The miscreants from the prison raid had been "stored" ever since the incident. Not by Juri's hand although she did take liberal use of their credit cards. It was a decent soothe for the lack of breaking someone's ankle until they would be better off amputating it. For legal reasons, Juri couldn't have fun with them even after they spilled information.
Vigilantism is a breakdown of society, Chun-Li had said, and Cammy backed that up. Vigilantism is the only valid form of justice, Juri wanted to bite back. Ken was a shining example of exactly that.
However, she'd let them have the win and followed the women down the sprawling streets of Chinatown. The neon signs painted a polychromatic glow on the pavement, reflected on nearby windows, and cast right back at the people who walked past. Chun-Li blended perfectly in with her qipao and her ox horns – and the attention her beauty gathered, even if she remained indifferent to the quiet ardor.
She was like a beacon.
Which was good as Juri could focus on the mission that lay ahead. There was usually some tension in the air whenever she had the run-ins with either Chun-Li or Cammy. She felt it drop off her body now, probably because the focus wasn't on her, Ken, or Guile, who had just sort of dropped off the planet after the raid on the abandoned penitentiary.
Anyway, as odd as it was to be walking in public with people whom Juri struggled to call allies and her one friend, it familiarized itself so quickly that it had no issue with sinking into the back of her headspace like people slipping into a comfortable haze after smoking pot.
The miscreants would be subject to the lawfulness of justice but at the very least, they had given up credit cards and more importantly information. The group moved past the denizens of the district, past neon glows, past signs written in numerous, different Asian languages. Grocery shops, markets, porcelain shops, food stalls. Many food stalls.
It reminded Juri that she could really go for some japchae just so Ken could stop obsessing over trying to make cacio e pepe a million different ways. Maybe after this, she should try her hand to make some. Juri would hone her cooking skills, but never remember where, when, or from whom she learned to cook.
Not willingly, anyway.
The quartet made it to the back of a nearby alleyway, shrouded in darkness with only the faint spill from the street casting a weak attempt at light to the dirty pavement. A heavy smell of yakitori filled the air and it caused Juri's stomach to growl. She leaned against the wall, watching the others putter around. Cammy looked at a watch attached to her wrist, angling her arm just right for the dimness to reveal the pointers.
"Alright, he should be arriving in a few minutes," she said.
"Who?" Juri raised a brow.
"The contact. The suspects led us to him and he's gonna lead us to our next target."
"Well, you could sic me on him."
Cammy dropped her arm by the side of her body. "And you would have snapped his spine afterward."
She stated that so frankly, it was hard for Juri to dispute that. Even worse, Chun-Li was backing that statement up because of course she was. Juri swallowed her protest and settled against the wall again. A door to the back alley went open and a man stepped out with trash bags in his hands. He was a bear of a man, tall and wide with a headband around his head. A scowl rested on his expression, matching the suspicion in his eyes.
"Don't worry. They are with me," Cammy gestured to the others. The man looked at them but did not say a word. He spun on his heel and walked into the darkness with the group following behind. Away from the light, away from the bustling street. Away from safety really.
The dark swallowed them into its maw, through alleyways and scattered trash bags until they reached a building at the end of the district. The informant or whatever he was soundly pounded on the door, pounding until it finally opened. A bouncer stared him up and down, then turned to the group before he stepped aside. Already from the entrance, sounds of fighting carried through the air under the cheer of an unrestrained crowd.
"What is this place?" Chun-Li asked, leaning close to Cammy to cover the noise of the…well, dungeon.
An illegal undergrown kumite fight club, it was. Juri had become familiar with those for the sake of her occupation, for the sake of her thrill-seeking ways. Curious, she turned to look over her shoulder at Ken and found herself quietly reassured by the hard look on his face. It softened when their eyes met. It was almost as if he felt safer with her.
How ironic considering that Juri certainly was also the most dangerous person in the room. He shuffled closer to her but never touched her, just settling for a comfortable distance. They neared a massive crowd that had circled a fenceless arena where two combatants were busy beating the daylights out of each other. The first thing that caught Juri's eye was the man being pushed down against the floor and pelted with blows to his face.
It was like one of those action crime movies, Juri had watched as a child. Young men, clawing at each other; punching and kicking, spitting blood, spitting teeth. Chests heaving, adrenaline pumping. Being on the outside looking in, Juri found herself holding her breath.
The current assailant moved like a machine, ignorant of the way teeth scraped at his knuckles with ragged red welts. Juri found herself thinking of how her feet sometimes looked after hours of endless training in her youth. Of how her skin was painted with hot red and pink lines after fulfilling her growing need for stimulation.
She stopped thinking about sadomasochistic nostalgia and looked to the informant guiding Cammy to a man in kabuki gear who watched the fight like a hawk. He wasn't exactly a referee. There probably wasn't one as no one stepped in when one fighter got his eye gauged out. The crowd roared but Juri could see the colors drain from the faces of three certain people.
"Wait here," Cammy ordered loud enough for the group to hear her, resting her gaze on Ken specifically like she could see the defiance, the fighting spirit light a spark inside of him. It took a gentle hand on his shoulder from Chun-Li to tame him.
Looking around, the group was wholly inconspicuous, yet they had attracted attention. Juri subtly picked up on that. She could imagine it was only a matter of time before someone stepped over to challenge them for the honor of women or some easy bullying. Juri sighed quietly into the smell of blood and gore, keenly, maybe anticipatingly aware of the eyes of the denizens around her.
It was the kind of bloodthirst that made her feel at home, maybe for all the wrong reasons. Cammy approached the kabuki guy (who probably wasn't a kabuki actor), with the informant behind her. He stopped and stared at the two, talking muffled words that didn't even attempt to carry over the noise.
Kabuki face stared at the remaining three while Cammy gestured at them to come closer. There was no introduction, only the scrutinizing look of a massive frame in Kabuki makeup. What was it about this city where every criminal man was a moving mountain?
Kabuki twat took them to a room in the back that probably could have passed as a changing room – or a cubicle. It had a bench in the middle with bare space from wall to wall and a fluorescent lamp flickering in the ceiling. As the last one to enter, Juri closed the door. A small window was situated over a poster of a naked pinup model. Neon signs from the outside painted a barely visible pink glow on the top of the Kabuki man's already pink wig.
"So you wish to find Damnd," he said into the silence, musing and calm, resting his eyes on the informant. "I don't recall discussing that with you, Sodom. And you brought friends along. New warriors for the new, new, new Mad Gear? An edge to end the war?"
Sodom, the informant, swallowed hard but didn't quite get to answer his colleague or whatever before Juri jumped in.
"War? So, you are part of that power struggle?"
The Kabuka weirdo bristled. He grabbed two fistfuls of his pink wig, lightning almost shooting out of his eyes. "Yes. Mad Gear is fragmented in its stage. You can thank Damnd for that."
"It is as Retu says. Right now, it is us versus Damnd and the drug fiends. We strive to create a nation of warriors. For prosperity, for honor," Sodom added.
Didn't these people kidnap the former mayor's daughter and other people for extortion? What fucking honor?
Juri tried not to scoff at the nonsense they were spitting out and looked around, catching a deepening of Ken's scowl. It was always assuring to know that you weren't going stark mad whenever you encountered true, delusional bullshit. Someone could always validate you.
Ken had enough of the silence, the passing moments, the meandering for information. He stepped forward, against the soft pleas of Chun-Li or the worried look from Cammy. "I don't care about your squabbles. I just need to know where Damnd is."
"He fled the city. According to our spies, he's in a small fishing town nearby. It's an easier route for his drug business," Retu spat like the irony of his indignation didn't face him at all. "Do not kill him. Bring him to us for he is our enemy."
It must have occurred to Chun-Li what that entailed. "…Are you going to kill him?"
"If you get what you wish for, why do you care what happens to him?" Sodom asked like the answer was clear-cut. To anyone with a taste for frontier justice, it probably was.
"We don't. But I'll serve him to you on a silver platter if it doesn't end with his decapitated head," Ken answered, a shred of his humanity shining like a beacon.
Sodom and Retu huddled together, whispering amongst each other like quiet winds moving between mountain tops from afar.
"Fair enough. We have determined that we can use him to further our goals," Retu handed Ken a piece of paper, two of them; a map and a tiny note with some addresses and phone numbers.
Collective relief settled over the group and they left the fight club, quietly rushing past the eager crowd, the stench of blood, and the grunts of pain of violence. A new fight had begun, two fighters now embarking on their dance of gore, blood, and teeth staining the floor under them. As familiar as Juri was with such depravity, she could see Cammy and Chun-Li make it out of the club with increasing urgency like something had crawled up inside of them, died there and they were in a rush to get it out.
Once outside, dust of rain sprinkled on the street, coating the pavement in a sheen gloss sheet. Juri walked on her own, stopping when she found the others circling each other.
"What's the matter?" Ken asked and Chun-Li jittered with discomfort.
"It's just…are you okay? Drugs, gang wars, murder. I mean, Ken, you're putting yourself in some deep, deep shit here. You almost got killed," She folded her arms over her chest, partly against the cold, partly to shield herself from disappointment. "You're not an officer."
"It's that or going to the police and getting shot on sight for a crime I didn't commit."
Chun-Li was not happy and why would she? Lawfully good types would usually back out at the first sign of grey morality. She sighed and rubbed her arms. "…Right. I can't go with you though. I've left Li-Fen alone for too long and my vacation time is ending."
Ken deflated a bit but stood standing in deep understanding. A small smirk spread over his face. "It's okay. You've done so much already. Don't jinx your family because of me."
They hugged in a scene that could be taken out of a terrible movie. But it was probably as sincere as the sun was bright; it was one of those friendship things that Juri felt a little odd looking at. Almost as if she wasn't supposed to be looking.
"Cammy, please make sure they don't get themselves killed. And make sure that Ken and Guile reconcile," Chun-Li turned to the other woman, who diligently nodded, sending a knowing glance toward Ken.
"Finally, a breakthrough," Ken smiled to himself, bubbling with anticipating mirth, gathering bags to pack his belongings while Juri stood in the doorway, watching him with the slight empathetic joy of seeing him pleased. More action for her, more truth for him.
"Mm-hm. And we're getting a vacation for it."
She watched him finish the last bags, filled with energy as if it wasn't past midnight already. He didn't look tired while he stared at her with crystal blue eyes. For a moment, she wanted to drown in their saturation. Or maybe she was just tired.
"I wish it was that easy. I don't think I can go back to enjoying that place," Ken said as he came closer to her, standing less than an arm's length away. "I feel like I'm being drafted."
His eyes dropped a bit, concerned, excited. Maybe scared. For once, Juri didn't blame him. She recalled a certain someone talking to her as a child about his mandatory military service, and how gut-wrenching it was on the first day. It wasn't remotely similar despite the comparison Ken had just made. But there was some anxious anticipation over it all.
Juri leaned against the doorframe, closing her eyes to the sneaking exhaustion, closing her mind to the inevitable end to this. Well, there went her purpose. Ah, it was getting far too late to brood. She didn't protest when Ken wrapped his hand around her arm to keep her standing, guiding her to somewhere soft. Not the couch, she figured quickly. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at the ceiling of the bedroom.
And it occurred to her that it was the first time they had spent the night next to each other. It was also the first time, Juri had spent the night next to someone else for a very, very long time. The sensations struck her as wholly unfamiliar; the warmth of the room, the scent of another person, the heat of someone else soaking the sheets, the sounds.
Juri had been so tired, she almost missed its reality or taking in the feel of it.
"This is new," she yawned under the blanket, rolling to the edge of the bed and closing her eyes.
Ken quietly huffed in response, sounding equally if not wearier like the tiredness hit him like an anvil in the blink of an eye. "You looked ready to collapse. Besides, we might have to get used to it when we leave. The one motel there only has double beds and most if not all the other rooms are booked."
So, laziness then. Got it. Well, that and some adaptability training.
Juri didn't question this. She had been subject to far worse in the presence or by the hands of men. Sleeping next to one ranked pretty far down her list of hypothetical androphobia triggers. Ken hadn't once come close to spark that and there was something quite endearing by how his breathing went deep, slow, and even with sleep in her presence.
Her eyes fluttered open and she turned around. Her chest hitched in surprise, involuntarily. In the dark, she could scantily see him. She had witnessed him unconscious before and that was the period after the prison raid. He looked so different now than when he was in endless pain. He looked tired, older but at peace.
Suppose most people found equanimity when they zonked out.
Juri turned around and pulled the blanket higher before she fell asleep, imagining how her life would look like when all of this was over.