The Price of a Soul- Chapter 2: Pigtails?
Disclaimer- I sorta forgot this last time but oh well. (sweat drop) Anyways as per the standard I do not personally own any of the characters from Hellsing or Azumanga Daioh.
Warning- Rated M for strong language, heavy violence and occasional mentioning of breasts. (Eventually)
Recap:
"Well than who the fuck was it?"
"It was I." Came a soft female voice from Tomo's left. Tomo whirled around to see a tall figure in an ankle length black cloak and hood. Although the hood shrouded the face by the chest size there was no mistaking that this person was female. The most alarming detail however was the extremely long sword that was slung across her back. "You haven't changed much have you Tomo." The person spoke again startling Tomo. "What? Do you not recognize me?" Tomo shook her head dumbly in answer. "That is understandable I have changed much." With that she removed her hood and revealed an all too familiar face.
-Now on with the show!
"Sakaki!" Yomi yelled in surprise at the sudden realization at who the person was.
"What? Seriously!" Tomo asked in alarm. "Well I'll be damned. You really have changed haven't you "?
Sakaki nodded in agreement for she had changed significantly. The Sakaki that her friends may have remembered from high school was gone. Her once soft face that had at one time stared longingly at the cats that would play in courtyard was now sharp and focused. Her eyes now held that self-same focused look as well as a far off look of sadness.
"What the hell happened to you anyways?" Yomi questioned.
"Yeah and what the hell is up that gigantic sword?" Tomo chimed in.
"All in good time my friends for now I am merely here to give you some news that may or may not help with your investigation." Sakaki answered calmly.
"What?"
"Seriously."
"You're kidding me!"
"Well spill it girl."
Suddenly, Sakaki found herself not only surrounded by Tomo and Yomi (that she had expected) but also a camera crew, Integra Hellsing, and Daren.
"Calm down my friends, please. I will tell but first could we go somewhere a bit more comfortable."
Everyone stared at her in awe for a moment then Yomi managed to speak.
"There's a café down the street." She said, obviously still somewhat freaked out by Sakaki.
"Sounds nice. Let's all meet there in about 20 minutes." Sakaki agreed as she started to walk away.
"Wait! Wait just a minute. Why are we meeting in such a long time?" Daren said, speaking the question on everyone's mind.
"I have to make arrangements with my airplane pilot. I think I'm going to be staying a bit longer than I had originally intended to."
"You have your own personal pilot!" Tomo shouted incredulously.
"You could say that." She replied enigmatically, walking away from the group and throwing her hood back over her head coolly as she did.
"Damn she may look a little different but she's still as cool as ever wouldn't you say Yomi" Tomo said breaking what would have been a slightly awkward.
"That's for sure." Yomi answered.
"You know what?"
"What?"
"Well seeing how much Sakaki has changed makes me wonder how everybody else from high school are doing."
"I've been thinking about that too and actually, I talked to Kagura a while back. She became gym teacher." Yomi said.
"We pretty much expected that, but if you think about it for all we know Osaka could have become the head of some nefarious cult or something like that."
"Osaka?" Yomi said looking at Tomo incredulously.
"Well yeah. I mean she and Chiyo are the only two who we lost touch with and don't know what they're doing."
"I couldn't see Chiyo-chan leading an evil cult."
"Well she could be leading it with her evil cuteness." Tomo countered thinking back on the penguin costume she had worn for their last culture festival.
"C'mon Tomo this Chiyo-chan we're talking about here. She doesn't have a single evil bone in her body."
"Uh… you know…while this is all fine and dandy ladies," said Daren interrupting the philosophical conversation on cuteness and it's dangers "We should probably start heading to the café now."
"What are talking about? We have 20 minutes or weren't you listening to Sakaki baka." Tomo said smirking at the "ignorant" policeman.
"Actually Tomo," said Yomi who had already gotten into her news station's van "We have about ten minutes now, due to our little 'discussion'."
"What? Really? Damn! Well what are you waiting for Daren! Hurry up get the friggin' car!" Tomo shouted berating the poor policeman. Daren quickly ran off muttering under his breath about how his job should include hazard pay.
"Man! It's so hard to get good help these days" Tomo muttered as the police car drove up.
Tomo and Daren arrived at the café about 15 minutes later Tomo berating Daren about his driving skills and how big of a pushover he was on the road as they walked in. They walked in to find Sakaki sitting at the table across from Yomi, Integra Hellsing and a man that Tomo didn't recognize. Integra and Yomi both looked rather pissed at having to wait so long but Sakaki and the mystery guy looked deep in conversation about something.
"Well its about bloody time!" Integra and Yomi yelled simultaneously.
"Shut up, it isn't my fault if this baka happens to be the slowest damn driver in the whole damn world!" Tomo answered also shouting.
"You made me go 80 in a 30 mile an hour zone!" Daren defended.
"I told you to go 90."
"We got stopped by three policemen as it was!"
"Calm down friends. It is of little importance when she arrives as long as she does." Sakaki stated, calmly breaking up the ensuing fight.
"Fine but who's this loser." Tomo asked sitting down and gesturing her finger towards the person who Sakaki had been talking to when she had come in.
"The name's Leshrac," The man answered a little taken aback at her disrespectful tone "and I happen to be Miss Sakaki's friend and plane driver."
"Leshrac?" Tomo said, breaking out in uproarious laughter, "What the heck kind of name is that?"
"It's my name you Bonkura, and it also happens to be a name I like" Leshrac growled, viscously.
"Who cares about whether you like his name or not, I just want this information so hurry up and tell us!" said Integra starting to get frustrated with the frequent interruptions.
"I agree," Sakaki said, instantly claiming everyone's attention "Apparently last week in Chicago there was an attack similar to this however it wasn't until about 6 hours ago that the victim turned into a ghoul. There was also another thing weird about the ghoul. Some of the policemen were paralyzed by something they described as a 'cuteness overload' and there were also some policemen saying that they thought they saw the outline of a penguin costume, but the weirdest thing of all was that anyone who saw the ghoul said that it had two pigtails on top of it's head."
"What!" both Yomi and Tomo yelled in unison.
"But Chiyo-chan couldn't have been…" Tomo said with a horrified look.
"Don't look so sad Tomo it wasn't her," Sakaki said Tomo and Yomi to sigh in relief, "However both she and Osaka disappeared about a month ago and no one has heard from them in at least that long."
"So how do you know they're still alive?" Yomi asked with a dispairing look on her face again.
"Well I contacted some reliable sources I knew from college and learned that a steady stream of money is being taken from their accounts, well Chiyo's account at least." Sakaki answered again, Yomi and Tomo looking visibly relieved.
"Is that all the information you have for us?" Lady Integral snapped, exasperated at what had proved to be a seemingly useless source of an equally useless bit of information.
"Isn't that enough?" Yomi answered starting to get annoyed at the eccentric woman's amazing stupidity.
"Now hold it Yomi." Sakaki said stopping another possible explosion, "She has never met Chiyo-chan and can't possibly understand the significance if there is any."
"Hurry up and fill us in then!" Seras blurted.
"All you need to know is that one of our friends from high school, named Chiyo-chan, used to wear two pigtails." Tomo answered, bitterly glaring at the young vampire.
"But that would mean that she's somehow involved in this." Daren said, entering the conversation.
"Oh good job police-boy!" Tomo said sarcastically.
"Beware." Came a voice from the corner behind the group's table.
"What the hell?" cried Tomo jumping away from the table.
"Beware she whose intelligence is rivaled by none." Crooned the voice again as a man with long blond hair came stumbling out of the corner. "The astronaut will bring doom to you all."
"You know… I think it's about time we took this conversation somewhere private." Daren said slightly freaked out by the random intrusion.
"Agreed!" answered everybody else in unison as they slowly filed out of the café.
"So now where are we supposed to go?" Tomo asked after they had all left the café.
"I am returning to Hellsing HQ and unless you find more information, I could care less what you idiots do." Integra answered getting into the limousine that had pulled up.
"Hey! How about you fill us in about what you've been doing since high school Sakaki." Tomo said.
"We need to report back to Interpol." Daren interjected grabbing Tomo and walking over to the police car.
"You go report alone police-boy I want to find out what happened to Sakaki." Tomo argued brushing Daren off.
"Hmph. Fine but if I'm not helping you if the chief wants to know where you are." Daren huffed as he stalked off to the car and sped away.
"Hah! Uppity little baka." Tomo laughed as Daren drove off.
"Shall we go then?" Sakaki asked.
"Alright. Where's Yomi?" Tomo asked looking around for the familiar glasses, locating them talking to man in a news truck. "Hey four-eyes get over here or we're leaving without you."
"Just a sec," Yomi yelled back, obviously annoyed at being interrupted, and turned back to the van. "Alright, I'll just send the tape to you later after I review it, since my friend doesn't seem to have any patience."
"Whatever you say." The man said and drove off.
"Alright, now that Tomo has officially started pissing me off again. Where are we going?" Yomi asked as she walked back over to where Tomo and Sakaki were standing.
"Back to my hotel." Sakaki said simply as started walking down the sidewalk.
Afterword:
heh heh heh heh "Back to my hotel" bow chica bow wow.
Anywhays I promise that I will try to update sooner with the next chapter but it will still take a while all the same. Next chapter Sakaki's traumatic past is revealed as well as the usual hyperactive antics.
A couple of comments to my great reviewers:
-To all those who liked the story: Thank you and I hope you liked the update.
-To "The Zalrus"- Sorry no giant woman.
-To "Section 13"- That's the point of the story. You add angst to characters that were previously thought as primarily comedic and vice-versa with those characters thought mainly serious, in a nutshell, severely clashing genres allow fanfic writers to add their own dimensions to well known characters. Is it ooc? Yes, a little bit, but nothing new would ever get done if we stayed in the box.
-Lastly, to all those who have read both chapters, keep reading and commenting. The main villain may surprise you. (hahahhahahahahahahahah! continued evil genius laughter)