116AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have used the transcript that has been typed out by Ariane DeVere on her blog for all of the dialogue that was used in the show, and in some cases some of her descriptions regarding facial features, motions, etc (because they were so delightfully well written). I highly recommend going and giving her blog a read, if only purely for her wonderful quips and writing style of the show. Her website is: arianedevere. livejournal. com, just remove the spaces. Hope you enjoy the story!
Prologue
The streets of Tokyo were brilliant and full of life as they always were. The lights glimmered all around me, the dancing vibrancy of Akihabara pulsated with the beat of my heart; my heart which was actually pounding in my ears. Was this what it was like to live? To feel? I'd never experienced the sensation before—of how the emptiness within me fled like a vampire being chased by UV rays.
"They what?" I breathed.
Kaida Miyako stood before me. She was a few inches shorter than me, but the Japanese woman had proved time and time again that she could kick my ass with ease. I'd only beaten her in two of our nearly one hundred spars.
"They're trying to get to me," Miyako replied. We both spoke Japanese and kept our voices low. Luckily, the pop music coming from the stores around us would most likely keep any eavesdroppers from overhearing. "I should have warned you about this when you asked me to teach you. It was stupid of me."
Miyako shoved some of her dark hair out of her face and glared at the ground. I'd never seen her so agitated... I'd never seen her so afraid.
"I don't understand," I murmured. "They... they wouldn't want anything to do with me. I've never done anything."
Miyako gave a small huff of bitter amusement. "Max, do you think you are the only one I taught?"
"I don't understand," I repeated as my voice dropped to a whisper.
She hardly ever used my actual name, or rather, a nickname of my actual name: Maxine. Most of the time she called me Akage: the name she gave me the moment I walked into her class.
Miyako reached up and gripped my shoulders. "I'm so sorry, Max. I wasn't going to use you like the others, I promise. But now, Yoshio doesn't see it that way. He thinks you're my next project; he thinks you're valuable to me, which makes you valuable to him."
I took a step back and Miyako's hands slipped off my jacket. "So it's true," I breathed and my eyes darted toward Miyako's left hand. "You were..."
"Were." Miyako put emphasis on the word. "No longer, and never willingly was. Max... I know you've made a name for yourself here. But with your art and how it's going with the publishers—you can work from anywhere."
"You want me to leave." I stated the words rather than ask them.
Miyako's lips formed a tight line and she nodded. "There is a reason I never document my students' names, there's a reason I made everyone use nicknames in class. Yoshio doesn't know your identity yet and he only has a vague description of you. But if you stay, he will find out and once he does, there's no telling what Yoshio will do."
"But Miyako..." I breathed. "Perhaps the police—?"
"Come on, Max you're a smart girl," Miyako interjected. "You know I can't get them involved. Surely you realize what I've been doing—what all my previous prize students have gone and done for me—some still do."
I pressed a hand to my forehead. Just an hour ago, I thought Kaida Miyako was just a strange and eccentric Aikido instructor that had been teaching me for the past year and a half. Yet now here she was telling me that if I didn't leave the country, I could very well end up dead or worse.
Too bad that the notion only flooded me with a sense of sheer excitement.
"I can't leave now," I grumbled.
Miyako smiled slightly. "I know that you're different, Max. I know that you don't work the same as others do. But please—even if this is the first time you've been excited about something, you can't stay. You won't survive Yoshio and if he isn't planning to kill you, what he has in store will be far worse. I know you don't think there's anything in there..." She gently reached beneath my yellow scarf and touched my collarbone. "But you have something within you that is special. Don't let Yoshio ruin it."
I grimaced at her words. Didn't Miyako understand what it was like for me in that moment? It was the first time I'd ever felt something beyond the yawning pit of nothing that laid within me. The idea of trying to outwit someone like Yoshio...
"Not to mention, you have family to think about, remember?" Miyako pointed out. "I'm fairly certain they wouldn't be pleased with me getting you in this mess. Go home, Max. Go live your life."
"What about you?" I pressed.
"Yoshio won't do anything if I send you off and don't take another student," Miyako assured me. "He'll see that I go his message clearly."
I looked over my teacher one more time. "John did email me a couple of days ago," I said slowly. "Said he was getting on fine, but I know him... he's back from war and won't talk to Harry at all... he's struggling."
"There, see?" Miyako smiled. Despite being in her forties, she looked young and full of life. "You always light up when you talk about John."
It was true enough. My brother was one of the few things in this world that caused some semblance of a spark within me. He was the reason I'd learned about social etiquette and how to compose myself around others; granted I wasn't the best at it. But for John, I would play the song and dance enough to get by; enough to avoid irritating questions and nosy people trying to figure me out.
"This still doesn't sit right with me," I said.
Miyako sighed and shook her head again. "You would have been perfect, to be honest," she said. "I think you could have done it. You're detached enough, careful enough—you're more of a threat than you know, Max." She smiled sadly. "But if you stayed here; whether it was working with me or Yoshio, all those talents would be put to nothing but greed and revenge that wouldn't sate me even if I got it. Take those skills and use them for something worthwhile Max. Something that will change the world, not encourage it to remain just as sinister and dark."
"Miyako, I'm just decent with a dagger, I don't think I could change the world," I said.
Miyako chuckled softly. "That's what makes you special, Max. You don't see your self worth now, but I assure you that one day you will. I think John is the first step to that. You'll need his help finding yourself."
Miyako gave me one last pat on the arm before turning and walking away. I watched her for a moment then I called, "You better keep in touch! Email me once a week at least, you hear me?"
The small instructor waved over her shoulder at me and turned the corner to vanish from sight. Part of me contemplated ignoring my teacher's instructions and staying in Japan anyway. It was the first time I'd experienced this sort of sensation and it completely elated me. However, I saw the look in Miyako's eyes—I was as good as dead if I stayed and I couldn't do that to her or my brother.
So I turned and began to head toward the train station, all the while booking a flight on my mobile for one Maxine Watson straight to London.
