CHAPTER THIRTY
“I heard everything he said to her,” Yamamoto explained. “He's obsessed with making her part of his great mission of destruction. He’s in love with her, in his own deranged way; he wouldn’t kill her unless he snapped again, and that only happens when he’s enraged. I was only afraid he might try to kill her once he saw you, Vice-Chief,” Yamamoto said the last part hesitantly.
“If I can’t have her, no one can,” Harada said softly, comprehending his subordinate’s reasoning.
“Exactly, Vice-Chief,” Yamamoto said, “and he wouldn’t have cared that she had her knife at his throat.”
Tetsuya nodded, looking pale and harrowed. “It was well done, Yamamoto,” he said. “Sorry I doubted you.”
Yamamoto was stunned; the Vice-Chief apologizing was like a shower of cherry blossoms on a clear winter day; incongruous. He really was changing, Yamamoto thought. Thalia came over and took Yamamoto’s temperature, pulse, and breath rate, resting two fingers against his throat. He closed his eyes, trying to continue being stoic; he had not taken his pain medication, and was sweating with the discomfort of his healing body in its absence.
“I’ll tell the nurse you need your meds,” she told him. “I’ll explain, don’t worry.” With that, she left.
“She always knows,” Yamamoto said, half to himself. Harada nodded. He was watching Thalia walk away and realizing how easily he might have lost her a moment ago.
“Why didn’t she destroy him?” he wondered aloud, uncertain why she had not manifested her Fury.
“Vice-Chief, she feels sorry for him,” Yamamoto explained. “I don’t understand it all, but it seemed like they knew each other.”
“Yes, they had a confrontation on the ship,” Harada said.
Yamamoto shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. I mean before that; maybe Sekiguchi has been to her world.”
“Explain,” Harada said tersely.
“I – I’m not sure exactly,” Yamamoto stammered. “Sekiguchi said he needs her, but she told him she belongs with you. He wanted to know why you should have her all to yourself, and Thalia-san said you and she are a matched pair. Then she said Sekiguchi and she were never good for each other, to which he said something like she always says that – but I could be wrong about the words.”
“I see,” Harada said, though he really did not see. He was vaguely aware of some fiend with green eyes waking up inside him; something possessive that wanted to destroy anything that laid a claim on Thalia.
He went to observe the doctor and nurses lifting Sekiguchi into a bed, taking vital signs, assessing his wound, and preparing to move him out of the room all at once. He was annoyed with himself for allowing the chance at killing this bastard to slip away; the reasons to get rid of him were mounting rapidly.
“Wait a moment,” he said authoritatively before they wheeled the bed out. “This is a wanted criminal. Leader of the terrorist organization Hellfire Rising. He’s dangerous, not to be trusted, and must be under guard at all times. No visitors without approval from a Shinsengumi chief officer.”
“He may normally be dangerous, Vice-Commander,” said the doctor in attendance, “but for the next few days at least, he’ll pose no danger even to a kitten.”
“Any chance he’ll die?” Harada asked.
“There’s always a chance, and in this case I’d venture to guess it might be a pretty decent chance. I won’t know until he’s examined properly,” the doctor replied carefully.
“Regardless of the current danger he may or may not pose, what I said still applies,” Harada continued. “Any medical staff entering his room will show valid identification to the guards posted at the door. No exceptions.”
Kato had come back from briefing the nurses' station on the situation, and indicated his agreement. “Please wait here for the first pair of guards, who will escort you.” he said to the doctor.
Thalia returned and told Yamamoto that a nurse was on her way with his medication. She leaned over and kissed his forehead, brushing his hair away from his eyes in her usual affectionate way.
“Thanks, Onee-san,” he said, smiling up at her. He had no experience of having a big sister, but could not imagine anyone he would rather have as one; and he almost had the right to say it to her.
“No - thank you, Yama-chan, for saving the day once again,” she said, winking at him. “Tetsuya, if you’re finished bossing all these people around for the moment, I think you and I should go back to bed,” she said, subtly using her body to support him on his bad leg’s side.
Kato was back with two officers who would be posted as the first guards, so there was no objection to her proposal. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Harada noticed his leg was burning fiercely, and cursed his injuries for the ten thousandth time. It was nothing new for him to sustain severe injuries in battle, and the healing process was always onerous, but in this case it was even worse because there were finally things he wanted to enjoy doing.
There were also things he felt he needed to be doing, but couldn’t. There were so many drawbacks to actually caring about life, he thought, they couldn’t even be counted.
It was an unqualified relief to be back in bed with Thalia curled up against him, gently massaging the muscles in his sword hand, which had cramped up on him a little.
“They’re just a bit out of practice,” Thalia said, and kissed his palm.
“That goes for all of me,” Tetsuya complained. Thalia laughed softly and pressed her lips to his, pushing them open. “Well, almost,” he corrected a few moments later, after a deep and lusty kiss. “And of course the one part of me that’s feeling more fit than ever can’t be exercised thanks to doctor’s orders. I think that doctor is in some kind of Sadists Anonymous group with Seizo.” This, of course, referred to the doctor who had banned sex until healing of the leg wound progressed to an unspecified point.
“He’s falling off the wagon, if so,” Thalia said, her eyes sparkling.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“In which case, whatever he says cannot be trusted, and can safely be disregarded,” Tetsuya said hopefully.
“Nice try!” Thalia said with admiration in her voice. He threw his head back on his pillows and groaned, half joking – but only half. “Such a good try, in fact, that I think it deserves a reward. Are we sure we won’t be disturbed again?” she asked, knowing that would pique his curiosity.
“Yes, there are two guys on the door now, and I was told they’re afraid I’ll make them commit seppuku if anything goes wrong for the rest of the night. Come to think of it, I probably have Seizo to thank for that. I once overheard him telling them I made someone slice his belly for eating the last of the steamed pork buns.” Tetsuya was trying to be nonchalant, but he felt more like a small child trying to pretend he was asleep on Christmas Eve.
“Did you?” Thalia asked, eyes wide.
“Would that be a bad thing?” he retorted. “Anyway, go on with what you were saying.”
“Oh. Well, now that you made me see visions of seppuku, I can’t remember what I was going to” –
“You’re a horrible tease,” Tetsuya laughed, pulling her close and kissing her, hardly noticing his shoulder wound any longer.
Passion was very close to the surface, as it always is after an emotionally intense, physically harrowing experience. Thalia broke away from a kiss so deep it left them both breathless and moved her hands down, knowing he was hard and swollen for her again.
“Traditional sex might be off-limits, but there’s no reason not to improvise,” Thalia said, and went down to give him the first fellatio of his life. Tetsuya had not considered himself a fit partner for anyone in the past, so he had always been pragmatic about seeing to his sex drive, taking care of his needs in perfunctory encounters with partners who had no expectations of him. He had never been given to visiting hostess clubs, massage parlors or wild parties; he was a romantic at heart and always had been. As a result, his feelings during this experience were a wild confusion of embarrassment, astonishment, and ecstasy.
“Where the hell did you learn to do that?” he demanded when he could speak again. The green-eyed fiend stirred a little in its sleep as he asked.
“With you, originally,” she said, smiling. “You and I have done a lot of experiments over the millennia. I have the advantage – which is sometimes more a disadvantage – of remembering a lot of it,” she reminded him.
He touched her face, suddenly uncomfortable as he remembered what he had wanted to ask her earlier, but forgot in the heat of the moments that had passed since they were in private.
“What is it?” she asked, sensing his mood change.
“Your memories, from other lives – is that how you know Sekiguchi?” he asked.
She did not bother being surprised at this. “Yes,” she said.
“Does he remember you?”
“In some way, I’m sure he does,” she replied. “But more in the ways you and Seizo remembered me than in the ways I remember all of you.”
“Were you and he ever” – he paused, not sure if he really wanted to ask this question. Thalia took his hands in hers and waited until he looked her in the eye.
“When you did not share my lifetime, yes. But never have I been with anyone else the way I am with you, Tetsu. There is no one else for me – or for you – on that level. You know that.”
He nodded. “I do know it, Thalia. I also know I’m going to sound jealous when I say this, but it’s not that. Or at least not all that. I do not want him so much as seeing your face again,” he said vehemently. “Promise me you won’t go near him, Thalia,” he demanded, with something of his old arrogance.
“Can I actually do that?” she asked. “I’m a Lieutenant. Are you going to ask me not to do my job?”
“I’m going to specifically make him not your job,” he replied.
“Tetsu, why?” she asked. “Do you doubt me?”
“Of course I don’t doubt you.”
“Are you sure?” she pushed. “Where is all this really coming from?”
“From the fact that if I ever see him within five feet of you again, he’ll be lying there in pieces. Why can’t you promise me this one thing?”
“Because it’s not just one thing, underneath. Why do you need me to promise? I haven’t sought him out; on the contrary. Why would you assume I’d start now, just because now you know I knew him in the past?”
“Thalia, do you trust me?” he asked her then, taking hold of her shoulders and looking her in the eyes.
She looked back at him; she had been getting annoyed, making assumptions that he was making assumptions, and now she felt foolish. His eyes were clear, unclouded by deceit.
She smiled and nodded. “Of course I do,” she whispered.
“I have an intuition about him,” Tetsuya explained carefully. “I’ve learned to pay attention to my intuition, although it is occasionally too late to be helpful. I’ll admit something in me resents whatever time you spent with him, though I don’t blame you for it. However, that’s not where this is coming from. I feel he’s dangerous to you; far more dangerous than I realized before, even when he took me prisoner in order to get to you. In some way he loves you; but his love is even more destructive than his hate. If you’re near him again, I feel something terrible will happen.”
Thalia looked at him solemnly and nodded. “I was too quick to assume – I’m sorry. I promise you I will not of my own volition go near Sekiguchi Teiji again,” she said, and kissed one of his hands.
“Thank you,” he said, and kissed her hand in return. Then he pulled her suddenly very close, burying his face in her hair so she would not see how much it terrified him to love her as intensely as he did. He would never in a thousand lifetimes forget the moment they had opened the door and light from the hall poured into the darkened room, illuminating Thalia with Sekiguchi’s sword poised under her shoulder-blade. Never had he known such fear; that was when the intuition so strong he was almost tempted to call it a premonition had first come over him.
Sekiguchi would unleash some kind of hell on Thalia if he was allowed near her again. Harada did not know how he knew this, and understood there was no such intent in the madman’s chaotic mind; nonetheless, it was a chilling certainty to him.
***
The next morning, Harada put in an official request to speak privately with Thalia’s surgeon at his earliest convenience.
Immediately after that, he called Kato. “Kato-san, if it's all right with you I’m going to assign Heisuke to tracking down the arms dealers who were at the meeting with Hellfire Rising at # 442. I have no doubt they went into hiding when they heard what happened, so it won’t be easy to find them.”
“Heisuke? Ah, the one who’s been assisting Yamamoto?”
“Yes. I’d prefer to have Yama on this, of course, but I think Heisuke has learned enough to do this job.”
“Just him, or will you team him up with his usual patrol partner?”
“I may leave that to his discretion, actually,” Harada said.
“All right,” Kato agreed.
“Kato-san, another thing: when you come in later, please bring Thalia’s folder with you, but don’t give it to me in front of her.”
Tense silence greeted this request.
“You do still have her folder?” Harada asked.
“Of course!” Kato said hastily. “Well, most of it,” he amended.
Tetsuya cursed under his breath. “What’s missing?”
“The photos of her animal forms are gone. Also that list of reference materials she gave us in case we wanted to research her people and history. The rest is there.” Kato sounded miserable, so Tetsuya did not have the heart to castigate him. “I put the file away, Tetsu, and locked it up with our other secure documents, but I guess it wasn’t enough. I never believed we would have another traitor in the Shinsengumi.”
“We should probably just assume it’s always possible with every new recruit from now on,” Harada said. “But if you can bring in what you
have, that should be what I need.”
Chief Kato did not press the issue on the phone, and he did bring what Harada asked for. However, he was concerned by the request, and said so in no uncertain terms.
“Tetsu, I may not know everything about healthy relationships,” he began, at which Tetsuya immediately tried to stifle a snort. “But I think you should reconsider investigating Thalia behind her back. Don’t you trust each other? Hasn’t she proven herself with everything you’ve been through since she got here?”
“Kato-san, you mistake my intention. I’m not going behind her back to check up on her; I want to see if there's someone we can contact on the other side who understands the Fae medically, but I don’t want her to know I’m doing it if it’s not going to lead anywhere helpful," Tetsuya explained.
Kato looked even more concerned. “Is something wrong with her that they can’t help with here?” he asked.
“In a sense, yes,” Tetsuya said, not wanting to explain. Kato had signed the surgical consent forms, and would blame himself for her loss of shape-shifting ability. It would be nice to avoid that, although he realized the hope was probably unrealistic.
A look of horror came into Kato’s face. “Do you mean she can’t – she isn’t – well, frigid? Obviously she wasn’t that time you dropped her bra on the floor, but sometimes it happens after a trauma.” This was, of course, an unbelievably indelicate question, but Tetsuya supposed he should not be surprised at it coming from the Chief.
“Of course she perf – Kato-san! That’s not the issue.” His face was on fire now.
Kato looked satisfied. “Good. Don’t worry, Tetsu, I won’t tell the doctor, although I doubt he really expects you to listen to him, sleeping next to a knockout like Thalia-chan. You look like you’re finally getting the good stuff, and it’d be terrible to hear you weren’t. But if it’s not that, what is it?”
“I’d rather not talk about it yet,” Harada said, wondering despite himself if he really looked different. He glanced surreptitiously in the mirror, but since he was at that moment wearing a blush and a scowl, he didn’t look much different to himself from any other time Chief Kato blundered with both feet into a sensitive subject.
Kato nodded. “Look, Tetsu, you’d tell me if it was something serious, wouldn’t you?” he asked. “I mean, she’s all right, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Kato-san, I would let you know if it was something serious. You’re right; she’s strong.” But, he added silently, he did not want her to have to be quite this strong.