The Maimed Samurai

by Zucca 101

The untold story of Baiken's origins. Rated T for painful violence, language and harsh situations. Not the weak of heart. R&R please.

(For Jessiv Landroz, my favorite GGX writer)

This would be my very first Guilty Gear Fan fiction. I ask for your pardon, for I am unfamiliar with the entire world and the setting, so if some things don't make much sense, that's the reason why. And to those lawyers seeking to make a quickie, Guilty Gear is not my property unfortunately. Well, enough of that. Thank you for choosing to read this tale I composed on the origins of the most gripping and fascinating character (In my modest opinion) in GGX. Read and review, if you please

The maimed Samurai

Introduction,

Her tale unfolds

Gather round my friends. My fellow players of the fine game, my friends who are interested in my work, my dear family. For some of you, the name Baiken invokes the image of an iron willed young woman with but one arm and one eye. For others, your necks shall soon feel the touch of your fingers as you scratch them. For both kinds, this story will bring to light the tale of the stubborn, steel witted and furiously combative redhead known as Baiken. This story tells not only of her history, but also of the tragic event that set her soul into a frenzy of carnivorous vengeance against the artificial life forms called Gears. Here you will follow the child as she suffers her terrible loss. You will go with her as she trains among the greatest sword fighting minds of the day to better herself so she may one day seek out the creators of the Gears, good or evil. Bear in mind, that she serves neither good nor evil.

She serves herself, and none other.

Chapter One,

Murdered innocence

A pair of soft, peach colored eyes gazed out across the breathtaking mountains of lush green and stony gray. The owner of the eyes smiled warmly and giggled as she turned around and raced down the hill on her purple bicycle. As she pedaled, a long trail of light red hair whipped over her arched back like the tail of a speeding comet. She looked over the handlebars of her speedy, mechanical steed and grinned at the sight that greeted her as she went around the bend. A small city made in the grand and sweeping Japanese architecture, in the middle of the little valley and tucked safely between the mountains.

She dared to speed up, pedaling as fast as she could until her legs could no longer keep up with the spinning gears.

She laughed, dimples curving over elegantly high cheekbones and forming into a sweet and innocent smile as she flexed her arms, gripping the handlebars tighter.

She giggled, seeing the gate of the village nearing as she sped down the dirt road.

"BONZAI!" Screeched her loud, somewhat shrill and childish voice.

The pair of guards who lazily sat in and outside of their booth snapped to attention as though a whip had just been cracked behind them.

"Keito! Open that gate, pronto! Baiken's coming down the hill again!" Shouted the guard outside, next to the simple bamboo guardrail that was raised and lowered to permit entrance. The bamboo of course, was covered in seals and runes for force spells. If anyone, including Gears, tried to force their way through the gate, or go around for that matter, they would be paralyzed there until the colony's small but effective police force came to deal with the would-be intruder.

Keito, the guard who was inside the booth at the time, gasped and fumbled with the rope and pulley. He finally got a grip on it and raised it to give berth to the reddish-beige blur that sped by.

"Thanks guys!" She shouted, waving over her shoulder as she pulled on to a sidewalk and continued to ride, not bothering pedaling until her inertia died down.

The girl, whose creamy smooth skin and silky red hair could be attributed to her mother, had her father's Asian eyes and his strong, athletic build.

This girl was Baiken Seishino, student at Colony thirteen's elementary school. Her home belongs to the side of humanity who has shunned most sciences to pursue the art of magic. Her age is one year short of a decade's worth of the Earth's circles around the sun. She is a bright, cheerful and innocent young lady with a thing for mischief.

She approached her home, a lovely two story affair with traditional Japanese style shingles and walls. The interior walls were of course ornamental papers.

Baiken could recall when she was a baby and would throw things at the walls, leaving holes. It was fun until her parents scolded her for making a mess.

Her parents were very good-natured people and Baiken knew she was fortunate to have them. Her friends from the school complained about their parent troubles, but Baiken could hardly relate. She and her parents shared a wonderful relationship. This was partially because they didn't share the truth of the outside world with her. They decided that when she became a teenager, they would tell her about the severity of the danger the world is in.

Baiken smiled as she pulled into her family's storage shed. She leapt off her bike after leaning it against the wall.

"I'm home!" She announced as she walked in, leaning down to scratch behind the ear of the family's imported Golden Retriever, Suzu.

The dog whined softly, murring as Baiken caressed gently.

"Hello, sister!" Greeted her oldest brother, Jim.

Jim was Baiken's older brother by four years. He was tall and handsome, taking more of his mother's side. He had pitch-black hair and a sleek build. He was currently wearing his favorite kimono with wreathes of dragons and flames lacing up and down the trim.

Jim's name was her mother's idea; she remembered when her mother and father had calm debates over the names of her future siblings. Her parents agreed that they should just take turns naming. Mother's stubbornness had of course earned her the right to get the first name. So James was James, and not Hiroaki jr. as her father had insisted.

"Hey big brother!" She said, smiling as she hugged him around the waist, being much shorter then he was. Actually, much to her dismay she was shorter then a lot of people her age.

"Daddy still at the Starforge?" Baiken asked, referring to their father's workplace.

"Nope, he got home just before you did." Jim said, then slowly grinned. "He was carrying… something…" Jim trailed off teasingly, enticing his little sister's curiosity.

"What? What'd he bring home? Oh Gods! Was it…?" She stammered.

Jim just grinned like a content bamboo peeling panda.

Baiken's legs became a blur of motion as she peeled off towards the study where her father did his business's accounting and finances, and her mother created beautiful works of art.

Baiken dashed in, her school uniform whipping around her as she wrapped herself around her sitting father's back.

"Oh my!" He cried playfully, already knowing exactly who it was by the pitter-patter of her footsteps. "I do believe I've been caught!" He declared, suddenly reaching over his shoulders to seize her and bring her sailing over his head and softly into his lap where she giggled and squirmed playfully.

She smiled, snuggling in his lap. "Jimmy says you've brought something home! Is it what you've promised? I know I'm ready! I've not forgotten my training." Baiken said, rubbing her cheek on her father's arm.

The Japanese man smiled and looked down at his eager, energetic daughter.

"Ah what spirit she has. I always feel so guilty when I have to say it, but here goes…" He thought to himself, sighing a little.

Baiken recognized the sigh instantly, and in an equally instant time transfixed her big and soft peach colored eyes on his.

"Oh please Daddy! You know what I can do! I'm the best!" She wailed piteously.

The middle-aged man swallowed a lump in his throat. She was absolutely right. She was the best. She was the top student at the school, except in simple math and history. He'd seen her get picked on by a bunch of bullies three times her size. She had only her walking stick, but that was more then enough. She had fought the bullies with a calmly controlled rage, the kind you'd see only in truly focused Samurai of many times her age. She never just used the weapon exclusively. She would kick, punch, even bite and butt with her hips. She was ready physically and emotionally, but she simply did not have enough maturity.

He knew that such skills would come in handy, especially with the Crusades still raging on.

He had to keep coming up with excuses as to why she wasn't ready, and he was running out. The truth was, maturity is something that can only be gained through age and experience. Nine years of life and a few fights with school bullies hardly qualified.

"Umm… yes. You certainly are the best, Baiken. But you aren't ready to take on the weapon. I made it today because it's a very special day. It was the day our earliest known ancestor's wed, bonding our families and beginning our noble bloodline. The weapon will know when you are ready, so don't try sneaking away with it."

Baiken sighed softly. "Okay… but can I at least see it?" She asked hopefully.

The Japanese man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, running his hand over his receding hairline.

"Oh alright. I don't see the harm." He shrugged, setting Baiken down on the tatami mat and going to the great wooden chest. He muttered a few words and touched his hand to the lock. A few clicking noises were heard as the mechanism worked itself open, the lid slowly rising with a dull creak.

There was a soft clatter heard as his hand coiled around the masterpiece.

"Behold, my daughter. My grandest creation ever." He said in reverence as he slowly turned around to reveal a three and one-quarter foot long curved sword within it's polished black sheath. A ribbon was tied around the handle just above the hilt. Baiken recognized it as the ribbon her mother wore on their first date, having been told the story many times.

Baiken gasped in awe as she looked up at the grand sword.

"I-Is that for me…?" She asked shakily, able to see her starstruck expression reflected on the sheath.

Her father smiled, drawing the sword with a metallic hiss.

"Yes, when of course you are ready." He said with a magnanimous smile. "This katana has been folded over ten thousand times, a process only possible with the assistance of magic. It has been embued with the essence and spirit of our long, strong Seishino and Madison bloodlines. Our people are a strong one, my Baiken. This is the pinnacle of our power. It is unbreakable." He said, smiling as he drew the flawless blade into its scabbard again.

Baiken grinned. "I can hardly wait!" She exclaimed.

Her father could have told her that patience was necessary, that she had darned better wait, but he saw no need for it. He just laughed and tousled her red hair, feeling the silken tresses tumble between his callused fingers.

Baiken turned to see her mother standing there, hips cupped by either hand.

"Really, Hiroaki. Do you really expect her to be able to fight at this age?. I don't see the point of giving our little girl a weapon of that magnitude." She said in a halfhearted, exasperated tone. She knew that she had influence, but when it came to things like Japanese honor, it was better she just kept out of it.

She was American by blood, rather short by most standards and bearing a strong and athletic build.

Lilly, as her gentle name depicts, was quite warm and caring. Especially when it regarded their youngest child, Baiken. She, like her daughter, had red hair. Though hers was more of a deep wine red then the paler and almost pinkish red of Baiken's hair.

Hiroaki rolled his eyes. "My love, this sword carries the ashes of our ancestors. Yours as well. It is an heirloom for her to receive when she is ready for it, when I know she's responsible enough to wield such power."

Baiken hated it when her parents talked about her right in front of her, but often had fun listening to some of the silliest arguments nonetheless.

After a few rounds of light verbal sparring, Lilly gave up and scooped up her daughter in her arms to hug her and kiss her cheek.

"C'mon then. Dinner'll get cold if we leave it out." She said, holding her nine-year-old daughter in one arm while tugging on the sleeve of her husband's gi with the other.

Baiken giggled as her mother carried her into the dining room.

Jimmy strutted in with a big grin and an American skateboard tucked under his arm. He had enchanted the board to roll smoother and stay directly under him unless he told it otherwise. It had many more little tricks to it, none of which he would divulge of course.

The Seishino family ate their dinner in relative peace, sitting on the floor around a squat table as they consumed their meal of rice, salted pork and soy.

After dinner and playing tag with her brother, Baiken went up to her bedroom where her own private balcony was.

She looked around her moderately large bedroom. One wall was filled with posters of singers, movie stars and famous magicians. Another wall had her bed across it, American style rather then the floor mats her father insisted on.

Baiken smiled at her assortment of stuffed animals, falling on to her bed and cuddling with a massive stuffed panda bear. She changed out of her school uniform and into a more comfortable kimono of red and blue. She went out on to her balcony and gazed across the colony, smiling warmly.

"This is the life. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful family and live in this quiet, peaceful place. I should go see Tetsuo tomorrow and see that new magic hedge his father planted." Baiken thought to herself.

Her happy thoughts came to a screeching halt when she saw the long black snake slithering slowly down the road to the gates of the colony. This snake, was in fact a line of humanoid Gear troopers clad in black battle armor.

Baiken scratched her head, wondering what an army of Gears wanted with the humble town.

She grabbed a pair of binoculars that her uncle gave her from her nightstand and peered at the head of the troopers as they reached the gate.

The leader of the army she could not see. All that came to her vision was a silhouette with funny heat waves surrounding him.

"What's his problem? The sun's just setting so he can't be too hot." She thought to herself.

The two guards at the gate seemed to be exchanging words with the dark, heat-generating leader.

Nothing in all her nine short years of life prepared her for the gut wrenching sight that came. One of the guards burst into flames, screaming and flailing wildly while the other was sliced cleanly down the middle, red blood erupting from the two halves.

Baiken tried to scream, but nothing more then a choked gasp emerged from between her lips. She fell backwards, kicking away from the window as if it were a wild, dangerous animal and raced out her paper door and downstairs.

"MOMMY! DADDY! JIMMY! We've gotta go now!" She screamed at the top of her little lungs.

The rest of her family was in the lounge, her father smoking his favorite pipe while reading a scroll, her mother knitting a red sweater with a big angelic looking baby panda on the front. Jimmy was just goofing off on a magic video game.

They all stared at her blankly before seeing the look of pure terror and fear in her eyes.

"What's wrong, baby?" Her mother asked, rather frightened herself at the mere expression in her daughter's eye.

"G-G-Gears! They're killing people! We've gotta go!" Baiken screeched.

It took all but two minutes for the family to get up, grab whatever they could and run out to the magic wooden coach.

Baiken noticed that her father had the magic katana he had shown her earlier in the day. Hopefully it would protect them…

The four piled on to the open top wagon, Hiroaki Seishino hissing the key words to get it to move. He took the reins that led to an empty space in front of the wagon and snapped them, the wagon responding and launching off.

"Oh no Dad! The dog!" Jimmy cried, seeing Suzu panting on the window.

"We have no time! We'll have to leave her. Hopefully they'll not harm her if they find the house empty." Hiroaki said quickly.

Baiken looked across the field to the gate again.

The gear army was pouring into the colony like a steady stream of oil into a goblet of once crystal clear water, spreading through it.

Baiken could not recall a time when she had ever been so mortally afraid. She was once in a minor earthquake, but that was about it.

"Faster Daddy! Faster!" She urged her father, who suddenly halted the wagon, a look of dread and terrible understanding on his face. "The gate is the only way out…" He said, swallowing the lump in his throat.

Lilly gasped, trying not to look so afraid in front of the children.

"B-But surely there's some route we can take?" She asked shakily.

Baiken spoke up suddenly. "I know! There's a dirt path on the East End of town. Jimmy and I used to play there. We can get out of the valley that way, but we'll have to leave the wagon." She said with maddeningly deliberate, albeit shaky words.

If there weren't an army of Gears moving into the town, he'd have taken the time to be very proud of his daughter. Unfortunately, there was hardly time.

More Gears were flowing into the little town, setting fire to buildings and homes, slaughtering people with their terrible weapons.

Baiken directed her father to the place, but by the time they got there the area had been overrun with Gears.

The screams of the dying and fighting townsfolk rose up in a horrific din as Hiroaki pulled the wagon to a stop.

Hiro saw the carnage the Gears were unleashing. Both exits were lost now. The Japanese who were rushing to defend their homes and their own families would not win the battle.

With tears in his eyes, Hiroaki kissed his wife and leapt off the wagon with the magic sword he had created.

Lilly gasped and rushed to join her husband at his side, armed with nothing but sewing needles.

"We won't let you touch our babies!" Lilly screamed.

Jimmy and Baiken stayed in the wagon, trembling in fear as they watched their parents combat the Gears alongside the other townsfolk.

Lilly had been using magic to hurl her sewing needles into the vital areas of the oncoming artificial life forms and return them to her hand, but the needles did nothing in the way of parrying.

A great club swung at her from behind, impacting into the small of her back. In their hiding place in the wagon, both children whimpered and cried as they heard the resounding snap of their mother's spinal column as it broke like a twig. Lilly toppled over, having no feeling below her waist. Hiroaki cried in despair as his beloved wife fell to the pavement. He backed up, standing over her with the katana in hand.

It was a cheap shot that killed him…

While he was trading swings with a Gear armed with an energy blade, another Gear snuck up behind him and made a clean, almost casual swing.

Baiken will never, ever forget the look of dumbfounded horror on her father's face as his head flew from his neck. His decapitated body twitched, collapsing on top of his dying wife. In her weakened state, she could not push off her husband's corpse until she had suffocated and gone limp.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Baiken screamed, standing up in the wagon and giving away her hiding place. She glared at the Gears with the kind of conviction you would never dream of finding in a nine-year-old girl. She leapt off the wagon and ran to her father's body to retrieve the sword that was now by right, hers.

She looked up at the Gears, pure defiance and rage blazing in her eyes.

Baiken battled with them, dodging, parrying, slashing, and kicking. Never before had the Gears seen such ferocity and such power in so small a package.

Baiken decapitated one and moved on to yet another, fighting with all her heart.

That is of course until the leader stepped forward, the Gear warriors parting to give him a wide berth. She felt the heat exuding from his body almost like a fireplace.

The man, who looked like a shadow wreathed in flame, approached the little girl with the sword.

"My my, what's this? Even the children of this colony fight against the inevitable tide?" Mused the man, whose eyes burned like smoldering coals.

"You bastard! You filthy, murdering bastards! WHY! Why did you do this!" Demanded the redheaded child.

The man in flame and shadow snapped a look of murder directly at the nine-year-old. That look had stopped the hearts of even the most stout men and women, giving cardiac arrest.

Baiken on the other hand, just shot it right back. Her twin orbs of peach blazed furiously at the man.

"Sister! Don't do it! He'll kill you!" Cried Jimmy, who also jumped out of the wagon and went to his sister's side.

The shadowy leader of the Gears laughed cruelly. "So, the little parasites unite. And siblings no less. I am sorry to say, but you are both going to die here. Don't worry, it will be quite swift. Just like this fool here." The shadow man pointed at the decapitated body of their father.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Jimmy cried, launching himself at the tall, shadow ridden man.

"Jimmy! NOO!" Baiken pleaded, but it was too late.

Jimmy stopped short of the dark man, an intense and sharp pain erupting from his gut. He looked down so see his stomach caved in and pierced by a grim sword that exited out his back.

Baiken collapsed to her knees, begging and pleading the dark one to let her brother go.

"No. You whelps have too much defiance. For that, I will give you slower deaths." Said the man evilly, his sword suddenly coating itself in intense flames.

Baiken screamed in horror as her brother, still impaled, was engulfed in fire. He screamed, writhed and begged until he could make not a motion more. The dark man didn't stop even after Jimmy was very dead, letting the flames consume the boy's body until it was nothing but a pile of ash at his feet.

Baiken was filled with a horrible mixture of feelings, sensations that no child should ever have to endure. Anger, hatred, loss, betrayal, sadness and blind murderous rage.

"I-I… G-God… Y-Y-YOU!" She sputtered, screaming a howl of hellish fury and bitter hatred as she dove forward, swinging the katana like a master.

The dark man was taken by surprise, feeling a painful slash across his shoulder. He gasped in pain and clutched where the girl's blow fell.

"You'll pay dearly for that! Seize her!" The dark one commanded, and two burly humanoid Gears obeyed, taking both of her arms.

The dark man watched her struggle against them in utter curiosity. How was it that he could merely look at a person and they would drop dead, and yet this nine-year-old child did not waver and did not run.

"You, child, shall suffer most. I am sick of dealing death to people, but I am working for a noble cause. My superior breed of Gears shall slowly replace the people of the world. My greatest creation, Justice, shall help me accomplish this dream. I'm afraid the Japanese, with their magic affinity, pose too much of a threat to Justice and my Gears. Why, this pathetic little colony destroyed a tenth of my forces here. You need not worry, child, My creations shall rule over the land in harmony and perfect solace. For you, my spirited little one, I shall grant a slow death so you can appreciate the afterlife that will soon greet you."

Baiken struggled, spitting on the boot of the dark one, or at least she thought it was his boot. He appeared as nothing but a silhouette wreathed in flame.

"Go to hell, you sick bastard!" She hissed.

The dark man smiled strangely. "Go to hell? You wish me to return to that dreadfully unpleasant place? I'm sorry, but you are in hardly a position to order me around."

Baiken kept wriggling and kicking futily as the dark one stepped close and clamped both hands around her right arm, his right hand clutching her bicep and his left gripping her forearm. He smiled cruelly, pulling in opposite directions.

Baiken was fast and she was skilled in fights, but being only a child she had a poor pain tolerance. She screamed and cried as she felt the muscles in her arm slowly tearing, tendons snapping, the socket being pulled out of place.

"AAAUUGGHH! NO! PLEASE! STOP! STOP IT! OH PLEASE NO! AAAAAAAHHHHH!" She wailed, feeling her skin ripping.

The poor child's vision was enveloped in red as the pain impacted on her nervous system.

The dark one chuckled, his perfectly black face near hers, his eyes being the only discernable feature.

"Does it hurt, little one? Do you feel the same pain as the Gears have? Does it hurt?" He asked, almost quivering with anticipation before giving a hard yank.

Baiken then heard a tearing sound as one last stab of pain, followed by a numb, dull ache followed. She could see her right arm through the red haze; it's finger's twitching as it had not yet been aware that it was no longer in contact with her brain.

Baiken sobbed in misery, tears flowing down her face freely.

"Do you surrender your life now, little one?" Asked the sadistic man.

Baiken clenched her teeth, flinging the bloodied stump at him, getting blood in his face.

"Why you filthy little brat…" The dark one muttered, wiping his face clean. He dropped the maimed girl to the ground, hurling her dismembered arm away among the smoking ruins and mangled corpses of the Japanese colony.

Baiken glared up at him, wrapping the loose folds of her kimono around the bleeding stump to quell the bleeding.

The dark one smiled evilly and drew a horrible looking sword from his black void of a body and held it above his head, ready to strike.

He chuckled softly, looking down at the girl. A look of triumph and victory hanging on his face, even though all she could see was those smoldering coal eyes lighting up.

"You would have made a wonderful Gear, human. I'll put you out of your obvious misery." He said with a dark smile.

He began swinging it down and suddenly everything seemed to go in slow motion. Baiken saw the blade coming, but was too startled at the slowness to realize her opportunity to dodge. By the time she had begun flinging herself back, the blade had already connected with her forehead above her left eye. It traveled down her face, slicing into her left eye and leaving it to burst before continuing down her cheek where the blade ceased to touch her.

As she flung back, she grasped her face in pain as she struggled to use her left eye. It wouldn't blink, it wouldn't see. Baiken felt her salty tears stinging in her left eye, her remaining peach orb blazing furiously at the dark one.

But the look of fearlessness was replaced with one of hopelessness and absolute mortal fear. Her little heart nearly stopped at the sight of the triumphant, fire wreathed man holding his terrible blade above his head. This time he wouldn't miss.

Before he could aim another blow however, a great war trumpet sounded and suddenly the South and West Mountains were covered in white and blue specks.

"Of all the blasted, ill-timed and wretched things to do…" Muttered the fire wreathed human fiend. "It's the sacred order of Holy Knights. We must flee, my creations." He said, glancing down at the child who was clutching the bloodied mound where her arm used to be with one hand, her face tucked into her elbow.

"If you survive your wounds, let this day forever be remembered as the day when the Gears stood up for all they have truly earned!" He declared. "And you child, your punishment will be to live as a disfigured cripple."

Baiken, maimed and half blind, slumped down as she heard the thunderous roar of the Holy order's airships as they set down in the ruins of what was once a beautiful and happy colony.

Baiken trembled as the engines swept up dust in tiny tornadoes around her.

Before she lost consciousness, she saw someone else. Someone who was also dark and wreathed in flame. But these eyes that gazed at her were ice blue and flickered like sapphires. Something snapped in her heart and she recognized him from magivision.

She was looking at the chief creator of the Gears, the one who must have given that Gear that took her arm its orders. That Man with the blue eyes gazed coldly at her, seeing she was still alive.

"Live, child. But don't think it came easily. Justice has been upon you." He said in a voice that made her blood turn to ice-water.

It was then when That Man vanished,

She looked up again to see three figures all clad in pristine blue and white uniforms, and then the pain became too great and she collapsed as her system went into shock.

So, what did y'all think? Read and review if you please

Dark Jackal

Chapter Two,

Her aftermath

In her comatose state, Baiken could hear voices speaking, though her recollection was irregular at best.

"… Severe loss of blood…. wonder she's still ali-…"

"She'll die if… Templar Kiske may… only survivor."

"…do such a thing to… pretty little girl? Whole…. for that matter."

"Don't… best surgeon… this girl… challenge."

"… done. It's n-… as I thought… Poor th-…"

"… parents? Any record… hasn't a single… an orphan."

For a time, Baiken could only hear these fleeting sentences in her comatose state. She couldn't ever discern and focus on one conversation, but found it was better then sitting in dark silence, as she could not struggle to full consciousness yet.

Baiken suddenly found that she could open her right eye and with a flash she sat upright in bed, only to collapse as a stab of pain shot up her whole body.

Whimpering softly, she lay down and tried to discern what she was doing there, or why her left eye couldn't open, or why her family wasn't around.

As if a snap went off in her head, she gasped as the horrific memories came flashing back to her mind. She remembered. Her family, her friends, her home. All of it was dead and destroyed forever. She reached up, feeling a bandage wrapping around half of her head, tubes giving a stream of vaporized painkillers and antibiotics. With a sinking feeling when she couldn't feel her right arm, she reached over with her left to find empty space where her arm should be. She let out a choked sob, feeling the magically sealed stump where her forearm and elbow should be. She whimpered in fear, having been right handed. How could this have happened? Why did it happen? Why?

"Oh… Oh gods…" She cried before her mind fell back into it's dark hole.

Baiken awoke to the sound of soft humming. She could have sworn she recognized the tune, but she couldn't put a name on it.

Opening her one eye, she looked into the face of a handsome, bald fellow.

Except that face was many feet above her bed. She looked from side to side to check her peripheral vision and clarify her eye wasn't fooling her. This man was simply too tall for words.

Baiken gasped, looking up at the man who in turn also gasped and did a cheerful pirouette with a huge smile.

"Oh my goodness! Look who's awake!" The man cried happily.

He leaned down and gave her a soft hug, which she found comforting, considering the horrible things that were still quite fresh on her mind.

"Wh-Who are you? Where am I? Where are all the others?" Baiken asked softly in a mix of Japanese and English, her voice slightly slurred as if she had not used it in a long while.

"You, young lady, are just out of a six week coma! Isn't that splendid? I just KNEW the musical therapy would work!" Said the tall man, who Baiken could now tell, was a doctor. Multilingual to boot.

"A-A coma…!" Baiken yelped, trying to lean herself up on both elbows, but only finding one again. The imbalance caused her to fall back down on the infinitely soft hospital bed. She didn't know why she couldn't hear it before, but the steady beeping of the heart monitor turned to an erratic series of beeps.

"Please miss! Calm down, the stress would harm your healing process!" Exclaimed the nine-foot tall doctor, his arms and hands flapping around comically.

Baiken gulped, lying down.

"Where am I…?" She asked blankly.

The doctor patted her left shoulder gently. "You're safe in the headquarters of the Sacred order of Holy knights. My name is Richard Faust, and I shall be your doctor for your duration here. Of course everyone calls me Dr. Baldhead for obvious reasons, heh heh. Fear not little one, for I am the best by far! You are extraordinarily lucky you know."

Baiken chewed on her lower lip anxiously.

"The Japanese colony where you found me, were there any other survivors?" She asked hurriedly, praying that at least some of her friends were alive.

The tall doctor looked down at the floor sadly. "I'm afraid you were the only one the knights found alive. And even then you were half-dead. It was a dreadful challenge to heal you as much as I have. You lost lots of blood, you know."

The young girl gasped in shock.

"I-I-I'm the only one l-left…?" She asked shakily.

Baiken's single eye filled with tears and she began sobbing into her lone hand.

"Oh gods no… Seita… Tetsuo… Yamato…" She sobbed, looking up at Dr. Baldhead.

The tall doctor chewed his lower lip. He had given news of cancer or broken bones before, but he had never failed to save a patient's life. The look that the maimed little girl gave him broke his heart. He leaned down and patted her back softly, knowing that words at this point were useless.

"Poor thing…" He said softly. "Do you have any relatives outside the colony?"

The little girl sniffled, shaking her head.

"Well… what about relatives of your friends? Surely there's someone who can take you in." Faust offered.

Baiken Seishino thought for a moment, trying to clear her mind as she wiped tears away with her left hand.

"I think I remember an aunt of Tetsuo's who came to visit once. She seemed pretty nice, but said that discipline was essential."

The doctor looked her in the eye curiously. "Did she now?"

Baiken nodded. "Umm… what's discipline mean?" She asked.

The doctor laughed softly, tousling her hair a little.

"Something you've had enough of, what with your ordeal." He said.

Baiken sighed; lying back down as her eyelid became heavy. She yawned and lay on the pillow, her single eye still tear flooded.

"I miss my mommy and daddy… and Jimmy and Suzu…" She whispered, spreading out on the bed.

The doctor nodded sagely, stepping up and opening the door to the spartan room.

"Well, I'll see what I can do then. Have a good sleep." He said cheerfully.

"A good sleep?" Baiken thought bitterly. "I'll NEVER sleep well again…"

As more of these thoughts resounded in her head, she drifted off into a fitful slumber…

Baiken awoke to find a fresh breakfast of pre-processed liquid food before her on a bed tray. She sighed softly, not feeling like eating, despite her stomach's gurgling protests.

"Mother… Father… Jim…" She whispered. "Why did they do this to us? Why?"

A burly nurse walked in after seeing the life monitors alert her to Baiken's waking state.

"Hello, little dear!" Said the rosy cheeked nurse. "Is there anything I can get for you?"

Baiken bitterly mumbled something under her breath.

"What's that, sweetie?" The nurse asked.

Baiken growled angrily. "I said I want my arm, you baka!" She screeched, throwing the plate of nutritious sludge at the nurse. Her aim was off and it shattered against the wall instead.

"Lemme alone! Get out!" She screamed. "And if you want to come back at all, at least get some REAL food!"

The poor nurse stumbled back and left the room hastily, unpleasantly surprised at the girl's hostility. She'd been through a lot, but still…

Baiken sighed deeply, lying back on the bed. "Oh you idiot… What good'll that do? She didn't attack your home. It was all the Gears… The Gears… and That Man…" Baiken chastised herself.

She nervously pushed to call button on the wall, expecting a stern rebuke. "H-Hello?" She asked into the space in front of the button that would magically throw her voice to the nurse.

"Yes little one?" The nurse asked softly.

Baiken winced; having been called a pet name that her mother would use.

"I-I'm sorry for that… I don't know what I was thinking. May I have something to eat?" Baiken asked.

Though she couldn't see the nurse, Baiken could tell she was smiling.

"Why, of course dear. I'll see what I can do about getting something other then standard hospital food." The nurse said.

Baiken smiled lightly. "Thank you." She said, laying back down and sighing again. "I guess I'll have to see Tetsuo's aunt. I hope she remembers me…"

Suddenly a bald head popped up next to her bed.

"Of course she will!" Cheerfully shouted the doctor.

Baiken screamed and leapt three feet from her bed before falling back down and coming to see it was only the doctor.

"Ack! What're you trying to do! You scared me outta my wits!" She hissed.

Dr. Baldhead giggled shrilly. "Sorry, I couldn't resist!" He said with a huge grin.

Baiken couldn't help but be amused. She laughed a little as well. "So, you're sure my friend's aunt will take me in?"

The tall doctor nodded. "I've already contacted her. She tells me that she'll be ready to take you in once you leave the hospital."

Baiken nodded slowly, a tiny flame of hope burning in her heart. Maybe she could find her happiness again. Maybe she could find her peace.

A couple weeks later, Baiken was packed and ready to go to her new home with her best friend's aunt. She had no idea what to expect, but decided she wouldn't have a closed mind. Many children lacked the wisdom she did, but she was still a child nonetheless. She could not deny that she felt a deep and bitter hatred for the Gears and That Man who tried to kill her. But she would do her best to put it behind her. Perhaps she'd be able to rebuild her life out of its ashes.

She looked up at the tall doctor who'd helped pack all the gifts and cards from well-wishers from all over, hoping to cheer up the now famous 'Lone Survivor'.

She wrapped her arms around the leg of the doctor, hugging endearingly. "Thank you so much for helping me, Dr. Baldhead." She said, smiling. She was wearing a red kimono that the knights had recovered from the remains of her home. She had a suitcase filled with the gifts, as well as some other things the knights had brought back. The trunk that the airtaxi pilot was putting in the cargo hold held clothes and a few other belongings.

The tall doctor smiled magnanimously, patting the redheaded girl's head. "You're certainly welcome, Miss Baiken. It was an honor to help you. Be safe, little friend."

Baiken smiled a little, nodding affirmatively.

"I will, Dr. I will." She said, getting into the taxi-ship.

Dr. Baldhead and Nurse Patton waved the child goodbye as the taxi rose up and took off for America and the residence of Tetsuo's aunt.

Unfortunately, the girl was destined for a woman whose record showed a long history of child abuse…

Chapter Three,

Her misery

Thunderheads rumbled above the city/sovereign nation known as Los Angeles. The rain wasn't pouring all that hard, but the thunder was enough to start tiny tremors within all the buildings. Nestled between two of these great, massive structures was a filthy alley. An alley that many people used as a dump, but that only one used as home.

A tiny girl of thirteen huddled in a cardboard box, shivering from the cruel cold that plagued her.

Her hair, once a pale and pinkish red was matted and covered in dirt and grime. Her skin was deathly pale from the cold, not the darker natural color it should be. A scar streaked vertically over her left eye, leaving it sealed shut over an empty space where her eye used to be. When looking to the right sleeve of her tattered and rancid kimono, one could see it was empty and without an arm. Her single eye clenched shut every time thunder roared through the city, the flash of the lighting that came soon before illuminating the disgusting alley.

She clutched a katana in a black scabbard with her single hand, a small sack next to her filled with what few possessions she bore. A smoking pipe decorated with flowers, a skateboard wheel and a dog's collar, bearing the name Suzu upon it.

The pipe belonged to her mother. Or at least she thought it did. Her memories were so hazy… Every time she tried to think of her family, who they might be, a sort of iron hinged door would slam in her mind, blocking out the memories. Perhaps it was for the better. If her memories hurt so much that she couldn't even remember her mother's name, then maybe she was better off not knowing.

The young teen whimpered, crawling deeper into the box and cringing with the horrible thunder. There was someone she hugged and got close to when it thundered outside like this. Someone… someone… SLAM!

The door slammed in her mind again. She cried out in despair as the memories were suppressed again. Why couldn't she remember? Why was her past such taboo? The only thing that she could remember without the iron clad door slamming in her fragile mind was the image of a horrid man surrounded by flames and Gears. That man… that man was responsible for her arm and eye and misery. At was all him. She thought bitterly. Maybe if he hadn't come along, she would still be with her family. Whoever they were.

Her people would still be alive too… It was in the hospital that she heard of the other attacks that had slain the Japanese. There were now only twenty thousand Japanese left in the world, some of them halves like her.

What the hospital didn't tell her was that out of every battle fought, no Japanese survived. She was the only one to live through an attack, and yet her survival cost her arm and eye. Maybe it would've been better if she had died with her family…

The collar belonged to their pet, whose body was pulled from the collapsed debris of her old home. The skateboard wheel too, who she remembered belonged to her brother. Or was it her sister? Did she even have a sister?

The katana was her father's, but something told her he meant for her to have it.

The little girl pulled the folds of her dirty kimono closer around her, crying softly as the storm continued to rage overhead. Tears of course, could flow only from her remaining eye. She looked at her collection of her family's things for the millionth time, wishing she could invoke a memory. She had been taught that begging was shameful, and so was stealing. So she had taken to living off what she could find in the wretched dump.

Baiken's shoulders slumped sorrowfully. She thought back to the cruel man who took her off the street after she had run away from… from someone almost meaner.

She was standing on the street, at a loss as to what she was to do. After all, she had only her clothes, an old sword and a small sack of food she'd taken with her.

A long red car pulled up. Not a hovercraft, but a real car. Someone rich must be driving it…

A face peered out of the window and gaped when seeing her. The window rolled down and out popped the face of a brutish looking man with a leather cap on his shaven head.

"Hey you there, you're Japanese arent'cha?" He asked gruffly.

Baiken nodded absently, not caring either way. The man looked like he had just found a goldmine.

Perhaps he would have. She and the man exchanged words, and then the man offered to give her food and shelter. She hastily accepted, not trusting her gut feeling that this man was bad news. Perhaps if she hadn't gone with him, she wouldn't have had to… to…

Baiken got there with the man, and as soon as they had made it inside his tall and fancy apartment, he had yanked her kimono straight off and tried to take her. She cried and beat her single arm uselessly against his face and shoulder before she somehow managed to reach her father's sword, or maybe it leapt right to her hand. Either way, she used it. She used it brutally on the equally brutal man.

She had not seen blood run from a person like that since that horrible, terrible, hateful day. He keeled over as the sword went through his gut.

Baiken snatched the sword up, dressed and left with her sack after pilfering what food she could from the place.

She hadn't found out what happened to the bastard, nor did she care. She just wanted out.

Baiken took another deep breath, cupping her single hand and sticking it outside the box so she could drink some of the rain that poured from the dark sky. When a deep, masculine and hard-edged voice suddenly sounded off, she swiftly withdrew her hand back inside her box and clutched her father's sword tightly. She'd had to use it before to fend off those who wished to take her virtue and then her life and she would use it again. She didn't fully recognize the words spoken, but knew enough of it to make a translation. It was English, but used in a way she was unfamiliar with.

Baiken. That was the biggest part of her past besides That Man, which she could recall. Her name was Baiken. But what was her last name? She dismissed those thoughts and focused on the moment as she heard the heavy footsteps approaching her box.

The face that peered inside the cardboard shamble was that of a man. He was sharply handsome, wet brown hair clinging to his brow as well as a red metal headband.

The child cringed, raising her sword with her single arm.

Her ears were met with a soft whistle, followed by that voice again.

"Damn, girl. You get into a fight with a butcher and lose?" He asked with a sarcastic, but somehow sympathetic tone.

Baiken shook her head, droplets of water spraying lightly from it.

The brown haired man sighed. "Sorry. What're you doing here anyway?"

The little girl sniffled softly, looking down. It had been so long since she'd even heard her own voice that she was afraid of what it would sound like.

"Don't talk much, huh?" Asked the young man in the metal headband. "Can't say I blame ya'. You look like you've been through a lot."

Baiken looked up in confusion at the man. Until now, nobody's ever gone out of his or her way to even look at her, as if she were some kind of scum. Or maybe she'd just been avoiding people. She could not remember. She opened her mouth and out croaked a pair of twisty syllables.

"Who-o?" She asked softly, surprised at her own voice. It sounded quite a bit deeper and not as high pitched.

The man scratched the back of his head. "Just call me Sol. Let's leave it at that, eh? What's your name?"

"M-My na-ame?" She intoned shakily, ignoring the ever-constant rumbling of her stomach. "B-B-Ba…"

Sol chuckled. "Your mama a sheep or something?" He asked jokingly, but stopped laughing when he saw the heartbreaking look on the girl. "Sorry… take your time."

"Ba-Bai… Bai-ken…" Whispered the little girl. "My n-name is B-Baiken."

"Baiken, eh? Where're your folks? Were you abandoned?" He asked, taking on what for him is very rare. A sympathetic tone.

The child cringed, shaking her head again. "N-No… G-Gears… Th-That man…" She whimpered.

The man, Sol, looked as though he had been stricken through the gut. "What's that? Gears and That Man?"

The little girl nodded slowly. "Y-Yes… I mean… My parents were k-killed in a sh-ship accident, the gears inside musta' messed up…" She lied, not wanting to admit that she couldn't remember.

"Don't you have anyone to go to? No aunts or uncles?" Sol asked.

"All dead. Only one left I ran away from. She was… mean." The child said under her breath. "P-Please, if you want something then go find it s-somewhere else. I can't do anything…" She said miserably.

Sol frowned at her. "That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard." He snapped. He already knew the truth behind the little girl's lies. She looked to have Japanese blood and that said enough on it's own.

The child looked stricken, her eyes wide. "Y-You said the 'S' word…" She whispered shakily. The one she ran away from had often said bad words before beating her, and hearing them again made her cringe fearfully.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that. Look, I'm not into the charity service, kid. But I'll give you some free advice. Don't you ever give up on life. Don't give up on your family. Don't you dare give up on yourself. The world's full of shit… Oh, sorry. The world is full of stuff that'll bite you in the butt if you just lay around and feel sorry for yourself. You'll do stuff that you'll regret for the rest of your life if you don't pick up and do something about it. What would you do if you suddenly found a job or a place to stay or somethin'?" He asked.

The little girl, who had been busy taking all this in, shook her head sadly. "I don't know… I-I'd try to get even with… I mean, I'd find a real place to stay. With a real bed too…"

Sol grinned. "That's the spirit. So, you just get out of that friggin' box and look for a place to work and stay. You'll do fine. Now, I'm late for a rather special appointment, so I gotta split. Here, this'll help you out." He said, placing fifty World dollars in her lap.

The child looked down with her single eye, which lit up in astonishment. She looked up at him and her jaw flapped as she struggled to remember the correct thing to say.

"Allege… Ale… I mean… Th-Thank you, Mr. Sol…" She stammered softly.

"Don't mention it, kid. You don't want to owe me anything, that's for sure. Just follow my advice, and find your place in this world. Catcha' later, kid." He said and dashed off, leaving the little girl to ponder his words in silence.

Dreams… they come when you sleep. They come… Baiken stirred, looking up into a sky that looked devastatingly blue. When did she last see a true blue sky like this? Where was she? In her dream, she could see all around her. The lovely hills, the green valleys, the burning buildings within one of those valleys… She found herself floating... floating... floating towards the buildings. The cries of people reached her dream ears, filling them with the sounds of sorrow and misery that seemed to dwarf her own.

Their cries seemed to be as one, yet they were many voices speaking together in an almost echoing effect.

"Oh Baiken Seishino!" They cried. "You are as lost as we are! You are dead, and yet you breathe! You are alive, and yet you are without life! Don't let our people die so easily! Remember who you are! Remember who your family was! Remember your people! You must not let us die in vain! Please Baiken Seishino! Don't let us-"

Baiken, Baiken Seishino, awoke with a start panting hard.

What WAS that? She asked herself.

Is that my name? Baiken Seishino? Who were all those people? What do they want?

And then, like a gunshot, it went off inside her mind.

She was among the last of the Japanese people, she had a happy family, she had a life, she had friends. But it was stolen, all of it. Stolen by that… That Man.

Baiken suddenly felt something flaring up in her heart. Something she hadn't felt in such a long time. It melted away the sorrow and the self-pity. That was so weak!

Many feelings that felt new surged into her heart.

Anger, frustration, loss and something so new she didn't recognize it.

Triumph.

She crawled out of her box and stood up. The rain had stopped and it was daytime again. She took a deep breath, finding she really hated the stink of the alley. She looked around with grim determination and found a clean barrel that had filled with water. She shed her clothing and dipped herself into it to clean herself off. The water was frigid, but it did its job.

Shivering, she pulled herself from the cold water and shook out her kimono of all the dirt and grime that had become caked on it. Most of it at least. She put on the kimono and flexed her arm, testing its strength.

She knew what she was going to do.

It was the only thing she could do. One word kept repeating itself in her mind.

Revenge.

She realized immediately that just stopping the life of That Man wouldn't stop the pain. Of course she had no idea how she came to realize this, but she didn't question it.

Baiken clenched the handle of her sword tighter. That Man would not be the end of her journey. No… she wouldn't just lay down and die once she's finished with him. She would move on, she would rebuild.

She would survive.

That wretched, filthy and evil being would die by HER hand. Her people would rest. She would kill him… kill him… kill… kill… kill… kill… and kill any Gears that stood in her way. If she had to track down Justice himself and extract the whereabouts of his creator from his very mind, she would do it. And if she had to plunge into hell itself to track down That Man, she would do it.

"No more little girls will suffer as their lives are peeled from them like the skin of a fruit. No more people will die. Gears… Only Gears will die. Only Gears will suffer. And only That Man will be given the most horrid of deaths to repay what he did to my people." Echoed the bitter and rage-fed thoughts up from her mind.

Once foggy and hazy, her mind was now as clear as polished diamond glass. Her single eye glared defiantly around her, denying the filth she'd sunk into.

Baiken's mind was filled with an odd sort of maturity that not a single other girl her age possessed. She knew damn straight that killing the Gears and That Man wouldn't bring her family or people back. But it would give her ultimate satisfaction.

A Gear named Justice? BAH! SHE, Baiken Seishino would become the true vector of justice. This filthy Gear and all his kind, including their creator, would be destroyed.

They could cut off her other arm and she would use her teeth. They could cut her other eye, and she would hear them and smell them. She would never be bargained or reasoned with, never feel pity for her people's murderers, never feel fear for the wretched creations of man that massacred her home, and she absolutely would never stop or give up, EVER, until the creator of the Gears was dead and impaled on her sword. She would look into his eyes as life tricked away from the mortal wound she would inflict, and she would tell him her name.

"Yessss…" Her mind hissed with anticipation at the thought.

Looking up at the sky above her, the thirteen-year-old girl let a predatory smile curve her high boned cheeks. Her revenge would not just be in killing That Man, but in thwarting his wish to make her miserable.

Baiken Seishino picked up her belongings and strode out into the world to find someone to seek the knowledge of magic, swordsmanship and skill from…

Chapter Four,

Vengeance

The enigmatic red haired girl held back a twitch as the tattoo artist etched into her face.

Tattoos of this day and age were different from those of centuries past. Instead of slipping ink under the skin, a combination of lasers and magic altered the skin color itself.

The red mark mirrored the vertical scar across her left eye in that it looked like a vertical slash traveling over her right eye. Though unlike her scar, the tattoo continued upward over her eyebrow and then sloped down across her forehead where it made a crescent shape. It had the overall shape of an upside down L; the lower part being crescent shaped. Resting above the crescent, perfectly flush between her functional and non-functional eye, was a red circle directly in the center of her forehead.

The whole effect seemed to add ferocity to the already chronic frown that the girl's brow was curved into.

"Finished." Came the gruff voice of the artist, who was chanting softly as he etched the symbol on to the sixteen-year old girl's face.

The artist, whose name was Robert McGraw, had not ever seen a case like this. He was sitting around in his parlor when the bell dinged. He hadn't seen who came in, figuring it must be another punker who wants a skull of his shoulder, or a Neo-Biker or trucker who wanted their girlfriend's name on a scroll surrounding a big red heart.

Imagine his surprise when a single armed girl whose lone eye took in every last detail of his parlor walked in. He had been taken aback, but quickly showed his graciousness as a good host.

He held up a mirror for the girl, who'd not given her name and gave a proud smile.

"Some of my best, if un-detailed work." He said, finding himself surprisingly nervous. This girl made him feel like shrinking under her critical gaze, as if his fate was determined by her approval. Even though she was physically smaller then him, she still carried an intimidating presence about her.

He saw a grim smile tug at the corners of her face as she looked into the mirror.

"Perfect." She said, the first thing she'd said since her description of the symbol she wanted put on her face.

McGraw let out a sigh of relief, smiling. "Ain't it though? That's a really interested style, miss. What's it supposed to mean?"

The girl made a soft chuckle, and though it was surely intended to be lighthearted, it sent chills down the artist's spine.

"Revenge. For my people." She said, her single hand resting on the handle of the blade she'd taken with her.

She had him touch the sword while chanting the magic being poured into the tattoo. The magic would prevent her sword from harming her, basically. Though to describe it that way would make many scholars of magic turn in their graves, there being so much knowledge and concentration being put into enchanting anything, especially a sword.

"How much do I owe you?" She asked.

The artist stood up and felt a pang of guilt as he named the price.

The woman met him with an almost fierce gaze from her single eye. She named another, smaller figure.

McGraw, mortally afraid of angering this strange young woman, grudgingly accepted. She reached into the white and black kimono she wore and handed him a hundred world bucks.

"Spend it well. You'll only get one chance." She said, again sending shivers down the spinal column of the tattoo artist.

McGraw scratched his head as he watched the girl leave.

"Damn, that girl's got PRESENCE! I guess I'd have it to if I were missing an arm and an eye. Sheesh." He thought to himself, exhaling through his teeth.

The girl was of course, Baiken Seishino. Though the artist never found out until he saw her in the magivision on the news about a year later. She was standing over a dozen humanoid Gears, black blood coating her katana, her crimson tattoo accentuating her lone eye.

Baiken walked the streets, rather pleased with herself. She had taken down a number of fierce Gears that had been killing hikers and campers in the restricted zone known as Yosemite Park. It was one of the places where a pact of non-magical, non-technological elements was made. The pact was that no magic, nor technology be used in the zone. Anything you wished to do had to be done under your own power.

Baiken hadn't violated it, using only her skill to fight. But she found that even with her skill, she needed focus and training. And something else… another weapon of some kind. But what on Earth could she use? After all, she only had one arm.

Her lips curved into a predatory smile as she realized what she could use after spotting a rusty old chain with a curved hook at the end lying on the ground.

She began searching for a weapon shop and found what she needed. A chain made of tungsten with a long tungsten spike at the end.

She then made her way to a clinic where she underwent a serious operation that grafted one end of the chain to the very bone where her right arm used to be, digging into the bicep. The next step was enchanting it, so she visited a magi who was capable of it. He insured she could control it, and gave the metal spike at the end the ability to morph into what she desired. She then visited an underground Zeppish merchant who worked on the chain for a time and gave her brain direct control of it, as if it were truly part of her arm. By the time it was finished, she had a new weapon that she could conceal easily within the baggy sleeve of her kimono, whose tip could take on a limited number of shapes ranging from sharp to blunt, and that could be used as a shield. She was now 'armed' to the teeth and ready to take on the long years of training that lay ahead…

Chapter five,

The long years ahead

The sun shone down on the eaves of the lovely monastery devoted to Buddha. From the inner depths of the place, walked a lone woman. She was quite comely, was twenty-two years old, and walked with an aura of bitter strength.

Her right arm was gone, replaced with an enchanted chain whose end could morph into a limited number of objects of her choosing. She wore a dull orange robe, freshly laundered and crisply clean. She could see from only one eye, for her left was missing and had a vertical scar slashed across it.

That didn't trouble her though, nor did the absence of her arm. Anyone who commented on it received a harsh and threatening glare, even though she had no intention of fulfilling those unspoken threats. She was quite full of hot air, but her heart was basically in the right place. She didn't mind people at all. But Gears… For as long as she could remember, she had hated them. She had never forgotten the dark one who took her arm, eye, family and people.

She put away the thought, knowing that the monks wouldn't approve if she was thinking so bitterly.

Baiken took in a breath, enjoying the cool and crisp air that flowed sweetly into her lungs and out again. She had been training with the monks for a long time after earning their trust, which was not an easy task. Not every monastic order is interested in taking in a one-armed, one-eyed girl with an axe to grind. But she proved that her intentions were not purely for vengeance, but for the destruction of evil. The monks were content to let evil destroy itself, but saw that Baiken had potential to become much more then she was. So after some tests to prove her claims, she made her way into their number.

She still had an explosive temper though, and it kept her from reaching a calm center in times of distress, but she had learned to control herself and keep her rage in check. She still had her father's old sword, using no other weapon aside from the enchanted prosthetic chain and claw.

Baiken was currently on her way to the humble room of the lama, whom she would ask for her release of service. She had finished with all she desired to know, but would still honor and value the traditions of Buddha and his ways.

The doors opened, Baiken took a deep breath and strode into the candlelit room…

Free! That word kept echoing in her mind as she raced down the hill to the old hovercraft that she'd left there since she'd come to the monastery years ago. It still worked of course, and she was proficient with it's piloting despite her missing arm. She made use of the chain, whose end she morphed into a reasonably hand-like appendage that could reach the other controls easily enough.

Baiken took off, finding herself grateful to America for being as gracious as it had been. Sure there were tough times, but she had made it through, and no one had thought less of her despite her handicap.

She piloted her hovercraft over the rolling green hills with surprising skill.

Just like riding a bike…

A bike… A BIKE! Screamed her mind, that old steel door trying to slam shut again. She forced it to stay open and endure the torrent of heartbreaking pain that made her heart ache.

"I had a purple bicycle…" Baiken muttered, clearing her throat as if someone was sitting in the craft with her and expecting her to explain her words under-the-breath.

Baiken blinked back tears the tried to surge through her single eye. "God damn…"

Her mother and father had presented it to her for her eighth birthday… Its handlebars were wrapped up lovingly with a beautiful red bow. The precious memory made her sob softly into her orange robe. She stifled it after a time, trying to keep her steering straight.

Baiken whimpered softly, remembering her friends that she rode with. She was unable to stop the torrent of good and happy memories of wonderful days long gone.

She clenched her eye shut, tears flowing out freely. Baiken growled softly, shaking her head furiously. For the ten billionth time, she again cursed That Man. How could a man be so blatantly sadistic? What gave him the right to slaughter her people like animals?

Baiken felt the door click comfortably shut in her mind again, letting her pilot her craft with concentration again.

Baiken landed her craft in a small courtyard next to a very clean looking Japanese style house made for one person.

This one person was of course, Baiken.

She had built her home with the money she'd raked in from slaying a number of Gears for the bounties placed on them.

She never questioned her faith that all Gears were evil, and nobody would convince her otherwise. The torturous day of all those years past that was still as fresh on her mind as if it were yesterday still haunted her.

Baiken Seishino exited her craft and walked across a series of garden steps that suspended themselves above the perfectly trimmed velvet grass. She slid the front door open and kicked off her sandals.

"Ahhh, now I can relax for a change. Those monk cells just plain aren't big enough. Still, I learned much from the Buddhists. Maybe even more then I did with the Christians, or even the Shinto. Regardless, my training is finally complete and I can begin my long awaited hunt…"

Baiken's lips curled into a ferocious snarl as she evoked the terrible image in her head of the one who took her arm. "That Man will die for all he's done to my people. The Japanese shall not have died in vain." She thought to herself.

The buzzing of her mail bell interrupted her thoughts.

"That was punctual. I just got home." She mused.

Baiken went to her door and reached down to the square envelope there.

"Hmm, first class. Must be pretty important." She thought.

She tapped the envelope twice and it opened itself. From the envelope sprung a series of words in several different languages, both of her languages being covered.

"Baiken Seishino, we have recently discovered that a pair of rogue Gears has been hiding out in the area known as the Grand Canyon in America. The coordinates are not exact, so it would be best to scour the entire canyon. Our knights are hard pressed with the battle on the frontline, and even though you are not among our number, we divulge this information in hopes that you will accept fifteen thousand world dollars in return for the hasty extermination of these two guilty Gears. Bring proof of the deed to us and we shall give you the aforementioned sum as well as a bonus for quick delivery. Good luck, Lady Baiken Seishino." The words said, then vanished.

"The secretary for the Holy Order must be into glitter. I'm no-one's errand girl, but fifteen thousand is a lot. I wonder how big a bonus? I sure could use the money to boost my chain… What the hell. I'll do it." She reasoned.

"But not before I change. Orange. Yech. I hate orange." She thought to herself.

Baiken tossed off the orange robe and the light tunic she wore beneath it and crawled into a hot bath after meditating.

Baiken relaxed in the hot, suds filled water. She had a bottle of sake by the bath as well as a double shotglass with a line of hills painted on the side with big white letters declaring 'HOLLYWOOD'.

She poured herself a glass, brought it under her nostrils and inhaled.

"Yeah… I could use a few drinks." She smiled, something she does rarely, as she put the glass to her lips, opened them and jerk her head back. The contents of the double shotglass poured down her accepting throat.

"Oh baby, that's the stuff. There's sake then there's water. Nothing else'll do." She thought to herself, letting her head sink under the water.

She still was small for an adult, not having grown much over the years due to genetics. Still, just because she was short, maimed and half-blind didn't mean she was a poor warrior.

In fact, just a few months ago when she'd gone grocery shopping with the other monks, a few men tried to get their hands on her goods. She responded by bending their fingers backwards after ensnaring their wrists with the chain.

The poor monks she was travelling with were shocked at her reaction to them, telling her that she must be patient even with fools and dullards.

She had acknowledged this grudgingly, not paying full attention.

"Fine, I won't hurt them as badly next time." She had thought.

Baiken sighed, shaking her pinkish red tresses and sending tiny crystalline droplets showering all over. She climbed out of the hot tub and wrapped herself up in a towel.

"Boy, I really need to get some more of that sake. That's some of the best." She thought to herself, never giving a thought to company. She had no more then one set of dishes. She never entertained. Baiken had forsaken everything, even friends while she searched for That Man.

"If only I can find him, then maybe I can finally find some real friends. Ones that won't back out on me… Hmph. As if that would ever come to pass." She thought bitterly to herself. She had tried to make friends before, but most of them were constantly staring at her left eye or the place where her right arm should be, and even when politely asked to stop, they'd just keep staring. Baiken was miserable with it all; part of her wishing to get a magic created replacement arm. But then what of her vows? What of her symbolism? She earned her place by working with what she had, not taking a fast route to being complete. She had strained her vows by getting the magic chain grafted into the remains of her bicep bone.

Besides, she's spent the years learning to fight with only one arm. She'd have spent those years in vain if she were to get a new arm, and she's better then most two handed swordsmen anyway.

Baiken found happiness either in killing Gears, thinking about the few true friends she'd had at the monasteries she'd trained in, and in a bottle of rich sake.

She bit into the cork of another bottle and pulled it off, taking a good swig before capping it and dressing in a comfortable red and black kimono.

She dried her hair idly, pouring herself another shot of sake. Surprisingly, she could hold her liquor very well despite her small size.

Baiken did her hair up in a high ponytail, letting two long bangs hang down on either side of her face the way she liked it.

With a scanning of her small home, she packed her single travel pack with the bare essentials, even though the enchanted pack could fit around an entire refrigerator unit and give no hardships to the carrier.

She packed some food, three bottles of sake, a collapsible cup, a mess kit, a few changes of clothing and her armor pieces. She tossed her bag and her sword into the passenger side of her hovercraft, locked down her house and took off.

Baiken impatiently traveled to the Grand Canyon after a three-day trip, nonstop.

In the deep bowels of the awesome Grand Canyon, a pair of black clad figures walked slowly, riding stolen robotic donkeys. The two of them, a male and a female, both of them looking perfectly comfortable despite the heat generated by the rocks.

"Well, I'm sure glad we evaded the Knights. I'd hate to think of what we'd have had to do." Said the female.

"What? Awww c'mon, I'd love to go against those guys! I'm actually disappointed that the pussies didn't show up. You'd think they'd have sent a bounty hunter after us or something." The male scoffed.

"You think so?" Came a deep, womanly voice that was not the female Gear.

Both Gears looked up in surprise, the highly sensitive instruments in their retina scanning the area carefully.

The female spotted a great orange and crimson blob DIRECTLY in front of her.

Before she could scream, before she could revert her vision to normal, a gray streak indicated something cold slicing down. The Gear's internal diagnostic indicated an alarmingly accelerated separation before its brain shut down, the body falling cleanly in two as black blood spurted out.

The male screamed in horror, falling back as he watched his travelmates body fall in two.

He looked around desperately, trying to spot their attacker. He saw a flash of white and black off to the side. He spun around, seeing who slew his mate.

It was Baiken, naturally. She was standing there with her sword in its sheath.

"Hello, Gear. Get off the donkey and draw your weapon." She said in a voice that conveyed a very real threat.

The Gear was in no position to object, so he dismounted and held his shaking arms up. "P-Please, don't kill me…" He stammered, getting on the ground and hiding his face in his hands.

Baiken snarled, walking around the donkey and to where the Gear was…

… Only to come face to face with the end of a long, curved blade.

"Foolish human. You fall for everything!" The Gear laughed wickedly, swinging his sword up and bringing it down on top of Baiken.

Like a flash of lightning, the swift hiss of steel against wood came as her sword was drawn out to block the descending scimitar.

She smirked, leaping backward and crouching. Her right sleeve exploded in a flurry of whirling claws and chains.

The Gear cried in surprise and desperately tried to dodge the storm of blades and chains that flew towards him.

"Gadzooks! What ARE you!" The Gear demanded as he parried the claws.

He was met only with a predatory smile from the one armed woman, who suddenly made a dash towards him. Expecting her to slash, he raised his own sword in defense.

Baiken stopped just short of him.

"Tatami goush!" She cried, a green wall of force smacking into him and knocking him flat on his back. For some odd reason, cherry blossoms burst into being above where she cast the tatami and showered down delicately.

"Give my regards to the devil you'll soon meet, Gear!" She snarled, delivering a coup de grace on the fallen Gear.

The Gear screamed out as his central fluid pump was pierced, causing him to die in seconds.

Baiken smiled, licking her lips and teeth savagely as she looked at the dead Gear. She pulled her sword out and wiped it clean on the sleeve of the Gear's Sipco jacket.

She then proceeded to take her grim trophies as proof. The best way is to take the eye so that the magi-techs could identify the creatures.

Baiken went back to her craft, taking a small sack stained with black Gear blood.

"An eye for an eye." She muttered, putting the throttle and lifting off to race to Paris to collect her reward.

The halls of the Sacred Order was magnificently decorated with holy symbols from every known religion, save for Satanism. There were even Wiccan, Tempus and a few cults that the Order found acceptable.

Baiken walked through the great halls, observing the statues and the plagues, honoring knights who've come, gone, and those still around.

She came to a desk and unceremoniously tossed the bag with the two eyes on it.

"They've been dealt with, reward?" To say she asked would be an understatement; it was more like an order.

The knight at the desk, obviously a new one, looked at the eyes and it took him a while to get it. "Oh! Yes of course. You must be Miss Seishino. What can I do for you?"

Baiken sighed, repeating herself to the kid.

He nodded, then got up to go check with his superiors, taking the bag with him to verify her claim.

Baiken waited patiently, pulling the flower decorated pipe of her mother's and stuffing some lavender and tobacco into it, lighting up with a spark seal.

She inhaled, feeling the sweet smoke flow into her, then blowing a smoke funnel.

Good stuff, this lavender. Nice knowing it can't hurt me with the biogenetic filters. Heh heh heh.

Half an hour later, the young knight came back with a briefcase.

"Here is your bounty for the Gears. Fifteen thousand world dollars, plus an extra one point five thousand for your excellent speed. Your services are appreciated, mistress Seishino." The knight said cordially.

Baiken smiled thinly. "Don't thank me, knight. I'm in this business to show the Gears what happens when they don't finish what they begin."

The knight gulped, a little nervous as he watched the one armed one eyed swordswoman pick up the briefcase and exit the great hall.

Chapter Six,

Curious tidings,

In her dreams, she saw the little red haired girl squatting among the smoldering ruins of what was once a happy, fruitful town of Japanese citizens. The Earth trembled, the air around the child becoming distorted as if seen through poorly blown glass. The child stood up, blood tricking from the dismembered stump where her right arm was. With her left hand, the girl pointed accusingly at Baiken, her lips parting and a stream of twisted, yet sad noises springing forth. They shimmered, fluctuated and formed words.

"YOU! YOU SAD, WRETCHED, LAZY WENCH! YOU WERE THERE! YOU SAW IT ALL! YOU DIDN'T STOP IT! YOU LET THEM KILL EVERYONE! NOTHING! YOU DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! THEY KILLED EVERYONE! YOU LET THEM BE MURDERED! YOU'RE A HORRIBLE, WRETCHED EXCUSE FOR A LIVING BEING OF THIS WORLD!"

Baiken's lips trembled fearfully. She whimpered as her one-eyed gaze looked around at the carnage, then on to the bodies of her parents, and the pile of ash that was her brother.

"LOOK! THEY'RE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU DID NOTHING! YOU WORTHLESS FILTH!" The child screamed.

Baiken collapsed, clutching her head in that dream, seeing the girl grow skeletal, her flesh oozing away like ice. The tiny skeleton stared at her with empty eye sockets, pointing that bony finger at her.

"YOU'VE LOST ME! YOU'VE BURIED ME! I WAS PART OF YOU! NOW LOOK WHAT I'VE BECOME!" The skeleton wailed piteously.

Baiken's field of vision expanded, filling her mind's eye with the horrific death and carnage surrounding her. The ground opened up and a gargantuan hand of pure black and sheathed in fire rose up from the crack, engulfing the skeletal child.

The skeleton's eyesockets curved upward into a frightened expression, jaw slack as the hand closed around her.

Baiken reaches out with her single hand, the little bony one reaching back. Just as their hands touched, flesh began to return to the little skeleton's arm, spreading up. But alas, the hand jerked hard, pulling them apart. As it clenched into a horrid fist around the little one, a pair of smoldering and evil eyes blazed to life on either side of it.

"Failure." A deep, resonating voice echoed. "That is what your entire life is."

Baiken collapsed to her knees, clutching her head and screaming in denial.

She looked up to see the massive fist falling toward her like a hammer.

As it struck, the faces of more then a dozen strangers flashed into her mind. People she'd never seen before, or didn't have time to recognize. A cold eyed blonde woman, a dark skinned muscle bound giant, a pale and white haired, red eyed young man and many others.

"TIMES UP!" Shouted the dark voice, and suddenly she was clutched with a crushing pain, the likes of which she'd never felt before…

Baiken Seishino awoke with a scream, her hand flying to her sword and drawing it out of it's scabbard, pointed in the air directly in front of her. The entire thing took the space of half a second.

Panting, she laid her katana down and wiped her sweaty brow. The moon gleamed brightly in the sky above her home, filling the room with an eerie glow.

She shivered, pulling her blanket tighter around her and laying back down.

"Just a dream…" She whispered, forcing herself to relax and fall back into slumber…

Sitting alone in her home, Baiken Seishino was engaged in a deep meditation. The trickling sound of the water fountain in the courtyard, and the sound of the breeze in the cherry blossoms that grew in her yard. Cherry blossoms were her favorite flower, and that favor manifested itself often when she used magic. A burst of cherry blossoms would appear and shower upon wherever she casts a seal or an attack. It was embarrassing, but she'd gotten used to it.

She sat there on her tatami in her spartan home, her chest rising and falling slowly.

She had recently celebrated her 27th birthday, having a single piece of cake from the bakery along with a special meal of California style Tri-Tip, Caesar salad and an assortment of fruits. She didn't restrict herself to one palate for long, trying anything that perks her interest. She did however have a fondness for American, Japanese and Italian foods. Thai made her mouth feel like a cinder, and French was tried to cram too many flavors into too small a package.

Her enjoyment of American style foods came when she talked herself into trying a cheeseburger. Someone must have done something right, because she took an instant liking to it.

Baiken looked back on her life, the countless Gears she'd slain and collected bounties on, the promise of That Man looming just over the horizon. She had become quite notorious, having killed so many Gears despite her 'disabilities'.

Yet she already had a degree of notoriety from having been the only Japanese to survive the Gear attacks, where all others perished when a village was struck. There was only one small town that was spared from the flames of the Gears.

It's people, twenty thousand strong not including the children, were taken away from their home for their own safety. It was then that the United Nations declared the colony proposition and the Japanese were placed in a number of remote colonies which had the most advanced magical and non-magical defenses anyone had to offer. Both magic and Zeppish hands created the colonies.

The Zepps created a vast electronic frontier surrounding the colonies that would alert the Sacred Order of Holy Knights of any Gear signatures appeared. They also built the thick walls that surrounded the colonies, as well as the blast cannon turrets that were built into the walls at strategic points. The buildings inside the colonies were designed by Japanese minds, made in the lovely and sweeping architecture that was the pride of the Japanese. The mages and enchanters created seals over the borders of the colonies, providing shielding. They also blessed the gunner positions with accuracy; they could shoot the fleas off a dog's back at nearly a mile. They also gave the outer walls even greater strength, fusing the very essence until it was a great, dense solid wall that securely encased the self-sufficient complex. There were many Japanese overseas who hadn't been harmed, so the total tally of Japanese survivors came up as twenty thousand, one hundred and sixty-one.

The Japanese were all gathered up and taken to these colonies, not being given much choice in the matter. Baiken had managed to keep a steady bribe to the authorities to look the other way when they come by her pad for inspections. She did occasionally visit a colony to train with the sword masters who lived there. She would also attend the festivals and holidays of the people there to pay homage to her lineage. She'd been able to slip in and out easily with bribes or merely jumping the wall when it was possible. If neither worked, she'd just knock out the gate guard.

Baiken was odd in that she didn't really have a specific belief. She used Buddhist, Christian and Shinto magic, but she didn't believe in just one religion.

She did however have the fundamental belief that there was a higher power, governing the fate of things. Whatever people wanted to call it, God, Great Spirit, Zeus, she didn't care. She just felt the presence of something greater.

Baiken once fervently hated this higher power, blaming it for putting so much misery and sorrow in her life. But she grew out of it, realizing that her true enemy was that wretched man. The higher power, she believed, just passed out random cards. She'd simply been dealt a poor one.

As Baiken sat in her courtyard, she felt the breeze tug at her clothing and hair. Her single eye was still shut, her mind opening up. She'd learned to cope with floods of lost memories that would stream back from the depths of her mind, merely letting them come instead of trying to block them out.

With every surge of memory, she grew more and more bitter and vengeful. Her life was stolen from her. Not only her, but countless others.

Baiken had set her duty in life since she was thirteen. She would track down the Gears; she would track down their creator and the creator of Justice, and kill them all. Well, most of the Gears in the world were dead now, either because they lacked the free will to so much as feed themselves, or because they were killed by bounty hunters like herself. Her chief rival was a bounty hunter named Sol Badguy. When she first heard the name, she could have sworn she'd heard of him before, and a memory tugged in the back of her mind when she saw his holo-poster in the Headquarters of the Sacred Order. He had apparently left the order after he deserted during a desperate battle. Because of his desertion, many knights were killed without his support. The leader of the knights, a young Frenchman of twenty named Ky Kiske, felt angry and betrayed at this and there had been bad blood between Sol and Ky ever since.

Not that Baiken really cared, she had better things to do then worry about the affairs of the order. She would have joined the order when they offered, but she found their doctrines and rules too strict for her taste. At least for now. Maybe when she had slain her people's murderer, she would join and put her skills to use.

She had made up her mind that she wouldn't stop living once she had taken her revenge. She would continue her revenge by living out her life to it's very fullest. But only after she killed that wretch. Until then, she would live a Momentary Life.

Baiken didn't have much hopes of finding a husband after her task was done. Despite being extraordinarily beautiful, she felt she was hideous. Not only was she missing an eye and an arm, but the same hormones that gave her a generous bosom, also made her voice very deep. It was femininely deep, but deep nevertheless. She was really irritated about it, but what could she do? Not much really.

She took a deep breath, opening her eye as her biological clock told her to stop, that it was about the time the mail came.

She walked in, her white, black and red kimono flowing around her elegantly. Her hair was put up in her favored style. A long ponytail made high up on her head, with two long and thick bangs hanging down on either side of her face. She usually let one bang hide her slashed eye to hide it. If someone caught a glimpse of it and was startled, that was their bloody problem.

Baiken allowed herself a smile as she passed the cherry blossom tree, gazing at its lovely pink flowerings. She stepped through the paper door and into her home. As expected, there was a letter that had materialized on her desk. She opened it, and surprisingly it was real paper with real handwriting.

Baiken whistled softly, rather impressed with the apparent budget of the sender. She grinned, picturing a formal request to kill a Gear that was causing trouble on some rich person's estate. She drew her sword and skillfully opened the envelope, taking out the letter and reading it, her single eye dashing back and forth as she speed-read.

She smiled as she read the letter. It was from the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, what it said was very interesting.

Dear Lady Seishino,

We have reviewed your outstanding bounty hunting record and have unanimously agreed to invite you to a special tournament of fighters and warriors from around the world. This tournament will determine who is the greatest independent warrior in the world, and in light of that this person will be given information privy to the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. Following this, the winner will be given the mission of hunting a very special Gear, a Gear that has recently popped up and has defeated our every attempts to capture it. There have oddly been no fatalities, though the Gear's combat abilities are astronomical. It has obviously been created recently and likely has a fresh memory of it's creator. We know this is an opportunity for you to accomplish your lifelong goals and will award the one who stops this Gear, the sum of five hundred-thousand World Dollars. Good luck, Lady Seishino.

Madison Deveroux,

Secretary to Templar Kiske.

Baiken smiled, licking her lips.

"Very interesting…" She thought to herself. If this Gear they spoke of was Justice in his prison dimension, then she could force him to tell her where his creator could be found.

"I'm in." She mused, rushing to pack her things for what promised to be a very interesting time.

Three days later, Baiken stood outside the office of the Tournament administrator.

She reached for the doorknob, breathing deeply and feeling her whole body tingle with anticipation. This was finally her time to prove herself. To show she was worthy. And to kill the wretched being who stole her life, her family and her people.

"Wish me luck, Mommy, Daddy and Jimmy…" She whispered to herself as she stepped inside…

Fin