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That night, I ended up rolling around in bed unable to shut my brain off. I kept thinking, I couldn’t relax long enough to fall asleep, it didn’t help that a day prowling the ship at a leisurely pace didn’t tire me out at all so I still had a lot of energy left. I was just about to give up and browse the internet for information and the Key of Seventh Heaven, but I heard a loud knock on my door and Cloud call out,
“Akhy! Wake up! Kuraudo woke up, and he’s being a royal pain in the ass. He refused to talk to me or anything.”
I sat up and pulled on my boots and the “Fear My Spongy Circus Peanuts Of Doom” shirt and hoped out of bed. I opened the door saying,
“Let’s go.”
“I get the feeling you were never asleep. You should tie your boots first.”
I rolled my eyes saying,
“Yes, mother.”
“Phyress give you that?” He asked as I bent down to tie my boots.”
“Yeah, why?”
“I didn’t think she’d have a shirt made that quickly. Did you ever take into consideration you look rather ridiculous with a shirt that preaches of circus peanuts of doom?”
“Remind me to get you one for your birthday if it bothers you that much.”
I suppose I do look a little odd, white shorts, orange spongy circus peanut shirt, and black army boots that where just a little higher than my ankles. The orange was far darker than the pale orange of the spongy circus peanuts, so it was more it’s own color. I had planned on using it as pajamas, but it could pass as daily attire fairly easily.
I stood up and followed him.
Kuraudo still looked pale from blood lose, and I thought he was asleep when we first entered since his eyes were closed. When entered, he opened his eyes and smiled saying,
“Akhy!”
He leaned forward as if to stand, but winced and leaned back again.
“Mazar has the Blood Crystal, Key of Seventh Heaven, and Sky Song Arrows. Twi-LIGHT is going to launch an attack in exactly four weeks, and is going to completely take over Mazar and deem it property of Ragnarok. Not only is he turning running Ragnarok’s reputation through the mud, he also plans to turn most of Geosprit against us and Zebrine.”
I nodded asking,
“Do you know what he plans to do with the relics and Skyevi?”
He shrugged saying,
“Something about ‘finishing her unfinished business’.”
“Sounds about right, do you know anything about Akiko Ragnarok, or what happened to her?”
“She’s your sister, right? I don’t know any details aside from the fact she’s not really dead. It was a replica that Trenxi killed and passed off as Akiko originally, the real Akiko is in a coma.”
I felt hope jump in my heart as I asked,
“Anything else about what he’s been doing to her maybe?”
He shrugged saying,
“I think she was in contact with somebody before Trenxi deemed her legally dead. When he found out, I know he hurt her, since she didn’t fall into a coma because of too much Skyevi power injected into her body, but I also know she’s one of his subjects now.”
I nodded grimly saying,
“Thanks. Do you know anything else about Trenxi’s attack plans on Mazar?”
“No, but I do know there’s a festival coming up and the guards on the castle will be weak on the next full moon, so you might be able to sneak in and get one of the relics. They’re in all different places in the castle, so a stealth mission to get them would be hard if not coordinated properly.”
“Stealth probably is our best bet. Anyway, we’ll talk about it more tomorrow you should rest, you’ve hardly healed.”
Cloud and me steeped into the hall and I said once the door was closed so Kuraudo wouldn’t hear us,
“Have any ideas about what to tell the others about him, or should we go our separate ways in Nohin? Maaya knows you have a replica, so saying he was your brother or something along those lines won’t work.”
“Think he’ll be healed enough to leave him alone once we get to Nohin?”
“Probably, we still have another week at sea.”
Cloud wrinkled his nose asking,
“Another week? I though the entire trip was week.”
“Yeah, but the ship had to so slower for awhile since it was so rough when we first set out. It extended the trip, but it’ll calm down soon so you shouldn’t be vomiting as much.”
He sighed saying,
“I’d rather be on dry land and have no vomiting.”
Aside from my inability to sleep and weird dreams when I did nod off, the trip was uneventful. Kuraudo was almost completely healed when we reached Nohin, and we parted ways. We arrived at the hotel, since we had to make a plan about where we were going, so we were going to pay as we needed. We had to get four rooms as usual, and after getting all our stuff in, setting up computers and the like, I jumped to my feet from where I sat on the sofa saying,
“Who here aside from Maaya can read Nohin kanji?”
“I can.” Niketa replied.
I hid an unsatisfied scowl as Celes added,
“I can read a little of it and speak the language, but I doubt I’d be able to read reference books.”
“You know I can’t. I can only speak the basics.” Rei said downloading music onto her iPod. I never liked iPods, I was old fashioned and liked compact discs. The singer made more money of selling an album than having a person download the album from the internet.
“Nor can I.” Phyress said idly.
“I can.” Kairi said jumping up.
All of us looked at her and asked,
“Really?”
“Hai.” She replied, “My mommy taught me. Can I come too?”
“Can you handle being quiet at a library you can come.”
“Sure I can!” She said brightly. “Can we stop at the bookstore too? There’s a series I want to see if they have.”
“You could get the Ragnarokain version off the internet.”
She shrugged saying,
“The manga looks more natural in Nohinog.”
“Mmm, I can agree. I had a huge magna collection.”
Maaya, Niketa, Kairi and me all headed to the library. I was already up to my eyeballs in Nohin legends and myths when Kairi came over carrying a stack of children’s books and manga taller than her.
She sat cross-legged on the chair across from me with Megami in her lap and started reading. Her stacks of books were larger than my twelve reference books. I finished one, with no success aside form a priestess who wore white slaying an entire army with one sweep of her blade. Might be Skyevi, but most likely wasn’t. I need to find deeper information on that one before I could rule it out though, but I wasn’t hopeful.
Maaya and Niketa sat at the table behind us, and I was starting to nod off when I was reading about a legend involving a little girl’s spirit and teams of oni, or demons, that obeyed her. I’d already been reading for four hours and had gotten through two books.
This is painfully dull. Is dazzlingly a word? It sounds really messed up… Either that or when I get board my ability to read kanji shits the bed…who knows?
Wait, if Kairi is reading Nohin and spoke it not long ago that means she understood my conversation with Rei when I first found her…she probably knows it’s Trenxi who’s after me.
I wonder who her mother was. I wondered as I opened a history book on the legacies of Nohin priestesses. I can’t picture any mothers teaching their seven or younger-year-olds another language, when they should be learning their own country’s language. Her might couldn’t be more than half Nohin if that’s what it came down to, she looks completely Ragnarokain.
Than again, Akiko started teaching me Nohinog when I was five. I never really tried to be able to read more than Nohinog in Ragnarokain font, romaji, until I started getting into the Nohin music. That’s when I started getting import CDs and tried decoding the kanji. Maaya taught me a lot of it; Akiko tried too and gave me the basics, but I lost interest when I became a slave of kendo and other martial arts.
Why does my mind wonder so much when I read dull stuff? I can’t focus for the life of me. I bet Rei is enjoying herself listening to Takanori Nishikawa’s new album…she always did love his vocals, I liked his stuff too but I preferred female singers, less of a mystery to me about what they mean when they sing their stories. Nishikawa also always sounded weird when he hit high notes too…
I was interrupted from my random thoughts when a young Nohin girl in a school uniform came up to me and asked in Nohin of course,
“Are you Zahra Akhyu?”
“Hai.” I replied in Nohin, “Yes, I’m Akhyu-san. Why?”
“I was looking for a friend of mine, Ma-aya Nikoji. I heard she was traveling with her friend Zahra-san with a young girl.”
“Why are you looking for her?” I asked tensing a little. Maaya had gone on a search for more books not long ago.
Ma-aya, isn’t that how her name is translated into romaji? Didn’t she legally have it changed just to be Maaya, and not Ma-aya?
“Who are you?”
“Tetsuya Mitsuko.”
Mitsuko Tetsuya? I though in the Ragnarok way, the Nohinog always said the last name first. Hence why she called me Zahra Akhyu. Another words, Mitsuko was her first name.
I heard a book thud of a large book near one of the large bookcases and saw Maaya standing there, looking shocked. After a few seconds of silence, she smiled broadly and ran over saying so loudly I expected to be booted from the library,
“Mitsuko!”
They hugged, and laughed chattering so fast in Nohinog I could hardly understand a word they said.
“Are you two friends?” I asked stupidly in Ragnarokain. I instantly switched back to Nohinog, feeling like an idiot.
“Yes.” Maaya replied brightly. “I lived here before coming to Ragnarok.”
“Is this the girl you spoke of before you joined Exodus?” Mitsuko asked.
So she knows about Exodus…
“Yes, she’s part of Exodus too now.”
I stood and bowed my head (a common Nohinog gesture, it went along with shaking hands usually) and held out my hand saying,
“I’m Akhyu Zahra, part of the special agents Exodus.”
“I thought you were a Ragnarok.”
I cast Maaya a look, disturbed that she’d advertised my identity to a friend of hers, and she nodded.
“I go by Zahra now.”
“I see.”
I got the feeling she didn’t really like me. I felt Niketa watching us and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I was never happier to step away from the others into a quiet spot between two book cases when my cell phone rang.
“Hey, care to go out to lunch?” Cloud asked, “Before you start yelling at me for getting side-tracked and distracting you, I was going to go myself but not only I couldn’t be able to understand a word that was being said, I only have Ragnarok currency. The Venerated Dragon was too crabby to consult.”
“Sure.” I said, clearly surprising him because he stupidly asked,
“Really?”
“No duh. Besides, Maaya found a friend of hers who likes me as much as Niketa does, and knows who I am. The Venerated Dragon seems motherly compared to the cold looks I’m getting between the two of them.”
“Can the Venerated Dragon be anything but crabby?”
“Maybe. She was the one I dubbed Crab’s Ass though. When did you hear me referring to Rei as the Venerated Dragon, anyway?”
“You call her that whenever you mention her and she’s not around. It was easy to pick up, and a fitting nickname.”
I thought I only through of Rei as the Venerated Dragon…hmm, I wonder what Maaya or anybody else thought of me called her that. The disturbing part is that they probably caught on too if Cloud did! She is a venerated dragon though.
“Alright sounds good, you know that buffet near the hotel? I’ll be there in half hour. I need to contact Celes since Maaya is supposed to Dewa, nochihodo.”
“Couldn’t you just say ‘see you later’? See you then.”
I then called Celes, who arrived in ten minutes with Phyress, and when Maaya asked where I was going I only said,
“I have an idiot to attend to. Kairi, I’ll be back in an hour or so. Keep an eye on Maaya, she’s a rebellious one. We’ll go to the book store after that, okay?”
“Aye, aye, Akhy! I’ll make sure she doesn’t do anything crazy.”
Maaya shook her head saying,
“Shouldn’t I be the one to do the chaperoning?”
“No, you probably will find some old boyfriend or something.”
She scowled saying,
“What has you so irritable? You’ve been acting weird since we got back from Neivila. What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing, you don’t have to worry. I’m just not used to killing people for shits and giggles I suppose.”
I have been acting weird recently, haven’t I? I wondered exiting the library and joined the flow of Nohinog people walking on the large sidewalks. The city was bustling, people, bazaars, neon sings, sky scrapers, power lines, cars, everything. It wasn’t the capital, far from it, but it was one of the largest cities in Nohin.
I feel like I’ve had a dark shadow over my head since we left Ragnarok. Maybe it’s something to do with Trenxi, but…
I saw something moving in a ally in the corner of my eyes. I stopped and looked, seeing three muscular male figures surrounding a girl. I took a few steps into the ally, watching for a few second before acting. One of the men grabbed her by her hair, and raised his fist to strike when I moved. I ran jerked forward, grabbing his extended arm and slamming him into the wall. He didn’t expect some Ragnarokain heroine coming along, and was completely off-guard. I felt a pair of hands on my right arm, but I instantly jerked my elbow back shattering the nose of one of the attackers. I jerked around quickly and grabbed the short third attacker by his hair and slammed his head against the hard brick wall. His legs collapsed out from under him, and his eyes rolled up into his head.
Broken-Nose still had some fight left in him, but held no chance simply throwing a punch at me. I grabbed his forearm after sidestepping his attack and using the strength in my upper arm and threw him off balance and into Attacker Number One. A1 pushed his buddy off him and jumped to his feat. I moved quickly and delivered a hard enough punch to his nose to knock him out. Apparently Broken-Nose had hit his head against the wall, for he was also unconscious as were his companions.
I turned to the Nohinog girl they’d been about to attack. Her eyes were wide with fear and she shook. She didn’t look like a floozy, more like an orphan. I pointed to the one who was going to hit her asking in her language,
“Your boyfriend?”
She nodded hesitantly saying,
“He was.”
“Best you go find your friends or family. These guys are going to hurt when they wake up, but should leave you alone if you avoid them.”
“T-thank you.” She stammered and ran off to blend with the crowd. I stood there silently for a moment before wondering aloud,
“Did I just save a life while taking my aggressions out?”
I decided to head to the buffet, since Cloud as probably waiting. He was, and greeted me cheerfully saying,
“Did you ever notice people look at you strangely if you don’t speak their language?”
“Let me guess, the only time you were out of Ragnarok was when you were in Mazar.”
“About sums it up.”
After lunch and random conversation we exited the restaurant and Cloud asked,
“Heading back to the library?”
“I need to take Kairi to the bookstore so she can give me sad lip so I buy her all kinds of books, but I haven’t found at thing at the library. Besides, Celes and Phyress can baby sit Maaya and Mitsuko.”
“Mitsuko?”
“I friend of hers.” I said sourly adding in a quiet tone, “I friend who knows I’m Akhyia Ragnarok not Akhyu Zahra.”
“At least she didn’t call you achy.”
I elbowed him hard which made him curse quietly saying,
“I was only kidding! Was the violence really needed?”
“Don’t call me achy.” I growled. “Is the Venerated Dragon still downloading music from the Nohinog network?”
“I believe so. After you spoil Kairi, what do you plan on doing?”
“Snoozing and reading reference books on and off for the rest of the day.”
“How about some exploring instead?”
“Sure. Kairi will probably demand to come along though.”
“No big deal, we an drop off the few hundred dollars in books she sad lips out of you at the hotel first.”
I scowled as we headed back to the library asking,
“What makes you think I’m going to spoil her that much?”
When we got to the bookstore, as predicted, she exited with a few chucked bags of Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, Rave Master, and Tsubasa mangas.
“Relax, if they’re 13+ because of violence and language she’s probably heard and seen worse riding with you.”
I scowled at him and replaced the book back in one of the bags saying,
“She’s still my responsibility and I need to keep an eye on her.”
“You sound like her mother, she’ll start calling you ‘mom’ if she hangs around Exodus long enough. I scowled and was about to continue the argument, but decided there was no point.
“What a cute little family you make.” Rei said as I placed the books down beside Kairi’s bed. Rei, Kairi, and me were sharing a room, Rei claimed the pull-out sofa, and I threw a plastic-covered library at her with a scowl saying,
“I’ll shove the book up your ass with another comment like that.”
“I told you she’d learn worse from you.” Cloud chimed in from the doorway. Kairi hoped on the bed with a bag of books saying,
“You can go do boyfriend-girlfriend things, I’m going to read. The Venerated Dragon can baby sit me.”
Luckily, the Venerated Dragon had her headphones back on so she didn’t heard the VD name. She pulled them off saying,
“What?”
“I’m going back to the library. He can go get lost without being able to read the roadmaps for all I care.”
Rei nodded saying,
“I’ll keep and eye on the munchkin.”
She returned to her music-downloading as Cloud and me headed to the stairwell.
“So, you wouldn’t care if I got terrible lost in a country I now nothing about, including the language?”
“Shut up.” I said sourly. “I’m getting really sick of traveling with a group. There are so many better and more direct ways to get information on relics, like going there myself. It’s so slow with a large party, but when was you, Niketa, and me, it wasn’t that bad. Kairi, Rei, Maaya, Celes, and Phyress all together slow us down so much it’s unfathomable. And now we’re going to have another tagalong, some chick named Mitsuko who, you guessed it, doesn’t like me.”
“So let’s go, if you think we could get to the shrine and back faster than gathering information than setting out, let’s go for it. If Mazar really has it, than Twi-LIGHT won’t follow us. Maaya has Rei, Celes, and Phyress for guards. Kairi wouldn’t hold it against you either.”
I stopped saying,
“Niketa would only call me a selfish coward again.”
“We’d be going together.”
I turned and scowled at him saying,
“Look, all we’d be doing is becoming fugitives. Kazuki, the original president of Exodus, is still alive. I know it, and I think he’s in Mazar. We’re already have bounties on our heads thanks to the Ragnarok government, if we made a stink in Mazar Kazuki would come out of hiding and take over Exodus again, and I know he wouldn’t stand me abandoning Maaya and the rest of Exodus. All we’d be doing is eliminating the only ally we have.”
“If we got Mazar’s relics by sneaking in before Twi-LIGHT even gets there, not only would they be unable to declare war since Trenxi wouldn’t sing the declaration if he didn’t attack, but Exodus couldn’t kill you if we got this over with quickly and successfully.”
“Alright, fine, that’d make sense and all, but answer one question for me: if I did decide to do this, why would come along? You’re out for revenge against your brother and Trenxi, why risk getting the death penalty just to follow me because I’ve been having weird visions about what Skyevi planned?”
I didn’t even realize I said it. It as such old information to me, I’d forgotten I was keeping it a secret since it was more than likely a side-effect of stress and lack of sleep. He didn’t seem surprised as he said,
“You talk in your sleep, a lot. I kinda gathered you were having visions of some kind. Care to share a few details?”
I looked away saying,
“I just have weird visions of Skyevi collecting relics. She always seems to have a different name, and she always is popping up in totally different places during every vision. Supposedly, the artifacts we call ‘Skyevi relics’ are really fragments of the soul of some kind of great god. I think Skyevi was trying to collect them because she learned of some curse that the relics had, and she wanted to harmonize with them so she could control them, stop the curse from being carried out…and kill herself to seal the divine power. It’s al speculation, though… I also think she failed, and merely created a spiritual connection but couldn’t become one since she had a human body. A Mazarain king said each country was supposed to have a relic, and Skyevi said the curse would activate itself because of human contradiction. She said there was no way to stop contradiction, and that she was ‘rejected by the world’. I think Trenxi and Kazuki both know this, and Trenxi is trying to collect the relics and retry making them and Skyevi one, now that her body isn’t human anymore. He probably would use the power to become a divine dictator. I think Kazuki was trying to do the same thing, but let the world think he was dead before he could really take it anywhere.”
Cloud nodded saying,
“So why would Kazuki kill you if you went off alone? I can see why you might be fired, but not killed. If you’re after the same goal, it doesn’t make much sense to turn down valuable allies.”
“Because I’m not valuable. I’m one of Trenxi’s dolls, if Exodus got hold of Kuraudo and a few other Twi-LIGHT specimens, they’d probably be able to filter energy out of Skyevi’s Sword and make their own superhuman army. This is going to turn into a world war, mark my words. There almost was a world war five years ago, but things never really calmed down. The battle was only taken out of public sight, but it never stopped. It was only a cease-fire. The fire’s going to begin again too, it’s going to be a war in Ragnarok, a war with Mazar and Niveldon. You can be sure Silva will join too, they’ll take any excuse they can get to attack Nohin. They’ll probably say something ridiculous like Mazar will attack them and go through Nohin. Silva’s surrounding enemies will join in, and so will all the island continents. Niveldon may be peaceful enough, but they’ve got a huge military as do the surrounding countries. Mazar and Ragnarok are the strongest and most-hated countries in all Gaia.”
“You think too much. Ragnarok isn‘t your responsibility.” Cloud said stepping down to the platform where I stood. “Presently, all the armies are going to be doing the warring. Even if we don’t have Exodus backing us, we can still collect the relics. Niveldon’s surrounding islands all have relics we can get while Ragnarok and Mazar fight to their heart’s content.”
I looked down saying sadly,
“But Ragnarok is my responsibility.” I paused before adding, “Niketa’s right when she says I’m a coward. I am, because if I wanted to I’d let it be known I’m still alive, and Akhyia Ragnarok, and use Exodus to fight the legal battle that’d I have the advantage in, and reclaim the thrown of Ragnarok. If I did that, then with Exodus and the military I’d be able to shut down Twi-LIGHT for good, gather the Skyevi relics, and just try to stop the impending war.”
He was silent at that, since he knew I was right. The military didn’t work for Twi-LIGHT happily. They never did, Trenxi knew it too. He knew any loyal sergeant or general would take the side of the Ragnarok bloodline if he or she had the chance. Trenxi always sent Twi-LIGHT soldiers, never agents of the army. He could if he wanted to, but he couldn’t risk letting it be known I was alive or half the military would go against him. Even though I was trying to run away from it, now that I wasn’t a minor and Akiko was dead I didn’t have any good reason not to stop the war. I didn’t want to though, since I knew if I did that I’d never be able to live my life. I’d be the prisoner of Ragnarok for the rest of my life. I’d probably never draw a katana and fight for my life again.
“Still, that’s later and this is now.” Cloud said lifting up my chin so our eyes met. It never ceased to puzzle me how his hands were always warm, and mine always seemed to be cold. “Even if you did chose to do that, we’re not in Ragnarok right now. We’re in Nohin, and we’re looking for Skyevi’s relics. No matter what’s waiting for us in the future, the present is what we have to focus on. Trenxi is a dictator, he’d fight Exodus and the military to his last breath. Exodus would need all the Skyevi relics they could get, just to obliterate Trenxi before he realized what was going on. I know how people like Trenxi think, they crack and will do anything to win when they become the underdog. I can assure you Trenxi would lose it and try activating Skyevi and obliterate Ragnarok and himself if he was left with no army. He can’t fight, Akhy. He only commands people to fight for him. Take those people away, and he’s ours. Legal matters are all well and good, but Exodus would simple have to obliterate Twi-LIGHT to win.”
I didn’t know why, but I felt a little better.
“You’re right.” I replied after a silence. “I suppose we should go then, shouldn’t we?”
He nodded saying,
“I believe all our luggage is in the room next to the one the Venerated Dragon is in. We’ll sneak in and get our weapons along with some previsions, and set out. Still have the keys to that motorcycle Rei gave you, right?”
I smiled saying,
“Right. Let’s go.”
I stepped away and saying,
“I’ll go first and pack by backpack, than you. Don’t want to make too much noise, else we’ll wake the Venerated Dragon.”
He nodded saying and grabbed my arm saying,
“But before you go…”
He pulled me against him, and right when we were hardly an inch apart, the door of the stair well flung open and we jumped apart as two Nohin school girls came in and walked up the stairs. They didn’t pay much attention to us Ragnarokains and continued upward. I was red a frazzled as I jogged up the stairs thinking,
Working with guys is so distracting when they’re helpful, thoughtful, and good looking. If I have to work with anybody, it’s a lot less distracting to work with Rei or Maaya.
I opened the door and walked in silently, located my weaponry and backpack and start packing.
Rei, Maaya and me seem to be on completely different wave-lengths though…than again, we stopped seeing eye to eye when things with Exodus and Twi-LIGHT tightened up. We never have been the Troublesome Trio we were since then. I was a prisoner of Twi-LIGHT, Rei was wrapped up with Kazuki, and Maaya was occupied with Exodus.
Clothes, wallet, credit cards, cash, laptop, bullet proof body armors, extra pair of boots if mine bit the dust, cell phone charging cord, laptop internet and charging equipment, pistols, ammo, gun belts, katana-holding thingy, gun (why not?), CD-Rs, cell phone ear piece, more Juicy Fruit gum, an army knife with little screw drivers and knives built in, few motorcycle things, downloaded data on CD that I needed to load into the GPS of my motorcycle, more ammo, along with other random things. I added a few more pairs of underwear and some Gatorade before zipping it closed. I pounced on the two tall metal boxes that contained my katana and Cloud’ sword. I noticed there were two katana boxes, and opened the first and pulled out my katana. I slid it out of its scabbard to examine the blade and I was surprised to see it freshly polished and sharpened.
“So he held to the bet…” I said, genuinely surprised. I planned on collecting on my victory at a later date, when it was super inconvenient, since I figured he’d procrastinate on it.
I opened the other katana box, and what a saw made me freeze. I pulled out the long silver katana and scabbard muttering,
“What was Maaya thinking? This should of stayed at Exodus!”
There was a note under the hilt reading:
Akhy,
We’re going to need this to break the divine barriers around the Blood Crystal. It can cut anything, supposedly, including divine energy. We’ll need to take this when we go after the crystal.
-Maaya
I felt incredibly guilty now, if it was true we’d need this than Cloud and me really would be in deep trouble if we failed. I sighed and slid the two katanas into the long think material pack I had for them.
I pulled the string tight to close it, and was indexing my backpack to make sure I had everything when I heard the creak of the door that divided the two rooms and Kairi asked sadly,
“You’re going, aren’t you?”
I looked up, startled and surprised to see her standing there solemnly.
“You’re going, aren’t you?”
I looked away and slid my katana into my belt saying,
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Please come back.”
I didn’t answer, I couldn’t. I walked out of the doors of the cathedral into the rain, getting ready for the battle that awaited me.
I had to inwardly force myself to reality, Kairi’s words and expression reminded me too much of when I said goodbye to Akiko for nearly a year, just so I could go off and fight for Exodus, against her lover.
“I am.” I replied. I noticed for the first time how Kairi looked so much like Akiko, she had the same delicate face and large eyes. Same color too, the only difference was her chin with was more prominent than Akiko.
“You’ll come back, right?” She asked, looking like she was going to cry. I had the feeling she’d done enough eavesdropping to know what I was doing was treason.
I stood up, walked forward to where she stood, and kneeled down in front of her and hugged her saying,
“I have to go, but I’m not going alone this time. I’ll have Cloud with me, we’ll be fine. We’re going to come back with the Blood Crystal. I promise I’ll come back.”
She held on fiercely, her thin arms around my neck. I stood up and she let go as I pulled my backpack on and slung the material pack with the katanas over the my should saying,
“Cloud’s going to be coming up here in a second too, go back and pretend nothing’s happened, alright?”
She nodded and left saying,
“You’d better be back.”
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