Chapter Six
"Excuse me… Sorry to bother you, but… Might you know this woman? I think her last name is Sawyer?" Anita asked, holding up a picture that she had drawn of Sawyer. The man looking at the picture couldn't deny that it was an excellent picture, right down to the scar on the girl's neck.
"I… Uh… I fhink I shaw her wif shome guy in a white shirt and tie… Real stiff, he was, but she looked happy. 'Fraid I don' know'er name." He said, lisping through several broken teeth.
"Ah, I see… Thank you." Anita said politely, turning and going into a restaurant.
"Excuse me… Do you happen to know a woman named Sawyer?" Anita asked uncertainly. The Maître-D nodded.
"Ah, you mean Frederica… Well, Miss Sawyer… She's a cleaner for the Chinese Triad… Mr. Chang. Go to U.G. Pork. She's probably working her day job at the moment."
"Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."
"Oh, um… No problem…" He said, adding to himself that he didn't think anyone had ever gone to this much trouble to seek Frederica out. As pretty as she was, people usually avoided her like the plague unless they needed cleaning work done.
Anita hurried around town, finally making it to a large industrial building, and hurrying in, hearing blood curdling screams from the adjacent room. She sighed and knocked on the door. Soon, the grinding and the screams stopped, and a person of unknown gender in scrubs, a large smock and complete protective clothing, including a shower cap and goggles and a face mask.
The unnerving looking woman looked quizzically at Anita, and walked out, removing her goggles and face mask.
"Are you here to get revenge? If so, I would suggest that you leave… For your baby's sake." She said in her mechanical, but somehow gorgeous voice.
"Um… You… Have blood on your cheek."
Sawyer felt her left cheek, blushing slightly and wiping it off, and scrubbing her hand on her smock.
"Sorry… Anyway… I do not wish to fight you. I was merely doing my job last night, and seeking revenge on any of us will only put you in my chamber. And I won't hesitate to do my job."
"Um… U-um… N-no… I-I… I just had to say that… Well… Y-you're really beautiful… Watching you using your chainsaw last night was breathtaking… A-and not just because of the gasoline that it released into my home…"
"I murder your pets and threaten to kill you, and you try to hook up with me?" Sawyer asked, feeling more than a little confused by this. After a moment, though, she shrugged, and laughed briefly.
"I am afraid that I am spoken for. I am flattered, though. I need to go for a walk after this job… Killing twelve year olds is part of my job, but that does not make it any easier to kill the relatively innocent." Frederica said, going back into her vivisection chamber and removing her murder suit, going to the shower, and washing herself off, paying no mind to the fact that Anita was there and staring quite blatantly.
After a few moments and washing her hair with a strange smelling shampoo, she got out and put a gothic looking getup on, smiling at Anita and heading out the door, Anita fast in tow.
"You are not planning to rob me, are you? You look ready to pop any day, now, and I wouldn't want to kill you and your baby."
"Where are we going, Miss Sawyer?" Anita asked. Sawyer shook her head.
"Please, call me Frederica… Or Sawyer, if you prefer."
"Sawyer, then… Where are we going?"
"To a friend's house. My friend broke his leg. His friends are a little eccentric, but they're pretty nice. Whatever you do, don't turn your back on or insult the woman with the ponytail. That's how my friend broke his leg." Sawyer said with a smirk. Anita gulped. Maybe this town wasn't the best place for her.
"Here we are. Lagoon Company." Sawyer said, going inside and knocking on the door.
"Lagoon Company! Please come in!" Came a friendly voice from inside in a fairly strong Japanese accent. Anita was surprised, though she knew she probably shouldn't be. It was a fairly diverse population here. Americans, Taiwanese, Natives, Europeans. Everyone gathered here and was more or less equal.
"Hello, Rock… I brought over the woman we did our job on last night. This is Anita Stanford."
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rock… I-is that your first or last name? Anita asked, confused.
"It's my nickname. My name is Okajima Rokuro. So… They didn't harm you?"
"Well… No, but they murdered all my pets and one of them fried up my rabbit and left it in the refrigerator for me for breakfast, I suspect."
"I see… Let me guess… There was an Asian woman with a heavy accent, a Russian woman with scars all over her body, an elderly nun and Frederica."
"Yeah! H-how'd you know!?" Anita asked.
"The Asian, Shenhua, is Frederica's roommate. The nun, Yolanda is the head of the Ripoff Church, and Miss Balalaika is the leader of Hotel Moscow. Plus, Lagoon Company hears a lot of rumors and information through the grapevine. Please, come in. I'd offer you something to drink, but I can see that you're about to give birth."
"Maybe just some juice or water?"
"Well… I wouldn't advise drinking the water, here. I made that mistake and paid for it for a week once. But we might have some bottled water." Rock said, pushing himself up and moving over to the refrigerator.
As he went into the kitchen, Revy, the woman with the ponytail came out still completely naked.
"Eh? What are you doing here? And who's this bitch?" Revy snarled, not bothering to cover herself.
"E-excuse me, Miss… You do know that Mr. Okajima is still here, right?" Anita asked timidly. Revy sneered at her.
"Yeah? So?"
"Well… I-isn't it only polite to cover yourself in the common area?"
"Ah, for what? Ain't nothing he hasn't seen already! Besides, he's too much of a pussy to try anything. Knows I'd castrate him if he did!" Revy laughed meanly.
"We do have some bottles left. Here you go, Miss Stanford." Rock said politely. Anita laughed nervously.
"Please, just call me Anita."
"If I'm not mistaken, you're from the American Northeast?"
"Yes… Massachusetts, actually. I lived in Provincetown for a while. It was very liberal there, but… Nothing quite like this." Anita said, stumbling across the room.
"Do you… Mind if I sit down? My back is killing me."
"Sure… Please. So, Frederica… Did you just happen to run into Anita?"
"She found me… I assumed that she was going to attack me. But she actually started coming onto me."
"So you assault her in her home and she tries to pick you up? An interesting turn of events."
"Oh, don't judge me, asshole… I know what you Japanese people get up to, with your sisters and your cousins and all that weird tentacle porn!"
"Ahaha! I'm not sure what you think you know about the Japanese, but I can assure you that whatever you've heard is drastically exaggerated. While incest is not as uncommon in Japan as it is in America, and cousin marriage is technically legal, you're mostly referring to the Japanese anime subculture, which is not in any way representative of most Japanese people. Actually, Japan is a much more traditional country, regardless of what the young generation has in terms of culture.
"Perhaps bother to study a culture before you go spouting off such bullshit about it like it's gospel truth." Rock snapped angrily. Anita drew back, shocked at Rock's sudden vitriol.
"S-sorry…"
"It's alright. Just like 80s rockers don't represent what Americans looked like, anime doesn't represent how Japanese people behave.
"You just need to look at the fact that most anime characters, despite being Asian, are quite white, have Caucasian features, including a wide variety of eye and hair colors. Japan has a very homogenous population. 98.5% of Japan's population is Japanese. There's a minority of people from other Asian countries, but most Europeans and Americans are there on business. The appearances of the Japanese really aren't as diverse as anime makes them out to be.
"Honestly, I thought everyone knew that. I mean, does Marvel Comics represent the average appearance of an American? Half the characters have green eyes, while only about 1-2% of people in the entire world have green eyes."
"I see… I didn't mean to offend you. Maybe I will learn more about Japan. I have time, I guess… Though, I'm going to give birth soon, is there a hospital in the area that's safe to go to?"
"Well… Most doctors in Roanapur are hired out full time to one of the crime families. But there is a hospital at the Ripoff Church. They might charge through the nose to deliver your baby, but they have clean facilities." Rock said politely.
Suddenly, Anita's eyes widened, and she gripped her stomach.
"Anita… What's wrong?"
"My water just broke!" She gasped. Revy sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Just go outside. I don't want to have to pay for repairs to the hotel."
"Revy! Just grab her and start running!" Rock demanded angrily. Revy snarled back at him.
"What!? I ain't carrying this bitch! What do I get out of it?"
"*Gasp!* I'll give you 1,000 dollars! Is… Is that enough!?"
"Sold!" Revy said with a wild grin, sweeping Anita off her feet and running to the window, leaping, and landing perfectly and running as soon as she hit.
Revy picked up speed at an alarming rate, the town whipping by, even as the purple haired woman turned corners, seeming not to slow down at all, and making it to the hospital in only maybe five minutes, despite the fact that she had probably just run all the way across town. She ran into the hospital and dumped Anita on a stretcher, shouting angrily for a doctor.
"Now, I'll hold your tab for now, but if you don't make good on your offer, I'll use you as target practice!"
"You're a very angry woman, aren't you, Miss Revy?"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BITCH, OR I'LL GUT YOU WITH A RUSTY FUCKING SPORK!" Revy screamed as the doctors rushed Anita away to the delivery room.
Revy laughed as she left. 1,000 dollars for doing a little bit of running. That was the easiest damn paycheck she'd ever gotten, and it was all hers. She did all the work, so naturally, she didn't have to share the money. She could buy all the beer she wanted… Actually, Rock had suggested on multiple occasions… Almost to the point of nagging in her opinion, that she set some money aside for emergency situations.
Maybe she should consider setting half of it aside. 500 dollars would still be plenty of beer money. Or she could spend the 500 on bullets. But she got bullets from her normal jobs, and still had huge amounts of bullets back at the hotel. Revy sighed and sat down in the waiting room. She was sure that the blonde bitch would need help getting home as well, and she could charge her again for that help.
"Oh, Miss Revy, you're still here? I'm touched that you waited. That was really nice of you. Did you want to see my baby… Well, babies?" Anita asked, pulling aside a pink blanket and a blue blanket.
"This is Leopold, and this is Phoebe. They're beautiful, aren't they?" Anita asked, tears flooding her bright blue eyes. She was covered in sweat from the delivery, but the babies looked very healthy.
Revy looked down, initially in disgust at the two babies. But, something about them were disarming. They looked so innocent. Was it jealousy that she was feeling? That they had something that she had lost a long time ago? Was it empathy? What on earth would she need something as worthless as empathy for?"
"May I… H-hold them?" Revy asked, scowling, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.
Anita seemed hesitant for a moment.
"Well… A-as long as you promise not to hurt them…"
"You don't trust me… Smart girl. Well, let's get you home… Do you have anywhere set up for the brats?" Revy asked. Anita nodded.
"Yeah, I've been ready for two months. I couldn't risk the babies coming early and being unprepared… Maybe… I could pay you to help me out around the house a bit? I'm… I'm willing to pay well, Miss Revy…" Anita said nervously. Revy sighed.
"S-sure… I… I have to tell you, though… I'm not good with kids. I don't even like kids… But… I guess I can't refuse a paying job."
"Thank you, Revy. Maybe we could bring Rock into it. He seems like he'd be pretty good with children… I just have to ask that you don't smoke or drink in my house. I won't risk my babies' health."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Did you pay the damn doctors?"
"Y-yes, ma'am." Anita muttered, letting Revy wheel her out of the house, and directing her to her own apartment building.
