"I could have died! I almost did! What did you want me to do?!" Calamity Jet stamps her foot like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Regardless, your duty as the keeper is to keep the lost souls within hell." Ryukko chastises her mercilessly. "What are you going to do now that two of them have escaped?"
Calamity Jet raises her arms to her sides before letting them fall back down. "What do you want me to do?"
Ryukko sighs. "Just stay here and make sure no one else escapes. We'll just add another thousand years to your sentence."
"A– a thousand?! A thousand?! You promised you'd let me go after three hundred! We had a deal!"
"That was that, this is this."
"This is bullshit!"
Ryukko twirls her spear and rests it on her back. "Jeez, how much more are you going to complain? There's nothing you can do. The sooner you come to terms with that, the better." She places her hand on Calamity Jet's shoulder but she shrugs it off.
"Fine."
"Good, now if you'll excuse us, we have important matters to take care of." Ryukko walks over to another I-C. Isaka. They both whisper a few words to each other before taking off to clean up the mess Calamity Jet left behind.
"Dammit." It's frustrating. It's so frustrating. These ICMG fucks think they can just waltz in and stomp on her efforts? When she's worked so goddamn hard in the ten years she's spent here?
"Fine." She snaps her fingers. "Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine." She punctuates every 'fine' with a snap.
Between getting her ass handed to her by that girl in the baseball jersey and all this, it's most definitely not her day. She punches the wall, cracking the plaster, and probably adding another month to her sentence. Ah crap. She licks her thumb and rubs it over the damage, trying in vain to smooth it over. Goddammit. Well that's not going away any time soon. Then it hits her. This is easy.
If she were to fix what she broke, then the I-C's will have no choice but to take it back. That's it! She just needs to hunt down the escapees and everything will get back on track. This is perfect! She grins gleefully to herself as she adjusts the two swords hanging from her hip. If baseball girl wants to play dirty then fine, she'll play dirty. An ambush it is. Yes, yes, it's all coming together. Best of all, she knows exactly when to do it.
She's learned a thing or two about the spirit realm in the ten years she's spent in this place. This place, this entire realm, it's nothing more than a home for the forgotten. Yokai, lost souls, even partially amnesed memories best left unremembered eventually end up in this place. It's only a matter of time before those memories force themselves into the minds of their owners– into the minds of the escapees. When that happens, she'll have her chance to take them all out. Four against one. Should be a piece of cake. After all, she's Calamity Jet, the greatest mercenary Japan has ever known!
"Hm, I think that's them." Iko peers through a pair of binoculars.
"Let me see." Klara snatches the binoculars out of Iko's hand and checks. "Oh yeah, that's definitely them. How do you want to play this?"
"It might be prudent to wait until those two I-C's soften them up first. Then we can clean up our target as well as the I-C's in one fell swoop."
"I like the sound of tha–" Klara stops talking, sensing a presence behind her. "What the?"
Both Klara and Iko suddenly find themselves sitting in a hallway outside an apartment. The sound of children's voices and merrymaking come from inside. Klara taps Iko on the shoulder. "We should go."
"..."
"Iko?"
Iko stands up, almost like she didn't hear Klara. She slowly pushes the door open.
It's like she's entranced as she walks into the apartment. All the lights are turned out, save for ten candles sticking out of a birthday cake. A large group of children sit around the cake, entranced by the party clown performing in front of them.
She wears outlandish makeup, colorful clothes, a rainbow wig and a honking red nose. Little strands of silver hair peek out from under her wig and her golden eyes almost seem to glow in the darkness. The children clap and cheer as she performs, but the one most delighted to be here is the clown herself. The smile on her face isn't fake. It's always been her dream to make children smile. And at last, through a mixture of luck and sheer force of will, her dream has become a reality. A wave of nostalgia sweeps over Iko as she remembers how she used to be. What that world was like back then during the first time she ever performed. And how far she's fallen from it all.
Things were okay for a while because Klara sent money home. Lots of money. So long as they never asked questions. But times turned harder and harder the worse mama's condition became. The inconsistent salaries of a hired gun and a struggling party clown just weren't enough. Thus, one day, she doffed the outfit for the last time.
"I need work."
"Before we go any further, why?" Klara sets down a cup of tea for Iko.
"I'm desperate. Mama's condition is getting worse. I need money, lots of money."
"What about your dream?"
"Mama is more important to me." She lies to herself.
"I could use the help." Klara nods. "But I have to warn you. I'm not exactly the… businesswoman I may have led you to believe I am."
"I know." Iko's known about her line of work for some time now. But being confronted by the harsh reality is another feeling entirely. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Anything to save mama."
Even if it hurts like hell.
"I've had enough." Iko turns to leave the apartment and all of a sudden, the dream that has now become like a nightmare fades away, and all that remains is dust.
"How do you feel?" Klara sits Iko down onto the ground.
"What do you think?"
"Sorry. Stupid question." The two stew in the silence, letting the cruel reality tighten its grip around themselves.
"Let's go." Klara stands back up and gets back into the jeep. "We have a job to finish."
"Yeah."