Ch 73 V1.1
Kobayashi Import and Export,
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture,
Metro Tokyo, Japan
early March, Friday early evening
Sarah carefully and deliberately relaxed her arms once the bike came to a complete halt. Even though she had experience with horseback riding from her life growing up on her grandfather's ranch near Lake Tahoe, it was nothing like traveling on a motorcycle at high speed on the highway, the bike tilting to almost 45 degrees when they went around corners, the young blond teen hanging on for dear life to the older woman who was driving. Of course, this was nothing compared to the older teen that had been tearing around corners like she was a pro moto racer.
Kanako had pulled off her helmet as she impatiently waited for them. She had been reluctantly pacing Haruka as they sped from the Hinata-sou, since her cousin had not told her where they were headed. But once the teen had figured it out, she had gunned the engine and took off ahead of them so fast that Haruka was barely able to keep up, requiring the racing turns and acceleration that did not help with Sarah's nerves. As it turned out, the pair pulled up only fifteen seconds after Kanako came to a halt.
Once Haruka and Sarah stopped beside her, Kanako swung her leg over and off the motorcycle. Hooking her helmet to the rear of the bike, she unzipped her leather jacket and glanced over as Sarah slid off the back of the bike and Haruka dismounted as well.
"So you think he's with Katsuo?" Kanako's voice sounded disinterested, but the look in her eyes belied that.
"Yeah, even behind that medical mask his face and hair are pretty distinctive. Plus Keitaro-kun has been hanging around him doing… stuff." Haruka's voice paused for a moment, her eyes flicking toward Sarah who glanced back at her but stayed quiet. "Even if he wasn't there he probably knows what's up, or at least where he might be now. You know Kana-chan, I'm surprised you haven't gone charging in yet."
"It would probably get messy, especially if I have to do it alone. Better to have you along." Kanako nodded toward the front door of the storefront they were facing. The medium detached two story building with frosted glass windows looked fairly innocuous… except for the two plus-sized men in suits standing on either side of the front door. They were not the size of sumo wrestlers, but they came close. "I suppose you want to try it your way first?"
"It won't hurt." Haruka paused for a moment. "At least very much I hope." Glancing over toward Sarah she flicked her eyes and the younger teen understood and nodded at the unspoken command – stay put.
Hanging her helmet on her bike and unzipping her own jacket, Haruka took a deep breath and then casually walked up to the front door, coming to a halt when neither of the men made a motion to open it. Seeing that the men were both staring ahead without making a sound she spoke up. "Haruka Urashima to see Katsuo Kobayashi."
The man on the right finally spoke, his voice sounding like he smoked a couple packs a day and gargled with gravel. "Office closed, no visitors."
Haruka blinked, then spoke again. "Haruka Urashima to see Katsuo Kobayashi." This time she made sure to emphasize her family name. "He'll see me."
This time the man's head slowly turned toward her like an automation, even though the expression on his face stayed the same. "No visitors."
"Fine." Haruka turned around and walked back to Kanako and Sarah, digging out her pack of cigarettes and lighting one as she reached them. "They say the office is closed and they aren't accepting visitors," she said after taking a deep drag off the smoke. The older teen just gave her a look, and the younger teen raised her eyebrows in question.
"Yeah there're people in there, look at all the bikes and cars." Haruka nodded toward the ricer bikes and fancy tuner cars parked nearby on the street, with no others of the same type any distance away from the building.
"So what will you do now?" Sarah was the one to speak up. "Call someone?"
"Don't have the dipshit's number, otherwise I would have already." As Sarah silently blinked at her in puzzlement at the name, Haruka took another deep drag on her smoke, burning it down almost to the filter and turned toward Kanako. "Looks like we go with Plan B."
The smile that formed on Kanako's face caused a chill to go down Sarah's spine. It reminded the blonde girl of why she did not spar with her, even with Keitaro's supervision. The older teen girl turned and starting to walk toward the door, only to pause when Haruka spoke up again. "Kana-chan, no permanent damage." The smile on her face faded a little, but she nodded and started walking toward the two men at the door. Haruka flicked her cigarette butt away and after glancing toward the young blonde and jerking her head in an indication to follow her, started walking after her cousin a few steps behind, Sarah slowly bringing up the rear.
Katsuo watched as Keitaro was finishing off his third large container of yakisoba, wielding his chopsticks skillfully as he scraped the last of the noodles together before lifting them to his mouth and chewing. Given how much food he had eaten and how quickly one would expect for his clothes to be speckled with food debris, but the younger man looked as neat and clean as he had when he had started, even with his dress coat and jacket off and his collar and tie loosened. As a matter of fact he looked rather well put together for someone who had been in a life-or-death fight earlier that day.
Once they had ducked into the alley to get away from the scene of the gang gunfight in Chiba, Keitaro had moved quickly toward a fire escape on the side of one of the buildings. Katsuo had rapidly caught up, seeing that his kobun had somehow jumped and pulled himself up to the bottom level landing on the second story and had pried up the window next to the steel framework. Keitaro linked his hands in front of him and with barely a pause Katsuo put his foot into the stirrup that was formed and was almost vertically thrown upwards, barely catching the hands of his underling, who pulled him onto the landing. He was still almost beaten by Keitaro, who had done an upwards jump from a standing start and pulled himself onto the landing.
After closing the window and hearing the shouting of the police officers as they quickly searched the alley but did not think of looking upwards, the trio made their way to a stairwell and moved upwards, eventually arriving at the roof access. Quickly forcing the lock after checking to make sure they were not setting off an alarm, the men peered around to get their bearings, careful to make sure they were not silhouetted along the roof edge, to see what building they were on and where it was located on the streets below.
Getting their bearings, they next did something that rattled Katsuo's nerves more than being in a middle of a gunfight: roof-hopping. After figuring out where they were, and more importantly where their driver with the car was via burner phone text messaging, they determined that they need to get to the other side of the street block in order to reach the street they were aiming for, not to mention getting past the police cordon on ground level.
Standing on the edge of the roof and staring at the other rooftop about five meters away, Katsuo was about to politely suggest they come up with another idea when abruptly he was grabbed by the belt and jacket collar and hurled across empty space to the other rooftop. He was barely able to roll over after almost falling onto his face when suddenly the kobun did an abrupt crash landing next to him, then Keitaro lightly dropped down next to them and without pause walked toward the other side of the roof. Barely able to keep cursing out his friend he followed after him, the kobun looking even less enthused than he was.
Two more roof hops (or throws to be more accurate) they made it to the correct building. Peering over the edge revealed their car waiting on the street below; making their way to the ground floor they casually walked out the front door after they removed their face masks and Keitaro's scarf to change their appearance, tucking them out of sight. Reaching the idling car the kobun without hesitation opened the back passenger door and Keitaro and Katsuo slid in before the younger man closed the door and jumped into the front seat, the car smoothly merging into traffic and driving off.
"Jesus Christ, Keitaro!" Katsuo finally lost control of his temper, the stress and the adrenaline of the situation winding down. "What the fuck?!"
"I didn't know you were Christian, Katsuo-kun," Keitaro glanced at his companion, some amusement in his voice.
"I'm not, it just sounds better to curse in English." The young oyabun said in exasperation. "What the hell were you thinking back there!?"
"I think you have to be more specific, I've done various things today." The small smile on Keitaro's face under his sunglasses ticked for a moment.
"Oh, walking into a gunfight, using ki techniques in public, fighting using ki techniques, possibly blowing cover in public, throwing us off rooftops, giving a fucking TV interview!? Katuso's voice was getting higher and higher as he spoke. "The fucking Council is going to crucify you!" Meanwhile, the driver and kobun in the front seat were studiously looking forward out the front windshield and pretending not to hear what was said.
"Well, in no particular order I used non-visible chi and ki techniques, I was protecting innocents and ourselves from an explosion and gunfire, and I gave that TV interview because somebody shouted out my name in public in front of a reporter and cameraman." The smile on Keitaro's face had disappeared, while a flush formed on Katsuo's. "Thankfully it was my cover name, because if it had been my real family name there really would be hell to pay, and not just with the Council." The red in Katsuo's face slowly drained into paleness; if he had used the Urashima name out loud that would have brought them into public view and Hina Urashima would not be happy. "As for throwing you off rooftops we did not have time to argue, so I just did it. Do you have any better idea what we could have done different?" Reluctantly Katsuo shook his head.
Keitaro sighed and took off his dark glasses, rubbing his eyes and the bridge of his nose. "I don't like doing things like this, it just brings attention that I don't want. But there was a little girl crying for help in a car that was about to catch fire. I don't know about you, but I am not about to stand around and not do anything." Taking his hand away from his eyes and looking at him, Katsuo was shocked to see that Keitaro's eyes were badly bloodshot.
"Keitaro-kun, your eyes…" It almost looked like the younger man had eight-ball hemorrhages, where internal ocular bleeding from trauma caused the whites of a person's eyes to turn dark red or black.
"It's just chi system strain, that wind shield during the propane explosion really took a lot out of me." Keitaro's explanation did not really make Katsuo feel better. "Rest and some eye drops will clear it up." The younger man extended his arms and made some hands signs, which resulted in a pop that was more felt than heard, and the easing of a feeling of pressure on them that was not noticeable until it was gone, his chi seals fully engaged once more. "That reminds me, I need to recharge my reserves, I used too much today."
"What do you need?" Katsuo's mood flipped into professional mode, now that he knew his friend needed assistance.
"Lots of high energy food, and a place I can eat and change clothes," replied Keitaro. "I can't go home looking like this."
"Well, tell me where we can get you some other clothes and I'll arrange for it to be picked up and dropped off at my office." Katsuo pulled out his burner mobile phone and slipped the battery into place; Keitaro's paranoia about electronic bugging and tracking had rubbed off on him. "What kind of food you want?"
"Noodle dishes with lots of meat and ginger." Keitaro put his dark glasses on and leaned back in his seat. "And as much royal jelly as you can get."
Katsuo paused for a second before nodding; royal jelly honey had a reputation among martial artists of helping restore chi reserves. Keying the phone on, he dialed his office and when the kobun on desk duty answered started giving out orders.
An hour later Katsuo was sitting at his conference table watching Keitaro finishing up the food that had been delivered to his office. He had thought that three large orders of yakisoba might be too much, but instead it was almost not enough. This was in addition to the two quarts of sports drink the younger man had used to wash down the food. Finally he sighed and placed the wooden chopsticks across the top of the empty waxed paper box and pushed it slightly away from himself. Immediately one of the kobun standing against the wall stepped forward and collected all the food containers and trash and took it away. Another young soldier quickly wiped down the table before the first one returned with a bottle of clear liquor and two shot glasses and placed it between the two men before moving back against the wall.
"I would have thought you would prefer heated sake." Keitaro was looking at the bottle in some amusement.
"That's for formal or business occasions, off the clock I drink other stuff." Katsuo reached over and poured two shots, then pushed one of the glasses toward his friend, then picked his own up and held it up in mid-air to give a toast.
"I really shouldn't be drinking right now…" After a moment Keitaro picked up his own glass. "To better times than these." Katsuo repeated the toast and the two men downed the drink in one go, Keitaro not wincing to Katsuo's surprise.
"This is a little stronger than normal shochu, isn't it?" Keitaro's jaw was moving slightly, trying to work out the taste that lingered in his mouth.
"Triple distilled, it's about ninety proof," replied Katsuo, nonplussed. He did not think that Keitaro was much of a drinker.
"Not too bad. Doesn't really hold a candle to some of the stuff I've drank before." The corner of Keitaro's mouth twitched. "Once I was challenged to a drinking contest in Roanapur by a female gunfighter, between the two of us we drank a full bottle of Captain Jack's one hundred proof rum." Seeing Katsuo's eyes widen he continued, not seeing the eyes of the kobun widen as well. "I matched her drink for drink, and when we finished the bottle she was still calling me a pussy. So I had the bartender make up a special drink, three shots for each of us, and she finally passed out after the second drink. I lucked out, if I hadn't been cheating like crazy I would have lost before her."
"How did you cheat?" If Keitaro had been drinking shots of one hundred proof rum, roughly fifty percent alcohol per volume, he should have passed out by the third shot. "And what was the second drink you had made?" asked Katsuo curiously as he poured a second round of drinks.
"Remember, I can burn off alcohol as a chi fighter," Keitaro stated as Katsuo nodded. "And the second drink was based off a video game, it looked like glowing green reactor fuel. They called it ryncol." This time Keitaro did smile, which disturbed Katsuo for some reason. "It hits like ground glass, and can probably set off radiological alarms. Rebecca went face first into the bar top as a result."
Taking another sip from the glass, Keitaro put the glass down before reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a folded slip of paper. Looking at it his eyebrow could be seen twitching up for a moment before he put it down on the table and picked up the glass from the table, finishing the liquor it contained.
"What's with the note?" asked Katsuo curiously.
"Remember that female medic, the one that helped the little girl's mom? She slipped it to me when she shook my hand." Seeing his compatriot's eyebrows go up, Keitaro passed it over to him. Opening it, he saw written in hurried hiragana If you have skills in airbending, can you help me with my firebending? Please call me – Maki and a phone number.
"Good gods man, you dragged me into a shootout and an explosion and you have girls passing you their phone number at the same time?!" Katsuo tossed down the rest of his shot after passing the paper back. "Fuck my life."
"It looks like she might be a chi user, but untrained if she is using those terms." Keitaro's lips were twitching in a partial smile as he put the note back in his pocket. "You have to admit, being a firebender as a firefighter would be useful."
"So you are going to call her, right? She was pretty cute." More than cute; even under the baggy Fire Service coveralls the young female medic looked to be both muscular and curvy, with longish black hair pulled back and violet colored eyes.
"I guess I can meet up with her, see what she has to say." Keitaro looked down at his glass as Katsuo poured him another shot when suddenly there was a loud crash downstairs, then the sound of shouting and running feet. As the oyabun stiffened in his seat and the kobun moved toward a closet Keitaro closed his eyes in dismay and raised his hand. "Hold up." As the kobun paused in pulling out boken he fired off two chi pings, one right after the other. To their surprise they felt two chi pings in response, even as the shouting and the crashing made its way to the second floor. "Stand down, they're friendly. Katsuo-kun, you might want to call off your men."
As Katsuo stood and started to walk to the sliding doors leading from the room, the doors abruptly were shattered as a kobun came flying into the room, crashing onto the floor in a heap and staying motionless. Stalking in behind him was a young woman in a leather jacket with long black hair and a gleam in her eyes, a gleam that got even brighter when they locked onto a certain man.
"Onii-chan!" As the girl darted toward her brother, almost knocking over Katsuo in her haste, Keitaro raised his hand again.
"Stop!" As the girl came to a quivering halt a short distance from him Keitaro continued to speak. "Kanako-chan, you are being very rude, crashing into someone's business, attacking their men, and almost knocking him over!" She glanced at Katsuo, who smiled weakly at her. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"It's all their fault?" As everyone's eyes widened Kanako continued. "The guards downstairs wouldn't let us in or pass a message, we knew this place was where you most likely were, and you weren't answering your damn phone," she practically snarled.
"And because you were anxious you decided to assault the headquarters of a family allied with our own and hurt gods know how many people when you could have just waited?" Keitaro raised an eyebrow as he spoke, causing Kanako to clench her fists in anger.
"Well, if someone hadn't been dodging gunfire and fighting a swordsman on live national TV, we wouldn't have been so anxious now would we?" An older woman with short dark hair also wearing a leather jacket and jeans strolled into the room, a younger blonde girl cautiously following closely behind her.
Keitaro sighed. "Sorry Kana-chan, Haru-chan. I turn off my mobile when I'm working." He stood up from the table and started to walk toward his family members, only for Kanako to slam into him, her hands roaming over his back and sides. He almost yanked himself back, only to realize that she was checking him for injuries.
"It didn't help that you had been slow walking away from a burning truck that blew up and fireballed you!" Haruka was now the one to walk up to Keitaro's side and hugged him as well, her arms wrapping around him and his sister. Sarah stood off to the side, looking like she wanted to join in on the group hug but unable to due to lack of room.
Katsuo was watching as all this happened, and seeing that it was getting to be personal family business, jerked his head to the side, motioning for his kobun to leave the room. They immediately did so, grabbing the unconscious man under his arms and dragging him on the floor along with them. Walking up to the broken doors, he sighed before motioning for one of his men to come close. Whispering orders to fix any broken items and to check and treat any of the men that were injured; he turned back in time to see Haruka step away from Keitaro with Kanako still hanging on.
"What the hell where you thinking?!" Haruka was now the one to restart the scolding. "You were dodging fucking gunfire!" It was a sign of how upset the woman was that she actually started cursing.
"So I should not have dodged, I should have let it hit me?" Keitaro raised an eyebrow again as he forced his arms away from his body, incidentally breaking Kanako's hold on him and stepping back. As the younger woman made to move toward him again, he glanced back at her and with a single unhappy look halted her.
"It DID fucking hit you, dumbass." Everyone turned to look at Sarah, who was holding Keitaro's dress coat, which had been folded and placed over a chair off to the side. Holding it up with the sunlit window behind it, holes could be seen in the black garment.
Seeing that the two women were winding up to start yelling again, Keitaro took a deep breath before speaking. Looking directly at Sarah he stated in a completely flat voice, "You just crossed the line, deshi. Watch your language." The blonde girl froze with a sick look on her face. Turning to look at his two suddenly motionless relatives he continued speaking. "There is only one person in our family that can decide if what I did was wrong, and the last time it happened she gave me the red belt." Keitaro's voice had risen only slightly, but it almost felt as though he was shouting, causing everyone to step back. Looking from an ashen Kanako to a frowning Haruka he continued. "Two of the people here have no right to yell at me risking my life to save innocents, since I did the same for them. It was my duty to my honor, my family and the Council to intercede and I did." Seeing Kanako open her mouth to speak he ran right over her. "My duty, my choice, MINE! Deal with it!" Her mouth snapped shut with an audible click of teeth.
Looking over at Haruka he kept speaking. "And if you wanted to be in the position to judge if I had done something wrong you should not have passed on being the clan heir." It was now the older woman's turn to close her mouth. "Does anyone else have something they want to say?" His eyes went over all three silent females before stopping on the only other male in the room, who looked as though he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Walking over to the table he dropped into his chair, taking off his sunglasses and tossing them onto the surface before him, muttering "I'm too young for this crap," as he rubbed his eyes.
Looking back at them Keitaro continued speaking. "I am used to operating on my own, under comms blackout, and yes I did risk my life today, because there was a little girl screaming for her mother next to a burning truck! Are you going to say that I should have done nothing?!" Looking at all the people present he saw they were all various shades of pale and silent. "Afterwards my immediate priority was to get myself and my people the hell out of the danger zone and make sure everything was alright before even thinking of going or calling home, because the last thing I want is to drag trouble behind me!" Sarah almost choked at the 'danger zone' line, but managed to keep a straight face as Keitaro looked back at her. "I'll see about setting up a number that you can call and I can monitor if you need to contact me about something important, but that does not mean I'm going to call back immediately. Understood?" He asked sternly, and the two female Urashima nodded agreement, abet reluctantly. Granny Hina had essentially the same comms set-up, for all the good it did.
"I know I said you had the Chow Yung Fat look, that doesn't mean you have to try and actively pull it off. You're not freaking Superman." The tone of Sarah's voice was apologetic; the three women somehow managed not to visibly react at the sight of Keitaro's bloodshot eyes.
"Superman is too flashy and obvious, I prefer Batman myself." The expression on Keitaro's face softened, showing that he had accepted her erstwhile apology.
"Yeah, I can see it now. Keitaro Urashima, the Dork Knight. Chick magnet ronin millionaire by day, brooding crime fighter by night." Apparently Sarah was not too remorseful, given her words. What was funny was the looks on everyone's faces as she spoke; Kanako appeared annoyed, Haruka looked amused, and Katsuo was flat out grinning and trying not to laugh. Before anyone said anything there was a tap on the door frame, and they all turned to see a kobun standing there holding a medium sized brown paper bag. He silently handed it over to Katsuo before bowing and leaving.
"First, I need to apologize, Keitaro-kun, Haruka-san, Kanako-san." Katsuo surprised everyone as he gave a deep bow to his friend. "I gave my kobun orders that we were not to be disturbed and to admit no visitors, they should have known that the Urashima were an exception to that." Keitaro gave a head bow from his seated position in acknowledgment, and after he glanced at his sister, she gave a reluctant partial bow in return, matching the more correct one given by Haruka at the same time. "And it looks like we got the last part of your food order here." Reaching into the bag the young oyabun pulled out a quart sized glass jar filled with what looked to be thick amber liquid, the label on the jar with Chinese ideograms instead of Japanese. He handed the jar along with a plastic spoon over to Keitaro, who did not look too enthused as he opened the container. Sticking in the spoon into the gel-like liquid, he scooped out a large dollop and into his mouth, chewing slowly.
"What the hell Keitaro-san, is that honey? Why are you eating it like that?" Sarah looked fascinated as she watched her guardian scoop out another spoonful and eat it, no enjoyment on his face. To her knowledge he did not have a sweet-tooth; in fact he even drank coffee without sugar.
"I burned through a lot of my chi reserves today, this is one of the ways to help replenish it," Keitaro answered. "Honey is super-saturated in sugars and carbs, plus this is royal jelly honey, which when bee larva eat a lot of it helps them become queen bees." Sarah opened her mouth to say something snarky, when she caught the glance her teacher directed toward her, as well as the glare shot at her from Kanako, and decided that discretion was the smarter part of valor and said nothing. "I take it you all saw me on TV today? I know about the interview, what else was there?"
"Yeah." The way the blonde girl pronounced the word it sound more like 'duh'. "Damn near everything, live as it happened, especially the interview afterward. Even an hour after it happened the news stations were still covering it, complete with color commentary." Seeing the incomprehension on his face she continued. "It looked like something out of an action movie, especially when that truck exploded and the fireball went right over you guys. How the hell did you not get burned to a crisp?" Sarah's voice rose slightly at the question.
"Wind shield, I had released the first set of my seals, it almost wasn't enough." Seeing everyone's eyes widen he explained further. "I could have popped the second set of seals, but that would have been much more visible and harder to explain."
"Why harder to explain?" Sarah looked curious, and Katsuo looked interested as well.
"I had released the first set of seals with hand signs, the proper way. Forcing my way through the second set of seals without hand signs would have probably blown off the sleeves of my shirt and coat. Plus my chi usage would have been more visible," Keitaro explained before eating another spoonful of honey.
"How much more visible?" It was Katsuo who asked this question, dread in his eyes.
"The wind swirling around us would have been glowing. Ki spheres probably would have formed." Keitaro reached across the table and grabbed the bottle of shochu and his glass before downing half of the glass. Haruka walked over to the table and without a word filled the glass from the bottle and shot it down herself before refilling it and placing it in front of her cousin.
"You have three sets of seals, right?" Sarah asked. "If you released the third set you would have gone all Super Saiyan on their butts?" She had spend enough time in Japan now that she was familiar with most of the more famous and infamous anime characters, and remembering a video clip of Son Goku powering up her mind automatically went to that bloody day in Roanapur, when Keitaro had been slowly walking away from the truck with her and Gaz toward the screaming mob blocking them, an orange glow forming around his body. In fact, it was more like when Naruto Uzumaki had first gone into Four Tails mode.
"I don't ever want to do that again, Sarah-kun." As Keitaro sipped from his glass the word again was bouncing around the adults' minds. Now it was Katsuo's turn to pick up his own glass and down it before refilling it again.
"So what do we do now?" Sarah's question caused everyone to look at her oddly. "I take it you're not going home to the Hinata dressed like that."
"I'm waiting for one of Katsuo's men to bring over my clothes from where I left them. I was going to take the tram home after that," explained Keitaro before taking another spoonful of honey.
"Like hell, you can ride home with me." Kanako instantly spoke up, causing everyone to glance at her, before her brother nodded silently as he kept chewing.
"I hope we can make it home in time for dinner, I haven't eaten since before I went to the mall." Sarah causally looked down at her wristwatch before focusing on it and then cursing. As everyone looked at her in surprise, the blonde girl took off her watch and looked at it closely, pulling out the crown on the side and shaking and fiddling with it before just snapping the crown back into place and glaring at it.
"Problem, Sarah-kun?" By this point Keitaro was finished with his jar of honey, so he recapped it and placed it on the table.
"Yeah, my watch finally crapped out. It looks like it stopped about a half an hour ago." Sarah raised her watch so everyone could see it, revealing a large crack across the face. "I think it was on that bump Haruka-san hit when were going over the trolley tracks." The damn bike had actually gone airborne at that point, causing the younger girl to cling to the woman like a koala.
"That was because I didn't want Kanako-chan to get too far ahead of me." Haruka did not look too embarrassed at that statement, even with the look Keitaro gave her.
"What kind of watch is that, Sarah-san?" To everyone's surprise, it was Katsuo who asked the question.
"Casio Duro, Bill Gates' wristwatch!" The blonde girl smirked at the looks on their faces. "Apparently the richest guy in the world is a real cheapskate, no one would blink twice at him wearing a watch that costs as much as a house, instead he wears a fifty dollar analog with crappy lume that fades in five minutes. It's also apparently NOT shockproof either." Sarah shook the watch one more time before folding it and tucking it in her pants pocket. "I can get by with my ECM band," she raised her right arm to show the polymer fitness band on her wrist, "or my cell phone, but I prefer a real watch, don't have to key it on to check the time."
"Maybe I can make a deal for you, Sarah-san." Katsuo smiled at the girl, who returned it uncertainly. That was nothing compared to the looks that he got from the three Urashima, which he saw out of the corner of his eye and hurried to explain. "I deal with luxury watches in my business, and some of the ones we get are either not fancy enough or too visibly worn to resell easily. I'll show you what I have, you pick something out, and you, Keitaro-kun and I will settle on a price." Seeing the look the trio was still giving him he continued speaking, more toward his friend than toward the girl. "I'm not going to scam you, Keitaro-kun and Haruka-chan would take turns kicking my ass."
"Haruka-chan?" Sarah looked a little amused at the honorific, while the older woman looked annoyed. Keitaro's lips were twitching in a restrained smile though.
"Ours is a forbidden love, one that we cannot speak of in public." The young man gave puppy dog eyes at the woman in question, who snorted and looked away. "Hold on a moment, I'll show you what you can choose from." Whispering to the kobun at the door, it did not take more than a couple of minutes for Katsuo to have a leather case in his hands, which he placed on the table to open and extract a half-dozen watches. Sarah and Keitaro looked over the timepieces before she finally reached out and picked up an analog watch with a black face, dull silvery case, and grey nylon strap. There was something off with it, which it took a moment to locate – the winding stem crown and crown guards were on the left side of the case. Looking closely at the face, she could see the letters CWC and L, each circled on the top half, and the word Quartz on the bottom, along with luminescent rotating bezel, markers and hands. Looking over at Katsuo she raised an eyebrow in a silent question.
"That's a military dive watch, looks to be used." Sarah could see faint scuff marks on the case and bezel as he continued speaking. "Quartz movement, lume on everything, accurate as heck. Problem is that the crown is on the left side instead of the right and the strap bars are non-removable, so you can only use pass-thru bands. It's built to take a pounding though, so it should take whatever you can throw at it short of beating it against a concrete wall."
"How much?" Sarah didn't have a reason per se to not trust him, but Katsuo had a faint used car salesman vibe to him, not to mention that he was apparently yakuza, even though he was Keitaro's friend.
"Given you're Keitaro-kun's student, and you made me laugh back there with the Dork Knight crack… How about ten thousand yen?" Sarah almost choked again at the number before she remembered to convert the amount from yen to dollars, which meant it was around roughly one hundred US bucks, not an unreasonable price for a heavy duty watch. She glanced over at Keitaro, who was looking steadily at his friend for a long moment before he looked back at her, tilted his head slightly and shrugged, which she interpreted to mean it's up to you.
"You said you can't replace the band?" It was both a question and a challenge. Eventually the nylon band would get dirty or worn and need to be replaced.
"I said you have to use pass-thru straps." Katsuo corrected her. "There's NATO and single pass nylon bands you can use which are actually more secure since if a bar pops off, the other pin will hold the watch to the band and you won't lose it. I have a few of those straps here I can throw in if you want them."
Sarah looked down at the watch as she thought about it. Seeing that there was something engraved on the case back, she carefully removed the strap on one side to reveal a serial number and what looked to be a broad arrowhead etched on the back. It stirred a faint memory in her mind, that of her grandfather's watch one time she had seen it close up; it had a similar arrowhead, only it was on the face.
"This is a British military watch, isn't it? My granddad's watch from the war had the same mark." Sarah's voice flattened out some, causing the two men to look at her oddly.
"Probably." Katsuo shrugged. "The guy I got this from traveled all over the world."
Sarah thought for a few more moments before she looked at him directly. "Throw in the watch bands and you have a deal."
"Deal." Sarah stuck out her hand and Katsuo grasped it and giving a brisk shake after a momentary pause, not used to handshakes in his line of work. Reaching into her back pocket, she took out her wallet and pulled out the two 5000 yen notes she had folded up and stashed for an emergency. She only had two 2000 yen notes after that, thankfully she could hit an ATM to draw more cash.
Passing the money to Katsuo, she set a roughly correct time on the watch then put it on her left wrist, after a few moments it was fitting comfortably. By this point the other man had dug out and passed her some multicolored nylon bands, which she put in one of her hoodie pockets. "Pleasure doing business with you," Sarah stated as she gave a partial bow. Katsuo looked a little startled before smiling and returning the bow.
"So it is." He would have probably said more, but there was a tapping on the door frame. Everyone turned to see an older looking man in a suit standing there with a grave look on his face holding a slip of paper in his hand. Stepping forward, he passed the paper to Katsuo, bowed deeply, then turned and left the room.
As Katsuo read what was written on the paper, the smile on his face completely disappeared before he looked up at Keitaro. Reading his friend's expression he knew it was not good news, even as he stayed silent. Katsuo glanced around before looking back him, visibly reluctant to speak in front of the others.
"Just say it." Keitaro could guess what he was coming. Haruka was looking concerned, Kanako was frowning and Sarah was looking confused.
"The Council called." Katsuo paused to wet his lips before continuing. "They want to talk to us about what happened today, they set a meeting for tomorrow."
Briefing Room,
Tokyo Metro Police Dept, Bokuto Station,
Sumida Ward, Metro Tokyo, Japan
Saturday 0835 Japan Standard Time, Early March
Natsumi Tsujimoto was still sitting quietly at her desk, even though the briefing had finished and the other officers were picking up their gear and walking out the room. The fact that she was looking to be thinking hard when she normally could barely sit still was starting to freak everyone out, especially her partner Miyuki Kobayakawa. Even Captain Kachou gave a concerned look when the morning meeting had ended without the normally exuberant young woman at the end of the briefing semi-seriously asking to be transferred from the Traffic Section to Anti-Crime, or even worse the Anti-Firearms Unit. The Captain kept refusing her, and she knew he would because he was under orders from high above the command chain to do so. This resulted in Natsumi being the only Special Unit qualified officer who was not assigned to either of those units, where they were on permanent standby for call out for major incidents. This was made even more apparent after what had happened in Chiba the day before.
The female partners had been on regular traffic patrol the day before when the two-way radio in their police car had almost blown up. Multiple call outs for mutual aid from the shooting incident two wards over in Chiba came between orders to set up roadblocks on the highways and local level streets in case the incident spilled over, or worse yet turned into a running gunfight like the ones they occasionally saw on the international news from America.
In all this Natsumi was waiting with figurative gritted teeth for a call out for deployment, since she was officially attached to the reserve prefecture riot forces. She knew better though than to call and ask to be deployed; the one time she did an inspector from central headquarters came down later and gave her a chewing out about wasting the time of senior officials during a crisis; she had been made to stand attention in front of the condescending inspector sitting behind a desk in a office borrowed from Captain Kachou. Among other things said was that senior command was very much aware of her status and qualifications and did not feel it necessary to request a female officer's services. It could have been much worse but the Captain had insisted on being present during the meeting, much to the displeasure of the visiting inspector.
The incident could have resulted in a written reprimand in her record, which would have caused disciplinary action and the loss of her Special Unit qualification. Support from the Captain and the Station Chief had prevented that since they had friends in the high ranks themselves, so it was officially a 'verbal reprimand'. But afterwards the Chief had a quiet word with her, saying that they would not be able to affect many more incidents if she continued pushing the issue. The Chief then told her to take a couple of paid vacation days off along with Miyuki, which she then put to use by getting blind staggering drunk. It did not help that this was in the middle of the period where Keitaro was off in Thailand and she was missing him terribly. She wound up having to take a sick day off after the two vacation days just to get over the hangover, but the Captain had said nothing as he signed off on the extra day.
After that Natsumi had never pushed to be deployed without being called first, which obviously was not going to happen. But what she did do now was to stop holding back in the Special Unit physical training. Before she would take pains be the second or third ranking officer when they did their monthly running, strength and shooting tests. But now that she did not give a damn about offending their delicate sensitivities, she would out-run, out-climb, and out-shoot all the other officers while wearing full gear and weapons while they were wearing only physical training clothes, and then turn and walk away without saying a word when they were dismissed. And the gods help anyone who made snide remarks about her abilities. The last time someone had made a 'gorilla girl' crack, she had made sure to go up against him in the hand-to-hand training and had spent the entire time breaking out of his holds and slamming him around on the ground like when the Hulk had gotten his hands on Loki in Stark Tower.
Once the incident in Chiba had been resolved, the pair had wound up doing a few hours of overtime helping take down staged roadblocks before being released for the day. They were so tired that they bought takeout food to eat rather than go through the hassle of preparing and cleaning up after a home-cooked meal, and crashed into bed as soon as they finished eating at home. This meant they did not see any of the news coverage until the next day, at the daily briefing.
Normally a briefing took about ten minutes to complete, where the shift commander would go over patrol zone assignments, hot spots, changes in vacations and days off for the various officers, and so on. But on this day the Captain himself had done the meeting, and with the help of Officer Yoriko Nikaidou had done a video presentation on the large flat screen TV of what the news media was calling 'The Great Chiba Shootout'.
Shooting incidents in Japan were very rare. Homicide by firearms normally did not go into double digits per year, and almost all of those involved criminal-on-criminal crime. Legal firearm sales were highly regulated, making it almost impossible for criminals to acquire them internally. But this past year had seen gun violence almost literally explode due to the Yakuza Civil War that was on-going. The Japanese police had previously been able to stamp down outbreaks due to social and almost illegal pressures, but now the factions had foreign allies that not only were difficult to use the previous methods on, they smuggled in weapons from overseas that were at a par with Special Unit. This incident had almost become that, since one side had full-automatic rifles that could pierce heavy body armor, and had not been shy in firing recklessly. What everyone was afraid of happening was for military light rockets like the Vietnam-era US M72 LAWs and Soviet RPG-7s to make an appearance, since they were almost laughably easy to acquire overseas. There was talk of setting up procedures to have JSDF Army Ranger units air-deployed by helicopter from the Camp Fuji military base if Special Unit or Anti-Firearms was in danger of being overwhelmed. In the worst case scenario the incident would be declared a foreign terrorism event and activate the US-Japan Security Treaty, resulting attack helicopters from either the JSDF or the American military being called in for close air support of the mini-gun variety.
The officers would normally sit quietly during the briefings, sometimes muttering something to their partner sitting next to them at each two person table. But this time everyone stayed dead silent as they watched on screen the two men in suits literally walked between glowing green tracer bullets to rescue an unconscious woman and her toddler from their crashed car next to a burning truck, then as they were carrying them away from the vehicle to be engulfed in a fireball as the burning truck's propane tank exploded. To everyone's shock the two men walked out of the smoke and flames carrying the woman and child with no visible burns or injuries to anyone.
What really put the gilding on the lily was once the woman and child were taken behind cover and left in the care of medics, the lead man – distinguished by wearing dark shades and a long grey scarf over his face and a long black dress coat – walked back into the open street and somehow drew the hidden gangsters out from behind cover and provoked them into attacking him. Visibly swaying to dodge gunfire, both of the assault rifle and pistol variety, subsequently taking the knife and chain weapon armed gangsters down with little fuss. But then the last criminal had attacked him with an old WWII sword and almost contemptuously the man in the suit and long coat snatched the blade away, threw the gangster onto the ground, and after holding the sword point to the pale faced man's eye, drove the blade into the asphalt alongside his head and shattered it.
That should have been the end to it. But no, a female news reporter had somehow overheard his name and started shouting it, pleading for an interview. And incredibly the man gave it. Identifying himself only as 'Akira', he had freely admitted to working as an 'independent contractor' for a 'ninkyo dantai', which was a very polite way of saying he was an enforcer for a yakuza faction. This was nothing compared to him looking directly at the news camera and very respectfully threatening any criminal group that hurt innocents during their 'disputes'. He and his companion then turned and walked away, turning a corner before the nearby Anti-Firearms officers shook off their stupor and went running after them, only to come running back out a few seconds later after losing them in a dead-end alley. This produced more than a few snickers and chortles from the assembled officers, as Anti-Firearms had an inflated opinion of themselves.
The humor had ended when Captain Kachou had stepped back to the podium and gave some direct orders. Per the National Police Agency (which was as high as you could get in law enforcement short of the Ministry of Justice) if Akira or his companion were seen on the street they were not to be confronted, as there was no legal justification for detaining them at this time. Instead Public Safety Section 9 of the Tokyo Metro PD was to be notified of their location by the station commander of the officer who made the sighting. Everyone knew what that meant; Section 9 dealt with what was officially called Special Circumstances. Hand-picked and specially trained (military and intelligence experience and martial arts and firearms skills were prerequisites to joining), they dealt with crimes involving chi and ki users. They also had a very unofficial name that was not spoken very loudly; the Monster Squad, due to how much horrific damage their quarry could do.
The last thing the Captain had said before dismissing them had grabbed their attention like nothing else. Looking at every officer in the eyes, he stated that per the NPA anyone who disobeyed the previous order would immediately be suspended without pay pending disciplinary proceedings for punishment up to and including dismissal from service. The suspension had already happened to the Anti-Firearms officer that started the belated chase into the alley, as they had just been given orders on their radios not to confront the two men in suits, and the other AFOs had apparently received a severe chewing out from their commanders. Captain Kachou knew that some of his officers would also rather ask for forgiveness than permission, but in this case it would be out of his hands.
"Natsumi-chan, is something wrong? We have to get going." Blinking in surprise, the black haired girl looked up at her partner, who had a worried look on her face.
"I'm trying to remember something Miyuki-chan, just give me some time to figure it out." Natsumi stood and picked up her gear bag from the table, and followed Miyuki out to their Kei patrol car. Tossing their bags into the back, she paused to take out her tablet before getting into the passenger seat. Her partner got behind the wheel and after a few moments of listening to the engine run to make sure there was nothing wrong with the vehicle Miyuki put the car in gear and drove off toward their assigned location. Natsumi stayed silent as her partner drove, not even turning on the tablet as she stared out the window. It was only once they had arrived at their traffic surveillance point (a hidden spot where they could see if the cars driving by were committing violations) that Natsumi's head jerked, and she quickly turned the tablet on and made sure the cellular connection was active.
"Natsumi-chan, you know we can't use our devices on duty." Miyuki was getting more worried; her partner was more inclined to spend time talking to her about their various interests rather than surfing online with a mobile phone or a tablet.
"I think I remember where I saw it before," Natsumi muttered. Tapping the screen, she brought up a browser app and went to a news site. To no one's surprise the video of the fight in Chiba was right below the site banner. Starting the video, to Miyuki's surprise the other girl swiped the cursor on the bottom of the screen, fast forwarding to just before Akira engaged with the chain wielding thug. The brunette girl watched as the man in the suit went from casually standing to dropping into a martial arts stance, then moving sideways into a circular motion before coming to a halt for a long moment before jumping up a nearly impossible height to evade the flying chain before dropping down and dashing forward to knock the gangster out.
"Now look at this." Natsumi went to the media gallery and selected a file. Tapping it they watched as a video began to play.
"There are three Chinese martial arts my family studies." Keitaro Urashima was facing the camera standing on a floor mat wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, his feet clad only in thick socks. "Tai Chi is known for its slow movements and health benefits, you see a lot of older people doing the forms in public parks and such. Extensive studies in Tai Chi can be used for self-defense, as the slow movements can be used for fighting when sped up. The two others are Baguazhang, the Eight Trigrams style, and Xingyiquan, the Form Intention Fist. They are brother arts as they have the basics in common, even though they are visually different."
Keitaro moved into a martial arts stance from his casual one. "What Baguazhang and Xingyiquan have in common is circles; no matter how large or small, everything moves in circles. In Xingyiquan the circles are very small, but they are used to generate explosive power to drive through your target at short range." Keitaro started to move ahead in a straight line while standing in an erect pose, his fists flashing forward and back in vertical circles as he took medium steps forward. Coming to a halt he turned and reset his stance. "In Baguazhang the circles are much more obvious, and more defense oriented." The young man began to move again, only this time he was stepping sideways in a semi-crouch, his arms moving in large circles from the height of his waist to above his shoulders, sweeping and deflecting.
"Stop." Miyuki could see what Natsumi had seen; Keitaro's stance and movements were very close to what they had seen Akira use. Some people would say that was because they were apparently using the same martial arts style, but what most did not realize was that once a martial artist style was learned at a dan level it was ingrained and became as unique and identifiable as a fingerprint. "Go back to the other video, and watch his hands." The dark haired girl did so and they watched as Akira moved in a matching semi-circle, his hands moving in a distinctive manner. "Now go back to Keitaro-kun." The second video played, and they saw his hands and arms moving the same way. Not a similar movement; identical.
Slowly lowering the tablet, Natsumi looked into Miyuki's eyes, seeing they were as big as her own were. Swallow the lump that formed in her throat, she was barely able to speak. "This doesn't prove anything. It could just be a coincidence." As soon as the words passed her lips Natsumi knew she was only trying to convince herself, and failing miserably.
"Just a coincidence," Miyuki echoed. Looking back at the tablet, she hit the play button and they both watched as one of the presumably most dangerous men in Japan and possibly the man they both loved moved in a graceful lethal dance.
A/N – Once more, way too long since we last met.
Keitaro is starting to get a little short tempered with people questioning his reasons and motives for risking his life. They have a point, but then again, so does he. His family can be excused because they are not used to seeing him in danger (and that fireball is not normally survivable) but it looks like Keitaro has at least a minor case of Samaritan Syndrome going on. The only good thing is that it only applies to innocents/non-criminals and he doesn't go out looking for trouble; the last thing Keitaro needs is to turn into Shirou Emiya and try and save everybody. He is very well aware that he will die if he gets killed. *grin*
I was afraid that I was going to have a short chapter, but then I started writing about what our Lovely Angels have been up to and doubled the word count. Natsumi is really not happy with where she is in her life, and Keitaro isn't helping with his distance right now. They are going to talk to him about it, but not confront him – they still want to make their relationship work, even though they realize that he has at least a mild case of PTSD from his time overseas.
What is not going to help is what Katsuo AND Sarah alluded to – that Keitaro is a Chick Magnet though no fault of his own. He already had one girl pass him her phone number and even though she has a good reason to do so, it is not the only reason. She will appear in a future chapter, as well as the last person he was going to visit (the martial artist family that has been pressured to join the Yakuza Civil War). Hint, Keitaro has already seen but not talked to the MA involved, and its going to be a surprise to both him and Katsuo.
Next chapter is going to be Keitaro and Katsuo being questioned by the Council regarding his actions, and it's not going to go as most people would expect. Also in the next chapter will be the appearance of a long-missing character and her sister, even though it will be a fairly short segment to show they are still alive and kicking.
As to the 'simple man' and 'that information is not available' lines from a couple chapters ago the winner is TaraLi, though to be honest I got the 'simple man' line from Boba Fett in the Mandolorian and not Caine from Kung Fu. It is rather funny to me because both Boba and Akira are decidedly not simple men. SentiNel090 got the 'finishing the fight' line correct. The third line, when Akira stared into the tv camera and warned people not to endanger innocents in their disputes, was based on the first Robocop movie. He was asked if he wanted to say anything to the audience, and Robocop looked right the camera and said 'Don't violate the law,' in a flat voice that still implied what would happen if they did. And no one has identified who the female rescue medic is; hopefully the description I gave in this chapter makes it a little more obvious. Also, let me know what you think of/how you reacted to Sarah calling Keitaro 'the Dork Knight'.
And as to the people thinking that Akira is going to be hunted down by the former residents of Roanapur, they are partially correct. There are some people that want to confront him *coughRevycough* but most of those people also remember the reason they are now FORMER residents of that town. The smarter people realize that they are now on his turf and they don't have the same advantages they did before, and Akira has proven to be much more dangerous than previously believed.
I have posted new cover art for this story, a drawing I commissioned at AnimeExpo a couple years ago (the last time I was there – it was cancelled two years in a row due to the pandemic). I have my Premier Pass for this year; let's hope there isn't another upsurge to cancel this year's show, and maybe I can get some more art.
As 14Jun22 this story has 483K Words, 1162K Views, 1162 Reviews, 1813 Favorites and 1615 Alerts. My thanks to all the people who have been reading and following this story for all these years.
And as always, many thanks to my beta readers AZ Mark II, PCH, and WalkerofDarkness.
