Yuki's Grave Welcome, Part 2 - Tales of the Parodyverse

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Yuki's Grave Welcome, Part 1 (by HH)

Grave Welcome (Part 2)

    'Gold coins,' Yuki Shiro mused to herself. She slid two of the coins between her synthetic fingers, listening to the whisper of the soft round metal objects rubbing against each other. The Ghouls had paid her half her fee in advance, even before she told them how much it would be. If it was indeed half, they had overpaid by a lot, and she didn't really want to tell them. Ten gold coins translated to a lot of money.

    She supposed, at the time Abyssal Greye handed her the payment with his icy dead hands, that they simply trusted her honor. Or perhaps they meant their trust as a thinly veiled threat against her and anyone she knows if she were to fail.

    Finding Drago's murderer would be easy. Since Yuki wasn't a cop, the much more complicated and dangerous task of bringing the murderer to justice fortunately was not her job. She was only hired to point him out and let the chips fall where they may.

    As always, the best place to start asking questions was in the criminal underworld. They always seemed to have better eyes and ears than the cops did. And if they didn't have the information right away, for the right money they would find it, no questions asked.

    Yuki was not one to trust the minions of the Lynchpin of Crime, Harry Flask, as they were known to be fiercely loyal to Flask. They were his eyes and ears alone, and any question asked would make inevitably its way to his office. Not the way for Yuki to go, since she suspected that if there was a mysterious murder, chances are the Lynchpin was involved. And while Akiko Masamune had a decent network in Paradopolis, it didn't seem to extend too much farther north than Downtown.

    It would be best, she thought, to get her information from some of the smaller players in the market. Ones with excellent coverage, but a much lower profile.

    She walked into the Willow Nightclub and scanned the busy establishment quickly, searching for a distinctive white fedora. She found a group of them quickly and headed directly toward them. It was a small group of very loud men in white pinstriped suits, a small portion of the little known Zoot Suit Gang, currently headed by Frankie G., sitting at the center of the table with two women surrounding him.

    "Frankie, I need some info," Yuki said as soon as she approached the table. She eyed a couple of them reaching for weapons under the table. "I wouldn't," she warned them.

    "What kinda scoop you lookin' for, hon?" Frankie asked.

     "Barnett Drago." She wasted no time in going right to the heart of the matter. "Who killed him?"

    "How much is it worth to ya, doll?" Frankie asked.

    Yuki dropped four of her ten gold coins on the table. Easily worth two or three grand if traded impatiently.

    Frankie G. shrugged. "I'll tell ya, but you aint gonna like it." He laughed, and his companions laughed too.

    "Hey!" Yuki slammed her fist so hard on the table's surface that it snapped off of its stalk, and all of their drinks came crashing to the floor. She somehow caught the gold coins in midair as she warned them, "You can take me seriously and take my money, or I can turn you over to P.D. and you can all sleep off the alcohol in jail!"

    Frankie G. didn't even flinch, even as everything around him went crashing to the floor. He calmly lit a cigar as Yuki waited for a reply. "The Lynchpin has this assassin broad, Gamona or somethin'," he said. "He ordered her to kill Drago."

    Yuki calmly flipped one of the gold coins toward Frankie. He caught it easily. "What makes you so sure?" she asked.

    "I spoke ta him an hour before he kicked the bucket," Frankie told her. "Offered me a bundle, asked for protection. I told him to suck it up and be a man." He shrugged. "Wasn't worth the hassle. Not like anyone can protect ya if the Lynchpin has you on his list."

    Yuki frowned, and dropped the other three coins in Frankie G.'s open hand. "I'll keep that in mind," she said, as she left the club quietly.

---

    The Lynchpin's tower was an imposing presence in Gothametropolis, being the tallest building in the entire city. A gigantic lighted neon 'Flask' sign adorned the top of the perfectly rectangular glass, steel, and concrete structure.

    "Do you think he's compensating for something?" Yuki asked quietly as she stood outside on the sidewalk, looking up the side of the building.

    She heard Al B. Harper laugh heartily through the comm link. He was comfortably in his cabin, listening to Yuki's commentary. His job was to eavesdrop and alert her if law enforcement or any other type of reinforcements had been dispatched to remove her from the premises. Basically, to make sure there were no surprises.

    'Is the Lair Legion comfortable with your moonlighting on the job?' Yuki asked through only the comm link as she entered the building. She was speaking to Al B. only electronically so security in the lobby wouldn't see her talking to herself.

    "What they don't know won't hurt 'em," Al B. told her. "Besides, it's not like there's some kind of crisis going on."

    "I have an appointment with Mr. Flask," Yuki told the security guards at the front desk. "I'm a private detective named Yuki Shiro."

    "Yeah, right," one of the two security guards said. "Now get out of here before--"

    "Uhhh...Will," the second guard tugged at the first one's sleeve and pointed to the computer screen on the desk. It apparently said that she did indeed have an appointment.

    The guard named Will turned pale, and then cleared his throat. "Umm...okay." He straightened himself and said, "Right this way." He was sweating and shaking with fear when he escorted Yuki to the private elevator to Flask's suite, and activated it with his key. She could only guess that, from his reaction, he expected a horribly penalty for turning away one of Flask's appointments.

    Without speaking a word, Yuki entered the elevator and stood against the back wall as it ascended. By now, the guard had called Flask's office and told his secretary that Yuki Shiro, his next appointment, was there. No doubt, Flask by now was in the process of chewing out the secretary, insisting he had no such appointment.

    "Uh, Yuki," Al B. spoke hesitantly over the comm link.

    'I know,' she replied over the comm link. 'Security has been alerted.'

    "No, worse," Al B. told her. "It's Gamona. She's being paged."

    Yuki frowned. She rather hoped that Flask's minions would be out on other business. 'This could get messy,' she told Al. 'Stand by with the remote control helicopter.'

    "Fueled up and ready to go," he replied. "I've been waiting forever to test it!"

    She smiled at Al B.'s enthusiasm. He loved his high-tech toys. She slammed down the emergency stop button in the elevator just before it reached the upper floor, and punched out the roof panel. Unlike the blueprints specified, there was no longer a ladder in the elevator shaft. It had been removed.

    Not one to be stopped by such a small setback, Yuki used the power in her cybernetic legs to propel herself upward, and launch herself off of the back wall of the elevator shaft. She grabbed ahold of the elevator cables and swung to a small ledge just above the elevator doors.

    She had enough strength in just one hand to pry the locking mechanism for the doors open and slide them open. Just as she predicted, a hail of automatic gunfire rang out, only she was above the door and out of range.

    The gunfire stopped, and the head of a man wearing a mechanized suit poked into the elevator shaft and looked down. Without hesitation, Yuki grabbed the back of his helmet and lifted him, hurling him down the shaft to the elevator car below. She heard a scream and a satisfying 'thud'.

    "Did you just kill someone?" Al B. asked over the comm link.

    'He tried to kill me first,' Yuki insisted. She swung down from the ledge, into the reception area for Flask's private office. The secretary screamed as Yuki drew an automatic pistol and blasted the phone off of the desk before the secretary could reach it. Yuki put away the pistol once the secretary retreated beneath the desk.

    Yuki then turned around quickly and tore the elevator control panel off the wall. She touched two wires that were never meant to cross, shorting out the elevator system for the entire building. Security wouldn't be arriving any time soon.

    The door to Flask's inner office was locked, and made of some sort of metal alloy. Yuki squinted and switched to an ultrasound and infrared overlay to examine it.

    "Admantine," Al B. examined the data over the remote comm link. "The walls likely contain it as well. He really wants to keep people out."

    Yuki looked at the windows in the secretary's office. 'He has windows in his office, correct?" she asked.

    "Three quarter view," Al B. confirmed. "Wait...you aren't going to try what I think--" He heard a crashing sound over the comm link, and then he could hear heavy wind being transmitted from Yuki's own ears. "Are you nuts?"

    'Relax," Yuki told him as she climbed hand-over-hand across the steel structure on the outside of the building. 'You know what I'm capable of.' The wind was so fierce, that even through her gloves, she left dents the shape of her fingers in the steel structure as she tried not to be blown away.

    Harry Flask heard a faint sound, and turned to face it just as he saw a young Asian woman with purple hair frowning...outside his office window. He gasped as she kicked off from the surface of the glass, and propelled herself feet first through it, raining beads of broken safety glass all over his office.

    "I need to speak with you," she said calmly as she landed perfectly feet first on the carpet.

    "Gamona!" was the only word spoken by Flask.

    Yuki's internal computer was able to process much more sensory data than normal human brains. When that data was fed to her own brain, it allowed her to see things moving at a much slower pace than they were - when it was, in actuality, her who was moving faster than possible for a normal human.

    Even Al B. struggled, back at his cabin, as he, with his decidedly human senses, tried to track what was happening.

    Gamona was fast, but not quite fast enough. She struck once, twice, three times, and was quick enough to keep Yuki's lightning fast reflexes on the defensive. But Yuki had already figured out that remaining on the defensive in a confined space would soon leave her cornered and vulnerable, as damage resistant as her synthetic body was.

    Yuki produced the pistol quickly, but the damned mechanical device wouldn't fire fast enough, before it was knocked clear across the room. She grabbed a handful of Gamona's hair, but lost it, succeeding only in shredding her own gloves.

    "I don't think she can lift you," Al B. suggested helpfully. "Charge her."

    'Right.' But before committing to Al B.'s shaky theory, she decided to test it first. She crossed her arms, planted her feet apart, and waited for Gamona to attempt to push her into a corner. It seemed to work - Gamona couldn't push Yuki off of her feet, though Yuki was being pushed back.

    Yuki pushed against Gamona, who predictably pushed back, and then allowed Gamona to corner her, so she could place her feet against the Admantine cored wall. Like in the elevator shaft, Yuki pushed off against the wall...

    ...and realized, accidentally, that she could lift Gamona off of the floor as the two launched across the office and right out through the opposite window.

    Yuki held on for dear life. Her body structure was more than able to support her own weight, and Gamona's - she was suspended by Yuki's other, still gloved hand - as well. But the hollow steel tube her fingers clung to was never designed to hold their combined weight. It creaked dangerously.

    "Let me go," Gamona told her. "If I lose to you so easily I deserve to die."

    "What's going on?" Al B. asked. He checked the video feed and screamed. "What is it with you and hanging off of the tallest building in the city?"

    A loud crunch sounded as Yuki dug her fingers deep through the hollow steal beam, trying to get a hold of a more solid structure beneath. There was concrete behind it, but it too was beginning to crack. Yuki struggled to pull Gamona up to the level of the window, and nudge her back inside the office with her boot.

    Yuki was then shocked to see Gamona on her feet again, offering her a hand to help her back inside. Unwilling to take it, Yuki instead swung inside and landed on her feet. A loud creak and then a crunch sounded as the loosened parts of the building facade came loose and began their descent to the street below.

    "I didn't come here to see anyone die," Yuki told Gamona. Her reply was also aimed at Gamona's boss. "Barnett Drago. You were hired to kill him by Harry Flask."

    Gamona looked at her boss fearfully. He normally didn't allow his assassins to divulge information on their own.

    "He was a meddler, much like you," Harry Flask told her as he leaned back in his dangerously creaking chair. Yuki sized him up and decided that at his girth, he could probably shatter her artificial body just by sitting on her. "He was to serve as a witness in a certain trial. I had to...ensure that he was unable to testify. It's not my fault he resisted Gamona's persuasion." He leaned forward, his chair creaking again. "He sent you to avenge his death?"

    "Avenging deaths is not my business," Yuki told him. "I am a private detective. I was only paid to find Mr. Drago's murderer."

    The Lynchpin of Crime laughed as he took a bite of a sub sandwich on his desk. That bite nearly devastated the entire sandwich. "You tell the man who hired you," he said, "That if he seeks revenge he's welcome to die trying."

    "I doubt that will discourage him," Yuki spoke cryptically. With that, she took a running jump through yet another window behind Harry Flask and somersaulted just before she landed perfectly atop the roof of the three story shorter building across the street.

    Al B. Harper couldn't help but scream again as he watched the video feed.

---

    Yuki accepted a felt bag filled with gold coins from the ghoulish avatar of Barnett Drago at the All Saints Cemetery, inside the Pierce Mosaleum. She held on to the bag gently as she asked him and Abyssal Greye, "What's the matter?"

    "I'm a little disappointed," Drago told her. "Not in you. You did a fine job. But I thought avenging my murder would be much simpler."

    "You are already dead," Yuki pointed out. "I don't suppose you can die trying."

    "Alas," Abyssal Greye told her, "By the time a suitable vengeance is planned, the memory of Barnett Drago's death will have long faded into obscurity. The Ghouls have many memories between us. Sadly, some have to be sacrificed for the good of us all."

    "So Harry Flask wins?" Yuki asked him. "Barnett Drago dies and nobody remembers him? Or cares?"

    "What matters," Drago told her, "Is that I died a good man. And that when, in time, Harry Flask perishes, he will be tainted."

    "I don't believe in that 'rewarded in the afterlife' garbage," Yuki told him.

    "You don't understand," Abyssal Greye interrupted. "A tainted brain cannot be taken by us. It would destroy us. When Harry Flask dies, his memories will die with him."

    "I feel like I failed you," Yuki told Drago, "And yet you're still so kind."

    "The only way you could have failed us," Drago said, "Is if you would have refused our request at the start. We could have expected no more than what you've done."

    Yuki smiled and nodded.

    "We are at your service from this day forward." Abyssal Grey gave her a deep bow. "If there is anything at all we can do to help you."

    "Thank you." Yuki returned a slight bow. "And likewise."

    With that, Yuki and the two ghouls left the mosaleum. She paused to turn around, but they had long disappeared into the mists of the ancient cemetery.

    'Did you get that?' Yuki asked Al B.

    "Got it," he replied. "I'll find a way to inconspicuously pass the info on the murder along to Hatman."

    "Hatman?" Yuki asked out loud.

    "Hatman seems to have intricate knowledge of Flask's organization. He's been itching to get at the fat bastard for a while."

    'Fat bastard.' Yuki laughed internally. 'I will have to remember that one.'

    "By the way," Al B. added, "CrazySugarFreakBoy! asked about the photo of you I have next to my computer. He wants to fix you up with Hatman."

    "Tell him I don't do blind dates," Yuki replied. "I'd have to meet him first."

    "I'd better only tell him the first part," Al told her. "The rest is just asking for trouble."

    Yuki laughed again. "Thanks for looking out for me, Al."

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2004 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow

Post By Anime Jason Sat Dec 11, 2004 at 03:54:54 pm EST	Subject Yuki's Grave Welcome, Part 2

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