A new chapter again, for I have nothing else to do now than write this fic~
Thank you so much for your interest and comments again! They really mean a lot to me.
Here we go again~
Chapter 4 – But not everyone was happy for her being here'what the heck??'
Risa thought, as she was laying on her back. She was in her own bed, sleeping and having some nice dream, when something itched her eyes. As Risa opened them, the sunlight hit her, blinding her completely. Then she heard voices, which weren't familiar, and then..."She's waking up!!"
Very slowly, Risa opened her eyes and examined her surroundings. She was in a small room, which was very bright and the white floor and walls made it look even more bright. She made a fast scanning of the room and soon realized, she was in some kind of a hospital or nurse building.
Then, Risa turned her gaze to the persons in the room. There were two of them; one had about a shoulder length, brunette hair and a bright smile on her face, when the other had a bit longer, but same colored hair. The later one had also very happy expression on her face as she examined Risa. Risa blinked few times before she tried to speak. But all she could get out was some coughing. Gosh, her throat was dry!
"Hurry! Get some water for her!"
The other woman shouted. Soon, Risa was pulled into a sitting position and served some water. She drank greedily, the cold liquid caressing her sore throat. When the water was gone, Risa took few deep breaths and tried to gather her thoughts. Where was she? Why was she in this condition? What was going on?
"I bet you have a lot of questions, but please, for now try to rest. You don't look very well yet."
Risa turned her head towards the smaller woman, who had a smile, bright as the sun, on her face. The other woman beside her, nodded and smiled as well. Risa was confused; who the hell were these people and why were they helping her?
"Oh! I almost forgot to introduce myself! I'm Kameri Eri. You can call me just Eri."
"And I'm LinLin. The nurse of this village."
'Village...' Some memories flashed in Risa's mind, as she tried to remember what had happened before.
She stared the two women in front of her, before she realized, that maybe she had to introduce herself too.
"I'm... I'm Niigaki Risa." Her voice was hoarse and weak, but somehow she managed to speak so loud, so that the others would hear what she said.
"Oh yeah, we already know that," Eri chirped happily, causing Risa to frown. How did she know who she was? "We will explain that later, but now we have to get you in a better condition. So please, rest now." With that said, Eri got up and was about to leave, when suddenly, Risa stopped her.
"Wait!"
Risa wheezed. She had also tried to jump off from the bed, but got stopped when she realized, that she had no energy left for that. Finally, everything got a bit more clear in her head. She remembered the attack, her journey and the fight she was in. She also remembered those faces she saw before passing out, though they were a bit blur. She wanted to know what had happened. But all Risa got as an answer, was the two woman pulling her back to bed.
"No no. You rest now! Don't worry, it will probably take only few days for you to recover, for you don't have any fatal wounds or something like that." Eri said, as she laid Risa back in the bed with LinLin.
"Eri's right. The more you rest, the sooner you get out of here." The nurse said warmly.
Risa watched the two women in confusion and tried to get up once more, only to be pushed back to bed. Finally, she gave up. She had no energy left for fighting plus, if what Eri said was true, she would rest and get sooner out of here. When Eri and LinLin noticed, that Risa had finally stopped trying to get up, they released the girl and smiled at her.
"Don't worry. You'll get out of here soon. You just need to rest a while and after that, we are going to show this place to you." Eri said, as she patted Risa's head a bit.
"Wait...." Risa said suddenly, causing the other women smiles to drop.
"Where am I?" She asked with in a quiet voice, for her throat started to hurt once again. Eri was quiet and just turned her head away from Risa. This girl had lost everything she had and now, she was going to have a whole new life in a strange place and very far away from her home village. Eri wondered, did Risa even remember what had happened to her or her hometown? A sad smile crept on her face, as she turned to face Risa again.
"We are in the Castle. This is going to be your home for a while. Please rest now. LinLin will take care of you. See you later!"
And with that, Eri got up and exited the nurse's room. Risa stared the spot, where Eri had been a while ago and said nothing. LinLin just smiled at her and put something on a table next to Risa's bed.
“Why don't you get some more rest? I bet you really want to get out of here, so you can get all the answers to your questions, which are bothering you right now.”
Risa frowned and turned to face the nurse, who was gathering something in her arms. She turned to smile at Risa once more, before she left he girk alone in the room. Maybe it was quite presumable, that after this kind of experiences, people would have a lot of questions. And Risa indeed had, but she could not get any answers now, for she was stuck in here. So, she decided to do the next best thing, and lay down on the bed. She tried to get those horrible pictures away from her head, where her family was burned over and over again. Those pictures would probably haunt her for the rest of her life, but she would not let them weaken her. It was just the opposite; she would use this as her source of power to find the peace she grieved so much. She would not give in, she would fight on. With these thought in her mind, Risa turned on her side and closed her eyes, wondering what kind of place this Castle would be to live in.
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After one week of spending her time in the nurse's room, Risa was finally allowed to get out. However, she wasn't allowed to move alone, for she was still in a quite weak condition. Or at least, that's what the others were saying, because Risa felt she was okay now. Maybe a bit tired, but damn, she would survive without help now. But it would have been rude to reject this kind of help she was offered to plus, if someone was with her all the time, she would get to know some people better.
At first, it had been a big question mark, who would watch after her and it had seemed like Risa would get some more time in the nurses's place. Luckily, Eri had had time, cause the team Alfa was not needed right now. There had been only small attacks which were taken care of by normal groups, so Eri had volunteered to take care of Risa, till she was needed again on the battlefield. Now, the two women were standing outside the nurse's house, getting ready to leave for some city tour. Risa had borrowed some clothes from LinLin and now she had some kind of big pants, which reminded her more of a skirt, and a grey coat like thing on. In her feet, she had zori shoes. Eri had quite the same costume, but her clothes were all black. She also had another coat on her, which was longer and had some splits in the hem, allowing Eri to move her legs freely. She also had two katanas and one shorter sword on her waist. All the weapons were black too, but they had some small golden decorations on them.
"You okay with walking?" Eri asked a bit concerned, but all she got as an answer was an annoyed huff and Risa's angry glare.
"I have been in bed for one week, though, I was able to walk after one day rest! I am very able to walk, thanks for your concern..."
Risa mumbled, as she started to walk forward, Eri at her heels. They walked through the village's market place, where people politely greeted Eri and some even said hello to Risa too. This village felt quite nice and it had some same things, as back at home.
'or rather, former home....'"Hey, you ok?"
Risa heard a concerned voice and when she lifted her head up, she found Eri looking at her with concerned eyes. Risa had stared in empty space for a while, like she had been deep in thoughts and Eri of course, had gotten worried about it. Risa just shook her head a bit and smiled warmly to her companion.
"Yes, I am. Thank you. Where shall we go next?" She asked Eri.
"Um, ok then. Hey, I want to take you in one place! Come on!" Eri said cheerfully and dragged Risa with her, minding her wounds all the time. Soon, the two arrived at a small fenced area. It reminded Risa of a military building, maybe some kind of training building or something...
"Come on, lets get inside."
And with that, Eri took Risa with her inside the building, where they were immediately met by two warriors, who were chatting something. Both had same costume as Eri had, but the colors of the long coats were different, one wearing a dark blue while the other had a dark red coat. Also these two were carrying weapons. They both turned around to meet the newcomers and in no time, a huge smile lid on their face, as they saw who had entered the building.
"Eri!"
Both warriors exclaimed at the same time. Eri Waved a bit and went to greet her friends. She hugged both Reina and Sayu at the same time, laughing happily. Risa watched the scene in front of her, smiling a bit. It was a good thing there was happiness in times like this. Soon, Eri ended the bear hug, ran to Risa, caught her arm and pulled her in front of her friends.
"Meet my friends, my group mates and the best warriors in this place!" Eri chirped happily, which caused Reina and Sayu to roll their eyes.
"Yes, friends and group mates went right, but the last one was...."
"Correct!" Reina interrupted Sayu with a broad smile. Sayu looked the other warrior and ended up rolling her eyes again, before she turned back to Risa.
"Well, whatever... I am Michishige Sayumi, the brains of this group. It's a pleasure to meet you." She bowed a bit, Risa copying her actions. Then, Reina stepped forwards and bowed to Risa as well.
"Tanaka Reina, the power of this group. Nice to meet you, and welcome to the Castle!" She said with a big grin and she even winked to Risa, causing her to chuckle a bit.
"Niigaki Risa. Nice to meet you both." Risa said, smiling politely at these two warriors who seemed, at least by their first impression, to be very polite and nice persons.
"We form the group Team Alfa. I'm the sub leader of the group and Sayu and Reina are our subordinates. But in the end, we are all the same group... We are not so formal."
Eri explained eagerly. Risa nodded her head, but suddenly she remembered something. These face, she had a blurry memory of them, but she still remembered them somehow. And she also remembered, in which situation she had seen these faces. She would not be standing here, if these persons hadn't saved her when she had been attacked in the forest.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" She exclaimed and soon, she was bowing in front of the trio, causing all the members to look at her in confusion; what on earth was this girl doing?
"I haven't thanked you for saving my life." She said and raised her head a bit to look at the warriors in front of her. There was an awkward silence, which was broken by Eri laughing nervously.
"Well, we couldn't just leave you there, ne? We just did our job, right guys?"
Sayu nodded, agreeing with Eri, but Reina stepped a bit forward, smiling broadly.
"If you ever need someone to save you, you can always trust me! I am made to save people!"
She said to Risa, winking her eyes again. Risa raised her eye brown a bit, but ended up to chuckle again. Reina amused her somehow, but she didn't know why. Risa raised her head up and smiled to the group, who in return smiled too, mesmerized by the warm feeling they got, when they just looked in this girl's eyes. She had so gentle being and she was smiling almost all the time. They didn't even know this girl yet, but somehow, all the three thought, that they would like Risa and get well along with her in the future.
"Well, now that I have met most of this group, I would also like to meet the last member." Risa said happily. She remembered four faces and one was missing, which meant that she hadn't met the last person in this group. Or well Risa didn't know if that person was in this group, but so she assumed.
But what she got as an response, was something she didn't expect; All the three warriors in front of her were turning around nervously, as if trying to figure out, what to say.
"Ano... Maybe it's better, you'll meet her later because..." Eri started.
"Cause what?" Risa asked confused.
"Welll... cause..."
Reina kept on, till she was interrupted by a loud bang of a door. All four turned to watch, as a fully armored samurai entered the training area. She stopped for a while, before she walked to the group, taking her helmet off at the same time. Risa gasped a bit as she saw the warrior's face. This was the person, she saw last and for some reason, this face hat burned into her mind the best. That short brown hair, with small and beautiful face, but with a cold and dark eyes. This face was the most clear to Risa, but she didn't know why. The warrior had a bit sweat on her forehead, which revealed, that she had been training a while ago.
The group nodded a bit to their leader, as she stopped in front of them. Ai didn't respond. She only stared them for a while before she turned her gaze to Risa. They glanced each others for a long while, when a heavy silence filled the whole training area. Then, Risa decided to greet this person; she smiled warmly and bowed a bit tot he warrior in front of her.
"Hello, you must be the last member of this group. I'm Nii...."
Suddenly, Ai just turned around and walked to a small table. Risa was shocked; why did she do that? Had she do something wrong? At the same time, the rest of the group shook their heads with a sad expressions on their face. They had feared something like this would happen and had planned to avoid this meeting as long as possible, but seemed like the good luck didn't want to help them today.
Risa stood stunned for a while, watching as the warrior took of her helmet and some training clothes, leaving her clad in a white shirt and black shorts. Risa could see all the scars around her muscular hands and legs. This woman really had trained a lot. If Risa had only seen this person's body, she would have thought that she was a male, for she had so well built body.
Soon, Risa found herself marching towards the leader; she was going to try introduce herself again. She stopped beside the samurai and surprisingly saw that they were the same height. Risa smiled again and tried to make eye contact whit the person next to her.
"Ano, I didn't get to introduce myself. My name is Niigaki Risa. Nice to meet you."
Again, a deep silence followed her introducion. Ai just kept putting her equipment away and was like Risa wasn't there. Risa frowned and tried again,this time, speaking a bit louder.
"Excuse me but...."
"What does it take to you to understand "I don't care who the hell are you"?
Suddenly, the samurai had spun around and growled at Risa. Risa took few steps back and looked confused. She had just tried to be polite, for God's sake! What had she done wrong and why was this woman so angry?
Ai glared Risa for a while, before she put her last equipment away and disappeared in a nearby room, shutting the door behind her with a loud bang. It was silent again, the only sound being the fading thump from Ai's steps. Risa stared the door Ai had just went with shocked expression, but soon her face turned into a frown. Then, she suddenly spun around and faced the trio behind her, who all had a worried expression on their faces.
"What's her problem?" Risa asked, her voice a bit irritated now. The three warriors stayed silent for a moment, before Sayu opened her mouth.
"Ai-Chan... She's just... How could I say it..." Sayu muttered, scratching her head as she tried to think how to explain this.
"She... She has changed during the years..." Eri whispered..
"
Changed? What do you mean?" Risa almost shouted now, for her annoyance had raised a lot after that small encounter with the warrior. She usually was very calm, but now for some reason, she got frustrated quite quickly. Somehow, this person had really ticked her of and Risa had difficulties with controlling her emotions.
"She hasn't been like that all the time." Reina said in turn. All in the room turned to stare at her, Sayu and Eri with a bit surprised expression, while Risa, in turn, had still her frown on. Reina faced Risa and spoke again:
"Ai-chan changed when she was 15, but we really don't know..." Reina was about to start, but then a loud bang interrupted her. Everyone turned to look at the door, where Ai was standing. She stared her team with furious expression and soon, she walked in front of the three, making them all to back up a bit and Risa could see some kinf of fear in their eyes.
"Who are you to tell about my life? What have I told you about this thing?" Ai said in a very cold tone, which caused everyone, even Risa, to flinch. Reina lifted her head up to meet with her leaders gaze, before she spoke.
"To not talk about it." She said quietly, allowing her gaze to drop to the ground.
"I believe and truly hope, we don't have to talk about this anymore, never again." The leader growled, looking all of her teammates, who in turn nodded in approval. Then, Ai pivoted around and walked to Risa. She stopped in front of her and pointed her with her index finger.
"And you. Stay away from here. This is a place for warriors, not for some weak persons." Ai hissed to Risa and with that, she was gone again. Risa stared after Ai in disbelief and then turned once again her gaze to the trio, who still looked quite scared.
"Who the hell she think she is? Is she some kind of..." Risa stopped, as she counted 1+1 in her head, realizing, that the woman was this group's leader. “No way....”
"Please, don't get her wrong... This is not the real her and Ai is a good leader, but she just has had... Some hard times." Eri said quietly and looked away. Risa couldn't believe this. This just wasn't right! That warrior had wonderful persons in her team and all she did was acting like an arse towards them! This wasn't how leader should treat her group.
"Everyone experiences some hard times in war! I understand if she is sad and all, shocked or something but..."
Risa took few deep breaths before she continued on. Somehow, Ai's rude actions had gotten her very pissed of. It wasn't very usual of her to open up like this, but now she did.
"but that's not an excuse to act like she did." The last of the sentence came in a more gentle tone. The trio looked at Risa, who was glaring the ground. She had calmed herself down very quickly, for she didn't want to dissolve her frustration to these girls. It wasn't their problem if she was angry. Was the leader's name Ai? Well, anyways, it was her problem, for she had been so rude. After her small rant, Risa faced the trio again and smiled sheepishly at them.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you..."
"It's quite ok. But really, don't get Ai wrong. She's a good person, but she just isn't very good at showing it." Sayu said with a smile, leaving her leaders rough past out of this conversation, because she didn't want to anger her leader anymore. If she said that no one should talk about it, then they really should not.
"She's a jerk..." Risa huffed, as she glared at the door, where Ai had walked a while ago. usually, Risa would think thinks like, “She must have something good in her too”, but now, she was very irritated and could think only negative things. And the most weird thing was, that she didn't know, why she was acting like this, for she usually kept her negative emotions in a good control.
"Yeah, she may be a jerk, but she's our leader and we wouldn't be following her, if she hadn't done some right things sometimes." Reina said, smiling as well.
"But I wonder, why she acted so rude towards Risa..."
Eri said, deep in thoughts. Sayu just shook her head and walked besides Eri, wrapping one of her arms around her middle and pulling her closer. Eri was a bit surprised but didn't reject the other woman's embrace.
"Don't mind Ai, she's just like soldiers are, a bit rude and cold. She will get used to you in no time." Sayu assured as she kept embracing Eri, who was still thinking this small incident that happened few minutes ago.
"Well I really hope that... I wont watch that kind of behaviour for long..." Risa huffed and crossed her arms in front of her.
Sayu chuckled a bit. Well, at least Risa got guts, when she reacted like that to Ai's behaviour. Someone weaker would have taken it quite seriously and even get scared, but Risa more likely answered back. If Aihad stayed longer, Sayu was quite sure, that those two would have began to argue in no time.
Suddenly, Sayu started to push Eri a bit forwards, intimating her to move. The turtle took the hint an started walking, with a confused look on her face. She didn't get the chance to ask Sayu, what was she doing, for the other girl spoke firts.
"But if you'll excuse us now, we must leave for training. We'll see you around. Reina let's go!"
Sayu said happily and waved her hand to get Reina's attention. The other warrior nodded smiling and followed the couple outside. Risa watched the trio go away, smiling softly. They were just so nice people and even her anger subsided a bit when she just watched them. Risa herself started to leave the room too, but when she got to the door, she pumped into someone. When she looked up, Risa found Eri huffing in front of her, her cheeks a bit red.
"I almost forgot!" She said as she breathed quite fast, but continued soon. "Don't mind what Ai said. You're always welcome to come over here. If she has something to say to that, just tell her that you're my friend and she will drop it." Eri said smiling, making Risa watch her with a questioning look.
"Friends are allowed here and well... We are kinda friends or at least we will be, ne?" Eri said smiling, her breathing now calmed. Risa smiled as well at the turtle in front of her. She nodded her head in approval and the smile on Eri's face got even bigger, but it dropped soon, when she saw Risa's expression change.
"But there's just one thing..." Risa started, frowning a bit "Why are you so out of breath suddenly? And you look kinda red too, is everything ok?" Risa asked the turtle.
"Oh, it's nothing, Sayu just got a bit eager and...."
It seemed like Eri realized who she was talking to and what she was just about to say. Risa raised her eye brown in surprise, but soon she had a mischievous grin on her face. But, before she could say anything, Eri was already running away.
"Forget what I said! You're free to go anywhere you want, but please be careful!"
Eri shouted as she disappeared behind the corner. Risa chuckled a bit to the Turtle's behaviour. That girl seemed to be very close with Sayu. Risa left the training area, musing the words Eri had said to her, in her head.
'Friends huh... I indeed hope I'll be friends with these people...'Then, a certain person's face popped in Risa's mind, which caused a frown to appear on her face. She huffed and started to walk faster, as if trying to get the picture of this person out of her head.
'But SHE.... I'd rather not talk with that person again...'-----------------------------------------
First, I am sorry if this chapter is a bit confusing... I had written this a long time ago, then I made some changes in that and of course my computer had to do some funny things and it didn't save that version... I had to do the changes and reread it again quite many times, before I got even close to the version I wanted. I tried my best with checking the mistakes, but I am quite tired again, so... Well you can guess the rest.
So there might be some funny incongruities. If you notice some, please inform me and I'll fix it
And yes, Sayu is quite wise in this fic, that's not an incongruity, lol!
Hope you like this chapter~