Big in Japan
Summation: Faith is sent to recruit a recently called Slayer in Karakura, Japan. She won't be alone in Japan, but even with Ami Mizuno and Hongo Takeshi; she may be in for the fight of her life.
Author's Notation: This takes place in a massive crossover AU. Buffy canon remains, largely, intact—though spillover of big events will be touched upon. Other things, however, have been altered to ease the flow of suspension of disbelief and keeping things 'low powered' for the most part. Lots of things have been changed, but do not worry; most of it will be explained or referenced as the story continues. This takes place in a world similar to the expanded Wold Newton Universe, a place where heroics have been going on since before the fall of Hyperborea and Atlantis. Some comic characters exist, but are low powered, and the world is based in a more pulp fiction than you might think. So don't complain about any underpowering you see. It is both calculated and intentional.
Chapter 1
World View
Faith didn't understand why she was on a plane headed to Japan. Former wanted-criminal being sent to a country where people are guilty and proven innocent, and can be held for 30 days without being given a reason why? Not a good combination.
Truth be told, she knew why. Though there were 500 called slayers already in the fold, but most of them were unqualified in the field. Worse, with so many new recruits, finding and recruiting new ones was becoming more difficult to allocate time and resources to.
In one sense, she'd been given a shit job. In another, there was a reason to send a full slayer—with backup, no less—to Japan.
Japan was not doing well both mundanely and supernaturally. Though it had its own guardians to handle things, the rate of supernatural activity in the Tokyo area had increased. Dozens upon dozens of hungry ghosts called Gaki or Hollows began to turn up. Nothing that couldn't be handled, but it was still noticeable.
The last few years surrounding the Millennium were still having ripple effects across the world, and Tokyo was one of the epicenters of destruction. Recovery efforts were still going on, but many services remained down.
Which was part of the reason she had backup; Faith reviewed the files again to familiarize herself with her allies and her target.
First was Ami Mizuno: a computer scientist with Sony and one of the Celestial Miko, priestesses who drew their power from the nearest major celestial bodies. Ami drew her power from the planet Mercury.
The second was Hongo Takeshi, known to the world better as "Kamen Rider". A genius (Faith felt dumber just by associating with these two eggheads on paper) student and motorcycle enthusiast, Hongo was captured by project Ragnorok – a group of surviving Nazi's from the Second World War, and turned into a cyborg. He rebelled against his programming and spent the next 30 years hunting them down across the world.
Faith bet the Nazi's were kicking themselves pretty hard over that mistake.
Then there was her target: Tatsuki Arisawa. Already an accomplished martial artist before she was called, Faith did not look forward to a physical confrontation with her, but every now and then, new Slayers liked to play 'test the elders'. Couldn't blame her, she felt that way when she first met Buffy. Still, not something she was waiting enthusiastically for.
She got tired of it the second time it happened.
Tatsuki was also, thankfully, already using her formidable skill to protect people—preventing others from bullying certain students. Faith mused that there would be little trouble getting her into the 'defending the world from the forces of darkness' spiel she'd be peddling.
Faith looked around her, hoping to find her contacts. She'd been waiting outside for them for some time. Nothing around her could give her information. Though Willow had given her a charm to speak Japanese and understand it when it was spoken, it did not translate the written language. And, as she found out on the plane there, it would often have literal translations that Faith's ears didn't fully understand.
And she forgot to read the cultural etiquette manual.
As such, the trip was going splendidly. Being abandoned in a foreign country where she couldn't read crap just fit in so well with the rest of her life.
That's when a motorcycle and a car almost comically compact slowed to a stop in front of her. The motorcycle rider wore black and green outfit designed for long trips on a bike. The woman in the compact car was small (even smaller than Buffy), with short dark hair. Faith guessed that she was only a few years younger than the woman.
"Excuse me, are you Faith Lehane?" The rider said.
"You Hongo?" Faith retorted.
The man in black took off his helmet. Faith raised her eyebrows. He wasn't that unattractive, and looked much younger than someone born in the 50s should look—like barely out of college. And for someone who had been fighting Nazi's for 30 years, his face was remarkably unscarred. Faith found that slightly disappointing.
She briefly wondered if the rumored level of kinkiness in Japanese sexual life could make up for their reported penis size.
"Oracle sent us to guide you through Japan." The woman, she assumed Ami, stated.
Oracle. Sometimes she was still amazed at what was real in her world; Oracle was one of those things. It was Willow who found her. Or maybe it was Oracle who found Willow. Both appeared to claim the connection.
Oracle is a legend among hackers, as the greatest of their number. She, as Willow confirmed, connected most of the extra-normal humanitarian efforts. By extra-normal, it didn't just extend to the world of magic and demons, but to insane sciences, aliens and, what Faith found hardest to believe, costumed vigilantes. Though things were never quite what they were portrayed as on TV and in comics she used to read, but Oracle could still call upon the likes of the Shadow or even Superman if a situation called for it.
Willow decided such an alliance would be extremely useful and made the connections.
Ami was one of Oracle's many contacts.
Faith stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Though I'm surprised that you've managed to pick up the language, if not the etiquette." Ami continued.
"Yeah, well, don't be, I cheat." Faith raised her hand, revealing a small ring, "This thing translates spoken languages to English. Something Willow cooked up."
Being allied with one of the 4 sorcerers in the world who could rival the Sorcerer Supreme had its perks.
"It only does spoken languages?" Hongo asked.
"Yeah. Willow couldn't really fit enough information into a small item to handle the three written forms of the language."
"Another reason to have us along," Ami stated.
"Yeah, but where's my crap going to ride?" Faith asked as she lifted her small suitcase up.
"That's why we have the car." Ami stated, rather lost.
Faith snorted. "Lady, I don't think that thing could fit me, let alone my bag."
She smiled at Ami's flinch.
But the car was indeed extremely small. It was little more than 6ft in total length, with only two seats to it.
She didn't even want to consider how small the engine was.
"It generally doesn't' serve much purpose to own a large vehicle in a city like this." Ami stated.
"But what about all that Tokyo Drift stuff? I was expectin—"
"Drifting just balds tires and is a practice of the extremely bored." Hongo cut faith off, "But I do have a bias towards motorcycles stunts."
Hongo let loose and impish half-smile, which Faith returned.
"Alright. Shotgun in the wind-up car it is."
For Faith, it felt as though many hours had passed by since she entered the tiny car. But the accursed clock in the center mocked her, telling her that not even forty minutes had passed yet. She watched the landscape flutter by from the passenger's window. Of the landmarks she passed (or thought she passed, she figured the giant red and white tower—even though it was apparently being rebuilt—had to be a landmark). What she really noticed was the areas of destruction.
"So, is Tokyo really attacked every other month by a giant monster?" Faith asked.
"You really have no sense of tact at all, do you?" Ami said.
"Hey, I'm just askin', no need to get the claws out. This translator ring only does literal translations, after all."
"And I know enough English to know the difference." Ami retorted.
"Well there goes that smokescreen." Faith said. "Look, it's not an insulting thing, it's just—I'm not one with much formality."
Ami waited for an aching moment before she responded. "Japan isn't attacked by giant monsters every other month. We're just recovering from the post millennium fallout like New York is."
"Though I gotta say, you're handling it better than NC. They made most of Gotham a No Man's Land until 2003."
"Thank you, though to be fair, the background Radiation in New York was far higher than it was in Tokyo. Though we had clouds of sulfuric acid mist when Hedorah arrived. It dissipated almost as fast as it killed."
The sound of twisting leather reached Faith's ears, drawing her attention to the steering wheel Ami clutched tightly.
"Must not have been pretty."
"No, it wasn't."
"Like 'Shoggoth' bad?"
Ami chanced a glance at Faith; the shock paled her face and left her mouth slightly open.
"Look, I've never actually seen one, but I know someone who has." Faith amended before a sickening silence filled the vehicle.
"How are they doing?" Ami eventually asked.
"Better. She's no longer screaming every night." Faith added.
"I'm sorry."
"Be sorry for her. The only thing that got to me was seeing a reminder of how very mortal Slayers are, which is why we need to find this girl." Faith folded her arms and watched the ruins pass her by. The rest of the trip was marked by silence, allowing Faith's mind to wonder about how Tatsuki had been handling her newfound abilities.
There were few places to stay in Karakura town that weren't designed for businessmen. Despite this, Faith still found herself wanting to patrol. Unfortunately, there were few cemeteries for a standard patrol. So she settled for wandering the streets, looking for trouble.
It also helped to get the lay of the land, always a good idea.
As she walked, she could not help but feel that she was being watched from the rooftops. She wondered if Japanese vampires jumped around on rooftops or had other strange powers.
Why not, she thought, before kicking up a loose stone and throwing it at where she thought the invisible stalker lay.
She frowned as the rock sails through the air and lands.
If the tracker was invisible, he must have dodged the rock.
That, unfortunately, was the most exciting part of her night. The entire walk was punctuated that with the feeling that there was something around her, something predatory and hidden from plain sight.
Faith hadn't had the pleasure of fighting an invisible assassin yet, but she had the feeling that one was around.
When she retired for the evening, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, but her mind had wandered.
She assumed at first that she was dreaming, but the imagery was unlike anything she had ever seen.
The world was barren and arid. Towers of black basalt punctuated through a field of salt. The sky pulsed and swirled white and black. No animal life to be seen.
There was life though. Black ogres with white faces scurried about and a mass of darkness that lurched about.
There was also a man, or a thing that took the form of a man. He was dressed in black and white ceremonial garb, or as near as Faith figured, some Japanese kimono-thing.
He was talking to something, something that overshadowed him greatly, something that made him nervous. The quiet chirping of insects echoed through the hell they stood in.
"So you have come to barter your place?" The unseen thing stated firmly.
"I have." The man answered.
"I find it quite disrespectful for you to visit Annihilus and General Zod first."
Faith recognized those names only peripherally, her mind tried to cling to them as best she could.
"I deeply apologize. Though their offer of peace between them is different than the offer I present to you."
"Aizen, you little girl, do not presume I wish to join your movement. I care not for the soul society or the Death Gods."
"As a Hollow yourself, I thought you would be interested in becoming an Arrancar."
"And taking human form? You truly are a child. I would never take a detestable human form. The only human souls in my construction are those I have consumed. None of the souls of my original formation as a Gillain are from my true race."
Aizen stepped back at this.
"Please, Aizen, after dealing with Zod and Annihlus, I thought you might be more accepting of an inhuman hollow."
"I am--"
"Don't lie to me, idiot Death God" The unseen thing barked, "I am a Vasto Lorde or over sixty five billion willing souls, none of which are human."
Aizen took another step back.
"Yes, willing. We are all guided by one thing: revenge on the one who slew the souls of my construct—the repeated genocide of my race on this planet. There is nothing you could offer me. However, I will not move against you. Your quest will lead to the destruction of humanity, something I look forward to with great pleasure. But may your plans cross mine; I will crush you like the scum you are."
"May I ask, so I can stay appropriately out of your way, what those plans entail?"
"My plans have been in action for twenty years. The only piece I require now is the blood of a Slayer. And it is quite fortunate that two of them are now over a weak point between Earth and this Void."
Faith felt her mind being assaulted at once—"I see you, brat. And either you or the other's blood will suffice my needs!"
Faith woke up with a scream.