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I looked at my receipt to make sure the rain check on the soft-baked cookies registered. Why I’d bother making it a point to save three dollars when all I need to do is ask and my parents would fund nearly everything? Because I wanted an excuse to have cookies around for a few days, and since I wanted to get away from the duties of an heir, I’d have to get a normal job to support myself. Akiko and my mother always disapproved of fattening things, but if there’s a box of cookies on the table me or my father is munching on they’re more than willingly to “check for freshness”.
I shoved the receipt in the plastic bag with the gallon of milk and cookies and continued onward. Nioglow was fast asleep, mainly because it was a solemn anniversary. I never tried keeping track of anniversaries…there were too many, and I really didn’t give a hoot about Mazar’s and Ragnarok’s battle anniversaries.
I heard a loud but familiar shriek from the ally ahead of me, and recognized it instantly. The bad feeling I’d been getting all day filled me with adrenaline as I bolted forward. I dropped the bag of groceries, pulling the ten-inch katana-like blade from my right knee boot, and rushed into the ally to see three large men, one pushing a young woman to the ground. She fought him, but it was futile.
Akiko!
I ran forward and stabbed the main attacker through the back, precisely where his heart was located. Blood smattered on my hand and legs as I pulled out my blade, grabbing him by the sleeve of his t-shirt and jerking him off her so his head hit the hard brick wall to my left. I heard a crack as the guy in front of me, as tall and masculine as the other one, leaned forward to grab me with a curse. I charged him, my should connecting solidly with his chest knocking the air out of him as I stabbed his heart. Blood smattered on my face due to the close attack.
I didn’t turn to face my final opponent, since I heard him lunging for me. I kicked high, my foot knocking him off balance and connecting to his cheek and jaw with a crunch. I threw my small blade hard enough to run his heart though.
I must of looked pretty scary at that point, covered in blood that shimmered in the light of the full moon. I looked down at the trembling Akiko, and bent down beside her asking,
“Are you alright?”
She threw her arms around my neck sobbing something intelligible. After a few moments of reassuring patting and a hug on my part, she sat up saying,
“I’m alright. You arrived before they did anything to me.”
“Why were you out here at night?” I asked exasperatedly, “It’s nearly eleven. You know all the weird stuff happens after dark.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You were off to see Trenxi again, weren’t you? If you’re going to be lovers before getting married, than just stay at Twi-LIGHT or both of you just stay at a hotel. It’s way too dangerous for you to wondering around at night.”
“I know, I know…but all the legal matters of me marrying are sickening. I haven’t seen him in two days.”
I sighed and stood. I looked at the dead bodies, and pulled out my cell phone to call Rei. I’d have to walk Akiko to Rei’s, borrow a motorcycle, dispose of these bodies, and than sneak in back at home…
What a pain.
Thirteen year old Maaya, and sixteen year old Rei dashed off back to their homes as I ran back to mine. I was in the middle; fourteen.
I’ll have to climb the rose trellis to get back in. The morning glory trellis, though far less painful, wasn’t very sneaky since you could see the trampled flowers and vines easily. The red rose trellis on the other hand, hardly reflected trampling although it had tiny little spikes on every vine…painful, but more effective.
When I reached the back of our large estate, I jogged over to the near-by cherry tree. I climbed it, and landed securely on the top of the twelve-foot white stone wall, I slid myself on down the other side of the wall, and when my feet were only six feet in the air I let myself drop. I landed calmly and jogged to the large white four-story building. There were many rooms with lights on, and Akiko’s had the roses below it. Although any real trespasser would be shot for running across the grounds at night, the guards knew I went off all the time. They thought I was wrapped with some guy probably, but only Akiko knew I was working with Exodus.
I pulled on the protective shoulder gloves I kept in my pocket, and cursed myself for always wearing knee boots, shorts, and sleeve-less shirts when I knew damn well my adventures all ended the same way…climbing up a twenty-foot trellis of red roses.
Only my knees up were getting scratched, but it was enough to make the trip unpleasant. I knocked on the window twice, signaling “I’m home” and than again after a five second pause, another two taps for “It’s Akhy”.
Akiko ran over to the window, opening it so I could pull myself in. I landed in her room saying,
“Hiya!”
She sighed saying,
“I wish you’d take the other trellises.”
“The rose trellis doesn’t reflect anybody using it, the morning glory one does. More convenient, yes, because it’s below my room but all the same a pain. It’s easier to navigate thought the lilies around your room too, the ones below mine are thicker.”
She shook her head, looking worried, but not offering any contact or a sisterly hug since I was on the bloody side. Not just my legs, I also had some blood smattered on my clothes and my arms had a few scratches that weren’t from the roses.
“You’d better go clean up, you’ll start tracking blood everywhere otherwise.”
“You’ll start tracking blood everywhere.” I said holding my nose than adding normally as I opened her door and headed to my room, “Yes, mother.”
After a shower and empting a box of Band-Aids I flopped on my large queen sized bed. All huge, all neatly made, and all mine.
I rolled over and let my thoughts wonder to Exodus. I was betraying my family and sister by helping them, but Twi-LIGHT had bad intentions. How could I support their determination to get Skyevi? I still had no idea why Trenxi wanted her, but anything Trenxi wanted I didn’t.
“Happy quarter birthday. Only another nine months before I turn fifteen.” I grumbled looking around the hall. I had stolen a pistol from a Twi-LIGHT soldier and knocked her out, so I was armed at least. I still had the infernally hot wig on, along with contacts so even though I was taken prisoner Trenxi might not get wind it was me if I kept my disguise up. There was a metal overpass the looped around the main entrance hall of the Nioglow Twi-LIGHT building. I’d already gotten the information I needed, whether or not Twi-LIGHT was doing human experiments in Nioglow or some other base.
I entered the huge entrance hall, it was large enough to fit five thousand soldiers comfortable, up to seven packed into straight lines. I looked down and saw the straight lines of soldiers, and Trenxi standing at a podium on a stage giving a lecture.
“Hey…” I muttered, “Those aren’t Twi-LIGHT soldiers! They’re a part Ragnarok’s military! Why in the seven hells are they here?”
I decided to listen to Trenxi’s speech, which went as the following:
“The attack on Mazar must be swift. The attack will start with a bombing, and than foot-soldiers will secure the area. We won’t be able to use nuclear weaponry until all relics are off Geosprit. We don’t know how power like that would effect them. Nohin may be neutral, but we’ll have to risk losing an ally to obliterate an enemy in this case. S-Bombs on the other hand, which are composed of radiated Skyevi power, which will kill many in the initial blast, effect survivors with Evi poisoning, but not condemn half of Geosprit to years of cancer like nuclear attacks.
“Further more…”
I ignored what else he had to say, losing interest quickly. I was too busy helping Exodus getting reading to dismantle Twi-LIGHT after their attack. Kazuki agreed with the attack, not with the details, but he knew something had to be done. Mazar was using the islands off Geosprit and than re-fueling at the Spherical Line to attack Ragnarok’s south west. Previously, they’d only attacked the west coast, but since their new allies came into the picture we had something to worry about. All the best military bases were on the east coast, and the civilian refugee camps were on the west. I couldn’t count how many civilians and untrained soldiers stationed over there were slaughtered. There were also training camps, and over a thousand young men and women had been killed by an army of Mazarain assassins. We’d lost too big a chunk of the soldiers that were supposed to make up for any lost in this attack.
The hairs on the back of my neck started to prickle, and I looked down into the crowd and saw one of the soldiers in the orderly lines toward the front staring right at me. He looked young, like if he even made it into the military he should still of been back at boot camp. He was shorter and over all smaller than all the soldiers around him, including the female soldiers. He couldn’t of been more than a year older than me.
I scowled at him and pointed my pistol at him in a “say one word and die” way. I jogged off, making my escape down to the garage thanks to the stair case within the front wall where one of Rei’s motorcycles had “ended up” courtesy of Exodus spies in Twi-LIGHT.
“Akhy! Wake up!” Cloud called, shaking me awake. I grumbled a curse and yawned asking,
“What’s wrong?”
“We’re surrounded.”
“What?” I snapped, waking up completely.
I glanced over to where Kairi had been sleeping, and was glad to see she was still fast asleep. I listened for a second, hearing shuffling of material as snipers moved around from behind surrounding sand dunes. I pulled my Skyevi’s Sword of the scabbard and looked around, listening for a few more seconds to confirm the bad news, there was no doubt we were surrounded.
“They will only fire if they know they won’t hit Kairi. Trenxi wants her for some reason, and I don’t have to know what it is to make sure he doesn’t get his way. The rifles Twi-LIGHT soldiers use don’t use conventional gun powder to fire their guns, they have to charge twenty-seconds before they can fire again to charge the electric devices that fire the bullets. It’s different so they get more precise silent shots, but we can use that to our advantage. If we move quick, we can take out half their forces before they have time to fire a shot. Let’s go.”
He nodded and drew his sword, and I jumped up first running toward the nearest sniper running her through, and running over to another who was just taking aim, and swiftly killing him too. I was thrown to the ground by a bullet that hit my shoulder, but no damage was done due to my bullet-proof jacket. I jumped to my feet, pulling out my pistol and returning the favor left-handed.
I took out another two snipers that were aiming at me, and jogged around to another band of three snipers, since I’d figured out that’s how they were divided. I took them out, but spotted a Twi-LIGHT soldier jogging down into the clearing to Kairi. She was far enough away from Kairi when I spotted her, that I was able to shoot her without endangering Kairi.
Kairi jerked away when she heard the body fall only a few yards away from her. I had a silencer on my pistol, so it hadn’t made any sound. I jogged down to her and when I bent down to ask if she was okay though I knew she was uninjured it was best to humor young children, she threw her arms around my neck crying,
“Akhy!”
“It’s alright.” I said glancing up as Cloud jogged forward, giving me a thumbs up to signal he’d taken out the other half. “We have to get going though, We don’t want any other Twi-LIGHT soldiers catching up with us.”
“Don’t think you’re getting away so easily, Ragnarok.” I heard a clear female voice call. I looked up to see a young woman in Twi-LIGHT attire and four soldiers behind her. I cursed inwardly as the soldiers pointer their guns at us. Kairi froze and clung to me, I’d been getting better fighting with others, but nothing could ever get me used to little kids looking up to me for protection and clinging to me, making counterattack challenging.
I heard a old motorcycle charging forward, and the driver hoped off, running two of the soldiers through and dealing with the others swiftly in similar fashion. She stood up straight, a katana in each hand.
“You know,” She said replacing the katanas in their scabbards, “I know we weren’t as close as Maaya and Rei were, but you could of e-mailed me to at least say you weren’t dead.”
She walked forward, old off-white cape flopping around her legs. I saw from the dark skin on her legs and arms she was Mazarain.
“But no, I find out you’re alive when I see your name and picture in the wanted adds. You’ve got a bounty on your head you know, Twi-LIGHT, Ragnarok, and Mazar have all posted ones. Exodus just wants you alive.”
“Who the hell are you?” Cloud demanded pointing his sword at her. She stopped her advance down the sand dune and put her hands on her hips adding,
“The want adds didn’t mention any violet boyfriends or little kids though.”
I pulled Kairi’s arms off my neck and stood.
She removed her hood, reveling the familiar cheerful face, bright orange hair, blue eyes and small scar that ran long-ways over the bridge of her nose.
“Really. I wish you’d called me.”
I smiled saying,
“Nice to see you’re still alive, Rikku.”
She gave me a familiar lopsided smile saying,
“Same goes for you, Akhy! Miss me? Or did you forget about me?”
“I figured you were dead.” I replied, “When you returned to Mazar when we were young and after not hearing from you after all those attacks, I assumed you were killed.”
“And assuming makes an ass out of you and me.” She replied idly drawing out the ‘ass’ in ‘assuming’, “You could of contacted me, Rei would have known how.”
“A friend of yours?” Cloud asked, for he must have been lost by now.
“Yeah.” I replied, “Rikku Arzifal.”
“Do the introductions both ways, lazy.” Rikku said as Cloud lowered his sword and she walked forward.
“I’m Anan Nimbostratus.” He said as Kairi looked up adding,
“My name’s Kairi. I had a kitty named Megami, but I lose her back in Nohin.”
She bent down and smiled at Kairi saying,
“I’m Rikku.”
She shook Cloud’s hand asking,
“Isn’t ‘nimbostratus’ a type of rain cloud?”
He sighed saying,
“Yes, it is as everybody seems to point out and give me random nicknames for.”
“Whatever ya say, Rainy.” Rikku said with an evil smile. She hadn’t changed much in the last seven years, aside from getting taller and developing. She was about the same height as me, still lean and strong. She wore white material boots that were just above her ankles, white shorts, dark blue sleeveless shirt, and black driver’s gloves with the fingertips cut off, only difference from conventional ones was I could tell she’d cut them off herself.
“Is it just a coincidence that you, always touchy about being called ‘achy’ or ‘itchy’ hooked up with a guy who’s touchy about being called ‘rainy’ and the like?”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I said as Cloud chorused a,
“She’s not my girlfriend.” At the same time.
She smirked a little, saying,
“Anyway, I’m with Valkyrie now.”
“The anti-governmental organization of Mazar?” I asked, genuinely surprised.
“Yup, Mazar’s Exodus if you will. Well, I’m a reserve. They think I’m too hyper and not serious enough to handle any big missions. We ought to head to Karden, it’s a small down with Valkyrie personnel only. You’ll be safe there with me.”
I nodded saying,
“Sounds good.”
I packed up my motorcycle, and started it up. I pulled Kairi up in front of me and she asked quietly,
“Why is a Mazarain helping us?”
“She was a Ragnarok citizen, but chose to move back to Mazar when her family needed her. She was a friend of mine like the Rei and Maaya.”
“So there are good Mazarains?”
“There’s good people in all cultures, it’s only the bad ones you hear about because they case the trouble.”
Kairi didn’t reply.
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