Heat, Stress, Burns, and Cuts Ch. 05

*All characters are over 18

*

Thunderous blows to my ribcage followed by a devastating hit to the leg. I was down on the ground, with my teacher bowing in his corner, waiting for me to get to my feet. Training for a solid week with Hiro Takida made me a great swordsman; however, I needed more than that. I needed to be great. With much persistence, and pain, I got to my feet. My blows came as a shock to Hiro. From the damage he did even I was surprised at how fast my body moved. A new fire was lit inside of me; I slashed at his sides, out-thinking him at every turn. My body flowed, as if all I knew in that moment was this fight. In this state, even a master swordsman wasn't standing a chance against me. I was on him still, paring, slashing, and in the end I put him on the ground. Hiro lay stunned; I walked back to my corner, and sat. Hiro stood, I reciprocated. He was quick to speak.

"Well done Daniel! Another few days of training and you will be ready to go to Texas!" He said standing up.

"Thanks Hiro, I am very grateful for the time we have had together. I just got a big boost of energy when you knocked me down. Is that normal?" I asked smiling.

"Ah, yes. I once met a man in my travels to India who taught me to meditate. What you just accessed was called Prana, or Ki, or Qi. They all roughly translate to life force, energy that is collected through meditation. We will talk more about it before you head to Texas. However, I request one thing of you before you depart from Japan." He said.

"Sure Hiro, name it. I would be glad to help."

"Thank you Daniel, get dressed and meet me in my office in twenty minutes." He finished, walking away.

I headed upstairs to go and change. I greeted my fiancée, Megan, and my sister, Samantha. They both were in my bed, sleeping off the great time that we had last night. I threw on some clean clothes and made my way to Hiro's office. We collided in the kitchen and grabbed some coffee before we talked. Mug in hand we went and sat down. He first spoke.

"So, now that you are a part of the collective, you are going to need to start pulling some weight." Hiro said.

"How do I do that? I have extra time in the day but I don't know what work I should do." I asked.

"Well, there is a gala tonight at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, I would like you to accompany me. There will be many people who you will do business with at one time or another. It will give insight to your position and the jobs you will be tasked with. You can also easily learn a few languages there. The dressing is formal, as I recall you had a stunning Prada suit when we first met, so it shouldn't be a problem. The gala is at eight tonight. The car will arrive here at seven fifty, please be ready then. You are allowed to bring a plus one, however I am not sure that would be a great idea. However if you deem it acceptable, feel free to bring your fiancé." He finished.

"No, I will go alone with you. If you feel it is best then I trust you." I told Hiro.

The day passed quickly, some light reading, a little cooking, and a bit of relaxing at the spa. The clock soon rung seven thirty as I was just getting out of the shower and heading into my closet, I picked out an Armani tuxedo, one of my fathers. I took out my cufflinks and made sure Vitur linked up with him.

'Vitur, link up to the specialist in my cufflinks.'

'Done Sir, Skjult is online.'

'Hello sir,' He said in a calm, but stern voice. 'Where are we headed tonight? I am asking this so I can retrieve layout information and create exit plans in case of any danger. I see you are armed with the pliable Starstone Vitur controls. Do you have the skills to use this if need be?' He asked.

'Yes, I have been trained by some of the best in the world. If I need to, I can defend myself. I am attending a gala at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Any other information can be received through Vitur, or me.' I replied.

"Yes sir, I will start plans now." He stated.

I kissed Megan goodbye and left for the Gala. Security was heavy there, I had my own one man security team beside me, Edward was dressed in a tuxedo, however he was carrying three knifes. They were so well concealed that even an experienced eye couldn't spot them. Soon after our car was searched and we headed inside, as we entered the ballroom, there was a small lull when we walked in, however it was short lived and the gala went on as it did before. I met many people that night, some knew my father. I soon wrapped up my conversation with the Prime Minister of Singapore.

"Let me contact you in a week to see if we can't solve this issue, I will be in touch." I shook hands with him and walked to meet with others. This is giving me a much better perspective on my duties running the collective, I didn't only offer my wisdom, I also offered my money and resources. I bartered deals between countries in my ruling area, and much more that I've yet to find out! I was pulled aside by Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of Honduras. We spoke in private while walking through the garden, turns out that he knew my father well so he decided to confide in me.

"Listen to me President Hernandez," I told him "I know you are skeptical on EU trade but your country will flush a large amount of money down the toilet if you stop. So either your country can profit 1.4 billion or a you can have a Chinese wall put up around your trade and exportation. Remember, I am your friend, and in this case it is a mistake. At least until the EU weakens." I spoke in Spanish; it was quite easy to learn.

"I do not want the future of my country to depend on the EU; I want more trade deals so we can have redundancy if anything is to fall through."

I had Vitur open a web browser; I was reading about trade and gathering my thoughts while he spoke. After he completed his thoughts I spoke.

"Well, now you are not just dependent on the US, but the US and the EU. Have you considered getting more products into Africa? Of all of your imports to Africa, Ghana is your biggest importer with only 6 million worth of product being sent. Even Asia, Japan is only ten percent of your Asian trade. Asia can use some good quality coffee, no?" I said, laughing.

"Well yes!" He said back, laughing "They could, I think that I should look into diversifying elsewhere instead of burning bridges out of haste."

"That is a very wise decision, if you need any help negotiating from me, feel free to call." I said, giving him my number.

I soon began to realize how much power I actually had. I could start or end a war with a phone call. As I made my way back into the ballroom I spotted Hiro at the center of a large group. He appeared to be center stage and loving every minute of it. I continued to walk about and introduce myself to some people, ending every conversation with handing them my phone number. As I continued to walk around, I spotted stunning women. She was 5'4", petite, with fiery red hair. However her eyes were a deep and bountiful green. Something about her, I just had to meet her. The floor had just cleared and the band started to play, what better time than now to go and introduce myself. I had Edward stay to the side, playing more of an over watch role instead of a personal guard role. I handled myself fine, but when it comes to situational awareness I like to have a wolf by my side who knows more than I do. However, if there is one thing I can do, it is talk to pretty women.

"Good evening," I said, giving off a small and genuine smile "Would you care to dance?" I asked, extending my hand.

"I would love to," She said, calmly firing her emerald green eyes in my direction "Shall we?"

As we danced, there wasn't much talking, our bodies did it for us. It was almost like playing chess, where my body moved, hers was quick to follow. She moved so effortlessly, like she had invented the tango. Not to mention her eyes, she could bring you to tears with a single glance.

"Who are you?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"Let's take a walk," She said, leading the way. I nodded to Edward to let him know that he should stay there. We made our way outside and sat down onto a bench. "I have come to talk to you, Daniel."

"You know my name, so what is yours?" I asked, becoming more skeptical by the minute.

"I am known by many names, the first being Freyja." She said. The name sounded familiar, however I couldn't place it.

"It is lovely to meet you, Freyja, what would you like to talk about?" I asked, intrigued.

"I want to talk about you, and immortality."

My ears quickly perked up. Not wanting to show my hand, I asked "What do you know of it?"

"I have it, and I am debating on whether to give it to you or not. You seem like the right man to bring peace to the world, but I am unsure." She said, sighing.

"How long have you been alive?" I asked.

"There comes a time when you forget how long, sometimes days, or weeks, even months can feel like mere seconds. Best guess would be roughly three thousand years. I've seen many things Daniel. War, famine, plague, and worse, I've seen family, lovers, and dear friends die. Even though you can't die, you can still feel pain..." She said starting to cry.

I brought her in for a hug. Why would I want to be immortal if the only thing I looked forward to was seeing my loved ones die? The trauma that she must of endured. Watching her loved ones die, it would break a lesser woman.

"Not to be insensitive, but how is this supposed to make me want to be immortal?" I asked.

"I suppose I didn't do the best job trying to convince you. However, I can incentivize you by granting you not only your own immortality, but the immortality of five others. However you must choose carefully, as these people will be with you for the rest of eternity. However, I would need to vet them first, to make sure that they wouldn't harm the future with their new found gift. I will also grant all of the five and yourself the power to end your own life. If you do that then you can see what Folkvangr is like. I think you would like it. I am there a lot..." She purred, placing a hand on my chest.

"I will think about it and get back to you. How do I get in contact with you?" I asked.

"Well, I think that the 'I am just a thought away' line is way to over used, so how about you come and meet me at my home in Alaska, here are the coordinators, bring a coat, its cold up there! I am sure we could find some way to stay warm though, right?" She said in a playful tone.

I brought my mouth close to her ear and whispered "More than a few, I promise." I said as she giggled.

"Great, now get back to the party, the fun is about to begin. It is about time for me to go." She said oddly.

I went to go rejoin the party, having much to think about. I signaled for Edward to come over here. The only thing I could think about was the comment she made at the end of our encounter. It was as if she knew something I didn't. It started to concern me; I was quick to take action. I informed Edward that there might be danger and I am going to take some precautions. But for now, he was going to be at my side.

'Vitur, inform Hiro that there might be danger incoming. Saga, search through the party and scan for threats. Skjult, check the cameras of the premises and see if there is anything fishy.'

The results came back quickly, Skjult found men outside, patrolling the grounds who were not government employees. He saw some making their way towards the ballroom. There were many political leaders at this party, the most important ones being Hiro, myself, and the Prime Minister of Japan. Hiro looked over my way and communicated via his AI.

'We need to leave Daniel. You go out via your escape route and I mine. We will meet back at the apartment.' He said. I nodded in reply. I brought Edward up to speed as we walked out.

We made sure not to run or make any commotion as we left. We took the route Skjult planned for me. He had us make our way through the East Garden first; I made sure to walk quietly, Edward doing the same. We were hidden behind hedges; however we would need to come out of cover to cross the Kitahambashi Gate. Skjult informed me that there were two guards on the gate who weren't a part of the normal security. We needed to fight our way through. I got the Starstone alloy bracelet off my wrist and formed it into my katana.

"You take the one on the left; I got the one on the right. Knife only, we need to be quiet." I told Edward, he nodded his head in agreement. Pulling out his concealed karambit

We made our way toward them, slowly stalking, until we were within killing range. I used my fingers to count down from three and immediately Edward and I struck. We got them on the ground with not even a scream or grunt. These people weren't experienced in the slightest.

One across the gate we made our way toward the Martial Arts Hall in Kitanomaru Garden. The coast was clear so we made it past Tayasu gate in no time. We caught a cab two blocks away from the palace. I had him stop a block away from the apartment, we walked from there. As we rode up the elevator, I caught Mae's voice, it was shaky, she was crying while talking on the phone. I could not make out who was on the other end. As the elevator made it to the 10th floor, the elevator doors opened, I was instantly sandwiched between Megan and Samantha, and they had tears running down their eyes. They were mumbling something about how I am safe. I didn't hear them though; I was solely focused on that phone call. The other end was speaking; I couldn't make much of the conversation.

"It was in the limousine... He... it happened so fast..." I wasn't able to hear everything. Suddenly my heart dropped, I ran into Mae's room.

"Hiro, where is he?" I asked frantically. She turned to me, silent. "Where is he?" I screamed. She broke down into tears, dropping the phone and crying on the floor. Megan and Samantha comforted her; I wasn't in a comforting mood. I grabbed the phone and spoke. "This is Daniel Vanderbuilt, Hiro is my friend and mentor, if you don't want to fucking die then you will start talking this instant." I said snapped.

"He..." The man started.

"SPEAK!" I yelled.

"He was murdered Mr. Vanderbuilt. As we were leaving he was under sniper fire. He took a bullet to his chest. There was nothing we could do; he died before we arrived at the hospital." I hung up the phone. I walked out of the room and into my room.

'Vitur 2 hours now!' I said.

Vitur dropped me into a two hour dream, which lasted mere seconds of real life. In an instant I was back at my hidden study in Boston. I just sat, for the first ten minutes. Thinking about what happened and who played a part in it. I collected my thoughts and gathered my team. I had all of my AI's ready to go to work, Saga, who keeps memories and wisdom of all of my ancestors, Skjult who runs security for me, lastly, Vitur, who is my go-to AI for all of my general needs.

"Okay guys, I know that we-" Suddenly another AI appeared in my office.

"Hello everybody" she said in Japanese "My name is Shinobi."

"Hello Shinobi," I said apprehensively "What are you doing here?"

"I once served master Hiro, he told me to find and serve you in the event of his death. He told me to play this once I have found you. May I?" She asked.

"Please." I said.

She played a voice recording of Hiro. He started to speak.

"Hello Daniel, Shinobi is a special AI that will help you in your adventures. You can trust her." As he spoke I could hear the screeching of tires in the background and gun shots. "I am afraid that I will no longer be able to help you. Remember the name Daniel; Raul Larson. I saw that you met Freyja as well. She is a god-like woman. However I would not put much trust in her until you do your research. She can be useful but with caution you must proceed. Until we meet again Daniel. Take care of your family, this world is brutal but you can overcome it." The message stopped and we were all silent for a couple of minutes. I was the first to speak.

"Doesn't Mae need you, Shinobi?" I asked.

"No master, I was a fourth AI to master Hiro. My name is Shinobi because I am very stealthy. I am not contained in any device. I am just here, in your head. I travel through the internet, satellites, and phone towers. So anywhere that there is a signal, I am here. It's like I am from the cloud." She finished.

"Interesting, what can you do Shinobi? Do you have the same computing power as my AI's?"

"Yes master. I have gained access to China's Tianhe-1a supercomputer, and I just yesterday found a backdoor into Fujitsu's K-computer. So I can use their 80,000 CPU's to search for anything in this world. Facial recognition, any wireless or wired camera currently in Japan, including phones and laptops. " She finished.

"Okay, then I want Shinobi and Skjult looking for sniper perches that coincide with the trajectory of Hiro's gunshot wound, and I want the name and address of his sniper. Vitur, I want a toxin screens and blood tests from Hiro's coroner. I also want you looking at these coordinators with Skjult after he is done with Shinobi. Find weak spots, entrances, exits, if you can think of it, I want it. When I am on Freyja's turf I need anything I can get. Speaking of her, Saga, I want you looking into the past and see if there is any information on this chick. Her name sounds familiar; she mentioned something about Folkvangr too. What is that?"

"That is Norse mythology sir." Vitur answered. "Folkvangr is where half of those who die in combat go to live; it is ruled by a goddess named Freyja... How about that? The other half of the dead goes to Valhalla, where they dine with Odin at night and battle during the day." He finished.

"Is it possible that I just danced with an immortal goddess who just offered me and five others of my choosing immortality?" I sat, stunned. This prompted a simultaneous shrug from the four AI's in the room. "Alright, well let's just focus on the gunman for now. I gotta go talk to Mae, and make sure she is doing okay. Get to work guys." I said.

Just like that, I was back in Japan, with the phone in my hand. I was much calmer now. I had a plan, and I knew what I was doing. I sat for an hour, just pondering what happened. I went into Mae's room with two glasses of Saki in my hand. I passed her a glass and sat next to her on her bed. I rose up the glass.

"To Hiro." I said, she nodded her head and guzzled the drink. "He was one helluva man. From the short time I had known him I knew that."

She nodded her head "He was a great father. I am feeling overwhelmed Daniel, I need to run everything now and I am getting really stressed. How do you deal with it?" She asked.

"Well first off, I am new to this stuff, so that helps. But I also have one more thing that I think will help you. Let me grab it."

I hopped up and jogged into my room. I grabbed the Stradivarius Cigars that had Tarrzia in it. This drug effortlessly raised my IQ by hundreds of points. It made things like learning languages effortless, this a bit to do with a gift I had at birth. This gift allowed me to learn skills and visualize thing better than most. However the Tarrzia amplified it a hundred-fold. I walked into Mae's room and led her to the elevator. We rode up to the rooftop and I lit her up a cigar. We sat on the couch, but there was also an outdoor bed, and two lounge chairs.

"This will help you with stress. This has the compound in it that your dad had in his system. The stuff that allowed him to stay up all night and never get tired. But where it really helps is in compartmentalization. Your capacity to comprehend and work out problems in your head is drastically increased which leads to lower stress levels." She seemed scared at first but she decided to take a puff. As soon as she did, she lightened up to it.