Nihao!

Here's a second part. C&C always welcome.

                                                                         
JG

"Hello. May I help you?" the polite voice asked.
	"<Uh... yeah...uh... well...>" Ash stopped before she said anything to 
make her
sound more stupid. She took out her dress and held it up for the other 
woman to see. 
	"Ah. I see. You need something for underneath and you have never bought 
lingerie
before. Correct?
	Ash blushed. "That's the story, all right. I'm a cotton briefs and 
sports top type of
gal. Nene said you could help me."
	"Nene?" the woman paused and then said, "Then you must be Ashley 'Ash' 
Storm,
the transport pilot from America." Ash nodded. "Nene talks about you all 
the time! I'm
Syila Stingray."
	"The Stingray?! It was your father that invented the..." she let the 
sentence
unfinished. She grinned. "Nene tells me a lot about you. She must of 
forgotten to tell me
that you own this shop."
	"Nene is like that sometimes. Let us find something for that dress and 
the
afterwards, perhaps you would like a cup of tea?"
	"That would be great. Then I can see how much of what Nene tells is 
true."

	A half hour later, Ash was seated on an extremely soft sofa looking at 
a picture of
a young Syila with a man that resembled her a bit. Sylia had her arms 
around the man and
was grinning in a way only a young, innocent girl could. The pride in 
her eyes could only
be for her father.
	"I was twelve when he was killed," Syila said pouring hot the hot 
liquid into a
teacup. "I don't think Mackie remembers him."
	"Mackie?"
	"Yes. My brother," Syila sat down in the chair across from the sofa. 
"He was
working the counter."
	"Isn't that kind of hard for him, working in a lingerie shop, I mean?" 
Ash asked
sipping her tea.
	Sylia smiled and even giggled a bit. "I'm sure it is, but I think it's 
good practice for
him."
	"Nene never mentioned how cruel you could be," laughed Ash, after 
setting down
the expensive cup. 
	"He only works when he home from Germany. So tell me. How did you get 
stuck
being a transport pilot for the ADP?" asked Syila. "Nene said you have 
trouble with the
language."
	"I have no idea. My chief in America just up and told me I was being 
transferred
here." Ash thought for a moment. "I do like it here though. Where I come 
from, cherry
blossoms are what we see on the halo-vid."
	"They are a spot of beauty in an ugly city," said Syila.
	"Ugly?" As far as Ash was concerned, MegaTokyo was pretty nice. It was 
a lot
better then some of the places she had been.
	"Ugly only because of Genom."
	* Genom makes Boomers. Didn't her father invent boomers? * Ash thought,
confused. It showed on her face and Syila smiled.
	"My father built the first Boomer at Wiz Laboratories. He was later 
murdered and
the lab was burnt to the ground. Then Genom started to build them. I 
believe you know
Linna Yamazaki? Her parents were killed in a 'Boomer rampage'. That's 
what Genom says.
Just like they say the death of my father and the burning of the lab 
were 'accidents'." Syila
glared at the cup she held, daring it to challenge her.
	For some reason an image of the white armored Knight Saber flashed in 
Ashley's
mind. * What if...* she dismissed the thought instantly. * Get real Ash. 
Nice ladies who
sell lingerie do not go around in high-tech armor and blow up rampaging 
Boomers. * A
pause. * Do they? *
	"<Gee...I fit right in around here>",sighed Ash.
	"What do you mean?" ask Sylia.
	"Oh..." , Ash stuttered, forgetting for the moment that her tea 
drinking companion
understood English. "Well my parents were also killed in a so-called 
Boomer rampage. My
childhood home was also destroyed at the time. All that I had left were 
my two kittens,
Remy and Rouge. I went to live with my aunt and stayed there till I came 
to MegaTokyo.
And that is my life story."
	" Is that why you call your transport the Neko? Because of your cats?"
	"Yes. I want to get another one, since I had to leave those two at 
home, but with
my job... well, I don't know if I'll come home every night."
	"I understand." Sylia said. * Probably more so. * "So where are you and 
that dress
going, if you don't mind me asking?"
	"Nene is taking me to see one of her friends perform. Maybe you've 
heard of them,
'Priss and the Replicants'? They're playing at a club called the 'Hot 
Legs'."
	"Oh, yes. I hear they are quite good."

	Quite good, my foot! They were fantastic! The lead singer is Priss, 
Nene's friend.
On stage, she is blond and sings like a dark angel. Off stage, she is a 
brunette and is just
as casual as I would like to be. I found out that Priss knows Sylia and 
Linna.(In my home
town, everyone knows everyone. But home also consist of maybe fifty 
thousand people.
Not fifty million like MegaTokyo!) Priss is an interesting lady. I get 
the feeling that she
has felt more pain then any one person should have to bare and has many 
dark secrets...
	"Priss! You were fantastic!"
	"Thank you, Nene. I don't know if that was a compliment with as many 
times you
tell me that, though."
	"Humph. Priss, I'd like you to meet my friend from America, Ashley 
Storm."
	"Just call me Ash."
	 The three of them were just outside the hall leading to the dressing 
rooms. Priss
was still in her stage costume and Nene was dressed in her ADP uniform. 
Ash on the other 
hand had come out of her baggy clothes 'shell' and shone in her skin 
tight outfit. She wore
a silver arm band and black gloves with the fingers cut off. Her hair, 
usually in a braid,
flowed freely down her back. Make-up accented her dark eyes and small 
mouth.
	Many men noticed this new and improved Ash. One in particular. He had 
had
about three too many and could hardly stand up much less hit on a pretty 
girl. He
stumbled over to the three women and put a grubby hand on Ash's 
shoulder.
	"Hey, Priss >hic<, you wanna >hic< dance?"
	Ash gently took the hand off of her shoulder and held it. " I'm sure 
that if I were
her, this would be her reaction..." Ash gripped the guy's left hand in 
her right, and yanked
him so that they were face-to-face. She snatched his other hand with her 
right and brought
her knee up between his legs, hard. When the drunk dropped to his knees, 
Ash reached
behind his head and jabbed a spot on his neck. The man dropped to the 
floor, totally
unconscious.
	Priss looked surprised, an expression rarely seen on her face. "How did 
you do
that?"
	Ash smiled and said, "If I told you, I would have to kill you. It's a 
trade secret."
	"You mean pilots do stuff like that?" Nene asked, her eyes wide with 
wonder.
	"No," Ash laughed. "A lifeguard secret. I was a 'guard for several 
years before I
became a pilot. I learned lots of things like that. The blond streaks in 
my hair are from that
time."
	"Wow. And to think I thought Priss was vicious!" Nene said, looking at 
the man
on the floor.
	Priss and Ash laughed as they walked over to the bar with Nene in tow.

June 6
	June is my favorite month of the year. In school, it meant that we were 
getting out
for three months. Now it means that it will finally get warmer. In the 
short three months
that I have been here, I think the sun has come out four times that I 
can remember. (It
could be the smog that's a constant around here...) Nene assures me that 
it does get
warmer.
	Leon disappeared today. Nobody could find him much less get a hold of 
him.
Daley says this happen every year. Today was the anniversary of his last 
partners death.
I guess Leon took it rather hard. He must of meant a lot to Leon...

	"Hey, Daley! Where's Leon?"
	Daley looked up from the filing cabinet and considered the question. 
"What's
today's date?"
	Ash looked at her watch. "The sixth. Why?"
	Daley went back to his filing. "Leon always disappears on the sixth of 
June. It's the
anniversary of his last partners death."
	"Oh. Where does he go?"
	"No one knows," replied Daley as he closed the drawer.

	Leon placed the rose on the ground, but stayed kneeling. The red rose 
had a .45
bullet tied to it. The flower itself seemed out of place in the rubble 
of the crumbling wall
behind it and the trash that littered the area. A cool breeze played 
with petals and ruffled
Leon's hair.
	"I miss you, Jeena." Leon took off his wrap around sunglasses and 
shoved them in
his breast pocket. A single tear rolled down his cheek. He brushed it 
angrily away. "I'm
sorry Jeena. I promised I wouldn't ... but I can't keep the tears from 
coming." Leon closed
his eyes and saw it happen all over again.
	the experimental Boomer gone ballistic...
	Jeena... 
	the explosion...
	watching the blood pool...
	"Don't cry...Leon"...
	The young man's eyes flew open, ending the visions. He held out his 
hand and
found that it was shaking. He touched his cheek. His fingers came back 
wet.
	"I'm sorry, Jeena," Leon whispered as he stood up and walked away, 
never looking
back.



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