A fan fiction by PillowsFan916
Episode Two: Awakening
“Hmm…” Ohshika Ken-ichi thought to himself as he stared across his low-set table at Haruhara Haruko. Haruko sat patiently, looking at him and trying to read his expressions. Ohshika thought for a bit longer before opening his mouth. “So you want to learn N.O. eh?” he said, watching Haruko try to sit still, “And you want us to teach you.” Haruko nodded and Ohshika seemed to lapse back into thought. After a couple more seconds of strained silence Ohshika told Haruko what she really wanted to know. “Well we can teach you N.O. Or we could, at least. But this wouldn’t be any one-time thing. We’re not teaching a power like that to anyone who could use it against us. We have to be sure we can trust you.” Ohshika looked Haruko in the eyes. His eyes narrowed and he seemed to relapse into thought. “So,” he said, after a couple seconds further contemplation, “Can we trust you?” Haruko thought for a moment, then she stood up and reached inside her pocket for Commander Sawao’s personal, all-access command key, which she had swiped, as an afterthought, from his office. She took out the key and threw it onto the table in front of Ohshika. He looked at it and smiled.
Haruko followed Ohshika through a small entryway and had to keep herself from gasping. In the short time she had stayed here she had hardly left her new, considerably better, room in the apartment complex, and she hadn’t yet seen the inside of the buildings around the apartments. And now that she did she could hardly believe it. The outside of this particular building looked from Haruko’s window just like your run-of-the-mill, beat down abandoned warehouse. Now that she saw the inside, she found that it was a fully operational weapons factory. She couldn’t, however, recognize any of the weapons running through the manufacturing lines on the several levels that were placed at regular intervals going down for what seemed like several hundred feet underground.
Ohshika turned and smiled at Haruko who quickly composed herself and looked away from the bottom where she had been staring. Ohshika began to walk around the platform that ran along the wall and spiraled down slightly to allow access to each of the levels all the way to the bottom. At the entrance to each of the levels there was a poster with the level’s function across from the walkway that lead to the main platform that contained that level. As Haruko passed by each level, she saw wildly colored posters saying things like “Automatic Weapons,” “Stunners,” and “Ancient Weapons.” Eventually, they reached the bottom floor which had several doors around the walls, supposedly leading off to several different rooms described by the poster stuck to each door. Ohshika walked up to a door on which was a white poster with red letters that said “N.O.” Ohshika looked back, reached out, and opened the door.
“To use N.O. you usually need a tool or weapon, used to channel the power of N.O. into the brain.” Ohshika explained as he lead Haruko into the room. “We provide our operatives who use N.O. with tools or weapons that fit them best. We’ve spent some time creating one for you.” Ohshika walked over to the table in the middle of the small room, where a sheet covered an object that was hard to identify, partly because it was completely covered and partly because Haruko couldn’t quite get a good look at it. But before she could begin guessing what it was, Ohshika lifted the sheet to reveal a blue bass guitar. Haruko looked at it and could tell right away that it was hers. It was even left-handed. “A 4001 Rickenbacker bass.” proclaimed Ohshika “With modifications, of course.” With this Ohshika lifted it up and showed her the pull-start motor that was fixed to the back of the guitar. “Use this to activate the N.O.” Ohshika explained.
“Then what?” Haruko asked, almost breathless but somehow able to contain her excitement.
“Be creative.” replied Ohshika. “Just be sure to transfer the N.O. through the head. Then it should take care of itself.” Ohshika walked over and handed Haruko the Rickenbacker. “Oh, and we have something else for you.” he said, then he whistled. It was a couple seconds before anything happened. Then something suddenly plowed through the door to the N.O. room, almost knocking Haruko over. Haruko had been controlling herself very well up until then. But she almost broke down when she saw what the “something” had been. Sitting in the middle of the room was a yellow Vespa scooter with a black sticker on the front that simply said: “P!”
Haruhara Haruko had been three when her mother died, leaving her to fend for herself, her father long gone. She had first become aware of herself in a place called “Devastation City.” Or at least that was what everyone called it. Nothing in Devastation City worked, not even the power. Almost everyone lived on the streets, and it was only by luck that the city hadn’t been made into a huge landfill. At least not officially. Everyone who lived in any wealth seemed to send what they thought of as “trash” to Devastation City. Anyone who couldn’t pay rent went there as well. At the age of five Haruko was ravaging the dumps to find what she needed to live. There were a lot of gangs in the city. You always needed protection in Devastation City. The “residents” were almost all a member of a gang. Almost all, it seemed, except Haruhara Haruko, whose name she had gotten from an old poster of a famous movie star or something. She never made friends, which did not help in the city. You needed someone to have your back.
At the age of seven, Haruko was wandering through the streets looking for something useful when she found a treasure. She spotted, out of the corner of her eye, a yellow object. Interested, Haruko went over to examine it. It turned out to be a yellow Vespa scooter with a “P!” sticker on it. The sticker troubled Haruko, but only for about ten seconds. The scooter actually ran. It was more than a miracle to find anything that ran in Devastation City. Haruko nearly died when it kicked to life right away, the keys having been left in it. It was in bad shape, sure, but it still ran great. All it needed was gas, which was not hard to come by in this city.
Haruko used that Vespa for nine years. It helped her out of several tight situations, and she had managed to hold on to it until she turned sixteen. But she had to leave it behind when she joined the Galaxy Space Police Brotherhood. She did, however, return to where she had found it and hid it well, in case she returned some day.
Haruhara Haruko felt good for the first time in a surprisingly long time. She had only been a deceiving form of miserable at the Galaxy Space Police Brotherhood’s academy. But now she felt good. She was riding her Vespa with her Rickenbacker strapped to her back. Ohshika himself had personally overseen the modifications made to her Vespa. Not only could it move on it’s own and repair fairly easily, but now it could fly. Haruko looked down as she soared above her new home. She could hardly believe what had happened to her. She was on top of this world and dared to go a little higher, her Rickenbacker threatening to drag her down then settling back into place. Haruko was dressed in a long green vest, vivid just like her pink hair, with a white shirt underneath, yellow gloves, black pants with long white boots, and a white scarf that blew behind her in the wind. It was good to wear different clothes. Especially when they actually fit. Haruko was happy for the first time since before she could remember. And it could only get better.
End
