Treason
6
(Odango)
I rolled over in my bed pulling the pillow up over my face in the process. The sweet dreams of my Odango had been interrupted by that sorry excuse for an alarm clock. There was a slight chill in my room and all I wanted to do was stay underneath the warm soft covers of my bed until the world warmed again. It was never going to happen.
Today was the last day of testimonies for my trial. Odango was going to have to take the platform today and I almost wished that I didn't have to be present for that. I could foresee myself getting riled at any little accusation Zankou made towards her and going full bore into battle mode on him. Then again, I didn't want to miss it if he did either, all the more reason for me to beat him later… if there was going to be a later.
My pillow was abruptly ripped from my face and I had to squint my eyes to filter in the direct sunlight that was shining on my face. "When your face comes into focus you're going to be sorry you did that." I threatened in a growl, still having no idea of who could be in my room and harassing me already.
"With a face like that I probably should have left the pillow on your head!" I knew that voice, it was too snide and cool to mistake for anyone else's.
"Yaten…" I muttered and pulled my blanket up over my head, this was not what I wanted to be doing right now.
"Oh no you don't!" There was a rough tugging on the top of my blanket trying to pull them back down. "You're not going back to sleep with images of my beautiful face dancing in your head!"
That was it, that just ruined it. Sitting up quickly, I stared him directly in the eye. "You had to say something like that, didn't you?" He sat, a satisfied grin perched on his lips. When my mind began to work and process things a little more clearly I began to study him in wonderment of why he was here.
His playful nature melted away as he looked into my eyes with a stern and judging look. "I know about your visitor last night." His tone was any thing but friendly and almost bordering on reprimanding. Before I could even open my mouth to speak he silenced me once again with his words. "I'm not supposed to be here right now either, so I have to make this quick. You're walking a very thin line right now, don't go and make the situation worse by giving him the evidence that he needs to convict you."
"I didn't ask her to come here." My day was not starting off very well and I was determined to let Yaten know just as irritated I was already.
"No, but I'm sure you didn't do anything to ward her away while she was here either." He spoke frankly keeping his voice hushed so that it wouldn't carry out into the hallway. "You're just a big dumb moron that doesn't know how to take care of himself, you know that?"
Why was he trying to get me pissed already? I had to take the platform in a little while! And he was trying to convince me I had to look out for my own good, what the hell did he think he was doing!? Without thinking, only knowing that I had to retaliate in one way or another, I kicked my foot hard and shoved my annoying guest off the foot of my bed and onto the floor.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Yaten called from the floor. He stood and rubbing his now sore bottom glared at me as he walked to the other side of the room. "You'd better get ready."
Just as Yaten's hand was reaching for the door to leave a knock sounded from the other side. I watched as his eyes lit with panic and he looked around the room for a place to hide. For once my room wasn't a mess and there really wasn't any place for him to hide. The knock came again and the next thing I knew Yaten was charging at me at full speed. "What are you doing?" I asked incredulously as Yaten dove under my covers with me and tried to conceal himself. "Get out!" I kicked at him as I felt his body against my legs.
"Shh!" He pinched my skin and made me jump.
"Who were you talking to?" Kintra asked as he came into the room. He looked around to see if he was missing something. He stole a glance out into the hallway and then closed the door behind him. "I came here to tell you that you don't have to attend Usagi's testimony if you don't want to. Kakyuu convinced them that you didn't need to be there."
"What? I want to go!" I said and felt another pinch at my leg. "OW!" I shot up and immediately tried to cover up my mistake as I threw a punch into my covers. "Damn leg cramps!"
Kintra eyed me suspiciously. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, of course."
"So you are coming?" My emerald-haired friend asked again.
I hesitated knowing that I couldn't exactly get out of bed without giving away Yaten's position. "Yeah I'll catch up with you."
He knew I was lying, I could tell. As he stood and tried to figure out my situation I fidgeted in my bed. I had to get rid of him. "Usagi was very happy that she got to see you last night." He started again before I could think of something to say to get him to leave. I started shaking my head so that he would get the clue not to say anything about Usagi, and so Yaten couldn't see it. "What are you shaking your head for? She told me she was happy." He was confused.
I just shook my head and sighed. "Of course she was happy, that's how she treats all of her friends." It was true, so what if he had thought her affection was only for me, I knew better but still allowed myself to believe the same folly once in a while.
"If she loves all of her friends as much as she loves you, then she has to have the biggest heart in the entire universe." Kintra smiled, still not convinced that it was a bond of mere friendship that Odango and I shared between us.
"She does." My answer was quick and spoken in a bit of reverie.
"Well come on! Get out of bed! If you're going to be there to support her, you'd better get a move on!" Kintra started to loom across the room, most likely to pluck me from my cushy bed.
"No, Kintra don't!" I warned and signaled with my hands. My pleas were so far going unheard. "I'm naked under here!" He didn't seem to care and was still coming towards me. In once swift motion he ripped the covers off my bed to reveal me in my pajamas and Yaten curled into a ball with his hands over his head.
"YATEN?!" Kintra was shocked and watched as our little friend sat up and started straightening his hair. "Oh good god Seiya, I'm glad you weren't naked under there!" Kintra laughed as he threw the covers back at Yaten.
Seeing as how Kintra wasn't mad and wasn't going to turn Yaten in for being in my room when he wasn't supposed to be, Yaten returned the shove I had given him earlier sending me sailing off my bed and then he proceeded to straighten his hair. "So? Yaten, what were you and Seiya doing under there?" Kintra asked with a sly grin on his face.
"Oh shut up Kintra!" Yaten shouted as he got up off my bed and stepped over me on the floor. Though the mood had appeared to be light, the look Yaten passed in Kintra's direction was not a pleasant one. "You don't know what you're doing. Stay out of this."
My own and Kintra's faces reflected our confusion at Yaten's statement. "Stay out of what?" Kintra asked the question that was on both of our minds. It seemed Yaten was not one to deal with this morning.
"Bringing her in here for him last night! What the hell is wrong with you?" Yaten stepped closer to Kintra, clearly not intimidated by our taller friend's size. "Do you want to see him killed?"
"It's not his fault." I stepped up between their confrontation. There was an anger building in my chest. I was truly appreciative of Kintra for what he had done for Odango and I last night and wasn't about to let Yaten badmouth him for his deeds. "If he hadn't helped her then she would have tried to come in here on her own, and I doubt that whole ordeal would have been as slick or tactical."
He hadn't taken his eyes from Kintra but his expression softened. "Just be more careful." He spoke lowly as he turned his glance over to me. "If I found out about it, then who knows who else has any ideas." The silence filled the air as Yaten strode over to the mirror to make sure his appearance was presentable and then checking to see if the coast was clear at the door he slipped out.
"He really thinks I'm an idiot sometimes, doesn't he?" Kintra raised a brow at the closed door.
"You are an idiot sometimes." I shot back at him, but it was true. "He just doesn't understand."
A smile played on Kintra's lips as he turned his full attention to me as I tried to replace the sheets and covers back on my bed. "Is that why you confided most of your story in me?" He asked, obviously amused by something he had brewing in his mind.
"Oh shut up, it's not the same
thing at all." I said not even
bothering to turn and acknowledge him.
"A senshi falls in love with a princess that he can never have, and is forced to keep his feelings for her a secret only to be tortured by them for the rest of his days. No…" He spoke sarcastically. "That doesn't sound AT ALL familiar!"
I stopped what I was doing to let his words sink in a bit more. It had just now dawned on me how truly similar our situations were. Kintra had been completely lost in love over our princess, Princess Kakyuu. The two of them can never be together due to her royal and political status, so he thought it best if he just bottled his feelings up inside of him. All of the pain and emotions must have become too much for him and he needed a release. That's where I came in. Pouring his heart out to me one night, the entire story unfolded.
This reason was not at all why I had sought out Kintra for support and possible advice. Of the six of us, Kintra seemed to understand people the best, granted he didn't always use this understanding for constructive purposes, and occasionally aided me in my many tortures of Healer and Chaser. It was rather amusing how Kintra could not figure out his feelings in his own situation, but other people's were more than clear to him. Perhaps him helping me to sort out mine will give him a means to an end for his own. There's wishful thinking for ya!
~@~@~@~
"Seiya, Kintra, so nice of you two to join us today." Zankou smiled down below. We were late, and the trial had already begun. I assumed that Kakyuu had informed Zankou and Judge 13 that I wouldn't be attending today.
Behind Zankou's pacing form sat Odango on the platform. My heart sank the second I set my eyes on her. She was so sad and looked as though she had already been given reason to feel dejected by this decaying old man. I ignored his statement and tried my best not to let my eyes linger on Odango as I walked with my head high down to my place. I heard whispers from the audience as I proceeded down the stairs, but couldn't make any of them out.
"As I was saying-" Zankou continued as Kintra and I broke apart and sat down. I looked up at Kakyuu who gave me a wry, lopsided smile. How much had Kintra told her? I knew when it came to an issue between Kintra and Kakyuu that he would tell her everything in a heart beat and I couldn't help but wonder if this had been the case here. "-how often did you have contact with Seiya on Earth?"
Odango paused before she answered, I could tell that she was trying to think of something to say that he couldn't turn around on her. I felt so bad for her, but it was endearing at the same time that she was that concerned about letting me down. "Everyday in school and then occasionally when he wasn't busy with practice or other things."
"Other things? Like finding his Princess?" Zankou shot back, I was not pleased that he was trying to start this already this morning.
"I don't know, I didn't know he was looking for his princess at the time." She was so lost and I wanted to go up onto the platform and give her a big hug to comfort her. Odango wasn't supposed to have to go through this kind of thing and now it was all my fault. I should have taken Kintra's lead and not have allowed my feelings to interfere with any other part of my life.
"Do you think he purposely kept that information from you?" He asked coming up a little closer to her and sending her a kind look. Was he trying to ease her mind?
"I think so." She nodded her head; her body seemed a bit more relaxed as Zankou upped the personal atmosphere of it all.
"Do you believe that it was so that he would be free to develop a relationship with you?" Odango's eyes searched around and then landed back on Zankou's form. I knew a question like this was going to come up and therefore it hadn't taken me too much off my guard.
"What are you talking about? Seiya wasn't trying to develop a relationship with me." It was true, I hadn't been trying to establish anything with her, she had just naturally grown on me. I looked around the auditorium-like room on to the faces of the spectators around me. They all seemed so distant, so blurry. These were people that I had been around and among my entire life and now they seemed so alien and strange to me. Never had their eyes been turned on me in question before.
When I turned to look at Odango, seeing as how I could get away with it now that she was on the platform, she was as clear as day, shining with all the intensity that I remembered. In her muddling and confusion she still appeared just as beautiful and magnificent as every one of my memories made her out to be.
"If he wasn't trying to develop a relationship with you, then what would be your explanation for him pursuing you and asking you for dates?" Zankou was right, perhaps on some level I was pursuing her, though at the time I would have only admitted that it was to kill time between songs to complete my mission. It was rather amusing that he was asking Odango to explain my 'feelings' towards her to him and the rest of the crowd when she had only a few days ago discovered them for herself.
Odango shrugged, her hand came to her face and her delicate finger to the corner of her mouth in contemplation. "I don't know, he did like to tease me. Maybe that's what he was doing. He was always so pleased with my reaction when I would blow up at him." I heard a snicker escape the crowd and my eyes immediately shot to where Yaten and Kintra were sitting.
"You did agree to go on one of these dates though, didn't you?" Odango's eyes quickly lifted from Zankou's form and flew up the rows to where Mamoru was sitting. I was sure he already knew about this, it's not like Odango could lie or keep a secret like that from anyone, let alone him. There was a nervousness there as though it was a touchy subject to bring up.
"At the time he really didn't leave me any choice as to whether or not I was to join him."
"He forced you to go then?" Zankou became more interested in this now and serious faces replaced the once humorous faces of Yaten and Kintra.
"No, no, no! You've got it wrong." Odango insisted. "He asked me to go, and I tried to make up excuses as to why I couldn't, but he caught me and told me where to meet him, then walked off before I could say no."
"Then why didn't you just not show up the next day?" I had wondered that myself. At the time, I had half expected her not to show up at all. It's not like she viewed me in even remotely the same way as the rest of the teenage-girl population on Earth did, there was nothing saying that she would be there.
"Because that's rude." Odango shot him a puzzled look as though the guy had never learned of manners before. "You can't just do that to a friend."
"So you'll let them walk all over you and get what they want from you? What if he had asked you to marry him and walked off? Would you have shown up at the alter the next day?" A smile appeared on my face at the thought of the whole scene, but it was abruptly forgotten when I saw how upset Odango was becoming.
"That's different-"
"How is that different? It's the same thing to me." Zankou mocked her with his fake incompetence.
"It's different because spending time with a friend in no way entails devoting your entire life to them!" There was a look of anger and frustration covering her rays of sunshine. This was not at all the way Odango was supposed to look. Not even in the battle against Galaxia had she resorted to such aggravation.
I was actually becoming scared and I felt as though things were swirling out of control. "Princess?" I looked up at Kakyuu who was watching the trial before her. My voice was hushed and she hadn't heard me. "Princess?!" I spoke a bit louder bringing her attention down to me. "Stop him." I said referring to Zankou and his accusations.
"Why? He's not doing anything?" Kakyuu asked not knowing Odango as well as I did, to know that she was reaching a certain unbreached point.
"You have to stop him." I pleaded desperately.
"Seiya! That's enough." Judge 13 said sternly from his seat high above and drew the audience's attention on to me. I stared back at them in contempt while Zankou just smirked. He knew what he was doing and his questions started to come faster so she didn't have as much time to think about her answers in between them.
"Do you have anything against the royal crown of Kinmoku?"
"Of course not!" Odango answered appalled that he would even presume to ask such a question.
"Then why did you continue to consort with Seiya when Taiki and Yaten told you to stay away from him, that you only brought bad things upon them?" Zankou had a clipboard in his hands now, apparently he had taken notes and felt the need to use them against Usagi. Some of my previous accounts nonetheless, and he was going to find every hole in them to bring me down.
"He was hurt, and it was my fault. I wanted to see his condition, he was my friend." She really was too kind and I had to smile at that.
"So you believed that your friendship with him was more important than his mission to find his princess?"
"No, I didn't think that at all! I didn't know of his mission to find his princess, I didn't have any idea that the others thought I was stepping over my bounds and confusing Seiya." Her flustered state was continuing and if anything, growing in her confusion.
"So you didn't realize that you were leading him on?"
"HEY!" A voice yelled from the audience, once again it was Haruka on her feet and sending the worst death glare down to Zankou. "I will not stand by and allow you to degrade my princess this way." Her voice was demanding and I wished for a second that I were in the same position to be making these threats and points. The tall blond senshi began to descend down the stairs towards the platform. She wasn't going to charge him, was she?
"Ten'ou-san, kindly take your seat." Judge 13 warned as he stood to assert his authority as if that was all it was going to take to sit Haruka back down. She kept coming and his idle threat needed to be acted upon. "Chaser, Developer, please escort Ten'ou-san out of my presence."
In an instance my fellow companions were at Haruka's side and taking her by an arm each. Haruka allowed her arms to be taken, seeing that she wouldn't be able to win a war single handedly against an entire planet. (Though I'm sure somewhere in the back of her mind she someday sought to test out this theory.) Her eyes flashed dangerously to me. "Don't let them do this to her." She ordered as though I had any control over what was going on here. Before she could say any more she was being ushered out by Chaser and Developer.
My head went down as I could feel all of the Sol Senshi's eyes on me not to mention my Odango's. There was nothing I could do… or could I?
"Princess?!" My head snapped up and I looked into her ruby eyes. When I found her attention on me I continued with my plan. "What if I just confess and go along with Zankou, will Odango be free to go?"
Kakyuu gasped and looked at me shocked. "No Fighter, I won't let you do that!"
"Princess, I have to! I can't see her suffer this way." I begged this of her and our conversation eventually spread to Judge 13's ears.
"Stop it!" He demanded of me. "I will speak with you in private." He ordered as he rose to go to his quarters. "Zankou, carry on." He insisted as he walked to me and hoisted me up from my seat. From the wide eyes and stares coming from Taiki, Yaten and Kintra I could tell this wasn't going to be good.
Once in the privacy of his quarters he released me and tossed me roughly into the room, then proceeded to slam the door behind him. "Did you once stop and think of your Princess in this situation?" He questioned me. How had he become so angry with me all of the sudden? His form was frail but there was still powerful energy emanating from him.
"How is this having any effect on her? This has nothing to do with her!" I retorted, trying my damnedest to keep my temper under control. Not only was Zankou out there saying god-only-knows-what to my Odango, but I wasn't there to protect her.
"You are so selfish, you always have been. You don't stop to think of others, do you? The only things that cross your mind are the things that work for you or benefit you in someway. Maybe Zankou was right. Maybe you are guilty of treason." He stopped, his chest heaving. "This trial is taking its toll on Princess Kakyuu, she's concerned about you. Now you might not understand that due to the fact that it doesn't 'effect' you, but imagine the agony this is causing her? She has grown up with you six, you are the only friends she has, and right now she is under the threat of losing one of you."
I couldn't even answer him back with a snappy comeback. He was right and it hurt. When had I lost my loyalty to my princess… to my friend Kakyuu? "I'm sorry." I said with my head hung low though I knew these simple words were not going to suffice the pain I had caused.
"Don't say you're sorry. Make your choice." His statement was blunt as he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "One of them is going to have to suffer, but only one of them will have to live with that pain their entire life once you're gone, and that is the one your loyalty should be unwavering to."
"Am I guilty?" I asked more to myself than to him, but it had come out in words regardless.
"I don't think you are and this…" He signaled to him and myself. "… this is between us."
"Thank you." I smiled at him. He was after all so understanding and he knew the pressures we were all facing.
Together we walked out into the auditorium once more to a loud racket of clamber and voices. I looked around trying to assess what had happened, we couldn't have been gone for more than ten minutes. Princess Kakyuu was speaking to Judge 13 now, most likely explaining to him what had happened and why everyone was in an uproar suddenly.
Kintra was by my side momentarily and gripping onto my arm tightly, why, I didn't know. Yaten and Taiki were currently talking to one another and hurrying over to where our Princess was. The crowd was in a mixture of gossip, some standing, some pointing but all of them talking. The Sol Senshi were to their feet, all except Mamoru, Rei and Minako had been permitted to leave their group and head down to Odango.
Odango… she was… crying? I felt the anger building in my body, a swelling mass in my chest as I became even more confused and concerned at the same time. What had he done? "Kintra?!" I asked shocked and in a bit of a panic. "What happened? What did he do? What's wrong with Odango?"
"Come on Seiya." Kintra directed me to the exit. "We should probably get you out of here."
~@~@~@~
Gomen for the late update, we've both been recuperating from LiR's birthday… @_@