F-Zero: Seppuku - Part 1/3, Lap 7

**Lap 6 < | > Lap 8**

After Chiya got past her first confrontation with a gang member, she learns just how serious the gang war of Mute City really is. Chiya starts the day off with a chilling past memory she had when she first left her home planet for Mute City University.

## Chapter Reading

==Lap 7=

\*\* 5 years ago \*\*

Chiya was sitting in a chair facing a desk. The room was bright and located up in a tower erecting from Mute City's main university. Facing the Mysterian was a man in black with dark hair; he had a stern look on his face.

“Ms. Flower, from what information I *have* been able to gather from you, you’ve never been employed and had no interest in any of the classes you took in high school.” Chiya sat still with a disappointed expression, feeling that she was being lectured. “Since you've refused to provide me with paperwork, I can only go with what you're telling me. You claim that your highest score was an 'A' in automotive engineering and that you have a fond interest in F-Zero.”

Chiya nodded, affirming her skills in engineering, “As a child I worked in my dad’s shop managing engines with problems. I did this for many years.”

The man nodded and looked down at a paper she had written to the university, “You also claim to be a very reliable person when it comes to work, but this brings back the issue...” He looked up with two lowered eyebrows, “What work are you referring to?”

Chiya looked at her feet and rubbed the back of her head, “I- I- I did volunteer work every now and then, mostly around the house, but...” The man shook his head negatively, he was chewing Chiya's dreams up like gum. “Oh, I know! I was the team captain for our varsity football team. See, I have a very strong foot which made me an ideal striker. I assure you, I'm an excellent teammate and could bring this university great things if put on the field.”

The man hummed and nodded, “Well, that would be great; might even earn you free tuition here.” Chiya's eyes widened and her face brightened, “That is, if you could prove any of these accomplishments. Considering you refuse to give me any school documentation, I'm honestly inclined to believe that, perhaps, you never attended school.”

Chiya frowned, “I- I still have my uniform, I brought it with me to Mute City!”

He momentarily shook his head and sighed, “Alright, I'm just going to come out with it. I’m afraid all of this won't get you into our university. No offense, but this likely won‘t get you into any university. Not without documentation, where's the documentation? You still haven't answered why you're unable to run off documents!”

“I can't do that because...” She rubbed her arm and looked away, “Uh, my school's nowhere nearby...”

“Sorry, but I'm declining your request for entrance.”

Chiya got an overwhelmed look on her face and proceeded to to panic, “B- But you don’t know me! I’m really nice and can get work done, I- I know that if you give me a chance-”

The man handed her back the papers, “Look, I don’t know. All I'm saying is that it'd be ridiculous to enlist you into our school simply because you tell me a thing or two about yourself. If you have any intentions of building a future here, or anywhere else, you'll need more than stories and hobbies; I need factual documentation. End of story. Come back with documentation, and we'll talk.”

Chiya crossed her legs together with a quivering frown. She looked down toward the floor while trembling, her eyes watered sadly, “I- I literally can't go back home. I have no place left to go…”

\*\*\*\*

Chiya awoke with a startled expression, she was laying in bed under her blanket. Her new bedroom was dark and silent, no matter what time of the day it was. While Chiya appeared to be living a better life, the new job she took on was going to prove even more challenging than surviving the streets alone. The past day she had gotten into a violent encounter with a gang member, it was her first day with Seppuku and already she had to fire a weapon at someone.

She sat up and blew her bangs in frustration. *Is all of this really worth an F-Zero machine..?* She grabbed her beanie hat and opened the door. Upon walking through the door she ran into something—or someone. Seppuku was standing in front of her.

Chiya widened her eyes in fright by his sudden appearance, “Oh God, you’re not always going to do that, are you?”

Seppuku looked down at her with his signature hostile look, “Go check in with Bendek, he's in the garage installing the engine.”

Chiya beamed excitedly, then rubbed the back of her head, “Uh, what time is it?”

Seppuku walked away, “Time for work.”

Chiya made her way to the garage in search of Earl, she was still trying to memorize the location of each room, but was getting the hang of things. She moved inside the garage with quiet toes, a cranking sound was coming from ahead. Earl had been located under the F-Zero body with a ladder going into it, he was inside trying to install the engine.

In a gentle voice, she greeted him, “Earl?”

The man lowered himself down to look at her, “Oh, afternoon, Chi'.”

Chiya bobbed her head up with two raised brows, “Chi'?”

“Yeah, you know, it's 'Chiya' without the two-”

“I think Seppuku hinted you may like a hand?”

Earl swat his fists together, “Actually, I think I have it installed. I wouldn’t mind, though, if you could go attempt to start up the engine while I adjust it. I’m sick of going back and forth.”

“Sure!”

She approached the cockpit with a big happy eyes. The machine still lacked a cockpit window, so she was able to crawl inside. This was the first time she had ever gotten inside her future machine. Chiya seated herself comfortably and looked around, the interior appeared completely finished. A bulletproof window would finish the job.

Earl shouted his instructions, “Alright, start the engine and I’ll adjust it to optimal standards!”

Chiya searched the dashboard and spotted the ignition, the key was already inside. She grasped the key but hesitated to turn it. Very depressing fears flooded into her mind, like the F-Zero machine exploding upon ignition or Earl getting obliterated due to engine failure. She bit her lip and hesitantly powered on the machine.

The Mysterian was greatly startled as the machine proceeded to make a loud grinding noise, her initial presumption was that something bad had happened. Earl was now tinkering around with the engine in a bid to adjust it correctly. As he continued working the machine's sound changed. After nearly a minute of adjusting he climbed out of the machine.

“Turn it off, I need to get something!” he shouted to her. Chiya twisted the key back, the machine made a dying sound similar to that of a vintage plane turning off. Earl grabbed a tool off his workbench and returned to the machine. “Alright turn it on one more time,” he instructed before climbing back into the machine.

Chiya turned the engine on and Earl resumed work, she was still afraid that the machine may explode. Soon, a loud booming had occurred; this sent Chiya out of her seat in a great panic. She turned toward the side view mirror and could see a blue flame coming out the back while the machine shook rapidly. The engine was on and the rear rocket was flaming, but the machine itself was locked down to the floor because of very strong metal wires. A few moments later Earl climbed out of the machine, removed his dirty work gloves, then came walking toward the cockpit.

“Alright, turn it off!”

She did as instructed, the constant shaking of the machine had stopped shortly after twisting the key. Chiya leaned out of the cockpit and gazed at him, “So it’s working?”

Earl nodded, “It would appear so, but we’ll need to perform more tests.”

He reached his hand up as an offer to help her down, she grabbed the hand and carefully slid off the large machine and onto the floor. Once standing in front of one another, Earl grinned and crossed his arms and chuckled.

“So, my adult self is trying his hardest to leave you alone; but my teenage self has to ask.” Chiya raised an eyebrow at him, he grabbed his waist and asked, “You like engineering?”

The Mysterian beamed, “I love working with engines! They're so cool, the way they work. Always worked on them back at home. So I guess the answer to your question is, yes.”

Earl briefly became lost in her eyes, but stopped himself from looking like a love fallen idiot by closing his eyes. “Okay, okay, so answer me this, then. The reactor for your machine, should we try and raise its capacity or level it out to bring electrical balance?”

“Uh...”

“I presume you would up the capacity whenever you did regular cars, right?”

Chiya blinked cluelessly, then rubbed her foot in small circles, “Uh, the reactor... that's the thing under the steering wheel, right?”

The man appeared very excited up until this question, in which case, he normalized his face with a regular sized grin. “Ah, I see. You're a single concept mechanic, then?”

“What's that?”

“Well, all I've heard you talk about since I met you was your experience with engines...”

She put on a large smile, “Oh, yes, I love engines.”

“Yeah, so you're an engine specific mechanic.”

“Sounds right.”

The man nodded and looked back at the future F-Zero machine. Chiya lowered her eyebrows with somewhat of a frown, saddened to have possibly lost some respect. She only now realized that Earl was very interested with the idea of a female mechanic, but alas, she only specialized in a very specific field. She knew how an engine was built, how it ran, and how it could be modified; but not much else in terms of engineering.

“Ah, well, that's kind of unfortunate for me, I was looking forward to your help once we find a booster and reactor for the machine.”

Chiya brushed off the hurt feelings, “So where do we get the booster and reactor?”

Earl raised his finger, “We also need a combat module so you can attack or defend against other racers,” he added.

“Right, but where do we find these parts?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Seppuku would be the one to supply you with that information, not me.”

Chiya bowed, “I’ll go ask him,” she said walking away.

Earl turned toward her with a quirked mouth, “Tell him he shouldn’t get back into action so early with that wound!”

The Mysterian made a sudden stop, then hesitantly turned to face him. Her face was lacking in expression, though her mind was full of emotions. She didn't want Earl to lose interest in her character just because of her single interest with engines.

“I- I can learn quickly, you know...” Earl raised his chin up at her. “I'd still love to help you install those other parts, once we get them...”

Earl narrowed his eyebrows, then raised one skeptically, “You'd actually care to help me here in the garage?” Chiya smiled and returned a heavy nod. “Huh...” he muttered soundly. “Here I kind of thought you might be someone who doesn't like getting dirty.”

“Oh, I hate getting dirty!” She scratched the back of her head, “But, you know...”

Silence separated their conversation. Earl leaned against the F-Zero machine while scratching his chin. The Mysterian cleared her throat and looked up at him, but didn't speak. To break the awkward silence, Earl spoke for her.

“You can never stop looking for hobbies, I gotcha.”

Chiya beamed, “E- Exactly!”

Chiya now had a clear image of where Seppuku’s office was, this was a place she could get to with ease. She approached the office door and gulped, fearful of entering his office by herself. While Seppuku seemed to have good intentions, his dark character placed him alongside most villains in terms of intimidation. The big question on the woman's mind currently was where Seppuku on the Good vs. Bad scale. She entered the office with great caution and found Seppuku sitting with both legs up on the desk. He glanced at Chiya with a raised brow.

“Yeah?”

She blurted out an immediate request, “We need the other parts for the machine.”

“I don’t have them.”

Chiya raised her eyebrows, “So—o, we’re buying the parts?” Seppuku laughed at her question, this raised her tempter, “Alright, then, I see what you’re saying…” she spoke in discontent.

“Buying either of those parts would bring us into complete poverty. An engine is the least expensive part since all you need to do is supercharge an ordinary one.”

“So why are we even building this, then!?” she yelled.

“Don't raise your voice with me, child! Mind you, two days ago, you didn't even have a machine body. Be thankful for the damn crap I've already given you.” This somehow calmed Chiya down. Seppuku tipped his fedora downward and sat himself up straight, “But don’t worry, I have a plan on getting your parts.”

Chiya held her hands together quickly with a gleeful look, “Oh, great!”

“Basically, we’re going to steal the parts,” he said with a devious smirk.

The Mysterian's arms fell limp, “I’m not doing that! Where's the morality?”

Seppuku shook his head negatively, “We’re not stealing them from anyone innocent. Red Star has a vehicle lot full of stolen parts. All we need to do is infiltrate it, take what we need, then leave.”

Chiya bit her finger and considered this, “We’re stealing stolen parts? That still sounds kind of wrong, I mean, they're still stolen, after all…”

The man fell back against his seat and shrugged, “Then there is nothing I can do for you. You and Bendek will just have to set up a lemonade stand to make the money.”

Chiya sighed at her limited options, he was pressuring her into assisting in a dangerous heist, “How do we even pull off such an operation? This sounds like suicide.”

Seppuku chuckled, “Suicide? Why else do you think my name's 'Seppuku'?” The room was filled with silence before the man leaned forward and added, “I will accompany you on the heist.”

“No way, Earl says you need to stay out of action for at least two weeks!”

She was sent an outburst of laughter, “Please, he’s just a mechanic.”

Chiya lowered her eyelids and shook negatively, “I don’t know about that, I think you’re looking at his talent the wrong way.”

“I won’t be getting too involved in this mission, if that’s what you‘re worrying about. I’ll stay at a distance with my rifle in case things go badly, all you need to do is bring back as much as you can carry.”

Chiya had to think about the mission very carefully, Seppuku was obviously being stubborn about his wound, he had only been through a single day of recovery. He appeared fine and seemed almost eager to get back out and fight.

“Fine, but you need to form a plan that will keep me safe, considering I’m doing this practically alone.”

Seppuku placed his hands down on the desk, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll have a plan made before we leave tonight. You’ll make it out completely unharmed, I assure you this much.”

Chiya stood absolutely still somewhat doubting this plan of his, but she felt pressured into doing it for the sake of her F-Zero machine. She could get what she wanted the fast way or the slow way, the slow way being to make up the money for the remaining parts.

Hours later, Chiya was sitting in the back of the *Red Dove*, Seppuku was at the wheel. Unlike how Chiya drove, Seppuku was going down the streets very quickly, most buildings left their sight within seconds. Seppuku clearly had no regard for the posted speed limits of the Lower City. The speed limit hardly mattered either way, considering the lack of pedestrians, vehicles, and police on the streets.

Chiya was at the edge of her seat trembling in fear. She had never been in such a fast vehicle before, “D- don’t you get scared you might crash in this thing!?”

Seppuku swished his hand calmly, “These machines are built to withstand attacks from opposing machines going one-k kilo an hour. We’re practically driving a tank.”

The infrastructure of this part of the Lower City was horrid. The roads were bumpy, contained a lot of debris, and full of holes from what appeared to be the aftermath of explosions. The infrastructure of this neighborhood made one thing clear to Chiya; no homeless person voluntarily lived here.

“So how do you know where this lot is?”

“I am very familiar with the Lower City. I found this place a month back and have been studying what goes on. This seems to be a common place for gang deliveries, amongst delivered goods, I've seen machine parts.”

Chiya prepared to respond, but was stopped as the machine came to a sudden stop. The woman flailed her arms while nearly falling forward. Unlike Chiya, Seppuku was sitting completely still. Chiya grabbed her handgun in preparation to fight several members of Red Star. Seppuku, however, gently pushed her handgun below her waist using only two fingers.

“You won’t be needing that unless you’re cornered. I’ll be watching you closely from atop the building over there.”

Chiya put her handgun away with hesitation. This mission was beginning to sound like too much work for one inexperienced girl. She became more doubting of the mission's plausibility for success, but was bidding on the idea that Seppuku would watch her closely.

Seppuku grabbed her by the shoulder before she could move, “If you don’t see any of the parts laying around, do not go inside the building. Come back and we’ll tackle this heist together.”

“Right, then,” she acknowledged.

“Then go, and stay clear of Blaskovitz’s goons.”

Chiya spun around with a puzzled face, “Who’s Blaskovitz?”

Seppuku shook his hand and approached a building, “I’ll tell you later, just get going.”

He proceeded to latch onto the wall of a building and climb. Chiya glanced at him while quietly walking toward the lot entrance, she was stunned and confused by the man's ability to climb the wall of a building so easily. His fingers were rarely hanging onto anything, rather, he somehow managed to hold on by pressing his fingers down with immense force.

The woman approached the lot entrance with wide eyes. The lot was much like a mini-fortress containing a junkyard of scrap metal. Chiya slipped into the entrance and got a closer look.

“Blimey…” she muttered in awe. There were close to twenty gang members walking around the court doing separate things. Her eyes quivered in fear at the fearsome size of each man. “Th- they’re all so very muscular!” she panicked to herself.

Now very worried, Chiya looked up and spotted Seppuku. He managed to reach the rooftop with his rifle and now watched her with great focus. *Maybe he has some kind of silent sounding rifle that can save me if I get caught…*

Soon acknowledging the risk of getting caught at the entrance, Chiya dashed over to a pile of metal parts. She knelt behind the parts and took another look at her situation. Observing from over the scrap metal, Chiya could see that the mass of gang members were at work on a vehicle. She moved across more piles of scrap metal in careful search of what she needed. Initially, she could find nothing but scrap metal and parts on the ground. The parts she needed would likely be in the center of the lot—where she remained, there was nothing but expired pieces of machinery.

The Mysterian continued crawling alongside the rows of junk, she was coming especially close to some gangsters; the woman tried holding her breath in an attempt to remain silent. After crawling one more inch, she grit her teeth and widened her eyes; two men had walked in front of her.

Both gangsters were wearing red muscle shirts. The two had enormous muscles like everyone else, as both Red Star and the Bloody Chain alike were bodybuilding cults.

“Dude, I’m going to go work out!” one said while flexing his arm.

“Yeah, I wish I could, too. I’m waiting for that damn shipment to get here.”

Chiya was trembling greatly, but somehow remained unnoticed. The sad reality of the situation was that both men had their unrealistically large shoulders blocking their sight of Chiya, who was on her knees only about two meters from both. Neither could see past their shoulders to spot the Mysterian. Another gangster with white facial hair came walking in carrying three crates at once.

*Why is every person here so bloody muscular..!?*

“Here’s the goods. Three packs of assault rifles and grenades.”

The tattooed man flailed his arms and lectured, “Put them in the back with the rest of the goods!”

*The 'goods', that must be where the parts are…* Her eyes centered on a building within the lot's center. Seppuku had ordered her not to go in without him. She looked up at his building and could just barely make out the image of Seppuku sitting on the roof with his rifle. Seppuku still needed to recover, she couldn’t let him take on pressure by following her inside.

Chiya got back on her knees and carefully moved toward the entrance of the building, thus defying Seppuku's orders not to go in alone. Now at the entrance, Chiya checked behind her for enemies; everyone was either too distracted engineering or exercising. She quickly moved inside the building and dashed to the nearest crates she could find for cover. Nobody appeared to be in the immediate area, but she could hear metal chains clashing somewhere inside the building. There was a large window stretching a few feet across the hallway. With great caution, she ran to the window and looked through it; then lowered her eyelids with a pestered expression.

“Are you serious?”

Through the window was a massive fitness center. There were even more gang members in here than in the junkyard. This did mean, though, that she'd need to be especially careful while inside the building, for the smallest mistake could result in nearly fifty gangsters deploying from the room.

She looked to her left and could see a room full of objects and crates—a supply closet. This was almost certainly where she needed to be. She crept into the room and observed her surroundings, there were crates full of assault rifles, dumbbells, money, and other expensive things all over the room.

An attempt was made to lift up an assault rifle, but she he was having a difficult time lifting it for some reason. She soon realized that the barrel of the rifle had a chain attached to it, tied to the chain was a 40 pound dumbbell. Chiya raised an eyebrow at the strangely modified weapon. It sounded silly in theory, but was actually clever. Since the weapon had a weight on it, only strong individuals could properly wield such a weapon. Someone weak like Chiya would be unable to wield it.

Chiya looked up and spotted some large boxes on the upper shelves, the boxes were labeled by vehicle parts. With a brief scan of the upper shelf, she managed to locate a reactor. She grabbed onto the reactor, but fell to her knees due to its incredible weight. In the process of falling she had yelped. Fortunately, she retained possession of the box all the way down to the floor.

She opened the box with great speed and found a printed description on the metal part inside:

*‘This reactor drive has been modified to fit Formula Zero machines. Installation on any ordinary vehicle may trigger a hazardous discharge of energy, for the safety of the user, an F-Zero license is required before purchasing.’*

Chiya grinned having found what she needed. A booster had momentarily been brought down as well, but Red Star seemed to lack a combat module. She could leave with two of the three needed parts. The combat module would need to be found elsewhere, but this wasn‘t a mandatory part required to get an F-Zero machine running, so she had everything that was needed.

Both boxes were stacked and lifted up. She spun around and bumped into someone. Her facial expression changed to an immediate look of fright, she gasped and widened her eyes.

“Well, well! Look what we have here...” a muscular goon said with a grin.

Minutes later, Chiya sat tied in a chair. There were four gang members standing in the small room, three of them were working out. One was standing in front of a computer trying to contact their boss. Chiya trembled greatly in her seat, now deeply in regret for her decision to partake in this mission. She looked at the computer screen on the wall as a muscular man with a silver-gold half shaved mohawk appeared onscreen, this was the boss of Red Star.

The boss and gang member who captured her discussed what to do with Chiya for a few minutes. The young Flower couldn't hear what the boss was saying from her position in the room, but she could tell that the man was pleased. There was a sense of doom in the woman's mind, she had forgotten what Seppuku told her; shoot if there was someone cornering her—instead she allowed herself to be captured.

The boss disconnected from the server, and so the man who captured her turned,  “Well, looks like we’ve got a young girl trying to steal our goods…” His fellow gang members turned with him.

Chiya looked at him with a quivering fake smile, “W- Well technically you stole them in the first place, so I’m not really the bad person here.”

The men laughed at her, finding her comment humorous. The central man put his large hands on both her arms, “Let’s cut to the chase! We *know* that you’re working for the Bloody Chain!” Chiya lowered both her eyebrows in confusion, waiting patiently for him to continue, “I mean, just look at your clothes; a beanie hat? You’re clearly one of Michael Chain’s girls!”

Chiya glared at the man, “I’ll have you know, a lot of people wear these from where I come from…”

The man tapped her shoulder with grinding teeth, “Our boss demands you tell us of your plans! What were you doing with our goods?”

“I’m not in the Bloody Chain! You’ll get nothing out of interrogating me!”

“Oh, we'll do more than interrogate you, unless you spill the beans...”

Chiya tilted her head to the side in confusion, “What else could you-” she momentarily lowered her eyelids and sighed with a displeased expression. “You wouldn't take things that far, because that'd be illegal.”

The men exchanged queried glances, when all of a sudden the door to the room was kicked open. Chiya gasped and jolted her head up as Seppuku leapt into the room with a rifle ready. Before the men could turn to face the intruder, Seppuku had taken two shots. Two of the muscled men fell to the ground dead without a struggle. The other two got their fists ready to fight, both were knocked out cold as Seppuku dashed toward them and whacked their heads with his rifle. Both men were knocked out and fell to the ground. As soon as he could confirm that they were all dealt with, he rubbed his collarbone in discomfort.

Seppuku faced the tied woman, “Frankly, we don’t have a need in our organization for a damsel. You need to stop getting yourself into these situations.”

Chiya shut her eyes and growled, “Bloody Hell! Just cut me free, please!”

The woman gasped and jolted upward as Seppuku fired his rifle toward her. She now had her head tucked down, but opened an eye and looked down at her side. Seppuku had shot the rope apart, rather than cutting it.

“A- Are you insane!?”

“Probably.”

Seppuku moved over to the computer and began searching through it for any storage devices, he found some removable parts. After collecting storage devices, he knelt down beside the four bodies and went through their pockets. Chiya stood up and brushed her arms in relief knowing that she made it out of yet another situation. Seppuku walked out of the room and inched his finger toward Chiya, asking her to follow him. The two went through some hallways and eventually came across the room full of goods, the two boxes were still stacked.

“You lift all of this and we’ll get out of here,” he ordered.

Chiya whined in response, “Lift all of them? Why don’t you lift one?”

Seppuku didn’t answer, he waited for her to follow his instruction. Chiya got an irritated look before grabbing the boxes. They walked down the hallways without taking cover behind objects, Seppuku wasn‘t nearly as cautious.

Once they got to the entrance, Chiya tugged on his sleeve, “So, how do we get through this unnoticed?”

“Follow me.”

Chiya followed Seppuku outside into the junkyard, and to Chiya’s surprise, he walked in front of all the gang members. Both Chiya and Seppuku had been spotted by everyone.

“I- I said 'unnoticed'!” she lectured.

Chiya hid behind the tall man in disbelief. *He can’t possibly fight all these guys…*

Gang members walked in front of the two, “You have guts showing up in Red Star territory, Seppuku!” yelled the pack leader.

Another gangster smashed a fist against his palm, “This is our territory! You made a bad mistake coming here!”

Seppuku's single action was to take out the key to the *Red Dove* and press the autopilot button, “Sorry, I got lost. Let me get my machine and we’ll leave…” he muttered in a calm tone.

Chiya was still hiding behind Seppuku in fear, preparing for the inevitable beating they would surely receive. The gang members all laughed at him, each finding Seppuku just as crazy.

“You really think we’re just going to let you walk out of here alive? Do you realize that you're outnumbered two to twenty-”

The *Red Dove* drove into the crowd of gangsters, thus propelling each one into the air like bowling pins. Seppuku walked toward the *Red Dove* in a casual way.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

Chiya ran past him and leapt into the back of the *Red Dove*, leaving Seppuku behind, “Yep! Ready to go! Let’s leave this place now, please!”

Seppuku got in the machine and spun it around. The gang members were all ran toward the *Red Dove*, but Seppuku drove off at maximum speed. Within seconds, the two were safely driving away from the area with the cargo safely placed in the back of the machine.

Chiya looked down at her feet with a disgraced look, “I’m sorry I went in without you. I was just worried you would hurt yourself some more.”

Seppuku turned his head and smirked, “I’m not surprised you took the hard path, and I don’t think you made a bad decision.” Chiya raised her head in shock. “What you did wrong, however, was challenging my plan without thinking. If you were going in alone, you should have set my plan aside completely and went loose with your handgun once cornered. Remember, I can’t decide completely for you, some things you need to use your own judgment on. But at least you're not dead.”

Chiya understood what he was telling her, but while tied up she had been contemplating whether or not to run away from Seppuku and return to the abandoned warehouse. This mission made it clear to her now that she may have jumped into a dirty business she wasn’t fit for. Despite that Chiya’s dream of becoming an F-Zero racer was now within reach—she was thinking of quitting.

A while later they made it back to the HQ safely. Seppuku immediately left his office and tended to his own work. Chiya met up with Earl again in the garage, where she now broke the news to him personally.

The man rubbed his chin with a slight frown, “So, you’re thinking of leaving, even after going through all of that?”

Chiya crossed her arms with a frustrated look, “I didn’t know what I was signing up for when I agreed to do this. I am no killer. While I admit living here is much nicer, I think I would be better off finding a more suitable job in the Upper City—like a waitress.”

Earl rubbed his chin with lowered eyebrows, “A waitress, eh? You know, if you hadn’t been at the bar that day, Seppuku would have probably died. He may not seem very appreciative of you, but I think that’s why he knows you belong here. He can see something in you that not many others see. Not even I, admittedly…”

Chiya sighed, under the presumption that she’d get in worse situations if she decided to stay with the two. She decided to take the safer path.

The Mysterian spoke her mind, “Well, you have the parts now, maybe you can just do something else with this F-Zero machine. But I don’t think I want this, not if it means that I have to kill or risk being killed.”

The two gazed at each other for many moments, Earl quirked his mouth and sighed, “You know, I admit that I don't want to see you go...” Chiya puckered her lips with fair surprise. “We haven't known each other for a long time, but I already feel like you and I are great friends. I really love having someone around who actually cares about engineering, and I bet we have some other similar interests to enjoy.” Chiya now lowered her eyebrows with a frown, but was kept silent by a conclusive sentence. “But, Hell, I get it. I wish you'd reconsider, but I understand that you want to leave.”

Chiya continued staring at him for many moments, her mind went many places as she reconsidered her options. Despite everything she had just been told, she still turned away and proceeded into the lobby. Earl narrowed both his eyebrows with rising frustration now that she left.

“She’s not that much younger than me, how can she be that stubborn?” he grumbled to himself.

Chiya walked back to her room with a frown. She grabbed her blanket, box of ammo, and prepared to turn off the lamp for the final time. Just before she could turn off the light, she had spotted something on her bed. She gazed at two mysterious brown objects without motion, then set down her things and raised an eyebrow.

She approached the mysterious items and discovered what they were. Two brown wallets were laying on the bed. She slowly opened a wallet and looked at the identity, to her surprise, the wallet belonged to one of the goons Seppuku had killed while she was tied up. She looked over the wallets in amazement, all of the licenses in the wallet were expired, but inside each were large quantities of cash. She took the money out and counted in awe, the other wallet contained much of the same. Ultimately, she collapsed onto her bed to look at all of the money Seppuku had just given her. This was stolen money, but regardless, Chiya was very intrigued.

The Mysterian shut her eyes and sighed after counting all of the money she earned. Despite the fact these goons were bad people, she couldn't resist accepting the money. After careful thinking, she put the blanket back onto her bed and the ammo box back on her bookshelf. Seppuku successfully pulled her back in through bribery.

To be Continued!

**Lap 6 < | > Lap 8**

## Author Notes

#### First Flashback

While technically Lap 2 saw the first ever use of a dream sequence, this chapter is the first time in the Siontix Realm that a flashback is shown using the same style as a dream. The length of the flashback in this chapter would, interestingly enough, serve as a model for how long a flashback should be throughout all Siontix Realm works even to this day. I do not believe that flashbacks are great to have too often, as the reader likely wants to get back to advancing the plot, rather than viewing the past, thus I have always made any dream or flashback sequence to be short and in some capacity meaningful. The truth be told, I do not always agree that this flashback was necessary; it does bring more light to what Chiya was doing in Mute City prior to the story's start, but I never felt like it added much that the reader didn't already know. I think it's a fitting enough flashback, and therefore not necessary to delete.

#### The Morally Gray Seppuku

While it isn't entirely shocking up to this point that Lieutenant Seppuku holds morally questionable views, this was the first chapter where I toyed around with the idea that he is without too much care for the safety of his workers, and that he will resort to bribery to keep them loyal to his dangerous games. First, there was the rather questionable case of Seppuku sending Chiya into an outpost full of armed gangsters, despite later revealing that he is easily capable of wiping the entire outpost out almost effortlessly. When Chiya then threatens to back out of her commitment to his vigilante team, he capitalizes on her trauma of being homeless by lassoing her back in with money. Both of these things aren't massively wrong, as both factors put Chiya in a position to make a choice for herself, but both were, by design, meant to show that Seppuku isn't some selfless hero who acts for the good of his team. This would be expanded upon throughout the entire saga, and in far more severe instances than displayed here.

#### The 'Blaskovitz' Mistake

Giving a name to Red Star's leader, 'Brock Blaskovitz,' was a little bit of a regrettable move considering he would shortly after be revealed to be a Russian time traveler. The name of 'Blaskovitz' was a play on 'Blaskowitz' and was chosen at the time due to a reckless belief that it sounded Russian. This created a bit of an awkward situation for myself in the years to follow when I started to put more care into cultural accuracy, but was ultimately allowed to remain just as 'Earl Bendek' was for a Korean. The truth be told, a good answer to why Brock has the name he does is simply a bad piece of teenage judgment.

## Chapter Illustration

This chapter illustration depicts the scene Chiya is captured by Red Star and interrogated. Like with the previous illustration, the background was given a room corner, but for once stayed clear of gradient for the entire picture. This is also the most independent drawing of Chiya to have existed at the time, no longer showing much evidence of borrowing from the concept art of her; that said, the quality of Chiya in general declines here. The Red Star gangster pictured is the first instance of a generic character being pictured, and the first time seeing a character from the rear. The choice to make the gangster have less saturation in the skin is a reference to the F-Zero GX chapter 'Challenge of the Bloody Chain,' where various members of the Bloody Chain are depicted with varying skin tones of similar appearance. The tattoo on the gangster's arm is difficult to interpret, but is likely an attempt at Japanese script.

This chapter illustration was produced over Paint.NET on August 10th, 2013, as part of a continuing set of illustrations all prepared on that same day. This was the last of the August 10 illustrations; however, the illustrations for Laps 8-11 would be made in the early hours of August 11, suggesting that the work merely spilled over into the next day.