Getting yet more out the door, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.
Chapter 4 is well under way and Chapter 5 is currently in planning… though I sometimes wonder why I bother because at least half of what's panning out for Chapter 4 so far has been both completely necessary and completely unplanned… It still helps with steering the plot though so I guess it's still useful to do.
Enough blathering from me. Enjoy! If you like what you see, please leave a comment and let me know. If you don't… leave a comment and let me know!
The room was utilitarian and simple, nothing at all fancy, not that the Doctor needed somewhere particularly nice, it had a double bed, simple carpeting, with an adjoining shower and separate bathroom. Akitsu followed him in, eying the room with cold apathetic indifference.
"I'm afraid all the rooms had double beds," said the Doctor as he leapt onto the bed and lay back, "You'd think a place like this would have some rooms with single beds in it. Oh look! Sweets!"
He picked up a random coloured package sitting in a bowl by the bed and quickly revised his earlier enthusiasm for sweets before tossing the package back into the bowl where he'd found it.
"I'm forgetting something aren't I?" he asked Akitsu.
She looked on in her lab coat draped by the Doctor's trench coat without saying a word. The mark on her forehead still teased at him. He could have sworn it had some kind of importance.
"Oh! Yes!" he exclaimed, leaping off the bed, "No… yes! YES!" The doctor thumped his head as hard as he could, "Oh I am SO THICK!"
He leaped off the bed and collected the room's key card.
"I'll be right back! I'll see about finding you some clothes!"
The Doctor was out of the room before Akitsu could utter a word. She stood there dripping and cold.
Is he coming back? She thought, What am I supposed to do? What should I do?
Other questions played out through her mind. Was she allowed to act on her own? He hadn't given her any orders. The promise to bring back clothes seemed to indicate he would return but it could just as easily have been a ploy to gently abandon her because she was useless. What little she knew of this Doctor seemed to indicate he was a complete lunatic… albeit a compassionate one. She glanced at the shower.
It would be nice to feel warm again, she thought.
The Doctor had officially invaded the women's fashion section of a 24 hour department store. Fortunately as far as the Doctor's invasions went it all involved a lot of manic running and very little by way of violence.
"Dress? No. Scarf? No. Heels? Blimey!" he muttered as he went through clothing like a madman not in the least caring about the odd looks he was getting from a few of the late night customers, "If I ever, EVER, regenerate as a woman… I'll be lost! I don't know a bloody thing about…" He trailed off as he heard a familiar tune.
Baby, baby, baby
You are my voodoo child, my voodoo child
Don't say maybe maybe
It's supernatural, I'm comin' undone
He glared upwards at the departments PA system and surreptitiously flicked his sonic screwdriver hoping for a somewhat less offensive tune. The song bore painful memories of the year that never was, ones he preferred not to relive right now.
I have wandered, I have rambled
I have crossed this crowded sphere,
And I've seen a mass of problems
That I long to disappear.
Now, all I have's this anguished heart,
For you have vanished too.
Oh, my girl, my girl, my precious girl,
Just what is this man to do?
Much better, he thought as he tried to guess Akitsu's measurements for her underclothes. He quickly gave up guessing and simply went for a good range of sizes hoping for the best. Gathering his items he darted out of ladies fashion and practically bowled into a mannequin showing off a stylish purple dress. The Doctor yelped and scurried back a few feet before getting a hold of himself.
Not an Auton, he thought, Just a mannequin. A regular old plain as plastic mannequin.
Then the mannequin moved.
"What?" he cried out.
The mannequin paused for a few moments before taking a different pose and pausing once more, each pose attempting to show off the dress to best effect. Fortunately only one of his hearts had had an attack.
"Oh right… Japan," he muttered and picked himself and his effects up.
Akitsu dried herself off dispassionately. The shower had been… disappointing. All she had felt had been hot water playing on her skin, face and hair. She knew how a shower was supposed to feel like, had seen others enjoying theirs before the Sekirei Plan had come to fruition… yet she felt nothing of the sort. She'd felt the water pattering against her skin… information before the senses and nothing more.
It was annoyingly inconsistent, the way she could only sometimes enjoy what her senses were telling her. The mud under her feet in the park and the rain pattering against her had felt nice. She wished that she could make sense of it all, could understand what was wrong with her. When in the shower that internal feeling of pleasure had become numb and insensate, as though something had broken inside her.
At other times however, the phenomenon would reverse. Her body would feel numb and insensate to the world while she boiled in an ocean of feelings that bore no restraint… feelings she could never hope to express because her body numbed into stubborn stillness whenever she tried to express or show those feelings. She could never find the middle ground, could never walk the path between being numb and sensuality. Some part of her was broken. She knew that. She felt that.
A barely audible sigh escaped her lips, it had been the most emotion she'd shown for the entire day, and stared into the mirror at the mark emblazoned upon her forehead. It was an eternal mark against her being, a permanent reminder that she was broken… useless… a discarded number whom could never be winged, would never find her Ashikabi, could never recite a Norito nor participate in Minaka's Sekirei Plan.
It was then that a curious thought occurred to her. If she could never be winged, if she could never recite a Norito, if she could never participate in the Sekirei plan… then did that not also mean she could never be defeated? Her mark was different from others, this she knew, and no touch from another Sekirei, even with recitation of their Norito would dissolve her mark. MBI did not consider her a part of the plan and with her power, few could hope to defeat her in single combat.
Perhaps I am merely different, not broken… she mused.
She looked to the door of the room and yawned sleepily. Perhaps the Doctor would come back after all.
All his instruments insisted on the same insipid reality that Minaka knew not to be the case. For all intents and purposes, the blue box was just that, a blue box. Blue paint, wooden, and with a phone that obviously did not work. And yet it was a blue box that seemed to have been plucked from 1950's England and dumped at random in a Tokyo park in the 2020's. The CCTV footage he'd managed to retrieve showed this blue box materialising from nothing. A camera on a different angle had recorded the doors opening to reveal the Doctor… and an interior that was apparently far in excess of its external dimensions… larger on the inside than it was on the outside. Minaka was drooling with anticipation of just what MBI could do with such miraculous technology… If only he could penetrate the damned blue box and get inside.
To that end Minaka had been referring to the database he'd retrieved from the crashed ship on Kamikura Island. What parts had been translated spoke at length of the time of the gods, when the heavens themselves had been set ablaze in a celestial war that had raged throughout the universe, a war that had, in the end, consumed the gods themselves, bringing about an age of darkness that all life now dwelt within.
But the database had more than the mere folklore of the race that had cast 108 survivors off into the void. It held vitally important information. It mentioned a grand trickster, a supreme angel of death bathed in the blood of a billion galaxies that had brought about the final, bloody end of the celestial war. It spoke of his people, of their ingenuity and of their decadence. It spoke of the man who burned in the centre of time and brought the gods themselves to their knees.
"Hmmm, this Doctor…" mused Minaka to himself as he pored over his notes, "He could be a threat to the Sekirei Plan…"
He knew he was putting it mildly. For a moment Minaka wished Takami were here. She'd stalked off a while ago, leaving him to the blue box. What would she say if she were here?
Probably call me an idiot, he thought, although, she'd probably snark about how I should just arrest him… His train of thought ended there and he leapt to his feet.
"OF COURSE!" he cried as ideas careered about in his mind at breakneck speed.
This Doctor had not merely arrived by chance. He couldn't have! He'd arrived for a purpose! A reason! For his Sekirei plan! Whether this Doctor intended to participate or disrupt the plan was immaterial to Minaka. He already had a plan to involve this Doctor in his Sekirei plan and remove him as a factor at the same time. After all, he was the Game Master, was he not? He cast about maniacally for his organiser. He had a grand announcement to make and not much time to work on it.
The Doctor trundled into the room with several shopping bags in tow and a pack of jelly babies stuffed into one of his pockets. He was about to extol the virtues of jelly babies when he noticed the subdued lights and the sleeping bump that Akitsu made in the room's only bed. He quietly set aside the spoils of his shopping trip, being careful not to wake her.
For a moment he debated whether to just climb in bed or sleep on the floor out of respect for her personal space. The floor looked every bit as uncomfortable as it sounded… and Akitsu had only taken up half the bed, leaving the other half open and inviting for him. He reasoned that so long as he remained on his side and she hers all would be well. With a sleepy yawn he clambered into bed, shut off the lights and promptly fell asleep.
Uzume sat beside Chiho's bed as she slept peacefully. The doctors said she was rallying again… if the morning weather held up she might even be allowed to take Chiho out briefly for some fresh air… they both enjoyed that immensely. If her condition could be reversed, they'd never have to keep such excursions brief and short. Uzume wanted to see the world with her Ashikabi, to climb the highest mountains, to enjoy the fresh sea air and to look upon the vast open sky with Chiho by her side.
Uzume looked again at the young woman that was her Ashikabi. The day they had met… Uzume had been sitting on a rail thinking idly. Chiho had thought she was trying to kill herself and had raced to save her, only for them both to fall… and be saved by Uzume in turn.
If it hadn't been for the way they'd met Uzume could almost believe that fate had rewarded her cruelly with Chiho. Almost. She cherished her Ashikabi… she loved Chiho with all her heart. She would do anything for her. She would wade through mud, debase herself and even fight dishonourably if it would mean that her Ashikabi could have a fighting chance against the sickness that ravaged her body.
A soft knock disturbed Uzume's thoughts. Shaking her head, she rose quietly leaving a soft kiss on Chiho's cheek and made for the door. Outside, Kakizaki adjusted his glasses and handed her a letter.
"Your next target, all the information is inside. Higa also passes on his compliments on your work so far," said Kakizaki.
"Higa can choke on his own bile," spat Uzume, giving Kakizaki a withering glare, "Will my Ashikabi get the treatment she needs?"
"All in good time," said Kakizaki before walking away.
Uzume gazed longingly at Chiho's room before she dejectedly left to do more of Higa's dirty work.