The Hinomoto Rebellion (20 page)

The sounds of dripping echoed through the filthy sewers of Shibasaki and mingled with the squeaking and scuttling of vermin. The accumulated refuse of countless years piled in corners where the slowly moving sludge in the middle of the tunnel could not reach. The yellow lights that jutted from the ceiling every few feet did little to beat back the darkest of the shadows.

“Are you sure you know where we’re going?”

Andrea rolled her eyes. “I grew up running through these tunnels, you think I wouldn’t know them like the back of my hand?” She growled, “Besides, you can get anywhere in the city down here if you just know what you’re looking for.”

D clenched his arm, which was hurting but had stopped smoking, and stared dumbly at the back of Andrea’s head. He glanced around, trying to figure out what he was supposed to be looking for, but could see nothing except concrete walls and sludge. “What do you mean?”

Andrea stopped and glared over her shoulder, then pointed in front of them to one of the lights. “See those strips of plastic?” D looked and, indeed, a clump of three yellow plastic shreds were dangling from the light. “Yeah,” he said.

“Those were put up by other
ronin
as markers. You’d be surprised at how often we have to go to the sewers to get away from police. Easy to get lost down here, unless you know what those mean, that is. Tony taught me how to recognize them and what they meant when he brought me here from America.” D could sense that Andrea was smiling, it carried through to her voice even though he couldn’t see her face.

“He really cared about you, huh?” He asked.

Andrea paused, thinking about that for a moment, then replied with a muffled grunt and continued walking. D heaved a sigh. For just a moment he’d thought that he’d actually gotten her to open up a bit to him. He’d never heard her talk with a soft tone to her voice but it had been there for just a second when she brought up Tony. For a brief second her voice had been filled with affection for this man. D didn’t know what her relationship was to him but he’d heard from Kanjou that Andrea insisted Tony wasn’t her father.

Who is she? Why is she living with a man that isn’t her father, but yet she speaks about him as though he was?

 

Kanjou and Aki practically took the sliding front door of the temple off its tracks, despite the fact that their arms were laden with grocery bags. 26, Fushi, and Roni jumped up from the table and turned to look at the two out-of-breath fighters as they burst into the dining area.

“Are they back yet!?” gasped Kanjou as Fushicho hurried to help him with the bags.

 

“Who?” 26 asked, coming around the table to grab some bags from Aki.

“ Andrea and D, who else would we be asking about?!” Kanjou blinked a few times at the stunned faces of Fushicho, Roni, and 26. “Please tell me they’re back already,” he said in a hushed whisper.

“ Tell us what happened, Kanjou,” 26 pulled the grocery bags from Aki’s arms and nodded in Roni’s direction. “Before you scare Roni out of her mind.”

Aki and Kanjou flopped to the floor at the table, still panting for breath. “We went to the Shark’s Den, and Andrea made her bet with the bartender,” Aki interrupted Kanjou.

“Although she lied about us having any money to get him to agree to it.”

“ Well, she won, so that’s beside the point. Turned out that the government’s trying to get Andrea. They went around to all the bars and told them that if anyone see Andrea and turns her in, they won’t have trouble with the cops anymore... So guess what the idiot bartender there did?”

“Oh no...” breathed Roni, looking horrified.

 

“Yeah. They sent a TK Squad that was waiting for us when we went to leave too.”

Fushicho let out a loud curse before Kanjou continued. “Andrea and D went out the front door as a distraction while we slipped out the back. We wouldn’t have wasted time at a store getting food, but we didn’t want to lead anyone that might be following us back here.”

“So... they could have been captured then,” exclaimed Roni.

“ Yeah,” Aki nodded, “And we have no way of knowing if they’re just taking their sweet time getting back or if they’re in trouble.”

“ Then what we need to do is give this a time limit. We let things cool down first, then if they’re not back by tonight we see what we can do to find them. But if they have been arrested we,” Kanjou sighed before continuing, “We may have to accept going on without them. We may not have a choice.”

“So in the meantime we...? What? Wait around here and do nothing?” 26 said.

“ Yes,” replied Kanjou with a nod. “We wait, and we pray.”

“ Here we go,” said Andrea, stopping by the cement wall of a tunnel. D looked at the solid wall in confusion, then opened his mouth to ask Andrea what she meant when she put a hand out and began to push a section of the wall. Much to D’s surprise, a yard wide section of cement began to swing back and open with little effort.

“Amazing...” he whispered as Andrea moved the fifteen centimeter thick cement wall with a light touch.

Andrea motioned for D to head in. They both went in and Andrea clicked on a bare light bulb that was overhead, illuminating the alcove of the sewer with dingy yellow light. She turned and started sliding the door shut while D examined the elaborate pulley system that allowed the huge cement slab to move so effortlessly.

“ This is very impressive,” he commented as the cement shut noiselessly. A hidden track and a counterweight system moved the door as smoothly and easily as though it was nothing more than a rice paper screen.

“ Tony was an engineer, a long time ago back in America,” replied Andrea as she turned and pointed to a chair by a table. “Sit down. I’ll go get the first-aid kit,” she said.

D sat gingerly since the chair looked rickety enough to crumble to dust underneath him. Andrea moved off into the other room and disappeared for a few minutes. When she returned, she was carrying a plastic box and wearing another fighting outfit that was identical to the one she’d had on, just without the stains, burns and bullet holes. Andrea pulled the other chair around next to D and sat on it, dumping the box onto the table. She snapped the two closures up and flipped the lid open.

She twisted the lid off a bottle of antiseptic and applied some to D’s arm with a cotton ball. The liquid stung and caused D to wince as it foamed on his skin. Andrea wrapped the wound with gauze, then added a few strips of tape to keep it in place. She then took a bottle of pills out of the box and handed one to D. “Here. Pain killers and antibiotics,” she said, using her other hand to put the medical supplies back in the box.

D put the pill in his mouth and let it dissolve on his tongue. Almost immediately he felt the pain in his arm lessening.
Thank goodness for modern medicine,
he thought.

The silver-haired girl stood and closed the lid of the box, snapping it shut. She turned and walked over to the doorway that led into the small kitchen, stopping at the threshold and staring down at the small camping stove that Tony had cooked on every day. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the cold concrete wall that separated the small rooms. Her head drooped piteously—her long bangs throwing shadows over her face.

D stood and took a step toward her. “Andrea?” He asked, a deep note of concern in her voice.

She didn’t respond to her name. D took a few more steps toward her, raising a hand as though he was tempted to put it on her shoulder. Before he could though, Andrea spoke.

“This whole thing has been a set-up,” she stated blankly. D tilted his head to his left and looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

“ That attack on Tony’s Place... The attack today... It was all a set-up. They killed Tony, and everyone else, all because they knew they could pin it on me. They knew I’d come back and light the bar on fire. Even if I didn’t, they would have and just blamed me for it anyway. I thought it was strange that there weren’t any cops when we went back to the bar after we lost them in the sewers... Then they spread the rumor that I’m a murderer and an arsonist, so that the circuit would turn on me.”

D took a few more steps forward, so that now he was standing right behind her. “You don’t mean that,” he said, resisting the urge to reach out and stroke her hair.

“ You heard Hisao. He said they were warned I’d be coming around. The government set this up, no one else. No one else would have gone this far to ruin me.”

“But... why would they target you? Why do all this just to get to you? It makes no sense, Andrea.”

The silver-haired girl turned, glaring at D. “How should I know? Maybe they just felt like it!” She raged, throwing her arms up in desperation. “Maybe they got a hot tip from somebody who sold me out! Maybe they’re cracking down even harder on the
ochiudo!
I’m not a damn psychic! I don’t know how their little evil brains work! Maybe they just knew Roni and Kanjou were going to try to recruit me, so they tried to head them off at the pass! The point is, they’ve ruined me! They’ve destroyed the only home I ever had!” she turned away from him again.

D had his hand in the air, contemplating whether or not he should risk setting it on her shoulder. Had he seen tears in the corners of her cold blue eyes before she had turned from him? Was she going to open up to him? D didn’t realize that he was holding his breath, his left hand dangling in mid-air.

“ How could they do this?” said Andrea. “I’ve never done a thing to them. We’re just trying to live like anybody else, but we’re the scum? We’re the criminals? They can kill anyone they feel like killing, and we’re the ones that end up in jail!” Her right fist shot out and slammed into the concrete wall, sending D back a step. He stared at her fist, which she kept pressed against the cold cement for a few silent moments before pulling it away. A few spots of blood from her knuckles were left on the concrete wall.

“ Andrea,” D cooed, trying to soothe her, “They don’t need to have a reason. You yourself said that. Maybe... Maybe this wasn’t originally an attack on you. For all you know, they’re just trying to tie up a loose end from the raid on Tony’s Place. There’s no proof that they did all this just to hurt you.”

She was silent for a minute. D’s hand still hung in the air between them, unsure if it wanted to risk being broken if it came down on her drooping shoulder. Finally, Andrea let out a huff. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she turned, causing D to drop his hand back down to his side before it brushed against her. “I’m just being paranoid. Come on, help me get some stuff together and then we’ll head back to the temple. The others will be going out of their minds if we don’t get back soon.”

Ryoku walked down the hallway, keeping his head up high. He nodded at Yasakuto’s secretary as he passed, and she smiled at him and said hello. The black-haired man went right in to the Daimyo’s office without stopping, pushing the kaya wood doors open.

Yasakuto looked up from the papers he was going through. “You’re back later than I expected, Ryoku. Where is she? Don’t tell me you left her in the care of those buffoons at the police station.”

Ryoku shook his head. “Of course not, sir. I remember your orders. She and the other Aka Ryuu got away. I don’t know how, but I still have men there searching everywhere they could have possibly gone. They’ll find them.”