HA! IN YOUR FACE, IMPATIENT REVIEWERS! I've spent several hours writing and UPDATED REALLY FAST! *dances triumphantly* Now I won't get bitten! lol!
And...*drumroll please* You get to find out Megumi's past! YAY! And next chapter... SANO'S PAST! BWAHAHA!!!
Hmm... I'll do reviewer responses next chapter, so you don't have to listen to/read my insane babblings for too long. ^_^
Hmm... There are flashbacks/dream sequences in this chapter, as well as 'newspaper excerpts', like last chapter. Here's a handy guide, since I still can't figure out italics and bold... T_T*
/excerpt/
*flashback/dream*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Double Negative
Chapter Five: Guessing Games
** "Ah, Megumi-san, there you are.", the eighteen-year-old college freshman turned around.
"Oh. Kanryuu. it's you.", she said disdainfully.
"I just wanted to congratulate you on getting a perfect score on your exams...again.", the young man pushed his glasses furthur up on his nose.
"Oh. Thank you, then. And just how did you do on your exams?", Megumi asked him innocently, although they both knew that she knew what he had gotten.
"Eh, I didn't do so well.", he said lightly, but Megumi could hear the bitterness and anger behind the statement. She smirked to herself, baiting her rival was one of her favorite activities.
"No really, I think I heard you got, what? A seventy-two percent average?"
He forced a smile. "Seventy-one, actually."
"Ohohohoho! Same difference, ne?", Megumi's fox ears had popped up again as she laughed, hand to her mouth. Kanryuu dropped the smile and glared at her. "Well, I must be going now.", she told him, grinning. "Shouldn't you be studying? I heard you have a test next week! Wouldn't want to do badly would we?" The young woman left, laughing to herself, not noticing the hate filled look the temperamental Kanryuu Takeda was giving her.
"You'll be sorry.", her hissed at her retreating back. "No one laughs at me!" **
^..^ + * v *
Sano looked worriedly down at the woman lying on the bench. "What made you react like that, Megitsune?", he wondered out loud.
"Sagara-san?", he turned around. Tsubame stood there hesitantly, holding a damp cloth. "Tae-san told me that this might help Megumi-san.", she said, stepping forward and placing the cloth on Megumi's forehead. "I have to go back in now, Tae-san said to tell her when she wakes up!", and with that she beat a hasty retreat into the restaurant. She stuck her head out the door again, "Oh, and she also said that if you wanted to bring Megumi-san inside, you can. She might be more comfortable there.
"Nah, we're fine out here.", Sano answered her. "But you can tell Tae-", he turned around only to find that Tsubame had left already. "That girl...", he muttered to himself; Tsubame's shyness irked him. He sighed and looked down at Megumi again. "Okay... you can wake up any minute now..."
^..^ + * v *
** "What?!", Megumi gaped at the headmaster. "Kanryuu told you what?!"
"Just what I said, Takani-san. He accused of selling illegal drugs to people outside of campus.", the elderly man looked at her seriously.
"But I didn't-"
He cut her off. "I'd like to believe Takani-san, but there's too much proof against you. Several people in the nearby neighborhoods have died or been sent to the hospital due to an overdose on drugs. You were seen near their homes on the day they fell ill. And no one can deny that you don't have an exceptional interest in those fields of study."
"My cousin died of a drug overdose! I wanted to learn how to save people in those situations!", Megumi protested.
"Megumi.", the headmaster said. "I'm sorry. But the police are already on their way. I suggest you call your lawyer, and we can hopefully get this straightened out."
She left his office, horrified. "This is all Kanryuu's doing!", she cried angrily when she was out of earshot. **
^..^ + * v *
Sano sighed again. Was it normal for people who fainted to take this long to wake up?, he wondered. He picked up the newspaper, which has fallen to the ground. He started to reread the article, hoping it would give him a clue to Megumi's reaction.
/ Before he was convicted of drug dealing, Kanryuu was arrested on two counts of homicide. The later victim, Akiyama Yamato, was a student at Kanryuu's medical college. Reportedly, Akiyama had been receiving the best grades since Takani Megumi, who was expelled a few months before Kanryuu's arrest in a seperate drug dealing scandal.../
Sano stopped there. "...the best grades since Takani Megumi?!", he gasped. "How did I miss that before?!" He read on.
/ ...Other students said that Kanryuu had shown signs of "extreme jealousy" towards Akiyama, and had threatened him several times before he he pulled a gun on him and shot him twice, in the midst of a party thrown by a fellow classmate. An accomplice of his was also arrested, who confessed to have aided Kanryuu in the murder of Kimura Hanako, a previously unsolved case./
"Tch. No wonder she fainted.", Sano murmured to himself. "But it's not like he tried to kill her, right? And what's the whole deal with being expelled from college because of a 'drug scandal'?" He glanced quickly at Megumi as she stirred slightly. "Well? Are you going to wake up this time?", he asked her.
^..^ + * v *
** Megumi sat in her dorm room, holding an half-empty styrofoam coffee cup in trembling hands, waiting for her lawyer to speak.
"Good news and bad news, Takani-san!", he told her. "Good news first. There wasn't enough evidence to incriminate you."
"Thank God.", she murmured.
"But, since you are still under suspicion, the headmaster ... well, he expelled you."
"Thanks for putting it so bluntly.", Megumi said sarcastically as he left, hastily blinking away sudden tears. She really had to reason to be so disappointed, she mused sadly, it was only to be expected. But she had every reason to cry!, she thought with sudden anger, it wasn't like she'd been convicted! And what would happen to her now? The last of the famous Takani line, expelled from college for selling drugs. It was almost funny, really. "Yeah, really funny!", she spat at no one in particular. "Hilarious!", she managed to get all the way to her bed before she burst into tears. **
^..^ + * v *
Megumi opened her eyes confusedly, the echoes of her own sobs still filling her head. "Wha-?", she started, sitting up, a damp cloth sliding off of her forehead. she picked it up bemusedly.
"Good, you're finally awake!", she looked at the speaker.
"Sano? What happened? And why am I laying on a bench outside of the Akabeko?", the fox-woman asked, looking around.
"Well you were in the middle of insulting me and then you looked at the newspaper and fainted. And I've been sitting out here with you for the past, oh, twenty minutes or so.", he gave her the short version.
"Oh.", suddenly she remembered. 'Newspaper...Kanryuu! He's back!', as soon as the thought struck her she paled again, and laid back down.
"Whoa! Don't go and faint on me again!!", cried an alarmed rooster-head.
"I'm fine. I'm fine.", she told him breathlessly.
"I don't believe you.", Sano said. "Who is this Kanryuu? And did you know that you're mentioned in this article?"
"I am?!", she snatched it from his grasp.
"Right here.", he pointed to the spot.
Megumi read it through quickly, and laughed sardonically. "Of course they have to mention that I wa expelled. They always forget that I was never convicted..."
"And I wanted to ask you about that...", Sanosuke frowned at her. Megumi ignored him.
"I need a cup of coffee...", she said to herself.
"Well there's a new cafe that opened up a few blocks from here.", he offered, planning to ask her about the article once they got there.
"Why not?', she sighed. Sano offered her his arm and helped her up. He called into the door of the Akabeko that Megumi was alright and they set off.
^..^ + * v *
"That's better.", Megumi sighed again as she took a sip of coffee.
"Funny. I didn't think you'd be a caffeine addict.", Sano remarked looking around at the empty cafe. It was late enough that they were the only ones in there, but the place wasn't closed yet. "Anyway... about what they said about you in the article..."
Megumi was silent for a while, occasionally taking a drink from her styrofoam cup. She looked at it wryly, remembering the dream she'd had. Sitting it down on the small table she put her head in her hands. "I might as well tell someone.", she laughed to herself. "It has been building up for a while."
"What has?"
She took a deep breath. "When I got out of high school, " she began, "I was accepted into the best medical college in the country. It was no surprise, really. I am a Takani after all; I come from a long line of world-class surgeons and doctors.
"There was a young man there by name of Kanryuu Takeda. He came from a rich business-oriented family, and wasn't very bright. Everyone knew he'd bought his way in. He was always jealous of the way that I breezeed through all of my classes.", she smiled a little in remembrance. "One day after exams he came and 'congratulated' me for doing well on them - all for show, of course. I taunted him because he'd nearly failed. When I was walking away I heard him threaten me. Later that month he framed me for selling illegal drugs to several people in nearby neighborhoods. Thankfully he hadn't set up enough evidence to get me convicted. unfortunately all of the people died before they could deny that I sold anything to them. But since I was still a suspect the headmaster of my college expelled me. Since then no one else will accept me. So that's how I ended up here, working a job at the Akabeko and modeling part-time. But right before he was arrested, it was about a year after my expulsion, he came to my apartment. He was very angry about something. I think he was still bitter that he hadn't won. I couldn't help taunting him about that, getting him angry always amused me. He attacked me then, but another man showed up and stopped him. I never ound out who he was, but I suppose if he was with Kanryuu he wasn't anyone good. I remember he had really piercing eyes though, and this perfect poker face. So he left, but he told me that he'd come after me again.", Megumi' had kept her voice calm until now. "Then he got arrested, and I thought I was safe. But now he's back."
Sano could hear the fear in her voice; she was obviously terrified of Kanryuu. "Well," he started, "At least you aren't alone up against him this time." She looked at him, confused. "You've got me!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YAY! And it was a lot longer than last chapter too!!! Although the summary of this from last chapter is wrong now...
hmm, lessee.... REVIEW!!!! And I think that's all... ((By the way, can you guess who the guy with Kanryuu at the end was? It's actually pretty easy. ^_^))
Next chapter:
Double Negative- Chapter Six: The trials of youth
-In which Sano really tells Megumi about his past, and they both angst a little, and .. uh... other stuff happens.
And...*drumroll please* You get to find out Megumi's past! YAY! And next chapter... SANO'S PAST! BWAHAHA!!!
Hmm... I'll do reviewer responses next chapter, so you don't have to listen to/read my insane babblings for too long. ^_^
Hmm... There are flashbacks/dream sequences in this chapter, as well as 'newspaper excerpts', like last chapter. Here's a handy guide, since I still can't figure out italics and bold... T_T*
/excerpt/
*flashback/dream*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Double Negative
Chapter Five: Guessing Games
** "Ah, Megumi-san, there you are.", the eighteen-year-old college freshman turned around.
"Oh. Kanryuu. it's you.", she said disdainfully.
"I just wanted to congratulate you on getting a perfect score on your exams...again.", the young man pushed his glasses furthur up on his nose.
"Oh. Thank you, then. And just how did you do on your exams?", Megumi asked him innocently, although they both knew that she knew what he had gotten.
"Eh, I didn't do so well.", he said lightly, but Megumi could hear the bitterness and anger behind the statement. She smirked to herself, baiting her rival was one of her favorite activities.
"No really, I think I heard you got, what? A seventy-two percent average?"
He forced a smile. "Seventy-one, actually."
"Ohohohoho! Same difference, ne?", Megumi's fox ears had popped up again as she laughed, hand to her mouth. Kanryuu dropped the smile and glared at her. "Well, I must be going now.", she told him, grinning. "Shouldn't you be studying? I heard you have a test next week! Wouldn't want to do badly would we?" The young woman left, laughing to herself, not noticing the hate filled look the temperamental Kanryuu Takeda was giving her.
"You'll be sorry.", her hissed at her retreating back. "No one laughs at me!" **
^..^ + * v *
Sano looked worriedly down at the woman lying on the bench. "What made you react like that, Megitsune?", he wondered out loud.
"Sagara-san?", he turned around. Tsubame stood there hesitantly, holding a damp cloth. "Tae-san told me that this might help Megumi-san.", she said, stepping forward and placing the cloth on Megumi's forehead. "I have to go back in now, Tae-san said to tell her when she wakes up!", and with that she beat a hasty retreat into the restaurant. She stuck her head out the door again, "Oh, and she also said that if you wanted to bring Megumi-san inside, you can. She might be more comfortable there.
"Nah, we're fine out here.", Sano answered her. "But you can tell Tae-", he turned around only to find that Tsubame had left already. "That girl...", he muttered to himself; Tsubame's shyness irked him. He sighed and looked down at Megumi again. "Okay... you can wake up any minute now..."
^..^ + * v *
** "What?!", Megumi gaped at the headmaster. "Kanryuu told you what?!"
"Just what I said, Takani-san. He accused of selling illegal drugs to people outside of campus.", the elderly man looked at her seriously.
"But I didn't-"
He cut her off. "I'd like to believe Takani-san, but there's too much proof against you. Several people in the nearby neighborhoods have died or been sent to the hospital due to an overdose on drugs. You were seen near their homes on the day they fell ill. And no one can deny that you don't have an exceptional interest in those fields of study."
"My cousin died of a drug overdose! I wanted to learn how to save people in those situations!", Megumi protested.
"Megumi.", the headmaster said. "I'm sorry. But the police are already on their way. I suggest you call your lawyer, and we can hopefully get this straightened out."
She left his office, horrified. "This is all Kanryuu's doing!", she cried angrily when she was out of earshot. **
^..^ + * v *
Sano sighed again. Was it normal for people who fainted to take this long to wake up?, he wondered. He picked up the newspaper, which has fallen to the ground. He started to reread the article, hoping it would give him a clue to Megumi's reaction.
/ Before he was convicted of drug dealing, Kanryuu was arrested on two counts of homicide. The later victim, Akiyama Yamato, was a student at Kanryuu's medical college. Reportedly, Akiyama had been receiving the best grades since Takani Megumi, who was expelled a few months before Kanryuu's arrest in a seperate drug dealing scandal.../
Sano stopped there. "...the best grades since Takani Megumi?!", he gasped. "How did I miss that before?!" He read on.
/ ...Other students said that Kanryuu had shown signs of "extreme jealousy" towards Akiyama, and had threatened him several times before he he pulled a gun on him and shot him twice, in the midst of a party thrown by a fellow classmate. An accomplice of his was also arrested, who confessed to have aided Kanryuu in the murder of Kimura Hanako, a previously unsolved case./
"Tch. No wonder she fainted.", Sano murmured to himself. "But it's not like he tried to kill her, right? And what's the whole deal with being expelled from college because of a 'drug scandal'?" He glanced quickly at Megumi as she stirred slightly. "Well? Are you going to wake up this time?", he asked her.
^..^ + * v *
** Megumi sat in her dorm room, holding an half-empty styrofoam coffee cup in trembling hands, waiting for her lawyer to speak.
"Good news and bad news, Takani-san!", he told her. "Good news first. There wasn't enough evidence to incriminate you."
"Thank God.", she murmured.
"But, since you are still under suspicion, the headmaster ... well, he expelled you."
"Thanks for putting it so bluntly.", Megumi said sarcastically as he left, hastily blinking away sudden tears. She really had to reason to be so disappointed, she mused sadly, it was only to be expected. But she had every reason to cry!, she thought with sudden anger, it wasn't like she'd been convicted! And what would happen to her now? The last of the famous Takani line, expelled from college for selling drugs. It was almost funny, really. "Yeah, really funny!", she spat at no one in particular. "Hilarious!", she managed to get all the way to her bed before she burst into tears. **
^..^ + * v *
Megumi opened her eyes confusedly, the echoes of her own sobs still filling her head. "Wha-?", she started, sitting up, a damp cloth sliding off of her forehead. she picked it up bemusedly.
"Good, you're finally awake!", she looked at the speaker.
"Sano? What happened? And why am I laying on a bench outside of the Akabeko?", the fox-woman asked, looking around.
"Well you were in the middle of insulting me and then you looked at the newspaper and fainted. And I've been sitting out here with you for the past, oh, twenty minutes or so.", he gave her the short version.
"Oh.", suddenly she remembered. 'Newspaper...Kanryuu! He's back!', as soon as the thought struck her she paled again, and laid back down.
"Whoa! Don't go and faint on me again!!", cried an alarmed rooster-head.
"I'm fine. I'm fine.", she told him breathlessly.
"I don't believe you.", Sano said. "Who is this Kanryuu? And did you know that you're mentioned in this article?"
"I am?!", she snatched it from his grasp.
"Right here.", he pointed to the spot.
Megumi read it through quickly, and laughed sardonically. "Of course they have to mention that I wa expelled. They always forget that I was never convicted..."
"And I wanted to ask you about that...", Sanosuke frowned at her. Megumi ignored him.
"I need a cup of coffee...", she said to herself.
"Well there's a new cafe that opened up a few blocks from here.", he offered, planning to ask her about the article once they got there.
"Why not?', she sighed. Sano offered her his arm and helped her up. He called into the door of the Akabeko that Megumi was alright and they set off.
^..^ + * v *
"That's better.", Megumi sighed again as she took a sip of coffee.
"Funny. I didn't think you'd be a caffeine addict.", Sano remarked looking around at the empty cafe. It was late enough that they were the only ones in there, but the place wasn't closed yet. "Anyway... about what they said about you in the article..."
Megumi was silent for a while, occasionally taking a drink from her styrofoam cup. She looked at it wryly, remembering the dream she'd had. Sitting it down on the small table she put her head in her hands. "I might as well tell someone.", she laughed to herself. "It has been building up for a while."
"What has?"
She took a deep breath. "When I got out of high school, " she began, "I was accepted into the best medical college in the country. It was no surprise, really. I am a Takani after all; I come from a long line of world-class surgeons and doctors.
"There was a young man there by name of Kanryuu Takeda. He came from a rich business-oriented family, and wasn't very bright. Everyone knew he'd bought his way in. He was always jealous of the way that I breezeed through all of my classes.", she smiled a little in remembrance. "One day after exams he came and 'congratulated' me for doing well on them - all for show, of course. I taunted him because he'd nearly failed. When I was walking away I heard him threaten me. Later that month he framed me for selling illegal drugs to several people in nearby neighborhoods. Thankfully he hadn't set up enough evidence to get me convicted. unfortunately all of the people died before they could deny that I sold anything to them. But since I was still a suspect the headmaster of my college expelled me. Since then no one else will accept me. So that's how I ended up here, working a job at the Akabeko and modeling part-time. But right before he was arrested, it was about a year after my expulsion, he came to my apartment. He was very angry about something. I think he was still bitter that he hadn't won. I couldn't help taunting him about that, getting him angry always amused me. He attacked me then, but another man showed up and stopped him. I never ound out who he was, but I suppose if he was with Kanryuu he wasn't anyone good. I remember he had really piercing eyes though, and this perfect poker face. So he left, but he told me that he'd come after me again.", Megumi' had kept her voice calm until now. "Then he got arrested, and I thought I was safe. But now he's back."
Sano could hear the fear in her voice; she was obviously terrified of Kanryuu. "Well," he started, "At least you aren't alone up against him this time." She looked at him, confused. "You've got me!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YAY! And it was a lot longer than last chapter too!!! Although the summary of this from last chapter is wrong now...
hmm, lessee.... REVIEW!!!! And I think that's all... ((By the way, can you guess who the guy with Kanryuu at the end was? It's actually pretty easy. ^_^))
Next chapter:
Double Negative- Chapter Six: The trials of youth
-In which Sano really tells Megumi about his past, and they both angst a little, and .. uh... other stuff happens.