Author's Notes: Well, here I am again. Updates will still be sporadic as I still have a ton of stuff going on in my life. But I haven't abandoned these little projects.
Just to remind everybody, I started work on this right after Reign Storm. For all intents and purposes, the canon in the series ends there for the sake of this story.
Ronin
Chapter 5: Two Lights by Sea...
Contact Valerie? Valerie Grey of all people! Sweet monkey Jesus, Danny! Tucker hated the idea. Hate, hate, hated it! Valerie may have had good intentions with her ghost hunting, but she was a loose cannon. She didn't understand things as thoroughly as she should, and her truce with Danny Phantom was shaky at best. Was Danny nuts? Then again... Tucker had to wonder why he was asking himself questions to which he already knew the answer.
With trepidation, Tucker found himself in front of the door to Valerie's apartment. At the last second before knocking he pulled out a quarter and flipped it. "Heads." Heads! Hot damn! He didn't have to knock after all! He turned on his heel happily and was about to stride off when the door opened.
"I'll be back later, Dad! Bye!" God, what did I do to make you angry with me? Yeah, that was a good question right about now. "Wha-?" Tucker turned to face Valerie with a nervous smile. "You need something?"
"Kinda..." Was there a tactful way to do this? Probably not. Tucker knew he wasn't the most tactful guy anyway. His specialty was pick-up lines... which... didn't work. But they would eventually... maybe. "I'm sort of playing messenger here," he continued, trying to keep his voice from getting a nervous squeak. "You know the ghost attacks lately?"
Valerie furrowed her brow and frowned. "Yeah. What about them?" Oh god, how he hated when women got that look. Obviously not a subject she wanted to talk about.
"Well, I just got a visit from Danny Phantom the other day and-"
"What?!" Valerie's whole expression changed to one of surprise and confusion.
"He wanted me to give you a message," Tucker tried to explain, but Valerie still had more questions.
"Why did he want you to give me the message?" She seemed to wince when she realized how that came out. Valerie may still have been a little snooty, but she wasn't rude. Never was, really. Tucker had gotten over her a long time ago, but he still wondered if they could have been friends under different circumstances. "No offense. I'm just wandering why he didn't go right to me."
Tucker shrugged. He hadn't thought to come up with an answer for that one. Time to half-ass. "He said something about a truce and not wanting to do something wrong, I don't know. He said you and Danny are friends, but he couldn't find him, so he decided to try another degree of separation."
Valerie wasn't actively questioning Tucker, but he could tell by her face that she was suspicious. "Well... what did he say?"
Tucker took a deep breath and prepared himself. He still didn't know how she'd respond to this. "Well, he thinks he knows where all these weird ghosts are coming from, but he had to leave town to investigate."
"Leave town?!" Valerie spluttered. "Where the hell does he plan on going? China?!"
Tucker felt inclined to give her the point. Judges' verdict? "Japan actually." That took the wind out of her sails. "Anyway, he wants you to hold the fort here while he's gone. He doesn't want these ghosts to know yet that he's not in Amity Park."
"Why?" Valerie asked in a very accusatory tone. "He just wants us to suffer while he runs off?"
"No!" Tucker answered defensively, not just for Danny, but also for himself. Valerie could be very intimidating when she tried. "He said something about figuring out a mystery. The people here have you and the Fentons. Japan, not so much. I mean, what are they supposed to do? Torture the ghosts with Sayonara Pussycat reruns until they're ready to hurl and leave?"
Valerie folded her arms and closed her eyes. She obviously knew Tucker was making sense (amazingly). "I guess this means you know about my secret."
"It's safe with me," Tucker assured her. Tucker still didn't like this idea, but now that he was here standing in front of Valerie having this conversation, he started to believe that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. For some reason, it was a lot easier to be suspicious of Valerie when you weren't looking her right in the eye. After all, Danny had come to trust her as a person, and though he got a little reckless at times he still had a good intuition when he chose to listen to it. Either way, Amity Park needed heroes while Danny Phantom was away. Someone had to step up to the plate.
-x-
"Thanks, Tuck. Remember to check in same time tomorrow." Danny hung up his cell phone and slumped back into the couch. Erika's apartment was a little Spartan, but she compensated by having some really comfortable furniture. It was 2 PM for him and Sam, but for Tucker it was 7 PM yesterday because of the international dateline and his next call would be at 5 PM today, or rather tomorrow, which was... argh, it hurt worse than from ice cream! "We've got our home covered," he muttered to Sam as he rubbed his forehead against the confusion. "Still no new leads."
"About that..." Sam responded. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Danny with her laptop, diligently studying something or other. He was sorely tempted to reach over and run his fingers through her hair. Naturally, he decided to avoid mentioning to her that her roots were turning brown again. Tucker once commented that Sam went through hair dye faster than Gwen Steffani and got a football-sized bruise on his shin for it. "I think there's a couple museums we might be able to check out for some clues."
"Such as...?" Danny hadn't set foot in a museum since his last field trip. It wasn't that he didn't "appreciate culture" as Lancer once put it. Just that there were other things he liked to do. Things like... going to the movies.
"The Museum of Kyoto is the obvious place to start at," Sam answered. "Along with the Kyoto National Museum. They have the most complete exhibits, though I'm not sure if they'll have anything that esoteric."
"Better than nothing. Sitting here is gonna drive me crazy." Danny found himself wondering how guys with ADD were able to sit through class given how antsy he always felt.
"There's also the Japanese Oni Museum and Fukuchiyama Castle," Sam added absently. "More focused. The second one's a long shot, but it's better than nothing. It was a newly established fort in the 1500's... back when Kagyaku was alive."
Danny peered over her shoulder at the screen, the angle screwing up the colors and the contrast for him so that he really had no idea what was looking at. "What time is good for you to go looking?"
"Right now. The Museum of Kyoto will still be open for another few hours." Sam quickly jotted down the address in English and Kanji on a scrap of paper and slipped it into her messenger bag. Danny had gotten it for her not too long ago. A Misfits bag with a big Fiend Skull emblazoned on the front. It gave him one of those sappy warm feelings whenever he saw her using it.
He stood up and stretched out his legs. "Let's get going, then." He opened the door for Sam and let her pass first, since she was the one who knew where they were going. Danny couldn't even get MapQuest to stay accurate for more than a block, so Sam had done all the travel research before they left.
As they were on their way out, Danny noticed Sam acting a little nervous. She kept chewing on her lip lightly, which always meant that something was on her mind. He'd begun to notice these little things about her recently, and it made him feel closer to her somehow. "You okay, Sam?" He tried to use his most unobtrusive voice, as she was hardly the type of person to wear her emotions on her sleeves.
"Hmm?" Sam shook her head as if to clear it, as if she had forgotten for a second that Danny was right next to her. "Oh... I was just thinking..."
"We'll be fine," Danny assured her. "There's nothing I can't handle." He tried to say that being a little cocky and... well, macho. Maybe it would cheer her up, get her to stop being so edgy.
Sam smiled a little and her face flushed lightly. "I know, but it's not that. When I was reading about Kyoto before we came here, I found out that they're having the annual Takigi O-Noh tonight. It's only done on June 1st and 2nd every year. I was hoping... I wanted to go see it... Would you...? I mean..."
Danny had never seen Sam so flustered. He had no idea what the hell a "tack-ee-gee oh no" was, but it was pretty obvious she wanted him to be there for it with her. "What time do we have to be there?"
Sam turned to Danny, a rare genuine smile gracing her painted lips. Nothing like her usual sardonic smirk or smug half-smile. Whatever it was Danny had just agreed to, it had really made her day. He just smiled back and took her hand in his.
-x-
Valerie leaned back on the park bench and sipped from her Sierra Mist as Tucker finished explaining the story. She knew there was more he wasn't telling her. True, he could keep a secret. But he wasn't a very good liar. Now was not the time to press the issue, though. There were much more important things to worry about. "Well, you have my cell number, don't you?"
"Yours, Danny's, and Sam's are about all I've got," he responded unashamedly. In the last few months, he had begun to act less embarrassed about his own... social faults. Then again, given how Valerie's former friends treated her when she had her little fall from grace, maybe Tucker's style of finding real friends shouldn't have been labeled a fault.
"Good. Be sure to let me know immediately the instant you see anything..." There was one thing still bugging her, though. "Out of curiosity, where is Danny? I haven't seen him around all week."
Tucker nearly choked on his Coke. Yet again, he was obviously about to tell a lie. "Uh... Jazz is doing some independent project. She wanted Danny and Sam to go with her as her 'control.' I wasn't really paying attention."
Valerie decided to give one last try at getting something out of him. "Yeah, but where exactly did they go?"
"Uh... New York..." He was floundering, but he was going to stick to his story. Valerie just sighed and nodded.
The mysteriousness of it all didn't bug her. Rather, it was the fact that Sam was with Danny. Valerie knew Sam wasn't one to back down from a challenge, and she had made it a pretty clear challenge in the Nasty Burger that day... Either way, Danny would be the one choosing. And that got to Valerie harder than she cared to admit. She spent so many years in the upper social ranks, being able to date whoever she wanted whenever she wanted. And of course, she had done her reading on feminist theory for an elective class last term. Women always wanted to believe that they were the ones selecting the guy, not the other way around. Truer words have seldom been spoken, Valerie thought. Maybe it was all just part of growing up...
Great, now she was getting all after-school-special on herself. She glanced over at her watch. It was almost 8. She needed to get going. "I'm heading out, Tucker. Remember, you derailed me from running a few errands. We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Tucker gave off a little half-wave, half-salute and smirked. "Roger-dodger."
Valerie smiled in spite of herself and wondered if maybe under different circumstances she and Tucker could have been friends.
-x-
The sun was setting and the crowd was amassed at the Heian Jingu Shrine. The bonfires had been lit and a hush fell over the crowd. Danny had learned just before coming here that Takigi O-Noh was a traditional Noh play performed to the light of bonfires at the shrine. It was held when the blue flag and iris flowers were in full bloom. As he and Sam moved to their seats, vendors were selling silk flowers in the shape of the blossoms around the temple. On an impulse, Danny bought one and gently tucked it into Sam's hair behind her ear, causing her to turn bright red.
She had come dressed in her new kimono. Appropriate, because a lot of other people had come dressed in formal folk attire as well. Figuring this would be the case, he'd bought a haori jacket for himself. It was a loose fit and took some getting used to, but the black linen was very comfortable, and he really liked the old-fashioned samurai image embroidered across the back.
Danny had no delusions about his attention span. Which is to say, he didn't have one. He was very much a part of the MTV generation of instant gratification and speed. But tonight... tonight was different. He sat beside Sam, holding her hand. The temple grounds around them that radiated a timeless majesty and blended so seamlessly with nature made even him admit that the whole thing was achingly beautiful. The city glow seemed muted, and only the moonlight and glow of the fires existed, making the whole temple feel like a wide-awake dreamland. The choir chanted softly in Japanese while the actors in their elaborate masks and costumes moved in slow, hypnotic dances. He had no idea what the play was about, but it made no difference at this point. The pageantry and reverence evoked a feeling of wonder and fantasy in him that he'd never known before. He started to understand Sam's fascination with nature and Old World culture.
He turned slowly to Sam, watching her out of the corner of his eyes. The dancing flames of the bonfire casting a playful movement across her pale skin. The corners of her full lips were turned up in a tiny smile. The light created a silver halo around her dark hair that she had let down out of her usual ponytail... She was so beautiful.
Sam slowly met his gaze, and her smile widened. He tightened his grip on her hand, and she returned the gesture.
-x-
Tucker was awoken suddenly by a loud crash followed by the wailing of a car alarm. He sprang up out of bed and rushed to the window. Jumped up Judas Priest! There had to be at least a dozen samurai ghosts out there! They were smashing cars, mailboxes, lampposts, and fire hydrants, following each act of destruction with a call for Danny Phantom.
Scrambling to his desk, he grabbed up his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Valerie's number. "Come on, come on... Pick up... Pick up the phone, damn it!"
He was about to give up and call the Fentons when Valerie answered, sounding very groggy. "It's 2 in the morning," she grumbled in a voice that could freeze mercury. "This better be good."
"Ghost attack!" Tucker all but shouted.
"What?!" That got her up in a hurry. "Where?!"
"My neighborhood! Hurry!" Tucker heard the sound of the phone dropping onto something and knew from that Valerie was on her way. He scrambled quickly into a pair of cargo pants and snagged his Fenton Thermos. The chance of Valerie catching him with this was worth the risk. He could hear screams outside now. People were going to get hurt!
-x-
Sam couldn't believe it. The festival was even more wonderful than she had imagined. And it meant the world to her that Danny was here with her right now. She met his eyes and couldn't stop the smile on her face. He cut a very dashing figure. His body had built up from fighting ghosts almost constantly, and it only made his strong features stand out better. The evening light and the glow of the fires made him look otherworldly. His blue eyes were like polished stones, and in that haori he looked like a noble warrior courting his ladylove. The very thought that she could be that lady love made Sam blush deeper than she thought was possible.
She didn't want to miss the play, but at the same time she couldn't take her eyes off of Danny. Slowly, as if in a dream, he reached his free hand up and cupper her cheek as if cradling her. His touch was delicate, gentle... reverent. He touched her as if she were some wonderful treasure that would break if he didn't show the proper care. And it made her feel warmer than she had ever felt in her life.
His lips parted almost imperceptibly and he began to lean in. She felt herself moving closer to him. Time ceased to matter, to mean anything. It could have been a matter of seconds or a matter of hours, she didn't care. Their lips brushed and Sam felt her heart pounding in her chest. She realized, much to her great surprise, that she was actually trembling! No one had ever made her feel like this before, no one. And as the kiss deepened, she knew she would never have it any other way.
-x-
Tucker ducked to avoid another slash of the ghost's katana. It just wasn't fair that something that wasn't even made of matter could be that sharp! He scrambled up and jumped, sliding his butt across the hood of a car. He cleared to the other side just in time to avoid another slash. The blade embedded itself in the engine and wouldn't come loose. The ghost grunted in frustration trying to pry his sword loose, the ugly demon mask over his face providing no hint of emotion aside from the burning light behind the eyeholes.
Tucker smirked victoriously and held up his Fenton Thermos. "Say goodnight, sucker!"
His victory was abruptly cut off. Literally. Another ghost came to join his comrade and flanked Tucker, slicing his Thermos neatly in half like it was butter.
Tucker looked at the useless stump in his hand and then up at his enemies. "I'm screwed," he squeaked as the first ghost pried his sword loose and prepared for a final attack.
-x-
Author's Notes: And there you have it! Took me long enough, didn't it? I was on a roll once I got through my block.
The locations talked about in this chapter are real Japanese landmarks, and the Takigi O-Noh festival is real as well. I was doing research for the story and wanted to include a scene with a traditional Japanese festival, and this one was just too perfect to pass up. For those of you who have never witnessed Noh theatre before, I promise you it is a unique experience. Whether or not you enjoy it, it will leave a big impression on you.
Also, I hope you all like the romantic scene in this one. I'm rather proud of the visuals in this one, and I actually think this is the most tender love scene I've ever written. That said, I hope I don't drive you too made with the intercutting and the cliffhanger, but the juxtaposition was really cool in my head. Very dramatic.
Anyway, things are going to start getting more intense form this point on. Be forewarned that in future chapters it's going to get a little dark. They say the climax occurs when the characters are at their most beat down and desperate, their darkest hour. And I've... taken that to heart.