The Seppuku Garden
Prologue

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Amerie "Shining Rain" Bell didn't really care for the pornographic movie Rayshaun and David insisted on playing, but she understood the guys' need to unwind. The four of them-including the half-Rottweiler Havoq-had recently gotten into a fight with a gang of fomori running a crackhouse on 61st and Woodland. A little too close to home for comfort, but the Untouchables won. They would have to account to their elders at the Sept of the Purple Haze in Cleveland's rusted east side about what happened, but for now, the four Garou just wanted to lick their wounds and relax at Rayshaun Streetsweeper's duplex apartment. He had just the video to perk up their spirits.

"Damn!" said David Walks-the-Line, "I didn't think she'd put the whole thing in her-"

"Okaaaay," Amerie interrupted, rolling her eyes, "I gotta go to the bathroom, and no y'all can't watch."

Rayshaun and David laughed as she left. "She know she wants a piece o'that," David said after making sure she was out of earshot.

Havoq was lying on the floor near the corner of Rayshaun's living room. The lupus Ahroun vaguely looked up at them then went back to sleep. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Havoq barked.

"Huh, she is early," Rayshaun replied as he got up to answer the door. "Hey Mimi," he greeted the heavy-set Latina in the doorway.

"'Sup, baby," she said as they kissed. She said hi to David as she walked in, took her shoes off, and glanced at the television. "Ew, what are they doin' with that eggbeater?" she wondered, but didn't want an answer.

A faucet was heard from the bathroom, along with Amerie calling, "Who's that, Ray?"

"It's Mimi, now get your ass out here!"

"I'm comin, nigga!"

"Did you bring it?" David asked.

"Damn you can't wait to get high! Your lips turnin' black already!" Mimi said whimsically.

"Man, work was kicking my ass this afternoon," Dave replied in a thinly-Veiled reference to the battle.

She zipped open her purse, "Who you tellin. That's why I got some bomb-ass shit right..."

The house exploded in a cruel irony. A burst of flame shot through the windows of the lower-level duplex, setting off car alarms and "What the fuck!" interjections for blocks around.

At about 2:48 AM that night, the Cleveland Fire Department was dispatched to put out a fire on E. 75th and Kinsman. The caller said the house next door had exploded. Paramedic Ryn Summers didn't know what to make of this. Gas leak? Or, more likely, gang violence? But who would be so unsubtle in their attacking? She watched from the ambulance as the firefighters rushed into the blackened, smoking building.

"If the lower level exploded," her partner Tommy said, "The upper floor could collapse at any minute."

"They have to take that risk, odds are people were in there," Ryn replied.

Sure enough, a firefighter came back out a couple minutes later, carrying a young woman. Tommy ran out to meet him; Ryn got the stretcher out of the back.

"How bad is it?" Tommy asked.

"Three people and a dog were killed," the firefighter said quickly, "She's the only survivor and she's barely hanging on her damn self."

"We'll get her directly to the hospital and you guys can get body bags for the others," Ryn said as they loaded the her onto the stretcher.

As Tommy started the ambulance back up and headed for the hospital, Ryn saw to the victim. She was a mess: third-degree burns over 60 of her body, broken bones, internal bleeding. Ryn knew the girl only had one chance for survival. The Child of Gaia focused her gnostic power and said a quick prayer as she laid hands across the girl's body. Ryn smiled as the burns faded and the victim awakened.

"Uuughh...What the fuck!" she sat up in the stretcher and cried in pain from doing it so fast

"Lay down, miss, you'll be okay."

"What the hell happened? Is this an ambulance?"

"You-you were in an explosion at your house. You were badly hurt and barely survived."

"Oh I remember now, I was in the bathroom and just as it blew up I shif-" she stammered a bit- "Um, fuck all that, where are the others?"

"Miss, you really need to lay down, you're still injured."

"Where the FUCK are they!" she demanded in an unexpected thundering voice.

Ryn wasn't afraid, but knew the young woman had a right to know. She sighed, "They...they didn't make it out."