The Girl with Yin eyes. ----------------------- "Gally-chan," Shumira asked me one morning, "what you dream last night?" I had just wandered down from my apartment above the bar to get some breakfast with Barkeep and Shumira, who always arrived an hour or so before her first shift. Hazy-eyed, I murmured something about a red mountain. "Red Mountain?" Shumira asked, chipper as ever, "Like Das Haus, ne?" At this I blinked past the stupor of the previous night and stared, dumbfounded. "How can you know about that?" I asked. "I hear 'bout it." Shumira replied airily, "What else you dream?" The girl I had almost come to view as my little sister stared at me with a suddenly penetrating gaze. "I don't know..." I stammered. Shumira pouted, then frowned more sternly. "How dream end?" she asked. "I... I think I died." I said vaguely, "I fell." "What happened then?" Shumira pushed. "I don't remember," I groaned, wishing Barkeep would hurry up with the coffee, "my eyes were closed." "Next time," Shumira instructed, "keep them open." *** It was a cold Martian winter, that day I stood atop Das Haus. Yet, atop those great heights, I felt no cold; only the heat of battle, the passion of the Panzer Kunst. "Here, Yoko-san," Kemura said, holding a cloak in my direction, "You'll catch your death." I smiled a moment at my faithful retainer, the girl who had sworn to be at my side always, and took the cloak. "You're right, of course," I replied, "This is where I shall catch my death." Kemura frowned at this, perhaps seeing my metaphoric intent. "Well, as long as it has more honor than the flu," she replied at last, forcing a smile. I smiled back, giving my "Big Sister" a quick hug. The girl, only a few years older than myself, grinned like a tiny child. "I'll bring us all freedom," I whispered. "Of course, Yoko-san," Kemura replied. *** "Lock your arm under your opponent’s, like so." With a twist, I flipped my sparing partner onto the mat. He oofed loudly, then stood and bowed. I bowed back, then stepped back to let my students try the maneuver. "Okay, pair up. And don't hurt yourselves! Kago, I mean you!" With a smile, I sat down on a small stool and watched them attempt to learn the art of self defense. Seeing them succeed, learn more, and move ahead... I found a smile slipping onto my puckered lips. I placed my right hand on my left arm, basking in the warmth. They made me proud. "Whatcha thinkin, Gally-chan?" Shumira asked softly into my ear. I sighed happily and turned to face her. "I'm thinking how good it feels to use my skills for positive instead of negative," I replied. Shumira nodded, smiling in her way, a broad grin that seemed to flood her face with light. There was a pause, then I thought back to the conversation of that morning. Since my students seemed to be doing all right... "What did you dream last night?" I asked. Shumira, still smiling, bobbed her head happily. "I dream of fire," Shumira replied, happy as ever, "Of a town under mountain. Fire fall from high, higher than mountain. Town under mountain burn." *** "NO!" I screamed, running through the blaze. My metal body was heating up dangerously, but I didn't care. I had to find Kemura. The fire bombs from the Earther fleet were still falling, still killing, but they were on the other side of the valley now. Kemura lived on this side, with the families of the other Panzer Kunst students. Kemura, my adoptive family, the girl who cared for me after my parents died. The girl I protected when I learned to fight. My "Big Sister." "Kemura!!" I screamed into the blaze. Radiation from the initial blasts had left some scorched bodies laying on the streets. Others, more recent ones, had tried to flee the burning buildings. They were still recognizable as one sex or the other. The others... no, Kemura could not be among them! I put my arms infront of my face and charged into her building, smashing through the stone wall with my Panzer Kunst. It crumbled before me. "Yoko-san," a voice croaked, "Hello." My hands went unbidden to my face. "Kemura.." I murmured. She lay there, bleeding in the rubble. Her face and side were burned, part peeling and cracked. Her light hair was scorched away, leaving a round head of black burns. The smell of her flesh hung in the air, ash tangible in my augmented nostrils. "Do not fear, Yoko-san," she rasped, "I shall always be with you..." I knelt to hold her, but it was too late. Her eyes open, her breath stilled, I held her, crying softly to myself. And, as long as I lived, I believed that she held onto that last bit of life just to tell me that final message. Sometimes I feel her there, watching me. Sometimes she smiles at me. When I started killing innocent children, the sick, the wounded, she stopped smiling. But, she is always there. Always. *** My last set finished, I wandered over to the bar to see Ido and Shumira. Barkeep and Gonzu were there too, greeting me with complements on my music and stories of their days. And Shumira greets me with a smile, and her sparkling eyes. I read a book once, about a girl who could see her past lives. She had special eyes, Yin eyes she called them. Eyes to see the world of Yin while living in the world of Yang. "Shumira," I asked one evening, "Do you have Yin eyes?" "I dunno," she replied, smiling. She paused, then glanced to the right. "But Big Brother says I do." "You mean, Said you do," I corrected, returning the smile. Jashugan was a year and a half dead. "No, he just now say so." As I sat there, Shumira hopped up to take an order to table three. --------------------------------------------- Copyright 1998 and 1999 to Charles Drake. Inspired by Amy Tan's "The Thousand Secret Senses"