‘I’ve tried already five times today
to get her out of her room, but she won’t budge, even for a small bite to eat.’
‘Then
you’re not doing enough for her!’
‘What
do you expect me to do? She’s my
sister, my sister! You’re the
father figure here. Why don’t you
figure out something to do for her?
All I’ve seen you do around here is blame that poor boy she loved for
all of your problems, and let me assure you, you DO have your fair share of
problems, dad.’
‘How
dare you speak to me that way.’
‘Well
maybe it’s about time someone had.
I’ve done everything that I can for her, for him. There’s nothing more these powers can
do.’
‘Then
perhaps we still need to hone your skills a little further.’
Kaori
awoke in a sweat within her cold, damp cell room. Her heart pounding in her chest, she sat
with her wide eyes staring out into the darkness around her. She had felt strange ever since she was
dumped into this prison cell, somewhere far beneath the earth’s surface, she assumed
due to the excessive dampness and lack of windows and natural light. The only light now came from far down
the hallway to the left where the guards spent most of their time playing
cards, making bets, and participating in minor to large skirmishes over things
she could only imagine. As far as
she knew, she was the only prisoner in this entire prison. None of the guards would speak to her. They’d just hand over her daily food
stuffs and leave it at that. The
only guard that even gave her the time of day—although he was rather short with
her—was a younger man with grayish-purple eyes and a sort of silvery-white
hair. He couldn’t have been more
than 25 years old and yet his hair was so unlike that of a young person’s. Kaori only saw this man maybe twice a
week on Wednesdays and Fridays, but after such a long time in prison—exactly
how long she really couldn’t tell—it was just nice to be able to talk with
someone.
Today
she guessed was a Friday, around noon or so, but it felt like she was hungry for
lunch hours ago. Her guard friend
came walking down the hallway from the guard’s station with a small tray of
food for her. “Here you are,” he
said as he passed the tray through the narrow spacing in the cell bars. “Sorry I’m late today. The guys were being a pain in the
ass. Kept me busy longer than I had
wanted.”
As
she took the tray from the guard, she noticed that he had a small cut on his
face to the side of his right eye.
“Hey, you’re hurt! What
happened?” Kaori said, suddenly not so hungry any more.
“It’s
nothing. Like I said, the guys were
being a pain in the ass. It seems
like something big is about to go down, what exactly, none of us knows but it’s
coming. Ah, it’s really not their
fault anyway. Everybody’s been on
the edge lately, expecting some kind of war or something to break out.”
“A
war? Is this really that
serious? Am I somehow involved in
this?”
The
man shrugged his shoulders and turned away from Kaori, resting his back against
the cell bars. He softly patted the
swollen area around his eye then impatiently crossed his arms. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out
what’s really going on here. It’s
far to…obscure for my liking.”
A
strange kind of silence passed between them. The man stood there for at least a
minute, not moving the slightest bit and appearing as though he didn’t want to
move. Kaori didn’t know what to
say. She didn’t have a clue what
was going on outside of her tiny jail cell. She could try and encourage the man, but
weren’t they on two opposing sides, he the captor and she the captive? After all, he was a guard. He could get her out any time he wanted
but never had. Should she be
confiding in this elusive man? She
didn’t even know his name.
“My
name’s Xienyth Malinthos, but the guys just call me Xein. They say my name sounds too foreign, so
they’d rather call me Jake or something stupid like that, but I wouldn’t let
them. My name’s about all I have
left, except for…”
Kaori
didn’t know what to say. It was
almost as though he read her mind or somehow knew that she wanted or needed to
know more about the only person that would speak to her. But it appeared that he had his own
problems, very deep problems and she didn’t want to pry.
He
turned around and faced her again.
“It’s all right.” His face
was grim and anything but pleasant, but when she looked into his purple eyes
she felt like she were diving into the deep end of a pool without knowing how
to swim. But she was okay. She had absolutely no fear of drowning,
in fact, her mind knew of no such thing.
All she could do was float in the never ending darkness of those
eyes. They comforted some hidden
away part of her that continued to live every day in that same darkness, with
no hopes of never seeing the light again.
She suddenly saw the light in those dark eyes and she didn’t know what
to say.
“It’s
all right,” he said again. “I know
who you are and I know you’re some kind of psychic. I knew it the day you were brought
here.”
Shocked
again! “Y-you know who I am? But you’re just a soldier. I haven’t met anyone of your status
before…”
“That’s
not what I mean,” he shook his head, then silently he stared into her eyes and
she could hear some sort of voice echoing around her. At first she didn’t know what it was and
quickly turned to her right and left, thinking that it was the same voice that
was in her dream all those days ago, the one pleading with her to return some
ring that belonged to her sister— but she didn’t have a sister! She was all alone, no family at all left
anywhere…
I know who you are.
**********
After
the encounter with Kataki in Sakura’s hospital room, Hisoka didn’t know what to
do with himself. He slowly stepped
through the hallways on the way toward the main entrance/exit, hardly paying any
attention to where his feet were taking him when he found himself back at
Sakura’s room— with Kataki sitting beside her, his back facing the open door to
the room. Hisoka couldn’t help but
look at her, unconscious in a hospital bed of his doing. He didn’t know what happened, but he
knew that it was his fault she was suffering now. He almost wanted Kataki to spot him
again so that he could be punished for what he did. At least he thought that would help
alleviate the pain he felt now.
He
was just asking for it. With
nothing left to do, Hisoka again entered the room, stood in the doorway
silently until he cleared his throat to get Kataki’s attention.
“I
told you to leave,” Kataki said, without turning around. “Damn parents…” he added beneath his breath.
“Kataki,”
Hisoka said.
Finally
twisting around in his chair beside his sister’s bed, Kataki glared at Hisoka,
who dared to return even after his rather clear warning. “If not the stupid parents, it’s you. When will you assholes just drop off the
face of the earth and die!? Can’t
you see you are not welcome here?
None of you are! So before I
fuckin’ lose my temper in this goddamn hospital, I suggest you get the fuck out
of here now, prick.”
“I’m
not going anywhere,” Hisoka said calmly, his green eyes shining in the
artificial light as clearly as they would on a sunny day. “I want you to understand one thing, and
then I’ll leave.”
Kataki
stood up, his legs coming to his aid instantly. His sudden and flawless call upon his
physical strength astounded Hisoka.
The last time he saw Kataki, he was still using a crutch to walk, and
even then he couldn’t have moved so fast and without stumbling. “Since when do you not understand the
words out of my mouth? Do you think
I’m bluffing?”
“That’s
not the point.”
“Then
why don’t you tell me what the fuck is the point, huh? Other than your sudden desire to
die. No, wait. I don’t need to hear your excuses. Not for nearly killing my sister and
putting her under some demon’s curse; no, I know who you really are. You’re the bane of all humans on this
planet. Hell, the bane of every
living creature on this godforsaken planet. I should have known you would some day
seek to kill her—I should have known from that day in the mountains. I saw your true face then, but no one
believed me, not even yourself.
They just didn’t want to believe me, me of all people, the lame
athlete. You know, I have you to
thank for my once failing limbs, but I have others to thank for their
restoration. Thanks to their hard
work, I’m able to walk, to run, to do anything I so damn please. So, let this be your second and final
warning. I am fully capable of
carrying out any threats that I may give, and you, my dear Hisoka, are this close,” he held up his left hand,
the previously crippled arm, and measured about a centimeter between his thumb
and forefinger, “to meeting your fuckin’ maker.”
“I
only came here to tell you that I’m sorry if I did anything to put Sakura
here.”
“Bull
shit you are.”
“If
you’re right and did see something that day in the mountains, then maybe you
know more about me than I do myself.”
“You
can’t be serious. The demon doesn’t
even know he is a demon, huh? How
dramatic!”
“I
just wanted to tell you that if I did cause whatever happened to Sakura, then I
want to know if there is anything that I can do to atone for that sin.”
Kataki
was silent. He wasn’t shocked that
Hisoka would ask such a thing of him, but he was actually thinking about it, an
offer he couldn’t refuse. “So,
you’re saying that you will do anything to show that you’re “sorry” for what
you did to her?”
“That’s
what I said.”
Kataki
laughed. He laughed and laughed and
laughed, his dark bellows of laughter shaking through Hisoka’s heart. There was something in that laughter,
something very wrong, something about ready to break and fall to pieces. Of all the bad times they had been
through before, Hisoka had never seen Kataki the way he looked or was acting
now. His eyes appeared to be as
dark if not darker than the black strands of his hair. They weren’t blood-shot or tired
looking, but when he stared at him with those eyes, it felt like they were;
they struck a sort of terror into his heart. It wasn’t a kind of fear for his own
safety, but rather that of others and of Kataki himself. Hisoka was aware of his own power that
he had somewhere within him and although he wasn’t 100% sure on what it was or
if it would work the way he wanted it to, but it was enough to keep him from
worrying about the threat on his life.
“Very
well. I will tell you what I want
you to do. I want you to sit here
on your scrawny little ass and watch my sister for me. I need to be sure that our parents made
it safely home and will stay away from here.”
“That’s
it? If that’s all you wanted me to
do then why did you kick me out before?”
“Because
I hadn’t made up my mind then, what to do with them… or with you…”
Hisoka
nodded. “Alright, fine. I’ll wait here until you get back.”
“No!”
Kataki yelled at him, nearly attacked him right then and there. But he quickly choked back his lingering
anger. “I want you to keep an eye
on the time.” He looked up to the
round clock on the wall over Sakura’s bed.
“It’s 6:20 now. I want you
to just fuckin’ go home when it reaches 7:20. I want to coordinate this just right so
that I don’t have to fuckin’ see your face here again, you understand me?”
“Fine,
whatever. I won’t come back here
and bother either of you again.”
Kataki
smiled, a grin that curled across his face from cheek to cheek. “That’s a good boy. Well then, you had better watch the
time. If I catch you still here
when I get back, I’ll make you regret it more than…” he stopped, about to say
one thing and then regained his thoughts, smiled. “More than you want to know.” With all that said, Kataki turned from
Hisoka to say his goodbyes to Sakura, lightly brushing her hair that had fallen
down over her face aside. “I’ll be
back soon,” he said to her, like a gentle mother to her child. “All your worries will soon be no
more.” He smiled sweetly at her and
went to leave the room, shoving Hisoka out of his way as he went.
Hisoka
didn’t have a clue what was going on.
Not a clue, but he figured it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. Sitting down in the chair beside
Sakura’s bed, the same chair Kataki had been sitting in, Hisoka couldn’t take
his eyes away from her. He knew
that he was to blame for her suffering, but there wasn’t anything he could do
about it. What was done was done
and that was that. All he could
hope for now was that she would wake up soon and be okay. Until that time, he sat quietly in the
hard hospital chair until the appointed time Kataki told him to simply return
home.
**********
He
had much to do and not very much time to do it in. First he had to go back to his house and
confront his parents, make damn sure that they could never hurt Sakura the way
they had hurt him. It was all their
fault that he turned out this way.
There was only one way to see justice be done and that was… Yes, Hisoka had it coming too, long
before the incident at Mt. Sakuba.
It was almost like…divine intervention or something. The gods were showing the way for
justice to be done, to punish anyone and everyone who had ever hurt him or
could hurt anyone close to him, and he would follow that path. May the will of the gods be done!
**********
“I
know I’ve seen this kind of writing before…but why can’t I read it?” Sakura
thought to herself, still trying over and over again to figure out the meaning
behind the cryptic words written on and in the notebook that crashed in through
the school window. She closed the
notebook closed to view the writing on the cover, feeling the indentations with
her fingers. It felt like it was
made with a dried out pen or something sharp like that. Maybe somebody had a compass or
something and used the sharp pointer part of it to carve the words into the
notebook’s cover. No matter what
was used to write with was not the point.
She was focusing too much energy trying to figure that out rather than
trying to remember how to read the writing.
“Maybe
I’m just not thinking of this the right way…” She stood and began to pace here and
there inside of the math classroom.
“First I’m in school, see lots of students, my friends… I try to find Kataki, but he’s nowhere
to be found. Everybody else
disappears and then I hear some weird noise coming from the math room. It freaks me out and I don’t want to go
in. The noise eventually gets so
loud I was about to scream when it stopped altogether. I go into the math room to find nothing. Then a notebook flies in through a
window, shattering it to pieces…
All that’s in the notebook is a bunch of weird writing. How can this mean anything…? Unless, this is a dream… That’s gotta be it. I must be dreaming! That would make sense then, that this
little notebook could break a window,” she looked to the notebook in her hand
again.
“Something
isn’t right. I’m not looking at the
real picture. If this is a dream,
then where am I dreaming? What
happened just before I started dreaming?
It was in the middle of the day, wasn’t it?”
She
stood thinking near the broken window for several minutes, going over and over
the events in the dream and trying to recall what she was doing
beforehand. She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything before
the dream, where she was, who she was with, anything. All she knew was that it was sometime
during the day. That was pretty
odd, even for her, to be sleeping in the middle of the day… or, no… it was more
like early evening. What was she
doing in bed so early? She still
couldn’t remember things clearly.
There
was hardly anything more she could do but sit in one of the rickety chairs and
think, think what was she doing dreaming of something she couldn’t read, or
rather of something she knew she could
read but couldn’t. Whatever key to
understanding what was going on had to be written right there in the
notebook.
She
thought back to the previous day.
She couldn’t remember the beginning or the end of that day, but the
image of a golden dragon appeared in her mind. A dragon? That’s right! The dragon’s festival! She had gone to the local shrine of the
golden dragon. All her friends were
there— that must be why she dreamed about seeing them in the hallways, but then
everybody left so soon. She thought
it was weird, but it didn’t really matter because of who she was with. Someone she was with? Who was that? She couldn’t remember and yet she knew
it was so obvious. The image of the
dragon was the only clear thing in her mind. The dragon. He was acting kind of strange there, at
the alter of the dragon. He? Who was he? It wasn’t her father, he’d never go to
things like this… But who…?
A faint voice came from outside the classroom,
down the hall somewhere. Anyway,
sorry you had to come looking for me.
I didn’t mean to wander off from everything the way I did…
Quickly
standing, Sakura ran out of the room, looked up and down both ways but couldn’t
see anyone there.
I wish I could remember more about him.
“Hello?” she
shouted. “Is anyone there?”
No answer.
She picked
one way to go search for the source of the voice, down toward the left, and
slowly started to run through the halls, desperately searching, searching for
something she couldn’t see or touch, she could only feel it like a cold,
tingling sensation that makes the hair on the back of her neck rise.
The demon doesn’t even
know he is a demon, huh?
“No, he’s not a demon…” she said without
knowing she even said something.
If I catch you still
here when I get back, I’ll make you regret it more than…more than you want to
know.
“No…
He can’t… I can’t let
him! Kataki is going to—”
Suddenly the voices stopped and she could feel
nothing more. Slowing to a halt in
the middle of a hallway, she again turned her attention to the notebook in her
hand, only this time the words she couldn’t read before were now very legibly
clear in her mind. On the front
cover it said: Death to all demons great and small. She could read it just fine, but the
meaning was still lost on her. She
opened the notebook to the page inside with the same writing and read, “May
death first claim wicked parents, then may the will of the gods banish the soul
of the demon back down into hell where it belongs. May the will of the gods be done!”
“May the will of the gods be done,” she
repeated. She couldn’t remember
anyone say this to her before, and yet it seemed somewhat familiar. Maybe it was something she overheard
somewhere, or… There was one thing
that was very clear in her mind after reading these lines in the notebook and
feeling the strange voices in her head and that was this: Kataki was losing
control and she didn’t know what he might do. The only “wicked parents” she knew he
might seek revenge would be her own parents— they always treated her fine, but
she knew they despised everything about her brother. Then the only remaining thing that
continued to puzzle her was this talk of a demon. All she could think of was the golden
dragon from the shrine, but that was hardly a demon. Was Kataki planning on seeking revenge
on a god? …a dragon god…
It hit her like a load of bricks, like ten tons
of bricks. She couldn’t believe
that she didn’t see it sooner. She
once helped Hisoka escape from nightmares of a demon bent on destroying him
slowly. And at the dragon shrine,
she saw Hisoka wander off on his own and found him at the alter of the golden
dragon when there was a bright flash of light as he was about to touch the
relic encased there. He seemed a
bit shaky then and got her to quickly change her focus, but she had seen
it! The bright light that came from
his right hand as he neared the object.
She wasn’t much of a religious or spiritual person she had an open mind
when it came to other-worldly type of stuff, and this was certainly
other-worldly. The only thing that
could have reacted in such a way to a holy item of the gods would be a god
himself. Does that mean that
Hisoka…is a god? The dragon god in those ancient legends
and stories?
“My god…
My brother’s insane! …trying
to… …to a freaking dragon god???”