A/N: This is a fanfic of Cagaster of an Insect Cage, primarily from Ilie's POV. I haven't found any sort of fandom for this, so maybe it could be called a KidIl story? Meaning it's focused on the romance of Kidow and Ilie more so than the action. It's a long fic with MANY chapters. I have no beta reader. I did my best to proofread but I apologize for any awkward sentences and missed grammar mistakes. That being said, I really enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Chapter 1
Midway into the 22nd century, a crisis struck the world. After the fourth World War, a strange phenomenon occurred where people spontaneously transformed into giant, man-eating insects called cagasters. Even though only 1 in 1,000 people transformed into cagasters, the outbreak caused a devastation that wiped out nearly two thirds of the world's population.
Earth's leading scientist on the cagaster outbreak published a book describing the gruesome process. After the initial signs of transforming, which included the skin dissipating and sprouting wings, it took only twenty minutes before the person became a full blown cagaster. A cagaster was nearly indestructible, impervious to bullets. Because of this fact, it was pertinent to slay a person within those first twenty minutes. This act was not for the faint of heart because most people retained their minds until the final minute of transformations. The men who rose up to the task were referred to as exterminators.
The cagaster crisis caused worldwide devastation, creating a dystopian society. Many cities became overrun with cagasters and turned into nests, referred to as insect cages. In East Asia, a military regime rose up called the Eastern Alliance Government. Any of the remaining functional cities, named only by a district number, were given a task force of soldiers to guard against cagasters and self-governing rights.
It was now 30 years after the initial cagaster outbreak, and society was making a recovery. Illie, a platinum-blond, dark blue eyed 17 year old, and her dad were on their way to E-05 from their home in A-47. Much of Area A was an agricultural district, but the large town of A-47 was overrun with violence and crime. The larger city of E-05 was their chance at a safer life with more work opportunities.
But as they neared the city, they unwittingly passed by an insect nest. A cagaster started to chase them and Ilie's father, Griffith, sped the Jeep up as fast as it would go to try to escape the cagaster. He swerved, causing them to slide down into the valley and flip over. Ilie thought she heard gunfire as she passed out.
When she regained consciousness and found herself tossed over a stanger's shoulders, she was hysterical. Her dad had trained her for this very scenario, so she easily escaped his grasp and tried to run towards her dad, not knowing that he had already died. The young stranger with spiky dark brown hair and muscular lean physique, grabbed her arm and told her to leave him because he was already dead. But her mind refused to believe it, so she yelled and fought to pull away from him. He finally let go of her, then slapped her cheek with the backside of his hand, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Did you really have to do that?" Jin asked.
Kidow ignored Jin and said to Ilie,"Your dad asked me to get you somewhere safe. But if you would rather cry here and die, that's fine with me." He turned away and walked toward Jin's Jeep.
Coming to her senses, Ilie followed the two men to the car and climbed into the backseat. Kidow hopped in the passenger seat while Jin got in the driver's seat and started the car. Ilie held her bruised cheek as they drove back.
"Here," Jin said, handing her an ice pack. "Sorry this guy was so rough on you."
She nodded her thanks and turned her eyes back to the window. She tried to wrap her mind around the fact that her entire world had been flipped upside down. Her dad was her best friend and her only family. She never imagined having to live without him. And just like that, he was gone. As hard as she tried, she could not hold back her tears. Her soft crying eventually turned into uncontrollable sobs. She didn't care that she looked terrible in front of the strangers who rescued her.
"Look! You made her cry, you sadist, violent bully!" Jin yelled at Kidow.
"Just shut up and drive!" Kidow retorted.
Ilie dozed off. When she woke up, she was on Kidow's back inside a cafe style restaurant that she would later learn was called Mario's Garden.
"She awake!" Jin remarked.
At that notice, Kidow dropped her. She stumbled and grabbed onto the back of his shirt to stop herself from falling, ignoring Kidow's glare at the inconvenience. Mario, a big, muscular man dressed as a maid approached her. He put his hands on her shoulders and said, "Hi honey, don't worry. You're safe here." His smile brought some relief.
"You said you were thinking of hiring help around here. Now you have it. She can start tomorrow," Kidow said to Mario.
Ilie was in too much shock to respond to his cold-hearted statement. She was thankful that Mario chastised him, saying to give her a few days to grieve and adjust.
"Whatever," Kidow said. "I'm taking her to my room so she can sleep."
Kidow then led her to his bedroom upstairs. Before he left, Ilie begged him to tell her what her father's last words were. Reluctantly, he explained the conversation he had with her father right before he died.
"Are you an exterminator?" he had asked weakly.
"Yes."
"Are you…" he sputtered some blood, "are you a good man? A man of honor?"
"No. There's no such thing as a good man these days."
Her father had chuckled painfully at that. "No, I suppose not. But I'm sure a truly dishonorable man would simply lie. You're from E05?" Kidow nodded. "Please, look after my daughter. Make sure she's safe."
"I will. I keep my promises to the dead."
Imagining her father's dying moments brought tears to her eyes. She laid her head down and cried herself to sleep that night.
The next morning, she woke up early and went out for a stroll. This gave her time to process everything that occurred in the past 24 hours. As she explored the city, she successfully fought back tears. She thought about how important it was to her father to get her here. And here she was. If he had known it would cost him his life, would he still have ventured the trip? She had almost no doubt in her mind the answer was yes.
She believed her dad would smile knowing she could walk the streets alone without fear of being raped and mugged. There were so many people here compared to her hometown. She was amazed to see the city had electricity and running water.
Suddenly, a strange figure startled her. It was a boy, about 12 years old, with a large cagaster shaped head, staring down at her from a stone wall. He took it off and laughed at her stunned expression.
"Sorry about that. I wear this to scare off the shady people that wander around here. I'm Naji!" He extended his hand.
"I'm Ilie," she said, shaking his hand. "Do you live around here?"
"Yeah, what about you?"
"I just came to town yesterday. I stayed in one of the bedrooms above Mario's Garden. But I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing…" Then she remembered what Kidow said the night before. "I may start working for Mario at the restaurant."
"I know Mario! He's a great guy. You're lucky to have found such a great place on your first night in the city!"
Just then, a lady around Ilie's age came by. "What are you up to squirt?" she said to Naji.
"Hey Lizzy!" he replied, "This is Ilie. She's new in town, and I was just about to show her my place. Wanna join us?"
"Sure, why not? I've got nothing better to do right now."
Naji led the way to his place as Lizzy and Ilie got acquainted. When they arrived at Naji's humble house, they saw his grandpa sitting on a rocking chair out front.
"Naji, bringing girls home now, are you?"
"No you senile old man!" Naji replied jokingly.
They followed Naji up the outer stairs to his rooftop, providing a beautiful view of the western sun. The three of them talked for the afternoon, and Ilie felt she was starting to make some good friends.
Lizzy and Naji described a horrific event that took place five years earlier at the city when a cagaster outbreak went awry because no exterminators were nearby slay it in time. A whole section of people had to be blocked off in order to prevent the rest of the city from turning into an insect food. Among the people who died in the incident were Lizzy's parents, leaving her an orphan.
"Lizzy, I can't imagine how awful that must've been" Ilie sympathized.
"For the longest time I wouldn't allow myself to grieve. Instead I harbored hate towards the soldiers on duty that day…"
"Do you still hate them?"
"No. Not anymore. I understand they really had no other choice. And one of the soldiers, his name is Qasim, came in to check on me and the other orphans almost everyday for the first two years. He still comes about every week now."
"He sounds like a good man."
"Yeah, I guess he is," Lizzy sighed, saddened by the memory of her lost loved ones.
Naji spoke up, "So, did you travel from area A all by yourself?"
"No, my dad was with me...we were not too far from E-05 when a cagaster attacked us...and he died. I would have died too had an exterminator not come by and rescued me."
Lizzy replied, "I'm sorry about your dad...although I gotta say I'm surprised an exterminator bothered to help you. They're usually a bunch of greedy bastards who wouldn't bother doing something so heroic without getting paid!"
"Well he did slap me at one point when I wanted to stay with my dad..."
"That sounds more like them!"
"But it was a good thing he did. I was getting hysterical and who knows how many cagasters might've come after us had he not helped me come to my senses," she said somberly. "I might've stayed there and cried myself to death."
Naji responded, "Well I still don't like that he hit you! Seems like only a scumbag could hit a girl like that…"
"Haha, he is kind of a jerk. But like Lizzy said, not many exterminators would have bothered to save me. And I'm really grateful for him. And now that I think about it, he's the one who got me the job at Mario's!"
Lizzy and Naji just stared at her, surprised to hear of such generosity from an exterminator. Then Naji's grandpa walked up the stairs and handed Ilie a photo of her and her dad.
"A generous young man came by and told me to give this to you," the old man explained. He then showed Naji a wad of money that the young man had given him.
Ilie looked over the photo for a few seconds before saying, "That must have been Kidow! I can't believe he came out to look for me!"
"The exterminator?!" Lizzy questioned.
"Wow!" Naji was shocked to be the recipient of the exterminator's generosity.
"I'm going to see if I can catch up to him. Bye Lizzy! Bye Naji!"
"Bye Ilie!" they said in unison.
She ran down the stairs and out to the street, catching Kidow when he was a few feet from his motorcycle.
"Wait!" Ilie yelled as she ran up to him. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you," he said matter of factly. "I came back from my job early afternoon. When Mario said he hadn't seen you at all today, I thought maybe you had run off, making me break my promise to your dad."
"Sorry to have worried you. I just went for a walk, and I guess the day kinda got away from me."
"Let's go," he said as he put his helmet on her head. "Hop on."
She climbed onto the backside of the bike, only wrapping her arms around his midsection when the bike suddenly lurched forward. The ride back to Mario's felt both exciting and safe. As she started to associate those feelings with Kidow, she thought, I think I'm starting to like this guy...
That night, Mr. Mario had her own bedroom prepared for her. As she thought about going to bed, she suddenly became aware that she smelled pretty bad because she hadn't had a proper bath in weeks. Already knowing where the bathroom was, she asked Mario about towels.
He showed her the linen closet where they were stored and warned her that there was only cold water. If she ever wanted to take a hot bath, she would have to heat up the water on the stovetop in the kitchen downstairs. All natural gas lines to the city had been turned off shortly after the start of cagaster outbreaks. Hot showers required propane, which was expensive and hard to come by. Before he left, he apologized that the lock on the door was broken and promised to get it fixed.
Even though she grew up taking cold showers, she never liked them. So she was prepared to full on shower once a week, and do sink baths on the other six nights of the week. Maybe once a month she could go through the hassle of lugging hot water upstairs for a relaxing bath.
After she showered, she laid down on her new bed. She was thankful for Mario's hospitality, but sleeping in her own bedroom served as a reminder of all that she had lost. Her sadness kept sleep from coming that night. She heard a sound down the hallway and got up to check it out. When she reached the top of the staircase, she saw Kidow walking out the front door. Curiosity took hold of her, causing her to follow him against her better judgment.
The scene she witnessed was both nerve wracking and awe inspiring. He was practicing forms with his jagged edged sword, looking to be a fearsome opponent in battle. But it was his outspoken self-talk that rattled her nerves. He was getting louder and louder, declaring statements like being a heartless sword with the sole purpose of slaying monsters and to exterminate a monster means you have to be a monster.
Illie could tell his was a dark background. Her own training vastly differed from his. Her father focused on positive affirmations, as opposed to Kidows dark chants. It seemed an almost cruel indoctrination to her. As she was lost in thought studying him and contemplating what his life must have been like, she found herself staring directly at the tip of his sword, now only 2 or 3 inches from her face. He was staring directly at her, eyebrows creased, eyes stern and lips tight. She froze and let out a couple of small, gaspy breaths. He was like a statue, not blinking, and seemed as if he wasn't even breathing. She couldn't help but feel like he saw her as a threat to his "heartlessness," and his drawn sword needed to eliminate that threat.
"What do you want?" he finally spoke.
"Do you want to spar?" she asked, surprised at her own audacity.
"What?" He was confused by the suggestion.
"If you have an extra sword, I can spar with you a little. I'm mostly trained in hand to hand combat, but I can handle a knife pretty well, and I can make do with a small sword."
He sheathed his sword and asked, "Hand to hand combat, huh?"
"Yeah. My dad trained me to defend myself against anyone who may try to attack or assault me," she said in hopes to sound a bit intimidating, but was sure she just sounded ridiculous. She knew there was no way she could stand a chance against Kidow if he had his mind set on something lewd. She inwardly chastised herself for liking the sound of that.
"Hm. I don't have another sword, but I have a couple knives." He pulled out two knives from his belt and handed her one.
"Great. But I'm warning you, if you try to pull anything on me, I won't hold back!"
He gave her a smile and patted her on the head, making her feel like a child. "I wouldn't dream of it."
Although, I wouldn't mind if you did, she thought. Then cursed herself for thinking such a thing. They were a few paces away, when they both crouched down in combat stance. She felt a little silly crouching, suddenly self-conscious of how unfeminine she looked.
"You make the first move," he said.
That was different. Her dad was always playing the part of the attacker, so to be on the offensive was a strange feeling. But without responding, she charged him. No surprise to her when he easily blocked her attack. That pattern went on for a few minutes, her attacking and him blocking. Finally, instead of just blocking, he counterattacked. He disarmed her, grabbed her by the arms and pushed her up against the building behind her.
His arms on either side of her shoulders, looking down at her, he said, "Looks like you need more practice, princess."
Trying to be witty, she quipped, "I was just going easy on you. Since you just saved my life a couple days ago, I figured it would be ungrateful of me to beat you up."
He just chuckled, patting her head again as he backed off. She couldn't help but think about how nice it would be to have someone so strong and fierce to protect her for life. That thought prompted her to reach for his hand. Once she grabbed it, she said, "Kidow...I…" But words failed to come to mind.
He stared at her moment and replied, "Come on. Let's go back and get some sleep." He let his hand fall from her grip.