One would never find a more hatcheneyed example of a spoiled child than Miu-chan. She could become different, but not in this life. Everything started from inability of her parents to agree with each other and live happily ever after, continued when she was left with her father that couldn't spend much time with a child due to his work, and ended recently when he hanged himself after the recent crisis in Okinawa. Miu never knew where had the code of honor of corporative samurai crashed into the reality, though, Miu never knew her father - that pale man with chronic insomnia she managed to see once a month.
No, she wasn't heartless, she just had no idea how to react on the visit of Kusari State Police officers into her apartments on New Tokyo and such news. What had it meant for her? Yes, her family had collapsed more than twenty years ago, now the wind dispersed the ashes. It hurts a bit, but it happens. What was more serious now is that her consuming pattern required a certain financial support that she couldn't obtain that easy - she still had her conscience and her pride.
Though, while the bills amassed in her inbox folder, she had some time to think out what to do now.
In a week nothing changed. Miu made a call to almost every person in her contacts list, sent a hundreed of letters - and got answers, all of which were like "Oh, a poor girl, I don't know how to help you now, because of ... but I'll think about what I can do." It all looked like a pretty bad perspective. Miu became nervous. In addition, the loans and other stuff, suspended for a while and supported by her father's employers, suddenly became a real trouble.
So, here she was, Fujita Miu with her haughtiness, good education and diploma of some liberal arts, that will hardly help her, with her pretty simple approach to life - here she was with no ideas, no opportunities and sukiyaki - a hot pot with meat, vegetables, spices and sauce - getting cold. This depressive stance was disrupted by a sudden beep of comm that recieved a message expressing regret for the things happened and suggesting a meeting in a specified place with a friend of her father. Miu already heard this friend's name mentioned before, but couldn't recall the context.
Well, at least something. Miu cheered up and finished the meal - the norms of behavour for a noble maiden hadn't included overeating on public, while the hunger knew no common decencies.
The end of evening accompanied by the personified gallantry was a good change of scene for Miu. Though, it was not all about discussing abstract matters, but more about opportunities for her future. First Miu was almost ready to become blue and drop off to sleep right there, a couple of minutes later she was all ears, listening to every intonation.
Later on the way back home in a train tearing along with the New Tokyo megapolis sweeping past behind the transparent walls, Miu played back the events happened that day again in her memory and again. She was offered something different from her past experience, a specific work, mostly all about transporting goods and organising deals - for quite a good payment. What was it if not the pretty much what she needed?
She agreed, it was obvious. And for the next weeks she never questioned her employers, while doing all she should had done. Maybe that's why a tad later she was asked to visit Kabukicho Depot - and there she met the same friend of her father, now under different circumstances, now offered to continue the good work, but with understanding who is she working for and what a wonderful chance to get a bright future she has.
It hadn't hurt before, so it was worth a try. She would be able to stop if something goes wrong, right?
Poor little Miu-chan, she had no idea what had she dragged herself into; in a simplified way it was a contract on her soul and she signed it willingly. Though, it wasn't the worst thing that had happened - and the last days became a whirl of events following each other, falling off like a waterfall, breaking against the rocks in a billion of diamonds.
Yes, now it were diamonds, or at least it seemed that she will be able to allow herself some pretty soon. Miu met a rather odd man, a certain Shino Hokusai, that acted like a kitsune under the hunter's backsight, but appeared to be an another man in trouble. Well, he made Miu an offer she couldn't refuse. Maybe, if she knew better what Hogosha is, she would refrain from the hasty decisions like this one, but as yet her thoughtless played a good trick with her.
Now Shino-sensei, as she called him for the sake of jest, was teaching her the specifics of illegal taxation, undertable deals and trade negotiations, she gave all her enthusiasm in return. They were working under the shelter of the families from Tokyo, but they worked for themselves, dramatically increasing their profits, being the freelancers in disguise and risking their heads all the time.
It was strange and new, it was dangerous and confusing. It was an adventure. And Miu pretty much enjoyed it.
What the day was it - that appeared to be the question for Miu, totally absorbed by the cold water in the bathtub with the feeling that all the strength left her and all the bones in her body turned into tofu. She held her breath and plunged under the surface with the eyes wide open, catching every beam of light coming through the distorting mirror of the tempest in a bathtub that she caused.
"Shino-san! Don't even try to trick me! This one is for the unbelievable glory of Miu-cha-an!" She said something like that right before emptying anohter tokkuri. She couldn't say where the aroma ended and the flavor started, where this short drink joined the others ones inside her, spreading about her body in soft and tender feeling. This was a special, "cloudy" sake, so-called nigori. That young lady that allowed them to enjoy her bar - Miu couldn't remember her name, but maybe it was Akahana - was a maestro in serving drinks and this one came in a basin full of ice. The ice cube Miu filched from it was refreshing and the contrast between her being flushed and the water being frozen appeared to be a delight. It all happened yesterday as she recalled.
Miu was in the bathtub, blowing bubbles and, apparently, trying to find some hint on the celling above her - otherwise she won't stare at it that zealously. Her head was like a ball and collecting her fragmentary memories of the day before appeared to be a puzzle. This time the coldness wasn't a pleasure, it was a necessarity to be in one piece. But enough was enough and she had to get out of her ocean.
A girl with a slightly puffy face, a gloomy look and a toothbrush in the mouth was staring at Miu from the looking glass. This girl had a feeling that she's stuck in the wall and she need to get rid of this taste of mouth in her mouth. This girl gave a dare to her sensei, and she couldn't forgive herself that she had no chance to remember who was the winner in that sake drinking competition.
Later in the evening Miu still experienced the consequences of backsliding into intemperance and folly, but softened way of thinking still gave her no right for staying home. Shino-san promised her some piloting lessons and, apparently, avoiding them will be not the best thing she could do. Yes, apparently she was more or less talented on the matter, at least she managed to make it out from the recent events, but she still needed to learn a lot.
The space fight is not bounded by gravitation or most of common physical laws, main part of it happens in thoughts of competitors. Fighting is pretty much similiar to a dance where the participants know the technique, but the result is defined by the stongest faith and by purity of mind. Every decision that takes seconds in the fight is considered. Every right or wrong step that gives the initiative to the opponent is not the end - it's a mere moment to reappraise the next step. The eventual failure in the fight is irrelevant, the ends matter.
This very basic logic is what every technique is based upon. That day Miu was learning the suraidingu, in other words, sliding, technique of sui, the water.
[color=#FFCC33]水
[font=Palatino Linotype]Sliding as a technique refers to a specific set of movements used when facing a single opponent and basically resembles the controlled rotation of the whirpool. It combines ceaseless evasive maneuvers with keeping the opponent in visual field, opening an opportunity to send a rain from your weapons to the shield and hull of the enemy. The talented slider that abuses the mistakes of his antagonist in the right way will eventually end right behind the adversary's tail, but at the same time, as the water that is hard to keep in palms, he will be hard to catch, hard to shoot and hard to win against.
The key to sliding is being fast, and being fast means the ability to properly time two parts. They need to work like ying and yang, a true master of sliding has perfected the balance between these two parts of the sliding movement. These two parts are about the usage of engine-killing and utilizing thrusters. The last one will give your ship the right direction, while the stabilisators turned off, and the ship setted in engine kill mode will move freely, led by the hand of pilot.
But like the flow of water can be stopped by the artifical obstacles, the sliding is not an all-purpose tactic. The routine-fashioned movement pattern of slider can be easily intercepted by the external forces in the fight with numerous participants - the ones that are not in the center of the whirpool, but outside it.
With this in mind, taking this technique to heart, Miu started to master it. But one like her should beware of its applications - a true fighter never relies on a single tactic.
On the way to the nearby bank terminal, Miu told herself several times that right on her brow there should be a word baka tatooed. Because she was going to take part in a pretty risky deal and hadn't even asked Shino-san that told her something like "I got some business to do, see you on the next week" and dissapeared. While she was glad to take a break from the piloting lessons and meditations - Shino considered the concentration and perfect body stance the best way to clear mind - a prerequsite for success in the battle.
Yes, sometimes when her legs and arms hurt after the hours-long trainings she wanted to hit Shino with a sharp stick pretty much, but this time she knew that she won't mind to have him here to stop her - just in case. The specifics of the current situation was that she had a good chance to get all the sum needed in credit cards - but not just move it to another neural net account - so, in half an hour she was home with a small bag full of them. New and shiny, five millions that one could hold in hands. Eventually, those appartments were tied to the same bank account that she just emptied.
Shino had dissapeared. Last time Miu had talked to him two days ago, and he said that everything is alright (which already made her worry a little bit) and that he got some work to do, so she should better stop worrying, love the bomb and concentrate on the deal she had in mind. The day before he hadn't answered the messages. Now it was like fourteen of them and none had reached the destination.
Finally, the Day of People Not Answering Miu's Messages or DPNAMM had started. Maybe the man offering her the drinks couldn't reach his comm, maybe he had already opened the first crate, maybe the KGB (or another scary acronym) had found him. Well, there was still a possibility of him being a mere trickster, but Miu hadn't paid him a credit, so all those ideas remained mere assumptions.
The worst in this whole situation was that her limit of indebtedness had been exhausted and even the good name of her late father could not help. It was the problem Miu hated the most - financial ones, the ones she tried to delay every time they happened - but finally had to face them.
The couple of days with totally no attention was replaced by the stalkers, harassing her communicator, overfilling her inbox folders and, probably, watching how she undresses from the windows of another tower nearby. That was not bad enough to be left in despair yet, but this life of twinkle twinkle litte superstar wasn't exactly what Miu was looking for.
It was the week since Shino dissapeared. Neither maid, bartenders or anyone she knows had any idea where Shino was - or they knew, but preferred not to tell her. Such a suspice was making Miu worry more than usual - and her odds to live hapily ever after weren't noticable behind the problems incoming from everywhere.
But there is always a solution, Miu knew that. And this time that solution was the invitation for doing sometimes hard and unpleasant, but generally good work for Black Dragon Society, something slightly different and not as profitable as what she was doing now - but with short working hours and with social guarantees - something Miu needed right here and right now. From their last meeting Miu had a feeling that she's in favor of Yuki Ayaka - maybe it was just a misconcpetion of Miu, but she knew that if this work offer will help her in the current trouble, she'll definetely accept it and do her best.
The last thing to do was to arrange the meeting somewhere she can get without running into trigger-happy bailiffs.
![[Image: mius.png]](http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/940/mius.png)