Chapter One: Of Vengeance and Dissonance
Chinatsu had never questioned her purpose in life.
It wasn't that she thought such things were a waste, she simply never took the time to. When she was younger, her parents had given her the comfort she'd enjoyed in order enjoy her innocent life. Why, it was because of them that Chinatsu had come to find her appreciation of not just opera, but of music itself. And it was through that same love of those wonderful sounds that she came to meet the man that would change her life forever.
As the bullets that flew through the air had become more of a hail of death, and she'd curled up in fear under the shield her now dying parents had made for her with their bodies, Chinatsu had known nothing would ever be the same again. When her shaking hands picked up the gun he dropped, she'd thought only of avenging her parents, and screw whatever would come next. The realization that her shot grazed only his shoulder had told the young girl that this short life she enjoyed was over.
Only, it was just the beginning.
Shisho, her master, her Maestro, had spared her. He brought her under his wing and into his Orchestra, and trained her in the glorious sounds of death. Together their missions and creations had left trails in the wake of their artwork as a chorus of gunfire and screams looked only to mark the way. Eliminating target after target, time after time just made her feel more alive than ever.
There was a certain sense of irony that someone who had caused her such pain and death could make her enjoy life so much, Chinatsu had always known this. Once the band tuned up, there was nothing but determination in her mind, and the pride she'd felt in earning his praise after outperforming him had filled her heart to its very core.
But then it was over.
Now, just a couple short years later on this warm Dubai night, as she found herself climbing ever so slowly up the side of the arms dealer's hotel, Chinatsu climbed one step at a time with but a single purpose in mind. Revenge was the only thing that she desired, the one thing she had to live for. What came after that? She didn't know, and maybe she just flat out didn't give a shit. That didn't matter, as long as she got vengeance on Koko Hekmatyar, the woman responsible for Shisho's death, then nothing else was important. Numerous times, she'd wondered if how she felt about working with Maestro was just some twisted manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome. And almost as many times, she'd settled on deciding that she didn't care. He had given her meaning in life, and without him, revenge was the only thing left for her.
Yet, slowly and steadily she reached the top, almost as if the climax was just ahead of her. She thought about the cross she now kept as a memento of her master, about the hat he'd given her that she had decided to keep tied under the back of her shirt for good luck, and about how just 3 days earlier, her master had been shot dead like a common thug. As she hoisted herself up the side and over the rooftop's railing, her words from that day echoed in her mind.
I'll never forgive you. Hear me? I'll kill you all!
I'll hunt you down...and rip you apart, piece by piece!
Chinatsu took off the safety and loaded up her Baretta before looking around slowly. This was it. This was what she'd waited 3 days for. Now all she had to do was slip into Hekmatyar's room and end her. That was all. Her plan for escaping the bodyguards? She didn't have one. For all the young woman could tell, that was secondary at best.
"Stop there! The second you aim that gun at me...you're dead."
'Shit,' she thought to herself as she realized Koko had been waiting on her. Of course the arms dealer would have had all angles covered. The worst part though, was that even though she sensed a sniper nearby, she had no idea where he was. And she wasn't sure she could, even if her senses weren't being clouded. Still, she had to compliment Koko on him being even better than the one that killed Maestro.
"Fine. I yield."
Grudgingly, she laid down her gun as the white haired lady above her jumped down from her perch before landing next to the younger woman. Chinatsu could feel her rage building up, and she hated how powerless she felt being at the mercy of the very woman who left her life aimless and in shambles.
"We've been waiting for you," the arms dealer began. "I guessed you'd wait 3 days and then try the roof. And now here we are. My bet paid off, a day later and we might've left, leaving you free to hunt me down. So thank you...because I wanted to chat."
The confused Orchestra member couldn't help but look over, wondering what the hell she could possibly want now.
"Chinatsu, what is UP with the no panties thing?"
"You bitch! You're just screwing with me!"
Only strangely enough, she wasn't. In fact, Koko was so serious that she promised to explain why she remained in the arms trade in exchange. So Chinatsu told her. About the first job she had with Maestro, about the river they crossed that led to her disgust at how wet underwear felt and her removal of them. She even explained how her accuracy was so high she took out more threats than Maestro himself, and how proud of her he was.
"Not wearing panties increases your accuracy?" Hekmatyar laughed in a mixture of both surprise and entertained amusement.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"And now?"
"Yes, I'm fucking wearing some now!" Chinatsu snapped back in annoyed disbelief as a tiny part of her wondered what the sniper must be thinking of all of this.
Kicking Chinatsu's gun away, Koko covered the mouthpiece on her headset as the wind blew ever so gently. She was sure the arms dealer was just going to laugh in her face more, or tell her she was foolish and crazy. Truthfully, Chinatsu never expected Koko to even consider letting her know why she was in the business of dealing weapons. But that was when the slightly older woman did something that she never expected.
She told her.
Taking a few moments to comprehend what she'd just heard, the light brown haired girl was almost at a loss for words.
"You're one frightening woman."
"Yeah..." Koko started, with a hint of a smile on her face. "But I admit, I do find you interesting. You could join my crew. You want to?"
'What?' Tightly shutting her eyes, Chinatsu tried to shut out all of it, tried to make sense of everything. Tried to find what she wanted. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of sick joke this must be, for someone she'd tried to kill, someone who was her opponent, the very target of her revenge...to be offering that with any sort of seriousness.
"I couldn't even wait three whole days… I know I'll never forgive you." She spoke softly with Maestro's cross clutched in her hand, before tossing it down to the side in response. "I am Orchestra! I am an artist. When I play, it's a symphony of death! Don't underestimate me, arms dealer!".
'Do it!' she could hear herself scream internally. All she had to do was grab the second pistol she'd hidden on her lower back and take the bitch out. That was it, just one fluid motion, one quick shot, and she'd have her revenge. No games, no complex plans, the only thing Chinatsu needed was to reach back and end it all.
But she hesitated.
It was only for a moment, but in that brief moment, time stood still. Why did she hesitate? That wave of confusion consumed her, and almost threatened to swallow her whole as she struggled to make sense of it. Was she afraid of dying? The thought was ridiculous. After everything she'd gone through, everything she'd done, death would be the last thing she'd even consider fearing. With no understanding of her feelings that seemed to be only complete nonsense, Chinatsu did the only thing she could think of doing: She screamed out towards the woman in front of her with all the anger and anguish that had wormed its way through her body, as the words left her like venom soaked daggers.
"I'm not just some weak little girl you can mock! I'm not stupid! You ruined my life! Because of you, my master is dead! An Orchestra without a Maestro doesn't even have a purpose… Revenge is the ONLY thing I have left! And you think that you can just FIX IT ALL if I join you?!"
"Yes."
The sheer bluntness of the answer came as such a surprise to her, that all the rage she vented out got stopped in its tracks. In a way, it was how blunt and straightforward the response was that made it equal parts shocking and terrifying. As a slight breeze blew over the hotel rooftop, Chinatsu found herself speechless so much so that the "Huh?" that escaped her lips registered barely above a quiet whisper.
"Chinatsu..." Despite the sheer amount of anger that the younger girl had directed towards her, and that its volume was loud enough for the nearby sniper to probably hear without a headset, there was no malice in Koko's voice. "I can show you a life that is so much more than revenge. If you accept my offer, not only will we make the most beautiful music together, but I promise your life will open up in ways you have never imagined. Think about it, if you come with me, there's as many possibilities as there are stars in the sky."
"The...sky?"
Instinctively, she found her gaze wandering upwards to the night's sky above. As the moon shone through the clouds that slowly floated by, Chinatsu found herself taken back by its brilliance. She'd never known how free and promising it seemed. How could she though? Time after time, her focus had been just on the enemies in front of her, of the downed bodies of her foes littered over the ground. Still, as the gloved fist she'd balled up opened up and dropped to her side, there was skepticism and uncertainty to say the least. Hekmatyar's men and Chinatsu hadn't exactly been on the best of terms since their first encounter.
"Your men though...that woman...we tried to kill each other! I tried to kill you! Even if I heard you out and gave it a thought, how would they be okay with it and just accept me like nothing happened?"
Seemingly expecting this, the arms dealer just smirked in response and crossed her arms.
"My crew are professionals. They follow my gut and my judgement, because my instincts always wind up being right. I never said it'd be instant, but if I tell them to trust me on something, they will. However...it might be easier for them to trust you if you'd hand over that gun you've got tucked behind you there as a gesture of goodwill."
'Damn it,' Chinatsu could only think as she realized that her reaction had just given away any doubt Koko might have had.
"How did you...?"
Koko pointed to where she'd been sitting when Chinatsu first climbed up.
"I saw the bulge on your back when you hopped the rail. Figured you brought a backup just in case you got disarmed."
With a sigh of defeat, Chinatsu threw her hands up in surrender and slowly dropped down to her knees.
"Just make sure HE knows what I'm doing." she asked carefully, slightly jerking her head and eyes to the side so Koko knew what she meant.
As the woman before her nodded in acknowledgement, she slowly moved her right hand back to grab the pistol she'd hidden away, before sliding it towards her. Taking a moment to briefly contemplate the situation, she brought her hand back again before undoing the hat she'd tucked under the back of her shirt, and placing that in front of her as the moonlight seemed to shine on the bullet hole in the middle of it.
"So..." started Koko as Chinatsu got back up to her feet "I don't think it's such a bad deal for you to be somewhere your talents get appreciated, do you?".
Looking down at her late master's discarded cross from earlier, Chinatsu found her hands closed into loose fists as she let out a frustrated sigh of confliction.
"I...I don't know what to do. I don't know what the right choice is. I haven't had to decide stuff like this on my own before, okay?!"
For some reason, the arms dealer smiled ever so slightly at the situation in a way that seemed somewhat comforting to the younger woman in front of her.
"Chinatsu, you're a smart girl. When you started planning your revenge on me, you knew you probably weren't going to make it out alive, didn't you? You knew it was going to be a suicide mission, and you were determined to carry it out anyway, but you didn't try to shoot me. You didn't try to do it when I caught you sneaking over the railing, you didn't after I told you my secret and asked you to join, and you didn't pull your backup gun on me when I asked you to hand it over. Some part of you didn't think revenge was worth dying over. I think part of you knew that you could be so much more than what everybody who would underestimate you thinks."
Lifting her head so that her eyes met Hekmatyar's shining blue eyes, Chinatsu knew that she couldn't exactly disagree with what she'd said. It was frustrating to hear, especially coming from the very person she'd come to this rooftop to kill, but it wasn't entirely wrong. Still, this whole thing just left her feeling almost overwhelmed. Everything just seemed to come entirely out of left field, and that wasn't at all something she'd prepared for. She'd felt shocked and almost helpless before, but that was under the threat of almost certain death, not under the offer of life. That was something she had no idea what to do with.
"This is all just too much though. All of it's just happening so fast! You...you make me this offer out of nowhere after everything I've done, with a sniper watching us, and I'm supposed to choose an answer right away? I can't do that! I need time to think it over! I need time to sort out all these damn emotions that are scaring the shit out of me right now!"
She felt something get slowly pressed into her hands. It was a phone.
"There's a number in the contact list that you can reach me at when you're ready. It's marked, so you'll know it when you see it. I know it can be hard when you suddenly have to decide everything on your own."
Chinatsu couldn't help but smirk at little at the explanation. "You really are a crazy bitch, you know."
Chuckling to herself, Koko patted the younger woman on the shoulder before gathering both of the handguns Chinatsu brought, placing them inside her hat, and picking them up as she brought them close to her.
"I'm just going to be holding onto these for safe keeping" she said, as she started to walk away from the brown haired girl beside her. "You understand".
"Arms dealer..."
"It's Koko."
"Koko...someday, I'm going to want my hat back."
"Well then, I'll look forward to that day." Hekmatyar responded with a small smile, before adjusting the mic on her headset as she walked towards the stairwell. "Lehm? We're done here..for now".
Slowly lowering her head again, Chinatsu found her gaze had shifted to the phone she now held in her hands. It was almost funny to her, how something so small could promise something so big. And yet, here she was, still alive when even she knew that almost shouldn't be the case.
Her look went to the door leading down from the now empty rooftop.
It was then that the tiniest hint of a breeze blew ever so softly over the hotel, and that was what made the truth hit her like a shot to the chest. This was her decision, and only hers. Where she went from here? That was up to her. And with the vengeful rage she'd had earlier all but gone, Chinatsu realized that for the first time in her life...she was alone.
(Author's Note: Just a short mention that the speech and dialogue prior to Chinatsu hesitating when confronting Koko is taken from the Funimation dub of the anime in order to keep scenes more accurate and true to the characters behaviours.)
