Description: When Arch-Rival Zach Glenn, the jaded Ex-Marine turned Monster Hunter, gets arrested for breaking up gang violence, Agent Daniel "Jack" Little of Interpol is quick to corner his rival at the police department. Trapped like a rat, Zach Glenn and Daniel Jack battle in an intense war of wits and fists as our stalwart detective investigates the TRUTH of not only Zach, but also his dangerous dame, Honoka Kawamoto. A dangerous dame they BOTH share. Will Daniel Jack uncover the secrets of Zach and Honoka or will they be lost in... The Vaults Of Time?! (The cover shows Daniel Jack fully amble and standing on both legs in a smokey interrogation room. Both him and Zach have seemed to have thrown over the table, and both have their fists up, ready to box. Hovering over both Daniel and Zach is a bubbly, hazy thought cloud, showing the imaginations of both. Within the cloud, a diabolical Honoka looms over them, clad in a strapless red gown, showing an ample bosom as she arcs her diablos over the heads of both men) (45 cents)
"Holy shit, it is him."
Daniel Jack stares into the interrogation room, from the one-side mirror, where Zach Glenn was being kept alone. The ex-marine was picked up with a mess of gangsters causing trouble on the streets. Normally, this would just be a routine police procedure for the Southtown PD. Kept him held, until the Yakuza's representatives came by to bail them out. But there were... holds, thanks to Interpol. Apparently, they couldn't just turn these guys back to the streets after bail was made now. And with the overstock in the holding cells, there was -this- guy. The wild card, who wasn't in either gangs. And they didn't know what to do with him. So they called their contact from Interpol.... who got here fast.
Very, very fast.
"Okay, yeah, you guys don't have to worry about this dude." Daniel Jack states firmly, looking towards the officer. "I know him. He's a- He not a gangster type. Probably saw the fight, was worried about some innocent people getting hurt, and intervened." The officer stares at Daniel, wordless. Daniel keeps eye contact with him. He finally speaks up. "No offense, Agent Little, but should you really be here?" Daniel Jack gives him a look. "No offense? Look here scuzzy. This is some serious shit going on. If it wasn't important, I wouldn't come down here, wouldn't I? So if you have a problem with Interpol coming around in your department, then-"
"No, I mean, shouldn't you stay a little longer in the hospital?"
Daniel Jack just -rolls- his eyes. He would gesture towards the police officer, except he couldn't move his arms. Or neck. Really a lot of things. He just keeps his eyes back on the officer. "Look, I couldn't conduct this kind of stuff on the phone. Besides, I wanna talk to the guy. Need to confirm a few things. He has a few suspect associates, mind you, but I wanna just confirm a few things with him, you dig." The officer looks over Daniel, a pained expression on his face. Daniel casts his eyes to the door of the interrogation chamber.
"Now can you open the door for me?"
The police officer opens the door to the interogation room. Daniel Jack, blowing on the mouthpiece, goes into the room. The detective's arms and legs were in full casts. The electric wheelchair whirrs as it trundles along, bringing Agent Little to the table. "Hey Zach! Came here as soon as I heard you got caught in one of our nets." The detective states brightly, as he comes to a park across from zach at the table. The detective was all grins and smiles, a stark contrast to the LAST few times the pair met. Grinning broadly, he gives Zach a wink.
"Sure sounds like you're in a hell of a pickle, am I right scuzzy?"
Zach Glenn was, for the most part, a model witness. He was polite, and if not entirely forthcoming, completely honest. Daniel has the right of it, even if he hadn't read the report. There was a fight, with guns. A concerned Zach stepped in to bring the fight to a quicker conclusion that did not involve dead civilians. Zach looks up at Daniel Little, and his face adopts a very neutral mask. The last few times these two had met... well... it wasn't a good thing.
"Not really," Zach replies calmly, politely. There is no warmth in the tone whatsoever. His hands are on the table in front of him, and they twitch only a little in reaction to the man's entrance. "Southtown Police has a long-standing tradition of working with civic-minded fighters who act in good faith," he supplies. There is a faint twitch of a grin at this comment, perhaps at a private joke. "I suspect I'll be out of here once I am done talking to you."
"Things change Zach."
"Traditions end, new traditions begin." Daniel Jack blinks his eyes, in an attempt to be expressive. It doesn't work very well. "Uh. Well. Let me be more explicit." "The Southtown PD has started working more closely with Interpol in the light of several recent terror-level acts of gang violence. Anything dealing with gang violence now has to go through Interpol's inspection, before being checked off. Now Zach, I know you. I know you damn well, and I've expressed to just what I expect from you, you dig?"
There is a pregnant silence.
"So I know what the PD told me, and I just want to hear it again in your own words, okay? Just run it down to me the whole story. Who you were with, why were you there, and what exactly happened?" The smile on Daniel's face endures again, in contrast to the neutrality between himself at Zach. He wasn't worried about Zach. He had a feeling that he knew Zach. And Zach's profile? He sees himself a hero.
And he was just doing his hero thing here, no big.
The profile is slightly off. Zach doesn't consider himself a hero. That's a label other people try to give him. Zach is a protector. A guardian. In older days, his family would have been called a Sgiath, a Shield. He looks at Daniel for a long moment. He's not about to play games about the less-than-legal threats Daniel levelled at him.
"I was having lunch, second floor of a restaurant in Yokohama. Saw these two gangs start to form up in the streets. One of them was moving in a single group, all in suits. Gold lapel pins with bisected diamonds. The other group moved in three teams. No matching uniforms, but they all had a red crescents worked in. Not the Muslim kind," Zach clarifies, "More stylized." Zach thinks, recalling.
"They pulled weapons. Knifes, guns, couple of the red crescent guys had chains. They talked for a moment, then the fighting started. After I arranged for the police to be called, I moved in to stop the fight." Daniel would know that this is true. The person who called for emergency response was clearly someone speaking Japanese like a native, and Zach doesn't. "I figured if they were shooting at me, it'd keep the shots contained. At one point, the suits all threw their guns at the crescents. I don't know why. Fight didn't last very long after that. A bunch of them ran. I stayed, and went with the police voluntarily."
Zach shrugs, "Not much more to it than that."
The profile is slightly off. Zach doesn't consider himself a hero. That's a label other people try to give him. Zach is a protector. A guardian. In older days, his family would have called him a Sgiath, a Shield. He looks at Daniel for a long moment. He's not about to play games about the less-than-legal threats Daniel levelled at him.
"I was having lunch, second floor of a restaurant in Yokohama. Saw these two gangs start to form up in the streets. One of them was moving in a single group, all in suits. Gold lapel pins with bisected diamonds. The other group moved in three teams. No matching uniforms, but they all had a red crescents worked in. Not the Muslim kind," Zach clarifies, "More stylized." Zach thinks, recalling.
"They pulled weapons. Knifes, guns, couple of the red crescent guys had chains. They talked for a moment, then the fighting started. After I arranged for the police to be called, I moved in to stop the fight." Daniel would know that this is true. The person who called for emergency response was clearly someone speaking Japanese like a native, and Zach doesn't. "I figured if they were shooting at me, it'd keep the shots contained. At one point, the suits all threw their guns at the crescents. I don't know why. Fight didn't last very long after that. A bunch of them ran. I stayed, and went with the police voluntarily."
Zach shrugs, "Not much more to it than that."
Daniel Jack blinks his eyes, as Zach details the story.
Not much changed from the write up; the details were the same. Red Crescents; that meant it wasn't the Kobe branch. The break down was pretty straightforward at face value. It was a gang fight, Zach got involved to protect people. The detective could get that. But the trouble was a few funny details. Little outside items that the Ex-marine mentioned. Daniel Jack doesn't even hold back as he repeats back the key detail.
"They... threw their guns?"
Daniel Jack gives Zach a look. Trying to read him, to get a gist of if he was lying or not. He wasn't a psychic. But he could at least read a person, and get an instinct. So far, he didn't have any explicit negative instinct. "So they threw their guns. And you didn't see or hear anything that would imply why they would." The detective holds a moment, looking up at the ceiling a moment.
"And you were alone, is that correct?"
"I have never seen anything like it," Zach answers. "It was just me," he supplies. He takes a deep breath, then leans forward, his elbows on the table.
"I do want to say something to you, though," he says. He looks contrite. "That fight we had. I don't remember anything after I threw that smash, but I saw the fight afterwards. Something happened," he says, looking a little green at the memory. "I lost myself for a moment there. I'm sorry."
Daniel Jack waits and listens.
He couldn't turn his head in the neck brace, so he lets his eyes do the listening. Reading those lips, focusing on the Ex-marine. As he leans forward, looking a bit sick, Daniel Jack narrows his eyes. Squinting one of them, And finally, he responds.
"You're lying about something, Zach."
Daniel Jack stays quiet a moment. The gears were turning. "No, not lying. Misdirection. But not about that fight. Yeah, I can see you getting out of your mind there. It was a weird thing, right? I get a fight, get shot at, and suddenly another fight right after? And you don't remember it..." Daniel Jack mulls, considering carefully. "That's not the misdirection. I believe you Zach. So yeah, apology accepted. And god, I'm sorry about being such an asshole about the whole Fio thing." Daniel tries to move his arm to grab his brow, but he... fails. "I still believe what I believe, just like how you believe what you believe, mind you? But I didn't have to be an asshole about it. Yeah, yeah, I believe you. That's not the misdirection." Daniel Jack purses his lips a bit.
"So was it a date with Honoka, or somebody else?"
Zach nods once at the acceptance of the apology. "We're... as square as we're likely to get," Zach answers. He considers Daniel's words. "What makes you ask that, Agent?"
"Well..."
Daniel Jack looks up again, gathering his thoughts. "You rarely go out by yourself to lunch. That's the first red light. It's a second story resteraunt, a real romantic spot. You didn't call yourself, which would imply you were with somebody who could make the call instead, while you were going down and being a hero. So lets say you were with somebody. You didn't lie, you just didn't answer the question. You said 'It was just me,' that might mean dealing with the thugs. So lets work with that, Zach."
"Why would you misdirect on you being alone?"
"Two ways I could figure. If you were with Honoka, well, I'm gonna say this right now. It's a little suspicious, but not overtly. Knowing you and your relationship with Honoka, you wouldn't mention her being there unless you had a good reason for it. Generally to protect her. Considering her circus's actions, as well as the actions when The Butcher attacked, she is avoidant of the police in general. I don't know why in detail, mind you, but it could just be a general disrespect for authority. It could also be something else. So yeah, if its Honoka, I just wanna make sure Interpol has the facts straight. And if it wasn't Honoka, but another girl? Well." Daniel Jack gives a wink.
"I can understand why you would wanna keep that under wraps too."
"Actually," Zach responds, "I had my cousin call the police. Takehiro Glenn. My Japanese is decent, but I was about to wade into an active firefight. I wasn't going to be able to do a phone call while that was going on." Zach leans back. "But yes, it was Honoka. And yes, I'm protecting her. It's what I do. She's an orphan, did you know that? She's had plenty of experience with the system. She's also an Ainu. People in the States complain about racism, they don't really appreciate how good they have it compared to places like Japan." Zach clasps his hands in front of him. "She wasn't involved in the fight."
"Huh. So you didn't have her call in."
Daniel Jack was keeping an even pace, in spite of being through a Sambo surgical Table. As Zach explains, though, the background of Honoka, Daniel Jack wrung up his expression. He tilts his head, and immediately untilts it. "ow." He states quietly. An Ainu. A victim of racism. Yeah, okay. But there was a single detail that stood out a bit to him.
"An Orphan?"
"That's... weird." Daniel Jack remembered very clearly there wasn't any parent profile on Honoka. He would need to check in on that, just to update it properly. Still, if she was a ward of the state, being passed around like candy on a playground, yeah, he could see how she would be jaded about the system. "Yeah, probably better for these guys too. If Honoka was sitting where you are now, pretty sure every cop here would get the pants sued off." Daniel was grinning at that. "Yeah, I think if she was involved, she would have been dragged. Heh. Maybe she mind controlled some of those thugs to put down the weapons. She's pretty good at that psychic stuff, isn't she." Daniel Jack chuckles a bit at that joke... but less and less. "Yeah, Zach. I just..." Daniel Jack pauses a moment. "I don't want to play brain doctor here or stuff. But when I met Honoka, I was worried you were a bad influence on her. But remember that fight you, uh, don't remember? She came to pick you up, and uh..."
"Look, have you heard of manipulative personality types?"
Zach blinks at Daniel. Twice. He looks a little confused about the question of the end of the fight he had just apologized for. "I told you," he replies calmly. "The last thing I remember was throwing that three-quarters uppercut. If I hadn't seen the video, I wouldn't even be able to tell you how that worked out. The only reason I know Honoka picked me up was because she was the one who took me to the emergency room."
Zach leans back, folding his arms across his chest. "And the only reason she did that, and not the Rumble staffers, was because you called her. Specifically." Zach's frown deepens a bit.
"My father could sell ice to eskimos and get them to thank him for the deal," he finally answers. "Me? Not so much." Zach remains physically still, but Daniel would get the impression that there is danger in the posture and tone of voice when he asks the next question. "But what is it you are trying to imply?"
"Nah, nah, that's not manipulative personality type. There's a certain candence, a certain style." "They know how to detect your weaknesses. Maybe they can just read them, or maybe you've opened up to them. But they use your weaknesses against you, and they convince you to give up something of yourself in order to serve them. And once they do, they are repeat offenders. They'll take advantage of you again and again."
"And well, uh, Honoka kind of has that vibe."
"Like, it could be nothing. I'm just running on intuitions. But like... yeah. You put it pretty straight-forward, Zach. If I didn't call her, she wouldn't have showed up? That problem explains why she was so bi-bi-" Daniel clears his throat. "She was pretty unpleasant about it. And well. I mean, she's not here bailing you out, either. And I know for a fact she has a crack team of lawyers at that circus ready to help her out, and it doesn't take much to get them going. Believe me."
Daniel blinks a few times hard.
"I mean, this time, its nothing. Hell, Off the record? I think you did the right thing Zach. If I was in your shoes, I'd be down there on the street, and probably be a lot more punchy about it. But covering her up from this... yeah, I'd probably do the same thing. But dames who need to be covered up? You have to be very careful with. Let me just put it like this Zach. After our little chat, I've been thinking a bit more."
"And I'm rethinking that someone needs some boundaries set down, you dig?"
"Now to make it clear. I'm not saying she's a bad girl, mind you. Just that... she fits a profile that I've seen before. Good manipulative types can get people to do amazing things for the right reasons. The rest of them, though... you have to be careful with the rest of them. And I'm not seeing Honoka manipulating people into helping themselves. And frankly, Zach... I don't want to see you get used. I don't want to see you get in trouble for something you didn't do, protecting a woman who might have feelings for you, might have something for you deep down... but when it comes between you and her, she'll always pick herself. You're smart, Zach. And Honoka can be real sweet. But if she ever tries to make you do something you feel is wrong? Promise me you'll stick with your gut feeling, okay?" Daniel Jack turns up his nose a moment. And then, he gives a hushed whisper to him.
"Even Monster Hunting stuff, god dammit."
Zach leans in again, elbows on the table to make certain Daniel has his attention. "If she had brought her legal team in," he explains slowly, "It would have defeated the whole purpose of me trying to cover for her." Zach stares at Daniel for a long moment. Does he trust Daniel enough to share more information with him? Would Daniel listen to Zach, and not only understand but /believe/ him, when Zach explains about that whole other time?
His gut says 'maybe.' Daniel clearly has shown that he is a thinking man, one willing to accept evidence right in front of him and come to appropriate conclusions. In the end, though, the logical part of Zach points out that while he has explained this concept to others before? Not too many have believed him on the matter, and many of those were literally family. No. Not yet.
Zach speaks slowly when he voices the next concept. "I know a lot of things, Daniel Little. Great things. Terrible things that I wish to God that I could forget," Zach states. "Things that you are going to have to take on faith that I know something about. The problem is that if I explained where and how I know these things, you'll have plenty of reason to doubt what I say." Zach takes a deep breath before plunging on. "So when I say I am more than aware of what Honoka is capable of, I need you to believe me."
Zach leans back, heaving a sigh as he does so. That admission clearly cost the psion something. "So two things," he says as conversationally as he can manage, "The first being that it's not easy to hide from a psychic when it comes to feelings. I /know/ she feels something for me. Cares for me on some level. We sometimes disagree on some things, but at the end of the day, those differences tend to be more interesting than divisive." Zach pauses, then continues. "The second thing is that I don't talk to her about my job much. She understands why I don't, even when she doesn't always agree with it."
Daniel Jack tries to lean in.
Being in a cast, that was not easy. Or really possible. But the body language was there. Daniel was... a funny place of trust. He was principled, but not with a basis in honor. That meant that he was capable of backstabbing and lying, and Daniel Jack was -well- aware of that. And yet, not a single Gedo High got a citation from his work in the past. It's hard to turn a blind eye now, as a Detective of Interpol. But Daniel Jack knew he would have the temptation.
And he knew he could resist it.
"Now on the first stuff? Let me make something straight. I can tell if you are lying, and frankly, I can believe a lot more things these days. At the worst, if you believe something that I can't believe? Then I know for a fact you believe it. And if you know great, terrible things? I'm gonna file it away, even without evidence." He drops his voice low again. "Being to hell and back and back to hell and back does that, you dig?"
But that meant the -other- two issues.
As Zach explains his feelings to Daniel, and Honoka's feelings, the detective sighs. Not an impatient sigh. But a pained one. "Bad people can love, Zach." He says, sadly. "Selfish people can love. I've had bad and selfish loves before. I'm probably going to have more before I die." A shadow comes over Daniel himself now. "Love doesn't mean much between two people, in the long run. Those little, interesting things can become chasms to cross." Daniel Jack looks in the distance "If you two share the same principles, then it will work out. But if you don't, on a core level?" Daniel Jack sighs. "Yeah, screw relation talk, this is just depressing me."
"So what's that about stuff you know that I won't believe?"
Zach files the relationship advice away for reference. He grins at the last question, clasping his hands across his chest. "Seriously," Zach warns. "It's a bit of a whopper, even compared to all of that." Zach raises a speculative eyebrow. "My own father, who is a trained counselor with a Ph.D. in psychiatry to back up his own empathic talents, only really accepts that I believe this is to be the truth. I can't even really prove it."
Zach heaves a sigh. "The overly simple version of it is that I remember a parallel life. Twenty five years of the life of a person that has a name very similar to mine, with very similar abilities, who knew very similar people. You, for instance," Zach points relaxed at Daniel, "Were a private detective. That you also practiced Todoh-ryu Kobojustu. That you, and that Zach met because Zach had learned a bastardized version of the Kasane Ate. The big difference was that instead of chi, he fueled the form of the techinique with psychic energy."
Daniel Jack tilts his head.
There is a cracking sound as he does so, as he overpowers the neckbrace. That was the sheer force of the reaction of what Zach was saying. "Well. Uh. You aren't lying! You definately believe that." He exhales. "Lets start on the basics. Like, uh. That's the thing. -I- was a private detective, Zach. And if your... counterpart also learned it, well."
Daniel Jack untilts his head with a crack.
"Well if it isn't real, then it is your subconscious is doing Now, let me say this. I've heard of this stuff before. Past life stuff, right? And I'm a little more open minded. I mean, there are other worlds. It isn't a stretch of the imagination that some of them would be like us. I mean, wow, imagine another me." Daniel Jack pauses a second. And then, something... nags on him. "The last Zach was... pretty much you, just a little different path. Same with me." He squints an eye at Zach.
"Huh, do you remember anything about Honoka?"
"Actually," Zach says, "Things have be kind of different for me this time around. Far more family support structure this time around. Also, no Darkstalkers, so no need for that job position. And you joining Interpol? I'd have put money against that. Similar, but different. But yeah. I'd call it parallel life, though. I'm pretty sure that that world ended. Planet was almost literally coming apart at the seams in the end." Zach sobers, then, as he brings his mind to the question.
"I remember her," he says quietly. "Zach... was attracted to her before. She was smart, capable, competent. Also just as easy on the eyes." Zach stares at the table. He knows that Zach's emotions were an engineered mess at that point in the timeline, but they were just as fierce for all of that. "...I know how her story ended," he barely whispers, his eyes on the table. He believes what he is telling Daniel, but the memories are still an uncomfortable mental space.
"I... meeting her was not something I had anticipated. I'm..." Zach lets out a sigh, and looks up at Daniel with tired eyes. Eyes far older than the person showing them should have. "I've been trying to make sure her story doesn't meet the same end." He then looks at the table again, the admission costing him a great deal. "The emotions, the decision, those came later."
Daniel looked... tired.
And exhaustion was over him. An existential fatigue. He didn't know if what Zach knew was real or not. But he didn't know that he felt it was real... and very likely, if it wasn't real, reflected a hidden thought or desire in Zach. And that was clear that Honoka was... very likely on the path of self-destruction, as Zach felt. Daniel Jack didn't just see Zach right now.
He say the same tired pains her went through.
"I'm old Zach. I want to save everybody. And I'm starting to realized I can't save everybody. But Zach?" He looks at Zach, dead on. "I'm gonna keep trying. And I hope you will too. Whatever's wrong with Honoka? You are probably gonna fix it. Or at least get her on the right path." Daniel Jack blinks. "I'll tell the boys you're free to go. We'll keep in touch, you dig?" Daniel Jack blows into the mouthpiece, as the wheelchair bumps into the desk. Blowing it a bit differently, it backs up, and rotates around, towards the exit of the room. The doorway is opened by the officer.
It would be less than 5 minutes, before Zach gets the official announcement that he is free to go.
Zach sits staring at the table for most of those five minutes. A second before the officer arrives, his phone starts buzzing at him. Glenn checks the ID, and frowns. He nods to the cop, and heads outside. Once he's clear of the station, he thumbs the speed dial on his phone.
"Talk to me, Kincaid," he orders in a rough tone. "Really," he comments. "Get things ready. I'll let you know when I'm ready." Zach ends the call, stares at the phone for a moment before pocketing it.
Looks like it's going to be time for /another/ uncomfortable conversation.
Log created on 15:00:51 03/18/2016 by Daniel, and last modified on 17:18:56 03/20/2016.