Ninja Girl

“This is it,” Nick said, motioning to the warehouse. The stranger, who had still refused to give Nick his name, looked the building up and down. “Of course you’ll notice there’s chains on the doors,” Nick continued, waving a finger back and forth at the building. “We’ve actually been entering a secret way. Well, not secret, really, but I’ll have to show…”

“She knows I’m here,” the man interrupted.

“What?”

Without another word the ninja stepped over to one of the doors and removed two daggers from his belt. “Aw man,” Nick muttered, “you weren’t supposed to have those.”

The man drove the daggers into links in the chain and then pulled until there was a snapping sound. Then he yanked the chain off the door and tossed it aside. Without a moment’s hesitation, he threw open the door and marched right inside. Nick sighed in frustration and followed behind him.

When he stepped through the door, he found his new companion standing out in the middle of the room. While this meant he was very exposed, it also meant there was no way for anyone to sneak up on him. To get close, they would have to expose themselves.

Nick looked around with a doubtful expression on his face. “I’m not sure she’s back yet, actually.”

“She’s here.” The man replied, his gaze sweeping slowly across the room.

Suddenly, Anya sprang up from behind some boxes, her weapons drawn, and dove straight for the newcomer. Unfortunately, he had placed himself too well in the room, and there was simply too much ground to cover before she reached him. He had just enough time to get his own blades up and block her attack, and then they were off.

“Hey!” Nick shouted, but neither paid him any mind.

In the middle of the room, the two combatants were a blaze of motion. They moved so quickly and so fluidly that their battle looked more like an extremely well-choreographed dance than it did a fight. Their weapons attacked and parried with such rapidity that the clash of metal sounded more like a single long, drawn-out hum than it did multiple hits occurring in succession.

After a moment they took a break and each took a step back. They continued moving, circling each other like vultures watching their prey.

As they circled, the stranger spoke to Anya in Japanese. “Of all the places I expected to find you Anya, it was not here in this hole, with this foreigner.”

“He may not seem like much, but he has already saved my life twice. He has proven useful.”

The man shook his head. “You are the last person I would have expected for things to have come to this.”

Beneath her mask, Anya scowled. Then she attacked.

This time the melee was much less close quarters. This time it was far more animated. Each opponent began leaping this way and that, jumping up on objects, running up pillars, and generally just making the most of the space around them. This time when the fighting broke off, they both landed several feet from each other and froze. Across the gulf between them they glared at each other, the same look of mixed anger and determination readable in both sets of eyes.

At the same time, they both let out a roar of rage and began running towards the other. A mattress slammed down between them, and they both skidded to a stop.

“Jesus, Effing, Christ,” said Nick, holding up the mattress. “What is wrong with you two?”

On both sides of him he had a ninja drawing back a little to look at him with surprise.

“Can we stop here,” Nick continued, unperturbed, “or do we need to go twenty more rounds of who’s more macho?” He looked from one to the other, waiting for an answer, but neither said a word. “Good? Okay then. Weapons on the floor. Now.” He waited for them to comply, but neither moved a muscle. “Come on,” he urged impatiently. First Anya, and then the stranger, slowly drew in until they were standing up straight and returned their weapons to whatever hidden pockets they were using to store them.

“Good enough,” said Nick, letting the mattress fall. He turned to point at Anya. “You. It’s not polite to just attack people as soon as they enter your home.”

“He…” she started to protest, motioning at the newcomer.

Nick cut her off. “Nah-uh. I don’t wanna hear it. And you.” He turned to the stranger. “Did you not hear the part about Kuroba being alive?”

“Kuroba Kokatsu is a danger to our village and even the entire world, but that does not give her permission to run off on her own and try to bring him down.”

“Run off? Run off? Are you serious? You really don’t know what’s happening here, do you?”

The stranger crossed his arms and glared angrily at Nick, but said nothing.

“Ask yourself what I am doing here,” Nick prompted.

Confusion edged its way into the anger stamped on the man’s face. “I am here because Anya ran off…”

“No, no, no, no, no.” Nick waved his hands, cutting the man off mid-sentence. “Not why you are here. Why I am here.”

The stranger cast a glance at Anya. “Is he always like this?” he asked in Japanese.

“Pretty much,” she replied, in English.

The stranger’s eyes went wide. “How long have you been able to speak English?”

“That’s what we’re trying to explain to you,” Nick interrupted. “Look, what I am saying is, why do you think that I am here with Anya? Do you think she picked me? I mean, really picked me? Like, she left Japan, came to America, and was like, ‘Oh, Nick Lombardi, I need you to drop what you’re doing and join me in my quest to destroy my zombie robot father.’”

The stranger closed his eyes. He seemed to be trying to contain his rage to keep from exploding. Through gritted teeth he said, “I’m waiting for the point where you start making sense.”

“I’m saying, do I look like the kind of person Anya would choose to have as a partner? She didn’t choose me. I was just in my bedroom, minding my own business, chillin’ out with some games, and bam! There she was. She materialized right there in the middle of the room.”

“Materialized?”

“Yeah. She teleported in. She seemed pretty surprised about it, too.”

“Teleported?” The man’s voice was absolutely incredulous. “That’s impossible.”

“Yeah, I would have agreed with you,” Nick quickly counted on his fingers, “um… four days ago? Wow, has it really been four days? That’s insane. It feels like it’s been forever and a few minutes at the same time.”

“Nick,” Anya prompted, attempting to steer him back on course.

“Huh? Oh. Right. Yeah, so, I would have agreed with you four days ago, but then it happened. Right in front of me. She appeared there, in my bedroom, out of thin air.”

“Why your bedroom?”

Nick shrugged. “Our working theory is that it was an accident. I would guess that she was supposed to end up somewhere else. Ryerson, or whoever is in control of whatever it is that transported her from Japan to America probably meant for her to end up in some containment room or something in some lab downtown. I’m guessing they must have calculated something wrong and so instead she ended up in my bedroom. Then, a few minutes later after appearing in my room, something just… kind of… exploded out of her, knocking her unconscious. When that happened, I’m guessing that was them realizing something had gone wrong and so they tried to teleport her again. But something went wrong, again.”

The man turned a questioning gaze on Anya, who simply shrugged. “I can’t explain it,” she said, “and I’m not saying his theory makes any sense. But it is what happened.”

“So,” Nick continued, “I realize you’re here to punish her for leaving your village without permission, or whatever, but you have to realize: you would be punishing an innocent person for a crime they didn’t commit. I know your sense of justice must be harsh, but surely even you can admit that would be the wrong play here?”

The stranger stood there, still very tense, clearly unwilling to admit defeat just yet, but even his resolve seemed to be dying. “Look, Anya wanted to go right back home, before anyone could notice she was missing. That was her plan. That’s how important your rules and laws are to her. Mind-blowing, earth-shattering event happens directly to her, and all she can think about is getting back home so she doesn’t break curfew.

“But I talked her out of it. I convinced her that if she went home, Ryerson would be able to just keep trying to kidnap her. The next time, they might have even succeeded, and then she could have ended up in a dark, inescapable cell with no one knowing where she was, let alone be around to help her. At least if she stayed this time, I would be able to help her shut them down and then she could go home unrestrained.”

As Nick finished his explanation, the room fell silent. The newcomer seemed to be mulling over everything in his mind and considering whether he should believe them or not.

Finally, he looked to Anya and said in Japanese, “You trust this foreigner?”

“I do, yes. And you can speak in English when he’s around.” She turned to look at Nick. “He said…”

“I know what he said,” Nick interrupted, crossing his arms. It wasn’t entirely true, but he had heard the word “Gaijin,” and that was one word he did know well. Foreigner. “I’ve played Ninja Gaijin.”

Nick was met with only blank stares.

“What? Ninja Gaijin? The game? Really? You guys could probably relate. It’s about an American who’s raised by his father, and is taught his whole life to become a ninja. Then, one day his dad is murdered by this evil wizard from outer space…” His voice trailed off as he considered how bizarre the description was about to get. He realized Ryoichi was staring at him as though he had just ripped off all his clothes and started dancing a samba. “I... I really like video games, okay?”

Anya quickly spoke up. “I know he talks like a crazy person, and I know you have no reason to trust him, but everything he is saying is the truth.”

“And you being able to speak English now?”

“We think that might be part of whatever it is that Ryerson did to her that allowed them to teleport her halfway across the globe. I mean, we can assume that since they teleported her to America they are Americans and thus would probably want to be able to communicate with her in English. I think it might also be giving her super healing.”

“I do not have super healing,” Anya countered, dismissively.

“Then how do you explain how you healed so fast?”

“I wasn’t that badly injured in the first place.”

“Or… nanomachines.”

“I do not…” Anya started to say, but the newcomer cut her off.

“That’s enough!” He commanded, and the room fell silent. He looked between Anya and Nick several times with a new look in his eyes. Suspicion? Whatever it was, it did not last long. Shaking his head, he seemed to deflate a little as he said, “Very well. It is true that if the village elders had known you were taken and did not leave of your own free will then they might not have sentenced you to death. I will join you in getting to the bottom of this mess with Ryerson. Once that is done, I am bringing you home, to face whatever punishment the elders decide upon.”

Anya nodded her agreement. “Yes, and I will gladly go with you then.”

“Good. So what is your current status on this? What do you know about the project?”

“Not much,” Nick admitted. “We stole some documents from them and have been looking through them for any information on what happened to her, or on any buildings in the area that might be owned by Ryerson. That’s how we found the lab.” Nick’s face grew red then as he realized what he was saying. He cast Anya an embarrassed look. “I, uh, I went to the lab again while you were gone to look for clues. That’s where we ran into each other.”

“I figured as much,” Anya replied softly.

“Yeah, so, anyway.” Nick cleared his throat. “That’s how we found the lab, which is also where we found Kokatsu in his shiny new robot body. You saw for yourself how that lead panned out. Since then we’ve been looking for another location without much success.”

“Actually,” Anya cut in, “I have had some success. I found two locations that seemed worth checking into.”

“You did?” Nick asked, honestly surprised.

“Yes. I was going to recommend we visit them after you ate.”

“Oh,” was all Nick could say. If he had only known that she had already found something, he would never have bothered going out to look for clues, and would have never brought this stranger into their midst.

“Good,” the man said. “I will take over from here. You, child, you will stay behind.”

“Child?” Nick echoed, honestly offended.

The man, not surprisingly, ignored him. “Go get the addresses,” he commanded Anya. “We can split up and each take one.”

Anya nodded and turned to obey. Nick followed hot on her heels. “Hey, come on,” he said to her. “You’re not really gonna leave me behind, are you? I thought we were in this together.”

“No, he’s right. This is too dangerous, and you’ve already done too much. You should wait here for a while, and then probably you should try to get back to your life.”

“What life?” Nick protested. “The one that went up in flames? This is my fight, too, remember?”

Anya gave a terse nod of her head but did not turn to face Nick. “I know. But I was pulled into this, forced into it. You were not. You were here, you have always been here, by choice. And you can still make a choice now. You can choose to leave this. Even if you were to stay, after this I will be returning to Japan, and you will remain here and have to figure out what to do from there. You might as well get started now.”

Nick looked hurt. “You really feel that way?”

“I do, yes.”

Nick nodded his head and looked away. That is when he noticed it. On some boxes off to the side was a takeout box full of sushi. A drink and a pair of chopsticks stood on either side of the box, and a bowl of Kung Pao chicken and rice with a side of egg rolls lay on the far end. Nick recognized it instantly.

“What?” Nick said, pointing to the meal. “Is… is that Lugal Panda?”

Anya turned and looked where he was pointing. “Yes.”

“That’s… that’s our order from four nights ago, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I thought we could have a meal together.”

Nick didn’t know what to say. He felt as if the world had just frozen around him. “You… I… I thought you hated it.”

Anya nodded. “I did. But I thought I would give it a second try. I was trying to… how did you put it? Enjoy the little things.”

In that moment, Nick could have been knocked over by a feather. He had no idea how to respond. He felt a little bit like crying, though he wasn’t really sure why. He began to be a little concerned again that she really did have a concussion.

“You… that’s… that’s very sweet of you, actually.”

Any shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t be eating now. Duty calls.”

“Yeah,” was all Nick could say.

“You should though,” she said. “Eat, I mean. No point in letting it go to waste. Actually, you could probably stay here a little while if you want to, and maybe go through the files some more. Who knows? Maybe the addresses I found won’t amount to anything and we’ll need to come back and do more research.”

“Yeah,” Nick repeated. He still could not bring himself to look directly at Anya.

“Just… in case you need to know, I’ll be taking the building on East eighty-third, and Ryoichi will be taking the one on Colfax.”

“Ryoichi?” Nick echoed. “Oh, you mean Mr. Perfect over there?”

“Yes, sorry. His name is Ryoichi. Though, now that you mention it, I suppose his name does mean something quite similar to Mr. Perfect. I suppose it’s fair for you to call him that.” She waited a moment, but Nick did not respond. “Well,” she added, “I suppose this is goodbye.”

“Yes,” Nick agreed absently. “I suppose it is.”

Anya remained standing there for a moment, and then nodded her head and walked past him and back towards the exit. Nick looked up, but did not turn to see her off.

“Anya?” he called over his shoulder.

Anya stopped, and turned back to face him. “Yes?”

“Be careful, okay?”

Anya gave a single, curt nod of her head, and then turned around and was gone.