Kingdom of Lies
He was watching his mother packing bread, bottles of water and a knife in a bag along with other things she thought that might be useful.
"Mum, what's going on? Why did you send the girls away?"
"Because they have to warn their parents, and leave."
"Leave? But why would they want to leave? We did nothing wrong!"
"Do you think the man they killed at the market place did something wrong?"
"I – I don't know."
"I don't either, but I doubt he did."
"But –"
"Listen, we don't have time to - "
Before she could even finish the front door of their house was broken. Within a second black dressed soldiers were storming into the kitchen. Fully armed they got hold of mother and son and dragged them outside.
"What are you doing? We did nothing wrong! Let go! Mum!"
"Shut up!" They slapped him right across the face. "This land will belong to Lord Atobe from now on. And we'll decide who's allowed to live here."
"But- Mum!"
Helplessly he watched them take away his mother. They were all brought to the market place and he found himself standing beside other boys and men. All watched in horror at the other side of the market place, where the soldiers had brought the girls and women and were now killing them one by one in front of their eyes.
Anxiously he searched for familiar faces and stared in horror at the faces of class mates and mothers of friends. The group shrank from one heart beat to another. Felling like in trance hearing his blood running through his ears he watched the soldiers dragging his mother to the front. Desperately she let her gaze wonder from one face to another and by chance found the one belonging to her son.
"Mum-" The word was only a whisper. He did not understand what was going on. He didn't want to.
Another second passed before the soldier standing in front of her cut her throat.
"No!"
---
No!
They had been walking through the forest for some hours now and at the horizon the sun was already rising. Fuji who had been walking next to Oishi looked over her shoulder at the three men walking in silence behind them. Eiji looked really sleepy and Kawamura's gaze was focused on the ground.
"Are you alright, Taka-san? You look rather pale."
I wonder what he's thinking about… Maybe about Hitomi. I hope we'll be able to find her. I bet he never told her how much he loved her and if we won't find her, he might regret that for the rest of his life. And I don't want him to. If miracles still exist he might get a second chance… No, he will get one.
"Taka-san?"
"Mh?"
"I said you look pale. Is everything alright?"
"Don't worry, Fuji-chan. I'm fine."
She gave him one of her smiles while Kawamura focused on the ground again. Sighing she looked straight into the face of the man who was walking between her two friends. Looking directly at her he raised a brow. Feeling her cheeks warming up she turned around.
Fuji was about to ask if it was possible to take a break when they heard the drumming sound of horses' hooves accompanied by the distant sound of shouts.
"What's going on?" Kawamura asked his voice full of confusion. They turned around not moving for a second.
"Looks like they have finally discovered that some of the uniforms and weapons are missing." Tezuka stated with a cold voice.
Oishi gulped. "Along with one of their guards."
Uncertainly Fuji looked up at Tezuka. She wasn't able to tell what was going on in his mind for his face didn't show any emotion at all. He just stared into the direction of where the sounds came from. Finally he spoke up. "We better stop lingering if we don't want them to catch us."
They all started to run for their lives. Fuji was hardly able to keep up with them. The way to big boots made it hard for her to run and she could already feel blisters forming on her feet.
There's no way I'll be able to keep up with them.
The thunder of approaching horses was coming closer and closer.
And there's no way we'll escape if we go on like this.
"It might be better if we split up."
"Eiji's right."
"I hope we'll be able to find each other again afterwards."
With that, Eiji and Oishi took off. When Kawamura turned around to see if Fuji was alright, his eyes widened. Doing the same Tezuka saw immediately why. Far behind Fuji who was about 50 m behind them the silhouettes of five riders appeared.
"Get going, I'll take care of her."
"What?"
"Leave!"
"But-"
"Now!"
Tezuka didn't wait for Kawamura to give him another answer. Taking Fuji by her hand he pulled her off the road, taking a last look over his shoulder to make sure Kawamura had left as well.
He had.
Bashing through shrubbery he dragged Fuji with him.
"Ouch, what are you doing? What about the other's."
"We'll see them later."
"But-"
"Don't argue, keep running!"
"You don't have to tell me!"
"Can't you run a little faster?"
"I could if it wasn't for the boots."
Tezuka gritted his teeth.
There's no way we're going to survive this, unless…
Without any warming he pushed Fuji to the side so that she fell into bush and followed her immediately.
"Ouch, what are you doing!?!"
"Do you still have the key?"
"Sorry?"
"The key!"
Looking at his enchained hands she understood.
"Give me a second."
She pulled off her left boot.
"You put it into your boot? No surprise you could hardly run then."
"I didn't want to risk losing it and you better be thankful for that."
"What do you plan to do anyway?" she asked freeing him from the handcuffs.
"You'll see."
He pulled out Fuji's sword.
"Hey!"
"Shh. You'll stay here and don't get out before I'm back, ok?"
"But."
"Stay!"
With that he left a clueless Fuji behind.
---
"Taka-san?"
"Where's Fuji?"
"With that guard."
"What?"
"He promised to take care of her."
"And you believed him?"
"Eiji, stop it! We have things to take care of before we'll go and se if he's alright."
Gritting his teeth together he kept running.
"I don't think we'll have a chance if we keep running, guys."
"What are you talking about?"
"They're already really close. I saw them."
"Them?"
"Yea, they're five riders."
"Is that so?"
"Nya, so we better keep fighting instead."
Eiji stopped and turned around drawing his sword. So did Kawamura and Oishi both standing at the side of their friend. Holding their breath they listened to the nearing sound of the horses.
"Mh – would be bad to show them everything we have right from the beginning, wouldn't it?"
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to. Give them a hard time, I'll help you from behind. I promise!"
He left their side and vanished in the bushes. Oishi and Kawamura never saw him climbing up one of the trees, for three of the riders suddenly broke through the green of the woods standing in front of them.
"Here we go, Taka-san."
Drawing his sword he nodded at Oishi's words. His heart was beating so fast Kawamura was sure he could here it. His hands were cold and shaking. It was hard to simply hold up the blade in his hands.
How are we supposed to fight against three of them? I've never before been forced to even hold a sword like this. I mean I've been dreaming about holding one, but I never imagined them to be that heavy and certainly I didn't want to try them out in a situation like this…
"So here you are, you filthy little rats."
---
Eiji was watching the scene from above. Watched how the first rider approached his friends with a drawn sword. The sound of the crossing blades was ringing up to his ears. He watched Kawamura striking out hurting the first rider at the ride side. He fell of his hourse.
While Oishi waited for the second rider to face them, Kawamura got hold of the horse and swung himself at its back. Pulling at its reins he forced it to stand up on its back hooves irritating the guard's horse and forcing it to do the same. Taken aback the guard was able to tighten his hold just in time to prevent himself from falling.
In disgust he looked down at Oishi who happened to stand right beside him. Eiji didn't understand what he was saying, but it sounded like another offense. Oishi on the other side just grinned at him. He was kneeling on the ground and through a hand full of sand right into the eyes of the guard. Screaming he let go of his sword and started to rub his eyes with both hands.
This is my time then.
Eiji climbed forward until he was just above the second guard. Jumping he land right behind the guard. Leaning forward he prevented himself from falling when the horse started to run in confusion. Galloping through the woods Eiji finally managed to jog him off the horse.
Riding back to his friends the last guard found himself confronted with three armed and – what was even worse – desperate men. A sparkling fire was burning in their eyes and after what he and his comrades had been doing to them in the camp he was sure they wouldn't show any mercies.
Deciding in a split second that he didn't want to risk a fight with them, he turned around a forced his horse to run as fast as it could to get away.
"Nya, that was easier, then I thought."
Eiji was beaming down at Oishi.
"Stop talking. I need your help."
Kneeling down at the fallen guard Kawamura was feeling his pulse.
"He's still alive."
Oishi knelt beside him and checked the pulse himself.
"He is. But –" Shaking his head he looked at Kawamura. "- there's nothing we can do for him."
I killed him. I killed a man. I'm a murderer.
As if reading his mind, Eiji put his arm around Kawamura's shoulder.
"Listen, Taka-san. You're not a murderer. You were trying to defend yourselves. And if you hadn't raised your sword, he might have killed you."
"Eiji's right. It was self defence and nothing compared to what they do."
--- --- ---
Hi everybody. Sorry it took me so long to update. I had a really hard time to make up my mind in what way I wanted them to fight the guards chasing them. Well, as you may notice, I'm not done yet. Hope you're not mad at me for taking so long, but I promise I won't give up on this fic easily.
Animestar73 : There is not much "Kuni-chan" in here, but there will be in the next chapter. And I hope to be able to write the last one a little faster…
Dodo : I do know the movie "Schindler's List", but I watched it quite some time ago and this fic was not inspired by the movie. But the idea of camps was inspired by the second world war for sure. I've been visiting the two former concentration camps of Ravensbrück (one that was especially for women; situated in north east Germany) and Majdanek (situated in Poland) and especially Majdanek was rather scary for a lot of buildings are still there to be seen. But burning the corpses has another idea behind. I simply thought "well, what would happen if they didn't?" – there might have been an epidemic plague like the pest and I didn't want that…
Kikumaru Plushie : Of course I realize Eiji as somebody having a big family. I love the scene in the anime where he's introducing himself to the tennis club members. … Thank you for recognizing the more serious tone. I wanted to try out something else and, well, here I go!
saya : Mh, let's see what Kirihara will do … I think you might find out in the next chap.
maldita08 : It's definitely NOT Yuuta. I'm sorry to tell you I'm not planning to make this a triangle. But I'm not yet sure how much of Atobe is going to be revealed.
mariku-chan12 : Arigatou!