Alkalians (27 page)

“
You don’t know what a
ninja is?” When Matt nods, and as the final bets are made, James
says, “Well, I shall explain, then. We know she’s an Elemental
Artist, right?”

“
Right. Professor Serpanz
just taught us the stuff about them,” Matt complies, placing his
final bet.

“
Right. So, you know the
thing about Elemental Artists,” James continues, doing his final
bet higher than Matt’s and forcing another player to fold, “is that
their elemental attacks are combined with some sort of martial art
built into their morph. So, as I’ve overheard from freshmen talking
about her techniques in gym class, her martial art is
ninjutsu.”

“
What’s ninjutsu?” There
are only three guys left, including Matt and James. Matt reveals
his straight, ace high, and sends up complimentary applause from
the guys.

“
Ninjutsu is the art
associated with ninjas, of course.” James shows his hand, a six of
bolts and two of thorns. He had nothing to even match with! All of
the players, even Matt, are baffled by why he went so far with high
bets on such a bad hand.

The last guy, bearing a huge grin,
throws down his hand with a loud thump, a king and queen of hearts.
“Royal flush!” he exclaims, and all the other guys gawk and whoop
at his successful deal. But James acts oblivious to it, keeping his
focus on Matt.

“
The art of ninjutsu is so
tough and revered, it’s rumored to be the greatest martial art in
existence. Unlike the other arts, which are based on solely speed
or strength, a ninja trains for speed, strength, and
stealth
. While most
martial arts are flashy and intimidating with their brute force,
this one is feared because it draws out the foe’s weak spots, then
accurately strikes them in a swift and silent approach.”

Slowly nodding, Matt frowns before
admitting, “Wait, I lost you. How does that make it so special? Why
would she silently approach her foe when she’s already in all-out
combat with one?”

“
Well, I’ll clarify for
you. If not already in combat, a ninja doesn’t even get the enemy’s
attention before attacking. She blends in with the surroundings,
stalks the target, not making a sound, and then delivers one deadly
blow, and the foe never knows what hit him!”

Matt gets a chill down his spine. “So,
what you mean is ninjas would attack someone even if the
person…”

“
Isn’t morphed. Yes, the
purpose of ninjutsu is to kill silently and absolutely, to leave no
chance of the foe fighting back. Ninjas are assassins.”

Matt can’t hide the shocked look on
his face at the term, horrified by the connection. The only thing
he knows, and needs to know, about assassins is they are criminals
in their modern age, not much better than the terrorists his father
has to worry about and hunt for. They have sometimes been his
father’s adversaries, as well. He recalls one time when a few
attacked him and his mother when his father was away. If they
weren’t so skilled and quick to respond, they could have been
slain, but he remembers the terror, the fear that had been in him,
and when he, being so young, couldn’t bring himself to kill the one
he faced, his mother had to do it.

His face pale with dread, Matt
abruptly stands and walks away, trying to take a breath and compose
himself, with James following him across the gambling room. “But, I
can’t, I can’t believe Rose would do something like
that.”

“
Well, of course! She
couldn’t do that fighting another Alkalian in morph, in a public
area, under the laws. But, if she found someone alone and had not
revealed herself…”

Matt snaps, “Are you saying she would
go and kill other students!?”

James hushes him and replies, “No, I
was just saying how she fights! Although, unfortunately, there is
that possibility. Besides the few students here who are of noble
background, there are very well-known professors here. Also,
consider where she’s from. Riaquen, the Military State, the one
state in the whole Confederacy that would want to kill anyone they
feel is a threat. But anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure she
wasn’t capable of such a crime. I would suggest you just go talk to
her and become clear of how well a ninja she is, as well as her
reasons for being one.”

Matt slowly nods, his thoughts yet
lost among a gale of uncertainty. He walks out of the room towards
the casino entrance, leaving James without another word. James,
meanwhile, looks surprised by Matt’s reaction to the information.
Within the crowd of people meandering around him, he soon smiles
devilishly.

***

During the same time that James was
talking with Matt, Rose is in the pool room, relaxing in a hot tub
all to herself, away from the students playing around in the other
pools. She appears like she was sleeping, wearing simple, yellow
bikini bras, and doesn’t notice someone climb out of the main pool
and approach her.

Feeling good in the hot water with her
eyes closed, Rose is forced to open them when she hears a voice ask
her, “Hey, Rose, how’s it going?” Looking up, she sees the voice
belongs to James, in nothing but dark blue swimming trunks. She
also notices some women far away staring at him, chuckling and
gossiping to themselves.

Unimpressed by their weakness for
handsome men, she focuses on James, trying not to show her own
weakness, and says, “I’m feeling fine, James. And how are
you?”

“
Oh, I’m doing well
myself, thank you for asking. May I join you?”

Becoming curious, yet wary, she
replies, “Sure,” and gestures to the other side of the hot tub.
James settles himself into the warm water, leaving his arms out of
it and stretched out along the pool’s edge. Rose, for a moment,
imagines the beads of water and sweat on his body are drops of
golden dew.

“
So,” James says, “I hear
you’re supposed to be the top academic and battling girl of your
class. Am I right?”

Rose shrugs and answers, “Yeah, that’s
right. But I’m just doing what I’m used to, so there’s nothing that
special about it.”

“
Really? That must feel
good, when excellence comes naturally.”

“
I guess it’s alright. I
do get where I plan to go, so it works.”

“
Yes, I see. You know, if
you weren’t so young, one would first guess you a
senior.”

“
Thanks.” Rose humbly
grins. “And if you weren’t so old, I might consider dating
you.”

Stunned by her calling him out, James
then laughs before admitting, “Touché, Rose, touché!” He sighs and
says, “Actually, I didn’t mean to trespass on your time here, but I
wanted to ask you a question.”

“
I’m listening,” she
replies.

James drops his voice to say, “Well
Rose, being a boss student, I’ve been well informed of how Matt,
your roommate, thrashed Cain. The rumor going around to explain it
is he’s a Dark Warrior, and I wanted to confirm it myself. So, with
you being his roommate, would you know?”

Rose thinks such a question was odd as
she figures everyone at the school had accepted that Matt was a
Dark Warrior. “Of course, I know it. We talked about it, and he
himself agrees. And he really doesn’t care, either, he fights like
he didn’t have those powers.”

“
Oh, is that so?
Interesting. Anyway, if that’s true, does he have any connection to
the Shadow Core organization?”

Before Rose objects to such a
question, she reminds herself that she had feared it once before.
“No, I don’t think so. He said he never even knew he was a Dark
Warrior, so how could he be a terrorist?”

“
What if he’s not exactly
the terrorist you’re thinking of?” When Rose is confused from his
suggestion, James explains, “I’ve heard in the news, back from
where I come from in Tirez, that the S.C. has been trying different
tactics than just popping up and ravaging some public area. They’ve
tried undercover missions, acting like ordinary citizens with the
misfortune of being born a Dark Warrior, to fix themselves into a
community. They corrupt the community, turning it upon itself, and
finally, once everyone has a knife to each other’s throat, the
agents call in the cavalry, so to speak, and they demolish the
community entirely.”

Rose is stunned from such a tale. “Is
there proof of these events?”

“
Did you hear what
happened at a small town on the border of Tirez?” When Rose
responds no, James says, “A Dark Warrior Alkalian moved in and,
slowly, won so much respect he was elected the town mayor. Over the
next month or so, he made controversy by trying to change the
town’s traditions, and soon the townspeople were turned against
each other in hot debate and opposition. Then, without warning,
Shadow Core terrorists attacked. In one night, the entire town was
burned to the ground, and all the people were either killed or
scattered to the hills.”

Rose stiffens from the retelling.
Could it really happen that easily? Could it be done somewhere
else, like here at the college? “No, he couldn’t,” she tells
herself, disgusted she was thinking such things. Standing up to
climb out of the hot tub, she says, “I’m sorry, but I need to get
going. Please understand.”

“
Yes, it is hard to
swallow, isn’t it?” responds James, looking sympathetic. “That’s
why I was hoping to learn more about Matt, to determine if he’s a
S.C. insurgent or not.” Rose wraps herself in a towel and turns to
leave when he adds, “I’m sorry it hurts like this, but you must
understand my concern. In fact, I was hoping you could talk to him
about this. Learn more about him, then let me, or any of the
officers, know. Simply asking him the right questions could prevent
a repeat of that small town.”

Those last words ring horribly true to
Rose. As they reverberate through her like bells, she hurries away
to the changing rooms, leaving James without answer. He maintains
his sympathetic look until she has gone out of the large room. He
then gets out of the hot tub and strolls toward the dance room, a
criminal smile upon his face.

***

A minute later, silent within the
noise of the dance room, James brushes through the crowd on his way
to the men’s restroom. When he enters it, he finds it empty, except
for one other person. Himself, in the suit. The two James’ look at
each other, vanish in flashes of light combining into one, and one
James is left, still in the suit. He looks back at the wall mirror,
adjusts his neck tie, grins with satisfaction, and walks out the
door. As he files through and disappears amidst the partying
students, only one person notices him. His golden eyes seeming to
glow in the shadows, Dante puffs out smoke from his mouth before
crossing the room.

Meanwhile, Sean is on another side of
the dance room with four rough-looking guys pressing him against
the wall, nasty looks on their faces and alcohol on their breaths.
Cringing under the one’s grasp on the collar of his jacket, he
asks, “Hey, come on, fellas, why are ya being so mad? What did I do
to deserve such conduct?”

“
Oh, we know, that you
know, exactly what you did, you cocky little punk!” one of the men
exclaims. “We know all about your dirty deed with Cynthia, and we
don’t appreciate how some freshmen reject like you got his greasy
hands all over her!”

Sean objects, “Why,
whatever are you talking about, sir? Only an idiot could believe
such a tale as that! I mean, the chances of me being with Cynthia
are so bad, it’s silly, ridiculous,
preposterous
,
even! Surely, such fine and intelligent chaps like you would
know better than to believe such a thing, right?”

“
Hey, are you
calling
us
the
idiots, here!?” another guy remarks. “We heard this from a very
reliable source. Irene Goros claims that you were running around
the freshmen cabins, bragging it off to anyone of your stinking
class you could find!”

“
Gah, wait, did you say,
Irene Goros? How could she know that?”

“
Because she watched it
all herself, nimwit! She was on the cabin rooftops, watching your
every move, appalled at what she was hearing come out of your
filthy mouth! What do you say to that, huh?”

While Sean fumbles for an answer, a
calm voice speaks up from behind them, “What seems to be the
trouble, gentlemen?” Turning, they see Dante next to them. “Did I
hear mention of Irene Goros, my sister?”

“
Yeah, we were just
explaining to this rat here how she caught him in the act of
boasting about how he got it on with Cynthia. What’s it to
ya?”

“
Hmm. And you’re actually
going to believe her word, on it?”

“
Uh, sure, why wouldn’t
we?”

“
A few good reasons. You
see, the thing about my sister is that she loves to see other
people squabble and skirmish with each other like a bunch of
savages, and she’ll do anything to make it happen. Even spread a
rumor as vicious, and ridiculous, as Sean Wyseinburg having a thing
with Cynthia Volvaron. Do you really want to be the fools who
entertain my sister’s sly interests?”

“
Er, well, no,
but…”

“
And, as Sean admitted,
such a thing being true is practically impossible. Consider who
we’re talking about here. Why would Cynthia, the most attractive
and confident woman of our community, even think of being with
Sean, the most foolish and incapable guy of the community? It just
doesn’t add up, when you think about it.”