Chapter 9
The Lives Of The Ones Left Behind
A.N OOOooooooooookay it's been more than a month of Sundays since I've written! But I've had major block, this chapter will be awkward at best! See my problem is I know what I want to do for the next chapters but I don't know wut to do for the next 2 but I'll manage it!
~*~*~
Her skin was hot but the air was cold. It felt like she had been running for hours, her throat was begin to clamp shut with dehydration, but her feet continued to pound into the snow. Her black boots made the packing sound against it, she used to love that sound as a child. She could hear the men yelling curses at her; they were still chasing her after 45 minutes of running. They really wanted that bloody Monet back. ZING! A bullet grazed her ear. The flying barrage of lead chipped away at the tombstones that she haphazardly jumped over. She watched in the corner of her eye the bits of polished marble popped into the air all around her. Their aim was getting better or she was getting slower, either way it meant that this tango couldn't last forever. That's when she saw it.
Her redemption.
A granite statue of the virgin mother holding her palms open to the sky to catch fluttering snowflakes all around. Just behind her stood the twisted iron of the graveyard's fence. It could be hopped over in two swift moves over Mary and those fat bastards would be shit out of luck. She was about to reach the mothers open arms when finally one of those incessant bullets pushed its way into her and proceeded to go through the whole way. The searing hotpoker projectile brought tears into her eyes as she felt herself crumble to the ground. The bullet had made its way through her own abdomen and embedded itself into the virgin mary's.
The only thing she could hear is the THUMP her body made against the cool packing snow. The ice was so strangely refreshing against her sweaty temples and she supposed that this serenity she was feeling was from shock. Her eyes barely blinked and with the little light supplied from a near by street lamp she could see the caramel liquid of her veins stretch across the chaste whiteness of the snow. She couldn't move even if she wanted to. A hand grabbed the surgical case clamped in her gloved fingers with a sharp tug.
"What should we do with him?" A gruff voice asked, too many cigarettes had marred what used to be a youthful resonance.
"He's losing a lot of blood, leave him here to die. The cold'll get to him eventually" Another smoke voice replied. Then there was a sharp and vicious kick to her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her shrinking lungs. The footsteps crunched away into the silence. Hot tears began to trickle down her face. She was going to die. Her pain and struggle would end and she would be free of it all, she could see her family again. There was no one to save her from falling out of the tree this time. She managed to roll onto her back and looked up into mother mary's pitying face looking for some sign of god. But then she realized there was no god just a lost girl in way over her head, bleeding to death in a graveyard.
She was dying in a graveyard.
How ironic.
~*~*~
Misao opened her eyes slowly. Dumbly her fingers fumbled over, then under her shirt, searching and finally coming to a rest when finding the oval shaped pattern of raised skin on her stomach. Misao sat up.
"I hate that dream." She muttered feeling like a truck had hit her.
"What dream?" An amused masculine voice asked, making Misao become aware of her surroundings. Her eyes focused on a smiling Sano who was covered head to foot in grease, oil and dirt.
"Ah it's nothing."
"You sure weasel?" He probed, half joking, half serious.
"Yeah." She said, this peeked Sano's concern even more so since her temper didn't flare at the use of her unflattering nickname. Misao kicked her legs over the table and stood up. She picked up her torn canvas pack containing all her things and went into Sano's office to change. It was a little tricky with her shoulder shot to hell but it worked.
She was about to scamper under the garage door and be done with this place when a hand caught her *good* shoulder. She twirled around on instinct, prepared to defend herself but calmed when realizing it was the chicken head.
"Where do you think your going?" He asked saucily.
"Home? To get some painkillers and a decent night's sleep." Although sleep was out of the question if she kept having dreams about her past.
"Well then I refuse to let you walk! Especially since you saved all our hides from Saitou!" Sano said keys already jangling in his hand. Misao didn't really know what to say, it had been a while since anybody had done something for her in gratitude.
"Umm.Sure?" She managed to reply.
"Great," Sano responded walking down a dark corridor with Misao tailing him. They walked into a dark room and as Sano flipped on the lights Misao's eyes went wide at the sight of all the gleaming beauties.
"Are all these yours?" Porsches, Beamers, Jaguars, Benz, Ferrari, Audis, like fine wines, found in all colours and vintages. Sano smiled rubbing the back of his head,
"Well they are mine if you follow the code of finders keepers," Misao had to sweat drop, here Sano was hiding millions of dollars worth of stolen cars right under Saitou's nose!
"So do I get to ride home in one of these?" She asked trying to pick out which one she wanted to journey in. But Sano's out cry would crush these important decisions.
"OF COURSE NOT! Do you know how much trouble I would get if I was caught driving even one of these cars?"
"So then why do you have them?" Misao asked a little ticked at the fact she had been lead on. Sano just blushed,
"Well, they're just so damned pretty." Misao merely sweat dropped, muttering, "Klepto" as Sano lead her to the vehicle of choice.
A GREMLIN!?
~*~*~
Aoshi stood propped against the wall hidden in the shadows as Hiko's fingers clacked on the keys. Kenshin eagerly waited behind his Shishou /boss for the prognosis about the two disks picked up from the tiny thief. Kenshin had to tried to question Aoshi on what happened but he was beyond unresponsive and hadn't even spoken a word since then. All he did was hand the disks to Hiko.
"Hmmm." Caught both Himura and Shinomori's attention.
"Hmmm. what shishou?"
"Patience my stupid pupil! Very interesting." Clack Clack, "Ingenious! Shinomori come over here and look at this code," Aoshi peered at the lines of virus codes, "Who does this virus programming remind you of?" Hiko asked, an amused smile hiding behind the rim of his sake saucer. Kenshin was a little confused, how could a bunch of slashes and numbers remind anyone of anyone else?
"The Fox," Aoshi nearly snarled. Kenshin's eyes widened.
"That couldn't be. She would never go back into hacking. Not after what she went through." Kenshin argued shaking his head in disbelief.
"It's her; I'd recognize her style any where." Aoshi said, his voice calm and neutral. But from what his aura was telling Aoshi was anything but calm. The Fox case was a touchy subject with the tall mystery and not one he wanted to revisit.
"It's actually quite clever. It's a program to install a back door into whenever it connects to the internet. See this pop up, if you click yes it erases all the files on your computer, you have hit cancel if you want to load the virus. Luckily I decided to look at the codes before even touching anything. But, it seems the fox has lost her edge because this program can easily be reversed. They get to peak up our skirt we get to look up their dress." Hiko said pride emulating of him in waves. There were a few more sounds of the clacking of the keys.
"Just as I thought," Hiko muttered
"What is it Shishou?" Kenshin said peering at the jibberish on the screen over his master's shoulder. Hiko waved him away,
"Quit crowding baka-deshi! Through the program I made a link to our fox's computer and that link leads us to Yukishiro's database, which he has now cleared out, smart lad. But he's not nearly as smart as I! He didn't even think to reverse the virus! Ha!"
"Can you retrieve information from the fox's computer?" Aoshi needed to know who that girl last night. It couldn't be his Misao, his Misao safe and sound in Kyoto.
"Ha! Who do you think you're talking too?" Hiko boasted throwing back another cup of his sake.
"Then do it." Aoshi pressed. He needed to know, he had to be absolutely sure that Misao had nothing to do with this. There was a clicking of keys and Hiko smiled with pride.
"This fox is very good with her encryptions, but alas not good enough. Well, what do we have here? It's looks like our little cyber hacker has been GIVEN level 6 access to the Tokyo police records."
"Oro?" Kenshin's confusion reflected Aoshi's own. What was Takani Megumi doing with that kind of access?
"Can we look at the files she viewed?" Aoshi felt a sinking feeling curl up in the pit of his stomach.
"Of course," There were two taps of the keys and Aoshi saw it. The girl from the night before staring at him with a deep-set frown on her face and a huge black eye. The pictures were dated last year. Arrested for illegal street racing. Then another set of pictures, her frown had turned into a scowl, she was covered in dirt and blood smeared on her cheek. It was dated a month ago. Arrested for B and E, Arson and Assault. Aoshi could feel the bile rise up in his throat as he forced himself to look at the name.
"Makimachi, Misao also known as the Kuroneko." Hiko spoke aloud to Aoshi, but the quiet man was gone.
~*~*~
Megumi sipped on her coffee, she had finally gotten a break and escaped the constant questions of the new interns. She sat down at her lap top and decided to check on everyone's favourite technology tycoon/ *possible* freelance terrorist. And of course he had completely cleared the computer, luckily Misao had retrieved that information. Megumi would look at that later on a more secure computer. Megumi continued to check her encryptions.
And proceeded to spit out her coffee.
"Ooooo Saitou's not going to like this."
~*~*~
"Aunt Tokio, I'm home!" Kaoru dropped her keys with a clang. But her Aunt was to preoccupied on what sounded like a business call arranging some sort of board meeting. Kaoru really admired her Aunt, Tokio was a strong businesswoman, an independent woman and a loving wife and aunt. Her only fault was her taste in men, but Saitou did have a few good features, but they were very limited.
Her Aunt was her mother's sister and was friends with Kaoru's father. Kaoru never tired of hearing stories of her father and mother. She wished that she could have really gotten to know them. Would they be proud of her? What would they think of her actions last night? Ugh! Kaoru knew if she kept up this train of thought it would lead right back to the distraction that was Himura. Kaoru sighed, she really needed a life. 'Speaking of life, don't I have a physics class today?' Her blue eyes widened in horror. She looked down at her watch.
"OH GOD NO! HIKO-SENSEI'S GONNA KILL ME!!!!!!"
"Volume dear," Tokio called over her shoulder as her niece flew by to grab a text book sitting on the counter and ran out through the back.
"Sorry! I'm late for physics! My professor is going to kill me!"
Tokio winced as the door slammed shut. She hoped her kid wouldn't be that loud.
~*~*~
The vehicle whined, then sputtered and then smoked before coming to a stop.
"Well here we are," Sano said putting on the parking brake with a screech. He looked around. Sano knew this area, a little too well for his liking. "Are you sure this is your stop?" Misao let out an exasperated sigh,
"Yes, yes it is," She stepped out of the car.
"OI! MAKIMACHI! NICE RIDE!" Someone from the derelict apartment called. Misao replied by flipping them the bird.
"Thanks for the ride," She smiled weakly before shutting the rusting door. Sano felt a swell of guilt. Here was this kid who was just shot, and risked her life for him and she got no respect from anyone. Sano was about to call Misao back, to offer her a place to stay or atleast a cup of coffee to get away from this neighbourhood, when his phone rang.
It was Saitou,
"Sagara, you and Misao get Kaoru from the University and get over to the garage right away." *Click* before Sano could even sputter his desire for an explanation the wolf of Mibu had hung up.
"Whatever," Sano shrugged, "OI! MAKIMACHI, GET OVER HERE!"
~*~*~
Kaoru sat miserably, slumped in her chair as her egotistical teacher explained something about quantum physics. Of course no one in the course was listening, considering majority of the class were females who preferred to spend their time drooling over their professor than listen to his teachings.
'Why did I take this course again?' Kaoru asked herself, 'Oh yeah.Uncle Saitou.' He had made her take the course. Telling her she should be well rounded in her education.
"Miss Kamiya! Maybe you would like to answer the question?" Kaoru immediately sat up in her seat. She knew Hiko sensei would wreak revenge on her for being late.
"Ano. what was the question sir?" She asked meekly. The large foreboding man laughed,
"You weren't paying attention Kamiya! Who can tell Kamiya here what the question was?" A peppy young suicide blonde put up her hand.
"Yes, you" Hiko pointed, the girl nearly jumped for joy.
"You asked what is the Casimir effect!"
"Very good. Now Kamiya, what is the Casimir effect?" Hiko asked stooping over her. Kaoru bit the bullet,
"To be honest sir, I have no idea." Hiko shook his head and walked away,
"Can anybody else tell me what the Casimir effect is?" The class was silent. Hiko internally sighed, and took a breathe in preparation for another long lecture.
"It's a minute attractive force, due to a quantum vacuum, that acts between two uncharged parallel plates. It's named after the Dutchman Hendrick Casimir who discovered it." A voice piped in from the direction of the door way.
Kaoru's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. It was Misao!
"Very good," Hiko commented trying to hide his surprise, "And who might you be?" Hiko knew exactly who she was, but she didn't know that, now did she?
"I'm here for Kamiya Kaoru, there's a family emergency. She is needed right away." Kaoru had already begun to gather her books and head for the door.
"HOLD IT!" Kaoru froze, "Well it seems that Kamiya's friend has saved me from giving you a lecture on the subject. But instead I think a paper on the basis of specialty relativity and how you add velocities to them, is in order don't you think so miss?" Misao just shrugged,
"It shouldn't be too hard; they'll need to brush up on their domain of applicability first from what I've seen." Misao walked out the door as the class moaned. Kaoru followed.
'Interesting,' Hiko thought to himself.
*~*
"Wow! Misao! How did you know that?" Kaoru said amazedly. Misao's head was lowered.
"I just like physics that's all." She muttered. Of course Misao didn't just like physics, she loved physics as dorky as that sounded. She was in all the advanced courses and was offered a researcher spot with that very professor, all at the age of 15.
"I hate it!" Kaoru whined crushing her physics text book to her chest, "My forte is languages not math! Uncle Saitou is so cruel to make me take it!" Misao couldn't help but laugh.
"Say, Kaoru can I borrow your text book for a little while? Your course sounds.cool." Misao couldn't help it, she hadn't touched a text book in 2 years, she hated them then but now her fingers itched to flip through the pages. The large awkward book was thrust into her hands.
"Read the entire thing, then if you understand can you teach me?" Both girls laughed as they trotted out to the parking lot. Sano was leaning up against the car talking idly on the phone. He was talking to Katsu about what parts they need for the Thunderbird they working on.
"Tell him we need a new catalytic converter too!" Kaoru called as she wiggled her way into the back of the rust bucket, but Sano wasn't listening. He mentioned something about motorcycles and hung up.
"So what's all this Saitou business about Sano?" Kaoru asked leaning over the front seats.
"Damned if I know." The car gurgled, then spewed and then sprung to life.
~*~*~
When they walked into the garage, all three spies' hearts nearly stopped, but for different reasons.
"Your late, come in. We have visitors." Saitou said before taking a long drag of his cigarette. Megumi stood silently her hands stuffed in her white lab coat.
Standing in amidst the oil and car parts were two men. One short with red hair. Kaoru's heart stopped, it was Himura from last night. One tall with hidden eyes. Misao's heart stopped, it was Mr. Mysterio from last night. Both stood in silence. Sano's heart stopped, he knew his double agent jig was up.
"May I introduce the Hitokiri Battousai, Himura Kenshin," Kaoru eyes enlarged with understanding. Himura from last night was Kenshin from the first day at the garage! "And the last Okashira of the Oniwanbanshuu, Shinomori Aoshi. I believe you two know who we are." Misao's eyes widened in what she wasn't sure was rage or fear.
"I believe there is some explaining to be done." Saitou said taking another drag. But, Misao didn't hear him. Everything had muffled over, all she could do at the moment was feel. A cool chain link fence, the hot morning sun, a hand still warm from another's, the burning of her insides from a bullet, her head hitting cold snow.
How she had wished she had cut up that silk scarf long ago.
TBC!
~*~*~
Would this count as a cliff hanger? I'm not really sure. Sry that Misao was a little OOC but if you were shot the night before and had nightmares about being shot previously would you be yourself? I think not. Okay about the physics, has anybody seen Action Mann? I hated that show but that's how I kinda see Misao knowing physics, she applies them to everything she does. That physics jibberish above was taken from a FAQ physics site I have no idea what it means but I thank the ppl who I borrowed it from. This is the first chapter on my upgraded computer. This is one of the many reasons why I have not updated in a while. But I do have ideas for my next chapter!
This is what is on the menu: MISAO! MISAO! MISAO! Okay she is my fave character and really centered around in this fic so the next chapter should be about her. Aoshi goes to visit Jiya, while Misao battles some of her internal demons. Lots of explanations are in order I think! So Happy Halloween all! Hopefully I'll get my next chapter out by Halloween but I depends on how angsty I feel. So here's your treat and there'll be a trick coming soon!
So Love it, Hate it, Review it! Reviews = Good Karma = Lots of Halloween Candy! YAY
Til' Next Time!
The Lives Of The Ones Left Behind
A.N OOOooooooooookay it's been more than a month of Sundays since I've written! But I've had major block, this chapter will be awkward at best! See my problem is I know what I want to do for the next chapters but I don't know wut to do for the next 2 but I'll manage it!
~*~*~
Her skin was hot but the air was cold. It felt like she had been running for hours, her throat was begin to clamp shut with dehydration, but her feet continued to pound into the snow. Her black boots made the packing sound against it, she used to love that sound as a child. She could hear the men yelling curses at her; they were still chasing her after 45 minutes of running. They really wanted that bloody Monet back. ZING! A bullet grazed her ear. The flying barrage of lead chipped away at the tombstones that she haphazardly jumped over. She watched in the corner of her eye the bits of polished marble popped into the air all around her. Their aim was getting better or she was getting slower, either way it meant that this tango couldn't last forever. That's when she saw it.
Her redemption.
A granite statue of the virgin mother holding her palms open to the sky to catch fluttering snowflakes all around. Just behind her stood the twisted iron of the graveyard's fence. It could be hopped over in two swift moves over Mary and those fat bastards would be shit out of luck. She was about to reach the mothers open arms when finally one of those incessant bullets pushed its way into her and proceeded to go through the whole way. The searing hotpoker projectile brought tears into her eyes as she felt herself crumble to the ground. The bullet had made its way through her own abdomen and embedded itself into the virgin mary's.
The only thing she could hear is the THUMP her body made against the cool packing snow. The ice was so strangely refreshing against her sweaty temples and she supposed that this serenity she was feeling was from shock. Her eyes barely blinked and with the little light supplied from a near by street lamp she could see the caramel liquid of her veins stretch across the chaste whiteness of the snow. She couldn't move even if she wanted to. A hand grabbed the surgical case clamped in her gloved fingers with a sharp tug.
"What should we do with him?" A gruff voice asked, too many cigarettes had marred what used to be a youthful resonance.
"He's losing a lot of blood, leave him here to die. The cold'll get to him eventually" Another smoke voice replied. Then there was a sharp and vicious kick to her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her shrinking lungs. The footsteps crunched away into the silence. Hot tears began to trickle down her face. She was going to die. Her pain and struggle would end and she would be free of it all, she could see her family again. There was no one to save her from falling out of the tree this time. She managed to roll onto her back and looked up into mother mary's pitying face looking for some sign of god. But then she realized there was no god just a lost girl in way over her head, bleeding to death in a graveyard.
She was dying in a graveyard.
How ironic.
~*~*~
Misao opened her eyes slowly. Dumbly her fingers fumbled over, then under her shirt, searching and finally coming to a rest when finding the oval shaped pattern of raised skin on her stomach. Misao sat up.
"I hate that dream." She muttered feeling like a truck had hit her.
"What dream?" An amused masculine voice asked, making Misao become aware of her surroundings. Her eyes focused on a smiling Sano who was covered head to foot in grease, oil and dirt.
"Ah it's nothing."
"You sure weasel?" He probed, half joking, half serious.
"Yeah." She said, this peeked Sano's concern even more so since her temper didn't flare at the use of her unflattering nickname. Misao kicked her legs over the table and stood up. She picked up her torn canvas pack containing all her things and went into Sano's office to change. It was a little tricky with her shoulder shot to hell but it worked.
She was about to scamper under the garage door and be done with this place when a hand caught her *good* shoulder. She twirled around on instinct, prepared to defend herself but calmed when realizing it was the chicken head.
"Where do you think your going?" He asked saucily.
"Home? To get some painkillers and a decent night's sleep." Although sleep was out of the question if she kept having dreams about her past.
"Well then I refuse to let you walk! Especially since you saved all our hides from Saitou!" Sano said keys already jangling in his hand. Misao didn't really know what to say, it had been a while since anybody had done something for her in gratitude.
"Umm.Sure?" She managed to reply.
"Great," Sano responded walking down a dark corridor with Misao tailing him. They walked into a dark room and as Sano flipped on the lights Misao's eyes went wide at the sight of all the gleaming beauties.
"Are all these yours?" Porsches, Beamers, Jaguars, Benz, Ferrari, Audis, like fine wines, found in all colours and vintages. Sano smiled rubbing the back of his head,
"Well they are mine if you follow the code of finders keepers," Misao had to sweat drop, here Sano was hiding millions of dollars worth of stolen cars right under Saitou's nose!
"So do I get to ride home in one of these?" She asked trying to pick out which one she wanted to journey in. But Sano's out cry would crush these important decisions.
"OF COURSE NOT! Do you know how much trouble I would get if I was caught driving even one of these cars?"
"So then why do you have them?" Misao asked a little ticked at the fact she had been lead on. Sano just blushed,
"Well, they're just so damned pretty." Misao merely sweat dropped, muttering, "Klepto" as Sano lead her to the vehicle of choice.
A GREMLIN!?
~*~*~
Aoshi stood propped against the wall hidden in the shadows as Hiko's fingers clacked on the keys. Kenshin eagerly waited behind his Shishou /boss for the prognosis about the two disks picked up from the tiny thief. Kenshin had to tried to question Aoshi on what happened but he was beyond unresponsive and hadn't even spoken a word since then. All he did was hand the disks to Hiko.
"Hmmm." Caught both Himura and Shinomori's attention.
"Hmmm. what shishou?"
"Patience my stupid pupil! Very interesting." Clack Clack, "Ingenious! Shinomori come over here and look at this code," Aoshi peered at the lines of virus codes, "Who does this virus programming remind you of?" Hiko asked, an amused smile hiding behind the rim of his sake saucer. Kenshin was a little confused, how could a bunch of slashes and numbers remind anyone of anyone else?
"The Fox," Aoshi nearly snarled. Kenshin's eyes widened.
"That couldn't be. She would never go back into hacking. Not after what she went through." Kenshin argued shaking his head in disbelief.
"It's her; I'd recognize her style any where." Aoshi said, his voice calm and neutral. But from what his aura was telling Aoshi was anything but calm. The Fox case was a touchy subject with the tall mystery and not one he wanted to revisit.
"It's actually quite clever. It's a program to install a back door into whenever it connects to the internet. See this pop up, if you click yes it erases all the files on your computer, you have hit cancel if you want to load the virus. Luckily I decided to look at the codes before even touching anything. But, it seems the fox has lost her edge because this program can easily be reversed. They get to peak up our skirt we get to look up their dress." Hiko said pride emulating of him in waves. There were a few more sounds of the clacking of the keys.
"Just as I thought," Hiko muttered
"What is it Shishou?" Kenshin said peering at the jibberish on the screen over his master's shoulder. Hiko waved him away,
"Quit crowding baka-deshi! Through the program I made a link to our fox's computer and that link leads us to Yukishiro's database, which he has now cleared out, smart lad. But he's not nearly as smart as I! He didn't even think to reverse the virus! Ha!"
"Can you retrieve information from the fox's computer?" Aoshi needed to know who that girl last night. It couldn't be his Misao, his Misao safe and sound in Kyoto.
"Ha! Who do you think you're talking too?" Hiko boasted throwing back another cup of his sake.
"Then do it." Aoshi pressed. He needed to know, he had to be absolutely sure that Misao had nothing to do with this. There was a clicking of keys and Hiko smiled with pride.
"This fox is very good with her encryptions, but alas not good enough. Well, what do we have here? It's looks like our little cyber hacker has been GIVEN level 6 access to the Tokyo police records."
"Oro?" Kenshin's confusion reflected Aoshi's own. What was Takani Megumi doing with that kind of access?
"Can we look at the files she viewed?" Aoshi felt a sinking feeling curl up in the pit of his stomach.
"Of course," There were two taps of the keys and Aoshi saw it. The girl from the night before staring at him with a deep-set frown on her face and a huge black eye. The pictures were dated last year. Arrested for illegal street racing. Then another set of pictures, her frown had turned into a scowl, she was covered in dirt and blood smeared on her cheek. It was dated a month ago. Arrested for B and E, Arson and Assault. Aoshi could feel the bile rise up in his throat as he forced himself to look at the name.
"Makimachi, Misao also known as the Kuroneko." Hiko spoke aloud to Aoshi, but the quiet man was gone.
~*~*~
Megumi sipped on her coffee, she had finally gotten a break and escaped the constant questions of the new interns. She sat down at her lap top and decided to check on everyone's favourite technology tycoon/ *possible* freelance terrorist. And of course he had completely cleared the computer, luckily Misao had retrieved that information. Megumi would look at that later on a more secure computer. Megumi continued to check her encryptions.
And proceeded to spit out her coffee.
"Ooooo Saitou's not going to like this."
~*~*~
"Aunt Tokio, I'm home!" Kaoru dropped her keys with a clang. But her Aunt was to preoccupied on what sounded like a business call arranging some sort of board meeting. Kaoru really admired her Aunt, Tokio was a strong businesswoman, an independent woman and a loving wife and aunt. Her only fault was her taste in men, but Saitou did have a few good features, but they were very limited.
Her Aunt was her mother's sister and was friends with Kaoru's father. Kaoru never tired of hearing stories of her father and mother. She wished that she could have really gotten to know them. Would they be proud of her? What would they think of her actions last night? Ugh! Kaoru knew if she kept up this train of thought it would lead right back to the distraction that was Himura. Kaoru sighed, she really needed a life. 'Speaking of life, don't I have a physics class today?' Her blue eyes widened in horror. She looked down at her watch.
"OH GOD NO! HIKO-SENSEI'S GONNA KILL ME!!!!!!"
"Volume dear," Tokio called over her shoulder as her niece flew by to grab a text book sitting on the counter and ran out through the back.
"Sorry! I'm late for physics! My professor is going to kill me!"
Tokio winced as the door slammed shut. She hoped her kid wouldn't be that loud.
~*~*~
The vehicle whined, then sputtered and then smoked before coming to a stop.
"Well here we are," Sano said putting on the parking brake with a screech. He looked around. Sano knew this area, a little too well for his liking. "Are you sure this is your stop?" Misao let out an exasperated sigh,
"Yes, yes it is," She stepped out of the car.
"OI! MAKIMACHI! NICE RIDE!" Someone from the derelict apartment called. Misao replied by flipping them the bird.
"Thanks for the ride," She smiled weakly before shutting the rusting door. Sano felt a swell of guilt. Here was this kid who was just shot, and risked her life for him and she got no respect from anyone. Sano was about to call Misao back, to offer her a place to stay or atleast a cup of coffee to get away from this neighbourhood, when his phone rang.
It was Saitou,
"Sagara, you and Misao get Kaoru from the University and get over to the garage right away." *Click* before Sano could even sputter his desire for an explanation the wolf of Mibu had hung up.
"Whatever," Sano shrugged, "OI! MAKIMACHI, GET OVER HERE!"
~*~*~
Kaoru sat miserably, slumped in her chair as her egotistical teacher explained something about quantum physics. Of course no one in the course was listening, considering majority of the class were females who preferred to spend their time drooling over their professor than listen to his teachings.
'Why did I take this course again?' Kaoru asked herself, 'Oh yeah.Uncle Saitou.' He had made her take the course. Telling her she should be well rounded in her education.
"Miss Kamiya! Maybe you would like to answer the question?" Kaoru immediately sat up in her seat. She knew Hiko sensei would wreak revenge on her for being late.
"Ano. what was the question sir?" She asked meekly. The large foreboding man laughed,
"You weren't paying attention Kamiya! Who can tell Kamiya here what the question was?" A peppy young suicide blonde put up her hand.
"Yes, you" Hiko pointed, the girl nearly jumped for joy.
"You asked what is the Casimir effect!"
"Very good. Now Kamiya, what is the Casimir effect?" Hiko asked stooping over her. Kaoru bit the bullet,
"To be honest sir, I have no idea." Hiko shook his head and walked away,
"Can anybody else tell me what the Casimir effect is?" The class was silent. Hiko internally sighed, and took a breathe in preparation for another long lecture.
"It's a minute attractive force, due to a quantum vacuum, that acts between two uncharged parallel plates. It's named after the Dutchman Hendrick Casimir who discovered it." A voice piped in from the direction of the door way.
Kaoru's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. It was Misao!
"Very good," Hiko commented trying to hide his surprise, "And who might you be?" Hiko knew exactly who she was, but she didn't know that, now did she?
"I'm here for Kamiya Kaoru, there's a family emergency. She is needed right away." Kaoru had already begun to gather her books and head for the door.
"HOLD IT!" Kaoru froze, "Well it seems that Kamiya's friend has saved me from giving you a lecture on the subject. But instead I think a paper on the basis of specialty relativity and how you add velocities to them, is in order don't you think so miss?" Misao just shrugged,
"It shouldn't be too hard; they'll need to brush up on their domain of applicability first from what I've seen." Misao walked out the door as the class moaned. Kaoru followed.
'Interesting,' Hiko thought to himself.
*~*
"Wow! Misao! How did you know that?" Kaoru said amazedly. Misao's head was lowered.
"I just like physics that's all." She muttered. Of course Misao didn't just like physics, she loved physics as dorky as that sounded. She was in all the advanced courses and was offered a researcher spot with that very professor, all at the age of 15.
"I hate it!" Kaoru whined crushing her physics text book to her chest, "My forte is languages not math! Uncle Saitou is so cruel to make me take it!" Misao couldn't help but laugh.
"Say, Kaoru can I borrow your text book for a little while? Your course sounds.cool." Misao couldn't help it, she hadn't touched a text book in 2 years, she hated them then but now her fingers itched to flip through the pages. The large awkward book was thrust into her hands.
"Read the entire thing, then if you understand can you teach me?" Both girls laughed as they trotted out to the parking lot. Sano was leaning up against the car talking idly on the phone. He was talking to Katsu about what parts they need for the Thunderbird they working on.
"Tell him we need a new catalytic converter too!" Kaoru called as she wiggled her way into the back of the rust bucket, but Sano wasn't listening. He mentioned something about motorcycles and hung up.
"So what's all this Saitou business about Sano?" Kaoru asked leaning over the front seats.
"Damned if I know." The car gurgled, then spewed and then sprung to life.
~*~*~
When they walked into the garage, all three spies' hearts nearly stopped, but for different reasons.
"Your late, come in. We have visitors." Saitou said before taking a long drag of his cigarette. Megumi stood silently her hands stuffed in her white lab coat.
Standing in amidst the oil and car parts were two men. One short with red hair. Kaoru's heart stopped, it was Himura from last night. One tall with hidden eyes. Misao's heart stopped, it was Mr. Mysterio from last night. Both stood in silence. Sano's heart stopped, he knew his double agent jig was up.
"May I introduce the Hitokiri Battousai, Himura Kenshin," Kaoru eyes enlarged with understanding. Himura from last night was Kenshin from the first day at the garage! "And the last Okashira of the Oniwanbanshuu, Shinomori Aoshi. I believe you two know who we are." Misao's eyes widened in what she wasn't sure was rage or fear.
"I believe there is some explaining to be done." Saitou said taking another drag. But, Misao didn't hear him. Everything had muffled over, all she could do at the moment was feel. A cool chain link fence, the hot morning sun, a hand still warm from another's, the burning of her insides from a bullet, her head hitting cold snow.
How she had wished she had cut up that silk scarf long ago.
TBC!
~*~*~
Would this count as a cliff hanger? I'm not really sure. Sry that Misao was a little OOC but if you were shot the night before and had nightmares about being shot previously would you be yourself? I think not. Okay about the physics, has anybody seen Action Mann? I hated that show but that's how I kinda see Misao knowing physics, she applies them to everything she does. That physics jibberish above was taken from a FAQ physics site I have no idea what it means but I thank the ppl who I borrowed it from. This is the first chapter on my upgraded computer. This is one of the many reasons why I have not updated in a while. But I do have ideas for my next chapter!
This is what is on the menu: MISAO! MISAO! MISAO! Okay she is my fave character and really centered around in this fic so the next chapter should be about her. Aoshi goes to visit Jiya, while Misao battles some of her internal demons. Lots of explanations are in order I think! So Happy Halloween all! Hopefully I'll get my next chapter out by Halloween but I depends on how angsty I feel. So here's your treat and there'll be a trick coming soon!
So Love it, Hate it, Review it! Reviews = Good Karma = Lots of Halloween Candy! YAY
Til' Next Time!