Because ten billion
years' time is
so fragile,
ephemeral...
it arouses such a
bittersweet,
almost heartbreaking
fondness.
In a dark, broken room deep inside the rusting ruins of ancient Hellywood, a green burst of light shattered the silence and deposited a young man into its confines. The light finally cleared after a moment, revealing to no one that the young man was Shu, returning to the other world after so long an absence. Three years had passed since the legendary destruction of Hellywood, though not since his last visit; making him more mature in appearance as well as mind.
The teleporter device in his hand glowed and beeped for a few moments before deactivating. The silence returned, Shu took a deep breath of the stale air before starting the long walk out.
A cool breeze met Shu's face as he stepped out of the dilapidated hull. The area closest to the wreck was barren, but farther out, he could see the new home all of the survivors had made: New Zari Bars. The houses were constructed mildly well, and the fields blossomed far better than he had ever seen, their growth promoted by the endless water. The town filled the plateau down the hill. Somewhere down there...
His thoughts wandering, Shu started walking down towards the town. Before he could walk too far, he found a structure he had not seen the last time he had come to visit all of his friends. On the outskirts of town, a large, rectangle, stone slab was placed longways-up, and on it were word symbols facing opposite Hellywood, as if the broken castle was meant to be a melancholic backdrop. The poem or song, whatever it was, read:
I seek happiness
to cause your happiness
to be your happiness
so take me
someplace far away
to a true Elsewhere
please take me there
magic that lasts
never-ending kiss
revery without break
unperishable bliss
take me
I want happiness
birds sing
song of unknown tongue
though winged, they
still fail to reach the sky
a place not to be treaded alone
so take me
to a true Elsewhere
wet feathers,
locked fingers,
melting flesh,
fusing minds
take me
I want happiness
Not your past
but your present is what I seek,
carefully winding back its fragile thread
please take me there
I want happiness
Wow, Shu thought to himself. He was not one for poetry, but this poem was excellent in his opinion. He wondered what it meant...
Many of the townspeople greeted him as he made his way farther through New Zari Bars. They had always been kind to him, especially after his role in "saving the world," and because of how he cared for the children. On that thought, he finally saw them in the park area, and with the sight came a beautiful song floating to him across the wind. The young woman's voice was so lovely, so heartwarming, leaving him pleasantly surprised to find that it was Sara singing as she sat on a large rock, her children sitting spellbound before her. Sara...
Shu could only see her from the side from his distant place, but he could already see how attractive and mature she had grown, so incredibly beautiful... He waited until she finished her wonderful song and the children praised her, before shouting out with a great smile, "Hey, Sara!"
She had a look of confusion first before her eyes met his, but it instantly changed to extreme happiness as her smile rivaled his. Sara cried out his name as she rushed towards him, her long, blond hair flowing behind her as her delicate feet carried her fast across the soft, green grass. Shu met her halfway, catching her in his arms as he spun her around, Sara's laughter rising in the field.
Their embrace was strong as all the happy children surrounded them and made the extended "woo" sound, as if they were doing something else besides simply hugging after so long. Because of them, Shu and Sara made tiny leaps back from each other, blushing slightly at the intimacy of the previous moment. Although he would have rather held her again, Shu contented himself with smiling into her eyes and telling her, "You've grown up so much, Sara."
She gently grazed a hand against his cheek and said with a gentle smile of her own, "And so have you."
While most of the children surrounding them smiled to themselves at the tender sight, the tiny arms of one of the children waved up and down as the girl said, "Shu! Shu!"
He looked down to the cute, little girl and recognized her trademark blond hair and blue eyes: it was Little Sis... Sara picked up her baby daughter that looked exactly like her. Shu smiled gently at the child in her arms and gently rubbed its cheek, a small tear growing in his eye. "She knows my name..." he said softly.
The other children started up: "Yep, course she does!"
"She hears your name all the time!"
"Especially from Sara!"
The beautiful, young woman blushed again, causing Shu to place his hand behind his head and laugh bashfully. Sara simply tried to cover up her actions by explaining, "Well, every time you come here, it seems like everyone's spirits are lifted."
"We missed you, Shu!" cried one of the kids.
Sara finally said, "It's good to see you again, Shu."
The last time he had left this world, Shu and Sara had shared a tearful goodbye. He had almost been surprised how much she cried. In the transport room of Hellywood, she had stood with him for an extended moment, hugging him tight and crying that she did not want him to go. He had been so surprised, but after a moment, he held her tight as well, pulling her body closer to his. Then, unexplainably, she had kissed him on the cheek.
The thoughts of his last departure mingled with those of the present as he sat down to lunch with the family of children. Sara had cooked up a wonderful meal for all of them, and Shu was happy to dig right in, Sara smiling beside him.
Once she sat opposite him at the table in the simple home, Shu asked her excitedly between bites, "So when did you learn to sing like that!? That was incredible!"
She blushed again, seemingly a little shy about it. "I've always been able to sing. It's been a sort of talent of mine. It's just lately that I've found the courage to sing again."
One of the children piped up, "She sings to us all the time!"
"They call me their songstress," Sara told him.
Remembering from when he came here, Shu asked, "Did you write that poem-song thing near Hellywood?"
"No, no," she explained. "but I know the person that did. She's a singer in a town far from here. I was able to write to her through mail and become friends with her."
Shu asked, "You have mail now?"
"Yes," said Sara. "With the threat of war over and resources returned, we're able to reclaim the old privileges we once had. We've reestablished a mail system, and we've even started radio broadcasts. That's how I heard Karin's song. She's one of many of us trying to restore the old ways. We're called radical dreamers."
Shu smiled at her. "I think that's great, Sara."
After a moment, she asked him, "So, how did you get out here this time?"
Shu smiled wider, his hand behind his head. "I'm supposed to be in summer camp. I don't know how my parents came up with that brilliant idea." He laughed childishly. "I decided I'd have more fun spending time with you." Not giving Sara the chance to act on that statement, he asked, "So when can I hear you sing?"
Sara's casual blush deepened, even as all the children started shouting and cheering for her to sing again. Sara retracted shyly, saying, "Maybe some other time."
"Sara's gonna have a concert, Shu!" one of the children exclaimed.
"Yeah!" some of the other children shouted together.
Shu asked, "Really?"
She explained to him, "We're having a festival soon, and the children and some of the women in town convinced me I should sing my song for everyone."
"That's great, Sara!"
"I don't know," she confessed shyly. "I'm a little nervous about performing in front of so many people."
"I'm sure you'll be great, Sara. I believe in you."
They shared smiles, and the children smiled with them. Shu looked away, though, the moment a girl a few years younger than them walked into the house. She was a tall, attractive girl with brunette hair and hazel eyes, much resembling Sara's old appearance of rusticness. She set down the large bags full of groceries that she carried, then looked at him with a sly smile, arms folded, and said, "So this must be Shu, the savior everyone's talking about."
Sara greeted her, "Hello, Arisu."
"Am I right?" the new girl inquired. "Are you the one that defeated Hamdo and saved the planet?"
Shu placed a hand behind his head and explained to her, "I think you give me too much credit. I just beat Hamdo with my stick and saved Lala Ru." Lala Ru...
Leaning against the counter where the groceries lay, Arisu waved her hand dismissively, saying, "Whatever. Still, you're quite popular, and I hear many of the girls in town wanna meet you."
Before he could blush out of awkwardness, Shu noticed how Sara lowered her eyes and painfully squeezed her fists. What was she upset about? The next moment, Sara suddenly demanded harshly, "Arisu, can you please put away the groceries in the pantry, then help clean up the children when they finish eating?"
Seeming a bit put off, the younger girl made an expression of disdain before clutching the bags in her arms and walking off toward the pantry. Shu could feel the enmity between them, despite Sara's obvious housing of the girl.
As if to clear his confusion, not looking up, she explained, "Arisu was on Hellywood with us, trapped for a little while, and I took her in since her family had died."
Trapped in Hellywood... Unsure of really how to phrase the question, he stammered solemnly, "Was she... like you?"
Her hands shaking slightly, her hair hiding her face, she muttered, "No. Not like me."
Shu stared up at the silver moon in the twilight sky as he sat upon the roof of Sara's home, alone to the cool wind. This day was certainly filled with conflicting thoughts.
The tragedy of Hellywood still scarred a good many souls, Sara's most of all; and Sara... He... really cared about her, maybe even more strongly than as a friend. And yet...
He clutched his head, consumed by all these random emotions. Did he really love Sara? But why did he still think about Lala Ru sometimes? And then Arisu and all the other girls were obviously pursuing him... And then... there was the painful, reluctant realization that this was not his world, and that he might not belong here...
The wind blew harder, forcing him to hold himself and shiver. As his teeth chattered for a brief instant, the tiny trap door behind him creaked, forcing him to look back and see Sara's smiling form staring at him from there. He smiled, too, almost as much at the sight of her as from the blanket in her arms. She walked over slowly and sat beside him, sitting intimately close.
"It's a beautiful moon tonight," she whispered softly.
"Yeah," he murmured back.
Carefully, she flung the blanket around the both of them, then placed a soft, warm arm around him, pulling them tightly together as she rested her head on his shoulder. Shu let his eyes fall from the moon to her, drinking in the beautiful sight of her, enjoying the delicate sounds of her breathing. Although he was confused when alone to his thoughts, when he was with her, he knew for certain the way he felt...
"Shu?" she started quietly. "Will you stay with us for now?"
He answered, "Of course. I want to be here... with you..."
Shu could feel her heart beat grow stronger. After a moment, staring up at the moon again, he felt her soft, tender lips kiss his cheek. A tingly feeling swept through his body, and he felt truly happy, even as she started to rise, leaving the blanket upon him. Even still, in the cold wind of the night, he was filled with an ineffable warmth from Sara's kiss.
He watched as she gave him a little smile, one that seemed to mask an urge to give herself completely to him at that moment, and she said to him, "Goodnight, Shu. Don't stay too long away from us."
Sara dropped down back into the house. Once outside the view of her true love, she placed a hand on her heart to keep it from pounding out of her chest. She almost could not believe she had kissed him on the cheek, let alone revealed so much of her feelings. Her breathing straining to return to normal, she started walking through the hallway to her room, not noticing Arisu standing in the shadows, watching her coldly.
The sign read Venoa before it was reduced to cinders and consumed by terrible flames. The fire rose high into the sky, despoiling the pure darkness as it melted the town down. Screams never lasted long, and neither did the bodies left behind.
A tan-colored man ran desperately in the middle of one of the few streets that the flame had not poured into like tidal waves. His clothes were charred and his heart was pained by the screaming flames that seemed to think in their destructive methods.
The man cried out the moment a girl stepped calmly out of the flames, straight towards him. She was barely a pre-teen, if not a small teenager. Her luscious, cinnabar hair whipped in the wind like the flames that licked the sky. A pendant like a red jewel sphere hung around her neck. Her eyes were strange, like two ovals each of different reds.
At first, his voice stammered, "Wh--who are you?" Realization struck him, and he screamed angrily, "Why are you doing this!?"
Her voice was neither pleasant nor gentle: "You filthy humans killed my sister! I am Faye Ru, and I will be the one to purify the world, with flames!"
She raised a hand to her pendant, and before the man could scream in fear or pain, he was incinerated by the wave of melting fire shooting out from the sphere charm. Alone, standing in a sea of flames, the girl called Faye Ru continued her movement through town and the world, her desire for revenge upon the humans burning stronger than the flames around her.
Shu woke slowly, gently, dream-memories of Sara still playing in his mind. The smell of good food had woken him when the bright sun could not. All the other children had already risen and probably gathered in the kitchen--except Arisu. The girl stood at the doorway, watching him. She was smiling, but her standing there staring at him was unnerving.
She merely told him, "Come on down for breakfast," and walked away.
Not letting the girl bother him, he quickly dressed and rushed to the kitchen, finding wonderful food awaiting him on the large table where all the other children were already gorging themselves. Sara was setting down a plate for herself when Shu appeared, eliciting a bright smile and greeting from her. He smiled almost shyly as the memory of the nighttime kiss swirled in his mind.
The meal seemed normal, just like all the other meals, except Shu found himself unconsciously glancing at Sara more often than usual, and her, him. At one point, they finally met each other's eyes, then looked back down quietly, blushing and smiling. The children seemed to be watching them, for they smiled to themselves still, and started to gently laugh when Shu and Sara caught each other like that. It seemed cute to them and the children.
Once breakfast was finished and Shu helped Sara with the dishes, she told him in a low, secretive tone, "I wanna take you somewhere now. Come with me."
He gave her a confused look, a little nervous about what Sara had planned for them, but he decided to go along with it. She led him out the front door and called for Arisu. The girl appeared from a bit down the street with several other girls, some of them older than her.
Before wondering what Arisu was doing, Sara told her sternly, "I need you to care of the children today. They want to go to the park, and that should be easy enough for you to watch them."
As Sara pulled her hoverbike from the side of the house, Arisu approached with her crowd and protested, "But wait, Sara, all these girls came here to see Shu. You can't just leave."
All of the girls with Arisu started to advance toward Shu as if he was the prize bachelor in town, shouting, "Wow, is this really Shu!?"
"He's so handsome!"
"Damn, he's hot!"
"Come with us, Shu!"
"Yeah, we'll show you a good time!"
"Maybe in my bedroom!"
All of the girls laughed at the last comment but Sara, whose anger felt to the awkward Shu, potentially hotter than the sun. In one quick motion, Sara grabbed Shu by the collar, pulled him onto the hoverbike with her with an order of "Come 'ere," started the bike, and drove off down the street, away from the girls. Shu held tight onto Sara not just for the subtle intimacy of the touch and closeness, but also because of the merited fury causing her to drive recklessly fast through New Zari Bars and out into the open plains.
After a minute or two, Sara finally let out a deep breath and said softly, "I'm sorry about that, Shu."
The wind blowing strongly against him, he held her more gently and murmured into her ear, "It's all right, Sara..."
Feeling better already, she relaxed herself and continued driving them towards her special place.
"Wow!" exclaimed Shu as he finally laid eyes on Sara's surprise: a huge, fantastic garden hidden away from the world, in a tall chasm. The place was literately an expansive field filled with tons of wildflowers and many trees of various types, and tiny creeks ran through the entire eden.
Sara explained to him with a smile, "This is my secret garden. I found it here on my way to meet Karin Dansly in Venoa several months ago, when I had to take shelter from a sandstorm. I entered the cave and decided to find how far it lead. I was surprise to find this field here untouched by the sandstorm. All the water comes from underground reservoirs, I think, so all this may have been here for decades, if not longer."
As Shu continued smiling and staring in awe at the ethereal paradise, Sara took his hand and started leading him farther through the field, stopping to sit under a tall tree like a willow. Like a young child, she wove lovely flowers into her hair, adding to her already-extraordinary beauty, illuminated in the sweet, diffused light between the leaves above. Shu could barely blink as he watched spellbound her gorgeous form, those breath-taking eyes...
Finally, like a happy, little kid, as if the tragedy of her past had never occurred, she rose with a smile and extended him a delicate hand, saying softly, "Run with me."
His wonderment remaining but his body functions returning, Shu smiled, took her hand, and rose to meet her height. They began to run side-by-side together through the flowing field, flowers dancing in the wind as they seemed to almost fly, feeling pure bliss merely being in each other's presence.
Feeling sneaky, Sara came closer to Shu and pounced upon him, laughing as they rolled together a few times before stopping, Shu on top of Sara, the two of them embracing each other. In the peaceful garden, Shu and Sara held each other's gaze, feeling the heart beat and breathing of the other, the wind playing beautifully with their hair. At last, as their feelings for each other grew almost unbearable, they both closed their eyes, leaned forward slowly, and kissed softly, gently, tasting each other's lips for the first time, after wanting to do so for so long...
His eyes still closed to fully enjoy the feeling, their lips separated by the smallest of spaces, Shu heard from Sara the words that made his heart sing: "I love you."
In the next episode:
Sara: You can sing of fire in so many ways: fire that urges you on in life; fire that burns in your heart and body as you dance in a lover's arms; fire that fills your eyes with hatred. Still, does fire purify or merely destroy?
-The romance of Shu and Sara grows, Arisu becomes suspicious, and Faye Ru continues her destruction
Part Two: Fires Of Love And Hate
Post-AN: Wha'd'ya think so far? Good? Bad? Too OOC? I'd appriciate feedback!
Oh, Pioneer owns NTHT, not me, but this fanfiction and its prequel are all mine! ^_^ Oops, except for the fact that the song in the beginning is from the manga (maybe anime if it exists), Clover. I used it because the song is really cool! ^_^ Well, and it fits with the story.
With the story, I kinda imagined them with the english voices (even though they sucked), since I liked the japanese voices making them seem the appropriate, youthful age in the series. Speaking of ages, I don't really know how old Shu and Sara are, but after three years, I'm assuming past middle teens, if not around that area. If they're younger, well, maybe I can just claim ignorance in later scenes.
Two more parts to go for my NTHT big fanfic! Yea! ^_^ When it's all said and done, I'll reveal all my little secrets interspersed within the story. ^_^ Thanks for reading, and come back later for the rest of the fanfic!