Part 19: Kay
IJN Zuikaku
Ooarai, Ibaraki
Akiyama Residence
Yoshiko Akiyama couldn't remember the last time there were so many people in her kitchen. She and her husband didn't have much in the way of extended family, and until fairly recently, Yukari didn't have any friends, at least ones she talked about. Now, all of Ankou, save for Isuzu, were present, as well as Miho's elder sister Maho, and her friend Erika. The girls had quickly plowed through the breakfast spread, as Yukari had only informed her of having multiple guests a few hours ago. Luckily, Jungorou had saved the day by running to one of the nearby shops for extra ingredients.
While the conversation at the table had started out rather dark and grim, with Takebe informing everyone why Isuzu was absent, things quickly lightened up after Miho told the story of how her team befriended a group of girls from Johannesburg. Each of her friends had to complete some kind of challenge that the girls had come up with. Takebe had deciphered a flag message, Yukari untied a complicated rope knot, Reizei won a thumb wrestling match with the bartender, and Miho defeated one girl in a brawl without throwing a single punch.
The response to Isuzu's challenge had been hearty laughter from Itsumi and the elder Nishizumi, as Hana had drank the bar's 'Captain' under the table.
As the stories continued, Maho felt her phone vibrate for maybe the fifth time that morning. She finally relented and pulled it from her pocket, excusing herself from the table when she saw the caller's name.
"Kay? Hi there. What's up?"
"I'll tell you what's up." The Saunders Commander's voice was stern and serious. "We got 'er. Maho, we fuckin' found her!"
"What?" Nishizumi stepped towards the doorway leading to the barber shop. "Found who?"
"The Zodiac Killer. Who do you think?! We got Katyusha!"
"Oh. Well, uh… that's great. I'm guessing you would have a few choice words for her."
"That I do. And I know you do, too. I've got Assam setting up a phoney visitor's list for the prison. What do you want your alias to be?"
Maho performed a double take. "Hold on. What?"
"Don't worry about facial recognition. We got that covered for the ID cards. We jus-"
"Kay! Kay, hold on." Maho moved the phone away. "Akiyama-sama? Which way is the bathroom?"
Yoshiko pointed at the doorway Maho was standing in. "Through there, and up the stairs. First door on the left."
"Thank you."
The elder Nishizumi quickly retreated through the threshold, while Miho watched her with a worried expression. Maho bounded the stairs and pushed open the bathroom door, locking it behind her.
"Okay… Kay. What are you talking about? Why would I need an alias?"
"Because everybody and their mother in this country knows your name." Kay said, as if it was obvious. "A Nishizumi, coming to visit Katyusha, after she laid waste to Kuromorimine? We wouldn't make it past the information desk."
"Nono. I mean… why? Why would you want me to go with you?"
"Because we've finally got a chance to end this. What that bitch did to you. To me. To OUR schools. She targeted Miho directly! Don't tell me you don't want to be next in line for a shot at her."
"Kay, this has been over. For months. Katyusha is locked up in Max Pen, along with all of her followers. Hell, I saw in the paper the other day that Nonna's stint got extended. Something about ordering the execution of prisoners at Black Forest."
"Exactly!" Kay cried out. "The two of them destroyed our lives. Killed countless thousands of our friends and neighbors. They shot down Memphis Belle! Don't you want to do something about it? I'm sure Erika would."
As the Commander spoke, Maho could hear Erika downstairs, laughing at a story Yoshiko was telling. She sounded warm, and full of life, and Maho could picture her smile in her mind. Beautiful and happy. Stark contrast to how she was six months ago. Maho shook her head.
"No. I don't think she would. And I don't think I would, either."
"What?" Kay sounded aghast. "Come on, Maho! Just add this to Erika's ten step program, or something. It will do her some good."
Maho caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and found herself startled by her own expression. Her face was twisted into searing anger.
"Kay. Listen to me." She began slowly. "I promise you that Itsumi isn't interested. If you could see her now, you would agree. This week, she's been the happiest I've ever seen her. For me and her, the wounds have healed. Even the most painful ones. Bringing her along would open them up all over again, and might push her past the point of no return. And I, well… I have no interest in revenge killing. I already exacted vengeance for my school and my friends when I stopped you from killing her at the hospital. Let the legal process handle her."
"No, I can't." Kay stood firm. "With how fucked law is, she'll be tried as a minor, and get a slap on the wrist. I have to do this. I need to do this. You know how sadness and grief controlled Erika for all that time? Well, turn that into blinding anger, and you'll have me." Maho slowly paced back and forth as her friend spoke. "Every minute Katyusha's life continues… I just can't stand it anymore. At least come so you can talk to her. It might be your last chance. I know Erika could use the closure."
"You don't know anything about Erika." Maho declared angrily. "And you're one to talk about what she needs. Need I remind you what happened on our way home?"
"I said I was sorry."
"You did. And now you have the balls to bring all that anger, all that hatred, back into her life again? Look, Kay. Erika and I? We put all of that behind us. We both lost too much, sacrificed too much, to let it take over again. We have a great life now. Granted, it isn't glamorous, but it's leaps and bounds better than where we started. I don't have to stay up all hours of the night just to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. Like what you almost made her do. We're done with Katyusha, no matter what happens to her. You can do what you want. The only reason I'm not going to say anything is because I don't want to lose another friend, no matter how much of a trigger-happy idiot she might be. Count us out. In fact, I'm surprised Darjeeling hasn't shot you down with a saying about revenge."
"Wait, Maho. Let me-"
Nishizumi didn't let Kay finish the sentence before hanging up and sharply dropping her phone onto the counter.
"The nerve…" In truth, Maho wasn't surprised. In recent weeks, Kay had seemingly become more and more unhinged. That happy, fun-loving girl Nishizumi had befriended appeared to be gone. In her place stood a bitter, serious and short-tempered workaholic, who cracked her whip and roared her head off at the slightest inconvenience that got in the way of her rebuilding her school. While Maho, on occasion, could say the same about herself, she didn't exactly have anyone to direct that anger at. Most of her team was gone. Out of Kuromorimine's fleet of twenty eight tanks, not including the mothballed ones, only five had survived the entire war, her own not among them. The shooting team, the Volunteer Korps, had been equally routed. Out of a small army nearing four thousand, only a handful of officers and a few dozen enlisted girls made it unscathed, which didn't account for the hundreds with life changing injuries.
"Maybe Kay has the right idea…?"
Maho quickly shook her head, taking a deep breath and turning on the sink faucet. "No. I couldn't do that to them. To Erika." She cupped a handful of water and splashed herself in the face, looking up at the mirror to watch the angry redness in her cheeks fading.
"Let the dead stay buried."
Leaving the bathroom and returning to the kitchen, Maho didn't speak a word of her tense conversation with Kay. Out of fear of upsetting Erika or Miho, or getting Kay arrested, or even killed. If the Saunders Commander really needed to get this out of her system, who was she to deny it?
Little did she know, one of the girls at the table had already received a similar proposition.
USS George Washington
Yokohama City
"God… dammit."
An annoyed Kay growled as she dropped her phone, crossing out yet another name on her chalkboard.
Operation: UNDERTAKER
Location: Fuchū Prison, Tokyo
Target: Snowdrift Katyusha
Mission: Infiltrate Prison. Get Katyusha one-on-one. Eliminate by any means necessary
Kickoff: TBD
Team and Roles: Darjeeling: Team lead. Security. Alias: Shiraha Ainsworth, Shadow 1
Kay: Trigger. Alias: Tenma White, Shadow 2
Assam: Coordination. Comms. Alias: Kurumizawa McDowell, Overwatch
Rosehip: Getaway. Alias: April Tsukinose, Orient Express
Backup Assets, Aliases to be assigned: Naomi
Alisa
Eileen
Andrea
Rukuriri
DaXia
AnXzu
KoXma
KawXhima
MaXie
MiXho
ErXka
MaXho
Kay shook her head at the board, disappointed by the lack of support from her supposed 'friends'. Turning around, she faced the small gaggle of girls in their Campus basement hideout. The group had been using a pump room under the school's indoor pool as a base for the operation, as it was out of the way, saw little foot traffic, and the noise made for good camouflage.
"Well, that's it." She dropped her stick of chalk. "I'm out of ideas."
"We don't need any of them." Andrea declared. "This pendeja can't be allowed to get away with what she's done." Alisa nodded in agreement.
"Alright then. Assam?"
"Everything is ready, as we can see." The Spymaster stepped up to the board, double checking the map of the prison, and tapping on the Max Security visitor center. "I don't think the rest of you will need aliases, as you're only there for emergencies." Assam looked at the girls who were listed. "The likelihood of which is minimal."
"I don't care about emergencies." Kay asserted. "Let the cops take me down. Let them kill me, even. As long as Katyusha ends up six feet under, it's fine by me."
"Well, it isn't fine by everyone else." Darjeeling shot back. "If you expect us, expect me, to let you walk into that place a Quid short, you have another thing coming, Darling."
"I don't want the backup. If shit goes wrong while I'm in there and the bullets start flying, the last thing I want is to lose anyone else."
"And the last thing we want is to lose you."
"She's right, Kay." Helmet-chan spoke up. "We all signed up for this to support you. Not just because of Snowdrift. If you get killed, it'd all feel kinda pointless." The others nodded and expressed agreement. Kay shook her head.
"Fine. But you're all outside." She pointed directly at Eileen. "In the wings. And you don't move a Goddamn muscle, unless Smarty here tells you to." Kay jabbed her thumb at Assam. "Roger?"
A series of "roger"s was the response.
"Good." Assam eyed Kay. "I have the IDs and paperwork nearly ready. We just need a kickoff date."
The Commander rubbed her chin in thought, glazing over the chalkboard. Suddenly, her eye caught a calendar hanging on the wall next to it, still set to June. Kay approached it and flipped a few pages, eventually finding December. An idea came in when she saw the upcoming holiday.
"What would you all think of a nice, surprise Christmas present from me?"
Several nods rippled through the group, Assam's among them.
"I'll get things in motion."
Kay let the calendar fall to its place as Assam wrote '12/24' in the Kickoff area. Darjeeling watched quietly as her beloved left the room, a slight spring in her stride.
"Have a holly, jolly Christmas…" Kay sang loudly. "It's the best time of the year…"
A/N: Hi, everybody. It's been a minute, hasn't it?
So, Operation: UNDERTAKER is about to get underway, but Kay won't be getting much help from her old allies.
There's a reference to another beloved anime of mine in here, all darkness and frustration aside. I'm eager to see if anyone finds it
Happy Valentine's Day, you lovely people. Catch you in the next one!