Chaos in Kadoma Ward – Chapter 1

My stomach is an empty bowl, five hours after mealtime.

“You know what I haven’t had in forever? Noodles. Why is that? Do monks not believe in noodles?” I lick my lips, tasting the phantom noodles. If I close my eyes, I can trick myself into smelling them. My belly growls. There’s only so much mushroom stew a girl can eat before wanting to go on a hunger strike.

“The monks on Orihimé believed in noodles. Maybe it’s just a weird thing here.” Shintaro looks out the window, the sunlight blinding his eyes, and he lifts his hand to block out the glare. “Noodles, fried rice, eggs. Salads, pancakes, apple pie. I could eat them all.”

I groan as I bend forward over my protesting body. God, that sounds good. “Germaine’s fried apple pie, right? She made the best.”

This is not helping at all. I picture the kitchen back home, our long-time chef, Germaine, a transplant from Earth, coring apples and humming. I could make her fried apple pies in my sleep, but they never tasted as good as when she made them.

“Are you guys really going to talk about food the entire way down?” Kazuo asks from behind us. He sighs while folding his arms across his chest. “I was already hungry before we got in the shuttle.”

Across the aisle from me, Rin laughs, a sound I’ve gotten used to over the past few weeks of recovery. “I’m sure you’ll all find something you want in Shin-Osaka. We have everything.” He pulls his tablet from his bag and checks a message before putting it away. “We’ll be landing in about fifteen minutes.”

“What about drinking? You promised me we’d go drinking.” I tap my foot against Rin’s across the aisle. Though I’m still not comfortable with him, our friendship grew over the last weeks as we spent time together at the Ryuanji Temple. We made it a point to see each other every day, to walk outside under the sunshades or drink saké with the monks at night.

Now, I enjoy seeing his face in the morning, and I regret when I say good night. Funny how someone can grow on you in the course of a month from dedicated assassin to amiable companion.

“I promised you we’d go out drinking, and that’s what we’ll do. But I suspect we’re going to be occupied the next couple of days.” He frowns as his tablet pings again, and he leans over to grab it from his bag and answer it. Is this how busy he’ll be all the time? His boss said he was the best kenryōshi she ever had, so that means he must work a lot of hours. The intent glare on his face gives him away. I’m sure he’s a workaholic. He had the savings to put towards my release from Aoi Uma, so I’m not surprised.

“I’m sure we won’t be working every moment of every day. So I plan for Yumi and me to get out there and get drunk as soon as possible,” Shintaro says, smacking me on the knee. I roll my eyes at him. Since when does he want to spend his precious time with me? Oh, right. Only when Takéji isn’t around.

Kazuo reaches through the seats and smacks Shintaro upside the head. “Listen here. We’re guests on Hikari. We don’t understand how their society works or what will be expected of us. So sit tight and don’t do anything to embarrass us.”

“Me? Embarrass us?”

“Yes,” Kazuo and I say at the same time. I snort a giggle and slam my hands over my mouth to stop a full on laughing fit. I wish I could make eye contact with Ayamé and share this moment with her. But she’s dead, and I’ll never see her again. Still it doesn’t stop me from thinking of her all the time.

I glance across the aisle at Rin, and his face is the picture of polite bemusement. I know that smile now, half-cocked, creating a crease along his jawline, and it says, ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing.’

“What?” I challenge him, and he raises his hands and shakes his head with a laugh.

“Nothing,” he says, lowering his hands. “I find the two of you… amusing.”

Something about that statement gives me pride. I amuse this guy? He’s the picture of dedication to his society, to his work. I’m going to assume it’s good he finds me funny.

“Did you hear that, Yumi? We amuse him. Maybe this means he’ll go out with me.” Shintaro winks across the aisle at Rin, and Rin’s face settles into a placid state.

I can switch from happiness one moment to blinding rage the next because I have an asshole for a brother. Why must he do that when he knows I’m still not pleased with the Takéji situation? With the fact that he pursued Takéji even after I told him I had a crush on the guy? Or does Shintaro do it to piss me off?

Rin takes a deep breath, sighing and turning to the side so he can face us. He routinely brushes off Shintaro’s flirty behavior, like it didn’t even happen. I don’t know what to think about that. The shuttle pitches to the left, and when I look out the window, Shin-Osaka looms up from below. I’m getting nervous about what we’ll find there.

“It’s just that I never had a brother or sister. Never had siblings. I find the back and forth between you two to be interesting.” Rin rubs his hand over his almost bald head, his finger lingering on the scar around the back. I associate this gesture with his thinking mode. This is what he does when he’s contemplating his next move, the next words he’ll speak. “I’ve been working since I was six. So between the orphanage and my bosses, the only things I know are how to address my superiors and keep them on my good side, how to save the most money and not get it taken away from me, and how to always locate the safest bed in the orphanage.”

This shuts Shintaro up. It’s not every day we encounter someone who doesn’t belong to a family. Everything on Orihimé is about families. Even the people from Earth come with their families. Now and then, someone is orphaned by a tragic circumstance like accidental death, but those children are few and far between. An orphanage? We don’t even have one of those in our town.

The curious journalist in me wants to ask Rin questions. Why was he in the orphanage? The birth rate on Hikari is so low, I figured every child was a treasure worth fawning over. Has he ever met his parents? Maybe he has brothers and sisters, and he doesn’t even know it. But this hardly seems the time to be asking such questions with an audience around. I’ll save them for later.

“So, do you know when you’re returning to work?” I ask instead, keeping things less than personal. Work appears to be his favorite topic.

The shuttle vibrates and rocks, falling on heated airwaves. I look out the window at an airport, or maybe a spaceport, a few kilometers in the distance. We’re on the outskirts of the major city, Shin-Osaka, on the Northern Continent. The Northern Continent has several smaller cities and then farming communities, but Shin-Osaka is where the majority of people live. The Southern Continent, many hours away by shuttle, is restricted and about to be the domain of Shiroi Nami again. I wonder what their plans are.

“I’ll take two to three days off so we can get you settled before I go back to work. I have about two years worth of vacation saved up,” he says, laughing at himself and rolling his eyes. “I’m not that good at taking time off for myself.” He shrugs his shoulders. “So, now I should use it.”

I wonder what his ex-wife thought of this. If he has years worth of vacation saved up (and I doubt he’s exaggerating), then he probably was working throughout his marriage. Was she a workaholic too? And they never spent time together? Or was she a stay-at-home wife and he never saw her? There’s so much I want to learn about Rin and his ex. I don’t even know her name.

“Well, fantastic! I’m looking forward to seeing my new neighborhood and figuring out what I can do for an occupation.” I keep a giant, fake smile on my face.

“Come on, Yumi,” Shintaro says, elbowing me in the ribs. I hate when he does that, and I slap away his hand. “You know there’s nothing you’re good at besides being a pain in the butt. And getting arrested. Don’t forget about that.”

Everyone silences. Great. Thanks a lot, Shintaro.

I glance over my shoulder at Kazuo and his lips quirk in an expression that says he’s sorry. And I know he is. He cares about me and wants to see me happy. Like Ayamé did.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt your feelings?” Shintaro asks, his voice soft like he’s talking to a five-year-old.

Kazuo reaches through the seats again to smack him one more time. “Stop being an asshole.”

In another life, I would have turned around and decked Shintaro right in the face. But if this disastrous trip has taught me anything, it’s that my temper is my worst enemy.

“No. You can’t hurt my feelings with the truth.”

Shintaro’s face falls.

The Yumi he grew up with was always up for a ribbing. I could take the brunt of jokes and turn around and wrestle him to the ground. But that all changed when he started dating Takéji. In his mind, I must be frozen in time as the sixteen-year old who told him she was fine with them being together. ‘It’s no big deal. I’m happy for you!’ Yeah, I started lying at an early age.

Plus, in the last month, I’ve almost lost my life several times, and now I’m the property of Aka Matsuba, under the watchful eye of Rin. Out of everyone here, I’m the one that’s most likely to die when we reach Shin-Osaka. Narumi Ogawa, head of Aoi Uma, has it in for me, and there are other people interested in my capture or demise.

“I was kidding,” Shintaro whispers at me.

“Just leave me alone.”

I ignore him and look out the window. My thoughts turn to the people still being rescued by Tamura and his corporation, Aka Matsuba. Every day, I waited on Kurai, hoping to see Ryoko again, but I never did. I left her behind with that asshole, Gen, in the Aoi Uma compound, and I wish I hadn’t. Maybe I’ll see her sometime soon. I also hope to see Chiéko Mori, my old boss, again. Is she alive or dead? Or was she captured by Aoi Uma?

The city stretches out for kilometers in every direction, ten times larger than our biggest city on Orihimé. Ten times higher, too. They used to call them skyscrapers on Earth, and here, massive buildings stretch from the ground far into the atmosphere. Flying vehicles zip amongst the spaces between them. Trains on elevated platforms wind around buildings high and low. Monstrous glass and steel architecture looms over smaller traditional Japanese-style temples, amphitheaters, and gardens. I swallow hard as I try to focus on the people careening through the streets. How are they walking so fast?

There’s a lot I have to prepare for — a new city, a new life, language barriers, unfamiliar foods and society standards, and most likely a migraine now that I’m under the barometric pressure of another planet.

I need to work on my impulsivity, keep my temper under control, and try to stay as inconspicuous as possible.

I almost laugh out loud at myself. What a joke. I can’t do any of those things.

Sighing, I sit back in my chair, close my eyes, and prepare for landing.