by AkumaMR
10.12.03
Chapter 3: KABOOM! And Wufei is Distracted
DISCLAIMER: I own naught but the totally random combination of Roman letters following.
Something special.
Definitely not what the programmers had in mind while making the characters. Ying watched as her virtual classmates went up to the front of the room one by one to "demonstrate the extent of their skill in swordsmanship," as Wufei put it.
Ying could tell that even best routines done were common ones that could be easily downloaded and installed by any idiot. And so, possibly more bored than she had ever been in her life, she awaited her turn.
"Ying! Proceed to the front!"
Finally.
Ying approached the instructor, bowed to him, took a plain katana off the rack, and bowed again. She then turned to face the class, and after taking a deep breath, she began. She was like the wind playing with a cherry blossom. It was nothing planned, she just let the sword take her wherever it wanted to go. She spun while holding the sword still; she stood still and spun the sword around her. She swung with accuracy, once coming within a hair's width of a student's nose. After about ten minutes of swirling and swinging, Ying was ready to end her routine. The question was: How? She debated whether or not to attempt a trick she always admired: tossing a spinning sword in the air and then catching it again by the handle. Whenever she had tried it before, she would end up doing something or other wrong.
It wouldn't hurt to try again, right? she thought. After all, it's only a game.
With a flick of her wrist the sword was flung, shining like a comet, up to the rafters. Thinking to add her own little twist, Ying bowed to the class before turning to catch the blade. Alas! She had sent it spinning too fast, and there was no way she could find and grab the handle in what appeared to be a spinning silver disk falling down towards her. She reached out for what she hoped was the handle but, unfortunately, was not. She screamed as the sharp edge cut her palm.
"Shit!"
The programmers may have been idiots, but even an idiot knows that people in ancient China don't say "Shit!".
The characters were programmed to ignore things like that, but Wufei was not. After a split second of shock and confusion, he realized that someone had hacked his game. Ying found out a moment later when Wufei lunged toward her in an act of fury. She quickly transfered the blade to her uninjured hand and ran for the exit with Wufei hot on her tail. She ran out into the street and made for the inn, dodging shopkeepers and villagers left and right. As she ran through the doorway, the innkeeper smiled and began, "Would you like to -" and was silenced as Ying neatly sliced off his head. She had enough time for one last look at Wufei before the game sputtered out.
---
Wufei was stunned.
What... just... happened? Did someone hack my game?
Wufei began furiously typing, trying to find out what happened, what went wrong, and who it was that had hacked his game, but unfortunately, the server that ran it had crashed. He took off his equipment and leaned back into the chair in front of his computer, deep in thought.
His ponderings were disturbed by the sound of the door opening, signalling the arrival of his housemate Sally Po.
"Hey, Wufei? I tried to get the stuff you wanted, but Lao Bing's was closed, so I went to that flashy place next door," she called as she kicked the door closed.
"I hope you don't mind," she smiled, as Wufei appeared at the door to the kitchen. He walked over to the food and sniffed it, and his face wrinkled. Not the greatest, but edible, at least.
They both sat down to eat the Chinese take-out, Sally with her diet soda and Wufei with his bottled tea, both with break-apart chopsticks, just like they did every day. Nothing much interesting ever happened during his Preventer duties with Sally Po. His codename was Iron, and he and Sally had been patrolling the eastern half of Asia for the past few years along with a couple of other Preventers. Most of their work involved running from one place to another, following possible leads to rebellious uprisings. They rarely had to deal with real issues, the last time they tackled anything even remotely worth bragging about was months ago, when they stopped a gang of ex-colonists trying to tear down Tokyo Tower.
But none of that mattered now. At least not in their quiet apartment on the edge of Shanghai's governmental district. He and Sally had rented one together, on the logic that it would save them money because they worked together all the time anyway. Don't get any ideas, though. Wufei had absolutely no intention of ever moving their relationship farther than friendship, though he'd noticed Sally eyeing him in an odd way every now and then.[8]
And so their rather boring day would have proceeded, had it in fact been just another day. There was one thing that would make this day different, however, and at exactly five fifty-six, the phone rang to herald it's arrival.
"Hello?" Sally said after she picked it up. "This is Sally." Pause. "Yes, he is." Long pause. "But why?" Pause. "Okay, I will. Bye." She hung up the phone and turned to Wufei, a quizzical look on her face.
"For some godsforsaken reason that Lady Une refuses to tell me, you are no longer a Preventer."
Yumemiru
Chapter Two
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