I'm baaaack!! On to the chapter!
Chapter 30: On the Wings of Doves“Tea?” Risa turned at the familiar voice, smiling at Eri as the cop held out the offered beverage.
“Thanks, Kame.” she responded, taking the Styrofoam cup from the other’s hands. “This place is pretty nice.” she commented, gesturing to her view. Currently, the girls were standing on a concrete balcony that overlooked a small town that was a part of a secret underground society. The buildings were light and easily destroyed, but they were far from simple lean-tos. Most people had no idea that their sewers could house this kind of clean and wonderful place.
“Yeah, it is, isn’t it? I’ll be sad to leave again, it’s nicer than when I left.” The younger girl commented, “And it’s nice to see everyone working together.”
“I take it that’s not how it used to be?” The gunner questioned, interested in the story behind her words.
“No, this community is a lot older than even some of the people who’ve lived here all their lives know. After World War II there were a lot of homeless people and children in the south that came up here either looking for opportunities or looking to just get away from bad memories. A lot of them ended up staying on the streets and in order to survive, banded together with people they already knew and traveled with to create some kind of large family unit.”
“Now, Tokyo already had it’s share of homeless and when they saw these outsiders group together and do well, they decided to follow suit. But there was a lot of animosity between the groups and a lot of fighting began to happen. Nothing quite so brutal as full on gang wars, after all, they had to keep beneath the notice of the people who lived above ground, but a lot of people got beat up and food was stolen. After a while, some people from both sides began to think that all of this fighting was unnecessary and decided to form their own group away from this fighting.”
“That formed the basis of the three groups I grew up with.” Eri paused for a moment to take in Risa intent look before she continued, “Of course the third group couldn’t stay neutral for long and in the 60’s it was pretty crazy between them all. There were so many people that were a part of these groups that even their own members couldn’t tell who was who. That’s when someone got the idea to start branding their people.”
“Each group already had an established symbol, the original Tokyoites called themselves the Children of the Sun, the original outsiders refer to themselves as under the moon’s guidance and the other group thought of themselves as the stars watching over two warring heavenly bodies.” She turned her head and bent her ear to show Risa the star that was burned into the soft skin above the back of her jaw. “To be unbranded was to be valuable. It meant you hadn’t chosen sides and you were free to come and go as you please.”
“I was too young to understand all of that, though.” Eri straightened up, stretching as she recounted her beginnings nonchalantly, “I was searching the dumpsters behind a nice restaurant for a meal when I was about, oh, ten or so when I was grabbed by the ankle and swung around to the ground. These older kids were yelling at me, asking me to show my brand and threatening me. I was scared, I didn’t know what they were talking about. One of them realized that I was unbranded and asked if I wanted to come back with them.”
“Their whole demeanor changed, they offered me food and shelter and family. I couldn’t say no.” Eri shrugged, “They branded me at the end of that day.”
“So, what changed?” Risa prodded gently, eager for the rest of the story. She’d never could have imagined this kind of place was right under everyone’s noses.
“Mother nature.” The cop shrugged, “There was an earthquake a couple years later that collapsed huge sections of the tunnels. It was chaos, especially since we were all right in the middle of fighting when it happened. No one could tell who was who in the dust and the dark. No one cared. All we knew was that there were people trapped and they needed help, so we started digging.”
“We actually managed to save a few people, but then, in one of the tunnels, we ran into city workers. They chased us, screaming at us to stop. We bolted and I got separated from the people I was with. I was so afraid that they were going to take me and put me in the system, but I was so little and pretty malnourished, I could barely keep away from them. Just when I thought that I was done for, this girl scooped me up and put me on her back.” She recounted softly.
“She was amazing, but I had no idea who she was; even so, I still trusted her. She told me that we would have to make for the surface, that we weren’t the only ones. We met up with a small group of people and she slowed, putting me next to another girl who immediately took my hand and spoke to me gently. I felt an odd scar in her palm, that I gathered was her brand, but I couldn’t tell what it was. We didn’t walk for long before we came to a ladder that led up.”
“It was early morning and the sun was so bright that it took us a while to get used to the light. I was still squinting when I heard a couple of the guys arguing with each other, having noticed that they weren’t of the same brand. There were six of us, the two that were fighting had visible brands, the girl that was holding my hand had a crescent moon on her palm, the one that had picked me up had a sun tattoo on her forearm and wore sun charms on all of her jewelry. I realized I was the only one with a star.”
“The guy next to me grabbed my shoulders and started yelling at me, forcing me to show him my brand. I was terrified, convinced that they were going to beat me into the ground, but then, the girl wearing all the suns stood up on top of a box and practically roared at everyone to calm down. She said that right now, our brands didn’t matter, that what did matter was surviving and carrying on until this whole mess was cleaned up.”
“She made us all introduce ourselves to each other. She told us her name was Miki and the girl with the moon in her palm was Aya.” Eri went on and Risa’s eyes widened a bit.
“You mean…?” The gunner questioned quietly.
“Yes, the six of us were the beginning of this huge colony.” Eri gestured grandly, “It took a little while to unify everyone, but, ironically enough, the devastating earthquake was all that was needed to combine all three groups. Now they’re less nomadic, but more self sufficient. In fact, there is even a great number of people down here that have high paying jobs and don’t necessarily need to be homeless. Everyone is welcome, so long as they can contribute to the colony.”
“And I mean, why wouldn’t you want to stay? It has all the amenities of the surface world without any of the bullshit. They’ve even recently set up wifi down here, thanks to a few computer techs that asked to stay here.” The cop smiled a bit sadly, “It makes me wish I had been able to stay. This place has become wonderful while I was away.”
Both girls looked up when a tall man joined them on the balcony, “Kamei-san, Miki and Aya want to speak to you.”
“Ah, alright, I’m coming.” Eri acknowledged him, then turned back to the gunner, “Do you mind waiting here for a little while? I’ll be right back, but it’s easy to get lost.”
“No problem.” Risa agreed amicably, turning back to the view as her friend departed. She thought over, once again, the miracle of how they had all ended up here, safe and sound.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Risa knew a flash bang when she saw one, but countering it’s affects were another matter entirely. The whole room was blurry and the only sound her ears were picking up was a constant, high pitched ringing. She was lucky that she hadn’t been directly facing the damn thing when it had exploded, like poor Ai had, or she would be just as panicked as her lover obviously was.
When the bang had gone off, the gunner had immediately grabbed Ai and began to run. She knew from painful experience that they were most likely surrounded and fighting back was going to be of no use against what was probably a large team of highly trained men. Now the two were just trying to escape the manor, but finding themselves trapped at every turn. That’s how they ended up in the far corner of the basement, in a small concrete room with absolutely nothing inside of it except for the two of them.
Risa had gone to this room for a particular reason, but first, she needed to calm Ai down. The effects of the bang were already beginning to fade for her, but it was still quite noticeable, especially in her hearing. She could hear well enough to tell that Ai was close to hyperventilating. She turned to her lover, finding her crouched and huddled in the corner, back to the wall, eyes wide and darting around almost unseeingly.
She called out to Ai, gaining her attention immediately as it seemed her hearing had also returned sufficiently. “It’s ok, we’ll be out of here soon enough.” She yelled, seeing Ai nod and mouth an affirmative back. The older girl began to try an even out her breaths, concentrating on becoming grounded again. With her lover sort of taken care of, Risa walked over to the far wall and began to search for something on the floor.
It didn’t take her long to find a small button that caused a section of the wall to slide up, revealing a narrow passageway. “I didn’t even know this was here.” Ai said as she approached quietly, still blinking more than normal, but otherwise seeming ok now.
In the short time she’d been searching, the effects of the flash bang had completely worn off of the gunner and she now smiled, feeling relieved, “Yeah, Captain was just telling me about this the other day, I didn’t think we’d have to use it, though. It leads up to the side yard. Let’s go!”
They jogged forward until they reached a ladder that, sure enough, ended right where Saki had said. When they emerged into the light, it seemed like most of the men were inside the manor, now, allowing them to sneak by the remaining guys and head for the front gate. The driveway was covered in dozens of police vehicles, which confused Risa a bit.
She had thought the men were from the government, not the local law enforcement. Something struck her as wrong, but she couldn’t place her finger on it and she didn’t have time to dwell on it either. No sooner had she and Ai made it onto the pavement, did a familiar voice call her name in a forced whisper. “Gaki-san!”
“Kame?” she responded, seeing the other’s relived smile peeking out from behind a cruiser. The girl was crouched next to an open man hole, “What are you still doing here, you should have been gone already?”
“I couldn’t leave without knowing you two were safe. Most of the others are already down here. Now that I don’t have to find you, we can go too! Come on.” she gestured downwards.
“You’re a lifesaver, Eri.” Ai breathed, taking point and patting the younger girl’s cheek affectionately as she passed.
“Yeah Kame, don’t know where we would have gone if you hadn’t been here.” Risa mussed Eri’s bangs with a grin, before following her lover. ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Eri had led them through a maze of tunnels, after they had acquired the rest of their group from the Tanaka and Kusumi manor’s, until they had ended up here. It seemed almost too good to be true, finding safety for a few days for all of them. True, some of their non essential members were in custody, but not a single higher up was missing.
Still, something wasn’t quite right with all of this and Risa couldn’t put her finger on it. Still, she was relaxed, leaning over the balcony and watching the world below her until she noticed something strange. No one was outside of their houses.
Except for the gang and some bulky, well dressed men.
The door closed behind her and she turned around to see Eri, accompanied by two large, suited men. A great wave of sadness washed over her at the sight, “Eri?”
“They said we need to leave. That being here puts them in danger of being discovered by the police. I told them I would deal with it.” Eri’s words were punctuated by a familiar cry of anger down below that was quickly silenced.
Risa met her eyes for a long moment before turning her back and leaning against the railing again, “I’ve always trusted you, Eri.” She started, feeling the other girl come up behind her. As she looked down, she noticed that no one was left in the small town, making it seem eerie, “And I trust you now, too. I know that, in the end, you’ll do the right thing.”
“You’re the bad guys.” The cop said, a little exasperatedly, “Introducing drugs into the schools like you are. Making illegal weapons even more accessible. Kidnapping men and women alike and selling them as slaves. I am doing the right thing.”
“I never said we were the good guys, but your father’s not a good guy either and I have plenty of evidence to suggest that he’s been planning to assassinate his opponent in the gubernatorial race. We may not be the good guys, but we are at least-” she was cut off when arms wrapped tightly around her middle, “We are at least decent people. And we are your friends. I know you’ll do what is right in the end, Eri.”
There was nothing more said and Risa felt one of the arms release her, only to have that hand come up and cover her mouth and nose with a damp cloth. The smell of chloroform filled her head and then, everything went black.
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Hmm, shorter than I though it would be... But, another cliffhanger.
I'm evil, I know.
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 153167 times)