Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Haima ❯ Chapter 10: Embedded with... ( Chapter 10 )

Title: Haima
Author: Nekocin
Email: Neko_cin_6@hotmail.com
Genres: Various---> Action and Romance as main genres (I hope Romance wouldn't be so screwed up >.>).
Type: AU
Anime: Yu-gi-oh
Warnings: Shounen-ai, Violence. Maybe some OOC. In this chapter OOC
Pairings: Seto+Jou... slight Yami+Yugi hint (^^;; The pairing just came out without me noticing it until it's too late to change most of the storyline)
Rated: PG-13
Disclaimer: Anime in question doesn't belong to me. Never was. Never will.
Author's notes:
See chapter 9. I just posted this along with the other just to save me from embarrassing myself further. ^^;;

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 10: Embedded with...

14:00 PM

Ryou ran his fingers through his white hair to keep it from sticking out everywhere. He straightened his long white coat and put on a pair of glasses. Ryou looked satisfied at his reflection and plastered his famous polite smile.

"Dr. Shiori is ready" he whispered against his collar and headed out of the lavatory.

"It took you THIS long to change?!" agent Haku chided irritatingly through his headset. He was sitting behind a laptop and searched for Dr. Shiori's position on the computerized map of the hospital.

Both he and agent Bakura were working on some under cover case. Ryou got to do some undercover stuff since he most likely had the soft looks most doctors wore whenever they were handling their patients.

Ryou kept his mouth shut when he heard that comment. Agent Haku always had something to comment about when they were doing this kind of work. Ryou counted to ten in his head, trying not to get angry. He'd learned the hard way not to speak back whenever his partner chided him.

"Our subject is in room #498, right?" Ryou walked confidently down the halls and smiled when the nurses passed him.

Agent Haku smirked and watched as something white caught his attention. "I see you did your homework, Ryou-CHAN"

Dr. Shiori flinched visibly. Bakura always used it to mock him; sometimes it could pull his attention away from his target, temporarily. He hated it and clenched his fists to focus on his target.

Agent Haku just wanted to put him into trouble, Ryou told himself. There was no way he would jeopardize his current position and thus strode firmly towards his destination.

He knocked politely on room #498 and reached for the doorknob.

"Mr. Sakurada, good afternoon" Dr. Shiori greeted and went into the room.

Ocean blue eyes blinked dazedly at the new doctor. "When can I go home, sensei?"
the man asked sadly.
Big sad eyebrows emphasized his dull blue eyes perfectly. His brown hair was tousled during his sleep and the hospital gown looked a bit wrinkled. His face looked dried up. The skin was practically sticking on the bones like paint on the walls. The patient looked horrible. He must be starving.

Dr. Shiori looked briefly at the patient's report.

- PATIENT: Sakurada Shigure.
- AGE: 45
- SEX: M
- DOB: 19XX October 3rd
- ILLNESS: Brain damage? - - - [1]

Ryou immediately took pity and put down the report.

"I'm sorry, you've to stay here for a few more days" Dr. Shiori told the patient gently and checked the patient's medicines on the small table next to the patient's bed. Maybe the doctors might have put the wrong medicines here and there...

"I can't stay here, sensei" patient Sakurada whimpered and quickly gripped onto Dr. Shiori's coat. He pulled the doctor closer to his face and started to wail miserably. "PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I CAN'T STAND THIS MUCH LONGER, SENSEI!!"

Dr. Shiori's eyes went wide as he stared closely at the sad blue eyes. He immediately gasped.

"Ryou? Ryou?! Do you hear me? RYOU?!" [2]

*~*~*~*~*~

15:30 PM

Katsuya jumped over the dirty walls and looked up at the buildings. He had this feeling someone was watching him from either one of the buildings.
He was panting heavily for having run through the dirty alleys. His instinct just pointed out the direction where Otogi might have been or in this case... where the kidnapper might have taken Otogi.

He knew Otogi was somehow connected to the murder case. No matter how superstitious Otogi might be he DID have a bad omen after all.

Katsuya wondered vaguely if the roses were some sort of clue. All sorts of thoughts inflicted his mind... and his heart was racing, he noticed. He felt fear. Ice cold fear for what might happen. The rookie had no idea what to do if he did find the killer or kidnapper with Otogi.

So he let himself through the dark alleys.

Something was dropped on top of his head and he automatically looked up. "What the?"

Katsuya caught sight of a silhouette jumping one building over the other with some help of a rope. Another something dropped down, but landed near the rookie's feet.

Dices.

Two dices had fallen down. Something clicked in his mind.

"Ryuuji!" He grabbed for the fire escape and ran up the stairs of one of the buildings [3]. He remembered seeing Otogi fighting the bank robbers with dices that morning... or at least that's what Otogi was trying to hide when he used the gummy stick.

As soon as he got on top of the roof, he bended over to catch his breath. He couldn't remember when he'd run that much as that day. So he was left breathing heavily through his mouth.
He could hear his heart hammering against his chest, worsening his headache for no reason perhaps.

As he slowly looked up, he could faintly see someone jumping off the roof of a building, which was five buildings away, with something slung over his shoulder.

"Dammit! How could this be happening?" Officer Jounouchi muttered under his breath and ran over the other side of the roof. He stopped near the railing and checked the height from the roof to the ground. Instantly the rookie gulped. He was too high up there.

"The f****** bastard must have been a monkey or a flying squirrel in his previous life!"

Officer Jounouchi gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He could do this! It was no big deal. He would cross the distance of one building to the other with the help of a rope and his jacket.

*~*~*~*~*~

16:00 PM

The man looked over his shoulder, assuming that he'd felt being followed.

He was right!
That officer was following him.
The rookie had somehow found out where he was heading.

He wondered briefly if he was being too obvious about the abduction. A grin grazed his lips.

"You've figured it out so easily?" He wondered out loud and stopped abruptly. Instantly he noticed how exhausting it was to carry a grown-up over one shoulder especially while running on the flat roofs of apartment buildings. Maybe he had too much in mind...

Being human himself, he was breathing heavily and quickly jumped out of sight.

*~*~*~*~*~

16:05 PM

Sweat was trickling down his forehead as his breathing became ragged. It could've been much easier without the trench coat, the inspector noted and climbed over another wall. He jumped down to the other side and grimaced at the grease he felt on his hands.


"How filthy can this area be?" he muttered and looked down on the ground. As expected he found some footprints. The inspector furrowed his eyebrows and squatted down to inspect the prints more closely.
Satisfaction seemed to flash past his eyes and the inspector stood up again.

Watching over a rookie was really a hindrance, especially when said rookie was leaping before looking out first. And also when the said rookie could be a smart ass occasionally, the inspector added mentally. He would never really say that out loud, not in front of the said person anyways. It would be like cheering for some stranger who might be an idiot after all.

The inspector followed the footprints and suddenly stopped.

Where did the rest of the footprints go?

"Just great! He'd disappeared into thin air too?" inspector Kaiba said sarcastically and looked around, wondering in which alley he was intruding. A gang could've captured the rookie, because of his uniform. But seeing there were no other fresh footprints, the rookie hadn't been captured then.

The fire escape caught his attention. He looked closer at the steps. From the occasional sticking dirt, inspector Kaiba touched the steps cautiously. He felt for the sticking dirt and smeared his fingers of that hand together just to be sure that the dirt could be useful. A few touching here and there had confirmed the inspector's assumption. The rookie was up there.
The dirt was still a bit cold and a bit watery. It must have been dirt from the alley.

He frowned and looked up at the building. The inspector wiped his fingers clean against his coat and climbed the stairs. The rookie could be in anyone's apartment!
Surely the rookie wouldn't be so stupid to go into someone's apartment without going through the front door first, right?

He shook his head, scratching that option. The rookie must be on the roof.

The cold wind brushed past his coat, occasionally giving him some fresh air for the long climb on the stairs. His legs were hurting from the extra exercise. Especially when it had been a long time since he'd to chase someone on foot. Usually he chases his assumed victims in his car.

Speaking of chasing someone... where's the BRAT?!

He looked around the roof.

The rookie wasn't present only a few foot prints and a dice near the roof's railing of the other side.
The inspector's eyes widened slightly as he followed the footprints with his eyes again.

Something or rather someone was sliding from one building to the other with some help of a single rope and his uniform jacket.

"What the?" came out of the inspector's mouth. The trick was to use the cloth as some security for not needing to burn one's hands once he slid towards the other building through the rope.

He instantly ran closer to the roof's railing and narrowed his eyes to get a better look.

"The F***! I swear this rookie is going to make sure I'll get white hair!" Inspector Kaiba snarled and took of his coat while heading for the rope that connected the two buildings in one thin line.

*~*~*~*~*~

16:30 PM

Yami came out of the hearing room and smirked. Agent Mutou, agent Ishtar and Shizuka had been waiting for him outside the hearing room. Ishizu had been driven home a few minutes ago.

The smirk had definitely answered their first question: did they tell him?

""They'd affirmed their promise" Yami commented and coolly leaned against the left wall.

"So what's the story?" Yugi asked curiously.

"They were ordered to abduct the younger Kaiba and then send the teenager into an unsuspicious car accident. They wanted to see Kaiba break and crumble into dust. It seemed this had something to do with the Kaiba Corp's rivalry with other upcoming Corporations. I guess Kaiba was hanging a bit too long in the police business that he hadn't noticed their existence" Yami explained as he regarded each of his little audience.

Their faces lit up after hearing the brief summary coming from Yami. Everything seemed to make sense....

"But whom were they referring as 'the freak of an officer'?" Shizuka furrowed her eyebrows, trying to imagine all the recent officers she'd met who might fit the freakish nature.

"Yeah... I don't think they were referring to you, right? Then who...?" Yugi gave his previous partner a confused look.

It could somehow also be counted as one of the cutest expressions and yet it wasn't supposed to be called 'cute', Yami mused.
Agent Ishtar gave him a small smile; he sort of had an idea who this 'freak of an officer' really was.

Yami just chuckled and sighed.
"I really couldn't believe it at first, but Jounouchi-san was the one who gave them a scare"

"Onii-chan isn't a freak!" Shizuka immediately defended.

"We know, we know... it's just that... they mentioned Jounouchi-san licking a knife like eating ice cream" Yami explained uncomfortably as he restrained his face from flashing a big, amused smile. It might have given the younger Jounouchi the wrong intentions. Who knows what she might do just to defend her brother's honour.

"Knife? it's just a blunt butter knife. Couldn't they tell?" Shizuka wondered incredulously and giggled afterwards.

"It's blunt?" came the expected question. The younger Jounouchi sighed and smiled dazedly as if remembering something.

"Onii-chan always keeps a knife close. Okaa-san was too proud to take care of him, you know. He was still ten when he got into the habit of keeping a knife close by. When he had to live alone there seemed to be a lot of crimes happening around him. The results were that onii-chan had been involved in a lot of fights instead of studying properly in the afternoons. Using a blunt knife was only to scare off his opponents. It wasn't supposedly used to hurt since onii-chan had no desire of creating a blood bath in the alleys... besides it was sort of onii-chan's only tool to feel secured instead of guns and blades" Shizuka explained softly and smiled to herself.
She felt proud of her brother. He was strong indeed.

The other three officers watched the younger Jounouchi's expressions. It was like watching a drama without a hero. They definitely noticed how much Shizuka adores her brother. The rookie must have been some great big brother with great examples, they noted.

"What about that Mariku?" agent Mutou suddenly snapped everyone out of their dazes. He looked up at agent Yuuki.

"He just smirks in my face and tell me nothing useful at all. I guess I'm more willing to send you in there, Malik since he's sort of... fond of you. He gives me the nerves to choke someone's life out" Yami sighed dejectedly and instantly Malik paled.

Yugi pitied his partner. What had Mariku said to him that made him this pale?

"Maybe I can take your place so you can spend some time with Ishizu one-chan" Yugi offered a reassuring smile.

"NO! I mean... iie, I can do it [4]. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine" Malik protested quickly and ignored the feeling of having felt his stomach drop from its original place. There was no way he should get scared of some criminal. He was supposed to be intimidating and touch too.

Determination was branded on his face and agent Ishtar headed into another hearing room.

"I'm agent Ishtar. Agent Yuuki had sent me...," he said automatically.

The door to the hearing room was slowly closed. [5]

*~*~*~*~*~

17:00 PM

The sun was already setting. Its rays painted the sky orange and yellow. That morning was really a beautiful one.

Katsuya grunted as he climbed over the railing just to get on the roof of the other building. He was breathing heavily and sweat was clearly trickling down his forehead. It took him a lot of energy to cross the five buildings.

Doki. Doki. Doki. [7]

Pain soared through his limbs as the cold wind kissed his skin teasingly. [6]
The rookie shivered. Katsuya slid on his jacket and looked around. Where did that -someone- go?

His instincts were telling him he was following a killer.

How was he supposed to defend himself?

He looked down on the floor and as expected, he found another missing dice. The familiar cold fear lingered over his bones. The rookie felt the fear urging his hear to hammer harder against his chest. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, pumping the fear everywhere in his body. It felt familiar...

The rookie played with the dice absently as he stepped forward, cautiously. His eyes darted around, anticipating any sorts of physical attacks. A lot of questions went through his mind. One of them was "why". "Why" this and "why" that.

The sky was getting a bit darker already. When the night fell the killed roamed through the city.

Jounouchi just hoped he could save Otogi from an unnecessary death. It sounded pointless to kill rookies, Katsuya contemplated inwardly. It wasn't like they even had a clue who was at fault or who the killer was and such.
Was it some sort of sweet revenge on those that had just come out of training school?

SWISH!

Instincts screamed at him and adrenaline started to pimp through his veins at full speed. Katsuya jumped out of the way and hid behind a container. A small thud cracked the silence of the roof and he flickered his attention to the fallen object.

A small dart.

Poison might have been dipped on the sharp needle... but somehow the killer didn't seem o be a person that would kill his victims immediately. it was like an insult. Although not everyone knew how a killer's mind worked. So the chances were slim.

Katsuya let his eyes dart around the various positions where the killer MIGHT be hiding. He took a deep breath and stood up confidently.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

A dart was immediately thrown at him.

*.*.*.*.* End chapter 10*.*.*.*.*

End notes:

"(name)-sensei" or just "sensei" is commonly used when patients call the doctors and also... at school of course.
"okaa-san" is commonly used to call one's mother affectionately.
"onii-chan" is commonly used to call an older guy affectionately by little kids. (Not blood related brother, just some older boys the little kids like. Though I really have forgotten what the blood-related brother really is ^^;;)
"one-chan" is commonly used to call an older girl affectionately by little kids. (Also not blood-related sister. In this case, Yugi can call Ishizu 'one-chan' since she's older and not married. Not that he's a little kid... but you get it, right? ^^;;)

1: Meaning the actual doctor has no idea if the patient is really sick or crazy. I'm not sure how real life works so... I just made up something there.
2: 9_9 I think this is fair enough to leave it to the side-fic "Aventurien". ^^;; Sorry.
3: I sort of based this on those New York buildings. Hehehehe... ^^;;
4: "iie" means "no". Spoken out as "i - ye". I just seem to be throwing random transliterated words here and there.
5: Yep. That's about it for "Haima" timeline between those two. The "Turamali" timeline will pick up those two up as soon as I'm finished with both "Haima" and "Aventurien".
6: Just straying a bit... ^^;;
7: Sometimes "doki" is used to represent the sounds of a heartbeat. ^_^

X_X See... another cliffhanger just because I ran out of notepapers again -_-;;. Still a bit straying here and there... And oh, I don't know about the scene with the dart is a good place to end. ^^;; It IS after all a bit… too much. A bit too perfect maybe.

=^_^=cin