*I wrote this with the one about Hikaru, but it was too long. Then I was going to do one for each but the other two were too short, so I put them together. So I've been finished, and I couldn't wait any longer to post. So here it is.*
Chapter 21 Fuu and Umi's Demise
She looked out the window helplessly, "Kuu, it's been three years since I've seen Cephiro; I want to go back."
"I know," her sister said gently, "But it was your choice, you chose to stay. I told you to go back," she had said it a million times before, and she gained that, 'I told you so,' look.
"Fuu, Kuu," their father walked into the room, and they both quickly stood and bowed.
"Father," they chorused.
"The General has given me a new assignment, we are moving to Hiroshima."
They stared at each other for a long time then nodded, "Of course father," but it had not been an option. They went where they were instructed; it was military life.
§§§~~~
The new city looked just like the old. It wasn't much of a change of scenery, the people where the same, now she was just further from Hikaru and Umi. "I wonder where they are," she pondered again for the thousandth time and then sighed heavily, "They'll never be able to find me now, if they were even looking."
"Cheer up, this is the start of a new life, don't worry, you'll forget your pain," her sister told her and smiled warmly.
"But I don't want to forget, because if I do I'll forget them, forget that place."
"You'll never forget them, I know you won't, have faith, you will all meet again one day."
"One day," she muttered and looked over their new house.
§§§~~~
"How long has it been there?" Ferio asked them, and they turned away, pain in all their eyes, "How long?"
"About three years," Clef responded softly.
"Three years," he tried to picture her three years older, "That's not that long; you don't think…you don't think there's someone else do you?"
"Of course not," Emeraude tried to soothe him.
"But there might be," Ascot said quietly.
"Ascot!" Clef hit him with his staff, and he muttered under his breath, "I'm just saying that all of you should stop moping and get on with your lives!"
"You're one to talk," Ferio muttered and glared.
"I haven't forgotten the Magic Knights and I won't pretend to, but that doesn't mean that I have deluded myself to the point of believing they're coming back. It's obvious they're not!"
The pain in her brother's eyes was too much to stand, and she glared at Ascot, "You should stop now Ascot," she warned with venom in her voice.
"Gomen nasai," he muttered and looked down.
"We're all like, missing something Ferio, but we all gotta get on, like Ascot said," Caldina told him, trying to force a smile.
"She's right," Persea agreed, "They're all right. From this moment on there will be no more said about the Magic Knights."
§§§~~~
She felt the magic die from Tokyo then, even in Hiroshima, half a country away she felt the magic scream and then fade. She knew it was over then, there was no going back, "Ferio," she whispered, barely letting the name escape and then ran, sobbing into her hands, toward the nearby forest.
"Fuu!" her sister called after her, but she kept running.
She could always feel safe in the forest, the animals and the trees guarding her, keeping her safe. She remembered what it was like in the forest in Cephiro. Umi and Hikaru, and Ferio, she even remembered the way Hikaru, Umi and she had come together, had come to be friends. It was in a forest, like this.
"It's not fair," she muttered and looked around, listening to the sounds of the forest, "It's not fair that they should be gone; it's not fair that I shouldn't be allowed back into Cephiro." She closed her eyes and stood, walking through the forest and breathing in the crisp, fresh air.
"Why can't the people see this? Why can't they see the simple beauty of life? Why are they fighting for something that they can't have? Why aren't they fighting for something like this? I don't understand. It's been three years since I got home; it's been three years since the bombing, and still this war has gotten nowhere. Now, because of it, I'll never get back to Cephiro," she tried to hold back tears but they came, and they blurred her vision as she ran deeper into the forest.
She sat on a log over a creek and looked deep into the water, hoping to see her friend, hoping to see the girl with the long blue hair somewhere deep inside it. She wished she could see her comrades more than anything. A bird that had been chirping merrily suddenly grew deathly still and then flew. She looked into the sky and saw the first fighter, saw the sky darken with more behind it. It was like storm clouds moving in for the kill, though these weren't storm clouds and this wasn't natural. She screamed but there was no sound. Everything was droned out by the humming of the engines, and bombs exploded near her, and she tried to run but there was nowhere to go. And then as if things couldn't get worse the leaves rustled, and her eyes darted.
She saw the leaves curl, and animals shriek in fear and fury. Deer ran from the woods and into the streets only to get hit by cars, and she was frozen in fear and shock as she saw it, that huge cloud of orange smoke and deadly materials coming right at her.
§§§~~~
She looked up from her desk and saw the windows begin to shake, "What?" she whispered.
"Kuu get in the basement!" her father ushered her down the steps, but he was there before her, and was safe in the shelter. She turned to look for Fuu, "Fuu!" she shouted, and her father tried to stop her, but she darted outside and looked for her. Instead of her sister, she found a huge cloud of orange smoke and debris, and her eyes widened as she screamed, but the scream would never be heard.
§§§~~~
She looked at her frail, skinny body in disgust and looked over to her mother, "Mom," she tried to shake her awake, but there was no movement, "Mom."
Still, everything was deathly still.
"She's gone dear," an elderly woman put her hand on Umi's, and Umi turned back to her, fear in her eyes.
"That's not right. You're wrong!" she screamed and turned back to her mother and shook her, trying to force her awake, "You're wrong! Come on mom get up! Tell her! Tell her she's wrong!"
"Come on dear, that's not going to help any," the woman pulled her away as she screamed in pain and fury.
"Mom!"
But she was too weak to resist and followed the woman out. She walked with her to a nearby soldier and closed her eyes as she listened to the words.
"Her mother's lost her breath in the night, you want to do something about it?"
"Aye," the man nodded, and Umi looked at him, tears welling in her eyes.
"Be careful."
He muttered and pretended not to hear the pain. He shouldn't be feeling sympathy for her, for any Japanese, but the war was long, and it had taken its toll on everyone. He didn't want to fight anymore, no one did, they just wanted to go home…home…
She moved the food around on the plate but couldn't bring herself to eat it. Somewhere inside she knew that if she didn't eat she wouldn't live, but she wasn't sure she had something to live for. She knew though that they would want her to live. Who? she thought weakly, oh right the people in Cephiro. Cephiro? Right the place where you lost everything. Lost what? Oh yeah…she closed her eyes, well now there was certainly nothing left. She could just go back and…she smiled to herself, then thought, back to what? What do you have there?
She grimaced and ran to a nearby bush and threw up behind it. She didn't want to think about what she was thinking about right now. Why was she thinking about them? About him? What was going on? Still…she couldn't forget that last agonizing shout, the one of pain and anguish.
"Why?" she whispered, "Why did you cry for me?"
§§§~~~
He tried to move on, he did. He tried to get past them, past her, like everyone else, and to them he did. But at night, alone, staring up at the moon he saw only her eyes and her face, her haunting expressions, that timeless beauty. He would never get over her; he knew he wouldn't.
"This is so wrong," he thought out loud one time while looking at the sea in night, "How can I be thinking this? When…" he stopped himself.
"If I hadn't gotten to her first am I right?" a shadow stepped from the woods, and he stared, horrified.
"Yukito?" he managed to choke, "I don't understand…how?"
"Only for a moment, a moment in time," he said quietly; his voice was barely a whisper, "She's in grave danger, I know you feel it, they all are. I told you to take care of her for me, why have you abandoned her?"
"I haven't," he tried to explain, "But she…and then…and you…and," he was at a loss for words for once, "I don't know how it happened."
"I do," Yukito's eyes were light besides the slight disappointment, "I understand completely. You thought, you believed, that you were betraying me, you both did. She wept not only for me, and I won't have the arrogance to say she did. I've watched over her, and you…"
"What am I to do now though? They have closed the portal; they all wish the memories gone. It's been years, and it seems as though they're never coming back. I don't know what to do, and Yukito, you were my best friend, I would never betray you," Clef confessed and looked deep into the eyes of his friend. They looked at each other, and Clef couldn't help but wish that he would've had the chance to look at Umi like that.
"You haven't betrayed me in loving her. I knew I wasn't the only one. Clef it was written that you would. You did, before you knew who she was, who she was destined to be. I saw it in your eyes when I first saw her sitting at your table that night when they came. I saw the way you looked at her when she cried. I have no reason to be angry, and I realize that now, though it took me too long to realize it. As for the portal, that will be opened another way, an unpleasant way, but war works funny ways. You'll see…" his image faded, and Clef whispered a thank-you before he was gone completely and forever.
§§§~~~
She tossed and turned in her bed, trying to understand what she was feeling. She squirmed until she didn't have any more energy. She couldn't even feel it that night, she couldn't feel her breath give out from lack of energy, all she could feel was the horrible pain of loss and betrayal. She didn't even think about what she might stand to loose because there was nothing, nothing for her, and she was glad to stop fighting.
She had fought her whole life, her entire nineteen years had been a complete struggle, and now, after long, hard years, she had nothing left to fight for. When she did, in a different time she might have been able to stand the starvation, might have been able to hold back the collapse of her stomach but even on earth will plays a part, and hers was simply not strong enough. So she died, in her sleep, her stomach screaming and her heart pounding until neither could keep going, and she lie still for a guard to find her in the morning. She would be placed next to her mother to be collected by someone, or buried in an unmarked grave.
*The point of the last two chapters if it wasn't obvious, was to demonstrate the humanity on both sides of the war and how the losses hurt everyone, not just the Americans. I don't think war is right on any level because that's just who I am, though I know there are many different views out there, but this story wasn't about morality, what was right or wrong, it was using something, characters that people can be attached to but aren't real, and making them suffer to prove a point. I wanted people to see just what war is, what it can cost people on both sides. But like all things in life there isn't just bad, there's good too, that's why there's another chapter ^.^*
Tori Quote:
"Line me up in single file
With all your grievances
Stare but I can taste
You're still alive below the waste
Ripples come and ripples go and ripple back to me
I am not asking you to believe in me
Boy I think you're confusedI'm not Persephone
She's in New York somewhere
Checking her accounts"
~Tori Amos, Pandora's Aquarium, From the Choirgirl Hotel