A Little Levity

Eriko stared out the window. Behind it, city scenery outside blurred past as the train thundered on. Far from Prague. Far from prying eyes. Far from Eriko's friends. She wanted some time to herself. Time to do things to prepare for her confrontation. But she was anxious. Not just because of the things that had happened.

Her contact should have been here already. And aside from herself and the woman who just entered her car, it was empty.

Fortunately...

The woman spoke first. "My child, I am as elusive as sheet lightning playing among June clouds," she pre-empted, the tall lady knowing Eriko would ask if she had been followed. "I do have my ways." She sat down next to Eriko and smiled enigmatically. Some people would say the woman looked like a teacher. Some people would say she looked statuesque and elegant.

Eriko thought she looked like a dork and sounded like a chuuni.

"Hi mom," she murmured, smiling only slightly. She was relieved to see her, but... did she have to be so...

"Hello, my child," her mother replied warmly. "I came here as swift as the wind, bearing the warmth of the hearth." She made some wide gestures to illustrate this point, then got to the main point. "What is it that is troubling you this time?"

The young detective closed her eyes, letting the events of the past few weeks replay themselves in front of her. "I feel bad calling you up just to beg for help," she said, folding her hands in her lap, "but everyone's acting strange, and we have too many close calls in every fight." She rubbed the area where she lost a chunk of her midsection and took a deep breath. "I got hit really bad the other day, and before that Jordan almost died and could have killed us... A couple of them are eating familiars, and one of the girls is... she's changing..." There weren't any tears in her eyes, but her hands, balled into fists, were shaking.

Her mother's expression remained the same. "I see," she said, not revealing her thought processes at all. "And your mission?"

"You know I can't give confidential details," Eriko replied glumly.

This brought back the gestures. "But I have heard the rumors on the winds, my child," her mom explained. "Everyone knows something big is about to go down here." She places a hand over her heart. "And I can feel it in the earth, the lost souls clamoring for justice."

Eriko wasn't impressed. "You made up that last part," she grumbled.

"...No I didn't," her mother said automatically. She quickly amended it to "it *could* be true."

Siiiiigh. The detective buried her face in her hands. "Please don't try to show off in front of me, mom," she begged. Eriko splayed her her fingers and stared at her feet; even with nobody else around, her mother embarrassed the hell out of her.

"Well," her mom said brightly, steering the conversation away from wherever it was going, "your mother was so happy to find out that you had made friends, by the way." She pat Eriko on the head, making the girl flinch. "A curious cat like you is still a social creature, not a being of solitude."

"Yeah, yeah," Eriko murmured. "I like them." She wanted to tell her more about them, but there was only so much she felt safe talking about. And some things were best not revealed to her family. Instead, she went to the main reason she called: "Um, did you bring the stuff? The goods, I mean," Eriko quickly corrected herself.

Looking pleased, her mom pulled a non-descript box out of her inventory and gave it to Eriko. "Courtesy of your aunt," her mother proudly declared, as if she had a hand in it. She was just handing over a package, though. A decently sized one, but still... "And," she started again, bringing out a menacing looking handgun and handing it over, "as she put it, a 'gun for big girls to use'." Her aunt was, of course, referring to Eriko's silenced pistol having poor range for a handgun. She'd done well enough so far, but couldn't count on that forever. It'd be only a matter of time before the universe caught on.

Still, she was expecting something else. "She couldn't just give me a death laser?" Eriko asked, arching her brow. "She *loves* death lasers."

Her mom giggled. "Yes, but this is the most that she was willing to give you." It was easy to forget that the topic of the conversation was something as morbid as murder. Right now, Eriko looked like a normal teenage girl being embarrassed by her mom.

"Is she still mad?" Eriko asked, wariness creeping into her voice.

Her mother sighed. "While the unhappy clam has no longer shut herself away, she is still quite cross with you for thwarting the last one she built." She was still smiling, for some reason.

"But she had to be stopped!" Eriko asserted. After all, she was threatening to use it on world leaders!

On this, her mother seemed to agree. "Oh, certainly," she consented. "But, ah-" there's the 'but', Eriko thought to herself "-she was hoping it'd be your mother that did the deed." Her smile turns lascivious. "And then did the deed."

"Ewww!"

"Why did you try to stop her, anyway?" Her mother asked quickly, putting the disturbing train of thought out of mind.

Eriko huffed. "To prove that I could!"

Her mom shook her head. "My child, I never had any doubt that you could," she assured her. "You don't have to prove anything to me."

Eriko didn't just want to prove it to *her*, but it was hard to argue about it when she was told something so encouraging. "I guess," she mumbled. "And, uh," she mumbled some more, "I suppose I have been a bit, um..." She was struggling with the words. "I didn't know I, my powers frightened some people. So please tell Amy I'm sorry, and that I understand now."

"I shall pass that along," her mother assured her. Her expression brightened considerably after that. "Ah, your mother wanted to aid your quest," and her mom started rummaging through her inventory as she spoke, "so she also sent this sword-"

"How big?" Eriko interrupted.

"As big as her heart, as strong as-"

"So taller than me."

Her mom smiled innocently. "Yes."

"Mom," Eriko tried to explain, "nobody I know uses big swords. My lo- my *FRIEND*-"

Don't you smile at me like that, Eriko thought, glaring. The conversation is not going there. No way, no how.

"-uses knives. The other Eversor uses a fan." Her mother's enthusiasm quickly dropped after that, and Eriko tried to undo the damage. "Uuuuugh, fiiiiine, I'll give them the sword. But they probably can't use it."

"They'll love it," her mother assured her as she handed Eriko a large claymore and sheathe. Too big for the detective to reasonably fit in her inventory, so she held on to it for now. "Any woman of discerning taste would go weak in the knees in its-"

"They probably will," Eriko said, then looked at her mother expectantly.

Her mom shook her head, saying "that's all of it. Your Aunt Cooldown, The Great Sloth, wasn't willing to part with any of her hoard when I asked, and Auntie Jade had already given blood recently."

More or less what she already figured. "It's enough for now," Eriko assured her. By now the train was slowing down as it pulled into station.

"It seems that this is my stop," her mom pointed out. Eriko frowned, wishing there was more time. Time to get help for her friends. For now, all she could do was hug her mother.

"Goodbye," Eriko said sadly, releasing her from her hug. She trusted her mom knew how to take care of herself. In combat, at least. To affirm that she, herself, would be okay, she made a pledge: "I, Eriko Tenko, do solemnly swear to uncover the truth."

"Your conviction burns as brightly as the sun," her mother cheered, rubbing her daughter's head. "May find the answers you are searching for, my young Truth-Seeker."

"I will. And tell everyone I love them, too, even if I'm a little..."

Her mother, Valentina Tenko, nodded and smiled at her, waving goodbye. The door opened. And then, just like that, she was gone.