Author's Note:
I'm really, really proud of this chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
The following characters belong to Gonzo.
. . .
Wanting to get some fresh air, Kagura suggested they go do some window-shopping; at least, that's what she called it. Saiga discovered she really meant hauling him into stores and batting her lashes at him enough until he bought things for her. There wasn't much she wanted: mainly things for Saiga.
To her delight, they found a small perfume store.
"You want perfume?" Saiga asked, mentally calculating how much it was going to cost him.
"No, this is for you!" She beamed. "You smelled so good last time, so I'm curious what other kinds of stuff you could wear."
He scratched his jaw. "Um, Kagura…"
She picked up a dark blue bottle. "Mmm! This is good. Smell it!"
He whiffed it and shook his head. This process was repeated several times until he finally gave in and bought the least expensive one. Kagura was elated.
"Can you wear this all the time? It's so perfect."
"Yeah, sure."
She pulled him outside and unwrapped the cologne. "Here."
He sighed and raised the bottle to his neck.
And then he saw him.
Tsujido had his black-capped nose to the air, getting closer and closer to his targets. He froze in the street and stared dead at them. Saiga instantly reached for his camera, and Tsujido reached into his shirt for his shoulder holster. Kagura clutched Saiga's arm and buried her face in his coat.
A crowd of people began to filter around them. Tsujido pushed through them, snarling. One of the tourists in the crowd snapped a picture, and the flash gave Saiga an idea.
"Hey, everyone!" He screamed. "Isn't that Suitengu's assistant in the blue suit? I bet he's loaded with cash!"
"Grab him!" Kagura joined.
"No!" Tsujido exclaimed. "Get off me!"
As the people swarmed around him, Saiga grasped Kagura's hand and bolted down the sidewalk.
"Saiga!" She cried. "How did they find us so quickly?"
He ducked into a corner supermarket and pulled her to the back so they could catch their breath. He looked around him wildly.
"How do you hide from a guy who can smell you?" He questioned. In his fist, he still clutched the cologne. "Wait! That's it!"
Saiga tugged Kagura through the store, stopped in front of a shelf and gave her a big tub of bleach. He took three for himself and fished a bill from his pocket. He shoved it at the cashier and shouted over his shoulder, "Keep it!"
. . .
Tsujido yanked his gun from his holster and fired a round into the air. "Get back!"
The people scattered, screaming. He waved the gun around the circle, making sure they didn't come back. Dialing his cell phone, he took off after Kagura's scent.
"Search the stores on Main Street. He's around here somewhere, but there are too many smells for me to pinpoint his location." Tsujido ordered Makabe.
He stalked the street, creeping into the back alley where the scent was the strongest. He rounded a corner and found Kagura with her back to him, camera in hand. Swinging the gun to the rooftops and behind him, he searched for a trap.
"Goddess," Tsujido called. "It's time to come home."
Kagura looked over her shoulder and watched, terrified, as Tsujido walked towards her with his gun pointed at her toes.
"Where's that slum photographer friend of yours, Goddess?"
She scampered to the shadows at her left.
"Damn it!" He ran after her. A splash of bleach slapped him in the face as he came around the building. He reeled—blinded by the pungent cleaner and darkness of the alley. "Goddess…" he sputtered. "Come out, and I'll let Saiga go free. We won't even bother looking for him. I promise."
Another wave of bleach hit him. He cried out in pain. His nose was next to useless now. A towel flew from the darkness and blanketed his head. Before he could yank it off, Saiga pounced on him, wrenching his arm behind his back and forcing him to drop his gun. Saiga deftly wound a cord around his wrists.
Kagura watched in horror as he slammed Tsujido against the car. It had only been a few paces away from the supermarket, and they drove it into the alley behind the shop, waiting for Tsujido to come looking for them.
Saiga searched his pockets and took another gun, knife and cell phone; then, tucking the bleach-soaked towel into Tsujido's collar to make sure it didn't come off his head, he pushed him into the back of the car.
"Let's go," Saiga growled at Kagura.
. . .
Tsujido finally twisted around enough in the back of the car that the towel slipped from his head. Kagura watched him fearfully. He glared back.
"Where are you taking me?" He kicked the back of Saiga's seat.
Saiga ignored him.
A clipped, electronic chirp sounded from Tsujido's cell. Saiga glanced in the rearview mirror at his captive. He pulled off the road and flipped open the phone, holding it to Tsujido's face.
"Say 'hello.'" Saiga held his camera to his eye. "Or I'll blow your fucking arm off."
"Hello," Tsujido mumbled grudgingly.
Saiga pressed the phone to his ear.
"Boss, we searched the entire street. He ain't nowhere near here. He's probably long gone."
Saiga held the phone in front of Tsujido. "Say 'keep searching and don't leave the street until I tell you to.'"
Tsujido seethed. "Keep searching and don't leave the street until I tell you to."
Saiga flipped the cell closed and pulled the car back into the lane.
Kagura shuddered. "Where are we taking him, Saiga?"
He reached for her hand and squeezed it once.
. . .
Saiga pulled off the road when they came to a patch of forest. He parked the car and dragged Tsujido out of the back. Kagura followed him timidly as he hauled Tsujido back into the woods and propped him against a tree, pointing his own gun at his forehead.
Kagura gasped.
"Goddess…" Tsujido crooned. "Fear doesn't suit you."
Saiga kicked him savagely. "Her name is Kagura, asshole."
"I know guys like you, photographer." He snarled. "You're just like us—same desires, same fears. You just have a different way of fulfilling your fantasies."
"That's a lie! I am nothing like you." Saiga countered.
"You're pathetic. Did you know sweat glands serve different purposes? You don't sweat out of all your pores at once. They're very specific, and they produce very different smells. Pores for heat, for anxiety, for sex, for desire. I know what you sweat for, Saiga. I know you—"
Saiga kicked him again. Tsujido gave a wheezy chuckle.
"Shut up! Why are you still following us? What could you possibly want with her now?"
"Mr. Suitengu is only concerned for his bride." He flashed a toothy grin at Kagura. "And he's anxious to have his honey moon, unless, of course, you've already robbed him of that, too."
"I swear to God I'll shoot your arm off if you get out of line one more time."
"You're killing her, you know." Tsujido leaned forward.
Saiga's poised arm dropped slowly to his side.
"We have a cure for her condition. We only have a few assignments left for her, and then we'll cure her. But with you taking off with her, we can't do that, can we?"
"He's lying!" Kagura exclaimed. "Why would they have a cure? They would just kill me when they're done with me."
"What a waste," Tsujido said.
"What about my mother?" Kagura sobbed. "You used her and killed her! Saiga, don't believe him, please."
"I don't." He muttered.
"Then you're a fool. The farther you take her away from Tokyo, the farther away she is from getting a cure, and the faster you'll kill her."
Saiga raised the gun to Tsujido's forehead again. "That's enough. I'm done with you unless you have something useful to say."
"Wait!" Kagura grabbed Saiga's arm. "Don't kill him."
"He deserves to die."
"How can you be the judge of that? How can anyone be the judge of that?" Her eyes brimmed with tears.
Tsujido began laughing again. "You perverted fool! You are just as bad as we are! I can practically—"
Saiga kicked him hard enough to knock him unconscious.
. . .
When Tsujido awoke, he was trapped in a dark, stuffy metal box. He heard what sounded like a diesel engine and smelled exhaust fumes. As best as he could, he pounded on the walls.
An hour later, he heard the bus stop, and he kicked the walls until the bewildered driver opened the hatch.
"What the hell?"
Tsujido rolled out of the bus compartment, shielding his eyes from the sun.
. . .
Kagura didn't speak the entire way back to the hotel. They packed their luggage as quickly as they could, checked out early and jumped on the highway. Finally, after Saiga urged her to eat some of the chips they had in the hotel room, she opened her mouth.
"I'm glad you didn't kill him."
Saiga flicked ash from his cigarette. "I don't get your issue, but if it makes you feel better—"
"Much better."
He parked the car on the shoulder and scanned through Tsujido's phone.
"What are you doing?" Kagura whispered.
"Just making a business call," Saiga replied, holding the phone to his ear.
. . .
Suitengu excused himself from the Defense Minister's side and answered his cell in the hallway.
"This had better be important," he said bitterly.
"Oh, it is." Saiga snapped.
Suitengu's eyes widened. "Mr. Saiga. What a pleasant surprise."
"Yeah, I'm sure. I want you to listen carefully to me. Up to this point, every henchman you've sent after me has been thrown off—including your personal lap dog. Why don't you just give up the chase and let us go? We're not doing you any more harm."
"I'm not interested in you, Mr. Saiga. All I want is the Goddess' safe return."
"Bullshit. You want to use her. You can't run the club without her, that's why you want her back. Just forget her! She has nothing to do with your twisted world anymore!"
"She created this 'twisted world,'" Suitengu stated. "She belongs to it, and she always will."
"Over my dead body!"
"I'll be happy to arrange that for you, Mr. Saiga."
"You've been trying; and so far, you've failed every time."
"I'm afraid I'm missing a meeting at the moment, so I'll have to end this conversation. Give my best wishes to my wife, photographer."
"Suitengu!" Saiga shouted.
. . .
"That son of a bitch hung up on me." Saiga stared at the phone in disbelief.
"Now what?" Kagura asked.
"We keep running. Do me a favor and copy down the numbers he's got in his phone. I'll pitch the phone, but I'd like to have access to Suitengu."
Kagura began scribbling the numbers on a napkin. She stopped suddenly.
"Things aren't going to be like they were for the past few days, are they?"
Saiga glanced at her. "What do you mean?"
"I meant mostly…you. You aren't going to be the same. You'll be worried again and ask me about my health and yell when I don't want to tell you." Kagura brushed a tear from her eye. "And we'll just keep running—blind and scared and unhappy."
"Kagura," Saiga sighed. "I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best to make you happy, okay?"
"That's not it. You do make me happy." She reached for his hand. "But nothing I do can possibly make you happy."
He shook his head. "No. You're wrong." He turned to smile at her. "In the last few days, you've me happier than I've been in a really long time."
She returned his smile. "So, I guess as long as we have each other, that's all that matters."
"Yeah," he said distantly. He glimpsed her fingers wrapped in his. "That's all that matters."
. . .
After adjusting to the bright sunlight, Tsujido slammed his fist into the bus driver's temple, making him crumble to the ground. Tsujido rummaged through the luggage, found some cash and a credit card and scouted the area. They were parked at a rest park—complete with payphones and a roadside diner.
He yanked a man from the phone booth. The man considered protesting until he saw Tsujido's face contort into a vicious snarl, then he turned tail and scuttled off to his car. Tsujido swiped the stolen credit card through the machine and dialed Niihari's number.
"Boss!" He answered. "Where the hell are ya? We've been lookin' all day and night for—"
"Shut up and let me talk," Tsujido commanded. "That bastard Saiga kidnapped me. When you called, he forced me to tell you stay put. Then he shoved me into a bus compartment instead of killing me like anyone with a brain would've done."
"Holy fuck! Well, what—"
"I said shut up! I'm at some godforsaken road stop on the Tohoku Expressway. Stop whatever you were doing and get over here now."
"Right away, Sir."
Tsujido hung up and dialed his own number. The dial tone ceased ringing, but no one said anything.
"God damn it, Saiga. I hear the car running." He gripped the phone cord. "You should have killed me when you had the chance. I will find you, and I will personally handle your demise. You will not die swiftly!"
"I took the liberty of calling your boss." Saiga finally said. "He understands what kind of a mess you're in."
"Your days are numbered!" Tsujido raged. "Enjoy them while they last!"
He slammed the phone into its holster and cracked the glass of the phone booth with his fists. Throwing open the door, he screamed threats at the wide-eyed people around him. They instantly shied away. He spotted the diner in the corner of his eye and stormed in its direction.
"I need a pitcher of water and whatever food you have hot—now." He shouted into the diner.
A waitress looked around her, helpless. "If you could just take a seat, I'll be with you in a moment."
"You'll be with me now." Tsujido glared and sat at the bar at the side of the room. Several people jumped out of the way as he did so.
The girl rushed to his side. "We-we have a lovely soup on right now if you'd like to try or—"
"I admire your attempt at normal service under the stressful circumstances," Tsujido said coolly. "But I don't want your spiel. Give me what I asked for immediately, and I'll consider letting you live when my men arrive."
"Your-your men, sir?"
"What did I just say?" He spoke slowly.
"I'll be right back with your water and food, sir." She ran in the opposite direction.
The room was silent except for a young man, sitting with a girl his age at the other end of the bar. He coughed as quietly as he dared. Tsujido stuck them both with his gaze.
"I'm feeling a bit bored, so I'll entertain myself." He stated flatly. "You," he nodded to the girl, "Does your boyfriend know you've been sleeping with another man?"
"I don't even know you!" She stammered.
"I can smell him all over you. His sweat smells fresh, so I assume you had sex with him in the last day or so."
"That's… that's not true."
"Oh, you're right. I'm sorry." Tsujido rubbed the cap over his nose. "That's three other men you've been sleeping with."
She gasped and flew off her chair, hurrying out the door. The young man simply gaped after her. Tsujido huffed.
"That was easy."
. . .
Author's Note:
I'm waiting for the day when I can threaten somebody with "I'll shoot your fucking arm off!" But I don't think that's going to happen.