Chapter 4: broken walls

Disclaimer: yeah, well… inuyasha wasn't my type anyway.

AN: quite a hard chapter to put out. I had to do some research on the war, which took longer than I thought due to the timing I'm trying to work with (may 1941), as well as the fact that personal stories about the Holocaust aren't exactly easy to find, let alone the found story to be accurate. So yes, Souta shall be based on this man named Mr. John Vink- also, he will soon be 15 years old, 2 years Kagome's junior. Enjoi

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Souta,

Well, I know it's been some time since I've written to you, and frankly, I feel very bad about it. And I should too- I've been studying for finals the past month, and yet I still know that I won't be able to pass Calculus anyway (which I'll have to take over summer school it seems) I've been trying to avoid the newspapers, but thinking of you and mother and grandpa I always have to skim through looking for anything about Utrecht, Holland with a knot in my stomach.

How are you? I know it's quite early in the letter to say this, but this letter is going to be different anyway, in the sense that I think it's time you know certain things, little brother. You are- what 14? - And you are in charge now of taking care of mother and grandpa.

You never knew why I left to go to London to go to Providence Boarding, did you? I bet the only things you remember on May 10th were the candles on my birthday cake, and then the thunderous booms in the sky, possibly you heard the fight I had with Mother. No wonder you haven't been returning my letters, I'd be ignoring me too. If that makes sense. Mother probably never told you this after I left- so here it is: my take on the reason why we left the shrine in Japan to go to Holland for a while, the answer to what had happened on May 10th last year, and why I had left you… to go to London.

Japan wasn't doing so good the past few years, especially while we lived in the shrine there. The military almost had complete control of the government, and we were still feeling the after affects of the depression, but something happened one day at the shrine. I know you were with Grandpa in the back garden looking for snakes and other boyish stuff while I was helping mother sweep the kitchen floor, when this man came to our door. Mother told me to stay in the kitchen, and if she yelled, to get you and grandpa to hide behind the drawer chest in the little hidden nook within her room. She looked so frightened, and I was curious to why she would warn me, so I sneaked toward the door to hear the hushed whispers. It sounded like this man was trying to warn her of someone, like this person found where we were, and up to this day I still don't understand what had happened. She came back to the kitchen all pale, and said with an uneasy smile, "would you like to take a trip?" then that's when we left to go to Utrecht in Holland. I don't honestly know what happened, or what made mother so petrified to move out of the country. I hope you believe me.

Of course, you loved Holland; with its rainy days… you always loved rain. I swear when you were born you were meant to be near water, to swim in it like a fish. I never liked it, I never could Souta. Mother already had it planned that I was to go to a boarding school in London at the beginning of September, because she thought "I should expand my education in literature."

But anyway, I guess you'll never forget my birthday that year. We never will. The war came knocking at our door- and it gave all of us a rude awakening, didn't it? You were sent to sleep underneath the stairs with Grandpa; I can remember your frightened eyes when Mother told you that I and she would be sleeping under the wooden table in the kitchen while the bombs dropped.

We had a terrible fight that night. I didn't want to leave to go to London that month- I wanted to have that last summer with you. She kept on saying that it was safer in England, and that my education called for it, as well as the fact that Shippo and Sango would be leaving too. To wait until September when the school started would be unnecessary. But I told her to promise me one thing- to never let you get out of school, for anything at all- if you ever EVER tried to get into the army while I was in college, I told her I would drop out and search for you. And I will.

That would certainly be a waste… hahaha.

Will you stop avoiding answering my letters to you? I'm so worried about you guys there, every single day I look at the news and listen to the radio- the things the radio is telling us over here about what they are doing to the Jewish in Germany frightens me. Please don't ignore me, I miss you…

Souta noted the smudges of ink at this point; the letter had tiny drops upon the page, crinkling it slightly. He felt instantly guilty.

… and the dreams I have aren't helping me any. So Souta, my little brother, will you please answer this letter? I've answered all of the questions over the past couple of years to the best I could, and I hope you'll forgive me for trying to cover certain things from you in the past. I swear I don't know what happened that day in the shrine, or why we had to move. I can understand why you're upset, even at me, because of my dishonesty. But you have to comprehend that merely I was trying to make things a little more easier for you, and no matter what you say, you need that during this war. That naïve hint that I treasure so much about you.

Dear Kami, I miss you so much. I hope you still have that collection of rollie pollies in the box of yours underneath your bed…

Souta smiled, and wiped his cheek.

… maybe when its all over, we can bury it with the things that has happened to us during this time. Then we can move on.

Aijou,

Kagome

It was his sister's birthday today, and he thought she deserved a long letter indeed.

"Souta… please read paragraph twelve to thirteen for me please." Miss Poloma said in her thick Dutch and with a soft regretful tone.

With great gentleness he hid the letter in the back of his history book, and stood up from his seat, cradling the new book in his arms. Mein Kampf it was called and Souta hated it- with all his heart. The author's name on the cover stuck out like a dagger, waiting to pierce whoever saw fit to criticize. He opened his cracked lips, one again voicing another lie to the class.

"The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature's efforts to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile…" the boy paused in his reading, his face a display of turmoil. He knew his sister would be screaming right now, at his shame to speak out, his utter need to remain a witness to what had been happening to his neighbors, his friends. He looked up from his book and looked around the room, seeing the many blondes among his classmates, but four dark haired students stuck out. He knew what they were as they glazed down at their book that despised their beliefs and race.

"Miss Onama…" The teacher looked up from her desk.

"Do you not feel well Souta?"

"No… I-I don't," he cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. "I ne-never thought you ha-had the heart to teach this class lies."

The students whipped around in their seats to stare at the usually quiet boy near the back of the class. Some looked onward with nervousness, some with agreement, and yet, there were still few who glared at him with absolute hatred. At the front of the class the young woman looked at the black haired boy with fright and stood slowly,

"Souta, it is not wise-"

"What… are you a Jew lover now?" a blonde boy smirked distastefully at him, his blue-grey eyes flashing such… revulsion.

In the wobbly old desk next to Souta, his friend looked upward at him with sorrow, her dark eyes and skin amazingly pale.

"Souta… shh…"

The boy regarded the girl next to him. He didn't think this right- the fact that the Germans in Utrecht were forcing the schools to read one passage a day from the book written by… that devil. As if everything within the confines of the book was true and founded on fact. Is this how education was built upon- falsehood and deductions?

He glanced around the room of different faces and ethics, but still didn't understand the prejudice against such people. They were just the same as any one of these blonde, except for their dark features.

"Miss Onawa, your name means 'wide awake' in Cheyenne?" he addressed the teacher, the entire class's attention upon him, making his neck prickle in nervousness, but with a new found courage.

"Yes, Souta it indeed does." Her face relaxing now that the subject had changed. She wasn't exactly comfortable each time the students read the new book for an hour each day; if anything, she wanted to burn the thing. Each day she came home after cleaning the schoolhouse she was tempted, but then again the guard in front of her house made her anxious, his deep blue eyes silencing her defiance as she entered her door.

"I don't think you're wide awake now." He muttered to himself as he glanced down at his hands, now snapping the book shut, causing few of the classmates to jump in their seats.

"Souta, please take your place. If you are… not feeling well… you may go on home." Miss Onawa said softly, her eyes in deep remorse for the boy, ashamed of her own weak will to question the new procedure for all schools in and near Utrecht.

"Miss Onawa, I am not feeling very well either." The dark curly haired girl seated next to Souta whispered. Her voice seemed very horse, and her dark features made her skin appear very pale.

"Yes- Souta, will you escort Miss Josephe home?"

Souta bowed, gathered his things around his table, and with reluctance, took the cursed book and shoved it in his burlap bag. The silence of the room and the feeling of so many eyes on his figure made him want to scream at their ignorance, made him want to rip the new book to shred in front of them and wave it at the guard outside the school doors.

The girl, meanwhile, merely took only a little notebook with pencils, walked down to the door silently, wanting to disappear in the thin fragrant air around her, and exited before Souta could reach her.

He reached the doorknob, and looked back at the class, still obviously in shock. The air in the large open room was clouded with emotions, and Souta was gratefully happy to be out of the tension. As soon as he shut the door, he heard the class in erupt in upheaval, the teacher's calming voice.

The boy turned from the entrance as he exhaled thankfully readjusting his burlap bag on his shoulder, only to focus upon a bright eyed young man staring at him quite unpleasantly. He was in German uniform.

"Sie entschuldigten frühes wie der Jude?"

The scent of whiskey and bad cigarette invaded his nostrils.

Souta shut his eyes and translated the harsh German words nervously in his head, trying to stoke down the fire of anger welling up inside of him.

You excused early like the Jew?

He opened his eyes and glared at the officer, nodding.

"Ich soll ihr Haus außerdem eskortieren," I am to escort her home as well he said, the fire lessening somewhat. "Ich hoffe, daß es nicht Verbrechen in dem gibt"

I hope there is not crime in that.

The Gestapo glared precariously and began to walk toward him, his aroma of filth reminding Souta of dying mockingbirds, decaying flesh…

"Souta!" The girl coughed forcefully, causing the officer to look behind him. The guard momentarily distracted, he bounced off the steps of the schoolhouse and caught up with the coughing girl.

As soon as he reached her side, breathing heavily and thankful his mouth didn't get him into anymore trouble, she began to walk fast down the dirt road, her ratty shoes getting caught in her long dirty dress.

"Souta, I wish you didn't do that…" she said forcefully, causing her to cough once more, her speed lessening somewhat. Her scent of pastries and fresh cooked bread seemed to be of lesser degree this day, Souta noted, as well as her decaying health.

"But-" Souta jogged to keep up with her. "…Luyu, wait up…"

"Don't.." she stopped dead in her tracks and whirled around to glare at Souta. "..call me that. It's dangerous and you know that."

"I thought…" he huffed "it's your name, and no one's around and I thought-"

"Not anymore! It's Anna-Marie! Anyone heard that and my family's business would be in danger! Don't you know that they're starting to paint the Star of David on Jewish shops? No you don't! You wouldn't understa-" the girl began at this point to cough unmercifully, her pale face turned beat red as she bent over, her hand covering her mouth. Souta looked upon his friend- new to the town for three months- and began to feel hopeless as he put his arm around her and began to guide her toward the east side of town.

"I don't…" she breathed heavily inward as she shrugged Souta's arm off. "Need your help."

Souta grabbed the hand that was covering her mouth, and saw with surprise the red liquid speckled upon her palm. She looked down at her dusty shoes, avoiding his gaze, knowing full well what had never been spoken yet these few months she had known him would escape from his mouth.

"If I don't help you, who will?" he whispered.

The girl gazed up into his dark brown eyes, its swirling depths reminding her of the candies Souta's grandfather gave her.

"I'm… very sorry. It's… just that I'm-"

"I'm scared too."

"You're scared! After what you did in class?"

"Yes, but you have to remember that being afraid of something doesn't necessarily mean you can't fight it." He smiled, his eyes giving an intelligent gleam. "Will you help me?"

Luyu stared at her friend in question, her thin brows furrowed over her dark large pretty eyes. "You mean…?"

"Many countries have started doing it, and I think it's time the Dutch should create one as well."

"But…" she whispered dreadfully "… people could get caught, people could die!"

"If this little step could help hundreds of others, I think my life is well worth it."

Alas audience, do you feel that? It is the trembling of an already cracked wall.

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MUAHAHA! I hope that maybe some of you got my hint, at least has a hunch about what Souta may do. Hehehe

Anyway, if this chapter was somewhat confusing to you, PLEEEESE email me and tell me, I don't want to look like more the idiot that I am.

And pleeese review and rate, im not sure if this story is going as well in the beginning as I planned.

Read, review, do-zee-dew.

revelinaeia: hows the life?
Grumpalumpa 00: at the moment bad
revelinaeia: oh dear, why?
Grumpalumpa 00: ah nm it just passed, im doing great now. had bit of a digestive problem for a sec