The weather did not exactly improve the next day. Better to say, it got worse. The thick clouds were hanging above the city, hitting the houses with a strong cold shower. Some parts of the main street basically turned into a swamp, which made walking for any citizen who dared to come out quite difficult, muddying their legs up to the knees.
Kame was sitting on the veranda´s railing, watching the raindrops falling into the deep puddle nearby. He was shivering from cold a little, as he didn´t wear anything else than the checked shirt, but he didn´t care. He was too lost in his thoughts, waiting there tense and nervous.
The regular visits of the local doctor Herbert Best, who was coming to check on his mother twice a month, sometimes even more often, always made the young bartender like that. Even though it looked like his mother´s condition was not changing significantly, he couldn´t help being worried. Every single time, he was afraid that the doctor might find out something new about Mrs. Kamenashi´s health, and that it wouldn´t have been for better.
The disease of Kazuya´s mother was not visible from outside, practically unknown and silent, but lethal just as well. After some careful physical examinations, Dr. Best diagnosed Angina pectoris. Kame didn´t like how those strange words sounded for a good reason. It was a very serious heart disease, which was causing the unpredictable bouts of pain in his mother´s chest, making her unable to breathe or move properly, at least once a week. She had always got over it somehow so far, but every time, there was a possibility that the surge of pain would be too strong and it would cause her a heart attack. Doctor prescribed some pills, which were supposed to work against the high blood pressure, but they had to be ordered from Washington and were quite expensive.
Despite all that Kame didn´t give up hope for any improvement of his mother´s condition. Dr. Best said that he would do everything he could for her. And Kame trusted his skills, as the wise man had already helped many citizens of the Bozeman City. On the other side, he could see that his Mum was weaker and weaker every day.
Sometimes, Kame wondered, if it hadn´t been better for them to stay under protection of Blackfeet Tribe in the mountains. Even though the Indians were not able to help her with any healing method, which they knew. The shaman said once, that her heart was broken and it was impossible to heal it again. No matter how irrationally it sounded, Kame was inclined to agree with it...
He remembered his mother to be a lively and cheerful woman, always giving the most beautiful smile to those whom she loved. He knew very well what changed her completely, what broke her down and made her heart weak. It was the day, when he, as a small kid yet, watched the storm from the west coming...
The door´s creaking made him turn his head. A strict looking man with thick short hair and glasses joined him on the veranda. Kame was watching the doctor without a word, waiting for him to speak up.
"Her blood pressure is better than the last time, but she´s very weak," Dr. Best said in a very calm voice, while buttoning up his neat coat. "And I´ve got a suspicion that she doesn´t take her pills against pain, so please take care of it."
"Yes, doctor," Kame nodded.
"I´ve already ordered the next set of medicaments; you can collect them in my surgery room next week."
"Thank you, I will. Anything else?"
Dr. Best looked into his eyes seriously: "How much does your mother eat?"
"I was told by Lena that a little less than the previous month."
"Try to talk with her about it then; she must keep her strength… Well, I have other patients too, so… Have a nice day, Kamenashi."
"You too, Dr. Best."
The doctor left Kame standing on the veranda, with even more worries in his poor head.
***
The forest was full of the calming smell of wet needles and soil. The fresh damp air brought some color to the trees, which were preparing for the winter already. Some bird was singing his energetic song, hidden well in his warm nest high above him.
The bird stopped singing, when Jin´s feet slipped on the wet root and tripped over another one. Tired from the long searching, he wasn´t able to prevent his fall and ended up sitting in the muddy place full of putrid leaves of berry bushes.
"Who the fuck came up with this stupid idea?!" an angered yell was heard in almost a mile radius.
The beautiful horse snorted his answer to that and his master grinned.
"I know. Me."
Jin got up on his feet again; finding out that his favorite coat changed its color to the ugly brown. So not only wet to the bones, but also dirty as if he´d have been digging out some treasure from the ground. With a tired sigh, he looked around again.
It was hopeless. The woods in the west didn´t show any sign of a convenient place for bears. The biggest animal he could hunt there was some fox or a squirrel. And somehow, he really doubted that he would have impressed Raynold Karnaka bringing a little animal with coral eyes, chewing on the hazelnut, no matter how cute it would have been. The most promising part for a bear hunt was the one he was forced to leave – Blackfeet Tribe´s territory.
Jin looked at Kuro: "What should we do?"
The animal just stared at him.
"No advice? That´s not nice of you," the young gunslinger murmured.
Despite his words, Jin approached the animal and soothed him across the nostrils gently.
"Let´s go back. It´s damn cold out here…"
***
Kame looked up from washing the glasses, when he heard a loud sneeze, which almost made the ones he had already cleaned up fell off the counter. Jin Akanishi, in clothes so wet that the water was dripping on the floor under his feet, just approached the bar and looked at him with tired eyes.
"Hi…" he mumbled.
Kame observed the gunslinger from head to toes. The black-haired one looked like he escaped from the swamps.
"Good evening…"
"Can I get some rum, please?" Jin asked in a weak and hoarse voice.
It was enough for Kame to know, that the man didn´t need any alcohol at all.
"Don't you rather want some hot tea?" he offered him reasonably.
"What? Why?" Jin looked confused.
Kame looked at him even more carefully, noticing the paler skin than was usual, not to mention the red veins in his eyes.
"Don´t you have a fever? Just alcohol won´t help you, if you do."
"I don´t think so…" Akanishi wobbled a little and he had to catch the edge of the counter to stay upright.
The young bartender raised his eyebrows on that.
"I´m a little tired, though…" the other one admitted quietly.
Kame checked with one short look the present guests, who consisted only of a few cowboys. Then, without more thinking, he talked to Jin again.
"Then go up to your room and change your clothes. You cannot stay in those. I´ll bring you something upstairs."
Akanishi blinked quite surprised first, but Kame´s voice somehow didn´t leave any space for excuses.
"Fine," he reacted shortly and on quite uncertain legs, he headed to the stairs obediently, while Kame was trying to deal with his own behavior, not fully understanding himself.
It was not his habit to care about others, except the ones who were important to him, like his mother or Liwan and also Lena. Akanishi was still a stranger. Moreover, he never behaved impolitely to Harada´s guests; it was his principle and a good way to keep his job. But right now, he practically ordered Jin to leave instead of fulfilling his request. Realizing this, he was quite dumbfounded that the gunslinger didn´t protest even with one word and just went upstairs.
Kame sighed. What was so special about that strange handsome man that it made him forget his manners?
*
It didn´t take him long to prepare what he wanted and he walked up the narrow stairs in less than ten minutes. There was silence filling the air on both floors, as most of the guests left that morning. Kame approached the last door in the corridor and with a calm face, but some nervousness in his stomach, knocked on it slightly.
"It´s open, come in," the faint invitation was heard from the inside.
Kame entered the room balancing the tray with a huge mug and a plate with hot soup carefully. His efforts were almost in vain, as he stopped right before the pile of wet clothes lying on the floor, before stumbling over it. He avoided it and searched for Akanishi with his eyes.
The so-called hunter was sitting on the bed, the legs bent and hidden under the sheet as well as the rest of his body. Only his head was the visible part of him, with the damp and scruffy hair. And he was obviously shaking from cold heavily.
Kame starred at this view for a while and the first thing, which came to his mind, was that Akanishi looked like an abandoned and cute puppy.
"Ah, you came…" Jin murmured gratefully.
"Of course, when I said so," Kame reacted placing the plate at the small night table next to the bed. Jin checked the things on it with his blurry eyes.
"But I asked for rum…" he complained.
"It´s in, as well," Kame informed him. "Just try it."
Jin took the mug into his hands and looked at the hot steam coming from it suspiciously.
"It´s not poisoned," Kame teased him, pretending to be offended.
"How should I know?" Jin reacted innocently and took a little sip from the liquid. His eyes went wide in the next moment. "It´s good!"
When he moved, the blanket slipped down a little, so Kame could see that Jin was naked. His muscular hand and part of his chest could be seen; he was a very well built man. And now also very satisfied.
Jin pressed his palms against the mug and started to taste it with the long careful swallows. Kame turned away from him amused, picked the clothes up from the floor and hung it over the chair. The floor remained dark wet under it.
"What were you doing in those? Swimming in the lake?" he asked baffled by the amount of water.
"Very funny," Jin retorted grumpily. "Fucking rain…"
"It´s not that bad," Kame said confidently, thanks to the experiences of the local. "It´s usually much worse."
"Oh, really? Thanks for the good news," the other one reacted sardonically.
Kame tore his eyes off the window covered with the small drops and looked at the sulking man, who was keeping the hot mug as close as he could.
"No luck so far?" Kame asked.
"Oh, the opposite! I came over ten squirrels. Can you imagine?"
Kame had to suppress a laugh over the Jin´s expression; who would say that the young gunslinger had such a sense of humor?
"Where were you searching?"
"The westwards of the town."
"That´s useless, you won´t find any bears there."
"Yeah, I know that now too, thanks," Akanishi snorted.
After a short silence, Kame turned away from him.
"Wait! I didn´t mean to…"
Jin thought that he offended the nice bartender, so he intended to apologize, but then he stopped in the middle of sentence, when Kame just closed the door from the inside. Then he crossed his hands on the slim chest and looked at confused Jin directly.
"Maybe I could help you a little," the younger one stated.
A hint of joy flashed over Jin´s face: "How?"
"You can ask Blackfeet Tribe for a permission to hunt on their territory..."
Jin´s shoulders went down after hearing it, as well as his head: "They didn´t seem to be very willing to negotiate..."
But Kame had more on his mind: "They will listen to you, if you have a good reason for your acts. Only… You must tell them the truth."
"I´m not sure what would have been considered as good reasons according to your Indian friends, Kame," Jin reacted pessimistically.
Kame went a little closer to the bed and crouched down, so that he had his eyes at almost the same level with Jin´s.
"Well, let´s say, that Raynold Karnaka hasn´t done anything good for them so far... So if you reveal your intentions, I think they will listen to you at least. Maybe they will even help you to hunt some bear down."
Jin was looking at him for a while, pondering the bartender´s suggestion.
"Hmm, since we´re already talking about it... What do you think, actually? What are my intentions according to you?"
"You haven´t told me about them yet," Kame answered shortly.
Jin repaid the other´s glance wondering, if he can afford to tell the truth. This bartender was very nice to him so far, but that didn´t beat all those reasons for Jin to stay quiet.
Then he realized that he was still holding that mug of tasty tea in his hands and he also noticed the tempting smell of the soup at the night stand and that his clothes were spread over the chair to dry out. And somehow, Jin suddenly knew that he can be honest.
"I want revenge for my friend."
"So, you want to kill Karnaka..." Kame completed the unspoken part right away and it wasn´t even a question.
Jin didn´t comment that, but he didn´t have to. Kame just knew what was hidden behind those words. The young gunslinger, now feeling much warmer than a few minutes ago, finished the last sip of that awesome tea.
"So... You really think they will listen to me?" he asked, still unsure.
"I guess I can spare a good word or two for you... But don´t take it for granted. They won´t do what I say. But if you make your request properly, they will hear you out. I can arrange the meeting, if you want."
"I would be really grateful for that," Jin nodded slowly.
Kame shook his head slightly.
"You can take that as an additional apology. Along with that soup, which you should eat before it gets completely cold," saying that, the bartender stood up again.
"Thank you," Jin said honestly grateful, looking up at the other one from behind the ends of his hair.
This time, Kame couldn´t suppress his smile, seeing Akanishi so unusually vulnerable. It stirred something in him, something strange, what he was not able to describe, so he rather averted his attention from the gunslinger.
"Do you really play it?" he asked eyeing the strangely shaped box in the corner.
Jin turned his head to make sure, what Kame had pointed out.
"Of course. My friend taught me..." he responded quietly and suddenly seriously.
"The one you want to avenge?" Kame figured out what the shadow in his voice meant.
Jin didn´t say anything, he just repaid his questioning look, but it was enough for Kame to know that he was right.
***
When Jin woke up the next morning, he was surprised that he feels quite well. After that rainy trip in the woods, it was highly probable that he had caught a cold at least. But it seemed that Kame´s special tea managed to prevent that. As well as Jin´s mood, the sky cleared up too. It stopped raining before dawn and around the lunchtime; the city was already lit up by the faint sunbeams.
Jin slept the whole night, deep in unconscious sleep without any dreams, and he felt much better than the previous evening. He didn´t know if it was really because of that special drink, which Kame prepared for him or not, but he was definitely grateful to the young bartender.
Thanks to Kame´s offer, that he would talk with the Indians and let him know the result, Jin could afford to have a day off. He stayed in Bozeman, ate some of the incredibly tasty meals from Miss McBain and took Kuro for just a short ride around, also checking up the road, which led to Karnaka´s lands on the way.
When Jin got back, he bumped into that kid from the stalls – Mike – and helped him to groom the horses of two explorers from the east, who have been staying in one of Harada´s rooms for some time already and didn´t seem to continue their exploration any time soon. Naturally, he took care of his dear Kuro, too.
Returning to the saloon, he was stopped by its owner, Mr. Harada, unexpectedly and stayed with him on the veranda talking about the horses, as Kuro obviously caught the man´s attention.
It was almost three o´clock in the afternoon, when Jin noticed some fuss on the opposite side of the street. Two boys were bringing big boxes to the dark colored wall, which was part of the alarm tower with the metal bell on its top. Grenet´s companions and the sheriff´s deputy himself followed them and they were making quite a noise on the way. Also a few citizens were approaching the place slowly, with half excited, half worried expressions.
"And here they go again…" Harada commented the scene.
"What´s going on?" Jin asked confused.
"Grenet´s favorite game."
"What game?"
"I call it ´Wasting of bullets´," Harada answered sharply.
Jin wanted to ask what exactly the man meant by that, but a loud shout was heard instead.
"Hey! Greenhorn!"
Jin suppressed an annoyed face, which he would love to show and looked in the direction of that call. It was Math Grenet, of course.
"Don´t you wanna join us? To show what are you capable of?"
Jin got up from the comfortable armchair slowly, stepped down on the road and came closer to the group.
"What is this about?" he asked casually.
"Just a little shooting competition," Grenet smirked. "You can show us if you know what those things hanging from your belt are for."
The group around that asshole burst out laughing. This time, it was Jin whose lips curved into a smirk: "All right, why not? Just explain me the rules."
*
Kame, who just happened to arrive at that moment, observed the group of gunmen with hardly covered worried expression. He noticed Akanishi among them right away and he was wondering, if the gunslinger had enough of self-control not to let himself being provoked by Grenet to do something stupid.
He couldn´t get rid of similar thoughts since the previous evening, when he saw how serious Jin was about his goal and how much he was influenced by his desire for revenge. It was everything in his eyes, when the young man spoke with him. And Grenet was able to be quite sneaky, when it came to making somebody angry.
"Just in time," smoking Harada welcomed him from the veranda. "You can go prepare some water and beers then, or they will come whining about how incapable my saloon is as the last time. They look overly excited today."
Kame only unwillingly tore his look off the starting competition and went to fulfill the order.
*
While two boys in their teens were pushing the growing audience behind some safe zone and preparing the boxes with their targets, Grenet explained the rules to Jin, who was showing a polite interest in the happenings and looked like nothing could throw him out of his calmness.
"The first round, three shots. When you miss even one of them, you´re out. Second round, four shots. The same process. You miss – you lose. Got it?"
"Yeah," Jin nodded. "What will the winner get?"
"Those who lose in the first round, have to buy him drinks for a week. And who lose the second round, will cover the expenses for the bullets he had to fire," Grenet grinned in a way which made Jin think that he was the one who thought these rules up. "So better be careful, greenhorn."
Jin did not say anything to that and started to check his revolvers instead, as the guns went through a tough treatment the previous day.
*
Kame couldn´t help it; he prepared everything as fast as he could, and returned to Mr. Harada, who was watching the competition, which just started. He stayed in the shadow of veranda´s roof, checking out the crowd, which was a little bigger than usually. Well, as expected, the newcomer´s participation attracted some interest.
One boy was standing near the boxes, handing over the small round shaped targets, made of some easily breakable material, to his friend. They were white colored, so easily spotted on the background of the dark wall. The other boy was throwing them up in the air in a slow motion. The plates used in the first round were quite light, so the movement wasn´t fast.
Despite that, only one guy from the first half of participants was able to hit all three of them and he received the audience´s appreciation, which consisted mostly of children, women going from shopping and men returning from work. Everybody was already used to this regular performance and most of them enjoyed it, especially the kids. For Kame, it was just a swagger - useless and stupid game.
He was watching Jin from the profile, standing next to Grenet, who was still grinning like hell, quite certain about his victory. He was the one who won almost every time. But Kame had a suspicion that it was not because he was the best, but because nobody dared to humiliate him by defeat. It happened only once and it didn´t come out well for the poor shooter. He didn´t know how good Jin was in shooting, but it would be better for him not to be too skillful in this case.
From next four men, two passed the first round. They were both from the top class of Karnaka´s people, so it was not a surprise. Then it was Grenet´s turn; they left Jin for the end as he was a newbie.
Sheriff´s deputy came to the spot from which everyone was aiming, stretched his hands and gestured the boy haughtily. Unlike the others, he left his guns in their sheaths on the belt and the crowd breathed out excitedly. Kame just leant on the doorframe bored; he so knew that Grenet would play the tough gunman.
The first target went up. The movement by which Grenet pulled out his gun and fired was fast. The poor white thing was destroyed on its way up; the others usually hit it on the top of its trajectory. The second shot hit the right spot as well as the third one.
Three clear hits. The expected applause followed and the shooter left the place with head so high, that Kame wouldn´t have been surprised if it would disconnect from his neck. Nevertheless, he had to admit that Grenet was capable of something…
"Your turn, Akanishi," Grenet poked Jin into his chest, which made Kame stare at him even more disgusted. That man always treated people like shit.
Jin said nothing, just nodded, made a few steps and like the man before him, he stopped on the spot from where he could shoot. And he gave the signal to the boy, without pulling the revolvers out beforehand.
Surprised murmur churned up the air among the viewers. Grenet still kept his cocky smile, in belief that Akanishi just wanted to copy him. And Kame started to watch the shooting really carefully only now.
The boy shouted shortly, as always before starting the throwing and the target flew high up into the air.
Three shots, three hits.
Kame´s eyes went wide. Jin was fast, really fast. His movement was even faster than Grenet´s and he hit the targets almost leisurely, as if they have been flying too slowly for him. Surprised silence made the atmosphere tense for a while, before the clapping of appreciation broke it.
Jin turned to face Grenet with a faint smile. The man´s grin wavered, but remained on his face.
"Good, greenhorn, good..." he hissed sharply. "Now, the real fun starts…"