Finding Him
Chapter 5 : The Good, The Bad and the Lovers
by : Sakeena deathstalkker@yahoo.com


Legal disclaimers apply to all anime.

The mind invader came to haunt me as I took a bath. Of course, it was obstinate and wanted me as a whole. It attempted drowning me in the tub and I had to shout to Ran for help. Well, while his sister was gone, he wanted me to call him Aya.

He burst in the bathroom to my rescue. I knew I was such being a pain in the ass. I've become so dependent of him that I was almost afraid to lose him by my side. In return, I was determined to find Aya. Aya, Yuki and my father. But I didn't tell him that. There are still things I could keep from him.

Aya threw me towel. Everything angered me, scared me and I always had something to fear. It was all myself. I slept with him often. I left the bathroom door open so he could come in while I take a bath. There was no such thing was privacy anymore. Because privacy kills. Probably the only thing left for me to ask him of is to accompany me while I bathe.

While I was dressing up, pulling my bathrobe all around me, the invader visited me. Unlike before it was a peaceful invasion.

I'm getting tired of playing this lame game, it was saying.

For the first time, I realized it was a female voice.

So am I, I retorted, combing my hair.

I don't wanna be harsh on you. So just stop playing hard to get and do as I tell you.

My hand gripped the comb. The nerve that woman had of telling me what to do! "I'll do what I want when I want to!" I snapped at her.

I know where Aya is...

Liar!

Would I lie? Do you think I can lie?

Well where is she?

A deal I say?

What's the catch?

Oh nothing much...really..she giggled. Just little things..

What do I get?

I won't control your mind again..ever again..and I'll tell you where Aya is..

What's the catch?

There is no catch , really. Just be an obedient little girl. Do everything as I tell you.

I didn't answer.

Well? I could tell you where Aya is. And Yuki. and..Keisuke..

Daddy?

Oh yes. Your daddy.

The deal was made. I bit the bait. I could not really care for the consequences. I just wanted to save those dear people. A chance to do something good.

That night, I dressed in my male black suit and prepared myself. I listened to the woman's instructions accurately. By around 10:45 leave the house. Go directly to Chinese restaurant at the Hyogo Street and walk around the dark alley beside it. There stood three waste bins. Open the second one and you will find all you need. And I did.

A map. A silencer. Two daggers. A white mask. The White Rabbit.

I took all but the mask.

Port 31 was where Aya was. At least according to the map. The voice had stopped assisting her as soon as she left the house. She was all on her own.

Port 31. An international port. There were guards on almost every block. Highly secured, it seemed. I killed these guards.

No one became much of a nuisance. Except when I was nearing the entrance, someone saw me and became a hindrance. He stood behind me and in a low voice, told me to drop my weapon.

It must be the illegal syndicates. After all, had it been a guard, it would have shouted to his fellows about me and sounded the alarm. But this one didn't.

I knew I could not fail. So I will have to kill if I had to. And I turned around quickly to confront the one behind me.

It was a girl, much to my surprise. I didn't know if she knew I was one too for I was in disguise and wore a beret, but she fought valiantly for a girl. But I, the master of the Ryuugasaki technique, defeated her. It was the time when her comrade came to the rescue and came up behind me, strangling me with a string.

"Stop now."

The voice was familiar.

I began to strangle free, but the girl I defeated rose up and they both teamed against me. She gave me a one painful kick in the stomach. A coughed out blood.

Another unexpected thing happened. A blade came behind the girl. A familiar looking blade. It threatened to kill her.

"Aya!" the one holding me said in surprise. I took his surprise as an opportunity to give him one strong blow on the stomach at the same time get free. My beret fell off, letting go of my hair.

Aya Fujimiya. I mean Ran. It was him all right. He released the girl one I was able to go.

And the one who strangled me...it was Yoji. And the girl was no other than Erinko.

Traitors.

I was going to get the girl and force something out of her, but the guards came and lit up the whole surrounding, had a rain of bullets and we had no choice but to run off and the alarm system had been sounded. Yoji and Erinko to one direction, me and Aya on the other.

"So you followed me?!" I demanded him when we were all alone behind a wall. He was dressed in the same thief clothes I first saw him in.

"My sister's here. What do you want me to do? Sit and wait?"

"I didn't ask for your help!"

"And who asked for your help?"

Darn. There we were, arguing again in the wrong time and wrong place. "Well I lead you into this place."

"I just saved you."

"All right. I get your point. Let's call it quits."

He didn't say anything again, but I thought that as a yes. We didn't' have much chance to talk as we were once again on the run. I guess I must have talked rather too loudly that the guards were able to track us. We ran until we could no more. The sea was ahead of us and there were guards on all direction but the sea. We both jumped down. Damn it was cold. And we had to stay calmly there for more than fifteen minutes until the guards concluded we were either drowned or had escaped.

We went home dripping wet. In failure.


Yoji and Aya were exceptionally cold to each other the next day. Aya just walked with me to the shop and left to only God-knows-where which I didn't bother to ask. I for one, just stayed and helped around as though nothing happened.

Yoji's strings marked on my neck. I almost died. He almost killed me. He didn't talk to me but I decided to confront him about it. It was getting to be really irritating.

"I was going to save Aya," I told him.

"Aya?" he repeated in surprise. I guess Ran did not bother telling him nothing.

"Yup. And what were you doing there? Come on, Kudou. Spill."

He did. He confessed to me Erinko worked for the Inoue syndicate, but she chose to work with him to save Ohno Yuki. She had become a traitor all right, and her life could be in danger if anybody from the syndicate knew about this.

"What? You mean Yuki?" I asked in surprise.

"Know her?"

"Nope. But Omi does."

"Of course. They're lovebirds. I wanted to surprise Omi."

"Whatever you call it," I grinned at him then called the two other to go down the basement with Yoji while I took care of the shop. So everything was back to what it was before. Yoji had once again the nerve to put his long slender arm around me.

Sakura dropped by later on and I told her Aya was gone somewhere but he might be back later. She left, rather disappointed, but also sort of relived to find me alone and not with him. I bet she was still suspicious. I couldn't blame her.

I went home pretty early and forgetting about Aya's absence, called for her and was surprised to find her not yet home. She was always the one who gets home first and most of the time I find her busy in the kitchen or had already prepared something to eat. Now that she was gone..the house seemed pretty empty.

This angered me.

It left me in charge of cooking. For the two of us.

Ran went home late. I heard his car's sound and I knew it was him driving. When I went to the door to welcome him, I found him scrambling out of the car, beaten. Quickly, I rushed to him to help me, and though he was trying to look as though it didn't matter, he could not do anything to refuse my help. He was too weak.

I swung his arm around me and helped him in up his room then locked all the doors. "Where've you been?" I demanded as I laid him down gently on his bed. He was bruised all over, plus a gunshot at his arm and the sleeve of his clothing torn along with some other little tears randomly scattered all over. His face had a mark of a blow, along with his chest. There was blood at the corner of his lips. His sight sent a wave of a combination of emotions in my heart : fear, anxiety, hatred, anger.. and I guess love and admiration. Ran would do anything to save his sister. Nonetheless I was on trying to put an annoyed expression, hiding all my fears. I wanted to cry. But I didn't want to show him that. For once I wanted to be strong. Strong for him and for her.

I took care of him almost all night, dealing with his shot first. He didn't want to be brought to the hospital leaving me all alone to do the job. I changed his clothes, applied some medicines on his wounds, bandaged it helped him eat while he lied down. His breathing was audible enough and I knew then that his condition was barely good enough.

I sat down on his bed as he slept, my back turned to him. With both my elbows on my knees and my face on my hands, I cried. And I swore to myself I will get all those who did it to him.

But he was awake. I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Don't do it, Kanzaki," he advised, as though reading what was on my head.

I turned to him. He was awake all right. I met his eyes. It was still the same determined eyes I had seen before. The light neither vanished nor waned. "I will do what I want when I want to."

He seemed to grin. For the first time, I could almost see him smile. A smile. His hand traveled from my shoulder to my face. He held my face, wiping my tears with his. "Fine then. I'm coming with you, Kasumi."

That was the first time he mentioned my name. It felt very nice. "No you're not," Nevertheless I corrected him sternly.

"I will do what I want when I want to."

I grinned at him feebly. We were not going to argue again. "Fine. I won't. For now." I held his hand with both of mine. Then he fell asleep.


The following day his condition improved. His recovery was pretty fast and, except for the bruises and scars, he could stand up once again and was all A-OK for an argument.

He was hard headed all the same, and acted as though nothing happened last night. His was the toughy toughy front but I didn't let him out of the house. Neither of us went to the shop. We were going to attack that night as Ran had planned.

I haven't told him about the deal with the invader. But I intended to, though I was well aware he was going to be furious.

The whole day we spent indoors. I cooked, we ate, we planned, revised and revised the plan until everything seemed to be perfect. Then I told him about Yoji and Erinko. "The more the merrier," I told him.

But his decision was made. He trusted Yoji, but not his women. He made me pick - the two of us, or him alone. Of course I picked the two of us. Including the couple was out of the question.

He told me of what happened by his own will. I didn't force him out of it. According to his narration, he went to the port that night to observe but was caught. He didn't bring any weapons and the unfair proportion of numbers caused him to almost die if it weren't for the help of a woman and a man. He described the woman of what he was able to saw but it struck me with no clue..Then he described the man. I was almost paralyzed to my seat.

Daddy.

He noticed it and read my mind. "So he's your dad."

"Looks like it."

And the more I could not wait for tonight. The stronger my will and determination to attack.


That night, though, we were not able to go with our plans. When I was about to tell Ran about the deal, the invader penetrated on my mind. She manipulated my body, choking me to death and in fact, managed to stop my heartbeat for more or less ten seconds. At least according to Ran.

He saved me. Again. Then for more than an hour, I was paralyzed and could not move.

I guess she wanted me dead.

The deal was broken. There was no way I was going to work for her anymore now that she began to intrude me again, against from what she had promised.

I was able to tell Ran later about everything. He was furious. But I could see he was worried as well. And grateful.

But because of the incident, the plan was postponed.

The best part was, the deal was cut off and I got what I want.

But there was part of me that knew I was not going to get away the easily.



April 2000 © Sakeena