Darksun - Volume 1: Neco'ma

Chapter 17: Three years ago...

Inside Mi'ko's Workshop –
The three individuals descended to what felt like just the basement level, but what Jake saw looked like an entire complex bottled into a very enclosed space. As Jake looked around he noticed objects and stations that could not conceivably fit in such a compressed space. A dojo, a forge, a scientific lab, all laid out in close proximity to each other; however, this didn't make the room feel claustrophobic. The room was wide, long, and impossibly spacious.

 'Oops, I forgot to mention that the space we descended into will cause your sense of perception to become a little bit jarring. But once you get used to it, the delirium will wear off,' said Mi'ko before she continued, 'welcome to my workshop Officer, hope you survive the experience.'

 'How is this place possible, I must be dreaming?' Jake asked. He was amazed by the impossible. 

 Mi'ko explained the science behind her workshop, 'how this is possible you ask? It is my personal crowning achievement when I studied the possibility of compact infinite space, that's when I created a device that was truly capable of dimensional compression. It took me two and a half years of perfecting and eventually creating what we so called cyberpunk tech junkies would come to know as "Flat Space" technology.'

 Jake was impressed with the idea, but then Mi'ko changed the subject when she brought out an object wrapped in bandages.

 'Here's what you ordered Darksun, it took me ages to find both the strongest steel and coils to make this work.'

 Darksun received the object and unwrapped it to reveal a unique sword with a black hilt branded with the familiar Gravekeepers symbol. When he touched the symbol, the blade shattered and collapsed. The shards of the sword clung to a flexible coil, which resembled a whip.

 'What kind of sword does that, a joke weapon?' asked a curious Jake.

 'Actually, it is not a joke weapon, it's called a snake sword,' Mi'ko corrected him, 'in the old days of China it was usually a ceremonial blade. A snake sword in its normal state resembles a normal blade, but if activated the right way it extends into a whip-like form, which can be useful to grapple on to roofs and to drag enemies closer for effective combat or long range attacks.' 

 Darksun then returned the sword to its normal form and was about to test it on an unknown object.

 'Hey, hey, hey! That's a prototype I'm still working on, if you want to test your new sword, use the dojo for that!' Mi'ko quickly cried out.

 'Sorry Mi'ko, I was just testing you, maybe you and Jake should get acquainted while I'm practicing this well-made blade,' said Darksun.

 He headed towards the dojo to train. Jake turned to Mi'ko, 'so how long have you known Darksun?'

 'I've known the guy for over three years, but to tell this story I need to point out what I use to be before I met him,' Mi'ko answered simply.

 Jake respected Mi'ko's choice, 'very well, you can tell me how it was.'

 Mi'ko went on to describe her life in the simplest terms, 'I am a third generation Japanese American, in the forties my family was detained in a reservation camp during the war just for being Japanese. Around a few years ago, my family and a few others were given a huge sum of cash as compensation for the detainment, so my grandparents put it towards my collage fund. Flash forward a few years; I graduated from high school with top marks in IT, engineering and science. I was a shoe in to enroll at MIT; two years, in I was on a great breakthrough in discovering the equation for Flat Space when I was unlawfully kicked out.'

 'So why were you kicked out of MIT?' Jake asked curiously.

 Mi'ko explained, 'well, the reason was that my lecturers got vainly jealous that a student like me managed to outsmart them in the research of a possible technology and finding the equation needed to make it work. After all that, I took my research and the money I'd saved for my education. The thing was, I didn't want to go back home as a failure and I needed a job. So, I ended up working as a waitress at the sushi bar you guys were in earlier, only back then I didn't know that my former boss, Mr. Asano was paying a protection racket for the Yakuza. For all I knew, they were just guys with rough tattoos using the restaurant as a hangout, but the day I found out was also the day I met Darksun for the first time...'

...Three years ago...
It was the end of the dinner rush at the Little Tokyo Karp Sushi bar, as the last customers left for the night. The owner of the sushi bar known as Mr. Asano was counting the money made from the past week.