Azusa leaned against the side of the road buggy. “So, what next?”
The street ran along the West Fifth block. The reconstruction efforts here had fallen behind. Piles of brick and rubble dotted the landscape.
“We start searching for these signs.”
“You got a better clue than that?”
“Not right now. But there are other ways of finding things out in this city.”
“Such as?”
“That’s my secret. I think it’s time for us to go our separate ways.”
“Hold on a second. You trying to give me the slip or something?”
“Don’t see what the slip is. Seems I’m being rather obvious about it.”
“We’re in this together. Sink or swim.”
“I would have thought you’d plenty of material by now.”
“That? You think you got what it takes to do this job?”
“Naw.”
She hiked up her shapely eyebrows. “God, you’re annoying. Hey, that’s right!” She clapped her hands together. “I completely forgot. You owe me! It’s payback time.”
Setsura put on a pained expression.
“Bet there’s a hotel not far from here.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“All the same to me. We’ll just have to ask around. C’mon. You know, I could always find this Gento Roran chap and have a good long chat with him.”
She scanned their surroundings and headed for a convenience store next to a pile of rubble. Setsura grimaced but followed her.
“I need to make a call,” he said, stopping at the pay phone in front of the store.
“Don’t go running away, now,” Azusa said with a menacing glare, and stepped into the dim interior. “Anybody home?” she called out.
A stern-looking middle-aged lady appeared, wiping her hands on her apron. She seemed to be in the middle of making dinner. “What do you want?” she asked sweetly.
“There any hotels around here?” Azusa said bluntly. “Love hotels?” Not the sort of thing she had any hang-ups about.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Like I would know about that.”
“Well, no problem.” Azusa declined to press the matter, and the woman quickly retreated to the back. It shouldn’t be that hard to find one.
Setsura was just hanging up the phone.
“Where are you going.”
“The hospital.”
“You not feeling well?”
“Yeah. Bad case of the clap. I guess sex is right out.”
Azusa snorted. “Ha, ha. The more you dawdle, the higher the price. Let’s take it to the Hilton.”
“Sorry, but I’ve got other business. I’ve got to head to Kikuicho. We can tend to your wishes afterwards.”
The touch of seriousness that crept into Setsura’s voice brought a gleam to Azusa’s eyes as well. “What’s up? I’m not in the mood for grandstanding. This about money?”
“More or less.”
In the face of Setsura’s cool disregard, Azusa turned on the faucet. “Go ahead,” she whimpered. “Do whatever you like. Mark my words, some day you’ll end up buried beneath all this rubble just like the owner of this here store.”
Setsura furrowed his brows. “The owner of this store?”
“That’s right. It’s as plain as the nose on your face.”
“What is?”
“She hurried out from the back of the store, in the middle of doing something else. She had a bit of dirt stuck to her forehead. Her apron was turned inside out. She must have been digging a hole and didn’t have the time to wash her hands thoroughly and the apron was stained brown. Not to mention her brushing me off so fast. Yeah, she’s definitely burying bodies back there.”
“What are you, Sherlock Holmes?”
Setsura took Azusa by the hand and headed to the buggy.
“Hey, what’s with the rush all of a sudden? A girl likes a little foreplay, don’t you know.”
When Setsura said, “Enough already,” she shrugged and went along for the ride as he pushed her in behind the wheel. He climbed into the passenger’s seat and said, “Drive around for a while.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
“If you say so.”
The buggy took off. With no indication of what he was thinking about, Setsura haphazardly directed her right and then left and then straight ahead.
They turned onto the road that led to Waseda Boulevard, and passed by a funeral home, its recently-completed construction marked with a line of flower bouquet stands.
“Hey, where are we going?”
“Kikuicho.”
“You figure out where the seal is?”
“Hard to say.”
“Then what are you looking for in all this rubble?”
“Who says I’m looking for anything?”
“You think I’m an idiot? We’ve been down every road through and around those ruins. You got some sort of treasure buried in there?”
“Somebody just might.”
“Gento Roran,” Azusa said in a low voice. She gripped the steering wheel.
Setsura didn’t answer, only stared ahead, as still as a statue.