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| Fujiko found that she was uncomfortably hot, and that the inside of
her clothes were sticking to her body as she walked. Scratch that.
Staggered. "Just a little further," she murmured to herself, "Just
a little further now." 'God I'm so dizzy!' she thought, 'Oh, my head!
It hurts so much!' Her mind was blurred now, like when you're just
about to go to sleep. She was scared now, scared and alone.
'Somebody,' she pleaded mentally, 'please come get me!' As if to
answer, Lupin's voice echoed through her mind, "Fujiko? Are you alright?
Look, Fujiko-chan, maybe you should sit down a while and rest." His
voice! It sounded so far away, but it was there.
'Lupin!' she thought, unable to speak now, 'I'm right here. Come get me, I'm right here!' "Fujiko? Fujiko!" his voice fell away into nothingness, and she was alone, unable to see, or breathe. Fujiko went into a deep, dreamless sleep... Her body hit the floor with a dull thunk, like a broken up, lifeless rag doll. She began to spasm violently and her chest heaved in the air, pumping up and crashing down onto the tile over and over. "God damn! Jigen! Help me, quick! Fujiko's having a seizure!" yelled Lupin. Both Jigen and Goemon rushed into the room almost immediately, knowing that Fujio's very life was in the balance. Lupin wasted no time hollering out orders: "Jigen, help me hold her down. Goemon, call Black Jack..." That was when he saw it. Amidst all the confusion, Lupin still knew Fujiko's body very well, ever etch, every curve. It stood out like a gigantic red bull's eye, even though it was so small that one could barely see it. A small, red mark on Fujiko's arm, some form of scar or insert into the skin, but whatever it was, it hadn't been there before. Only one option: "Holy shit, she's been drugged!" he yelled, his rage at an absolute boiling point now. He looked at Fujiko's writhing body and only became madder. This was the woman he loved! The woman he worked with on jobs, just about everything! Who could've done this to her! He knew Fujiko, and he knew her well. Fujiko did not do drugs! There was just no way! She was too smart, and they were out of the question for her. So why, or at least, how had she gotten something like that into her blood-stream? The only one in the house with drugs was... "Yuma," he growled her name in a low tone. That bitch! She'd pay for this, he'd make sure of it. But first, he had to find her. Lupin's voice became a soft deadly sound to both men holding Fujiko down as he spoke slowly during the first sixty her seizure, "Jigen, let absolutely no one enter or leave this room unless it's Yuma. Then, don't let her out. Goemon, search the area. If you should happen to find her, get her in here, but don't hurt her. I don't care what it takes. Tie her down if you have to but find that bitch and get her back!" Both men said nothing, knowing that anyone dumb enough to mess with the boss when he was in a mood like this was bound to end up with a new orphis in his head, via bullet. Lupin, like the calm before a grand, terrible, ocean storm, entered Yuma's bedroom, the anger that surged through his heart making it so that he could barely keep himself from attempting to strangle the girl as he so desired to at the moment. "Quit fakin' it, y' little bitch. I know you're awake," he said, his voice soft and smooth as black velvet, but not nearly as warm, "now get up and help me. Bring that shit, too, we're gonna need the an'nidote." He pointed to Yuma's moon box just as she opened her eyes. Yuma looked at him groggilly. 'Please tell me this is nothing more than a bad dream,' she thought, 'Please!' "Help you with what?" she asked sleepilly, not having the slightest clue as to what was going on. And just why did Lupin want her to bring her drugs? Wrong question. Lupin's freak rage rose to a higher lever. "Listen you ungrateful little brat," he hissed, "Fujiko's out there having a seizure because of an overdose. If she dies because of you, I will personally track you down to the ends of the earth, and when I catch you, you'll wish you'd never been born! And I can do it, too!" His voice was now sharp as a diamond razor's edge and his eyes were a steely metallic black color, no longer filled with the warmth or brotherly affection Yuma had grown so accustomed to in such a short time, but filled with a different heat, a fuming hate that she was afraid of, "That's a promise, Yuma. I will personally see to it that you will go through Hell before you die. Now get in there and give her the God Damn antidote!" He was nearly yelling at her now. Yuma's heart raced with fear. Fujiko? Having a seizure? Because of an... "Oh Jesus, NO!!” she screamed, grabbing her box and racing downstairs with all her very soul with a burst of almost God like speed that looked to be unsurpassable by anyone save Lupin who was right on her heels. "Oh Jesus yes, actually, bitch!" he said, snearing, "Do you see that, you little junky? Damn you! You’d better do something about it!" Yuma was on her knees, and grabbed the collar of Fujiko's top, ripping it off revealing her beautiful naked chest. grabbing a syringe, Yuma cleaned a spot on her left breast and jabbed the needle, with a raw viciousnesss, Fujiko's supple, vibrant flesh. "Quickly," she ordered, "Give her this. It'll stablize her. What are you waiting for? Do it now!" Lupin gave the pill to the now arrived Black Jack, who nodded, giving it to Lupin, who in turn, fed it to Fujiko. "How did this happen? Oh, this is all my fault! I should never have brought those things into the house..." "Damn right, it's your fault!" said Lupin, his back turned, “And I want to know why you did it!" Yuma looked scared and confused. Not because of the promise he'd made but for something else. "Well? Speak up!" At this, she immediately got defensive. "You can't torture me into admitting it, no matter how hard you try. I've been through the nine rings of Hell, Lupin, and I know what it's like! I'm telling you, I didn't do it." Walking out the door, he motioned for her to follow him, now not saying anything at all. Ice cold rage was painted across his face, as if on a canvas, as the walked outside. "You mind telling me what's going on here," Yuma asked angrilly, "'Cause I'd sure like to know!" Lupin did not utter a single word, not even turned his face to look at hers. He just kept walking, one foot in front of the other, toward the garden by the exit. It was in a corner of the estate, small enough so that she wouldn't be able to run, or so it seemed. As soon as they reached it, he stopped so abruptly that when she, being on the edge of raw nervousness, tried to stop she fell over. Getting back up, fear was surging through her mind and completely unrational thoughts zoomed through her befuddled head. 'What's he gonna do to me? What's gonna happen to me. Is he going to hurt me? What?' Yuma hated this subtleness about the air, this feeling that something bad was about to happen. "Why did you do it?" his words were like that of the temperature in a cold snap, at forty-below-zero, and they broke through and into her mind like ice daggers through her heart. Yuma was struck dumb as her mind began searching for words to fit into a sentence. Frantically, she thought, 'Give me something, anything! Just please make it quick!' "I don't know." Now Yuma knew she was in the doghouse. "You what!" "I don't know what you're talking about," her mind still recovering from the numbness. "Bullshit. Why did you do it?!” he said very softly. Yuma didn't know. Her very heart went into silent fear, the kind that's so sharp, so deadly that you can pin point it, yet you don't know where it is at all. Had Fujiko stolen the drugs? But Lupin wasn't going to believe that. Yuma only knew one thing: and extremely short-tempered, dangerous man was standing right in front of her, possibly one of the most dangerous in the world, and he was asking for an answer she could not give. Yuma knew it wasn't his fault. Lupin was just trying to protect Fujiko. Most of this was pure instinct. But she was still afraid, and they would lock further into this death match if something wasn't done quickly. "I don't get it," she was almost trembling, but kept her voice in a cool, nearly careless, but not without concern, mood, “Honestly, I don't even know what happened. Please explain how drugs were taken from my room, because I don't apreciate people messing with my things. A medium Bane is missing and that stuff, as you've seen with Fujiko, is both dangerous and expensive. Please explain. It's not the kind of stuff I would have anyone mess with and Fujiko nearly died." "Explain!" Lupin spat the word and laughed bitterly, “Explain? Okay then, I'll explain! If you wanna make this harder, be my guest! Here's the score: I'm gone for thirty minutes. A rather short time, wouldn't you agree?" Yuma nodded, her fear rising. You could see it in her face. If she wasn't careful... 'NO! I must keep my cool! I can't let that happen!' "Yes, thirty minutes. And after I get back, Fujiko strangely ain't feeling so good!" his voice was rising, "But of course, she ain't sayin' shit 'cause she don't know what the Hell's goin' on!" His temper was growing to a boiling point now, and Yuma felt like it was pouring all over her, leaving welts in her proverbial skin, "Next thing I know, Fujiko hits the floor and is bending over backwards, biting air! And do you know what else I find?" He looked at her wickedly, grinning with an almost insane wrath as he yelled, "That she's been drugged by GOD knows what and she's about to die!!! Now that I've gotten that straightened out, I will ask you one last time, and this time, you'd better answer." Yuma could not help but have her face be a look of shear horror now. She'd been through this before. There could only be one thing this would lead to and that was physical violence. "For the last fucking time, why ... did ... you ... do ...it?" he asked her very slowly, and loudly, putting his face near hers as if to insult her intelligence, "C'mon, treacherous bitch. Tell me why you did it. Did you like doing Fujiko in? Did you want to see her in fear, have that control, or did she not know until it was too late? Tell me!" 'This isn't him,' she tried to calm herself, 'he's lost it. You have to remember what he's been through... Yuma! Don't lose it! Get back...' Although Lupin hadn't completely lost his control (he hadn't hit her yet), Yuma had. With an animal like scream, she jumped away from him, punching him hard in the stomach. "YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME!" she yelled. A single tear rolled down her cheek and her heart raced. She tried, with much difficulty, succeeded in regaining some of her control, though it went to an extreme. Yuma was still highly scared, in truth, and her mind was working mostly on instinct. She couldn't help it. On one hand, she knew that he wouldn't hurt her, at least not just yet. On the other... Yuma just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and cry. But she stayed her ground. She was going to wait this battle out, no matter how wrong she was, or what it took. Lupin was only, after all, protecting Fujiko. "Please," she whimpered, "don't hurt me." Lupin could see he was losing control, and very rapidly. He'd never done anything to harm a woman. That was for the ordinary punks, and by nature, as well as by reputation, he was a gentleman, not a slob like most guys out there. By no means in any way, shape or form was it okay to beat a woman, or so his father had worked so hard to teach him. He would probably never forgive himself for doing so, had he even scratched one. Women were to be respected, and he certainly wasn't doing that right now. Yes, that was the key. 'Keep it under control,' he thought, restricting himself. He was still in wrath of Yuma, though and she was definately not getting off lightly. She'd tried to kill Fujiko... but he wasn't getting anywhere treating her like this. She wanted to play hard to get, fine. But he was going to remain at a steady level. "What did I do to deserve this?" she cried, "Why are you threatening me?" Fear and pain rail-roaded across her face. His mind snapped to attention. She looked like... 'An animal,' he reasoned, 'a scared animal. I've gotta calm her down. If she gets loose on those streets, she might never come back.' Lupin didn't like the notion. She had nowhere to go. She couldn't survive out there. He could see that she had now lost complete control and that her eyes shook, a feeling that he was not unaccustomed to as he'd felt the same feeling before in his own life, long ago. His heart was filled with a weird kind of fear and empathy. Fear that she would leave, and empathy that she'd gone through hell. It was clear now that she hadn't done it. She reminded him more of himself now than anything. When he was fifteen, out alone in the world, no place to go, no one to turn to, scared. He'd been wrong. He knew that now. But he had no time to beat himself up for it now. He had to make sure she didn't escape, make sure that she was safe. Yuma broke into a dead run, her mind absolutely shot to the ends of her nerves with pure, stupid, languageless, animalistic fear. He could let her get away. He had to keep her there, within the boundaries and safety of the hide out. Right now she was in no position to bargain. He was biting at her heels and coiled his finders quickly around her wrist. She slugged him a full throttle blow across the chest cavity and he couldn't breathe for a moment, still not letting go. He couldn't let go. If he did... he tried to get a better grip on her, lunging to hook her around the waist. For this, he received a cutting slap that led his nose to spurt pools of blood. Lupin still wouldn't let go. He could handle pain, he'd done it before and now was no different. "Yuma!" he yelled, not meaning to sound angry. She finally broke his grip. She ran toward the gates, but they were locked. Then, she ran toward the doors of the hide out. Up the stairs, through the halls, just trying to get away. When she finally stopped, she didn't know where she was. She must have been in a secret attic. She looked over to her left. A cabinet filled with guns. To her right were rations. Behind her was the door to a private bathroom. The room was large. It had a desk, and was filled with many boxes. There was a single window in which the sunlight streamed through and a bed by that window. Yuma went over to the desk, and found pages of writings. She sat down and read them. Here, she discovered, was an archive of all the capers Lupin III had ever been on. They were filled with his emotions on certain matters, like Fujiko, the lover, Jigen, the father figure, and Goemon, the friend. Finally, she came across a page written about her. |
Ryu
<gdichiara@libero.it>
Created 3rd October 2001
Last Modification 3rd October 2001