Chapter 7.5: And the lines on the map moved from side to side (haha, lost count)
“I think this is a bad idea.” Ai said quietly, crouched next to the door of the apartment. Risa, on the other side of the frame, glared at her for speaking.
“You didn’t have to tag along, you know.” She whispered back, shifting on her feet and nearly sitting on Jun behind her. She apologized and saw Eri watching her expectantly over Ai’s shoulder. The four had come to this run down building in search of the major dealer for this part of the city, a man that wasn’t as careful about his goings on as he probably should have been.
Risa knew for a fact that the police were watching him as well, but that apparently didn’t hinder his business. Right now it was quiet, though the girls had seen at least seven people come and go in the past hour. After the last one, Risa had decided it was time to strike.
“Okay, we go in hard and fast; me first, Jun behind me and then Eri after. Ai’s last and will stay close to the door to watch our backs. You two,” Risa pointed to the other girls, ignoring her ex’s look of protest, “will make sure the rest of the house is clear and I’ll take on the dealer. Got it?” Everyone nodded, even a reluctant Ai. “Good. Go!”
Bursting through the door, Risa surged forward almost immediately coming into the living room where a very startled man was just taking a long drag off a makeshift gravity bong. He started to choke on what he had just inhaled when Risa pounced on him, knocking him to the floor and easily getting him into a painful hold. When her knees were securely planted into the small of his back and his arms were twisted behind him, then did she look up to examine the room more thoroughly.
Under the layers of dust, it was obviously a nice place, with expensive looking furniture and appliances littering the living room, dining room and open kitchen. Jun and Eri entered the room and shook their heads, indicating no one else was in the house. Risa grinned ferociously, leaning into her captive a little.
“You should learn to lock your door.” She said nonchalantly, “Someone might come in to rob you.”
“Is that why you’re here?” the stoned man asked, obviously not caring either way.
“Luckily for you, no, we’re not here to rob you. Though I might take that TV with me on the way out.” she gestured at the large, but manageable flat screen on the coffee table.
“Nah, that one’s busted.” the dealer told her amicably.
Risa laughed at him, “You’re really not worried are you?”
“I have very powerful friends.” he said and Risa laughed harder, “They wouldn’t like it if I died.”
“I know.” the girl explained lowly, “Your friends are why I’m here.” she saw his eyes widen, “I need to know where your drugs come from. Who makes them, who distributes them to you, where they’re made, that kind of stuff.”
“Why do you need to know that?” the dealer demanded and Risa quickly thought up a story.
“My boss is very interested in this city.” she said lying easily, “That’s all you need to know. Also that you’ll be sorry if you don’t tell me.”
“I’m not afraid to die.” the stoned man said with a shaking voice, causing Risa to laugh again, a cruel and frightening sound.
“Oh really tough guy? Well, I’m not planning on killing you, if I did that, how would I get the information I need?” With one swift move, Risa planted her foot and jerked his arm until it broke violently at the elbow.
Eri and Jun winced at his cry and Ai came running into the room, “What the hell was that?!” Risa ignored them and poked the man’s broken arm sadistically.
“So, how about that info?” the dealer was sobbing so hard he could barely get his reply out. “What was that?” Risa reached for his other arm and he flinched.
“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you, just don’t hurt me anymore!” Nodding in satisfaction, Risa pulled out a pen and some paper to jot the names and addresses down. Two suppliers and four distributors.
“Alright! Mission accomplished, let’s go guys.” Risa got up off the crying man and started heading to the door without a backwards glance. Nobody moved to follow her and she stopped, turning around to give her companions an innocent look, “What?”
Ai was looking at her as if they’d never met before and Jun was giving her a respectful glance. Eri was the only one who looked wholly unaffected by what had just transpired and she spoke up, “Are we just going to leave him like this?”
“Oh right!” Risa snapped her fingers like she had just remembered something she was supposed to do. She headed over to a cordless phone she’d spotted on the table and carefully picked it up, trying as best she could not to leave any fingerprints without wearing gloves. She dropped the phone in front of the dealer’s face, he’d curled into the fetal position as soon as she’d gotten up, “Here you go and remember, you fell. Or I’ll be back.” the last part was said menacingly and he nodded fearfully.
The four left the apartment, three in fairly high spirits and one sulking behind, “Who wants smoothies!?” Eri cried cheerfully and Jun and Risa responded like little kids. Ai just crossed her arms and sullenly followed.
“What’s wrong, Ai-chan?” Risa asked her quietly as the group started down the stairs. Ai exploded.
“What’s wrong!? What’s wrong?! You just stormed into that poor guys home and broke his arm like, like a, like-”
Risa cut her off, supplying helpfully, “Like a criminal?”
Ai glared at her, “Like a crazy person!” both girls paused on the stairs and Ai turned to throw her hands up, “Like it was nothing! And then you’re surprised that I’m not all gung ho about it?!”
The stood silently, Ai’s last words hanging in the air between them, not even noticing their amused and silent audience.
The silence stretched for another long minute while Risa ran in her mind the possible responses, only about half of them nice-ish.”
“Well?!” Ai yelled, unable to bear the quiet anymore, “Say something!”
“Uh, he’ll live.” Risa replied, almost turning her statement into a question. Disgusted, Ai turned and continued down the stairs.
“That’s all you have to say?!” She brushed passed Jun and Eri, “’He’ll live?’ What is wrong with you, you can’t just do stuff like that, like it’s normal to assault someone in the middle of the day!”
“Well, what did you want me to do? Ask nicely and then give up when he refused? I’ve done worse than this Ai! I’m not the same girl you knew before.” Risa followed after her hurriedly, one step behind her.
“Obviously.” Ai spat at her acidically, not noticing the hurt look that flashed across her ex’s face, “But I’m not the same either and I won’t put up with stuff like I did back then.” Ai swung open the stairwell door and stepped out, turning and opening her mouth to say something else.
She never got the chance, Risa saw over her shoulder a big man pointing his pistol, but before she could shout out a warning, the man fired. A bullet slammed into Ai’s ribs and the force sent her twirling, she lost her balance and hit the ground hard, holding her stomach. Time seemed to slow down as Risa and Ai looked at each other, Ai unable to comprehend what had just happened but knowing it hurt and calling out to Risa to help. Risa saw the words form on her ex’s lips and tried to will her legs to move towards her but for a crucial second, she couldn’t budge.
Then Risa felt herself be hurled back into the stairwell by Jun and saw Eri slam the heavy metal door shut. Ai choked off her cry in pain and eye contact between them was broken. Ai looked down at the blood on her hands and Risa was pulled to the floor and time sped up again.
“Ai!” Risa called, lunging for the door, only to be held back by Jun, “Ai!” bullets whizzed above her, breaking through the window on the staircase door and sending glass shards raining down on their heads, “Ai!!”
Eri was frantically dialing someone on her phone and Jun still struggled to hold Risa down, “You can’t help her if you’re dead!” She kept repeating, trying to calm the smaller girl.
“I can’t help her if she’s dead!” Risa cried back, but stilled her struggles. Now was not the time to overreact, she needed to breathe, breathe like she’d been taught. She was not a reaction queen anymore, she was a trained killer.
Now sufficiently calm, Risa grabbed a large piece of glass that had fallen at her feet; in an effort to follow Ai’s wishes, she hadn’t even brought a knife with her, but now she felt a little better. The bullets stopped pounding the metal door and Risa took this chance to peek up over the broken window, just a quick glance. Horrifyingly, she saw the man that had shot Ai heading over to her ex’s writhing body, still on the floor, intending to finish her off.
With no other thought to her own safety, Risa burst through the door and lunged at the man, driving the piece of glass deep into his neck. He instantly dropped his weapon and the weight of her tackle sent him to the floor, where she proceeded to slice open his throat in a vicious jerk. This happened so fast that the second gunman, which Risa had only now noticed, didn’t even fire a shot, just watching stunned as a small girl nearly decapitated his bigger partner.
Risa didn’t waste the chance she had, scooping up the discarded gun in one hand and gripping her ex in the other, the younger girl quickly pulled Ai into the safety of the stairwell. As soon as the door shut, bullets thudded into the metal, ignored by the group.
“Ai, can you hear me?!” Risa shouted desperately, trying to examine her wound, but unable to remove Ai’s hands from the spot. She saw a sluggish blood flow and decided to leave the wound be, instead turning to Eri, “Who did you call?”
“Some agents, they should be here soon to help, they told us to stay put.” Eri watched as Risa’s face changed slowly from frantically worried to deadly.
“Fat chance of that.” She checked the pistol’s clip and chamber, making sure the safety was off, then her face turned tender for a second and she stroked Ai’s hair, looking into the girl’s pain delirious eyes, “Relax and go to sleep, when you wake up, it’ll all be over. One way or another.” Ai seemed to find comfort in the softly spoken words because she nodded and relaxed, almost immediately passing out.
Risa stroked her hair once more before turning serious. In one smooth motion, she stood and fired through the broken window, her aim amazingly true. Her bullet sailed into the second gunman’s barrel, causing his gun to backfire and explode in his hand. While he cried out in pain, Risa and Jun rushed from the stairwell, Risa putting a second bullet into the man’s face at nearly point blank range and Jun diving toward a third man that had rounded the corner. A fourth man paused at the end of the hallway and then ducked back into safety, just barely missing getting pegged by another of Risa’s bullets.
Jun planted her feet and threw out a right hook that instantly floored her opponent. Risa came up from behind her and put a round between his eyes to make sure he stayed down. Both girls charged for the corner the fourth man was behind, trying to use the shock tactic to throw him off guard. Unfortunately he was waiting for them, his own gun drawn and his shot whizzed by Jun’s ear.
Risa and Jun ducked back around the corner and waited for a breathless second, trying to figure out the best way to approach him. Risa brought her weapon to bear at the corner and slowly inched her way away from the wall, making a wide circle around the corner. She could just glimpse his shoulder from where she was standing, took careful aim and squeezed the trigger.
His cry of pain was Jun’s signal to strike and she swung around the wall, using the momentum to land a very painful kick right between his legs. The man’s eyes crossed and he sunk to the floor, Jun leaned forward to deliver the final blow.
“Wait.” Risa said and the bigger girl paused, “Are you one of Takashi-dono’s?” she asked the grimacing man. He nodded, unable to speak. Risa looked down for a second, as if contemplating her next action, then looked up with hard eyes, “Then you have to die.”
The man’s eye’s widened, but he couldn’t do anything to stop the bullet that lodged itself in between his eyes. For a moment, Risa looked regretful, but she quickly wiped that expression off her face when the door to outside opened and in stepped two women in finely tailored, black suits.
“Well, I guess you have everything under control here.” The smaller woman then turned to her companion, “Right Yocchan?”
“I don’t think they needed our help at all, Rika-chan.” The boyish looking woman responded cheekily.
“Ai’s hurt.” Risa informed them, “She was shot, you have to help her.” She couldn’t quite keep the begging out of her tone and the two agents smiled at each other softly.
“No problem, we’ll have the paramedics patch her up and take her to the hotel.” ‘Yocchan’ said, gesturing for her companion to summon the EMTs.
Risa and Jun tried to stay out of the way as they did their thing, bringing in a gurney and loading Ai onto it, rushing her outside and into an ambulance. Eri joined the group and smiled in greeting to the agents.
“Well, I guess we’ll give you a ride back.” Rika said, leading the party to the awaiting sedan parked outside.
()()()()()()()()()()
When Reina left the bathroom, she was surprised to find only three girls left in the room, “Where’s everyone else?” she questioned Aika, still toweling off her hair a little.
“They just left, said something about shaking down a drug dealer.” the small girl answered easily, lounging on Reina’s bed.
The cop rolled her eyes in exasperation, she was not a baby sitter. Lin raised her hand as one might if they were in school and Reina stared at her a second. The younger girl returned the stare expectantly and Reina realized she was actually waiting to be called on, “What?” She finally asked, pointing at her.
“Can we go back to my room so I can work on getting the info we need?” Lin asked politely.
Reina tilted her head at the request, as far as she knew, there was no way the girl could get what she needed without her computers, which were safely down in lock-up. “Uh, sure.” The small group filed out and headed down the hallway. Lin lead the way, drawing out her key card and opening the door. As Reina entered, she froze, staring in awe at the sheer number of computers set up in the room, “Wha-wha-what is this!?”
Three monitors with connecting desktops and computer utensils were hooked up on the given desk that sat in one corner of the room. A small table had been shoved next to it to extend the table top into an ‘L’ shape. In the opposite corner, where the arm chair was supposed to go was an identical set-up. The floor space between the two stations had been cleared to allow Lin to roll from computer to computer in the rollie chair with ease.
The three lawless girls quickly made themselves at home, shivering slightly at the change from normal hallway temperature to the frigid coldness of the hotel room. Lin immediately began to turn on her computers and soon lost herself in her programs.
“Oh, this is Lin’s stuff.” Sayumi answered nonchalantly, plopping down on the bed closest to the door.
“But, her things were secured at the police station.” Reina sputtered, beginning to feel the effects of the chilly room, “And why is it so cold in here?”
The three girls exchanged a long look, before Lin began typing away at her multiple keyboards, “We have our ways.” Aika said mysteriously, flipping on the TV.
Reina quickly came to a conclusion, “You robbed the precinct!” Sayu and Aika immediately denied the accusation.
“No, of course not.”
“Why would we do that?”
Reina crossed her arms over her chest, she couldn’t believe the audacity of these criminals, robbing a police station. “What the hell? I already told you guys you weren’t allowed to have your tools.” She reached for her phone to call in some back-up, prepared to haul the computers back to lock down.
She was tackled to the ground instantly and her phone ripped from her hand, “No!” Reina struggled against her captors, but it was no use, they were simply to strong.
Lin looked up from her machines at the scuffle, “You have to let us keep our stuff, we’re useless without them.”
“You’re dangerous with them!” Reina ground out, bucking wildly.
“Obviously, we’re pretty dangerous on our own, but you hired criminals for a reason and you gave us a suitable challenge. We’re not going anywhere, but we can’t do our jobs without the tools of our trades.” Lin reasoned and slowly, Reina began to calm. Certainly, she didn’t trust them any farther than she could throw them, but what could she do at their mercy? They could just kill her and leave, but they hadn’t yet.
Reluctantly, Reina decided to play along, for now. “Well, what can you guys do?” Aika and Sayu exchanged looks, them released the cop.
“Uh, nothing yet. I guess we just wait for Lin Lin for now.” Sayu admitted, going back to her lounging spot on the bed. Aika resumed watching TV and Reina stood, unsure of herself.
Eventually, she joined Aika at the foot of the bed, “So what’s on?”
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
With the computers working frantically, it didn’t take long for the room to heat up. Reina now understood why the air conditioning had been turned up so high, sighing as she fanned herself ineffectually. “It turned into a sauna in here.” she complained, getting drained nods of agreement from the other suffering girls.
Even Lin, who was used to the heat output, was sweating. “Let’s go get some ice cream.” Sayu moaned, rolling off the bed and standing ungracefully. She was followed by Aika and Reina, while Lin declined, asking for them to bring her back something. Sluggishly, the three girls entered the hallway, taking in the cool air gratefully.
They stood for a moment, cooling down, before they started towards the elevator, “I think there’s a pretty good shop a couple blocks down.” Reina offered amicably, “It’ll be my treat.”
“Really!?” Sayumi and Aika exclaimed simultaneously, latching onto Reina’s arms in excitement.
“Not if you don’t let go!” The cop tried to unsuccessfully shake the girls off. They simply laughed and held on tighter, “Seriously guys, I’m going to hurt you!” They reached the elevator and Reina struggled to press the down button. No sooner did she reach out, did the doors slide open.
The three startled girls jumped back as a gurney was wheeled out of the elevator, guided by two burly EMTs. They watched, just glimpsing Ai’s pale face as she lay unconscious, as they moved into the room down the hall. Stunned, the girls didn’t even notice their comrades still in the elevator, until Risa spoke.
“Mission accomplished.” She said wearily, appearing beside Sayumi, “We got the addresses of the two suppliers and the distributors.” She held up the paper that was her prize.
“What happened to Takahashi-san?” Aika asked worriedly. The merriment of ice cream seemed far away now.
“She got shot.” Risa stated flatly, moving away to go a peek into her open room door.
“Don’t mind her, she’s just blaming herself.” Eri said, sending the same aged girl a compassionate glance.
“Is everyone else okay?” Sayumi asked, inspecting Jun and Eri for wounds. She caught the agents out of the corner of her eye and turned to them, startled. She had to admit to having a passing crush on the boyish Yoshizawa and so was glad to see them, “Are you guys going to stick around?”
“Probably not.” The agents shared a look, an unspoken message passing between them, “It’s not really our job to interfere. Unless you all were to get out of hand.”
“Or need one.” Rika finished ironically. “How you deal with your mission is up to you, after all.”
“So you were just worried.” Reina concluded, “That’s why you came all the way here?”
“Of course we were worried.” Rika said in a falsely sweet voice, “One of you got injured.”
Reina didn’t believe her for a second, “No, one of them got injured. And I’m sure you didn’t need to come here to make certain she would live. If you wanted a report, all you had to do was ask.”
“Of course, one of them.” Yoshizawa repeated, raising an eyebrow, “That report won’t be necessary, I think we get the picture. Just remember to keep up with your paper work.”
“By the way,” Rika said as Hitomi called the elevator, “Did you know your precinct was robbed last night? Though they have no footage of who the culprits are, because of the gear that was taken, they have a pretty good idea of the masterminds behind the heist. You wouldn’t happen to know where the gear was taken, do you?”
“Of course not.” Reina didn’t hesitate to respond, thinking about the scorching room she had left.
“Good, because if you did happen to know and were just protecting them, it could cost you your badge.” Rika finished dangerously as the elevator doors opened up. The two agents entered and waved cheerfully, disappearing behind the closing doors.
It was silent in the hall for a moment, until Aika spoke up, “You lied for us.” Reina realized that all eyes were on her.
“I may not like you guys, but I hate those two. So don’t get all mushy on me!” The cop tried to push away the cuddling Sayumi that had reattached herself to her arm. Just to make matters worse, Eri joined in on the other side, “You too!?”
“Aw, but I missed you Reinya!” Eri said cutely, causing everyone to giggle.
“Yeah, Reinya!” Sayu added, squeezing her tight, “Let’s go for that ice cream now!”
“Hey, wait! I’m not paying for everyone!” Her protests were in vain as she was quickly dragged into the conveniently opened elevator.
Risa watched the scene from down the hall, almost feeling a smile tug at her lips. Inside her and Ai’s room, the EMTs were finishing setting up the various IVs and monitoring equipment that Ai would need.
“She should be fine.” One of them told her, “She lost a lot of blood, but she’s stable enough that a simple transfusion is really all she needs. The bullet missed all vital organs and arteries and we extracted it cleanly and patched her up.” The man handed her a small, plastic container with the bullet rolling around inside. It was surprisingly intact and was stained with some blood, “Consider it a souvenir.”
“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.” Risa responded sarcastically, “I’ll make a necklace out of it.”
The tone seemed to go right over the guy’s head, because he smiled, “Yeah, my girlfriend still has her first bullet around her neck too, she says it’s good luck.”
“Good luck.” Risa repeated softly.
“Yeah, anyway, we’ll be back tomorrow to pick up our equipment, she should be awake by then.” The EMT patted her on the shoulder lightly, apparently thinking to offer some comfort, and then they left. Risa stared into her room for a moment, not yet wanting to go inside. She decided to head to Lin’s room instead.
“Hey.” She called out as she entered the hot room. Since the last time she had been in, there had been two large fans set up to blow the air out the open windows. Risa had no idea when this had happened, or where they had come from, but chalked it up to criminal ingenuity.
“Hi, back so soon?” Lin returned the greeting, spinning to face her.
“Yeah, we got the info I asked you to look up. Now I need you to find out what you can about these men.” Risa handed over her prize for the day, “If it’s possible, I want you to find out if the suppliers own any warehouses or land or anything where drugs can be made and grown.” She noticed Lin giving her a long look, “What?”
“Are you okay? Did something happen?” The hacker took the offered paper, but held onto her hand.
“Ai got hurt.” Risa said and Lin’s eyes widened.
“Is she okay?” the younger girl asked in concern, “Are you okay?”
“She’ll live, should even be awake soon. Why wouldn’t I be okay?” The gunner tilted her head, trying to pull herself from Lin’s grasp.
“Anyone with eyes can see you guys care about each other.” The hacker replied nonchalantly, “You must be worried.”
“’Anyone with eyes?’” Risa repeated slowly, “I’m alright, though I will be better once Ai comes to.” Lin finally released her hand and Risa made a hasty escape back to her room.
Pulling up a chair, Risa settled in to watch over her ex. What Lin had said to her still echoed in her ears; she knew she loved Ai, though she was trying not to forgive her so easily, and she wasn’t sure how to act around the older girl sometimes. Their individual pasts left a large rift between them and Risa wasn’t sure how to go about bridging that. Before she had left the country, she never would have guessed that Ai would think about turning to mind altering substances and become an alcoholic. It was just so unlike the girl she had first fallen for.
Then again, before she left, Risa never thought she would be able to do some of the things she had done. Looking at her hands, Risa imagined that she could still see blood stains lingering, even though she knew she had cleaned herself thoroughly. Shaking her head, she recounted the details of the day, chalking up four more casualties to her list.
‘What does that make now? A little over two hundred, I think.’
Two hundred and seven, to be exact. Risa couldn’t pretend not to keep track of her kills, not over some twisted sense of pride, but more out of remorse. 207 faces haunted her dreams at night and plagued her thoughts in the waking hours. Out of so many people, only about fifty really deserved to die.
Some had no choice but to bear arms against her, due to poverty or fear, that was the life they had been dealt. The others had been innocents, just pawns in a demonstration of power. She focused on Ai again, no matter what demons she had in her closest, the woman had never taken another life, had never sold someone else‘s soul for a quick buck. And Risa wanted to keep it that way.
“I don’t know what to do about us anymore.” she confessed to the sleeping beauty quietly, “All I’ve wanted since I was twelve was you. I didn’t understand love or the world, only loss and pain, only my own selfish desires. And that’s all I’ve ever understood, all I’m capable of understanding. I want to be with you so badly, but I think, maybe, I will bring you down to my level if I get too close. Still, a large part of me doesn’t care, only wants you by my side.”
Gently, Risa stroked her hair, “I will only hurt you, just like I’ve always done with my stubborn ways. I guess, I’m just not strong enough to deny myself even the most short lived happiness.” Leaning back in her chair, Risa absently rubbed at her covered arm. She decided that it was time to stop hiding her true nature.
Slowly, she pulled the sleeve off her arm and tossed it behind her, staring down at her mark. She had gotten this tattoo to symbolize her anger and the death of her innocence. With every painful stroke of the needle, Risa had vowed to do whatever it took to live, no matter how degrading or ruthless it might be. She had put it away after her mentor had died and she went into hiding, but still, a small part of her cried every time she saw it.
Since she had this carved into her very being, Risa had upheld her promise, diving head first into her new life. She had wanted to forget at the time, forget her brother and her home and the one she left behind. Eventually, her quest to forget had turned into a quest for power and money, Doro-san wanted his team to be the best and her as his right hand.
Looking at her grotesque symbol, Risa made another vow, “I will do whatever I can to keep Ai safe.” She clenched her fist and the rotting dragon smiled, bearing the snakes tearing painfully into his flesh.
A knock on the door startled her out of her reverie and she stood up to answer it. At the door was Eri with her hands full of ice cream sundaes. “Hi there.” the same aged girl greeted cheerfully and Risa absently helped her free her hands, “I thought you might want some too, so I brought back some for Lin and you. There’s even one for Takahashi-san when she wakes up.”
Surprisingly, Risa was touched by her thoughtfulness, heading over to the mini fridge to put away the cold treats in order to not have to face Eri. She heard the girl come in and make herself comfortable on the bed across from Ai. Turning to face her, she met knowing eyes.
“You must really love her.” Eri said, popping a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.
“Love? I don’t think I know the meaning of the word. It’s my fault she’s like this, my stupid plan that got her hurt. She wasn’t even paying attention because of me! How could I keep hurting her if I loved her?” Risa felt her frustrations expressed before she could think twice.
“You’re here now, though. And you saved her then, risking your life for her. How is that not love?” Eri said conversationally, “Besides, I don’t think you’re as cold as you think you are. You wouldn’t be fretting over her so much if you were.”
“She’s always been my exception.” Risa reclaimed her chair, stroking her ex’s hair again, “I’ve done things for her I never thought I would. She convinced me to go to school, helped me to temper my anger after my brother died and even got me excited about learning other languages.”
“It doesn’t seem like you have changed much from how she knew you then. You still seem angry, but it fades when you look at her. Your file says you’re fluent in nine different languages, including Arabic, Korean, and French.” Eri gave her a cheerful smile, “You shouldn’t think so little of yourself, Gaki-san, everyone has a capacity for love, especially you.”
“Everyone?” Risa scoffed, recalling some of the horrors she’d seen around the world. Different countries still had the same problems with apathy and greed.
“Yes, everyone.” Eri replied firmly, “Some may show their love in different ways, some may never truly love another human, but people all love something. I’ve met hardened criminals and murderers that turned into children in the presence of an animal. Women who lied to, cheated and stole from everyone they encountered selling out their souls for their children to have a better life than they did.”
“And I’ve seen you, Gaki-san, with your impressive record of suspected kills and illegal and immoral deals, look at her with such soft eyes, it actually makes me feel jealous of you both. You have something that most people will never find.” Eri looked down for a moment, as if remembering something, then looked back up with a smile, “So don’t worry so much.”
Risa studied her thoughtfully, “You’re pretty smart. What are you doing in law enforcement?”
Eri stared at the melting treat in her grasp, ignoring the way the cold was beginning to hurt her fingers, “It was my father’s choice, he’s the Chief of Police and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. I was a little too young to join the academy, but my dad is friends with the governor and pulled a few string for me to get in. Turns out I was a natural.” She shrugged, but Risa sensed a little bitterness.
“What would you have rather done?” She asked bluntly, causing Eri to look at her in surprise.
“I always wanted to be a dancer.” The cop admitted after a moments contemplation, “I asked for lessons when I was a kid, though my dad didn’t want me to take any, I convinced him that it would help keep me in shape. He eventually agreed and I‘ve been taking Jazz classes ever since. The instructor even let‘s me teach a little.”
Pulling away from Ai, Risa turned to face Eri fully, sizing her up. The other girl was wearing a tight girl’s tee and close fitting skinny jeans, emphasizing her compact muscles. She was obviously in shape with thick thighs and toned arms, even slouching as she was, Risa could tell that Eri could be more than a match for her if she chose.
“I could see that. You know, it’s not too late to fulfill your dream, I know a few places that might be interested in someone with your training, I can put in a good word or two.” She offered, to the surprise of the cop, “You shouldn’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations other than your own.”
Raising both eyebrows into her hairline, Eri responded instantly, “You would do that for me?!” Calming a little at Risa’s amused grin, she said more quietly, “I mean, you would do that for me? Even though you barely know me?”
“Yeah, sure. It wouldn’t be a problem at all, I think everyone should have the opportunity to reach their dreams.” Suddenly, Risa found herself with an arm full of overjoyed cop.
“Thank you! Thank you! Will you help me after all of this is over, no matter what happens?” Eri pulled back to give Risa a serious stare, but the older girl just nodded easily.
“Of course I will. I’ll even promise you and I always keep my promises.” Risa vowed, patting the girl on the head. Content, Eri snuggled herself into her lap and laid her head against Risa’s shoulder.
Before she realized what was happening, the same aged girl was asleep in her arms. Risa glanced down at her and then craned her neck around to look at Ai. Carefully, so that the sleeping Eri wouldn’t fall off her lap, Risa maneuvered her chair so that it faced the bed where her ex slept peacefully.
Due to the morphine and blood loss, Ai probably wouldn’t be up anytime soon and she was rather tired herself, so Risa thought she might as well catch some shut eye as well. She pulled the comforter off the bed behind her and wrapped it securely around her and Eri, leaning her head back comfortably. She passed away the time counting the dots on the ceiling until her eyelids grew too heavy for her to keep them open.
~~~~~~~~~
So? Y'all should know that I can't keep the grin off my face thinking about the possible reactions to this chapter. The ball is in your court now friends.
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 177629 times)