Skittles and a Broom Closet:
Chapter four: A new arrival
Megumi woke up in the middle of the night sweating bullets and gasping for breath. It was only a dream. She told herself. She sat on the edge of her bed and put her head between her knees. Stop watching me.
Stop resisting me. His dreadful voice rang in her pounding head.
I just want to get to sleep, leave me alone! She protested back to him. Her vision then became clearer. He moved his gaze from her, but the memory of the nightmare he implanted in her brain while she slept still lingered. A complete massacre of the residence of the small bar in a town in the middle of no where… All she had worked so hard to protect… She wouldn't let him do this, she couldn't. But she couldn't loose sight of the entire plan either. Once she got what she wanted, everything would be taken care of. Legato and Knives would be gone, and something would be taken away from this horrible world to make a little bit better. She stood up and looked in her mirror. So it's begun now. He's definitely trying to get rid of me now… She held on to the sides of the sink and leaned her head up against the mirror. She didn't know this time would come up so quickly. She was ready none the less. The coldness of the surface of the mirror reminded her of the pounding headache she had received as a bonus from the nightmare. She walked downstairs and got a drink of water and some aspirin.
"Meg?" She heard in the darkness. His voice sounding familiar, but cold at the same time.
"Knives?" She calmly retorted.
"You know what Legato is trying to do, right?"
"Yes," She said slightly puzzled, then turned to look at him, "Did you come here to warn me or something?"
"In a way yes, and in a way no. I don't agree with what he's doing. You know how much I favor your skill and company. But I do see it as an opportunity to test you. If you can beat him, then there might be room for you to be the next commanding officer instead of him, catch my drift?"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"You know how much I love to win. And I believe in survival of the fittest. Whoever is stronger, should have the higher position in my opinion. I've been watching your clever antics and how you handle your situations. He hasn't done a damn thing in a long time. I know I would see some action if you were with me…" He said as he took a step towards her.
"I thought you didn't like to betray your own men,"
"If he is a weakling, then he shouldn't be one of my men," He spoke more impatiently, still advancing towards her. Stroking his hand from hers, up her arm and held her chin in his hand. He pulled her mouth towards his…
"You don't know if I've beaten him or not," She replied, pulling away from him. "But I will take your offer into consideration with great interest. Thank you for your visit Knives, but I'm afraid I've had a horrible night of sleep thus far and would like to return to a nice, peaceful slumber. Good-night!" Then she turned and walked up the stairs.
"Good-night," He lightly said as he turned and walked out of the bar.
Now that you know what he's up to, how does that make you feel Legato? She thought.
Why should I feel anything?
Isn't it well know that I'm your territory?
I'm not some carnivorous animal.
Oh if you only knew…
Shut up! I'm tired of you!
Then why do you find time in your busy schedule to mess with my mind Legato. You know about this situation because you were meddling where you didn't belong. Now as much as you don't want to admit it, you're jealous. And what's worse is that it's almost deliberately to betray you! He wants your woman to take your position, and then he wants to take your woman, it's really funny if you think about it.
I'm not laughing.
Then call it irony. I'm tired and I'm going to bed. If you don't mind, I would like to finish out the night with pleasant dreams. Good-night.
My what a tangled web you weave Meg. Good-night.
Legato sat looking out his window staring at the open window of a bar where Megumi sleep soundly. He wondered how a girl could make him think so much. She'd even made him question his own way of life sometimes. He knew that the ruthless killer was only a front, that she was really sweet if you gave her the chance, but he never gave her one. Now his boss wants her to take his job, and wants to take her from him. He sat on the bed and put his head on his hands. He had to think more carefully from now on. Meg was never good at plotting against people that were somewhat close to her, he thought. Now he wasn't sure of anything, or anyone.
Jinkaku woke up to find Megumi sitting at the table. She noticed that the room looked cleaner. Sakura wasn't even
up yet, and she knew that Sakura wasn't this good at cleaning. Megumi just sat there and occasionally took a sip from her beer. How that woman could drink this early in the morning amazed the crap out of her.
"Ya just gonna stand there dumbfounded or are you gonna sit down and talk for a while," Megumi said as she turned to Jinkaku.
"Aren't you gonna offer to make breakfast too?" Jinkaku joked.
"Not unless you want sandy lizard for breakfast. I aint cooked real food in a LONG time."
"OK, then we'll just talk till Sakura wakes up then."
"Don't count on it being any time soon."
"Why?"
"Because I heard Sakura screaming 'TYPHOON ME OH SEX GOD!' last night. I could've sworn I felt the ground move."
"Well, I guess it's true what they say; it's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of the ocean."
"Well, I also know that it takes a long time to get to China in a row boat."
"What are you two talking about?" Vash said as he came down the stairs.
Jinkaku and Megumi couldn't fight back their laughter if they wanted to, and they had no problem showing Vash that they had obviously talked about him.
"What's so funny?"
"How'd the typhoon go last night?" Jinkaku asked.
"What are you talking about?!" Vash said as his face went from red, to scarlet. "There aren't any wet storms on this planet!"
"Well then I guess there are plenty of other wet things you can make a mess out of, aren't there Jin?" Megumi said.
"And if there were to be a mess, then you would probably have to go to the broom closet to get something to clean it up, don't you agree Meg?" Jinkaku replied.
"AH HA, YOU TWO ARE FUNNY!" Vash replied.
"Come on Vash, it's not like you set up your own room in there with little hearts and peace signs on the roof and lined your rotating bead with red sating is it?" Megumi replied.
"Why are you being so loud hunny?" Sakura said as she came up behind him.
"NOTHING!" Vash retorted.
"So how'd the typhoon go last night Sakura?" Jinkaku asked.
"I'll go make breakfast," Sakura replied.
Megumi's mood had done nothing but get better and better. With this new development with Knives, she could get closer to him. She had a liable reason to kill Legato now, and she was sure she could do it without a retaliation from the rest of the group. Now, she could go after Knives in a more… intimate way and get everyone out of the way. She could save this shack, and her friends…
Wolfwood had come downstairs and the conversation went from broom closets, to Jinkaku and Wolfwood's "praying" serviced.
"Just because you scream things like 'OH GOD' and 'HALELUJHA' doesn't mean you're a holy man Wolf-dude, especially if you're screaming them in those kinds of positions," Megumi said.
"Shut up," Wolfwood replied.
"Excuse me, can one of you tell me where I might find Megumi Arkino?" A small voice asked from the doorway.
"Who wants to know?" Megumi said with her back facing the doorway. She ran her rough hand across the hilt of her sword.
"You might not remember me, but my name is Nosferatu and…" he trailed off.
Megumi quickly turned around to look at older version of the little boy she had traveled with in the desert. "How did you find me?"
"You're the one who taught me how to track even a sand spider, you remember?" Nosi said.
Megumi slowly walked up to the grown man. He had to be about 25 now. It had been a really long time since then.
"Alright little guy. So what do you nee-" She grabbed Nosi and threw him on the ground, covering him with her body. The gun shots shattered the glass above them. "You all stay here and don't move, don't get up for anything do you understand?" Then the fire ceased. She stood up with her hands in the air and asked to had shot at her.
"Sorry Meg, I'm after that Nosi kid, not you." one of the familiar voices of the GungHo Guns called out.
"What did the kid do to you?" Megumi asked.
"Some guy hired me to come after him. Boss said he ran off with a girl a long time ago and his term wasn't up yet."
"Did your boss tell you who the girl was?" Megumi said as she stepped closer to where the voice originated from. She sized up about how far away he was.
"Naw, why?"
"Cuz it was me," She said before she ran at the voice and sliced his throat.
"No one messes with something I've fought so long to protect." She said before she turned to the bar. "Alright, you can-"
"Not so fast," a woman's voice sounded.
"Stay down," Megumi called. She could feel the barrel of the gun pointed toward the center of her head. She was so focused on getting the voice that posed a threat to Nosi that she forgot to pay attention to anything else.
"And I thought I was up against a real warrior. The rumors about you were so legendary that I just had to witness them for myself. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed that I got this far so fast. All it took was a little distraction and boom, I have the perfect shot." She called.
Then the gun fired, but Megumi wasn't standing up anymore. The woman had a stunned look on her face as she fell to the ground, revealing where Megumi had gone. "If you wanna kill someone, don't talk about it first." Then she threw the gun at the wound she left in her chest, and walked towards the bar. "Now, you can get up."