Vicissitude Yang Side

by Destine Williams

  4-3 'Ah'

  The drive home is long and draining under the bleary sky. A three car accident on the shoulder of the freeway bottlenecks traffic to a slow trickle. I’m barely half-way home, and regretting coming all the way out here in the first place. It was only supposed to be a quick in and out task, not a whole damn drama fiasco.

  I’ve always known that the Geisha hated me, but I’ve never given much thought to why. Now, it makes sense; Mai’s always been so preoccupied with me over the years, trying to make up for Mom’s death that he’s probably sick of it.

  At least now, I’ve finally got some dirt on him. Not the retiree dirt I wanted at first, but at least it’s something to give me a fighting chance against this blackmail hole I was in.

  My phone rings from its place on Tammy’s car mount. It’s Regi. I push answer, then filter the call through the speakers. "Hey."

  "Are you at home?"

  "No, I'm still on the freeway. What's up?"

  "Just wondering if you were there,” Regi says. “I wanted to talk about marriage stuff.”

  Raindrops dot the windshield. Traffic isn’t moving. My gaze flicks up to the rearview mirror. The last thing I want is to be roped into any important talk tonight. “Can it wait until tomorrow? It doesn’t look like I’m going to be home soon.”

  “Really? Where are you coming from?”

  I turn on the windshield wipers. “Taitai Prefecture.”

  “That’s pretty far. What’s all the way out there?”

  “That’s where I used to live before I started living with Tammy.” I inch forward with the traffic.

  “I didn’t know that. Your parents stay there?” Then it occurs to me, that I haven’t ever told Regi about what happened to the rest of my family.

  “They used to. They’re not around anymore.”

  “Not around?” Regi echoes. “Oh. No wonder I’ve never heard you talk about them much.”

  “I don’t like remembering that.”

  “But you went out there still?”

  The traffic finally speeds up a little, and I let out a breath of relief. “I wanted some closure. And to check a few things out.”

  “I see. Well, I guess I’ll wait until tomorrow night then. Is seven okay with you? Do you want me to bring anything for dinner?”

  “As long as it’s somewhat healthy.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Regi says. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See you.” I end the call.

  The rain stops by the time I get home, but the cold air bites through my clothes. I clench my teeth to keep them from chattering and rush inside.

  Warm heater air sinks down into my bones. I stand in front of the door, drinking the warmth in. I feel like I’ve been trapped in a strange dream world for eons and I’m just now waking up.

  From the couch, King pricks a reddish ear at my arrival, but remains where he is. The puzzle box is still on the table, unsolved by the looks of it. Judging from the faint buttered popcorn smell in the room, I’d say that Jin gave up on it and decided to watch a movie. I can’t blame him. I feel like doing that myself. But before that I should check the mail.

  Thumbing through each letter, I make my way into the kitchen. I stop in the doorway to turn on the light, then separate the real mail from the junk. My thumb comes across a familiar S-shaped dragon logo in the corner.

  I pause, bending the envelope corner back so I can see the whole thing. Red Dragon Academy? That’s my old cram school where I did my assassin’s training. What are they doing contacting me now? It’s been years since I graduated. I tug the envelope out and set the rest of the letters on the counter. Then my eyes fall on the recipient’s name.

  Jin Nomae

  Ice pulses in my blood. What’s Jin doing with one of these? When Tammy said that she was enrolling Jin in a cram school, I didn’t think that she’d be enrolling him in this one! But how? Why? The only way you can even get in is if the child is an approved Showguns trainee. There’s no way Tammy would approve of her son joining the mafia.

  I quickly flip the envelope over and tear at the flap. There’s got to be some kind of misunderstanding. There’s no way… Maybe Red Dragon Academy is trying something new. Something legal. Something not Showguns related. I yank the letter out from the envelope and scan it.

  To the parents of Jin Nomae,

  Congratulations! We’re glad to announce that your child has been accepted into Red Dragon Academy for the upcoming school year. Though we do not require anymore paperwork to be turned in at this time, we do ask that you share with them the ID: Pz968743532 so he can log in to his Red Dragon Portal and fill out—

  I lower the letter and stride into the living room. “Jin!”

  I hear Jin’s door groan as it opens. His feet thud down the stairs. Jin pokes his head over the banister. “What happened?”

  I jerk my head towards the table. “Come down stairs and have a seat. I need to talk to you about something.”

  Jin’s eyes widen, then dart away. He pulls his head back and starts walking down slowly. He’s only clad in blue shorts, a white tank top and socks only halfway on his feet. Jin sits down on the couch near King to which the Alaskan Malamute responds by squeezing under the other end of the couch, clearly not wanting any involvement.

  I hold up the letter. “How did you get into Red Dragon Academy?”

  Jin’s mouth forms an ‘o’ shape. “I got in?”

  “Yes, but I want my question answered Jin,” I say. “How did you get in? Do you know what it takes to get in?”

  Jin pulls at an earlobe. “Yeah. I sent in my scores.”

  “Sent in your scores and…?”

  Jin shrugs. “That’s it.”

  My eyes narrow. “Don’t lie to me, Jin. I know what it takes to get into Red Dragon Academy. I’ve gone there, and they don’t admit you just because of your test scores.”

  Jin shoulders shrink in. He looks up at me, not saying anything.

  I fold the letter back up and hold it out to him. “Does Tammy know about this?”

  He shakes his head and takes it. “Are you going to tell her?”

  “Depends.” I fold my arms. “Who recruited you?”

  Jin fingers the crease of the letter hesitantly. “Genji.”

  My fingernails dig into my arm skin. I should’ve known. “Don’t tell me you’re the Amazing Mister Jin?”

  Jin gawks at me. “You read my question?”

  “I answered your question.” I shake my head. “But I was hoping that was just a coincidence. What were you thinking? You even told me you wanted me to quit. Then you go around and do this?”

  Jin winces. “B-but Genji…”

  “Genji what?”

  “He kept saying how he was concerned about you and that you might be involved in something dangerous. Then he told me to check your stuff because he thought you’d have a gun and—”

  My arms lower slowly. “Wait. he told you about my gun? Did he tell you the number?”

  Jin nods.

  He made Jin open the box? Then that night…the whole gun scare…the Geisha showing up at the shrine. He planned all of it. I had a feeling something wasn’t right about that whole incident, but I can’t believe he got Jin involved! “Did he tell you that I could get killed or arrested for what you did that day you went through my stuff?”

  Jin shakes his head.

  I thought so. I scoff. “If you’re really serious about being an assassin, then the first thing you’d have learned is to never trust another assassin that’s not your mentor. For reasons like this. Do you know that stunt cost me my career? And almost got me killed.”

  “If I would’ve known, I never would’ve done it!” Jin blurts out.

  “Well, from now on, don’t listen to anything else Genji says. Especially not if it’s about me,” I say. “As for this Red Dragon Academy business, I can’t pull you out of the school myself, so you’re off the hook until your Mom gets back. Unless you’ve got some other cram schools, you can
go to.”

  “There’s two more, I think,” Jin says.

  “There better be.” I point a finger at him. “Or you’re in big trouble. Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say. You’re free to go.”

  Jin scrambles back upstairs with King on his heels.

  I head back to the kitchen to finish looking at the mail and make myself some tea and a lazy man’s bowl of butter, soy sauce, and some rice to take upstairs. I almost forgot. I promised Heaven that I’d look for that passcode to Megumi’s phone.

  When I get to my room I set the bowl down immediately and start rummaging through Megumi’s pencil box on her desk. Sticky notes are posted all over the inside cover: neon green, yellow, blue, pink, orange. Color coded for specific things. Greens are chemistry formulas, yellow for physics, blue for calculus, pink for biology, orange for passwords. But the orange one in this box unfortunately isn’t her phone password, it’s for her game streaming account.

  I close the box and open her upper drawer. Reminders, old notebooks, planners, back up pencils, graphing calculator, even more sticky notes, lab books, an old soldering board. Where is her phone password? I know that she wrote it down somewhere. She didn’t take it with her to work did she? She keeps everything on her laptop. I boot up her laptop and enter in the password. Once the desktop screen comes up, I get comfy in her chair. I click on the folder labeled Emergency Info and scroll through the names until I get to a spreadsheet labeled Pw: In case I forget. I click on it.

  It’s got a long list of passwords to everything that Megumi uses, with sections for the type of device or site the website is used for. Only problem is that the phone section has ten passwords, and none of them are labeled with anything that distinguishes them beyond the word phone.

  I rest my chin in my palm, frowning. Gods, why does she have so many? How am I supposed to figure out which is the most recent? Maybe I should just send Heaven all of them? I pull out my phone to text her.

  One of these things better be correct.

  I catch Ken alone in the Review Room, stuffing a honey mustard snack wrap into his mouth while he flips through channels. He waves. “Hey, Jun, you’re here early.”

  “And so are you.” I ease down next to him. "I actually had something to ask you."

  "Oh yeah?" He puts his idle arm up over the back of the couch. "Shoot."

  I point to my Gene Watch. "Any chance you could show me how to rent a weapon? I kinda want to save my item coupon.”

  "Sure thing." He scarfs down the last of his wrap and leans over. "Lemme have a look."

  I stay quiet while he flips through my projected menu panels with a finger.

  Ken tilts his head, rubbing his chin. “Huh…yours is a little weird. But I think I know—“ Before he can say anything else, the Review Room door chuffs open.

  Duffel bag on her shoulder, Vampire strolls toward the fridge. “Yo, bishes.”

  Bish? What? Can’t just say the “tch” around here?

  “Hey, Vamp,” Ken calls. “Do you remember the code for rental access?”

  “Uhh…” Vampire takes out a cup of yogurt, eyes narrowing in thought. “Try ZenG6.”

  “Cool. Thanks.” Ken enters the code, The screen finally pulls up the rental shop. He grins at me. "And there you go."

  At his smile, gentle warmth roots in the pit of my stomach. It’s the first positive thing that I’ve seen in the past few days. And now that I’m thinking about it, his smile is probably the only positive thing I’ve seen in a while, hasn’t it? Between Megumi going missing, these fox powers showing up, Mai doing…whatever she’s doing, and Genji ordering me around, it feels like I’ve been trapped in darkness for so long that I’ve stopped noticing it. “Thanks, Ken.”

  Tempest and Blunts enter last.

  “Yo! Everyone catch the trailer?" Blunts asks.

  "I watched it," I say. “It’s pretty simple. Just seize the castle."

  Behind the kitchen counter, Vampire snorts. “Yeah, but it's five of us against a huge army. So not really.”

  “Only one of us has to touch the seize ring, I think,” Ken says. “How bad can it be?”

  “Don’t forget, that there’s no infinite stamina code,” Tempest says. "This is all on our strength."

  "And some of us haven't trained yet." Vampire's eyes are on her food, but the barbed words are for me.

  My jaw clenches. “Well, I’m not gonna hold you back, if that’s what you think.”

  She meets my gaze coolly. “Didn’t say you would.”

  But you’re acting like it.

  Blunts clears his throat loudly. “Anyone decide on what class they want? I'm thinking samurai.”

  Ken elbows me in the ribs, a knowing smirk on his face. “I was kinda leaning towards that one or Shogun.”

  “I don’t think we can have two of the same role on our team,” Tempest says, swiping through her Gene Watch.

  Ken scratches at his upper lip. “Shogun for me, I guess.” Then he looks to me with a grin about it.

  “I call mage,” Vampire says.

  “I’ll play priest then,” Tempest says.

  I slump in my seat. “And that leaves me with ninja.”

  Blunts pulls up a game map on his Gene Watch and joins Ken and me at the couch. “Hey, can the rest of you come around the couch for a sec? We should figure out our game plan before the game.”

  Vampire and Tempest sit opposite of us.

  “Alright, their starting positions are…”

  My pulse speeds as Blunts talks. I can barely concentrate on his words. My mind is already in the game, hacking and slashing at invisible enemies. I almost don’t hear when he says, “Cool. We’re all set, then.”

  “We ought to get ready to go down to the fitness then,” Ken says. “It’s almost time for warm-ups.”

  I’m the first to get up. “And I need to decide on a weapon.”

  “Better hurry up, bish,” Vampire says. “There’s no time for that in training.”

  I don’t need the reminder from you.

  We break off to get ready. In the girls’ back room, I finally cycle through the rental weapon shop. There isn’t much that’s exciting here. A plain broadsword, axe, javelin, scimitar, jian, bo staff. All with some kind of ranged component fused into them. The swords have hilts like gun grips. It looks a bit awkward to swing. The axe integrates it a bit more gracefully with the muzzle portion protruding from the eye. The javelin has a projectile head. The bo staff can fold into a scope, and it’s the most attractive-looking choice so far, so I go with it. I know it’s supposed to be for practicality purposes, but c’mon. Isn’t this supposed to be virtual reality? When did a feudal era ninja ever pop the Shogun with a bullet from his bo-scope?

  Ken waits for me by the door, and we head to the fitness room together.

  The fitness trainers are lined up, waiting. One by one, the team separates off with their trainers until I’m left with the last man.

  One glance at his spiky blonde hair and blue eyes tells me he’s definitely not from around here. With a white-toothed smile, he thrusts his olive hand towards me. There’s a confidence in his gesture that feels a little invasive. “Jun, right? From the beta team?”

  I take his hand. “That’s me.”

  “I’m Jesse. Heaven assigned me to be your trainer, so…” He puts his hands together. “Do as I do.”

  “You’re going to do exercises with me?”

  He gives a light chuckle. “I’m not one of those teachers that just watch you do the exercise. I like to get involved.” He starts with torso twists.

  I mirror him, keeping my gaze on him. “I’m curious. Where are you from?”

  “The States. You?”

  “I don’t look like I’m from here?”

  “I just didn’t want to assume anything,” Jesse says, stretching out his arms and windmilling them forward. “I haven’t seen very many girls like you.”

  I rotate my arms, too. “I could say the same for you. Minus the girl part.”


  He laughs, pulling forward into a slow lunge. “I like you. Most people I train don’t have a sense of humor.”

  I grin. My gaze falls to the silver band on his ring finger. “You’re married?”

  “Engaged. For a while now.”

  “Another thing we have in common, then.”

  Jesse scratches his faint mustache, blue eyes bright. “Fascinating. Maybe you’re my twin from across the world?”

  "Depends. Did she propose to you?"

  He winks. "Yep."

  We stretch in silence for a while, studying each other. It seems too crazy to stand in front of him: a man from the other side of the world yet seemingly going through what I’m going through. "How did you react?" I ask.

  "I was floored, but glad. It took so much pressure off.”

  “Glad?”

  “Yeah, I mean… Isn’t that why people get married in the first place? Find the one you want to spend your life with?”

  “I guess so, but…”

  Jesse raises an eyebrow. “But?”

  “It was an automatic thing for you?” I ask. “Do you guys already know your plans after the wedding?”

  Jesse’s lips scrunch up at the question. “I love her. She loves me. That’s reason enough in my book. We’re just waiting for better timing. I want some things in my life straightened out first before we jump into holy matrimony, you know? We’ll talk about that other stuff once we’re both cool.”

  I nod to his words. How is it possible to meet someone so like yourself, but inevitably so strange and opposite: different views and similar paths, clashing, interlocked by fate, but still somehow balancing each other as yin and yang does?

  But Jesse’s words make me wonder if maybe I’m silly to be worried about Genji ‘ruining’ things? After all, he hasn’t done anything to Regi or attempted anything. Still, nothing is wrong with taking precautions, right?

  Dim lights beat in the dark with quiet pulses. Machines whirr and purr while white-coated lab scientists mill about over the labyrinth of wires, cables, hologram-projecting panels, and steel-armored processors. Five glass pods lay at the head of the room before a theatre-sized screen.