Disclaimer: I don't own King of Fighter, Fatal Fury or related characters. Such is the property of SNK Playmore. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Sore ga Ai, Deshou?
Chapter Twenty-Two: Special Brownies
Joe woke that morning to the sounds of dishes clinking in the kitchen. He lay in bed for a moment wondering just how much whisky he'd drunk last night and if he were still dreaming of breakfast making itself. Then he remembered that he'd let his friend from the fight-ring spend the night. It was probably Andy Bogard he heard now. The Muay Thai master rolled over in bed and promptly fell back asleep.
He awoke again a little less than an hour latter and this time decided to actually get up and out of bed.
Higashi flopped down from his loft-like bed, ignoring the latter that had been put there for that very purpose, and landed in a hap-hazard heap on the floor. He climbed groggily to his feet and looked around his apartment. It looked strikingly different than it had the previous night. The carpet had been swept clear of the usual debits, the magazines and newspapers that had littered the floor had been neatly stacked into two neat piles on the coffee table, the garbage had been thrown in the garbage, the cans and bottles having been tossed into a plastic bag labeled "Recycle" in bold katakana characters and his laundry had seemed to have disappeared.
"You clean up in here?" Joe asked, not quite sure what to think.
"Just a bit." His blond acquaintance answered from the tiny kitchen. "I'm making breakfast too."
"Huh." The kick-boxer shrugged and walked into the bathroom to relieve himself.
His bathroom it seemed had also been tidied a bit and in the corner next to the shower was a wicker laundry hamper that he hadn't seen in a months. Upon a closer inspection he found his missing laundry from the main room had been put inside it.
"You're not a neat-freak, are you?" Joe asked after washing his hands and re-entering the main room and sitting at the bar that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. He noticed that Andy had also washed all his dirty dishes from the previous few days and put them all away, save for the ones that he was currently using.
"No." The blond fighter replied as he set two place settings with forks on the right, knives on the left, and glasses at 2:00. No, not a neat-freak at all… He turned to fill their plates with whatever he'd made for their breakfast and Joe found himself wondering what he'd had in his 'fridge and pantry to make a meal with. "You didn't have any rice." Andy explained. "So I tried using spaghetti instead. Not sure how it'll taste, we'll just have to see."
He laid out the two plates and sat down on the opposite side of the kitchen bar.
Joe would never have thought of mixing natto with spaghetti before. He'd never heard of anyone ever doing it before, not that he was really into cooking or anything, but when he thought about it, it did seem like a clever idea. After all, noodles were to Italy what rice was to all of Asia. Didn't Italy even get noodles from Asia in the first place? The kick-boxer took an experimental bit of the curious concoction.
"Oh, god!" He exclaimed.
While at the same time Andy said, "Oh, wow."
"This is awful!"
"This is great!"
Joe looked at his newfound friend in something akin to disbelief.
"I wasn't sure how this was gonna taste, but this is better than I expected!" He was saying. "I think I like this better than the standard rice and natto."
"You're gross." The Muay Thai master said. It was really all he could think of. No person in their right mind could possibly like this. The combination of western spaghetti noodles and fermented soybeans just did not go together.
"You don't like it?" Andy looked insulted.
Joe suddenly realized that he'd been rude to his guest and offered, "You wanna have my half? I'll make something else."
"Uh, sure." Andy let the kick-boxer tip the contents on his own plate onto his. "Sorry about that."
…
Jubei climbed the steps to his dojo home that morning still reeling from yesterday's conversation with Hanzo. Of all the things his old friend might have wanted to discuss, he never would have thought it'd be making Andy a Genin.
Kazutaka had shown him into Hanzo's room. His long time friend had seemed frail sitting up in bed, an extra blanket thrown over his legs and a heavy haori draped from his shoulders. He had been holding a mug of steaming hot broth in his hands, his eyes closed and Jubei was suddenly reminded of just how old they were.
"Hanzo-kun." The old judo master ventured.
The ninja's eyelids had parted and he turned to face his friend. "Ah, Jubei-kun, thank you for coming on such short notice." He then turned his attention to the other man in the room. "Kazu, where is Mai?"
"Out." He replied. "Shopping or something."
"Good. She is not to know of any of this until we have decided."
Jubei had blinked at that. Decided on what exactly?
Kazutaka had shut the screen behind them and took up a position to the left and slightly behind his father, the position of a subordinate or attendant of sorts and Jubei suddenly got the distinct impression of a conspiracy being formed.
Hanzo had locked eyes with the old judo master and said flatly and bluntly, "I wish to make Andy a Genin."
At first he had thought that he'd misheard or misunderstood what his friend had said. The Genin were like ninja foot soldiers, when you heard stories of ninja assassins or saboteurs it was Genin performing said deeds. But the Genin did not work directly for the head of the clan, they reported to Chunin whom were responsible for the logistics of the missions. Jubei wasn't sure exactly which members of the Shiranui family were Chunin but he was sure that none of them were very likely to accept an outsider as one of their subordinates.
"Are you sure about this?" He asked in all seriousness.
"His experience as a Genin will harden him for his goal of revenge." Hanzo replied. "You and I both know that he's never killed before and when he and his brother finally go up against their father's murderer he should know what it is to take a life. He should not hesitate at the last moment because his hands have never been bloodied before."
Jubei thought about this. It was true that a last minuet hesitation on Andy's part might prove fatal for the boy. It could give his opponent the opportunity to turn the tide of the battle and Andy might possibly end up being killed himself, same as Jeff had.
"And how will you sell this idea to the clan?" He asked.
Hanzo smiled and sipped his broth. "I'll simply tell them that it's about time he started paying the family back for the time and resources we've put into him. I'm sure they'll love that."
Yes, the Shiranui family would like the idea of a warrior working for them and bringing in revenue without pay. Jubei assumed that Andy wouldn't be compensated for his efforts since he would be 'paying the family back'. He could name a few Shiranui that would just love it.
"And what manner of compensation would you give Andy for his efforts? I imagine he'll not be receiving the standard ten percent." But the moment this question was out of his mouth Jubei foresaw another possible reason for Hanzo's wanting Andy to work for the family. "What are you really planning?"
Hanzo smiled for the second time, this time cunningly and Jubei saw a hint of the demon that the Shiranui clan was said to have descended from in him. "To get the family more used to him, more… comfortable you might say. And, of course, to better familiarize Andy with the rest of the family and how we operate."
"And why would he be needing that?" The old judo master raised one skeptical eyebrow.
"That's for him to decide." Hanzo answered.
"Yare, yare…" Jubei shook his head. "You ninja are always so secretive, you can't even be strait with your friends. Alright, be cryptic and mysterious. What's all this got to do with me? Why'd you have to summon me here alone when Andy's away in Tokyo?"
"I do not want Andy to know of this until I'm sure he can handle it. You have been training him for several years now. Tell me: is he ready for the type of missions we'd be sending him on?"
The old judo master had paused to consider his young apprentice and his progress so far, how much he still had to learn, his ability to take orders and his general character and personality. The boy was willing to do just about anything if it would further his goal, he could take orders rather well, he was clever and adaptable. All these were good qualities for any ninja agent to have. However, he was also overly emotional and empathetic. An emotional outburst at the wrong moment could ruin a mission and cost him (and others if he were working with a team) their lives.
"Would any of your Chunin take him on as a subordinate?"
"Willingly, you mean? None." Hanzo said over the rim of his mug. Then over his shoulder, "Kazu?"
"I can think of one that wouldn't mind if I asked him nicely." Kazutaka smiled at some private joke that neither he nor Hanzo understood.
Jubei was now back home and still confused. What reason could Hanzo have for wanting to integrate Andy into the family? Wasn't the boy going to leave after his 10 years of training were up? Wasn't he going to return to South Town, America and be out of their lives forever? That had been the boy's plan. Now it seemed that Hanzo was making other plans for the boy.
"Sneaky ninja and their sneaky plans." He muttered aloud.
…
Andy arrived back at the dojo latter that same afternoon with a lighthearted smile on his face and a container of leftover spaghetti and natto in his bag.
"Tadaima!" He called and pulled off his shoes.
Jubei came to meet him in the entranceway. "And how was your trip?"
"Eventful." The blond ninja replied.
He then launched into his tale of narrowly escaping the police raid on the fight-ring and how he had helped his friend escape… he was like a child narrating his exploits to a beloved grandparent. Jubei had to smile at his pupil's cheerful energy. He rarely saw Andy this obviously happy. This Higashi Joe person must be a good friend indeed.
The old judo master tried some of the spaghetti and natto Andy offered him before politely forcing himself to swallow and saying, "All yours, puppy." He then placed the food container in the icebox and drank down a large glass of water. It seemed that Andy was the only one that actually liked the concoction.
"Sit down, puppy." Jubei ordered and the two sank to sit at the kitchen table. "I went to see Hanzo while you were gone."
"Oh, how is Hanzo-sensei?"
"He's laid-up with a cold." The old master answered absentmindedly. "Tell me, Andy, do you know what it is that ninja do?"
The boy paused, confused by his master's seemingly random question. He thought about it for a moment and then realized that a ninja's duties had never really been explained to him. He knew that they were great fighters but so were many other disciplines. Now that he was thinking about it, he never really heard any of the Shiranui talk of using their fighting skills outside of training.
"Well, I… Historically, they were spies." The teen finally answered a bit hesitantly, unsure if an answer of what ninja used to do would be acceptable.
"Yes…" Jubei nodded slowly. "They are spies, and also saboteurs and assassins."
Andy noted his master's use of the present tense 'are' instead of the past tense 'were' and wondered exactly what the old man was getting at.
"Andy," Jubei leaned over the table in all seriousness, "do you understand what it means to kill a man? You say you want to avenge your father's murder, you want to kill Geese, but do you really grasp what it is to kill a man?"
"I'm no stranger to death, Sensei." The boy replied a little defensively. "I've watched people die. Not just my father but street people too. Cops shot by gang-bangers and innocents caught in cross-fire, people knifed on the street for their wallet…"
"But you've never killed before." He locked eyes with the younger man. "You have never been the one to take a life."
Andy demurred under the intensity of his master's gaze. "No, Sensei, I've never killed before."
"I have." The old judo master said, an odd haunted quality to his voice. "Hanzo and I both have. In Manchuria… I've killed. It's not something to take lightly, boy. But it is something you'll have to get used to before you challenge Geese."
"I understand that." The boy nodded. He wasn't quite sure how to react to his master's haunted tone when he spoke of his time during the second World War but he did understand that the taking of a life was not something to be taken lightly. He understood that he'd need to get used to bloodying his hands before he could challenge his father's killer. "But how?"
"Hanzo wants to offer you a job."
…
Doctor Shiranui Hideki, affectionately referred to as 'Doc' by his family stepped into his office more than ready to end his shift. He paused however when he saw that there was someone sitting at his desk.
"Get outta my chair, Kazu."
"No." Kazutaka smiled playfully. He leaned back in the over-stuffed leather chair and stretched his feet out over the desk. Doc just sighed and hung up his immaculate white lab coat intent on ignoring his pacifistic and flippant cousin.
"I made you some brownies." Kazu reached into a plastic bag and pulled out a tupperware container of rich chocolaty fudge brownies. "They're special."
Doc turned and regarded his cousin for a moment. "What do you want?"
"Why do I need a reason to come and visit my favorite cousin at work and bring him delicious, chocolaty brownies laced with a special secret ingredient?" He opened the container and extended it to Doc. "Here, have one."
"You want me to write bogus prescriptions for you, don't you?" His cousin guessed, making no motion to take the offered desert item.
Kazu frowned. "What's with all the suspicion? I came here to do you a favor."
"Bringing me backed goods loaded with illegal substances while I'm at work is not a favor."
"That wasn't the favor." The paradoxical pacifist replaced the lid on the brownie container. "How'd you like another Genin on your team?"
Doc raised one skeptical eyebrow. "Who? There's no one yet old enough to start going out on assignments."
"Yeah there is." Kazu smiled.
Doc thought for a moment. "The hakujin?"
"Have a brownie."
"No. Why on earth would I want your father's eccentric hobby working on my team?"
"Because we're asking nicely? No? Alright then, how about because he'll be working for free so you get an extra member on your team but get to put his ten percent commission into your own pocket."
"I'm listening." Doc pulled out a chair and sat in front of his own desk.
"We want him to gain as much experience as an assassin as he can. So don't bother sending him on espionage or spy missions, he'd just be wasted."
"Assassin missions, I don't even like sending my experienced subordinates on those." Doc grimaced in distaste. "What makes you think I'll trust a foreigner with one? Has ever even killed before?"
Kazu remained silent.
"You want me to send a completely green kid out on assassin missions when he's never taken a life before and will most likely choke-up and get himself caught, putting not only himself but the rest of the Shiranui clan in jeopardy."
"Look, you can work him up to assassin missions if you want. Send him with another and have him just be back-up for a while."
Doc just shook his head. He wasn't going to take Andy Bogard on as a Genin.
"Alright, Doc, think of it this way: Imagine how awesome you'd look compared to the other Chunin when, with a Genin that everyone views as inferior, you get and succeed at all the difficult missions. You take a useless hakujin and make him an indispensable asset to the family."
Doc weighted his options. From what he'd seen of the boy in action he was a decent fighter. He had a naturally quiet disposition, which was always an asset in a ninja. In all honesty, aside from the fact that he was a foreigner, he would make an excellent ninja.
"I'm not gonna start him out on assassin missions." He said at length. "He'll be doing team operations until I decide he's ready."
"Fine." Kazu stood to leave. "That's all we ask."
"Oh, and Kazu…"
"Yeah?"
"Leave the brownies."
…
The scent of baking was the first thing Andy noticed when he entered the Shiranui main house. Warm chocolatey brownies baking. He absentmindedly wondered if it was Kazutaka or Mai in the kitchen, everything Mai had cooked for them during her week-long stay at the Yamada dojo had been so delicious, Andy was sure her pastries would be just as wonderful. He pushed that thought aside, however. The thought of Mai baking conjured up an image of her in her scant and revealing red gi with thick white cake batter spattered over her face and breasts.
The image made him blush and he forced it back down into his subconscious where it belonged. He had no business thinking of Mai like that. But then the memory of her nude body in the Yamada bathhouse rose to the forefront of his memory. And following close on its heals was the memory her just a few hours later in the privacy of her room.
'Make love to me…?'
He shook his head in an attempt to banish the amatory image from his mind.
"Something wrong?" Jubei asked as he laid his shoes neatly to the side of the entranceway where he could easily slip back into them on his way out.
"Just a slight headache from going from the cold outside to in here." He lied.
The old judo master smiled to himself, as if amused by some private joke but said nothing to the boy's obvious lie. He had a clear enough picture of the boy's character and understanding of his thought processes to make an educated guess about the nature of his thoughts. Andy's poor emotional control did, after all, make him easier to read than a children's alphabet book.
Jubei lead the youth to one of the house's washitsu rooms. Hanzo was waiting inside dressed in a neat tunic and hakama with a heavy haori draped over his shoulders. He looked paler than Andy remembered him, thinner too. Jubei-sensei said he'd had a cold; that was probably why he still looked peaky.
Doc sat to the left of Hanzo and slightly behind him leisurely sipping at a saucer of sake. The boy had to wonder what the family's doctor was doing here and quickly gave his old ninjutsu master a second examination. Thinner, pale and maybe a little shaky, the image of one who was just getting over a cold but wasn't completely well yet. He shouldn't need a doctor for that. Doc had to be here for some other reason.
Andy knelt on the floor and bowed low to his old master, touching his forehead to the clean white tatami mat that covered the floor.
"Ohisashiburi desu ne, Hanzo-sensei." He said stiffly. Something about this meeting seemed very stiff and stuffy, almost as if it were a formal meeting of some kind. Well, Jubei-sensei did say that Hanzo was going to give him a job. This must be the ninja equivalent of a job interview. He suddenly felt nervous.
"Andy, it has been to long." The aged ninja replied. "I trust you remember Hideki-kun." Hanzo indicated Doc.
Andy nodded. He remembered the Shiranui's family doctor; he just didn't know the man actually had a name. The boy had thought that Doc was just a third or fourth tier OC who wasn't even important enough to name let alone keep around and reuse.
"Hideki-senei." He bowed to Doc in polite acknowledgment, using the title on 'sensei' in reference to his status as a doctor and not implying that he was a teacher.
"Bogard-kun." Doc returned the bow with a conservative nod.
"Andy," Hanzo began, his tone was soft but it still managed to command attention, "how much did Jubei tell you before coming here?"
"He… well, he said you were going to offer me a job, sensei." The boy paused in his nervousness. "Because… because I need experience in killing before I can avenge my father."
Hanzo's expression remained neutral, impassive and unfeeling as he asked his next question. "And how do you think you can get such experience?"
Doc paused in mid-sip of his sake, eyes studying Andy intently. He was just as interested in the boy's answer as the head of the family was, possibly more so since the young hakujin was going to become one of his subordinates.
Andy fidgeted under their scrutiny. He wasn't exactly sure how to answer his old master's question. The obvious way of getting killing experience was to go around murdering people indiscriminately, but murder was a crime in just about every country in the world. He wouldn't get very far that way and he couldn't avenge his father from inside a prison cell. The boy bowed low a second time, once again touching his head to the tatami mats, more because he didn't want to face his master than out of any real humility or respect.
"I don't know, sensei." He said, head still down. "Jubei-sensei said that ninja are assassins, I… He also said you wanted to give me a job. I had assumed that you already had a solution to my problem in mind." He kept his head down even after he had finished speaking, unsure if he had said the right thing.
Doc, drained the remaining sake in his saucer before setting it aside and saying, "Well, he's not an idiot."
"True enough." Hanzo nodded. Had Andy been looking at that moment he would have seen his master a smile an odd smile, it was halfway between pleased and cunning. "He also managed to answer the question in a way that, while polite, turned it back on me."
Andy looked up at that, suddenly startled and hoping he hadn't just insulted his master. "Forgive me, sensei."
The old ninja almost laughed at the sheer panic on his young pupil's face, but he held it in. "Don't be, it was very clever of you."
"Uh, thank you, sensei." And he bowed again, still feeling stiff and nervous. Andy had no idea what he was doing or where this whole thing was going. There didn't seem to be any solid ground for him to stand on and he was terrified of taking a metaphorical misstep.
"Andy-kun, nothing would please me more than having you become one of my Genin and becoming adopted into the clan." Hanzo began. He was about to continue but Andy had stopped listening at the word 'adopted'.
"No!" He said with more feverent emotion than he had intended.
"Excuse me?" The old ninja was taken aback by the boy's sudden and passionate acclamation.
Andy realized his blunder only after the word had escaped his lips. He's master was offering him something that was meant to be taken as an honor and he was refusing it and refusing it with a passion. But he'd already been adopted once, by Jeff Bogard. He had taken Jeff's name, had truly become Jeff's son by spirit if not by blood. Andy couldn't imagine being adopted by anyone else or into any other family. Jeff had been his family, Jeff and Terry.
"Forgive me, sensei." He bowed low once again for what was probably the third or fourth time this meeting. "No, forgive me, Hanzo-dono, but I cannot be formally adopted into the clan. 'Bogard' is my name, it was my father's name and it is the name I intend to carry with me until the day I die. I cannot become a 'Shiranui'. I am sorry."
"Is that all you're worried about?" Doc asked with a laugh. "Boyo, no one gives a care about your name. Hanzo-dono is talking about adopting you into the clan not the family."
Andy blinked, he hadn't been aware there was a difference between 'clan' and 'family'. Everyone had seemed to use them interchangeably.
"An outsider cannot be privy to what you will need to know in order to serve on missions." Hanzo explained. "You need not betray Jeff's memory. However, once you become a member of the clan you will be one of us and you must remain loyal to the clan even if that requires you to betray old allegiances or personal morals."
That statement gave Andy another reason to pause. 'Old allegiances' and 'personal morals'…
"This means," Hanzo continued, "that if you are asked to sabotage a particular military base, steal information from a certain office, or kill a specific person you will do so regardless of what county they're from, what purpose they serve or who they are. Leave all your political views and convictions behind."
The boy swallowed. "Like… if I was ordered to kill the President…?" He asked, not really liking the idea of assassinating the head of his birth-nation's government. "Of the Prime Minister?" He added, using the more local example of the head of the Japanese government.
"Oh, we try not to take such high profile jobs like that." Doc waved off his concerns. "That's really more of a Kisaragi thing."
Andy bit his lower lip, not sure how he felt about this offer. "May I have some time to think about this?"
"Of course." Hanzo nodded. "This is not something one rushes into lightly. Once you're one of us you can never go back. Ninja is a life-long profession Andy. You cannot 'quit' whenever it suits you. The only ways out are retirement or death."
"Or disownment." Doc added absentmindedly. "Like Kazu, he got disowned."
Hanzo's eyes flashed at the good doctor with an emotion that Andy found unreadable. But the moment it was there it was gone again, his attention focusing back on the boy.
"Just remember," the old ninja spoke bluntly, "if you are to achieve your goal you will need a killer's experience and the only way you can get that without legal consequences are to accept the offer."
Andy noted his specification of legal consequences, meaning that the Shiranui clan would protect him from the law. However, nothing would protect him from the mental and emotional consequences of taking another human life. Andy had heard the far away tone in Jubei's voice when he spoke of the lives he'd taken in Manchuria, had seen the haunted look when he had warned Andy that the taking of a life was not something to be taken lightly.
But that was just general human life. Surely it wouldn't be so bad killing someone you knew to be evil, someone like Geese…
"How long do I have to consider the offer, sensei?"
"I usually give Genin as much time as they need. However, you do have a time constraint put on you and must consider that as well."
The nodded his understanding. He had to give Hanzo his answer with enough time left to actually perform the duties he would be agreeing to and learn from them before he left to avenge his father. "I will think carefully."
Thinking he was dismissed, the boy stood to leave but the moment he was on his feet and turning to leave his master spoke again, drawing his attention back.
"And, Andy, this is an offer I only ever make once." He said, tone grave. "If you decline you can never change your mind either."
"I understand, sensei." He nodded.
…
(A/N: Whew! Sorry for the wait. I got kinda discouraged for a bit there and wrote myself into a corner that I had to claw my way out of. But I managed to end this chapter more or less how I had planned.
During the interim I became slightly obsessed with Golion (I used to watch Voltron all the time as a kid so it was an easy obsession to slip into). And who here agrees with me that Sincline could totally be a pallet-swap for Andy? Just louse the helmet and stick him in one of the Italy stages and there you go! An alternately colored Andy sprite! )