Cherry Blossom Girls International

by Harmon Cooper

  I looked back; an explosion sent brick and concrete into the air.

  She spotted me almost instantly.

  Now running along a narrow rooftop, I teleported to the next one over, and from there, I teleported to an even higher one. I couldn’t go as far as Dorian, hell no, but I was able to skip every couple of roofs.

  The shifter was hot on my tail though, blistering energy radiating off her as she rocketed toward me wherever I reappeared.

  I had to get away.

  I had to regroup, to go after the others, and I didn’t even know how to do so at the moment. All I knew was that there was no other answer, that I would never be able to go after Stella and Grace in my current form.

  And it pained me to think this as I teleported away like a goddamn pansy.

  Wherever they were being taken, it would be terrible for them, and who knew? Maybe Damon Lord would just kill them.

  Yes, I thought as my form took shape on a circular rooftop. He will try to kill them…

  And this thought alone had my heart thrumming in my chest even faster than it had been moments ago. My breathes were getting heavy now; I needed to get away from this woman and make my way back to Ueno.

  The thing was, she would go after me wherever I teleported to. If I teleported to a crowd, she would surely come after me…

  But if I…

  An idea came to me.

  I didn’t know exactly where the station was that we had come from, but I had a general idea of its location. So I started to teleport in a U shape, back to where we had originally come from, the area called Sangen-Jaya.

  “You aren’t going to get away from me!” she cried out, increasing her speed.

  I ignored her taunts and continued teleporting in the direction of the station.

  Maybe… Just maybe I would be saved by the timeliness of the Japanese people.

  I finally made it to a building just in front of the train station, one that towered over the area that I had earlier compared to a Roman amphitheater. Knowing that the albino woman would cause a ruckus, but seeing that she was also several buildings away, I teleported to the ground, right in front of a man selling flavored popcorn.

  The Japanese dude cried out, and I instinctively bowed to him like an idiot before taking off toward the station entrance.

  I hopped over the turnstile, tuning out one of the conductors yelling for me to stop (or at least I thought that was what he was saying.)

  His attention immediately turned to something more pressing as the shifter lady landed amidst the crowd of people, the energy around her swelling outwards and tossing everyone aside. I don’t know how she did it, but even with all the chaos she locked eyes with me, jumped back into the air and zipped forward.

  “Please, please, please,” I said as I continued running down the hallway, just happening to catch the train times listed on a display attached to the ceiling. There was also a clock next to it and…

  Yes.

  YES!

  I damn near cried tears of joy when I saw that the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line to Shibuya would be here within the minute. I wished desperately that I had some knowledge of the future, that I could have taken Michelle’s power to make me faster, but I didn’t.

  So it was up to the two legs Jeebus gave me to get me to that train before the albino lady lit my ass on fire.

  I heard an explosion behind me, parts of the station coming down as she barreled toward me. People were ducking, getting out of the way, crouching with their hands over their heads, screaming, and I truly felt their terror in that moment.

  We were all human, even the monster chasing after me, and to see people scared like this, to feel the terror in the air…

  I approached an escalator and jumped, running down the railing and eventually losing my balance. I slipped onto my ass and slid forward, nearly taking a lady out.

  As she screamed, another tried to hit me with her bag, that was until they both saw what was coming down the escalator after me. Then they both ran in the opposite direction, kicking off their high heels in the process.

  Back on my feet again, I came to two tunnels, one leading toward Shibuya, the other leading toward Takatsu.

  Fueled solely by instinct, I pressed my hand forward toward the tunnel leading to Takatsu, mentally pushing an image of terror out of my palm using Grace’s power.

  Please work…

  Please work…

  The people coming in my direction started running faster, back the other way.

  It worked!

  I hoped that this was enough of a distraction to make the woman take the wrong path, but there was too much pandemonium for me to truly tell.

  My lungs shrieked in my chest as I raced toward the train that went to Shibuya.

  I could hear the train in the tunnel now, screeching to a halt, the doors opening soon. I didn’t dare look back.

  I didn’t know if she could catch a train or not, but I figured she would be able to, especially once it was just starting to take off. I shoved past a few people and slipped onto the train, ducking down, my hands over my head, passengers looking at me like I was crazy.

  I sucked in deep breaths as the door started to shut, my whole body trembling, my heart screaming in anguish for Grace and Stella.

  The train started to pick up speed. It was gone in a matter of moments, but I still wasn’t able to catch my breath.

  I had to keep running.

  I had to get back to Ueno before she found me.

  Chapter Twenty: Subway Disguise

  It was a quick ride from Sangen-Jaya to Shibuya, just two stops, but just long enough time for me to realize that my shirt was ripped, that I was covered in blood, breathing heavily, everyone around me starting to politely inch away and/or stare at me like I was a fucking alien.

  I saw someone raise their smartphone and I pointed at them, telling them to lower it. When she didn’t, I pushed a small bubble of telekinetic energy forward, whipping the phone out of her hand as the train slowed, making the uniform-clad teen yelp.

  My healing capabilities were still doing their thing, and even with the adrenaline and fear chemicals firing inside my husk, I felt better.

  But only just a little.

  The train doors opened up and I burst out, shouldering past a man in a suit who was reading a folded manga.

  Rather than take the escalator, I ran up the flight of stairs, the crowd already starting to part around me.

  Shibuya Station stretched several city blocks, and the train line I needed to get to wasn’t very close at all. Making things worse was the fact that I need to get there without drawing attention to myself…

  Shit... shit…

  I started looking around and noticed that there were a few subway shops that sold women’s clothing, another selling cutesy umbrellas that seemed impractical, and another selling gaudy necklaces for older Japanese women. I hoped for a men’s clothing shop, but there definitely wasn’t one in my corridor.

  This will have to do, I thought as I approached the women’s clothing shop, my wallet out, a desperate look in my eyes as I took out the yen that Grace had “borrowed” from a Yakuza goon earlier.

  And of course I startled the owner.

  But then he saw the cashola in my hand and got the idea very quickly. He ushered me in, moving a mannequin over to block the entrance. From there he made a gesture for me to undress, which I did quickly, my wallet going back into my pocket for the time being.

  He looked around, a look on his face that told me he was wondering where I was going to put my bloody clothing. I grabbed a large tote bag that said Cape Cod, and stuffed my shirt in.

  From there, he took a big blue blouse off a rack and put it on me, his hand coming to his chin for a moment as he looked me over.

  An idea came to him, and to indicate this, the clothes seller lifted a finger into the air. I looked at that finger and followed it to a collection of scarves.

  “Good idea,” I told him as he grabbed one of the thick s
carves and wrapped it around my neck.

  He actually tried to take my glasses off, but I stopped him, and he understood that this meant that I needed them to see, even if the left lens was cracked. With this in mind, he found an obnoxious pair of women’s sunglasses, the type a Hollywood actress would wear.

  He gave them to me, and I placed them over my current glasses.

  Not yet satisfied, he made a gesture for my head indicating that I would likely need a hat.

  He had hats as well, and luckily, the ones he had were sort of unisex. I settled on a gray French beret, angling it just right, looking like an American who had studied abroad for a summer in Paris and was suddenly Parisian.

  “How much?” I asked him, going for my billfold again. He looked at the stack of money, and made a gesture to take it all.

  I knew I was being ripped off, but I handed the fat stack to him anyway, just hoping to get back to the others before news of the attack in Sangen-Jaya reached Shibuya Station.

  Much to my surprise, the man handed me back several of the yen notes, which I tucked back in my wallet.

  With my tote bag now over my shoulder, I nodded at him, bowed, nearly collided with a mannequin in the process, and left, looking for the Yamanote subway line.

  I found the green sign that pointed toward it and walked as quickly as I could, trying not to draw attention to myself. A few people looked at me, but mostly everyone just kept their heads down. There was an eerie silence in the corridor that led to the other part of the station. Only a few people spoke, and those talking did so in hushed whispers.

  It put me on edge.

  It made me feel that the albino shifter would burst through the wall like the Kool-Aid man at any moment.

  But she never came, and once I got to the turnstile, I made my way over to the machines to purchase a subway card. One ten-thousand yen note later, and a shaky hand to boot, and I was miraculously let through.

  I knew it would only be a few minutes before the news came to the station, if it had not already come. But none of the conductors moving around or the guys in the gray JR Train outfits seemed to be panicking.

  It took me a second to figure out which way to go, but I eventually headed up the left stairs, this part of the station sort of reminding me of Union Station in New Haven. I bolted up the stairs and onto the platform where I stopped, trying not to look around, trying not to look suspicious at all.

  I was glad then that I was in a big city known for its odd fashion trends. And yes, there was a little blood on my slacks, but I’d try my best to sell this as my “style.”

  Look at the cool American in the blouse, scarf, oversized sunglasses, Cape Cod tote and bloody trousers!

  Eventually the train came, and I got on, actually able to find a seat even though it was a bit crowded. There were at least seven stations between my ragged ass and Ueno, but I was in the home stretch.

  And now came the other part of this situation: figuring out what to do next.

  The train made it to Ueno Station, and I shuffled off, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone even though I was wearing sunglasses, keeping as low of a profile as I possibly could. I made my way down a narrow corridor, my Cape Cod tote tucked tightly to my side as I passed a men’s restroom that stank of piss.

  The urge to go struck me, so I stepped in, waiting in line to use the urinal.

  It would have been faster too if the guy at one of the urinals wasn’t also playing a fucking game on his phone, but I behaved myself, even though I could have sent a small telekinetic bubble forward that made him drop his phone in the urinal.

  At least I was getting my good wit and bad ideas back.

  The thirty-minute train ride had sobered me some, letting the chemicals bubbling in my body settle, allowing me to finally get a grip on the situation.

  And it wasn’t a tight grip, but at least now I was able to piece together what had happened. I had noticed that, after similar situations in the past, they had happened so suddenly that thinking back, I couldn’t really remember where it all started, the subsequent actions a bit of a blur to me.

  But not this. The pieces came back together, and I remembered the invisible force beating the hell out of us.

  I also knew that this wasn’t some aggressive ghost who just happened to step into the police station. No, this was someone with the power to turn themselves invisible, and apparently it was someone who also had enhanced speed.

  Or perhaps enhanced strength...

  Having been around Michelle long enough, I knew what it looked like when there was someone quickly moving around, attacking. And I knew that there was no way that this person could have moved as quickly as they did even if they were the most experienced fighter in the world.

  No, it was a superpower.

  And it was clearly someone who was working for Damon Lord.

  For a moment, especially when I was on the rooftop trying to get my shit together, I’d wondered if the invisible attacker was the same person as the albino shifter.

  After all, Grace could also use her shifter ability to turn herself invisible...

  But then I remembered that I’d seen the portal open up and the albino woman step out, and later I’d seen Grace and Stella being dragged into the portal.

  No, it was an additional person.

  Moving past a bar, I caught a television tuned to the destruction in Sangen-Jaya. Sure enough, they had a video clip of…

  “Shit…” I whispered as I watched ‘Dorian’ swoop down on the crowd, people dying, some barely getting out of the way.

  Whatever goodwill the CBGs had with the Japanese people was now squashed. The good people of Japan would see this and know that we were here to attack. Which made it even harder to travel with Dorian, considering the way she looked.

  An idea came to me; there was definitely one way to disguise Dorian.

  The next clip that they showed definitely had me in it, and of course, the news channel zoomed in on my picture, my haggard, bloodied face. They then showed a picture from my author blurb of yours truly, in better days of course, smiling like a jackass.

  Without Grace’s power to shift my form, getting around was going to be a lot shittier for one Gideon Caldwell.

  I could always go with the hat and sunglasses disguise, but that didn’t always work.

  Realizing that I was standing there staring at a picture of myself, and glad that no one had noticed yet, I briskly walked to the station’s exit, finally making it to the streets outside.

  Everything was quiet aside from the sound of passing vehicles and the occasional beeping noise from the traffic light.

  I felt light-years away from the destruction back at Sangen-Jaya Station, almost as if I were in a different reality entirely.

  And Grace…

  Stella…

  “You just have to regroup with the others,” I reminded myself as I turned to the hotel. I picked up my pace, walking with my hands in my pockets, looking down, trying to be as small as humanly possible.

  I took the crosswalk to the other side, passing a Japanese woman carrying a poodle in her arms, both oblivious to what was going on in my world.

  The real world.

  Or at least a real world.

  This was my fate, and I had brought it upon myself by getting involved with the CBGs in the first place. But what was I supposed to do? When Grace showed up on my doorstep, was I supposed to just turn her away?

  No, that wasn’t in my nature.

  I knew it then, and I knew it now, as I turned into the alley that led to our hotel. As weak as I could be at times, my nature was to fight back. We would go after Grace and Stella, and I just hoped that they were still alive by the time we found them.

  If not, there would be hell to pay.

  Chapter Twenty-One: Positive Vibes

  I stumbled into the lobby of the mom-and-pop hotel. The old woman at the counter gasped as soon as she saw me. She hobbled over to me almost immediately, trying to interpret what I was g
oing through.

  I could tell by the look in her eyes, or maybe I was picking up images from her mind, that she wanted to call an ambulance.

  Do I really look that bad?

  I removed my sunglasses and pulled the scarf down, seeing that there was a good amount of dried blood smeared across my face and neck. On my new blouse as well. While I was healed at least internally, it didn’t make the blood go away, and from the pounding I had taken in the police station, there was still a lot of blood.

  “Do you speak English?” I asked her.

  “Eigo-wa hanasemasen!”

  At least I thought she said something like that. By this point I had stepped past her, going toward the elevator. She followed after me, speaking in rapid-fire Japanese, and I finally turned to her as the elevator started to reach the bottom floor.

  I placed both hands on her shoulders, startling the kind old lady. As I smiled, I saw the reflection of my face in her dark eyes, the whiteness of my teeth versus the blood on my face, the scratch marks, the dirt.

  “I am okay,” I told her, not quite menacingly, but definitely a few shades closer to the Joker than it normally was.

  “Okay desu ka?” she asked, her bottom lip trembling.

  “Okay.”

  She nodded. “Okay, desu. Okay, desu.”

  “Yes, um, okay, desu.”

  She seemed satisfied enough with this answer to not rush away or anything when I dropped my hand from her shoulders.

  The elevator dinged and the doors opened.

  I pressed the button that went to our floor, and was presented with my own reflection in the shiny steel of the elevator.

  I really did look like crap.

  But none of that mattered at the moment. What mattered was formulating a plan to get Grace and Stella back. I glanced down at the ring on my finger—Fiona’s crystal.

  This would be the only crystal made from a member of the CBGs.

  We would save Grace and Stella if it was the last thing I did.

  The doors opened, and I heard Michelle’s voice followed by Chloe, the young speedster zipping out of her room and turning in my direction.