The Hinomoto Rebellion (7 page)

Ryoku raised his head to look at Andrea. His visible eye was a piercing green and seemed to be attempting to stare into Andrea’s soul. He was taller than Andrea. “Who I am is not important,” he snarled.

Andrea sneered. “Well, aren’t we Mister Mysterious? Is this an act to try to pick up girls? Let me give you some advice: it doesn’t work, so stop it.”

“You shouldn’t be so rude to the person who’s going to kill you.”

“Look buddy, people have been trying to kill me my whole life. I seriously doubt you’ll succeed where they’ve failed. Now, tell me who you are.”

“If you must have a name to call me, then please, let it be Shinagami,” he smiled evilly.

 

“Shinagami?” A silver eyebrow rose in question.
God of Death?

He smirked and tensed his shoulder muscles. Right before Andrea’s eyes, a huge pair of black wings suddenly rose from his back. They unfolded slowly, unfurling feather by feather, inch by inch. They nearly filled the alleyway and were made of long feathers as dark as night.

“What the hell!?” exclaimed Andrea. “You another government experiment!?”

 

“I have come to take you to the afterlife, Andrea the Tiger,” replied Ryoku.

“Yeah well, I don’t die so easy!” Andrea suddenly rushed forward, her sneakers digging into the pavement. “
Koroshiya Dan Ha!
⁴
” Her fist glowed blue with energy as she pulled it back. At the last moment Ryoku flapped his wings and jumped, clearing her ki attack effortlessly.

Andrea looked up, moving back quickly to narrowly avoid being impaled by a spear. Ryoku hit the ground with the weapon, and Andrea quickly regained her footing after nearly falling over from jumping backwards to avoid the blow

Without enough time for a thought Andrea found herself jumping backwards again. Ryoku finished his swing, cracking the cement with the end of the spear. As the sound of the weapon hitting the ground echoed through the alley Andrea leaped in to attack with a quick roundhouse kick to his head. He began to dodge but Andrea realized what he was doing and turned the roundhouse into an ax kick, bringing her leg down into his shoulder. He quickly moved backward,

4 “Sniper’s Bullet Punch!”

clutching his shoulder in surprise. Andrea put some more distance between them so she’d have time to block or dodge, depending on what Ryoku did.

“Well, you’re much better than I thought.” Ryoku rubbed his shoulder and gripped his spear.

“Not bad yourself. It’s too bad you’re trying to kill me. I could use this kind of warm-up more often!” She leaped forward, her leg outstretched to plant her foot into his face.

Ryoku reacted, bringing the handle of the spear up and smacking Andrea’s leg away to knock her out of the air. She landed in a crouched position, wincing at the pain shooting up her shin. “Wow, you actually hit the Tiger! Five points for the freak with the wings!” She narrowed her eyes and stood, assuming a defensive stance.
I have to distract him, he’s too fast for me to hit.
She tensed all her muscles to hide her next move. “So, do those things work, or are they made of string and wire?” she motioned toward the wings.

A sarcastic laugh escaped Ryoku’s throat. “Oh, I assure you, they’re very real. Here, have a demonstration!” The wings began to beat, kicking up dust and paper from the ground. Andrea smiled and leaped forward in to the dust cloud. Before Ryoku could react Andrea’s knee was in his face. The spear fell to the ground with a clatter. Andrea brought her other leg up and used his chest to leap up and back-flip, landing on her feet. Ryoku steadied himself, a trickle of blood running down his face from his nose.

“That was a dirty trick, Tiger. I won’t be so easily fooled again.” He leaped up into the air higher this time, beating the wings so that he stayed aloft well out of Andrea’s range.

Great. I’m screwed. I can’t jump that high. Now my only option is to dodge whatever he does.
She readied herself for action, the muscles in her powerful legs tensed to spring in either direction.

Ryoku put one hand out in front of him and right before Andrea’s eyes a bow and arrow materialized in a flash of light. He used the other hand to pull back the string and let the arrow fly. The first missile hit dirt, but as Andrea stood up from her roll, another arrow grazed her right shoulder. Her cold blue eyes focused on the blood that was beginning to seep out of her flesh and make its way down her arm. She snapped her head up, her icy eyes focused on her attacker, who hovered six meters above her. “Alright, that’s it! I’m done playing around with you!” she growled.

Andrea was about to launch another attack, though she wasn’t sure how she would high enough into the air to get to him. Just then a man jumped in front of her, facing Shinagami. “Hey!” Andrea screamed at the back of the person’s head.

“Ryoku! Either leave now or face me, you coward!” the newcomer yelled.

Andrea though about smacking the man with the shoulderlength green hair in the back of the head. “You can’t just come in here and take over my fight!”

Ryoku rolled his eyes. “Not you again. My fight is not with you today, Densetsu. I’m here to kill the girl, that’s all.”

 

“Your fight is
always
with me, Ryoku!” yelled Densetsu, unaware that Andrea was about to start a fight with him.

“Tell you what, I’ll come back when the Tiger can play by herself.” Ryoku flapped his powerful wings and took to the air in a violent gust of wind that sent litter and dust whirling down the alley. He disappeared over the rooftops and was gone.

The green-haired figure turned, asking, “Are you all right?” He barely managed to dodge the fist that was headed for his head. “Whoa! What’s the big idea?” he exclaimed as he dodged the second punch Andrea threw at him. He was a little taller than Andrea, with broad shoulders and a round face with big, kind eyes. His right eye was golden in color, the left a deep blue. His dark green hair was shoulder length, with long bangs that framed his face from his forehead to his chin. One piece of his bangs was shorter than the rest, and was hanging between his eyes, brushing against his forehead. He wore a long white shirt with a high collar and a black leather belt around his waist that was adorned with a gold colored buckle. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to reveal a dark blue lining that matched his loose pants. The pants were cinched just at his ankles, right above a pair of black, soft soled slip-on shoes.

Andrea lifted her leg in a powerful kick that was aimed directly for the man’s face. “How dare you! I could have taken him easily, you jerk!”

“Hey!” The guy caught the kick and looked at Andrea. “You interrupted my fight!” she pulled her leg from his grasp and glared at him.

The man straightened out his white and blue Chinese style shirt. “You do realize that he could’ve killed you, right?”

 

“I would’ve beaten him if you hadn’t barged in where you weren’t needed!”

Densetsu ignored her comment. “My name’s D, and you’re bleeding.” He then turned toward the entrance to the alleyway. “Nikko! Come here!”A large white dog that looked almost like a wolf came trotting around the corner and headed for him.

Andrea’s response was to throw another punch, which he caught with little effort. “Are you even listening to me?!” she howled.

He tossed her hand aside like it was a piece of trash to be disposed of. “You listen to me!” he demanded, getting right up in her face, “I don’t care about whatever you have to say, so don’t bother screaming at me. The only thing I
do
care about right now is that Ryoku is after you. If he’s hunting you I’m going to be staying by your side.”

Andrea clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes, feeling like a vein was about to explode in her head from sheer frustration. “Oh
really!?
” she snarled. “And why, exactly, is that?!”

“Because he’s half of my soul, and I need to rejoin with him. So, if he is after you, then with you is where I will be!”

One silver eyebrow shot up in response for just a moment, then her eyebrows came down over her eyes in a flash of anger again. “What, are you trying to delay your death or something by telling me these dumb stories!?” she shouted.

“My
death?
You could barely hit Ryoku, what makes you think you could kill me?”

 

“I’m the toughest Martial Artist
ever,
I could beat you with my eyes closed!”

D and Andrea were practically nose-to-nose, giving each other looks that could kill. Sparks were nearly flying between the icy blue eyes and the mis-matched ones as the two growled low in their throats. Nikko started growling at Andrea and barked a few times, the hair on his back starting to raise.

“Hey!” came a voice from above, “Shut up down there!” A chunk of metal that may have been a table frame at one time fell down between Densetsu and Andrea, causing the two of them to jump backwards. They both turned and glared up, just catching a glimpse of a figure ducking into of one of the windows.

“Come down here and make me!” Andrea screamed before she turned back to Densetsu. “I don’t have time to stand here and argue with you. I’m leaving before the cops show up and arrest us both!” she turned on her heel and started walking away, trying desperately to ignore the fact that Densetsu and Nikko were trailing behind her.

“He had
what
?!”

“Wings. Not that it makes any damn difference. I still could’ve taken him, if Wakame
⁵
over there hadn’t jumped in” Andrea shot a cold look at D.

“Stop calling me that.” he ordered, looking agitated. “No. Your hair looks like seaweed, so that’s your name now.”

He fumed as Roni and 26 listened to Andrea’s tale about Ryoku. The silver-haired girl was talking and tending her arm, which she kept insisting didn’t hurt. Kanjou stood by the door not too far away, watching the conversation intently. Andrea kept throwing evil glares at the back of D’s head as she recounted the story.

What am I supposed to think about Ryoku and this other guy? He claims that they’re each one half of a soul but... well, there’s enough weird things in this world, I suppose.”
She looked at 26.
And there’s one right there, to boot. Seems like I’m surrounded by insanity. This is becoming hard to deal with.
Andrea tied off the bandage and looked back over to D. “So, why don’t you tell us your story, Wakame.”

He shot a venomous look over his shoulder, but Roni interjected. “Please, Mr. Densetsu. We’d like to know about you and what brought you here.”

There was a moment when he seemed to be sizing up the 5 A type of seaweed, usually used in cooking soups. Andrea’s saying that D is “all wet.”

little girl with the pigtails. Then he turned his head and spoke more to the floor than anyone else. “You may call me D, if you wish.” he began.”The government took me from my family when I was very young, as they do to many, it would seem.” he glanced at 26. “I have no idea who I am, who my family are or if they’re even still alive. The government developed a machine to split souls into two pieces,” he nodded toward 26, “For the same reason they created people like you. The good traits, my yin if you will, are in my half, and the dark traits, the yang, are in Ryoku’s half. We escaped eventually, and I’ve been chasing after Ryoku ever since, waiting for him to slip up and merge the two of us back together.”

He turned and glared at Andrea. “And if Ryoku’s coming after you I’m going to stay beside you and wait for him. I’ve chased him for too long to let a chance like this go to waste! He has to have a reason for attacking you.”

“So, wait a second... He’s half of you? How does he have wings and weapons that appear out of nowhere? I assume you can do the same thing?”

D sighed. “No, I can’t.” he said flatly. “Ryoku is more like a ghost or a poltergeist than anything. He can interact with the physical world, but also can bend some rules of it to suit his own needs. If he wanted to, he could conjure up an anvil to fall on your head and call it a day.” From the grin on his face he wanted to see an anvil fall on Andrea’s head at the moment. She rolled her eyes at him and scoffed.

“We have an obligation to help D! The government has hurt too many innocent people for us to turn him away!” Roni’s eyes were serious and her lips pursed in an expression of sheer determination. “This is just the kind of thing we need to stop them from doing!”

“In which case, if he’d like, he can help us with our mission,” said Kanjou, stepping forward. “We can always use another Martial Artist around here, if you’re interested.”

Andrea glared at them. “Are you guys serious? He just shows up, says some crazy stuff, and you offer to let him stay? Aren’t you the least bit concerned that he might be some sort of government spy?”

Roni, 26, Kanjou, and Fushi all exchanged glances. The pigtailed girl was the first to look back at Andrea. “Should we be?”

“Yes! Hello?! I get attacked by some guy with wings,
wings that sprout up out of his back from nowhere and can make weapons from thin air
, and you’re going to take this word at face value? You guys need to learn how to run a rebellion! I know bottles of alcohol that could do a better job than this!” She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.