Chapter Twenty-One
A light chime sounded in the room and Bankotsu grimaced. Sparing a glance to the two teammates he was with, he took out his screen and swiped the acceptance icon. As per usual, no image came up, but the voice could be heard just fine.
"Bankotsu. Is it done?"
"Yep. Freak's taken care of."
"And the mess left in its wake?"
Bankotsu again looked to the other two in the room who were currently in the process of rolling the body of Micah Rozzen into a bag.
"Yeah. Cleaning up now. It's a good thing Dr. Micah Rozzen suddenly decided to transfer." His snickered comment had both Jakotsu and Suikotsu looking up from their task.
"Keep your postmortem humor to a minimum. Have you taken care of the subject's body? We do not need any of this to lead back here."
"I've got Mukotsu acting as coroner. Renkotsu is pretending to be special militia sent for the investigation. There were witnesses, need us to take care of them?"
"No. We already have preemptive measures in place. The witnesses will be taken care of. Have you located the chip?"
Bankotsu paused for a moment, a frown slowly drawing across his face. "You never said anything about a chip."
"Fool! The girl had gotten ahold of sensitive information. It was why I expedited her headhunt!"
Bankotsu let out a sigh. "Yeah, yeah. I'll have Mukotsu check for your chip. She hasn't left any belongings on any of the ships she had been on, so it has to be with her still." He paused and his eyes narrowed. Or it was with that botanist…
"Fine. Notify me once the chip is in your possession. I'll send the money to the correct account then."
"Right." Bankotsu ended the line and met Jakotsu's raised eyebrow.
"Jakotsu, get ahold of Mukotsu." His eyes glittered with excitement as a thought struck him. "Let's hope for that botanist's sake that the chip is somewhere on the freak's body."
Kagome squarely met the investigator's cold stare with her own angry blues. "As I said the first time, detective, she said that her 'savior' gave her some pills and she manifested psychic abilities."
The man that had introduced himself as a special investigator for the council, Mr. Renkotsu, as he had demanded she refer to him, was not listening to a word she was saying. Or rather, it seemed he didn't believe what she was telling him, and it was starting to get on her nerves.
"Miss Higurashi, people deemed civilian don't just magically develop psychic abilities." His tone was condescending and his facial features looked like they were trying to convey pity, but his eyes were hard and emotionless. "I'm finding it hard to believe that anyone could suddenly have telepathy as well as physically manifested powers. You say she destroyed the room with her energy? That type of ability does not exist. At least not to that extent."
Kagome grit her teeth and sat forward in the cot she had been placed on within med-bay. "Regardless of what you believe, that is what happened." She narrowed her eyes when his face remained set in stone. "Have you asked Taijya? He was there, he'll confirm what I am talking about."
Renkotsu narrowed his own eyes and sat back in the chair he had been provided with. "I have, and the boy is near delirious with blood-loss. Anything he has said proved to be more fanciful than your own delusions."
Kagome let out a small gasp in anger. "Delusions?! Listen here, buddy! I-!"
She was cut off as the door to her room was opened and a nurse came bustling in. "Now, now. Miss Higurashi, you were told to keep calm. The damage done to your ribs can be healed by today, but you must keep from straining them." The nurse shot a glare to the inspector. "I'm going to have to ask that you leave for today, inspector. No doubt you have filled your screen with all the questions you've been asking. My patients need rest."
Renkotsu kept the sneer from his face, but Kagome could practically feel the malice radiating off him. He stood from the chair he had been seated in for a little over an hour and inclined his head to the nurse.
"Of course. My apologies." His voice came out stoically. His eyes roved over the nurse to meet with Kagome's once more. "Last question, if you would, Miss Higurashi?" The sarcasm he used on 'Miss' had her gritting her teeth.
"Did the attacker give you anything?"
Kagome blinked slowly and made sure to put enough irritated impatience in her expression. "Give me anything? Besides some busted ribs?"
Renkotsu didn't answer but raised an eyebrow as he waited for what she would say next. Kagome felt a cold sweat start at the back of her neck, but kept her face from showing her nervousness. "No, inspector. Yuka didn't give me anything."
Letting out a soft snort of dismissal, the man finally left the room and Kagome deflated back onto her bed. A hand lifting her fringe and resting on her forehead made her jump. She had forgotten the nurse was still in the room.
"Well, I don't like how pale you are and you seem to be sweating…should I have the doctor come in and check you over?"
Kagome pasted on a weak smile and shook her head. "No. I'm ok. Probably just tired." She paused as the nurse tutted sympathetically and fidgeted in the bed. "Um, would it be possible to leave? I mean, to go home?"
The nurse eyed the psychic. "I've read your file, Miss Higurashi. You are not good at taking care of yourself."
"Please? It's just pulled cartilage, and you said I'd be healed by the end of the day." She put on the puppy eyes Souta and herself had perfected as children. "I just want to take a shower and go to bed…"
Before the nurse could respond, there was a commotion in the hall and the door whooshed open to admit a frazzled looking Miroku. His eyes shot about the room in a panic until they rested on her. He swallowed convulsively for a moment then strode to her bedside, never taking his eyes off her.
"God, Kagome. Are you alright?" His voice was strained and Kagome let her tensed shoulders droop. Tears stung her eyes and for a moment she wasn't sure she could open her mouth without sobbing. Seeing the deteriorating expression on her face, Miroku let out a harsh breath and sat on the edge of her cot, pulling her into a gentle hug.
It was all that it took to get the waterworks going. Grimacing over his friend's emotional outpour, Miroku turned his eyes to the nurse watching from the other side of the bed. Giving him a sympathetic smile, the nurse turned and left the room. A ragged inhalation from Kagome brought his attention back to the psychic's shaking shoulders.
"Kagome…what happened?" He asked after the tears had slowed and only small hiccups were escaping her lips.
Taking in another deep breath, Kagome sat up and away from Miroku's arms, but couldn't make herself meet his gaze just yet. "I was heading to the lab after that training session with Taisho, when I felt that something was wrong…"
Miroku listened to the whole of her story, alarms ringing in his head the further she went. It was with the mentioning of a drug that could induce psychic powers that had him getting up from the bed and pacing to the door. His hand raked through his hair as he turned back to pace towards Kagome.
"You're sure she said that she was taking pills." His question didn't come out like a question, and Kagome lowered her eyebrows at the other psychic.
"Yeah." She narrowed her eyes and fisted her hands in the light blanket that had been spread over her legs a while ago. "And that inspector practically told me I was crazy!"
Miroku spun around from his second pace to stare at her. "What inspector?"
Kagome blinked at the harsh tone in his voice. Miroku strode over to her side and bent to look into her eyes. "Did he show you his badge? Did you get his militia numbers?"
Kagome frowned as she tried to remember. "He showed me his badge…but I didn't really get to look at it. I never got his militia numbers…didn't even think to ask, honestly."
Miroku sat back in the chair positioned beside the bed and let out his breath slowly. He had heard about this drug. His contacts had told him about the dangerous experiments a few researchers were conducting. He had also heard about the even more dangerous people sent out behind them to clean it all up. If his intuition was right, and it almost always was, then this "inspector" was one of those dangerous people. As was the man that had shot down Yuka. And he had seen Kagome's face.
"Well, no one said this job would be easy." Miroku muttered under his breath and waved away Kagome's questioning gaze.
"Did anything else happen?"
He had mostly asked on habit, expecting Kagome to say "no" and that that would be the end of it. The long pause after his question had him shooting a glance to her face in trepidation. Kagome winced slightly and looked away.
"Ah. Well. It's not something I want to talk about here." She nearly whispered, her hand going to the small pocket at the hip of her pants. Miroku let his shoulders droop and rubbed a hand over his face.
"Right. I'll get you released." He paused and sent her a stern look. "But we aren't going to your place. We'll head to mine first, then decide from there." He held up a hand to stave off her rejection, not backing down from this.
"Regardless of what you think, Kagome, you were just attacked, and could have died. Please, take pity on me and just do what I say. Just this once."
Kagome scowled, but huffed out a reluctant agreement. "Fine, but the minute things get weird, I'm kicking your butt."
Miroku gave her a half-smile and a wink. "That just makes it all the more fun." Kagome rolled her eyes but gave a small smile back. "Now, I'm gonna go beg your release from that charming nurse. Don't go anywhere."
As he walked back out the door, Kagome wasn't sure what to make of the serious tone he had to his teasing.
Naraku studied the energy before him, sifting through the complexities that made this message far more interesting than the one he had first come to decipher. His hand hovered over his screen, ready to take any notes he would have to make as he examined the object.
The one who had encrypted the armbands was meticulous. Normally, a psychic left what would be considered a fingerprint on the energy they handled. However, the layering of this energy was done almost like a surgeon; clean cut and precise.
This told Naraku that the traitor created the messages and stored them in some way before placing them on an object. After placing the energy on the object, in this case the soldier's armbands, they then sealed it up to be released after a sequence of events. Those events could be the death of the soldier, or just the simple dismemberment. Either way, the energy was kept hidden from the psychic link of the one carrying the band.
It was definitely a complex and sneaky way to do things, and Naraku found he was rather impressed. Or would have been if there wasn't a slight flaw mixed in with this particular armband. The one who had layered the energy onto the band had slipped. Almost carefully hidden amidst the rest of the energy was a small "fingerprint". Manipulating his own energy to slip along the weave before him, he carefully scooped the small disjointed fragment to the surface, allowing its signature to be recorded on the device the armband was connected to.
The composition of the energy was scanned and processed, the fact that no match was registered in the psychic database had him grinning. It looked like the hunt would be more interesting than he had previously thought.
Turning to the other two researchers milling about the lab, he motioned one of them forward. "You. Get ahold of Myouga. The energy has been deciphered and I've discovered a 'fingerprint'."
He didn't wait for a response, just turned back to the energy before him and contemplated the actual message. It seems his next mission with his team was going to be more than just poking about old fragmented rocks.
Kouga stood in the training room, tapping his foot in irritation as he impatiently waited for the link to initiate with Hakaku. His search through the Northern Fleet database was proving to be more challenging than he had previously thought. He had looked into numerous female profile's and seen over a hundred different Yumi's, but still could not find his Yumi.
It was time to interrogate his partner once more.
'Yo, Kouga. What's got you so high-strung?' Hakaku asked as the link initialized, bringing Kouga back from his circular musings. 'Is it about the mission that Ginta was telling me about?'
'What? Mission?' Kouga blinked at the direction the conversation took then shook his head. 'Nah, I wasn't thinking about the mission. I was thinking about Yumi.'
'Who?' Hakaku scanned his partner's energy only half paying attention to what he was talking about. Kouga scowled down at the simulation control screen, not understanding how Hakaku could forget her for even a moment while she was stuck in his head.
'Yumi! You know the Northern soldier I've been trying to find for a couple days now?'
Hakaku let out a defeated sigh. 'Oh. Her.' The guilt he had felt in the beginning of his prank had morphed into bored irritation. 'Bro…I think it'd be best if you just left her alone. I mean, what are the odds of you hooking up with her anyway?'
Kouga scoffed as he finished putting in the code he wanted and stepped back to wait for the simulated enemy. 'Well, what if I decide to transfer?'
Hakaku infused his energy into Kouga's fists and scoffed right back at him. 'Yeah, won't happen. You're drafted to the West, dummy. You only get to transfer if it was extenuating circumstances. Besides, you'd have to find a new partner; I don't want to transfer anywhere.'
Kouga thought that over as he struck at one of the three enemies before him, taking it down and moving on to the next. 'Keh. Then I'll get her to transfer here!'
Hakaku mentally rolled his eyes and shook his head. 'Yeah, yeah. Like that would happen.' He monitored the strength Kouga was putting into his jabs and pulled back slightly. 'Too much momentum, bro.' He commented as Kouga pitched forward through an enemy's dodge, leaving his side open for attack.
Sucking on his teeth, he twisted sharply to avoid the strike and grunted at the pain the quick movement caused. Hakaku quickly soothed the strained muscles, sending the mental equivalent of a glare to his partner. 'This is why you need to keep your head in the game!'
'Hakaku. Can't you give me anything else to go on?' Kouga asked, ignoring the pleading quality he had in his voice.
'Nope.' Hakaku sent a snap of energy to Kouga's legs, boosting his speed as they dodged another enemy. 'I've got nothing else for you. Now tell me about this mission we're going on tomorrow.'
Letting his frustration out through his fists, he explained what he had been told earlier that day. 'We're going to poke around in this asteroid field. Reports say there have been Baasratu lurking about, and we are not sure why.'
'Anyone have a clue what we're going to be looking for?'
'Nope. But there is a large asteroid they are thinking could be another hollowed out base. That's where we are going to start our search.'
'What? Free-floating around an asteroid looking for an entrance?'
Kouga snorted and punched through a simulated enemy. 'Nah, got a high-tech scanner on board.' He paused as he took out two more, letting out a breath as he reached a short break. 'They want us linked incase things get hairy right away.'
Hakaku hummed in thought. 'I guess things really are different now. I kind of expected to be on clean-up detail again.'
Kouga snorted, rolling his shoulders back and preparing for the next wave. 'Yeah, the change is kinda sudden, and more dangerous. We gotta keep it together out there, Hakaku.'
'Yeah. Say's the daydreaming moron hell bent on hunting down a girl you only met once.' Hakaku snorted, keeping his tone light and teasing.
Kouga smirked and cracked his knuckles. 'You wait and see, Hakaku! I'll claim my woman for sure.'
Hakaku rolled his eyes and privately thought to himself, making sure Kouga wouldn't pick up on it. 'Not a snowballs chance in hell will Taisho allow you near his partner, bro.'
Kagome and Miroku both sat in front of his home screen, watching the images before them with varying degrees of anger and disgust. The small object that Yuka had handed over to her had been a small vid-chip, and it apparently was a video journal of a bunch of scientists using human beings in multiple psychic experiments.
A scream sounded through the room as they again watched someone injected with the drug lose their mind, only to be brutally put down by someone with one of those guns. Kagome closed her eyes and turned from the screen, having seen the same thing play out multiple times already.
Miroku leaned forward and paused the playback, his own mind sick of the stuff they had been watching for over half an hour already.
"What…what do we do with this, Miroku?" Kagome asked quietly, a hopeless fear sitting like a rock in her gut. "Where…who do we go to with this?"
Her hands trembled as she brought them up to scrub at the crusted remains of the tears she had been crying on and off the whole while. Miroku stared down at the carpet, an idea forming in his head that he wasn't quite in agreement over. With a sigh, he decided just to let it all out.
"Kagome. I know of someone we can trust with this." He started out, wondering how much he could tell her and how much trouble he would be in.
Kagome turned her eyes to her uneasy friend. "Who?"
"Well…he's sort of my mentor." Miroku paused as he considered what to tell her. "I'm…part of a group that handles this kind of thing." Seeing the horror dawning on her face he waved his hand in front of himself. "Not like that! We aren't the ones shooting people! We take on the organizations that do those kinds of experiments and shut them down."
"Shut them down how?" Kagome was picturing Miroku heading into some secret lab strapped with a bomb and blowing everything up.
"Usually through investigative work." Miroku was watching her face closely, knowing it wasn't the time to allude to the shadier side of his job. "We can get these people locked away without someone interfering or trying to cover it up."
"Can I meet this person?" Kagome asked, staring at him in determination.
Miroku sighed running his hand through his hair for what felt like the millionth time that night. "Ok." He finally allowed. "But keep in mind he's the one who raised me."
"So, a perverted old man. Got it." Kagome quipped as Miroku turned back to the screen, taking out the vid-chip and sending a link to Mushin. In a way, Miroku thought, he was kind of looking forward to the expression on the old man's face when he came face to face with the one he considered the savior of humanity.
"Dammit, boy! You have any idea what time…"
Miroku couldn't have hidden the smirk on his face if he tried. Mushin's sentence trailed off as he caught sight of a wide-eyed Kagome and his mouth hung open, looking properly gob smacked. Clearing his throat of the laughter bubbling up, Miroku lifted the vid-chip up, giving it a little wave to draw the older man's attention.
"Sorry, Mushin. But this is kind of important." Turning to Kagome, he quickly made introductions. "Kagome, my mentor Mushin. Mushin, this is Kagome Higurashi."
Mushin was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water before seeming to come to his senses. "Oh, uh, the pleasure is all mine!" The old man gushed as he bowed his head forward so quickly, Miroku was surprised he hadn't bashed it into the desk.
Kagome watched the flustered old man carefully, before nodding back hesitantly. "Yes. Pleased to meet you."
"Mushin. Important stuff." Miroku snapped his fingers and was treated to the enraged focus of his mentor.
"And it had damn well better be important, boy."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sending you the vid-chip contents now." Mushin raised an eyebrow and Miroku went on to explain. "Kagome was attacked by someone experimenting with that drug."
Even though he hadn't given any details, the old man knew what he was talking about. His face smoothed over into what Miroku referred to as business mode. Mushin shot a look to Kagome, concern shining in his eyes.
"Are you alright, my dear?"
Kagome swallowed back her emotions and gave a short nod. "Yes. But my childhood friend, Yuka, was the one who suffered in all of this. Miroku said you…can take care of the people responsible, right?" She watched as Mushin's expression went neutral but continued anyway. "I just want justice for what Yuka went through."
Shooting a quick glance at his solemn apprentice, Mushin folded his hands in front of him. "I'll have to look over what you're sending me. Miroku, we will speak later." Without saying anything else, the link was cut and Kagome was left staring at the blank screen.
"So, what does that mean?" Kagome asked quietly, looking for assurance from the only other being in the room. Miroku sighed and sat back in his chair.
"It means we'll take care of it." He smiled in her direction. "You take the bed tonight; I'll sleep on the floor. We've got a mission tomorrow morning, and I have a feeling we'll need all the sleep we can get."
"Right." Kagome murmured as she stood, pulling at the sweats she had been given to sleep in for the night. "Miroku…you'll tell me what Mushin decides…won't you?"
"Kagome, I highly doubt I'd be able to keep it from you." Miroku lamented as he grabbed the spare pillow and blanket from his closet.
As they both settled in for the night, Kagome realized she was grateful Miroku had strong-armed her into staying with him. The flashes from the images the both of them had just watched had her curling into a ball under the covers. If she had been by herself…she stopped that line of thought quickly and instead focused on the steady cadence of Miroku's breathing, allowing it to lull her into sleep.
Miroku let out a sigh as he felt Kagome finally sink into the sleep her abused body desperately needed. Staring up at his darkened ceiling, he again vowed that he would keep Kagome safe. Even as that now included from the grasp of crazy psychic researchers.
Across the residential area of Eden, Bankotsu let out a low curse from where he was hidden inside Kagome Higurashi's room. The message scrolling across his screen making him clench his teeth in frustration. The chip hadn't been on the freak's body.
Renkotsu had reported that the Higurashi chick had been headstrong and adamant that she knew what she had seen and heard. There had been no room for his telepathy to slip into her mind and change how she had perceived the events. As if she had trained herself to block telepaths. On top of that, Bankotsu was now ninety percent sure the bitch was in possession of the chip.
She had to be. Thus, why he was camped in the room he had already turned over, looking for said chip. He kicked at the clothes lying strewn over the floor and cursed out loud again. She had left med-bay four hours ago. Logic said she would have gone home. Or perhaps the cafeteria and then home. Either way, she should have already been there.
Unfortunately, it seemed his well thought out plan was a failure. The girl hadn't come home. So, where the hell was she?
Pulling up his screen, he shot a link to Renkotsu, scowling when he picked up. "Yo. Where the hell did that bitch go?"
Renkotsu lifted a brow, meeting his eyes coolly. "If she isn't there, then I have no idea. I only know she left med-bay."
"Find her. She has the chip. Without the chip, we don't get paid."
Renkotsu allowed a slow smirk as he straightened from the lean he had been in. "Well, why didn't you say so earlier?" He cut the link and turned to the med-bay doors he had been leaning beside. It seemed he had a mouse to hunt down.
Magatsuhi cursed silently as he held the vile filled with dark energy up to the light. There were reports that someone was investigating the armbands. Someone outside the control of the council. His eyes narrowed as he carefully set the vile down in the box meant to keep it safe and pushed it into the hidden drawer he always kept them in.
It looked like he was going to have to be more careful then he had been. Shooting one last dark glance at the hidden drawer, he pulled out the bottle of pills in his coat pocket, popping one in his mouth and swallowing it quickly.
xXx
Ugh. So, I really hate what I call "bridge chapters", the chapters that contain lots of little pieces of information to tie into the next big chapter. And that's really what this was. Probably why I decided to check over and release the other stuff I'd been fiddling with for months. Am I happy with this chapter, not really. But it needed to be written.
Sorry it's shorter than usual, but I'm pretty sure this will be my last "bridge".
