Chapter 4 The Fight
Lealah stared after him for a moment. What did he mean this was his battle? Why didn't he want Lupin to go with him? She shrugged as she began to walk into the kitchen He's probably just shaken up from waking up in a coffin. He'll be OK tomorrow, after some real sleep. He'll come around in the morning. As soon as she stepped foot into the kitchen, she was met by her brother and Goemon.
"Hey! How are you? How is he?" Lupin questioned her.
"I'm fine and hungry. He's just weak and tired and shaken up," she answered.
"That is an improvement from the last three days. Have you eaten anything since Jigen was shot?" Goemon walked over to the refrigerator and picked out something. "Eat this."
"This isn't the soup made out of pregnant earthworms, is it?" she asked suspiciously. He grinned at her.
"No, it's actually chicken noodle soup. Ji-Rutou is to cure fever."
"Good." She began drinking the soup. Lupin walked over and sat beside her at the table.
"So, what did he say?"
"It was Hamilton that shot him and he's pissed at Fujiko. What more do you want?" He thought about asking her how he was alive, but decided against it at the tired look on her face.
"You should really get some sleep. You look like crap."
"Thanks a lot, Brother. Can I at least have some coke that you didn't spike before I do?" She looked warily at him.
"Oh, you found out about that! Sure." He went over to the refrigerator and poured a glass of Coca-Cola. When he returned with the glass, he found her asleep on the table. "Goemon, you didn't put anything in that soup, did you?"
"No, I didn't, Lupin." He nodded, picked her up, and set her on the couch.
"Jigen can have his privacy tonight. You can sleep in Lealahs' bed, Goemon," he told him as he walked to his room. "I'm turning in now."
"I suppose I will to," Goemon said while standing up. They both walked into the room and shut the door behind him.
*****
Jigen woke a little before dawn. The previous night he had decided he would leave for this pay-off place before any of his comrades were up. He wasn't going to drag the three of them into his business, and like he said, he didn't trust Lupin when Fujiko was involved. After he got dressed he grabbed his gun and began walking out to the car. There was no sign of anyone in the room; the chairs were pushed under the table, the bathroom door was open with the lights off, the couch was empty. As he walked by the fridge he grabbed out a bagel and began to eat it. His chest still hurt a little, but he ignored that. He grabbed the keys to his '54 Ford and walked out of the door. Lupins' own Mercedes Benz was his pride and joy, but Jigen liked a less conspicuous car.
After he had been on the road for about an hour, some car that looked like it came out of bad 30's Private I movie began to tail him. At first he didn't really care, it could just be a coincidence, but after about 15 minutes of being followed, he decided to try and loose it. With an ear- shattering screech, he turned down a dark street unexpectedly. The other car made the same turn and came up beside him. The car began to ram him, trying to force him off the road. Jigen tried to swerve away, but to no avail. The car just kept trying to ram him. Finally, the man in the 30's car pulled out an automatic and began shooting at him. "What the hell?!" Jigen yelled as he put his foot down on the gas, hoping to out speed the other guy. The other car rammed him again. This time, he was going too fast, and lost control of his car and drove it strait into a ditch. The other car, satisfied its work was done, sped away. Jigen slammed his fist down on the steering wheel. "Dammit, what the hell was that?! I thought everyone thought I was dead!" He stopped as he heard a strange bumping noise coming from the backseat. He quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it where the noises were coming from. Suddenly, the seat cushions began to lift, and he heard someone say,
"Jeez, Jigen, you really need to learn how to drive! Hey, point that at someone else, don't you remember the last time you did that? I was scared of you for the rest of the night!" Lealah emerged from under the cushions. Jigen stared at her, amazed. Then, he remembered that he was supposed to be royally pissed at this.
"What the friggen hell do you think you're doing?! You could have been killed! Didn't you hear me say I didn't want your help?!" he yelled at her.
"No, I remember you saying you didn't want Lupins' help. You never said anything about me or Goemon."
"Did Lupin send you?" he asked, suddenly getting the notion.
"Yeah, Jigen, my brother told me to hide under the seat of a '54 Ford, where I could be shot and god know what else, so I could follow you to someplace and report where you were with a hidden radio in my back pocket so he can come and stop you from killing the person who set you up because it happens to be his girlfriend. No you moron, he didn't send me, he has no idea I'm here right now," Lealah said sarcastically. "Jeez, your not that dense are you?"
"Hey, you have some nerve calling me dense! Look at what all you did tonight!"
"I did this to help you! You need someone to keep tabs on your ass and you know it! Look what happened last time, you were almost killed!" she yelled back. Jigen became angrier at this, partly because he knew it to be true, partly because a 15-year-old girl was saying it to him.
"You should know about getting out of tight spots, I've gotten you out of quite a lot, if memory serves! The only reason you're standing here right now is because that damn brother of yours, me and Goemon have saved your worthless ass more times than anyone can count!"
"How dare you call me worthless?! The only reason you're alive is because I dug that bullet out of your chest! If I had come in 2 seconds later, the morgue would have had to piece together your skull. Not to mention, if I hadn't told Lupin to, he wouldn't have put you in that casket with your gun! It's not my fault that bitch betrayed you, and it's not my fault the damn mob's out to get you! Excuse me, it's not my fault the mob got you!" Jigens eyes widened at the end of this sentence. He knew she was right, but God forbid him ever admitting it.
"Go to hell! You can just walk your ass right back home for all I care!" He turned his back on her.
"Fine, I will!" She began walking down the road. He stared after her for a minute, and then pulled some papers from the inside of his coat pocket. He had found the "archives" Goemon had been talking about on his bed, and for some reason had put them in his pocket. He skimmed over the part about him, then put them back in his pocket and began to try to get his car out of the ditch, muttering curses at anyone and everyone he ever knew. It took him nearly an hour to get his car back on the road.
"Damn. . . I know she's right. . . without her I'd be dead. . . but she shouldn't have done that. . . man, I need to apologize. . ." Just then he remembered something. Lealah had walked off the wrong way. She wasn't headed home and she had no clue! After about thirty minutes he saw her trudging down the road. As he pulled up beside her he yelled "Hey, Kid, you're going the wrong way! Need a lift?" When she looked up he could tell she had been crying.
"I don't need your help! Leave me alone!"
"Look Kid, I'm sorry. You shouldn't've hidden in the backseat of my car though! You could've been hurt."
"Really? You're not still mad at me?"
"Well, hell yeah I'm mad, but I can live with it. Get in, I don't have time to take you back home, so you'll just have to tag along." She jumped in the passengers' seat of his car.
"OK. Hey, can I drive?" Jigen looked at her like she was crazy.
"Don't push your luck." Lealah chuckled.
"Just a joke." As they rode, Jigen couldn't get those papers out of his mind. The only thing he could think of to do was bring it up. But how would she act if she knew he knew? Only one way to find out.
"Hey, Lealah, uh, Goemon found some papers of yours a while back." She looked at him, a little confused.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, it was the stuff you had written about some of our heists. It had this part in there about. . . well. . . you saying that you liked me." Lealah appeared completely clueless.
"Huh?" He dug the papers out of his pocket.
"Here, read this." As she read over the papers, her face turned bright red, and then she started laughing.
"Oh, man, no wonder you were pissed at me! I'll kill Goemon! You think I'm in love with you?" Jigen became confused at this.
"You're not?"
"Sorry, but no. Remember how I had about 5 months of school right after all of you had trained me? Well, as an assignment, we had to write about what we did over the summer, but make it "fictional". We were supposed to change parts to make it seem a little crazy. Did you just read that one part?"
"Yeah."
"You need to read the whole thing. In this paper, Lupin has a terminal disease, Fujiko is in love with Pops, and Goemon is the one that always betrays us."
"Lemee see that!" He grabbed the papers from her. Sure enough, there was Lupin with MS, Fujiko dreaming about Zenigata, and Goemon selling them out. Thoroughly embarrassed, Jigen pushed his fedora down over his eyes. Lealah continued to laugh.
"What was Goemon doing in my room anyway? These were in a drawer too!" Jigen looked over at her.
"So, your not. . ."
"Nope, sorry. I have a boyfriend in America, and he's the only one I dream about. No offence, but you're kind of old for me. Not to mention Lupin would probably kill us both."
"Probably," he laughed. He felt a strange mixture of relieved and disappointed. It was kind of nice to think someone liked him, after he got over the age difference. He silently made a vow to give Goemon hell for this one, one thing he never thought he'd be doing.
Whew, Lealah thought. Dodged that bullet. Good thing I put all that crap in that assignment, otherwise he might have found out. . .
Lealah stared after him for a moment. What did he mean this was his battle? Why didn't he want Lupin to go with him? She shrugged as she began to walk into the kitchen He's probably just shaken up from waking up in a coffin. He'll be OK tomorrow, after some real sleep. He'll come around in the morning. As soon as she stepped foot into the kitchen, she was met by her brother and Goemon.
"Hey! How are you? How is he?" Lupin questioned her.
"I'm fine and hungry. He's just weak and tired and shaken up," she answered.
"That is an improvement from the last three days. Have you eaten anything since Jigen was shot?" Goemon walked over to the refrigerator and picked out something. "Eat this."
"This isn't the soup made out of pregnant earthworms, is it?" she asked suspiciously. He grinned at her.
"No, it's actually chicken noodle soup. Ji-Rutou is to cure fever."
"Good." She began drinking the soup. Lupin walked over and sat beside her at the table.
"So, what did he say?"
"It was Hamilton that shot him and he's pissed at Fujiko. What more do you want?" He thought about asking her how he was alive, but decided against it at the tired look on her face.
"You should really get some sleep. You look like crap."
"Thanks a lot, Brother. Can I at least have some coke that you didn't spike before I do?" She looked warily at him.
"Oh, you found out about that! Sure." He went over to the refrigerator and poured a glass of Coca-Cola. When he returned with the glass, he found her asleep on the table. "Goemon, you didn't put anything in that soup, did you?"
"No, I didn't, Lupin." He nodded, picked her up, and set her on the couch.
"Jigen can have his privacy tonight. You can sleep in Lealahs' bed, Goemon," he told him as he walked to his room. "I'm turning in now."
"I suppose I will to," Goemon said while standing up. They both walked into the room and shut the door behind him.
*****
Jigen woke a little before dawn. The previous night he had decided he would leave for this pay-off place before any of his comrades were up. He wasn't going to drag the three of them into his business, and like he said, he didn't trust Lupin when Fujiko was involved. After he got dressed he grabbed his gun and began walking out to the car. There was no sign of anyone in the room; the chairs were pushed under the table, the bathroom door was open with the lights off, the couch was empty. As he walked by the fridge he grabbed out a bagel and began to eat it. His chest still hurt a little, but he ignored that. He grabbed the keys to his '54 Ford and walked out of the door. Lupins' own Mercedes Benz was his pride and joy, but Jigen liked a less conspicuous car.
After he had been on the road for about an hour, some car that looked like it came out of bad 30's Private I movie began to tail him. At first he didn't really care, it could just be a coincidence, but after about 15 minutes of being followed, he decided to try and loose it. With an ear- shattering screech, he turned down a dark street unexpectedly. The other car made the same turn and came up beside him. The car began to ram him, trying to force him off the road. Jigen tried to swerve away, but to no avail. The car just kept trying to ram him. Finally, the man in the 30's car pulled out an automatic and began shooting at him. "What the hell?!" Jigen yelled as he put his foot down on the gas, hoping to out speed the other guy. The other car rammed him again. This time, he was going too fast, and lost control of his car and drove it strait into a ditch. The other car, satisfied its work was done, sped away. Jigen slammed his fist down on the steering wheel. "Dammit, what the hell was that?! I thought everyone thought I was dead!" He stopped as he heard a strange bumping noise coming from the backseat. He quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it where the noises were coming from. Suddenly, the seat cushions began to lift, and he heard someone say,
"Jeez, Jigen, you really need to learn how to drive! Hey, point that at someone else, don't you remember the last time you did that? I was scared of you for the rest of the night!" Lealah emerged from under the cushions. Jigen stared at her, amazed. Then, he remembered that he was supposed to be royally pissed at this.
"What the friggen hell do you think you're doing?! You could have been killed! Didn't you hear me say I didn't want your help?!" he yelled at her.
"No, I remember you saying you didn't want Lupins' help. You never said anything about me or Goemon."
"Did Lupin send you?" he asked, suddenly getting the notion.
"Yeah, Jigen, my brother told me to hide under the seat of a '54 Ford, where I could be shot and god know what else, so I could follow you to someplace and report where you were with a hidden radio in my back pocket so he can come and stop you from killing the person who set you up because it happens to be his girlfriend. No you moron, he didn't send me, he has no idea I'm here right now," Lealah said sarcastically. "Jeez, your not that dense are you?"
"Hey, you have some nerve calling me dense! Look at what all you did tonight!"
"I did this to help you! You need someone to keep tabs on your ass and you know it! Look what happened last time, you were almost killed!" she yelled back. Jigen became angrier at this, partly because he knew it to be true, partly because a 15-year-old girl was saying it to him.
"You should know about getting out of tight spots, I've gotten you out of quite a lot, if memory serves! The only reason you're standing here right now is because that damn brother of yours, me and Goemon have saved your worthless ass more times than anyone can count!"
"How dare you call me worthless?! The only reason you're alive is because I dug that bullet out of your chest! If I had come in 2 seconds later, the morgue would have had to piece together your skull. Not to mention, if I hadn't told Lupin to, he wouldn't have put you in that casket with your gun! It's not my fault that bitch betrayed you, and it's not my fault the damn mob's out to get you! Excuse me, it's not my fault the mob got you!" Jigens eyes widened at the end of this sentence. He knew she was right, but God forbid him ever admitting it.
"Go to hell! You can just walk your ass right back home for all I care!" He turned his back on her.
"Fine, I will!" She began walking down the road. He stared after her for a minute, and then pulled some papers from the inside of his coat pocket. He had found the "archives" Goemon had been talking about on his bed, and for some reason had put them in his pocket. He skimmed over the part about him, then put them back in his pocket and began to try to get his car out of the ditch, muttering curses at anyone and everyone he ever knew. It took him nearly an hour to get his car back on the road.
"Damn. . . I know she's right. . . without her I'd be dead. . . but she shouldn't have done that. . . man, I need to apologize. . ." Just then he remembered something. Lealah had walked off the wrong way. She wasn't headed home and she had no clue! After about thirty minutes he saw her trudging down the road. As he pulled up beside her he yelled "Hey, Kid, you're going the wrong way! Need a lift?" When she looked up he could tell she had been crying.
"I don't need your help! Leave me alone!"
"Look Kid, I'm sorry. You shouldn't've hidden in the backseat of my car though! You could've been hurt."
"Really? You're not still mad at me?"
"Well, hell yeah I'm mad, but I can live with it. Get in, I don't have time to take you back home, so you'll just have to tag along." She jumped in the passengers' seat of his car.
"OK. Hey, can I drive?" Jigen looked at her like she was crazy.
"Don't push your luck." Lealah chuckled.
"Just a joke." As they rode, Jigen couldn't get those papers out of his mind. The only thing he could think of to do was bring it up. But how would she act if she knew he knew? Only one way to find out.
"Hey, Lealah, uh, Goemon found some papers of yours a while back." She looked at him, a little confused.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, it was the stuff you had written about some of our heists. It had this part in there about. . . well. . . you saying that you liked me." Lealah appeared completely clueless.
"Huh?" He dug the papers out of his pocket.
"Here, read this." As she read over the papers, her face turned bright red, and then she started laughing.
"Oh, man, no wonder you were pissed at me! I'll kill Goemon! You think I'm in love with you?" Jigen became confused at this.
"You're not?"
"Sorry, but no. Remember how I had about 5 months of school right after all of you had trained me? Well, as an assignment, we had to write about what we did over the summer, but make it "fictional". We were supposed to change parts to make it seem a little crazy. Did you just read that one part?"
"Yeah."
"You need to read the whole thing. In this paper, Lupin has a terminal disease, Fujiko is in love with Pops, and Goemon is the one that always betrays us."
"Lemee see that!" He grabbed the papers from her. Sure enough, there was Lupin with MS, Fujiko dreaming about Zenigata, and Goemon selling them out. Thoroughly embarrassed, Jigen pushed his fedora down over his eyes. Lealah continued to laugh.
"What was Goemon doing in my room anyway? These were in a drawer too!" Jigen looked over at her.
"So, your not. . ."
"Nope, sorry. I have a boyfriend in America, and he's the only one I dream about. No offence, but you're kind of old for me. Not to mention Lupin would probably kill us both."
"Probably," he laughed. He felt a strange mixture of relieved and disappointed. It was kind of nice to think someone liked him, after he got over the age difference. He silently made a vow to give Goemon hell for this one, one thing he never thought he'd be doing.
Whew, Lealah thought. Dodged that bullet. Good thing I put all that crap in that assignment, otherwise he might have found out. . .