The Dragon who would Bite her Soul. (4 of 5 complete)

[Nyan Kat]

After an exchange of several letters and phone calls a young mother succeeds in placing her daughter into an American high school. Rita, as she was known, wanted he child away from her home and from her husband, from her life. Rita, a European woman had fallen in love when she was too soon to see that she would fall upon shards of glass. Her husband was a Yakuza; a Japanese mafia member. This locked Rita into a dark world she could now not escape, one which she did not want her daughter to die in. But can fate be overcome? Her daughters plans did not go unknown to the father, who made arrangements to give his wife her bittersweet end. Rita's daughter left Japan safely, as her mother watched the flight depart with her final breath.

Eighteen hours after Rita's death a young half Japanese, half European child arrived at Gotham International on a connection flight. The child was blissfully ignorant that she was, by then, a slave to fate. When she arrived she did everything as her mother told her before leaving: follow the instructions from the airline attendants and wait for Robert Morgan to take her to her new home. A certain Mr. Morgan picked her up at the airport, at least saying to her that Robert Morgan was his name. The curiously dressed foreign girl went with him, leaving the airport for the city.

"Sorry, before ya get home I gotta make a lil stop, OK kid?" The man explained.
She only cocked her head to one side, unable to fully understand his slang. His tone showed some irritation at dealing with his passenger, "guess ya don't understand me. Ain't my problem."

They drove on into Gotham city, stopping at the corner of a tall building. Morgan stepped out of the vehicle and pointed at the girl, "stay" he said sternly. This time she nodded in understanding. While Morgan was gone she took the chance to stick her head out the window and look around her. There were tall buildings everywhere, taller than the ones in Tokyo, but the city looked a bit bleak to her. She sat back down when she saw her driver coming back towards the car. He was followed by a man in a white suit. The attire of the stranger reminded her of the clothes her father or his friends would wear. She looked at him curiously as he entered the front passenger seat. He said nothing to her as they drove off, only to be accosted moments later by the wailing of police sirens. She never did know what type of work her father and mother did, but she was about to have the knowledge of it gnash into her like a dragon with acidic saliva.

The police gave chase as Morgan attempted to pull away from them. The sound of sirens, squealing tyres, gunfire, and glass shattering filled the air around her as she covered her head, screaming in fear. Morgan drove furiously while shooting back at the perusing vehicle, his passenger simply sat there calmly. The chase ended abruptly in a crash that took Morgan's life. The man in front was unhurt as the two officers that gave chase walked over to the broken vehicle. The officers checked to passenger up front, believing him to be unconscious and sure that the driver was dead. Then they checked the girl in the back and reported on the radio, "need a paramedic at the corner of 6th and Davidson, one gang member dead, another out, and some kid, looks like Japanese from the clothes here in shock." The moment he finished his radio call four shots were fired from the front passenger, striking the two officers down. The man stepped out from the wreckage and looked over at the child. The arrangement was to bring the girl from the airport to the gang's penthouse.

Upon pulling her out of the wreck he gave her a strong slap across the face to try and break the shock she was under, leaving a bruise below her eye. She looked at him, tears welling up once again. He told her to get lost, that he would report her for dead. However, in her panicked state she could not understand him. She held tightly to his shirt trying to ask for help, using pieces of English mixed into Japanese, "oniisan... please, atai wa... help," was the clearest that could be made of her words.
The man responded, "I gave you the chance at freedom, you want into the life your pops wants you in? Then show me your fangs."
He took his gun, placing her hands around the handle and pointed at one of the officers that lay on the floor, clinging to life. She looked up at him as the man grinned and pointed at the officer. "Bang!" he instructed with the motion of his hand.
She shook in terror as she turned her head from side to side in refusal. Disappointed, the man turned to walk away as she shouted for him, "WAIT!"
He turned around, looking down on her pitifully, as her tears rolled down her face. Fear was making her mind cloudy, she was desperate, not knowing if she would be killed if she didn't do as told, not even realizing that she was holding the murder weapon in her hands. Fate was already locking her in place as she pulled the trigger. The officer's blood splashed out, droplets hitting her cheek as she fell back, dropping the gun. The bullet only hit the shoulder of it's target as the man shook his head in disapproval. He picked up the gun, placing it again in her hands and pointed as before, this time at the head of the downed officer. Hesitation and disgust washed over her like waves, she felt like she would throw up at any second. The moment she pulled that trigger was the moment she lost her name.

That was ten years ago. Since that day the gang gave her the alias Mokou, after the only word she would say for several months after being tied into the gang. The sight of blood had become a regularity since then, and her new family took care of her well enough after breaking her to become one of their specialists. They were, if nothing else, stereotypical with her; giving her martial arts training just because of her looks. Mokou developed a reputation as Intergang's dragon, a vicious woman that delights in torturing others. A part of that was true, she grew to enjoy the sadism of abusing others, but her heart would always be opposed to her life.

Like any other girl, Mokou wanted to have a normal life; with friends and a family. That was no gone. But she still would not bend her heart to the life she felt trapped into: she had never taken a life since the day she pulled the trigger, the day she never stopped regretting. To have to cling to honour and yet live without hope, Mokou's life was one of confusion. One which would not change.

Or so she assumed within logical reason.

Brainiac's invasion, her abduction, and the exobyte given abilities threw the logic she knew away. Regaining consciousness from her stasis inside the ship, Mokou broke free of her containment cutting through the strange material with the small katana she always carried with her. But, this was not freedom, she was confronted immediately and surrounded by the security robots on the vessel.
"So... this is where I will die, is it?" She said to herself with a sigh. It was fine for her though, better dead than back to hell, even if hell was where her soul would end up.

As she stepped forward, her body tensed up, the usual feelings she would get before entering a fight tingled upon her nerves, the only difference was that her opponents were not human, her heart did not waiver as there was no worry of killing. Mokou made the first move, then the secod, managing to cut through her adversaries easier than she assumed, her body feeling amazingly light. The thrill of battle engulfed her again, and the dragon reveled in tearing her enemies apart. But the metal bodies suddenly all fell to the ground, and Mokou's hand was grabbed by a shadowed figure. The heat of battle was still on her and she did not see who had held her as she pulled away, striking back. The shadow evaded her with ease as her vision cleared. As she took her final swing the shadow reached out, stopping her hand and revealing the mask of the one person she knew she must never fight: the Batman.

Mokou fell back in shock, she knew knew that Batman would recognise her as a wanted criminal, and she knew she had no chance of besting him. She knelt before him and spoke, "did you rescue me just to send me to my judgement?"

"I am not here to judge, I am here to offer a second chance. You are one of the few that survived this invasion, and you will come to understand why soon enough. Now, will you use this chance to set your life on the path of redemption or will you bare your fangs at the world once again?"

Mokou bowed before Batman, once again crying, this time in tears of joy. She thanks the Batman for giving her the chance to be human again. Though she would not be able to easily shake off the negative traits of her personality she would, for now burn a new path of fate. Those who she once worked would be bitten, the dragon would bare it's fangs again, and burn injustice to the ground.

[Plastic DCUO]

Like it.

[Cara Lace]

Awesome story Fuji, well done.

[Nyan Kat]

Following Mokou's release from her extraterrestrial confinement she was sent to the Gotham police department in East End, and right into the precinct's lockup. Heroine or not she still had several crimes to account for. She spent the night in the cell sitting on the bench with her knees to her chest, still thinking about the events that had brought her here. And still ignorant of her new abilities. Disarmed, exhausted, and only in a tattered coat she sat in the cold cell until the bars were opened and an officer came in.

"Let's go, you're going to interrogation." He ordered.

Putting exhaustion aside Mokou stood up and followed as she was told. The officer hand cuffed her as soon as she got to the cell door and led her to the interrogation room. Inside there was only a one officer; a husky looking person in a hat and trench coat. He didn't smell very appealing, which went along with his looks. As Mokou was seated and the door to the room closed the interrogator began to speak, "Huh? So you're Mokou?"

He went through a folder containing Mokou's information then looked at her, "says here you've got black hair and brown eyes on the wanted description. But you don't look like no Chinese woman to me."

His comment got her attention and she looked directly into his eyes. It was a cold stare, one that would tell any inept person that she had no good intentions, a stare that is not found in the regular citizen. However her interrogator was quite used to her type and completely ignored it. "You've got grey hair and red eyes, but from that look I can see you're no nice lady. The name's Bullock, detective Harvey Bullock."

Bullock leaned back in his chair and closed the file. "I don't care if you changed your looks, you still got a record and the prints match. Not to mention we confiscated that big knife o' yours. You got a ton of evidence against you so whether or not you cooperate won't matter."

Mokou did not respond to what he had said as she looked away. She simply assumed that this is the start of her repentance. Bullock was still handling the bulk of the conversation, " here's the deal: certain ....individuals have asked that you work with the special crimes unit and the GCP in exchange for keeping you out of a cell. We've got enough trouble to deal with with that damn Brainiac invasion and we don't need a target like you in one of our cells. So you get one chance; it's us or a cell for the rest of your life."

The silence after this statement was unearthly cold. Mokou did not even nod in affirmation or denial. Bullock broke the empty noise, "hey, did you hear what I said? Does this woman even speak English?"

"I understand." Mokou responded softly, but her voice was without interest.

"You know, a lot of your torture victims succumbed to the injuries you inflicted. So you're no different than any other of the homicidal maniacs out there." Bullock told her sternly.

"You should say you're damn lucky you aren't gettin' the chair."

At the end of the interrogation she was told to go back to Intergang, the same place she came from and arrest the gang boss: Bruno Mannheim. It sounded easy enough, just walk in, go to the head's office and toss him out the window for the police to pick up, at least in her interpretation. So she went back to the penthouse as instructed. Of course, Mokou walked in without trouble from the lower gang members. When she asked one of the leaders where Mannheim was he gave Mokou an odd look and asked her what happened to her clothes and why her hair was different. Not having a good excuse, and not wanting to tell the truth about her new allegiance, she made her request more demanding by playing on her rank, or rather upon her reputation. This small intimidation was more than enough to have him point out Mannheim's location.

Upon entering the warehouse Mokou was greeted by a woman she had never seen before. A redheaded woman wearing dark blue and whose features seemed snake-like approached Mokou, "you dare to come back here with the stink of that Bullock on you? And after all I've done to get you into this position."

Her words got something from Mokou that no one has ever been able to in many years: an irritated reaction as Mokou tried to grab her. But as soon as she reached out the woman was gone. The mysterious woman had already alerted intergang of Mokou's treachery, she had to fight her way to Mannheim who was right in the middle of a ritual, with Batwoman as a sacrifice. So she fought through the opposition with only her bare hands and feet as a her weapons. But that was more than enough, and the lower gang members were still afraid of her. Her encounter with the unknown woman had enraged her so much that she did not notice her blood-lust, nor the flames of anger literally blazed around her. Her body was picking up on the exobyte power she received and instinctively setting ablaze anything and anyone she deemed as an enemy. She went on like this, going through the doorway to the back of the warehouse. But Mannheim was already down, knocked out. Before her stood The Question, with an injured Batwoman leaning on her for support, and someone she did not know: a masked man with a rifle, perhaps one of the new heroes that have been appearing so often recently.

The three of them looked over at Mokou, who looked like something emerging from a horror film; behind her she had left the hallways ablaze and in her right hand she dragged the charred remains of an intergang guard. They didn't know what to make of the sight, a strange woman in a torn coat and no shoes, with blood and ash on her. As she went over to Mannheim's comatose body the masked man decided that someone like this could not be friendly and prepared his rifle. "Hold it! Don't move!" He shouted.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder at the rifleman aiming at her. Her eyes showed that clear murderous intent and they met with someone who lived as a common civilian before playing hero. Checkmate. The rifleman staggered and his hands trembled. It was then that The Question realised who she was and pulled out one of her pistols. Without warning she shot a tranquilizer round at Mokou. The shot took quick effect as she fell to her knees and the flames around her dissipated. Sedated, she was taken in by The Question and once again put behind bars. Fortunately she would not be there for long this time, as The Question was contacted shortly afterwards by Batman.

[Cara Lace]

You write so well! I love how you are integrating the story in the game with your game.

[Nyan Kat]

"Let's begin your analysis. I'm Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, we will begin slowly with some simple questions: tell me your name please."

Handcuffed and in a monitored room, the girl was slow to respond, "... Mokou."

Dr. Arkham was called in to give a psychological analysis, after being requested by The Question. He went on, "Is Mokou your real name? If it isn't what is your real name?"

"I don't know." Mokou responded flatly while Dr. Arkham took notes on her answers. He continued by asking her about where she lived before coming to Gotham. Although her answers lacked information they were enough for Arkham to make sense of, as far as Mokou's personality went.

Outside of the interrogation room The Question watched, overhearing the conversation. Batman was with her. The two had had some disagreement as to whether or not Mokou needed an evaluation, but Batman was more concerned that Mokou would be committed to the asylum
after the evaluation. The two discussed their thoughts on what to do while the analysis went on and came to a mutual agreement.

About one our later Dr. Arkham emerged from the interrogation room and explained his results to Batman and The Question. He opened his notepad and began, "starting from the beginning the subject shows areas of repressed memories due to childhood trauma, causing her to fabricate her identity. Her involvement in criminal activity at a young age conflicts with previously learned values; leading to a warped perception of values as well as a sadistic streak. However, she is not unreasonable and after treatment at Arkham I'm sure that we ca..."

"Just a moment Dr. Arkham." Batman interrupted.

"We need to consider the fact that most Intergang members do not sit well with the other inmates of Arkham. I'd go as far to say that it's likely that some of them will try to take revenge on her if they find out who she is. But she's not safe here either after now being known as a traitor to Intergang."

Dr. Arkham sighed, putting away his notepad and listened to the alternative Batman explained. The end result was akin to a witness protection programme; Mokou would be sent to a secluded place - a Shinto shrine and this would be known only among the three of them. Dr. Arkham agreed to personally visit her twice a week to monitor her rehabilitation. She would be taken that night.

The shrine was far away from the chaos of Gotham, past Wayne Manor, out into the countryside. There was no power, no plumbing, none of the modern city amenities. Mokou wanted to ask what she was being brought here for, but with her carrier being Batman himself she decided against it. Upon entering the shrine's grounds the two were greeted by a middle-aged man. Batman seemed familiar enough with him as he explained the situation before introducing Mokou.

Her restraints were released and after the introduction the two bowed in greeting. She was then instructed to stay and do as the priest said, she would be allowed to leave when the time is right. It seemed like an insulting joke at the time and she stared at Batman with scorn. At first glance it looked like a play on her cultural background, but there was a method to Batman's madness. Batman left Mokou behind that night in the care of that shrine so she could calm her unstable mind and learn to manage her abilities.

The shrine master brought her inside and offered her bath and a change of clothing, though the only thing available was a shrine maiden's hakama and haori. But it was better than nothing. Donning the outfit of a miko would completely change her appearance from an unsavory street rat to a simple Asian woman. And the next few days would begin to change her attitude towards the world as the shrine's master refined her martial arts skills. Here she would grasp knowledge of staves, katanas, and archery. However, her power over fire would be something she would have to master on her own.

After several weeks at the shrine Dr. Arkham was astounded at Mokou's progress. Though she still had some negative tendencies left over, she seemed to be in control. He proceeded to ask her about her name once again. Mokou put her hand on her chin, giving it deep thought but then shrugged and replied, "I don't remember. But I'm content with being called Mokou. If I were to think of a last name then.... well the master told of Mount Fuji yesterday, so maybe Fujiwara? That's a bit silly isn't it?" She giggled after asking.

At the end of his session Dr. Arkham wrote his patient's name 'Mokou Fujiwara'.

[Nyan Kat]

Three months had gone past since Mokou came to the unnamed shrine outside Gotham. Separated from the temptations and the dangers of the city she could focus her efforts on rehabilitation. However, Dr. Arkham's regular visits were about to be abruptly cut short. Her scheduled session with the doctor was cancelled due to Arkham's absence, but Mokou thought nothing of it. The shrine master summoned Mokou to the temple front with a message concerning Dr. Arkham's absence. The message was relayed from the Justice League, Batman specifically, and addressed to Mokou. The details of the message told of an incident at Arkham Asylum and that Dr. Arkham was missing. The message also requested that Mokou head to the asylum and rendezvous with Robin to investigate further.

Before she left Mokou visited the holy tree in the temple gardens. Holy as it was called, it was merely an old tree with a bell and talismans attached to its branches. Even the shrine's master admitted that no deity resided in the shrine. Still, as the shrine's new priestess Mokou followed tradition and paid her respects to the holy tree that night. As opened her eyes after her prayer for a safe journey Mokou caught the faintest glimpse of someone sitting on one of the branches. It was naught but for a moment before the shape disappeared, she was sure there was someone there. There was no time to investigate a haunted tree though, and Mokou left for Arkham.

At Arkham Robin explained that Batman was on the search for Dr. Arkham. However, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, and the Scarecrow had escaped from confinement and were releasing the other inmates, generally causing a mess. "Well actually," Robin commented, "the other three are dealing with the Scarecrow at the moment, Ivy and Freeze are both missing. Give them a hand."

Mokou met up with the other three cooperatives and they introduced themselves and asked Mokou to play decoy for them. Specifically to make herself the target of the Scarecrow's attention while they subdue and capture him. She didn't say anything, Mokou only nodded in agreement. The plan they thought out sounded like a easy win, but it would prove to be flawed. Because of the fear gas in the room things became unpredictable, and one-by-one the group fell victim to the fear and the Scarecrow's assaults. All but Mokou. She was eventually left alone with the mounting effects of the gas. Mokou faced the Scarecrow head on, not giving in, it became a battle of endurance as the gas took full effect. Now the hallucinations were all too real, she had to do something. Mokou calmed her mind as much as she could and focused on finishing off the Scarecrow with a special technique. As he swung his machete at her Mokou stood still, reaching out with her right hand and catching the blade between her thumb and the base of her index finger, much to the Scarecrow's surprise. As a single drop of blood dripped from her palm she pulled her right hand back, lurching the Scarecrow forward. While this movement happened she took a step forward with her left foot and with an open palm on her left struck firmly into the center of the Scarecrow's chest. At the impact point there was an explosion of flame, knocking the Scarecrow away and knocking him out. Smoke rose from his chest where there were not one, but four indentations on his torso; Mokou had put four strikes in what seemed like one.

This burst usage of her abilities fully healed her injuries, if not somewhat freakishly as open wounds closed themselves. The remaining hallucination of a minotaur was much too slow to strike her, and the end result was miraculously in Mokou's favour. The other three eventually recovered and commended her, but Mokou was worn out and respectfully asked to leave.

She returned to the shrine, going to the tree and bowing in thanks for the protection she had received. "Be you human, saint, or god, I thank you for the fortune you've given to me tonight."

A woman's voice answered back, "you are quite welcome."

It was a shock. The voice coming from the tree was not known to her, as the figure reappeared on the branch of the tree. As the person came into view the tree sprouted new leaves at an accelerated rate, and the flowers and grass around it grew wildly. "Who are you? Are you this shrine's god?" Mokou asked.

The woman came down from the branch, coming into clear view, "god? I think goddess should be what you should've said, isn't it?"

Mokou staggered backwards, somewhat shocked as the woman before her came into full view. "Yo-you're .... where are the rest of your clothes!?"

She smiled, taking a bit of delight in Mokou's reaction. "I've heard about what you did tonight. There are others who could use your help with situations like that. I want you to join a league, they're called the Justice Girls."

Mokou could only read what was being said as an order, the person before her had something of a commanding presence. "OK, fine. If I join you won't hurt me right?"

With a giggle the woman introduced herself. "You can call me Cara, and welcome to the Justice Girls."

Mokou bowed in gratitude, "thanks. But I don't have to be your priestess do I?"