The Gemini Movement

Chapter 19: Sehshsi Rielh

Keitaro stumbled behind the Wild Man as they sprinted through one of the expanses of forest surrounding the City. He couldn't even tell when they had vanished from between Gault and Salk, but they were nowhere in sight now. All Keitaro could see was trees, dirt, and many figures flitting through the trees. However, numerous branches and twigs snapped at his face as it forced a path through the ever-thickening mesh of wood, and soon Keitaro couldn't even keep his eyes open, lest they be gouged out. The whole time, though, he could hear his kidnapper chattering excitedly in that strange language of theirs.

Goddess or Saviour, anyone please help me! Keitaro thought to himself as the trees raked at his face.

…

Several minutes passed before Keitaro felt like he could safely open his eyes, but even before he looked around, he noticed a smell in the air, light, but all-present.

Blood?

Pine?

No... rust!

Keitaro's eyes creaked open to see what could most easily be called a patchwork town, something assembled by a child who knew what a small town should look like, but not how they were really put together. He was lying on a wide platform made of rusty corrugated metal sheets, upon which were huts made from various scraps of metal, fabric, and leathers. There was what could only be meant to be a street light, but was made from plumbing tubes that snaked up some twenty feet to end in an ordinary lightbulb.

And bathed in the light of this lightbulb was a group of twenty-some Wild Men, all in their strangely modern clothing, all smiling at him strangely.

One of them stepped forward from the group. This one seemed to be in some leadership position, as he wore a cape crafted from several hoodies tied together, and on his head was a circlet made from power cords woven together. In his right hand, he held a scepter that looked like a small globe impaled with a broken broom handle.

"Oleshehsiil, e es shiiv i sii ithie msixi lielhiv! Niz zi ssih visliith mi xesssiehs zmi msixi zesiv ithie si!" the Wild King shouted for all present to hear, and Keitaro didn't like how he said it.

Crap crap that guy sounds angry! Okay, what to do what to do! Keitaro panicked as he frantically darted his eyes around for something, anything to help him.

"Em? Yie vih' ehvilssihv eph, vi ithie? Tmes ssihhi vi! Oleshehsiil, ithie res flisi ithiel sihsis mlieshm mi hish msi miith'xi phe ithie eh! Wi sili mili i misph ithie! Psisisi, Oleshehsiil, ithie msixi i misil es!" the Wild King seemed to be getting agitated, but he stopped for a moment, as though carefully considering his words, before slowly saying, "Nihu! Nehu! Naru! Naru!"

"What? How do you know about Naru! Who are you!" Keitaro shouted at the Wild Men.

"Ah, so you can finally hear us," the king said calmly back, "Welcome, Keitaro. Welcome back.

The Wild Men around them began to cheer, and Keitaro saw them again, looked at them again.

What? They look like... no they aren't. They can't be... But I see they...

The king caught Keitaro's body as it slumped to the metallic ground. "Get him to a bed. What he has just seen requires he rest now."

…

"So you have failed?"

"Yes, my God. He has been taken. By them."

"Then you know what is happening to him as we speak, Gault?"

"My God, I would guess that right now, they have him in pain that even we cannot comprehend."

"That is correct, Salk. And it it both your failure to keep him away from those monsters. Now I'm sure you know what the only choice left us is?"

"Aye, oh great God."

"We must bring him here."

"Correct. You must bring him here now, so that I may tell him what he is not ready to know, and we must all pray for the best."

…

Keitaro awoke to a horrible headache, and the feeling that he had spent the last several hours sleeping on an uneven metal surface.

Well, what do you know, I was right, Keitaro rolled himself up to his feet, staggering slightly. He steadied himself by grabbing onto a nearby object, about the size of a human, but not moving. All the same, some old warning bells set off in his brain, telling him to run, hide, or both. He looked up at what he was holing on to, and saw why.

"WAAAAAAHHHHH I'M SORRY NARU THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

Keitaro had crawled backwards across most of the room before he realized that it wasn't Naru Narusegawa, come to see him in this strange world he had been stranded in for what he was sure was several years, but in fact a statue of her, dressed in her favorite outfit, that yellow turtleneck and red skirt, or at least they would be, as the entire statue was made of gold. He hadn't seen her for so long, he had almost forgotten her.

"I thought you would remember her, Keitaro," a voice came from behind Keitaro, who whirled around to see who it was.

And he saw him.

As a matter of fact, he saw several of him.

Some five duplicates of him, all wearing perfectly casual clothes, just like the ones he wore before falling into this whole weird mess.

"Hehe. Confused? Wondering where those beast-men you had seen before are? We are them, or more properly, they were us, seen through your fogged mind," the foremost clone stepped forward, directing Keitaro to a chair that he hadn't seen in the corner, and proceeded to make tea for the both of them. The other duplicates had left.

Keitaro's mind threatened to black out again as he sat in the chair, but something about what the clone across the table from him had said tugged at him. They were hims the whole time? It was really absurd, he knew what he had seen, the monsters that had tried so many times to take him from the safety of the City, but for some reason it seemed to fit. Those monsters were these men. Those monsters were these hims.

"Here. Tea," the duplicate gave him a cup filled with tea.

"Thank you," Kaitaro muttered while thinking to himself, mulling over questions.

…

"Alright, explain this to me first. Why did you bring me here?" Keitaro broke the silence.

"To get you away from the Lord and King of the City," the other replied calmly.

"But why? They haven't done me any harm!"

"More than you know, and more than I can tell you. Only one being can tell you just how much hurt you really have been going through."

"One being? Just who is that, huh? I've been there for I don't know how long, and the most I've seen have been Gault, Salk, and the citizens of the City! Who's supposed to tell me how much I'm hurting then?"

The other only smiled, infuriating Keitaro, "Answer me! Tell me now! What is it I'm supposed to know?"

The other looked across the table at him, and smiled, "We are going to bring an ally of sorts here, to take you to see him."

"An ally? Who..."

The large double doors on the near wall opened up then, admitting a short, thin man into the room, who seemed to be lacking the modern, casual wear all the duplicates seemed to wear. Although, if he were a duplicate, Keitaro couldn't tell, because of the mass of scars twisting his face into a mask of agony.

"Wait, you! I remember you from Salk's Church!" Keitaro gasped in recognition of the withered man he had seen, who had accompanied him during Salk's sermon.

"I see you remember me, mostly," he rasped, "but you only remember one of me, so to speak. This sinner does have a name, you know. Look at me and see if you remember."

Keiaro looked closely at the man. His skin was slashed, pockmarked, and torn in every way imaginable, all over his body. He was obviously the product of some unimaginable violence, something like...

Wait a minute, Keitaro jumped in thought, those eyes, the arms. His nails, my god, his nails.

"Break?" Keitaro yelled, appalled.

"Right. Hard to recognize me when I'm not shouting my name and ripping living beings to shreds, isn't it?" Break smirked bitterly, "I have my reasons for being here, so don't spoil it. Once we get you to the God, I can rest, finally. We're going to him, now."

"The God?" Keitaro looked at the clone, who was still sitting contently at the table with him.

"Yes, that is who you need to go to to get the answers you seek, Keitaro, and you will go with him. Allow me to accompany you out," he said as he stood.

"About time. It's been too long. Too long," Break muttered to himself as the three made their way through the double doors.

"Oh, one more question before I go," Keitaro turned to his clone.

"God damn me, what's the holdup now?" snarled Break.

"What is is, Keitaro?" the replica asked.

"Why is there a statue of Naru in there? Why is there a statue of any of the girls from Hinata in there?"

"Hahaha, Keitaro, it's a church, is why!"