Chapter Three - They Were Jealous
I don't own Sailor Moon.
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***
"Good afternoon, sweetheart," said Koikokoro Minako, leaning
forward to kiss her son on the cheek as he came in the door that
afternoon.
"Konnichi wa, Okaa-sama," said Masaya, accepting the kiss. His
mother was in the kitchen, which was the first thing you came in their
house, cooking dinner. "What's for dinner?"
"Look, is that the first thing you ask me on your way in the
house?" asked Minako teasingly as she watched her son retreat into the
family room. "No 'Okaa, how are you?' Just 'What's for dinner?'"
"Yep." Masaya grinned as his mother swatted at him with her
spatula.
"For your information, it's lasagna, and it's almost ready," said
Minako, shaking her head at her son.
"Hey, what's up, Imouto-chan?" asked Masaya, ruffling his
fourteen-year-old younger sister's neck-length straight blond hair. He
was ten years older than his sister, twenty-four, but he was already
going through med school because he had finished school early, being as
intelligent as he was.
"Hey, Onii-san," Emi replied, not lifting her light blue eyes
from the thick book she was reading. She was just like Masaya, very
intelligent and usually reading big books. That part of them came from
Sadayoshi, their father. He was quiet and brooding, a lot like Karei.
Masaya was also intelligent, but he tended to be sillier sometimes, like
his mother. And he ate a lot more than all three of them.
"How was work?" asked Minako.
"It was okay," said Masaya cautiously. He knew that his mother
wanted to find out information from him about the young assassin that he
was doctoring. But he kept all his patients' information confidential
unless it was pending to the someone's survival.
Unfortunately, his mother might demand to know because she felt
that the young woman was still a threat to Neo-Queen Serenity, no matter
how confined she was in the hospital. But Masaya didn't get the
impression that the young woman was a very dangerous person. He saw her
as any typical extraordinary teenager--one who tried to please and
carried out the duties she knew she should.
Also very pretty.
Masaya felt like smacking himself. 'What am I thinking? She's
only seventeen!'
'Calm down, Masaya,' the other half of him said. 'You just
said she was attractive. It's not like you were coming on to her or
something.'
'But you know you were.'
Masaya shook the conversation out of his brain and looked up to
see his mother staring at him strangely. Masaya had a very expressive
face, and she could probably see his indecision written all over his
face.
His father, Koikokoro Sadayoshi, came down the stairs. Sadayoshi
was a lawyer and a very good one at that. Minako was a paralegal, when
she wasn't protecting the queen.
"Masaya," he said, nodding at his son. Masaya nodded back. He
had never really been very close to his parents, and even his sister.
He loved them all dearly, but he didn't feel close to him because he
felt that they weren't interested in the same things as he was. He felt
closer to his fellow physician Amesuino Ami and her family. Minako and
Sadayoshi never seemed to mind. Ami was like a sister to Minako, since
they were both Senshi and had known her since they were both fourteen,
and Sadayoshi and Ami's husband Yorihisa were as close as brothers, both
serving in the king's army in the past when he was the prince of the
Earth.
Long story.
Masaya even liked Ami's two-year-old twin daughters Amesuino
Kasumi and Kourini, and Ami's punk daughter Amesuino Izumi, who was an
thirteen-year-old ball of energy. If Izumi and Karei didn't look so
much like their mothers, he would think they were switched at birth.
"You're just in time, sweetheart. Dinner's ready," said Minako,
smiling at her husband.
Once sitting at the dinner table, the usual conversation ensued.
Sadayoshi talked about work; Minako talked about both her job as a
paralegal and a protector of the queen, talked about the antics of her
colleagues.
"So, how was work, Masaya?" Sadayoshi turned and asked his son
with a straight face.
"Not much different from usual," Masaya replied nonchalantly.
"I know you have a new patient," Minako prodded.
Masaya choked on his rice. Emi thunked him on the back.
"Arigatou," he gagged.
"No problem."
"So, what did you find out from her?"
"Who?" Masaya feigned ignorance.
"The assassin."
"Okaa, you know I can't tell you that," Masaya said, conceding to
face the discussion. "I have to keep all patient information
confidential--"
"Unless it's pending to someone's survival," Minako finished. She
knew the law very well. "And this is definitely pending to someone very
important's life--the queen."
Emi and Sadayoshi braced themselves for another mother-son
argument. They reigned at the Koikokoro household, although they
usually weren't serious like this one.
"It's isn't really," said Masaya.
"Masaya, what do you mean 'it isn't really'? This young woman
tried to assassinate the queen!" Minako declared.
"I know that, Okaa," Masaya said in his infuriatingly patient
argument voice.
"Good. Then you know the importance of giving the information on
your patient."
"Exactly. Zero percent."
"What?!"
"Okaa, Aiyana is just like any normal teenage girl. She's got her
fears and makes her mistakes. And one of her biggest ones was the one
she pulled the other day."
"Oh, yeah. Biggie biggie biggie."
"Well, she's not doing anything right now. She's just sitting in
the hospital. She's not planning on taking over the world just yet,
Mom."
"That doesn't mean her overheads aren't," Minako argued. "Just
like the queen said the day she came, a girl her age wouldn't just take
the initiative to just come up and kill the queen."
"Maybe she just wanted some attention."
"Masaya!!"
"Look, Mom, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to tell you
much. All I found was her name, her age, and her birthdate." 'And
where's she's from, but she didn't directly tell me that. It was
labeled a slip-up, so it doesn't count,' Masaya thought, trying to
convince himself he wasn't lying to his mother. He wasn't a really good
liar.
And his mother knew it. She scrutinized his face until she was
satisfied. "What are they?" she asked.
"Her name is Aiyana Khalidah. She's seventeen. She was born on
January fourteenth."
"How did you find all this out?" Sadayoshi asked, seeing the eye
of the storm had passed over the Koikokoro household.
"I just asked. In a civilized manner. My idea of getting
information isn't holding a sword to her neck and demanding." Masaya
narrowed his eyes at his mother. She glared back.
"You just asked, and she just told you?" Sadayoshi looked
strangely at his son. "Either you're right about her not being a menace
to society, or she's got one hell of a crush on you."
Masaya burst into wild laughter. "Otou, we're talking about a
girl who's a *trained assassin*. I'm sure she'd rather kill me."
***
Aiyana put a hand over her stomach as she began to feel it churn.
That was a record, these last two weeks. She'd never felt so sick
before. But lately she'd been feeling really, really sick, especially
in the mornings.
Dr. Amesuino Ami walked in just as Aiyana was running to the
bathroom. She heard a thump as the young girl collapsed, then the
assorted sounds of a very in-depth vomiting session.
Gasping, Aiyana walked back to the bed and collapsed over it.
"Are you all right?" Ami asked, looking strangely at the young
woman.
Still panting, Aiyana nodded weakly.
"Must be something you ate," Ami said.
Aiyana shook her head.
"Oh, right. I remember Masaya telling me that. Well. Masaya's a
pediatrician, but I'm going to be you're real doctor from now on. My
name's Amesuino Ami, and I'm an ob/gyn. You know what that is?"
"Yes," said Aiyana, gathering herself back together and climbing
back in the bed.
"Good. So you know, I'm just the doctor for you. You can just
call me Ami."
Aiyana stared back. She didn't feel comfortable at calling older
people by their first names. She had been taught since she was younger
to respect her elders.
"So. You're seventeen," said Ami, sitting down across from
Aiyana. "Whoa, turn down the strobes."
"I'm sorry," Aiyana said ruefully, turning her intense stare
downwards. "It's a habit I have." She didn't know why she felt
apologetic.
"Don't worry about it. We've all got plenty of annoying
idiosyncrasies. Actually, I'm sure if I were a bit younger and a member
of the male race I wouldn't mind at all." Ami smiled. "You're very
pretty, Aiyana."
"Thank you," said Aiyana automatically. She couldn't believe how
different she felt here. Was it just being here on Earth with all of
these strange and different people, or was it something else?
"Now, understand that you're not really in this hospital for any
sicknesses," said Ami, smiling again. "It's just that...well, some
people believe that you're a threat. Making believe that you're sick
just makes it easier for you to remain unharmed. Except that now it
looks like you really are sick. Did you have any sicknesses before you
left wherever you came from, Aiyana?"
So. Masaya hadn't told anyone about where she was from. She was
glad for that, and wondered why he hadn't told anyone. Did he really
have that much loyalty to all his patients, or was it just her? At the
latter thought, Aiyana felt a little flutter in her stomach, and it
wasn't from her illness.
"No," she answered Ami.
"Were you exposed to any diseases or disorders before you left?"
"No." At least, she didn't think so. Unless one of the men in
her squadron had some kind of disease. Especially the Second
Gamma...instantly Aiyana felt her stomach wrench and she felt like she
was going to throw up again.
Which she did.
"Ooh, that's not pretty," said Ami. "Well, maybe you contracted
some kind of disease on the way here. We'll have you tested later on
today, when you're feeling a little better."
Aiyana nodded before falling back on the bed, heaving a deep
breath.
"I'll get someone in here to clean that up," said Ami, looking in
distaste at the floor.
Aiyana nodded again, and Ami left. A few minutes later, a servant
entered to clean the floor, but Ami didn't return.
But someone else did return. Masaya.
"What's that smell?" he asked almost immediately, sniffing the
air.
"Oh. The bad smell..." said Aiyana, blushing madly.
"No, not that. I know, Ami told me you threw up. Twice. Are you
all right?"
Aiyana felt another flutter in her stomach as Masaya looked over
to her with concern in his intense icy gray-blue eyes. "Yes, I'm fine,"
she answered, swallowing.
"Good. But no, I was talking about another smell. It
smells...like roses. Very sweet and pleasant."
Roses? Had the...Aiyana raised her arm and smelled her hand.
Yes, the elixir had lost some of its effect. She had probably vomited
most of it up.
"That's...me," she said, blushing again.
"Oh, so the female assassins on your planet wear perfume on their
missions?" asked Masaya, raising an eyebrow. "Give the target an
aphrodisiac before he dies?"
"No..." Aiyana swallowed again, turning red. This was getting
really hard, telling him anything or even looking at him. She looked
down at the bed. "It's a natural scent. I don't know how it came, but
I guess I was born with it. I've had it for as long as I can remember,
and no matter how hard I scrubbed, I could never get it to go away. I
was constantly teased about it." There she was again, giving away all
her life. But she was surprised to realize she actually felt a little
better that that piece about her life was out. "That, and this weird
ability to kind of...heal myself and others...were these special gifts I
guess I was born with. But when the elixirs were injected, I guess it
kind of counteracted my natural abilities with its artificial ones.
Although I think I must have vomited most of it out, so it's beginning
to come back, slowly."
"Weird," said Masaya. "But I'm glad the elixirs are gone. Maybe
the reason why you vomited is because your body realized that it
couldn't live like this, without eating or sleeping, and it had to get
rid of the toxins. What do you mean, heal yourself?"
"Any small cuts or something that I got would immediately heal,"
said Aiyana. "No scars, no scabs, nothing. Just my smooth skin again.
I guess that's why I never got acne." Again, she felt as if she was
going to smile, remembering the days that she had spent in the army when
the other girls had agonized over their skin's blemishes and lamented
about how smooth her skin was. And again, she felt like saying
something. "When I was in the military the girls used to hate me for
it."
"Just jealous," Masaya said softly, looking at Aiyana, wishing she
would look up at him. But she didn't.
"Bigger cuts would take a little longer to heal, but still not
very long, maybe a few hours. And breaks in the bone would take a lot
shorter than everyone else's, maybe a week or two. But I guess that
went away when the scent disappeared too." Aiyana thought about the
scars all over her arms, legs, torso, and turned down again, burning
with embarrassment and overwhelming sadness. She didn't want to think
about all of those horrible scars and how they had gotten there.
"So you scar now?" Masaya scratched his head. "I guess that's
why the back of your head got a scar. So, when did this elixir really
start kicking in?"
"The scents, they were a weak part of my heritage, so they
disappeared almost immediately. But the scarring...took a few weeks.
It just started about five weeks ago. It really scared me, the first
time I had ever seen my own scars and cuts and my own blood running down
my body..." Aiyana stopped, blinking hard. She felt as if she were
about to cry again, and she didn't want to do that again--not ever.
Because if she cried, she'd let herself go, and all those horrible
memories would come rushing back...
"The first time? All this happened? When was this?"
Aiyana didn't answer, just kept staring down at the bed, trying to
blink back her tears. 'What is wrong with me? Two months ago I would
never have even thought of crying. What is wrong with me?!'
Masaya remained silent for a moment. Then he sat down on the bed
and reached out to touch Aiyana's arm. "Something happened to you,
Aiyana."
Aiyana didn't say anything, although she shuddered at the touch of
his hand. It was too familiar.
'No! These visions...that nightmare...it's coming back,' she
told herself, and she tasted the saltiness of a tear sliding down her
cheek. She bent her head further, causing her hair to fall over her
face and hide herself. She didn't want anyone on this planet to see her
crying, especially not Masaya.
"Aiyana, are you crying?"
Aiyana was silent. Her new goal was not to prevent the tears from
sliding down her face, but to prevent her crying from turning into
audible sobbing. She could keep her dignity if she was quiet.
"Aiyana, what's wrong? What happened while you were in the
military?" Masaya's voice had gotten infinitely softer, until it was
almost a whisper, barely audible.
'Please...don't say anything else...'
Masaya thought a moment, then turned back to the young woman
before him. "You were one of the few females...the only female in your
squadron...did they hurt you, Aiyana? Or worse...?"
That was it. Aiyana's last shred of control snapped and she began
to sob, her shoulders shaking.
Masaya got up, walked to the door, and closed it. On an
afterthought, he locked it. Then he walked back to the bed and sat. He
was careful not to touch the young woman.
"Did they?" he asked again.
"Yes." Aiyana was more startled by her tearful answer than Masaya
was. "Yes, Masaya, they did." It was the first time she'd ever used
Masaya's name.
Masaya was halfway shocked to see this young woman--so cool and
confident just a few days before, a little over a week--collapse in
tears. But if he guessed correctly, she was only letting out what had
been building up for months and months.
"What did they do?"
"I was the only female," said Aiyana. "They didn't like it. My
squadron members...I beat them all out of rank and moved up. They did
not like it. The farther I got, the worse it got..."
"Just slurs? Or did they beat you up all along?"
"They beat me up all along! All the time, especially after I
became Third Gamma...third in rank...I had beaten five men out of their
positions and they hated me for it. So they decided to beat me in their
own way...it hurt, but not a lot. That was before the injections..."
"Go on. Keep going."
"I was moved up again. I was first, and the former first ranking
was very angry. He had always hated me, I knew it, because I worked
with him before, but he had always felt smug because he was above me.
But now I was above him, and he really hated me...he was looking for an
opportunity to get back at me. It was birthday. My seventeenth. I was
called down for special commendation. Not a lot of people get that.
They were jealous, Masaya...they were waiting for me when I came back.
I knew they would be. But I didn't expect..." Her voice broke in a
loud sob.
"Expect what?" Masaya prodded, very gently.
"They teased me. I expected that. I didn't care...but then, the
third one, he said something...and they all laughed..." Her sobs began
again, coming heavy and loud. She fell down on the bed, face down, her
shoulders heaving with sobs.
Masaya said nothing this time, just looked down at her.
Hesitantly, he placed a hand on her back, then began stroking softly.
"They took off my clothes, Masaya, and they started to beat me.
But then, they all got in a circle around the second...I couldn't see
what they were doing, but I found out...he got on top of me, Masaya...I
felt him go in me...and it hurt!" She exploded into sobs again.
Masaya's mouth dropped open in abject shock.
She had been raped.
Aiyana had been raped.
I don't own Sailor Moon.
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***
"Good afternoon, sweetheart," said Koikokoro Minako, leaning
forward to kiss her son on the cheek as he came in the door that
afternoon.
"Konnichi wa, Okaa-sama," said Masaya, accepting the kiss. His
mother was in the kitchen, which was the first thing you came in their
house, cooking dinner. "What's for dinner?"
"Look, is that the first thing you ask me on your way in the
house?" asked Minako teasingly as she watched her son retreat into the
family room. "No 'Okaa, how are you?' Just 'What's for dinner?'"
"Yep." Masaya grinned as his mother swatted at him with her
spatula.
"For your information, it's lasagna, and it's almost ready," said
Minako, shaking her head at her son.
"Hey, what's up, Imouto-chan?" asked Masaya, ruffling his
fourteen-year-old younger sister's neck-length straight blond hair. He
was ten years older than his sister, twenty-four, but he was already
going through med school because he had finished school early, being as
intelligent as he was.
"Hey, Onii-san," Emi replied, not lifting her light blue eyes
from the thick book she was reading. She was just like Masaya, very
intelligent and usually reading big books. That part of them came from
Sadayoshi, their father. He was quiet and brooding, a lot like Karei.
Masaya was also intelligent, but he tended to be sillier sometimes, like
his mother. And he ate a lot more than all three of them.
"How was work?" asked Minako.
"It was okay," said Masaya cautiously. He knew that his mother
wanted to find out information from him about the young assassin that he
was doctoring. But he kept all his patients' information confidential
unless it was pending to the someone's survival.
Unfortunately, his mother might demand to know because she felt
that the young woman was still a threat to Neo-Queen Serenity, no matter
how confined she was in the hospital. But Masaya didn't get the
impression that the young woman was a very dangerous person. He saw her
as any typical extraordinary teenager--one who tried to please and
carried out the duties she knew she should.
Also very pretty.
Masaya felt like smacking himself. 'What am I thinking? She's
only seventeen!'
'Calm down, Masaya,' the other half of him said. 'You just
said she was attractive. It's not like you were coming on to her or
something.'
'But you know you were.'
Masaya shook the conversation out of his brain and looked up to
see his mother staring at him strangely. Masaya had a very expressive
face, and she could probably see his indecision written all over his
face.
His father, Koikokoro Sadayoshi, came down the stairs. Sadayoshi
was a lawyer and a very good one at that. Minako was a paralegal, when
she wasn't protecting the queen.
"Masaya," he said, nodding at his son. Masaya nodded back. He
had never really been very close to his parents, and even his sister.
He loved them all dearly, but he didn't feel close to him because he
felt that they weren't interested in the same things as he was. He felt
closer to his fellow physician Amesuino Ami and her family. Minako and
Sadayoshi never seemed to mind. Ami was like a sister to Minako, since
they were both Senshi and had known her since they were both fourteen,
and Sadayoshi and Ami's husband Yorihisa were as close as brothers, both
serving in the king's army in the past when he was the prince of the
Earth.
Long story.
Masaya even liked Ami's two-year-old twin daughters Amesuino
Kasumi and Kourini, and Ami's punk daughter Amesuino Izumi, who was an
thirteen-year-old ball of energy. If Izumi and Karei didn't look so
much like their mothers, he would think they were switched at birth.
"You're just in time, sweetheart. Dinner's ready," said Minako,
smiling at her husband.
Once sitting at the dinner table, the usual conversation ensued.
Sadayoshi talked about work; Minako talked about both her job as a
paralegal and a protector of the queen, talked about the antics of her
colleagues.
"So, how was work, Masaya?" Sadayoshi turned and asked his son
with a straight face.
"Not much different from usual," Masaya replied nonchalantly.
"I know you have a new patient," Minako prodded.
Masaya choked on his rice. Emi thunked him on the back.
"Arigatou," he gagged.
"No problem."
"So, what did you find out from her?"
"Who?" Masaya feigned ignorance.
"The assassin."
"Okaa, you know I can't tell you that," Masaya said, conceding to
face the discussion. "I have to keep all patient information
confidential--"
"Unless it's pending to someone's survival," Minako finished. She
knew the law very well. "And this is definitely pending to someone very
important's life--the queen."
Emi and Sadayoshi braced themselves for another mother-son
argument. They reigned at the Koikokoro household, although they
usually weren't serious like this one.
"It's isn't really," said Masaya.
"Masaya, what do you mean 'it isn't really'? This young woman
tried to assassinate the queen!" Minako declared.
"I know that, Okaa," Masaya said in his infuriatingly patient
argument voice.
"Good. Then you know the importance of giving the information on
your patient."
"Exactly. Zero percent."
"What?!"
"Okaa, Aiyana is just like any normal teenage girl. She's got her
fears and makes her mistakes. And one of her biggest ones was the one
she pulled the other day."
"Oh, yeah. Biggie biggie biggie."
"Well, she's not doing anything right now. She's just sitting in
the hospital. She's not planning on taking over the world just yet,
Mom."
"That doesn't mean her overheads aren't," Minako argued. "Just
like the queen said the day she came, a girl her age wouldn't just take
the initiative to just come up and kill the queen."
"Maybe she just wanted some attention."
"Masaya!!"
"Look, Mom, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to tell you
much. All I found was her name, her age, and her birthdate." 'And
where's she's from, but she didn't directly tell me that. It was
labeled a slip-up, so it doesn't count,' Masaya thought, trying to
convince himself he wasn't lying to his mother. He wasn't a really good
liar.
And his mother knew it. She scrutinized his face until she was
satisfied. "What are they?" she asked.
"Her name is Aiyana Khalidah. She's seventeen. She was born on
January fourteenth."
"How did you find all this out?" Sadayoshi asked, seeing the eye
of the storm had passed over the Koikokoro household.
"I just asked. In a civilized manner. My idea of getting
information isn't holding a sword to her neck and demanding." Masaya
narrowed his eyes at his mother. She glared back.
"You just asked, and she just told you?" Sadayoshi looked
strangely at his son. "Either you're right about her not being a menace
to society, or she's got one hell of a crush on you."
Masaya burst into wild laughter. "Otou, we're talking about a
girl who's a *trained assassin*. I'm sure she'd rather kill me."
***
Aiyana put a hand over her stomach as she began to feel it churn.
That was a record, these last two weeks. She'd never felt so sick
before. But lately she'd been feeling really, really sick, especially
in the mornings.
Dr. Amesuino Ami walked in just as Aiyana was running to the
bathroom. She heard a thump as the young girl collapsed, then the
assorted sounds of a very in-depth vomiting session.
Gasping, Aiyana walked back to the bed and collapsed over it.
"Are you all right?" Ami asked, looking strangely at the young
woman.
Still panting, Aiyana nodded weakly.
"Must be something you ate," Ami said.
Aiyana shook her head.
"Oh, right. I remember Masaya telling me that. Well. Masaya's a
pediatrician, but I'm going to be you're real doctor from now on. My
name's Amesuino Ami, and I'm an ob/gyn. You know what that is?"
"Yes," said Aiyana, gathering herself back together and climbing
back in the bed.
"Good. So you know, I'm just the doctor for you. You can just
call me Ami."
Aiyana stared back. She didn't feel comfortable at calling older
people by their first names. She had been taught since she was younger
to respect her elders.
"So. You're seventeen," said Ami, sitting down across from
Aiyana. "Whoa, turn down the strobes."
"I'm sorry," Aiyana said ruefully, turning her intense stare
downwards. "It's a habit I have." She didn't know why she felt
apologetic.
"Don't worry about it. We've all got plenty of annoying
idiosyncrasies. Actually, I'm sure if I were a bit younger and a member
of the male race I wouldn't mind at all." Ami smiled. "You're very
pretty, Aiyana."
"Thank you," said Aiyana automatically. She couldn't believe how
different she felt here. Was it just being here on Earth with all of
these strange and different people, or was it something else?
"Now, understand that you're not really in this hospital for any
sicknesses," said Ami, smiling again. "It's just that...well, some
people believe that you're a threat. Making believe that you're sick
just makes it easier for you to remain unharmed. Except that now it
looks like you really are sick. Did you have any sicknesses before you
left wherever you came from, Aiyana?"
So. Masaya hadn't told anyone about where she was from. She was
glad for that, and wondered why he hadn't told anyone. Did he really
have that much loyalty to all his patients, or was it just her? At the
latter thought, Aiyana felt a little flutter in her stomach, and it
wasn't from her illness.
"No," she answered Ami.
"Were you exposed to any diseases or disorders before you left?"
"No." At least, she didn't think so. Unless one of the men in
her squadron had some kind of disease. Especially the Second
Gamma...instantly Aiyana felt her stomach wrench and she felt like she
was going to throw up again.
Which she did.
"Ooh, that's not pretty," said Ami. "Well, maybe you contracted
some kind of disease on the way here. We'll have you tested later on
today, when you're feeling a little better."
Aiyana nodded before falling back on the bed, heaving a deep
breath.
"I'll get someone in here to clean that up," said Ami, looking in
distaste at the floor.
Aiyana nodded again, and Ami left. A few minutes later, a servant
entered to clean the floor, but Ami didn't return.
But someone else did return. Masaya.
"What's that smell?" he asked almost immediately, sniffing the
air.
"Oh. The bad smell..." said Aiyana, blushing madly.
"No, not that. I know, Ami told me you threw up. Twice. Are you
all right?"
Aiyana felt another flutter in her stomach as Masaya looked over
to her with concern in his intense icy gray-blue eyes. "Yes, I'm fine,"
she answered, swallowing.
"Good. But no, I was talking about another smell. It
smells...like roses. Very sweet and pleasant."
Roses? Had the...Aiyana raised her arm and smelled her hand.
Yes, the elixir had lost some of its effect. She had probably vomited
most of it up.
"That's...me," she said, blushing again.
"Oh, so the female assassins on your planet wear perfume on their
missions?" asked Masaya, raising an eyebrow. "Give the target an
aphrodisiac before he dies?"
"No..." Aiyana swallowed again, turning red. This was getting
really hard, telling him anything or even looking at him. She looked
down at the bed. "It's a natural scent. I don't know how it came, but
I guess I was born with it. I've had it for as long as I can remember,
and no matter how hard I scrubbed, I could never get it to go away. I
was constantly teased about it." There she was again, giving away all
her life. But she was surprised to realize she actually felt a little
better that that piece about her life was out. "That, and this weird
ability to kind of...heal myself and others...were these special gifts I
guess I was born with. But when the elixirs were injected, I guess it
kind of counteracted my natural abilities with its artificial ones.
Although I think I must have vomited most of it out, so it's beginning
to come back, slowly."
"Weird," said Masaya. "But I'm glad the elixirs are gone. Maybe
the reason why you vomited is because your body realized that it
couldn't live like this, without eating or sleeping, and it had to get
rid of the toxins. What do you mean, heal yourself?"
"Any small cuts or something that I got would immediately heal,"
said Aiyana. "No scars, no scabs, nothing. Just my smooth skin again.
I guess that's why I never got acne." Again, she felt as if she was
going to smile, remembering the days that she had spent in the army when
the other girls had agonized over their skin's blemishes and lamented
about how smooth her skin was. And again, she felt like saying
something. "When I was in the military the girls used to hate me for
it."
"Just jealous," Masaya said softly, looking at Aiyana, wishing she
would look up at him. But she didn't.
"Bigger cuts would take a little longer to heal, but still not
very long, maybe a few hours. And breaks in the bone would take a lot
shorter than everyone else's, maybe a week or two. But I guess that
went away when the scent disappeared too." Aiyana thought about the
scars all over her arms, legs, torso, and turned down again, burning
with embarrassment and overwhelming sadness. She didn't want to think
about all of those horrible scars and how they had gotten there.
"So you scar now?" Masaya scratched his head. "I guess that's
why the back of your head got a scar. So, when did this elixir really
start kicking in?"
"The scents, they were a weak part of my heritage, so they
disappeared almost immediately. But the scarring...took a few weeks.
It just started about five weeks ago. It really scared me, the first
time I had ever seen my own scars and cuts and my own blood running down
my body..." Aiyana stopped, blinking hard. She felt as if she were
about to cry again, and she didn't want to do that again--not ever.
Because if she cried, she'd let herself go, and all those horrible
memories would come rushing back...
"The first time? All this happened? When was this?"
Aiyana didn't answer, just kept staring down at the bed, trying to
blink back her tears. 'What is wrong with me? Two months ago I would
never have even thought of crying. What is wrong with me?!'
Masaya remained silent for a moment. Then he sat down on the bed
and reached out to touch Aiyana's arm. "Something happened to you,
Aiyana."
Aiyana didn't say anything, although she shuddered at the touch of
his hand. It was too familiar.
'No! These visions...that nightmare...it's coming back,' she
told herself, and she tasted the saltiness of a tear sliding down her
cheek. She bent her head further, causing her hair to fall over her
face and hide herself. She didn't want anyone on this planet to see her
crying, especially not Masaya.
"Aiyana, are you crying?"
Aiyana was silent. Her new goal was not to prevent the tears from
sliding down her face, but to prevent her crying from turning into
audible sobbing. She could keep her dignity if she was quiet.
"Aiyana, what's wrong? What happened while you were in the
military?" Masaya's voice had gotten infinitely softer, until it was
almost a whisper, barely audible.
'Please...don't say anything else...'
Masaya thought a moment, then turned back to the young woman
before him. "You were one of the few females...the only female in your
squadron...did they hurt you, Aiyana? Or worse...?"
That was it. Aiyana's last shred of control snapped and she began
to sob, her shoulders shaking.
Masaya got up, walked to the door, and closed it. On an
afterthought, he locked it. Then he walked back to the bed and sat. He
was careful not to touch the young woman.
"Did they?" he asked again.
"Yes." Aiyana was more startled by her tearful answer than Masaya
was. "Yes, Masaya, they did." It was the first time she'd ever used
Masaya's name.
Masaya was halfway shocked to see this young woman--so cool and
confident just a few days before, a little over a week--collapse in
tears. But if he guessed correctly, she was only letting out what had
been building up for months and months.
"What did they do?"
"I was the only female," said Aiyana. "They didn't like it. My
squadron members...I beat them all out of rank and moved up. They did
not like it. The farther I got, the worse it got..."
"Just slurs? Or did they beat you up all along?"
"They beat me up all along! All the time, especially after I
became Third Gamma...third in rank...I had beaten five men out of their
positions and they hated me for it. So they decided to beat me in their
own way...it hurt, but not a lot. That was before the injections..."
"Go on. Keep going."
"I was moved up again. I was first, and the former first ranking
was very angry. He had always hated me, I knew it, because I worked
with him before, but he had always felt smug because he was above me.
But now I was above him, and he really hated me...he was looking for an
opportunity to get back at me. It was birthday. My seventeenth. I was
called down for special commendation. Not a lot of people get that.
They were jealous, Masaya...they were waiting for me when I came back.
I knew they would be. But I didn't expect..." Her voice broke in a
loud sob.
"Expect what?" Masaya prodded, very gently.
"They teased me. I expected that. I didn't care...but then, the
third one, he said something...and they all laughed..." Her sobs began
again, coming heavy and loud. She fell down on the bed, face down, her
shoulders heaving with sobs.
Masaya said nothing this time, just looked down at her.
Hesitantly, he placed a hand on her back, then began stroking softly.
"They took off my clothes, Masaya, and they started to beat me.
But then, they all got in a circle around the second...I couldn't see
what they were doing, but I found out...he got on top of me, Masaya...I
felt him go in me...and it hurt!" She exploded into sobs again.
Masaya's mouth dropped open in abject shock.
She had been raped.
Aiyana had been raped.