The Hinomoto Rebellion (22 page)

And they were right.

By the time Kanjou had another meeting with Daimyo Shinrai, Andrea was nearly back to her old self. She had even tried to hit him when he woke her up for meditation training that morning, which he took as a good sign.

Kanjou chuckled to himself as he ran a hand through his spiked brown hair and looked around the park. He was sitting on a bench in the hot summer sun, a pair of sunglasses hiding his green eyes.

The Aka Ryuu looked up as a man sat down next to him. Clad once again in a Hawaiian print shirt was Daimyo Shinrai, though he was looking a bit worse for wear. His raven hair was disheveled and his face pale. Behind his dark sunglasses, his eyes were wide. His breath came in ragged gasps.

“Daimyo Shinrai? Are you alright?” Kanjou made a movement to get up, but Shinrai motioned for him to sit back down.

“I’m okay. I think someone tried to follow me, so I had to make some… interesting… maneuvers in order to lose them.” He cleared his throat and looked at either side of the little asphalt path that passed in front of the bench. “I have something for you, but first tell me how things are progressing.”

Kanjou smiled. “You mean, aside from the Shark’s Den fiasco the other day?”

 

Shinrai raised an eyebrow. “You mean the bar that burned down? What did you all have to do with that?”

 

This time, Kanjou did jump up off the bench. “They burned it down!?” he yelled.

 

“The news said something about a faulty gas line that blew. What happened?” He raised his eyebrows in curiosity.

Kanjou sat back down and relayed the tale of Andrea’s plan and the involvement of the police in it. With each new development in the story, Shinrai’s eyes got wider. His face went white when Kanjou told him of the deal that the police had made with local bar owners in exchange for turning in Andrea. “But after we got away, they must’ve lit the place on fire and left it to burn. Damn government pigs,” Kanjou glanced sideways at Shinrai, “No offense meant.”

“None taken,” replied Shinrai with a small nod. They were both silent for a few moments, each reflecting on the news the other had brought about the Shark’s Den.

“So, what do you have for me?” asked the tall man.

“Ah yes, I nearly forgot,” the Daimyo reached into his shirt and fished a manila envelope out of it. “I need you all to do something for me,” he said as he handed the packet to the
ronin
. Kanjou opened the envelope and pulled out the papers inside.

Several surveillance photos and a blueprint fell into the tall man’s lap. Kanjou raised an eyebrow and began to flip through them. “What’s all this?” he asked.

“That is a warehouse full of ‘contraband’ that the government is holding on to.” Shinrai reached over and grabbed one of the photos and handed it to Kanjou. It was of a row of crates, stacked about three high each, and some loose items lying around. “And by contraband, I mean Martial Arts equipment.”

“Where did all this stuff come from?”

Shinrai shrugged. “Who knows? Some of it could be hundreds of years old, for all we know. It might be nice though for you guys to have some extra supplies. Besides, even though it’s heavily guarded, there is no inventory system. Anything taken from there would never be missed, and since no one’s exactly using it...” he trailed off.

Kanjou grinned. “Daimyo, are you condoning theft?” he chided jokingly.

“In aid of a good cause, yes.” Shinrai reached into his pocket and pulled out some bills. “Take this as well,” he said, holding them out to Kanjou.

“No, no, I couldn’t,” the
ronin
shook his head, his eyes wide.

“Please, just take it. I feel like I’m not doing enough to help you all. It shames me that I can’t stand against this corruption and am putting your lives in danger. Every week you meet me and tell me about the risks you all are taking to free this country, and I just come up with new ways for all of you to potentially die. So please, take it. I can at least try to keep you all fed, so that Andrea doesn’t have to take you all bar-hopping again.” Shinrai smiled jokingly.

Kanjou’s eyes softened and he held out his hand.. “Alright,” he conceded, “thank you.”

 

“Monday nights are best. The guards play Mah-jong then because that’s the security manager’s night off.”

Kanjou sat there for awhile after Shinrai left, the bills clutched in one hand and the photos in the other. When night began to close in over the city, he stood up from the bench and headed off back to the Gardens.

The Aka Ryuu looked up as Kanjou came into the recreation room. “Hey!” Roni leaped up from her spot on the floor across from 26. “We were starting to get worried about you.”

Kanjou smiled, “I took the long way home.” He looked around the room. “I have something to talk to everyone about,” he said before sitting down on the floor.

D, Fushicho, and Aki all dropped what they were doing and moved closer immediately. Andrea was slower to come join the group– seemingly insistent on finishing the page she was reading. After she slipped a small bit of ripped paper in between the pages to mark her place, she joined the rest of the group.

Kanjou opened up the manila envelope and pulled out the photos and blueprint drawings. “This is a warehouse full of Martial Arts equipment that the government has confiscated over the years,” he began, “Daimyo Shinrai tells me that though the place is guarded, there’s no inventory system set up, so things can go missing without being noticed. Not only that, but apparently the guards play Mah-jong every Monday night, so if we can steer clear of the electronic systems, we should have a fairly easy time.”

26, who was directly across from Andrea, noticed the silverhaired girl’s eyes go wide. She turned as white as her fighting outfit and looked down at the floor so her bangs would hide the expression on her face. Against her better judgment, the furred fighter bit back an inquiry and went back to listening to Kanjou.

The brunet put a section of blueprint in the middle of the group on the floor. “According to this, there’s a laser ‘trip wire’ every fifteen or twenty feet down the length of the warehouse. They stack the crates between the lasers with room between, and the guards have transmitters that allow them to walk around freely without tripping anything. Plus there are catwalks above as well, which we can use to move around easier as well.”

“Anything specific we’re going after?” Andrea asked, her voice sounded hollow.

 

“Not really. Just supplies to help us out later. Training equipment, weapons, whatever we can manage.”

 

“Video cameras?” inquired Fushi, one eyebrow raised.

“Four. One at the front entrance, one here at the loading dock,” Kanjou pointed to the back of the building, “and two in the corridor of this emergency exit.”

“Where is this warehouse, anyway?” Aki asked.

“Right on the edge of the old Industrial District, near that section of town with all the ancient remedy shops and the old restaurants.”

“How many guards are we talking about here?” Fushi said to Kanjou.

“Probably only one patrolling at any time. There’s four or five there at night, but they play games all night, so they rotate who’s out patrolling and who’s back in the break room playing.”

“That’s a lot of guards for a warehouse full of old swords, especially at night.” Andrea commented, still staring at the floor.

Kanjou shrugged. “It’s considered contraband, so the government wants to make sure it’s at least somewhat protected. Plus it’s a huge warehouse, so any less than five would be ineffective if something were to happen.”

Suddenly, Andrea stood. Everyone fell silent as she turned and walked out of the rec room. The Aka Ryuu all looked at each other questioningly. Then, D shot to his feet and raced after Andrea. “Hey! Andrea!”

By the time he reached the hall, Andrea was turning the corner into the passageway that led to the bedrooms. “Andrea!” he rushed after her, barely aware of the others getting up behind him.

The silver-haired
ronin
stalked down the corridor without a word or a glance behind her. She hurried to her room and ducked inside. By the time D got to the door, she had a bag and was stuffing her belongings into it with haste. “What the hell are you doing!?” D asked breathlessly.

“Leaving.”
“What?” D was taken aback. “Leaving? Why!?”

By this time, the others were behind D in a crowd. “Why!? I’ll tell you why! I’ve put up with all this idealistic bull-shit for long enough. Before this it was just crazy talk,
now
you all want to walk into suicide! I may have nothing to live for, but I’m not ready to condemn my soul to Hell just yet! You all can go die and feel good about it, I can’t!” She shoved the last of her clothes into the bag and glared angrily at the group crowded in the doorway. Her ice blue eyes were full of rage and hatred, daring anyone in the hall to argue with her.

D’s blood boiled and he realized he was more than ready to clash with the silver-haired fighter. He took a step into the room, his gold and blue eyes flashing. “What the hell are you talking about!? This is going to be easy! You can’t possibly be afraid of a few sleepy, underpaid guards!”

“I’m not afraid of them! I’m afraid of automatic weapons! Getting shot down doesn’t sound like a good way for me to spend my night. I’m done with this. I’m done with all of you! Ever since I met you idiots my life has gone to shit! I will not willingly walk into bullets
or lasers
for you numskulls!”

D took another step into the room, attempting to stare down Andrea. The group in the hall was staring at them, waiting breathlessly as the two screamed at each other. “So that’s how it is, huh? You stick with something until it gets too hard and then you quit? Something comes up that you don’t like and you run away? Stand up and face your damn problems for once!”

Andrea lunged across the room and seized D by the front of his shirt. Her eyes were wild as she pulled him so his face was barely half an inch from her own. The muscles in her neck were tight, as though she was just barely keeping herself from crushing his skull. D stared into her icy blue pupils like a man staring defiantly at an avalanche racing toward him down a mountain.

“You don’t know a damn thing about my problems, Wakame! Don’t try to talk to me about something you don’t understand! And don’t you dare assume that you’ve had a harder life than I have! You think you’re so damn high-and-mighty just because the government took you and split you in two! At least you have a family to search for. At least you have something to strive for. I have nothing left! Nothing!” she screamed the last word so loud that it made Roni leap behind Kanjou and burst into tears. Andrea’s face suddenly lost its rage. “And even though there’s nothing left for me to live for, even though my life is ruined.... I can’t walk into bullets just yet,” she said quietly, almost sadly. “I’m not ready to die with all this blood on my hands.”

Andrea let D’s shirt go and he collapsed to the floor on his knees. “I’m not sorry about this, and I’m not ashamed of it. I quit, and that’s final.” She said, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. “You all can do whatever the hell you want,” she walked past D and shoved her way through the group of Aka Ryuu in the hall, heading down to the door that led to the courtyard.

Roni suddenly dove out from behind Kanjou’s leg and raced after the Tiger. “No, Andrea! Wait!” she wailed.

The silver-haired woman continued walking, opening the door and stepping out into the moonlit courtyard. The little girl followed her out onto the broken paving stones. “You can’t leave! We need you!”

Andrea paused, causing Roni to stop where she was. “I refuse to commit suicide, Roni. I won’t be a part of this. I have to leave.” “You don’t have anywhere to go! You have to stay here!”

Andrea didn’t answer. Instead, she adjusted her bag on her shoulder and resumed walking. Roni watched as she crossed the courtyard and headed into the trees, disappearing from sight.

Tears welled up in Roni’s violet eyes and spilled out on to her cheeks, running in streams down her face. “Fine!” she screamed. “You
quitter
! I wish we’d never met you!
We don’t need you anyway!
”

The pig-tailed girl turned and raced back into the temple, running straight into 26’s leg. The winged woman reached down and scooped the sobbing girl in to her arms, trying her best to console her. Kanjou, Fushicho, and Aki stood silently in the hall outside Andrea’s room, staring at D’s back for a few minutes.

Finally, D stood and joined the others. He kept his eyes on the floor as Fushi put an arm around his shoulders in support. “What now?” Kanjou asked.

26 came over, a softly sobbing Roni in her arms. No one offered any response for several long moments.

 

“What can we do without Andrea? She knows more than any of us,” continued Kanjou.

Roni suddenly pushed away from 26, getting her feet on the ground. She pulled herself up to her full height and stared up at everyone. “We can do anything without her that we could with her,” stated Roni as she wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hands, “For now, we should sleep. We have four days to train for this. Let’s try our best!”

Chapter Eight
The Warehouse Raid