Chapter 05 – Grind City, My Turf

(I don't own JSR. Nor do I own the above chapter title, or the characters of Combo, Cube and Coin. But I do own Kellaani. Oh, and if you have any complaints about my taste in music, keep them to yourself. I don't care if you think ABBA are the spawn of hell, I like them, so play nice, okay?)

The city was huge, and I was surrounded by people babbling in a language I couldn't speak a word of. Okay, I was scared. Well, wouldn't you be?

I wondered what to do. Seemed to me my only option was to try and find if there were any rudies round here. And if there were, then try and join up with them. It didn't seem a totally foolproof plan, but I didn't have the option of acting sensibly.

Cops hate you if you killed one of their own, I heard. And I was a rudie as well. Not cool.

I turned a corner and carried on skating, slowly. The sun was rising now, burning the back of my neck. I stepped sideways a little, so that I could keep in the shade of the railway bridge above me. Mmm…cold.

I turned left and back into the sun, and found myself walking past a wall pockmarked with tags.

Then I had an idea.

I took out my last remaining can of spray paint and began to cover up one of the tags, a geometric skull and crossbones edged with pinkish-red. If this didn't get a reaction, then…then I'd be screwed.

I heard the sound of skates on concrete, and turned to see a black and white figure skating towards me. She yelled something in English.

I shrugged. "Sorry, I don't speak it." Damn it, why didn't they offer English classes at school?

And then, amazingly, she said, in patchy but clear Japanese, "I said, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Trying to get a reaction," I said, wondering if I'd started hallucinating. "How come you can speak Japanese?"

She shrugged. "I was from there originally. It's nice to keep up the tradition. What do you mean, trying to get a reaction?"

"I've just arrived and I need help. I had to get out of Japan fast, and I'd heard there were other rudies in Grind City."

"You're saying you want to join up with our gang?"

She glared at me, hands on hips. She had the sort of face that's good for glaring – it was sharp and angular, with dark eyes and hair, and very pale skin. Her hair was cut short, a lot shorter than mine, and everything she wore was black except the red and grey decoration on her skates, the red tag on her shirt, and her frosted blue lipstick.

She looked good.

Whereas I…

Well, at least I'd never gone in for lace on my nightclothes.

"I guess so," I said. "Why? Is there a problem?"

"It's not like we know anything about you," she said. Her words carried an undertone of an American accent, and her voice had an odd, almost musical quality that I couldn't define.

"Oh, sorry, I'm a psychotic serial killer who especially enjoys decapitating rudies and then using their blood to paint my tags. I also enjoy flower-arranging and puppy-kicking, and I'm the illegitimate love child of the Queen of England and Batman. That satisfy you?"

She laughed. "Very funny. Well, I can ask the guys and we'll see, but I'm not promising anything, okay? My name's Cube, by the way."

I followed her round the corner towards a skate park, where I made out two figures doing flips on the ramp at the far end.

She called out to them in English, and they both stopped jumping and came out of the park to us.

One guy was big. Very big. Huge, in fact. He glanced down at us from under a fisherman's hat, one enormous arm clutching a ghetto-blaster. I made up my mind not to get on his bad side.

And the other –

I felt like my entire body had just been kicked, like I'd been flung across and slammed into the wall behind me. The light seemed too bright for my eyes as I stared at him, and Cube's English words faded into nothingness.

Quickly I shook my head to clear it and listened as Cube switched back into Japanese. "Okay, they're cool with it. If you can copy my trick run, I'll let you join."

"Cool."

"Good luck, kid," the big guy called.

"You can speak Japanese too?"

"We both can," the other guy said, and at the sound of his voice I wanted to grin like a lunatic. "Cube kept insulting us in Japanese, so we tried to pick some up to get wise to her. It's been something to while away the winter nights with."

They didn't always speak it, obviously. But I asked them what they were saying, and I've written it down as though I could understand it all. I think it's easier that way.

"Come on," Cube called.

I followed her back round the corner and up a flight of steps onto the sun-drenched roof of a building.

"Ready?" she said.

"Yep."

"Okay. See if you can do this."

She dashed a little, then ground along a rail in front of a billboard. Just before she reached the end of the roof, she leapt, and wall-rode off the next billboard.

I saw her fly through the air like a bat, and wall-ride off the next one – then back to one on the left – and one final one on the right – and then she dropped, a smirk just visible on her face.

"When you're ready!" she called.

I swallowed. This was not going to be easy.

I dashed to gain momentum, then began to grind. The gap between the buildings loomed up in front of me, then dropped to below my feet as I leapt. I felt my skates scrape the first billboard, sending vibrations through my bones, and jumped as it happened, trying to throw myself across to reach the next board. It rose up in front of me, and I quickly scored my skates across it. Then I was flying towards the next board, the ground already too far below me – and then I wall-rode and jumped again, joints aching, desperate to push myself to the last board – the tips of my skates just scraped it, and then I let myself drop down next to Cube, trying not to pant.

"Not bad," she said. "Okay. I guess you're in."

I felt dim triumph, but as we walked back to the skate park, most of me was confused. Why had I felt such a strong reaction to that guy? I'd thought I was a lesbian. I'd loved Akina, and I knew I had. What was going on?

But my feelings towards Akina had been very different. There was the urge to just be close. I guess it was love…she was my friend, in any case, and always had been. This was…lust, then? But how could it be?

"What's your name, anyway?" Cube's question shook me out of my thoughts.

"Oh – uh –" I didn't want to have anything to do with my old name. Yet I didn't want to start living under a totally new one.

"Lana. My name is Lana."

"Damn it!" Cube grinned. "If you'd only been called something beginning with C…"

"Why?"

"Our gang's Triple-C. I'm Cube, the big guy's Combo, and the other guy's Coin."

"It's okay. I'm not asking for a name mention." Coin, huh? Hmmm…

We reached the two guys again, and Cube spoke to them in English. I wished I knew some; it was worrying being talked about without even being able to lipread.

"So, why'd you leave Japan?" Coin asked at last. "Can't see why you'd want to come all the way here."

"Oh…it was getting too hot to handle over there. The cops were being persistent and all." I didn't want to mention Shiro. Already he was fading.

"Well, I don't reckon that'll be much better here. Can't say the local Keisatsu regard us with any great joy."

As we began walking back into the skate park, I saw him loop an arm round Cube's waist. She rolled her eyes and pushed him off, then they kissed.

I felt sick.

And now it was night.

Triple-C holed up in an abandoned loft in Bantam Street. It was a big room, covered in tags, spotted with scrounged furniture yet still managing to look empty.

We'd eaten takeaway. Now Cube and Coin were talking quietly together in one corner of the room, while Combo sat listening to rap music on his ghetto-blaster, painted in streetlight and looking like some ancient statue in the darkness.

I sat at the window, staring out over Grind City. Lights were beginning to dot the skyscrapers around me. Everything was so different here. The language. The light. The air.

Odd little memories kept popping back into my mind, nothing important. Sitting in school, trying to work out math from hell. Lying in bed with morning sun on top of me in the blissful times when mum was single. Walking past Kogane River to get home, throwing stones into the water.

The thought of the river made me remember Akina, but I didn't cry this time.

Akina, I swear…I swear on my life, I swear on this city, I swear on the darkness, I will take the revenge you deserve.

Just wait, Alex. I'm gonna hurt you so bad you'll wish you were dead. You'll know what pain feels like. You'll know how I felt. And then I'll kill you, and boy will that be fun.

What did Chiyo say?

"Use mental pain…what they're scared of…what they hate…what burns their minds…"

My palms hurt as my nails dug into them.

I wriggled out of my dark thoughts as I slowly realised that Cube and Coin's voices were growing louder, and more angry.

"That is just typical of you," she snapped. "Stop acting so damn supercilious all the time!"

"Geez, Cube, lighten up. Why are you so touchy?"

"I'm just tired of you making snide little remarks and expecting me to find them funny!"

Combo glanced over at them, then turned up his music.

"Well, excuse me. You're obviously determined to get mad at me, so I don't think there's much more I can add." Coin folded his arms and looked away from her.

"I'm not determined to get mad at you, I'm just telling you –"

"Telling me what? I'm a bad boy? Well, sorree, but it's not my fault if you can't take a joke."

"That was your idea of a joke?"

"Normally you'd find it funny. What is it? Time of the month?"

Cube slapped him round the face, then stood up. "I have had it with you and your stuck-up, sexist, smug, smartass attitude!"

She stamped towards the door.

"Fine!" Coin yelled after her. "Come back when you're sane again!"

She slammed the door behind her, and the floor shook.

Combo got to his feet and headed after her.

"She's not a baby," Coin snapped. "Let her fend for herself."

Combo didn't answer him. He opened the door, and walked out.

Coin glowered after them, then stamped over to the boxes containing his record collection, and began rifling through them.

Just me and him. And my hormones were really singing now. I still had no idea why. But hey…go with the flow, right?

I slid over to him. "Boy, where'd you get all these from?"

"Places." He still sounded mad.

"Can I see?"

"Be my guest." He shoved a box towards me.

I flicked through it, but I couldn't read most of the names.

"Why records?" I said at last.

"Huh?"

"Why just records? Why not CDs and tapes too?"

"Oh, please." He smiled, and every organ in my body jumped. "Where's the fun in that? Dull stuff…with records it's, it's different. They look cool, don't they? They're like bits of history."

"What sort of music is it? I can't read a word."

Coin laughed. "Indie music, mainly. But I get 'em from a lot of different places, so sometimes you get a few weird ones…like this."

He got out a record patterned with demons.

"I have no idea what this is, but you never know, it might be worth something."

"You ever listened to it?"

"Yeah, but…" He shrugged. "It didn't sound too cool. In fact, it was pretty warped."

"A lot of these look warped." My heart was pounding now as he leaned near to me to put the demon record back. I leafed through some more. "And this one just looks cheesy."

Coin grinned sheepishly. "I have no idea how that got there." The record in question had four smiling people on the front, a yellow background and pink letters across the top. "If either of the other two see it, they'll destroy it and then me. If it doesn't have rude words every other line and a general theme of angst, it ain't music, according to them."

"You played this, then?" I asked.

"Once. It's pretty cool, in a cutesy way."

"Could I hear it?"

"Why not? They'll be lurking out there for at least an hour."

Coin lugged an extremely battered-looking record player over to us, and put on the record. It began to spin.

From the speakers murmured a low keyboard tune, radiating out into the dusty loft and rushing down my spine. Violins rushed in as the intro repeated itself, and then there was a pause.

I stared into Coin's eyes. "Care to dance?"

A chiming, eerie beat leapt out of the speakers, catching my feet in its fingers, making me want to move to it. Coin grinned, though I could hardly make out his face in the darkness. We got to our feet. He put his hand in mine.

"How I hate to spend the evening on my own…"

As the singer held the last note, Coin twirled me round, threw me out into the middle of the room, then pulled me back to him with the flick of a wrist, until I was against his chest. Every part of me tingled. I could smell him, a combination of spray paint, hot dog and skin, and I could feel his heart beating against his ribs.

The violins began again, under the singer's voice, seductive and slow like water. Coin's and my shadows were mingling on the wall, dark against the streetlight backdrop, now separating, marking us as two people, now drawing together again, and making us one.

The music was rising as the singer held the note, elongating it so that it echoed up to the skies. Coin brought me close to him again. And the violins covered my senses with quick, sharp notes, getting louder and louder and moving me without me even having to think…

I kissed Coin. For a moment he tensed, then kissed back.

"What's this thing called?" I whispered.

"Uhh... Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight."

The music rose, then fell again. We separated. I stared at him. His face was lost in the darkness.

"What time is it?"

"Twelve fifteen…"

The keyboard cut out, leaving nothing but the drums going. We stood still, staring at each other. I could see his shoulders rising and falling as he breathed.

Then the singer began again, and he lifted my nightdress off over my head. I wasn't wearing a bra. The darkness was complete now, and I felt, rather than saw him put his hands on my shoulders. He kissed me again, and then his hands were tender on my breasts, warm, it felt like he was touching my soul.

I felt the music begin to rise to a crescendo, and, feeling my hands tremble, I pulled Coin's T-shirt over his head.

His baseball cap fell off too. And then we were hugging again, skin on skin, feeling cool sweat run down my back, as the music urged me on.

The violins danced, the music rose higher and higher and higher…Now we were lying down, I didn't know how, he'd unzipped my jeans, and I did the same to him…

And we were close, we were so so close…

The singer cut out. There was just us, the darkness, and the drumbeats.

My body temperature was going haywire, ice and fire meeting all over my skin. It was frightening and yet so good…

The violins rose and fell. Coin's hands on my back, fingers caressing my shoulder blades as they dug into the floor. Poised on a precipice…the highest point of a rollercoaster…the tip of a diving board…the metaphors crowded in on me, but their relevance to the situation was like the difference between reading about fire and feeling it burn near your skin…

Violins rising again, and this time not stopping, carrying me up and up and up…

This was it

The music sang out

The night burned brighter than sun

We were together

And it felt like no one could break us apart.

(Be nice. Oh, and by the way, by having this occur I am not implying that it is better to be straight than gay. Kell is bi. And that's that. Sorry.)