Jet Black and the Ninja Wind by Leza Lowitz & Shogo Oketani

Author:Leza Lowitz & Shogo Oketani
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1344-2
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

CHAPTER 26

変化 Henge

Transformation

They moved through Tokyo for the next hour, weaving between back streets and crossing through crowded intersections before taking to the main roads again. Finally, when they could no longer sense anyone following them, Hiro paused and caught Jet’s arm.

“Aska’s bleeding,” he said. He knelt and held his dog.

“She is? I didn’t see her get hurt,” Jet replied.

“I didn’t either. It looks like an infection. Maybe something happened on the mountain and we didn’t notice. We need to get her treated immediately.”

“There must be vets in Roppongi!” Jet said, recalling that many foreigners lived in this popular mini-America. Foreigners had pets, she reasoned, and pets would need treatment.

They made their way down Killer Boulevard, which swarmed with soldiers on leave, dark-suited businessmen on expense accounts, and body-conscious girls in lamé miniskirts swinging gold-chained Chanel purses, angling to meet their gaijin prince charming.

“So this is city life, eh?” Hiro said, his mouth hanging open.

Jet, too, was overwhelmed by all the activity, the sheer masses of people crammed into such small spaces.

Hiro tightened Aska’s leash as a blond woman with a small white papillon walked down the Avenue. They fell in behind her, following her down one of the “eel alleys,” behind the big boulevard where expatriate companies had homes for their foreign workers. As the woman fumbled with her keys, Hiro asked her if she knew of a vet. Her dog strained on its leash, trying to stay away from Aska as she directed them to a veterinarian’s office down an alley lined with purple potted plants that looked like mutant cabbages.

There, the vet examined Aska, agreeing to treat her immediately. He then took an X-ray. When he came back into the waiting room, he wore a confused expression.

“It looks as if your dog had a microchip implanted in her neck. That’s what caused the infection.”

“A what?” Hiro asked.

“A computer chip that stores information about the owner in case the dog gets lost. We have them in America,” Jet said, enjoying the look on her cousin’s face. It was the rare time that she knew something he didn’t.

“That’s right,” the vet said. “But this one is more sophisticated. It’s actually a kind of sensor.”

Hiro looked at Jet with wide eyes. Someone was tracking Aska’s movements! He had to think fast so that the vet wouldn’t be worried.

“I just remembered!” he said. “Ojiisan used to take her hunting for mushrooms in the mountains, and she’d sometimes wander off to chase rabbits. He must have wanted to track her when she took off.”

“That’s right,” Jet jumped in. “But now that we live in the city, we no longer need it. Can you take it out?”

The vet looked at them quizzically. “Okay,” he told them. “I’ll just use a local anesthetic so we won’t have to keep her overnight. Give me a few minutes, okay?”

As soon as he left the room, Hiro lowered her voice. “That’s how those men found us! They used a tranquilizer on her. That means they’ve probably followed us here, too.

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