The Hinomoto Rebellion (24 page)

Andrea walked around the mats and into the back of the dojo, which had a changing room and a bathroom that was complete with several shower stalls. She had to turn back and find something to break through the cobwebs before she could go through the changing room, and once through the sticky, dust-covered webs she had to break the bathroom door off its hinges to get inside.

The bathroom had a few toilets and five shower stalls. Andrea walked over to a sink and turned the handle. The pipes made a screeching noise, followed by a gurgling, but finally some muddy brown water spilled out of the faucet into the sink. Andrea sighed with relief. The water had always been a tricky thing since it was just spliced in through the shop above. Sometimes they’d had problems with it even when the place was a fully-operational school. She went around the bathroom and turned on all the sinks and showers, letting the sludge clear.

Andrea wanted nothing more than to change clothes, but she realized that she was going to have to get the school back in order before she could do that.
It just doesn’t seem right to leave the old dojo like this.
She went to the storage closet, opening it to see if there were any cleaning supplies still there. She broke through the cobwebs that were clinging to the door and the frame, reaching in to turn the light on.

Andrea blinked as the closet was illuminated by a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. The storage cubby was lined on both sides with shelves, and a broom and mop were leaning against the wall at the far side.On the shelves to the right were bottles of cleaning supplies: bleach, all-purpose cleaner, scouring powder, and glass cleaner. To the left were small black balls of plaster that Andrea furrowed her brows at.

She reached out and picked one of the balls up carefully, turning it over in her hands. “Is this what I think it is?” she muttered to herself. She turned to the open area behind her and threw the ball down a few feet away, tossing it as hard as she could.

The ball exploded as it hit, releasing a flash of bright light that made Andrea shield her eyes. After the flash died the bomb started belching out black smoke that made her cough and wave her arms, trying to get the smoke cleared. Once the air was clean again Andrea started emptying the closet of the cleaning supplies and the bombs. “These will be handy later, I’m sure,” she muttered.

It was Monday night and the sun was setting on Shibasaki, enveloping the city in folds of darkness. In the Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens, the Aka Ryuu ate dinner in silence. It was four days since Andrea had left. They worked hard in her absence, harder than they’d ever worked under Andrea’s tutelage, and were determined to go through with the infiltration of the warehouse. The silver-haired
ronin
’s abandonment of them over this mission only made them more ready to go through with it, though no one would say that openly.

Out of all of them, Roni had shown the most improvement of all. She’d even been able to take down Kanjou in a few spars over the last four days. Her small size and slight build made her lightning quick and extremely difficult to hit. Fushicho had improved as well, even making the mention of perhaps learning how to use ki attacks in the near future.

D had been unusually reserved since Andrea had walked out. He spent a lot of time wandering around the surrounding forest with Nikko when he wasn’t training with the group. Aki seemed to be working extra hard, training with her bo almost constantly. She would work long into the night and then be up early the next morning.

26 still spent a lot of time in the kitchen, making sure everyone was fed and healthy. Because of her unique background though, she needed the least training out of all of them. The government made her as a weapon, and so had taught her how to be one too before she escaped. She hated the things she had learned long ago at the research facility though, and so joined the rest of the Aka Ryuu as often as possible to broaden her skills. At some times, it seemed almost as if 26 was more of a scholar of fighting than a fighter, building a library of moves and techniques but rarely getting into conflict to test them.

Time seemed to fly toward Monday night, and it had arrived almost unexpectedly. Tension hung around the dining hall table like a layer of smoke in a building set ablaze. After dinner the group of six
ronin
set off into the night. D left Nikko at headquarters, both to guard the temple and to make sure the white dog stayed safe.

Once outside of the Gardens, the main group of Aka Ryuu stuck to dark alleys and poorly lit streets while 26 traveled along the rooftops above them to avoid being seen. It was nearly midnight by the time they were within sight of their destination.

The warehouse sat in the middle of a lot at the edge of a huge stretch of warehouses that made up the old Industrial District. Many of the buildings still in use should have been condemned a long time ago. A few rats scurried along the shadows, scavenging for food among the trash cans and litter in the streets. Street lamps lit up the streets and the lot every thirty of forty feet, and there were some exterior lights by the doors of the storehouse.

The
ronin
regrouped at the edge of the lot, near a few trees. There was no sign of life anywhere on the streets, and 26 kept to the thickest of the shadows just in case someone walked or drove by.

Kanjou reached into his back jeans pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He carefully opened it and revealed a section of the blueprints they had received from Shinrai. “Okay, according to this, there’s a fire door here on the roof. It should be far enough away from where the guards are, and the ladder that leads to it comes off one of the catwalks, so it’ll put us in a good position for making sure the coast is clear.”

Several city blocks away, Andrea sat in the middle of the training mats in the dojo. She had spent days brushing cobwebs and dust out of the place and putting it back in order, now it was much better. She managed to find a few replacement bulbs for the light fixtures her first day there, and after cleaning off the other light bulbs the school was relatively well lit. A good bulk of the cleaning had to be done in the bathroom, but the open shower stalls made the job easy, despite that it was disgusting.

The silver-haired girl sighed and shut her eyes. Once she had finished straightening up there had been nothing for her to do but try to figure out where she could go from there. The thought of heading to another city was tempting, but Shibasaki had been her home since she was six years old and she couldn’t figure out how to abandon it. Going to another city would mean starting her Martial Arts tournament career over, working her way from the bottom to the top again. It had been hard enough to do once, much less starting over in a strange place.

The fact that she had realized it was Monday night while she was sitting there only made her confusion deepen. She was trying to convince herself that the Aka Ryuu were no longer her concern and they could go get killed if they wished. But something was nagging deep at Andrea’s soul, making her restless and irritable. She was tempted to go walk by the government storehouse, but scolded herself aloud for the thought.

“Idiot! You know how dangerous that place is! You’re not going there! Let them commit suicide if they want to!” Her voice echoed off the concrete and seemed to flow back around her in a mocking way. Andrea scowled, then adjusted herself so she was sitting cross-legged on the exercise mats.

“Fine... If I can’t decide what to do about this on my own, I’ll do that meditation thing and see if that helps clear my mind.” she said to herself. She paused, then punctuated her sentence with a nod, closed her eyes, and began to empty her head of thoughts.

The Aka Ryuu crept toward the fire door, trying to make as little noise as possible. They stayed low to the rooftop, though such caution seemed unnecessary in the deserted night. Aki picked the lock on the fire exit door and the group carefully entered. Kanjou and 26 led the way in, coming down onto the catwalk that the short flight of stairs emptied on to.

Once all the
ronin
were inside, they took a moment to look out at the warehouse. “Whoa...” breathed Roni as they stared at the interior of the government repository.

Catwalks criss-crossed the heights of the building, mirroring the alarm beams the Aka Ryuu knew were below them on the floor. Arranged in neat squares were wooden crates, each labeled with a date and in some spots stacked to the bottom of the catwalks. The place smelled of age and of pressed particle board wood and old metal, and dust laid on most of the boxes and in the far corners of the floor.

Kanjou motioned for the others to follow quietly, and then began to prowl down the catwalk, keeping an eye out for any guards. Below them some of the wooden crates were lying open, their contents visible. Swords, nunchaku, shuriken, bokuto, and many more pieces of useful equipment lay in boxes, ignored and forgotten.

Andrea let her mind wander to wherever her subconscious would take her. She tried not to think about anything and just allow her mind to wander. She didn’t want to go to the warehouse, that much she knew, but her mind kept showing her the dead bodies strewn over Tony’s Place. Tony’s dull, lifeless eyes started up at her accusingly in her mind.
This is what happens when you run away.

Andrea fought the urge to open her eyes and stop meditating. She took a deep breath and kept riding the wave of thoughts, seeing where it would lead.

A dark alley in a strange place... A man standing over her, consoling her and tending to her... Pain shooting through her forehead... Painful and rigorous training... Blood covering her hands and face.... Flames hungrily eating the only home she’d ever had... The Aka Ryuu sitting in the recreation room, reading ancient texts long into the night.... Tear-filled violet eyes... Angry gold and blue eyes that seemed intent on drowning her in their depths...

Andrea’s brows furrowed unconsciously. She didn’t know where her mind was going with this, but she was determined to see it through to the end.