Don't hate me. R&R.
Chapter Eleven
The breeze carried the salt from the ocean and scattered it like dust across the small array of islands. Several of them had thick forests growing out to their edges, looking like small little green puff balls against a huge blue background.
On one of these particular islands, there stood a small colonial style house, placed in the dead center of the island, almost hidden away by the canopy of trees.
This place happened to be an island that belonged to one of Black Jack's greatest rivals:
Dr. Kiriko.
Kiriko was now sitting in the breakfast nook off of the east side of his house, sipping tea, while his sole maid stood in the kitchen running water over the dishes. Kiriko, staring out the window, pulled down the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a large burn mark. He examined it briefly, a concerned look crossing over his face before he left it alone.
He stood up abruptly and then exited the room, briefly nodding to the maid, and headed up the long circling staircase to the second level of his home. He made a left down the hallway and started for the room at the end of it.
He opened the door, and saw the young woman lying in the bed was still sleeping.
"She's been sleeping for days…" he grumbled. "Does he let her get away with that?"
He stepped into the room and approached the bed cautiously. She laid curled up on one side, her auburn hair was softly curling around her left shoulder. She breathed shakily, as if she was combating her inner demons while she slept.
"Chei…" she whispered. "Chen…chei…"
"Aha!" Kiriko exclaimed, throwing the covers off of her. "So you are awake!"
Pinoko, startled, let out a screech and scrambled away from him as fast as she could. Heart pounding, she stared at the man who stood on the opposite side of the bed.
"Kiriko?" she cried out. "W…"
She twisted her head around wildly, examining her surroundings. She put both hands over her mouth, her eyes widening.
"Where am I?" she demanded then, her arms snapping to her side defiantly. "Where is my son? Where is Black Jack?"
He held up both hands and moved them up and down slowly to try to keep her to remain calm. But it was clear that by the wild look in her eyes that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
She put a hand to her head and stared at the bed.
"Oh God! Did something happen?"
He arched a brow dryly. "Of course. Always jump to the worst conclusions, must we?"
"Well why the hell am I here?" she demanded furiously.
"You and your son, Yukia," he said, jerking his head over her shoulder, "were in danger. I happened to be in the area, so I came to help you… did you already forget?"
"I… I don't remember any of that."
"You were conscious at the time when we were leaving the house," he told her, tilting his head to the side curiously. "Why don't you sit down and try to recollect what happened?"
Pinoko sat down on the edge of the bed and crossed her arms, staring hard at the floor. She seemed to remember how he had come in through their window, and then urgently led them out of the house, down the cliff side by a rope, and into a boat… after that, she had heard this loud heart stopping explosion and passed out…
"Where is my husband?" she asked, looking up. "Did he…"
"He wasn't home when I came in."
Her eyes widened. "Does that mean… did he die?"
Dr. Kiriko sighed, contemplating how to handle this. "I don't particularly know if Black Jack managed to enter the house before the bomb exploded. However if he did, I wouldn't be too worried… He can find his way out of the most troubling situations."
Pinoko felt the tears burn at the corners of her eyes, but she vigorously wiped them away. She stood up and found a robe hanging off of the edge of an armchair. She pulled it on and looked over at Kiriko.
"I would like to see my son now."
"Of course. He might still be sleeping. He's in the room right next to yours."
Pinoko headed outside without another word and then opened the door to a small room with a four post bed and a regal nightstand. Yukia was already awake, sitting upright and looking confused. If Pinoko hadn't come in just then, he might have started crying.
"Mama!" he flung off the covers and rushed over to her.
He hugged her legs and she placed a hand on his head reassuringly, trying to push her worries about her husband to the back of her head. Yukia wasn't saying anything as he clung to her, at least for a couple of minutes. Then he finally looked up at her and blinking, asked her a question.
"Mama, where's Papa?"
"Oh…" Pinoko murmured uncertainly, wondering how to handle this situation.
"Why don't you just tell him the truth right now?" Dr. Kiriko stepped into the doorway. "You don't know where his father is."
Pinoko cast an ugly look over her shoulder at Dr. Kiriko, and Yukia's eyes widened in horror.
"You mean… Papa's not here on the island at all?"
"No, honey. Not according to Kiriko…"
"Well, is he coming soon?"
Pinoko's eyes welled up with tears and she pulled Yukia close so that he couldn't look up at her.
"I don't know, honey," she answered, managing to speak without having to cry. "Hopefully."
Kiriko arched a brow at the scene and then left the doorway, heading down the stairs. Pinoko glanced over the shoulder and then left the room, holding Yukia's hand as they followed him down the staircase.
"How did you even get involved?" Pinoko demanded. "How—"
"—they brought a henchman of theirs to my home, demanding that I treat him, and when I tried to charge them for a fee, they burned down my house. They're really creative on that whole fiery death thing," Kiriko commented, irked. "And they mentioned something about moving up around the area where you and your husband lived… so I came up there as soon as possible, and I noticed some people hiding out in the hills. End of story. What else do you need to know?"
Pinoko responded icily, "Nothing."
Except where to find my husband and if he's okay, and also, how did you change me into a nightgown? She thought, her voice grumbling inside of her head as she followed him into the kitchen.
"Selma," Kiriko called into the kitchen, "prepare breakfast for our guests, please? Just a couple of bowls of miso soup should be good enough…"
They all gathered around the table in the breakfast nook and waited patiently for breakfast to arrive. However it was quite awkward due to the tension in the room. Pinoko watched Kiriko, who was off in a distant world of his own, uninterestedly staring back at them.
He finally said, "Your boy looks an awfully lot like Black Jack. I thought it was a rather shot gun wedding."
Pinoko gaped in rage and Yukia tilted his head up to look at his mother.
"What does that mean?"
"Kiriko!" she snapped finally, standing up. "Please watch yourself! He is adopted, for your information, and has no blood relationship to either me or Black Jack."
"He looks a lot like him, though," Kiriko mumbled.
Yukia squirmed under Kiriko's gaze and he tugged on the sleeve of his mother's robe.
"He creeps me out," he whispered into her ear. "Can we go home?"
"No you cannot go home," Kiriko answered sharply. "Unless you want to die, and I can offer a less painful death at an affordable pmiso soup. If Daitaro's gang finds out that you're alive—well, any of us, basically—then we have a pmiso soup on our heads, and he'll kill us."
Yukia gasped in horror, fear instantly coming onto his face. Pinoko clenched her fists.
"Why don't you stop talking so darkly around a five year old boy and we discuss this privately?" she demanded. "And by the way, we can't live the rest of our lives stuck on an island with you."
"Well it's not like it's impossible—"
"Kiriko. No way."
Kiriko leaned back in his seat and reached from underneath his vest and pulled out a pipe. He lit it and then began to smoke it. Yukia's nose wrinkled. He had occasionally seen his father smoke a pipe, but that didn't make him very used to it.
"You shouldn't baby him, Pinoko. You'll ruin him."
"You're not his parent, are you?" she smiled thinly, and then patted Yukia's head. "Why don't you eat breakfast in the kitchen with the maid? I apparently have to talk to your uncle now."
"He's my uncle?" Yukia blinked.
Pinoko shrugged. "I suppose he is." She looked over at him. After all, he was the best man in our wedding.
Yukia got up and left the table as his mother had instructed. She then gave her full attention to Kiriko.
"Shouldn't we try to contact Black Jack?"
"If he's alive, then we'll contact him. But until we know for sure, let's not try to unintentionally draw attention to ourselves."
Pinoko slumped in her seat. "Okay."
"And if we have to contact him, there are no land lines or anything, so I would have to go to the mainland, and try to find him myself. It would just have to be me, because again, less attention."
"What if?" she asked, raising her head slightly. "What if my husband is dead? Then… do I..."
"We wait for the turmoil to die down… so about a couple of years, depending on what happens with the Jaakunas… and then you can return to the mainland." Kiriko arched a brow. "To a burned spot on a cliff where your home used to be."
He remarked, "Oh, that is quite troublesome, isn't it? He was the main source of income for the household, obviously…"
"Chenchei always set aside money for me," she answered, "for use in emergencies. If it comes to that…"
She choked on a lump of tears suddenly rising in her throat. "If it comes to that…"
"Hey!" Kiriko said then, sharply. He leaned over and addressed her in a low voice. "If you start crying right now in front of your son, won't that alarm him even more than what I say?"
Pinoko instantly stopped and recovered, grateful. She pushed back a strand of her hair and stared at the table.
"What scares me is that if we think that he could be dead, he probably thinks that we're dead," Pinoko whispered.
Kiriko didn't say anything. He wasn't going to argue with her on that point. Yukia reentered the room with the maid who was carrying two bowls of miso soup.
"I thought you were going to eat in the kitchen," Pinoko told him as he sat down next to her.
"Yeah but you stopped talking with the eye patch man, so I came back in."
He shoveled his spoon into the miso soup and murmured a thank you to the maid, who graciously blushed and skittered back to the kitchen like a shy mouse. Pinoko and Yukia commenced in eating then. Kiriko just sat there because he had nothing better to do.
Pinoko finished first and Kiriko chuckled a little.
"Well you're a quick eater."
"Always have been," she answered, using a napkin to wipe at her mouth. "So, where can a lady bathe around here?"
"Upstairs, down the hall, and to your right," Kiriko instructed, not bothering to get up. "That's the only bathroom in the whole house."
"Alright then. Thank you." Pinoko stood up and exited the room.
As soon as she left a panicked look flashed across Yukia's face. His eyes turned slowly to glance at the eye patched man with the voluminous hair. Kiriko's eyes met him, and then Yukia quickly glanced away.
"Why are you such a fraidy cat?"
Yukia set down his spoon and refused to meet his eyes. "I'm not a fraidy cat. You're just a scary old man."
"Old man?" Kiriko recoiled, glaring at him. "If I'm such an old man, shouldn't you pay me respect because I'm your elder?"
"…Mama doesn't treat you respectfully."
"Well your mother should," Kiriko grumbled, scowling. "It might teach you some manners."
Yukia rolled his eyes.
"Did you just roll your eyes at me?"
Yukia shrugged his shoulders and started guzzling soup. He swallowed politely, and when he was finished, got up and scrambled away from the table as fast as possible.
Kiriko scoffed, and then stood up and exited the room.