Kash or Karry?
By Aris Merquoni

Kasia looked around the apartment with distain. "It's..." she frowned. "Ketanai. 
Semai des."

"Yes, Suzuranko, it is dirty and cramped, but it is home now." Takeshi looked 
around the Los Alamos apartment and smiled. "Yes," he said, satisfied, "it will 
do. It is, after all, better than sleeping in the forest, so desu ka?"

"Hai, so des." Kasia grimaced. "I still wish we had our house back."

"Yes, but this will help your education." He smiled. "You cannot learn all your 
Eigo from technical manuals, hmm?"

"I want to learn to write in Nihongo."

"Yes, later. You need to learn your native language, first!" Takeshi flashed her a 
grin and went to inspect his bedroom.

Kasia sighed and went to the window. She pulled open the brown plaid curtains and 
looked out over the alley.

Los Alamos, she thought. Nice place.

:It is better than, say, Lone Star, where we would be shot on sight,: She 'heard' 
in the back of her mind.

:I guess,: she thought back. She looked down into the street. She couldn't see much 
because of the angle, but it looked fairly innocuous by daylight.

"It's a wretched hive of scum and villany by night," Takeshi remarked.

:I'll bet,: Kasia replied. :Can't wait to get out there.:

--:|:--

Kasia slung her jacket onto the back of her chair as she burst into the apartment. 
:Sensei!: she called.

"What, Suzuranko?" Takeshi replied, looking up from his book.

She struck a pose and extended a hand. She was holding a knife, a four-inch long 
blade attatched to a metal handle molded into a grip. "Justin was showing me a few 
tricks," she said proudly. "He's letting me keep this."

Takeshi frowned, and switched to Japanese. "*You know I do not approve of your 
connection with Justin,*" he admonished.

Kasia snorted and told her teacher what he could do with his approval. :He's got a 
neat car.:

Takeshi grimaced. "*That 'neat car' is a VW Beetle so old it would fall apart 
except for the duct tape, and it is painted a disgusting variety of colors.*"

She sighed. "It's a hot car. He's done stuff to it. It's a ripper."

"I'm not going to ask."  His eyes narrowed. "But what would your nifty knife tricks 
be worth against..."

The knife was jerked from her hand. Gritting her teeth, Kasia fought back her 
surprise and tried to focus. The knife jerked, stopped, and hung suspended over the 
table. For minutes, it hovered, sometimes jerking slightly, but ultimately it fell. 
Within a second, it leapt to Kasia's outstretched hand as she took a defensive 
postition.

Takeshi smiled and bowed as well as he could from his seat. "You are doing better, 
gakusei, but you need more practice with control." He reached out and touched the 
blade of the knife. "So, you are a bladed lily, hmm?"

Kasia snorted and reached over to slip the knife into her jacket pocket. "I'm not 
lily of the valley, sensei," she said, "Just an orphan you picked up because I was 
bawling on seven frequencies and you were getting a headache."

"But you are a lily, Kasia. You just don't look at yourself."

"I'm a bitch, maybe. Not a lily."

Takeshi smiled sadly. "The argument is futile, I see. Get some rest, Suzuranko."

--:|:--

Kasia flipped the throwing knife over in her hands a few times, then sent it flying 
toward the wall.

*THUNK*

The knife dug its tip into the wall a few inches to the left of the ironing board 
Kasia was using as a target.

Takeshi looked up from his book. "Please, Suzuranko, do not damage the walls beyond 
repair."

"Well, you *could* teach me how not to miss!" Kasia griped, and sent another knife 
at the target. This one landed a few inches to the right before gravity grabbed 
ahold and ripped it from its temporary berth in the wall.

"Patience, gakusei. Concentrate. Focus." Kasia glared and threw another knife. This 
one spun, light flashing off the blade, before it impacted with the wall hilt-first 
over and above the board.

Takeshi sighed and shook his head. The three knives suddenly leapt from the floor. 
He plucked them from the air and started juggling. Kasia watched for a few seconds, 
then sardoncially began applauding.

Takeshi bowed, then looked over at the ironing board. His hands were a blur, and 
suddenly-

*THUNK*
*THUNK*
*THUNK*

The three knives were buried in the ironing board, their points equally spaced 
around the very center of the target. Kasia frowned, but her teacher hadn't used 
even a touch of power to manipulate the steel.

Takeshi clapped his hands to his sides and bowed formally. "Focus," he admonished 
again, and sat down to resume his reading.

--:|:--

Kasia growled into the phone. "Look, Justin, I don't want to discuss it." She 
listened to the angry male voice on the other end, still scowling. "No. No, it's 
not that. No, it's not the sex! Dammit, I just don't want to see you anymore. Look, 
back off, all right? There are plenty of girls throwing themselves at your feet." 
She sighed. "Look, why are you doing this? I want to break up. I don't want to be 
part of your life anymore. Good-bye!" She slammed the phone down in anger and 
stared at it.

"Are you all right?" Takeshi asked from the table.

"Huh?" Kasia turned, then crossed the room and sat down. "Oh, yeah... just... that 
didn't go too well."

"Well, it went better than it could have, and it is over with. So desu ka?"

"Hai, so des."

"Good. Now, back to the lesson." Takeshi gestured at the spiraling insence smoke 
rizing from the brazier in the center of the table.

Kasia sighed. Then she concentrated, using minute amounts of telekinetic power to 
manipulate the smoke.

The smoke weaved around her clumsy efforts, and she threw up her hands in 
frustration. "It's impossible!"

"No, it is not. You are thinking you need to control the smoke, when you do not. 
There is too much smoke to manipulate. Move around the smoke instead, like so." 
Takeshi raised a hand and his eyes norrowed.

Slowly, a figure began to form in the smoke. It was a face, its lines soft and 
almost glowing in the darkness. Kasia squinted, trying to make out details. "Me?" 
she finally said. Then, "No, that can't be me. I'm not that pretty."

Takeshi smiled sadly, and the face evaporated. "You doubt too much, Kasia-san. Your 
turn."

Kasia frowned and tried to focus on something simpler. Creating a single plane of 
force, she trapped the smoke from rising upward over an area. The smoke congealed 
under her 'roof', then spread outward and rose toward the ceiling.

Narrowing her eyes and her focus, she extended the walls down to create a box with 
no bottom. Then she tried pushing the walls in, attempting to form a structure as 
her teacher had.

After five minutes of slipping, she finally sighed and let the half-formed box 
dissolve. "That's it. I'm beat."

"A good beginning," Takeshi murmured to himself, and snuffed the incense with a 
thought. "With practice-"

He never finished his sentence. The flimsy door to the apartment was kicked open, 
the hinges tearing out of the prefab wall. Takeshi frowned and half-rose in his 
seat, as Kasia turned around to catch a glimpse of the scene. "What-" her teacher 
said.

There was a flash, and a red beam of light cut through the air. Takeshi screamed as 
the laser cut through his vital organs in an instant and left him slumped on the 
chair, the uncauterized blood spilling out over his charred silk shirt.

Kasia stared in shock as her teacher slid to the floor, his eyes already glazing 
over and his peacock-blue shirt darkening from the blood. ":SENSEI!:" she screamed 
in terror and helplessness.

"Don't worry about him," the grating male voice said. Kasia slowly turned to see 
the muzzle of the laser pistol focused right on her head. She focused her eyes past 
the gun, but she already knew who was holding it.

"Justin," she said. "You... you..."

"You're coming with me, bitch," he said, "Nobody gets away from me. Nobody, you 
understand? You are *mine.*"

"No... I'm... NOT!" Kasia screamed.

Justin stared down the length of his gun at the shivering, sweating telepath. She 
looked sexy like that... helpless. He licked his lips and made a gesture toward the 
door.

His muscles wouldn't obey. His vision swam. Suddenly, stabbing pains started just 
behind his eyes. He screamed, and the gun fell from lifeless fingers. Curling into 
a fetal position on the grimy floor, convulsing in agony, the last thing he saw 
before blackness claimed him was the toe of a booted foot swinging at his forehead.

--:|:--

Kasia shivered and wrapped her arms around her frame, staring down at Justin's limp 
form. Then she looked over at Takeshi.

An instant later, she was rushing to the bathroom, offering the remains of her last 
meal up to the porcelan god. She took a drink of slightly acidic tapwater from the 
faucet, then gritted her teeth and went out to the main room. The two men were 
laying as before. Swiftly, she grabbed Justin's pistol and slid it into her belt. 
Then she turned to her teacher.

Causing atoms to excite to the point of combustion had been one of her first 
lessons. Concentrating, she used her talent to purify the body of her teacher in 
flame.

When the body had burned, Kasia stopped the flames, then skirted Justin's comatose 
form and headed for the street. His car would be there, and she knew him well 
enough to know where he'd left the keys.

In less then ten minutes, Kasia was behind the wheel of Justin's bug, heading away 
from Los Alamos. Heading away from the pain, heading away from it all.

Heading for a new life.

--:|END|:--