC-17 for wet dreams, sex, drugs, violence and other badness.

Warnings: m/m sex, lemon, assorted bad things in this part and future ones

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. I'm just doing bad things with them. Don't sue me.

Chou knew he should be taking this whole thing more seriously, but it really was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

"Yes, white, just like this, with the black as a border here. No, don't change a thing. How soon can you have it ready? What? The back? Yes I *do* want the same character. Yes, wicked."

He smothered a laugh. This was really turning out to be a strange week he was having.

Too much damn paperwork! He hoped that lead the boss was working on was worth his staying here and finishing the boring stuff. At least he got to steal his chair while he was gone. He sighed. The boss gets to go interview the sexy doctor chick and I have to stay here. Well, them's the breaks. He picked up the next report and began reading.

"Excuse me... Officer Sawagejou?"

He looked up. A thin, pale girl stood trembling in the doorway. "What's up?"

"I... I'm sorry to bother you so late sir, but I was looking for Officer Fujita and they said I should talk to you."

"Hey, no problem. I'm not doing anything special anyway." He closed the report with relief. Let the boss deal with it! "What's on your mind?"

"I... I need to tell him something."

She was clearly terrified. "You can tell me, if you like. I'll give him the message as soon as he gets back."

"That's just it... I... "

"He shouldn't be more than a couple of hours, unless he decides to go home for the evening. Can't it wait until morning?"

She shook her head.

"What did you want to tell him anyway?"

She backed away.

"Hey, hey, it's ok. You can tell me; He's my boss."

"It's a secret."

He got up. "Look, here, I'll shut the door. Now no one else will hear it, ok?" He crouched down in front of her. "Ok?"

She still looked nervous. "You'll be angry with me."

"I won't be angry." He smiled winningly. Damn, it was probably a good thing the boss wasn't here; she'd be twice as scared.

"I... I put something in his food."

Oh boy, no wonder she was worried. He grinned. The boss was probably having a fit right now... Of course if *was* a little odd that she was looking for Saitou. If he'd spiked the boss's food, he'd be running like hell in the opposite direction. "What did you put in it?"

"..."

"What was that?"

"Poison."

"What?!!"

She shrank back. "I didn't want too, I swear. She made me. I had to do it!" She was edging toward the door.

He grabbed her hand. "You're not going anywhere! Just what the hell did you give him?!"

"It was Obaasan's! She made me do it!"

"Who?"

She was crying now. "We have an herb shop... Officer Fujita came in. I don't know what Obaasan was thinking, he's a policeman, but she said that it was her duty to 'awaken his gift' and she made me... She made me..."

He shook her. "But what the hell was it?!"

"Clarity... it brings clarity."

"No, I mean what's in it? What's the antidote?"

"There isn't one, it's not that kind of..." She squeaked in alarm at the expression on his face.

"Are you telling me you're confessing to the murder of a police officer?"

She shook her head. "No! You don't understand; it won't kill him. It just..." She sniffled.

Aww, jeez. He looked down at her pale face, at the slender wrist dwarfed by his hand. He released it. "Sorry. All right, if you didn't try to kill him, what did you do?"

She swallowed noisily. "It's a sort of knockout drug thing, only the person is awake the whole time. I don't know why she wanted to give it to him. It's not... It's not a very strong version; it should wear off by itself in about..." She thought. "In about twelve hours."

That didn't sound all that bad. "So if it wears off by itself, why did you need to tell him about it? She didn't send you, did she?"

The girl shook her head. "She'll be very angry that I came."

"So why..."

"He might look... sort of... bad."

"Bad?"

"While he's under it... It might... upset people. I wanted to make sure he was somewhere safe, but when I went back to the restaurant, I couldn't find him."

"Restaurant?"

She described its location. Hmm... Near the doctor's house. So he probably went there next.

He patted her on the head. "Look, I'll try to find him. Don't worry about it anymore, ok? If that's really all you did, I think we can overlook it just this once."

She flashed him a watery smile. "Thank you."

Damn, but the boss was going to be pissed. Oh well, at least it got him out of reading the reports.

He rapped on the gate: Nothing. Damn. He had really been hoping the boss would be here. He hated to wake the doctor up, but presumably, she'd understand... That was strange... The gate seemed to be open. He didn't like the looks of that. He eased his way inside, listening intently. Inside of the garden wall, everything was still. He made his way quietly inside the house. After a few minutes of listening, he decided that no one was waiting to ambush him. "Doctor? Boss?" He opened a couple of doors: no one. Where could they have gone? The doctor might have been called away for something, he supposed, but where was the boss. Had he made it safely back to his own home? He'd check there next, once he was sure that there was really no one here. That door was slightly ajar... He slid it open. Her operating room... "Boss!" He quickly knelt by his side. He held a finger to the cold neck, but felt nothing. He sat down with a thump. His head was spinning. Damn. I shouldn't have let her go. She must have gotten the dosage wrong and... Unless... He looked down again. Well, objectively, he did look rather 'bad'. You don't suppose? That would explain why she was so worried... He wished the doctor were here, so he could ask her about it. Hell, maybe she had even let Saitou spend the night so he could sleep it off... But he couldn't be sure. Should he wait for her to return? It was getting awfully cold in the clinic. Maybe they'd be better off waiting somewhere else. He got up. "I don't know where the hell I'm going to find a carriage at this hour... You'd better not let me down, boss man." He shut the door behind him.