Disclaimer: I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch Productions.
Claimer: I own all of my original characters.
Here's chapter 9! I'm hoping to have chapter 10 up soon, but I really have no idea. Other than that, I really don't have too much to add…so please read and review and let me know what you think, thanks!
Chapter 9: The Twist of the Century
Northern Japan, 1339
We had been at the van for a few hours and Kasumi finally emerged from the van. Rioichi and I both looked to the back doors of the van, we had been talking just outside the vehicle, and watched as Kasumi strolled over to us silently. She straightened her robes and neatly folder her paws in front of her as she came to a stop between us. She said nothing, simply standing next to us silently. Frankly, I didn't know if silence was a good or bad thing. Ramona had yet to emerge from the van and I was starting to get worried that this hadn't worked. Given the expression on his face, Rioichi was thinking the same thing I was.
"Did you fix her leg, Kasumi?" Rioichi eventually said after she continued to say nothing.
"Of course I did. It was…how you say…" she turned to me, turning her finger in the air in thought, "Easy peasy….squeeze the lemon." I couldn't help but chuckle at the blemish to her phrase, but it got the point across, "Her leg is not broken, but it is bruised severely. I loosened the muscles in her leg to release some of the pain with a little bit of heat and a few acupuncture needles. I advised her to walk around a little, let her muscles get back to normal. Even though she doesn't hurt now, you have to be careful until that bruise goes away in a week or so. If you put her leg under too much stress, it will give out on her again and the pain will be unbearable." Kasumi's finger was touching my nose as she gently scolded me. I nodded and she removed her finger, smiling in the process and returning to her usual happy self. I thanked the raccoons again and excused myself before heading over to the van to give a quick check in on Ramona.
I rested my shoulder against the door of the team van turned time machine and glanced in at the half-breed resting inside. She glanced up from her task, pulling her long hair into it usual ponytail, and smiled briefly before pulling the knot on her hair. She scooted over to the edge of the van, letting her legs hang over the edge, and looked back up at me with a defeated sigh. She patted the seat next to her, asking me to sit next to her for a conversation. I completed her request, sitting next to the female and waiting for her to say something. She gently rested her head on my shoulder with another sigh before sitting still.
"Well we know one thing that's a common threat with my ancestors." I paused briefly, trying to figure out if she was being serious or not.
"And what would that be, pretty lady?" She rolled her eyes at the all-too-familiar nickname I constantly used on her and continued.
"They're stuck with one of you," She glanced up, poking my chest with a playful smile on her face, "Not that I'm complaining, mind you." She winked and snuggled closer, wrapping her thin arms around my waist. I chuckled softly and did the same, wrapping one arm around her petite form.
"Stuck with us? Mademoiselle, we Cooper's are stuck with you Bandicoot's, not the other way around." She slapped my side playfully and hugged me a little tighter. She sighed again and it was obvious that she was nervous. We were about to enter our third day of this and we weren't any closer to solving this stupid riddle. So far, we hadn't found anything that really linked all of them together besides blood, and we were crunched for time.
"I'm still going to figure it out Ramona, I promise." She shifted her head up my shoulder again, her mismatched eyes staring at me intently.
"I hope so," she said with a sigh while still keeping her gaze on me, "but I don't know how." She shifted her head back down and stared out the open doors of the van.
"I don't know either," I said as I started to run my fingers up and down her side, "but we've gone through tough things before, pretty lady, we can get through this." I kissed the top of her head after my sentence and stopped my paw on her hip. She sat up a moment later, staring at me again and smiling. I stared back, letting a smile creep onto my face as I pulled her bangs from her face, revealing her normally hidden blue eye and tucked the lock of black hair behind her ear.
My paw stayed on her cheek, feeling her nuzzle against my paw softly, her gaze still firmly locked onto mine. Frankly I didn't know why we still had somewhat 'trial' moments, considering the multiple times we had kissed in the past, but I wasn't about to complain about it. Having a serious moment like this with her without interruptions was a rare chance that I wasn't about to pass up. Or at least it was almost without interruptions. Of course her phone had to go off before I had a chance to do anything besides stare at her. To be honest, her phone took my off guard when you consider that there weren't any cell phone towers in fourteenth century Japan. She pulled away from me, taking he phone out of her pocket and glancing at the name on the caller ID; Sitka.
"How do you possibly have cell phone service, Ramona?" she laughed and stood outside of the van.
"Bentley has some sort of transmission signal in the van," she glanced to me, "I've got to take this," she waved her phone towards me before placing it to her ear and starting off a conversation in a language that I couldn't understand, probably to keep me from overhearing what her brother had to say.
I chuckled at the antics of the raccoon as she started strolling around the area, occasionally replying to her brother. She could finally walk, despite the fact she had a nasty limp. I glanced inside the van and grabbed the hour glass given to her by the jackal. I looked at the sand pouring through the glass and Ramona was right, we were really pressed for time. The sand was almost halfway in the bottom and we still had another four or five ancestors to visit by the end of the week. I set it down again, not wanting to push any sand towards the bottom faster than it was going, and standing myself, stretching my limbs before setting off to find and talk to Bentley. I needed to discuss what the jackal had said about wanting Ramona and try to figure out what we were going to do about him. For now, he was our biggest threat to this entire ordeal. I was afraid that if he got a hold of Ramona, then there would be no way that we could possibly solve this riddle before our five days were up. However, I didn't know how long we could keep her safe. After all, she was injured because of my lack to defend her in Arabia. If I could even keep her from getting a bruise on her leg, how was I supposed to keep her safe from a deranged jackal and his pack of meathead goons? Then to add to my uncertainty of this jackal, I knew almost nothing about him. I didn't even know the man's name, he was just 'the jackal', let alone anything important concerning our current situation. Hopefully, Bentley's research can find something out about the guy.
I trotted down the slight hill the van was parked on and soon met up with Bentley. The genius was seated in his wheelchair, starting at the laptop perched on it. He glanced up briefly and motioned me over with his hand; hopefully he had found something interesting or helpful. I came up behind him, glancing to the screen he had pulled up. It looked like an aerial of the world, completely computerized and soft beeps were coming from the computer. There was a small radar circle in the bottom of the screen, going in a circle, searching for something in particular. There were multiple strands of numbers at the top of the screen, changing every few minutes as the radar scan reached to top of the circle.
"What are you looking for?" I asked after a while. Bentley perched his glasses high on her nose and spoke.
"Our jackal friend," he typed a few strands of numbers on the keyboard and stared at the screen, "It seems that he's left Japan; now we have to figure where he's gone to. Not only do we have to figure out where, but what year. I've managed to scan the entire world, going year by year. With that tracker you planted on him, we should be able to find him. I started roughly ten thousand B.C. and I'm up to sixteen hundred."
"Are you going to be able to find him?" he nodded and fixed his glasses again.
"With this machine, we'll find him in no time. The only thing is, it can't give us anything about the man." I nodded and sat on the ground next to him.
"Do we even have a name for him?" Bentley simply shook his head and glanced to the computer screen. The year had only moved up two dates, at least it was a thorough search.
"No, but from what you've told me about the guy, I can start piecing a few things together," I nodded for him to continue and he did, "It's obvious that he's not the one in charge in this entire thing, but he is relatively high up. The fact that he has people working for him, gives him power, but since he works for someone else, he's being pressured to get a hold on Ramona. That's why he's getting meaner and meaner and why he's getting more violent. He's getting pressured from his boss to get his hands on Ramona. Granted, we still don't know what he wants her for, but we know that he wants her for her boss."
"If we can figure out who his boss is, then we might be able to figure out a motive, but how do we find the boss?" Bentley shrugged as a reply and glanced to the computer screen again. He went on the alert and started at the computer.
"We found him." He said simply. I jumped up myself, keeping my eyes on the screen. There was a blinking red dot to the left of the screen, off the coast of the Caribbean islands.
"Looks like we're going sailing," Bentley said after shutting the laptop. We chatted a little while longer before I figured that talking to Rioichi might be a good idea. Given the fact that both he and Kasumi were ninjas, they were incredibly wise; they could give me advice on what to do about this jackal.
I stood, saying goodbye to Bentley before setting off to find Rioichi and Kasumi. They had waltzed off together after I started talking to Ramona and they were somewhere around in the area. I trekked back up the small hill and past the van and Ramona, who was still rambling on her phone. I spotted the two raccoons on the opposite side of the hill, talking quietly to each other in Japanese. Deciding not to interrupt their conversation, I watched them briefly. It was strikingly obvious that there was something between the two other than a fight for customers. Granted I had no idea if it was anything truly romantic, but there was something going on between this combination of Cooper's and Bandicoot's. My attention was pulled away from our ancestors, and their attention was pulled away from each other, when a shout from Ramona and a loud crash could be heard. I rushed over to the van where Ramona had been, making sure that none of the jackals' goons had tried to take her. The shout emitted from Ramona wasn't one of fear or pain, but one of anger. By the time I reached the doors of the van, Ramona had already stormed down the hill and was seated beside the nearby stream. She had a paw full of rocks and I briefly watched as she threw them in the rushing river. I glanced into the van, realized what the sound of the crash was. Ramona had thrown her phone inside the van, hitting the metal walls with enough force to smash the screen on the phone and snap the back off it. Everyone was silent with her random outburst. We had no idea what had triggered her sudden rage and given her tendency to hold onto anger, we really weren't sure if her outburst was over yet. I made my way towards the flustered raccoon and placed a paw on her shoulder. She gave a low growl and chucked another tock into the water.
"Don't you just love it life gives you a twist?" she snapped, "Because I'm just thrilled to the core." The fur on her tail and arms were sticking up and each breath she exhaled was a growl.
"What happened?" I asked quietly, not wanting to anger her further. She hurled another rock into the river before finally taking a deep breath and calming down a little. She pulled herself to her feet and started pacing down the length of the river.
"When I was a kid," she said as she turned to start walking the other way, "I thought that my mom had really screw me over, but boy…everything bad I thought she did, has just been outdone. We know she cheated at least four times; that's where Crash and all the other bandicoots came from. But she didn't cheat at least four times, Sly. It was at least five."
"Meaning?" my eyebrows knitted together, trying to figure out where she was going with this.
"She cheated on my dad right before she got pregnant…with me. My dad might not be my dad. There's a chance that I'm not a Bandicoot." Of course we couldn't get through anything without a twist being thrown into it. I know that had to completely crush Ramona; her dad was everything to her. Not only as a parental figure, but as a mentor, a best friend, and one of the few people she could actually trust; at least before he died.
"Ramona," I said after standing myself, "I'm sure that no matter who your real dad is, he loved you and I know your brothers and sister do to. You'll always be a Bandicoot, no matter what DNA tests say."
"I know," she sighed before shaking her head fast and continuing, "but don't you see the trouble in this? We might be going after the wrong family in order to solve this curse. If I'm not a Bandicoot, then we're chasing the wrong family. Then we've wasted two days talking to the wrong people. If I'm not a Bandicoot, then I'm so screwed in three days!" she was right, if she wasn't a real Bandicoot, then she really was doomed in three days.
"Well if you weren't a Bandicoot, then you wouldn't have been cursed to begin with. You would have been left alone to carry on your normal, everyday life." Despite my argument, she shook her head.
"If people think I'm a Bandicoot, then I still would be cursed, no matter who my father was."
"If you're not then the curse won't affect you, It'll pass over you." She shook her head and huffed in frustration.
"Sly, this whole curse isn't dropping dead," she flung her arms apart dramatically to show emphasis, "Every female in the Bandicoot family has been murdered. If whoever this jackal is thinks I'm a Bandicoot because his boss tells him I am, then I'm no exception. If we don't figure out what my family as in common then I will be dead by Friday. And if my family isn't the Bandicoot family, then we've been wasting our time."
"Ramona," I said as I stopped her from walking, placing my paws on her shoulders, "if you weren't a Bandicoot, then you wouldn't look like your ancestors. They wouldn't come to us and say 'You're a Bandicoot'. They'd look at you and try to figure out what planet you came from."
"Sly," she said softly, "All raccoons look the same; you know that. The only thing that could possibly identify me as a Bandicoot is this stupid necklace," she held it up briefly before letting it drop back onto her neck, "It's been passed down, but if my dad thought he was my father and he wasn't, then he gave it to a non-Bandicoot. Other than that, I'm just another face."
"If you're determined that you're not completely sure, then we'll have Bentley do a DNA test with your father and then we'll prove that you are a Bandicoot."
"We don't have time, Sly!" she pulled away and pulled at her hair, "And it's not like we can ask my mom." I stayed silent, not really sure how to respond. Both of her parents were dead and we were crunched for time.
"We'll figure it out Ramona." I said as I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her small shoulders and keeping her in a tight hug. She hugged my back briefly before letting go and heading back to the van. I followed behind her, shaking my head as she crawled into the back of the van, shutting the doors behind her.
"I swear," I muttered to myself, "she is so stubborn." She was a Bandicoot, no doubt about it…although this new information did start throwing some doubt into the situation.
"You know," Rioichi's voice startled me as I turned to face my ninja ancestor, "there is an ancient Chinese story that would help you with your problem."
"A Chinese story?" I figured it would have been Japanese, but whatever works.
"Yes, Chinese. Before Chine was rule under the first ruler, Emperor Shi Huangdi, there were five warring states that made up China. They provinces always fought each other, leaving the country battle worn and harsh. Before he was the emperor, Shi Huangdi grew up with four brothers, and the five boys always fought, just like the warring states. One day, their mother was tired of the fighting, and gave each of them an arrow," I listened, despite the fact I had no idea where he was going with this or how that would help with Ramona, "She told each boy to try and break their arrow. They broke them with ease. Then, she tied five bows together tightly, and handed the bundle and told them to try and break it. No matter how hard they tried, the arrow bundle would not break. She told her sons, that if they fought against each other, then they were as weak as an individual arrow, and would be broken. However, if they combined together like the bundle, they would never be broken. Emperor Shi Huangdi united the five providences together to make one China. My point being, no matter how stubborn Ramona might be, if you can find a way to untie the differences between the Cooper's and the Bandicoot's, then nothing can break you, not matter how horrible a situation is," by this time, Kasumi had walked beside Rioichi with her case in her grasp, "It has been a pleasure," Rioichi continued, "but it is late, and we must return to the city." I nodded the ancestors each gave a bow before turning and darting through the woods.
I waited until Rioichi and Kasumi were out of sight before opening the doors of the van and crawling inside. When I opened the doors, Ramona was already in her spot, with her back to the door. It seemed that Bentley and Murray and turned out their lights a while ago and I was the only one still awake. I crawled into my sleeping bag and glanced to Ramona, checking to see if she was still awake. She was, of course, quietly staring at the ground with a look of depression on her face. I couldn't go to sleep knowing how depressed the girl was, especially the fact she was facing me and would be staring me down all night, so I needed a way to get her mind off our recent situation, even if it was just for the night.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked her after a while.
"What?" she asked with a depressed sound to her voice.
"Why do you think jousting stopped?" sure it was a stupid question, but it would at least get her mind off things.
"…What?" she knitted her eyebrows together and somewhat cocked her head.
"Jousting, it just stopped; no one does it anymore. Why doesn't anyone joust anymore?"
"Well why do you think jousting stopped, Sly?" it seemed like it was working. A smile was starting to form on her lips and was replacing the gloomy frown that was once there.
"Well, I think that two knights got mad at each other and started calling each other names. Like Sir…Mutton-head…and eventually challenged each other to a joust."
"…Alright…" she said slowly, trying to figure out where I was going with it.
"So the two knights get on their horses and start charging at each other. Then one knight pulls down that big…saber, lance…thing and keeps going for the other knight. But then just as they're about to crash the other guy pulls out a gun and just shoots the second knight. Then everyone else was like... 'Yeah, that's a lot faster'. So now they use guns when they want to kill each other."
"Sly, jousting stopped when shrapnel from a lance shot off and impaled the king through the eye. Then after he sat for three days in pain and agony and it was until he was fighting off a horrible infection that he did finally kicked the bucket that they banned jousting tournaments," despite her answer to me ridiculous question, a smile spread across her face, "but I think I like your reasoning better." She let out a quiet laugh, careful not to disturb Bentley or Murray, and pulled my paw underneath her chin before settling down again.
"I promise Ramona, we'll make this work out in the end." She smiled one last time before releasing my hand and scooting closer to my chest, snuggling underneath my chin and curling into a ball. Eventually, her small breaths hit against my chest and I rested my paw on her waist, letting it rise and fall slowly, moving in time with her calm breathing.
