Okay, after all this time, I finally have the next chapter ready for you. I suppose 2 updates in a year isn't too bad, eh? >.>
As you read you might realize what I mean, but this one was just hard to get in the right mood for... It was tough, though hopefully will get easier for the most part from now on. Many things about this fic are just hard though.
Anyway, enough talk after so long. Enjoy :hearT:
Chapter 12Airi’s eyes opened slowly and reluctantly, and she became conscious of a rocking motion. Her mind drifted back subconsciously to long ago when her mother rocked her in her arms, but as she crawled her way back into the present reality she began to feel sensations that were quite different.
Sitting up suddenly, she hugged her arms tightly around her as she shivered. She realized she sat in a few centimeters of water, her skirt plastered down against her thighs. After a moment she came to recognize the rocking motions she felt as caused by a boat of some kind, though she was in a dark, dank compartment with walls that seemed almost to close in on her. As the vessel rocked and rolled, the wooden structure that surrounded them creaked and groaned like an old forest battling against winds which heralded an incoming typhoon.
“I told you it was about time for her to wake up,” came a low voice from the side through the sound of the wood and the waves, and she squinted to see a small form huddled up against one of the paneled walls, not even a pace away from her.
“Reina?” she asked in a weak voice, and started to crawl toward the voice. She hadn’t thought her surroundings through yet however, and as her hands plopped into the water, they dug into what felt like sand beneath them.
“It’s ballast,” the voice ahead of her said, and it was followed by a nervous giggle. “They stuck us into the bowels of the ship where there’s nothing but tiny compartments and sand and water. Since they threw us in here I haven’t been able to get it out of my hair.”
“It
is you, Reina!” Airi said now with blooming delight, and despite the muck below her, made it the short distance to hug the girl.
“Hey now,” the other said, pulling away and sliding up the wall as if to stand. “None of that. I may not be clean, but I’ve recovered a bit from the mess you are right now. Besides, I wasn’t the one watching over your scrawny ass since we got thrown in here.”
Airi blinked uncomprehendingly at the girl before following her eyes to another behind her who was sitting with legs crossed on a small mound of sand exposed from the bilge. From her position, it looked like she must have had Airi’s head in her lap before she woke.
“Miya!!!” she cried, grinning dumbly, and splashed back into the water again.
“Kids…” Reina grumbled, but Airi continued over to hug Miyabi tightly around the waist. This girl didn’t care.
“I thought I’d lost you…” she mourned, snuggling into her stomach.
She felt a hand begin stroking her hair, and the girl sighed above her. Looking up, she caught her first good look at the other’s dirty face. “Wh-where are we?”
“Finally a sensible thing to say,” Reina said behind her, stretching her legs as if she hadn’t done so for a while.
“We’re on some kind of Chinese junk,” Miyabi replied, her first words since Airi woke. “We’ve been sailing maybe a day now. You’ve been out since being taken from Seishin on our trip overland. They brought us to Niigata, where this ship was waiting for us. I can’t believe they could just kidnap Japanese citizens like that, but I guess they do a good job of being subtle.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Chun and Lin,” Reina intoned in a dark voice. “Those Chinese exchange students. Along with some others they apparently met up with, of course.” Her gaze drifted up to the ceiling. “I swear, when I get my hands on them again…”
“It seems they’re in the compartment above us,” Miyabi explained quietly. “We haven’t seen them, of course. Or anyone else. They haven’t even brought us food or anything.” As if to emphasize her point, her stomach growled forlornly.
“How long have you been awake?” she asked the girl, then fell once again into the stupid grin. “Miya… You can’t imagine how happy I am to see you.”
The other smiled weakly back. “I just wish it was under better circumstances. Reina woke sometime during the overland trip. Apparently they had us kept in the back of a curtained van. I woke about a day later – just before we left Niigata port.”
Airi pondered a moment. “We were each kidnapped a day apart.”
Miyabi nodded in understanding.
“So you knew?” Reina asked, and Airi heard splashing as the girl stumbled toward them. “You knew we were gone, and didn’t do anything about it!?” Just before she reached them, she slipped in the sand and fell to her knees. As the water splashed on her clothes again she glanced down in resignation. “I had just felt a little bit clean for what seemed the first time in days…”
“We tried,” Airi stated meaningfully, pulling the girl’s eyes back up to her own. Her face softened. “I’m sorry though, Reina. We didn’t realize you were gone right away, so we didn’t begin to search until the day I…” She trailed off as memories of those last moments began to return to her.
“The others were easy enough; no real friends… so much time spent alone… You’d almost feel sorry for them.”
“Maimi…”Stifling a sob that rose within her throat, she gazed sadly at Reina before turning her eyes to Miyabi.
“I’m so sorry…” she said, and Miyabi narrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “We’d all been letting you become so lonely.” She glanced up to Reina. “Both of you.”
Reina averted her eyes awkwardly, but Miyabi turned her face toward her with fingers to her chin. “I wasn’t lonely,” she said with a sparkle in her eyes.
“Rii-chan,” Airi said, understanding, and smiled. The girl nodded.
“Aww, isn’t that nice. Both of you found little girlfriends.”
Despite Reina’s tone, Airi noticed a haunted look in her eyes when she caught them again.
“Come here,” Airi said, but Reina stared back at her confused. Seeing the look, Airi pushed herself up on wobbly legs, checking her balance quickly before turning to the girl and enveloping her in a tight hug. Reina stiffened immediately, and even tried to pull away, but Airi held her fast.
Eventually she pulled away enough to look down into the girl’s face. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to us,” she said, “But no matter what it is, we need to stay strong together. That’s the only way we’ll be able to overcome it.”
“Well… as to that…” Reina began a bit uncomfortably.
Airi felt Miyabi stand up behind her. “I overheard some of them talking before we were brought down here.”
“Thrown,” Reina corrected, but Miyabi just returned an even gaze. “Just trying to give the girl the right details,” she defended, shrugging.
“They talked about taking us to Ch’ongjin.” When Airi stared at her blankly, she continued, “It’s a provincial capital in extreme northern North Korea.”
“I suppose we have to just trust what she says,” Reina added, evaluating Miyabi skeptically. “They were talking in Chinese or Korean or somethin’. I couldn’t catch a word.”
“Your powers?” Airi asked, and Miyabi nodded. “But wait. You didn’t know what I was thinking a minute ago…”
Miyabi shook her head.
“It’s those damn Chinks,” Reina growled.
Airi spun around, fists on her hips. “You will
not use words like that, Reina Tanaka!”
Reina’s eyes widened in shock at her tone. “Do you even realize what they’ve done to us here?”
Airi’s face steeled. “Letting yourself fall to that level will not accomplish anything.” She glanced up at Miyabi, as if she was looking for support but didn’t necessarily need it. “They are still people, no matter how misled they might be.”
Miyabi gazed into her eyes, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“All that religious stuff must really be getting to her head…” Reina grumbled.
“She’s right about our abilities though,” Miyabi said, bringing it back to Airi’s questions. “I believe one or both of the girls who brought us here are staying just above us, maintaining whatever spell it is that cuts us off from them.”
Without a thought, at her words Airi let her focus fall inward and opened herself up, but again found nothing just like what she remembered before blacking out in the swamp. A little knot of terror formed in her stomach, and she looked at the walls, which somehow seemed to press tighter around them than before. Laying a hand on one, she slapped lightly against it.
“I feel my strength is still here,” she commented. “We should be able to just break through these walls.”
“To what effect?” Reina asked, crouching down again beside them in the cramped quarters. She seemed to have a hard time keeping her balance as the boat rocked around them. “We’re surrounded by the sea, unless you fancy swimming for a few days. If we tried to take over the ship I’m sure they’d have something to use against us.”
Airi looked from one girl to the other.
“Don’t think I haven’t already thought of that?” Reina asked sarcastically. “I certainly don’t like being caught up in this… chicken coop.”
“Chickens can still see the sky,” Miyabi commented quietly, and the mood in the room turned solemn again until Airi’s stomach grumbled.
“So are they just going to let us starve to death in here?” she asked, rubbing at it.
“If they wanted to kill us, they’d have done it already,” Miyabi replied wearily. “What I do know is that they want us to hurt. I’m sure they’ll eventually give us just what we need to survive.”
Reina barked out a laugh. “Well they’d better give us something soon then. All of us are so tiny we don’t have much extra to live on.”
“I’m sure they will,” Airi said with certainty. They had to… She was not going to die in this place.
“There is the one good thing, I think,” Miyabi commented, her eyes drifting to the ceiling. “Even though I’m cut off now, I don’t think they counted on me remembering so much from before. I wonder if that means they don’t think we know where we are or where we’re headed.”
“If that’s gonna do us any good…” Reina said, sighing as she lay back uncomfortably against the wall after dropping down onto a pile of sand rising barely above the water.
“We just have to…” Airi began, then fell silent as she let herself really feel where she was right now. She basically sat in the stagnant water that surrounded them, a chill running up her spine at the thought, causing her teeth to chatter slightly. She hugged herself as she looked at the walls, closer now, dark shadows in the corners foreboding despite tiny slivers of light coming in through cracks around what must have been the hatch in the ceiling and other places around them.
Her joy at seeing her sisters again faded as she knew although they were alive, they were certainly not well, and she wasn’t either. A light gnawing of despair grew a bit larger inside her, and she felt herself slump against Miyabi’s leg behind her.
“We’re still alive…” she murmured, in a voice she intended to be more reassuring than she was sure it came out. She hadn’t realized until now how much she’d come to count on her powers, that sense of superiority and omnipotence which made her feel that there was nothing she would face again that she couldn’t overcome.
But now she was here, sitting in the fetid water in the hull of a boat that was taking them to what would surely be enemy territory.
“Why do you think they’re taking us to North Korea…?” she pondered, hardly realizing she spoke aloud.
“I’m sure it isn’t for anything good,” Reina mumbled in reply. “If their soldiers get their hands on us…” Airi felt her shudder in the dimness. “I don’t wanna think about what they might do to cute Japanese girls like ourselves.”
Airi felt a faint urge to nudge Reina’s political correctness again, but it faded as she wondered if the girl might not have a point. Someone threw them down here, so who knows what else they might do?
“I believe it’s a stopping point for them to take us the rest of the way overland to China,” Miyabi said quietly, and into the silence surrounding her. “They don’t want to stay on the open sea longer than they have to, and within the People’s Republics I’m sure they’ll be able to hide us away from anyone who might try to look for us.”
Silence for another minute until Airi finally heard Reina say, “…You’re really encouraging, you know that.”
“As long as we’re together,” Airi said, feeling the coldness, the wetness, the darkness, the oppressiveness of it altogether pressing into her, “We’ll find a way. We will.”
Then she wrapped her arms around Miyabi’s leg to hug it tightly, and laid her head once again into the girl’s lap, her eyes closing to only more dark as the weakness overcame her. “We will…”
…
She found herself running through the marsh, the sounds of crickets around her and the night black except for occasional twinkling of stars through the canopy above her.
“Maimi!” she cried in an ethereal voice as she ran down the path, her shoes squelching in the peat beneath them. She could see the girl’s figure fluttering infrequently through breaks in the trees, though it as well almost seemed as ethereal as her own voice.
She didn’t know why Maimi was apart from her, or why she was chasing after her, but she knew she had to find her.
“Maimi!” she cried again, trying to run harder, but the girl only seemed to be getting farther and farther ahead of her. She wondered why that was. Maimi was always the better runner…
Before long she realized she’d lost her, and she slowed to a walk. Tears welled up in her eyes. She needed to find Maimi. She didn’t know why, but it seemed like it was the most important thing in the world.
She loved her.
That’s right… why did she need any more of an excuse than that?
But now she’d lost her.
She began to slow her walk further as her surroundings became somehow more uncertain. It seemed like it was becoming even darker; now the light rarely even showed through the cracks above. Becoming quickly more and more paranoid, she glanced anxiously into the forest around her. At some point all the noises of the insects and animals had stopped.
She gasped, halting, as she thought she glimpsed a face flash through the trees to her left. It was closer than Maimi had been… and it definitely was not Maimi.
A flash to her right caused her to swing her head around in that direction.
“Hello?” she called, her voice sounding hollow in her head.
“Who’s out there?”“Airi…” called a voice from the mist. It seemed like she’d heard voices like that before, but she couldn’t recall where. What she did know was that it must be a bad omen.
“Who is it?” she called again, but to no response.
Her anxiety reaching a peak, she tried to step forward again, but found her feet unable to move. Looking down into the darkness below her waist, she tried lifting a foot again only to hear a soft squelching noise. Great. Now she was stuck in the bog.
“Help!” she cried, knowing there was no one out there to rescue her. There were those faces, but at just the thought a chill ran through her. She didn’t know who they were, but she was certain she did not want help from them.
She didn’t see them again, though the bog wouldn’t release her feet. Struggling against it, it felt like the world was getting darker in her anguish. The Sun seemed so very far away right now.
Darkness…
“Help…!”“Help… help…” she muttered, and was shaken awake. When she opened her eyes though, the darkness did not go away.
“Maimi!” she cried out, flailing her arms frantically. She felt her knuckles hit something, and a girl swore under her breath.
“Find something to shut her up with!” the girl growled again, and Airi felt arms encircle tightly around her.
“Maimi…” Airi cried, hugging her savior tightly as well. Almost immediately though, her nose twitched as she realized something was different. “No…” she said, and memory began returning to her. “Miya…”
“Shh…” Miyabi said. “You were dreaming. Just go back to sleep. It’s night now.”
“I’m sorry…” Airi apologized, still sobbing slightly. “I’m being so stupid. You shouldn’t need to comfort me…”
“You’re right,” the other voice, which she now recognized to be Reina’s, said through the dark. “You’re being stupid. You’re lucky she’s here, cause I wouldn’t bother taking care of a kid here. Not when I… when I…”
“I’m sorry,” Airi repeated again, pressing her face into Miyabi’s chest.
She heard Reina sigh. “Just keep her quiet.”
…
Some time later – Airi had no clue how long, since time seemed meaningless here aside from the slivers of light which blessedly came through the cracks during the day – she still lay in Miyabi’s arms, her head pressed to her chest as she felt the other’s even breathing. Soft, slow breathing from behind her as well indicated that Reina was probably asleep now too, even though she could see absolutely nothing in pitch blackness. It must be night again.
“Miya…” she whispered. Despite the girl’s comforting, she hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep. “Are you awake?”
A few more short breaths against her ear, and then a weary “Yes.”
“How… how long do you suppose it is until we get where they’re taking us?” At this point, North Korea or the island closest to Hell seemed better than where they were right now. Her stomach gnawed at her; even if they did want to keep them alive, feeding them apparently didn’t fall into the category of what they thought of as a “necessity”. Airi had to struggle once again to resist the urge to dunk her face in the water below them to take what would likely be a poisonous drink. At least it was water…
“I don’t know,” came the wooden response.
Airi picked at the girl’s damp clothing, her starved mind trying to form some coherent thought. “Why are they doing this to us? What have we done to them?”
She’d thought before of how she’d gotten so used to her powers, but now began to think that it might be better had she never come upon them. She felt a small yearning in the void once again to be just a normal schoolgirl, without a care in the world except for getting to class on time, and maybe trying to catch the eye of that cute upperclassman she had a crush on.
Maimi… the thought came unbidden to her.
“I don’t know,” someone said.
“Huh?” she murmured, her mind wandering in the mire.
“I guess they felt we were a threat somehow.”
A threat? What was the girl talking about? What…
That’s right. She’d asked a question. She wondered how much longer she could go without food before she’d completely lose her mind.
“But Jun and Lin knew us,” she protested vacantly. “They fought with us. They know we wouldn’t do anything to threaten them, or China, or anyone else. I just want everyone to be happy.”
The other girl was silent a moment before responding. “You’re right Airin, they knew us. They knew our history. We weren’t part of the Circle, but they acted as if they wanted to take over the world while under the influence of the demons. Yeah we fought against them, but maybe it’s not a big leap for someone who’s not us to believe we might turn out the same way once we took control of things more, and well, we kind of did back at Seishin.”
“But we’re not them. And we didn’t take any control either,” Airi commented sleepily. “Ai-chan and Gaki-san became the heads of Seishin. We were just students…”
“Students who hosted government officials and envoys from the Emperor? Students who didn’t go to class or do anything other than inhabit the building school leaders used to? I guess it’s true those without power are afraid of those who have it.”
“But the other girls at Seishin weren’t afraid of us…” Airi yawned. “And they were the ones who were closest to us all the time.”
“With all that time you spent trying to go to class and mingle with the other students, you didn’t realize what they actually thought of you?” Miyabi asked gently, patting her hair.
“I don’t need soothing…” Airi mumbled, brushing away the hand. “I’m just… tired…”
The cold of the water now numbing her extremities, she let her head fall once again into Miyabi’s lap, wrapping her arms around the other girl’s waist and snuggling in gently. The dampness made her think of a summer’s day at the beach; her clothes plastered to her body feeling almost as if they weren’t there reminded her of her swimsuit. That’s right. She was enjoying a day at the beach with Miya. Miya held her as she lay in the sand with the waves brushing against her legs at regular intervals. It was so peaceful… calming…
“Tell me when it’s time to go home…” she mumbled vacantly. Then, as she felt her hair being brushed weakly again, she fell asleep.
…
“Airi,” Miyabi said, bringing her halfway out of her slumber. She was being shaken gently.
“Mou…” Airi murmured. “Is it time to go?” she asked blearily.
“Yes,” came the response. “I think it is.”
“Just shake her as much as you need to,” someone else said, and after a moment Airi recognized it as Reina. Why was she there at the beach with them? Was Chisa here too? “I doubt she’ll want to be half-awake when they come for us. That is, if they haven’t forgotten us down here.”
“They haven’t,” Miyabi replied with certainty.
As Airi started becoming fully awake now, she blinked groggily up in the dimness at Reina’s face. The girl was giving Miyabi a sidelong glance. Why was the beach so dim? And why did she hear the creaking of wood around them? There were some distant noises and shouts from above as well, but she couldn’t make them out.
“Why do you have to be so serious all the time anyway, ne? I don’t remember you like that as much before. And I don’t mean just now.”
“People change, Reina,” Miyabi replied bitterly. “If you looked closer though, you might not find me all that different.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Reina muttered.
“Where’s the beach?” Airi asked, raising her head from the warm lap. Away from it though, she realized that the rest of her was most definitely not warm in almost any fashion. It seemed something was missing too, but she couldn’t put a finger on what exactly it was.
This time Reina gave her the sidelong glance. “Is she for real?” she asked, the question apparently intended for Miyabi.
“Give the girl a break,” Miyabi replied. “She just woke up. Was probably dreaming. I wish I had dreams like that here.”
“Dream…?” Airi asked again groggily, to a snort from Reina. Suddenly she realized what was missing. They were not moving. She’d gotten used to a slow rock back and forth, as if they were riding on the waves or something. Wait… she was on a boat. Her brief memories after the past days slowly trickled back into her, and she lost her breath.
She didn’t have time to think more though, as suddenly they heard steps on the deck above them, mostly a shuffling back and forth, and almost a jumping as if someone was coming down from a ladder. The conversation from above also slowly became audible to them.
“…seriously expect me to believe you have them here? In this junk?” came a gruff man’s voice. It sounded like Korean, which was basically indecipherable to Airi, but she glanced up at Miyabi. The girl shook her head quickly, her gaze fixed on the ceiling.
Softer steps, as if someone was just rising from being seated. “Ah. I take it you are the commander of the garrison at this port?” This sounded like a young woman, and was somehow familiar to Airi.
“No,” came the short reply. “I’m Corporal Koh, one of the Ch’ongjin port regiment’s cargo inspectors. I tell you though, this is one of the strangest vessels I’ve ever come across. And the things I heard above…”
“Please send for your commander,” the girl replied firmly. “This is a top-security shipment ordered by the Beijing Magister’s office itself. If we’re here, we must disembark carefully and without delay.” Then there was a shuffle of papers as if the girl was proffering documents proving what she just addressed.
It was silent a moment as the Corporal apparently reviewed what he was offered.
“By the Father…” he said finally, voice thick with disbelief. “I’ve never seen anything like this. The Captain would have been informed of a landing as odd as this, but I’m going to have to confirm the cargo before proceeding. That goes doubly if any special treatment might be needed.”
They heard footsteps again, and this time it looked as if they were headed in the direction of the trap door above them outlined for the first time by a brighter light from the compartment above. Airi felt Miyabi tense beside her, and Reina crouched down warily, viper’s gaze fixed on the hatch as if she was prepared to spring out at any moment.
“Is he headed here?” the girl hissed quietly. “I can’t understand a thing, but…”
“Reina!” Miyabi warned, her only response.
“I warn you – don’t go down there alone,” another girl said in a weary voice. Airi’s exhausted and weakened mind was still trying to identify the voices, but she suddenly realized something. Whoever they were, they didn’t appear to have come down into the compartment with the men she supposed were soldiers. Had they been stuck in there the whole time just like they were? This was the first time they’d seen bright light coming from just above, so they appeared to be almost as much captives as they were. Then again, they probably weren’t mired in ballast and leakage like Airi and the others.
Thoughts flew from her mind though as the hatch rattled, and she squeezed her eyes shut as it was pulled up and light flooded through.
“Why, there’s no ladder here,” the man said, much louder now. “Private, bring the ladder from the hatch above, and shout up for them to find another.
“Did you not even check on your cargo the way here?” he asked after peering down through the hatch. “There was no ladder down to these crew’s quarters, and now not one down to the hold either?”
“It was meant to be as secure as possible,” one of the girls responded, still sounding tired. “We take no risks.”
“Stupid bitches…” the man muttered as a loud clattering came from above, and when Airi finally opened her eyes to a slit, she saw what looked like a ladder being thrust down into the hatch.
“I’ll warn you one last time…” the girl who hadn’t warned them yet said acidly, but boots appeared through the hatch and the man began crawling down the ladder.
“Reina…” Miyabi warned softly again, only for their ears, as the man’s full figure came into view. It looked like he carried an assault rifle awkwardly as he climbed, but it was hard for Airi to tell as the shadow was hardly more than a blob in the glaring light.
When the man’s feet fell into the standing water below, he swore as he looked down, choosing his step carefully. Then he held his weapon at the ready as he squinted around the cramped area. For eyes not nearly blinded by the light, surely he could see the three still forms low against the ballast.
“I’ll be damned,” he said. “It
is three girls.” Airi caught slight movement from Reina out of the corner of her eye, her eyes still fixed as if on prey. She wondered how long it would be before this viper struck.
“Private!” he called back through the hatch. “Take those two up there topside for questioning. I’ll need those damn papers confirmed somehow before we decide how to proceed.”
“We will stay—” one of the girls above began, but her words were drowned out as the man’s momentary shift of attention let loose chaos below.
“No!” Miyabi cried, audible to everyone this time, as Reina sprang from her crouch like lightning. The man barely had time to glance back down before she was upon him. Sending the weapon flying from his hand with a hard swipe of her forearm, she fisted him in the stomach. While barely beginning to double over, she followed by ramming a shoulder into his chest. The incredible force of the blow sent him crashing through the wall behind, opening an uneven hole into the similarly dim compartment beyond.
“Damn,” Reina said, breathing hard in the exertion. She was standing, but just barely, as she swayed in fatigue after expending what must have been the last of her energy. “Too much to hope that would have been the side of the boat, I suppose.” Caving into the exhaustion, she collapsed to her knees. “Airi, grab the gun!”
Airi blinked around, trying to locate it, and saw it half-submerged just past her feet. She reached for it, but handled it only awkwardly. “How the heck am I supposed to know how to use one of these things?”
“Just point at one of them and pull the trigger!” Reina shot gruffly, holding her side now. “Or point it at the damn wall! One of these has eventually gotta lead outside…”
Airi now became aware though of rustling above, as if someone was rushing to the hatch.
“No!” one of the girls commanded, and the sound of the heavy boots stopped. “Do you want to end up like your Corporal? We warned you those girls aren’t to be trifled with.”
Then they heard softer steps near the hatch, Reina hissing,
“Point it at the opening! It’s time one of those bitches got what she…”She trailed off as the ladder was pulled up quickly, cutting off the only real way up or down.
“Now now,” came the voice from above, but now in Japanese. “None of that.” Suddenly the gun became scorching in Airi’s hands, and she shrieked before dropping it to hiss steaming in the water below. She would have been more thankful at it just missing her bare leg if she hadn’t been so shocked at her burning hands.
“Give me that,” the girl above said, again in Korean, and there was a shuffle before a small-looking girl jumped down nimbly with a small splash into their compartment.
Reina shot up unsteadily to face the threat, but the girl swiped the side of her face with the weapon she held, apparently borrowed from one of the soldiers above, and Reina fell into a heap at her feet.
“Reina!” Airi cried, and forgetting about her hands tried to push herself up before screaming at the harsh sting of the grainy sand pressing against her burns. Before she collapsed herself though, she felt Miyabi’s arms wrap around her and pull her tightly against her chest.
“Just hold them in the water,” the girl advised her through her tears at the pain. “It’ll sting at first, but will feel better before you know it.”
When Airi finally could gather herself to look up, she saw the girl standing stolidly above them, gun pointed at their faces. Reina still lay in a heap at her feet. Seeing Airi come back to awareness though, she kicked the still form harshly, rolling her back against the two of them. Airi held another cry at seeing Reina filthy from the water, the side of her face red with blood.
“Now,” the girl informed them coldly. “There’ll be no more of those games, understood? Maybe you could get in one good push like she did, but you don’t have the energy for more after five days down here, do you? Then Chun up there, or maybe more of the nice men with guns, would make you wish to be in her shoes.” She gestured to Reina at the last.
“Is one of you assholes ready to fetch your Captain yet?” she called up. Two young faces were peering anxiously into the hatch, at the girls but also lingering on the fresh hole in the compartment wall, the sides of which dripped with blood. At the girl’s words they disappeared, and from the sound of it even tried jumping up into the compartment further above. The replacement ladder apparently hadn’t arrived yet.
…
Airi kept her eyes to slits as they were pulled up the stairs into daylight atop the boat, still not accustomed to the ever-increasing light. Her hands, which were now tied tightly behind her with thick docking rope, throbbed in pain but at least felt better than when she first dropped the magically scalding weapon. Miyabi had been right – the water did help dull the injury. She knew the relief wouldn’t last forever though.
They were escorted by two steel-muscled soldiers each, Reina only held up as she was still unconscious, between solid lines of other armed and ready soldiers that continued all the way down onto the dock. Leading the way was the man who back down in their prison Miyabi had whispered to her was the Captain; she couldn’t see the two Chinese girls, their real escorts, though she knew they trailed just behind.
The spectacle of three small, grubby and battered-looking girls apparently being the focus of such an elaborate display caught the attention of other sailors and dockworkers spread out across the piers, though most did their best to keep their heads mostly lowered and look like they were not interested.
Airi almost sighed when they reached solid land again, and they were ushered to just in front of what looked oddly like a barracks among the various port buildings. Inside, more soldiers peered out, though most of the ones outside still stood stiffly at attention. Apparently word of what happened to the Corporal had spread quickly.
Finally the Captain halted, speaking softly to one of his subordinates. After he was finished, the subordinate took off running into the barracks. Airi realized the three of them were now being lined up as if for inspection, and he turned toward them for the first time since seeing them in their prison back on the ship.
He had a face which looked like it was carved out of one of the planks of wood that made up the pier, and his expression was stony and full of inexplicable hatred.
“So these are the Japanese goddesses reborn, eh?” He muttered, then reached to cup Miyabi’s chin in a finger for closer inspection. “Don’t look all that high and mighty to me,” he quipped to chuckles from the surrounding soldiers, letting her go roughly.
“What do you want with us?” Airi asked, pulling what energy she still had together, though her blistered hands had taken most of what was left.
The man’s attention turned to her. “So are you the leader of these whelps?” he chided in broken Japanese. “I heard one was even supposed to be the Daughter of the Sun.” He gestured to the sky. “Too bad it’s cloudy today, eh?”
He then glanced left and right to the soldiers surrounding him, straightening even more at the show of power their support seemed to give him.
“As for what we want with you, I’m sad to say you will not be in our hands for long. You’re to be stuffed on a train to Beijing as soon as we can get you to the station. A shame I can’t even present you to the General. Still, it’d be too bad if we couldn’t leave you with a little remembrance of us…”
Then he looked to Reina, held up limply be the soldiers at her sides, then to Miyabi, who stared stubbornly forward, and last back to Airi, who gazed back challengingly into his eyes. “Say hi to the Chinese authorities for me, Sun princess,” he said scathingly, and spit in her face.
“You get away from her, you slimy bastard!” Miyabi shouted out suddenly as Airi froze in shock at the sticky wetness on her face. It was a miracle none of it got into her eyes.
She heard struggling to her side as Miyabi tried to back up her threat, breaking free of one guard and kneeing the other in the crotch before others rushed up to detain her and guns pointed into her face from all around. She went limp at the quickly hopeless situation, her eyes down, but the Captain stepped over to her and slugged her hard with his fist, saying “Can’t deny your insults are cute, young lady,” to more laughter from those around them.
Airi almost cried out as Miyabi’s head snapped hard to the side, but fell into coughing and spitting of her own as some of the man’s insult dripped between her lips. For the Captain’s part, he just spun around and waved them away, disappearing into the barracks as well.
When she resigned herself to just feeling completely grossed-out, Airi turned to see Miyabi still standing under her own power, though with an ugly bruise on her jaw.
Thank you, Miya… she thought sadly as they were shoved roughly after the Captain.
…
“They didn’t even leave us alone this time, did they?” Reina asked after she finally woke up, rubbing her busted cheek tenderly with hands bound in front of her as she eyed the two armed soldiers to either side of the door at the end of the train car. The girl Airi had finally remembered as Lin sat on a trunk just in front of the soldiers. “Guess I showed them what the Skulls are really all about.”
“I hope you don’t get it in your mind to be as foolish from now on,” Miyabi said idly from beside Airi.
“Foolish? Ah, I was just playin’ around a little,” Reina responded, cracking her knuckles and now ignoring her face as if it wasn’t half swelled up.
Miyabi shook her head at the other’s lightness, but Airi caught a faint smile on her lips as well.
“There’s food,” Airi said, gesturing down with her own bound hands at the bowls of some kind of rice porridge set on the floor below them. “It’s not much, but who knows when they’ll be gracious enough to give us any more. You need your strength back if you’re gonna attack anyone else.”
Reina gave her a long look before plopping down in front of the plate and staring at it. “I suppose it’ll be hard to use chopsticks with my hands like this. If we could find any chopsticks, that is.”
“I think they want us to eat like pigs,” Miyabi said darkly.
“Well hey, who’s to deny them the pleasure then!” Reina commented cheerfully, and leaned down to stick her face into the bowl. After seemingly managing to get some of it down, she looked up toward the people at the door with her messy face, grinning like an idiot. “MMM…” she moaned gleefully. By the expressions of the guards, you’d think none of them even existed. Lin only glanced blandly back as if to just make sure they weren’t causing any trouble.
“I take it we’re on the train to China then?” Reina asked after another bite, still smiling at the warily peering Lin.
“Yeah,” Airi said, never ceasing to be amazed by the former Skull Captain. Despite everything, she almost felt herself grin as well. If she was going to go through torture like this, not that she’d wish it on even her worst enemies, but she wasn’t sure who she’d rather have with her after all they’d been through. Their presences were just… comforting. She thought of Maimi, but new that was different, since when she was around her girlfriend she just felt…
Lowering her eyes, she stifled a blush.
“I suppose you think you’re getting back at us and just going to enjoy yourselves from here on out, don’t you?” she heard Lin say from across the car, and glanced up to see the girl on her feet after taking a step toward them.
“Oh don’t get the wrong idea,” Reina replied lightly. “I’d much rather throw this bowl through your thick Chinese skull and escape back to Japan. I’m just guessing you’re not leaving that as much of an option.”
“Why do you feel so threatened by us?” Miyabi asked, and Reina sighed at her serious tone. Airi understood though, because this was the first time all three of them were actually able to face their real captors.
Lin studied them a moment before answering. “I can’t answer that, even if I wanted to. These directives come from far above either me or Chun – we’re just agents sent to accomplish a task.”
“But you know us!” Airi interjected finally. “You fought with us against the Circle… You know we’re not threatening to anyone.”
“That’s not for me to decide,” Lin replied stonily.
“So that’s it?” Miyabi asked, heat rising in her voice. Airi didn’t know if it was being disconnected from her powers so long, or if it was just desperation at what their last days had been like, but she seemed to have regained some of her old passion. “You’re the pawn just doing nothing more than you’re told, no matter your personal feelings? The three of us may be prisoners, beaten and half-starved, but despite all that, you’re the one I pity.”
Airi and Reina were quiet at the girl’s words, and Lin’s face tightened, but she wasn’t pressed into action. “I do only the will of the People,” she replied finally, and went back to her seat. “But since we did fight together, I’ll warn you to prepare: what you’ve experienced so far has been a cakewalk compared to what will happen when you’re turned over to the authorities in Beijing. If I were you, I’d get some sleep here while you still can.”
“Sleep seems to be all we do anymore since we don’t really have the energy for anything else…” Reina mumbled, but Airi and Miyabi exchanged a look. For Airi’s part, she was wondering if she might hope this train ride would never end.
…
The train arrived, after switching around several tracks, at an underground station in what must have been the middle of Beijing. It had the feel of a city all around, seeping in through the walls, even though the only contact with it would have been through the air ducts.
Lin and Chun ushered them out of the car, but this time there were no lines of soldiers awaiting their arrival. Instead, there were just three people – two men and one woman – dressed in formal robes somewhat like kimonos. Them, and one short, stout, graying man in a suit who looked somehow out of place.
“Magister,” Chun and Lin said in unison, bowing to the man. “We’ve brought those of the Ancient Blood, as requested.”
“Are you sure these are the correct three?” the man said, eyeing each of them with a serious wariness – a very much different expression than they remembered from the North Korean Captain.
“As was ordered, we spent months fighting at their sides,” Chun said. “We viewed much of both them and the Heirs, and these three girls – Airi Suzuki, Miyabi Natsuyaki, and Reina Tanaka – are undoubtedly of the True Blood.”
“And they were responsible for the missile too?” the Magister said, hands folded behind his back at the waist as he paced in front of them, inspecting.
“That was Suzuki, Magister,” Lin replied. The man stopped to examine Airi, and in that look she almost felt that her soul was bared.
“Yes…” he said. “I can sense it in them. You, girl,” he said, addressing Airi. “The Sun fills your soul, does it not?” And with his words, Airi felt the burning within her that she’d grown to know and love, the power of the Sun flowing through her once again, that which gave all life.
And then it was gone.
“Yes…” Airi breathed, a tear coming to her eye at losing the incredible feeling after having once again attained it, even just for that brief moment.
“There will be no Sun for you here,” he said coldly, words that felt like just as chill a slap to her face, and stepped back once again. “Take them to their chambers,” he ordered, and the three robed figures stepped forward. “Chun, Lin, please come with me.”
Then, shockingly, the Magister and the two girls disappeared into an elevator, leaving Airi and her sisters alone with the other three Chinese. The train started up again as well, and carried what remained of the soldiers away down the tracks.
The girls scrutinized their new escorts, who seemed aware and watchful of their every move, if not overtly concerned with them.
“Are you kidding me?” Reina asked, glancing around. “They left us alone with you guys? What, are you off to a wedding or something?”
“Who are you?” Miyabi asked, examining their guardians with the utmost caution. Airi tried taking a page from her book to do the same, but found it difficult. She tried reaching within herself for her power again – if it could come back for a moment, perhaps she could bring it back permanently as well.
“The first thing you will learn,” one of the men said, “Is to not attempt to reach for your power.”
Suddenly as Airi was reaching, it felt like something grabbed back at her, and after feeling as if her being began to somehow rip away within her, she screamed in unbearable agony. This was it; she knew now that she was going to die.
Yet even as she began to accept that certainty, the world came back to her, and she found herself on her knees at the platform, Miyabi and Reina both yelling for her as she saw them being pulled away from her in separate directions like helpless dogs.
“Miya…” she moaned.
“Reina… No… Don’t leave me…”Then her vision was filled by the robed man who’d spoken to her before. “That is just a sample of what your life will be from now on,” he said down to her, voice still full of unflappable calm. “Although most of what you will receive will be physical punishment, since that is more easily controlled. If you behave, perhaps your torment will be less.
“Perhaps,” he said faintly, as if just the thought was fleeting. “Now. Come with me.” And he began walking a different direction yet from the others, who had now gone, leaving the two of them alone on the platform beside the echoing tunnels.
Airi stayed on her knees a moment, crying. Her friends were gone, and for perhaps the first time in her life, she felt truly alone. And in the hands of this… man… whose only job appeared to be her torture.
“Do not make me repeat myself,” the man said, speaking over his shoulder without stopping.
Shakily, Airi got to her feet and stumbled after him, her steps echoing through the underground. Much later on, she would look back and say that was finally the point where she truly lost all hope.
Topic: The Sword and the Dove [12: Voyage] (Update 12/30) (Read 35435 times)