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Chapter 6: Safety First
Once everyone had found their seats (Kyo in the front to avoid accidental hugging), Hatori switched on the child locks.
Kyo was outraged. "What'd you do that for? Are you afraid we're gonna open the doors while we're driving, fall out, and get creamed by oncoming traffic?" He attempted to turn off the lock, but Hatori swatted his hand away at every attempt until Kyo crossed his arms and sat back, sulking.
"Safety first, Kyo. Accidents happen."
It was not a quiet drive. Questions and answers were being asked and answered at breakneck speeds with increasing volume as everyone tried to be heard.
Finally, Hatori, unable to concentrate on driving and answer questions at the same time, and incapable of being heard in the mad-house that was once his car, decided to resort to drastic measures to get control and sanity back.
He "accidentally" swerved his car into the other lane and back, a hair's-breadth from causing a nasty accident.
Everyone shut up fairly quickly, and as they tried to get their breath back from the near death experience Hatori started talking.
"Now that everyone's calmed down we are going to try to do this in an orderly fashion. No one is going to interrupt anyone else while they're speaking, and everyone will get a chance to speak, understand?" Everyone nodded dumbly. "Good. Tohru, you go first. What do you want to know?"
"Um…well, why would the fan-girls kidnap Yuki? And what will they do to him?"
Motoko nodded to Mai, who turned to Tohru to speak.
"The fan-vamps, which is what they are now, have decided that to better protect the glorious Yuki they had to turn themselves. I'm guessing that now that they don't have souls they've decided to kidnap him, probably to turn him in order to preserve his unmatched splendor forever."
Tohru heard Kyo mutter, "Great, now I'll never beat that damn rat." Then he spoke up, "How did they find out about vampires?"
Motoko answered this time. "We're not quite sure, but we know that it was Rika Aida that discovered them. We would have to ask her if we wanted specifics. Oh, Tohru, Kyo, if you see any of the fan-vamps don't stake them; bring them to the house so we can extract the location of their fiendish lair. They're so dumb that it won't take much effort to trick them into telling us."
The car pulled to a stop. Everyone looked at Hatori in surprise and saw that they had arrived at the Sohma's office building; Hatori opened his door and turned off the child locks in the back seats. "Everyone out."
"Why?" Kyo asked as everyone else got out.
"Because we can talk while Tohru works. Momiji won't mind and will make sure we won't get in trouble. Plus, there's a weapons dealer in the building."
Tohru piped up as Kyo grudgingly opened his car door, "Really? Who is it?"
"That secretary on the tenth floor, right in front of the elevator. I always thought that was a rather silly place to set up shop. It gives you no chance to run if something bad comes your way."
"Really? I know him. He's really nice."
They all walked into the office building with Kyo grumbling all the way.
…
"So, this is where you work? Not bad… Hey, are those vending machines working right now?" Motoko looked at the tall, glowing boxes at the end of the hall.
Tohru spared them a glance. "Um…I think so. I've never tried them before. Why don't you go and see?"
Motoko rushed off, saying something about the superb qualities of junk food.
Hatori had taken the elevator up another floor to see the weapons dealer.
Kyo was still complaining (Tohru had overheard him muttering, "That damn rat's more trouble than he's worth, stupid, getting himself kidnapped like that, he probably helped them capture himself because he wouldn't want them to go to too much trouble.")
Mai was happily waltzing around the empty office building.
Tohru's co-workers had both called in sick. Hatori and the others had been suspicious, but Tohru assured them that it was probably just one of the many seasonal bugs that were currently circulating the building. Kyo watched as Tohru attempted to clean the place by herself and decided to help.
Motoko returned bearing an armload of various types of victuals and couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Kyo attempting to scrub the floor and Mai twirling about with a broom. "I have food if anyone's interested."
…
Hatori came down from the tenth floor some time later, his arms laden with a variety of swords, axes, and other implements of doom.
Motoko looked incredulously at his acquisitions. "How does someone keep those kinds of weapons in an office building? How does one hide those weapons?" she inquired, after swallowing the food in her mouth.
Tohru had used her Slayer abilities as well as her housekeeping skills, and had finished her duties in record time. The four teens were sitting around and munching on Motoko's purchases.
"Spells, of course. Tohru, could you help me bring these to the car?"
"Of course!" She got up and took the weapons from Hatori's arms, carrying them as if they weighed nothing, which, to her, they probably did.
The two disappeared through the doors, leaving the remaining people looking hungrily at the pile of food Tohru had left, completely unguarded…
"Still, though," Kyo said, "who sets up a weapon shop in a office building? It doesn't make any logical sense."
"Exactly, Kyo." Motoko sneaked a bar of chocolate from Tohru's pile.
"What does that mean?"
"Who would think to look here for any illegal weapon dealing?"
"Illegal?" Kyo spat out the animal cracker, a hippopotamus, he had been chewing.
"Of course. Who has legal weapon dealings in these days and times?"
"Hatori…illegal…Hatori…weapons…" Kyo shook his head.
"It's not that bad," Mai added. "We all do something illegal in our life. At least he's doing something that will benefit the brilliant Yuki."
At that, Kyo stood up, candy wrappers falling out of his lap and floating the floor. "Then Hatori has to stop!"
"Stop what?" Hatori asked from the door.
"Uh…nothing." He sat down and started looking thorough the animal cracker box for some more hippos.
"Well, I think we can go now!" Tohru said cheerfully. She started heading out, when suddenly she spun.
"What?" Hatori asked.
"I just thought I sensed something…must have been wrong." She chuckled nervously.
"What did you think you sensed?"
"Something demonic. But what are the chances of something demonic being here?"
Hatori looked at her. "Pretty high, actually. This is a Sohma building." He thought for a moment. "Well, where do you sense it?"
Tohru stood still for a moment, trying to lock onto the demonic aura that she had sensed… "There."
"Where?"
"On the 3rd floor."
"Okay…but we don't have enough time to check it out, if we want to go patrolling. We can do it tomorrow, if time permits."
Tohru agreed.
…
Besides three vamps and a hellhound, which was easily dispatched with a stake, the patrol had been uneventful.
Tohru looked like she was considering going home, when suddenly she thought she heard something…that sounded strangely similar to the "poofs" and cries of agony they had listened to every time they went patrolling.
"Uh…Kyo, did you hear something, like a vampire being staked?"
"No, Tohru. It must be your imagination."
"Okay…" She didn't look convinced though. Then she heard it again. "Don't tell me you didn't hear it that time!" She cried, before rushing off after the sound.
"Wait!" The other four followed her and witnessed a sight they thought they would never see.
Haru calmly staked a vamp that was rushing toward him. After glancing at the ground, they saw evidence of other vampires who had met the same fate at Haru's stake.
"HARU?" they cried as one, with the exception of Motoko and Mai. "What are you doing here?" they continued.
"Oh…hey," he said causally.
"Haru…why are you staking vampires?" Hatori asked.
"Helps keep my rage down. I don't go Black as often."
"So…you're a rouge demon hunter?"
"Yeah."
"That's so cool. I'm the Slayer!" Tohru said excitedly.
"Really? That's great! More slaying!"
The others just looked at the two of them.
"That explains the cross necklace," Kyo muttered.
…
"Uuccchhh!" Motoko grimaced in disgust. She had thought she'd gotten used to demons and their nasty habits, but some of the things she was reading were just sick. "Okay, I'm just going to skip past this. Fine by you, Hatori?"
Hatori glanced up from the book he was reading. "No, we need to look at everything. There is definitely some kind of demon in that office building and skipping anything that might be helpful could lose us vital information."
"We're not going to find anything useful in this book and I am not going to scar my young, nubile mind anymore by reading this. Look!" She pushed the book along the table to Hatori, who picked it up and read a couple of passages in it. His eyes twitched and he promptly shut the book and put it in the 'read' pile.
Motoko smirked, picked up another book, and started reading again.
Hatori and Motoko were inside Shigure's house researching the demon they were now certain was residing in the Sohma office building. A look at recent 'accidents' had assured them fairly quickly. Tohru, Kyo, and Haru were outside training. They had returned from the patrol recently and had been training ever since.
Rin was out looking for Yuki, since they still had no new leads on his whereabouts, and Shigure was off eroding his editor's sanity. Last they had seen, Mai was ransacking Tohru's kitchen. Hatori had told her not to make a mess.
After some time passed and they were not having any luck, Motoko threw down her book in exasperation. "I can't find anything about a demon that paralyzes its victims, and then eats their liquefied internal organs! And you still haven't told me why there are no major investigations going on, especially on murders as ghastly as these!"
Hatori continued reading without a hitch. "I told you, it was done on Sohma property, so police have no say and no inkling as to what happens, and Akito, for some reason, doesn't want anyone to either know about them or to do something about it, okay?"
Motoko sighed dramatically and was about to reply when Mai bounded into the room, done with whatever she had been doing.
"Oh, are you still looking for that demon in those books? You guys should know that the book you find it in is always the last book you look in, so logically it would be at the bottom of the stack!"
Neither Motoko nor Hatori commented on the flaw in her logic and watched as she retrieved the book at the bottom, flipped through a couple of pages and smiled, "That looks about right!"
She put the book on the table and flounced out the room again, this time towards the backyard.
Hatori took off his reading glasses and put them on the table after he had finished scanning the pages Mai had indicated. "This is the right book. It looks like there might be something to Mai's logic after all."
"She is good at finding the information you need."
"Perhaps, but I think most of it is luck…and working off flawed logic."
"Yes…well, Mai is Mai. May I please see the book?"
Hatori sighed. "Aren't you supposed to be good at researching on the Internet? Can I read the book, and you go on the Internet?" he asked.
"Well, if you put it that way." She sulked off, and then returned a moment later. "Where's your computer?" she asked.
Hatori sighed again.
…
Tohru knew that Kyo and Haru would tire out long before she needed a rest, and thus agreed to a break when Haru proposed they take one. He and Kyo were drenched in sweat. Despite having sparred with the boys for the past two hours, she could have continued for a while longer, but decided it would be best not to overwork them.
They sat on the grass in silence for a moment while Kyo and Haru recovered sufficiently to converse. Kyo asked Haru how he had discovered the dark underworld of Japan.
"A few years ago, Rin and I were out late and vamps attacked us. I fought them off," Haru added, after a pause.
Kyo and Tohru waited expectantly for more details to Haru's story, but none seemed forthcoming. "And?" Tohru prompted.
Haru shrugged. "That's it."
"So, Rin knows about vampires, too?"
"No. Hatori suppressed her memories. She was pretty shaken up, and he thought it would be better if she didn't remember what had happened. He actually suppressed mine, too, but I started remembering things."
Kyo glared at the lawn as he plucked a piece of grass. "Well, don't think you can tell her now that we've found out about your weird hobby. The Slayer is supposed to be Tohru's secret identity, and with the amount of people who know who she is, it's not much of a secret anymore."
"I don't think we should tell her, either, but only because of her reaction the last time she met a vamp." Tohru opened her mouth to say something else, but clamped it shut and turned her head sharply toward the road instead. "There's a car coming."
"Slayer hearing," Kyo whispered to Haru.
Nearly five minutes elapsed before Kyo and Haru heard the car, too. By then Tohru had told them that the two people contained in the vehicle were Rin and Ayame.
Once Tohru had announced this, Kyo's eyes narrowed. "What's Rin doing in a car with Ayame? Where did they even get a car?"
The three sprinted to the front of the house, where they impatiently awaited the car's arrival.
When the car came into view Kyo did a double-take.
"Isn't that HATORI'S car!"
Haru looked at it more closely. "It is. Rin must have stolen it."
"How'd she take it without anyone realizing? Hatori doesn't let anyone use his car."
Tohru joined the conversation. "Oh, I'm so stupid! I sensed Rin leaving earlier and I heard a car leaving but I didn't realize she had taken Hatori's car. Now Hatori will be mad at Rin!"
"Rin will be fine, but I still want to know how she got the car."
The car pulled to a stop just as Mai jumped up behind them. "Oh, visitors! Guests are always fun, except when they're not!" She then turned and headed towards the house.
By now they had gotten used to Mai's actions and kept their eyes on the car, which had finally come to a stop. Rin got out, walked around the car, opened the door, and dragged Ayame out.
She pulled him towards the house, and nodded in acknowledgement to Tohru, Kyo, and Haru.
"How'd you get the car working?" asked Kyo.
Rin glared at him. "I used the keys."
She continued hauling a complaining Ayame towards the house and Hatori's location.
"Okay, then, how'd she get the keys?" Kyo asked as they followed Rin inside.
…
"Rin, why did you bring Ayame here?" Hatori was already getting the sinking feeling that he knew exactly why Ayame was here.
They were all in the living room looking at a very angry Rin and an upset Ayame. Rin shoved him forward, "Tell them what you told me."
"Rin, I am extremely disappointed by your lack of manners. Any Sohma—with the exception of Kyo—should know better, and—"
"Just say it, Ayame," Hatori commanded him.
Ayame couldn't ignore that. "Well…I helped those girls kidnap Yuki. But it was all in the name of creating a stronger brotherly bond, I assure you!"
The room was silent for a moment, then, "WHAT!"
(End chapter 6)
Author's Note: This took long enough to get up, eh? Not really. I'm making good time with this, if I do say so myself. Which I do. Has anyone noticed that the chapters are steadily becoming longer? They are. Concerning Shigure: the answers to the question (where did he learn it, and for the love of Christmas why) are forthcoming. I don't think I have anything interesting to say, as my brain is fried from my economics final. Next chapter: expect explanations, more character appearances (possibly), and a potentially more interesting AN! Until next time, then… thanks to all of my beloved reviewers. You folks are too nice!