You never send me any hearts.Originally Posted by LeopardBear
Those internal monologues
;_____;
You never send me any hearts.Those internal monologues
;_____;
10/10 will continue reading.
Well ask yourself this: how much KnK femslash have you written lately?
Encouragement like that makes it much easier to continue. Thanks!10/10 will continue reading.
If you have negative feedback, though, don't hesitate to provide it.
Last edited by Highwayman; February 5th, 2013 at 11:08 PM.
Chapter 5
The horizon’s orange edge was retreating farther into the distance, giving way to a cloudless night sky. Room 19E, which overlooked the hotel garden as well as the brightly-lit arteries of Shinjuku, was worth its entry price on nights like this. For Shiki, who had been pacing in front of the suite’s lone entry point for the past hour, nightfall merely marked the start of her vigil: she still believed that if the killer would return at all, he would do so under the cover of darkness. All of the shadows cast by the room’s furniture, rough substitutes for a sundial, had by now faded to a muted gray.
It was then that she heard it, a metallic thunk coming from the other end of the nineteenth floor. The noise, which came from the same emergency stairwell door she had used earlier that night, was followed a half-second later by steady footsteps. Their cadence sounded aggressive even with the muffling effect of the carpet, as if the footsteps’ owner was drawing closer with hostile intent. Shiki didn’t need to tighten her hold on the knife: her fighting stance and position in the unlit room were already optimal. She saw how the fight would play out: responding to the killer’s efficiency with a purity of purpose all her own, Shiki would slash at his lines as soon as he entered. If he was as talented as the crime scene advertised, he stood a chance of parrying her initial assault; their dance would continue from there.
And if he can’t recover after I catch him off guard, he’s barely worth the trouble anyway.
The footsteps stopped at the threshold of the hotel room. She saw the doorknob take a quarter-turn as the intruder’s hand tested the ruined lock.
Don’t fall after the first swing, or even after the tenth. I need to enjoy this.
He rapped his knuckles on the door.
Hold on. He wouldn’t do that unless he knew--
“You’ve had an hour in there, Ryougi-san. I’m done waiting.”
Fuck.
His rough voice left her momentarily stunned, as if he’d given a love tap to her solar plexus. Her reaction didn’t stem from her opponent’s unexpected readiness; on some level she even welcomed it. She simply hated the fact that someone had caught her off guard and tailed her. It was an error that the Shiki of three years prior would not have made.
To recover some of her lost advantage, she gave the doorknob a sharp pull just as the man in the hallway began to swing the door inward. In a simplification of the plan she had formed earlier, she used her right hand to pursue an immediate kill, aiming the blade’s point toward the space where she expected her opponent’s head to be. She couldn’t tell if he was entirely human, but she understood that she couldn’t afford the extra second needed to accurately perceive the murderer’s lines. Her strike was a blind one.
The man’s momentum carried him into the room awkwardly, and he stumbled to the ground chest-first; instead of dealing him a fatal blow, Shiki’s off-target lunge had gone wide.
Looks like I’ll have to hold back if I want to make this last. Pathetic.
The killer coughed and began crawling toward one of the walls. Before he could use it to pull himself back to his feet, Shiki jumped on him, pinning his face to the floor. A thin line of blood formed at the back of the murderer’s thick neck, courtesy of the knife that Shiki had pressed against her quarry’s skin. Lines of death pulsed in front of her, but she knew that tracing them would carry no meaning. Toothless prey like this couldn’t hold her interest.
Before long, the man caught his breath.
“The Tohno family head sent me here to talk. I’m not carrying right now, either. Search me if you want.”
Carrying. Which means that this guy’s weapon of choice is a firearm of some kind rather than the blade that killed Tonami. And his preference for ranged combat would explain the novice-grade effort he gave just now. Pat yourself on the back, Shiki: you almost killed the wrong person.
With her free hand, Shiki patted down the sides of the man’s torn sport coat. As expected, she found nothing but a worn leather wallet. She fished out a company ID card; although the light in the room was dim, her eyesight was sharp enough to identify him as a Mr. Kugamine Kakue, a manager at a construction equipment firm. She could also make out the edge of an elaborate tattoo on his back; while his silk shirt concealed most of it, its presence was unmistakable.
A manager, huh? It’s a weak cover, but his kind barely needs one, anyway.
Shiki recalled how seamlessly her parents had redirected the police inquiry of three years earlier. Her grandfather’s bouts of violent insanity had received similar protection from official notice. The Tohno and their branch families likely controlled a similar web of connections; a demon lineage without them would have been extinguished long ago.
The members of our two families are opposite numbers. They bribe an official, we pay off an entire town. They invert, we mimic that madness deliberately. It’s a kind of cold war that leaves both sides out of step with the world around us.
Touko’s advice about her separation from the world of the everyday floated back to her unbidden and unwelcome.
Yeah, useless philosophizing and a preference for thought over action—funny thing is, those words fit me right now just as well as they describe her.
“Fine, so let’s talk. How did you know I was here, and what part of your job description covers using a gun? If I don’t like your answers, then you know what happens next.”
For emphasis, Shiki pressed her knees onto her adversary’s spine, belying her growing disinterest in him. The false salaryman would have to give his answer while facing the floor.
“I use a rifle for the same reason you carry that knife: if you walk around at night, you might meet someone dangerous.”
He laughed, apparently not caring whether Shiki found his joke amusing or not.
“As for your first question, I was ordered to keep an eye on this place, just like my cousin and I were supposed to do at the hospital five days ago.”
The Tohno enforcer’s words surprised her: since he was physically inferior to the monster she had faced earlier, she hadn’t connected that incident with her current situation. Still, she rebuked herself for forgetting an elementary fact of demon hunter lore: the strength of ogre blood could vary within generations as well as between them. Now that she gave him a second look, she could see the family resemblance: while Kakue’s hair was black instead of red, both had the same broad face and high cheekbones.
Unaware of the effect his words might have on his own wellbeing, Kakue continued.
“Just like today, killing you wasn’t part of the deal back then, either. But if it was up to me, I’d be on top of the tower opposite this one right now, M1500 in hand. There’s no way I could miss from that distance, not this time.”
So it’s you who tried to shoot Touko when we were leaving the hospital. A weak act from an even weaker opponent. There’s nothing about your cowardly ass that I can tolerate.
“Hey buddy, thanks for the free confession. So far you’ve told me that you’re the one who tried to put a bullet in my friend’s back. You know, I didn’t plan on hurting you once I realized that Kugamine’s murder was beyond the scope of your abilities, but now—
Shiki drew closer to Kakue’s now-perspiring face until she was almost whispering in his ear.
“—I might have to rethink things. So keep it up.”
I just called her a friend, didn’t I? I suppose that’s the right word. ‘An enemy of my enemy’ and all that.
Shiki’s warning had a sobering effect. When Kakue spoke again, he did so in the clipped tones of someone who recognized his loss even if he remained unwilling to accept it.
“Like I said, I’m unarmed—boss’ orders. My job was to stay on lookout for Aozaki and give her a message from the Tohno family head. But the desk downstairs tipped me off that a woman matching your description rented a room here; I figured that you wanted to scope out the crime scene, just like I thought Aozaki might do. You took too long.”
Kakue’s words explained how he had known about her plan to lie in wait for Kugamine’s killer: although she had done a cursory check for electronic eavesdropping devices, she had overlooked the possibility of human surveillance. Shiki also had to admit that the hotel’s Tohno connections vindicated Touko’s earlier misgivings.
“You wanted to kill us last week. So what’s changed since then?”
Some of his previous defiance crept back into Kakue’s voice.
“Look, my cousin and I were only supposed to make sure no one brought you out of the hospital without the boss’ say-so. You’re a threat to us, but killing you off could have started the kind of incident that our kind doesn’t want. As for Aozaki, the boss must not have expected us to run into her there: we didn’t get any instructions about her, not even a physical description.”
Taking Shiki’s silence for permission to keep talking, Kakue went on.
“So we came up with something on the fly. Once the redhead in the trenchcoat was taken care of, the plan was to tie you up and ransom you back to the Ryougi.”
Shiki gritted her teeth. Kakue disgusted her, and she just wanted him gone.
“I won’t even get into all the flaws in that particular fantasy. But you haven’t answered my question: why should we trust that the Tohno want to talk?”
“If you’d let me deliver my message, then you’d know.”
His voice assumed a flat tone, as if he were reciting from rote.
“‘In light of the recent events that have befallen our friends the Kugamine, we must reluctantly request professional assistance. We would be honored to welcome Miss Aozaki Touko into our home to discuss immediate terms. Signed, Tohno Makihisa.’”
Makihisa’s name was one she recognized, if only in passing: her father couldn’t have explained her birthright as a Ryougi without mentioning the major surviving demon bloodlines. But as far as I know, he’s supposed to be a recluse. Bringing in an outsider doesn’t mesh with that. Shiki decided to leave this inconsistency for later. Kakue wasn’t worth fighting, and she was definitely done talking to him.
“The place where you want us to go—does it have a name?”
“Let me up and I’ll write it out the address for you.”
Shiki warily shifted her weight off of Kakue’s back, allowing him to slowly rise to his feet, hands raised. After she returned his wallet, he scratched out a few misshapen characters on the back of one of his business cards.
Knowing Touko, she won’t mind if her employer is a demon, a yakuza family boss, or all of the above.
Kakue insisted on escorting Shiki out of the hotel; although she preferred to be left alone, rebuffing him wasn’t worth the effort. He seemed impatient for her to deliver the Tohno family head’s message; she saw no reason to remain inside a viper’s nest that the real murderer would have the intelligence to avoid. During their elevator ride to the lobby, which was now empty of guests, Shiki held her knife at the ready inside one of the sleeves of her kimono. They were a strange looking pair, with his bloody collar and her own bandaged neck; being so conspicuous made her uneasy.
Even after she had left the hotel behind, the feeling of being watched lingered. Behind the line of ornamental maples at the edge of the garden’s reflecting pool stood the reason why. Her silhouette was oddly difficult to distinguish from the surrounding trees even from a few meters away, but the mage’s telltale cigarette betrayed her location. Shiki relaxed, putting away her knife and allowing herself to show a little annoyance.
“How long have you been waiting here?”
Touko shook her head, her voice quiet.
“You weren’t intended to see through that illusion, but what’s done is done. This particular rune’s accuracy decreases with distance: stay still.”
“Come again?”
“Isa.”
As soon as Touko’s cigarette finished tracing the simple I-shaped rune, Shiki’s view of the surrounding courtyard became washed out, as if she were seeing it through a fogged window.
“There were several sets of eyes following you: your friend from the hotel and two others. From their perspective, you went straight from ‘presence’ to ‘absence’ without the inconvenient step of actually leaving. As far as perceptual tricks go, there aren’t many that can match it.”
Shiki mentally condensed the explanation down to its essentials: whoever was watching them no longer posed a threat, and for reasons known only to Touko, they would discuss the night’s events here instead of at her office. But instead of beginning the debriefing, Touko began to casually stroll down the path that ringed the reflecting pool. Mystified, Shiki fell in behind her employer as she gestured in the direction of the Continental.
“Even from an outside vantage point, it’s not difficult to notice the contradictions inherent in this place. The architect might have been paying homage to Mies van der Rohe a few decades too late: this is a building of ninety-degree angles. Ornamentation has been dialed back to zero.”
And as payback for making her wait, I’m going to be subjected to Architecture 101 for the next fifteen minutes.
“I was never an admirer of his designs: we can try to deny it, but it’s part of human nature to seek out a little luxury after our basic needs are met. The boundary between the inessential and the indispensable is a fine one.”
A small smile played across Touko’s face; Shiki was completely indifferent to whatever motivated it.
She really is in rare form tonight. Too bad that these kinds of games weren’t what I signed up for.
“So I take it that you’ve been standing here for a while, then.”
“Long enough to see that you’d finished what you came here to do. And it doesn’t take any special intuition to see that you’d like to get moving, so I’ll keep this short. I thought you might appreciate the irony of a traditional clan like the Tohno coming to own a modern building like this. Take a look at the garden around us: it’s as if they packed up the landscaping of one of their country houses and had it installed here to make themselves feel more at home.”
Given her apparent understanding of the situation, Touko’s lack of urgency was especially jarring.
“If you’re interested in the aesthetics of the Tohno family estates, then now’s your chance. I met the person who attacked us five days ago; as crazy as it sounds, he expects us to attend a meeting tonight somewhere out in the sticks.”
Shiki might have been describing the next day’s weather forecast.
“Anything else?”
Maybe I need to let her know that there’s compensation involved. Although if the Tohno head could see her now, I wonder if he would rather give the job to someone else.
Shiki bent down and pulled Kakue’s business card from the top of her left boot, where she had hastily stashed it a few minutes earlier.
“Tohno Makihisa is offering you a contract to solve the Kugamine murder. Not over the phone—he’s waiting in person. The deal’s supposed to go down in a place called Misaki, but…that’s weird. There’s no street address; this just says ‘the old Kuonji house.’”
I should have asked Kakue to explain what he meant by that. Maybe it works out better this way: if Touko sees this as a puzzle, she might actually shift her mind into gear.
Touko paused for a moment then tilted her gaze slightly downward so that their eyes met. Shiki couldn’t definitively say when the transformation had happened, but the glasses that Touko had been wearing were gone.
“Go ahead; I’m listening.”
Shiki relayed a sparse version of what had happened since she left Garan no Dou, with Touko breaking in with an occasional clarifying question. Even the sounds of the traffic coming from a short distance away were absorbed by the rune magic enveloping the courtyard. Touko looked up at the hotel and then down at the still water in front of the two of them. It was as if the other woman were trying to take in every detail about the garden around her to memorize it for later retrieval.
“Before you knew who Kakue was, Shiki, you had every reason to kill him. It’s important for you to understand why you didn’t follow through. I don’t expect an answer right away—as a matter of fact, I’m not asking for an answer at all. All the same, don’t make the mistake of forgetting what happened here. ”
Of all the details she could have picked, she chooses this one. I think I disliked her less when she kept her digressions impersonal.
“What’s there to explain? I came here to gather information for your detective agency; I couldn’t do that by killing our only lead.”
Her words were true in a technical sense; she didn’t feel the need to disclose anything more.
“Coming from someone else, I could almost believe that.”
Wait as long as you want; my answer won’t change.
“But from you, whose salary boils down to room, board, and as many chances to kill as the job provides, I’m not buying it. Think back to a concept you should remember from whatever social sciences curriculum high schools teach these days: multiple causation. Deciding whether or not to take a life might seem instinctual, but the inputs that underlie that decision are more complex, even contradictory, than the average government prosecutor would have you believe. If killing really is all you have left, then tonight would have turned out differently.”
Unwilling to give in, Shiki had turned their discussion into a staring match. But by the time Touko was finished, Shiki could practically taste the bitter tobacco smoke that filled the air around her: while driving her point home, the other woman had taken a few accusatory steps forward.
Living with the impulse to kill proves that murder isn’t anything to analyze; it’s just the consequence of losing control. Splitting the process up into academic causes doesn’t make any sense. But there’s no harm in letting you think you’ve won this round.
“More to the point, Touko, are you willing to trust Makihisa’s invitation?
To Shiki’s relief, there was no vagueness in the answer she received.
“Enough to listen to his terms. If we hurry, we can make the last train to Misaki; it’s probably been integrated into the new high-speed rail network by now.”
Touko had already turned her back to the trees and started walking briskly in the direction of the street. The window for further debate, which didn’t interest Shiki anyway, seemed closed. But if only to have the final word, she decided to break the silence.
“I’m not complaining, but weren’t you the one preaching caution a few hours ago?”
The magician’s cryptic reply, delivered with none of the mischievousness of her previous ramblings, removed any doubt from Shiki’s mind.
“Old Tohno may have chosen to hold the meeting in Misaki out of convenience, but coincidences can only remain isolated for so long; there’s a larger pattern at work here. I’m choosing to interpret the location of tonight’s meeting as a misplaced show of respect for the Aozaki lineage. However, if he just intends to gloat over how much he’s benefited from his landlord’s decade-long absence, then he does so at his own risk rather than mine.”
Last edited by Highwayman; April 3rd, 2013 at 04:05 PM.
Awesome. You don't update often, man, but when you do...
かん汗ぎゅう牛じゅう充とう棟
Expresses the exceeding size of one's library.
Books are extremely many, loaded on an oxcart the ox will sweat.
At home piled to the ridgepole of the house, from this meaning.
Read out as 「Ushi ni ase shi, munagi ni mitsu.」
Source: 柳宗元「其為書，處則充棟宇，出則汗牛馬。」— Tang Dynasty
I will never stop calling your Touko amazing because your Touko is amazing.
If my audience includes both the mod team's most ardent Kara no Kyoukai fan and the author of that franchise's best ongoing fanfic, then I know I'm still doing a passable job.
Of course, I wouldn't mind hearing from Seika, Kyte, or anyone else who has looked over this story during the past few months.
Also, while my update schedule might make this hard to believe, I have a good idea of how the next 8,000 words or so will turn out. The Misaki trip should allow for some worthwhile emotional impact once the viewpoint shifts back to Touko; as for the fic's relative lack of yuri so far, well...stay tuned.
More than passable. You can't even see 'passable' from where you are, mate.
With regard to the future yuri potential of this fic, I am gnawing at my elbows in anticipation. Well, that and playing MGR:R. They're not mutually exclusive.
かん汗ぎゅう牛じゅう充とう棟
Expresses the exceeding size of one's library.
Books are extremely many, loaded on an oxcart the ox will sweat.
At home piled to the ridgepole of the house, from this meaning.
Read out as 「Ushi ni ase shi, munagi ni mitsu.」
Source: 柳宗元「其為書，處則充棟宇，出則汗牛馬。」— Tang Dynasty
This fic is relevant to my interests.
I came for the Yuri, I stayed for the excellent characterization and the interesting plot.
... I still want the Yuri, though!
Sorry, I'd left this tab sitting in my work computer for literally weeks.
The mystery intrigues me more than even the promise of yuri and Touko & Ryougi are highly compelling.
The fact there're Tohnos involved just spikes my curiosity more.
You're not gonna bring T.Shiki in are you 'cause I'm in conflict whether that'd be really fucking awesome or it'd take away from the core plot.
Also HAHA NECROOOOOOOOOOOO.
kyte pls
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