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Chapter 6: Twenty Questions
(A.N) Sorry updating took so long! My schedual has been so hectic with school and debate that I haven't really had that much writing time! So here it is! Chapter 6!
Ryuhou's P.O.V...
The investigative squad was everywhere, picking and prodding trying to find a clue to who our intruder was. I already knew because of one thing.
The ice.
It was everywhere. The shards that used to be the door to Zigmar's office were ice, and there were small patches on the floor and walls of the corridors... and on one other place.
Out the window of the tenth floor, it formed a slick chute to the ground. Some of the searchers found blood at the bottom, leading them to believe that the intruder couldn't control their descent and had hit the ground hard. Very hard. Hard enough, that maybe they were too injured to make a full escape. So, teams were organized to comb through the alleys and side streets for and injured individual. An individual that, the "witnesses" say, was either a woman (or a young boy) with dark hair.
I know now that it had been Mimori who had broken in and stolen the files.
I hadn't actually thought she would do something. I mean, really, Mimori had always been more of a diplomat, not an action-taker. She had always placed more value on persuasive words and logical thinking than action. At least, she had before all this had happened.
I volunteered my team to do the ground searching so that I could find her myself. I knew it had been her, and I knew where she would go to hide.
Assigning Sheris and the others to the south, I headed for the main streets. She would head for a small hotel near a drug store to patch herself up. Mimori, regardless of anything else, was a doctor first and foremost, meaning that she would stop to take care of her wounds properly before she did anything else.
I knew just the place: The Country Inn.
It was next to a generic drug store, and it was the kind of place that didn't ask questions. Despite its homey and respectable name, the Inn was borderline permanent crime center. Drugs, theft, prostitution, and harboring a criminal could all be attributed to the place, and I was loathe to go, but...
I walked into the dingy front office, doing my best to ignore the thick smoke cloud that hung over my head. Disgusting habit.
Knocking on the greasy, wooden front counter, I described Mimori to the innkeeper. The little man bowed his oily head vigorously, obviously sucking up to authority, and said she was in room 21. I asked if she had been here long, and her replied that the "young lady looked pretty hurt" and "unable to move all that much". He pointed the way to the room.
I turned my back on him when he finished, quickly moving in the direction he had indicated. Seconds later, I found myself in front of the dinged up door. Deciding it would be better not to knock and alert her; I knelt down and pulled a slim tool from my pocket. Picking the lock wouldn't take to long.
Lock picking is one the more...deplorable things... I had learned as a field officer of HOLY.
The shoddy lock gave almost instantly.
Shoving the door open I stormed into the room, ready to catch her if she fled.
Wait a minute...
There's no one here.
The room was empty except for the cheap, stained furniture. What the fuck? I am going to kill that lying piece of- Wait!
A bag sat on the floor with the name of the neighboring convenience store across the plastic. I closed my eyes and listened intently, just now realizing that the sound of running water and small taps were issuing from behind the closed door in a shadowing corner of the room.
The bathroom. Of course.
I crept up to the door and continued listening. It sounded like she only had the sink faucet running. A quiet gasp of pain sounded from inside, then the sounds of a pair of scissors snipping away.
I pushed the door open and found Mimori sitting on the sink counter wrapping white gauze around her left calf. Bandages already covered her shoulder and right forearm.
She jumped as I entered, dropping the scissors into the sink and almost falling off the counter. Catching herself just in time, she glared at me and then continued on to another wound. She tied up what appeared to be a new tee-shirt away from her stomach and began to inspect the myriad of scratches across her abdomen. "Here to take me in, officer?" she asked, sarcastically innocent. She seized a bottle of cleaning alcohol and poured it on an already bloodstained washcloth, then pressed the cloth against the scratches.
Mimori hissed in pain.
"Hardly. What the hell were you thinking?" I had to restrain myself from yelling...and from taking the bandages away from her so I could fix her myself.
"That I was tired of being second-guessed. That I was sick of being patted on the head and asked if I needed to lie down," she growled back.
"...Who told you that?"
"Well, no one," she said.
"But then-
"That's not the point, Ryuhou!" she yelled quickly, cutting me off. I almost smiled. The thought of patting Mimori on the head like a puppy was slightly amusing.
"So you broke into HOLY, stole confidential files, ran for it...and then jumped out the tenth story window?" I inquired. Mimori was smarter than that; she could come up with a better escape route.
"It seemed like a good idea at the-ow!-time." She had started cleaning a particularly ugly cut on her forehead. She dabbed at the blood running down her face from the newly broken scab. "Dammit..."
My foot started to tap with pent up energy as she attempted to do everything by herself. Finally, though, I snapped, as she stubbornly tried to clean the scratches on her back where she obviously couldn't reach. I snatched the washcloth from her groping hand and set to it myself, muttering about the inconsistency of female logic. Especially when it came to Mimori and being stubborn.
Mimori stiffened in surprise while I worked. I finished cleaning the scratches and then began to wrap gauze around her waist. When I was done, I moved away and leaned against the wall, crossing my arms.
"Thank you," she said softly. She began to roll the blue shirt down.
I blushed slightly, as only she could get me to do ever since we had been children. Clearing my throat awkwardly, I asked, "I assume you found what you wanted in Zigmar's office?"
"Yes, actually, I did. He labels everything very well, your commander." Her words were back to being snide and sarcastic. She pulled a disc from her pocket and handed it to me. "It's all on there. However, I would advise you use a computer other than the ones at HOLY. The codes maybe recognized by a tracking program. It would be best to use a machine not part of the HOLD network at all."
"And where do you propose I find such a machine?" All the computers in the city were hooked up into the HOLD program since they all used the HOLD satellite for Internet connections.
"...Mine isn't hooked up to their systems," Mimori responded slowly, as if sure I would reject the idea.
Contrary to her beliefs, however, I didn't think it was a bad idea. "Fine. Where is it?"
Another pause. "At my aunt's house."
"Where's your aunt's house?"
"Far away."
This was getting irritating. "Where 'far away'?"
"Outside the city."
This was getting very irritating. "Where outside the city, Mimori?"
"On a cliff above the Alter Forest."
"There are about twenty of those, Mimori!" I growled out through clenched teeth. "Just tell me!"
"...I can't."
"WHY NOT!" I finally exploded. This was annoying. I hate playing Twenty Questions.
"But I could show you. It's not exactly a place I can give exact directions to," she explained reasonably.
"Fine. Let's go." I wanted this cleared up now. If she had proof of her claims, then that would make a conversation with Zigmar easier. I also wanted to make sure she hadn't completely lost her mind.
She looked at me for a long while, eyes searching my face. Searching for my intentions? Maybe. But I would be damned before I asked her what she was thinking. I was not going to act like I was interested in her feelings, giving myself away by helping her with the bandaging had been enough. Mimori was the only one who could make me want to do things like that anymore.
She finally replied. "Okay."
(A.N) I know! It was short! But, like I already said, no time for writing! Also, if there are more mistakes in here than usual, I apologize! I ran spell check, but I don't have any time to do much else! Sorry! Please reveiw anyway!