Adventures In Tokyo
Disclaimer: No matter how many times I'd like to convince myself, Gundam Wing and all respective characters do not belong to me.
The night air was crisp and cold, yet surprisingly calm, managing to be frostily intimidating without rifling one breath of wind. The dark streets of downtown Tokyo were illuminated in the haunting, dim glow of firefly lanterns, hung in pairs all down the street corner. Hundreds of people crowded on the curb, cradling in their gloved hands a pure white candle, it's fragile flame flickering in the breeze. And in the street in front of them, a majestic parade processed, full of floats coated in feathers that looked like they were from angels wings, candle bearing choirs singing cultural Japanese melodies, and numerous attractions bedecked from head to toe in pale white orbs of light. The whole majesty of the event was reflected in the crowd's shining eyes as they leaned against their significant others and took in the beauty before them. The Light of Hope Parade had come at last.
"Hurry up Heero! I can tell they already started!" Relena urged, dragging Heero down the street by his arm. He didn't protest, but rather quickened his pace to avoid having his arm pulled out of the socket. Akira trailed the two, smiling to herself and knowing that the parade was at least 10 minutes into the procession by now. The three of them rounded a corner expecting to see the familiar soft white lights hanging from the lamp posts, but found themselves facing a dead end.
"Where are we?" Heero asked Akira, who blinked twice in unison. "I think we're around the abandoned warehouse…" she mused, looking at their dingy surroundings. "I must not have paid any attention to where we were going."
Heero nodded and Relena groaned. "Aw, we're gonna miss the parade!"
"Don't worry," Akira said hastily. "I know the way from here."
A soft moan issued from behind them.
Heero spun around to face the noise, but found nothing but the silhouette of the warehouse. "What was that?"
Akira shrugged and linked arms with the two of them. "Who knows. Probably a bum or something. C'mon, let's get out of here, this place is creepy." The backtracked their steps and re-turned the corner, heading off to the parade in the distance.
Hilde steadied herself on Duo's shoulders and watched as the parade floated past them. "I wonder where Heero and Relena are…" she said, trying to keep her eyes away from a particularly interesting float and intending to spot their targets instead.
"Oooh! Ooohh! There they are!!" Duo said excitedly, jumping up and down and nearly throwing Hilde off his shoulders. "Whoah there Bessie!" Hilde exclaimed, grabbing onto his braid like a reign. "Where??"
Duo jabbed his finger in the direction where he had an Relena-Heero sighting. And sure enough, there they were, accompanied by that pink-haired stranger.
"And now," Hilde grinned. "We move in for the kill.."
"It's really beautiful isn't it?" Relena whispered. Heero nodded, remembering the first time he had seen this parade, many years ago. The floats drifted past them, beams of white light piercing through the blankets of darkness surrounding them and splaying rainbow patterns on the ground below. Akira sighed audibly behind them, but it was one out of exasperation.
"Heero, I really hate to ruin the moment, but that stupid concession owner over there won't let me buy a candle," she said, sticking out her lower lip in a pout and pointing behind her at a pudgy, middle aged man who was cursing loudly in Japanese. "Can you, um, talk to him?"
"Well…" Heero began, but Relena sighed and said, "Sure, just be quick about it. The last part of the parade is always the best. They've got fireworks." Heero nodded and regretfully detached himself from his girlfriend to go and help Akira out. Relena watched him disappear into the crowd with growing unease. She tried to re-immerse herself in the beauty of the parade, but failed. The music issuing from the procession merely swirled around her instead of inside her, and served as a ticking clock, counting down the minutes until Heero came back. Five. Ten. What was taking so long?
She was beginning to feel lightheaded, and leaned up against a lamp post for support. Where could he be? Fifteen minutes later, she felt someone tap her shoulder. She whirled around, prepared to give both of them an earful, when she noticed that it was neither Heero nor Akira who was the captor of her attention. It was the Japanese concession stand owner, no longer looking upset at all, but just a little annoyed.
"Could you possibly move a little to your right," he asked her in fluent Japanese. "I can't see the parade." Relena blinked, then complied, now standing further away from the light post that served as her anchor, and feeling the world begin to spin. "Why aren't you working your concession stand?" she asked him, hoping to pry out some information on where Heero and Akira had gone. The man looked at her in surprise, stunned that she could speak Japanese as well as he could. Then he replied, "What are you talking about child, I don't run a concession stand." Relena felt the floor slip out from underneath her, and she lurched towards the ground. She felt unbearably dizzy. The man, seeing her fall, reached out and grabbed her arm, steadying her. "Are you alright, little one?" he asked, brown eyes concerned. She shook her head. "No, but, but I'll be fine. I- I- have to go."
Relena wretched herself free from the man's grasp and stumbled through the crowd in search of Heero. Her head was pounding and the world around her hazed in and out of focus. She felt as though she was going to pass out. "Heero!" she cried into the crowd, feeling the pulse of danger rising in the back of her head. "Heero! Where are you?"
There was no response.
She stopped, leaning up against the wall of a building to catch her breath. What was wrong with her? And where had Heero gone?
"Heero.." she called out weakly, sinking to her knees, then falling unconscious to the cement ground below.
Duo was the one to see her fall. He and Hilde had been slinking their way through the crowds, inch by inch, to get in a better position to spy on Relena and Heero. But before they could reach them, Heero left with pink hair, leaving Relena all alone. They had raised eyebrows at this, but thought nothing of it. But then Relena left her post as well. And now she was down.
"Relena!" Hilde yelled, elbowing her way through the crowd to reach the unconscious girl. "Duo, did you see what happened?" Duo shook his head, worming through the throng of people at high speed, his braid whipping out wildly behind him. "Nah, she just collapsed."
The dynamic duo reached Relena at the same time, and to their surprise, found that her eyes were still open. Fogged over, but open. "Relena?" Duo whispered, shaking his sister's arm to try and rouse her. There was no affect. "Relena, can you hear me?" Relena gave a little moan of despair but didn't reply. Duo and Hilde exchanged worried glances. What was going on?
** It was the dream again. The nightmare. It had returned to her, even in the day. She was back in that dark hallway that smelled of fear and death. Back to hearing the footsteps of the soldiers. Only now they were closer, louder. Deadlier.
"Why are you doing this to me?!" Relena yelled, her own words getting swallowed up by the nothingness of the vision. And she watched in silence as the soldiers came into view, dragging Heero along with them. Watched as they entered the room, shutting the metal door behind them. Heard his moan. And prepared for the nightmare to end.
But it didn't.
The fading vision remained intact, her eyes were unclouded by fog. She was still there, still living in this futuristic prophesy. And that's when she heard it. The voice. Soft and calming as music, but now glinting ominously with an edge like a dagger. Relena slowly walked through the bolted door, her own footsteps making no sounds, but the pounding of her own heart echoing off the stone walls.
Heero was sitting in the chair, strapped up against it like a caged and wounded animal. And she was there, watching. Laughing at his pain, his misery. There was no mistaking that cotton candy hair, those fathomless red eyes. Akira. The captor. And the worst part was that Relena had led Heero right into the trap.
A rage was boiling up inside her body, tearing through every rational thought and festering just beneath the surface. A blind, red, raw rage. At Akira. At herself. At her own foolishness. And then the vision dissolved, sending her not back to the real world, but to another dreamscape.
An alley, dark and rancid, the air laced with the smell of rotting garbage. She recognized one building, the old abandoned warehouse they had seen in the dead end. Only this was the back view of the warehouse. And the scenery included that of a dumpster, which stank up the air with it's foul smelling innards. And then, she saw it. A hand protruding from inside the dumpster. A bloody, dirty hand, but nonetheless human. Relena bit back the bile rising in her throat and threw open the lid of the dumpster with a hollow feeling in her heart. She peered inside and gasped in horror.
For lying among the garbage like a piece of trash herself was a woman. She had long black hair that reached down to her knees that showed traces of previously being drawn up in a bun. Her eyes were still wide open in an expression of horror and surprise, like twin brown deer eyes caught in headlights. Relena longed for them to shut, to close and be at peace, but she knew this woman had not died a peaceful death.
And although Relena had never met her before, she knew who it was. There was no mistaking those features. Especially those eyes. It was Utena, Wufei's mother. Relena felt another surge of rage wash over her as she recalled Akira's words when she was questioned on where Utena was.
"Utena got tied up on business…sent me to house sit…hope we all are great friends…"
Relena stood frozen, her trembling hand seemed glued to the dirty metal of the dumpster lid, as two tears drizzled down her cheeks. Akira the traitor, had murdered Utena. Akira, the back stabber had been playing them all along. Akira, the OZ elite, would soon have her Heero. Visions didn't lie. But they could change.
Gently, Relena reached down inside the dumpster and grabbed hold of Utena's body. The older woman was much larger than herself, and it was hard to hoist her out of her honorless grave; the weight was too heavy and blood pooled through her fingers. But at last, Relena had freed Wufei's late mother from the disgusting pile of trash Akira had marked as her resting place. She knew that this was just a vision, and anything she did here would not reflect in real life. But it felt like the right thing to do. Wufei would have done it, she knew.
Relena, standing over Utena's body like her protector, stared up at the strange blood red sky. "I've hand enough of this vision!" she screamed, her eyes narrowed in concentration. "I want to go back. I want to have a chance. Please!"
Her demands were greeted with silence.
Frustrated, Relena pounded her hand against the accursed dumpster, shaking the piece of metal vigorously. And in doing so, something else inside it was jarred loose. Another hand.
Relena gasped, fighting the sudden urge to vomit. Not Heero. Not Heero. Not Heero, she whispered over and over again. She couldn't bear it. Slowly, she picked the filth off the second body, identifying it as a female. And as the last mound of garbage fell away, Relena screamed, stumbled backwards and fell on the mud slicked ground.
The dead body was her own. **
Disclaimer: No matter how many times I'd like to convince myself, Gundam Wing and all respective characters do not belong to me.
The night air was crisp and cold, yet surprisingly calm, managing to be frostily intimidating without rifling one breath of wind. The dark streets of downtown Tokyo were illuminated in the haunting, dim glow of firefly lanterns, hung in pairs all down the street corner. Hundreds of people crowded on the curb, cradling in their gloved hands a pure white candle, it's fragile flame flickering in the breeze. And in the street in front of them, a majestic parade processed, full of floats coated in feathers that looked like they were from angels wings, candle bearing choirs singing cultural Japanese melodies, and numerous attractions bedecked from head to toe in pale white orbs of light. The whole majesty of the event was reflected in the crowd's shining eyes as they leaned against their significant others and took in the beauty before them. The Light of Hope Parade had come at last.
"Hurry up Heero! I can tell they already started!" Relena urged, dragging Heero down the street by his arm. He didn't protest, but rather quickened his pace to avoid having his arm pulled out of the socket. Akira trailed the two, smiling to herself and knowing that the parade was at least 10 minutes into the procession by now. The three of them rounded a corner expecting to see the familiar soft white lights hanging from the lamp posts, but found themselves facing a dead end.
"Where are we?" Heero asked Akira, who blinked twice in unison. "I think we're around the abandoned warehouse…" she mused, looking at their dingy surroundings. "I must not have paid any attention to where we were going."
Heero nodded and Relena groaned. "Aw, we're gonna miss the parade!"
"Don't worry," Akira said hastily. "I know the way from here."
A soft moan issued from behind them.
Heero spun around to face the noise, but found nothing but the silhouette of the warehouse. "What was that?"
Akira shrugged and linked arms with the two of them. "Who knows. Probably a bum or something. C'mon, let's get out of here, this place is creepy." The backtracked their steps and re-turned the corner, heading off to the parade in the distance.
Hilde steadied herself on Duo's shoulders and watched as the parade floated past them. "I wonder where Heero and Relena are…" she said, trying to keep her eyes away from a particularly interesting float and intending to spot their targets instead.
"Oooh! Ooohh! There they are!!" Duo said excitedly, jumping up and down and nearly throwing Hilde off his shoulders. "Whoah there Bessie!" Hilde exclaimed, grabbing onto his braid like a reign. "Where??"
Duo jabbed his finger in the direction where he had an Relena-Heero sighting. And sure enough, there they were, accompanied by that pink-haired stranger.
"And now," Hilde grinned. "We move in for the kill.."
"It's really beautiful isn't it?" Relena whispered. Heero nodded, remembering the first time he had seen this parade, many years ago. The floats drifted past them, beams of white light piercing through the blankets of darkness surrounding them and splaying rainbow patterns on the ground below. Akira sighed audibly behind them, but it was one out of exasperation.
"Heero, I really hate to ruin the moment, but that stupid concession owner over there won't let me buy a candle," she said, sticking out her lower lip in a pout and pointing behind her at a pudgy, middle aged man who was cursing loudly in Japanese. "Can you, um, talk to him?"
"Well…" Heero began, but Relena sighed and said, "Sure, just be quick about it. The last part of the parade is always the best. They've got fireworks." Heero nodded and regretfully detached himself from his girlfriend to go and help Akira out. Relena watched him disappear into the crowd with growing unease. She tried to re-immerse herself in the beauty of the parade, but failed. The music issuing from the procession merely swirled around her instead of inside her, and served as a ticking clock, counting down the minutes until Heero came back. Five. Ten. What was taking so long?
She was beginning to feel lightheaded, and leaned up against a lamp post for support. Where could he be? Fifteen minutes later, she felt someone tap her shoulder. She whirled around, prepared to give both of them an earful, when she noticed that it was neither Heero nor Akira who was the captor of her attention. It was the Japanese concession stand owner, no longer looking upset at all, but just a little annoyed.
"Could you possibly move a little to your right," he asked her in fluent Japanese. "I can't see the parade." Relena blinked, then complied, now standing further away from the light post that served as her anchor, and feeling the world begin to spin. "Why aren't you working your concession stand?" she asked him, hoping to pry out some information on where Heero and Akira had gone. The man looked at her in surprise, stunned that she could speak Japanese as well as he could. Then he replied, "What are you talking about child, I don't run a concession stand." Relena felt the floor slip out from underneath her, and she lurched towards the ground. She felt unbearably dizzy. The man, seeing her fall, reached out and grabbed her arm, steadying her. "Are you alright, little one?" he asked, brown eyes concerned. She shook her head. "No, but, but I'll be fine. I- I- have to go."
Relena wretched herself free from the man's grasp and stumbled through the crowd in search of Heero. Her head was pounding and the world around her hazed in and out of focus. She felt as though she was going to pass out. "Heero!" she cried into the crowd, feeling the pulse of danger rising in the back of her head. "Heero! Where are you?"
There was no response.
She stopped, leaning up against the wall of a building to catch her breath. What was wrong with her? And where had Heero gone?
"Heero.." she called out weakly, sinking to her knees, then falling unconscious to the cement ground below.
Duo was the one to see her fall. He and Hilde had been slinking their way through the crowds, inch by inch, to get in a better position to spy on Relena and Heero. But before they could reach them, Heero left with pink hair, leaving Relena all alone. They had raised eyebrows at this, but thought nothing of it. But then Relena left her post as well. And now she was down.
"Relena!" Hilde yelled, elbowing her way through the crowd to reach the unconscious girl. "Duo, did you see what happened?" Duo shook his head, worming through the throng of people at high speed, his braid whipping out wildly behind him. "Nah, she just collapsed."
The dynamic duo reached Relena at the same time, and to their surprise, found that her eyes were still open. Fogged over, but open. "Relena?" Duo whispered, shaking his sister's arm to try and rouse her. There was no affect. "Relena, can you hear me?" Relena gave a little moan of despair but didn't reply. Duo and Hilde exchanged worried glances. What was going on?
** It was the dream again. The nightmare. It had returned to her, even in the day. She was back in that dark hallway that smelled of fear and death. Back to hearing the footsteps of the soldiers. Only now they were closer, louder. Deadlier.
"Why are you doing this to me?!" Relena yelled, her own words getting swallowed up by the nothingness of the vision. And she watched in silence as the soldiers came into view, dragging Heero along with them. Watched as they entered the room, shutting the metal door behind them. Heard his moan. And prepared for the nightmare to end.
But it didn't.
The fading vision remained intact, her eyes were unclouded by fog. She was still there, still living in this futuristic prophesy. And that's when she heard it. The voice. Soft and calming as music, but now glinting ominously with an edge like a dagger. Relena slowly walked through the bolted door, her own footsteps making no sounds, but the pounding of her own heart echoing off the stone walls.
Heero was sitting in the chair, strapped up against it like a caged and wounded animal. And she was there, watching. Laughing at his pain, his misery. There was no mistaking that cotton candy hair, those fathomless red eyes. Akira. The captor. And the worst part was that Relena had led Heero right into the trap.
A rage was boiling up inside her body, tearing through every rational thought and festering just beneath the surface. A blind, red, raw rage. At Akira. At herself. At her own foolishness. And then the vision dissolved, sending her not back to the real world, but to another dreamscape.
An alley, dark and rancid, the air laced with the smell of rotting garbage. She recognized one building, the old abandoned warehouse they had seen in the dead end. Only this was the back view of the warehouse. And the scenery included that of a dumpster, which stank up the air with it's foul smelling innards. And then, she saw it. A hand protruding from inside the dumpster. A bloody, dirty hand, but nonetheless human. Relena bit back the bile rising in her throat and threw open the lid of the dumpster with a hollow feeling in her heart. She peered inside and gasped in horror.
For lying among the garbage like a piece of trash herself was a woman. She had long black hair that reached down to her knees that showed traces of previously being drawn up in a bun. Her eyes were still wide open in an expression of horror and surprise, like twin brown deer eyes caught in headlights. Relena longed for them to shut, to close and be at peace, but she knew this woman had not died a peaceful death.
And although Relena had never met her before, she knew who it was. There was no mistaking those features. Especially those eyes. It was Utena, Wufei's mother. Relena felt another surge of rage wash over her as she recalled Akira's words when she was questioned on where Utena was.
"Utena got tied up on business…sent me to house sit…hope we all are great friends…"
Relena stood frozen, her trembling hand seemed glued to the dirty metal of the dumpster lid, as two tears drizzled down her cheeks. Akira the traitor, had murdered Utena. Akira, the back stabber had been playing them all along. Akira, the OZ elite, would soon have her Heero. Visions didn't lie. But they could change.
Gently, Relena reached down inside the dumpster and grabbed hold of Utena's body. The older woman was much larger than herself, and it was hard to hoist her out of her honorless grave; the weight was too heavy and blood pooled through her fingers. But at last, Relena had freed Wufei's late mother from the disgusting pile of trash Akira had marked as her resting place. She knew that this was just a vision, and anything she did here would not reflect in real life. But it felt like the right thing to do. Wufei would have done it, she knew.
Relena, standing over Utena's body like her protector, stared up at the strange blood red sky. "I've hand enough of this vision!" she screamed, her eyes narrowed in concentration. "I want to go back. I want to have a chance. Please!"
Her demands were greeted with silence.
Frustrated, Relena pounded her hand against the accursed dumpster, shaking the piece of metal vigorously. And in doing so, something else inside it was jarred loose. Another hand.
Relena gasped, fighting the sudden urge to vomit. Not Heero. Not Heero. Not Heero, she whispered over and over again. She couldn't bear it. Slowly, she picked the filth off the second body, identifying it as a female. And as the last mound of garbage fell away, Relena screamed, stumbled backwards and fell on the mud slicked ground.
The dead body was her own. **