Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 13
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Should I Stay Or Should I Go
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Madoka spotted the man standing further down the street an instant before he saw her. Thinking quickly, she shoved Chisame into a nearby store and took off in another direction, trying to draw his attention. Dodging and darting here and there to get through the crowd, she purposefully kept her speed low in order to keep the pursuer on her tail and away from the other girl. He and several others had been after them all day, even following them into whatever town this was. Looking back at the man chasing her, she ducked around a corner and ran straight into another man's arm, smashing her face against hard muscle and falling to the concrete sidewalk.
The man who had been chasing her ran up cursing and pulled a syringe from his pocket while Madoka scrambled to her feet, only to be grabbed by the man that had knocked her down. She dug an elbow into his side and smashed her head backward into his chin. He let go of her with a curse and she staggered a moment, slightly dazed by the impact. She backed away from the two men, trying to keep an eye on each as they spread out and attempted to flank her.
"Come on girl, don't make this worse than it has to be," said the man with the syringe. He just looked like any guy one might see on the street, and that was the worst part…the kidnapper actually looked respectable. The other man too…Madoka glanced at him again. He looked like an amateur bodybuilder or something. Roughly forty years old, slightly balding. Again, just a normal guy, like any other person one might pass on any street in Japan. She continued backing up until she bumped into a wall behind her, then sidestepped along the wall as the two men carefully approached. Feeling the wall end behind her, she turned and darted straight into a small alcove that contained nothing but a locked door. She felt the prick of the needle piercing her flesh before she could react, pumping fast acting tranquilizers into her system, and then it was too late as the two men backed off out of reach, waiting for the incredibly fast-acting drugs to take effect.
"You should have just come with us," the bodybuilder said regretfully as she began to sway and flopped against the wall as her knees began to buckle and her extremities grew cold. The other man took a few steps toward her, then stopped when she raised her fist threateningly. She fell to her knees, still glaring at them, using all her willpower to remain awake as long as possible. She dropped to her bottom, still glaring, leaning on the brick wall beside her, the strength gone from her hands. She tried to clench her fist when they approached again, but her fingers only twitched. She felt her eyelids drooping and her mind grew foggy. One last attempt to stand up only left her off balance, and she fell hard on the pavement, bumping her head. Now she was looking at the narrow strip of sky visible high above in the space between the two buildings' roofs. Two dark shapes moved into her field of view, and then everything faded.
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Chisame ducked into the back room of the small clothing store she had been pushed into, eliciting a surprised cry from a female worker. Not bothering to apologize, she pushed the back exit open and found herself in an alleyway cluttered with boxes and trash bags. Quickly getting her bearings, she ran to the far end of the alley, peeked around the corner, and darted out into the crowd. Almost immediately another man, a red-headed foreigner this time, approached at a brisk walk; Chisame turned back into the alleyway, running to the other end and knocking over a pile of boxes behind her as she went. Tightly clutching the backpack containing the stolen mini laptop, she whirled around, looking for a place to go. A police box across the street caught her attention, but it was empty for some unknown reason.
Cursing under her breath, Chisame calmly strolled out into the crowd as if she was a local. She glanced into an alleyway as she passed, missing a step as she saw two men loading an unconscious Kugimiya into the back of a van.
She was so intent on the scene before her that the foreigner had grabbed her arm before she realized he was there.
"Come on then, girlie," he said in an odd accent, and she jabbed at his eyes with her free hand before she even realized what she was doing. There was a brief sensation similar to poking a cube of jello, and she jerked her hand back in disgust as the man cried out.
"Damn it!" he shouted in pain, his voice echoing between the building and drawing shocked looks from the passersby. She shook off his loosened grip on her arm and darted into the street running as fast as she could and dodging cars, then pushed her way through the crowd on the sidewalk, drawing many odd looks as she tried her best to get away.
She went into another alleyway and ran to the far end, then went down the next street for about twenty meters and ducked into another alley. She stopped dead, disbelief of the sight before her drawing the frantic energy from her limbs.
The alleyway was a dead end.
She went back to the entrance and took a quick peek around the corner. The redheaded foreigner was out there, looking around. She backed up to where the alley ended in a wall and sat down behind a dumpster, pulling her knees to her chin and burying her face in them, hoping and praying that they wouldn't come into the alley far enough to see her.
'I can't let them get me, I can't let them get me!' she repeated to herself. But she wasn't strong, not like Kugimiya or Sakurazaki. In a contest of strength, she would be dead last. Her artifact would be of no help in this situation either. In a last ditch effort, she tried using the telepathy function of her pactio card again, but there was no response; Negi was too far away. She put the card back and clutched the backpack to her chest. 'This mini laptop must be important,' she thought to herself. The first kidnappers had taken the time to search for it, after all. 'Why did Iincho give this to me? I could be at home, I could be updating Chiu's blog, but nooo, instead I'm here. Oh God, I'm going to kill somebody!'
Something fell down on the other side of the dumpster and Chisame jumped and screeched "Don't kill me!"
A cat stepped out and meowed at her insistently.
"Only a cat," she said aloud and almost laughed. It felt like it might quickly become hysterical laughter, however, so she stopped. She knew if she started laughing now, it would all be over.
The cat continued to stare at her, and she realized with a start that its eyes were an oddly human brown color. It walked up to her and placed a paw on her shoe, meowed meaningfully, and took a bite out of her leg. 'Ow! What's up with this cat?! Stupid cat, biting people…' She supposed that she was exhausted, and it was muddling her thoughts. The cat leaped back about three feet when she reached for it, then meowed again.
It was trying to lead her somewhere. "Why not, I'm half insane already," Chisame said aloud as she stood up clumsily and stepped around the dumpster. The cat was gone, but she noticed a set of stairs leading down into a shady alcove in the wall she hadn't noticed before. She peered into the darkness and saw a door at the bottom. 'Might as well try it. Can't be any worse than disappearing Lassie-wannabe cats or redheaded foreign kidnappers…' she thought as she went down the steps. She turned the handle on the door, and it opened slightly under her hand. Quiet music floated out; it was a tune that seemed somehow familiar, though she couldn't say where she had heard it before. Someone shouted at the entrance to the alleyway, so she stepped inside and pulled the door shut after her.
It seemed to be a bar, though she supposed something like this would more properly be called a pub. Soft lighting made details fuzzy, but didn't do anything to hide the antique-seeming chairs and tables or the famous paintings in various styles on the walls. It was quite an eclectic collection of paintings; she spotted several that she had seen in various textbooks over the years. The occupants were unusual as well. There was an old man with gray hair and military fatigues sitting with his back to the wall at the other end of the room, an old foreign woman dressed in what Chisame thought of as 'poor person' style clothing at a window seat, and an elegant looking younger woman about Shizuna-sensei's age, wearing some sort of long, tight dress that fit like a glove above the waist and billowed out loosely below mid thigh. She had an odd looking pipe with a tiny bowl as well; the younger woman sat at the bar. None of the occupants were Japanese.
"Welcome, Hasegawa-san."
Chisame looked at the speaker, who appeared to be the bartender. His voice tickled at her memory, as if she had heard it somewhere before, but she couldn't place it. She had a brief vision of marshmallows and crackers, but shrugged it off. "Where…?"
"Welcome to my place of business, The Lost And The Found. Few people ever make it here, and as you can see, few leave."
Chisame was thoroughly weirded out. "How did you know my name?" she asked warily. The bartender just smiled. Or did the closest equivalent to a smile anyway, little more than a light tightening of the muscles at the corners of his mouth, a slight quirk of the lips.
"It is printed on your bag," he said, pointing to the bag she still clutched. "Here, have something to drink while you wait," he offered.
"I'm underage, and I don't have any money," she said, growing even more alarmed.
"Do not worry, it is on the house," the man said as he placed a clear glass mug before her. She took a hesitant sip and was relieved to taste normal cola. She took another, longer look around the bar room. Other than a measuring glance from the woman in the dress and a friendly nod from the old man, there was no other reaction to her. The bartender brought out a rag and began cleaning mugs as the maddeningly familiar music continued.
Chisame admired the curtains that hid the windows for a moment before something else struck her as odd. Hadn't she gone down stairs to get here? If this place was underground, why did it have windows? Her curiosity piqued, she stood up and approached one of the curtain-clad windows.
"You should let it be," the bartender said.
"Let it be?" Chisame said as she gave the man an odd look. She realized with a start that he could be considered handsome. While thin, he didn't look unhealthy. His black hair was quite long for a man his age, but seemed to fit him as well as his black and white bartender's uniform, with a few strands hanging loose in front of his fine-featured face. He looked…regal, she supposed. That idiot Asuna would probably fall in love at first sight.
"Hodge, another drink," the old man said, breaking the seemingly eternal quiet of the room as Chisame sat back down on her barstool.
"Of course," the bartender said.
'Hodge. His name is Hodge,' Chisame thought to herself. 'Hodge.' Somehow, the name fit him perfectly as well.
Soon, Chisame's drink was gone and she stood up. "I have to go, there are some people after me," she said, wondering why she offered that information even as she spoke. How had they failed to find this place? They should have come in almost immediately after she entered.
"Very well," Hodge said, taking her empty glass and opening a drawer. He took something out, then tossed it into the dark corner at the far end of the bar. "Boy, show her the back exit."
A youthful voice drifted from the shadows. "Ok, boss. Come on, Hasegawa-san, it's time to go."
"Where are we going?"
"You're going wherever you're going. I'll stay here, thanks," the boy said. She could see him now, looking at her expectantly. Just a normal European kid, though his buttoned-up shirt and black slacks resembled Hodge's uniform more than something some brat would wear willingly. "Come on, then," he said as he opened a door and stepped out into a hallway.
She followed, and the familiar music was cut off as the door shut. It was an odd sensation, as if she had just been disconnected from something. A vague sense of loss grew the longer she walked in the hallway.
Finally, the boy stopped before a door at the very end and handed her something. "Here, use this key."
"This?" she said, wrinkling her nose at the ancient-looking key in her hand. It was like one of those they used in old castle movies, about three inches long with a big loop on the end where it would hang from a jailer's keychain.
The boy nodded and waited for her.
She pushed the key into the lock on the door and was surprised when it fit perfectly. She turned the key, and the lock clicked. "Where does this door lead?" she asked, hand tightened on the doorknob.
"Your destination. Go ahead," the boy said, so she opened the door on another alley. She almost laughed as she looked at the brick wall opposite. 'It opens to my destination, does it? I see, I let my imagination get the better of me. It's just a creepy bar in a basement and this is the back exit. Hah, stupid weird atmosphere, stupid weird bartender. Hodge, yeah right. Probably a fake name anyway—'
"Go on then, people are waiting for you, right?" the boy said. Chisame shot him an impatient look and stepped out into the alley, carefully stepping around a dead bird. The door clicked shut behind her, and she realized she still had the key.
"Wait, I forgot to…" Her voice drifted off halfway through the sentence. She took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and put them back on. No change. Where the door should have been was only a brick wall.
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Author's Note: Oooh, mysterious.