The Theory of Retribution
Same warnings as last chapter apply :) Oh, and if at any point in time the vocabulary gets too much…scream at me! I'll tone it down…or at least will attempt XD
Undefined
'Homicide…?' Reno couldn't help but consider the word to himself with no little amount of confusion.
Certainly, the denotation did not escape him. After being the direct cause of said terminology utilization on more than one police report and having committed the deed on numerous—too many, in fact—occasions, the definition of such a term stuck well enough. That, however, did not explain why Reno could not, for the life of him, remember engaging in any such activity, even once, post-Meteor.
Of course, the pull of old habits was somewhat difficult to resist, and the Turk found himself—with more than one instance to mention—rather tempted to resort to his old methods of resolving a bothersome situation, but Reno was nothing if not loyal to his word. As difficult as it was to weasel a promise out of the brash red-head, once he gave in, he did not back down from his undertakings. After pledging to use his EMR for more or less defensive purposes only, Reno was employed by Reeve and assigned to the—not euphemized but real—branch of Administrative Research at Neo ShinRa—the company's bureau of investigations, so to speak—along with his comrades from the old ShinRa days.
Yes, the Turks were restored to a much more legal level of activity, but only under the agreement that homicide, as well as a number of other entertaining endeavors, would not be included in the list of, at the very least, regular occurrences.
But the slow progression of events from past to present was certainly not the most pressing matter. Current status and life experiences somehow readily faded into the background, for Reno, in comparison to the very much immediate—and very much worrisome—here and now. The 'here' being Verna—a city which the Turk had no recollection of traveling to; and the 'now' signifying that oh-so convenient allegation pertaining to the committed murder—of which (a phrase not used too often…if at all) Reno's hands were truly clean.
The worrisome tidbits and details aside, however, Reno realized that he had yet to form any sort of verbal response, besides his undignified gawking, that perhaps would work to clear his sate of unnerving confusion. So after a few more moments of deliberation and determined concentration on the task of making his mouth move, the Turk was finally able to come up with something that could possibly fulfill his goal of prompting for an elaborate explanation for the simple reason that the inquiry was ever so slightly intelligible…though with no particular eloquence.
"Huh?"
In any case, if Reno could say so himself, the monosyllabic snippet summed up and expressed his musings rather nicely.
"Would you like a dictionary, sir?" was the smug inquiry from the other side of the bars where Reno scouted a large and indisputably self-satisfied smirk that drowned out the rest of the sheriff's—though they were hardly distinguishable in the first place—features. The man was diligently making a show of polishing the badge on his chest with the, questionably, clean cuff of his shirt.
Watching the demonstration with little to no great amount of amusement, Reno languidly got off his cot and shifted his feet in a lethargic manner towards the polished—the Turk still couldn't quite accept the fact—bars. Coming to a dead halt in front of the sheriff, Reno had to acknowledge his slight disappointment at the metal barricade between the two…because otherwise…
"I'm very much a kinesthetic learner, admittedly," the Turk smiled acidly. "So, really, a dictionary won't do me much good. On the other hand, if you would be willing to play the victim, I'm sure I can manage to show you that I don't require any theoretic definitions…" Reno trailed off, looking calmly at the now startled sheriff, who, involuntarily, took a few steps back from the cell.
"Th-this is p-preposterous!" the man sputtered back in indignation—more out of fear than actual fury. "I'll have you know—!"
"Yeah, yeah: you're the authority and I'm the alleged criminal, shoo, la, la, and all the good stuff," Reno cut the man off with a roll of bored, aquamarine orbs. "Did I miss anything? Or were you, god forbid, going to say something else?"
"H-how dare you?!"
"As much as I appreciate watching your bout of self-righteous indignation, I'd be even more appreciative if you cut the sorry display short and tell me something mildly constructive."
Reno's mocking flow of words was met with dead silence and an unnervingly steadfast glare. Apparently, Reno simply had to note (belatedly), the sheriff wasn't all that used to being treated in any such manner of indifference and was currently demonstrating his protest by boycotting any form of verbal response.
But Reno was no longer concerned with the—elevated to the point of cheap drama—silence from his current, and very much unpleasant, company in light of catching a few rather interesting words from a nasally voice, who's high and mighty manner of speech ever-so much reminded the Turk of a newscaster. And, sure enough, upon further inspection of the sheriff's desk—due to the red-head's need to locate the source of said nasally drone—, Reno noticed a small television, which he neglected to pay attention to until then, broadcasting the local, morning (eleven o'clock, to be precise) news.
Among the less interesting details and complicated terms, the Turk could clearly identify a few attention-grasping phrases. Phrases such as "Mayor's death," "conducting further investigation," "no eye witnesses present at the scene of the crime," and—the Turk's personal favorite—"a suspect brought in for questioning" didn't have a chance in slipping past Reno's strained and keen ears.
Indeed, it goes without saying, the red-head no longer required the sheriff's aid to dispel his puzzlement.
Still…
"Was the body at least charred beyond all recognition?"
Fully realizing that the wining element of mystery was now lost, the sheriff scowled, stalking towards the four by eight piece of dark wood—that could, apparently, brag about being the only door to the small jail house—with a drawn out sigh to emphasize his lack of desire to produce a response.
"Oi!" Reno called after him in mild curiosity. "Where the hell are you going?"
"It's lunchtime," was the snipped response, followed by the overly aggressive slam of the thin, wooden plank of a door, which miraculously remained on its hinges, and in place, even after the unprovoked—not by the door in any case—maltreatment.
It can easily be considered very much out of character for the ever sociable Princess of Wutai to decline herself the pleasure of making a new acquaintance, as long as said individual won't, by weakness of character, sentimentality or otherwise, be a bother to deal with after the initial introduction (this, of course, as the reader may notice, excludes almost all of the world's population from Yuffie's spectacularly short list of friends, but let us not over examine such trivial details). In any case, there are, of course, those few, rare instances in which the ninja would rather not acquaint herself with certain…libertines—not to substitute a much more vulgar term for the word.
Excluding the very much unpleasant meeting with her digested breakfast while on the boat ride, Yuffie, unfortunately enough, did not finish her day with a lack of more such unpleasant meetings, which reacquainted her with certain, aforementioned 'libertine.'
While stumbling off the boat at Junon's harbor in half daze, half happiness at approximately six o'clock in the evening, and getting ready to kiss the ground for being so solid and so immobile, Yuffie bumped into a certain body, which, at first glance, proved to be approximately a head taller than the girl and, rather obviously, male. Deciding to curb her tongue for the simple sake of wanting to keep all her limbs attached and unharmed, Yuffie decided to take a much easier route and mumble an apology first with the expectation to be answered in the same, polite manner.
Needless to say, however, that when she received a very much distracted "whatever" as a reply, all of the ninja's self-control evaporated alarmingly fast into, slight more than mild, irritation.
"Ever heard of that useful thing called etiquette?" Yuffie questioned coldly, turning towards the figure, who was already brushing past her and hurrying towards the pier.
The man stopped mid-step, rather obviously not expecting such reproach. Turning around as if still in mild disbelief, he finally faced the ninja fully, allowing Yuffie an unobstructed view of his very familiar face. To her widening eyes and gaping mouth, Reno couldn't add anything else but a slap to his forehead with a muttered,
"You've got to be shitting me."
Yes, indeed; neither was quite expecting to find the other…ever. And, perhaps, the following events would have transpired much more smoothly if only they hadn't.
Before Yuffie could fade into the moving crowd and Reno could duck into the first available place in line for the next ship—escaping each other being at that point more prominent of a desire than the fulfillment of their original goals—, two police officers approached the unfortunate duo with the most conceited and serious of facades.
Having been informed of Reno's 'mysterious' disappearance from Verna's jail house (thank you Reeve for the convenient and perfectly-functioning communication system), and having spotted the young woman, apparently, engaged in conversation with the 'suspect,' one of the two officers asked both, Reno and Yuffie, to accompany him to the nearest police station under the claim of having a few, innocent questions to ask.
Not having the faintest idea of what was happening, Yuffie stared in puzzlement with split attention between Reno and the two authority figures, trying to come up with any plausible explanation for why the Junon city police would request her presence at one of their stations. But, as expected, it didn't take long for her to understand that it wasn't so much her presence that was essential as a certain 'libertine's' attendance. And that, also as expected, prompted unhealthy amounts of imaginative vilifications to spill in a whisper over her lips.
Reno, for his part, could practically see the gears turning in the brat's head from the corner of his eye, realizing from the—perhaps unintelligible as far as eloquence was concerned, but certainly understandable by the tone—mutterings that she had most of everything figured out. The slippery idea of leaving her there and bolting certainly flew into his head, but upon imagining what Reeve would do to him if such truly transpired, Reno quickly declined himself the pleasure. Apparently, he was, rather pathetically, stuck.
'Oh, the horror.'
And what made matter that much worse?
When he grabbed Yuffie's forearm to drag her out of her indignant stupor and into the crowd away from the warning shouts of the two police officers that followed after them, Reno, unknowingly, sealed his fate to the responsibility of a babysitter for an undefined but certainly extended period of time.
Author's Note:
Do pardon the somewhat late update! I went on a trip to Italy for two weeks and simply did not have the time to update before then. I'm back, however, and the following updates will come much sooner. I already have most of the next chapter…and it includes much more Yuffie/Reno interaction as will the rest of the story since now :) A small note, just in case you have not noticed: Reno was in the jail house last at about eleven in the morning (when the news came on) and he was already in Junon at six in the evening (when he meets Yuffie). No worries, it'll be explained how he got out of the jail house…I promise! Please tell me what you think. Your feedback would be much appreciated.
-Thanks.
In Search of ParadiseDo pardon the initial confusion :D I've fixed the problem, so now it should be in the correct category! And I do, sincerely, hope I haven't disappointed you with this chapter. It's still set-up, but a little more information. Thanks for the feedback, however, I was somewhat worried that the idea won't be all that appealing XDBatajitsu-laughs- We've already talked about it, but still, thank you for the review. It's very sweet!
Kaikai PANTSThanks! I guess it won't come as much of a surprise to you that I have, on occasion before English tests, read a few dictionaries. :)