The Sound Empress: Chapter 16
Brief synopsis: The following morning, Jung, Nari and Martha leave the house and proceed to Osaka, where they board a ship bound for Busan. They encounter a bit of resistance at the dock.
It had to be quite early in the morning when both Nari and I got up, as the sun had just popped out from the east. We were psyched and prepared to head to Korea. I was dressed in a similar outfit as I was when I went to the recruitment office in Yamato, which was a light hoodie, a dingy pair of blue jeans, and some sneakers. As I hadn’t really kept up with coloring my hair to maintain the auburn color that it had when I went there, it was back to being its natural color, which is a very dark blonde color. You could be mistaken for calling it brown.
Nari looked quite professional, and was dressed like a man, much like me. She wore a light blue dress shirt, along with a wrist watch. She also wore a pair of pants, and a pair of Oxfords.
We walked to the living room of my parent’s house, and we saw Martha preparing a cup of tea for herself. She was not as well prepared as we were. She had a skirt on with colorful flowers printed on it, with a loose fitting shirt and a necklace around her neck, with a diamond made out of her parent’s ashes. I immediately questioned her:
“That dress isn’t appropriate for our mission. You’ll be really easy to spot in our posse.”
“My apologies,” said Martha, “but this is the best I could do given the stuff that I have in my wardrobe. Also, the necklace infuses me with power.”
“Really? You believe in metaphysics? That objects are infused with some sort of power that you can harness just having it?”
I had to stop Nari going off on my mother. To do this, I had to explain to her my mother’s beliefs:
“Nari! My mother is a Buddhist, and she believes in reincarnation. She believes that people have souls, and given enough time, souls can be transferred to other living things. However, she believes that in order to do that, souls have to be transferred to a material object. Hence she thinks that the necklace that she is wearing has the life essence of her parents.”
Nari didn’t seem to believe me, as she shrugged her shoulders at me.
“Did Nari have a problem with my outfit?”
“No, no she didn’t. Rather, she had a disagreement with your belief system, and she wanted to attack them. I had to control her there.”
“Okay. I mean, if she did, then I could try to find something that would be more in line with what you two are wearing.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“Okay. Anyway, do you want to have some tea before we head out?”
I said yes, while Nari declined. She brewed a cup of mint tea for me, and I enjoyed it.
“You sure you don’t want a cup, Nari? As this tea tastes delicious.”
“Nah, I’m good. I don’t really drink that much tea, and in fact, I am a bit sick of it, simply because I drank a lot of tea from the sound dispensers, so that I could give you the products for you to playback.”
“Sounds good. I should be done with my tea in a few minutes, and then we will head out.”
I took my time savoring the tea, as it has been a while since I had a nice cup of the tea. It could be my last one, ever, so I needed to ensure I enjoyed every last drop of it.
Once I finished, I yelled out “Ready!” to Nari. I left the rest of my belongings here. All I would carry is my identification card, a handful of cash, my phone (which would have its calling and data capabilities disabled while we were in Korea) and my credit card, just in case we needed to buy something while en route to Korea. I didn’t have any armaments: Nari was handling the distribution of those.
“Come on, Martha, we are ready to go.” Nari proclaimed.
While Martha was still putting around in the house, I said something to my father, Harami:
“Harami, there is a chance that I might be killed or captured while I am in Korea. If you don’t hear from me in a month, I need you to go to my house, and tell the military personnel there that I died while serving my country. Tell them to donate all of my belongings to the needy, and donate the cash assets to any pet shelter you know.”
“You won’t die, I promise.” Harami came over and squeezed me tightly.
“Thanks for your enthusiasm, but death is a possibility here. You should do what I request.”
“Very well. Supply me with your house address.”
I told him the address of my house in Yokohama, as that’s where the military are stationed.
“Thank you.”
After saying that, Martha had come out from the bedroom, and was ready to go. We proceeded out of the house, and into Nari’s car. I would take the front passenger seat, as I did before, and Martha sat in the back.
We would need to traverse a good chunk of Japan, to get to the port of Osaka, which is the closest port city that will take us to Busan and South Korea. We would take a somewhat roundabout way to get there. Instead of heading south from Koshu towards Fuji to take route E1, which follows the train line we were on to get to Fukuoka, we instead went north, heading towards the city of Matsumoto. We wouldn’t go into that city, but instead we would veer to the left at Chino, and head into the mountains once again. Then we would pass through the cities of Ina, Takayama, Gujo, Ogaki, Hikone, Higashiomi, Koka, Iga, and Nabari, before reaching the port city of Osaka.
By the time we made it to Osaka, it was getting fairly late, thanks to the detours we took and the fact that there was a good amount of road work that we encountered. This was more common when we were in the mountains, and less so when we were near a population center.
Now, our goal was to get to Busan as quickly as possible. So, we didn’t go for food while in the city. This was probably for the best, as Osaka is one of the largest cities in Japan, and as such, there could be a large presence of people affiliated with the force, and they could see through my disguise. Besides, once we get on one of the ships heading outbound towards Busan, we will be able to get a meal in relative safety.
We parked right next to a fishing area and something called the “Cosmosquare”. Why it is called that, I do not know.
I once traveled with my school to Osaka to participate in a science competition. However, we were never in this part of Osaka, but rather near Osaka Castle, which is a relic of the warring period of Japan, I think. As a result, I was not really familiar with this area. Nor was I familiar with the names.
We got out of the car and walked over to pay the attendant there the necessary funds to pay for a month’s worth of parking. This should hopefully be enough to complete our mission.
After we paid the attendant, we then walked down the road that we were driving on, past a bunch of shipping containers, until we got to an opening. There was a passenger ship waiting right there, and it was just about to leave. We walked into the opening, and we saw a ramp. Perhaps if we are quick enough, we could get on the ship.
We were lucky, and we were the last entities to enter the ship. The ramp closed up behind us, and it became dark for a moment. Then the lights turned on, and we immediately encountered a few crew members.
“What the… who are you guys?” said one of the crew, who were confused as to how we got on.
“We are government workers who are on a mission that the emperor issued to us. We learned that the headquarters of the organization that we need to get rid of is in South Korea. We had seen that this ship is registered as a passenger ship, and we had thought that this ship is heading towards the Korean peninsula.”
“Okay, first off, you don’t just hop onto any ship that you want. There is a reason why we ask people to purchase tickets first, online, and then they come at the correct time to board the ship. Secondly, you don’t necessarily know where this ship is going to go. You just might end up going to America, and find yourselves in a place that is far away from where you wanted to go. And thirdly, where is your proof that you are working for the government.”
Nari answered: “We went to the National Diet a month or so ago, with a product from a sound dispenser, which is one of the government’s ways to disseminate news to the people. It requested us to head to Tokyo to meet the emperor, who offered a reward to anyone who could find out more about the Korean Origin Force and kill the leader of the group, which would destroy the group.”
“Okay, so you ARE on an official mission. Well, my first two points still stand.”
“Well, is this going to Busan?”
The crew member that was talking to us refused to answer. He clearly didn’t like us sneaking on the ship. Another crew member, who appeared to have more seniority than the guy that was talking to us, answered Nari’s question:
“Yes, this is going to Busan. Consider yourselves lucky.”
The crew members then stepped to the side, allowing us to move into the interior of the ship, where we would live and sleep for the next few days, as we headed to Busan.