New Orleans
"No, I do understand,
Sei," Ikku rolled his eyes. "You're the
one who's not getting it."
Ikku and Sei stood
in the middle of 'Hey, Pizza!', which looked nothing
like the pizza restaurant it was supposed to be. The
large windows which formed the bulk of the front wall
had been boarded up, the pizza ovens had been
disconnected from the gas pipes and moved into the
corner, and ladders and tarpaulins filled most of the
remaining space.
"You are
correct," Sei said. "I do not 'get' how you
can neglect this opportunity. For weeks, both Miss
Sato and yourself have insisted that Cog and I train
you in the full use of the robosuits and the eternity
energy at your command, and now that Trick is
renovating the restaurant and given us the perfect
opportunity to conduct that training, you
wish to leave."
"For fifteen
minutes!" Ikku cried. He raised his right
hand and showed Sei a small woman's purse.
"Kiko's friend is finally back at work. After
all the trouble we went to to get her purse back from
Mochi Robo, it's only fair that we actually return
it to her."
"We did not
battle Mochi Robo in order to recover a purse,"
Sei told Ikku. "We fought the robot to save this
city and ourselves."
"That's a
matter of perception," Ikku countered.
"That's why you did it. Kageki and I
were - "
"If returning
the purse is such an important task, Miss Sato would
have taken it with her when she departed for work
this morning," Sei said.
"She forgot.
And she called and asked me to
bring it down for her."
Sei closed his eyes.
"Very
well," he said. "I have offered you
training, and you have refused it." He turned
and made his way to the front door. "I am going
for a walk."
"Oh, Sei, come
on - !" Ikku protested.
The door slammed
shut as Sei made his way into the busy street outside
and disappeared into the crowd. Ikku frowned; Sei was
right. He and Kiko had been insisting that
he train them to more effectively use their
robosuits, their weapons, and their eternity
shards - but with one menace after another
getting in their way, and a definite shortage of
shards, they had always needed to put it off - and
now that they finally had a chance to train properly,
Ikku was looking for any excuse to get out of it.
I'll talk to him
later, he thought. After I've returned the
purse.
"Cog!" he
called out to the back room of the store, separated
from the restaurant by two plastic doors. "I'm
going out! Sei's gone, too - you're on your
own!" He dashed out the door and down the
street.
Kiko yawned and
stared at the empty women's clothing and haberdashery
store beyond the counter at which she stood. She was
surprised that, despite all of the goings-on of the
previous seven weeks - attacks by giant robots and
monsters, military jets swooping over the city, and
three people in spandex running around blowing things
up - that the city had not been evacuated; but it may
as well have been, considering how few customers had
come into the clothing store in which she worked that
morning.
Her head drooped
forward and she yawned again, then slid down to rest
her chin on the countertop. Her eyelids sagged as
boredom overwhelmed her, until she heard a loud,
shrill voice which roused her as effectively as any
alarm clock.
"Kiko
Sato!" the voice shrieked. "Asleep on the
job! I should fire you for that, young lady!"
Kiko smiled.
"Amy!" she
cried. "You're back from lunch. Say something. Anything.
Just talk to me... I am so bored!"
Amy stood in front
of the counter and Kiko took a moment to look her
over. The woman had long, straight brown hair, which
fell over her ears and down her back to just below
her shoulders. She was thin, with pale white skin and
blue eyes. She was wearing a long brown coat, pale
brown cork sandals - and, oddly enough, a yellow and
brown gypsy-like dress, with folds and beads hanging
off it at various points.
Amy was only
twenty-five years old, but owned the clothing store -
and several other properties and New Orleans. Kiko
did not know how much the slightly older woman was
worth, but guessed that it was plenty - enough to
justify the Robomen's efforts to recover her purse
when it was snatched by Mochi Robo two weeks earlier.
"You look
exhausted," Amy said kindly.
Kiko shook her head.
"I'm tired, but
it's bored-tired, not
overworked-tired." She yawned again.
"Welcome back, boss."
Amy smiled.
"Thanks,"
Amy replied. "I'm still a bit shaken - can you
believe a robot stole my purse? The things
that have been going on in this city, Kiko,
seriously..."
"Yeah,"
Kiko smiled back. "Tell me about it."
Amy scanned the
store, then let her eyes fall back on Kiko.
"Take a
break," she said. "You've been looking
after this place by yourself for two weeks, now - and
you've done pretty well. In fact, I can see you running
this place soon. You've got manager written all
over you."
"Really?"
Kiko winked. "That's what happens when you live
with boys. Pranks, pranks, pranks. Still, they could
have written something worse."
Amy let out a quick
yelp of a laugh.
"You're still
living in the back of that dump of a restaurant?
You should have your own place by now - don't I pay
you enough?"
Kiko shook her head.
"No, no, it's
not that... it's just... a long story. A really long
story."
Amy pointed to a
door at the back of the store.
"I like long
stories, and you're going to tell me yours - after
you take a break, okay?"
Kiko nodded.
"Okay."
She pulled herself
away from the counter and made her way to the back of
the store and through the narrow doorway. On the
other side should have been a storeroom,
leading through to a tiny office which doubled as an
employees' lounge. Instead, Kiko felt as though she
had walked into a hologram - everything around her
was black, and as she concentrated, thin yellow lines
began to appear on the walls, floor and ceiling,
lines which she soon recognised as the streets and
roads of New Orleans.
This again? she
thought. I don't even have to concentrate this
time; it's just like London...
It was not the first
time everything had changed around Kiko, but the
previous two times she had been looking for something
specific; this time, the only thing on her mind was
sleep, and she had no idea why the 'map' had
appeared, or what the small white dots which slowly
came into focus might be.
What the... Oh!
I see. She focussed on a white dot near her
feet. That's me - I recognise the outline of the
mall. Those other dots must be other people... but,
that's odd - I can't see A - oh no!
Several 'blocks'
away, a large, bright red dot had appeared, and
nearby, a blue dot slowly made its way down a long,
crowded street. Kiko lifted her right wrist, pressed
several buttons on her bulky Alert Bracer, then spoke
loudly into its built-in microphone.
"Sei! There's a
huge spike of kenez and raido energy right
behind you!" she shouted. "What's going
on?"
There was a pause
before Sei's voice emerged from the Alert Bracer's
speaker.
"There is
nothing here, Miss Sato. Your Alert Bracer must be
malfunctioning."
"It's not my
Alert Bracer!" she called back. "It's the
totally immersive three-dimensional map I described
to you. I can see you clearly, just down the road
from 'Hey, Pizza!', and behind you... something
enormous!"
"There is
nothing here."
"Stay where you
are," she said. "I'll come meet you - maybe
when I am close enough, I can figure out what it
is!"
Kiko ran back out
through the door and, just as before, the map
continued to surround her, blocking out the 'real'
world around her. She ran as quickly as she could,
almost instinctively aware of the location of the
various objects that did not appear on the
bizarre display. As she passed the shop counter, she
heard Amy speak - but still, the other woman did not
appear as a white dot on the map.
"Kiko?"
Amy asked. "What's - ?"
"Sorry,
Amy!" Kiko replied quickly. "I've got to
go. It's an emergency!"
"Obviously!"
Amy said. "Go, go - just make sure you call so I
know everything's okay!"
Kiko nodded and
disappeared into the shopping centre, and Amy
lingered at the front of the store, staring after
her.
"Hi!"
Amy started and
frowned as she heard the man's voice to her left, but
her face softened as she watched him approach. He
seemed harmless, and when he stopped a few feet away
from her and offered his left hand, Amy thought she
might even know who he was.
"Hi!" he
said again. "Do you work here? I'm looking for
Kiko."
"You just
missed her," Amy replied, "and at the pace
she was going, I don't think anyone short of Speedy
Gonzales could catch her." She looked the man up
and down. "I'm Amy - I own this store. Can I
help you?"
The man smiled.
"I'm - "
"Wait,
wait!" Amy interrupted. "Let me guess -
you're Ikku, right?"
Ikku's smile turned
into a broad grin.
"How'd you
know?"
"Kiko talks
about you a lot. Tall, brown hair, disheveled, too
skinny, clothes with way too many straps and buckles,
grinning like a doofus - that's you, all right."
Ikku rolled his
eyes.
"Did she say
anything nice about me?" he asked.
Amy shook her head.
"Not
really," she replied, "and I'm not sure
why. I can think of something nice, and I've only
known you for thirty seconds."
"You can?
What's that?"
"You're
hot."
Ikku blushed.
"Uh,
thanks!" he said. He realised his hand was still
sticking out between himself and Amy; the woman had
not taken it. He quickly pulled it away and stuck it
behind his back, where his right hand also rested.
"So you're Amy... I brought your - ACHOO!"
Amy took a step
back.
"She also told
me about your cold," she said. "Can I get
you anything?"
Ikku shook his head.
"No, I'm fine -
that's the first time I've even sneezed in two
weeks!" he told her. Not counting all the other
times, he added silently.
"So..."
Amy rocked back and forth on her heels. Ikku was
staring at her, and while that did not bother her,
she saw nothing to be gained by standing around
letting a boy gawk in the entrance of her store.
"As I said, Kiko's gone..."
"Oh!" Ikku
quickly whipped his hands around to the front of his
body and showed Amy the small purse he was carrying.
"This is yours!"
"My
purse!" she exclaimed. She reached forward and
snatched it from Ikku's palm. "How did
you...?" She opened it and checked its contents.
"There's nothing missing... thank you!"
Ikku grinned again,
straightened his back, and puffed out his chest.
"It was
nothing, ma'am!" he said, deliberately lowering
the pitch of his voice, emulating the sort of tones
used by cowboys and police in movies.
Amy stared at him
for a moment, laughed, then smiled.
Oh my god, he's
adorable! she thought. I wonder why Kiko
never has said anything nice about him!
Clad in tall black
boots, black trousers, a tight black t-shirt and a
long black trenchcoat, Sato Senshi hid behind a large
trunk in a room filled with more junk than he thought
it possible for a single person to accumulate.
Paintings and tapestries of people and creatures he
did not recognise lined the walls, and small tables,
bureaus and desks, each covered with baubles that
Senshi could not imagine serving either a decorative or
functional purpose, were crammed into the small
room.
The room was inside
a modest, old house on the outskirts of New Orleans,
and it was the house's sole occupant that he was
hiding in wait for. As he watched the front door, it
occurred to him how different he and his target must
be; his own apartment was sparsely-furnished,
containing only the bare necessities - a small bed, a
couch, a refrigerator, oven and television - and
while financial circumstances had had some impact
on how he decorated his home, it was only a minor
impact. He lacked his environment basic and
functional, not cluttered, untidy, and filled with
items of mostly decorative value.
But that was not the
only difference he saw between himself and
the house's resident - he perceived a very basic difference;
he was good, she was evil.
And she was walking
through the door.
The woman had long
pink hair, which she had tied back in a ponytail, and
she wore a grey skirt and a white shirt covered by a
black jacket. Senshi had seen the woman several times
before, and although she was dressed very differently
than in their previous encounters, she was still
easily recognisable.
As the woman turned
her back to him, he stood and stepped around the
trunk behind which he had been hiding, exposing
himself fully.
"Sorceress
Miko," he said simply.
The woman whirled
around on her heels and saw Senshi standing calmly
before her.
"You!" she
snarled. "Again! What must I do to make you
leave me alone?!"
"Surrender. Let
me take you into custody."
Miko rubbed her
temples with the thumb and index finger of her right
hand.
"There's no
EDD," she reminded him. "There's no-one to
hand me over to, you idiot. Even if I did surrender
to you - which I won't - what would you do with me?
How did you even find me?"
"I'll figure
something out," Senshi replied. "As for
finding you... it wasn't easy. Why would you be
living in a house belonging to someone named Amy
Seaward?"
Miko sighed.
"You're a
fool," she said. "You know I can just
teleport you into a volcano, don't you?"
"Not without
teleporting yourself with me," he said,
"and I know you care too much about your Pixies
to have one of them do it for you."
Miko scowled, then
turned her lips into a sneer.
"There's
nothing stopping me from teleporting the flesh off
your skull."
"Try it, if you
must," he said.
Immediately, Miko
lurched forward, her palm flat out in front of her,
ready to grab hold of any exposed part of Senshi's
body; but he was faster - he ducked, whirled and
grasped a long, silver candlestick, with which he
batted Miko's hand away.
"Come on,
Miko," he told her. "Just give up."
She said nothing,
but Senshi could see the blood rushing to her face as
she became frustrated... and angry. Her hands
clenched into fists and her eyebrows arrowed sharply
- then, as her body tensed, the walls began to shake,
and the blue glow of raido energy filled
every minor groove or pore in the wood, plaster,
bricks and mortar.
Maybe I
underestimated her, Senshi thought, but as the
wall suddenly blew apart and the flying debris faded
in a rain of blue mist, only to reappear in a broken
heap in the corner of the room, Sorceress Miko seemed
as surprised as he was.
Momentarily
forgetting their own battle, Sato Senshi and
Sorceress Miko cautiously approached the opening in
the outside wall and peered out into the street
beyond, where a bizarrely-shifting, basically
human-shaped robot peered back at them.
The robot appeared
to Senshi like something out of an abstract painting.
One moment, it looked normal; then, almost more
quickly than his eyes could follow, its components
would rearrange themselves - an eye would move to
replace an ear, or a mouth would open in the palm of
the robot's hand.
A mouth capable of
speaking, just like any other. A mouth which said:
"I am Tejina Robo." The
mouth slid up the robot's arm and across its chest,
to settle at the base of its neck. "Today, at my
hands, Sorceress Miko will die!"
Senshi turned to
glance at Miko, to see how she reacted to the robot's
threat. She seemed unfazed, but Senshi simply could
not stop himself from saying: "See? Surrendering
to me doesn't sound like such a bad idea now, does
it?"
