The Ties That Bind
Chapter 04
By Girl-Chama
Chapter Completed: 1.28.03
Notes: Good grief, hell
must be freezing over. Two chapters of different stories within the span of two
days. (Just for personal reference later, AE was updated on 1/26.) I think
chapters are easier to get out when they are shorter. Someone reviewed AE and
was like, “You call that short?!” And the answer is yes, it was short,
just as this is short. When you are used to getting 20+ page chapters out, these
are short, but they are easier to get out and they help me keep the story
flowing. Plus, I guess all of you get tired of reading so much, which is not
that great since I can get on tangents while I write. All of that to say that
yes, this is a short chapter for me, and there’s no action… Really it’s only a
transition chapter, but an important one. If you want to know why, read
on…
Disclaimers: Don’t hate, congratulate. Ehehe, standard
disclaimers apply throughout.
- - - - -
There he was again- that horrible monster. It
was a hideous beast with red, cruel eyes and a snarling face, showing
beautifully white teeth. It was a demon- a demon that had taken the face of her
grandfather.
His hand had clamped over her throat and she desperately
clawed at that ever-so powerful wrist. This was the man that had given her hope
where others could not. It was the man that had bridged the seemingly endless
gap between her and her cousin. It was the man that-
“No!” her
mind shouted, still fiercely loyal to his memory, even in the face of death.
“No! That’s not my grandfather! My grandfather was the most kind and loving
and patient man ever to walk the earth! That’s not him! It’s a
demon!” She was right, and it was the demon that had her now.
Even
as this truth floated to the surface of her consciousness, her consciousness was
sinking further into sleep. The demon snarled down at her, his hand closing even
tighter around her windpipe, crushing her with startling pain. The pain was not
so bad. She had suffered worse, at the hands of better… If only it had not been
the face of her grandfather…
“Now, you’re nearly there,” it spoke. It
used, and defiled, his voice while speaking its pleasure at her death. “You’re
near, so near.”
There were screams at the edge of her hearing. So close.
Was it-
“Mia?” her mind wondered but her eyes could not roll that
far to the side and they certainly could not see past the demon before her. It
was encompassing everything- sight driving away sound and even feeling.
“Grandfather…” her mind spoke fuzzily.
She blinked slowly. The
sight of the demon’s face was becoming blurry. If she titled her head just so…
Her grandfather was smiling at her. His hand was reaching out, welcoming her to
him, and her hand… It was reaching back, reaching for him ever so gently. She
was reaching for the comfort that he had always provided in the absence of her
parents, guardians, friends… In the absence of
everyone…
“Grandpa…”
“You’re almost there,” he spoke
gently, beckoning her to him.
“Grandpa!” was the very real cry of the
young girl.
Makoto had woken and her body forcefully removed it self
from the ground as she called out for him. She was staring up at a darkened sky
that was beautiful for the stars that speckled it. Trees loomed in her vision,
hovering and protecting, not threatening in the least. But she saw none of it.
She only saw the fading vision of her grandfather, slipping so quickly and
soundlessly away from her. One arm outstretched painfully tightly to reach for
him and to grab him, to pull him back to her, but he was too far away, and she
would never reach him now. “Grandpa, where are you?!” she called again, her hand
still outstretched as she looked around.
“Mako!” another voice called.
Her cousin was above her, blocking the sight of the sky and the trees.
As another head appeared behind her vision her eyes darted toward it. The hair
color was infinitely lighter than her cousin’s. Maybe the night was playing
tricks on her eyes. She squinted, hoping to see his gentle face once again, but
it wasn’t him…
It was-
Sage?
Was that his name? He was
the ronin with the green armor. Mia was saying something to the blond- Sage, but
Makoto could not bring herself to listen to it. She gave a frustrated and
depressed sigh and turned back to Mia, grabbing the front of the girl’s
sweatshirt.
“He was here! He was right here! Why didn’t you stop
him from leaving?!” she demanded angrily, her eyes clear and bright, even in the
darkness. The accusation hung in the air for a split second, going unanswered
and then…
“Makoto?” Mia asked, desperately hoping that her cousin would
not respond with what she was thinking.
“Grandpa! He was right here!”
Makoto looked away as hot tears spilled over her face. Still holding to her
cousin’s shirt, she took a deep shuddering breath and readjusted her jaw. “Right
here…” she spoke, weaker this time.
Mia frowned and slowly wrapped her
arms around the younger girl as she began to sob. She had been strong thus far,
but she couldn’t keep up the appearance forever. The older of the two was glad
that her younger cousin was finally giving way to some of her frustration and
emotion, venting a little while, while there was still time to do so.
She tilted her head to the side, smiling gently to Sage over his
concern. The blond ronin smiled gently and nodded, then crawled silently away
from them. If he had created any noise with his movements, it would have been
drowned out by Makoto’s crying, anyway.
As she did so, White Blaze
appeared, nuzzling her back with his large, furry face.
The young girl
pulled away from her cousin a few minutes later, her body shaking with hiccups
and she laid back down on the makeshift bed that had been laid beneath her as
they had waited for her to wake up. Mia watched as Makoto rolled away from her,
burying her young face in the tiger’s fur, using him as a pillow while she
continued to shake, at least feeling a little better. Then the older of the two
continued to watch as her cousin’s breathing slowly eased off and continued into
a rhythmic lull, showing that she had finally fallen into sleep again.
It was the first time she had woken up in two days, but at least she had
woken up. Sage, Ryo, and she had waited, treading on eggshells to greet the girl
as she re-entered consciousness. There was no point in waking the ebony-haired
young man, though. He would see the little girl soon enough, and realize soon
enough that there were going to be more bumps along there already treacherous
path.
It wasn’t without a bit of apprehension and anxiety that Mia
recounted what had happened those two days ago while they were waiting.
*
“SAGE, WAKE UP!”
Though the words were not
commanded for her, she had obeyed them as if they were. Mia lifted her heavy
head from the floor, feeling a sudden and powerful strain in her neck and
shoulders as she did. She could see that Makoto was lying on the hard, rock
floor in front of Sehkmet. She wasn’t moving. Mia could sense the armored canon
fodder soldiers standing above her watching the display…
Then all at once
there was a tremendous flash of green light, so bright that Mia had to cast her
eyes away. She grunted softly, her fingers tightening over a lump of rock
embedded in the floor. She was cold and miserable, but in the presence of this
light she felt warm, and almost good, despite the fear she had felt growing
within her moments ago.
The light eventually dimmed and then faded and
Mia forced herself to look back. She was still lying on the ground. Sage was
standing there before Ryo, fully armored, holding a very mean looking no-dachi
over his shoulders. As his eyes turned this way and that, even landing on her
for a moment, they narrowed. Mia could see well at this distance, even in the
cavern’s abysmal darkness.
Then the ice blue eyes of the green ronin of
wisdom snapped towards Sehkmet and the no-dachi was removed from its resting
place.
Sage’s face plate slid upwards into his helmet and he began to
scream something, but it was hard for Mia to decipher the words. Almost at once
another gloriously brilliant bolt of light filled the cavern, illuminating all
sorts of stalagmites and stalactites, things Mia would have found very
interesting under different circumstances. She could see Ryo’s blue eyes, hazy,
staring upward to the roof of the great cavern, absorbing the light for all the
good it would do him.
*
The light had somehow driven away Talpa’s forces, much
the same way they had at Fuji. If she could remember the details, she had told
herself later, she would have to record them for comparison.
A gaping
hole had been created within the roof of the cavern, shedding twilight on them
all. With the light, Sage had been able to maneuver around the cave, gathering
Ryo and Mia together. She noted that his strength was as plentiful as Ryo’s had
been. The presence of his element had seemed to strengthen him rather than
diminish it, as Talpa had planned.
When gathered together Sage had
somehow managed to heal Ryo’s blindness, with the help of his sword. Ryo had
looked directly at him upon regaining it and had grinned with the graciousness
of Jimmy Stewart, realizing that life is precious. Mia had declined, saying that
she was fine, only tired. It was the truth, though from her viewpoint and Sage
had moved onto Makoto.
As he had held the tip of his sword against the
girl’s sternum, he closed his eyes and Ryo and Mia were able to watch as cuts,
scrapes, and various bruises from the previous days’ activities vanish. By the
time Sage removed his sword she looked incredibly healthy, save the general
dirtiness of her person that Sage’s power had not been able to remove. They had
waited for her to wake, but she had remained asleep.
It had taken a good
deal of her will power not to demand that Sage try again, and even more for her
not to be thrown into hysterics. Even without her request, Sage had tried to use
his healing technique again, but again, for all practical purposes to no
fruition. The only sign that appeared the second time around was the very
literal Jovian sign on her forehead.
They had all been startled again,
but Mia had begun to take it in stride.
After a few observations, it was
decided that they would take her as she was and simply wait for her to awaken.
That had been two days ago. Since then Sage had been driving Mia’s SUV.
Mia had been navigating while Makoto continued to sleep in the back seat. Ryo
and White Blaze traveled at a close distance to the Suzuki and had managed to
keep up. They were still making a game plan while trying to remain as close to
unseen as possible.
“Maybe I should have listened to grandfather that
day… Maybe I would have been strong enough to hold off the demon… Ryo would have
been able to protect him, and I would have been able to hold off the demon. He
was so old… His frail body couldn’t have held it off… Or maybe I’m just letting
my frustration run away with me…” Mia sighed as she let her thoughts run
loose. “I just wish we could stop for a moment and catch our breath… Ryo and
Sage might be able to take this pace, but me? And now Makoto?”
With
a sigh, Mia settled down behind and wrapped an arm around her dirty cousin’s
small waist. She looked up at the stars, as if looking for a sign of divine
inspiration.
She found none.
“Yes, I’ll definitely have to speak
to them tomorrow about slowing down for a bit… If they’ll listen…” The young
woman closed her eyes and tried to relax, listening to the sounds that were so
familiar to her at home- running water, soft bird cries at night. She had little
problems getting to sleep that night, knowing that her cousin was well.
- - - - -
When Ryo woke the next morning it was to a
smoldering fire and a quiet that can be found only in twilight. Growing up in
the country had made him a bit more familiar with nature than others of his age,
but he enjoyed it thoroughly and would not have traded it for but a few things
in the world. The current “camp out” would have been more enjoyable to him if it
had not been for the fact that he and his party were constantly fleeing for
their lives.
He lay on the ground for a moment, slightly chilled, but
not enough to still him, and then raised up into a sitting position. Light blue
eyes scanned their camp ground swiftly. It didn’t look like any movement had
taken place the night before, except just within the vicinity of the campfire
where he and Sage had been standing or talking.
Sage, himself, was still
asleep, his breathing soft and very nearly silent. Ryo’s eyes flitted to Mia.
She seemed to be the same way, her form curled around the spot Makoto had been
laid the afternoon before when they had stopped to rest. Her chest rose and fell
heavily, but her breathing was quiet. It was not likely that the three of them
would draw much attention by themselves. As for Makoto…
Ryo stood and
walked slowly to where Mia was laying, his eyes narrowing as he approached her.
Makoto was gone.
The same way they had when he sat up, his blue
eyes deftly searched the area around the oldest human of the party. There were
footprints that had scuffed the grass a bit in their movement, some large and
some small, then overlapping so he uld not distinguish them and then diverging
into two separate paths again. He followed the direction they moved in, not
waiting but a moment before moving to Sage and waking the blond ronin. With a
finger to his lips, the ebony-haired young man pulled his comrade to his feet
and then looked over at Mia.
They left her sleeping. It would not do
well to wake her right now after the grief she had been putting herself through
for the sake of her cousin.
The two moved swiftly and silently, their
heavily armored feet merely muffled footsteps on the thick blanket of grass.
Ryo’s eyes had quickly picked up the tousled trail he had found a few moments
earlier and they followed, darting through and around the thicket of trees.
Only a few meters from their camp site Ryo stopped, Sage just behind
him. There was silence between them. Sage watched the young man in front of him,
he had not been following the trail that had been seen like a runway in the dark
to Ryo’s careful eyes.
“What is it?” Sage asked in a whisper. Ryo was
silent for a moment as he looked at the ground and then upward. They had stopped
just a meter or so away from the base of a thick oak trunk. The tree was
massive, standing easily twenty meters tall.
“The trail ends here,” Ryo
murmured back to him, more lost in thought than for the sake of being quiet. His
eyes quietly took in the flattened grass, following it to its end, at the base
of the massive tree before them. Looking to the left and right, the ronin then
allowed his eyes to scan up the tree. Its trunk quickly disappeared into a mass
of foliage and limbs which his eyes could not penetrate.
With a silent
sigh he looked to Sage and jerked his head toward the tree. Sage nodded, but
remained where he was, arms motionless at his sides as he gazed upward into the
massive plant. Ryo circled around the base of the tree, taking a few steps
before he saw the end of black and white striped tail which had been hidden from
him on the other side of the trunk. Following the tail, confused, he soon saw
the entirety of White Blaze’s body curled up beneath the tree, breathing slowly
as if enjoying a very nice cat nap.
“Huh?” he wondered aloud, his
quietness leaving for a moment. He squatted down, running an armored hand under
the tiger’s chin to rouse him. Wild cherry-colored eyes opened to him and a deep
and rumbling purr rose from the tiger’s throat. Ryo smiled and scratched behind
his ears for a moment. Above him the sound of crunching foliage gained his
attention and he looked up just in time to see a brunette head pop out of the
trees.
He blinked in surprise, but did not lose is balance. He simply
stared upward, calling, “Hey Sage, I think we’ve found her,” to the blond ronin.
In response, Makoto looked in his direction, obviously craning her head
around. She wore an expression of confusion until she saw him and then her face
was blank as if trying to gauge his expression. Ryo stood, still looking up at
her. For a moment he wondered how someone so short, despite Makoto’s comparative
height for her age, could have gotten a firm hold to climb into the tree in the
first place.
Sage rounded the trunk of the tree and stood next to Ryo,
looking over at the young girl. Though his mind was full of questions brought on
by her state of being the night before, he remained silent, simply gazing at her
in confusion, much the same way Ryo had done.
Ryo quirked a single brow
at the girl and asked, “So are you going to come down or do we have to pull you
out?” She continued regarding him for a moment, as if she hadn’t heard what he
said. All of a sudden, her mind made up, she pulled her head back into the tree,
disappearing from view once more.
Ryo turned and looked at Sage,
worried, as the blond spoke, “How’s that for an answer?”
“Get real,”
Makoto spoke coolly. They both directed their eyes upward once more as her feet
appeared, dangling in the air, followed soon by the rest of her up to her
elbows. She hung there for a moment until she dropped down, landing in a crouch.
Makoto made to stand before she lost her balance and tumbled backward, landing
on the large white tiger behind her.
Ryo watched carefully as she and
the tiger both stood and took the same path back to the camp. Makoto was totally
unresponsive, except for when it came to dealing with White Blaze. She said
nothing to Sage or himself, not a barbed remark or a snappish comment to either
of them. It worried him.
“Well, she’s a lot more complacent than I
remember,” Sage spoke, walking past Ryo.
“Yeah, me too…”
Back at
camp, they found Makoto poking the embers of the fire with a stick, stirring up
Ash and smoke. Ryo continued to watch her before he moved toward Mia to wake
her.
“Don’t,” Makoto spoke calmly. He turned to look at her and founding
her eyeing him out of the corner of her eye. “She needs rest more than the rest
of us.” With that said she rolled backward onto her seat and stretched her arms
and legs out before her, studying them. She could perceive no scratches or
bruises, and even a few old scars on her knees had vanished. It was curious to
her, but she had no doubt that it was due to Sage’s arrival.
“Who
else could have done it? Ryo? He would have done it sooner, I think. Mia?
Please… The Warlords might be able to. They seem to bounce back pretty quick,
but the idea of them ever helping me makes me laugh.” She continued poking
in the dead fire with her stick, not paying attention to anything around her,
mostly lost in her own thoughts.
“So if not now, when do we wake
her, Makoto?” Sage asked. He received no answer. Then he looked to Ryo and
perked his single visible eyebrow.
“I can still hear what he said. He
said something about Talpa wanting me. Why me?” The thought beyond worried
her. It terrified her.
Living on the street, even if it hadn’t been for
a very long time, taught her that everyone has someone higher on the food chain
than themselves, but never through choice. The next level always required
someone with enough power to put the lower levels into submission.
Even
trying to remain a solitary urchin had had its difficulties. She had run into
several small cliques and gangs demanding a sort of fee from her. She had always
managed to escape, though her former bruises had been part of her payment. It
had taught her, though, that when a warlord, a powerful demon that even the
Ronin could not defeat, announced that its master wished for her…
Well…
She shuddered at the thought, all pride and arrogance leaving her
in that moment. Would Sage and Ryo be enough to protect her? And even if they
found the rest of the Ronin? Would they all be enough to protect her? Would they
be too busy saving the world to protect one small girl? Ryo, himself, could not
even stop the demon that had taken over her grandfather…
Makoto frowned
and jabbed the end of the stick savagely into the coals, unleashing a whiff of
smoke and stirring up ash. It stuck straight in the air, and she stared at it
with cold eyes as she drew her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around
herself.
“I don’t need anyone’s help. I can take care of myself. I
always take care of myself. Always.”
Sage watched the little girl,
her vicious stab with the stick, and her sullen expression afterwards.
“Of course, just what we need,” he thought calmly, “…the brat
of the entourage. Lovely.” How Ryo had endeavored to keep Mia and
Makoto safe and still come out with his wits intact, Sage did not know. Mia,
well, she was nice enough. She was cool-headed, pretty enough, and definitely
one of the most intelligent people he’d ever met… But she was still cumbersome.
The single blond of the group walked to where Ryo gathering a few sticks
and twigs to heap onto the coals. “Ryo,” he spoke lowly, causing the red ronin
to look up at him, from his knelt position on the ground. "We need to get moving
soon. Now that we’ve all rested and recuperated we need to find the others. If
we’ve had time to reorganize then Talpa and the Warlords have as well.” After
making his point, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited patiently for a
response.
“Yeah, you’re right…” Ryo spoke after a moment to digest the
words. “You’re right. Go ahead and wake up Mia. I’ll get Makoto and White Blaze
and we’ll make for Yamaguchi.” Ryo lowered the bundle of sticks to the ground
gently, and then began to stand.
“That’s another thing, I’ve been
thinking about,” Sage spoke. His voice was quiet, and it was the volume and tone
that caused Ryo to look back to him with a curious expression. Sage looked to
his left where the other three were resting and he sighed. Still looking at them
he spoke softly, “This may not be the best idea, but I think we should split
up.”
“What?” Ryo demanded emphatically. His voice was nearly on normal
speaking level as he spoke and Sage winced, raising a hand to calm him. “If we
split up how are we going to survive out there? You forget that there are only
two of us and four Warlords, not to mention Talpa. Besides, how would we split
up? You and me? Leaving Mia and Makoto to go through the hell they’ve already
been through? You know they’ve already lost a family member to this menace. We
can’t ask them to sacrifice their own lives,” Ryo explained heatedly, turning
away from the ronin in green.
“Ryo, stop. I don’t like it anymore than
you, but we have to face facts. We’re short of resources and short on time. I’m
perfectly aware of Mia and Makoto’s loss, but that’s nothing compared to what
the rest of the world will lose if we don’t move fast. Besides, the warlords
can’t come after us all together. They may be strong, but they don’t have the
poem, and they don’t work as a team. If we split up we’ll have a better chance
of finding someone else before we lose anyone else…”
Ryo grit his teeth
as Sage finished. His back was still turned to him. He could only see Makoto’s
blank face as she stared down at her feet, and White Blaze’s protective pacing
of the camp site. No, he did not like this idea one bit, but it had merit. As
much as he was a hothead, he would admit that, but he also didn’t want to risk
everyone’s safety for the sake of… For the sake of the world?
“Can I
risk one or two people for the sake of the world? What am I thinking? Isn’t it
just as wrong to put two or three people in jeopardy as to let seven billion
people die? Damnit…” He looked over his shoulder and spoke, “We’ll ask them
to see what they think. We need to wake Mia up, anyway, despite what Makoto
might think…”
- - - - -
“No, no, no. You’re insane. You’re
absolutely insane.”
The silent three watched as the short young brunette
began to pace back on forth on the side of the campfire opposite them. For a
moment she paused in her speaking and ran a hand through her bangs, trying to
control her emotions. It was more restraint than she had shown in a long time.
Sage took advantage of Makoto’s silence to get his foot in the door,
making his argument. He swiftly, but articulately, argued the points he had used
with Ryo looking most at Mia while he spoke. He glanced out of the corner of his
to where Makoto was staring at him sullenly. She might argue with him, but
remaining clear-headed would make his point seem much more valid and ship his
argument with much more authority than Makoto’s whining. In the end, he was sure
that even she would agree with his point of view.
When he was finished,
Mia glanced from him to Ryo, who nodded in agreement with his fellow warrior and
then to Makoto who had looked away from all of them. The little girl’s entire
body was tensed, as if ready to bolt- either that or to plant her feet firmly in
the ground and not budge a muscle. She seemed to have given up arguing already.
It was not like her at all. Ryo and Mia both took note, even going as far as to
exchange glances with one another, but they said nothing.
Mia sighed and
shrugged her shoulders, her eyes closing for a bit as she acquiesced with, “All
right. We’ll split up.” She still wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea,
especially since it meant that she and Makoto would be splitting up. Could Ryo
even handle the girl without Mia around? It seemed doubtful, without getting
physical. “Let me get my laptop and we can go ahead and start making routes.”
She climbed to her feet easily with Sage’s help, him mostly pulling her. They
stood for a moment holding the other’s hands before Mia coughed uncomfortably
and pulled her hands, letting Sage lower his to his sides gently.
“Right,” he agreed and stepped around her in the opposite direction of
the vehicle. She could hear him crunching away through the light peat, mingled
with grass, on the forest floor. She nodded silently and began walking toward
the jeep without looking towards Ryo or her cousin.
Ryo, for his part,
took the whole exchange and cleared his throat, turning to look at Makoto.
The routes were drawn up with Sage and Ryo each memorizing the
directions. They had no way to print them out. By the time they had their maps
drawn up and memorized it was nearly noon. The un was high overhead and the heat
of the day was beginning to be felt.
Makoto was still not speaking to
anyone, and the only one she ventured near, voluntarily, was White Blaze. She
would pat his head and scratch behind his ears. The tiger tried to be
accommodating, but even he was beginning to lose his affect on her.
Mia
sighed as Ryo and Sage continued talking with one another from the spot the trio
had taken up a few meters away from the girl. Actually, Sage was doing the
talking, throwing out facts that each of them already realized. They were all
crowded around Mia’s laptop where a map, with several different blinking
coordinates was shown. The silent pair was supposed to be supplementing Sage
with information every few moments or so, but they were watching their young
charge instead.
“I’m worried about her,” Ryo spoke, cutting Sage off
without realizing it. Mia nodded, not looking at the annoyed expression on
Sage’s face. She was not even surprised at Ryo’s words.
“I am too,” she
whispered gravely, her voice laden with worry and incertitude. “This quiet… It
reminds me of the way she used to act before grandfather…. She never spoke to
us, unless hatefully, but at least then she spoke. Now, I can’t help but
wonder…” Mia rocked back onto her heels before sitting, crossing her legs in the
lotus position. “It just seems like the more we get into this the angrier and
more distant she becomes. I can’t even spare any time from her to help her get
over it…”
“I don’t even know what to begin to say to her,” Ryo added as
he dropped into a seated position also.
As they watched Makoto, Sage
watched them. It was obvious that they cared for the girl, though outside of
Mia’s relationship with her, it was hard to see why. Still… He gave a mental
sigh.
“I’ll never get anywhere like with Mia if she’s constantly
worrying over Makoto,” he thought before closing his eyes. As had other
plans of his, a new idea came to him quickly. “Hey,” he spoke gently, catching
their attention and effectively drawing it back to him. “I know you guys are
worried about her, but Mia’s right we can’t keep stopping like this just because
Makoto decides to throw a tantrum.” Ryo frowned and opened his mouth to defend
the young girl, but Sage held up a hand gently. His eyes were lowered humbly,
but they lifted as he spoke, “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think
Makoto and I should take one direction and you guys should take the
other…”
There was silence for about five seconds as Mia and Ryo both
stared at Sage with wide, unbelieving eyes, and then…
“Makoto was right,”
Mia spoke gently. “You are insane.”
Sage sighed and added, “You guys
baby her-“
“She’s only a little girl-“
“…and she needs to grow up
a little.”
“…who needs to stay with people that love her.”
Ryo
watched as Sage tried to speak while Mia ignored him. It was unlike Mia to be so
rude, but the bearer of Wildfire was beginning to learn that she was
particularly sensitive in matters concerning her cousin. He sighed and continued
being silent as Sage reached out and grabbed Mia’s shoulders.
“I can
help her,” he spoke flatly. Mia was knocked out of her speech and shook her head
a moment before her eyes focused on Sage.
“Huh?” she spoke
intelligently. Sage chuckled and then released her, dropping back into a sitting
position as the other two had.
“I used to be a lot like her,” he spoke
calmly. His icy blue eyes ventured toward the object of their discussion and he
watched as she lifted a rock and threw it mightily into the wood around them,
anger in her stance and in her eyes. “Rude, emotional… My grandfather is a kendo
master. When I was growing up with him he was able to help me control my anger
and even channel it into my own kendo practices, giving me a lot more
self-control… I can remember many of the methods he used as he taught me.”
Ryo looked from Sage to Mia, knowing this was her decision to make. As
the new guardian of the young woman, it would ultimately be up to her to decide
who Makoto would travel with. She hardly seemed happy on the idea, to the point
of outright frowning at Sage. Then she closed her eyes and released a deep sigh.
“You have to understand that I am doing the best I can with her. It
hasn’t been easy this past year, and now with Grandfather’s death it seems as
though she’s just regressing,” Mia spoke, her eyes still closed and the frown
still upon her face. Sage reached down, taking her hand.
“I understand,
and I’m not blaming you for anything,” he spoke with a reassuring smile. “I just
want you to understand that if we don’t do something she’s going to get worse
and soon enough she’ll be to the point where we can’t do anything for her.”
Mia’s eyes opened. Her frown had drowned in an expression of worry.
“Are
you certain that you can help her?” she asked quietly, barely above a whisper.
“Nothing’s ever certain,” Sage spoke, the same smile on his face as he
gave her hand a light squeeze, “but I have enough confidence in myself to be
able to get through to her and to help her along a bit.”
Mia gave
another sigh and slowly nodded, “All right.” She pulled her hand from within
Sage’s gauntlet, feeling suddenly self-aware and self-conscious. Dropping her
hands into her lap she mustered a smile, then glanced to Ryo and back to Sage.
“What have we got to lose?”
“That’s the spirit,” Ryo spoke, slapping her
shoulder lightly. He jumped to his feet with a reassuring smile of his own which
quickly grew into a grin. “I’m going to go stretch a bit and then start packing
up the few things that we have with us.” Sage agreed with his notion and offered
to go help, which Ryo quickly accepted. Mia watched them walk away, her smile
still on her face.
Her mind, though, was back at her previous question
answered, “Everything.”
- - - - -
Packing was completed, and the trio was
standing a few meters away from the back of the jeep, huddled and quiet as they
spoke in low tones. Makoto was sitting in the front passenger seat, twiddling
her thumbs as she waited for Mia to get into the vehicle. The way she understood
it, the four of them would ride together to conserve their energy until they
reached a good splitting point. Then she and Ryo would take White Blaze, riding
to wherever, and Mia and Sage would do the same, only with the SUV instead of an
animal.
“Fine,” she thought, not at all ‘fine’ with the idea. She
was angry. Makoto had had plenty of time to think that morning, having shunned
the group in order to get sometime to think, that and she just wasn’t happy with
any of them ganging up on her. “So yeah Sage’s idea deserves some due, but
hey if we all die from not sticking together who’s going to be able to give
it?” She sighed and forced her hands into her lap, leaning back into her
seat and looking out the window. She was not in the mood to see Mia looking
cheerful and happy about this brilliant plan, even if it was only for a short
while. “Why am I so angry? So I didn’t get my way, big deal. I should be used
to that, and I’m used to being alone, so I should be able to deal with splitting
up. It’s not like I have anything against Ryo, either, and definitely not White
Blaze. Why am I so angry?”
The wind blew on the other side of her
window, rustling the tree limbs and leaves, and carrying her answer away with
it. It totally escaped her.
She closed her eyes and tried to relax a
bit, allowing her shoulders to droop as she waited on her cousin, “Maybe I
just miss creature comforts, like TV and a toilet. Oh yeah, a toilet would be
very nice right now…” She sighed again as the driver side door opened.
“And a bath, mmmm. A bath would be very- whoa! Am I getting soft?” Her
eyes snapped open and she stared with hard green eyes out the window. “I must
be getting soft after having lived with Grandpa and Mia so long…
Grandpa…”
While she continued to stare out the side of the vehicle,
Makoto reached a hand up to the window, placing it against the cool glass. Her
hand was smudged with dirt. It was almost a shade darker than what she
remembered her natural skin color being. “Oh yeah, that’s bad.” She
lowered her hand and asked, “Hey Mia, do you think we could stop somewhere at
the halfway point and maybe… erm, find a bathhouse or something? I know, I know…
The bath is used for relaxing, not cleaning, but I’m sure-“ She had turned to
see her cousin’s facial expression to this request, knowing she could decide
what to say by what she saw, but what she saw was nothing she expected to see.
Her lips pursed and her eyes widened.
Sage smirked at her from
the driver’s seat, saying only, “Hello.”
With an eerie calm she faced
forward, strapping herself into her seat. Sage briefly watched as he jaw
clenched behind her cheekbones.
“Kids,” he thought with a grin.
“Gotta love ‘em.”
“You know,” she began, her outward calm belied
by the malice in her voice. It startled the bearer of Halo to hear such hate
from such a young person, “it figures. It just figures, but just for the sake of
posterity, what the hell did I ever do to get stuck with you?”
Makoto
crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Sage snorted behind his smirk,
not taking his eyes off of the road. Her mind played over the possible things he
could say, quickly compiling a list of retorts to whatever his response might
be.
“I asked to be teamed with you,” was not on the list. He spoke so
calmly and so quickly that Makoto could only doubt his sincerity, instead of
flat out refusing to believe it. She looked away from him, doubts already in her
eyes as she mulled over his words.
“I… asked… teamed… you…” her
mind replayed slowly, making sure she had gotten the words right. The brunette
bit her lip as she continued thinking. Sage was still silently driving, shifting
gears every now and then.
“You know, if you want me to pretend to be
happy about this-“
“I wouldn’t ask that of you,” he broke in, smiling at
her again. When she looked away from him he grinned, feeling very proud of his
current self-control and patience. He had steeled himself for a tantrum, and
even a possible escape attempt, but she was taking it incredibly well.
He spared another quick glance at her, wondering what was going on
behind that passive face of hers.
“So can we find a bath or what?” she
asked, without looking at him. He borrowed her actions for a moment and as she
looked to him he kept his expression neutral with eyes on the road.
“The is a good chance to make some ground. We can bargain that if she
agrees to talks to me, I’ll stop.” He smiled inwardly and then quickly
caught himself. “No. No bargaining. She has to learn that I’m in control,
even if this is difficult for the both of us,” he thought as the corners of
his mouth turned downward.
“I’m going to have to bathe sometime,” Makoto
spoke testily, having studied him for his expression.
“”If you would let
me speak instead of trying to assume everything, you might be surprised,” Sage
retorted calmly while he downshifted to compensate for a turn in the road.
“Okay?” she offered, her tone only slightly more winning.
“We
don’t have time to go out of our way for anything, not even a bath,” he began.
Makoto waited, recognizing the introductory flow of his words. “But,” and he
offered a smile with a glance from the corner of his eye, “if we see an inn
alone the way, we’ll stop and make use of the facilities. How does that sound?”
He could see her smirk from the corner of his eye, making him wonder if
he was perhaps being too indulgent. “No,” his mind answered for him.
“Hygiene and luxuries might appear to be one in the same, but in this case
the former is a necessity.” She had not begun to smell, but after learning
the accounts of their travels from Mia, he quickly deduced that she hadn’t seen
a bath in some five days. If she wasn’t smelling now, she would be all too soon.
“Okay, that sounds fair. But you do realize that by saying we
you’re agreeing to help me break into an inn, right?” Makoto questioned. He
cautioned a glance at her only to see a hefty smirk upon her face, her mouth
slightly open. Oh, she did remind him of his older sister.
“I am
agreeing to no such thing,” he spoke evenly and not without a bit of
condescension. “I happen to have some money to leave for compensation.”
“Whoa, it’s not like anyone will be there to take it, anyway!” she
exclaimed incredulously. Sage recognized another aspect of her character they
would have to adjust: perception.
“That’s true,” he agreed, “but we
would know, and so we’re leaving money.”
“You’re so weird,” she spoke
with distaste, rolling back into her seat as she crossed her arms over her
chest.
“It’s called chivalry.”
“You’re a samurai, not a knight.”
“Same difference.”
“Hardly.”
Sage fought to keep an
annoyed snort from rising up in his throat. Whether or not her sarcasm could be
attributed to independence, Makoto certainly was used to getting her way.
“Her grandfather must have been a saint to make any kind of progress
with her at all,” Sage thought as he regarded her from the corner of his
eye, calmly fixing his demeanor. “Has anyone ever tried to teach you any
manners?”
“Of course,” she spoke with a short laugh, “but it never
took…” She was lazily tracing patterns on the window with her fingers, leaving
small smudges in their wakes.
“What about Mia?” he asked, probing
unknown territory. He was advancing cautiously, but he was advancing
nonetheless. The more he knew from her perspective the more he could help her.
The first response from Makoto was a snort.
“Mia tries, but she doesn’t
know what she’s doing. She was probably born with manners. Besides, I don’t
think she really cares, anyway. She’s always got her nose buried in some moldy
old book and never really tries. Not that I care or anything,” she finished
quickly, casting a furtive glance at Sage.
“Of course,” he answered as
she turned away. The expression with which she glanced at him would have frozen
lava, but he was still staring at the road, looking sincere enough that she
relaxed. “So Mia’s not so hot… Sounds maybe like she thinks she’s baby-sitting.”
“Well tough, because I didn’t ask for anyone to baby sit me. You know, I
didn’t ask to be dropped with people that I don’t know.”
“I
didn’t know that, but thank you for explaining it to me. I’ll try to keep it in
mind,” he spoke, retorting as she might have in the same situation; quickly and
without a lot of pity. He sighed as Makoto dropped back into her seat, peeved
once more.
“You know,” he continued softly, “Mia and your grandfather
didn’t ask for the responsibility either…”
“I know,” she snapped. All too
vividly was the memory of another rat social worker dropping her at the
university the first time that she had met Mia and her grandfather. The reason
she had gone there at all was because the pair had been too busy to get her from
the orphanage. Just behind them were various other aunts and uncles that had
been too busy with their own children, their own lives, to care about her.
“That’s the way it always is. I had a cousin Shizuka that had a little brother
and when they sent me to stay with her she treated her stupid cat better than
me. At least it got food and toys. Man, I got to be like some whack
Cinderella, because neither of them could cook…” Makoto shook her head as she
looked out her window again, her face heavy with frowning as she shook her head.
“None of them wanted me,” she added quietly; so quietly that Sage had to check
his hearing to make sure he had heard her right.
Sage waited a moment,
carefully weighing his thoughts. What he could he tell her? That her relatives
had wanted her? For all he knew, her anger was justified. There were just some
people in the world that weren’t meant to be parents or guardians of any sort,
for that matter. Finally…
“Your grandfather wanted you.”
Makoto
was silent.
“Mia was the only other person living with him, right?” he
asked gently. When he got no disagreement he continued, “He didn’t seem like the
type of person to have made such a decision without consulting her… She could
have easily said no, that she didn’t want you there, but she didn’t.”
“She was just doing her duty…” Makoto answered weakly. It didn’t sound
as if she herself believed that statement. Sage could not suppress a smile.
With the gentle smile still on his face, he continued, “I doubt that a
girl of seventeen, even Mia, has such a sense of duty.” He heard Makoto sigh and
for a moment he wished he wasn’t driving so that he could gauge her expression
more thoroughly, as she was at liberty to do with him. He chuckled at a new
thought that rose within him and was then encouraged to share the amusing
notion. “I was just thinking,” he spoke, “that you have a tendency to grow on
people, even if you are brash and uncaring.”
“Yeah, spores do that.”
“Does that mean I can call you fungus now?”
“Only if you want to
lose your eye while you sleep,” she replied, grinning at him.
“Ouch.”
- - - - -
Calimetaure – I’ve tried to keep up
characterization. I hope you like it, and thank you for the wonderful
compliments. You know when they are from you they are most graciously received
^_^.
Beautiful Siren – Thank you for your compliment, as well. I
seem to have lost contact with SRS, but I will try to pick it up soon (as long
as you continue to update, that is =)
Sailor Emerald – I think
(Technically this story was begun Dec. 02 and I don’t keep formal notes to refer
to, so I am not sure…) she is just above 11 years old. Like 11, and four months.
I hope that the point of being adopted is accurate (I am assuming that you
yourself are adopted you wouldn’t have made that comment.) Lol, I hope you
didn’t get caught in your review. And as for romance with Mako, I didn’t say it
would be anyone that wore armor ^_~
JupLuna – LOL! She kind of is
like Heero, isn’t she? Being all independent and whatnot… Hehehe, oh that was a
“typo.”
girl of darkness – Uhm, okay, please no threats ^_^ We
aim to please not sustain injury ^_^ Lol, j/k, myself (sort of O_o)
Mystical Jade – Can I get a “what, what?!” As in, “Itai!
What was that for?” Of course she’s growing fond of Ryo, but we can’t
have her turning into a little Yuli/Jun can we? shudder Besides, I don’t
want her to fall in love with him. I just want her to be friends with all
of them, as you might have deduced learned from this chapter. Yeah, I like the
way she’s opening up to them too! After all, a lump of ice can only sustain
itself so long in the presence of [love and] warmth… Thanks again for reviewing
^_^
I hope that the rest of you enjoyed and that’ll you’ll be patient with
me while I trudge the next six months (haha, maybe not that long ^_~) before
delivering another chapter. Ta ta!
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