Hi there! And so it is time for chapter 4! It's pretty violent this one, I really don't know how I wrote it like this! I think I've been reading too much Violinist of Hameln... This chapter's a bit of a different style this time with a lot more description rather than conversation I think. I've also changed the spelling of Kaoru's name in the last chapter, and I call myself a fan haha. But anywho, please enjoy~~~
Also, Happy Easter!
Sword Song
"What? How? Where? When? Where's father?"
"His Majesty is gathering the knights in the main cavern Sire, but his Highness requested you leave immediately with the Hitachiin's and civilians."
"I knew I saw that Ootori smirk earlier" Hikaru whispers to Kauru.
"But I can't just leave! You devil's this is your entire fault!" Tamaki spins round to face us, his face an unhealthy grey and his violet eyes burning with anger.
"But if we hadn't saved Haruhi, we'd have never met her!" The twins countered simultaneously. This was getting quite awkward and placing the blame wasn't exactly helping the situation at hand.
"True, but if you hadn't saved her they would never have found the entrance!"
"So you'd prefer if we just let her die? I thought you of all people would agree with us saving her!"
"But, but…!"
"Aren't you always preaching that we should look out for others?"
"Yes, but… but this is different! In return for one life you've sacrificed the safety of a hundred others and our home!"
I've had enough. I coughed, "I'm sorry, but this isn't helping anyone, can't we argue whose fault this is once we're somewhere safe?" All 6 pairs of eyes turn on me as if I'd just appeared in a puff of smoke. The messenger boy had run off while Tamaki and the twins had been arguing.
"Ah Princess that is a most wonderful idea…"
"Say's the one who wanted me to have died a moment ago" and with that, I turn and follow after the boy.
"Where are you going?" Three voices call after me. I ignore them, after all, their views are so backward they'd never let me near a sword and that is exactly what I'm going to need. After all, one good deed deserves another or so the saying goes.
If I'm honest, I still have no idea where the main cavern in relation to the twin's bedroom, but this will not stop me and I'm too stubborn to ask for directions anyway. So, upon reaching a junction in the tunnels, I use my common sense and take the widest tunnel, praying that luck is on my side. Eventually, I hear three voices in the tunnels behind me shouting my name. "Idiots," I whisper under my breath, "at this rate They will hear and then we'll all be dead"
Now I'm not usually one for talking to myself, but then again, this isn't exactly a normal situation and so I think I'm allowed. This is my logic any way. "Shh, you three, I'm down here," I called, just slightly above speaking volume. I could hear people muttering now from the other end of the tunnel. And marching feet.
"I think there's one down here sir" A voice very close by shouted
"Take a look then, and be snappy about it." A muffled voice replied, presumably the superior's voice from further down the corridor. Quickly, I duck down into the shadows and wait for the man to pass. The flickering wall lights cast an eerie glow down the corridor but thankfully the idiot's I have become friends with have quietened down. Slowly, I rise up onto the balls of my feet so that I have a better chance of fighting the man that id now very close by. Pressing myself closer to the wall, he walks straight past without noticing me and continues further down the tunnel. Quietly, I stalk behind him, waiting for the opportunity to strike. My guess is that he is trained as part of the army and so I'll need my wits more than my strength to beat him.
I see Tamaki in front, pressed to the wall to try and conceal himself, badly I may add. Carefully, I throw a stone over the man's head so that it lands a little way down the tunnel, thus getting his attention. He immediately turns to face me, sliming slyly.
"I've got you now little one" He says in the same voice my dad used to use when we played hide and seek, but this time with a more menacing undertone, obviously.
"Now!" I shout and before I know it, the man's face crumples as his knees buckle revealing the two pumpkin-haired twins grinning from ear to ear and hi-fiving one another as I believe the term they used was. To the sound of many people running down the corridor, I quickly grab the fallen man's sword as the three of us melt back into the shadows dragging Tamaki's shell with us. Apparently he can't handle violence too well. We creep our way up the corridor so that we'll be behind the Ootori's when they stumble on the fallen man.
As the last of the group run past, a reach the sword out so that the last two run into it, rendering their heads to roll onto the floor. Hikaru grabs both of the swords of the floor and throws to Kaoru. I glance behind to find that Tamaki's almost in a coma. He really is an idiot. Hearing our shuffling behind them, the last few rows turn to face us, to be quickly dispatched by Kaoru and I. Of course, their cries attract the attention of the other members of the group as well as those still in the tunnel this group came from.
"Tono, wake up you idiot!" Hikaru is crouching over the unconscious figure in an attempt to get reinforcements to this desperate situation. I grab another sword from one of the dead men on the floor as Kaoru does the same and we stand back to back facing both oncoming fronts. I step towards the original search party, swords swinging in large arcs around me, so fast you can hear them splitting the air. Many of the men in front of me drop their jaws before quickly regaining their posture. Some look genuinely petrified, shaking in their boots while others watch in a detached fascination and a few whose eyes are filled with an incomprehensible rage. I take another step forward.
"Come on then," I tease, "show me why generations have been hiding from you" This seems to snap them out of whatever they were thinking as both sides start advancing once again. I dispatch the first row quickly with a sweeping arc of both my swords straight across all three men's stomachs. They fell to the floor as the next row advance over them. I use my right arm to fend off the man on the right while thrusting my left at the other two men. Eventually, I manage to stab the middle man in the stomach before twisting my blade out and swinging it at the man on the left, swiftly cutting into his neck and then back across the stomach. Still sparing with the man on the right as two more men take the fallen's place, I take a quick arching swipe starting from under my right arm.
After only a few minutes, the tunnel ahead is littered with bodies as I turn to help Kaoru who has also made an impressive pile around himself. We advance down the tunnel together to be joined by Hikaru after we pass Tamaki. We charge down the tunnel, swinging and stabbing at everything that moves before retreating back to Tamaki.
We heave him up onto Hikaru's shoulder.
"This is an eerie silence if ever I've heard one," Kaoru remarks.
We make our way to the main cavern, slowly because of the slight injury Kaoru received to his left leg and Hikaru's burden which, although Kaoru and I have many attempts to share, he refuses. Finally we get there, the silence weighing down on us even more. I peak around the corner to look inside to see the last Ootori leave through the tunnel opposite, swaggering like he owns the place.
"You stay here, I'll go take a closer look," I say firmly, it really wouldn't be good for anyone to see the piles of bodies covering the floor of the cavern, especially not if you know everyone.
Slowly, I make my way through the collection of disembodied hands, legs, arms and heads trying to find any survivors while at the same time trying not to throw up. Carefully, I make my way over to the other side to where I thought I heard someone muttering.
"Haruhi!" rasps a voice just behind me. I turn around, searching through the bodies for the one that called me.
"Sire?" I gasp when I see Tamaki's father trying vainly to sit up. I run over to him and gently help him lie down.
"Where's Tamaki? I need to see him"
"He's waiting with Hikaru and Kaoru in the tunnel" I don't think mentioning his current state will help the situation.
"Let me guess, he passed out right?" he tries to laugh but succeeds in coughing up blood. "Well, in this case, you'll have to deliver this for me. I want you all to leave, immediately, find somewhere safe and recover. Tamaki is now king, not that it matters anymore, you should give him this" he stops to take a few deep breaths before handing me his crown with a shaky hand, "and Princess, I hope one day you can reclaim what is rightfully yours, but until then, look after Tamaki will you? He's hopeless with a sword" he smiles and closes his eyes, "thank you, it's a shame I'll never get to see you as my daughter-in-law"
"Huh? What, wait!" I place my ear to his chest but I can't hear him breathing. Shakily I stand up, and walk back to my friends with my eyes unfocused and my hands tightly clenched onto both my acquired swords and the crown .
Tamaki had come round by the time I got back.
"Oh darling daughter, Daddy was so worried about you!"
I shrug, "Yeah… we'd better leave"
"Is no one coming with us?" Hikaru asks tentatively.
"No, oh and Tamaki, don't look in there," I call as I walk away towards the twins bedroom, "is there anything you need to pack?"
And so we finally make our way to the surface with a couple of rucksacks each full of food, clothes and the crown tucked inside one that I am carrying. Tamaki's oddly happy right now and so it really isn't the time to tell him. Let him live in ignorance a bit longer. We slip out of a hole in the wall of a derelict building the other side of the city from where I entered all that time ago, as the chances of the Ootori's standing guard there to pick off the last few survivors are very high. Silently, we sneak down many different passageways until we are too tired to walk. We squeeze through the gap left by a falling door and creep upstairs to sleep.
Soooo, there we go. Hope you liked it!
Like, dislike, seen a mistake, confused? Let me know!