DISCLAIMER: Eh, doesn't belong to me; just borrowing

Hello…

Yup! 'M'-rated fic, me! This is a first, ; Please, no one tell my mother. Well, this one's my baby… Long, difficult labor. It's a little break from what I usually write, but rest assured, as I have said in all of my shorter works, that this does not mean an end to the series you know me for. It will continue as planned, and until then I hope you enjoy this story!

Author's Note: Dialogue written with the brackets ( " " ) is perceived to be in Japanese while dialogue written in ( ' ' ) is meant to be taken as English.

Restoration of Pride

By J. Lucy-Daisuke

Kyoto:

"This one's exceptionally pretty…" a wiry Japanese man in a gray business suit smiled down at the large floor below him. He was invisible to his prisoner who sat tied up to a chair in the center of the warehouse. "But deadly, from what I understand…"

"A member of the Lupin gang," a small, mousy man with a clipboard looked upward at him and smiled devilishly.

"Ah… Looks shorter than in the pictures, neh?" the Japanese man chuckled. "I'm going to go down and introduce myself."

"Careful, this one's a fighter," his assistant laughed, and followed his employer out of the small office, down the metallic stairs and to the wooden chair in the center of the room.

"A heist gone bad, eh?" the Japanese man laughed and took his captive by the chin, and met with the glaring pair of brown eyes. He walked over to a crate and patted it, and turned back to his victim. "Cocaine, and lots of it… I understand your boss was going to burn it all?"

"Lupin doesn't believe in destroying that many lives for a cheap profit," Goemon Ishikawa snapped, and looked upward at his captor with a glare. "When I get out of here, Tomo… They will be finding pieces of you around this city months from now!"

"You're a lot of talk, but little real threat without your precious sword, Goemon…" Tomo looked over his shoulder and smiled, picking up the blade and unsheathing it. "Some say you can tell the character of a man by his weapon… Looks like yours needs some polishing…"

Goemon struggled against the ropes, but found this in vain. There were several layers, and in the center of the room without any sort of blade it would be near impossible to even attempt to cut the ropes. He simply looked upward at Tomo and gulped hard as he stared at the blade. Tomo chuckled and looked over at Goemon, and pulled up him by his hair to face him.

"You look frightened… I thought you weren't scared of death, as a follower of the bushido…"

"I'm not," said Goemon calmly. His eyes were still fixated upon his sword, however.

"Good… That's all right, I'm not going to kill you, anyway…" Tomo smiled, and placed a hand on Goemon's face. "You're quite a catch, you know…"

Goemon, in response, bit Tomo.

"You little bastard!" Tomo pulled away his hand, and then slapped Goemon hard against the cheek.

"If that is the best you've got, I'm not afraid of you, Tomo…" said Goemon with a smile and a small laugh.

"I haven't begun to show you the best," said Tomo quietly in a hiss. He turned back around to his assistant and snapped, "Leave me with him; you won't want to stay for this. Bring a car around about sunrise. Also send out that note to Goemon-chan's friends… They'll know where to pick him up, and they'll know not to bother with my affairs again."

The next day, the woods outside of Kyoto:

"This is the place…" Lupin looked over at Jigen, and then at the old shack in the middle of virtually nowhere. "I hope he's alive…" Lupin added worriedly as Jigen pulled up and brought the car to a stop.

Jigen silently stepped out of the driver's side, and Lupin followed him. The red-jacketed thief was the first to get to the door, and kicked it open, gun drawn. Jigen was at his back, his gun also absent from its holster.

"Goemon?" Lupin placed his gun back in his holster and looked over to a corner of the room. Goemon sat with his hands bound and his legs crossed, and his head bowed down. His sword was merely inches away.

"Goemon, come on, buddy…" Lupin whispered, and placed a hand on Goemon's shoulder. He was stunned at how quickly Goemon turned from him, shrugging his shoulder and allowing Lupin's hand to fall off. Lupin picked up Goemon's sword, and Jigen helped Goemon to stand. Jigen took a pocket knife he carried with him in his hat and undid Goemon's bindings, and was stunned to see exactly how bruised his arms were beneath the ropes. Goemon also sported a black eye and marks around his neck, from where it looked like he had been choked.

The samurai was silent for the ride back to their hotel, as were Lupin and Jigen. When they arrived, Goemon wordlessly exited the back seat of the vehicle and walked up the stairs into their room.

"You take a look at his eyes?" Jigen muttered to Lupin as the two watched Goemon walk into the hotel building. "Something really bad went down, I have the feeling…"

"Yeah… I should've never had let him do this on his own, I should've gone," Lupin said to Jigen, his voice and expression lined deep with regret. "Tomo was too much for him…"

"I did some research on Tomo in my spare time… Yeah, I know, me and research, ha ha… Anyway, I read about what happened to some of the other people he did who crossed his path… You don't think that's what he did to Goemon…. Do you?" Jigen looked above the brim of his fedora at Lupin.

"I'd like to think that isn't what happened… But from that look, I think that's exactly what happened to Goemon…" Lupin muttered. The two walked upstairs and found the Goemon had already let himself in with his room key and was currently in the bathroom. "We need to give him his space and just be there for him when he's ready to talk…" Lupin seated himself on the couch across from Jigen and shook his head. "I shouldn't have done that to Goemon… I knew I had a bad feeling about this…"

"Lupin, it wasn't anything you could've helped—Tomo's drugs killed one of his pupils, of course he'd want to do this alone," Jigen sighed heavily and removed his fedora, setting it down on a nearby table and rubbing his eyes. "You're right; we'll just have to be there for him and try to understand all of this."

Goemon, meanwhile, was in the shower, and unable to hear this conversation. He was thinking back to everything that had happened during that very long night. His sword hadn't saved him, nor had all of his years as a samurai warrior. Tomo had gotten what he had wanted, and put Goemon in his place.

The images started to flash back, and Goemon quickly shut off the water and stepped out, wrapping a towel about his waist and brushing back his black hair from his eyes. He slowly turned his attention to his reflection in the mirror and then looked down at his shoulder. The bruising continued there and on downward, leaving a pattern upon his body.

'You've got such lovely hair… Very much in the styling of the Meiji period… That was one of my favorite periods, you know…'

Goemon winced, and began to search through the medicine cabinet for something, anything… He found exactly what he needed; a pair of scissors. He wiped away some of the steam from the mirror, gave a heavy sigh, and began to cut away at the hair, letting it fall into the sink basin.

Jigen was confused at Lupin's stunned look as Goemon walked out of the bathroom, for his back was to the bathroom. He turned around and did a double take at the sight of Goemon's newer, much shorter hairstyle. It was a sloppily cut uneven mop-style, and Goemon said nothing of this sudden change as he opened a closet door and began to rummage through.

"G-Goemon, buddy… Um… That looks good on you… What are you doing, aren't your clothes still in your suitcase?" Lupin inquired, clearing his throat and slowly rising from the couch to approach Goemon.

"I'm not wearing those anymore," Goemon responded quietly. "I'm going to borrow something from the disguises."

"Okay… Do you want to talk about it?" Lupin reached forward to put a hand on Goemon's arm, but Ishikawa quickly shrugged Lupin off, as he had before.

"There's nothing to talk about, Lupin," Goemon removed the towel from his shoulders, and Jigen turned pale with sickness and Lupin's heart dropped to the floor as they were able to get a better look at Tomo's work of their partner.

Goemon found a green dress shirt, and buttoned this up, ignoring Lupin and Jigen's gaping. He tried his best to ignore it, anyway. He knew that they were looking, he could feel their eyes, and they continued to look as he picked out a pair of dark brown slacks and then a pair of shoes. The shoes would take the most getting used to, but he wouldn't be able to go back to how he had dressed.

"I'm gonna go kill that bastard…" Jigen rose from his seat, grabbed his fedora and pistol and began to storm out of the room, but Goemon sought him out and tackled him with an almost unnatural speed. He pinned the gunman to the wall and spoke to Jigen with a crazed look in his eye.

"I thought I could kill him, too… I was wrong," Goemon said in a low voice to a stunned Jigen, whom he had trapped against the wall of the hotel room. Lupin went to put a hand on his gun, but moved it away as Goemon released Jigen and let his arms fall to their sides.

"Does this room have a fireplace?" asked Goemon quietly.

"Ummm… Yeah…" said Lupin slowly. "Why?"

Goemon nodded, and went back into the bathroom, and returned with his samurai gi in his hands. Lupin and Jigen watched Goemon walk into the bedroom, and both could smell the burning logs of the fire in the next room after a few moments.

Goemon walked back out to the main room, and now picked up his sword and began to walk back to the fireplace. Lupin went running in after him, "No way, Goemon! The clothes, the haircut, okay, but not your sword!" Lupin snapped.

"Why, because I'm useless without it?" Goemon asked, looking Lupin in the eyes icily.

"No! Because you'd be putting good skills to waste without it!" Lupin replied passionately.

"Yes, great skills… I'm so glad there were there for me when I needed them most…" Tomo had certainly made a cold cynic out of Goemon in one night, Jigen noted from the wall that he now leaned upon, his arms folded.

"Listen, Tomo did some really bad things to you, and I'd be angry, too! I can't blame you, I'd be pissed!" Lupin shouted.

"What, like you've never done that to a woman in your life?"

"This isn't about me! I may mess with girls, but—I'm not like Tomo. He just did that to make you feel weak."

"Well it worked," Goemon grabbed his sword from Lupin roughly and threw it across the room. "I'll use the sword, but not happily. It's just because I still want to be a partner with you, Lupin, and the sword is the only weapon I know."

"Good," Lupin nodded and adjusted his tie. "Now what do you say we talk about this for a little bit?"

"Like I said before, I have nothing to talk about."

"That's fine… We'll be here when there is something…" Lupin shoved his hands in his pockets and began to make a quick exit of the tense situation.

"That son of a bitch laughed at the end of it…" Goemon said quietly as Lupin turned to leave. "I wanted to kill him, but I just let him throw me in that damn car trunk and drive me to that Godforsaken shack… By that time I didn't care anymore. I didn't care if he killed me at that point."

"I'm sorry I couldn't have been there sooner," said Lupin quietly. "I wish I could've known that this was going to happen to you. I wish for anything that I could take it back, Goemon."

"It isn't your fault, Lupin," said Goemon quietly. "If it's anyone's, it's mine for not being prepared for his assault."

"Hey, Lupin… I think these came from Fujiko," said Jigen, walking in with a large bouquet of flowers.

"Really? Jeeze, I thought we were on bad terms again… I wonder what she wants now," Lupin muttered, walking over and taking the vase from Jigen. He pulled off the note and scanned over it, quickly glancing at Goemon and shoving it in his pocket.

"What did it say?" Goemon inquired, taking a step forward.

"Goemon, it was just some perverted little joke from Fujiko, that's all!" Lupin smiled his usual goofy smile, but Goemon was slow to believe this. He reached into Lupin's pocket and retrieved it, opened it and read it over.

Dear Goemon-chan,

Thanks again for everything. It's a shame the morning after wasn't that grand. Hopefully next time will be better.

Love,

Tomo Otomo

Goemon growled, and crumpled the letter, and moments later the vase went sailing out of a closed window and into traffic several stories below.

"I think what we all need is a vacation," said Lupin after a long pause.

Two weeks later, Hampshire, England:

"Goemon, I'm heading back, you staying again?" Lupin picked up all of the books he needed for researching his next heist and looked down at Goemon with a sort of maternal worry. Goemon nodded without taking his eyes off of the page of the manual he had been reading from, and Lupin turned to Jigen and passed the gunman a large stack of books.

"You find anything, Jigen?" Lupin asked as they walked toward the library checkout.

"Yeah, that they get really mad when you try to smoke in the health section," Jigen responded without missing a beat as they set the two stacks in front of the older librarian, who had been typing away at a computer before they greeted him.

'Your friend staying again?' he asked in a cockney accent as he looked past Lupin and Jigen at Goemon.

'Yeah, he's really into learning English all of a sudden,' Lupin replied, not mentioning that this was because there was a rumor that Tomo had escaped to the U.S.

'He's a hard worker, but then again, I hear a lot about that when it comes to your people…' said the librarian as he turned and went to checking out their books.

'Our people? What do you mean by that!' an irate Jigen snapped.

'Oh, it don't take much to figure it… You're one of those bleedin' Americans, though…' the librarian continued. 'You've got a thick Yankee accent…'

'Your point?' Jigen snapped.

'Okay, okay, guys, could we just get along, please?' Lupin begged, stepping in between the librarian and Jigen.

'Hey, remember who saved your ass in the war!' snapped Jigen. 'I can't wait until your entire bigoted generation just drops dead! Sometimes I think I should lend a hand, you know that?'

'Your books are due on the twentieth. Have a lovely evening, gentlemen,' the librarian placed the final book on a large checked-out stack and smiled at the two with folded hands.

'You, too,' said Lupin, quickly taking the books in one hand and tugged Jigen in the other.

'You better hope to God I don't see you on a street corner somewhere,' Jigen warned as Lupin pulled him out by the jacket.

Several hours passed by, and Goemon never strayed the spot that Jigen and Lupin had left him in. It was evening now, and near closing time. The librarian rose from his seat and spoke to Goemon as he began to shut off the lights, 'Closing time, you know… Hey!... We're closing… Do you understand what I'm saying to you, Mate?'

'…Yes,' Goemon nodded, closing the book and rising from his seat. 'Have a good night…'

'You know, I'm quite disappointed,' said the librarian just before Goemon had reached the doors. 'I would've thought Ishikawa Goemon would have fought to stay, if he had wanted it badly enough…'

'You know me?' Goemon blinked a few times, and felt for his sword, and cursed quietly as he remembered he had left it at the hotel.

''Course I do… Brave samurai warrior… Been a bit of a recluse recently though, ay, Goemon?' the librarian gave a small smirk and began to wheel a cart over to the 0000 section of the library. 'What's your story, neh? Papers said you was attacked by Tomo Otomo… Mean bastard, ain't he?'

'I must go,' Goemon said quickly, bolting for the door.

'Wait!' called the librarian. 'I want to help you.'

'How… Could you… Help me?' Goemon inquired in his broken English.

'I may not look like it, but I was a damn good fighter in my time… Me wife and I were both the best in our own right…' the librarian explained. 'I think I could've even gone up against your father at one point… I was a much younger man then, but I could still put up a good fight if given the opportunity.'

'What could you teach me?' asked Goemon, closing the door and taking a few steps toward the librarian, whom he had suddenly found a newfound interest in.

'How to make sure you don't end up as Tomo's bitch dog for another time…' replied the librarian. 'That's what you want, ain't it? To see Tomo die?'

'Yes,' Goemon nodded, 'more than air itself.'

'Then I'll teach you… But on several conditions… First off, I'm not teaching you in Japanese. If you want to learn, you'll learn the language here. And don't go saying snide things behind my back, I'm fluent in your dialect, as well.'

'All right. I try,' Goemon nodded. 'And?'

'Well, I'm not free—I need help with the books,' the librarian continued. 'You'll help me here.'

'Books. Yes. And?'

'You don't tell neither of your friends about this.'

'Why?'

The librarian smiled and held his head up, 'Because I'm an outstanding racist, and I hate Frogs and Yanks.'

Goemon blinked a few times, not registering the words 'outstanding', 'racist', 'Frogs' or 'Yanks'. He got the feeling, though, that this teacher didn't like Jigen or Lupin. He just didn't understand why. 'What your name?'

'My name is Dorian Alexis,' Dorian responded, cleared his throat and added. 'My parents didn't care all that much for me, I have the feeling. If they had they wouldn't have stuck me with such a damn priss name.'

Goemon chuckled at this and added, 'Thank you, Ar—'

'Dorian. I know that you're not familiar with an 'x' sound so I'll save you the trouble for that now…'

'Doleean?'

'Do-ree-an.'

'And I am Go-eh-mon… Not Goi-ah-man, round eye,' Goemon replied.

'Round eye, eh? Think you're the funny little bastard… Well, I'll see you tomorrow when I open. Wear something comfortable, like a gi.'

'Now I not wear those.'

'Then find a nice coordinating jumpsuit… Something pretty or whatnot… Now get the hell out of here, I need to close… I've got a family to go home to, you know…' Dorian waved Goemon off, and the samurai turned away and exited the library.

He looked about cautiously as he exited, not realizing how very dark it had become. The dark frightened him more now… He felt as though Tomo could be behind any corner, waiting to strike and attack him once again. He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned about wide-eyed.

'He really did scare the fire out of you, didn't he?' Dorian, now in a long black overcoat and gloves, said to Goemon. 'I figured you'd need a ride home… Don't worry, everyone who crosses paths with Tomo has the same reaction… You shouldn't though… You ain't everyone, chum.'

'He…'

'Enough of that… Come on, tell me where your home is…' Dorian walked to his small car, and looked up at Goemon, who faltered when he reached for the door handle. 'You don't trust me, do you? Well, I can't exactly blame you… But if I had wanted to kill you I could've a long time ago. Now get in.'

Goemon grabbed onto the handle and opened the door, and seated himself in the small vehicle next to Dorian. The librarian drove him to his hotel, and watched Goemon to the door.

'Poor bastard,' Dorian muttered as he drove off. 'Looks just like her…'

"Goemon, were the hell were you? We were starting to get worried," Lupin admitted as the samurai walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Jigen, I need you to teach me English," Goemon walked up to the gunman, who was spread out on the couch of the hotel room. "As quickly as possible, too!"

"Ummm…. Okay… This naturally leads me to wonder what exactly happened to you…." said Lupin, blinking a few times in surprise.

"That doesn't matter—I have my reasons," replied Goemon. "Well, Jigen?"

"That's easier said than done, Goemon… I wouldn't even know where to start, honestly!" Jigen admitted as he sat up on the couch.

"Here, you can use these for a reference," Goemon handed him a stack of teaching material from a corner table he usually studied in the evenings.

Jigen cracked open one of the books and began to laugh, "Ohhhh wow… If you only had half an idea how friggin' outdated this crap is!" He looked above the brim of his fedora and sighed; as desperate as his friend looked, it was hard to turn him down. "Well, okay, Goemon, I'll teach you… At least I'll try to."

"You guys have fun," said Lupin, waving off the two. "Study groups, eh, not my scene…" Lupin walked into his bedroom, making sure the door was locked behind him. He then went to his laptop and removed a picture from his jacket pocket.

"A supposedly dead prize-fighter ends up in a British library… This I don't see everyday…" Lupin admitted as he removed his reading glasses from their case and studied the photo of Dorian. He then turned back to the computer and began to type away, looking for any and all information on the mysteriously resurrected man.

That following afternoon at the library:

'So you've got the Yankee teaching you English now… I suppose it's better than nothing….' Dorian said in a mutter while Goemon concentrated upon placing a stack of books on a cart and wheeling them into the reference section. He sneezed while he did this; the books he transported hadn't been touched in ages. The road to enlightenment was a dusty one, and was killing Goemon's allergies.

Dorian walked back over to his front desk and went to checking out books for a regular patron.

'Dor, who's that mean-looking one over there?' asked a man about Dorian's age.

'The Oriental? He's new here, and he's the best damn help I've got currently,' Dorian answered. 'Here you go, Mark… Due the twenty-third…'

'Thanks,' Dorian's patron looked back at Goemon once more, and then made a quick exit.

'Well, I say we close up shop for now… It's a slow day,' said Dorian as he approached Goemon. 'You've got two minutes to get to my car, make sure you've got your sword on you.'

Goemon nodded and was, as usual, quick and quiet to make an exit. Dorian gave a semi-amused smile and slowly sauntered out behind the samurai.

He drove to a small gym, and began to pull out a bag from his trunk as Goemon simply looked upward at the building. Dorian walked into the gym, switching on the lights, and disappeared for a time, only to return in a jujitsu uniform.

'You know what your problem is with your fighting style, Goemon? You won't compromise your beliefs in order to save yourself. You think that the bad guy'll play by the same rules of honor… But they don't always. It's not cowboys and Indians… You have to learn defense, too. I know it's in you, but… Well, we'll try to pull it out.'

'I am not naïve,' said Goemon with a snap as he picked up a bokken sword and watched Dorian circle him. He lunged for the British man, only to see Dorian block with his own wooden sword then take Goemon by the wrist and flip him onto the mat.

'You also think that because I'm old I can't kick your arse,' Dorian continued as he looked downward at Goemon, who was looking back up at him from the mat. 'Your respect for the old is only pity under a clever guise.'

After numerous hours of training, Dorian drove his tired pupil home, passing Goemon a tissue to wipe away the blood from his nose while he nursed his own busted lip.

'Same time tomorrow?' Dorian asked as Goemon stumbled out of his car.

'Mm,' Goemon nodded and muttered, and then worked on walking up the numerous flights of stairs to his hotel room.

"That man's a sadist…" Goemon muttered before he opened to door to their hotel room and worked his way to the couch.

"So, Yumiko Readman, how's the bookworm gig working out for you?" asked Lupin with a chuckle from his spot at the table in the corner.

"I need a long nap," Goemon admitted.

"Who would've thought the Dewey Decimal system would take so much out of a man?" Lupin smiled knowingly; he wasn't stupid, he knew exactly what Goemon and the librarian were up to.

"Hey, I figured out a system that would work for us," Jigen announced in his usual gruff voice as he met Goemon in the living room of their hotel room. "You ready?"

"Yes," the samurai nodded and rose, limping slightly as he walked to the room he shared with Jigen and Lupin.

"I'll see you guys later, I've got some work to do," Lupin smiled at the duo as he put on his red jacket, and exited, picking up a briefcase along the way. "Don't expect me home tonight."

"I'm almost afraid to ask what kind of work you'll be doing…" said Jigen with a frown, followed by a shudder. "Okay, just don't come home with whatever you pick up. The last thing I want to see when I stumble out in a drunken stupor is you and an old hooker…"

"That was once, Jigen! And she looked a lot better when I was smashed!" Lupin snapped, and opened the hotel door, and had soon left the two alone in the hotel room.

"I'm sure she didn't look fifty when you were drunk, either." Lupin gave an unamused sneer, and exited the hotel room in a huff.

"Damn, you're walking like an old man, Goemon!" Jigen laughed lightly as Goemon followed him into their bedroom. "Here, sit down on the bed. I know you hate anything that isn't a straw mat, but I think you need it. What kind of books does that guy have you lifting, anyway?"

"Encyclopedias," Goemon replied. "So what's first on the list?"

"I figured we'd start simple," Jigen answered, seating himself next to Goemon and opening a book in between them. "We'll start on verbs later… I never realized what a rough language this really was until you asked me to teach you."

Goemon gave a small laugh and looked down at the foreign words upon the paper. Jigen began to speak to him, but Goemon drowned this out. His thoughts were trailing off once again as they usually did nowadays. Even when he meditated his thoughts would always travel back to the memories of that night. He had felt out of power for the first time in his life; it was a feeling he didn't like. Helplessness frightened him.

Ever since then it had been hard to feel the same sort of power over life he had once felt. He then looked over to Jigen and frowned; how Jigen managed to be all right with being so passive in comparison to him annoyed Goemon. How could he just sit there and go along with what so many people said? He followed all of the Lupin's directions, like a pathetic puppy. Ishikawa wondered what else Jigen would let someone get away with.

Jigen was passive, and that annoyed him… No, it did more than that; it infuriated him.

"Hey, are you listening?" Jigen turned to Goemon, and about that time Goemon realized that he had been staring at Jigen during this entire time. Goemon placed a hand on Jigen's wrist and then took his other hand and threw fiercely him down onto the bed, all while Jigen remained too stunned by this to fight his samurai friend right away.

"G-Goemon! What the hell?" Jigen shouted as he tried to pull up, but was unable to as Goemon laid a knee upon Jigen's stomach. Not enough to hurt him, just enough to subdue him. "Get off of me! What are you doing!" Jigen continued in an angry rant.

"Just shut up," said Goemon quietly, tightening his grip upon the gunman. "Just… Shut up and it'll be all right… I promise…"