Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ A Certain Clarity ❯ 21 ( Chapter 21 )

Title: A Certain Clarity (21/30)

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.

'I'm not finished yet!' The words were ringing in his ears. He smiled. It had been a most pleasant dream, though the ahou had seemed upset at the beginning... Strange: Why had he dreamed that? Funny sort of wet dream... Why had he been so upset? Echoes of voices...

'Wake up, you old creep.'

'Sano, please calm down.'

The voice had sounded strange... He wasn't crying, was he?

'Fuck that! "You can't go! We have unfinished business.'

Go?

'I'm sorry. I think it's over'

'You bastard! I never told you... I never had a chance to...'

He really was going totally nuts in his old age, his half-asleep mind dredging up the oddest things. Go away and let me sleep! What the hell would the ahou need to tell him anyway? He was so damn tired... He just wanted to sink back on the soft futon and... Soft? *His* futon wasn't nearly this soft. Where? His eyes shot open.

Chou sat at the foot of the foot, his back against the wall. He smiled. How could he have been sleeping with that idiot snoring like that? And what was he doing in Chou's room? He looked around. Yes, it definitely seemed to be his; the litter of broken swords and other junk attested to that at least. He wasn't hung over, was he? His mouth felt tacky and he did seem to be awfully dehydrated... No, should feel nauseous still and he didn't; actually, he was rather hungry. He prodded the other man with his foot.

"Wake up."

"Wha...? Boss!"

The broom-head looked abnormally happy to see him. "Why am I here?"

"You were sick... I couldn't find Megumi, so I brought you to my place. What do you remember?"

Megumi... He had been on his way to see Megumi. The ahou had interrupted his dinner. "I'm not sure... "

"Did the foxy doctor treat you?"

Treat him? There were precious few occasions when the Wolf of Mibu was ill.

"I mean, did she know what was wrong? You looked pretty bad." He placed a heavy emphasis on the last word.

What was that supposed to mean? What had happened... The voice again?

'Saitou?! Damn it, you bastard! You can't die on me!'

His eyes widened. "Bloody hell!"

"Remembered something, huh?"

"What the hell was that?!" Something struck him. "And do you really think 'bad' is an appropriately forceful word?"

Chou grinned. "Well, I was told it was some sort of 'knock out drug' and that its effects would make you look 'bad', so you were out and you looked bad."

He groaned. "Stop talking in circles, you imbicile and tell me what happened! And start at the beginning."

"All right, all right, hold your horses; I was just getting there."

Saitou crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

"So yesterday, after you'd been gone for a few hours, the rooster-head showed up demanding to see you... did he actually find you?"

Did he ever! Damned little... well, he could think about it later. "Yes, he found me."

"Right, anyway, I told him you were probably at Megumi's or something and off he went. Then, a while later, this weird little girl showed up looking for you too. She said she had an herb shop with her grandmother or something."

"Pale, afraid of her own shadow?"

"That's the one. Anyway, she claimed to have doctored your soup with something and asked me to go find you. Seemed to be worried about you."

He rubbed his temples. "That's all very heartwarming to hear, but why the devil did she put the stuff in my dinner if she was going to be so worried?"

"Well, she *claimed* that it was her grandmother's idea; it was supposed to 'awaken your gift'. Whatever that means..."

"I think it refers to my prodigious latent psychic powers," he replied dryly.

"Oh... Right. Anyway, the old bag made her slip you the stuff, but then she felt guilty, so she went back to find you, but I guess you'd already left the restaurant. Maybe it took effect faster than she thought?"

"Probably, I hadn't eaten much." His stomach growled.

"Heh. The rooster-head must be rubbing off on you."

"Very funny. Continue." He glowered at the blond.

"Anyway, I let her go... I mean, she said it was harmless stuff, and I didn't want to lock her up while I went looking for you. I hope that's..."

"Yes, fine. Go on."

"Right. So I figured you wouldn't be at the restaurant, since she'd looked there, so I went to the doctor's. The gate was open and no one was in, so I poked around for a while until I found you..."

Saitou watched his face change.

"You really gave me a turn there, boss."

"I can imagine. It seems to be a most... *unique* drug."

"Yeah, no kidding! Hey, you don't suppose the bodies we found..."

Saitou snorted. "I wouldn't think so; some of them were none too fresh when we found them, and I seem to have woken up all right on my own after only... That *was* just last night, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. She said it should take around twelve hours. I guess it took a little longer than that though." He glanced at the window. "It should be almost four by now."

"Hmm... How long were you sitting there, anyway?"

Chou looked embarrassed. "Umm.... Well... You did look kinda *bad*. I guess I must have dozed off."

Baka. "What happened to my jacket?"

"Over there." Chou gestured. "What now? You wanna go find the doctor and tell her you're ok? She didn't know what it was, right?"

"No."

"No, which?"

"No, she didn't know what it was, and no I don't want to go tell her yet. First, I want to find out exactly what that batty old woman was up to. She mentioned some sort of ties to the cult, and if they are behind this, we need to find her as soon as possible."

"So we're going to the herb shop then?"

"Yes... It's getting dark soon, isn't it? Perfect."

If he had expected to find the old woman in, he was sadly disappointed. They stood inside the herb shop surveying the chaos.

"Jeez, boss. Do you think *they* got her?" He knelt. "This looks like blood."

He wouldn't have...

'I won't let them get away with it! You'll see.'

"Man, somebody really took this place apart!"

"Ahou."

Chou looked at him sharply. "The rooster-head followed you to the doctor's?"

Dragged me is more like it... "Yes."

"Ah."

No doubt he was remembering a certain pair of wooden handcuffs.

"And the woman?"

"There isn't much glass, and these shelves used to be completely filled. I imagine the proprietress cleaned them out before he got here, perhaps even as soon as she found out what her apprentice had done." He inspected the destroyed counter. "I wonder if the girl really is her granddaughter."

Chou shrugged. "You got me. So... What now?"

"We might as well search the rest of the building. They may have left something behind, and I doubt the ahou had the stamina to do *all* of the rooms." Indeed, when he opened the door to the back room, it was apparent that he had not gotten past the first one. He sighed. At least he hadn't managed to destroy any evidence. Ahou.

"Hey, boss, I've finished in there. No luck."

"It's the same here, I'm afraid." He surveyed the tiny bedroom. A search of the building's second floor had proved completely uninformative. At least they had the remaining jars from the storeroom downstairs. He patted the box. Tomorrow, Chou could take them to the lady doctor for identification.

"Do you think the old woman went to stay with the cult?"

"It's a possibility, but she seemed quite strange; it wouldn't surprise me at all if..."

"Boss?"

"Did you hear something?" His stomach growled.

Chou smirked.

"Not that! People."

They listened intently. Someone had entered the shop.

"... crazy, old hag... don't know why he wanted us to talk to her. ...no one here..."

The footsteps moved on to the back room.

"Who cares why? Like you say, she's not here."

"Then can we please get out of here?"

"I just wanted to see if there was anything useful back here."

"Well there's not. It's totally bare. Can we please go now?"

"What's your hurry? We've got plenty of time. Whoever trashed the place is long gone."

"Look, I've got a thing about cops, ok?"

That was an interesting statement. He glanced at Chou who raised an eyebrow in response.

"They're not going to come here. Hell, they probably don't even know yet."

"Don't be stupid! Cops always know when one of them gets whacked. A buddy of mine did one once: you shoulda seen it, they were like a bunch of ants crawling all over the neighborhood. Fuckin' creepy."

"Did they catch him?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Suit yourself. Look, it's not our fault if the hag finally went off the deep end and murdered a cop. There's nothing to tie her to us anyway. What's the worst they can do?"

"Tell the rich birds it's all a sham."

"Like they'd believe it! People like that are too stupid to recognize the truth. They don't want to believe that their nearest and dearest are nothing more than worm food, so they don't; simple as that."

"I just think it's weird, that's all."

"What's weird?"

"That she chose *that* cop."

"I'm telling you, she's a crazy. Maybe she did it to protect *him*. Who knows?"

"Whatever. Can we go?"

"Yeah, sure."

The footsteps were moving away. He caught Chou's arm and shook his head. They waited.

"What's the big idea? I could have stopped them."

"You heard them; they don't know anything anyway. I don't want to make any hasty moves until we know what's going on here."

"So what do we do now?"

"Go back to your place."

"Ooh, my place."

He ignored the taunting tone. "They may be watching mine."

"All right, my place then. Do you want the case files from the station? I mean, if we're going to discuss the case..."

"That would be good, but first, would you get me something to eat?" The damn broom-head was

laughing as he followed him out.