Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Fantaisie Sign ❯ You Can Check Out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never Leave ( Chapter 16 )

DISCLAIMER: Cowboy Bebop and its characters are owned by the anime companies that made them, and not by me.

Author's Note: This fanfic is in the first-person style, with the POV being Edward's for all but a few chapters (and when the POV is different, I won't switch mid-chapter, the whole chapter will be like that). I've never even attempted doing something like this before, so bear with me.

French Note: For the few (non-generic) French language bits in this fic, I'll be using Babelfish. So pardon my French. ^_^

---

"Ed? Edward, it's time to go..."

"Wha? What's going on?"

I blinked open my eyes and smiled when I saw Sylvan's face directly above my own.

"Ed, it's 10:30... the party's going to start in a half hour! We'd better hurry to the Neo-Eiffel Tower... Kirsten, Asada, and the others are already on their way!"

"Oh.... wow, Ed was so excited about today that Ed didn't get to sleep until two in the morning!" I admitted, rubbing my eyes. "How did you get into Edward's room, anyway?"

"Well, I knocked first, but then when you didn't come to the door I tried the doorknob and it was unlocked," Sylvan said, slightly embarrassed. "I'm really sorry for the intrusion, Ed..."

"No, it's okay... Edward trusts you, Sylvan-person!" I said. "Edward didn't lock her door because all of the bad people that were pranking everyone aren't here anymore!"

"That's true," Sylvan said. "Well, I just came to wake you up... and I'm going to be driving you there, is that okay?"

"Of course it is," I said, knowing that I didn't have a car of my own. "Just let Edward get dressed and then we'll be all ready to go!"

I walked over to my suitcase and took out a white teddy bear shirt and a pair of green shorts, the clothes that I'd worn back on Earth a few days ago... at least I'm pretty sure I wore them. Well, they looked good on me, so I was going to wear them again. I walked into the bathroom and got changed, then came out and placed my nightgown back in my suitcase.

"So, all ready to go now?" Sylvan asked me. I smiled, put on a pair of socks and a pair of shoes, then nodded.

"All ready, Freddy!" I said. We left the dorm building, walked out into the parking lot, got into Sylvan's car, and headed off toward the Neo-Eiffel Tower for the party.

---

"Ed," Sylvan said as we drove through downtown Paris, "how are you holding up?"

"Um... what do you mean?" I asked him, although I knew exactly what he was talking about. He was still concerned about me being kidnapped two days ago... I could see it in his eyes. Most of the bruises and cuts I'd sustained had started to heal, and even though it was a harrowing experience, I was pretty sure I wouldn't retain any emotional scars either.

"You know," Sylvan said, pointing at one of my still-bruised wrists. "The kidnapping... I mean, are you feeling better?"

"Sylvan," I said, my voice growing serious, "I wouldn't lie to you... I know how much you care about me, but I promise that I'm fine. I'll be fully healed in a few days, and I'm not traumatized at all... but thank you for your concern, really... it means a lot to me."

"Ed, you're so strong... I mean, when I met you and learned more about you, I thought that maybe your... well, your Radical Edward persona, it was trying to hide something... a fragile mental constitution or a deep-seeded incident from your past, but... now I know the truth... you have no weakness, only incredible strength... that's one of the reasons I love you, Edward... with all of my heart and soul."

I paused for a second. He thought I was... weak? No, I'm sure he didn't think that in a bad way... I couldn't quite tell what he meant by his last statement, except for the fact that he greatly admired me. I didn't know what I could point out about Sylvan that I liked... his kindness, his caring nature... when I was around him, I felt a tingle. Was it love? Was I really in love with him? I didn't feel like I was in love with him, I just felt tingly... oh, I shouldn't be thinking about this now...

"Ed?" Sylvan said, looking at me. "You okay?"

I blinked. I must've spaced out after what Sylvan told me... how rude of me!

"Yes, Ed's fine!" I said happily, as if nothing happened. "What did you say to Edward again? Oh, geez, Ed, NOW you blew it...."

"Oh, it's nothing... it's just that you're really strong, Ed," Sylvan said. "You're a lot tougher than me!"

"Now, don't be hard on yourself, Sylvan!" I said, smiling. "Ed is sure that you could have beaten up those Syndicate people too! Really!"

"Now now, you said you'd never lie to me...."

"Ed is sure you could! Ed knows it!"

Sylvan chuckled slightly.

"Well, if you say so...." Sylvan said, pulling into a parking garage near the Neo-Eiffel Tower. "Looks like we're just about here... right on time! It's 10:52, we had eight minutes to spare!"

"Edward hasn't had breakfast..." I said, holding my lightly rumbling stomach.

"Well, maybe you can pick up breakfast here... the party's not at the Fleur De Trois, but there are plenty of other places near where we're having the party to get a good meal! The party is going to be in a large ice cream shop and arcade on the 16th floor called Let The Good Times Roll... I know ice cream's not a very nutritious breakfast, but-"

"No, no, Ed likes ice cream!" I said, licking my lips. "Maybe they have scrambled egg flavored ice cream! Mmm mmm good!"

"Heh, I don't think so," Sylvan said, stepping out of the car. "Well, we'd better get going."

It was probably a good thing that they didn't have scrambled egg ice cream... I tried it once in an ice cream parlor on Earth, out of curiosity. It was horrible.

"Let's go!" I said, climbing out of the car. We exited the parking garage and began walking toward the Neo-Eiffel Tower. As we left the garage, I couldn't help but notice that there were an unusual number of black Sentinel model cars in the garage... the same ones used by the French syndicate. I began to suspect that something was up, but as we entered the tower, all the troubling thoughts exited my mind as excitement began to creep in. Sylvan and I entered the elevator and took it up to the 16th floor, where the party was just about to begin!

---

When we arrived at the 16th floor, it didn't take a very long time at all to get to Let The Good Times Roll, the ice cream shop/arcade that Sylvan had told me about. When we reached it, I immediately saw Asada, Curtis, Piripi, and Kimberly standing by the entrance.

"Edward! Sylvan!" Asada shouted, waving to us. "Isn't this place awesome?"

"It's just like the place at the college, only it's cooler," Kimberly said, "because it's over 500 feet in the air, and they've got some sweet rides that are actually partially outside!"

"Eh?" Sylvan said. "What do you mean?"

"Well, look," Curtis said, leading Sylvan and I into the arcade. The arcade was large, with many tables set up where people could sit and eat ice cream served from a large counter at the center of the room. One of the walls was actually a large, glass window where people could look outside, and near the right side of the wall there was a door that led outside.

"Sani's out there riding one of the rides," Asada said. "She should be coming back in shortly..."

"What about Kirsten?" I asked. "She's not here yet?"

"She's over there," Piripi said, pointing to a large Dance Party machine hooked up to a huge monitor where everyone in the restaurant could see the action. "And she's getting her butt kicked."

"This little Japanese girl named Sukina is going to town on her," Curtis said. "She's only like twelve or something, but she's completely kicking Kirsten's ass."

"Maybe you should face her, Ed!" Asada suggested.

"Ed, you play Dance Party?" Sylvan asked, turning toward me.

"Yep, Edward sure does!" I said, nodding my head. "But Ed doesn't want to play Dance Party on an empty stomach... Ed wants to eat breakfast first."

"Ed, mom said to give you this," Sylvan said, handing me a money card. "This has 250,000 wulongs on it, and she insists that you take it."

As Sylvan handed me the money card, I was very reluctant to take it.

"But... Ed can't take money from you guys," I said, gently handing Sylvan the card back. "I mean... don't Fremont's thugs still come to your restaurant?"

"They didn't come at all yesterday," Sylvan said. "Mom thinks you and I scared them off... as a token of her appreciation, she insists you take it... and so do I. Half of it's my money."

"Well... okay," I said, finally taking the card. "But Ed promises to pay you back later, okay?"

"Don't worry about it," Sylvan replied.

"Well, I'm ready to start the party if you guys are..." Kimberly said.

"Curtis, do you want to go outside and ride the scary rides with me?" Asada asked him. As my friends began to go off and play games or ride rides, I walked over to the counter and ordered a large, two-scoop cookie dough ice cream cone.

"I guess ice cream's better than no breakfast at all!" I reasoned as I started to lick the ice cream cone. "At least Ed won't be hungry anymore!"

As I sat down to eat my ice cream, Sylvan sat across from me.

"Ed, when you're done eating that, would you like to ride one of the rides?" Sylvan asked. "There's one that lets you zoom in a tram car up a tunnel inside the tower... it goes all the way up to the top and then comes back down to the side of the restaurant... it's supposed to be really fun!"

"Well, okay!" I said, quickly devouring my ice cream cone. I loved ice cream, and I usually ate it pretty fast, barely even taking the time to lick off all the ice cream. Usually, I just wolfed the thing down. It was really easy to get a brain freeze that way, but they weren't really a problem for me. And I just loved ice cream!

"Ed, are you sure you should eat it that fast?" Sylvan asked as I quickly ate the second scoop all the way down to the cone. I grinned, but didn't say a word. "Guess that's a yes."

"You guys, you guys... especially you, Ed... you gotta come see this!" Kirsten shouted, huffing and puffing as if she was completely out of breath. "There's this girl, and-"

"Curtis told us already, Kirsten," I said, finishing the last of my ice cream cone. "Her name is Sukina, and she completely owned you at the Dance Party game."

"She's beating everybody," Kirsten said. "Evidently, she just moved here to Paris from Neo-Japan, and she's like a big-time tournament player over there, number one in the whole country. She played me on Grandmaster mode and utterly annihilated me!"

"Ed will dance with Sukina-person later... Sylvan offered Ed a ride on the zoom boom Eiffel-Tower tram, and Ed wants to go on that first, okay?"

"Alright... but when you face off with Sukina, you gotta tell me... I wanna see her go down!" Kirsten said eagerly.

"Um... it's on the big TV screen," I said, pointing up at it. "If Ed is facing Sukina, you'll know. Besides, how can you be so sure that Ed will win? Last time Ed faced you, Ed barely won... and Sukina completely crushed you!"

"True," Sylvan said. "But I've got a lot of faith in you, Ed."

"Well, let's ride the tram first," I said, getting up from the table. "Sylvan?"

"Coming, Ed!" Sylvan said, getting up from the table and taking my hand. Together, we walked outside and through the narrow tunnel that lead to the queue line for the tram ride. Surprisingly, we didn't have long to wait before a friendly ride attendant helped us to our seats. We sat down in a small, capsule-like seat where we were scrunched fairly close together... an arrangement that I liked. The attendant lowered a riding bar down, securing us in our seats.

"This ride gets pretty fast," the friendly female ride attendant said. "Make sure to look out the windows to see the Parisian skyline!"

"Alrighty!" I said, smiling. The transparent top of the capsule closed over us, and the ride began to move forward along the track. The track of the ride had been placed entirely inside one of the large, hyperlexan pillars that formed the outer shape of the second leg of the Neo-Eiffel Tower, so the ride was inside, where it wouldn't cause a visual distraction to outside observers. After a few seconds of straightforward movement, the track rapidly became steeper.

"Are you scared, Ed?" Sylvan asked, smiling at me and holding my hand.

"Oh... a little bit!" I said, playing along. "What about you, Sylvan?"

"Well, honestly, I'm-"

And then, WHOOSH! The ride zoomed straight up the side of the tower, and as we looked out the buildings shrunk rapidly below us. As I let out a loud, piercing scream, I was amused by the fact that Sylvan began screaming a split second before I did. I clutched his hand tighter as the ride surged upward, nearly a mile up into the air. Then, as it reached the very top, it stopped. I looked out the side of the capsule and saw Neo-Paris from nearly a mile in the air. My hair began floating up as the gravity inside our capsule seemingly became zero.

"Edward... that's pretty wild," Sylvan said as he saw my hair floating out of shape.

"Yours is doing it too, Sylvan... just not as much since your hair is shorter," I said. "One last kiss?"

"Okay," Sylvan said, giving me a brief kiss on the lips. Just as he had finished kissing me, we began to fall, and Sylvan and I started screaming again. As we descended thousands of feet down the tower, we must have been going at least a hundred and fifty miles an hour as the ride finally began to decelerate. At long last, the ride backed into the station, and our capsule opened.

"Sylvan," I said, breathing heavily, "that was some rush..."

"I'm never, ever doing that again," Sylvan breathed, a smile on his face.

"Oh, Edward enjoyed it!" I said, helping Sylvan climb out of the ride. "We should do it again sometime!"

"Not again... that ride was-"

"I mean this," I said, leaning in and kissing Sylvan on the lips. As I pulled away, his cheeks turned bright red.

"Oh... that," Sylvan said. "Yeah, that was fun..."

"It's great, isn't it?" Sani said, walking over to us. "Of course, Asada got motion sickness... she's in the bathroom throwing up. Curtis went with her. He didn't go inside the bathroom, of course."

"It's fun!" I said, smiling at Sani. "Poor Asada, though..."

"Well, Ed... are you up for the challenge of playing that girl at Dance Party? You know, Sukina?" Sylvan asked.

"Sure... just let Edward catch the last of her breath," I said, stopping for a few moments to gather all my energy back. "Alright, let's dance!"

---

As Sylvan, Sani, and I began to walk toward the Dance Party machine, I could already see that a large crowd had gathered around it. I looked up at the huge monitor and saw that someone was losing... badly.

"Sukina's gonna do it again!" said a man standing near the machine. "Incredible!"

As we stepped up and gently worked our way through the crowd, I could finally get a glimpse at the two people who were dancing. One of them was a short, Japanese girl with two cute pigtails, wearing a Hello Kitty sweater and a pair of blue jeans. That must be Sukina. The other girl I recognized as my friend Piripi. As I called out to her, the game ended, and Sukina had accumulated nearly twelve times as many points as Piripi had. There's no way Ed can win this...

"Darn," Piripi said, stepping down from the Dance Party platform. She walked over to Sukina and smiled. "Nice match!"

"Yeah, but I kicked your butt," Sukina said in a slightly haughty tone.

"That wasn't very nice," I thought.

"Well, who's next?" Sukina asked, looking around the room. "Anyone? Anyone?"

"Ed, Ed, go up there!" Kirsten yelled from the middle of the crowd, waving her arms in the air. "Go challenge her!"

"Well, here goes nothing," I said, stepping up to the second platform. "Radical Edward will challenge you!"

"Radical Edward?" Sukina said, snickering. "What kind of dumb nickname is that?"

"Hey, be nice!" Kirsten yelled. "Edward's gonna whoop you good!"

"You shut up, I've already beaten you," Sukina snapped, turning back to me. "Are you ready? We're playing on Grandmaster mode!"

"Fine with Edward!" I said, placing my money card in the machine, then pulling it out after it had deducted 200 wulongs. "Let's play!"

After the way Sukina had treated my friends, I grew a bit more determined to beat her... but would my newfound determination be enough? Sukina had scored nearly twice the points that Kirsten did when they played each other, and I had only beaten Kirsten by a tiny amount. This would definitely be an uphill battle...

"Good luck, Sukina," I said, trying to be as cordial as possible. "May the best girl win!"

As we began dancing, it took me a few seconds to adjust to the difficulty of the Grandmaster mode, where I had to make a large number of steps in a very short amount of time. On top of that, the song was extremely fast, and I found myself missing quite a few steps at the beginning. Once I'd adjusted to the pace of the song, I did surprisingly well, and kept the same pace as Sukina did, scoring a 177-move combo to stay in the game. As the first round ended, Sukina's score stood at 59,508,347, while mine stood at 48,113,240, the difference obviously being my slow start. The audience surrounding the game applauded my performance.

"Nobody's been that close after the first round in quite some time," Sukina said, in a bit nicer tone than before. "You're not bad...."

"Thank you," I replied. "You only missed a few steps that whole round."

"Yeah, well, I'm the best!" Sukina said. There she goes again...

The second round began, and again, Sukina insisted on picking the song. This time, it was a bit slower, but again, I had to adjust, as the song, an obscure Middle Eastern piece, had many unusual rhythms and beats. As Sukina hit all of them perfectly, I realized that she'd had tons of practice through tournaments, and probably knew all of the songs by heart. I'm doomed...

"C'mon, Ed!" Kirsten shouted at me. "You can beat her! You have to! I know you can!"

"Go, Ed! Go, Ed!" Sani cheered, although her cheers were quickly drowned out by the crowd cheering for Sukina. As the round ended, her lead had swelled to nearly twenty million points.

"I can't be beaten!" Sukina shrieked. "Yay!"

I looked out into the crowd. When my eyes met Sylvan's, he shot me a reassuring glance. At least I knew that I had the support of Sylvan and my other friends... but there was no way that could be enough.

"I'm picking the song again," Sukina said. "So there."

"Wait," I said, my voice turning angry. "I want to pick the song."

"Oooh, really?" Sukina said condescendingly. "Well, my rule is that I'm younger, so I get to pick!"

"Look, you're already up by twenty million!" I said, half-shouting. "Just let me pick for the final round. You know all the dumb songs anyway!"

"Fine, whatever," Sukina said. "Pick it and let's get this over with."

As I scrolled through the list of songs, I tried to find something that I could at least do well with. Just as I started to scroll back to pick an average-sounding song that I could dance to easily, I scrolled forward once more. When I heard the song, my eyes lit up. The song was entitled Cybernetic Era (featuring Marie Mazarin). It was the song that she'd sung back at the Fantaisie Sign! I loved that song, and there was her voice... I guess even video game designers eat at Sylvan's mom's restaurant! I pressed the button to select it, and Sukina let out a squeal of dismay.

"Not that one!" Sukina shouted. "I hate that stupid song!"

"You don't like it?" I asked. "But it's so beautiful..."

"I never pick that dumb song!" Sukina squealed. "The lady who sings it sounds so dumb and stupid... like she's drunk or something!"

I looked back at Sylvan, who seemed to be wincing, struggling not to burst forth in anger. As I turned back toward the screen, the song began, and something immediately seemed wrong. Sukina was messing up!

"Darn it, I hate this stupid song!" Sukina cried as she danced with slightly less flair than before. I began a large combo and my score quickly surged toward hers.

"You can do it!" Kirsten shouted. "She's going to choke her lead away! It's already down to ten million!"

My combo rose, past 150... past 200... even though Sukina was doing almost as well as I was by the end of the song, I continued to catch up.

"Beat her, Ed!" Kimberly shouted from the back of the crowd.

"Go Ed!" Piripi yelled. "Goooo!"

Finally, the song was over. Sukina cursed angrily and kicked the platform she had been dancing on. I stopped paying attention to the score, so I didn't know if I'd won or lost. Finally, the results screen came up. We both looked at it, and Sukina jumped up in delight.

"Yaaaaaay! I win again!" Sukina said. The final score read 211,830,080 for Sukina and 208,435,221 for me. I'd lost by less than four million points... my comeback was just too little, too late.

"Hey, you put up a good match," said a teenaged girl who had been watching the game. "You almost won, Radical Edward!"

"Yeah, that was pretty close," said someone else. "At least we know Sukina's not totally unbeatable..."

"I won, you lost!" Sukina said, pointing at me with a grin on her face. I extended my hand to try and congratulate her, but she rudely slapped it away. "And we're never playing again, either. You had your chance."

Sighing, I walked away from the platform and strolled over to my friends, Sylvan, Kimberly, Piripi, Sani, and Kirsten. Curtis and Asada still hadn't returned.

"It's okay, Ed... you did your best," Sylvan said. "I know you're an awesome dancer, you don't need to beat some bratty girl to prove that to me."

"Yeah, Ed... you did a lot better than I did!" Kirsten said. "Still woulda been nice for you to win, though..."

"Oh, don't say that, Kirsten... Ed did a wonderful job!" Piripi said. "C'mon, guys, group hug!"

The six of us began to embrace. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out from the entrance of the room. People began to scream and panic, as a large crowd began pushing their way toward the door. Another gunshot rang out.

"Everybody freeze!" shouted a loud voice from the door. Two more gunshots. Finally, everyone stopped moving and stood still. I tiptoed to try and see what was going on, and saw ten thugs standing at the door, all of them armed to the teeth with automatic machine guns in their hands. Oh no...

"What's going on?" I whispered, turning to Sylvan. "It's... it's the French syndicate, isn't it?"

"Stay calm, Ed... they're not here to hurt us... I don't think," Sylvan said, extremely worried.

"Now," said one of the thugs, holding up his M-16, "here's how we're going to do this. You're all going to start heading toward the door in an orderly fashion. Anyone pushes, or starts running, and we'll fire into the crowd. Now, calmly begin walking toward the exit."

The people in the restaurant, including us, began to do as they were told. My friends and I were toward the back of the crowd, and we could see as many of the people walked past the ten thugs and filed out of the restaurant. Soon, Piripi, Kimberly, and Sani had made it past the men. As Sylvan, Kirsten and I got up to them, they pointed their guns at us and the rest of the crowd behind us, consisting of about fifteen people.

"Stop right there," the lead thug said, pointing his gun right at my chest. "You lucky people get to stay here and be bargaining chips. Go sit down."

My heart sank to the bottom of my chest. As we began to sit down, I could see that Sukina was also one of the ones remaining. She was trembling in fear, as her parents had gotten out of the room, but she had been left behind in the crowd. Before she could sit down, one of the thugs grabbed her by the arm.

"You can come with me," the thug said, leading Sukina out of the restaurant. As she began trying to get away from him, he pointed his gun at her head. "You come with me, or you're dead."

As tears began to stream down the little girl's face, I shifted in my chair and turned to Sylvan.

"She's gonna get raped!" I whispered. "We've got to help her somehow!"

"I agree," Sylvan whispered back. "But how are we going to get away?"

As I turned back toward the front of the restaurant, I could see that the thugs were beginning to secure the hostages in the restaurant to the chairs with duct tape. As one of the men walked up to the chair where I was seated, I saw my chance. I leapt up from the chair and pushed the man out of the way, then fell to the ground and began rolling toward the front of the restaurant. The man immediately started shooting at me, but fortunately, all of the shots missed. I stood up and ran, out of the restaurant and around a corner where I couldn't be seen. Squinting and closing my eyes, I immediately thought the worst... that the men would start shooting the other hostages as retribution for my escape. When no shots came, I looked around the corner and back into the restaurant. Two of the thugs were walking around, looking for me, while one of them carried Sukina down the corridor on the other side of the restaurant's entrance.

"I've gotta get to that guy..." I thought. However, before I could think of a plan to follow him, I had to duck into the women's restroom as one of the thugs came closer. As I got toward the stalls, I could hear loud moaning noises coming from one of them. "That's weird..."

As I came closer to investigate, the door swung open, and when I looked inside, I could see Asada and Curtis on the floor, kissing deeply. Curtis' hands were rapidly caressing Asada's back. Fortunately, they were both still fully clothed...

"Um... guys?" I said as innocently as I could. They looked up and immediately recoiled in shock, rapidly picking themselves up off the floor.

"Ed, what the hell?" Curtis shouted.

"Edward, um... Curtis came in to check on me, and, um... we started kissing, and..."

"Asada, Ed thought you were throwing up," I said.

"Well, yeah... Curtis didn't kiss me until I stopped throwing up, duh," Asada said, smiling.

"Look, this is an emergency!" I shouted. "Fremont's thugs have taken over the ice cream arcade! Sylvan and Kirsten are inside as hostages!"

"What?" Asada said in disbelief. "There's no way-"

"And there's a girl named Sukina who's going to get hurt really bad if we don't find her and save her!" I shouted. "Please, we've gotta help them..."

Just then, the PA system came on, and we could hear a frantic voice from the small speaker above our heads.

"Everyone... terrorists have taken over the building... terrorists have taken over the building!" shouted the voice over the speaker. "They've seized most of the floors, and-"

Then, gunshots and silence. Asada, Curtis, and I stood speechless for a few seconds before Asada began to sob.

"This can't... be happening," Asada said. "Not to me... not to my friends..."

"Asada, we'll get out of here alive," Curtis said, trying to comfort her while embracing her tightly.

"That's right... we'll all find some way to get out... we have to find a way," I said, my voice trembling.

Just then, another voice came over the speaker.

"This is Cecelle Frémont, the leader of the French Syndicate, Rose du Diable. The Neo-Eiffel Tower is now ours, and there is a bomb planted somewhere in the building that we can detonate at any time, killing all inside. If you all cooperate, I assure you that you will all survive and be back to your homes and loved ones by the end of the day... if you all cooperate. If not, the bomb will be detonated, and we will all perish. Do everything that my Syndicate men say, however, and no harm will come to you. That is all."

No...

---

The odds are incredible! Edward and her friends vs. thousands of thugs... Sylvan and Kirsten as hostages, and Ed, Asada, and Curtis stuck in the women's restroom? And what will become of Piripi, Kimberly, and Sani? And for that matter, can our heroes rescue Sukina in time as well? The last five chapters will tell all...