Whoa, finally, here's Chapter 13!

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Chapter 13

I'd been to the Guarahulhos International airport in Sao Paulo the last time I was in Brazil, and the Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus was a lot like it, but emerging from the air-conditioned lounge into the wild green of Manaus was breathtaking.

Seriously, the heat and humidity literally pulled the air from my lungs. It was like choking on wet cotton.

I inhaled shallowly, glanced around, and was immediately struck by the lush beauty of the land around us. It was green, green, green. The leaves, that is. The flowers came in various tropical shades of orange, red, vibrant pink and yellow.

"It's beautiful," Akane whispered.

"Yeah," I said, looking around and yanking my sunglasses from my forehead down onto my nose. "If you're into the whole 'living in a sauna' thing." Akane glared at me. "Which, hey, I totally am."

Jain looked up at me, and geez…was that almost a smile on the kid's face? Slay me. He'd hardly said a word to me the whole time we were out getting his photograph taken back in Nerima. And when Akane was around, he usually did his best to pretend I didn't exist, and stuck as close to her as a baby monkey.

A taxi driver with a big smile approached us, looking enquiringly at our luggage.

"Boa tarde! Olá, tudo bem?" he asked, smiling.

Jain and I shrugged. Honestly, we were Japanese. Did we LOOK like we could speak Portuguese? I had a phrasebook, somewhere…I'd bought it last time I was in Brazil, but honestly, I really hadn't needed to use it much. Thugs worldwide understood the language I spoke… Hehe.

"Olá, qual é o seu nome?" Akane asked. Well, apparently Akane could speak Portuguese. And did.

The taxi driver beamed at her. "Márcio, senora." Which I assumed was his name. And then he launched into a whole explanation of something. I could actually understand some of it, because I'd studied Spanish, but I'd rather kick back and listen to them, and maybe catch the flow of the conversation. Sure, I'd picked up SOME of the language the last time I was here, but I didn't want to sound like an idiot in Portuguese…

Marcio seemed to be saying something along the lines of how he knew a great hotel, and he could take us there.

Akane shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "How do we know this place is good?"

"C'mon, Akane," I whined. "I'm hungry. I've been kicking ass, and then I had to live off plane food for 24 hours! My body needs real fuel."

"For heaven's sake, Ranma," Akane scolded, but she was smiling too. Naturally. Couldn't get pissed off at her knight in shining armour, now could she? I remember back in the day when kicking Kuno's ass wouldn't necessarily have gotten me into Akane's good books. My, how times had changed. And change is good…I casually let my arm drape over the length of the taxi seat, and let my fingers play with the feathered locks that curled across Akane's nape. Akane turned her to glare at me. Jain, seated between us, didn't notice a thing.

"Oh, ma'am, the place is run by my irma's cousin," Marcio continued. I racked my brain. Irma? Hermano? Brother? That sounded right. "It's a great place. Nice food. Not too expensive. I will take you in. They'll give you a good deal."

I leaned back as Akane and the driver continued to talk. Truth be told, I was glad to be out of Japan. The whole time we were there, I'd been looking over my shoulder, imagining the shadow of a woman wearing a kimono and a family sword looming over me. My mother hadn't taken very well to me leaving Akane and Nerima behind eight years ago. She'd demanded my reasons at the time, but I really hadn't been up to explaining to her what a gong show that had turned out to be.

It had felt good to thrash Kuno though. My arm twitched where Akane had bandaged up my scratch from Kuno's sword. To finally face him, and extract some vengeance for the hell he'd put me through…it felt damn good. I sighed. Some of the festering anger I'd had inside me since I'd come across Akane again seemed to have dissipated.

We drove through part of the city, and the tall buildings of steel and glass seemed much like other cities I'd seen. Only the lush undergrowth evident everywhere was different. Eventually, Marcio drove deeper into the suburbs, where pretty villas populated the roadsides. He stopped in front of a pink two storey building enclosed by a high stone fence and a gate. He honked his horn outside the gate, and a small boy about Jain's age came running to let the taxi through. Marcio parked outside a large set of double doors, and began to unload our luggage.

A middle-aged woman came out to greet us. She talked to Marcio in rapid Portuguese, too fast for me to understand much. Marcio introduced her to Akane. She greeted us all warmly.

"Guess Liana has 3 rooms," Akane translated for me. "She says Jain can stay with one of us if he wants."

I was already shaking my head. "Nope. I have security issues with that. Forget that, I have issues, period."Akane opened her mouth, but I held a finger up. "Moving on. There's no way I can guard you two if we're all in different rooms. Ask Liana for her biggest room and get her to put us all in there."

Liana apparently understood most of what I said, because she began chattering very swiftly again, nodding and gesturing.

Akane looked as though she wanted to argue, but gave in when Liana began pulling her in.

Jain looked unhappy, but followed. I sympathized with the kid. I wanted to stay in Akane's room with just her and me, too. Liana led us all to a large bedroom, facing a neat, though vibrant garden outside. The room had a large bed and a daybed in a corner. I dropped my duffel bag next to the daybed, and sat down with a tired sigh.

Liana closed the door behind her after Marcio parked the rest of our luggage inside the room, and they left Jain, Akane and me to stare at each other.

"I'm exhausted," Akane declared, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She glanced at Jain, who looked as though he was on the verge of falling asleep. "I'm going to hit the shower, and catch a nap. Ranma, order us some lunch, please? We can work on our battle plan in the evening."

After we'd all showered, dressed, napped and had a light supper, Akane and I walked out onto the balcony, leaving Jain watching Portuguese TV. "We need a plan to find Castilho," she said.

"It's a safe bet that he's in Manaus somewhere." I casually wrapped an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her upper arm. It was starting to get ever so slightly chilly. She reared back to look at me suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. But she didn't move away.

"Kissing you." I tipped her chin up with one finger, and kissed her before she could reply. She tasted warm, and faintly spicy from the food we'd had. I lazily brushed my thumb across her jaw, and tilted my head to deepen the kiss. She hummed against me, and brought her hands up to my chest, caressing the material of my shirt slowly.

I felt something heated begin to uncoil in my chest, and decided I'd played enough for now. I pulled away gently, and the sight of Akane's sleepy eyes looking up at me was nearly enough to make me kiss her again. But her eyes sharpened too soon, and we pulled back.

"This isn't very useful," Akane muttered, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Call your contact in Brazil," I suggested. "He may at least have some names to give us."

Turned out, he had names, but he said nothing about them being savoury characters, I noticed, as I looked around the crowded bar where Akane's contact had said one of hiscontacts hung out. The characters that populated the bar made you want to check for your wallet. Or your gun. Three hard muscled buckaroos knocked back glasses of cheap cachaca, the local drink. One of the waitresses, a pretty woman in a dress with no sleeves, was flirting with them.

A long table was taken up by a bunch of construction workers, many of them leaving their hard hats on the table as they poured out ice cold beer for themselves from large bottles. Most of the bar was outdoors, with chairs and tables even on the sidewalk, where pedestrians walked through the tables. Some stopped to buy a drink or greet an acquaintance. At the rickety bar, the bartender was busy pouring drinks for a group of men and women who were laughing and talking, their arms around each other. All in all, a great party scene. Except for the Japanese tourists in the picture.

Yeah, us. Akane and I did our best to blend in, but the glances we got said we weren't doing too great a job.

"Got an instant camera?" I asked. "All you're missing is the floppy hat and the khaki shorts if you're going for cliché." Akane glared at me.

"What?"

"Honestly, Ranma. Why don't you grow up?"

I sighed. "Are you sure this is the place?" I asked.

"Yes! We just have to talk to Pedro, the bartender." Akane walked forward just as the bartender began cleaning up the bar.

"Excuse me, Pedro?" she asked politely.

The bartender glanced up briefly. "Pedro's not working tonight. I'm his replacement."

"Oh." Akane deflated. "Well, can I leave a message with you?"

The bartender nodded without much interest, his eyes on his cleaning rag.

"Please tell him that El Churrascaria's friends need a favour."

The bartender looked up sharply. "Come back in a few hours, I can help you."

Akane looked at me, and I shrugged. Might as well. We'd taken Jain to a nearby hotel as a precaution, and warned him not to open the door for anyone but us. This way, the only people who knew where he was , was us.

A few hours later, when we returned from some light sight-seeing, the bar had been shut down for the night. The lights within were dim.

"Great!" I growled. "What a waste of time."

"Eh! Sir! Madam! Here…" Came a voice out of the darkness. The bartender appeared.

"I'm Pedro," he explained, "But around here it doesn't do to answer right away when people come looking for you. But to repay El Churrascaria…well, that's an opportunity I don't often have."

"That's great," I cut in, "and we're hoping you can help us. What do you know about Djavan de Castilho?"

Pedro jerked. "Then again, opportunities come and go...can't catch them all… Castilho, eh? I'm afraid I have never heard the name..I..Aaah!" Akane was blocking his path of retreat, and I grabbed his collar.

"Listen, buddy, my girlfriend and I…" I ignored Akane's startled glance here. "My girlfriend and I just killed four hours waiting for you! So spill any little piece of information you have on that scumbag right now!"

Pedro tried to wriggle out of my grip. "Castilho? Are you crazy? Just for knowing about him, he would cut your ears off and throw you to the piranhas in the river! You're mad."

"El Churrascaria would be very disappointed if he learned that you were unable to return a favour, Senor Pedro" Akane warned.

Pedro swallowed, his eyes wide with fright. "Okay," he said. "All right." I released him, and he walked over to the bar, pulled out a bottle of caipirinha, and took a swallow.

"Castilho…" he drew the word out, then shuddered. "Well, the man's a dog, no doubt. One of the most successful druglords in Brazil, but really mean, too. I heard, one time, one of the local drug runners got too big for his shoes and asked for a piece of Castilho's pie. The next day, his bones, picked clean by the piranhas, were delivered to his second-in-command."

"So he feeds all his enemies to the fishes? That's…" I began.

"Interesting," Akane murmured.

"I was going to say 'disgusting'."

"Does Castilho have a house around here somewhere, a place he would go if he was hurt?" Akane wanted to know.

"Yes," Pedro nodded. "There IS such a place. It's deep in the jungle somewhere. I've heard it's a few miles down the banks of the Negro River. Only the local Indian tribes would be able to find it. They know where everything is." He took another swig of his drink.

Hm, that sounded like the place we were looking for. It was heartening to know it existed. With luck, Dr. Tofu would be inside, too. Finding the place was a different matter.

We thanked Pedro and made our way back to Liana's establishment, letting ourselves in through the side entrance they had shown us, mulling over the information Pedro had given us.

"We're stuck again. How are we going to find them?" Akane pondered, as she opened the door to our room.

I looked beyond her, and stopped. "I don't think that will be a problem."

Seated in chairs in the room, were what were obviously bodyguards, and someone who could only be Ikoko the Hyena.

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Author Comment: Okay, since I bestirred myself to update, y'all might as well review! Cheers!