Tokyo Surprise by Alex Ko Read Free Book Online Page A

Granny ushered Jessica into the hall, and closed the door behind her.
    Josh settled down on his futon and pulled his sketchbook out of his bag. He sat still for a second, composing his thoughts, and then he started drawing storyboards, mapping out an idea for a
great new comic character.
    My Ninja Granny ...

 

    “Josh, wake up!”
    He opened his eyes. Granny was standing beside his bed, wearing her sleek black ninja outfit. Josh sat up so fast his head spun. “You have thirty seconds to get dressed,” Granny
said, tapping the black and white sheath of a small katana against her leg. Josh tumbled out of bed, fumbling for his T-shirt. Granny nodded curtly and left the room.
    Twenty-seven and a half seconds later, Josh hopped out of his room still pulling on his socks and nearly collided with Jessica, who was stumbling into the corridor, trying to dislodge a brush
that was tangled in her hair. Granny was standing at the door, arms folded, back as straight as a steel rod. A sword hung from her belt.
    “Good,” she said. “ Tsuitekite .” She marched out of the apartment, stepping into her outdoor shoes and through the door in one smooth motion. Josh and Jessica
scrambled to keep up with her.
    Once in the lift, Granny held up one finger for their attention.
    “Watch me; you may need to remember this,” she said, before moving her finger across a small black panel beside the door. A green fingerprint appeared briefly, before the panel swung
aside to reveal some hidden buttons. “Your fingerprints are programmed in already,” Granny said, pressing the bottom button.
    “Where did you get our prints from?” Jessica asked.
    “Mr. Yamamoto lifted them from the door handles of your rooms,” Granny said, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.
    “Where are we going, obaasan ?” said Josh.
    “Are we going to help Team O find Kiki?” Jessica asked, hopefully.
    “Certainly not!” Granny said. “I have not changed my mind – you are far too young to be able to help. There are Yakuza involved; these are dangerous people.”
    “But we can’t just do nothing now that we know all about it,” Jessica protested.
    “Precisely,” said Granny. The lift doors swooshed open to reveal a long corridor – another mix of the modern and traditional. It was lit with bright halogen light bulbs and
floored with traditional tatami mats. “We cannot ignore the fact that you are now involved,” Granny continued, leading the way down the corridor. “As much as I would rather you
had never found out about Team O. Now, because you know, you are in danger.”
    Josh felt the back of his neck prickle. He wouldn’t be having this conversation with his cucumber-sandwich-eating, allotment-obsessed other grandparents back in England – or, Josh wondered, maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to assume.
    They came to the end of the corridor and a flight of steep stairs. Granny took them two at a time. Josh and Jessica looked at each other and followed. Josh thought of himself as being pretty fit
– he could go four rounds with Jessica in their karate class and hardly break a sweat. But he was definitely getting a bit out of breath by the time they neared the top of the stairs. Granny
was totally composed, not a silver hair out of place.
    They emerged inside a bare wooden room with large shuttered windows all around it. Stepping outside, Josh realized the stairs had come up in an ornamental temple in the park that was just round
the corner from the Sakura Apartments. They were separated from the rest of the park by a thick line of cherry trees and a pond. Josh walked up to the edge of the pond and a glimmer of golden
movement caught his eye. A shoal of koi were swimming lazily just under the surface.
    Granny walked up to a tree, opened a concealed panel in the bark and pressed her finger to the pad. Josh stepped back quickly as the surface of the pond rippled and then drew back underneath the
grass, carp and all, to