- suggestions /recomendations as to how things could go
- anything that can make the Sousuke / Shunya interchanges funnier.
The whole chap's supposed to be comedy, but I'm kinda lacking in that
particular skill
Regards
---------------------------
After she made her last statement, Kaname was torn between screaming it again from the mountaintops of the world or burying herself in the deepest hole she could find.
He's my secret lover. Now I've done it! she thought to herself. Father's going to lose it! But she couldn't deny the truth of it any more. She did love Sousuke, no sense in lying to herself about it now.
"Secret lover" Shunya repeated, his voice surprisingly calm but icily cold.
"Yes, father."
He stood up and started pacing back and forth, visibly frustrated. She sat there, waiting for the recriminations and accusations to start.
"Kaname, when I let you go back to Tokyo, you do remember what I told you, right?"
"Learn to be independent, keep in contact, go to school, get good grades so I can go to a good university..."
"And?"
She took a deep breath before responding. "No boyfriends or lovers."
Shunya turned around to face his daughter, the anger and pain at the depth of her betrayal evident on his face. "So if you knew, why did you break your promise?" Her father hurt, she could see that, but there was no easy answer she could give so she remained silent.
"Kaname, I trusted you! I let you return to Tokyo, against my better judgement, and this is how you repay me?! By falling in love with some common street hoodlum?!"
"His name is Sousuke, father."
"And you even dared to bring him here... what, to show him off to me?! To show how much you can defy me from so far away?!?!" The anger was rising in his voice little by little. "Kaname, I thought you were over that stage by now! I thought you had learned and matured, and now..."
Her father stopped a moment, as if collecting his thoughts before continuing. "Are you in trouble somehow?"
"Kinda..."
"You fallen in with the Yakuza, isn't it? They've come over to threaten me directly, right?"
"No! It's not like that, father! Sousuke is with..."
"With who? Who else runs around Japan waiving around a gun? Kaname, I've spent nearly a decade in America and I still do not understand their fascination with those things. They even have whole groups dedicated to teaching children how wonderful and 'cool' they are!"
Sousuke would be the perfect poster child for them she sarcastically thought.
"They've enshrined it into a National Religion over here, their so-called 'right to bear arms'! Something about protecting themselves and their loved ones."
That's Sousuke for you as well.
"I honestly cannot understand how one goes around protecting someone by waiving around a gun! Never mind a nation!"
She couldn't contain herself anymore; she HAD to answer. Or she just saw an opening her father left her to get him to understand what was going on. "Ask Sousuke about that! I don't even understand myself, but if you went through what I endured a year ago, believe me you would understand!"
Her father stopped momentarily, stunned. "What... what did you go through a year ago? I never heard anything!"
"I... I couldn't tell you. I made a promise..."
"What do you mean, promise?! I'm your father, Kaname! We're family! Families don't keep secrets from each other!"
"This goes beyond family, father! I can't tell you... because I don't know the whole story myself! Even if I did, I still can't tell, no matter how much I want to!"
Her father was obviously very angry at her lack of cooperation, but from past experiences, she knew his temper tantrum was gradually waning. He could only stay mad so long, but she'd also presented a perfectly logical argument he couldn't rebutt.
"What can you tell me? Let's try that one." he came back with, his voice softening, as if giving her one last chance to redeem herself.
"It... it concerns me, and a special ability I have." She hoped that wouldn't be considered classified information.
"Special ability?"
"That's all I can say. Sousuke... Sousuke's the one that is protecting me from..." She trailed off. It simply hurt too much to even think about it. She hoped her father wouldn't press for any more than that.
A man in a dark suit and sunglasses walked up. "Comissioner..."
"I'm rather busy right now! Can't you see that!"
"Sir, the NYPD called. It's about your daughter... your other daughter."
Both Shunya and Kaname froze.
* * *
Her father's UN bodyguard was also equally adept as a driver. New York traffic was absolutely crazy... or did it just seem that way, Kaname wondered to herself. Tokyo traffic seemed infinitely more organized than... this, and way more organized than the chaos inside the car.
Her father was on his cell with the NYPD, demanding information on what exactly was up with Ayume. Sousuke was also in the car, much to her father's protests to the contrary. Kaname sat between the two as a sort of buffer zone for the inevitable conflict she knew would come when the dust settled from this crisis. Sousuke's latest behavior with her father left her no doubt he'd make sure he was no longer with her, up to and including...
"Get me to Ayume's school, immediately! Kaname, come with me!"
Sousuke had the misfortune to appear then. "I am coming along as well."
"YOU, whoever you are, will do no such thing!"
"Sousuke!" She hoped he'd have the sense to politely bow out for now. Ayume was in trouble, and she didn't need her father any more distracted than he was. "Sousuke, please! Just sit this one out, okay? I'll meet up you later."
"Kaname, there will be no later! Get in the car!" Shunya opened his door as the car's engine kicked over.
"I am sorry, but I must insist on accompanying Kaname."
"NO, you will NOT!... Sousuke, or whatever your name was!"
"I am Sousuke to my friends. To others, I am Sergeant Sagara."
Oh NO! He DIDN'T! she thought.
"Excuse me? What did you say?!"
"I am Sergeant Sagara, affiliated with a top-secret organization whose name I am not at liberty to reveal, and I must accompany your daughter wherever she goes. I am her bodyguard."
"I don't care if you were sent by God Almighty! You will NOT get in this car with my daughter!"
Her father and Sousuke seemed to face each other down for an eternity, neither one willing to back down from their positions. Sousuke ended the standoff by opening the door and seating himself into the limo. Shunya, already quite angered at today's developments, immediately let loose with a fascinating mix of Japanese and English invective directed largely at the Sergeant, made worse by Sousuke's seeming rudeness in totally ignoring him.
Things came to head when Shunya ordered his bodyguard to either eject the interloper or kill him. Kaname was shocked! Kill someone?! Her father wouldn't go that far, would he?
Sousuke simply stared down the bodyguard, almost daring him to try. Though both equal in training and dedication to laying down their lives for the ones they were charged with protecting, Sousuke's advantage lay in his lifelong battlefield experiences -- he had looked death in the eye more times than anyone could count, infinitely more than this man had. Fear of Death simply had no meaning to him.
"Father, can we please stop this bickering? Ayume's in trouble!" Kaname said, trying to bring them all back to what mattered. Shunya stared fiercely at Kaname then Sousuke, mentally calculating the numerous ways he would end the boy's life for turning his own daughter against him like this.
"I'll deal with you both later!" he fumed as he got into the car.
She wondered if she'd live to see the later. She had no doubt Sousuke could take anything her father could hurl at him with a smile and come back for seconds; she recalled all the threats made to him by numerous teachers at Jindai about detentions and such, and how Sousuke merely took them in stride, even as compliments to his handiwork.
She idly wondered if her father could take even two minutes of conversation with Sousuke. Those emerging from a round of one fell into two camps: mental scarring for life, or years of sanity irrecoverably lost. Me? I fell in love with him. Irony of ironies there.
"We're here, Comissioner."
"Where is here?" Sousuke asked.
"YOU do not need to know!"
"If I am to serve as an effective bodyguard, I must know the situation, sir."
"You aren't going to be bodyguarding ANYTHING after I'M done with you, punk!!" Everyone in the car could sense the venom in that word when Shunya said it, even Sousuke. Both men stared into each other's eyes, neither one winning and neither one backing down.
"I have been called by many other equally demeaning names, Sir. Yours is no different." Sousuke stated evenly.
"Get out of my sight! Now! Kaname!" With that, Shunya took his daughter to the police line, where several officers helped them through the swarm of crowding reporters, all shouting "Commissioner, Comissioner!! A comment, please!"
Watching them disappear, Sousuke quickly reviewed in his mind what he knew. During the ride, he was privy to only half of Shunya's discussion on the phone. Shunya's desire to keep him entirely out of it was made painfully obvious by his attempt to speak softly and telling whoever was on the other side not discuss specifics during the conversation. Even with only half of the information, Sousuke could tell it involved Kaname's younger sister, Ayume, and was of a very serious nature, given Shunya's tone of voice and body language.
The information from Kaname's file came back to him in a second. Chidori Ayume. Born 1990, aged 12. Resides in New York with her Father. Attends a public school...
"You heard the Commissioner... PUNK! Get outta here, NOW!"
He looked over at the Comissioner's personal bodyguard. In his life, Sousuke had come across numerous men who'd passed themselves off as 'security'; some very good in terms of skills and competence, others who were all swagger and nothing more. This man, after looking into his eyes, he had to admit was definately skilled but hadn't much experience. For a fleeting moment, Sousuke thought he might open up a rapport with the man discussing their mutual situations, but...
"I will cause no trouble, but I cannot go too far..."
"We can do this one of two ways, kid." The man softened his voice slightly. "Either you go... now, and I forget this all happened, or..."
"Or?"
The man paused for a moment before continuing. "You do got some balls, I'll give you that, kid. I've never met a guy that rubbed the Comissioner that badly before."
Sousuke didn't need anyone to point out the hidden meaning there. Professional Courtesy. He would reciprocate and accept the man's suggestion... for now. "Protect them both, Kaname especially."
"It's what they pay me for, kid."
* * *
Though Shunya had specified Sousuke must remain away from his daughter, he did not specify how far he must remain... and he planned to take advantage of that loophole. Setting himself up a perimeter, he pretended to casually walk around, making mental notes to himself, calculating distances, checking sightlines, identifying likely places of cover...
...though the crowd around the scene didn't help matters at all. By now, all the major news networks had their camera crews on-scene setting up mobile broadcasting nodes, with the ever-present reporters sticking their microphones in everyone's faces asking for 'a comment.' Sousuke himself had never endured questioning by a reporter before -- he'd come close once or twice -- but in briefings, he'd been told it was worse than interrogation by the enemy. They may not be out to kill you, but they will not stop until they have what they want from you his mind recalled. We live in the shadows, and we operate in the shadows. No one must know our true identity...
A loud horn broke him out of his train of thought. He'd inadvertently gotten in the way of a truck... DAMN!, must be more careful he chided himself. I hope Kaname is all right...
He just about missed an important detail. Swat... why does that... It came crashing down on him like a load of bricks. SWAT! Civillian special weapons police forces. Only used in extreme situations and... He fought back the urge to swear openly there. THAT'S what Kaname's father was talking about! he realized. He looked around for a better vantage point to the school... Public school, which one did Ayume attend...?
Even darker thoughts came to his mind as he pieced the puzzle together. Why would they target Ayume? She is not important. To get to her father? For what reason? Because he is prominent in the UN? Possibly. Ransom? He didn't recall any material from the original briefings that indicated the Chidoris were that wealthy. To get to Kaname? That seemed the most likely reason, yet... Whispered? Had it something to do with Whispered he wondered? Surely there were easier ways to get to Kaname than this! The attack on the school and the flight over were proof enough of that he thought.
His mind was made up in an instant. Consequences be damned, he had to do it. He started walking in the direction of the police line.
* * *
Getting across the police line was ridiculously easy, almost a joke. Surely they'd be more prepared he thought. A determined person or persons could have easily gotten across and...
That line of thought was cut off by some rather loud yelling coming from the SWAT vehicles clustered off to the side. He should have made for the NYPD mobile command center, the command and communications nexus for the entire operation, but felt the risk of exposure was too great. Besides, something about that SWAT van that nearly ran him down... He couldn't put it in words, but something felt like it was calling to him.
He crossed slowly towards the van, hoping no one would notice him. No one did; everyone was too engrossed in their own job to pay him much attention. Good, that will make things easier. And faults aside, he had to admire civillian police officers for their dedication to their work; if a life was on the line, theirs was the first on the line to save it. In a way, he felt he had something in common with people like this, though he was still confused as to why the Japanese police didn't always see it that way when he tried to protect Kaname.
Voices coming from the van got progessively louder the closer he got, he could begin to make out some of the conversation.
"...but... contracted to... these!"
"...not... <muffled> to... don't even... <muffled>... them!"
"I can... <muffled> just need..."
"GET OUT OF HERE!!" With that, one of the two voices jumped out from the rear of the van. "AND GET THIS CARNIVAL FREAK-SHOW OUTTA HERE, YOU HEAR ME, MISTER!!" Sousuke decided the first voice was not in an emotional state to be approached for information.
Looking over towards the bespectacled humiliated second voice, he interjected himself into his departure. "Perhaps I can be of some assistance here. What is the problem?" he asked as diplomatically as he could.
"I'm Corwin, the mechanic hired by the NYPD SWAT to maintain these suits, but..."
"But?"
"But the company has gone under. There ISN'T any more support for them!"
Gone under? Sousuke's brow furrowed. "What company would this be, if I may ask?"
"Better yet, I'll show you!" He lead Sousuke to a van and threw open the rear doors. Peering inside, Sousuke thought he was dreaming or had encountered a hallucinogenic gas. Inside the van were four Bonta-kun suits, the same ones he'd built and modified in his spare time in Japan as a civillian-grade AS suit out of a carnival costume he'd... accidentally acquired. He HAD meant to return it, but...
"Cost the City better part of five million dollars apiece, plus service over their lifetimes, but... Why did you ask? Hey, you alright, kid?"
"I... Sorry, I was..." He realized his inattentiveness and immediately stood to attention. "I am Sousuke Sagara, chief developer of the XMBK suit."
"You... YOU'RE the lead developer?!" Corwin asked increduously.
"It is a long story I do not care to repeat. You said there was no support available for the suits. Perhaps I can be of assistance."
"Well... sure, I guess... I've just been given my pink slip, so I got nothing to lose."
"What is the exact nature of the problem, Corwin?" Sousuke asked, climbing into the van and punching the suit control to reveal the built-in diagnostics panel.
"You got a few years, pal?"
* * *
A few hours later, Sousuke was filled with a strong sense of satisfaction. He'd gotten four badly misassembled, poorly maintained Bonta-kun suits loaded with a buggy OS, and had virtually rebuilt them with his bare hands to proper specifications. Loathe as he was to speaking badly of anyone, he felt the strong desire to do so of the owners of the factory he'd contracted the assembly work to. Over the phone, they'd given him platitudes and promises of 'Satisfaction Guarenteed,' but one look inside those four suits gave lie to those statements immediately.
Compounding the problem was the light-years distance between his specifications and the factory's implementation of the 'Upgrade / Option Packages' Sousuke had included in the XMBK. Years of field experience had taught him that the statement 'one-size-fits-all' was an utter, outright lie. Politicians and 'bean-counters,' he felt, were the biggest propagators of the myth that the cheapest, lowest common denominator automatically would work for everyone. Sousuke countered such arguments with the old saying, "The RIGHT tool, for the RIGHT job." He had more than his share of stories of needless deaths on the battlefield directly attributable to poorly built and maintained weapons and equipment. Never again he thought to himself.
He of course had to give Corwin a share of the credit. Sousuke found him an able and competent technician, if somewhat on the chatty side. Once or twice, he'd touched on aspects Sousuke didn't particularly care to share. Not enough to cost him his life, but still...
"There, that should do it! I think we got it, Sousuke!"
"Stand back, I'm hitting the button."
"What, you don't trust your own handiwork?"
The familiar whirr of motors and electronics filled the van, then a disembodied voice said, "Diagnostics complete, booting OS."
"YES!!" Corwin clapped his hands together. "Gimme five, Sousuke!"
"Give you... five?"
"Welcome to the XMBK OS. Please register your name."
"Sagara Sousuke."
"Sagara Sousuke, Acknowledged. Initializing Startup."
"Hey Sousuke, what are you..."
"Startup complete. Initializing systems check."
"All VECTRONICS active. All actuators active. Final activation check. Check complete."
"Configure for Mode 4. Bilateral angle 3.5 degrees."
More screens flashed, indicating everything was operating normally.
"Close hatch. Voice changer... On!"
"Sousuke! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Sousuke / Bonta-kun's only response was to salute and say "Fumoffu."
* * *
"Comissioner? Over here, please."
Shunya struggled to keep himself under control, and his proffered cup of coffee steady, as he was lead into the heart of the NYPD command center. He'd been told a live-feed from the group holding the school would soon be broadcast.
"Okay, here it is..."
"Members of the police force surrounding this building, save yourselves the time of contacting federal authorities for an ID, or running your face-matching programs on us. Our names are of no importance, but our demands are, and they are very simple..."
* * *
