Reunion

The underground tram ride was quiet, but it was the same sort of silence I’d expect from a funeral. All we could hear was the jiggling sound of military grade pouches and zippers making noise. Occasionally someone would take a breath, also breaking the silence. It was usually Ko, who seemed to be the most nervous out of all of us.

Everyone shared a slight variety of anxiety. Each of us were awkward in our own way, clearly uncertain as to what we’d experience within the hour. Even the maid, who was all smiles, had to put on a front when the plague of uncertainty corrupted her own mind.

The person I was most perceptive of besides Ko was the other little girl. I can't say her skeptical looks at me were too pleasant, but just the fact that she had more energy in her made me feel like that 50 billion that went into her purchase wasn't just for show. Another clear indication that who we were dealing with was quite powerful and ran by his own rules.

Could the guy who bought her not have been so bad? A modicum of my soul wanted to believe it, but I wasn't sure. Clearly money was no object if he spent so much on her.

Where does someone come up with that money in the first place? I had a hard time believing anyone could amass such wealth in this world, even the rich. Maybe the underground market was a lot more lucrative than I could ever have imagined. He was a kingpin that nobody was allowed to speak about until they were in his presence. Even Ko feared to utter his name.

The tram eventually started to slow. The maid in white made sure to give us a warning to stay still until the tram came to a full stop.

It creaked a few times, but suddenly stopped and docked with a platform.

“Please, watch your step as you exit the vehicle.” The maid in white said.

She was kind enough to help Ko and the other child reach the platform safely, but Bear was content shoving me out of the thing like a dog.

“Get moving, boy.”

I responded with a mean look, but his only reply to that was another very forceful shove, almost forcing me to the ground.

“Unless you're a woman, don't expect a delicate touch from me. So keep moving.”

I wanted to keep standing up to him, especially since I realized he wouldn't kill me no matter what I said, but I was feeling bruises develop all over from how often he was hitting me. At some point, I had to take it easy on acting pigheaded.

“Kitsune, I told you to watch yourself,” Ko chided me in a hushed voice.

I could only reply with a simple “Yeah.”

A set of stairs took us into a dingy looking basement with a bunch of cleaning supplies. Thankfully, we didn't stay in that musty place long.

We went up another set of stairs and found ourselves in a dimly lit lobby with an empty circular front desk, several pairs of escalators to the left and right, and a bunch of elevators in a hallway behind the front desk.

Across from the front desk was a large window to the outside city. It had the words ‘TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING’ written in big bold letters. Remnants of Japanese words could be seen still outlined onto the glass, covered over only on one side by English letters.

If that sign was any obvious indication, this was a government building. Maybe they really were turning us into the hands of our enemy.

The only thing that made me consider mildly otherwise was how empty this place was, as if it had been rented out for the night.

“You guys are in with the government?” I asked Bear or the maid in white. Whichever answered first.

“I look like a pill jockey?” Bear answered.

“Can I assume you aren’t a friend to them either, then?”

“No comment,” He replied as we stepped into an elevator.

I wasn’t expecting him to give me an answer, but his vocabulary struck me as negative. And if his history was true, he probably grew up in a place where no organized state would dare set foot.

The elevator ride was about as quiet as the tram, but it was stuffy and crowded. The diverse range of smells varied from pleasant floral fragrance, to mildew, likely from unwashed floors.

This building was tall, recently renovated too. In addition to the two major towers, a third had been placed just behind them, nearly double the size of its younger twins. It stood at an impressive 80 stories. We were going all the way to the top of that one.

Around The fortieth floor, a window in the elevator gave us a rising view of the city.

It was an impressive sight to see the whole city lit up from above. Colourful lights dotted the Earth from here to the horizon. It was almost a shame that Ekko wasn't here to see this, because in the right mood it might have been romantic.

Ko was especially mesmerized by the glistening cityscape. For a moment, I almost thought she was just a normal wide eyed kid.

“If only life were as nice as the view,” Bear spoke up.

“Do you mean that?” I asked him, surprised he'd say something so wise.

“Course I do. But if you don't have a rock hard will, life's even worse.”

A rock hard will wasn’t easy to come by. It took Ekko a lot of willpower to deny her pills and break off from society, and likely even more for Ko, who was the reason any of us ended up here at all.

But now I found myself questioning exactly what Ko was after this whole time. Was she being influenced from the shadows? I was hoping it would all be cleared up when we meet with this guy, and in a way that Ko wouldn’t be turned against us.

I don’t know if it’s common to think this, but I prayed in my heart that she was being blackmailed. At least then I could believe she’d stay true to our goal of saving everyone.

***

Finally we reached a pair of double doors. These glossy wooden barriers barely held back a powerful aura of unknown influence behind them.

The doors creaked open at the push of the maid in white. For a moment, she was an angel leading us to the shrine of her fortune god.

And this god sat alone, awaiting the arrival of a chosen pair to enter his hallowed chamber. All this time he’d been seemingly disguised as something of a simple company president, but now we were truly seeing the being who could rain money down on the lower class, even considering the rich well below his standards.

The shadows of the room hid his face well. The lights from the city and clouds framed around his silhouette.

“Boss…” uttered the burly Russian man. “I brought the kids home.”

“Thank you, Nikolai.” said the man at his desk, fingers folded between each other in a contemplative manner.

His voice was familiar. Not simply because I heard it before at the auction. It was much clearer now, and that clarity drew up vague core memories in my head. But where was I exposed to it before?

“You are dismissed.” At the wave of his hand, Bear left the room and closed the door behind him.

Then silence fell. The maid in white and the little girl both placed chairs in front of the desk, then took up flanking positions behind the most powerful man in the room.

“Please, make yourselves comfortable.” he requested we sit.

Both Ko and I obliged his offer and took seats. Upon closer inspection of his desk, a small nameplate could be seen on the front of it.

“Takamori Ikari…” My eyes widened as I read out his name. “You can’t be…”

“Make no mistake, the name you read is my own. Your sister can confirm this.”

She turned to me in a cold sweat, nodding as her fingernails dug into the upholstery of her chair.

“Now you understand why I had to bring us here,” Ko said. “When he approached me at the casino…I just…I never expected…”

I held up my hand, stopping her from justifying her motives any further.

“You did the right thing.” I told her, turning back to Takamori-san.

My resolve suddenly returned. I was ready to get on with this meeting.

“So, why did you bring us here, father?”