A Different Path Taken
Oo000ooo000oO
Chapter Thirteen
Oo000ooo000oO
Keitaro was doing the finishing work in Suu's room when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, letting him know that he had gotten a notification on something. Putting down his hammer, he took it out and thumbed the activation button.
It was from the AP wire service. Unlocking his phone, he tapped it and it came up.
"Breaking: Kingdom of Molmol announces that assassins took advantage of the typhoon hitting them in attempt on royal family. Princess Koalla Suu and her guards were killed when-"
Keitaro let out a heavy sigh and pulled out his cigarettes. "Fuck. I was hoping you'd beat the odds." he said aloud, in case her shade was listening.
Plopping backwards into a sitting position, he shook out a cigarette and lit up before continuing reading.
"-assassins, using the anomalous typhoon striking the Kingdom to make an attempt on the royal family. Crown Prince Lambda Lu released a brief statement, calling it "vile and disgusting, the act of madmen and lunatics."
This report will be updated as further information becomes available."
Exhaling a blue cloud of smoke, Keitaro lowered his phone and contemplated what he had read. The Kingdom was coming as close as they could to calling out the Guild without violating the unofficial detente that existed between them and the various governments of the world.
Skeeter, the guy who was his team's tech specialist and Guild member, had explained it to him how it worked: The governments of the world let the hero's and Global Justice stop the Guild member's zany, world conquering, schemes, and in exchange, the Guild policed it's own and made sure that it's members didn't do anything genocidal.
Which was why they had been after Suu: The Guild didn't want anyone operating independent of them for the precedent that would set, and what it would do the detente. If that went bye-bye, well, then, things could get very ugly, very fast.
Of more pressing interest to Keitaro was how the situation at Hinata House was going to play out when they learned of Suu's death. Not well, by his estimate if the resident's reactions had been to his sending her back home were anything to go by.
"Nothing's ever easy..." Keitaro sighed.
He took another drag on his cigarette and watched as the cloud of smoke he exhaled wafted up to the ceiling.
"Think I'll finish having a smoke, then get back to work." he thought to himself. "Might as well take advantage of the calm before the storm."
Oo000ooo000oO
"Keitaro."
He looked up when he heard Kitsune call his name and saw that she was leaning against the doorframe, beer in hand, eyes red and puffy, dressed in the clothes she was wearing yesterday.
"Kitsune." he responded. "You hear the news?" he ventured, figuring that she had probably gotten a similar update.
"Y-yeah." she said with a hitch in her voice as she wiped a tear from her eye.
"You're not doing so good." Keitaro pointed out the obvious as he put down his tools and got to his feet.
Kitsune levered herself away from the doorframe as she gave him a hurt and angry look. "How the hell can you be?" she demanded.
Going by her tone, Keitaro figured that she meant that he was being nonchalant about the death of one of his tenants.
"I'm not." he said.
"It sure doesn't look like it to me." Kitsune's voice shook as she leveled her accusation at him.
"Working keeps my mind off it." Keitaro responded. "If I think about it, I'll start trying to figure out how I could have did things differently and then I'll get pissed off at myself and start beating myself up."
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And the last thing this place needs is for me to go to pieces."
Kitsune stared at him for a long moment, defiant in her anger and pain... and then she ran out of steam and sagged back against the doorframe.
"Fuck." she swore. "I want to be angry at you, but I know you had a reason to do what you did."
Keitaro nodded in understanding. "It was a shitty situation, no matter how you looked at it. I couldn't let her stay here, because the man the Guild sent after her would have splattered everyone who got in his way. She couldn't run, because the Guild would have caught up with her eventually.
So I sent her to where she would have the best chance to survive."
Kitsune considered her beer can for a moment. "It doesn't matter how good the odds are, you can still roll snake eyes."
"Pretty much." Keitaro agreed. "And she was a friend of yours, so I don't blame you for taking it badly."
"If there was ever a reason to get fucking drunk, this is one." Kitsune said before draining her can. She looked at it and sighed. "Well, that's it for this one. Time to get a refill."
"I'll come with you." Keitaro said as she pushed off the doorframe.
"You want a drink too?" she asked.
"Not right now." Keitaro answered with a shake of his head. "I just want to make sure you make it back to your room without hurting yourself."
"Thanks." Kitsune said.
She waited for Keitaro to step up next to her, then they headed off to her room with her half leaning on him.
Oo000ooo000oO
Naru and Motoko got home at roughly the same Keitaro was wrapping up work for the day. He was putting his tools away and happened to glance up as Naru passed by on the way to her room. She didn't say anything to him, she just kept her head down and walked right past the door. Keitaro shrugged and went back to what he was doing.
Motoko followed by a couple of minutes later as Keitaro was closing up his tool box. She, however, saw him and stopped.
"Urashima." she said to get his attention.
"Motoko." Keitaro answered.
"I assume you've heard the news?" Motoko asked, referring to Suu.
"Yeah." Keitaro answered. "You gonna lecture me?"
Motoko was silent for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. "Before the incident with my sister, I would be challenging you to a duel for your cowardice." she began.
"And now?"
"And now, I know that you are a man of violence, who understands his craft very well." she continued. "And that is why you take the safety of your tenets very seriously. Which is why you sent Suu away. You could not guarantee her safety and ours."
"That's it, pretty much." Keitaro agreed.
"And I am glad I know that now." Motoko said. "Given my skills, I have to be careful on how I use them, lest I do something rash."
"Same here." Keitaro agreed. "Though, off topic, could you do something for me?"
"What would that be, Urashima?" asked Motoko.
Keitaro sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Shinobu's gonna be a wreck. Could you and Naru look after her? I'm terrible at this sort of thing, and Kitsune is-"
"Sleeping off a drunk?" Motoko suggested.
"Pretty much, yeah." Keitaro confirmed. "She's not taking it well either."
"I don't think any of us are, Urashima." Motoko pointed out.
"Ain't that the truth."
Oo000ooo000oO
Shinobu did indeed turn out to be a wreck, staying home from school for the rest of the week. Motoko and Naru took turns consoling and looking after the devastated girl. Keitaro, for his part, just steered clear of her and kept himself busy finishing up the repairs to Suu's old room and various other things that cropped up around the property.
Monday morning, after everyone had headed off to the various places they needed to be for the day, his cell phone rang. Taking it out, he saw that it was his Aunt calling.
"Hello, Haruka. What's up?" he greeted her.
"I just had an American stop by, looking for you." Haruka told him.
Keitaro felt his guts knot up like a tightly twisted rope. "What'd they look like?" he asked.
"Female, red hair, dressed in a suit." Haruka told him. "Said she worked for Global Justice."
Keitaro felt the tension ease a couple of turns. Global Justice wasn't very likely to try and kill him, which was why he was worried when his Aunt said that there was an American looking for him. He'd thought the Guild was trying to tie up a loose end.
"Did she say why she was looking for me?" he asked.
"Not really. Just it was part of an ongoing investigation. I'd bet my next pack of cigarettes that she's here because of what's happened with Suu." Haruka informed him.
"I would be very surprised if she wasn't." was Keitaro's response. "Thanks for the heads-up."
"You're welcome." Haruka said before hanging up.
Putting his phone away, Keitaro headed for the front of the building to wait. He didn't have to wait long. He heard the front door open and someone slip their shoes off, then the interior door opened and the Global Justice agent that Haruka warned him about stepped in.
She spotted him as soon as she came in. "H-hello. I-I'm Agent Possible from Global Justice." she said, her Japanese careful and halting. "I'm-" she paused as she tried to think of the correct word.
"I'm fluent in English.." Keitaro said, using her pause to jump in with American style English.
Agent Possible looked surprised. "Oh." she said. "I apologize for being so terrible with Japanese-"
"It's okay." Keitaro said with a wave of his hand. "Thank you for trying to speak in my native language."
"You're welcome." Possible returned his thanks. "You would be Keitaro Urashima?"
Keitaro nodded. "May I ask why you're here, Agent Possible?" he asked in return.
Agent Possible sighed and clasped her hands in front of her. "Mr Urashima, is there a place that we can sit down and talk?" she asked.
"Yeah." Keitaro said, motioning for her to follow him. "Over here."
He led her over to the couches that were in the foyer- there was a name for it, but for the life of him, Keitaro couldn't remember what it was called- and they sat down facing each other.
"Okay." Possible said once they were settled. "You wanted to know why I was here?"
"Yes." Keitaro answered.
Possible nodded once and continued. "First, before I begin, I know you are what could be called "in the know", so to speak."
"Pardon?" Keitaro asked, deciding to keep playing stupid.
"You're aware of stuff that most people don't see, Mr Urashima." Possible told him. "When you left Japan to work for Shinji Akari, the Cataclysm Division for your prefecture sent us your file."
Keitaro chuckled in amusement and leaned back in his seat. "So we can drop the act?" he asked. "This little kabuki act we've been playing?" he added, waving his hand back ad forth to indicate the both of them.
"Yes." Possible answered. "So, you know why I'm here?"
"Oh yeah." Keitaro answered. "I'm almost certain you're here because of Suu."
Possible nodded once in the affirmative.
"So, what exactly happened?" Keitaro asked. "The news reports have been saying pretty much the same thing, that a couple of assassins snuck in under the cover of a typhoon and that's it. What are they leaving out? There's been no additional details left out."
Possible frowned and leaned back in her seat for a moment as she considered what he asked. "A lot of the details are classified." she began. "So what I can tell you is fairly limited."
"I understand." Keitaro told her. "We all have rules that we have to operate under. What can you tell me?"
"Well, first of all, this was not an assassination op. This was a snatch job gone wrong." Possible continued. "I say that because I know the two who were sent after her, and they would not have gone to this much trouble to just kill her. The typhoon, the ddos on Molmol's communications infrastructure- no, if they- well, the big one. He's the Guild member- were going to do that, it would have been much more precise."
Keitaro listened to what she said and compared it to what he knew of his boss's friends, and how they operated.
"Okay, that makes sense." he said. "So why did the Kingdom of Molmol call you guys in?"
"They didn't." Possible told him. "We're investigating what the Guild's role in all of this was."
"And then what?" Keitaro asked.
Possible was silent for a moment before she answered. "The Guild is an organization that spans dimensions, Mr Urashima. There's very little we can do to stop them or bring them in to face punishment.
We're very lucky in that as a whole, the Guild itself does very little. It has no overarching goal, no grand plan. About the only thing it does is police it's members- as much as you can police an organization that is composed of mentally unbalanced, extremely intelligent people with access to beyond cutting edge technology."
"From what I gathered from Suu and my friend, that was their main interest in her. They just wanted her to join them." Keitaro pointed out.
Possible nodded. "That fits with them. That is one of the things that they are very particular about. If you want to call yourself a mad scientist, then you have to join the Guild."
"She didn't seem to take them very seriously." Keitaro said. "Even after I explained to her what the danger was."
"The head of her security detail said basically the same thing." Possible told him. "She seemed to think it was going to be a battle of mad scientists, not- well, him."
Keitaro noted the emphasis she placed on the last part of her sentence. "Just how much do know of Stivers?" he asked.
"Too much." Possible answered. "Way too much."
"You guys gonna try and take him in?"
Possible gave a cynical laugh in reply. "We'd love to. But he – and his partner – both have leverage over the UN. What it is, I don't know. It's beyond my clearance. So there's damn little we can do about them."
Keitaro wasn't surprised by that. Working in Africa, he had seen just how corrupt and incompetent the UN was, and from what he knew of B3S, whatever their leverage was, it was fucking huge."What about Molmol?"
Possible pinched the bridge of her nose. "They're... looking into their options." she said in a frustrated tone.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you're not too thrilled about them doing that." Keitaro pointed out.
"No, I'm not." Possible agreed. "The Guild's members do a lot of zany, wacky, take over the world type stuff. But generally, nobody gets hurt, and people like me stop them.
And like I said before, the Guild's primary focus is itself, so it, as an organization, doesn't do much. If Molmol decides to go after them, well, they will see it as a threat and react accordingly."
"From what I know of them, that sounds like an accurate assessment." Keitaro agreed. "But, getting back on track here, what else would you like to know about Suu and her interactions with the Guild?"
Possible thought for a moment and consulted her phone. "How long were they in contact with her?" she asked.
"Since before I came here." Keitaro answered. "That's about all I know."
Possible nodded slightly as she took note of that information. "You mentioned earlier that she didn't take them seriously?"
"She thought that they were a bunch of stuffy old men." explained Keitaro. "That's probably why she ignored them for so long."
"That is the impression I got from talking with the head of her security detail." Kim said in agreement. "Is there anything else you can tell me about her interactions with the Guild?"
Keitaro took a few moments to think over everything he had seen and heard about Suu and the Guild. "No, not really." he said. "Sorry."
Possible put her phone away and stood up. "No need to apologize, Mr Urashima. This was far from an unproductive use of my time."
"Glad to hear it." Keitaro said as he stood up.
Possible reached into the lapels of her blazer and produced a business card. "Before I go, here's my card in case you need to get a hold of me."
"Thank you." Keitaro said and pocketed the card. "You need me to show you out?"
Possible shook her head in the negative. "No, I think I can find the way. Thank you, Mr Urashima, and have a pleasant day."
"You too, Agent Possible."
Oo000ooo000oO
Keitaro was outside, working on raking the grounds when Haruka stopped by after closing up the Cat Cafe.
"Haruka." he said when he heard her approach.
"Keitaro." she said, responding to her acknowledgment of her presence.
"You here about that Global Justice agent?" he asked.
"Yeah." his aunt answered, the way she said it implying the question was she here about Suu?
Keitaro stopped what he was doing and leaned on his rake. "You were right, she was here about Suu." he told her.
She nodded thoughtfully. "I figured as much. What was her questioning like?"
Keitaro thought for a moment before answering. "I think she was just here to confirm some stuff she already knew." he said. "She seemed more concerned about the Guild and it's members than what happened to Suu."
"That makes sense, now that you mention it." Haruka said. "Supervillians and the like seem to be Global Justice's main focus."
"Yeah. Which is they go to great lengths to keep the situation from escalating, which is why I think she was focusing on the Guild." Keitaro added, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "In any case, it's gonna be years before anyone does something, so I'm going to focus on more immediate things that I can do something about."
"And Suu?" asked Haruka. "What about what happened to her?"
Keitaro sighed and stretched. "I'm not happy about what happened to her, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it. Going after the guy who did it is a suicide mission, not to mention the fact that if I did that, it would put everyone else in danger. You, Grandma, the girls who live here, my family, everyone."
Haruka nodded knowingly. "That is the downside of being a hero. It's a short career, the pay is lousy, and the retirement plans are terrible."
"Exactly." Keitaro agreed, knowing better than to ask how his aunt came to learn that bit of knowledge.
Haruka was silent for a few moments after he said that. Keitaro waited for her to say something for a few moments, then he started raking again.
"It's too quiet." she said after a few more moments.
"Huh?" Keitaro asked, not pausing with what he was doing.
"I said it's too quiet around here- without Suu, I mean." Haruka elaborated.
Keitaro paused in his raking to ponder what his aunt had said, and realized that she was right. The Inn was too quiet without Suu running around.
"You're right." he said. "She might have been a property manager's nightmare on two legs, but she did add something to this place."
Haruka chuckled at Keitaro's description of Suu. "You're never going to let that go, are you?" she asked.
Keitaro scowled at his aunt. "I had to cut out a shit-ton of rotted wood and tatami, then section in new." he growled. "I think I have a right to gripe about it." he added with a huff.
As he did that there was a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see that Mitsumi, Naru, and Motoko were walking towards where he and Haruka were standing.
"Well, you do have a point there, Keitaro." Haruka said.
"Of course I do." Keitaro said, balancing the rake over his shoulder. "Hold on a sec. I think they want to talk to me."
Haruka looked over and saw the trio approaching where she and Keitaro were standing. "Oh, okay."
Putting the rake over his shoulder, Keitaro turned to face the girls as they came up. "Hey, there." he said in greeting.
"Mr. Urashima." Mutsumi said, returning his greeting with a bow. "I was going to let you know that I'm going to be going home to visit my parents at the end of the month, and Naru and Motoko we going to be joining me."
"Oh." Keitaro said, slightly surprised. "May I ask why?"
"We just need to get out of here to clear our heads." Naru told him. "With Suu...gone, we're both reminded of her constantly around here, and we thought that a change of scenery would do us good."
"Oh, okay." Keitaro said, nodding in understanding. "I don't blame ya. You guys have went through a lot-"
Keitaro paused when he saw the look of surprise on Naru's face.
"You-you hated her..." Naru stammered out.
Keitaro sighed in frustration at having to deal with this again and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"No, I hated having to fix the damage she caused." he corrected her. "If I wasn't the guy who had to manage this place, I'm sure I would have had a much better relationship with her. And while I can be kind of an asshole sometimes, I do understand what you guys are going through.
Suu was your friend, and she was taken from you in a very horrible and abrupt way. That would mess anyone up, so I expect that you and Motoko need to get away for a bit to clear your heads, okay?"
Naru worked her jaw up and down a few times as she tried to think of a response. Mutsumi, either by accident or design, stepped in at that moment and kept things from getting more awkward.
"Well, you probably have a lot of things to do, and we have to plan for the trip, so we'll be going!" she said cheerfully. "Try not to work too hard!"
After a goodbye bow, she turned and herded Naru and Motoko off to the Inn. Keitaro and Haruka watched them go, and when they were out sight he sighed and shook his head.
"Poor girl." he said.
Haruka arched an eyebrow and gave her nephew a sidelong look. "Did I just hear you express sympathy for Naru Narusawa, or am I hearing things?"
Keitaro chuckled and looked at his aunt. "You're not hearing things." he confirmed.
Haruka crossed her arms and considered her nephew. "So what brought this on?" she asked.
Keitaro glanced at the Inn for a moment, then shook out a cigarette and lit up before answering. "This whole mess with Suu has ripped away a big chunk of her innocence, and that's something I wouldn't wish on anyone."
Haruka pondered what he said for a moment. "She's never struck me as the innocent type." she said.
"Haruka, think about what life has been for her up to this point. She's been a tsundere, able to fly off the handle without provocation or repercussion. Suu was able to be carefree and do stuff willy nilly with her mad scientist schtick.
Then I come along, and I don't take her shit, but she just keeps on doing what she's doing because, hey consequences don't happen to her. Tsuriko pops up, and even she and Motoko were facing off with each other with cold steel in their hands, and I put a stop to it by leveling a loaded weapon at Tsuriko's head and told her point blank that I was willing to paste her brains all over the baths, Naru didn't want to understand just how dangerous things can be.
After that, the Guild issues their ultimatum to Suu, and I send her back home. Naru doesn't like it, but I manage to get it through her head it's the safest course of action, but somehow manages to turn "best chance of survival" to "will be perfectly safe" in her head."
He paused to take a drag off his cigarette before continuing.
"And then Suu ends up dead, and she realizes that I wasn't fucking around, and just how oblivious she was to the real dangers of the world is now right there in her face. That's what I mean by her being innocent. She was innocent of just how mortal she is."
Haruka listened to her nephews mini rant and nodded in understanding at the end of it. "Ah, now I see where you're coming from." she said.
"Okay." Keitaro said, flicking the ash off the end of cigarette. "There anything else?"
Haruka shook her head. "No." she said. "That was it. You can get back to your raking."
"Thanks."
Oo000ooo000oO
"I am practically a ghost." Tannata thought as she walked back from the mess hall to her quarters. "I wish that was actually the case. It would be more merciful than...this."
As she walked down the halls towards the base housing, people would see her and their gaze would slide away to focus on something else. Conversations would die off as she came near, as if she exuded the aura of a spirit. No one wanted to acknowledge her, for to do that would mean admitting that a member of one of the most elite units in the Kingdom had failed.
That was the worst part of it for her. She had been chosen to lead the team tasked with ensuring the safety of one of the royal family, the people chosen by the gods to lead the people of Molmol, and she had failed. her team was dead, their charge was dead, and she was still alive.
She should have died with her team. Tannata knew that. That way, it could be said that she had did her utmost to fufill her duty as one of Suu's bodyguards. But since she was still alive, there would always be the lingering question of had she did enough?
When she got to the door to her quarters, she slid the key into the lock and opened the door. Stepping inside, Tannata closed the door behind her and leaned up against it. Closing her eyes, she cleared her mind and centered herself.
"I did not die with my team." she told herself, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly "But I will make sure that their deaths were not in vain."
With two quick strides Tannata crossed over to where her desk was and sat down. Bringing her computer out of sleep mode, she opened her writing program and navigated through the drop down menu to the file titled "resignation".
Cracking her knuckles, she began to type.
Oo000ooo000oO
End.
(Author's note: Man, that one took a long time to get out. Sorry about that.)