Y.T. maneuvers her hoverboard out of a traffic tunnel, swerves around a large sedan, and descends toward the street below. The building she's heading for is an obsidian pyramid, a very upscale and exclusive establishment – Y.T. knows a lot of people who would pay their life's savings for the privilege of spending five minutes in there, but she's been a regular for so long that it's no big deal to her anymore.
There aren't a lot of people out in the street at this time of day, so she's able to touch down fairly close to the entrance. She pulls her feet out of the control slippers, picks up her board and tucks it under her arm, then walks up to the doorway recessed into the building's surface.
Set above the door is a matte black hemisphere about three feet in diameter; underneath it, in letters carved into the glossy surface, is the name of the place: THE BLACK SUN.
Y.T. steps into the mid-size foyer that sits between the outer door and the club itself. She waves to the bouncers and turns left, intending to head for the little side door into the little hallway that leads into the back of the club, but she stops mid-step. Something weird is happening. Curious, she decides to stay and scope out the situation.
A person in a hooded gray-brown cloak is conversing with Gurudo, one of the bouncers. No, he's arguing with Gurudo, but in a very calm and cultured tone of voice. "Please," he says, "I know this is irregular, but it is important that you allow me into your establishment."
"It's important that I do my job, bub," Gurudo replies gruffly. "You don't have a club membership card, or the password, and I don't know who you are. So I can't let you in; rules are rules." Gurudo crosses his arms and lifts his chin, conveying the message that that's the end of the whole subject.
But the man in the cloak is persistent. "I ask that you make an exception, just this once…"
Gurudo laughs. "You have any idea many times I've heard that one?"
Y.T. does have some idea – she's seen it happen before. Most people, at this point, either give up or start behaving really badly. And if they choose the second option, Gurudo kicks them out on their asses. She wonders what this guy is going to do.
To her surprise, he doesn't do either. Instead, he sighs and tries again. "I was asked to deliver…"
At the word "deliver" Y.T. jerks as if slapped, because she's the one who makes all the small but important deliveries to this club. And she was supposed to deliver something here today, but the man who was supposed to give her the package never showed up. The possibility that these two events are related changes the whole situation, or at least her view of it.
"Listen," Gurudo growls, "If you won't leave, I'm going to…"
Y.T. decides to intervene at this point. "Cool it, Gurudo," she says, walking up to the bouncer. He and the cloaked man turn to look at her. "I'll handle this."
Gurudo looks at her quizzically for a moment, then nods. Y.T. turns to the man in the cloak – he looks sort of familiar, but she isn't able to make out much of his face because of the hood – and beckons to him. "C'mon. Follow me." She turns and heads for the small side door. The man follows her – she can hear the sound of his wooden sandals on the floor. When she reaches the side door, she takes a keycard out of one of the pockets in her coverall, swipes it through the appropriate slot, and waits for the green light to go on before turning the handle and pushing the door open. She steps back into the small hallway beyond, holding the door open so the man can pass through.
He doesn't, though. Instead he stops at the threshold of the door, looks at Y.T., then peers into the hall as if considering the situation.
She doesn't have the patience for this. "Do you want to be let in or not?" she snaps, more nastily than she intended to.
The man shoots her a startled look, then nods and steps over the threshold into the hall. Y.T. closes the door behind them, then leads him along the hall to a wider corridor in the back of the club. She takes him to the door of the conference room, then stops and turns to face him again.
"Okay," she says, "What's all this about?"
The man blinks at her uncomprehendingly. "All this?"
Y.T. heaves an exasperated sigh. "Who are you, and what are you supposed to deliver?"
The man looks around the corridor cautiously, then turns back to Y.T., lifting his hands to his hood. He lowers it.
After she gets over the initial shock, her first thought is: No wonder he looked so familiar. And her second thought: This is so incredibly cool. And her third: He looks a lot handsomer in person than he does on the posters. This last thought causes her to grin in a way that seems to make Jack – because she knows know that that's who he is – very uncomfotable. And that only makes her grin wider.
"Shit, man," she says, "If you'd just shown your face to Gurudo back there he would've let you in, no problem."
Jack manages to regain his composure before replying. "I could not have known that. He might have raised an alarm instead." He unbuttons the front of the cloak and removes it, revealing his white robe and the sword – the sword – thrust through the sash around his waist.
Y.T. shrugs. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She takes a moment to decide what she ought to say next. "Nice to meet you, by the way. My name's Y.T." She holds out her hand for him to shake, but he bows instead. She withdraws her hand, realizing that she should have expected him to do that. "What are you delivering, by the way?"
Jack reaches a hand into the front of his robe and withdraws a clear plastic case containing an unmarked CD. "This. I do not know what it is." Y.T. is surprised again – maybe this is the thing she was supposed to pick up and deliver.
She opens the conference room door. "Okay. Wait in here – I know someone who'll want to talk to you."
Jack looks through the door at the room beyond, looks a little surprised for a few seconds – then he nods. Then he steps up to the wall by the doorway, hangs his cloak on one of the hooks next to it, and carefully removes his shoes (what's that about? Y.T. wonders) before he enters the conference room.
~***~
"I'll be back in a few minutes," the strange girl tells him, before she shuts the door. Jack takes a few moments to examine his surroundings.
He can hear ambient music, probably the same thing playing in the club itself – it isn't like the cacophonous horror that he heard in the club he entered shortly after his arrival in this time. In fact, he finds it rather soothing and pleasant. Which is good, because it cancels out some of the uneasiness that he is feeling right now.
This uneasiness is due in part to the decoration of the room. The way in which it is decorated reminds him all too much of home. The table in the center of the floor is long and low, surrounded by kneeling cushions, and there are painted landscape scrolls hanging from the walls. The lights – for there are no windows – are made up to look like hanging shoji lanterns. There is a small black pyramid – the club in miniature – in the center of the table, and at the far end from where he is standing there is a little control panel discreetly recessed into the surface. He wonders what they might be for, but he cannot even imagine a possible answer.
There are four cushions lined up along each long side of the rectangular table – with a sigh, he goes to kneel on the one that is to the left of the table's head, where the control panel is located. He places the plastic case with the silver disk on the table before him. Then all he can do is wait for the strange girl – what kind of a name is "Y.T.?" – to come back with whoever it was that she wanted him to meet.
The song playing in the background ends, and a new one begins. This one has a nice rhythm to it, and Jack actually starts tapping his fingers on his knees in time to the beat.
But when he first hears the lyrics…
Aishiteta to nakeku
niwa : Too much time has
passed by to
Amarinimo toki wa sugite shimatta : lament that we were deeply in love
Mada kokoro no hokorobi wo : The wind keeps blowing, while my heart
Iyasenu mama kaze ga fuiteru : cannot heal all the tears in it
In the context, in the circumstances, the sound of his native tongue hits him like a slap in the face. It makes everything even more bizarre than it was before. He doesn't want to hear any more, but he resists the urge to put his hands over his ears. Instead he tries to ignore the music, but it worms in through his senses and locks a death grip on his heart.
Hitotsu no mede asu wo mite : Watching tomorrow with one
eye
Hitotsu no mede kinou mitsumeteru : while keeping the other on yesterday
Kimi no ai no yurikagode : If only I could peacefully sleep
Mo ichido yasurakani nemuretara : in the cradle of your love, again
He is startled when the door opens again. Y.T. appears in the doorway, a smile on her face, and turns to speak to the person behind her. "Just be prepared for a surprise."
Kawaita hitomi de dareka naite kure : Someone, cry for me with parched eyesY.T. walks into the room, followed by an older woman, perhaps in her mid-thirties. She stops in her tracks when she catches sight of Jack, her dark eyes widening with surprise. She is not quite beautiful, but she certainly is striking – her glossy black hair, flowing loose past her shoulders, frames a slightly tanned face with high cheekbones, a small nose, full lips and arched eyebrows. Jack stands up from his cushion to bow a greeting to the woman.
The real folk blues
Honto no kanashimi ga shiritai dake : I only want to know what true sadness is
Doro no kawa ni tsukatta : Sitting in muddy water
Jinsei mo waruku wa nai : isn't such a bad life
Ichido kiri de owaru nara : if it ends after the first time
"Jack, this is Juanita," Y.T. introduces them. "Juanita, Jack."
"I am honored to meet you," Jack says, trying to keep his composure in spite of the combination of melancholy and anxiety that is twisting his stomach into knots. The woman smiles and returns his bow smoothly.
"Welcome to the Black Sun. I'm glad to meet you, too." Juanita strides to the head of the table and takes a seat on the cushion there, as Y.T. plops down on the cushion across the table from Jack. He kneels on the cushion again once the women are seated.
Kibouni michita zetsubou to : Despair filled with
hope
Wana ga shikakerareteru kono chansu : and this chance with a trap set
Nani ga yokute warui no ka : What's right or wrong?
Koin no omote to kura mitaita : It's like two sides of a coin
Juanita's eyes go to the disc on the table. "Y.T. told me that you brought this here," she says. "Can you please tell me how you got it? And how you found us?"
Jack nods, trying not to let his feelings confuse him. "The man who carried this was being pursued by one of Aku's robots," he says. "I tried to help him, but the robot dealt him a mortal wound before I could destroy it. He gave this to me and told me to bring it to the Black Sun." He pushes the plastic case across the surface of the table to Juanita, who picks it up carefully.
Doredake ikireba iyasareru no darou : How long must I live till I'm healed…"Excuse me," Juanita says, pressing one of the buttons on the tabletop console. The music comes to an abrupt but merciful end. "I couldn't concentrate," Juanita apologizes.
"It is quite all right," Jack says, hoping that she cannot see his relief. "I have a question to ask."
"You want to know why this disc is so important," Juanita says, holding up the object in question. Jack nods. "Because," she tells him, "It's part of the weapon for our revolution."