Disclaimer: Really, must I repeat myself? It's not like I'm getting paid for this…
Onward.
Chapter 6: Feeling, Sweet Feeling
Haruka had told him that someone was coming to pick them up, someone they knew and could trust with their lives at need.
What she hadn't told him was who it would be; the man's arrival spoke for itself.
'Son of a--!' "Please don't tell me he's gonna be driving!" Keitaro groaned, holding his head in dismay. Granted, the kanrinin wasn't the very best of drivers himself, but in comparison with the infamous Tokyo University Professor of Archaeology Noriyasu Seta, however, anyone was better behind the wheel, at least normally speaking.
Haruka cringed to herself. 'He isn't going to make this easy on me, is he?' she thought privately. "He can drive safely, Keitaro," she reassured him before muttering, "provided his life depends on it, which it will in a moment…"
The door of the van opened, and Seta emerged with an umbrella, hunched over in the rain. Coming around under the awning quickly, he addressed Haruka first. "Sorry I'm a little late! Traffic was terrible with all this rain. I ended up taking a shortcut. Turns out they were in the middle of road work! Imagine that, and in this weather no less! Ah, well. Good to see you again, Haruka-chan! Miss me much?"
Mitsune watched Haruka's expression with interest, as it subtly changed from an indignant glare to an embarrassed ghost of a smile, before returning to neutral again in a flash. She had to suppress a snicker; the older woman hid her emotions well, but not perfectly so.
"Glad you could make it in one piece, Seta," Haruka responded finally. "Hopefully, you can keep all four wheels on the ground and not in the air for a while, since you'll be taking two people with you when you go."
Seta looked at her sheepishly. "Well…I can try, I guess."
She glared at him with the promise of hell in her eyes.
"Alright, alright, I won't drive over 80 miles an hour," he promised. The glare continued. Sighing, he relented further. "Alright, 70, and I'll be more careful. It'll be a longer trip, though, just warning you."
Her glare softened, and disappeared. "That doesn't matter. The need for haste was in you physically getting here; from here out, if you're lucky you'll have quite some time yet before you have to drive like a maniac again." More quietly, she added, "In fact, you'll be better off if you don't speed at all for now. The less attention you can draw, the more time they'll have to recuperate."
"Yeah, I get what you mean." Seta said in a lower tone of voice, a flash of seriousness crossing his expression that lasted barely a moment, though only Haruka noticed it. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished, and Seta shifted his attention next to his passengers-to-be. "Good to see you again, Keitaro. Been busy showing off, I hear?" he teased good-naturedly.
The younger Urashima nodded from under his raingear in somewhat embarrassed agreement. "Yeah, well…sort of. Mostly just helping a few people that needed it, though everyone seems to think I've been a little too busy trying to keep up with it all."
"So I see!" the archaeologist remarked, looking him over in the dim light of the rainy afternoon. "Last time I looked like that, I had to put off an expedition and take a week off for down time! Still ended up being a busy week, but not in the same sense at any rate," he said, ignoring the look Haruka was currently giving him but wisely changing the subject. "Anyway, Haruka tells me you could use some downtime yourself."
Keitaro nodded. "I guess so. If it's any trouble, I'd be happy to repay you if I can, or assist you later if you want."
"Nonsense! Favor's on me, don't worry about it. Least I can do for a friend, right? Speaking of which," Seta turned to look at Keitaro's companion, who until that point had remained silent and half-hidden under her rain jacket's hood, "unless I'm thoroughly mistaken, there's been someone you've been a bit busy with yourself that's coming along as well?"
Keitaro colored slightly, but Mitsune looked up and beamed a grin out from under her own gear at the archaeologist. "Hiya, Seta!" she said.
His jaw dropped low, and his head went back and forth as he looked from one to the other in disbelief. "You're kidding me, right?"
"Nope!" the couple said together, laughing together at his expression.
"Wow. Guess that means we both owe Hina fifty thousand Yen, huh Haruka?" Seta moaned in disbelief. Haruka snorted to herself; she hadn't been the only one to lose that bet! Keitaro just tilted his head in confusion.
"Anyway, if you kids are ready, toss your bags in the trunk and get in the back seats; I'm afraid I have to use the front seat to hold something else at the moment," Seta recovered and instructed them. After the two had loaded up and climbed aboard, he walked over to Haruka, who now stood just out of sight of the vehicle's back windows.
"Where should I take them, anyway?" he asked her quietly. "It can't be anywhere public or well-known, you know. Too damn risky at this point."
She leaned over and whispered the destination in his ear, not wanting to be overheard by anyone. "And watch out for any tails; hopefully, you won't get anyone following you yet, but be careful! You know what they're like."
"I will be," he replied softly. "Will you be okay from here? You'd better not hang out too long yourself; once they figure out who it is, this'll be the first place they look."
"I'll be fine," Haruka assured him. "I'm not sticking around for long after this, an hour or so if I can get them ready without too much fuss."
He smiled. "Good to know I've got the easy job, then."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You can only imagine. Still, with any luck we'll be gone before they get here, and so will everyone else. I've already sent word ahead of us."
"Good, that's good," Seta nodded. "Be careful out there, and don't get caught, okay? If what you said is right, we're pushing our luck here as it is."
"If they don't know by now, they will. Keitaro was lucky enough not to announce his name to anyone, but there were dozens that could see what he did yesterday, and it won't be long before word reaches the wrong ears if it hasn't already. And Seta?"
"Yeah?"
"Keep in mind that he doesn't know any of this yet. She suspects more than he does, but they're both in the dark right now. Keep it that way and let them both rest as long as you can. If you're lucky, you should have a few days to work with, though after that point I wouldn't stay in one place very long."
"Got it. What about…" he nodded toward his van, or rather toward something in it.
"Wait until you tell them the rest, and don't show them any of it before that."
"Alright. I brought enough supplies to last at least three or four days as well; it helps to frequently travel when you need to be prepared," he said proudly.
"Good. If I get the chance, I'll send you a signal in a few days time to get moving. Don't call me or anyone else from this point on, got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," he nodded respectfully. He began to turn back toward his van.
"And Seta?" she said, holding him back for a moment longer.
"Yeah?"
She kissed him full on the lips, surprising him (though only a little). Moments later, she broke contact. "Don't forget to come back alive and in one piece, or I'll hunt you down myself." He nodded numbly.
A moment later, Haruka watched them leave. For once, Seta drove close to reasonably, or at least close enough. The van soon vanished into the continuing downpour.
Turning away finally, she made her way quickly back up toward the inn, carrying a heavy bag of her own she'd prepared earlier. There was still much to do tonight.
**********
"Here; I figured you two might be hungry," Seta commented casually as he handed a large lunch sack toward the back seat from the front. "It's going to be a long trip, so help yourself."
"Thanks, Seta. We haven't had dinner yet, actually," Mitsune said, accepting the pack gratefully. They'd been on the road only about fifteen minutes, and were already headed into quiet and unfamiliar territory as far as she could tell. Even though it was still early in the evening, the traffic had gone from regular to practically nonexistent around them, though it was hard to see much in the heavy rain. She nudged Keitaro, who was already beginning to doze off a bit. "Hey. Are you hungry, Kei-kun?" she asked.
"Yeah, actually, a bit," he said, registering the container in her lap. Opening it, they found a small assortment of snacks, sodas, and fruit; light fare to be sure, but nothing to get picky over, either. "Hope you like it," Seta commented cheerfully over his shoulder.
"Yeah, thanks!" Keitaro replied gratefully. As they ate together, practically alone and without fear, Keitaro felt himself slowly begin to relax. The difference seemed astounding to his mind; though he'd been initially worried about Seta being behind the wheel, Haruka had indeed managed to get the man on his best behavior, and the trip was going relatively smoothly. The further from the Hina-Sou they went, the less pressure he felt like he was under as well; he was only now beginning to realize just how great a burden it had been on him. He'd been afraid and ashamed, at least initially, of abandoning his duties for any extended period of time; not only did he face further injury for it, but he faced his own sense of responsibility and guilt for doing so in the first place. Ironically, though he forgave others as readily as he breathed air, forgiving himself was never an easy thing for him to do.
"This is really nice of you to do this for us, Seta-san," Keitaro said a few minutes later. "I mean, I know you're pretty busy with your work a lot and all. I really hate having to be a burden like this."
"Ah, don't worry about it. I'm actually in a bit of a lull, for once. I'm not planning on going on another trip for a couple months yet, and since classes aren't in session at the moment things have been pretty boring lately! Besides, there's no sense in leaving a friend hanging when I can do something about it, right? Especially one I can relate to."
"Heh, yeah, I know the feeling." Keitaro mused on this to himself. He and Seta really weren't that different, when it came down to it. Sure, Seta was years older, smoked almost as much as Haruka did, and was highly skilled in his profession, but they both shared that combination of reckless selflessness and two left feet, especially around women. And while many people knew of Seta's martial arts expertise, few realized either the true extent of its development or the extent to which he used it. Keitaro was one of only a few people that did, and one of fewer still that knew how Seta managed to create the illusion of near-invulnerability to injury. Though Keitaro was arguably better at the healing techniques by virtue of near-daily practice, Seta was not too far behind.
"So, do you know where we're going? Haruka was pretty tight-lipped about it to me," Mitsune chimed in.
"We are headed for a nice spot in the middle of nowhere!" Seta explained with all due bravado in his tone. "I've been there once or twice with Haruka, but don't tell anyone I said that or she'll kill me. It'll take us a while to get there; actually, it wouldn't be quite so long, but I'm going a bit slowly by request."
Keitaro glanced at Seta's speedometer, which was holding steady at about 72 miles and hour. Though the road seemed pretty open, he was pretty sure the speed limit was about ten or fifteen less. 'Better than thirty over, I suppose.'
"Where is it?" Mitsune asked.
"It's in this country, but nowhere near civilization at any rate. It's kind of remote. Quite cozy, though; a good hideout when you need to get away from things for awhile."
"Does it have a name?" Keitaro inquired.
"Not really. Well, not anymore I suppose," Seta replied with a chuckle. "Probably did once, but I never did manage to find out what."
'Definitely sounds like somewhere in the middle of nowhere to me,' Mitsune thought privately to herself. Normally, she would think a hotel would suffice; whatever it was that Haruka had been so adamant about in sending them off in secret like this, she seemed quite serious about them not being found for a while. Thinking of Keitaro, she decided it would be better not to bring it up just yet; she didn't want him worrying about anything he didn't have to if she could help it!
Still, there was one thing she was curious about: an oblong, carefully wrapped, and fairly large box strapped into the front passenger seat. "Hey, Seta? Whatcha got in that box?"
"Oh, uhh…a few things. Work-related, most of them. Maybe I'll show them to you a few days from now, after we've settled in a bit." Seta seemed reluctant to say more.
"Oh, okay," she responded, a little disappointed. Seta, it seemed, was always knee-deep in something big, strange, or dangerous when it came to his work. Much of the time, he was both willing and eager to describe something he was working on or had found, but not always. Generally speaking, though, if he was reluctant to talk about something, you generally didn't want to find out the reason for it!
Keitaro, meanwhile, was feeling less and less able to stay awake. Between the meal, the rhythmic motion of the car along the road, and his current state, he felt consciousness slowly beginning to slip away from him.
Kitsune took notice of this a moment later. Whether by virtue of having nothing else to do or by physical state of being, she began to realize that she, too, felt tired. True to form, the realization gave her a pleasant idea. "Well, Kei-kun, looks like it's gonna be a long one," she said to him. "I think you should probably get some shuteye on the way, what do you think?"
"That…sounds like a good idea, actually," he said with a yawn. "I guess I'll just…take a nap on the way." As he was sitting in the right corner seat, he shifted a bit such that he could rest against the nook comfortably at a slight lean.
To his mild surprise, Kitsune shifted with him, turning and sliding in her seat until she was almost facing him to lie into the side of his chest, her head resting just under his right shoulder. Before he could think to ask what she was doing, she explained, "I think I'll join you, then, if you don't mind."
Though still somewhat taken aback by her boldness, he wasn't about to argue with it. "No, not if you don't," he replied quietly, gently shifting to allow them both to wrap their arms around one another in their current positions.
She smiled and let her head loll into his chest even further, enjoying the comforting warmth it radiated under his shirt. She kissed the part of his shoulder her lips could reach, and quietly said "G'night, Kei-kun…"
Whether by accident or design, his return kiss landed on the exposed nape of her neck, sending an almost electric sensation down much of her left side on contact. She heard him say, "G'night, Kitsu-chan…" before his breathing slowed into the steady rhythm of rest.
Resisting the urge to gasp, she thought to herself, 'Either he got incredibly lucky, or he's more of a natural at this than I thought!' Though experience told her the odds favored the former possibility, her instinct was screaming in favor of the latter. 'Well, this is definitely going to be time well-spent with him either way,' she thought to herself as she tried to ignore the ticklishly pleasant sensations of his breath flowing near and across her neck. Within a few minutes, she had finally drifted off to sleep as well.
Seta just chuckled quietly to himself and shook his head, watching the pair in his rear view mirror out the corner of his eye as they cuddled and slept. 'There goes my fifty thousand,' he thought to himself as he drove on, 'though I can't say I begrudge them a single Yen of it.'
**********
Four and a half hours later, the van finally arrived at its destination. The rain had all but ceased by then, though it was replaced by patches of dense fog and light mist. The road itself was ancient, paved with flat stones for several miles along a mostly forgotten path into the thick of long-untouched wilderness. The area was somewhat elevated and mountainous, the air somewhat chilly for that time of year due to the weather and terrain. In the daytime, in better weather, the place the van pulled in front of could be called beautiful; a large, ancient-looking and well-made structure set alongside the apex of a small cliff overlooking a waterfall that fed a clear, swift, shallow river below. A forest teeming with life surrounded the place, nearly hiding it completely from the road until it practically ended in front of it.
'Of course, it looks more like the Feudal Villa That Time Forgot right now,' Seta thought amusedly to himself as he pulled in between what might have once been an ancient set of gates in the remnants of a surrounding perimeter wall. Parking in a convenient nook around the right side, he set about waking his still-slumbering pair of passengers. "Well, we're here!" he announced, popping open his door and hitting a button to unlock the others as he got out.
Keitaro blinked his eyes open and yawned, his brain taking a long moment to regain its bearings. He noticed Kitsune first, almost jumping in surprise but remembering why she was there just in time. He registered the van seat next, and the fact that the vehicle had come to a stop. Finally, he registered the change in scenery outside from the dim obscurity of pouring rain to the darker, mist-laden groves of trees and bamboo beyond the van's window. The clouds overhead had thinned and broken, allowing bright moonlight to illuminate the patchy fog near the earth instead. From his angle, he could see the side of the ancient building rising on the other side of the parked van like a shadow of a forgotten era.
'What…is this place?' he wondered to himself, as Mitsune began to wake up on top of him. "Are we there yet?" she asked him sleepily, her eyes slowly opening.
"I…I think so," he said with a yawn. "Not exactly sure where, though."
She sat up slowly, stretching and looking around. "Hmmm…maybe its not so much where as it is when?" she joked. "Maybe Seta's got some sort of time machine in the glove compartment."
"No, but I do have a submersible conversion device under the dash," Seta's voice replied from behind them. Turning, they saw him unloading the back of the van through its double-door back hatch. "Don't worry, this place only looks that old on the outside and has every right to do so: it's looked like that for about four or five hundred years, after all!"
Keitaro's eyebrows went up. "You mean this place was made in feudal times?"
Seta laughed. "Nah, that's just when it started looking old!"
Moments later, they had gathered their bags from the back and started up what was left of an ancient stone walkway to the front entrance. "Does anyone actually live here anymore?" Mitsune asked.
"On occasion. It's been in my family for a long time, actually. I still use it once in a while; believe it or not, it makes a decent hideout or vacation spot when I need to get away from the world for awhile." Seta fumbled in his pocket a moment before producing a large, ancient-looking key. Fitting it in a large iron lock on the almost gate-sized doorway, he turned the mechanism with noticeable effort. "There we are! Come on, let's get some of this stuff inside, shall we?"
It was almost pitch-black beyond the threshold at first, and Seta went in before them. Finding a switch on the nearest wall, he switched on a set of about a dozen flickering old ceiling-hung electric lights. If the outside told of the structure's ancient beginning, the inside told of its story ever since. Parts of the ancient structure looked like they had been partially remodeled several times by people of widely separated time periods; beautifully painted rice-paper walls and decades-old electrical work ran side-by-side past a mixture of furnishings ranging from just a few to a few hundred years old. It was quite large inside; though essentially a one-story building, it had nearly as many rooms with a greater variety of purposes as the whole of the Hina-Sou. Seta showed them each briefly; aside from the standard rooms of any home, it had a small dojo, several storage rooms full of artifacts and other things, a well-equipped armory (its contents both original to the time it was made and added to over the years), and even a utility room complete with both household and archaeological tools.
"This place is incredible! It's really something else, professor." Keitaro said a moment later as he took it all in.
Seta grinned in pride. "Yep. This is my home away from home, as old as the stuff I work on and home to a lot of it as well. I haven't been here in about…two years now, I think. At any rate, I believe there's a bedroom or two at the end of that hall that should suit your needs well enough; mine's at this end, so don't use that one. Go ahead and get yourselves settled in; I've got some supplies to bring in from my van."
"Need any help?" Keitaro offered.
"Nope! It's just some food and a few odds and ends, I'll be fine."
"Thank you, Seta-san," Keitaro replied with a light bow.
"This is really nice of you to bring us here, Seta," Kitsune added, doing the same.
"Not a problem, kids. Go on, I'll see you in a few minutes." the older man replied casually over his shoulder as he went back outside.
As his two guests went to pick their rooms and unpack for the night, Seta took the opportunity to quickly scan over the surrounding area. No one was around for miles normally, and they'd been very fortunate that no one had been on the road with them for miles more. Still, he had to be as sure as possible.
Much as Keitaro had done the previous day, Seta stretched out with his ki, feeling for the touch of anything that wasn't supposed to be there, of anyone nearby. It wasn't an entirely foolproof method, he knew, but it was by far better than what his eyes and ears could tell him. As far as he could sense, they were alone.
From where he stood, he could easily sense his guests, feeling the flickers of their emotions and intents as they went about their own tasks. Like a ki-driven echolocation or sonar, he could practically sense where they were in the physical sense and how they were feeling emotionally. He took a moment to examine them both, to see what Haruka had seen in Keitaro. Were matters different, he might have asked their permission before performing such an examination, as their ki reflected a significant part of their beings. But for his own sake and that of others, he had to know something for sure, and he wouldn't get the chance to make the comparison again very easily.
A moment later, he'd seen enough. 'So that's what they meant,' he thought to himself, as he considered the sheer magnitude of what he'd just discerned. 'And to think: he's not even running at full steam yet! When he gets rest and they've spent some solid time together…'
Shaking his head to clear it, he returned to the task at hand. He hadn't doubted Haruka, but with so much at stake it helped him to know for certain she had been right.
It also meant he would be taking a lot more than groceries inside with him.
He started with the awkward package in the front seat of his van. It was large and quite heavy, though he had little trouble handling it himself. When the time was right, he wouldn't be carrying it around anymore anyway, and that would be a relief in more than one way.
He brought the bundled box inside, quickly checking to make sure that both Keitaro and Kitsune were still occupied with their rooms. Quietly, he took it into the armory and opened a secret panel behind a displayed suit of samurai. Dropping it inside the nearly empty compartment it concealed as quietly as he could and shutting it again, he secured a hidden latch to keep it from opening. Moving to the other side of the room, he opened a similar hatch, this one revealing a much better stocked compartment. He briefly examined what he saw, and frowned. 'Hmmm, that's what I figured: all the hardware's here and ready, but there's not enough filling to work with.' Closing it, he went back to his van and got several stacks of small but very heavy boxes, about five of each kind. Ten to fifteen more of each type were left, but he'd need them more where they were later. Returning with the heavy load, he carefully opened each one and added their contents to the empty sections of the second compartment. 'Best to be prepared inside and out, especially now,' he thought to himself as he worked. Satisfied, he closed and latched the compartment and threw out the empty boxes.
Only after he was finished with them did he dare to light a fresh smoke for himself.
By the time Keitaro and Mitsune had re-emerged from their rooms, Seta was carrying in the last of a fair amount of food he'd brought for the duration of their stay. It was getting late, but since they had slept for a fair part of the trip they weren't quite as tired as before, so they had a small dinner together and conversed casually. Seta told them about a few of his latest expeditions (including the numerous scrapes he'd gotten himself into along the way, much to the amusement of all), and Mitsune told him about how she and Keitaro had managed to get together. Seta chuckled good-naturedly at the many shades of red the young ronin turned as his new sweetheart described (with glowing detail) all that he'd done in just the past few days. As they spoke, the archaeologist began to understand a bit better why Haruka had been so insistent that he get as much of a break as possible; considering how much he'd done in such a short span of time, he had every right to be half-dead from exhaustion!
Finally, they decided to turn in for the night an hour later. After Seta had gone into his own room, Mitsune embraced Keitaro outside hers. Pulling away, she whispered to him, "Thank you for agreeing to do this, Kei. I know it's hard on you to skip out on everyone like that, but…I really think you need this break. We need this break."
"Yeah…I know," the kanrinin admitted. "It does feel good to not have to worry about it all for a while. Still…I mean, I know I'll be better off in the long run doing this and all, but…I don't know. I still don't feel right about leaving everyone behind like that, just sneaking off without saying a word to anyone. It just feels like I'm being selfish, somehow."
She kissed him lightly. "Take it from me: you've gotta be selfish once in a while, or there won't be anything left of yourself to give to anyone at all. And yeah, I know it's not good to be selfish all the time, either, but…when you think of it, that's just how everyone's been acting toward you for a long time, now. That includes me, too."
"Yeah, but…"
"You've spent a long time keeping everyone safe, happy, and well taken care of, and you've been put through way too much crap for it already," she insisted. "As long as we're here, your job is to rest, relax, and have some fun for a change." She smiled playfully at him and winked. "And mine is to make sure that you enjoy yourself, in any way I can. And I don't do that for just anyone, you know. "
Keitaro drew her into a tight, earnest hug suddenly, surprising her. "Thank you," he whispered gratefully in her ear. "It…really means a lot to me…"
She smiled again, returning his embrace. For what seemed like forever, they stood there in each other's arms, neither willing to let it end. Their contact broke only when, about a minute after they had begun, they heard a tremendous crash come from within Seta's room. Startled from their reverie, they rushed to the other end of the hallway and opened his door. "Are you all right? We heard something crash…Seta? Where are you?" Keitaro said first as it opened, looking for the man in question.
"Yyyhhh, mmm rrkky, mmm dwwwn hrrr," came Seta's muffled voice at their feet. Looking down, they saw him sprawled and half-buried in partially folded clothing with a drawer on his head, about halfway across the room from the dresser said drawer had come from. "Dmmn thng wzz stkk."
They both burst out laughing. As Seta removed the large drawer from his head and spat out a stray sock, they helped him to his feet and helped gather the scattered contents before leaving again.
At last, everyone had made it back to their respective rooms and had settled in for the night. The beds were large, and the night was somewhat chillier than they were used to, but the place was quiet and serene; with no sounds but the muffled music of water and nature outside to disturb them, they all soon fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
A.N.: It's funny to me, in writing, how ideas lead into and out of each other. A lot and not much happening this time around, yet already the seeds of great things are being sown liberally. Next chapter or two will follow these three, as Keitaro gets his *ahem* rest with Kitsune, and Seta prepares for impending peril. I'll get back to the others briefly after that, and cut to the chase (literally) thereafter.
In light of the strong positive response about the shotgun I've received from reviewers, I feel the need to give you an update. I like the look of the AA-12 and USAS 12, but I'm definitely going more for something that still looks like a shotgun. Hence, I think the choice is now between one of the Remingtons (870 or 1100) and one of the Benelli's (I was originally thinking M3 Super 90, but the Supernova also caught my eye; I didn't like the look of the stock on the M4, though). It's got to do with the presence of the weapon itself, not just its rate of fire. It's just gotta say "boomstick" at a glance, the sort of thing that you see someone cock it and look at you, and you think: "Holy shit, I'm fucked." I might use the automatics later, though, depending on how things go.
Anyway, thanks to Jimi Hendrix for title inspiration, and to Marathon: Infinity for the next…