Please see Disclaimer in Chapter 1.
The events in Idiot Beloved take place shortly after the Dark Tournament; Firebird Sweet directly follows that timeline, and you can probably get more out of this sidefic if you read IB and its sequel first.
Title: Operation Rosary C5: Green Egg, No Ham
Author: JaganshiKenshin
Genre: Action/Adventure, General
Rating: K+/PG-13
Summary: The court of last resort means that one man goes down.
A/N: Operation Rosary is told through the viewpoint of Hiei's 'partner,' who is slowly overcoming his initial dislike of 'the arrogant runt.' The main setting remains the burnt-out factory of Two Shots (YYH manga, Vol. 7)---though not for long. Please review! I'm doing things a bit differently now, only linking these stories to my LJ when they're finished, so making/posting one sketch per story.
This penultimate chapter marks my biggest-ever lag updating a story. A combination of computer and other problems have kept me down for some time. Hope it doesn't happen again.
As to whether the Agency does, in fact, exist---if I told you, Hiei would STILL have to kill you.
"Never leave a friend behind!"
Operation Rosary (C5: Green Egg, No Ham)
by
Kenshin
In the flick of an eye, the gray cinderblock room had become a chaos of rushing youkai, of angry shouts and the reek of sweat. Issei stopped, so close to retrieving the semi-conscious Operative X that his fingers itched. But he had missed his chance. No choice now but to turn and fight.
The onslaught of both the oni and minotaur was hampered by the low ceiling---and also Hiei's flashing sword as he stood between Issei and the enemy.
Four-Arms had no such problem. Lashing out from behind the pack, his bungee-like appendages knocked Issei to the floor.
Rolling out of reach, Issei regained his feet. The blow had stung rather than hurt, and he glanced at Operative X, determining that the semi-conscious man remained in his seat. With Yabuta blocking the door, escape would prove difficult.
Mesmerized by the roiling Mobius above the Egg, Eight-Eyes did not pose an immediate threat.
But Four-Arms had wormed his way forward, close enough for Issei to see the triumphant leer on his lavender-hued face. Any second those infinitely stretchable arms would---
Not this time! As Issei's respect for his partner had grown, so also his confidence had returned. Leaping at Four-Arms, Issei startled the creature into a split-second of hesitation, using that moment to whip his chains across the demon's face. When Four-Arms recoiled, Issei got a glimpse of Hiei, keeping the oni at bay with great two-handed strokes of his sword. If I could just find my gun---
The yellow-furred cyclops broke free, its orange eye like a hot coal, its three-fingered hands like grappling hooks.
A metal folding chair leaned against the wall. Snatching it up, Issei swung it in a whooshing arc and whacked the cyclops across its head. It retreated yelping, and when Four-Arms attacked again, Issei gave him the same. His blow sent Four-Arms reeling into the Egg, almost toppling the device.
"Fool!" Releasing his deathgrip on the door, Yabuta dashed to the Egg and wrenched Four-Arms away, cursing under his breath.
Four-Arms teetered a moment, then crashed to the floor.
The fighting stopped. All gazes turned toward Yabuta. With a great show of indignation, he made certain the red loop atop the Egg remained in 'parked' position. Then he spoke through clenched teeth. "The time will be of my choosing. Not yours, nor anyone else's."
Four-Arms clambered to his feet, eyeing Yabuta with the doughy surprise of a minion who has just discovered his position is not quite as important as he once believed.
Now it was the black minotaur who tried to rush past Hiei. But with a casual swipe of his sword, Hiei separated the creature's right ear from the rest of him, freezing him where he stood. Ear hit wall in a splatter of rust-colored blood, then tumbled to the floor.
Gaping at his severed appendage, the minotaur snarled at Hiei, "That was my best ear!"
"Guess you should've been more careful with it." Hiei gave a flourish of his bloodied sword. "Anyone else?"
The oni seemed to bide his time, and the cyclops still whined in pain. But the minotaur pawed the ground, preparing to charge. "Even lopsided I can take a runt like you!"
"I've handled bulls before." Hiei grinned. "Just ask the next hamburger you meet."
Though his beady eyes flared with bloodlust, the minotaur subsided; Hiei with a sword was more than he'd bargained for.
Was this the moment? The door lay almost directly across from Operative X---and Yabuta had left his 'post.' Fifteen feet to freedom, but no way for Issei to catch Hiei's eye.
Still guarding the Egg, Yabuta addressed Eight-Eyes. "I see you admire my handiwork." The affected drawl had returned to Yabuta's voice, making Issei long to apply the chair to his head. "And why not stare? Beauty is as genius does."
The gray-skinned demon reached to touch the Egg, but it was too far away. "Just remember that this is my creation," warned Yabuta. "No one else will lay a hand on it."
Eight-Eyes had other ideas. Inching toward the Egg, he ignored Yabuta's warning. Though Hiei made no attempt to stop him, he angled his body to keep him in view. Still Issei could not catch his attention.
As for Eight-Eyes, the Egg was his goal. For all that it resembled a cartoon robot, Issei was aware of its Moolooite laser, of Yabuta's deadly intent. And there was nothing remotely cartoonish about the space-bending Mobius above the Egg.
Eight-Eyes grunted, his human-looking face at disturbing odds with that milky string of orbs.
Issei sensed this was a critical junction---a core of truth he had yet to penetrate. Just as the bland box of a room contrasted sharply with its demonic inhabitants, so did this creature's human face contrast with his inhuman eyes.
Yet the room was only a container. Something else was at odds here, something beyond the uneasy disparity of face and form within the same being. A disordering of the natural world, a disordering of natural law?
Why did Eight-Eyes unsettle him beyond the other youkai? The speechless cyclops seemed little more than an animal, while the minotaur was as familiar to Greek legend as the oni was to Japanese. But Eight-Eyes spoke as a human, had the form of a human---except for the eyes. Even Four-Arms, another parody of the human shape, had at least fully human facial features. Eight-Eyes was more like a mad scientist's attempt to jam two species together to create his own distorted idea of perfection.
Whatever the truth behind this disquieting mix, Issei could not put his finger on it.
Nor could Eight-Eyes put his finger on the Egg. Agitated now, he shifted his focus from the Egg to his master. "Don't tell me what to do, Yabuta. This thing ain't yours no more. It's mine now. Mine!"
"Yours?" Yabuta lifted an eyebrow. "I see. Then by all means, come and take it."
"Just watch me, sucker." Licking his lips, Eight-Eyes took another step. Like Hiei, Yabuta made no attempt to stop him, but merely watched his approach, relaxed, almost confident.
Hands shaking with eagerness or fear, Eight-Eyes reached for the red loop atop the green Egg's ceramic dome---the 'switch.'
It was Yabuta who had the Walther PPK after all. With Issei watching every move, Yabuta drew it from an inside pocket of his sleek suit.
Eight-Eyes paused, then dismissed the weapon with a laugh. "Y'don't even know how t' use that thing."
"Oh?" Yabuta smirked. "Care to put it to the test?"
"Think a bullet's gonna stop me?"
Before Issei could formulate a plan to retrieve his weapon, Yabuta placed both hands on the gun, pushed the muzzle against Eight-Eyes' chest, and fired.
Even with the Walther's silencer in place, Issei heard the solid whump of the .38 as it pierced Eight-Eyes.
One round. A great deal hinged on how much ammo remained.
There was a momentary tableau of Yabuta, the gun, and Eight-Eyes, who at first did not appear to realize he had been shot. Then, with a little sigh, he sank to the floor. A sticky purplish liquid pooled on the gray linoleum beneath him.
"This close?" said Yabuta. "Evidently."
The other demons remained where they were, as did Hiei and Issei. Yabuta gave them a saccharine smile. "Next?"
"Guys who simper should not carry firearms," Issei remarked.
Still smiling, Yabuta turned the gun on Issei, took aim, but did not squeeze off another shot. He flicked a withering glance at Hiei, as the swordsman stood guard. "I'll speak slowly, so that even the likes of you can understand me."
"The smartest man I ever met," said Hiei, lowering his sword an inch, "does not keep harping on the quality of his intellect. Makes me wonder about the quantity of yours."
Yabuta's mouth twisted. To Issei it seemed that he embodied arrogance, making Hiei appear by contrast a humble penitent.
"Wonder no more." With a casual wave of the gun, Yabuta gestured toward the Egg. "Behold the fruits of my genius."
"That and fifty yen'll get you some tako yaki," said Issei.
In response, Yabuta again pointed the gun at Issei. The Walther's stiff action needed a lot of pressure; Issei hoped the wiry demon could not manage another shot. "You may not comprehend, but what I have done is extraordinary. Once I open the gates to these poor creatures, whom humankind has oppressed for centuries---"
"Except for that guy you just blew away," Issei cut in.
The surviving demons had kept quiet, but when they heard Issei, their voices rose in angry agreement.
"Silence!" Yabuta flicked a glance at his minions, but kept the gun trained on Issei.
"You know," said Hiei, "someone as tense as you should be taking massive doses of valerian root."
The gun wobbled in Yabuta's hand.
"Try using both hands," suggested Issei.
"That's right," encouraged Hiei. "Like before. When you gunned down your own man."
Rumblings of demonic malcontent swept the room.
"A tragic accident," said Yabuta, "and one which will not happen again." The gun dipped in his hand as though grief---or the Walther---proved too heavy a burden. "Nevertheless, I have done what others have failed to do."
"And what exactly is that?" Issei watched Yabuta for an opening in which he could wrench the gun away.
"Haven't you been paying attention? The new Eden."
"Hate to burst your bubble," said Issei, "but Eden's already been tried."
"Not like this. This Eden will be perfect because it's under my control."
Issei wanted to point out that Yabuta seemed incapable of controlling either his men or his machine. Instead, he mused to no one in particular, "I come down here expecting to find, oh, maybe the Russian Mafia, maybe the Yakuza, some guys engaged in a little industrial espionage, things of that nature." He paused. "Instead I find you."
"Life's just full of surprises," agreed Hiei. He stood but a few feet away, between Issei and the youkai, but when he replied, he turned to meet Issei's gaze at last.
"You should feel honored." Yabuta narrowed his eyes. "After all, you'll be my first human sacrifice."
"Will it work like he claims?" Issei asked of Hiei, ignoring Yabuta, making it a deliberate insult.
"The Egg?" Hiei shrugged. "Seems inherently unstable. But bottom line---yeah. It's already given us a foretaste or two, all on its own."
"I'm guessing the laser's activated by that red switch," Issei went on.
Hiei's look was thoughtful. "Completing some kind of space-bending circuit."
Yabuta did not like being ignored. As Issei spoke with Hiei, Yabuta's face slowly flushed a deeper green. The other demons kept silent, whether because they planned another attack or because Hiei had a bead on them, Issei could not tell, but they looked on with malicious glee.
"I have created," Yabuta continued, raising his voice, "a simple, elegant device---a wormhole which will obliterate the barrier between demon and human worlds."
Demon world, Issei thought. No wonder we felt sick. "Like we just said."
Hiei snorted. "Some barriers are there for a reason."
"You're one to talk." Yabuta spoke with pure relish, but Hiei cut him short with a snarling curse. Issei wondered exactly what Yabuta had meant, and why his remark had so bothered Hiei.
Yabuta took a deep breath, clearly intent on pursuing the conversation, but Hiei pointed with his sword---too far away to slice him, but close enough for Yabuta to read his intent. "Enough jabber all around," Hiei threatened.
"Oh, I agree." Placing both hands on the gun, Yabuta raised it, aimed at Issei, and fired.
And then, without having moved, Hiei was simply standing between Issei and Yabuta. In fact, directly in front of Issei, looking up at him with crimson eyes insolent and amused.
Issei blinked in shock. Had he seen such an action in a film, he would have called it a bad special effect, but this was quite real, and barely gave him time to think: He's crazy---taking the bullet meant for me!
His back to the gun, and with a single flick of his sword, Hiei deflected the shot. It chipped the wall dangerously close to the Egg.
Two shots, Issei counted. Hiei's stunt had occurred in less than the space between one heartbeat and the next.
And while Hiei's back was turned, the oni, teeth bared in triumph, took advantage of his enormous reach. Before a warning could leave Issei's lips, the oni lunged, sideswiping Hiei with his club. The blow caught Hiei amidships and sent him crashing into the opposite wall. Hiei and oni went down in a whirl of fighting limbs.
Yabuta's aim remained on Issei as he pumped off another round. This time, the bullet whumped into the ceiling.
Three.
Behind Issei, Operative X stirred, groaned---earning the gunman's attention.
Yabuta jerked the Walther in Issei's direction. "I don't need a point-blank shot to kill a human."
"How courageous," said Issei. "Planning to gun down an unconscious man."
"Maybe just you," simpered Yabuta.
Issei suggested what Yabuta might do with himself.
Hiei and the oni were back on their feet now, with the other demons looking on, biding their time. The oni had earned a bloody slash on his right arm. He swung his club again, but Hiei easily parried the blow.
Three shots. If Yabuta never loaded the other magazine, that's all he's got.
Yabuta's eyes narrowed with a petulant anger. The gun did not wobble as his green fingers squeezed the trigger, turning them yellow with effort. Three shots, Issei prayed. Just three.
Click.
Empty! Relief flooded Issei. "Can I have it back?"
Seething, Yabuta hurled the gun at Issei's head. Issei ducked. The Walther crashed into the wall behind him, rebounded, but not far enough for Issei to retrieve it.
Yabuta loosed a string of invective, until Hiei slashed at the air with his sword. Yabuta shut up, fast.
"Now that I've got your attention," continued Hiei. "Let me point out that I could've cut you to ribbons any time." His brief skirmish with the oni had earned him another bruise across his jawline; the oni was bled from his left arm as well.
Advancing at a leisurely pace until he was once again commanding the center of the room, Hiei jerked his head at Yabuta. "Bastards like you give me a pain. Always hiding behind some trumped-up 'cause.'"
Yabuta's lips thinned. "I don't see you beating your sword into any ploughshare."
Hiei was unruffled. "If you want to take someone's true measure," he said, "take the measure of his associates."
Issei's gaze fell upon the demons, clustered against the far wall like sullen playground bullies denied their favorite victim.
The minotaur shook his bull's head, spattering the room with more rust-colored blood. The cyclops was unreadable, but the oni's menacing bulk was counterbalanced by the caution in his long brown face. And Four-Arms still bore the look of a second banana chewing on the revelation that he is mere cannon fodder.
"You!" Hiei addressed the pack of demons. "What did he promise you?"
"Money," admitted Four-Arms.
"And has he delivered?" Hiei asked.
Silence.
"Figured as much."
So that's Hiei's game. For the first time since this nightmare of a mission had begun, Issei felt a sense of elation. Hiei was attempting to drive a wedge between Yabuta, and his larger, more dangerous henchmen. Not even henchmen, Issei realized; sacrificial lambs.
And it was working.
"You don't have to listen to Yabuta any more," Hiei continued. "As far as I know you haven't killed any humans, so we'll go easy on you."
The oni lowered his club.
"That runt took my ear," complained the minotaur.
"And cut me good," said the oni, nodding at the dead Eight-Eyes. "Still---small price to pay for not ending up like him."
Four-Arms darted nervous glances between his fellows and Yabuta. His face gradually slackened, like lavender icing left too long under hot lights. "Whatever you guys decide."
"Ah. I see." Yabuta favored them with a paper cut of a smile. "This is the point where I gnash my teeth and say, 'Curses! Foiled again!' But it doesn't quite work that way."
Hiei shrugged. "Or I could always kill the lot of you."
Yabuta countered, "And he's offering you what? Imprisonment? Whereas I will set you free to plunder the entire human world."
"If you place such little value on your own lives," cautioned Hiei, "I won't spare you."
There was the sound of demons, thinking.
"Who was it increased your power levels?" Yabuta shrilled. "Myself or that worthless creature with a sword?"
Further thinking took place.
Yabuta raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Sword got your tongue?"
"That can be arranged," said Hiei.
"Well?" Yabuta demanded of his men. "Why do you hesitate?"
Hiei said nothing, as if yielding the floor to Yabuta, who eagerly pressed the advantage. "Look at the size of him," Yabuta continued. "Look at yourselves."
"Size ain't everything," said the oni.
Yabuta gave an almost snakelike hiss of frustration. "Fools," he said. "I am in a company of fools."
"Your favorite word again," Hiei said. "Is that what you think of your men? Or just me?"
The stony silence of the remaining four youkai proved more ominous than their previous grumbling.
If Yabuta prevailed, the world would be overrun with 'monsters even I couldn't handle,' as Hiei had put it.
Having successfully negotiated two surrenders on his own, Issei longed to tip the balance in their favor. But today, that was not his mission. His mission was to get Op-X to safety. Though his entire being resisted flight, Issei silently cheered Hiei on, and watched for the chance to grab his man and escape.
It was only from the corner of his eye that he caught a distortion above the Egg. The Mobius twisted like an agonized worm, and then the very air twisted with it, changing into something that smelt of death.
Even the walls turned from chalky gray to a menacing steel color. A crushing sense of dread overcame Issei, as though all the demons in Hell had shouted his name. Hot and cold and nauseated all at once, he felt his knees buckle.
Hiei gave a single grunt, as though someone had punched him in the stomach; sweat beaded his suddenly-pale skin. The youkai felt it too, the oni covering his eyes, the minotaur slavering, their two companions also reacting to this sea change. Only Yabuta, closest to the Egg, seemed untouched, even blissful.
It's not real, Issei insisted, the gateway's not fully open yet, these are just feelings. Fight them!
No good. The harder he fought, the harder fear pressed in.
Maybe struggle was the wrong tactic.
Closing his eyes, Issei stopped resisting. He embraced the sensations of horror, let them wash over him, smash him deep into the maelstrom. For fathomless moments he was trapped by a tumbling wave of icy-hot sickness. His breath was pummeled down his throat by the relentless wave. Air. He needed air!
Stop fighting, he reminded himself. After what seemed an eternity, Issei was able to drag in a thick lungful of murk. From then, breathing became easier, even when fear remained, and Issei found a keyhole, a space where he could think.
Not so the others. Issei opened his eyes to shouts of irrational anger as the demons sought a target---any target.
They found one in the person of Hiei, a small and battered figure, with sword alone standing between those monsters and his family: I'll stop them, even if I die doing it.
Hiei could not stop them all. The dog-reeking cyclops got past him. Issei grabbed the folding chair and slammed it into the creature's single coal-bright eye. The cyclops went down like a sack of wet mud.
Hiei shouted: "Get out of here!"
And in spite of his own evident discomfort, the tough little freelancer redoubled his efforts, his blade a whistling silver flame, his trailing chains adding another tune as he drove the rest of the demons steadily back.
Yabuta was crooning to the Egg, not quite so sleek as before. The odds would never get any better. Issei grabbed Op-X and slung him across his shoulder in a fireman's carry.
Yet even at the last, he hesitated. Hiei battled on, the minotaur and oni going for him from either side, Four-Arms flinging those wretched bungee cords at the swordsman.
Never leave a pal behind.
It took Hiei's shout to get Issei running for the door: "GO! I'm right behind you!"
Yabuta had other ideas. Abandoning his precious Eden, he rushed past Issei, beating him to the door. With a wild look of defiance, he planted himself in front of the exit.
Issei spoke through gritted teeth. "Move."
"Not so fast." Yabuta favored him with a cold sickly smile. "I won't lose my first human sacrifices so easily."
"And I won't lose to the likes of you so easily," Issei threatened. "Out of my way or I'll put you out."
"Just you try it!"
Op-X gave Issei added weight. All it took was a single body-check to knock Yabuta sprawling to the floor. With no time to savor Yabuta's stunned disbelief, Issei plunged into the hall.
A couple of fluorescent panels flickered in the ceiling, providing enough illumination to find the stairwell. Carrying the semi-conscious Agency man, Issei thundered upstairs.
He kept going. There were no footsteps in pursuit.
Through the darkened factory, glass and debris crackling underfoot, then outside into the bushes Issei ran, stars above, grass below, gasping in lungsful of sweet night air.
Free!
No one followed. Staggering down the cracked driveway, Issei detected no Hiei 'right behind him.' I don't like this. Maybe those chains trailing from his ankles had tripped him up.
The hell they had. Hiei was covering Issei's retreat with his life.
Issei stopped to lower Op-X off his shoulders. The taller man scrubbed at his eyes, then spoke for the first time. "How'd I get out here?" His voice, though slurred, was cultured, with a radio-announcer's timbre.
Issei bit back a rising impatience. "Can you stand?"
"Sure." Op-X stood unaided for exactly one second before his knees buckled.
"Sure." Wedging himself under Op-X's arm, Issei all but dragged him toward the spot where he had parked the car.
"They did something to me," Op-X explained.
"Roughed you up?"
"Not just that. Twisted my thoughts. Confused me."
"Mind control?" Issei guessed.
"Something like it. Thought they had me in their pocket. Wanted me to destroy Holy Water, Rosary. Refused. "
They were like drunken salarymen weaving home after last call. The snail's pace was driving Issei crazy.
There was a phone in the car. Let's hope this guy's up to using it. "You contact the Agency for back-up," Issei said, chivvying Op-X forward.
Op-X kept going boneless, and Issei struggled against the impulse to dump him and get back into the fight. Hiei had said Op-X was more valuable than gold, to get him out at all costs. But was there no value to Hiei's own life?
"Damn car," muttered Issei, searching the driveway for signs of his vehicle. In the dark, trees and undergrowth obscured the view, but he knew he had parked a quarter-mile from the factory entrance. "I could swear I..."
He spotted the Toyota, positioned exactly where he'd left it. But he took precious time to discern from the inkpot night exactly what he was seeing.
The Agency sedan did not have quite the same profile as before, which may have been due to the fact that it was flattened as though it had gone through a trash compacter.
Fingers of steam threaded their way skyward from the crushed hood. Even opening the door to reach the phone, assuming it wasn't destroyed as well, was out of the question.
The oni. His club. His words to Yabuta: ('I done that outside job you wanted.')
No car, no phone, no way to reach the outside world. Issei let out a groan of frustration.
As if in response, a night bird called, soft and urgent.
Issei pulled himself together. "Stay here," he told Operative X. "I'm going back for my partner."
"Got it," said Op-X, and Issei realized he did not even know the man's name. No time to play nursemaid. Leaning Op-X against the nearest tree, Issei headed back toward the factory.
He had not gone two steps before a white flash, almost like lightning, drew Issei's eye to the turret jutting from the factory's roofline. But this was no transitory autumn storm.
A cacophony of light bloomed from the entire building, clawing its way free of smashed windows like a fire of stars.
Light travels faster than sound.
Half a breath later, the explosion struck a thunderous blow that shook Issei's heart.
"Hiei!" Had he failed? Had Yabuta thrown the switch, causing all Hell to break loose?
No. Despite the bone-rattling blast, there was none of that horrific sense of despair Isse had sensed each time a mere pindot of the demon world leaked into this one. Then what was this?
The Minoru Doll Factory, badly damaged in its first blaze, sufferered its second and final incineration.
Flames licked the walls and cast their orange light upon billowing cauliflowers of smoke. Fully alert now, Op-X gaped at the destruction, took a step forward, then fell. Issei hurried back to assist him.
('If you have to ask,' Hiei had said, 'you don't know the meaning of the Light.' Hiei's secret weapon, his 'court of last resort.')
"Hiei," he whispered, then stood watching the factory burn, his friend and partner still inside.
(To be concluded: With Hiei gone, can Issei complete the mission alone?)
-30-