Panda Hero
Chapter 7: A Gift
Rin was seated on the ratty couch, staring at the lonely flickering of the neon bunny girl just ahead of her. She was alone in the building, save for the 'Panda Hero' and her brother in the questioning room.
The two of them were continuing their intense conversation before Rin interrupted them. Kaito was currently no where to be found.
In the background was the empty sound of the static crackling out the orange dog shaped radio. The thing was so old and beaten that the off switch was broken. When would the stupid batteries run out, anyways?
As she was about to take a deep breath of the permanently smoke-ladden air, the murmurs from behind the tattered curtain that seperated the main HQ area and the questioning room increased.
It was easier for her to listen, so naturally, she eavesdropped. The debate made her more puzzled now then it did when she snuck into the building only to come across the teal haired woman talking to Rei for the first time.
She listened intently to the pieces of conversation until one word was spoken that chilled her to the bone.
"-drug. . ."
It was spoken by the teal haired woman.
Silence followed from the other side of the room until the curtain was roughly jerked to the side and Rei stalked out from behind it. Obviously, he was fed up with the woman.
The only sound Rin could pick up from the other room was a single, repetitive clicking sound. The sound of the teal haired woman slowly tapping her long fingernail on top of the aluminum table in solemn thought.
It just made Rin feel more intimidated by the mysterious woman.
Sinking into the couch next to Rin, Rei held the petite girl's slender hands into his own. His eyes bore into hers with such a serious intensity it felt like his forest gaze was mining the sapphire gems of her eyes.
After taking a deep breath and an ecouraging hand squeeze with a slight smile from Rin, her brother spoke.
"Whatever she offers you, don't take it. Promise me that." his calming and mellow voice instructed her. This time, it was Rin's eyes that stared into her brother's, but her's were full of fear.
She knew what Rei meant, and she just realized what the teal haired woman was.
As if on que, the 'Panda Hero' emerged from behind the curtain and winked with a shark-like grin at Rin before she left the HQ.
Month's went by, and as the month's passed the people of the clan seemed to become. . .deader then they originaly were.
Eye's hazed and uncomprehending, they would stumble around the alleys and passages with a phantom fog of lifelessness clinging to them like a leech, slowly draining them of any life behind their now empty, glassy eyes.
These changes were caused by a new, extremely addicting drug in the form of black powder.
It was also a versatile drug that could be taken just about anyway imaginable.
Injection. Snorted. And even consumption.
Other than the mental and emotional changes, Rin also noticed how the drug changed people's physical features.
It gave you different features depending on the way you took the drug. You could have one effect from it, or all three.
When injected, it turned your veins a brighter, more pronounced blue color that was easily noticeable from under ghastly grey-ish pale skin, the haunting comlexion an overall effect from the substance, no matter how one abused it. The branches seemingly looked to be filled with ice.
Consumption was an easy one to identify. Ones tongue would turn a sickly reptilian green despite the drug's dry, coal black powder.
Snorting left an almost embarrasing effect. A rosy rash-like mark would surround the victim's nostril's. Not to mention that the thick black lines and bags that first scared Rin would be present, like the grey corpse complexion of the infected 'zombies'.
The drug to be blamed for this was appropriately called 'Panda', like the woman that distributed it.
The process by which the drug was distrubuted went like this;
They would step up to the Panda Hero and make a request for how much they needed and present their payment. If you want her help, she asks for a collateral, a certain payment will be all. Sometimes it would be money, or booze. Deeper in they're gulping it down like an opium, drowning their misery's, and unknowingly, their minds.
But despite knowing the Panda Hero was the cause of this, not to mention Rei's first and only warning, she and Rin became friends.
"Yo, Rin!" the smoky, high pitched voice shouted out. Rin turned to look in the direction the now familiar voice was coming from. Len tried to prevent a leer at the teal-haired woman, a grimace forming on his face instead.
"Hey, Panda Hero." Rin greeted her older friend enthusiastically. Since she appeared in the clan, things had been better for Rin. The blonde girl looked forward to the next day eagerly. As soon as she woke up in the morning, she'll smile at the sun hidden behind a film of smoky pollution.
Len grunted in unintrested acknowledgement. He lifted a chair and placed it off to the side. Before she got here only to take away Rin, Len was helping Rin tidy and re-arrange the rows of chairs in the empty Arena. The Arena the previous day was rowdier than usual with Rin's newest win against one of their rival clan's best fighter.
As always, the teal haired woman ignored the annoying, hormonal, wannabe 'suave player' that clung to Rin's side protectively.
"Can ya help me with something?" she inquired in her usual seductively sultry tone. The blonde haired teenage boy rolled his eyes and turned away, so he couldn't be seen and get beaten by her metal bat. Hiding his face behind a stray recliner, he mouthed the Panda Hero's words mockingly and made a mini charade of batting his eye lashes and sticking out his lip in a 'sexy' way.
This woman really irked him for some reason. Rin was too sweet and pure to be hanging around with someone who sold drugs and was a bitch for some new guy everyother day.
"Now?" she continued suggestively, her black-ringed teal eye flickering to Len and narrowing, knowing what the teen was doing behind her back. Len smiled sweetly and waggled his fingers at her. She scoffed in his direction and looked back to Rin expectantly.
"Does it have to be now? I-" Rin got cut off.
"It's fine, just go. I'll finish up here, cutie." Len spat in disgust, the tone more directed to his enemy than his friend who had -thankfully- warmed up to him a tiny bit since he first came to the clan and started to live with her and Rei.
The Panda Hero smirked triumphantly. Rin shrugged and walked with the Panda Hero to the exit. Suddenly, the teal haired woman turned and shouted out to Len who was at the bottom row, near where the floor dipped lower.
"Oh, and thanks for letting your girlfriend come with me, Shota!" she shouted down to the blonde with a smirk and laughed when she noticed Len tensed up at the nickname. He was prfectly fine with Rin being called his girlfriend.
Sauntering out of the Arena, Rin followed after the teal haired woman whose hips were swaying.
Len slammed down another chair in anger. He really couldn't stand that no-good bitch! Always taking Rin away from him like she was Top Dog. If he could, he would punch that woman in the face. But the only problem was her heavy metal bat and her gang of male connections. . .
Grumbling to himself, he continued to work without Rin in the large, empty building.
"He really hates that, you know." the blonde girl mentioned softly. The Panda Hero guffawed and waved the thought away.
"That kid needs to grow up and stop pretending like he's the shit." she swore.
Rin thought about it. Now that the Panda Hero mentioned that, it was kinda true. . .
"Here!" the woman with the eyepatch shouted excitedly. Rin jumped out of her skin and thoughts.
Already? She must have been day dreaming again.
. . .Wait.
She spun around quickly. Where did the Panda Hero go? Rin started to murmur hysterically under her breath about being lost. She was led somewhere unfamiliar to her.
"P-panda Hero? Where did you go!" Rin cried. Her voice shook and then finally shattered at the end.
A seductive giggle.
Rin's head snapped up to the dirtied skies. Laying down on her stomach, cleavage pilling out from the tight tanktop, was the Panda Hero. And she was ontop of a roof.
"You scared me! Get down, you're going to get hurt!" Rin whined. She nearly had a heartattack! Wiping forming tears out of her eyes so the woman wouldn't see her weak, the Panda Hero just rolled her eyes.
She gestured for Rin to come to her "Just get up here!" she persuaded.
Giving in, Rin obeyed. She uneasily put her foot upon one of the fire escapes rungs and jostled it. A rattling and a crunch didn't satisfy her wariness.
"Oh, it's safe. Get your blonde booty up here!" the Panda Hero shouted down to her. This was getting ridiculous; it's just a ladder!
Rin climbed up on the ladder and quickly, but carefully, scaled the side of the rundown home. The ominous creakying sound of the hazardous rusted bars trailed her until she finally flung herself to the roof top next to a kneeling woman.
"See? Wasn't that exhilarating!" the upside-down woman explained. Rin breathed in shallowly and rapidly like a hare, trying to calm the adrenaline rush racing through her heart.
That was insane! She had just scurried up an old ladder held to the side of the brick building by a single rusted nail and was now on the roof of the slightly leaning building fifty feet in the air. With nothing but unforgiving, spine shattering concrete below her!
Rin uprighted herself, bringing the cruel world in a right-side-up view again. She joined her older friend at the ledge of the middle of the roof.
She swung her feet about as she looked down at the different and never before seen view of the familiar scenery bellow her.
Even though it was dark, and grey and foreboding-like it was smeared with Panda- there was something. . .magical about it.
"Pretty cool, right?" the teal haired woman asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Rin was just breathless at this new queasy feeling of being so high up in the air-something she'd never experienced before. And she liked it. The queasy feeling in your stomach as you looked over the edge, but the rebellious edge tingling in your foot that dared you to just dangle it over the edge.
Instead, she just nodded.
"Good." the woman continued. "This'll be our hangout from here on." she declared, pounding the rooftop with her bat to make it official.
"And another thing!"
Rin 'huh?'-ed in question. The Panda Hero grinned and reached into her skimpy top and brought out something held in her bra.
The petite blonde girl laughed at the Panda Hero's use of their inside joke.
Unravling the object, Rin saw what it was. It was a leather band with shiny silver clasps. dangling from the middle of it was a charm. A panda face.
The Panda Hero gave it to Rin with a smirk. "Surprise!"
Rin's mouth dropped open. Was this really for her? She never owned any kind of jewelry before, even this was just a simple bracelet that wasn't made of real silver.
She put it on and smiled down the object on her wrist. The teal haired woman watched her with a warm fondness in her eyes that would be considered a moment of vulnrability. Rin didn't notice the look in the green-ish eye that greatly resembled the look the Panda Hero gave Rin the first time she met her.
The way she examined the blonde with familiarity.
The thought that the bracelet was boughten with dirty money from the Panda Hero's drug business didn't cross Rin's mind at all.
Ever since Panda came around, her teal haired friend somehow weasled her way through the clan's system, becoming one of the higher-ups. Kaito and her brother Rei became her right and left hands, respectively.
Rin looked to the woman that she felt high respect for, and smiled.
The Panda Hero was independant, gorgeous (even with the Panda effects), strong, quirky, cocky with plenty of self esteem and was a natural siren with an addictive personality that drew people in, just like the drug.
In a way, Rin wanted to be like her.
"Thank you." she spoke earnestly. Instead of a hug, the Panda Hero roughly messed up Rin's blonde hair with a cocky grin.
This was a hard chapter to write o But It's longer than the others, so I hope that makes up for it! More clarification about to Panda Hero, ect. Len doesn't seem to like her at all though, right? xD Review to tell me what you thought! After all, the more reviews, the more motivated I'll be to type up the next chapter. And trust me, there's going to be some big twists in this story ;D
~Sabby-Sama