Adventures In Parodyverse: The Late Hour Part 3

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Part 2

Adventures in Parodyverse - The Late Hour Part 3

    The Brass Bushi had a compound, not a house. It was basically a stone-walled estate with a grove of trees and a Japanese garden within, complete with several large ponds. There were three wood-framed houses decorated in Japanese style. The largest was the Brass Bushi's personal home. The other two were a guest house, and a small unit used to house his own personal guard.

    Fortunately the Brass Bushi was still missing, gaining Vicky and Jack instant access to the estate. Unfortunately there wasn't much to be found, since the crime scene investigators already went through it with a fine toothed comb looking for clues.

    But Vicky and Jack weren't looking for conventional clues. They seeked subtleties. Something small that signaled a sudden change in routine, like a person might do if they thought they would have to leave town suddenly.

    They started in the most personal of places, the Brass Bushi's bedroom. It was a palatial space the size of an entire floor in most people's homes, dwarfing the king sized bed in the center. A flat screen television covered an entire wall, and one doorway opened into a gigantic walk-in closet.

    "Ya think this is a clue?" Vicky asked sarcastically as she pulled a long chain of wrapped condoms from one of the dresser drawers.

    Jack frowned at first, but then he noted. "Yes, actually, if you want to prove he has a lot of prostitutes over."

    Vicky's amused smile disappeared, and her mouth hung open for a moment.

    "You didn't think I was serious did you?" Jack asked.

    "No, no." Vicky looked around the room slowly as she neatly folded the strip of plastic packets. "I have a feeling, like this bedroom is just for show...for 'guests'. I think he sleeps somewhere else. This room is just too...untouched."

    "Maybe he has a very good maid," Jack noted.

    Vicky sighed impatiently and began pointing things out. "The fake logs in the fireplace are barely burned. The carpet looks brand-new, no squished fibers, no evidence of spills. And get this, Jack...there are no meds anywhere in this room. No cough medicine, no aspirin--"

    "I get it, it's like nobody lives here," he finally conceded.

    "There was this room with the door closed." Vicky narrowed her eyes and started out of the room. She paused and handed the folded packets to Jack. "Here, maybe you can get some use out of this."

    Jack dropped the packets on the floor and slipped out of the room. He frowned when Vicky laughed at him.

    "You're such a dork sometimes," she laughed. But then she got distracted by the door she was heading for, and burst into the room behind it. She smiled triumphantly when she saw a dresser with various colognes on it. "Bingo, this is the place!" she called out triumphantly.

    "Good work," Jack told her. He started glancing around the room, but she was already going through the drawers.

    "Viagra." She held up a small prescription bottle.

    "Vicky, enough with those kinds of jokes already," Jack replied patiently.

    "No, it's no joke." She shook the bottle. It was empty, though the date on it was recent. "He's alive, Jack, and he took his Viagra with him."

    Jack quickly took the bottle from her and shook it as well. He read the date on the bottle - it was re-filled recently. "That's...a pretty good clue, actually."

    "Yah, I'm looking for stuff he can't get easily. The colognes, he can buy anywhere. This, he'd have to see a doctor and compromise his plan, whatever it is. Or at least visit a pharmacy, which would leave a record. And he can't take the bottle with him where he's going, if he's using another name. He probably put the pills in an aspirin bottle or something."

    "Now we know he may be alive, but we don't know where he might have gone."

    "Yah." Vicky replied sadly, sighing as she spoke. "There weren't any swords found here with blood on them, were there?"

    Jack shook his head. "No, and there was no blood or scratches found on the Psychic Samurai's sword before they gave it back to her. So we have a missing murder weapon."

    "We need to find a scratched one," Vicky pointed out. "It's probably not here." She thought for a moment and snapped her fingers. "A boyfriend I had that's really into swords took me to this place that sells them. They buy them too."

    "Let's go." Jack waved for her to follow him.

---

    Vicky looked at the empty Viagra bottle they took with them as a clue. It had been placed in a plastic evidence bag to attempt to preserve it. "You don't use stuff like this do you?" she asked.

    Jack almost did a double take when he realized what she referred to. "No," he replied quickly. "I don't need it."

    She sighed at his sudden nervousness. "Good," she replied. "I mean it's nothing to be made fun of. It's kinda sad, like arthritis. It's gotta be rough on a guy."

    Jack looked at Vicky for a moment while he was driving, surprised at how sensitive and sympathetic she could be.

    The store they headed to was in a fairly seedy part of Paradopolis called Hell's Bathroom. Even hardened cops looked over their shoulder there. Jack was one of them, but he worried a bit about Vicky. A blonde with her level of cheerfulness was a prime target.

    He parked the car directly in front of the address Vicky told him, both to keep the car in view at all times and to avoid having to do much walking in the neighborhood. As he stepped out of the car he gave anyone who resembled a neighborhood punk a good, threatening stare. It was customary in Hell's Bathroom.

    "You ever been to this part of town before?" Jack asked Vicky as he purposely timed his walk around the car to get there before Vicky managed to step out.

    "Yah, all the good clubs are here." Vicky didn't seem concerned by the predatory stares from random people hanging around the street, or the gritty looking smoker leaned agains the wall. In fact, she smiled at him and said, "Hey, Con. What's up?"

    Con shrugged. "Can't complain. You here to buy somethin' honey?"

    "You know him?" Jack asked.

    "Yah, he was there when I applied at the P.D. Only he wasn't looking to get a job, he was being arrested. I told the arresting officer he was innocent."

    "On account of the brand of cigs I smoke aren't sold at the place I was arrested for knickin' 'em from," Con added.

    "What're you doing here anyway?" Vicky asked.

    After another puff of smoke from Con. "Right place, right time, I suppose. Or maybe that hot Asian chick sent me. You ever hear of a chimera?"

    "Mmmhmm." Vicky nodded.

    Jack looked skeptical at that point.

    "Rumor has it what the Brass Bushi killed was never truly alive," he said. "You won't find a murder weapon here."

    "If that's true," Jack asked, "Then why did he skip town?"

    "He had it created," Con explained, "Just so he could skip town. Has enemies, y'know. He wanted to go and start over somewhere else, somewhere he's not known."

    "You wouldn't know who would have set him up with a chimera?" Vicky asked suspiciously.

    Con simply puffed more smoke before moving away from the wall. He bowed his head slightly to them both. "See you 'round, beautiful," he said, and he lifted Vicky's hand and kissed it. He then spun on his heels and began walking down the street.

    "Well that was kind of frustrating," Jack whispered to Vicky with s sigh.

    Vicky nodded. "Either we got into something much deeper than cops are supposed to...or that Psychic Samurai really knows a good setup."

    Jack shrugged and shook his head. "Either way, Don's going to pull rank on us if the Lair Legion is involved. He gives them a lot of leeway."

    "Yah," Vicky agreed absentmindedly. "I still would like to know where the Brass Bushi went and why."

    "A little covert unauthorized investigation." Jack smiled at that thought. "I like it."

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2007 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
-- Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
-- Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

Post By Anime Jason Sat Apr 07, 2007 at 12:35:42 am EDT	Subject Adventures In Parodyverse: The Late Hour Part 3

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