Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ The Dark Side of Gravity ❯ No More Secrets ( Chapter 8 )

The apt title of this chapter applies to more than Shuichi's confession.  We also learn some things about Tohma that I bet you didn't know!  I really like Tohma.  He's got so many layers, like an onion, it's fun to peel one back and peek underneath!

Chapter 8: No More Secrets

Shuichi insisted on telling Eiri everything he had told Tohma Seguchi.  In a hesitant, half-choked, frequently inaudible voice, he described how Satoshi Seido had used him.  Eiri was shocked and horrified to learn how many times the vampire had fed on him.  He had known, of course, that it had happened more than once, but the full extent of it, and how intimate some of the encounters had been, dismayed and infuriated him.  No wonder Shuichi had been afraid to tell him!  Eiri listened in complete silence, seething with fury.  Shuichi wouldn't look at him.  He stared at the floor as he spoke, twisting his fingers together.  When he finished, he glanced up at Eiri's face for a moment and then quickly looked away.

"Is that all?" Eiri struggled to keep the anger out of his voice, but he knew he failed from the way Shuichi flinched and hung his head.  Or perhaps it was simply the scent of his fury singeing the air.

"Yes."  Shuichi's whispered reply was nearly inaudible.

"Why didn't you tell K what was happening?" Eiri growled.  "He carries a gun, for heaven's sake!"

Shuichi gulped.  "Who would have believed me?!" he exclaimed tearfully.  "And I was afraid.  Mr. Seido told me not to."  His shoulders began to shake.  "And I knew you would hate me!  I didn't want you to find out!"  The words tumbled out of him as he sobbed, and he collapsed off the couch onto his knees.  "I was afraid you would leave me again!" He buried his face in his hands and slumped to the floor, crying hysterically.

Eiri stared at the floor in front of him and tried to sort through his feelings.  Shuichi's sobs tore at him, but he couldn't stop thinking about Satoshi Seido.  His blood lust had infected them both, but the insatiable thirst he and Shuichi now shared, that had become an integral part of their lovemaking, was not what bothered him.  What bothered him, he realized, was that someone had once again taken advantage of Shuichi.  He looked up at the sobbing young man and blinked back tears of his own.  How had Shuichi endured the torment all those months, believing he was going to lose Eiri over something he couldn't control?

Eiri slipped off the couch and wrapped his arms around Shuichi, rocking him gently.  "I will never leave you again, Shu-chan, I promise."  He pressed his cheek against the top of Shuichi's head.  "I belong to you.  And you belong to me."

- - - - - - - -

K leaned in the open window of the limousine.  "There's an interesting crowd in that private club across the street," he remarked. 

"Did you see Mr. Seido?"

"No, but I got some interesting reactions when I asked if anyone had heard of him."  K grinned broadly.  "One guy tried to grab my arms and another guy acted like he wanted to take a bite out of me.  I dissuaded them."

Tohma smiled.  He could imagine what K had done to 'dissuade' the two men from attacking him.  "Do you think it would be worthwhile to try a little more detailed questioning of one or two of the patrons?"

"Oh, I think it would definitely be worthwhile."

"Very well."  Tohma leaned forward and tapped on the glass separating the driver from the passenger compartment.  The glass slid down a few inches.  "Open the trunk, please."

"Yes, sir."

K opened the door and Tohma stepped out.  K reached in behind him to grab the crossbow and the case with the spare bolts while Tohma walked around to the trunk and retrieved a thick metal shaft about a meter long.  He twirled it between his hands for a moment and then gripped it firmly in his right hand.  There was a sharp click and pointed ends shot out from either end of the shaft, producing a fighting staff about two meters long.  K looked a question and Tohma pointed one end toward him. 

"Fire-hardened wooden tips," he said calmly.  "Just the thing for close fighting with the undead."

"Very cool."  K hefted the crossbow.  "Shall we go?"

"By all means."

Tohma and K crossed the street and descended the steps leading to the front door of the club.

"If you don't mind K, I'd appreciate it if you would go in first and 'soften up the room', as you Americans say."

K chuckled.  "And I have said it!"  He cranked the crossbow to load it.  "Just give me a minute," and he kicked the door open.

The thunk of the crossbow firing sounded almost immediately.  It was followed two seconds later by another thunk.  Two more brief seconds and a third thunk, and then Tohma began to hear shouts of anger and alarm.

"That would be my cue," he murmured to himself, and he stepped through the door.

The lighting was dim in the club, but he had expected that.  He pulled off the sunglasses he'd been wearing in anticipation and quickly assessed the situation.  K was standing just to the left of the door with the crossbow raised.  As Tohma entered, he methodically fired off a fourth shot to bring down a man charging toward him and then dropped the crossbow, pulling guns out of holsters under each arm.  Tohma stepped forward and to the right so as not to get into K's line of fire and twirled his staff in front of him.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he called out, "my friend and I have just a few questions.  If one of you cares to step forward and answer them, we can be on our way without any further trouble."

There was a momentary pause and then the room surged toward them with an animal roar of fury.  K fired methodically, picking out the more obvious humans in the crowd and putting them down with bullets through non-vital organs.  Tohma took one more step forward to give himself clearance, twirled the staff once above his head and then brought it down at the end of the rotation and jabbed it into the chest of the first person to reach him.  With a shriek of anguish, the man collapsed, crumbling away into bones and dust.  Tohma spun lightly into the room, twirling the staff and jabbing it to left and right with quick hard thrusts.  All around him, the undead became the true dead, the older ones crumbling to dust, the more recent to dried and moldering corpses.

Silence fell and Tohma spun one last time to make sure they were really done.  K holstered his pistols and pulled another one from a holster on his ankle.  For a moment, Tohma was concerned they had killed all the vampires, but then he saw a woman cowering against the bar, the bodies of two men shielding her from Tohma's staff.  One of the men was wounded and clearly near unconsciousness.  The other was obviously terrified, but appeared ready to defend the woman anyway.  Tohma shook his head.  It always astonished him how captivated a vampire's victims could become.  He rested the end of his staff on the ground.

"Now, I repeat, if one of you cares to step forward and answer our questions, we will be on our way."

The frightened man started to say something, but the woman put a hand on his arm.

"What do you want?" she asked in a wavering, frightened voice.

"I am looking for Satoshi Seido.  I want to know where to find him."

"Don't tell him, Misha!" the man exclaimed.  "Mr. Seido will kill us!"

"He's going to kill us, you idiot!" she shrieked back, pointing a shaking hand at Tohma.  Her eyes flicked to K and then back to Tohma.  "He never comes here anymore.  Too many vampires, he says.  He likes the Club Congo now."

Tohma smiled.  He knew Club Congo.  It was just the sort of place a vampire would like: lots of young beautiful people anxious to impress the wealthy and powerful. 

"Thank you, Miss.  I would suggest that you drop the wounded off at a hospital anonymously.  I don't think any of us really want the police to be asking questions."  He lifted an eyebrow at her and she nodded vigorously.  "And of course, I would prefer it," and here he fixed her with a sharp glare, "if Mr. Seido was not informed of my inquiry."

She nodded again, and smacked the young man beside her on the back of the head so he started nodding, too.

"Very well.  Good evening, and thank you for your cooperation."

He stepped carefully over the bones, dust and bodies and walked out.  K waited until he went by and then backed out after him.  They crossed the street and climbed back into the limo, with K watching through the open window until the car pulled away.

"Well, that was mighty fun!" K said cheerfully.

"I agree."  Tohma rested his retracted staff across his knees.  He leaned forward and tapped on the glass.  "Club Congo," he told the driver through the lowered window.  "I think it would be better if I approach Mr. Seido alone, K."

"Are you sure?"

"He would recognize you and I don't want to make him suspicious."  Tohma folded his hands over the staff on his knees.  "Don't worry, I can take of myself."

"I don't doubt that Mr. Seguchi," K replied, "but if you don't mind, I'll wait outside in the car, just in case."

"That's fine."

Tohma looked out the window at the passing traffic as they drove to Club Congo.  He considered killing vampires something of a civic duty, but it still left him wishing he could wash his hands.  He would be glad when he was done with this business.  He just hoped it was not too late to save Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki.