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."

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[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Her stomach turned over. How could Arya know?

I let her watch the tape.

The dread flooded through her, but she kept her eyes open. She always kept her eyes open. "Tell me."

[lonewolflives]

Arya crossed to the window just to the side of O-Ren and leaned forward to breathe on it, misting it up.

"The man in the white suit, he was wearing a ring," she said, reaching out to draw a line in the fogged up glass. Then a pair of loops. "That part was just a drawing, one of those moving ones, but later on, I saw a ring that looked just like that one, except not a drawing."

Three more lines; a short one, then two longer. Then she dotted the i, finishing the name.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren mouthed the name without sound, and then she stood up, and was very quickly to the door where trains connected, throwing up violently into the wind and steel. She counted seven long seconds, and then returned to her seat.

"Then she did me a courtesy, that woman." O-Ren drooped sideways, suddenly a tired flower rather than a sickened and enraged killer, and rested her cheek on the bench. Her eyes stayed straight forward.

"Then he'll be in Tokyo."

[lonewolflives]

Arya sat down next to her and folder her hands awkwardly in her lap, head tilted just enough that she could see O-Ren out of the corner of her eye.

"Then when we get there, we'll find him," she said.

She didn't think she needed to be explicit about what happened next.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren didn't need to see their space to push up with her feet, just so that the temple of her forehead rested on Arya's thigh. Her own hands were searching out the sword, which she cradled to her chest.

"You saw the film. I think he'll be there. We'll be ready."

[lonewolflives]

Arya hesitated, then rested what she hoped was a reassuring hand on O-Ren's shoulder.

Not that she thought O-Ren needed reassurance, exactly.

"Just so," she agreed.

He'd been good, though. She remembered that. But they were good, too, and what's more, they were unexpected. And experience had taught her that counted for a lot.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

Whatever part of O-Ren Ishii had been melting from ice to girl there on the island responded, her cheek falling naturally to the back of Arya's hand. Soft as the movement was, these would be no mistaking the wired strength flowing through the rest of her.

"We ride to the end of the line," O-Ren said. "That's where we get off."

[lonewolflives]

"We'll need to pick up a few things," Arya said, although she still had the gun and all the ammunition O-Ren had provided, given that she'd used one of the yakuzas' weapons instead.

What she'd really like was a sword, or two, but she didn't know if that was possible.

More certain was the probability of having to find new clothes, which she was going to hate.