Sheltering in Place: Up is Down
The great God that formed all things both rewards the fool, and fools the rewarded.
Neon Proverbs 26:10
- - -
Mr. Yamada had the soldiers quickly reconstruct the scene for him, and Hitomi once again found herself in front of Ambassador Goromaru. She explained everything the two terrorists - they were terrorists, right? Yeah, they blew up a building, so, terrorists - had said to her.
They had already interviewed Sakura and had sent her off to clean up and hunker down in the girls' assigned room.
"Hitomi," the older man began delicately, "I need you to understand that it is... abnormal, to say it mildly, that a girl of your age and stature has been able to fight on such a superior footing, let alone actually kill, as you have, such a..." he searched for the words, "Such a variety of assailants."
She had taken her classical "I'm in trouble with the principal" pose, which had never actually happened, she was a model student. But it looked like this: back straight but leaning forward, head down a bit, with both hands tucked between her thighs in her lap, feet crossed beneath the chair.
"How do you explain this?"
Hitomi looked to the side, for a moment, thinking about her options. Coming completely clean seemed dangerous. She liked Josh and Hailey, but in retrospect, she wished American government employees did NOT know about her ability.
Was it really fair of her to withhold such critical information from her own government, if the Americans possibly already knew?
"I think..." she began softly, then looked up at the guard posted by the door nervously.
The Ambassador caught her glance, and told the soldier to wait outside.
The door clicked shut.
"I think I might have... a superpower?"
They looked at her like she'd grown two, no, three heads.
"I know it sounds crazy I really do but there are so many things I can't explain how they happened and I just don't even understand how I know how to shoot a gun sometimes or hit people with sticks or-"
Ambassador Goromaru stopped her with an uptilted hand, "Please, Hitomi, just, give us a moment. A superpower? Do you mean the sort in superhero comics?"
She laughed darkly, "N-no, nothing flashy like that. I just think... whenever something threatens me - for real - my body just moves on its own and then when I snap out of it, well, the enemy is dead, sir."
Mr. Yamada took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose: "She impaled the terrorist's driver with a long, sharp broken-off tree branch, Ambassador, then Ms. Tanaka told me that Ms. Hisakawa picked up a fallen gun and shot the other one three times."
Mr. Goromaru waved him off, already having accepted this. "Hitomi, help me understand. How do you know how to shoot a gun?"
She squirmed. "I... dont? Really. The last time I just pulled the trigger a bunch. My wrist still hurts, actually."
"I see, and the stick?"
She paused, speaking carefully, "I didn't have control, right then. My body did that part for me."
"What about when you grabbed the stick, did your body do that for you?"
"No. I just, um, well, after the time with the pipe in the alley, I thought I should be prepared. My, uh, power, seems to have an easier time when there's a weapon already available."
"Fascinating. Mr. Yamada?"
"Sir?" the man stepped closer.
"See to it Ms. Hisakawa is cited for a civilian ribbon. Hitomi, have you considered serving your country in a more official capacity? You could enlist. You'll be of age in about an hour and a half," he mentioned, noting that her 18th birthday was only a night's sleep away.
"I, um, thank you, first, sir - and no, I hadn't yet thought about it, I thought maybe college first, and, well," she ended awkwardly, quite flustered.
"We will advise our superiors of your... power, but understand we don't intend for you to have to demonstrate it further. In fact, don't tell others about it. With everything that's happened we could only expect that you might not be alone in discovering such a thing."
"Yes sir, I understand," she said.
"Right then, well, Dr. Nagisa is waiting for you, please don't let us keep you."
Hitomi stood and bowed deeply, then rushed out the door.
Ambassador Goromaru drummed his fingers on his desk, thinking, while Mr. Yamada came around to sit across from him. At last the Ambassador stopped, reached down under his desk, and pulled out two glasses and some old sake.
They toasted to Japan and her future.
- - -
Hitomi felt glorious again, having gotten another amazing shower courtesy of her favorite angel in white: Dr. Nagisa. She'd also managed to find some pajamas for Hitomi, and now she was padding down the hallway in a cute, satiny two-piece set that felt A-MAZE-ING as it glided over her skin with each step.
Her arm felt so good. The wrappings were still on, but the numbing cream was doing a marvelous job of making her not think about it. It was warm and tingly.
Oddly enough her right arm hurt just a bit in her bicep and wrist, but it wasn't too bad. She's taken some ibuprofen for it, since she was gonna have to anyways for her other arm.
She figured it was just another consequence of her power taking over her body to put that stick through that guy's - Syrum? Sadim? Salim, yeah, - Salim's eye.
Hitomi had never known how brittle the back of an eyesocket had been until she was already finished with her jabbing motion.
Blurgh. She'd better not think about that.
The room was pretty dim when she went inside, but she could see that Sakura was still awake and doing something with her phone.
"Oh! Hitomi! Welcome back!"
"Thanks, Sakura, phew."
"Everything go OK?"
Hitomi sighed, "Yeahhh, they just wanted to ask me what the two terrorists were talking about."
"I still can't believe you stabbed the one guy and then shot the other guy, it was absolutely amazing. You looked like a trained killer!" the 22 year old gushed.
Hitomi's face must've looked worried, because Sakura made a show of putting out her hands and saying, "No no, I mean, in a good way. Like, a protector sort of way. Great job Hitomi!" She was sticking out a thumbs up.
"Thanks Sakura. I was just scared and acted without thinking."
"Wow, I wouldn't want to get on your bad side when you're not thinking," mused Sakura.
Hitomi thought she didn't even know the half of it, but just politely laughed along instead.
"Oh, excuse me, I've gotta look at this," the other girl said suddenly when her phone dinged.
Hitomi sat down on her couch and put a blanket over her feet, fetched up her laptop (she really shouldn't leave it laying around all day in here unattended) and started browsing the internet.
Web browsing was still pretty hurky-jurky, but she was able to turn on her VPN account even on the embassy's guest WiFi so she could browse in an acceptable amount of privacy.
To deal with the long load times she grabbed her phone and went through all her text messages.
Oh! There was one from Hailey! Awesome!
It said: "Hi Hitomi! We hope you're safe! We got back to Virginia when the National Guard got here. Text us when you can! Josh can walk!"
She texted back: "Hailey! I am safe at the embassy! I'm so glad about Josh. Everything is OK," she lied smoothly, "I am making new friends." She attached a picture of her and Sakura and sent it.
There wasn't an immediate response, so she figured her two American friends were already probably asleep.
She started browsing her favorite sites.
Hopefully Sakura would go to sleep soon.
- - -
Hitomi woke up in the white space again.
"NOT AGAIN!" she yelled to the nothingness.
"Awww, crap," she said, and sat on the ground.
Oh! Her laptop was here!
And it had all the tabs that she had left opened when she fell asleep with it still resting on her chest when she was laying down.
Well... at least she had something to pass the time?
She clicked one of the tabs and a picture of a very hunky looking man with a six-pack appeared.
"That'll work," she said to no one but herself.
- - -
"Happy Birthday, Hitomi!" cheered Sakura, waking up Hitomi. The other girl was basically on top of her, shaking her awake, and the partially open laptop almost fell right off her and onto the ground.
"Uh-ahhhh!" Hitomi managed to make a start at a sentence, mixed with laughter, "Sakura! Stop! I'm gonna drop my laptop!"
"Nuh-uh, you need to get up!"
Sakura leaned forward and Hitomi could see straight down the older girl's blouse, and, VIVIDLY remembering the white space dream she had just had, became very, very confused. Slightly aroused, but that had to be a lingering effect - she wasn't into girls, right?
Sakura's necklace popped out of her décolletage and right in front of Hitomi's eyes.
It was partially open!
She was just about to reach up and grab it to look when Sakura jumped backwards as though scalded, tucking it back in under her shirt.
"Ah! Haha, gotcha!" she played it off, and Hitomi sat up, pushing the laptop onto the table next to her. "Get ready, Hitomi! First official day on the job, you know? Let's go meet Mr. Ueno!"
- - -
After they'd gotten ready for the day they ate breakfast, which, oddly enough now had the option of cereal and milk. Apparently someone had found a stash of Muesli granola, and, Hitomi had to admit, it was a welcome change from the constant funnel of white rice she'd been eating lately.
Not that she was picky, but the granola tasted very filling with the bowl of milk it was in.
Now if only she could find some cheesecake? Mmm...
"So, Hitomi," Sakura said, leaning forward conspiratorially, "Just between us, which do you like more? Boys? Or girls?"
Sakura's normally straight-laced face looked downright mischievous, and her grin got bigger when Hitomi nearly made milk come out of her own nostrils when she snorted in surprise.
"Awwrrkkkkk," Hitomi made the sound of drowning penguin, "W-whaat?"
Sakura tucked part of her hair behind one ear, showing off a pretty earring - a sapphire in a simple silver setting. "I said: do you like boys? Or the more feminine persuasion? Oh! Maybe both!?"
Hitomi gestured frantically, "Boys! I like boys! I had a boyfriend back home, and, uh, yeah, I like men."
Sakura smiled like a predator toying with her prey. Her lips were thin and Hitomi could just see her teeth behind the sharp smile.
"Well, I only ask, because when you were sleeping, you uh, well. It would be rude to say, I suppose. But I assume it was about that hot looking fellow I saw on your screen before you closed it?"
Hitomi wanted to die.
Curse you, body! Why won't you let me die?
"Could you, um, not mention that to, well, anyone? Ever? Ever-ever?" Hitomi pleaded.
"Sure! I'm just saying, sounded like a very, very nice dream," Sakura teased, "I mean, I don't even remember my own dream, I went to sleep and woke up, that's it."
"Well, uh, maybe we should go find Mr. Ueno?"
Just then they saw Dr. Nagisa and Nurse Murata run past the entrance to the dining annex.
- - -
"You're serious?" Sakura asked Mr. Yamada.
"Yes, I'm afraid that Mr. Ueno has taken violently ill, just overnight, we have him being escorted to a hospital but I won't lie - health services in the USA aren't predictable right now. We need you two to take up the slack until he returns or when we can relieve you."
"But, but we don't have any of the security credentials!" Hitomi protested, looking to Sakura for help.
Mr. Yamada pulled a thin black folder out of his bag, and handed it to the older of the two girls: "Here you go. Make yourselves local administration accounts using these. You won't be able to get into anything outside this embassy, but you shouldn't need to. You're both vetted for system administration duties for the local embassy. You won't be able to get into any secure files, of course. Think of this more as... end-user technical support."
"You can count on us, sir," Sakura said, taking the folder and placing a hand on Hitomi's shoulder.
"Right! You can count on us!"