Harsh Light of Day

[Kenji]

Some days were good, some days were bad.


Then there were days like this.


He wasn't sure how he managed to get up out of bed and put on some clothes, but he did. He was now walking around Republic City, trying to distract himself the general exhaustion and pain. He had some minor burns, some bumps and bruises, but worst of all were the holes those damn ice needles poked into him.


He couldn't go to healer, becuase he had already been there a few weeks before, and the healers had loose lips and strong ties to the Red Monsoons. If he went there too often, someone might put pieces together. So he had to tough it out for a bit. He had managed to wrap up most of them with bandages,but if he wasn't careful the cuts on his arm from where he deflected that sword would start bleeding again and run down his hand.


In his aimless wandering to distract himself, he found himself ending up at the Blue Dragon. Figuring it was as good a place as any to hang his hat and catch his breath for a minute, so he went in, tossing his fedora on the rack, and wandering over to the bar.

It was quiet, quieter than usual even for a mid afternoon, there weren't even other Dolls loitering around, the only one that seemed to be the bartender, who gave a vague nod of recognition.


"Liquor." Kenji grunted pulling out a few bills and laying them down on the bar


"Any preference?" the bartender asked with a wry smile


"Strong." Kenji clarified


The bartender obliged and poured him a drink, and Kenji quickly downed the one in front of him, the liquor acting as a poor man's painkiller as he tapped the bar and said " Another."



He slowed down on the second one taking a leisurely sip as he heard the door open from the upper office and slow footsteps come down the stairs. Kenji knew who it was without having to look up. He just hoped that she was busy, because he was in no mood to offer up his customary banter today.


However as he briefly looked up and saw Zuka, a shock ran through him, as he went from hazy to alert in seconds. It took a considerable amount of strength to keep his face straight as he saw on her face the telltale signs of a broken nose.


Just like that all the other pieces fell into place.


There could have been a dozen other reasons why she had that broken nose, but Kenji knew there was only one.


He was also aware that unlike him, she was a healer, so she could heal the nose, but it required time and privacy. Which is why the place was so empty.


Had he not stopped in today, he might have never known
.

But he did, and he knew.


Zuka was the Talon



He kept his poker face on and simply raised his glass at her and then kept staring into thin air as he could feel the tension subtly gather in the room.

Not wanting to give anything away just yet.


However he had been so focused on this sudden shift, that he didn't even realize that the cut on his arm had opened up again and a few drops of blood had started to drop on the bartop.

[Zuka]

Sleeping her in office was never comfortable the cot she used was stiff and her bones and muscles screamed out in pain every time she tried to move or turn to get more comfortable but it was easier to do that than to try to make it back up to her high rise unnoticed. That was something that Zuka simply did not have the energy or the patience for. She had no idea how she had made it back to the Dragon, that battle had been…intense and at the end of it she had to be running on pure adrenaline because once she made it to the club, locked herself in her office and pulled out her bed Zuka’s body just quit. She didn’t even attempt to try to heal herself then, she was beaten and broken…literally but she needed rest before anything that required that much concentration could happen.

For a few hours she managed some form of sleep but eventually the pain was too much and she pushed herself up from the cot and slowly made her way to her private bathroom to clean herself up. Every muscle in her body jolted in pain as she moved and it took longer than she would have liked to admit to make it to the bathroom. Once she did Zuka flicked on the light and flinched at the sudden brightness and then again as soon as she caught her reflection in the mirror.

She looked like hell and that was a understatement.

Zukas face was…a mess. The area around her nose and right eye was badly bruised, her nose…well, it might as well be on the other side of her face. The cartilage was severely bent making her look like some kind of abstract painting and across her nose was a large gash from where her mask had hit her face. On top of all this dried blood from both the cut and her nose when it had been broken was caked on her face making her this odd black, blue and red.

Grabbing a hand towel from a shelf Zuka turned on the faucet in her sink and let the water run until it was warm and continued to look at her reflection. She knew what she had to do but she was dreading it but the longer she went without fixing it the harder it would be and finally after a few minutes of psyching herself up she was ready. Slowly and tenderly Zuka brought her fingers to her crooked nose and touched the area around it which made her wince in pain the moment any kind of pressure was placed on it. Holding her hands where they were at she took in a few deep breaths before CRACK she snapped the cartilage back into place. Zuka groaned loudly and for a moment her vision went white and her knees almost buckled under the extreme pain she grabbed the side of her sink and rode it out, taking a few more breaths to calm herself.

Once the pain had passed somewhat she looked at herself once more and while she was still a bloody and bruised mess at least her face was in one piece. Her nose had started to bleed again but it was the least of her problems at the moment.

Taking the towel Zuka ran it under the warm water and began the slow and delicate process of cleaning her face, gently wiping the blood away. It took longer than she would have liked but eventually her face was clean and her nose had stopped bleeding for the time being. With that done Zuka started on the bruises. While her healing skills were shoddy at best she could still heal minor injuries and at least this way she would look less like a punching bag. It was slow work, but after a while the bruises around her face were slightly smaller and less angry looking. The cut was still there and it would probably stay there until she could see a proper healer.

After cleaning herself up Zuka peeled off her blood soaked clothes and tossed them before changing into something fresh. Now that that was done she was feeling slightly less like hell and she went to her desk and picked up her phone, letting the right people know that the Dragon would be closing early today. The last thing she needed was any of her clients seeing her like this.

Knowing that this was going to be the best she was going to get for the moment and knowing that she needed something for the pain (she made a mental note to keep a larger stock of her private liquor since her old bottle had been empty for some time) Zuka carefully made her way to the stairs leading to the clubs main floor and headed for the bar.

She ignored the looks her employees gave her and focused only on her goal and once she had it there she immediately went behind it, grabbed a glass from the shelf and their strongest liquor and poured herself some. The burn took her mind off her pain for a brief moment and her body tingled and went numb and it was as she started pouring her second that she turned and saw she was not alone.

Truthfully, Zuka had no energy to deal with him right now and by the looks of things he felt the same and she was willing to just let this pass with a brief acknowledgment before she crawled her way back upstairs to her office with her bottle. Zuka was getting ready to do just that when she noticed something on her bar top. At first she thought he had spilled some of his drink but that was no liquor she knew, it was blood and it had started to soak through his clothes and her mind went right back to last night when she had cut the Ghost in that exact spot.

Zuka almost wanted to laugh, that cold ironic laugh. Of course it was him, of course it was, who else could it possibly be? And to have him show up here, right now? Of course he did because that was just how the two of them worked.

The question was, now what?

Did she let him know she knew? If she could tell him from the injuries she had given him last night then Zuka was sure Kenji could do and has already done the same. What did they do? Did they duke it out right here right now? Did they talk about this? Well, whatever they did Zuka did not want it to happen on the main floor of her club.

’Rough night?” she asked, knowing full well the answer. Zuka looked at him and then to her office and back to him while holding up the bottle in her hand. ”Why don’t you come upstairs and tell me all about it?” It wasn’t a request and she waited for him to give his answer before making the way back toward the stairs to her office.

[Kenji]

She knew.


He wasn't sure how but she did.


It was only after he glanced down for a minute that he saw that he was bleeding, so that answered that. He pulled and handkerchief from his inside pocket cleaned the blood from his hand and the bar. He paused for a minute and considered his options. Honestly he didn't have many, and at this point the only way he was dodging this was if he made a break for it right now. It wasn't out of the question, but it wasn't even his fifth choice right now as evasive maneuvers right now, might put him over his limit.

Out in the club wasn't any better, even though it was a ghost town, there still some people that were her employees here, so if he made a move, he'd have to deal with more than one. Right now he was only half way sure he could take Zuka, he really didn't feel like pushing his luck any more.


So he had no choice, he put on his most winning smile and said " Sure, sounds good. I could use a drink."



He let her lead him up to her office, still keeping as casual an air as he could, until they reached her private office. Once they were inside, he waited as she closed the door he watched her as she moved back into view.
They both stood there. The distance between them was close enough that they'd be in fighting range in a matter of inches if need be. However still neither one moved.


Kenji squared his shoulders subtly, just the slightest of preparations. He was sure somewhere, there was part of his brain that was thinking up a clever quip right now. However that part was overshadowed by the rest of him that was tense, ready and alert.

He then looked her square in the eye and asked the only question that mattered.


"So....how's this going to go down?"

[Zuka]

Zuka kept her smile on her face as soon as she was out of sight of anyone in her employ and once the two of them reached her office Zuka shut and locked the door behind her. They didn’t need anyone interrupting this…whatever this was. Zuka had no idea what was going to happen or how they even began to approach this. She had been ready to kill him…well, kill the Ghost and if she had the chance she probably would have. Did all of that change now that she knew it was Kenji? Did she feel bad for what she did to him? Not really…well, slightly but he had done just as much to her and if given the chance he would have probably killed her too last night.

So where did that leave them?

As soon as the door was closed Zuka turned to face him. While neither of them were in any condition to fight she would take him if she had too but as she turned to face him Kenji seemed to be thinking his own plan over as well. So they stood there in a standoff, neither of them moving or taking their eyes off the other in fear of the other striking out. It was some time before one of them finally spoke.

"So....how's this going to go down?"

Zuka looked Kenji back in the eye and thought about it for a moment. How was this going to go? It was as she was standing there thinking that she felt her arm get tired under the weight of the bottle she forgot she was carrying and looked down at it before over to him and taking a few careful steps toward the cabinet where she kept her glasses. ’I don’t know about you, but after everything I need another drink.” Zuka pulled down crystal glasses from the cabinet and filled them both nearly to the brim. Placing the bottle in the crook of her arm Zuka carried it and the two glasses over to her desk and set one down for Kenji before she rounded the desk and sat in her chair.

”Clearly neither of us is in any condition to fight so why don’t we sit down and talk about this” She really did not have the energy to fight him again but she would find it if it came to that but by the look of him and knowing how she looked this seemed the best. They could hash it out later if need be.

[Kenji]

”Clearly neither of us is in any condition to fight so why don’t we sit down and talk about this”


Kenji shrugged and took a seat, as he took the glass she had filled. He tipped the glass back and swallowed a good third of it in one long swallow, he knew he wasn't supposed to do that, but he was still hurting and it helped, so he didn't much care. The next third was slower as a thousand reply's burst on his tongue like poprocks, however he  ignored them all as he steadied himself, The final third was the slowest as he knew what was coming after that. However given enough time, the liquor had been drank and now there was nothing else to stall with.

He looked around , it was almost peaceful right now. It'd be a shame to ruin that.

Ah well this wasn't the first time he'd done, so might as well get to it.

He grabbed the crystal and poured himself another glass as he then said calmly  "Alright then I'll start, I've pretty much figured out the who and the when, so I'll start with the one I don't know, why?"

[Zuka]

Zuka was fine with waiting, she was in no hurry to get into a argument and her body screamed in pain every time she moved even the slightest so sitting here sipping her drink and waiting for it to numb her pain was fine with her. However, Kenji wasn’t going to let that happen for long as he was the first to break the silence and Zuka heard his question but she did not stop sipping from her drink. She wanted it to take its hold a little bit before she said anything and once she started to feel a tingle in her painful limbs she decided she had waited enough.

”I could ask you the same thing.” She knew that was not what he wanted to hear but really, while she had her own reasons she assumed his was at least somewhat similar. ”But I know that’s not what you want to hear so I’ll cut right to it” she cut him off before he could shoot any kind of remark back at her because Zuka just didn’t have the energy for their usual round about games. ”It started out as scaring that rat who framed my father into giving his confession. After you gave me the information from your investigation I was so livid that there was nothing I could do myself and I knew as soon as I gave the information to Raiko that it would be handled quietly and I didn't want that.  I tried things to clear my head and eventually settled on reading the paper..that's when I saw a article about The Ghost and it gave me the idea.” Simple enough but also true, there had been no grand motivation beyond that and she had expected it to be a one time thing but once she saw how scared the man was and the rush she got she had been hooked to the idea.

[Kenji]

In order, he listened to what she said, he sighed, and then took a heady pull from his glass. Once he had downed a healthy portion of the liquid, he then let out a mirthless chuckle as he said " You know, I knew somehow helping you was somehow gonna bite me in the ass, and I figured that at some point the mask was going to bite me in the ass." he paused and then said " However, the fact that the two would some how be connected?"

A bitter smirk crossed his face " I have to admit, I didn't see that one coming."

(meh short)

[Zuka]

Zuka listened to him lament about how he knew helping her would be trouble and she shrugged slightly which hurt a lot more than it should have "if its any consolation at all I didn't plan any of this when I asked for your help" Zuka had only cared about one thing when she came to him and that was clearing her fathers name..never did she dream that it would have lead to this.

Following his lead Zuka took another large gulp from her drink and let it work its magic in dulling her pain and rested back against the chair in hopes to keep her body from aching more. "Funny how things work out though." Zuka took one more gulp and watched Kenji over the top of the glass as she took the moment to think. The two of them were in a...odd situation, odder than usual and it would be difficult to say where things went from here. If it wasn't for the fact that the two of them had done a number on each other the night before this would probably be a very different conversation...if it was a conversation at all.

[Kenji]

She mentioned it being any consolation, but it was in fact not. To the same point, he didn't find it very funny either, but he saved his quips for some time when he wasn't bruised and bleeding. Instead he just decided to process it, the thinking helped ignore the pain as his mind kicked into overdrive as he tried to factor this new revelation into his over all view of the world. So far he had yet to come up with an upside, but the day was till young.

So he simply took another drink, and figured he'd buy himself some time before figuring out a rel next move and then finally rolled his eyes and said to Zuka 

"So as fun as it to have you try to slowly stare a hole through my clothes, how about you just ask your questions, I know you must have them."

[Zuka]

As the liquor made its way through her system it lulled her into a sense of numbness and as she sat there looking at Kenji her mind began to wander off as she thought about the night before.

"So as fun as it to have you try to slowly stare a hole through my clothes, how about you just ask your questions, I know you must have them."

Hearing him speak brought her back, it taking a minute to register what he said. Once she had Zuka swallowed the liquor in her mouth, realizing the burning from holding it in so long and cleared her throat. ”I guess I do” Zuka cleared her throat again to get rid of the raspiness and shifted in her chair and set her glass down on her desk, wincing in pain at the movement. Everything hurt with the tiniest movement, even breathing but at least she was still breathing after the night they had.

So…how exactly does a thief from Ba Sing Se end up as Republic Cities vigilante?” It was a viable question out of the many she had and she figured it was easier to start there.

[Kenji]

At her question he laughed a little harder than he meant to, which did not help him in the slightest, so he got himself back together and said " To answer that question fully, requires more liquor than we have available, so I'll do us and our livers a favor by skipping to the middle, when I first came to Republic City."

He smiled and said "  I was  stealing from the cities glitziest and most glamorous, made the papers a few times back then, I think i have the clippings somewhere. But seeing as I was, let's say a lot more reckless than I'd like and because I  refused to put myself under a Triads thumb, I could't exactly get the police protection that they bought. So with the rich crying for my head on one end and the cops crawling over the city to find, the writing was on the wall. So there was only one good  move left."

He shrugged and said " I left myself be caught, I leaked the info to an informant with a big mouth and let them catch me, but seeing as I hadn't stolen the thing yet, all they could bust me for was trespassing,and seeing as I was using tools not my bending, they didn't even realize I was a metal bender. They still had enough to arrest me and they tore my old place apart, but I had already stored away all my ill gotten gains somewhere safe."

He shook his head and said " They knew I had gotten them, but they didn't know how and cops don't take kindly to that so they threw the book at me, gave me the maximum for a trespassing charge, two years.  I figured I'd be out in a year with good behavior, so I'd just keep my head down and use my time wisely."

He then sighed and said " But then that whole Equalist mess kicked off, and next thing I know they were swarming the prison, and well I had a very urgent need to evacuate, and seeing as they had locked me up with the non-metal bending group, well lets just say it was pretty easy to break out of prison. On the way out, I grabbed a mask from an Equalist and a metal suit from a police officer that...." he paused and said " let's just  say he wasn't using it anymore."

Kenji continued " I was out, but it took the majority of my  money to keep out of sight of those fanatics, until the Avatar and the United Forces swept them up. Once things were back to normal, well the cops found me, but " He smirked " It seemed that all of my arrest paperwork and arrest record had all mysteriously vanished during the chaos. So I was a fugitive, but thanks to the miracle of bureaucracy, they could't even prove they had arrested me before, so they had to let me go, but they made it very clear they were watching me like raven eagles."

He took a drink as he said " So it was a stalemate."

He paused in his story for a minute or two.

[Zuka]

Zuka settled back to listen to his story, casually taking sips from her drink here and there as he began to explain just what lead him to becoming the Ghost. Well, mostly explain it. Kenji left out his early life which was something he always kept guarded. Even during her time with him before she never got that information out of him, Kenji always found a way to turn conversation to other things. Zuka had been guarded to, since she was more or less on the run from her family but she had still been a bit more chatty than he ever was.

But, he was talking so Zuka supposed she should be happy with that.

His mention about him being more reckless back then made her raise a brow slightly. Well, that was good to know that even he had made his mistakes. Kenji had always been one of those people that made you think that he always knew what he was doing, his quick thinking and confidence gave him this air of..well, It was nice that even he had made mistakes. Of course, luck had always been a big part of what made Kenji Kenji. At least in her opinion.

Of course he would just happen to be at the prison when the Equalist attacked and of course he was able to easily escape and somehow his record just ‘disappeared’. While the story he told was nice none of it explained how or why he had started with the Ghost and during his pause Zuka looked at him expectantly and motioned for him to go on. Kenji always like to add a flare of drama to things and make people wait but right now she wasn’t really in the mood to play or to wait.

[Kenji]

"Look I'v been doing this a bit longer than you have, so sue me that my stories a little more complex than yours." he said " So anyway I was under surveillance by the cops and it wasn't like I could go back to being a criminal. So due to, I'll say a series of unusual events, I fell into this Private investigator gig. It was originally a one time thing, but as it turns out a lot of people need help where the law leaves off. A lot of dealing with one Triad or another, and seeing as I couldn't exactly show my face, I modified the mask I had, and wore that in order to protect my identity. Other times I wore it so that way when I dealt with the average corrupt citizen so they couldn't tell the cops anything  more than a mask and keep me safe on that end."

" The rest of the The Ghost legend, sort for evolved on it's own, and I played into it, the mask became a useful tool on it's own, and then things sort of  took off from there." he said as he finished wrapping up the story before it got too damn long.

[Zuka]

She gave him a pointed look at his comment about doing this longer than she had but honestly she couldn’t tell if he could see it given how mangled her face was. It didn’t matter though, both of them just had shorter fuses than normal given the night they just had.

’I see” Zuka said with a small nod. His reasons were more noble than hers, he had set out to help people where as she had just wanted to help herself, helping others was just a added bonus at times. ”Very noble of you” she was being sincere but that was neither here nor there. Now that he had finished his story Zuka tipped back the rest of her drink before setting the empty glass on top of the desk, done with that for now since she was finally starting to feel numb.

What else did she want to ask him? Under different circumstances she was sure a million and one things would pop into her mind but given everything she was lucky that she could still form thoughts. ”What about you? I’m sure you must have things you want to know.” or say Zuka was certain that Kenji had a plethora of things he wanted to say/shout at her so whatever, she would give him his chance if he wanted it.

[Kenji]

Kenji leaned back a little and said " Can't say I do, after the first question the rest kind of falls into place. Granted your a lot sloppier than you used to be, but you run a Triad so I suppose that's expected." He said casually not evening bothering to be diplomatic about it, he was in no mood for it.


He just shrugged and said " Honestly just surprised that it took me this long to figure out, it's incredibly obvious once you put the pieces together. Honestly don't think I would have cared, but your starting to get in my way and that's where we have the problem."


He wasn't entirely telling the truth when he said that. No in fact it was only half the problem. The other half had a name, Jaya. She had kept quiet and kept her movements silent, well silent for her any way. However if another mask came on the scene, Kenji doubted that she'd just leave that be, for too long. It could complicate things, and the last thing Kenji needed was another damn complication.


"Which I think brings me up to speed honestly."