Chapter Five
Gin and the woman exchanged a look for a long moment, their eyes boring into each other's. Each seemed equally defiant, but at last Gin broke the silence. "What happened to you?" he demanded coldly. He could not tell whether she had been shot or stabbed, as long as her hand was over the wound, but he had the feeling that he knew who was responsible.
She glared at him, not wanting to answer. "Why are you here?" she retorted, and then noticed the child in Vodka's arms. Her eyes widened and she let out a soft exclamation of shock and alarm. "Oh no," she whispered. "He really did it, didn't he. . . ."
Gin moved forward, holding his gun at her throat. "Who's 'he'?" he growled in a dangerous voice. "Ling Hi Sou . . . or should I say . . . Ling Ushio?" His emerald eyes flashed furiously, taking in her second expression of consternation. He knew he was on the right track. Ling was somehow related to Yusuke, though Gin was not certain of the exact relationship.
She frowned. "I don't have to tell you anything," she hissed. "I'm going to die now anyway." She indicated the blood pooling around her on the floor. She had lost too much of the life substance to stay among the living.
Gin made a sound of disgust. "So you're going to die pointlessly, making a waste of whatever life you've had. I couldn't care less. But before you depart, I want to know what Ling did to that girl, and how to stop it from killing her!" He pointed at Ayumi's semi-conscious form. "Do you want her to die, too? Do you?" As he spoke, he never raised his voice, instead speaking in a dark, frosty, and deadly tone that had often struck fear into the hearts of those who came into contact with him.
"Do you?" the woman retorted sharply. "What is she to you? I know Ling thinks she means something to you, but I can't believe that. You're nothing but an assassin. You're trained to be heartless, and you succeed every day. What does one little girl's life mean to someone like you?" Her eyes flashed again, with something akin to hatred, but it was not directed at Gin.
The blonde continued to hold the gun on her throat, not caring who her feelings of loathing were for. "It's none of your business," he said now. "Just tell me where the antidote is! She's going to die unless it's given to her in less than an hour!" He had the feeling that this woman did not want Ayumi to die, judging from her reaction when she had seen Vodka holding the little girl. But he also did not know if she would overcome her stubbornness long enough to tell him anything useful. It seemed that she did not want to betray Ling.
She looked at him sullenly. "Ling has it," she said at last, and looked away.
"And where is he?" Gin demanded.
While Gin was trying to interrogate the obstinate female, Vodka had wandered off into another part of the apartment. Finding the bathroom, he balanced Ayumi with one arm while opening the medicine cabinet. He did not actually think it was possible, but he had decided that he should check to see if the antidote could be somewhere in the apartment. Pushing aside various bottles of pills, he searched through all the contents until he had determined that neither the poison or the antidote was there. He recognized all the labels, and when he shook the containers, he was certain that they each held exactly what they claimed to. Frustrated, he investigated the other cupboards and cabinets as well, but did not come up with anything.
"What's Gin-sama doing?" Ayumi asked softly. She was watching Vodka through bleary eyes, and she was not certain what he was doing either, but she hoped that he was looking for something that would help her feel better. She did not know how much longer she could stand the immense feeling of sickness that was wafting over her. She just wanted it all to be over.
Vodka glanced at her. "He's trying to get that woman to tell him how to help you," he answered finally as he closed the last cupboard door and walked out of the bathroom.
"Oh. . . ." Ayumi's eyes drooped further shut as she listened to the gentle beating of Vodka's heart. The rhythmic tones would be enough to put her to sleep, especially when she was already halfway there, but she wanted to stay awake. "Vodka-san," she said after a brief moment, "you didn't hurt me, did you?" Memories were swirling through her mind now, and vaguely she recalled that someone had been cruel to her earlier that day, but she did not see how it could have been Vodka. He was being kind to her. He always had been, even though he did not often know how to talk to her.
He blinked in surprise. "No," he admitted firmly, stepping over the fallen furniture to reach the kitchen.
She smiled weakly. "I knew you wouldn't have," she said then.
He opened his mouth to reply to this, but then could not think of anything to say. Before he could come up with something, he ran into Gin as the blonde was coming out of the bedroom. Gin grunted in annoyance, and Vodka flushed in embarrassment that he had not been watching where he was going.
"Sorry, bro," he apologized sheepishly. "Did that woman tell you anything?"
Gin narrowed his eyes. "She just repeated what she'd said about Ling having the antidote. But then she said something strange." He replaced his gun in its holster as he walked past Vodka into the living room. "She said that even if we found the image of Ling, it wouldn't do any good unless we found the real one too. Then she keeled over and died." Irritated, he stepped over the couch and shoved a chair out of his way.
Vodka gawked at him. "But . . . that doesn't even make sense!" he protested.
"It's obviously a riddle," Gin answered darkly, and started to kick several pictures frames out of his way. As he looked down at them, his eyes widened. Image of Ling. . . . Quickly he knelt down and began picking up the pictures. One of the girl, one of her and Ling together, one of some other people. . . . He growled in annoyance. Surely there was a photograph there of Ling by himself!
Vodka was still staring, not knowing what to make of this at all. "Bro . . . what are you doing!" he gasped.
"Don't ask questions!" Gin snapped. "Just look for a picture of that traitor!" He began moving the furniture aside, looking underneath it and behind it. After another moment of confusion, Vodka gently laid Ayumi down on a loveseat that was right-side up and began to help the other.
They turned the living room into even more of a war zone than it had been originally, as they did not bother to fix whatever they shoved out of their way in their search. At last Vodka found a framed picture of Ling that had gotten wedged between a fallen drape and the second couch. He held it out and Gin snatched it, then began to dismantle it. He slid the backing out of the frame, followed by a piece of cardboard, and ended up with a crinkled piece of paper. Frowning, he turned it over and began to read. Vodka stood to the side to read it as well.
If you're reading this, you figured out the first part of the riddle, not to mention
Ling's involvement in what's happened. He isn't ashamed to admit it. Now I'll tell you
what you need to know. The girl will need two injections of the antidote in order
to completely recover. The first must be administered within eight hours time from
the original poisoning. It's in the kitchen, in the cookie jar. Then you'll have to find
the real Ling to get the second vial. I don't even know where he is right now, but he
told me to give you this riddle: "You already know where I am. I just hope the war doesn't
start without you. I'd hate to meet my Waterloo without getting to see you again first!
Bon voyage!" And may I add, good luck.
Gin glowered at the note, which was apparently from the woman. Then he stuffed it into his pocket, knowing that he would have to refer to it again to decipher the riddle. Muttering to himself, he went into the kitchen and quickly found the cookie jar on the table. Lifting the lid, he reached in and pulled out a small bottle and a fresh hypodermic needle. It was just as the instructions had described. He could only hope that this truly was part of the antidote and not a further scheme to torment the poor child.
Vodka watched as Gin came back in and sat down on the loveseat. After filling the needle with the substance from the container, Gin carefully raised Ayumi's arm and stuck the needle into it, trying to be as gentle as he could. She jerked, whimpering in pain, and Gin grunted in reply. He set the items aside on a table, then reached out and lifted her mostly limp body closer to him. She snuggled close, relaxing, and Gin looked down at her expressionlessly.
Slowly Vodka came and sat on the loveseat next to his comrade. "What do we do now, bro?" he asked. "I know we need to figure out that other riddle. . . ."
"That's our main priority now," Gin answered, "for more reasons than one." Not only did he want to save Ayumi's life, but he wanted to make sure that Ling paid for what he had done. He did not take kindly to being played for a fool, nor for someone to try to get him at odds with his partner. He wondered if Ling had actually thought that it would work and that they would end up killing each other. If Ling had believed that, then he had very little faith in their intelligence. Unless he had been planning, or was still planning, to do more with that angle. Gin would not be surprised at all about that.
Vodka swallowed, trying to remember the exact phrasing of the note. "Well . . . it said something about a war," he remembered. "He made it sound like there's other people he's been fighting against, or something, and that they're all going to gang up on him and his friends."
Gin took the crumpled paper out of his pocket and smoothed it in his hands. "And he doesn't want to 'meet his Waterloo' before we have a confrontation," he mused. "He doesn't want to be defeated by someone else? That phrase usually refers to a painful defeat." He frowned. "And then it ends by saying 'Bon voyage', a term used as a farewell when someone is taking a trip on a ship."
"He's probably taunting us," Vodka said in annoyance. "He's probably saying that we're gonna go on a voyage, to the afterlife!" He clenched a fist angrily.
"Maybe," Gin mused, "but it's supposed to be a riddle. It could have the surface meaning as well as something else." He leaned back against the loveseat, studying the ceiling as he tried to fit the pieces together.
Suddenly he felt the gentle movement of the child in his arms, and when he glanced down, she had a handful of his blonde hair and was stroking it. Giggling, she looked up at him and grinned. "Your hair is so pretty, Gin-sama! I've never met anyone else who wears their hair this long, not even ladies!"
Gin grunted. Well, she seemed to be feeling a lot better for the moment. It was an irritation for her to be toying with his hair, but he found himself feeling a certain amount of relief that she was not just laying limply on his lap any longer. He did not like to see her like that, so weakened and helpless, and dependent on him and Vodka to take care of her. Then he narrowed his eyes. Why should it matter to him one way or another? And yet he could not deny that it did.
Ayumi bit her lip now, her expression changing to one of confusion. "Gin-sama, why did Hi Sou-san hurt me?" she asked softly. "I . . . I thought he wanted to help me. He found me in that crate. . . ." She continued to absently run her hand over Gin's hair as she spoke. She was still quite weakened and not up to par, but after the first dose of the antidote she was certainly feeling better than she had been earlier.
"He probably put you there in the first place," Gin retorted. "And he was using you because he wanted to make trouble for me and Vodka. He wanted to make us hate each other, maybe even to kill each other." It was either Ling or one of his conspirators who had pretended to be Vodka, and Gin was starting to think that it was probably Ling himself. That would make sense. Then he could pretend to be some sort of hero by "finding" her while having a meeting with one of his weapons contacts, and telling Gin about it.
She looked from him to Vodka worriedly. "He didn't do that, though, did he, Gin-sama, Vodka-san?" she exclaimed. "He didn't make you hate each other?"
Gin and Vodka exchanged a look, as if to determine the answer themselves before saying anything. Then Gin looked back at Ayumi. "No," he answered. "We don't hate each other." Vodka nodded in agreement.
Ayumi relaxed, smiling in relief. "I'm so glad," she declared.
Gin did not reply. He was thinking again about what Ling had told him when he had called. He had been down at the docks, and Ayumi had been found in a warehouse where weapons were stored. . . . Of course! Weapons were used to fight in wars. The mention of "war" in the note must be a hint that Ling was back where he had stashed Ayumi. "Bon voyage" probably reinforced that. He still was not sure what "Waterloo" was supposed to mean, if anything, but he felt certain that he knew where Ling was waiting. He rose, still holding Ayumi---as he recognized that she was still not well enough to get down and walk by herself.
Vodka watched him, obviously bewildered. "Bro . . . what are you going to do?" he asked.
"We're going to get out of here and find Hi Sou," Gin replied darkly, and then froze when he heard people coming up the stairs out in the hallway. Cursing, he inconspicuously peered out the window and saw several patrol cars below. Either someone had been tracking them, or else one of the other tenants had heard them in the apartment and had called the police because of the disturbance.
Vodka tensed. "How are we going to get out of here?" he gasped. If the police found them, it would be all over. They would not let Ayumi stay with them long enough to get the second part of the antidote. They would probably believe that Gin and Vodka had kidnapped her, in addition to all the other crimes that they were wanted for.
Recalling that there was a balcony off the bedroom, Gin turned and headed back in that direction. Ayumi gasped upon seeing the woman's body on the floor, and she quickly buried her face in the folds of Gin's coat. She did not like the fact that they had to get away from the police, who had been her friends many a time, but she understood some of how it would be for Gin and Vodka if they were caught. And she did not want that, either.
Finding that the sliding glass doors were locked, Gin set Ayumi down and grabbed a nearby chair, throwing it harshly against the glass and causing it to shatter. He shielded the child as sharp material went flying in all directions, and then lifted her up again as he went out to survey the possibility of getting down that way. Vodka followed hesitantly. They were five stories up. How would they ever get down, especially when they had the girl to protect? They often had to pull dangerous stunts, but when Ayumi was with them they could not risk her life any more than it already had been.
Gin leaned over the edge, calculating the distance down to the balcony directly below them. And he got an idea. "I'm going to climb down there," he decided. The lights were not on in that apartment. They might be able to sneak back in through that way and go down in the elevator to the ground floor. But then he growled. There was always the chance that officers had been stationed all along the way to intercept anyone unfamiliar. They could not afford to take the chance. In the long run, it would be safer for them to try a stunt such as this to get down.
Vodka gawked at him. "You're going to climb down there, with the girl?" he cried in astonishment.
Ayumi peered over the edge and swallowed hard, hugging Gin around the neck. She did not like the idea at all. "You might fall," she objected.
"I won't," Gin said flatly. While Ayumi was still holding onto him, he took the cloth belt from his coat and used it to tie the child in place. Then, while Vodka watching in disbelief, the blonde took hold of the railing and climbed over the edge, lowering himself down as far as he could before jumping onto the next balcony. He had decided that they would have to do this all the way down. It was much too risky to enter the building again.
"Are we done yet?" Ayumi asked softly, still not looking up.
"No," Gin told her, watching as Vodka shakily jumped down next to him.
And so they went down the rest of the levels the same way, trying to be as cautious and quiet as they could. When they reached the bottom, Gin noticed that there was a guard in the parking lot. Muttering to himself, he sneaked up behind the person and struck him over the head with his gun, knocking him unconscious. Then he and Vodka hurried to where the Porsche was parked, partially concealed by a van on one side and a bush on the other. Hastily he untied Ayumi before diving into the driver's seat and handing her back to Vodka.
She looked up now, her blue eyes sparkling. "That was actually kinda fun!" she declared, as Gin threw the car into reverse. "Maybe we could do it again sometime!"
Gin grunted, quickly pulling out of the parking lot. "There's no way in Heaven, Earth, or Hell," he muttered.
The tire tracks that Ai had found did not go on for very long before they disappeared on the asphalt road. Conan studied what there was, memorizing the pattern so that he would hopefully know if he saw it again. It was a unique design, and Conan felt sure that he would be able to take notice of it if he saw it again. Still, he was frustrated and wished that there would be some other clues. Surely someone had seen something suspicious!
Ai, who had been talking to one of the neighbors, now came over to him. "The woman next door says that the owners of this house are away for the week," she reported. "And she remembers seeing a white Porsche here earlier, but she didn't see any people." Her eyes narrowed at the mention of the car. A Porsche, no matter the color, would forever make her think of Gin. He had always enjoyed classic cars such as that. His mentor had usually had several different kinds on hand, but Gin's preference had been Porsches. After the elderly man had died, under circumstances which Gin had found suspicious, Gin had inherited the car collection.
Conan looked up with a start. "A Porsche?" he repeated in alarm. Apparently that make of car had the same effect on him as it did on Ai.
Ai nodded. "But it was white, so it couldn't have been Gin's," she said. "He wouldn't repaint his car. He likes it black."
Conan frowned. "Still, it seems like too much of a coincidence," he retorted. "We know Ayumi was here, and we know she's had contact with the Black Organization. Now, we find out that there was a Porsche here. Maybe Gin decided that repainting it would make it more inconspicuous."
Ai sighed. "Kudo, I honestly don't think it was him," she replied, and then paused. "Are you sure that you're not so insistent on the idea because you want to find some way to prove to Ayumi that Gin is a horrible person?" She studied his eyes as they flickered with first shock and then disbelief, and she smiled slightly in her wry, amused way. "If Gin kidnapped her, then you wouldn't have to prove anything. He would prove it himself. And then you wouldn't have to worry about Ayumi idolizing a twisted killer."
Conan's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment as he tried to come up with a response. He wanted to say that Ai was wrong, but as her words sunk in, he realized that she was right, at least partially. Conan supposed that in a way, he wanted it to be Gin who had taken Ayumi, for surely then Ayumi would realize that he was not someone to trust. And yet, on the other hand, he did not want it to be Gin because he hated to think what he might do to a sweet and innocent child such as Ayumi.
Ai turned away, knowing that she had made her point. She looked around the darkened streets, and then up at the clear sky filled with stars. There were clouds off in the distance, and it looked as though they would eventually cover the sky.
"Maybe . . . maybe you don't want it to be Gin."
Ai blinked at Conan's voice, but did not speak, waiting for him to continue.
"Maybe you want to believe that he really did protect Ayumi because he wanted to do something kind." Conan came up behind her, following her gaze to the heavens. He was silent for another moment as he gathered his thoughts. "Haibara . . . you loved him, didn't you?" he said quietly. He had never been certain of her past relationship with the assassin, but he had started to suspect, especially after the first time Ayumi had disappeared and then had been returned telling of how Gin had helped her. Ai had since become even more reflective and withdrawn on the subject of the Black Organization, and he had noticed a wistful quality to her eyes when she spoke of Gin, as if she was remembering a much different time in his life.
Now Ai's eyes and mouth opened wide in shock. She could not find words to say, nor did she want to say them. This was still a subject that she did not want to discuss. Her expression dissolved into sadness and she walked forward, putting distance between her and Conan.
Conan sighed, watching her. He supposed that he should not have approached the subject. The words had just suddenly leaped from his mouth, and he felt certain of their truth, even more so when he saw Ai's reaction. He was trying to determine what course of action he should take next when his cell phone rang. Quickly he reached for it and answered. "Hello?"
"Shinichi!" He recognized Dr. Agasa's voice. "Where are you and Haibara right now?"
Conan told him of their location and their discoveries, though he refrained from saying anything about their conversation. That was a private matter.
"Well," Dr. Agasa said, when explanations were finished, "I'm with Genta and Mitsuhiko. We found each other while looking for Ayumi, and they said that they had been going past the Hiragi Apartments when they saw a black Porsche fly out of the parking lot."
Conan gasped, his eyes widening. Then that must have been Gin. Two black Porsches in the city would be ridiculous. "Did they see who was in it?" he asked anyway.
"They couldn't tell, it went by so fast," Dr. Agasa answered apologetically, "but I knew you would want to know about it. They said that it turned toward the coast. It might be headed for the docks." He paused. "And apparently there was an uproar at the apartment complex," he reported. "The police found one of the suites in an uproar, and a woman was dead in the bedroom."
Now Conan was further stunned, and he wondered if Gin had been at work assassinating someone again. "Do they know who owned the apartment?" he wanted to know.
"Let me see . . . I believe it was a . . . Ling Hi Sou," Dr. Agasa said then. "Strange name."
Conan frowned. "That is strange," he agreed. "Can you pick us up, Dr. Agasa? We should get to the docks as soon as possible!" He had to catch the black Porsche. Maybe he would be able to find a clue to Ayumi's whereabouts. Surely Gin was involved in some way, even if he had not done the kidnapping! Conan was certain of it.
"I'm on my way," Dr. Agasa promised as he hung up.
By now Ai had curiously wandered over to Conan again. "What's happening?" she asked quietly, as if their previous conversation had not taken place. She was content to not speak more about it, though she knew that Conan's question would continue to stay with her. "You loved him, didn't you?" She could never forget how much she had loved him, how she had looked up to him, how she had wanted to always be with him. . . . She would always carry the pain of those memories with her.
Conan started and looked over at her. "The black Porsche was seen," he reported grimly. "Gin is around here somewhere." Maybe not in the way we think, but he's here, he added to himself.
The docks were still and dark at night, with the only sounds being that of the waves lapping against the piers. The warehouses looked mysterious and foreboding, especially with the ships, crates, and cranes all casting heavy shadows over them. In the sky, the clouds were beginning to take over, blotting out the stars from view and now aiming toward the hapless moon.
Vodka swallowed hard as Gin parked in front of a random building. He had the eerie sort of feeling that they were walking into a deathtrap, but of course it would not be the first time. In their line of work, it happened almost every day. "What are we going to do with the girl, bro?" he asked hesitantly. On the one hand, it did not seem safe to leave her there. But bringing her along could cause problems too, as it had the last time.
Panicked, Ayumi reached out and grabbed Gin's arm. "Please don't leave me here, all alone!" she begged, tears coming to her eyes. She did not see how she could bear that. It would be far worse than going with them and getting into whatever trouble awaited. She could not stand simply having to wait and worry over what was going on with people whom she held dear.
Gin grunted, looking at her emotionlessly. Then he started to get out of the car. After a moment he reached for her and lifted her out as well. "As before, if we leave her here, our enemies could get her again and use her against us all the more," he muttered in explanation. "And when she's so ill, I'd rather be able to see how she's faring. When we get the antidote, it would be better to give it to her immediately instead of having to fight off Hi Sou's army first." Even knowing that Ling's true last name was Ushio did not make Gin feel like calling him that. Ushio to him was the pedophile. And Ling was something else, just as deadly, but in different ways.
Ayumi smiled weakly, hugging Gin around the neck. He grumbled, but allowed her to do this for a moment.
Slowly Vodka got out of the car, pulling out his gun. "But how will we even know where to look?" he demanded. "They could be at any one of these warehouses, or even on one of the ships!"
"I think I've made a good guess as to where to begin." Gin nodded to the crane nearby. "When that person called earlier and was taunting us both, I could hear a lot of background noises. After we got that riddle, I started to realize that the sounds were like the cranes here at the docks. Whichever warehouse they're at, I decided it must be one with a crane nearby. Those are the ones closest to the water. The cranes lift things from the ships to the warehouses."
Vodka looked at the ominous water nervously as they walked across the dock to the warehouse. He was content to stay as far away from it as he could.
Gin's hunch turned out to be correct. At the second warehouse with a crane that they came to, a figure was standing atop the roof. He could not be recognized at first, but when he spoke Gin knew that it was his latest enemy. His green eyes narrowed in hatred.
"Agent Gin! I was certain you'd find me eventually. But I didn't think Agent Vodka would be with you. You're taking quite a chance, aren't you?" Ling crossed his arms, watching them with amusement and enjoyment. And he noticed Gin was carrying the child. Obviously Gin was hoping to get the other part of the antidote. Well, Ling would give it to him. He had only wanted to get Ayumi hurt to make a rift between Gin and Vodka, and that seemed not to have worked. And in any case, Ayumi was an innocent child. Ling had never planned that she would actually die.
Gin glowered up at him. "Actually, you're the one who took a chance," he snapped. "You should have known better than to try to cause trouble for us. And you dragged the girl into it!" He took several steps forward, furious, and held up his gun.
"I don't deny it," Ling said calmly. "Come up here, all of you. I'll hand over the antidote, but only the girl will be allowed to go free."
"What's your problem?" Vodka cried indignantly. "You must've known what kind of person Ushio was! Why are you blaming us for what happened to him?" He watched Gin find the outside staircase leading to the roof and then quickly followed.
Ling watched them ascend the stairs, his expression changing to one of dark fury that closely matched Gin's. "It wasn't as if he was entirely bad," he retorted. "I was his step-brother, and he always treated me with kindness even when no one else would. But you killed him in cold blood!" He held his own gun on Gin as he arrived at the top, followed closely by Vodka.
"I killed him because he deserved to die," Gin answered coldly, "and because he would've killed me if I hadn't." He held onto Ayumi firmly. "Give me what she needs."
"Of course." Ling drew out another vial and a wrapped needle, and set them both on a crate that was between them. "Lay the girl down there and see that she gets the remedy. Then you and I have business to settle." He studied Gin as the blonde moved forward and set Ayumi on the crate in a sitting position, then stood in front of her to administer the antidote. Vodka stood to the side, covering Gin and regarding Ling with suspicion.
Ayumi looked up at Ling, her blue eyes showing many emotions, but Ling was stunned to see that a form of understanding was one of them. "Hi Sou-san," she said softly, "this was all because you love your brother?" She bit her lip. "I . . . I'm sorry that he had to die, when it makes you sad. It's good that you could see that he wasn't all bad. Gin-sama is that way too." She smiled sadly. "Everyone thinks he's such a horrible person, but I know that he still has a lot of goodness left, too!"
Gin growled. "Don't talk about me to him," he broke in, and pushed the needle into her arm.
Ayumi winced, shuddering, but willed herself to bear the pain in silence this time. She looked back to Ling, who was simply staring at her in disbelief. "What you've done isn't right at all, Hi Sou-san," she said now, "but . . . I can understand that you love your brother."
At last Ling found his voice. "You've got a precocious kid there, Agent Gin," he said in a low tone, "and she seems to be making a plea for me to stop. But I won't." He snapped his fingers, and several of his contacts burst through the inside door to the roof, all bearing guns. "I'm going to finish what I started. Ayumi can go free, but you and Agent Vodka have to die."
Ayumi screamed. "No!" she wailed, and tried to jump down from the crate to run to Ling in order to beg for their lives to be spared. But Gin grabbed her firmly and held her back.
"She'll stay up here if we let her," the blonde remarked. "She has to be sent down before any gun is fired."
A bullet whizzed past, clipping Gin's cheek. Growling, he looked up with murder in his eyes for whoever had pulled the trigger. And before he could determine who it was, gunfire rang out from every direction. He did not have any choice but to shoot back. As he did, he shoved Ayumi to the floor of the roof, where she was hidden behind the crate. "Stay there!" he ordered, dodging a round aimed at him.
Terrified, Ayumi did not have any choice but to obey. She cringed, listening to the sounds of the gunfire all above and around her, and was horrified every time she heard a pained scream, fearing that it was Gin or Vodka. And then she would cautiously peer around the side of the crate, making sure that she could still see Gin's trenchcoat. Once she would see that he was still safe, she would duck behind the box again as more bullets rained down.
Gin growled in frustration, furious that the battle had to take place before Ayumi had gotten off the roof. A stray bullet could easily hit her. But he was trying to shield her by standing in front of the crate. He took down another of Ling's men, and coldly he watched the other plunge backward off the roof to the ground below.
There were still others. On the side of the roof which overlooked the ocean, Vodka was grappling with a strong and fiery man who was at least a foot taller than himself. Each was struggling to get hold of one gun. The other had been lost during the fight, though neither cared as to whose it had been. As Gin watched, the remaining gun went off twice and the bigger man stumbled back. Vodka had landed two bullets to his chest. But he was still unwilling to give up. Furiously he lunged, and the fight for the weapon began again. After a moment there was another shot, but Gin could not tell which one had been wounded.
Vodka's opponent seemed to be on his last leg now, but he was still unwilling to go down---at least, not without Vodka. He lost his balance, and Gin caught sight of blood coming from a shoulder wound that Vodka had sustained before the shorter man was dragged overboard by the other. Then Gin heard a splash as they apparently hit the water.
Cursing, the blonde shot another who was in his way and ran to the edge, staring into the water's depths below. They had both gone under, and neither was coming up. They were probably continuing their mortal combat, since the man Vodka had been fighting had seemed bent on it. Gin could see bubbles rising to the surface. "Darn it, Vodka!" he yelled, though not exactly in those terms. Vodka could not swim. Even if he was able to get free from the other, he would drown.
Seeing that he was preoccupied, Ling lunged for the kill. Ayumi, who was peering out to see what Gin had yelled about, screamed. Gin whirled around, shooting Ling first in one leg, then the other. With a gasp the raven-haired man tumbled off the roof, and Gin heard him cry out as he hit the ground below. When the green-eyed man went to the other side to look over, he could see Ling laying at the bottom, very still.
Assuming that he was dead, Gin pulled off his coat and hat and went back to the other side. As he had thought, neither had come up for air. Cursing once more, he tossed the apparel onto the crate.
Cautiously Ayumi looked out again. "Gin-sama?" she said worriedly. "What are you going to do? What happened to Vodka-san?" Tears filled her eyes. "Is he dead?"
Gin growled. "I honestly couldn't say," he replied, and dove off the side of the roof. After a moment Ayumi heard another splash.
