Title: As Swift As the Wind
Author: Haze
Disclaimer: I don't own Flame of Recca so don't sue me…
Chapter 7:
A crack suddenly made itself known in the middle of the dresser's mirror. Seconds later, the mirror shattered, spraying Fuuko its thousand pieces.
Upon instincts, Fuuko covered her head from the glass spewing towards her.
When she felt nothing hitting her, she removed her arms from her head and stared with shock at the mirror which was as flawless as if nothing happened.
~The body shall vanish not unto dust
Spirit of great power will stir up lust
Be wary of a foundation obscure
Light and Darkness will come for sure~
Locke stared at the currents of the wind whirling in her palm, wondering of the exact implication of the prophecy given to them since the mission started.
It was crazy, she thought. Why did they have to look for one of the Essence when in the first place the leaders sent the bearer to do a suicide mission?
"You're having doubts."
She continued staring at the winds. "I'm sorry, leader. I can't help it."
The blue-haired bishounen looked knowingly. "It's alright. Most of the time, I have doubts too."
"Really? I never expected that."
"Of course. I made sure of that."
"Why are you telling me now?"
"Because you need to know that it is normal to doubt."
"But doubt leads to the death of your comrades, the downfall of your principle and mission."
"That is not at all times true. There are instances when the absolute truth doesn't seem so true."
"I don't understand the leaders. And I think I understand why Amethyst is so indifferent, why he refuses to let anyone in him. Even though Meia took so many lives, I think she's a wonderful person for Amethyst to love him so much."
"Do you know about his friends in the organization?"
"No. But I just heard about them. They were his family in the organization but the leaders assigned them to other alternate universes." She sighed. "I don't know if what I think is right. But I think the leaders are unfair."
"Why do you say that?"
"They took away his friends."
"Duties."
"Yeah. But what about the Summers? His father is in life-support machines and his mother died of leukemia when he can stop all that suffering."
"Responsibilities."
"But doesn't he also have responsibilities on his family? He can't even save help them just because it's his responsibility to keep people from knowing that he can heal. And Meia. The leaders sent her on a suicide mission. And now, they are asking us to clear up the mess. They didn't even tell him that he had another sister."
"At times, I don't also understand the leaders." He admitted.
"I really pity him. And I think he has had enough of all this. He doesn't really need to help us because he's actually from the opposite side. But he does and the leaders aren't even showing much appreciation in my opinion. They didn't even tell him that he had another sister in the Summers family."
"There are many things that we do not understand all at once. But we should trust as well as we are trusted."
"You're right. But I can't help but feel this flurry of emotions within me."
Fuuko awoke with a start. Her body was coated with a thin layer of perspiration. She couldn't remember what she dreamed of and she was afraid to go back to sleep for some reason, so she fled her room and went outside the mansion, to the poolside where she would always seek privacy in.
She just sat there like she always did, and reflected once more on her life. She was so deep in herself that she had not noticed when a person sat beside her and stayed with her until the sun was well in the sky.
"Fuuko."
A hand touched hers and it was only after a few minutes that she snapped out of her own world. She turned to the owner of the hand and found herself staring at ice-like eyes. "Mi-chan."
He gazed at her with unveiled worry. It was getting worse with Fuuko each time. She was slowly but surely falling into the same emptiness he felt when his sister died. And when the emptiness has come to pass, he knew it would be replaced by a negative emotion, especially after the trauma she had experienced.
But something else was worrying him. Fuuko had a weird aura of emptiness. It was not as if it felt normal. To be sure it was emptiness, but a different kind, a more eerie and stronger type.
"Let me help you." He whispered softly.
Her almost empty eyes stared at him. "I have nothing for you to help me with." She withdrew her gaze and stood up. "Please don't bother me anymore."
She left him after that. It was clear then. Fuuko was following the path he had followed before. But his instincts had also informed him that she was treading in a more complicated and even more dangerous than the path that he had followed and now left. But he had to try. He can't give her up. And so he will always be there to bother her until she would learn to trust again. He would be there just as Fuuko had been so long ago.
"Fuuko?"
"Huh?" Fuuko asked, looking up to Mikagami who was towering over her.
"Do you want to go out?"
"No." She replied simply whilst shaking her head before turning her gaze again to the water her lower legs was currently submerged in.
Mikagami looked worriedly at her. Trying all the time was not helping. It was not doing anything at all. But he won't give up.
Silence followed suit and settled for a relatively long time. And when he couldn't take it, he removed his shoes and sat down beside her by the poolside, submerging his lower legs as Fuuko had. They sat there with silence still engulfing them in its heavy and melancholic embrace.
Fuuko had as usual retreated into herself like she had always done since they arrived in one of the Summers' secret retreat mansions. But Mikagami had suspected that she had been doing that even in Japan, although discreetly.
Their leaden silence pursued on till it was dawn. And yet, no one seemed to have noticed that time existed, that there was such a thing as human impatience, human limit. It was as if they were merely breathing statues sitting together by the pool yet apart from each other as two souls searched for the answers of questions without a universal answer, and questions that are yet to be determined by their beings yet felt deeply as if it had been forever there and had merely been awaken from its sustained sleep.
But whatever it was that intervened within Fuuko, it had certainly made a temporary end to the gloomy silence that laid vigilant to the inner havoc that settled within the two young adults. For it seemed suddenly did she notice that one needed to give way to the stubbornness of the other, that there would be another time to show persistence of whatever it is that one wanted to stand upon.
It seemed that she suddenly realized that her resolution of wanting to be left alone to herself was not feasible as Mikagami's tolerance for such withdrawal and indifference from her had not at least dampen his diligence in reaching out to her either by his words, or by his silence.
She looked for the last time at the cool waters of the pool before standing up and leaving back into the mansion without any word or even a look at her friend, at her Mi-chan.
"I'm sorry, sir but you can't just storm in here."
Recca was ready to fry the group of bodyguards and even the front desk personnel of the Summers Inc. building here in Tokyo. All he wanted was to talk with Shane but that seems as hard as not burning anyone who dares harm his Hime.
"Recca-kun, I think we should just leave." Yanagi whispered, placing a restraining hand on Recca's arm.
Being the loyal ninja that he was, he could not deny his Hime's wishes. So giving a final glare at the bodyguards and personnel, he stalked out of the building with Yanagi and Domon.
"They're gone now, Miss Remmington." The secretary informed through the monitor communicator.
Shane nodded and switched her side of the monitor off. She looked at the pictures in her desk and soon reached out for a particular one where the image of a multi-color eyed angel was captured.
The angel's eyes looked sad. Her wings was spread slightly, its inner light glistened faintly as if the owner was leaving, dying.
"Where are you?" Shane asked in a whisper. "Don't do this to us, Rhapsody. Please don't. I know you're tired but fight even for the last time."
(Fuuko's POV)
I can't stop it. I can't. The memory of what happened keeps haunting me. It's all my fault.
What must I do to stop the pain? To stop the guilt? To stop everything that I'm feeling? And to stop this emptiness?
It's here once again. This dominating emptiness. I wish with all my heart that it would go away even just for a day. Not too long ago, its visit comes more regularly. And now, it is always here with me as if it is shadowing my every move. It beckons to me all the time.
'Come Fuuko,' it whispered to me. 'Take the solace I offer. I will give you freedom.'
Yes, freedom indeed. I know it too well. The freedom it offers me is the freedom from all the pain and defeat; from all the guilt and fear; from all emotions and perceptions; from Life and Death itself.
But could I simply reach out and lose myself? I can't. Because I already did that not so long ago and it did nothing to help me. Running away does nothing. But what can I do? I am so lost and I don't know whether it was right after all for me to continue living a life of infinite torture and pain.
I wish I could just forget about all this but in a way, it is also running away. But then, how can I face something that I fear most of all? How can I face emptiness?
Blood bathed the land. Piercing and tortured screams filled the air. The smell of Death was dominant. Corpses were scattered and everywhere you look was a pure death bed.
A multi-colored eyed angel stared expressionlessly at the chaos and carnage that was everywhere. She stood there for a long time, watching and unmoving from her position atop her black stallion.
The suffering and killing did not bother her. Nothing bothered her. And anyone who had come within three meters near her died with their immortality sucked into nothingness by this cruelly uncaring angel's aura. She did not care, she would not care. Everything was as it should be.
Disorder, Dissension, Destruction, Death, and Doom were very deserving to plague the land. The feared prophecy of the nobles is here. The bringer of negative supremacy has come. And she will cause every negative influence to ravish the land and its people who called upon themselves what is now ensuing.
Fuuko shot up in bed, panting. Her eyes were glazed over and fear was clearly written in her face. She was terrified.
As days passed, she was seeing things far worse than what she had seen when she was the Wind Goddess of Hokage. No. It was not just seeing.
There were headless corpses, amputated limbs, mutilated fighters, screams of pain, screams of torture, smell of rotting bodies, smell of blood, red skies, red clouds, and red rain. She knew it was blood that rained down. She was there. She had seen it, felt it, smelt it, and tasted it.
Fear was taking a sure hold of her. What was happening to her? First those unknown people who attacked her and her parents, then her in a coma with her parents dead and her Fuujin destroyed, then the hospital incident were there were powerful attackers, then voices in her head – Guilt, Emptiness, Pain, Grief – all of them and the others who people did not wish to be with. And now, there are scenes from a great war she is not even sure that happened.
There are so much negative emotions back there. And she wished she did not have to feel it. But what can she do? The war scenes come more often now. And she was very well frightened that it may haunt her soon even in her waking hours.
"Blood." Amethyst whispered.
Locke remembered how Amethyst pointedly told her about stopping whatever feelings she has. But looking at him as the light of the three moons hung in the dimension's sky, she couldn't help but worry.
He looked more distant than usual – dazed and considerably worried and angry. She knew the risks and it would most probably get her to be a mortal if she made Amethyst snap his patience in two. But she would take the risk. She would try and talk to him. And help him. Ask him. Be with him.
"What is bothering you?" She whispered, reaching out her hand to touch the shoulder of one dazed Amethyst.
But the daze broke abruptly and without even looking at her, said in a cold voice. "Don't touch me."
"Amethyst, I just want to–"
"No. I don't need your help."
"But you need it!"
"Whether or not, my life is none of your business." He said in a cuttingly cold voice.
"Look, I am here for you."
"And I don't know why."
"Why can't you open up?"
"Why can't you just leave?"
"It's Meia, right?"
"Go away."
"Why can't you stop thinking about her for just a while and focus on your life you're letting yourself throw away?"
"You would not understand."
"Because you don't say anything."
At this, Amethyst ignored her. Locke felt her frustration increasing. Damn this guy who got her heart! Damn this guy who is so obsessed with his damn sister!
"What is wrong with you?!" She snapped. "I'm just trying to help! And all you think about is your damn sister who's been keeping your heart! Damn you both to hell and back!"
Locke strode away, her anger getting the better of her. On the other hand, Amethyst felt the urge of Carnage call to him. His instincts to destroy whatever or whoever harms Meia resurfacing. But he fought it. Fought the overwhelming instinct to hurt Locke in any way he can.
He hated everybody who hurt the only person he had trusted fully with all that he is. He wanted nothing more than bring them pain for causing pain to the one he loved since he can remember. But he remembered all the time. The sweet voice telling him, 'If you shall succumb to the Darkness that is within me, my heart shall bleed. For one of the belongings of my heart that I fought hard to protect, I had poisoned with my own selfishness.'
No. She was not selfish! She had destroyed herself for her loved ones to live. She had destroyed herself for all those who deserved the light of a new life.
And he will not waste what was given him. The sacrifice she made was more than enough for him and the others to fight for what they think was right. And for him, what he thought was right was what she had thought was right. And so, he will fight for what she believed in and for what he had believed in her.
He will find the Essence and he will find whosoever destroyed the family his other sister could have happily stayed with. He will destroy those who shattered into pieces the fragile life of a mortal that was Fuuko, his new sister, his new hope to fend off the insanity that threatened to devour him.
Mikagami could feel his heart almost to the exploding point of beating. Fuuko had been getting stranger and rather easily startled.
Since the silent vigil that had transpired almost three weeks ago, she was more withdrawn. And every morning when she woke up, he would see her staring blankly at everything. But on closer look, she looked scared more than ever.
He had never seen her this scared. And he was getting apprehensive about everything about her – the changes. Her appetite is diminishing as days go by. She sleeps lesser and withdraws more. And she would look at him with eyes of fear.
What had she to fear of him? Was there something he did so wrong to scare her too much?
He can't take this. This fragile girl that was now Fuuko. She was scaring him. Especially now that she would not leave her room.
"Open the door before I break it." He warned.
He had been coaxing her for the past hour and surely his patience was thinning. More so because it was backed up with fear and worry.
"Open the blasted door, Fuuko!"
Again, he impatiently turned the knob. It was still locked.
A sword plunged deeper into the heart of a man. He screamed in agony. But the beautiful maiden with dark hair looked expressionlessly at the man.
"The General would be pleased to have your head." She whispered and withdrew her sword to have it crashing into the neck of the man dressed in what looked like a royal armor.
"Are you through?" A handsome green-haired man asked. "The General must be waiting."
The raven-haired girl turned and looked at the hand of the man. He was holding a head, the face splattered with blood and eyes wide open.
"I hope there are more heads to return to the General, Nexus. She would be very pleased."
"I know, Dark Star. I know."
The two young generals stared around at the on-going massacre before disappearing into thin air.
Soon after, a red-haired maiden appeared amidst the fighting soldiers. Her hand holding a head while the other sprouted fire, burning all that was in her path.
She was met by a handsome brown-haired man with another head in his grasp. He was hacking at all the limbs of the enemy soldiers that blocked his path. Blood splattered everywhere, but he didn't mind.
"The last head to be collected is here, Twilight." The redhead stated.
"Then we need to return them now, Phoenix. It is not good to keep the head General waiting."
Another batch of dying and mutilated bodies fell to the crimson-covered earth. One reached out a bloody handless arm and looked at the purple-haired Fuuko standing near him.
She was terrified but before she could move away, the bloody part where the hand of the man used to be attached to touched her bare arm. Fuuko stumbled back in fear and disgust. But as she stumbled backwards, she had tripped on the dead bodies and she fell to the ground.
Her face was wet as well as the rest of her that touched the ground. She smelled the foul odor of rotting flesh, of drying blood, and of Death itself. From the ground, she turned her head to the side and stared straight into the wide and terror-filled eyes of one head.
Instantly, she sat up and moved away. But her hand had touched something cold as she did so. Something cold and stiff. And she looked back. It was the headless body of the man with blood covering it and oozing without restraint on the place where his head used to be attached to.
Bile rose to Fuuko's throat. And despite her urges to stifle it down, it was almost impossible. So she clamped her hand to her mouth. She was startled by what she felt and smelt. She drew her hand back and stared at it.
Then she felt drops of liquid fall on her and everyone in the battlefield who were still fighting, dying. She sat there getting drenched by the liquid that mixed with the very same liquid she had stared at in her hands before the rain.
She felt dizzy and nauseous at the smell of the rain. At what the rain was. For the more she felt it trickle down on her, the more she smelt it, and the more she saw it, it increased her sense of taste.
She knew what it was. From the sticky feel, to the odorous smell, to the metallic taste, and to the raging color.
It was blood.
~tbc~
Author's Note: I'm in a hurry. I still have a class soon and my mom pointedly told me to not stay too long. So I hope this isn't too disappointing. I wish I could sneak this again to read the other fics. Anyhow, I'll do my thank yous now before I get caught. Thanks, thanks, thanks to those who reviewed ^^
Fuuko-san: Well there's a pool part here but it's not so romantic rather gloomy. Sorry about that and thanks for the review ^^
Lady Light: I still haven't exactly shown what Fuuko can do but please be more patient with me. Thanks for loving it ^^
Ranka: I think this is a bit of a cliffhanger like the last one but I'm so sorry. I'll make up for it next time. Thanks for the support ^^
hyper_shark: Sorry for the late update. And thanks for the comment ^^
kouri: That's flattering like the others' comments. Thanks for saying this is one of the best you've read ^^
bishounen lovah: I'll just probably e-mail you on the questions. Too much. I've little time. Thanks for bothering to ask in the review ^^
Claire de Lune: Yeah I rock. Kidding. Anyway, thanks for the comment ^^
________: It's alright to review but *ehem* could you please not crowd it with same ones? Thanks anyway ^^
