Convergence, Part 1
Kaoru wasn’t easy to carry. Megumi hadn’t time to do anything about his back, and hugging her to his chest was causing the blistered skin to pull and tug painfully. God knew what hauling her through the streets was going to do to Sano’s hand. It was something he wasn’t going to think about. Wasn’t much point.
If he didn’t get them out of there, he wouldn’t be alive long enough to worry about it. He might get out of here in one piece without Kaoru, but that was also something that he didn’t need to dwell on.
Leaving her just wasn’t an option.
Sano eased them both up the stairs and pressed against the wall near the door to the herbalist’s, giving Misao enough room to slip past as she dug through her bag, face pale, hands steady. He wasn’t that surprised when she came up with a set of lockpicks, flicking through them to try one in the door. He’d known Misao a while, through her friendship with Kaoru, but that friendship had started as a business arrangement and anyone who saw the need to employ hackers on a regular basis had more than a few secrets to hide.
She worked in silence. Sano shifted his gaze down the stairs. Below them, across two rooms, they heard Megumi’s voice, tired and irritated as she swung her front door open with a whole bunch of force she probably didn’t need.
“Do you mind? In case you didn’t read the sign outside, this is a night surgery. Some of us need sleep!”
Sano grinned despite himself. Beside him, Misao pocketed the picks and started pushing carefully at the door, trying to move the plant stand on the other side without noise. Megumi’s angry self-righteousness would give them some cover, but he wasn’t so stupid as to believe she could buy them more than a couple of minutes.
He halved that estimate again when he heard the reply, heart sinking as he recognised Soujiro’s cheerful voice. “I apologise … Takani-sensei, is it?”
“You can read,” she retorted. “Congratulations. Unless you’re bleeding to death, I’m not seeing anybody. May I recommend the Oguni clinic? They’re-“
“I’m not here for medical assistance.” The little psychopath sounded amused. Sano swallowed, eyeing Misao’s furtive efforts, and wondered how sharp Soujiro’s hearing was. They were two rooms over, but the soft scrape of the plant stand slowly giving way sounded deafening.
It occurred to him that he was abandoning Megumi to Soujiro. The thought made him freeze, staring down at Kaoru in his arms. He seriously doubted Soujiro would fall for any innocent act of Megumi’s. Oh, shit. He wasn’t thinking this through-
Megumi muttered something he couldn’t catch; he heard the sound of the door swinging shut, and the soft thud as a foot shoved against it. Soujiro laughed. “Much as I appreciate your comical attempts at misunderstanding, Takani-sensei, I am here on business.”
There was a pause. Sano ground his teeth. ID. He has to show her ID. That’s all he’s doing. Or - or a photo of Kaoru --
Megumi gave a polite cough. “My apologies. You must be aware, of course, that as a doctor, I have--”
“No agreement of confidentiality that cannot be breached by corporate inquiry,” Soujiro replied smoothly. “Particularly in the case of an unlicensed surgery. The photo is very striking. I tracked an associate of hers to your door. Answer the question.”
Sano’s breath caught. Misao had the door half open. Play it smart, Megitsune. Please. He wasn’t stupid; turning around to leap to her defense wasn’t going to help any of them. Right now, Megumi could still play the neutral doctor card and be uninvolved-
--this is too easy.
He stilled Misao with a shake of his head, staring down the stairs. Soujiro would know he was here. They’d followed him. They would’ve seen Misao come tearing in-that, and Megumi even trying to stall him instead of just stepping aside and letting him search, would clue him in that Kaoru was here. Why was he being so …nice about it?
Because he knows we’ll run.
Fuck. Soujiro had a whole goddamned division. It wasn’t so much Megumi stalling Soujiro as it was the other way round…
Megumi had clued in before he had. She gave a faint snort, voice carrying clearly and deliberately to his place on the stairs. “Yes, Kamiya-san is here. She’s sleeping in my back-“
Sano shifted Kaoru until she was half over one shoulder, reached out with his good hand and shoved Misao out of the way. Sorry, kiddo. No time for subtlety.
His foot slammed the door open with enough force to splinter the wood.
The crash of shattering ceramic on the other side was loud enough to draw shrieks of surprise from the herbalist’s rooms. Sano didn’t care. No time to be polite. Misao shouldered into the door next to him, pushing it open the rest of the way. Sano wrapped both arms around Kaoru, holding her close as he stepped over the wreckage of the stand and made for the glass door across the room. Out of the corner of his eye, through the partially covered glass, he saw the dark uniforms of Sumitomo’s enforcers; two men and a woman, bearing rifles and racing to cut them off. One skidded to a halt and turned to meet his gaze through the glass, swinging the rifle up to bear.
They wouldn’t fire into a shop, they wouldn’t-
He heard Misao swear. Small hands planted in the small of his back and shoved him forward, sending a flare of pain up his spine. Sano stumbled.
The glass shattered, bullets whining through the air just behind him. The few customers that were in the shop dropped flat to the ground. The shopkeeper screamed, dropping behind the counter for protection. He might have been hit; Sano didn’t have time to check. He tightened his hold on Kaoru, doubled over her protectively, and blinked as the soldier who’d fired on them jerked and then dropped to her knees, one arm going up to her collarbone.
Misao landed next to him, one hand flung out, fingers splayed. “Sano, run!”
The soldier was bleeding, yanking out two small kunai, and Sano stared at the woman stupidly for a moment. Misao’s throwing knives!?
“Sano!” Misao thrust a finger at the doorway. “There’s more! Get her out of here!”
Two more, almost at the door, and what the hell was he doing gawking? Sano bared his teeth and threw himself at the entry way, left shoulder slamming into the door as the first soldier reached for the handle. He heard a grunt of surprise as the door flew back - hoped to God it smacked the guy in the face - and he was out into the alleyway, feet skidding across rotting food and dropped plastic. Kaoru’s weight shuddered in his arms and he twisted to keep her head from bouncing off the door frame.
He didn’t take the time to glance back. Hungover and hurt he might be, but even Sano could work out that a rectangle of badly cut wood wasn’t going to stop two men with rifles from shooting him dead if they chose to. Even if they didn’t want to shoot blind; in another two seconds they’d just slam the door back closed and have a clear shot. He gritted his teeth, threw his trust to Misao, and ran.
---------
It occurred to Misao that it was a nice thing to be underestimated sometimes. ED One was chasing Sanosuke who was carrying Kaoru, and so far the only one of them to pay any attention to her was the female squad member that she’d ambushed with her kunai.
The woman was down now, dispatched with a kick to the face as she attempted to stem the blood flow from her two knives. Lucky again; she’d been aiming at Sano. Misao assessed the damage, decided the woman would live, tried not to think too hard about whether or not she’d have to get more lethal to keep Kaoru safe and retrieved her two kunai. She had two braces; twelve kunai versus a squad of probably sixteen, and Sano wasn’t going to be able to help, not with his hands full. He had to get Kaoru out of here.
She had to cover his escape. It was that simple. Right?
The two men in the alley way hadn’t looked in her direction. She wondered if they even realised Sano had company. Misao grinned weakly, watching as they shoved the door out of their way with a curse and took off after their target. She waited until they’d passed the door and then ducked out through the broken window, taking off after them at a sprint. Sano would reach a main road in a few moments which would give him added cover; ED One wouldn’t dare fire into a crowd, not given the stunt pulled this morning.
That just meant they’d try and take him down before he got there. They weren’t trying just yet; probably wanted to take Sano out with a clear shot and retrieve Kaoru, and given Kaoru was now half over Sano’s shoulder, ponytail swinging loosely, that was proving a little more difficult - but they’d fire and risk killing her rather than let Sano get away.
Misao kept her mouth shut, matching pace with the second enforcer, shifting kunai to balance between her fingers. She wouldn’t have the time to retrieve any more. Taking a breath, she let them fly without a sound; two, aimed low to bite into the back of the man’s thighs. He fell to his knees, more with a cry of surprise than pain, and she barreled into him from behind to tackle him down to the ground, hand slamming his head into the concrete. She was up and running again, leaving him down with two knives in his legs, knowing damn well he’d be up again in a few minutes. It wouldn’t matter by then. Even a few seconds could make the difference.
She’d been quiet but the man she’d downed had yelled, and before she could close the distance the second enforcer had turned, rifle swinging around to trace her movement. She gave a yelp and tried to throw herself out of the firing line - kinda hard when you’re in a tiny alley way, Misao! - and ended up hitting the bricks on one side, an arm flung up in front of her face. Nowhere to go-
The bullet cracked into the wall by her head. She felt the sting of brick fragments cut across her cheek and glanced up, blinking as the man toppled backward, rifle still in hand.
It took her another moment of stunned silence to realise he’d been shot through the forehead. Very accurately. With a silenced weapon, given she’d heard nothing, and that meant there was someone else on the rooftops that wasn’t with ED One. Misao swallowed against nausea and a sudden, surreal sense of fear. She had no friends who’d do this. Who the heck…?
She looked up before she could stop herself and caught sight of people running across the low rooftop. Another two, clad in ED One uniform, paying no attention to her. Instead, they tracked Sano, closing the gap between them. Sano was damned fast, given how injured he was and how heavy Kaoru had to be - but he wasn’t fast enough. They’d be on him before he made it to the main street.
"Well, great," she muttered. "Ninja is as ninja does..."
She bolted across the alleyway, leaping for the top of the dustbins just ahead and then jumped again, hands latching on to the bottom rail of a balcony to swing herself up.