Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra.
These all belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is
mine, as are Captain Dmitri and Yvgeny.
Viator: By Your Side
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home
by jin long
Chapter 9
The stench of blood surrounded her, filling her senses with a vomit-inducing miasma. If it weren't for the fact that she'd been shocked near senseless, the contents of her stomach would long have been regurgitated. She breathed hard, almost surprised to hear her own intake of breath, then coughed, falling to her knees as acrid smoke entered her lungs.
They were all around her, lifeless, bodies pale, blood coagulating on their terror-stricken faces. Their eyes... she avoided their eyes, lifeless eyes yet so full of fear. They stared into her very soul, as if asking why she was the only one alive, why she should survive while all of them had died. It wasn't out of fear of those eyes that she refused to gaze into them – no, she felt what might have been called guilt.
She clutched the sheathed blade, a sword that could be called a ninjatou, to her chest. She closed her eyes and the tears fell. It was her father's gift to her. It was the last thing he had made before she watched that... that monster almost cleave him in two. It was the last memory she would ever have of him, his corpse collapsing to the floor of the forge.
"Hitori de..." she whispered. Her father was dead. She was the only one...
"Atashi wa... hitori de..." Her three brothers were dead. The only one...
"Hi...hitori de..." Everyone but her had been massacred. Alone...
"Kirai yo! Daikirai yo! Naze da?!" Why did she have to be alone...
"NAZE DA?!"
"NAZE DA?!!"
Taki's own scream woke her up from the nightmare. Breathing hard, the kunoichi fought furiously to calm down. Another nightmare... Taki breathed in deeply. Why these dreams? Why did she have them? What was going on, what was making her have them? Why... why was she so affected by it, as if the dream had pierced her to the very core of her being?
The kunoichi raised a feeble hand to her face, burying it in her palm. Kami-sama... what's happening to me? What's going on? She sucked in her breath and placed her hand over her mouth, her brow furrowing in worried thought. In that dream.... I was.... I was afraid... afraid.... But why? That's not what happened.
That's not what happened.
Father died in that plague. My brothers died in that plague, from that sickness, she told herself. It was a plague... a plague that wiped Ohmi village from the map. An epidemic, nothing more, nothing more. It's the truth. It's got to be the truth. Yes, that is the truth, she told herself. 'Shiro-kun's family died from the same plague! That's the truth! It's got to be... got to be... No other way about it, nothing else to say... it's past it's done it's gone it's over it's true it's the truth it's the truth it's the truth...
It's done...
It's past...
It's true...
It's the truth...
It's the truth...
It's the TRUTH!
Taki screamed with the utmost frustration into her hands. Her nights as of late had never ceased to be incessantly disquieting. It wasn't only the nightmares that nearly drove her out of her mind. There was growing, persistent feeling that everything she'd known and that her life was in fact one big lie, as if she would one day wake and find that she had been trapped for years in an evil spell.
She'd never thought this way before. Not before she had encountered Soul Edge, and not before she had taken Mekki-maru in her hands and had felt the dark, maddening energy at its core.
Taki rose from the bed and headed for the wash basin placed on a nearby, antiquated dresser, dull from years of use. Moments later, she'd poured water into the basin and was now toweling herself clean. It was, admittedly, a lousy way to take a bath. However, it was the way these foreigners bathed for some reason or another.
She splashed water on her face and leaned over the basin, placing her hands at opposite sides of the container. Water dripped back into the basin from her face as she closed her eyes in thought. Is Mekki-maru doing this to me? Making me see these things? That's it, isn't it? Weakening me, she thought. First Sophitia, and now my memories. She put a hand to her face and wiped the remaining drops from her countenance. Trying to break me down...
It's ridiculous, she told herself.
You know it's ridiculous!
You're the daughter of a farmer. Your mother died when you were four years old. You had three brothers and they were all older than you. The plague came during your eighth year, and people died like flies all around you. They were cremated, as things were usually done, she argued to herself.
Cremated, and that's why you remember smoke that made you gag. The sweet smell of burning flesh... it's the reason you can't seem to eat wild pig. Because it smells like people- like human corpses being burned. Burned to save the living from the plague.
People feared the plague. That's why those faces in my dream were so full of terror, she told herself. The fire, and the smell of blood... cremation and vomit from those still unfortunate to be alive yet utterly ill. That's what I saw, Taki told herself. Just some nightmare of the plague.
And then Toki and Hachibei found you.
They found you and trained you... trained me, Taki told herself. Made me what I am, gave me a new lease on life...
I can't let Mekki-maru do this to me.
I won't let it break me.
I know who I am.
I know who I am!
Taki dried her face off and slipped on her white garment, tying it off at the waist with its matching sash. The more I let it get a hold of me, she said to herself, the more I'll lose this battle against it. She looked over at the ninjatou, almost feeling it resonate eerily. I can't leave you here, can I, she thought. And you know it, don't you, she mentally asked the contained ninjatou.
You know the answer, it seemed to say. There's something about me that you just can't resist. Something so intimate, something that you keep denying to yourself. You know you want what I can give you...
And I know your price, Taki almost replied with her voice.
But you're still not going to let go of me, are you, it seemed to challenge.
Without another word, and as hopelessly irrational as it was to believe that some Fuuma ninja would sieze the blade in her absence, Taki took the ninjatou in her hands, hesitating at first. After what seemed like an eternity later she quickly lashed it to the sash of her garment as she made her way out of the room.
You just can't let go...
------------------
How long are they going to keep talking?
Cassandra peered out from the stairs to the second floor of the inn at her sister and that male foreigner... Mitsurugi, that was his name. They'd been talking animatedly for gods knew how long, and she couldn't even understand the barbarian tongue they were using! Gods, not that she'd give anything to know a boorish tongue, but she would love to understand what in the world they were saying!
And what was Sophitia doing here? What about Pyrrha and Patroklos? Or Rothion? Didn't those three people need her? Wasn't that why she, Cassandra Alexandra, had risked spending nights in a godawful Greek prison for theft?
She gazed at them even more intently. They seemed overly friendly with each other. Too friendly, the young Greek mused. It's as if they've known each other for a long time. Cassandra's eyes widened. Could it be?
Her mind drifted back to the second time that Sophitia had run away from home four years ago.
"Cassandra," Sophtia had said, eyeing her.
"Why are you running away again, Sis?" she'd asked.
"You know why. I told you why." Sophitia gave her one last look, then turned to run away. "I told everyone why, but no one believes me." The older Greek had begun to break into a run, but she caught her hand and pulled Sophitia back.
"Sis, don't do this!" she'd pleaded. "I let you leave once, I won't again!"
Sophitia had looked in the face.
"You.... The last time you left... you came back with all those scars... you took so long... Why must you go? Why can't you stay here? Why can't you just settle down, marry the one father wants you to wed instead of going off on a crazy quest?" she'd demanded.
Sophitia smiled and gently patted her on the head. "You're so concerned about me," the older Greek had whispered. "I never thought... what with all the trouble you used to give me..."
Sophitia ruffled her blonde hair slightly before continuing. "Don't you worry about your big
sister, Cass. I can take care of myself." Sophitia smoothed out her hair, trying to comfort her as she always did. "I must do this. The trouble may be outside Greece, but it won't be long before it comes here. Please, Cassie, let me go."
"This is just about your wanderer, isn't it?!"
She recalled the surprise on Sophitia's face, the sort of shock that made it all to clear that she'd struck a chord with her sister. So... So Sophitia had fallen for someone during those travels before the second time she'd run away.
But who was it? Sophitia never told her about who this mysterious wanderer was. Not a single word about this mysterious person was said. Not a word was written even, and for Sophitia not to write about someone or something striking was highly inconsistent with her usual behavior as far as Cassandra knew. "If I don't write, I fear I'll forget how to do so," she recalled her sister as saying once.
Whoever this person was, Sophitia must have fallen so hard for him. Mention of that person, even in jest, always brought an odd but utterly content and happy look to her sister's face, Cassandra had observed. Sophitia must have be so in love with that person, that man, the young Greek thought.
Nursing an impossible fantasy, the young Greek thought. Sophie is so out of touch, so in love with someone she'll never see again. Cassandra snorted. Yes, at least that's what I thought at the time. That's what I still think. She grinned. No way in Hades or Hell or whatever would the Gods make a Greek fall in love with a barbarian.
She narrowed her gaze. "Either Eros has gone all cross-eyed or the gods want some amusement at her expense," she mused. "Like they got when Zeus threw Hephaestus from Olympus." Or maybe it was that God of the Holy Roman crazy people.
Right now Sophitia was behaving exactly like that, having that look, in the presence of this barbarian by the name of Mitsurugi. Cassandra couldn't deny that there was a sparkle in Sophitia's eyes that had been near-nonexistent in Greece.
But of all people to fall in love with! Cassandra shook her head in disbelief. A barbarian! And why was she doing this? She knew very well that she was married to a husband that-
Cassandra yelped as a hand patted her roughly on her shoulder.
--------------------------
"What are you doing here?"
Taki removed her hand from the young Greek's shoulder and gave her an odd look which was nontheless very nondescript, betraying nothing. It was actually only too obvious to the kunoichi that Cassandra was spying on someone, but Taki thought it best to have the young Greek actually admit it.
"Nothing!" Cassandra flashed a guilty smile as she raised her hands in front of her defensively. Taki arched an eyebrow in amusement. "Oh really? And I suppose you simply like sitting on flights of stairs while stairing idly off?"
The kunoichi suppressed a wan smile. "It must be Greek thing, isn't it?" she whispered, hoping Cassandra caught the subtle hint of an insult in her tone. "Nothing better to do all the time except rhapsodize about why and how people exist- that's probably why the Ottomans-"
"Am not! My sister's talking to a barbarian and I-!"
Both of their eyes widened in surprise, Cassandra obviously realizing she'd taken Taki's baiting remark, and Taki at the idea that Sophitia would be here. The kunoichi quickly masked her expression of surprise with a narrowed gaze. "Sister? I didn't know you had a sister," Taki said, concealing any indication that she actually did suspect Cassandra was Sophitia's sibling.
"Well... Well yes, but it's not like it was important to mention." Cassandra shrugged.
"What's her name?" Taki said.
"Why does it matter to you?" was the curt reply.
"Why does it matter that you conceal it?" the kunoichi replied, reversing the tables yet again on the young Greek. "Or do you think I'm going to curse your sister or something because I know her name? I guess that indicates how Greeks are, eh? Utterly susperstitious and subject to panic at the thought that their Gods might strike at--"
"It's Sophitia!" Cassandra half-yelled, obviously irritated. "Do you have to go on insulting my people every single time you ask a question?"
I may be depressed, kiddo, but I can play you like a shakuhachi, Taki thought to herself, amused. Kami-sama, this young Greek was so slow to not catch on what she was doing to get Cassandra to answer her questions. Taki smiled wanly, remembering the time she'd been on the receiving end of such manipulative interrogation, at Hachibei's mercy for the day's lesson.
"Your sister? What does she look like?" Taki asked, ignoring Cassandra's question.
"You know, you're so obsessed with her it's like--" Cassandra almost countered.
"There goes that Greek nature of yours again. You Greeks always end up--"
The young Greek huffed momentarily before, throwing her hands up in a sign of resignation. Apparently, three perceived insults regarding Greeks was enough for Cassandra. "There," the Greek said, pointing over at a table near the door of the inn, some distance from a window. "That's what she looks like. You happy now?"
Cassandra's words faded from Taki's consciousness as she looked at where the young Greek was pointing. She gasped softly as she saw who was before her. Indeed, at that table, Sophitia sat laughing and drinking with Mitsurugi, flashing a broad smile as she ran her fingers through her blond locks.
She's really here, Taki thought to herself. I thought... I thought I'd never see her again...
She breathed in deeply. I should go to her. I should let her know I'm here, Taki thought. Kami-sama, she's still so beautiful.
Indeed Sophitia was to her eyes. The sunlight seemed to frame the older Greek in an almost angelic aura, making Sophitia look so ephemeral, almost untouchable, so pristine. Sophitia's lue-green eyes sparkled with life, and the sense of being sure of oneself. Almost like the second time I'd seen her, Taki mused. The second time we both went after Soul Edge.
"Is she... always like this?" she softly mused.
"Does it really matter?" Cassandra's voice.
"Answer the question," Taki retorted, in a tone that was almost threatening.
"Not... Not like... Not really." It was delivered in a puzzled tone, the Greek obviously having been surprised by the slight edge in the kunoichi's voice. "I mean.... I don't know why I'm telling you this, but.... this is the happiest I've seen her lately."
"What do you mean by that?" Taki's brow furrowed as she turned away from Sophitia and looked at Cassandra. "Is she being treated badly by someone in Greece? What's been going on?" For the last four years, Taki almost added.
The young Greek seemed taken aback by the expression on her face. "I... Oh, I hardly think that's any of your business!" Cassandra said. "Or mine." The young Greek stood up and made her way down the steps and away from her as fast as she could, apparently. "Anyway, if you're so concerned, why don't you ask her yourself?" was the parting shot as Cassandra disappeared into the inn proper.
I would, Taki retorted mentally.
She had acted the way she did during that verbal exchange not only to get the information she wanted, but to somehow get back at someone who was Greek. Taki hated to admit it to herself, but she blamed a lot of things on Sophitia's father, and the whole lot of the Greeks themselves.
Oh, yes, it was exceedingly senseless to harbor some anger on a whole group of people for the actions of one, but knowing that didn't stop her.
The lousy mood Taki had since waking up obviously wasn't fading at all.
She stood up as well and made her way throught the back outside to the inn's garden, hoping that the calm of the place would somehow enter her as well.
It was a reasonably large space, she mused, and it somehow seemed out of place in the town, with the drab browns and grays of the town's buildings and the town's less than pleasant smell. The sunlight shining into it further enforced that observation she had. Furthermore, the plants were well cared for. Even so, it felt like a little too much, what with all the shrubs and the numerous flowers all around.
True, she would have preferred looking at waves etched in sand, flowing around rocks as if they were mountains and the sand were water, the way a Japanese garden looked. And maybe a bonsai or two, Taki mused. She walked over to a shrub with dark blue flowers and picked one blossom, twirling it idly with her fingers.
It's alright, I suppose, she thought. But I'd rather have a garden like the one Gaki used to tend back home. He crafted it so well, she remembered. He'd arranged the rocks and the sand such that a waterfall appeared to cascade down the mountains with the utmost grace, winding itself around a valley of rocks and finally pooling around a solitary bonsai growing upon a rock.
I'd rather be back home. I haven't been home in such a long time, she thought. And even if I was, I'd probably be dead or enslaved. Taki closed her eyes and breathed deeply before opening them again. The days that used to be - they're all gone.
I hate it, she thought.
And it's all the fault of Soul Edge and this thing, she added, squeezing the handle of Mekki-maru contemplatively.
I'm not asking for much, am I, Kamigami-sama? I just want to go home, I just want to be with my family again and I just want to be loved. Is that too much to ask, she demanded. Why do I have to be the one to guard this evil blade? Why did you have me pursue Soul Edge? Why do I have to do all these things when you can just send Amaterasu no Mikoto and Susano-o from your numbers to take care of things I as a human cannot?
Unconsciously, Taki crushed the dark blue blossom in her hand as she raised her eyes to the heavens.
You won't allow me to love. Love is making me weak, making me susceptible to Mekki-maru's voice, Mekki-maru's temptations. And it becomes even easier for Mekki-maru to do so because I have no hope of ever living with the one I love.
You won't allow me my family. You let them give in to Mekki-maru's false promises and in doing so you've taken them from me. You've turned my family into monsters, insane and malicious monsters. You've allowed the man I call father to be taken by the evil of both Soul Edge and Mekki-maru.
You won't even allow me to go home and live in peace. You know I can't go back because I have to keep my promise to Hachibei. I can't go back until I destroy the evil in Mekki-maru, and that means destroying Soul Edge. You make me run all but run to the ends of the earth and into hell itself to find Soul Edge.
Why me, Kamigami-sama?
Is this some sick joke you gods play on humans because we can't fight what you will?
-------------------
"Thank Hephaestus you're safe!"
"Um... you can let go of me now. Please let go of me now."
Sophitia released Cassandra from a hug that had been triggered by the utmost relief, watching as the younger Greek smoothed out the wrinkles from her clothing. "Gods... I couldn't have hoped for more," Sophitia said. Then all of a sudden her demeanor changed and she swatted the back of Cassandra's head.
"What were you thinking?!" Sophitia demanded. "You had me worried sick! And you even committed theft! What kind of daimon spoke to you to make you do such things?!"
"Ow!" Cassandra winced, and it was obvious to Sophitia that it had been not only from the so-called gesture she'd always administered when she felt Cassandra had done something utterly foolish.
"I could ask you the same thing! You know Patroklos and Pyrrha need their mother!" The younger Greek rubbed the back of her head. "I hate it when you do that!"
"Pi-ra? Patorokorosu?"
Sophitia noticed Mitsurugi's quizzical look. "My children," she answered simply. "You don't need to worry about your nephew and niece, Cass, she said, turning her attention back to her sister. "They're safe in Hephaestus' temple." The Greek ran a hand through her blonde locks. "Honestly, sis, it's as if you don't trust me when it comes to my own children."
Cassandra huffed. "And with good reason! Look at you, running off to find Soul Edge at the slightest indication Hephaestus tells you something." The young Greek laughed. "It's not like you're a maiden anymore! And furthermore, didn't you say you didn't hear anything from the gods anymore? After all, you're no viginal Hestia as far as I can see."
Sophitia smiled. I haven't been like Hestia for longer than you think, sis, she thought to herself. And Sophitia knew wasn't really here for just Soul Edge. She was here for the sake of three people- her sister, her son and her daughter. All three connected in some way to Soul Edge.
No matter what happened, it was as if Soul Edge refused to leave her be.
But perhaps Cassandra didn't need to know that at the moment.
"I came after you," was Sophitia's reply, half-truth as it was. "You had me worried. I thought... Oh gods, what if something had happened to you? There's enough to worry about outside Greece. Bandits, those Ottomans... Don't you ever do what you did again, you hear me, Cass?"
"Well," she heard Cassandra begin, "It couldn't be any worse than what happened to you, could it? You whom the gods love?"
The younger Greek shrugged, smiling wanly. "Everyone loves you, I suppose." She raised her hands in a dismissive gesture. "I mean, heh, you go out of Greece, with barely any training at all, and then you end up returning having fallen for a wanderer who you claim love you in return, and then you just go and faint in the agora then suddenly you have a loving husband just like that, a convenient replacement for that wanderer of yours."
Sophitia balked at the idea.
"You just think you're so loved by the gods, so much so that you're their instrument on earth, don't you? You think everybody needs your help? You think you can save someone?" Cassandra laughed derisively. "Did you save anyone on your last escape from Greece? Did you even destroy Soul Edge? Honestly, what you'll do--"
"Is my business and mine alone," Sophitia cut her off. What an ungrateful sister she had! She'd risked so much going after her, had risked rendering her children motherless, had risked her own life to come after her sister and this was how Cassandra treated her?
Not only that, she'd given up her freedom for her sister's sake a long time ago! She'd given up a person who loved her, she'd given up her body and had almost given up her own soul in the process.
Some respect-- a little respect was not uncalled for!
"This attitude of yours it what causes you so much problems wherever you go! It's why father had you put under that trainer's thumb. You're a self-centered little idiot. I did not have to come after you and track you down all the way from Greece." Sophitia's brow furrowed, irritation from Cassandra's attitude and an immense lack of sleep setting in.
"I've been after you for days! I've hardly slept at all, worrying what might have become of you! And then this is how you treat me? Gods!" Sophitia growled uncharacteristically. "You act like you're all worried about my children, you even have the nerve to berate me for leaving them in Greece, but then you go and run off, knowing full well that I'll come right after you no matter what!"
"It was your decision to come after me," Cassandra retorted. "I didn't make you leave the two, did I?"
"And who is going to take care of you out here, huh? Who do you think is going to take care of you outside of Greece? Did you even consider that for one second?" Sophitia almost yelled.
"You're one to talk! You yourself ran away from home just to go on some silly quest, with barely any training at all, just because you had some hallucination because of those temple fumes and those priests with all their talk! But you didn't have a problem, did you? A few wounds here and there--"
"A few wounds?!" Sophitia cut Cassandra off. "If you'd care to know, Cassandra, if you'd really care to know, I almost died! Right here! Outside of Greece! I'd almost died and I would never have been found. All because I was just as foolish as you are now!"
"I..." she heard Cassandra begin.
"Later!" Sophitia replied, her temper having risen from the turn the conversation had taken. The Greek stomped off towards the innkeeper and asked for a room. The man scratched his head with a doubtful expression, saying something she didn't understand.
"Could you repeat that?" she immediately said.
"Is no room now," the innkeeper said in very fractured Greek obviously gained from idly listening to some travelers who'd stopped by once in a while. "No room now."
"What?!" Sophitia growled, slamming both hands down on the inkeeper's table. "How can there be no room when the Ottomans restrict travel and most of the people here have their own houses in town?" she demanded.
She watched the innkeeper back away slightly at her tone. "People from outside... farmlands... maybe you see... Houses burn... need house at moment. So no room. Am sorry, very so."
"Gods, will it never end?!" Sophitia growled.
She soon felt Mitsurugi tap her gently on the shoulder, and she turned to him. He had a big, kind grin on his face, mischievous and good-hearted at the same time. "I believe I can help you with your little problem," he began.
to be continued...
jin long's notes:
shakuhachi - a japanese wind instrument