Guy's Night Out

Chapter 13

"Oi, Kenshin, kawatta koto wa arimasen ka?" called Sano. (Japanese for "What's up?"). It was evening, and they were getting set to go back to The White Tiger for what Sano was now calling "doing Saitou's dirty laundry" to himself.

"So, now I'm a spy for Imperialist cops," mused Sano aloud. "I must be getting soft in the head."

"Maybe you got hit in the head too many times," Yahiko teased him.

"Not hard enough, I suppose." Sano said. "I tell ya, the things a guy has to do for a little drinking money..."

"You're the perfect person for this job, Sano," said Kenshin, coming into the room, "after all, who would suspect a former Seikihotoi member of spying for the police? It is no doubt why Saitou asked you to do this."

"Yeah, the perfect cover; I'm a genius," Sano replied sarcastically. "When this is over, I'm going to have to work really hard to get on Saitou's bad side again."

"I doubt you'll have to work too hard, my friend," chuckled Kenshin.

"Yahiko, keep Kaoru-dono company this evening, please," said Kenshin. "I don't like leaving her alone at night too often."

"Aa, I will, Kenshin, but do I have to look at her while I do it?" Yahiko said, laughing at his "witticism".

Sano reached over and rapped him smartly on the head with a bandaged knuckle. "Now you have an excuse for making another stupid joke," he said. "A concussion."

"Itaii!" Yahiko yelled. "That hurt, you big ahou!"

"Juuban!" said Kenshin, (Enough!) "We need to go, Sano, that we do."

"Sugu, maybe I'll get lucky at the dice tonight, eh?" winked Sano.

"Yeah, sure, and I'm a pretty girl, KISS ME, Sano!" mocked Yahiko in a high girlish voice, pushing out his lips at Sano and waggling his behind.

"Here's your kiss, smart ass brat!" said Sano, put a headlock on him and rubbing his already sore head hard (a noogie?) as he struggled to no avail to get out of Sano's relatively light grasp.

"Itaii, Itaii, I give, I give," he finally yelled. "Boy, Sano is really strong!" he thought to himself, gingerly touching the various sore spots on his head. "Good thing he wasn't really pissed at me!"

"You two had enough fun, yet?" Kenshin asked rolling his eyes impatiently towards the exit.

"Ai, I'm ready to go now, what's the big hold-up?" asked Sano trying to look innocent and failing badly as usual.

He enjoyed his big brother act with Yahiko more than he'd ever admit. His real little brother Outa was at least a day away in Shinshuu. Sano had run away from home at ten to join the Seikihotai squad. He wasn't there when his mother had died giving birth to Outa and he didn't really know him at all. Even his sister Uki barely remembered him when he'd gone back to see the Higashadani family.

She'd followed him around like a little puppy when they were kids, and he learned to his shame that she'd been heartbroken for months after he'd run away. Sighing, he passed his rough hand over his face to banish the vaguely guilty thoughts. No need to dwell too much on the past, which wasn't his way. He was a man who lived for the moment, which was his tenet for all things in life. It was what had made him a survivor where others had fallen in harder times.

Still, he wondered every now and then what was up with the old man, Outa and his sister. She should get married soon and quit fussing over Outa so much; she was going to make a wimp outta the kid if she didn't knock that shit off! Such were his silent thoughts as he walked along with Kenshin. He was appreciative at this moment that Kenshin was a man who didn't require idle chatter to be comfortable in his company.

Which brought his mind around the subject of women in general, and one woman in particular. Megumi. "Ah, there's something nicer to think about," he smiled. "Ah, sweet oppai, nice, round denbu, seika..." he thought lasciviously, taking an internal mental inventory of her more magnificent feminine assets.

"I'm such a hentai," he thought without guilt, as usual. (denbu-behind, derrierre, oppai-breasts, seika,-stomach, below the navel.)

( ^-^)

"We're here," said Kenshin said, suddenly. Sure enough, they were in front of The White Tiger again.

"Ah, well," Sano thought airily, "so much for retsujou! (lust) Time to get down to business."

They walked in.

As before, Ona greeted them almost instantly.

"Koban wa," she said cheerily. "Ogenki desu ka, Sano-kun?"

"Genki desu," Sano replied, as she latched on to his arm to guide him to a table.

Kenshin followed closely behind, not really caring that she'd hardly glanced in his direction. He was taking advantage of the situation to scan the room.

They were seated at the same table as before and Ona went to get them their drink. And surprise, surprise, who was at the next table to their right again but the same "interesting" foursome as a few nights ago. Deep in some intense discussion of their own, they hadn't noticed Sano and Kenshin's arrival.

"Over there," whispered Kenshin, pointing discreetly with his chin.

"I see 'em," Sano whispered back. "Look, the big fat ahou still has a nasty- looking mark on his forehead," he grinned with satisfaction. "Nice to know I made a lasting impression on him."

"I hope their contact shows up tonight," Kenshin said, under his breath, "I don't want to have to come here every night until he does."

"Whatever," Sano said dismissively, waving a hand.

Ona appeared with heated sake. "There you go, Sano-kun, Himura-san, I put it on your tab. If you need anything else, call me. Ah, it's a busy night tonight! I have to run!" she trotted off.

"We have a tab?" Sano said in wonder.

"No doubt courtesy of Saitou," Kenshin said distractedly, still taking inventory of his surroundings.

Indeed, it was a full house, of which Sano was rather glad. The foursome had yet to spot them in the noise and dim lights of the gambling parlor.

"Although," he thought to himself, "Another little fight with these guys might be the highlight of the evening."

It wasn't that Sano was eager to inflict pain so much as he literally loved fighting for it's own sake. Not so much as in his former gangster days when he felt the need to fight to vanquish his hate, but it still gave him an adrenaline rush to practice his amazing and varied fighting skills every once in a while. If it came up. Which it sometimes did.

"Besides," he rationalized, "the guys I've whipped, they were all bad anyway."

Zanza, his Yakuza persona, was guilty of much that was indeed "AKU", but he was put to rest forever. Just as for Kenshin, the Hitokiri Battousai was now merely legend, a boogey man of the Bakamatsu to scare naughty children with at night.

"Drinking and gaming on the tab of the Imperialists, now that's something to cheer about!" Sano laughed. "Here's to the spider-haired creep!" he joked quietly, pouring Kenshin and himself something.

He poured himself twice as much as he had for Kenshin and tossed it back.

"You really don't have any manners, do you?" Kenshin commented. "Didn't your mother ever teach you that you always take the smallest portion? "Well, if I had given you a choice, which one would you have chosen?" Sano asked, straight faced. "Probably the smaller cup," Kenshin conceded. "See, baka, it all worked out anyway! We both got what we wanted!" Sano said with perfect reasoning.

(AN: This is actually my lame-ass version of a classic old Japanese joke, so I thought I'd throw it in. He he. Falling off my dinosaur.)

Kenshin spotted him first, an ordinary-looking, medium sized, fellow in a Western style suit had come in and was moving towards the table with the four off-duty cops. He'd probably been chosen for his unremarkable appearance as much as anything thought Kenshin. An easy man to overlook in these surroundings.

He tapped Sano's arm lightly to get his attention, and shifted his eyes and lifted his eyebrows toward the entrance to indicate their quarry.

"Ah, our sneaky little rat bastard arrives," Sano said, tossing back more sake. "Too bad it's so blasted noisy in here, we might be able to get an earful."

"Hey, big fella, go easy on that stuff," warned Kenshin. "It's hard to keep your wits about when your head is spinning with drink."

"Take a hell of a lot more than this to get me in that condition," Sano snorted finishing his cup.

Kenshin smiled. He sipped a little slowly and appreciatively, but he had never had the seemingly bottomless capacity that Sano seemed to have and never would. During the Bakamatsu, he'd sometimes relied too heavily on drink to find solace, but that was long ago.

"Sano could give my Shishio Hiko a run for his money when it comes to putting down the sake," smiled Kenshin to himself, briefly imagining a contest between the two.

Sano keep his eye on the man, who was now seated with the four officers. They were as he remembered from the other day. Furukizo, the bristle haired man with the puckered scar down one side of his face, and who had concealed a wakazashi(short samurai sword) under his longer coat. Hanahigi, the round faced man with a moustache, who had carried a tanto(knife). Probably hidden in his jacket somewhere again, thought Kenshin. Saiyou was the lean fellow who carried nunchako on their previous encounter. Then, of course, Tanaka, the big bull of a man Sano had fought with briefly.

The man suddenly withdrew a small paper package from out of his jacket and passed it quickly to Furukizo, who seemed to be the unofficial leader of the group.

"Hm, the payoff, no doubt," thought Kenshin. An apparently innocent act in and of itself, but in the context of what Saitou had informed them of, no longer innocent.

Sano was getting a little bored, waiting for their man to make a move, and he also noticed the almost surreptitious passing of the small package.

"Finally, I thought we'd be sitting here on our cans all night fer nuthin," he stretched out one leg and clasped his long arms around the other.

He was beginning to wish a bit more for that fight to break out. He decided there and then that spying was not his game, not enough action.

"Better suited for a guy like Aoshi," he thought, "The Icicle could probably sit like a stone for hours and enjoy the hell outta it. All that damn meditating he does would drive me mad after about 10 minutes."

The unremarkable man seemed to be sipping sake for the moment, his task apparently completed, he was enjoying a little free hospitality.

"I wonder how long we'll have to sit her and watch this guy do nothing much," thought Sano, yawning a little. He was getting itchy to move, to do ANYTHING, but sit and watch some Yakuza errand boy have a drink or two.

He clenched his fists reflexively in their fighting bandages, which he usually wore. Kenshin was his usual patient self, Sano noted. Other than the fact that his eyes did not leave the table with the five men at it, he seemed perfectly normal and calm.

"It seems our friend has decided to leave, Sano. Let's see where he's headed." Kenshin was right, the man was getting up, and bowing slightly to the four police officers, he started towards the exit.

Kenshin and Sano waited until he'd almost reached the door, then also got up to leave. "Here we go," thought Sano. Ona came trotting over to them. "I was told to give you this before you left, Himura-san," Ona said.

She handed Kenshin a small piece of paper. On it was a message from Saitou, "Proceed with caution, Himura. New information discovered this morning indicates that Kageboushi may be aware his man is being watched. Fujita Gorou." Kenshin read quickly

Kenshin relayed this message to Sano as they left, Kenshin wisely dropping the crumpled message in the chimney of the nearest oil lamp to burn.