The Hinomoto Rebellion (6 page)
The next day came peacefully, the sun shining brightly as the occasional breeze rippled the trees. Birds were chirping as they flew around and searched for food. Outside of Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens life was going on as usual for most people that made it by day-to-day. It was hot out,typical for an early July day, and the heat continued to climb as the sun did.
Roni and 26 were in the kitchen that was just off the dining room in the temple, getting ready to make some breakfast. It was a bit late in the day for breakfast normally, but since they had all been up rather late the night before they were just getting started on their routine. The kitchen was equipped with a small stove that was stained and dented, and that 26 had been ranting about since they’d arrived there. It was unreliable, at best, and unusable at worst. Most of the time it didn’t heat up evenly, or didn’t heat at all, and she had learned not to use the oven. On the other side of the short expanse of counters was a small refrigerator that they had gotten up and running. The sink that Roni was at was between the stove and the fridge, with cabinet above it. To the right of the door that led out in to the dining room was a pantry. The door was open right then, and there was a small smattering of boxes and canisters on the shelves.
“You should have seen it, 26!” Roni was drying dishes as 26 stood over the stove. “Andrea was so cool! She defeated this huge guy in one hit and it was the biggest blast of ki I’ve ever felt! She’s going to be great, I just know it! But she doesn’t seem to warm up to people very well, so she might act kind of weird when you meet her.”
The winged woman chuckled. “Some
kemono
like me actually do fight in the Underground, you know. Not usually the ones that are as,” she searched for the right word, “heavily altered as I am. But some of them do. She might not be shocked at all to see me.”
“I don’t know, she might. She knows all sorts of cool stuff, I’m going to learn so much from her, I know I will! We’re definitely going to win now that we have her!”
“Alright, fortune teller, go get ‘Wondergirl: The Savior Of Us All’ then and tell her that food is ready. Grab Kanjou and Fushi on the way.”
Andrea was still sleeping in the small room she had been given as her own. It was a restless, nightmare-filled sleep that caused her to toss and turn violently. Beads of sweat rolled down her face, both from the dream she was having and from the heat in the temple. She didn’t even stir when Roni entered the room and approached her futon.
The silver-haired girl continued to struggle against an unseen foe so Roni tried harder to jar her from sleep, shaking her. “You’re having a bad dream! Wake up!”
Andrea suddenly bolted upright, grabbing Roni’s light yellow tank top and cocking back a clenched fist. “I won’t let you do it again!” she screamed, still half in her dream.
“Huh?” Ice blue eyes focused on the innocent, round face of Roni. “Oh...” she said, “Just you.” She let go of the girl and dropped her hand. “What time is it?”
“Nearly one o’clock in the afternoon! You really sleep like the dead, huh?” Roni’s face changed to a look of concern that Andrea knew immediately was going to cause her trouble. “What were you dreaming about?”
The fighter’s defenses shot up against the question. “None of your business.” she said as she wiped some sweat off her forehead and got to her feet.
Andrea frowned, then began to walk away, brushing imaginary dust off her clothing.
It’s not my fault that no one can understand what I’ve been through.
Andrea thought. She almost said it aloud, but she stopped herself.
Roni stood and began to follow Andrea. “You know, you shouldn’t bottle stuff up inside. It’ll end up eating you alive– like acid!” Roni sped up her steps to match the silver-haired fighter and began to walk a little in front of her. “Kanjou says that you should talk about your problems with people that are willing to listen to you. He told me that you’ll always feel better when you talk about what’s bothering you.”
Andrea was increasing her speed, trying to get away from Roni. She gritted her teeth and walked faster and faster, but the short girl just kept up with her and kept talking. Finally, Andrea stopped walking and snapped at Roni. “Shut up! I don’t need to talk about my problems, you little brat! Leave me alone!”
Roni stopped in her tracks and Andrea kept walking as fast as she could. She was already at the dining hall when Roni caught back up to her. Kanjou and Fushicho were eating a meager breakfast, and they invited Andrea to sit down just as Roni came running into the room.
The little girl snapped at Kanjou’s order and blushed. “Sorry, Kanjou.” she muttered as she sat down at the table. Andrea plopped on the floor as well, with a scowl on her face.
“Can we discuss a strategy? I’d feel better if we were all on the same page.” Fushicho asked after Andrea had begun to eat. “What did you guys have in mind, exactly?” inquired Andrea.
Andrea turned, about to say something sarcastic, but her eyes widened when she saw the winged woman standing behind her. She leaped three feet into the air and stumbled backwards. “Wha-! What the hell is that!?” she shrieked.
Andrea stared at the fur-covered woman that was shorter than her, her blue eyes wide and filled with shock. “I didn’t ask its’
name
. I asked what the hell is it?!” Andrea screamed, turning to face Fushicho as she pointed a finger in 26’s face.
“Please calm down, Miss Andrea. Sit and I’ll answer any questions you may have.” 26 walked around the table and sat down next to Fushicho, facing Andrea. After she recovered from her initial shock Andrea sat down as well, looking a bit apprehensive.
“Thank you,” 26 said. Her voice was patient and almost musical in tone. She looked at Andrea and smiled. “I do apologize for my appearance, and I’m sorry for scaring you. When you were in the tournaments, did you ever meet anyone that had been tested on by the government?”
Andrea frowned. “Yeah... I knew some guys that claimed they’d had their strength enhanced and stuff. Didn’t really believe them that much... But I’ve never seen anyone like you at all.”
26 nodded. “Not many of us survive, much less get a chance to escape. The milder experiments are easy to deny. They can claim that there’s new drugs being shipped in with imports from around the world or whatever else. But for the last few decades the government has been trying to use science and genetics to create a super weapon of sorts. They want something that they can use to strike fear into people and that they can use in wars as super soldiers the likes of which no one’s ever seen before. The only thing they’ve gotten though is a bunch of failures. Most subjects don’t even survive all the initial testing, much less the genetic splicing.
“I spent most of my life that I remember in a government lab. I don’t even know if I had a life before then, actually. Eventually I managed to escape with some of the others. We got separated though, and I spent some time wandering, unable to show myself to anyone, until Kanjou and Roni found me one night. So now I help them out. Here, eat up!” 26 smiled as she pushed a bowl of food at Andrea. “It’s my special recipe!”
The
kemono
nodded. “Yeah. It’s what I do best!”
“I see,” Andrea looked at Kanjou. “So, about that plan?”
He jumped a little, not expecting her to be done with 26 so soon. When Fushi had met her she’d spent hours asking questions of her, he’d been anticipating the same thing from Andrea. “Oh! Yes. Well, in a few weeks is a press conference. On the Friday beforehand there’s going to be a state dinner at which the Shogun will announce a referendum to make Martial arts legal again. The following Tuesday, he will hold the press conference to announce the results, as well as an investigation of corruption in the government.” Kanjou pulled out a map and unrolled it on the table. “This is a map of the government building where the conference will be. After the press conference, we will have to get to the Shogun and protect him as well as his family.”
“Wait... did you say something about making martial arts legal again?” Andrea looked up, leaning forward as though she was finally interested in something that was going on. As she waited for Kanjou’s answer she shoveled food in her mouth, chewing as fast as she could.
“Yes. Our contact is setting it up as a precaution. It’s mainly so we can’t be arrested for using Martial arts when we go in to protect the Shogun.”
“Intel mission that our contact set us up for. He’s afraid that Yasakuto may try something after Kunota announces the vote.” replied Kanjou.
“Yeah, sounds like a good assumption to me. I mean, he is a crooked politician and all.” Andrea stood as soon as her plate was cleared and headed for the door.
Andrea sighed, and without turning around said, “I told you I’d come and go as I please. I want to go out, so I’m going out.” She disappeared down the hall and the sound of the door opening and sliding shut was all that marked her exit.
The other fighters exchanged glances, then Kanjou chuckled nervously. “Well, that went well, I thought... But I was a little surprised that she didn’t ask you more questions, 26.”
The winged woman nodded. “Yeah, me too. That’s okay though. I mean, she’s grown up around strange people in the underground. I’m probably not the strangest one she’s ever met, after all.”
“That’s true,” Fushi said as she reached for seconds. “At least she didn’t try to fight you off or something. Girl’s jumpier than one of those kangaroo things I’ve heard about.” She glanced toward the hallway that Andrea had left from, frowning.
Andrea wandered around Shibasaki, taking in the daily sights of the city. People walked all around her, all seeming to be in a hurry to go to their jobs or go home from them, pushing and swerving around her as she walked slowly among them. She passed by homeless people begging for money on the streets, people with sandwich boards shouting about how man must repent now or face another cataclysm like the one 500 years before, and gangs of hoodlums passing the time by planning where they’d go to sell drugs that night. She paused for a moment to watch a wall of televisions in the front of a store, hurrying away when they began to run the story of a fire in the South Sector the night before.
The last thing I need right now is to be arrested,
she thought, then smirked,
Might be preferable to having to listen to that little brat, Roni, though.
The sun had passed its zenith and was heading for the horizon. She noticed at one point that on a normal night she’d be at Tony’s Place right then, getting ready to start another tournament. Andrea sighed, her mind flashing back to the rising flames and smoke that had swallowed up her only home. It seemed wrong to not be there– she’d only been absent for one week in the fifteen years that she had been with Tony. If she wasn’t fighting in the ring, she was helping him behind the bar. Now that part of her life was over.
She sighed again and stopped to look up at the clouds, fighting back a torrent of emotions that threatened to explode from behind her cool demeanor. Finally, she pushed back the events of the previous night and continued to wander.
Above Andrea, a figure stalked across the rooftops, following her stealthily. A dark green eye watched the silver-haired girl intently and studied her every move. Sable hair shone in the summer sun as the figure crept along like a shadow. He watched with interest as Andrea stopped at a fruit stand. She looked over the fruit for a few minutes and selected one, and then headed off into an alley after flipping the fruit vendor a coin from the pocket of her white pants.
He followed along the rooftop as Andrea headed down the alley.
Perfect
, Ryoku thought before stepping off the top of the building.
The back of Andrea’s neck tingled.
Danger!
She hit the ground and rolled forward, the partially eaten fruit flying out of her hand. Something smashed into the ground behind her as she jumped up from her roll. She spun around and slipped into a battle stance easily.
About three meters from her in the alleyway, a man stood up from a crouch. He had dark hair that fell over his right eye and was wearing a denim jacket, a white shirt, and blue jeans. In his hands was a large spear with a red strip of cloth tied around it. “Who the hell are you?” Andrea demanded.
