Adventures In Parodyverse: Destiny and the Sword Part 2

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Part 1

Adventures In Parodyverse - Destiny And The Sword, Part 2

    Akiko Masamune, crime lord of Mangatown, had extra security these days. With the focus being on compliance with SR 1066, aspiring criminals ran rampant intent on making a name for themselves while the police were busy with other things.

    The Psychic Samurai was well known, if not in name then in reputation. She strolled right to the front of Akiko's current secret headquarters. The five heavy-set guards outside tensed for a moment as she approached, but they recognized her sword, and when she gave them a slight bow they returned the favor and let her pass. The same happened with the set of guards outside the elevator, and again when she reached the top floor.

    "Akiko." She nodded to her former employer and current friend and ally as she approached. As usual, Akiko sent away everyone inside the room, leaving the two of them alone, and offered Chiaki some tea.

    Chiaki sat down on her knees at the small table and accepted a small cup of tea. "I once told you," she began slowly, calmly, "that I did not wish to kill. You respected that, and I'm grateful. But something has happened."

    "You were forced to kill," Akiko guessed.

    She lowered her eyes and nodded slowly. "I don't know why I feel such...emptiness."

    "Do you know why I respected your wishes?" Akiko asked. She smiled as she provided the answer. "Because your strength impresses me, even now. You have the strength to overcome, to out-maneuver and out-think." She looked away and laughed slightly as she added, "You were always questioning my orders...politely, of course. It's about time I told you how refreshing it was, and how much it was appreciated."

    Chaiki gave her a confused look.

    "Because I knew you were thinking," Akiko explained. "Sometimes more clearly than I was. You were not one to blindly follow. Yet at the same time you always preserved my honor. It takes a lot of strength to do that. You were always a friend to me. That is why I respected your wishes."

    She looked at Akiko sadly, and then sighed. "I suppose I've always known that," she whispered. She stared at her tea silently for a moment.

    "Whenever you think about what you've done," Akiko suggested, "Remember what I have done, and that it's unforgivable. Then remember that I still have honor...and that you still found me worthy of friendship. And that you have someone who thinks you are worthy of theirs."

    "Jay," Chiaki whispered, mostly to herself. And then louder, "Yes, I suppose you're right."

    "Then I suppose I no longer have to request your help," Akiko noted. "I can simply tell you my troubles and see what your mind comes up with."

    "Yes," Chiaki replied with a smile, easily taking the hint. "What troubles you these days?"

    "The Lynchpin's arrest was both a blessing and a curse," Akiko told her. "Without him present there is a constant war going on all over the city, as less important gangs vie for his valuable territory."

    "You want a kind of summit," Chiaki suggested. "A meeting of all the most prominent gangs so you can divide up the city and offer relative peace."

    "There are two ways to do that," Akiko continued with a nod. "Frightening other gangs into a compromise--" She looked directly at Chiaki as she said the rest. "--or your way, which I prefer."

    Chiaki bowed slightly. "Consider it done," she said.

    "It will be difficult," Akiko warned her. "Some of these gangs are bloodthirsty savages and will kill you at a moment's notice."

    "It will be my quest," Chiaki said. "I will do this, and I will return without blood on my sword. My own way." She quickly bowed again, and turned to leave without another word. She knew Akiko was smiling as she left.

---

    "What are we doing here?" Liu Xi Xian asked as she followed the Psychic Samurai into what appeared to be a warehouse. Inside, however, was what seemed to be a covert yet well appointed convention hall set up by Akiko Masamune to conduct large-scale business outside the eyes of the authorities.

    Hatman followed Chiaki as well, but didn't have any questions beyond the one Liu Xi already asked.

    "And why is he here?" Liu Xi asked, noting Hatman's presence. "Won't that frighten away everyone?"

    Chiaki looked behind her at Hatman and she smiled. "No, he promised to behave."

    Jay couldn't help but chuckle a little bit.

    Once she placed her sword gently on the polished wood table directly in front of a seat at one end, she offered Liu Xi and Hatman seats to either side of her. Once they sat down, she did as well.

    Hatman couldn't help but look at Chiaki and note just how relaxed she seemed to be considering that the heads of every major crime organization - save Akiko's - were going to arrive very soon, probably with bodyguards and guns. He attributed that to the fact that she had so much experience in this kind of negotiation.

    Showing Chaki's perfect sense of timing that earned her nickname, the first groups of leaders filed into the warehouse only minutes after the trio sat down. They didn't look happy as they entered, and just as Jay guessed, many of them did have armed bodyguards with them. They seemed to orbit the room a bit as each group enters, assessing and nonverbally attempting to intimidate the others.

    "Have a seat please." Chiaki ordered in a soft voice. She made no move to force her point - she simply stared at them all patiently until they complied with her request. And they all did so as they caught a glimpse of her sheathed sword sitting on the polished table, both her hands sitting idly atop it. Obviously rumors of just how she carved up those Avawarriors had begun to circulate and probably exaggerate.

    As soon as everyone was seated, the doors to the warehouse opened again and the Zoot Suit Gang filed in. Not just a few of them, but numbering in the dozens, all wearing wide-brimmed hats and pinstriped suits. They simply walked in and stood all around the room, arms folded.

    Hatman, of course, nearly rose out of his seat to put a stop to it. But Chiaki calmly placed a hand atop his to calm him, and he relented. Especially when he saw who entered immediately after the Zoot Suit Gang - Yuki Shiro.

    "I'm sure you all understand a show of force when you see one," the Psychic Samurai spoke up immediately, and she stood. "I've shown you one in order to dispense with the usual bickering and intimidation present at such meetings. Instead I will dictate terms, and you will follow."

    A few of the representatives at the table laughed, but Chiaki didn't seem the least bit affected by it. One of them finally spoke up to say, "I have a few dozen friends who say I don't have to listen to you."

    "Then your few dozen friends will be headed to jail." Chiaki glanced at Hatman, who suddenly flushed when he realized why he was brought to the meeting. "As will anyone else and their private army who choose to defy my simple request. Which is...there will be no more turf wars. From this point forward, either Frankie of the Zoot Suit Gang, or Akiko Masamune will handle all disputes."

    "That's not fair at all!" another representative called out. A few others agreed.

    Chiaki nodded ever so slightly, and the dissident representatives found themselves disarmed and pinned to the table by pinstripe suited men. Yuki Shiro provided twist ties to handcuff their hands together.

    "Are we agreed?" Chiaki asked, still calmly, as she noted that the remaining representatives seemed silent but shaken. They didn't reply, they either nodded or said nothing. Chiaki finally bowed, and the Zoot Suit Gang quickly filed outside. "Then I suggest those of you still free to walk leave quickly. The police will be on their way to collect those who are handcuffed."

    There was a mad rush as all of the representatives pushed and shoved their way to the door and then outside. The Zoot Suit Gang quietly filed out once the room was cleared of their less organized counterparts. All that were left were a few handcuffed gangsters, Yuki Shiro, Hatman, Liu Xi Xian, and Chiaki.

    And Chiaki was still calmly seated, her sword still lying, sheathed, directly in front of her on the table. She hadn't even drawn it once, and used nothing sharper than words, to end a potential gang war.

    Yuki seemed to be perceptive enough to realize that Hatman wanted to talk to Chiaki, only not in front of the criminals. So she used her cybernetic strength to gather them all by their handcuffs, using both arms, and force them outside whether they resisted or not. She was going to wait with them until the police arrived.

    "You put yourself in a dangerous position, you know," Hatman pointed out.

    "I'm aware of the danger," Chiaki responded. "I have been doing this a long time."

    "Don't get me wrong," he continued. "It's impressive to see in person. I'm kind of proud, seeing how you can do this bloodlessly. I'm proud of you."

    Chiaki smiled slightly, and nodded. "Thank you," she whispered. She stood, picked up her sword, and sighed deeply. "I suppose I needed to prove to myself that I still had the restraint necessary." Her grin widened as she added, "I feel good now."

    "Why was I here?" Liu Xi finally piped up and asked. "I'm not a show of force...I'm not even a Lair Legion member."

    "They don't know that," Hatman joked.

    "You asked me why I bring my sword everywhere." Chiaki explained. "Now do you understand why?"

    Liu Xi looked around the room, and noted the position of the door relative to where Chiaki was sitting - purposely so everyone entering would see her sitting there calmly with a samurai sword in front of her. Chiaki didn't even have to speak a word to explain who she was, why she was there, and what she expected. "I think I do," Liu Xi admitted.

---

    "I'm not totally sure I understood the point of that whole thing," Jay finally spoke up once they returned to the mansion. He ignored Yuki's nearly silent scoff as she walked between Jay and Yuki and headed inside. "I mean, I know you feel some loyalty to Akiko but it was unnecessarily risky. Not to mention setting criminals free on the promise of--"

    Chiaki placed one finger on his lips to silence him mid-sentence, and paused a moment before speaking. "You're right," she whispered. "But I had to prove something important to myself."

    "What did it prove?" he asked, once Chiaki removed the finger from his lips.

    "I filled that room with some of the most bloodthirsty killers in all of Paradopolis," Chiaki pointed out, noting that the observation made Jay even more unconfortable. "Yet I had no urge to strike out at them violently. I looked at their eyes, and I saw fear. They each had something to lose. This is why I haven't killed anyone. I look at a person and I see more than just their words and their weapon."

    Jay's expression softened considerably as he took a moment to process everything she just said. He finally thought to ask the next obvious question. "And the Avawarriors?"

    "They were more machine than person," Chaiki explained. "I looked at them and I saw...nothing in their eyes. Vacant machines of death. Only after I had taken away their superiority did they start to show fear. Something about them has been modified so deeply...they give up everything, so they are nothing more than trained animals." She looked down and shook her head sadly.

    "So you're feeling better?" he asked.

    "More focused," she clarified. "Less...lost. I understand now, that I feel as sad for the ones that are alive as I do for the ones I killed." She shrugged slightly as she added, "Still, though, I did have to resort to deadly violence. I am coming to terms with that now. But I had to prove to myself that I am not an instrument of death."

    "That's what I was telling you all along," Jay pointed out. He offered her a quick hug, and he accepted. "But I understand what you're saying. What I tell you is just words, and you had to actually do something to feel useful without shedding blood."

    She nodded. "I hope you're not upset. I am guilty of using you to that end."

    "If I really would have minded," he told her, "I wouldn't have gone. Neither would Liu Xi, and she's even more stubborn than I am. We went along because we both trust you implicitly."

    "What about Yuki?" Chiaki asked.

    "She went because she was hoping there would be a fight."

    "Oh." Chiaki smiled at that, and finally returned the hug. "And Jay? I didn't do Akiko a favor. She freed me from my obligation a long ago. That means when I help her with business she pays me. I will share it with you, Yuki, and Liu Xi for helping me."

    "That's not necessary." Jay quickly tried to turn it down. "I'm happy just watching your back."

    "Just take it," Yuki piped up suddenly behind him, nearly making him jump. "Or if you're that obsessive about not taking money from Akiko, or deep into a vow of poverty, or whatever, give your share to Liu Xi. The poor kid's always broke."

    "You don't mind, do you?" Jay asked Chiaki.

    The Psychic Samurai shrugged. "It's yours to do with as you wish." She looked at Yuki. "You have quite a soft heart under that tough exterior." She turned and straightened her sword before heading into the mansion.

    "She has you pegged," Jay joked as he looked at Yuki.

    Yuki shoved him gently. "Oh, shut up."


-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
-- Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
-- Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

Post By Anime Jason Sat Jul 22, 2006 at 06:53:59 pm EDT	Subject Adventures In Parodyverse: Destiny and the Sword Part 2

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