Chapter 5: Apples and Bananas
Two plastic bags filled with food, one on the left and the other on the right, lazily swung back and forth.
"OUCH!"
Deep blue eyes winced in pain as the right bag made a sudden impact with her right leg. Rubbing her thigh, Kaoru blew her bangs out of her face in frustration.
Just exactly what had she been thinking when she had brilliantly decided today would be the day to visit the idiot red-head, much less help him clean his home. Continuing on the slow walk back to his studio Kaoru's thoughts wandered to the pitiful state of her partner. She sighed, recalling the butterflies she had felt in the pits of her stomach when she had first laid eyes on him at the crime scene. It had been nearly two weeks since their first meet and greet, and they still hadn't had a decent conversation together. Indeed, she agreed to herself, Kenshin was an attractive man, and his flaming red hair and deep violet eyes only made him that much more intriguing. But his attitude and smart, biting remarks were just plain infuriating!
Kaoru shifted the weight of the heavy bags a little, hoping that the weight of the food wouldn't tear through the thin material. Unknowingly her thoughts shifted back to Kenshin. When she had walked into his studio earlier that day, there had been no traces of butterflies fluttering about in her stomach. Rather, she had been hit with a wave of sorrow and sympathy for the broken man. Unfortunately, she had never been very good at expressing her emotions, as shown by her crude (but true) remarks on his cleanliness. But in all honesty, Kaoru truly did feel bad for him. She, too, knew how devastating the loss of a parent was, all too clearly. Yes, Kaoru reminded herself, she felt for this man because they had that one thing in common—nothing else. Then what about the butterflies? Well, Kaoru told herself, she did have a tendency to get a bit excited and tense at the scenes of crimes. Kaoru nodded her head, as if the action would make the thought become truth. Kaoru sighed as the walk to his studio began to feel longer and the fruits and vegetables became heavier. She had even put aside her work for him, for goodness sake!
'But this is for the sake of your investigation!' a little voice in her head reassured her. 'You can't really expect him to be in the mood to talk and spill his deepest, darkest secrets to you in that horrible mood he is in, can you? You've got to wear him down…soften him up!' Kaoru nodded vigorously in agreement.
'Riiiiiight,' another voice in her head jeered accusingly. Kaoru didn't like that voice one bit. The voice continued. 'You can't honestly believe that you don't feel ANYTHING else, can you?'
"Shut up!" Kaoru yelled aloud. People around her eyed her strangely. Her face suddenly felt hot. When had she become one of those babbling idiots she had once feared so much? In spite of whatever the voices in her head said, it was clear that she needed to get to business once she arrived back at Kenshin's place.
flashback
"Seta!" barked out a very irked Kaoru. "What the hell is wrong with these files?"
A serene looking man walked into the office towards the confused woman. He smiled at her in response.
"Don't give me any smiles! I want to know why there is absolutely nothing on Hiko Seijuro in his file!" she demanded. Soujirou shrugged. Kaoru groaned in agony. She was getting absolutely nowhere. It had taken her days to try and find the crazy man's file and now that it was right here in her hands… NOTHING!
"Hiko-san was always a very private and quiet man when it came to his private affairs Kamiya-san," offered the short, brown haired man. "He insisted that he file cases which he handled himself, personally. That included cases which dealt with him directly as well."
"Directly?" Kaoru raised her eyebrows in interest.
"Hai," Soujiro answered. "Hiko-san, was not the most loved man in the black market. He was a well-hated man by many drug dealers, thugs, and the sorts. It was not unusual for him to get death threats or be targeted by such men."
"So, what then. Are you saying that Hiko purposefully filed his own cases in order to prevent anyone from knowing the exact details? That's ridiculous!" Kaoru gawked at the agent standing next to her incredulously. "That would be just plain stupid of him! He would've been hiding valuable information from the police! That's, that's, that's just … deceitful!"
Soujirou shrugged again.
"I'm not saying he did. I'm only saying that it's a possibility. He could have placed the files somewhere else for all I know. I'm just saying, when he did the paperwork, nobody questioned it… no matter how vague it sounded. But I guess that could be understandable. He was the most respected and most feared in this precinct… until Saitou-san came… that is. Maybe he was just lazy. I could be looking too much into it."
Kaoru stared down at the file in her hands. A 3x3 photo of a very cocky looking Seijirou Hiko stared back at her, mocking her. The contact numbers no longer worked. The relatives listed could not be found. The man's history was nondescript. The only truth was in his physical description. There wasn't even a list of the cases he had handled attached to his file. Kaoru threw the folder across the table, watching it land with a satisfying smack. She looked back at the young man before her. He just calmly smiled back.
Kaoru's right eye twitched. He was getting on her nerves. But before she could yell at the man to stop smiling for no reason, her phone rang. Growling in utter frustration, she picked up the phone.
"WHAT!" Kaoru barked into the receiver, her usually bright blue eyes glazed over with annoyance. "This had better be important!"
Seta Soujirou amusingly watched as his superior's facial expression transformed from one of irritation to utmost interest. Curiously, he watched her set the phone back down, waiting intently to hear what the call was all about. A small glint came into her eyes.
"This is interesting, very interesting," Kaoru spoke to herself, leaning back into her chair.
"What?" urged Soujirou. Kaoru stared at him, a bit amused. What had happened to the ever patient and smiling young man?
"The lab report came back on Hiko's autopsy," Kaoru stated. "Apparently, they think that Hiko must have been poisoned before his body was stabbed."
"How?" Soujirou asked.
"I'm not completely clear on that. The man on the phone said something about how there had been too much blood internally and in places where he should not have been bleeding from where he had been stabbed," Kaoru told him.
"The killer must have really wanted him dead," said Soujirou quietly to no one in particular. But Kaoru shook her head.
"That could be it. Hiko would have been a very formidable opponent in hand to hand combat, but why bother stabbing the man when he was already going to die? Unless…" Kaoru furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought. Then it hit her. Her eyes widened.
"Unless the killer made a mistake when he stabbed his victim! Unless he was trying to hide something!" she exclaimed.
"Something like the very fact that he was poisoned!" finished Soujirou. They stared at each other. Kaoru quickly picked up the phone, and called the lab back, requesting a full description of the autopsy. When she put the phone down, she looked disappointed and perplexed.
"They say that they will send up a full report, but they can't send up anything on the substance that poisoned him," Kaoru said.
"Can't or won't?" muttered the other agent.
"Can't," confirmed Kaoru. "They can only speculate that some internal substance must have done this to him because of the physical evidence left behind on his body. Any traces of a drug or poison can't be found in his blood."
Kaoru couldn't understand. Why would the murderer try and hide the fact that Hiko had been killed by some other means? Why was it so important! Kaoru needed more information. There was finally a direction for her to go in, but no more clues to link. Hiko's arrogant face seemed to smirk back at her from the file on her desk. She glanced out the door and saw the Wolf walking by her office, still smoking his beloved cigarettes. Maybe it was about time she listened to his advice about Kenshin...
end flashback
So, that was how she had ended up carrying bags overstuffed with food back to his place. Well, she thought to herself, at least the plastic hadn't torn yet. She suddenly felt the bag on her left go light and she watched as apples, jars, bananas and other odds and ends went rolling onto the asphalt.
She had thought too soon.
Groaning, she crouched down to retrieve the fallen food. As she reached for a now bruised apple, Kaoru felt a drop of water, and then another.
"This is NOT happening!" she moaned aloud. Slowly at first, but then faster, tiny dark circles formed on the ground until they all melded together into one shade of black on the once gray asphalt sidewalk. Scrambling to try and retrieve all the fallen objects, Kaoru remained in her squatted position like a wet duck. Grumbling, she reached for a banana when another hand came out from nowhere and picked it up for her. Kaoru looked up toward the man to whom the hand belonged. Dark, bluish-gray eyes looked down at her through a pair of thin rimmed glasses. His silver hair was slowly being matted down by the water and now turning a dark, gray shade, similar to that of the wet cement beneath their feet. Kaoru watched, frozen in place as the man before her silently picked up the rest of the food that had escaped her grasp. Holding the food in one hand, he offered her his other. Kaoru went to accept the offer, but as her hand was about to touch the man's, she hesitated. Her fingers hovered only centimeters away from his palm. The light drizzle suddenly became a heavy downpour of water, causing the silver haired man to close the distance between them and pull her up, dragging her down the street, not stopping until they found shelter from the rain under the canopy of a small fruit stand. Kaoru inhaled deeply, trying to catch her breath. She shoved her wet locks out of her face, turning to stare at the man next to her. Realizing that they were still holding hands, she quickly released her grasp. The man did likewise.
"Uh, thanks a lot for the help," Kaoru started. "I probably would still be out there in all this rain if you hadn't come along." She smiled gratefully at the man. He flashed a small smile in return.
"I'm Kamiya Kaoru," she introduced herself.
"Enishi," he responded.
Author's Notes: Yaaaaaaaay! Enishi finally showed himself!
Grdiang3l : thanks for the encouragement! yeah. the story is still building up. but it'll get there! i hope you'll keep reading!
daruma and Jisusaken: i'll update as soon as i can!
pleease read and review!
