http://clampfix.fanworks.net/ccd-fix/clan8.txt </head><body><pre>Look, see, it is even THE SAME DAY as I post this, so whoever it is who sent the tall dark man who's been sitting on my roof for the last few hours can tell him to go home. I'm just worried things start moving too fast. Then again, after six chapters of nothing but dilly-dallying, I think we're ready for the climax to be... kinda quick. A Clan-Destine Vacation Part 8 by Kay Willow The group was harried and worn by the time the docks came into sight, although they were in far better condition than they had been the previous day. It was twilight; the kidnappers who continued to hold Wakaba hostage had demanded rest intervals more often than anyone needed, and there had been one very large detour to avoid one very large gorge which had mysteriously appeared since Saturday afternoon. It was hard to see the surface of the water, and the boat was only identifiable by the light shining from within. As the two men made their way to the front, Suoh saw Akira draw close to Omi. "He's okay, I'm sure," Akira said comfortingly, his eyes begging the same reassurance. "Shigeru-san couldn't die." Suoh almost cursed as he saw the dark, haunted look that entered Omi's face. "He's dead. I can feel him... not there." The despair in his voice was a horrible thing to hear, and Suoh knew how this story was going to end. Omi had been bonded too deeply to Shigeru to recover from his death; the two of them had been together for a decade and a half, and Shigeru had been young enough to make their relationship into something than an older Takamura would have recognized as unhealthy. The only thing Suoh could hope for, in light of that kind of devotion, was that Omi would wait until he had returned to his own home before killing himself. <Two deaths. Possibly more.> Suoh's eyes narrowed. <Unforgivable.> Akira insisted, "I know he's alive! He has to be... things never happen this way when Kaichou's involved, right, Takamura-senpai? People don't DIE while Kaichou is around..." Akira caught Suoh's flat expression and looked down at the ocean, pretending not to have seen. "He won't die," he repeated stubbornly. "He already has." Omi bowed his head, staring disconsolately at the dirt. Still no tears came to him; tears did not come naturally for an empath, who felt everything around him to the degree that he became physically desensitized and could not express what he himself felt. But Omi didn't need tears to make his grief known. "And I will follow him." Meri gasped - nobody else reacted. The clan had seen it coming, and it was not unheard of a Takamura's One to suicide after the death of his guardian. Unusual, but not unheard of. And considering how long Shigeru and Omi had relied on each other, and how deeply Shigeru had instinctively forced their bond, it was not that surprising. "You can't!" Akira exploded. "What about the person you love?!" Everyone, including the Takamura clan, blinked. Ryoko smacked herself in the forehead, muttering something about tact under her breath. Omi looked up at the boy, his eyes wild. "What the hell do you think THAT matters to me, without Shigeru?" he cried, clenching his fists. "NOTHING matters without Shigeru. Fourteen years..." His voice trailed off and he relaxed, deliberately allowing his voice to roam over the water surrounding the island. "She doesn't mean anything to me if he's not there... to threaten her when she speaks harshly and to laugh at her when she makes mistakes and to bully me into admitting my feelings for her..." "Drowning is a pleasant way to die," Hahaue volunteered lightly, in a tone of voice that suggested she'd thought about the issue quite a bit. Chichiue gave her an alarmed stare as she continued, "It's nerve-wracking at first, but once the water actually gets into your lungs I've heard it becomes very relaxing and warm, with the added sensation of moving into light instead of darkness." "I don't know if I want to drown," Omi said agreeably, acting as if it was a perfectly normal conversation to be having. "I'm a pretty-boy supermodel, you know. I have to die in a picturesque manner. I was thinking more along the lines of overdosing on sleeping pills, which is a time-honored and traditional way for a media star to die." "Overdosing is good," Hahaue seconded. "You won't want to hang or shoot yourself, of course, but you ought to consid--" "HEY! No talking!" snapped Nanasi, yanking on Wakaba's hair. Rei started out of his shocked reverie and made an automatic move towards her, then came to a sudden halt as four people moved as if to smack him. Muttering about having to deal with enough personal injuries, he retreated unhappily. Suoh tapped Akira on the shoulder and drew him to one side, taking him away from Omi. The man had enough to deal with, and there would be no changing his mind this time. A bond deep enough to force the One to follow the Takamura was rare, but they were irrevocable. If Omi was this serious about dying, he wouldn't be able to get over Shigeru's passing. The second man waved irritably. "Come on, move forward. Tergi probably lowered the planks by now." Without another word, the crowd of hostages moved away. Within minutes, they could see a rather large man, clutching Nokoru tightly and holding a knife to the blond boy's neck. Suoh was sourly unsurprised to note that his One looked as if he was rather enjoying himself. When they reached the bottom of the hill, the large man waved with the arm that wasn't nearly suffocating Nokoru. Nanasi released Wakaba and snatched Omi's arm instead. "Everyone move up to the ferry," he snarled. "No questions, no comments. You too, little girl." "Nanasi!" whined the nameless kidnapper. "I can't have FUN with this one!" "Sure you can," Nanasi snarled back. "Use your imagination." He hissed something to the other man which made him start, but he nodded reluctantly. Suoh grabbed Akira's arm tightly and hauled the dark-haired boy up the planks. Nothing they did to Omi could affect him now. All that mattered was the rest of them getting out alive - Omi was just as dead as Shigeru. The pudgy man kept his back to the railing, the hand holding the knife shaking as he watched the blue-haired Takamura file onto the ship, Meri and Akira both being dragged by their respective guardians and Chichiue looking very tired. Kasumi inched forward, nodding her head towards the final kidnapper. Suoh scowled at her disapprovingly - they were so close to getting away, and they still hadn't found out what these men wanted, which struck him as immensely suspicious. Suddenly, the ship began moving. Nokoru continued to smile in a pleased manner, and the man at his throat didn't seem surprised either, so this had obviously been planned in advance. The kidnappers back on the beach watched with wicked grins. "What's all this about?" Ryoko demanded of the pudgy man, presumably Tergi. "You three sure look happy. Nobody gives a damn that my brother's dead?" "In a minute, you'll all be dead," Tergi said suddenly. "There's a time bomb on the ferry, set to go off in forty seconds." "WHAT?!" Tergi grinned wolfishly, turning to look at his companions back on solid ground. They were gone. "We're gonna blow you all up!" He abruptly threw Nokoru forward and leaped over the edge. Suoh dove and kept Nokoru from landing on the back of his head; at the same time Ryoko hurled a shuriken at the swimming man. He moved faster than his bulk should have allowed him to, and she missed. Akira said urgently, "It's not that bad, right? I mean, we've taken care of time bombs before. Yudaiji-senpai used a time--" "We had the entire defense system of CLAMP Campus focused on deciphering that explosive!" Suoh snapped. "Now we have nothing!" Thirty seconds. Ryoko continued to hurl shuriken at the fleeing criminal, but quickly realized that he was wearing some sort of chain mail that her throwing weapons couldn't penetrate. Cursing, the older woman glowered at Wakaba. "This is all YOUR fault, you stupid bitch!" she screamed. "We're gonna have to SWIM for safety now!" "It's not my fault!" Wakaba cried. "I was just going out for a walk! Is that such a crime?!" "(Shut up, both of you!)" Meri snarled, forgetting herself and saying it in English. "(We might be able to stop the bomb!)" "Where is it?" Hahaue asked peacefully. There was no answer. Twenty seconds. "We'll have to swim," Rei announced. "We don't have time to fiddle with the stupid box. Look, if that Tergi guy can still escape, so can we!" "That's no good either," Akira said miserably. "Kaichou can't swim." Everyone stared at Nokoru for a moment. The Imonoyama didn't notice, watching the cliffs of Hokkaido pass to their left intently. The scenery WAS beautiful, but Suoh wanted to strangle him for being so interested in it as to forget their current situation. Ten seconds. "Well," Kasumi snarled, kicking the back of the boat viciously with her bare foot and flinching. "I didn't want to live and get bonded to some stupid Wakaba-clone anyway." "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" "Could you calm down for just a MINUTE, Wakaba-sama?!" "Why do you have to be such a suck-up, Rei-kun?" "Stop judging everyone, Ryoko! God, you can be a real self-righteous egoist sometimes!" "This is not one of the prettier ways to die, I don't think..." "Keiko-san, please stop." "Takamura-senpai, your mother's name is KEIKO?" "No offense, but who CARES, Ijyuin?" "It's coming!" Nokoru cried suddenly. There was only a fraction of a second for the entire crew of the ship to blink in unison before the explosion shattered the evening's serenity. Ryoko stared, open-mouthed, at the cliffs which, until a moment ago, had been perfectly whole. Out of nowhere, the bottom portion of the outermost edge had been destroyed, and the entire cliff began to collapse downwards. All ten of the boat's occupants gaped as the cliff began to tumble into the waters below, the smoke from the explosion fading slowly into the air as boulders tumbled through it into the watery depths. The sounds of rock falling echoed in the circular docking bay, and Suoh wondered absently how long it would take before one of Hokkaido's residents came to find the cause of the noise. Nokoru nodded to himself, still smiling benevolently. "Exactly as I expected." He turned to Meri and for just a moment his smile grew to dazzling proportions. "Now the animals will be able to feed on the fish," he remarked off-handedly. The American stared at him for a long, long moment. Then she looked back up at the cliff, and back at him again. "I... I said that," she stammered dumbly. "I told you... that the fauna wouldn't have enough..." Meri's open-mouthed astonishment was shared. "You...?" Suoh shook his head. "How did you do it this time, Kaichou?" he asked grimly. "Did you ask nicely enough so that a shark gave you a ride on its back? Did sea-spirits offer to carry the explosive over there?" Nokoru laughed easily, patting Suoh on the shoulder in a vaguely comforting manner. "Not at all!" he said. "Tergi had to warm up the engine so that the ferry would move fast enough to get out of the danger zone in time. While he circled the boat around the bay, I freed myself and found the bomb, then simply dropped it as we passed by the cliffs. I remembered Meri-san's words about the local environment, and decided to help make things better." He whipped out a fan on which were printed the words 'Circle of Life', instantly driving Ryoko crazy. Hahaue's face was pale and frustrated, but she regained her composure. It was to her credit that she wasn't screaming - robbed of a decent and honorable death, and the entire clan saved by one who was supposed to be protected by it, she was feeling perhaps understandably (from her point of view) upset. "I applaud you, Imonoyama-kun," she said in sugared tones. "I'm so glad you saved most of us." There was only a brief pause before Nokoru made the connection. "We can return and save Nigana-san, of course... where is Shigeru-san?" "He's dead," Kasumi said in a very small voice. Nokoru froze solid, and Suoh felt a sudden burst of anger at the oddly helpless expression on his Kaichou's face. Situation had manipulated them all to this point, sacrificing his cousin and a good-hearted man, and there was nothing to be done about it. <Is this really the first time in your life you haven't been able to win, Nokoru-san?> Suoh thought, watching his friend's stunned mask sink into misery and self-criticism. <Is this the first time you've been unable to control your surroundings?> "We could still save Nigana-san, though," Rei exclaimed, making as if to run to the helm and turn the boat around until a sudden sound halted him in his footsteps. A voice bellowed in sudden pain, followed immediately by Omi's triumphant cry - and a single, echoing gunshot. No one asked what had happened. The ferry sailed on. DISCLAIMER: I TOLD you I could kill off whoever I wanted to. *sweatdrop* Ah, Omi and Shigeru are/were mine. So is Shigeru's sister and her One, Shigeru's cousins (minus Suoh) and Rei's One, and Chichiue. I gave Hahaue a name, see? It's Keiko! *massive sweatdrop* Why are you all glaring at me? Omi wasn't happy anyway, see... and... well... Ah, everybody I didn't list there is CLAMP's unless I forgot somebody. They probably don't want Nokoru right now, though; he's not gonna be very pleased at all.</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>