Section three.
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Hours later, Daichi awoke in a concrete cell with a small barred window and a door to match. He automatically reached for his gun, but found the holster was empty. Cursing quietly, the stood up and looked out the window. The sun had already set. “How long was I out for?” he wondered aloud.
“About three hours,” came a voice from the other side of the cell door.
Daichi whipped around and saw Rei standing there holding a tray of food with a small Kuro wrapped around her neck. “What do you want, kid?” Daichi snapped.
“First off, I’m twenty-two, so don’t call me ‘kid’. And I’m here to bring you some food,” Rei said indignantly.
She’s the same age as me? Daichi said to himself. To Rei, he said, “I’m not hungry.”
Rei smiled mischievously and said, “Well, if you don’t want it, I suppose I’ll just throw it out.”
As she turned to go, Daichi reached his hand through the bars and grabbed her arm. “Wait! I, uh, changed my mind,” he mumbled.
Rei laughed. “I thought you’d do that. Now let go of my arm and step back so I can open the door.”
Daichi never knew why exactly he listened to Rei and didn’t try to run. He later thought that he might have wanted to stay and talk with her. He took the try of food Rei gave him and sat down on the small bed and began quickly eating the white rice he had been given. Rei pulled up a chair and sat down outside the cell. Daichi noticed Kuro around her neck and asked, “Is that the same dragon I saw earlier?”
“Yes. His name’s Kuro,” Rei replied, nodding.
Daichi nearly choked on his food when he heard the name. “Is he a guardian?” he said when he was able to talk again.
Rei put her hand on Kuro’s head and glared at Daichi suspiciously. “Yes. How did you know that?”
Daichi put down his rice bowl and thought carefully for a moment. His clan’s most notable enemy was a very large Italian clan called Nerio. Despite most of its members being Italian the clan had estates all over the world. IN fact, the main family had recently moved to Japan. Also, he knew that almost all the members of the Nerio Clan had a guardian and that the leader’s eldest daughter had a black Chinese dragon guardian named Kuro. And if memory served him correctly her name was Rei.
“Is your name Rei Nerio of the Nerio Clan?” Daichi finally asked.
Rei stiffened. “What’s it to you?”
“You speak Japanese very well, but you have a slight accent. It sounds almost Italian.”
“Who are you?!” Kuro snapped, making himself about the size of a large anaconda and stood in front of Rei as if to shield her.
“Relax, guardian. I’m not going to hurt your partner. I’m behind bars and she’s on the other side, so how can I?” Daichi said coolly. “And as for my name, it’s Daichi Somai.”
“That explains the silver revolver. Only one of noble descent could afford one,” Rei said.
“So you’ve heard of me?”
“Of course! I’m going to lead my clan one day so I need to know who my enemies are.”
Daichi was taken aback by that last statement. He knew that Rei had a brother and he had thought that he was the heir. “But don’t you have a brother?” he asked.
“Ichiro? Yeah, but he’s five years younger than I am. In our family, gender doesn’t matter when it comes to leadership. Our clan’s leadership is passed down from parent to first-born to their first-born,” Rei explained. “What about your family?”
“For us it goes from father to son,” said Daichi.
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 Kyokiri · Tue Jun 26, 2007 @ 07:14pm · 1 Comments |
