Homeplot (2)

[babyviper]

Chapter 1:
The Empty Room in Osaka

Apartment 217, in a nondescript block of an apartment building on the outskirts of downtown Osaka, Japan.

Laying on a bare floor, a clunky mobile phone began to ring. Despite the amount of money such a phone would cost in the late part of the eighties, before the big rush really began, it wasn't even the most expensive item in the room. The real treasures in this tiny, bare apartment had to do with what was in the closet, which bore a simple combination lock.

The ringing seeped into O-Ren's consciousness even as she struggled to wake up. How late had she been out last night? That wasn't like her, and surely Angua and Dean would have had questions. Was she sick, then? Why the heavy haze around her? The fucking ringing was beginning to wear itself out, too.

O-Ren snapped up from her futon so quickly that she had to brace against the window. She was no longer even a bit sleepy, so aware she couldn't keep her hands from shaking as she patted herself down. Same self that had gone to bed the night before.

But a look around confirmed this was her old apartment. Only a few pots to boil ramen in. Blood spots she'd never bothered to clean up. Locked closet. Mobile phone ringing on the ground. She'd cut the regular telephone line herself, preferring this.

It stopped ringing, and O-Ren took a deep breath. "What the fuck."

Comments

[lonewolflives]

Arya was an early riser; she woke up quickly.

This time, she had to wonder if she'd woken up at all; the first thing she heard was a shrill, repetitive ring. It was the wrong sound to wake up to. It should have been the sounds of a sleeping Summerfell, deep breathing from the other rooms, and maybe the fitful cry of a hungry baby. The faint crash of waves on the shore.

There was a lot more noise than that, sounds she couldn't put a shape to, and when she opened her eyes, the ceiling was all wrong, too. She stuck her hand behind her head, where her pillow and, more importantly, the knife under it should be and came up with nothing. Nothing, and there was someone in the room with her; she'd closed her eyes, to fake sleep, to buy herself an extra moment of being ignored, hopefully, but she could hear them.

And then the person spoke, and just confused things more. She sat up, eyes fixing on... "O-Ren?"

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"Arya?"

That was unexpected, and yet, she was grateful. Something she could focus on, something positive from her island life. "Why are you here?" Even as she was going to unlock the closet, she shook her head.

"No, it's good you're here. If I am being selfish, anyway. It's good. But why?"

[lonewolflives]

Arya held back judgment on that last, because so far all she knew was that this wasn't Summerfell.

She did, she supposed, appreciate the presence of someone she knew. She didn't feel as lost. But still...

"How should I know? I don't even know what's going on," she said, but even as she said it she watched the way O-Ren moved to the closet, with the ease of someone familiar with their surroundings. "Is this Japan?"

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"Yes," O-Ren said quietly, almost afraid that if she spoke in Japanese, the bubble would pop. Right now, there was a certain numbness in her limbs that was keeping her calm. "A city called Osaka. I stayed here for the last few months before I finished the job."

She stopped where she stood, crossing her arms over her middle, and turned. But when she opened her mouth to speak, the phone rang again.

[lonewolflives]

Arya's mouth was open as well; to say what, she wasn't entirely sure yet. But her eyes were still on the window, trying to put what was outside into some kind of order in her mind.

When the noise started again, her head tracked around until she found the source; she couldn't immediately place that, either, and that fact increased the amount she was on edge.

If she'd seen or heard one before, she couldn't place it; it certainly wasn't anything you caught people with around the island.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Chapter 2:
Sayonara de Osaka

Standing outside the train station, O-Ren found it difficult to believe they'd made it all the way there without even having to draw a weapon. Fleeing to Tokyo was the smartest move, but it wasn't the most surprising. If Matsumoto's survivors had even the smallest amount of common sense, they would be there.

Of course, just because you can't see someone doesn't mean they're not there.

She tugged Arya's sleeve. "This is the station. If they're smart, this is where they'll try to head us off."

[lonewolflives]

Arya watched the people going in and out of the station, careful to keep her expression at the appropriate level of casual; she was just a girl standing around with a friend, seeing people go by but not really caring.

"I don't suppose they dress any different to everyone else?"

It probably wasn't like the gold or red cloaks. These were criminals, after all, and even dumb criminals were usually smart enough not to advertise they were criminals.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"They'll wear suits, probably," O-Ren said, scanning the crowd. "Black and white. Other way to tell is tattoos. Lots and lots of them. They're so used to people being afraid of them that they don't always hide who they are."

She motioned to where the ticket booth stood. "Over here. Tickets."

[lonewolflives]

Every time she opened her mouth or so much as looked around it seemed like she was reminded of how different everything here was.

Part of her almost wanted them to show up, because at least she had more of a sense how to handle that. But that was stupid. No one should want someone to be trying to catch them.

"Tickets," she repeated, making a beeline. Tickets. Which you needed to ride a train. Right. Mentally, she checked off any suit she saw in the crowd. Too old, too out-of-shape, maybe, too nervous, maybe...

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren pinched herself on the inside of her arm, hard, and that was enough to throw herself into character, so to speak. "Ne~" she drawled, to start herself off, and began to prattle a little at the attendant. Just another empty-headed girl.

Even as she thought about how long it had been since she'd done this on purpose, she just barely registered the flash of black and white at the corner of her eye.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Chapter Three:
The Train to Tokyo


Several minutes later, O-Ren stepped out of the cramped restroom with a clean face and hands. She considered herself lucky that there had been no blood in her hair. What was on her clothes would just have to wait.

A severe look at the other riders had them shuffling out of the car-- those that hadn't fled upon their arrival, anyhow.

She sat down, a bit heavily, on the empty row of seats. "If this is a dream," she said to Arya, "do you think I'll have bothered to dream police to go with it?" While they might have overlooked the killing off of yakuza scum if it were quiet, they'd made a hell of a scene already.

[lonewolflives]

Arya reached up and grabbed one of the circles hanging from the ceiling, letting herself sway with the motion of the train as an exercise in balance.

The shoes weren't so bad. She spent a lot of time on the balls of her feet anyway. One of them was still leaving red scuff marks wherever the heel landed, though.

"If you remember there being police, you might dream up police," she said. "I never met a guard I couldn't slip by, at any rate."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"If I dreamed it, then I would dream you being able to do that," O-Ren said in quiet agreement. She slid her now clean sword back into its sheath. "It doesn't matter, anyway. The police are on the outside. This is a yakuza war now. They don't get involved unless for appearances."

She shook her head. "No. It'll be if someone assumed Matsumoto's position."

[lonewolflives]

Arya nodded once. She knew about war, even if this was a different kind. Normal people did their best to stay out of the way, or they got trampled.

A lot of the time they did anyway.

"What's that mean for us?"

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren was quiet for a moment then. That stupid movie hadn't shown her how she survived this part. "There's several outcomes. Matsumoto's men were loyal, but only because that's what is required. They didn't love him. If they want me dead enough to waste more of what's left, then it's because whoever is in charge believes I'll come after him." She let out a breath. "I killed almost all of them, the ones involved in my parents' deaths. There is only one still alive."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Chapter Four:
House of Blue Leaves: Redux

Tokyo at night, just after the rain, hurt O-Ren's heart to see. She realized that she'd missed her home sometimes, but she'd never felt homesick until her feet hit the slick pavement and the lights filled up her eyes.

"Kirei desune," she said quietly, slipping her hand into Arya's. Even if their backpacks were full of weapons and their uniforms were a little blood spattered, already Tokyo swallowed them up, raindrops on the rushing river, bearing out to sea. O-Ren blinked hard, remembering a time when she'd looked up at these lights and been so much smaller, both her hands held tight by her parents.

She turned to Arya, the sudden sadness and comfort at the same time making her smile brightly-- even if her eyes glittered a little bit. "This is Tokyo. You'll never see anything like it."

[lonewolflives]

Look with her eyes, she'd been taught. She'd thought it countless times by now.

Right now, she was trying, but the sheer scope of it, the relentless movement, the cacophony of sights was threatening to overwhelm her. She looked around with her eyes as wide as they'd go and tried not to blink, to try to see everything at once.

They had things to do, but she almost wanted to forget about them and just drag O-Ren about, forcing her to explain everything. Meet everyone, go everywhere.

But she was a Stark, and made of sterner stuff than that, so she just held fast to O-Ren's hand and said, "Hai. It is. I won't."

And because she was Arya Stark, she added a loyal if not particularly emphatic, "Winterfell's impressive, too, though."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Despite being trapped in a possibly imaginary version of Tokyo, where the man who killed her father waited, O-Ren let her head fall back and she laughed delightedly at that. "Maybe someday I'll get to see it."

She gave Arya a little tug. "Ikou. We need to stop being schoolgirls. Try not to scare the salespeople, they'll already be afraid of you."

[lonewolflives]

"It's not my fault if they're pansies," Arya complained, as she followed where O-Ren led, mostly by way of the hand tugging her along because she was still trying to watch everything at once.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren chose the depths of Shibuya, weaving though the throngs of people. As a wave of steam passed by her cheek, she inhaled and murmured, "After we kill him, we're having noodles." She found herself hoping that her subconscious, if that was what this was, wouldn't send them back immediately.

Coming to a door that looked not that different than many other doors, O-Ren squinted at the writing on the sign, and finally pushed the door open. What a lot of leather.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Chapter Five:
The Freedom of O-Ren

After the great explosion at the House of Blue Leaves, few people even noticed the bloody, sooty girls as they once more hot-wired the bike and took off for Shibuya again. O-Ren didn't have the slightest inclination for shopping, but she had to pay her respects before they could do anything else. She knew Arya would understand.

They pulled up in front of the Meiji Temple, and suddenly showing her exhaustion, O-Ren fell to her knees on the steps. From her curled up fingers tumbled out Bill's rings, blood-stained but proof that she'd finished it.

[lonewolflives]

She did understand. People had come to the House of Black and White for this, sometimes. Not as often as for the other thing, but still, on occasion.

She waited by the bike, a respectful distance back. She wouldn't have interrupted someone praying to a heart tree, and she wasn't going to interrupt this.

She wondered, even, if this counted as a facet of the Many-Faced God, considering what this was about, and where the rings had come from.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Sucking in a breath, O-Ren managed to make herself stand back up. She completed her prayers, ringing the bell first, and in lieu of coins, dropped the rings into the collection box. Please let me be done now.

"Owarimasu," she murmured, bowing, and then, surreptitiously wiping at her eyes, she jogged back down the steps to Arya.

"Think you can drive without crashing us?"

[lonewolflives]

Arya looked at the bike and gave it all of a second's consideration.

"Just hold on," she said brashly, swinging her leg over. She'd been watching how O-Ren did it, and she had good balance. She could ride a horse, and a motorcycle didn't even have its own brain.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren slid onto the back of the bike, pressing herself snug against Arya's back, arms wrapping around Arya's middle. If she was pressing her face into Arya's hair, then only they would be the wiser.

"Drive," she said softly. "See if you can get us to Tokyo Tower. It's over there." She pointed in the direction of the lit-up tower.