A Bunch of Years ago

The little girl who had spent most of what portion of her life that she could remember in an orphanage being pushed about for being the weird child, young Lani did what most people expected the seemingly asian children to do. She studied. She studied English, German, and various warrior cultures. The samurai was perhaps one of her favorites. Though the role was held traditionally by men, that tradition was several hundred years ago. I could be a great warrior she would tell herself as she read the novels and history books. The pictures of the armor always dazzled her through the years growing up. Even though the fighting style of the ninja seemed more practical to her small size and stature, the code of the Bushido and the honor of the Samurai who fought in service of their lords and rulers while cleaving their enemies with the finest of man crafted swords.

Her reading would occasionally be interrupted by the orphanage bullies who would push her down or smack her books while she was reading. The bullies were usually twice her age and dwarfed her by about five years in age. Children who were nearing the age of legal adulthood who were so unlovable that none could teach them to respect others or show compassion for smaller people. Occasionally going as far as to call her a ‘little ching chong’ who might ‘make a living on her back,’ she shrugged as she knew she was fairly certain of two things. She wasn’t from China, and ‘I’m not a prostitute, that’s how you were born.’ She would say these things regardless how hard they hit her for talking back.

Other children were passed over or returned after an adoption went bad. Little Lani didn’t have that problem, because she avoided the people who came to shop for children. Rumors and stories of bad people becoming foster parents scared the kids in her orphanage. While some children were willing to take the chance just to escape the hell of being trapped with unruly kids and seemingly uncaring staff, Lani had the patience to wait out her time and stay to herself as much as possible. Ich bin das gelbe Mädchen, she thought to herself every time a new shopper came through. Yellow girls attract predators. Being worried that her skin would get her molested or sold into slavery of some kind, the aspect of living out her childhood getting hit once in a while by bullies didn’t seem so bad.

One fateful day however, a week before her 18th birthday, she was digging through rocks and discovered something strange. There was a red rock that was seemingly out of place with its surroundings. She was not far from the orphanage, but she had wandered off where the other children wouldn’t follow her. Though she hadn’t made any distinct enemies, she hadn’t bothered to try very hard to maintain friendships with people who she expected to vanish once they were adopted out. Sitting there looking at the rock, she felt like something was drawing her attention to it. Why would a rock want my attention?

She decided to pick it up. At first this seemed like a mistake. As she reached for it, the rock began to glow and float in place. What did I just do? Before she could get up to run away from it, she heard a faint voice. “Half of me I gave to him, the rest of me shall belong to you.” Though she understood the English of the message, she had no idea what this talk of halves was about, nor who ‘him’ was. She was struck by an electric shock without warning, having only enough time to let out a scream before she was knocked out by it.

While in an unconscious daze, she saw a face of a man who fought great battles alone. His heart was worn and his head was bald. Between fighting physical fights for his life, to fighting internal struggles for his own peace of mind, he was never out of conflict. She knew she had to find him and help him.

When she woke up, she was in a hospital bed. A very ungerman looking man sat in a chair scratching notes on some paper. He looked up once he realized she had awoken. “How ya feelin?” he asked unenthusiastically. Lani just stared at him. “I was told you spoke English. Spreche Englisch?”

“Sie?” she answered with an annoyed glare, “sprechen sie Englisch? Yes, probably better than you can grind up German.”

The man laughed. “Thank god,” He said through his chuckling, “I can say five things, two of which I won’t say to kids.” He approached and handed her a picture. In the picture was a red crystal. It looked much like the one she had seen before she blacked out. “Did you see something like this?” He asked with a more sincere tone.

Lani didn’t feel the need to hide it, even though she didn’t have any reason to trust this guy. She nodded softly. “Do you know anything about what I found?” She asked with her sweet little Mädchen tone.

The man handed her another picture. This was of a man in a military uniform glaring at the camera for a formal portrait. Lani recognized this face from her visions. “Do you recognize this man?” the guy asked her with a look on his face like he must have seen what she saw. As Lani nodded, the man dropped both pictures on her lap. “Okay, you’re about to learn some deep secret stuff.” he grabbed a red plastic cylinder and placed it in her hand. “Squeeze this.” Lani looked at it, then looked at the man. He nodded, “It’s okay, just squeeze it as tight as you can.”

Lani squeezed the plastic cylinder. She didn’t think much of it, just squeezing some cheap plastic. As it crushed under her grasp, she noticed as the plastic broke it revealed a small piece of lead pipe. It was two millimeters thick and she had just crushed this piece of metal with little effort. She shuddered, dropping the thing she had smashed and started to breath heavily. At first, she was panicked as she didn’t realize she could do such a thing.

“Relax Lani,” the man said quietly, “That’s part of the secret that we can’t tell anybody.”

Lani’s panic subsided as a big smile stretched across her face. “I’m super strong?” she asked the man with excitement. She observed his nod, which began to bring her a sense of happiness. “This is great, I turn 18 in less than a week, I could go into helping people and,”

The man put up a finger as if to interrupt her. “Gotta be careful with that, nobody can know. And I gotta give you a brief history lesson on this thing that just happened and make you sign a nondisclosure.” He looked at Lani as her happy smile quickly swapped out for an annoyed pout. Goddamn, you really are a teen girl. “Listen, you can help people, but you gotta be quiet about it.”

“You’re a fuckin idiot” Lani blurted out. “I don’t care if they know who I am or not, have you ever done anything for someone besides yourself?” She glared angrily as she waited for a response. “Hey shit head, I’m answering your questions, answer mine!”

The man flinched, realizing he had stepped on something of a nerve with Lani. “Chill, I’m totally okay with you being the good guy,” he said nervously, “That’s actually why I’m here, to make sure you don’t go trying to tip over the world and get revenge on those bad kids from your orphanage years.” He handed her another form that had been filled out. It was orphanage paperwork, adoption forms. “You’re a free woman, and you have a kind of a family for a week before you’re free to do most of what you want.”

She stared at the papers, a soft smile coming to her. After sitting there staring off for a few minutes, she grabbed the picture of the man. “Who’s this?”

“That’s the guy who had the same rock as you,” he said straightforward. “Apparently the rocks are sometimes connected and the personality of the first person can be glimpsed into by the second person.” He handed her another piece of paper. It was a job listing. “We shadowbanned this because it just went up a couple of days ago. He’s looking for someone to live in his new house. Retired army dude who travels too much and doesn't want his dogs to be lonely.” He grabbed yet another piece of paper. “A newly eighteen year old girl looking for a housekeeping job, he shouldn’t suspect…” He stopped as he saw a look of annoyance on Lani.

“I’m not gonna be your fucking spy,” she said sternly, “I’ll work for him cuz I need a job, and if you need me to look after him, that’s cool too I guess. I won’t feed you info on his movements. That’s fucked up. He’s retired, leave him be!”

The man took a big sigh and shook his head. “We don’t need a spy. We know what he really does.” he leaned forward and spoke a little quieter, “He’s doing good things, just like he used to do, he’s just off the reservation.”

“Reservation?” she repeated as she sounded puzzled.

“Um, it means he’s wasting motherfuckers like we used to have him do, but he’s not getting his directions from us anymore.” He said softly. “He’s butchering pedophiles, shooting drug lords, and cutting up high profile bad dudes who are all kinds of fuckin bad.” He shifted the papers around and handed her the job application. “He’s the best place for you to find yourself.” He stood back up. “You have some school finals to finish up these next two months young lady, then you’re off to your new job once he accepts it.”

She smiled faintly as she took the application and started filling it out. “What school am I gonna go to for two months?” She asked as she wrote out her information.

“Oh,” the man said as he shrugged, “a crash course in hand to hand combat, an introduction to firearms marksmanship, and some rudimentary Kendo courses for enhanced individuals.

For some time after that, she embraced her new studies and after finishing her short study of these subjects, she was dropped off in a Taxi with two big bags of clothing. Don’t carry it on your shoulders, look small she had to remind herself. Don’t tell this fucking guy that you’ve seen in his head she also told herself harshly. Don’t be fucking creepy, as she dragged her bags on their wheels. He’ll never know what I know.