Spirit

Mariko's Pass

As far as 'certain deaths' go, this one was pretty amazing. In both 'human' and 'spirit' ways. Apperently in Chinatown, people let there spirits out, so you really couldn't tell who they belonged to, but the red and gold from the buildings, and the blue from the spirits blended in a perfect kind of way, and I was truly mesmerized by the wonderful sights.

Walking through the streets, I kept my mind on the restaurant Roy told us about. I just hoped they didn't write it in chinese. But that wasn't an issue as I spotted a familiar face. Unfortunatly, the familiar face belonged to Rob, and I hadn't exactly made up with him yet.

He was gazing at a poster that had a huge "#1" drawing on it and a bunch of chinese letters next to it. Beneath it was a plastic rimmed door, and a plastic rimmed window next to it, but they were both covered in worn out white curtains, so you couldn't actually see inside, but there was a lot of noise and chatter and clattering of plates inside, so it must've been open.

Rob grunted when he spotted me.

"Luke." He coldly said without looking at me.

"Robert." I said coolly. Before he could reply, I asked, "Is that the place?"

"I guess... That's how Roy drew the sign of the restaurant for me."

I stared at it for a moment. What was so fucked up that Roy had to deal with drugs to get out of it? What would happen if we get in and it turned out to be a trap?

I realized that we have been standing there for quite a long time now because my feet were getting sore. I knew we should've waited for the others but...

"Okay I'm tired, let's just go in!" I complained.

"Thank you, my feet are killing me." He muttered.

I shook my head and chuckled, and we both entered the restaurant.

It was smaller than it looked outside, six or seven table filled the whole place, and there was no door to the kitchen, because as it turned out, that it was a sushi restaurant, and the chef made the sushis infront of the customers. Next to the 'kitchen', there was a cash register, but no-one was sitting there. The walls were bright blue on the bottom half, and white on the other.

I groaned as I sat down, massaging my legs, and Rob closed his eyes, as if thanking the chair telepathecally. As I looked around, I noticed something... out of place in the restaurant. There was a bright red door at the far wall, with drawings of a dragon around it. And the strange this was that I thought that nobody could see it.

Suddenly, the door opened softly, and a beautiful (sorry Maddie) chinese girl walked out of it. Her caramel hair fell down her shoulders and rested at her hips, her eyes kind of matched the color of her hair, only a bit darker, and her skin was really white, as though she had powedered it.

She noticed our table and started to walk towards it, and I got nervous. Rob probably felt weird too, because he kicked my leg, harder than normal.

"Welcome to Ichiban." She said with a perfect english, to my surprise. "The rest of your crew isn't here yet, I suppose."

I immediatly felt the urge to walk right back out. Were they following us the whole time?

As if reading my mind, she said: "I can see the future, sorry if I didn't mention that before."

She said it in a casual way, but there was kindness in her voice.

"So I suppose you know why we are here." Rob said darkly.

"Yes, but you see Rob, the Dragon won't be meeting you today. I'm sorry."

"How accuratly can you see the future?" I asked, trying to prove a point.

That question seemed to have taken her by surprise.

"What? You didn't see me asking you that question in the future?"

"You got me, Luke." She answered. "Actually, I'm not always accurate. It's a 99 percent kind of thing."

"Okay great, so I guess we can dwell on that 1 percent." I smiled at her. She certainly seemed pissed off, but I sure liked it. "Oh come on, you have the advantage here. You know our names and we don't know yours."

"Mariko." She said flatly, rejecting my handshake. Rob snorted. I returned that kick he gave me earlier.

She then got her old smile back. "Well, I'm not gonna make you leave, so when you feel like you've given up, I will still be sorry."

"Okay she's weird." Rob concluded as she went back to the cash register, checking her nails. "But we have got to get inside!"

"Check with the others, see where they are." I said. And so he did. But I didn't pay attention to the answers in my ear, because I wanted to ask Mariko something, I just didn't think I'd have the guts to do it. She looked at me again and smiled, and I was like  Well she probably knows what I want to ask anyways, so let's just get it over with.

I got up and walked to her. It was actually two steps, but that didn't matter.

"It means Chaos." She abruptly said, as soon as I arrived.

"Húndún." I muttered the word that the duplicating guy said to me. "Why did he call me that?"

"I can't answer without the Dragon's permission."

"Oh come on!" I yelled. Everybody stopped talking. Then Mariko spat some chinese words to the customers, hope there were a few curse words because it's none of their business, and they went back to chatter.

"Plus," she added, "your girlfriend is gonna be mad in about five seconds."

Shit, I thought. Even with five seconds remaining, I knew I couldn't make it back to my seat properly. And as she suggested, the rest of the crew walked in, with of course, Maddie glaring like crazy I thought her eyes were gonna pop out.

I cleared my throat. "And, two peices of the mango sushi, gracias."

My red face met Maddie's and I knew she didn't buy it, and Mariko wasn't helping, because she was giggling right behind me.

"Okay," Mariko said after clearing the tears of laughter out of her eyes, "the place is too full fo-"

"I think there's enough space in the back sis." Roy spat, making his way towards Mariko. He looked like a mess, thinner than usual and angrier than Maddie, which is saying a lot.

They looked at each other for a moment, and I didn't know wether to ask if something would be happening or not.

"The Dragon won't be happy, Roy." Mariko chose her words cautiously. I guessed she saw that she shouldn't anger her brother any further.

"The Dragon is the least of my worries. I'm going in, and-"

"You know the consequences of disobeing." She said, worried.

"Rules don't apply on me anymore, Mariko. Step aside."

"Please! I'm only trying to help!" She pleaded.

Roy's mind was racing, I could see that much. He finally sighed. "I will go in with only one of them, the rest can wait outside."

We started complaining, but one look from Roy made us all shut up. I've never seen him like this before.

"Luke, come with me."