The Dragon Warrior Blues
This was an easy one to do. This is also one of my favorite episodes of the anime too so it was a blast to adapt. It's easily my shortest session yet but I feel I got this as right as I could of, I think I got the emotion spot on with this one and the hollowness the episode has is I feel captured really well here.
Sessions #9 Ganymede Elegy
Baker should have gotten a good education like his mamma always told he had he would never have got involved in drugs, if he had he would never have killed his dealer for hustling him. If he had then this humiliation would never have happened.
He was tied up in a wagon belonging to a bounty hunter crew, they were delivering him to a nearby police station to claim their reward but that wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing was the people they had left to guard him.
A big bird with a straw hat was staring at him relentlessly, it had been doing this for the past hour and was now really starting to tick Baker off. "What do you want you freak!? Stop staring at me!" Saliva flew out of his mouth from the force of shouting.
It ignored him however and continued to stare at him.
Baker readied himself for another yell but felt a shiver ride up him spine...at least that's what he thought it was, he heard a giggle and started to freak out when a small snake slithered out of his shirt and onto the floor.
"What the hell are you?" He snarled. The snake ignored him like the bird and started to move around Baker as if sizing him up. The bird watched the snake assess him for a bit before suddenly wriggling up Baker's leg, up his neck and then suddenly bit him on the ear.
He roared out in pain and shook his head desperately trying to rid himself of the reptile, he didn't see but the bird shook his head and did a face-palm at his comrade's weirdness.
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Ping was up front steering the 'Bebop' with one hand, in the other was a pocket watch he had been staring at for the past five minutes.
3 Years Ago
Ping stood in the open doorway of his apartment, rain splattered behind him coating the windows with moisture. On the table in front of him was a pocket watch that was sitting on top of a letter.
It must have been left by her.
"Hey Ping" Po said snapping Ping out of his daydream. "Huh?" The goose mumbled back.
"I said how much longer until we stop this damn thing" Po replied referring to the 'Bebop'. Ping put the watch back into his pocket which didn't go unnoticed by the panda, "How long were you standing there? I didn't hear you come in" asked Ping.
"I've been here for a while" he replied with a smirk.
"Oh, I see"
"What's he spacing out about?" Asked Tigress, "Let's park this tub somewhere so we can go and hand over that pathetic bounty head already. I want my reward in nice crisp bills you know what I'm saying?"
Po stuck his head out the window. they weren't in an area that he recognized. "Woah Ping, do you even know where we're going?"
Ping frowned, "Of course I do. I swear you two can be so obnoxious. You can't rush genius my friends. We're going to Ganymede because that's where we were told to drop Baker, I know the way and I know for a fact that we're nearly there so shut up both of you."
Tigress smirked, "Ganymede's your home town right? You weren't thinking of some sweet thing from your past were you? Someone who maybe cried over you?" Ping cleared his throat uncomfortably and dodged the question.
"Or maybe, it was someone who made you cry."
Ping clenched his fist, "Didn't I just say you were obnoxious!"
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Unlike many other cities in China Ganymede had a firm security team that checked who came in and out through the town, this was done via a toll booth system where you'd go up to the booth, explain who you are and your business and you were quickly assessed on whether you were wanted there. For many people this seemed strange as Ganymede was a simple fishing down that was mostly built around a dock area.
It wasn't without its problems however as it was well known that this was where loan sharks and some small time mobsters liked to make business.
Ping, Po and Tigress spent the rest of the trip in silence...besides the noises made by Baker due to Crane and Viper's assistance.
As they reached the booth Ping hopped out of the 'Bebop' and made the rest of the trip on foot followed by Po and Tigress.
"Hello, this is Ganymede Police regarding your..." The old looking Dhole stopped talking when he saw Ping. The goose gained a wide grin, "Donnely!" He yelled happily. "Oh man Ping! I can't believe you're back!"
Donnely exited the booth and walked around to see his friend, he held his hand out and Ping shook it. "Yeah its you, the top of your head is looking a little bit sparse but apart from that same old dog." Ping rubbed his head self-consciously, "Yeah yeah, long time no see bud."
"I haven't seen you in what, seven maybe eight years. What's up with the sudden homecoming? You here for work or just getting into trouble like the old days?"
"I have a bounty to hand over to you boys." Po handed him the paperwork. "Verification number EX41825. Baker Poncherero."
Donnely took the paperwork off of Ping and read it over, "So you're a bounty hunter? Never thought I'd hear that from the guy they called 'The Black Dog', once you got your teeth into something you never let go of it."
Ping smiled at his old nickname. "I figured you'd be retired by now, you were a vet even when I first started."
Donnely gave a light hearted scowl, "No way! I'm still on active duty, hell I'm busier then ever so don't judge time on your scale you bald bastard!" They both shared a hearty laugh.
Tigress whispered to Po, "So he used to be a cop huh. That explains it"
"What's that?" He replied.
"Why we can't get along for five minutes."
Donnely scratched his head for a second, "Now lemme think, what was her name? Y'know...yeah that's it Elise!" Ping's smile faded quickly and he coughed uncomfortably.
The dhole ignored this and carried on. "Yeah she's got a little joint down at 'Marvis'. You remember? Down at the old port. The bar's called La Fin, since the recession I hear she's got a lot of debts to pay off, I'm sure its not easy for a women living alone and trying to keep up while trying to keep her body and soul together. You know how it is."
Ping nodded slowly. He turned to Po and Tigress, "You deal with the bounty head I've...got something to take care of." Donnely, Po and Tigress watched Ping walk into Ganymede wordlessly.
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Po and Tigress walked out of the station having just deposited their catch. Baker was more then grateful at being in prison after having to deal with Viper and Crane for the past couple of hours.
Tigress snorted, "Sense of justice and duty huh?."
Po looked at her with an unreadable expression, "Its the first time he's home in years, of course he's going to go see her."
He started to walk away but Tigress grabbed his arm, "Y'know he's kidding himself if he thinks his old girlfriend is still carrying a torch for him."
Po grabbed her hand and took it off of him, "And you're kidding yourself if you think every woman in the world is like you" Po started to walk away again, "Their not y'know" he finished.
Tigress shrugged,"You men are such hopeless romantics"
She didn't see it but Po had a small smile on his face.
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Ping walked through the small fishing town looking at how everything had changed. Buildings that once gleamed now had moss covering their walls and on his way to find Elise the goose saw many people lying in the streets shivering and hungry. He ignored them however, he wasn't there to help anybody...and he couldn't even if he wanted to.
He reached La Fin rather quickly, for him it was a bit too quickly as he still hadn't worked out what he was going to say. Ping looked down and saw that the sign to the bar was on the ground with a massive gash through it, he frowned when he thought of Elise being muscled by some guy. He smiled to himself as he found himself getting angry with that image, he was getting emotional and that would only make this more awkward.
He took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
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Ping didn't expect the place to be full. His eyes scanned the joint and only one person was sitting at the bar, there wasn't anybody behind it. The guy at the bar was a leopard who was scowling into his glass of dark brown liquid, being a drinker Ping recognized it as whiskey. He was wearing a distinctive yellow coat, the rest of his figure was behind the bar.
"Excuse me." The leopard looked up at him as if just noticing he was there. "This is 'La Fin' right?"
"Yeah" the leopard folded his arms and pulled them towards himself, "Who are you?" He asked icily. Ping bit his lip. If he didn't know any better he would have guessed the leopard was waiting for someone else to come in instead of him.
Ping smiled at him to put him more at ease, "I'm a friend of Elise's, I...haven't been around here in while." Ping sighed internally. "Nice one old man. I made it sound as if I'd just thought of that before he asked, now I'll look more suspicious. Thinking about Elise is making me do mistakes reserved for rookies."
The leopard put his hand inside his coat, Ping tensed himself for a fight. "Elise is...gone" he said softly.
"Ping?" Came a familiar voice. Said goose whirled around and saw Elise poking her head from in between a curtain, Ping could now see that the curtain had been covering a door which she had obviously been standing on the other side of.
She pushed the curtain aside and walked out to greet him. "Is it really you?" The leopard stood up and scowled at Ping which went unnoticed as he couldn't take his eyes off of Elise.
She turned a firm but soft glance over to the yellow coated leopard. "Rhint, he is my guest. You don't need to worry, it'll be alright."Rhint took his paw out from jacket and skulked off into the door that Elise had just come out of. There was the sound of his footsteps and then the slamming of a distant door.
Elise walked behind the bar, "So then..." she started. "Are you sure you don't mind?" Ping blurted out. "No" she reached under the bar and produced two shot glasses and a bottle of some dark looking liquid, "So how about it?" She said with a soft smile.
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Elise poured the alcohol into the glass with a forlorn look. "You're my last customer" she said simply inviting Ping into a conversation.
"I'm closing shop" she explained. "The chips don't come in like they used to and the whole area is just getting run down. I'm thinking about moving to another town somewhere." Ping grabbed the glass and stared into it.
"Do you get in over your head?" He asked bluntly, "Business mortgages can be high and no banker in the world will ever be understanding. It must be hard for you to manage."
She giggled, "Its so like you to worry about stuff like that." The smile receded slightly, "No, I'll work it all out once I'm resettled. Don't worry, I'm here with Rhint, its going to be all okay."
Ping nodded and took a swig of his drink, he felt the taste of bitterness but considered the option that it wasn't from the drink. "You mean that guy that was here?" He tried to not let the emotion creep into his voice. Elise didn't hear it fortunately, "Yeah, why?"
Ping smiled, "You know why."
Elise frowned, "You must have heard that we're married. We have three children." Ping's beak opened in shock and he tried to hide the sickening feeling that was rising in his stomach.
She looked at his expression and burst out laughing, "I was just joking. Rhint is my boyfriend." There was an awkward pause for a second, "What about you? You must be married" she replied. Ping shook his head "No just wandering around with some weirdos" he smiled when he said it however betraying the illusion of indifference.
"And on top of that I'm a bounty hunter now." Ping reached into his pocket and while he was doing that Elise's whole expressions changed to worry when she had heard his new chosen profession.
Ping placed the watch onto the bar and moved his hand off of it so that Elise could see what it was. She looked with a blank expression at it though Ping could see that she was trying to divorce herself emotionally from the situation. "You remember?" He asked trying not to make it sound like an accusation, like he was almost daring her to say "No."
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Po walked down the streets with his hands in his pockets minding his own business. He would give Ping all the time he needed to resolve his past, god knows his own past had interfered with his comrades enough already (Sessions #5).
The panda felt a tap on the shoulder,, he turned around and saw the dhole from earlier. "Hey, your...David right?" asked Po, the dhole raised an eyebrow in a show of annoyance "I'm Donnely, how don't you remember that? It was only about half an hour ago that we met." Po shrugged indifferently.
"Whatever, you're Ping's bounty hunter partner right?" Po nodded, "Well do you know where he is?" Po shook his head, "I don't know but he's on some personal business." The dhole took a roll of parchment out from his uniform and handed it over to Po, "I have some information on a new bounty if you wanted to take it."
Po took it from him and opened it up, "This one hasn't gone public yet, so you'll have a head start over everyone else." Po's eyes scanned the information.
Name: Rhint Celonias
Age: 27
Species: Leopard
Crime: Murder in the First Degree
"He had a run-in with a money guy named Lawn Rentsueo, another lowlife scam artist and now Lawn is dead." Po closed the folder and looked questioningly at him, "Yeah and?"
"Rhint is Elise's main squeeze, I just you guys would want to know."
"Man..." Po thought, he thought for a second.
"So, what's the bounty on this guy?"
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Elise held the watch in her hand, it rested delicately there like a raindrop on a leaf. "Back then, when I got home from work, you were always there waiting for me, and that was all I needed. Just you." Ping took a long swig of his drink and waited for a reply.
"But that day, when I came home after work and walked through the pouring rain. The only thing there for me was an empty house, that pocket watch...and a small note with one word written on it."
"Farewell."
"For some reason, I didn't feel sad or broken up, it just didn't seem real like I was living someone else's life for a minute. But slowly I realized that it was real and that this was actually happening to me, that you were gone. Then little by little I felt a huge part of me just go numb."
Ping took a deep breath and kept his stare down into his glass while he continued.
"After six months I made a kind of bet with myself, a pledge. That I would leave this town, my job and my old life completely if you hadn't returned by the time that the watch had stopped." Ping finished his drink and placed it back onto the bar.
"I didn't come here to blame you I just...I just wanted to know why, why you just disappeared like that."
Elise finally replied. "The way you talk about it, you seem to think that time really has stopped here, that's a story from long ago...and I've already forgotten about it, time never stands still." She placed the watch in front of Ping.
"I've got to go."
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Rhint stared out into the bay thinking about the night he killed that loan shark, it still gave him the shivers. He had never taken a life before then and the feeling of the knife going into the guys rib cage and the blood exploding onto his jacket was something he would never forget.
He shivered again and pulled his jacket tighter around him, it didn't help that the then blood stained jacket is the same one he was wearing currently.
He heard footsteps and turned around quickly expecting a fight. Instead he saw that goose from before walking out of La Fin, he watched him walk for a bit before the goose turned and looked straight at him with an unreadable expression. Rhint tried to show no fear but the goose just wouldn't look away.
After what felt like an eternity he turned his stare away and carried on walking to his destination.
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"He's...a bounty hunter!?" Rhint asked letting the panic creep into his voice. Elise touched his shoulder gently trying to calm him down. He put his head into his hands and shivered, "He's after me, I know it!" he slipped off of the bar stool he had been sitting on and starting to cry, "It's all over!" He wailed.
Elise knelt next to him and hugged him, "It's not your fault" she whispered soothingly, "It's because I borrowed money from that crook." Her heart hammered against her rib cage as she thought about the trouble she had brought on the two of them, a salty tear fell onto Rhint's head.
"I should have never gotten you mixed up in this" she said sorrowfully.
"If I get caught, then nothing can save me. Nothing, I killed him" Rhint said dispassionately.
Elise was quiet for a second.
"Let's go" she said determinedly, Rhint looked up at her. "Let's just run away now and leave this place behind."
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Po ran across the rooftops on Ganymede looking for Rhint, running around an old fishing village was starting to get boring and Po had almost giving up before he saw Rhint and who he presumed to be Ping's old girlfriend running alongside him by a dock. The scene of a couple running from a bounty seemed like deja vu to him (Session #1).
He smirked to himself, "Well, it looks like all my good karma is paying off" he quipped to himself before descending to ground level in front of them. They gasped in shock at a muscular panda appearing as if from nowhere.
"Sorry but this business" Po said flashing another smile, he dropped it quickly when he saw how scared Elise seemed to be though not for her own safety in seemed. Po sighed, "Look, I don't want this to get ugly, if you surrender I promise I won't hurt you and see that you're taken fairly to be exchanged for my salary."
Rhint grit his teeth, "Are you a bounty hunter come to get me?" Po nodded slowly. Rhint pulled out a knife and pointed it at Po with shaking hands, "I killed a man" Rhint said shakily, "Don't make me kill you too."
Po looked at the blade and then took a step forward, "That would be tremendously ambitious of you." He replied with a sneer, "if you want a fight, I just want you to remember I gave you a chance to surrender and it's still available if you point that thing away from me in the next ten seconds."
The air was heavy with tension for the next couple of seconds, until...
"What are you doing panda?" said Ping from behind him Elise smiled when she saw him, convinced he was here to help them out. Po sighed internally, things had now gotten more complicated. "I'm getting a bounty head. Ping go away he's mine."
Ping stepped next to him, he tried to avoid Elise's gaze for the minute, instead concentrating on his partner. "What did he do?" Po frowned, "I told you to go away, this doesn't concern you. He killed a loan shark, Donnely told me the whole story." Ping's beak hung open in shock for a second before he closed it and clenched his fist.
"Po, go back to the Bebop, I'll handle this." Po tore his gaze away from his target and looked at his partner, the goose gazed at him with an unreadable expression which Po recognized from having felt it himself. Because of this nostalgia he sighed and began to walk away, he took a few steps before stopping. "You're not going to let him get away are you?"
"This used to be my beat, I'm like a black dog, when I get my teeth into something I never let go. I have no regrets about her but this is something I need to handle." This seemed to satisfy Po who smirked and replied with "Justice and Duty ha, I'll see you back at the 'Bebop' with the money."
Po left and only the love triangle was left, Elise's smile dropped when she saw Ping's determined expression. "Ping...STAY BACK!" She yelled. Ping started to walk towards them menacingly, Rhint started shaking badly and fell to his knees, Elise grabbed the knife he had been wielding and pointed it at her former lover.
"Please Ping stay back" she said a little less forcefully that time. The goose ignored the pitiful sight of the scared leopard and his love. Elise's hand started to shake, "There are other bounties, you don't need this one." Ping actually replied, "If I let him go now, someone else will be after him tomorrow and then you'll be an accomplice, there won't be a guarantee either that you won't be hurt."
He got within 10 feet of her, "You still have time Eli-" "STOP PROTECTING ME!" Ping stopped in shock, "That's how you always were back then. You decided everything. In the end you were always right. When I was with you I never had to do anything by myself. When I was with you all I had to do was hang onto your arm like a child without a care in the world."
She started to cry and dropped the knife onto the ground, "I wanted to live my own life. Make my own decisions. Even if they were terrible mistakes." Rhint got to his knees while Ping was distracted and tried to make a break for it, the goose reacted instantly and tackled him to the ground.
"NO PLEASE STOP! JUST LET ME GO! I DON'T WANT TO GO TO PRISON JUST ME BE WITH ELISE PLEASE!" Ping looked at him coldly and then punched him in the face, flooring him and silencing him.
Rhint once again looked a pitiful sight looking up at Ping through tear stained eyes and the form of a bruise starting to show from Ping's strike. "You'll survive this. Be strong, and take good care of her."
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Donnely grabbed Rhint and escorted him to the station, before leaving the leopard threw a last desperate look at Elise who was standing next to Ping worrying about Rhint. "Donnely said he may be able to get off with a self-defense plea" he said to reassure her.
"So what are you going to do now?" He asked her. "Well we won't be on the run" she said coldly staring at the place where Rhint had been a second ago. "I'll just wait there at my tavern for Rhint." Ping smiled, "I don't think you'll be waiting very long, because time never stands still, y'know?"
Elise turned to look at him but he was already walking in the other direction.
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Ping reached into his pocket and felt the lump of the watch still in there, he turned to the ocean withdrew the watch and threw it as hard as he could.
See You Dragon Warrior
Teaser
A terror never seen before has assaulted the 'Bebop'! Caught by the venomous fangs of the unseen enemy! Another victim falls! Who or what is the unstoppable enemy that refuses to show itself?! A symphony of shivers that will send you to the darkest trenches of your mind!
Next session Toys in the Attic! Once you have started reading, you will never be able to escape!
Just as a question to my readers. The little notes I put in these stories to point out the references to the previous chapters e.g. (Session #5), do you find this patronizing or does it make the story feel more connected?
