As Mai relaxed, allowing the painkillers and her friends to do all the work, she saw movement in the hallway. It was a fleeting shadow, possibly less — the mere suggestion of an outline, but it was most certainly there. Her eyes refocused and her wits returned instantly. Mai had been trained hard to be the best and not pain, nor stitches, nor a mix of alcohol and Tylenol was ever going to dull her responses. She knew where the closest weapon was, where the best cover was, how to save Chika from harm. She knew the fastest escape route, the lay of the land outside both ways, the time she could expect to pass before her opponent acted.
She braced herself.
But then the shadow moved and Mai saw by its very outline that it was Grace. My Grace. A moment later and she caught the girl’s breathing, the nasally rasp she had developed from a slight head cold. She relaxed.
Grace popped her head around the corner. “Guys?”
Still wary, still unsure of herself, Grace was well on the way to a wonderful emotional comeback. The horrors of her childhood were receding; the worst of the returning memories mostly dealt with and compartmentalized. They would never pass away, but they could at least be managed. Grace’s way of managing them involved copious amounts of fun, food, laughter and shopping, much of it at the same time. If Mai had thought it wasn’t helping Grace she would have gently eased her in another direction, but the young girl seemed to be flourishing. The next step would be a more stable environment and Mai began to think for the first time about heading back to the US, maybe sending her to a DC school…
“Come here,” she said, and Grace did. Mai explained everything, sensing that she needed full disclosure. At first Chika and Hibiki winced a little — their synchronized shying away actually a little comical — but as they read Grace’s understanding they soon warmed up.
“It is over,” Hibiki said. “We can all return to our lives again. Or start new ones.”
Grace snuggled into Mai. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.”
Mai tried not to gasp as movement tended to elevate her pain levels. “Together, we will make it work.”
“Oh, sorry!” Now Grace pulled away, realizing that her friend was still in pain. “Hey, that’s a mega scar!”
Hibiki grimaced. “Maybe it’s best not to—”
“No, no! It’s a warrior’s scar. A sign of victory in battle. And well earned.”
Mai grunted. “Whatever happens don’t ever tell me you want one.”
“Jeez, you kidding? Imagine what the boys would say.”
“Thanks,” Mai said drily, then: “What boys?”
“Umm, nothing.”
“Believe me, boys are bad for you. They stink, they scratch, they drive too fast. They forget, they develop hormones and they don’t shower properly. They’re pack animals, always—”
“Excuse me,” Hibiki said a little huffily.
Mai laughed. “Oh, you’re okay. I don’t class you as a boy.”
Now Chika laughed. “Really? What is he then?”
“More a big sister.” Mai leaned into Chika and they smiled at each other. Grace bounded in between them, right across their knees. Hibiki finished cleaning Mai’s cheek, now eyeing the liquid stitches.
“I’m no doctor, of course, but I think that will be a warrior’s scar of major import, a talking point.”
It was good that they could make light of it, Mai thought. Being dejected would not change anything.
“Wait until Drake sees you,” Grace said. “He won’t be able to keep his hands off you. Not that he ever could anyway.”
Mai felt her face soften. “Ah, well, I don’t really know how things stand there.” She knew she should at least have kept in touch with the SPEAR team. “Maybe he has a new girlfriend,” she added lightly.
“As long as it’s not that Alicia!” Grace burst out. “Blond bimbo said she’d give me a lesson in the birds and the bees when I’m ready. I don’t even know what she means!”
Mai gulped slightly. “Yeah, avoid that one at all costs.” But she wasn’t entirely sure Matt Drake would. They had been the original couple, the original team, and Alicia had come a long way back to normal over the last few years.
Chika drew their attention to the clock. “It’s beyond late, my friends. Maybe we should call this morning and breakfast time. I’m certainly famished.”
Grace nodded eagerly. “Me too!”
Mai couldn’t keep the smile off her face, despite the pain that it caused. Grace was perpetually hungry and could eat at any time of the day or night, even minutes after declaring herself “full to the brim”. Hibiki caught her eye and shared the joy of it and then grinned as there came a quick knock at the door.
“Postman’s right on time,” he said. “We ordered Grace something.”
Postman’s early, Mai almost said but didn’t want to disturb the playful atmosphere. There was a time when a ninja soldier should remain dormant, if only to promote peace and happiness, and this was it. Hibiki walked over to the front door. Chika paused and waited and Grace stared between them with wide eyes.
“What is it?”
“Wait and see.”
Grace pouted on hearing the time-honored parental phrase.
Hibiki swung the door wide open, smiling. “What do you have for us?”
It was all so easy in the end. She had planned and planned. She had waited and waited. She had run away and stayed quiet. She had known this day would come from the moment she received news about her poor father. She had eaten garbage from the street and evaded tramps and sex-slavers. She had gotten lucky more than once, but then she deserved that kind of good fortune didn’t she? Her name was not known to those people. Her name was no longer important to anyone, for she had no family. Her name was mere fresh air, a lifelong gift of pure nothingness.
And the moment, quite suddenly, was here. Right on this doorstep. Her name did matter for this passing of a few seconds. It did. They did not see the danger. They were all so blind and uncaring. But she cared, and she would prove it right now. The cop, Hibiki, was even smiling as he stared at her. The sister, Chika, seemed so happy and secure. Mai herself, the great ninja warrior, would never be a threat.
Not to her.
Emiko was totally sure of that.
The gun, an enormous Magnum, raised and the deadly barrel pointed unwaveringly at Mai Kitano, the woman who had murdered her father on his yacht and then sent the Yakuza after the rest of her family. Mai Kitano would not evade the bullet, Emiko knew, she would welcome the absolution of it.
Hibiki was still smiling — in that split second — for he recognized the girl and probably believed she had found her way back to the light. But his features began to falter as his instincts registered the gun. Chika’s eyes were widening, her mouth turning into a huge ‘O’. There was only one who reacted.
Mai screamed as she recognized Emiko and the huge gun she held in her right hand. There was no evading it and, even now after everything she had won back, she believed this was her fate. It had been all along.
But nobody factored in the streak that suddenly intervened. Nobody banked on Grace reading the situation perfectly — even before the door opened she had realized the hour was too early — and throwing herself at Mai to try and make her move.
The gun boomed, deafening and deadly. Hibiki screamed. Chika screamed. The bullet flew straight, unerring and fatally.
Mai flew back with the impact, staggering to her knees. Hibiki drew the gun he always carried and shot Emiko dead on the doorstep before she could squeeze off any more shots, even as Emiko staggered back from the initial recoil. Chika turned toward Mai, shrieking.