“Have you abandoned me?” Jun Li asked the voice in her head. No, Li. I simply did not wish you to fight Akane Musashi. “Why not? She’s been a brute and a bully and a hinderance.” She has injured your pride. “That isn’t what’s important.” It always is when you swing your glove and call for blood. Akane Musashi is rude and aggressive, but she also saved us today. Jun didn’t respond, just grinding her teeth. Is that part of the problem?
Jun didn’t respond. She couldn’t respond. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, rage flowing through her with no outlet. She was belittled. Incapable of putting down Akane even with that much power! Incapable of humiliating her, putting her back where she belonged! She lurched into her room and grabbed her laptop, the one Mai insulted her for. She would pay for that too! But first, the greatest sinners in her life! Everything came back to them! She bought a single two-way teleport scroll.
Mr. and Mrs. Li stepped swiftly out of the taxi, looking every direction. Mr. Li gripped a pole in one hand, wrapped up in burlap. His wife swiftly paid the taxi driver while he stood watch. The home behind them was large, clearly made to be for the rich, but with hideous, cheap architecture, a true McMansion. Despite how swiftly they had rushed to their door, they hesitated right before it. There were no signs of tampering, no scratches from lock-picking, no dents from kicking in the door. Tentatively, they unlocked the door and opened it. All seemed to be as they left it and finally their hard faces relaxed.
“Maybe it wasn’t her.” Mrs. Li said. “Don’t kid yourself. That was Jun. She looked right at us with blood all over. That was a threat if I’ve ever seen it. And if she can beat Akiyama-” “I can slay you two with ease.” The voice came from behind. In the hallway to her old bedroom, Jun stood. “Jun! Leave this house at once!” Her father grabbed the thing in burlap and pulled its exposed handle, drawing a lengthy sword.
“Wait!” Her mother put a hand on his chest and pushed in front of him. “Jun, you have no idea how much we regret what happened. Please, with your skills, we could find Jen and try to start-” Her words were interrupted with screams when Jun swung her sword. It was a casual motion, a simple chop with no effort, like waving at a fly. Her mother fell back with a bleeding face. “How dare you!?” Her father yelled, but his feet wouldn’t bring him closer.
“Father, I just opened the scar that you yourself made. Don’t you remember? It was your ring that did that. She told the ER nurse she hit her head on the cabinet. I don’t think they believed her, but you never got reported, so maybe they did. I didn’t though. I saw it. I heard what you called her. Said she cheated on you. She did, by the way. So maybe she deserved it.” Jun glared at her mother with a particular sort of hatred. “What did you come for!? To taunt us!? To kill us!?” Her father asked and she nodded twice. “Yes and yes. But not without a fight. Do you still practice, father?” Jun got into a fighting stance. “If you beat me, you both go free, because I will be dead. Your only problem is disposing of my body. I’m sure you know how. Back in the old days, you had to do it all the time. So father… duel me.”
Jun seemed at a disadvantage. In a corner, with a shorter sword, an aggressive attack could pin her down and do her in. With a desperate yell, he lunged, swinging over and over, orthodox strikes that she easily batted aside or sidestepped. She made no attempt to counterattack, just evading and blocking everything he did. “You used to drill me so hard. An hour a day at least. And now I hear you gasping already?” Jun deflected a strike that was weaker than the last, then another that was weaker still. “Just… finish me. Stop toying with me.” He panted, ceasing his assault.
“I’m not toying with you. I’m destroying you.” Jun launched her assault, smashing the sword out of his hand. He scrambled backwards and she let him, picking up the sword he left behind. He was halfway to the door when she came, putting a foot on his leg and ceasing his half-crawling scrabble. “Turn over, father.” Jun snarled. Gasping and sobbing, he complied. “Please. Please, take what you want. Is it money? You always talked about money, about how we should be living. Take it all, just leave us alone.” He wept. Jun looked down and saw a helpless old man, spread eagle on the floor. Incapable of hurting her anymore. Incapable of hurting anybody.
Jun’s blade stayed still. This is madness, Jun, and even you know it. This isn’t hunting a bounty. This isn’t killing in self defense. This isn't even a duel. This is murder. The Shattered One was saying in her skull. Jun was sobbing again, taking a step back. “Get up.” She choked and her father was quick to do so. Her grip was loose on his sword, her mind was loose on the plan. She saw the door. She could leave. They would call the HWIC, of course she would, but she could avoid them, pay off agents, whatever she had to do. This could all be a very big mistake she didn’t have to make.
An image intruded unwillingly on her mind. She saw Jenifer on the streets of some city she didn’t know, skin and bones, wretched, clad only in the scraps of clothing the lycanthrope transformation left her. She couldn’t stop this hallucination, couldn’t prevent it from showing her sister degrading herself for scraps of food, begging, pilfering dumpsters, sexual favors. She wanted to scream at it to stop, scream that it wasn’t real, but it was too vivid to dismiss. She saw her sister throw herself off a bridge and never emerge from the water below.
They did this.
Her grip tightened. The sword raised to slash his throat, but it did not swung. It just froze, touching his jugular. They did it. They killed her sister. They deserved it. She lost her grip on the sword and it clattered to the ground. "Jen wouldn't want this." She fell back, collapsing on the floor. The sheer weight of what she was about to do came down on her, pinning her there. Her father was perched on the steps like a bird of prey, eying the sword still in her hand and the one at the bottom of the stairs and doing mental calculus. Before he could make a move he would regret, Jun managed to stand.
"Mother... mama!" She ran back to the hallway, where her mother's blood stained the carpet. A tap of her pommel and the bleeding went down to a normal level. "You need to go to the ER. You can drive, right?" She looked up at her father. "What are you saying? You do this and you want me to just-" "Shut up. Mother needs treatment and you are getting it for her. And not a word of this. It is only my kindness that keeps you alive." Jun lifted her head in her usual haughty manner. Her parents glared as they scrambled to move, out the door in an instant.
Jun sighed and leaned against a the wall. They wouldn't call the cops. Too much disgrace on themselves to admit their own daughter had broke in and attacked them. Not to mention Jun could admit far worse to the police in interrogation. It wouldn't be hard to have them put away with her. She sighed and looked around. Everything seemed identical to how she had left it all these years ago. She was near a complete meltdown. She just wanted to lay in her old bed and go to sleep and pretend that when she woke up, she'd be 24 again and the last 8 years were all a dream. Jenifer would come in and tell her she got the job, she would hug her sister and tell her she was happy she was alive. She put her hand on the doorknob. Not hers, Jenifer's. What would be behind it? She turned the knob and opened the door.
Empty. The shelves had been taken down, the dresser was gone, the bed stripped of sheets. All traces of Jenifer's existence were erased. Jun lurched away. She felt nauseous. "I should have killed them! I should have! They killed her and they don't even care!" Jun, calm down. Jun, check elsewhere. Where might things your sister owned be kept? The Shattered One's soothing tones directed her sight upstairs.
One short climb and a trapdoor later, she was in the attic. It was spacious, yet as gloomy as any attic. Everywhere she looked where mementos of her past. Little trophies, all first place (not because she and Jenifer only got first place- anything less was thrown away), old kendo gear (that would never fit her hips now, earning a brief moment of pride), and old toys littered the way. She grabbed a few and pocketed them. Little reminders that it wasn't all bad. And a few were Jen's. But nothing substantial. Nothing that proved that she was! Jun was growing more frantic in her search until she stubbed her toe on a box, drawing a yell of pain and frustration from her jaws. Her furious hopping was stopped by the label on the box.
Photos.
Jun knelt, cutting the tape holding it closed with a sharpened finger. Jenifer's face greeted her. It was exactly as she remembered. It had to have been taken the year she left. She was holding a trophy, some cooking competition Jun was too busy to attend. Jun's tears splattered the glass and she hugged the photo close to her chest. There were more. She dug through them, throwing out anything without Jenifer, throwing those with her parents perhaps a little harder than necessary. In the end, she had a manageable little box. "You're coming home with me, Jenifer. Just like I promised." She hugged the box to her chest and left the way she got in.