Chapter 7
"Thanks again for getting me out of my work tonight. God, all we've been doing is working our asses off since we got here! I would say it's completely insane if it wasn't necessary," Dagas groaned as she and Josie began to walk down the sidewalk to the nearest subway station.
"Oh, no problem. I've wanted to actually hang out with you since the first time I saw you here anyways," Josie kindly replied. "Speaking of which, do you change your style and, uh, face every day?"
"Oh… Well, whenever I go out into public, yeah, I do. Since you're on our side now I can actually explain this to you; Matt, Mello and I are part of the in-depth part of the case. Being that the criminal we're after actually knows what we look like chances are that either he or some of his buddies are out looking for us. We'd rather avoid being shot to death, so we have to change our appearances every time we leave the hotel."
"Yes! I finally get it now! And, damn, talk about being the ultimate poser!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, no kidding. So, you said we're going to Spencer's and Hot Topic?"
"Yep. We could go to Journeys too. That is, if we have the time."
"Alright. That's perfect because I've been meaning to get a new pair of gloves lately. Mine are all worn out."
"Fantastic! I need a new pair of Converse while we're there"
"Dang, at this rate we'll probably be an hour late!" Dagas joked with a grin.
Soon, the two had finally arrived at the station. By this time of night, right after sunset, the stations were pretty clear while the streets were crowded with taxis. For their own safety's sake, most people chose to take a taxi since the subways could get kind of dangerous at night. Thugs in their baggy hoodies would crowd around a single bench on the platform and wait for future harassment victims to walk past. Unless you stood in their way, all they would do to you is lower your self esteem and pop your personal bubble, but for most of them, a third strike is something they couldn't afford. Therefore, no real damage was done to the innocent bystanders.
While on their train headed for Queens, several brave people and a couple thugs were spotted, all of them spread across the tram. While the thugs were simply sending everybody warning glares that had no meaning, the train was pretty silent aside from a guy pleading to his girlfriend to not leave him. The thugs paid extra close attention to this annoying man, although he never noticed.
Once the train had made it to Queens, the two quickly made their way off the train to get as far away from the thugs as fast as possible. As soon as they immerged from the dark underground station, the two were bombarded by a flurry of lights blaring in all directions. Advertisement signs flashed their ads for Coca Cola and JCPenny and street lights flared from all angles, whether it be from the traffic lights or the tail lights of the taxis that crowded the streets.
"Wow, so this is how Queens looks like at night," Dagas commented.
"Yup. Blinding, isn't it?"
From where the entrance to the station was, there was a bit of a walk between there and the mall. This gave the two time to talk before entering the crowded stores. As they walked, the two soon passed a tall, boarded up building that seemed to catch Dagas' eye. All of the entrances, from the windows to the front doors were all tightly sealed up with huge planks of ply-wood. Looking at this, Dagas was reminded of some of the old abandoned buildings she had rummaged through in the past while living in LA. Be that as it may, this kind of a place spiked Dagas' interest to a new level.
"Say, Josie," she said as she stopped in her tracks to take a look at a board that read in white spray paint letters, "R.I.P. St. John's". "What was this building for?"
"Oh, St. John's used to be a hospital. Not the best hospital in the world, but I've heard it provided average health care," Josie answered as she looked up to the top few floors of the hospital.
"Why'd it shut down? Contamination? Infestation?"
"Nope, St. John's used to be in a partnership with a chain of other hospitals. They dropped out with a couple others and just like that, St. John's was closed down. Nothing too serious. I doubt it was anything more than bad business."
"Huh… looks pretty cool… I wonder what kind of supplies they would have in there," Dagas wondered aloud.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the place had already been cleared out. You'd have to be pretty stupid to close down a hospital and not sell the perfectly good supplies in it."
"Yeah, I guess you're right… Still, it'd be a pretty cool place to wander around, wouldn't it?"
"I suppose. But I don't think it would be a good idea to just break in, though it is fun to think about."
"Yeah, no kidding… Oh my god! You've gotta get me away from here before I break in myself!" Dagas desperately pleaded.
"Alright, alright! The mall is just down the road. Let's get going."
Within a few minutes, the two had finally made it to the mall. For a few moments, Dagas had to consider if she was dreaming this up or not. Looking at it, the mall seemed to be able to take up a good three blocks. Though, even with that rough estimate in mind, the entire place was much bigger than that. Like most malls, the two biggest stores that you had to try to avoid getting lost in were Macy's and JCPenny. Other than that, just about the rest of the mall was packed with small stores around each corner. Many late night shoppers, such as the cop-avoidant punks and the judgment-avoidant goths, roamed the walkways struggling to find their favorite stores, clothing brand or the best place to get dinner at the food court.
Soon enough, with a gleeful smile on her face, Dagas immediately skipped off ahead of Josie to go find the Spencer's she so desperately had been hoping to find. With no sense of where she was, Josie soon found Dagas observing a map of the mall's layout not to far from where she took off. After a while of walking, the two soon stood outside the exotic store with Dagas happily staring at the rainbow lettering of the store name above the entrance.
Inside, the two both marveled over the many accessories they had in store, such as the many silver necklaces, the strange neck ties, humorous rubber wrist bands and the dirty apparel. Unexpectedly, they found themselves just looking at the merchandise for over a half an hour. With most items, they laughed at the funny jokes and the crude remarks on the bumper stickers, and with others they sighed and both thought, "so-and-so would have loved that". As sad as remembering past wonderful friendships was, the sadness was soon replaced by a half a rack of Charlie Sheen T-shirts that mostly said some variation of the phrase "winning!"
With part of their wallets sucked dry just with the visit to the one store, they walked out, arms weighed down with each their own bag of fun trinkets and outfits.
"God, I never get tired of going there!" Dagas said as she rifled through her bag to find her new pair of studded gloves.
"I know! It's just one of those places that you can't help going back to."
"Totally. Man, I aught to go back there with Mello one of these days. He needs new bling than what he always wears now."
"What kind of "bling" does he wear?"
"He's got this long, beaded cross necklace and matching bracelet that he wears all the time. I'm not saying he should ditch it, but I do think that not taking them off and replacing them while wearing a disguise might be a little dangerous," she clarified.
"I hear yah. That would be kinda dangerous if someone were to notice that."
"No kidding."
"Dah fuck, man? What's you're issue, cracker?" hollered out what sounded like an angry punk from behind.
"Fuck you, man! I'm outta here!" called another angry punk as he stormed off in the direction of the front entrance. As he stormed off, he smacked right into Dagas, shoving her off balance and leaving her with the strange smell of the man's baggy hoodie on her left arm.
"Hey, watch it, man," Dagas groaned as she regained her balance.
The irritated man stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of Dagas' complaint. Instantly, he pivoted around and marched right up to where she stood.
"What'd you just say, bitch?" he snarled through gritting teeth.
"I just thought that it was kinda rude for you to almost knock me over like that," she innocently replied with an irritated look in her eyes.
"Dag' just let it go. You don't wanna get mixed up in this," Josie warned in a whisper.
"You got something to say too, scrawny?" he barked.
"No, not at all," she said in a pleading tone.
"Listen, I better not be hearin' any more back talk from you two bitches, got it?" he snarled at both of them.
"No, I don't "got it". As pissed off as you are, there was no need to just ram into somebody like that. Take a chill pill and get over yourself," Dagas bravely demanded of him.
"Wha… Dah fuck did you just say?"
"Dagas, cut it out! You can't take on a guy like that. Let's just go," Josie pleaded of her.
Before Dagas could get a chance to give a response to Josie, the angry man brought his foot forward and used the momentum to violently shove Dagas to the floor, causing her to hear several cracks from her stiff joints. Quickly, she pulled herself up to her knees but was immediately shoved right back down by the man's scuffed up shoe before she could get to her feet. With one fell swoop, the man reached down and yanked Dagas up off the ground by her arm.
"You're dead, you little skank!" the man growled at her before bunching up his fist to make an aim for her head. Quickly thinking, Dagas ducked down before the punch could make its mark, and before the man knew what was going on, she slammed her clenched fist into the man's lower abdomen. It wasn't exactly the best maneuver, but it kept the man down long enough for Dagas to get the hell out of his way.
Frantically, she stood up and reached to the ground to get her bag from the floor. She snatched it up and started to run forward to get out of the man's way. This escape was found to be in vain when the man suddenly got up from where he had fallen and reached over to grasp onto Dagas' leg. She slammed back down to the floor along with her bag. She frantically turned around to see what the man was about to do, and before she could even begin to think straight, the man pulled back is arm once again to make another attempt at her face. With nothing in mind to defend herself, she froze in terror, thinking the last thing she would ever see was that fist hurtling right at her face.
Out of the blue and right as the fist was about to make contact with her face, there was a loud crack, and the man fell to the side, unconscious and unable to cause any harm. As the man fell, he revealed a brown haired young woman from behind him who had just chopped a stiffly held hand down onto one of the pressure points on his neck. With the fear adrenaline still coursing through her body, Dagas scooted backwards and away from the woman before even thinking of getting up. She soon brought herself to her feet, her whole body shaking at the experience that she had just witnessed.
"Dear god, are you alright?" the stranger fearfully asked.
"Uh… I-I think so…" Dagas stuttered.
"Oh, thank god! I was sure that man had already seriously injured you by now! Why was he so angry at you?" she asked in a concerned tone.
"I… I said something stupid and set him off," she sadly admitted.
"Well, at least you're safe."
"Um, how did you knock him out like that?" Dagas asked.
"I'm a black belt in Taekwondo. And, by the way, you should try to choose your words better the next time something like this happens. You could have been seriously hurt," the woman warned.
"I'll keep that in mind," she said as she picked up her things from the ground. "Thank you so much, ma'am."
"No problem," the woman kindly said before calling over the mall security that stood across the walkway.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Josie asked in a concerned tone.
"Yeah… I'll be okay… Let's just go back, or at least go somewhere less crowded," she asked.
"You wanna go hang around Hot Topic?"
"No… I think I just want to go back…"
"Alright, we can go," Josie sadly sighed as she wrapped a comforting arm around her shell shocked friend.
Though Josie attempted to start a couple conversations, the trip back to the hotel was pretty silent. Dagas preferred not to talk all that much and Josie was too worried sick about her to want to talk about anything humorous or chat about some sort of unrelated subject. After the long, quiet journey back, Josie insisted that she take Dagas inside so she wouldn't have to go alone. Once up to their floor, Josie asked once more, "Hey, you sure you're alright?"
She sighed as she clutched the door knob to her room in her hand. "Yeah, I'll be fine… I'm sorry this had to ruin our time."
"Oh, I was just about out of spending money anyways. Don't worry about it," she insisted. "I had a good time anyways. We should do this again sometime. You know, during the day?"
"Yeah, that sounds nice," she hopefully replied. Although going back did sound like fun, in the back of her mind, she was sure that Ryuzaki would never allow her to do this again after what happened to her. "Thanks for the fun time," she said.
"Any time, Dag'," Josie sweetly replied as she gave Dagas one last hug goodbye. "I'll call you guys if anything comes up."
"Well, it is your job," Dagas humorously pointed out.
"Heh, that is true. See you later."
"Yeah, good night."
"'Night," she replied as she began to walk back to the stairwell.
As soon as the heavy door to the stairs closed behind Josie, Dagas leaned on her door and slid down to the floor, feeling every ache and pain that she had acquired from the incident. Feeling ashamed of her actions, she pulled her arms around her knees and buried her face down to hide her still lingering sense of fear. At that moment, Ryuzaki opened his door and immerged to come greet Dagas.
"Well, you're back earlier than I would have anticipated. Did something happen?" he asked, ignoring Dagas' depressed position.
"Yeah… something did happen," she said after a long pause as she brought up her head.
"Did B attack you?" he quickly asked.
"No… it wouldn't make a difference though. Even if it was him who attacked me, I still wouldn't have known what to do…"
"Pardon?"
"I was attacked by a thug who I pissed off and I had no idea what to do. I could barely fight back and even when I did it just pissed him off even more…"
"I had a feeling this would happen," he sighed. "So, you couldn't defend yourself?"
"Not properly, no. I just sat there and almost took the worst beating of my life."
"Did he hurt you at all?" he asked in a concerned tone.
"Not really, but he could have done some serious damage…" she sadly admitted.
He let out a disappointed sigh. "Well this is just awful. So you're saying you've been solving all of these cases in Japan and yet you don't know any sort of form of combat?"
"No. I solve the cases and sit in the background with the extra handcuffs when we have to make an arrest. Matt and Mello have some great martial arts skills, but I can't swing a punch without getting maimed."
"My word… Well, I suppose we'll have to fix that, won't we?"
"How? Go to a training gym and get caught there by B's new gang members?"
"Of course not. There's a training gym for something like that on the ground floor, correct?"
"I would assume so. Why?"
"Matt, Mello and I can teach you. We all have knowledge of the same martial art so we can each give you an understanding of it."
"Wait, you know a martial art?" she asked in a confused tone. "I don't believe it."
"Well, I would suggest you would believe it otherwise teaching you may prove to be quite difficult."
"What do you know?"
"Capoeira."
"Capo-what? Is that seriously a martial art?"
"Of course. Ask Matt and Mello if you don't believe me. It's not the precise art, since we have developed some different techniques, although the same principals apply."
"I still seriously don't think that's a real martial art, but if you really insist, then I guess I could give it a go," she said in an unenthusiastic tone.
"Alright then. We can meet up in the gym and start tomorrow at, let's say, 8:30. I'll be expecting to meet you there on time," he said as he began to walk back to his room. "And, by the way, be ready to learn fast. If you want to learn to defend yourself, you're going to have to be willing to work quickly."
"Alright," she said as she got up. Once his door closed behind him, Dagas mumbled, "Is he asking or demanding me to learn this? Really."
Within about 15 minutes, Dagas was out cold and ready to just leave all of this night behind her. She fell asleep still upset by the fact that she couldn't have made a move. Even more so, she was still frustrated with the thought that this was just a phony martial art that Ryuzaki planned to teach to her. Putting these thoughts behind, she soon decided it would be best to just sleep it off.
At the time that she had set her alarm, Dagas was woken up at about quarter to 8 to another popular radio song by Nicki Manaj which she didn't care for in the very least. Not looking forward to her lesson for the day, she lazily rolled out of bed and went about her morning routine before slipping into a pair of sweat pants, a grey tank top and pulling her long hair back into a pony tail. With a filled water bottle in hand, she made her way downstairs and through the lobby to get to the gym.
As she entered, she noticed a significant lack of people in the room. Although, even with the few numbers, the only thing any of them were doing was observing two men fighting at the other half of the room. Curiously, Dagas walked up to the group of people and observed with the crowd. In front of her she witnessed two familiar men, arms and legs flying about to try to gain the advantage in their fight. Near the end of the fight, one of the men swung his foot high into the air to make an advance for his opponent's face, but missed when his opponent swooped down and jutted out one of his legs, sending the other man tumbling to the floor as the foot violently made contact with his leg. In victory, the winning man placed his bare foot on top of his opponent's chest and said, "And that's what happens when you're a smoker trying to win a fight."
"Oh, shut up," the man on the floor wheezed. "I could have beaten you."
"Yeah, if you were actually paying attention," his opponent scoffed.
In response, the loosing man grabbed his opponent's free leg that was placed on the floor and yanked him to the ground, creating a loud thud on the mat they had been fighting on. At this, the observing crowd began to quietly snicker at their humorous bickering.
After finally getting a good look at the two opponents, Dagas soon realized that it had been Matt and Mello who were displaying such an epic fight. For a moment, she almost couldn't believe her eyes. These two had just shown true proof of their skills and now Ryuzaki expected her to learn all that. Seems impossible, but nothing is set in stone.
"Fantastic work, you two," Ryuzaki commended as he got up out of the corner he had been sitting in. "You both did great, although, Matt, I would suggest brining your legs a little higher when you make a move like that. You'll be doing yourself a huge favor by doing so."
"Got it," he said as he got up from where he lay.
"Ah, Dagas, you're finally here," Ryuzaki greeted her once he noticed her presence.
"That, what they just did, was amazing!" she exclaimed.
"Quite an amazing way to fight, isn't it? Creates a sense of flexibility and allows you to practice trying to anticipate your opponent's next move… That is what you'll be learning."
"Wait, you expect me to learn all that?"
"Well, not in one sitting, but I can teach you the basics and you can work off of that. We'll have to move this at a fast pace since we all have work to do, but a team is only as strong as their weakest link, therefore this is all quite necessary for you to remember."
"Alright," she said with a nervous look in her eyes.
"So, are you ready to get started?"
"Uh, sure. I guess so."
"In that case; first lesson…" With a single sudden lunge, Ryuzaki had made his way into the air, far above Dagas' small stature, and with one graceful swoop had curved himself all the way over Dagas' body. Before she could even contemplate what was going on, Ryuzaki had already gotten behind her, leaning on all fours out of her sight range. She struggled to make haste and turn around to see what was going on, but she had only just turned her head around to see her boss jut out his right leg, sending her flying straight down to the ground. With such a powerful, sudden move, she was left rubbing the back of her neck where it could have snapped if he had actually been seriously fighting an opponent.
Within a few seconds, Ryuzaki had already gotten back onto his feet to look down at Dagas who was still a little hazy of what had just happened. As he held out his hand to help her up, he continued with, "… always know what your opponent's next move is. Without that knowledge, you'll become a very easy target to nail."
"Yeah, I'll definitely keep that in mind," she squeaked out in a raspy tone before taking hold of his hand.
"Well then, if you're not injured at all from the fall, are you ready to continue?"
"Uh… I would say no if I wasn't obligated to continue," she said with a sigh.
"Good. Now, although that was the first move I've shown you, it is far too advanced, so you have nothing to fear about starting there. Like I said, we'll start with the basics."
"Thank god! If that was what he calls "basic" I think I might have had to have a purposeful aneurism," she thankfully thought.
For the rest of the morning until noon, Ryuzaki and the other two displayed some of the basics of the martial art. Knowing how Dagas was upset that she couldn't defend herself, Ryuzaki made sure to start off with showing her some defensive moves after she learned the basic movements of the art. By the end of the lesson, she was able to block or avoid most of the moves that Matt and Mello had thrown at her. With Dagas being a visual learner, most of what she was taught came easy for her to remember and understand.
By about 12:15, the lesson was over, and surprisingly, the crowd that had been there when Dagas had first arrived had stayed the entire time to watch every move they made. True, one or two had left due to other plans, but both wished they had stayed. By the end, all of the gym people, who had originally come to work out, were now badly imitating some of the basic poses as if they were 10 year olds trying to play ninja. At this, Matt and Mello had now found an excuse to laugh at the people who had been laughing at them before. It truly was a foolish display, but it got a few laughs, not only from Matt and Mello, but from a few other people who were walking past the huge window to get to the pool.
"What are you guys supposed to be? Samurai disco dancers?" Matt called over before hysterically laughing at his own joke.
"If that means you are too, then I guess so," heartily replied a cocky woman who was making a strange crane pose.
"Alright, that's enough. We need to be heading back," Ryuzaki told them as he slipped on his beat up sneakers.
"Hey, wait a sec!" called a younger man who really needed that workout time. "What was with those martial arts? Oh! Are you guys ninjas? Are you from Japan and everything?" he asked with a vibrant smile.
"I suppose you could say were ninjas. It's not like we're in any sort of ninja secret society though," Matt said with a shrug.
"Super sneaky squeaky ninja society!" Dagas quietly squeaked.
"What?" Mello asked with a sudden look of confusion. He turned to look at Dagas in an instant, looking at her like she had just swallowed a coat.
"Uh… nothing!" she quickly said.
"Ah, whatever," he sighed as he made his way to the door.
Once the three had left and the glass door had closed behind them, the slightly pudgy man said with the vibrant smile back on his face, "Sweet! We just met ninjas! God, I can't wait to tell Trevor when I get home!"
"Yeah, why don't you tell him first that you need liposuction," said the cocky woman before walking to one of the rowing machines.
"Ouch, you just broke me," he groaned before grabbing his water and getting back to what he had come here for.
"Well that went better than I had thought it would," Dagas said with a satisfied smile.
"I must admit, you did great for your first day," Ryuzaki commended.
"Why thank you, good sir!" she said in a slight British accent.
"Heh, so Ryuzaki, what do we have to get done when we get back? Do you have anything specific in mind?" Matt asked.
"Actually, I have something for all of you to do."
"What would that be?" Mello asked.
"Well, I was planning on you and Dagas looking up some specific facts related to the information Miss Synclare gave us last night."
"And what will I be doing?" Matt asked, wanting to be included in the work.
"You, Matt; I have something special in mind for you to do. I expect that it will be something that can truly put your skills to good use."
"Uh… what does that mean?" he slightly stuttered, hoping it wouldn't be anything too extreme.
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," he said in a forewarning tone. "All I can say is that I would suggest being prepared for anything."
"Oh joy..." he said, suppressing a groan. "Would this happen to be on location work?"
"As I said, you'll find out soon enough," he repeated.
"… Yeah, on location it is."
