Legend: "(...)" English dialogue. ------ It was an upper end restaurant in the center of Tokyo that catered to a very exclusive, very high end cliental. The man sipped some of his wine as he looked across the table to the young woman and her interpreter. While she was fluent in both Chinese and French, she knew no English and only a handful of Japanese. Smiling, he swirled the contents of his glass as he broke the silence. "It is indeed an honor to entertain you like this, Miss Chang. As I'm sure you're aware, Genom International, through our charitable subsidiaries, does what it can to promote the arts. And having served with the Paris opera house for as long as you have, I'm sure you've seen how generous our company can be. So naturally, when I heard you'd be performing here in Tokyo three weeks from today, I decided it was only right as a patron of the arts to welcome you to our city." The man turned to Reika and translated into Chinese the greeting. She looked at Largo and frowned a bit before conveying a reply. When she finished, the man turned to Largo and answered him not in Japanese, but in English, in order to make it more difficult for any eavesdroppers to follow the discussion. "(Let us speak frankly; we all know Reika's family is in charge of the White Tiger, and they control most of the opium, heroine and hashish trade in mainland China. Genom wants in. We are willing to make a deal.)" Largo looked at the woman across from him in genuine surprise; he had been told she'd cut her family ties to pursue her singing career. Being the business man he was however, he quickly recovered. "(Very well. Let's hear your terms.)" Again he watched as Reika and her interpreter exchanged words. It quickly became apparent that her interpreter was advising her as well as translating for her. Finally, he turned back to Largo. "(The Knight Sabers. We want as much information as you can provide. Specifically, where might they show up next?)" Largo raised an eyebrow, "(Those nuisances? What do you want with them?)" The interpreter leaned forward. "(Their lives. We want them dead.)" The head of Genom International in Tokyo looked at the interpreter and smiled. "(And just why would you want them dead?)" The interpreter smiled back. "(Does it matter?)" he asked pointedly. Largo laughed. "(No, I guess not. Tell Miss Chang that we will create an incident tomorrow evening after nightfall, say around five thirty. Stay off the streets until six. If she then goes out, tell her I guarantee she'll run into at least one of the Knight Sabers.)" Reika's interpreter conveyed the message to Reika, who smiled as she raised her glass. Largo smiled back as he raised his own glass and clinked it against hers in a toast to the successful business transaction. The only one not smiling was Reika's interpreter. Kou had expressed concerns to Reika's grandfather about whether or not Reika could bring herself to kill, and those lingering doubts persisted. Also, there was something about Largo that he didn't trust, something in the eyes. After dinner, Largo saw Miss Chang and her interpreter to their carriage, and headed back to the Genom offices. ---The Next Morning--- Sylia was drinking a cup of tea as she watched Nigel and her brother continue with the repair job to the front of the Silky Doll. Between school and spending time with Nigel learning the ins and outs of how to properly maintain the armor and weapons, she didn't see much of Mackie nowadays. Nene, who always tried to visit him on the weekends, had kept her abreast of how he was doing, but it still felt good to have him around to reconnect with. Too bad it was for something like this. According to Daley, the final count was ninety-three dead or wounded. It could've been worse, but somehow that didn't comfort him any. She turned to look at the grandfather clock. Nearly noon. Taking another sip, she turned to see a blond haired woman enter through the rebuilt doorframe. She looked around at the mixture of European and Japanese clothing as she walked over. "Miss Stingray?" she asked. At Sylia's nod to the affirmative she smiled. "I'm glad to meet you Miss Stingray. My name's Wendy, and I'm going around to all the European survivors of the attack from a few days ago." Sylia studied her thoughtfully. "That's a bit odd, isn't it? Most of the victims were native Japanese." "Yes, but would there have been any casualties whatsoever if the Europeans were in control?" Ignoring the look Sylia gave her, she continued, "Consider that large portions of China and India are under British rule, Viet Nam is largely controlled by the French, and the Yanks have several colonies now as well. We are trying to gather support from the British nationals both here and elsewhere in Japan for a possible move to acquire more of a say in the Imperial Meiji Government. Those countries guided by Imperial powers..." "Guided?" Sylia asked as she could feel her infamous temper beginning to flare up, "Don't you mean bullied?" Wendy looked at her funny. "Miss Stingray, I only meant to say that if we Europeans had a bigger hand in Japan..." "A bigger hand? There's already a British Military Compound, as well as an American and Dutch presence here. You're not talking about a bigger hand; you're talking about a controlling hand." "Miss Stingray," Wendy said, all pretense of politeness now gone, "We will be in a position to guide these Orientals soon enough. We only wished to invite you to join us and your fellow European brothers and sisters to try to civilize these yellow savages. I would strongly suggest you reconsider." Sylia put her head to her forehead. "White man's burden." she mumbled. "First of all, whether the Japanese were free or enslaved to us foreigners wouldn't have stopped the attack from the air two days ago, and you know it. Secondly, as far as savages go, it's not the Japanese who are trying to enslave the Chinese through the distribution of opium, it's the British! And finally, if you'd done your homework, you'd know I gave up my British citizenship long ago. I'm as Japanese as those 'yellow savages' of yours out there. Now unless you're interested in purchasing a brassiere or some stockings, I will have to ask you to leave my establishment." Wendy, now flushed red with anger, turned on her heels and quickly left. Sylia finished her tea and walked over to Nigel and Mackie. ---Evening--- "They what?" Priss asked incredulously. "She tells her she's a girl, and her response is to go steady with her? Does that even make any sense to you?" "Priss-chan, why are you so upset about this?" Linna asked. "Why aren't you? I mean, how much do you even know about this Haruka person anyway? And, need I remind you, Michiru's only seventeen." "So is Haruka. And so were you when you and Sensei..." she trailed off as she looked away, "I'm sorry Priss-chan, but you're way too suspicious." "Maybe, beloved, but it's kept me alive this long. Look, just let me have Sylia or Nene look into this girl's background a bit, and I'll let it rest." Linna was about to respond, when the door opened and Michiru came in carrying a bag of groceries, a large smile on her face. Tailing in behind her, carrying a second grocery bag, was Haruka. She shuffled out of her wet shoes and bowed to Linna and Priss. "Hello, Linna-san, Priss-san, I..." "Put the bag down." Priss said as she walked over and put her snow shoes on. "Priss-chan." Linna said, a worried look in her face, "Don't..." "Me and Haruka will be right back." Priss answered. Haruka, noticing the tension in the air, nervously put her own shoes back on and followed Priss out into the cold. Once outside again, Haruka turned to the older woman with a bit of trepidation. "Priss-san? What's wrong?" she asked. Priss turned to her and narrowed her eyes. "Has Michiru told you about me and her cousin Linna yet?" "Yes, why?" "Linna means everything to me, do you understand? Because I... love her," she said, still finding it hard to talk about her feelings around others, "I tend to be very protective of her and those she holds dear. Michiru is her only living relative. I'm giving you fair warning; you hurt Michiru in any way and I'll..." she stopped when she heard something that sounded like a buzzing noise coming from overhead. Looking up, she saw four of the flying machines from three days ago in the distance slowly coming toward them. "Shit!" she exclaimed as she began to rush back to the house. "Get Michiru to a safe place and stay there. I'll take Linna with me." she said as she opened the door. "I can't do that." Haruka argued, "I'm a police officer; my duty..." "Fuck your duty!" Priss said as Linna and Michiru came in the room in alarm, "As a Knight Saber, I have authority given me by the Imperial Emperor himself, and I'm ordering you to stay here with Michiru until it's safe." "Priss, Haruka, what's wrong?" Michiru asked. "Those flying bastards are back." Priss said as she turned to Linna. "We have to get to the Silky Doll now!" A short time later, Nancy Makuhari and Yomiko Readaman were both in the streets on horseback. As the populace panicked around them and sought shelter, Yomiko looked up from where she was and allowed a groan of frustration to escape. By the moonlight she could see that the machines were flying much higher this time than they had previously, and her paper abilities had a range. She had a full backpack of paper sheets, but even if she tried to send up an army of small paper airplanes to attack, they'd only fall back harmlessly to the earth once they reached a distance where she could no longer control them. As she watched helplessly, she suddenly felt her right cheek being pinched by her companion. "Did you hear me?" Nancy asked as she let her cheek go. Yomiko blushed a bit as she shook her head. Nancy rolled her eyes at that. "I said, isn't this a bit peculiar?" "What's that, Nancy-san?" Yomiko asked. "Look at them; they're not attacking. They're just flying back and forth at high altitude over the city." As the two agents of the British Library tensely watched the machines, Sylia and the other Knight Sabers rode up in their samurai armor. "What in the bloody hell are they doing up there?" Sylia asked. "So far nothing, Sylia-san." Yomiko answered. Linna looked up and watched as the planes inexplicably changed direction and flew back from where they came from. She then looked at the others, who were all just as mystified as she was. Nene spoke up first. "Why send out so few flying machines this time?" she asked, "And why didn't they attack?" "Show of strength?" Priss suggested. "Possibly..." Nancy said looking suddenly very nervous, "Or possibly someone wants us out in the open." Sylia didn't like the situation one little bit. If Jeena was right, if this was all some sort of a ruse to get them out in the open, then they were being targeted by some very powerful people. The others began looking around nervously. Sylia turned to them. "Right, everyone back to the 'Doll now. We split up, each taking a different route. Keep your eyes open and your guard up. Once we're back to the pit, we'll try to sort this out." Priss choose a side street to her immediate left, while Linna and Nene each rode down different side streets, one going east and the other west. Sylia took the main road south, while Jeena and Yomiko each went north a ways down the main road before splitting up again. As Priss nervously rode along back to the Silky Doll, she looked over to her right to see her reflection in the glass front of a western run bank. Also reflected was someone racing on a horse next to her, who appeared to toss something at her steed. Before she had time to react, the object, a string of small firecrackers, went off. The horse, spooked by the firecrackers, reared up and slid on the ice under its hoofs. Both horse and rider fell through the window into the bank. Men and women who'd sought shelter inside the building now ran for the exits as Priss, falling off the horse, crashed through a nearby table. The horse, cut up and bleeding from the glass and wood of the window, quickly picked itself up and rushed back out the shattered opening in the side of the building. Priss, who was finally getting her wind back, was a little slower in getting up. "Son of a bitch." she moaned as she quickly pulled her sword out of its scabbard, ignoring both the pain the wood splinters and glass shards that had made it through her armor were causing her, as well as the aching in her head and back where she landed. As she turned around to face her foe, several six-inch long objects flew at her, glittering in the gaslight of the bank lobby. The objects, razor sharp shuriken, imbedded themselves painfully in her right bicep, left shoulder, lower left abdomen just above the hip, and her right thigh. Priss stumbled backwards, tripping over a chair and dropping her sword as she did so. Looking up, she saw a woman dressed all in black coming towards her carrying a pole. She was wearing a mask that was made to look like the face of a white tiger. As Priss reached up to pull the one needle-like weapon out of her bicep, she heard her assailant began shouting at her in Chinese. Quickly removing the other three shuriken with shaking hands, she tried to crawl over to her sword, when her attacker threw another shuriken at her. Piercing through her right wrist, the projectile cut into her median nerve. The pain, similar to a person having their funny bone crushed with a sledgehammer, caused Priss to scream out in unbridled agony. Before she could remove the painful weapon, her unrelenting attacker came up and hit her hard in the side with her pole, both knocking the wind out of her again and cracking two of her lower right ribs. The assassin, screaming at her in Chinese again, circled around and grabbed her from behind. Before she could react, Priss found herself flung through a second plate glass window head first, landing on the sidewalk outside. Turning so that she was lying on her back, she used her legs and left arm to try to crawl away from her attacker, the needle-like shuriken still painfully transfixed through her right wrist. As her assassin appeared in the broken glass frame, Priss looked around the streets for anything that might serve as a weapon, gasping for air as she did so. The woman flicked a foot long blade out of the end of the pole and took a fighting stance, watching as Priss left a crimson trail in the snow and ice as she continued to try to push herself away. "W... Why?" she groaned out, the coppery taste of blood in her mouth. The assassin tilted her head a bit. "Knight Sabers kill sister." she said in a heavy Mandarin accent, "I kill Knight Sabers." ---To Be Continued---
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