Aberrant: 200X - The past comes knocking

[Reese K. Kincaid]

Between them on the table there lay a piece of inarizushi. Deep-fried tofu, cooked crisp, forming a pouch filled with sushi rice inside. It had been dipped in soy sauce, rolled with wasabi and lay on the table, a prize to be claimed.

Reese clicked his chopsticks and poised them to strike. He licked his lips, and looked across the table. Around them Kiku, Hanako and Takako were eating. Though Reese suspected Hanako had stopped, given he could hear her trying not to giggle. Reese and Fuk had finished their meals already, their saki cups and rice bowls sitting empty before them.

Fuk Si Yi clicked his own chopsticks. He was a handsome chinese Nova, with a grin that could shatter hearts, wearing a flawless black suit over a white undershirt. China's favourite martial arts star. He favoured Reese with one of his famous grins. "You should know, my friend, that the hero always wins."

"I have a movie franchise of my own," Reese said watching for the momentary twitch of muscle that would signify the beginning of their contest.

"I have seven." His grin widened.

Fuk's chopsticks snapped down, and Reese intercepted with his own. He grabbed the inarizushi, but Fuk slapped it out of his grip. They blurred as they tried to catch it on its way back to the plate, their chopsticks clacking like bokken, but never clashing with such force that they would snap.

Reese balanced the inarizushi on one of his chopsticks and fought off both of Fuk's with the other, flicking it back and forward so fast that Fuk's short hair began to grow windblown. But when Reese tried to bring the prize back, Fuk managed to flick the inzarizushi and it went spinning off across the table.

Kiku let out a gasp, but Fuk snapped the tofu out of the air before it had a chance to mar her shirt.

"Boys!" Takako said, though her words fell on deaf ears. This contest would end with tasty treats for one and embarassed defeat for the other. Hanako giggled.

Reese closed his chopsticks around Fuk's wrist and moved it into the center of the table between them. They locked eyes. Fuk's were dark and intense now, boring into his, full of challenge.

Fuk yanked his arm back. Reese switched his grip to grab the tofu and they paused, both holding on. They twisted in opposite directions at the same time, the inarizushi burst and rice went flying into the air.

Y

"Boys!" Takako shouted.

Even as she let out a frustrated sigh, Reese and Fuk's chopsticks flashed like lightning, snatching up every single grain of rice, depositing it into the empty rice bowls before them. They each snapped up a piece of inarizushi shell and returned it to their side of the table.

Fuk Si Yi stroked two fingers over his pointed black beard. "Not quite satisfactory."

Reese shrugged. "Sometimes the best a hero can hope for is a pyrrhic victory."

"Oh very droll."

Laughing, Reese looked around the table. Kiku was sitting, mouth agape, watching them. Hanako giggled, unable to control herself. Takako glared at them both. "You two are incorrigable! You could have," she threw her hands up in the air. "Novas!"

Fuk Si Yi pressed his fist to his palm and bowed to her. "There was no danger, Mrs. Kincaid. But you must forgive us. Your inarizushi is quite irresistable. Wars have been fought over less. Reese?"

He popped his piece of tofu into his mouth and chewed. "Slight exagerration, maybe."

Takako glared at him.

Reese looked away. "Oh look, an obvious distraction!"