I sighed and watched as Miyoko walked up the hill and as she handed us each our meals, she sat down heavily. After devouring our dinner in a small matter of twenty minutes, Miyoko leant back and we all did the same.
Staring up at the finally clear night sky—two days before the storm was predicted to hit—I took this moment as if it would be the last time I would see the stars.
"What's the plan, Hiro?" Miyoko asked quietly, I heard the grass crackle slightly as she shifted her head, and I felt her strangely coloured gaze on my face.
"I think since we're wanted fugitives now, we should make our way discreetly over to Devil's Haven—we should be safe there," I said, I looked over at Miyoko, she grinned and nodded.
"Sounds like a fair enough place, they won't mind us while we plan a mass execution of a Squad either." She said this so aimlessly I kind of had to laugh.
Jae sat up and grinned at me. "I haven't heard that sound in a while." She said, tapping me on the nose. I scrunched up my face and pulled my arms from underneath my head. I sat up and brushed my hair clean of grass.
"Miyoko," I began. I looked over, down the hill at the flickering lantern lights of the small village. "When you go down to the villages, give us a report," I said this quietly as if none of us wanted to really talk business. It was fun mucking about like kids, but we weren't kids.
Miyoko nodded. "Understood." I looked back up at the sky and felt the smallest of smiles creep onto the corner of my mouth.
"I won't go down without a fight."
The past three days consisted of the same pattern.
We walked at a reasonable pace—not in any hurry—and rest every now and then. Once we'd walked a fair distance and had made our way to our village to hang out for the night, Yatsu, Jae and I would all camp up overlooking the village and Miyoko would head down to grab us a bite to eat and check for any Vaccine members and news on their hunt for us. Once we'd eaten, we'd discuss what Miyoko would have to report and then we'd all sleep in a small closed-off area where we were less likely to be found.
We'd wake up early and continue our travel. It continued like that. It was a very simple lifestyle compared to how I used to live, and it didn't both me at all.
On our third day travelling, Miyoko walked up the hill, with no food apart from a loaf of bread in her hand. She split it up, ignoring our questions as she sat and stared back down the hill she'd just run up.
I gulped down the last of the bread and looked down the hill too, away from the clouded sky. Tomorrow it would rain, and we could all smell it.
"Miyoko, report," I said quietly.
She pushed down the last of her bread and gulped down the water we'd been sharing. Collected from a river and heated over a fire. We could only drink yesterday afternoon.
"The Vaxxine, they're…" She trailed off, I looked over at her and watched as Jae stiffened.
"They're here, aren't they?" Jae asked angrily. She stood up, I stood with her. Jae's temper—when it showed itself—was a sight to behold.
She took one step to go down that hill and I grabbed her wrist, she looked back at me, her expression agonised. "Let me go." She said quietly.
I held tighter. "I'm not letting you go down there—"
"They destroyed my home, they killed my father—he was going to leave that night, to go and find a new start—and they burnt him to ashes." She said this, and once finished, her dark, burning gaze met mine. She was pissed.
"Jae he wouldn't want you going off and hurting yourself like this—"
"How would you know?" Jae asked. "He wasn't your father!" She shouted.
I flinched, my wide-eyed gaze narrowing as I dropped her wrist. She closed her mouth quickly, and I felt a soft drizzle begin to fall. A light warning of what would come.
Jae blinked at me and I didn't bother pushing my slowly damp hair from my face.
"No Jae—he wasn't my father—my Father died at the hands of the exact same enemy and do you think I didn't go through what you are?" I looked up at her, scowling so hard she flinched.
"I—"
I put up a hand. "Don't say anything." I looked away, avoiding her gaze. The drizzle slowly died. "I won't lose anyone else." I dropped my hand into a fist.
"That's an order."
I sneezed and blinked up at the overhang of leaves. Yawning, I sat up and brushed my hair from my face, rubbing my eyes. I had no idea what time it was, but the sun hadn't come up yet. I frowned, wondering what had woken me up when I heard a light crackle of leaves underfoot and saw Miyoko standing over Jae's bed.
I squinted and then groaned, slapping my face to wake myself up. Jae's empty bed.
I stood up and walked to Miyoko's side. "We have to help her—get her back," Miyoko said quietly.
I put a hand on her shoulder and she looked back at me. I tilted my head and grinned. "Maybe after we retrieve our ignorant friend, we begin to hunt for our food instead?"
Miyoko grinned back at me. "Probably for the best." She said.
I wrapped my cloak around my shoulders and Miyoko pulled her arms through her black hood. We slowly crept down the dead grassed covered hill and made our way into the village.
It was deathly quiet except for the sound of cackling and cries of pleading. Except they weren't. The cries were of anger, curses thrown at the cackles. And cut off with a shout of pain.
I gestured for us to go around the house the noises were coming from a, beginning search for a window or some sort of opening. Miyoko followed my lead and we came to rest at a series of square holes through the wall, a hand-carved vent.
We lay on our bellies and peered through the vent. I saw a small crowd of around five soldiers all clad in white coats. Their buttons are black, and their sleeves are embroidered black.
I watched as they stepped back, laughing at something in front of them and patting their comrades on the back. They parted enough for me to catch a glimpse of Jae's bloodied and bruised figure.
I hissed and Miyoko grabbed my wrist. "Save her." She said, wide-eyed. I looked at her carefully and realised what she expected me to do. I grimaced and looked back at Jae, surrounded by the enemy she and I had shared for a fair amount of years. Their name is only just known.
I looked back at Miyoko. "If it gets out of control, stop me," I said. She nodded seriously and I closed my eyes. I felt deep down, past my ribs, into and through my lungs, hiding beneath my heart.
I drew out the Mist, and when I reopened my eyes, it was like I was crawling through the vent holes and into the room. Sneaking along the ground like some small, vicious predator.
I whispered words that were not in any language I knew. It was a hiss of letters and syllables and noises. The curling of my tongue was unintended as the Mist curled slowly around all the men's ankles. I murmured one word, completely oblivious to Miyoko's worried looks.
Kill.
The Mist pulled back and locked viciously around their throats, their mouths opened wordlessly as they tugged against nothing they could remove.
Jae sucked in a breath and looked up at all the windows, and then her gaze found mine. She looked pained and I sent her an angered look. I wasn't leaving her behind, and I was certainly not to blame for my actions.
She was the one who snuck off in the night to exact her revenge. It was her fault we were in this situation.
I felt the men's grip loosen as they slowly lost the last bubbles of air that escaped from their lungs.
I felt something slow and deliberate creep into the corner of my mouth and I frowned, touching my lips in confusion.
I was smiling.
"I got 'em!" A voice cried, no more than two seconds later, a hand latched around my throat. I gasped for air and the Mist immediately retreated to its source.
I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head and something warm dribbled out of the corner of my mouth. I gurgled and blinked my lazy eyes open. Miyoko was thrown beside Jae and they began to beat her up too. She cried out as their feet connected with her head and stomach.
"No…stop it," I murmured. I reached out with my free hand, the other held tightly, and painfully behind my back. I heard a snap and blinked again as a painful feeling spread down my arm. I looked back at the man who'd just broken my wrist.
I leapt onto him and felt a single tear fall down my cheek. "Stop hurting them, stop killing them—kill me—you hurt me instead—don't…hurt…them…" I mumbled.
The man chuckled heartily. "Well now, you want us to hurt as bad as those two together?" He asked, shaking me off and squatting down to face me.
I gulped and shut my eyes, pleading that this Mist might come in handy. Even if I end up making my lung problem worse. I nodded.
The man laughed and dragged me up, telling the men to stop beating Jae and Miyoko. I watched through bleary eyes as their feet came closer and closer until they were right on me.
I bit my lip and held back the cries that bubbled up in my throat. I gulped and felt more pain as they stepped back and saw the Mist swirl around me as it worked harder than ever to try and keep my body in peak condition.
"Damn." One of them said under their breath.
I panted heavily, even though I was alive and my wounds from their fists and kicks were healed. I was still in pain. Mist looked soft and…well, it looked as if it was made of cotton or some fluffy material. It looked welcoming.
"Keep at it." The first man said, he kicked my head and I swore that it knocked my brain off centre. I couldn't help but let out the tiniest of cries, it trailed off into a whimper. The Mist was doing more damage to me than they were. The more they kicked and broke my healed skin, the harder the Mist repaired me. And soon blood was coming out of my mouth like a light stream.
"Okay, once he'd unconscious, we'll load all of them in crates and take 'em to her." Their apparent leader said. Another kick.
There were more mumbles of agreement, then I heard a knock on the door. One of them walked up and opened it up. There was an old man. He leant weakly over his cane as he looked down at me, then over at Jae and Miyoko.
"I would like to know why you young men are all making such a racket." The man said. "My grandchildren cannot sleep with such noises."
"Fuck off, old man." The one at the door said, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth. He was suddenly furious and I couldn't figure out why.
"That's no way to treat your elderly." He stepped into the room. He was stopped immediately, the white-coated man stopping him with a straightforward shove.
"I don't wanna have to repeat what I said before." The man warned the elderly. He reached behind him and flicked his two middle fingers. In an instant, every Vaxxine in the room pulled out their weapon. A gun. A knife. A sword.
The old man didn't even flinch.
"I simply want my neighbourhood quieter, so if you wish to continue this…fiasco. Could you remove yourselves from the area?" The Vaccine at the door growled under his breath and then gestured something else with his fingers and everyone put their weapons away.
"Fine, then." He said in a snarky tone. Two people carried Jae and Miyoko and another carried me, basically dragging me behind him—expecting me to walk after what they forced me to do.
"You happy now, old man?" The Vaxxine leader asked, stepping forwards.
The old man smiled and tilted his head to the side. "Very." He said. And before my failing eyes, multiple men with knives suddenly appeared from behind us. Their blades pressed against the Vaxxine's throats before they could move.
"What is this—" The Vaxxine leader began.
"Hirokazu's father, Ryuu Yamashita, was an ally to this city—men who went to war with him returned home because of his sacrifice." He bowed slightly before me, I realised that I was no longer relying on my enemy's hand to keep my body in some sort of balance. I stumbled and fell to my knees, holding my head as shadows and hands flickered in the corners of my vision. My head was full of holes as I whimpered softly, begging the darkness to stop. To rid my bones of this unpredictable pain and velvet black.
"Let them go, or we will be forced to kill you all." The old man said. There was a rumbled of murmurs among the Vaxxines and eventually, Jae's careful hands pulled me up. Miyoko's hair fell down as she bowed in front of the old man.
"One more favour—where can we go?"
"There is an abandoned farmhouse further past the hills, buried deep and away." Was the reply. As we began to walk away the man added. "Oh, and your mountain cat seems to have fallen in love with our fish." He said.
"Keep her," I mumbled, I didn't want her to get dragged into the mess we were already waist-deep in.
"Farewell." And then we were gone, slipping into velvet blackness.
As Jae dragged my broken body up the third hill, the rain began to pour. Buckets and buckets of the stuff. Falling like shards of shattered crystal. Then Miyoko spotted it. The farmhouse. It was a faded red, the wood was holed up in places and falling apart in others. There was a small shed further off in the distance which Jae spotted.
I no longer felt the rain drip down my neck and back because my neck and back were both soaked to the core. I shivered uncontrollably which Jae pointed out when she tripped and we both fell to the ground. My body fell limply to the ground, trembling.
I blinked lazily in front of me and leant heavily against Jae's shoulder, her hand holding my wrist with such a grip that I felt the circulation cut off every time I jolted from a misstep.
"Hey, who's that?" Miyoko asked. I felt Jae's chin brush the top of my saturated head as she looked out across the hills around us. The rain was so thick it looked like fog. Ever falling as we stumbled to shelter.
I forced my head to look up just as a whirl of steel caught my attention. I watched as an arrow whistled through the air, aiming for Jae's heart. I put my arm up to stop it and it sunk into my forearm, the wet thud as it went straight through me. Through flesh and bone. I let my arm fall to the ground and fell forward, Jae too stunned to catch me. Miyoko was too far off to do anything.
But, instead of falling to the ground and letting the cold grass stain my cheek—green and whispering of dreams of another life in my ear—a pair of arms caught me.
I frowned and let my head loll back. My vision blurred as all I saw were two rich, light amber eyes before I finally let the threatening darkness take over me.