Difference between revisions of "The Confusion of Whateverthehellmynameistoday"

Latest revision as of 16:41, 23 April 2011

I had barely entered the promenade again, wincing at the volume that was coming from the far end of the chamber. When I had a moment, I might have to intervene down there.

"Asuma-kun?"

But not now. I half-turned and spotted the rather distinctive pink-dyed hair of an acquaintance of mine. She wore her allegiance on her forehead - the hitai-ate is pretty distinctive, since her home had sensibly made up their own symbol for it. "Billboard-brow!"

Wow, look at the pretty stars... oh wait, that's the ceiling so that means I'm... on the floor.

"Do you think Lacus-sensei killed him?" asked a young voice in what might have been a whisper if the general noise level had allowed.

"His head's harder than that," said Lacus Rivers. Her name isn't really Lacus, I guess, but I'm not exactly in a position to criticize. I levered myself up and saw that she was in the company of three much younger Fens - teenagers - all wearing ninja gear as envisaged by Kishimoto.

"ow. Did you have to hit me?"

"Yes."

"So hard?"

"Get up, you big girl's blouse," she ordered, motivating me with the sole of her sandal against my (fortunately armoured) ribcage.

"I hear and obey, O Great One," I promised, kipping up so that she could introduce her 'genin team'. There were, of course, three of them: Toby and Julie were both redhead although she was carroty while his was almost blood-red, which I took to be chemical in origins. The third, and youngest of them was Mickey, who had apparently raided a similar hairdresser to Toby since his hair was actually blue. From the looks of them, they were barely old enough to be out here on duty, since unofficial policy in Hidden Asteroid is that if you aren't sixteen the most dangerous job you'll get is making deliveries for one of the Ninja Burger franchises.

"Lacus," I said when I got a moment in between the introductions. "I want... and very possibly need to know what's going on the Belt. I'm not asking you to break any confidences... but if there's anything at all you can tell me..."

Lacus might occasionally be just a little flighty, but she's also a jonin of Hidden Asteroid and she knew better than to mess around when I said that I needed the information. We went back a couple of years, since I'd sold up my share of the asteroid mining gig and moved on to fresher pastures. That had meant my withdrawal from the In Nomine campaign that a mutual friend was running, and she knew what it meant when I used that word with emphasis.

"I am not permitted to discuss that at this time," she said after a moment's thought. "I can relay your interest to Karasukage-sama, however. I'm sure he will be interested in your interest."

I nodded. "Thank you. So, how long have you had a team for?"

"Oh, about three months now. We were just on the way back from the L-4 point when the Convention was called, so I thought they deserved to have a little time off and attend."

"I'd heard that there were some difficulties out there," I said. "Fens or 'Danes? Or is that classified as well?" I was careful not to make that sound like a jab. Sometimes talking to ninja is tricky because there are topics that shinobi discuss only with shinobi and kunoichi talk only to other kunoichi when it comes to certain other topics. And if a classified mission's involved then you may as well start tap-dancing through a minefield.

"I'm afraid so," Lacus admitted. "But I understand that you've been working in the Inner System lately?"

"Doing some negotiating between the Senshi and the Europeans," I said mildly. "There's a big market there and it's not really been tapped to it's full extent yet. I may wind up upsetting Moscow again though."