Ch 50
V 1.5
Beat the Devil
Everyone was dead.
Leon, the driver shot to pieces through the windshield of their truck.
Billy, the older man killed after holding off a horde of gunmen chasing after them, nearly a dozen of them dead at his feet. His pistol locked open and empty, his Ka-Bar jammed in the throat of the man who fatally wounded him, the old man having dragged him into the underworld with him.
Gaz, shot in the back as they were jumping from one rooftop to another across the narrow streets. His partner's eyes locking onto his as he spun around and fell from the roof he was jumping, the look of horror as he fell to his death.
Now it was him alone that was left to complete the mission. To fulfill his promise.
Over the sound of the rainstorm raging above him, he could hear the helicopter coming in. It was a sign of how important the targets were that they were risking sending in a helo into a town where every gunman's instinct was to fire on any aircraft. As it was, he could hear auto-weapon fire reaching up to the approaching bird and the suppressive fire coming down from it.
Jumping one more time, he abruptly came to a halt. The building he was on was on the edge of the park square, where the war surplus Huey was coming in for a landing. Dropping down to one knee, he unslung the Dragonov from his back and braced it on the roof wall on top of some gunnysacks he found strewn about.
Consciously going into the Soul of Ice, the rainwater and sweat pouring off him began to condense into frost along his back and arms. His sunglasses quickly fogged over and became useless; he tossed them to the side, focusing chi into his eyes, the telltale prickles of blood vessels breaking ignored as well as the tears of blood that flowed and froze on his face. His breathing slowed from near hyperventilation to a more controlled one breath per five seconds.
Peering into the rifle scope, careful not to let it steam up, he was able to see two SUVs roar into the square and come to a halt. One vehicle released half a dozen guards that quickly formed a perimeter around the other, the gunmen visibly looking for hostiles.
Settling in, he pulled away slightly from the scope to keep a full view of the area, and was able to see the approaching helicopter circle the square, trying to get the wind direction, but the gusting storm made that an almost impossible task. The pilots of the Huey were either crazy, very well paid, or probably both.
By now there was no weapons fire coming from the helo; apparently the denizens of this forsaken town knew better than to go up against heavy caliber auto-weapons. The aircraft swung around in a tight circle before slowly lowering to the ground, water spraying from the rain-soaked ground. The doors of the second SUV flew open and the occupants came tumbling out, slipping and sliding about on the muddy ground.
He immediately put his bloodstained eye to the scope of the rifle, almost unconsciously estimating wind and drop. As he was less than a hundred yards from the SUV, there would be very little ballistic drop, but the downward angle had to be considered, although not as much as the gusting wind. But he was confident he could make a head shot in these conditions, let alone a torso shot.
Watching as the two targets moved toward the helo, he snugged into his rifle. Time had slowed so that what was realistically five seconds time from when they moved from the SUV to under the turning propellers that would shield them from his fire, it now felt like he had half a minute to take the shot. And it would be only one shot; as soon as he fired every guard and the door gunners would fire at him.
Time stretched out even more; he focused on the dark haired man's face for only a moment before he switched to the primary target. This was the shot he had to take; this was how he would keep his promise.
Raindrops were slowly falling between him and the target, showing him how much the wind moving between them; his breathing slowing even more.
His finger tightened on the trigger; it was just before the point where the sear would release and the rifle would fire.
The crosshairs centered on the head and moved slightly over to account for wind; even if he got the one clean shot, he intended to empty the magazine of his semiautomatic rifle at the target to make sure.
The head turned toward him.
Blonde hair, sodden from the rain.
Light complexioned skin, made even more pale by her imprisonment.
Blue eyes, wide with panic and horror.
Blue eyes, fixing onto his beyond any possible doubt, recognizing him, what he was about to do.
Blue eyes forgiving him as his finger moved a fraction of an inch, breaking the shot, the bullet flying from the muzzle of his rifle toward the young girl before him.
A spray of red and grey splattering over the ground…
Keitaro Urashima bolted upright in his futon, almost panting in panic and horror. His head whipping back and forth, he saw that he was alone in his room at the Hinata-sou; the stormy grey sky visible outside his window, the fading sound of thunder still echoing.
Pulling his knees up so that he could wrap arms around his legs, Keitaro dropped his forehead against his knees, whispering to himself, "It didn't happen, it didn't happen," trying to convince himself. The gasping continued as tears streamed down his face for a long while, until he had no choice but to get up for the day.
Run Like The Wind
Running Track
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
January 18, late morning
While it was not always possible to make out what someone was saying at a distance, the emotion and intent was usually distinguishable. Never was this more so than when someone was making fun of another.
Sarah McDougal was currently standing on one leg, the other folded back against her thigh and being held by her hand as she stretched in preparation for the upcoming race. Around her were her friends from the Hinata-sou, but no one else. Everyone else in the Physical Education class was in their own little cliques as they made themselves ready to run, talking among themselves. Sensei Yamada was not a harsh taskmaster like some of the other teachers, but he did not tolerate loud behavior or roughhousing either. A former member of the JSDF Airborne Ranger regiment, his favorite punishments were either push-ups or a three kilometer cross-country run with him alongside to 'encourage' the miscreant. Since the student being punished got to select which exercise to do, the one time Sarah got busted for talking to Su in PE she chose running since she was fairly good at it. She did not have the endurance to do anything close to a marathon run but the pace Sensei Yamada set was such that she was able to complete it if not easily then without collapsing or hyperventilating at the end. The teacher gave her a surprised if respectful look at the end before release her to go clean up in the locker room. Even so Sarah made it a point to keep her voice down after that so she would not draw any more punishments. The amusing part of the whole affair had been Su hopping alongside a la Pepe LePew with her trademark grin since she had been punished as well.
Dropping her leg down to the ground, Sarah took a look around before raising the opposite one against her thigh. As expected, what she called 'the snooty girl clique' were bunched together talking and giggling. Led by Kimiko, a girl with her lightened hair in curls, they spent most of their time making catty remarks about their fellow students, and then sucking up to the teachers when the adults were around. They also were the ones that tended to push the school dress code as far as they could, usually by adding odd accessories to their clothes like baggy knee socks (something that Sarah was unable to understand – was that supposed to be sexy?), fancy designer bags, and cell phones with more bling than the nouveau riche in Beverly Hills. Odd and outrageous hair colors were something that the rules were enforced on however, even though there were girls and boys with hair colors that were not normally seen outside of Japan such as dark blue and green; it was something that native Japanese were reluctant to talk about. The gyaru girls were the ones that were really cracked down on if they bleached or dyed their hair too bright a blonde or yellow color. There really was not much that could be done when they used the freaky self-tanner that was sold here, since it would take a few weeks for the orange colored tan to fade away.
Lowering her leg, Sarah glanced around to make sure no one was behind her before she spread her feet shoulder width apart and bent forward and down, her palms touching the ground. The last thing she wanted to do was to give everyone a show of her pert (and now becoming curvy) ass up in the air. Thankfully girls did not have to wear the god-awful 'bloomer' swimsuit-type bottoms under the white t-shirts for PE, instead wearing loose mid-thigh trunks. That being said, she could still feel everyone's eyes on her as she stretched.
While she had been mostly kidding about her preconceptions of what Japanese school life would be life, some aspects of it turned out unfortunately to be true. No, there were not improbably busty girls having sex with their well-hung boyfriends in every closet and deserted stairwell, but the groping and skirt-flipping had been real. Pushing her way through the crowded hallways would usually result in someone trying to grab her butt or flip her skirt. At first Sarah could not react fast enough from holding her bag to grabbing the offender's hand, but finally she had figured out to carry her book bag across her chest to protect it and keep her hands low to her waist; once she had done that she was able to seize the next offender and 'accidently' trip and throw them into the hallway wall face first. It had taken only two more gropes to be dealt with that way for everyone to decide that trying to feel up the new blonde student was not worth the pain involved. As a matter of fact, the second guy to try to grope her had been the boyfriend of the head of the snooty clan, something that the other girl apparently blamed her for. If Sarah had not been ticked off by the attempt she would have been amused; Kimi-chan had the flattest ass in the class, and apparently Hayate had been looking for greener pastures.
"Ready to run, Sarah-kun?" Straightening up, the blonde American still had to look up at the girl talking to her. Aki Wakirihara was the tallest girl in their school even as a freshman, reaching an almost unheard height (for a Japanese girl of their age) of 180 cm (71 inches/5 ft 11 in) and busty enough to make Sarah feel inadequate, with shoulder length straight black hair in a hime cut. A member of the school indoor volleyball team she also did track, her long stride eating up the ground as she ran. However she did not like to push herself to break records, instead running fast enough to beat her opponents and not much more to her coach's despair. When asked about it, Aki would laugh and say she ran just to keep fit and to build stamina for her volleyball playing, especially beach volleyball, her true love. Aki's stated goal was to play in the Olympics, and after seeing her play against the boys team and winning, Sarah could believe it happening. Of course the fact that she looked like a swimsuit model and had in fact done some modeling for sports and gravure magazines did not hurt either.
"Today is the day that I'm going to beat your butt, you know that?" Sarah said with a grin. Aki was the only one of the popular girls that would talk to her and the Hinata girls, mostly due to the fact that she was popular enough on her own merits that she did not have suck up to the other girl cliques.
"If you want to get your hands on my butt you only have to ask, Sarah-kun," replied Aki with a smile of her own. The girl was flirty with both boys and girls, not making it a secret that she was attracted to both. Sarah had heard her say that while boys were good for strenuous activities, girls were better for cuddling. She did not know if the taller girl was genuinely coming on to her, but as long as she did not try to force anything physical she did not mind the banter. After spending a year in San Francisco with her uncle before joining Seta in Thailand, this kind of thing did not bother her. "This is a try-out for you, isn't it?"
"Yeah, if I get decent enough times on my runs I can join the track club." It was not that she wanted to run track, but her options for an extracurricular activity were rapidly dwindling toward zero. After having turned down Sensei Wada's 'invitation' to join the choral club, Sarah was finding it difficult to find another club to join. Either the club would be filled with the snooty bitches that looked at her like something that had been scraped off their shoe (cheerleading, cooking, fashion), or it was something that was too technical for her (astronomy, math, or a juku university study group). She had even looked into the previously mentioned book club, but it turned out it was more of a Japanese literature group that read classical and medieval works in the original kanji and prose, something that was beyond her current language skill level. Of course, the fact that Sensei Wada kept asking her if she had found an extracurricular activity yet was more than a little suspicious, if someone was of a paranoid bent.
The only clubs left were the sports clubs, and since she had never really dedicated herself to a particular sport, she was not good enough to pass the entry requirements except maybe for running. Sensei Yamada was keeping time for this 400 meter run, and a time ranging from a minute thirty seconds to a minute fifteen would get her into the track club. Sarah was sure she could meet that mark if she pushed herself, and given that she was the anchor (last/fastest) runner when the Hinata girls did the 400 meter relay and had in fact won the last couple of relay races made her feel cautiously optimistic about her chances.
"Hey Sarah-chan, keep an eye out when you're running. I'm getting a bad feeling here." The smile now absent from her face, Aki pointed with her chin toward the snooty girls, where Kimiko was now talking intently with another of her group, a reddish haired girl named Junko who was not looking happy at what she was hearing.
Sarah nodded. "I hear you." She was pretty sure that Kimiko and her little group were the ones responsible for the nasty pranks that had been aimed at her. The first had occurred the day after she had sung in Sensei Wada's class; having come in the next morning, Sarah had gone to her shoe locker to put on her school slippers only to find that someone had opened the unlocked cabinet and dumped urine on the cotton slippers. The American girl had been upset to begin with, but she had only gotten more pissed (pun certainly intended) when she heard the girls in the halls loudly whispering that the gaijin girl had sprayed her shoes using the infamous squat toilets. Sarah had to toss the slippers in the bathroom trash and rush to the school store to buy new ones, winding up late to homeroom. The Class Rep had been outraged to hear what had happened, but she still had to mark Sarah down as tardy. Since this was a first offense no detention was assigned by Sensei Ito, but that was the only slack she was getting. After that Sarah made it a point not to use the shoe locker, wrapping her shoes in a plastic bag and shoving them in her book bag, until one of girls in the class loudly complained of stinky shoes in the class room. The sensei present at the time told Sarah that the shoe lockers were there for a reason, and that she was not allowed to bring her outdoor shoes into class, even in a plastic bag. Sarah had gotten pissed again (figuratively, not literally) until she had a brainstorm and decided to pull out her secret weapon…Kaolla Su.
The next day Sarah had made a big show of putting her shoes in the locker, still wrapped in plastic, before walking away. It had only taken an hour of class before a loud 'pop' could be heard in the hallway, followed by someone screaming bloody murder. Sensei Ito directed Hikari to investigate, and after a few minutes the Class Rep returned, visibly trying not to smile. Apparently a female student had been going to retrieve something from her shoe locker and she had opened the wrong one.
The first sign that it was not her locker had been a large yellow plastic star with a smiley face sitting in front of the shoes within. When the girl had unadvisedly picked up the star to look at it, there had been a soft 'click' followed by the star rupturing with a loud 'pop', spraying the unfortunate girl with natto, a fermented gooey bean paste that was something of an acquired taste in Japan. The girl had gotten the highly pungent delicacy all over her face and uniform, prompting the screaming, and also caused her to spill a cup of smelly liquid all over herself as well.
After the girl had put in a complaint with the school administration about the gaijin girl booby trapping her locker, Sarah was called into the office and asked to explain herself. Blinking innocently, she stated that she had not set any booby traps in her locker, as several students had seen her put just her shoes in the locker before walking away and she had not left the classroom after that. Her shoes were still in the locker, although since they were still plastic wrapped they had not been slimed by the natto. The vice-principal had not been happy with this explanation, but when Sarah asked if the other girl was going to be questioned as to why she was carrying a cup of what suspiciously smelled like urine when she opened the 'wrong' locker, especially after the American girl had put in complaints about her shoe locker being tampered with and nothing had come of them, the balding man mumbled something before dismissing her. Schooling her expression until she left the office, Sarah did not relax until she got back to the classroom, where with everyone looking at her curiously she finally grinned widely before sitting down without saying a word.
After that no one attempted to mess with Sarah's stuff again. This may have had something to do with the miniature lock with blinking light securing her locker, one that looked like it would be used on luggage. However, this one had the three eye symbol of Molmol on it, something that everyone at school knew to give a wide berth. When Hikari told Sarah that they were not allowed to lock their lockers, the American girl simply shrugged and said it was not a lock, but simply an alarm with a miniaturized biometric scanner. Anyone coded into the device (like the four Hinata girls) could open it by simply pulling on it, but if an unauthorized person opened it a 100 decibel alarm would go off. Sarah then offered to scan Hikari into the device to reassure her that everything was kosher, but the pigtailed girl hastily declined. Sarah's schoolbag was relatively secure as well, since it hung on a hook from her desk, right next to the Class Rep's own desk, and no one was daring enough to try something that close to the eagle-eyed girl. The three eye Molmol tag charm hanging from the bag probably helped to frighten them off too, even though the tag was just that…although one with a GPS tracker chip in case some was crazy enough to take the bag.
"Runners! Take your positions!" called out Sensei Yamada. Moving over to the staggered starting line, Sarah and Aki took their assigned slots, with Aki standing in the number one slot as the fastest runner and Junko in number two. Sarah was third and Hikari was in number four.
"On your mark!" Hearing the command, the girls all dropped both hands and one knee to the track surface and placed their feet on the starting blocks. "Get set!" With that command the girls raise their heads and braced against the blocks, their knees coming off the ground. Instead of a "Go!" command the sensei gave a short blast on his whistle and the girls all pushed off and started sprinting down the track, with Sarah quickly transitioning into her running posture as she came up on the first turn, the sound of their classmates cheering audible behind them.
Given that this was a sprint race, the runners had to stay in their assigned lanes rather than form into a pack. Therefore Sarah was able to see the runners to both sides as long as they were even or ahead of her. In this case Aki was ahead of her by about half a meter, Junko was just ahead of her, and Hikari was coming in and out of her vision on her other side. Right now Sarah was at about three-quarters of her sprint speed, since she had to leave something in the tank for the final stretch.
Coming out of the final turn Sarah could see that Aki was now a meter ahead of her and Junko was now half a meter in front, and Hikari now completely out of her field of vision behind her. Seeing the finish line less than fifty meters away, and wanting to improve her time if not just win the race, the blonde decided to try something she had been thinking about.
A few days ago when Mutsumi had first arrived at the Hinata-sou the new girl had sung along with Gidget the giant tortoise and ki spheres had formed and been circling around the spectators. Some of those spheres had been absorbed by the people they touched, and Sarah had been hit with three of them, leaving her feeling oddly energized. Even now she could feel it buzzing slightly in her system and she was thinking that if she could somehow tap into it….
Suddenly everything seemed to go into slow-motion, even though Sarah could tell they were still running at full speed. Feeling the energy buzzing even more intently inside of her, she pushed some of it toward her legs and could feel herself speed up.
Hearing her heartbeat slowly pounding in her ears, Sarah could see herself passing even with Junko, the red headed girl now only half a step from the leading Aki. Pushing harder, the blond was starting to pass the red head, now about even with the tall black haired girl, Now the finish line was only ten meters away and Sarah was about to give the final full power sprint when she caught a glimpse of Junko's face out of the corner of her eye, an angry look of unhappiness present.
Five meters away from the finish line and running straight toward it, Sarah was totally unprepared for what happened next. Junko gave a hard push and went across into the other girl's lane, knocking into the blonde and staggering her, causing her to slam into Hikari beside her. The two girls then tumbled into the ground, a mix of limbs flailing around before Sarah's head slammed into the track surface.
Her head spinning, the sound of screams in the background, the last thing Sarah saw was the sneer on Kimiko's face before she blacked out.
Administration Offices
Kanazawa High School
January 18, early afternoon
Vice-principal Arata Watanabe was not having a good day, not that he had many of them in his work. Being the administrator in charge of student affairs and discipline meant he spent most of his time dealing with disrespectful rule-breaking children, which meant that he also had to deal with parents that either did not know how to deal with their delinquent kids or whose own tendencies contributed to their problems. What were worse were the parents that did not want to take responsibility for their children's actions. The only saving grace of this job was that since this school was not a private one he did not have to deal with parents that though they could buy and pay off everything their precious child did. This did not mean that there were parents that did not try to bully and shout their way through whatever had happened. But then there were days like this, days that were spoken of in whispers.
Watanabe had been sitting at his desk working at his computer doing the infernal paperwork that was now virtual when he had gotten the first call. There had been an incident at the running track and two students had been hurt. That should have been the end of it, with the students being taken to the school nurse to be examined and treated if necessary, but one of the students, the new blonde gaijin girl, had been knocked unconscious. There were at least a couple students claiming that the incident had been deliberate, that another student had caused to the girl to trip and fall. Since only students were making the claim, Watanabe was not going to punish another student on their word alone. After the students present moved the unconscious girl to the school clinic rather than wait for the nurse to arrive to examine her, he put the incident out of his mind and went back to working on the paperwork.
The second call had come from the school nurse, giving the results of her examination. One student had sustained scrapes and bruises but was otherwise fine except for some soreness. The gaijin student had sustained the same in addition to being unconscious from hitting her head against the track. Since the track surface was made of rubberized material there were no cuts or bruising visible nor bleeding from the nose or ears, so the nurse recommended that she be allowed to sleep it off, with her guardians being notified if she did not wake by the end of the school day.
It was almost the end of the day when Watanabe got the last call, from the secretary that all the senior administrators shared. All she said was that Sarah McDougal's guardian had showed up and wished to talk to him. The man gave a sigh as he saved his work on the computer and closed all the files; it never boded well when a parent or guardian came to talk to him, especially unsummoned. Putting on his suit coat and straightening his tie, he tried to look his officious best, since that usually calmed, or realistically speaking intimidated, the agitated parents that came to his office. Finally ready, he keyed the intercom and told his secretary to send the visitor in.
Staying seated behind his desk (not rising and bowing was another way to show his unwanted visitors their place in the pecking order), he watched as a young man stepped into the office and paused for a moment before giving a very slight bow, barely polite by any standard. Dressed in a dark blue suit coat over jeans and a dark green polo shirt, he looked as though he had barely graduated from high school. Watanabe was starting to think that this person was not the actual guardian and was attempting to try some trickery on McDougal's behalf, until he saw the dark eyes behind the younger man's squared off glasses. Those tired brown eyes were much older, and much colder than any person's should be. But that was nothing compared to the chill he felt run down his spine when his visitor spoke in an even tone of voice.
"Good day, my name is Keitaro Urashima. I am the legally appointed guardian of Sarah McDougal, and am authorized to act on the behalf of Noriyasu Seta, Sarah's adoptive father. Here are copies of the documents attesting to these facts." The young man reached into his coat and drew out several neatly folded papers which he laid on the vice-principal's desk. The man carefully read the documents, his mind racing. One of the things outsiders learned when they moved into or started working in Kanagawa was the name Urashima. It was said that anything that the Urashima clan did not own an interest in the prefecture, they were on a first name basis with the people involved. This was even more so with the matriarch of the clan; Hina Urashima was not a person one could easily say no to, plus she had the ability to talk anyone into anything, even something totally opposite of what they intended.
Watanabe had dealt with the elderly woman twice since she was the guardian and sponsor of Kaolla Su, the hyperactive gaijin islander girl. After talking with her with the intent of asking her to withdraw the girl, and failing that expelling her as a disruptive influence, he found himself agreeing with Hina to let the girl stay and paying for the damages one of her experiments had caused. The second time he spoke with her he was intent on expelling Su as a danger to the school (not necessarily the students, her inventions did not hurt anyone but they caused severe damage to the building) but instead the phone rang in his office just as Hina sat down, and Watanabe found himself speaking to the prefecture school board director, who flat out told him that since no one was being hurt to stop bothering the elderly woman and her ward with over-reactive actions. Slowly hanging up the phone and seeing the twinkle in the woman's eyes, he knew when he was outgunned. After that any incidents involving Kaolla Su would result simply in an itemized bill being sent to the Urashima clan, and after verification being promptly paid.
"This is also my ID to confirm my identity." The young man placed a prefecture ID on the desk for a moment, long enough for him to match the photo to his appearance, and for the administrator to see that the address given was for the Hinata Inn, which was enough to give any knowledgeable person pause. The Hinata-sou and the land it sat on was the largest privately-owned non-business property in Kanagawa Prefecture, which was held by the head of the clan…Hina Urashima. This meant that the man in front of him was close family to the woman who very probably had his own boss, and his boss's boss, on speed-dial.
Watanabe watched as the young man picked up his ID and the documents and tucked them away, then dropped into a semi-relaxed posture standing in front of his desk, his feet apart and his hands clasped in front of him. He quickly realized two things; he had failed to properly greet a person of his standing, let alone invite him to take a seat, and that he had seen only one other kind of person stand with his head tilted slightly in the way the young Urashima was now … yakuza.
Trying to swallow with a dry mouth, Watanabe finally was able to speak. "How may I help you today, Urashima-san?"
"First, you can tell me why I was not notified when my ward was injured and knocked unconscious. Is it not school policy to notify parents and guardians when that happens?" Urashima's voice was polite if anything but cool regardless.
"You should have been, Urashima-san. I will have a word with the school nurse regarding that." Watanabe was starting to sweat slightly.
"When I spoke with the nurse earlier and asked her the same question, I learned something interesting. Apparently the nurse called your office and spoke with you regarding the injuries, since it is also school policy that only the administrators can make those calls." Here Watanabe really did start sweating; his personal policy was to not call the parents unless the injuries were highly visible or severe since this allowed him to fudge the number of incidents and injuries he had to report to the school district. "Also, I learned that the young lady attending my ward is not a fully qualified nurse, only an aide that was supposed to be assisting a nurse in her duties, which might explain why she thinks it is acceptable procedure to 'sleep off' a possible concussion, and that it has been over six months since the nurse position became vacant, I also learned that it is a rule that she cannot call for outside medical assistance without your approval," The young man's dark eyes were boring into his own.
The sweat running down the administrator's back now felt like ice water. It was true that he had held off on hiring a new nurse, since the money used to pay her salary had been diverted to give raises to certain members of the staff (including himself and those who supported him). The rule about calling for help had been to keep the fact that they had no real nurse out of public view, since the paramedics and doctors that would have gotten involved would have realized the aide's skill level in short order. The woman could do the work, it was just that she learned on the job and was not officially certified.
"Of course, this is nothing compared to the fact that my ward's injuries are a result of deliberate actions from another student. What will you do about that?" The young man's last words caused him to jerk slightly as he had been furiously thinking of what he could do about his own culpability.
"We do not have any definitive proof that there was deliberate wrongdoing, Urashima-san." The nervous administrator could see the other man's eyes narrow.
"So the word of a teacher and a classroom representative is insufficient to prove wrongdoing?" Urashima's voice was becoming colder.
The older man cursed to himself. "While Sensei Yamada and Horaki-san did see Rin-san bump into McDougal-san, that is not a serious offense. At most it is bad sportsmanship, and she will be removed from the track club as a result." Watanabe was making this up on the fly, since he had not originally intended to punish the girl for knocking the gaijin girl out of the race.
"It is a serious offense when that bad sportsmanship results in injury, Watanabe-san." The younger man eyed the older man coldly. "Which brings up another issue. Sarah-kun has been the target of several mean-spirited pranks which have damaged her property, and no one has been punished for them. In fact, she was questioned – by you – as a result of a prank that went awry and caught the possible prankster, and yet you did not question the other girl. Why is that?"
Watanabe was starting to go pale. He did know the reason why he did not seriously question that particular clique of students, but it was not something he could say aloud. "There was no proof she was taking part of those pranks."
"So the fact that she was going into another student's shoe locker without permission while holding a cup full of urine is not proof?" By this point the room felt as though the air conditioning was turned on full blast.
"No, that is not proof. It could have been a set up, or it could part of the prank set up to target McDougal-san. Because of several previous cases of accusations by students that later turned out to be false that we changed policy to where it is only if we have witness testimony from an adult that someone can be punished." That was true enough, but no one would testify against those girls, given their connections.
Urashima kept staring at him for an uncomfortably long time before he finally spoke again. "I am going to talk with the school district director about these incidents. You may want decide what you want to say when he then speaks with you. Right now I am going to see if Sarah-kun has woken up. If she has I'll be taking her home." The younger man paused for a moment. "One more thing. Apparently Sensei Wada has been pressuring Sarah-kun to join the choral club. That stops now. Sarah-kun will have a week to find a club that will take her, if not she will be put on independent study for the extracurricular requirement, supervised by myself and her father. Since Seta-sensei is a professor at Todai, he is sufficiently qualified. If there is nothing else?" Pausing again, he looked at the frozen man. "Then have a good day." Giving a very shallow bow, Urashima turned without waiting for a response and walked out of the office.
School Infirmary
Kanazawa High School
January 18, mid afternoon
(after end of school day)
Keitaro walked through the door with a frown on his face. It had not been so long ago that he had walked similar halls as a student, but it seemed that things had changed since then, and not for the better. The boys in the hallways he had walked through had their gakuran tunics completely unbuttoned to show their t-shirts underneath and the girls had their skirts shortened, wore thigh-high stockings or loose socks, or wore a shortened untucked blouse under their jumper… or any combination of the above, including all three. It made Sarah's Britney Spears outfit from the first day of school look innocent by comparison. Granted, Keitaro had attended a prestigious preparatory school instead of a regular public high school, but this was ridiculous. Perhaps he would have another topic to talk to the school district director about. This did not include the rowdy behavior he was seeing in the halls, including possible bullying behavior that stopped as soon as he drew near since he was radiating a low level chi projection that would give anyone pause.
Walking over to the one occupied bed, Keitaro looked at the sleeping blonde for a long moment before switching his gaze to the person sitting in a chair next the bed. "Any change, Haru-chan?"
"Not yet." Haruka Urashima had been the person to bring Keitaro to the school once he had gotten the call. Seeing the thunderous look on her cousin's face when he walked into her tea shop, she immediately followed Keitaro outside. When he had tersely told her that Nyamo called to tell him that Sarah had been knocked unconscious during a school race and that he needed a fast ride to the high school, she took off her apron and tossed it at a startled Kitsune, yelled at Yoko that she was in charge, grabbed her biker jacket and once she had put it on pulled on a helmet as well. Handing a spare helmet to Keitaro she swung her leg over her bike and started it; once she felt him get on the bike behind her and wrap his arms around her she pulled out, just barely keeping the tires from squealing.
Upon arriving at the school they immediately went to the infirmary and spoke with the nurse on duty, who did not impress them with her medical judgment. A possible head injury and her solution was 'sleep it off'? After questioning her as to her skills and training, they understood why she thought that way; her skill level was closer to an EMT rather than a paramedic or a registered nurse which the situation called for. Also hearing the rules she operated under did not make them happy either.
After speaking with Nyamo, Shinobu and Su and then talking to the other injured girl who had just been treated and about to be released, the Urashima get a better idea of what had happened beside what he had been told on the phone. Since it was now after school hours Keitaro directed the Hinata girls to go to club or go home, and while Haruka had stayed with Sarah Keitaro went to speak to Sensei Yamada and then the school administration. The expression on his face had not improved any upon his return.
"You know, I'm seriously considering yanking Sarah-kun and the other girls from this place," Keitaro said while looking down contemplatively at the sleeping girl.
Haruka looked up sharply at those words. "Why would you say that?"
"This place is barely controlled bedlam, Haru-chan. The students are damn near beating each other up in the halls, the teachers and class reps are almost powerless, and the administration is either looking the other way, dirty, or both." Keitaro had taken off his glasses and was rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"This is a public school, it's where the kids that can't score high enough or pay enough to go to the better schools wind up. It's not the best place, but it can't be that bad, can it?" Haruka asked.
"Yeah, it is. It's not as bad as in the movies, but think of what happens on the trains, add some slamming around, and that is I what saw walking here right now." Keitaro was looking steadily at her until she glanced away. "Plus I have some more news, and it's not that good. I talked to Sensei Yamada, the track coach, and I think I know what's wrong with Sarah-kun."
"Oh?" Haruka and Keitaro had examined Sarah when they had first arrived and except for some abrasions from her fall, there were no visible injuries, especially to her head. As far as they could tell she was simply in a deep exhausted sleep.
"Just before she fell, Sarah-kun was sprinting toward the finish line and all of a sudden her speed increased massively. If it had not for her being shoved, she would have passed the two girls in front of her and won the race," Keitaro explained. "Sensei Yamada thinks that she tapped into her chi and used it to boost her speed."
"Oh crap," Haruka muttered. Tapping to a person's chi reserves without proper preparation or training could be incredibly dangerous. Unlike what happened when a person got an adrenaline boost, the body's safeguards could be bypassed and damage could occur like torn muscles and tendons, broken bones, and even causing exhaustion, coma, and in some cases death. It was worse when a person had small reserves, and most untrained people did unless they underwent the torturous training to build them up.
"But now that we know that…" Keitaro stepped up next to the bed and held his flattened hand about 10 centimeters over Sarah's forehead. After a few moments he moved his hand so it was over the teen's heart, and then moved so his hand was over her stomach at about her navel before pulling away. "Guess I was right. Her chi reserves are just above life support level. If we leave her like this she'll be unconscious for almost a week."
"Are you going to leave it like that?" asked Haruka. There was two ways to deal with someone with chi exhaustion; leaving them to sleep it off and rebuild their reserves naturally, or give them what was in effect a jump start, which had some risks to it. Looking at her nephew's face, she correctly deduced what he was thinking. "She already tapped her chi once, now that she broke through that wall she can do it again, and if she does without the training…"
"Yeah, I know." The expression on his face showed that Keitaro was not happy with that statement. "That means that we have to start training her in Urashima-ryu and she's a little too old for chi training."
"We're past that point now, Keitaro-kun. The genie's out of the bottle." At the very least they would have to have a serious talk with the young teen, and she was the one that had to make the final decision.
Keitaro nodded. He then looked around for a few moments to make sure that they not being watched – what he was about to do could be misinterpreted very easily. Raising his open hand up, only now with his palm facing upwards, the young man concentrated and after a moment a blue sphere of energy about the size of a tennis ball formed, floating a centimeter or so above his hand. As Haruka watched, the sphere grew in size to where it was almost the size of a volleyball before to her surprise it suddenly compressed back down to the size of a tennis ball again, glowing brighter and with a loud hum. That was nothing compared to her shock as he then tossed the sphere into the air where it popped loudly, sounding like a book slamming down on a table. Just as she was about ask why he had done that, there were two soft pafs like a light bulb popping. Seeing her eyes widen, Keitaro silently mouthed the word surveillance and she abruptly understood. The infirmary had been bugged with microphones or cameras or even both, and the energy released by the ki sphere had fried the delicate electronics involved.
Looking down at Sarah, Keitaro produced another sphere, this one the size of a softball. Moving quickly, he pressed the sphere against her neck, where her throat met her chest. He really should have done it against her heart, but there was no way he was going to press his hand against her chest between her breasts unless he absolutely had to. Pulling his hand away, the two adults watched for a few moments until the young teen began to stir.
"Uhh… what happened? Where am I?" Sarah was drowsy for a moment before her eyes suddenly opened wide and she tried to jackknife into a sitting position. Haruka blocked her with a hand on her shoulder and the teen's blue eyes immediate swiveled toward the woman before fixing onto Keitaro beside her.
"Calm down, everything is fine. You fell during your race and got knocked out. You don't have any serious injuries, just exhaustion." Keitaro had seen the terror in Sarah's eyes in that moment where she was groggy and unsure of her location; it was too much of a reminder of what she gone through in Thailand.
"Why do I feel like I'm hung over again, it's not like I was drinking. My head is pounding and I feel like the room is spinning." Sarah started to rub her eyes, trying to cover her momentary panic.
"Sarah-chan, did you try something new during your race? The coach said you had a massive speed increase in the last part of the race." Keitaro asked.
"Yeah, I've been feeling something buzzing in my chest the last few days, been feeling kinda hyper too. I tried to use it during the race, and I think it worked. And what have I said about calling me 'chan', dork?" Sarah scowled up at her guardian.
"Sorry about that, gaki." Given that the teen kept calling him 'dork', even as a semi-affectionate nickname, Keitaro had taken to using Seta's nickname for his adoptive daughter, gaki, the Japanese word for brat. Sarah did not complain about the name, since she realized that it was only fair for him to do so. Even so, Sarah and Keitaro made sure they used those nicknames only when they were by themselves or the Hinata-sou residents. "You don't really know what you did?"
Sarah sniffed in disdain. "I made myself run faster, what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that you tapped into your chi to do so," Keitaro replied with a serious look on his face. "You don't have the reserves or the training to do that, you put yourself at risk and that is why you were unconscious for almost three hours. You were just above life support levels there, brat."
Paling slightly Sarah asked, "So that means that I can't do that anymore?" Now that she was thinking about it, she could remember how she had felt during the final sprint; it was unlike anything she had ever felt, and she wanted to do so again, but not at the risk of her health or life.
"I said you don't have the reserves or the training, but we can help you with that. You are going to have to work your butt off, but as you know there are benefits to it," stated Keitaro.
"Yeah," Sarah replied thoughtfully. "Does that mean that I will wind up being able to do the stuff that I've seen you do?"
Keitaro gave an inward wince. Everything that Sarah had seen him do with his chi and ki abilities had been in battle in Roanapur. "The things you've seen me do are a result of what we call ki warrior's training; you have to been trained almost from the time you learn to walk to do it. I started at age five, and that was considered late." He saw her eyes go wide. "But what we can teach you can make you stronger and faster, more so than most people are. Which brings up another point. Sensei Yamada realized that you had tapped into your chi during that race, which means that he can't allow you to join the track club."
"What?! Why not?!" Sarah looked upset.
Haruka finally spoke up. "There are some unwritten but very real rules about people with chi abilities competing in athletics in Japan. The short version is that they can't, it's too much of an advantage against people who can't do it. If chi users openly competed, it would turn into an arms race that make doping look like child's play, plus then there is the chance that non-chi users would be hurt, especially in the contact sports. Also, most chi and ki users want to keep a low profile, they would get too much negative attention if they used their abilities openly. Especially from the government."
"The government? Why would they care?" Sarah looked puzzled.
"You don't think the government, and not just ours, would be interested in people with those abilities? The military is always looking for people like that, and there are other agencies that make use of them." Keitaro was looking more tired than he was earlier. Sarah started to look fearful again, but her guardian kept speaking. "There is also another unwritten rule about that. If people with those abilities want to volunteer to join government service they can, but they cannot be compelled. Otherwise people will start getting upset, and they won't like it if they are upset." Keitaro smiled faintly. "That applies to the private sector as well."
"Who are these people?" Sarah was starting to look fascinated by the topic.
Hesitating for a moment, Keitaro spoke, "Let's just say that there is a community of like-minded people and they are for the most part self-policing, both within and without. They don't get the government involved as long as the general public isn't affected, and the government is fine with that, for the most part. But if one side or the other start to push the line…" here he gave a shrug, "it usually gets resolved in short order."
"Oh." Sarah could read between the lines. On one hand this was exciting stuff she was hearing about – she had seen Keitaro using his skills and abilities in Roanapur, and what he was saying in not so many words was that she had the capability to learn some of those skills herself. On the other hand, what he had said about governments looking for people like that… scary. "So what now?"
"Now we get you home and let you rest. You are probably going to need a couple days before you are feeling anywhere near normal. After that we'll get you started on your training." Keitaro saw Sarah's eyes light up but kept speaking. "And no, you are not going to see much improvement at first, you need to improve your reserves and your core. You need to increase your capacity to about four times what you have now before we start what you would consider the fun stuff." Sarah pouted at that statement. "Something else, why didn't you tell me you were having trouble at school? I had to hear it from Nyamo-chan when she called me today and only because you got knocked out on the track."
Blue eyes snapped onto brown eyes for a long moment before the girl looked away. "What can you do? Kids will be jerks, and they aren't anything that I haven't seen or gone through before. The teachers are mostly a-holes who won't take a student's word for anything, so you just deal on your own. This happens in America, I don't think things will be different in Japan."
"You're wrong in that there is one thing different here, Sarah-chan. You are now a part of our family," Keitaro jerked his head toward Haruka, "and we take care of our own."
"Dork." The soft smile on Sarah's face belied her response.
"Gaki." Keitaro returned the smile. "Some good news, that teacher of yours is going to stop bugging you about joining the choral club. You have a week to find a club to join, otherwise you will be put in independent extracurricular study." Seeing the hope spring up in her face he continued speaking. "If you do wind up in independent study you are probably going to do a lot of Japanese literature book reports."
Sarah deflated slightly. "Oh joy, reading all sorts of fancy language. You Japanese sure speak funny, and it was worse back then."
"Back when we were speaking funny, us Japanese were writing poetry and plays which last to this day. Your people were living in caves, painting yourselves blue and charging your enemies naked and screaming while waving crude iron swords." Keitaro smirked at the look on Sarah's face. "While I was studying for the Todai exam I had to read Beowulf in the original Olde English."
"Yeah, yeah. I saw the movie version with subtitles," Sarah grumbled before looking around and then peeked under the light blanket draped over her before throwing it off, showing she was still wearing her PE uniform. "Let's blow this popsicle stand, I'm hungry enough to eat a bear."
"Haruka-chan will get a wheelchair for you, I'll call for a taxi. I sent the girls home when I got here, almost had to force them. Only way I was able to do it was to tell Shinobu-chan that you would be hungry after all this, she probably has a feast all set up by now." Keitaro watched as Sarah turned to sit on the edge of the bed. "Nyamo-chan and Su-chan got your clothes out of your gym locker, Haruka-chan has them over there," he gestured to the side with his chin. "I'll be outside, let me know when you are ready." Turning, he walked out the door, pulling out his mobile phone as he did so.
A/N – As you all know, the bad news was that it's been almost three months since I posted last. The good news is that it's almost a 10k word update. Other bad news is that I've had to go to the ER a couple times for an injury involving heavy bleeding (the second time was to stitch the SOB shut after it opened in the middle of the night). Other good news is that my promotion at work was made permanent. In everything there must be balance, I suppose.
This chapter shows some of the things that Keitaro brought home with him from Roanapur, and it's for a promise that he did not have to carry out. But it's the fact that he made the promise and was willing to carry it out that makes him feel such guilt; that and the fact that he is now living with the person he made the promise about. What makes this worse is that Keitaro does not have anyone to talk to about this, since he wants and needs to keep what he did overseas secret, otherwise it will risk everyone's safety. The problem is if left unresolved Keitaro's guilt may eat him up alive. So I have to eventually have him talk to someone, but I have to decide if it's going to be an already introduced story character, a new crossover character, or an OC. And for those wondering, Leon and Billy are two of the people that Keitaro and Gaz worked with in Roanapur and have not been officially introduced yet. As to them dying, let's just say events did not take place like that in the story's reality.
A new character I introduced in this chapter is Aki Wakirihari, the girl running track with Sarah. She is an original character I am borrowing from my beta reader AZ's story, "Those Who Hunt…Eva?", an Evangelion/Those Who Hunt Elves crossover over at MediaMiner. She was a really fun girl that hung out with one of the crossover characters, and I wanted her to do the same with Sarah. She is taking the role I had originally planned for Hikari, but alas our pig-tailed class rep is the kind of person that has to be dragged kicking and screaming into having fun. Aki is not that type of person, and she can give Su a run for her money in the fun-having department. Don't worry about Hikari though, she's going to fall into the straight man/gal slot in the story and still be showing up. BTW, Aki really did look like I described her in AZ's story, so she is not a Motoko-expy, who will reappear in the story…eventually…before we go back to Roanapur.
For those that are curious, I am borrowing the ki compression technique from a Ranma crossover story here at FF Net, "Desperately Seeking Ranma" by PixelWriter1 (highly recommended!). The premise is that if you compress something with high energy potential, it will increase the speed and force of the energy release (I'm probably explaining it wrong). For example, if you were to take a firecracker, cut it open and pour the powder out and set a lit match to it, it would burn slowly but otherwise cause little damage. But if you were to set a match to the fuse of an intact similar firecracker with the powder still compressed inside, the powder would all burn and release it's energy all at once, resulting in a bang. So in the story the same can be done with ki spheres. Another idea that was used in the chapter is that a sufficient release of energy has the same effects as an EMP burst, depending on the amount of power used. There are practical limits, but it has its uses, like bug killing. *g*
Winner of the Most Unusual Place Reading My Story for the last chapter is Palau (in the South Pacific). Runner Up is the Seychelles (in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa).
Many thanks to my beta readers AZ MII and PCH, and my unofficial beta reader WalkerofDarkness for helping correct those errors that keep slipping through.
As of 0000 PDT 02May16 this story has 285K words, 703K Views, 799 Reviews, 61 C2 Listings, 1266 Favorites, and 1175 Story Alerts. Thanks to everyone again for reading this story. *thumbs up*