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#4
ELIMINATE
The tunnel was unlit and dark. Incomprehensible sounds from deep inside echoed in the tunnel, channeled into Amariya and Mitsuke's ears. It sounded like a commotion deeper inside the tunnel. Mitsuke turned back to see the man, a cloak covering his whole body leaving a gap for his eyes, move the slab of rock back into position, closing the entrance. He held it with only one hand, so either he was incredibly strong to slide it back or there was a mechanic that eased the rock's movement. The light from the outside was cut off and the tunnel receded into pitch darkness.
Not quite. Mitsuke didn't notice it before because of the brightness of the outside but the tunnel ahead of him was faintly lit. Light from deep in the tunnel was reflecting off the tunnel walls where they currently stood.
Amariya just casually walked forward and Mitsuke followed behind her. He wanted to ask her many questions; where this was, who was that man, what's in the tunnel, but he had to focus on where he stepped as it was still too dark for him to see the ground properly. Amariya on the other hand was walking along without slipping or tripping on the uneven ground, as if she walked this path a thousand times. She probably did, Mitsuke thought.
After many careful steps and a few stumbles, the light got brighter and Mitsuke could at least see the floor at his feet. Still needing to take careful steps on the uneven ground, Mitsuke walked some more and finally reached the end of the tunnel. To behold a spectacular view.
He was several hundred feet above the bottom of the cavern. Low buildings were scattered all over the ground below, people hurrying in the narrow channels between each. It was indeed the sound of commotion; people shouted to get others' attention, just like in the market in Tarm. The massive noise travelled all the way up to Mitsuke's ears and it was almost overwhelming. Must be the fact that this was an enclosed space and the sound echoed everywhere, amplifying itself. He looked directly straight and still saw buildings reaching all the way to the other end of the cavern, the false horizon.
It was an underground city.
Mitsuke was standing on a cliff. Still amazed at the spectacular view, Amariya had to call to him to get his attention. Mitsuke turned to his left to see Amariya heading down a slope, probably towards the ground below. Mitsuke followed her.
“Amariya...” Mitsuke wanted to start a question.
“You want to ask about this place, right?” she said. Mitsuke wasn't surprised that she knew it. So far his questions have been obvious and predictable.
“They call this the Underworld. It's pretty much the main gathering place for black market activity. Mercenaries, intelligence agents, drug dealers, you name them, and you can bet your life that at least one is here.”
Mitsuke felt nervous. Somehow this seemed like a dangerous place for a small boy like him.
As if reading his mind, Amariya said “Don't worry about being the odd one out, I won't let anyone bully you!” cheerfully.
The pair continued along the slope. Mitsuke noticed that it was zig-zagging along the cliff towards the ground and would take quite some time to reach it. To kill some time while walking down, he asked about the man at the entrance.
“He's known as the Gatekeeper. Nobody knows his real name and when we ask him for it, he gives us different names each time so we decided to just stick with Gatekeeper. Aha, I guess a reply like that was kind of funny. There was a general rule; if you reveal your actual identity, you are admitting that you are new to the black market business. So we normally just say stuff like ' Do you need to ask?' or 'You don't need to know'. Why does he still ask that then? Well, maybe it's a tradition of sorts.”
Then Mitsuke asked general questions about the whole place.
“Nobody knows exactly when this place existed. It's been around for too long for anyone to pinpoint an exact origin. There are several entrances but only one is open at a time. You saw me smacking the cliff wall just now right? I was trying to see where the current entrance was. When I heard the hollow sound, I knew that that was it. All the other entrances are sealed by slabs of rock slotted into the tunnel. When we want to change the entrance, we move the slabs from one entrance to the open one, sealing one and opening another.
“A place like this obviously has to avoid the eyes of the public or problems will arise. That includes hiding away from the government. That's where several entrances come in. If by any chance a normal man sees someone entering through an entrance in the cliff and either investigates it himself or informs the authorities about it, they will be put off when the supposed entrance is sealed and they only see a normal cliff wall. But we have agents in the outside world to prevent this anyways. You saw the shack out there right? That's actually a surveillance spot. There's an agent in that shack and if anyone not related to the black market is around, he will report to the inside and all entrances will be sealed.”
Mitsuke listened intently. He found himself learning more about the world around him every day. He noticed that Amariya kept using 'we' in her explanations so she truly was among the black market people here. They reached the bottom of the vast cavern and now walked with the people below. Mitsuke looked around. People in cloaks covering their whole bodies were hurrying around. He asked a question.
“Even among people in the black market, you wouldn't really want to reveal your identity here. A general rule in the black market; never trust anyone.” she replied.
In the flow of people, Mitsuke got pushed back. Afraid that he would be separated, he rushed forward and grabbed hold of Amariya's cloak. People were staring at the two of them. It was a peculiar sight in the Underworld; a girl with a young boy holding onto her by the cloak. Most of the people turned at them out of curiosity. Others were kidnappers and eyed them intently, finding an opening. There were none as Amariya grabbed hold of Mitsuke's hand and pulled him forward.
A drop of water fell on Mitsuke's head and he looked up in reflex. He saw the cavern ceiling above, vicious stalactites hanging off the ceiling with the chance they would fall off at any moment. Water drops dripped off of them, originating from the outside world. That was for the natural aspect of the ceiling; as for the unnatural aspect, huge lights hung off the ceiling, providing the vast cavern with illumination. They weren't fire torches but electric lights. He wondered where the electricity was from. He also noticed other tunnels boring into the cavern walls, zig-zagging slopes heading towards them. Those must be the other entrances.
The pair suddenly remembered that they haven't eaten lunch yet. Still walking along, they crossed by a stand selling skewered whole roasted fowl. Seeing that she didn't have any money left, Amariya swiftly snatched one while nobody was looking. Again, an action that seemed oh so familiar to her. They turned into a corner out of the vendor's sight to have their meal.
Once done, they walked faster than before. Exactly where are we heading to, Mitsuke thought. A few minutes after that thought, his question was answered. The pair stood in front of a stall, a tent with a curtain as an entrance. A sign above it said 'Jidai's Mission Acquisition'. They entered, swiping the curtain to the side and causing the chimes tied above them to play their signature sound.
The inside was dimly lit by a single light bulb hanging in the centre of the room but just bright enough for Mitsuke to notice that it was very plainly furnished. A carpet was at his feet and there was a desk right in front of him. Behind the desk was a shelf, each compartment filled with stacks of paper. There was another curtain at the side of the shelf and that was where a man stepped out of, called by the ringing of the chimes at the entrance.
He was an elderly man, almost bald but with thin strands of hair strewn on his scalp. His eyes squinted, it almost seemed as if they weren't open at all. His face was wrinkled, same went for his scrawny arms and figure in general. He was holding a stack of more paper in his hands as he stepped out of the other room at the back. He smiled at the sight of Amariya.
“Ah, if it isn't Amariya.” he said, his voice old and senile, with a snicker at the end. He placed the stack of paper from his hand onto the desk.
“Good to see you too, Jidai.” Amariya replied, sitting on the carpet. She took her cloak off and folded it, putting it onto the carpet beside her, showing the vest she wore over her plain black shirt. She also swung her bag off her back and took her sheathed katana off her belt and placed them on her cloak.
“So, is there any specific criteria you are loo-” Jidai's words were cut off by the sight of his other guest. “Ah, why we have a new visitor here.” he said with a senile snicker. “How rude of you not to introduce him to me.”
“I just thought it didn't matter to you. His name is Mitsuke. Found him in a rubbled town.”
“Ah, the Agara incident. I heard about it already. So he is a survivor.”
“The lone survivor more like it.”
“Ah, then that makes him all the more special.” Jidai snickered. “Well then, nice to meet you, Mitsuke-kun.”
Mitsuke was slightly surprised at being greeted so casually by this man. He gave a small bow and a soft “Nice to meet you.” in response.
“Such a polite boy.” he snickered. An old habit of his. “Well then, to business. I'm sure you are here for more reasons than showing this young boy to me.”
“Of course.” Amariya stood up and walked to the desk, sitting on it. She seemed so casual, it was obvious she knew the man for such a long time and she did this over a thousand times. Jidai took a seat behind the desk, flipping through the stack of paper he brought out of the other room. Amariya looked at the papers Jidai flipped through from where she sat. Mitsuke didn't know what to do so he just sat on the carpet obediently.
“I'm broke as usual, so find me the closest and most lucrative job.” she said to Jidai.
“I expected as much from you. Considering that you just only took a job from me a week ago, this was expected.” he responded with a snicker. Then, he remembered something. He went straight to near the bottom of the stack and pulled a piece of printed paper out.
He handed it to Amariya. She took it with her gloved hand and looked through it.
“If it's the closest and most lucrative job you want, here's something worth looking at. Have you heard of the recent killings at Aruka?”
“Sounds interesting. Do explain more.” she replied still eyeing the paper.
“Thirteen casualties have been identified. Nobody knows if that's the actual number of victims. And all this started only five days ago. Quite an active killer, wouldn't you say?” Jidai said with a snicker.
“I'm sure something else makes this case more special.”
“Of course. Each victim died in a spectacular way. A perfectly circular hole in the torso. Bodies split in half. There was one where the body laid on the floor with every finger separated from the hands and laid in a circle around it. And each one of them have no apparent connection. Other than being victims of murder, of course.”
“I see that it's not the Mayor of Aruka that's the employer.”
“Indeed.” Jidai crossed his fingers and rested his chin on them. “The Mayor intends to find the culprit and put him or her into justice through the conventional means. But that would mean a normal 10-year sentence in prison with beatings. Such a punishment does not seem fitting for such a sinner, at least that is what some of the Council members think. So they decided to find mercenaries to eliminate the murderer without the knowledge of the Mayor.”
“I doubt he's so stupid to not realize who the employers were after the murderer is executed.”
“Well, that is something to worry about later on after they handle the problem. After all, the wellbeing of their citizens is their top priority.” Jidai snickered at his semi-sarcastic statement.
“Why hasn't anyone else taken the job? It's been around for quite some time, hasn't it? And it sounds like such a well-known incident too.”
“Well, considering all the key-points of this case, it's pretty obvious who's the culprit, don't you think?”
Amariya contemplated for a while. “I see.” she said.
“Not many people dare to challenge them. Of course there are the more elite ones who would probably take this one without hesitation, but fortunately for you none of them have come here to ask for the job yet.”
“And indeed that is good for me. I'll take it.” Amariya said with a smile.
What followed was some signing of papers and filing of documents. Mitsuke still sat on the carpet in a blur about what happened just now. He listened to the two of them talking but barely understood anything.
“The initial payment should arrive by this evening since Aruka is quite near.” Jidai told Amariya.
“Got it.” Amariya walked back to Mitsuke, putting a piece of paper into her vest. She picked up her cloak and swung it over her shoulders as well as put her katana at her belt. “Again, thanks for the help, Jidai!” she shouted to her back.
“It's my job. Take care, Amariya, Mitsuke-kun.”
Mitsuke stood up and followed Amariya out of the tent. His eyes took a split second to adjust to the light difference. It was ironic; he got out of a tent and found the outside which was a cavern brighter than the inside. Amariya walked further out when she realized her back lighter than normal. Of course, she forgot to take her bag from the tent. She couldn't believe it; she's been in there so many times and she forgets to take her bag now.
She turned behind. “Mitsuke, I left my bag in there. Mind waiting out here for a short while as I go get it?”
“Sure.” he replied in a sort of obedient way.
Amariya pulled the curtain to the side again.
*********************************************
He walked in fast and heavy steps in his fury. It wasn't the first time, he's lost many times before yet he just wouldn't learn his lesson. The hot-tempered gambler who was the head of a small brotherhood was indeed very vexed at his most recent loss. Some two hundred coins, not the most but still a lot of money.
“Calm down, bro. We can get that money back. Just beat the crap out of them and they're bound to hand it over.” a lackey tried to talk to his infuriated boss.
“It's not as simple as that, fool!” the boss said. “It's a whole casino!! They've got security there, no way we'd beat that!!”
The lackey, crestfallen at his vain effort, slowed his walking and receded into the crowd behind the boss following him.
Rakujo stormed through the crowds. People moved aside to allow him passage. He was well known in the Underworld for his very bad temper. It was quite a common scene for him to rush down the path and head to the outside to vent his anger in some way. Some time or another there would be news of him robbing public places and causing havoc in general together with his whole gang and they would disappear right after the incident, back into the Underworld. And he would gamble once more with the money they just stole. Indeed, a stubborn man.
The whole gang behind him had differing thoughts. It was either pity for the gang leader for his loss or pity at him for his stubborn-ness and bad luck. Some also think about how Rakujo was bad at gambling, betting on huge amounts of money without seeing the odds. They were lackeys; they only needed to show loyalty to the leader through action not through thought.
“Alright guys, we're going to mess Tarm up!!” Rakujo exclaimed angrily to his fellow brothers. They all roared out in response in support of their beloved boss, sincere or not.
And in their rush towards the entrance to leave for Tarm, Rakujo knocked into a boy. It wasn't a direct impact otherwise the frail figure would fall over. Since his forearm just knocked into the boy's shoulder, a sign of how much bigger he was, the boy just spun round and lost his balance a little. Rakujo, still in his fury, looked down at the measly figure.
The boy put both his feet back on the ground and looked up at the massive figure looming over him. He was confused about the whole event and his eyes told it clearly. Rakujo's annoyance grew in him as he saw this odd sight.
“What the heck is a little boy doing here!!?” he shouted out.
Still in his fury, Rakujo formed his right hand into a fist and pulled it upwards.
“This ain't a place for you, kid!!”
Thus, his fist strikes down.
*********************************************
The chimes rang once more as Amariya entered the tent. She saw her single-strapped sling bag on the carpet, nearly abandoned there. Jidai was sill at his desk.
“Forgot something, did you?”
“Yeah. A rare occurrence, don't you think?” Amariya said smiling, though her embarrassment was present in her voice.
She picked the bag up and slung it onto her back. She turned towards the entrance she came from and said a casual goodbye to Jidai. As she took a few steps, Jidai said something.
“I wonder if that boy will bring along someone his current age in ten years.”
Amariya stopped in her tracks. The statement played in her mind. And she giggled.
“Indeed, I wonder.”
She stepped out.
*********************************************
Mitsuke waited outside for Amariya. For someone who went in there a thousand times, she sure can forget a bag, he thought. He stood aimlessly, perhaps his one aim was to wait for Amariya. With nothing to do, he looked around him, staring back at the ceiling and the cavern walls he observed earlier.
A commotion was heard. There was a group of people storming through the path, shoving passers-by aside to make space. It was lead by a very angry man. Mitsuke noticed them at the bottom of his mind; while looking at his surroundings, he heard them come but didn't put them into serious consideration. Then, there was a great impact on his shoulder.
Spinning once and losing his footing, Mitsuke eventually got back to standing up again. Still in his confusion, he saw the towering figure loom over him, shouting something and readying his fist to strike down at him. Feeling helpless, he just flinched and braced himself.
*********************************************
The curtains were pulled aside and Amariya stepped out of the tent, her eyes adjusting to the change in brightness. Once her eyes could take in her surrounding properly, she saw an almost unbelievable sight.
There was a huge man. She knew him. What was his name? Ra... Rakujo! Yes, that guy who always had bad luck and lost money and would act all immature and vent his anger at his surroundings. And he had a gang of goons too, sucking up to him lest he beat them up. There he was with said goons behind him, crowding around. And Mitsuke, much smaller than him, cowering as a fist swiftly moves downwards towards his face. Rakujo's fist.
Rakujo was about to punch Mitsuke out of whatever reason.
*********************************************
Time slowed down.
Amariya saw the sight and was not about to let Mitsuke get injured from Rakujo's anger-venting. She poised, bending low as if about to strike. She released her katana from its scabbard with her thumb, pushing it against the guard and revealing only an inch of the blade. Then, she bolted.
In an instant, she dashed towards the man, covering about four metres in a single bound. Her legs kicked the ground, thrusting her with great velocity, disappearing from where she was standing and reappearing right next to Rakujo. Her feet skidded on the floor to stop her in her tracks in the perfect position to perform her next move.
She thrust her hand out, palm open, and slammed it against Rakujo's fist. The impact stopped the swinging arm. Rakujo saw her and was stunned and surprised. This woman just appeared out of nowhere and stopped his fist with her puny hand!
Mitsuke, too, was surprised. Instead of feeling massive pain in his face, he opened his eyes to see Amariya appearing in front of him, saving him from injury.
And they both saw her eyes. Empty, emotionless, merciless.
Deep crimson.
In a split-second, Amariya flexed her hand to grab hold of Rakujo's wrist, her fingers not even meeting after wounding around it. She pulled his arm forward, pivoted her shoulder against his arm and threw him to the ground right next to Mitsuke. The massive impact from the heavy man falling to the ground caused the floor to vibrate and a great cloud of dust flew up from the dirty ground.
Mitsuke had a hard time following the split-second event. Now he just realized that his attacker has been subdued and is now lying on the floor next to him facing the ceiling. Rakujo's eyes were in a daze, disoriented from being thrown by a girl almost a quarter his size. And she used only one arm; her left arm was holding the handle of her blade.
Amariya pushed the katana back fully into its sheath. As if still not satisfied with her method of subduing the man, she pulled his arm up and twisted it in a swift and deadly manner, dislocating his joints. Rakujo gave a loud cry of excruciating pain. Amariya let go of the arm and it just fall onto Rakujo's torso, limp and immovable. Perhaps for weeks.
Amariya realized that the two of them had to leave before the group of lackeys who were behind Rakujo before he got thrown regained their senses after being stunned at her amazing feat. She grabbed hold of Mitsuke's hand. “Let's go.” she said, still with coldness in her voice. The two of them ran towards the direction of the entrance they used to enter the Underworld.
Some lackeys wanted to chase after the two of them but after hearing the great cry of pain from Rakujo, they decided to turn back and give aid to their boss. They successfully fled from the scene.
*********************************************
Amariya leaned against the cliff wall she stepped out of. Mitsuke was bending over, his hands on his knees and catching his breath. They ran from the scene with all their might, reaching the entrance and finding the Gatekeeper already opening the entrance. He was used to his job; hear someone rushing out and you let him or her rush out.
“I'm gonna get it from them when I come back.” Amariya said with a sigh. She still didn't think it was her fault. Rakujo was the one assaulting the innocent boy. If he had a sliver of intelligence, he wouldn't have gotten his arm like that. Maybe the whole gang will be staying by his side at the general clinic in there and wouldn't have time to go after her. But that won't last forever. Great, another nuisance to face when I come back, she thought.
“Amariya...” Mitsuke could barely say out, panting like he ran for his life, which he did, a minute ago. After a few gulps of air, he stood straight and continued his sentence. “Thank you...” with more pants after.
Amariya was slightly surprised at what he said. Such a polite boy, she remembered Jidai saying. What an accurate statement.
“Hey, I already said I won't let anyone bully you!” she responded with a big grin across her face.
And they started another journey.
*********************************************
Straight ahead of them was the way to Tarm. The two of them followed the cliff wall, sticking to shade under the afternoon sky. Once clearing the semilunar cliff, they continued walking onwards. Mitsuke noted their current direction. If the way to Tarm was north, they were heading east. After some time the sun was setting right in front of them and Mitsuke realized they were heading west instead.
Based on Amariya and Jidai's previous conversation, or rather briefing, they were heading to Aruka. He asked how far more to it and Amariya replied saying that they should reach there by nightfall if they don't stop to rest. Mitsuke didn't mind walking if it was that nearby. Even so, he didn't need to.
*********************************************
“Amariya, exactly who is Jidai? You seem to have known him for a long time.”
Inside the supply vehicle, Mitsuke was sitting next to Amariya along with two other young men who were across them. As she was sitting right at the back of the wagon, half blocked by a wooden board, the noise of the wagon's wheels went directly into her ears and she could only barely hear Mitsuke who was right next to her. Still, she knew his question.
“He's what you call a mission-acquisition agent. People just call him an agent or mission-man. He's helped me plenty of times before and I'm not the only one. We've known each other since I started being a mercenary so we go a long way back.”
Mitsuke nodded. It wasn't that he couldn't think of that conclusion, he just wanted to confirm. He noticed that Amariya said “started being a mercenary” and that piqued his curiosity.
“How did you start being a mercenary?”
Amariya's face showed that she was thinking. “Not an easy question to answer. I guess it started when I was adopted by my teacher. When I learnt all his skills, I thought I'd use them myself.”
This conclusion Mitsuke could not predict.
Time passed. By evening the wagon reached a town. Amariya told the middle-aged man handling the horse pulling the wagon that this was their stop and the two of them got off.
“Sorry, but I don't have any money with me currently.” Amariya told the man with a sorry smile as if to beg for forgiveness from him.
“No, no, it's alright. You wanted to go the same direction so it's no different for us.” the man replied with his aged voice.
Amariya gave her thanks and waved goodbye to the group of merchants they hitch-hiked with. Mitsuke did the same.
But the town they were at was not Aruka.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
#3 ENTER
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#3
ENTER
A man talking.
A man smiling.
A monster.
A battle.
People.
Glass shattering.
A vast landscape.
The sky.
Stars.
Buildings.
People running.
People fighting.
Fight.
Fight.
FIGHT.
. . .
And everything shatters.
*********************************************
Amariya's eyes jolted open. She woke up to see the shade of tree leaves above her head with the morning sunlight seeping in between the leaves. Still dazed, she brought her back up to sit upright on the bed of dried leaves she made the night before as her sleeping cushion.
“...a dream...?” she muttered softly to herself. I haven't seen a dream in a long while, so why now, runs through her mind. She could further contemplate the matter, but she'd rather not. She turned to her back to look at her new-found partner still lying on the dried leaves. His chest heaved upwards and receded back softly as he breathed lightly in his sleep.
As if sensing the stare from Amariya's eyes, the newly-named Mitsuke opened his eyes a little, then fully. He sat upright and rubbed his eyes.
“Ah yes...” he remembered the events of the day before.
With both members of the party awake, they started their journey.
*********************************************
Time elapsed and they found themselves a mile away from their campsite. Mitsuke turned back to see the small hill he rested at for the night. All that was left there now was a tree. The dried leaves were scattered around the land and the ashes from the fire were covered in dirt. They made sure not to leave a trace as it would cause problems when news spreads across the continent and people come to investigate the area. If they found a campsite there, they would take it as first evidence and attempt to find its maker. Not good.
As soon as they departed from the hill, Mitsuke asked Amariya the most obvious question one would ask in the situation.
“Where are we going?”
“It's hard to explain now so just wait till we get there.” came her answer.
They've been walking for an hour and Amariya still hasn't explained anything, so Mitsuke assumed the journey was going to be a long one.
A few steps later, Amariya took her turn to ask Mitsuke a question.
“Did anything come back during your sleep?”
“No. Nothing at all. It's not like a haze blocking my memories... it's more like there's nothing there to remember...” he said
Amariya felt sad for him. She could relate to him in a way.
“Amariya... can I ask you not to mention it anymore? Even if anything comes back, I won't need it, since I've decided to have a new start.” Mitsuke told her. She was a little surprised, but it was a request from him.
“Sure.” she smiled.
In the evening light, Mitsuke couldn't get a good look at Amariya's appearance. Now, under the morning sun, he took notice of her. Her face was young yet showed maturity and experience. Her auburn hair was until the middle of her back and curved on the way down. She had a braid of hair from behind her left ear which added an elegant touch to her looks. Her eyes were sharp yet had a softness to them which he saw reflecting the fire's glow the night before. She wore a ragged cloak, torn in many places yet still perfectly usable that fell until above her knees.
A breeze blew and the cloak flew a little upwards, barely revealing a bag slung on her back under the cloak. She had a blade, a katana, tied to her waist with her belt. She wore loose cargo pants that were obviously comfortable and good for manoeuvrability and her feet were protected by work boots. In general, she looked like a young lady who saw a lot of the world and still goes around to see more.
Amariya, feeling Mitsuke's gaze, turned to him. “What's up?” she cheerfully asked him. Mitsuke just turned back to face the road ahead of him quietly. Though Amariya thought his reaction was a bit odd, if there was something he would have said it so she didn't mind. From facing him, Amariya noticed the badly torn clothes Mitsuke was wearing. They would hold for now, but she would have to get him something new to wear soon. Not only that, he was barefoot.
“If you can't stand walking anymore, do tell me.” she told Mitsuke. He nodded.
*********************************************
The path they were taking was muddled with tracks. It was a road used quite a fair bit by travellers and merchants visiting the town they left, thus grass did not grow well and it was mainly dirt. They did not walk in the middle of it, instead stuck to the side where trees shaded them from the ever-rising sun. After hours of walking, noon came and the sun was at its pinnacle, blaring its intense rays straight down at every being below it. Mitsuke told Amariya that his feet started to ache like he was told to and they stopped under a tree. The leaves provided some shade, not enough to entirely block the heat but better than nothing. It was noon, the time one normally would have lunch at, and both Amariya and Mitsuke's stomachs growled in hunger.
Amariya told Mitsuke to stay under the shade while she tried to find something to eat. She left the boy and went out under the sun and over a hill out of Mitsuke's sight. Minutes passed; to Mitsuke it felt much longer than that and Amariya finally came back holding a good-sized lizard by the tail. She returned under the tree, unsheathed her blade and started making a fire.
Mitsuke's heart thumped. It was like a spasm. He felt slightly disoriented.
“What's up?” Amariya asked Mitsuke, noticing the slight movement. Mitsuke shook his head, saying it's nothing. Since there were no more effects, he treated it as nothing. Amariya, as confused as the last time Mitsuke dismissed her question, shrugged it off too and focused on her fire.
She took a rock and swiped it against her katana, producing sparks that flew onto dry leaves and bark she scavenged. It took a few tries, but a fire started eventually. Once the flame built up, she sheathed her katana back and added more fuel to the flame. Eventually the fire grew big enough and Amariya started cooking the lizard which she beheaded, removed the tail, gutted and skewered with a branch.
“This was a lucky catch. It's meat still has some taste even without seasoning and it doesn't take all that long to cook.” explained Amariya for the sake of saying something.
“Where did you learn all this from?” Mitsuke posed a question.
“Well, when you've been wandering for as long as I have, you tend to pick these things up.” Amariya answered smiling.
The lizard was soon done and Amariya cut it to reasonable pieces to share with his comrade. She was right, the meat had a slight sweet and savoury taste to it but it would undoubtedly taste much better with a little seasoning.
Amariya advised Mitsuke not to eat too much as it would exhaust his body to digest it along the journey. She wrapped the remaining pieces in a cloth from her bag for later meals on the way.
Done with their small lunch, they covered the ashes with dirt and continued on their way with a boost of energy in their stomachs. Before departing, Amariya tore a small piece of cloth from her already torn cloak to bandage Mitsuke's feet so they would hurt less as well as provide some protection along the long journey.
The foot-walking continued. Mitsuke still didn't have a clue as to where they were going, though he wasn't vexed by it. Just follow the only person you can, he thought. With that thought, another arose in his mind. He remembered Amariya mentioning a few times about how she wanders a lot but exactly what does that equate to?
“Hey Amariya,” he started casually enough, “you keep saying you're a wanderer but exactly what do you do?”
“Ah, a good question. I suppose it's my fault for not being specific enough before.” she replied. “I'm a mercenary.”
“Oh...” Mitsuke said in accordance to her answer. He didn't know what he felt with that answer. It was a mixture, something along the lines of sadness, disappointment, something. Yet he did not hate her nor did he fear her. He just learnt that the one person he trusted, no, he could possibly trust, was a killer.
Amariya saw his head droop down. “You're thinking that it's a bad thing, that I'm a killer, aren't you?”
Mitsuke shook his head. “Not really. I... don't know what to think. I don't think that you being a killer is a good thing, but I don't feel anything against you either.”
“Ah, then that's good.” she says smiling. “It would be difficult for you to follow me when you're scared of me.”
“Yeah... besides, since you're the only one I can follow, I would have to accept it anyways.”
The words stopped for a moment. Only footsteps were heard. Then, Amariya continued the conversation.
“Well, it's the only thing I can do well. Since I have the skill to do it, might as well go with it, I thought a long time ago. The pay's not bad, though it really depends on the job and employer. And I don't kill people all the time either. Sometimes I get escort missions or maybe even tutoring jobs. Does that make you feel a little better?”
Mitsuke thought about it for a while. “Yeah, somehow it does make me feel better.” he smiled.
Amariya smiled too.
“So what were you doing when we met? Were you on your way to a job? Doesn't seem that way since we aren't in a hurry or anything.”
“Firstly, it isn't necessary to hurry to get jobs finished. Employers give a certain period of time for jobs to get done. If they want it, the pay may diminish based on how long you take to finish it, but that way nobody would want to agree to take that job. The general rule is that you hire a mercenary to finish a job only because you want the job absolutely finished. But to prevent mercenaries from slacking on the job, a time limit is given. If the job is not finished within that time, your status as a mercenary drops considerably.”
“Secondly, I wasn't on my way to a job. I don't get jobs all the time you know. No mercenary can be that busy. There are times when I just hang around aimlessly waiting for someone to get me or when I find my money depleting, I go somewhere to find available jobs. That somewhere could be a town, like Agara, the one I found you in, or a more specific place, which is where we are heading to now.”
Mitsuke found himself absorbing potentially vital information about the 'new' world around him.
“I hope you understood what I said because it's kind of hard for me to explain any better.” Amariya said to Mitsuke in a slight joking voice.
“Surprisingly I did.” Mitsuke replied.
The conversation played a big role in keeping their minds busy along the journey. Without them noticing how much more tired they grew, they had travelled quite a long distance during their chat. It would be good for them to keep on talking, but for now there was nothing left to talk about.
*********************************************
The town recently known as Agara, now as a pile of soot-covered rubble, lied on plain land which spread for many more miles. The terrain was slightly uneven, with some hills here and there, like the one the two travellers rested on for one night that had a single tree on top. As the two of them walked further away from the ex-town, they found more hills flanking their sides. The land was getting more uneven but it left a single channel of flat ground that lead to Agara. Perhaps a long time ago that channel was a river, but that is irrelevant.
Amariya was surprised at how Mitsuke could cope with walking for so long. He only took one break and could keep up with her. She didn't know if it was the fact that he was young or that his body was unique, but he would be unable to answer either questions so she left it at that.
More time elapsed and the sun was slowly setting. Amariya eventually decided on a spot for them to rest at for the night. This time it was a small indent in the hills covered by some foliage. Amariya knew that bandits and the like travelled at night and she didn't intend on letting any wandering thieves get them in the middle of their sleep. So she minimized the chance of that happening by choosing that spot. Again, she set up a fire, warmed the cooked lizard meat she kept from noon for a light snack and the two of them rested under the starry night sky a second time.
The next day was of the same routine. Traversing more land, taking a rest at noon for a small meal, more walking. Only a few things differed between the two days. Somewhere around after noon they came across a creek. Obviously thirsty, they enjoyed some cool clean water and Amariya took a canteen out from her bag to refill. Once refreshed, they felt much lighter and continued on their journey.
Amariya replaced Mitsuke's feet bandages when they woke up. They walked over some rough and rocky terrain in the afternoon and Amariya had to make his bandages thicker lest he face cuts and blisters. Eventually they returned to walking over grass.
But the most noticeable difference between the two days was at evening. After walking uphill for half an hour, they finally stepped on the pinnacle of the slope and beheld the view in front of them. In the distance, a town fortified by high walls with towers protruding skywards from its centre was visible. A civilisation.
“Is that where we are heading?” Mitsuke asked.
“Kind of. We're stopping there, then going somewhere else.” Amariya answered.
With the thought of a major length of their journey ending, the two of them shot towards the town.
*********************************************
Mitsuke stared at the person sitting across him. He wasn't the only one. People around the table were drawn at the sheer sight. He suddenly forgot who she was.
This person had plates and plates and more plates of food in front of her. She was holding a bowl of rice, among other empty and filled ones to her sides, in her left hand and chopsticks in her right. She was practically gobbling food down, taking a piece of fowl or meat or vegetable or perhaps several at the same time and downing it with gulps of rice. Without pause she strikes the plates with more swift picks with her chopsticks and downs more rice. She didn't chew, no, she chewed and swallowed so fast it was as if she didn't chew at all. Everytime she gulped rice down her bowl would turn upwards and cover her face. Now that her bowl was empty, she stacked it on top of perhaps ten others and took the next one in line. In that brief moment where she put her bowl down, Mitsuke saw her face and ascertained that indeed, Amariya was eating across him.
She was practically in a trance. She didn't lift her eyes off her food and swiped in swift motions. Almost everyone in the restaurant was eyeing her and she didn't care about them at all. It wasn't shameless per se; after all, who were the people around her to rudely look at her while she was eating. In the time it took Mitsuke to attempt to learn to use chopsticks, Amariya emptied three bowls and asked for three more. In the time it took Mitsuke to give up and ask for a spoon, Amariya emptied five bowls and asked for seven more. Mitsuke could imagine the restaurant running out of rice soon...
While Mitsuke thought of that, Amariya emptied another bowl and was about to grab the next one when she noticed Mitsuke stunned by her speed. One would expect such a fast eater to have specks of rice or remnants of food on her face but she was as clean as ever. Perhaps there was a sliver of lady-like in her after all.
“What's wrong, Mitsuke? You don't seem to be eating your share.”
She was right to order a separate set of dishes for Mitsuke or he would be fighting for his life with that demon to eat. With obviously bad results.
"Ah, it's nothing. But you sure eat fast, Amariya.” came the reply.
“What would you expect? When you come to a town with such a big restaurant and you've been travelling for days, you would eat a horse!” Amariya cheerfully replied.
A horse is too much of an understatement for the amount of food in front of Amariya, ran through Mitsuke's mind. He took a bite himself. Indeed, the food was splendid, much more so than the cooked lizard meat he has been eating. Amariya, too, returned to her blitz-eating.
I should savour the food while it lasts since we will be travelling more tomorrow, thought Mitsuke. Amariya said we will be going somewhere for her to get a job. A job means more money. Wait a minute...
“Amariya, if I'm right, you're finding a job tomorrow because you ran out of money and intend to get more?” Mitsuke asked.
Amariya took a drumstick of a fowl and dropped it into her mouth, pulled the bone out, slipped the meat off of it, chewed and swallowed in one perfect second. “Well, that's pretty much it. What's up?”
“Then what's with this huge feast in front of us?”
Now Amariya took a mug filled to the brim with drink and slurped it dry in one and a half seconds. “It was all within my calculations. I calculated that I would finish every bit of my money in this town. Then the plan was that I hurry and get a job to replenish my cache.”
Mitsuke didn't know what to think. Whether this person was a genius or an idiot. A hybrid? If it was possible, yes. He shrugged it off and continued taking bites.
If she always calculated like this, she must eat this much every time, ran by Mitsuke's mind.
*********************************************
The pair woke up in an inn they found the night before. It was Mitsuke's first time sleeping in a proper place and he found the bed the most comfortable he had ever slept in. Considering his circumstances, that was no surprise. They left the inn, giving their thanks to the owner on the way out.
Coming into the town tired and hungry, the two didn't take time to explore the place. Now with their energy tanks at full, they decided to take a stroll before departing to their next destination. Tarm was a beautiful place. Tall brick buildings flanked the streets and the stone pavement was the prime medium for citizens to travel. There was a marketplace. It was a centre of activity; merchants shouting to gain people's attention, crowds fighting to buy the freshest produce. It was irrelevant to the pair so they only walked by.
They also passed by a fountain spouting crystal clear water out. They imagined it to be how the one in Agara looked like but shrugged the thought off. Continuing on, they passed a restaurant with a sign in front saying 'Closed. Out of stock'. They didn't know why, but they felt like walking faster away from the place.
Soon they were in front of a clothes shop. Amariya remembered how Mitsuke needed new clothes, so they entered. She could tell how curious the shopkeeper was seeing a lady with a boy in rags. It was a good thing he kept his professionalism and refrained from asking. Seeing that they would be travelling more later on, Amariya chose something comfortable and easy to move in. She bought a loose fitting shirt and cargo jeans with her remaining money. Mitsuke changed into them and was really glad he had something new to wear. Amariya asked the shopkeeper to dispose Mitsuke's previous garments and they left.
One final stop was at a shoe shop. Amariya got Mitsuke a pair of cheap shoes. Much better than bandages. With that, they headed to the town's arched entrance and departed.
*********************************************
“Now that we've rested, it would help if we sped our pace up.” Amariya told Mitsuke. It seemed that she was in a hurry to get some more money.
Considering how she eats, it's no surprise if she has to work like this every time, a passing thought in Mitsuke's head.
Time passed. Scenery changed. From the hilly terrain, the ground seemed to turn more flat; they were heading towards a plain. And in the distance, Mitsuke noticed a line of cliffs, almost in a semilunar shape. He turned behind and saw Tarm, slightly blurred by a haze from the distance.
They kept walking towards the cliffs. Odd. There was nothing there. No town, no camps. Just a plain surrounded halfway by cliffs. Wait, there was a shack in the distance. That couldn't possibly be our destination, could it, Mitsuke asked in his mind.
They took more steps and Mitsuke noticed that they weren't heading for that shack, but instead heading towards the point where the cliffs started. Was there a hidden site?
Eventually they reached that point. Amariya placed her right hand on the cliffside, then smacked it. The sound of the smack on solid rock resonated and echoed off the cliffs. Mitsuke was perplexed.
“Erm, Amariya, exactly what are we doing here?”
Amariya turned behind to answer Mitsuke. “Hehe, you'll see.” with a smile.
Amariya continued on. Every few steps she would smack the cliffside and the same sound of palm against solid rock would come out. One would think she would get tired of doing this for so long, but it seemed as if she was used to this. After some time, the sun was right above them; it was noon. Under the blaring rays, Amariya continued her awkward act and Mitsuke just followed behind her. They were now in the middle of the semilunar shape. So far every time Amariya smacked the wall it was a 'miss'.
Now she smacked the wall and a hollow sound resonated into the cliff wall.
“Bingo.” Amariya said to herself.
Pat-pat-pause-pat-pause-pa-pa-pat-pat-pause-pat-tap-tap-tap-pat-pat. A succession of pats with pauses in between and tapping of fingers near the end was played on the cliff wall. Silence ensued. Then, a voice came from the wall.
“State your identity.”
“You know who I am.” Amariya replied.
More silence. Then, the ground around the two of them vibrated madly. Mitsuke's head turned to the ground in reflex, and when he heard a rumbling sound in front of him, he turned back to see the cliff wall move.
A part of the wall directly in front of Amariya receded into the rock face. Once it was deep enough inside, it slid to the side to leave an opening just big enough for a person to fit through. It was a secret entrance.
Mitsuke took a few steps towards this entrance. He peered inside and saw a man standing near the hole.
“Welcome. I assume this boy is your acquaintance?” he said.
“Yes. He's coming with me.” she replied.
And the two of them stepped inside.
#3
ENTER
A man talking.
A man smiling.
A monster.
A battle.
People.
Glass shattering.
A vast landscape.
The sky.
Stars.
Buildings.
People running.
People fighting.
Fight.
Fight.
FIGHT.
. . .
And everything shatters.
*********************************************
Amariya's eyes jolted open. She woke up to see the shade of tree leaves above her head with the morning sunlight seeping in between the leaves. Still dazed, she brought her back up to sit upright on the bed of dried leaves she made the night before as her sleeping cushion.
“...a dream...?” she muttered softly to herself. I haven't seen a dream in a long while, so why now, runs through her mind. She could further contemplate the matter, but she'd rather not. She turned to her back to look at her new-found partner still lying on the dried leaves. His chest heaved upwards and receded back softly as he breathed lightly in his sleep.
As if sensing the stare from Amariya's eyes, the newly-named Mitsuke opened his eyes a little, then fully. He sat upright and rubbed his eyes.
“Ah yes...” he remembered the events of the day before.
With both members of the party awake, they started their journey.
*********************************************
Time elapsed and they found themselves a mile away from their campsite. Mitsuke turned back to see the small hill he rested at for the night. All that was left there now was a tree. The dried leaves were scattered around the land and the ashes from the fire were covered in dirt. They made sure not to leave a trace as it would cause problems when news spreads across the continent and people come to investigate the area. If they found a campsite there, they would take it as first evidence and attempt to find its maker. Not good.
As soon as they departed from the hill, Mitsuke asked Amariya the most obvious question one would ask in the situation.
“Where are we going?”
“It's hard to explain now so just wait till we get there.” came her answer.
They've been walking for an hour and Amariya still hasn't explained anything, so Mitsuke assumed the journey was going to be a long one.
A few steps later, Amariya took her turn to ask Mitsuke a question.
“Did anything come back during your sleep?”
“No. Nothing at all. It's not like a haze blocking my memories... it's more like there's nothing there to remember...” he said
Amariya felt sad for him. She could relate to him in a way.
“Amariya... can I ask you not to mention it anymore? Even if anything comes back, I won't need it, since I've decided to have a new start.” Mitsuke told her. She was a little surprised, but it was a request from him.
“Sure.” she smiled.
In the evening light, Mitsuke couldn't get a good look at Amariya's appearance. Now, under the morning sun, he took notice of her. Her face was young yet showed maturity and experience. Her auburn hair was until the middle of her back and curved on the way down. She had a braid of hair from behind her left ear which added an elegant touch to her looks. Her eyes were sharp yet had a softness to them which he saw reflecting the fire's glow the night before. She wore a ragged cloak, torn in many places yet still perfectly usable that fell until above her knees.
A breeze blew and the cloak flew a little upwards, barely revealing a bag slung on her back under the cloak. She had a blade, a katana, tied to her waist with her belt. She wore loose cargo pants that were obviously comfortable and good for manoeuvrability and her feet were protected by work boots. In general, she looked like a young lady who saw a lot of the world and still goes around to see more.
Amariya, feeling Mitsuke's gaze, turned to him. “What's up?” she cheerfully asked him. Mitsuke just turned back to face the road ahead of him quietly. Though Amariya thought his reaction was a bit odd, if there was something he would have said it so she didn't mind. From facing him, Amariya noticed the badly torn clothes Mitsuke was wearing. They would hold for now, but she would have to get him something new to wear soon. Not only that, he was barefoot.
“If you can't stand walking anymore, do tell me.” she told Mitsuke. He nodded.
*********************************************
The path they were taking was muddled with tracks. It was a road used quite a fair bit by travellers and merchants visiting the town they left, thus grass did not grow well and it was mainly dirt. They did not walk in the middle of it, instead stuck to the side where trees shaded them from the ever-rising sun. After hours of walking, noon came and the sun was at its pinnacle, blaring its intense rays straight down at every being below it. Mitsuke told Amariya that his feet started to ache like he was told to and they stopped under a tree. The leaves provided some shade, not enough to entirely block the heat but better than nothing. It was noon, the time one normally would have lunch at, and both Amariya and Mitsuke's stomachs growled in hunger.
Amariya told Mitsuke to stay under the shade while she tried to find something to eat. She left the boy and went out under the sun and over a hill out of Mitsuke's sight. Minutes passed; to Mitsuke it felt much longer than that and Amariya finally came back holding a good-sized lizard by the tail. She returned under the tree, unsheathed her blade and started making a fire.
Mitsuke's heart thumped. It was like a spasm. He felt slightly disoriented.
“What's up?” Amariya asked Mitsuke, noticing the slight movement. Mitsuke shook his head, saying it's nothing. Since there were no more effects, he treated it as nothing. Amariya, as confused as the last time Mitsuke dismissed her question, shrugged it off too and focused on her fire.
She took a rock and swiped it against her katana, producing sparks that flew onto dry leaves and bark she scavenged. It took a few tries, but a fire started eventually. Once the flame built up, she sheathed her katana back and added more fuel to the flame. Eventually the fire grew big enough and Amariya started cooking the lizard which she beheaded, removed the tail, gutted and skewered with a branch.
“This was a lucky catch. It's meat still has some taste even without seasoning and it doesn't take all that long to cook.” explained Amariya for the sake of saying something.
“Where did you learn all this from?” Mitsuke posed a question.
“Well, when you've been wandering for as long as I have, you tend to pick these things up.” Amariya answered smiling.
The lizard was soon done and Amariya cut it to reasonable pieces to share with his comrade. She was right, the meat had a slight sweet and savoury taste to it but it would undoubtedly taste much better with a little seasoning.
Amariya advised Mitsuke not to eat too much as it would exhaust his body to digest it along the journey. She wrapped the remaining pieces in a cloth from her bag for later meals on the way.
Done with their small lunch, they covered the ashes with dirt and continued on their way with a boost of energy in their stomachs. Before departing, Amariya tore a small piece of cloth from her already torn cloak to bandage Mitsuke's feet so they would hurt less as well as provide some protection along the long journey.
The foot-walking continued. Mitsuke still didn't have a clue as to where they were going, though he wasn't vexed by it. Just follow the only person you can, he thought. With that thought, another arose in his mind. He remembered Amariya mentioning a few times about how she wanders a lot but exactly what does that equate to?
“Hey Amariya,” he started casually enough, “you keep saying you're a wanderer but exactly what do you do?”
“Ah, a good question. I suppose it's my fault for not being specific enough before.” she replied. “I'm a mercenary.”
“Oh...” Mitsuke said in accordance to her answer. He didn't know what he felt with that answer. It was a mixture, something along the lines of sadness, disappointment, something. Yet he did not hate her nor did he fear her. He just learnt that the one person he trusted, no, he could possibly trust, was a killer.
Amariya saw his head droop down. “You're thinking that it's a bad thing, that I'm a killer, aren't you?”
Mitsuke shook his head. “Not really. I... don't know what to think. I don't think that you being a killer is a good thing, but I don't feel anything against you either.”
“Ah, then that's good.” she says smiling. “It would be difficult for you to follow me when you're scared of me.”
“Yeah... besides, since you're the only one I can follow, I would have to accept it anyways.”
The words stopped for a moment. Only footsteps were heard. Then, Amariya continued the conversation.
“Well, it's the only thing I can do well. Since I have the skill to do it, might as well go with it, I thought a long time ago. The pay's not bad, though it really depends on the job and employer. And I don't kill people all the time either. Sometimes I get escort missions or maybe even tutoring jobs. Does that make you feel a little better?”
Mitsuke thought about it for a while. “Yeah, somehow it does make me feel better.” he smiled.
Amariya smiled too.
“So what were you doing when we met? Were you on your way to a job? Doesn't seem that way since we aren't in a hurry or anything.”
“Firstly, it isn't necessary to hurry to get jobs finished. Employers give a certain period of time for jobs to get done. If they want it, the pay may diminish based on how long you take to finish it, but that way nobody would want to agree to take that job. The general rule is that you hire a mercenary to finish a job only because you want the job absolutely finished. But to prevent mercenaries from slacking on the job, a time limit is given. If the job is not finished within that time, your status as a mercenary drops considerably.”
“Secondly, I wasn't on my way to a job. I don't get jobs all the time you know. No mercenary can be that busy. There are times when I just hang around aimlessly waiting for someone to get me or when I find my money depleting, I go somewhere to find available jobs. That somewhere could be a town, like Agara, the one I found you in, or a more specific place, which is where we are heading to now.”
Mitsuke found himself absorbing potentially vital information about the 'new' world around him.
“I hope you understood what I said because it's kind of hard for me to explain any better.” Amariya said to Mitsuke in a slight joking voice.
“Surprisingly I did.” Mitsuke replied.
The conversation played a big role in keeping their minds busy along the journey. Without them noticing how much more tired they grew, they had travelled quite a long distance during their chat. It would be good for them to keep on talking, but for now there was nothing left to talk about.
*********************************************
The town recently known as Agara, now as a pile of soot-covered rubble, lied on plain land which spread for many more miles. The terrain was slightly uneven, with some hills here and there, like the one the two travellers rested on for one night that had a single tree on top. As the two of them walked further away from the ex-town, they found more hills flanking their sides. The land was getting more uneven but it left a single channel of flat ground that lead to Agara. Perhaps a long time ago that channel was a river, but that is irrelevant.
Amariya was surprised at how Mitsuke could cope with walking for so long. He only took one break and could keep up with her. She didn't know if it was the fact that he was young or that his body was unique, but he would be unable to answer either questions so she left it at that.
More time elapsed and the sun was slowly setting. Amariya eventually decided on a spot for them to rest at for the night. This time it was a small indent in the hills covered by some foliage. Amariya knew that bandits and the like travelled at night and she didn't intend on letting any wandering thieves get them in the middle of their sleep. So she minimized the chance of that happening by choosing that spot. Again, she set up a fire, warmed the cooked lizard meat she kept from noon for a light snack and the two of them rested under the starry night sky a second time.
The next day was of the same routine. Traversing more land, taking a rest at noon for a small meal, more walking. Only a few things differed between the two days. Somewhere around after noon they came across a creek. Obviously thirsty, they enjoyed some cool clean water and Amariya took a canteen out from her bag to refill. Once refreshed, they felt much lighter and continued on their journey.
Amariya replaced Mitsuke's feet bandages when they woke up. They walked over some rough and rocky terrain in the afternoon and Amariya had to make his bandages thicker lest he face cuts and blisters. Eventually they returned to walking over grass.
But the most noticeable difference between the two days was at evening. After walking uphill for half an hour, they finally stepped on the pinnacle of the slope and beheld the view in front of them. In the distance, a town fortified by high walls with towers protruding skywards from its centre was visible. A civilisation.
“Is that where we are heading?” Mitsuke asked.
“Kind of. We're stopping there, then going somewhere else.” Amariya answered.
With the thought of a major length of their journey ending, the two of them shot towards the town.
*********************************************
Mitsuke stared at the person sitting across him. He wasn't the only one. People around the table were drawn at the sheer sight. He suddenly forgot who she was.
This person had plates and plates and more plates of food in front of her. She was holding a bowl of rice, among other empty and filled ones to her sides, in her left hand and chopsticks in her right. She was practically gobbling food down, taking a piece of fowl or meat or vegetable or perhaps several at the same time and downing it with gulps of rice. Without pause she strikes the plates with more swift picks with her chopsticks and downs more rice. She didn't chew, no, she chewed and swallowed so fast it was as if she didn't chew at all. Everytime she gulped rice down her bowl would turn upwards and cover her face. Now that her bowl was empty, she stacked it on top of perhaps ten others and took the next one in line. In that brief moment where she put her bowl down, Mitsuke saw her face and ascertained that indeed, Amariya was eating across him.
She was practically in a trance. She didn't lift her eyes off her food and swiped in swift motions. Almost everyone in the restaurant was eyeing her and she didn't care about them at all. It wasn't shameless per se; after all, who were the people around her to rudely look at her while she was eating. In the time it took Mitsuke to attempt to learn to use chopsticks, Amariya emptied three bowls and asked for three more. In the time it took Mitsuke to give up and ask for a spoon, Amariya emptied five bowls and asked for seven more. Mitsuke could imagine the restaurant running out of rice soon...
While Mitsuke thought of that, Amariya emptied another bowl and was about to grab the next one when she noticed Mitsuke stunned by her speed. One would expect such a fast eater to have specks of rice or remnants of food on her face but she was as clean as ever. Perhaps there was a sliver of lady-like in her after all.
“What's wrong, Mitsuke? You don't seem to be eating your share.”
She was right to order a separate set of dishes for Mitsuke or he would be fighting for his life with that demon to eat. With obviously bad results.
"Ah, it's nothing. But you sure eat fast, Amariya.” came the reply.
“What would you expect? When you come to a town with such a big restaurant and you've been travelling for days, you would eat a horse!” Amariya cheerfully replied.
A horse is too much of an understatement for the amount of food in front of Amariya, ran through Mitsuke's mind. He took a bite himself. Indeed, the food was splendid, much more so than the cooked lizard meat he has been eating. Amariya, too, returned to her blitz-eating.
I should savour the food while it lasts since we will be travelling more tomorrow, thought Mitsuke. Amariya said we will be going somewhere for her to get a job. A job means more money. Wait a minute...
“Amariya, if I'm right, you're finding a job tomorrow because you ran out of money and intend to get more?” Mitsuke asked.
Amariya took a drumstick of a fowl and dropped it into her mouth, pulled the bone out, slipped the meat off of it, chewed and swallowed in one perfect second. “Well, that's pretty much it. What's up?”
“Then what's with this huge feast in front of us?”
Now Amariya took a mug filled to the brim with drink and slurped it dry in one and a half seconds. “It was all within my calculations. I calculated that I would finish every bit of my money in this town. Then the plan was that I hurry and get a job to replenish my cache.”
Mitsuke didn't know what to think. Whether this person was a genius or an idiot. A hybrid? If it was possible, yes. He shrugged it off and continued taking bites.
If she always calculated like this, she must eat this much every time, ran by Mitsuke's mind.
*********************************************
The pair woke up in an inn they found the night before. It was Mitsuke's first time sleeping in a proper place and he found the bed the most comfortable he had ever slept in. Considering his circumstances, that was no surprise. They left the inn, giving their thanks to the owner on the way out.
Coming into the town tired and hungry, the two didn't take time to explore the place. Now with their energy tanks at full, they decided to take a stroll before departing to their next destination. Tarm was a beautiful place. Tall brick buildings flanked the streets and the stone pavement was the prime medium for citizens to travel. There was a marketplace. It was a centre of activity; merchants shouting to gain people's attention, crowds fighting to buy the freshest produce. It was irrelevant to the pair so they only walked by.
They also passed by a fountain spouting crystal clear water out. They imagined it to be how the one in Agara looked like but shrugged the thought off. Continuing on, they passed a restaurant with a sign in front saying 'Closed. Out of stock'. They didn't know why, but they felt like walking faster away from the place.
Soon they were in front of a clothes shop. Amariya remembered how Mitsuke needed new clothes, so they entered. She could tell how curious the shopkeeper was seeing a lady with a boy in rags. It was a good thing he kept his professionalism and refrained from asking. Seeing that they would be travelling more later on, Amariya chose something comfortable and easy to move in. She bought a loose fitting shirt and cargo jeans with her remaining money. Mitsuke changed into them and was really glad he had something new to wear. Amariya asked the shopkeeper to dispose Mitsuke's previous garments and they left.
One final stop was at a shoe shop. Amariya got Mitsuke a pair of cheap shoes. Much better than bandages. With that, they headed to the town's arched entrance and departed.
*********************************************
“Now that we've rested, it would help if we sped our pace up.” Amariya told Mitsuke. It seemed that she was in a hurry to get some more money.
Considering how she eats, it's no surprise if she has to work like this every time, a passing thought in Mitsuke's head.
Time passed. Scenery changed. From the hilly terrain, the ground seemed to turn more flat; they were heading towards a plain. And in the distance, Mitsuke noticed a line of cliffs, almost in a semilunar shape. He turned behind and saw Tarm, slightly blurred by a haze from the distance.
They kept walking towards the cliffs. Odd. There was nothing there. No town, no camps. Just a plain surrounded halfway by cliffs. Wait, there was a shack in the distance. That couldn't possibly be our destination, could it, Mitsuke asked in his mind.
They took more steps and Mitsuke noticed that they weren't heading for that shack, but instead heading towards the point where the cliffs started. Was there a hidden site?
Eventually they reached that point. Amariya placed her right hand on the cliffside, then smacked it. The sound of the smack on solid rock resonated and echoed off the cliffs. Mitsuke was perplexed.
“Erm, Amariya, exactly what are we doing here?”
Amariya turned behind to answer Mitsuke. “Hehe, you'll see.” with a smile.
Amariya continued on. Every few steps she would smack the cliffside and the same sound of palm against solid rock would come out. One would think she would get tired of doing this for so long, but it seemed as if she was used to this. After some time, the sun was right above them; it was noon. Under the blaring rays, Amariya continued her awkward act and Mitsuke just followed behind her. They were now in the middle of the semilunar shape. So far every time Amariya smacked the wall it was a 'miss'.
Now she smacked the wall and a hollow sound resonated into the cliff wall.
“Bingo.” Amariya said to herself.
Pat-pat-pause-pat-pause-pa-pa-pat-pat-pause-pat-tap-tap-tap-pat-pat. A succession of pats with pauses in between and tapping of fingers near the end was played on the cliff wall. Silence ensued. Then, a voice came from the wall.
“State your identity.”
“You know who I am.” Amariya replied.
More silence. Then, the ground around the two of them vibrated madly. Mitsuke's head turned to the ground in reflex, and when he heard a rumbling sound in front of him, he turned back to see the cliff wall move.
A part of the wall directly in front of Amariya receded into the rock face. Once it was deep enough inside, it slid to the side to leave an opening just big enough for a person to fit through. It was a secret entrance.
Mitsuke took a few steps towards this entrance. He peered inside and saw a man standing near the hole.
“Welcome. I assume this boy is your acquaintance?” he said.
“Yes. He's coming with me.” she replied.
And the two of them stepped inside.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
#1 START ; #2 FIRST v1.1.1
v1.1.1 Changed tenses to past tense and changed a few words following feedback. Also added footnotes in each page because I feel better with my pen name there. (Only applies to downloaded file)
Download
A simple note to all
I, being an anime enthusiast, am writing this fiction with the influence of anime. Don't be surprised to see some Japanese suffixes like “-san” and “-kun” or Japanese-ish names or any references to the Japanese language. I thought of this story with the thought of it being an anime in mind. So to maximize the experience of reading this, it would be good if you could read this and imagine the world in an anime setting, ie: big-eyed yet pretty characters, characters who speak Japanese yet you still understand what they are saying etc etc. If you have never watched a single anime in your life or generally dislike anime (how could you?), then sorry to say, you may find reading this story a little difficult. It wasn't my true purpose for this fiction to be read solely by anime-enthusiasts like myself, so I'm trying to make this as non-anime-enthusiast friendly as I can. Please forgive me, for the anime-ness and for anything I should apologize for.
ON TO THE STORY!!
----------------------------------
#1
START
Tranquility.
Harmony.
Peace.
All to be broken.
The fluid surrounded his very being. Flowed between his fingers. Swirled around his torso. A mesh of emotions, thoughts, feelings, all mixed in a lurid maelstrom of havoc.
Yet the feeling was splendid.
The being in the middle of it all lied tranquilly, unthinking. All its thoughts swirled about in the vast space so there was no need for it to have thoughts within its own. Likewise for its emotions. Every single possible feeling danced about in the fluid, information exchanged, streams of knowledge zoomed past, while it felt nothing.
Silence.
The silence so deep, one's own mind would have to produce a ringing sound in the ear to make sure the system is in check. So deep every thought is heard as clear as a roar of thunder right beside your ear. The irony; if there was a roar of thunder beside your ear, you wouldn't be able to hear anything anymore. A laugh would be heard but there was no consciousness to control laughter. The thought of the irony just floated by without a proper mind to receive the transmission and process the data. Thus was the emptiness of the tranquil fluid.
Break.
The being, sleeping in the eye of the storm, started to react towards a thought. The word ran by his mind, like a scream in a cave, echoing in every nook and cranny, every corner and corridor, of his being. A roar. A pulse.
---k-...
Still incomplete, the mind was yet to decipher the message. The thought was still in a muddle. Incomprehensible. A blur. Haze surrounded it, vision was unclear. But it's a thought, it was not read nor heard. It was merely... thought of...
-wak-...
The mind accelerated its processing in a hurry to decipher its first thought. Final touches. Reconfigured its patterns.
-wake...
Awake...
AWAKEN...
The thought echoed in his embodiment. The order was absolute and must be followed. But the mind was yet to process its reaction towards this command. The being wished to continue sleeping, to continue lying in this peaceful mesh of data, this fluid. Contradicting wishes. Multiple patterns.
Such was the proof of a fully developed mind.
His eyes pulsed, attempting to open. One side forced it to open. The other was stubborn and held it shut, intending to sleep some more. But it was inevitable. The order was absolute.
Awaken...
His fingers pulsed, trying to make its first movements. The mind was checking that its systems were working properly by making sure the nerves and muscles were functioning. But there was an inhibitor; the wish of the mind to continue sleeping.
AWAKEN
Inevitability. The order was absolute. Slowly, the mind followed this command, and that stubborn factor was eliminated.
It is time...
The mind reached 100% capacity. Everything was running. Thoughts were accelerated. Movements were controlled. Thought processes began. Emotions, knowledge, all came together in this centre of activity.
His eyes opened oh so slightly, then closed back again.
Everything was in check.
Thus, his eyelids forced open to receive its first beam of light. The ray, so bright, blinded him for an instant, but once he adjusted....
----------------------------------
#2
FIRST
She stepped into the town. Even in the aftermath, the chaos could still be felt. It tingled her skin, disgusted her. Bodies piled, scattered either in pieces or not. She pinched her nose.
“The stench of death...” she whispered to herself in disgust.
Her eyes searched everywhere, ever alert. Will she find a survivor? She continued walking in the desolate town, her blade shaking and making a metallic sound with every step. All she saw were either maimed bodies or the remains of maimed bodies. She pitied the innocent victims, involved in such a brutal attack when they did nothing. Unless of course, every single one of them was guilty, then it would be a different story. All these thoughts ran in her mind.
Now she started to feel despair. She hasn't seen a single thing move. This doesn't count the soot-covered tree branches blown by the wind or the flies that swarm over rotting corpses. Soon she reached an area where the bodies were at least whole. Perhaps the attackers horribly murdered the people near the edge of the town who were guards and only inflicted small yet fatal wounds on the people in the town centre since they were mere citizens. Not like that made her feel any better. She still saw dead bodies lying about.
A slight breeze blew. In the slight chill, she drew her ragged cloak closer. In the town centre there was a fountain. Perhaps there was a time when it spewed sparkling water out. Now it only collected blood-marred water. Several bodies surrounded it. There was one where the head was fatally impacted onto the edge of the fountain. Perhaps this was where all the blood in the fountain came from. The head does contain a fair amount of the vital liquid.
Every sight of violence did not bother her. She was used to it. It was only the stench of death. She has faced it before, but to enter such a concentrated region filled with the vile pungence was a little over her border. Still, she had to bear with it as she made her way to the other side of the town.
She left the vicinity of the blood-marred fountain to encounter more rubble and bodies. In a way, she was getting tired of it. She felt like just running out of the desolate place but she just didn't feel like giving up on finding any survivors. She refused to believe that humans were so fragile that every single person in a town would die in an attack. It was a fact that the beings were more resilient than that.
And her wish was answered. While walking, she caught an ever-so-slight movement in the corner of her eye. She turned towards it. There was a young boy lying on the rubble. Not a single part of him was moving...
...until his finger twitched.
She hurried to the boy's side to ascertain that he was indeed alive. If it was a hallucination or if the boy was dying, she wouldn't accept it. But as she got closer to the boy...
...his eyes opened oh-so slightly, closed again, then were forced open. She noticed his pupils fully dilate, then after noticing the brightness of the evening sky, shrank back to a normal size. He breathed in a choked breath, the normal reaction when an unconscious person suddenly jolts awake; the body that takes small breaths to minimally maintain its metabolism takes a sudden large gulp of air as its system runs back in full throttle.
The boy was very much alive.
He took breaths in a hurry, still trying to figure out what was happening around him. His eyes noticed the girl who was older than him standing across him. She was mildly surprised at the hurried reaction of the boy and was stunned for a moment. A moment of silence. As her mind was trying to think of something to do, either say something to the boy or go to his aid right away, the boy's head suddenly turns to his left. He was trying to take in his surroundings.
The girl thought there was something there and she turned to her right following the boy. She didn't see anything she hasn't seen. There was the fountain in the distance and more bodies on the way. The boy then turned to his right in a hurry. She caught the action in the left corner of her eye and quickly followed the boy in the small confusion. Again, nothing there. She was reacting to the boy's attempts to take in his surroundings a little too quickly.
Now she was about to say something to the boy. Something along the lines of “Are you okay?” or “What happened here?”. She mustered a simple “Erm...” to start her questions, but the boy blurted his questions first.
“...Where is this?.... What happened?....”
It was in a soft tone, but definitely heard. She was trying to think of a reasonable reply to his questions when she didn't even know the answer. Then, he posed one more question.
“.......Who am I......?”
*********************************************
The fire crackled. Sparks flew upwards towards the limitless night sky above. They seemingly floated up and joined the infinite stars, adding to its already ludicrous amount. If they looked up, they would notice the wonderful view; uncountable sparkles linking together to form streams of brilliant light, dots of brilliance scattered as vast as blades of grass on a plain, the lights filled up the great night sky and came together to form one of natures greatest beauties. Unfortunately neither of them were in a mood for star-gazing.
The girl sat facing the fire to keep herself warm in the chill night air. The boy stared into the licking flames, almost entranced by them. It almost reflected the emptiness in him. Their camp was some distance from the edge of the town. Neither of them could possibly stand the stench of death for an entire night so they moved out after ascertaining that there were no other survivors, salvaging burning material from the rubble as well as any bit of edible food they could find. Actually, it was only the girl who did the salvaging. The boy was lost in his own thoughts, trying to throw out any information about himself and the town and could not contribute much. She didn't blame him.
He sat hugging his knees and his head resting in his crossed arms. Only his eyes staring blankly into the fire were revealed. The girl, on the other hand, sat cross-legged handling the fire. She added some more wood scrap and took a stick to turn the coals so they would burn evenly. Once done, she sat back and joined the boy in staring.
The silence was almost poison. Every bit they spent in it was unbearable. She had to say something, and something she said.
“Are you from the town?”
“I don't know...”
The reply came almost instantaneously. Silence ensued once more.
“You absolutely have no memory of the events?”
“No....”
Another instant reply. She was getting slightly vexed.
“Nor do you have any memory about yourself? Your name? Your family? Anyone else you might remember?”
“No...”
She didn't know what else to ask. Clearly this boy had a serious case of amnesia. But she didn't need to ask anymore for the boy started to talk.
“....I... feel so empty... Like I have nothing inside me.... It's not entirely like I lost my memory... but... almost as if... I never had it in the first place... It's cold... lonely...”
The silence continued after that somewhat complicated statement. The boy continued to stare into the flames. Now he focused on the coals in the middle glowing so solemnly. The girl too kept quiet for a moment, understanding what he just said.
She smiled.
“So what? Not like it's the end of the world or anything.”
The boy got a little surprised by this carefree statement from the girl. He looked up from the coals to her face. The glow from the fire accentuated her facial features; smooth complexion with a slightly mature look. She continued.
“You don't have any memory. You don't remember your start. No, from what you said, you claim that you had no start in the first place.”
Her smile widened. She was trying to make the boy feel less insecure.
“So all that means is that your fresh start is from now on.”
It worked. The boy was convinced by this preposition. He felt a new hope grow within him, that the seemingly eternal despair inside him faded away as the thought of a new start filled him. Even so, the reality soon sets in and despair returned as a new thought arose. He stared back at the fire.
“As easy as it sounds, where can I start from? I have no home, no family... I don't even know if I have any skills to help me...” he said, the statement muddled by his mouth being covered by his arms in his sitting position.
“But I'm here now, aren't I?” came the simple reply from the girl.
Again, the boy looked back at her face in surprise. She was giving such simple replies that meant a lot.
“Well, it doesn't seem like both of us have much choice. I found you and it just doesn't seem right in any way to leave you alone. You too have nowhere to go. So might as well just follow the only person you know. Me.”
The boy was stunned.
“I'm a wanderer myself so I don't have a home to go to either. Though it would be kind of an annoyance to have you following me everywhere, I guess I will have to bear with it. Maybe I can find a place to drop you off so you can live a proper life, but that's up to luck.” she continued.
The boy had his mouth gaping when he heard this from her. Then, he put his face back into his crossed arms again. He wanted to ask one last thing to alleviate himself from his sorrow.
“Are you really willing to take me with you?”
“Sure!” she replied in another carefree tone.
The boy's face was still in his arms but his smile could be seen. He didn't feel exceptionally happy. More like he felt assured. He muttered a simple “Thank you”.
The girl felt kind of happy that he felt more relieved now. Then she thought of something.
“Hey, now that you have a fresh start, you might as well have a new name.” she said. The boy looked up again at her. She sat back, her hands on the ground taking the weight of her back as she relaxed to think of a name. Her head tilted up towards the stars in the night sky, as if to gain inspiration from them. Then, she looked back at the boy's face.
“How's 'Mitsuke'?” she asked him smilingly. “Though it may sound a little girly...”
“No, that's not true.” he cut in quickly. “It's okay. It's a name you gave me after all, so anything's fine.” Now he smiled.
She felt reassured by his smile. “Well then, Mitsuke, you can call me Amariya. I'll be counting on you from now on.” she said smilingly.
His smile widened. “Me too.”
Under the night sky, the two of them made first contact.
-----------------------------------
AUTHOR NOTES
v1.1.1 Changed the tenses to past tense and changed a few words based on feedback. Also added footnotes in each page because I feel better with my pen name there. (Only applies to downloaded file)
Right, here's the first two chapter for this story!! WOOHOO I FINALLY WROTE THEM XD
I hope you will continue reading this until the end. I have a pretty good ending (in my opinion at least) in store so I will do my best! But most of all, I REALLY hope I don't suddenly stop writing due to any reasons XP
Right, just a few things I want to say. Amariya (the girl) is supposed to have the look of an anime teenage character. What this means for non-anime-enthusiasts is someone who looks a tad bit over her actual age with slightly more developed features (cough). For anime-enthusiasts (let's shorten that to otaku) I'll shorten that description to 17-year-old. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to call her before I revealed her name. I first wrote “young lady” but that sounded a little weird so I changed it to “girl”. It still sounds weird to me but I'll bear with it I guess XD For those who understand a little Japanese, the term I would use is “shoujo” which pretty much means “young lady” but just sounds weird in English so there you go.
As for Mitsuke (the boy), he's supposed to have a kind of 10-year-old look. In anime that translates to “a kind of grown up little boy”. The Japanese term I would use, since I sort of thought of the story in Japanese, is “shounen” which pretty much means “young man” which both sounds weird in English and sounds a little too old for him in English so there you go.
Also, for Amariya's last line (“Well then, Mitsuke, I'll be counting on you from now on.”), for the otaku, it would be “Jaa, Mitsuke, Kyou kara mou yoroshikune”. (non-otaku, you can ignore this) Since the term 'Yoroshiku' has always been a pain to properly translate into English, I settled for the slightly weird-sounding English equivalent and decided to put this note for any otaku who reads this for an easier understanding. I did say in the start that I'm trying to make reading this story like watching an anime so there you go XP
Well, that's all for now. I doubt I will put notes after every chapter so this is one of a few rare events I guess XD This is my very first attempt at serious story writing so do forgive me for anything (asking for excuses, am I? XP)
Wish me luck!
-SenzO
Download
A simple note to all
I, being an anime enthusiast, am writing this fiction with the influence of anime. Don't be surprised to see some Japanese suffixes like “-san” and “-kun” or Japanese-ish names or any references to the Japanese language. I thought of this story with the thought of it being an anime in mind. So to maximize the experience of reading this, it would be good if you could read this and imagine the world in an anime setting, ie: big-eyed yet pretty characters, characters who speak Japanese yet you still understand what they are saying etc etc. If you have never watched a single anime in your life or generally dislike anime (how could you?), then sorry to say, you may find reading this story a little difficult. It wasn't my true purpose for this fiction to be read solely by anime-enthusiasts like myself, so I'm trying to make this as non-anime-enthusiast friendly as I can. Please forgive me, for the anime-ness and for anything I should apologize for.
ON TO THE STORY!!
----------------------------------
#1
START
Tranquility.
Harmony.
Peace.
All to be broken.
The fluid surrounded his very being. Flowed between his fingers. Swirled around his torso. A mesh of emotions, thoughts, feelings, all mixed in a lurid maelstrom of havoc.
Yet the feeling was splendid.
The being in the middle of it all lied tranquilly, unthinking. All its thoughts swirled about in the vast space so there was no need for it to have thoughts within its own. Likewise for its emotions. Every single possible feeling danced about in the fluid, information exchanged, streams of knowledge zoomed past, while it felt nothing.
Silence.
The silence so deep, one's own mind would have to produce a ringing sound in the ear to make sure the system is in check. So deep every thought is heard as clear as a roar of thunder right beside your ear. The irony; if there was a roar of thunder beside your ear, you wouldn't be able to hear anything anymore. A laugh would be heard but there was no consciousness to control laughter. The thought of the irony just floated by without a proper mind to receive the transmission and process the data. Thus was the emptiness of the tranquil fluid.
Break.
The being, sleeping in the eye of the storm, started to react towards a thought. The word ran by his mind, like a scream in a cave, echoing in every nook and cranny, every corner and corridor, of his being. A roar. A pulse.
---k-...
Still incomplete, the mind was yet to decipher the message. The thought was still in a muddle. Incomprehensible. A blur. Haze surrounded it, vision was unclear. But it's a thought, it was not read nor heard. It was merely... thought of...
-wak-...
The mind accelerated its processing in a hurry to decipher its first thought. Final touches. Reconfigured its patterns.
-wake...
Awake...
AWAKEN...
The thought echoed in his embodiment. The order was absolute and must be followed. But the mind was yet to process its reaction towards this command. The being wished to continue sleeping, to continue lying in this peaceful mesh of data, this fluid. Contradicting wishes. Multiple patterns.
Such was the proof of a fully developed mind.
His eyes pulsed, attempting to open. One side forced it to open. The other was stubborn and held it shut, intending to sleep some more. But it was inevitable. The order was absolute.
Awaken...
His fingers pulsed, trying to make its first movements. The mind was checking that its systems were working properly by making sure the nerves and muscles were functioning. But there was an inhibitor; the wish of the mind to continue sleeping.
AWAKEN
Inevitability. The order was absolute. Slowly, the mind followed this command, and that stubborn factor was eliminated.
It is time...
The mind reached 100% capacity. Everything was running. Thoughts were accelerated. Movements were controlled. Thought processes began. Emotions, knowledge, all came together in this centre of activity.
His eyes opened oh so slightly, then closed back again.
Everything was in check.
Thus, his eyelids forced open to receive its first beam of light. The ray, so bright, blinded him for an instant, but once he adjusted....
----------------------------------
#2
FIRST
She stepped into the town. Even in the aftermath, the chaos could still be felt. It tingled her skin, disgusted her. Bodies piled, scattered either in pieces or not. She pinched her nose.
“The stench of death...” she whispered to herself in disgust.
Her eyes searched everywhere, ever alert. Will she find a survivor? She continued walking in the desolate town, her blade shaking and making a metallic sound with every step. All she saw were either maimed bodies or the remains of maimed bodies. She pitied the innocent victims, involved in such a brutal attack when they did nothing. Unless of course, every single one of them was guilty, then it would be a different story. All these thoughts ran in her mind.
Now she started to feel despair. She hasn't seen a single thing move. This doesn't count the soot-covered tree branches blown by the wind or the flies that swarm over rotting corpses. Soon she reached an area where the bodies were at least whole. Perhaps the attackers horribly murdered the people near the edge of the town who were guards and only inflicted small yet fatal wounds on the people in the town centre since they were mere citizens. Not like that made her feel any better. She still saw dead bodies lying about.
A slight breeze blew. In the slight chill, she drew her ragged cloak closer. In the town centre there was a fountain. Perhaps there was a time when it spewed sparkling water out. Now it only collected blood-marred water. Several bodies surrounded it. There was one where the head was fatally impacted onto the edge of the fountain. Perhaps this was where all the blood in the fountain came from. The head does contain a fair amount of the vital liquid.
Every sight of violence did not bother her. She was used to it. It was only the stench of death. She has faced it before, but to enter such a concentrated region filled with the vile pungence was a little over her border. Still, she had to bear with it as she made her way to the other side of the town.
She left the vicinity of the blood-marred fountain to encounter more rubble and bodies. In a way, she was getting tired of it. She felt like just running out of the desolate place but she just didn't feel like giving up on finding any survivors. She refused to believe that humans were so fragile that every single person in a town would die in an attack. It was a fact that the beings were more resilient than that.
And her wish was answered. While walking, she caught an ever-so-slight movement in the corner of her eye. She turned towards it. There was a young boy lying on the rubble. Not a single part of him was moving...
...until his finger twitched.
She hurried to the boy's side to ascertain that he was indeed alive. If it was a hallucination or if the boy was dying, she wouldn't accept it. But as she got closer to the boy...
...his eyes opened oh-so slightly, closed again, then were forced open. She noticed his pupils fully dilate, then after noticing the brightness of the evening sky, shrank back to a normal size. He breathed in a choked breath, the normal reaction when an unconscious person suddenly jolts awake; the body that takes small breaths to minimally maintain its metabolism takes a sudden large gulp of air as its system runs back in full throttle.
The boy was very much alive.
He took breaths in a hurry, still trying to figure out what was happening around him. His eyes noticed the girl who was older than him standing across him. She was mildly surprised at the hurried reaction of the boy and was stunned for a moment. A moment of silence. As her mind was trying to think of something to do, either say something to the boy or go to his aid right away, the boy's head suddenly turns to his left. He was trying to take in his surroundings.
The girl thought there was something there and she turned to her right following the boy. She didn't see anything she hasn't seen. There was the fountain in the distance and more bodies on the way. The boy then turned to his right in a hurry. She caught the action in the left corner of her eye and quickly followed the boy in the small confusion. Again, nothing there. She was reacting to the boy's attempts to take in his surroundings a little too quickly.
Now she was about to say something to the boy. Something along the lines of “Are you okay?” or “What happened here?”. She mustered a simple “Erm...” to start her questions, but the boy blurted his questions first.
“...Where is this?.... What happened?....”
It was in a soft tone, but definitely heard. She was trying to think of a reasonable reply to his questions when she didn't even know the answer. Then, he posed one more question.
“.......Who am I......?”
*********************************************
The fire crackled. Sparks flew upwards towards the limitless night sky above. They seemingly floated up and joined the infinite stars, adding to its already ludicrous amount. If they looked up, they would notice the wonderful view; uncountable sparkles linking together to form streams of brilliant light, dots of brilliance scattered as vast as blades of grass on a plain, the lights filled up the great night sky and came together to form one of natures greatest beauties. Unfortunately neither of them were in a mood for star-gazing.
The girl sat facing the fire to keep herself warm in the chill night air. The boy stared into the licking flames, almost entranced by them. It almost reflected the emptiness in him. Their camp was some distance from the edge of the town. Neither of them could possibly stand the stench of death for an entire night so they moved out after ascertaining that there were no other survivors, salvaging burning material from the rubble as well as any bit of edible food they could find. Actually, it was only the girl who did the salvaging. The boy was lost in his own thoughts, trying to throw out any information about himself and the town and could not contribute much. She didn't blame him.
He sat hugging his knees and his head resting in his crossed arms. Only his eyes staring blankly into the fire were revealed. The girl, on the other hand, sat cross-legged handling the fire. She added some more wood scrap and took a stick to turn the coals so they would burn evenly. Once done, she sat back and joined the boy in staring.
The silence was almost poison. Every bit they spent in it was unbearable. She had to say something, and something she said.
“Are you from the town?”
“I don't know...”
The reply came almost instantaneously. Silence ensued once more.
“You absolutely have no memory of the events?”
“No....”
Another instant reply. She was getting slightly vexed.
“Nor do you have any memory about yourself? Your name? Your family? Anyone else you might remember?”
“No...”
She didn't know what else to ask. Clearly this boy had a serious case of amnesia. But she didn't need to ask anymore for the boy started to talk.
“....I... feel so empty... Like I have nothing inside me.... It's not entirely like I lost my memory... but... almost as if... I never had it in the first place... It's cold... lonely...”
The silence continued after that somewhat complicated statement. The boy continued to stare into the flames. Now he focused on the coals in the middle glowing so solemnly. The girl too kept quiet for a moment, understanding what he just said.
She smiled.
“So what? Not like it's the end of the world or anything.”
The boy got a little surprised by this carefree statement from the girl. He looked up from the coals to her face. The glow from the fire accentuated her facial features; smooth complexion with a slightly mature look. She continued.
“You don't have any memory. You don't remember your start. No, from what you said, you claim that you had no start in the first place.”
Her smile widened. She was trying to make the boy feel less insecure.
“So all that means is that your fresh start is from now on.”
It worked. The boy was convinced by this preposition. He felt a new hope grow within him, that the seemingly eternal despair inside him faded away as the thought of a new start filled him. Even so, the reality soon sets in and despair returned as a new thought arose. He stared back at the fire.
“As easy as it sounds, where can I start from? I have no home, no family... I don't even know if I have any skills to help me...” he said, the statement muddled by his mouth being covered by his arms in his sitting position.
“But I'm here now, aren't I?” came the simple reply from the girl.
Again, the boy looked back at her face in surprise. She was giving such simple replies that meant a lot.
“Well, it doesn't seem like both of us have much choice. I found you and it just doesn't seem right in any way to leave you alone. You too have nowhere to go. So might as well just follow the only person you know. Me.”
The boy was stunned.
“I'm a wanderer myself so I don't have a home to go to either. Though it would be kind of an annoyance to have you following me everywhere, I guess I will have to bear with it. Maybe I can find a place to drop you off so you can live a proper life, but that's up to luck.” she continued.
The boy had his mouth gaping when he heard this from her. Then, he put his face back into his crossed arms again. He wanted to ask one last thing to alleviate himself from his sorrow.
“Are you really willing to take me with you?”
“Sure!” she replied in another carefree tone.
The boy's face was still in his arms but his smile could be seen. He didn't feel exceptionally happy. More like he felt assured. He muttered a simple “Thank you”.
The girl felt kind of happy that he felt more relieved now. Then she thought of something.
“Hey, now that you have a fresh start, you might as well have a new name.” she said. The boy looked up again at her. She sat back, her hands on the ground taking the weight of her back as she relaxed to think of a name. Her head tilted up towards the stars in the night sky, as if to gain inspiration from them. Then, she looked back at the boy's face.
“How's 'Mitsuke'?” she asked him smilingly. “Though it may sound a little girly...”
“No, that's not true.” he cut in quickly. “It's okay. It's a name you gave me after all, so anything's fine.” Now he smiled.
She felt reassured by his smile. “Well then, Mitsuke, you can call me Amariya. I'll be counting on you from now on.” she said smilingly.
His smile widened. “Me too.”
Under the night sky, the two of them made first contact.
-----------------------------------
AUTHOR NOTES
v1.1.1 Changed the tenses to past tense and changed a few words based on feedback. Also added footnotes in each page because I feel better with my pen name there. (Only applies to downloaded file)
Right, here's the first two chapter for this story!! WOOHOO I FINALLY WROTE THEM XD
I hope you will continue reading this until the end. I have a pretty good ending (in my opinion at least) in store so I will do my best! But most of all, I REALLY hope I don't suddenly stop writing due to any reasons XP
Right, just a few things I want to say. Amariya (the girl) is supposed to have the look of an anime teenage character. What this means for non-anime-enthusiasts is someone who looks a tad bit over her actual age with slightly more developed features (cough). For anime-enthusiasts (let's shorten that to otaku) I'll shorten that description to 17-year-old. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to call her before I revealed her name. I first wrote “young lady” but that sounded a little weird so I changed it to “girl”. It still sounds weird to me but I'll bear with it I guess XD For those who understand a little Japanese, the term I would use is “shoujo” which pretty much means “young lady” but just sounds weird in English so there you go.
As for Mitsuke (the boy), he's supposed to have a kind of 10-year-old look. In anime that translates to “a kind of grown up little boy”. The Japanese term I would use, since I sort of thought of the story in Japanese, is “shounen” which pretty much means “young man” which both sounds weird in English and sounds a little too old for him in English so there you go.
Also, for Amariya's last line (“Well then, Mitsuke, I'll be counting on you from now on.”), for the otaku, it would be “Jaa, Mitsuke, Kyou kara mou yoroshikune”. (non-otaku, you can ignore this) Since the term 'Yoroshiku' has always been a pain to properly translate into English, I settled for the slightly weird-sounding English equivalent and decided to put this note for any otaku who reads this for an easier understanding. I did say in the start that I'm trying to make reading this story like watching an anime so there you go XP
Well, that's all for now. I doubt I will put notes after every chapter so this is one of a few rare events I guess XD This is my very first attempt at serious story writing so do forgive me for anything (asking for excuses, am I? XP)
Wish me luck!
-SenzO
Saturday, January 9, 2010
#1 START ; #2 FIRST
Download
A simple note to all
I, being an anime enthusiast, am writing this fiction with the influence of anime. Don't be surprised to see some Japanese suffixes like “-san” and “-kun” or Japanese-ish names or any references to the Japanese language. I thought of this story with the thought of it being an anime in mind. So to maximize the experience of reading this, it would be good if you could read this and imagine the world in an anime setting, ie: big-eyed yet pretty characters, characters who speak Japanese yet you still understand what they are saying etc etc. If you have never watched a single anime in your life or generally dislike anime (how could you?), then sorry to say, you may find reading this story a little difficult. It wasn't my true purpose for this fiction to be read solely by anime-enthusiasts like myself, so I'm trying to make this as non-anime-enthusiast friendly as I can. Please forgive me, for the anime-ness and for anything I should apologize for.
ON TO THE STORY!!
#1
START
Tranquility.
Harmony.
Peace.
All to be broken.
The fluid is felt surrounding his very being. Flows between his fingers. Swirls around his torso. A mesh of emotions, thoughts, feelings, all mixed in a lurid maelstrom of havoc.
Yet the feeling is splendid.
The being in the middle of it all lies tranquilly, unthinking. All its thoughts swirl about in the vast space so there is no need for it to have thoughts within its own. Likewise for its emotions. Every single possible feeling dances about in the fluid, information is exchanged, streams of knowledge zoom past it, while it feels nothing.
Silence.
The silence so deep, one's own mind would have to produce a ringing sound in the ear to make sure the system is in check. So deep every thought is heard as clear as a roar of thunder right beside your ear. The irony; if there was a roar of thunder beside your ear, you wouldn't be able to hear anything anymore.
A laugh would be heard but there was no consciousness to control laughter. The thought of the irony just floats by without a proper mind to receive the transmission and process the data. Thus was the emptiness of the tranquil fluid.
Break.
The being, sleeping in the eye of the storm, starts to react towards a thought. The word runs by his mind, like a scream in a cave, echoing in every nook and cranny, every corner and corridor, of his being. A roar. A pulse.
---k-...
Still incomplete, the mind is yet to decipher the message. The thought is still in a muddle. Incomprehensible. A blurr. Haze surrounds it, vision is unclear. But it's a thought, it is not read nor heard. It is merely... thought of...
-wak-...
The mind accelerates its processing in a hurry to decipher its first thought. Final touches. Reconfiguring its patterns.
-wake...
Awake...
AWAKEN...
The thought echoes in his embodiment. The order is absolute and must be followed. But the mind is yet to process its reaction towards this command. The being wishes to continue sleeping, to continue lying in this peaceful mesh of data, this fluid. Contradicting wishes. Multiple patterns.
Such was the proof of a fully developed mind.
His eyes pulse, attempting to open. One side forces it to open. The other is stubborn and holds it shut, intending to sleep some more. But it is inevitable. The order is absolute.
Awaken...
His fingers pulse, trying to make its first movements. The mind is checking that its systems are working properly by making sure the nerves and muscles are functioning. But there is an inhibitor; the wish of the mind to continue sleeping.
AWAKEN
Inevitability. The order is absolute. Slowly, the mind follows this command, and that stubborn corner is eliminated.
It is time...
The mind is in 100% capacity. Everything is running. Thoughts are accelerated. Movements are controlled. Thought processes begin. Emotions, knowledge, all come together in this centre of activity.
His eyes open oh so slightly, then close back again.
Everything is in check.
Thus, his eyelids force open to receive its first beam of light. The ray, so bright, blinds him for an instant, but once he adjusts....
---------------------------------------------------
#2
FIRST
She steps into the town. Even in the aftermath, the chaos is still felt. It tingles her skin, disgusts her. Bodies pile, scattered either in pieces or not. She pinches her nose.
“The stench of death...” she whispers to herself in disgust.
Her eyes search everywhere, ever alert. Will she find a survivor? She continues walking in the desolate town, her blade shaking and making a metallic sound with every step. All she sees are either maimed bodies or the remains of maimed bodies. She pitied the innocent victims, involved in such a brutal attack when they did nothing. Unless of course, every single one of them was guilty, then it would be a different story. All these thoughts ran in her mind.
Now she starts to feel despair. She hasn't seen a single thing move. This doesn't count the soot-covered tree branches blown by the wind or the flies that swarm over rotting corpses. Soon she reaches an area where the bodies are at least whole. Perhaps the attackers horribly murdered the people near the edge of the town who were guards and only inflicted small yet fatal wounds on the people in the town centre since they were mere citizens. Not like that made her feel any better. She still sees dead bodies lying about.
A slight breeze blew. In the slight chill, she draws her ragged cloak closer. In the town centre there is a fountain. Perhaps there was a time when it spewed sparkling water out. Now it only collects blood-marred water. Several bodies surrounded it. There was one where the head was fatally impacted onto the edge of the fountain. Perhaps this was where all the blood in the fountain came from. The head does contain a fair amount of the vital liquid.
Every sight of violence did not bother her. She was used to it. It was only the stench of death. She has faced it before, but to enter such a concentrated region filled with the vile pungence was a little over her border. Still, she had to bear with it as she made her way to the other side of the town.
She left the vicinity of the blood-marred fountain to encounter more rubble and bodies. In a way, she was getting tired of it. She felt like just running out of the desolate place but she just didn't feel like giving up on finding any survivors. She refused to believe that humans were so fragile that every single person in a town would die in an attack. It was a fact that the beings were more resilient than that.
And her wish was answered.
While walking, she caught an ever-so-slight movement in the corner of her eye. She turned towards it. There was a young boy lying on the rubble. Not a single part of him was moving...
...until his finger twitched.
She hurried to the boy's side to ascertain that he was indeed alive. If it was a hallucination or if the boy was dying, she wouldn't accept it. But as she got closer to the boy...
...his eyes opened oh-so slightly, closed again, then were forced open. She noticed his pupils fully dilate, then after noticing the brightness of the evening sky, shrank back to a normal size. He breathed in a choked breath, the normal reaction when an unconscious person suddenly jolts awake; the body that takes small breaths to minimally maintain its metabolism takes a sudden large gulp of air as its system runs back in full throttle.
The boy was very much alive.
He took breaths in a hurry, still trying to figure out what was happening around him. His eyes noticed the girl who was older than him standing across him. She was mildly surprised at the hurried reaction of the boy and was stunned for a moment. A moment of silence. As her mind was trying to think of something to do, either say something to the boy or go to his aid right away, the boy's head suddenly turns to his left. He was trying to take in his surroundings.
The girl thought there was something there and she turned to her right following the boy. She didn't see anything she hasn't seen. There was the fountain in the distance and more bodies on the way. The boy then turned to his right in a hurry. She caught the action in the left corner of her eye and quickly followed the boy in the small confusion. Again, nothing there. She was reacting to the boy's attempts to take in his surroundings a little too quickly.
Now she was about to say something to the boy. Something along the lines of “Are you okay?” or “What happened here?”. She mustered a simple “Erm...” to start her questions, but the boy blurted his questions first.
“...Where is this?.... What happened?....”
It was in a soft tone, but definitely heard. She was trying to think of a reasonable reply to his questions when she didn't even know the answer. Then, he posed one more question.
“.......Who am I......?”
*********************************************
The fire crackles. Sparks fly upwards towards the limitless night sky above. They seemingly float up and join the infinite stars, adding to its already ludicrous amount. If they looked up, they would notice the wonderful view; uncountable sparkles linking together to form streams of brilliant light, dots of brilliance scattered as vast as blades of grass on a plain, the lights fill up the great night sky and come together to form one of natures greatest beauties. Unfortunately neither of them were in a mood for star-gazing.
The girl sat facing the fire to keep herself warm in the chill night air. The boy stared into the licking flames, almost entranced by them. It almost reflected the emptiness in him. Their camp was some distance from the edge of the town. Neither of them could possibly stand the stench of death for an entire night so they moved out after ascertaining that there were no other survivors, salvaging burning material from the rubble as well as any bit of edible food they could find. Actually, it was only the girl who did the salvaging. The boy was lost in his own thoughts, trying to throw out any information about himself and the town and could not contribute much. She didn't blame him.
He sat hugging his knees and his head resting in his crossed arms. Only his eyes that were staring blankly into the fire were revealed. The girl, on the other hand, was sitting cross-legged handling the fire. She added some more wood scrap and took a stick to turn the coals so they would burn evenly. Once done, she sat back and joined the boy in staring.
The silence was almost poison. Every bit they spent in it was unbearable. She had to say something, and something she said.
“Are you from the town?”
“I don't know...”
The reply came almost instantaneously. Silence ensued once more.
“You absolutely have no memory of the events?”
“No....”
Another instant reply. She was getting slightly vexed.
“Nor do you have any memory about yourself? Your name? Your family? Anyone else you might remember?”
“No...”
She didn't know what else to ask. Clearly this boy had a serious case of amnesia. But she didn't need to ask anymore for the boy started to talk.
“....I... feel so empty... Like I have nothing inside me.... It's not like I lost my memory... but... almost as if... I never had any in the first place... It's cold... lonely...”
The silence continued after that somewhat complicated statement. The boy continued to stare into the flames. Now he was focusing on the coals in the middle glowing so solemnly. The girl too kept quiet for a moment, understanding what he just said.
She smiled.
“So what? Not like it's the end of the world or anything.”
The boy was a little surprised by this carefree statement by the girl. He looked up from the coals to her face. The glow from the fire accentuated her facial features; smooth complexion with a slightly mature look. She continued.
“You don't have any memory. You don't remember your start. No, from what you said, you claim that you had no start in the first place.”
Her smiled widened. She was trying to make the boy feel less insecure.
“So all that means that your fresh start is from now on.”
It worked. The boy was convinced by this preposition. He felt a new hope grow within him, that the seemingly eternal despair inside him faded away as the thought of a new start filled him. Even so, the reality soon set in and despair returned as a new thought arose. He stared back at the fire.
“As easy as it sounds, where can I start from? I have no home, no family... I don't even know if I have any skills to help me...” he said, the statement muddled by his mouth being covered by his arms in his sitting position.
“You have me.” came the simple reply from the girl.
Again, the boy looked back at her face in surprise. She was giving such simple replies that meant a lot.
“Well, it doesn't seem like both of us have much choice. I found you and it just doesn't seem right in any way to leave you alone. You too have nowhere to go. So might as well just follow the only person you know. Me.”
The boy was stunned.
“I'm a wanderer myself so I don't have a home to go to either. Though it would be kind of an annoyance to have you following me everywhere, I guess I will have to bear with it. Maybe I can find a place to drop you off so you can live a proper life, but that's up to luck.” she continued.
The boy had his mouth gaping when he heard this from her. Then, he put his face back into his crossed arms again. He wanted to ask one last thing to alleviate himself from his sorrow.
“Are you really willing to take me with you?”
“Sure!” she replied in another carefree tone.
The boy's face was still in his arms but his smile could be seen. He didn't feel exceptionally happy. More like he felt assured. He muttered a simple “Thank you”.
The girl felt kind of happy that he felt more relieved now. Then she thought of something.
“Hey, now that you have a fresh start, you might as well have a new name.” she said. The boy looked up again at her. She sat back, her hands on the ground taking the wait of her back as she relaxed to think of a name. Her head tilted up towards the night sky to think. Then, she looked back at the boy's face.
“How's 'Mitsuke'?” she asked him smilingly. “Though it may sound a little girly...”
“No, that's not true.” he cut in quickly. “It's okay. It's a name you gave me after all, so anything's fine.” Now he smiled.
She felt reassured by his smile. “Well then, Mitsuke, you can call me Amariya. I'll be counting on you from now on.” she said smilingly.
His smile widened. “Me too.”
Under the night sky, the two of them made first contact.
---------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR NOTES
Right, here's the first two chapter for this story!! WOOHOO I FINALLY WROTE THEM XD
I hope you will continue reading this until the end. I have a pretty good ending (in my opinion at least) in store so I will do my best! But most of all, I REALLY hope I don't suddenly stop writing due to any reasons XP
Right, just a few things I want to say. Amariya (the girl) is supposed to have the look of an anime teenage character. What this means for non-anime-enthusiasts is someone who looks a tad bit over her actual age with slightly more developed features (cough). For anime-enthusiasts (let's shorten that to otaku) I'll shorten that description to 17-year-old. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to call her before I revealed her name. I first wrote “young lady” but that sounded a little weird so I changed it to “girl”. It still sounds weird to me but I'll bear with it I guess XD For those who understand a little Japanese, the term I would use is “shoujo” which pretty much means “young lady” but just sounds weird in English so there you go.
As for Mitsuke (the boy), he's supposed to have a kind of 10-year-old look. In anime that translates to “a kind of grown up little boy”. The Japanese term I would use, since I sort of thought of the story in Japanese, is “shounen” which pretty much means “young man” which both sounds weird in English and sounds a little too old for him in English so there you go.
Also, for Amariya's last line (“Well then, Mitsuke, I'll be counting on you from now on.”), for the otaku, it would be “Jaa, Mitsuke, Kyou kara mou yoroshikune”. (non-otaku, you can ignore this) Since the term 'Yoroshiku' has always been a pain to properly translate into English, I settled for the slightly weird-sounding English equivalent and decided to put this note for any otaku who reads this for an easier understanding. I did say in the start that I'm trying to make reading this story like watching an anime so there you go XP
Well, that's all for now. I doubt I will put notes after every chapter so this is one of a few rare events I guess XD This is my very first attempt at serious story writing so do forgive me for anything (asking for excuses, am I? XP)
Wish me luck!
-SenzO
A simple note to all
I, being an anime enthusiast, am writing this fiction with the influence of anime. Don't be surprised to see some Japanese suffixes like “-san” and “-kun” or Japanese-ish names or any references to the Japanese language. I thought of this story with the thought of it being an anime in mind. So to maximize the experience of reading this, it would be good if you could read this and imagine the world in an anime setting, ie: big-eyed yet pretty characters, characters who speak Japanese yet you still understand what they are saying etc etc. If you have never watched a single anime in your life or generally dislike anime (how could you?), then sorry to say, you may find reading this story a little difficult. It wasn't my true purpose for this fiction to be read solely by anime-enthusiasts like myself, so I'm trying to make this as non-anime-enthusiast friendly as I can. Please forgive me, for the anime-ness and for anything I should apologize for.
ON TO THE STORY!!
#1
START
Tranquility.
Harmony.
Peace.
All to be broken.
The fluid is felt surrounding his very being. Flows between his fingers. Swirls around his torso. A mesh of emotions, thoughts, feelings, all mixed in a lurid maelstrom of havoc.
Yet the feeling is splendid.
The being in the middle of it all lies tranquilly, unthinking. All its thoughts swirl about in the vast space so there is no need for it to have thoughts within its own. Likewise for its emotions. Every single possible feeling dances about in the fluid, information is exchanged, streams of knowledge zoom past it, while it feels nothing.
Silence.
The silence so deep, one's own mind would have to produce a ringing sound in the ear to make sure the system is in check. So deep every thought is heard as clear as a roar of thunder right beside your ear. The irony; if there was a roar of thunder beside your ear, you wouldn't be able to hear anything anymore.
A laugh would be heard but there was no consciousness to control laughter. The thought of the irony just floats by without a proper mind to receive the transmission and process the data. Thus was the emptiness of the tranquil fluid.
Break.
The being, sleeping in the eye of the storm, starts to react towards a thought. The word runs by his mind, like a scream in a cave, echoing in every nook and cranny, every corner and corridor, of his being. A roar. A pulse.
---k-...
Still incomplete, the mind is yet to decipher the message. The thought is still in a muddle. Incomprehensible. A blurr. Haze surrounds it, vision is unclear. But it's a thought, it is not read nor heard. It is merely... thought of...
-wak-...
The mind accelerates its processing in a hurry to decipher its first thought. Final touches. Reconfiguring its patterns.
-wake...
Awake...
AWAKEN...
The thought echoes in his embodiment. The order is absolute and must be followed. But the mind is yet to process its reaction towards this command. The being wishes to continue sleeping, to continue lying in this peaceful mesh of data, this fluid. Contradicting wishes. Multiple patterns.
Such was the proof of a fully developed mind.
His eyes pulse, attempting to open. One side forces it to open. The other is stubborn and holds it shut, intending to sleep some more. But it is inevitable. The order is absolute.
Awaken...
His fingers pulse, trying to make its first movements. The mind is checking that its systems are working properly by making sure the nerves and muscles are functioning. But there is an inhibitor; the wish of the mind to continue sleeping.
AWAKEN
Inevitability. The order is absolute. Slowly, the mind follows this command, and that stubborn corner is eliminated.
It is time...
The mind is in 100% capacity. Everything is running. Thoughts are accelerated. Movements are controlled. Thought processes begin. Emotions, knowledge, all come together in this centre of activity.
His eyes open oh so slightly, then close back again.
Everything is in check.
Thus, his eyelids force open to receive its first beam of light. The ray, so bright, blinds him for an instant, but once he adjusts....
---------------------------------------------------
#2
FIRST
She steps into the town. Even in the aftermath, the chaos is still felt. It tingles her skin, disgusts her. Bodies pile, scattered either in pieces or not. She pinches her nose.
“The stench of death...” she whispers to herself in disgust.
Her eyes search everywhere, ever alert. Will she find a survivor? She continues walking in the desolate town, her blade shaking and making a metallic sound with every step. All she sees are either maimed bodies or the remains of maimed bodies. She pitied the innocent victims, involved in such a brutal attack when they did nothing. Unless of course, every single one of them was guilty, then it would be a different story. All these thoughts ran in her mind.
Now she starts to feel despair. She hasn't seen a single thing move. This doesn't count the soot-covered tree branches blown by the wind or the flies that swarm over rotting corpses. Soon she reaches an area where the bodies are at least whole. Perhaps the attackers horribly murdered the people near the edge of the town who were guards and only inflicted small yet fatal wounds on the people in the town centre since they were mere citizens. Not like that made her feel any better. She still sees dead bodies lying about.
A slight breeze blew. In the slight chill, she draws her ragged cloak closer. In the town centre there is a fountain. Perhaps there was a time when it spewed sparkling water out. Now it only collects blood-marred water. Several bodies surrounded it. There was one where the head was fatally impacted onto the edge of the fountain. Perhaps this was where all the blood in the fountain came from. The head does contain a fair amount of the vital liquid.
Every sight of violence did not bother her. She was used to it. It was only the stench of death. She has faced it before, but to enter such a concentrated region filled with the vile pungence was a little over her border. Still, she had to bear with it as she made her way to the other side of the town.
She left the vicinity of the blood-marred fountain to encounter more rubble and bodies. In a way, she was getting tired of it. She felt like just running out of the desolate place but she just didn't feel like giving up on finding any survivors. She refused to believe that humans were so fragile that every single person in a town would die in an attack. It was a fact that the beings were more resilient than that.
And her wish was answered.
While walking, she caught an ever-so-slight movement in the corner of her eye. She turned towards it. There was a young boy lying on the rubble. Not a single part of him was moving...
...until his finger twitched.
She hurried to the boy's side to ascertain that he was indeed alive. If it was a hallucination or if the boy was dying, she wouldn't accept it. But as she got closer to the boy...
...his eyes opened oh-so slightly, closed again, then were forced open. She noticed his pupils fully dilate, then after noticing the brightness of the evening sky, shrank back to a normal size. He breathed in a choked breath, the normal reaction when an unconscious person suddenly jolts awake; the body that takes small breaths to minimally maintain its metabolism takes a sudden large gulp of air as its system runs back in full throttle.
The boy was very much alive.
He took breaths in a hurry, still trying to figure out what was happening around him. His eyes noticed the girl who was older than him standing across him. She was mildly surprised at the hurried reaction of the boy and was stunned for a moment. A moment of silence. As her mind was trying to think of something to do, either say something to the boy or go to his aid right away, the boy's head suddenly turns to his left. He was trying to take in his surroundings.
The girl thought there was something there and she turned to her right following the boy. She didn't see anything she hasn't seen. There was the fountain in the distance and more bodies on the way. The boy then turned to his right in a hurry. She caught the action in the left corner of her eye and quickly followed the boy in the small confusion. Again, nothing there. She was reacting to the boy's attempts to take in his surroundings a little too quickly.
Now she was about to say something to the boy. Something along the lines of “Are you okay?” or “What happened here?”. She mustered a simple “Erm...” to start her questions, but the boy blurted his questions first.
“...Where is this?.... What happened?....”
It was in a soft tone, but definitely heard. She was trying to think of a reasonable reply to his questions when she didn't even know the answer. Then, he posed one more question.
“.......Who am I......?”
*********************************************
The fire crackles. Sparks fly upwards towards the limitless night sky above. They seemingly float up and join the infinite stars, adding to its already ludicrous amount. If they looked up, they would notice the wonderful view; uncountable sparkles linking together to form streams of brilliant light, dots of brilliance scattered as vast as blades of grass on a plain, the lights fill up the great night sky and come together to form one of natures greatest beauties. Unfortunately neither of them were in a mood for star-gazing.
The girl sat facing the fire to keep herself warm in the chill night air. The boy stared into the licking flames, almost entranced by them. It almost reflected the emptiness in him. Their camp was some distance from the edge of the town. Neither of them could possibly stand the stench of death for an entire night so they moved out after ascertaining that there were no other survivors, salvaging burning material from the rubble as well as any bit of edible food they could find. Actually, it was only the girl who did the salvaging. The boy was lost in his own thoughts, trying to throw out any information about himself and the town and could not contribute much. She didn't blame him.
He sat hugging his knees and his head resting in his crossed arms. Only his eyes that were staring blankly into the fire were revealed. The girl, on the other hand, was sitting cross-legged handling the fire. She added some more wood scrap and took a stick to turn the coals so they would burn evenly. Once done, she sat back and joined the boy in staring.
The silence was almost poison. Every bit they spent in it was unbearable. She had to say something, and something she said.
“Are you from the town?”
“I don't know...”
The reply came almost instantaneously. Silence ensued once more.
“You absolutely have no memory of the events?”
“No....”
Another instant reply. She was getting slightly vexed.
“Nor do you have any memory about yourself? Your name? Your family? Anyone else you might remember?”
“No...”
She didn't know what else to ask. Clearly this boy had a serious case of amnesia. But she didn't need to ask anymore for the boy started to talk.
“....I... feel so empty... Like I have nothing inside me.... It's not like I lost my memory... but... almost as if... I never had any in the first place... It's cold... lonely...”
The silence continued after that somewhat complicated statement. The boy continued to stare into the flames. Now he was focusing on the coals in the middle glowing so solemnly. The girl too kept quiet for a moment, understanding what he just said.
She smiled.
“So what? Not like it's the end of the world or anything.”
The boy was a little surprised by this carefree statement by the girl. He looked up from the coals to her face. The glow from the fire accentuated her facial features; smooth complexion with a slightly mature look. She continued.
“You don't have any memory. You don't remember your start. No, from what you said, you claim that you had no start in the first place.”
Her smiled widened. She was trying to make the boy feel less insecure.
“So all that means that your fresh start is from now on.”
It worked. The boy was convinced by this preposition. He felt a new hope grow within him, that the seemingly eternal despair inside him faded away as the thought of a new start filled him. Even so, the reality soon set in and despair returned as a new thought arose. He stared back at the fire.
“As easy as it sounds, where can I start from? I have no home, no family... I don't even know if I have any skills to help me...” he said, the statement muddled by his mouth being covered by his arms in his sitting position.
“You have me.” came the simple reply from the girl.
Again, the boy looked back at her face in surprise. She was giving such simple replies that meant a lot.
“Well, it doesn't seem like both of us have much choice. I found you and it just doesn't seem right in any way to leave you alone. You too have nowhere to go. So might as well just follow the only person you know. Me.”
The boy was stunned.
“I'm a wanderer myself so I don't have a home to go to either. Though it would be kind of an annoyance to have you following me everywhere, I guess I will have to bear with it. Maybe I can find a place to drop you off so you can live a proper life, but that's up to luck.” she continued.
The boy had his mouth gaping when he heard this from her. Then, he put his face back into his crossed arms again. He wanted to ask one last thing to alleviate himself from his sorrow.
“Are you really willing to take me with you?”
“Sure!” she replied in another carefree tone.
The boy's face was still in his arms but his smile could be seen. He didn't feel exceptionally happy. More like he felt assured. He muttered a simple “Thank you”.
The girl felt kind of happy that he felt more relieved now. Then she thought of something.
“Hey, now that you have a fresh start, you might as well have a new name.” she said. The boy looked up again at her. She sat back, her hands on the ground taking the wait of her back as she relaxed to think of a name. Her head tilted up towards the night sky to think. Then, she looked back at the boy's face.
“How's 'Mitsuke'?” she asked him smilingly. “Though it may sound a little girly...”
“No, that's not true.” he cut in quickly. “It's okay. It's a name you gave me after all, so anything's fine.” Now he smiled.
She felt reassured by his smile. “Well then, Mitsuke, you can call me Amariya. I'll be counting on you from now on.” she said smilingly.
His smile widened. “Me too.”
Under the night sky, the two of them made first contact.
---------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR NOTES
Right, here's the first two chapter for this story!! WOOHOO I FINALLY WROTE THEM XD
I hope you will continue reading this until the end. I have a pretty good ending (in my opinion at least) in store so I will do my best! But most of all, I REALLY hope I don't suddenly stop writing due to any reasons XP
Right, just a few things I want to say. Amariya (the girl) is supposed to have the look of an anime teenage character. What this means for non-anime-enthusiasts is someone who looks a tad bit over her actual age with slightly more developed features (cough). For anime-enthusiasts (let's shorten that to otaku) I'll shorten that description to 17-year-old. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to call her before I revealed her name. I first wrote “young lady” but that sounded a little weird so I changed it to “girl”. It still sounds weird to me but I'll bear with it I guess XD For those who understand a little Japanese, the term I would use is “shoujo” which pretty much means “young lady” but just sounds weird in English so there you go.
As for Mitsuke (the boy), he's supposed to have a kind of 10-year-old look. In anime that translates to “a kind of grown up little boy”. The Japanese term I would use, since I sort of thought of the story in Japanese, is “shounen” which pretty much means “young man” which both sounds weird in English and sounds a little too old for him in English so there you go.
Also, for Amariya's last line (“Well then, Mitsuke, I'll be counting on you from now on.”), for the otaku, it would be “Jaa, Mitsuke, Kyou kara mou yoroshikune”. (non-otaku, you can ignore this) Since the term 'Yoroshiku' has always been a pain to properly translate into English, I settled for the slightly weird-sounding English equivalent and decided to put this note for any otaku who reads this for an easier understanding. I did say in the start that I'm trying to make reading this story like watching an anime so there you go XP
Well, that's all for now. I doubt I will put notes after every chapter so this is one of a few rare events I guess XD This is my very first attempt at serious story writing so do forgive me for anything (asking for excuses, am I? XP)
Wish me luck!
-SenzO
Opening
Greetings all.
This blog is a temporary hosting site for my story, Perfect Blood. After I find a suitable hosting site, I still won't delete this place so you can still view my story here.
What I do here is I will put a download link for each chapter first followed by the actual chapter content. Why I do that? In case you feel like downloading my story of course!
I wrote Perfect Blood in OpenOffice so there is a slight chance you may get some errors viewing the document in Microsoft Word and the like. If possible, download OpenOffice! To my knowledge, it's free and it's actually quite good. Crap, I ended up advertising for them... XD
Also, a note. This story is written with an anime-influence so those of you who are not used to anime may find my story a tad bit weird. If you are used to anime, try reading this story and imagining it in an anime. That will enhance the experience to a certain degree XD
So please forgive me for anything and have mercy on me! This is my first ever serious attempt at writing a story!! XD
This blog is a temporary hosting site for my story, Perfect Blood. After I find a suitable hosting site, I still won't delete this place so you can still view my story here.
What I do here is I will put a download link for each chapter first followed by the actual chapter content. Why I do that? In case you feel like downloading my story of course!
I wrote Perfect Blood in OpenOffice so there is a slight chance you may get some errors viewing the document in Microsoft Word and the like. If possible, download OpenOffice! To my knowledge, it's free and it's actually quite good. Crap, I ended up advertising for them... XD
Also, a note. This story is written with an anime-influence so those of you who are not used to anime may find my story a tad bit weird. If you are used to anime, try reading this story and imagining it in an anime. That will enhance the experience to a certain degree XD
So please forgive me for anything and have mercy on me! This is my first ever serious attempt at writing a story!! XD
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