Chapter 1- Under the cherry tree
The strong odor of the clammy alley burned from her throat down as she took in the foul stench in gasps. She slammed against the wet wall stifling her loud heaving with her hand. With every quick breathe she prayed that they were gone.
" Witch! Witch!" their words ringed in her ears and seemed to echo through the dark alley. Her chest rose rapidly up and down as she tried to block their words from her head. She was no witch, she was sure of it. There was something terribly wrong with her but it was beyond witches' power, it was a satanic transformation, a disease. She tightened her eyes to the piercing pain in her leg muscles and remembered the encounter with two of the militia men of the city.
Her instinct had done what is natural to do, she defended herself from them when they encircled her and tried to harass her in that narrow backstreet. Disgust quickly filled her as she felt their hands raid her body again.
"let me go!" she cried but they didn't budge, they pinned her against the wall cooing her with the gun that one pressed fixedly on her side. That was all she could remember before she killed them. The rest was just shattered fragments of memory. They reeked of beer and cigars, their faces were distorted and sweaty, they ogled her with wild eyes and softly chuckled, enjoying the terrified expression and pleadings of the young woman. Lucky for them that was the last pretty face they saw, when those beautiful brown eyes changed to those of a possessed animal and a white silvering aura she emitted from her body obliterated the gun like plastic and like a bomb vaporized them into bloody pieces.
She shuttered in that foul alley remembering the splatter of blood and flesh against the wall and pavement then smothered all over her clothing and terrified face. There was no way of telling what was once skin, organs, or even faces, it was all meshed into a mixture of flesh and blood.
The young woman dragged herself to the puddle of blood unable to believe her eyes. She had killed them! She annihilated two men with an unknown dynamics that boiled her blood and prevented any control of her own body. She stared down at her hands wondering whose they were. It couldn't have been her; the blood glistened with the light of the moon and shadowed her face of despair and shock. What was she becoming? What was happening to her? Her eyes widen as she noticed abnormal black marks on her hands telling her that something just wasn't right.
"what is this!" she yelped rubbing the marks merciless from her skin. Tears burned her eyes as she raised her sleeves and noticed those symbols all around her arm. She pulled her shirt front to see them on her chest as well and discovering this deformity, her tears became greater. Her heart could be heard in that morbid silence; the blood of the dead devoured the fresh air. She had to get out of there before morning came or else she would be dead by noon. The nauseating smell ate through her senses as she staggered and stood grasping for the walls for balance like if wounded but it was no use she dropped to her knees and vomited in full force her curls damp with sweat her marked face glistened with the moonlight with the perspiration, because yes, her face was marked as well. But those curls perhaps because of the light of the moon had somehow turned into a silvering white.
She pressed against the damp wall covering her face with her knees. She had never felt so confused. No. She had never felt so lost, so alone. She heard the dripping of water the unknown sounds in the darkness. Her heart knocked desperately on her chest hoping this was some kind of nightmare. The flashes of death kept reminding her that it was not a nightmare at all but her reality taken out of some horror movie. She was a strong girl though, she had to make it out of that hell hole somehow it was something that was taught to her as an orphan back in the days by Reno. A whimper escaped her lips as she remembered those days of sunlight, and of young laughter. It had been just the four of them Marilyn, Reno, Hiroki and her. They were the closest to family she ever had the ones that she had shared all her dreams and hopes to. In that dark alley she was enveloped back to the cherry tree where they would talk about young love and their journey together and look at her now, working at a mans club to morning, dealing with unruly men and completely utterly alone. She had to leave it was impossible for her to have stayed and pretended that nothing happened when they had betrayed her. All of them knew, except her. She felt like an idiot, a laughing stock, that's was why she had left. All pride. The untold truth actually was that she just couldn't bare seeing Marilyn and Hiroki together. Her heart felt it was being crushed in the hands of an angry God every time those gold eyes looked at Marilyn like they had once seen her. Hiroki was supposed to have been all hers. He was back then. He was her everything but it seemed not anymore, it seemed so long ago that it even felt unreal. How she wished she would have never loved him; that all four of them were still together under the cherry tree. She did not need them she could do it on her own, she had done it all these years she thought bitterly. Like hell if she would let those men get her and do god knows what to her. She sighed and pinched her cheeks lightly and turned the fear she felt into fiery strength. Passing her hand in that darkness to the tender flesh of her arm, she wondered if those wavering symbols were still there. As soon as she got out of that city she would go find a doctor. She stood up, in her heart still remembering them; still remembering Hiroki and the girl that had taken him away. Marilyn. They were inseparable, back then they were referred to as the Twins but that was a long time ago. Stepping over the puddles she started to run, she had to get out of there fast there was no point of remembering what she could never go back to. Taking a full breathe of air she ran to the one person that would help her no matter what, Diablo.
Diablo knew this was a dangerous city, so that's way when he awoke to the hard knocking on his door he rolled of his futon and grabbed his .45 fully loaded. Who in the world could be knocking at three in the morning? He swore scratching his stubby beard ready to gun down whoever was behind that door.
"Diablo it's me! Open up!"
He winced; there was only one person that had that irritating child-like voice, hurrying to the door he dropped the gun. What the hell had Jocelyn done this time? He had barley half-opened the door when Jocelyn pushed trough him.
"Well thanks for asking if you could come in" he told her closing the door and locking it shut. She seemed perfectly fine he thought coldly, rude as always.
"I am sorry." she whispered, her dark tone catching his attention fast. Walking towards her, he froze when he saw the blood stained in her shirt and pants "shit! Jocelyn what did they do to you!"
"Is not mine" she winded looking down at the dried blood on her blouse. He ruffled his haggard blond hair stepping towards her closing the distance, afraid to ask her whose blood she carried on her garments but it was not necessary to ask her at all, the answers came out of her lips like a chant, a confession
"I killed two of the militia men, Diablo. I killed them with some kind of power that fused through my skin--Tore them to pieces." She was on crack he thought. What power was she talking about? He dropped in front of her and held her shoulders and noticed the fear the foreboding surrounding his dull lit room.
"Jocelyn. What power?" He asked trying to avoid the panic that wanted to cover him. She didn't meet his gaze her eyes lingered down at her arms where the marks once were
"There were symbols here." He looked down at her arm, her tan skin completely unmarked
"They were everywhere after I killed them" Diablo had never seen so much fear in her face in his life or felt her shiver like a small child
"What marks Jocelyn?" he questioned again a hint of despair seeping through his voice but she didn't answer
" your freaking me out" he finally mumbled his hand patting her untamed curls
" you know I love you right?" he soothed ignoring the chills on the back of his neck. With tear filling her eyes again she met his brown eyes, narrowed in dread and worry for her and all of a sudden felt at ease and dropped in his arms falling into a void a bittersweet darkness that took hold of her.
In her dreams she thought she could see that woman that abandoned her long ago, taking her in her arms and apologizing for her sins, but she only felt emptiness at her touch. She didn't recognize anything of the woman that called herself her mother, only saw those same marks on her face and in her body. She whispered something but she could barley hear her voice taken by the wind or never escaping her lips at all
"I can't hear you" Jocelyn would struggle to say but that silhouette kept disappearing deeper in the darkness and the shadows of her mind. Her eyes opened to a blurry unfamiliar ceiling. What a strange dream she thought. The marked. It was all she could remember that woman telling her. She sat up on the futon and turned to see Diablo curled up beside her. His breathe whizzing with tired sleep. She crawled over him and headed towards the shower she had to move on to the next city. She was gypsy never used to being in the same place for long.
Bunching up the clothes and throwing them in the trash she got out in Diablo's baggy jeans and loose shirt.
"This would do for now "she mumbled to herself getting out when Diablo sat in the futon and stared at her incredulously
"What the fuck?" he stood up walking to the cooler near his lowboy and grabbing a beer. She looked like a real man.
"What? I need some clothes you don't expect me to walk around with blood now do you?" she told him helping herself to a beer as well. I did not seem she remembered all the weird things she was telling him last night. Almost like if it she was never there. He shrugged his shirt off and yawned
"Do you mind telling me what happened now?" Jocelyn gulped down the cold beer and looked around his empty apartment. A table, which was just a crooked little counter he had placed together; Empty condom boxes; Empty beer.
"are you planning to tell me or not?" he asked again wiping his wet lips with the back of his hand
"She placed the beer on top of the cooler" well I punched out some ass in the club and they fired me"
Diablo spited out the sour drink" YOU WHAT!"
"They fired me Diablo." she glared at him and continued" I didn't pay my landlord three months for my loft and well he kicked me out. "
She took another gulp of her drink as he mopped the spilled beer using his white shirt as a mop
"and how does that explain the blood on your clothes" she looked away, the fragments returning to her
"I don't know they followed me and they cornered me in a dark alley and well I killed them. Now they are after me"
Killed. That word felt like needles in her mouth. She had indeed killed two men. They deserved to die didn't they? She looked up at him
"I didn't want to kill them." she said softly. Pulling her up he embraced her in warm hug and assured her, "I know you didn't mean to" he would miss her.
They had met on a rainy day when someone had given her a terrible beating and left her to die. He took her home with him and got her a job at Cupid. He always felt so sorry for her; it must have taken her awhile to get accustomed to the world that she was brought to. The war had started before she was born so she had no idea how beautiful this city once was. The streets weren't filled with whores and drugs, it was a nice place where he had built a nice home for his small little family of three, but was destroyed along with his child and wife. It was apocalyptic days. They were closing in to the end of everything in a world where anarchism had taken its place, a jungle.
The sun was blaring in the city when she left Diablo's apartment. She fixed the cap he had given her down to her face to block the sun and her identity. There was a train she would take in a reasonable price that would take to her new home, wherever the train stopped. Her stomach grumbled in hunger already while she walked to the Gina station. There were children outside their shrill laughs making everything sound so wonderful, they played with a soccer ball without a care in the world. She wished she could live like that. Those kids had no idea how lucky they were. She stopped by the vendor street to see it for a last time, the loud chants of merchants selling fruits, animals, medicines and even their children's clothing. She smiled at the memories she had made and decided that before she left there was one more person she wanted to stop by and see, Yoko. She reached her ramen shack and slipped on a stool the children passed and screamed behind her while she saw the old woman washing plates and giving her back.
"You need to be careful Yoko if you give your back to customers they'll rob you" The peachy old woman turned around she stared at her intently and then smiled wiping her hands on her apron
"Jocelyn dear what a surprise. I could barley tell it was you with that man clothes." Jocelyn laughed and noticed a guy take the stool next to her.
"ramen please" he ordered
"make it two please Yoko" Jocelyn added.
The old woman nodded and prepared their dish. Jocelyn glanced at the man beside her an older man, dressed in a long Nehru coat, he wasn't from this city she was sure. The man turned at her making her heart falter and didn't turn back. Those eyes seemed as cold and as black as his clothing. Shaking from thought she looked at Yoko balanced the plates of the hot ramen that started invading her senses as she asked
"do you mind telling me why you are visiting me?" Yoko placed the plate to the man and then to her.
"Because I wanted to see you woman." Yoko placed her hands on her ample hips and narrowed her eyes in disbelief.
"Yeah right."
Jocelyn split her chopsticks and laughed
"You really think I am heartless don't you" Yoko bent over the countertop and told her
"You're out of a job aren't you?" Bingo. She thought and peered through the beak of her cap
"Yup. I am and I am leaving." A flash of sadness filled Yoko to hear that the girl she learned to love that night she cured her wounds with Diablo. She was so glad that those beating had not marked that lovely face that saddens along with hers.
"Have you told Diablo?" Jocelyn tried to cover the grief in her voice as much as possible.
"I did." she remembered how they both cried and laughed and drank their last beer together. She gripped the chopsticks on her sweaty hands
"eat child" yoko told her trying to smile. She shouldn't have gotten so used to her, if they all eventually left even the children she had given birth to. Jocelyn ate the delicious ramen and slurped.
"delicious as always." She said with her mouth full when Yoko whacked her. She was going to miss that trouble maker Yoko sighed. Jocelyn continued eating the moist noodles as Yoko got close to her. Jocelyn could see her tiny wrinkles in detail, her face marked by experience and a sudden flash of urgency
"I don't suggest you leave tonight. The militia men are checking every young girl that goes to the Gina train station" Jocelyn placed her chopstick down and got closer
"What? Why?" she knew why. She just needed to confirm it. The man that ate quietly besides her started listening intently to what the old woman said.
"Some girl killed two of the militia men with some kind of weapon of mass destruction or whatever. She blasted them to teeny bits."
Jocelyn gulped, her hunger suddenly left. They both turned when they heard that man snickering. Weapon of mass destruction. Figures. He thought.
"something funny gentleman" Yoko told him in a gruff voice pointing extra chopsticks at him. Jocelyn got a closer look at this strange man and undoubtedly he was extremely good looking. He gave Yoko a sly smile and eased his bowl to his lips to drink the meaty soup. Yoko glared at him and turned to her. Jocelyn couldn't take her eyes of him something about him felt disconcerting and familiar. Yoko pushed down the beak of her cap in a yank
"Listen to me child" she told her as she pulled it up and nodded " you should go back to Diablo's place tonight and leave the next day. Those drunks won't stay there more than today."
She heard the snickering of the man again and thinking that little evil laugh was directed to the militia men, said nothing. Jocelyn looked down at her noodles and her yellow soup and told her
"have they said what they will do to the girl if they find her?" Yoko frowned remembering what the market woman had told her
"They said they were going to lock her up." yeah right. She thought. Kill her was more like it. She was lucky if they just killed her. She turned to see that unnerving man that scrutinized her as if he knew that she had done it. Abruptly she stood and said,
"Thank you yoko. Here's the pay." she took out four dollar bills when Yoko stopped her "no no child is in the house." She tried to avoid the tears glistening in her eyes as she reached over the counter. Pecking her soft cheek she whispered
"Take care"
What will she do now? She wondered. She couldn't leave tonight they were looking for her. She walked through the street covered by the bartering of vendors. She had no idea that the same mystifying man was behind her watching her every move. So this is Origas daughter. He smiled to himself. Mans clothes don't suit her at all and she has no idea of the power hidden inside her. The odd man was glanced at and talked about as he followed her into a church. Jocelyn entered the church and felt a sudden fill of ease. The church was quiet as it should be and the tainted windows had dulled the sun. Jocelyn walked up to that God that stood in front of the benches and in front of her. His sad eyes were looking down at all sinners. She pulled of her hat, the mass of brown curls falling beautifully on their place
"Have you forgotten me God?" she asked tears traveling down those big brown eyes as she dropped in front of him "I killed them. I ended two lives God."
She cried and wished Reno was there with her but there was no one just that horrible coldness. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand seeing a shadow close in behind in her
"you should not pray to a God that isn't yours" That voice made her turn fast her tear stained eyes stared at the man that was back at the shack
"who-are you" she managed to say as he knelt in front of her. Was this Satan? Death? It was all she could think of when this man reached his gloved hand and pushed her hair from her face.
"I am Kazuto. You must be Jocelyn, Origas daughter." his voice was as cold and as deep as he was. That hair that surrounded his face and fell over one eye made him look like someone from another world. He was.
"Origas daughter?" she stuttered
"Yes, your mother was one of us"
"One of us?"
"Yes. We are the Shiiatsu clan; the power you possess is named after our people. Come and join us for the final war."
She remembered that aura that released from her that had murdered those two men, what war was he talking about.
"Shiiatsu. The final war" she mumbled looking down at her hands and saw the blood.
"Is hard for you to understand I know but if you come with me everything will start making sense."
Nothing did. Nothing made sense anymore. She remembered the faint woman in her dreams. Was that, Origa? the woman that called herself her mother. Kazuto hitched her chin with his hand
"Stop crying. Tears are only for the weak. Only for humans." She couldn't avoid them; she was trying to contain her sanity. It was all his fault. He stared at the crucified man scornfully and back at her his gaze soft now. He stood up as an aura surrounded him and picked up his black hair lightly and transformed some of those black strands into white silver. His face became marked with those wavering symbols that had once covered her own body and looking at the God she had just cried too, he extended his hand towards it and smashed it with a single blow. Jocelyn screamed and hid behind him and cried even more. You could hear yelling outside and the voice and scuffling of the militia men
"Stop right there, if any of you move you are dead" one of them ordered harshly behind them, he pointed a heavy rifle at them and Jocelyn started to shake
"They are here." he told her in a calm voice her red eyes staring at her God in the ground looking at her. Kazuto knew they were surrounded. He smirked finally things would get interesting. He would try to spill as less blood as possible. Try. He smiled
"Both of you turn around really slowly" the militia man ordered
Kazutos's marks returned and his black hair spilled strands of silver and with his power boiling inside him he complied with his orders.
END OF CHAPTER 1