Here we are again, Kateracks and Arait, with the promised chapter. Not much to say this time, except hooray for season 2! We'll play close attention to how things turn out.
Also welcome back XxXTwilight-SinXxX! Enjoy
Two brown eyes cracked open and looked out onto a blurry world. Slowly the dark edges cleared, and the swirl of colors separated into greens, whites, blues, and browns. Gradually they found their place as clouds in the sky and trees and clumps of dirt in which she was currently lying face-down. With a groan, Hayashi, Azami carefully pushed herself to her knees and then staggered to her unsteady feet, brushing off dried mud and ants.
"Where the hell am I?" she muttered, taking in the forest scene which had replaced the city she was familiar with. She had been lying at the base of a cliff, but there was no sign of how she got there and no sounds of other people. With no clues around her, she stretched to pop a couple sore places in her back and decided, "Well, Azami…let's go on an adventure…"
Knowing that there was a forest across the bay from Shizume City to the east, she deduced it would be a good idea to follow the base of the cliff going west, mostly because she felt like she had had the crap beat out of her and hadn't gotten her wind back yet. She walked for about a mile and then the cliff met the side of another, creating a "V" sort of shape which was at a better incline for climbing and by that she felt better enough to begin.
As good as she was at jumping on and scaling the side of buildings, though, rock climbing was a different level of difficulty. Skater shoes were not a good choice for keeping footing on loose stones and bare hands easily fell victim to cuts on jagged edges without gloves. However, the adrenaline due to lack of a safety harness was right up her alley and it quickly brought an energizing freshness to her brain.
Some time later (she wasn't sure how long), Azami pulled herself over the lip and crouched near the edge to catch her breath. Once her heart calmed some, she heard a dull roar in the distance, but just as quickly as she noticed it, it disappeared. She sat silently, controlled her breathing, and listened intently for the noise again. Several minutes later, the roar passed by again as if an angry creature quickly buzzed by her location, though she wasn't sure what kind of creature would also make the screeching of brakes. Not the naturally born kind, that was for sure.
Cars. She stood to her feet and continued her hike up a steep incline toward where the sound came from. Where there were vehicles, there was a road of some sort nearby and that meant she would be able to pinpoint her whereabouts.
Much to her pleasure, the road was paved and had signs, but according to them she was about 60 miles from Shizume. It would take her pretty much all day to get there, even if she ran some of the way; judging by the sun, it was already mid-morning, too. With a sigh, she continued walking along the shoulder, hoping that perhaps a tourist bus would pass by. At least she had been right about needing to walk west to get back to the city so she hadn't wasted a bunch of time, and once she got out of the denser trees to where she could see the beach, she would have a point of reference.
Two hours into her journey, though, the hard asphalt under her shoes began to make it apparent that maybe she was more injured that she thought. As the adrenaline from her climb wore off and the fatigue of overused muscles started to raise its head, she realized that maybe she had bruised or cracked her ribs—burning and a random stab of pain in her side when she was breathing properly so as not to overexert her lungs proved that much. Her left wrist was swelling as the day went on and her right ankle was sore like maybe she had twisted or strained it.
She needed a ride. While she really did not feel comfortable getting into a car with a random person—let's face it, that was just plain stupid—she had learned a thing or two over the years since she joined the Green Clan. She was sure that even in her state, she could take any fool who might try to put the moves on her, but at the same time, she wasn't going to just jump in with anyone. Thus, she waved on the SUV of loud campers throwing beer cans out the window and the minivan with out of town license plates. Who knows what they were up to over this way?
The miles passed and the pain of her ankle progressed. The gray sky above her rumbled angrily; the last few days it had been treating them to sporadic downpours and it sounded to be winding up for another. She would have to either find a ride or a place to wait it out, neither of which looked too promising at the moment.
About that time, though, she caught the distant hum of an engine coming around the bend behind her. She waited until the sound neared enough so that she could see the passengers and then peeked over her shoulder. There was only one: the driver; this would have to do.
Hoping her developing limp wasn't as obvious as it felt, she stuck her thumb out while she walked along. The car didn't slow, instead keeping to the other side of the road out of her reach. As it passed, however, she felt the driver watch her go by and then, just when she thought she had been denied, it suddenly slammed on its brakes and pulled onto the shoulder several yards in front of where she was walking.
A guy in his early twenties dressed in fitted, dark jeans and fancy studded leather boots that complemented a leather vest over his tight, gray, dragon T-shirt stepped out from the driver's side. Lifting the shades that were unnecessary on a day like today from his eyes, he squinted at her. Then his face broke open with bright white teeth.
"Azami? Hayashi, Azami?"
That voice with such a distinct accent—there was only one person who knew her that had that type of voice. "Kenji?"
When she neared enough, he pulled her into a one-fisted man-hug that was so close and lengthy that it made her skin crawl. Once her obligated time for pleasantries was met, she pulled away and stepped back so there was distance between them, but she didn't appear rude.
"How are you, girl? What are you doin' walkin' this far out on a day like today? Tryin' to keep that hot bod?"
Azami was sure her body wasn't any bit more attractive than the other women he had kept in his company in the past. As a matter of fact, since she hadn't had plastic surgery of any kind, she guessed she was at the more average end of the scale. She picked a safer answer.
"My ride ditched me." Somebody had anyway…
"They did? What for?" Azami shrugged. "Damn, that's cold."
"Yeah and it's not too nice out here either. Got any room in your back seat so I can hitchhike?" she asked.
"Well, actually I'm…" He looked to the car, then back at her, taking in her tousled appearance. "Awww…you know what? Yeah. Hop in."
If the skies hadn't opened up in a torrential downpour right as she stepped inside, Azami might have reconsidered her decision. She didn't feel up to chit-chat, but Kenji just didn't feel like shutting up. She sat in the back seat behind him so that she was out of his reach and answered his prying questions with vague responses until he decided concentrating on driving on the wet road was more important than catching up. As they sat in silence, she had the chance to rehash her first reply to him.
Someone had to have dropped her off out there, right? Despite her condition, she couldn't, for the life of her, dig up the fuzziest recollection of what had happened. She was pretty certain she wouldn't have brought herself out here—at least not alone. She hardly left the city anymore and even if she had decided to go—perhaps if she had been invited for some activity—she would have been smart enough to wear proper shoes. Probably. Okay, so she didn't really own any backwoods footwear, but with advance notice she may have gone looking for some—even borrowed some. She wasn't a total moron.
So if she wasn't a total moron that would go into the woods on an unprepared whim, it stood to reason that someone else had taken her there. But why? And who? And how had she wound up alone and injured? Without the answers to those questions, how could she know who to trust?
She glanced up into the rear view mirror. Kenji couldn't be a threat. Born in New York to parents who had left Japan behind, he had moved back to visit his grandparents as soon as he had turned 18. His hope was to learn about his culture and get started in a lucrative career in the video game industry, as any innocent, just-turned-legal-adult would dream. Unfortunately, his plans fell through once he arrived. Shortly thereafter, his grandparents fell ill and he couldn't afford to go to school and support them at the same time, so he chose the latter out of love. But with hardly any college education, no work experience, and extensive bills to pay, he chose a path that had good wages but was bad for his health.
He had joined the drug trade before Azami, but never had the brains or life experience to push his way up the ladder to any position higher than mule. He and Azami had been runners for the same handler for a short while, long enough to learn his story anyway. They had been a good team, cooperative at least, watching each other's back and covering for one another.
Coincidentally, they had also gotten out of the business about the same time. His grandparents finally passed away not long before Souma-san rescued Azami. She joined the Green Clan and seeing her move on to happier times prompted him to rethink his own choices. In the end, he moved back to America to be with the other half of his family, pick up the pieces of his life, and go back to school for a worthwhile career. But now he was…
"So you're back now?" she asked at length.
"Yeah. I couldn't stay away, y'know? Kinda fond of Japan…"
Even though he was in his twenties now, Kenji had kept his appearance about the same. From the bling gold chain necklace to the boots, he looked more like a gangster overcompensating for something than a college grad, though the New York accent just messed it all up. Plus his overly gelled black hair brushed back from his smooth but slightly stubbled face gave the impression of a greaser cross from one of those east side/west side, rich/poor, lame 1960's American movies. He didn't look like a devious mastermind who would dump girls in the forest.
"I can understand that," she agreed and glanced out the windshield at the city now visible in the distance as well as the constant rainfall. "Hey Kenji, you might want to slow down, man. Getting kinda wet out there."
"Can't be late," he replied. "It's alright, though. Just got new tires put on this baby."
Azami thought about pointing out how in a flood new tires wouldn't really stop them from hydroplaning, but she decided to stay quiet instead. Focus was a must when driving in storms. A few minutes later, though, he broke the silence anyway.
"So, uh…where should I drop you off?"
That was a good question. Even after thinking for most of the ride, she still didn't know how she had ended up unconscious at the base of a cliff. Where would it be safe for her to go? Maybe…
"I mean, I got some errands to run when I get back and stuff. Don't wanna make you sit in the car forever…"
In that moment, Azami had turned her eyes forward again. Kenji was looking at her in the rearview mirror while he was talking, so he didn't see the boulder come loose from the rock wall spiraling up the other side of the road.
"Kenji, look out!"
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. As soon as he turned his eyes to the road, the rock mass was already tumbling down on them. He hit the brakes, but the car kept moving forward despite the earnest effort. The boulder smashed into the vehicle with such force that it shot them spinning off the road. Azami's neck snapped sideways, and a deafening BANG! on the side where she sat was all she knew before she blacked out.
She came to a few minutes later to the sound of Kenji panicking in the front seat.
"Oh no! No, no no! This can't be happening! I can't be late again! Shit! Shit!"
Right then, Azami was more concerned about her neck not being broken than if he was going to be on time to wherever it was. Slowly she wiggled her toes and then flexed various muscles up her back to test the movement of various parts of her spine before she very carefully rotated her neck and cracked her eyes. There was a lot of pain in her left side, and at first she thought it was from the seatbelt pulling into her skin as she was thrown sideways—maybe a fractured collar bone. When the world spun into focus, however, she realized that Kenji had been driving fast enough that the back end of the car had taken the brunt of the collision. Pushing hard on the door with her free arm and pulling on her trapped half only proved fruitless and painful; she was pinned—trapped.
"Azami…we gotta…you gotta help me…!"
"Kenji, I think we need to call the rescue unit," she said in reply, the amount of calm in her voice surprising her.
"Yeah, that's a good plan. Wait…No! We can't call anybody! We gotta do this ourselves!"
Anger started to filter into her blood then. She had told him to drive more carefully. So it was no shock when she snapped, "Kenji! The door is caved in on me! We have to call somebody!"
"If we call them, the police will come!"
"Probably!"
"The police can't get involved!"
That sentence and the tone of desperation in his voice flipped a switch in her brain. "Why?"
He said he couldn't stay away. He said he couldn't be late. He said he had "errands" to do.
"M-Maybe I can—"
Her calm tone took on a serious edge. "Kenji, why can't the police get involved?"
She saw his spine stiffen, and his head swiveled to look at her. One of the lenses of his sunglasses had been busted out and the wide, honey-colored eye peering out at her was ringed in red, the pupil dilated. She hadn't been able to see it earlier because of how far he was from her, but now the sunglasses on the stormy day and the lively chatting made it terribly obvious.
"Are you running again?"
His face went slack and his expression darkened. In a low voice, he answered, "I said I couldn't stay away… Sorry, Hayashi…"
Secret revealed, he kicked the driver's door open and went around to the back of the car. She heard him pulling and banging on the trunk, but he could not get it open. Likely, it had been damaged also. He came back to the driver's door.
"I'll go get the boss. He'll know what to do. We'll get you out."
That idea in place, he ran off.
"What? No! Kenji, come back! Kenji!" she shouted after him.
"I'll be right back!" echoed in the wake of his departure.
Yeah, he'd be back. Along with whatever pimp, mob boss, or syndicated he was working for. They'd want their drugs, and Azami being stuck in the car? Well, she was just a girl in the incredibly wrong place at the unbelievably wrong time, but they wouldn't let her live if she witnessed them with their haul. If they knew who she was (or rather, who she used to be) and all the secrets she had collected over the years, they'd still kill her without Souma-san being around to protect her.
Besides that, even though she could partially see the road, they had to still be about fifteen miles from any sort of civilization. It would be forever before Kenji found them and they returned to where she was; she might already be dead from injuries by then. No matter what, she was dead.
Throwing her free arm against the seat in frustration, she felt the middle section give a little. It was one of the models with access to the trunk from the back seat. This mildly interesting discovery came with the realization that this wasn't Kenji's car; if it was; he would have known about this alternate route and not panicked as much. Curiosity and restless energy from entrapment getting the best of her, she pushed the section out of the way and reached her hand through the opening. A plastic bag met her fingers—a very sizeable plastic bag. There had to be a small fortune sitting in just this one package and no doubt there were plenty more because only one could have been hidden under the driver's seat.
Swallowing the increasing unease rising in her throat, she withdrew her hand and took note of a white dust coating the ends of her middle and ring finger; the bag was leaking. Almost without thinking, she lifted it to her mouth and tasted the bitterness on the tip of her tongue. Cocaine. It was all too familiar and instantly she had flashbacks of sleepless nights, endless energy, euphoria, and then more sleepless nights, thundering headaches, body tremors, and a heartbeat so rapid it left her gasping for breath on the floor of her bedroom at the Green Clan's base as she came off of the stuff. Fear grabbed her with icy talons and she reached back through the seat to shove the bag as far away as possible before she slammed the hole shut on any temptation.
She sat in silence for a moment, staring vacantly straight ahead while she tried desperately to calm her breath and beating heart. Then the anger took over, and she threw her fist down on the seat, again and again, harder each time before she shouted, "Sonofabitch!"
If anyone on the road could see the totaled car and did call the authorities, she was so gonna be arrested! And this time there was no one to bail her out. What a way to get dragged back into this life…
No. Not yet, Azami. At first, she tried to center enough aura in one spot to weaken the hold of the metal on her, but being that she was basically sitting in a big, metal conductor, all that really happened was a buzz that caused pain to her injuries. While she had great confidence in her power, it was not helpful to her right now.
After that, she zoned out for a while, staring out the broken windshield and contemplating her demise, maybe dozing for a while. She really wasn't sure of her condition at this point; her left side was numbing under the weight of the dented door which could either mean her body was trying to handle the situation, or she had nerve damage. Either way, the break from the pain was nice, except it allowed her time to slip in and out of daydreams of where she'd rather be which was a little depressing, like the dreary weather conditions outside.
The rain had slowed to a drizzle as she sat alone, and during the interlude between squalls she was pretty sure that she could hear the ocean not too far behind her. But the pause didn't last long; once again the wind picked up into a howling thunderstorm that rocked the car. Cold, fat raindrops splattered on the roof and dribbled down inside to slowly soak the occupant. It wouldn't have been so bad except the vehicle had stopped at a downhill angle, so they were blowing into her face as well. This also was not the biggest issue to worry about.
The slope off the shoulder of the road provided a perfect place for runoff from the asphalt. Tiny rivulets trickled down, carving little capillary networks through the forest. The big problem was that as the storm raged on, these tiny vessels quickly grew in the already soft ground to deep veins, then small rivers that flooded over their banks and made the woods a soggy mess. And when the ground under the car became soupy mud, it only took a good gust of wind to set it in motion.
Azami's mind jolted to alertness when she thought she felt the seat under her shudder, and when her eyes looked forward, she saw the road moving further away. Her head turned in any direction she could see to make sure she hadn't just imagined it. Unfortunately, she hadn't.
"No…no, no…we can't go anywhere…" she told her captor, as if that would stop it.
A tree, however, did deter their descent just enough to send a stab of pain through her and get her hopes up. Then the wind shoved her again and the car slid around the timber, carving deep gashes in the trunk as it straightened itself out and then it continued its unsafe joyride downhill. Not just unsafe, but unstoppable, she realized since there was no grinding of brakes; the idiot driver hadn't put it in park. Worse than that was when they started out sideways she saw just where the ocean was, and she was now straight toward the cliff that would give her a one-way swimming trip.
Desperately she pounded against the door with her free hand, but it wouldn't relent. Once more she drew as much aura out as she could and tried again to damage the restraint, but received no mercy for her efforts. She couldn't climb, she couldn't jump, she couldn't escape. She was going to die.
But then her death stopped a foot from her face and mocked her. Not yet. You need to suffer a little more before you pay for your sins.
At the last possible second, the back of the vehicle had bumped over a large tree root and angled again. The ride ended when the rear passenger side had wedged up against a tree while the driver's mirror hooked in another. The sudden stop dug sharp metal edges into her side, but she was actually grateful by that point since she was then suspended out over a sheer drop to the sea.
A terrified yell ripped from her mouth before everything processed in her brain that she hadn't hit cold water and hard rocks yet. In fact, she had closed her eyes in anticipation, but when this realization hit her, she cautiously cracked them to look through the cracked back window and see the powerful foaming waves still far below her. A controlled exhale of "Oh…" came from her mouth next, ending in a nervous tremble.
Slowly, so as not to cause any motion to the vehicle at all, she reached up to her hip and felt around for any parts of her clothes that may be snagged or soft spots in the metal caused by the shifting that she might be able to release. She didn't have any luck there, but while she was gently pressing and tugging, her attention was drawn to a hard object in the right front pocket of her jeans.
Hope surging through her whole body, she attempted to straighten the free side of her body so she could worm her hand through the small, bunched space to retrieve it. The actions caused more discomfort to radiate from her injuries and she felt warm liquid dribble down her hip, but she did manage to pull the object out of the folds of fabric.
Her cell phone. Most of the time she forgot to bring it along, and if she did remember to take it, she usually wouldn't remember it was even in her pocket. Today had been like the latter, but she was eternally grateful even for that. It was a little wet, but the screen worked fine. The shell wasn't additionally damaged since the last time she had dropped it. She took a precious second to just hold it to her chest and feel the reality of it before she dialed the only number programmed into the contacts.
Ah, sorry for lying. As it turns out, Yata didn't make it into this chapter after all. Azami, however, is in great peril. How will she get out of this one? Who left her at the bottom of a cliff in the forest on a rainy day? She's in trouble with her old life now. Uhoh. Stay tuned!
