Fluffy's Futures: Cara Ch. 12

"If life is only blood and hate,
Then what's there to left to demonstrate,
Why can't the evil all just die,
To leave us alone,
For peace to fly?"

The words of the song blared through the headphones in my helmet, bike a purring monster beneath me as I wove through traffic, gloved hands keeping a tight grip on the handle bars of my motorcycle. The music was by a local Japanese/American group, composed of both American GI's and Japanese youths. Pretty good, in my opinion.

I had just finished for an appointment with a dressmaker that was known for throwing things at picky customers. What I do for a custom outfit these days, I thought with a sigh, flipping off a Toyota that tried to merge into me. But to be able to conceal my weapons and shift shape from human to hanyu to yukoi with me, it would take a specially made dress. I'd had a lot of things thrown at me.

The one I'd commissioned fit those specifications nicely. The inner dress was a relatively simply blue sheath dress and could be worn alone if needed. Would have to change the weapons configurations for it though.

At first look it was a black velvet floor length, A-line with a corseted bodice that lead to a flared waist and poet sleeves. Then one saw the cut-away panels that revealed the separate blue sheath underneath. The bodice was tightly fitted with a built in bra and V-neck, the edges of the neck bearing the same repeated triangle pattern in deep blue silk embroidery that the hems of the sleeves and skirt portion did. The poet sleeves connected to the dress at the shoulders via an expandable blue velvet crease. The magic of my shape shift would trigger the expansion of the crease and its retraction. At elbow and wrist, more blue silk, in thin ropes this time, wove in and out of the fabric, acting as ties to bring the entire sleeve up to my shoulder or to cinch it tight. It is rather embarrassing to drag one's poet sleeves in one's soup. A cut away panel right beneath my breasts curved around to my back, partly bared by a deep V between my shoulders. More of the blue rope crossed the bare portions of my flesh, acting as support for the heavy sleeves. Right above my hips and extending down to my upper thighs were another set of cut away panels. The skirt of the dress flared out gracefully to skim over the ground, assuming I was wearing 3" heels or in hanyu form.

As lovely as the dress was, its practicality was what made it most appealing. The hem of the skirt was weighted to prevent it from flying up around my waist in the gusty Japanese autumn with specialized smoke bombs. Some were simple smoke, others tear gas and one was a yukoi-specific knock-out gas. The hip panels gave me access to a pair of fighting daggers on either hip and a set of throwing knives attached to the boning of the corset-top on the inside. Slender little silver knives, the throwing ones were but deadly and launchable with a mere flick of the wrist. A pair of small, very slim profile derringers, two shots each, were at the small of my back, accessible through the waist panel. The blue sheath I wore under the main overdress protected my skin from the assorted harnesses and knives hidden in the main dress itself.

I would also be wearing my Sphere of Humanity and my bracers, the bracers storing my assassin's outfit and even more weapons and gear. Never knew what one would run into at a gathering of the Yokuza big wigs.

All in all, a fine piece of work, even if the seamstress making it was a bit nuts. Of course, she was around three hundred years old, a yukoi of the fire clan, making me the dress as payment for saving the leader's son. Better then a monetary payment for an act I would have done for free any day.

The protection enchantments on the dress had been woven into the fabric, a gift from my mother to "make up for all those missed birthdays" or so she'd claimed. Whatever, it was magically enhanced fabric for a dress I knew would look great once it was finished.

Why such a fancy dress? Because there was to be a "Black and White Ball" for all the Japanese Yakuza headmen and their associates. This year it was being held in Tokyo, though I'd been told last year's ball in Osaka had been beautiful. For the event, I was to accompany Samu, acting like arm/eye candy for the night, which suited me perfectly since I was there to gather information, not chit-chat. I felt bad about using Samu this way but not bad enough to not do it. I needed information on who hated Danny, other then the yukoi, and who I could blame the hit on.

No way was I spending time in a Japanese jail, heck no. I shuddered despite the heavy jacket I wore. No, jail time in Japan, where manual labor was still a "good thing" was not on my list of things to do while I was visiting the country. And all that after the initial holding period. In Japan, one can be held by the police for 28 days without being charged with a crime. Quite the show stopper.

Of course, since Nicky would be at both the ball and the assassination, there was very little chance we'd be caught by the Japanese authorities. Magic couldn't solve everything but it made for excellent distractions while one escaped. Nicky would be at the party as part of a visiting group of American 'mobsters' from the West Coast, supposedly from his home town of San Francisco. He had a legit invitation and everything. We'd both be gathering information on the oft-warring factions of the Yakuza so we could place the blame for the hit on the most believable group. I would feel bad about transferring the blame if they weren't all guilty of killing in cold blood at some point. The unbloodied Yakuza ends up dead quickly.

The air around me grew colder as I made my way up the mountain roads to Samu's home. I slept there more then at my apartment, though it had occasionally caused a few awkward moments. Like Samu asking why I was in Japan if I wasn't working or going to school. Luckily Meele had burst in howling for dinner and I'd been saved but I knew it wouldn't be long before he cornered me and asked me again.

Things were getting more dangerous by the day, it seemed.

And yet, I shouldn't have worried that evening about Samu asking questions about me. No, his questions were about monsters and the yukoi.

I walked in the back door to the kitchen, windblown and chilled to the bone but happy to see Samu, back just this afternoon from the trip to Okinawa with Danny. That happiness evaporated at the look on his face, a mixture of fear and anger, loathing and terror. I had to ask, "Samu, what's wrong? Are you okay? What happened to you?"

"I'm okay," he said, voice oddly blank. "I just... I saw... Oh, God, Cara...."

I went to him and pulled him into my arms, asking again, "What happened?"

"Danny... he... he's made some kind of pact with demons," Samu said at length. "I saw him talking with one while we were in Okinawa... she, Cara, she was a woman but not and then she leapt off a cliff into the water and became a whale. I know this sounds crazy but its true!"

"Not as crazy as you might think," I said with a soft smile, my true thoughts running frantically in circles. How many whale yukoi could there be from Okinawa with the power to take human forms? I could only think of one- Kanoko, Third Council Chair holder. But I gave none of this away as I looked into Samu's eyes. "Look who I grew up with- Meele turns into a dragon for heaven's sake. Whales aren't that unbelievable to me, Samu."

"I forget that about you sometimes," he whispered into my hair as he held me close. "You seem so human, my love."

"I am human, part of the time," I protested, pulling back from him a little bit. "Anyway, what difference does it make that Danny's making deals with the yukoi?"

"You told me yourself they're dangerous," he reminded me, eyes honestly scared for his friend who he knew almost nothing about. "I don't want Danny to get hurt. We've been friends since we were kids- I've always been his right hand man."

"I know," I whispered and made soothing noises. Meaningless really but Samu seemed to feel better for them. At least one of us did. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Samu that Danny was a pedophile and a rapist but I didn't. It would hurt him enough to know Danny was dead, why add pain on top of that now when he didn't need to know?

Instead, I decided to turn his mind to other things. Namely myself.

"Samu, I missed you," I whispered, turning my face up to his. I laid a kiss against the side of his neck, licking my way up to his ear. "Things will resolve themselves, you'll see. But I've missed you terribly, Samu."

I felt him react against me and gave him a sultry smile. "You know, I've been wanting to fly to Okinawa and ravish you down there. But sanity prevailed and so I waited."

I began to shed my clothing as I guided Samu toward his room. "I've waited..." I removed my shirt and bra, "so very long..." off went the pants and panties, "to just throw you down on the bed."

Samu's eyes were wide as he took in my naked form. "You're just trying to make me feel better, Cara."

"Yeah, there's a little of that in there," I said, rising to my tiptoes with a full stretch. "But I'm also horny as hell."

I pushed him back onto the bed where he landed with an "oomph" before I straddled his hips, giving him an uninterrupted view of just how much I'd missed him. My body shone in the light from the living room, hairless from the neck down. My inner thighs were damp with my arousal and the fact I could feel Samu's body growing warmer, hear his heart pumping harder, only added to it.

"Move up further on the bed," I instructed as I climbed off Samu for a moment, "after you strip out of those cloths. They get in the way, just a smidge."

"Just a smidge, huh?" he asked as he did as I'd bidden him. "Very bold for a Japanese woman, even one who's spent time abroad."

"You have no idea," I whispered as I began to show him just how bold I was.

I awoke to sunlight flooding the room and a wave of nausea rolled over me with such fierceness I barely made it to the bathroom in time to retch. Even after my stomach was empty my body heaved until I finally collapsed against the side of the tub, forehead pressed to its cool porcelain.

"Why am I so sick," I whispered, shaking my head. I laid a hand across my belly and knew why I was sick. "Oh no. Not this... I can't be...."

A shuffle from the other room and I heard Samu asking through the door, "Cara, are you all right?"

"I'm okay," I forced my voice to sound normal though tears sprang to my eyes. "Just some bad sushi last night I think. Don't worry about it."

"Can I get you anything, Cara?"

"No," I said, wishing he'd go away, wishing he'd come in and hold me. Sometimes, being a woman meant I wasn't making any kind of sense, not that I'd ever admit it out loud. "I'll just stay in here a while longer, until my stomach feels better, then get some more sleep."

"I'll use the guest shower then, Cara," Samu answered back. "If you need anything yell or call me on my phone after I leave for work, okay?"

"No problem, I will," I told him, knowing I wouldn't call him. I couldn't tell him. If he knew then he'd want to marry me and even I couldn't keep a secret as big as mine from a man I married.

About half an hour later I heard him leave, his car rolling down the paved driveway to the streets and down the mountain. I left the bathroom then, tears running freely down my cheeks as I flung myself on to the bed, howling in frustration.

To be pregnant, to carry a life is a wonderful thing.

To be unwed while doing so isn't necessarily so.

Planning to assassinate the best friend of the baby's father really isn't healthy.

Planning to leave the country after said assassination is just icing on a cake that only fate could bake up.

My own cell phone rang on the bedside table and I picked up on the third ring, voice couched and almost normal. "Moshi, moshi."

"You know I fucking hate that Japanese, Cara," came Nicky's voice. "We have to talk, puppy-girl. Situations have changed and the target's got to go down."

"Tell me about it," I whispered into the phone before taking a deep breath. "Samu's gone for the day, house is clear if you want to come over."

Nicky hung up on me and I heard the back door of the house open as he came walking in, nearly glowing with power and just the sheer joy of being able to do his job.

Pulling on a silk kimono-like robe, I padded out to the kitchen, knowing my eyes were red-rimmed and not caring.

"Cara, what's wrong?"

I gave a bittersweet laugh as I sat down at the kitchen table. "You know how I always said the best way to fuck up one's job was to get pregnant?"

"Yeah...."

"I fucked up my job."

Nicky's hazel eyes, more brown this morning, widened as he stared at me, jaw agape. It was the first time I'd seen him really startled. "You're serious."

"Can't get much more serious then a child," I replied.

"Isn't that letting the cat among the canaries," he muttered with a shake of his head. "So what are you going to do?"

"Do the job and flee," I said, head down, shoulders slumped. "I can't stay here after killing the target and I can't marry a man after I've killed his best friend."

"So honorable, my Cara," Nicky said, taking a seat beside me. "A bane and a blessing that honor. However, don't you think he at least deserves to know you're with child, Cara? And what about your vision?"

"We'll wrap my lower torso in Kevlar," I replied to the second part of the question, leaving the first alone, hoping Nicky would drop it. "Dual layered Kevlar over a magic barrier spell should protect the baby front, back and from the sides."

I saw thoughts whirl behind those hazel eyes as Nicky thought, sparks flaring as he ran through spells to guard the baby. "If we're going to wrap your belly in it, why not wrap all of you in treated Kevlar?"

Sighing, I tried to explain. "Because, the vision will come true. I will be shot and I will bleed. Nothing can stop that. If it doesn't happen in the location of the assassination, then it will happen somewhere else. What if that somewhere else is after I step out of the shower? What will be protecting the baby then? No, I have to take the bullet when its due, I can't evade it. I tried doing that once, it worked out badly."

I didn't mention that 'badly' had meant my former bounty hunter partner getting killed, nearly dying myself, and involving the local authorities in my bounty hunt. Not good press that. So I didn't avoid my visions, I accepted them when they came and moved on.

"Fine, we'll let you get shot," Nicky said, rolling his eyes. As powerful as he was, visions had never been something he'd gotten, so they weren't in his realm of understanding. I couldn't destroy Tokyo with a single spell or cure paralysis with another, so I guess it made us even. He went on, thinking out loud. "Okay, so we'll layer the Kevlar, the spell, more Kevlar and your normal outfit, sorry dear you're going to look fat. I'll be standing by with a healing spell after I kill whoever shoots you and we catch the next flight to LA out of Narita."

With a shake of my head, I disagreed. "I don't know who shoots me, Nicky. It could be anyone- they may not deserve to dye. I mean, I'm kind of caught in a compromising position."

Yeah, bloody claws, smoking gun, dead bodies everywhere, that's compromising, right?

Nicky fell artfully onto the couch, bare feet on the coffee table that I'd never seen used for coffee. "Understandable. I'll be ready to non-lethally restrain your shooter then, with the option of killing him. And then we hop to LA."

"Alright," I said, grabbing some blank paper from Samu's printer and sitting down in front of the coffee table. With a set of pens kept there for cross word puzzles (Samu's hobby, not mine), I started drawing out Danny's house. Nicky and I plotted his and his bodyguard's deaths, going over every detail till the sun was sinking low on the horizon.

I hate spending a day planning the death of others, it feels so wasteful. Which I guess it should, death is wasteful, isn't it?