Blue Seed Fan Fiction ❯ Dreamer Awakened ❯ Brewing Trouble ( Chapter 30 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 30 Brewing Trouble









Dreamer Awakened


CHAPTER THIRTY



Sakura sauntered down the empty hallway, her hips swaying
provocatively within the confines of her mini-skirt with every step of her
spiked, three-inch, heels. Languidly she smoothed red-lacquered fingertips
through the silky, soft tresses of her sandy blonde hair and then let them
continue to glide their way downward, along her neck and across her clingy,
peach sweater and equally skin tight skirt, making sure that everything was
impeccably arranged. She knew she looked good; better than most girls could ever
dream of looking, and a smug smile inched across her face, crinkling the
freckles sprinkled across her nose and putting a feline sparkle in her crimson
eyes.
And yet, there was still that pang of regret, that little
splinter of - a shudder ran up her spine as the word lodged itself into her
thoughts and refused to be nudged aside - "humiliation" - from
yesterday's events. Her smile was quickly snuffed out and a look of raw
determination took its place. Yesterday was why she had taken such care with her
appearance today: to make sure that no one was left to doubt that she was the
most delectable, the most perfectly perfect female within a hundred
miles.
Stopping in front of the TAC lab door, Sakura let a sultry
look slide into place over her features, preparing for her grand entrance. Then,
reaching a hand out, she grasped the handle and turned, a look of consternation
widening her eyes when nothing happened.

What the!? she thought frustrated, jiggling the handle of
the door, her lips losing their pouty expression as they pulled into a toothy
grimace.
The door was locked! That meant no one was here yet! Damn!!
She thought, a little black cloud beginning to form over her head where some
very nasty words where beginning to coalesce into a bad temper. With a stomp of
her well-shod foot she let the handle go, expelled a gusty sigh and scrunched
her face into a horrific scowl.
Violently stuffing her hand into her purse, she dug around
for her keys, her teeth flashing white as her mouth got thinner and tighter, and
her ever-volatile temper soured, becoming blacker and more sullen. After several
seconds of pawing around, she managed to locate them. She yanked them out to
sort through them, muttering thickly under her breath all the while, since she
was unsure of which one was the right one.
Normally, knowing which key she needed wasn't a problem,
since the only one she ever used was the one for her apartment. But along with
that one useful key, she had fifteen others that she never used - one of which
happened to be her office key. And since she wasn't accustomed to being the
first one into the office - ever - she had never used it before, so she wasn't
sure what it looked like. She supposed she wouldn't have this problem if she
had just gotten rid of all the old ones from ex-boyfriends, but she had held
onto them for sentimental reasons -- to her, they were the perfect silver,
ermine pelt that every hunter sought - the trophy that declared she was
desired by many; and the symbol of her many conquests. And besides that, she
thought ironically, she had never thought that she would live to see the day
that she would be the first one into the office. Things like this just weren't
supposed to happen she noted nonsensically.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Sakura finally found the
correct key and it slammed unexpectedly into the lock. Not quite ready for it,
her movements were more than careless, and her inattention caused her to break
one of her beautifully manicured nails in the process. A screech of dismay
shattered the stillness of the corridor, reverberating off of the barren walls
as she looked down at the mangled, crimson crescent that hung, dangling
awkwardly, from the tip of her finger.
With a feminine growl, she ripped it off and threw it to the
ground, yanking the door open and stomping through it, her earlier aura of total
control and sexual grace ripped to shreds. With hunched shoulders, she steamed
across the empty room, throwing her purse onto the desk and then slinging
herself into the high-backed leather chair behind it. She fumed silently for a
few minutes and looked impatiently at her watch.

It was a quarter to one, so where the heck was everybody?
she thought petulantly. Shifting restlessly, she perched on the edge of the
brown leather chair, her elbows resting laxly on the laminated wooden surface of
the desk. Steepling her hands together, she impatiently tapped the tips of her
two index fingers together.

This sucks! she silently seethed, looking resentfully at
the empty doorway before her crimson eyes flickered back to the desk and settled
on the empty coffee cup placed neatly to one side. Her mouth suddenly felt dry
and she reached out and she snatched it up, looking down at the shiny, ceramic
bottom. It was clean, thank god. Pushing the chair away from the desk, she stood
and sauntered over to the sink.

At least she could make herself a cup of coffee while she
waited for someone to get there, she thought consolingly. Grabbing a spoon
from a drawer, she foraged around, trying to locate something that was a closer
resemblance to coffee than the bright yellow and aqua green chemical crystals
that were stored in the glass jars inside the cupboards above the sink. After
checking all of them and coming up empty, she moved on to the stainless steel
canisters lined up against the wall next to the sink. They were labeled 'transfer
pads', 'capillary tubes' and 'cytology brushes' respectively, but
peering into each one, Sakura found tea in the first, sugar in the second and in
the last, coffee.
Sakura snorted derisively and grabbed the coffee canister,
wondering if Matsu was as odd about where she kept her food at her own house as
she was about where she kept it here. Flicking a sandy lock over her shoulder,
Sakura turned and looked for the coffee maker. It was nowhere to be found, and
after a few minutes of searching, she belatedly recollected that the crazed
scientist, Matsu, brewed her coffee using her lab equipment.
Heaving a long-suffering sigh, she grabbed the canister with
one hand and cradled it against her breast while she scooped up her coffee cup
with the other. Swiveling around, she made her way over to the long stainless
steel lab table cluttered with scientific equipment. As she came to a slow stop,
Sakura let her eyes travel down its crowded length, noting the various beakers,
Bunsen burners, test tube racks and complicated looking electronic testers. She
faintly wondered just exactly which one of these devices was used for something
like brewing coffee. Setting the canister on the edge of the table, Sakura ran
curious fingers along several different devices, and after sniffing the contents
of various beakers and flasks, she managed to find what was the oddest coffee
pot she had ever seen. It wasn't really a coffee pot at all, but more of a
large beaker with a glass funnel at the top and a hollow glass pipe that ran up
the side to allow the heated water to rise through it and percolate through the
ground coffee beans before draining back down into the wide of body of the
beaker.
Sakura carried it over to the sink, rinsed it out, filled it
with water and then carried it back to the table, heading for the ceramic topped
hot plate that she had seen Matsu use on several occasions to heat her solutions
to high temperatures. There was already a flask of viscous looking solution
sitting on it, and her lip curled in distaste as she briefly studied it. It had
a layered look to it, the top part dark green in color and the bottom part,
which was clearer, glowed a phosphorescent yellow. It was highly unusual
looking, but Sakura wasn't all that impressed and decided to ignore it for the
moment, searching instead for the switch that would turn the hotplate on.
With a meditative hmm, she sat the coffee pot next to
the hot plate and looked at all the dials and switches. She pressed a few and
nothing happened.
"Why can't they just put a label next to the stupid
'power' button?" she muttered tersely to herself, slapping at a few
more.
She continued randomly punching buttons and twisting knobs
and was about to give up when a little red light on the front came on. Her
crimson eyes lit with triumph and her mouth curled into a self-satisfied smile.
"You are so brilliant, Sakura," she softly
crooned, her moment of gloating interrupted by the chirp of the phone. She moved
to the end of the lab table and grabbed up the sleek black handset, momentarily
forgetting about the hot plate.
"Sakura? Is Kome and Yaegashi there yet?" Matsu's
voice asked her.
"No," she replied succinctly.
There was a slight pause and then, "How about Momiji and
Kusanagi?"
"No," Sakura replied again, this time more sulkily,
"no one is here but me. Come to think of it, why aren't you here?"
Sakura could hear the sound of a few choice words muttered
under breath that ended with what sounded suspiciously like, "Why me?"
But before she could voice any objections to such ill treatment, Matsudaira
continued. "Sakura, I'm in Tokyo because my son was involved in a school
stabbing - he's just been released from intensive care and should be out of
the hospital by the end of the week. But even so, it looks like I won't be
returning to Izumo any time in the near future."
"Oh?" Sakura mouthed, meeting this piece of
information with an apathetic sigh, and giving it all the attention she felt it
deserved by examining her cuticles. She admired their healthy condition,
marveling at their uniform perfection, despite her broken fingernail.
"Well, where is everyone else then?" she inquired without any real
interest
"Mr. Kunikida, Ryoko and Sugishita are here with me in
Tokyo. And Mr. Kunikida wants you to come back here along with Kome and -"
Matsu broke off momentarily unable to speak over the loud howling coming from
the other end of the line.
Sakura abandoned her ennui of the moment and held the
receiver over her head in a triumphant pose, dancing around for a few seconds
before she brought it back down and put it against her ear.
" - listening to me!?" Matsu was demanding
in an irked voice.
"Yes, yes," Sakura replied in an happy way, "I
heard you, you said that I was to return to Tokyo."
There was the sound of an impatient sigh escaping from Matsu's
lips and then, "That's not all that I said, Sakura. Would you please try
to listen more carefully?" and after Sakura's uncharacteristically mellow
but affirmative reply, added, "Mr. Kunikida needs Kome and Yaegashi to
return to Tokyo immediately as well, but Momiji and Kusanagi are to stay in
Izumo for the time being - for the safety of the baby. There have been a large
number of Tengugaki attacks here in Tokyo and bringing Noa here would only
increase the danger to him.
"Tell Momiji that the fortified formula that I began
making still isn't ready. I began titrating it before I left. But it's still
in an unstable, extremely volatile state - what remains will most likely have
to be thrown out anyway, since Sugishita couldn't keep his fingers out of it -
So she is to just give him regular baby formula in the meantime. It won't hurt
him. It just won't have the potassium phosphate in it that I was hoping would
help to boost his system and make sure that he is able to efficiently convert
sunlight into energy like normal Aragami do - he probably doesn't really
need it, but I had wanted to provide it for him anyway, since we know almost
nothing about how his circulatory and nervous systems function…
"So tell Momiji…. Are you listening to me, Sakura?"
Matsu demanded sharply, the other end of the line having gotten too quiet for
her liking.
"- Eh yes, of course," Sakura replied hastily,
trying to reign in her thoughts of Vuitton handbags and Louis Féraud haute
couture, knowing that she wouldn't have the money to spend on her wardrobe
anytime soon anyway. Still, she refused to let a small thing like being stone
broke douse the warm glow she was currently experiencing at the thought of
returning to Tokyo, the mecca of civilized living. "You want me to tell
Kome and Yaegashi to return to Tokyo and to tell Momiji that she is to stay here
with the sprout until further notice."
"And Kusanagi, too, Sakura," Matsu reminded and
Sakura snorted.
"Do you really think that Carrot Boy would be leaving
without Momiji?" she asked wryly. "I really don't think that would
ever happen; even if the gods themselves commanded it."
"Regardless of what you think," Matsu countered
sternly, "I would appreciate it if you would try and remember what I have
told you. - and don't forget about the baby formula!"
"I won't. Jeez! You think I can't remember something
as simple as that?" Sakura defended waspishly, silently trying to hang onto
the quickly disappearing wisps of what it was that Matsu had been babbling about
regarding the formula as Sakura had been mulling over her glorious return to
Tokyo.
"Well, that's it then," Matsu said, "I'm
sure I will see you soon." And then she hung up.
Sakura's face split into a huge grin as she set the phone
back on its cradle, but it abruptly disappeared again when she heard Kusanagi's
voice coming from the doorway.
"From the smile on your face Cherry Blossom, I would
surmise that you just received some good news," he drawled lazily as he and
Momiji came through the door.
Sakura shot them a quick, assessing, sideways look. She
immediately noted Momiji's rumpled appearance; her wet slacks and shirt that
gaped right in the middle, and Kusanagi's sodden overcoat and damp jeans.
Feeling vastly confident in the superiority of her beauty at that particular
moment, she lounged against the lab table, pulling her shoulders back so that
her lushly rounded breasts were thrust forward, showing off her cleavage and
feminine wiles to perfection. She raised her hand and with a languid motion,
flicked several long strands of her sandy blonde hair over her shoulder, sending
her most provocative and sultry look in Kusanagi's direction. "You guys
look like you've been slogging through a swamp somewhere, Carrot Boy,"
she told him, a feline smile stretched across her face.
Kusanagi met her gaze with a raised eyebrow, his eyes slowly
roving critically over Sakura's curvaceous form before he murmured slyly,
"Are your clothes getting smaller, or are you getting fatter, Cherry
Blossom?"
Sakura's smile vanished and her body immediately whipped
into a standing position. She began to quiver with barely suppressed rage.
"What's it to you, Carrot Boy?" she retorted, her
crimson eyes flaming. With a snort, her nose soared into the air before she
heard a strange hissing sound coming from the table to her left.
Puzzled she turned her head seeking the source as the sound
expanded into a strange whirring. It was coming from the flask sitting on the
hotplate. She had forgotten to remove it and replace it with the coffee pot, and
now large bubbles were trying to rise through the thin neck of the flask. They
were roiling quicker than the narrow space would allow, and the flask was
shaking from the pressure rising inside of it. She didn't know much about
chemistry, but it didn't take a genius to see that something bad was about to
happen.
Then, as if on cue, Kusanagi yelled, "Momiji, get
down!" His feet pounded across the linoleum as he ground out, "Sakura
watch out!"
Sakura felt Kusanagi's broad shoulder slam into her
midsection. He knocked her off her feet and drove all of the wind out of her so
that she didn't even have the breath to let out the screech that was caught in
her throat. As her head thwacked hard against the floor, there was a loud
explosion and the sound of splintering glass. Kusanagi lay atop her, squashing
her breasts flat against his hard chest, his legs entangled with hers and Sakura
instinctively pressed closer to him as she heard the remnants of the flask go
whizzing past her, hissing and popping.
Kusanagi had raised his arms up alongside Sakura's head to
try and protect her, but despite his best efforts to shield her completely,
blobs of hot, noxious smelling goo landed in her hair and spattered across her
face. But the brunt of the flask's remnants landed wetly against the back of
Kusanagi's head, his back and the sleeves of his coat. As pieces of shrapnel
flew past them, he let out a grunt as a long piece of glass sliced through the
black material of his over coat and imbedded itself into his shoulder. After
several long seconds it was over and Kusanagi raised himself up on his elbows,
looking down into Sakura's rounded, crimson eyes.
"What the HELL was that?" he demanded in a
tight voice.
"Well," Sakura replied diffidently, "I was
going to make some coffee and - "
"Coffee?" Kusanagi interrupted, his stunned look
quickly changing to derisive anger, "you can't even boil water! So what
made you think that you could handle something as ambitious as coffee? That's waaay
out of your league, Faith Healer!!"
Sakura's mouth immediately tensed, her freckles crinkling
across her nose as she narrowed her crimson eyes into a scowl. "I don't
have to take that kind of abuse from you!" she spat, "so why don't
you go f -"
"Sakura? Kusanagi?" Momiji querulously broke into
the middle of their escalating confrontation. She slowly rose to her feet and
crept closer to them, the small shards of glass crunching beneath the soles of
her shoes despite her efforts to step around the debris. "Are you both all
right?" she wanted to know, picking her way closer to them. Her eyes roamed
over their position and she couldn't help thinking that if she hadn't been
here to witness the explosion, their current position would suggest something
more intimate than what it truly was.
They were both still lying on the floor, Kusanagi's body
cradled between Sakura's shapely thighs, his face just inches from hers as he
stared down at her. Momiji tried not to notice how Sakura's long legs were
raised on either side of Kusanagi's body, but it was just about impossible to
ignore. Her peach skirt was bunched up around her waist, exposing lacy, white
garters tied to her stockings and her white, silky, underwear, which appeared,
to Momiji, to be the height of sexual femininity. Momiji made herself look away
then, but couldn't help wondering as she did so, if this was the kind of thing
Kusanagi had been alluding to when he had asked her if she didn't have
something more "adult" to wear other than her flannel nightgowns.
"Would you get off of me?" Sakura demanded in a
strained voice breaking into Momiji's musings.
"You know, a 'thank you' would be nice right about
now, Cherry Blossom," Kusanagi remarked dryly as he pushed himself up onto
his knees. He grimaced and held his breath as he reached around and slid the
long shard of glass free from his shoulder.
"Pffft," Sakura snorted, still glaring at
him as she sat up. "Thank you for what? Squashing my breasts until they're
flatter than Momiji's!?"
"Hey!" Momiji inserted affronted, but neither of
them seemed to hear her.
Kusanagi's eyes briefly flitted down to Sakura's ample
breasts and his lips quirked into a wry smile. "I'm sure they'll manage
to bounce back to their usual, blatant position without any lasting
damage," he told her dismissively, "so why don't you just stop
whining. I could have let the whole thing explode in your face." He
examined the long, thin shard of glass, noting it was covered with green,
viscous gel as well as a thick layer of his blood before he tossed it to the
glass and goo splattered linoleum next to him.
Sakura's face clouded into an even darker scowl as she
watched Kusanagi discard the jagged fragment, resentment welling up in her at
his indifferent censure of her attitude. She opened her mouth to offer a
scathing retort, but didn't get a chance to respond to him.
"Oh, Kusanagi!" Momiji interrupted again, this
time, latent concern in her voice, " you're bleeding!" She scurried
forward when she saw him toss the glass aside, but then abruptly halted and
covered her nose and mouth with her hand. "Whoa -" she
managed to choke out, "- You guys… really… smell… bad!!" After a
moment, she managed to pull her hand away from her face despite the desire to
keep it there, and she stepped closer to Kusanagi's back so she could take a
better look at his wound. "What was it that exploded anyway?" she
asked curiously.
"It was Sakura's coffee," Kusanagi told her with
a sardonic glint, looking over his shoulder into her face as she examined the
large rent in the shoulder of his coat.
At his words, Momiji's green eyes met his, and she felt an
answering smile spontaneously curl her lips before she answered him in a more
serious vein. "That piece of glass made a really deep puncture wound. It
needs to be cleaned or it's liable to get infected." Kusanagi just
grunted at her assessment and Momiji chose to ignore any negative ramifications
that might be associated with his reaction. "I think there is a first aid
kit over by the sink somewhere. I'll go check."
"My coffee?! What the?!" Sakura sputtered loudly
over Momiji and Kusanagi's exchange. "That was NOT my coffee!" she
defended indignantly "I don't know what the heck it was! I was going to
make some coffee, but that green stuff was already sitting on the hotplate when
I got here!"
"Did you never think to remove it from the hotplate,
Sakura?" Kusanagi asked in aggravation, turning back around to face her,
one eyebrow soaring quizzically. "- Or did you think it might be fun to see
what would happen to it when you heated it to - " he stopped and shot a
piercing look at the dial on the front of the hotplate before he reached out and
flipped the power to it off, "- 800 degrees Fahrenheit?" Sakura's
mouth fell open, unaware that that was how high the setting had been. She didn't
say anything, but humiliated color stained her elegant cheekbones. "Almost
anything is bound to explode if you get it that hot Sakura - maybe even
coffee. Thank god that whatever was in the flask didn't get that hot before it
exploded, or we would have more than smelly goo to contend with," he
castigated her. "I would hate to think of what such extremes would have
done to the back of my head," his eyes raked over the streaks of green goo
across Sakura's cheeks, "- not to mention your face."
"You're over dramatizing the situation," Sakura
argued with a feeble sniff. " - How was I supposed to know it would do
that?" Her crimson eyes slid away from him to study the floor resentfully.
"They didn't exactly go over the fundamentals of lab equipment at the
Kusamikado School, so I don't know how to operate one of these things - I'm
a priestess, Kusanagi, not a scientist, dammit!" she informed him. Despite
the imperiousness of her tone, the ineptness she was feeling was revealed not by
her words, but by her actions as she awkwardly fidgeted and tried to squeeze
some of the goop out of her hair by pinching her fingers together and running
them down the length of the strands.
"You know what your problem is, Sakura?" he
demanded in asperity after a long moment.
"What?" she snapped, her voice still peevish.
"It's your personality. It's as irritating as
hell!" came his snide reply.
"You are such a pig, Kusanagi," Sakura hissed,
letting her hand fall to her side as she clambered to her feet, mustering all
the dignity she could as she tried to smooth the wrinkles out of her ruined
outfit. "Thank god I won't have to put up with your beastly attitude any
more!"
"What do you mean?" Momiji inquired, inserting
herself back into the conversation as she returned to Kusanagi's side, first
aid kit in hand along with several damp clothes, one of which she handed to
Sakura.
"Ms. Matsudaira called from Tokyo just before you got
here - "
"Ms. Matsudaira went back to Tokyo?" Momiji asked,
startled by this piece of information. "Why?"
"Mr. Kunikida and Ryoko are there as well," Sakura
informed her, "but as for Ms. Matsudaira - Hmm, well, I think she's in
Tokyo because her son is in the hospital - " Sakura broke off at Momiji's
gasp.
"What's wrong with Jun?"
"I dunno really," Sakura said, "I think he was
stabbed -"
"Oh my god!" Momiji exclaimed, horrified.
"She said he was going to be okay, but you'll have to
ask her for the details," Sakura told her in an offhand way. "Anyway,
the real reason she called was to tell us that Mr. Kunikida wants us back in
Tokyo. So that means a reprieve from your obnoxious boyfriend for me,"
Sakura finished flippantly, rubbing the cloth over her face to remove the smelly
goo while she watched as Momiji, looking uncomfortable at the word
"boyfriend", helped Kusanagi slowly remove his coat.
Honestly, thought Sakura in exasperation, she is such a
little prude. She's so afraid that he'll reject her, that she can't she
see how tightly wrapped around her finger he is… Well maybe her little plan to
shake things up a bit was a good idea after all. The naïve, little twit needed
to see that she had power over Kusanagi, and not be so afraid of scaring him
away. He wasn't going anywhere, and the sooner Momiji realized that, the
sooner their relationship would advance. Momiji needed to open her eyes, and see
the forest instead of just the one tree that she seemed to have been staring at
for far too long, and Sakura was convinced that her ploy would help to bring
that about…
Unaware of Sakura's contrivances, Momiji laboriously worked
to free Kusanagi from his black coat without causing him further pain. But
despite her best her efforts to keep from jarring his shoulder, Kusanagi bared
his teeth in a grimace as she pulled the sleeve down his arm. Once she was done,
she paused a moment to give Kusanagi a chance to recover his equanimity. She
reached into the first aid kit and removed a pair of short, surgical scissors,
her bright eyes catching Sakura's on the way back as she turned once again to
face Kusanagi's back.
"I don't understand why the TAC's return to Tokyo
that would give you a reprieve," Momiji stated, picking back up on the
conversation and feeling confounded by Sakura's logic as she began cutting
away the jagged hole in the back of Kusanagi's shirt to reveal the deep
puncture slowly oozing green blood.
Momiji wiped away the excess blood and, as gently as she
could, began probing the wound with a swab, trying to be certain that any of the
chemicals contained in the flask that might have contaminated it, were cleaned
away. Kusanagi stiffened making a strangled sound, his face going taut , and she
bit her lip with a mumbled apology, while trying to listen to Sakura at the same
time.
"Well, if the whole team was going, it wouldn't be.
But the whole team isn't going - You're not going, " Sakura replied,
pointing a finger at Momiji while still rubbing her face with the cloth. She
stopped long enough, however, to let her crimson eyes flit over Kusanagi and she
added curtly, "- and neither are you. Just the rest of us are to return.
"It seems that the Tengugaki have targeted Tokyo. There
have been a large swath of attacks there." Finally finished cleaning her
face, Sakura folded the wet cloth inside out to make a clean surface and started
working on the gobs of gunk still clinging in her hair. "The boss man seems
to think that keeping you here in Izumo with the little Aragami raisin is the
best move at the moment ,since the focus of attack appears to have
shifted."
"But -" Momiji mumbled, dwindling to a halt as she
speculated on Sakura's new information. Absently she finished up with Kusanagi's
shoulder, and her thoughts clouded with uncertainty, "- that makes no
sense. If their target is Noa, why would they stop coming after him? He is the
key to their power."
She pressed a cotton pad against Kusanagi shoulder and taped
it in place before handing him the other cloth she had brought with her so he
could try and remove some of the chemical debris from his own hair and neck.
Kusanagi gave Momiji a grateful look and took the cloth from
her, but then focused his attention on Sakura. "So what does your intuition
tell you about such a sudden change, Faith Healer?" He asked seriously.
Sakura gave Kusanagi a considering look and deliberated his
question for a long moment before she finally responded, "I don't know
what to make of it actually. Momiji's right. It doesn't make sense really,
if their target is the Aragami sprout. They should be here instead of in Tokyo,
but they're not. - Perhaps this is just a diversionary tactic - a way of
drawing us away from Noa. Since they can travel underground, it would be
difficult for us to track their movement if they decided to double back in this
direction."
"I wonder that Mr. Kunikida hasn't thought of
that," Momiji commented worriedly.
"He probably has, Momiji," Kusanagi told her,
"but if the Tengugaki have concentrated their attacks on Tokyo for the time
being, then he has no choice but to follow them. They are strong, and they could
decimate the city if their strength were to grow unchecked." Momiji looked
even more worried at that and Kusanagi dropped a hand to her shoulder. "Don't
worry, Momiji," he murmured softly, "we won't let them win. One way
or another, we will find a way to destroy them."
Momiji didn't say anything, but she stared up at him, her
eyes full of trust and acceptance as she nodded, grateful now more than ever
that he was by her side.
"Hey," Sakura interrupted suddenly, "what
happened to your gloves Kusanagi?"
At the other woman's words, Momiji's startled eyes
flitted to the long fingers resting warmly against her shoulder and she noted,
for the first time that day, that he wasn't wearing any. Disconcerted
embarrassment skittered across her features as she recalled how she had
unabashedly begged him to remove them the night before, and she wondered if her
plea had anything to do with why he wasn't wearing them now.
Kusanagi quickly pulled away from Momiji's shoulder and
shoved his hands in his jeans' pockets. "Nothing happened to them,"
he told her with a sullen shrug, a shuttered expression on his face.
His reaction intrigued Sakura as well as Momiji's reaction,
who was now trying to stare a hole through the far wall, pretending to be
uninterested in the topic. It made Sakura want to find out just that much more
why Kusanagi wasn't wearing them. She didn't think that she had ever seen
him without them, so why all of a sudden would he decide to give them up?
"Hmm. How interesting. I wonder if our local virgin had
anything to do with their disappearance." Sakura remarked slyly, watching
Momiji's face from beneath her lashes.
"No," Kusanagi replied bitingly.
Momiji tried to keep her face from falling at the resounding
note of denial in his voice, but she knew from Sakura's knowing look that she
didn't do a very good job. Kusanagi shifted uncomfortably, aware of Momiji's
expression, but unwilling to reveal anything to Sakura. Instead he glared at the
sandy-haired psychic, warning her with his eyes to drop the subject.
"Why are you still here, Cherry Blossom?" He asked,
swiftly changing the course of conversation to avoid any more of the blonde's
mischief making. "I thought you would have peeled out of here as soon as
you found out that you could return to Tokyo."
Kusanagi's glare became even more pronounced when Sakura
gave him a crafty smile, her eyes gleaming with the promise of further trouble.
"Oh," she responded casually, pushing her clumpy hair off her
shoulders so that if flopped heavily against her back, "normally I would
have been," she acknowledged, "but I knew that you and Momiji were
coming by today to pick up the little Aragami twig, and I wanted to be here for
that."
Kusanagi frowned heavily and he crossed his arms in front of
his chest. "And why exactly is that?" he growled irascibly, disliking
the vibe he was getting from her.
Sakura refrained from replying but gave him a secretive
smile. "Just to verify a few observations I've made," she assured
him. "Perhaps I'll tell you when he gets here - which reminds me,"
she paused and tapped a brightly painted fingernail against her chin,
"Matsu called here and told me to tell Momiji…"
"Tell me what?" Momiji inquired after Sakura failed
to add anything else.
"Hang on," Sakura frowned, "I'm trying to
remember what it was…' her finger slid up to her mouth and she nibbled on
the broken tip, thinking hard. "It was about his food," she mumbled
"and setting him out in the sun after he eats so he can convert the
sunlight into energy..."
"What?" Momiji asked faintly, her chestnut brows
soaring, struck by the bizarreness of Sakura's statements. "Are you sure…?"
"Don't listen to her, Momiji," Kusanagi muttered
in disgust, "she doesn't know what the heck she's talking about."
"I do so!" Sakura protested heatedly. "She
said that the formula she was making wasn't ready and that it was extremely
unstable - "
"- Geez, Sakura, I wonder if that was what exploded. Do
you think?" Kusanagi interrupted dryly, and the priestess shot him a
wrathful look.
Sakura's lips thinned and she replied mutinously, "I've
already told you - "
"Never mind that," Momiji cut in hastily, trying to
avoid further sniping between her and Kusanagi and wanting Sakura to recall what
it was that Matsu had said.
Sakura reluctantly turned her attention away from Kusanagi's
smirk, pacifying herself with the knowledge that she was pretty certain she
could wipe it from his face in very short order - just as soon as the baby
arrived - and she focused on trying to recall exactly what it was that Matsu had
said.
After a few more minutes, she threw up her hands and shrugged
impatiently. "I can't remember," she grumbled plaintively, "so
maybe you should just call her. "
"That would be my suggestion as well, Momiji,"
Kusanagi advised lowly, sliding a sideways look at Momiji, "since our
resident psychic has a bad habit of mangling her facts." His eyes slid back
towards Sakura and, with a feral grin, he said, "Maybe you need to go back
to the Kusamikado School and sharpen your intuitive skills somewhat. That way
you could fall back on them at times like this when you can't seem to remember
a damn thing, Cherry Blossom - Or maybe -" he raised his finger as if
struck by a profound thought, "- you should just give up being a psychic
altogether since your skills have yet to span the enormous gap made by your
total lack of wits."
"Go to hell, Kusanagi!" Sakura barked.
"Ladies first," he retorted and the air
reverberated with the sound of Sakura's frustrated growl.
"Kusanagi," Momiji sighed, "please…"
Her eyes begged him to stop baiting Sakura.
"Please what?" he asked sullenly, and then when she
just gave him a pointed look, he shrugged his shoulders and shoved his hands
into his jean pockets again. "All right, all right," he grumbled,
turning and stalking away.
Momiji rolled her eyes at Sakura and Kusanagi's ongoing
skirmish and walked towards the desk to pick up the phone. She tried to ignore
the hostility that hung thickly in the air as she dialed Matsu's number,
concentrating all of her attention into marshalling her thoughts together so
that she could receive the scientist's instructions, and then make a report
regarding what she had learned about Kusanagi's indistinct brush with Orochi
and then his brief confrontation with Midori. But before she addressed any of
these things, she first questioned Matsu about her son, this being of primary
concern to her. Once she learned that everything was okay, Momiji asked about
the puzzling instructions regarding Noa's baby formula.
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted her to deliver the
message," Matsu complained acerbically before the topic ended and she gave
Momiji the necessary information.
Feeling enlightened, Momiji then turned the conversation
towards what Kusanagi had told her that morning, and Matsu became just as
alarmed about the whole situation as Kusanagi and Momiji had been.
"So, Kusanagi thinks Midori is hiding something?"
Matsu mused. "And you, Momiji, what do you think?"
"Well, it's hard to say, really," Momiji replied
cautiously, biting her lip. "I trust Kusanagi's instincts about what he
felt last night, and even though I hate to think that Orochi or Murakumo might
be out there, I just can't believe that Kusanagi is wrong about it. - As for
Midori -" Momiji paused briefly, thinking about it for a moment. "I
know that Kusanagi isn't as close to Midori as I am, but I think that he's
probably right about her too. - It's just not like her to be so secretive
- and she did admit that she was at the iwatto when the Tengugaki attack
occurred, so she must have seen something… Besides that, from what I've seen
of the Tengugaki, I don't think she could have escaped alive if something or
someone else hadn't intervened."
Matsu sighed in resignation, troubled by her young intern's
unusual behavior. "You're most likely, correct. I know that she doesn't
normally report to Mr. Kunikida, but under the circumstances, I think he is
going to want to make an exception." Matsu observed, "and require that
she meet with him so that he can debrief her about the incident."
Momiji bit her lip at this piece of information.
"Please, do you think that that could be avoided for now? If she is hiding
something, that will just drive the truth farther from us. Let me try and talk
to her first and see what I can find out."
There was a slight pause and then Matsu reluctantly replied,
"It's not for me to decide, Momiji. But I will relay your request to Mr.
Kunikida, along with all of the information that you have provided to me. I
would let you speak with him now, only he's not here at the moment. There have
been three more attacks in the early morning hours here, and he's out
investigating the sites with Ryoko."
Momiji expressed her shock at the news and then added,
"I'll try calling again - when - I - get - home - and talk - to
- him - then…" Momiji's voice petered out as her attention was
suddenly caught by Kusanagi.
He had gotten out the broom and the dustpan and was sweeping
up the scattered shards of glass. Momiji's mouth fell open in amazement as she
watched the debris littering the floor rapidly disappear. That he could
effectively wield such a domestic object didn't surprise her, but that he
would actually dare to do so seemed beyond bizarre to her.
Hmm, she thought. She ought to see how he was with a vacuum
cleaner too, and then she mentally snorted at the absurdity of the idea. She
shoved the superfluous notion aside, choosing instead to ponder the mystery of
what had brought about Kusanagi's urge to - of all things - clean the lab.
Then she looked at his handsome face and noted the tight set
of his jaw before her eyes dropped to the rigidity of his broad shoulders. It
was Sakura, Momiji suddenly realized. He was trying his best to ignore her.
Switching her attention to the blonde bombshell sitting parked with her rump
stationed on the corner of the desk, her arms folded across her breasts with a
bored look on her face; Momiji wondered why he let the psychic get to him.
"Are you still there, Momiji?"
Matsu's voice brought Momiji out of her reverie and she
quickly responded, finishing the conversation with things still up in the air
regarding Midori. The best she could hope for was that Kunikida would at least
wait until Momiji got a chance to discuss the situation with him before he
demanded a report from Midori.
Hanging up the phone, Momiji heard Sakura begin to speak and
realized that the sexy priestess was addressing her.
"So, tell me truthfully, Momiji," Sakura murmured
dulcetly, throwing a look over her shoulder at Momiji, "how did you get
Kusanagi to give up his gloves?"
The gentle swish swish sound of the broom ceased and
Momiji flitted a look at Kusanagi. He was still looking down at the floor, but
he had stopped sweeping, gripping the wooden handle so tightly that she could
almost hear the wood creak from the pressure, a horrible scowl darkening his
face.
Momiji felt her face stiffen at Sakura's curious inquiry,
and she shifted self-consciously from foot to foot, her hand coming up to her
midriff and automatically pressing against the gaping hole in the middle.
"Well, I uh…"
"It was sex wasn't it?" Sakura commented smugly,
watching the red break out across the other girl's face. She laughed softly
when she heard Kusanagi growl, but she kept her attention focused on Momiji.
"No?" she said after a moment, feigning shock as she slid her shapely
rump from the desk and turned all the way around to face Momiji. "You mean
that you haven't had sex yet, even though you've been living together in the
same house now for… how long has it been?" she paused briefly pondering
it, and then waved a negligent hand, "oh, it doesn't matter really. I
would think the first day would have been a long enough wait for most girls. But
then you're not most girls, are you?" Momiji still wasn't saying
anything, her gaze riveted to the desk that separated her and Sakura. She was
mortified beyond words and remained rooted to the spot as Sakura continued
speaking, " You know, I was almost certain that you had offered him sex in
exchange for the removal of his gloves, but I guess not, eh? I mean, even if you
had slept with him, that wouldn't mean that he would necessarily give
them up in public… But that does pose an interesting question, doesn't
it?" Sakura briefly swiveled around and looked at Kusanagi, "So,
Carrot Boy, in the past, did you remove them during those, more… intimate
moments? Or were they always on, no matter what?" Kusanagi continued to
growl, and he shot her a searing look. But Sakura only smiled indulgently and
returned her attention to Momiji. "He's not one to kiss and tell, I see.
I guess if we want to know the answer to that, we'll have to go digging
through his past and see if we can find someone that can tell us."
Momiji's head snapped up at that, her green eyes flashing
to Sakura's crimson ones. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Sakura gave her a knowing smile, and with a wink leaned
forward across the desk and whispered confidentially, "I know that you're
a virgin, Momiji, but surely you don't think that Kusanagi -" she paused
again and glanced back over her shoulder at the handsome, dark man who stood,
glowering just behind her, looking like he was ready to pounce on her and
throttle her at any moment. "- Surely you don't think that he's a
virgin too?"
"Stop it!" Kusanagi hissed, grabbing Sakura by the
shoulder and yanking her away from the desk, his eyes seething with pent up
fury. "What the hell are you trying to do, Sakura!? - Leave Momiji
alone!"
"I'm not trying to do anything," Sakura defended
herself innocently, glancing back at Momiji to see the impact of her statements,
"I was just making a casual observation. That's all."
"Like hell, you were!" Kusanagi snarled, his eyes
flitting from Sakura's face to Momiji, silently groaning when he saw the look
on her face.
When Sakura had first mentioned it, she had looked surprised.
But now, she looked more than a little perturbed, and Kusanagi wondered how he
was supposed to undo the few careless words that Sakura had uttered.
For her own part, Sakura felt satisfaction course through her
as she watched the ideas she had expressed take hold and sink into Momiji's
brain. There, she thought triumphantly, careful to keep her countenance casually
indifferent. These two had been dancing around each other long enough, and it
was high time for some action. And if the idea of Kusanagi with another woman
didn't light a fire under Little Miss Perfect, then Sakura didn't know what
would. But, just to be on the safe side, she would wait for Noa's arrival and
drive the idea home with her coup de grâce - and give Momiji and Kusanagi
something else to talk about - something that even they couldn't possibly
ignore.