CHAPTER ONE
As the manager of the bathhouse at Gulliver's Travels Lodge, Kana had two full-time employees and a trio of part-time assistants. All but Ruri Oe, a freshman at Tokyo University, were also residents of the lodge. Kana had only just met Ruri the evening before, when the girl had come in for the closing shift at the bathhouse.
In order to get to know her new employee, Kana had decided to spend most of the evening with her, but Ruri, as it turned out, wasn't the most social individual she had ever met. In fact, she didn't talk much at all, even when customers started filing in for their evening baths. Even so, there was a gentleness in her shy demeanor that shined through when she shared one of her rare, brief, and oh so beautiful smiles. While Kana knew instantly that Ruri would be a chore to get close to, she would likely also prove to be a reliable if not an invaluable employee.
In sharp contrast, Kana knew that Fukae Hamada was going to be a troublemaker. Fukae was a transfer student in his second year of high school. He had moved to Tokyo because of his mother, who had wanted him to strive for acceptance into Tokyo University. One of Kana's dreams in her past life had been to graduate from that prestigious university, and so she knew how difficult it was even for a devoted and intelligent student to meet the requirements for enrollment.
Based on first impressions, Fukae didn't seem to qualify. He arrived late for work and rather than attempt to make amends with his new boss, he had settled in at the front booth and turned on his Gameboy. He didn't even acknowledge her presence until she had confronted him outright, after the third customer of the day had been greeted with little more than a nod and grunt.
To her surprise, he didn't dignify her with a vocal response during that confrontation, though he had enough respect to shut off his game and look her in the eye… barely. At least she hadn't had to twist his arm off.
Rather than cause a scene, she elected to allow herself a lunch hour to go over the situation in her mind, but she'd been so surprised by Ayumi's appearance that she hadn't had much time to consider anything but the mottled circumstances of her past, the dark times and as well as sweet and treasured memories. Now she and Ayumi moved together through the western wing of the lodge, empty other than the two of them, on their way to the stairwell that would lead them to the main lobby. During the brief silence between them, she contemplated just what she was going to say to Fukae, if anything at all.
"You seem a bit down in the dumps."
Kana blinked, turning her gaze to the girl as she smiled back.
"I woulda thought you'd be thrilled to be back," Ayumi continued. "You've been in the States a whole eight years. That's a long time to be away from home, ya know."
"Be that as it may, I can't shake the fact that it's also been exactly ten years to the day that Amalgam thoroughly trashed eighty-five percent of the world's governments and became the most powerful military force on the planet. So our reunion might be something worth celebrating… it just came on a pretty crappy day for me."
Ayumi frowned and averted her gaze. "Fair enough."
Kana touched her shoulder, and Ayumi looked up. She smiled her brightest smile in what must have been years. "Hey, don't worry about it. I promise… I'll try to smile a bit more from now on. You're right about this: I am home and I have so many wonderful things to look forward to." Kana pushed open the door leading to the stairwell, and they slowly descended down to ground level, two stories below.
The lobby was a big, open area with beige carpet and several benches. One wall displayed a big screen TV which was tuned in to some kiddy anime. Kana recognized four of the five kids sitting there. Three of them were totally engrossed in the show, but one girl she didn't recognize, with gorgeous, long ebony hair that literally shined sat off to the side with one of Vincent's Korean nephews. Kana paused to watch after the kids, her eyes locked on to the girl for several long seconds, and then she turned off down the hall leading to the bathhouse. Ayumi followed.
"I keep forgetting it's Sunday," Kana said. "No school today."
Ayumi chuckled. "No school for another week, actually. Summer vacation."
"Oh… right." She'd been living in the States far too long indeed.
As they walked down the hall leading to the bathhouse, Kana inspected the building, and was not surprised to find that it was so clean it sparkled. She was beginning to understand why, now that she knew that Ayumi was partially responsible for cleaning duty. The whole right side of the hall was pristine, streak free glass revealing a crystal clear pond filled with goldfish. The courtyard was Kana's favorite place, even though she had yet to set a foot outside. To her, it would at best be a desecration if she were to smoke out there, so while she had been tempted, she had decided not to take her lunch breaks there. She knew she would only want to have a cigarette, so instead she'd eaten all of her meals on the roof, and not even in the comfort of her own apartment. Then again, there was no place more uncomfortable to her than that apartment. It still seemed as much a prison to her than anything else, like every place she had lived over the past ten years, despite the fact that she'd lived in the United States, one of the very few countries in the world that had remained somewhat free from the plague of Amalgam's touch.
At the end of the hall they came to two doors. To the left was the door to the gym, and straight ahead, marked by a sign with, brilliant, sky-blue kanji, was a room marked The Fountains of Youth… the cutesy name that Vincent's stepmother had given the bathhouse years ago. Inside there were three doors. The two on either side led to the individual men's and women's locker rooms, while the one in the middle, where she was headed, led to the main counter, where she fully expected to find Fukae, lounging and playing his damn game. The thought made Kana grind her teeth; she was going to have to have a serious talk with that boy.
"Uh, Kana?"
"Oh, Ayumi. You're still here?" Kana blushed. "Uh, what's up? I have to go back to work now. Did you need something?"
"Oh, no… that's not it. Nothing like that." She smiled. "I was just going to say that your forehead wrinkles when you grumble. You look a lot younger when your not seething."
Kana blinked. "Well, that was rather rude."
"I know. But still, lighten up. Everything will be okay, okay?"
She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. So, you're following me for… what now?"
"I just got done with work and I stink."
"So that was the smell. I wondered."
"Wow… talk about rude. Thanks a lot." Ayumi rolled her own eyes, though she was smirking. "Anyway, see you later, big sis. Have fun at work."
Ayumi departed through the door marked "Women's Bath" and left Kana alone. With a sigh she ran her fingers through her jaw-length ebony hair. "Wow… It's really been eight years. Now there's a dose of reality."
Her thoughts returned to the mess she was sure to find in the bathhouse, but she was surprised to realize that a calm had come over her, a calm brought on by her reunion with Ayumi. She knew she wanted to be angry, but for whatever reason, Kana found that she really couldn't be. The desire just wasn't there. She really hadn't had a chance to get to know Fukae yet, anyway, and she supposed it was only right to give him a chance to get used to her, and vice versa, before she labeled him as a troublemaker. At the same time, she couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't going to get along very well. From back to her days as a junior high class rep, Kana had always had a very little patience when it came to slackers. That didn't mean, of course, that she had to come down on Fukae so hard. They didn't really know each other yet, and she didn't at all want to be the cause of any tension before she had a chance to really get to know him.
A sinking feeling settled in, the realization that she was far from the most patient person on the planet. With a sigh, Kana pulled open the door and stepped into the cashier's booth, fully expecting to find Fukae engrossed in his game. Instead, he was leaning forward against the counter, talking to a tall woman with straight, jaw-length, jet-black hair and sparkling violet eyes, wrapped tightly in a white towel. She froze in the doorway, staring. After a moment, the woman's beautiful, violet eyes shifted away from Fukae and met hers.
Kana swallowed. "Oh, good afternoon! I hope I'm not interrupting."
Fukae leaned back. "Not at all. You're the boss."
"And I was just on my way for a good soak," the woman said.
As she walked away, Kana stared after her. She certainly looked like a Chinese woman, which Kana took as a strange circumstance. After Hell on Earth, it was said to be a very rare occasion when a woman of Chinese descent appeared in public in Japan. And yet, here one was, apparently feeling safe enough to bathe in a public bathhouse.
Of course, she knew the Gullivers were sympathetic enough to Chinese refugees, despite the fact that none were being boarded in their apartment complex.
"That there's Yue Mao. A Gulliver family friend."
Kana blinked. "I see."
"She comes in once every two or three months, so I see her on occasion."
Fukae offered her a can of tea. He seemed to be a different person all of a sudden, a bit more chipper than he had been earlier in the day. She realized that he must not be much of a morning person. Seeing him now, after lunch, Kana was more than a little taken back. He was "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed", one of Vincent's stepmother's favorite English sayings. She considered him for a moment, wondering if his suddenly bright mood was really the result of his conversation with a pretty girl. It was possible, she supposed.
She pulled the tab on her tea. "Thank you, Hamada-san."
He held up his own can. "My pleasure, boss. Look… I'm sorry about earlier. I… just have a lot on my mind right now, and I know it's no excuse to be rude. If we can start fresh, I promise I'll work on my attitude."
This was more than unexpected, Kana realized. He was a much smarter young man than she'd initially taken him for."Sure thing, kid," she said with a smile.
Fukae cringed. "Look, we have a deal, just so long as you don't call me that."
Suddenly the day seemed a heck of a lot brighter. Kana smiled. "You got it, Hamada-san."
"Fancy meeting you here."
Kurz glanced up, taking his eyes off the glass of scotch. "I heard this rumor. Folk's're sayin' that this guy I know sauntered back home for the first time in eight years. So, bein' the good friend that I always claim to be, I thought I'd roll back into town myself… see if I could get the lowdown on the dirt driftin' my way."
"That so?" Vincent smirked as he pulled up a chair and sat down next to his old friend. "And what have you found out so far?"
"Turns out none of my leads know jack, if you want the truth."
Vincent smirked. "Well, I don't suppose that's much of a surprise."
Kurz poured another glass and slid it over to him. "Of course not."
Exactly a minute of silence followed, a minute in which they both drained two glasses of scotch. Vincent poured another round for them and lifted his glass. Kurz did the same, swirling the contents of the glass as he stared into the liquid. Somewhere behind them the door opened up and someone entered the bar, but neither were concerned. Surveillance in the lodge was rock solid and nigh invisible by design. Vincent was good at his job, and the people he'd left behind when he'd gone home to the States were even better.
He'd wanted to get Kurz to be one of those people, but he'd never even bothered to ask. They both knew that would have been impossible. Amalgam knew Kurz Weber, knew most everything about him, at least up until that point when he'd disappeared from the face of the Earth. Vincent had been forced to take people those smug bastards couldn't identify. Former members of Mithril were not high on his list of people who could keep a low profile. Not in Tokyo… or most of Japan, for that matter.
"Did you see that sky this morning? Brilliant and crystal clear."
"Sure did," Kurz said. "Just like that day."
"Maybe this one will end without the firestorm," Vincent muttered.
"Maybe." They touched the rims of their glasses. "To the Tuatha de Danaan and her fine crew."
"To Mithril and her allies across the globe and in the ground," Vincent agreed. "May they rest in peace for all eternity."
They drank to the memories of their fallen comrades.
Silence followed, and then it was time for business.
