Hey, I return! One-shot time. It's not my best, not my worst... Sort of inbetween.
This was written in accompaniment to Ooshii Kurai's "Deeper than Soul." Posted with her permission. I highly suggest going and reading that story! I've read it myself over and over... It's a captivating story!
Disclaimer: DBZ and its characters are owned by Akira Toriyama and co. ... The story DTS belongs to Ooshii Kurai.
Deeper than Soul
"Catch the Moonlight"
"They said breathe deeply, son
Or be the next to die
Beneath the falling night
And heaven's shutting gates
But keep your tongue held tight
Or suffer the same fate
The blood on our black gloves, it is none of your concern
If you want to call our bluff, get in line and wait your turn...
And watch the witches burn."
-"Under a Killing Moon," Thrice
It was starting to get cloudy tonight, so her time was probably limited. But she need what time she could spare out here on her beach.
She liked the beach.
It was a good place, a quiet place - here she could get away from the troubles of her life and think, or not think. It was probably something no one else in her village had. A place to be... free.
Every once and awhile she had to leave early because the night guard wandered by. But the night guard usually ignored the beach, assuming that no human would be out on the beach so late. After all, how could they understand the allure of the ocean? All it was was water to them.
To her, it was so much more than water.
The ocean could catch the moonlight, cradle it within its waves and pass it from crest to crest. It acted as if this was no feat, as if holding such an impossibly beautiful thing was as commonplace as holding a piece of bread. And all the while it sings to the endless sky of time eternal. It sings that the world will exist forever, and as it exists, forever will its indigo waves slap against the moon-stained sand.
Every once and awhile she wished she was the broad ocean. She wished she could catch the moonlight, too. Because even though the ocean thought nothing of it, who knew what such a beautiful light could bring to a mortal like her? Maybe it could bring wishes. Maybe it could bring salvation.
Maybe it could turn back time...
For a simple human girl, she had so many things she wished she could undo.
Again, she imagined this was something no one else in her village had. They had not been there behind the boulder that night. And yet, they had been there the day that man had been dragged away. They had not said a word. Not even when Andrew died.
The villagers only smiled and nodded as those monsters ruined their lives, took their sons...
Every day the patrols looked down upon them, refusing their food and scorning every scrap of their existance. She hated it; the villagers ignored it. She had spoken of her hatred to her parents once, and the reply had been a slap to the face. Her mother had called her a "bad child" and forbidden her of thinking such things. Her father had shook his head in disgrace.
Defiant, she continued to think these thoughts.
Light flared far in the distance. The ocean ignored it, continuing to juggle the moonlight.
A Shi, one she had never seen before, had asked her father if he had seen a young orphan running around today. Orphans were uncommon here; all children had parents to claim, and any that didn't were immediately sent off to the nearby city to be placed in a legalized orphanage. She had never been to such a place, but could not imagine leaving her ocean, and so was grateful to have both her father and mother alive.
That was probably a cruel way to put it, but there was no point in pretending to be the doting daughter within her mind, was there?
Her father had said yes. She had thought nothing of it.
The clouds, fighting against the gleaming sky, had advanced too far. They consumed the moon, throwing the ocean into obedient darkness.
Once the silver light was gone, the ocean reminded her of the village - dumb and blind, uncaring of its own fate. Everything could be taken from it and it would just smile and nod, slapping stupidly against the beach.
And when there was no moon, the water lost its certainty that the world would last forever. It scared her sometimes. She didn't want the Shi to remain forever, but she wanted life and hope to continue forever... When the ocean lost faith, a dark dread filled her.
With the ocean's hope gone, she began to remember...
She wondered if that boy was alive anymore.
When the Shi had first arrived, she had been twelve, young and stupid. At first her village had looked on with curiosity, but as news arrived of the President's death and the new threat the villagers had panicked. The Shi simply calmed them. There was nothing to fear and no reason to panic. They would not come to harm. They patted frightened children on the head, just as her mother did to her.
It was only later that the term "slave" had come to be and guards had appeared on the streets, rounding up the homeless and striking anyone who protested. Taking the younger men for enlistment. She had seen many men being dragged away for thievery, bearing vicious wounds that had not come from the shopkeepers. Those men were not seen again.
Her first time seeing the Shi enemy was the night after the Shi themselves arrived. Her small family of three had gathered around the television, trying to make sense of all the jumbled stories that were coming; nearly a dozen times, they saw the new President topple over as the alien leader held a hand to his head. But only once had the story of those strange men been shown...
She could remember the clip to this day.
"All non humans are to be killed. Starting with this one..." The cloaked alien had held an arm out, pointing toward the crowd. The cameraman clumsily rotated to the person in question - a human man, with a young boy on his shoulders.
Her young, stupid self had thought, They're going to kill that poor man?
Now she understood. Now she realized that the boy had a tail. The boy was not human, and none of them had ever known it...
The alien had strode forward. Looking shocked, the father pulled his son close, taking a step back. A few of the crowd remained near him, tensing, while the rest scurried away.
The Shi said something but the camera could not pick it up over the murmur of the croud.
The non-human stepped back more, obviously refusing.
Someone jostled the cameraman, and the view suddenly went to the earth. When he recovered, the white-haired alien had a hand stretched out. This time, he spoke loud enough for the camera to record it.
"Give me the child... And I promise he will not die painfully."
The father hugged his son closer.
The Shi lifted his hand. "Very well."
Then her mother had panicked and slapped the TV, cutting the broadcast short. Her younger herself had stared innocently at the fading image and asked what was going to happen to the little boy.
Her mother had smiled weakly, patted her on the head, and walked away. When the TV was turned back on the station's anchorman was taking up the screen, face pale.
"The rest cannot be shown for the sake of our younger viewers. A peace treaty is being sought with the so-called Lady Xiea..."
And there she had turned away, burning with frustration.
That was the first wish she had for the moonlight. She wished she could force her mother to watch the entire thing, so that she could never forgive the Shi. The Shi had taken that boy's life - so many people's lives - simply for not being human, or for supporting those who were not human.
But the broadcast was never shown again. The Shi overtook the news the very next day. Pointless lies of how better off the world was with this new government were shown constantly. Senseless whispers of "do not be afraid" and "it's all better now."
No one remembered that the Shi had tried to kill a little boy simply for his tail.
A few weeks later, after the guards had come to be in their small village but before the word "slave" had appeared, she had been in the marketplace when a man slammed into her. She had fallen to the cobblestones and shouted her indignation, pining over the minor scrapes on her knees and the apple she had dropped. The man had looked back briefly, rushed an apology, and started along the way.
He had looked frightened.
As she watched, a Shi approached him. Words were exchanged between the two, and the guard yanked off his hood; it was a young man with short black hair and tan skin, probably from the Central Deserts or somewhere near there. White scars reached across one cheek.
The human pulled back from the man, but by this time more guards had appeared behind him. He was dragged away into an ally, shouting; by the time he had disappeared behind the brick corner someone's hand had covered his mouth and his protests were silenced.
Apple and scrapes forgotten, she had stared, terrified.
The adults around her watched for a brief moment, some troubled, some unaffected. A teenage girl burst into tears and was dragged into a nearby house by her father.
The incident was never mentioned again. Nor was the man ever seen again.
A single droplet of moisture collided with her upper arm. She paused in her memories, looking to the sky and awaiting further rain.
Even if the storm did decide to begin, she would remain. She had one more thing to ask the moonlight.
It had been when she was thirteen. A little less young and a little less stupid.
The word slave was well-used now. No dissent had come from the villagers, though, so the Shi kept on using it with growing disgust. Young men were taken to the army on a daily basis. Only a few remained behind with their wives.
One soldier, wounded in the leg, had returned to the village a few weeks before. He had been a friend of hers when they were younger, always telling her silly stories and giving her strange things made of paper. Cranes, butterflies, and once a little mouse carved from driftwood. She kept all these things in a box on her windowsill and guarded them with all her heart, for a few weeks after his return he died of infection.
He had taken her to the beach one night, only a few days after his return. He took her nearly a mile away from the village and sat in the sand, favoring his leg carefully.
And then he had spoken her with such sincerity and gravity that the words were forever emblazened in her heart.
"I tell this to you because you are the only one who would understand. You're the only one who realizes what is happening with these aliens. I tell this to you because I love you, too, and you need to know the truth... So think of it as another little trinket and never forget it.
"My unit was assigned to eliminating the non-humans. We probably weren't the only ones... I think they're searching everywhere. These non-humans, they terrify the Shi. They're determined to get rid of all of them, and they're using humans to find them. Did you know that there's a network to protect the non-humans? They said that Capsule Corporations was the base, but the Shi destroyed that place long ago. For hiding non-humans, the Shi said, so I guess it was true.
"We were searching the mountains south of East Capitol, or where East Capitol used to be. You remember when that was destroyed, right? Yes, you were only 10 then, I remember... Some people say the Shi sent sentries ahead and they did that, but I think it was something else entirely. That's irrelevant. One night, the Shi commanding us took me and a few other men aside and set us out on a different mission. We went out into the woods, just the four of us, and stumbled across this man. Or I guess it wasn't a man. He looked like he was half-animal, anyway, he was covered in blood and dirt and he couldn't even speak Common I think. He had this wild black hair like a candle flame and his eyes were pitch black... He looked at us and started shouting in some strange language, scared the hell out of us even though he didn't even come up to my shoulder...
"He was a non-human. Had to be. Looked like the same race as that kid the bounty's out for, with the hair and the black eyes. And when he started towards us... I honestly thought I was going to die. But he didn't attack us. He just kind of fell to the ground and sat there, shaking. Maybe the Shi had just killed his family, I don't know. All I know is... I think he wanted to die. But we couldn't do that. He was an alien, but he was too human... It was just another one of us. And I had seen plenty of devestated families by then. He was just like any of them. And how could I kill him when all I could see was my own father?"
At this point her friend had stopped, tears streaming down his face. The moonlight had illuminated the streaks of moisture like precious streams of silver... And for the first time, she appreciated the beauty of it.
After he had taken a moment to dry his cheeks, he continued on.
"So none of us could bear to kill him. Finally I went to him and told him to run, before the Shi came. He didn't even look at me. He shouted something again and I was knocked over backwards - broke my leg, now you know how that happened - and by the time I came around he had disappeared. The Shi came right afterward, demanding to know what happened. The other guys explained it to him... And he killed them. Every one of them."
He stopped again, wiping fresh tears away with his sleeve.
"The monster picked me up and dragged me back to camp. He told me to say that the non-human had killed the others, and I did. They sent me home the next day." For the first time in the story, he smiled. "I like to think that that non-human went on and killed a few Shi. Who knows, maybe I saved that prophesized avenger."
"Prophesized?"
"Stupid myth passed through the army," he replied. "Some idiotic reason for killing the non-humans. The Shi seem to really believe it, but it doesn't really matter." He hugged her, wet face rubbing against her hair. "Please don't forget this. The non-humans are more human than the Shi are. Lady Xiea is a monster, and so is everyone that follows her. Don't forget this..."
"I won't."
She didn't.
No more drops had fallen from the sky, so she still had time for her final wish. She did not wish that her friend was still alive, for that would be selfish. The last thing she wished to change was something that would haunt her forever, something that could never be taken back... And it was all her fault.
Voices reached her ears, and frighteningly close - for them to be heard over the incoming breeze, they had to be within 30 feet.
Panicking, she took off into the nearby forest, diving behind the underbrush and praying she hadn't been seen.
A quartet of green-clad Shi walked past, hoods casually cast down. They looked out to sea, obviously looking for something.
Could it have something to do with the flash of light?
Her heart leapt.
With a non-human?
It had been when she was thirteen. Her friend had just died. She had come to the beach, and cried herself to sleep in the shade of a boulder. And then something had flashed in the night. She had woken and looked over the rock...
A young child, no older than seven, surely, was sprawled across the beach. A Shi standing over him, laughing. Saying something. "Non-human." "Filth." And it kicked the child, rolling it onto its back.
A boy. Just like her little brother. Hurt. Helpless.
Stop it, she had shouted silently. Don't do that. They aren't our enemy. They're just like us.
To herself: Help him. Be like Andrew - remember the little mouse, remember the paper cranes - tell him to run. Stop the Shi. Hit him. Slap him. Stop him. Help the little boy... He's done nothing wrong... He's just like us...
She had done nothing, tears rolling down her cheeks, frozen with fear.
Maybe the Shi killed his family, too. Maybe they're finishing the job. Maybe his father was hugging him to his chest, too, and telling the Shi to stop, and the Shi was saying "Don't worry, he won't die painfully, he won't feel a thing..."
The boy had screamed in pain.
She cried all the harder, struggling to silence her sobs, but the Shi was enjoying himself too much to notice.
Why don't the villagers do something?
Why isn't Andrew here to stop this? Why can't I see my little brother in this child and have the strength to stop this monster, save him... Stop it... But I will die for saving him... And is my life a fair exchange for his?
I'm afraid, Andrew, I don't want to die... I can't... I can't save him...
Why isn't anyone doing anything?
Why is a stupid terrified weak little girl like me the only one trying to help him?
Help him...!
After another agonized cry from the child she had dived behind the rock, curling into a ball and sobbing wildly into her knees. He's going to die he's going to die he's going to die...
The Shi grunted and a wave of sand flew past the boulder, missing her. A string of light faded into the midnight sky. But she noticed none of this. When she looked up next, the child and the Shi were gone, and she finally sobbed as loud as she could manage.
Her final wish was this: she wished that she had done something, that the child had not been killed because she was too afraid for her own life to step forward.
She wished she had saved the man in the town square.
She wished she had saved the little boy on the beach.
She wished she wasn't such a coward...
The four Shi were still standing around, talking amongst themselves.
An owl or something like it soared overhead, disappearing into the canopy. But it was much too large for a bird, owl or not... Wasn't it?
She looked to the Shi and smiled. No, it was just the right size for an owl.
With as soft a step as possible, she headed towards town.
There was going to be a ruckus there. A non-human was being chased by a handful of Shi. And she was going to direct the non-human away from the Shi, to the Med Center that some of the rebels had established in the outskirts of town. Or, if she was too late, she was going to stand between the Shi and the non-human, and she was going to smile and curtsy and innocently inquire what they were doing here so late. And if things had gone too far by that point, she would slap them and shout at them and pull their hair.
And then she would turn to the non-human and she would smile.
What's your name?
I'm Clara. A young, stupid human. But I think I'm feeling a little less stupid today, and a little less young.
I came to save you...
The rain had begun, tapping against the leaves around her.
Who knows? Maybe I'll save the prophesized avenger.
Maybe I'll catch the moonlight.