Fukusha Model Eight – Chapter 25

I wind my way through the neighborhood, back to Rin’s place, alone with my thoughts and Ninjin on the leash, when I get stuck in an area of town down the hill. The streets only travel left and right, parallel to the hill, and everything else dead-ends into the face of a mountainside. Great. I come to each intersection and glance up the block towards Rin’s place, which I can see, but not reach.

Pulling off to an alley, I shuffle out of the stream of people and lean against a wall. Once again, I’m exhausted, and I yearn to take a vacation from all of this nonsense. Corporations, androids, and now Shiroi Nami are attempting to beat me down and make me wish I was never born. I need to find some strength soon.

I let my brain wander and focus on this little niche neighborhood sandwiched between two more prominent streets. This is one of those small treasures you find in the cities of the Southern Continent, an alleyway with its own habitat. A mural of the ocean graces the front walls of every home along both sides, and a tiny piece of grass surrounding a tall tree occupies the end of the alley nearest its dead end.

From around the back of the tree, a young woman ambles, her hands clasped behind her back, eyes directed at her feet, and her black dog keeps to her heels.

I blink a few times, sure that the distance between us has caused me to gauge size incorrectly, but this has to be the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. Either that or she’s a tiny woman.

The dog pauses and sees us first before its owner does. Its eyes are ice blue, and its head is like a boulder. Is it a dog or a wolf?

It whines at us, and Ninjin whines in return. The young woman finally lifts her head and sees us staring at her from several buildings away.

She whistles and says, “Come,” to the animal, and the two head for the second farthest house in the alley.

“Excuse me!” I call out, raising my hand. “I’m lost and I…”

The woman pays us no mind, lets herself and her animal inside, and closes the door behind her.

Ninjin and I run up, but by the time we make it to their front door, I feel silly for running after her. If she wanted to help me, she would’ve stopped. Knocking on her door now would be a waste of time, and she might alert the police.

Still, I’m enchanted by the wolf-like creature she kept at her side. What was that?

Sighing, I give up and get out my tablet to look at the map.

“Where the hell am I?” I mutter.

“Right where I want you.”

The hair on the back of my neck raises as I recognize the woman who’s followed us into the alley.

Atsumi.

Shit. I should’ve known she’d eventually catch up to me.

She said she’d kill me if I interfered with Rin, and if Rin left Kiiroi Yama like he said he would, Atsumi would have more than enough reasons to come after me. Well, Shiroi Nami was wrong. I do know Rin better than they do.

She approaches me, stalking forward in lithe steps, and my body does the cowardly thing and backs up, farther down the alley and away from anyone who could help me. I clutch the tablet at my side, wondering how quickly I can use it to call for help.

Not quick enough.

“Atsumi, I wish I could say it was good to see you.” Ninjin whines at my side. He knows Atsumi, and he’s not sure if she’s a threat or not. “How did you find me?”

She shrugs, but her smile grows. “It’s not like you hid away where I couldn’t track you down. Rin is too trusting. He should’ve dumped the apartment.”

I warned Rin we shouldn’t stay there. I was right.

“You…” She laughs and shakes her head. “You have a way of destroying all of my plans.” Pushing into my personal space, she edges me backwards. “I explicitly said that if you told Rin about Kitakyushu, I would kill you. Imagine my surprise when Okamoto told me today that Rin has left Kiiroi Yama, and it’s my fault for treating you ‘poorly.’” She air-quotes the word with a mock baby cry. “And Rin is no longer returning my messages.”

“Gee, I wonder why that happened.”

I have a bad feeling about this, and it’s elevated when Atsumi pulls a collapsible baton from her back pocket. It was only a few days ago that I was on the floor of her safe house, at her mercy, but she let me go because Kazuo was there. Now, she has me cornered, and there’s no one here to help me but Ninjin.

“Being a smart ass won’t help you now. I’m tired of you, your interference in my work, my life, and my world. You’ve been nothing but a pain since you crash landed on my moon. I tried to be nice. I tried to be accommodating. But I’m not going to do it anymore. I’ve disabled all the cameras on this block, and I’m looking forward to keeping my promise.”

I assess my options. Run? Scream for help?

Or fight?

Atsumi whips out her baton to full length. I grip my tablet.

Distract her, Yumi.

Ninjin feels the tension between us and growls.

“How will you explain my absence to Rin? To Okamoto? To Kazuo? Huh?” I swing my bag around to my back and take a fighting stance.

“I won’t have to. You’ll just vanish. You and your data.” She laughs, and the sound pisses me off. “I know how to make people disappear. In fact, I believe there’s a yakuza boss who’s missing you right about now. He was pretty upset with me the other day. Wanted you back since he paid so many credits for you.”

Yes! That’s what I was trying to remember earlier! My contract. I’ve been meaning to ask Rin to look into what happened and find out if Haku’s claims were legitimate. If he really owns me that could put a huge wrinkle in our plans.

Now I know for sure. It’s the real thing.

She twirls her baton, and my upper lip sweats in anticipation of a beating. I’m exhausted, and she looks like she’s on top of her game. “So let’s deal with this and then we can all get back to business.”

Her attack is fast. The baton whips through the air with a hiss as she goes for my left upper arm first. I drop Ninjin’s leash and duck, coming up with my tablet to block her return hit. The baton cracks against the tablet’s casing. I wince as she strikes three times, hoping to catch my fingers.

Crack, crack, crack.

Growl.

Ninjin lunges for her leg, and I jump to the offensive. Atsumi’s arm reels back to whip my dog, and no one hurts my dog. No one. I slam the tablet into her shoulder, crank back, and bring it down on her head.

She cries out, kicks off Ninjin, and recovers, bouncing to her feet. A small trickle of blood rolls down her forehead.

“Come on,” I urge her, throwing my bag to the side. “You wanna fight? Let’s fight.”

I jump to the offensive. My lovely brother, Shintaro, hated to fight against me in the dōjō because I’m a kicker. When my knife went one direction, my foot traveled another. Atsumi has never fought me before, so I use that to my advantage. The tablet is now my main weapon, so I grip it like nunchaku and aim for her head. She takes the bait, raising her baton to block. I strike fast with my right foot, a kick to the waist, shoulder. She crumples away from the blows. Throwing all my weight from the waist down around, I wind up and roundhouse kick her hard enough for the baton to fly.

Ninjin barks, running for the baton.

“Fetch, Ninjin,” I cry, pointing away from us.

Atsumi barrels into me and my tablet flies from my hands, skidding down the alley. We roll across the stone pavement, my elbow and left hand smacking the curb. They both go numb, but I force them back into action, pushing up on Atsumi’s attack.

“Fuck! You!” she screams in my face, reaching for my hair.

Her grip is secure, but her body is light with little to no muscle mass. Atsumi has been working at a desk way too long. Doesn’t Kiiroi Yama make everyone take regular fighting courses? They should. If they did, she’d have known more about sparring with another woman.

Powerful moves come from a woman’s hips and legs, and Atsumi is far enough up on my chest that I can use that to my advantage. I pull my hands loose and wrap them around her right shoulder, stick my foot outside her legs, lift my hips and roll her over, faster than I’ve ever done the move before.

Thank you, Kazuo, for teaching me self-defense.

I bring my elbow down, straight to her face, breaking her pretty nose. My fist won’t stop now; there’s too much adrenaline in me. I punch her twice quickly in her left eye and left temple. She gasps and covers her face with her hands, and I stand up to let her roll over and moan.

Ninjin approaches with Atsumi’s baton in his teeth, his ears down, and his tail on low-wag mode. Past him down the alley, a small crowd of people have gathered to watch, their mouths open in shock.

I pick up my bag and retrieve my miraculously intact tablet from the pavement. Atsumi slowly hauls herself to a sitting position, and her face is bloody and bruised. I squat down out of arm’s reach to look her in the eyes as I turn on the tablet, open the camera, and hit record.

“I am so done with you people,” I say, keeping my voice level, though my legs shake. “Look at this, Okamoto. This is one of your chief employees who jumped me in an alleyway. This is the woman you entrusted with my well-being, and this is the second time she’s tried to kill me.”

Atsumi glares at me before vaulting to her feet.

I step away and cluck my tongue at her. “Nuh-uh. No, you don’t. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go home, lick your wounds, and find something else worth fighting for on this planet. I will not be pushed around. Do you hear me?” I ask, raising my voice to Atsumi, the camera, and the people gathered to watch.

“I’m not taking orders from other people again. You all can go straight to hell and stay there.”

Turning off the recording, I keep my eyes on Atsumi as I grab Ninjin’s leash and turn to leave. No more words. No more of my time.

She gets nothing more from me.

The crowd of people at the entrance part to let me through.

“You’ll regret this!” Atsumi shouts after me.

Probably, though I send the video to Yori Okamoto’s message address, anyway. But I broke her fucking nose and showed them I can’t be pushed around.

That has to count for something.