How would the Hermetics react once they encountered them again? Were they truly enemies? Would they be forced to war with them, or was there some other option, some angle he hadn’t thought of yet? Micah remembered Ahmey, the sixteen-year-old nun who had allowed Soraya to activate the mind control mantra with her industria seed. He couldn’t help but shake this feeling that if ever there was a leader, one that could bridge the gap between both sides, it was the young woman.
But how? Micah knew that the solution had something to do with her, but he was unaware of how the pieces fit together in the end. The Hermetics didn’t have the mechanisms necessary to run the country, and while the Society of Monks did, they had resorted to oppressing and attacking their own people, poisoning them when possible, not to mention their exploitation of the poverty-stricken outer provinces.
Ahmey was the key, of this Micah was certain, but he had yet to uncover the door. This was another reason he thought it was a good idea to leave the country for a while, to give him time to regroup. All six of the districts of Neo-Hokkaido had either gone into lockdown, or were close to doing so. Perhaps he would get a better perspective outside looking in, as long as they didn’t stir up trouble in Heian. A low profile could also give him some perspective.
One thing was for certain—Micah knew he wasn’t the person that was going to be able to lead Neo-Hokkaido, nor did he want to become the poster child for the rebellion, or martyr for that matter, anything like that. In fact, the deeper he got into it, the more he wanted to operate as almost a shadow force, the way that the Monks of Repose had operated for so long within the Society of Monks, yet one with more influence, one that actually was able to get the job done and deliver on its promises.
“I don’t believe we’ve introduced ourselves,” Milsung told him as she let the group go ahead a bit. “You are, after all, my sister’s husband.”
“It’s been a crazy couple of weeks,” he replied, still slightly shocked at how much she looked like her older sister, their body types similar, their hair almost the same aside from Milsung wearing hers in two ponytails like Liza did.
“So I’ve heard. And somehow, you, a former medical student who has no experience in any of these kinds of affairs, are in the center of it. How curious.”
“Somehow,” he said, not quite registering if she was simply making a statement, or judging him in some way.
“I suppose stranger things have happened.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
This caused Milsung to laugh. “You are wittier than I thought.”
“Trust me, I’m not,” he said, looking ahead at Yuri, who was walking next to Bunni, Micah’s eyes tracing over Yuri in her athletic clothing. It was weird to miss someone on both an emotional and physical level, Micah wishing that he could teleport everyone else away from him for an hour so he could simply be alone with Yuri. But his group had continued to grow, and now her sister was part of it as well, which could potentially add another complication. Certainly not another wife, though. He was glad his grandmother hadn’t made any crass jokes about that; if he was going to marry another one of his steadily growing entourage, it would likely be Liza, especially after the bond they had formed lately. There’s always Soraya, he thought, smirking at this notion, and simultaneously wondering which part of his brain that had arisen from. Yeah, right…
But he had an understanding with the kitsune now, the two closer than they had ever been, which was saying something, considering when they first met she had tried to kill him. Anything could happen, truly. If he hadn’t been a believer of that weeks ago, he certainly was now.
“What do you think of my sister?” Milsung asked so only Micah could hear.
“I think she’s… everything. I know that there are those out there who would judge me and say I don’t know her well enough, or that we haven’t been together long enough, or that our age difference—considering she’s from like fifteen hundred years ago—is a complication, but there’s something that comes from surviving a series of events, ones that could have led to death, that brings two people closer. We’ve also been running nonstop since the time we got married, so there hasn’t been much downtime for us to really pick apart each other’s lives.” Micah shrugged. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe relationships are damaged when there’s too much time to nitpick at them.”
“And Bunni?” she asked.
“Bunni is Bunni.” He glanced up at the Plains Dweller, and the way she towered over the other two with her large rabbit ears, which almost touched the ceiling of the underground tunnel. She was hot, vivacious, and always fun.
“Do you think she’s sexy?”
“That’s a weird question to be asking me,” Micah said.
“Like I said, I’m just curious. I never thought my sister would marry anyone, and I especially didn’t think Bunni would, yet here I am in the future, and both of them have married you. Pardon me, but it just doesn’t make sense.”
“Just a normal guy like me, huh?”
“Something like that. And it leaves me wondering if perhaps I have been, or I guess I should have said, perhaps I had been, looking in the wrong place all along. I always thought if I did get married, it would be to a soldier, or even one of the clan hunters, or maybe…” She didn’t finish that statement. “Who knows?”
Micah heard Bobi rattle off some facts about what the tunnel was once used for, his grandmother adding the occasional salacious comment, which Choro and Bunni usually picked up on.
“Have you ever been to Heian before?” Milsung asked, changing the subject.
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Then you may be in for a surprise.”
“If it’s anything like Jokamatchi, I guess I’ll have to just get used to it.”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing like Jokamatchi. For one, there are men, and it’s a very…” Milsung paused for a moment as she searched for the right word. “It’s a very open society, I will say that. People are very forthcoming. This is one of the reasons they have issues with Jokamatchi. You see how kitsunes are,” she said as she gestured toward Soraya, whose ears twitched.
“I heard that,” Soraya called back to them.
Micah looked to Milsung and nodded, and even though it was brief, he felt good at that moment. They had finally been able to connect on something, even if it was at the expense of the kitsune.
Chapter Two
Micah didn’t know what to expect from the country of Heian, especially its main district, Muryane, which covered the entire ground area of the country and stretched beyond what the eye could see. He was instantly surprised at how dense the cityscape was, the skyscrapers towering, and any buildings over four stories shaped like rabbit ears and lined in lights, the floating districts Lepus and Tapeti illuminating the sky.
The tunnel from Woodsaka had brought them directly into a drainage ditch in a small, urban park with several designated sport areas. The trees here looked different, their leaves absolutely enormous, the canopy higher than it was in Neo-Hokkaido. Like the floating districts above, the park was well-lit, yet there was enough shadow near their current location to disguise them for the time being, to give Micah and his team a moment to acclimate to the new environment.
He helped his grandmother off her moving vehicle, the elderly woman already complaining that she was going to have to do some walking. As soon as she was off, the vehicle turned and headed back toward the tunnel, offering a little toot before it spoke. “I’ll be waiting here for you,” came Bobi’s voice. “Don’t forget about me.”
“Listen to this thirsty AI…” his grandmother said under her breath.
“So we stick with the plan,” Micah told the group, finishing something he had started to say just moments ago, “and hopefully it will work until we figure out a way to get some funding.”
“You could always prostitute yourself out.” Bunni passed in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “The women here would be absolutely thrilled t
o be with a strapping young Neo-Hokkaidan such as yourself. I will allow it, but I don’t know about Yuri…”
Micah’s grandmother cackled at her statement. “We could pimp him and Choro out.” She slapped the side of Choro’s belly with the back of her hand. “Isn’t that right?”
“Hey!”
“One of you is muscular, the other is a bit thicker. That gives the people some options, the customer always being right and whatnot. It’s good to give options. That’s business.”
“That was never part of the plan…” Micah said, but then he realized in the looks on Bunni and his grandmother’s face that they were teasing him.
Yuri came forward and connected her arm with Micah’s. “Before we start along that line of thinking, we need to find a place to rest for the night. And we need to stick with the plan, like Micah said. There’s no room for improvising here.”
Once again, her leadership of the group became apparent, the three other ninjas—and Liza, for that matter—falling in line behind her. For Micah’s plan to work, it was important that Soraya’s kitsune features be on full display. However, going through the streets until they found a place to stay could prove difficult, even in a diplomatic area.
That was how scorned Jokamatchians were in Heian.
To counteract this, Soraya had wrapped the scarf Micah’s grandmother wore over her head to clamp down her ears. It was going to be impossible to hide her tail considering her current outfit, so she simply kept it up and tried to stick to the shadows as they made their way out of the park into the main thoroughfare.
They immediately ran into a problem: it was exceedingly bright on the streets, the cobblestone roads lit by lanterns and roaming drones, which cast cones of soft orange light from fifteen feet above. It was a lively area, Micah coming to realize that they had stepped out of the park and into a busy section of the district full of nightclubs. Young Plains Dwellers were already out and about, men and women with rabbit ears, many of them tall like Bunni. Most didn’t pay any attention to their group, but a pair of men all huddled together and sharing a bejeweled metal flask happened to catch sight of Soraya’s tail.
“Hey,” one of them said, a crooked grin taking shape across his face. “What’s the kitsune doing here?”
“I don’t know, you tell me,” Soraya said as she stepped up to them. “This is the diplomatic quarters, isn’t it?”
One of them spat. “Jokamatchi closed their embassy months ago.”
Shit, Micah thought as the other Plains Dwellers all seemed to size him up, Choro as well. There were four of them, and while they didn’t have weapons, they were rather large, one of them almost two heads taller than Micah.
“If I were you, I would keep moving,” Bunni said carefully. “You will not like what happens next.”
One of the male Plains Dweller’s laughed. “That so? You, a bunch of girls, and a ratty old lady are going to do something about it?”
“Ratty old lady, huh? Well, fuck you too, you tall piece of shit!” Micah’s grandmother came forward and drove her knee straight to the man’s groin. “Try having kids after that, you cocky little cocksucker!”
“Bitch… you bitch!” the man howled, on the verge of keeling over.
“Weapons or no weapons?” Milsung asked quickly, Yuri’s sister with a flail sheathed at her side, its chain hanging down to her knee. Her sister didn’t have a chance to reply. The spinning kick that Soraya delivered next made Micah cringe, the male Plains Dweller’s jaw clearly broken with a single strike, the man trailing to the side and followed by an arc of blood.
“Make it quick,” Yuri told her younger sister as she grabbed the guy who Micah’s grandmother had first attacked, delivering a series of incredibly strong punches to his face while holding him by his collar. She pushed him away, and Liza sprung forward and took him down by cracking him in the side of the skull with her loose bucket helmet.
Smack!
Not one to miss out on the action, Micah swung at the first Plains Dweller he could reach, missing, and nearly losing his balance. The two grappled for a moment before Micah delivered a couple fists into his side. The man stumbled away, only to be met by a roundhouse kick from Milsung, which damn near took his head off.
The final guy didn’t have a chance to run. As he stepped away, Choro charged forward and tackled him. Choro rolled to the side and Bunni stomped her foot onto the man’s throat, pressing it there to the point that he started to choke before she finally let up.
By the time they finished, all four of the male Plains Dwellers were on their knees or backs now, some of the revelers of the nightclub district, including a few of the security guards, taking a wide step away from Micah and his team.
“We probably shouldn’t have done that,” Yuri said as she motioned everyone forward.
They were initially held back by Micah’s grandmother and her slow speed, but they still managed to get clear of the nightclub quarter without any other issues, the group quickly obscured by the ever-increasing size of the crowd. As if it were a beacon on the hill, Micah spotted an enormous hotel, shaped just like the other buildings but gaudy and clearly a landmark of sorts, the building at least seven or eight stories high.
Bunni caught up with him, and placed an arm around his shoulder. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.
“It looks dignitary enough to me.”
“Okay, everyone, time to make this work,” Bunni announced as she lassoed her hand through the air.
Micah knew it was going to be a hard sell. Especially with the clothing they currently wore, all in either athletic gear, a Hermetics outfit for Choro, and a black ninja get-up for Milsung, as well as his grandmother, who would certainly be out of place regardless of where they were.
“Remember, stick with the plot, and be as royal as you can possibly be,” the Plains Dweller told Soraya. “Which means you need to be rude and a bit haughty, sort of like how you already are, only more princess-like, so dainty, less of a bitch.”
“I’m not a bitch!”
“Hmmm… Isn’t that something a bitch would say?”
“Whatever. I’ll do my best.”
This caused Milsung to snicker, the kitsune not at all pleased by Bunni’s statement. Soraya removed the covering from her head and tried to make herself presentable. Meanwhile, Micah put on his bucket helmet to make himself look official, Liza doing the same, the buckets clashing with their athletic clothing. It was going to be a stretch, but hopefully they would be able to dupe the hotel staff.
Here goes nothing, he thought as they made their way up the steps of the hotel, where a well-dressed man with rabbit ears opened the door for them, not at all judging the group by their appearance. He simply kept his gaze on his feet as he held the door open. Once they were inside the lobby, which was as large and fine as any hotel Micah had seen in his country, they were ushered toward the check-in counter.
“We are here from the Jokamatchian Embassy,” Bunni announced, her voice filled with confidence, “as part of a trade delegation.” She nodded to Soraya. “As you can see, Princess Shortness is here on behalf of the embassy. We also have two high-ranking members of the Society of Monks with us as well,” she said, gesturing toward Micah and Liza. “Very high-ranking. Trust me.”
Princess Shortness? Micah thought, trying not to make any sudden movements. That name was never part of the plan…
“That’s right,” said Liza, her voice suddenly metallic because of her bucket. “I’m here on behalf of Soultrah of Thunderhama’s Shuna Ray Temple to escort, um, Princess Shortness.”
“As am I,” Micah said, clearing his throat. “Princess Shortness.”
This can’t be how a proper member of the Society of Monks would speak, Micah thought, glad that the hotel clerk couldn’t see his face.
“We don’t seem to have any reservations for a… Princess Shortness.” The hotel clerk checked a screen hovering in the air, one backlit by industria. “We weren’t expecting any trade delega
tes.”
“That’s because it is a secret diplomatic mission, meaning that we’re trying not to let the general public know about it,” Bunni informed him.
“This all comes as a surprise…” he said, his eyes starting at Micah and moving to the ninjas and their athletic gear, and finally to Micah’s grandmother, who was now leaning with one hand against the counter, an agitated look on her face.
“Look, fellah, unless you want war with Neo-Hokkaido over treatment of dignitaries, as well as every armed septuagenarian in my country, and you want that war to be caused by your poor understanding of our top-secret operations, I suggest you prepare the presidential suite for us and do it fast, before I get angry,” said Micah’s grandmother. “Funds will be transferred either tomorrow or the day after, and we would like not to be bothered during that time. Further, we need clothing. Our bags were stolen.”
“Ahem, did you say stolen?”
“So you can hear me with those big ears of yours. As you can see, this one doesn’t exercise,” she said, motioning to Choro, who was biting his lip, “and he’s my personal bodyguard. As is this one,” she gestured toward Milsung. “Which is why they are in their original clothing. The others all decided to work out at a park near here, even though we told them to wait until we got to the hotel, that you likely had a facility here. You do have an exercise facility, don’t you?” She didn’t wait for him to finish. “Well, some hooligans—four of them if you must know, tall fellows who seemed drunk, high, and possibly horny—stole our luggage, their luggage. But our luggage too. Our luggage was with them. We were at a tea shop. That’s why they’re wearing athletic outfits; well, not because we were at a tea shop, but because our luggage was with them and they were in the park exercising and, like I said, four of your countrymen stole our bags. Look…” Her eyes fell onto the clerk’s nametag. “Sven?”
“Yes?”
“What the hell kind of name is that? I hate it. Hate the way my mouth feels when I pronounce it. And believe me, I know what this looks like, that the eight of us simply came in off the street after sneaking our way into your country from Woodsaka while being hunted by the Society of Monks and the Hermetics, but that is not the case. We have a very important top-secret diplomatic trade mission, and I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you how disappointed I am with how your country has treated us so far.”
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