6:17 PM, Section 13
Augustus Black looked at the computer monitor with a frown and unconsciously stroked his chin. He pressed the spacebar on his keyboard again and again at a steady pace, looking through all of Jade's recent photos from Morocco stored through her portable camera. The camera was connected with a cable to the system of Black's computer so he could have full access. Although some images were blurry and out of focus, most of the images were solid enough to look through. "Gotten any visual on them yet?" the Section 13 captain said, his eyes not leaving the screen.
Jade and Jackie stood to Black's left and right watching the individual photos come and go. Thankfully, Jade had taken a good amount of pictures, giving the Chans and Section 13 a better field to identify their targets, Jun and Yuzhu Jiang. "Not yet," Jackie hummed.
"Me neither," Jade said. The next photo that showed on the screen was the one of Drago sprawled on the ground unconscious right after Tohru knocked him out. The girl couldn't help herself grinning at the image. "Now that was a good shot!" Jade proudly pointed out.
"That's nice Jade, but I do not see any pictures of Yuzhu or the other wizard we saw," Jackie said with a raised eyebrow.
Captain Black pressed the spacebar again but the photo didn't move. "I'm assuming this is the end of the reel," he commented.
"Uhhh... " Jade quietly drew out in awkwardness. She was sure she had taken a picture of either wizard somewhere. Did I delete it? Did I never get the chance to take it? she asked herself with furrowed brows. Jade cast her eyes to the floor with a dejected sigh. "Huh, guess I don't have any clear pics on them after all. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it, Jade. I have another idea," Black said with an understanding nod. He clicked out of the picture tab and clicked a tab on his home screen. A window popped up to show a blank database, and Black began rapidly typing in a quick manner on his keyboard. Jackie and Jade leaned in by the Section 13 captain's side to look closer at what he was doing. "Drago gave us Yuzhu's full name, right?" Black double-checked.
"Yes, Yuzhu Jiang. Y-U-Z-H-U J-I-A-N-G," Jackie spelled out the word for Black to type in each letter correctly, then pressed enter.
"What's all this?" Jade cocked her head to ask.
"If we can't find a picture to track them down, going through their names and IDs may help, even if it may take a bit more time to look through," Black replied with his eyes still on the screen at all the faces and names pulled up from the private search engine. "My superiors updated all the government section's databases a few months ago to make space to access and maintain more kinds of data in our systems."
"Ooh! You can use the database to get satellite footage of Drago and those wizards in Morocco, zoom in, take photos, and investigate!" an excited Jade called out. "I've seen that work on TV."
"Er, it doesn't quite work like that, Jade," Captain Black shook his head at Jade
"But you used satellites on Valmont and the Dark Hand back then when they were around," Jackie pointed out.
"Surveillance, not satellites. Neither I nor Section 13 have the clearance to access that," Black informatively corrected. "When the Dark Hand was suspected to be involved in many large-scale international crimes, my superiors granted us access to other forms of surveillance like undercover operations and fixed to keep track of all that was without any magical interference," the Section 13 captain said with a careful frown. "If I were to use satellite footage on Yuzhu now without approval from my superiors, I'd be in serious hot water. I need hard proof that says Yuzhu is involved in criminal activities outside of her being a "dark wizard"," Black said as he leaned back in his chair to air quote. "That, or Yuzhu has to commit a crime serious enough for my superiors to pass her case to us to take care of."
"That's... complicated," Jade said with a baffled expression.
"It is. However, we are allowed to search for a person's name and documents. That's what I'm having the database do here," Captain Black said and turned back to the monitor. The search continued to pull up the hundreds of thumbnails of names and faces of all people named Yuzhu Jiang and sorted the results out in rows and columns. "I can type in the full name of someone and narrow the search with more information like IDs, age, date, place of birth, any current and past addresses, of anyone all over the world."
"Uncle would probably know," Jackie suggested with a nod.
"Good. And what about the other wizard's full name, Jun?"
"Drago said he didn't know," said Jade with a shrug.
"And the two of you wouldn't happen to know either?" Black asked and Jackie and Jade shook their heads. The captain let out a sigh. "At least we have a start somewhere."
"What about a sketch of Jun? We at least know what he looked like," Jade offered in hope.
Black cupped his chin and looked down in thought for a few seconds, then turned to Jade with a solid nod. "That can work."
Then, Jackie's phone burst out ringing from his back pocket. He took it out to look at the caller ID. "It's Tohru," Jackie announced and put his phone to his ear. "Hello?" Jackie answered. As Tohru spoke on the other line, the archaeologist's gaze drifted down to Jade. "Yes she is," he said with a nod. His eyes stared off in the distance, looking at nothing in particular. Then his face lit up in delight and a smile started to spread on his lips. "Oh, that is great! Can he-" the archaeologist halted in his words and his smile fell. "Oh." His eyes briefly looked to the floor and slowly nodded. "Okay. I understand. We will be home soon," Jackie said and hung up the line.
"What did Tohru say?" Jade asked because she caught the look in Jackie's eyes before.
"He said Uncle had overheard Drago's interrogation. He was upset when he heard Yuzhu helped Drago escape and he went home," Jackie answered with worry as he placed his cell into his back pocket. "He wants to talk to us about Yuzhu."
"If you two need to go home, I won't stop you. The background checks will still be here when you get back," Black gave a supportive nod to Jackie.
Jackie nodded in return. "Thank you, Captain Black. Whatever else we learn, we will let you know."
Half an hour later...
The front bell of Uncle's Rare Finds rang throughout the shop, followed by the sounds of a pair of footsteps. Uncle and Tohru briefly looked up from their studies in the direction of the sound and exchanged a knowing look with each other. Jade and Jackie had returned, both wizards recognized.
"Uncle? Tohru?" Jackie called out from the foyer.
"We're home!" Jade called out in a sing-song voice. The two of them made a beeline to the library where they saw Uncle and Tohru at their desk with open books in front of them and Tohru's area having the broken spectacles in front of him. Both wizards looked up to see Jackie and Jade enter the room.
"You said you were ready to talk?" Jackie inquired with a slightly hopeful tune.
Uncle solemnly nodded. He took his glasses from his nose to clean the lens with the corner of his shirt. "Uncle should have explained himself when we had first encountered her," he said. Uncle held his glasses in the light for a brief moment to make sure they were clear enough for him to see. "I guess my pride got the best of me," he muttered to himself.
"Time to spill the beans Unc!" Jade exclaimed.
"Please do not beat yourself up over it, Uncle," Tohru prompted his former chi master.
"Just start from the beginning," Jackie said.
"The Yuzhu you saw in Morocco was not the same wizard Uncle once knew," Uncle slowly stated, finally bringing the spectacles to his nose. "We met through other chi wizards and she was a good and innocent person then."
"Waitwait, other chi wizards? Like more than Chi Master Fong?" Jade raised her brow to ask.
"Of course!" Uncle strongly affirmed. "Do you think Uncle studied under Master Fong by luck as if he were his fairy godmother?"
"Considering all the magic we've seen and all the demons we've fought and even banished, yes," Jade simply answered with an enthusiastic nod.
"Jade has a point," Jackie chimed in with a shy shrug.
"Yeah! And Chi Master Fong was like a magical godfather to you when you were his apprentice, so the title still works," Jade pointed out. "Er, sorta."
"Fairy godmothers do not exist," Uncle candidly stated, giving a flat look to his nephew and great-niece for the joke analogy. "But back then, magic was real, not children's stories, and a bit more common than you think," the elder wizard explained, keeping his gaze on Jade. "I remember being a few years older than you when I became Chi Master Fong's apprentice. And it was through him that I got in touch with a vast underground network of chi wizards stemming from the mainland to all over Asia—Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, India."
"A secret chi wizard club all over Asia?" Jade's eyes lit up in uber-glee. "Cool!"
"What about Yuzhu?" Jackie inquired.
"Getting to that!" Uncle scolded. "One day in my fourth year of apprenticeship, Master Fong and I visited another master named Master Jiang in his home. He was Fong's friend who lived in Hong Kong for some time and moved back to the mainland, and Fong wanted to visit and catch up with him. In meeting Master Jiang, he introduced us to his family: a wife and daughter."
"The daughter was Yuzhu," Tohru answered conclusively, and Uncle nodded.
"Was she an apprentice too?" Jade asked.
"She wanted to, but Master Jiang would not allow her," Uncle shook his head. "He believed it was too dangerous and she would be better off taking over his business selling herbs and traditional medicines."
"Uncle, were there ever any women that became chi wizards, er, witches?" Jade blurted out to ask.
"'Wizard' was the term for both men and women," Uncle answered as he looked to the air in thought. "Chi magic was seen more as men's business, so there were not as many women. But in my years of study, women were free to learn, some even become well-respected masters themselves."
"So how did Yuzhu come to learn chi magic?" Jackie questioned.
"Getting to that!" Uncle scolded again. "Master Jiang would not let Yuzhu anywhere near his students or his school, but Fong always welcomed her to watch and learn when her father wasn't around. She learned fast and was skillful as amateur, even learned a few tricks to show her father that she held promise."
"Why did she want to be a chi wizard?" Tohru asked.
"She never directly said," Uncle quietly responded. His consciousness fell back into his distant memories when he reflected on witnessing Yuzhu drop the tongue of a collared reed snake into the cauldron for a potion she was preparing. The potion bubbled a fluorescent green as soon as the strange ingredient made contact with the liquid. Yuzhu's expression quickly lit up as well as she giddily pumped her fists in the air for her success. A ghost of a smile touched Uncle's lips as the memory faded and he returned to his reality. "You could see joy in her eyes whenever she learned a new spell. How she dedicated herself to endless hours of study to memorize her potions. How hard she worked to convince her father of her talent."
"So then what happened?" asked Jade.
"After many months of Yuzhu working with her father, Master Jiang struck deal with her," Uncle said. "She had to finish school, work in his herbal store for one year, and gain a profit of at least 10% for the year. Then she could be his apprentice."
"Did she succeed?" Jackie asked.
"Not by herself! Yuzhu did not know much about running a business at the time, but Uncle did. He wasn't the best, but he knew his way around and gave help when he was able," Uncle blustered with a proud thumb to his chest. "By the start of the following Chinese New Year, Yuzhu graduated from university and made 15% profit!" the old wizard recalled happily. "I remember Master Jiang being veeeeery pleased! He kept his part of the deal and finally took Yuzhu as his student."
So that may be where Uncle got the knack for running a business, Jackie thought with crossed arms, observing all of Uncle's expressions as he told his story. The archaeologist witnessed how the delight couldn't stay away from Uncle's face every time he mentioned Yuzhu in a positive light. Uncle was typically a grouchy man, but every now and then would smile when thinking to himself of the past, of what his life was like when times were simpler. Jackie withheld a modest grin as well. It was nice to see a visible smile on Uncle every once in a while. However, the archaeologist was brought down to reality by a particular idea that burned in his mind the entire time the wizard shared his story. "Uncle?" Jackie started to ask. "Did you ever... have any romantic feelings for Yuzhu?"
Uncle let out a heavy sigh through his nose. "I did," he delicately answered. His gaze averted to the floor and his beam fell. "It never was the right moment."
"What do you mean?"
"Yuzhu faced personal hardships during her studies," the senior wizard said and rubbed his knees uncomfortably. "Her mother passed of pneumonia in '48. Then in '51, Master Jiang contracted stomach cancer with just six months left." Uncle sharply inhaled, feeling the air in the library become thick with discomfort. Still, he continued. "Jiang's final wish to Master Fong before he passed was for him to take care of Yuzhu because Fong had seen the potential in her when he himself hadn't."
"Cancer sucks," Jade sadly lamented. Not liking Yuzhu didn't mean she couldn't feel a little bad for her younger self knowing what she dealt with.
"Yes. Yuzhu was very close to her father, and she took the news of his cancer very hard. She spent much time taking care of him and was by his bedside when he passed. Master Fong comforted Yuzhu the whole time and took her in like she was his own," Uncle explained. "We buried Master Jiang in his hometown near Xi'an and we grieved together. She then stayed with us for a year. Then Master Fong and I moved to Hong Kong in the spring of '53 while Yuzhu opted to stay in China. We exchanged letters for some years before falling out of touch."
"And you never told her your feelings?" Jade asked.
"No. I was too stubborn to," Uncle simply said with sad eyes. He finally stood up from his seat to walk over to the nearest bookshelf and scan his eyes left to right for the book he wanted. "Hard to believe 50 years have passed already," came his comment.
"Doesn't that make you feel old when you say it out loud?" Jade questioned.
"Jade!" Jackie chastised his niece with a scolding glare.
"What?! I wasn't tryna be a jerk! Uncle himself said the same thing some time ago!" Jade argued back.
"Whether it is said out loud or in quiet, it does not change the reality," Uncle strained out as he climbed a stair ladder to grab a thick book with the title 'Ancient Chinese Legends'.
Tohru softly hummed as he watched Uncle come down with the book in hand. He remained quiet to allow himself the time to take in and absorb his mentor's anecdote. The giant's silence carried an air of sympathy as he continued to watch Uncle with a downcast face. "Was it grief?" Tohru mustered the courage to ask.
All eyes in the room turned to him with a baffled expression. Uncle had cracked open the book and was in the middle of turning pages when he heard Tohru's question. "What?" the old man furrowed his brow at his ex-student.
Tohru cleared his throat. "Sensei, were there ever any signs that Yuzhu was vulnerable to the forces of darkness? Like in grief?"
"Hmm... " Uncle hummed and adjusted his glasses to his nose. "I do not recall Yuzhu ever being interested in dark magic. Even when Master Jiang was sick, he still trained her to much of his ability until his death."
"Well, she must've gone to somebody because she's a dark chi master now," Jade flatly stated. "I didn't even think a wizard could change sides like that."
Uncle gave his great-niece an uneasy nod to her statement. "A wizard, light or dark, turning to their opposite was not unusual, but it was not quite welcomed either. It is like turning your back on your friends, family, and everything they taught you for total strangers," the old man answered solemnly. "I remember it was more difficult for dark wizards because there was hardly a good wizard who wanted to train them."
"And what if those dark wizards did find someone?" Jackie asked.
"Even then, the other good wizards were wary to fully accept the ex-dark wizard because it was common that they did evil things that were not so easy to forgive and forget," Uncle said with a frown. "However Yuzhu did it, I know Master Fong and her father would be rolling in graves to see her stoop so low."
"Is there anything else you can tell us about Yuzhu, Uncle?" Jackie said.
Uncle remained silent for a moment as he turned the pages in his book. "I do not know off the top of my head, but I have some old letters from her saved in my room somewhere," he quietly admitted. "I will look through them at a later time. Right now, we must do research! The next gemstone could reveal itself tomorrow and we still do not have much research done!"
"Yes, Uncle," both Jade and Jackie replied, and both Chans went to find a well-suited book from a random shelf.
Tohru didn't need to move from his place as he already had two books in front of him; one to skim and another to skim right after. The fragments of the glass tracker were still on the table. In the past hour, he had thought up many ideas for a good locating device, but there was nothing concrete he could think of. The Japanese wizard had finished skimming through the book in his hand and found nothing of interest, so he walked over to the shelf to place the book back in the space it belonged. Then, his eyes caught onto the chi-o-matic sitting on the far end of the shelf holding up the books like it was a bookend. It'd been so long since the last time the invention was touched, evident from the heavy dust that collected on it. It was almost surreal to Tohru to see it in the library again because the Chans didn't need it anymore. It was then that a lightbulb set off in Tohru's head.
Tohru moved to the other side of the shelf to carefully take the chi-o-matic in his hands. He blew on it and wiped off the majority of the dust from the face of the ancient compass. "Hey, isn't that the chi-o-matic?" Jade asked Tohru with a quirked eyebrow. "I thought you dumped that ol' thing."
"No, I thought Uncle did," Tohru said and glanced behind himself to where Uncle was.
Uncle briefly looked up to see what Tohru was holding and looked down at his book again. "Throw it away, Tohru," he called with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"I have a better idea," Tohru mused. "Uncle, do you remember when you first introduced the chi-o-matic? You said the ancient Chinese compass here could detect the energy imbalance when it came to detecting demon chi."
"Yes... ?" Uncle tentatively responded as he stared at the obsolete device with a furrowed brow.
"I believe we can make a locator device for the gemstones using a similar concept," Tohru said.
"But we don't need to take the jewel's power, we just need to find it," Jackie elaborated and pointed to the small glass container.
"Exactly," Tohru nodded.
"That can work," Jade remarked.
Uncle remained silent as he stared at the chi-o-matic. He thought the device was destroyed and/or lost in the rubble that was his old shop back when Drago in his ultimate demon form was so close to taking over the world. But now that Tohru has brought it up, Uncle could feel the gears turning in his head as he was mentally following along with his former student's plan. "That can work," the Chinese wizard finally said with a tiny nod. "But you will need to use another Chinese compass. The one on the chi-o-matic may have traces of demon chi, which can cause the new device to be defective."
"Good idea," Tohru affirmed. "I believe I saw a spare compass in the den somewhere."
7:20 AM EST Syracuse, New York
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The hollow sounds of blows to a Wooden Man post steadily echoed throughout the dojo. The soft grunts and trained breathing patterns paired with the hard smacks against the dummy. The training space was virtually empty, meaning there was no one around who could be disturbed by the clacking of hands and legs hitting against the wood.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gym had opened an hour after sunrise and there was only one person in the building training their hardest while many others in the city were either asleep or on the verge of getting up. This was one of the few reasons why Tommy Chung frequented this gym. The membership was affordable, it was open all hours of the day, close to home, clean, and had many kinds of equipment to exercise with.
Bang!
Tommy thrust once more against the center of the Wooden Man. He let out a final and forceful gust, then dropped his fighting position to take a break. He threw back his head to control his breathing through his nose. Tommy was dressed in a red sportswear shirt and black gym shorts that collected sweat around his neck, underarms, the middle of his chest, and his waistline. He grabbed his towel from the bench nearby and wiped his face and all sides of his neck. He took off his glasses to wipe off the sweat accumulated from them then put them back on his face. Tommy then looked down at the watch on his right arm which read 7:05 AM. "That's enough for today," he muttered. He went over to his duffel bag to throw the sweaty towel in there and zipped it up. Tommy slightly tilted his head back to drink the rest of the cold water in his bottle so he could cool himself down. He then grabbed his duffel bag to throw it on his shoulder and walked out of the room. As he moved, he could feel the leftover sweat collecting on his skin a little more. Tommy made the mental note to take a cold shower first when he got home.
He passed the front desk where he saw a young employee there who had just arrived wiping down the tables and typing away at the work computer. The young man looked up when he saw Tommy leaving with his things and tipped his head toward him. "Have a good day!" he cheerily called to Tommy. He in turn grunted in response and gave him a nod. Tommy didn't recognize the man too well. He was fairly new to working at this gym and only happened to see him on his way out.
As Tommy pushed open the door to step outside, he was greeted by the sun that peaked out just over the skyscrapers far across from where he stood. The air was warm and humid and there was a light breeze in the air. Tommy let out a relaxed breath as he could feel his body cool down some. He squinted his eyes and ducked his head to avoid the extreme light as he continued to walk home.
It had been over two years since Bartholomew Chang hired Tommy to start his very short-lived criminal group The Chang Gang. To the mercenary, the years seemed to be a lot shorter, like it was just yesterday that he and four others signed with the Taiwanese billionaire to take down the so-called J-Team. At times, thinking about this reality pained Tommy because it reminded him of how much he's lost in these past years.
It was the five-minute-long video of Tommy defeating 25 foes with ease that officially launched him into infamy almost 10 years ago. The video was part of a demonstration he reenacted for a martial arts club he was once part of. The video was posted online and somehow, it went viral, gathering 250,000 views and counting in three days. Tommy was surprised at the attention the video got in that short period. It was even more so that he had people from many regions in China somehow reaching out to Tommy asking for his services in contractual work, and would offer him huge sums of money to complete it. Huge money like that was a once-in-a-lifetime thing; Tommy knew he'd be a fool to pass it up. He immediately combed through the offers to accept the higher-paying ones involving jobs like theft, bodyguard, racketeering, etc. His appearance tied with his speed, effectiveness, and never getting caught tagged Tommy as the most feared martial artist on China's Most Wanted list.
When a representative of Bartholomew Chang, a billionaire from Taiwan, reached out to Tommy for an offer, Tommy was at first hesitant. He heard many negative rumors from other employers and freelancers about Chang, especially about his strange fixation with the mineral jade. This caused Tommy to turn away from the 850,000 US dollar offer. But when Chang increased the money to three million, Tommy accepted.
Looking back, Tommy should've listened to his instinct and declined the offer altogether.
Breaking his employer out of prison, clearing out a museum's exhibition full of jade, and fighting their J-Team counterparts was one thing. Tommy was prepared for that. He knew his assigned rival was Jackie Chan, a simple, middle-aged archaeologist from San Francisco. Tommy made sure to observe all of Chan's prowess and skills that Chang had recorded, including a hand-to-hand fight between Chang and Chan in the former's warehouse where he lost. Tommy was impressed with the archaeologist's maneuverability, speed, and quick wit to use anything at his disposal as a weapon. The mercenary could tell that Chan was going to be a challenge. Tommy was always down for a good challenge.
However, no one, not even Chang himself, mentioned anything about the mission dealing with magic. Tommy wasn't paid to deal with that at all. Magic wasn't even real!
Or, so he thought.
When Tommy watched how the meddlings of a child, an ally of the J-Team, somehow accidentally turned her friends into hyperactive, babbling toddlers, he was quite skeptical as he and the Chang Gang left the museum with their stolen loot. When the same girl returned the favor to them at Port 17, Tommy was no longer a skeptic.
The Chang Gang and the J-Team fought to the best of their toddler abilities, quickly ending with the former team's defeat. There was an old man called 'Uncle', another J-Team ally, who used his magic to turn the Chang Gang back to their adult selves so they would be tried as adults and sent to prison. Tommy's sentence was five years in Hollowlands Penitentiary; as for his partners and Chang, he neither knew nor cared. He served 21 months in prison before he was granted release due to "good behavior". Tommy found it a bit strange and was expecting to stay in prison for a much longer time due to the extent of his crimes, but he chose not to complain about it.
Right after he was released, Tommy took the little belongings he had and moved to Syracuse, New York, and rented a cheap studio apartment with the little money he had left. There were no standard jobs Tommy could apply to that could afford rent and would accept him as an ex-convict, so he resorted to taking up mercenary jobs again. But the business was slow on that end as well. Good propositions didn't come as often because Tommy often got passed over for freelancers with clean records. He understood this de facto rule back when he was damn near untouchable in his work. It hit a lot more now that Tommy was living that reality as he had to take offers that didn't pay as well. There were times when he went paycheck to paycheck to be able to afford his dingy apartment and the rest of his bills. If only Tommy had declined Chang's offer...
Tommy reached an intersection and looked up to the pair of street signs at the edge of the curb: Cypress Street by Clove Tower Street. Tommy was familiar with Cypress Street as that was his home street. From where he walked on the sidewalk, he could see the block after the one right in front of him as his residential building: Haven Park.
As Tommy continued on Cypress Street, a small and sudden but prominent strange feeling rushed up his back. He tried to knock off the sentiment by slightly shifting his shoulders, but the feeling still remained in his being. S'like someone's watching me, Tommy thought. It wasn't the first time Tommy had been followed in public before. He experienced this a few times during his high-profile missions and in his early dark morning in Syracuse. Going through that a few times caused Tommy to become extra vigilant of his surroundings no matter if he was working or not.
Tommy was careful to turn his head to his right to look over his shoulder without being too obvious, but it was hard for him to get a clear look back. He continued at the same pace as he approached the curb before the stoplight and stopped. From behind, he could the pair of footsteps abruptly stop at the same time he did. Tommy inadvertently gripped his gym bag tighter. Haven Park's a block away. I can't go home, Tommy mused as he tapped his foot. He gradually turned his head left, then did a double take. There was a large display window of a retail store whose mannequins were up for display. The window had some dust and stains on it, so it had been a while since it was cleaned. Still, the reflection from the glass gave Tommy a few seconds to study the people standing behind him who were also waiting for the traffic light above to turn green:
There was a middle-aged white man dressed in a loose white tank top, black shorts, and red shoes steadily jogging in place just out of Tommy's peripheral left side. He had headphones on pumping upbeat techno music into his ears.
A tall brown-skinned girl was dressed dark green sweater and matching sweatpants. Her short dark hair was tied back in a messy ponytail. Beside her was a black girl with short hair wearing a pink blouse, black jeans, and dark boots. The women stood behind Tommy on his near left looking through pictures in a camera while talking and laughing amongst each other.
A short young white man right of Tommy steadily tapped his foot against the concrete ground. He was dressed in a business casual fashion with a dark blue blazer, a white T-shirt, denim jeans, and leather sneakers. His eyes went back and forth from his watch to the traffic light, the pedestrian symbol, and the cars that continued to drive past the crosswalk. Tommy could hear the man muttering to himself in annoyance as his right left bounced in place.
A tall man was dressed in a dark blue suit with black dress shoes standing farther back on Tommy's left. His dark hair was tied down in a bun and he wore a pair of dark round shades. His gaze was set on the ground and both his arms were in front of him holding a black leather briefcase.
Tommy narrowed his eyes to glaze over the bystanders behind him once more, then turned back to face forward. He saw how the oncoming cars slowed themselves down so they would stop just before the crosswalk. Tommy took a deep breath and unclenched his jaw. The light went from yellow to red. The anticipation rose from his feet to his spine as it felt like he had to wait minutes for the light to turn green.
"Delta. Walk sign is on to cross. Delta," the automated voice announced from the signal. The jogger quickly looked both ways before jogging across the road to the other side, then continued straight. The impatient mumbling man was soon to follow as he picked up his pace to a brisk walk to make it to the other side, then turned down the sidewalk.
Tommy's eyes carefully observed as the two women from his near left walked at a brisk pace to leisurely pass him. That's four... the mercenary thought as he pursed his lips in his anticipation. This only left the tall man with the briefcase who appeared to be standing directly behind Tommy, and the mercenary didn't want to turn around to face him just yet.
Tommy stepped onto the curb on the other sidewalk and immediately pivoted right to continue walking. He ticked his head ever so lightly to the right just as he turned and glared. Once the man with the briefcase reached the other curb, he also turned right and kept walking. I knew it, Tommy growled. Every time the strange feeling dawned over him, the mercenary was never wrong.
Tommy's thoughts had been running rampant in his mind since the strange feeling sank in on him, and it was now that it settled on an idea.
He was familiar enough with Syracuse to know and memorize the ins and outs of the city, especially around the area where he lived. From where he walked, Tommy knew there was an opening to a narrow alleyway that contained a network of different alleys to go in and out of the city block. Looks like I'm gonna have to fight my way outta this one, Tommy thought as his eyes darted towards the alley. He shoved his hand into his pocket and gripped the closeted pocket knife that sat there.
Tommy picked up his pace again to dart off into the alley. Right before he turned the corner, he looked back a final time; this time, his eyes happened to meet with the stranger's eyes, who was quickly making his way toward the alley as well. Shit! Tommy cursed. He grandly took a few steps back and tossed his gym bag to the ground. He flashed out his blade from his pocket and assumed a fighting position.
When the tall stranger rushed into the alley, he was met with a series of strikes and slashes to his chest and legs. Up close, Tommy could see he was a whole foot shorter than the stranger, but it didn't deter him from his fight.
The guy was quick to dodge Tommy's slashes and used his briefcase as a makeshift shield. The knife itself was enough for him to jump out of Tommy's reach back to take a moment to catch his breath. He looked down at the front of his briefcase and lightly gasped, as the leather contained a large slash mark on the front side. "Whoa," he mumbled with a surprised look as he pushed his round sunglasses on his forehead.
Tommy pointed his knife at the stranger with a dangerous glare. "You wanna keep following me, asshole?!" he spat.
The man took his time to adjust his suit and fix up his hair. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to scare you," he calmly reassured.
Tommy narrowed his eyes in his suspicion. "You're lying!"
"I'm not," he spoke in a mellow tone and shook his head. "You're Tommy Chung, correct?"
"Who wants to know?"
The man deeply bowed and took his shades off to place them in his suit pocket. "I am Kota Sasaki. I come on behalf of my boss."
Tommy relaxed his fighting position. If he didn't know any better, it sounded to him like "Kota" was talking about a proposition. But then again, he had never been personally tracked down in this manner for an offer, big or small. "What boss?"
"It's better if we can discuss this in a more... private setting," Kota pointed in a low tone.
Tommy let out a humored snort. "Why? So you can kill me?"
Kota calmly walked over to Tommy's gym bag and picked it up with both hands. "If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have needed to explain myself to you," the taller man spoke as he approached the mercenary and placed his bag on the ground, then held Tommy's bag with both hands out for him to take.
Tommy carefully eyed Kota with a quirked eyebrow and took back his gym bag to sling over his shoulder. "Where are you from?" he coolly asked. the mercenary could tell from the Kota's resonant voice that it was foreign.
"Japan."
Tommy's eyes slightly widened in his surprise at Kota's answer. Japan huh? he thought as he watched Kota pick up his briefcase. Tommy pushed his glasses up to his eyes and nodded. "Let's talk in my apartment," the man said with a small chuckle.
Tommy briskly led Kota through and out of the network of alleys back onto the public city streets, both men remaining silent as they walked side-by-side. This stillness did not feel at all awkward to either man because they were able to come to an understanding that didn't mean having to kill or harm the other. Truly a relief Kota and Tommy also shared.
Tommy himself couldn't help himself as the excitement within him grew. Someone from Japan personally sent someone to enlist my services. a first, he bragged in his head. To him, it was obvious that Kota's boss was also aware of Tommy's record and still wanted to hire him. This must be something big, the man thought as his gaze turned to the briefcase Kota carried. It piqued the mercenary's curiosity to ask about it but ultimately decided to keep that to himself for now.
Tommy looked both ways to check for any incoming cars before crossing the street. Kota mimicked Tommy's pattern, making sure he was right behind Chung until they reached the sidewalk. They were now on the block that held the Haven Park complex. It was an aged residential building, nothing special. The facility was six stories tall with the outside brick walls being solid mixtures of beige and red. The sides of the building had steel black fire escapes that were slightly rusted from years of wear and were small balconies attached to each unit on the outside walls with railings made of metal and floors of cement.
Tommy led Kota through the double doors of the main entrance of the complex and into the main hallway. There was a large cluster box of mailboxes on the right side of the wall that they passed. Tommy looked to the upper left side to his number address for a moment and made a mental note to check the mail later.
The men passed another set of double doors to reach the first floor of apartments. It consisted of one main long hallway with white walls that went straight down with some smaller hallways leading left and right, and there was an elevator and a staircase at the end of the hallway to the right. The walls and ceiling were worn down and had pieces of mold sitting in the corners. The carpet seemed rough and gritty as Kota walked on it. The black doors had the room numbers plated in silver on the upper center of the door, starting with 101 and ending with 124.
Kota's eyes wandered around the facility with a pondering expression on his face. He was aware of how different apartments are in the U.S. compared to Japan, but it was different here because he was able to see these differences for himself. Tommy could guess the same as well once he took a moment's glance to look up at Kota's sightfulness meandering. "We're almost there," the mercenary said, pulling Kota's eyes to his front. The men walked down to the elevator and Tommy pressed the up button. The elevator sounded off with a ding! and the doors opened so Tommy and Kota could step in together. Tommy pressed the button reading '4', like the fourth floor.
It didn't take long before the elevator reached the fourth floor. Tommy and Kota stepped off the lift. They walked to the middle of the hallway, then took a right to approach the second door on the left: Tommy's door. It was all black and the number 412 was plated in silver on the upper center of the door. There was a door lever and a keyhole below it.
Tommy reached into his other pocket to pull out his set of keys and quickly flipped through them until he found the right one. He stuck the key in the keyhole to turn it and pulled the lever down and a light click sounded off to open the door. "Take your shoes off before coming in," Tommy instructed. He took off his gym shoes and stepped into his home to place them side by side on the shoe rack. He grabbed an old black pair of slippers to put on.
"Of course," Kota said with a nod and reached down to take off his shoes as well.
Tommy held the door open to allow his guest inside. He pointed to the shoe rack for Kota to place his things, then handed him a large pair of grey slippers. "I don't know your size so hopefully they'll fit."
"Thank you," Kota said as he put the slippers on. They were fuzzy and a size too big, but comfortable nonetheless.
Tommy closed the door and locked it. "Excuse the mess," he mumbled with a careless hand wave as he carried his gym bag into a small closet.
Kota let out a small chuckle as he took a wide look over the mercenary's home. "Mess you say?" the humored man repeated with a smirk. "I see the opposite." The shoes on the rack were neatly placed and the pairs were stacked together. The carpet floor and the vinyl kitchen floor were clean. Kota cranked his head to peak at the kitchen space to see the dish rack with a few cleaned and dry dishes. He then turned to the living room, where there was a twin-sized bed lying next to the far side of the wall on the left. Then there was a loveseat couch, a small coffee table, and a box TV adjacently positioned to a wall sitting on a small TV stand. Even with the apartment's neatness, the space felt bare as there was nothing on the walls and not much furniture around.
"You want something to drink? Water, coffee, tea, beer... ?" Tommy suggested from the kitchen.
"I'm fine, thanks," Kota shook his head as he moved to take a seat on the far end of the couch. He could hear the sounds of the springs compressing themselves as he made himself comfortable. "You're very hospitable, Mr. Chung," Kota called.
Tommy grabbed a bottle of water from his fridge and cracked it open to gulp a fourth of the water down. He walked over to the couch on the other end and sat down facing his guest. "Now, tell me more about your offer," Tommy finally said.
"I am a representative from an organization in Tokyo called The Sunrise," Kota said.
Tommy gave a tentative look to Kota upon hearing this. "You are yakuza?"
Kota looked up in thought for a moment with an unsure look, then shrugged. "Eh, you could say that."
"And who's your boss?"
"We call him Kamimura. He recently did some digging on your background and is interested in your services."
"So this "Kamimura" knows about my time in prison?"
"He's aware, but he could care less about that," Kota said with a low chuckle. "He said he saw an old viral video of you sparring with over 20 other martial artists and felt like your services would be very useful to him."
Tommy's gaze wandered off to the kitchen as his thoughts took him back to his popularity from years before. "Okay," Tommy accepted with a nod. "And why exactly does your boss want my services?"
"Currently, Kamimura is interested in acquiring a set of valuable jewels. There is another party competing for the jewels already and my boss is hoping to get to them all first. He is hoping you will help him retrieve them for him."
Tommy skeptically looked at Kota and let out a humorless snort. "I'm a mercenary, not some jewel finder," he sneered. "You'd be better off hiring a personal jeweler or a geologist."
Kota shot a sly smirk at Tommy as he reached over to his suitcase to unlock the briefcase, then opened it fully. The sneer on his lips crashed upon seeing the sea of fresh green Benjamins placed neatly in stacks, columns, and rows and his eyes widened at the smell of freshly minted US dollar bills. Tommy had to readjust his glasses making sure his vision was correct. "See, Kamimura is a man of refined tastes," Kota answered leisurely with a smug grin. "It's an honor if he finds himself to be interested in you if you ask me."
"What's the offer?" Tommy asked as he reached in to take a bundle of cash.
"5 million US dollars. Half is up front, the other half for when the job is done."
Tommy used his thumb to flip through each bill in his face, feeling the small wind grace his skin. He remained quiet as he continued this stimulating feeling. "What aren't you telling me?" Tommy finally asked.
"What do you mean?"
"There's a catch in this somewhere," Tommy persisted as he threw a dubious scowl look at his house guest. "Out of all the best record-free freelancers in the world, your boss chooses an ex-con just to get his hands on some jewels." His leg steadily bounced in its place as he cupped his chin in thought. "I know how the game works, and this almost sounds too good to be true. The last time I didn't listen to myself and just blindly took an offer, it fucked me up and got me living like this!" Tommy spat vengefully and gestured his hand to the near-bare apartment before him.
"Kamimura will go into detail when you officially meet him."
"What?"
"If you accept the proposition, I'll escort you to Tokyo to meet my boss in person and you can discuss any further details, questions, and other concerns you have."
"And if I say no?"
"Then my boss and I will leave you alone and not trouble you any longer," Kota simply replied.
Tommy leaned back into his couch and stared hard at the cash in the briefcase before him. He was still pushing his thumb back and forth through the individual bills to help him think. The mercenary no longer felt an immense amount of joy in seeing the money because he did not realize until now the stakes for such a simple job as gathering rocks in Japan. Tommy could feel there was something he was missing here, but his brain could not quite place what.
"You don't have to make your decision right away, Mr. Chung. The offer lasts 72 hours, so you have plenty of time to give it thought," Kota said as he slowly rose from the couch and took the bundle of cash from Tommy's hands to place it back in the case. He reached into his suit pocket to pull out a white business card and a pen, then turned the card around to write on its back. Once finished, Kota handed the card to Tommy. "Please call this number when you've made your decision," he said, pointing to the written digits, and began locking his briefcase back up.
Tommy stood up from his couch as well and walked to the door, sensing the conversation was coming to a close. "Thanks," he muttered as he opened the door to allow Kota out.
Kota turned to Tommy and flashed him a hint of a smile. "It was a pleasure speaking with you, Mr. Chung. Have a good day," he said with a deep bow and walked off down the hall.
Tommy closed his door and locked it. He turned the business card around to skim the phone number written in black ink. He let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the nape of his neck. "Four million dollars?" Tommy softly repeated in awe. "Is it worth it?"
A/N: Finally an update on this work! It's been too long! With the amount of exposition this chapter holds, it didn't take me too long to work on it. But it was complicated writing some bits out and took more time smoothing everything out to sound nice. Apologies if the flow or the English is a bit choppy in some parts.
I've been on the fence for a long while about opening Gemstone up for a beta reader. My biggest weakness in this fic is time and ideas because sometimes it feels like my plans don't make sense and they're all over the place. Maybe I'm just exaggerating what a beta reader is supposed to do, I don't know. Any ideas and insight, along with the reviews, favs, and likes, would be truly helpful. Thanks
Happy holidays to all, and to all a good night!