Please read Disclaimer in Chapter One.
Title: Elementary, My Dear Hiei (C5: Murder Most Foul)
Author: JaganshiKenshin
Genre: General, Mystery
Rating: K+/PG-13 (for anime-style fight scenes/language)
Summary: The youkai has been ejected, but still lurks among them.
A/N: Any character sketches can be viewed on my blogspot.
Idiot Beloved takes place shortly after the Dark Tournament; Firebird Sweet directly follows that timeline. This tale occurs years later, after The Cowboy Trilogy.
There's a monster on the loose!
Elementary, My Dear Hiei (C5: Murder Most Foul)
by
Kenshin
In the leaping candle-light, chaos held court.
"Remain calm," instructed Monsieur Delamont. But while Pudge strove to tend Mopey, the others scampered about the room, shouting insructions to all and sundry regarding the escaped monster, adding to the general sense of panic.
Poor little Mope, lying on the sofa like a broken doll! Pudge patted her icy hands and face, but Mopey made no response.
Keep still," snarled Monsieur Hero, and the screeching and running stopped at once.
In that silence, Hero and Delamont stood back-to-back, turning, turning, seeking the creature.
But the slimy brown monster was nowhere in sight.
Oh, it was terrifying, sitting in the near-dark, knowing it was on the loose!
Where had it gone? Seeking a new host from among them? Or perhaps biding its time, knowing it was out of reach, waiting in a crack in the wall, waiting until they had all gone to sleep, and then striking at will?
Pointing to a corner, Twitchy cried, "I see it!"
"I see it too," Dumpling echoed. "There by the Chinese screen. Don't let it escape!"
Hero and Delamont went after it. But the monster refused to keep still. Now by the screen, now whipping across the floor, zigging and zagging, ducking behind hangings, beneath furniture.
Pudge tried to shield Merope as best she could, but the demon in its desperate flight brushed her ankle. She screamed.
M. Delamont leapt after the beast, while Hero sprang to guard Pudge and Mopey with his sword. Pudge was never so glad in her life to see a dangerous weapon.
Smarmy mopped his brow. "What on earth is that thing!?"
"Nothing on earth," said M. Delamont grimly, holding out a hand. "Keep back, all of you!"
"But it's getting away!" Twitchy scuttled about like a crab.
"Keep together," warned Delamont. "Don't make me sic Hi-er, Hero on you again."
Obeying at once, the family huddled around the unconscious Merope, with Monsieur Hero on guard.
It was so dark, so confusing. The fleeing monster's hide nevertheless caught what meager light there was. Flashes of lightning further revealed its horrid disfigured-serpent form.
With Delamont tracking its path, the monster spoke even as it evaded: "I meant no harm! I only needed someplace warm to stay. That's the only reason, I swear. It's so cold here!"
Hearing the creature's pleas, Pudge sat up a little straighter. It sounds... lost, she thought.
"Don't worry," purred Hero. "Where you're going it's hot enough."
"Please!" The creature twisted on the floor, seeking an exit, but on its one hand was Delamont, and the other, Hero. "I'm just a poor simple creature. What do you want of me?"
Hero laughed. "You know the answer."
"No," bawled the monster, "I don't know anything, I'm innocent of all wrongdoing, take pity on me!"
"As you did the girl?" snarled Hero. The creature wailed in misery. And indeed the pathetic aspect of its voice did move Pudge to pity. "Surely," she began, "if you just capture it, if you just set it free in the woods?..."
But Monsieurs Hero and Delamont were relentless. Leaving his post by the couch, Hero joined Delamont, surrounding the snakelike thing.
"Yes, that's it," the creature wailed, "Listen to her! I promise to leave and never bother anyone again!" It turned its peculiar, stalklike eyes to Pudge, and she felt a chill run up her spine. "You don't know these men. They are thieves, killers! Please, kind lady, don't let these gangsters kill me."
"Turn a deaf ear to its pleas." Delamont did not take his eyes off the creature. "That's how it got hold of Merope."
The creature writhed on the floor. "Don't listen to them, they're after your fortune, they're notorious thugs and killers, I tell you, and you'll be next!"
"Enough." M. Delamont plucked a rosebud from his hair, which unfurled like a magician's trick, stretching, as the creature had done before, when emerging from Mopey's ear. However the rose turned into not a serpent, but a sort of thorny whip, right before Pudge's astonished eyes.
Hero swung his bright sword. The monster's voice rose in a piteous wail: "Spare me!"
Delamont's eyes turned dangerous. "As you spared Merope?"
Instantly a change came over it. The monster abandoned its pathetic tone, bellowing curses. Blinking as though wakening from a deep sleep, Pudge once again could see it for what it was, and she shuddered in loathing.
"Get in my way will you? Damn you both! See how you cope with this!" And with a chilling shriek, the monster launched itself straight at Merope.
Pudge screamed.
Quick as an eyeblink, the two foreigners brought their weaponry to bear. Flashing sword and slashing whip struck out at the monster with such ferocity that Pudge could not track their movement. She only realized what had happened when she saw the monster on the flagstones before them, chopped to bits.
They had caught it in mid-leap! Yet the severed bits remained writhing on the floor.
Smarmy covered his eyes; Twitchy his mouth, but Pudge could not look away.
It was not until Hero reached into his pocket, drew out a handful of white crystals, and scattered them upon the dismembered creature, that its movement ceased.
Where the crystals struck the chunks, they bubbled into a rotten-egg-reeking slime that made them all gag.
The slime smoked briefly, then vanished, and at once, the air was cleansed of its foul odor.
The sword slid back into its sheath. The thorn-whip shrank away into a mere rosebud.
Twitchy and Smarm both hid their eyes, but Pudge recovered quickly, trying to revive her poor baby girl.
"How did you do that to the monster?" Dumpy said.
"Holy Salt." Hero knelt to inspect the flagstones.
"Like you'd use on a garden slug," explained M. Delamont, "only high-powered, especially for youkai."
Dumpy peered at the flagstones. "Youkai?"
Then wonder of wonders Mopey tried to sit up, looking about her in a dazed manner. Faintly, she inquired, "What's happened?"
Pudge's eyes filled with happy tears. This was her daughter's own dear whispery voice back for real.
"Oh, Mum." Mopey put a hand to her head. "I feel awful."
"There, there, you poor lamb!" Pudge dabbed her daughter's brow. "Oh, this barbaric country!"
Thrustlewood made an appearance. "More brandy, please," Dumpy directed, "and hot tea."
Thrustlewood hurriedly supplied the needed items, but Merope seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, even with generous amounts of tea and brandy, leaving Pudge in an agony of worry.
"It was my little Merope who caused all of this?" she wondered aloud. "The lights, the rain, the chill, the groanings in the night?"
Hero shrugged. "Maybe not the rain."
"And not Merope herself," added Delamont, "but rather the creature controlling her. But first..." Delamont produced from an inner pocket a small vial of golden liquid, which he uncorked and brought to Merope's lips.
"Not to worry," he said, as both Pudge and dumpy clucked in concern. "It's just a tonic to help bring her around."
And if it wasn't true! As soon as Mopey had swallowed the drink, roses again began to bloom in her cheeks. She glanced around, put a hand to her face in a gesture she had inherited from Pudge. "What's happened? Why am I?..."
"Hush, dear," soothed Pudge. "We'll sort this all out, you may be sure." She raised an eyebrow at the two guests.
Delamont favored them with a smile. "Merope has all of her mother's dreamy nature," he said, "but, I fear, little of her practical side."
"How do you know so much about us?" Smarmy demanded. "Seeing as we've only just met a couple of hours ago?"
"Didn't you realize?" M. Hero rolled his eyes. "He's the famous M. Delamont."
The famous M. Delamont bent over the girl, studying her for a moment. Then he straightened. "She'll recover quickly."
I'll just bet, thought Pudge, noting the way her daughter gazed at the handsome botanist.
-30-
(To be continued: Another mystery remains!)