http://clampfix.fanworks.net/ccd-fix/clan6b.txt </head><body><pre>Maa, everyone needs to calm down. Take DEEEEEEEEP breaths... In... and out... Okay? I tell you people, my computer ate my improvements! I had to revise a lot of Nokoru's Interlude before I could send it out - but NOBODY STALK ME, PUT THE GUNS DOWN, and read on. Then start screaming AGAIN when THIS cliffhanger comes around. ^_^ A Clan-Destine Vacation Part 6b - Nokoru's Interlude by Kay Willow Somewhere nearby, a woman was hurt. With a half-dozen Takamura floating around, it was most likely that any physical damage was deliberate, Nokoru mused as he straightened automatically in his bedroll. Then again, it didn't necessarily have to be physical - it could just as well be mental or emotional. Any woman with a problem was his province. Nokoru yawned as he got to his feet, wishing briefly that whoever it was had chosen a more convenient time to suffer. Without even noticing, he made his way across the room using the kind of delicate precision that Suoh had learned over a period of six years. He opened the window with equal care, slipped outside without waking his ninja friend, and hurried off towards the origin of the sensation. Suoh 'slept' on, oblivious. To his hypersensitive ears, the simple breeze was magnified to a seeming hurricane; to his radically alert eyes even the sparest of movements became clear. The world was in sharp relief, and he allowed his brain to race ahead of him in anticipation of what he might find. Chances were, of course, that the lady was Nimiurai-san. It probably wasn't Meri-san, as Nokoru doubted that anything in the wilderness could hurt her, and she had no reason to be unhappy. Upon listening to her life story, he had come to realize that she was completely at ease with herself and all the things around her; emotional trauma was highly unlikely. It couldn't be Ryoko-san, for a fraction of his mind had distractedly registered the Takamura girl's voice coming from the main room before he'd left the cabin. <Perhaps it's Kasumi-chan,> Nokoru thought, turning a sharp left as the tugging shifted without warning. <From what I've been told of her, it wouldn't be unbelievable for her to skip out and get herself in trouble, or to grow upset if she has to come to terms with something she doesn't like. <Maybe she's finally realized Suoh can't be her 'someone'.> There were multiple sets of footsteps running along his path, two of them big enough to be male. Nokoru could hear a woman's voice sobbing, growing clearer with every yard. After a minute that seemed far longer, he recognized it as Wakaba's voice. <But... shouldn't Rei-san be protecting her?> Nokoru frowned, uncertain. <Who could get through all the Takamura defenses and then kidnap her from under his nose? Or, perhaps even more frightening, kidnap him as well?> Takamura Akurei had been a martial artist since Nokoru had been going to school, which was impressive considering that he was three years younger. He was a practiced knife-fighter, and like all Takamura was loyal to a fault. If he hadn't been able to defend her, how could Nokoru expect to? That was only a fleeting concern for the young Imonoyama, however. Discarding the undeniable fact that he probably didn't have a chance to rescue her, Nokoru headed for the waterfall. Other voices became clear. Nokoru slammed to a halt, hid behind a tree, and listened intently. "--a routine patrol, dumbass. You were supposed to CHECK AND MAKE SURE THEY WERE SLEEPING. Did I ASK you to drag back some chick?" "Hey, I don't know what you want from me! I was nervy, made some noise. This girl was outside and she saw me. She made like to scream, so we had to do something!" Frustrated pacing, crackling across the dried leaves, and the first man snarled, "This is just great. Just great. SIX Takamura, SEVEN important people, all gathered in one convenient place - and you go and alert them to our presence before we can smoke 'em. JUST fucking great." "Come on, Nanasi," urged a new speaker. "Give him a break. I was there; I saw the whole damned thing. Wasn't nothing we coulda done!" "They're probably on to us now. You know what they SAY about the Takamura clan and their charges! That they always know where they are and what they're doing -- I bet every last one of those goddamned ninja freaks are out here looking for us already!" With a deliberate motion, Nokoru relaxed. There had to be something close by that he could use to save Nimiurai-san without actually charging into the men and fighting them for her. Without conscious thought, his mind analyzed and discarded possibilities - the river was too far away, the treetops were too unstable, vines probably didn't work like he'd seen in the movies and even if they did he doubted he'd be able to find a tree with the correct position in regard to the kidnappers to get the optimal speed in the swing... The second man whimpered. "Well, maybe we ought to be leaving!" "Don't be ridiculous," the third man interrupted. "All we have to do is kill her!" Nokoru moved towards them without hesitation, abandoning his plans. "You're both idiots! We can't do either," hissed the first malevolently. Nokoru slowed his forward charge as the oppressive sense of need faded sharply; the immediate danger was past. He began listening again as the leader, Nanasi, attempted to explain. "If we run, the boss'll wring our necks. If we kill her, we'll just piss off the entire fucking clan. We can't afford to just go away, and we can't afford to just off her. The explosives we've got wired in the ferry won't do us any damn good if they're so busy kicking our asses that they never get ON it." Nokoru's eyes widened. <Destroy the Takamura clan?> "I've heard that last year Takamura Shigeru killed seven men that he THOUGHT offered drugs, ONCE, to Nigana Omi," the third man said in a hushed voice. "They say he moves like a hurricane and has left thirty-four men dead. I don't want him coming after ME." <I was told the Takamura clan didn't kill,> Nokoru thought soberly, remembering the laughing, light-hearted jokester he'd met only hours before. "Exactly. And HE'S not even a direct descendant of the Head of Clan." The first man began to pace again. "So we have to do something about the girl. But what?" "She's kinda pretty," said the third man, with an audible leer in his voice. "I'm sure we could think of something..." Nimiurai-san's shrill voice rose for the first time, hysteria tingeing her speech. "Don't touch me! Don't ANY of you touch me!" Again, Nokoru started to run to her aid when the leader's voice stopped him. "Keep your perversions under control, Piisuke. Killing her would be bad enough; rape would almost certainly be worse. At least a Takamura who lost his One would have nothing to live for - a Takamura whose One has been deliberately and needlessly tortured is NOT going to be a happy camper. Besides, that still doesn't solve our problem. The Takamura aren't going to leave the island if it means that they'll be leaving one of their bonded behind." "Why don't we just let her go?" the second man complained. "You're such a moron. We've been talking openly about our plans, AND she's seen our faces. She'd run right back to her Takamura and blab all about us, and he'd be after us with a vengeance." "With our luck," the third man added despondently, "she'll have a big, monstrous Takamura, too. The kind who could tie us into knots using only his pinkies." "That's not true!" Wakaba cried. Nokoru cursed inwardly. "He's just a kid, only nine! He's not strong and he was badly hurt yesterday! He wouldn't be able to hurt you, so if you just let me go I know he won't come after you, and I know I could convince his mother, the Head, into leaving you alone..." "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the man named Nanasi interrupted suddenly, sounding inordinately pleased. "Just a kid? AND son of the Head? This is GREAT! Is your Takamura the heir?" "No..." she said slowly, as if having trouble remembering the individual Takamura family members. "...Imonoyama-san's friend is the heir." Nokoru nearly hit himself in frustration and began searching frantically for something he could do to rescue her before she revealed any more important information to these men who readily admitted that they were out to destroy the Takamura clan. His evaluating gaze fell upon a trail winding up a large hill nearby. The men seemed to be squarely on the path, and he could see halfway up that there was a large boulder resting comfortably in a useful niche... Half-formed plans and vague ideas skittered across his brain, but he'd already started moving for the trail. Nokoru had no doubt in his mind that by the time he'd figured out what to do he'd already have done it. "What the hell was that? Did you see that?" exploded one of the men suddenly. Nokoru had only enough time to turn around before his world went dark. DISCLAIMER: Are you screaming yet? ^_^ CLAMP Campus Detectives belongs to CLAMP, and any other randomly assorted Takamura you see drifting around are probably mine. You should ask them, because most of them will admit it - Hahaue can't really make up her mind, because she technically belongs to CLAMP but they didn't even bother to give her a name and I did, although not quite yet - and if you try and take them without an okay from me chances are that they'll hurt you. They get touchy sometimes. And you shouldn't think about taking their Ones even with my permission, because they get REALLY touchy about THAT.</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>