super brief author's note: Audrey (Aura) and Jackson (Jade) are Blade Children of my own creation.
Brownie points to anyone who gets the reason for Jade's nickname. /pushes glasses up on nose
art of life
chapter seven
"So," Aura says, ten minutes later, having wolfed down most of her half of my dinner leftovers from the evening before with surprising speed, "let's get the introductions over with. My name is Audrey Hamilton; I go by Aura. My brother - " She points at the young man to her right, who is eating at a much more reasonable pace. " - is Jackson Hamilton; he goes by Jade."
"Any reason for that?" I ask, in lieu of saying "nice to meet you," because I haven't exactly decided if this is true yet.
"Well," she says, waving her chopsticks in the air once, "our parents were American, but we spent a lot of time in Japanese schools, y'know? And our names were way too hard to pronounce, so eventually somebody came up with the nicknames for us. Though, if I remember it right, girls were trying to call my brother "Jack" and he made them switch because he wanted to have the same name as some video game character - "
"Neesan," Jade interrupts, laughing softly, "please."
"... yeah. Anyway." Aura grins at him, then at me, and then at Eyes, who is standing beside me in front of the small table in the dining area, where the twins are seated. Ryouko, Rio, and Sayoko are together in the living room, and I can hear the low murmur of their voices; Rio's probably catching up with Sayoko, if I had to guess, asking about her power. "That's us. I know who you are - " She points at Eyes. " - but it'd be nice to put names with faces for the rest."
Eyes seems a little surprised, and also a little annoyed. "How is it that you know who I am?" he asks.
"Uh... seriously? You're a world famous musician." Aura rolls her eyes at him. "And my brother practically idolizes you."
"I'm a really big fan of yours, Rutherford-san." Jade is all smiles now, though when Eyes' gaze falls on him he seems to recoil slightly. "But that's not why we're here, of course..."
"Okay," I break in, because Eyes looks like he's already not a fan of either twin, and I don't want him saying something snotty, "so you know who he is, that's great. I'm Asazuki Kousuke. The girls - " I jerk a thumb over my shoulder, in the direction of the living room. " - are Takamachi Ryouko, Takeuchi Rio, and Shira... uh... Shirana-something Sayoko. Her name's too long for me, sorry." I clear my throat. "Ryouko's the brunette, Sayoko's the blonde, and Rio's the squirt with gray hair and a crazy look in her eyes - "
"Kousuke-kun."
"Oops, I had absolutely no idea you were there."
"Liar." Rio has come up to the table, and she sighs, shaking her head at me. "You don't need to introduce me to Aura-san or Jade-san. After all, we're already friends, aren't we?" She beams at the twins, who both smile back, with Aura raising a fist and commenting "right on" before going back to scraping the bottom of her bowl for rice. "When I got here, I found them waiting outside, arguing about whether or not they should knock on the door and try to talk to everyone. Somehow I had a feeling that they were Blade Children."
"You two are the ones who escaped from Kiyotaka then, right?"
"We are." Jade answers in lieu of his sister, whose mouth is full. "We've been traveling almost nonstop for three days trying to get here. We weren't sure where to go at first, and there were Hunters following us through Japan, but then we got in contact with a woman named Tsuchiya Kirie - "
"Kirie assisted you?" Eyes seems genuinely surprised at this. "Odd. She did not mention any such thing."
"I asked her not to." Jade bows his head slightly, as if in apology. "To be honest, we couldn't be sure if approaching you would be a good idea. Tsuchiya-san insisted that we would be welcomed, but after our encounters with Kanone Hilbert, well..."
"You saw Kanone-kun?!" Rio's voice immediately hits a high pitch, and I sneak one look at Eyes just in time to see that usually cold mask gone from his face, replaced by something that might be pain - but it's gone again just as soon as it has appeared, and as I'm turning my head to look again at Jade I see that Aura has noticed, too. "Is he - he's alive, isn't he?" Rio is asking, almost urgently. "Was he with Kiyotaka-san?"
"He's alive and kicking, that's for sure." Aura is still looking at Eyes, one eyebrow raised, but then she shifts her attention to Rio. "And he was with Kiyotaka, at least for a little while. But that... how we came to be there, what we learned, how we escaped... that's a long story, and everyone should be here if you want us to tell it."
"Everyone?" Rio and I chorus.
"Everyone," Aura repeats, and one corner of her mouth turns up in a smile. "We couldn't possibly exclude Kiyotaka's little brother, now, could we?"
An hour later, everyone is crowded into our living room, and with our three new additions we've reached the point of standing room only. Hiyono is talking rather excitedly with Sayoko, the two of them squeezed onto the couch with Rio on the other side and Aura sprawled out on the floor by their feet. Jade is leaning on the side of my usual chair, where Ayumu currently reclines, the two of them discussing what sounds like the piano. Of course. Eyes and Rio are side-by-side on kitchen chairs against one wall, and Ryouko and I are left to stand together in the doorway, waiting and listening for a knock on the door in case Kirie shows up.
I have a funny feeling about that, though, and I can't really put my finger on why.
"Alright, alright." Aura clears her throat, and at the sound of her voice the low murmur in the room dies out. "Introductions are all done and everybody's all caught up, right? So let's get down to business."
Ayumu looks up at Jade before leaning forward in my chair, his arms folded together. "I assume you called me here because of your involvement with my older brother."
"Yeah, precisely." She grins. "Jade, you wanna tell the story? You've got a better memory than me."
"Sure." Her twin doesn't skip a beat, as if he was already expecting the request. "Just to give everyone some basic information… My sister and I were born in Japan to American parents who had an interest in genetics, cloning, and human experimentation. We were aware of our existence as Blade Children from the very start, but as we spent the first six years of our life living in New York, we had no knowledge of what this meant, or that there were more of our kind."
"I have heard that there were Hunters as far away as North America…" Eyes touches his chin with two fingers. "Did you have any encounters with them?"
"Our parents did." Jade's expression is touched with sadness for a moment, but it passes quickly. "They willingly became involved in the Blade Children project, knowing full well of the dangers we might be subjected to. However, they did not anticipate the development of Hunters, or their dedication to… our extermination. Eventually, we moved back to Japan, apparently with the hopes that the Savers and Mizushiro Yaiba's team would help protect us. But things rapidly fell apart, as you all know, so…"
"What happened to your parents?"
"Killed," Aura answers Rio, almost nonchalantly. "When we were fifteen. I guess they made it a lot longer than the rest, at least."
"I'm very sorry."
"Don't be. They accepted their fates. And they made plans to keep us safe, even after they died." The dark-haired woman shrugs. "We had a comfortable home with an advanced security system, and we figured the Hunters wouldn't come after us in public. And since we weren't actively attacking anyone the way some others did, the attention paid to us was fairly low."
"So…" Ayumu clears his throat. "How is it you ended up with my brother?"
Jade picks up the story again, looking from person to person as he speaks, maybe trying to gauge our reactions. "Narumi Kiyotaka currently has a small facility north of Tokyo, where he has gathered some of the scientists and Watchers associated with the Blade Children project. Kanone Hilbert joined him there about a year ago. It seems as if the facility was once a laboratory associated with Amanae Fusai, one of the men instrumental in the creation of the Blade Children."
"I see."
"A few months ago, Kanone Hilbert knocked on our door and… asked…" Jade cringes. I think it's probably better that nobody asks him to explain that any further. "... for us to come with him. We weren't given much of a choice. When we arrived at the facility, Kiyotaka explained that something was about to happen to all the Blade Children, and he wanted to monitor us."
"Was he… on the side of the Hunters, then?"
"No," Aura replies, immediately. "When we showed up, he was still undecided. And as weird and cheerful as that guy is, we really thought he was on our side. But…" She pauses, frowns, combs a hand through her curls, and sighs. "After Hilbert awakened, that all started to change."
"He was first." Jade picks up again, his expression still a little pained. "We all lived fairly comfortably in the facility, undergoing basic physical tests and monitoring. The rest of our time was spent reading and using computers. For the first few weeks, the scientists seemed unconcerned, maybe even a little confused. But Kanone-san, in the middle of the night, woke up screaming, and…"
"Awakened?" I ask.
"Yes."
"And his powers…?"
"Kanone-san has… um…" Jade laughs lightly. "Claws."
"Claws?" most of us ask in unison.
"Like Wolverine, kind of. You know?" He looks around the room, and it's Rio whose face brightens first in recognition, and the dark-haired young man smiles at her in response. "It's a lot like that. They're some kind of metal, and he can retract them into his hands when they're not in use. He was in an immense amount of pain at first, but it apparently got better after a few days."
"That's cool!" Rio giggles. "Claws would be fun. And since Kanone-kun likes cats, I bet he likes them."
"Rio." Eyes sounds like a father scolding his child. "Do not forget who you are talking about."
"E - Eyes-kun…"
"Seriously?" I lift an eyebrow at Eyes. "You always liked the guy too, you know."
"So after that…" Jade seems to sense the tension in the room, and he clears his throat loudly before continuing his story. "Initially, all of the scientists who had gathered were those that only assisted with some parts of the Blade Children project. So they didn't know what powers we had, only that we were said to undergo some kind of change around age twenty. But after Kanone-san awakened, Kiyotaka managed to gather a few more of those involved - or with knowledge of those involved - at the facility. Many of Mizushiro Yaiba's direct assistants, much like Amanae Fusai, had been killed. But it was at that time… that Kiyotaka learned the truth about us. And about our powers."
"So… that's why he changed sides."
"He didn't change his mind right away." Jade looks at Ayumu with sympathy, and I figure this has got to be pretty hard for the kid to hear, all things considered. Finding out your brother killed a guy is one thing, but finding out he's now dedicated to killing a whole bunch more people is another. "Neesan and I awakened three weeks later, a few hours apart. It was our powers that seemed to cause him to realize the danger of the situation."
"As you guys have probably already figured out…" Aura speaks up now, one finger absently spinning a lock of her hair around. "... the Blade Children weren't created just to have high IQs and physical strength. From what we gathered - and believe me, the scientists didn't like talking about this, so it was a bitch to get this info - someone very close to Mizushiro Yaiba suggested that we also be given experimental powers. It was almost some sort of plan B, I guess."
"Plan B?" Ryouko leans forward. "What was plan A?"
"Well, it's like this." Aura nods up at her from the floor. "Plan A was that we be super smart geniuses, and that nobody be able to kill us because we'd outwit them. But in the off chance that we did get hunted or threatened, plan B was the powers. Supposedly, we should have been able to trigger them in the event of a life-threatening situation - or they'd just lie dormant until we were twenty, which is around the age that Yaiba had some miraculous revelation about the world needing purified and yadda yadda yadda. You know, that kind of bullshit."
"So…" The brunette to my left frowns. "It's possible, then, that a younger Blade Child could have called on her powers, and…"
"You're talking about Charlotte?" I ask.
"Oh, the Amanae kid? Yeah, that's exactly what happened. She awakened and burned their house down." Aura sighs loudly. "Until we awakened, they thought she lit up a box of matches or something. But then one of the original scientists who knew Amanae Fusai pretty well said no, she had awakened super early and had fire powers, but she didn't know how to control them."
"How horrifying…" Hiyono covers her mouth with one hand. "So she may not have intended to…"
"No, probably not."
"Once my sister and I had awakened, Kiyotaka's mindset on the situation seemed to slowly change." Jade's voice is a little quieter now. "He mentioned the rest of you, and how he assumed you would all be gaining your powers, too. And some information was shared with him, but not us, about the range of the powers given to the newborn Blade Children. So not all that long ago, he declared that his intent was to aid in the extermination of the Blade Children before they could cause any harm to humanity."
"Aniki…" Ayumu looks like he has a headache. "Those are means to an unjustifiable end."
"Are they really?" Aura chuckles. "You have to admit, it's bad enough that we have an advantage based on hereditary traits. These awakenings gave us the potential to do some real damage. I know you think these guys - " She jerks a thumb in the general direction of me, Ryouko, Rio, and Eyes - "are good and all, but if something pissed them off or they became mentally unstable… boom, Tokyo's on fire and there's nothing you can do about it. And with our powers, the likelihood of things getting resolved is even lower."
"Speaking of which, Aura-san…" Hiyono turns to look at the dark-haired woman. "You haven't told us what your powers are, have you? If you and Jade-san have awakened as well…"
The twins exchange looks immediately. And I'm no twin, but I know what a look like that means. Ryouko, Rio, and I pass them around all the time - we're pros at wordless communication, by now - and there's only one thing that kind of hard expression communicates. "To be honest," Aura starts, slowly, with a frown, "we can tell you… but we'd prefer not to demonstrate."
Eyes arches an eyebrow. "Why is that?"
"Well… you see…" Jade clears his throat. "Kiyotaka-san had us in his custody, we believe, primarily because… our powers are not quite like the others possessed by the remaining Blade Children. It seems that we were… particularly experimental, if that makes any sense."
"More experimental than lighting your hands on fire?" I ask, with a grin in Sayoko's direction.
"Yes… if you can believe that." He laughs softly, adjusting the glasses on his nose. "After my awakening, I learned that I have the ability to… er…" He shifts uncomfortably against the side of the chair, folding his arms tight across his chest. "It's not quite seeing the future, but… reading a person's intent and desires for the future. So, for example, when I placed a hand on Kiyotaka-san's, I was able to see a vision of… er - "
"Jade." Aura's voice is hard. "I don't think you need to share."
"... right." He clears his throat again. "The point is… it's not an ability granted to any of the other Blade Children, as far as anyone knows."
"That's… very strange…" Rio sounds like she's impressed. "And Aura-san…?"
"I think I can explain this pretty simply." She chuckles. "If I concentrate, I can possess someone. So if someone's coming at me, I can stop them in their tracks. That's about as far as it goes, though."
"Meaning…" Ayumu frowns slightly. "You can halt their movements, but can't control them?"
"Something like that," she replies, with a nod. "And that's how we managed to escape the facility. Kiyotaka would have liked us to believe that we were there of our own free will, and could walk away whenever we wanted, but there were guards pretty much everywhere. We broke out in the middle of the night by stopping them one by one. It was slow going, since Jade had to tape their mouths shut and find something to tie them to, but it worked."
"It sounds like the two of you have been through a lot." I whistle, shaking my head. "And with your abilities… You think Kiyotaka's gonna come after you? Or Kanone?"
"My brother won't want to dirty his hands with something like that." Ayumu's voice is harder now. "But that Kanone Hilbert guy…"
"It's hard to say." Aura turns her head to look at Ayumu for a moment, then shifts her eyes to mine. "Kanone Hilbert is still of the belief that all the Blade Children should be exterminated, especially now that we've got these powers and are more dangerous than before. But there were times that he'd be getting his powers studied right along with us, and the guy just…" She wrinkles her nose. "I think he's detestable, don't get me wrong, but he looked so sad."
"Kanone-kun was very close to all of us, once upon a time." Rio's voice is soft. "It could be that part of him wishes he could pursue the kind of life we all have…"
"Yeah. So that's something else we need to talk about. Life, that is." Aura turns her head to look at Eyes. "I've been meaning to ask you. How likely is it that you can buy a place somewhere in the country that is totally untraceable back to you? Because we're going to need it."
"I can make arrangements, if necessary. However…" Eyes raises both eyebrows at her. "If I may ask… is this necessary?"
"Yeah. It is." She frowns. "Because if we stay here much longer, we're not going to make it to winter. Jade and I were careful, but I've got a feeling we didn't cover our tracks too well. And if we didn't lead the Hunters right to you guys, we at least led them right to Tsuchiya Kirie."
Eyes actually looks paler, if that's possible. "Is Kirie…"
"Sorry. I don't know." She shakes her head. "But if you guys want to live, I suggest you all abandon the idea of having a peaceful life here in the city, pack up your things, and make plans to move. Like, now."
Everyone in the room stills, looks at Aura, and doesn't move. And for some reason, the first thing I think of is well, at least we won't have to worry about cramming everybody in my living room anymore.
