DISCLAIMER: Um… I'm a little too tired for wit, right now, hee hee… You guys all know I don't own Lupin yet…. But I also don't rule the world, yet, and that, too, shall change….
Welcome back!
Hope you didn't miss me horribly! Well, here's the (what, 1,000th?) chapter, as promised. Sorry about the slow updates, but I'm at school so much now I'm surprised I haven't been put on payroll, yet. As always, please enjoy, and leave advice and opinion if you want. Happy readings!
Chapter Thirty
A Little while Later: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
'Is there anybody going to listen to my
story,
all about the girl who came to stay?'
—The Beatles, 'Girl'
A Chicago Italian Restaurant:
Toshiro shot his head in the direction of a drunk rendition of a Frank Sinatra song as he stopped to rest for a moment. He had been searching for Yukiko all day, and had checked nearly all of her favorite hiding places. She had not returned that night, and now it was nearly evening on the next day. Jigen and Ming were a little worried, as were the others, but they had their hands full between Odori's attempts to assassinate Sachiko, their new bundles of joy, and getting to know their only son's future wife. So Toshiro was left to find the missing Lupin member and Jigen daughter.
"Holy… I should have known…" he sighed as he peered inside the green-tinted window and saw Yukiko seated at a table in the corner, a violin case at her side and a glass of wine in her hand. He opened the door to the dim restaurant, and approached her, "Where have you been?"
"Why, are you writing a book?" Yukiko retorted.
"No, but I'm writing a play…"
"Oh, really? You got a title for it?"
"Yep. 'Hey! Wow! I'm Thirty and I'm Still Alone!'… It's a musical…" Toshiro responded. Yukiko smirked, and looked at him from beneath the brim of her white fedora.
"Have a seat, pour yourself a glass of wine. I had an extra glass put here in case one of my friends showed up," she instructed, "Sorry about the leaving so soon… I hope no one worried too much…"
"Well, I did," he admitted, "What have you been up to, anyway?"
"A little catching up with friends, a little catching up with enemies," replied Yukiko flippantly, "This is my second bottle…" she chuckled.
"Well, I'll help you finish off the other two you'll probably order," Toshiro said with a smirk, "So, is this our… It'd be about our fifth date in nearly twenty years of knowing one another…"
"This is actually around the time we met," replied Yukiko as she took a sip of her wine, "You almost sliced Lupin and Jigen up then…. You really were a moody little arrogant bastard when you were little, weren't you? Now you're a moody tall arrogant bastard…."
"And cute, too, as you put it!" Toshiro snapped, "But that was only because you had a crush on my dad…"
"What!? I—"
"You think I never read through your diary when we were little? Please…" Toshiro snorted, "I can't believe you said he had deep eyes…" he chuckled.
"Why you lousy… At least I never married a person I had a crush on!" she growled.
"I know, and it still frustrates me to this day…" he sighed, looking down into his glass of wine regretfully.
"I'm talking about Julia!"
"I know…. But, if you remember, I never married Julia," Toshiro pointed out, "She was one of those types who thought it was 'old-fashioned'."
"And what'd you think?"
"What'd a ring matter if I had a roof over my head and I shared that roof with someone I cared about?" he shrugged.
"Then why'd you ask me to marry you?" Yukiko inquired, an eyebrow raised.
"I…" Toshiro paused, and found himself at a loss for words, "I'm… I'm not sure, honestly… I just know I want—"
"Just drink, okay? We'll take a cab back home… Don't make me forget my 'violin'," said Yukiko as she refilled her glass.
"It was what felt right, okay?" he gave a heavy sigh, "Different people, different situations…"
"I said drop it for now, okay? Let's just enjoy our own company, for the time being. No annoying/psychotic family, no one yelling… Just total peace and quiet, for once…"
"Gods knows how long this'll last before someone starts shooting at us or something flies through the window…" Toshiro muttered, "Speaking of which, there's someone who's looking at us a little strangely…"
"Hm? Where is he?" inquired Yukiko, looking about suspiciously.
"Her, you mean…" replied Toshiro as both watched a young floozy approach their table.
"Hey, how are you boys tonight?" she inquired, leaning her arms upon the table and smiling at both. Toshiro looked over at Yukiko, who wore a look of terror and who said nothing. Her only giveaway expression was a twitching out of the corner of her mouth.
"Ur… We're married…. This, this is my wife…" Toshiro coughed, laying a hand upon Yukiko's. The floozy gasped, apologized, and quickly exited.
"That was…Strange…" Yukiko muttered, "Do I look that much like a boy to you, huh?"
"Well… Um… You do wear and suit, and…" Toshiro looked off ward, in a different direction.
"What, I—"
"It's okay, Yuki…She's an idiot… You don't have to prove you're a girl to anyone," Toshiro shrugged.
"I, um… I guess you're right…" she nodded, and by this time noticed his hand still upon his. She moved her hand away from his, and cleared her throat, "Uh, thanks for the pep talk, Dr. Phil… Now let's finish of this bottle of white, and move on to the bottle of red!"
"Or perhaps a bottle of rosé, instead?" Toshiro chuckled.
"You really are a New Yorker, eh?" Yukiko laughed.
A Brazil Airport:
"Eh?" Max raised his head as he felt the plane land, and looked to his left, where Leo was leaning on his shoulder. He yawned, and lifted up the curtain to the window, and then let out a choked gasp which sounded a great deal like a cat being run over, "LeBlanc! Leo, wake up!" he ordered, shaking his partner wildly.
"Huh, what?" Leo inquired sleepily, "Mommy, five more minutes and I'll help Daddy bury the body…"
Max recoiled in horror, and looked out the window once more. Tropical trees, parrots flying—A giant statue of Jesus, still under repair from its capture nearly twenty-five years ago, when Lupin the third had stolen it-—this was definitely not Chicago.
Later:
"Well, at least our luggage made it here… We can be grateful for that much…" said Leo as he pulled off his and Max's suitcases from the rotating device.
"Grateful!? We land in a whole different continent, in the middle of nowhere, and you expect me to be grateful!?" he snapped, pulling off a suitcase from the rotating luggage pickup and walking towards a cab with Leo.
"Hey, I picked up your suitcase, already," said Leo, lifting up Max's black suitcase to show him. Max blinked a few times, and then looked downward at the suitcase, and back at Leo.
"Ah, Mr. Thomas… Wonderful you could show…" said a dark-haired stranger as he walked up to Leo and smiled, "I see you have my payment…"
"What?" Leo choked.
"I'll be taking that…" said the stranger, taking Max's black suitcase, "And here's my part of the bargain…" he said handing him an extremely heavy suitcase, "Be sure not to open it until you get home, of course… Wonderful doing business with you…" And without another word from either party, the stranger walked away, leaving Max with the suitcase.
"Um… What the hell just happened?" Leo inquired.
"I… I don't know," Max replied, shaking his head. He trudged the suitcase into the cab, and the two took off, failing to notice another man in the same part of the airport, searching wildly for a black suitcase.
"Well, we have yours, that's for sure… It has your name written in a Sharpee on the bottom," said Leo with a smile as they stepped into the cab.
"With our luck we just inherited 100 pounds of coke, and we'll get pulled over with it…" Max muttered darkly, "I wonder who that guy was…"
"Well, we'll find out what's in that suitcase when we get to the hotel, okay?" Leo smiled, patting Max on the shoulder, "At least we didn't get arrested this time…"
"Knock on wood…" Max grumbled, "Cabbie, step on it…"
They arrived at the hotel late in the evening, and Leo got the job of carrying the heavy bag upstairs. He stopped dead as he heard a sneeze, looked about, shrugged as he heard no other sounds, and walked it up to their hotel room. He tossed it upon the bed, and went to opening it as Max laid out their clothes in the closet.
Leo yet out a yell of horror, and Max turned about in time to see a young girl clinging onto him, "Daddy! I knew you'd come back for me! Daddy, I missed you so much!"
"What the…." Max stood with his jaw opened, "Did she… Come out of that suitcase…"
"Hey, let go!" Leo choked, and panted as she let go of her grip.
"Daddy, you can take off the mask, now!" she laughed, laying back in the suitcase, "Is this your friend?" The two then watched in horror as her eyes grew heavy, and she passed out in the suitcase.
"Max, get her a glass of water! She's burning up! Hurry!" Leo said worriedly as he pulled her out of the suitcase and onto his lap. He went to undoing a few of the top buttons of her blouse, and put the glass of water to her lips as she lay there, "She's really, really hot…"
"I'll get her some ice," said Max, running back into the kitchen and quickly making an ice pack.
When she came to, the little girl saw Max and Leo staring down at her worriedly, and she blinked a few times, her vision still blurred, "Eh… Daddy?"
"Kid, I hate to break it to you, but I'm not your daddy…" said Leo.
"What!? But, but he said… Oh, no!" she sat up, and wept.
"Max, you take care of her… I've got to get her something to eat… She must be starved…"
"What!? Why me?!" Max snapped in protest as Leo passed him the small child, who still wept.
"Because… Kids like you," Leo responded as he opened the door to the hotel room and walked over, leaving Max with the small child.
"Okay, okay kid… Just, stop crying, okay?" Max said nervously, "Er, here…. Play with these, all right?" he said, removing his handcuffs from his pocket and passing them to her. She stopped crying, and stared at the shiny bracelets intently.
When Leo returned with food, he found Max playing with the little girl; she was the robber, he was the cop, appropriately enough.
"Bang, I got you!" she laughed.
"Bang, you got me…" Max chuckled, "Oh thank the God of my duel religions… You're back…"
"Yeah… I managed to find a lot of stuff at the store downstairs," Leo explained, "Have you found out anything about her? Like why she was in a suitcase?"
"That's simple," she said as she began to roughage through Leo's groceries, "A bad man took me, and said if my daddy get him something, he'd never see me again… The bad man threatened to do bad things to me…"
"What'd he want your daddy to steal?" Leo inquired, leaning downward intently.
"Um… One of those party things… Um, those things that a mummy wears…"
"A bra?" Max inquired.
"No, she means like an Egyptian mummy… She's talking about a mask!" sighed Leo, "How'd you come up with….?"
"My mind's been weird all day, don't ask…" Max muttered, "But come to think of it, an Egyptian mask went missing a little while ago… Do you think her dad stole it?"
"Probably," Leo nodded, "What's your name, little girl?"
"Daddy said not to tell strangers," she said with a smile, "You tell me, first…"
"Well, I'm Leo LeBlanc…" said Leo.
"And I'm Max Zenigata. We're police officers," said Max, flashing his badge.
"A police officer?" she gasped, "You'll take my daddy away!" she said, and then ran for the door. Max picked her up, and he let out a howl of pain moments later.
"She bit me!" he moaned.
"Hey, listen, I promise, we won't take your daddy away!" said Leo, taking the girl as she struggled to fight out of Max's grasp.
"She broke the skin…" Max added as he went to nursing his wound.
"We want to take you back to your daddy, okay? I promise," said Leo.
"Pinky swear, then," said the little girl gravely.
"Okay," Leo smirked, and nodded. He and Fuji had done all sorts of things like that as children… The little girl reminded him in Fuji in many ways… She wasn't Asian, but she still had black hair and eyes, much like his sister.
"Now, will you tell me your name, and apologize to Max for biting him?" Leo asked calmly.
"All right… Sorry for biting you, Max…" she sighed, and turned back to Leo, "My name's Dakota…"
"What the hell kind of a name's that?" Max said to himself as he went to putting a Band-Aid over his wrist, where he had been bitten. Dakota shot him an evil glare, and went to go kick him in the shin, but Leo quickly stopped her, and turned her attention back to the boxes of crackers he had bought.
"At least her middle name isn't Chaim," snapped Leo.
"How'd you know that?"
"Cecilia," Leo smirked.
"Well, I guess it's true that you can get whatever you want when you do your boss…" Max said as he finished tending to his wound.
"Hey, we also have two weeks vacation with pay coming up," said Leo with a smile.
"What exactly did you and that lady do!?" Max wondered aloud.
"I'm sort of glad I can't remember…." Leo admitted as he looked back at Dakota, who was eating heartily.
Chicago:
"Leave!? We can't leave!" snapped Ally, "I've been planning this out forever, Fuji… I haven't seen her in months, and now all of a sudden you want me to leave!?"
"Well, I'm sorry, Ally, but no one really saw this coming… A guy who looks just like my dad, and even steals like him!? It's too fantastic not to look into!" said Fuji with a weak smile, hoping Ally would understand her reasoning for her decisions.
"What if it's a mask?" Ryo inquired from her place on the couch in the living room, where the group, sans Yukiko and Toshiro, had gathered.
"Well, that's one of the possibilities," Fuji shrugged, "We have to find out for sure, though…"
"How about I go, instead?" Sachiko suggested.
"Oh, yes, trade one crazy for another," Heiji snapped, "Sounds great… Remind me to pack along my bulletproof vest…"
"Heiji…." Fuji moaned, putting a hand over her face.
"She almost killed me, okay!? I won't forgive her that easily…" snapped Heiji, "Call me difficult, but I have things about working with people who've tried to kill me!"
"Well, we always worked well together," said Odori with a sly smirk.
"I know you just do it out of love, though! This bitch is just friggin' loco!" Heiji said, pointing to Sachiko.
"Heiji!" Ryo yelled in defense.
"Fine, fine… Take her… But don't expect any help from me…" said Heiji, rising from the couch and storming out of the house, just as Toshiro and Yukiko walked in, somewhat drunkenly.
"Great… They're both smashed…" Fuji mumbled, "And Heiji's being a bitch, and Ally doesn't want to go, and Carmen's here, and I don't know where Blondie and LeBlanc are, and Sachiko wants to go… Perfect…"
Ming and Jigen, meanwhile, were in the kitchen, peeking through the door and listening in on the group, "Were we really this bad…?" Jigen wondered aloud.
"Worse… At least they aren't beating the hell out of one another, yet… Oh, wait, there we go…." she sighed, and turned back to her oven, "They're all just like us and it's scary to think that… But it's true…"
"Jeeze… I can't believe we acted like such bratty kids…"
"What are you talking about? You still do…"
"Shuddup…."
"Yeah, yeah… My mini muffins are burning, anyway," Ming muttered, stepping over to the oven and opening it, "Hey, did you ever realize that your first name is two letters away from being Daisy Duke? I just realized that while I was watching Dukes of Hazard reruns…"
"You ever realize that your first name sounds an awful lot like 'Lyin''?" Jigen retorted with a smile, "Li Yan…."
"Daisuke…" she shot him a glare, "Do up these dishes… I shouldn't be on my feet in my condition…"
"I… Maybe I could offer one of the kids five bucks to do them for me…" Jigen wondered aloud as he looked down at the numerous dishes.
"They aren't eight anymore, and I'm going to go lie down…" Ming sighed.
"Hey, that's like a million yen! And even more pesos!" snapped Jigen.
"Don't forget to wipe off all of the food before you put them in the dishwasher…" Ming called as she walked upstairs and vanished into their bedroom.
"Crap…" he mumbled as he lifted out a pasta-filled dish from the sink. He looked down at Martha III, and set it on the floor. He smiled as she dug into the meal ravenously, and patted her on her head, "You know, your grandma was one hell of a dog…. Same with your mom… Never a finer line of bitches… And trust me, I've known a lot…"
Martha looked upward at him, her tail still wagging wildly, and she then went back to her meal, "Good dog… Good, good dog…" said Jigen quietly as he went back to the dishes. He smiled widely underneath his fedora as he watched Yukiko and Toshiro stumble through the kitchen and out onto the porch, "God, if you're there… Please…" he whispered as he watched Toshiro close the glass door behind himself and Yukiko and then draw a set of wooden blinds to a close. Jigen quickly ran up the stairs, nearly knocking Ming over in his wake.
"What are you doing, now?" Ming inquired, somewhat agitated.
"Take a look at what's going on outside…" Jigen ordered, opening the blinds to their window.
"It's… Wow… Yuki and Toshiro… What are they up to?" Ming wondered aloud.
"Hopefully they're finally getting somewhere… If I can get that little firecracker married off, I can die a little happier knowing that she won't go out doing half of the idiot things she's done in the past!"
"Oh, like following in your footsteps? Yep, that is pretty idiotic…" Ming admitted as she looked downward.
"Then maybe I can start to talk to Ryo, more… I mean, I know she likes Ari, but that guy's just waiting to jump out of the closet! Maybe we could hook her up with a nice Italian boy," Jigen said thoughtfully as he seated himself in a nearby chair, "Gimme a play by play… It's too dark out for me to see…"
"Gotcha, captain," said Ming with a salute as she seated herself at the window and looked downward.
In the back yard, Yukiko and Toshiro were both seated on the deck of the backyard… It was night time out, and the sky was nearly cloudless.
"I think we should've brought a bottle of red wine home… That stuff was great!" said Toshiro as he leaned back in one of the plastic seats. The green chairs made creaky noises as he and Yukiko rocked back and forth, enjoying one another's far from sober company.
"Hey, if they hadn't called a cab for us, I would have!" Yukiko admitted with a laugh, "We'll have to go there again, sometime! The people there know me… The right kind of people, you know….? Not some of those creeps you see out there… The right kind of people…."
"How'd you like to live here again?" Toshiro asked.
"Eh? Where're you going with this?"
"What? Your dad loves me, I like it here…. We could just live here for a little while…"
"What the hell about Fuji? And wouldn't you like to go back to Japan for a little while?" asked Yukiko.
"You want to know something funny? Oh, you're going to love this!" Toshiro laughed, "I forgot how to write Japanese! Ha ha! Go figure, it's the first language I learn, and I can't remember how to write even my own name! My dad would freakin' filet me if he knew how Western I've become! I'll bet I was the first in my family to own a T-shirt! Ha ha ha!"
"Um… Okay…" Yukiko raised an eyebrow, "How could you… I mean, you didn't speak a word of English when I met you, save for Elvis songs! How could you forget to write your own first language?"
"I never had to! I didn't realize it until Julie wanted me to write the baby's name on her crib… I got my ink and brush, and then I froze! I couldn't remember how to write out something as simple as Amanda! Do you have any idea how close that is to my mother's name, ha ha!? It's a two-character difference!"
"Anyone ever tell you you're an emotional drunk?"
"Yep… You," he nodded, "I must've really done it tonight…."
"Jeeze… I knew bringing out the Bourbon would've done him in… He's like a fish to water with that stuff… I'll bet he's drunk enough to eat poultry and not care that it's a bird…." Yukiko said to herself, "Why don't we go inside?" she suggested.
"Good… Good idea… I'd hate to throw up on your dad's deck, and that's what I feel like doing, right now…" Toshiro admitted as he rose, wobbly, from the table, and allowed Yukiko to support him as they walked. The shorter girl had trouble keeping balance with Toshiro, who was over a foot taller than her, and she let out a yell as both lost their footing and crashed into the pool.
"Oh, wow…" Ming moaned, slapping a hand over her face and sighing.
"What? What's going on!?" Jigen wondered aloud, turning back to the window, "What's in the pool? I hear something splashing…"
"That'd be your daughter and Toshiro…" Ming sighed.
"Damn it! My friggin' gun's jammed!" Yukiko grumbled as she perched herself up on ledge of the pool and removed her gun from behind her belt, "I'll have to get Ally to clean this for me, later…"
"Sorry…" Toshiro said slurridly as he perched himself next to Yukiko.
Yukiko sighed, "You big idiot…." She mumbled as she reached over and wrung his hair out, "You could catch an pneumonia like that, you know… Hm?" she blinked a few times in confusion… Why was he looking at her like that…? And she was doing nothing to help the problem by staring, she realized. She cleared her throat, and rose from the ledge, "I'm going to go wash up… I suggest you do, too… Chlorine isn't exactly good to let settle on your skin, and it isn't good to have on white clothes, either…"
"Yeah," Toshiro nodded, and watched as she exited, "I should've talked to her more… But she would've just told me I was blabbering on like some sort of drunk…." He sighed mournfully, and followed Yukiko in. When he got inside, he found he couldn't find his shampoo, so he went to borrow a bottle from Ming, but found she was not there. Knowing that she wouldn't mind, he took a bottle from the bathroom, shuddering at numerous orange bottles he knew to be Jigen's medication as he passed by. He showered, and couldn't help but notice Ryo's strange expression as he exited the bathroom. He shrugged, and soon fell asleep on a mat in Yukiko's room, where she had agreed to allow him to stay, saying it would be just like when they were kids.
Meanwhile, Ally had gone to showing Carmen a more detailed tour of his room, which consisted mainly of hockey paraphernalia and weaponry, "Is… Is it hard to fire these…?" she asked as she looked at her reflection in one of the guns.
"Well, you could break your shoulder if you fired one wrong," Ally admitted, "But with the right training, even a kid could use one! You should've seen my sister, growing up! She was a champ when she was in her teens! Same with me and martial arts competitions and Ryo with her race car driving…"
"Ryoko drives race cars?"
"Loves 'um! Each bracelet she wears is a race she's won… Inside of each, there's an inscription of the place and day. Ari gave her her first one, as a gift for her win… She's collected them, ever since…"
"My goodness… Well…" Carmen smirked bittersweetly, "All of the girls… They… They're all so accomplished… Odori's good with swords, Fujiko with thievery, Ryoko with racing, and Yukiko with marksmanship… It's…It's a little hard to one-up something like that…"
"Hey, I'm not asking you to one-up… If I had wanted someone like Fuji or Dori or my sisters, I would've found them. I'm happy with you, and the way you are. I grew up around loud women… You're a quiet change, and I like it…"
"I just… I look around at everyone, and they've been on all sorts of adventures… They have all sorts of skills… The only time I ventured out of the castle, I nearly got myself killed!"
"Carmen, don't worry. You have skills, too… You may not see them, now, but they're there. You just can't always see them right away—I didn't know how good I was at martial arts until I was fifteen! Ha ha…. I accidentally broke my mom's nose… Boy was she mad! And she took it out on my dad a lot, because of how much we look alike! Poor old man…."
"I'll go with you all…" said Carmen suddenly, turning back to Ally, "I know I'm not a good fighter, but perhaps I could prove myself in some other way…"
"What!? Carmen…"
"Please?" Carmen asked beggingly.
"Well, I… Okay…" Ally nodded, "Fuji ain't gonna like this, but hey, she's gone and done things that we don't like, before, so what the heck, huh? I can turn the tables on her…"
"Thank you!" she seated herself next to him on his bed, and embraced him. Ally smiled, but Carmen saw a wave of what appeared to be embarrassment wash over him as he broke from her, "What's wrong?"
"Um… Nothing, I… Just thinking, that's all…" replied Ally with a smirk, scratching the back of his head nervously.
"Thinking, about… Oh…." she cleared her throat, and placed one of his hands in her own, "I see… Well, would you like to…?"
"Listen, I don't want to push you into anything!" Ally choked, shaking his head.
Carmen leaned over, and kissed him on the cheek, "You know, their skills may be hard to come by, but those with personalities such as yours are one of a kind…"
"Um, jeeze, thanks," Ally said with a blush, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Are you going to get some rest, now?"
"Eh, yeah. Might as well if Fuji's going to chew my ass out, tomorrow…"
"Good night, Allen. Pleasant dreams…" said Carmen as she walked to the doorway.
"Don't worry, they'll pretty much be about you," Ally said with a small laugh. Carmen, in turn, gave a warm smile, and then left for her room, "Hm, girls like that are one in a million, too… Too bad see just can't see that."