The Emperor's Dragon

Dragon is Everywhere

Giran stood at the magazine stand as he looked out the window in disgust. Late autumn rain was bucketing down in torrents and he was meant to meet a new client. He was a businessman and for first meetings he preferred to meet them outdoors, somewhere they couldn't be overheard. The convenience store wasn't ideal, no matter how well he knew the owner, and knew that the cameras would be off. There were other customers to think about but it was better than an overhanging balcony. He had some standards after all.

If this customer panned out then he could meet them somewhere else, somewhere a little less informal but not on the first time, not when everything told him this could go one of two ways... He had a sense for these things. He could sort of tell which customers were going to make it and which were just going to get scooped up by the nearest hero. The customer he was meeting today, he wasn't sure about. He had a feeling she could go either way. If she wasn't picked up by a hero then... Yeah, she was going places and for a small part of her profits, he'd help her out.

The door chimed and from the corner of his eye he saw a high school girl walk in. She shook off her umbrella and then stabbed it into the waiting cover dispenser with a hard shove. The dispenser clicked and she continued. The broker sometimes wondered about high school girls. Their skirts were almost always so short, and while the view was nice (if you were into that sort of thing) he wondered how they weren't cold. He wasn't into that sort of thing... at least, not that young. He preferred his woman to have a bit of experience and skill.

The girl looked around and then shrugged as she walked through the aisles. Giran suppressed a sigh. Great... she was here for the same reason he was, to get out of the rain. Which meant when his client got here... they may have to move somewhere else since he didn't want to be overheard.

He went back to pretending to read his magazine. Ignoring the smell of wet that was permeating the store. With the rain as heavy as it was outside, it was inevitable.

"You Giran?"

He didn't expect the high pitched voice to ask the question. Even so, Giran was a professional. He didn't jump or flinch at the question. Instead he turned the page of the magazine and looked at the girl from the corner of his eye. She had slightly damp blonde hair and gold eyes. No, they were more yellow than gold. He knew what gold eyes looked like and hers were too yellow to really be gold. She was dressed in a nondescript sailor uniform and there was still some water beading on the sleeves of her cardigan. And resting just above the bow was a small green token.

Giran felt his eyes widen. "Where did you get that?" he hissed, not answering her question.

The girl looked offended before she cocked her head slightly. "Get what?"

"That?" Giran said, folding the magazine to hold it in one hand as he tapped his chest. You never reached out to touch clients, not without making it darn clear that's what he was doing and he certainly wouldn't do it with a new client, and not with a girl.

The girl reached up and lifted the leather string from her neck, lifting the green token away from the bow and allowing him to see it more clearly.

Fuck, it really was what he thought it was. "How did you get that?" he demanded, looking her up and down.

Her socks were pulled up but her skirt was as short as he'd thought it was at first glance. The cardigan was baggy so he couldn't tell what weapons she had under it. He assumed something since that's what she was meeting him for. Her nails were reasonably well kept and her fingers didn't have scars... That was interesting. If she used a knife he'd have expected to see a scar or two. Her eyes were yellow gold and she was looking at him with a slightly confused expression.