Free The Hinomoto Rebellion by Elizabeth Staley Page B

look suspicious, but couldn’t help keeping track of it out of the corner of his eye until it had turned a corner. Police were especially hated by the underground fighters since they were especially hard on Martial artists. Kanjou himself had not witnessed brutality quite like what he had seen at the bar where they’d met Andrea. It almost made him wonder if the government had known he and Roni were there.
    Kanjou shook the thought away as he turned back toward headquarters. Now you’re being paranoid, Kanjou, he told himself. There’s no way they could know that.
“Andrea!” Roni called. “How did you get up there!?”
    The silver-haired girl smirked, her arms tucked behind her head as a slight breeze ruffled her clothes and hair. From the tone of Roni’s voice, Andrea could tell that she had thwarted some plan to have Andrea roped in to a conversation. She closed her blue eyes and breathed in the summer twilight air.
    After dinner was over Andrea had returned to her room. She’d begun to lay back down on the futon, but remembered the spider on the ceiling and instantly shuddered. Instead she’d gone to the window and climbed out, hauling herself on to the rickety, uneven roof. She was surprised when the roof didn’t cave in under her weight, so she’d laid down on it and watched the last bit of the sun slip below the horizon. Now, the sky was beginning to grow dark while the last fires of pink, purple, orange and yellow died behind the buildings that encompassed Andrea’s view.
“Andrea!”
     
The silver-haired girl sat up. “Geeze! What!?” she screamed back, “I’m trying to enjoy myself up here!”
    Roni and D were standing on the cracked paving stones that made up the central courtyard of the temple. One corner of the stones had been up heaved by the roots of a great tree that towered over the roof of the temple. To her left, on the backside of the decrepit building, Andrea could see a small lake with a bridge running over it, along with more trees that stretched out all the way to the ends of what used to be the Gardens.
Andrea glared down at Roni and D as they stared up at her. “How did you get up there?” Roni shouted again.
     
“I flew! How do you think I got up here?” Andrea snapped back.
     
“Why don’t you come join us in the recreation room?” called D, trying to smile cordially.
    Andrea blinked before declining with a scoff. “I’d rather be up here.” she said, then laid back down to watch night overtake the sky. She heard the door to the hall shut, and finally she was alone again. She stared up and watched as the heavens darkened and the moon rose. Here and there a few stars winked at her, and Andrea found herself wondering if one of those stars was Tony.
    Stop thinking about him, Andrea. You’ll just drive yourself crazy.
    This was the first time in a very long while that she’d watched a sunset. She loved to watch the sun disappear in all its colorful glory, and then see darkness fold in around the city as though it were trying to hide it from view. Besides training and winning tournaments this was one of the few things she actually had interest in. Watching them didn’t make Andrea happy , but she did find some small comfort in them.
    As darkness came the temperature dropped and a cool breeze swept across the city. Andrea closed her eyes and listened to the whispering of the trees. The wind found crevices and cracks in the buildings and made eerie howling and whistling noises as it passed through them. The smell of the trees and of the lake behind the temple was strong, and the breeze carried it over her and filled her senses with the heady scent of earth.
    The fighter with the silver hair dozed a little on the roof, more comfortable up here in the open air then she’d been in a long time ever though the roof was uneven and had some nails sticking out of it, but Andrea had slept on worse and the slight pricking didn’t bother her. Fireflies came out of the trees and