Author: Ari
E-Mail: RedYume@aol.com
Notes: Thank you Geri! On another note- this fic is directly post series. Hope you all like it.
Dawn broke cold and misty over the shoreline of Tokyo Bay, typical for early autumn. No clouds hung in the sky, lifeless save for a mix of white gulls and black crows, spattered against the flat gray. They cawed and cried in the early light, noisily hailing the frigid coming of another day. For them, this day was like the last and so many before it. For birds never wondered about the dealings of men. They didn't count the people down on the rocky beach nor did they watch the boats cross the bay. Birds only worried about flight and food, and even that was only when it suited them. Otherwise, they worried about nothing, and this day was as nothing as the rest.
If the gulls and crows had been of a different mind, if they had cared to watch the world around them, they would have noticed the sunken tower off the pier. It had been standing bright and tall the day before with people milling about it, wanting to catch sight of the artwork inside. But now it was only a crumbled heap of stone and statuary at the bottom of the bay. The only remaining artwork lay atop the waves, bobbing and sailing with the tide, ink running and paint fading to nothing.
That night many things had become nothing. Eszet had fallen to their enemies and to their followers. Blades found their marks in the Elders, freeing some from slavery, and dooming others to oblivion. In the end, the complex network Eszet had worked so hard to erect, became nothing. Schwarz, who had followed Eszet, fell as the floor crumbled beneath their feet. That night everything ended in darkness, hushed by the inky waters of the sea.
Bodies dotted the otherwise clear water, swaying in the current, going wherever the water pushed them as the sky turned pink. The sun was rising in earnest, and soon someone would notice the wet masses in the water. Police and paramedics would arrive in a whir of lights and sirens. People would throng to the pier and watch the happenings from above. The scene, so dead in the early light, would be shattered by humanity. For people, unlike birds, worried. For humanity hated when things became nothing.
Boats cut through the water like sharks that morning, slashing white scars in their wake. Four of them, all looking for survivors, picking up the drowned. So far they had found two dead, an elderly couple from what they could tell, killed in the tower's collapse. They didn't have any identification as of yet, but they would get that at the morgue.
Officer Marcus leaned over the railing of the small vessel, scanning the waters carefully. The first two bodies were found near the north end of the bay, where the tide had taken them. Marcus couldn't understand why he had been ordered to the Southern end, searching an area the tide ran from rather than to. But he searched with no less diligent effort than the officers across the bay. Orders were orders.
Marcus squinted as the boat turned east, into the morning sun. He held his hand against his brow to lessen the glare, but took it down when he saw a flash of white in the water. In an instant they were past it. "Turn around! Make another pass."
The boat swung in a wide circle, making a crested wave on the turn's outer flare. Passing back over the same area, Marcus zeroed in on the white object. "There!" he pointed at it. "There's something there!"
The boat wove around the finding, turning off its engine as it came to rest near the lump in the water. Marcus' partner, Greer, frowned deeply. "Another body."
Marcus ignored him, grabbing a hooked pole from the inner rail. He couldn't tell what it was yet, but he hoped it wasn't a corpse. He snagged the hook over a fold in the white material that covered the bobbing mass, pulling the pole back toward him. As soon as it turned in the water it was clear that Greer was right. It was another body.
Brown hair waved softly in the salty water as a pale face turned up and as it neared the boat, arms floated up innocently from their previously tucked position. What they had seen was the back of his white jacket, breeching the water's surface.
Marcus sighed, pulling the body against the side of the vessel. This would bring the body count to three. Greer wasted no time, pulling the communicator from its wall holder. "This is Coastal Two, repeat Coastal Two, over."
"This is Coastal HQ, we read you Coastal Two, over," came the crackling reply.
"We have another victim here, over."
Marcus leaned far over the rail, grabbing an arm so he could hoist the body aboard. They needed to give HQ a description and see if the body had any identification on it so they could begin processing. Despite the water, the body was incredibly light. As he pulled upward and grabbed the other arm, he realized why. The victim was a young man, still very much a boy, small and lean.
Greer continued, "Yeah, a young male, light build, Asian, brown hair, approximately five feet three inches, wearing a white tuxedo and dress shoes,"
Water dripped freely from his hair and clothes, almost like tears where it trickled from his eyelashes as Marcus dragged him aboard. Marcus' mind wandered, disturbed by the youth in front of him. He had a son, not so very far in age from this boy. He was sure there were worried parents somewhere in the city. He did not want to be the one to tell them their boy was dead. As he thought he readjusted his grip, letting his hands encircle the youth's wrists. He immediately regretted it as the wet skin slid from his grasp and deposited the body unceremoniously on the deck.
The boy landed hard on his stomach and water poured from his mouth in a gush. Both officers were amazed to hear a wet cough emanate from the boy, followed by another surge of water.
Marcus knelt beside the boy, reaching around his chest to hold him up. Eyelids fluttered rapidly as alternating gasps for air and heaving chokes of water shook him violently. "Get us to shore, now!" Marcus ordered.
"HQ, we have a live one. Requesting Paramedics, over."
"Roger, Coastal Two. Paramedics are waiting on shore, over."
"Coastal Two out."
"HQ out."
Greer cut back to shore in record time as Marcus assessed the boy's condition. There were several minor abrasions and a couple of dark bruises, but those were unimportant in comparison to the amount of water he had taken in. Involuntary spasms drawing water from the boy's lungs continued most of the way to shore, leaving the ship's deck soaked with it. When the worst of it was over, the boy pushed Marcus away with staggering strength. After that he lay on his side against the deck, breathing in ragged whining gasps. His eyes opened partially, staring at the wet deck beneath him. Slivers of dark blue irises circling wide pupils searched the ground. Marcus couldn't tell if the boy was conscious or not, but he was alive.
Nagi Naoe floated weightless in a dream, limp and weak. All he could do was listen to the dampened sounds around him. First there were sirens in the distance, and heavy currents pulling on his body. And cold, there was an ever present cold about him. He assumed that he must be dead, or close to it. It didn't matter really. It was all over anyway. This life hadn't been that good of a run at any rate. Its end was unimportant.
The dream shattered as gravity seized him once more, tossing him to the floor. After that there was an urgent need to breathe, and a nauseating feeling that he couldn't. The rest was a blur of vomiting and gasping for air, bright sunlight, voices all around him, people moving in close, suffocating him. Eventually, mercifully, bleak unconsciousness overtook him. It was more absolute than the dream, and he welcomed it.
TBC