Chimidoro no Ryuu
Chapter 4
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Hino, Ron
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*** WARNING! FIRST DRAFT! ***
Chapters 3-6 are in desperate need of revision, perhaps even total rewrites of the plot. I've sat on them for a while, but I'm not sure what elements I want to keep and what's a useless pile of biological waste. I've been told I let people get too far out of character, but sited examples and suggestions would be much appreciated, as well as anything else that sucks about it. Please review these chapters and then forget you ever saw them! Only Chapters 1 & 2 should be considered ready for public viewing.
Suggestions to hinoron@hotmail.com
Thanks much for your assistance.
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Just a brief foreword:
1. Ranma and friends are owned by Rumiko Takahashi and a bunch of corporations.
Except for the new characters, everyone else belongs to her and them. I don't
own them. Please don't take ideas or (my) characters from this story without my
permission.
2. "Chimidoro no Ryuu" means, loosely translated (by which I mean, badly
translated) "Bloody Dragon". That would make the full name of the School
"Chimidoro no Ryuu Ryu" (ryu meaning a martial arts school/style). To avoid the
confusion, it will always be written as the Chimidoro no Ryuu School, or the
shorter Chimidoro school, though in the second case it is a reference more to
Reiko's family name then the school's title.
3. I've stopped going through and manually wordwrapping each line, (Except for
this foreword, of course) so download this and read it with a word processor.
"Alright! Shut up and let's go!"
Okay, okay. (Sheesh!)
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[Kunou mansion]
"Mistress Kodachi! I have discovered the origins of the girl who knocked you senseless."
*WHACK*
"Ow. Um... the girl who defeated you through underhanded and foul means."
"Much better." Kodachi said, leaning back in her deck chair where she had been sunning. She loved the warmer months. "So, anything interesting about the commoner?"
"I don't believe the current generations of the family are particularly wealthy Mistress, but her family history is anything but common." Sasuke said awkwardly.
She sat up in surprise. "What utter nonsense. I've never heard the name Chimidoro before I met that girl. They can't be that important!"
Sasuke looked rather uncomfortable. "Actually Mistress, the name should have struck me the moment I heard it, but I was very young when my grandmother told me about the Chimidoro no Ryuu School. After I made the connection, I went to speak with one of my aunts who is still living. She told me all the stories again, refreshing them in my memory."
Sasuke, seeing he had his Mistress's full attention, took a deep breath and went on. "250 years ago, they were a samurai clan whose name was as well known as the Kunous. That name is now lost to time, at least officially. If this Reiko has been taught her family history, she may know it. In any case, the head of the family was a mighty and merciless warrior, famous for having personally thwarted seven attempts of Ninja assassination, four of those were upon himself. He was said to be extremely arrogant, and looked down at those lords who fell to the Ninja with scorn. He once even ridiculed the shogun, for showing fear at the thought of Ninja sneaking into his castle. For this insult, his clan lost much of its political power.
"The head of the clan changed its name, to Chimidoro, and started the Chimidoro no Ryuu School of Bujitsu; the Bloody Dragon School. He trained the men of his family in some of the most violent and brutal techniques in creation. There was even a nasty rumor that he had learned some of those techniques under a Ninja master. The first person he heard that rumor from was split completely in half with the family katana. He was well known as a man who despised the ninja above all else. He claimed that he thought up of many of the special techniques himself, and if ninja had similar skills, that just meant they also knew how to kill effectively; that some ninja were nearly as creative as he was.
"Though the family were officially political outcasts, it appears that many Daimio 'hired' them with favors, to wipe out whole families of ninja. They were quickly given the nickname 'The Ninja Killers'. They were famous for it. The fees they eventually charged for their services were astronomical, but no one could deny that they did there job thoroughly. They were even known to refuse payment on occasion because they felt they had not yet tracked down the last members of a family they had promised to wipe out."
Sasuke gave a small shudder. "They always managed to collect their fees within two years though, tracking down the last survivors with an insane fixation. My own clan, not a particularly big or famous ninja family, survived by remaining that way. We didn't draw attention to ourselves more we could avoid, but ninjas who don't hire out have difficulty acquiring enough rice to eat. Eventually, we became the retainers of your noble ancestors, strengthening your clan physically while protecting my clan politically."
"My mother used to tell me to behave, or the Chimidoro Ninja Killers would get me in my sleep. I often had nightmares of a samurai drenched in blood, stronger, faster, more agile and vicious then I could ever hope to be if I trained every day for decades."
He looked up at her with serious eyes. "Mistress, if their family has survived, I'm not surprised that you were defeated. A Chimidoro is more dangerous than any ninja. I suggest you avoid her if at all possible."
Kodachi tilted her head back with that that disturbing laugh. "OHOHOHOHO! So, a bloodline to match my own, eh? Until their boorish behavior brought them down to their rightful place; that of common thugs for hire. Such a Yakuza-like harlot shan't keep me from my Ranma-sama for long!"
"Mistress, did you listen to a word I said after the first two minutes?" Sasuke groaned.
"I'll just have to remind her of her station in life, then! OHOHOHO!"
"Are you even listening to me right now?"
She skipped away over rooftops, twirling her ribbon and leaving a trail of black rose petals behind her.
"I guess not." Sasuke groaned. This was going to be bad.
Very bad.
***
In a dingy, yet reasonably sized apartment in Hong Kong, an attractive young woman of about 26 answered the telephone. Her name was Shin. If one looked close, one could see a tiny pink scar extending outward from the crease of each of her eyes. Some sick racist foreigner had drugged her drink, then dragged her back to his room and tied her up. He had wanted to make the 'slant' of her Chinese eyes more exaggerated.
Her older sister had arrived before he had done anything more... carnal. While her sister held him still, she decided to make the roundness of his eyes more exaggerated... by gouging them out. They left him there screaming.
She kept the eyes as a souvenir.
Now, her sister Xian lounged on the large bed and watched her talk on the phone. From the sly grin, she knew that Shin was negotiating a deal for their services. Xian left all this planning and arguing stuff to her. It was more her style.
Xian was by no means fat in any way, but she was definitely a 'big girl'. She was a head taller than her younger sister, and broader shouldered. She was not fat-joke big, she was fuck-with-me-and-I'll-snap-your-little-neck-like-a-twig big, and she'd done that more than once. That was more _her_ style. They'd once had to work at a strip club when money had been tight. Shin was a dancer, Xian a bouncer. And no one _ever_ tried to mess with Xian.
Shin put the phone down and turned to Xian.
"[So, we got a job? I don't wanna end up in that strip joint again.]" Xian growled.
Shin smiled. "[Oh, it wasn't so bad. I thought it was kinda fun.]"
Xian snorted. They had not left their home in the Joketsuzoku to tabledance.
"[Yes we have a job, but you'll never guess who for.]"
"[One of the Triads, right?]"
"[Nope.]"
"[Some big business?]"
"[Nope.]"
Xian remembered she hated stupid games like this. "[I give up.]" She muttered as she lay back and closed her eyes.
Shin plopped down on the bed and looked her right in the eyes. She didn't want to miss her sister's facial expression.
"[Cologne.]"
Xian's eyes shot open. "[The Matriarch?!?]"
"[The very same.]"
"[No way! What does she need our help for? She's better then either of us.]"
Shin shrugged. "[Probably there's some reason she can't attack this person openly. Or there's some conflict with her stupid honor. I think it's pretty ironic; she and the council threw us out for being hired blades, then she turns around and hires us herself. I jacked our usual price up 50%, just 'cause it's her.]"
Xian looked troubled. "[Shin, I don't want to kill Amazons, not for money.]"
Shin scowled. "[Why not! They threw us out on our own, just because we thought we should gain a little coin with our face.]" She shook her head. "[Anyway, it doesn't matter. She wants us to meet her in Japan, so it's probably not another council member.]"
"[Japan? What the hell's she doing there?]"
"[We'll ask her when we get there. Come on, start packing.]"
***
"Get off me, you old pervert!"
"Come on Ranma, just try it on. It's got black lace and everything!"
"I ain't wearin' it you sick creep! Lemme go!"
Akane rubbed her temples as she sat at the living room table with Reiko. Reiko just watched with mild amusement as the two flailed all around the house.
"Why do you think he keeps going after Ranma, if there's two real girls right here?"
"I don't know and I don't care." Akane muttered. "Probably has something to do with the size of 'his' chest. Men are pigs!"
Reiko chuckled. "I know. I can't figure them out at all." She snagged Happosai on Ranma-chan's next pass near the table.
"Hey Happosai, I got a question for you." Ranma-chan just ran off to get hot water while she had a reprieve.
"Oh, you want to try it on yourself? Go ahead, I don't mind."
Reiko rolled her eyes. "A different question: why underwear? I don't see the attraction; it's just pieces of cloth."
"Ah, the soft feel of silk and satin. Nothing is as captivating as the thought that this material once rubbed up against a young girl's most private places. Tender protection of the softest flesh in the world. No man has any place on him quite as soft and yielding as the breasts of a young maiden. And as for the flesh the panties rub against, woohoo!"
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry I asked." Reiko muttered, tossing him and his silky piece of heaven out the open doorway.
"Don't try to understand perverts, just bash 'em." Akane sighed.
"That's good advice, unless they're masochists. Then bashing them just gets them off." Reiko smirked.
"Eww!"
"I wonder if Kunou's that type?" Reiko mused.
"He's not bothering you too, is he? I forgot he was in your class."
Reiko smirked. "Not anymore. The first day, he demonstrated that he was going to become annoying if I didn't scare him away. So I got out my photo album."
"You have a photo album? How come I've never seem it?"
Reiko winced. "It's not something I usually show to people. My father was very proud of my victories. In fact, that's probably the only time he was ever proud of me. Every time I won a challenge match, he took a picture."
"Well, that's normal, isn't it?" Akane smiled.
Reiko looked away. "Akane, remember how the Chimidoro no Ryuu School ends nearly all challenge matches?"
Akane's smile went away. Death.
"So... the pictures..."
"A Polaroid of the corpse."
"God!"
Reiko shook it off. "Anyway, I changed my outward attitude toward that bokken boob completely. I acted like I want to date him. I told him I liked fighter types, then I came up with an excuse to show him pictures of my old boyfriends. It was funny as hell watching the blood drain out of his face. Now he's terrified of me."
"Well, who wouldn't be?"
Reiko froze, then looked up at her like a kicked puppy.
"I... I'm sorry Reiko, I didn't mean it that way." Akane stumbled. "I just-"
"Akane," Reiko interrupted softly, "are _you_ afraid of me?"
"Well... I..."
At her hesitation, Reiko just closed her eyes tightly. Akane knew she had taken that as a 'yes'. She needed to clarify, fast.
"I'm a little afraid of you seriously hurting somebody, and getting into trouble, going to jail, that sort of thing. As for hurting me? I'm pretty sure you'd never do that."
"Pretty sure?"
"Ok, I'm positive. You're my friend, and friends don't do that to each other."
Reiko smiled. "Thanks. It's nice to have someone trust me." She leaned over and hugged Akane tightly.
If Akane had thought about it, it might have occurred to her that Reiko seemed to like hugging her a lot. Then she would remember what her father was like: cold-hearted, violent and abusive; constantly referring to his daughter as a weak unworthy woman, and several less polite terms. That awful man had been Reiko's only family since she was seven. The poor girl was probably starved for affection. Akane could easily forgive her for being a little more touchy-feely than she was really comfortable with.
If she thought about it, that is.
***
"Pig-tailed girl! Akane Tendo! Such joy to have both my two loves in a single place!" Kunou cried as he dashed up to them as the residents of the Tendo household walked to school.
"Don't you mean three, Kunou dear?" Reiko grinned, as she stepped from behind Akane. "You love me too, don't you?"
Kunou skidded to a halt several feet from where he would otherwise have been punted into the stratosphere. His face went a ghostly white.
"Er... um... forgive me my loves, but I believe I've forgotten my books at home." He stuttered as he dashed off, making a failing attempt to turn while keeping his body between his bookbag and the girls.
Ranma-chan, who had wound up for the usual uppercut, just blinked. "What the hell was that all about."
"T'would seem the young Romeo is a trifle fearful of my affections." Reiko said, mimicking Kunou's speech before letting loose a peal of Evil Laughter(tm).
Akane just shook her head with a sigh. Ranma-chan wanted to know how Reiko accomplished it. Nabiki just wondered for the umpteenth time why Reiko had to be in _her_ class.
A slender figure and a larger one watched from a rooftop as the four continued to school.
"[Four girls and a boy.]" The slender form mused in Mandarin. "[The boy's in Chinese clothes, so he's probably Xian Pu's husband, and we're not supposed to touch him. That would make the one with long hair our target, and the other two...]"
"[Expendable.]" The larger one grunted.
"[Hmph. We're in a foreign land with foreign laws. The locals might not take too kindly to a couple of Chinese going on a killing spree.]"
"[Who cares? Do the police carry guns in Japan?"]
"[How should I know? In any case, I'd kinda like to ride the plane back in one of the seats instead of hiding in the cargo bay.]"
"[Alright, we'll try to avoid a big scene. That means we have to take the girl out when she's alone. We'll have to watch her for a while.]"
"[How long?]"
"[I dunno, a week probably.]"
"[Damn! I hate foreign food.]"
"[We could always eat at the Matriarch's restaurant. We might not even have to pay.]"
"[No way. She has two other members of the tribe living with her, remember?]"
The larger one sighed. "[Maybe there's other Chinese restaurants around. I'll look in the phone book.]"
"[Good. Being able to order is always a plus in my eyes.]"
"[I told you to study that 'Japanese for Tourists' book on the plane, but no! You had to get drunk and sleep the whole way!]"
"[Oh shut up, Xian!]"
***
One night, Akane and Reiko were sitting on the roof. Normally this was Ranma's thing, but when Reiko picked up the habit, Akane wanted to see what she was missing. This particular night, Ranma was not depressed, hiding, or pondering deep deep questions, like...
'What do I want to do? I can't let this go on forever. I need to make a decision. I'm only hurting myself by hemming and hawing here. Hmm. Okay! Time to get off my ass and make my choice!
'Akane's cooking tonight and I'm going to eat... Ramen!
'Boy I feel a lot better having gotten that tough decision off my chest. I was starting to get hunger cramps.'
But such deep, life-changing dilemmas were not what had led Ranma from the roof tonight. That was what happened last night.
And he'd been caught trying to escape.
And he'd been forced to ingest Akane's indigestibles.
And he was still bedridden as a result
The fact that Akane had KO'd him with a mallet for apparently exaggerating his suffering didn't help his recovery.
Besides, he wouldn't have been welcome anyway. Stargazing was an act for one person alone, or two good friends, or two good something-elses, but that shouldn't be relevant here, should it? At any rate, they were both lying on their backs looking up when Akane asked something deep.
"Say Reiko? Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Of course. I'm not guaranteeing an answer though."
"What's it like to kill? Does it make you sad, excited, satisfied, nauseous? What do you feel like when you kill a person?"
Reiko looked up at the sky and sighed. A personal question indeed.
"Akane, I'm going to tell you a story. The setting doesn't really matter, but for the sake of familiarity, let's set it in Japan, during the War in the Pacific..."
There was a good man in Japan, let's say in Okinawa somewhere. He made a decent living as a teacher, had two lively young girls who he adored, and of course, a beautiful and kind wife. He worked hard each day, came home and hugged his children, kissed his wife, and thanked the gods for all he had.
Then the war was announced. The newspapers had inspirational words about joining at the front to protect the family you leave behind, and he believed them. He signed up to fight and said goodbye to his family, firmly believing that he was doing what was best for them. He hugged his children, kissed his wife, and prayed to the gods to keep them safe until he returned.
The fighting was intense in jungles he was sent to. One day he was separated from the rest of his platoon when artillery started raining down. He ran through the trees and took cover behind a big rock at the top of a ravine. He saw an American soldier running down the ravine in a panic, probably wanting to get away from the artillery as well. Seeing him, the schoolteacher took aim and fired his rifle for the first time at a living target. There was a small spray of blood, a gurgling cry, and the American fell on his face.
The schoolteacher slid down the ravine to make sure the man was dead, as he had been taught to do. The wounded man cried out as he was rolled over. He wasn't dead, but that was obviously a temporary condition. The American looked up into his eyes, helpless, and smiled.
He opened his jacket and, making it clear he didn't have a gun, pulled an envelope and a picture from a pocket. Seeing the man barely had the strength to breathe, much less hurt him, the schoolteacher lowered his gun and kneeled next to the man.
"Do you... speak English?" The American gasped.
"Some." The schoolteacher replied.
The American showed the picture, getting fingerprints of his own blood on the photo.
"This is my family." The dying soldier said, indicating the woman and two young girls in the picture. He pushed the already addressed envelope and the picture into the schoolteacher's hand. "Please promise you will send this to my family."
The schoolteacher felt a lump in his throat. He said he would do as the man asked. It might be years before there was any way to mail the letter, but he made up his mind to do so no matter how long it took. He also made his own letter to his family to keep on his person the next day, just in case he died too.
Now the envelope was by no means clean. In fact, there was a bullet hole in one corner, and half of it was stained in blood. The schoolteacher couldn't bear to send the letter to the man's family like that. So, when he returned to camp, he got another envelope, and copied the address onto the clean one. When he went to move the contents however, the envelope contained only one thin sheet of paper as an actual letter, and a thick wad of American money, in small denominations. The American had been saving up all the extra pay he received and had wanted to send it home to his family, not spending it on whores or beer like his fellow soldiers did. The schoolteacher looked again at the photo of the man's family and burst into tears.
That man would never hug his children.
He would never kiss his wife.
He would never again come home to his family.
All because the schoolteacher had pulled that trigger.
He deserted the next day, a complete pacifist.
It was a great shame to come home like that, but he made it clear that he would never again fire a gun for his country, or anyone else, so the authorities left him after heaping upon him as much humiliation and shame as they could deliver to the coward. The schoolteacher went home. He hugged his children, kissed his wife, and prayed that the gods would never take him away from them.
He kept the letter from the American soldier in the small shrine he had in his house, so he would never forget how sacred a father's love for his family was.
He also hung his rifle on the wall near the shrine, so he would never forget how he came to have that letter.
Perhaps you see the moral of this story, but it isn't finished yet.
A year passed, then another. The Americans had beaten back the Japanese to their home islands. They invaded Okinawa by storm. The schoolteacher's wife begged him to load the rifle and defend their home, but he refused. The screams and gunfire drew closer, and she grew so desperate and frightened that she loaded the weapon herself. He yanked it from her hands and placed it back on the wall. He said he would never allow her to know how much it hurt to kill a man. She didn't understand and just screamed that he was a coward. He didn't grow angry with her, and just led her and his daughters to the shrine.
He hugged his children, kissed his wife, and prayed for the gods to deliver them from this violence.
As the screams and shots echoed around them, the schoolteacher just knelt there praying, with his terrified wife and daughters kneeling behind him. Several long minutes went by.
When the American soldiers kicked in the door, the wife and children shrieked in terror, but the schoolteacher didn't even turn around, but continued to perform the ceremonies as he had done again and again. Cursing him for his cowardice, she snatched the loaded rifle off the wall and prepared to protect her children.
The half-dozen seasoned soldiers cut her down before she could even swing the heavy gun up to her shoulder. In their haste to remove the threat to themselves, they had not all aimed carefully, and bullets struck and killed the two children cowering behind her as well.
Some of the soldier's winced at having killed women and children, but it had been shoot or be shot. They watched the schoolteacher slowly turn and gaze in shaking horror at the scene behind him. They stood ready to fire on him should he attempt to avenge their deaths.
The schoolteacher stood there a long time. Then he hugged his dead children, kissed his dead wife...
And picked up the rifle, put it under his chin, and pulled the trigger.
His last thought was that he wished he had taken up his rifle again and at least _tried_ to save his family.
Akane swallowed past the lump in her throat. She wanted to cry, the story was so sad.
"I... I don't get it." She confessed. "Was he right not to fight, or wrong?"
"Both." Reiko said somberly. "At the beginning, he was a fool, listening to other people tell him why he had to kill. Then he was a killer, and couldn't stand the blood on his hands. Then he was a pacifist, who didn't want to hold his children with bloodstained hands. Finally, he was a fool again, when he allowed his fear of his own guilt to take away the most important thing he had in the world.
"He killed when it wasn't necessary, then he refused to kill when it was."
Akane was quiet while that sunk in. "Is it necessary to kill your father?" She asked in a small voice.
Reiko took another deep, tired breath. "In the story (and reality), the Japanese government used propaganda to convince soldiers that they were fighting evil monsters in the Americans, and had it been true, then the Americans would need to be killed. The schoolteacher found out that he hadn't killed a monster, but a good man just like himself."
Reiko closed her eyes, trying to block out memories. "Which do you think my father is? Tell me the truth. It's possible that by being around him so much, seeing all the things he's done, I might not be seeing him clearly. Is he really the monster I believe him to be? Is there any good in him?"
Akane tried to think of something, some defense for Taiyama Chimidoro. She'd only known him a short time, but that was far longer than she had wanted to. He was violent, extremely sexist, a misogynist, a borderline rapist, a child abuser, and a murderer.
"I can't think of a single good thing about him." Akane sighed in defeat. "Except that he is 50% responsible for allowing me to meet someone I consider to be a very good friend."
Reiko smiled with her eyes closed. "Thanks. It's sweet of you to say. I've never had many friends. No one was brave enough to risk speaking to my father, let alone drop by for visits. That fucker ain't my father as far as I'm concerned; he's my sperm donor. Mom was the only one who ever treated me like I was loved. Father only sees what he can get for himself through me: a continuation or two of his family legacy, in other words, grandchildren. Hell, if I was sterile he'd probably consider me completely worthless."
Akane winced, wishing not for the first time that she had never heard Dr. Tofu's diagnosis of Reiko's abdominal injuries. How can you possible keep a secret like this? How can you possible tell a girl something like this?
Akane closed her eyes tight and turned her face dejectedly down towards the ground.
Reiko saw Akane's depression, and knew she was the cause. Fortunately, she wasn't quite aware of why.
"I'm sorry for whining about my personal life, Akane. I'm just bringing you down."
"NO!" Akane insisted, startling Reiko. "Don't ever feel there's something you can't tell me. That's part of being a friend; you can talk about anything! I don't promise I'll like all of it, but I swear I'll always listen!"
Had the light been a bit better, Akane might have seen tears sparkling at the edge of Reiko's eyes.
"Thank you."
***
Shin scowled as the pounding on the motel room door awakened her. She willed it to go away, but apparently mind over matter was of little use in this situation. She crawled out of bed and grumbled her way to the door, intending to give whoever it was a piece of her mind, and possibly a piece of her fist as well.
She opened the door and squinted against the daylight. When she could see, all she found was a knurled piece of wood apparently standing in front of her. When she looked down, she discovered the Joketsuzoku Matriarch down around the foot of the wooden stick.
"[Ah, Cologne. What the hell do you want?]"
Cologne scowled. True, since she was no longer a member of the tribe, Shin didn't _have_ to refer to her as Matriarch, but the unconcealed lack of respect irked her.
"[It has been five days, and your target is still among the living. I'm not paying you to take a vacation!]"
Shin sneered down at the old woman. "[As you are so fond of reminding us Cologne, this is not a simple hit. At your request, we are attempting not to involve either your great-granddaughter or your son-in-law in this matter. As we speak, Xian is tailing our target to establish the pattern of her movements, so that we can find a time when she is alone.
"[Unfortunately, that rarely seems to be the case. A member of that household has been with her almost constantly for the last several days. In school, it's her classmate, the one with shoulder-length hair that does all the wheeling and dealing. At lunch the target eats with your son-in-law and the shorthaired girl of that family. Most of her spare time she spends with that girl, or training with your son-in-law. Last night she and the shorthaired girl spent much of the evening looking at stars on the roof.]"
Cologne blinked. "[How do you learn all this by lazing about in this room?]"
Shin snorted. "[Fool! We've been monitoring her 24 hours a day. Xian has the days, and I take nights. Obviously that means I sleep during the day. Right now in fact. Your job will get done once we can do so with a reasonable chance of not breaking any of your restrictions. Have a nice day, matriarch!]" She snarled as she slammed the door in the old woman's face.
Cologne fumed. The brat had used her title this time, but the sarcastic tone of scorn she had used with the word threw away any illusions of respect that it might have otherwise carried. She sighed. Barely satisfied with the encounter, the old woman hopped away on her cane, wondering yet again if she'd made the right choice.
Still, whether she had or not, there was no backing out now. The two Sisters of the Bloody Hand would not be pleased with the idea of canceling this 'hit' as they called it. Even if they were permitted to keep the money, they would be furious at having their time and skills wasted. Either one was a masterful fighter, but within Cologne's ability to handle.
Both together, on the other hand...
Well, that _was_ why she had hired them.
***
Xian grumbled. She disliked monitor work, especially on the jobs when she drew days. She was well aware that her muscular bulk stood out in a crowd (especially in this land of skinny, weak women) making her work more difficult. She could still stay out of sight, or at least unnoticed, but it was a lot harder for her to blend in in crowded areas than it would have been for Shin. It essentially meant a long day for her, every day. Shin on the other hand, would spend most of the night relaxing in the Tendo's big tree while their target slept (lucky bitch).
At the moment, she was following the target and her friends home from school, staying a good block and a half behind, so that the distance would make her large size less obvious. Her ability to speak some Japanese was the only good reason for her to take days. The long-range microphone she had hidden up one sleeve allowed her to hear the majority of their conversations. She could have heard it all if she'd had an excuse to point her arm in their direction constantly, but a fake cast would only draw attention to herself.
In any case, she could hear about three words out of five, which allowed her to piece together most of what they said.
"Oh wait a --- ---. I forgot --- --- at the school. --- --- ahead and I'll --- --- and catch up ---." This was Reiko speaking, Xian realized.
This was their chance! It might not come again for weeks, the way the girl clung to her friends' sides (you'd think she hated to be alone or something). She considered calling Shin, but it would take her sister 10-15 minutes to get here, by which time the girl would have grabbed whatever she forgot and hotfooted it back home to be with her friends. Xian might have to finish this job herself. Shin would hate that. It might also be difficult; this girl was supposed to be really good. Xian thought about how her sister relaxed all night and slept while Xian had to dodge eyes all day.
Her turn to have fun.
Xian turned onto a side street while Reiko ran past. After a few moments, Xian turned back and rounded the corner to meet Reiko on her return.
She almost ran smack into the girl in question, who was obviously waiting for her.
"Wha..."
"You've been following me for days." Reiko said in a voice cold as ice. It was not a question.
Xian just blinked.
"There's also that girl that sits in the tree all night back at the house. For a while I thought you were bent on fighting or marrying Ranma; most people around here are. But you follow me even when he's not around. So you must want me."
Reiko cocked her head. "I don't know you, so what do you want?"
Xian smiled. The girl _was_ good. "Paid for kill you."
Reiko smirked. "By who?"
"You stupid? I no tell you."
"It doesn't matter. I don't know any other Chinese who speak Japanese that badly. You're sent by Shampoo to kill me because she can't."
Xian looked sincerely confused. "Why Xian Pu want kill?"
"Please! Ranma's told me about that Amazon law. If an outsider defeats her, she has to give the kiss of death and kill me. Now I haven't been kissed yet, but she obviously doesn't want me to be watching my back. You're an Amazon too, aren't you?"
Xian was stunned. "Yes." She said out of reflex. "No. Cast out of tribe. No more is Amazon. You outsider defeat Shampoo?"
Reiko nodded. "And Cologne. Does she have to give the kiss of death too?"
Xian's knees began to wobble at the implications. "Y-you defeat Cologne!" She shook her head. "Not by self!" She insisted.
Reiko smirked, "Just me and myself. No one else."
Xian looked at he ground, thinking. "This change everything. Maybe kill you later. Now have check things first."
Reiko put her hands together in a Chinese-style bow. While she didn't know any of the language, she had at least spent some time studying Kung Fu. "I look forward to our fight. If Shampoo and the old ghoul sent you against me, you must be very skilled."
Xian returned the bow of respect and then left.
Reiko smiled at the sky. "Nerima seems to be a place with many training opportunities."
***
Xian waited in their room impatiently. She was late. Did something happen? Did-
Shin opened the door.
"[What happened! What did she say?]"
Shin didn't answer. She went straight to the minifridge and pulled out a bottle of chilled beer. She put it to her lips and sucked it down in one huge pull (those bottles are _not_ the size usually for individuals).
"[It took forever to drag the truth out of her, but yes, the girl did beat her.]" Shin said as she sat down quickly on the bed. Asians, as a general rule, do not have the alcohol tolerances of westerners. Xian was an exception to that generalization; Shin was not. The fact that she was slight of stature didn't help either.
Xian sat down hard in her chair. "[That's incredible! And we have to go against this girl?]"
Shin shook her head. "[It's not quite how it seems. She IS deadly, but she's also been hit with the Spring of Drowned Twins water from Jyusenkyo. It was the pair of them that defeated Cologne. According to her, they're better synchronized than any pair of real twins in the world, because they literally have the same mind, split into two brains for a time.]"
"[Hmm. I'm not so sure we should take her on.]" Xian said.
"[Are you nuts! We can take any little twin-brats! She's only 17!]"
"[But if she, as twins, has such an incredible sync ratio, she might be impossible for us to beat. You and me have a lot experience fighting together, but we're still different people. One of us can do something without the other predicting it. She --or they-- won't have that weakness.]"
Shin looked ready to cry. "[But that means we have to... to...]"
"[What?]" Xian said, coming to her sister's side.
Shin (drunk by now) broke down in Xian's arms. "[That bitch Cologne, she said... she said the main reason she hired us was that we could resort to methods that she couldn't, like a sniper shot from a far away building. Her Amazon pride won't let her do that, but we could, because we're just assassins... with no honor.]"
Xian's face was red with rage. The worst insult the Elder could give, and more to the point, the old crone had made her little sister cry. Any respect Xian had felt she owed her former Matriarch had just died then and there.
No honor, eh? Well, Xian and Shin would show her who had honor. They did not run from battles like a certain old woman and her granddaughter. They would kill this Reiko like they had promised to.
And they would do it like Amazons.
***
When Reiko received the letter of challenge she was surprised. Assassins rarely bothered with such things. Nonetheless, she would arrive ready at the appointed time and place: 1:00 AM at the docks.
"Akane, you really shouldn't have come along."
"Then what if you get hurt?"
"Then you get to fucking watch me get hurt! I don't know why they bothered to make this a formal challenge, but since they did, you can't interfere. I still think you being here is just asking for trouble. If there's two of them fighting me, they might mistake you for my fighting partner."
"Would that be so bad?"
"Remember that these are the people Cologne hired because she can't beat me herself."
"..."
Reiko noticed Akane's expression become even more somber. "Now what?"
"What if you die?"
Reiko thought about that one for a minute. "Cremate me. You deal with my ashes however you like."
"Huh? Me?"
"Sure. You're probably my best friend. My father won't want them anyway."
"Why not?"
"Unlike my mother, I haven't yet earned my place in the family plot." Reiko smiled grimly.
"That's awful!"
"It doesn't bother me nearly as much as you might think. I mean, as soon as my bastard of a father gets himself killed, I'd be lying at his feet for all eternity. I don't relish that thought."
"... What about your mother? That's where she's buried. Wouldn't you want to be with her?"
Reiko looked at her for a moment. Then she looked at the ground with a emotionless expression. "Akane... can you keep a secret?"
"Sure."
"Mom isn't buried there any more. She was, but she isn't now."
"What! You don't mean he-"
"No no. You see I've thought about this before, lying near that bastard for all time and that sort of thing. I didn't feel Mom should have to any more than I should. About a year and a half ago I ran away from home and dug her up."
Akane remembered what she knew of the death of Reiko's mother and did the math. "But... she'd have been in the ground for... 8 1/2 years..."
"Yeah... the body didn't exactly hold together all that well when I tried to move it. Eventually I had to get a bag. Want to know something though? Even as decomposed as she was, she still looked beautiful to me." Reiko sniffed back tears. "Is that sick?"
"No." Akane said sincerely (while trying _not_ to get a mental picture). "That's love."
Reiko smiled. "Anyway, after covering up the grave so no one would suspect, I found a wheel hub from a bus in a junkyard and used it to cremate her. Not the most dignified method, but I had little time and no money. I climbed to the top of the mountain near our dojo and scattered most of her ashes to the wind. She always loved the view from there. It was the place she always took me whenever my father would let us leave the house, which wasn't often."
Akane smiled sadly. "What did you mean, 'most' of her ashes?"
Reiko looked a little awkward. "Well, I wanted to keep part of her with me, but I knew I couldn't keep her in a pouch or anything like that. He'd want to know what it was, and if he ever figured it out, he'd not only beat my within an inch of my life, he'd destroy Mom's marker, since she's not buried there anymore. I guess that meant I shouldn't care about it; it's just a block of stone, but it was the only thing done to honor her since the day she married him."
"Okay, so what did you do with the rest of her ashes?"
Reiko looked ashamed. "...I... I ate them, about a small spoonful's worth."
"What?" Akane cried. Actually, she cried _out_. Reiko was the one crying now.
"I... I needed to keep part of her with me, and I couldn't think of anything better. It was stupid! I felt so ashamed as soon as I had to go to the bathroom. What kind of disgrace was that to her memory if I just shit her out? I never believed in gods much, but I started praying anyway that she'd somehow stayed in me, stayed in my body, like in the liver or something."
That was about all Reiko got out before she completely broke down. Akane held her as she sobbed, grateful that no one else was around this area at this time of night.
Reiko had never talked to anyone about her mother. There had never been anyone she could tell in safety before. By the time she was four, none of their few neighbors would let their children talk to her, advising their them to run for their lives if they ever saw any member of the Chimidoro family. Reiko's only confidant had been her mother, and that had all been brought to a screaming end in her seventh year. Her mother had died as much of her life was lived: in great pain. Her final scream as her husband thrust into her broken and worn down body had a truly surprising amount of lungpower behind it for a woman who hadn't been able to get out of bed for five months.
Death screams were often like that.
Little 7 year-old Reiko had known it instantly for what it was, and had run from the house in tears, running farther and farther until she collapsed in exhaustion. Choking sobs were not a very effective breathing method for running long distances. As soon as she could move again, she wondered which way to go. She felt ashamed for leaving her mother in her dying moments (even if her father _would_ have sent her flying into a wall for interrupting his 'private time' with Mommy). Still, what could she have done? What could she do now? Her only thoughts were for her mother. Would her father stop hurting her now that she was dead? Well, he _couldn't_ hurt her now that she was dead, and upon realizing that Reiko felt a rush of relief, immediately followed by guilt. You didn't feel relief when your Mommy died, that wasn't right. Now if it had been her father...
And that was the day Reiko knew she had to kill him. She turned back to the house of horrors of her own free will and slowly began the long walk home.
The day after Reiko had scattered (and digested) her mother's remains, her father had found her. He always found her, on the rare occasions she even tried to run away. She knew he'd find her this time as well, but felt it was worth it. Even as she lay in bed, unable to walk for two months, she was satisfied with what she had done.
"Um, I think we're about two blocks from the place on the note, and it's 12:55." Akane said gently.
Reiko let Akane go and wiped her tears. "You're right. I've got to get myself together."
"Maybe you should postpone."
"You know damn well I can't." Reiko said, taking deep, meditative breaths. They were in the outskirts of the docks, surrounded by warehouses and crates. Reiko sat on one and folded her feet up on top of her thighs, trying to calm herself through meditation.
Three minutes later, Akane tapped her on the knee and Reiko opened her eyes, calm and centred once more.
"Okay, let's go." She said cheerfully. Akane envied her a little, being able to shut down such profound grief in a few minutes. She'd have to ask Reiko for pointers with her own meditations.
Well, assuming Reiko survived the night.
***
Shampoo looked once again at the envelope on her dresser. It had been handed to her by an attractive Chinese woman with scars at the edge of both her eyes. Shampoo thought the scars made her look vaguely catlike. Actually, Shampoo thought the woman looked like an Amazon. She had certainly spoken the Joketsuzoku's local dialect flawlessly.
The woman had told her to read this letter tomorrow, and not to let Mousse or especially her great-grandmother see it until after she'd read it (and made a copy if she intended to use what she found inside).
Shampoo had obeyed the instructions with some doubts. It sounded like the woman was suggesting she couldn't trust her own great-grandmother. Try as she might though, she couldn't think of any way this letter could harm Cologne. Perhaps it held some secret the old woman didn't want known and the woman had just wanted a day to flee the country to escape Cologne's wrath. Well, whatever it was, Shampoo would never use it to embarrass her great-grandmother. Cologne could trust her.
Which was why it would be okay for Shampoo to read the letter. Whatever it was about, it would remain a private matter of Cologne's, unless of course she needed Shampoo's help.
Come to think of it, Shampoo's clock read 1:04 AM, so technically it was 'tomorrow'. Obviously that was not what the scarred woman had meant, but Shampoo had the curiosity of... well, a cat.
She opened the letter, and read.
And what did curiosity do to the cat?
Well, obviously the letter didn't kill her, but Shampoo certainly felt like she'd been struck. She dashed downstairs in tears to find her great-grandmother, so the old woman could tell her it wasn't true.
On her way down, she nearly knocked over Mousse. Distressed at her obvious anxiety, Mousse quickly entered her room. Maybe the vile Saotome had tried to force himself on Shampoo after breaking into her room. He realized that was silly. Shampoo would just club him. No wait, she'd probably encourage him, he thought glumly, so that couldn't be why she was upset. Besides, the room was devoid of vile Saotomes at the moment.
He noticed a sheet of paper on the floor and frowned. Shampoo was usually quite tidy (with the exception of leaving large amounts of rubble lying in her wake). He picked it up to set it on her dresser, and as he did so his eyes lazily glanced over the letter.
He froze.
To Xian Pu,
I doubt you remember me. You were only about 10 or so when my sister and I had to leave the village. It wasn't as though we knew each other well, I only remember you because you were the Matriarch's protégé, but most of the older people in the village would know our names.
I am Shin, and my older sister is Xian, of the Tiel family. When I was 20 and my sister 22, a man came to the village begging for help. He was a prominent businessman having difficulty with a local warlord who was gathering power and killing off his customers and employees. The elders decided that though the tale was sad, this was none of the clan's business. The man offered to pay whoever could kill this warlord a truly ridiculous sum of money. The elders were of course offended by the offer, and demanded that the two guards on duty (my sister and I) throw him out of the village.
Our family was never a rich one, though of course strength is more important to an Amazon than material wealth, and my sister and I had that in spades. When we fought as a pair, we were a match even for some of the elders then. Still, life is hard for the poor and that year was particularly bad for us. Our mother was ill and there was little food in our house. These are not things we could mention to others, to be weak for any reason is a great shame to an Amazon, as you well know.
But with that money the man had offered, we could get our mother the best medicine, and feed her well to aid her recovery. The prospect of ourselves eating quite well for the first time in months was tempting as well. On our way to the village gates, we whispered to the man that we would help him.
Asking permission from the elders to go on a private training trip for a couple weeks, we followed the man to the warlord's land. He had wanted to hire a small army of Amazons, and had ended up with two. Killing the warlord required we use more stealth than brute force to get past his many guards, but we did not stab him in his sleep or some such disgrace. He died on his feet, fighting.
We returned home with a doctor, fine meats and fruits from the next village, and a bag full of more money then we would make guarding the elders in 5 years. It would have been perfect. Mother's health increased, and she even returned to her training to a degree. No one suspected that we had gone against the council and helped the businessman. Unfortunately, we grew greedy with our secret wealth. We began spending more and more extravagantly, and we aroused the council's suspicions.
It all came out eventually, the businessman told all once given the tiniest threat to his anatomy, and our family was ruined. Our mother hadn't known about the man's visit to the tribe, and hadn't wanted to question such dutiful daughters as to where all the money had come from. Now she was shamed. The council called us honorless assassins, and banished us forever. All our "ill-gotten" wealth and assets were taken from us, and our mother forced to live without even the meager income of two guards. We do not know what became of her.
We traveled China and eventually were forced to turn to what the council had declared our 'true nature' to feed ourselves. There is very little work for uneducated Amazons. We became assassins, using the skills taught to defend out tribe to defend ourselves from starvation. Over the years, we gained a reputation, and are quite famous in our business.
Famous enough for word to reach back to Nhu Che Zu village and the Joketsuzoku. This is the true point of this letter I write you: your great-grandmother, Cologne, Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku, who was the first to demand we be thrown out for our crimes, has hired us to assassinate the girl known as Reiko Chimidoro. You would know better than I the reason, but it appears as though my sister and I have been hired because neither you nor she are able to defeat the girl by yourselves. If this is true, than it is not the assassins who deserve to feel shame for this business.
Still, this secret shame of hiring assassins to do her fighting for her could be forgiven, were it not for the assumptions that she makes of us. I believe my sister and I are now accomplished enough to give Cologne herself a fair challenge were we to fight her as a pair, but Cologne seems to expect us to kill her enemy from a distance with a sniper rifle. We meager assassins have far too much Amazon pride to sink to such a level, but your great-grandmother the Matriarch seems eager to, if unwilling to dirty her hands personally with such a task.
We will not kill Reiko Chimidoro as that old bitch would have us do. We may be assassins, but we will fight and kill her in open combat like Amazons! by the time you read this, we should already have either succeeded or lost our lives in the attempt. Either way, we will not expose Cologne's crimes to the tribe.
Though we may be Amazons at heart, we are no longer members of the tribe. If Cologne is to pay for her actions, it must fall to you to do so. I am aware that you may choose to ignore this letter and her crimes out of love for the old woman, and that is your choice. I simply give you all the information to act on if that is your wish. Remember that if you wish to confront her with this letter, you should make and hide a copy before doing so.
You've grown up strong and beautiful Shampoo.
May your Amazon spirit never become jaded with time.
-Shin Tiel
Mousse stared in shock at the letter in his hands. Assassins instead of the Kiss of Death? Sniper rifles from a distance? Why not just defecate on the book of Amazon law?
His head snapped up as she heard a voice approaching.
"Come now Shampoo, show me this ridiculous letter you found. We'll punish severely whoever made up these filthy lies."
Mousse's eyes hardened. He slipped the letter into his robes and swiftly made a silent exit through Shampoo's window.
The suggestion in the letter was a good one. He had a date with a photocopier.
(And not because he mistook one for Shampoo with his glasses off ^_^)
***
Reiko came to a halt when she saw the two Chinese waiting for her atop a pile of crates. She recognized the big one from before, and guessed the small one was the person who had been hiding in the tree for the last several nights. There seemed to be something wrong with her eyes, but the light wasn't good enough for Reiko to pin it down at this distance.
The big one cocked her head curiously. "Who this?"
Reiko waved a hand dismissively. "She's just a friend who came to take my body if I lose. You won't be fighting her."
"You no come as twins?"
Reiko smirked. "Well, there go the last of my doubts as to who hired you. Cologne and Shampoo are the only other people aware of my curse."
"What?" Akane cried. "I can't believe they did this!"
"Just be quiet Akane. That doesn't matter anymore. Remember, you're only here in case I lose."
"I ask about twin." Xian interrupted sharply.
Reiko averted her gaze. "The curse of Luanshengniichuan is much worse than any other Jyusenkyo curse. The change is... excruciating."
"What that word?"
"Excruciating? Painful enough to make a strong warrior collapse. I try to avoid changing if I can. And you don't need to worry about me doing it in the middle of the fight, it always renders me unconscious, and I doubt you'd be so merciful as to wait for me to wake up."
"We have job to do." Xian admitted.
"I respect that. I'll treat you the same way; we fight to the death. How shall we begin?"
Xian looked back at her sister, and the two conversed for a minute.
"We come expect fight Reiko twins. If only one of you, you fight only one of us."
"Very honorable of you."
"But we still paid to kill you, so if first one of us lose, other take her place."
"Hmm. Well, I was expecting worse. Very well, who's first?"
Xian translated for her sister, who hopped down of the crate she was sitting on.
"My sister would like to go first."
Reiko nodded and stepped forward, away from Akane. "May I have the honor of your name, Miss?"
Xian translated again.
"Shin Tiel." The smaller girl answered with a grim smile.
Reiko bowed to her in the Chinese style, before settling into a fighting stance.
All Akane could think about was that everyone was very polite for people set on killing each other.
***
End of chapter.
Yep, that's right. I'm stopping right here.
Ain't I a bastard?
Comments and Criticisms to Ron Hino at hinoron@hotmail.com
Chapter 4
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Hino, Ron
================================================================================
*** WARNING! FIRST DRAFT! ***
Chapters 3-6 are in desperate need of revision, perhaps even total rewrites of the plot. I've sat on them for a while, but I'm not sure what elements I want to keep and what's a useless pile of biological waste. I've been told I let people get too far out of character, but sited examples and suggestions would be much appreciated, as well as anything else that sucks about it. Please review these chapters and then forget you ever saw them! Only Chapters 1 & 2 should be considered ready for public viewing.
Suggestions to hinoron@hotmail.com
Thanks much for your assistance.
================================================================================
Just a brief foreword:
1. Ranma and friends are owned by Rumiko Takahashi and a bunch of corporations.
Except for the new characters, everyone else belongs to her and them. I don't
own them. Please don't take ideas or (my) characters from this story without my
permission.
2. "Chimidoro no Ryuu" means, loosely translated (by which I mean, badly
translated) "Bloody Dragon". That would make the full name of the School
"Chimidoro no Ryuu Ryu" (ryu meaning a martial arts school/style). To avoid the
confusion, it will always be written as the Chimidoro no Ryuu School, or the
shorter Chimidoro school, though in the second case it is a reference more to
Reiko's family name then the school's title.
3. I've stopped going through and manually wordwrapping each line, (Except for
this foreword, of course) so download this and read it with a word processor.
"Alright! Shut up and let's go!"
Okay, okay. (Sheesh!)
================================================================================
[Kunou mansion]
"Mistress Kodachi! I have discovered the origins of the girl who knocked you senseless."
*WHACK*
"Ow. Um... the girl who defeated you through underhanded and foul means."
"Much better." Kodachi said, leaning back in her deck chair where she had been sunning. She loved the warmer months. "So, anything interesting about the commoner?"
"I don't believe the current generations of the family are particularly wealthy Mistress, but her family history is anything but common." Sasuke said awkwardly.
She sat up in surprise. "What utter nonsense. I've never heard the name Chimidoro before I met that girl. They can't be that important!"
Sasuke looked rather uncomfortable. "Actually Mistress, the name should have struck me the moment I heard it, but I was very young when my grandmother told me about the Chimidoro no Ryuu School. After I made the connection, I went to speak with one of my aunts who is still living. She told me all the stories again, refreshing them in my memory."
Sasuke, seeing he had his Mistress's full attention, took a deep breath and went on. "250 years ago, they were a samurai clan whose name was as well known as the Kunous. That name is now lost to time, at least officially. If this Reiko has been taught her family history, she may know it. In any case, the head of the family was a mighty and merciless warrior, famous for having personally thwarted seven attempts of Ninja assassination, four of those were upon himself. He was said to be extremely arrogant, and looked down at those lords who fell to the Ninja with scorn. He once even ridiculed the shogun, for showing fear at the thought of Ninja sneaking into his castle. For this insult, his clan lost much of its political power.
"The head of the clan changed its name, to Chimidoro, and started the Chimidoro no Ryuu School of Bujitsu; the Bloody Dragon School. He trained the men of his family in some of the most violent and brutal techniques in creation. There was even a nasty rumor that he had learned some of those techniques under a Ninja master. The first person he heard that rumor from was split completely in half with the family katana. He was well known as a man who despised the ninja above all else. He claimed that he thought up of many of the special techniques himself, and if ninja had similar skills, that just meant they also knew how to kill effectively; that some ninja were nearly as creative as he was.
"Though the family were officially political outcasts, it appears that many Daimio 'hired' them with favors, to wipe out whole families of ninja. They were quickly given the nickname 'The Ninja Killers'. They were famous for it. The fees they eventually charged for their services were astronomical, but no one could deny that they did there job thoroughly. They were even known to refuse payment on occasion because they felt they had not yet tracked down the last members of a family they had promised to wipe out."
Sasuke gave a small shudder. "They always managed to collect their fees within two years though, tracking down the last survivors with an insane fixation. My own clan, not a particularly big or famous ninja family, survived by remaining that way. We didn't draw attention to ourselves more we could avoid, but ninjas who don't hire out have difficulty acquiring enough rice to eat. Eventually, we became the retainers of your noble ancestors, strengthening your clan physically while protecting my clan politically."
"My mother used to tell me to behave, or the Chimidoro Ninja Killers would get me in my sleep. I often had nightmares of a samurai drenched in blood, stronger, faster, more agile and vicious then I could ever hope to be if I trained every day for decades."
He looked up at her with serious eyes. "Mistress, if their family has survived, I'm not surprised that you were defeated. A Chimidoro is more dangerous than any ninja. I suggest you avoid her if at all possible."
Kodachi tilted her head back with that that disturbing laugh. "OHOHOHOHO! So, a bloodline to match my own, eh? Until their boorish behavior brought them down to their rightful place; that of common thugs for hire. Such a Yakuza-like harlot shan't keep me from my Ranma-sama for long!"
"Mistress, did you listen to a word I said after the first two minutes?" Sasuke groaned.
"I'll just have to remind her of her station in life, then! OHOHOHO!"
"Are you even listening to me right now?"
She skipped away over rooftops, twirling her ribbon and leaving a trail of black rose petals behind her.
"I guess not." Sasuke groaned. This was going to be bad.
Very bad.
***
In a dingy, yet reasonably sized apartment in Hong Kong, an attractive young woman of about 26 answered the telephone. Her name was Shin. If one looked close, one could see a tiny pink scar extending outward from the crease of each of her eyes. Some sick racist foreigner had drugged her drink, then dragged her back to his room and tied her up. He had wanted to make the 'slant' of her Chinese eyes more exaggerated.
Her older sister had arrived before he had done anything more... carnal. While her sister held him still, she decided to make the roundness of his eyes more exaggerated... by gouging them out. They left him there screaming.
She kept the eyes as a souvenir.
Now, her sister Xian lounged on the large bed and watched her talk on the phone. From the sly grin, she knew that Shin was negotiating a deal for their services. Xian left all this planning and arguing stuff to her. It was more her style.
Xian was by no means fat in any way, but she was definitely a 'big girl'. She was a head taller than her younger sister, and broader shouldered. She was not fat-joke big, she was fuck-with-me-and-I'll-snap-your-little-neck-like-a-twig big, and she'd done that more than once. That was more _her_ style. They'd once had to work at a strip club when money had been tight. Shin was a dancer, Xian a bouncer. And no one _ever_ tried to mess with Xian.
Shin put the phone down and turned to Xian.
"[So, we got a job? I don't wanna end up in that strip joint again.]" Xian growled.
Shin smiled. "[Oh, it wasn't so bad. I thought it was kinda fun.]"
Xian snorted. They had not left their home in the Joketsuzoku to tabledance.
"[Yes we have a job, but you'll never guess who for.]"
"[One of the Triads, right?]"
"[Nope.]"
"[Some big business?]"
"[Nope.]"
Xian remembered she hated stupid games like this. "[I give up.]" She muttered as she lay back and closed her eyes.
Shin plopped down on the bed and looked her right in the eyes. She didn't want to miss her sister's facial expression.
"[Cologne.]"
Xian's eyes shot open. "[The Matriarch?!?]"
"[The very same.]"
"[No way! What does she need our help for? She's better then either of us.]"
Shin shrugged. "[Probably there's some reason she can't attack this person openly. Or there's some conflict with her stupid honor. I think it's pretty ironic; she and the council threw us out for being hired blades, then she turns around and hires us herself. I jacked our usual price up 50%, just 'cause it's her.]"
Xian looked troubled. "[Shin, I don't want to kill Amazons, not for money.]"
Shin scowled. "[Why not! They threw us out on our own, just because we thought we should gain a little coin with our face.]" She shook her head. "[Anyway, it doesn't matter. She wants us to meet her in Japan, so it's probably not another council member.]"
"[Japan? What the hell's she doing there?]"
"[We'll ask her when we get there. Come on, start packing.]"
***
"Get off me, you old pervert!"
"Come on Ranma, just try it on. It's got black lace and everything!"
"I ain't wearin' it you sick creep! Lemme go!"
Akane rubbed her temples as she sat at the living room table with Reiko. Reiko just watched with mild amusement as the two flailed all around the house.
"Why do you think he keeps going after Ranma, if there's two real girls right here?"
"I don't know and I don't care." Akane muttered. "Probably has something to do with the size of 'his' chest. Men are pigs!"
Reiko chuckled. "I know. I can't figure them out at all." She snagged Happosai on Ranma-chan's next pass near the table.
"Hey Happosai, I got a question for you." Ranma-chan just ran off to get hot water while she had a reprieve.
"Oh, you want to try it on yourself? Go ahead, I don't mind."
Reiko rolled her eyes. "A different question: why underwear? I don't see the attraction; it's just pieces of cloth."
"Ah, the soft feel of silk and satin. Nothing is as captivating as the thought that this material once rubbed up against a young girl's most private places. Tender protection of the softest flesh in the world. No man has any place on him quite as soft and yielding as the breasts of a young maiden. And as for the flesh the panties rub against, woohoo!"
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry I asked." Reiko muttered, tossing him and his silky piece of heaven out the open doorway.
"Don't try to understand perverts, just bash 'em." Akane sighed.
"That's good advice, unless they're masochists. Then bashing them just gets them off." Reiko smirked.
"Eww!"
"I wonder if Kunou's that type?" Reiko mused.
"He's not bothering you too, is he? I forgot he was in your class."
Reiko smirked. "Not anymore. The first day, he demonstrated that he was going to become annoying if I didn't scare him away. So I got out my photo album."
"You have a photo album? How come I've never seem it?"
Reiko winced. "It's not something I usually show to people. My father was very proud of my victories. In fact, that's probably the only time he was ever proud of me. Every time I won a challenge match, he took a picture."
"Well, that's normal, isn't it?" Akane smiled.
Reiko looked away. "Akane, remember how the Chimidoro no Ryuu School ends nearly all challenge matches?"
Akane's smile went away. Death.
"So... the pictures..."
"A Polaroid of the corpse."
"God!"
Reiko shook it off. "Anyway, I changed my outward attitude toward that bokken boob completely. I acted like I want to date him. I told him I liked fighter types, then I came up with an excuse to show him pictures of my old boyfriends. It was funny as hell watching the blood drain out of his face. Now he's terrified of me."
"Well, who wouldn't be?"
Reiko froze, then looked up at her like a kicked puppy.
"I... I'm sorry Reiko, I didn't mean it that way." Akane stumbled. "I just-"
"Akane," Reiko interrupted softly, "are _you_ afraid of me?"
"Well... I..."
At her hesitation, Reiko just closed her eyes tightly. Akane knew she had taken that as a 'yes'. She needed to clarify, fast.
"I'm a little afraid of you seriously hurting somebody, and getting into trouble, going to jail, that sort of thing. As for hurting me? I'm pretty sure you'd never do that."
"Pretty sure?"
"Ok, I'm positive. You're my friend, and friends don't do that to each other."
Reiko smiled. "Thanks. It's nice to have someone trust me." She leaned over and hugged Akane tightly.
If Akane had thought about it, it might have occurred to her that Reiko seemed to like hugging her a lot. Then she would remember what her father was like: cold-hearted, violent and abusive; constantly referring to his daughter as a weak unworthy woman, and several less polite terms. That awful man had been Reiko's only family since she was seven. The poor girl was probably starved for affection. Akane could easily forgive her for being a little more touchy-feely than she was really comfortable with.
If she thought about it, that is.
***
"Pig-tailed girl! Akane Tendo! Such joy to have both my two loves in a single place!" Kunou cried as he dashed up to them as the residents of the Tendo household walked to school.
"Don't you mean three, Kunou dear?" Reiko grinned, as she stepped from behind Akane. "You love me too, don't you?"
Kunou skidded to a halt several feet from where he would otherwise have been punted into the stratosphere. His face went a ghostly white.
"Er... um... forgive me my loves, but I believe I've forgotten my books at home." He stuttered as he dashed off, making a failing attempt to turn while keeping his body between his bookbag and the girls.
Ranma-chan, who had wound up for the usual uppercut, just blinked. "What the hell was that all about."
"T'would seem the young Romeo is a trifle fearful of my affections." Reiko said, mimicking Kunou's speech before letting loose a peal of Evil Laughter(tm).
Akane just shook her head with a sigh. Ranma-chan wanted to know how Reiko accomplished it. Nabiki just wondered for the umpteenth time why Reiko had to be in _her_ class.
A slender figure and a larger one watched from a rooftop as the four continued to school.
"[Four girls and a boy.]" The slender form mused in Mandarin. "[The boy's in Chinese clothes, so he's probably Xian Pu's husband, and we're not supposed to touch him. That would make the one with long hair our target, and the other two...]"
"[Expendable.]" The larger one grunted.
"[Hmph. We're in a foreign land with foreign laws. The locals might not take too kindly to a couple of Chinese going on a killing spree.]"
"[Who cares? Do the police carry guns in Japan?"]
"[How should I know? In any case, I'd kinda like to ride the plane back in one of the seats instead of hiding in the cargo bay.]"
"[Alright, we'll try to avoid a big scene. That means we have to take the girl out when she's alone. We'll have to watch her for a while.]"
"[How long?]"
"[I dunno, a week probably.]"
"[Damn! I hate foreign food.]"
"[We could always eat at the Matriarch's restaurant. We might not even have to pay.]"
"[No way. She has two other members of the tribe living with her, remember?]"
The larger one sighed. "[Maybe there's other Chinese restaurants around. I'll look in the phone book.]"
"[Good. Being able to order is always a plus in my eyes.]"
"[I told you to study that 'Japanese for Tourists' book on the plane, but no! You had to get drunk and sleep the whole way!]"
"[Oh shut up, Xian!]"
***
One night, Akane and Reiko were sitting on the roof. Normally this was Ranma's thing, but when Reiko picked up the habit, Akane wanted to see what she was missing. This particular night, Ranma was not depressed, hiding, or pondering deep deep questions, like...
'What do I want to do? I can't let this go on forever. I need to make a decision. I'm only hurting myself by hemming and hawing here. Hmm. Okay! Time to get off my ass and make my choice!
'Akane's cooking tonight and I'm going to eat... Ramen!
'Boy I feel a lot better having gotten that tough decision off my chest. I was starting to get hunger cramps.'
But such deep, life-changing dilemmas were not what had led Ranma from the roof tonight. That was what happened last night.
And he'd been caught trying to escape.
And he'd been forced to ingest Akane's indigestibles.
And he was still bedridden as a result
The fact that Akane had KO'd him with a mallet for apparently exaggerating his suffering didn't help his recovery.
Besides, he wouldn't have been welcome anyway. Stargazing was an act for one person alone, or two good friends, or two good something-elses, but that shouldn't be relevant here, should it? At any rate, they were both lying on their backs looking up when Akane asked something deep.
"Say Reiko? Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Of course. I'm not guaranteeing an answer though."
"What's it like to kill? Does it make you sad, excited, satisfied, nauseous? What do you feel like when you kill a person?"
Reiko looked up at the sky and sighed. A personal question indeed.
"Akane, I'm going to tell you a story. The setting doesn't really matter, but for the sake of familiarity, let's set it in Japan, during the War in the Pacific..."
There was a good man in Japan, let's say in Okinawa somewhere. He made a decent living as a teacher, had two lively young girls who he adored, and of course, a beautiful and kind wife. He worked hard each day, came home and hugged his children, kissed his wife, and thanked the gods for all he had.
Then the war was announced. The newspapers had inspirational words about joining at the front to protect the family you leave behind, and he believed them. He signed up to fight and said goodbye to his family, firmly believing that he was doing what was best for them. He hugged his children, kissed his wife, and prayed to the gods to keep them safe until he returned.
The fighting was intense in jungles he was sent to. One day he was separated from the rest of his platoon when artillery started raining down. He ran through the trees and took cover behind a big rock at the top of a ravine. He saw an American soldier running down the ravine in a panic, probably wanting to get away from the artillery as well. Seeing him, the schoolteacher took aim and fired his rifle for the first time at a living target. There was a small spray of blood, a gurgling cry, and the American fell on his face.
The schoolteacher slid down the ravine to make sure the man was dead, as he had been taught to do. The wounded man cried out as he was rolled over. He wasn't dead, but that was obviously a temporary condition. The American looked up into his eyes, helpless, and smiled.
He opened his jacket and, making it clear he didn't have a gun, pulled an envelope and a picture from a pocket. Seeing the man barely had the strength to breathe, much less hurt him, the schoolteacher lowered his gun and kneeled next to the man.
"Do you... speak English?" The American gasped.
"Some." The schoolteacher replied.
The American showed the picture, getting fingerprints of his own blood on the photo.
"This is my family." The dying soldier said, indicating the woman and two young girls in the picture. He pushed the already addressed envelope and the picture into the schoolteacher's hand. "Please promise you will send this to my family."
The schoolteacher felt a lump in his throat. He said he would do as the man asked. It might be years before there was any way to mail the letter, but he made up his mind to do so no matter how long it took. He also made his own letter to his family to keep on his person the next day, just in case he died too.
Now the envelope was by no means clean. In fact, there was a bullet hole in one corner, and half of it was stained in blood. The schoolteacher couldn't bear to send the letter to the man's family like that. So, when he returned to camp, he got another envelope, and copied the address onto the clean one. When he went to move the contents however, the envelope contained only one thin sheet of paper as an actual letter, and a thick wad of American money, in small denominations. The American had been saving up all the extra pay he received and had wanted to send it home to his family, not spending it on whores or beer like his fellow soldiers did. The schoolteacher looked again at the photo of the man's family and burst into tears.
That man would never hug his children.
He would never kiss his wife.
He would never again come home to his family.
All because the schoolteacher had pulled that trigger.
He deserted the next day, a complete pacifist.
It was a great shame to come home like that, but he made it clear that he would never again fire a gun for his country, or anyone else, so the authorities left him after heaping upon him as much humiliation and shame as they could deliver to the coward. The schoolteacher went home. He hugged his children, kissed his wife, and prayed that the gods would never take him away from them.
He kept the letter from the American soldier in the small shrine he had in his house, so he would never forget how sacred a father's love for his family was.
He also hung his rifle on the wall near the shrine, so he would never forget how he came to have that letter.
Perhaps you see the moral of this story, but it isn't finished yet.
A year passed, then another. The Americans had beaten back the Japanese to their home islands. They invaded Okinawa by storm. The schoolteacher's wife begged him to load the rifle and defend their home, but he refused. The screams and gunfire drew closer, and she grew so desperate and frightened that she loaded the weapon herself. He yanked it from her hands and placed it back on the wall. He said he would never allow her to know how much it hurt to kill a man. She didn't understand and just screamed that he was a coward. He didn't grow angry with her, and just led her and his daughters to the shrine.
He hugged his children, kissed his wife, and prayed for the gods to deliver them from this violence.
As the screams and shots echoed around them, the schoolteacher just knelt there praying, with his terrified wife and daughters kneeling behind him. Several long minutes went by.
When the American soldiers kicked in the door, the wife and children shrieked in terror, but the schoolteacher didn't even turn around, but continued to perform the ceremonies as he had done again and again. Cursing him for his cowardice, she snatched the loaded rifle off the wall and prepared to protect her children.
The half-dozen seasoned soldiers cut her down before she could even swing the heavy gun up to her shoulder. In their haste to remove the threat to themselves, they had not all aimed carefully, and bullets struck and killed the two children cowering behind her as well.
Some of the soldier's winced at having killed women and children, but it had been shoot or be shot. They watched the schoolteacher slowly turn and gaze in shaking horror at the scene behind him. They stood ready to fire on him should he attempt to avenge their deaths.
The schoolteacher stood there a long time. Then he hugged his dead children, kissed his dead wife...
And picked up the rifle, put it under his chin, and pulled the trigger.
His last thought was that he wished he had taken up his rifle again and at least _tried_ to save his family.
Akane swallowed past the lump in her throat. She wanted to cry, the story was so sad.
"I... I don't get it." She confessed. "Was he right not to fight, or wrong?"
"Both." Reiko said somberly. "At the beginning, he was a fool, listening to other people tell him why he had to kill. Then he was a killer, and couldn't stand the blood on his hands. Then he was a pacifist, who didn't want to hold his children with bloodstained hands. Finally, he was a fool again, when he allowed his fear of his own guilt to take away the most important thing he had in the world.
"He killed when it wasn't necessary, then he refused to kill when it was."
Akane was quiet while that sunk in. "Is it necessary to kill your father?" She asked in a small voice.
Reiko took another deep, tired breath. "In the story (and reality), the Japanese government used propaganda to convince soldiers that they were fighting evil monsters in the Americans, and had it been true, then the Americans would need to be killed. The schoolteacher found out that he hadn't killed a monster, but a good man just like himself."
Reiko closed her eyes, trying to block out memories. "Which do you think my father is? Tell me the truth. It's possible that by being around him so much, seeing all the things he's done, I might not be seeing him clearly. Is he really the monster I believe him to be? Is there any good in him?"
Akane tried to think of something, some defense for Taiyama Chimidoro. She'd only known him a short time, but that was far longer than she had wanted to. He was violent, extremely sexist, a misogynist, a borderline rapist, a child abuser, and a murderer.
"I can't think of a single good thing about him." Akane sighed in defeat. "Except that he is 50% responsible for allowing me to meet someone I consider to be a very good friend."
Reiko smiled with her eyes closed. "Thanks. It's sweet of you to say. I've never had many friends. No one was brave enough to risk speaking to my father, let alone drop by for visits. That fucker ain't my father as far as I'm concerned; he's my sperm donor. Mom was the only one who ever treated me like I was loved. Father only sees what he can get for himself through me: a continuation or two of his family legacy, in other words, grandchildren. Hell, if I was sterile he'd probably consider me completely worthless."
Akane winced, wishing not for the first time that she had never heard Dr. Tofu's diagnosis of Reiko's abdominal injuries. How can you possible keep a secret like this? How can you possible tell a girl something like this?
Akane closed her eyes tight and turned her face dejectedly down towards the ground.
Reiko saw Akane's depression, and knew she was the cause. Fortunately, she wasn't quite aware of why.
"I'm sorry for whining about my personal life, Akane. I'm just bringing you down."
"NO!" Akane insisted, startling Reiko. "Don't ever feel there's something you can't tell me. That's part of being a friend; you can talk about anything! I don't promise I'll like all of it, but I swear I'll always listen!"
Had the light been a bit better, Akane might have seen tears sparkling at the edge of Reiko's eyes.
"Thank you."
***
Shin scowled as the pounding on the motel room door awakened her. She willed it to go away, but apparently mind over matter was of little use in this situation. She crawled out of bed and grumbled her way to the door, intending to give whoever it was a piece of her mind, and possibly a piece of her fist as well.
She opened the door and squinted against the daylight. When she could see, all she found was a knurled piece of wood apparently standing in front of her. When she looked down, she discovered the Joketsuzoku Matriarch down around the foot of the wooden stick.
"[Ah, Cologne. What the hell do you want?]"
Cologne scowled. True, since she was no longer a member of the tribe, Shin didn't _have_ to refer to her as Matriarch, but the unconcealed lack of respect irked her.
"[It has been five days, and your target is still among the living. I'm not paying you to take a vacation!]"
Shin sneered down at the old woman. "[As you are so fond of reminding us Cologne, this is not a simple hit. At your request, we are attempting not to involve either your great-granddaughter or your son-in-law in this matter. As we speak, Xian is tailing our target to establish the pattern of her movements, so that we can find a time when she is alone.
"[Unfortunately, that rarely seems to be the case. A member of that household has been with her almost constantly for the last several days. In school, it's her classmate, the one with shoulder-length hair that does all the wheeling and dealing. At lunch the target eats with your son-in-law and the shorthaired girl of that family. Most of her spare time she spends with that girl, or training with your son-in-law. Last night she and the shorthaired girl spent much of the evening looking at stars on the roof.]"
Cologne blinked. "[How do you learn all this by lazing about in this room?]"
Shin snorted. "[Fool! We've been monitoring her 24 hours a day. Xian has the days, and I take nights. Obviously that means I sleep during the day. Right now in fact. Your job will get done once we can do so with a reasonable chance of not breaking any of your restrictions. Have a nice day, matriarch!]" She snarled as she slammed the door in the old woman's face.
Cologne fumed. The brat had used her title this time, but the sarcastic tone of scorn she had used with the word threw away any illusions of respect that it might have otherwise carried. She sighed. Barely satisfied with the encounter, the old woman hopped away on her cane, wondering yet again if she'd made the right choice.
Still, whether she had or not, there was no backing out now. The two Sisters of the Bloody Hand would not be pleased with the idea of canceling this 'hit' as they called it. Even if they were permitted to keep the money, they would be furious at having their time and skills wasted. Either one was a masterful fighter, but within Cologne's ability to handle.
Both together, on the other hand...
Well, that _was_ why she had hired them.
***
Xian grumbled. She disliked monitor work, especially on the jobs when she drew days. She was well aware that her muscular bulk stood out in a crowd (especially in this land of skinny, weak women) making her work more difficult. She could still stay out of sight, or at least unnoticed, but it was a lot harder for her to blend in in crowded areas than it would have been for Shin. It essentially meant a long day for her, every day. Shin on the other hand, would spend most of the night relaxing in the Tendo's big tree while their target slept (lucky bitch).
At the moment, she was following the target and her friends home from school, staying a good block and a half behind, so that the distance would make her large size less obvious. Her ability to speak some Japanese was the only good reason for her to take days. The long-range microphone she had hidden up one sleeve allowed her to hear the majority of their conversations. She could have heard it all if she'd had an excuse to point her arm in their direction constantly, but a fake cast would only draw attention to herself.
In any case, she could hear about three words out of five, which allowed her to piece together most of what they said.
"Oh wait a --- ---. I forgot --- --- at the school. --- --- ahead and I'll --- --- and catch up ---." This was Reiko speaking, Xian realized.
This was their chance! It might not come again for weeks, the way the girl clung to her friends' sides (you'd think she hated to be alone or something). She considered calling Shin, but it would take her sister 10-15 minutes to get here, by which time the girl would have grabbed whatever she forgot and hotfooted it back home to be with her friends. Xian might have to finish this job herself. Shin would hate that. It might also be difficult; this girl was supposed to be really good. Xian thought about how her sister relaxed all night and slept while Xian had to dodge eyes all day.
Her turn to have fun.
Xian turned onto a side street while Reiko ran past. After a few moments, Xian turned back and rounded the corner to meet Reiko on her return.
She almost ran smack into the girl in question, who was obviously waiting for her.
"Wha..."
"You've been following me for days." Reiko said in a voice cold as ice. It was not a question.
Xian just blinked.
"There's also that girl that sits in the tree all night back at the house. For a while I thought you were bent on fighting or marrying Ranma; most people around here are. But you follow me even when he's not around. So you must want me."
Reiko cocked her head. "I don't know you, so what do you want?"
Xian smiled. The girl _was_ good. "Paid for kill you."
Reiko smirked. "By who?"
"You stupid? I no tell you."
"It doesn't matter. I don't know any other Chinese who speak Japanese that badly. You're sent by Shampoo to kill me because she can't."
Xian looked sincerely confused. "Why Xian Pu want kill?"
"Please! Ranma's told me about that Amazon law. If an outsider defeats her, she has to give the kiss of death and kill me. Now I haven't been kissed yet, but she obviously doesn't want me to be watching my back. You're an Amazon too, aren't you?"
Xian was stunned. "Yes." She said out of reflex. "No. Cast out of tribe. No more is Amazon. You outsider defeat Shampoo?"
Reiko nodded. "And Cologne. Does she have to give the kiss of death too?"
Xian's knees began to wobble at the implications. "Y-you defeat Cologne!" She shook her head. "Not by self!" She insisted.
Reiko smirked, "Just me and myself. No one else."
Xian looked at he ground, thinking. "This change everything. Maybe kill you later. Now have check things first."
Reiko put her hands together in a Chinese-style bow. While she didn't know any of the language, she had at least spent some time studying Kung Fu. "I look forward to our fight. If Shampoo and the old ghoul sent you against me, you must be very skilled."
Xian returned the bow of respect and then left.
Reiko smiled at the sky. "Nerima seems to be a place with many training opportunities."
***
Xian waited in their room impatiently. She was late. Did something happen? Did-
Shin opened the door.
"[What happened! What did she say?]"
Shin didn't answer. She went straight to the minifridge and pulled out a bottle of chilled beer. She put it to her lips and sucked it down in one huge pull (those bottles are _not_ the size usually for individuals).
"[It took forever to drag the truth out of her, but yes, the girl did beat her.]" Shin said as she sat down quickly on the bed. Asians, as a general rule, do not have the alcohol tolerances of westerners. Xian was an exception to that generalization; Shin was not. The fact that she was slight of stature didn't help either.
Xian sat down hard in her chair. "[That's incredible! And we have to go against this girl?]"
Shin shook her head. "[It's not quite how it seems. She IS deadly, but she's also been hit with the Spring of Drowned Twins water from Jyusenkyo. It was the pair of them that defeated Cologne. According to her, they're better synchronized than any pair of real twins in the world, because they literally have the same mind, split into two brains for a time.]"
"[Hmm. I'm not so sure we should take her on.]" Xian said.
"[Are you nuts! We can take any little twin-brats! She's only 17!]"
"[But if she, as twins, has such an incredible sync ratio, she might be impossible for us to beat. You and me have a lot experience fighting together, but we're still different people. One of us can do something without the other predicting it. She --or they-- won't have that weakness.]"
Shin looked ready to cry. "[But that means we have to... to...]"
"[What?]" Xian said, coming to her sister's side.
Shin (drunk by now) broke down in Xian's arms. "[That bitch Cologne, she said... she said the main reason she hired us was that we could resort to methods that she couldn't, like a sniper shot from a far away building. Her Amazon pride won't let her do that, but we could, because we're just assassins... with no honor.]"
Xian's face was red with rage. The worst insult the Elder could give, and more to the point, the old crone had made her little sister cry. Any respect Xian had felt she owed her former Matriarch had just died then and there.
No honor, eh? Well, Xian and Shin would show her who had honor. They did not run from battles like a certain old woman and her granddaughter. They would kill this Reiko like they had promised to.
And they would do it like Amazons.
***
When Reiko received the letter of challenge she was surprised. Assassins rarely bothered with such things. Nonetheless, she would arrive ready at the appointed time and place: 1:00 AM at the docks.
"Akane, you really shouldn't have come along."
"Then what if you get hurt?"
"Then you get to fucking watch me get hurt! I don't know why they bothered to make this a formal challenge, but since they did, you can't interfere. I still think you being here is just asking for trouble. If there's two of them fighting me, they might mistake you for my fighting partner."
"Would that be so bad?"
"Remember that these are the people Cologne hired because she can't beat me herself."
"..."
Reiko noticed Akane's expression become even more somber. "Now what?"
"What if you die?"
Reiko thought about that one for a minute. "Cremate me. You deal with my ashes however you like."
"Huh? Me?"
"Sure. You're probably my best friend. My father won't want them anyway."
"Why not?"
"Unlike my mother, I haven't yet earned my place in the family plot." Reiko smiled grimly.
"That's awful!"
"It doesn't bother me nearly as much as you might think. I mean, as soon as my bastard of a father gets himself killed, I'd be lying at his feet for all eternity. I don't relish that thought."
"... What about your mother? That's where she's buried. Wouldn't you want to be with her?"
Reiko looked at her for a moment. Then she looked at the ground with a emotionless expression. "Akane... can you keep a secret?"
"Sure."
"Mom isn't buried there any more. She was, but she isn't now."
"What! You don't mean he-"
"No no. You see I've thought about this before, lying near that bastard for all time and that sort of thing. I didn't feel Mom should have to any more than I should. About a year and a half ago I ran away from home and dug her up."
Akane remembered what she knew of the death of Reiko's mother and did the math. "But... she'd have been in the ground for... 8 1/2 years..."
"Yeah... the body didn't exactly hold together all that well when I tried to move it. Eventually I had to get a bag. Want to know something though? Even as decomposed as she was, she still looked beautiful to me." Reiko sniffed back tears. "Is that sick?"
"No." Akane said sincerely (while trying _not_ to get a mental picture). "That's love."
Reiko smiled. "Anyway, after covering up the grave so no one would suspect, I found a wheel hub from a bus in a junkyard and used it to cremate her. Not the most dignified method, but I had little time and no money. I climbed to the top of the mountain near our dojo and scattered most of her ashes to the wind. She always loved the view from there. It was the place she always took me whenever my father would let us leave the house, which wasn't often."
Akane smiled sadly. "What did you mean, 'most' of her ashes?"
Reiko looked a little awkward. "Well, I wanted to keep part of her with me, but I knew I couldn't keep her in a pouch or anything like that. He'd want to know what it was, and if he ever figured it out, he'd not only beat my within an inch of my life, he'd destroy Mom's marker, since she's not buried there anymore. I guess that meant I shouldn't care about it; it's just a block of stone, but it was the only thing done to honor her since the day she married him."
"Okay, so what did you do with the rest of her ashes?"
Reiko looked ashamed. "...I... I ate them, about a small spoonful's worth."
"What?" Akane cried. Actually, she cried _out_. Reiko was the one crying now.
"I... I needed to keep part of her with me, and I couldn't think of anything better. It was stupid! I felt so ashamed as soon as I had to go to the bathroom. What kind of disgrace was that to her memory if I just shit her out? I never believed in gods much, but I started praying anyway that she'd somehow stayed in me, stayed in my body, like in the liver or something."
That was about all Reiko got out before she completely broke down. Akane held her as she sobbed, grateful that no one else was around this area at this time of night.
Reiko had never talked to anyone about her mother. There had never been anyone she could tell in safety before. By the time she was four, none of their few neighbors would let their children talk to her, advising their them to run for their lives if they ever saw any member of the Chimidoro family. Reiko's only confidant had been her mother, and that had all been brought to a screaming end in her seventh year. Her mother had died as much of her life was lived: in great pain. Her final scream as her husband thrust into her broken and worn down body had a truly surprising amount of lungpower behind it for a woman who hadn't been able to get out of bed for five months.
Death screams were often like that.
Little 7 year-old Reiko had known it instantly for what it was, and had run from the house in tears, running farther and farther until she collapsed in exhaustion. Choking sobs were not a very effective breathing method for running long distances. As soon as she could move again, she wondered which way to go. She felt ashamed for leaving her mother in her dying moments (even if her father _would_ have sent her flying into a wall for interrupting his 'private time' with Mommy). Still, what could she have done? What could she do now? Her only thoughts were for her mother. Would her father stop hurting her now that she was dead? Well, he _couldn't_ hurt her now that she was dead, and upon realizing that Reiko felt a rush of relief, immediately followed by guilt. You didn't feel relief when your Mommy died, that wasn't right. Now if it had been her father...
And that was the day Reiko knew she had to kill him. She turned back to the house of horrors of her own free will and slowly began the long walk home.
The day after Reiko had scattered (and digested) her mother's remains, her father had found her. He always found her, on the rare occasions she even tried to run away. She knew he'd find her this time as well, but felt it was worth it. Even as she lay in bed, unable to walk for two months, she was satisfied with what she had done.
"Um, I think we're about two blocks from the place on the note, and it's 12:55." Akane said gently.
Reiko let Akane go and wiped her tears. "You're right. I've got to get myself together."
"Maybe you should postpone."
"You know damn well I can't." Reiko said, taking deep, meditative breaths. They were in the outskirts of the docks, surrounded by warehouses and crates. Reiko sat on one and folded her feet up on top of her thighs, trying to calm herself through meditation.
Three minutes later, Akane tapped her on the knee and Reiko opened her eyes, calm and centred once more.
"Okay, let's go." She said cheerfully. Akane envied her a little, being able to shut down such profound grief in a few minutes. She'd have to ask Reiko for pointers with her own meditations.
Well, assuming Reiko survived the night.
***
Shampoo looked once again at the envelope on her dresser. It had been handed to her by an attractive Chinese woman with scars at the edge of both her eyes. Shampoo thought the scars made her look vaguely catlike. Actually, Shampoo thought the woman looked like an Amazon. She had certainly spoken the Joketsuzoku's local dialect flawlessly.
The woman had told her to read this letter tomorrow, and not to let Mousse or especially her great-grandmother see it until after she'd read it (and made a copy if she intended to use what she found inside).
Shampoo had obeyed the instructions with some doubts. It sounded like the woman was suggesting she couldn't trust her own great-grandmother. Try as she might though, she couldn't think of any way this letter could harm Cologne. Perhaps it held some secret the old woman didn't want known and the woman had just wanted a day to flee the country to escape Cologne's wrath. Well, whatever it was, Shampoo would never use it to embarrass her great-grandmother. Cologne could trust her.
Which was why it would be okay for Shampoo to read the letter. Whatever it was about, it would remain a private matter of Cologne's, unless of course she needed Shampoo's help.
Come to think of it, Shampoo's clock read 1:04 AM, so technically it was 'tomorrow'. Obviously that was not what the scarred woman had meant, but Shampoo had the curiosity of... well, a cat.
She opened the letter, and read.
And what did curiosity do to the cat?
Well, obviously the letter didn't kill her, but Shampoo certainly felt like she'd been struck. She dashed downstairs in tears to find her great-grandmother, so the old woman could tell her it wasn't true.
On her way down, she nearly knocked over Mousse. Distressed at her obvious anxiety, Mousse quickly entered her room. Maybe the vile Saotome had tried to force himself on Shampoo after breaking into her room. He realized that was silly. Shampoo would just club him. No wait, she'd probably encourage him, he thought glumly, so that couldn't be why she was upset. Besides, the room was devoid of vile Saotomes at the moment.
He noticed a sheet of paper on the floor and frowned. Shampoo was usually quite tidy (with the exception of leaving large amounts of rubble lying in her wake). He picked it up to set it on her dresser, and as he did so his eyes lazily glanced over the letter.
He froze.
To Xian Pu,
I doubt you remember me. You were only about 10 or so when my sister and I had to leave the village. It wasn't as though we knew each other well, I only remember you because you were the Matriarch's protégé, but most of the older people in the village would know our names.
I am Shin, and my older sister is Xian, of the Tiel family. When I was 20 and my sister 22, a man came to the village begging for help. He was a prominent businessman having difficulty with a local warlord who was gathering power and killing off his customers and employees. The elders decided that though the tale was sad, this was none of the clan's business. The man offered to pay whoever could kill this warlord a truly ridiculous sum of money. The elders were of course offended by the offer, and demanded that the two guards on duty (my sister and I) throw him out of the village.
Our family was never a rich one, though of course strength is more important to an Amazon than material wealth, and my sister and I had that in spades. When we fought as a pair, we were a match even for some of the elders then. Still, life is hard for the poor and that year was particularly bad for us. Our mother was ill and there was little food in our house. These are not things we could mention to others, to be weak for any reason is a great shame to an Amazon, as you well know.
But with that money the man had offered, we could get our mother the best medicine, and feed her well to aid her recovery. The prospect of ourselves eating quite well for the first time in months was tempting as well. On our way to the village gates, we whispered to the man that we would help him.
Asking permission from the elders to go on a private training trip for a couple weeks, we followed the man to the warlord's land. He had wanted to hire a small army of Amazons, and had ended up with two. Killing the warlord required we use more stealth than brute force to get past his many guards, but we did not stab him in his sleep or some such disgrace. He died on his feet, fighting.
We returned home with a doctor, fine meats and fruits from the next village, and a bag full of more money then we would make guarding the elders in 5 years. It would have been perfect. Mother's health increased, and she even returned to her training to a degree. No one suspected that we had gone against the council and helped the businessman. Unfortunately, we grew greedy with our secret wealth. We began spending more and more extravagantly, and we aroused the council's suspicions.
It all came out eventually, the businessman told all once given the tiniest threat to his anatomy, and our family was ruined. Our mother hadn't known about the man's visit to the tribe, and hadn't wanted to question such dutiful daughters as to where all the money had come from. Now she was shamed. The council called us honorless assassins, and banished us forever. All our "ill-gotten" wealth and assets were taken from us, and our mother forced to live without even the meager income of two guards. We do not know what became of her.
We traveled China and eventually were forced to turn to what the council had declared our 'true nature' to feed ourselves. There is very little work for uneducated Amazons. We became assassins, using the skills taught to defend out tribe to defend ourselves from starvation. Over the years, we gained a reputation, and are quite famous in our business.
Famous enough for word to reach back to Nhu Che Zu village and the Joketsuzoku. This is the true point of this letter I write you: your great-grandmother, Cologne, Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku, who was the first to demand we be thrown out for our crimes, has hired us to assassinate the girl known as Reiko Chimidoro. You would know better than I the reason, but it appears as though my sister and I have been hired because neither you nor she are able to defeat the girl by yourselves. If this is true, than it is not the assassins who deserve to feel shame for this business.
Still, this secret shame of hiring assassins to do her fighting for her could be forgiven, were it not for the assumptions that she makes of us. I believe my sister and I are now accomplished enough to give Cologne herself a fair challenge were we to fight her as a pair, but Cologne seems to expect us to kill her enemy from a distance with a sniper rifle. We meager assassins have far too much Amazon pride to sink to such a level, but your great-grandmother the Matriarch seems eager to, if unwilling to dirty her hands personally with such a task.
We will not kill Reiko Chimidoro as that old bitch would have us do. We may be assassins, but we will fight and kill her in open combat like Amazons! by the time you read this, we should already have either succeeded or lost our lives in the attempt. Either way, we will not expose Cologne's crimes to the tribe.
Though we may be Amazons at heart, we are no longer members of the tribe. If Cologne is to pay for her actions, it must fall to you to do so. I am aware that you may choose to ignore this letter and her crimes out of love for the old woman, and that is your choice. I simply give you all the information to act on if that is your wish. Remember that if you wish to confront her with this letter, you should make and hide a copy before doing so.
You've grown up strong and beautiful Shampoo.
May your Amazon spirit never become jaded with time.
-Shin Tiel
Mousse stared in shock at the letter in his hands. Assassins instead of the Kiss of Death? Sniper rifles from a distance? Why not just defecate on the book of Amazon law?
His head snapped up as she heard a voice approaching.
"Come now Shampoo, show me this ridiculous letter you found. We'll punish severely whoever made up these filthy lies."
Mousse's eyes hardened. He slipped the letter into his robes and swiftly made a silent exit through Shampoo's window.
The suggestion in the letter was a good one. He had a date with a photocopier.
(And not because he mistook one for Shampoo with his glasses off ^_^)
***
Reiko came to a halt when she saw the two Chinese waiting for her atop a pile of crates. She recognized the big one from before, and guessed the small one was the person who had been hiding in the tree for the last several nights. There seemed to be something wrong with her eyes, but the light wasn't good enough for Reiko to pin it down at this distance.
The big one cocked her head curiously. "Who this?"
Reiko waved a hand dismissively. "She's just a friend who came to take my body if I lose. You won't be fighting her."
"You no come as twins?"
Reiko smirked. "Well, there go the last of my doubts as to who hired you. Cologne and Shampoo are the only other people aware of my curse."
"What?" Akane cried. "I can't believe they did this!"
"Just be quiet Akane. That doesn't matter anymore. Remember, you're only here in case I lose."
"I ask about twin." Xian interrupted sharply.
Reiko averted her gaze. "The curse of Luanshengniichuan is much worse than any other Jyusenkyo curse. The change is... excruciating."
"What that word?"
"Excruciating? Painful enough to make a strong warrior collapse. I try to avoid changing if I can. And you don't need to worry about me doing it in the middle of the fight, it always renders me unconscious, and I doubt you'd be so merciful as to wait for me to wake up."
"We have job to do." Xian admitted.
"I respect that. I'll treat you the same way; we fight to the death. How shall we begin?"
Xian looked back at her sister, and the two conversed for a minute.
"We come expect fight Reiko twins. If only one of you, you fight only one of us."
"Very honorable of you."
"But we still paid to kill you, so if first one of us lose, other take her place."
"Hmm. Well, I was expecting worse. Very well, who's first?"
Xian translated for her sister, who hopped down of the crate she was sitting on.
"My sister would like to go first."
Reiko nodded and stepped forward, away from Akane. "May I have the honor of your name, Miss?"
Xian translated again.
"Shin Tiel." The smaller girl answered with a grim smile.
Reiko bowed to her in the Chinese style, before settling into a fighting stance.
All Akane could think about was that everyone was very polite for people set on killing each other.
***
End of chapter.
Yep, that's right. I'm stopping right here.
Ain't I a bastard?
Comments and Criticisms to Ron Hino at hinoron@hotmail.com