11: Regret

Alexis sat by her and Dante's bed, her hands clamped around his. Luckily, the weather had been very calm and the Amatsumagatsuchi had moved on, so the Foehammer had sailed swiftly along the night sky without a single obstruction. They had arrived back at Yii-Do in around three hours (taking into account that the airship had been moving considerably faster than it had been on the way to Tenkai, as it needed to get back as soon as possible). They had managed to help Dante onto the boat before he blacked out again. He hadn't woken up since.

As for Alexis, she had had to be carried onto the boat by her friends. The Jaganoto's powerful kick had knocked her unconscious too. She had woken up in the cabin on the boat in the captain's bedchamber, Ruby preparing some kind of medical concoction by her side. She hadn't stopped thinking about Dante since. Occasionally he called out to his parents and twitched ever so slightly, but nothing more. He'd unwittingly begun to cry softly a few moments ago, however. Alexis reached into and wiped the tears away with her fingers. Whatever it was he was dreaming about, it must have been a painful memory.

It was then that she though he must be dreaming about the day his parents left Kairu to join the war effort. Alexis had a similar memory, and like Dante's its scars had left behind a keen sting. Her parents had told her that they'd see her again, that she was going to be fine and that Dante would take care of her if she did the same in kind. But she'd known even then that they knew better than to believe they'd come back. They'd taken care with their words to avoid mentioning their own welfare. They hadn't said "you'll see us again", or "we'll be fine", they'd said the reverse. They'd reassured her about her safety and not their own. And sure as the sun rises, two months later, they were both on the list of casualties. Dante had been out on a hunt with their friends at the time (the income fees were particularly high today so they'd all taken out a bunch of requests to last them most of the day and planned to split the total income between them) so she hadn't even had someone to hold her while she cried. She'd had to roam about her home screaming and crying and physically abusing whatever was at hand that didn't cost anything to replace. When Dante finally came back from the day's work to visit her he'd found her in a ball on the floor, not too dissimilar from the way the others had apparently found Dante at the fort.

About a week after, Dante's parents had left to fight, and two months later, Dante's parents were on the list. From then on, they'd been orphans. Alexis' house was bigger so Dante had sold his home (as he had inherited ownership of it) off and moved in with Alexis. The money from the sale had been enough to last them a month but when it was gone they found it hard to put food on the table each night. They would normally be able to provide for themselves but the fees for hunting contracts had hit an all-time low at that point, as a large amount of taxes had to be paid for the war with Tenkai to continue, so only the rich could afford to pay hunters, and most of them were stingy with their prices. As such, this affected every hunter in the country, which was a fairly substantial amount, and since they couldn't afford to buy food, they couldn't afford to pay the taxes that applied to them, meaning the money wasn't being circulated around and the Guild wasn't getting the necessary funds to keep running the war. The Guild then tried to reduce the amount of money they spent, but this was extremely difficult in a country torn apart by civil war, and so, for the first time in its history, Altus fell into recession, and have been in recession ever since. Tenkai, despite its inferiority in size compared to the rest of Altus, was slowly bleeding the country dry from the inside out. Of course, things had gradually improved, and hunting wages were now enough to live on, although they were still lower than they had been. However, while the majority of the public had rejoiced upon being informed that the economy was starting to build up again, they had failed to notice that it was because the outer regions were being bled out of every penny the Guild though they could spare, so poverty and starvation were rife and orphanhood was becoming more and more rampant every day there. There had been mass upheaval when the outer regions' governing bodies had reached breaking point: peaceful protests, attacking Guild officers in their cities, the works. And yet the Guild ignored their pleas, and so did the inner regions. It appeared to be that the Guild was leaving Outer Altus to rot like a carcass in the desert sun. In fact, so many people had been dying, from either starvation or from fights, that Galdaan had one entire city devoted entirely to the cremation of corpses. The people didn't even give it a proper name. They simply referred to it as "the Crematorium". The bodies of the dead recovered from the war were also sent to the Crematorium. The stench from the place was said to be so nauseating that the people who worked in the incinerators there had to wear special masks in order not to faint or throw up. Of course, because it was a veritable sanctuary for flies and crows and other carrion-eaters and carriers of disease, it wasn't long before those who worked there fell ill and died themselves. Following this, the Guild had the workers removed and had the machinery there upgraded with the latest clockwork technology, which ran on natural power sources such as wind, water and the thunder of Zinogres (although the latter was less used than the others as it was a new technological advance, and as such was incredibly volatile) so that they could run by themselves. They functioned non-stop, twenty four-seven, so all that people needed to do was take the bodies there and deposit them in the right place. The machines would do the rest.

It was after processing all of this information that Alexis snapped back into reality. She was surprised at how far her train of thought took her when it got started. She snapped to an even higher degree of attention as Dante's eyes fluttered open (which was unusual for him, as they usually just snapped open. Of course, that was when he woke up from normal sleep). He felt something holding his hand, and turned his head to the left to see Alexis, still holding onto his hand, smiling her unusual beautiful, perfect smile, not too much and not too little. He smiled thinly at her, his other emotions burying happiness deep within his brain. It was then that he acknowledge the bandage wrapped around the right side of his face, where his wound was.

"Ruby took care of you. She applied some ointment to prevent infection. She also left you some herbal tea on the table over there. It possesses a natural painkiller, in case your wound still hurts. Luckily, the wound is superficial. It shouldn't scar. You'll be fine before you know it," Alexis elaborated warmly, proud of herself for remembering everything Ruby had instructed her to tell him when he awoke.

"Okay, thanks," he said weakly. He exhaled deeply. "I'm really tired. D'you mind if I just go back to sleep?"

"Not at all," Alexis said sweetly. She leaned in and kissed her boyfriend on the forehead. "Ruby said you've gotta have the bed to yourself, so I'll just sleep in the chair. I'll be right here if you need me."

Mere seconds had passed since Alexis had uttered her last sentence but Dante was already fast asleep.

April's lips slowly separated from Aaron's and she allowed her eyes to open again. She smiled, and he smiled in return. They lay on the bed in April's room (although it could easily have been anybody's room as they all looked the same), with April lying on top of him.

"You could do with some practise," she giggled jokingly.

"You can talk, Miss Too-Much-Tongue!" Aaron retorted jokingly. April's brow furrowed and her mouth formed a sort of "O" shape as she let out a surprised noise of disgust.

"I do not use too much tongue!" she insisted, feigning offense. Aaron began to laugh.

"Are you sure you didn't take mine with you? It was like being caught in the Yama Tsukami's mouth while it inhales!"

"Hey, now that's just plain below the belt!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

Amidst their joke bickering, Aaron wrapped his arms around April's slender hips, pulling her in for another kiss. It lasted almost awkwardly long, before they pulled away from each other again and smiled.

"...Now that was better," April said, a small chuckle escaping her lips. The couple leaned in once more, all their worries forgotten and their troubles a thousand miles away.

The One-Eyed Gurenzeburu was back home in his network of tunnels and caves, along with the Akura Jebia. It had taken all of the Flying Wyvern's stamina to fly them through the Amatsumagatsuchi's storm to Tenkai and then back home again. He had been exhausted, but he was feeling refreshed after having just chowed down on one of the Ludroths from the lake by which he had placed himself. Not his usual meal, but he had been far too hungry and desperate to go wandering off in search of something else. He hadn't had enough energy to do a full tour of his lair. The Ludroth had had to do. The Jebia had taken the scraps that his ally had left behind, hungry enough to eat something but not to eat a whole Ludroth.

These humans are so unpredictable! the Barbarian Wyvern grumbled. First they fly all the way to another part of the land, and then they come straight back again! How am I supposed to ensnare them if they won't stay put?!

I think you mean "we", the Jebia interjected. It heard the Gurenzeburu hiss and growl lowly, gutturally, thinking that it was lash out at him.

Yes, yes, we, he sighed, as if impatient. A few long, silent moments followed, the only sound in the cave being the gentle sound of ripples on the water where the marine life swan around with carefree abandon.

...So what's the plan now? the Jebia asked.

We follow them. We follow them anywhere and everywhere. When the time is right, we will strike...and we will finally have our long-overdue revenge, the One-Eyed Gurenzeburu answered. You should sleep. We will need all of our might for the tasks ahead. We must not reveal ourselves to those humans until there is nobody else around to interfere.

The two monsters curled up and fell into the deep, dark recesses of silent slumber.

A dark cloud had cast itself over Irvine's mind.

He felt completely, wholeheartedly guilty and responsible for everything that had happened. He had gotten kids involved in a war and sent Dante after their primary objective by himself, resulting in him being incapacitated, Shikimaru escaping and the chance to bring the Separatist Province of Tenkai to its knees for good being squandered irrevocably. Now that Tenkai's forces knew their emperor was a high priority target, they would up security tenfold wherever he set foot from this moment on. He had allowed the Guild's hand to be revealed, leaving them vulnerable to a counter-strike.

In short, he had failed the people of Altus and allowed the threat to innocent lives to remain. He had never felt so utterly worthless in the entirety of his eight long years as a Guildsman.

He sat alone in his office, pacing across the room with his hands behind his back, still fully armoured. It was a small, bland room with barely any furniture or decoration, the only things attempting to give the place any distinguishable features being the unmade bed and the table at which Irvine would often have to sit at. He did many things there. When he wasn't sitting there reading a book or a new issue of Hunting Life (he wasn't a hunter, but he found the information in the magazine interesting and sometimes useful, even on the battlefield of men) he would be trying to keep himself awake as he waded his way through piles upon piles of profoundly boring -but necessary- paperwork. He didn't even bother to read the vigorous, neverending onslaught reports, files and dossiers anymore, or even skim over them. He simply put quill to paper, watched and waited as it whizzed across the sheets. At first he had been slow and careful to avoid misspellings, as crossing out things in ink was terribly messy, but after a while he learned to write very quickly without pausing or lifting the quill from the paper, and rarely made mistakes. In fact, he had paperwork on his desk even now. But he wouldn't do it, at least not tonight. His head was so full of regret and guilt that he was sure he would make a mistake or allow ink to spill.

As he paced endlessly, his mind was torturing him, bombarding him with questions. What will happen now? Will innocent lives be taken yet again? Will Tenkai launch a counter-attack? What would have happened if any of those kids had died, or worse, been taken prisoner? Why did I leave Dante to handle Shikimaru alone? Am I truly fit to lead? Do I really deserve my rank?

Is this all my fault?

Irvine had already made up his mind about the last question.

Yumi, Ruby, Ash and Teiko sat together in the old barracks, discussing the events of the mission, still fully armoured except for their helmets, which they'd placed on the table.

"All I'm saying is it's not the end of the world," Teiko stated firmly. It was strange how intelligent he voiced his opinion when engaging in a debate. Normally, ninety per cent of what left his mouth was bragging and boasting, but not in a serious conversation. Ash was thinking that the mission had made him a little less immature. Although, she'd listened to her brother's tall tales and big talk for the last thirteen years, so she knew him well, and she wasn't holding her breath. "Sure, we may have totally flunked this op, but it's not like we're on the edge of defeat. Tenkai is the one on its knees, not the Guild. The Guild has more or less won absolutely; it's just that Tenkai refuses to give up and takes advantage of Altus' weak economic situation. Tenkai's dead, but it won't lie down, if you get what I mean."

"It may not be the end of the world, or even the end of Altus," Yumi began, "But it will be the end of more innocent lives because of our failure. Do you think Tenkai is just going to sit idly by and watch the Guild play cat-and-mouse with its leader? Think about it. Tenkai has been fighting vigorously on the eastern front, laying siege to Tsutoko for three months now, desperate to gain more land and expand. But other than that, it hasn't touched the rest of the country at all. And now, we've gone and tickled the sleeping Rathalos. Tenkai will respond with a vicious bite, not just a bark. And, because this was a black op, everything will be kept hush-hush. When the Tenkai war machine begins to churn again, it will grease the rusty gears with innocent blood and all the public will see is aggression from the enemy. They'll implore the Guild to retaliate and that'll be it. Another ten years of war. Don't you get it? The success of this mission was imperative! Its failure has prolonged the war exponentially. And it's all. Our. Fault."

"I..." Teiko trailed off, left speechless by Yumi's words. Everything she'd said was true. There wasn't a single thing he could say that would refute her argument.

"You're right," Ash murmured meekly.

"How did it come to this?" Ruby despaired, shaking her head in dismay. Her friends focused on her. "This war has ruined the country. People weren't starving or in poverty before the war. People weren't dying before the war. The outer regions weren't being left to wither and die before the war. Why didn't the Guild talk to them, negotiate with them, before charging in, all guns blazing? It's sick."

"What do you think the Guild spent the year before the war trying to do, Ruby? Didn't you pay attention to what was in the newspapers ten years ago?" Yumi replied, somewhat irked. "It allowed them to protest peacefully, it had peace talks with them. Heck, it even gave Tenkai money from the Treasury! Chancellor Tojou met and negotiated with Shikimaru! But that wasn't enough. So a year later, they annexed Nyridia and Armantar and launched an attack on Zakimuto, Tenkai's closest region, marking the beginning of the Altus Civil War. The Guild is not to blame for this. They didn't start the fight, but by Altarch, they'll end it. You can count on it."

Ruby didn't deny or try to prove Yumi wrong. She was obviously right. The Guild had to have negotiated with them. But she was far too busy with her head in schoolbooks and learning about medicine (she'd always wanted to be a medic, even as a little girl) to pay any attention to current affairs. Anything she knew about the situation with Tenkai was told to her by Yumi and the others, which wasn't much seeing as nobody cares about what goes on in the world at the age of six or seven or eight. Yumi was the only one of the group who had always been keen to know what was happening in Altus. She'd always read the news. There might have only been a year between Yumi and Ruby, but Yumi had always been serious and down-to-earth, sometimes to the point of stubbornness. That was just how she was.

A short silence followed.

"...I think some rest would do us all some good. We can't change what's happened now. It's best to just carry on," Ash said, then paused briefly. "Life is a one-way road, with a path that crumbles behind you with each and every step you take. Don't linger too long, or you'll fall."

Thanks, Ember, Ash thought to herself warmly, remembering what her sister had told her. It was what she reminded herself of every time she found herself dwelling on the past.

"I guess you're right," Yumi sighed with resignation.

The foursome grabbed their helmets tucked them under their arms and trudged upstairs, eager to fall into blissful slumber.

Calm down, calm down, calm the fuck down!

Ichiro splashed water over his face from an open basin of water. He'd been kneeling in the Yii-Do proper, staring at his reflection in the wooden bowl for what felt like an eternity now, but for all his reflection and trying to calm down, nothing had changed. The voice was still there, the fingers of delusion clawing away at his mind. As he watched the rippling water settled, he almost jumped out of his skin. His face was grinning and covered in splatters of blood. His eyes were dark and they twinkled murderously.

Just admit it! You enjoyed it! You found pleasure in every moment of their suffering! Your lust grew more and more powerful with each life you took and each fleck of blood that splattered on your face! You're a natural born killer, Ichiro...so why don't you embrace it?!

"SHUT UP!" Ichiro screamed. He stood up and kicked the basin over with all his might. The container fell forward and the water it held spilled out onto the stone floor like a coming tide. For a few silent seconds, he stood there panting, staring at the spillage. He had one question that his mind shouted louder than all others.

What's wrong with me?

A supremely loud explosion couple with an almost quake-like tremor woke Dante up abruptly and threw Alexis to the floor as her chair fell to one side. Alexis, quick to become alert, staggered to the window as the shuddering and explosions continued. She pulled the curtains of the solitary window away and stared in shock at the great sea of flame, smoke and ruin that spread out before her. A large crowd of about twenty airships, the green sails of each emblazoned with the red dragon symbol of Tenkai. All of them were loosing blast after blast of canon fire upon the industrial metropolis of Yii-Do, destroying structures and people in a matter of seconds. If there was any commotion outside it was all blocked out by the noise of the attack. The forest of wood, metal, stock and stone was becoming a field of charred, blackened ruin, little by little.

It was just as everybody had feared. The sleeping Rathalos had woken. Tenkai was back on full offense.