by L. M. Vila
Davis still have many questions for the young girl that piqued his curiosity but he still had data to collect if they were ever going to move forward. He promised himself he would get the chance to ask some more later but for now, he had to find out one crucial fact that may make all the difference in Michael Madison's future.
“Do you still love him even after all of this time?”
Most Japanese females would be too shy to answer them directly. Typical and traditional were two words that weren't on Shiori's resume.
“I do. Now more than ever it seems.”
That was a good sign. Davis smiled.
“Thank you Shiori. You have been a most gracious host. I apologize if my questions were a bit bolder than what you are used too.”
Shiori quickly waved her hands to dismiss any ill thoughts.
“Oh no LeClair-san. Not at all. Actually, being able to talk about my feelings like this is... Comforting.”
She stood up to face the young Paladin and gave him a hearty bow.
“Thank you so much for listening to me. I really appreciate your patience.”
“Not at all Ms. Shiori,” Davis replied.
His exuberant tone radiated the highest sincerity.
“It is both my duty and a privilege.”
This pleased Shiori. Knowing Michael was with someone this sweet and polite eased her worries. A lot of things can happen in the span of a decade. If Michael is making friends like this, Shiori was assured he was following the right path.
“Hey mister,” a young boy called running up to the two.
He was short but full of energy. Couldn't be more than four or five years old.
“What is it?” Smiled Shiori. She recognized him as one of her cousin's children. Everyone who lived here was family in one form or another. Not all of them bound by blood either.
“Are you a priest?” He shyly asked standing next to Shiori.
He tried not to get too close but his eyes wandered from head to toe examining the young Paladin with great interest.
“A priest?” Davis pondered with a smile tickling his lips. “Why would you say that young one?”
“Because you're wearing a dress with a cross on it,” he answered.
“Hey!” Shiori shouted. She looked the child in the eyes and said, “That's not very nice.”
“It's quite alright Ms. Shiori,” Davis laughed.
He gave the boy a warm look and said
“This is called a cassock young one. It is the uniform worn by my organization. The color worn indicates the class of user. A black cassock means that person is a Cleric and white, like the one I'm wearing means that person is a Paladin.”
Shiori was surprised that the young Paladin spoke so honestly and boldly to the child. His words may have seemed too advanced for the young one to understand but he looked so captivated through listening that everything seemed to register just fine.
“What's a Paladin?” The boy asked sounding increasingly curious. “Are they priests?”
Apparently not everything Davis explained registered completely but it still got the young Paladin to laugh a bit at his response. He smiled back and the child warmly.
“Something like that.”
Michael stood outside of the mansion waiting for Jiro to give him the information he required to continue his mission. Despite the relatively short time that passed, the FBI agent believed he was already overstaying his welcome. His presence caused enough commotion. He didn't want to be a burden to anyone else. No doubt there were still many inside of the household who wanted to meet the future heir but time of was of the essence. Every minute he stayed here was wasted regardless of his surrogate family's feelings. They would only be delaying the inevitable.
Through the windows of the house, Michael could feel everyone's eyes on him. The Grand Master probably didn't say anything outright but everyone knew something was wrong. Even with Michael's back turned he could still sense their uneasiness. It would be a hard pill to swallow for this family built on century's worth of tradition but Michael no longer allowed himself to keep this place in his heart any longer. His only regret was wasting everyone's time and emotional investment on someone who was never meant to be here in the first place.
“Madison-san,” Jiro called as he exited the mansion.
He handed the FBI agent a large manila envelope stuffed with papers.
“This was sent to us from the State Police database. It's a list of known names, addresses, and locations of all of the activities we've discussed earlier. Most of them are located around Chiba, Yokohama, and Tokyo but there are a few worth investigating in the Kyoto Prefecture as well.”
Michael opened the envelope and started flipping through the data. The stack of papers was barely half an inch thick but packed with information in the smallest legible sized font possible. If this was a small problem now he could hardly imagine what it was like when things were hectic with these gangs. A full investigation by himself would take months. Even visiting a few key places that his intuitive mind had rationalized as the most probable locales would take three to four days easy. Time he didn't have to spare yet couldn't afford to ignore.
“Thank you Jiro,” said Michael.
He knew how uncomfortable the whole situation must be with the family at this point. The least Michael could do was offer his sincere words of gratitude. He walked away from the mansion without so much as a second gland and proceeded to the entrance where his care and companion were hopefully waiting for him nearby.
“Wait a minute, you're leaving already?” Asked Jiro as he gave chase to the wandering FBI agent. He caught up to him on top of the arched bridge and pleaded, “You can't leave now. Not like this. Everyone -”
“Is no longer my concern,” Michael countered not stopping his pace for even a second.
Jiro couldn't fathom how Michael became so cold. It was as if his very heart was incased in ice. Maybe the Grand Master wasn't wrong about what he said earlier. This man was not Michael Madison. The last thought that escaped Jiro's mind as Michael walked out of his speaking range was what happened to the boy they once knew and how could they bring him back to this place.
The garden was within the FBI agent's sight. There he found the white robed Paladin casually chatting with Shiori. Both of them seemed to be equally entertained. At least she kept him out of his hair. Michael didn't even want to think about what kind of questions he would ask after seeing the Grand Master's reaction. Nor would he care to answer them.
“Let's go,” called Michael.
He didn't even bother to stop.
“Already?” Davis said sounding genuinely disappointed.
He stood up and following their tradition, gave the young girl a short bow and said. “Though it's been short, I thoroughly enjoyed my time here Ms. Shiori.”
“Wait, what?!” Snapped Shiori interrupting the Paladin from speaking further.
Her ears must have been lying to her. She jumped from her seat and ran after Michael before he could get too far away.
She grabbed onto the back of his jacket and argued, “But you just got here. Where are you going?”
“Business,” replied Michael.
At least he bothered to look her in the eyes when he said it. The sheer seriousness of his voice told Shiori there was nothing she could say to change his mind. She released him from his grip as her head sunk. Something told her she was going to regret asking this but that didn't stop her from wanting to know.
“Are you,” she began.
Her heart raced. It was almost vibrating at the speed of a silenced cell phone. She forced herself to ask, mustering up all of her courage. The words that came out still sounded weak but carried the weight of emotions. Tears began to fill up in the corner of her eyes.
“Are you going to come back?”
Michael stopped just underneath the torii. He'd been meaning to do this for a while now. He should have done it years ago but he didn't have the strength to do it back then.<
br />
“No.”
That was the right answer. It's what's best for everyone. Shiori would have to accept it now. Everyone's been telling her for years. However, unless she heard it from Michael, Shiori still clung onto hope. Now all of that was gone thanks to the effortless breath of the FBI agent.
Shiori collapsed to her knees. Tears began to trickle down her face. Slowly at first but it grew in size and frequency in the blink of an eye. Michael continued out of the gate and entered his parked vehicle. He could still hear her crying from within. Davis wanted to take pity on the girl and stay but his duty as an observed trumped that of his innate nature as a gentlemen. He joined Michael in the front passenger seat. The car's ignition roared as they pulled away from the home of the Yamatera clan and didn't look back once. Not even from the view in the car's mirrors.
They drove down the asphalt path and through the holographic forest in silence. Davis observed his companion's mannerisms along the way. Nothing appeared to have changed from before they arrived here. He waited until they were back on the main road before stating an obvious fact.
“That was rather cold of you back there,” remarked the young Paladin. “Shiori spoke very highly of you. Her feelings were very direct. How could you -”
“It was a mistake,” Michael interrupted.
“What do you mean?”
“Her. I...”
Michael paused for a short moment.
“Us.”
“I still don't understand.”
Michael was diving into territory he'd rather not talk about but found no way to avoid it. If he was going to convince the Paladin that he was not the third prophesized antichrist, he needed to tell his side of the story. Michael always chose to keep his words short and direct. There was no need to waste them on uncertainty or feelings. For the first time since the day of that horrible incident, Michael was going to tell his story in more than just one brief sentence.
“Before I came here, all I knew was war.”
Michael's first words were sharp and filled with seriousness. He didn't offer up any other details from the past since Davis apparently knew them already and continued.
“Commander Wells, Dr. Viseman and his family were the only ones who ever treated me like a human. When the Yamatera's took me in, it was the second time I wasn't seen as just a soldier. They didn't look at me like a tool or a weapon. I became a member of their family. For a while, I was happy.”
Michael stopped after he said that word. The incident had done so much to change his life, happiness always felt like such a fleeting concept. To use that word again made him feel uneasy, like it's an emotion he shouldn't feel anymore.
“So how did you and Shiori end up falling in love, if I may be so bold.”
Michael shook his head.
“Shiori was very protective of me. Most of the time it was in school but I started noticing back at the village too. She did it subtly so I wouldn't catch on but I didn't know any better back then. It was the first time I ever really interacted with people outside of the military. I didn't know how society worked. Shiori always wanted to be with me and would do anything to make sure I wasn't alone with anyone else.”
“But isn't that what love is Michael?”
Though Davis' personal definition of the subject may not be as attached as Shiori's, he merely asked the question to find out this sorrow-filled FBI agent thoughts on the matter.
“I don't know. Love was a foreign concept back then.”
Michael didn't want to say it outright but his current situation did not stray much farther from that path.
“Shiori convinced me I was and I believed her.”
Silence began creeping in. Davis desperately wanted Michael to continue. It was the first time he got the FBI agent to open up. He may never get another chance to do so later.
“And how do you feel about her now?”
“Shiori used me.”
The scorn of that declaration passed through Michael's teeth like poison.
“I didn't see it back then but through her protectiveness was masking her jealousy. She didn't like all of the attention I received. When the Yamatera's were deciding who was going to be their next heir, she begged me to do it, threatening her own life. I didn't want to do it and ruin their tradition. My time at that place was finite. But…”
Michael hesitated for a bit. Admitting this was more difficult than he realized.
“I wasn't strong enough back then to tell her no.”
“I think you may be wrong about her Michael. The emotions I felt from speaking with her were genuine. You hold a big place in her heart.”
“Maybe,” Michael defended. “But mine weren't. I didn't know any better.”
Davis began to empathize greatly with Michael's plight. It brought memories back from the book he thought of when speaking with Shiori. They were two different people on two different paths but one of them was determined to make them cross no matter what. He could see why Michael held her in such disregard. A lesser person would have reacted far worse after coming to that realization but Michael handled it with a bit of class. Though his tactfulness was still up for debate.
“And there is no more love left for her in your heart?”
Davis desperately wanted to know the answer to this question. The genesis of the previous fabled antichrists were rooted in tragedy. Each event, no matter how small, shaped the course of their lives. Michael's answer could mean the very difference between life and death.
It took Michael a few moments to ponder the sheer weight of those words. His mind drifted back to all of those times when he was with Shiori. She was so full of smiles and love back then. There wasn't a moment when they were together that she was anything but. Even the times she was upset at him quickly deflated. Michael dove deeper in and thought about their first kiss. That moment was supposed to be filled with electricity and magic, or so he was told from his school peers. The first one he shared with Shiori and the many after were nothing compared to what Michael would come to find as what a kiss was truly supposed to feel like.
He had made Davis wait long enough. Thinking about it any further would only cause him to dive into memories he would rather not soon relive. Michael took a short but deep breath and gave Davis the sincerest answer he's ever given the young Paladin to date.
“There never was any to begin with.”
The gravity of those words were strong but Davis understood the emotions that goes behind actually speaking them. Michael was not the only one hurt by the other's actions. Neither one had suffered alone. They say that first love is always fruitless. In Michael's case, they never even planted the tree.
“My apologies Michael, but I have one more question regarding this matter before I can call myself satisfied,” Davis stated.
His words were calm but direct.
“If you did not know what love was back then,” he began slowly though as to delicately highlight every word to emphasize their magnitude, “how do you know what love is now?”
The FBI agent remained silent. He didn’t allow himself to be phased by that question. At least, he didn’t let it mar his expression in any way. Michael could feel his heart ticking away at him. Memories like those rarely crept up but were quickly be buried beneath the darkness swelling inside. This wasn’t an easy question to answer so for all intents and purposes, Michael could only resort to his favorite response; sheer unadulterated silence.
A few moments passed before the Paladin decided to give up. Davis finally had the piece of the puzzle he was missing but it still didn't completely fit into the picture. There was something more to the FBI agent, something he may have accidently let out in his brief revelation earlier. The young Paladin was determined to dig further but for now, it appears their work in this country had only just begun.
“Where are we headed?” Davis asked.
He changed the subject so casually it almost appeared as if everything else before didn't matter.
A brown en
velope landed in Davis' lap. Michael tossed it to him and reverted back to his short, effortless manner of speaking.
“Chiba.”
“And what's in Chiba?”
“A lead on Ryoo Myung-Dae's benefactor.”
Reading all of the contents of the envelope was going to take some time. The long road trip towards their first destination would give them plenty. Davis would normally be hesitant to aid someone he was told only to observe but he felt naturally compelled to help Michael in his quest. There was something about him that gravitated people towards him. Plus, if his assistance could put him in a better light in the FBI agent's eyes then that wouldn't hurt either.
March 25th, 2013 10:40AM
Los Angeles, CA
Federal Express was running late and began wearing on Adrian Fischer’s patience with each passing second. Fingers tapped at his desk with a solid rhythm. He would have never guessed this minor shipment of evidence would have driven him to this unusual state but the S.A.C. couldn't wait to get his hands on it. Adrian had been sitting on this case for the remainder of his short weekend. No other thought took up more residence in his mind between then and now. Something was off about this info they pulled from the sting operation in Vegas. The fact that Nicole was so interested in participating only fueled his curiosity further.
Headquarters was surprisingly quiet for a Monday. Then again, three of its biggest trouble makers were all off in different parts of the country. At least two were easily accounted for. The other one, however, only God knows. He hadn't checked in since Saturday night. Adrian did some routine searches to see if he'd try fleeing the state under his nose but as far as the evidence has presented itself, Michael Madison was still in Las Vegas. Nicole hadn't checked in or called since he left her. Thankfully, the Director of the FBI had nothing but good things to say about Meryl since she's arrived. One out of three isn't bad for baseball but this was no game they were playing.
