Battle Front: Chapter 16
If she hadn't felt like a soldier earlier when she was almost attacked outside of the base on a simple run then she certainly felt like one now. Kaoru followed closely behind Aoshi toward the laboratory with her bo-staff securely held and ready for action. Unfortunately, she felt more like a cosplay participant than a trained soldier. A summer at officer's training bootcamp hardly prepared her for any practical application of engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
"So what exactly is this sensitive biological information?" Kaoru asked quietly. Their silent stalking was unnerving her. A few words would make all the difference, but then again it could also make them an easy target. Maybe she should have just kept her mouth shut.
Aoshi glanced over his shoulder at her and merely raised his brow making her really wish she'd just kept her mouth shut. He wore the two swords he mentioned strapped across his back and if she didn't know him better she'd think maybe he really was some sort of ninja assassin. It was hard to believe he was the same guy she used to play with at the beach not too many months ago. She was aware that he had a third degree black belt in Karate from before he started college-apparently you can do that when you start at five years old. However, he never really trained as far as she knew during their college tenure together-unless you counted the one semester of Kendo they both took for their kinesiology elective sophomore year.
'Right, if you told me you'd have to kill me,' she mouthed with a roll of her eyes.
'Exactly,' he mouthed back.
She kept her mouth shut after that not wanting to draw any enemy interest in their direction. Hopefully, they were just being overly cautious, but she'd rather be safe than sorry any day.
They were traveling deep within the bowels of the base into unknown territory for her. Of course, if the territory wasn't on the way to the clinic our her residence then the likelihood of her traversing it was extremely slim. It was more than a little annoying to learn that Aoshi had been chosen instead of her to be part of this secret biological study. Her grades in both biochemistry and microbiology had both been superior to Aoshi's. As a matter of fact, she'd been his tutor! However, an A is an A. Who cares if she was the one to blow the curves in undergraduate school. In their medical school Aoshi had been number one and she'd been number three. If she hadn't missed three lectures on pathophysiology due to a horrible stomach virus she'd caught she could have beaten him.
Aoshi stopped abruptly and it took all of Kaoru's much pre-occupied attention to avoid running into him. He looked down at her with a scowl. "Stay focused," he whispered.
Kaoru's eyes narrowed at the insinuation. How dare he tell her to stay focused! She was focused! Her mind was only wandering a little and it was a completely relevant subject and she'd avoided hitting him when he stopped. What more could he expect?
It was then that the smallest of sounds caught her attention. It was like a heavy object compressing from behind the wall to her right.
Aoshi gestured toward the wall and mouthed, 'That's the lab.'
Kaoru tightened her hold on her weapon and Aoshi pulled his twin swords off his back and approached the door. It was a dark grey inside but there was some illumination from the florescent lights that backlit the laboratory.
Aoshi eased open the door and Kaoru followed after him. The loud compression sound muffled any noises their entrance might have made. In the far corner there were three men standing around what looked like a large safe. The compression sound came from that area where the safe's front was being pried apart. Two of the men had machine guns strapped over their shoulders and the third stood arrogantly looking down with his arms folded over his chest-most likely he was the leader and in a supervisory role.
Aoshi had his swords poised and Kaoru had her bo-staff positioned as they approached. He signaled with his chin and Kaoru sent her staff crashing down upon the skull of the man to the right. He fell to the ground unconscious and Aoshi used his sword to remove the other armed man's gun by slicing the strap and flinging it across the room. He then held a sword to each of the men's throats.
"Move and I let my hand slip," he said warned.
"What an unexpected turn of events," the man in the middle said. His eyes were unnaturally red in the weak light and his dark hair was tied back into a messy pony tail at the top of his head. He was tall and strong and Kaoru could literally feel power radiating off the man. He glanced down at the blade at his neck with a sense of boredom until his eyes looked over toward Kaoru. "Very unexpected."
"Back away from the unit," Aoshi ordered.
"Are you worried we might recover this?" the red-eyed man asked holding a binder in his hand. "I admit, English is not my first language, but I can understand very well." His eyes flickered back toward Kaoru and in his other hand he whipped out a dagger and somehow moved away from Aoshi's sword, a red line of blood formed across his neck but it didn't stop him as he shoved the knife into Kaoru's right lung.
The bo-staff fell out of Kaoru's limp fingers as a horrible pain built up in her chest as her lung collapsed. She would have fallen to the ground except the man had maneuvered himself behind her and held her body against his firm chest.
Aoshi kept the sword at the other man's throat and mirrored the red-eyed man's stance but with his hand wrapped around his throat from behind. "Let her go and I'll let you escape with that binder."
"No you won't," the man answered. "You'll shoot me in the back like the coward you are, American scum."
"Let her go, Shishio," Aoshi growled. He pressed down on his hostage's carotid artery and the man fell unconscious to the floor beside Kaoru's victim. He then held both his swords at the ready.
"Such terrible manners, American. We are not friends and not on first name basis. Though I would enjoy being on first name basis with this one," Shishio said licking his tongue across Kaoru's exposed neck. "Perhaps she will be the one to read to me stories of biological warfare and the horrors that your country has created for the safety of the world."
Kaoru caught Shishio's eyes flicker behind Aoshi and that was when she saw Soujiro Seta, her future brother-in-law, appear out of the shadows. An overwhelming feeling of relief washed over her. Unfortunately, that feeling quickly vanished and turned to horror when Soujiro proceeded to shoot Aoshi in both quads from behind. Aoshi fell to the ground with his face contorted in pain but held his swords with a glare of pure hatred toward Shishio. That glare was redirected behind him at Soujiro as Aoshi looked toward where he'd been attacked from.
"Sorry, doc," Soujiro said with a bright smile as he used the butt of his gun to hit Aoshi on the base of his skull, Aoshi slumped to the floor unconscious and Soujiro then kicked away the two swords. He looked over toward Shishio. "Makato, sir, you didn't have to stab her."
"She'll live, Seta," Shishio said. He tossed him the binder and then lifted Kaoru into his arms. She couldn't protest as it was becoming harder and harder to breath as she could feel her chest cavity filling with fluid. It needed to be released or else she'd suffocate on her own blood. Her eyes drew down to Aoshi in panic and then up at Soujiro. She'd known him for years! How could he be part of the enemy?
"Don't worry, Kaoru-chan," Soujiro said with his horrible smile. She didn't recognize the look in his eyes one bit. "Master Makato will take very good care of you."
OOOOOoooooOOOOO
Enishi crouched down to check Shinomori's pulse. He wouldn't cry if Kaoru's ex-lover were no longer part of the living world, but alas, he was alive with a strong and steady heart rate. Himura had started to tie up the other two unconscious men while Enishi searched for the source of all the blood making the tile slick. He found two bullet holes through Aoshi's quadriceps muscles and grimaced. That man had quit a bit of rehabilitation in store for him after he recovered. Hopefully the nerves had been missed. The arteries were unharmed or else he'd have bled out by now.
"What the hell happened here?" Enishi said opening up the medical kit located in the cabinets in the room. He pulled out a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide and some bandages. He crouched back over Aoshi, ripped the pants out of the way of the wound and flushed the area with Hydrogen Peroxide. He cringed in sympathy at all the bubbles and then started wrapping the wounds with the bandages.
After tying the bandages off Enishi hosted up Aoshi over his shoulder intent on getting him out of there. He strained under the man's deadweight, but didn't show any outward signs of discomfort. He couldn't help but think such actions would gain him brownie points with Kaoru for being chivalrous even to a rival.
"The data is gone. Shishio's mission was accomplished," Himura said. "Shinomori will be able to tell us more when he wakes up from his little nap."
"Hardly a nap, Himura. The man has been knocked unconscious." Enishi looked around the scene and noticed a trail of blood leading toward the ventilation shafts and away from the unconscious bodies. Surely, the enemy didn't infiltrate through the ventilation shafts-that was so cheesy 80's movie themed. "Either Shinomori stuck one before he got away, or they have a hostage." He didn't want to think about who that hostage might be, but he had a distinct suspicion that he wouldn't like the answer. The other areas of the base were secure and Kamiya was still missing.
"Let's go Captain," Himura said leading the way out of the room. "It's time we talk with the General and see if the security cameras caught anything."
"We're in the secret lab and there are security cameras here? Security cameras that people can hack into?" Enishi asked skeptically.
Himura shrugged. "It was deemed unlikely that enemies that are hiding in caves out in this desert have the capabilities to hack into sophisticated government computer networks."
"Obviously, you never heard of Ironman," Enishi said shifting Aoshi's weight and heading out of the lab and back into the hallway.
"And Captain do try and refer to me by my title when in the presence of our superior officer," Himura said leading the way.
"Yes, sir," Enishi muttered.
OOOOOoooooOOOOO
Misao laughed and clapped her hands as her favorite patient walked across the room by herself unassisted. It was slow and her steps wavered a bit unsteadily and when she reached the far end of the wall with the handrails attached across like a ballet bar she collapsed against them covered in sweat. But she did it all on her own!
"Tomoe! You did it!" Misao rushed toward her patient and the taller woman wrapped her in a big hug using the physical therapist as a bit of a crutch at supporting her exhausted weight. "Your husband and brother will be so proud!"
Tomoe smiled at her weakly. "Enishi will be very glad," she agreed in a strained voice. Misao decided it best not to mention the omission of her husband's reaction. She'd noticed he'd been trying the tough love tactic and that route often led to hurt feeling and little positive results and unfortunately-divorce.
"Come on," Misao said wrapping an arm around Tomoe's waist and helping her to the covered bench to rest. "We'll have you lifting free weights for a few minutes."
"Very well. And you can tell me all about your lovely fiance who sent you such lovely flowers," Tomoe said gesturing towards the large bouquet that had been delivered earlier that afternoon.
Misao set Tomoe up on the bench and gave her the five pound weights for her to start doing reps with them. Her eyes settled upon the lovely arrangement Soujiro had sent. "There's nothing like 'Just Because' flowers," Misao agreed loving the smell and colors of the multicolored roses.
"It's been my experience that roses are for anniversaries and huge apologies. 'Just Because' flowers usually end up being something like Tulips or Orchids or Lilies or Sunflowers," Tomoe said concentrating on curling the blue dumb bell. "You sure your Beau didn't do something and you just don't know yet?"
"Don't be ridiculous. If he did something my sister would tell me in a heartbeat. They're stationed together now."
"That desert weather sun just can't be good for dear Enishi's complexion," Tomoe fretted. She reached up and pulled her dark hair out of its high pony tail and shook out the long tresses. "I think I'll be going home now. I really enjoyed our session, Misao."
OOOOOoooooOOOOO
Today was officially the worst day of all of Kaoru's twenty-seven years. She'd thought Junior year at the university was the worst with studying for the MCAT, but no, she'd have to say that being stabbed in the chest made today much worse-especially when her beloved brother-in-law was working for the monster that just stabbed her. And then having the megalo-manic that stabbed her and was a world renown terrorist carry her bridal style through the desert was just the icing on the cake.
She tried her best not to pass out. If she lost consciousness she feared she might bleed to death. But in spite of her best intentions somehow she'd traveled from Aoshi's secret biological laboratory to the underground bunker of a war criminal deep in the mountains.
What woke her up was a burning sensation as opposed to the intense pressure she'd felt earlier where she was stabbed. She looked down to see that she was tied securely with ropes - her arms were going numb from lack of circulation behind her back and her legs were secured against the legs of the wooden chair. Her side had been doctored-crudely-but effectively.
"Don't worry, it will only be a little scar," Shishio said crouching in front of her looking directly at the bandaged wound.
Kaoru gathered her saliva intent on spitting in his face but found herself too parched to make the attempt. He seemed amused by her failed effort.
"I won't help you," she hissed. "My friends will come for me."
"Of course they will," Shishio said with a mocking pat on her shoulder. "That's why its taken them months to find my hide-out." He looked over at Soujiro. "Oh wait, only he found it and that's because he works for me."
"I trusted you!" Kaoru shouted in a hoarse voice. She stared in bewilderment at the young man she had trusted not only her life with but that of her sister and Misao's happiness and future.
Soujiro merely smiled at her. It was like he was a total stranger. And she was much more scared of Soujiro and his manic smile than of the terrorist Shishio.
"As much as I hate to disfigure the lovely face of a woman I'll make an exception for an American," Shishio said rearing back his hand and slapping Kaoru across the cheek. Her face jerked all the way in the other direction and she could feel the fiery sensation burning across the nerve endings and the crushing beginnings of a bruise from burst capillaries. It was then that she noticed the burns that scarred the once handsome face of her captor. "I am familiar with American military torture courtesy of the one known as Battousai, but I see no need for permanent scars-yet." He reared back his other hand.
"What do you want?" Kaoru yelled before he could hit her again. "Even if I knew anything I wouldn't tell you, scumbag!"
"Nothing you can tell me," Shishio said. "And calling me a scumbag isn't much incentive for me to play nice." He slapped the other side of her face.
Kaoru felt the chair lose balance with the force of the blow and fell onto her side her arm tied behind her back taking the brunt of it. Shishio stood towering over her and then brought the tip of his toes crashing into her ribcage. She felt something snap at the force and the pain in her arm was quickly forgotten.
"Sir," Soujiro said quietly. "If she knows anything. Let me find out."
"Very well, Seta. I know you're very capable." He grinned at his accomplice. "Make it look good for the youtube video."