Disclaimer: I don't own Iria (though I wouldn't mind it….) and I'm not making any money off this. (If I was, do you think you'd see this disclaimer?) The only thing I own here is this story and Shiv. She's mine, do you hear me? Mine! *laughs nervously* Okay…on with the show…..
Rating: PG-13 - language
A Knife in the Coat
Part One: Contracts
Iria pushed the door open and staggered wearily inside. "That is the last time I ever take a job from those assholes," she muttered, flinging her cape roughly onto the rack by the door. "They run you ragged, nickel-and-dime everything down to the last kem, and then almost didn't pay me anyway! What kind of…."
She froze as she saw there was someone on the couch. It wasn't Kai and it wasn't Fujikuro. It was a woman. Her dark hair was cut to just beneath her ears and her emerald eyes glittered. She wore a khaki colored tank top. The right strap was regular khaki material and came slant-wise across her chest, while the left was made of some kind of cargo netting. Her shorts were tight-fitting and black, coming to several inches above her knees. There was a black belt strapped around the woman's right thigh, presumably to be used as a holster belt. Her black, knee-high boots had large, clunky heels, a possible hiding place for a smaller weapon. Over it all, she wore a long, grayish coat that came to her knees. It was huge and bulky, an unusual sight this time of year given the warmer weather.
"Who," Iria demanded flatly, "in the Hell are you?"
"Shiv," the woman replied. She tipped her right wrist down slightly and a long silver knife with flame-like edges slid out of her sleeve, just missing nicking her wrist. With that, Shiv began to clean her fingernails with its tip.
"You gotta last name?", Iria demanded.
"Not that I know of," Shiv replied. "If I've done my job right, I don't exist. All records of me found their way into the trash can."
"What do you mean?", Iria asked, but the woman only shook her head.
"I'll get into it when Fuji gets here. It's rather complicated, and I don't want to have to go through it twice."
Iria's temper was steadily rising. "I'll give you two simple questions, then," she said through tightly clenched teeth. "One, who do you mean Fuji? And how'd you get in here?"
"Fujikuro," Shiv replied calmly, still cleaning her nails. "And Bob let me in."
"Bob!", Iria roared, spinning to face the computer console. "You tell me why you let that….that….that woman in here right now, or I'm taking you cyber-ass apart microchip by microchip!"
"Calm down, Iria," Bob soothed. Shiv smiled noting the edge of worry in his voice; computer or no computer, Bob still knew the dangers of an Iria in full explosion. "I let her in because I know her, Fujikuro knows her, and she's got legitament business here."
"What business?!?", Iria fumed. "She's just some chick in a coat!"
Shiv cleared her throat. "That's some *hunter* chick in a coat, Miss I'm-Hunter-Iria-I-killed-Zeiram-and-have-all-of-Tedon-Tippidai-pissed-at-me."
Iria gaped and Bob laughed. "Iria, let me introduce you to Shiv, Bounty Hunter First Class. She's stubborn, irritable, cynical, and trigger-happy. You two should get along just fine."
Iria continued to gape and it was Shiv's turn to laugh. "I knew Bob along time ago. And I knew Fuji even before that. We were friends, still are as far as I know, and it wasn't too long ago when I heard Tedon Tippidai has a contract out on you. I'd heard you're a friend of his, so since I don't like to kill my friend's friends, I told him about it. He set me up with a new contract to not just keep an eye on you, but to see to it that as many hunters as possible ignore this contract."
"Fujikuro….hired you…to baby-sit me?!?" Iria's voice was steadily rising in decibels. "He set you up to keep me from getting hit?!? I can take care of myself! Boy, when that freeloader gets home….."
"You'll thank him for covering your back," Shiv finished for her. "He's worried about you kid. You've been dealin' in some heavy shit, and he wanted to keep you from becoming a trophy on somebody's wall. By the way, you don't take care of yourself as well as you think. I've been keeping an eye on you for two weeks now, and if I wanted to, you'd be dead and buried about twenty times over."
Iria gaped again and at that exact moment, Fujikuro walked in the door. He stood in shock as he saw Shiv sitting on the couch. "Shiv!", he shouted. "Jeez, you little bitch! It's been ages!"
She laughed and leapt of the couch, launching herself at him and enfolding him in a bear hug. "I know, Fuji, I know. Way too long, if you ask me."
A grin Iria had never seen before had spread itself across Fujikuro's face. "What are you doing here, anyway? I though we weren't gonna hook up until next week."
Shiv's grin faltered slightly. "I've got some bad news, Fuji. Seems none of the Myce hunters would take the contract. So Tedon Tippidai brought in some off-world help. Iria's a target now."
Fujikuro's eyes went wide. "Is there anyway we can take out the O.W. hunter?"
Shiv shrugged. "I don't know. I've had a look at him and he's one tough looking bastard. I've never seen him before, but I'm told his name's Remington. Now, Fujikuro," she said softly, "I'll do my damnedest to get rid of Remington, but I've got one condition. You have to let me get rid of Putubai, too."
"Why do you want Putubai?", Fujikuro asked.
Shiv took a deep breath. "Fuji…..You remember how I wrote you about how…..how Jiko died while we were under contract? We…we were under contract to Tedon Tippidai. And Fuji……they wouldn't give me Hunter's Comp."
Fujikuro's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean they wouldn't? Why didn't you take it up with the Hunter's Guild or something?"
"Because they would have told me what Putubai told me," she explained. "Hunter's Comp isn't required. It's just become common practice, that's all. Putubai has Jiko's blood on his hands so I want his on mine."
Fuji shook his head. "I can cover the Remington angle by saying it's a contract you've got with me, but Putubai? Not even a contract's gonna cover that. That'd be murder, Shiv. You'd been running all the time and have more contracts on you than you'd know what to do with."
"Not if no one would take them," Shiv countered. "If they know why I killed Putubai, who'd be nuts enough to come after a hunter who did something they'd do themselves?"
"A hunter who's so desperate for cash he'll do anything?", Fujikuro flung back in her face. "There are plenty of those out there, Shiv. The galaxy isn't as moral as it used to be. Sure, they might do it in your boots, but their not in your boots and they need the cash. Forget it, Shiv. I'll pay you on the Remington thing, but if you go after Putubai, you're on your own."
Shiv nodded and turned to go, but Iria (who at this point was very annoyed she'd been ignored since the moment Fujikuro walked in the door) shouted, "Stop ignoring me, tell me what's going on, and what the hell is Hunter's Comp?!?!!?!"
Shiv paused and turned around. Smiling weakly, she said, "Ask Fuji." Then, she left.
Iria looked at Fujikuro as he sat down on the couch as though all strength had left him. Flopping down beside him, she said, "Okay, wise guy. Start talking."
"Hunter's Comp stands for Hunter's Compensation," Fujikuro explained. "If two hunters are hired as a pair and not on separate contracts, and one of them dies, the surviving hunter receives an extra percentage of the contract money."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense," Iria admitted. "But, was Shiv right about the part that it's not required? That they don't have to give you compensation?" Fujikuro nodded. "That's not fair!", Iria shouted. "Can't that be changed?"
Fujikuro shrugged. "It's all a lot of bureaucracy. By the time its the general rule, we'll be too old or too dead to care."
Iria bit her lower lip, deep in thought. "What was Shiv talking about about that Jiko person? What happened to her?"
"Him," Fujikuro corrected. "Hang on. I've got something I want to show you."
He got up, then returned a few moments later with a picture frame in his hand. He sat back down, handing the picture to Iria. "Who are these people?", she asked, gesturing to the three in the photo that appeared to be about Iria's age.
"That's Shiv," Fujikuro said, pointing to the young woman in the trademark grayish coat. "That's me." He stabbed a finger at the young man to Shiv's left with a cocky grin on his face. "And that…." He paused, staring at the last person in the photograph. It was a young man wearing a long black coat similar to Shiv's. His dark brown hair was ruffled, as though someone had just run their fingers through it. One strand dropped down in-between his gray-green eyes and a roguish grin was spread across his face. "That's Jiko," Fujikuro said softly. "The three of us were best friends all while we were apprenticed. Jiko and I used to have fake fights over who'd get Shiv, but we both knew it would always be him. After we got licensed, the two of them went off together to start hunting as a pair. Then, not too long ago, I got word from Shiv that Jiko died under contract. The most I've heard from her since is when she told me there was a contract out on you. That's the whole story."
Iria fixed him with a sideways glare. "I don't quite believe that that's all there is, but I'll keep my mouth shut for now. One more question: Why did you leave about two months ago and just disappear. You were off the face of the planet and Bob wouldn't tell me where you were. What's the deal with that?"
Fujikuro smiled weakly. "About two months ago was Jiko's funeral. I went because I knew I had to. It was my responsibility as a friend."
"Why didn't you take me with you? Or at least tell me about it?", Iria demanded.
"Because it wasn't your concern," Fujikuro said shortly. "You didn't know Jiko or Shiv and……and…..and you just would have been in the way! You didn't know them! You didn't care about either of them! You just would have been demanding all the details every five minutes! I don't know why I even bother! You had no reason to go! That's why you stayed here!!" He opened his mouth to shout again, but all that came out was a soft, "Stay away from me."
Iria stared in shock at his back as Fujikuro jumped off the couch and stalked out the door.
He had just made his way to the roof when he spotted someone standing near the railing. "Thought you might be up here," he said, taking a place beside her.
"You had a fight with her, didn't you," Shiv said. It was obvious by her tone it wasn't a question.
Fujikuro sighed. "She wanted to know about Comp, and you, and Jiko……." He swiped the back of his hand roughly across his eyes. "I don't like digging up old wounds," he muttered.
Shiv rested a hand on his shoulder. "None of us do. But sometimes we have to, for reasons we won't know until later, so that someone can do something today they never thought they'd do. Old wounds aren't that bad, Fuji. It's just you've always had a problem with them."
Fujikuro glared at Shiv for a moment, then looked away. "It's not my fault I don't like being reminded about stuff."
"It's 'cause of the fight, isn't it?", Shiv asked. "Because of what you and Jiko fought about before……" Her voice faded, the last words caught by the wind and sending "before" echoing for miles around.
"You know," she whispered. "Sometimes, when it gets really quiet, I swear I can almost hear him laugh." She smiled sadly, wiped something from her eye, and turned from the railing. When Fujikuro turned around, she was gone.
******
That's it for now, I'll post more later. Lemme know what you think; reviews pleeeeeeeease!!
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/ Ja, no da!
Rating: PG-13 - language
A Knife in the Coat
Part One: Contracts
Iria pushed the door open and staggered wearily inside. "That is the last time I ever take a job from those assholes," she muttered, flinging her cape roughly onto the rack by the door. "They run you ragged, nickel-and-dime everything down to the last kem, and then almost didn't pay me anyway! What kind of…."
She froze as she saw there was someone on the couch. It wasn't Kai and it wasn't Fujikuro. It was a woman. Her dark hair was cut to just beneath her ears and her emerald eyes glittered. She wore a khaki colored tank top. The right strap was regular khaki material and came slant-wise across her chest, while the left was made of some kind of cargo netting. Her shorts were tight-fitting and black, coming to several inches above her knees. There was a black belt strapped around the woman's right thigh, presumably to be used as a holster belt. Her black, knee-high boots had large, clunky heels, a possible hiding place for a smaller weapon. Over it all, she wore a long, grayish coat that came to her knees. It was huge and bulky, an unusual sight this time of year given the warmer weather.
"Who," Iria demanded flatly, "in the Hell are you?"
"Shiv," the woman replied. She tipped her right wrist down slightly and a long silver knife with flame-like edges slid out of her sleeve, just missing nicking her wrist. With that, Shiv began to clean her fingernails with its tip.
"You gotta last name?", Iria demanded.
"Not that I know of," Shiv replied. "If I've done my job right, I don't exist. All records of me found their way into the trash can."
"What do you mean?", Iria asked, but the woman only shook her head.
"I'll get into it when Fuji gets here. It's rather complicated, and I don't want to have to go through it twice."
Iria's temper was steadily rising. "I'll give you two simple questions, then," she said through tightly clenched teeth. "One, who do you mean Fuji? And how'd you get in here?"
"Fujikuro," Shiv replied calmly, still cleaning her nails. "And Bob let me in."
"Bob!", Iria roared, spinning to face the computer console. "You tell me why you let that….that….that woman in here right now, or I'm taking you cyber-ass apart microchip by microchip!"
"Calm down, Iria," Bob soothed. Shiv smiled noting the edge of worry in his voice; computer or no computer, Bob still knew the dangers of an Iria in full explosion. "I let her in because I know her, Fujikuro knows her, and she's got legitament business here."
"What business?!?", Iria fumed. "She's just some chick in a coat!"
Shiv cleared her throat. "That's some *hunter* chick in a coat, Miss I'm-Hunter-Iria-I-killed-Zeiram-and-have-all-of-Tedon-Tippidai-pissed-at-me."
Iria gaped and Bob laughed. "Iria, let me introduce you to Shiv, Bounty Hunter First Class. She's stubborn, irritable, cynical, and trigger-happy. You two should get along just fine."
Iria continued to gape and it was Shiv's turn to laugh. "I knew Bob along time ago. And I knew Fuji even before that. We were friends, still are as far as I know, and it wasn't too long ago when I heard Tedon Tippidai has a contract out on you. I'd heard you're a friend of his, so since I don't like to kill my friend's friends, I told him about it. He set me up with a new contract to not just keep an eye on you, but to see to it that as many hunters as possible ignore this contract."
"Fujikuro….hired you…to baby-sit me?!?" Iria's voice was steadily rising in decibels. "He set you up to keep me from getting hit?!? I can take care of myself! Boy, when that freeloader gets home….."
"You'll thank him for covering your back," Shiv finished for her. "He's worried about you kid. You've been dealin' in some heavy shit, and he wanted to keep you from becoming a trophy on somebody's wall. By the way, you don't take care of yourself as well as you think. I've been keeping an eye on you for two weeks now, and if I wanted to, you'd be dead and buried about twenty times over."
Iria gaped again and at that exact moment, Fujikuro walked in the door. He stood in shock as he saw Shiv sitting on the couch. "Shiv!", he shouted. "Jeez, you little bitch! It's been ages!"
She laughed and leapt of the couch, launching herself at him and enfolding him in a bear hug. "I know, Fuji, I know. Way too long, if you ask me."
A grin Iria had never seen before had spread itself across Fujikuro's face. "What are you doing here, anyway? I though we weren't gonna hook up until next week."
Shiv's grin faltered slightly. "I've got some bad news, Fuji. Seems none of the Myce hunters would take the contract. So Tedon Tippidai brought in some off-world help. Iria's a target now."
Fujikuro's eyes went wide. "Is there anyway we can take out the O.W. hunter?"
Shiv shrugged. "I don't know. I've had a look at him and he's one tough looking bastard. I've never seen him before, but I'm told his name's Remington. Now, Fujikuro," she said softly, "I'll do my damnedest to get rid of Remington, but I've got one condition. You have to let me get rid of Putubai, too."
"Why do you want Putubai?", Fujikuro asked.
Shiv took a deep breath. "Fuji…..You remember how I wrote you about how…..how Jiko died while we were under contract? We…we were under contract to Tedon Tippidai. And Fuji……they wouldn't give me Hunter's Comp."
Fujikuro's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean they wouldn't? Why didn't you take it up with the Hunter's Guild or something?"
"Because they would have told me what Putubai told me," she explained. "Hunter's Comp isn't required. It's just become common practice, that's all. Putubai has Jiko's blood on his hands so I want his on mine."
Fuji shook his head. "I can cover the Remington angle by saying it's a contract you've got with me, but Putubai? Not even a contract's gonna cover that. That'd be murder, Shiv. You'd been running all the time and have more contracts on you than you'd know what to do with."
"Not if no one would take them," Shiv countered. "If they know why I killed Putubai, who'd be nuts enough to come after a hunter who did something they'd do themselves?"
"A hunter who's so desperate for cash he'll do anything?", Fujikuro flung back in her face. "There are plenty of those out there, Shiv. The galaxy isn't as moral as it used to be. Sure, they might do it in your boots, but their not in your boots and they need the cash. Forget it, Shiv. I'll pay you on the Remington thing, but if you go after Putubai, you're on your own."
Shiv nodded and turned to go, but Iria (who at this point was very annoyed she'd been ignored since the moment Fujikuro walked in the door) shouted, "Stop ignoring me, tell me what's going on, and what the hell is Hunter's Comp?!?!!?!"
Shiv paused and turned around. Smiling weakly, she said, "Ask Fuji." Then, she left.
Iria looked at Fujikuro as he sat down on the couch as though all strength had left him. Flopping down beside him, she said, "Okay, wise guy. Start talking."
"Hunter's Comp stands for Hunter's Compensation," Fujikuro explained. "If two hunters are hired as a pair and not on separate contracts, and one of them dies, the surviving hunter receives an extra percentage of the contract money."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense," Iria admitted. "But, was Shiv right about the part that it's not required? That they don't have to give you compensation?" Fujikuro nodded. "That's not fair!", Iria shouted. "Can't that be changed?"
Fujikuro shrugged. "It's all a lot of bureaucracy. By the time its the general rule, we'll be too old or too dead to care."
Iria bit her lower lip, deep in thought. "What was Shiv talking about about that Jiko person? What happened to her?"
"Him," Fujikuro corrected. "Hang on. I've got something I want to show you."
He got up, then returned a few moments later with a picture frame in his hand. He sat back down, handing the picture to Iria. "Who are these people?", she asked, gesturing to the three in the photo that appeared to be about Iria's age.
"That's Shiv," Fujikuro said, pointing to the young woman in the trademark grayish coat. "That's me." He stabbed a finger at the young man to Shiv's left with a cocky grin on his face. "And that…." He paused, staring at the last person in the photograph. It was a young man wearing a long black coat similar to Shiv's. His dark brown hair was ruffled, as though someone had just run their fingers through it. One strand dropped down in-between his gray-green eyes and a roguish grin was spread across his face. "That's Jiko," Fujikuro said softly. "The three of us were best friends all while we were apprenticed. Jiko and I used to have fake fights over who'd get Shiv, but we both knew it would always be him. After we got licensed, the two of them went off together to start hunting as a pair. Then, not too long ago, I got word from Shiv that Jiko died under contract. The most I've heard from her since is when she told me there was a contract out on you. That's the whole story."
Iria fixed him with a sideways glare. "I don't quite believe that that's all there is, but I'll keep my mouth shut for now. One more question: Why did you leave about two months ago and just disappear. You were off the face of the planet and Bob wouldn't tell me where you were. What's the deal with that?"
Fujikuro smiled weakly. "About two months ago was Jiko's funeral. I went because I knew I had to. It was my responsibility as a friend."
"Why didn't you take me with you? Or at least tell me about it?", Iria demanded.
"Because it wasn't your concern," Fujikuro said shortly. "You didn't know Jiko or Shiv and……and…..and you just would have been in the way! You didn't know them! You didn't care about either of them! You just would have been demanding all the details every five minutes! I don't know why I even bother! You had no reason to go! That's why you stayed here!!" He opened his mouth to shout again, but all that came out was a soft, "Stay away from me."
Iria stared in shock at his back as Fujikuro jumped off the couch and stalked out the door.
He had just made his way to the roof when he spotted someone standing near the railing. "Thought you might be up here," he said, taking a place beside her.
"You had a fight with her, didn't you," Shiv said. It was obvious by her tone it wasn't a question.
Fujikuro sighed. "She wanted to know about Comp, and you, and Jiko……." He swiped the back of his hand roughly across his eyes. "I don't like digging up old wounds," he muttered.
Shiv rested a hand on his shoulder. "None of us do. But sometimes we have to, for reasons we won't know until later, so that someone can do something today they never thought they'd do. Old wounds aren't that bad, Fuji. It's just you've always had a problem with them."
Fujikuro glared at Shiv for a moment, then looked away. "It's not my fault I don't like being reminded about stuff."
"It's 'cause of the fight, isn't it?", Shiv asked. "Because of what you and Jiko fought about before……" Her voice faded, the last words caught by the wind and sending "before" echoing for miles around.
"You know," she whispered. "Sometimes, when it gets really quiet, I swear I can almost hear him laugh." She smiled sadly, wiped something from her eye, and turned from the railing. When Fujikuro turned around, she was gone.
******
That's it for now, I'll post more later. Lemme know what you think; reviews pleeeeeeeease!!
*Kat-chan out* ^_^ \/ Ja, no da!