Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ A Certain Clarity ❯ Chapter 26

Title: A Certain Clarity (26/30)

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."

"Sure you don't want to go interrogate the prisoner some more, boss?"

"He's told us all he knows. We have more important things to do."

Like fix the rooster-head's jacket?

"Is something the matter, officer Chou?"

"No, no, nothing at all." For his own safety, he managed not to smile... too widely.

"We can have this ready for you the day after tomorrow, sir."

"Thank you." The boss bowed to the tailor, pointedly ignoring Chou's expression.

"So... what now? Do we go after the leader?"

"Hmm. Perhaps, but which one? The local man may not be so hard to catch, but there is still the other one to consider."

"Do you really think they have another compound?"

"It seems likely. They've certainly taken the new recruits somewhere."

"But... What if..." There really wasn't a good way to put this.

"We would have found more bodies."

Hopefully... He watched the boss's shoulders hunch even further. "I'm sure the rooster-head will be ok." Just keep telling yourself that...

"He's too stupid for anyone to bother killing."

The boss's voice was even less sure than his own.

"So where to?"

"I want you to go back to the station; there's something about the local leader that bothers me."

"Oh?"

"If the real leader out of the city somewhere, then he must be the one running the seances."

"Professional con man?"

"More than likely. Those men at the herb shop were probably working for him. See what you can find out."

"What about you?"

"I have a meeting."

Saitou let himself wrapped on the landlady's door again. He had been right to leave her that note. "Ma'am? It's officer Fujita Gorou. You said you had someone for me to talk to."

From inside came a faint shuffling noise and then the door was drawn aside.

"Come in."

He followed the cowled figure inside. Katsu hadn't said that his landlady was a nun... Of course, that could be because she wasn't, but he wondered if the artist really knew what she did for a living. Well, it was irrelevant to the issue at hand.

"Amano-san?" She bent and spoke very clearly, enunciating each syllable. "This is the officer I told you about. Fujita-san?"

He sat. Amano-san turned out to be an old woman, older even that the blasted hag from the herb shop. She blinked at him inquiringly.

"Hanako said you wanted to know about Mizuki-chan."

"She is the one that runs the herb shop?"

"Yes, yes; she always was interested in that sort of thing. Not at all right for a nice girl like her - off messing about with young men and such... not that he wasn't good looking enough, but at her age?!" The old woman huffed angrily.

"More tea, Amano-san?"

"There was a young man?"

"Oh, yes; a couple of years ago, before she came to her senses and took that nice young girl on as her apprentice instead. Nasty, sneaking thing he was! *I* always told her he was trouble, but would she listen? It's on account of his family, you see. Nothing good comes of that sort of thing." She paused dramatically.

"Of what sort of thing?"

"Wealth! They used to be very rich you see... but that was long ago. They had lost it all even before the restoration." She muttered to herself some more.

Saitou leaned forward, trying to catch it.

"... madness. Yes, that was it; all mad!" She looked up at him. "They're all tainted, the lot of them!"

He waited a while longer, but she did not choose to elaborate. She seemed to have slipped back into her vegetal senility. He glanced at his hostess.

"I'm afraid it was all I could find out."

"You've lived in the neighborhood for a while; do you know the young man in question?"

"I think I know who she means, and he was rather odd, but it was really his younger brother who was the shifty one." She sighed. "I'm sorry Fujita-san; Katsu told me how important your investigation is. I've written down all I remember about the two of them, but I don't know how helpful it will be; I haven't seen either of them for a long, long time."

He returned to Chou's apartment to find his subordinate waiting for him. He handed over the description without comment.

"Boss?"

"Sound familiar?"

"Hell yeah! That's got to be the guy from the cult; where did you get this?"

"Katsu's landlady. He's the younger brother of someone who used to work at the herb shop."

"He's also a petty crook who's been brought in on blackmail charges more than once. The guys at the station were pretty curious about why I was asking about him; we've been looking for him for ages, but his network of informants is just too good. Probably even has some in the police force."

"Blackmail? Hmm... An appropriate occupation for a phony medium. Any history of violence?"

"Nah, he's a wimp."

"Sometimes it's the ones who look the weakest..."

"Yeah, I guess. Good night then?"

"Night."

~Ahead of him through the fog... a figure in white... Sano! The boy was falling and screaming, but he reached out. I've got you, I've got you... and suddenly he was gone.~

Saitou sat up in bed. What the hell was that? The ahou was fine! He was fine! He'd find the leak in the department and then the cult. It was simple. Everything would be fine. God, he needed a cigarette.