FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A knock at Murasaki's door ended the pair's drive to conquer the alien forces of the Covenant, and Murasaki opened the door to see her apartment mate standing naked in the doorway with only a stuffed raccoon clasped in front of her. Ayumi almost choked on her own spit in surprise. The raccoon's ears and tail were covering all the important areas, but it left little to the imagination.

Murasaki didn't even flinch as she smiled at the red panda. "Hi, Candi, going to bed?"

The red panda female nodded and smiled a little at Ayumi, who realized she was staring and looked away. "Yeah, I think so. You know, eight AM classes and all that."

Murasaki nodded. "Yeah, I know. I prefer to be a night owl, myself, but if you like waking up before the sun rises, that's your prerogative, I guess."

Candi giggled and nodded. "What can I say? I like the mornings. I guess it's just one of those things, you know?"

"So I guess you want us to quiet down a little, huh?"

Candi made a 'miniscule' gesture with two of her fingers. "Just a bit."

Murasaki laughed. "That's alright. We were just leaving, anyway. Ayumi's got to get home, and I've had just about enough of the inside of my room for one day."

Candi smiled and thanked Murasaki before turning around and disappearing into her bedroom, giving the two vixens a long look at her svelte physique before closing the door behind her. Murasaki shook her head before closing her own door. "Mmm...chukisho. Too bad she and I aren't better friends. She's really something else."

Ayumi cleared her throat a little. "Does she...do that often?"

Murasaki looked back at Ayumi. "What, stalk around the apartment naked? Every day. She goes from her room to the shower and back nude, and she sleeps in the buff, so anytime she has to tell me to make like a clam and shut the hell up, she comes out with nothing on."

"Wow...I guess you're really lucky."

Murasaki snorted. "Lucky? Naw...I can get naked pictures and videos anywhere. It's actually sort of worse that she does that, because I know I can look, but I can't touch. Like I said, she and I don't really know one another very well; I don't even know where she stands or if she's involved with anyone or not. It's too bad, too; she really is gorgeous..." She stood silent for a moment, apparently reliving the past few seconds, before turning back to Ayumi. "That wasn't too presumptuous, though, was it, what I said about you wanting to leave? I forgot to ask you when you wanted to go home tonight. But I figured that since it's getting kind of late, I would rather err on the side of caution, you know?"

Ayumi shook her head to reboot her stunned brain and then checked the clock. "Oh, uh, yeah. Of course, it's cool; I understand. And you're right; it's nine o'clock and I ought to be getting home, anyway. But what was that about you wanting to get out of your room?" Ayumi grinned mischievously.

Murasaki giggled. "Oh, that. I was just going to hit the town, find a coffee shop or a club to hang out at for a while. I slept from eight to two today, so I won't be tired for several hours yet."

"Eight to two? As in, AM to PM?" Murasaki nodded. Ayumi raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You must be a night owl. Personally, I prefer to sleep the other rotation, as in still eight to two, but PM to AM. That way, I still get to enjoy the hours before sunrise, but I won't have to deal with missing class or work because of it."

Murasaki rubbed her chin a little, considering this. "Hmm...that does sound appealing. L.A. night life doesn't really start until about two anyway. And it's always better to be awake when you're burning the night oil. I'll give that a try." She smiled at Ayumi before gesturing for the grey vixen to follow her. "But for now, come on. The night is young, and you and I have nothing better to do with ourselves for the next several hours. What do you say we paint the town red tonight?"

Ayumi giggled. "I say we're wasting time talking about it. But I have to get home and drop off all my stuff, first. It's not perishable or anything, but I hate the idea of a box of tampons and a box of pads just sitting in Dan's backseat. It just ruins his bad boy image, you know?"

Murasaki laughed. "Oh, perish the thought. Come on, then."

The two vixens went out to the parking lot and got into Ayumi's car. The blue neon underlights flickered to life and illuminated the parking lot around them, and she backed out of her spot. Then, she cranked up her stereo and hit the gas, laughing maniacally with Murasaki as the cool night air whipped through their fur. Though the song on the CD player had no words, both vixens had heard it before, and were singing the melody and the percussion as much as possible. Whenever they messed up, they would laugh together and then pick back up wherever they could.

At one point during the ride, she realized for a second time that she was driving her most prized possession at her favorite time of night, listening to her favorite music, singing along with the best friend she'd ever had, and the bubble of happiness that welled up in her chest was so powerful and unfamiliar that she began to cry. The tears immediately melted into her fur and trailed backwards across her cheek, and luckily, she didn't think Murasaki saw them, but she was still surprised. She'd never known she could feel an emotion like this, and certainly not this powerfully. It was an experience entirely new and foreign to her, but she was enjoying it immensely. For a moment, she wished that she could freeze time at this exact instant, so she could remember this sensation forever.

However, it was not to be, and a few minutes later, she slowly rolled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and she and Murasaki climbed out of the car, carrying Ayumi's bags. Ayumi unlocked the apartment building front door and the two vixens walked up to her apartment. "Don't be too worried about the mess. I'm not exactly the most concerned being in the world when it comes to keeping my room clean."

Murasaki chuckled. "Oh, please. You saw my room. I doubt if I'd even know the difference between a clean room and a filthy..." She slowly trailed off as Ayumi opened her apartment door and pushed it open.

"Heh...pretty bad, isn't..." Ayumi also trailed off as she looked into the room and saw what had silenced Murasaki. The room was dark and cramped, but it was most certainly clean. Nothing was out of place, and the room had even been dusted and smelled faintly of chlorine. It was a long moment before Ayumi realized that everything was put away, literally everything. All the papers and pens that were usually strewn on her desk were gone, as was her desk lamp; all of the books were missing from her shelves, and as she scanned her empty room, she suddenly noticed the most disconcerting fact of all: her laptop was gone. I've been robbed! She had a momentary panic attack and had actually taken two steps into the room before she heard something that made her heart stop and her blood run cold.

"Saruwatari Ayumi. I've been waiting quite a while for you."

Slowly, Ayumi turned her head to face her desk chair. In her panic, she had somehow failed to notice the pitch black male panther sitting in it. He was wearing an equally black suit and dark sunglasses, and at second glance, Ayumi was less surprised that she had missed him; he was fully invisible sitting in the darkness. However, this did not change the fact that he was sitting in her chair, in her room, uninvited. She would have been angrier, but she was forced to balance this fact with the fact that he knew her name and spoke it in flawless English with a light British accent. Her curiosity barely outweighed her anger and fear. She turned her whole body to him and crossed her arms to hide the trembling in her paws.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my room, and how do you know my name?"

The panther slowly leaned forward and gazed at Ayumi through his sunglasses. He had perfect posture and seemed completely emotionless. His face betrayed no feelings, and his toned muscular body was not tense under the heavy fabric of the suit, but instead could only have been described as finely tuned, as though his entire physique was simply waiting for something to happen, so it could react. He did not smile, but simply spoke directly at her, still in British English. "Your friend is not welcome to participate in this discussion. She will wait in the stairwell." Ayumi could feel the cold edge of each word brush by her fur, and she shivered involuntarily.

Murasaki whispered in Japanese from the door. "Do you know this guy?"

Ayumi shook her head, but the panther nodded very slightly. "She does, although it is very unlikely that she remembers me. Nonetheless, it is irrelevant, for what I have to say does not require that she remember me. Everything will become clear in time." He still did not turn to face Murasaki, even when he spoke directly at her. "You will wait in the stairwell. Ayumi will find you shortly."

Ayumi turned slightly to give Murasaki a shrug. What choice did she have? She spoke to her friend in Japanese, even though it was clear the panther knew the language. "I guess you should wait in the stairwell. And don't worry too much...I don't think he's going to hurt me. I suspect that if he were after my life or my body, he would have taken it already."

Murasaki nodded apprehensively. "Alright...come find me afterwards, okay?" Ayumi nodded and Murasaki disappeared. Suddenly, the panther was next to her, closing the door and flipping the light switch. In the sudden glare of the overhead light, Ayumi was treated to a very harsh and clear view of her room. Everything was bare, and even her futon had been dismantled and was packed in a box, with several other things sitting on it. She felt another wave of terror well up in her chest, and she involuntarily dropped her arms and walked over to one of the boxes, touching it to make sure it was real.

The panther spoke from the doorway, now in flawless, unaccented Japanese. "Yes, Miss Saruwatari, everything is packed. The reason for this is that you have been evicted. You no longer live here, and the only reason any of these items are still here is that I was unsure of how long you would be, and I needed someplace to sit and wait for you. However, now that you have returned, the movers have been notified, and will arrive in approximately twenty minutes to finish the job. Therefore, our time is short. There is much to explain, and it will be faster and easier if you do not interrupt." Ayumi nodded, knowing full well that it would be impossible for her to interrupt him even if she wanted to. He spoke without any pauses, every word connecting with the one before it to form one continuous flowing monologue. He only paused to let her answer, and when he did, she rarely had time to say more than a word or two.

He clasped his paws behind his back and looked at her with no expression, still watching her through his sunglasses. "I will call myself Roland Macchai. This is not my real name, and regardless of appearances, I am not Japanese or British. My origins are irrelevant, as is any other information pertaining to me personally. When I said that you knew me, I spoke truthfully. We met for the first time exactly eleven years and eighty-four days ago, at eighteen hundred forty two hours. You interrupted a very important and secret meeting your father was holding concerning one of his competitors. You were afforded a momentary glance before you were swiftly escorted out of the room. You were told never to speak of what you had witness, and to forget all the faces you had just seen. It was assumed that you had done so, and it appears that this was not an inaccurate assumption."

Suddenly, Ayumi's memory engaged, and her stomach vaporized. She remembered this panther, now. Eleven years ago, he had been the biggest creature in the room. He had had the same suit, same expression, same glasses, and the same attitude. He had threatened her life and had forcefully expelled her from the room. The trauma of the experience had completely blocked all the memories until this exact moment. Tears of terror sprang to her eyes unbidden. She knew this male quite well. Although it had been almost two years since the last time, she'd seen him more than once before today. Each time, he'd had a different name: Ronin MacDonald, Ramandi Mueller, Reed Matsui, and more. His first name always started with an R, his last with an M, and he always scared the hell out of her. So much so that she made a conscious effort to block each meeting from her mind, usually with some measure of success. She had never managed to keep him out of her worst nightmares, though.

He was her father's most secret soldier in his private army. Being a ruthless tycoon, Saruwatari had many enemies, and it took several dozen extremely well trained and loyal bodyguards to protect him. R.M. was his favorite. Besides a bodyguard, R.M. was also her father's favorite assassin. This classification didn't necessarily mean that he always killed his targets, but R.M. was her father's executive arm. He always made covert trips to other companies, sabotaged equipment, destroyed files, stole plans, and yes, he had occasionally killed.

Ayumi couldn't feel her toes or fingers anymore. Standing less than two meters away was a creature that she knew for a fact had killed before and would have no problem doing so again. Her things were packed, and she was locked in the room with him. It would be no problem at all for him to shoot her in the head and make it out to be a very well-planned suicide. The tears that she had been fighting broke over the edge of her eyelids and started down her cheeks. The fear was overwhelming, and she found it difficult to breathe as she watched the panther speak. She prayed for mercy, knowing that her life was in this fiend's unpredictable paws. Ayumi furiously willed the panther to smile, to frown, to smirk, to sneer, to do anything that would show emotion, that would give Ayumi hope that he had a shred of decency in him.

Roland did not indulge her; his face was carved from black ice. "As for this meeting, I must insist that you forget it, as well. If you do not, you will cause a problem, and I have been ordered to eliminate any problems I come across. Do I make myself clear?" He paused just long enough for Ayumi to nod before pushing forward. "As you may or may not have realized, your father has discovered you. He knows you left Japan, he knows you took your car, he knows you stole his money, and fortunately for you, he realizes you do not intend to return. Up until a few days ago, he was content to let that be the end of it and leave you be for the rest of your life. However, unfortunately, recent developments have made this...impractical."

Ayumi was not surprised. Her father had assets and resources of surveillance and reconnaissance that some countries would commit genocide for. However, if her father knew all of this, then what option could there possibly be besides elimination? She was a felon, after all, and there was no way she was returning to Japan, no matter what this panther said. As much as she hated to admit it, if he tried to take her back, she was going to fight him tooth and claw until he killed her. She wondered how long the fight would last...

"As often happens, the media has finally gotten wind of your disappearance, but they are unaware of exactly where or why you left. In order to minimize the impact of your vanishing, Saruwatari has decided to make it look like you were killed in an accident on the complex. It won't take much to make this 'true,' in so much as is necessary to appease the media hounds, and all he needs from you is for you to remain 'dead.' However, he does not actually want you killed, and has therefore instructed me to make sure you never come back into the picture." He pushed his sunglasses up on his nose and shook his head. "Personally, I disagree with his choice, but luckily for you, he does not pay me to make decisions. He pays me to execute his." He sneered for a fraction of a second before regaining his former neutrality and continuing. "Accordingly, as per his instructions, you have been disowned. Your name is no longer Saruwatari. Your assets have been seized, all of them, including everything in this room, except for important personal documents and your computer, which are contained in that box," he gestured towards a pitifully small box sitting in the corner. "Your accounts have been drained and closed, and all ties to your former family and former life have been severed and erased. No one will ever connect you with the Saruwatari name again."

It was a lot to take in all at once, and the tears Ayumi was still crying did not help her ability to comprehend his words. One very important question immediately surfaced, however. "But...what about Dan?"

"You misunderstand me. I meant that all of your assets that you stole from your father have been reclaimed. Those documents, your computer, your wardrobe, and your car do not fall into that category, and therefore need not be taken back. Consider all these things to be a parting gift from your father, for this is in fact the last parting that you will ever have with him. A new past and a new history have been written for you; a copy is included with your laptop, so that you may read it. Commit it to memory and use it from now on. If you ever refer to your connection to the Saruwatari name or family again, it will cause a problem. The only piece missing from your history and all related documents is your last name, which is up to you to invent. Whichever name you choose will become your surname, and we will immediately use it to rewrite history for you. Your wallet." He held out a paw.

It was a moment before Ayumi realized he wanted her to give him her wallet. She didn't hesitate. For the moment, it appeared that he wasn't going to kill her, and the relief she felt at this realization had stripped her of her ability to refuse him anything. He took the wallet and immediately started removing everything. With chilling accuracy and speed, he organized everything into two piles on her desk, one that contained items from her former life, and another that contained everything else. He spread everything out on the desk and then reached up to his sunglasses and messed with them for a moment before a sudden flash emanated from the bridge, illuminating the desktop for an instant. A picture. He took a picture. Ayumi couldn't help but be impressed. Technology was apparently quite limitless, at least as far as her father was concerned. Roland then took all the items and put them into a small metal canister, which he capped and then shook. She heard a distinct hissing noise, and a faint puff of silver mist emanated from a tiny hole in the cap. An acrid smell filled the room, and Ayumi coughed and covered her muzzle with her shirt. The panther seemed unfazed. After the hissing stopped, he put the small canister into a larger one, and then put the larger canister back into a holster on his belt. Then, he looked back up at Ayumi and handed her wallet back.

"Take this and all of these things. I must wait here for the movers. However, in approximately half a minute, a colleague of mine will enter the room and hand you all the replacement documents you will need. Before that can happen, though, I must know what new surname you wish to assume."

Ayumi blanked. Although she had known this moment was coming, she was still completely unprepared. She panicked for a moment or two before a recent memory flashed in front of her eyes. 'My name's Ayumi. S...Shimizu Ayumi.' Of course! The fake name she'd given Murasaki. It was as good a name as any. "Shimizu. I want to be Shimizu Ayumi."

"Done." The panther didn't move or say any more, but simply stared at her. For a moment, she wondered if he was waiting for her to collect her things and leave, but suddenly, a powerful knock on the door made her jump. Roland said nothing and reached out a paw to open the door. An identically clad male hyena held out a small package to him, and he took it, his gaze never leaving Ayumi's face. Then, the hyena closed the door and the panther held out the package to Ayumi. "Your name is Shimizu Ayumi. You are an American citizen who spent an extended amount of time in Hiroshima, where you learned to speak Japanese fluently. Because you spent so long there, your English deteriorated, and as of next year, you will be a student at the University of Southern California. You are a creative writing major, and you are a sophomore. Your G.P.A. for this year was 3.8. Your education is paid for by need-based financial aid, since both your parents were killed two years ago in a traffic accident in downtown Hiroshima, but your everyday costs are not. Therefore, your bank account is dangerously low, and you need to find some source of income soon. Your car was a gift given to you by an anonymous benefactor who cared for you throughout your senior year of high school. So was your computer."

Ayumi tentatively took the package, her mouth slightly open in confusion. As he rattled off her history, she struggled to take it all in. She knew there was a written copy in her box, but she was curious to know exactly how she had gotten where she was. It made a surprising amount of sense, more so even than the truth, she thought. She fought the reflexive urge to giggle at the absurdity of it all. She couldn't believe what was happening, but here it was, all her earthly possessions reduced to a tiny package, a box, and her car. Her father had disowned her, her surname had been changed, and it seemed like someone had suddenly flipped the channel of her life without telling her. The only thing that was the same was her, and with everything else that was changing, she couldn't even be sure of that. Ayumi wasn't sure what emotion to feel, and her body had no clue what response to display. She fought to maintain her composure, at least until she could get out of here. She refused to break down completely in front of this cretin.

Roland clasped his paws behind his back again and frowned. "Now that you have everything you need, you must leave. Take your box; it has all your possessions in it, some of them very tightly packed. Leave in your car, and do not return to this block for at least four hours. Take your friend with you. You are not now, nor have you ever been, a Saruwatari." He switched back to English and finished his speech with a sharp edge to his voice. "You have exactly ninety seconds to leave this area. If you are not gone in a minute and a half, I will have no choice but to command the snipers to go to condition red, and...well, I suppose you can imagine what their orders are."

Ayumi squeaked in terror and covered her muzzle with her paws. Roland didn't move, but glanced at his watch and said, "Twenty-one hundred and fifty seven hours...mark. T-minus ninety seconds."