FicWad

Chapter Fourteen: Bad Blood:

At the KU library, Anna got onto a computer and logged into Yahoo to check her e-mail. Another mysterious address caught her eye among the spam. Well hello again/, she thought. /I haven't heard from you in months. She took a quick look around before opening the message. After reading it for a few seconds, Anna's mind sprang into urgent mood.

"Watari-san!" she called. "Come look at this! I got another e-mail!"

"Hm?" he asked as he came over to her computer. Anna pointed to the screen and Watari read over her shoulder. Alarm hit his mind as well.

"Your uncle works here?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, "But which one?"

"I think I might know," Watari answered, "Look at this." He walked back to his computer and woke it up from the screensaver. Anna looked on with him.

"A list of KU's staff?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," he said, "And look at this." Watari clicked on the link. The woman's eyes widened as she read the profile.

"Shichiro?" she let out.

"I already started building up a profile on him," the scientist told her. Anna whipped around to him.

"How much do you have?" she asked.

"I'm just about finished with his victim list," he replied. Anna felt her heart racing. Watari noticed the color draining from her knuckles.

"If you need to go outside to calm down, it's okay to do so," he said. Anna tried to battle her contempt.

"No," she said at last, shaking her head, "I need a phone." Anna turned to her bag and dug through it. Watari witnessed it at last; Tsuzuki warned him about the time bomb known as Anna. Usually, she showed nothing on the surface, but that one spark known as her family will set her off. Tsuzuki also warned him not to mess with the brewing storm. On a good day, Anna will calm down by herself.

"And on a bad day?" Watari asked at lunch days ago. Tsuzuki bit his lip.

"I don't really know," he mumbled. "I've never seen it yet…"

Watari observed Anna at the moment. He hadn't even told her about Shichiro's kills yet. Anna found her phone and unlocked the keys. She dialed the most important number at the moment.

"Come on," she mumbled. "Pick up! Pick up!"

"Hello?" a man asked on the other line. Anna's heart almost leapt to her throat.

"Asato?" she asked.

"What's wrong, Anna-chan?" he asked.

"My uncle works at the university!" she said aloud.

"Which one?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Shichiro," Anna replied.

"Does he know you're there?" her boyfriend asked.

"I don't think so," the woman answered.

"Okay," Tsuzuki told her. They both hung up and Anna sank back into her chair, breathing out heavily.

In the middle of the night, Shichiro's cell phone buzzed. He slowly drew his eyes open and peeked over at his wife. Amaya could be mistaken for comatose from where he saw things. Shichiro looked at his phone as it buzzed again. He climbed out of bed and walked over to the dresser. The professor took his phone and flipped it open.

New message? he thought. The man opened it up. No words, just a picture tonight. Shichiro stared blankly at first. Anna and Watari were in the library, looking at a computer. It took a moment, but Shichiro found himself grinning.

Thank you, Sweet Buddha! he thought. Shichiro held the phone to his chest and hurried back to bed. He kissed Amaya on her sleeping cheek.

"I'll give you one hell of a kill," he whispered. "In fact, you'll have a red Kyoto as my gift to you!" He took her into his arms before going back to sleep.