Collision of Heaven and Earth
Episode 07: Condemnation
"You seem tired," Koyuki said the next morning, wearing a teasing grin. "It's almost like you were out late last night."
I glared at her. Dororo looked back and forth between us, confused.
"I just couldn't sleep."
"Yeah, and when people can't sleep they apparently stand in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs and talk and laugh with themselves."
I could feel my cheeks burning and the weight of Dororo's inquiring eyes targeting the back of my head. "Koyuki, oh my god. Shut up."
"Lady Natsumi, I hope I'm not stepping outside my limits," Dororo said, "But I can't help but wonder if it's a coincidence that Giroro was also very tired and irritable this morning."
My head snapped to face Koyuki. "I can't believe you told him!"
"I didn't say anything!"
Dororo intervened, "In Koyuki's defense, everyone has been rather aware of your avoidance of Giroro recently, including him."
I fell silent. The woods still had a bit of chill in the morning air, but I could hear the distant, echoic chirping of birds among the high branches. My mind kept repeating that night before in the basement – that brief moment of intimacy when I touched his face, the thrill in the pit of my stomach when he attempted to confront me but backed out of it. For the first time, I had thought, maybe – but whatever that thought was, I squashed it before it could grow. The only problem was it had already put down roots in my mind.
"I missed him," I blurted. And it was true – before I moved out of my mother's house and in with Saburo, I had stood in my backyard, in the patchy bit of grass and dirt that had been permanently screwed up by Giroro's stupid tent, and cried a lot. I felt like I was leaving behind the last remnants of that phase of my life. I thought, honestly, that I'd never see him again.
Dororo shrugged. "Why don't you tell him that?"
"We're not like that," I said. "It's hard for us to be honest. Usually we just kind of get each other."
Koyuki and Dororo shared a knowing look.
"I think he'd appreciate it more than you think he would if you just opened up to him," Koyuki urged me. "Obviously training with us hasn't worked. You can't run away forever."
Instead of responding, I just made a really loud, exasperated groaning noise. She laughed, and the three of us dropped back into our fighting positions. The conversation ended. I guess they sensed they wouldn't be able to push me into doing anything I didn't want to do. However, I took a few more hits from Dororo than I usually did; my blocks and dodges were slow compared to his quick strikes. My thoughts distracted me.
Later that morning, as we were walking in, we saw Fuyuki emerge from the back veranda and wave to us. He cupped his hands over his mouth, shouting, "Meeting!" I remembered Kululu's GPS tracker, and we hurried into the mansion to see what was up.
Walking into the ballroom was a bit depressing; a lot of the soldiers, volunteers, servants, and ambassadors were either seriously hurt from the Angol attack the other day, or dead. Compared to that first meeting when Mois arrived, our numbers had been seriously reduced.
Momoka had pushed a crate, probably a leftover from the kitchen, into the middle of the ballroom and climbed on top of it. "Attention, everyone, please! I have two pretty big announcements today!"
The crowd fell into silence, save for a few concerned whispers hissing in the corners of the room. I looked around at everyone's faces. The Keronian ambassadors looked tired, world-weary, and stressed, though many of them had recovered from the UN attack a month ago.
"First of all, due to our disconnect from the outside world, I have just now heard some distressing news about the mass media," Momoka confessed. "Now that Keron has threatened Earth, the Messenger faith is becoming increasingly popular, and some of its more public members include politicians and other authority figures in positions of power."
I gasped. No way. A murmur moved through the crowd like ocean waves.
"On that same note, after the meeting is over, I have a matter I want to privately discuss with the following people – Fuyuki Hinata, Natsumi Hinata, Koyuki Azumaya, Saburo Mutsumi, and Angol Mois," She paused, looking pointedly at each of us with a solemn expression on her face. "Continuing on to our second, and more positive, point, Kululu has successfully tracked one of the escaped Messengers."
She held out her hand, stepping backwards off the box, to give center stage to Kululu. Sometimes I forgot he was a soldier too and, as such, had to exert at least some effort to train himself and stay fit; he hopped onto the crate effortlessly without so much as a grunt of exertion. Kululu grinned that lop-sided smirk and held up the GPS device.
"We have mounted a bit more evidence that Vincent Slater may, in fact, be the leader of the Messengers," he explained. "According to my tracker, the escaped Messengers were taken from their holding cell here, to the Messenger town, and then to an airport at which they took what appears to have been some sort of private jet or helicopter directly to Slater's property in Nevada in the United States."
I glanced at Momoka. So, her intuition had been accurate, after all; unfortunately, she didn't seem proud or excited about this incredible new information. I wondered what was bugging her, and if it was related to why she called the other kids and me to a private meeting after this one.
Koyuki stepped forward suddenly, hand to her chest. "If we are planning an attack on Slater's estate, I would suggest that we seek shelter from a few distant relatives of mine that split away from the clan and moved to America. I believe a few of them own a restaurant near Las Vegas."
I saw a few approving nods ripple through the crowd. Momoka walked back in front of the crate. "I am currently discussing plans and strategies on how to go about this with Keroro and the other ambassadors, but we will definitely take that into consideration. Thank you, Koyuki."
Later, after a few large group discussions regarding Slater, the Messengers, and the possibility of Angols working with them, the meeting was adjourned. Fuyuki, Koyuki, Saburo, Mois, and myself were pulled aside into Momoka's study. The serious look on Momoka's face awakened an uneasiness in me. She walked behind her desk and pulled out the remote, summoning the television from behind the wall; she flipped to a news program.
I couldn't believe my eyes. On the TV screen was a news anchor warning viewers to watch out for six people – us. Thankfully they were using old pictures from our teenage years.
"Wh... What is this?" Mois asked, dumbstruck.
"When I thought that Slater had access to information about us, I didn't know this is how far it went," Momoka explained. "Angol Mois's old video messages to her father were leaked to news programs all over the world yesterday. I can only assume this is the work of an Angol who feels bitterness and resentment at Mois due to her... heresy."
I felt numb, my head whirling in disbelief. We were international criminals! The news anchor accused us of being spies working for the Keronian invasion! I pulled out a chair and sat down; this was too much for me.
"All I can say is that when we go to America, I will have to spend a lot of money on bribery and fake documents, and we'll have to take measures to disguise ourselves," Momoka continued. "Hopefully we can iron out this situation before any of us gets hurt."
–
"Hey, Natsumi..."
I froze. Even though it had only been a month, my life in California seemed so far away. Saburo's voice saying my name felt strange, foreign. I turned to face him. He looked different, like being around the frogs had given him a bit of his old spark back, and despite myself I felt a little rush, the remembrance of a forgotten crush.
"I know after everything, things have gotten weird between us," he said, avoiding my eyes, "But being back here really reminded me of the old days. I've been thinking about you, the person you used to be, and I think Cali really changed us for the worst."
I didn't want to tell him I'd barely thought of him at all.
Saburo continued, "Anyway, I just wanted to ask, one last time... Is there any chance we can work this out? If you haven't felt what I have over the past month, just say so. I'll move on for real this time."
My first thought, to my own sense of guilt and pity for him, was that I didn't care at all for Saburo anymore. The second was the painful and terrifying realization that I had been thinking about Giroro as much as Saburo thought about me over the last few weeks.
"Saburo, I'm sorry," I finally told him. "I just don't feel that way about you anymore."
Though his eyes looked sad, he smiled and nodded. "I expected that, but you never know how things will turn out if you don't at least try."
We exchanged one last bittersweet smile before I turned to walk away, but Saburo called my name again and I stopped.
"When you left me, you told me you didn't know what you wanted," he said. "But I think you do. There's a reason I didn't ask you out til the frogs left."
He walked away down the hallway, leaving me standing there alone and confused.
I spent the rest of the day down in the basement, wailing on a punching bag. There were a few moments where I felt faint and realized I'd forgotten to eat or hydrate myself, and when I sat down with a few snacks I found my hands were shaking from how hungry I was. My mind just wasn't there with me that day. It was in California with Saburo, it was in Nevada fighting the Messengers, and it was back home in my backyard at the fireside with Giroro.
Finally, doused in my own sweat and panting so hard my breathing was hoarse, I collapsed onto the mat. The coolness of the basement floor felt good against my red-flushed face. I think I fell asleep like that, because the next thing I knew I was propped up against the wall and Giroro was sitting next to me, holding a couple bottles of water.
"Oh, uh... Hey..." I greeted sleepily. When I spoke, I realized my throat was dry and sore, and I fell into a violently coughing fit.
He said nothing, but shoved one of the water bottles at me. I accepted it with a weak "thank you" and chugged the whole bottle, wiping some of the water off my lips with the back of my hand.
"What the hell were you doing, exercising like that," Giroro growled under his breath, turning away. "Scared the shit out of me. I thought something was seriously wrong when I saw you lying there like that."
"Aww, you really do care," I teased. As much as he talked big, I knew that was his way of fussing over me.
Instead of retaliating with another smart-ass remark, Giroro stayed quiet. We sat there for awhile, shoulder-to-shoulder, as I sipped on the other water bottle he'd handed to me. Saburo's words – "I think you do know" – flitted through my mind, as well as Dororo and Koyuki's advice to me earlier. I felt sick, panicky, but I took a deep breath.
"Right when I was about to move in with Saburo, I went out in the backyard to the patch of dirt where your tent used to be," I said, wondering if he noticed I was shaking. "I cried. I felt like I was leaving you behind. It was the last bit of evidence I had that you'd ever existed."
I was scared to look at him, but out of my peripheral vision I saw him grip the bottle of water in his hand a little tighter. The cheap, thin plastic crinkled and popped.
I felt my eyes well up with tears, and I took a moment to wipe them away. "I hope that's not a totally weird thing to say. I missed you a lot and after all this time I just... feel weird around you. I guess I feel like I betrayed you by moving away."
"You're an idiot," he grumbled, though his voice was unusually low, quiet.
"There's something else, too – I'm not used to you being in this body. It makes me feel shy and nervous around you."
Giroro looked like he'd been about to insult me, but after I told him that, he chewed his lip in thought and stood.
I scrambled to my feet and walked after him. "Hey – I just spilled my fucking guts to you. I hope you realize how much courage that took on my part. The least you could do is -"
"Why do you care?" He snapped, whirling to face me.
Taken aback, I took a step away from him, gripping my fists at my side. Dororo and Koyuki had been wrong, wrong, wrong. He was so mad. But I was mad, too – mad and hurt. Recovering from his sudden turn, I stepped forward, standing in front of him with my hands on my hips. A few remnants of my tears streamed out of the corner of my eyes and down my cheeks, but I didn't move to wipe them away. We stared each other down.
"Fuck you," I snapped, and stormed toward the stairs.
Before I could make it to the staircase, though, he grabbed my arm. I pivoted and went to smack him, but Giroro blocked it, deflecting my hand; he let me go and I backed away.
"I'm sorry." His voice trembled. My heart constricted and the air went out of my lungs.
I started crying for real, fat tears rolling out of my eyes. "What is your problem?"
His hands went to my face, cradling my jawline. I could feel the callouses on his palms scratching over the scar on my cheekbone. Giroro tilted my head back to look at him, and kissed me. My mind went blank. He smelled like musk and woodsmoke. His lips were soft. My body acted without permission; I felt myself sliding my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss, and suddenly he was pulling me against him by my waist.
I broke the kiss, and he rested his forehead against mine. Alarms went off in my head. I pulled back, shaking, stunned. "I-I'm sorry," I stammered, panicked. "I have to go. I'm really, really sorry."
I ran up the stairs and didn't look back. The scenery blurred by me, like in one of those old movies where they put the characters on a sort of treadmill and scroll a painting behind them. When I got to my room, I slammed the door and locked it. The silence in my room was deafening. I fell to my knees on the floor and wept.
Author's Note: Do you know how long I've been waiting to post this chapter? A long time. Like, really long. I'm very excited about that little turn of events at the end, there. How will the kids get to America without getting caught and/or attacked by the Messengers? And what will go down between Giroro and Natsumi? Stay tuned...
