Strange Days
City of Torrence, Los Angeles, CA, 1987
The loving couple smiled at their 6 month old baby. His cute little fists and feet worked tirelessly in the air as if any moment he could turn into a cherubic yosei or faerie and take flight. The mother unable to resist reached into the crib and gathered her little boy into her arms. She sang in a soft whisper as she bounced her baby boy, a song she'd recently heard on the radio.
When the river was deep I didn't falter
When the mountain was high
I still believed
When the valley was low
It didn't stop me no
I knew you were waiting
I knew you were waiting for me
The baby's delighted gurgle brought both pride and joy to his parent's faces. The doorbell rang. Yoshi smiled at his wife and left the nursery to answer the door. A delivery man stood there, package in hand. Smiling, Yoshi opened the door and signed for the package. Returning to the nursery he smiled and showed his wife the large box that had just arrived. Pulling out a set of keys from his pocket, he cut through the packing tape and opened the box. Inside were many other boxes, mostly clothing boxes. Minami set her baby back in the crib and knelt with her husband by the box to examine the contents, "What is all of this?"
"I don't know, anata." The man looked at his wife perplexed.
"Well..where is it from?" She looked for a return address but found nothing but a P. O. Box. It was not until she opened the first box that she found a silver envelope. She picked it up gingerly and looked at her husband who had stilled with an arrested expression on his face. When he held his hand out wordlessly for the envelope, she gave it to him with blatant curiousity.
Yoshi opened the envelope with obvious reverence and care, finally removing the hard pressed rice-paper inside. He read the few words quickly and then again, eyes round in surprise and disbelief.
"Yoshi..what is it?"
Yoshi looked at his wife, "Remember...when I told you long ago that our family had a few odd beliefs? Well, one of them is 'Kitsune-Obaasan', me and my parents called her 'Auntie Kitsune'."
"Auntie Fox? Oh! Yes! And at major birthdays and things you got gifts from her! Like the painting we got for our wedding? Yes...I just thought it was one of your parents being cute."
"I used to think so as well, but after they died two years ago, I got a letter from her."
Minami looked confused at her husband, "You never said anything.."
"I know. It was just..really confusing and we were all grieving and I didn't want to deal with it. So I just put the letter in the back of my desk and never thought about it.."
"Yoshi, besides me, the baby, and my family...who could be sending this stuff?" Minami moved the tissue paper in the box aside to find colourful jumpers in an assortment of sizes. "Look! These are so cute... you know what? Maybe your Auntie Kitsune is a friend of the family or something..and obviously very rich and she just likes to dote on you from afar."
Yoshi watched his wife unwrap small coats and sneakers and pantsuits for his son with an odd feeling in his gut. He looked around the room slowly and for a moment felt as if he were being watched. Watching his wife's delight at finding a gift certificate for a weekend getaway in the mountains, Yoshi slowly relaxed and smiled. Kitsune-Obaa had been spoken of in his family for as far as he could remember. His father used to tell tales of new bikes or new toys shipped directly from Japan that were simply so neat all of his white, affluent friends were jealous.
Yoshi smiled, put his hands together, and bowed formally towards the window. "Doomo arigatou goziamashita, Kitsune Obaa-san."
Minami beamed at her husband and jumped up to go to her baby boy who now slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of his mysterious benefactor.
Minami whispered as she pulled the blanket up to cover her son, "Say thank you to Auntie Kitsune, Jin."
-------------
Torrence, Los Angeles, CA March 15, 1997
I'm...coming...up...I'm coming..
As Diana Ross' voice heralded the coming of the new single playing in Jin's CD player, Jin stood arms crossed in the center of his room, dark shades on his eyes as he began to rap along with Mase and Puff Daddy.
Now, who’s hot who not
Tell me who rock who sell out in the stores
You tell me who flopped who copped the blue drop
Who jewels got robbed who’s mostly goldie down
To the tube sock, the same ol pimp
Jin threw 'west side' gang signs into the air and turned to find his mother watching him in obvious amusement.
"Mom! I told you to knock before coming into my room!" He quickly advanced to the cd player before any obvious profanity would send his mother raging into a storm of japanese admonishment.
"I did knock but you were..busy." Smiling she came to the room and held out an envelope.
"What's this?"
"I don't know. You're the genius in the house, you tell me."
Jin opened the envelope to find a small card and 15 one thousand dollar bills. He frowned and looked at the mailing envelope again. There were no postage stamps nor post marks upon the outside. He looked at his mother who looked equally surprised. "Read the card."
Jin opened the card and read the delicate calligraphy inside, It is rare for one so young to attend university. I am proud of you. Please accept this towards your tuition. -Auntie Kitsune
Jin looked up at his mother again, frowning. His mother's surprise and growing delight was too genuine to be false. Calling out to her husband, Minami ran from her son's bedroom and practically leapt into her husband's surprised arms. Carrying his wife into the room he looked at Jin obvious confusion. Jin handed the money and the card to his father and watched him closely. Yoshi frowned at the card and blinked at the cash.
He slowly set his wife down and took the envelope in his hand, obviously coming to similar conclusions of his son. He and his son shared a look. Yoshi then looked at his wife, the accountant, who had spent many hours looking over their finances and carefully constructing budgets for the next few years while they sent their son to Texas for school. Maintaining a house in Los Angeles and an apartment in Austin would severely drain their retirement fund. However, now with the money they had a little more financial room to figure things out.
Yoshi looked at his son. Jin's expression was intense. The story of Auntie Kitsune was a childhood tale the young man refused to buy. Again and again, he would insist that it was his parents using the facade; however, after recieving a completely new computer last year, Jin had realized that his parents could in no way be responsible. They were well to do, but could not afford the luxury of a three thousand dollar computer system on the fly.
The mystery of Auntie Kitsune began to piss Jin off. An off the charts genius, Jin had spent countless hours trying to dig into the world wide web and reveal the true identity of his family's benefactor. But there wasn't much he could go on besides 'Auntie Kitsune'. Even trying to trace the origin of his new computer only led to a dead-end involving a cash transaction at the local Best Buy.
Minami looked at her son's expression of distrust and snapped her fingers before his face to get his attention. "You listen to me, Jin. I don't care what you think, but you of all people should be grateful to Auntie Kitsune for this gift. She didn't have to help us out, but she did. There are good people out there, Jin. Just be thankful."
Jin schooled his features into acceptance and nodded. "I'm sorry. You're right. I am thankful." He grinned and suddenly shouted out loud at the top of his lungs, annoying his parents in the process, "THANK YOU AUNTIE KITSUNE!"
Jin was quickly admonished by his mother in swift japanese as his little sister toddled into the room, awakened from her nap and quite cranky about it.
-----------------
Empty Warehouse, San Francisco Bay, CA, February 1, 2000
Jin was a brilliant young man. So brilliant that he knew as he sat in a pain-induced stupor blind-folded, bound and gagged, that he was going to die. There was such certainty to that thought. That and nothing else. No matter how many times they asked him to make their money electronically reappear in the same fashion he'd made it disappear, he knew with out a single doubt that he was dead. And the dead don't tell.
Chinese bastards.
At least he had the satisfaction of knowing that they would never get back what they stole. Jin would've smiled but coughed instead, fighting not to choke on his own blood.
Suddenly things were quiet. His bonds gave way to blinding pain and he nearly passed out as the blood began to flow back into his arms and ankles. The duct tape and gag was removed from his mouth and all Jin could taste was blood. He turned his head and spit it out, lifting useless hands to untie his blindfold. Cold hands covered his. Her heard a quiet voice in his ear whisper, "Not yet. Here..lie down." He was lifted suddenly, his head spinning as he was laid carefully on the cold cement floor. It's too late. I've been bleeding for days. I'm dead, lady.
Tears fought for release but Jin held them. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go out like a man. Then Dad'll be proud of me. And when I die I can see him and mom and Shizuka and we can all be a family again.
Blood filled his mouth, but it wasn't his. Swallowing despite himself, he felt something he hadn't felt in days...warmth. He continued to drink all the while listening to the strange woman whispering in japanese over and over again as if forcing her will upon him, "生きて! Ikite! 直しなさい! Naoshinasai!"
Jin's normally quick mind moved sloggishly though the japanese he knew and realized that she was trying to force him to live, to heal. He wanted to tell the woman that it was useless, but the blood... he felt better the more he drank. The sound of the woman's tears as she tried to force her very life into him brought out the young man's protective instincts even as his mind cleared. It won't hurt to try...
So close to death's door, the young man suddenly felt cold and panic began to set in as he realized that he really was close to death. I want to live. The feeling grew within his gut and consumed him with strange ferocity. I want to live! He bent his will towards the goal.
And then he died.
------
Marina Del Ray, Los Angeles, California, February 5, 2000
And then he woke.
Jin opened his eyes to find himself someplace he'd never been before. He knew he was near the ocean because he could hear the waves in the distance. He sat up slowly and was startled to realize that he felt no pain. He looked towards the one light in the room, a candelabra set next to a black woman with shining black hair who sat staring at the cell phone in her hands.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked up, revealing more of her face to the light. She was black...but japanese as well. Weird. Jin took a moment to think back on what had happened before tonight, but couldn't grasp a hold of all the memories. He remembered pain...his family was dead...they'd been murdered...but other details, like who he was and where he'd been were fuzzy. He certainly had no idea of where he was and who he was with.
"Yamagami Seiko."
Jin frowned, "Do I know you?"
The woman sighed and placed the cellphone on the table next to the candelabra. "We've never met, but you know me. I'm your Auntie Kitsune."
Jin frowned again as the vaguest recollection of that strange name rang a bell. "Oookay... what are we doing here?"
The woman watched him with extreme intent, "You don't remember?"
Jin thought back and then flashes of drinking blood, her blood..the blood of a homeless man...the blood of a drug dealer.. He looked at the woman and nodded, "Oh..yeah. I remember now. I'm a vampire. And so are you." He tried to think of why the words sounded wierd, but he didn't bother to figure it out. He had more important things to do. "So..you said that after I learned all the stuff you had to teach me, you'd let me go. Do you mean it?"
The woman slowly nodded, "Yes."
He nods in return, "Then let's this over with." He was ready to leave the strange woman's side. Vampire or no, she freaked him out. He looked over his shoulder for a moment as if he'd seen her standing there then shook his head. Fucking vampire tricks. Yeah, he had places to be.
-----
July 19th, 2000
As he prowled the local teen club, he thought to himself that the music of the new millenium really sucked.
...I have to say is even better
Then I ever thought it could possibly be
It's perfect, it's passion, it's setting me free
From all of my sadness
The tears that I've cried
I have spent all of my life
Waiting for tonight, oh...
Damn. He thought, At least I'll live long enough to hear some good music. Thanks A. K.
"Yo C-Poc!"
Jin turned and grinned.
The loving couple smiled at their 6 month old baby. His cute little fists and feet worked tirelessly in the air as if any moment he could turn into a cherubic yosei or faerie and take flight. The mother unable to resist reached into the crib and gathered her little boy into her arms. She sang in a soft whisper as she bounced her baby boy, a song she'd recently heard on the radio.
When the river was deep I didn't falter
When the mountain was high
I still believed
When the valley was low
It didn't stop me no
I knew you were waiting
I knew you were waiting for me
The baby's delighted gurgle brought both pride and joy to his parent's faces. The doorbell rang. Yoshi smiled at his wife and left the nursery to answer the door. A delivery man stood there, package in hand. Smiling, Yoshi opened the door and signed for the package. Returning to the nursery he smiled and showed his wife the large box that had just arrived. Pulling out a set of keys from his pocket, he cut through the packing tape and opened the box. Inside were many other boxes, mostly clothing boxes. Minami set her baby back in the crib and knelt with her husband by the box to examine the contents, "What is all of this?"
"I don't know, anata." The man looked at his wife perplexed.
"Well..where is it from?" She looked for a return address but found nothing but a P. O. Box. It was not until she opened the first box that she found a silver envelope. She picked it up gingerly and looked at her husband who had stilled with an arrested expression on his face. When he held his hand out wordlessly for the envelope, she gave it to him with blatant curiousity.
Yoshi opened the envelope with obvious reverence and care, finally removing the hard pressed rice-paper inside. He read the few words quickly and then again, eyes round in surprise and disbelief.
"Yoshi..what is it?"
Yoshi looked at his wife, "Remember...when I told you long ago that our family had a few odd beliefs? Well, one of them is 'Kitsune-Obaasan', me and my parents called her 'Auntie Kitsune'."
"Auntie Fox? Oh! Yes! And at major birthdays and things you got gifts from her! Like the painting we got for our wedding? Yes...I just thought it was one of your parents being cute."
"I used to think so as well, but after they died two years ago, I got a letter from her."
Minami looked confused at her husband, "You never said anything.."
"I know. It was just..really confusing and we were all grieving and I didn't want to deal with it. So I just put the letter in the back of my desk and never thought about it.."
"Yoshi, besides me, the baby, and my family...who could be sending this stuff?" Minami moved the tissue paper in the box aside to find colourful jumpers in an assortment of sizes. "Look! These are so cute... you know what? Maybe your Auntie Kitsune is a friend of the family or something..and obviously very rich and she just likes to dote on you from afar."
Yoshi watched his wife unwrap small coats and sneakers and pantsuits for his son with an odd feeling in his gut. He looked around the room slowly and for a moment felt as if he were being watched. Watching his wife's delight at finding a gift certificate for a weekend getaway in the mountains, Yoshi slowly relaxed and smiled. Kitsune-Obaa had been spoken of in his family for as far as he could remember. His father used to tell tales of new bikes or new toys shipped directly from Japan that were simply so neat all of his white, affluent friends were jealous.
Yoshi smiled, put his hands together, and bowed formally towards the window. "Doomo arigatou goziamashita, Kitsune Obaa-san."
Minami beamed at her husband and jumped up to go to her baby boy who now slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of his mysterious benefactor.
Minami whispered as she pulled the blanket up to cover her son, "Say thank you to Auntie Kitsune, Jin."
-------------
Torrence, Los Angeles, CA March 15, 1997
I'm...coming...up...I'm coming..
As Diana Ross' voice heralded the coming of the new single playing in Jin's CD player, Jin stood arms crossed in the center of his room, dark shades on his eyes as he began to rap along with Mase and Puff Daddy.
Now, who’s hot who not
Tell me who rock who sell out in the stores
You tell me who flopped who copped the blue drop
Who jewels got robbed who’s mostly goldie down
To the tube sock, the same ol pimp
Jin threw 'west side' gang signs into the air and turned to find his mother watching him in obvious amusement.
"Mom! I told you to knock before coming into my room!" He quickly advanced to the cd player before any obvious profanity would send his mother raging into a storm of japanese admonishment.
"I did knock but you were..busy." Smiling she came to the room and held out an envelope.
"What's this?"
"I don't know. You're the genius in the house, you tell me."
Jin opened the envelope to find a small card and 15 one thousand dollar bills. He frowned and looked at the mailing envelope again. There were no postage stamps nor post marks upon the outside. He looked at his mother who looked equally surprised. "Read the card."
Jin opened the card and read the delicate calligraphy inside, It is rare for one so young to attend university. I am proud of you. Please accept this towards your tuition. -Auntie Kitsune
Jin looked up at his mother again, frowning. His mother's surprise and growing delight was too genuine to be false. Calling out to her husband, Minami ran from her son's bedroom and practically leapt into her husband's surprised arms. Carrying his wife into the room he looked at Jin obvious confusion. Jin handed the money and the card to his father and watched him closely. Yoshi frowned at the card and blinked at the cash.
He slowly set his wife down and took the envelope in his hand, obviously coming to similar conclusions of his son. He and his son shared a look. Yoshi then looked at his wife, the accountant, who had spent many hours looking over their finances and carefully constructing budgets for the next few years while they sent their son to Texas for school. Maintaining a house in Los Angeles and an apartment in Austin would severely drain their retirement fund. However, now with the money they had a little more financial room to figure things out.
Yoshi looked at his son. Jin's expression was intense. The story of Auntie Kitsune was a childhood tale the young man refused to buy. Again and again, he would insist that it was his parents using the facade; however, after recieving a completely new computer last year, Jin had realized that his parents could in no way be responsible. They were well to do, but could not afford the luxury of a three thousand dollar computer system on the fly.
The mystery of Auntie Kitsune began to piss Jin off. An off the charts genius, Jin had spent countless hours trying to dig into the world wide web and reveal the true identity of his family's benefactor. But there wasn't much he could go on besides 'Auntie Kitsune'. Even trying to trace the origin of his new computer only led to a dead-end involving a cash transaction at the local Best Buy.
Minami looked at her son's expression of distrust and snapped her fingers before his face to get his attention. "You listen to me, Jin. I don't care what you think, but you of all people should be grateful to Auntie Kitsune for this gift. She didn't have to help us out, but she did. There are good people out there, Jin. Just be thankful."
Jin schooled his features into acceptance and nodded. "I'm sorry. You're right. I am thankful." He grinned and suddenly shouted out loud at the top of his lungs, annoying his parents in the process, "THANK YOU AUNTIE KITSUNE!"
Jin was quickly admonished by his mother in swift japanese as his little sister toddled into the room, awakened from her nap and quite cranky about it.
-----------------
Empty Warehouse, San Francisco Bay, CA, February 1, 2000
Jin was a brilliant young man. So brilliant that he knew as he sat in a pain-induced stupor blind-folded, bound and gagged, that he was going to die. There was such certainty to that thought. That and nothing else. No matter how many times they asked him to make their money electronically reappear in the same fashion he'd made it disappear, he knew with out a single doubt that he was dead. And the dead don't tell.
Chinese bastards.
At least he had the satisfaction of knowing that they would never get back what they stole. Jin would've smiled but coughed instead, fighting not to choke on his own blood.
Suddenly things were quiet. His bonds gave way to blinding pain and he nearly passed out as the blood began to flow back into his arms and ankles. The duct tape and gag was removed from his mouth and all Jin could taste was blood. He turned his head and spit it out, lifting useless hands to untie his blindfold. Cold hands covered his. Her heard a quiet voice in his ear whisper, "Not yet. Here..lie down." He was lifted suddenly, his head spinning as he was laid carefully on the cold cement floor. It's too late. I've been bleeding for days. I'm dead, lady.
Tears fought for release but Jin held them. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go out like a man. Then Dad'll be proud of me. And when I die I can see him and mom and Shizuka and we can all be a family again.
Blood filled his mouth, but it wasn't his. Swallowing despite himself, he felt something he hadn't felt in days...warmth. He continued to drink all the while listening to the strange woman whispering in japanese over and over again as if forcing her will upon him, "生きて! Ikite! 直しなさい! Naoshinasai!"
Jin's normally quick mind moved sloggishly though the japanese he knew and realized that she was trying to force him to live, to heal. He wanted to tell the woman that it was useless, but the blood... he felt better the more he drank. The sound of the woman's tears as she tried to force her very life into him brought out the young man's protective instincts even as his mind cleared. It won't hurt to try...
So close to death's door, the young man suddenly felt cold and panic began to set in as he realized that he really was close to death. I want to live. The feeling grew within his gut and consumed him with strange ferocity. I want to live! He bent his will towards the goal.
And then he died.
------
Marina Del Ray, Los Angeles, California, February 5, 2000
And then he woke.
Jin opened his eyes to find himself someplace he'd never been before. He knew he was near the ocean because he could hear the waves in the distance. He sat up slowly and was startled to realize that he felt no pain. He looked towards the one light in the room, a candelabra set next to a black woman with shining black hair who sat staring at the cell phone in her hands.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked up, revealing more of her face to the light. She was black...but japanese as well. Weird. Jin took a moment to think back on what had happened before tonight, but couldn't grasp a hold of all the memories. He remembered pain...his family was dead...they'd been murdered...but other details, like who he was and where he'd been were fuzzy. He certainly had no idea of where he was and who he was with.
"Yamagami Seiko."
Jin frowned, "Do I know you?"
The woman sighed and placed the cellphone on the table next to the candelabra. "We've never met, but you know me. I'm your Auntie Kitsune."
Jin frowned again as the vaguest recollection of that strange name rang a bell. "Oookay... what are we doing here?"
The woman watched him with extreme intent, "You don't remember?"
Jin thought back and then flashes of drinking blood, her blood..the blood of a homeless man...the blood of a drug dealer.. He looked at the woman and nodded, "Oh..yeah. I remember now. I'm a vampire. And so are you." He tried to think of why the words sounded wierd, but he didn't bother to figure it out. He had more important things to do. "So..you said that after I learned all the stuff you had to teach me, you'd let me go. Do you mean it?"
The woman slowly nodded, "Yes."
He nods in return, "Then let's this over with." He was ready to leave the strange woman's side. Vampire or no, she freaked him out. He looked over his shoulder for a moment as if he'd seen her standing there then shook his head. Fucking vampire tricks. Yeah, he had places to be.
-----
July 19th, 2000
As he prowled the local teen club, he thought to himself that the music of the new millenium really sucked.
...I have to say is even better
Then I ever thought it could possibly be
It's perfect, it's passion, it's setting me free
From all of my sadness
The tears that I've cried
I have spent all of my life
Waiting for tonight, oh...
Damn. He thought, At least I'll live long enough to hear some good music. Thanks A. K.
"Yo C-Poc!"
Jin turned and grinned.