Re: Hanako and Hisao –Road to Tokyo Updated 6/12
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:17 pm
Part II:
A chill ran down my spine as one of the monkey’s leapt mere moments after Kenji dove for the car. I figured the monkey would land in the car and Lilly would have to beat it back with her cane –after offering it some tea, of course- while Kenji would slam into my door and break several teeth and his glasses. Nothing could break that thick skull of his, though –except maybe Emi’s.
The chill settled itself into general anxiety as Kenji managed to successfully leap past Lilly into his seat. Lilly promptly slammed her door shut, just in time for the leaping monkey to crash into the door’s window. Everyone in the car jumped at the sound, while the monkey, snarling and staring daggers at Kenji, slowly slipped down to the ground with a thud.
I turned to glare at Kenji as the other monkeys quickly approached, “what. Did. You. Do?”
Kenji, clutching his chest and panting with his sunglasses askew, slowly rasped out his response, “Miki…. made… eye contact.”
“Fuck!” I snapped.
Most primates considered eye contact as a challenge. Why these monkeys thought a kitten was a suitable target for six of them, I had no idea. More likely they had wanted to eat her, and Kenji had run rather than offer her up as food.
“Miki!” Emi scolded, “Did you upset the macaques?”
“Meow,” Miki mewled.
Before anyone else could say anything, they were upon us. The five remaining monkey’s leapt onto the car and started pounding and screeching on the windows, as if we were in some cheap sci-fi channel original movie (i.e, all of them.)
“Start the damn car already!” Emi snapped.
I turned the ignition. Nothing happened. I pumped the accelerator and tried again. Again, nothing.
We were in a sci-fi original movie, all right.
“It won’t start,” I declared, raising my voice over the monkey’s racket.
Two of the monkeys were pounding on the front glass, hopping up and down on the hood in rage. Two more were pounding and screeching on the hatchback glass, with the fifth on the roof pounding and hopping incessantly. The glass appeared to be holding, but for how long I had no idea. When that happened, well, hopefully there was a hospital with a lot of rabies shots in stock nearby.
I scanned the car to see how everyone was doing. Hanako had curled into a ball and covered her ears, muttering every meditative chant she could think of under her breath as she kept her eyes screwed shut. The sight was enough to make me want to open my door and personally rip the head off of every one of those damned macaques with my teeth, but I doubt I’d last long against a couple hundred kilograms of primate. And Hanako wouldn’t have approved; pacifism can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.
Lilly was also covering her ears, her furrowed brow and contrite expression the only sign she was under any discomfort at all. Well, that and the pair of rosary beads she was furiously fingering in her left hand. Kenji was drinking from his emergency flask, his glasses still askew, and his scarf-sash loose around his knees. Emi was curled around Miki protectively, and I had no doubt who would take out the most monkeys if they broke through- if she had to, she had two very handy clubs available. Kwan was likewise wrapped around Emi as a human shield of sorts.
I honked the horn slowly, adding the din to the monkey’s racket. The macaque’s paused for all of two seconds, blinking in confusion briefly before resuming their assault. I tried honking in short bursts, but they didn’t react at all to it. I tried to start the car again. It sputtered weakly a few times, but refused to turn over.
“So,” I said, mostly to myself, “anyone got any ideas?”
Kenji put down his flask and shrugged, “ritual slap on the left?”
I rolled my eyes and groaned, “You have got to be kidding!”
Kenji’s mouth twitched, “I never kid about my work. Do you have a better idea?”
“That will never work!” I snapped.
“Again, you got a better idea?” he asked.
Yeah, tossing the cat out the window as a distraction. Something told me that would not please several passengers, and besides, with two notable exceptions described later, I wasn’t one for animal violence. So I sighed, slammed my head against my right palm, and slowly nodded.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
Angling my left hand against the left side of the dashboard, I quickly inhaled, exhaled, and proceeded to smack the side of the dash hard enough to make my hand hurt. Grunting in pain, I turned the ignition and was astounded when the Ford roared to life.
“Omnissiah be praised!” I shouted.
“Get us the fuck outta here!” Emi snapped.
“Not yet,” I stated.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the nearest macaque, making him shriek louder and pound harder as our eyes met. Grinning maniacally, I slammed on the accelerator. The car groaned and roared as it lurched and sputtered forward, the stench of melting rubber and heating asphalt filtered into the car as a cloud of smoke churned out from behind us.
“Everyone hold on,” I ordered, still grinning like a maniac.
The car zoomed off onto the road with a roar. The macaque on the roof slipped off, and I saw it spin and tumble in the rear view mirror before it composed itself and bolted for the forest. The two monkeys on the hatchback lasted longer, clinging to it with one hand each before they eventually lost their grip and fell back, though I couldn’t see what had happened to them. The two on the hood were still there, of course; physics was a double edged sword. Fortunately I could use the power of science to defeat them.
If an object experiences no net force, then its velocity is constant: the object is either at rest (if its velocity is zero), or it moves in a straight line with constant speed (if its velocity is nonzero). This is why Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space.
When a first body exerts a force F1 on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force F2 = −F1 on the first body. This means that F1 and F2 are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. This is what made the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode of The Deadly Mantis possible.
So I slammed on the break, using my right hand to hold Hanako back so she wouldn’t slam into her seatbelt or the dashboard. I then barked a laugh as the two monkeys went hurtling for the pavement in front of us. That laugh died quickly when I glanced at Hanako.
She was sobbing to herself, still curled in a ball, her eyes shut tight against the world. She was muttering to herself in a way I recognized; she was having a panic attack, one where instead of a shutting down to the outside world, she withdrew into herself in an incoherent mass of silent blabbering. It was rare for her to do that, and seeing her in such turmoil made me see red.
Those macaques had made my Hana cry. They had made my beautiful, bashful girlfriend into a sniveling, platitude spouting wreck. My stomach churned in rage and my eyes became a blood-red haze of anger
“Everyone hang on,” I commanded.
I grinned a smile that was more a triumphant snarl and slammed on the accelerator. My heart thumped once in protest as the car lurched forward before steadily accelerating, spewing smoke behind us as we zoomed towards my intended targets. In those moments, I did something that you might consider cruel and vindictive, but, I do not, did not, and will not apologize for what I did.
One of the monkeys leapt for the safety of the forest, while the other just sat dumbly as oblivion loomed ahead of him. Oblivion I granted him, and the front fender slammed into the macaque at several dozen kilometers an hour. The other macaque suffered a much more satisfyingly sickening death, getting caught under the left tire with a thump, and grinding and squelching against it for half a kilometer before slipping off into the forest.
With the battle over and the monkeys thoroughly thrashed, I made a U-turn to return to the highway, glancing behind me to see how everyone was doing as the adrenaline slowly left my system, and my heart begrudgingly calmed down to its regular, erratic beat.
“Good job man,” Kenji said. Cranking open his window and sticking out his head, he shouted, “let that be a warning to you fucks! Mess with the best, die like the rest!”
“Hanako,” I said, my grinning snarl shifted into a look of calm concern, “you okay?”
Hanako was still muttering to herself, so I repeated the question a little louder. She stopped chanting and slowly lifted her head. Looking at me, I noticed her eyes were red and her lip trembling slightly.
“A-are th-they g-gone?” she rasped out.
“They’re gone,” I replied, “you okay?”
Hanako swallowed and nodded, “s-sorry for m-making y-y-”
“Don’t,” Kenji interjected, making both of us jump, “you have nothing to apologize for.”
“He’s right!” Emi called from the wayback, “it was Miki’s fault, poor thing.”
“I’m sure she didn’t do it intentionally,” Lilly added, having lowered her hands from her ears when the monkeys had stopped screeching and pounding, “do I want to know what just happened?”
“Hisao was awesome, that’s what!” Kenji declared, grinning and offering his flask to Hanako.
Hanako glanced bleakly at the flask and shook her head. Kenji nodded and turned to scan the car, “anyone up for a victory toast?”
“Sure, why not,” Kwan said, taking the flask as it was passed to him and slamming a shot’s worth.
“If you could leave some left,” Lilly spoke up,” I wouldn’t mind a bit for my tea.”
I figured she had been pretty rattled, more so then she had let on, at least. I glanced at Hanako, who was going through a breathing exercise, her eyes glazed over and still leaking the occasional tear. I fished in my pocket for a tissue and handed it to her.
“Here,” I said, “If you need me, I’m here. Like always.”
Hanako smiled weakly and took the tissue, “I kn-know.”
I smiled and nodded, and left her to rebuild herself. It hurt to see her like that, but there was only so much I could do, and only so much she’d let me do, too.
I chuckled and glanced back at the road behind us, “guess I’m comin’ back as a macaque in the next life, huh?”
Hanako gave me a confused look –having not noticed my violent assault- then sighed and rolled her eyes, “it d-doesn’t w-work that w-way.”
“Everyone okay?” Kwan asked, which reminded me I had forgotten to, being understandably distracted.
“Looks like,” I responded, “how far behind are we now?”
“Tell you in a bit,” Kenji said, already flipping through his maps and itineraries.
“Meow,” Miki mewled.
“Oh!” Emi yelped, “Your litter box!” Emi reached behind her to grab the oil pan, which had somehow managed to remain undamaged following Kenji’s effort to steal second. On the way back she paused to peck Kenji on the cheek, “thanks for saving Miki.”
Kenji blushed and coughed lightly, glancing down at the floor and muttering, “just lookin’ after the passengers.”
Emi smirked and repeated the gesture with Kwan, “and thanks for being willing to fight to the death for Miki and I. Even if I didn’t ask you to.”
Kwan shrugged, “you never have to ask. Wait, to the death?”
I smiled as I continued to drive us back to the highway. Everything was okay, although the car was a bit roughed up. Hopefully Oji wouldn’t be too upset, though the story might be worth it just to see his reaction.
“H-Hisao?” Hanako asked a few moments later.
“Yeah?” I asked back.
“Um, i-if w-we ever g-go to Kyoto, I think we c-can skip the m-monkey reserve,” she said.
I grinned and nodded, “duly noted. Can you give me a hand figuring out the rest of the route for my shift? I kinda lost track in all the excitement.”
Hanako smiled and nodded, and I knew then how much stronger she had truly become, and me along with her.
+++
Next Chapter
No animals were harmed in the making of this chapter.
The apes I’m using in my efforts to genetically engineer an army of Orangu-Men for conquering Yukon is an entirely different matter, however.
If you’re wondering what the US Marine Corps was doing in the middle of Europe during World War I: public relations. The USMC was constantly on the chopping block for budget reasons, and so whenever a chance for a fight presented itself, they went. Pretty much the entire Marine Corps (all six hundred-ish of ‘em) were present at the Battle for Mexico City, for cryin’ out loud (hence “from the halls of Montezuma”.)
They also formed the White House band. Um, where were we?
Next time, Tokyo, Tokyo, it’s a helluva town! The Promised Land is reached, and the group’s adventure can finally start. Though even with all the excitement so far, the actual city might be more than they were prepared for.
A chill ran down my spine as one of the monkey’s leapt mere moments after Kenji dove for the car. I figured the monkey would land in the car and Lilly would have to beat it back with her cane –after offering it some tea, of course- while Kenji would slam into my door and break several teeth and his glasses. Nothing could break that thick skull of his, though –except maybe Emi’s.
The chill settled itself into general anxiety as Kenji managed to successfully leap past Lilly into his seat. Lilly promptly slammed her door shut, just in time for the leaping monkey to crash into the door’s window. Everyone in the car jumped at the sound, while the monkey, snarling and staring daggers at Kenji, slowly slipped down to the ground with a thud.
I turned to glare at Kenji as the other monkeys quickly approached, “what. Did. You. Do?”
Kenji, clutching his chest and panting with his sunglasses askew, slowly rasped out his response, “Miki…. made… eye contact.”
“Fuck!” I snapped.
Most primates considered eye contact as a challenge. Why these monkeys thought a kitten was a suitable target for six of them, I had no idea. More likely they had wanted to eat her, and Kenji had run rather than offer her up as food.
“Miki!” Emi scolded, “Did you upset the macaques?”
“Meow,” Miki mewled.
Before anyone else could say anything, they were upon us. The five remaining monkey’s leapt onto the car and started pounding and screeching on the windows, as if we were in some cheap sci-fi channel original movie (i.e, all of them.)
“Start the damn car already!” Emi snapped.
I turned the ignition. Nothing happened. I pumped the accelerator and tried again. Again, nothing.
We were in a sci-fi original movie, all right.
“It won’t start,” I declared, raising my voice over the monkey’s racket.
Two of the monkeys were pounding on the front glass, hopping up and down on the hood in rage. Two more were pounding and screeching on the hatchback glass, with the fifth on the roof pounding and hopping incessantly. The glass appeared to be holding, but for how long I had no idea. When that happened, well, hopefully there was a hospital with a lot of rabies shots in stock nearby.
I scanned the car to see how everyone was doing. Hanako had curled into a ball and covered her ears, muttering every meditative chant she could think of under her breath as she kept her eyes screwed shut. The sight was enough to make me want to open my door and personally rip the head off of every one of those damned macaques with my teeth, but I doubt I’d last long against a couple hundred kilograms of primate. And Hanako wouldn’t have approved; pacifism can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.
Lilly was also covering her ears, her furrowed brow and contrite expression the only sign she was under any discomfort at all. Well, that and the pair of rosary beads she was furiously fingering in her left hand. Kenji was drinking from his emergency flask, his glasses still askew, and his scarf-sash loose around his knees. Emi was curled around Miki protectively, and I had no doubt who would take out the most monkeys if they broke through- if she had to, she had two very handy clubs available. Kwan was likewise wrapped around Emi as a human shield of sorts.
I honked the horn slowly, adding the din to the monkey’s racket. The macaque’s paused for all of two seconds, blinking in confusion briefly before resuming their assault. I tried honking in short bursts, but they didn’t react at all to it. I tried to start the car again. It sputtered weakly a few times, but refused to turn over.
“So,” I said, mostly to myself, “anyone got any ideas?”
Kenji put down his flask and shrugged, “ritual slap on the left?”
I rolled my eyes and groaned, “You have got to be kidding!”
Kenji’s mouth twitched, “I never kid about my work. Do you have a better idea?”
“That will never work!” I snapped.
“Again, you got a better idea?” he asked.
Yeah, tossing the cat out the window as a distraction. Something told me that would not please several passengers, and besides, with two notable exceptions described later, I wasn’t one for animal violence. So I sighed, slammed my head against my right palm, and slowly nodded.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
Angling my left hand against the left side of the dashboard, I quickly inhaled, exhaled, and proceeded to smack the side of the dash hard enough to make my hand hurt. Grunting in pain, I turned the ignition and was astounded when the Ford roared to life.
“Omnissiah be praised!” I shouted.
“Get us the fuck outta here!” Emi snapped.
“Not yet,” I stated.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the nearest macaque, making him shriek louder and pound harder as our eyes met. Grinning maniacally, I slammed on the accelerator. The car groaned and roared as it lurched and sputtered forward, the stench of melting rubber and heating asphalt filtered into the car as a cloud of smoke churned out from behind us.
“Everyone hold on,” I ordered, still grinning like a maniac.
The car zoomed off onto the road with a roar. The macaque on the roof slipped off, and I saw it spin and tumble in the rear view mirror before it composed itself and bolted for the forest. The two monkeys on the hatchback lasted longer, clinging to it with one hand each before they eventually lost their grip and fell back, though I couldn’t see what had happened to them. The two on the hood were still there, of course; physics was a double edged sword. Fortunately I could use the power of science to defeat them.
If an object experiences no net force, then its velocity is constant: the object is either at rest (if its velocity is zero), or it moves in a straight line with constant speed (if its velocity is nonzero). This is why Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space.
When a first body exerts a force F1 on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force F2 = −F1 on the first body. This means that F1 and F2 are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. This is what made the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode of The Deadly Mantis possible.
So I slammed on the break, using my right hand to hold Hanako back so she wouldn’t slam into her seatbelt or the dashboard. I then barked a laugh as the two monkeys went hurtling for the pavement in front of us. That laugh died quickly when I glanced at Hanako.
She was sobbing to herself, still curled in a ball, her eyes shut tight against the world. She was muttering to herself in a way I recognized; she was having a panic attack, one where instead of a shutting down to the outside world, she withdrew into herself in an incoherent mass of silent blabbering. It was rare for her to do that, and seeing her in such turmoil made me see red.
Those macaques had made my Hana cry. They had made my beautiful, bashful girlfriend into a sniveling, platitude spouting wreck. My stomach churned in rage and my eyes became a blood-red haze of anger
“Everyone hang on,” I commanded.
I grinned a smile that was more a triumphant snarl and slammed on the accelerator. My heart thumped once in protest as the car lurched forward before steadily accelerating, spewing smoke behind us as we zoomed towards my intended targets. In those moments, I did something that you might consider cruel and vindictive, but, I do not, did not, and will not apologize for what I did.
One of the monkeys leapt for the safety of the forest, while the other just sat dumbly as oblivion loomed ahead of him. Oblivion I granted him, and the front fender slammed into the macaque at several dozen kilometers an hour. The other macaque suffered a much more satisfyingly sickening death, getting caught under the left tire with a thump, and grinding and squelching against it for half a kilometer before slipping off into the forest.
With the battle over and the monkeys thoroughly thrashed, I made a U-turn to return to the highway, glancing behind me to see how everyone was doing as the adrenaline slowly left my system, and my heart begrudgingly calmed down to its regular, erratic beat.
“Good job man,” Kenji said. Cranking open his window and sticking out his head, he shouted, “let that be a warning to you fucks! Mess with the best, die like the rest!”
“Hanako,” I said, my grinning snarl shifted into a look of calm concern, “you okay?”
Hanako was still muttering to herself, so I repeated the question a little louder. She stopped chanting and slowly lifted her head. Looking at me, I noticed her eyes were red and her lip trembling slightly.
“A-are th-they g-gone?” she rasped out.
“They’re gone,” I replied, “you okay?”
Hanako swallowed and nodded, “s-sorry for m-making y-y-”
“Don’t,” Kenji interjected, making both of us jump, “you have nothing to apologize for.”
“He’s right!” Emi called from the wayback, “it was Miki’s fault, poor thing.”
“I’m sure she didn’t do it intentionally,” Lilly added, having lowered her hands from her ears when the monkeys had stopped screeching and pounding, “do I want to know what just happened?”
“Hisao was awesome, that’s what!” Kenji declared, grinning and offering his flask to Hanako.
Hanako glanced bleakly at the flask and shook her head. Kenji nodded and turned to scan the car, “anyone up for a victory toast?”
“Sure, why not,” Kwan said, taking the flask as it was passed to him and slamming a shot’s worth.
“If you could leave some left,” Lilly spoke up,” I wouldn’t mind a bit for my tea.”
I figured she had been pretty rattled, more so then she had let on, at least. I glanced at Hanako, who was going through a breathing exercise, her eyes glazed over and still leaking the occasional tear. I fished in my pocket for a tissue and handed it to her.
“Here,” I said, “If you need me, I’m here. Like always.”
Hanako smiled weakly and took the tissue, “I kn-know.”
I smiled and nodded, and left her to rebuild herself. It hurt to see her like that, but there was only so much I could do, and only so much she’d let me do, too.
I chuckled and glanced back at the road behind us, “guess I’m comin’ back as a macaque in the next life, huh?”
Hanako gave me a confused look –having not noticed my violent assault- then sighed and rolled her eyes, “it d-doesn’t w-work that w-way.”
“Everyone okay?” Kwan asked, which reminded me I had forgotten to, being understandably distracted.
“Looks like,” I responded, “how far behind are we now?”
“Tell you in a bit,” Kenji said, already flipping through his maps and itineraries.
“Meow,” Miki mewled.
“Oh!” Emi yelped, “Your litter box!” Emi reached behind her to grab the oil pan, which had somehow managed to remain undamaged following Kenji’s effort to steal second. On the way back she paused to peck Kenji on the cheek, “thanks for saving Miki.”
Kenji blushed and coughed lightly, glancing down at the floor and muttering, “just lookin’ after the passengers.”
Emi smirked and repeated the gesture with Kwan, “and thanks for being willing to fight to the death for Miki and I. Even if I didn’t ask you to.”
Kwan shrugged, “you never have to ask. Wait, to the death?”
I smiled as I continued to drive us back to the highway. Everything was okay, although the car was a bit roughed up. Hopefully Oji wouldn’t be too upset, though the story might be worth it just to see his reaction.
“H-Hisao?” Hanako asked a few moments later.
“Yeah?” I asked back.
“Um, i-if w-we ever g-go to Kyoto, I think we c-can skip the m-monkey reserve,” she said.
I grinned and nodded, “duly noted. Can you give me a hand figuring out the rest of the route for my shift? I kinda lost track in all the excitement.”
Hanako smiled and nodded, and I knew then how much stronger she had truly become, and me along with her.
+++
Next Chapter
No animals were harmed in the making of this chapter.
The apes I’m using in my efforts to genetically engineer an army of Orangu-Men for conquering Yukon is an entirely different matter, however.
If you’re wondering what the US Marine Corps was doing in the middle of Europe during World War I: public relations. The USMC was constantly on the chopping block for budget reasons, and so whenever a chance for a fight presented itself, they went. Pretty much the entire Marine Corps (all six hundred-ish of ‘em) were present at the Battle for Mexico City, for cryin’ out loud (hence “from the halls of Montezuma”.)
They also formed the White House band. Um, where were we?
Next time, Tokyo, Tokyo, it’s a helluva town! The Promised Land is reached, and the group’s adventure can finally start. Though even with all the excitement so far, the actual city might be more than they were prepared for.
.
. Although the Warehouse has been neglected as of late. When I'd fit it in, I have no idea... next summer, maybe. Eh, I'll find a way. Thanks for the idea 
.