The Gang's All Here

Kumiko wondered if this is what hell was like.

The people who’d kidnapped her had brought her into a floor full of “cubicles”, tying her to one of the chairs. Metal cuffs hugged her wrists and ankles as yet another video played on the computer screen in front of her.

Unfortunately, the only videos her captors were playing for her were ‘mandatory training videos’ for Jade Chrysanthemum. She was learning more than she ever wanted to about how to create a shrine to the fallen Perfected Emperor and how to report sexual harassment against fellow cult members.

Was this what it was like to be an adult? Sitting at a desk in front of a computer for half your life, having to watch videos like this? Basking in the flicking overhead lights that were always a little too bright, in a room too hot or too cold?

She looked at the bucket one of the goons had given her. He’d joked that she should use it if she had to use the bathroom.

“Gah!” She kicked the desk, knocking over a cup filled with pens and pencils and paper clips.

Paper clips! Kumiko scoot her chair close to the desk and struggled to reach for one of those clips. Being cuffed to the chair made it a struggle. She got a finger on it –

The chair gave out from under Kumiko and she fell to the floor, nearly banging her head on the desk on the way down. But pinned by her pointer finger were two paper clips.

She smiled. This was just like that one episode of Wolf Knight, when the bad guy had taken away his powers and he had to escape with nothing but his wits! Living out one of her favorite shows was brightening her mood.

Which only got brighter when she remembered how that misadventure in the van had gone.

Jade Chrysanthemum and Wolf Knight were real. And if he was real… what else was?

-----

For the first time in ten years, they were all together again.

Hideo looked around the table in a meeting room they’d hijacked. Hideo and Miho were fiddling with a tablet, trying to make a television on the other side of the room show what was on it.

Sayuri was glaring across the table at the one who’d been missing all this time. Her fingers tapped on the table at a near constant rhythm. She never broke her stare.

He knew why he didn’t get along with Fuku. It had always been a pissing match with the two of them. Hideo had felt like Fuku had been trying to push away from Miho ever since they’d met. But he didn’t recall Sayuri ever having a problem with Fuku.

Hanzo rolled his eyes and threw the tablet onto the table. “Alright. From memory, then.” He paced around the table and sat to Hideo’s left. “I’ve been tracking unusual activity in the kaijin community for the past several years. Online chatter flooding their circles with pro-Jade Chrysanthemum talking points, trolls doxxing people who call them out, increased anti-social behavior.”

Sayuri finally broke eye contact with Fuku. “I’ve heard a bunch from the people we support.”

“And for every one you can support,” Hanzo continued, “how many get ignored? Ten? Twenty? Hundreds? More recently, the activity's gotten bolder. More organized. We’ve kept reports on it tamped down, but the government’s never been good at attending to the needs of kaijin. Or taking threats to the status quo seriously.”

Miho knew that. She’d lived it. Even in the heyday of her fight against Zetsuboru, she was lucky if the Human Protection Agency would spare Mr. White to help her out. And Hideo? The instant the Perfected Emperor was defeated, they never gave him a lick more of help. Even when he kept finding cells years after the fact.

And both knew that when they’d announced they were retiring, when they thought they’d finally won and could rest, more than a few people were happy to see them go.

“It’s why I reached out to get you involved,” Hanzo told Hideo. “And while I know Sayuri can’t see the same intel I do… that support group gave her enough info to talk to Miho.”

Miho fidgeted in her chair. “Now for the thousand yen question. How do we find where they’re keeping Kumiko?”

Sayuri gave that some thought. “That trillion yen bounty on your heads is our best lead. Any kaijin associated with these guys will be on the prowl. Which means hit up every kaijin hangout, every event, every bar, and we keep going until we knock someone’s skull in that’s got an answer.”

Hideo gave Hanzo a side-look. “Now we’re talking my language. Hanzo, you’re with me. If we’re going old school, we’re going old school.”

“I know a few places to hit up,” said Fuku.

Only to immediately be contradicted by Sayuri. “Nope. After all the close calls we’ve had today, you’re not going anywhere alone. Besides, you and Miho have so much to catch up on!”

“We do?” “What.” Fuku and Hideo spoke over each other.

Miho smiled. “C’mon, Fuku! You, Sayuri, and me! Like Hideo said, it’ll be just like old times!”

Hideo almost reminded his wife that Sayuri was very much not a werewolf in those days. He’d hated the idea of Fuku spending time with her. But he wasn’t worried anything would happen. He loved her with all he had. That meant he trusted her completely.

Whatever happened, he knew Miho could handle it.