Long time no update! This is short. I need it short, cause it ties up loose ends. I didn't particularly want to have a long-winded confrontation, and I think this fits perfectly. I have the next chapter in editing.
Sakuya Hawatari is the name of the guy that hired the guy to hurt Renji. Got it?
I don't own FF VII or any character therein. I'd be filthy rich if that were the case. And I'm not, so that sucks for me.
When Sakuya Hawatari woke up, he could not move. His first thought was that he had been captured and restrained, possibly drugged into his current condition. The list of possible suspects came into his mind. Several names were on that list, but none of them had the capability to pull such a stunt successfully. He tried to survey his surroundings, to get an idea of his whereabouts. There was little he could see until he regained control of his body, but the room itself was dark, as though it were night. It was a white room, with a white ceiling and what appeared to be a window to his left. The darkness was less on that side. There was a repetitive 'whoosh' along with a beep that seemed close by.
"Finally awake?" The sound of a chair moving across the floor cut though the beeps . "Good. It sucks about what happened." The voice was familiar, but Sakuya could not quite place who it belonged to. "Seems there's some psycho running around doing copy-cat assaults that happened a hundred years ago. He catches his victims off guard and paralyzes them. Completely. The victim can't do a damn thing but blink. He can't even breathe on his own." Sakuya felt his heart-rate speed up, and the beeping increased in time with it. "It's pretty impressive, actually. All he does is crack your neck a certain way and -BAM!- you're done for."
"I tried to track him down. Actually, all the Turks did." A head with bright red hair appeared over him, smirking. "I pulled it as a favor from my boss. The president wasn't happy about it, but he did it anyway. He likes my kid, so I guess it softened him up a little. Too bad you can't tell us what the guy looked like. Oh well. We've got you in a private hospital in Edge, with President Shinra footing the bill. You should be thankful."
A memory sprang into Sakuya's mind.
His home office was before him, but at a very different angle than he was used to seeing it. The wood floor was cool against the side of his face. He groaned at a pain on the back of his head as he tried to sit up.
"Finally awake? Good." He turned his head toward the voice, eyes focusing on a lit cigarette and red hair.
"Reno. Damn Turk...you're...a dead man."
"You're funny, you know that?" Reno walked over to him, and planted on knee against his back, forcing Sakuya back onto the floor.
"If you kill me...Yuffie will never forgive you..."
"She's pretty upset that you tried to hurt Renji. Might try to kill you herself. Come to think of it, I'm pretty pissed that a dipshit like you tried to hurt Renji. And who said I was going to kill you? I plan on leaving your ass alive for as long as you can survive." He felt two hands on his head, one holding his chin and the other near the crown of the skull. "A hundred years ago, there was this doctor that pretty much went nuts. His female patients all wound up dead. Three had broken necks. Two of them had collapsed jugulars. One of them lived for a little while, but she was a vegetable. Died an hour after getting to a hospital. They found the guy eventually. Searched his house. Found a girl in his basement, on life-support. There were flowers and stuffed animals on the bedside table. Curtains hung up to look like there were windows. Pretty fucked up, isn't it? I researched the case a lot. Thought it was interesting. I found all his notes too. Had to break into protected files to get them, though."
"What...are you getting...at?"
"Well, they thought the girl was another vegetable. She wasn't. She was alive, and conscious. Poor girl was completely paralyzed though. She couldn't even move her eyes to see anything. All the mad-doctor did, was crack her neck a certain way and -BAM!-" Sakuya felt his head jerk to the right and back in a arc, a sickening series of cracks echoed in his ears, and he suddenly found it hard to breath. "You're done for." Cigarette smoke flowed around him as he fell hard onto the floor. "Would it surprise you to know that I study anatomy and bone structure? Comes in handy when you need to incapacitate someone really quick."
Sakuya Hawatari was screaming inside his mind. The heart-rate monitor started to beep at an alarming rate, and several nurses ran into the room yelling instructions and forcing Reno from his line of sight. The last thing he remembered was the smirk on Reno's face when he realized that he knew who had attacked him.
Outside the hospital...
Reno lit a cigarette as he walked to the car parked in front of the hospital. He was still wearing the smirk on his face that he gave to Hawatari. It was reflected back at him in the passenger window. Reno decided that it was indeed creepy, as Rude put it. Sliding into his seat, he nodded at Rude, who put the car in gear and started to drive.
"Put that out, Reno."
"Huh?" Reno turned around slightly and blinked at Rufus. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." He took another drag as he rolled down the window.
"And don't throw it out the window, either."
"Picky, picky."
"Put on your seatbelt as well. Yuffie will be upset if I send you back to Wutai injured."
"What the hell? She's MY girlfriend, not yours. You've got no reason to be scared of her."
"When a woman can throw a sharp, multi-pointed object with disturbing accuracy, I tend to respect her wishes."
"Never thought of that." Reno said thoughtfully. "I'm scared of her when she's pissed. She can make you scream like a sissy."
"How?" Reno grinned at his partner. Rude was always curious about how Yuffie managed to keep him in line.
"Let's just say she can almost relocate your nuts to your esophagus with one kick."
"That bad?" Reno nodded. "Huh."
"Hey, boss. When do I get to go back?" Rufus raised an eyebrow at the eagerness in Reno's voice. "Don't give me that face!"
"What face?"
"The one you're giving me right now. You'd want to go back to Wutai if you had a girl waiting for you there."
"We go back at the end of the week. Which happens to be tomorrow."
"We? As in 'you' we?"
"Yes. I'm offering your skills and service to Lord Godo in catching that maniac which attacked the security officer. It's only proper to do so in person. People are much more polite in Wutai than in other parts of the world. You should remember that, Reno."
"Wait a minute. Why do you REALLY want to go back?"
"You doubt my intentions?" Rufus raised an eyebrow at him again, which made Reno glower.
"There you go with that look again. And yes, damn it, I doubt your intentions. What, or who, are you going back there for?"
"I'm going back to see the natural beauty." Reno snickered and turned back to the front of the car while Rude coughed to cover up a bark of laughter. They both knew he was going back to see Miyuki, but they did not want to give up their store of knowledge just yet. "What's so funny?"
"You don't normally like that kind of shit, boss. Not your cup of tea." Rude coughed again, hiding his smile behind one hand. Reno slapped his back a few times, nearly bursting into laughter at his partner's expression. "You need a cough drop or something, man?" Rude shook his head. "How bout a cookie, then?"
"Shut up."