Scarlet Lady: The Toshin Quest
By Indigo Siren
Disclaimer: Tekken is © to Namco, and that all characters mentioned from under this label are only used in this fan fiction for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made from this story; it is just for fun. I do however own the basic concept and characters of my own creation.
Chapter 7
The late afternoon sun painted the town in a soft orange. It was a wondrous sight to anyone who had time to take any notice, but most were delved into rushing home to their homes after a long day of work or doing things they'd put off till the last minute. For Anna and Forest, it seemed they were never quite finished. The former was surprised to find herself sat with her comrade at a small open front dinner, nursing a sloppy hotdog. Not the way she could have imagined a late dinner, but it was better then waltzing around on an empty stomach.
The afternoon wasn't beautiful to her; the orange glows meant nothing. All it meant was pulling another all-nighter since they'd come up with no new evidence for the case.
"Bullshit…" She mumbled, staring at her food with disgust.
"Hmm, what you say?" Forest said, at the same time trying to munch on his own hotdog. He handed her the mustard bottle. "Here you go."
"What I said had nothing remotely to do with mustard," she told him firmly. He winced and took back the offending bottle, squirting more mustard onto his food. "Couldn't you have chosen a place a little less… greasy…"
"Hey lady!" The Diner attendant said sharply. "I'll have you know this is the best damn grease in Japan!"
"So sorry to offend your grease status…" Anna sarcastically spat and turned back to Forest, lowering her voice. "Tell me again, why do they have an American vendor over here?"
Forest shrugged. "Makes tourists feel more at home."
"Yeah right…" Anna just dropped the hotdog back on its Styrofoam container and turned around on the squeaky stool she was on, looking out across the streets. Yeah, she was tired and envied everyone walking by her without a second look. Their lives were steady and probably eventless, just the way she wished for her life to be sometimes. But no, she knew this was her calling, no doubt about it.
A loud crash followed by horrendous hoots and yells drew her attention from her moment of thought, hers eyes turning to a running girl, bombing it down the middle of the road, chased by a band of thugs. Anna focused hard on the leather-clad punks, screeching like hungry hyenas at this Japanese school-uniformed girl. They weren't demons; just pathetic, low life humans only out to stir up some trouble.
"Whoo boy, looks like a job for the police," Forest commented, swallowing a chunk of hotdog.
Both leapt from their seats as a police car ending up careening onto the sidewalk and crashing into the closest lamppost. The IPD officers sat across the ground in shock as one of the punks leapt off the side of the car, whooping like crazy, running off to join his friends. Anna and Forest turned to each other slowly, eyes wide with disbelief.
This was nothing but a senseless act, so unbelievable for the passers by to witness.
"So much for the police!" Anna said, immediately on her feet, going in hot pursuit of the punk teens.
"Hey, wait!" Forest was grabbed by the shoulder just before he could take off after her.
"Hey buddy, I hope you plan on paying for your food," the attendant urged with narrowed eyes.
Forest looked quite helpless between him and the situation that had basically unfolded in front of them. He was obviously trying to plead to help out, but of course, he wasn't going to get away without paying his bill. He just prayed he had change.
***
"Come on, little girl, come out to play!" The leader of the punks hollowed in a high, screechy voice into a narrow alley. He tried to spot the girl there, knowing he had seen her head down this way.
The group kicked over bins and old baggage in their way as they proceeded down, ever coming close to the end, where a tall metal fence blocked off the alley to a back street.
"UP HERE!"
They barely had time to look in the direction as the schoolgirl came crashing down on top of them, dropping them all like bowling pins.
"Strike!" She declared and tried to head for the free exit, but was quite shocked to see two punks she hadn't seen, covering her escape. She ground to a halt, looking back at the mass of bodies rising up like the undead, not in the least bit pleased with her cheap shot. She let out a loud gulp as she felt them looming in on her.
"YAH!"
The two punks in front of the schoolgirl were thrust forward. She ducked under them as the pair smacked into their comrades, yet again dropping them to the ground.
Anna stood back up from the thrusting palm move she had performed on the two punks. She smiled widely. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break up the party?"
The leader hacked and wobbled to his feet. "When did this suddenly become a chick flick?"
"Oh, it didn't. It just became a horror… for all you cheap ass punks…"
"It suddenly got a bit cheesy over here. Watch your step boys," a punk with orange dreads teased in a gruff voice.
Not wasting time for them to lead the attack, Anna used her many years of skill to charge at them. She was pleased with the unexpected looks on their faces as she shot her fist at the closest, which was one with a green clown like hairstyle.
"That's for picking on a schoolgirl," Anna hissed, flooring the guy. She turned to catch the fist of the punk to her right. The switchblade in his hand made her tut. "Oh, now that would have hurt." She squeezed his wrist hard, fingers digging in. He cried out, relinquishing his hold on the knife. She tilted her head to the side to avoid the incoming blow of another attacker, quickly spinning the punk at hand into him.
"DIE BITCH!" Their leader yelled, charging from behind. She turned with a slight gasp, hoping to intercept his attack before he could smash her with the segment of pipe he'd found as a weapon.
She didn't need to bother. A foot came up between them and clocked him straight under the chin. The pipe whizzed over Anna's head, clattering across the concrete out of reach. The leader was knocked forward, whizzing past a side-stepping Anna and landing on top of one of his groupies.
The schoolgirl saluted Anna, who gawked surprised by her jumping in on the action.
"Woah, now I've seen everything," the redhead commented.
"This is totally not right," one of the floored punks whined, rolling up onto his knees. "Chicks aren't suppose to fight back."
Anna trod over one of the floored men, hearing a satisfying groan as she walked over to the punk that has spoken. "The world changes. Keep up, asshole." A coke can hit her in the shoulder, and she turned sharply. "Okay, who did that?"
"You… You bitches! We'll make you pay! There is more of us then you!" The leader said, after regaining his senses.
"You've proved so far that you're a bunch of losers!" Anna snapped at him, giving her a very cocky sneer just for the hell of it.
"That's it, you're screwed!"
Anna stood protectively in front of the schoolgirl, whom didn't falter when standing her own ground. The punks advanced towards them, knuckles cracking as they did so. The tension was on.
Suddenly, a shadowed loomed, turning all their attentions.
A great big panda was suddenly there, roaring right into their faces. Anna felt herself tugged aside, away from the now horrified punks.
"LET'S SPLIT!" The leader roared.
Screaming pathetically, they managed to dodge the beast, almost wetting themselves in horror. They ducked down, avoiding any shots that came at them, looking rather pitiful instead of evilly macho as they'd been before.
Now, instead of facing the panda, they faced the entourage of police, who were willing to lock down handcuffs on the punks. This time, it was no big game. The cat and mouse chase was over.
Anna stared, open mouthed at the panda. "Jesus Christ…"
The schoolgirl let out a cry and jumped at the panda. "THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU SCARED THEM GOOD!"
The animal didn't attack the girl; instead it gave her a loving bear hug, which definitely had the other woman choking in shock. After a short embrace, the girl turned back to Anna smiling. "Wow, now that was interesting. Don't normally have this much fun on a weeknight."
"You're not just the average schoolgirl then?" Anna said, trying to beat the confusion from her mind.
"Nope, I'm not," the girl giggled and approached the woman, the panda following close behind. "You're Anna Williams. Wow! It's so cool to finally meet you!"
Anna was taken back. "What! You know me?"
"You were on the news, silly!" She thrust her hand out. "Ling Xiaoyu, the kick ass schoolgirl of Tokyo!"
"Oh, well, pleased to meet you, Xiaoyu," Anna said, accepting the hand. "Well, first off, what got those punks interested in you?"
"Oh, they were picking on some friends of mine and I pelted one. They decided to make a chase out of it," she told her.
Anna shook her head in despair. "Bastards. Took one shot to the extreme."
"But we dealt with it, didn't we?" Xiaoyu cheered, not waiting for answer. "We are so cool! We should be our own police force!"
Anna had to chuckle at the enthusiasm. "Yeah well, I guess so." She turned her eyes on the panda. "A friend of yours or an escapee of the local animal sanctuary?"
"OH NO! A friend! This is Panda, my pet! She would have helped me earlier but she doesn't arrive at school straight after the bell," she said, turning to pet the large beast, which gave a snort in acknowledgement.
"Well, I don't usually go chasing these kind of punks with my reputation, but this time I made an exception. It isn't safe for you at this time, especially with the murders going on."
"Oh, I know, I know. Well, thank you again!" Xiaoyu appreciated greatly. She paused for a moment, then quickly grabbed at Anna's arm, as she was about to walk away. "Just a second. I forget to ask in all this excitement. Could you do a favour for a friend? He seemed to think it was important… on that murder case you mentioned!"
Anna turned on this. "What? Who?"
"My friend, Jin. He keeps seeing strange things in his head. He has these weird psychic powers. Maybe strange to believe but he really thinks he may have information of use to you. No joke, he really wants to meet you. It maybe helpful. Would you, please?" She asked, practically on her knees begging.
"I don't know…"
"I'm not playing games, seriously! You have to come meet him!" Xiaoyu gave her the most serious face she could muster.
Anna suddenly felt she couldn't turn away from this. Her intuition was shifting as she looked into the eyes of the young girl. Deep down she could knew that any lead could be useful, as long as it wasn't a waste of time. Thankfully, the girl in front of her seemed sincere enough to trust. What did her friend want to say anyway? She was pushed to find out.
She nodded. "Alright, I will see him."
"Thank you, thank you!" Xiaoyu cried, jumping up and down. "He'll be so relieved."
"Okay, calm down," Anna said, tugging her to a standstill.
"Sorry," she blushed.
'Psychic…' She thought. 'Could he be a demon? Worried about his fate in some way? I'll have to see. I'll have to trust his word if it's viable enough.' She blinked, and looked back at Xiaoyu. "Where are we meeting?"
"Tomorrow afternoon, around four. He usually visits a demon care hostel on a Friday to help out. He feels inclined to since nobody else will. Everyone is so uppity with money and social status, they can't be bothered with the less fortunate, especially the demon part."
"Is he a demon?" Anna asked.
Xiaoyu stopped as if being slapped in the face. She frowned then lightened up. "Well, I dunno. He looks human to me. Doesn't seem like a demon. Then again, I wouldn't know."
"Just wanted to ask," Anna told her. "I have problems with demons, but I can handle them civilly."
"Okay, though, I don't think he is, you know…" Xiaoyu backed up quite firmly, hand rubbing against her pet's head as a slight distraction. Anna definitely wasn't set to argue.
"Okay, where is the hostel so I know where to go?" Anna quickly asked to turn away from anymore implications on the boy.
Xiaoyu relayed a perfect recall of the hostel's location. Anna took mental notes since she didn't have a pen and paper handy.
"Thanks," she said as both turned to the policeman who came towards them.
"You alright?" He asked.
"Yes, thank you," Anna answered for them. "I guess you want to question us? Sure, we don't mind. Just don't keep us long, we have homes to get to and I do want to be off the streets by the time the sun sets."
"Understood," the officer said with a nod and led the two of them up towards the squad car pack, the panda following the rear.
Forest arrived moments later and Anna didn't give him the nicest of looks.
"You took your time!"
"I'm sorry! The guy wouldn't give me change for a twenty!"
***
The next day passed fairly slowly, as the case was dragging on purposely to see how far they could take it before breaking all the hotel room windows. They dreaded a phone call from Governor Mishima or Eddy, in case it meant the end of their investigation. Anna left Forest to worry about these things as she took off to the hostel location where Xiaoyu had told her to go.
From the taxi stop, it was a ten-minute walk through the grey, damp winding back allies. It didn't look like the best neighbourhood in Tokyo. Well, she didn't exactly expect it to be in the ritziest part of Tokyo by all means. As she knew, just like everyone else, being a demon made you an underclass citizen. You were nothing if your were a demon, and being able to pretend to be human was the best way around the problem; but to pretend was with the looks as well, and not all demons could cloak what they really were. It was a cruel life for them, but at least it was one at all. They wanted to be amongst the populous and not down some dank hole in the ground.
Anna didn't particularly care what happened to them. They were nothing but leeches that feasted off everything good in life. Being bitter came with her job, and she never placed any trust with them. Or maybe, just maybe, it was her past that would never let go…
Shaking her head, she finally came to an iron gate at the end of a narrow passage. She pushed at it to see if it was locked. Thankfully, it wasn't, and the rustic door opened with a loud groan, and she stepped through, finally back on what she could class as a more open street, just in a much more backwater area.
The hostel took up a few run down buildings, that had been slightly revamped, but still breaking down with the amount of abuse that was forced on the exterior. People who really hated demons showed just how much they did when they went on a rampage with spray cans and plastic explosives. They used to be white buildings, but now showed the face of beige and brown, charred black in several places. The building was scarred but still stood proud, like an old war hero, doing what it could to protect the people it was meant to.
Anna just stood looking at the building, now wishing that she could turn back. She didn't want to go inside. She didn't want to have to face anything to do with her hate.
'Why don't I just quit my job and do work that is much more quiet?' She thought to herself, leaning back against the iron door. 'I know I enjoy setting demons straight, and being powerful… powerful… I think…' She sighed. 'I dunno, I guess being powerful isn't about the job. It's just the satisfaction of beating down the criminals… in place of the one I could never catch. The one that killed my mother…'
The iron gate shuddered behind her and she stood up straight, turning to come face to face with Xiaoyu.
"Oh! You're here! Good!" Xiaoyu shut the gate behind her as she stepped through. She'd clearly only just got out of school, as she was still clad in her uniform and carrying her book bag. "My directions were good after all."
"Yes, they were, thanks," Anna commended, then let out a soft sigh. "You ready to go in?"
"Oh, yeah! I don't mind!" Xiaoyu piped up. "I'm guessing Jin will be around soon. You can check about first off. You never know what can be useful info!"
Anna chuckled. "You know, you're smart. Too smart for your own good."
Xiaoyu grinned widely. "Yeah, I keep being told that." The Chinese girl linked her arm. "Alright then, follow me!"
"Give me strength…" Anna muttered as she allowed herself to be dragged towards the hostel, her heart thumping so loud, she thought her head would just explode. And right then, she wished it would.
*********************************************************************************
A/N: Next chapter will see Anna's meeting with Jin and how she feels when faced with demons all around her. Hope you will enjoy it when it comes...
By Indigo Siren
Disclaimer: Tekken is © to Namco, and that all characters mentioned from under this label are only used in this fan fiction for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made from this story; it is just for fun. I do however own the basic concept and characters of my own creation.
Chapter 7
The late afternoon sun painted the town in a soft orange. It was a wondrous sight to anyone who had time to take any notice, but most were delved into rushing home to their homes after a long day of work or doing things they'd put off till the last minute. For Anna and Forest, it seemed they were never quite finished. The former was surprised to find herself sat with her comrade at a small open front dinner, nursing a sloppy hotdog. Not the way she could have imagined a late dinner, but it was better then waltzing around on an empty stomach.
The afternoon wasn't beautiful to her; the orange glows meant nothing. All it meant was pulling another all-nighter since they'd come up with no new evidence for the case.
"Bullshit…" She mumbled, staring at her food with disgust.
"Hmm, what you say?" Forest said, at the same time trying to munch on his own hotdog. He handed her the mustard bottle. "Here you go."
"What I said had nothing remotely to do with mustard," she told him firmly. He winced and took back the offending bottle, squirting more mustard onto his food. "Couldn't you have chosen a place a little less… greasy…"
"Hey lady!" The Diner attendant said sharply. "I'll have you know this is the best damn grease in Japan!"
"So sorry to offend your grease status…" Anna sarcastically spat and turned back to Forest, lowering her voice. "Tell me again, why do they have an American vendor over here?"
Forest shrugged. "Makes tourists feel more at home."
"Yeah right…" Anna just dropped the hotdog back on its Styrofoam container and turned around on the squeaky stool she was on, looking out across the streets. Yeah, she was tired and envied everyone walking by her without a second look. Their lives were steady and probably eventless, just the way she wished for her life to be sometimes. But no, she knew this was her calling, no doubt about it.
A loud crash followed by horrendous hoots and yells drew her attention from her moment of thought, hers eyes turning to a running girl, bombing it down the middle of the road, chased by a band of thugs. Anna focused hard on the leather-clad punks, screeching like hungry hyenas at this Japanese school-uniformed girl. They weren't demons; just pathetic, low life humans only out to stir up some trouble.
"Whoo boy, looks like a job for the police," Forest commented, swallowing a chunk of hotdog.
Both leapt from their seats as a police car ending up careening onto the sidewalk and crashing into the closest lamppost. The IPD officers sat across the ground in shock as one of the punks leapt off the side of the car, whooping like crazy, running off to join his friends. Anna and Forest turned to each other slowly, eyes wide with disbelief.
This was nothing but a senseless act, so unbelievable for the passers by to witness.
"So much for the police!" Anna said, immediately on her feet, going in hot pursuit of the punk teens.
"Hey, wait!" Forest was grabbed by the shoulder just before he could take off after her.
"Hey buddy, I hope you plan on paying for your food," the attendant urged with narrowed eyes.
Forest looked quite helpless between him and the situation that had basically unfolded in front of them. He was obviously trying to plead to help out, but of course, he wasn't going to get away without paying his bill. He just prayed he had change.
***
"Come on, little girl, come out to play!" The leader of the punks hollowed in a high, screechy voice into a narrow alley. He tried to spot the girl there, knowing he had seen her head down this way.
The group kicked over bins and old baggage in their way as they proceeded down, ever coming close to the end, where a tall metal fence blocked off the alley to a back street.
"UP HERE!"
They barely had time to look in the direction as the schoolgirl came crashing down on top of them, dropping them all like bowling pins.
"Strike!" She declared and tried to head for the free exit, but was quite shocked to see two punks she hadn't seen, covering her escape. She ground to a halt, looking back at the mass of bodies rising up like the undead, not in the least bit pleased with her cheap shot. She let out a loud gulp as she felt them looming in on her.
"YAH!"
The two punks in front of the schoolgirl were thrust forward. She ducked under them as the pair smacked into their comrades, yet again dropping them to the ground.
Anna stood back up from the thrusting palm move she had performed on the two punks. She smiled widely. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break up the party?"
The leader hacked and wobbled to his feet. "When did this suddenly become a chick flick?"
"Oh, it didn't. It just became a horror… for all you cheap ass punks…"
"It suddenly got a bit cheesy over here. Watch your step boys," a punk with orange dreads teased in a gruff voice.
Not wasting time for them to lead the attack, Anna used her many years of skill to charge at them. She was pleased with the unexpected looks on their faces as she shot her fist at the closest, which was one with a green clown like hairstyle.
"That's for picking on a schoolgirl," Anna hissed, flooring the guy. She turned to catch the fist of the punk to her right. The switchblade in his hand made her tut. "Oh, now that would have hurt." She squeezed his wrist hard, fingers digging in. He cried out, relinquishing his hold on the knife. She tilted her head to the side to avoid the incoming blow of another attacker, quickly spinning the punk at hand into him.
"DIE BITCH!" Their leader yelled, charging from behind. She turned with a slight gasp, hoping to intercept his attack before he could smash her with the segment of pipe he'd found as a weapon.
She didn't need to bother. A foot came up between them and clocked him straight under the chin. The pipe whizzed over Anna's head, clattering across the concrete out of reach. The leader was knocked forward, whizzing past a side-stepping Anna and landing on top of one of his groupies.
The schoolgirl saluted Anna, who gawked surprised by her jumping in on the action.
"Woah, now I've seen everything," the redhead commented.
"This is totally not right," one of the floored punks whined, rolling up onto his knees. "Chicks aren't suppose to fight back."
Anna trod over one of the floored men, hearing a satisfying groan as she walked over to the punk that has spoken. "The world changes. Keep up, asshole." A coke can hit her in the shoulder, and she turned sharply. "Okay, who did that?"
"You… You bitches! We'll make you pay! There is more of us then you!" The leader said, after regaining his senses.
"You've proved so far that you're a bunch of losers!" Anna snapped at him, giving her a very cocky sneer just for the hell of it.
"That's it, you're screwed!"
Anna stood protectively in front of the schoolgirl, whom didn't falter when standing her own ground. The punks advanced towards them, knuckles cracking as they did so. The tension was on.
Suddenly, a shadowed loomed, turning all their attentions.
A great big panda was suddenly there, roaring right into their faces. Anna felt herself tugged aside, away from the now horrified punks.
"LET'S SPLIT!" The leader roared.
Screaming pathetically, they managed to dodge the beast, almost wetting themselves in horror. They ducked down, avoiding any shots that came at them, looking rather pitiful instead of evilly macho as they'd been before.
Now, instead of facing the panda, they faced the entourage of police, who were willing to lock down handcuffs on the punks. This time, it was no big game. The cat and mouse chase was over.
Anna stared, open mouthed at the panda. "Jesus Christ…"
The schoolgirl let out a cry and jumped at the panda. "THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU SCARED THEM GOOD!"
The animal didn't attack the girl; instead it gave her a loving bear hug, which definitely had the other woman choking in shock. After a short embrace, the girl turned back to Anna smiling. "Wow, now that was interesting. Don't normally have this much fun on a weeknight."
"You're not just the average schoolgirl then?" Anna said, trying to beat the confusion from her mind.
"Nope, I'm not," the girl giggled and approached the woman, the panda following close behind. "You're Anna Williams. Wow! It's so cool to finally meet you!"
Anna was taken back. "What! You know me?"
"You were on the news, silly!" She thrust her hand out. "Ling Xiaoyu, the kick ass schoolgirl of Tokyo!"
"Oh, well, pleased to meet you, Xiaoyu," Anna said, accepting the hand. "Well, first off, what got those punks interested in you?"
"Oh, they were picking on some friends of mine and I pelted one. They decided to make a chase out of it," she told her.
Anna shook her head in despair. "Bastards. Took one shot to the extreme."
"But we dealt with it, didn't we?" Xiaoyu cheered, not waiting for answer. "We are so cool! We should be our own police force!"
Anna had to chuckle at the enthusiasm. "Yeah well, I guess so." She turned her eyes on the panda. "A friend of yours or an escapee of the local animal sanctuary?"
"OH NO! A friend! This is Panda, my pet! She would have helped me earlier but she doesn't arrive at school straight after the bell," she said, turning to pet the large beast, which gave a snort in acknowledgement.
"Well, I don't usually go chasing these kind of punks with my reputation, but this time I made an exception. It isn't safe for you at this time, especially with the murders going on."
"Oh, I know, I know. Well, thank you again!" Xiaoyu appreciated greatly. She paused for a moment, then quickly grabbed at Anna's arm, as she was about to walk away. "Just a second. I forget to ask in all this excitement. Could you do a favour for a friend? He seemed to think it was important… on that murder case you mentioned!"
Anna turned on this. "What? Who?"
"My friend, Jin. He keeps seeing strange things in his head. He has these weird psychic powers. Maybe strange to believe but he really thinks he may have information of use to you. No joke, he really wants to meet you. It maybe helpful. Would you, please?" She asked, practically on her knees begging.
"I don't know…"
"I'm not playing games, seriously! You have to come meet him!" Xiaoyu gave her the most serious face she could muster.
Anna suddenly felt she couldn't turn away from this. Her intuition was shifting as she looked into the eyes of the young girl. Deep down she could knew that any lead could be useful, as long as it wasn't a waste of time. Thankfully, the girl in front of her seemed sincere enough to trust. What did her friend want to say anyway? She was pushed to find out.
She nodded. "Alright, I will see him."
"Thank you, thank you!" Xiaoyu cried, jumping up and down. "He'll be so relieved."
"Okay, calm down," Anna said, tugging her to a standstill.
"Sorry," she blushed.
'Psychic…' She thought. 'Could he be a demon? Worried about his fate in some way? I'll have to see. I'll have to trust his word if it's viable enough.' She blinked, and looked back at Xiaoyu. "Where are we meeting?"
"Tomorrow afternoon, around four. He usually visits a demon care hostel on a Friday to help out. He feels inclined to since nobody else will. Everyone is so uppity with money and social status, they can't be bothered with the less fortunate, especially the demon part."
"Is he a demon?" Anna asked.
Xiaoyu stopped as if being slapped in the face. She frowned then lightened up. "Well, I dunno. He looks human to me. Doesn't seem like a demon. Then again, I wouldn't know."
"Just wanted to ask," Anna told her. "I have problems with demons, but I can handle them civilly."
"Okay, though, I don't think he is, you know…" Xiaoyu backed up quite firmly, hand rubbing against her pet's head as a slight distraction. Anna definitely wasn't set to argue.
"Okay, where is the hostel so I know where to go?" Anna quickly asked to turn away from anymore implications on the boy.
Xiaoyu relayed a perfect recall of the hostel's location. Anna took mental notes since she didn't have a pen and paper handy.
"Thanks," she said as both turned to the policeman who came towards them.
"You alright?" He asked.
"Yes, thank you," Anna answered for them. "I guess you want to question us? Sure, we don't mind. Just don't keep us long, we have homes to get to and I do want to be off the streets by the time the sun sets."
"Understood," the officer said with a nod and led the two of them up towards the squad car pack, the panda following the rear.
Forest arrived moments later and Anna didn't give him the nicest of looks.
"You took your time!"
"I'm sorry! The guy wouldn't give me change for a twenty!"
***
The next day passed fairly slowly, as the case was dragging on purposely to see how far they could take it before breaking all the hotel room windows. They dreaded a phone call from Governor Mishima or Eddy, in case it meant the end of their investigation. Anna left Forest to worry about these things as she took off to the hostel location where Xiaoyu had told her to go.
From the taxi stop, it was a ten-minute walk through the grey, damp winding back allies. It didn't look like the best neighbourhood in Tokyo. Well, she didn't exactly expect it to be in the ritziest part of Tokyo by all means. As she knew, just like everyone else, being a demon made you an underclass citizen. You were nothing if your were a demon, and being able to pretend to be human was the best way around the problem; but to pretend was with the looks as well, and not all demons could cloak what they really were. It was a cruel life for them, but at least it was one at all. They wanted to be amongst the populous and not down some dank hole in the ground.
Anna didn't particularly care what happened to them. They were nothing but leeches that feasted off everything good in life. Being bitter came with her job, and she never placed any trust with them. Or maybe, just maybe, it was her past that would never let go…
Shaking her head, she finally came to an iron gate at the end of a narrow passage. She pushed at it to see if it was locked. Thankfully, it wasn't, and the rustic door opened with a loud groan, and she stepped through, finally back on what she could class as a more open street, just in a much more backwater area.
The hostel took up a few run down buildings, that had been slightly revamped, but still breaking down with the amount of abuse that was forced on the exterior. People who really hated demons showed just how much they did when they went on a rampage with spray cans and plastic explosives. They used to be white buildings, but now showed the face of beige and brown, charred black in several places. The building was scarred but still stood proud, like an old war hero, doing what it could to protect the people it was meant to.
Anna just stood looking at the building, now wishing that she could turn back. She didn't want to go inside. She didn't want to have to face anything to do with her hate.
'Why don't I just quit my job and do work that is much more quiet?' She thought to herself, leaning back against the iron door. 'I know I enjoy setting demons straight, and being powerful… powerful… I think…' She sighed. 'I dunno, I guess being powerful isn't about the job. It's just the satisfaction of beating down the criminals… in place of the one I could never catch. The one that killed my mother…'
The iron gate shuddered behind her and she stood up straight, turning to come face to face with Xiaoyu.
"Oh! You're here! Good!" Xiaoyu shut the gate behind her as she stepped through. She'd clearly only just got out of school, as she was still clad in her uniform and carrying her book bag. "My directions were good after all."
"Yes, they were, thanks," Anna commended, then let out a soft sigh. "You ready to go in?"
"Oh, yeah! I don't mind!" Xiaoyu piped up. "I'm guessing Jin will be around soon. You can check about first off. You never know what can be useful info!"
Anna chuckled. "You know, you're smart. Too smart for your own good."
Xiaoyu grinned widely. "Yeah, I keep being told that." The Chinese girl linked her arm. "Alright then, follow me!"
"Give me strength…" Anna muttered as she allowed herself to be dragged towards the hostel, her heart thumping so loud, she thought her head would just explode. And right then, she wished it would.
*********************************************************************************
A/N: Next chapter will see Anna's meeting with Jin and how she feels when faced with demons all around her. Hope you will enjoy it when it comes...