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She removed her hood and smiled at me, her eyes staying a little sad. She looked basically as I remembered her; very pale skin, slanted Nohinog eyes, long black hair, and was still short. Five years didn’t change that; she was still a head shorter than me. She wasn’t completely Nohinog though; since her eyes were a very pale blue unlike normal brown Nohinog eyes. If I hadn’t forgotten, her mother was only half Nohinog.
“Hello, Akhy. It’s been awhile since we were able to see each other in person. How is Rei? Does she still have Rufus?”
“Yeah…” I paused before asking, “You’re the leader of Exodus now?”
“Yes.” She replied, “They refer to me as ‘master’ as a code. Most people still think my brother is the head of Exodus.”
“What happened to him? I asked with no tact whatsoever.
The sad look in her eyes increased as she said,
“He’s gone.” She said flatly, “Kazuki is dead.”
“What’s about Katsu? And Ryuu?”
“They disappeared looking for Kazuki. We found Kazuki’s body, but we couldn’t find Katsu and Ryuu. Since both Katsu and Ryuu are younger than me, and since I’m the second oldest in our line, I’m not the leader of Exodus.”
“Is there any proof Katsu and Ryuu are really dead?”
“Over the communicators, the last thing we heard before we lost bother signals was a shower of bullets. We think it was Twi-LIGHT, but there’s no proof.”
“That’s bullshit.” I said matter-of-factly.
She smiled a little saying,
“You language is as lady-like as ever I see.”
“I don’t want to be the one to tell Rei Kazuki is dead. She’s on her way after all…” I paused before finishing after my mind clicked back into the “normal” gear, “And is going to kill Cloud for letting me disappear again.”
Maaya smiled saying,
“Don’t worry, I’ll contact Rei. Your friends are in the city now, I believe they’re at the Plaza Hotel. You can meet them there once we re-equip you. Even though I’m delighted to see you again as your friend, even though there’s another reason we had to bring you here. We need your help, we know you were subjected to experiments at the Twi-LIGHT labs, and we already what went into those experiments from collecting other specimens. We also know you subjected to extreme genetic alterations, and unless you are exposed to Evi poison you’re nearly immortal. We also know you can touch the relics of Skyevi, and we need you to recover those relics.”
“Of course, we’ll help you. We’ll fund the entire project for you to travel this world and find them. The pendant you have, the one your parents gave you, is a key and also a type of tag. As long as you possess it, barriers won’t stop you from setting foot on sacred land. Nobody else here at Exodus can touch the relics, and we must secure them before Twi-LIGHT does. We know Skyevi’s Sword is at Neivila, and we already have guards around the mountain. But, we cannot enter due to the sacred barriers. Everybody who tried started having seizures and heart failure, we tried with a few different people, and they reacted the same way. They’re alive, but we don’t know even with our technology if they’ll be able to live normal lives again.”
“You’ll be able to bring your friends of course, and they’ll be able to walk on sacred ground too if your trust them. It’s part of your post as the holder of the pendant. Kairi can stay here, where she’ll be safe and attend school. We tried getting her to tell us her last name, but she refused. She only said she’ll tell you, but no one else.”
I nodded asking,
“Where is she now?”
“Asleep in a room in the residential section with that stuffy she doesn’t let go.”
“Sounds about right. So, basically you want me to gallivanting across the world looking for Skyevi relics and kicking Twi-LIGHT ass, right?”
“Basically.” She confirmed. “Like I said, we’ll fund everything for you and your companions. It’s entirely up to you when you want Exodus soldiers with you and when you don’t. We’ll get you a proper alternate name and identity, so the name Akhyia Ragnarok will stay dead unless it is necessary for you to regain your name and born political place in the world.”
“So, aside from the obvious reasons, why are you after the relics?”
“We need their power to harmonize with Skyevi.” She replied, “If we can do that, than Twi-LIGHT won’t be able to use Skyevi anymore and we’ll be able to take them down. Our armies are already vast, and always growing. We aren’t picky with who we chose, though we do make then undergo at least five years of training before they enter any battles. You’ll get paid handsomely too, if that sweetens the deal any.”
“Being funded to kick Twi-LIGHT asses is pretty sweet, although I really don’t care about being paid. I accept.”
She smiled and nodded.
“Let us proceed to arm you and get your alter identity ready.”
We left the synthetic underground cathedral, and after I read and signed a nice pile of forms and the like, and got an Exodus ID card. My alternate name was decided at be Akhyu Zahra. Since “yu” mean “reason” in Nohinog, it didn’t have the same meaning as Akhyia, not that I knew what my name meant.
I know my last name means “doomsday”…who in their right mind would name a country doomsday anyway?
I looked at the ID card, it had my picture (which I was still seeing spots from…) and the alternant name. That’d solve any issues with people I knew calling me Akhy all the time, anything else would be a pain in the ass.
“At least this last name doesn’t sound like macaroons…” I muttered to myself.
Maaya handed me my katana back once we were in the armory, cleaned and sharpened at that. She handed me a small pistol saying,
“This is a simple six shot, it’s small so it’ll fit in any jacket pocket without being seen.” She handed me an even smaller pistol saying,
“This one fires electric bullets, they stun a person and paralyze them. It should come in handy. No ammo is needed, you’ll need to replace the AA batteries frequently though. We figured it’d be better if they didn’t last as long but could have their batteries replaced easily, it’d be a pain to get a special battery every few hundred shots. This one is a weak one, you’ll only have a hundred and fifty shots with this one.”
“Arigato, but can I have my old boots back? I really don’t like knee boots.”
Maaya smiled saying,
“Sure. Be right back, I’ll page the dry cleaners. Your boots are about the only thing not covered in blood.”
“They’ve most likely got some blood smattered on them though.”
Maaya didn’t hear me say that, for she already left the room. The room had a wall for swords, double-edges, katanas, broadswords, and all between, and the other walls covered in every type of gun and pistol you could imagine and then some. Maaya came back in and set my army boots down on the floor saying,
“We had them sprayed with Lysol, I can tell socks aren’t in your wardrobe.”
“You could just say they smell like cat shit.” I said with a smile as she tossed me a pair of clean white socks. I pulled off the knee boots and was grateful to have boots that didn’t strangle my knees on.
“Kairi is asleep now, why don’t you meet up with your friends at the Grand Plaza Hotel? I’ll meet you out front, okay? We got your motorcycle repaired and buffed out the scratches.”
“You’re coming too?” I asked genuinely surprised.
She smiled saying,
“I want to see Rei again.”
“Will your guards let you?”
“I’ve got nothing to worry about, if you would of looked closely that one part of your contract stated that at any given time I could recruit you as my bodyguard.” She said brightly.
“What? I didn’t read that-”
She laughed saying,
“I knew you’d fall for it!”
I shook my head saying,
“You caught the wise-ass syndrome from me.”
“I suppose I did.” She said with a smile, “See you in five minutes. Oh, and here’s your cell phone back. I downloaded a map of the base into it so you’ll be able to get around. Do you know how many pictures and videos of your pocket you’ve taken?”
“Too many.” I said idly.
After finding my way out of the building, arigato cell phone map, I sat on my motorcycle waiting for Maaya. I spent the time waiting, which was a lot longer than five minutes so far, deleting pictures and videos of my pocket. I never bothered to check out the little silver phone, even though it had some darn cool features I hadn’t messed with.
After what was more like twenty minutes, Maaya emerged with Kairi in tow. Maaya was dressed normally now, in white shorts, light blue sleeve-less shirt, and fashion high-tops. She always was the contrast to Rei and me. Kairi was also wearing clean cloths, and it looked like she and her cat had gotten a bath. Her hair was also straight now, and her cat was wearing a collar with a hear-shaped gold tag that said in capitals, “MEGAMI”.
I didn’t comment, even though I had the feeling that tag and collar was what got Kairi to go along with things…
Kairi hoped up in front of me saying brightly,
“Hiya Akhy! Do you like Megami’s collar?”
I smiled guessing I was right and said,
“It looks good on her. Gold and grey are a good combo.”
She beamed up at me and got comfortable.
I gave Maaya “Why did you let her come?” look as she sat behind me with a look of innocence. I had my katana tucked away with my backpack behind the one metal and started up my motorcycle saying dryly,
“Hold on, both of you.”
I felt like I was going super slow, since I was only going thirty miles an hour. We sped through town, Kairi giving me big sad eyes to stop to buy her a shell necklace and a roadside vendor. We did go west, but it was still the coast since we were in the very south of Ragnarok. I was practically pacing waiting for Kairi to pick, since she also had to get one for her cat.
I can’t stand children...
I thought numerous times as I paid with the little cash I had in my wallet from Rei’s funding. We got back on the road after fifteen minutes of torment for me, and reached the Grand Plaza Hotel in another ten minutes.
I entered the lobby with Maaya and Kairi following saying,
“Hey, I need to get a room near somebody who checked in today. Her name is Takashi.” I was about to give a description but the young female clerk said,
“Mitsuko Nekarenra? A Rei Takashi reserved a room for you next to hers. She paid for it, here are the key cards. Seventh floor.”
“Thank you.” I said taking the cards. We entered the elevator and headed up to the seventh floor as directed.
“Nekarenra is the last name you thought sounded like macaroon, right?” Maaya asked as we waited.
“Hmm?” I asking coming back to reality from my train of thoughts all involving what terrible punishment plans Rei was brewing up for me. “Uhh, yeah.”
“It does sound like some kind of nut combo, macaroon mixed almond maybe.”
“I really don’t like peanuts.” I muttered.
“Do you still like those nasty spongy circus peanuts?”
I smiled saying,
“Those aren’t peanuts, they’re not nasty either.”
The elevator stopped with a ding, and as the doors opened I heard a large argument coming from room 714, and since we were in 715 I hoped futilely that it was Rei had reserved 713, and it was some other people arguing about something that had nothing to do with us, even though as we approached I identified the main arguing voice as Rei. I sighed muttering,
“Brace yourselves…”
Maaya chuckled a little saying,
“Rei always could yell.”
“That’s for sure…” I entered the room, and the door that lead to the other room was open. Rei looking and I smiled trying to look innocent to no avail.
“Ragnarok!” She yelled, “What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed! We had no screwing idea where the hell you were! Every damn time you go off alone to be the valiant hero you just royally screw yourself!”
“Rei, I-”
“I don’t care what the hell you have for a stupid excuse! There isn’t an excuse for jumping into a suicidal situation!”
“I couldn’t let the civilians get killed just because I was being chased.” I said innocently.
“One of these times Twi-LIGHT is just going to kill you, ya know!”
“It wasn’t Twi-LIGHT who was after her.” Maaya said stepping out from behind me. “And we’re very careful at Exodus about civilians. My team disobeyed my orders for I instructed them to only use the stunners.” She bowed her head saying, “To both of you, please forgive me for the inconvenience. But you see, we knew Akhy wouldn’t go with us peacefully.”
Rei looked her over a moment asked, rage gone,
“Maaya?”
She looked up and smiled holding out her hand saying,
“It’s good to see you again, Rei. Kazuki sends his regards, though he couldn’t be here to see you again himself.”
“Oh.” Rei said, deflated. “What’s going on?”
Maaya explained things to Rei and I ducked into the other room, Niketa passing me, more interested in an Exodus official than much else. Cloud was hovering in the doorway and said,
“Rei is right though, you did take a risk.”
“I don’t need it from you too.” I said flopping on the bed and pulling a pillow over my head to drown out the argument that was starting between Rei and Maaya about I-didn’t-want-to-know. I looked at the clock sitting on the dresser, and confirmed the reason I was so tired was because I hadn’t even been unconscious for more than an hour.
“Strike up a deal with Exodus?” He asked.
“Why?”
“Any other reason the head of Exodus would be here?”
“What makes you think Maaya is the head of Exodus?”
“Because I know that Kazuki Nikoji is dead.”
“Don’t tell Rei that.” I said mumbled into the other pillow.
“What?”
I sat up saying,
“I said, don’t tell Rei that.”
“Any reason why?”
“They were close, Maaya said she didn’t let it get around Kazuki was killed.”
I flopped back down and after a few moments he asked,
“I suppose Takashi always got that angry when something bothered her?”
“Are your ears still ringing? She knows how to yell.”
“Nah, they stopped ringing about five minutes ago.”
Kairi came jumping in, apparently done jumping from bed to bed in the other room, and hoped up on the bed I was laying on asking,
“What’s up? Why is that Rei girl so loud?”
“She’s the wicked witch of the garage.” I said sitting up, giving up on the chance of a nap, “Ever hear about her?”
“There’s a wicked witch of the west, but I never heard of one from the garage. Does she always smell like motor oil?”
“For the most part. Hey, why don’t you go ask Rei if she’s the wicked witch of the garage?”
“Okay!” Kairi said brightly hoping off the bed with her can tucker under her arm.
“What are they having you do?” Cloud asked once we heard Kairi say,
“Are you the wicked witch of the garage?”
“Go back to Neivila, and secure Skyevi’s Sword. They want me to go after the relics of Skyevi before Trenxi tries gathering them up so he doesn’t have absolute control over Skyevi. They think if they collect the relics they might be able to connect with Skyevi. Maaya didn’t say it, but it was pretty obvious they wanted to activate her and blow up Twi-LIGHT HQ in Nioglow. I think they have a theory about controlling the destructive power, but I saw it’s pretty damn screwy.”
“You’re still going to help them?”
“It’s either that or have Trenxi in control of absolute divine power.”
“I suppose I see where that’s coming from. When are we going to Neivila?”
“I didn’t say anything about you.” I said flatly.
“You’re getting slow if you think I’m going to let you go alone.”
“What makes you think I’m not going to have Exodus personnel with me?”
“Because I’m not a ‘genie’s ass’ as you so kindly put it. Besides, I want to see Trenxi dead as badly as you do.”
I opened my mouth to retort but Rei half-stomped in demanding,
“Ragnarok! Who the hell are yo to go around calling me the ‘wicked witch of the garage’?”
I sighed saying,
“Zahra.”
“What?”
“My alternate name, Akhyu Zahra.”
“What kind of Nohinog crash real name things is ‘Akhyu’?’
I sighed saying,
“Ask Maaya, I didn’t make it up.”
She looked up an glared directly at Cloud saying,
“Why are you hovering around? You’ve got your own room. Shoo.”
“Just curious what was going on.”
“Curiosity killed the cat.” Rei said plaintively.
“I’m not a cat.” He said leaving the room.
“You’re lucky you aren’t.” Rei said as the door clicked closed.
“You really don’t like him, do you?”
“You don’t know anything about him.” Rei said sternly, “For all we know he’s a double-agent for Twi-LIGHT to spy on you and Exodus. He probably joined Trenxi’s psycho experiments of his own will. We’d be better off without him.”
I didn’t reply, since I knew she was right in the fact I didn’t know why he ended up a lab rat for Twi-LIGHT, or his motives aside from doing Trenxi in. He held a grudge against them, but who knew why? Evi poisoning was always suspected to have been caused by Trenxi, though there was no proof.
“I know.” I replied.
“So why do you let him hang around?” Rei asked irritated.
“He’s helpful against Twi-LIGHT soldiers, he knows how to fight after all.”
“Humph.” Rei grumbled.
Maaya looked in asking,
“What do you say we order out some diner soon? It’s five o’clock and I doubt any of us have eaten very much today.”
“Yeah, sure…” Rei mumbled standing up. “I’ll look in the phonebook for a pizza place or something.”
She left the room and when she was out of earshot getting interrogated about her new nickname from Kairi, Maaya asked thoughtfully,
“Doesn’t like Nimbostratus, does she?”
“Neither does Kairi.”
“It’s quite nice how he worries about you though. He’s good looking too.”
I raised an eyebrow asking,
“Where did that come from? He only sticks around because I know a lot about Twi-LIGHT and I’ve been the one getting funding from some person or another for us to get around.”
She shook her head saying,
“You didn’t see him hovering in the door when we got here? He looked relieved when he saw you were okay.”
“You’re seeing things.” I said flatly.
“Oh, so you don’t like him?” Maaya asked playfully.
“Of course I don’t!” I snapped.
“So he’s up for grabs than…” She said thoughtfully, even though I could see a evil look ing her eyes. “I thought for sure you’d claim a guy like him, but if not than I’ll have to try getting him!”
I wasn’t sure what kind of expression I had on my face, possibly a combo of an attempted-to-be-hidden scowl, lip purse and some embarrassment maybe. Whatever expression I had, it made Maaya laugh. She stood up saying,
“I’m going to go help Rei figure out what we’re going to get for dinner.”
I sighed, and went out to my motorcycle and brought my backpack up. I extracted my laptop once I was back in the hotel room and started taking totals and lists of supplies we’d need.
We got pizzas for dinner, we ended up getting four since nobody could agree on a common topping. Rei wanted supreme pizza with all the weird stuff and parmesan cheese, Maaya hated parmesan cheese, and wanted a vegetable pizza, Kairi wanted it plain, Niketa wanted stuffed crusts, and Cloud and me were the only ones to me able to agree to the same topping: good old pepperoni. The first was Rei’s weird thing, the second was half plain and half veggie, one plain with stuffed crust, and the other one was simple old pepperoni. Pizza sticks, fries, and the other side-dishes were also a pricey endeavor of multiple items. I never knew it could be just a pain in the ass to order pizza before that.
After diner, I was trying to go to sleep. I’d already gone over a path to Neivila, how we were going to get there, what we’d need, how long it would take, and how much it would cost. She was impressed at my figuring, since she said it wasn’t to be part of my job, though how couldn’t it? We agreed to leave tomorrow in the morning after breakfast, and head out around noon. I suggested dawn, but Maaya insisted on waking up semi-normally. I didn’t question her, though I wanted to, since she was funding the operation.
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