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Kendo instructor, Jack thought darkly, exchanging nods with the guards as his team plus one short redhead made their way down through the SGC to meet General Hammond. Kendo instructor.
The hell this guy's a kendo instructor.
Jack O'Neill had met plenty of soldiers and martial artists over the years, including one or two that hauled out holiday outfits even fancier than the one walking beside him. He'd seen deep eyes before. Eyes that had seen blood, and seen challengers, and could calculate in an instant who would win if hands were raised in anger.
Himura's eyes....
A long time ago, much longer than he liked to think about, Lieutenant O'Neill had had a very calm, very quiet military history professor. Not too tall, not too short, brown hair, clothes that looked like they'd been recycled from a thrift-store. You wouldn't give Professor Asher a second glance... until he stood in front of a class and made the old battles come alive. Tactics, strategy, and all the myriad human factors of love and betrayal and misguided motives swirled together in his lectures, laying out not just who and where, but why and how and what did they fight for?
Himura knew what he fought for.
Quiet. Unassuming. Almost the complete opposite of the ramrod-straight airman O'Neill had aspired to be. Jack hadn't really appreciated Asher. Not until years later, when Captain O'Neill had walked into a rifle range near his old school at a very odd hour... and found himself casually out-shot by the quiet, gentle, absent-minded guy three lanes away.
Professor Asher, the astonished Captain had discovered after digging up a few records he really shouldn't have been looking at, was an ex-Army sniper.
With a price on his head.
And a list of kills to make even a hardened Black Ops operator look twice.
"I wonder why you did not seek out a houshi, that I do."
Jack let his glance slide down to meet Kenshin's as the elevator door opened. Should I tell him about Williams? Janet had called in just a few minutes ago, discussing treatment options with Ms. Kamiya even as she gave her frustrated report. Williams was still hanging in there, but only just; Janet had shooed off MPs and Jack's advice alike, commandeering O'Connell and Cameron to find the woman who'd passed the creature to the sergeant in the first place.
No, Jack decided. Himura was a tough enough nut to crack. Better to save that bit of news for when it might do some good. "Only number I had time for was on retreat. Some monk thing."
"They are always on retreat from the world." Violet eyes gave up nothing. "Or at least, from the telemarketers."
Great. He had a crazy samurai with a sense of humor.... Wait a sec. "Daniel? What's the difference between a swordsman and a samurai?"
Sam gave her commanding officer an odd look. You want to know this now?
Oh yeah, he did. Especially given that little smile glimmering in violet eyes.
"Well... samurai was actually a hereditary class, if I remember right." Daniel nudged up his glasses, looking over the man now walking between him and Teal'c. "We think of them as swordsmen, but their main aim was to serve their lords, however they were needed. And they weren't the only people who learned how to use swords." Daniel hesitated. "Though I thought samurai and their retainers were the only people who were supposed to carry daisho. Paired swords," he added for Jack's benefit.
Himura's smile deepened. "Not always."
Daniel's brow rose. "No?"
"No." Kenshin glanced idly upward, shrugged. Tucked the palm-sized paper box of monster into a fold in his gi, letting his hands swing free. "If you were truly interested, you might investigate the history of Meiji."
Meiji. Jack filed the name away, along with that upward glance; one of many subtle checks of his position Himura had made throughout their trip. Ceiling heights. He's checking the ceiling heights. Why?
And why was he untying his hair ribbon?
Red hair fell free in a scarlet wave, concealing young features for a moment before swift fingers gathered it up again, retying red strands at the nape of his neck. Quick, casual-
Violet blinked up at Jack from under a fringe of cardinal bangs, innocent as a lost kitten. "Oro?"
Oh no. Disbelieving, Jack watched an adolescent stumble infiltrate Himura's gait; a loose-limbed awkwardness that turned the deadly swordsman into just another hapless young redhead playing historical dress-up. Oh, hell.
Teal'c made a choked noise. Sam looked between them, bewildered. Daniel's brows bounced toward his hairline as they stopped outside the briefing room, the guards' glance registering SG-1 and passing over Himura - swords and all - in one snap judgment of weird but harmless.
I'm going to have to talk to those guys later.... Shoulders braced, Jack walked in, knowing his job had just gotten exponentially more difficult. Oh lord, I'm never going to get the general to believe this.
And then he saw who was standing behind the heavy executive table a few feet away from General Hammond, and realized Himura might be the least of his problems. "Kennedy." What rock did you crawl out from under?
Colonel Algernon Kennedy, Joint Chiefs of Staff flunky, Area 51 spook, would-be dissector of alien allies, and general weaselly pain in the mikta. "Colonel O'Neill."
"It would seem the Pentagon found your reports of a potential new incapacitant interesting enough to merit further investigation, Colonel," General Hammond said dryly.
Damn. That was fast.
"Incapacitant?" Sam kept most of the skepticism off her face. "Sir?"
"From the symptoms reported...." Kennedy narrowed eyes at the redhead just stumbling through the doorway under Teal'c watchful hand. "What is this civilian doing here?"
"Hello to you too. Haven't seen you in years," Jack said dryly. Would've been just as happy not to see you until Apophis slips on a banana peel, you sleaze. "Mr. Himura's a local expert on Japanese folklore. He was assisting us with some field research on gakis."
"Ah, that would be gaki," Daniel murmured. "Japanese doesn't use many plurals."
"Otherwise known as your so-called incapacitant," Jack rolled on regardless. "Turns out it's not that new after all, General. Heck, it's downright mythical." You better be as quick on the uptake as I think you are, Himura. I won't let Kennedy walk off with a civilian if I can help it, but if he grabs your little box....
"It was an honor to demonstrate the old traditions," Kenshin nodded with the kind of wide-eyed wonder Jack would have associated with any civilian teen brought down into the concrete warrens of the Mountain. "There are so few who ask anymore, even when we perform our historical reenactments."
Oh, so you're a historical re-enactor now, Jack thought wryly. Good one. He cast a glance toward his team. Don't blow this. We can't lie to Kennedy, even if he is an uptight, desk-flying, pencil-pushing, sanctimonious idiot.
At least, he and Carter couldn't lie to the jerk. No matter how much Jack wanted to. Kennedy's presence had turned that inked box from dangerous hazard to all-out nightmare. Technically, the SGC had had the critter first - if you could call having a quarter of your personnel coming down sick having it. Technically, once alien technology got out of the SGC, it was supposed to be Area 51's problem. And technically, Himura as a U.S. citizen was subject to five to ten years, Federal time, just for having come in contact with an extraterrestrial lifeform. Kennedy damn well could walk off with Kenshin if he pulled the right strings.
Or at the very least, the box. If he got hold of it.
Damned if I'm going to let the spooks at Nellis mess with something that might be able to breed on Earth.
"I would be glad to speak with Dr. Jackson further about the ancient stories, now that the phenomenon has ceased," Himura went on.
"Ceased?" Kennedy's nostrils flared.
"Such hysteria runs its course in time, General," Kenshin said firmly. "I know how disturbing it is when a momentary lapse of mind brings the old superstitions to life, but I believe you will have no further difficulties."
"Hysteria," Hammond said thoughtfully.
"Dr. Fraiser said she'd have her full report to you as soon as possible, sir," Sam spoke up. "She says that outside of her exposure, there's no way any trace of the mushroom could have escaped containment, and in any case, the compounds in it just couldn't have caused the problems we've seen around the base."
"I have noticed an air of tension among some members of our command," Teal'c noted, dark gaze none too subtly boring into that of the man who'd wanted to let Kawalsky die to study his symbiote. "Perhaps we should advise them to cease telling... ghost stories."
"Ghost stories?" Kennedy said bleakly.
"I could list some books for you, that I could." Kenshin smiled, sunny as a storyteller caught up in his favorite pastime. "Many of those in English were written for children, but there are a few translations you might find readable. And then there are the kabuki plays, of course...."
Funny, the kind of colors a man like Kennedy could turn when frustration bit down. Jack hid his grin. Almost there, don't blow it now.
"My grandchildren might appreciate that," Hammond said thoughtfully. "Well, Colonel, given the circumstances, we won't take up any more of your valuable time." He waved a casual hand. "I'm sure you know your way out."
Kennedy's eyes snapped; kind of like the last stray kernel of popcorn, trying to sear some unwary hand. "General-"
"Colonel." Hammond's subtle smile held a not-so-subtle appreciation of their difference in rank. "Dismissed."
Aaand... score one for the good guys! Jack bit down on the urge to give the departing annoyance an old-fashioned Bronx cheer as grinning airmen escorted Kennedy out.
The door closed. Hammond looked them all over, sparing a long minute for Kenshin. Shook his head. "As satisfying as that may have been, ladies and gentlemen, he will be back. I would prefer that the problem was solved before then." The general frowned. "Given that my people have brought you here, Mr. Himura, I must assume it's not."
"Not quite, no." Adolescent awkwardness slid away like water. Kenshin took out the paper box and laid it on the center of the table, face sober and calm. "It is indeed a gaki, General. Or something very like one."
"Which is...?"
"A creature which feeds on the essence of others. Daniel can tell you more. Later." Kenshin looked Jack's way. "What did you plan to do?"
"I was kind of thinking we might toss it right back where it came from," Jack said judiciously. "Fair's fair."
"Sir," Sam objected. "Given what it can do-"
"Those we encountered are not ignorant of their danger, Major Carter," Teal'c pointed out. "It would seem apt."
"And that's why we shouldn't bring it back," Daniel put in.
"Daniel," Jack said patiently. "If our friends know about these things, I doubt we got tagged with it by accident."
"Exactly," the archaeologist nodded. "We've just met them. Daire's... associates... could have all kinds of relationships we can't even imagine yet. If they do know about these creatures - how would we know who's responsible? Or even why they did it? We can't just let it loose and hope it eats whoever doesn't like us."
Jack opened his mouth - and shut it, hearing truth sink home. "You're right."
"In any case, it would not be not possible," Kenshin informed them. "Kaoru is no miko, and I am no houshi; that I am not. We can hunt such creatures. Trap them, for a time. But we cannot bind them." His hand touched the box again. "Were I to walk more than ten paces from this slight prison, it would wear its way through and be free." Silk shrugged. "I do not know where you would be going that gaki are common, but I sense you would not wish to bring me if it could be avoided."
"I would have to agree with you, sir," Hammond observed. "However, I cannot in good conscience allow a dangerous creature to leave the confines of this mountain." His voice dropped. "We brought it here. It's our job to keep it from hurting anyone else."
Kenshin checked the briefing room's tall ceiling again, and smiled. "That, is possible." He bowed to the general. "If you would step back?"
Daniel glanced at Kenshin, ceiling, box. Gulped. "Um... make that way back."
"Daniel?" Jack asked as Hammond moved back, brow climbing toward his retreating hairline.
"Trust me, Jack. And don't blink. You've got to see this to believe it-"
Red silk blurred upward. Jack caught a whisper of sandals against a hard surface, a flash as steel flew free-
"Ryuu Tsui Sen!"
White fire erupted from cleaved paper, consuming a cloud that wove and struggled upward. Dark ashes swirled into the air, settling in black shreds on polished oak as the last bit of cloud shattered into glowing sparks.
Touching down, Kenshin sheathed his blade. "There."
Holding up a hand to stop the guns that had appeared from various airmen's holsters, the general drew in a breath. "Mr. Himura-"
"Oro?"
Faced with wide-eyed innocence, even Hammond blinked. Cleared his throat. "That's it?"
"Gaki feed often," Kenshin said simply. "Confinement weakened it. And now those it has injured should recover." He bowed once again. "I have classes to teach, and Kaoru will be waiting. So I wish you a good evening, General Hammond."
"Yes, I - wait." The general reclaimed his voice. "Just how did you get a sword through security?"
A sword? Jack thought, amazed. He's carrying two!
Kenshin's smile glinted with mischief. "Like the gaki, General... some things can only be seen if one knows where to look." He regarded Daniel. "Perhaps Dr. Jackson could see that I am properly escorted out?"
Sam shook herself out of her contemplation of paper ash. "Sir, if I could go with them? Just to smooth the way out. Colonel Kennedy might still be in the vicinity, and I have a few technical questions on what just happened here...."
"Go," Hammond ordered.
"So?" Jack asked after the door shut behind them. Teal'c was usually quiet, but this was pushing it.
"I believe Tek'mateh Bra'tac would be hard-pressed to bring him down." Teal'c watched the door, listening out into the hall. Frowning. "I believe I would not wish to try, without a detachment of snipers."
"So he's fast with a sword," Jack said uneasily. "I still don't buy that light-show. He probably just put flash powder in the box, or something." He touched black ash, meaning to bring it to his nose and sniff for the betraying scent of sulfur.
With a quiet creak, the table collapsed.
Hammond stared.
Jack stepped forward just enough to touch one edge of the slash that had split solid oak like kindling. Yow. Sharp. "I don't believe this." Eyed scuff marks on the ceiling, and shook his head. Note to self: do not try to fight flying swordsman in tall space!
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"And breathe in... good," Dr. Fraiser said tiredly, stepping back from the examination table she'd borrowed from the St. Gwinifred staff. "Well, Sergeant, I'd have to say that outside of one impressively photogenic bruise, you are in disgustingly good health for someone who was making me tear my hair out just a few hours ago."
Holding the man's pulse, Kaoru nodded. "Take it easy for a few days, and you should be fine."
Just inside the doorway, Mel Cameron let out a breath of relief. A check of various emergency rooms and clinics had turned up the woman Williams had met - one Dani Jones, dazed and tired and nowhere near as badly off as the sergeant. Janet had given her a quick check, put her on a cot for exhaustion, and gone back to her struggle to keep Williams breathing. Thank god that's over.
Clad in white hospital cotton, Williams touched the edge of his chest and winced. "God. Feels like I got shot."
"You pretty much did." Ryan held up a wall beside the door, grinning with relief. "My mother got curious and clocked a couple of Kenshin's swings once. Guy can break the sound barrier if he tries."
"Just as glad I don't remember seeing it." Williams got down from the table gingerly, toes curling up from chill tile. "No offense, Ms. Kamiya, but your husband's a little...."
"Strange?" Kaoru suggested. "Weird? Out there? Trust me, I've heard it all." She smiled. "Some things just never change."
"Good thing," Ryan added. "Uncle's usually right."
Janet shot him a look. "Himura's your uncle?"
Yeah, I've wondered about that, Mel thought wryly. Tall, dark, and lean; her partner was nothing like Himura's small, fair grace.
"Well, kind of. Not exactly," Ryan hedged.
"Some of our relatives married some of Ryan's," Kaoru explained, amused.
"And 'Kaa-san says you could hear the uproar over that all the way from Tokyo," Ryan shuddered. "Though that's nothing compared to what 'Jiisan said when Kisho Shinomori came asking after Aunt Sorano's hand...." He eyed Fraiser, and thought better of whatever he'd been about to say. "Anyway. I've called Kenshin 'Uncle' for years. He listens."
"Hard to find," the military doctor agreed. "Speaking of." She stripped off her gloves, rubbed tired eyes with the back of her hand. "Ms. Kamiya. It's late, and I'm not up to twenty questions tonight. Would you and your husband be willing to have a medical discussion with me tomorrow? Or within a few days? I do not want to be treating patients in the dark again."
"Give me your number," Kaoru said firmly. "Let's see what we can work out. There's another doctor you might want to talk to; Megumi Takani...."
Leaving the two medicine women to their exchange of notes, Mel grabbed her partner's sleeve. "O'Connell? It's later."
Ryan flicked a glance at her. Bit his lip. Nodded. "We'd better take this outside."
"Okay." Mel drank in the breeze filtering through the trees on St. Gwinifred's front lawn, feeling her antiseptic-spawned headache ease. "You said your family was strange. I thought you meant 'Cousin Harold got run over by a wheat combine' strange. Not Ghostbusters, Inc.!"
"We're not... ghostbusters. Trust me."
"You hunt gaki," she pointed out.
"Only when we have to." Ryan shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "Before they come hunting us. Because of what we are."
"What you are?" Mel crossed her arms. "Partner. If you drag out the 'alien from another planet' line, I am out of here." She paused. "No, I'm punching you out. Then I'm out of here... what's so funny?"
Ryan's shoulders were shaking with laughter. "Alien. Oh, man. 'Kaa-san told me people would probably...." Snickering, he shook his head. "Alien-!"
"Hey! You give me a line like that, what am I supposed to think?"
"Heh." Still grinning, Ryan looked at her. And sobered. "This is going to sound strange. And it goes back to a lot of legends. Like gaki. Just hear me out, okay?"
"This whole day has been one ball of weirdness." Mel arched skeptical brows. "Talk."
Ryan nodded. "You heard about the mess in New York?"
Mel connected mess and not human. "People turning into animated drain-spouts? I thought that was just some weird media hysteria."
"Gargoyles, yeah, and it wasn't," Ryan nodded. "They're in Japan, too. My grandfather's met some who weren't ever human."
Mel let out a low whistle. "You're saying...."
"They're another intelligent race. Yeah. And they're not the only one." Almost green in the night, hazel eyes held hers, with just a flicker to the side.
Damn. He's scared stiff. "Just spit it out, partner."
"Japanese legends call them youkai," Ryan said quietly. "They're shape-changers. Not mimics, they always have their own forms; one animal, one... almost human. They're creatures of magic. Very dangerous. Even the tricksters, like the tanuki and the kitsune; just because they usually don't hurt you doesn't mean they can't. Humans and gargoyles both tend to avoid them. But once in a while... well, somebody falls for somebody else." He gave her a weak smile. "And the kids usually end up pretty confused."
Mel wet her lips. I will not run. This is my partner. Just like he was yesterday. "One of your parents was a youkai?"
"No," Ryan shook his head. "One of my grandparent's parents was. Wolf-youkai, we're pretty sure."
One of your grandparents is half youkai. Great. Mel pressed a hand to her throbbing head. "I think I need to sit down."
"There's a bench over this way."
"How do you...." She looked at him. Really looked at him, taking in the green shine of his eyes for what it was, not just a trick of mind and light. "You can see in the dark, can't you?"
"Took my mom forever to pound in that most people can't," Ryan admitted, holding out his arm to guide her to the painted steel bench. "Drove my dad nuts; power would go out, and 'Kaa-san and I would be walking around like nothing happened...."
Right; from all the conversations her partner had avoided, Russell O'Connell was a sore spot. And I thought it was just because he was dead, Mel thought ruefully, brushing off a stray leaf before she sat. He didn't like what you are, did he? Ouch. "So Kaoru and Kenshin are half-youkai?"
Ryan seized the change of subject gratefully. "Hanyou. And no, Aunt Kaoru's human. Tough as a bucket of nails, but human."
"Kenshin," Mel said firmly.
"You ask him," Ryan shot back, just as firm.
"Count on it." She let the silence rest between them a minute. "So, is it just seeing in the dark and being tasty to monsters, or what?"
"Has its ups and downs," her partner shrugged. "I have good night vision. I can pick out people by their scent, if they're close. I know a few... I guess you'd call them energy-manipulating tricks. Nothing flashy."
"Magic?"
"...Yeah."
"And you're stronger than I am, and faster than I am," Mel said evenly. That, she'd seen for herself.
"And I can be hurt by some things you walk through without a scratch," Ryan stated. "Trust me, there's a lot of little protective spells scattered around some places. I'd rather walk through fire than Chin's Herbal Emporium."
Mel drummed her finger on dewy metal. "I need to think about this."
"Okay." Subdued, her partner rose to go.
"Wait a minute, damn it..." She held up an accusing finger. "You are not going anywhere until you explain the sniffing."
"Ah. Right." Ryan tugged at his shirt collar. "I, um, like your scent. A lot."
"My perfume?" Mel said blankly. She didn't use much; just enough to put witnesses at ease before she worked around a dead body. After the body, no amount of scent would help.
"No. Your scent. Like chocolate, and those feathered masks you keep in the closet for Halloween, and the pebbles from your aquarium, and... I'll see you at work. Tomorrow." Quick as a shadow, he was gone.
He likes my scent. Mel blinked. So... there's some kind of wolf in his background, and he likes my scent enough to cuddle....
Oh.
In human terms, Ryan thought she was a looker.
And he'd run rather than talk about it.
"Which just goes to show," Detective Melle Cameron declaimed to the night, "Human, hanyou, or whatever, guys are still idiots!"
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