1 2001 – Misao – 139
2 2001 – Aoshi – 149
3
4 Crossover between RK & Highlander
- - - - - - - - - - -
The lights weren't helping. Misao could see when she had had too much wine and that was it; she was feeling woozy and those lights weren't helping her eyesight. As if he had read her mind, Aoshi sent for one servant to turn off some of the lights. That was better.
"Are you sure you want to hear it now?" Aoshi asked, a little concerned. "You look like you're better off in bed."
"No, the effect will disappear in no time."
Aoshi nodded and looked ahead, as if he didn't have anything to tell. He looked a little nervous, considering what he should tell and what he should omit.
"As I've told you, I was killed a month after you left. I spent that last month like I had spent all the other ones: meditating. Except that since you had left, the Aoiya was upside down, and I went even more to the Temple." He started, refilling his empty glass. "Nobody knew what had happened to you and they were all very worried, you know?"
"I imagined it, yes."
"Well, two weeks after you had left a police officer of the higher ranks visited me in the Temple. It appears Saitoh was out of town and had received an urgent message about a large cargo of drugs in Kyoto. Since he wasn't able to get back there in time, he had ordered one of his men to send for me. A large ship, coming from Belgium, was to stop in Kyoto's port. Saitoh placed at my disposal fifty of his men and asked me to led them." Aoshi sighed. "I accepted. The ship got there two weeks later, at night. I was there with fifty men. As soon as the ship's ropes were on the quay, everything just burst into action. Apparently some of the sailors onboard had seen some police officers and they shot at us. I think that no one was killed in that first round, but it caught us off-guard. The officers responded with bullets and I led some of them onboard. I fought with some sailors, but at some point someone shot me in the back. I saw the bullet come out right here." Aoshi said, pointing at his heart. "That was it! I died and only came back six or seven hours later, when four police officers were dragging my body out of the ship. It gave them quite a scare! Well, they swore they had checked my pulse and had declared me officially dead. Of course I didn't believe them, I thought I had been hit, but nothing deadly. Until, of course, I got home, took my shirt off and… no wound! No scar! Nothing. In my own way, I freaked out."
Misao raised her eyebrows, because she knew that Aoshi freaking out was exteriorized as a frown. Aoshi must have figured out what she was thinking, for he smiled.
"Well, I started hyperventilating. Is that freaking out for you?"
"Wow! I didn't hyperventilate. Well, I was too worried at how to get out of the trouble I was in."
"So, I had no idea what happened. Saitoh got back in the meantime and paid me a visit. I hadn't left the Temple and when I entered I had a rush of sensations and feelings, like we do when another Immortal comes close. He sat across me, with a weird smile on his face. 'I heard you died and came back, Shinomori' he said. As expected, I didn't reply. That was when he told me what he was. You know, he has been an Immortal since the fight with Shishio. He told me I wouldn't die, as long as I took care of my neck." Aoshi chuckled. "He then asked me about you. He must have known you were one too, I don't know.
»I continued living in the Aoiya for many years. I don't know, maybe ten or fifteen. But, of course, the fact was that I didn't have one white hair or a wrinkle showing, and everybody started looking at me. I guess they thought I had made a deal with the devil or something. But then, Okina died. He had been very ill the last months, after catching an pneumonia and it had only gotten worse. He died on a rainy day with all the Aoiya around him, calling for you." Misao dropped her eyes to the floor. "Don't ever blame yourself, Misao. I think that, in a way, Jiya knew that something had happened and that you had to go. He never blamed you for anything."
"I miss him, Aoshi." Misao said in a small voice.e"I miss his laughter, his benevolence… I miss him so much!" Aoshi placed a hand over one of hers and caressed it.
"I know you do. I miss him too." He said, trying to comfort her. "Well, after that, Okon married, Shiro out of the blue confessed his feelings for Omasu and they married too. Kuro meet a nice little lady, that turned out to be the heir of a great sum of money, and married. So, at the age of forty-five, Shinomori Aoshi showed no signs of age and had no reason to stay in Kyoto. We were in the year 1897, and the world was a whole new universe for me. So I packed my bags and went to China for some time, like you. There I searched everything I could about the Immortals and met some Watchers. One of them was a particularly good friend."
"A woman?" Misao asked, feeling the old jealousy coming back. Aoshi smiled as if he had understood her.
"No, not a woman. But I did get my sum of them. I traveled by train until I reached Russia, Saint Petersburg more precisely. The cream of the society couldn't be more in love with the Japanese young man."
"Especially the women, I bet." Misao said, this time with a smile.
"Yes. I heard some conversations between them where they got to the extreme of betting who got me first in their bed. Don't laugh!" Aoshi said, seeing Misao's giggles.
"I'm loving your story, Aoshi. Go on."
"Well, I had a small thing with a duchess, but it was nothing of consequence. I had kept in touch with Saitoh, always asking what was happening in Japan, and that was when I received a letter from him with a certain photo. It was one of those ones, where the background was all white and you were wearing a blue dress with an umbrella, and you had your hair shoulder-length. It was quite embarrassing, actually. I was in the duchess' room when I received the photo and she got all bitchy because of the picture. I guess she thought you were another lover or something."
"How possessive!" Misao said, inwardly smiling about the thought of making Aoshi's woman jealous.
"Yes, that's what I thought. I don't know why, but I packed up and went back to Japan. I worked with Saitoh for the government for awhile and then since that, I've been jumping from mission to mission. During the Second World War, I managed to escape going to war. I despised that war and refused being involved in it. And then, I worked for a while trying to rebuild Hiroshima. I managed to get filthy rich, as you see, and I bought this house, as well as another one in the center of Tokyo and another in Russia. And that pretty much brings us up to today." He said, rising from the table and leading her to another room where a cozy fire burned. Misao followed. Her head felt much better, and the fire made her feel good, even though Aoshi sat very close to her on the sofa.
"Hum… yes. You mean, that's what you're willing to tell me, since I don't believe that was your life story year by year. I don't believe you've lived 119 years with only one mistress." Misao said, with a saucy grin.
"You keep returning to that subject, Misao. I assure you that I won't die of abstinence." Aoshi said smiling. Misao laughed.
"Yes, I bet you won't." Aoshi looked at her, seriously. "What?"
"What about you? How did you managed with lovers in these last 119 years?" Aoshi knew very well who her lovers had been, from the most casual fling to the bigger affair. Misao stopped smiling and looked at the fireside. She, in between the First and the Second World War, had made herself the perfect lover. She had moved to Paris and, due to her lack of money, had lived in the red light district. The thought of selling herself would have never crossed her head, but she made friend with lots of prostitutes and had lots of lovers during that time. Her discontentment in life had passed to her need for love, and one man never seemed enough. Some of those men were Immortals, who today were her best friends. But she couldn't even remember all of them! Some of them had been one-night stands, that she didn't even remember the day after. She couldn't get pregnant and she couldn't get diseases, so her sex life was a total chaos.
Some of those men were simple pills for her spirit. One of those one- night stands, the day after, had told her she had called him Aoshi the whole night. 'Not that I cared very much', he added. She had never been more… embarrassed? No, it was something else – mortified. She had always pushed Aoshi out of her love/sex life and with those few words he had been tossed into that turmoil. The simple fact of her thinking she had been having sex with Aoshi was… hurtful.
That time, she had lived as a painter. There were actually some rich folks who bought her paintings. Some of them reflected her rage, her despair, but they had also hope and love. She lived like a true bohemian!
She kept looking at the fireside and then she saw Aoshi's finger pointing at something above it. When she looked up, Misao saw pinned to the wall one of her paintings. She had painted so many she didn't even remember many of them! Most of the times she painted drunk or very late in the night. But she remembered that one. That one she had painted when one of her prostitute friends had died. She had just returned from her burial and the inspiration for it just came. It was quite a dark painting, but she imagined Aoshi liking it.
"How did you get it?" She asked, in wonder.
"Oh! A friend of mine from Russia liked your work and wrote to me about it. He said I would love to see your paintings; he said they had Aoshi written all over it." Aoshi smiled, then rosed from the sofa to have a better look at the painting. "I managed to grab hold of this one. It was quite expensive, you know? When I looked at it the first time I searched for you there, but over the years, I found that people find in art what they hope. I found you." Aoshi said, turning to look at her.
Misao didn't have an answer, but she wasn't sure she wanted to answer. She didn't remember ever seeing Aoshi this open and, to be quite frank, he said some things that looked like he was hitting on her. But that was impossible, wasn't it? Aoshi had long ago told her he didn't partake of her feelings and why would he change? Just because he hadn't seen her in a long time?
Aoshi sat again on the sofa and looked at her.
"Why did you stop painting after the Second World War, Misao? You had so much talent." He said.
"I don't know. I guess I didn't dare. I moved from Paris to Australia, when the war started. I had lived through a Great War, I didn't need another one. I stopped painting."
She had stopped so much more than just painting! She had stopped with her bohemian life. A single woman living in Sydney, in 1939, and a Japanese woman furthermore! She had to be very careful with who she related with.
"And I was crushed when we attacked Pearl Harbor and, later on, horrified with the atomic bombs. I bought a house in Paris as soon as the war ended." Misao said. I don't think I fitted very well in that island."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Aoshi looked at his bedroom ceiling. He couldn't sleep. After talking to Misao until 4 a.m., they had said their goodbyes and he had gone to his room. But he knew he wouldn't fall asleep very early tonight. He felt all his muscles tense and like a ready lion who's hunting. He knew what had done this to him: her closeness. They had sat very close to one another on that damn sofa. He could still sense her smell on himself!
He had spent the whole night wondering how he could have been so blind to her beauty? The night before, when he had dropped her in that bed, and he had turned the lamp on; the white light had touched her face and she had glowed. The white sheets had paled near her soft skin and her black hair had never seemed so soft and velvety! He hadn't been able to stop himself and opened her shirt, to see the wound he had caused there. Aoshi could still remember the pain in his heart when he had seen the long gash on her soft chest and the dried blood. He had stood there for hours until he clearly saw her flesh mend itself and the skin cover it. Then he had cleaned the blood and called for a maid to dress her.
And now he felt his fingers aching to touch her. He had felt his body temperature rise when he had seen her enter his room and had seen the outlines of her body against the light coming from the hallway. Aoshi turned to his other side on the bed. His heart was beating at an abnormal rate. Strange, he thought. And he was sweating. Aoshi turned again. He was feeling chills up and down his spine. God, how he felt good after talking to her again! He turned again.
"I'm never going to fall asleep at this rate" He muttered to himself. He started wondering if she would mind him asking to sleep by her side. "No, too quick, too quick." He answered himself. He knew she would feel bad if he asked her. No, tonight he had to sleep alone, even if she was just some rooms away.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"So she'll go?"
"Yes, she said she would." Aoshi answered Saitoh's question. It was the third of November, Aoshi still had to go to his office, had to provide Misao a dress and had to see her still. She had woke up very early and had gone for a walk, now that Aoshi had taken care of letting his butler know she could go wherever she wished to.
He left a message with Shirai for Misao, got into his car, and drove off to his office located in Tokyo's center, where he received his clients. Aoshi, right now, was working as the best backup plan the government had ever had. When things didn't work, they sent Aoshi and his team to do the job. Of course, Aoshi had his limits of actions, being his scruples. All the members of the team were Immortal, and they worked together on more than government missions.
Aoshi entered his floor and looked around, searching for someone. Right now, he had placed his team working on everybody invited to the party Aoshi had asked Misao to go to. The list was enormous! Aoshi opened the door of the conference room and found four of them glued to computers.
"Good morning, minna." Aoshi said, wandering around trying to catch up with them. A woman raised her head from the screen and smiled at her teammates.
"Mr. Shinomori sure looks happy today, doesn't he?" She asked, with a strong Scottish accent. "I wonder…"
"How are you doing, Helen?" Aoshi asked, ignoring the woman's taunts. But the other three looked at him, with a smile.
"Yes, you do look happy, boss." One said.
"This smells like… WOMAN!" All four started laughing, while Aoshi looked at them with a displeased look on his face.
"What do you have?" He asked again.
"Well, we've been through just sixty people, but we have here a lot of old little Immortals. We've been comparing this list with the one from that other party the brother Gosh were invited, we got seven people that were on the two, until now of course." A young man said, from behind a screen.
"Print that list, with historical and go on." Aoshi said, moving closer to a printer where, seconds later, four pages came. He was leaving the room when Helen called him.
"Have you found a date for that party, boss?" She asked, while moving her fingers over the keyboard and looking at the screen.
"Yes." He answered, knowing that it would raise a lot of questions. Those Immortals had been with him for a long time, and most of them had a firm friendship with him, even if he didn't always allow their jokes.
"Really? Who?" Another guy asked.
"It's a surprise." Aoshi laconically answered and walked out of the room and out the building.
While he was getting into his car, Aoshi got his cell-phone out and marked a number. After awhile a man's voice came up.
"Yes?" It asked with a girly voice.
"Armando, it's Aoshi."
"Aoshi-san, dear! How are you?" Aoshi turned his key and started the car, while talking to his tailor.
"Armando, I need you to do me the most dashing, daring and incredible dress you've ever done." Aoshi said, trying to picture Misao's face when she saw the dress. Armando was known for his daring women's dress'. She would have a fit or love it!
"Sure, honey. Just need the measurements, the color and you have to give me a picture of what you want." Armando said and Aoshi could just imagine the gay tailor running around like a dizzy cockroach.
"I can't give you clear measurements, because it has to be a surprise, but I can get you a picture of her and you estimate, alright? I want it black, it's a night dress. Oh, and I want it done in two days." Aoshi heard Armando sighed.
"Two days?! Oh, alright. I guess I can work even under these circumstances. Who is the lucky girl?" Armando asked, all excited.
"Bye, Armando." Aoshi hung up. Okay, now he just had to get home and have the rest of the day with Misao.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Nicolai was near to having a serious coronary and couldn't stop pacing all around the flat. He had no idea what to do to find Misao and that stain on the carpet didn't help ease him. He was in the middle of another pacing when the phone rang and Nicolai ran to it.
"Yes?"
"Nicolai, this is Misao." He heard Misao's calm voice on the other side of the line.
"Misao! Where are you? I'll get you in a second." He practically yelled at the speaker.
"No, there's no need. I'm alright and I'm staying here." She calmly answered.
"But, where's here?"
"Look, I'm safe and I'll call you if I need anything. I just wanted to reassure you that I'm okay. You go on working with Saitoh." Misao said.
"I'm not sure I can trust him, Misao. He looks like he doesn't give a damn if we succeed or not." Nicolai waited for an answer, but he got silence. "Misao?"
"Look, you do what you want. Do you want to go back to Prague?"
"No."
"Do what you please. I got to go now. Bye."
"But…" Nicolai heard the phone being hung up.
2 2001 – Aoshi – 149
3
4 Crossover between RK & Highlander
- - - - - - - - - - -
The lights weren't helping. Misao could see when she had had too much wine and that was it; she was feeling woozy and those lights weren't helping her eyesight. As if he had read her mind, Aoshi sent for one servant to turn off some of the lights. That was better.
"Are you sure you want to hear it now?" Aoshi asked, a little concerned. "You look like you're better off in bed."
"No, the effect will disappear in no time."
Aoshi nodded and looked ahead, as if he didn't have anything to tell. He looked a little nervous, considering what he should tell and what he should omit.
"As I've told you, I was killed a month after you left. I spent that last month like I had spent all the other ones: meditating. Except that since you had left, the Aoiya was upside down, and I went even more to the Temple." He started, refilling his empty glass. "Nobody knew what had happened to you and they were all very worried, you know?"
"I imagined it, yes."
"Well, two weeks after you had left a police officer of the higher ranks visited me in the Temple. It appears Saitoh was out of town and had received an urgent message about a large cargo of drugs in Kyoto. Since he wasn't able to get back there in time, he had ordered one of his men to send for me. A large ship, coming from Belgium, was to stop in Kyoto's port. Saitoh placed at my disposal fifty of his men and asked me to led them." Aoshi sighed. "I accepted. The ship got there two weeks later, at night. I was there with fifty men. As soon as the ship's ropes were on the quay, everything just burst into action. Apparently some of the sailors onboard had seen some police officers and they shot at us. I think that no one was killed in that first round, but it caught us off-guard. The officers responded with bullets and I led some of them onboard. I fought with some sailors, but at some point someone shot me in the back. I saw the bullet come out right here." Aoshi said, pointing at his heart. "That was it! I died and only came back six or seven hours later, when four police officers were dragging my body out of the ship. It gave them quite a scare! Well, they swore they had checked my pulse and had declared me officially dead. Of course I didn't believe them, I thought I had been hit, but nothing deadly. Until, of course, I got home, took my shirt off and… no wound! No scar! Nothing. In my own way, I freaked out."
Misao raised her eyebrows, because she knew that Aoshi freaking out was exteriorized as a frown. Aoshi must have figured out what she was thinking, for he smiled.
"Well, I started hyperventilating. Is that freaking out for you?"
"Wow! I didn't hyperventilate. Well, I was too worried at how to get out of the trouble I was in."
"So, I had no idea what happened. Saitoh got back in the meantime and paid me a visit. I hadn't left the Temple and when I entered I had a rush of sensations and feelings, like we do when another Immortal comes close. He sat across me, with a weird smile on his face. 'I heard you died and came back, Shinomori' he said. As expected, I didn't reply. That was when he told me what he was. You know, he has been an Immortal since the fight with Shishio. He told me I wouldn't die, as long as I took care of my neck." Aoshi chuckled. "He then asked me about you. He must have known you were one too, I don't know.
»I continued living in the Aoiya for many years. I don't know, maybe ten or fifteen. But, of course, the fact was that I didn't have one white hair or a wrinkle showing, and everybody started looking at me. I guess they thought I had made a deal with the devil or something. But then, Okina died. He had been very ill the last months, after catching an pneumonia and it had only gotten worse. He died on a rainy day with all the Aoiya around him, calling for you." Misao dropped her eyes to the floor. "Don't ever blame yourself, Misao. I think that, in a way, Jiya knew that something had happened and that you had to go. He never blamed you for anything."
"I miss him, Aoshi." Misao said in a small voice.e"I miss his laughter, his benevolence… I miss him so much!" Aoshi placed a hand over one of hers and caressed it.
"I know you do. I miss him too." He said, trying to comfort her. "Well, after that, Okon married, Shiro out of the blue confessed his feelings for Omasu and they married too. Kuro meet a nice little lady, that turned out to be the heir of a great sum of money, and married. So, at the age of forty-five, Shinomori Aoshi showed no signs of age and had no reason to stay in Kyoto. We were in the year 1897, and the world was a whole new universe for me. So I packed my bags and went to China for some time, like you. There I searched everything I could about the Immortals and met some Watchers. One of them was a particularly good friend."
"A woman?" Misao asked, feeling the old jealousy coming back. Aoshi smiled as if he had understood her.
"No, not a woman. But I did get my sum of them. I traveled by train until I reached Russia, Saint Petersburg more precisely. The cream of the society couldn't be more in love with the Japanese young man."
"Especially the women, I bet." Misao said, this time with a smile.
"Yes. I heard some conversations between them where they got to the extreme of betting who got me first in their bed. Don't laugh!" Aoshi said, seeing Misao's giggles.
"I'm loving your story, Aoshi. Go on."
"Well, I had a small thing with a duchess, but it was nothing of consequence. I had kept in touch with Saitoh, always asking what was happening in Japan, and that was when I received a letter from him with a certain photo. It was one of those ones, where the background was all white and you were wearing a blue dress with an umbrella, and you had your hair shoulder-length. It was quite embarrassing, actually. I was in the duchess' room when I received the photo and she got all bitchy because of the picture. I guess she thought you were another lover or something."
"How possessive!" Misao said, inwardly smiling about the thought of making Aoshi's woman jealous.
"Yes, that's what I thought. I don't know why, but I packed up and went back to Japan. I worked with Saitoh for the government for awhile and then since that, I've been jumping from mission to mission. During the Second World War, I managed to escape going to war. I despised that war and refused being involved in it. And then, I worked for a while trying to rebuild Hiroshima. I managed to get filthy rich, as you see, and I bought this house, as well as another one in the center of Tokyo and another in Russia. And that pretty much brings us up to today." He said, rising from the table and leading her to another room where a cozy fire burned. Misao followed. Her head felt much better, and the fire made her feel good, even though Aoshi sat very close to her on the sofa.
"Hum… yes. You mean, that's what you're willing to tell me, since I don't believe that was your life story year by year. I don't believe you've lived 119 years with only one mistress." Misao said, with a saucy grin.
"You keep returning to that subject, Misao. I assure you that I won't die of abstinence." Aoshi said smiling. Misao laughed.
"Yes, I bet you won't." Aoshi looked at her, seriously. "What?"
"What about you? How did you managed with lovers in these last 119 years?" Aoshi knew very well who her lovers had been, from the most casual fling to the bigger affair. Misao stopped smiling and looked at the fireside. She, in between the First and the Second World War, had made herself the perfect lover. She had moved to Paris and, due to her lack of money, had lived in the red light district. The thought of selling herself would have never crossed her head, but she made friend with lots of prostitutes and had lots of lovers during that time. Her discontentment in life had passed to her need for love, and one man never seemed enough. Some of those men were Immortals, who today were her best friends. But she couldn't even remember all of them! Some of them had been one-night stands, that she didn't even remember the day after. She couldn't get pregnant and she couldn't get diseases, so her sex life was a total chaos.
Some of those men were simple pills for her spirit. One of those one- night stands, the day after, had told her she had called him Aoshi the whole night. 'Not that I cared very much', he added. She had never been more… embarrassed? No, it was something else – mortified. She had always pushed Aoshi out of her love/sex life and with those few words he had been tossed into that turmoil. The simple fact of her thinking she had been having sex with Aoshi was… hurtful.
That time, she had lived as a painter. There were actually some rich folks who bought her paintings. Some of them reflected her rage, her despair, but they had also hope and love. She lived like a true bohemian!
She kept looking at the fireside and then she saw Aoshi's finger pointing at something above it. When she looked up, Misao saw pinned to the wall one of her paintings. She had painted so many she didn't even remember many of them! Most of the times she painted drunk or very late in the night. But she remembered that one. That one she had painted when one of her prostitute friends had died. She had just returned from her burial and the inspiration for it just came. It was quite a dark painting, but she imagined Aoshi liking it.
"How did you get it?" She asked, in wonder.
"Oh! A friend of mine from Russia liked your work and wrote to me about it. He said I would love to see your paintings; he said they had Aoshi written all over it." Aoshi smiled, then rosed from the sofa to have a better look at the painting. "I managed to grab hold of this one. It was quite expensive, you know? When I looked at it the first time I searched for you there, but over the years, I found that people find in art what they hope. I found you." Aoshi said, turning to look at her.
Misao didn't have an answer, but she wasn't sure she wanted to answer. She didn't remember ever seeing Aoshi this open and, to be quite frank, he said some things that looked like he was hitting on her. But that was impossible, wasn't it? Aoshi had long ago told her he didn't partake of her feelings and why would he change? Just because he hadn't seen her in a long time?
Aoshi sat again on the sofa and looked at her.
"Why did you stop painting after the Second World War, Misao? You had so much talent." He said.
"I don't know. I guess I didn't dare. I moved from Paris to Australia, when the war started. I had lived through a Great War, I didn't need another one. I stopped painting."
She had stopped so much more than just painting! She had stopped with her bohemian life. A single woman living in Sydney, in 1939, and a Japanese woman furthermore! She had to be very careful with who she related with.
"And I was crushed when we attacked Pearl Harbor and, later on, horrified with the atomic bombs. I bought a house in Paris as soon as the war ended." Misao said. I don't think I fitted very well in that island."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Aoshi looked at his bedroom ceiling. He couldn't sleep. After talking to Misao until 4 a.m., they had said their goodbyes and he had gone to his room. But he knew he wouldn't fall asleep very early tonight. He felt all his muscles tense and like a ready lion who's hunting. He knew what had done this to him: her closeness. They had sat very close to one another on that damn sofa. He could still sense her smell on himself!
He had spent the whole night wondering how he could have been so blind to her beauty? The night before, when he had dropped her in that bed, and he had turned the lamp on; the white light had touched her face and she had glowed. The white sheets had paled near her soft skin and her black hair had never seemed so soft and velvety! He hadn't been able to stop himself and opened her shirt, to see the wound he had caused there. Aoshi could still remember the pain in his heart when he had seen the long gash on her soft chest and the dried blood. He had stood there for hours until he clearly saw her flesh mend itself and the skin cover it. Then he had cleaned the blood and called for a maid to dress her.
And now he felt his fingers aching to touch her. He had felt his body temperature rise when he had seen her enter his room and had seen the outlines of her body against the light coming from the hallway. Aoshi turned to his other side on the bed. His heart was beating at an abnormal rate. Strange, he thought. And he was sweating. Aoshi turned again. He was feeling chills up and down his spine. God, how he felt good after talking to her again! He turned again.
"I'm never going to fall asleep at this rate" He muttered to himself. He started wondering if she would mind him asking to sleep by her side. "No, too quick, too quick." He answered himself. He knew she would feel bad if he asked her. No, tonight he had to sleep alone, even if she was just some rooms away.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"So she'll go?"
"Yes, she said she would." Aoshi answered Saitoh's question. It was the third of November, Aoshi still had to go to his office, had to provide Misao a dress and had to see her still. She had woke up very early and had gone for a walk, now that Aoshi had taken care of letting his butler know she could go wherever she wished to.
He left a message with Shirai for Misao, got into his car, and drove off to his office located in Tokyo's center, where he received his clients. Aoshi, right now, was working as the best backup plan the government had ever had. When things didn't work, they sent Aoshi and his team to do the job. Of course, Aoshi had his limits of actions, being his scruples. All the members of the team were Immortal, and they worked together on more than government missions.
Aoshi entered his floor and looked around, searching for someone. Right now, he had placed his team working on everybody invited to the party Aoshi had asked Misao to go to. The list was enormous! Aoshi opened the door of the conference room and found four of them glued to computers.
"Good morning, minna." Aoshi said, wandering around trying to catch up with them. A woman raised her head from the screen and smiled at her teammates.
"Mr. Shinomori sure looks happy today, doesn't he?" She asked, with a strong Scottish accent. "I wonder…"
"How are you doing, Helen?" Aoshi asked, ignoring the woman's taunts. But the other three looked at him, with a smile.
"Yes, you do look happy, boss." One said.
"This smells like… WOMAN!" All four started laughing, while Aoshi looked at them with a displeased look on his face.
"What do you have?" He asked again.
"Well, we've been through just sixty people, but we have here a lot of old little Immortals. We've been comparing this list with the one from that other party the brother Gosh were invited, we got seven people that were on the two, until now of course." A young man said, from behind a screen.
"Print that list, with historical and go on." Aoshi said, moving closer to a printer where, seconds later, four pages came. He was leaving the room when Helen called him.
"Have you found a date for that party, boss?" She asked, while moving her fingers over the keyboard and looking at the screen.
"Yes." He answered, knowing that it would raise a lot of questions. Those Immortals had been with him for a long time, and most of them had a firm friendship with him, even if he didn't always allow their jokes.
"Really? Who?" Another guy asked.
"It's a surprise." Aoshi laconically answered and walked out of the room and out the building.
While he was getting into his car, Aoshi got his cell-phone out and marked a number. After awhile a man's voice came up.
"Yes?" It asked with a girly voice.
"Armando, it's Aoshi."
"Aoshi-san, dear! How are you?" Aoshi turned his key and started the car, while talking to his tailor.
"Armando, I need you to do me the most dashing, daring and incredible dress you've ever done." Aoshi said, trying to picture Misao's face when she saw the dress. Armando was known for his daring women's dress'. She would have a fit or love it!
"Sure, honey. Just need the measurements, the color and you have to give me a picture of what you want." Armando said and Aoshi could just imagine the gay tailor running around like a dizzy cockroach.
"I can't give you clear measurements, because it has to be a surprise, but I can get you a picture of her and you estimate, alright? I want it black, it's a night dress. Oh, and I want it done in two days." Aoshi heard Armando sighed.
"Two days?! Oh, alright. I guess I can work even under these circumstances. Who is the lucky girl?" Armando asked, all excited.
"Bye, Armando." Aoshi hung up. Okay, now he just had to get home and have the rest of the day with Misao.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Nicolai was near to having a serious coronary and couldn't stop pacing all around the flat. He had no idea what to do to find Misao and that stain on the carpet didn't help ease him. He was in the middle of another pacing when the phone rang and Nicolai ran to it.
"Yes?"
"Nicolai, this is Misao." He heard Misao's calm voice on the other side of the line.
"Misao! Where are you? I'll get you in a second." He practically yelled at the speaker.
"No, there's no need. I'm alright and I'm staying here." She calmly answered.
"But, where's here?"
"Look, I'm safe and I'll call you if I need anything. I just wanted to reassure you that I'm okay. You go on working with Saitoh." Misao said.
"I'm not sure I can trust him, Misao. He looks like he doesn't give a damn if we succeed or not." Nicolai waited for an answer, but he got silence. "Misao?"
"Look, you do what you want. Do you want to go back to Prague?"
"No."
"Do what you please. I got to go now. Bye."
"But…" Nicolai heard the phone being hung up.