Daitan'na: Grit of Gotham

Chapter Nine:

Campfire Conversations

Before I freeze in the dark, frosty embrace of the ocean, I surface quickly and try to float on the surface. I look around for Robin, my teeth chattering and eyes stinging. He rises, gasping, his mask lopsided on his face. He pushes it back up hastily and spits out a jet of water.

"You g-go first," I say, slamming my palms to my ears.

"Ttt. It's Damian. But you still have to call me Robin."

"Usually an ordinary person has only one a-actual name, D-Damian, and I shall c-call you Damian. G-Got it, Damian?"

"I'm not very ordinary, if you can't see that already."

"R-Right, I see what you mean. You're e-extraordinarily mean."

I wave my hand and call for Moretsuna, who's still up in the sky. When he dives for the Pacific Ocean he looks like a bolt of fire about to strike the earth. It reminds me of Jigoku Ryuu for a second. He almost drowns us as he plunges into the ocean with a tremendous crash. More waves engulf once again us but he scoops us up on his back. It feels like a rollercoaster, all the wind being knocked out of me as we just got out of water and now soaring.

Taking deep gulps of air, I look up at the sky as Moretsuna surveys for an island to rest on. Streaks of red paint the blue and gold sunset, the water below a rippling fulvous gradient. Although my entire body is thoroughly soaked and cold, it's a sight I can't miss. The expanse of the wild peach azure stretching to the corners of the world makes me feel small and insignificant but peacefully alone. Except I have Damian by my side, who is emptying his boots. A string of disjointed grumbles slips through his pursed lips.

"Damian, don't you ever like to appreciate the beauty of dawn and dusk?" I ask, wringing my hair.

"Of course," He says. "I even painted them."

"What?" I exclaim. "You paint?"

"I used to."

"Whoa," I say. "What else did you do?"

"I excel at playing the violin, chess, writing poetry, and also possessing mastery in forensics, geography, history—"

"Okay, is there anything you can't do?"

"Be nice."

"Ah, that's one."

"You know," He says, putting his gloves back on. "You trust too easily."

"Is that so?"

I knew I would hear that from him.

"We hardly know each other. How do you know we're not just pretending to work with you so we can lock you and Wei Zhihao up in Arkham Asylum?"

"Asylum? That's a little extreme," I frown. "You're right. Maybe I don't know that. But you know why I trust you? Because if I don't, I can't trust anyone else in Gotham. You're crime fighters for god's sake."

"I kill people. How does that make you feel?"

"No, you don't."

"And how can you tell?"

"You just don't."

"I was brought up to be the top assassin. I was a planned, genetically impeccable offspring gestated and grown in an artificial womb. I was told I was put in a pool of water when I was first lifted. My mother wanted to test me, in such an undeveloped state but failure was implausible. I was a weapon created to destroy, if I had disappointed her then I wouldn't be alive now. Do you think living in such environment, watched over by that wretched, cold-blooded woman, wasn't capable enough of making me a killer? And a bastard?"

"I do think so...but you've changed, clearly. Who you are now matters now. Where was your dad then?"

"Not there. He didn't even know I existed until we attacked Gotham."

"Attacked? Okay…and where is he now?"

"Gotham."

"And…you don't liv—he's Batman, isn't he?"

"Yes, you dolt."

"How the hell was I supposed to jump to that conclusion if I might as well think Jason, Tim, and Nightwing are his sons too?"

"Well, they are. We're all his sons. I'll even give Todd the privilege of being considered a part of the family."

"What did he ever do?"

"That's not my story to tell. And if you think you're going to get away with changing the subject you're wrong, Namakettei."

"Dammit."

Moretsuna finds a small island of rocks and leaves us be as he retreats into the tattoo. He breathed out a small fire for us to warm up by before leaving. It's a soft orange color with licks of grey, sparking fiery red particles. Moretsuna made clear of the distance we have to keep because even when it's the weakest form of his blazing power, it burns a bit more than regular fire.

It's dark all around us now. The fire lights our faces golden, its flames dancing across the black glaze of the ocean. This being the Pacific Ocean, we're on the west of Asia. In the morning, we leave for the east. This island might not be the most comfortable spot to sleep on but we have an assured food supply, thanks to Alfred. I eat from the container of cold berries and finish a carton of chocolate milk (which I've never had and I'm sure glad I tried). We toast the crackers over the bristling fire.

"Thank goodness your bag is water proof." I say, swallowing three blueberries.

"I hope you choke."

"I can do it with four, wanna bet?"

I promised Damian to tell him whatever he needs to know right after I've eaten to my content. And now that I have, I clear my throat. "Well, if you don't want me to drift off to some childhood memory while talking, do you think it's more appropriate to ask me a question to start somewhere?"

"Tell me about your family and village."

"Uh, I had both parents. I'm the only child. Which was a disappointment because they wanted a boy. And they wanted at least two, three would have been splendid. So…double disappointment, ha…ha. So anyway, y'know Asian parents…they have different methods of parenting. I mean, I'm not even going to compare mine to yours…but they were quite…demanding. It was like one of their top priorities to remind me I have to work twice as hard each day because I could be thrown in an orphanage or some random doorstep anytime I disobey or dissatisfy them again. And I took it seriously because my mom pointed out other Japanese families that gave away their daughters. And I think the only reason I was still in the family was because they couldn't…ahem, try for another child,"

I sigh and munch on the toasted cracker. I wish I didn't drink up my chocolate milk so fast. It tastes so dry now.

"So I trained all day. I took in all the bullshit they said to me just because I wanted to make them proud. A smile was all I wanted each night when I came back home from the dojo. They didn't worry over my wounds. They asked about them. Was I progressing, taking risks? Or had I been clumsy? It was a cycle. I woke up, went to school, wrestled other kids in the dojo, returned home, and slept it off. I didn't have any friends because just like the other parents in the village, my mother and father disapproved of attachment. Focus on what you're supposed to do. Or be punished,"

I eat the last berry slowly.

"Until…I turned fourteen. I started the habit of reading. I thought, if I can't make my home any happier or less narrow-minded, I could entertain myself and broaden my way of thinking. And I'm glad I did. Because I read like I trained. It was hard to pick out books because the only library in the village was quite small and old. I was interested in fantasy and mystery then I became fascinated. I read a book about dragons. Sure, I know what they are…I know what they are capable of but the book was about the good things they did. It was foreign to me because of the way the creatures were spoken of in my village, with such detest, I thought a friendly dragon was unheard of. But yeah….it opened my mind up a little. No—a lot."

"And that's when you changed sides?"

"Um, yeah. Anything else?"

"One more. How were you caught?"

"It was just one of those days, using my pitons to climb the dragon mountain. I thought I was the only human up there, like always, until…a boy from my dojo followed me up. He was geared up with all the equipment for mountaineering so I knew he prepared for the moment. I, for one, wanted to crap myself for several reasons. I knew I was immediately exposed and then I'm probably going to get killed for betraying my family. And the other reason being I was scared for the boy's life. The dragons don't like or trust intruders and when they don't trust, they attack. He was cunning, he worked his way through my lies and found me. He wasn't stupid enough to start a fight in front of a dragon cave so he fled. And I knew I had to leave."

"He wasn't someone you were nice to? Did you forget to smile at him?"

"Ha. Ha. No. He was a rival. Hated me so much he tried to find something dirty about me, just to get into a fight outside the regulations of the dojo where we settle the competition. He found my progress in training fishy instead. I told him I trained harder at home but I knew my cuts and bruises from my failures in mountain climbing only struck one idea in his head. I had only little time before the entire village heard about my betrayal so I ran home. My parents were out, thank god, and so I grabbed my things and the Sai…"

"How did you convince the dragons to take you away?"

"I didn't. I planned on leaving alone because I knew the dragons could take care of themselves. But the village didn't come after me. All the students of the dojo were ordered to slay the dragons together. They thought I was possessed. I knew the dragons could take them all but I didn't want them destroying the whole village…again. So I owned up and before they could all tear me apart, I was whisked off into the air."

"And you don't regret anything you've ever done?"

"No," I say. "That's one thing I'm certain of."

"And that's one thing we have in common," Damian says, looking like he doesn't really want to admit it. "Not looking back."

We both stare into the flames.

"Do you trust me now, Damian?"

"…Fine."

I wonder if they ever get tired of me visiting. I mean, it's already quite an honor to be able to touch their eggs without being burned into ashes. Perhaps when they hatch I'd have the chance to look after them. That is, if I survive.

I unsheathed my pitons and started to climb. It got wonderfully easier each time. My shoulders had really broadened and muscled and I'd been training to be more agile lately. It's paid off because I got up to the cave within eight minutes.

When I walked in, Jigoku Ryuu was heating up the eggs, like always in this time of the day. What do I usually do when I visit? All sorts of things. I can ask Tengoku Ryuu to produce the largest, most beautiful snowflakes that wouldn't melt for days. Or I can watch Jigoku Ryuu's fire breath come out in different forms; jets, balls, rings, spirals, rain, or just a plain angry burst. Tengoku Ryuu could snort water out of her nostrils like Jigoku Ryuu could with fire, and it can shoot out in torrents or shower like a sprinkler. I sometimes also watched Jigoku Ryuu try to make his acid spit more precise by molding and melting large boulders. When it got hot, Tengoku Ryuu would drop a snowball on me or summon rain right over my head. When it got cold, Jigoku Ryuu would adjust the temperature of his fire breath to the warmth I desired or wrap his tail around me, where he can focus heat. They're celestial dragons, after all.

When I saw the sun starting to sink, I said my good-byes and proceeded to leave the mountain. But I saw as I walked out of the cave, an unwanted visitor. The boy from the dojo. My rival. Hakuryuu.

"[So, Tomoe Namakettei,]" He said in a low, dark voice. "[I always knew there was something with you but never this bad.]"

"[Hakuryuu, look, I'm not even going to try and deny this but—]"I bit my lip before I say the next line. "[You still have time to change and join me!]"

"[Join you? No. I'm going to expose you. I'm going to be the village's hero, the champion, the dragon slayer. It's in my name, I was meant for the title. You think you're so smart, lying to your parents, lying to our sensei, thinking there would be nobody looking for you. But I don't allow parity in the dojo. You are not my equal, you are not even my rival. You are beneath me. I wanted to teach you that for so long, wipe that arrogant look off your face. But now that I discovered you are not even worthy of your family name, you deserve to fall.]"

"[Fight me then! You haven't proven to me that you're better. Fight me!]"

"[Heh, I'm no fool. I'm going to reveal your true, disgusting self to your family. I'm going to relish the look on their faces when I tell them you're a traitor, their daughter they had such high hopes for. I'll gather up the faithful, right-minded students of the dojo to slay the dragons. I'll lead them all.]" He held up a clenched fist, an obsessive look in his eyes.

I couldn't fight him, I knew that. I didn't want Jigoku Ryuu and Tengoku Ryuu involved, not even to back me up. He stepped towards me and I already recognized the move he was trying to use on me. He was trying to knock me out by hitting my pressure points. I dodged and held my fist to his face just as his fingers hovered over the side of my neck.

"[Stop this, Hakuryuu,]" I growled. "[Or I'm setting them loose on you.]"

Even though it was an empty threat, it got to him. He ground his teeth together, eyes in slits. "Cowering behind beasts. That's all you do."

And he started climbing down the mountain.

"You can escape the village, Namakettei. But you can never escape who you are,"

There was no time to panic. I rushed home, relived it wasn't night yet because by then my parents would be back from work. I tried to keep myself hidden as I sprinted through the village, in case Hakuryuu had already opened his big, fat mouth but they were all minding their own quiet businesses. I was sure he went after my parents first.

My mind was in a state of total frenzy as I threw my belongings in one big bag. I didn't have much to pack but I took all my books, my little gadgets, my trusty pitons, some clothes, some food, some medicine, and bandages. I gave my room one last scan before walking out into the corridor, and stopping at my parents' room. I bit my lip in thought. I fetched a bottle of ink, went to the big mirror at their dressing table, and wrote [I'm sorry]. They didn't need a longer apology, they wouldn't even bother to understand. I stared at the black ink drip down and glimpsed my reflection. I asked myself if I was really going to do this.

And I told myself yes.

If Hakuryuu wants to be the hero of the village, let him try. He would be either burnt to ashes or frozen into an ice cube but I just hoped he has better judgment before it came to that. The dragons didn't need me anymore, they never did. They were always fine on their own. I just…needed friends.

I ran to the front door. Out of the corners of my eyes I caught sight of the glass case bearing what I have been working so hard for before I started climbing the dragons' mountain. The pair of Sai, glinting beautifully with competence and such worth. Even though I knew they were meant for me to use upon the slaughter of the dragons, the thought of losing the chance to wield them hurt me. My parents always made it sound like a big reward, a special gift and it worked on me. I did want them, so desperately. But never, not ever for the purpose they were supposed to be passed for. I could change that. Use them for good. But it was wrong, they weren't mine.

And I still took them anyway. It required a lot of effort to not look into my reflection in the blades and give in to the shame in my eyes. Once I got them in their scabbards, in the bag, I made a run for it. I went for the docks, to jump onto a random ship and get sailed far, far away. But my plans were foiled. In despair, I stopped and gazed at the scene of what looked like the entire village climbing the dragons' mountain.

I heard my mother's voice ring among other furious screams.

"[THEY POSSESSED HER! POSSESSED MYDAUGHTER!]"

Possessed? My heart gave a pang. They didn't want to believe it, that I, had a change of my own mind. They thought I was loyal. I didn't want to stand for it. I didn't want to escape anymore. The idea of fleeing while the entire village attacks the dragons for something they never did was so cowardly and underhanded. I would never give them a reason to hate the dragons. I wouldn't leave the people fueled by odium and the dragons fueled by opposition. It would be an eternal war unless the village burns to the ground again. I had to do what was right, and that was to confess to my actions, my feelings. I didn't regret them, I wasn't ashamed, uncertain, or forced. If this was what I wanted to do, I should have no worry about announcing it, declaring it to my family. No matter how strong the impact it would have on us, it was right and I could never lie.

"[MOTHER!]" I roared the loudest I could as I got near enough. "[STOP!]"

And they stopped. I stood strong and tall and looked at each of the villagers. I knew most of them, I saw them everyday. Their faces were confused and my heart gave another big, painful pang. They never saw it coming.

"[Tomoe!]" I heard my mother. She pushed through the people. There's a large dagger in her hand. "[I'll free you, I swear on—]"

"[No, mother, listen to me…father, please,]" I say to both of them. "[The dragons didn't possess me. What Hakuryuu said was right…I betrayed you.]"

"[It's the dragons talking through you, I know you would never do this, Tomoe. You're the strongest out of the dojo no matter what that Hakuryuu boy says, you train like you breathe, you—]" My father insists.

"[I don't want to slay them, father. It's wicked and wrong. You misunderstand them. They are not senselessly vicious. They have the right to be up there, to be left alone. It's their defense to protect their loved ones no matter what. You have to let it all go, it has been forty years—"

"[NO!]" My mother shrieked. She sank to her knees and pulled wildly at her hair. [HOW COULD YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR OWN BLOOD AFTER ALL WE'VE TAUGHT YOU?! WHY WOULD YOU, OUT OF ALL THE CHILDREN IN THE DAMN VILLAGE, BE CORRUPTED THIS WAY? WHY YOU? WHY OUR FAMILY?!]"

I step towards her. "[Mom—]"

"[You will NEVER understand what this village lives on to do, Tomoe! We FIGHT for JUSTICE. We had to build this whole place up again from debris and defeat, after the red dragon TERRORIZED our people. Everything we had in store for future generations, GONE WITH THE FIRE! You would never know how it felt, Tomoe. I saw so much potential in you and I dreamed you would be our champion, our savior. Someone I could so proudly call MY DAUGHTER, the HERO of the village! OUR FAMILY WOULD HAVE RISEN TO THE TOP AND SEIZED JUSTICE WITH BOTH HANDS. BUT YOU! YOUTEAR IT ALL DOWNYOU TREASOUNOUS LITTLE—!]"

She lunged for me, her hands reaching for my neck. I tried to pry them off and not hurt her because she was going insane. The rest of the village raised their weapons.

"[TOMOE NAMAKETTEI, SURRENDER!]" An officer hollered. "[AND WE WILL END YOU FAST!]"

I looked for my father in the crowd. He was at the lead, his face scarlet and purple with rage. His eyes drilled into mine, burning of hot hatred and contempt. My throat knotted at his lack of mercy and began to back away as they closed in.

"[GET HER!]"

I turned and proceeded to flee as if I could outrun the entire village but suddenly all the wind had been knocked out of me. I'm off the ground, soaring so fast, so high. I gasped as I finally opened my eyes and found myself on Jigoku Ryuu's long black and red body, high enough in the sky to burst through clouds. I looked down at the speck of the village I left behind. I closed my eyes. My heartbeat slows but weighs heavier like my chest couldn't hold in everything I'm feeling inside.

It's done.

Oh god, it's done.