A Bubblegum Crisis-centric anime mega-crossover.
With thanks and inspiration from John Biles...
With thanks and inspiration from John Biles...
Worlds Ending [Bubblegum Crisis] [Mega-Crossover]
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A Bubblegum Crisis-centric anime mega-crossover.
With thanks and inspiration from John Biles, Chris Davies, and Eyrie Production.
Worlds Ending
Prologue One: "It's not starting over, it's just going on."
One day, not too long before his death, Father sat next to me by our living room couch. I was lying on it, recovering from the latest round of my treatments, and feeling that mixture of nausea and mild euphoria that always hit me in the aftermath of the delicate surgeries Father performed. I was not paying that much attention to whatever was on the television, only letting the sounds of the programming wash through me. The voices from the television had been stripped of all meaningful words, and were now only noises that were not made in our house, but were alien to it and thus comforting.
Father placed a hand on my forehead, and a blanket atop me. The smell of that blanket, the fresh laundry soap clinging to it - artificial floral notes - briefly washed away the nausea. I turned in the couch, pressing my face against the back.
"Have I ever told you why we do this?" Father said, his voice soft and contemplative.
After some time, I answered, "Because it's necessary for my survival."
"True, but inadequate," he said. "The methods by which I achieve that result were variable. There were many ways in which I could have hypothetically gone. In you, I go one way. In your brother, I go another. In my protege, I go a third. Not only am I your father, but I am also a maker of things. Because of these two facts, there were only so many ways in which my goal could be reached."
"The only freedom is freedom from the self," I said.
"That's right." He put his hand on my forehead once more, the rough skin of his fingertips rasping against me. "Necessity is as much a constraint as it is an excuse. I hurt you - and I do know that I hurt you - because I could think of no way in which to help achieve your survival without this pain. Now ask me why I believe your survival is imperiled."
I turned and looked at him then, and saw his eyes, at once sympathetic and resigned, from behind his glasses. "Why?"
"Because this world is ending."
---
In his own words, he began this way:
Here is a secret of academics, researchers and other professionals: conferences are excuses to enjoy fine dining and accommodations on someone else's money.
You were nearly five years old, then, and your mother was pregnant with your brother. I was working around the clock on about five different things, rushing to finish as much as I could before your brother was born. I was nearly collapsing, and my work was suffering. This was why when I received the invitation to attend the 'Rainbow Conference,' which was to be held in the resort town of Hakone, with all expenses paid, your mother and your uncle Quincy did not have to try too hard to convince me to go.
However, while you, your mother and your unborn brother were lazing about in the ryokan, enjoying the scenery and weather, Quincy and I had to go to an anonymous office building for the conference. As I walked into that building, I noted the small sign by the side of the main entrance announced that this was the regional headquarters of the Marduk Institute, the same organization which was sponsoring the conference. As far as I knew, Marduk was simply a non-profit which provided free genetic screening for pregnant women around the world. What the had to do with my fields, I did not know.
"One hundred and eight," said Quincy beside me, as he too looked at the sign.
"What's that?" I asked, as we followed the posted placards pointing us to the conference room.
"Nothing, never mind me." He frowned for a moment, stopping in his tracks, before resuming with a plastered smile on his face. I doubt that you remember what he was like back then, but Quincy used to be quite the dandy. He kept himself meticulously groomed, fit, and dressed as if he just stepped out of a nightclub on some island paradise. Quite frankly, the first time I met him back in college, I honestly thought that he was a drug dealer, but he turned out to be one of the most genial men I have ever known, and filled with confidence. It was that confidence that helped him start his business, Genom, and convinced me to start my own research laboratory. To see him so shaken took me aback. However, before I could ask him any more questions, he strode forward and opened the door to the conference room.
Inside the large room, on the other side from the entrance, was a stage, complete with podium and large screen. To the sides were an elaborate breakfast buffet, around which were gathered the other invitees. I immediately noticed a familiar face, and pointed it out to Quincy.
"Oh, so they dragged out Akagi from her cigarette and cat-filled hole, did they?" he said. In turn, he pointed out four men who were on opposite sides of the room, alternately glaring at one another and whispering with their own compatriots. "Look, there's Minovsky and Trenov, and there's Shizuma and von Vogler."
I whistled in surprise and appreciation. Minovsky and Shizuma hated each other; this was a fact that was so well known that even someone like myself who was only peripherally connected to the cutting edge physics community had heard of it. They were already calling it the new Newton - Leibnitz feud. That the Marduk Institute was somehow able to get them both to come to this conference was a minor miracle in itself, and indicative of their power and influence.
"And there's Shinohara and Utsumi. I think I'll go over there and interject myself," said Quincy, having found two fellow industrialists in the room. "You go to Akagi and try to get her to sign on again."
With some trepidation, I walked over to Akagi Ritsuko, who was gulping down a cup of coffee as if it would save her life and glaring at the room as if it had endangered her. She was a slender young woman, with shoulder length brown hair, and was dressed in a black skirt and blue blouse. The daughter of the famed Akagi Naoko, she had taken her mother's work in artificial intelligence and cybernetics and surpassed it. As we were in the same fields, I had been courting her on and off for years, trying to get her to come work with me, but without much success. The last I had heard, she had been in Germany working for Schaft Enterprises.
"Oh, it's you again, Stingray," she said to me, after flicking her gaze at me, then back to staring balefully at the crowd. "I shouldn't be surprised, but I am."
"It couldn't have been more than a couple hours since you woke up, Akagi. How could you be going through nicotine withdrawal already?"
Akagi did not answer, only drinking more coffee, this time more slowly. Perhaps she felt that her life was safer, now that she had one drug in her system. We stood together in companionable - at least on my part - silence, until she broke it with her usual caustic tone. "You can tell Quincy that he can die of cancer."
"Alright." Some years back, during when both Akagi and I were postdocs together, she and Quincy had a very brief and tumultuous relationship. It had involved bomb threats at one point, which should be a lesson to you, my daughter. I'm not sure of what, though.
"You're also on the wrong track with your modelling programming. You don't have the scanning fidelity to make that a worthwhile track for at least another decade."
"Thanks," I said in reply, not asking how she knew what I was doing in the lab. "If you were still using the same neural matter cloning techniques, I've made certain progress in that area you'd find quite interesting."
She grunted in response, then said, "It's starting." She pointed to a woman who had entered the conference room and was making their way to the podium. Though I had not eaten any of the buffet, I walked towards the stage myself and stood next to Quincy in the middle of the crowd while Akagi stayed behind.
The woman who stood at the podium was in her early thirties, if that, with brown hair that framed her hair, and wide, expressive eyes. She smiled slightly, as if to herself. The room darkened, and the screen behind her lit up to show an icon of a red pomegranate and the words GEHIRN wrapped around it.
"Good morning, everyone. My name is Ikari Yui, and I thank you for accepting my invitation. Before I go any further, let me simply say this: you will hear at least two impossible things today, and be given proof of at least one. All of you have been chosen for specific reasons, not least of which is the ability to accept that this world is not what it seems. Some of you already have intimate knowledge of the true nature of the world, and an inkling of what I will be showing you. However, there is required a certain leap of faith today. If you are unable to do this, then I ask you: please, go now."
She was silent for a moment, and we all looked at one another. When no one left, Ikari Yui smiled again. "Thank you, again. Here, then are the two impossible things." She paused dramatically, and her smile widened. "Aliens are real. The world is going to end."
We were all silent at that. I cannot speak for the rest, but I know that disbelieving snorts and shouts of outrage at her ill-considered joke were fighting to make their way out. However, when I looked at Quincy to share my anger, I saw that his own face was pale and waxy. It was as if he saw a vision of his own death, and the destruction of everything he loved; a glimpse of hell itself.
"You - you believe her," I said to him in a whisper.
"Yes," he answered simply.
"Why?" He did not answer me beyond a shrug. By this point, there were grumbles of discontent from the crowd, though I noticed that Quincy was not alone in his shock, nor in his absolute certainty that Ikari Yui was telling the truth.
"How is the world going to end?" This question came from a man in a military uniform, thickset and with a severe crew cut.
"That is the impossible thing for which we do not have proof, and the reason for this is simple: there are many ways for the world to end, and they are all coming soon. I believe that you yourself know of a way in which the world will end, Colonel. We have been statistically modelling human society, and the chances for an extinction level event goes higher until it becomes a near certainty before the end of this century. You are all free to review our mathematics, but this idea is of course not a new one."
"You're right about that," said Dr. von Vogler. "We have been living with the spectre of nuclear annihilation for over sixty years, now. In fact, I think you will find that there are many here who have the capability and the ambition necessary to destroy the world themselves."
"That was, of course, another criterion upon which you were all chosen," agreed Ikari Yui. "Now, as to aliens. I'm sure that many of you are aware of the so-called OOPArts, or Out-Of-Place-Artifacts; seemingly anachronistic devices which are too advanced for their age. Many times it is benign, such as analogue navigational computers. However, a very small fraction are much more interesting. Behind me, you'll see a photograph of the remaining fragments of an ancient satellite weapons system. Next are the remains of an interstellar spaceship which was scuttled off the coast of Japan at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Here is what is presumed to be what is left of some sort of biological power armor potentially millions of years old. And so on. However, what concerns us today is an actual living alien being which is in our custody."
Ikari Yui's smile, which had never left her, widened even further; as if she were a child showing off her toys to new friends. "Would you like to see her?"
---
Father went silent, then, and stayed silent for a long time. Finally, his head bowed down from the weight of memories, he continued. "It was monstrously large, and disturbingly human-like, if bloated. It had a head, with its face covered in a mask with seven eyes. Its arms were pinned to a cruciform, and instead of two legs appropriate to its scale it had numerous human sized legs growing out from beneath it. Twenty meters or so tall, its skin was the color of ivory, and it was entirely hairless."
He looked at me then, and there were tears in his eyes, which he quickly wiped away. "But describing it like that, so materialistically, doesn't approach the feelings of terror, awe and the numinous and limnal it evoked to be in its presence. Before I stepped into the chamber holding the … alien, I was in one place, and after I was in another. I was no longer the man you knew as your father, but someone else."
He hugged me then, something which he rarely did in those days. I was numb to shock, after hearing his story, but even so I could not return his hug. He then continued. "Later, I had a chance to speak with Ikari Yui alone, and she said this to me: 'I know that you are a parent. I myself am a grandparent, and I want nothing more than to see that my family enjoys a safe and beautiful world. But the universe is so big, and we are all so small. So, what wouldn't you do to create even an everlasting statement to all of those unknown and unknowable beings who will come after us, saying to them that we were humans, and we lived? In the face of the certain destruction of the world, what sins are not washed away to build an eternal memorial of humanity?'"
Father kissed me, and then drew up the blanket to my chin. "I didn't know how to answer her then, nor do I now. I know that the sins I have inflicted upon you are unforgivable, and yet I continue on." With another kiss, he left me to my thoughts.
---
Excerpts of notes recovered from the Lady's 633 site, author unknown, date unknown:
Marduk Institute -> Gehirn -> Seele (? Illuminati/Masonic conspiracy nonsense!) -> What is Neo-Atlantis? (1889/1890 - unexplained disruption in shipping, strange lights in the sky, Paris fires -> Teutonic Order/Thule Society -> Nazis -> Operation Paperclip?) -> United Nations Human Instrumentality Committee -> Evolutionary Laboratory.
….
Luxion Spaceship (Minovsky/Raven Fusion Engine) -> Takaya Solar System Exploration -> What is Macross? -> What is Exelion? -> What is Eltreum? MegaZone? Why idol singers?
….
Cronos? Arcam? -> Genom -> Schaft -> Wiz Labs.
….
Babylon Project completed (Aqua City). Tokyo Geo-Front nearing completion. Newport City being planned. Secret Hakone Geo-Front? -> Polar War? -> White Moon? -> Black Moon? -> Paranoid/Solnoid (Solnoid -> Super-Solenoid Theory? -> What happened to Dr. Katsuragi? What happened to Dr. Tannhauser?) -> What is Sigma Narses?
….
What is Akira? -> Big Fire (?) -> Tower(s?) of Babel -> Noah's Ark(s? Three? Four?) -> USSD Satellites.
….
Public Security Section Nine -> Puppet Master -> Olympos? -> Bioroids -> Third Type -> Sexaroid?
….
The Mason. The Daughter. The Son. Three paths. Overmind. Galatea. Adama.
A/N: My own little tribute to the anime of yesteryear. In the parlance of more modern anime, this was the Science Side; next up is the Magic Side.
With thanks and inspiration from John Biles, Chris Davies, and Eyrie Production.
Worlds Ending
Prologue One: "It's not starting over, it's just going on."
One day, not too long before his death, Father sat next to me by our living room couch. I was lying on it, recovering from the latest round of my treatments, and feeling that mixture of nausea and mild euphoria that always hit me in the aftermath of the delicate surgeries Father performed. I was not paying that much attention to whatever was on the television, only letting the sounds of the programming wash through me. The voices from the television had been stripped of all meaningful words, and were now only noises that were not made in our house, but were alien to it and thus comforting.
Father placed a hand on my forehead, and a blanket atop me. The smell of that blanket, the fresh laundry soap clinging to it - artificial floral notes - briefly washed away the nausea. I turned in the couch, pressing my face against the back.
"Have I ever told you why we do this?" Father said, his voice soft and contemplative.
After some time, I answered, "Because it's necessary for my survival."
"True, but inadequate," he said. "The methods by which I achieve that result were variable. There were many ways in which I could have hypothetically gone. In you, I go one way. In your brother, I go another. In my protege, I go a third. Not only am I your father, but I am also a maker of things. Because of these two facts, there were only so many ways in which my goal could be reached."
"The only freedom is freedom from the self," I said.
"That's right." He put his hand on my forehead once more, the rough skin of his fingertips rasping against me. "Necessity is as much a constraint as it is an excuse. I hurt you - and I do know that I hurt you - because I could think of no way in which to help achieve your survival without this pain. Now ask me why I believe your survival is imperiled."
I turned and looked at him then, and saw his eyes, at once sympathetic and resigned, from behind his glasses. "Why?"
"Because this world is ending."
---
In his own words, he began this way:
Here is a secret of academics, researchers and other professionals: conferences are excuses to enjoy fine dining and accommodations on someone else's money.
You were nearly five years old, then, and your mother was pregnant with your brother. I was working around the clock on about five different things, rushing to finish as much as I could before your brother was born. I was nearly collapsing, and my work was suffering. This was why when I received the invitation to attend the 'Rainbow Conference,' which was to be held in the resort town of Hakone, with all expenses paid, your mother and your uncle Quincy did not have to try too hard to convince me to go.
However, while you, your mother and your unborn brother were lazing about in the ryokan, enjoying the scenery and weather, Quincy and I had to go to an anonymous office building for the conference. As I walked into that building, I noted the small sign by the side of the main entrance announced that this was the regional headquarters of the Marduk Institute, the same organization which was sponsoring the conference. As far as I knew, Marduk was simply a non-profit which provided free genetic screening for pregnant women around the world. What the had to do with my fields, I did not know.
"One hundred and eight," said Quincy beside me, as he too looked at the sign.
"What's that?" I asked, as we followed the posted placards pointing us to the conference room.
"Nothing, never mind me." He frowned for a moment, stopping in his tracks, before resuming with a plastered smile on his face. I doubt that you remember what he was like back then, but Quincy used to be quite the dandy. He kept himself meticulously groomed, fit, and dressed as if he just stepped out of a nightclub on some island paradise. Quite frankly, the first time I met him back in college, I honestly thought that he was a drug dealer, but he turned out to be one of the most genial men I have ever known, and filled with confidence. It was that confidence that helped him start his business, Genom, and convinced me to start my own research laboratory. To see him so shaken took me aback. However, before I could ask him any more questions, he strode forward and opened the door to the conference room.
Inside the large room, on the other side from the entrance, was a stage, complete with podium and large screen. To the sides were an elaborate breakfast buffet, around which were gathered the other invitees. I immediately noticed a familiar face, and pointed it out to Quincy.
"Oh, so they dragged out Akagi from her cigarette and cat-filled hole, did they?" he said. In turn, he pointed out four men who were on opposite sides of the room, alternately glaring at one another and whispering with their own compatriots. "Look, there's Minovsky and Trenov, and there's Shizuma and von Vogler."
I whistled in surprise and appreciation. Minovsky and Shizuma hated each other; this was a fact that was so well known that even someone like myself who was only peripherally connected to the cutting edge physics community had heard of it. They were already calling it the new Newton - Leibnitz feud. That the Marduk Institute was somehow able to get them both to come to this conference was a minor miracle in itself, and indicative of their power and influence.
"And there's Shinohara and Utsumi. I think I'll go over there and interject myself," said Quincy, having found two fellow industrialists in the room. "You go to Akagi and try to get her to sign on again."
With some trepidation, I walked over to Akagi Ritsuko, who was gulping down a cup of coffee as if it would save her life and glaring at the room as if it had endangered her. She was a slender young woman, with shoulder length brown hair, and was dressed in a black skirt and blue blouse. The daughter of the famed Akagi Naoko, she had taken her mother's work in artificial intelligence and cybernetics and surpassed it. As we were in the same fields, I had been courting her on and off for years, trying to get her to come work with me, but without much success. The last I had heard, she had been in Germany working for Schaft Enterprises.
"Oh, it's you again, Stingray," she said to me, after flicking her gaze at me, then back to staring balefully at the crowd. "I shouldn't be surprised, but I am."
"It couldn't have been more than a couple hours since you woke up, Akagi. How could you be going through nicotine withdrawal already?"
Akagi did not answer, only drinking more coffee, this time more slowly. Perhaps she felt that her life was safer, now that she had one drug in her system. We stood together in companionable - at least on my part - silence, until she broke it with her usual caustic tone. "You can tell Quincy that he can die of cancer."
"Alright." Some years back, during when both Akagi and I were postdocs together, she and Quincy had a very brief and tumultuous relationship. It had involved bomb threats at one point, which should be a lesson to you, my daughter. I'm not sure of what, though.
"You're also on the wrong track with your modelling programming. You don't have the scanning fidelity to make that a worthwhile track for at least another decade."
"Thanks," I said in reply, not asking how she knew what I was doing in the lab. "If you were still using the same neural matter cloning techniques, I've made certain progress in that area you'd find quite interesting."
She grunted in response, then said, "It's starting." She pointed to a woman who had entered the conference room and was making their way to the podium. Though I had not eaten any of the buffet, I walked towards the stage myself and stood next to Quincy in the middle of the crowd while Akagi stayed behind.
The woman who stood at the podium was in her early thirties, if that, with brown hair that framed her hair, and wide, expressive eyes. She smiled slightly, as if to herself. The room darkened, and the screen behind her lit up to show an icon of a red pomegranate and the words GEHIRN wrapped around it.
"Good morning, everyone. My name is Ikari Yui, and I thank you for accepting my invitation. Before I go any further, let me simply say this: you will hear at least two impossible things today, and be given proof of at least one. All of you have been chosen for specific reasons, not least of which is the ability to accept that this world is not what it seems. Some of you already have intimate knowledge of the true nature of the world, and an inkling of what I will be showing you. However, there is required a certain leap of faith today. If you are unable to do this, then I ask you: please, go now."
She was silent for a moment, and we all looked at one another. When no one left, Ikari Yui smiled again. "Thank you, again. Here, then are the two impossible things." She paused dramatically, and her smile widened. "Aliens are real. The world is going to end."
We were all silent at that. I cannot speak for the rest, but I know that disbelieving snorts and shouts of outrage at her ill-considered joke were fighting to make their way out. However, when I looked at Quincy to share my anger, I saw that his own face was pale and waxy. It was as if he saw a vision of his own death, and the destruction of everything he loved; a glimpse of hell itself.
"You - you believe her," I said to him in a whisper.
"Yes," he answered simply.
"Why?" He did not answer me beyond a shrug. By this point, there were grumbles of discontent from the crowd, though I noticed that Quincy was not alone in his shock, nor in his absolute certainty that Ikari Yui was telling the truth.
"How is the world going to end?" This question came from a man in a military uniform, thickset and with a severe crew cut.
"That is the impossible thing for which we do not have proof, and the reason for this is simple: there are many ways for the world to end, and they are all coming soon. I believe that you yourself know of a way in which the world will end, Colonel. We have been statistically modelling human society, and the chances for an extinction level event goes higher until it becomes a near certainty before the end of this century. You are all free to review our mathematics, but this idea is of course not a new one."
"You're right about that," said Dr. von Vogler. "We have been living with the spectre of nuclear annihilation for over sixty years, now. In fact, I think you will find that there are many here who have the capability and the ambition necessary to destroy the world themselves."
"That was, of course, another criterion upon which you were all chosen," agreed Ikari Yui. "Now, as to aliens. I'm sure that many of you are aware of the so-called OOPArts, or Out-Of-Place-Artifacts; seemingly anachronistic devices which are too advanced for their age. Many times it is benign, such as analogue navigational computers. However, a very small fraction are much more interesting. Behind me, you'll see a photograph of the remaining fragments of an ancient satellite weapons system. Next are the remains of an interstellar spaceship which was scuttled off the coast of Japan at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Here is what is presumed to be what is left of some sort of biological power armor potentially millions of years old. And so on. However, what concerns us today is an actual living alien being which is in our custody."
Ikari Yui's smile, which had never left her, widened even further; as if she were a child showing off her toys to new friends. "Would you like to see her?"
---
Father went silent, then, and stayed silent for a long time. Finally, his head bowed down from the weight of memories, he continued. "It was monstrously large, and disturbingly human-like, if bloated. It had a head, with its face covered in a mask with seven eyes. Its arms were pinned to a cruciform, and instead of two legs appropriate to its scale it had numerous human sized legs growing out from beneath it. Twenty meters or so tall, its skin was the color of ivory, and it was entirely hairless."
He looked at me then, and there were tears in his eyes, which he quickly wiped away. "But describing it like that, so materialistically, doesn't approach the feelings of terror, awe and the numinous and limnal it evoked to be in its presence. Before I stepped into the chamber holding the … alien, I was in one place, and after I was in another. I was no longer the man you knew as your father, but someone else."
He hugged me then, something which he rarely did in those days. I was numb to shock, after hearing his story, but even so I could not return his hug. He then continued. "Later, I had a chance to speak with Ikari Yui alone, and she said this to me: 'I know that you are a parent. I myself am a grandparent, and I want nothing more than to see that my family enjoys a safe and beautiful world. But the universe is so big, and we are all so small. So, what wouldn't you do to create even an everlasting statement to all of those unknown and unknowable beings who will come after us, saying to them that we were humans, and we lived? In the face of the certain destruction of the world, what sins are not washed away to build an eternal memorial of humanity?'"
Father kissed me, and then drew up the blanket to my chin. "I didn't know how to answer her then, nor do I now. I know that the sins I have inflicted upon you are unforgivable, and yet I continue on." With another kiss, he left me to my thoughts.
---
Excerpts of notes recovered from the Lady's 633 site, author unknown, date unknown:
Marduk Institute -> Gehirn -> Seele (? Illuminati/Masonic conspiracy nonsense!) -> What is Neo-Atlantis? (1889/1890 - unexplained disruption in shipping, strange lights in the sky, Paris fires -> Teutonic Order/Thule Society -> Nazis -> Operation Paperclip?) -> United Nations Human Instrumentality Committee -> Evolutionary Laboratory.
….
Luxion Spaceship (Minovsky/Raven Fusion Engine) -> Takaya Solar System Exploration -> What is Macross? -> What is Exelion? -> What is Eltreum? MegaZone? Why idol singers?
….
Cronos? Arcam? -> Genom -> Schaft -> Wiz Labs.
….
Babylon Project completed (Aqua City). Tokyo Geo-Front nearing completion. Newport City being planned. Secret Hakone Geo-Front? -> Polar War? -> White Moon? -> Black Moon? -> Paranoid/Solnoid (Solnoid -> Super-Solenoid Theory? -> What happened to Dr. Katsuragi? What happened to Dr. Tannhauser?) -> What is Sigma Narses?
….
What is Akira? -> Big Fire (?) -> Tower(s?) of Babel -> Noah's Ark(s? Three? Four?) -> USSD Satellites.
….
Public Security Section Nine -> Puppet Master -> Olympos? -> Bioroids -> Third Type -> Sexaroid?
….
The Mason. The Daughter. The Son. Three paths. Overmind. Galatea. Adama.
A/N: My own little tribute to the anime of yesteryear. In the parlance of more modern anime, this was the Science Side; next up is the Magic Side.
- Location
- Orange County, California
Prologue 2: "`Cause no feeling feels like that feeling."
Kaji Ryouji smiled at the young girl who brought him his drink at the table, and thanked her with a nod. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, with a sweet face and kind eyes. He watched as the girl went over to the bartender, a boy about her age with a red bandanna on his forehead which clashed with his traditional bartender's black suit. The girl gave the boy a kiss, and they both laughed. Kaji turned away from the scene of true love, wondering if he it was a sign that he was getting old that everyone else seemed so young. His smile faded when he noticed the blond man come into the tavern and make his way to the table. The man called himself Fargo, and depending upon how things went Kaji may have to kill him soon. Kaji had contacted Fargo earlier that day, and Fargo had arranged for them to meet in this bar, the Cha-Cha Maru. Of course, both of them expected Kaji to come in early, check the place out, and choose the best seat for both observation and escape. In many ways, the two men were much alike, which was why Kaji distrusted him as much as he did. It was also why they could never be friends, but could be useful for each other. In the shadow world of espionage that they both inhabited, relationships were currency, and true friendships a liability.
"No drink for me?" said Fargo, before raising his hand to the bartender. "One beer please, Master, whatever you prefer." The bartender nodded, and the girl returned with a pint of beer. Fargo took a sip and stole some of Kaji's karaage before reaching into his jacket pocket and setting a data disc on the table. Kaji raised an eyebrow at the the disc, and then at Fargo.
"And what's this?" he asked; unasked for gifts were always suspect in this game.
"A three minute recording between the Assistant Minister of Transport and Marquis E of the D Kingdom regarding smuggling blood diamonds for slaves," said Fargo, as he picked at his teeth with his pinky. "Terrible business. Too bad that the newspapers have a copy too, or will have in about three hours."
"Which newspapers?" Kaji asked idly, as he lit up a cigarette. "What's the source?"
"The source? Who can say. Whistleblowers to foreign powers to corporate rivals to rival ministers, and so on. Given the money and circumstances, the list is depressingly long for our dear Assistant Minister. As for which newspapers, wait a little while and find out."
"And why has this gift fallen into my lap?" he asked, as he offered a cigarette to Fargo. Fargo gratefully took one, and lit it himself with an easy, soft sigh.
"Honestly? I thought that a beautiful woman of our mutual acquaintance would be contacting me today before you, but that proved not to be the case. As it is, I thought to do you a favor, and give you a headache at the same time."
Instead of replying, Kaji set something on the table himself, making sure to keep his eyes on Fargo for his reaction.
"A magatama," said Fargo, puzzlement clear in his voice at the sight of the blue jewel shaped like one half of the taijitu symbol. Even in the low light of the bar, the magatama shimmered. Fargo gingerly touched it with the tip of his finger, then immediately withdrew with a hiss. Kaji hid his smile by pulling a long drag on his cigarette. Fargo glared at him briefly, before his countenance once more regained its ironic distance. "And where did you find this beauty?"
"I've had it for a little while, actually. It was in the sealed labs of a defunct government agency; something to do with land management, parks and the environment or something of that nature. I thought it looked pretty, no one was going to miss it, and so …." Kaji tapped the magatama, enjoying the slight wince that elicited from Fargo. "Curiously, until a few days ago, it was slate gray. And now it is as you see it: brilliant."
"It's not a simple magatama," said Fargo slowly, backing away slightly.
"No, it's not." Kaji leaned forward, enjoying the moment of drama. Lit by the light of the magatama, he whispered, "There's a soul inside."
Fargo burst out laughing, high and joyful. He stopped soon, but the cheer in his eyes did not leave, nor did the smile on his lips. "How exciting. And what can I do to help you?"
"I need your help in trying to figure out why signs and portents are everywhere. Is it just another case of supernatural hysteria, or is something actually going on?" Kaji took one last drag on his cigarette, and lit another.
"How terribly open-ended." Fargo grimaced and turned away. "I won't be your canary in the coal mine."
"Fine, then how about this: Magnus Lee was sighted in Tinsel City last week, in a fight with someone in samurai armor. That … man doesn't move, unless his creator moves him, and his creator doesn't move his pieces unless something is up. I want to know what Magnus Lee knows"
Fargo grimaced even further, and his face paled, but he nodded. "I'll investigate that damned blood sucker. But fair warning: if I get a his master is looking near my direction, I'll disappear without a word."
Kaji nodded; it was a fair warning, and a smart move. "Call me in a couple days and give me a preliminary report, even if it's that nothing has happened." Kaji and Fargo did not shake hands, or bow in departure, but simply parted. Kaji settled his tab with the waitress, making sure to tip her generously, and left. As he walked down the streets of MegaTokyo, the dirty streets and crumbling, tall buildings, Kaji felt a pang for the clean fields and tall trees of his home. He longed for the days when he could trust that what people said about the world was the truth, and the supernatural was safely penned by folk ritual and religion. He fingered the magatama, and once more felt the soul within it stir, and shivered himself.
Kaji Ryouji smiled at the young girl who brought him his drink at the table, and thanked her with a nod. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, with a sweet face and kind eyes. He watched as the girl went over to the bartender, a boy about her age with a red bandanna on his forehead which clashed with his traditional bartender's black suit. The girl gave the boy a kiss, and they both laughed. Kaji turned away from the scene of true love, wondering if he it was a sign that he was getting old that everyone else seemed so young. His smile faded when he noticed the blond man come into the tavern and make his way to the table. The man called himself Fargo, and depending upon how things went Kaji may have to kill him soon. Kaji had contacted Fargo earlier that day, and Fargo had arranged for them to meet in this bar, the Cha-Cha Maru. Of course, both of them expected Kaji to come in early, check the place out, and choose the best seat for both observation and escape. In many ways, the two men were much alike, which was why Kaji distrusted him as much as he did. It was also why they could never be friends, but could be useful for each other. In the shadow world of espionage that they both inhabited, relationships were currency, and true friendships a liability.
"No drink for me?" said Fargo, before raising his hand to the bartender. "One beer please, Master, whatever you prefer." The bartender nodded, and the girl returned with a pint of beer. Fargo took a sip and stole some of Kaji's karaage before reaching into his jacket pocket and setting a data disc on the table. Kaji raised an eyebrow at the the disc, and then at Fargo.
"And what's this?" he asked; unasked for gifts were always suspect in this game.
"A three minute recording between the Assistant Minister of Transport and Marquis E of the D Kingdom regarding smuggling blood diamonds for slaves," said Fargo, as he picked at his teeth with his pinky. "Terrible business. Too bad that the newspapers have a copy too, or will have in about three hours."
"Which newspapers?" Kaji asked idly, as he lit up a cigarette. "What's the source?"
"The source? Who can say. Whistleblowers to foreign powers to corporate rivals to rival ministers, and so on. Given the money and circumstances, the list is depressingly long for our dear Assistant Minister. As for which newspapers, wait a little while and find out."
"And why has this gift fallen into my lap?" he asked, as he offered a cigarette to Fargo. Fargo gratefully took one, and lit it himself with an easy, soft sigh.
"Honestly? I thought that a beautiful woman of our mutual acquaintance would be contacting me today before you, but that proved not to be the case. As it is, I thought to do you a favor, and give you a headache at the same time."
Instead of replying, Kaji set something on the table himself, making sure to keep his eyes on Fargo for his reaction.
"A magatama," said Fargo, puzzlement clear in his voice at the sight of the blue jewel shaped like one half of the taijitu symbol. Even in the low light of the bar, the magatama shimmered. Fargo gingerly touched it with the tip of his finger, then immediately withdrew with a hiss. Kaji hid his smile by pulling a long drag on his cigarette. Fargo glared at him briefly, before his countenance once more regained its ironic distance. "And where did you find this beauty?"
"I've had it for a little while, actually. It was in the sealed labs of a defunct government agency; something to do with land management, parks and the environment or something of that nature. I thought it looked pretty, no one was going to miss it, and so …." Kaji tapped the magatama, enjoying the slight wince that elicited from Fargo. "Curiously, until a few days ago, it was slate gray. And now it is as you see it: brilliant."
"It's not a simple magatama," said Fargo slowly, backing away slightly.
"No, it's not." Kaji leaned forward, enjoying the moment of drama. Lit by the light of the magatama, he whispered, "There's a soul inside."
Fargo burst out laughing, high and joyful. He stopped soon, but the cheer in his eyes did not leave, nor did the smile on his lips. "How exciting. And what can I do to help you?"
"I need your help in trying to figure out why signs and portents are everywhere. Is it just another case of supernatural hysteria, or is something actually going on?" Kaji took one last drag on his cigarette, and lit another.
"How terribly open-ended." Fargo grimaced and turned away. "I won't be your canary in the coal mine."
"Fine, then how about this: Magnus Lee was sighted in Tinsel City last week, in a fight with someone in samurai armor. That … man doesn't move, unless his creator moves him, and his creator doesn't move his pieces unless something is up. I want to know what Magnus Lee knows"
Fargo grimaced even further, and his face paled, but he nodded. "I'll investigate that damned blood sucker. But fair warning: if I get a his master is looking near my direction, I'll disappear without a word."
Kaji nodded; it was a fair warning, and a smart move. "Call me in a couple days and give me a preliminary report, even if it's that nothing has happened." Kaji and Fargo did not shake hands, or bow in departure, but simply parted. Kaji settled his tab with the waitress, making sure to tip her generously, and left. As he walked down the streets of MegaTokyo, the dirty streets and crumbling, tall buildings, Kaji felt a pang for the clean fields and tall trees of his home. He longed for the days when he could trust that what people said about the world was the truth, and the supernatural was safely penned by folk ritual and religion. He fingered the magatama, and once more felt the soul within it stir, and shivered himself.
Well now you have my attention though it looks a bit overambitious and complicated I'm looking forward to this.
- Location
- Orange County, California
@Catty Nebulart
Hey, thanks for the comment. Hopefully when the main story gets going, it'll be straightforward enough.
Oddly, I'm reading for the first time the first book of the Malazan series by Steven Erickson - and boy howdy is that book overambitious and complicated.
Regarding Gall Force, by the way, you'll notice a couple references in the first prologue. I do have plans for integrating Gall Force into this story, but I may or may not be able to integrate the actual crew of the Star Leaf ....
Hey, thanks for the comment. Hopefully when the main story gets going, it'll be straightforward enough.
Oddly, I'm reading for the first time the first book of the Malazan series by Steven Erickson - and boy howdy is that book overambitious and complicated.
Regarding Gall Force, by the way, you'll notice a couple references in the first prologue. I do have plans for integrating Gall Force into this story, but I may or may not be able to integrate the actual crew of the Star Leaf ....
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
i have to agree with Catty, but you also definately have my attention