A good hour had passed since Keitaro had arrived at the bar. Despite the time that had flown by, none of their conditions had changed. Kitsune consumed nearly three bottles of Sake Wine, but could become any more drunk than she already was. Viperous had only one more glass of scotch, but it had nearly no effect on her. Keitaro had nothing to drink the entire time. His death stare remained on Viperous, as her evil and somewhat seductive gaze remained on him. The Urashima watched over the Ex-Shoulder like a hawk. He knew very well that she was a threat, but there wasn't much he could do. Kitsune was within the danger zone, and there were too many bystanders. Even the slightest movement from his opponent, and it could be all over.
"So Keitaro, how have you been", Viperous asked him with a bat of her eyelashes.
"I've been doing fair", He said firmly.
"Really, that's not what I heard. From what Draconion and Neon told me, you've been rather sloppy lately. Why is that? Family problems, billing issues, troubles in bed? C'mon, intrigue me."
Keitaro said nothing to Viperous. For one, he didn't feel like talking about his problems...Period. The other being that he shouldn't give any information about himself to a villain like her. Who knows what she could do with this information.
"No comment or speculation?"
"...No...", Was all Keitaro could think of as an answer.
"Aww, why so quiet? It's not like anyone here can hear us now", Viperous said as she spread her arms out.
With the gesture of her arms, Keitaro's instincts told him to look around. That's when he realized what was around their surroundings. The people within the bar were unconscious, every one of them. In sudden concern, Keitaro looked back to Kitsune. Her forehead touched the table and drool flowed from her mouth.
"Kitsune", Keitaro asked as he checked her pulse.
"Don't worry, they're all unconscious. I slipped them a little something so they could give us our, "Alone Time."
Keitaro removed his eyes from Kitsune's unconscious body, once he was sure she was okay. She obviously had this whole thing planned out, and there was no escaping it now. Keitaro reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out his gun, placing it on the table.
"Shall we dance", Keitaro asked her, knowing what her answer was.
"Oh, what a gentleman", Viperous cooed.
Keitaro stepped out of the booth, making sure he still had his eyes on Viperous. The vilian took a drink out of some random glass at the bar when Keitaro kicked the stereo in the corner. The radio waves sang the song, Toxic by Brittney Spears. It was an almost ironic song for them to be hearing. The two circled each other in anticipation for wat was to come. Being a more level-headed soldier in the army, Keitaro normally did not attack first. Maybe the red light, or the motion tone of the song is what triggered Keitaro to attack first. With his firearm abandoned on the table, Keitaro's next best thing was his pocket knife. Still, Viperous was just as prepared as Keitaro.
Hidden within the sleeves of her purple jacket were a pair of sai weapons. The dual weapons were enough to counter Keitaro's sharp blade. The tables turned on Keitaro as she continued her assault on Keitaro. He was forced to shift to defense, since he needed to guard against two weapons. Viperous got a good hit in, landing a small scrape on Keitaro's chest. The woman flipped into the air as Keitaro stepped back. He was lucky to move out-of-the-way as her leg came crashing through the table behind them.
"She's agile, and she can use a knife better than me", Keitaro thought to himself.
As the woman dashed in again, Keitaro met her with the same speed. He slid on his back and gave her a strong kick that sent her into the air. The woman hit the ceiling with a loud thud. Due to the rules of gravity, she immediately fell down. To Keitaro's bad luck, the woman landed on him. It was awkward the way she was now positioned above him. Her hands were at the sides of his head, and her crotch brushed up against him. Keitaro flushed red from the woman's body against him. Just to irritate Keitaro, she blew a small kiss at him. He immediately shoved her body off of his. He could only pray that none of the girls at Hinata Sou ever found out about this incident in particular. Once she was off of him, the Urashima jumped to his feet. It was then Keitaro felt something wrong.
He had a sudden splitting headache. There was no time to deal with minor inconveniences, since it was most likely due to when Viperous landed on him. Afterall, his noggin hit the floor pretty hard. Keitaro looked ahead of himself, but saw no one. He frantically looked around but had no Viperous in his sights. The music blocked out any sounds of footsteps. He then found a small gust of air wriggling into his ear as Viperous spoke to him from behind.
"Hi there handsome", Viperous said as she whispered into his ear.
The Urashima never noticed how close she was to him, and how easily she could have ended his life. He reacted as fast as he could, but his speed only remained in his legs and not his reflexes. Viperous roughly grabbed Keitaro be the hair while turning him to face her. Keitaro never stood a chance against her as she placed a very demanding kiss into his mouth. He felt as if she was trying to vacuum out his tongue. There was a small flicked of pain as she bit the edge of his tongue. Keitaro pulled away from her, leaving behind a small trail of saliva. Keitaro hunched over as he coughed out whatever foreign contents were in his mouth.
He could taste alcohol, and something else he didn't want to know about. He drew his attention back to her, and in a nick of time. Her sais collided with his knife again. As her weapons swinged about, his arms felt flimsy to counter them. He tried to pay better attention to her movements, but his mind felt foggy. The weapons didn't shine because of the red lighting, but he couldn't see the metal spikes as clearly as he did before. The image of Viperous began to fade into the redness, as well as the background.
"What's going on", Keitaro asked as he tried to focus more.
By now Keitaro's eyesight could only see red. The music could still be heard, but he was pretty much deaf and blind to her next movements.
"You've already been poisoned lover boy", Viperous said.
Keitaro let this all sink in. He remembered being cut across the chest, that was one way he could have been infected. The other way could have been when she kissed him, which was pretty embarrassing to him. Once he took in all the details, agreat surge of pain entered his neck. Only visible to herself, Viperous sank her fangs into Keitaro's arteries within his neck. He felt paralyzed, not just from the sudden surge of pain in his neck, but in general.
"I...I can't move", Keitaro thought in his head. "Her poison must be affecting my body other than my vision."
He was tight, the symptoms began to become clear to Keitaro. Other than his fading eyesight, his body was becoming hard to move. He felt as if his limbs were heavy. His head was still throbbing, and his mental status was becoming cloudy. There was a slight ringing noise in his ears, despite the blasting song in the background. The most critical thing Keitaro noticed was that he was having a hard time breathing. His chest felt tight, as if a constrictor wrapped itself around his chest.
"This isn't good. I don't know if I can last much longer. I could use my demon adrenaline, but she would only absorb it all", Keitaro thought as she continued to steal his blood and inject her venom.
Keitaro tried to fight back and pain and weight in his arms in order to reach Viperous behind him.
"Mom, Dad...I know you taught me to never hit a girl...But..."Viperous became surprised as Keitaro grabbed her by the hair. "All is fair in love and war...And we do what we must to survive!"
Using the last of the strength in his body, Keitaro grabbed Viperous by the hair and slammed her into the bar counter as hard as he could. Viperous cried in pain as Keitaro fell to his hands and knees.
"You little brat, I'll teach you to grab a woman's hair", A furious Viperous roared.
That was it, Keitaro was done. He was half blind, half deaf, nearly paralyzed, having difficulty breathing, and could barely stay conscious. He was now prey at the mercy of a snake now. It was then five miracles happened simultaneously. The most amazing, was a bus plowed through the bar. The second, was when it his the radio just as the song "Toxic" just ended. The third being that the vehicle hit Viperous, giving Keitaro inches from being hit himself. Fourth, was that the bus avoided hitting any of the unconscious people in the bar. The last coincidence, was the Driver happened to be none other than Keitaro's loyal partner in crime Skinny.
"Boss", Skinny asked as the bus door opened.
"Skinny? What happened, did an explosion occur", Keitaro asked as he tried to feel around for Skinny.
"No, I accidentally crashed the bus through the bar."
"How, or why the heck did you plow a bus through a bar?!"
"I dunno, I just steal random cars when you're not around. The bar just came out right in front of me."
Keitaro shook his head in annoyance before asking, "Where's Viperous?"
Skinny looked in all directions for his master's enemy. There was no sign of her. However, he did see the bar door slowly swing close. It was enough information for Skinny to piece together what happened.
"She got away Boss."
Keitaro sighed to himself in both defeat and relief.
"Help me load these people into the bus, and get us to a hospital."
"You got it Boss", Skinny said as he led the wounded soldier to the bus.
It was very late for Seta to be out in the city. However, today was an exception. The archeologist abandoned his excavation that was surprisingly close to Tokyo. The reason was that he got a call from Haruka saying that they needed a ride to the hospital. The man didn't need another moment's notice, as he feared for Haruka and his daughter. Once he arrived at the dorms, all the residents crammed into the vehicle.
"Are you all okay", Seta asked.
"We're fine, but Kitsune and Keitaro are at the hospital", Haruka said as she closed the door behind herself. "Just drive and drive fast."
Seta pulled the car out of parking before taking the shortest route to the hospital.
"What happened", Seta asked concerned for his former student and cousin in law.
"We don't know", Naru said to her old sensei. "Kitsune called a little while ago and said she was in the hospital with Keitaro."
"Are they alright?"
"Kitsune said she was safe, but she told us that Keitaro was badly injured", Kanako stated the last part in a scared tone.
Everyone grew concerned as they drove to the hospital. Keitaro had been through a lot of different injuries since he got back. However, he never went to the hospital. He was nearly invincible when it came to taking damage. "What kind of injury could have put him in the hospital", was the question on everyone's mind.
The hospital hallway became very crowded as everyone raced through to find Keitaro's room. In the lead was Kanako and Naru sa they were probably the most desperate to find Keitaro. The didn't find keitaro, but they did find Kitsune in a chair.
"Kitsune, are you hurt? Are you okay", Naru asked in concern for her best friend.
"I'm fine suga, fit as a fiddle", The fox faced girl told him.
Naru hugged her friend, relieved that she was safe.
"Kitsune, where's Keitaro", Shinobu asked.
"He's in the room over there", Kitsune pointed to a closed-door. "The doctors won't let me in though."
"What happened", Motoko questioned.
"Honestly, I don't have the slightest clue. I remember we were havin drinks together, but I don't recall what happened afta."
The conversation was stopped as they heard a blood shrilling scream. The entire staff, and the people in the waiting room looked to Keitaro's door.
"Wait Naru", Haruka said as the brunette ran for Keitaro's room.
"Naru unlatched the door to enter the room. Inside Keitaro was hunched over a garbage bin hurling his gus out. The content he expelled was purple ooze mixed with blood. One doctor tried to sew up the wound on his neck, while another injected him with different fluids.
Keitaro", Naru shouted.
Her voice caught his attention.
"Naru", Keitaro said as he lifted his head from the garbage bucket. "Naru where are you?"
His vision was still blurry from the toxins in his body, but he knew he heard Naru's voice somewhere. As she rushed to Keitaro's side, another doctor suddenly grabbed her.
"No, ma'am you can't be in here!"
"Wait, Keitaro needs me", Naru fussed with the doctor.
It took three doctors to restrain Naru and remove her from the room. Once she was out, the door was immediately closed behind her. Seta had to hold her back from ripping the door off it's hinges.
Hours had passed since everyone had arrived. It was close to about one in the morning now. Su, Sarah, and Shinobu had fallen asleep in different chairs. Everyone was brought out of their gloomy state when the doctors exited Keitaro's room. Haruka, Naru, and Kanako were the first to approach the doctor.
"How is my little cousin doctor", Haruka nervously asked.
"He's going to be fine. We managed to stabilize him."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief from the doctor's news.
"Can we go to see him", Naru hopefully asked.
"Not yet", Said the doctor, "Another visitor is authorized to see him first."
"Who", Asked Haruka.
"That would be me", A new voice cut in.
All eyes reverted to the stranger in the hallway. However, this person was familiar to the Hinata Girls.
"Avianna", Naru said with a slight grudge. "What are you doing here.
"Military business, my soldier has some information I need", Avianna said as Naru tried to speak up. "Don't worry, I won't take long."
The commander quickly entered Keitaro's room and shut the door behind her, leaving no room for any conversations.
With only a small set of greetings, Avianna began conversation with a barely conscious Keitaro.
"So what happened", His superior asked.
"It was Viperous", Said Keitaro. "She has full control of project Venom ma'am. She did a real number on me."
Avianna looked over the charts on the desk, as well as the purple sample in a veil.
"I see", Avianna said.
"Ma'am", Keitaro hesitantly said. "I know I don't have any authority to say this, but...I need to get back into the ERT."
"I can't do that soldier."
"Ma'am, Viperous was waiting for me", Keitaro pointed out. "She knew exactly where I was going to be, and she used one of the Hinata residents to her advantage. Not only her, but Neon and Draconian will know exactly where I am. More people will be put on the line if I don't go back. Please Ma'am, I have to be put back in the field."
The red-haired commanded had to think about this. Keitaro was a major target for these dangerous criminals, and it was true that innocent civilians could get caught in the line of fire. She searched through the files within her brain for some idea.
"Alright soldier, I'll find some way to get you back in. However..."
Keitaro's straightened his face the best he could in his condition.
"...First you can NOT use civilians as bait again! Second, you need to seriously pull yourself together, I can't have a compromised soldier on the battlefield. Third, you can NOT lose control of that THING inside of you! You know very well what I'm talking about! Finally...get yourself healed. I can't have a malfunctioning soldier in the field either."
"Yes Ma'am", Keitaro saluted to his commander.
With that she left the room for the other Hinata Sou tenants to enter. The woman pulled out a small radio device from her pocket. She inserted the earpiece into her ear and brought her lips to the tiny microphone.
"This is General Avianna giving mission Predator the okay. Cheetah Demon has a snake in his backyard. I repeat, Cheetah Demon has a snake in his backyard. Send in the exterminations, I want that snake dead, and I want the rest just as dead.
One last chapter before school tomorrow. This fight scene probably wasn't as exciting as the others, but it was mainly a set up for a new villain and for what's to come in the next chapters. The song Toxic by Brittney Spears was kina catchy for this chapter, but I mentioned that earlier in the chapter. What will happen to Keitaro next, you'll have to wait and see.