Matt stretched out in the recliner—which had no right to be this comfortable and hoped he didn’t fall asleep. This costume uniform had always gotten him into and out of his unofficial Marshall apartment in Little Shinjuku without anyone ever realizing it. Not even the ninjas were sure what the face behind an Imperial stormtrooper helmet looked like.
It would be even harder to figure things out today since Angelina had called a meeting of the 501st to support a fundraiser.
“Is this really necessary?” T’mari asked, not for the first time.
“Check the security cameras,” he said, handing over the tablet.
Maja knew some of what she had said had been inflammatory, and she even expected to find some official displeasure from official sources. What she had not expected was to be invited to a private sit-down from Ninja Clan X. She also had not expected Star Wars sound effects when the door slid open. She expected a pair of stormtroopers in easy chairs even less.
“Greetings, Marshall Maja. Please sit,” Matt said, pulling the cover off a tray of Shinjuku snacks, including one heaped high with yakitori.
“Who are you?” she asked, taking a seat, wondering what was up—and if she should have come at all.
“I am someone that wants to offer you a job,” Matt said, taking off his helmet.
“You are Matt Marmaduke.”
“I am TK-7567,” he said nonchalantly, sitting back down and taking a skewer. “I am also the dragon of Ninja Clan X. You have passed your initiation trials, beautifully.”
Maja had come to expect weirdness in her world after going viral on the world stage, which honestly was more unreal than the alien woman in a stormtrooper uniform sitting across from her.
“I didn’t think we were ever supposed to know your name, Master Dragon,” she said, thinking this was beyond real. Ninja Clan X was part literary society, part subversive youth organization, and for most people just a name on a very old social media account.
“We all know who each other are once you are in, and now that you are, you know the rules about revelation.”
“You would kill me,” she said, more than a little frightened—not that she was going to admit it.
“No. We would, however, ban you from Little Shinjuku for life.”
“If I thought you would turn on us, you wouldn’t be here. In not too many days, a delegation is going to go on a world tour, including a youth delegation, and I want you to be on it.”
“I am not sure I would be welcome a lot of places.”
“You won’t be,” T’mari said, letting Matt eat for a moment. “You will, however, be traveling as a citizen of the V’ren Trust, with its full backing and support. If they try to reject you, the entire V’ren Trust will be displeased and cut that country off from any aid or cooperation. Interested in making people squirm?”
“I have a job and a life. Then I have to go back to school in the fall.”
“All true. You also have a father and mother, a little brother, two cats, and a dog here at home. What we are proposing is a six-to-eight-week assignment, this summer. You can skate the best parks any place we go to, in fact, that would be part of the assignment. Skate and answer questions.”
“I am saving for my college, assuming any of them would have me now. How much does it pay?” she asked, not knowing if she could ever get her job back.
“I like that answer,” Matt said, pulling out his phone, holding it forward for an NFC connection. “That is my personal contribution to the fund,” he added, handing T’mari the dollar he had pulled from his sleeve.
“Did you mean to put a decimal point in there?” she asked, not seeing a second dollar exchange as she looked at the six-digit figure now in her account. She tried to scrub her thumb over the screen to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things.
“I will have to ask my parents.”
“Not necessary,” a voice said that Maja did recognize, from a stormtrooper she hadn’t realized was in the other room.
“Mom?” Maja stammered.
“You said you didn’t know him.”
“You asked if I knew him in school and I said I knew more of him than knew him personally.”
“Take note of that maternal judo, T’mari. You may need it one day.”
“As Dragon of the order, I need to know now if you will willingly take a place among us. You have one chance to say yes and one chance to say no and walk out that door with none the wiser and your mouth shut.”
“Of course I will join. I just thought this was all a joke, though. Something the Shinjuku Society did as a fundraiser during Lolidays.”
“Most of the Shinjuku Society think it is a farce too,” Ellie chuckled. “We sort of like the fun aspect of initiates and all the games. Everyone loves it. It is fun and like you I believed that too. The games help us thin the herd and then we wait and see if you ever do anything interesting. That is the key to being chosen. You are interesting. No, that money was not a bribe or a payment, but because I think highly of people who work hard to go to college with at least some of their own money. I also like skater girls, you’re fierce. If I didn’t value what is left of my knees I would love to join you.”
“Best trick,” Maja challenged.
“A nine hundred on the vert,” Matt said, with the smug smile another skater would recognize, “with a thirty-nine-inch ollie on the return.”
“Bad ass.”
“And quite a nice ass too,” Ellie laughed.
“Mom!”
“Kami Cloud, with two officers present we meet the necessary quorum. Have you named her?”
“I have,” Ellie nodded with all the solemnity a farcical civic society was due. “Kami Shadow, I name her as Kami Lightning.”
“Witnessed and highly appropriate. Kami Lightning, Kami Cheese, you will have until May 4th, 2441 to have full armor ready for inspection so that you too may be inducted into the 501st. Sensei is very serious about this tradition and as Dragon it is up to me to enforce it and guide you if necessary.”
“Were the stormtroopers mentioned in the ViVi piece also ninja?”
“We don’t know. That is the beauty of being part of the 501st: the armor lets us pass unseen,” Matt explained. “You have questions and I want to eat, so sit.”
“Why me?” she asked, snagging a skewer of helmets and bit into the chicken skull.
“You are interesting,” Matt said, taking up isaw and handing T’mari a Korean corndog.
“You could have just offered me the job.”
“True, but you care about Marshall and being from here in a way that warrants some recognition. Ninja Clan X has always reached beyond Little Shinjuku. We are first and foremost a civic organization.”
“Both you and my mom seem to be just over aged drama club nerds.”
“Honey, we resemble that remark,” Ellie told her daughter seeing no point in being polite and grabbed three yakitori skewers before they went cold.
“I am interested in the job, but there are a lot of people who are interesting that you could have picked,” Maja asked following her mother’s lead and went for yakitori and a corndog. “Why not Claudia Chakrobarty?”
“I would love to bring her; in fact, I would love to set the two of you lose on the world. She is however family and I don’t want the youth panel to look too clannish. Have the two of you actually met?”
“Messaged a few times over the past few days,” Maja said. “She’s a freeholder girl and…”
“… and you are one of those stuck-up Marshall girls,” Matt laughed. “Your mom was the same way.”
“I will have you know that I am not stuck up, I just had excessive civic pride.”
“Like I said stuck up,” he laughed, watching mother and daughter look at him with the same reaction all the Marshall girls had to freeholder boys.
“As soon as you are all done posturing, this job is real and so are the stakes,” T’mari said. “We leave the morning of the third. We will stop in Colorado, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Kenya, Great Britannia, then several places in Europe, before returning to Boston and finally Chicago on the eleventh of next month. Once back, we will pay you for another few weeks of interviews and debriefing for a total of eight weeks.”
“How many people are in the youth delegation and what rules are set for what sort of agenda?”
“There will be eight of you, four humans four V’ren. Two of the V’ren you already came out in support of online, Chem Corvos and Sael Thron. Kevin Wood, one of the two boys, on the trip has actually taken your side in several online comment wars. The rule is don’t do anything that would embarrass us, but since we are taking him,“ she said giving an airy aristocratic dismissal at, “the bar is pretty low. Beyond that there will be scheduled encounters with the press and cultural events that you must attend. You will have a few photo opportunities which you will be independently paid for that might result in some further brand sponsorship deals. Personally, I know that Ran’ningu already wants to sponsor you and the Marshall Cross Country team for the fall season.”
“So I need to play dress up?” Maja said, giving a little push just to see.
“You are sort of cute, so you could probably get around with walking around naked part of the time.”
“Matthew!” both women said in unison glaring at him so hard they missed what he had not, Maja blushing at being told she was cute.
“Is he always like that,” Maja said, using the Thai crab roll’s heat to mask her own reaction.
“Yes,” both women said again which broke them into laughter.
“At least he isn’t saying the things he did as a teenager,” Ellie sighed, she hadn’t known him well but knew damned well he could charm most girls right out of their panties even if it was just to walk away with them while the girls were wondering why things go so breezy. “I am sure he really didn’t mean it,” she lied.
“I want to be cute!” Maja said before realizing the words were out of her mouth.
“Oh shit, you just fed the troll girl,” Ellie sighed, grabbing a crap roll to avoid any blush of her own and remembering a time she wanted to be cute. At least these days she had nothing to fear for her daughter. He plays the inappropriate uncle well, but there is no other man she would feel safer sending her daughter around the world with.
“How much of this can I talk about?”
“The trip, all of it in about eight hours,” Matt said looking at his watch.
“Being a ninja, never,” her mother, said with a grin. “Though you can talk about being part of the 501st.”
“So, what is the next step?”
“I’ll be taking you to the Freehold homestead a little later. They will do a brain scan so you can learn through the neural interface. You are not required to learn V’ren, but you have already said you want to. You will meet the Sensei and 501st commander as well.”
“There is also the new hire paperwork. Take some time over the next few hours to think of any requests you have or want on this trip. People you want to meet, things you want to do, that sort of thing, our itinerary isn’t cast in stone yet,” Matt told her.
