Chapter 7: Bird

One of Sora's earliest memories was of watching the birds from her house's porch while her mother tended to flower arrangements in the living room. That practice, called Ikebana, had been forbidden when Shigeo Yamanaka ascended to power. Every other tradition of Turtle Island, like Kendo and the Tea Ceremony, and even religious practices that had persisted despite the Imperial Church's forced catechism, had been forbidden as well by Yamanaka, under the justification that all the colonies should mirror the culture of the Old Continent.

"The world must be homogeneous, for that is the will of the Goddess," the Lord of Turtle Island used to say. However, the people of Turtle Island, who had grown used to more tolerant nobles, resisted the attempts of erasing their culture.

Their traditions were taught at the schools, which led to them being closed. Then, the elders taught them at their houses, but that didn't end well. As a way of asserting his authority, Shigeo Yamanaka ordered the public execution of anyone who promoted forbidden practices. Her mother told her that was the reason why Sora didn't have grandparents anymore. It was also the reason why her mother's flower arrangements had to be hidden in secret compartments under the house's tatami whenever Toshiko wasn't working on them.

Why does she bother to make those flower arrangements? Sora used to wonder. If the government forbade the traditional practices, why did people still try to preserve them? Weren't they afraid?

It would take a while for Sora to get suspicious of the people who used to gather at her house for reunions. Among them, there was an old man called Chikara Hida, who used to show her a gentle smile whenever he saw her. More than once, Sora heard people referring to him as "Leader."

Her father would take her to play in the woods during those reunions. Sometimes, he would put the little girl on his shoulders, so she could feel closer to the colorful birds flying above the trees. Sora used to open her arms, wishing that she could fly away like those small animals. She wanted to fly to somewhere safe, where people wouldn't have to be afraid that an evil man would hurt them.

"Why don't we go away?" Sora asked her father once. "We could go to a place where the nobles are nice and Mom doesn't have to hide her flowers."

"Not everybody can run, even if we could," Haruhiko told her. "How would it be fair for us to shelter ourselves while other people suffered? We have to fight, so everybody can be safe one day. We have the moral responsibility to consider what's best for everybody instead of only thinking about ourselves."

"We have to fight?" Sora asked, frightened. "Is that why those people go to our house? Do they want you and Mom to fight?"

"No, Sora. Your Mother and I want to fight," Haruhiko clarified. "We want to free our land from Yamanaka's tyranny."

"I don't want you two to fight!" Sora protested. "I don't want the bad men to take my Mom and Dad away!"

The little girl began to cry. Her father took her out of his shoulders and embraced her. He told her daughter that she would understand everything one day. He was sure that Sora would grow to be someone who would always be willing to fight for the sake of the oppressed.

A couple of weeks after that conversation, Toshiko and Haruhiko woke Sora in the middle of the night. She didn't understand what was happening. Her mother carried her to the outside while her father quickly shoved some of the girl's clothes into a bag.

At the garden, a man Sora had seen in previous reunions was waiting for them. He was carrying a shotgun.

"Are Fumiko and your son safe, Hiroki?" Toshiko asked him.

"I already had moved them to the camp..." Hiroki replied, "I... I told my father he had to go too so many times... if I had been more insisting... Iori is only two years old... he won't even remember his grandfather..."

Sora began to cry when she understood what had happened to the kind old man that visited her house regularly. Hiroki began to cry as well, but fiercely wiped his tears away.

"What do we do now, Hiroki?" Sora's mother asked.

"I was hoping... no... we all were hoping that you would tell us that," Hiroki replied, looking into the woman's eyes, "Leader Toshiko."

Upon hearing those two words, Sora felt as if a force pushed her to the ground, from where she would never be able to rise.

A part of the revolutionaries was reunited in the big dinner room of Yamanaka's mansion. The old Lord of Turtle Island had been secluded in the basement for the time being. The tone of the reunion went from euphoria over their victory to bafflement over how absurd that victory had been. There was some debate about how much of the sabinist theories on the community property of the land and the means of production would be applied in the new revolutionary government. The old shop owners (who had lost their business due to Yamanaka's monopoly) insisted that private property should be allowed as long as the employees didn't work long hours and received a fair living wage. Mr. and Mrs. Inoue were the most eager ones to defend that proposition. They assumed that, because their employees would be their own children, they wouldn't have to actually pay them anything.

However, the most pressing issue couldn't be avoided for too long. Yamato told the others about the plan of putting Yamanaka through trial. Toshiko and some other revolutionaries found that a good idea, but the majority believed they should kill that man. It was at that moment that Iori stood up and spoke:

"We've all lost people because of Yamanaka's tyranny. I understand your feelings... there's a part of me that wishes for him to be punished as severely as possible. But if we killed a noble, the Empire would wipe us out. Let's be realistic, the aid we receive from Tierra Roja is far from being enough to withstand a large attack from the Empire. We live on a small island and our revolutionary army consists of less than 50 people. This entire revolution began because the revolutionaries were trying to protect innocents, to save lives and our culture. If we let our anger take a hold of ourselves and execute that man, we would lose everything we've being fighting to protect!"

Everybody was amazed at Iori's eloquence and the power he could imprint into his words. Sora was taken aback. She had always known how Iori was too mature and serious for his age, but it wasn't easy for her to accept that a teenager had a better grip on himself and his emotions than she did. Sora had to be convinced that murdering Yamanaka wasn't the right choice. Iori didn't need anyone's help to reach that conclusion.

She could hear impressed whispers from the people around the large rectangular table.

"Iori is so mature!"

"He's so rational and speaks so well!"

"Iori truly is Leader Hida's grandson!"

Sora wished she could sink in her chair. Her emotional outbursts from earlier that day filled her with feelings of inadequacy. She wondered if someone had ever compared her to her mother the same way they did with Iori and his grandfather. Probably not. Toshiko was a level-headed leader who put the needs of the group above her own desires. Sora, on the other hand, could be so easily blinded by her selfishness that she could, at times, almost convince herself that she was doing things for the sake of others.

Had Yamanaka not killed her father, would Sora have been so determined to get him punished? Had she not grown up surrounded by revolutionaries, would she have any will to fight for the liberation of people she didn't personally know? Sora knew she wasn't truly altruistic, no matter how hard she tried to be someone her father would have been proud of... despite not being a child anymore, she still caught herself daydreaming about a peaceful life far from that dangerous place. What kind of person would have such egotistic desires when there were so many people who needed help?

"Are you feeling alright?" Yamato asked her, by her side. His concerned look filled her with guilt.

"I think I'm just tired... it's been a long day..." Sora said, forcing a smile. It was evident by Yamato's look that he wasn't convinced.

"If you want to rest, I can help you to set up your tent," he offered. "I can keep you company until you feel better, if you want."

"Thank you..." Sora agreed.

Yamato gave the others an excuse for their need to leave the reunion which Sora would forget in a matter of minutes. The two of them didn't talk about anything meaningful as they walked towards the new camp that was being erected on the farm or while they set up a tent for Sora. She was grateful that Yamato wasn't forcing her to talk about painful things. His consideration for other people's feelings was the thing she loved the most about him.

"You should go back to the reunion," Sora told him, once the tent was up.

"I can stay with you," Yamato let her know.

"No, there are a lot of important things that still need to be discussed and you should be there," Sora insisted.

"You're more important to me than anything that's being discussed in there!" Yamato stated. "I wouldn't even be with the revolutionaries if it wasn't for you!"

"Yamato!" Sora raised her voice. After noticing how she had startled him, she adopted a softer tone and said: "I just want to be alone right now... please... I need some alone time to think things over..."

Yamato remained silent for a few seconds. Then he showed her a small reassuring smile and told her:

"I understand. Sorry if I was being too forceful-"

"You don't need to apologize to me," Sora let him know. "Good night."

"Good night."

Inside the tent, Sora put the futon down and lay on it. It didn't take her too long to realize that she wouldn't be able to sleep. All the stressful events of that day kept coming back to haunt her.

"Miss Sora, are you awake?"

She recognized Koushiro's voice coming from out of the tent and went there to see what he wanted.

Once Sora stepped out of the tent, she noticed that Koushiro was wearing a black trench coat and a fedora hat on his head.

"Did... Takeru lend you his clothes?" Sora asked, not understanding why Koushiro would be dressed like that.

"Oh, yes! Mr. Takeru insisted vehemently that I should take his clothes!" Koushiro informed, cheerfully.

Actually, Takeru wasn't aware that Koushiro had entered his tent and borrowed his clothes. Koushiro had done so while Takeru was typing the first chapters of his masterpiece. The aspiring writer hadn't noticed the other's presence, neither did he listen to his request, as he was writing an exciting part of his novel and kept yelling "YES! YES! THIS IS SO GOOD! YES!" which Koushiro interpreted as "yes, you can borrow some clothes, they will look good on you."

"Why do you need these fancy clothes?" Sora asked, unable to imagine Takeru lending expensive pieces of clothing to someone who had a habit of being shot and stabbed.

"At first, I was trying to escape from Miss Miyako's surveillance and intruding questions. And then, I thought that it could serve as a good disguise to infiltrate Shrimp Island," Koushiro explained.

"What do you mean by that?" Sora questioned.

"I mean that, while I appreciate Miss Miyako and relate to her curiosity, she was coming at me too strongly and that made me uncomfortable," Koushiro told her.

"No, I was talking about Shrimp Island! Are you leaving us?" Sora asked, hurt. "After everything we've been through, are you simply going to walk away from us like none of that mattered? I thought we were allies! I thought we were..."

She stopped herself before saying "friends." It was presumptuous of her to think someone who had just met her that day would think of her as a friend. In fact, Sora was surprised at how quickly she had gotten fond of that strange person. She couldn't help but feel at ease around him, almost as if they had known each other for their entire lives.

"I'm not leaving you, Miss Sora!" Koushiro hurried to clarify. "I need to go to Shrimp Island to meet a witch."

From all the explanations Sora could expect Koushiro to give, "having to meet a witch" would never have crossed her mind.

"Do witches exist?" Sora asked, fascinated by that idea.

"Well... she's a lady who meddles with plants and calls herself a witch, so I'm going to call her that too," Koushiro said.

"Is she an old friend of yours?" Sora questioned, wondering if the witch was an immortal old lady with a black cat and a pointy hat.

"I've never actually met her, I only saw her in visions," Koushiro explained. "I need her help."

"Why would you need the help of a witch?" Sora wanted to know.

Koushiro looked at her with sadness before replying:

"There are things you need to know about me, things I'm not sure if I'm able to reveal without attempting to deceive you, things I would try to hide even subconsciously... that's why I need the help of a witch... I'm not brave enough to show my true self without an external push... but I have to do it, otherwise you won't trust me. I have to show you the truth, or you won't believe what I have to say about your future."

"My future?" Sora murmured. "What do you know about my future?"

Sora feared the answer of that question. Would she still be a revolutionary in the future? Would she finally get the conviction she needed to fight for the cause without hesitation? Or could it be that she would inevitably succumb to her selfishness? Maybe she would go back to Yamanaka's mansion and kill that horrible man herself, dooming her family and friends to a war they couldn't win because she wanted to satisfy her need for revenge. Or perhaps she would do something even more deplorable. The day would come when she wouldn't be able to keep up the front of a selfless revolutionary who truly cared about protecting other people. If things got too overwhelming, Sora would fulfill her childish dream of running away from all that. No more fighting, no more heartbreak... she would find a place where she could live as a normal woman who didn't have to worry about other people's expectations. She would abandon everybody who had ever loved her, like the coward Sora knew she was.

There was, however, hope mixed with her fear of Koushiro's answer. If he told Sora what future awaited her, maybe she could finally accept who she really was. There would be no need for her to keep forcing herself to fit into an ideal. Sora wouldn't have to repeat inspiring and courageous words in the hopes that they would eventually feel genuine. She wouldn't have to fear, every day, that the people she cared about would come to realize she was nothing more than an ordinary scared girl out of her depth, someone undeserving of the parents she had and the love she received.

At that point, she was mentally begging Koushiro to put an end to her torment and reveal the horrid truth about herself at last. Then, she would be free.

Koushiro glanced down for a couple of seconds. Once he looked into her eyes again, he was bearing the most serious expression she had ever seen.

"You will bring down the Empire, Miss Sora," Koushiro told her. "You are destined to save the world."

At the distance, Sora believed she could hear the sound of birds flying away, like the ones she liked to watch as a child. She imagined them leaving for a place that was completely out of her reach.