Summary: Kasuga Kyosuke is a teenage psychic from a prosperous 1980s Japan. He has the power to travel through time and dimensions when he trips down stairs. This ability is unreliable at best. During one of his misadventures, the indecisive and well-meaning boy brought two versions of himself into being. One of these versions was lost down another stair trip in time.
This is the story of the lost twin who trips into the Democratic Republic of Japan. This alternate Japan is ruled by a fascist dictatorship. The DRJ uses the Program, which is also known as the Battle Royale Program, for its own mysterious purposes.
An alternate version of Madoka, who he longed for in his world, exists in this parallel universe. Madoka is an unreformed rebel who joined the protests against the new restrictions that the government has placed on the youth, which includes extending the eligibility period for the deadly Program. Madoka and a youth gang that participated in the protest have fled into a bar to hide from the police.
Kyosuke had ducked into the bar earlier to avoid the rain. As chance or perhaps fate would have it, he tried betting on a horse race and received a flash of precognition. Right after winning big, Madoka re-enters his life.
Hitokiri Orange Road
Chapter 4. The Calm
The patrons stared at the girls in their long suicide squad jackets. One of the gang member leaned against the arms of a comrade. Ayukawa Madoka eyes scanned the room suspiciously. Kyosuke's breath constricted. He had thought of her and had dreamed of her, grasping desperately at each detail, but had little real hope of meeting her again. He was paralyzed. The waitress broke the impasse by approaching the gang.
"Madoka," the waitress greeted the girl at the front of the gang.
"Nabiki," Madoka began. "No, Mz. Tendo-"
"Nabiki is fine," the waitress corrected her. "Did anyone follow you?"
"I'm not sure," Madoka answered.
The wounded gang member doubled over in pain. It took all of her willpower to keep from screaming out. Dark droplets of blood dripped onto the floor. Nabiki steered the girls through the crowd. The patrons silently parted for the girls, until the bar's Master stood in her way.
"Hold on, Nabiki," the bartender protested. "I don't want any trouble here."
"She's hurt," Nabiki protested. Nabiki bit her lip and looked around for support.
Kyosuke caught Madoka's anxious look at the door. They needed a distraction. He pulled the wad of bills that the pale bookie proffered him.
"Master," Kyosuke interrupted. "Would this buy a few rounds for the house?"
"What?" the master asked dumbfounded.
Nabiki caught Kyosuke's look. She pulled the sheaf of bills from his hands. She made a great show of kissing the bills and then stuffing it into the cup of her lacy bra. She went behind the bar, began pouring drafts, and handed the glasses out. "Cigars?" she asked Kyosuke.
"Whatever the money'll buy!" Kyosuke announced with false bravado. He punched his fist in the air for emphasis.
"Hey, Master," Nabiki said with false cheer. She pulled out a box of cheap stogies and plugged one into Kyosuke's mouth and then the barkeeper's. "I think that you have some customers who want their drinks. Let's get pouring."
Nabiki exchange a few quick words with Madoka. Madoka took one arm of the wound girl and pressed her way through a doorway. The bookie and bartender backed out of her way. Kyosuke didn't blame them. He could not match that stare anymore than he could stare down an oncoming train. Kyosuke followed in their wake as the patrons swarmed the bar for free beer. They bypassed a small kitchen, where a harried cook took down Nabiki's rapid fire orders, and headed up a set of stairs.
The stairs opened to a storage room. The cheap blinds were drawn shut. Madoka laid down her jacket on a pallet and helped the young woman onto makeshift bed. She barked orders at the other three high school gangsters. They leapt into action and began mopping their messy trail. They threw their jackets aside and tied their t-shirts up to emulate Nabiki's belly-baring look. Their fit and feminine bodies drove Kyosuke to distraction. After cleaning off the worse of the ash at a sink, the three trooped back downstairs. Meanwhile, Madoka had found a first aid kit.
"And for God's sake, let Tendo do the talking!" Madoka snapped after them.
Madoka had shed her face mask. She worked quickly and methodically. Kyosuke switched on an overhead light. Underneath Madoka's cool exterior, he knew that she was worried.
"Is there anything I can do?" Kyosuke asked.
Madoka handed him a pair of latex gloves, which he slipped on.
"Put your hand here," Madoka pointed at a cut at the side of the woman's belly. "And just put pressure on the gauze."
The short-haired woman gasped in pain as Madoka tended to another hurt.
"Damn," she cursed in a tobacco scarred voice. "Knew we shouldn't have trusted those prats from W. Tech, they turned on us at the first opportunity."
"They got taken in, too," Madoka replied wearily. "I don't think that the government is cutting any deals."
"Serves them right," the wounded woman snarled.
"Try not to talk Oryuu," Madoka said. "This is going to hurt."
Madoka moved Kyosuke's hand with a firm motion. Madoka bandaged the wound. Kyosuke turned his back when Madoka wrapped Oryuu's hurt ribs, which were probably not broken. By the time she was finished, Oryuu's looked mummified. Kyosuke washed himself off as Madoka cleaned up the space.
"Can I get you anything, Miss Oryuu?" Kyosuke asked.
"Miss Oryuu," the woman teased. "You sound fresh out of farm country. Get me my jacket."
Kyosuke handed the suicide jacket to the woman. Oryuu ran a hand roughly through her short hair. Her face was pale. The gang leader had an angular and handsome face. She snorted out a curse as she crushed an empty wrapper of Lucky Strikes. She flicked her zippo lighter on and off. Ayukawa returned with a paper cup of tap water. Oryuu took a sip before waving it away and then she noticed the cigar still in Kyosuke's mouth.
"Are you going to smoke that?"
"I have a name, it's Kasuga Kyosuke," he mentioned as transferred the stogy to her hand. "And they aren't any good for you."
"You should speak to her with more respect!" Ayukawa snapped from behind him. Her words cut him.
"Hey, this could be considered an indirect kiss," Oryuu joked.
Kyosuke's hands flew to his mouth. He glanced at Ayukawa, who didn't react to the comment. This young woman wasn't his Ayukawa, but the voice and everything else seemed alike.
"Oryuu, be serious," Ayukawa said. "He could be working for the government."
"Madoka, I am being serious," the short-haired woman responded. "I don't think he's acting. I think that he really is a hick, who did us a big favor. Kasuga, My name is Oryuu and this is Madoka, also known as Madoka the Pick."
Kyosuke nodded in response. Oryuu studied him closely while puffing on the cigar.
"What he did wasn't that great," Madoka challenged. "Throwing around money like that.
"Where do you think he got money from," she added with a twisted smile. "Who did you sell out? Or is your father a government bigwig?"
"Neither," Kyosuke answered with a voice that was calmer than he felt. "I got the money from a bet, that's all."
They heard voices come from the floor below. It was the police, demanding to search the upstairs. Oryuu spat out a curse. Madoka turned off the light, snatched the cigar from Oryuu's lips and stubbed out the smoke against the ground.
"We've been found," Oryuu urged. "Get out of here, go out the back!"
"It's probably guarded," Madoka argued. "I'm not leaving you here."
Footfalls echoed loudly up the stairs. Kyosuke put his hand lightly against Madoka's shoulder to keep track of her location. He knew where Oryuu was. There was just enough light for him to make out the outlines of the shelves and crates.
"Stand still," Kyosuke ordered. "I'm going to pull a trick."
Moving the heavy crates turned out to be easier than he had thought. His Power had not been used in weeks and bucked like a ready bronco. Kyosuke nearly dropped everything during the initial clumsy surge. Madoka yelped as a jar of pickles flew past her. The dozens of shelves spilt dozens of boxes and jars, which Kyosuke caught with his invisible fingers. The crates obediently slid into place as the shelves realigned and restocked themselves, creating a claustrophobic pocket around them.
Exhausted, Kyosuke slumped against the newly formed wall of crates. He was sure that his control had matured. He could not have performed such a feat just a few months ago.
"What did you do?" Madoka demanded in a shrill whisper.
She fell silent as the footsteps stampeded closer in the dark. The barkeeper's pleading followed the rhythmic tattoo. The lights clicked on. The three youths fell silent in their darkened shelter. If they were caught, there was nowhere to run. The space was just large enough for the two to stand around Oryuu. Kyosuke felt a trickle of sweat form down the middle of his back. He swallowed. In the dark, he felt Madoka's grip dig into his shoulder.
He could sweat and ash off of her. She was close enough for him to feel her body heat. Her nervous breath fluttered on the back of his neck. The police tromped into the room with their heavy boots.
"Sir, if you've nothing to hide, then you have no need to worry about a search," an official voice boomed.
"Y-yes, sir," the barkeeper stammered.
They fell quiet as the scraping boots as a clicking sound joined them. A large dog barked over the wall of crates. Kyosuke's legs started to cramp, and the space felt small and airless as the dog sniffed closer to their position. On the opposite side, another searcher rapped against the crates. The thuds sounded loud, even louder than his own thundering heart beats. He froze as the dog frantically began scratching and snarling. The dog began barking in earsplitting bursts and scratching against the shelf.
Kyosuke reached out with his mind and gave the shelf a jarring blow. A loud shatter of glass resounded through the room. Ayukawa jumped at the noise. The dog went wild with snarling and barking; it's voice shot like a gun through the room.
"Stupid mongrel," an officer snapped.
"Calm down, calm down," another officer said, though it was unclear whether he spoke another policeman or the dog.
"I apologize for the intrusion," the officious voice apologized. "No one needs to know about those bottles."
"It's all right," the barkeeper said. "That's why I don't want dogs up here, they get into everything."
The police and barkeeper left. Kyosuke and Madoka waited a long time before they let out their pented breaths. With the threat gone, fatigue caught up with Kyosuke. He trembling legs gave way and he sank to the ground. A headache seared through his entire mind.
"Are you okay, Kyosuke?" Ayukawa asked.
Madoka put a hand on his shoulder. The weight was comforting.
"I'm okay," he said. "Just got a bit of a headache. I think that I need to rest a bit."
"Oryuu? How are you feeling?"
"Like I need a smoke and a change of pants," Oryuu answered.
Madoka casted around for their jackets. She found a black corner limply protruding from underneath a crate.
Kyosuke slipped into a deep slumber from his psychic exertion. Not even the racket of rearranging the room made stir him. By an unspoken agreement, they left him untouched. They looked at him with a mixture of awe and fear. When night came, Tendo Nabiki tapped on his shoulder until he stirred.
Nabiki half carried Kyosuke into a back street with one of his arms slung around her shoulders. She carried a plastic bag in her free hand. She knew some of the local police and knew which beats to avoid. Bystanders would see a tipsy waitress with a drunken patron, though she had far less than the smell on her clothes let on.
"The things that I do for you young'ins," Nabiki sighed to the semiconscious Kyosuke. "I didn't even get that good of a tip today. Though, it ended up to be a decent party after the fuzz left.
"Anyway, we're almost there," Nabiki concluded as the darkened house and ramshackle fence came into view.
The thin woman propped the boy against the front post as she fished for the key. She blew her misted breath on her white fingers. The storm had left a clear, chill night in its stead.
With some effort, she managed to get Kyosuke into a small room off of the main hallway. Bookshelves covered the walls, except for a china cabinet underneath a circular window. A small altar sat on the cabinet. A heated table with a cloth skirt filled the center of the room. Nabiki switched on the floor lamp. Akane had fallen asleep with her feet tucked under the skirt of the kotatsu.
Nabiki let Kyosuke sink into the ground, dropped the bag in front of Akane, and rushed back to close the door. Nabiki paused at the doorway as an armored transport rumbled down the half darkened street. She could imagine an armored police squad streaming out with their truncheons raised, but the noisy diesel engine continued down the street. The young woman returned to the living room after securing the outside door. She stepped over Kyosuke to wake her sister. Akane lifted herself off of the kotatsu.
"Dinner's here, Sis," Nabiki announced as she handed the bag to Akane.
"Thanks," Akane replied as she fumbled open a cardboard box of fried shrimp. "What was the occasion? And who's he?"
Akane was completely awake by the time that she noticed Kyosuke's supine form. He tossed about mumbling under his breath. Akane put down the food and walked over to examine the boy.
"I know him," Akane said.
"That's okay," Nabiki said. "I'm not interested in him, though he is cute in a wussy sort of way."
"That's not my point," the younger sister retorted.
He didn't seem drunk or hurt and his breathing was strong. It seemed best to leave him alone. Akane found an old blanket in a closet and spread it over the boy. Close up, she caught the word that he repeated over and over: Ayukawa.
"Ayukawa? You don't mean Ayukawa Madoka?" Akane asked aghast.
"The very one, I suppose that I have some explaining to do," Nabiki answered laconically from the kotatsu.
Nabiki summarized the strange day that began with a guy coming in from the rain. Akane related her strange rainy day encounter with Kyosuke. The sum of their accounts did not add up to much, except that the boy was strange. Nabiki favored their father and Akane their mother, so it was normal for the boy not to make the connection between them.
Stumped, Akane bit into the fried shrimp.
"It's good," Akane announced to the cold room.
Nabiki left the room to wash up.
"What do I do if he wakes up?" Akane shouted after her.
"Offer him some shrimp," Nabiki hollered from the empty hall.
Their echoing voices reminded Akane of the unused living quarters and empty practice rooms. Akane's eyes automatically flicked to the family shrine. Akane and Nabiki stopped using most of the house and abandoned the dojo training rooms. It was all that they could do to pay the bills without worrying about maintaining the obsolete building. She never knew how her eldest sister did it. Kasumi took care of her younger sisters and their father with a boundless energy. The small teen had filled the place with her smile.
After Akane had taken the edge off of her hunger, the rest of the greasy tempura held little appeal for her. She buried her head in her arms and sighed.
How was Ayukawa involved? Akane wondered.
Kyosuke rose sputtering from his slumber like a drowning man breaking the surface of a pool. Akane started to attention. She stammered an offer of shrimp.
"Shrimp?" Kyosuke asked muzzily. "You're that Nurse that I met. Nurse, Nurse," he groped for her name.
"Tendo, Tendo Akane," the girl supplied.
"Kasuga Kyosuke," he replied.
Akane rose to help Kyosuke from the floor. Her clothes were faded and patched. He gathered the blanket around himself and joined her at the kotatsu. He scanned his surroundings. His mind still felt clouded. Nabiki re-entered the room while toweling off her hair. The elder sister pulled an old padded robe over her pajamas.
"You're quite the sleeper, Kyosuke," Nabiki reproached him. "I suppose that I should thank you for running interference back there."
"I wanted to help," Kyosuke answered.
"You said that to me, too," Akane said. "How do you know Ayukawa Madoka?"
"I knew someone who looked like her. She meant a lot to me," he admitted, which was true though ambiguous.
"What I want to know is, how did you move those crates?" Nabiki asked.
"I come from a long line of ninja," Kyosuke joked.
He laughed nervously. He was saved by a loud broadcast played to a tune full of trumpets. The music reminded Kyosuke of World War II broadcasts that he'd seen in school. A feminine voice addressed the neighborhood, though it sounded more like a robot than a woman.
"Dear Comrades, thanks to the efforts of our revolutionary leadership, the recent disturbance has been calmed. The incident was perpetrated by a small group of instigators who have been apprehended. All school students are to report to school tomorrow regardless of job or other assignments. There are NO exceptions. Repeat, NO exceptions. All other citizens are to report to work as usual. Remember that it is your duty to report any suspicious activity to your teachers or employers. Please enjoy your quiet evening.
"Dear Comrades," the recording continued down the street.
"So what is the Program?" Kyosuke asked quickly to distract them Nabiki from the topic of his Powers. "It was on the posters, and one of the delinquents mentioned it."
The sisters exchanged a long look, scrutinized him, and then exchanged another look.
"What are you?" Nabiki asked bluntly. Her puzzlement showed plainly on her face.
"Forget about it," Kyosuke said. "Please forget that I asked."
"Anyway, Akane, you've got to get up early for school tomorrow," Nabiki said. "Kyosuke, would you mind staying in this room tonight? The police will probably step up patrols tonight."
AN: Never proof-read when you're on hydros.
Revised 03-13-06 & 04-05-08