Authentic, and an ever-glowing blaze of fire through the sky, you can indeed say that I am that Phoenix rising from the ashes as the world dies around me.   There’s no telling where the dust will settle, and there’s no telling when this war will ever end.  I’m lead to believe that I’m the only one that’s going to change this world like a remixed mash up on crack.   I’ve been brought up in the east, but born in the west – so the blood wars between the two sides of the world are going to tear me apart if I’m not focused.  Roll out the red carpets, this battle will become the next Celebrity Death match of epic proportions and I’ll be the winner.
Time goes on and we realize just what it is that we’re meant to do in life. I’m not talking your versions of the past mixed in with alternative psychics telling you that you’re some washed up Samurai.  Crossover to the realization that you’ve been running out of time since the day you were born, and the war paint isn’t washing off.   Don’t drink that kool aid son; it’s tainted with the dying bodily waste of our fallen comrades…
It’s 2012 bitches – and there are no more rules, and there’s no more good and evil.  We’re just fighting to restore the world to the rightful owners, and the rightful place in time.   If that means I have to set the world ablaze with my fingers…
 
Chapter One
Risen Phoenix
With… my fingers… that I’m lucky to still have after that last accident in 2008.  That last accident that left me scarred head to toe.   I still have the hospital tag, and they were surprised I even made it alive after what had happened.   I was fighting with Justin, who doesn’t even realize that he was well enough to be under Kam and Strode’s influence at the time.   It was one fell swoop and I lost complete control, and to this day even if I know exactly how to fix that issue?   I won’t take that chance, I don’t care how FLAMING brilliant I still am – I almost set half of Yokosuka on fire.  You could call it psychological anxiety, but I call it just thinking about the rest of mankind’s wellbeing.
“Skylar-san… Phone for you…”
I yawned, and looked around to realize there was a cellphone being shoved in my face.  All my bills are in my real name, because of the strange laws that Kam has put into place after he revealed his own real name, Satoshi Kanegawa.  So a phone call could mean, I’m wanted for questioning, or someone’s died in my family overseas and I don’t want to know about it…  I can’t afford a decent apartment, and I have barely enough room for my sewing machine. Although, after being forced out of my job by Satoshi’s ready and able takeover of Japan; I sort of managed to get myself in to a capsule apartment and started doing illegal commissions.  I’m making some really fucking cool things for people and sometimes for myself, but I’m only scraping by on very little leftover money.
I’m somehow no longer legally allowed to live in the civilized apartments around Tokyo; so I’m stuck eating in the cafeteria in the capsule complex, or around town when I get a chance.  Needless to say, I was skinny before this – I’ve lost a bit more since then being unable to have a fridge and cupboards where I live.  What’s left in my pocket, after rent and utilities lately goes straight into saving to get the hell out of here and back to civilization.
One day, I’d called this place home – I’d grown up in the east and I’d been here for the first eight to ten years of my life.  We’d been all over the place since god knows when, and due to my father’s work – we’d been settled for several years in Japan when I was little. Dad was a republican, American conservative who’d had ties with the Japanese government and my mother died when I was really little… so needless to say my life hasn’t been all rainbows and sparkles.
Anyways, I crawled my way down to the reception where they handled all the calls and started to nervously figure out who it could be.
“Moshi, moshi….”
“Skylar, it’s me… Terrin.”
Step back a minute, Lily’s ex and Justin’s mortal enemy is calling me on the phone?  Not that I have any clue why, it’s not like I have much to do with him.   Didn’t he try to kill Justin in 2007?
“Kaji, it’s Kaj…oh fuck it, what do you want.”
“Justin’s location.”
“You dirty son of a bitch.”
I may realize that this isn’t the same Terrin that devoted his heart and soul to his friends, and that he’d been dedicated to keeping the silver dipped soul of Tensei’s alive through everything going on.   That this man on the phone is Terrin, a rusted and crumbling sick fuck who has no regard for his peers. This man who had once tried to kill a misty-eyed, suffering version of literally someone he used to know once upon a very long time ago.  It’s that sort of mystery behind a broken man, that I’m never interested in solving.  I don’t care how much I tend to know about everyone around me, Terrin’s mind went from a solid psyche to turning on himself and enacting dirty revenge.
“I don’t care how dirty, or sick you think I am, there is a reason I ask for it.”  Terrin’s voice was stern, but he wasn’t well in the head anymore.  Something was eating him inside out, whether he thinks he failed Justin so many years ago or not I’ll never know.
I grumbled, and replied softly and justly…
“Terrin, even if I knew where Sparky was… would I ever tell you?”
“Mako would.”
“I’m not your Captain,  I am not your lover, and I am certainly not your toy… get your head out of your ass and grow up.”  I was tired of his tirades of comparing me to Makoto, who was Tensei’s lover and the other half of Izuchi’s psychological problems.   Everything was falling around me, and I’m not sure how strong I am to help this world back off the ground.
Terrin’s growl was low, and he wanted to yell out like a dirty bastard Samurai, and yell that I should commit ritual suicide.   It was his answer to everything, when he didn’t get his way and it was  more than just a tiring game – it was like he was the next villain on the list to conquer next to Satoshi and Strode.  You can’t tell me, that standing up for my values is worth committing suicide over…
“You are lucky, that you are not near me.”
“I’m lucky?  I’d say you are, considering that you realize you’re talking to me… Kaji, you think you know me but you don’t.”  
I hung up the phone, and graciously thanked the receptionist and walked about forty feet without realizing someone was behind me.   I didn’t bother to turn around, either my senses were telling me it was Terrin playing me for a fool – or it was someone else and I could walk straight to my apartment.  I was shivering, nervous for once – if it was Terrin, I could be a dead man in minutes if I didn’t get over my fear of my abilities.  If it was just another resident trying to say Hello, I could smile and nod and get back to sewing a few more things…
Turns out, I was wrong on both counts…
“Skye… thank you for not telling him where I am.”
“Justin???”
I turned around, and a man I’d only seen about five years before in the hospital nearly dying, and a year after that trying to kill me – was standing in front of me.  There’s no going back on my word, I said I’d help him, no matter if he was trying to kill me or what.  It’s just that he tends to pick the strangest times in the calendar to pick his communication back up.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t – my fear of my abilities because of what he did was covering like cement in my throat.   I wanted so hard to say something, this guy isn’t evil – he’s tried to not let his darker motives get the best of him.  He’d been eaten alive by his apathy more than once, and fueled to his own death by Satoshi and Strode.  He’d seen the death of Shiro, and he’d been through hell and back…
Kinda like me…
“Yea, I’m sorry I didn’t call…”
“It’d be kinda hard considering you almost… here, let’s head up to my apartment… and we can talk.”
I showed him to where the ladder was to my tiny-ass capsule compartment, and started to realize he didn’t get why I lived in one of these.  You see, the last time we spoke he thought I was doing better now I was working in that factory… even though I was only in some single bedroom studio in the worst part of Harajuku.  I felt bad, that I couldn’t talk to him like I used to – there was an air of anxiety after he tried to kill me, even if he was sick in the mind and couldn’t control himself.
“Skye…  what happened to the good apartment you had once?”
“I never had one, I never had a lifestyle I could sing home about – I’ve always lived out of a cardboard box, or a telephone booth or worse – the bar down the road.”  I sighed, because it was true, whenever I couldn’t afford to live – I didn’t.
“I-I don’t understand.”
“Will you focus?” I snarled, he was 30 and I’m 27 – he should be able to stop blinking his broken mind at me and expecting me to parent him.   He’s a good guy, and he’s a friend – but I’m not his sibling, nor his parent.  I can’t do this…every time I turned my face back at him I saw several colors in his irises and it made me sick to my stomach with guilt.   I know it’s not my fault, but if I would’ve made him listen, or if I would’ve gotten through easier and not been burnt to a crisp so many times against Strode and Satoshi…
“I can’t Kaji… I just don’t understand.  That’s all there is to it.  Y’do know I have copies of you and everyone else that’s ever fused with me running around my head these days.”  Justin’s face was as honest as Abe Lincoln’s ever was.   He wasn’t lying  about anything, he didn’t understand – because his mind was broken into facets of a diamond.  He wasn’t just plagued with the future-seeing narcoleptic confusion dreams, night-tares and horrifying alternative views of our universe – he was plagued with everyone else’s waking dreams, nightmares and desires.  It’s a wonder how he’s even alive and hasn’t committed suicide to shut everything off…
“I do, and I need you to focus.  Sparky, I’ve never lived in some big apartment in Yokohama, and nor have I ever had enough food to be at my healthy weight or slightly over like you and the rest of the guys we know.”
I looked like death… on many levels, and couldn’t do a damn thing about it… just slather the hairspray and eyeliner on and hope nobody realizes it.
“Phe, I came here cause I had a few things to tell you and well I did want to talk about what happened.”
“Justin… I can’t do this right now, a quick chat would be best.”
It really is like he has no clue…