So now, onto the updates~
I update this in a different post because I didn't want my previous post to be too long.
Anyway, this is the first chapter of the new fic.
And I have to say, this IS the longest chapter I've written ever.
So, bare with me please~
And I'll try not to make them too long,
but I can't help it, it's too hard to write a short and good one,
so I write a long and average one.
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Awoken by shuffling sound on the other side of the room, Airi sat up and rubbed her eyes, “Jurina? You okay?”
The shuffling sound stopped. Followed by a soft sigh.
Airi looked out the window, it was nearly dawn. Yet, because of the thunderclouds, it was still dark outside. Airi slipped out of her blankets and went over to the other girl’s bed. Now that she was closer, she could see beads of sweat rolling down Jurina’s forehead. She wiped it away with her thumb and asked in a whisper, “Dreamt of your father again?” The other girl nodded. Airi patted the girl’s trembling hand, comforting the girl. When the girl finally stopped trembling, Airi released her hand and made her way back to her own bed, hoping to get some sleep before the sun fully rises.
Both girls lay in their beds, under their thin blankets, wide awake. Jurina awake because she feared falling back asleep will mean returning to her nightmare and starting back from where her nightmare left off. Airi was awake because she was worried about Jurina. Although this isn’t the first time Jurina had dreamt of her passed away father, Airi knew that Jurina won’t be able to go back to sleep. Even though Jurina was close to dreaming about her father almost every night, Jurina’s mood the next morning is always the same. Depressed, deep in thoughts, and worst of all, she always does something reckless in those mornings. Jurina being in a bad mood makes her really cranky. That was a fact that Airi knew ever since the first day she and Jurina met. Airi’s mind wandered back to the memory of her first encounter with the girl.
***
>>Around some ten years ago<<There was a group of them, all with tiring looks and fear in their eyes as they made their way into the city. No one needed to ask them what happened, everyone knew, because they weren’t the first group of villagers to have come to seek shelter in the city after having their village destroyed. They were rolling a giant cart behind them, the cart was covered with a sheet. No one needed to lift it up and they knew what was in that too. Airi’s mother dropped the fruit she was cutting and rushed outside as she called Airi, “Airi, find your father now. Tell him another village has been attacked.”
Seeing her mother’s anxious expression, Airi ran the shop her father always goes to when restocking of herbs are needed and dragged her father out of the shop. “Mother needs you back now. She said another village has been attacked!” Her father nodded at her and quickly picked her up then ran back home as fast as he could.
It was a horrible sight to see, all the villagers lying on the floor of the storage room her mother has freed up in order to give them a place to rest. All of them were in horrifying conditions, every one of them were hurt in one way or another. Some had cuts all over their arms and legs, some were burned while some were still to recover from the shock of seeing their village burn under their own eyes. There was one thing that Airi kept seeing in the villagers’ eyes. It wasn’t just this village, but in the eyes of all the previous villagers as well. That one thing that Airi felt right now: hopelessness. Airi felt so hopeless as everyday, more villages are destroyed while Airi herself was too young and too weak to do anything for them. Some may say that Airi understands nothing of the adult world since she was only a child in their eyes. But under her parents’ teaching, she had grown up to have a more mature mind than normal children her age. Or at least she is very mature when it comes to serious matters like these.
As usual, without needing her parents to tell her what to do, Airi disappeared into her family’s kitchen and returned to the temporary shelter with spare food and water. Since her family hasn’t done any restocking lately, there wasn’t a lot of spare food left. Airi ripped the bread in parts and cut the fruits into small slices then gave a share to each villager along with some water. However, for the first time, while Airi was giving out the food, someone rejected the offer. Airi blinked in shock when one of the bread roll she gave out flew back at her. She picked it up and looked at where it came from. Looking at her was a girl whom Airi guessed was around the same age, with tears rolling down her face and her cheeks were puffed red in anger. “I DON’T WANT FOOD! I JUST WANT MY PAPA BACK!” The girl shouted.
“Jurina-chan,” a woman called out to her, “You don’t treat others like that. You don’t throw food at them. Oneechan was only being nice. Youu should never treat others like that.” The woman turned to Airi and gave her a small apologetic smile. Airi immediately knew that woman was the girl’s mother. Seeing the way she was talking to her.
The small girl stomped her feet and yelled, “I DON’T CARE! I WANT PAPA!” And the girl broke down into tears.
Seeing the tears immediately broke through Airi’s shock. She never liked seeing anyone crying. Airi walked over to the girl with the roll of bread in one hand and poked the girl’s cheek, “You shouldn’t cry. Wherever your father is, he wouldn’t want you to cry. You have to stay strong for your father no? You father wouldn’t have wanted you to be crying. He would’ve wanted you to stay strong for him, for your mother and for yourself right?” The girl stopped crying at the words and was silent now. Her face looked like she was deep in thought. Then slowly the girl nodded and returned to her mother’s side, wiping away her own tears. Airi was thankful for having a good memory and could remember exactly what her mother said to one of the previous village’s child when that child acted exactly the same as this Jurina girl.
The villagers left Airi’s house one by one after a few days, as many of them had recovered and were desperate to go out and search for a new home. Airi’s parents helped each of them look for new places to live, most of them were at the very edge of the city, away from the population, but no one complained as having a home was good enough for them. Jurina and her mother, however, were not given a home at the edge of the city. Instead, because Jurina’s mother was also knowledgeable in herbs, Airi’s parents asked her to help them out around their shop. Airi’s parents said that she and Jurina can live with them for now and not worry about food and shelter. To that Jurina’s mother accepted without delay since she needed a job and a comfortable place for Jurina to live in. Airi then helped her parents clean out the storage room thoroughly, wiping it from the ceiling to the floor, and helped Jurina and her mother settle in.
Jurina avoided Airi at first, but then slowly opened up to the girl and soon, the two were close friends. Maybe it was because her parents now had a helper or maybe it was because of Jurina’s bad influence, but as Airi and Jurina became closer, they hanged out more in the city. At first, the two of them would be picked on by the richer family’s children, but after awhile, Jurina started to fight back and later, Airi joined in. The more Jurina fought back, the more they were picked on and the more the two girls gained experience in self defense. Soon, no one else dared to go close to the two and before the two knew it, it was the two of them that was feared by other children. Both Airi and Jurina’s parents weren’t happy about them fighting with other children, but none of them had the time to give them a lecture as the refugees coming into the city grew each day.
***
>>Back in Airi and Jurina’s bedroom<<“Airin.” A voice broke the girl from her chain of thoughts. “Airin, are you asleep?” Jurina called out to the girl.
“Not yet.”
“I can’t sleep, Airin. My bed is cold...” Airi heard some shuffling sound from Jurina’s side of the room.
Airi chuckled, “Cold? Then close the wind- What are you doing!?” Airi gasped as she felt cold hands and feets made their way into her own warm blanket. “Jurina! Go back to your own bed!” Airi frowned at the girl who had made her way into her own warm bed.
“No~ I can’t sleep... It’s too cold~” Jurina slipped her arms around the waist of the girl in front of her and smiled at the warmth that she was feeling.
Airi sighed, “You know, maybe I should swap bed with you so you can’t use the cold excuse all the time and use me as a teddy bear.”
“But you’re a good teddy bear~ And I’m too scared to fall back asleep on my own...” Jurina mumbled as she recalled the nightmare she had of her father’s death.
“You’re such a kid sometimes, Jurina. Why can’t you act more like you do when you’re outside? The cool and mature Jurina is so much better.” Though saying that, Airi relaxed and shifted into a more comfortable position with Jurina’s arms still attached to her. Airi, personally preferred Jurina when she was more serious. Whenever the two of them go out in the city, the way Jurina acts, many people had though Jurina was Airi’s older sister when in reality, Airi was older than her. However, Airi still loved the Jurina she sees when it is just the two of them. At those times, Jurina shows a side of her that only Airi had seen before. The cute but childish side of her.
“Mmm...” was the only reply Airi got from her words. She turned around and looked at the girl. Jurina had already fallen asleep. Airi smiled and pulled the blanket up closer to cover both of them. Seeing the cute side of Jurina never fails to make her smile. Airi closed her eyes,
’Yes, it is much warmer now.’***
Airi woke up to the sound of thunder. She looked outside, and was surprised to see shops on the street already opened despite of the pouring rain. “Eh? What’s the time now?” Airi sat up and tapped Jurina, “Sleepyhead, get up, all the shops had opened already.” The sleeping figure mumbled something and pouted, showing no sign of wanting to wake up. Airi held Jurina’s pouting lips between her two fingers, making Jurina open her eyes and blink at Airi. “Wake up. Is it normal for your mother not to wake us up when she opens the shop?”
Jurina looked at the window and pulled Airi’s finger away. “No... It’s not...” Jurina thought for awhile and looked back at Airi with fear, “Maybe she’s not feeling well?” Jurina quickly got up and climbed out of bed. “I’m going to go check on her.” Jurina slipped on her shoes and made her way outside the room.
“Wait, I’m coming too,” Airi said as she too, climbed off bed and put on her own shoes.
’Jurina was right. She is sick...’ Airi looked at the woman that was still in bed in front of her. Jurina was kneeling next to her mother and was looking at her closely. Airi walked closer and placed a hand on the woman’s forehead. “She’s really burning...” Airi mumbled to herself. “Can you show me your tongue?” The woman obeyed. After close inspection, Airi turned to Jurina and said, “Your mother... She is showing the same symptoms that my parents had before they passed away.” Jurina looked at her with fear in her eyes, fear this time, of losing her mother. She clapped Jurina’s shoulder, “Relax, my mother wrote down the cure for this flu.” Airi opened one of the smaller drawers and took out a pile of paper. She flipped through them and took out one, “Ah, this one.” She gave the paper to Jurina. “We better treat your mother quickly before she turns even worst. If we give her the medicine now, she’ll recover hopefully in a few days.”
Jurina looked at the paper, “So what should I do? Where do I find these?”
“You know, uncle Takashi? Yeah? He still sells some, I think. Hopefully. Now go, get about 3 bundles back. I’ll stay here and try cool down your mother’s fever.” Airi said quickly and returned to Jurina’s mother’s side.
Jurina grabbed her hood, flung it over her shoulder and took off with the piece of paper in hand. The rain was pouring hard, even with the hood over her head, Jurina could feel the rain hitting her. The front of her was already soaked even though she just left her home not long ago. Thanking her own fast speed, she made it to the market area quick. She looked around for the shop Airi mentioned but frowned when she looked at the notice stuck on the front.
”Close due to bad weather.”“You serious!? What shop closes because of weather!?” Jurina complained as she looked around for more herbal shops. She went into the first one she saw and immediately looked for the grass weed. Jurina pointed to the herb she was looking for in one of the boxes and asked the unknown shopkeeper, “How much for three bundles of that?”
The shopkeeper looked at what Jurina was pointing at and then back at her. “The weed? That’s quite expensive unfortunately, my dear. The city’s stock on them is getting quite low yet everyone needs them. Seeing you came out in this bad weather to get them, I’ll give them to you for a smaller price.” She held up three fingers.
Jurina stared at her, mouth opened wide, “Thirty silver coins?!” Jurina squealed excitedly inside, that is nowhere near as expensive the shopkeeper made it sound like. She eagerly took out coin bag and hunted out for the coins.
The shopkeeper stared at Jurina in disbelief, “Thirty silver coins? What are you talking about? You can’t even get a bowl of grain with that now. It’s three hundred silver coins! Three hundred! As I said, there isn’t of them around anymore. They’re getting quite rare.”
Jurina’s fingers froze. Three hundred coins. She didn’t have enough. Business haven’t been good lately for her mother, money was running low. She looked back at her bag and counted. She was a hundred coins off. “Can I please get them for two hundred coins? It’s all I have! And I need the grass weeds urgently! My mother’s life depends on it!” Jurina begged the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper just shook her head, “I’m sorry, my dear. I can’t cut that much. It was originally three hundred and seventy silvers before and that is already cheaper than most other shops around the market. I already gave you a big cut off. I too, need to feed my family. I’m sorry.” Jurina hung her money bag back onto her belt and frowned. Now where was she going to find any grass weeds? If all the other stores sold them for an even higher price, how was Jurina going to get her hands on them.
The shopkeeper looked at Jurina’s depressed expression and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the girl. Coming all the way here in the storm and having to go back empty handed. “Although I know this is not a very good thing to tell you, my dear,” the shopkeeper said. Jurina looked up. “But have you heard of the sacred dragon fruit?” Jurina shook her head. “Well, in the emperor’s garden, there is a big tree just off the palace. The sacred dragon fruit grows there. Rumor has it that those fruit cures all sickness and if you eat one every day, you’ll live forever.” Jurina listened closely to the shopkeeper. “That fruit may or may not help your mother. I don’t know.” If she could get her hands on just one of these sacred fruit, she could save her mother. Jurina quickly thanked the shopkeeper and ran out back into the rain towards the emperor’s palace in the center of the city, not caring whether or not this was only just a rumor.
It didn’t take long to reach the palace. Jurina hid behind one of the trees on the side and looked out. There were guards by the entrance, and there was no way they would just let Jurina pass. She looked around, the walls weren’t too high and from where Jurina was hiding, she could see some trees growing close to the edge of the wall. Jurina grinned and made her way to the trees. There was almost no difference to this thievery than all the other ones Jurina had done before. Only differences were that she wasn’t stealing bread this time, and the person she is stealing from is the emperor himself.
Jurina jumped from the wall around the palace and onto one of the stronger looking tree branches that were leaning close to where she was standing. She looked around, there wasn’t a lot of guards around right now. Slowly, Jurina made her way down the tree and jumped downed when she got too impatient, landing silently on her feet. She looked around, then mentally slapped herself in the face,
’I forgot to ask the shopkeeper what the fruit and the tree looks like!?’ Jurina looked around the emperor’s garden.
’It’ll take forever to search through the whole garden... So much trees...’A small patch of green on the ground caught Jurina’s attention. “Eh?!” She kneeled down and felt the grass under her hand. Taking out the paper Airi gave her, she compared the grass under her hand to the picture. It was the same grass. “Is this just my luck or what?” She pulled out three bundle of the grass and looked for a place to put them. “Argh! How can I forget to bring a bag!” Jurina frowned as she searched herself, then ended up putting the grass in the money bag. That was, after all, the only bag she had on her.
“Who’s there!?”
Jurina looked up and saw two guards with large bamboo hat looking right at her.
’Yabai...’ Jurina looked at the guards, these two were lightly dressed guards. But from the belt of small daggers around the guards’ belt and the bow and arrow in the guards’ hands, Jurina knew straight away these guards were trained for speed and agility, thus the light armor and weapons. Jurina also knew right now that she can’t get caught. Stealing is bad enough already, stealing from the emperor is suicide. The guards were closing in now. Jurina backed away and her back hits the wall she climbed in from.
“Trespasser, reveal your face,” One of the guards pointed at Jurina with his bow. Jurina gripped the side of her hood. There was no way she will show her face. That means she will still be hunted down even if she escapes now. If she could somehow get away without having her face being seen, she would be safe. Jurina looked at the two guards. They were at the right distance.
’Please stay on, my hood. I don’t want my face seen for what I’m about to do.’ Jurina prayed. Taking a deep breathe, she jumped as high as she could and kicked herself from the wall. The guards were not expecting this. As they fumbled to get an arrow on their bow, Jurina landed on both the guards, successfully knocking both of them down onto the ground. Before they could get up, Jurina had already kicked their bows away and were making a run for the front gate.
“STOP!” The two guards yelled after her as they ripped the bamboo hat, which was sheltering their face from the cold rain, off their head and took out of the daggers in their belt, completely ditching their main weapon.
Bells were ringing around the palace now, making Jurina run even faster. She was starting to hear more and more footsteps behind her. “Can’t get caught, can’t get caught,” Jurina repeated to herself as she kept running. She could see the front gate now, but she could also see the two guards that were on duty before turned around and were looking right at her.
Jurina had to say, even though she knew this was dangerous, she couldn’t help but feel excited. It’s true that she always used to fight with other children and would go home with bruises all over, but those children were just messing around. No one really knew how to throw a punch properly. In fact, Jurina don’t think she knew how to either. But now that she was up against adults who were trained to fight, Jurina was excited to know how she will go up against these guards. However, at the same time, Jurina was afraid of what will happen if she lost the fight. The guards will catch her and she will be executed for intruding and stealing.
A knife whizzed past Jurina’s shoulder, cutting her off her thoughts. She watched in horror as she saw the small shining knife struck into one of the trees at the front.
’Time to make a gamble,’ Jurina thought to herself as she braced herself for combat with the two guards at the gate. These guards were not like the lightweight ones that caught Jurina. These guards had a spear and that was going to be a problem. Jurina knew from experiences that if the opponent uses a long distance weapon, get close to them.
The two spears jabbed at her, Jurina easily jumped from the sharp metal and kicked one of the guards in the face before turning around and throwing a punch at the other one. Jurina laughed as she realized that there was no difference in punching these adults and punch the kids that used to pick on her and Airi. Except, these adults had the hardest skull Jurina had ever punched before. The guards quickly recovered. One of them knocked the air out of Jurina as the back of the spear made contact with Jurina’s ribs. The other one was pointing his spear at Jurina’s neck.
Jurina froze. She had never felt something like this before. She had never felt like she could die any moment. But that gave her more excitement. When the guard were distracted by the incoming reinforcement that was chasing Jurina the whole time, she took this opportunity and kicked the spear away and kicked the side of the guard’s head, successfully knocking the guard out cold.
Another group of guards arrived and these too, wore bamboo hats on their head to stop the rain from blurring their sights. The guard at the very front leaped over some of the knocked down guards and aimed a kick right at Jurina’s head. Jurina ducked just in time to feel the powerful kick slide above her hair. Jurina kept her body low and charged at the attack, hoping to take this guard down before she gets her skull crushed to pieces. “Captain Sakiko!” The guards yelled as they watched Jurina hit the guard on the back of the neck with her elbow. At the impact, the bamboo hat of the captain fell and almost instantly, the rain soaked wet the long black hair that belonged to the captain.
’A female captain?’ Jurina looked at the knocked out female in front of her. She had always thought that only males worked for the emperor as close guards and that even if there were females, they would not be holding high positions like the female in front of her. Jurina observed the female face in front of her. The captain didn’t look much older than herself, probably only by a few years. Jurina snapped out of her thoughts when the remaining guards yelled at her and charged at her.
Maybe kami-sama was playing with her and wanted Jurina to be caught. As Jurina fought off the guards at the front gate of the emperor’s palace, the rain was started to get even more heavier than it already was. The cold was seeping through Jurina’s soaked shirt, chilling her to the bone. Every punch she threw at the guards, her knuckles would feel numb for a while from the cold impact. Her hood however, no matter how Jurina moved, kicked and jumped, doesn’t seems to want to fall off. And for that, Jurina was glad. “Ah!” Jurina screamed as one of the throwing knives nicked her shoulder. Her eyes widened at the sight of red staining her shirt. This was the first time she has been hurt like this. Jurina started to panic. Deciding that it was time she exclude herself from the fight, she knocked out another guard standing behind her and started running down the streets. It was easier to escape her attackers this way, running through streets and hiding in places where only Jurina knew existed rather than stand outside the emperor’s front door and fight them with no weapon.
***
The rain was hammering against the roof of their house, creating a new music piece with the thunder that was booming above the city and the wind that was howling across the barely occupied street. Airi stood up from Jurina’s mother side and walked to the window. Jurina has gone out for a long time now, and still she wasn’t back yet. Airi knew Jurina well and thought that perhaps Jurina felt like wondering around, getting some fresh air. After all, the girl did have a nightmare last night. But somehow, Airi couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling off her chest that something bad happened.
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SKE's next chapter is on it's way~
Still writing it~
The words are being typed into that chapter really slowly,
but it's making progress~
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter (If you did, GIMME A COOKIE! I WANT A COOKIE! COOKIE WITH MILK!
)
And yeah, that's the end of moi update~
Please look forward to the next one!
Next update SHOULD be of SKE~
If my brain works out well, maybe it'll be an update on both (^^)b