Ninja Girl

“This place has Japanese food?”

Anya’s tone was easily as doubtful as the expression on her face.

“Well…” Nick began, hesitantly, “It has… sushi.”

“But it is clearly Chinese food. Chinese fast food.” Anya said the words “fast food” with an extra helping of venom.

Nick glanced at the menu with its logo of a giant panda in a kung fu pose and conical bamboo hat and shrugged. “Yeah, well, honestly I’m not sure most Americans know that there’s a difference.”

“That is so offensive I don’t even know what to say.”

“Look, you’re the one who said that you’re hungry. I don’t know what time it is in Japan but here it’s pretty much the middle of the night. Most things are closed. If you want something it’s either this or a cheeseburger.”

At the word “cheeseburger” her frown somehow managed to deepen. “Very well,” she said icily. She leaned over to get a better view of the menu. “I will take,” she hesitated as she read through the sushi selections and winced, “the ‘ninja sushi’ platter.”

“Good choice,” said Nick. The car ahead of them in the drive thru lane pulled forward, away from the call box and around to the pick-up window. “And just in time, too.”

Nick pulled forward to the speaker and rolled down his window. “Thank you, wise masters, for choosing Lugal Panda,” came the voice from the other end that did not sound at all thankful for them having come at such a late hour. “How may I be of assistance to you today?”

“Uh, yeah,” Nick said, leaning out the window and glancing over the menu one more time. “I guess let me get a number five with a side of egg rolls and a diet cola. Then, um, one ‘ninja sushi’ platter and, oh,” Nick pulled his head back inside the car and looked at Anya. “I’m sorry, I forgot. Did you want something to drink?”

Anya grimaced. “I’m afraid to ask… do they have anything that’s not a soft drink?”

Nick took a quick glance back at the menu. “They have iced tea.”

Her expression remained doubtful, but she nodded her head. “Very well. I will take an iced tea.”

Nick turned back to order, “And a large iced-“

“Small,” Anya interjected.

“Uh… better make that a medium iced tea,” Nick finished. He turned back to Anya. “They put a lot of ice,” he explained, shrugging meekly under the forcefulness of her stare.

They pulled forward and got their food, and a few moments later they were off on their way again. Anya opened her food and stared at it, her expression a mix between doubt and terror. “Ah, makizushi,” she said, relieved that a familiar sight greeted her.

“Yeah, mazikashi,” Nick attempted to echo.

“Makizushi,” Anya corrected.

“Maki… something,” Nick said, giving up halfway through the word. “Whatever.”

“Makizushi,” Anya repeated a third time, grabbing one of the small round sushi rolls with her chopsticks and lifting it up for Nick to see. “It is a type of sushi.”

“There’s more than one type of sushi?”

“Yes. Makizushi is rolled, like these.”

“I thought that was how all sushi looked,” Nick replied.

Anya gave him an odd look. “You are a strange person, Nick Lombardi.”

“You can just call me Nick.”

“I would rather not,” she replied. She lifted the sushi roll to her mouth and took a tentative bite. Her expression immediately dropped into one of disgust.

“Aw, come on. It can’t be that bad,” Nick protested.

Anya dropped the sushi back in its take-out box and put the food away. “I need my drink,” she said, her voice almost frantic. She scooped up her iced tea and took a sip. She immediately put it down again. “That is most certainly not iced tea.”

Nick let out a bit of a laugh and shook his head. “You weren’t actually hungry, were you?”

“What?” Anya started to protest, but her shoulders lowered and she let out an almost defeated sounding sigh. “No, I was not. I was just hoping to distract you.” She lifted the box of her food out of the bag and opened it again. “But you have graciously purchased this food for me so I will make the effort of eating it.”

Nick waved one hand dismissively. “Nah, don’t worry about it.”

“But I must. It would be impolite to refuse this offering.”

“No, seriously, don’t worry about it. I can just put it in the fridge when I get home and eat it later. I like their sushi so it won’t be a big deal.”

“Very well,” she replied, as though she was only reluctantly consenting, but her expression was one of immense relief. She put the food back in the bag once again.

“I do have to apologize,” she said after a moment.

“For what?”

“Since we have met you have been trying to help me. You have no reason to help me and you gain nothing from it. Yet I have been rude and ungrateful. I apologize for that. I appreciate your help. Though, if you do not consider it rude, may I ask why?”

Nick did not know how to respond to that. She was right. He really did not have any reason to be helping her. Any reason, that was, except for how pretty she was. He shoved a huge helping of his egg roll in his mouth to keep from having to respond. Shrugging, he made a noise that he hoped sounded like, “I dunno,” and focused on his eating and driving.

For a moment, Anya looked out the window, apparently having taken his response as good enough. “I need to get back to Japan,” she said.

Nick frowned, uncertain of what to say. “No offense, but, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Of course. Japan is my home. I can return to my village. I will be safe there.”

“Is your village where you were when you were suddenly magically transported to my bedroom?”

Anya hesitated for just a moment. “Yes.”

“Then doesn’t that mean you’re not safe there? Wouldn’t whoever is responsible for trying to abduct you be looking for you there?”

Anya bit her lip, a look of concern flushing across her face. “I had not thought of that,” she admitted. “But, it does not matter. It is forbidden on pain of death to leave my village without permission, and I was not given permission.”

“That seems a little extreme.”

“It is as it must be,” snapped Anya. “I have no choice but to return home and beg at the feet of my elders for forgiveness.”

“You have to beg for their forgiveness? You didn’t even do anything wrong! You’re not exactly selling me on the idea of helping you, here.”

“If I do not return immediately, it will appear to them as proof that I am guilty and they will send others to hunt me down and kill me.”

“Japan it is!” exclaimed Nick. “There’s an airport just outside of town. I can take you there, but I’ll have to look up the directions.”

He pulled into a nearby parking lot and stopped the car. Reaching down to his pants he felt around in his pocket and then swore.

“What is it?” Anya asked, noticeably tensing.

“I don’t have my phone. I left it in my apartment ’cuz the battery was dead. See? I wasn’t lying about that. But now I don’t know what to do ’cuz I needed it to look up directions. Okay, wait,” Nick looked around his car. “My laptop should be in here.”

“You leave your laptop in your vehicle?”

“Well, I only use it at work these days, so I only really ever take it out when I’m there. Okay, yeah, it’s in here,” Nick said, lifting one of the back seats up enough to reveal his messenger bag. “I’ll need to get to a wi-fi spot though. Probably I can run home real quick, or–”

“Is… this your home?” Anya asked, a tinge of something that sounded like concern edging in her voice. Nick heard the words but seemed to not notice the tone.

“What?” he asked, spinning back around to stare out the front window of the car. Sure enough, he was in the guest parking lot of his apartment complex. He had not even realized that he had come this far. Without knowing where to go, he must have relied mostly on instinct and muscle memory to get him somewhere. That somewhere had proven to be home, but since he had pulled over to look up directions he had not gone in the normal entrance. “Well yeah, how ’bout that…”

His voice trailed off when he finally saw the sight that had brought Anya to ask her question in the first place.

Ahead of him, across the parking lot, the pool, and a second smaller parking lot, there was a building on fire.

His building.

“NO!”

Without even thinking, he dove from the car and started running.

“No, Nick! Wait!” Anya called after him, but he either did not notice or could not care. Cursing under her breath she followed him out of the car.

Nick did not hear her move. In the state he was in, he could see, hear, and feel nothing outside of the burning of the building in front of him.

Suddenly he was rolling along the ground, and a moment later someone was on top of him.

“Get off!” he started to shout, but a hand clamped itself over his mouth. He rolled about and struggled, but the force keeping him down far outweighed his ability to fight it.

“Quiet,” a voice was repeatedly hissing into his ear. “Be quiet! Stop it! Quiet!”

After a moment he surrendered to the force and calmed down enough to realize that it was Anya who was on top of him, holding him down. She met his gaze with her own, a fire burning behind her cold eyes.

“I’m going to let you up,” she said calmly and slowly, “but I need you to stay quiet and look at something. Okay? Okay?” She asked again when Nick did not respond the first time. With some reluctance, he nodded his head.

Anya raised her free hand – though Nick was amazed she had a free hand with how well she had him pinned down – and pointed off into the distance. Then, ever so slowly, she lifted her hand off his mouth and released some of her hold on him.

Nick just wanted to bolt, but now having first hand proof of just how quickly and easily she could take him down he decided it best not to push his luck. Slowly, his face flushed red with anger, he sat up and looked in the direction she was pointing. “What?” he asked with annoyance, “I don’t see…”

He stopped. Anya was pointing at the rooftop of a nearby building, which at first he thought looked like it always did. After a moment he had realized that there was something odd about it, and after another moment realized that the odd thing was a vaguely humanoid shape perched in the shadows of one of the corners on the angled rooftop.

Squinting, Nick could just make out that the figure wearing some kind of battle dress uniform and holding what could only be a fully automatic rifle.

“What. The. Hell.” He said, his voice now dropping to a whisper.

“We need to get back in the car and drive away,” Anya said. “Now.”

This time, Nick had no argument.