Well, I got inspired and wrote the next chapter already! I'm going to write more after I post this, so you'll see the next chapter soon I hope. I love when I get all into the writing mood. :D Thanks to my friends James and Grant for the help with this chapter.
- SporkGoddess
Doshite Ja Nai
Chapter 6: Hatanaka
Very few colonies were actually in terrible states, but as the colony of Neo Hong Kong was brand new, it was exceptionally gorgeous. Most of the council members had their families situated there, and one could tell just from the outside view of the building whenever he or she had stumbled upon a delegate's house. As one had to be rich in order to live in a colony, none of the houses were shabby.
None of this, however, impressed Azami as she rode in a limo with Asano, staring out the window. She had been to Neo Japan's colony once, which was destitute and abandoned due to people no longer being able to afford living there, and the sight of Neo Hong Kong's prosperity made her quite sick.
Asano looked at her. "Are you alright?"
"I..." She sighed. "I was just thinking of home. Not Neo Hong Kong, Neo Japan." It wasn't a lie.
"Oh." He looked out the window. "I know what you mean. Especially compared to this colony, our home looks especially impoverished."
She sighed. "You're the delegate. Can't you do something?"
"What could I do? I think a big enough step has been taken, a Neo Japanese native is finally Neo Japan's delegate. Miss Fukao, you're too sweet and naive for politics. These things take time."
"Time, yes, but during that time people are starving while you council members fly across the galaxy just to attend a symphony." She was getting angry.
"I don't like it, Miss Fukao," he said quietly. "What makes you think I do? But it's all about appearance. I need to be active in the social scene to gain pull in the council. Schmoozing, it's called."
"Funny,"Azami said. "I'd call it pandering."
"Miss Fukao..."
"Or lying,"
"Please..."
"How about selling out?"
"Enough!" Asano yelled, then coughed. "These things cross my mind everyday. But there's nothing that I can do right now. Diplomacy involves a lot of red tape. And it's not on our side. You have to give it time, because if I do something hasty I could lose my position and we'd be back to being governed by another nation. People hate us, Miss Fukao."
Her expression lightened. "Please, call me Emiko."
"Emiko." He smiled softly. "No one's ever talked to me like that before."
"It shows." She said dryly.
The man laughed. "You're quite an interesting woman. It's really late, why don't you stay in the guest room at my mansion tonight? I can take you back to your hotel tomorrow."
"Sure." She hoped that she wasn't blushing.
"And after... can we stay in touch?"
She froze, feeling odd, as if she'd just taken cold medicine that was causing her to feel light-headed. But then she smiled back at him.
"I'd like that."
Try as he might, Jarek couldn't read any more of that wretched book. When he woke up in the morning to find that Azami had not yet returned, he watched TV, then hooked up his laptop to find that email Akai had told him about. Sure enough, she was to report back to headquarters.
When Azami returned, looking like a college student who had stayed out a little too late and drank a little to much, he told her about the new mission. As he would have guessed, her reaction was indignant.
"What!? I spent all this stupid time getting here and got cozy with Asano, and now they have something ELSE for me to do!?"
"We can't help it," Jarek had told her, "we're losing members. And this is more important right now. Hatanaka could be dangerous."
So they arranged everything. Azami was to have lunch with Asano, telling him that she was going to move back to Neo Japan, because she didn't feel right staying there, then report back to DJN headquarter, then join Hatanaka and report back to DJN every so often with her findings. No one else was to know about it, not even the delegates in correspondence with the DJN. It would be a quiet exit, and Jarek was to remain in Neo Hong Kong. He would be joined by Akai, and they would stay in contact and do whatever mission they had to involving the delegates. He grinned at that thought; finally, a woman who wouldn't make him sleep on the floor.
So Azami left without much of a goodbye, and the next day Akai arrived.
"It's a good thing I like travelling," she said after she'd hugged him in greeting, "or else I would be really mad. They don't have much use for us, since we're not Japanese."
"Did it ever occur to you that Midori might get suckered in by Hatanaka as well? She's radical enough for them." Jarek said thoughtfully.
"Of course it has," Akai responded. "But we don't have much choice. Neo Japan supports Hatanaka now. We're the only ones left, and Midori's the only Neo Japanese person left."
Azami had to admit that it felt good to be back in Neo Japan. She no longer felt phony, or elite, and it reminded her of whom she was fighting for. These were her people, and this was her home.
Like the DJN, Hatanaka was located in a rundown building, in a terrible part of the city. The people inside, though clean, wore shabby clothes and went barefoot. Azami at once felt self-conscious of her outfit, which by these standards was nice.
"I'm from Doshite Ja Nai," she stammered, "and I would like to join Hatanaka."
The girl at the desk lit up. "We got another one?" She asked, grinning toothily. Her face was dirty, her hair hidden beneath a bandanna, and her smile uneven, but she looked like she had a lot of spirit. "I'll notify the boss; DJN folks are treated pretty nice arond here." She went to the back, where a phone looking like it had been stolen out of a phone booth stood, and picked it up.
Not too much later, a man arrived. He was unshaven and his hair messy, but he was young. He wore a frayed business jacket over his patched pants and what looked like a department store t-shirt.
"A DJN member, eh? You do realize that you can't be a member of DJN and Hatanaka, right?"
She nodded.
"Good. Oh, sorry! I'm Ryo. See, we don't use aliases like the DJN. We're honest. If we get in trouble for it, well, it was for a good cause."
Azami smiled. "They call me…" She fumbled around for a good name, "well, they call me Midori." She said finally.
"Not going to give us your real name?"
"I'm… sorry."
He shrugged. "Don't be. Anyway, I'll take you to my office." She followed him to a room that was like a poorer version of Kuroi's office back at the DJN.
"You want to be a member? We don't tell everything to people who aren't members. You never know who could squeal. If you need basic info, well, we're trying to get Neo Japan back on its feet. Simple as that."
She nodded.
"I'll write down your name. We're a pretty intimate group; don't use cards or nametags or nothing, we know everyone by heart."
Azami smiled at that thought. Hatanaka seemed like a nice bunch.
In fact, the more Azami heard, the more she liked the group. They were genuine, unlike DJN which collaborated with the enemy and compromised a lot of things. They were all Neo-Japanese, and knew firsthand the city's suffering. So, she did the logical thing. She went back to the DJN headquarters, and resigned.