A/N: I know I said I'd go back and forth between Kaorin and the main group, but as it turns out Kaorin's part ended up being long enough for a chapter all by itself. Not only that, but the longest chapter to date. The next chapter will feature the main group.
-Just before noon at the police station-
Kaorin lay alone in the darkness on one of the cots. Since she was alone, Kaorin didn't dare even attempt to maintain the generator. The result was that the power in the entire police station was out, so even in the middle of the day, the cells were bathed in darkness. The others had also taken all of the radios, leaving Kaorin with no way to contact them. Not that a signal was likely to reach them with the antenna powered down. So Kaorin was all alone, cut off from her friends to reflect on herself and her actions, although things weren't quite going as planned.
Even though it had barely been a full day since the others had left for Toudai, Kaorin already found herself completely preoccupied with thoughts of her absent friends. Last night's rain couldn't have boded well for them, and that fact worried the already frazzled woman to no end. She was supposed to be using this time to reflect on herself, and yet here she was simply wishing she had gone ahead and joined her friends. "I'm such an idiot," Kaorin berated herself as she stared up at the ceiling from the comfort of the cell's cot. "Or maybe I really am losing it."
Kaorin did her best to push the distracting thoughts from her mind as she glanced over at the box of supplies that Chihiro had left her. Even with careful rationing she only had enough food and water left for a few days, and odds were that she would have to go out to get more before the others returned. It was a very despairing prospect. Retrieving supplies was a dangerous endeavor even with several people. Going alone would be a bloody death waiting to happen. Kaorin had been beside herself on whether she should even try to go out and try to gather more food and water when she ran out or if she should just stay in the cell and shoot herself if her friends didn't return before she started to die of thirst. She was leaning towards the latter.
As if to reassure herself, Kaorin withdrew her pistol from its holster and ejected the clip. "Why do we even still carry these?" Kaorin wondered aloud as she stared at the relatively small ammunition. The bullets might do well enough against the smaller bugs, but the big ones barely even flinch at small arms fire. If anything, the only things pistols had threatened recently would be Kaorin and her friends. Enraged by her own wandering thoughts, Kaorin angrily threw the pistol and clip. While the clip clattered uneventfully through the bars, the pistol slammed into the bars and discharged. Thankfully the bullet didn't even come close to Kaorin, although the discharge did manage to scare the woman so badly that she actually fell out of the cot.
"Damn it all," Kaorin cursed herself as she painfully got up off of the floor. She reluctantly retrieved the pistol although she abandoned the clip that had strayed beyond the bars. Had the others been there, surely Chihiro would have chewed her out for the accidental discharge. Yomi and Kagura probably would have been angry as well, while Tomo and Osaka probably would have enjoyed it. Kaorin shook her head, dispelling the thoughts. It would seem that no matter what, thoughts and memories of her friends invaded her mind. Kaorin grumbled incoherently as she sat back down on the cot and loaded a fresh clip into the firearm. She then pulled back on the slide, ejecting the spent shell and loading a fresh round into the chamber. The familiar tink sound drew Kaorin's attention to the spent shell as it rolled along the concrete floor. The casing slowly came to a stop next to the bars where something much more significant caught Kaorin's eye.
At first Kaorin could just barely make out the front half of a shoe in the low light. As she looked up, however, she found a short, shotgun-wielding figure cautiously entering the cell's field of view. With an amazing speed, Kaorin brought the pistol up to aim at the figure as she stood up. "Who's there?" she forcefully demanded, firing a warning shot dangerously close to the intruder. The startled figure stumbled backwards and fell down, dropping the shotgun in the process. "Who are you?" Kaorin barked before the dazed intruder had a chance to respond. "Why are you here?"
"Don't shoot!" the figure begged in a clearly feminine voice as she raised her arms in the universal sign of surrender.
Kaorin cautiously kept a bead on her target as she blindly groped for her rifle. As soon as she had a hand on it, Kaorin dropped the pistol to the ground as she brought the rifle to bear. Luckily, this time the pistol didn't misfire as it clattered to the ground. With her rifle in hand, she reached forward and clicked on the attached flashlight. The beam of light revealed the mystery girl's features as she reflexively shielded her eyes from the intrusive light. The intruder turned out to be a girl who appeared to be several years younger than Kaorin. With blonde curls and blue eyes, the younger girl looked anything but Japanese. Before Kaorin had a chance to harass the girl any further, the undeniable sounds of a bug echoed from within the police station.
It didn't take Kaorin to decide on the fate of the girl. As soon as she heard the sounds of a bug she rushed to the cell's door and worked the lock, abandoning her rifle. "Get in!" Kaorin urged as she swung the door open. "The bugs can't get through the bars!"
The interloper didn't hesitate at all as she grabbed her gun and darted into the cell. As soon as she cleared the door, Kaorin quickly relocked it and retrieved her rifle before rapidly backing away from the bars just as the insect barged into the area. The mystery girl let out a small yelp before aiming her weapon at the giant insect as the beast threw itself against the bars and savagely attempted to break through. "Ha! You can't get through, huh?" the mystery girl taunted the insect.
"We're safe from bugs in here," Kaorin reassured as she shifted her focus away from the flailing bug and to her new cellmate. The girl kept her weapon trained on the bug, a fact that gave Kaorin at least a little reassurance as to the intruder's intentions. Completely unsure of what she should do, Kaorin stood there for several seconds watching as the girl kept aiming at the bug. She was only snapped out of her stupor by the sound of the interloper's gun going off. At the sound, Kaorin instinctively brought her rifle to bear as she aimed at the younger girl.
"I got it!" the intruder boasted as she turned to Kaorin with a smile. As soon as she saw Kaorin intently aiming at her, however, the smile quickly faded into a much smaller, uncertain smile that radiated trepidation.
Somehow the girl reminded her of Tomo in that instant, disarming her resolve quickly. Curious as to what the girl had said, Kaorin slowly and reluctantly moved the light from the intruder over to where the giant insect was. What Kaorin saw surprised her to no end. The giant insect was crumpled on the ground, unmoving. These beasts had been able to withstand entire volleys of bullets and still manage to twitch and flail about, and yet somehow this girl had dropped one instantly with a single shell. "It-with one shot?" Kaorin exclaimed, completely befuddled.
Dismissing Kaorin's aiming at her as simply putting the flashlight on her, the interloper allowed her triumphant smile to return. "Pretty good, huh?" she boasted. "That thing was really squirming around so it was pretty hard to line up a good shot." Kaorin's gaze turned back to the girl, and with it, the flashlight's beam. "Um…could you not point that at me?" she nervously requested.
"S-sorry," Kaorin apologized as she lowered her rifle, although keeping the flashlight's beam still close enough to dimly illuminate the blonde girl. The girl then approached Kaorin while still wearing a smile and outstretched a hand towards Kaorin. Kaorin stared at the hand a moment before warily extending her own hand, offering the younger girl an awkward handshake.
"I'm Asami! Nice to meet'cha!" The girl apparently called Asami exuberantly introduced herself.
"Ka-Kaori," Kaorin told the girl, completely and totally bewildered. Minutes ago she had shot at this girl. She was aggressive and unreasonable towards her, and yet Asami seemed to have totally forgiven her. Despite her psychotic behavior, this girl was acting like they had been friends for years!
"Sorry if I startled you," Asami apologized as she scratched the back of her head, although her smile never faded. "I'd be pretty surprised too if I saw anything other than a bug coming knocking on my door!"
Kaorin shook her head. "N-no," she refuted as she offered a little bow, "I should be the one apologizing!"
Asami laughed. "Yeah, you really gave me a scare, too! I really thought you were gonna shoot me there for a second." She took in the sight of the dead bug a moment before continuing. "I'd say we're even, but you did pull me in here to save me. So I guess I owe you one!"
Kaorin's mouth moved, but no words came out. To say that she was flabbergasted would be an understatement. This blonde girl had to either be a saint or had a few screws loose. "I-you don't hate me?" Kaorin exclaimed as soon as she found her voice.
"What do you mean?" Asami replied, a bit puzzled. "I don't even know you. Why would I hate you?"
Kaorin stumbled over to the cot and sat down, completely overwhelmed. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find any words. Instead she just sighed and buried her head in her hands as her world seemed to spin. Overcome, she flopped down onto her side as the spell peaked.
"Hey! Hey, are you all right?" Asami shouted as she rushed to Kaorin's side. As if on cue, Kaorin's stomach let out a ravenous growl. "Hungry huh?" she rhetorically asked as Kaorin pulled herself back up into a sitting position. "I'd offer you something, but I didn't bring anything with me aside from ammo and some water."
"I have food," Kaorin assured as she motioned to the box of supplies. "I've just been rationing it to make it last long enough."
"Well, I was working on gathering supplies myself," Asami explained as she held up her weapon, "I came here first in hopes of finding shells for my shotgun when I heard your gunshot. Do you know if there's any here?"
Kaorin shook her head. "Aside from that box of supplies the others took everything with them when they left."
"Others?" Asami exclaimed. "How many? Where did they go? When'll they be back?"
Although Kaorin was taken aback by the sudden forcefulness, she did her best to answer the questions. "My old friends from high school…or at least some of them are still my friends," Kaorin relayed before she started counting on her fingers. "There were eight of us in all, so seven of them. They left yesterday for Toudai to research a vaccine for that virus that killed everybody. And as for when they're coming back, I don't know. I'm not entirely sure they'll come back for the likes of me."
As soon as Kaorin mentioned that they were her old friends from high school, Asami became somewhat skeptical, and as she said that they left just one day prior to look for a vaccine, Asami was certain that there was no way that story could be true. As far as Asami knew, there was no need for a vaccine for those who remained. The only thing she could think of was that, having been alone for so long, Kaorin had come somewhat…unhinged. But to Asami that didn't matter in the least. All she cared about was that she wasn't alone anymore. "That's…ahh…" Asami started, unsure of how to proceed. "So there aren't any shotgun shells here?" she changed the subject, unwilling to press the matter of Kaorin's supposed friends.
Kaorin shook her head as she got up and retrieved her rifle, turning off the light. "The only place I know of to get more ammo is too far away to get there on foot, not that I really want to leave the safety here."
"Let's go!" Asami announced with a smile. "I have a scooter. That'll work, right?"
"N-no!" Kaorin refused. "The engine will attract bugs!"
"Do you think I'm stupid?" Asami questioned rhetorically. "It's electric," she explained as she flashed a victory sign, although it could hardly be seen in the darkness, "so it won't give us away."
"It-it's still too late to go now," Kaorin dodged. "It's too dangerous."
Asami sighed as her smile faded away. "We still have enough time to go find some food, right? Or is there enough here to last until tomorrow?"
"There's enough!" Kaorin offered, albeit a bit too quickly.
"Then let's eat!" Asami exclaimed. "After all, you're hungry, right?"
"I-but...," Kaorin stammered. After gathering her wits a moment, Kaorin sighed. She turned on the light attached to her rifle again, and then laid it on the bed facing the corner with supplies. It illuminated the supplies as well as a car battery wired to a hotplate. "Go ahead and make whatever," Kaorin relented.
"Great!" Asami announced as she rushed over to the box to browse its contents. "I'm actually pretty hungry too," she admitted as she held a can in front of the light to view it. She actually laughed as she finally noticed that it wasn't a flashlight built into the gun, but rather a normal flashlight taped to the barrel of the gun. "That's pretty clever," Asami praised as she replaced the can before picking up the gun and inspecting it. "How'd you get a gun like this, anyway?" she inquired. "This kind of thing is really illegal, right?"
Although a bit alarmed at the stranger picking up her gun, Kaorin allowed it pass as she took a deep breath to steady herself. "It's a Yakuza gun," she explained.
"Whoa! You're Yakuza?" Asami exclaimed in astonishment.
"No," Kaorin nervously refuted with a shake of her head. "I got the weapon from a Yakuza warehouse. That's where you'll find bullets, too."
"You can probably mow through bugs with one of these," Asami presumed as she inspected the weapon closely.
Kaorin shook her head as she got up and moved to the bars. "Not really," she explained as she tried to make out the bug's corpse in the darkness. "It usually takes a few clips to drop one…How did you kill one with just one bullet?"
"It's called a slug, actually," Asami corrected as she pointed the gun at the corpse in order to shine the light on it. "I just hit it in the weak spot. It was really easy since the bars kept it at bay."
"The weak spot?" Kaorin questioned as she inspected the wound left on the corpse.
"You've survived this long and you still haven't figured out where to shoot them?" Asami admonished as she stepped over next to Kaorin. Using the gun and light as a pointer, she highlighted the entrance wound. "This is the best place to shoot them," Asami explained as she pointed to the hole on top of the bug's head near the back of the head. "You have to shoot the top though; it doesn't seem to work if you shoot them from the front or the side. And you have to aim near the back of the head, too. Shoot it in the middle, and it won't go down." Asami then stepped to the side and highlighted the bug's thorax. "It's hard to shoot them there, though. An easier place to shoot is the side of the middle part here," she explained as she popped off a shot to demonstrate. Kaorin jumped at the shot but managed to maintain her composure and continued to listen. "It won't kill them instantly like shooting the top of the head, but it usually takes the fight right out of them."
"I usually just try to shoot them," Kaorin admitted. "If I ever aimed at anything, it would probably be the face.
Asami shook her head despite the darkness. "That doesn't work very well unless maybe you shoot out all of their hundreds of eyes."
"I didn't know that," Kaorin confessed as she stared at the corpse in astonishment. "You'll need to explain that to everyone when they get back."
Asami gave Kaorin a quizzical look but refrained from saying anything. "Enough distractions," she dismissed as she marched back over to the box and set up the light again. "I'm starving!"
After staring at the carcass a bit longer, Kaorin trudged back over to the cot and sat back down. After a few moments of hearing nothing but the sounds of Asami rummaging through her supplies, Kaorin felt as though she had to say something to the relative stranger she was stuck sharing a cell with. "S-so, have you been alone all this time?" Kaorin prodded as she chanced a glance at the blonde girl.
She faltered slightly in her actions. "No," Asami replied. "One of my older brother's friends survived the plague, too, but back when the big ones showed up, we got caught off guard…and I-I couldn't save him."
"I-I'm sorry," Kaorin offered. "I've seen a lot of death, too."
"It happens, yanno," Asami deflected. "Everyone has to go some time. That's why we have to enjoy what we have now, right? After all, we might not live to see tomorrow, so we gotta enjoy today."
Kaorin couldn't help but let a ghost of a smile touch her lips. "It's a lot easier said than done."
Asami laughed at the comment. "Yeah, but not today!" she jovially claimed. "It's not every day that you find someone else that's survived this long! If there was more food here, I'd say we have a feast to celebrate!"
"Don't-don't forget to leave enough for dinner, too," Kaorin reminded the eager blonde.
"Hey!" Asami suddenly exclaimed just after turning on the hotplate. "After we eat, let's go bug hunting!"
"Wh-wh-what?" Kaorin stammered. "Are you insane? We have to stay here where it's safe!"
"But just sitting around is boring," Asami complained. "And besides that, I really wanna try out that gun of yours. You have enough bullets for it, right?"
"That's not the point!" Kaorin argued as she stood up. "It's way too dangerous to go out and actually look for bugs! It's crazy!"
"Yeah," Asami agreed, "but it's fun, too! Hunting something that actually hunts you as well... It's the ultimate game!"
Kaorin just stared blankly at the strange girl. "You're totally crazy, aren't you?" she asked in a deadpan tone.
"It's good to be a little crazy," Asami insisted. "It keeps you from being boring!"
"I give up," Kaorin relented as she flopped back down onto the cot. "Go out and get yourself killed if that's what you really want. I'm going to stay here where it's safe."
"You must be kidding," Asami berated as she turned about and shuffled in the box to look for utensils to cook with. "I have no desire to die; I just want to live!" the blonde girl boisterously claimed as she retrieved a large cooking spoon from the box. "You can't call being boxed up all day in fear 'living', can you?"
Kaorin mumbled an incoherent response as she looked away from the blonde, unwilling to admit to her faults. Gathering her wits over a few seconds, she finally gave Asami a straight answer. "Isn't it better to be cautious?" Kaorin argued. "You'll live longer that way…probably."
"Everybody's gotta go sometime," Asami acknowledged as she dumped the contents of a can into a pan on the hotplate. "You might live longer being safe yet miserable in this cage, but personally, I'd rather die enjoying myself to the fullest. Even if that means I'll die sooner."
"How, with that attitude, have you survived this long?" Kaorin seriously inquired.
Asami laughed in response. "Just lucky, I guess," she dismissed. "So how about it? Have I convinced you to go bug hunting with me? I promise you won't regret it!"
"I refuse," Kaorin sternly replied.
"Well, then," the blonde responded as she motioned to Kaorin's rifle, "can I at least take this baby out for a little while?"
"No!" Kaorin refused as she snatched the weapon up.
"Hey! I can't see!" Asami protested as the light moved away from the hotplate.
Kaorin reluctantly replaced the rifle. "S-sorry," she meekly offered, "but you still can't take it."
"Why not?" Asami argued, "You're not gonna use it just sitting in here all day. I wanna go have fun!"
"What if you die while you're out there?" Kaorin pointed out. "Then I wouldn't have a gun anymore and you…you'd be dead! Doesn't that bother you?"
"Not at all!" the hyperactive blonde retorted. "Besides, I've gone bug hunting a hundred times, and nothing bad's ever happened!"
"A-a hundred times?" Kaorin asked in disbelief.
"Yeah! It's usually really fun!" Asami assured. "You really should come!"
Kaorin stared at the dead giant for a moment as she mulled it over. If this obnoxious girl could go a hundred times and not get hurt, then maybe she had some sort of secret to surviving. After all, Asami did seem to know more about the bugs than the entirety of Kaorin's group. "If-if you show me how to keep safe from the bugs, I'll go," Kaorin decided. "But you have to teach me how to do it!"
"Deal!" Asami happily exclaimed, "I'll show you my secret technique!"
-Just after lunch-
As promised, the duo set out on their bug hunt with Asami excitedly leading the way out of the station with Kaorin's rifle in hand. Kaorin, on the other hand, cautiously exited into the sunlight with more than a little trepidation as she clutched Asami's shotgun tightly. "You're way too slow!" Asami complained as she watched Kaorin exit the building. "You'll have to work hard to keep up!"
"O-okay," Kaorin meekly offered as she stared at the short blonde. It was her first time seeing the girl in the light of day. Despite the heat of summer, Asami sported a light, long-sleeved T-shirt, tan cargo pants, and a simple pair of tennis shoes. More surprising was the girl's figure. Kaorin knew at first glance that she had to be younger than her, but out in the sunlight it appeared as though this girl was barely a teenager, if that. She didn't even stand as tall as Kaorin's shoulders, and she didn't have any figure to speak of. "Hey," Kaorin asked as the small blonde entertained herself by sliding down the railing on the stairs, running back up, and repeating, "How old are you?"
"Seventeen!" Asami boisterously announced as she ceased her antics. "Or really close to that. I'm not really sure 'cause I was born around this time of year." Asami amusedly watched Kaorin's jaw drop in astonishment. "I get that a lot!" the short girl informed Kaorin. "I haven't grown a single centimeter since I was eight 'cause I got hit by a car," she explained with her smile never fading. "But that's okay with me. I just wish that these would grow," Asami announced as she groped her own chest.
"You-you got hit by a car and stopped growing?" Kaorin babbled out before she could restrain herself.
"Yeah, I actually died for a whole minute!" she boasted as she once again went down the stairs by sliding down the handrail. She then pointed to a scooter parked at the curb and turned to Kaorin with a smile. "That's my scooter, but I think we should walk," Asami insisted, completely changing the subject as she started to walk off in a seemingly random direction.
Due to the jovial nature of the strange girl, Kaorin couldn't judge whether or not the sudden subject change was to steer things away from the sensitive issue. Either way, Kaorin decided not to press her luck as she trailed after Asami. Kaorin actually got caught up in her thoughts and didn't even seem to worry about their trek until Asami came to an abrupt stop in front of a dark, ominous alley. "I-do you really plan to go through there?" Kaorin stammered.
"Yeah, it's the fastest way, after all!" she enthusiastically informed Kaorin. She then drew in a deep breath, and, cupping her hands around her mouth, screamed at the top of her lungs into the alley, "Yahoo!"
Alarmed, Kaorin raised the shotgun and rapidly looked about in all directions. "What are you doing?"
"Bugs are dumb," Asami claimed as she stared into the alley with the aid of the flashlight. "If there were any bugs skulking in there, they would have come out when I yelled," she explained as she fearlessly strolled into the alley.
"This is crazy!" Kaorin accused as she opted to stay in the sunlight. "You're crazy!"
"I know!" Asami shamelessly affirmed. "It's really fun, huh?"
"This…this is your secret technique?" Kaorin wailed, "I want to go back!"
"Hurry up!" Asami ordered as she noticed Kaorin faltering. "You'll miss all the fun!"
Kaorin watched in muted horror as Asami retreated into the alley. Unwilling to follow the girl into certain danger, Kaorin backed away and considered going back to the police station. Just as Kaorin turned and started to retreat towards the station, the unmistakable sound of gunfire reached her ears. Without a second thought, Kaorin spun around and darted back to the alley. Looking down the alley, however, she found no signs of her diminutive companion. The gunfire, it would seem, was coming from all the way on the other side of the alley. Kaorin took several deep breaths as she summoned her courage before sprinting through the darkness to the other side. As soon as she made it back into the light she found Asami in the middle of the street, taunting a severely wounded insect.
Asami laughed as she noticed Kaorin finally arrive. "I told you that if you didn't keep up you'd miss all the fun!" The flailing insect tried in vain to crawl after the spunky blonde, but just as it approached, she clambered onto a car and out of the beast's reach. Then, shouting a battle cry, the crazed girl jumped down onto the bug! The bug instantly tried to throw the girl off itself, but the badly hurt critter couldn't muster the energy. Asami then placed the muzzle of the rifle against the bug's head and fired a single shot, causing the insect to collapse completely. The small girl laughed again as she patted the dead bug's head. "Now this is a trophy!" She then dismounted the bug as she exchanged clips in her weapon.
"You-you're completely insane!" Kaorin berated. "You could have been killed! I nearly shot you!"
Asami just laughed at the comment. "Yanno, I don't think I've ever been shot before," she stupidly informed Kaorin. "Now that would be a scar I could brag about!" Asami then looked about herself a moment before continuing. "Where would a good place be?" she wondered aloud. "Do you think it'd kill me if you shot me in the stomach?"
Kaorin stared at the girl, completely dumbfounded. "You want me to shoot you?" she practically screamed at the girl.
"Yeah!" Asami excitedly replied. "It'd be really cool! Just don't kill me, okay?"
"I-I'm not going to shoot you!" Kaorin refused.
"Ah," Asami started as the realization hit her, "you have a good point. I don't have a whole lot of shells left for that thing." She then awkwardly positioned the assault rifle so that the muzzle was against her stomach.
"Don't!" Kaorin pleaded as she rushed to the girl and tackled her to the ground before she could pull the trigger.
Asami didn't miss a beat as she abandoned the rifle and started struggling with Kaorin. "So you wanna wrestle, huh?" she asked rhetorically as she tried to pin Kaorin's shoulders. "I might be small, but I have a lot of practice at this sort of thing!"
Kaorin managed to slip free of the overly rambunctious girl and jumped away from her holding the shotgun in one hand and the rifle in the other. "Now," Kaorin choked out as she tried to catch her breath, "I am not going to shoot you, and you are not going to shoot yourself. Understood?"
"Why not?" Asami demanded as she jumped to her feet, completely forgetting about her would-be wrestling match. "It'd be a really cool scar!"
"It'd kill you!" Kaorin retorted.
Asami blinked a couple of times before glancing down at her own torso. "You really think so?" she seriously inquired before pointing a few centimeters left of her bellybutton. "Even if you shot me over here in the side?"
"Yes!" Kaorin exasperatedly exclaimed.
The crazed girl then glanced about her body again before extending her left hand. "If you shot me in the hand, I wouldn't die, right?" Asami asked rhetorically. "Shoot my hand!"
"No!" Kaorin refused. "I'm not shooting you anywhere with any gun at any time!"
"Why not?" Asami repeated her previous outburst. "There's no way it'll kill me if you shoot my hand!"
"Are you even thinking at all?" Kaorin demanded. "If you get shot anywhere, you'll be incapacitated for weeks! And I'm not dragging you back to the police station and taking care of you for weeks, assuming you'd even live that long!"
Asami looked thoughtful for a moment as she seemed to closely examine her left hand. "You're right," she mumbled. "If I get shot, there's no way I'll be able to play anymore." She then looked to Kaorin with an apologetic smile. "Forget I said anything. Please don't shoot me."
Kaorin just slowly shook her head as she tried to get a handle on things. This girl's train of thought was more than a little skewed. But at least it seemed as though she could be reasoned with. Kaorin reluctantly extended the rifle towards Asami. "You promise you won't shoot yourself?" Kaorin asked.
"Are you stupid?" Asami asked rhetorically as she snatched the gun. "I'd have to be retarded to shoot myself!"
"And-and don't shoot me either!" Kaorin demanded as she realized that she may have just made a huge mistake in relinquishing the firearm.
"You're not a bug!" Asami dumbly informed Kaorin. "Why would I shoot you?"
"I-uh…just wanted to be clear that I'm perfectly fine without having any scars," Kaorin pleaded, trying to at least make sense in the strange girl's warped mind.
Asami laughed at the comment. "You're such a bore, Kaori! Scars are proof that you've had a ton of fun in life!" She then set the rifle aside and removed her backpack before taking off her shirt to reveal scars all over her arms and torso as well as showing that she wasn't wearing anything underneath the shirt. "See? I've had lots and lots of fun!"
Appalled at both the disfiguring scars and Asami's lack of modesty, Kaorin was completely stupefied. After stammering out incomprehensible gibberish for a few seconds, she was able to blurt out what was at the forefront of her mind. "Don't… I... Put your shirt back on!"
"No way," Asami flatly refused as she packed her shirt away into her pack before shouldering the bag. "It's too hot to wear it." She then picked up the rifle before jumping on top of the car again. "It's strange," Asami commented as she glanced about. "Usually its friends would've shown up by now."
Kaorin's mind reeled again, this time in disbelief that this psycho girl's antics had managed to make her almost completely forget the situation. "I-you killed your bug!" Kaorin insisted, "Let's go back now! And put your shirt on!"
"That wasn't part of our hunt!" Asami dismissed with a wave of her hand. "That was the bug's hunt. Let's hope ours doesn't end the same way!"
"I don't care whose hunt it was!" Kaorin quickly refuted. "You got to try out the gun. Now let's get back to where it's safe!"
"But I haven't shown you my secret technique yet!" Asami argued as she jumped off of the car and pointed with the rifle. "There is a subway station a few blocks down from here. We should get a bit closer to it and find a good spot to hunt from."
Kaorin shook her head. "I won't go," she refused. "If you want to show me some psychotic technique, then go ahead and show it, but we're going back to the station."
"I don't care what you say!" Asami said with rebellion evident in her voice as she jumped off of the car and started off in the direction she indicated earlier. "I've already made up my mind. I'm going hunting." She then pointedly looked back at Kaorin. "You can make your own decision: come with me, or go home alone."
"No!" Kaorin refuted, "No, no, no! I'm older than you; that means I call the shots! We're going back!"
Asami quickly turned around to face Kaorin. "Make me!" she challenged as she pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue at Kaorin. The tiny blonde then turned and began to sprint away from Kaorin.
"Get back here, you brat!" Kaorin shouted as she started after the overly-energetic girl. "You're going to get yourself killed!"
Asami led Kaorin through the rubble of the streets. Jumping over and around cars and other debris, the crazed blonde came to a dead end as she ran into a building. Asami then put her back to the wall and awaited Kaorin's arrival with a huge grin. "That was fun, huh?" she shouted as a furious Kaorin approached.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kaorin scolded the still-smiling girl.
"We're here!" Asami announced as she pointed to the building behind her. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it? Having fun won't kill you, yanno!"
Kaorin opened her mouth to yell at the girl, but no words came. She took several deep breaths as she glared daggers at the idiosyncratic girl. "Do you have any idea how stupid and dangerous that was? That this whole fiasco is?" Kaorin demanded as soon as she had put her thoughts in order. "You could've been killed!"
"Killed by what?" Asami challenged with a smirk. "I think the real question is do you know how dangerous this all is? 'Cause you obviously don't!"
"What?" Kaorin angrily retorted. "This is stupidly dangerous!" she insisted, "We're in constant danger out here on the streets!"
"Wrong!" Asami countered as she stuck her tongue out at Kaorin again. "We aren't in any danger in the sunlight for a good two or three blocks around where we killed the bug," she seriously informed Kaorin as she pointed to where the corpse was, almost a block away from their current position. "The gunfire would've brought any bugs that close to us. Since none came, that means that this particular area doesn't have any other big bugs crawling around!" Asami then motioned to the building again. "There might be small ones inside here, but no big ones nearby. I wouldn't shoot unless you have to, though. We've moved close enough to the subway station to draw attention from there."
Kaorin grabbed Asami's backpack as she started towards the building's door. "We're done," she sternly informed the tiny teen. "You've had your fun. Now let's go back where it's safe."
"No way!" Asami whined as she tried in vain to wiggle free of Kaorin's grasp. "I haven't showed you my secret technique or anything!"
"You're still babbling about that?" Kaorin scolded in a deadpan tone. "I don't even believe you have a technique."
"I'll prove it!" Asami argued as she continued to try to free herself.
Kaorin reluctantly released the squirming girl. "Show me, and then we leave," she relented.
"All right!" the energetic teen shouted as she set the rifle aside before pulling a lighter out of a pocket, and a pack of cigarettes out of the other.
Kaorin watched in disbelief as the topless girl put a cigarette in her mouth and lit it. "Hey, kids shouldn't smoke!" she scolded.
"I'm seventeen…ish," Asami reminded Kaorin as she replaced the lighter and cigarettes before picking the rifle back up, "and I'm not smoking it." She then reached into a bulging side pocket on her cargo pants and retrieved a small object with a green wick sticking out of it. "Watch!" Asami exclaimed as she brought the wick to the tip of the cigarette, causing it to emit a shower of sparks as it started burning down. As soon as the firework was lit, Asami dashed to the door, burst it open, and tossed the small object inside just before going in herself.
"Damn it, Asami!" Kaorin shouted as she realized she had been duped. Instead of finding the interior of the building dark, the inside flashed brightly with a strobe-like effect generated from the firework.
"Keep watching!" Asami informed Kaorin as she lit a new one on her cigarette and threw it near the already burning firework as it started to fizzle out. "Here one comes!" she announced as she pointed to a smaller bug as it crawled in from the floor above. Without hesitation, Kaorin blindly opened fire on the insect. "Hey! Don't waste shells!" Asami scolded as she rushed over to grab the gun from Kaorin.
"Don't stop me!" Kaorin fought as she struggled with Asami.
"Just watch for a second!" Asami ordered as she rushed to light another firework. Tossing it again near the dying firework, it continued to illuminate the entire area with a bright strobe. The charging insect stopped short of the two girls, instead stopping at the flashing firecracker. Completely ignoring the women, it tried in vain to attack the flashing light. "I told you before," Asami explained as she took careful aim, "bugs are dumb." With a single well placed shot, Asami managed to kill the smaller bug. As soon as the bug was down, the tiny blonde rushed off before Kaorin could shake her befuddlement.
As soon as she recovered, Kaorin dashed after Asami once again. "Stop running off!" Five flights of stairs later, Kaorin caught up to Asami on the building's roof.
The tiny teen had already taken up a marksman's stance at the corner of the roof, which overlooked an intersection. "It looks like the shooting didn't attract anything after all," Asami informed Kaorin as soon as the exhausted woman stepped out into the sunlight.
Kaorin glared daggers at the blonde. "You! I'm going to put a damned leash on you!" the frustrated woman yelled as she stormed towards Asami.
"I prefer to be the one holding the leash," Asami countered in a sultry voice, "if it's all the same to you."
"That-that's not what I meant!" a flustered Kaorin argued as she tried to dispel unwanted images from her mind.
Before Kaorin had a chance to gather her scattered wits, Asami produced a different kind of firecracker from a different pocket. Once again using the cigarette as a lighter, she tossed the lit firework over the side of the building. This firework simply exploded with a bang. "I use these as bait," Asami explained as she lit another and tossed it over. "The noise should attract them soon enough."
"Stop it!" Kaorin ordered as she snatched the cigarette out of the blonde's mouth and threw it off of the building. "I already told you this was already going too far! We're going back now and the last thing we need is more bugs!"
"Too late!" Asami hissed as she scrambled to light another cigarette. As soon as it was lit, she grabbed another flashing firework. "Get down," the tiny blonde ordered as she pulled Kaorin down beside her. "They rely on sight as much as we do. So as long as it doesn't spot you, then you can take your time killing it." Asami then set the small firework down on the ledge and peeked over to spy where the giant insect had moved to. It didn't take her long to get a bead on it. "If you're good, a single shot can take them down," she claimed as she aimed for the insect's weak spot. Curiosity getting the better of her, Kaorin also peeked over the ledge and found the insect lurking about. After a few seconds, the insect paused, and in that moment, Asami popped off a single shot. While the bullet scored a hit to the giant insect's head, it didn't go down. "I missed!" Asami blurted aloud, drawing the insect's attention right to them. Kaorin immediately opened fire while Asami picked up the flashing firework, lit it, and dropped it over the side of the building. In spite of Kaorin opening fire on the insect, as soon as the firecracker started flashing the insect changed course and, just like the last one, tried to attack the flashing light. "Aim for the sweet spot at the back of the head!" Asami cheered as Kaorin continued to shoot the distracted insect. Two shells later, Kaorin managed to hit the right spot and the giant insect collapsed instantly. While Kaorin stared dumbfounded at the insect, Asami continued to cheer her on. "Way to go!" she praised. "See? Wasn't that fun?"
"That was stupid, scary, and dangerous!" Kaorin hotly retorted.
"And fun!" Asami exclaimed. "Let's see if another one shows up!"
Alarmed at the prospect, Kaorin immediately crouched back down behind the lip of the roof. "Give me some of those fireworks!" Kaorin hissed as she did her best to stay out of sight of any bugs.
"Sure," Asami agreed as she dumped several out of her pocket before tossing Kaorin the cigarettes and lighter. "You need the cigarette to keep a hand free so you don't have to put your gun down every time you light one," she informed Kaorin as she scanned the intersection for more insects. "You have to suck on the cigarette when you touch the wick to it to light it though. Just don't breathe it in unless you want to."
"How is it that you keep switching back and forth between serious and downright crazy?" Kaorin hissed as she tried to light the cigarette with shaky hands.
"I'm not crazy," Asami argued. "I'm just…eccentric." The tiny blonde then lit another exploding firecracker and tossed it over.
"Stop that!" Kaorin scolded as she pocketed the flashing fireworks. "Do you want more to come?"
Asami rolled her eyes at Kaorin as she tossed another firecracker over. "Duh!" she mocked. "That's why we're here, isn't it?"
"No!" Kaorin refuted, "That's why you're here! I've been trying to get you back to the station this entire time!"
"We can go back when the sun starts going down," Asami reasoned as she kept an eye out for new arrivals. "We should spend every minute of sunlight that we can get having fun!"
"Having fun is fine," Kaorin hissed, "but anything outside the safety of the jail cells is suicide!"
Asami laughed at the comment. "You must be joking!" she dismissed with a wave of her hand. "There's not a whole lot of fun you can have being all cooped up in a jail cell like that. That's why it's a punishment for people who've been bad!"
"But you can do whatever you want in there now," Kaorin argued as she handed the cigarettes and lighter back to Asami while still doing her best to hide. "And it's safe there!"
"It's safe everywhere!" Asami exuberantly claimed. "Just so long as you know what you're doing! Oh!" she exclaimed after half a second of thought. "Except for the subway stations. It's never safe to go near there!"
"You-you keep mentioning subway stations," Kaorin pointed out. "What's wrong with them?"
"You really don't know anything, do ya?" Asami berated as she produced another exploding firecracker. "The subway tunnels are where all of the bugs live," the small blonde explained as she lit the firework and tossed it over. "The closer you get to a station, the more bugs you run into! This distance is about perfect for hunting, though."
"S-stop throwing those!" Kaorin admonished.
Asami didn't respond right away as she stared down over the ledge. "Hmmm, I think you're right." She then turned to Kaorin with a nervous smile. "We should probably leave."
"Finally!" Kaorin exclaimed as she cautiously got to her feet and started for the door.
"That's probably not a good idea!" the topless blonde warned as Kaorin opened the door, allowing a pillar of smoke to billow out. "I think the fireworks might have caught the building on fire," Asami sheepishly admitted as Kaorin reeled back from the oppressing smoke. "We're probably going to have to jump," Asami noted as she looked down to the pavement, five stories below.
"No way!" Kaorin wailed as she stared hopelessly into the smoke-filled stairway.
"Let's find a way!" Asami loudly announced as she circled the building looking for a better option. "I found the fire escape!" she informed Kaorin after a couple of seconds.
Kaorin rushed over to find the dilapidated fire escape that only descended two floors before it fell away into rubble. She shook her head. "No, no, no!" Kaorin refused, "There has to be another way!"
"Not unless you can fly!" Asami announced as she jumped onto the frail walkway a story below with reckless abandon. "Come on!" the small blonde urged as she noticed Kaorin still hesitating. "We gotta get off this thing before we're barbequed!"
Kaorin shook her head. "I-I can't! It's too dangerous!"
"It's more dangerous to stay up there!" the tiny teen reasoned as she set the rifle aside. "I'll catch you if that makes you feel better!"
"I'd crush you!" Kaorin admonished the broken logic as she worked up the courage to get up on the lip and swung her legs over. "Here, catch this!" she shouted as she tossed the shotgun down.
Asami barely caught the firearm as it nearly missed the fire escape entirely. "Careful!" the boisterous blonde scolded, "This shotgun was my dad's!"
"I doubt a five story fall would hurt it as bad as it'd hurt me!" Kaorin quipped as she twisted around and lowered herself off of the roof before letting herself fall the rest of the way down to the fire escape. As soon as she hit the frail structure, it let out a groan at the added weight. The entire fire escape then shifted, nearly causing Kaorin to fall off. As she caught herself on the railing, the cigarette fell from her lips. Kaorin watched in muted horror as the cigarette tumbled over and over before bouncing on the ground five stories below. Succumbing to vertigo, Kaorin collapsed to her knees as she clung tenaciously to the railing.
"What are you waiting for?" Asami scolded as she looked up to Kaorin from a story below. "Grab your gun and let's go!"
Summoning her courage, Kaorin pried her eyes away from the ground and glanced about for her rifle. Since the shifting from Kaorin's weight, the gun had nearly fallen off only to be trapped by the railing right next to Kaorin. It took the panicked girl a few moments to will her hand to release the railing and grab the gun. Just as soon as she clutched the weapon, the fire escape pulled further away from the side of the building. That shift caused Kaorin to let out a shriek and release the rifle as she grabbed onto the railing again, allowing the gun to fall to the ground. "I-I can't do this!" Kaorin wailed as she held onto the deteriorating fire escape for dear life.
"Come on!" Asami encouraged, "If you don't, you'll just burn to death here pretty soon any way!"
At the mentioning of the fire, Kaorin looked to the window the escape led to. Although there were no flames present, there was more than enough smoke pouring out of the broken window to rule out going through the building. Unable to make a decision, Kaorin simply steadfastly held onto the railing as she began to weep in despair.
"Damn it," Asami bitterly thought as she watched Kaorin. Taking careful aim, the blonde girl fired her shotgun dangerously close to Kaorin.
The sound of the gunshot made Kaorin jump up and away as she desperately tried groped for her sidearm. "A bug?" Kaorin asked in a panic as she managed to pull her pistol out.
"Kaori!" Asami stated in a stern voice. "Listen to me. You have to come down here right now! You're going to die if you don't!" As if to emphasize Asami's words, the fire escape leaned out a bit more. "Coming down here is your only chance! Just take it and try not to think about anything else!"
Acting on Asami's words, Kaorin found enough courage to start down the stairs. After a few steps the fragile structure failed to maintain Kaorin's weight. The flight of stairs she was on bowed in on itself and snapped in two, sending Kaorin crashing down to the fourth floor and metal scraps raining down after her. Although it broke her fall, the extra jolting pried the fire escape even farther away from the wall. Pressured beyond its limits, the fire escape finally started to completely fall away from the building. It broke free of its bindings starting at its highest point and leaned all the way out into the alley. The bulky structure slammed into the building across the alley and managed to slowly grind to a halt, leaving the two girls clinging to the mangled structure as it threatened to collapse into a heap at any moment.
Asami didn't miss a beat as she quickly descended the maze of mangled metal to the lowest point she could find. "It's now or never!" she shouted as she quickly scanned about for signs of Kaorin. "If we don't get clear, we'll be crushed!" After issuing the warning, the blonde girl hung down off of the remains of the fire escape before dropping down to the ground. Thankfully, she managed to survive the two story fall intact. As soon as she had recovered, Asami dashed clear of the overhanging heap.
Thanks to the twisted and mangled metal, Kaorin had nowhere to go once the structure had settled into its precarious perch. With a solid sheet of metal beneath her and mangled flights of stairs blocking her in against the adjacent building, Kaorin might as well have been in a metal cage suspended three stories up. "I'm stuck!" Kaorin wailed as she desperately tried to find a way out of the deathtrap. "Help me!"
Back on the ground, Asami was quickly regretting jumping off. Now she had no way to help Kaorin at all. "Just-just hang on!" she encouraged as she tried to figure out a way to get back up to Kaorin. "If you find a way out, take it!" she shouted as she rushed out of the alley.
"Don't leave me!" Kaorin begged as she spied Asami running off through the twisted debris. The small blonde didn't seem to respond as she disappeared from Kaorin's sight. In desperation, Kaorin tried to force some of the gnarled metal aside to find a way out. The action proved to be counterproductive as the sounds of straining and breaking metal seemed to amplify anytime Kaorin moved at all. Left with no alternative, Kaorin just tried to stand as still as possible. "Help me!" she emotionally screamed at the top of her lungs as she began to cry. Despite Kaorin's best efforts to be still, the fire escape continued its slow collapse. It slowly ground down the side of the wall at a snail's pace as the sounds of steel groaning and breaking grew louder. After several antagonizing seconds, the fire escape finally slipped a couple of meters all at once and gave a great lurch, throwing Kaorin off of her feet. She was thrown against the building hard enough to make her consciousness swim.
"Take my hand!"
Acting more on instinct than thought, Kaorin took the offered hand without hesitation. She felt herself being pulled before dropping onto a much more stable surface. After regaining her wits, Kaorin found that she was inside a building with a remorseful looking Asami standing above her. "You…saved me?" Kaorin mumbled as she held her aching head.
Asami motioned to the window, which showed the remaining rubble as it fell apart and finally collapsed all at once. The force of the steel hitting the ground had enough strength for the duo to feel the impact. "Looks like I got to you just in time," Asami somberly noted. She then offered Kaorin a hand and helped pull the dazed girl to her feet. "I'm sorry," she sheepishly apologized once Kaorin was up. "I was just so excited to have someone to play with that all I wanted to do was have fun. But it looks like I was being selfish, and I put us both in danger." Asami then bowed deeply to Kaorin. "So I'm really sorry! Please forgive me!"
"Let's-let's just go back to the police station," Kaorin offered as she drew an arm across her face to wipe away her tears.
"Okay!" Asami said with a smile. "This way!" she ordered as she began to lead the way out of the building.
A/N: It's a long chapter, though I do hope it didn't drag on. The main thing to take away here is the info our new heroine has to offer. I should probably clarify that, obviously, not all bugs live in the subways. After all the library is a nest, as was Chihiro's apartment. The vast majority are in the subways though.