|
Borderline Consciousness: Chapter 3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please read Disclaimer:
(Please comment when you're finished.
Okay, the characters so far in this story do not belong to me, they belong to themselves.
This is not meant to be romantic (yet) and will contain the following: a plot, an actual story where the characters don't like each other right away, action scenes, VARIOUS PARADOXES, etc.
Given a PG-15 rating for: Gayness, cursing, male x male relationships (later), blood (later). Rating is versatile; will change near the end, though.)
Chapter 3 - Apparently Someone's Got Personality Issues
Uruha whipped around, seeking the source of the noise, and he knew right away that the utterance was from Aoi.
‘What the hell-?’ Uruha was cut off by a grim-faced Hiroto.
‘The whistle pierced through his calf.’ He walked over to the figure of Aoi lying unconscious on the ground. Kneeling down, he checked his pulse and then looked down at Aoi’s right leg, which was bleeding heavily. ‘He’s breathing normally; he passed out from the shock of it, I think.’ Hiroto informed the latter, who were both looking down at the paralysed form of Aoi, their eyes wide in anticipation.
‘I think there’s a river nearby, we can clean him up, as well as wash the blood off of this whistle.’ Miyavi acknowledged thoughtfully, and Uruha nodded in agreement. ‘Here, I’ll help you carry him. I bet Uruha doesn’t want to break a nail...’ He said sarcastically, trying in vain to lighten the mood a bit.
‘Meev, this is no time to be making jokes.’ Hiroto glared at him. ‘Grab his legs. But be careful. If you drop him, Kai-bocchama’s gonna have us executed.’ He told him, cringing slightly, as he began picking up Aoi’s arms as gently as he possibly could.
Miyavi obeyed without another word, and Uruha leaned over to pick up the now blood-soaked, nickel whistle. He scrutinised it and saw the inscription had that of a feathery wing on it, but that was all that he could decipher; the rest was drenched in the ruby liquid.
Uruha followed behind Miyavi, careful to walk slowly enough as to not trip Miyavi over by accident. (He knew how clumsy the flamboyant man could be.) Hiroto, being the shortest of the four, almost toppled over himself as he carried Aoi, who despite his dainty appearance, was rather heavy; even though Hiroto had a rather powerful prosthetic arm, he was still having a bit of trouble.
‘You know, Uruha, you could help us out, it wouldn’t hurt.’ Miyavi stared at him with mock disdain. But of course, he couldn’t keep a straight face; he burst out laughing like an imbecile.
Uruha sighed; despite how much of an idiot Meev was, he was beginning to believe it wasn’t just an act; maybe he was a mental retard...
He thought about this for a moment. Maybe it was because of how many times he had hit him upside the head, was that what had caused him to lose all of those brain cells? Now he almost burst out laughing. He continued walking behind the latter.
‘Uh you guys know the river’s that way, right?’ Uruha asked the group, pointing in the opposite direction of where they were headed.
‘I knew that, obviously.’ Hiroto said in a sardonic tone, trying to turn around. ‘Meev, you lead that way.’ He motioned with his head, since Miyavi seemed not to have paid any attention to Uruha’s comment.
‘Alright...’ Miyavi grunted, looking behind him so as to not crash into any trees or anything. He was getting rather annoyed at the fact that Uruha did nothing to even try to help the two of them out.
‘Meev, you’re getting blood all over your uniform...’ Hiroto commented, walking behind Miyavi; thankfully they were almost at the river and they could put Aoi down. It was beginning to tire out Hiroto’s human arm; he didn’t think he would be able to carry him any longer. Obviously he needed to work out, all that sitting in the office was, frankly, the reason behind his weakening physique.
After a few minutes of walking, the sound of rushing water could be heard. At first it was rather faint; but as soon as they walked strenuously towards it, the frequency of the sound became much louder. They walked slowly over to the bank of the river, using every last bit of their strength. Carefully observing the bank, they scanned up and down to find a spot close to the water that wasn’t very rocky.
As carefully as possible, Hiroto began to lay Aoi down on the riverbank, and Miyavi followed suit. But Miyavi was preoccupied with something else, apparently; looking down at his hands at the most random moment, he saw they were stained with blood.
‘Goddamn!’ He screamed out suddenly, dropping Aoi’s legs abruptly, creating a loud thud as they landed on the hardened soil.
‘What the hell, man?! You just dropped his legs! I freakin’ told you to be careful!’ Hiroto snapped at him, laying Aoi down gently, yet swiftly, and walking around him to slap Miyavi in the face for his idiocy. ‘You’re gonna rupture his blood vessels and he’ll pour blood!’ He screeched at him.
‘But he’s already pouring blood!’ Miyavi retorted, beginning to get hyper again, as he flailed his arms around. He massaged the side of his face where he had been slapped, his cheek etched with a pink mark.
‘Guys, guys! Calm down! If you haven’t noticed, we kinda have to stop the bleeding!’ Uruha commented ruefully, pointing at the pool of blood that had consolidated next to Aoi’s leg. ‘And we have to wash this thing off.’ He said, drawing the whistle that was caked with dry blood from his pocket. ‘...Which I will do right now.’ He announced, kneeling down next to the river and placing the bloody whistle into the water. He scrubbed it vigorously with his nails, being sure to get as much of the blood off as possible.
Hiroto took the hint and decided to begin cleaning off Aoi’s wound. He produced a steel container from his pocket (he honestly had no idea how it had gotten there.) and used it to scoop out water from the river and pour it over the hole in Aoi’s calf. Thankfully it didn’t take that long to finish, and most of the bleeding (despite the gaping hole) had ceased by the time he finished washing it out. Miyavi just stood there and looked on silently.
‘I can use a part of my jacket as a bandage, if you don’t mind, Hiroto. It’s already covered in blood, and I need to get a new one, anyway.’ Miyavi offered suddenly, ripping off a part from the bottom of his vest.
‘Alright, go for it. I have to clean myself off, and besides, you’re more knowledgeable in the field of first aid.’ Hiroto answered, using the steel container to pour water all over his body, and occasionally rubbing away the stains until he was free of blood.
Miyavi got to work bandaging Aoi’s leg, wrapping the strips of fabric around as tightly as possible to cut off the blood flow. By the time the bandaging was complete, Miyavi had ripped most of his shirt up, leaving only a small strip of fabric across his neck.
‘This is... incredibly uncomfortable. Might as well take it off...’ He said, ripping the remains of his vest off of his body. ‘But what am I supposed to do with this?’ He asked more to himself than Hiroto.
‘Here, I’ll take it.’ Hiroto announced, taking the remains of the shirt and placing them into the river. Miyavi watched silently and Hiroto took the now soaking remains out of the water and folded them neatly, then squeezed the water out of the cloth. He placed the folded strip of Miyavi’s vest (the remaining bit, at least) on Aoi’s forehead.
‘I think we should wake him up now. I’d rather have him limp and have one of us help him out that actually have to carry him... Uruha, call them.’ Hiroto said out loud to no one in particular, directing the last bit at Uruha especially. He gently shook Aoi’s unconscious form in an attempt to awaken him. Dissatisfied by the fact that he did not wake, Hiroto shook him more vigorously still.
‘Oh no... He’s not waking up.’ He said suddenly, a concerned expression replacing his previous one. ‘Miyavi, you try.’ He commanded.
‘Jeez, if it doesn’t work for you, what makes you think it’ll work for me, huh?’ Miyavi said scowling.
Uruha had just finished drying off the whistle when he realised that Miyavi and Hiroto were bickering again. ‘Why can’t you guys just stop arguing for a second?’ He asked, walking over to the group. ‘Whatever, I’m calling anyways.’ He said irritably, putting the whistle to his lips, causing a high-pitched metallic shriek.
It was so high pitched, for that matter, that they could barely hear it without having to strain their ears, and Miyavi even looked up at him and said, ‘I don’t hear anything.’
And just as he said this, the sound of wood being ripped apart was heard; if the three had looked around, they would have seen the trees around them being ripped out from the ground, and into pieces. A shrill whistle that was the wind wove its way through the clearing, and over the river. Hiroto looked up from his attempt at waking Aoi to see the trees being ripped apart with great force, debris flying everywhere, surrounding the spots where the trees had been seconds before. In their places stood creatures on four legs, what seemed to be horses, but they looked more like zombies.
As the deafening sounds began to fade, the debris ceased its flying and the group finally got a better glimpse of the creatures not too far away from where they were standing. Immediately Hiroto recognised the zombie-horses.
‘So apparently this whistle calls on the Ouranos, very clever of Kai-bocchama... We’re lucky he gave this to us.’ He smirked, admiring the creatures that had just appeared from within the trees, walking over to one to examine them more closely.
‘Awesome!’ Miyavi gaped at the horses in awe; apparently he had never seen an Ouranos before.
‘But before we can leave, we have to wake him up...’ Hiroto said thoughtfully, looking over at Miyavi again.
‘Fine, I’ll do it.’ He said, disgruntled, and he walked over to Aoi’s form, standing over him. ‘Permission to kick him in the stomach, captain?’ he said to Hiroto, lifting his leg, ready to assail Aoi, who was still laying motionless on the bank of the river.
Hiroto sighed heavily. ‘Normally, I would say absolutely not, lieutenant. But since he refuses to wake up, and we have a limited amount of time, I must allow it, I suppose.’ He said to his subordinate, anxiety creeping into his voice.
Miyavi obeyed and gave Aoi a swift kick to the abdomen. Those previous years of martial arts training paid off, apparently; because when his foot came in contact with Aoi’s body, the figure laying there unconscious on the ground sprung up from the ground with a loud, piercing wail.
‘Goddammit! What happened?!’ Was his initial response, and he screamed this while clutching his stomach and wincing in pain. ‘Where the ******** am I?!’ He inquired, breathing heavily with great difficulty; his voice was hoarse and quiet.
Uruha walked over and crouched next to him; he wanted to comfort the other, he just didn’t know how in this situation. He just pressed himself against the trembling body of Aoi and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
‘You passed out when we were retrieving the whistle.’ Hiroto received a death glare from the speaker. ‘And we carried you to the river. Then Meev over there,’ Uruha nodded toward Miyavi, who was standing there shirtless. ‘Kicked you to wake you up, since nothing else seemed to work; that was our last resort, actually...’ Uruha finished. Aoi stared at him, bewildered.
‘And you didn’t think that I might pass out again because of the pain you caused me?’ Aoi glowered at each of the three in turn.
‘Nope, not really. And we didn’t really know how powerful Meev’s legs were, either.’ Uruha replied rather smugly.
‘Well... we did actually.’ Hiroto said as-a-matter-of-factly, which earned him, in turn, a punch in the shoulder. Unfortunately for him, though, it was his right shoulder, and when Uruha’s fist collided with his flesh, he cringed in pain and rubbed the spot where he had been stricken feebly.
Aoi attempted to sigh, but it came out as a shallow breath instead. He looked around the clearing, and over at the river, his eyes stopping on the creatures in front of him, an eyebrow raised.
‘What’s with those zombie things over there?’ He asked finally, his breathing beginning to return to normal.
‘They’re not zombies. We needed the whistle to call them; they’re the only way to get back to the base. We wouldn’t be able to get there even if we walked…’ Hiroto replied, beginning to walk towards the creatures that were standing a bit farther away, and if he hadn’t known any better, he would have thought the bony, decayed-looking creatures were actually bored.
‘Come on, guys. Uruha, help Aoi.’ Hiroto said this quickly, even though it wasn’t his place to be giving orders to a superior officer. But Uruha obeyed without commenting on the matter, helping a still dazed Aoi to his feet. Miyavi followed behind the pair; he assumed it was his duty to watch the back of the group for any suspicious behaviour, even though they weren’t walking very far. You never could tell what was going on in the forests around here, anyways; these were hostile grounds, and it carried a great risk to venture that far away from civilization.
Hiroto stood next to one of the larger Ouranos, getting ready to mount the creature. Aoi assumed they were wild, but they reacted surprisingly well when approached by people; it did not buck or raise itself to attack. It just stood there, unflinching and calm, as Hiroto gently laid a hand on its side.
‘I can manage on my own, thanks…’ Aoi said impatiently, breaking himself away from the other’s grip. He limped slowly over to one of the horse-like creatures, gazing at them in awe. He was, despite his own curiosity, hesitant to come any closer to the creatures than a couple of steps, eying them as if they were to rear up and attack him at any moment.
‘We don’t have much time! Can’t you guys see the sun’s about to set?!’ Hiroto urged them, mounting the Ouranos in a hurry, looking at the three of them before directing the creature he sat upon towards an area that would contain very little obstruction. He pointed towards the horizon, where the point at which land met sky was turning red due to the setting sun.
Aoi couldn’t understand why they had to be gone by sunset, but Hiroto sounded extremely urgent, so he mounted the Ouranos without a word, despite the feeling in his abdomen, a mixture of pain and fear.
‘Just relax, the rest of the Ouranos will follow after this one right here, so there’s no need to worry…’ Hiroto explained, and kicked the creature’s side, causing it to take off, spreading its great obsidian wings and disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The other three followed directly behind, and as soon as Aoi’s left the ground, he instinctively wrapped his arms tightly around the creature’s neck, his eyes shut tightly. He couldn’t bear to look at anything; he couldn’t even tell what was going on. He shuddered, his stomach could barely take the discomfort; he felt like he was falling, and the worst part of it all was that he couldn’t see anything, his eyes refused to open and inform him of the situation.
----------------------------------------------
It was short, this trip, but to Aoi it felt like it lasted several minutes, when it fact it was only about thirty seconds. As soon as the sensation had begun, it ended, and he could hear the creature’s hooves beating against the ground, the sound slowing down, and the creature came to a stop abruptly.
Aoi blinked rapidly; his eyes had been closed so tightly that when they opened, he saw a floating black cloud, which began to recede quickly, showing him his surroundings for the first time.
He didn’t even detect that he had been leaning forwards, not holding onto anything, and just as he noticed, he lost his balance, and fell with a loud thud to the ground.
The ground felt strange to him; what the hell was he laying on?! It was cold… But not like stone, or dirt, or anything like that. It was freezing against his cheek, he noticed. And smooth, like glass.
‘Hmm… where am I?’ He thought, easing himself off of the frigid surface and into a sitting position, gaping at what he saw around him; it was amazing, really. A gasp escaped his lips, his eyes searching around disbelievingly, taking in the setting that he had discovered himself in. Great. The second time he had to ask himself where he was.
He had never seen so much metal in one place; towering above all else, were huge, shining metal skyscrapers that seemed to grow to the sky; he couldn’t even see where they ended. But all of these towers all seemed to form a single, monstrously colossal building, the red light of the setting sun reflecting off of the chromatic surface. It looked like it was glowing, and Aoi couldn’t help but be mesmerised by the beautiful sight. He just noticed that the entire place he was in was surrounded by tiers, except for a single point that allowed for the sun to shine through.
The sun emanating from that single point drew him towards it, and he stalked over to it, massaging the side of his head and gasping again when he stood by the edge of the floor, where it had ended. He looked down and saw nothing, no ground, just open space and the translucent wisps of clouds. Swallowing, he backed away from edge, and turned around to walk towards the building, when he heard the intercom, and froze in his steps.
‘The facility will be closing in T minus 2 minutes!’ The robotic, monotonic voice spoke, echoing off of the cavernous, metal walls of the area.
‘Aoi! Hurry up! We have to get in before they close!’ Uruha yelled to him, his face pale and written with fear; he motioned for Aoi to follow after them, and turned to run towards the entrance of the building.
‘The facility will be closing in T minus 1 minute!’ The voice again; Aoi was panicking now, although he had not the slightest clue why. He rushed through the titanic steel doorway and almost dove through it, following after Uruha and slowing down to walk, his panic receding.
‘The facility will close in T minus 15 seconds!’ Again, the voice boomed over the loudspeaker and echoed around the interior of the building, which was, as the exterior, completely made of shiny metal.
‘The facility will close in T minus five… four… three… two… one.’ Came the voice for the last time, and everything was silent for just a moment.
Then the clang of metal pervaded the air, and the door behind Aoi came to a close independently, sealing themselves with a hiss, as if it were sucking the air out of the room, but that was not the case.
Once the doors had been sealed, it was silent again.
And now, the sound began, unexpectedly.
But this time, it was much louder, but it sounded like it was coming from the outside. Clangs, bangs, clicks. The terrible din that was obnoxiously loud; Aoi couldn’t stop himself from keeling over and covering his ears with his forearms, trying to block out the sickening resonance that came from outside. But he couldn’t; it sounded like someone was dropping tonnes of metal on the already metal exterior.
“Hm. You get used to it after a while…” Uruha sighed after the clamour had died down, noticing how Aoi seemed to have had a panic attack when he had heard the ruckus.
Aoi gasped.
‘Your lips are moving… and sound is coming out of them!’ He stated dumbly, pointing in Uruha’s direction in shock.
“Yeah, and you can, as well. Just try… Unless you’ve forgotten how to speak.” Uruha smirked, and walked away nonchalantly.
‘Wait! How?! How do I talk?!’ Aoi scream-thought, flailing his arms around.
“This is one of the only places where we actually can speak. Everywhere else we have to communicate through thought.” Uruha said bluntly, staring at Aoi, his eyebrow raised, and he tried to keep himself from laughing out loud at how ridiculous Aoi looked, standing there, flailing his arms like a child, and the fact that he forgot how to speak. Well, that was hilarious.
“You know, it’s fun teasing you like that, you look like a kid.” Uruha said, trying to conceal his laugh, and poked Aoi’s nose playfully.
‘Well you’re just a jackass.’ Aoi thought pitifully, shooting a glare in the other’s direction. He was clearly in no mood for jokes, as he had no idea what was going on here in the first place.
“I’m not the one who forgot how to speak.” Uruha mocked him, but turned around and walked off somewhere, leaving Aoi alone, before the other had a chance to retort.
Sighing, Aoi paced around a bit, and decided he should at least try to speak; it would do him no good to speak through his thoughts.
He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, unsure of the fact of whether or not he could speak. Clearing his throat, he was at a loss for words, so he decided to, simply, yell.
“ARGH!” He cried out, and he almost collapsed from pure happiness, thanking whatever god was out there for not losing his vocal ability. But he looked down immediately at his feet, face beet-red, thinking he had caused a scene.
“What the hell was that, Aoi?!” Uruha was suddenly standing next him, his face puzzled, and he stared at Aoi for a moment.
“I’m… I’m sorry…” Aoi stuttered, mentally kicking himself for his inability to speak properly.
“You can’t be all embarrassed like that around the Commander. Calm down, man. There’s nothing to be nervous about.” Uruha stated reassuringly, and he randomly decided to give Aoi a hug, which totally caught him off guard.
“Good luck, I guess.” He murmured.
Aoi tried to wriggle out of Uruha’s hold, but he couldn’t; the other man was too powerful. Once he released him, he barely regained his footing, when Uruha pushed him through a doorway, which lead into a spacious room, unfamiliar room.
The room was a direct contrast to the hallways and the outside of the building itself. The walls were made of, instead of chromatic metal, a material that could be wood, with various woven tarps covering most of them. The tarps depicted what looked like battles of some sort, dismembered bodies and blood littered the grounds of the battlefields in the pieces of cloth. Aoi couldn’t help but shudder at the sight. His leg still throbbed a bit from before; the sight of more blood was really unnerving all of a sudden.
Aside from the tarps showing various scenes of warfare, the room was generally warm. A granite fireplace was nestled at the back of the room, a small flame burning within, and casting a calm warmth across the room. Other than the light from the fireplace, though, the entire room was dim. The floor was covered by an intricately decorated carpet. There were also leather couches and chairs before the fireplace, and the demeanour of the entire room practically screamed living room. It couldn’t possibly be someone’s office; it was much too casual-looking. Aoi hadn’t even noticed the person sitting in the corner at his desk, watching him silently.
“You’re late.” The person stated bluntly, awaking Aoi from his thoughts immediately. He glared in his direction; he had startled him, and he hadn’t even noticed that there was someone in the room with him.
Aoi wondered who the person was, but just as he was about to respond, someone else did so for him.
“Kai-bocchama, sir, we were faced with a crisis that required immediate attention on our way over here, sir.” Uruha’s voice replied from directly beside him, startling Aoi for the second time. Uruha seemed tense; the way he spoke clearly displayed it. He was acting completely different from before they came into the ‘office’.
Oh crap.
This must be the ‘boss’ everyone kept mentioning. s**t. But how could this guy be the Supreme Commander of the Army?! Honestly, he looked to be no older that in his early twenties! Not only that, but weren’t men in the Army supposed to be more… manly? But the person sitting there before them didn’t seem to be manly at all; on the contrary, his hair was shoulder-length, and it looked like he had actually took the time to style it. And he was thin. He didn’t look like he had much meat on him at all.
“Aoi, is what Uruha-kun saying true?” The man’s eyes were staring in his direction, and Aoi could feel his gaze piercing through him.
Shaking slightly, Aoi nodded, his expression that of slight fear.
“Y… Yes. It’s t-true.” He stuttered again, and again cursed inwardly at how stupid he must seem; he was obviously way too self-conscious.
Kai continued glaring at him for a moment; he looked like he wanted to tear Aoi’s eyes from his skull with the look he was giving him right now.
“… Why don’t we have some tea?” Kai said suddenly, his face suddenly brightening, and the atmosphere of the room becoming much lighter. He frolicked over to the other side of the room, where he had a cabinet filled with fine china that, just like the walls and floors, were decorated elaborately. Then he almost ran over to a cabinet in yet another corner of the room, and pulled out several boxes of tea, throwing them around the room, until he found what he was looking for.
“I’ll make you two some chai, it’s my favourite kind and I want you to try it…” Kai was skipping around now, the complete opposite of the moody and ‘evil’ Kai he had met when he first walked in.
Aoi blinked. And again. Was he imagining things?! What was wrong with this person? All of a sudden he had become happy, after looking like wanted to murder someone when Aoi had first walked in.
Uruha scooted closer to Aoi, seeing as Kai’s back was turned, and whispered in his ear:
“He’s bipolar, in case you haven’t noticed already. He does this a lot.” Came his response, as he turned his head to make sure Kai hadn’t heard; but the black haired man was busy humming to himself and skipping across the room to notice.
“Uruha, you know what to do.” Kai said simply, and he was still grinning. Why had Kai gotten so smiley, anyways? What was there to be happy about? Aoi’s eye twitched as he watched the overly-happy man prancing around the room like a lunatic. It was a strange sight to behold.
When he stopped acting so strangely for a few moments, Kai had walked back over to his desk in the corner, carrying a metal tea kettle in hand. He set it down on the table, shoving a few teabags within.
“Yes, sir…” Uruha said, sighing, sitting down across from his desk, watching him earnestly.
And then something, even stranger than Kai’s behaviour, happened. From the space beneath the closed door, tiny water droplets began to slide into the room, shooting into the tea kettle and being guided by Uruha’s hand, until the kettle was full of water. Kai seemed amused; Aoi just sat there with his mouth hanging open as he gawked speechlessly at the kettle.
Then Kai made a move towards the tea kettle, but instead of picking it up, flicked his wrist out in front of him. A wisp of silver flame shot out from his fingertips, surrounding the container that lay upon his desk, and after a moment or two, it began shaking uncontrollably and billowing steam from its spout.
And Aoi still sat there silently, and he was completely weirded out by the fact that he kept witnessing so many strange things in one day. First, meeting a whole bunch of weird people, then seeing horses pop out of trees somehow, and now seeing people somehow able to control water and shoot flames from their hands.
What else could these people do? Aoi swore he would punch himself if they could fly. But now he was actually beginning to become afraid. Was there a chance that if Kai got angry at someone, he could actually scorch them, intentionally? And could Uruha do something with the water that could potentially kill someone?!
Of course, Aoi panicked. And he would have shot up from his seat, too, had he not willed himself to stay. He couldn’t run out now, the way Kai was, you really couldn’t know what to expect, which was probably why Uruha was so overwrought and obedient towards Kai: he was probably afraid of him, too.
… But didn’t Uruha know him well? Or something like that, Aoi recalled.
“What was that?!” Aoi couldn’t help but yell, as Kai calmly poured the boiling water into each separate teacup. He didn’t even flinch, just sat there silently as Aoi had an outburst. As if it was no big deal for someone to be yelling directly at him, in his office, in a building that probably belonged to him. Oh no, it was perfectly alright, apparently.
Uruha elbowed Aoi in the stomach quickly, probably a sign for him to shut his mouth. He looked over at him, and he couldn’t get over the fact that he actually looked frightened. If the usually carefree and teasing Uruha looked panicky, Aoi should sincerely, just be quiet.
“That, my friend, was Bending, as we call it here. Basically, controlling one of the four elements.” Kai answered, speaking as if he had simply done something completely normal, not shoot flames from his hands.
Aoi was dumbfounded. His eye twitched a bit; he had just disclosed something that, viewed from a third party, could be completely illegal or perhaps underground. But then again, he didn’t know the laws of wherever he was, so he really shouldn’t have been thinking that, but still.
He could shoot fire from his hands. Was that not creepy? Or bizarre in any way?
His face paled; he sunk down a bit in his chair, immediately shutting his mouth tightly to avoid another outburst.
“I don’t see why everyone acts so anxious around me. I mean, I’m a nice person, there’s no reason to be scared of me or anything like that. Right? Right?” Kai said enthusiastically, sipping his tea. He had set the other two teacups in front of Uruha and Aoi individually, but Aoi really wasn’t in the mood for this; he just wanted answers.
Wasn’t that the reason they had come here in the first place?
“Anyways,” Kai began, setting his teacup down on his desk, having already downed the contents of it completely, and poured himself another portion, “Since you’ve made it back here with the subject, without dying, you’re going to get a raise in your payment, Uruha. Just thought I’d let you know before I changed my mind for some reason. So in case I forget for some reason, you can remind me… et cetera, et cetera.” Kai paused, taking yet another sip of his tea, and he turned around in his chair.
Uruha hadn’t even bothered to respond to Kai’s comment, but Aoi could see he seemed to be slightly less agitated.
“Also, you’ll now be working as my personal assistant. You’ll be my new Head General. Since we all know what happened to the last one…” Kai chuckled to himself, as if he had just made a joke to himself.
Aoi looked back over at Uruha, who was wearing a pained expression; was there something he was missing? Aoi raised an eyebrow, and, although Uruha had made it clear that he shouldn’t say anything, he did so anyway.
“What are you talking about?” He finally decided to take a sip of his tea, which, to his surprise, was lukewarm.
“Well… That’s top-secret information. But I can tell you that he died prematurely…” Kai’s voice trailed off, and he suddenly grimaced.
Aoi was puzzled by his sudden change in expression, for the second time. But then he remembered what Uruha had told him.
That was nice to know. Their supposed ‘Supreme Commander of the Army’ was a fruitcake.
“… What the hell are you people in my office for?! Didn’t I tell you to go get the Chef to make me a sandwich?!” Kai suddenly yelled at them, his face red with unexpected rage.
Wait… what was he talking about?! Aoi was alarmed, he was sitting there shaking in terror, and now he had no idea what was going on. Uruha looked taken aback, as well, and he could hear the other gulp in panic, but otherwise, it was silent.
Kai glowered at the two people before him, taking the teakettle that still sat upon his desk, halfway filled with boiling water, and chucking it directly at Uruha’s head.
“b***h!” He screamed, pelting more random objects from his desk, such as books and various writing utensils, at Uruha, but thankfully, he had ducked beneath the desk after he had been struck by the teakettle, rubbing the side of his head with his hand, hoping, although it was a futile attempt, to relieve the pain.
Aoi had also dived out of the way of the flying objects, his eyes wide in horror. What the hell could have gotten into this strange man, that could have caused him to hurl things around the room?!
Kai had finally run out of objects to throw, and stood there for a moment, fuming, and panting from the exertion of so much energy in his frenzy. And then he sat down, the smile returning to his still-red face
“Now then, where was I?” Kai said cheerily, as if he hadn’t just been throwing things at them a minute ago.
Cautiously, Aoi put both hands on the ground on both sides of him, and pushed himself up, back into his chair. Uruha followed suit a bit more hesitantly, but eventually, he sat in his chair beside Aoi, as well.
“What were you two doing on the floor?” Kai looked puzzled, as if he had just forgotten about what he had just done.
“And why is everything on the floor?” He asked, but made no move to pick anything up; he just sat there and grinned to himself.
“Whatever, I still have to go over some stuff with you.” Kai said, giggling. He leaned back against his chair.
Uruha just sat there silently, his face had turned white, and his brow was covered in sweat. He continued to massage his head, where a bruise was beginning to form. Aoi had paled considerably, too, but he just sat there with his legs together, his hands resting upon his knees.
“Aoi, do you know what the Yamarogos are?” Kai asked him, and his smile turned sly for a moment, before becoming cheery again.
“No… I have no idea.” Aoi said hesitantly, looking over to Uruha again, who continued to just sit there and rub his bruised head.
“They’re the reason you had to get here before sunset. Basically, they’re creatures that awaken during the night, and eat flesh. That’s why you can’t speak when you’re out in the field, if you did, you’d have a Yamarogos after you in an instant. But of course, the Conquerors sealed the land outside to prevent speech so there would be fewer deaths due to being eaten by a Yamarogos.” Kai explained, spinning around in his chair.
“But can’t these Yamarogos things get into this building somehow?” Aoi asked; he was confused by this matter.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and Hiroto and Miyavi rushed in.
“Are we late?!” Miyavi yelled, as soon as he set foot inside of the office.
“What did we miss, sir?” Hiroto asked, saluting, and elbowing Miyavi in the ribs for him to follow suit.
“Ow!” Miyavi yelped, but saluted as well.
“I was just talking about something with Aoi and Uruha… but you two, have a seat over there.” Kai pointed at the couches in the centre of the room in a command for them to sit. They did so immediately, and even Miyavi was completely silent.
“And to answer your question, Aoi, the entire grounds of the Base are covered in a metal that is known to repel the Yamarogos, but it’s so rare, that it can only be used to cover buildings. We can’t supply people with it, as far as I can tell. That’s why you have to be in a place that is secured with the metal, before the sun sets, or else you will be eaten alive. No one has ever survived a Yamarogos attack before, that’s why we have no idea what they look like. All we know is that they assail by the thousands, and you’d be dead in less than a second if you were attacked.” Although Kai was talking about a serious topic, he didn’t seem to be able to quit smiling. He continued to spin in his chair, amusing himself greatly, despite acting like a child.
“I see.” Aoi said simply, contemplating the information he had just received.
“And you two…” Kai said to Hiroto and Miyavi as he stopped spinning, “you’re being promoted. Miyavi, you’ll obviously be promoted to Colonel, and you, Hiroto, to Brigadier General.”
“Now shoo, all of you! I have to work to do!” Kai yelled, obviously angry.
“I might even revoke your promotions! OUT!” He shook his fist, and ushered the two out of the room.
“And of course, I still have to deal with you.” Kai said bitterly, turning back to where Aoi was sitting; Uruha had completely calmed down now, thankfully.
“Well, unfortunately for you, you’ve lost your memories. How tragic.” Kai said, feigning worry, dramatically putting his arm on his forehead and pouting.
“That white place you were in before, that’s the Great Void. Hence its name. Anyways.” Kai spoke quickly, as if he was completely bored by the situation. “I had some people go and get you before, you’d have been out of there sooner had you went with Shou and Ruki.”
“But there was only one person-” Aoi almost shouted at Kai, when he intervened.
“I’M TALKING, SHUT UP!” Kai screamed at him, immediately causing Aoi to be quiet and cower in his seat.
“I sent two people. You think I can’t count?! Ruki was probably waiting outside somewhere.” Kai was glaring at him now, his eyes narrowed to slits.
“Alright, I understand, but what was that dark place?” Aoi said meekly, and this time Kai didn’t yell at him, to his luck.
“That was the Shades of Death. Also self-explanatory. The dead are trapped there if they have been evil during their lifetimes, and stay there to suffer their punishment in the dark. Had you been alone you could have been killed…” Kai snickered, resting his head on his desk.
“No more questions are to be asked. Now leave me to be one my own.” Kai stated angrily, pointing towards the door as a cue for the two to leave. “Get out before I yell at you.”
And without any comments, they left silently, and Kai chuckled to himself as they darted out of the room.
“He’s going to be in for some trouble, that one…” Kai he muttered darkly to himself, shutting the door behind them and locking it. One by one, he put the various locks in place, and each clicked, until his door was locked from the top of the doorway, to the floor.
/End Chapter 3/
A/N: Sorry for being so slow to update, guys.
><
Or should I say, THOSE OF YOU WHO READ MY STORY.
D:<
Anyways...
This ended up being 16 1/2 pages. xD
Hope it's not too long...
xD
 xo_Deidara · Sat Nov 22, 2008 @ 04:00pm · 1 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
