Rob
Pew Pew Pew
3500 Words
Rob as Miyazaki Kaede
Sev as Masato Fujikawa
To Miyazaki Kaede, brown-haired scientist extraordinaire in behaviour only, people were like the machinery she worked with. She enjoyed discovering new things about them, even if this meant having to take them apart and build them anew. To her, the moral compass she possessed was little more than the flick of a wrist, the thoughts of a madman personified.
Justification was not a factor in it, interest was.To her, interest was justification. If she found something to be interesting, it was justified to break the rules. People, mostly her fellow students, often told her that ‘this’ was exactly why she didn’t have any real friends outside of school - or even in school.
They were all dead wrong, though. Friends, while a part of mankind’s sociological consciousness, were but a figment of what captivated the emerald-eyed girl’s interests. As a result she didn’t have any friends not because she couldn’t get any, but because she didn’t need any.
The only friends she needed were those that understood her.
Of course those were scarce and mostly few and far inbetween. Her only real friend seemed to be a man that held some oddly dark secret that she couldn’t quite figure out yet, and possibly might never either.
Glancing upwards, she put her hood on and took out a rather odd-looking umbrella. It wasn’t like your standard, run-off-the-mill umbrella. It was mostly mechanical and looked oddly out of place with just about everything that had ever existed, ever.
Also, it was raining.
Sighing softly, she took out her phone and swiped her left thumb across the screen. Great! she thought internally as she saw her stockmarket investment drop yet again. She liked to gamble away her money through ridiculous means. It always amazed her how materialistic this world really was.
Reaching the gate of her university’s campus, she turned to the left and went down the long, winding road back home to her apartment.
Little did the woman know, her shadier activities had garnered the interest of another group of mysterious individuals. One in particular now stood outside what could generously be called her ‘apartment’, a cigarette pressed between his lips, amber eyes silently critiquing the run-down tenement.
Tucking himself under the building’s makeshift plywood awning in an attempt to keep his smoke lit, the dark-haired man tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the flat’s tenant to arrive.
Peering down the laneway as the umbrella-wielding girl neared, the duster-clad agent stepped into her path. Getting his first good look at the woman, Masato Fujikawa had a hard time believing that this was their mark. A recent rash of incidents in the city had lead Orpheus to Miyazaki’s doorstep.
A number of individuals the group had apprehended, mostly Yakuza and other unscrupulous characters, had been in possession of significantly advanced makeshift weapons that each claimed to have obtained through Tokyo’s black market from a mysterious benefactor. While normally such an event would be better left to local law enforcement, the nature of the equipment itself demanded the Initiative’s attention. The designs and implementation were not unlike those used by the group’s former nemesis, The Order, leading the top brass to believe that this benefactor was, in fact, a member of the defunct terrorist organization.
Taking his cigarette between his finger and thumb, Masato flicked a glowing pillar of ash from its tip, letting out a long, smoke-filled breath as his keen eyes examined the suspicious woman.
“Nice place you’ve got here,” he sighed, reaching for his badge and flashing the credentials to the girl. “...Mind if I come in?”
“Oh...” She said solemnly, not really in any mood to actually ‘grasp’ the position she was in right now. She glanced up from her position, gazing right into the man’s eyes as she came to a halt in front of him. “I didn’t think this story had a sequel to it. Is this the part where I freak out and start embarrassing myself trying to get you to leave me alone, or how does this work?”
“This is the part where you abide by the law and answer my questions.” the gunslinger breathed in an annoyed tone. “...Now I’m sure you know why I’m here. We can talk here, or we can talk downtown.”
Taking another long drag on his cigarette, the General reached for the pair of cuffs clasped to his belt. Twirling the oddly sturdy-looking shackles around his index finger, Masato stepped closer to the girl.
“Don’t make things difficult on yourself.” the grizzled man sighed, letting out puffs of pale smoke as he spoke. “...I just want to talk, for now. It’d be in your interest to comply.”
“Ooooh, pushy aren’t we?” Kaede responded a bit more upbeat this time as she walked past the gunslinger. Taking out the keys to her apartment she too breathed a soft sigh. “So pushy, so scary, booboo. You know, this is just like in the movies. Only more cliché and less interesting.”
Letting her umbrella retract itself back into a simple coin, she removed her hood and let her breast-length hair flow freely. The rain had stopped as soon as she was about to head inside. Just her luck. Not that she ever was outside a whole lot to begin with anyway, though.
“Why don’t I invite you in for a nice cup of just-tell-me-what-you-need-to-know-and-get-to-the-point, so we can stop playing hide and I-really-don’t-want-to-seek? If you’re here for a reason, you should say why. It’s common courtesy, is it not? I mean, it’s not like you’re being super sneaky or anything. Just waiting there outside of my apartment like that, being shady as fuck. I guess it’s the endless wonders of the human mind at work, but it’s still kind of convoluted... wouldn’t you agree?
“Now then,” she continued, opening the door and gesturing for the man to move in first, “after you.”
A hand slammed against the door, pinning the girl between the door jam and the duster-clad agent.
“Now listen,” the agent barked in an irritated tone, the glowing cigarette moving up and down between his lips as he spoke, precariously close to the woman’s face. “...You’re past the point of being able to play coy. So why don’t you cut the shit and cooperate.”
Moving his arm, the gunslinger gestured for the suspicious woman to continue inside. Following in tow, the General swung the rickety door shut behind him.
Taking his first look around the woman’s flat, the whole picture slowly fell into place in the man’s mind. Computers whirred away noisily, an odd number of them tucked away in various crevices, Cabling ran messily to-and-fro; the walls decorated with various schematics and blueprints pinned to the crumbling sheet rock. All in all, it smacked more of a laboratory than the flat of a beige twenty-something college student.
“Well this ain’t exactly subtle, is it?” the grizzled agent mused, a hint of surprise in his tone. “...So much for plausible deniability.”
Flicking the growing pillar of ash from the end of his cigarette into a nearby glass, half full of some unknown fluid, the gunslinger turned towards Kaede with a disapproving look.
“So tell me, Miss Miyazaki. What exactly makes a young woman like yourself decide to deal arms on the black market?”
“The same kind that thinks putting money on the stock market for funsies is a good idea?” Kaede asked rhetorically as she put her belongings down, grabbed a nearby cigarette and lit it. Falling back into her usual chair, she glanced up towards Masato.
“Whoever said I was denying anything in the first place anyway? To me, this is nothing more than a little game, something to keep my mind occupied so as not to get, or feel bored. Human contact is a fragile thing, and I don’t particularly enjoy it as much as one might be inclined to believe about someone of my age.”
Taking a deep breath, letting the smoke course through her system, she sighed once more. It hadn’t been the first time when some supposed poser from the government had tried to coax her into doing his, her or their bidding. It wasn’t like she was being all secretive about her work - something her mother often berated her on - but she never once felt like taking the bait.
“Now, before we go onto actual business,” she continued, “mind telling me your name? I’m sure I could’ve seen it when you flashed your flashy flashiness, but who reads those things anyway?”
“My name is no concern of yours.” the Gunslinger said flatly, quite amused by the girl’s response to his point-blank accusation. “...What you do need to know, is that you’ve landed yourself in a heap of trouble. You may have been able to weasel your way out of charges before...”
Taking another long drag on his cigarette before flicking it into the same half-filled decanter as before, Masato’s piercing amber eyes stared the woman down.
“...But my associates and I, we’re not like the ones who’ve tried to halt your shady little business before.”
Turning to face the grimy window at his side, the gunslinger stared out at the sinking amber sun and let out a dry chuckle.
“As of our meeting, your assets have been frozen. Those shipments you had waiting in Minato? Seized. It’d be easy for us to put you away for a long time, given what we’ve got. And trust me when I say we’ve got the jurisdiction to back it up...”
“...But I’ve got this crazy notion that you’ll be more cooperative without handcuffs,” the gunslinger quipped, taking a step towards the woman. “...What I want to know is where you got the designs. I want to know who your contacts are, who you’re under contract to supply, and who’s funding this two-bit operation of yours. Give me that, and you might not spend the better part of the next century in a cell.”
“You’re looking at her,” Kaede responded equally as flat, but without the ire behind it. She found it quite amusing actually. Her assets were ‘frozen’? So, did that mean they decided to close off the garbage dump? Right, because that would make sense. Oh, and of course the ton of car cemeteries as well. Yeah, oh man, she was royally screwed now.
It was true that she had been procuring some rather interesting items for herself and they were indeed still waiting in Minato but, honestly? Even if she lost them forever, that still wouldn’t mean jackshit. She wasn’t a materialist. She worked with the wonders of the world and the tools it granted her, anything else was just a bonus.
Still, it wasn’t so much that she was averse to just shrugging off this entire threatening atmosphere the man was putting on, but more so that she had stared death in the face before when she got hit by something she couldn’t even see.
What was he going to do, shoot her? Kill her? That would probably only end up exciting her - before she died of course - how often would one be able to ascertain themselves on the feelings of being shot? Probably a lot of people, but not the kind that led a relatively normal life.
“My workplace and that little shipment from Minato might make you think otherwise, but I am quite the poor student, mind you. I care little for money, and I’d rather spend right away than keep it someplace safe. So you want to throw me in jail. Big words for such a sweet guy. How am I supposed to react? You want me to tell you I’m sorry? To spill the beans?
“Oh wait, I just did! I work for myself. Throwing me in solitary confinement won’t change a damn thing about that, good sir. I mean, sure, I’d probably go ballistic, but that’s assuming I was sane to begin with.”
Suddenly the lights went out all around them and no sooner than Masato could react, the floor beneath his feet began to rapidly descent - with him still standing on it because, you know, gravity.
The room they were standing in - or, well... he was standing, she was sitting - was an elevator downstairs. One that seemed to go on forever until finally it settled down. When the lights turned back on, the room was way more expansive. So much more in fact, that it could’ve been a separate plane of existence.
In the middle of the room was still Kaede’s workplace, only enlarged by about ten times the amount of computers and laptops and wirings and whathaveyou. Surrounding it, though, were the results of all kinds of projects. Failed ones, prototypes, completed ones, but also odd ones, like the ballistic left hand of a young boy.
“So here you are,” she continued as she spread her arms out like wings, twirling around on her feet, “stepping right into the den of a crazy scientist, the snippets of a madman, the fragile mind of a torn soul. Pick your destination, human, because the night has just begun!”
In less time than it took to blink, the General was in motion, the cold steel barrel of his Orpheus-issued revolver pressed against the girl’s temple before she had finished her sentence.
Amber eyes darted around the space, arcane energies surging within the agent’s body as his post-human senses delivered sensory information to spiritually-charged synapses. It had to have been a trap of some kind.
And yet, they were still alone.
Letting his guard down only slightly, the grizzled man lowered his weapon, opting to keep it in hand rather than returning it to its concealed holster. Glaring at the woman with disdain, the General let out an angry grunt.
“What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” he growled, cautious amber orbs still scanning the space for any sign of danger, his weapon still pointed at the girl. “...You think this is a game? Cut the bullshit. There’s not a chance in hell you’re working alone. And newsflash, kid, every goddamn cretin and thug in Tokyo has gotten wind of your little operation. The weapons you’re building are ending up on the streets.”
Letting out a frustrated sigh, the General slid his revolver back into it’s housing.
“... And don’t think for one goddamn second you won’t be held accountable. Tell me who you’ve been selling to, or things are going to get a lot worse for you, Miyazaki.”
“Do I have to keep quoting myself here?” she wondered aloud as she held her hands up in a ‘oh god please don’t shoot me’ kind of joke as she let the man do his thing. Apparently he had anger issues and she had been living in the wrong apartment at the wrong time, who knew, right? Honestly, there was something oddly familiar about the way he had moved.
The speed at which he had put the gun against her temple had been thrilling, but also a bit unsatisfactory. Had he shot her, who knew what kinds of crazy stuff would’ve happened to her! But, apparently he was still gung ho on getting her to spill beans of some kind.
“So... just because the things I create for fun get used for, in your eyes, not so fun stuff, it means I’m the bad guy? I’m okay with that. I don’t create stuff just to stash it away, forever to be not seen by anyone. Hell, if I didn’t have to at least get the basic necessities going for myself, I probably would’ve just given them away if given the chance.
“Let the world figure itself out you know? Isn’t that supposed to be some universal credo or someshit? Balance above all? Balance is not good triumphing over evil, mister I-have-anger-issues sir. Balance is not about being a goody two shoes.
“Balance means letting the world figure its own shit out.”
It was odd how natural the words felt to her, how easy they came to her. She had never thought about the notion of balance before, but for some reason or another... it felt like she was thought this very rule from an early age.
The funny thing was, though, it felt like the teachings were given to her quite the few lifetimes ago.
“So what does that make you then? An advocate to the preservation of mankind, and mankind only? Isn’t that a little narrow-minded of you, of us humans?”
Only now and then, during that little exchange of words did she put an incredibly sarcastic emphasis on the word human. Why that was, though, remained elusive even to the brown-haired youth.
Amber eyes narrowed to slits as the gunslinger listened to his mark ramble on. The way she spoke made it quite clear to the agent that she genuinely did not give a damn how the devices she was producing were used, which only served to increase Masato’s frustration and anger.
He’d finally had enough.
With a flash of arcane power, the General closed in on the woman once more, his post-human speed making the motions nigh undetectable to the supposedly-unawakened Kaede. In a heartbeat, the man’s unoccupied hand wrapped around her wrist. With a twist, Masato spun the girl around and wrenched her arm behind her.
“Miyazaki Kaede, you’re hereby under arrest...” he grunted, holstering his revolver and reaching for his cuffs as he relayed the woman’s rights to her. Flicking the matte steel bangle open with his free hand, the gunslinger placed it over the woman’s wrist, snapping it shut with a satisfying click.
On the body of the device, a single mote of red light blinked to life, indicating that the second in the pair of shackles had yet to be placed. Grabbing the opposing bangle from a loop on his belt, the gunslinger reached to place it on the woman’s opposite wrist. Once activated, the two shackles would be bound together by a radial band of spiritual particles far more durable and useful than standard steel handcuffs -- especially when dealing with post-human criminals.
Leaning over, the General pressed the second link to the girl’s arm -
- which, with a violent jerk, was wrested from the man’s hands. She had only a split second to think, and to choose but, in her mind, it was quite clear what she was going to have to do. After all, in ye olde scenes, this was where the villain bolted, right?
Right.
As such it was with Miyazaki Kaede as well. She was pretty sure she was making things ever so much worse for her but, honestly, if he wasn’t even going to listen to a word she was saying, she didn’t really care about what kinds of trouble she’d get herself into.
Well, that was probably a lie. Especially after she had ran for about a good minute or so. It had happened so fast that her rather impressive mind hadn’t been able to comprehend it but, in all honesty, maybe that was because she was hit by something she had yet to truly encounter.
Feeling some ridiculous force at work, she found her body tensing up and her vision going blurry.
Cursing himself for his brief lapse of judgement, the gunslinger plodded after the girl as she fled the tenement, knowing that in a few moments, the singular bangle on her wrist work its scientific magic.
The compliance shackle had been designed with instances such as this in mind. When separated, if the transceiver of one cuff moved too far from it’s counterpart, the offending device would activate -- stimulating nociceptors in the escapees body and subduing them. Of course, this was beyond the scope of Kaede’s knowledge, and as such, she had no way of knowing what was in store for her when she fled from the General.
Jogging down the narrow laneway to the side of the apartment, Masato caught sight of the girl’s prone form, letting out a dry chuckle as he mused on the brutal efficiency of APACHE’s invention. Sidling up alongside the despondent woman, the gunslinger reached into his coat and retrieved his phone. Tapping in a few numbers, the man held the device to his ear and spoke.
[CR=#B7B7B7]“It’s General Fujikawa,” he breathed, eying the criminal at his feet. “...I’ve apprehended the mark. I’m going to need a cleanup crew at my location. We’ve got a lot of evidence here that needs categorizing.”[/COLOR]
Waiting for confirmation, the gunslinger let out another short laugh.
“Yeah, I’ll bring her in myself. Get a cell prepped.”
With a click, the line went dead. Stuffing the device back into his duster, the agent leaned down and scooped the woman up. Slinging her surprisingly light form over his shoulder, Masato trotted off to wait for his comrades to arrive.