ASHI OKONAI

Original work by Amanda “Zero” Hooker and Delynn “Daisy” Speleos

Episode One: A Blast From The Past

ooooo

The dregs of an early morning cast its withered glow over the streets of Megalith City. The bay at the outskirts of town brought with it a misty haze, blanketing the weary throngs of human and demon citizens who walked together as friends and neighbors.

Nearly straight through the center of this metropolis sliced an active waterway, lost to the eyes of most due to the excessive amount of industrial fixtures arcing sloppily overtop of it, all competing with each other for air space.

Today, there were some who were taking full advantage of the cover it provided.

Making their way hastily down the inside walkway of the water system were two men; one human, the other, a demon. They had the look of sheer panic in their eyes, and the human bore a small package wrapped in brown paper with him, clutching it so tightly it seemed as if his fingers would break through at any moment to pierce what was inside.

After a few moments the demon slowed to a jog, calling out to his partner.

“Toran! Hold up a sec...”

“Come on, Faasu!” the human shot back, stopping briefly to fix the weary youkai with a manic glare, “Do you know how many bounty hunters are probably on our ass right now?! We have to keep moving!”

Faasu took a couple of quick breaths.

“I know, but my legs are fucking killing me, and-”

He cut himself off, snapping his head up and listening intently. The dots of sunlight squeezing in through the metal canopy were glinting off his speckled eyes, and his ears began twitching furiously.

“What is it now?!” Toran screamed, exasperated.

“Don’t you... don’t you hear that?” the demon squeaked, hunching over slightly.

“All I hear is you, and all the other jackasses up there running their goddamn mouths! Now let’s go!”

Faasu hesitated, then grudgingly resumed following his partner down the walkway.

Elsewhere, through the waning fog, streaked two slender figures, each cast astride their own streamlined chopper, cutting through the narrow streets above the waterway. They lost no speed weaving their way through the clusters of people who were just starting their day’s work, earning them many a furious curse.

The buzz of their motorcycles seemed to trail behind them, as if they were breaking through space itself to get where they were headed. When a small bridge over the waterway broke into view, they ground their choppers to a halt alongside it and paused momentarily to motion directions to each other.

After nodding in agreement, they began moving off in separate directions.

Dipping her bike down to the right, the first rider turned to head out over the bridge, then resumed following the water tunnel on the opposite side. The long brown trench coat she wore began to dance around fiercely as she picked up speed, creating a clamor of its own beyond the usual roar of the vehicle.

The second rider idled for a moment, absently pulling at a loose strip of leather from the vest underneath her bomber jacket. When her partner was finally out of sight around the curve at the far end of the street, she slid her bike to the left and tore into a wide alleyway, upsetting many a trash can in the process.

“I swear to the goddess, somebody’s following us!” Faasu shrieked, grabbing his partner by the collar and yanking at it few times.

“Goddammit, I told you to keep moving!” Toran growled, knocking the demon’s hand away from him and turning to run again. Then, when the sound of loud droning became apparent, he stopped dead in his tracks to join Faasu is hysterics.

“What... what the hell is that noise?” he screeched, searching the canopy desperately for an answer.

Then all at once, the humming he had been trying so hard to get a fix on seemed to disappear followed a split second later by a deafening crash from overhead.

There was a cacophonous ripple of surprise from both the street and waterway levels. The two fugitives dove down onto the cement, covering their heads to shield themselves from the onset of debris that was now raining in from the broken canopy. With a furious squeal, one of the girls’ motorcycles came thundering into the walkway, crunching to a halt in front of them.

Wasting no time, the mystery woman stole inside her trench coat to produce a handful of small, black orbs; which she quickly flung sidearm to land at Faasu and Toran’s feet. They exploded into a cloud of thick smoke, and as the two men began struggling to catch their breath, she took the opportunity to spin her chopper around in a tight circle to face them.

“Come on!” the demon choked, covering his mouth with one hand and grabbing onto his partner’s collar with the other, “We’ve... got to... get out of here!”

The huntress reached into her coat once again to pull an unusual-looking handgun with a circular midsection from her belt, swiftly clicking the firing pin into position and aiming it in their general direction.

Toran rose to his feet, stumbling further down the walkway behind his partner. When they were finally clear of the smoke cloud, the frantic human spun around on his heels to peer through the haze, an expression of sheer madness spreading its way across his face. He could just make out the strange woman’s shadow on the far side of it as she sat revving her engine.

“What are you doing?!” Faasu screeched, stopping to regard his partner with a mixed stare of panic and confusion.

Furrowing his brow, Toran began fumbling inside the folds of his jacket, and with a bit of minor difficulty managed to pull out a small pistol of his own. With hands shaking feverishly, the weapon was then brought up to point rather sloppily in the huntress’ direction.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, another sudden burst of engine noise came streaking alongside the waterway, causing his concentration to break, which loosened his grip on the gun. Soon after, the sound of a second motorcycle grinding to a stop on the upper level became apparent, and to the fugitives’ shock it was accompanied by an enormous gust of wind that tore over them with uncommonly furious strength.

The cloud of smoke dispersed, giving the huntress a clean shot. She took full advantage of the distraction and fired her weapon. The bullet sizzled through the air, sailing through Toran’s hand and knocking the pistol from his grasp. As the fugitive doubled over to cry out in pain, the huntress was already busily retrieving a slender, barbed capsule from her belt pouch.

Faasu hesitated for a moment, frozen with fear, and then lurched forward to grab his partner around the shoulders.

“We’ve got no choice! Come on, we have to jump!” he squealed.

The huntress set her thumb on the underside of her handgun, using it to swivel the midsection up and click the second loading section into place. She slid the dart inside, watching calmly as the two fugitives flung themselves into the waterway itself, where the swift current began hurling them downstream.

Above, the second huntress had already started her motorcycle back up, and was now tracking them out of the corner of her eye through all the various openings in the canopy. When she thought she had a good bead on them, she extended one arm and held her hand out towards the waterway, palm facing down. With what seemed to be a great amount of concentration, her arm began shaking under some sort of hidden strain. As her fingers slowly began curling up, the water below took on an uneven flow, sloshing around inside the tunnel like a washing machine gone out of control.

Then, with a single heaving motion, the huntress’ arm shot straight into the air, and the water around the two men surged upwards, spilling them back onto the hard cement of the inner walkway. Once they were securely deposited, she brought her chopper around to a curt stop just above their location and deployed her kickstand. When she removed her helmet, a blanket of silken blonde hair fell down past her pointed ears and came to rest around her slender shoulders.

“Score one for Deishi...” she chuckled to herself, breaking into a decidedly catty grin.

The second huntress caught up to the fallen fugitives a moment later, wasting no time in parking her own vehicle and dismounting with weapon fully drawn. Without missing a beat, she removed her helmet and left it on one of the bike’s handlebars as she advanced, exposing a mane of green hair that stopped just short of her jaw line.

Faasu heard the woman approaching, and lifted his head to look over at his partner. Seeing that Toran had already completely passed out, a sudden wash of anger spread throughout his body. He rose to his feet, fixing the green-haired huntress with a vicious glare.

“You’re gonna pay for this, bitch.” he growled, fangs clenched.

“Hoo, boy! Are you gonna get it now!” whistled Deishi, who had appeared behind the furious demon and was now looking him up and down in disdain, “I don’t think my partner over there likes that kind of back-sass.”

Taking the blonde huntress completely by surprise, Faasu swiveled around to strike at her, and she barely had enough time to block his claws with her gun, which was promptly ripped from her grasp and thrown into the rushing waters below.

The infuriated demon went to strike again, but was stopped dead in his tracks when a slender dart suddenly embedded itself in his neckline. Almost instantly his body went completely limp, and he collapsed at Deishi’s feet with a sickening thud.

“You ASSHOLE!” the blonde huntress screamed, looking back and forth between Faasu and the waterway.

“Reido!” she shrieked, “My gun... th-this dickwad made me lose my GUN! The one KANE made for me! Un-fucking-believable! They are SO fucking dead!”

The green-haired huntress let out a heavy sigh, watching with utter exasperation as Deishi began her merciless pummeling of the unconscious fugitives.

“You know...” Reido began, folding her arms, “We can always just get a new one for you at the shop, and it would give you the perfect excuse to see that precious weapon smith of yours.”

“Oooooooooooh!” the blonde huntress squealed, taking a moment to get one final punch in on her helpless captives before bouncing up into a standing position and clapping excitedly. “What a great idea! Let’s get these jackasses over to the police so that we can deposit our check and make an appointment with Kane!”

Reido rolled her eyes. “All right, you get the sidecars ready, and I’ll get these two restrained, OK?”

“Can do!” Deishi piped, presenting her partner with a mock salute.

“Dear, sweet lord...” the green huntress muttered, smothering her face with one hand and fishing the handcuffs out of her pocket with the other. The rest of the day was going to be another big roller coaster of hormones and angst, she just knew it.

ooooo

The police station was bustling with activity as usual. Deishi and Reido escorted their quarries through the din to the booking desk. There, they unloaded their beaten and bloody bounty heads to the mercy of the city’s court system. The booking officer filled out their bounty check with a raised eyebrow as he surveyed the terrible state of the prisoners.

Deishi snatched the check out of his hand, giving him a glare that told him not to bother asking. They turned to leave and almost walked right into the barrel chest of their friend, Sergeant Takehashi.

“Hello, girls. What strays have you brought us today?” He said peering around them, to the two prisoners sitting on the bench. “Whoa! What the hell happened to those two?”

Reido chuckled as Deishi groaned.

“Hello, Takehashi-san. Nice to see you, too.” Deishi said sarcastically, as she slipped the bounty check into her jacket pocket.

Sergeant Takehashi grunted and looked to Reido for an explanation.

“They made the mistake of resisting arrest.” Reido smiled at the Sergeant, then she turned to looked back at the ugly pair of bounty heads.

“What are you lookin' at, bitch?!” Toran spat out from his seat.

“Watch your mouth, criminal!” Takehashi bellowed at him, his deep voice booming. “Keep it up and you’ll be eating your dinner through a straw!”

Deishi and Reido exchanged amused glances and started to walk toward the exit. Takehashi turned and followed them.

“When are you two going to give up this foolishness, and settle down? You know, find some nice husbands and have a passel of babies?” He needled them as he followed.

Deishi turned and looked him square in the eye. “We have been through this before Takehashi-san! Drop it!”

The sergeant held up his hands. “Alright, alright. It just seems that two young girls like you don’t belong doing a man’s work.”

“Arg! I give up!” Deishi huffed, pushing her way out the door into the struggling sunlight. Reido laughed and looked at the baffled Sergeant.

“You know that lecture always pisses her off. Why do you insist on saying something like that every time we see you?” She pulled a cigarette out of her pocket and stuck it in her mouth.

He looked confused for a moment, then smiled. “I don’t know. I guess I am hoping one of these times you’ll both listen.”

“Not bloody likely.” Reido waved and exited the building to catch up with her partner.

ooooo

The girls returned to their subterranean refuge after making a quick stop at the bank to deposit their spoils of battle.

They slowed down as they approached an alleyway, flanked by abandoned buildings on both sides and navigated around the forsaken dumpsters that littered their path. At the end of the L-shaped alleyway there was a metal grating covering the better portion of the ground. Both women stopped their bikes on the grating, and Reido climbed off her bike to approach a small rusty metal box on the wall.

She opened it with a metal key and the glint of clean steel shone from inside. She pressed a series of numbers on a keypad, and re-locked the box. She returned to the metal grating and held onto her handlebars, as the grating began to slowly sink into the earth taking the girls and their bikes with them.

Over their heads an identical metal grating took the place of the one that was now under their feet and the sight of their garage came into view as they were lowered. They wheeled their bikes into their spots, and advanced to the door of their sanctuary.

Deishi placed her palm onto a scan pad and put her eye up to a hole in the wall that was a disguised retinal scan.

“Palm scan and retinal scan accepted. Voice confirmation please.” The main security computer ordered.

“Let us in!” Deishi demanded.

“Voice confirmation accepted. Welcome home.” A rush of air blew past them as the hydraulic doors opened and allowed them entry.

Their tight security measures had become necessary shortly after they had nabbed one of their biggest bounties ever. It had paid them over one million Palda, but the crook had been a crafty one and had escaped the police shortly after his capture, and his mind was set on revenge.

He had found the small apartment they had been living in at the time, and nearly killed them both. Sergeant Takehashi had heard of the escape and had rushed to their place, just in time to confuse the criminal long enough that the huntresses could overpower him while he was off guard.

The city had paid them additional half a million for his recapture and they had instantly purchased a whole city block of abandoned buildings under different corporation names and had the understructure built in relative secrecy. The last embellishment came when they had Hibana Kina, their computer genius friend, help them set up all the security measures.

They would never be caught unawares again. There were security cameras everywhere covering every entrance and hallway, and a security computer monitored it all, day and night, and would immediately alert them if anything appeared amiss.

They even had their own generator to back it all up, in case of a power failure. They had spared no expense to have a safe haven for themselves.

Deishi immediately shed her coat and tossed it onto the chair near the door. Reido eyed her back, but finally sighed and picked the coat up and hung it onto its hook, next to hers.

The demoness then headed over to the wet bar, and even though it was barely two in the afternoon, she started to make herself a drink. “I can’t believe that creep made me lose my favorite gun! That thing was irreplaceable! What a moron!”

“How about I make us something to eat, or are you determined to just have a liquid lunch today?” Reido sat on the other side of the bar and watched Deishi fill a glass with amber liquid. She watched for an emotion in Deishi’s unique eyes. One pupil was a crimson red swirled with a golden shade of yellow representing her demonic powers over fire and wind, and the other was the blue of the sky mixing with a deep forest green, portraying her powers over water and earth.

Deishi sighed. “I'm just ticked off.” She tilted her head back and shot down the drink in one gulp. “Ah! Better now. What’s for lunch?”

Reido laughed and went to the kitchen to fix them something. “Hey, look at it this way. You have been looking for an excuse to go to Kane’s shop for a week now.” She knew that the promise of visiting her favorite weapon smith would exponentially make Deishi happier.

“That’s true!” Deishi called out. Reido could hear the sound of her making herself another drink regardless. “One of us will have to call him and make an appointment for this afternoon.”

“Is that a hint that you want me to call?” Reido asked, pulling food out of the refrigerator.

“Of course, I want you to call! I can’t appear too eager, now can I?” Deishi appeared around the corner from the common space, drink in hand and a cigarette burning in her smirking mouth.

Reido raised an eyebrow at Deishi, and the demoness couldn't help but burst into a fit of laughter.

ooooo

Deishi stopped the car in front of the arms dealer’s shop. The building was very unassuming and non-descript. After lunch Deishi had spent a long time showering and primping, making sure every hair was in the exact right place, before she would leave.

“Hold on a second” Deishi grabbed Reido’s arm as she was leaning to get out of the car. Deishi flipped open the vanity mirror on the visor, pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, and checked her makeup.

Reido sighed. “When are you going to give up on this guy? He isn’t interested or else he would have bitten the bait already.”

“Oh, he's interested all right.” Deishi applied more lip-gloss and pouted at her reflection. “He's just playing hard to get.”

Reido rolled her eyes. “How do you get that? You have been flirting madly with him for months, and he hasn’t made a move yet! Other guys are falling all over you, buying you presents and crap, and still you insist on trying to charm the one man that isn’t interested.”

Deishi fixed Reido with a mischievous look. “Listen. He’s interested. He is just….reserved. He’s got something to hide that is holding him back. He’ll come around.”

“I don’t know why you bother. You’ll just dump him too, once you have his attention. You have more guys than you can keep track of, why him too?” Reido asked crossing her arms, waiting.

“This one is different.” Deishi closed the mirror with a snap. “That fact that he doesn’t fall all over me, just makes him that much more attractive.”

“Whatever.” Reido looked at Deishi sideways. “Maybe he's gay.”

“I guess anything is possible, but you wouldn’t think that if you were catching the looks he is giving me, when he doesn’t realize I am watching.” Deishi grinned widely at Reido.

“Oh yeah? I think it is all in your imagination. I bet you fifty palda that I don’t see any such look today.” Reido said holding out her hand for Deishi to shake. “You just can’t stand the idea that any man might be immune to your fluttering eyelash act.”

“You got it, sister. Prepare to pay up.” Deishi reached out and firmly grasped her partner’s hand. Reido snickered and pulled out her cell phone.

She pressed a few buttons and the phone connected. She spoke into the phone, “We’re here.” and disconnected. They exited their car, and approached an unmarked door. There was a barely audible click as the door’s lock disengaged remotely.

They made their way through the dusty unused storefront full of naked mannequins missing body parts, to another door at the back. Reido pushed the door open and they entered into a brightly-lit room, full of guns, explosives, and other trappings of their trade.

In the midst of the organized chaos sat Kuro Kane, the arms dealer. He got up and pulled a covered trolley toward them.

“You’re late.” He fixed them both with an even stare. “As usual.”

“Then you should be used to it.” Reido said. His cold demeanor could really rub her the wrong way, and frankly she could see no reason why Deishi was interested in him at all, besides the fact that he was incredibly attractive. Why she would want to spend time with such a sourpuss….Reido stopped as she realized she might as well be describing herself.

She fished a cigarette out of her pocket and stuck it in her mouth, but did not light it. Rule number one in Kane’s shop was ‘no smoking’. Too many explosives and gun powder around.

Kane ignored Reido’s jibe. “Let’s get down to business. I’m busy.” He veritably growled at them. He removed the black cloth covering the trolley.

Deishi sucked in her breath at the array of shiny pistols arranged in a line.

“New stock. I just got them in from Outland City.” Kane picked one up and handed it to Deishi. She tested the weight of it in her palm.

“Slick hardware. Is it hot?” She asked looking him directly in the eyes.

“Probably. Do you care?” Kane answered, meeting her gaze.

“Not really.” Deishi trained the gun’s sight on a random wall target. “It doesn’t quite replace the one you made especially for me, but it could certainly be a nice temp weapon until another one came my way.” She lowered the gun and ran her hand along the barrel.

“I’m sure I can find the time to make you a replacement.” Kane dug in a box under the trolley and produced a handful of bullets. “Go try that one out in the range downstairs.”

Deishi held out her hand and he dropped the bullets into her open palm. His fingers brushed hers and she felt an electricity pass between them immediately. She had felt it several times before, whenever they briefly came in contact, and had often wondered if it was completely one sided. But she could be patient when the situation called for it, and she would wait for him to make his move. It would happen. She could tell.

She made her way to the door to the downstairs shooting range, taking her time so Reido could try to catch the look on Kane’s face. She wanted to prove to Reido that her female instincts were as razor sharp as always.

As chance would have it, Reido was doing just that, at that exact moment. She leaned down, pretending to closer inspect the weapons that Kane had lain out for them but she was actually scrutinizing him, through her bangs. And goddamit if Deishi wasn’t right. His eyes followed her all the way to the door. There was a strange softness there, that she had never noticed before, even though the scowl on his face didn’t change. Fuck. Now I’m out fifty palda.

She decided to push the envelope a bit. “So you obviously were able to fill her order. Do you have the item I was asking for?” She asked, standing up straight. Kane didn’t miss a beat. He reached behind him and handed her a large gun.

“A tranquilizer gun.” He handed it to her. She saw her opportunity and took it. She made skin to skin contact with him and opened her mind to him, receiving a quick flash of emotions and images. She didn’t understand most of what she was getting from him, but one image was loud and clear; Deishi looking straight at him, her multicolored eyes flashing, and she felt an emotion of what she would almost call butterflies in the stomach. Damn, Deishi was good. Sometimes she wondered if the quirky demoness didn’t have some sort of sixth sense herself.

The contact was broken quickly, and Reido snapped out of it. She didn’t want him to be aware that she had basically just invaded his mind, let alone his privacy.

“Why do you need another tranquilizer gun anyway?” He asked.

“I’ll tell you, if you answer me a question too.” She looked the gun over and saw that it was to her satisfaction. She could hear Deishi firing out rounds downstairs.

Kane just raised his eyebrow and leaned back.

“I need the tranq gun because sometimes Deishi can get a little over zealous. She has a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.” Reido also leaned back and sized up Kane’s demeanor. “She killed one bounty that was wanted alive and severely wounded another. This is just insurance to keep that from happening again. I like to get paid for my work.”

He remained silent.

“Now, you answer my question.” She said, a small smile creeping across her lips. Oh boy, Deishi would kill her for this, but it would help salve the pain of paying her the fifty palda.

“Alright.” he said. His expression stayed the same.

“What are you waiting for?” She tapped the gun against her leg, and rolled her cigarette from one side of her mouth to the other with her tongue.

“Excuse me?” He asked, his face clouding over.

“Deishi. What are you waiting for?” She was really enjoying this.

His face registered a quick expression of surprise and then went right back into his permanent grimace.

“I don’t know what you're talking about.” He was going to play hard to get, even when Deishi wasn’t in the room.

“Have it your way. Just know that whatever it is you are hiding, won’t matter to her.” Reido noted that the sound of gunfire from downstairs had stopped.

Kane seemed to relax for a brief moment and looked at Reido directly. “That may be so, but it does matter to me.”

ooooo

The girls returned to their car with a box full of weapons. Deishi had taken an immediate shine to the gun Kane had presented her with.

She slid in behind the wheel and waited for Reido to place the box in the trunk and join her before she started the engine. She leaned back and stared at her partner.

“So?” She smiled.

Reido retrieved a fifty-palda bill and handed it to Deishi. “How did you know?”

Deishi grinned. “That man has so much chrome and glass in that shop, reflections are everywhere. Would I be a bounty hunter worth my reputation if I didn’t check people’s reflections when I’m not directly looking at them?”

Reido let out a hearty chuckle. “I suppose you are right. I got some other information from him too. You want to hear?”

Deishi’s grin faded. “What did you do, Reido?”

“Nothing bad. I just touched his hand. You interested in what I saw or not?” Reido delighted in making her partner squirm.

“You’re damn skippy, I want to know. Tell, tell!” Deishi pushed on Reido’s arm.

“Start heading home and I will.” Deishi looked at her exasperatedly, but put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. They drove for several minutes before Deishi finally couldn’t contain herself anymore.

“Spill it - you have to tell!” she squealed, looking over at Reido, who was slung back in her seat smoking her cigarette with an expression of great satisfaction.

“I saw you.”

“Get the fuck out!”

“Serious. He is more twisted for you than you thought.” Reido tossed her cigarette out the window and rolled it up.

“Why? What else did you see?” Deishi was about to pull the car over.

“It’s not what I saw, it is what he said.” Reido chewed on her thumbnail, looking at Deishi through her bangs.

“What he…..” Deishi paused as Reido’s words sunk in. Then she exploded. “What the fuck did you say to him?!?!?!?”

“Hey, take it easy. I just asked him what he was waiting for.” Reido smiled at her.

“I’m gonna kill you!” Deishi reached over and grabbed Reido’s smokes off the dashboard. She punched in the car’s lighter and waited impatiently for it to pop back out. “So, do I even want to know what his answer was?”

“Yes, you do.” Reido took the pack of cigarettes back from Deishi and lit one for her and another for Deishi. “He acted ignorant first, then I told him that whatever he was hiding wouldn’t matter to you, but he said that it did matter to him.”

Deishi was silently glaring at the windshield.

“Don’t be mad. I just acted like he was being more obvious than he really was. He didn’t know that I gave him the whammy.” Reido ventured.

Deishi dragged heavy on the cigarette and remained mute for a moment. “How many times have you done that to me?”

Reido was surprised by the question. She wasn’t expecting that. They were best friends and had been for almost seven years. “I have never read you without you knowing, except a long time ago, when we first met. Before you even knew I could. I wanted to make sure you were sincere in your friendship with me. Obviously you were.”

They stopped at a red light. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have questioned you on it.” Deishi leaned over and pulled Reido in for a brief hug. “Men, money, jobs. They all come in a far second to you and me.”

Reido felt a wash of relief. For a moment there, she thought Deishi was going to be cross with her. Still, a slight feeling of awkwardness was hanging in the air, so she began searching her brain for something they could do to make themselves feel better.

Just then, her thoughts were interrupted by the trill of a cell phone.

Simultaneously, the huntresses reached into their jackets and pulled out their phones, which were then snapped open with a quick flick of their wrists and propped up to the side of their faces. They gave each other a sidelong glance before hitting their “receive” buttons.

“Yeah?” they chimed in unison.

There was a brief pause, then Reido continued speaking.

“Hey, Sarge... What can we do for you?”

Realizing she wasn’t the one being called, Deishi put on her best pout and snapped the lid on her phone closed. “Why does Takehashi-san always call you first?” she whined, fixing her partner with faux puppy-dog eyes.

Reido took a moment to move her chin away from the mouthpiece.

“Because he knows I won’t hang up on him when he starts getting boring.”

The blonde huntress snickered mischievously, instantly regaining her cheerful composure, then began busying herself in drumming her fingers on the dashboard and dancing in her seat while Reido continued the conversation with Takehashi. When the light finally turned green, she put one hand back on the wheel and hit the gas, slinging them forward across the intersection.

“Yeah... Uh huh... Deishi, would you slow down? Gotcha... Yeah... Dude, if you don‘t stop drumming your goddamn fingers I‘m gonna cut ‘em off! Uh huh... Heh! You don‘t say...”

“What is it?” Deishi asked, pausing just long enough to light up a cigarette before resuming her eager bounce.

Reido flipped her phone shut and stashed it back inside her jacket, then stopped to light up a cigarette of her own.

“Pops says that those idiots we brought in earlier today ratted out their dealer, and that if we can capture said dealer within the next twenty-four hours, we can get ourselves a nice chunk of change.”

“Nice!” Deishi squealed, “So where should we go first?”

“Well, we’re gonna need some hard data on the dealer.” Reido replied with a sigh, her voice suddenly taking on a bit of a moody tone.

The blonde huntress snuck a glance at her partner, whose eyes were now completely glazed over in thought. A lecherous grin crept across her face, because she had a feeling she knew exactly what was causing the green-haired huntress’ melancholy attitude.

“Well, you know what this means, don’t you?” Deishi crooned, curling her cigarette up into the corner of her mouth and narrowing her eyes. “We’ll have to stop by the Seiteki District so you can flirt with your little hacker boy.”

“Whatever, dude.” Reido huffed. “You flirt with him too.”

“Yeah, but I flirt with a lot of people. What’s your excuse?”

“Shut up, dude. He’s just easy to get a rise out of, that’s all. Christ, you get within ten feet of that boy and he fucking passes out.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Deishi responded curtly, ignoring Reido’s penetrating stare. When they came to an intersection, she turned the car to the left and starting heading in the direction of the Seiteki District. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her partner leaning up against the window with her arms folded, lost in thought.

‘Just what is going through your head, my friend?’ the blonde huntress wondered absently. She hoped that one of these days, she just might tell her.

ooooo

They rang the buzzer at Kina’s apartment. They could hear his footsteps approaching the door and a slight pause, as he must have been checking them through the peephole. There was a great clattering of chains and sliding of locks, as he unlocked the numerous deadbolts and slide chains he used.

He opened the door. Kina was standing there in his boxer shorts, glasses askew, his pitch black hair wildly sticking up at all angles.

“Whoops, guess we should have called ahead.” Deishi smiled at Kina and ruffled his hair as she breezed past him into his living room, which was more of a computer room than anything else. Reido followed her and Kina shut and locked the door behind them.

Kina plucked a t-shirt from a pile on the floor and put it on, seemingly a little embarrassed that he hadn’t thought to do that before he opened the door.

“No need to get dressed up for us, Kina.” Reido brushed some potato chip crumbs off the couch and sat down. Deishi stayed standing.

“Sorry. I was asleep.” Kina said meekly. “Do you need me to look up something?”

“We sure do, Hon.” the blonde huntress replied with a wink, causing the young hacker to blush furiously. As if searching for help, he then glanced over at Reido, who merely shrugged before quickly averting her eyes. It was all too much for Deishi to stand.

“Takahashi should have already sent the relevant data to your computer.” the green-haired huntress began, not bothering to move from the couch, “All we need you to do is tell us who he is and where we can find him.”

“Gotcha.” Kina replied, walking over to ease into his usual chair. He took a moment to adjust his glasses, then like lightning his hands were at the keyboard, and the string of computer screens surrounding him lit up with a sea of electronic data.

Deishi smirked, noticing that Reido had suddenly become more attentive, lolling over the backside of the couch and staring into the hacker’s workstation like some love struck schoolgirl. It was all too precious.

After about a minute, Kina’s fingers came to a halt, and he swiveled sideways in his chair to address them.

“OK, I got it.” he croaked drowsily, “I’m gonna need your data pads.”

“Anything for you, Sweetie.” Deishi cooed, swishing her way over to the computer area and producing a flat, metallic disk from the inside of her jacket. As the young hacker took the device from her hand, the blonde demoness turned her head to wink at her partner.

Reido rolled her eyes, but obligingly headed over to the workstation as quickly as she could. Once Kina had both data pads, he slipped them deftly into a slotted machine on the lower right side of the desk, then returned his hands to the keyboard and began punching in more commands.

As he was staring off at one of the screens, he noticed that both women were now leaning in ever so slowly to get a look at what he was doing. His hands faltered for a brief second, and as he resumed typing, a small trickle of sweat was now worming its way down his temple. They were so close now he could feel their warm breath on the back of his neck and it was nearly causing his hair to stand on end.

Deishi suppressed a chuckle. They always had too much fun making him nervous. It was almost like a hobby for them, although she had began to wonder lately if it wasn’t different in Reido’s case.

Kina cleared his throat, breaking the blonde huntress out of her thoughts.

“Finished...” he squeaked, removing the data pads and returning them to the girls. “His name is Kun Kawaii. Wanted for drug trafficking and dealing in illegal arms. You can find a picture of him and the coordinates for his business dealings stored in your DP. Now, those locations are mostly based on what Takahashi got from the informants, so be careful because the data might be bunk.”

“Awww, isn’t that sweet, Reido?” Deishi purred, flashing her partner a catty grin, “Kina’s worried about us...”

“Wait.” the green-haired huntress held up her hand, looking puzzled. “Did you say Kun Kawaii?”

“Yeah.” the hacker replied flatly. “You know him?”

“No fucking way!” Deishi squealed, reaching into her jacket to retrieve her DP. She inserted it eagerly into her portable viewer, and began laughing heartily when a rather scraggly-looking blonde demon appeared on-screen. Soon after, her partner followed suite, cracking into an impish grin.

“Who’s Kun Kawaii?” Kina whined, looking hurt.

“Only the most popular pretty boy in our high school!” Deishi cackled, her eyes watering with laughter.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen.” Reido sneered, flipping her viewer shut and stashing it inside her coat.

“This ought to be REAL fun.”

“Oooooh! Let’s go, let’s go!” the blonde huntress chuckled, putting her own viewer away and pausing just long enough to give Kina’s face a quick pinch before bounding for the door. Reido idled for moment to regard the young hacker with an appreciative stare.

“Great work, Kina.” she said, sounding strangely weary, “Thanks.”

“Yeah... no problem.” he said quietly, tugging absently on one of his earlobes, watching as she turned to follow her partner out.

After they had both gone, he shuffled listlessly up to the door and began the task of re-securing all the locking mechanisms. When he was finished, he took one last look through the peephole, then proceeded to wander back over to his workstation. For a few moments he simply stood there, staring ahead while the lights from nearly a dozen computer screens played strange blue patterns across his face.

Eventually, a sigh escaped his lips, quickly transforming itself into a yawn.

“Great work, Kina.” the hacker mumbled absently, plonking himself back down into his computer chair. He took another moment to gaze into a collection of screens on his right, then leaned forward to rest his head on the desktop.

As his eyes were closing, a satisfied grin swept its way across his face.

ooooo

Deishi was speeding in the direction of Kun Kawaii’s supposed hideout.

“Jeez, Deishi, slow down. Killing us is not the way to get there faster.” Reido growled at her partner, buckling her seatbelt.

Deishi let out a whoop and turned up the stereo louder than it already was. “Aw, come on Reido, you are starting to sound like my mother! We are on our way to a very satisfying ass kicking party! Get excited already!”

Reido glared at her partner, then her features cracked into a grin. “True enough. This is gonna be great!”

“See! I knew you had it in you!” Deishi whooped again. “Plus, you're all worked up from being around Kina!”

Reido’s smile crashed. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Oh for crying out loud Reido, the two of you are sending off sparks! You keep avoiding his eyes, and he is staring at you in the reflection in his monitor.” Deishi grooved to the loud music.

Reido’s head snapped up, and she turned the stereo down. “What was that last part?”

Deishi cackled with sheer glee. “That boy was watching you in the reflection on one of his monitors. And you didn’t even know it. Seems like I am not the only one who steals glances at a potential sweetie in a reflective surface!”

Reido sat back in the seat, a blush spreading furiously across her cheeks. Suddenly she sat straight up, and started to dig in her pockets for a smoke. “Yeah well, I'm fucking hot, so he was checking me out. What of it? He checks you out too.”

Deishi laughed. “Not like that!”

Reido face remained unsmiling, and Deishi got the message loud and clear. She turned the radio back up, and rolled down her window letting the warm spring air flow through the car.

“Dude, we are gonna see Kun Kawaii again! How freaky deaky is that?” Deishi just barely squeezed through a traffic signal, leaving horns blaring in her path. “Do you realize that he was one of the boys that was there the day we met?”

Reido looked at Deishi and it was clear that she was remembering that day. First year at high school, and the boys had instantly begun picking on the quiet girl with the green hair, who wore glasses, and loved to read. It was obvious she was uncomfortable in the school uniform, and the boys picked up on that, and insisted on teasing her mercilessly. She did her best to ignore them, but sometimes it was very hard.

One day Reido had been walking home, with an unusually large pile of books, and a block away from the school a group of popular boys surrounded her. They started to grab at her books, tossing them to the ground, and lifting up the edges of the already too short uniform skirt. Reido had been mortified and remembered wishing that the sidewalk would open up and swallow her.

Without warning, one of the boys fell backwards, and the rest of them stopped their attack on Reido. The one boy lay on the ground staring up at the new girl in school. Tall, with lots of blonde hair, not to mention those bizarre eyes, the boys all froze not sure what to make of her.

She blew a gigantic pink bubble, and snapped it noisily. “How about you boys scram? I have something to discuss with her, and it doesn’t involve you.”

The boys had retreated, but Reido remembered clearly, that she had thought she was going to get beat up or worse by this strange new hanyou girl. The blonde bent down and picked up Reido’s books, and smiled at her. “You want some help getting these home?”

And they had been best friends from that day forward. Reido remembered it very clearly, and yes, Deishi was right. Kun Kawaii had been part of that group of boys. Of course it hadn’t stopped them from thinking he was the cutest boy in school, and wishing he would notice them, and maybe ask them to the school dance, or out for pizza on Friday night, but they knew better. Kun Kawaii though they were beneath him, and now, it appeared that the very opposite was true.

Their search for Kun brought them into the slums at the edge of the city’s harbor, where decidedly less social patches of the population scratched out a living fishing, and transporting cargo whenever available. Few people actually lived out here, which made it a veritable breeding ground for smugglers and illegal arms dealers.

“All right, we’re coming up one of the locations.” said Deishi, glancing down at her data pad, which lie propped open on the dashboard, “Look sharp.”

Reido turned her head towards the window and watched, as they drove straight past the warehouse lot Kina had marked down in their data pads as a hotspot. When they came to the end of the street, Deishi pulled the vehicle around the block and brought it to a stop near the curb.

“So what did you see?” the demoness inquired, pulling out the new gun Kane had furnished for her, and admiring it with glee.

Reido reached into her trench coat and began loading her swivel gun with bullet rounds.

“I saw a shit pile of metal trying to pass itself off as a warehouse, and a rather sketchy-looking cargo boat parked at the docks.” she replied, returning her weapon to its holster.

“Sounds like fun.” the demoness supplied, ticking extra rounds into her own weapon and snapping it closed.

“Let’s do it.”

ooooo

The interior of the warehouse was dim and dank, packed thick with sagging crates.

At the back of the loading area stood a tall, lanky demon with short blonde hair. Adorned in a dull gray suit and bearing a sickly expression, the evidence that he had actually been quite handsome at one point in his life had been lost in the sea of time. The wrinkles of a path gone horrible wrong had gouged themselves deep into his sullied features, making him appear half-dead.

The demon moved over to a lower pile of boxes and seated himself, flipping open a data pad and scanning the information inside.

After a few moments, his concentration was broken by the sound of something metallic clinking onto the floor. He stood up quickly, stashing the DP back in his pocket. His eyes began darting back and forth, scanning the area for movement.

A second clink sounded from among the collection of crates ahead of him, causing his ears to twitch furiously. Slowly drawing the pistol from inside his belt, the demon began to back away from the direction of the noise, slipping in between two rows of loading equipment.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a firing pin being clicked into place, and he froze.

“Hey there, Kun.” came Reido’s voice from behind him, “Long time, no see.”

The bedraggled demon tried turning his head to answer, but was quickly met with the huntress’ hand seizing him rather forcefully by the back of the neck and slamming his face into one of the vehicle’s metal frames.

Kun sank down onto his knees, clutching his forehead in pain.

Deishi was quick to appear on the opposite side, swooping in to snatch his weapon up from the ground. Looking rather pleased with herself, she took a wide stance and aimed both guns in his direction, grinning impishly.

“Hey, Handsome.” she spat sarcastically, “How’s tricks? Still trying to score one for the home team, or are you even too good for your degenerate friends now?”

Wiping the blood from his wound onto his already-rust stained suit, Kun turned his gaze up to look back and forth between the two women. After a few moments, he rose to his feet slowly, breaking into a smug cackle.

“Well, I’ll be damned...” he sneered, “If it isn’t the Dyke Patrol. You two still munchin’ carpet over in the Strick District?”

“Maybe.” the blonde huntress replied mockingly, “What’s your point?”

Kun sniggered, taking a moment to run his fingers through his hair.

“That’s too bad.” he crooned, putting on a lecherous smile, “You bitches got a nice set of melons on ya now, if you weren’t a couple of lesbos, I might consider fucking you.”

Reido’s eyes widened, her finger tightening on the trigger.

“Why you arrogant...” she began, one eye twitching slightly.

“Hey, don’t let it bother you, Hon.” Deishi cooed, drawing her guns back and using her palms to push her breasts up higher, “He’s right, you know. We DO have the most bodacious ta-ta’s in Megalith City.”

The green-haired huntress rolled her eyes, groaning. It was then she noticed some movement in the rafters, and a wash of panic spread throughout her entire body. Wasting no time, she struck out with her right arm, cuffing Kun in the back of the head with the butt of her weapon so that he would fall again, then lurched over him to tackle Deishi to the ground just as gunfire began raining out in all directions.

“What the hell?!” the demoness yelped, flinching as sparks began spraying out from the machinery surrounding them.

“Looks like Pretty Boy here has himself a few flunkies.” Reido huffed, kicking her right leg out to strike Kun in the stomach.

“This is bullshit.” Deishi pouted, “I say we teach these boys a lesson.”

“Sounds like a plan.” her partner replied flatly, rolling onto her back and aiming her weapon at the water pipes running above their heads. After nearly a dozen shots, the water began pouring out in a steady stream.

Simultaneously, the demoness had rolled onto her back as well, quickly stashing both weapons into her belt holsters and stretching her hand out towards the ceiling. Soon, her powers were creating a thick mist from the water Reido had set free, quickly obscuring the vision of the assailants hiding in the rafters.

The huntresses were fast on their feet, retreating to the far end of the machine alley and taking cover on either side.

“Leave that asshole there for now,” Reido sneered, sneaking a quick peek around the corner to where Kun lie unconscious, “We’ll pick him up when we’re done with these other assholes.”

“Gotcha.” Deishi nodded, drawing her new gun once again and fixing the firing pin into place. The two women then took off in opposite directions, and the sound of gunfire began to echo out through the warehouse once again.

There was a flurry of movement and pained shouting from within the murky depths of the haze that now blanketed the entire building. It dwindled down until at last, there was silence.

“Is that all of them?”

Reido appeared back at the mouth of the machine alleyway, ticking some more bullets into her swivel-gun.

“Indeed!” Deishi chirped, approaching her from the other end.

There was a brief pause.

“Awww, shit.” Reido groaned, casting her eyes to the floor.

It was then that her partner noticed the empty spot where they had left Kun.

ooooo

In a flash, the two huntresses were outside, casting their heads about in an attempt to locate the missing youkai.

“There!” Reido shouted, throwing her arm out to point at the far side of the harbor, where they could see Kun making his way towards a large cargo boat. They noticed that the boat had already drawn in its walkway and was preparing to leave the dock, but that wasn’t stopping the blonde demon from attempting to climb the loading crane, which had yet to be returned to its original position away from the deck.

“He’s gonna try and go UP that thing?!” Deishi exclaimed, her voice cracking slightly, “Is he out of his fucking mind?!”

Reido drew her breath out noisily. She knew her partner had a fear of heights, but wasn’t quite in the mood to be polite about it at the moment.

“Come on, let’s go!” she huffed demandingly, “We can’t let him get away!”

Wasting no time, the green haired huntress bolted off in pursuit of the desperate youkai.

Deishi hesitated for a moment, biting her lip.

“Awww man...” she whined, sliding a few bullets into her gun, “This is complete bullshit!” When the weapon was fully loaded again, she snapped it closed and headed off to follow her partner.

Kun was about halfway up the giant, metal crane when his muscles began to ache from the pounding he had received in the warehouse. He paused, taking a moment to catch his breath, before glancing down to gauge just how high he had gotten. Then, to his great dismay, he noticed that the huntresses were in hot pursuit.

“Dumb bitches!” he spat bitterly, grinding his teeth. “Get off my case, already!”

A split second later, the foghorn from the cargo boat let out an immense blast to signify its impending departure, startling the blonde demon so much he almost lost his grip on the crane. Grunting and cursing, he then re-doubled his efforts and scrabbled further up the metal grating.

When he finally reached the top, he looked down once again to see that Reido had already begun to climb up after him. Deishi seemed not so inclined to follow, and instead had traveled over towards the edge of the dock to stand in the shadow of the crane arm.

Kun sneered smugly despite the beads of sweat that were running down his temple. He turned and ran down the length of the loading arm, then paused at the end of it to examine the thick line of transport cable that ran from the arm to the boat deck. It appeared that he still had enough time to shimmy across it before they separated and left the dock. The bedraggled youkai paused momentarily to take a deep breath, before easing himself down over the edge of the arm and wrapping his body around the cable.

He was almost halfway down the line when Reido finally reached the top of the crane.

“Shit!” she grunted, just as another foghorn blast split across the harbor.

Time was running out, and she knew that if she used her weapon to sever the loading cable, Kun might fall to his death. The bounty on his head would be no good to them if he were dead, so she had to pick the right moment to take action.

Taking a kneeling position at the end of the crane arm, she reached into her jacket and produced a slender tranquilizer cartridge. Setting her thumb on the underside of her swivel gun, she used it to swing the second loading clip up into place, then slid the dart inside and proceeded to train the weapon in the demon’s direction.

Down below, Deishi looked on helplessly as Kun neared the deck of the cargo boat. She could barely make out her partner at the edge of the loading arm, but it didn’t look like she was going to follow him down the cable.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, girl.” she muttered, raising one eyebrow and twirling a lock of hair around between her fingers, “Cause if you don’t pull something outta your ass here pretty soon, I’m gonna have to shoot him down.”

There was a feeling of heavy tension in the air as Kun passed over the gap of water that lay in between the boat and the dock. Another couple of moments and he would be on the boat itself.

Suddenly, his progress came to a complete stop, and a split second later his body went limp and plunged headlong down into the water below.

“Deishi!” the green haired huntress cried, reaching her partner’s ears as a faint echo, “Go, now!!!”

“Right!” the demoness grunted, sprinting off towards the edge of the dock. When she arrived over the area the youkai had fallen, she quickly took a kneeling position, thrusting her arms forward and lowering her head in concentration.

Soon, a small cone of water began to rise up from the surface, carrying Kun with it. With one final burst of energy, Deishi then thrust her arms up over her head, and the demon was flung onto the pier with a sickening thud.

Coughing and sputtering, he tried his best to move, but found that his energy was leaving him at a rapid pace.

“You’re a naughty boy, aren’t you?” the blonde huntress crooned, walking over to grab him by the hair and yank his head up, “Now we’ll have to punish you again for resisting arrest.”

“Eat me...” he croaked weakly, cracking into a lecherous grin.

Deishi’s fist snapped forward sharply, catching him hard in the nose and cracking it slightly.

“Honey, I wouldn’t eat you with a plate of Potstickers.” she replied proudly, reaching down to wrench him arms out behind his back, where she promptly slapped a pair of cuffs over his wrists. Then, as she was dragging him up by his shirt collar to rest rather awkwardly on his knees, Reido caught up and stopped to look the pathetic youkai over with scowl.

“You just had to run, didn’t you?” she spat bitterly, folding her arms.

Kun lifted his head slowly, still grinning smugly through the blood that was now pouring out of his broken nose.

“Last chance... to fuck me...” he sputtered, eyes drooping heavily.

The huntress’ leg lurched forward, catching him square in the stomach. With one last grunt of pain, the bedraggled youkai fell unconscious, slapping down onto the pier with a wet thud.

Cracking her knuckles, Reido regarded him with a cold frown.

“No thanks.” she huffed, “I’ll take my chances elsewhere... preferably where there’s no crotch rot.”

ooooo

Deishi pushed Kun into a chair near the booking desk. He glared at her angrily. She stuck her tongue out at him and turned to the booking desk to collect their check.

Reido had called ahead and alerted Sergeant Takehashi that they were coming in with Kun, so that they would be sure to get paid their full amount.

Takehashi had been standing at the doors of the police station and had given them both a baleful look when they approached with the soaked and bloody Kun Kawaii. Reido had fixed him with a look that had told him not to ask.

He had followed them into the station and cornered Reido anyway.

“I sure am glad that you two caught this guy, but do you have to keep bringing them in here looking like they have been through the ringer?” He was pleading with her. “The lawyers always love it when they can claim authoritative brutality.”

“Well, if they didn’t run, we wouldn’t have to use force to bring them in in the first place, Takehashi-san!” Reido was trying to placate him, so that he would drop it.

Deishi watched the back and forth between Reido and the aging Sergeant remembering when they had first met him. They had gotten into a tiny bit of trouble one hot summer evening, when Deishi had cajoled Reido into skinny dipping in a city fountain. They thought they had been alone, but a nosey old lady living in the square had called the police on them. That was the first time they had met Takehashi-san, and it was partially his influence that had set them on the road to becoming bounty hunters, much to his continued chagrin.

Finally Reido tired of his nagging and she walked toward Deishi. As she passed, Kun stuck his leg out in her path.

“Hey, you know, it isn’t too late for you and your girlfriend to take me up on that offer. I could show you two what a real man is like.” He leered up at Reido.

Deishi sauntered up to the two of them and wagged the check in Kun’s face. “If either of us were looking for a real man, we wouldn’t start by looking at you.”

Kun’s face fell as the two girls turned to walk away. As he watched them exit the station, a small crinkle worked it’s way into his forehead, causing him to furrow his brow.

“Have fun, girls.” he mumbled wanly, leaning back to rest his head against the wall. Soon, his eyes were closed, his mind swimming in a sea of regret.