Chap 6

The stars twinkled in a clear night sky. The shaded crescents of the two moons hanging in the heavens stood out in sharp relief against the blackness of space. The frigid darkness hung around a man's shoulders like a cold, thin blanket. As far as the eye could see, everything was still as death.

An orange glow punctuated the gloom, betraying all the confidence of a single spot of light surrounded by a sea shadows. Huddled behind a wall that swallowed up the light, Guy breathed another small sigh.

"Figures. I'm early."

He hadn't noticed the text message from Kirie on his terminal until the night before. We need to talk. That one sentence was followed by a meeting place and time.

It was thanks to Kirie that they had to take care of Jeeks. Guy's world was in an uproar because of it. Considering the circumstances, Kirie brazenly sending him a message like that left him speechless.

But he really wanted to know what the little bastard was up to. It was because of Kirie, flashing his money all over the place and letting his ego inflate, that Jeeks had been exhibiting such violence. The whole lot of them were a bunch of ill-bred slum rats. The two groups together, working in a vicious cycle, had made the slums a hot place to live.

Guy thought of ignoring the one-time text message, but he had a few bones of his own to pick with Kirie—so he decided to meet with the prick. But with the appointed time approaching, Guy was harboring second thoughts. If Riki finds out, he's gonna blow.

They all knew Riki hated Kirie's guts and made no effort to hide it. Kirie was about the same. He made no attempt to subdue his words and actions, no matter how often Riki kicked him aside.

The animosity shared by Riki and Kirie felt more like a blood feud than that of born enemies. The family resemblance couldn't be clearly pointed out, but at times, things unexpectedly turned up. The way Luke and the others had fastened onto Kirie convinced Guy he wasn't just seeing things. Sid was the one who brought Kirie in. When Guy thought about it, it was Kirie who had wanted access to the Hermes hideout all along and planned out how to latch onto Sid. Though Riki had cast off the reins and dissolved the gang, the name of Bison lived on in legend and attracted the hangers-on: sweet-talkers, groveling ass-kissers, and those who got their asses kicked but never learned. They just kept coming.

Among them all, Kirie was the only one who made it stick.

Perhaps they were all chasing the same shado of Rikiw they'd caught sight of. Even now, Guy couldn't help laughing at himself. Their indulging attitudes fed Kirie's massive ego. Kirie's brightly lit air car w a garish extension of his own head. He couldn't help acting like anything but the snob that he was.

Guy and the others didn't envy the arrogant eyes looking down on them so much as they found the whole thing ridiculous. They understood the roiling essence of their own natures. And so they understood what was essential and what was waste. Kirie was waste.

Then one day, without word to anyone, Riki vanished from the slums.

The cost of using Kirie to numb that sense of loss was Jeeks. They couldn't solely blame Kirie, but Kirie's gas bomb was the straw that broke the peace and calm of their daily lives. There was no going back.

Then again, an unexpected windfall had come their way as well.

Riki the Black, huh? Guy lit a cigarette and took a drag. Why Riki had quit Bison—those three missing years—was reason enough to justify visiting Robby the information peddler. Even if Guy gained only a glimpse of the truth.

"You've gotten pretty scary, Riki. Even with you dragging your butt around like a beaten dog, you've still got a few aces up your sleeve."

Robby's words were strangely reassuring. Despite all outward appearances, Riki was still Riki. Knowing that, Guy felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his chest.

"Guy?" A voice called from the darkness, interrupting his thoughts.

"That you, Kirie?"

"Yeah," was the short reply, followed by the crunching sound of feet on rubble. "Sorry for making you come to a place like this."

Listening to the approaching footsteps, Guy suddenly wondered how long Kirie had been there. Guy hadn't noticed Kirie's arrival at all, despite the dead quiet all around. Still, he didn't want to think too much about that; he just wanted to get this over with. He ground out his cigarette with the tip of his boot and waited for Kirie.

"Thanks for coming," Kirie greeted with a smile. At least, Guy thought it was a smile; Guy was going on the nuance of the voice he heard in the darkness.

"Let's just do this, all right? It's not like I was dying to see you again." Guy wanted to make it clear from the start that he didn't intend to get friendly with Kirie.

"You just wanted to get the first blow in."

"Whatever," Guy replied shortly. "I have a few things to talk to you about, too."

It was the real reason Guy had come.

"Huh... he's not picking up."

After letting Guy's phone ring a dozen times, Riki finally cut the connection. He'd thought of grabbing some dinner with Guy, but that wouldn't happen if he couldn't get ahold of the man.

"That's that, I guess," Riki said with a sigh, and left his apartment alone.

Kirie's air car skipped above the bright neon, scattering reflections in its wake. Surrendering himself to that unique floating sensation—quite unlike the thrill of racing along in a jet bike—Guy uttered a resigned sigh under his breath and wondered how things had come to that point.

Meeting up with Kirie and giving him a piece of his mind should have been the end of things... but Kine kept insisting, promising Guy good information.

"Just give me a chance," Kirie wheedled. "I've got your best intentions in mind, man. And you've got nothing to lose seeing this thing through."

Kirie was definitely feeding him some sort of line. Taking a ride in his air car had been the last thing on his mind. But then Kirie had said, "Look, just meet with him. Just to prove that I made the effort. You do that, and I promise you won't regret hearing the story he's gonna tell you."

The story he's going to tell me.

"Don't you want to know what Riki was up to after he left Bison?"

Any other subject than that and Guy would have turned on his heel and left. He could understand Robby feeding him a line like that, but Kirie? What did he know?

But the story of Riki's three missing years was something Guy wanted to know. No matter what. The insinuations in Kirie's smile were getting to him, so Guy yielded to the pressure and ended up in the air car.

He should have been worried about where they would end up, but he wasn't. Slicing through the poisonous neon landscape, Kirie slipped the air car into the narrow canyons between an outcropping of buildings. Too late, Guy was asking himself what the hell was going on.

They landed and got out. Kirie gave no indication of their final destination as he strode several paces ahead. Now and then he looked back over his shoulder to confirm that Guy was still there, then continued on his way.

When they finally arrived, Guy found himself in a gorgeous suite, the likes of which he'd never seen before. "Shit," he muttered. A place like this must cost a fortune.

The broad, wide space boasted every possible convenience. The polished surfaces of the furnishing and appliances in the room glimmered with a rich luster. Compared to the drab slums, the place made Guy feel uncomfortable and out of place. He knew he'd come to a place where he absolutely did not belong. That discomfiting feeling only grew when, at length, an exquisite, golden-haired man appeared in front of him.

A Blondy! The nobility of Tanagura, the elite of the elite.

Guy suddenly recognized him as the same man they'd seen that day in Mistral Park. The one who had affected Riki so much. Even with his face half-hidden by wraparound sunglasses, there was no way he could conceal such unworldly beauty.

"Thank you for seeing us." Kirie bowed his head in front of the Blondy.

It was so unlike the arrogant punk Guy knew that he almost laughed out loud. For a long second he gawked at the two of them. But the way the cold eyes stabbed through Guy like a pair of ice picks made hair stand up on the back of his neck.

"So you finally decided to come see me." The echoes in the Blondy's words made Guy's heart race. "Good work. And here is your promised reward."

He gave Kirie a card and Kirie slipped it into his breast pocket. A look of dumbfounded incomprehension eclipsed Guy's face as he looked back and forth between Kirie and the Blondy.

"Sorry, Guy," Kirie said in response "But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. There was no getting to the next level without you."

In that instant, realization dawned over Guy like an electric shock inside his head. "W-wait a minute!" his stuttered. "What the hell? Is this some kind of joke?" His indignant voice rose into a strangled scream. The blood surged in his veins, slamming like a tidal wave against his heart.

"He wanted you no matter the cost," Kirie said, a strangely cajoling lilt to his voice. "It's a win-win situation for both of you."

Guy felt like his rising temper had suddenly been dashed with a bucket of cold water. "So you make your silver selling out your friends," he murmured, the revelation fully forming in his mind as the words left his mouth. But it was a little too late for his own good. This was Kirie's "business"... this was why he was getting chummy with the slum brats.

"Don't be so naive. An opportunity falls into your lap and you grab it. Doesn't everybody? Otherwise, you'll be slum trash forever. I'll do whatever it takes to get out of the slums."

The obvious glee Kirie took in playing so dirty made Guy narrow his eyes. Guy could hear echoes of Riki in the words Kirie spat at him. Yet another family resemblance.

I'm not sitting around with a sappy look on my face for the rest of my life, Riki had once said. What waste. If I stay like this forever, I'm gonna rot from the inside out.

Why did Riki hate Kirie so much? For the first time, Guy felt he understood. It was why they had all been initially attracted to Kirie in the first place, why they had turned to him when Riki had disappeared. But none of that mattered. Kirie wasn't anything.

The copy wasn't anything like the real thing.

Riki casting aside Bison was a measure of his pride and determination. By selling out his friends, Kirie was chucking his pride in the gutter. What they were doing seemed similar, but why they did it was where the real differences came through.

"I've got plans for my fixture. Don't you?" Kirie mocked him.

You're the one grasping at straws, Guy thought, but he kept the words to himself. What he said at that point would make no difference.

"This is your chance to be an elite's pet. My treat. That brass ring is right there, and all you've got do is grab it. With time, you'll be thanking me for this."

Guy had no doubt that Kine was very wrong in that regard. It was never going to happen. He and Kirie were searching for two different things, and this spun-out version of reality was the only way Kirie could cope with what he was doing. Though it would piss off most people, Guy cooled down and took control of his feelings.

Guy pitied Kirie's stupidity. Someday he'd get what he deserved—he could picture it plainly. Do unto others exactly what they did unto you was the law of the slums. And when that time came, Kirie would regret not having friends to back him up.

"Well, treat him nice," Kirie said flippantly. The Blondy nodded. Kirie left without looking back once. Without Kirie's chatty snark, the room fell into a strange silence.

"You gave in pretty quickly," the Blondy said at last, sounding a bit disappointed. "I was hoping for some yelling and pleading." He laughed coldly out of the side of his mouth.

Thinking of how best to reply, Guy averted his eyes for a moment. "Seems to me throwing a fit won't change anything."

The Blondy quietly agreed with him, his voice so calm that Guy was certain the feeling was wholly authentic.

A Tanagura Blondy was right in front of him. Guy knew it wasn't a dream or an illusion, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was some kind of bad joke.

"So... how much did Kirie get for me?"

"Ten thousand."

Guy gaped without intending to. He laughed derisively, a gut reaction to the absurdity of the number. "He's overcharging you, you know? A slum mongrel would slit his own throat for that much cash."

"Kirie said much the same."

The silences between their words suggested unspoken additions.

"For the time being, let's can this shit about turning me into a pet."

"Why's that?"

"There's nothing desirable about me. No diamond in the rough here—just gravel no Blondy would ever take to. So you must have other motives in mind if it really had to be me."

The Blondy smiled, his lips drawing a thin, cold line. Guy got the feeling he was being shown a completely different breed of man. He sunk back into silence.

"Well, make yourself at home."

That was the farthest thing from Guy's mind. And knowing that the Blondy knew that, Guy turned and struck a defiant pose.

"If you're hungry, I could have something prepared for you."

Guy gave in. "Shit, if you insist." It looked like it was going to be a long night, and he couldn't really get away. He decided to make the best of what he could. If he played along, maybe he'd discover something interesting.

"What would you like?"

"Whatever you got," Guy shot back as he sat down on the sofa. He couldn't imagine what kind of food was consumed in such resplendent accommodations.

Clearly taking no offense, the Blondy activated a terminal with a practiced hand. Glancing at him, Guy sighed again.

Yeah, some sort of joke. Who would want a slum mongrel this badly? They were dead enders. Every road out of the reality that was the slums ended with a roadblock. Ground down with despair, the mongrels stagnated and decayed in the dark. Guy had always believed he'd rot away the rest of his life there.

He didn't possess Riki's strong animal magnetism, nor the relentless drive that propelled Kirie to step all over others in order to plow his own path. He didn't have the courage to make a break for the outside world. So what was a person like him doing here?

No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't figure that one out. He would have a good laugh when he woke up the next morning and discovered it had all been a passing dream. Resigning himself to apathy, Guy heaved another sigh.

At about that same moment, Kirie chuckled to himself. Tricking Guy and delivering him to Iason had been too easy. He'd played it so smooth he hadn't broken a sweat. He didn't feel a twinge of guilt. If he knew his conscience was going to bother him in the least, he wouldn't have called Guy in the first place. Far from it, a thin smile came to his lips.

He'd scored big time. But deeper inside him and with greater intensity, other things disturbed his peace of mind. Guy had occupied his thoughts far more than was necessary. All those outbursts of envy smoldering inside of him—today he was kissing them all goodbye. With that resolution, he couldn't hold down the laughter bubbling up inside of him.

Serves the bastard right.

For some reason. the image that came to his mind in that instance was not that of Guy, but of Riki. The legendary Riki, who'd sauntered back into the slums one year earlier. During his three-year absence, Kirie had never been able to win over Guy, Riki's pairing partner. That asshole had given him the cold shoulder at every turn.

But now Kirie had gotten back at Guy. And when Riki found out...

Kirie hoped to see Riki's reaction then. The thought made him snicker. Would he be surprised? Angry? Would he scream? Or grieve? He wanted to see Riki's casual attitude finally give way.

With those warped sentiments warming his heart, Kirie climbed into his air car and sped off into the night.