Eve giggled. “Even more so in a fight, especially these days.”
Yuko visibly shriveled in embarrassment.
Giles looked impressed. “Oh yeah?” He eyed Yuko, wondering if his newly acquired skills could match hers.
Eve nodded. “Yeah, she’s really gotten her Kill Bill on since Michael came back from the dead.”
Giles’ demeanor shifted. He looked slightly nervous, but nodded. “All righty, then. Good to know.”
“Shall we?” Yuko suggested, indicating the two Pods they had just hopped out of.
“We should,” Giles agreed, pleased he hadn’t challenged her to a little sparring. “I’ll ride with Eve. She can give me the low-down on your new style of diplomacy,” he added, pretending to be more unnerved by her lethality than he actually was.
Yuko smiled sagely. “I’m sure she will tell you everything you care to know,” she said as she hauled herself back into the Pod.
Giles scurried in after Eve, glad for the flight time to absorb the new pecking order.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Senate House, Tokyo, Japan
On arriving at the Senate building, Yuko had been given free access as if she were the Queen of Japan. Giles kept thanking his lucky stars he hadn’t been too cocky with her.
Something told him that Eve had refrained from bragging too much about Yuko’s sword skills.
Still, there was fear, and there was respect.
Clearly all the people who they had encountered at the Senate had great respect for Yuko.
After their special tour, the threesome stepped out of the front of the building and ambled down the steps.
“Wow. Well, fascinating architecture,” Giles commented politely.
Yuko smiled. “I don’t know about you, but I was bored out of my skull.”
Eve nodded her head with each downward step. “Me too.”
Giles politely remained silent.
Yuko continued, “In fact, that tour guide…” She shook her head. “I think if I hadn’t been the one to arrange the tour I might have been inclined to take my sword out!”
Eve sniggered. “That would have done wonders for future relations between the local government and the Tech Palace!”
Yuko winked at her. “True, but hey, it’s not as if we’re going to be here much longer.”
A jarring sadness lingered in her words as the three reached the bottom of the steps and headed out of the main gates.
Eve filled the silence. “Yes. This is true.”
Giles, finding his balls, decided to change the subject. “Sooooooo…” he started slowly and comically, “now that we’ve escaped the epic boredom of the Senate, what else is there in this town?”
Eve brightened suddenly. “We could show you the Tech Palace.”
Yuko nodded excitedly. “It’s a tech entertainment empire we built, mostly just for fun.”
Giles stroked his chin. “Hmm. Yes, it would be good to see these folks being entertained in their natural habitat. Although...isn’t there something a little less, er...cultivated?”
Yuko tilted her head. “Cultivated? How do you mean?”
“I mean...a little more...wild?” Eve was still confused. Giles tried again. “Like if I said, show me somewhere that is representative of your people at their best and their worst, where would you take me?”
Yuko grinned. “I know exactly the place!”
Giles eyed her curiously, but she wouldn’t give anything up.
Eve just shrugged.
The Pods arrived right on cue, and the three clambered in. This time Giles sat with Yuko to try to discover where they were going.
Three Black Eagles flew with them to their next destination.
Golden Gai, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Yuko had a spring in her step as she led the way through the sweltering streets of the Shinjuku quarter of Tokyo. The humidity in the air was making her hair frizzy, even though it was normally quite straight.
Eve kept pace with her human friend, twisting and turning through the rabbit warren of streets as if they’d navigated this route a hundred times before.
If they had cared to admit it they might have divulged that information...but Yuko was hoping that word didn’t get back to Akio and the leadership that they had spent so much time on Earth not just patiently waiting for a call from the sensors at the Colorado base where Michael had been blown into oblivion.
Although she frankly doubted Bethany Anne would care. For her it was more about decorum.
Giles had to make an effort to keep up, despite his longer legs. Still, captivated as he was by the sights, scents, and sounds the clubbing quarter offered, complaining about the pace was the furthest thing from his mind. “This is more like it!” he exclaimed with glee to no one in particular.
Yuko slowed her pace as they neared their destination. “We need to get you a drink stat,” she said forthrightly.
“Great!” He glanced at Eve, suddenly suspicious.
“You’re good with sake, right?” Yuko continued, her eyes darting around the street that was about to open onto a square.
“’Soy-kee?’” Giles repeated. “Erm, yes. I love it!” he lied.
Yuko inwardly rolled her eyes, but kept her face clear. “Great!” She flashed a grin at him before swiftly making her way through the nearest door on the street.
From outside it looked like little more than a converted house, but the innards had been gutted to make an open-plan kind of setup.
Pushing her way through the crowd of young energetic party goers, she took advantage of her lack of height to get to the bar.
She motioned to the barman, who seemed to recognize her, waving two fingers. In short order he produced two glasses and filled them with a clear liquid. She paid with her charge card, then grabbed the glasses and ducked back out to rejoin Eve and Giles, who had been watching her.
Yuko handed one to Giles and motioned for him to down it.
“What about Eve?” he asked, offering his to her.
“She can’t,” Yuko mouthed.
Eve opened her mouth. “Nowhere for it to go!” she shouted over the music. She made a sad face and then gave him her best pout.
Giles mirrored her pout in sympathy, then Yuko nudged him to make him drink.
He downed the small shot and his eyes flew wide.
Eve chuckled as he started choking and gasping for breath, throat burning.
“Oh my…” He coughed, looking around for someone to help him back to health, but all he could see were two women who hid their smiles behind their hands before they went back to speaking with their friends.
Eve clapped her hands, giggling, while Yuko, with a little more sympathy, patted him on the back. “Ok, this is just the warmup. Next place…” She slapped her empty glass on a nearby crowded high table and marched toward the door.
“Next place?” Giles echoed, suddenly concerned. He turned to ask Eve a question, but she was no longer there. Instead, she was disappearing behind Yuko onto the street.
He did a double-take, realizing that both girls had something of a rhythmic swagger in their step, as if moving to the music.
He found somewhere to put his glass and followed them. “Oh, hell. What have I gotten myself in for?” he muttered, pushing quickly through the crowd. He didn’t want to get lost in this strange place.
Because that would be embarrassing as hell.
—
Back out on the street, the quarter seemed to vibrate with color and neon lights.
Groups of youths walked the streets, each with their own subculture identification. Some would have bleached blond hair, others with colors and hair extensions. Some wore bizarre outfits, and others something reminiscent of torn jeans.
Many had strange luminescent clothes and bangles that seemed to float through the twilight streets on their own.
He tried hard to take it all in, one cohort of tribal culture after another, one fascinating-looking bar after another, while trying not
to lose sight of Yuko and Eve.
Eventually, just past a cordoned-off shrine, the girls came to a halt.
Giles caught up with them, perspiration mixing with the humidity and dampening his skin. “What is it?” he asked, confused and already a little tipsy from the single shot of sake.
Weren’t his upgrades enough to handle this stuff? he wondered as he looked around.
“There,” Yuko told him, pointing to another club down the little alleyway.
Outside were animals. Or to be more precise, people dressed as animals. Lions, tigers, bears, cats.
Lots of cats.
And even a dinosaur, if Giles’ eyes were to be believed.
He started chuckling. “Well, I did ask for local wildlife.” He was completely delighted with the whole adventure.
Eve grinned at him. “And we always deliver.”
“Yes. Yes, it would appear so,” he agreed wholeheartedly.
“Ok, then. Shall we?” Yuko said, striding off without waiting for an answer.
Eve was a step behind her.
“But I’m…” Giles protested, following several paces behind and jogging to catch up. “I’m a little under-dressed for this!”
Eve was still grinning. “Don’t worry, no one will notice.”
For some reason Giles wasn’t reassured as he trotted after them.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Club Wire, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
A skinny dancing elephant sashayed past the table. Giles watched it move, mesmerized by the curvaceous shape of the girl under the costume.
Yuko poured some more sake into his glass. “Drink!” she instructed.
Without taking his eyes from the dancing elephant, Giles brought the glass to his lips and took a sip, turning in his chair to examine a couple of cat-people who had caught his eye.
Dry ice obscured a lot of his view and lasers reflected off it, creating a surreal feel.
Blacklights illuminated anything that was made of the right material—including his teeth, much to Eve’s amusement.
Eve shuffled closer to Yuko to be heard above the music. “You seem distant.”
Yuko waved a finger near her ear and shrugged, as it to blame the music.
Eve raised one robotic eyebrow very deliberately, then lowered her voice to the minimum possible decibel level. “That’s not an excuse,” she said flatly. “I know you can hear me and I can hear you equally well, so come on. What gives?”
Yuko narrowed her eyes. When in the last hundred and fifty years had Eve become so damn perceptive? And persistent?
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain Inspector, would it?” Eve pressed.
Yuko had lowered her gaze to her drink, but now reluctantly dragged it up to look at Eve. She nodded slowly.
Giles had started talking to the pair of cats who had caught his eye and a guy in a latex dragon suit, so Yuko felt cornered. It was indeed inappropriate to talk about it without excluding him.
She sighed in surrender. “I just can’t stop thinking about him,” she admitted slowly.
Eve nodded her head comically, almost in glee, then took a second to compose herself. “Not that I have a lot of experience in this kind of thing, but I do know from watching relationships play out in the stories in the archives that this is the part where you get your finger out of your ass and go find him!”
Yuko’s expression was horrified.
Eve sniggered and poured her friend another drink. “Come on, you guys were made for each other. Goodness knows why you chose to walk away from him.”
“I didn’t have a choice. He was in danger!” Yuko protested.
Eve gave Yuko her best best-friend look and patted her hand mockingly.
Yuko slapped her arm.
Eve continued with her diatribe. “My analysis says it would be an easy story to tell, but that’s far from the truth.”
Yuko started to protest, but Eve raised her finger to silence her. “Firstly, if that were true, as soon as the threat on the hangar had been neutralized and Akio gave us the all-clear on the other loose ends you would have been over there like a shot.”
Yuko opened her mouth again, only to be silenced by Eve’s raised finger.
“Secondly, if that were the only reason, you would have hunted down whoever it was who came after you in that restaurant and taken them out as a priority. And don’t tell me you needed to go help Michael. We both know that as soon as that was all squared away you were back here looking for those damn crates, having us dig up most of the Chinese countryside.”
“It was my—”
“Duty. No, it wasn’t,” Eve interrupted her. “And what about now? Is it your duty to be here babysitting our local space archeologist and helping him meet girls in cat-suits? No, it’s not. You’re avoiding. I’ve watched you. You’ve been all avoid-y ever since that perfect date you wouldn’t talk about.”
“Hey heyyyyy…” Giles turned around in his seat to get Yuko and Eve’s attention. He was slurring his words, making Yuko suddenly wonder if he’d really been enhanced. “Listen to this,” he said.
He ushered the girls over to sit at their table, pulling out the chairs across from Yuko and Eve. “Get this. These young ladies…”
One of them pawed at him like a cat.
“I, er, mean ‘kittens,’” he corrected, “were telling me that our Empress doesn’t have such a good reputation down here. Apparently, she’s the stuff of nightmares—the thing that scares even the UnknownWorld.”
More people in animal suits joined the cluster that had gathered around Giles as he spoke.
Giles looked at Yuko and Eve to see if they were as horrified as he was.
Yuko remained expressionless. Eve was still on the topic of Inspector Hirano, and was suffering from her conversational subroutine being so abruptly interrupted before she had accomplished her task.
“Anyway,” he continued, taking another swig from his glass as two more guys swaggered up to hear what he was saying, “I was trying to explain that while she is quite the badass, she’s actually quite the...well, leader. Formidable, yes, but that her people hate her and think she’s a tyrant? I have never heard such a thing. Well, not until now.”
He waved his now-empty glass at the kittens. “But it seems that a whole pseudo-religious movement has been gestating in her absence, like she is some matriarch of the planet to be feared. And the appearance of the ships…” His thoughts seemed to drift. “Well, it probably didn’t help that image,” he muttered to himself.
Yuko noticed the kittens were also a little bleary-eyed, which explained their tolerance for his conversation. However, behind their makeup and good manners they were sitting relatively still, perhaps pretending they weren’t inebriated.
One of the guys muttered something about her being called a goddess from some legend.
“Absolutely!” Giles agreed, getting quite animated. “And she is a deity!” He stood up and raised an arm before he slumped butt-first back onto the chair.
He continued, “You should hear all the worlds she has destroyed, one after another. They whisper her name in even the fiercest of races, telling their warriors to beware. No one—and I mean no one—dares set a foot out of line where the Empress is concerned.”
He paused.
Yuko looked up as two more guys in jeans wandered over with their drinks, as well as some guy in a suit.
And the dinosaur. Giles had gotten a Gott Verdammt dinosaur to come over to hear him speak, even sloshed.
Giles was oblivious at the moment, but it seemed like word of his insight into the happenings in the skies in the last few days had been getting around. He, however, was focused on the two silent kittens, who were gazing at him dumbly.
Eve had had enough of Giles’ diatribe and turned to face Yuko, ignoring everyone else. “I’m your friend, and I want you to be happy. And that means pushing you to do the things you’re scared of now and again.”
Yuko put her hand on Eve’s under the table. A
tear had formed in her eye.
Eve urged, “I think you should go find him. He probably thinks you’re going to just up and leave. You should at least have a conversation with him, and in my opinion, you should ask him to come with us, at the least.”
Eve paused for a moment, then continued, “Of course you’ll probably need to get permission from Michael or Bethany Anne or someone, but given that their romance is the reason you stayed, I can’t imagine for a second that they’d deny you your own chance at happiness.”
Yuko felt the tear escape and drip down her cheek. Immediately she swiped it away, and amid the din of the music, the dry ice, the disorientating lasers, and the blacklight, she threw her arms around her friend and whispered, “Thank you.”
Then she got up and left, somehow adeptly navigating her way past Giles as he poured himself another rice wine.
Eve watched her make her way through the crowd of gyrating animal bodies, but then she turned back and appeared suddenly between the cat-girls and Giles like an apparition with something important to tell the living.
“Giles,” she said firmly, “I’m going to go now. Eve will see that you get back to the ship, but in my absence, there is to be no talk of our Empress at all. You hear me?”
Giles had started nodding to agree with her statement. Two seconds after she had asked if he heard her he realized he needed to do something different to indicate he had, so his nods turned to circles, mirrored by the movement of his glass in his hand.
“Good,” Yuko confirmed. She shot Eve a glance that told her she had permission to enforce the decree and get him back safely, even if he turned into a handful. Eve nodded once, and Yuko disappeared again.
Giles looked over his shoulder, trying to see where she went, but after a second, he returned his attention to the kittens, who were still rapt.
He opened his mouth to speak again.
Eve glared at him warningly.
“Fine,” he said. “Fine. Fine. Fiiiinnnne.”
He fell silent for a moment.
When he glanced up, even more people had joined their group. News of this strange man was spreading.
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