Monday 19th June 2014, 15:39
Abandoned department store, Tokyo
I stared blankly out at the space before me, lying on my side upon the floor by my bed. There was little to do anymore but exist nowadays, despite Tamaki's best efforts to bring us back to activity. I could hear him attempting to teach an extremely uninterested Yasuchika how to play the 'commoner game' Go Fish with a deck of worn old cards he had managed to find, Antoinette stretched out on the bed behind him. The twins were practicing combat techniques under Mitsukuni's instruction, and Kyoya was busily sorting through our current supplies for what must have been the dozenth time in the last half hour.
He was becoming increasingly nervous, and it was highly noticeable by now. Often he was the last to bed and the earliest to rise, constantly counting the rations and ordering them into size and then into amounts, and then back to size. His newfound edge was almost the same as Tamaki's had used to be, but while Tamaki hid his trough encouragement, Kyoya wasn't able to do so. It had never been Kyoya's nature to hope, he who was so precise and planned out, so now that certainty was gone he didn't seem sure what to do with himself. Whenever I turned my eyes on him, even the smallest glance was enough to tell how afraid he was.
But something else I had noticed was that whenever I did look at him he tried harder to hide it than he did anyone else. I didn't know if this had something to do with his ingrained need to assert himself as my senior, or a leader of some sort, or something else entirely: I'd never understood the way his mind worked, let alone now it seemed so scrambled. It was all I wanted to hug him the way he had hugged me the night dad had died, to show him the same comfort he had shown me. The only thing keeping me from talking to him about his fear was knowing that to do so would severely wound his pride, which was all he had left.
Chinks of light illuminated the dust specs swirling slowly down from the ceiling, and I followed their steady descent until my eyes fell upon a fast-approaching shadow on the ground. I sat up slowly as Takashi approached, dark blood spattered across his cheek and dripping down his neck, supply bag bursting open and dropping cardboard boxes and cans on the floor behind him in his haste. Kyoya looked round at the sound, and Tamaki stood up, laying down his cards on the ground before him: Yasuchika took the opportunity to swipe them away and scatter them across the floor to halt their game entirely.
"Why so much?" Tamaki asked, hurrying over to relieve some of the weight.
"This is the last of it," Takashi explained, shrugging off the backpack and cricking his neck. Behind me the twins exchanged worried glances as they lowered their knives.
"You mean – "
" – we're running dry?"
Takashi paused, but then nodded once apologetically.
"Not again…" Hikaru groaned, running a hand irritably through his fringe.
"We haven't even been here that long," Kaoru added, fiddling nervously with a fraying string at the end of his sleeve. Tamaki looked over at them, stacking boxes in his arms.
"You forget we didn't get here until a month after this whole ordeal started," he reminded them, "There wasn't much when we arrived anyway."
"I thought it best to get everything and save us any extra trips," Takashi continued, bending to retrieve a slightly battered can of tomato soup from the floor.
"Good idea," Kyoya said, beckoning him and Tamaki over to the queen sized bed he had taken up with his sorting arrangements. He caught sight of me looking over my shoulder to him, and swallowed hastily before straightening his posture a little. "Haruhi, could you come and help unpack, please?"
"Of course," I replied, making my way over to the three of them. Tamaki had already set to pulling out bags of dried up rice and arguing with Kyoya about where to place them in his pristine collection of smallest to largest. As he stepped aside to point out to his best friend that the rice itself was small compared to the large packaging, I slid into his position beside Takashi. I put my hand inside the large bag to retrieve a packet of nuts, another took it at the same time.
"Sorry," Takashi murmured, letting go almost instantly and taking hold of something else.
"It's okay," I replied. He didn't say anything else. The two of us unpacked together in silence, as if ignoring one another, to the accompaniment of Kyoya lecturing Tamaki on the system he had drawn up to organise rations in the most efficient manner possible. Every now and then I looked up at Takashi to try and catch his eye, or at least gage what he was thinking, but his expression was so guarded I didn't think it worth pursuing.
Things were almost the way they were before last week, save for moments like this. It was almost as if nothing had happened, but only almost. There was no changing it, and for the time being there was no changing my answer. I stood by my decision even if it was hurtful to him, but it shouldn't be my fault if he didn't think he could be himself around me anymore. At meals with everyone else there he gave them little reason to suspect how he felt, but when we were in such close proximity with no one really paying attention it was like we had only just met again. Even when teaching me how to use my katana he was so distant he may as well have been mentoring a ghost. I thought it almost childish to treat things as if we weren't still close, because I would never choose to hurt him unless it was absolutely for a reason: keeping the only people I had left in the world safe under my full protection was the best possible reason I could supply.
"We're done," he said, snapping me out of my reverie. I hadn't even realised that we had finished until then, and already Takashi had walked away and was reaching inside his pocket for a rag to wipe off the blood on his face.
"This is just like the syndicate all over again…" Hikaru muttered as he came to stand with us around what was now the very last of our supplies, barely enough to fill the bed.
"Nothing's permanent," I told him, and he sighed heavily.
"How much do you think we have left?" Kaoru asked, looking at Kyoya nervously. Kyoya opened his mouth to respond, faltered, and closed it again. A frown came onto his face, and his lips began to quiver as he just barely whispered incoherently under his breath as he counted.
"Depending on how much we can restrain ourselves," he said slowly, "Between the nine of us, I'd say we have enough for another two, maybe three weeks." The twins looked at one another and then at me, as though willing me to ask what I knew they were thinking.
"And then what?" I said quietly. Kyoya looked at me, his eyes brimming with words that he didn't utter out loud. This was enough of a response for the twins, who peeled themselves away from either side of me and hurried off together to the far reaches of the floor. I sighed wearily, running a hand through my hair and gripping at the crown of my head as a headache showed signs of appearing. Kyoya made to move away, but I quickly dropped my hand and grabbed his wrist. "Kyoya – "
He stopped, his eyes locked on me with a mixture of surprise and sadness.
"You can't keep doing this to yourself," I said under my breath, "You're doing so much for us, and I know you're scared, but we're all scared too. We're relying on you, Kyoya." He made as if to interrupt, but I pressed on. "For what it's worth, I'll always be here if you need me."
"Haruhi – "
"Always." He fell silent, the surprise in his eyes now much clearer than the sadness. I bowed my head, gaze falling to his hand in my grip. I could both see and feel it shaking. "When I'm scared I try and do what people I look up to do, but how am I supposed to do what you do if you're scared too?"
"You – "
His reply was cut short by a sudden, unexpected noise. It was a scream, high and unnaturally full of fear.
"What's that?" Tamaki asked, running to the window as Antoinette began to howl. We all hurried to look alongside him, pressing ourselves to the glass. In the street below could be a seen two figures sprinting madly, pursued by a dark mass of writhing Henkō. One was considerably smaller than the other, and it took less than a second to realise it was a child.
"Other survivors…" I said breathlessly, shocked to see them: we hadn't seen another person outside our group the whole time we had been out here.
"We have to help them," Tamaki shouted, pushing off from the window ledge and racing for his bag. "C'mon!" I was already following before he had retrieved the metal piping he had replaced his gun with, snatching my katana from under my bed and hurrying toward the main door. Soon after we heard the others chasing down their tools and racing to catch up. Sprinting down the many flights of escalators, leaping the countless bodies of fallen Henkō and hastily dispatching of any to have found their way back up, we burst through the front doors and out into the street.
Instantly we were engaged in combat, the screaming of the two survivors almost lost to the roaring of some seventy of the creatures. By now I felt justly confident in my abilities, no longer feeling apart with the blade. It was almost a part of me, an extension of my arm and my passion to live as I dodged between the erratic snatching of the Henkō around me, blood spurting into the air at my attacks. Two came at me from the right, and I kicked one squarely in the chest as the other leapt head first into my blade.
From then everything was a blur, pure adrenaline melding together the noise and the blood and the flashes of silver between bodies both human and not. From what I was able to tell, everyone was fighting with all they had: the twins joined forces to tackle them to the ground and slice them in tandem, leaving Tamaki clear ground to smash the surrounding Henkō with the heavy swing of the lead pipe; Mitsukuni and his brother did much the same though with far more grace, their athletic prowess propelling them through the air like bullets, weaving in and out of Takashi as he thrust out his knives with such precision as to down body after body; Kyoya I could not see, and for a moment I was afraid something had happened to him. In that moment I let down my guard.
I turned about to try and catch sight of him, about to call out his name when I tripped over a fallen Henkō behind me and sending me crashing to the ground. Suddenly a female appeared over me, its face snarling and gnashing a foot above mine. The bottom dropped out of my stomach, and I was frozen with fear. It dropped its head to close in, but as its mouth opened wide it was suddenly ripped backward and away from me. Upside down I saw Kyoya there, eyes alight and manic as he grabbed the Henkō by her long, straggly hair and plunged a knife deep into her forehead. Even though it was surely dead from such a strike, he withdrew the knife and stuck it again, and again, before throwing the creature aside and reaching out a hand shining with blood to help me up.
"Are you okay?" he panted, his whole body trembling. I nodded quickly and reached out to take his hand, throat suddenly very dry. He pulled me to my feet and gripped me tightly in a kind of one armed hug, before suddenly releasing me and disappearing once again. Shaken by his impulsive ferocity toward that Henkō, I tightened my hold of the katana handle to keep from dropping it.
After that there weren't so many left, but still they kept up a powerful fight. Our efforts to dispatch them all were halted momentarily by another ear-splitting scream, so loud it shocked even the Henkō to stop moving. Every eye was drawn to what had caused it, and it was the child, his enormous blue eyes fixed upon his companion: a woman with curly blonde hair to match his seemed to fall in slow motion to the ground, a large chunk of flesh ripped from her shoulder and exposing the bone, a group of four Henkō bearing down on her.
Immediately Tamaki had begun toward them, throwing two away with one swipe and kicking back a third. The fourth slipped sideways as a shuriken stuck itself into the crown of its bent head, falling onto the woman's splayed legs. Mitsukuni and Tamaki battled the remaining three until they stopped writhing, the rest of us dealing finishing blows to the very last of the horde. As the last dropped to the ground, its scream echoing down the street, everything feel eerily silent.
We all looked around at one another, panting and shaking, staggering into a group and checking each other for injuries: all, save for Tamaki. Instead he had dropped to his knees beside the woman and was quickly removing his jacket and bundling it beneath her head as she spluttered convulsively. His hands worked frantically to stem the flow of blood from her shoulder, even though he knew it was by far too late. It took all of thirty seconds for her to stop moving. He bowed his head solemnly, and the little boy began to inch slowly closer, his whole body quivering with fear.
"Mama?" he said, high voice cracking. It was a sound so pitiful it seemed to resonate through the silence. I looked round to see him falling to the ground at his mother's side, touching a trembling hand to her cheek. "Mama?" he repeated, louder his time, as if she were asleep. "R… Réveillez-vous…"
Tamaki's eyes widened slightly in surprise, raising his head to look at the boy, who now had tears rolling down his cheeks.
"S'il vous plaît se réveiller…" The boy had taken hold of her shoulders and was shaking her, trying to wake her from this strange slumber. "Mama! Pourquoi ne pas vous réveillez, allez!"
"Vous ne pouvez pas la réveiller," Tamaki said, and the boy looked up, shocked to see this Japanese stranger speaking his language. He sniffed, lip trembling.
"Vous ne savez pas que!" he cried, continuing to shake his mother's shoulders. "Elle va se réveiller! Elle doit!"
I exchanged glances with the others, unsure of what was happening. None of us could speak French, even Kyoya – at least, not in the way Tamaki could. It was all we could do to stand and watch the unknown communication unfold.
"Si elle le fait, elle ne sera pas votre maman," Tamaki continued, his voice hushed as he reached out a hand to steady the boy's quivering shoulders. "Elle sera comme un des mauvais monstres. Vous devez quitter maintenant."
"Ma maman est pas un monstre!" The boy's efforts to shake his mother awake were frantic now, almost violent, and Tamaki had to take hold of his wiry wrists to pull them away and stop him.
"Tu ne comprends pas, mais je vais essayer de vous aider," He explained, trying to keep his voice level as the boy struggled hysterically against him. "Calmez vous s'il vous plait." For a moment it seemed like the boy would begin kicking and screaming and biting, but as his tears renewed the fight quite went out of him as he collapsed into sobs that shook his tiny frame. Slowly Tamaki let go of him and instead put an arm consolingly round him, saying gently, "Venez avec nous maintenant et nous allons vous garder en sécurité."
"Ma mère va vraiment pas se réveiller, elle va?" he sniffled.
"J'ai bien peur que non…" Tamaki conceded, casting a glance over to us in our little huddle. The boy sniffled again, and raised his head. His big blue eyes swam with tears like an ocean, and as Tamaki looked back at him he was struck by just how much this small blonde boy reminded him of his younger self. Instantly he became filled with a strong sense of determination. "Mais si vous venez avec nous, je promets de toujours faire de mon mieux pour prendre soin de vous."
"Vous promettez?" the boy repeated, and Tamaki nodded assuringly.
"Je suis Tamaki," he said with an encouraging sort of smile, getting to his feet and extending a hand for the boy to take. "Quel est votre nom?"
The boy eyed his hand carefully, as though suspicious it might suddenly turn into a snake and bite him. Then he reached out hs own small hand an answered, "Je m'appelle Grantaire."
To anyone wanting a translation of Tamaki and Grantaire's conversation, here it is :
" Mummy ? Mummy ? W…Wake up… Please wake up… Mummy ! Why aren't you waking up, come on ! "
" She won't wake up. "
" You don't know that ! She will wake up ! She has to ! "
" If she does, she won't be your mommy. She will be like one of the bad monsters. You need to leave her now. "
" My mummy is not a monster ! "
" You don't understand, but I'm trying to help you. Please calm down. Come with us now and we will keep you safe.
" My mummy really won't wake up, will she ? "
" I'm afraid not. But if you come with us, I promise to always do my best to look after you. "
" You promise ? "
" I'm Tamaki. What's your name ? "
" My name's Grantaire. "
The first person to get why I chose the name 'Grantaire' wins a prize! Haha just kidding I have nothing to offer but painfully slow update time and moderately interesting plot development with a lot of grammatical errors…