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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 13:53:59 GMT -5
((Originally posted Apr - May, 2011))
Sunday night...
Despite the glut of journalists, aid workers, and refugees from the north of the country, Riley and David were able to find lodgings that weren't in a coffin hotel, or as the Japanese called them, 'kapuseru hoteru', something Riley was incredibly thankful for. After an exhausting day delivering to the Red Cross the proceeds from the night before's hanami and touring one of the many evacuee shelters that had popped up in the wake of the devastating 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami that had displaced some 150,000 people, with another 28,000 missing or known dead, the Los were relaxing in their rented room in a quiet suburb of Tokyo.
"Wanna check out Japanese TV?" Riley said from her spot next to David on their bed. "We can giggle over the outrageously crazy commercials they have." She leaned over and grabbed the remote, thumb poised on the button that would turn on the TV.
"Sure, why not? You'll have to translate for me, though." He'd picked up a few words of Japanese here and there from her, but certainly nothing on the level of being able to follow even a simple commercial. He shifted around a bit in the bed, getting comfortable. His side was pressed up against hers, and he had one arm behind his head. It was a pretty nice room they'd gotten, considering the crush of people around.
She clicked it on and the TV went automatically to the guide channel. She flipped through it slowly, looking for something they'd both recognise. "Ooh," she said with a happy grin. "Look, Firefly repeats."
"Firefly in Japanese? That ought to be interesting. I wonder if they subtitle the Chinese phrases."
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she read the description given for the particular episode. "Oh, no," she said breathlessly and sat up, leaning forward intently. "Oh, f*ck. David, this had better be a joke or we're in trouble."
"Huh? What kind of trouble?" The Japanese characters on the screen were incomprehensible to him.
She got up, went to the TV, and pointed to a few characters on screen. "See this? This says, 'In the ninth season finale...' Ninth. Season." She looked back at David, her face ashen. "When did Firefly end on your Earth?"
"A long-ass time ago. Like 2003 or something." It didn't make any sense to him. Did they have a different Firefly in Japan?
She nodded slowly. "Same for me." Going back to the bed, she sat down on the edge once more, her stomach tied in knots. "I don't think we're in the right place," she said softly.
A year ago, he probably wouldn't have understood what she was saying. Things were different now, though. "Sh*t. This isn't your Earth, is it?"
"I don't think so, no." She paused for a moment, then, "Did you feel something weird this morning? With the portal?"
He started to shake his head, then paused. "Well. It did seem to take a little longer than when we went to the Maldives. Only like a second, though, you know? Instead of being basically instantaneous."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 13:55:54 GMT -5
She frowned deeply. "So the medallion thingy is screwed up. Does that mean we're not gonna be able to get home? Are we stuck here?" She was starting to panic. Her life - her friends, her business, her dog! - were in some other, remote world.
He was sitting, now, reaching for the medallion they'd gotten from the wizard - the same one who'd sent them to the Maldives. "Christ, we'd better not be." He ran his thumb over the face of the medallion and waited, expecting to see the familiar portal open up. Waited some more. Nothing was happening. "F*ck," he said succinctly.
"Sh*t," she responded, just as pointedly. "How the hell are we going to get home? No one knows where we are, David!" She couldn't quite keep the accusatory tone out of her voice, as if all of this was completely and utterly his fault. Somehow.
"I don't know yet, but there's got to be a way. We'll figure it out." He wasn't ready to panic, yet, but the accusation in Riley's voice surprised him. "I did exactly what the wizard said to do, just like last time."
She took a deep breath, frowned, moved closer to him. "I'm sorry, baby," she said softly. "It's just...Finn. And Taya and Duci, and my students. Hell, our entire lives."
"I know." He tried the medallion a couple more times, hopefully, then dropped it on the bedside table when nothing happened. "We need to figure out what this Earth is like, compared to yours and mine. If there's magic in it, like yours, we can find someone to help."
She nodded, thankful for his steady rational. "Phone book? Wizards and witches advertised at home. If it's anything like home, they'll do the same here. Maybe."
He nodded back. "Yeah. It's a start." There was a phone book in the desk on the other side of the the room. He didn't waste time getting up, just stretched out a hand and willed the book into it. When it slapped into his palm, he flipped it open, only to realize that it, too, was in Japanese. "Bah," he said, pushing the phone book in her direction.
She chuckled softly and took the book from him, thumbing through it. She searched under magic and found a bunch of listings for magic shops of the David Copperfield variety. Then she looked for witches and wizards and found childrens' party entertainers but nothing that looked like what she wanted. "Nothing," she said, a tiny note of despair creeping in.
"Okay," he said, thinking hard. He had to keep the ideas coming to forestall any chance of panic. "What about the Nexus? Isn't it supposed to touch like everywhere?"
"Do you know how to activate it? I don't. I'm pretty sure no one else does, either."
"Those FBI guys? They seem to be able to control coming and going."
She made a thoughtful face, and nodded. "It's worth a shot, I guess." She grabbed the phone and dialled the hotel's operator. When the chipper Japanese voice answered, Riley asked for long distance information. After she was connected to that, she asked for the FBI field office in Baton Rogue. As she waited, she asked David, "Do you remember any of the agents' names?"
"Crap. No." He thumped his fist on the bed, then stood and started pacing around the room. It never seemed to let up, did it? If it wasn't psychotic alternate-universe versions of himself, it was psychotic Faerie Queens. Or angels and demons. Now being possibly stuck on the wrong Earth.
She frowned and then began speaking in rapid-fire Japanese before she realised she was speaking to someone in America. Sheepishly she apologised and asked to speak to someone on the Nexus project. She was met with confusion. "The Nexus project," she repeated. "Rhy'Din? No? Nothing? Thanks for your time." She hung up. "They didn't have a clue what I was talking about."
He cursed some more, in English and Mandarin both, then stopped pacing, staring out of the hotel room's window. It looked completely normal out there. There was no way to tell that this wasn't the world they were supposed to be in. Then he turned back to her. "What if we just went to somewhere we knew there was a Nexus portal in your world? Could it still be there in this one?"
She raised her brow. "The only one I know of is in Louisiana. We could go there, I guess." She wasn't feeling too confident in the idea, though.
He sighed, sat down on the edge of the bed again. Though he was wracking his brain for more suggestions, he was out of ideas, and really didn't want to tell her that he couldn't think of anything else.
She sat down next to him and took his hand. "I have an idea. Let's go to the Jinbōchō neighbourhood and see what we can discover there. It's got lots of antique book stores. If I ran a magic shop in Tokyo, that's where I'd have it."
He squeezed her hand, nodded. "Okay, let's go." It was definitely better than sitting here in the hotel room. He stood, tugging her up with him, then hugged her briefly but fiercely before turning away to get his shoes and get ready to go. He knew it wasn't his fault that this had happened to them, but somehow, he still felt responsible.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 14:02:59 GMT -5
Riley had only been to Tokyo twice before; both times, her visit had merely been a stop-over on the way to Kyoto, the city where her mother had been born and raised, the city where - as far as Riley knew - her grandmother still lived. Neither trip to Japan had been under happy circumstances; both had been to attend funerals. The first trip was to bury Mama-san's brother, the second was to bury Ojii-san, Riley's grandfather.
The city hadn't changed much in the 14 years since Riley's last visit. It was still a crowded, busy, amazingly clean place. It reminded her a bit of New York City, in fact - neither town rolled up its streets after sundown. If anything, both cities became more alive after dark. The streets of Tokyo were packed with young people, going to restaurants, the theatre, concerts, clubs, or just hanging out together.
They drew looks as they walked through the streets of Tokyo. They were both tall, taller than most of the city's inhabitants, and despite their obvious Asian features, they were pegged as foreigners - Riley as a hafu, and David as Chinese. It didn't bother Riley; she was quite used to people staring at her. After all, she was the world's - well, her world's - first Lycanthrope to crawl out of the closet. But she didn't know if it bothered David. She reached for his hand as they descended the stairs from the elevated train station in the Jinbōchō neighbourhood, and asked quietly, "Does it bother you?"
"Does what bother me?" he asked, taking her hand when she reached for his. Then he realized what she must be talking about. "Oh." He glanced around at the staring faces. "It's a little weird, but not enough to worry about."
"It's 'cos you're tall," she said with a lightning-fast smirk. "And 'cos you have this...presence...that just sort of screams, 'Look at me!' Did you know that?" They hit the streets and Riley paused for a moment, reading street signs and signs on the sides of buildings. Then she headed to the left, still holding his hand.
He gave her a sideways look, trying to figure out if she was teasing him. It was hard to tell, sometimes. "That so?" Of course, that was pretty much exactly the way he would describe her, too. She definitely drew attention, just by being present.
She nodded solemnly, not at all teasing. "I blame your years on the Force. And maybe the bagua, too. It's like you're perfectly at ease, all the time, able to deal with everything, undaunted and unafraid."
He was surprised enough by what she'd just said that he stopped walking for several seconds. It wasn't something he'd ever thought about, or noticed in himself. He wasn't entirely sure it was true, either. There were times when he was very much not at ease. They'd been through some of them fairly recently. He shrugged a little, feeling oddly embarrassed and somewhat at a loss for words.
She stopped when he did, turning to face him, a curious expression on her face. It dawned on her that he really had no clue about this aspect of himself. She chuckled softly and went to him, putting her arms around his waist and pressing her forehead against the bridge of his nose. She inhaled his scent deeply - Jaguar started purring; She knew that scent, She loved that scent, that scent was Home. "You really have no idea, do you?" Riley asked softly.
"I just...try to take things as they come," he said quietly, holding her against him and enjoying the sensation. "I didn't think it was anything special." He tilted his head up a bit and kissed her forehead. For a moment, he wondered what the watching people would think about them now, but quickly decided he didn't really care. He didn't care about much else when she was in his arms; that was more than enough for him.
"Hmm," she said, turning back towards the direction she'd been going in before and taking his hand. "I think I'm going to petition Emmet Bane to change your name from Ex-Constable Hotstuff to Ex-Constable Awesome Pants." She took a deep breath. "If we ever get home, that is."
He snorted softly. "He'd love that, I'm sure, considering the previous interest in my pants." He squeezed her hand, tugged her back to face him. "We'll get home," he said seriously. "I'm sure of that."
She looked up at him, into those brown eyes that were a near-perfect match for her own. She gave him a confident smile that she didn't entirely feel and nodded. "I have confidence in you." She turned back once more, still hand in hand with him, and set off the street. "It shouldn't be much farther. There's a little alley and the shop's supposed to be down at the end of it."
As they walked past a colorful and brightly lit bar, he noticed a sign prominently displayed on the entrance door, and even though there were English words above the Japanese characters, it was still indecipherable. "Please acknowledge it although it is very sorry because only one of Japanese is asking to do the entrance store in our shop although I asked to come it to this special King Mou," he read. "What the hell does that even mean?" There were several young Japanese men loitering around the entrance to the bar; all of them were now staring at him as he pointed. They didn't look especially friendly.
Riley, in a bizarre show of completely uncharacteristic submissiveness, bowed deeply to the young men, lowered her eyes, and took David's hand, dragging him away from the club. As she walked quickly away, she hissed an explanation, "That's a Yakuza club."
"A...sh*t," he said, glancing over his shoulder. The young men were still staring at them. He'd had more than one encounter with Yakuza thugs back in San Francisco, though it was strictly small-time stuff. Enough, though, that he knew they were Trouble. Even so, he was a bit nonplussed by her reaction. He didn't say anything about it, not that it mattered much where her senses were involved.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 14:22:21 GMT -5
"You've dealt with them before? The Yakies?" she asked him quietly as they rounded a corner and headed down the alley she'd heard of from the front desk clerk at their hotel. She slipped a covert glance over her shoulder and relaxed when she saw that they weren't being followed. While she felt reasonably certain that she and David would make quick work of anyone who tried to harm them, she didn't know what sort of firepower the Yakuza on this Earth carried. Who knows? Maybe they carried silver bullets as standard ammunition.
"Yeah, a few times," he said, glancing back over his shoulder, too. "They've got a strong presence in San Fran. I wasn't involved with anything big, but I've had some run-ins with their low-level thugs." Then he looked at her, raising his brow a bit. "They're bad news...for normal people. What's got you so spooked?"
"We don't know what they're like here. We don't know if they carry silver. We don't know anything about this place. Better to be safe than dead, right?" She glanced up at him and gave him a faint smile. He should feel rather proud that his influence had calmed her normal reaction, namely that of getting in the Yakies' faces and provoking them into a fight.
He hadn't thought about that. It was still kind of hard to think of this place as potentially completely different from the Earth...Earths...they were used to. When she put it that way, though, "Yeah, you've definitely got a point." He grinned at her. "Quick thinking."
"Your fault." She reached for his hand and they made their way quietly, almost stealthily down the alley. About three-quarters of the way in, stood a door with a yin-yang symbol on it. In all other respects, the shop was completely unremarkable. Riley nodded towards it and let go of David's hand long enough to knock on it.
As she knocked, he looked the shop over. In some ways, it kind of reminded him of his parents shop back in San Francisco. He could see familiar-looking dried plants in the window, and the yin-yang, of course, was a Chinese symbol originally. "What is this place?" he asked.
"An Onmyodo shop. It's Japanese magic based on Chinese thought." She smiled up at him. "They're mostly Shintos now, but they're supposed to be very good diviners and are said to possess very powerful spiritual allies. Sort of like a Western witch's familiar."
The door opened, revealing a small, wizened woman with thick hair the colour of snow. She glanced up at Riley, then at David, and smiled, revealing three missing teeth. She said something to them in soft, sing-song Japanese. Riley bowed deeply, said something back in the same language. The woman's brows rose and she gestured for them to come inside. "Go in first," Riley whispered to David, "but don't touch anything. And remember to bow."
Don't touch anything, indeed. He narrowed his eyes at her briefly; he wasn't completely a barbarian, after all. Then he walked into the shop, bowing politely to the tiny woman when he drew abreast of her.
Riley followed David inside and the woman closed and locked the door behind them. She moved to stand in front of them, staring up into their eyes boldly, as if examining them. After about five minutes of this minute study, she cracked a grin and laughed, the sound like a child's carefree amusement. She stabbed a finger at David and said something in rapid-fire Japanese and then repeated the gesture at Riley, saying something different this time.
He glanced at Riley, curious to know what the woman was saying, but kept his mouth shut, since he didn't really know what the protocol for a place like this was.
Riley blushed a little and bowed once more. The woman wandered towards the back of the shop, still laughing and chattering away. Riley glanced at David, a brow raised sardonically, and said completely soberly, "She called you Sarutahiko, and me, Uzume. They're married kami - he's the lord of martial arts and she is the mistress of sensuality and dance."
His brows went up. "She's got a hell of an eye, then." He wasn't the boasting or arrogant sort, anyone who knew him knew that, but in that one area – martial arts – he never pretended to be anything less than really good at it. He figured he'd earned a little pride in his skills. As for the rest, well, dance and sensuality described Riley perfectly, and they were married, too, after all.
She shrugged a little, caramel eyes following the tiny woman as she wandered around the shop, still chattering away and gathering together things and putting them in a large copper bowl. Riley responded periodically with little more than 'Hai, honya-san', when she could get a word in edgewise. When the woman paused, Riley translated to David, "She knows why we're here, but she cannot help us right now. The time isn't right and when it is right, she'll need several days to find the right place."
"She knows why we're here?" He was surprised once more. The woman didn't seem terribly surprised to have two people from the wrong Earth in her shop. Either magic was a lot more common on this Earth than his own or the woman was a bit crazy. "What do you mean, the time isn't right?"
Riley shrugged again and turned the question to the woman. She came forward, still holding the bowl, and looked at Riley as if she was a slow child. In very patient tones, the woman explained to Riley what she meant by the wrong time. Riley nodded in understanding and then turned to David. "She said the moon isn't in the right phase. It will be on Friday and she will begin scrying for us then. Do you have something from home? Like...a bit of dirt or something?"
Sure, he always carried dirt in his pockets. Wisely, he kept that sarcastic remark to himself and patted his pockets, shrugging. "I've got the wizard's medallion, a couple of marks..."
"No, I think she need something physical. Like from the actual planet." Riley checked the bottom of her shoe, spied a leaf stuck in the tread and pried it out. She held it out to the woman, asked a question. The woman plucked it from her fingers and dropped it into the bowl. Then she went to the door and waved them out. Riley bowed again, and said, "Domo arigato, honya-san," and exited the shop.
David bowed, too, echoing Riley's thanks, and followed her out the door. When the old woman had closed the shop behind them, he asked, "Do you think she can really help?"
"I honestly have no idea. But...it's not as though we have other options at this point, right? I mean, I guess we could always head to Baton Rouge and see if we can find the Nexus point there." She took David's hand once more and began walking to the head of the alley way.
"If we're going to be stuck here for at least a week, we should offer to help with the rebuilding or something," he said, giving her hand a little squeeze. "They could sure use it."
She nodded and when they reached the mouth of the alleyway, she paused, glancing both ways, her head tilted back a bit as her nostrils flared, testing the air. Then she very purposefully headed in the opposite direction as the one they'd come from earlier. In a quiet voice, she explained, "The Yakies are still there. Until we know what we're up against, I think it best we avoid bear bating."
"Works for me. Thanks to that assh*le Luo, I'm already wanted on my Earth. I'd like to avoid getting into trouble on someone else's." As he said that, he suddenly wondered if there was a version of himself and Riley on this Earth. What would they be like? It was a strange thought, to be sure.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:10:00 GMT -5
Monday night...
The following morning, David and Riley went back out to the Red Cross to offer more help, and were quickly put to work building lodgings for the tens of thousands of people left homeless by the disaster. It wasn't especially difficult work for people of their physical capabilities, but there was a definite feeling of accomplishment in what they were doing. They had to be careful not to reveal their more-than-human abilities, but working tirelessly all day wasn't much of a risk, and it sure felt good to know they were helping a lot of people. It was several hours after sunset before they finally decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
As soon as they stepped off the elevator, the hairs on the back of Riley's neck went straight up and she stopped, dead in her tracks. She reached out and put a warning hand on David's forearm. "Hang on a sec," she said in a soft, wary voice. "Something doesn't feel right."
At her warning, he froze, hand dropping automatically to the place on his belt where he normally carried his gun. It wasn't there, of course, gun laws being the way they were in Japan. He muttered a curse, then said, "What is it?" while glancing in both directions down the hallway. Nothing seemed out of place to him.
She shook her head, unable to put her finger on what had her back up. "I don't know...just something." Pressing her back flat against the wall, she moved silently down the hallway towards their room. Once she was next to their door, she inhaled deeply. Mingled scents reached her nose - the cleaners used by housekeeping, other guests' relaxing in their rooms, various meals, and underneath it all, the distinct scent of gun oil and cordite. "Someone carrying a gun has been here," she said softly, ears straining now as she listened intently to any sounds coming from their room.
He slipped silently down the hall, one hand pressing lightly against her arm as he leaned in to whisper almost imperceptibly in her ear. "Is anyone in there now?" he asked, trusting her superior senses to know if there was.
"No," she said softly and slipped her fingers into her bag and withdrew the room's key card. She held it up to David, raised a brow. Did he want to breach or enter? Living with a cop as she had for nearly the entirety of the past year had taught her a lot about entering a potential conflict. Before she met David, she would have just burst in without thought, trusting Jaguar to keep her safe. Now, though, she'd learned better, safer techniques.
He reached out and took the key card, nodding for her to be the one who'd enter. He didn't think she was wrong about anyone being in there; he had too much faith in Super-Kitty senses. Even if she was somehow wrong, he wasn't too proud or too chauvinistic to admit that she still had the edge on him when it came to durability. She healed faster and was less vulnerable to anything but silver, which wasn't exactly a common metal of choice for weapon. He poised the key card in front of the lock and raised a brow back at her, asking if she was ready.
She nodded solemnly and moved quickly to the other side of the door, her eyes still locked on his. She winked at him, feeling a burst of excitement and adrenaline. It had been a very long time since she and David had thrown down with someone. She nodded to David once more when she was in place and held up three fingers - would they go on three?
That wink got a little grin in response. He loved that she got excited when sh*t like this went down, instead of being scared or overly cautious. He gave her a thumbs up, indicating that she should count whenever she was ready, then slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out one of the gold marks from Rhy'Din. It was solid and heavy enough to make a pretty good projectile when thrown by someone as strong as he was. Not quite a bullet, but it would do in a pinch.
She frowned a bit at the gold mark, confused by its appearance in his hand, but shrugged it off. She lowered her fingers one by one slowly, her excitement growing as the seconds ticked by. Jaguar was very much awake and pacing back and forth inside Her mental cage; Riley could feel the hot brush of silken fur against her mind, could hear the excited, almost playful purring. Once she hit zero, she took a step out to her left, standing right in front of the door, poised to enter the instant David unlocked it.
He stood to the right of the door and slid the key card into the lock, then gave the door a gentle push, enough to swing it wide open, but not so much that it smacked against the opposite wall.
She hunkered down, presenting as small a profile as possible, and stalked into their room. Jaguar's purring had changed to a warning growl, but Riley detected no other living presence in the room. She stood up once she was certain that she and David were alone and looked over the room.
It was a mess - clothing had been torn from drawers and tossed all over the place, the bedding had been stripped and thrown into a pile in the centre of the room, chairs and lamps had been knocked over. Riley stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. "What the f*ck?" she said with obvious confusion.
Just behind and to the right of her, hand poised to hurl the mark, David peered over her shoulder and sucked in an audible breath; the equivalent of a surprised exclamation for him. He lowered his hand, put the mark back into his pocket, and stepped past her, looking around the room with a trained eye. "This room's been tossed," he said. "Someone was looking for something."
Her nostrils flared as she paced the perimeter of the room. "There were three of them," she said, memorizing their scents. "They were armed, too." She sighed and stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed over her chest, touching nothing. She looked at David. "Do we call the cops? What could they have been looking for?"
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:12:08 GMT -5
"I don't have a clue," he replied, answering the last question first. They didn't really have anything that people might want, except for some cash and credit cards, which they carried on them anyway. He didn't touch anything, either, but prowled carefully around the room, examining everything as closely as possible with disturbing it. "It doesn't look like they took anything." Three armed people in their room. Why? "We should call the police. And tell the front desk, too," he added.
She took a deep breath and glanced at her clothing, which had been scattered around the room without regard for price tag. She nodded to a Chloe dress that cost her more than 145,400 yen. "Can I at least pick stuff up? Or should I wait until the cops are done here?"
He thought about it for a minute. Technically, she really should wait. Disturbing a crime scene wasn't the best idea. On the other hand, nothing appeared to be missing, and he didn't think the police would be able to spend much time on a break-in with nothing taken. Not now, at least, with the after effects of the tsunami taking a much higher priority. Presently, he shrugged. What the hell, he wasn't a cop anymore. "I don't think there's much chance of getting fingerprints off your clothes. Just don't touch anything with a flat surface."
She flashed him a grateful smile and immediately set about re-hanging and re-folding their clothes. She left them in neat piles on the naked bed and then sat down on the edge of it. "Should we go down there or call them?" she asked, relying entirely on his instincts now.
"Call," he said immediately. "I don't want to leave the room unguarded again, and it's better if they see the mess for themselves."
She nodded and stood, going over to the phone and dialing down to the front desk. In rapid fire and somewhat terse sounding Japanese, she reported the break-in, requested the police be summoned, and asked for the manager himself to come up and see the damage in person.
While she talked on the phone, he walked around the room again, looking for any sort of clues as to the identities of the intruders. He didn't really expect to find much, and wasn't let down by the lack of clues. When she was done with the phone, he went over and rested a hand on her shoulder. "I'm trying to figure out why anyone would bother tossing our room. It doesn't make sense."
She shrugged and leaned against him, grateful yet again for his presence. "Maybe it was random. Maybe they got other rooms on this floor. Hell, maybe they got other rooms on all the floors. I guess we won't know 'til they get here."
He nodded, slipping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head. "Maybe. Something tells me this was aimed at us, though. I don't know if it's my cop instincts, or something...else." He meant the odd abilities that had been showing up at seemingly random intervals since Luo's death.
She looked up at him, a brow arched. "But we're not on either of our Earths, David. No one knows we're here. How could any of this be aimed at us?"
He shook his head, looking a little frustrated. "I don't know. It's just a feeling I can't shake. Like I'm missing something important."
She chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip until there was a knock at the door. She went to answer it and came back leading the hotel's manager, who was apologizing profusely in very broken English. He surveyed their room, told them he would refund their money for the entire week they'd booked and even offered to make arrangements for another room in his hotel or even another hotel entirely.
"What do you think?" he asked when the manager's spiel ran down. "Stay here, or go somewhere else?"
"I think," she sighed unhappily and turned to the manager, feeling guilty for bringing this into his hotel. "I think we'll take your offer for another hotel." She gave the manager a sad, somewhat apologetic smile and was relieved when the man didn't take it personally. As she escorted him back to the door of their room, she asked him if there had been other break-ins that night. The manager said that he had received no other calls. After thanking him and taking the name of the other hotel he would book them into, she shut the door and went back to David. "Did you hear all of that?" she asked, dragging their suitcases out of the closet and packing them.
"Yeah. Just us." He shook his head again, still trying to puzzle it out. "It doesn't make any sense." He glanced at the door, wondering when the police would arrive. It probably wasn't a terribly high priority call, though.
She finished packing and then sat down on the edge of the bed again. "Do we have to wait? I'm suddenly exhausted. I really just want a bed that hasn't been touched by hands with malicious intent. And a shower. I feel dirty."
"I suppose not. The manager can give the police our information if they really want to talk to us. I don't expect much from them, though. With nothing taken, and all the other sh*t going on right now, this isn't going to be very high on their list of things to investigate." He reached down and scooped up the suitcases. "Let's just go."
She nodded and slung her bag over her shoulder, following him out into the hallway and to the elevators. When they arrived in the lobby, the manager was waiting for them. He'd called them a taxi and once more apologized expansively, bowing deeply to them both. Riley assured him that the incident didn't reflect poorly on him or on his establishment.
After placating the manager, the two of them got into their taxi and headed out to the new hotel. It was actually slightly higher class than the one they'd been in, another little apology from the manager, they guessed. Once in their new room, they almost immediately headed to bed. It had been quite a day.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:22:52 GMT -5
Tuesday night...
After a long and unexciting, if not unrewarding, day of building houses for tsunami victims, and being filmed by a camera crew from NHK World news, David and Riley decided to relax and blow off some steam by going out for dinner at a nice restaurant. After a truly delicious dinner, which included more types of sushi and sashimi than David had ever seen in one place, they'd headed out to the Harajuku area to visit the Green Turtle club. If there was one sure way to get Riley relaxed and happy, it was definitely dancing. Inside the dark, industrial-looking club, they'd spent hours under the strobes and colored spot lights, finally deciding to head back to the hotel well after midnight.
"Thank you for taking me out tonight," Riley purred into David's ear as she clung to his arm while they walked through the streets of Tokyo. She was, as would be no surprise to anyone who knew her, dressed to the nines in a slinky, off-the shoulder midnight blue dress and four inch heels. She'd twisted her hair up and secured it at the crown of her head with two chopsticks, and diamonds and platinum flashed at her ears, throat, and wrist. "It was fun and just what I needed."
He turned, grinning at her, and leaned into to plant a quick kiss on her lips. "I know you pretty well, babe," he murmured. "Which isn't to say I didn't have fun, too. I did." Walking through the Tokyo streets at night was an interesting experience. The city had a very different feel to it than San Francisco had, and nothing at all like the barely-controlled chaos of RhyDin. There was almost none of the wary sense of danger that most cities had after dark. It felt almost safe. Being a cop here would be a different sort of job than back in California.
She gave him a knowing look. Throughout their year together, she'd picked up on more than a few things David thought he hid well from the rest of those around him, and the biggest was a certain grace that lent itself well to dancing. She grinned suddenly and said in her best Rainman voice, "You're a very good dancer."
"Not compared to you," he replied, but there was a little glint of humor in his eyes in response to her grin.
She shrugged humbly. "But I've been dancing since I was three. It's sort of expected, don't you think?"
"You have a point. And feline grace hasn't exactly hurt. I'm just glad I can keep up with you." Still, that glint remained. She'd recognize it, of course. She always knew when he had some surprising revelation to share.
"Mmm," she said neutrally, wondering at that glint, wondering if she'd have to draw it out of him like an abscessed tooth. Maybe if she pretended she didn't know he had a secret, he'd get flustered by her seeming ambivalence and just come out with whatever was on his mind in his own time. On second thought, this was David, after all... "Okay, Mr Lo. What's on your mind?"
He shrugged, grinning again. "Sex, Mrs. Lo." It wasn't exactly a lie, either. He wasn't about to give away his secrets without a little bit of a fight, though, even if he was already intending to tell her.
She arched a brow and gave him a long, level look. Finally, after they'd walked four or five more steps, she shook her head. "Nope, that's not your 'horny David' look. That's your 'David's got a secret look', and baby, it ain't no secret that you want me." She flashed him a smug, self-satisfied smile, the sort of expression that wouldn't have looked out of place on the face of a cat who'd eaten an entire aviary full of canaries.
She had a point. Again. Of all the obvious things in the world, him wanting her definitely ranked in top ten. Probably even the top five. He chuckled, nodding. "True enough." He glanced around them, a vigilant reflex he couldn't -and wouldn't want to- suppress even in a city like Tokyo. Seeing no one nearby who looking even vaguely threatening, he turned his attention back to Riley. "You know about how I started bagua when I was five, of course."
She nodded and settled in for a tale. She was vaguely aware of their surroundings, though it was perhaps better said that Jaguar was aware of their surroundings - the sights, the smells, the feel of the streets they walked through. Riley trusted Her to bring any danger to attention immediately and concentrated for a moment on being a normal girl with a normal love - husband, she corrected herself with a mental grin - who was learning another facet of the man she worshiped.
He slid his arm around her waist as he spoke, drawing her warm body against his. "Well, by the time I was twelve or so, it was pretty clear that I was going to be a hell of a martial artist." There wasn't any boasting in his voice, but there was definitely some pride. His skills had always been something that made him proud. "You learn a lot of grace in bagua, obviously. You know that. But my master thought it wasn't enough."
She had a sudden feeling she knew where this was going and glanced at him, a smirk lurking in the corners of her mouth and dancing through the caramel of her eyes.
He nodded at the smirk. "Yup. He sent me to learn ballet," he confirmed. "I wasn't too thrilled with it, at first. It's hard to convince a 12-year-old boy that ballet, of all things, could be cool, or helpful. But I wasn't about to disappoint my master, either. In a lot of ways, he was just as important to me as my parents were. So I stuck with it. And I learned fast just how strong and agile you have to be to dance." He shook his head, grinning. "And it helped my bagua a lot, let me tell you. Before, I was just good. Really good, maybe, but just good. After just two years of combined bagua and ballet, I was untouchable." Now the pride really showed in his voice. "They jumped me into the adults class, and I went to competitions against people who'd been practicing for longer than I'd been alive."
She grinned at the sight of little pre-teen David leaping about the stage in tights, doing lifts and holds. "Did all the girls in your class have a crush on you?" She would have, big time.
He snorted. "Yeah. I was just old enough to start appreciating it, too."
She giggled at that and turned to press a kiss against his cheek. "Maybe we should do some cross training, too. I know a few students who would love the opportunity to learn bagua."
He squeezed her into a hug when she kissed him, nodded. "Any of them are welcome, and a couple of mine could use some of the grace they'd get from ballet."
"Perfect. When...if...we get back home, we'll have to do that." A certain scent, something she couldn't quite put her finger on, reached her nose and Jaguar sat up in her silver-lined mental cage and growled softly. The hair along the back of Riley's neck and all along her arms stood up and she stopped in mid-stride, eyes bleeding to amber as she scanned their surroundings.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:28:56 GMT -5
He froze when she stopped, instantly recognizing that look. Danger. She'd caught something with those incredible senses, so much more sensitive than his own. In their time together, he'd learned to trust and even rely on those senses. He took a short breath, letting relaxed calm flow through his muscles. That was the first, most important thing a person could learn about their own body: Relaxed muscles move faster and more accurately than tense ones. "What is it," he asked, barely a whisper so as not to drown out anything she might hear.
She frowned a bit and shook her head minutely. She still didn't know what had alarmed Jaguar...until she caught the scent of cordite and gun oil coming from a the mouth of a small side street they'd just passed. "Behind us," she said softly, nostrils flaring again and again as she tried to order the confused mass of sensory input that was even now flooding her brain. "Six armed men." She stumbled against David, as if drunk and turned a blurry smile up at him, half besotted and wholly unwary. "Oops," she slurred. "Guess I drank too much tonight after all."
"You'n me both, baby," he said loudly, falling into the act without a pause. He pulled her head towards him as if to give her a passionate kiss, and hissed, "Try not to kill any of them." The last thing they needed was the police investigating a multiple homicide case, especially if some of the bodies were, well, mutilated. "Keep it human," he added, trusting that she'd understand not to give away their rather special abilities. The position let him see the alley off to one side, and with his mouth pressed against hers, they didn't exactly look threatening when men began pouring out of that alleyway.
She nodded, putting her trust - her life, really - into his hands and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that if it came to blows - when, really, it seemed - they would work together as a team, just as they had since they'd first met. She returned his kiss, letting Jaguar assess the situation, using smells and sounds to set the scene even if her eyes were closed and she couldn't see their confronters.
The six men approached them quickly, all holding guns pointed in their direction. They fanned out somewhat as they moved, but were still too close together, in David's opinion. What good was your gun if you couldn't move it without sticking the barrel in your friend's face? The closest of them, a guy wearing a leather jacket and chains that wouldn't have been out of place on an American biker gang member, called out in accented English, "Hey, Red Pole, come here," and made a beckoning gesture with the gun in his right hand. That was stupid, and David took full advantage of the mistake. As soon as the gun was pointed away from both Riley and himself, he launched himself forward.
One hand came up in short semi-circle to slap with numbing force against the man's gun-hand, knocking the gun out of suddenly lifeless fingers. In the same motion, David flipped his hand around and caught the outstretched arm, pulling it further out as he stepped in close to the man and drove a fist into his ribs, pulling the blow at the last instant so it only cracked bones instead of blasting them out through the poor bastard's spine. With the man's arm still firmly held, he pivoted his hips and shoved the biker wannabe into the surprised arms of the man to his right.
As soon as David lunged, Riley kicked off her shoes and picked her target. She choose the man standing furthest to her right, so that their attackers would have to divide their attention between her and David. From the guns, leather, and chains, she figured them for bosozoku - members of motorcycle gangs that were often the first rung on the Yakuza ladder.
With her chosen target's attention on David and his sudden attack, she fully took advantage of the situation and rushed forward, turning a bit to the side and pivoting from the waist, sending a nasty sidekick aimed directly to the underside of the poor guy's chin. Even without Jaguar's preternatural strength, the legs of a life-long ballerina are formidable weapons, and the street was suddenly filled with the crunching of teeth and bones.
As the other two men closest to her reacted with almost comical surprise to Riley's unexpected attack, David allowed himself a tight smile at how well she'd picked her target, forcing their attackers to split up to watch the two of them. He ignored the tangled pair for the moment, spinning to scythe a leg out at ankle height. The guy furthest to the left was quick; he managed an awkward hop over David's sweep, but had no time to set himself against the fist that rocketed towards his nose as David came up from his crouch at a steep angle. The blow snapped the man's head back hard enough to lift his feet from the ground for the second time in as many seconds, but it was definitely not his choice, that time. He landed in a heap against the nearby wall, blood spurting from his broken nose, a distinctly glazed look in his eyes.
Not bothering to hide her amusement at the expressions of shock on the two men still standing nearest her, in a deceptively sweet voice she said to them in their shared first language, "Betcha never thought you'd get your ass kicked by a girl, huh?"
She turned to face them, stepping into their bodies, and sent first a vicious right hook to the temple of the Yakie on her right, then a lightning-fast left jab at the one on the left's nose. The first one went sideways, the second backwards and Riley laughed, reminded suddenly of a Keystone Kops movie sequence. That was until she realised that they were still in the fight and coming for her.
They were clearly outraged at being attacked by a woman, and their anger drained away any semblance of subtlety or style. With twin roars of rage, both men closed in on her, one swinging his gun as though to bludgeon her with it, the other diving in for a credible football tackle. Meanwhile, the first two men had managed to untangle themselves, and the remaining armed one swung his gun around to aim at David as he turned to face them. The unsilenced gun went off with a loud bang, but he'd been too hasty to pull the trigger. The bullet went wide without even requiring a dodge. The corner of David's mouth twitched in a little smirk, but he didn't stop to gloat, snapping one foot out in a kick that wrenched the gun from his hand, breaking a couple of fingers in the process.
Sensing more than seeing the attack coming, Riley managed to sidestep the bosozoku who was trying to tackle her, only to catch the butt of the other's gun across her temple. She felt her skin tear, could feel the blood dripping down the side of her face and very nearly gave into Jaguar's push to take over and end the fight in a bloody rage. Only David's earlier admonishment - "Keep it human" - kept Riley fully in control.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:31:21 GMT -5
The one who tried to tackle her overcompensated, clearly expecting to have run into a solid body, and stumbled forward, giving her time to deal with the guy who'd clouted her. He seemed surprised when she refused to go down in a heap and instead turned to face him with a feral snarl of rage. He recovered quickly, though, and aimed another blow at her head, this one obviously intended to be a much harder strike.
She threw her left arm to block the blow, catching it solidly on her forearm. With her right hand, she reached up, grabbed a handful of leather jacket and gave the guy a firm shove backwards. He dropped his gun in surprise and Riley kicked it away, out of the reach of anyone who might be inclined to use it against her or David.
Facing two unarmed men, now, David didn't hesitate to wade right into them. He slipped around a clumsy roundhouse punch and slapped aside a kick that revealed some karate training. That kick marked the second man as the more dangerous of the two, and he got the lion's share of David's attention. He blocked another kick, moved in too close for a third to follow. Pressed almost bodily against the man, he stepped in a half-circle to avoid a punch, catching the arm and pulling sharply down on it. The man staggered, and before he could recover, David was behind him, levering the arm up in a classic comealong move. It did leave him open for the first man to land a punch on his side, but the blow was weak; those cracked ribs had robbed the biker thug of most of his strength. David grunted at the impact, then twisted his captive around until he was in between them, giving him a few seconds free from attack.
Riley was angry and frustrated by having to keep Jaguar in check while at the same time take care of these baka dabo Yakies. While one of her assailants was flat on his back, she rounded on the one who'd tried to tackle her and sent a flurry of quick jabs to his kidneys. He swore vehemently and squealed in pain, dropping to his knees and squirming out of her reach. Satisfied that he would at last stay down, she returned her attention to the other.
The man David was holding struggled fiercely, trying to pull away. Meanwhile, his buddy had taken the opportunity presented by the momentary lull to find and grab for one of the discarded guns. David torqued the captured arm up sharply, dislocating it at the shoulder, then twisted, throwing the man down onto the same shoulder. That drew a scream from his opponent, and he knew the man would be immobilized for several minutes at least as the agonizing waves of pain emanating from his shoulder.
David vaulted straight over the fallen man and sprinted towards the leather-clad attacker. He arrived at almost the same instant the man straightened with gun in hand, and grabbed for his wrist. The gun went off, and David swore as the bullet grazed his forearm, hot gases burning the skin and hair there. He twisted savagely, felt bones crack. The man gasped in shock and dropped the gun once more, curling over the wounded arm. This left his face at a convenient height for David's knee to send him to dreamland and drive away the pain of his broken hand.
Unfortunately for him, the one Riley planted on his ass was in the process of regaining his feet. If he'd been smart - or observant - he'd have stayed on the ground, curled up in the foetal position and feigned unconsciousness. It would have spared him the vicious kick Riley sent towards his cheek, shattering the bone and setting him up for reconstructive surgery at a later date. "Stay down," she growled, her voice not entirely human, her control slipping just a bit.
At the growling sound of Riley's voice, David spun, assessing the situation in an instant. She had it well in hand. In foot, too, unfortunate as it was for her hapless victim. He glanced down at the man whose shoulder he'd dislocated, finding him still writhing on the ground. He wasn't going to be any trouble for a while yet. All six attackers were down, and neither he nor Riley had taken any serious damage. He saw a spot of blood on Riley's temple, but the wound had already healed, and his arm was in the process of doing so. "Let's get out of here," he said, heading her way.
She stood, feet planted shoulder-width apart, with broken, bleeding bodies scattered around her, eyes wild, hair streaming freely down her back and around her shoulders. She looked every bit the untamed, savage warrior goddess her father's ancestors worshiped. Then she stirred, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and fought for control. David's voice helped her shove Jaguar back into Her cage and she looked at him, eyes soft, caramel now. She nodded, stepped over and around bodies, tarrying only long enough to retrieve her shoes, before grabbing David's hand and leading him away from their hotel.
Was it weird that he found her ridiculously sexy right now? Nah. Anyone would. He gave her hand a little squeeze, but didn't say anything until they were more than a block away from their attackers. "One of them said something about a red pole," he said quietly. "Any idea what that means?"
She shook her head and pulled him against a building long enough for her to slip on her shoes. "They were Yakies, though. Their jackets. They're bosozoku, like in Akira." After she was properly shod, she led him down the street again, towards a metro station. Pausing for a moment in front of the board that showed which trains served this particular station, she chose one that would take them straight into the heart of Tokyo's financial district. "You're not claustrophobic, are you?" she asked as they boarded their train.
He raised a brow at the seeming non-sequitur, but answered anyway. "No, not at all. Why?" As he asked, his mind raced. Yakuza. Again. Had that group they'd seen taken some kind of offense at his pointing, and gone after them? But that was two days ago. Would they really have wasted all that time for something so small?
"We can't go back to the hotel. They've obviously been watching us, so we're gonna grab a spot at a coffin hotel." She glanced up at him, brow furrowing. "Why did the f*cking Yakuza come after us, David? There's no sense in it at all. Nothing I can think of. We've only seen that one bunch."
"That's exactly what I was thinking. Could they have been so pissed off by my pointing that they'd spend two days looking for us?"
She shook her head. "No. That's stupid, even for them. Besides, they've got their hands busy with the relief aid and everything." The train arrived at their stop and she got off, nostrils flaring, testing the air. Nothing but the crush of humanity. The Japanese started their work days early and she'd picked this part of the city so they would have plenty of opportunity to fade into the crowd.
"Could it be the aid? You said they have their hands in all the relief efforts. Did we insult someone by bringing aid straight to the Red Cross?" It didn't really seem likely, to him, but he wasn't nearly as conversant with Japan's mindset as Riley was. His eyes moved constantly as he spoke, watching the businessmen and workers move around them. No one seemed to be paying much attention to them, despite their disheveled appearance.
Again, Riley shook her head. "No, I'm sure someone's pockets still got lined. They help in the distribution, too, don't forget. Maybe... Maybe it's just they don't like the idea of you being with me." She was grasping at straws, knowing the still lingering prejudices against hafu, but it was the only reason she could see...if reason it could be called.
A sour expression crossed his face at that. It was a sore spot with him. His own parents had been vehemently anti-Japanese, so much so that they hadn't even wanted to meet Riley, regardless of how clear he'd made it that he loved her, or the fact that she wasn't even full Japanese.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:33:30 GMT -5
Tucked between some of Tokyo's taller buildings was a kapuseru hoteru - a capsule hotel, comprised of hundreds of tiny rooms approximately the size of a large coffin. They were surprisingly well-appointed for all their size, with satellite TV and headphones for music. They were intended to be used for travelling sararimen, business men who moved from city to city to tend to business. They needed nothing more than a safe place to lay their heads and these hotels provided just that...and rarely anything more. The one Riley chose for them had a small diner off its lobby and made itself even more perfect for two people on the run from the Yakuza to hide for a few days.
The sight of the capsule hotel brought a surprised lift to his brow, but he understood her reasoning seconds later. No one would ever think to look for them there. And, really, there were far worse ways to spend the night than pressed up against her in a tiny room that was all bed.
Before they entered, she pulled David up against a building again and straightened his clothing and smoothed down his hair. She tried very hard to make him presentable, even rolling down his sleeves to cover the healed spot on his forearm where the bullet had grazed. When she was satisfied with her ministrations, she glanced right and left, looking around to make sure that the were out of view from most passers-by. Then she pushed down the one shoulder of her dress and dipped a hand into the neck line, shoving her breasts closer together to create a little (very little) cleavage. She winked at David and asked, "Do I look like a prostitute?"
Up went his brows again, then he snorted. "I'd sell my left arm to pay for you." He thought he knew what she was doing, though. Anyone looking for them wouldn't be looking for a businessman and his lady of the evening.
She grinned at him and pulled a wad of yen out of her bra. "Cash only. Two nights. We'll move to another one after that, okay? Can you pretend to have an accent? Chinese, maybe? They won't be looking for a businessman from China with a whore on his arm."
He nodded. "Yeah, I can sound just like my dad. Had plenty of practice growing up."
She nodded and then took a deep breath. "Ready?"
"Ready. I should pay, right?"
"Yep. Let's go." She tugged playfully on his arm, affected a kittenish smile and clung to him provocatively. The looks of derision and disgust they drew as they made their way into the hotel made her inwardly cringe. If Mama-san could only see her now...
It was harder than he expected to play the role. Not keeping his hands on her, that wasn't just easy, it was all but impossible not to do. It was the looks they got that made it hard. He wanted to knock the teeth out of every face that looked at her with derision like that. He actually tensed up for several seconds as they walked across the lobby before forcing himself back to calm. He spoke to the desk clerk in Mandarin-accented English, requesting a room for two nights, quickly getting a key card and turning away before he broke pieces off of the clerk for staring at Riley's cleavage like that.
She felt his tension and loved him even more for sublimating it and playing the part. While they were waiting for the elevator that would take them to their floor, she leaned over and grabbed his earlobe with her teeth, whispering, "I love you" softly directly into his ear. Then she flashed a salacious wink at the poor, scandalised old man standing next to them.
It couldn't be any easier for her to be playing the role than it was for him to see it. As soon as the elevator opened, he tugged her inside and kissed her soundly. If anyone saw it through the closing doors, well, it fit the part just fine.
She leaned against him, arms around his shoulders, head pillowed against his cheek. "God, I thought you were gonna deck that guy at the desk," she said, her voice full of laughter.
"I wanted to," he replied, letting the tension flow out of him as he held her. "Hell, I would have, if we weren't trying to be inconspicuous."
She kissed him again and the elevator's doors slid open, revealing a long, narrow hallway that held capsules stacked two high on both walls. She tugged on his belt, pulling him out of the elevator car and said in a girlish voice that was straight out of a hentai film, "Which one is ours, lover boy?"
He made a show of comparing the number on the key card with the numbers below each tiny doorway. "Right here, baby," he said, keeping his accent pure China as he pointed at a bottom capsule about a quarter of the way down the hall.
She gave him a naughty smile and got down on her knees, flashing him - and anyone looking - a lot of long, lithe leg and a glimpse of black lace, and then crawled inside the tiny space, squirming all the way over to the far wall to allow David to follow her in.
He enjoyed the view as she crawled in, then slid in beside her, sliding the door closed behind him, and pulling the privacy screen down right after. It was a tight fit for the two of them, and a good thing they didn't mind being very friendly indeed.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:35:59 GMT -5
Thursday afternoon...
The rest of Wednesday passed without anything remarkable happening. They spent the majority of their time in the tiny room, watching Japanese TV, with Riley translating as much as she could. There were, however, more than a few things that couldn't fully be appreciated without actually being Japanese. The phrase "lost in translation" was definitely applicable here.
There was a little diner in the lobby of the hotel so there was a chance for them to leave the room and get a little air. The food was very basic and unexciting and they drew more than a few looks, but it was worth it just to get out of the confining, almost claustrophobic room they'd willingly stuffed themselves into.
Riley put her foot down, however, Thursday morning. "We need to figure out why the Yakies are after us, David. I would like eventually to go home, you know. The room has internet access. Why don't we see what kind of stuff we can dig up?"
While he wasn't the biggest of men, David was significantly larger than the average Japanese, and being in that room for multiple hours at a stretch was very nearly approaching the level of torture. He'd never been particularly claustrophobic, but there were occasionally some very disturbing flashbacks to his time spent chained and hanging in warehouse. If Riley hadn't been there with him, he might very well have decided to tell all the Yaks to f*ck themselves, and gone out anyway. She was a soothing presence, though, and made even the long hours in the tiny room a lot more bearable.
Despite that, he was more than ready to do something--anything. "That's a great idea, love. I've been trying to come up with something useful to do, but it's hard in that little room."
She sipped her tea and nodded readily. "It's really, really hard to think sometimes. Reminds me a little too much of the Unseelie sithen." She shuddered and reached for his hand, determined not to think of that time right now. She realised that it had been a year since that time. So much had happened in just that small amount of time that it seemed as though she'd been imprisoned a lifetime ago.
That was eerily close to his own thoughts on it. He squeezed her hand and nodded. "Tell me about it. I keep expecting to be chained up."
She gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze and then polished off the last of her tea. "Well, should we go back? Get started on trying to figure this out?"
"Yeah, let's get to it." He stood, still holding her hand in his, and lead her back to their room--if you could call the little box a room. "How's your Google-Fu?" he asked when they'd squeezed their way inside.
"My Google-Fu is at least a triple blackbelt," she said and snuggled with him for a moment, letting go of the tough-as-nails image she always projected and indulging in a minute of fear. "David," she said in a soft, vulnerable voice. "I'm scared."
He wrapped strong arms around her, holding her comfortingly against him. "We'll figure this out, Riley. I promise. We've survived too much to let a little thing like being stuck on the wrong Earths stop us. And if these Yakuza want to keep messing with us... They have no idea what kind of sh*tstorm they're going to unleash." He kissed the top of her head, then tilted her head up to plant another kiss on her lips. "You and me, babe. We can handle anything together."
She hugged him tightly, feeling the quiet, understated strength in him and drawing from it. "I know. You're right. We'll go all...um...Rhy'Din on their asses!" She giggled a little at that thought and then turned over to face the wall of the little room, her backside snuggled tightly against him. She disengaged the keyboard from the wall and brought up the internet browser, which, unfortunately for David, was all in Japanese. "I'll see if I can get only English results, okay?"
And speaking of asses...no matter what the situation, there was no way he couldn't react to the pressure of her rear rubbing up against him. "Yeah, English would be good," he said distractedly. Not for the first time, he wondered what sort of great karma he'd built up in his last lifetime that had lead to being with her. Must've been something pretty freaking special.
Chuckling evilly, she wriggled against him a little more than was absolutely necessary while she searched. "Oh! Look at this!" She ducked her head and pointed to the screen. It was an article from an English language newspaper in Tokyo from two years ago. The article was all about rising violence between a Triad group, the Wo Shing Wo, from Hong Kong, and a Yakuza group, the Aizukotetsu-kai, which was actually from Kyoto. "Huh," Riley said. "That's weird."
Oh, so that's how she was going to be, eh? Well, two could play at that game. He reached down and ran his hands up her thighs, under that very, very short dress, squeezing that perfect bottom firmly as he answered. "What's weird?" He looked over her at the computer screen, reading the article.
She shivered at his touch, bit down on her lower lip. Driving a very gentle elbow into his ribs, she said, "Quit that. We're supposed to be concentrating here." She turned her head and winked over her shoulder at him before wriggling against him again. Then she said, "This Yakie group mentioned is from Kyoto, where Mama-san is from."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:38:37 GMT -5
"How'm I supposed to concentrate with you rubbing on me like that?" He didn't take his hands out of her dress, either, instead slipping several exploratory fingers under the hem of her silky panties. "I knew Triads and Yakuza didn't get along," he murmured, "but this article says it's getting worse." Something about Triads was tickling the back of his mind, but it wasn't cooperating and moving forward.
She reached down and grabbed his hand, staying the explorations into the Forbidden Lands. "Behave yourself, David," she hissed through gritted teeth, but couldn't keep the purr from her voice. She forced her attention back to the computer screen and read further. Then her blood ran cold. "David," she said in a soft voice and pointed to a name on the screen. "It says this guy, Lao, is a Red Pole."
He froze, the niggling memory suddenly blossoming. "Red Pole! That's what those Yaks said to me before we kicked them around. Oh, sh*t." The name was so close. "You don't think..." He broke off, not even wanting to say it.
She sighed and clicked on another article, this one dated 18 months ago. It was basically a rewrite of the first, only mentioning different attacks and higher body counts. "It kinda looks like it, doesn't it?" More clicks revealed more attacks, more deaths. "This White Lotus Society is really pounding on the Yakies," she said. Another article from an English-language paper in Hong Kong said that the Yakies had brought the fight to Hong Kong and were slaughtering Triad now. "Jesus, it's like a Jet Li movie or something."
"Is there a picture of Lao?" He didn't really want to ask the question, but they had to know. For the moment, he'd dropped all thought, well almost all thought, of her firm body against his, and was leaning forward, head resting on her shoulder so he could see the screen.
She scrolled through the current article and down at the bottom of the screen was... "Oh, God." It was a mug shot of David...or at least another of his twins. "Oh, f*ck."
He closed his eyes, and drew in a deep breath, pushing away all the memories of his stay in Luo's care. He put one hand on her shoulder, squeezing it, more for his own comfort that anything else. "Sh*t," he whispered. "Another one. Why are all of the others evil bastards?" Okay, so they'd only encountered two others, but...
She closed the browser, turned off the TV, and put the keyboard away before turning to face him. She reached up and laid her hand against his cheek gently and said, "It's the law of averages, baby. Plus, you know...being a bad guy is so much easier than being a good guy." She slid her hand back through his hair and cupped the back of his head so she could kiss him softly.
She was right, of course. Hell, if he hadn't gotten into bagua so early, he could easily have ended up in the gangs instead of a cop. The touch her lips on his washed away some of the apprehension that had filled him when he saw his own picture on the browser. His return kiss was intense and full of all the love he had for her. "I love you," he whispered against her lips. "So damn much."
She smiled into that kiss and whispered against his lips, "After all the crap you've put me through, Old Man, you'd damned well better." She pulled away just enough so she could look at him without being cross-eyed and grinned.
"With every bit of my being," he said seriously, then grinned back at her. "Old Man, huh? I'll show you what this old man can do."
"Uh-huh. Bring it on, fogie."
"Oh, I brought it," he promised, reaching out to pull her into another kiss, this one insistent, almost rough, one hand grabbing a handful of her hair to keep her mouth on his. He made her scream and moan and whisper his name in a prayer, brought her again and again into white-hot oblivion and loved her body as no one else ever could, just as he loved her soul.
When they were spent, she relaxed in his arms once more, her hand dropping from his head to grasp his hand and raise it to her lips so she could press kisses into his palm. She let her head fall back against his shoulder, eyes open now but staring at the ceiling without seeing it. "How do you do that to me, every time?" she wondered softly.
"I love you," he said simply. There wasn't any need for macho assurances of his skill, or any of that crap. That simple answer was all that was needed. He loved her, more than he'd ever loved anyone, that was how.
She stirred at last, letting go of his hands and leaning forward a bit. "That was a nice distraction," she said with a little teasing grin as she turned to face him, sitting next to him and snuggling against his side. "But what now? There's another you out there making trouble that's gonna mix us up in the middle of it. Again."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:43:19 GMT -5
"Christ," he muttered as he was forced to think about that seriously unpleasant idea. "I think our best bet is just to lay low until Friday, go talk to that magic lady, and get our asses out of here. It's either that or take on the Yakuza and quite possibly the Triads by ourselves."
She snorted softly. "We make an amazing team, but something makes me think we can't do that, right?" She frowned softly. "What is a Red Pole anyway? Is it a title? A position? A nickname?"
"It's a title and a position," he said, calling up the briefings he'd had when he was still a cop. "Red Poles are the enforcers for the Triad. They're above the common thugs, below the leaders. They're bad people. Killers."
"And this other you is one of them?" She sighed and shook her head. "Why do you always have to be bigger and badder than everyone else, David?" She gave him a teasing smile to soften the blow of her words and to show him that she didn't blame him at all for what was happening to them.
He snorted softly. " 'Cause I am."
"My man is so modest and humble." She grinned and then poked him gently in the ribs. "So, we just lay low until Friday? I need clothes, David. I feel...weird wearing this all the time."
He nodded in agreement with that. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He thought about it for a minute, then shrugged a little. "Maybe we can find a place that would deliver some clothes. Or we can risk going out."
"We're right in the middle of the financial district of Tokyo. I'm sure there's a shop close by. We could probably risk it, don't you think? If we time it right, we could lose a tail in the rush-hour crowds."
He nodded. "Yeah. With your senses and my training, I think we could spot any tail. I'm willing to risk it. I don't like waiting around, hiding."
"Me, either. It chafes." She struggled into her panties, dress and put his jacket on as well. Then she lifted the privacy screen and peeked out into the hallway. It was empty, which was not surprising at it was the middle of the day and the hotel was, for the most part, unoccupied until nightfall. She grabbed her shoes and slid open the door, scooting out of the room and into the hallway where she stretched luxuriously, going up on tip-toe and reaching for the ceiling.
He slid out right after her, taking a moment to enjoy the sight of her stretching before copying that motion. "Oh yeah," he groaned. "That feels good." He couldn't say he hated that tiny room, considering what had just gone on in it, but he was definitely happy to be out of it, too.
She smirked at him. "We are entirely too tall for this country." She slipped on her shoes and buttoned his jacket over her dress. It just touched the tops of her knees, covering her dress entirely and making it appear as if there was nothing on underneath the jacket.
"That's for sure. That jacket looks a hundred times better on you than it does me, babe." He grinned, taking her hand and turning to head down the hall of the hotel.
She chuckled softly and followed in his wake, headed to the elevator. "I don't have much money left, so go easy. No designers. Levis are fine, though."
He snorted. "You're the one with the thousand dollar shoes, love of mine. I'd wear thrift-store clothes if you let me." Of course, he kind of liked it how she liked picking out expensive clothes for him, and she knew it, even though he never said so. It was just one of the ways she showed her affection. In the elevator, he punched the button for the ground floor and waited for the doors to close. "Wish I'd brought my piece, though." Not that it would have gone over well. Japan had some very tight gun laws.
She nodded. "Me, too. Though it probably wouldn't have done much to help. Probably would have gotten you arrested and thrown in jail and then where would we be?" She leaned against him, kissed his lips softly.
"Mmm..." He kissed her back, smiling just a bit as he did. He wondered what he'd have done if he'd been arrested. He knew for sure any jail they put him in had no chance of holding him if he really wanted out...but could he go that far against what he'd believed for all these years? If it was a choice between leaving Riley out alone in a possibly hostile city and breaking out of jail, though... Yeah, he'd tear down the whole jail before letting that happen.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:45:17 GMT -5
The elevator doors slid open and she sniffed the air attentively, ultimately finding nothing interesting. She took his hand and left the car, remembering at the last moment to play the part of the whore.
Falling into the role, he put his hand on her hip, almost cupping her rear, as they walked across the hotel lobby. They got the same sort of looks they had when arriving, but those were the safe sort of looks.
They exited the hotel and she again sniffed the air, testing it for familiar scents, cordite maybe. She sensed nothing and then glanced up and down the street. "Anything making your Spidey sense tingle?" she asked David in a soft voice.
"Nothing." He shook his head. "I don't think they know where we are as of yet. Let's not take our time, though. Which way?"
She nodded and then turned them to head right, deeper into the skyscrapers and business crowds. For the very first time since she was 14 years old, she wished she was half a foot shorter. Considering she was eye to eye - and taller - than most of the men they passed, she felt super self-conscious. "I remember seeing a sign for a department store up here," she said.
"Let's go, then." Keeping a firm grip on her hand, he headed off in that direction. They didn't encounter anything suspicious on their way to the store, making it in and buying a couple of outfits for each of them. They exited the store cautiously, but there was no Yakuza ambush waiting. After a quick discussion, they decided to switch hotels again, and he picked one at random as they walked down the street. It wasn't a coffin hotel, at least. The sign, written in English as well as Japanese, promised soft beds and room service. They got a room for the night and went up to it. "Bit better, huh?"
She flopped down on the bed, stretching out to her full length and spread her arms wide. "Lookit, baby! No walls! No more being squished!" She grinned and then stood up on top of the bed, pressing her palms flat against the ceiling. "I can breathe! Hallelujah!"
He laughed. "No kidding." It was a hundred, no, a thousand times better than that little box of a room. "A real bed to sleep on...a bathroom. It's freaking paradise."
She giggled and hurtled off the bed and into his arms, wrapping her legs around him and no doubt staggering him backwards a few paces. "So...we're just gonna hang out here for tonight and then go see the Onmyōji tomorrow night?"
"Oof." He did take a few steps back, but kept his balance easily, then shrugged. "It's probably best. I don't want to stir up a lot of trouble in this world, if I can help it."
She hugged him, kissed him, slid down his body to land lightly on her feet. "That sounds like a good idea. Ooh, it's time for Firefly!" She tugged his hand and led him to the bed, flopping down on it and snuggling against his side. "It's still not the same without Wash, you know. I miss him."
He wrapped his arm around her and smiled. "Yeah...me too. He might've been my favorite character. Great lines." He turned the TV on and they fell silent, watching the show.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 17, 2012 21:50:50 GMT -5
Friday evening...
Riley and David stayed in their new hotel room throughout the day on Friday. Now that they each had some extra clothes, there was no real need to risk going out again. This hotel had room service, and a comfortable bed, which was more than enough to make the day pass quickly. Just after sunset, they got ready to go. It didn't take long, since neither of them had much with them. "I sure hope that magic lady has found a way to help," David said as they dressed.
Riley nodded, tucking her t shirt into her jeans before putting on a pair of running shoes. "Yeah, if she hasn't..." She trailed off, not sure she wanted to speak the words. If the Onmyōji hadn't figured out a way to get them back to Rhy'Din, then they were stuck in this Japan, where they knew no one, and creatures such as herself were apparently still relegated to the level of myths and stories. Still, she thought with a quicksilver smirk, she had outed the preternatural community once. Surely she could do it again, right?
"If she hasn't, I'm going to find this other me and jam his Red Pole right up his ass," he muttered. He was dressed as plainly as her, t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. Not only was it inconspicuous, both of them could move quickly in these clothes, if they had to.
She snorted at his mutterings and then went to the door. Before opening it, she turned to face David, a sober expression on her face. "The moon is full tonight," she said softly.
He nodded. "I noticed." Moon phases were something he'd learned to keep careful track of during his time with Riley. "You might need Her help tonight. I've got a feeling about it."
She nodded, took a deep breath. "You're probably right. But it's so hard to control Her. I'm afraid if I let go just a little, She'll take control and then...we'll be screwed." She could feel the Moon in her blood; it made her body feverish, made her irritable and snappish, restless and on edge. If they were at home, she'd have Changed hours ago and gone hunting in the Glen or the forests between the city and Star's End.
He reached out and took her hand. "I know, la mei, I know. Just try to relax. Don't fight so hard against Her. Use her, instead. You're stronger than She is. She can keep watch for us." When Riley gave him a dubious look, he wished that Dan was still around, still helping her learn to co-exist with her Jaguar. David had been trying to help her with meditation, sure, but it wasn't the same as when it came from someone who knew exactly what she was feeling, someone who could really understand it. "All right, we'll just take it easy, then. You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," she said and tugged open the door, sniffing the air before stepping out into the hallway and heading for the elevator. She'd been doing a lot of thinking about their situation since they'd discovered the Yakies and Triads were at war with one another. "So, this Lao, this other you, is an enforcer with this Hong Kong Triad, right? And for some reason – a reason maybe we should try to discover before we leave - he's brought the fight to Japan and has been picking on the Kyoto Yakuza. Why Kyoto? Why not Tokyo or Osaka? Those organizations are so much bigger, more important."
"That's a good question. With any luck, though, we'll be out of here before we have to worry too much about it. I'm really not looking forward to running into another of my doppelgangers." He shook his head, mouth turned down at the corners. "It's going to be rough if we do, and he wants to fight. He'll be as fast and strong as me...and who knows what other weird abilities."
"Oh, crap," she said as she entered the elevator and pressed the button for the Lobby. "I hadn't thought of that." Then she frowned as something occurred to her. She darted a quick, slightly guilty look at David, chewed her lower lip for a moment.
He knew her too well to miss that lip-chewing, and knew exactly what it meant. The elevator arrived, and he stepped inside with her. Then he raised a brow at her, silently inviting her to say whatever it was that was nagging at her.
She blew out a reluctant breath and turned to him, meeting his eyes. She swallowed and then said apologetically, "I know we've never really talked about what went on last fall, and it's because... Well, I know what it's like to have people pulling at you to talk about horrible things and I didn't want to be that person. But if he --" meaning Dave Luo, "said anything to you while he...had...you, anything that could help us here? Well... I think... I think you should try to talk about it."
He reached out and took her hand, running his thumb over the back of it. "I don't mind talking about it with you, Riley. I think we've long since reached the point where we can talk about anything, you know? And it's been a while. I'm over it. Mostly." Some things never go away, but she knew that as well as he. "He spent most of the time bragging about the things he'd done to f*ck me over. Killing my parents, Charlotte...pretending to be me, on Earth and RhyDin both." He thought back to the many days of his captivity, with Luo walking around and gloating, bragging, posturing below him. "He did say that he'd gone to a lot of other Earths and killed the version of him...us...there already."
She licked her lips and nodded. "Did he ever say how many were left?" The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Testing the air before exiting, she kept her hold on David's hand and led him quickly through the Lobby and out onto the street. "Was it just you and him? Were there more?"
"He never said...but the way he talked about it...I think he thought it was just the two of us left. He said it had been hard to find me after our first encounter sent me to RhyDin." When they were out on the street, he looked around carefully, all of his senses alert. It was a combination of the training he'd received as a cop, and the awareness gained from a lifetime of physical and mental discipline, and it resulted in an extremely fine-tuned sense of his surroundings. Everything seemed safe at the moment.
She was letting Jaguar do their surveillance tonight, trusting Her to take care of them while she used higher brain functions to puzzle through their present situation. "So. If there was just you and him, then...either he missed one or Lao is dead. But if Lao is dead, then...why the big war? Why did those bosozoku jump us the other night, thinking you were Lao?" They entered the subway platform and Riley led them to the correct train to the Jinbocho neighbourhood.
That was another good question. "I don't know. It doesn't make much sense, does it? Unless Luo somehow didn't find Lao, and he's still alive." They took seats on the subway, watching the other passengers around them. No one took much more interest in them than usual.
She shook her head, not liking the way that scenario felt. She remained quiet for the majority of the short trip to the publishing industry's stronghold in Tokyo, ruminating on everything they'd learned, shifting through facts, stacking things, sorting things. None of it added up. None of it made sense. No matter how she looked at it, no matter how she dealt the cards they had possession of, none of it added up.
He didn't speak, either, letting her think. Being quiet had never been a difficulty for him, after all. When the subway train slid to a halt, he lead the way out the doors and into the station, paying close attention to everyone around them.
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