Chapter 3 The deal
How did you do that? I thought only a martial artist can beat another martial artist. That and magic.
You see all martial artists have one weak point. If they can focus they're ki then they can use it to protect themselves, which leaves them wide open.
The gas canister. It disrupted their focus.
You catch on quick.
And they couldn't use their ki like a barrier anymore.
Look, lesson number one about being a trickster. We don't win with brute strength, but with trickery or deceit. Not very honorable but that's how it goes.
So, since I saved you twice now it seems you owe me 2.
Dang it. Should have known she'd want something in return.
What you think I want money? Heck no money is the last thing on my mind. I just want to ask you some questions and we'll call it even.
I...guess that's fair.
First off I want to know how long I've been frozen in that statue. If I remember correctly I was frozen in 1884. So my first question is: What year is it?
It's.....2080.
For a brief moment Anna seemed disturbed at this news but quickly shoves those concerns aside, telling herself it doesn't matter anymore.
I see. Well, 2 centuries. That's more then I thought. Moving on, where am I?
This is Florida, now a colony of Japan.
Colony? Back up, what the heck happened in the last 200 years?
What happen in the last 60 years you mean? You were alive during the first American civil war right?
Let me guess, there was a second one?
Correct, it lasted for 10 years. And we don't really know much about it but we know how it ended.
One side nuked the entire country.
Nuked?
A nuke is a very powerful bomb capable of blowing up entire cities.
Ouch. But this is the future so I'm not surprised.
America had thousands of them and in the end one side was losing and blew everything up.
Talk about sore losers.
After This Japan entered a war with china and we teamed up with various other countries and won.
But it left us with severe financial debt and we lost more then 70% of our population. Currently there are only about 50 million Japanese left.
To help us get out of our bad situation, a politician from hokkaido came up with an idea to create a guild to explore and colonize what was left of America.
We couldn't enter from the west coast since it was heavily irradiated so we went through mexico and established a colony here in Florida.
With that the wastelanders guild was born and thanks to all the tech and resources we found, Japan became the richest nation on earth.
Nice. I see the current situation now.
Anna just started laughing maniacally. She didn't care anymore once she realized the situation she was in.
HAHA, talk about lucky. I outlive the government that sentenced me to several life long terms.
Which means even if I wanted to turn myself in, I couldn't. As of right now, I'm a free woman. So God answered my prayers and gave me a second chance in the most weird way possible.
I'm sorry for what happened to you.
Hey it's okay. At least now I can live my life free of violence. So..uh...bye.
Hey wait! Don't go!
What?
What are you going to do?
Don't know. Maybe I'll start a church, just preach the good word of God and stay as far away from violence as possible.
But you beat those guys. I'm thinking what we could accomplish if we team up. You could be my sensei.
I'm going to have to stop you right there. Look, I killed a lot of people. So much that sometimes I have nightmares.
I lived my life violently and I'm lucky to have gotten out of the game alive. Not many ex criminals can say the same.
I am done fighting. No more bullets, no more punches, no more people trying to kill me in my sleep saying you killed my family I want revenge. I am just done with all that.
What about the guy that put you in that statue?
Him?
Come to think of it, he did say he was going to freeze himself too. So there is a chance that he's still alive. And if he is, a lot pf people are going to get hurt.
Not to mention he took my friend. Jesus wouldn't want revenge, but I just can't look the other way.
I want to follow God and leave my old life behind. This is my second chance. EVen if I could save her, and stop him, would it be worth going back to my old ways?
Even if I wanted to make him face justice, I can't. I don't know where I would start looking.
The wastelanders guild can help.
How?
They have a huge information network. Joining them would get you all sorts of perks. You'd find this guy in no time.
And what do you get out of this?
Me? well for you to understand that I'd have to tell you a bit about myself.
It's not like I have anything better to do so story time it is.
My name is Tatsuya Saki. I grew up in japan and lived what you might call a normal life.
But one day I realized what would happen to me if I kept going that route. You see in Japan there is this horrible phenomenon of death by overwork.
People spend most of their time working so much that they either commit suicide to escape or have a heart attack and die.
And this is a common problem since everyone is expected to work overtime and it's considered rude to leave on time.
I had an epiphany in middle school. If I kept studying and go the route every student goes through, it would be me working overtime almost every day.
I might get married and have a kid but then my wife would divorce me from being at work all the time and my children would abandon me since I would never have anytime for them.
In short, studying is useless. What's the point in studying to find a job if I'm just going to be a corporate slave with no time to enjoy my life?
And almost every job in Japan has the same work ethic.
Why not protest then?
Oh that's the best part. If you make trouble for the company, they put you on a blacklist. Every company in Japan can access it and they won't hire you. Ever.
So there is no way out. Except the wastelanders guild. They have a choose your own hours work ethic.
The guild is basically an organization that scavenges the country of the American wasteland looking for lost tech or resources that could benefit Japan.
They also help colonize the place to make new homes for Japan.
And the pay is very generous. So As soon as I graduated middle school I Skipped high school and signed up to join the guild. It was the only way to actually be happy. My only choice.
But I'm not a very good trickster. I failed almost every job I took. People made fun oof me and my own family joined in as well, calling me a loser.
For 7 years I put up with failure after failure and was on the verge of giving up. Until I met you.
There are no trickster in Japan, I was the only one so there was no information on tricksters I could use to help me, or a teacher to train me.
But you. Your amazing. You beat that robot and those martial artists like it was nothing.
I always thought they were invincible but to think they had such an obvious weakness. Honestly I feel dumb.
And with that I want to make a deal with you.
I'm listening.
You want to find the man who put you in that statue, I want to prove everyone who made fun of me for dropping out of school wrong.
If you join the guild as my partner, You could help me rank up, and the higher we rank up the greater information we will have access to. You'll be able to find this man, and I'll finally be able to live my life on MY terms.
So what do you say?
Hmmm, that is an interesting deal. The only problem I really have with it is obviously I'm going to have to fight.
But I owe Jess. I can't just abandon her. Plus it's not like I have anywhere to go and Tatsuya doesn't seem like a bad person.
I'll join, but on two conditions.
Name them.
I will not kill. I don't care what missions you take I will never kill again. I've had enough of death.
That's fine.
And the second condition is I will not do anything that goes against God. I'm a christian first above all else.
Works for me.
So any complaints about my terms?
I can live with them.
Then, I guess I accept.
You mean it!? Yes! You won't regret this I swear. Now come on, we got documents to deliver.
And that is our adventure began.
