ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER: This chapter contains English language dialogue from episodes 7 and 8 written by David Haynes, based on a translation of a script by Fumihiko Shimo. Used without permission. I am making no money off this fan fic. And I hope that if David Haynes finds out about this, he's flattered, not pissed off.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My thanks to penpaninuSessh for pointing me at the giant crow story; it wasn't on ly radar before, but now I see it has Kyo/Sei moments that fit.
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Sei landed Django on the beach next to a burned out shell of a house. As they climbed out of the robot, Bando noted the Cybot parked next to it, and the fact there weren't any other houses visible on the beach for as far as the eye could see.
Bando said, "Isolated."
"Yes," Sei said, "that's how they wanted it."
"'They'?"
Sei didn't answer.
Guns drawn, Sei and Bando crept closer to the house. Then the sand erupted near the detective. Sei spun at gurgling noises. The glowing brain from the phone message - Eriko? Mitsuyo? - floated just behind and above Bando, tentacles from her platform around the detective's throat and restraining her hands. Sei aimed at the brain.
"Temp-er temp-er," Mitsuyo's electronic voice counseled. "Us glowing brains tend to explode when we're shot, and dear Kyohei might be in my blast radius. Lose your weapons, Sei." A tentacle pointed. "Put them on the ground there."
Sei put her handgun and the backup piece from her ankle holster where Mitsuyo indicated.
"Now take the detective's weapons. No funny business. I can snap her neck before you finish the thought to pull the trigger."
Sei obeyed.
"Come with me."
Her arms and throat held by Mitsuyo's tentacles, Bando stumbled along under the platform into the house, Sei following behind them.
Mitsuyo released Bando. "Sei, take her handcuffs, and cuff her hands behind that support beam."
Sei took the cuffs and cuffed Bando's hand behind the beam. They were in a main room of the house, a door at the far end.
"Where's Kyohei?" Sei demanded.
"All in good time." Mitsuyo floated over to Bando. "You seem to be holding up well, Detective, given you've probably never seen anything like me before. Just think of me as having an extreme disability. I told Sei to come alone, but I'm pleased to meet you. Not only do I feel a melodramatic need to explain myself, but you and your partner provided me with a considerable amount of amusement."
"Amusement?" Bando croaked.
"Yes," Mitsuyo said. "The way you and your partner wracked your brains over what to charge Sei with was kind of funny. You clearly had no idea who you were dealing with. No one does…aside from her and Don Laoban. Why don't I clear up the mystery? Surely you've heard the stories of Bailan's Ghost - the child assassin known as The Fearless One, whose name struck fear in the hearts of hardened Yakuza soldiers?" Mitsuyo pointed a tentacle at Sei. "Well, there she stands, in the flesh! If she received generous plea bargains for a quarter of the things the old man had her do, she would be in prison for 760 years, give or take, and that's with time off for good behavior.
"This house was the site of one of her kills. Several of them, in point of fact, all on the same night. It used to belong to a family of thieves. Mommy, Daddy, and their two older daughters; little Mitsuyo hadn't been brought into the 'family business' yet, but she might have been. In any case, they were bold, daring thieves, who lived in Japan and did jobs all around the world. More law enforcement agencies than you have fingers and toes sent their finest after them; the thieves made monkeys out of them. They were in it for the thrill as much as the money.
"One day, Daddy came up with the most daring job yet: They would go to China; break into the home of the Bailan godfather, Don Laoban; and steal his most prized possession, the Jade Egg, which had been in his family for generations. They could never fence the thing; they wanted the bragging rights. And they weren't worried about retribution because there was no way the Yakuza would allow Bailan to do a hit on Japanese soil. So they went to China and they did it!
"A few months later, little Mitsuyo made a new friend at school, a ten year old new student named Tamiko. They became best friends. Mommy and Daddy checked Tamiko's family out and found they were ok, so Mitsuyo was allowed to play with her new friend. They would spend hours together, usually in this house or on the beach. Mitsuyo loved Tamiko very much; she hoped their friendship would last forever. But it didn't. It ended the night Tamiko came for dinner and started killing everyone! For Tamiko was really Sei, sent by Don Laoban to kill the thieves and retrieve the Jade Egg. Her 'family' were Bailan soldiers living under very detailed false identities. And the Yakuza? Laoboan had had a sit down with the local oyabun, who'd agreed with Laoban's need to set an example, so they looked the other way.
"Mitsuyo was shot in the head after every one else had been killed. Then Sei set the house on fire. Miraculously, Mitsuyo came through the fire with only minor burns. Then her body mysteriously disappeared from the morgue and the next thing she knew…" Mitsuyo pointed two tentacles at herself. "…she was this!"
Bando gawked at Sei, horrified not so much by what Sei had done as what had been done to her, at the kind of life she had had to have lead to have been a ten year old assassin before becoming the heir apparent to Bailan Triad. Compassion swept through her; it was hard to even feel annoyed with Sei anymore.
"You feel sorry for her," Mitsuyo noted. "I suppose there's a point to that. But think of what was taken away from me, Detective. Think of all the little things you take for granted. Like combing your hair. Having your nails done. Wearing a skimpy swim suit to the beach and wondering why men slobber over you. I can't do any of that! I don't even know what it's like to have a period. Think you wouldn't miss it? Guess again!
"My…captors were so proud of their 'Subject Zero' they didn't notice I was using their resources to find out who Sei was and why she'd slaughtered my family. It's not hard to figure out if you're a mass of gray matter that never sleeps. Then I escaped them and came to Tokyo. And I started to watch Sei and wait for my chance to strike. At first, I wanted to kill her, but I soon realized that death doesn't scare her - she really is The Fearless One. But then I realize it would be so much more satisfying to hurt her, to make her suffer, to leave her with an emotional scar she'd carry for the rest of her life. But again, it seemed difficult; she never let anyone get too close. I was on the brink of giving up when I saw her…with…him."
A projector on the side of Mitsuyo's platform lit up, and projected an image onto the nearest wall. Bando thought it was from a security camera in a supermarket, showing Kyo standing next to Sei as he explained something he was holding.
"Can you see it, Detective?" Mitsuyo asked. "I could. After watching Sei for years, I could see the signs. Anyone else might think she was just relaxed or, at most, mildly amused. But to me, she might as well have been giggling and blushing the whole time. Can you believe it? Sei could sleep with the movie star of her choice with a phone call, and instead she fell head-over-heels in love with her goddamm cook!"
Mitsuyo drifted closer to Sei. "Of course you deny it, Sei," she went on. "You support his dreams because you love him, yet you know if you draw him too far into your world, he'll never achieve them. And that's after you get past your fear of rejection. Yes, Sei, deep down, you're afraid of something - that for all your beauty and in-your-face-sexuality, there's a 50-50 chance he'd run away screaming if you confessed your true feelings. But you know what the irony is? He wants you, too. But you terrify him. He's afraid of what would happen if he got too close to you, if you would ever let him go. So it's safer not to say anything." Mitsuyo laughed. "It's like something out of a romance novel or a bad fan fic: The lonely princess and the humble cook, always together and always apart, secretly yearning for each other and denying their forbidden love. I don't know whether it's romantic or pathetic."
Sei snorted. "And to think that up until now, I was impressed."
"Oh, really, Sei?"
"Yes, Mitsuyo. Apparently, your…present condition has not prevented you from falling prey to some common misconceptions about myself and Kyohei."
"Oh, you think so, Sei? Then explain this. I pinched this from your trailer's security system."
Mitsuyo's projector lit up again, and this time the image was of Sei and some of her henchmen, squaring off with Jo, who was restraining Kyo from behind. Sei remembered the incident from that business with the giant crow.
The Sei in the image said, "Step away from Kyohei right now, Jo. We need to let Bailan recover the N. I. 50 from his system. If we don't, then he is going to die."
"Yeah," Jo said, "well, if we do, Meg dies."
"I promise we will find another way to get Meg out of there. Now, stop this foolishness." The image froze.
"Why put yourself at odds with your best girl, Sei?" Mitsuyo asked. "You had to know Jo was up to the task of saving both Kyo and Meg, and with hours to spare at that. There was no need to put yourself at logger heads with her; the risk to Kyo was minimal. But you wouldn't budge. You wanted the N. I. 50 removed and him out of danger as soon as humanly possible. You wasted almost all the time Kyo had left to live by forcing Jo's hand and making her run off with Kyo. And even when they caught up to you again at Tokyo Tower, you hadn't changed your mind."
The image flickered to another standoff; this time Kyo was standing unrestrained next to Jo.
"The enemy's hideout has been secured, Jo," the Sei in the image said. "There's no place left for it to go. If we work together, we can both have what we want. Honestly, how did you plan to fight it without Django? Work with me here. Hand over Kyo."
"No deal," Jo said. "The crow's not going to play ball unless we trade both of the hostages. I can beat it. Just let me have Django and stay the hell out of my way."
Image Sei turned away from Jo and Kyo, looking off at an angle. "All right then," she said. "We'll let Kyo make the choice. So, Kyo, what do you think? Do you want to take your chances with Jo? Or stay and get the N. I. 50 out now?" She turned to face Kyo. "It is your life on the line. So it's up to you." The image froze again.
"In the end, the crow was destroyed, Meg and the other girls were saved, and the N. I. 50 was removed from Kyo, so he was saved," Mitsuyo said as her projector clicked off. "You had to have known it would have worked out that way anyway. But even with the odds stacked ludicrously in your favor, you couldn't take the smallest chance with his life. You even had to let him make the call in the end. Which doesn't make any sense…unless you love him, and you were so desperate to save the one you love you weren't thinking straight."
"Anyone can cherry pick selected data to fit a foregone conclusion," Sei said. "Instead of trying to argue with you, I prefer to point out that you're missing the big picture."
"What big picture, Sei?"
"My team has been tasked with finding the source of the glowing brains, Mitsuyo…which means the people who did this to you. We would seem to have a common enemy. Work with me, Mitsuyo. With your inside knowledge, we can take down the enemy together."
"Nice try, Sei, but the 'enemy' wouldn't have done this to me if you hadn't tried to kill me. If not for you, I'd be a normal 19 year old girl. So you have to pay."
"Then your quarrel is with me. There's no need to hurt Kyohei, Mitsuyo."
"Hurt Kyohei, Sei? What makes you think I want to hurt him? I don't. I haven't hurt him. I've helped him."
"By turning him against his friends!?"
"'Friends'? Have you heard how he talks about you?" Mitsuyo laughed. "But yes, I've helped him. I listened sympathetically to all his troubles - troubles you and your girls caused, Sei. I helped him find a job that he enjoys, where his talents are really appreciated. And I taught him to defend himself. How may of those things have you done?"
"I thought you said he loves me, Mitsuyo."
"He does, Sei, but there's a laundry list of issues you've allowed to fester for months. You have no idea how much anger and frustration he's repressed. I just gave him an outlet."
Bando had calmed down enough to think that maybe she could gain control of this situation. "Get to the part where you used my squad to go after Sei," she said. "How did we figure into it?"
"Actually, you weren't on my radar at first," Mitsuyo said pleasantly as she drifted over to Bando. "I didn't know about you until Kyo mentioned you in one of our chats. When I realized you could cause her a little extra suffering, I pushed you in the right direction. And you did an excellent job. And by coming along tonight, you've actually made things worse for her. You're going to help me destroy her whether you want to or not." Mitsuyo chuckled. "I know what you're doing, Detective - trying to see if you can gain control. What you fail to understand is, no matter what happens, I win. No matter what happens to me, Sei is finished. If you and she get out of this alive, you will have to arrest her for murder lest you bring shame on yourself and your unit."
Sei took a step forward. "Mitsuyo, I am truly sorry for what has happened to you. If I could make amends, I would do it. But if you hurt Kyohei, all bets are off. There isn't any place on this Earth where you will be safe from me. Please, do whatever you want to me. Just let him go now."
"Oh, no, Sei," Mitsuyo said, drifting to the door at the far end of the room, "you won't get off that easy. But you're wrong about me hurting Kyohei. I told you, I haven't hurt him. I don't want to. And I'm not going to. His fate is going to be in your hands. You can come in now, Kyo."
Kyo came through the door, dressed in the flight suit for piloting the cybot. His eyes were glazed, but still mirrored the fanatical zeal in his smile.
Mitsuyo stroked his cheek with a tentacle. "Kyohei, do you love me?"
"Yes, Eriko," Kyo said.
"Kyo!" Sei said. "Her name isn't Eriko!"
"What's my name?" Mitsuyo asked.
"Eriko," Kyo said.
"Do you think Sei is a bad person, Kyohei?"
"Yes, Eriko."
"Do you think she should be punished for what she's done to us?"
"Yes, Eriko."
"Kyohei, will you do anything I tell you to do as long as it makes Sei suffer?"
"Yes, Eriko."
"Good boy." Mitsuyo drifted to one side. "Beat Detective Bando to death," she ordered. "And if Sei tries to stop you, kill her, too."
Kyo cracked his knuckles and his smile broadened. "With pleasure, Eriko."