"Well I don't give a damn if you have the right to refuse to sell!" Yugo was shouting into the receiver of his office phone. "You can have that right, pal, but be forewarned the W.O.C. is going to let the rest of the world know just how you feel about minority groups like zoanthropes! Yeah! Trust me I will! You have no idea–Motherfucker!" Yugo swore as the other end of the receiver clicked off. He let out a guttural sort of roar as he began to repeatedly beat the phone down on his desk, swearing enough to make sailor blush as he did. Of course the woman standing behind him was not a sailor by any means and she was not going to blush, she'd heard this far to many times to care.
"Yugo, sweetie, let go of the receiver," Alice implored, her voice a gentle command as she stepped across the room to take hold of her boyfriends wrist. He halted immediately at her touch, looking down somewhat nervously into her reproving pinkish-violet eyes. Yugo grinned nervously.
"Hi, babe," he laughed nervously. "How's your day been? Did you have a good lunch with Shina this afternoon?"
"Day and lunch were great, Shina and I had a nice long talk," Alice answered him. "Now please," her eyes darkened. "Drop the phone. We are draining funds to keep buying you new ones, and that's just not good, honey."
"Right sorry," he sighed, letting loose of the earpiece at once. Alice patted him on the shoulder before putting the telephone back into its cradle. That done she perched on Yugo's desk, legs swinging back and forth as she eyed her boyfriend. "Now should I ask what's gotten into you this morning?" she questioned.
"The CEO of Bell's hung up on me when I tried to negotiate with him," Yugo said, pouting just a little. "The guy wouldn't even listen to me, Alice! Do I come off as a jerk-off or something or–"
"Yugo!" Alice wailed putting her head in her hands. "You were supposed to let Marie and Jon take care of negotiations! Honey, you know you're not good at dealing with some of these people!"
"Well forgive me for doing my job!" he exclaimed still pouting as he crossed his arms. "It's not my fault that the guy is a worthless scrap of humanity!"
Alice rolled her eyes, for someone who worked as hard as he did to try and rebuild human and zoanthrope relations, Yugo was at the same time keenly able to tear them down. Seeing that he was continuing to brood, though, Alice couldn't find it in her to scold him anymore, and instead reached out to pull him closer to her.
"Poor, poor, Yugo," she sighed, lovingly interlocking their fingers. She kissed his Adam's apple very lightly. "The world is just being so mean to you isn't it?" She ran her fingers through his shaggy brown hair, scratching behind his ears.
Yugo, nodded putting on what Alice had aptly named his "puppy dog face". She giggled and tentatively brushed her lips against his, Yugo deepened that first little caress, his hand traveling up her arm to cup the side of her face. Pulling back after a few long seconds they smiled at one another, Yugo mischievously, Alice coyly. Yugo imitated their second kiss. Ensuring that it would be a lengthy and romantic one, his one hand remained on the side of her face while the other grasped the small of her back. At the same time Alice wound half of her fingers in her lover's hair and pressed others gently against the nap of his neck.
"I don''t suppose now would be a good time to bring up a promise a made to Shina?" Alice asked when they finally let go of one another.
"Depends on what it is," Yugo joked, making her more comfortable with his smile.
"The three of us dragging Long out of his house to go to Backlash's tonight?" she asked with only a slight timid note to her voice.
Yugo made a thoughtful face before meeting his girlfriend's eyes again. "Could be fun," he finally chuckled, to Alice's relief. "Especially if we have to use excessive force on Long." He grinned impishly once more. A more thoughtful look flashed across his face. "How's Shina? And why exactly did you promise her to we would drag Long out tonight?"
"Oh, I was just teasing her and I volunteered to buy her some drinks and not complain about the outfit she chooses this evening," the auburn haired zoanthrope told him with a shrug of her ivory shoulders. "As for the Long part, I just thought it would be a good idea to get him out amongst the hoi polloi, especially after an entire day with Uriko."
Yugo hesitated to agree too adamantly, despite the fact that she always had something to say about her sister's hyperactivity, Alice was very picky about who else got to complain about it. So he settled for a very nonchalant, "Yeah". It was then Alice's turn to question.
"Why ask if Shina's okay?"
"It's a long story but let's just say one of my other best friends mentioned a couple of rather...unwanted names to her at breakfast this morning when I dropped Uriko off," Yugo explained. Alice made a face.
"Oh, no, he didn't!" the rabbit murmured sadly.
"He did, she swore the both of us out in two languages, apologized for the outburst, and left," Yugo sighed. " He looked down ruefully at Alice. "I really don't think she's getting as much solace from her problems as she says she is, Ally."
Alice nodded in sad agreement. Shina's situation with her father and Jenny Burtory had everyone on pins in needles, but none more than Long, Yugo, and herself. The worst part was that she wouldn't talk to anyone about the whole mess, so that left a group of people, very used to taking action in all forms, helplessly watching them from the sidelines. It particularly distressed Alice who wanted loved nothing more than take care of her friends and boyfriend.
"You think she'll be okay?" Yugo, surprised them both, by asking Alice this question.
Alice looked tenderly into his eyes so desperately begging for assurance that she just could not give.
"I dunno, she–she's not gonna be not okay, I mean...if this was too much for her to bare, then she wouldn't surround herself with other familiar faces that would remind her of Gado...would she?" Alice asked returned his question with her own.
Yugo looked down and away, his arms pulling Alice closer, the only answer he could give.
"Whatever goes on, we'll just have to make sure that she knows we'll be there for her," he murmured looking down into her eyes. "We'll take care of her...we're just gonna have to make sure that Shina doesn't know that we're doing it if we want to live."
"Point taken," Alice said. She smiled up into Yugo's umber brown eyes the adoration she had for him reflecting back with all of his. "You're such a good friend, it's positively adorable." She said this as she slipped her arms around his waist, eyes demurely shifted to the side. She slumped against him, letting her dark head rest against his blue and gold T-shirt.
"I'm even more adorable when my girlfriend scratches the right spot," he chuckled, reaching down to tilt Alice's face up towards his own. They were less than an inch apart when, the door burst open and Uriko dragging Kenji along behind her, Shina and Long following them.
"Hey, Alice, Master Long brought me–" her call was cut short as she saw the two of them and skidded to a halt, and falling to the floor, while Kenji and everyone else simply froze.
"Ugh–oh," Kenji said, brown eyes wide beneath his messy bangs, the only sound to be heard for the next several minutes. All six parties looked between themselves, each of them blushing with embarrassment save for Shina and Uriko, the two of them just looked at the scene with raised eyebrows. Long's only real reaction besides blushing was to clap a hand over his eyes.
"So..."Uriko trailed a little nervously. "I–ugh–I guess I should've knocked first, heh?"
There was a second more of quiet before, Alice, very pink in her visage, picked up a notepad from Yugo's desk and hurled it forcefully at her little sister, beaning her between the eyes.
"Dammit, Uriko, were you born in a barn or something, learn to knock for Christ's sake!" she swore, her eyes becoming a little more pinkish–red than purple pink. Uriko swallowed, that was never a good sign in the rabbit.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Uriko exclaimed holding up her hands to shield her eyes. "I just wanted to let you know Master Long dropped me off and Kenji and I were going to the movies so you wouldn't worry!"
"Ooh, just go!" Alice growled, Yugo grabbed her hand when she scooped up his coffee mug.
"Well we would it's just...I don't have any money and neither does Kenji–"Uriko started, timidly wringing the him of her green-blue shirt. Again Alice's eyes flashed a dangerous shade of rose, so, to save the younger girl, Shina intervened.
"Here," the leopardess said pulling out her wallet and handing the girl a twenty. "Now go before your sister removes your eyeballs with a staple."
Uriko looked at the bill then back at Shina, shortly after she squealed (very shrilly) and threw her arms quickly about the blonde. Shina's eyebrow twitched as she looked toward the others her piercing irises screeching "Get her off me!"
"Thank you, Shina," Kenji said catching the incentive first and prying his best friend from around the older female. He gave and apologetic look to Yugo and Alice, and bowed to Long before dragging his best friend from the room.
"Hey wait a minute!" Uriko exclaimed as he pulled her along. "Do we have enough for popcorn and soda too?"
"Uriko!" Kenji growled jerking her out the door.
"Ow! Stop yanking me around like a dog!" she snapped even as he pulled. As an afterthought she half turned and smiled back at Shina and Long. "Thanks for the money Shina, I'll pay you back! See you on Tuesday, Master!"
"Goodbye, Uriko," Long called, his face still very much hidden withing his wide palm. Shina and Yugo shook their heads at the girl as the two teenagers headed for the elevator. Alice simply tried to bore holes in the doorway by glaring into it.
"Well," Shina said, reverting her sky blue eyes back to Alice and Yugo, who were still very much caught up in one another's embrace. She cocked an eyebrow as she grinned, shoving her hands into the pockets of her cargos. "Now just exactly were you kids thinking? In the office? Where your little brother works a s a courier?" She clicked her tongue. "How the mighty have fallen."
Alice and Yugo's cheeks flared with color once more and Yugo took a couple steps backward while Alice jumped off the desk.
"Shina!" Long hissed.
"Oh, shut up and keep your hands over your eyes, vierge," she snapped at him. Long scowled at her before taking off his glasses to clean them of smudges.
"I'm sorry, I told her to hold on but...you know Uriko," Long apologized with a heavy sigh as he returned his bifocals to their place on the bridge of his nose. "Really, though, she's been improving with it since she started meditation...I think."
"Whatever you say," Yugo said, just thankful for focus to be off of himself and Alice. Though as far as he was concerned Uriko was, and probably would always be, as off the wall as the day they had met.
"So have you given Tiger the good news?" Alice questioned Shina before the other woman could make another sly remark about the situation she'd walked in on. She glanced at Long, a small grin playing on her pretty features. Long felt slightly panicked by this.
"Tell me what?" he asked, looking apprehensively from Alice to the blonde woman standing beside him. He wasn't all that confident that he wanted to know.
"Well, Long, old friend," Shina began, hands moving from her pockets to her hips.
"Compadre," Yugo added, grinning like a fool, Long's stomach flopped.
"Compatriot," Alice got into the game as well, giggling. The tiger zoanthrope wondered how far he could get down the hall before one of them caught up to him...just in case.
"Dude that I know and somewhat respect," Shina took the floor once again. "We, your closest confidants, have decided that you need to get back out into the world and start mingling with the populace once more."
"Heh?" Long questioned, raising an eyebrow at her dramatics.
"We're taking you out tonight, to a club," Alice clarified for him.
"Even if we have to put you in a burlap bag and drag you kicking and screaming from your dojo," Yugo said, his smile resembling his zoanthrope side more and more.
Long stared at them for a moment, blinking in surprise. Finally, he managed to squeak an, "Excuse me?"
"We're taking you clubbing," Shina repeated. "You know to a club, out of the house, where there are people, a lot of them drunk and looking to score." She pushed his arm. "That kind of place."
The tiger drew down his eyebrows as he narrowed his gaze at his three friends. "And just what, pray-tell, convinced you that this was a good path?" he demanded. "If you haven't noticed I am a grown man and more than capable of making my own decisions."
"We know that, Long," Yugo said, dismissing the hints of rage that sparked in the other man's coffee brown eyes. "But hey, if you haven't noticed, you've been living in the second most populated city in the world for over six months. And you leave the house maybe three times a week. It's like you think you're gonna turn into pumpkin if you're not back in the confines of your dojo within a certain amount of time."
"Yeah, man," Shina agreed. "I almost shit myself when you brought Uriko this afternoon. And didn't you move into Manhattan to 'live amidst the rest of humanity?'. How are you living amidst the rest of humanity when you're holed up 24/7/365 in your house. You don't even grocery shop for yourself, Long!"
Alice, noting that Long's eyes were starting to narrow all the more, stepped up, the gentle voice of reason behind Shina and Yugo's unyielding resolve.
"We're just trying to help you out, Long," she told him gently, walking over to put a hand on his shoulder. He looked into her eyes, seeing only the upmost sincerity and concern. "You can't spend your life in the house any more than you could spend it in the cave. I mean...what if Shina goes back to Paris? Or W.O.C. relocates to the Tokyo branch? What are you going to do then?"
"And keep in mind, Long, you still haven't figured out how to use the web cam," Shina reminded him, crossing her arms over her cyan colored tee.
"And you barely navigate your email," Yugo quipped.
"The point is," Alice interjected, throwing her boyfriend and the other woman a quieting glare, before turning a smiling face back toward Long. "We're only trying to help, so, spare us all the fuss and Yugo hunting a burlap bag." She chuckled. "Yugo and I'll pick you up at seven." She looked him and his Chinese style gi over and added, as if an afterthought. "We'll bring some clothes."
The office was quiet for a few key seconds, as Shina, Alice, and Yugo, watched the scholarly face of the tiger zoanthrope with taunt anticipation, fearing for the worst, not a tongue lashing for their intrusion in his personal affairs, but his blatant refusal. Finally he let out a sigh, and adjusted his glasses one last time.
"All right, seeing as I'll get no peace if I refuse," he said, giving in. "But–" he added sharply looking at Alice. "I will take care of my own attire. I'm not a child, and more than capable of picking out my own clothes."
"Fine, fine!" Alice exclaimed throwing up her hands. "But I reserve the right to nitpick!"
"Ah, tonight is gonna be a great night," Shina said as Long gave Alice a black look, she grinned at Yugo. "I'm omitted from the fashion bureau and Long takes my place. Maybe there is a God after all." Yugo chuckled along with her but only for a few moments as Alice started to glare in his direction. Meanwhile Long frowned down his glasses at a still giggling Shina.
"You should talk about taste in clothing," he told her crisply, referring to her torn cargo pants that hung low on her hips, faded T-shirt, and of course the boots.
"Hey at least no one's ever asked me to balance a plate on a stick in my threads," Shina snorted.
"I'm not going to dignify that with a retort," Long informed her, though a less than dignified grimace covered his face.
"Whatever," Shina said tossing head. She crossed her arms as her eyes switched back over to Alice and Yugo. "I guess I'll see you two later, I'm going to head to the house."
"Bye, Shina," Yugo said as she began to go, Alice echoed him.
The blonde mercenary paused at the door, a wicked gleam in her eyes as she glanced back at her friends. "You kids keep out of trouble, now, you hear?" she teased before pulling the door open, Yugo and Alice both staring fiercely at her with red tinged cheeks. She glanced at Long. "Later, vierge."
"What in the hell does that mean, Shina?" he exclaimed following her down the hall.
"Je ne sais pas," she sang, heading towards the elevator.
"Oh, do not even start that I don't know excuse!" Long growled rushing after her in agitation he desperately was trying to keep a lid on. "Tell me and tell me now!"
Alice looked at Yugo and they both sighed and smiled. Friendship was beautiful thing, at times they just pretended not to know it's beauty on a personal level in public places.
Interlude
"Baby you make my heart beat faster
Baby you make my heart beat faster
I know
Let alone to rust alone
You're making me
I had to run the damage is done
I give it up, yeah, give it up yeah
There's nothing left so take the rest
You're draining me!"
the voice of the Distillers' frontwoman blared out from Shina's mp3 player as she jogged to her home after work. With a normal nine-to-five clock schedule, Shina found that time to visit her precious gym was waning, and so to make up for that she would jog and shadow-box the mile and a half to her condo from headquarters. Hurtling over a couple of trash cans just to make a the people standing on the corner stare, the leopardess grinned, she had never felt so alive and so free until coming to this place. She had an a pretty good life in Manhattan.
She missed the combat, the firing range, sparring with her teammates, but if she really wanted to spar she had Long, and if she wanted to practice her shot there was a shooting range downtown that she could go to at any time. Sure, she missed the team itself, missed talking to her friends in Paris, but she had also missed the majority of her Zoanthrope friends. She had missed her best friends, Long and Yugo, in particular, and they lived here, across the ocean from Paris. In Manhattan, Shina was free to do as she pleased as well, as opposed to her native land, she didn't have to notify compound guards or her dad of where she was and what she was doing. Plus, it wasn't like she actually missed home, or at least she wouldn't admit it. Besides New York may not have won her over completely yet, but over time, she told her herself, it would. Her heart hadn't settled in this place already, but she was very sure it could.
Shina made it to her small condo a few moments later, just as the song ended and another started up. She pulled out her keys, unlocking the front door. Once inside, Shina turned off her music, laying the mp3 on the closest surface, a small, mail laden table, right beside the front door. For a young woman with the kind of wealth and background she had, Shina's apartments were not furnished to reflect that fact. Her living room and kitchen sort of melded together elegantly, in the way that loft spaces tend to do, with large windows set into white walls all around the house. The den was large but sparse, with only an overstuffed black leather couch, exercise matt, and nary used tv in it center. A ways to the far right was Shina's practically unused kitchen, which housed a stove, black topped counter, and fridge that contained a six pack of Coke and some cold cuts. That was about it for the downstairs of her apartments, and as she really had no need to be there, Shina dropped hurried up to the wrought iron spiral staircase that lead to the upstairs.
The upstairs of Shina's condo had two rooms, her bedroom and her bathroom, both of which were far more furnished than the entire downstairs. The bedroom, like everything else was simple, nothing special. Lots of windows, white curtains, a queen sized bed with white sheets (Shina liked to sprawl in her sleep), a laptop at a desk with a rolling chair, and dark gray carpeting. That was it. As for her bathroom, it was a typical bathroom; shower, tub, toilet, sink, all white and all very clean. Nothing more, nothing less, that particular thought passed through the mercenaria's head as she stripped and made for the bathroom.
As she walked toward the shower Shina caught sight of herself in the mirror overhanging the sink, and stopped, not to admire, but to look over, her reflection. She'd changed since moving to New York, in many ways. Her tan had dulled quite a bit since she'd moved to the northern American city, no surprise since she hadn't bend spending all that much time outdoors. Her hair was a little different, as well, she hadn't cut it since before leaving Paris, she'd also stopped spiking it so that it hung almost to her shoulders, uneven from the way it had been cut when she'd been trying to imitate her father's hairstyle. Her hair and her skin tones were insignificant things to Shina however, when she peered into the looking glass.
Maybe it was just the circumstances under which she'd left her father, but the face in the mirror looked different to Shina. Her face seemed to belong to someone else anymore, someone she didn't know, and that was quite dismaying to the leopardess. Her eyes, her nose, her mouth, even her eyebrows were taken into a different perspective anymore. The entirety of her countenance looked dissimilar than it used to, like she was matching parts of herself up with someone else, even a couple of someone elses.
Shina's full coral mouth broke into a frown as she threw her hand up over her reflection, angrily hiding her face. Memories that she'd tried so hard to repress for the last three months flooded her mind, tearing at her insides and filling her with a dark rage. She bit the inside of her cheek until it bled as she turned away to switch on the shower, trying to forget it all.
She was in the shower, relaxing, prohibiting herself from thinking as she cleaned her body, for about fifteen minutes before she heard the doorbell being knelled with disturbing gusto.
"Ah, Shit!" she swore shutting off the water valve. Shina stumbled out of the shower, barely pausing to grab her robe and fling it on before running back down the stairs. The doorbell, meanwhile, continued to ring incessantly.
"All right, all right , already!" she shouted as she charged for the front door. "Hold your fucking horses! Christ! I'm coming!" Shina reached out to grasp the door knob.
She wasn't sure what in the hell happened, she didn't know how, or the cause, but the moment Shina's finger's closed around the little silver knob, a strange and painful jolt raced up the her spine jarring into the base of her skull, like a searing rod right into her brain. Shina let out a half conscious roar as she dropped to her knees onto the wood floor. Her roar became louder and shriller as the pain intensified, blinding Shina. The leopardess grasped the sides of her head, rolling into the fetal position just as her mind fell into the black.
Manhattan was a memory, nothing more than a graveyard, all rubble and body parts, the remains of both smouldering beneath a red sky. Desolation was all that greeted Shina as far as the her acute eyes could see. There was nothing remaining of the city that never slept. It had all been charred beyond the bone. Shina gulped, looking around in vain fervor for any signs of life but finding none. The worst of it wall was Shina knew it wasn't just New York City that had been massacred, Shina knew everything else was gone as well.
The zoanthrope mercenaria fell to the ground, the life sapped from her very being. Faces ran through her mind's eye. Yugo, Long, Alice, Uriko, Kenji, Nagi, and even...
SHE appeared then, rising from the ground to show HER truest form to Shina. A body that was white and burning exploded in her vision, beautiful and terrifying all at once. But Shina would not allow herself to look away, even as she felt the skin sloughing and burning off her bones, she continued to meet those black, star-studded, eyes. Two tears trickled down her cheeks, laden with regret, just as SHE smiled. The finale of her heartbeat was music to Shina's tears.
Interlude
"Mana, stop it!" Nagi ordered the girl as she continued to let the dream pulse flow into the crystals. "Mana! No! You're hurting her, dammit!" She glared of at Ryoho, who seemed frozen to the spot. "Do something!" She practicably screeched at the big man. Her eyes began to glow the red and yellow color of the Spurious. "Stop her or I will!" She clenched her fists.
Ryoho blanched, knowing that Nagi could and would do just what she threatened. He rushed to the little Priestess' side, and very gently shook her while whispering "Mistress Mana, please come back, now."
At once the girl returned from her trance, falling back into Ryoho's outstretched arms, eyes almost rolling into the back of his head.
"Mistress..." Ryoho began hesitantly, touching th side of her face. Mana's eyes snapped open.
"She'll question now," the little girl breathed, the sweat running from her brow. "Part of the path has opened up. She and the other's won't be far behind."
"What in the hell were you thinking!" Nagi demanded grasping the girl by the shoulders and giving her a hard shake. "You could've killed her! Shina's a warrior of strength not of the mind!" She let go of the girl abruptly, letting he collapse onto the floor. "You may not be concerned with Shina's life, with Yugo's or Long's but dammit I am! I consider them my friends and I will not have you playing so loosely with them like this!"
"I do not play, Nagi," Mana told her, her voice calm, she was always calm. "And I would not think of trying to kill any of the three chosen. The world needs them, if you haven't forgotten. We need them."
"She was in pain, Mana!" she snapped, crossing her arms tightly across her breasts. "Physical and mental. And if you plan on doing that to Long or Yugo, I have to object."
"Considering that Yugo and Long do not have the brain waves necessary for me to transmit with, you need not," Mana replied. Nagi felt the urge to beat the serenity from the tiny priestess' bones. She stood up, her eyes meeting Nagi's as and adult's would. "As for Shina...I will try to be more gentle but we must prod her to prod events. Or–" her eyes sharpened nearly knocking Nagi off balance. "Do you need to be reminded of the consequences that will befall the rest of this world if we cannot convince the ones we need to move, Nagi."
The Spurious zoanthrope bristled at the tone, but she swallowed her pride and looked away. She turned, to infuriated with Mana and herself to argue further. However, she stopped at the doorway, and with out looking back asked, "Are you really so willing to sacrifice so much, so quickly Mana? Can you condemn others, Priestess? Because I don't think that I can." And she walked away, leaving a rather crestfallen Mana and Ryoho, in her wake. She didn't return to the temple until morning, and as she knew they would be, her bags were packed and setting upon the temple porch, along with one ticket to New York City. Nagi did not look back on the place.