So, this has been on my mind since Karneval is doing some history digging.
Please enjoy!
I don't own anything.
Gareki grumbled. The sun was baking the sand, but the water felt too cold to swim in for Gareki. Nai and Yogi didn't seem to mind though. Gareki looked over to Akari. Jiki was next to the doctor, and both were reading large, academic looking books.
Gareki sighed, turning back to the sea where Nai and Yogi were splashing. The salt breeze comforted Gareki's headache. This private part of the beach was quiet as well, giving Gareki a sense of calm. A shadow fell over Gareki.
"Do you need sunscreen, dear?" Eva asked, sitting next to Gareki. Gareki rubbed a hand over his bare arm. Like Hirato and Akari, Gareki had opted to wear a light shirt instead of running around bare-chested. Still, the unbuttoned shirts had given Gareki a surprise in seeing the doctor was incredibly fit.
"I think I'm fine. Yogi made me put some on earlier." Gareki replied. He silently wished Eva would leave. Or maybe Gareki just wanted to leave. He had some medical books to investigate.
"Is there a reason you aren't swimming?" Eva asked. Gareki shrugged. He wouldn't admit that seeing the waves along the horizon made his heart raced and a shot of panic hit his veins. If he could touch the bottom, or didn't see waves, water didn't bother him. But here? The ocean stretching for miles with no other land? Gareki really didn't want to leave the beach. He didn't have to imagine too hard to feel a board giving him splinters in his arms, the exhaustion in his body and the hopeless feelings from the ship wreck he had experienced.
"I was hoping to get some reading done, but Yogi dragged me down here before I could grab a book." Gareki grumbled.
"Read mine. I have finished." Akari was on Gareki's other side. The doctor also sat down, but with a good deal of space between Gareki and himself. Gareki picked up the book that had been dropped in the sand.
Verständnis Anatomie und Physiologie. It took Gareki a minute, but he translated the title.
"Understanding Anatomy and Physiology?" He asked. Akari gave a victorious smile. Eva groaned from Gareki's left.
"Thanks, Gareki. Now I owe our lovely doctor fifty credit dollars." Eva groaned. Gareki gave the two older Circus members disapproving looks.
"Betting on my ability to read? Rude." Gareki coughed out the last word. This time Akari and Eva looked confused.
"Gareki, you just read German, one of the oldest languages on this planet." Akari said. Gareki shrugged. Jiki joined the trio.
"Try this book." Jiki handed over his botanical book. Gareki took a quick glance at the cover.
"I read a book like this once. The Truth behind Symbiosis in Plants." Gareki droned. He really had minimal interest in the relations between plants and other plants. Now, between a poisonous plant and a person, that could be useful knowledge.
"That book is in Arabic. You're telling me you can just read Arabic? Can you read Japanese?" Gareki gave his fellow beach-sitters a weird glance.
"Ok, what do you mean it's German, Arabic or Japanese? Yeah the letters are different and sometimes pictures are words instead of shapes making letters to words, but they all read the same, don't they?" Gareki asked. The silence that met him was filled with awe.
Akari pulled a small pamphlet from a pocket on his over-shirt.
"The Ultimate Guide to Samarchika." Gareki said. "Yeah, these are the characters most commonly used in this part of the world I've noticed. Where I grew up the words were a lot longer, flatter, and you used individual letters to make full words."
"Gareki, how long did it take for you to teach yourself to read?" Akari asked. He was in doctor mode now. Gareki groaned, flopping on his back. He was obviously tired of this conversation.
"I don't know. Tsubame and Yotaka gove me a lot of books, and I think I could read before I was sold…" Gareki trailed off. Now he was curious. He knew a lot of people couldn't read, heck Nai was still struggling to get the basics.
Apparently the others thought that Gareki went silent because of his history. A moment of silence passed. Gareki stifled a yawn. The warmth, the breeze, the peace… when had Gareki become so spoiled that he could relax this much? Something had to happen any second now.
"Read this book anyway. Until we return you to Kuronomei, I'll be your private medical profession teacher." Akari said. His voice was wistful. Was he remembering Azana? Gareki didn't know. Gareki just nodded slightly, he was secretly anxious to work with the slave driver that was Doctor Akari, but Gareki was also excited. He was going forward again.
"Emergency!" Kiichi's voice broke the peaceful stillness. Gareki sat up slowly. "Emergency!" Nai was running back with her. Gareki did a double take. He had thought Nai was in the water. When he sat up, Gareki saw Yogi rubbing sleep from his eyes at Gareki's feet. How long he just been laying here.
"Oh! Nai's back with the ball he went to buy… where is Tsukumo?" Yogi asked. Kiichi caught her breath.
"Hirato kidnapped her!"
"That devil!" Jiki cried, leaping to his feet. Gareki groaned. Nai was sniveling.
"The crying…and wall came down…Tsukumo and Hirato…trapped!" Nai wailed. Nai barreled into Gareki's chest, knocking the teen over. Gareki let out an 'oof'.
"Nai!" Kuroko was walking down the beach, two ice cream cones in his hands. Nai had a death grip around Gareki, who was getting more and more peeved by the minute. Hands, all around him… Gareki could see shadows around the edges of his line of sight.
Gareki shoved Nai off and quickly stood. Kuroko had given the ice cream to Yogi and glared at Gareki as he comforted Nai. Gareki saw the confused looks of his companions. Gareki then caught Akari's eyes. Gareki wasn't sure what, but something in Akari's look spoke of understanding.
"Excuse me." Gareki took a breath. "We should go get Tsukumo and Four Eyes." He finished. The life returned to the group and everyone was full of energy as they went off the free the kidnapped Tsukumo.
Gareki let out a huff as he set down the anatomy book. With the large vocabulary that required multiple checks in a dictionary, the time it took to finish the book was tripled for Gareki. He looked at the Nyanperona wall clock that Nai, or Yogi, had hung in the room. It was almost midnight. Nai was in Kuroko's room, playing. Gareki wondered if Nai would finally spend the night with his 'brother'. Gareki paused as he thought about that. Since he had met Nai, the only nights spent away from him had been the nights Gareki was at Kuronomei.
A knock at the door startled Gareki. The door opened to reveal the doctor Akari. The prestigious man was in a lab coat, slacks, loafers, and a loose tie hung around his neck, despite the late hour.
"Doctor." Gareki couldn't hide his surprise.
"You finished the book." It wasn't a question.
"Just now." Gareki answered.
"You do realize, the books on your shelf are in multiple languages, and half of them read the opposite way as the other half?"
"Yeah, that's a mistake you only make once while reading a book."
"Hirato should be told you're some sort of genius." Akari murmured mostly to himself, walking into the room. Gareki sat up on his bed.
"Genius? I just read books. Hirato buys them and I tell him if they're good or not. So far I haven't been disappointed." Gareki kept a wary eye on the doctor.
"Then I guess he knows already." Akari 'tsked'. "I should have expected that. No matter what, Hirato is always a step ahead." Gareki rolled his eyes. Was he about to hear more about Akari and Hirato's rivalry?
"Follow me." Akari announced. Gareki stood abruptly, hearing the order, but stopped.
"Why?" Akari looked at Gareki like he was being troublesome.
"You'll see." He said. Akari glanced about the room. "Will you bother Nai coming in later?" Gareki thought a minute.
"Sheep-san," A sheep appeared, "Will you inform Nai he should sleep with Kuroko or Yogi tonight?" Gareki asked. The sheep buzzed in approval, repeated the message and raced through the halls.
"Probably not the best solution." Akari said softly. Gareki winced.
"I was rude earlier today… I guess he'll think I'm mad at him or something." Gareki pondered. The two had started walking in the direction of the on-board med-lab.
"We'll be starting your tutoring immediately. If late nights aren't a bother for you; this is the only time I'm really free." Gareki nodded, grateful for the gift of time Akari was sparing him, but he would never admit it.
The two entered the lab. Akari lead Gareki to a long, black table. He pressed a button, made a few selections and a hologram of a genderless, human body appeared, floating about a foot above the waist high table. Gareki smiled slightly. He could feel he would enjoy these lessons.
Akari handed Gareki a pen and paper.
"You can write?" Gareki scoffed and didn't answer, jut writing his name at the top of the page, and the title Lesson One. His handwriting was sharp. It was evidence he mostly only drew diagrams. Akari should have known he could write. He had passed all his tests and the entry exam for Kuronomei. Akari nodded and pointed to different parts of the body. He merely said "One. Two." Gareki wrote down the number, and the part of the body. This went on for about an hour when Akari went silent, allowing Gareki to spell out Latisimus Dorsi.
"I take it your aversion to physical contact has to do with your time aboard the slave ship." Akari said suddenly. Gareki's pencil led snapped.
"I would think that to be obvious." Gareki replied sharply.
"It is." Akari agreed. "What happened?" Akari continued. Gareki stared at his sharp, slanted writing.
"There was barely ever enough food for us on that ship. I remember people would call out that they would protect me. When I got close enough, they grabbed me, took my food and kicked me away. I was a runt, prey." Gareki went silent, eyes clouded with memories. "The other kids were the worst. I was the youngest, the smallest. They would beat me just for fun. Adults just took food and shoved me away. The kids, the kids would tie me up, restrain me, and either leave me in places I shouldn't be on the ship to be punished by the deckhands, or they just did the honor themselves." Gareki's voice had dropped lower. Akari was completely focused on Gareki, so neither noticed the dark shadow in the doorway.
"You're lucky that's all they did." Akari said, then held up his own notebook. "Let's check your answers." Gareki was staring at Akari in shock.
"All they did? Lucky?" Gareki hissed. It was Akari's turn to stare at his writing.
"Gareki, no matter what shit you're going through, someone has had worse." Akari met Gareki's eyes. Gareki paused in his fuming.
"What do you know about my slave ship?" Gareki asked. He had always had this curiosity, and it seemed an exhausted Akari was willing to talk. Akari took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. Without its usual gel, it clung to his fingers and fell over his face. While Gareki thought the combed back hair was impressive and business-like, the messy hair flopping every which way was more natural, and suited Akari much better. It lessoned his severe look, and the fringe framed his face nicely.
But now, Akari looked more ruffled and unsure of himself rather than relaxed.
"Hirato and Tsukitachi were informed the destination of that ship. It is a rather regular slave-trade route. Very few know of it though." Akari started. Gareki frowned.
"How did they learn of it?" Gareki asked.
"I told them." Akari said, setting his papers down and messing with the table to shut down the hologram.
"How did you know?" Gareki demanded. Akari paused.
"Pier of Tears was your destination. A rather ridiculous name for a very hellish place. I believe escapees named it, and with their state of mind so tortured, I wouldn't expect much better." Akari had the machine shut down. He picked up his coat, which he had shed earlier when they had entered the room.
"How did you know?" Gareki asked again, not moving.
"Your ship never reached its destination. Mine did."
Well, a little vague, and a little risky to start so close to where the manga stopped, but anyway! Please enjoy! And Review! Chapter 2 up soon!
A few things you'll notice. I'm saying Karneval is a sci-fi that is centuries in the future. Something happened to make people go back to semi-Victorian styles, but I don;t know what. But that is how I'm writing Karneval.
Second- money in this world wouldn't be dollars, euros, or anything else I can think of, so I'm saying they use a credit system. King of like the online bitmoney that is getting popular in America.
Third- This is not trying to be realistic. I want it to sound realistic, but it isn't. Unless I totally screw up some anatomy, like say his arm was shoved through his body, and I have sentences that are just anatomically impossible (including anything using the Cells stuff), don't rely on it to be accurate.
Fourth- Please review! I'd love to hear what you guys think! Your guys' input really does affect how well a story is written.
Finally- Love you all and thank you for reading chapter 1!
Love,
Burning Bright