Episode 4: Pursuit (Anger)
Hi Ken! How are you doing? I hope you've had your coffee because otherwise you'll understand none of this, and that cancels out the whole purpose of letting you know where I'm off to.
By the time you find this note we'll be well on our way, so don't go running around Judoh looking for me. A lot of us who are worried about Daisuke decided to all go save him from Magnagalia before it shuts down entirely and he's stranded. We've got J, so it should all be safe. Don't worry about us! You look stupid when you worry, and I want you to be on your best behavior for Mom. She'll be upset with me, so tell her nicely and stress that I'll be back soon just fine.
I've left the food money for this week divided into envelopes next to this letter. If you go over-budget I will take the difference from your wallet! Try not to spend it all, either, and don't forget that Parsley needs to be fed with it too. I usually buy him an apple on Tuesdays, so if I'm not back by then make sure he gets one so he doesn't sulk.
See you soon—with Daisuke! From Monica
PS. I almost forgot. Kyoko says the police chase people trying to go twenty miles outside of the city without permits. We didn't have time to get a permit, but if you could delay the search for us and/or the chasing people so we can get away with no problems that would be great. About three days ought to do it. We're counting on you, Ken!
He read the letter twice to make sure his bleary-morning eyes weren't deceiving him, then crumpled it in a shaking fist and swore repeatedly, banging his coffee mug down on the table. Of all the arrogant—All the supposing little—All the people who'd ever made abrupt demands on his abilities and time, this was the absolute—the most—well, it was so infuriating that even thoughts failed him!
It wasn't just that she'd left without asking permission first, or that apparently she'd gotten the Special Unit mixed up in whatever crazy suspicions she'd cooked up in that scheming little head of hers. No, what really set Ken Edmundo's blood boiling was the fact that the conspirators—and he had a pretty good idea as to who all was involved—had willfully decided not to ask him to come along. True, he would have refused almost immediately and then done everything in his power to keep them from going as well, up to and including pulling his newly appointed rank as Chief of Police, but still! He'd thought they were a team, and yet...
"Damn her," he muttered, taking a swig of sour coffee and grimacing. "Going to get herself killed in another city." He should take the note to the office immediately and send out a search team, he knew that. The badge laying on the table, winking even in the dim light—the little brat had had the gall to put her runaway note next to his badge, for crying out loud!--reminded him of the fact. No matter who she'd taken along—be it machine or werewolf or whatever other strange denizens of Judoh may have decided to join up—she was still just a kid, and no matter how smart and tough she thought she was, her youth automatically made her vulnerable in Edmundo's eyes. And he'd sworn to protect the vulnerable. Especially his adoptive daughter.
But she was also his friend. And personal ethics dictated that friends kept friends' secrets.
Oh, she had him good; what was more, she knew he'd have this reaction. The entire smug tone of the missive communicated that quite plainly. Tacking on a request for him to pull strings as a postscript? The nerve! How could she possibly be so flippant about the chief of police willfully bending the law for his own personal associates? It was a dirty, corrupt trick. The type anyone would suspect of someone who'd sold out to Vita or the Shop, not a former member of the City Safety Management Agency Special Unit! He couldn't—he wouldn't--
He was going to, he realized, self-righteousness sinking in his gut and turning to stone. If there was even the slightest chance that the girl was right, and that she could help Daisuke, he had to give her the chance.
"Ken?" a sleep-slurred voice asked behind him. "Did Monica leave for work already? I told her to wake me up..."
Oh, damn. Damn damn damn. Damn the scrawny little schemer, leaving him with all the hard jobs.
"Ah, Christina?" He didn't turn around to face the woman; was a bit afraid to, in fact. "I guess you could say that."
o0o0o0o0o0o0o
"So, um...where are we exactly?" Even though he spoke barely above a whisper, Daisuke's voice resonated through the dim tunnel. A drop of water splashed onto his head from above, and he shook his blond head to spread out the cold sensation. "How'd you find this thing?"
"This is the Celestial Road," his guide replied calmly, her hand cool and smooth in his as she led him along the dark passageway. "The route the visitors take to the high-end systems to avoid contact with the city proper. Over long spans of time, prisoners and escapees of the reformation institute built tunnels connecting the jails with the Road as an escape measure. The Road leads right beneath the lab, in fact."
"So the Celestials took a wrong turn on the way to the system and ended up in Magnagalia's biggest jail?" Daisuke gave a low whistle that bounced eerily around their heads. "No wonder they got pissed."
"Indeed," the girl concurred. "Please do not speak so much."
"Sorry. Oops." But he couldn't help asking one more question. "Where are you taking me?"
She glanced back at him. "To my master. But be silent. The wardens do not know I have free reign of the tunnels, and should the one in my cell be discovered I would cease to be of use to my master." Turning ahead, she broke her own code of silence and asked a question of her own. "Why did you wish to contact Celestials?"
He looked up from processing all the information he knew about his rescuer thus far and, startled, replied uneasily, "Well, I don't want the city to be shut down, you know? Plus I thought they might listen to me. My mother's on that Celestial boat." He shrugged. "Of course, even she might not be interested. How about you? You have family?"
"I am told I have a brother by the beast masters. We have never met. Watch your step; there are three stairs here."
"Beast masters? You're a convict? But you don't have a...or is that a mask?"
"No, my face is human. I am a prototype. Instead of making me regret forever the things I have done, they wiped them away. I cannot remember for what I was convicted. But my master has promised me a new life if I do as he says."
"So who is this all-powerful master who wants to see me? I think I have a right to at least know who--"
"Quiet!" She stopped, holding a hand up; her eyes flashed even in the dusky tunnel. "We have spoken too much. They have come for us." Down the long passage, a howl echoed faintly; Daisuke shivered and smiled, counting footsteps as they approached.
"There are four of them. Shouldn't we run or...?"
The girl had dropped his hand and closed her eyes; her breathing grew shallow and she swayed on her feet. When her eyes opened again, they did not see him, stared at nothing. Her breath remained gentle, level, even. She was asleep standing up.
"Um, hey? Napping is a great refresher, but..."
He could see them coming now, four brawny men with the brown faces of beasts clutching electric prods in their fists. Gritting his teeth, Daisuke stepped backwards into a fighting stance and put up his fists. "Heya, folks. Don't mind us. Hey, even I don't know where I'm going."
The men roared in reply and charged. Daisuke braced himself, but a flash of blue flew in front of him and parried his attackers. Stretching out her arms, the girl drew twin blades from the rippling air and leapt forward to combat her attackers. Daisuke dropped his fists only slightly, bemused. He had only ever seen one other person conjure weapons from thin air.
"Well, well," he marveled. "So somehow, you do exist now."
o0o0o0o0o0o
Above the tunnels and across the ocean, the day dawned bright and crisp, sunlight beaming down on the waves even as a cool breeze ruffled through Kyoko's short pink hair. They had passed the twenty-mile mark in record time, Clair's boat living up to his hype of its no doubt illegally supercharged engine, and thus all humans on board had been able to sneak at least a few hours of sleep. The don himself had not been seen since his retirement the previous night. Kyoko couldn't decide if his laid-back attitude to the entire escapade was smug bravado or honest exhaustion.
Certainly she could identify with the latter. She hadn't been able to retire to her cabin (a small, cramped arrangement, but that was only to be expected) until she had been absolutely positive no patrol boats were chasing their vessel. Really, the ease of their escape was shocking. Shouldn't they have at least shown up on radar?...but knowing Vita, their boats were probably equipped with scramblers. For the first time, Kyoko began to see the perks of having the underworld on her side.
As it was, they seemed to be in the clear for the time being, and Kyoko decided to take advantage of the situation. Having changed into her swimsuit, she spread a towel out on the deck and laid down, shooting Giovanni a venomous glare when, walking by, he whistled and gave her a thumbs-up. Such behavior was indecent in a grown man, especially one in his position. Wasn't Vampire supposed to be the immature one?
"You aren't taking this seriously!" complained Monica loudly upon seeing the sunbathing young woman. "This isn't a vacation!"
"It isn't dangerous right now either," Kyoko pointed out, rolling over onto her stomach. "And I prefer to relax while I can to be ready for when things become troublesome." The wind-chill added by the yacht's speed made her shiver, and she began to rethink her plans for the morning. What good would lying out do for her if she was both cold and ridiculed by her shipmates? Her time might be better spent napping in her little cabin...
"Hey, Giovanni." Clair, normally mussed hair now even more tousled by a long night's sleep, stood languidly in the doorway to the cabin area with his purple eyes still half-lidded. "I'm hungry. Make me breakfast."
"Right, Vampire. Anyone else want something? Miss?" Kyoko shook her head and covered her barely-clothed chest with her arms, hugging herself underneath Clair's scathing scrutiny of her attire. He had no right to make her uncomfortable, staring like that! Just because they were using his boat didn't make him the ruler of the universe. Despite his apparently casual demeanor, she had a suspicion he was behaving so at home to put everyone else off-guard.
Snorting in amusement, the object of Kyoko's indignation smirked and turned away as his bodyguard led the way to the mess hall, a hungry Monica now also in tow and chattering incessantly. "What did you pack? I hope you brought enough for the whole trip. Where did you buy the food? You didn't make anyone suspicious, did you?" For her part, Kyoko stood, still clutching her own shoulders against the chill. No, sunbathing on a boat going twice as fast as was legally sanctioned was out of the question. The wind blew too hard. And if they hit a squall, anyone on deck ran the risk of being tossed overboard. Life below deck, for the time being, was the most appealing arrangement.
As she headed for the cabin door, however, movement further towards the stern caught her eye around the corner. Leaning against the railing and watching the city (which had already been reduced to little more than a dark uneven line) fade on the horizon, Shun Aurora's normally perfectly groomed long hair whipped around a head bent in thought.
Cautiously Kyoko approached him. "Chi...Shun? Is something wrong? Do you not feel well?"
He looked up, face drawn but untouched by nausea or other signs of seasickness. "Thank you for your concern, Kyoko, but I'm perfectly all right."
She held tight to the railing, slid into a half-seated position against it. "The others are eating together," she informed him, not entirely certain why she was insisting on continuing the conversation when the man so obviously wanted to be alone. Maybe she had seen something pass across his face in the moment when he first snapped out of his reverie; in that unguarded instant he had perhaps resembled his brother... "If you want breakfast, you won't have to get it yourself right now."
"I already ate." He smiled gently, politely: the politician's concerned expression for the fretting sheep in his herd. "You go on ahead. My welfare really shouldn't be your concern."
She swallowed hard. "Um, sir, it is too mine if it isn't yours."
He looked at her blankly, and she realized how vague she had been. Flustered, she tried to explain. "I-I mean, if you don't look after yourself I'm just going to have to do it for you. We're on a team together, right? So that makes what happens to you my responsibility." Oh, now she'd done it. Stuck her neck out for absolutely no reason other than...what? To make a point? To try and convince him to play nicely with the other children when those same children were generally considered the playground bullies? No, that analogy was faulty; Shun himself could all too easily fit into the latter category as well. "Besides, I owe it to Daisuke to look after you."
"So I'm incapable of functioning without my younger brother?" Shun inquired bitterly, spitting his words not at her but at some internal reflection. He would not meet her eyes; the sunlight glancing off his eyeglasses obscured his own from view.
"N-no, I didn't mean..." How did she get herself into these messes? "Please forgive me if I offended you. But...Shun, I think we all have a right to know if you're going to be an absolute bear this entire trip!!"
There, she realized with both liberation and dread. She'd figured it out, and there it was: the entire reason she'd been drawn to him. He was the ill-fitting puzzle piece, even more so than Clair and Giovanni were, and she wanted to know if he'd somehow try to fit anyway. Not the most diplomatic way of putting the sentiment, but in her own mind the most accurate. Her duty to her own feelings thus discharged, she squirmed in nervous anticipation of his reply.
She didn't have to wait long. His mask cracked under the pressure of her words. "It's the first morning, Milchan. Just because I prefer my own company early in the morning does not indicate isolationism on my part." Now he let himself be angry at her, but instead of thawing the ice coating his words grew thicker. "I think you're being a bit premature."
"Really?" asked Kyoko, immediately jumping to the defensive despite knowing she'd deserved the slight. She hadn't known, however, how violently she would react. Everything she'd fretted about from the minute she'd walked into Phia's apartment and found Monica and Shun deep in conversation bubbled to the surface. And the prisoner laboratories of Magnagalia had no fury like Kyoko Milchan scorned. "Well, I don't think so, Shun." She purposely did not switch back to formalities. "You agree with Monica's scheme because you think by proving how much everyone, especially Daisuke, needs you, you'll be on top again. But along comes competition and what do you do? You wall yourself away from it."
"This is unfair. All I've done so far is--"
She wasn't listening, blinded as it were by a flash of scathing inspiration. "Because that's the only way your perfect world will exist, isn't it? If you're the only one in it? Then all the little people you analyze and manipulate will behave the way you want them to, because they'll be nothing more but pieces of your mind. Well, I live in the real world, Shun Aurora, and I've seen those people. They wake and they work and they pay taxes and they lie and they cheat...and sometimes, yes, they leave. Sometimes they let each other down. But you know what? The world keeps turning. That's the great thing about it: it keeps on rolling, and you have to either keep up or you'll fall off. You've been running after it for so long that you're afraid to jump back on for fear of falling again and having to repeat the whole thing. Can't you see how backwards that is? Can't you?? Or won't you?"
As she paused for breath, the sound of clapping interrupted her. "Mitchal was right about you, miss," Giovanni informed her approvingly, hands on his hips as Clair finished applauding. "You've got spunk. I too may fall in love."
"Nice speech, but it's got some holes. What, for example, makes the world's constant motion so great?" Apparently Vampire considered literary analysis to be one of his fortes in addition to scheming and blowing things up. "Sounds pretty annoying to me." He smiled cruelly, amused by something despite his semantic objections.
She turned, cheeks flushing more rosy than her hair, mortified. "I-I-I..." Words failed her at last, and her heart went out to the man who mere moments before she had condemned in the most eloquent speech she could produce in the heat of the situation. "Sh-Shun, I'm so sorry, I didn't know anyone was..."
"Does it make a difference?" Shun asked coldly. "If this is your opinion of me...does it change depending on who listens?"
"Not exac-exactly, but..." She squirmed, looked at her bare feet. "I didn't wish to humiliate you..."
"But if I'm the only person in my world, you've just done so in front of the entire cosmos," Shun returned caustically, keeping emotion out of his voice and ironically sounding even more menacing. "Excuse me. I shall return to my chambers." Head high, he walked deliberately away.
"Yeah, keep falling behind, Mr. Runner!" Clair taunted at his back, giggling; then he caught Kyoko's arm as she too tried to slip away. "Hold it, Miss Philosopher. You didn't answer my question."
"Which--"
"You said the best thing about this damn world is that it keeps moving despite the people in it. What's so great about that?" His eyes bored into hers, rooted her more firmly to the deck than did his white-knuckled hand grasping her arm. "To me...that sounds like the worst possible thing. Because once you fall off, you can't get back on. Ever."
His voice was shot through with an aura of nonchalance. Had his eyes not betrayed him, she would have believed the noncommittal act. "I..." She fumbled for an explanation of what she only understood as a response in her gut. "I don't really..."
His face fell for a moment before contorting in anger, but in that instant he looked like a whipped puppy and she understood what really was at stake for him. Despite his nails digging into her skin, despite the pressure his pupils bore down with onto hers, she could not be angry with him the way she had reacted to Shun for far less of an invasion. She wanted to give him the answer he so desperately wanted, but as neither of them knew it that was impossible.
It became obvious in the following silence that Kyoko had nothing to say. Letting go of her arm dismissively, Clair shrugged, coughed something that might have been a laugh. "Ah, well. Why would anyone who's dropped off want to get back on, anyway?" She cast one last, apologetic look in his direction, then ran off in the direction of the cabins. Watching her too leave, dissatisfaction quirked his brows even as his lips curved upwards. "We don't seem to be too popular today, Giovanni."
Sighing, the tall man scratched his head. "Beats me why, Vampire. We're so personable."
"Indeed."
"HEY! YOU! What's your name again? Oh yeah. CLAIR! GET OVER HERE!!" Monica's insistent, strained voice cut through the air. "J NEEDS YOU. NOW, IDIOTS!!!!!"
"Aw. Another babe hates us."
"Shut up, Giovanni." Clair had stopped smiling. "It's not her. It's the machine."
"So?" They began crossing the deck towards the captain's room.
Clair's face was set in a grim frown, but unlike his previous smiles of discontent his frown seemed effused with barely-contained eagerness. He let the ends curl up slightly. "So something must have gone wrong."
o0o0o0o0o0o
If the Magnagalian scientists intended to render Usagi harmless at any point in her interment, something must have gone wrong, Daisuke reflected as he leaned against the cold tunnel wall, watching the slim girl handle all four of their attackers with nimble aplomb. No matter how quickly the beast-men lunged for her, no matter how compromising a position she found herself in, the girl who called herself Usagi never let the men land a single blow on her, darting in and out, slashing at exposed areas then vanishing before a counterblow could be struck. Were it not for the blood wetting the ground and staining the twin blades she whirled around her body, the spectacle Usagi presented might have looked like a well-rehearsed dance. Little by little she whittled away at their strength—a cut here, a distracting rent there—until finally the four, exhausted and dizzy from blood loss, collapsed to the ground, panting and snarling as they fought for the strength to strike back.
She didn't give them the chance. Mere seconds after her opponents' collapse, all four throats were slit and her blades vanished once more into the darkness. Turning to Daisuke as she wiped blood off her cheek, she blinked sleepily and smiled softly at him. "Shall we continue, then?"
"Remind me never to piss you off," the blond young man replied shakily, casting one last glance at the four corpses lying on the stained tunnel floor before following her lead once more. "Didn't that hurt our chances of convincing the Celestials to come back here? No matter how fast that gets cleaned up, it's still going to smell like blood to them."
"My master will deal with the Celestials," Usagi replied simply. "Getting you to him is my sole concern. Now let us hurry. The beast master will not be pleased with what I have done here, and he is a vengeful man."
"I know, I know," Daisuke muttered wryly, picking up his pace to keep up with the briskly-striding young woman. "Not gonna tell me anything?"
A thought occurred to him as they came to a fork in the tunnel. "Usagi...is it possible for the Celestials to be set up? Like, to be guided to the wrong place since all these tunnels are in place?" He had had prior dealings with the beings, and making such an error did not at all coordinate with what he knew of them. They were too bright, too sensitive to go the wrong way of their own accord...but just trusting enough to be led the wrong direction if these specific ones had never been to Magnagalia's high-end system before.
"It is possible. We will want to turn left at the next divide."
So someone wanted Magnagalia to fall, eh? Daisuke chuckled, keeping his eyes on the girl's back in the dim light; he was reluctant to take her hand again after that massacre. The last thing he wanted was to meet a Celestial with blood smeared all across his palms. Kind of hard to explain.
That settled it, though. Vacation was officially over. Time for Daisuke Aurora, Special Unit, to go to work. Sure, he wasn't in Judoh. Who cared about little things like that? No matter where he went, there would always be crimes to prevent.
Daisuke had gone on an unannounced leave of absence in the midst of a major reconstruction movement in his city, but that didn't mean he had no sense of professional duty. After all, he was a man. And a man always fought the bad guys with all his might.